richard baxters answer to dr. edward stillingfleet's charge of separation containing, i. some queries necessary for the understanding of his accusation, ii. a reply to his letter which denyeth a solution, iii. an answer to his printed sermon : humbly tendred, i. to himself, ii. to the right honourable the lord mayor and the court of aldermen, iii. to the readers of his accusation, the forum where we are accused. answer to dr. edward stillingfleet's charge of separation. baxter, richard, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing b estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) richard baxters answer to dr. edward stillingfleet's charge of separation containing, i. some queries necessary for the understanding of his accusation, ii. a reply to his letter which denyeth a solution, iii. an answer to his printed sermon : humbly tendred, i. to himself, ii. to the right honourable the lord mayor and the court of aldermen, iii. to the readers of his accusation, the forum where we are accused. answer to dr. edward stillingfleet's charge of separation. baxter, richard, - . p. printed for nevil simmons ... and thomas simmons ..., london : . reproduction of original in british library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng stillingfleet, edward, - . -- mischief of separation. dissenters, religious -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - andrew kuster sampled and proofread - andrew kuster text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion richard baxters answer to dr stillingfleet's charge of separation : containing , i. some queries necessary for the understanding of his accusation . ii. a reply to his letter which denyeth a solution . iii. an answer to his printed sermon . humbly tendred , i. to himself ; ii. to the right honourable the lord mayor and the court of aldermen , iii. to the readers of his accusation : the forum where we are accused . acts . . it seemed good to the holy ghost and to us to lay upon you no greater burden then these necessary things . rom. . , , . him that is weak in the faith receive , but not to doubtful disputations . for the kingdom of god is not meat and drink , but righteousness and peace and joy in the holy ghost . for he that in these things serveth christ , is acceptable to god , and approved of men . phil. . . nevertheless , whereto we have already attained , let us walk by the same rule , let us mind the same things . — . if in any thing ye be otherwise minded , god shall reveal even this unto you . london , printed for nevil simmons , at the three cocks at the west-end of s. paul's , and thomas simmons at the prince's arms in ludgate-street , mdclxxx . the preface . readers , . if you would be truly informed of the case of the nonconformists , and the meaning of this defence , you must know . that the meer nonconformists of this age take not up their judgment in trust from any party of men , and therefore take not themselves obliged to be for or against any thing , because men were so that were called nonconformist sheretofore : as the scripture is their rule and objective religion , so they reverence the judgment of the primitive church above the judgment of any party ; and indeed are so far against sects and parties as such , as that their judgment is that the church will never be well restored to desireable concord , till our vnion be catholick , upon the terms that christ appointed and which all good christians have agreed in , and may agree in . . that what the meer nonconformists of this age desired for concord and reformation , as to the old liturgy and conformity , is best known by their common proposals , all the ministers of london being by mr. calamy , mr. ash and dr. reynolds , invited to sion-colledg freely to give their judgments : who offered nothing for church-government but bishop usher's primitive form , and nothing for worship but the reforming of the liturgy , and the free use of additional formes : their exceptions against passages in the liturgy being not thought absolutely necessary to communion . and it must be remembred that they offered then , . a defence of those exceptions , . a reformed liturgy or additions , . a petition for peace and preventing schism , to the bishops , which they never answered to this day , that we know of . . you must know that the change of the liturgy on pretense of easing us , and the act of vniformity , have made conformity now quite another thing than it was before , and to us far more intollerable ; i am past doubt that ri. hooker , bishop bilson , bi - usher and such others were they now alive would be nonconformists ; yea , i can prove it , as well as i can prove that they were honest men , and would hold to what they wrote . . you must know that we had never leave to give our reasons against the new conformity ; nor allowed to be once heard speak for our selves , before about two thousand ministers were silenced ; when our judicatures will hear a single malefactor . we have been silent about eighteen years , while men have call'd to us [ what is it that you would have ? ] while they would not give us leave to tell them . . and when the press was somewhat open , they spread it abroad that [ our silence now plainly shewed that we had nothing to say , but kept up a schism against our own consciences . ] . at last , though my friends had long told me that our lives must be our best defence , and that our accusers would but be inflamed by an apology , and could not endure to hear our reasons , i durst forbear no longer , but yet ventured no farther than to write a bare narrative of the matter of our nonconformity , lest arguing should exasperate : but that very naming of the things which we deny , hath much displeased them that differ from us , supposing that it implyeth an accusation of them , which i renounced . . the reader then that will understand our case , must not look to find it here , but be at the labour to read what is already written of it , which we must not repeat as oft as any will write against us ; that is , . in the said unanswered writings of . . in the kings eclaration concerning ecclesiastical affairs , for which the london ministers subscribed and printed a thanksgiving . . in my first plea for peace , describing our nonconformity . . in the efence of it against mr. cheyny's answer . . in my second plea for peace , describing our judgment of government and obedience , and what our nonconformity is not , and divers other points . . in my true and only way of universal concord , on which the churches must agree , if ever . . in my moral prognostication . . in my abridgment of church-history of bishops and councils , shewing what hath divided the churches heretofore . . you must know that i write not to justifie every man that is called a nonconformist , but to give an answer to the publick accusation of my self , and a reason of the preaching of the meer nonconformists . . but that the fuller justification of our preaching is intended in another treatise , called their apology , or third plea for peace . ii. and as to the prosecution of the debate with this reverend doctor , it is not likely that i shall trouble him with any rejoinder if he reply , unless he will take another course , and first explain our terms , and state the question to be disputed . much less shall i contend with any substitute who shall avoid the way of love and reason , which from the doctor i may expect . there is one sort of disputants that are too strong for me , those that have a better cause ; truth will overcome : light will appear through narrow cranies . of these i shall be glad to be overcome : i protest , that to my knowledg , i never managed a dispute , in which i trusted not to the goodness of my cause , more than to wit or words or humane advantage . but there are above twenty sorts of other disputants , too hard for me to overcome . . those that will dispute before they agree of the sense of their terms or state the question , and then quarrel for not being understood . . those that will not read or answer our fullest defence already written , but look i should still begin anew . . vniversallists , that can prove me to be an ass , because i am an animal . . equivocaters , that can prove me a separatist because i sit not at their feet , or read not in their book or with their spectacles . . a pope that taketh it for a heresie or crime to question his word , or suppose him fallible . . a proud meer grammarian , who can confute aristotle and the school-men with a scorn , and taketh it for a disgrace to have any more logick than simple terms ; or taketh rhetorick for the purest fruit of reason . . a nominal , who contracteth all his syllogisms into simple terms of art , and can confute any adversary , by calling him a fool , or a rogue , or a heretick , or a schismatick . . one that standeth so high that he thinks men below him to be little things like walking crows . . a one-eyed man that can see nothing but on his own side . . a galled person that smarteth if the wind blow on him : and a melancholly man that thinketh that all that you think and say is against him , and would kill him . . i cannot dispute against canons and organs , that speak so loud that none can be heard but themselves . nor against ringing bells , that have loud tongues and no ears : and go on , on , on , and take no heed to what is answered . . nor against such as isa . . . iron is too stiff for me to bow , and i can make no impression upon brass . . nor can i deal with such as are described , hos . . , , . such an oven hath too wide a mouth and too hot a breath for me to contend with . . nor such as psal . . . and . . that speak swords , or dispute with hands and not with tongues : and fetch their arguments from the prison , or the lyons , and speak not to the ear , but to the flesh and bones . nor such as sam. . . isa . . . mic. . . thorns and bryers speak too feelingly . if i must dispute with stings , i had rather it were with bees that will recompence me , than with wasps or hornets . . i am too weak for men over valiant , that can venture upon any thing , and easily prove that the snow is black . . and my voice is too low for the dead and deaf and sleepy and drunken , that when i have spoken know not what i said . . i am loath to enter the lists with those women that never want time , or heat , or words , and seldom foul ones , [ nam si cum stercore certo , vinco seu vincor , semper ego maculor . ] . nor am i able to deal with a crowd or multitude , where they follow the leader , and cry , away with him , when few know whom or what they are against . . nor yet with lads that are too quick for me , and value mercury above gold , that have quick trade but little stock , and think age and experience to be the characters of dull declining wits . . and i am too weak to dispute a man out of love with his life , or his pleasure , wealth or honour . all church-history tells me how rarely any ever scrupled the lawfulness of being made pope or patriarch , or hath been argued out of a bishoprick or dominion . i am not strong enough to answer an hundred pound a year , much less a thousand ( though grace and conscience is . ) . but though all this be not the case of the reverend doctor , yet one advantage ( though uncertain ) he hath : he is liketo over-live me , and so may have the last word ; and that is a certain victory with the sequacious multitude . but yet truth will triumph , and fraud will vanish , and secret things shall be brought to light , and that which is crookned by the judgment of men shall be set strait by the infallible final judgment . for the reverend doctor stillingfleet , dean of st. pauls . reverend sir , as you have told the magistrates and the world what you think of me as guilty of sinful separation , i have reason to hope that you will not deny me your help for my own conviction : for it concerneth no man so nearly to know my sin as my self : and being so near my day of judgment , i were a most inexcusable wretch if i were unwilling to know it . you knew their capacity it 's like , for whom you preacht and wrote ; but i , that best know my own , finding it impossible to understand you and your accusation without further help , presume to intreat your speedy answer to these questions which are the stop of my conviction . i. q. i entreat you to tell me more plainly , which is the constitutive regent part of a national church ? whether the king , or a sacerdotal head ? for that you know , that a church as well as a kingdom , is essentiated by a pars regens , and pars subdita , i long ago found in your irenicon . i have opened the state of the question in my first plea , page , , &c. of which i crave your solution : for to hear of [ one head , ] and not know who it is , is no satisfaction to me . ii. q. i intreat you to tell me wore plainly what the [ one rule ] meant in your text was , which was then extant , and all that had attained to be true christians were then and are now to agree in and walk by . for i perceive you truly judge that it was somewhat then known to them ; and yet in your application one would think you meant some late humane laws . was it a divine rule or a humane ? if humane , how to know it . iii. q. i beseech you tell me plainly , what is the definition or formal reason of that sinful separation which you mention as mine . for i cannot perceive it by your book : unless you take preaching without the magistrates leave , and worshiping in a manner different from that appointed by law , and forbidden , to be it . but i suppose you take not all disobedience to be separation , nor all different modes of worship . i would fain know what you mean. iv. q. i intreat you tell me plainly , what you would have the many score thousands do on the lords days , who cannot hear in the parish churches ? for the matter of fact is past dispute , that in your parish of st. andrews , sepulchres , giles cripplegate , giles in the fields , martins , clements , and many others , there are in some , in some , in some , in some the parishoners say , inhabitants more than can come into the church and hear the ministers voice ; which seldom can be heard by more than or . how would you have all these score thousands spend the lords day ? v. q. are you not conscious that the true pastoral office is not performed in your own parish to the third part of the people according to their need , and pauls example act. . by reason of the number of them ? prudent peaceable men of your parish tell me , that not one of five of their neighbours ever use to go to any church : and out of the church never hear a word from the pastor , unless at the baptizing of a child ; but live like heathens without any publick worship of god : and the worst men that most need help least desire it , and therefore easiliest take the excuse that at the parish church there is no room , and if they go to others they are called separatists ; but not if they play , work or drink at home . vi. q. i am confident you know the need of many curates in your own parish ; ( for my part , i profess , i am so far from thinking my self capable of a bishops work , that i would not take many l. a year to take the pastoral charge of your parish without many assistants ) seeing then you and i ( as i see by your treat of satisfaction and other doctrinal books ) do preach the same doctrine , and i perform but the part of a curate or assistant to you for nothing . why think you that it is worse than that so many be untaught ? vii . q. do you not think that culpably to alienate an ordained minister , vowed to the sacred office , is far worse sacriledge than to steal church-plate or moneys ? and that it must needs be so culpable , either in our selves for not conforming , or for ceasing our works , or else in those that hinder us . viii . q. what then is it that you would have us do , when after our best endeavours we are no more able to see the lawfulness of conforming or forsaking our calling , than of many great notorious sins ? ix . q. do you think that for qualification and number there are so many better than the silenced ministers in the land , as may so far s●pply the peoples wants , as that such as we may better be spared , than employed , unless we can conform ? x. q. are none of our hearers more competent judges than their accusers , what profiteth their own souls ? and if the 〈◊〉 , what is the great harm that such as i do , that weighs down the peoples profit ; while all your power is for edification , and all your churches that i come in are full ? xi . q. what is it in us that warranteth a humble 〈◊〉 to think , that his ministerial duty is so much better than ours , that in comparison of his ministry , ours is unnecessary and we unsufferable in the land : is it our ignorance or our wickedness that makes the difference so great ? i have studied many years longer than you , though perhaps with less advantage : we know nothing in the world that we prefer before the pleasing of god , and edifying his church ? though you excel us , do all others so ? my meaning is , would you have none tolerated in england that are as ignorant and as bad as i , consideratis considerandis . doth bare conforming make all this difference ? xii . q. and as i ask all these questions for my self ( and earnestly intreat your answer ) pardon me while in true love to you , i put this question to you for your self ; whether do you think , if you lived in the pain , and as near the grave as i do , and by the sentence of death had the lively apprehensions of your account , should you not tremble to think of becoming a preacher against our preaching , and justifying or owning the silencing and ruining of so many hundred devoted ministers of christ , who are no worse , and for no worse cause ? such as truly desire to serve god as faithfully and diligently as your self , and with as little respect to preferment , riches , applause , or any worldly end ? and whether you will never wish that you had never put your hand to such a work , as to argue with the magistrate and harden others , against the enduring of such mens labours , even on the hard terms that we willingly perform them . sir , many importune me to publish an answer to your sermon : . as to my self , i am more concerned to crave your help for my conviction , if i live in sin at so dear a rate , even to my slesh : . and as to you , you have deserved so well of this land , especially for so stoutly opposing popery at such a time , and are so much loved and valued by us all , that i would take tho-least provoking way ; us knowing what contention and exasperatiou tendeth to , and how glad the papists will be to turn your pen from themselves , and leave you and such as i , together in a fruitless conflict : waiting your answer , i rest may . . your unworthy fellow-servant , ri. baxter . dr. stillingfleet's answer to mr. baxter's letter . sir , i lately received a letter from you , wherein you complain of my exposing you to the magistrates and the world , as one guilty of sinful separation ; whereas i never mentioned your name , when i preached , and when i printed the sermon , i have quoted it several times against separation . but if your meaning he , that you think your self concerned in those practises which i charge with that guilt , i should have been very glad to have found in your letter an answer to those reasons in my sermon which moved me to judg as i then did , and still do concerning them , which in my opinion had been a far more likely way for your conviction , which you seem to desire in your letter , than my answering those queries you propose ; many of which do very little relate to the matter in debate between us . what you mean by knowing their capacity for whom i preached and wrote , i am not willing to understand ; but if i have any , the single question between you and me , as to this matter , is , whether t●e upholding separate meetings for divine worship , where the doctrine stablished , and the substantial parts of worship are acknowledged to be agreable to the word of god , be a sinful separation , or not ? by separate meetings , i mean such as 〈◊〉 to a purer way of worship , and are kept up in opposition to the legal establishment of religion among us . and now sir , i pray consider , first , to what purpose i should resolve the queries you make concerning our great parishes , since , . the separate meetings 〈◊〉 kept up in the city , and adjoynen● places , as hackney , newingten , &c. without any regard to the greatness of parishes , or capacity of churches . . you cannot but know , that the people do not go to them , because they cannot find room in churches , but because they look upon the worship of god , as purer there , 〈◊〉 our paroch●●l churches : and most of those who frequent them , would not come to the publick worship , were our churches never so great , or our parishes nev●● so small . . the preaching in them is forbidden by law , which the greatness or smallness of our parishes doth not make more or l●ss 〈…〉 unless those who preach in ●hem do conform to the 〈◊〉 established , and so i grant you , the tabe●●acle in st. martin's parish , is ●●wah 〈◊〉 to the parish-church , which before was a separate meeting . and i wonder a person of your segacity should think to satisfie your self , or others , by such slight evasions as these , which scarce any of my auditors or readers , how mean soever their capa●●ies were , but could discern the weakness of them . secondly , others of your queries relate to the qualifications and number of the ejected ministers , and comparing their gifts with ours . but what is all this to the business of separation ? unless you suppose that the gospel is not preached by vs ; or whether it be or not , that you are bound to preach it still , and so much seems to be implied in your th question , viz. that it is a sacriledge culpably to alienate an ordained minister vowed to the sacred office. and because this comes nearest to the matter in hand , and seems very much to stick with you , i shall desire you to resolve these queries . . whether it be not in the power of those who give orders in a christian church to limit and suspend the exercise of the ministerial function without sacriledge ? if not , how could the christian church in its best and purest times , pretend to reduce bishops and presbyters to a lay-communion ? of which you may read so often in st. cyprian's epistles . nay what church is there to be named , that doth not assume this power to it self , without the least suspition of sacriledge ? and it would be very strange , that this notion of sacriledge should never be understood before . . whether christian magistrates may not justly restrain those ministers from preaching , who after the experience of former troubles , do refuse to renounce those principles which they judge do naturally tend to involve 〈◊〉 again in the like troubles ? . to what purpose any such authority is either in church or state , if those who are legally silenced may go on to preach publickly in opposition to the established laws ; only in supposition that they were wrongfully ejected ? this i am certain is contrary to the doctrine of all the non-conformists of former times , as you may see in the book published in their name by mr. rathband , a. d. . p. . ( besides what you may find in my sermon , p. . only the testimony of dr. gouge ought to be corrected th● , p. , . ) their words are , if a guiltless person put out of his charge by the churches authority , may yet continue in it , what proceedings can there be against guilty persons who in their own conceit are always guiltless or will at least pretend so to be ; seeing they also will be always ready to object against the churches judgment , that they are called of god , and may not therefore give over the execution of their ministry at the will of man. . whether there be the same obligation now lying upon ministers to preach the gospel , in a nation where the gospel is confessed to be truly preached , when they are forbidden to do it by the laws of the land ; as there was upon the apostles to preach it first to the world , notwithstanding ●he prohibitions of men ? the disparity seems so obvious to me , that i could hardly believe men of understanding would alledge the apostles words to justifie their present practises , had i not so often seen it done . but that the old non-conformists did truly understand the disparity of the case , you may see it in instances in the former book , which i shall refer you to . but you ask one matterial question in behalf of the people , viz. are none of our hearers more competent judges than their accusers what profiteth their own souls ? and is this in your judgment , a tolerable plea for separation ? then there can be no such thing as an unjustifiable or sinful separation ; since the people are left to be their own judges . for where was any separation made but upon such a pretence ? and upon this ground the people may leave you to morrow , and go to doctor o. and leave him next week and go to the anabaptists , and from them to the quakers ; and still plead that they are more competent judges than their accusers , what profiteth their own souls . no one would think by such questions as these , that ever you had written so much against separation , and spoken so freely of the mischief of it , thus i have pickt out those queries , which come nearest to the matter of separation , and given a suffieient answer to them . but as to the other remaining , concerning the constituent regent part of a national church ; the one rule mentioned by the apostle ; and whether you or i have studied longer or to better purpose , i have in civility passed them over , as no more relating to our business , than determining the principle of individuation , is , to the keeping of the sixth commandment . and i am resolved in debate of this nature not to be drawn off by any by-queries from the main thing in controversie . i do not press you to any speedy answer , but i desire you rather to weigh and consider things impartially , than to give too hasty a reply . i am neither fond of controversie , nor can i desert so just and clear a cause as i take this against separation to be ; from which i shall not be moved by the noise and censures of weak and injudicious people , who i find ( as you formerly observed ) can least endure to be touched in this matter . if you please at your leisure to return an answer to this paper , it shall be thankfully received by sir , your faithful friend and servant edward stillingfleet . my sudden removal into the country upon the receipt of yours , must excuse my sending this no sooner . a reply to dr. stillingfleet's letter ; being the sum of our controversie . § . . i confess i was so well assured of the divine obligations which lay on me , to do these things which you judg my sin , that my expectations from your return were very low : but yet i thought it my duty to try whether you had more than i knew of to say for my conviction , before i ventured on a defence : but your refusal to convince and satisfie me , increaseth my confidence . that it is my great duty which you account my sin . § . . did you not write to be understood ? or must i only not understand you ; must i trouble the reader by gathering all the passages , where you expresly speak to me , viz. as one of them ; and as going beyond the independants , and preaching unlawfully to them that unlawfully hear . and as deeling more disingeniously and less fairly than the old separatists , and so almost from end to end . § . . seeing you should have been very glad to have found an answer to your sermon , an answer you shall have . § . . seeing you will no further explain your great word [ separation ] i will answer it where i find it in your sermon : and if the case must be no more intelligibly stated , i must take it as you will do it . § . . to sum up all , as far as i am able to understand you , your sermon containeth , . the grounds supposed on which you build . . your accusation of us on those grounds : . the penalties which you justifie , . and the cure which you desire . i. as far as you are intelligible to me , your supposed grounds are , that [ god hath authorized the magistrate , . to choose what persons every man in his dominions shall entrust his soul to , as the pastor , whose conduct he is bound in conscience to obey : . and also to choose and command , in what words only every pastor shall publickly pray to god ; and what books and words of men he shall profess assent and consent to ; and what dedicating symbols of christianity he shall use as engaging in the christian covenant , and to command ceremonies and modes , for dissent wherein he shall deny baptism , and church-communion to all dissenters , though the things be taken to be indifferent by the magistrate , and great sins by the dissenters . . and that all that obey not in all these , but preach when forbidden , or use other accidents or modes , and choose other pastors to ●e their guides , are separatists and sin againg god. ii. on these grounds you judg me and such others sinful separatists iii. you justifie the executing of the laws upon us , and would have us silenced , and such dissenters not endured it is our ( conformity , or our ) ceasing to preach which you plead for as the cure. § . . i. as to your supposed ground , . you know , it 's like that in my first plea for peace , i largely confuted it : and could you think that without any reply your bare saying over the thing confuted , could be any satisfaction , to one of any sense or conscience . . you cannot but know that the judgment and practice of the uniyersal church in east and west hath been against you , not only for the first years , but for many hundred after . father paul sarpi after cited , in his history of church revenues truly testifieth it : i have proved it by many canons and histories in my church history ; that he was to be taken as no bishop that was chosen by magistrates , prelates or any , without the clergies election , and the peoples election or consent : christians then took not this to be any part of the princes trust : but only to countenance the things that furthered learning and godliness , and encourage the clergy and people to choose the best , and to protect and encourage and govern them by the sword when they were chosen . this being past doubt , were the universal church separatists ? is our concent with the universal church , or your singularity from it , liker to schism or separation ? . i know that there are inconveniences in the peoples consenting power , and so there are in all humane affairs ; but not to be cured by pernicious mischiefs . you will not tell me , because you cannot tell me , how we shall know what magistrates they be that have this trust ? whether heathens , infidels , mahometans , socinians , arians , macedonians , eutkchians , monothelites , image-worshipers , papists , anabaptists , or who ? and who must judge of their qualifications ? yea , were we sure that the prince were orthodox , if he were but wicked , debauched , an enemy to serious practical piety , as all wicked men naturally are inclined to be , will not all such choose bishops and pastors like themselves ? what more natural than to propagate our like ? and will not wicked bishops make wicked priests ; and you know the patron hath the choice with us and it 's a slender qualification which the bishop hath power to require , without a quare impedit : an atheist , a fornicator , a drunkard , a hater of holiness , hath nevertheless the choice of a priest for the parish , to whom all the people must entrust their souls . what a sad case were the christian world in , if we may lawfully have no other pastors than gentlemen and princes choose for us ? when christ tells us how hard it is for the rich to enter into the kingdom of heaven ? and how few of the noble are called , and [ in uno annulo , &c. ] is become a proverb . what a case were hungary , poland , france , germany , and the greek churches in , if this were true ? . personal power in man is the first : family power is the next : city and kingdom power supposeth these and cannot destroy them : hence subjects that are not meer slaves , stand up to plead for their personal and domestick property , liberty and power . if my money , and limbs and life be not at the patrons or the princes will , much less my soul. he is trusted with my estate and life ; but i am first and more trusted with them . he may keep out ill physitians from the land , and encourage the good ; but he hath no power to tie me to an ill physitian , nor to an ill diet , nor to ill servants , &c. the choice of these belongeth to my self . much less can he on pretence of parish-order tie me to an ignorant , drunken , malignant , or an unexperienced sapless teacher , that is to my soul as a silly emperick to my health . scripture and the worlds experience tell how much god m●rrally giveth his light and grace , according to the aptitude of means : habitus infusi se habent ad modum acquisitorum , is common in the schools . twenty sinners are usually sooner brought to repentance under skilful fit teachers , than under one unskilful or ungodly men . and no man hath power from god , to damn my soul ; or forbid me the needful means of my salvation . no man is so much concerned as my self what becometh of me for ever : and i will not believe that the patron loveth me and all the parish better than we love our selves . england hath been blest with better rulers than other lands : but one rule must in this be held to by all the churches . and if you would even here appeal to experience , i will not here stay to tell you the names of or or ignorant readers , most drunkards , some rarely , half never preaching , that i was bred under , nor what a stock of such our country had , and how very thin pious tolerable preachers were : nor what worthy men aldermanbury , black-fryers , the inns-of-courts , and most places have had where the people chose . but reason signifieth little with most , who are on his side that talketh to them with the best advantage : i insist on this , you go against all the ancient farthers and churches for many hundred years , and are so far a separatist from more than one parish-priest . ii. and therefore your accusation of us thus grounded is shismatical and unjust , and recoileth on your self , who instead of gods rule that all should walk by , accuse them that walk not by your novel crooked rules , which may make as many modish religions as there are princes . iii. and your desire of our silencing and not being tolerated , i will only here lament , and after speak to . iv. and as your cure by our conformity is impossible ; so that by silencing will be none , but increase the disease . § . . is it not a very uncharitable thing of you , that when it 's i whom you have called to account , you flatly deny or shun to give me an answer to my case , and to the case of all others that preach only in parishes , where few of the people can hear in the church . why ask you [ to what purpose should you resolve those queries ? ] i answer , to shew me whether my preaching be my sin , or duty : and whether you justly or unjustly accused me , and all such others ; was it not to this purpose that i craved your answer ? . and do you not know , that in the bills of mortality it appeareth that the parishes within the walls are but about the seventh part of the whole ; and the outer parishes , which are thus great , are about six parts : and in these parishes it is not the tenth part in some and the sixth in most that can come within the church to hear . and it is pity that one half , or two or three parts of such a city as london should be left like the indians without any publick teaching and worship , and such as you say so much for it . § . . you say , the separate meetings are kept in the city , hackney , newington , &c. ans . . what 's that to me , and all such other ? . i can tell that some city churches are yet unbuilt , and the tabernacles will not hold the people ( as christ-church , and others . ) . and divers keep meetings within the walls , where they found most peace , for the reception of those without the walls , that cannot come into their own churches . . what 's done at newington i know not ; but at hackney i know of two meetings , where the ministers so preach out of the time of publick worship , that none may be hindred from going to it , and deny not communion with the parish-churches : and they tell me , that as the incumbent officiateth by another , so the parish is so great , and the preachers voice so low , that a great part cannot hear him . . why do you say they are separate meetings , when you know that you have cast them out : the preachers had rather preach in your temples , and they cannot be suffered : preachers and people that are professed nonconformists but in opinion , are by the canon ipso facto excommunicate . § . . as to what you say of the reason of their meetings ; i answer , . i think ( as far as i can judge ) the most of my hearers , ( i think ten or twenty to one ) do also hear in the parish churches : so that your charge of separation against them is but for hearing both : and i believe it is so with many others . . every one that preferreth better , doth not separate from all the rest : your church alloweth any free man to forsake and change his bishop and parish priest as oft as he will ; so he will but . i believe , that a father must be honoured , and having care of his childrens life and soul , he must command them necessary food and means for body and soul , and they must obey him , if the law forbad it . . i believe that murdering souls privatively or positively is a sin , as well as murdering bodies , as many undertaking and not performing pastors will find . . i believe that he that obeyeth not a law which was made against gods law , or without authority given by him , sinneth not against authority . . i think in such cases , he that submitteth to the penalty of a penal law , doth enough . . i conjecture , that the multitude of casuists , politick writers , and lawyers , who say that because the common good is the end of government , and all power is for edification , no law obligeth which is against the common good , or at least that is destructive of it , ] are like to be near as knowing in such matter , as the meanest of the doctors hearers and readers . . and i am past doubt , that he that denieth these principles , will shortly have no cause to glory of his wisdom . and o what cause have we that are teachers , in stead of proving those intollerable that differ from us in such matters as our conformity , to consider that an errour in us , especially so practical and momentous , is far more dangerous than in the people . if all my neighbours mistake my disease and the remedy , it may not hurt me ; but if my physician mistake it , it may be my death . bishop vsher and many protestants do except a learned papist much more than the unlearned from the hopes of salvation . § . . i will readily answer your queries , though you refuse to answer mine . to your first , those who rightfully give orders , must give such orders as god hath instituted , and may not limit or suspend contrary to his institution or laws . as he that marrieth persons may not except the husbands power of government , nor may unmarry them againe , save for adultery . none may silence ministers that forfeit not their office. on just cause to pull down churches , and alienate the church goods , ( as some bishops of old did for the poor ) is no sacriledge : nor to silence an intollerable teacher : but to silence ministers unjustly , is another matter . if men will cant over still , who shall be judge ? we still repeat , . whoever is judge , he hath no power to cast out faithful ministers : and if he mis-judge them , it justifieth not his act . and every man is the discerning judge of his own duty . § . . to your second querie , christian magistrates may justly preserve the publick peace by all just means , and may repress all rebellious practices and principles : but if they should mis judge any principles to be such that are not , and for not renouncing those should silence ministers , if they have fitter means than silencing to correct them , silencing them , when their ministry is needful , is a sin . but seeing these words are significant of your mind for silencing us , and the reasons of it , why would you not tell me , what those principles are which we refuse to renounce , and so deserve silencing . either you lay the stress on the guiltiness of our principles , or on the magistrates judging them so . you cannot think , that if he mis judge , it will justifie his silencing men : else valens , hunnierichus , that cut out the preachers tongues , those that silenced the preachers in germany , on one side for not swearing for the pope , and on the other for not swearing for the emperour , &c. all did well . seeing then you speak as an accuser of us , as guilty of refusing to renounce such principles , and subscribe your implied consent to our silencing for it ; o that you would be so charitable as to help our conversion , and tell us what those principles are . i have told the world at large my own and many other principles of government and obedience , in my second plea for peace : i crave your discovery of my errours therein : yea , i provoke also such as more fiercely accuse us , as plotters , or cherishing principles of rebellion , to name that principle which i have not there renounced . if all that 's there be not enough , i know not what will be enough . § . . to your third , i answer , . it followeth not , that authority to silence justly is to no purpose , unless all unjustly silencing must be obeyed : the apostles , the old bishops , the most of the churches have disobeyed such ; as did the waldenses , bohemians , german protestants , the french , belgians , remonstrants , and contraremonstrants , &c. you say , greatness of parishes makes no difference : what if the king turned all london into one parish , and so fo●bid all preaching and publick worship to all save a few thousands ? is authority vain , unless all the rest turn like to atheists ? no good christian should obey the popes interdicts of whole kingdoms , though he had as much authority as the king : a power to damn souls is a frightful word . . either the supposition that it is unjust , is true or false : if false , it will not justifie their preaching : if true , either his preaching is necessary or unnecessary . if it be necessary , we must obey god , and disobey man ( as grosthead saith ) by an obedient disobedience : if it be unnecessary , though the magistrate sin , i must forbear there , and go to some place where i may preach without doing more hurt than good : so that controversie●ieth ●ieth but in this , whether the preaching of the silenced ministers was unnecessary , and tended to do more hurt than good ? and this is all that mr. rathband , or any sober nonconformist meant : and this is plain truth , though the best of your hearers , and readers , or your self contradict it . § . . and whereas you say , this i am certain is contrary to the doctrine of all the nonconformists of former times ; your assertion is so rash and false in matters of notorious fact , that it weakneth my reverence of your judgment . change his dwelling : and in london , lodgers may change frequently . if i know those called puritans better than you , i must profess that i believe of the two it is more the preacher and his preaching which maketh the difference with them than the liturgie . for my part i seldom hear any but very good well studied sermons in the parish churches in london where i have been : but most of them are more sitted to well bred schollars , or judicious hearers , than to such as need more practical subjects , and a more plain familiar easie mode : and it is not your reasoning that will bring all appetites to the same food ; nor make the same books serve every form . i have always found that such conformable preachers , as were mr. bolton , mr. fenner , mr. whately , bishop vsher , &c. were flockt after by those called puritans , as much as the non-conformists . but when they find all together , . that the worship and the preaching is more suitable to their good , . and that their souls have need of much other pastoral help than publick . . and doubt of the calling of obtruded men , no wonder if they prefer the other . § . . but you lay the stress on the prohibition of the law , which the greatness or smallness of the parish doth not make more or less lawful . ans . god hath commanded all christians ordinarily to learn and worship him under the conduct of his institution , all christians grant this . no man hath power to forbid this : all law that forbiddeth it is of no obligation . in a parish where , , , cannot come within the church to hear ; if they have no other place to go to , they must forbear all publick learning and worship : so that the english of your words is , that if the law forbid the most of the people all publick learning and worship of god , it is there as unlawful for any to congregate against that law as where there is no such need . but . i again tell you , councils , doctors and the universal church thought otherwise , and abhor'd this doctrine . . why will you not give us one word of proof but your naked authority to prove such authority in the magistrate , and to satifie us what rulers have it , and how far it reacheth : hath the king enabled justices to depose him , or cast down his honour or prerogative ? hath god given magistrates authority to damn as many souls as they will ; by keeping them from the means of knowledge , faith and holiness ; and to forbid his subjects to worship god ? did robert grosthead of lincoln take this to be the greatest sin save antichrists , and do you take it for an act authoriz'd ? is it unlawful to preach when forbidden , or worship god when forbidden , at japon , indostan , china , turkie , france , &c. or only in england ? and where ? § . . yet do you conclude [ i wonder a person of your sagacity should think to satisfie your self or others , by such slight evasions as these , which scarce any of my auditors , or readers how mean so ever their capacities were , but could discern the weakness of them . answ . . o pity then the frailty of human understanding ! i get nothing by it if i err but my great labour and the hazard of my salvation by sin ! it must needs be then against my will ; and is none of my size to be endured ? how few congregations are so happy as yours , if all your auditors are so much wiser ? but , . be the thousands of your parish as wise that hear you not ? . how come some that i thought the wisest that i know of your auditors , to say as i say , and lament your case ? reader , you see here that it must be somewhat better than the confidence of teachers , that must guide and secure the peoples faith. this reverend man you see is most confident of the strength of his reasons and the slightness of mine : and i am so far past doubt on the other side , as that i think he overthroweth all religion , and seteth up man in open rebellion against god : he may as well wonder that i take any thing to be of divine command : if all publick worship is sinful , when forbidden , all private may be so too . daniel may go to the lyons : the martyrs , fathers , councils , the universal church are all foolisher than the meanest of his auditors . it 's strange that he can be sure gods word is true ; and yet be so sure that mens laws are above it , and may suspend it ; when yet mens laws have no more strength than gods laws give them . . i believe that the spirit of god hath said , forsake not the assembling of your selves together ; know them that labour among you , and are over you in the lord , and admonish you , and esteem them very highly in love for their work sake , thess . . . . that have spoken to you the word of god , that watch for your souls , heb. . , . how shall they hear without a preacher , &c. rom. . . i believe that where the gospel is hid , it is hid to them that are lost : and without knowledge the heart is not good , and without faith there is no salvation ; and that it is life eternal to know god in christ . . therefore they that forbid men to hear and worship god publickly , forbid what god commandeth ; and what is ordinarily needful to salvation . . i believe that god is almighty , the highest universal king , and we are all his subjects ; and the scripture is his law. . i believe that there is no power but from him , and that he hath given none against him , or his laws , nor above him ; and that man is not god ; and that we must obey god rather than man , when they contradict . . i believe that we must love , fear , and serve god above all , and worship him according to his word , and honour his name , and keep holy his day , whoever forbid it : and that we must love our neighbour as our selves , and help to save him as we may . . i believe that i must love my self , and seek the saving of my soul , though the law forbad me . in matter of right . i have told you what bishop bancroft saith of the old nonconformists forming churches and discipline : the canon against conventicles , thence occasioned , confuteth you : i have heard old nonconformists preach constantly publickly and privately against law : i was familiar with many of them : i never knew one of the mind you mention . most of them did preach themselves that ever i heard of . if mr. rathband had denied this , it had been no proof . mr. ash that is one of them there , and mr. slator , both preached at bremicham long , mr. pateman at moseley , &c. multitudes i could name . and yet a man that knew them not [ is certain that all the nonconformists of former times had contrary doctrine ] . i was in . and . accounted one of them , though i used the liturgie , which most of them did not . i knew them better than you did . i have named many in my first plea , whose practice proveth your great error in that history where you say you are certain . § . . to your fourth question , an obligation may be called [ the same ] , . quoad terminum . . quoad gradum . . quoad modum obligandi . . quoad realitatem . . the apostles had an obligation to assert christs resurrection , as eye-witnesses , and to record his doctrine and laws infallibly in scripture , and to many things proper to them , which we have not ; but we are obliged to the work of our proper office. . the apostles had greater obligations then we , by more immediate call , and special gift of the spirit , and special commission and command ; when ours are lower , but firmly binding us . . the apostles were obliged by christs immediate mission , and commission , and we but by his ordinary instituted means . but we are as truly bound to our duty , as they to theirs . . and our duty is to preach the gospel to those without , and those within , according to our power and opportunity , and to do the rest of our office when we can . and though we are called to this without supernatural inspiration , vision , or miracle , being called , we are as truly obliged , as parents , husbands , princes are to their duties . it is not lawful to look back when we have put our hands to christs plow , nor perfidiously to break our ordination vow , nor to be negligent or treacherous non-residents , pluralists , or slothful , nor to obey men more than god , though we were not called immediately , or by miracle . . if the magistrate appoint or , or one half a parish to be excluded for want of room and teachers , it 's ill supposed that the gospel is truly and sufficiently preached to them , to whom it is not preached at all . and that it is preached to others , proveth it not unnecessary to them . . he that only readeth the gospel truly preacheth it : but souls have need of more pastoral help than bare true preaching . ignorant wicked men in england can no more be saved than heathens , and have need of convincing , skilful , serious preaching , as well as they . your wondring at our allegation of the apostle's words , and great confidence in so sad a cause , sets me almost above wondring at any thing that you say . timothy was not called immediately by christ , who had that dreadful charge to preach in season and out of season . the universal church long judged otherwise of this case than you do : and not only bishop bilson , but i think almost all christian writers , protestants and papists , herein follow the ancient church against you . the nonconformists and others easily grant what i said before , that no one apostle might be silenced by man ; but deserving ministers , that do more hurt than good by their ministry , may be silenced by christian magistrates : but not the churches edification oppugned , and faithful men silenced for not sinning on pretence of a power to judge or execute . § . . my question implieth , . that every man is most concerned for his own soul , and hath a prior obligation to secure it , which the king cannot dispense with . . and , that every man hath nearer helps to know what is good or hurtful to his soul in doubtful cases , than the king that never saw him hath . . and every man is like to love himself more than the king loveth him . . and , that the king can no more bind him to hurt , or famish , or endanger his soul than his health in diet. but the king must give men all the helps that he can , and set up and maintain sufficient publick teachers , and drive the ignorant and profane to hear and learn , and promote order and concord , and hinder unpeaceableness and disorder by just means . but i have so fully declared the magistrate's work in my book of concord , that i will not repeat it on this slight occasion . separations must be prevented by right means . i had no separatists in a great congregation for fourteen years , though many sects strongly and often tempted them ; no not one separate meeting all that time , and this without force . what harm will it do me , or them , if my hearers go from me ( as you say ) to dr. o? our whole country where i lived almost kept concord , and kept out separation without the magistrates constraint : experience is not easily confuted . why then do you tell me of what i have written against separation ? when you may see that i contradict none of this ; and when that writing , with my other endeavours , served without the rulers sword. i had three justic● always at hand that would have done for me what they could at any time : i never desired one act of force from them . i allowed quakers and anabaptists publick disputes half a day together : they never won one man or woman by it . mr. tombes his great parts , and interest with his flock and kindred , could get but about twenty four or less than thirty anabaptists at bewdeley : almost all the rest of the country was free , save a few inconsiderable quakers at worcester , and a small village or two . the like was then done without force in many other counties . § . . i told you how necessary the resolving of the questions which i sent you was to my conviction : and i will not provoke you , by giving that name to your denyal of an answer to them , which i think impartial readers will give it . i. will other men believe that he doth well to deny me the definition of that national church which he writeth of , or to tell me whether he speak of a lay or a clergie government , who writes his wonder that i should say , i know not what they mean by the national church ? how can i know whom to obey , or when i separate from the form of government , if i know not what it is ? is this nothing to our case ? i take my self to be more bound to obey the king , than some bishops . you knew that you are here divided as for two church-forms among your selves . ii. would any man that ever knew you have believed that ever you , even you , should have so preached and written for walking by the same rule , and accused the nonconformists as worthy of silencing , and as intollerable for swarving from that rule ; and when you have done , will by no intreaty be prevailed with so much as to tell me what that rule is , divine or humane , the statutes or the canons , or what ? yea , and think this impertinent to the business ? iii. was it not almost incredible , that when all this was said and written against our separation , that i cannot intreat you to tell me what separation is , even what is the formal reason from whence you so name it , and whether you make it not to be the same with [ disobedience ] , contrary to the common sense of church-writers ? iv. is it not hard to have been believed , that when i and others are so loudly accused of preaching ( though i never gathered a church ) to some of many thousands that cannot come into the temples , ( many of which never heard a sermon of many years ) that i cannot intreat you to tell me what all those thousands should do on the lords day , and how you would have them spend the time : and that this should be taken as impertinent ? the canon commandeth the spending of the sunday and holidays in hearing gods word , &c. doth he keep this better that goeth to no church , or he that heareth such as i ? let the reader also peruse the rest , and see whether they are impertinent . § . . before you desired me , i ha●e long weighed with my most serious and impartial thoughts , the matter of this controversie : and i had great reason so to do , when for the labour which you account my sin , i wear my health and flesh , i suffer reproach , and many a thousand pounds loss and dammage , in these nineteen years ; and being weary of a burdensome body , do bear it and live especially for that work . and if i do and suffer all this for sin , to the wrong of the church , and the hazard of my soul , alas , what a case am i in ! when no study , no prayer , no resolved contempt tempt of all mens censure , and of worldly interests , in twenty years time , yea in forty one , ( for so long i have been partly a nonconformist ) can change my judgment , or make me doubt ? lord , shew me thy truth , and make me true to it , whatever it cost me ; and teach us all to know what manner of spirit we are of , and acquaint us with the true way of christian piety , love , and peace . june . . to the reverend dr. edward stillingfleet , dean of st. pauls , &c. richard baxter returneth this account of his doctrine and practice , which by his published sermon , preached before the lord mayor , may . . he often calleth me to ; and the lord mayor's and court of aldermen's earnest desire of his printing it , add to my obligation . § . . sir , i apprehend much reason for my rendring you this following account , and some against it : and it was not easy to me quickly to resolve which did preponderate . it is easy to foresee , that the papists will be glad that your pen be turned from them , against those whom they are most against , and will laugh to see you diverted by such a scuffle . and satan , knowing our frailty , will hope to persuade you , that all that is said against the weakness and error of your writings , is against your interest and you , and so to stir up in you passions and thoughts directly contrary to love and concord , and your own and the publick good : for with some he hath unhappily succeeded to carry them from one error to another , till he hath brought them to the bitter hatred of their confuters . and though i am not so considerable as you , the tempter disdaineth not so low a game , as to try whether he can make your erroneous opposition a snare to me . when i saw that you had begun this contentious way , it was easy to foresee that satan's cause was like to gain by it , and therefore i fear that he was much the cause . § . . and i remembred prov. . . the beginning of strife is as when one letteth out water ; therefore leave off contention before it be meddled with . and if you could not forbear beginning , you will hardly forbear when a necessary confutation seemeth to dishonour you . interest , you tell me , is strong ; and it is easier to speak against selfish partiality than to overcome it . i never personally provoked you , unless it was by confuting your opinion , [ that no form of church-government is of divine institution ] in my christian directory : but as i named you not unless with honour , so your own accusing of that irenicon of yours , ( otherwise a very laudable book ) doth seem to justify what i said . § . . and i truly fear , lest the opening of your misdoings should rejoyce the papists , and encourage them to say , this is the champion against the catholicks . for i speak from my heart in my usual saying to them that mention you , that this kingdom is greatly beholden to you , for your seasonable and open defence of the protestant cause , at a time when — and i am glad that you blame them that accuse the conformable clergy of yeildingness to popery ; which implieth , that no bribe shall tempt you , directly or indirectly to serve that cause , how strongly soever it shall seem supported by the arm of flesh . § . . but yet in so publick a cause , to be by your accusations so loudly called to be accountable for my doctrine and practice , and that to the magistrate , and to an end easily discernable ; and to refuse to tender you or the magistrate any just satisfaction , when refusing may make me and thousands more taken for guilty , as by our ( silent ) confession , and consequently the magistrate and you to incur a far greater guilt , if you should mistake , this seemeth to me a crime not to be ventured on . when you have made answering necessary , i must answer : else i should have imitated melancthon , who oft boasteth how much he had profited in philosophy , so that he could silently let illiricus , osiander , and such others write and talk against him . if possible , and as much as in us lieth , we should live peaceably with all men ; but when that which men make impossible to us is no duty , nor the want of it a sin , though an affliction , the aggressor doth make defence a duty . and indeed i must be guilty of scandal against you and others , if i deny you satisfaction . either i or you live in no small sin : though mr. cheney think otherwise , your words , and many such others , shew , that you take our course to be a sin intolerable . and if it should prove that the sin is yours , it could not be small , not only to do what we fear would be so bad in us , but also to accuse us so publickly to magistrates , for not forbearing to preach the gospel when we were solemnly devoted to it ; and pleading against the toleration of it , when non-toleration must be by imprisonment , banishment , or death , or such disablement , against such as believe they are bound to preach while they are able . § . . yet you can tell that they are ill men that reported you stir up magistrates to persecution . if that much will prove it , it 's like they will be emboldened to call you [ an ill man ] too ; for such faults are so common , that we may say as seneca , [ quid ulcus leviter tangam omnes mali sumus . ] indeed they do not well that use that word , persecution ; when your words are but against toleration , and the church of england ' s endeavour after vniformity ; which are publickly known . § . . and no wonder if they are ill men ; when you are but finding out a certain foundation for a lasting vnion , which is impossib●e to be attained , till men are convinced of the evil and danger of the present separation , &c. that is , you are but proving our union impossible ; for i have elsewhere proved , that the conviction which you speak of is morally impossible , to become the terms of a common union . it is impossible that we should all be convinced that none of the particulars imposed are sinful , which i have named in my first plea. and secondly , 't is as impossible that we should all be convinced , that it is any more lawful for us to forsake our ministry , to which we were vowed in our ordination , than to break our oath of allegiance , and deny our duty to the king. so that you do no worse , than for union , to prove our union impossible : and who is it that makes it so ? § . . and this impossibility you infer from this principle , [ that it is lawful to separate on a pretence of greater purity , where there is an agreement in doctrine , and the substantial parts of worship . ] answ . . was there not this agreement in the case of cyprian and the council , who persuaded the people to separate from martial and basilides ? and is not union possible with such as cyprian and the carthage bishops ? . we that are accused by you do not say that [ we differ not from you in doctrine absolutely : ] viz. in the doctrine about diocesan church-forms , or their imposing power , we never denied this difference . but we say , [ in the doctrine of the articles , ] as distinct from the form of government , and imposed abuses , we agree . and suppose that we agreed in such doctrine and worship with a church , that yet held , only that the pope is jure divino the constitutive vicarious head of the vniversal church , and would take none that confess it not , for christians , were it a sin to separate from that church ? . suppose that usurpers should thrust out the bishops and you , and make themselves our pastors against our wills , is it unlawful to separate from them , though they agree with us in doctrine and worship ? and if the churches and councils have been in the right , which for yea years held that the calling of a bishop was null that had not the clergies election , and the peoples election or consent . i need not tell you how far this will reach . . what if a church that you agree with in doctrine and worship will not receive you , unless you will deliberately profess or subscribe an untruth , or covenant against some duty , or commit a known sin ; is it intolerable for you rather to separate from them than to sin ? and must we have no union till we can in all things think as you do ? § . . i think you need not expect the censures of the chief makers of our divisions : and as to the inferiour sectaries , if you are a sacrifice , it will be an unbloody one . you well admonish us in the end , not to complain too much when we are silenc'd , impoverished , and imprisoned : the counsel is good , but for the dean of pauls , &c. that is deservedly loved and honoured by us all whom you thus deal with , and by those great men whose esteem he deservedly more valueth , while he liveth in this plenty and honour , to call himself [ a sacrifice ] if a few poor men say , he wrongeth them , when he pleadeth against the magistrates enduring them , or against their judgment that think they should be endured , doth not this seem to another greater tendency , than for me only to say de facto , i was laid in the common gaol , and fain to make away my goods and library to save them from distress ? ] but so much to your epistle : the sermon followeth . § . . and what could a man have desired more to end the main differences among us , than the serious consideration of your text in its very plain import and drift . . that the text speaketh for unity and concord is past question . . and that it speaketh both to the pastors and the flocks . . and that it speaketh to all christians , though of various degrees of attainment : and therefore requireth all to live in concord that are christians ; notwithstanding other differences . . all the doubt is , what is meant by the same canon or rule ? and there are these several expositions pleaded for . . that by the same rule is meant only the general concord , idem velle & nolle ; to agree , and live in peace , and to mind the same things . . that by the same rule is meant the essentials of christianity received by all christians ; which they should have concordantly practised , notwithstanding other differences . . that by the same rule is meant the doctrine which the apostles had concordantly delivered to all the churches . . that it was the churches creed which is supposed then to be in use , as the symbol of christians . . that it is the canonical scriptures , in the times that they were written and delivered to the churches . . that it is the example of s. paul before described , or the matter of it● that is , to hold fast what he had attained , and press forwards towards the heavenly perfection , by desire , hope , diligence , and patience . . some take the [ one rule ] to be [ the end as it is to be attained by the means ; ] that is , the common good of the church , and furtherance of the gospel and our salvation : let all be done to edification . . some say that it is the great duty of love which is made the rule for our undetermined actions ; or , that the fundamental duties are made a canon to the superstructures , as it seemeth to be meant , gal. . , . and by christ , go learn what that meaneth , i will have mercy and not sacrifice . to tell you which and how many of these i take to be meant in the text , and why , is none of the work which you call me to ; but to tell you , that which-ever of these it is , or if all these , we fully consent : all these canons we must all walk by . . but some say , that by the same rule is meant the tradition and custom of the vniversal church . . and some , that it is the canons of the bishops in general councils ; and under them , in national or provincial councils . . and some tell us , that the rule of christian concord is [ obedience to the bishops of all the world ( or universal church ) who are a college governing ( not only divisim & per partes , in their several precincts , but ) unitedly as one regent college , ordinarily per literas formas , and by general councils when they sit . . and some tell us , that it is the law or will of the civil christian magistrate which is this rule . as to these four last rules we must put in our exceptions . as to the th , the traditions and customs then in use were apostolical institutions , and so are coincident with some of the former : but other traditions and customs we take not for this rule . and as to the tenth , we give councils , though wrongfully called general , their due honour ; as we do to inferiour councils , and every particular pastor in his place : but take not this for the rule here mentioned . and as to the th , we know of no such government in being . and as to the th , it was not then existent , and therefore could not be that meant in the text : but we take our selves bound to obey magistrates , as we have elsewhere at large explained and professed . in short , either you think it is a divine or a humane rule or law which is here meant , or both : if a divine , we shall not differ from you of any thing , unless it be of the meaning of it . if a humane , either it is an act of true power received from god , or not : if not , you will grant us that it obligeth us not as this rule in question : if yea , then we agree that we are to obey it : so that all that will be useful to our conviction will be , . that you prove the persons authorized to their office ( and of our magistrates there is no doubt ) . and that they have authority to make all the canons and laws , which you call the rule . and without this your labour is all lost to us . § . . but which of all these it is that you take for the rule meant in your text , we must conjecture : . you well say , p. . [ it was such a rule which they very well knew , which they had given them before . ] therefore it was none that was not then in being , but to be made by bishops afterward . and , p. . you seem to include the canon made acts . whatever the sense of this text is , we willingly also stand to that ; and to the holy ghosts decision , that nothing be imposed but necessary things : and , p. . i find you say [ that the preserving the peace of the church , and preventing separation , was the great measure according to which the apostle gave his directions . ] and this is all that i can find of your determination what is that rule . and if peace be the rule , we all agree with you in declaiming against the violation of it . but is there no more in your application ? § . . i remember it is said in the life of joh. bugenhagius pomeranus ( the pastor of the church in wittenberge , and the presbyter that ordained the bishops and presbyters of denmark , and many other places ) how much john frederick the elector of saxony was pleased to hear him open the reasons why magistrates have power to make laws , but not pastors [ armatum 〈◊〉 potestatem politicam authoritate condendi leges , non pugnantes cum decalogo ; & de his traditam se verissimum praeceptum ; necesse est obedire propter conscienti●n : sed pastoribus expresse prohiberi condere proprias leges , eum dicatur , ne●o 〈◊〉 arguat in cibo , in potu nec posse hanc libertatem ullius creaturae authoritate tolli . ] but i had rather stretch my obedience to the utmost consistent with conscience and obedience to god , than speak for any needless liberty . § . . it is certain , that by [ the same rule ] is not meant , . any rule that tied christians to subscribe or declare that there is nothing in our three books , ( liturgy , ordination , and articles ) contrary to the word of god● for none of them were then extant , nor are they years old . . nor any rule that tied them to any one humane liturgy which all the churches i● the nation must agree in : for there was none such . . nor was it any rul● that imposed on them any dubious unnecessary opinions , covenants , or practices ; nor , in a word , our conformity , or any like it . this is easily proved : . because the rule which they were all to wall by , was somewhat then existent . . it was a divine rule . . it was th● which all christians were to have concord in : but experience telleth us that all christians ( that is , that consent to the essentials of christianity ) ●●●ver had , nor can have their concord in any of the fore-mentioned conformity , as i have proved in my book of concord . § . . we will go therefore no further than your text for the terms 〈◊〉 our agreement , and for our defence against your accusation : what●● you will prove to us , by any such evidence as should convince a man of reason 〈◊〉 impartiality , to have been the rvle which the apostle did here mean , 〈◊〉 bid all that are christians walk by , we earnestly desire to agree thereto : an● we will joyn with you against any that refuse it . it will be a way more co●gruous to your function , and cheaper to your consciences , to condescend 〈◊〉 these terms , and prove to us what this same rule was , than to tell the magistrates that it is no sin not to endure us . § . . pag. , , , . you come to tell us what separation it is no● which you speak of ; viz. not of the separation or distinct communion of 〈◊〉 churches from each other , &c. answ . you know it 's like your self what 〈◊〉 mean by these words ; if you would have us know it , i must crave yo● answer to these questions . qu. . do you make separation and distinct communion the same thing , 〈◊〉 divers ? qu. . what distinction of communion is it that you mean ? when there are 〈◊〉 many things which may distinguish ? . communion in distinct places you take 〈◊〉 for separation . . nor commnion under distinct presbyters or bishops . . therefore i suppose neither under distinct princes , or aristocracies in cities , as such . . nor under distinct laws ( meerly as such ) of the same prince . . nor distinct in allowed or indifferent accidents . why any of these should be called separation i know not , unless as the word doth signifie but diversity or distance . q. . do you take separation here in the same sence as before and after ; or equivocally ? if equivocally , why did you not tell us what you here meant ; besides the difference of subjects : if univocally , then q. . is not the separation of whole churches much worse than of single persons from one church , when it is upon unwarrantable cause or reasons ? if one church unjustly renounce communion with another whole church , as no true church , or as heretical ; i think that it is done by a whole church against a whole church , makes it worse . but perhaps you mean , that for two national churches to have two kings is not unlawful . no doubt of that : but to what purpose is it ? or is it that two national churches may have different accidents of worship or discipline ? and so may two diocesan or parish-churches in our nation , if the king please at least . § . . you add : which according to the scripture , antiquity , and reason , have a just right and power to govern and reform themselves . ans . have not all diocesan churches power to govern and reform themselves ? government is of various species : only the king , or summa potestas civilis , hath power to govern and reform by his species of government : but every bishop may govern and reform his church , as a bishop ; as every master may his family as a master , and every man himself as a man. it 's a strange man , family , or church , that hath not power to govern and reform it self , though not regal power . though kings have power , they have not god's power ; and all power that is humane , is not regal . § . . serm. [ by whole churches i mean the churches of such nations , which upon the decay of the roman empire resumed their right of government to themselves , and upon their owning christianity , incorporated into one christian society , under the same common ties and rules of order and government . ] ans . . and had not those as good right that were not under the roman empire ? ( as abasia , &c. ) . did the churches under the roman power exercise their great diversity in liturgies and other accidents of worship without right ? had not they a right to govern and reform themselves variously as they did ? . christian societies are of divers species : do you mean christian civil societies , kingdoms , free cities , &c. or churches ? or do you take a christian kingdom and a christian church for the same , as the erastians do ? if so , i suppose half the conformists will be against you , as well as i. at least you must confess , that if de nomine a christian kingdom quasi tale may be called a church , it is equivocally ; and that there is a sort of christian churches which are of another constitution . far were the christian bishops for years from believing that a prince or civil power was essential to a christian church , or that a church in the common sence was not constituted of another sort of regent part , that had the power of the keyes . two species of governours make two species of the societies , if they are not subordinate , but prime constitutive parts : but the prince and the pastor are two species , well opened among many by bishop bilson of subjection . and verily if you conformists be divided among your selves about the very constitutive rector of a christian church , you differ more from each other than we do from the generality of you . . and what be the common tyes and rules of order which you mean ? are these notifying terms for a definition ? . there are divine unalterable rules of order and government , and there are humane rules about alterable accidents . . there are rules made by contract ( such as grotius thinks canons are ) , and rules made by governours , which are binding commands or laws . . there are rules made by civil governours to be enforced by the sword , and rules made only by ecclesiastical pastors to be executed only by the power of the word and keys . do you mean all these ? or which of them ? . all christian churches are tied by the common divine rule ; and is not consent to that enough to make a church ? . churches of various nations may be under one humane rule of agreement or contract . . the same princes may give divers rules about accidents to the churches of one kingdom , and also the same rule for some accidents to divers churches under them , who differ in other great things : and doth agreement in those accidents do more to make them o● church , than their difference in integrals to make them many ? . princes may do as the roman emperours long did ; leave the bishops in councils to make their own rules by consent , and make no common imperial rule for them : are they ever the less one church ? . the roman empire and councils both left the several bishops to make rules for liturgies and other accidents for their several churches : were they therefore the less one national church ? so that i am no more acquainted by your words what you mean by a whole church , than if you had said nothing . there is a whole dioces●● church , and a whole parish church , as well as a whole national church : and what the power is , and what the rule of order must be , whether the laws of princes or prelates , and whether about essential , or integrals , or accidents , and what accidents , whether all ; or many , or few , and which , that must make a church to be one whole church , you never tell us . an infidel prince or a heretick prince may give the same rule of order to his christian subjects in a whole kingdom ; is he therefore the constitutive church-head ? or will you say , as your mr. rich. hooker doth , that if he be the head of a christian church , it is necessary that he be a christian ? to tell us of [ common ties and rules of order ] and never tell us what those ties and rules are , may serve your ends , but not my edification . § . . but i remember your irenicum learnedly maintaineth , that god hath instituted no one form of church-government as necessary : and if so , then not a national church-form . and is it not a whole church , if it be without a form , which not god but man is the author of ? then god made or instituted no such thing as a whole church . then it is a humane creature . then why may not man make yet more forms ; and multiply , and make and unmake , as he seeth cause ; and several countries have several forms . and , forma dat nomen & esse : and if god made not any whole church , we should be acquainted who they be ( that were not a church ) that had power to make the first church-form ? and who hath the power ever since ? and how it is proved ? and how it cometh to be any great matter to separate from a church-form which god never made ? and whether humane church-forms be not essential and constitutive causes of the churches ; and whether every commanded oath , subscription , declaration , office or ceremony , be an essential part of this church-form ? and there be as many church-forms and species , as there be orders , liturgies and ceremonies . and all these differences in the same kingdom constitute so many schisms and separations . § . . do you take all the christians in the turkish empire to be one national church , or not ? if not , then one head or humane law is not necessary to the being or government of a church , nor is it necessary that it be national . and do you think that the greek churches have not power to govern and reform themselves , though they be not a national church ? why did paul write to corinth ( as clemens also did ) and to the galatians , &c. and john to ephesus , and the other six , rev. , & . to reform themselves , if they had not power to do it ? but if all the christians under the turk be one national church ; then it is either because they have one civil head , or one ecclesiastical head. not the latter , for they have none such ; though the bishops of constantinople have some primacy by their old canons and customs . not the former , for an infidel cannot be an essential part of a christian church ( as a constitutive head is ) § . . and the churches in the roman empire before constantine , were true churches of christ's institution , and they had power to govern and reform themselves ; and yet they had no humane constitutive head , regal or sacerdotal , though they had a civil heathen governour , which was an extrinsick accidental head. it is so contrary to all sence and religion , that either a man as a man , or a family , or a church as such , should have no power to govern and reform it self , that i must needs judg that while you speak confusedly , you meant only a regal or supreme civil power , which yet is totâ specie distinct from that which is properly ecclesiastical . § . . serm. p. . [ and so the several churches of the lydian or proconsular asia , if they had been united in one kingdom , and governed by the same authority , under the same rules , might have been truly called the lydian church . ] answ . . and is the controversy de nomine , whether they might be called the lydian church , when we expected a satisfactory explication de re ? no doubt but a church is so equivocal a word that many sort of assemblies or societies may be so called . i have told you of divers sences , in which we are called a church national , first plea , pag. , &c. either a christian kingdom , or else the churches of a heathen or a christian king , as associated by agreement , may be called a national church . . what if they be united in one kingdom , of a heathen , mahometan , or arrian king , and governed by his regal authority , under the same rules which he sets them ? is this it that you mean in your description ? a king as such is not an ecclesiastick person , and therefore is not an essential part of a church , unless as it is equivocally so called . and is it his civil laws for church-government that you mean , or the clergies canons , or god's laws ? the greeks under the turk are under one prince , and governed by the same civil authority and laws , and also are under one patriarch , and by the princes toleration are governed by the ecclesiastick authority and laws , of another species : if you confound these two species , or tell us not which you mean in your definition , it tendeth not to edification . . and what if they be under divers kings ( as the bulgarians and greeks were , ) and yet ruled by one ecclesiastick authority and law ? why may not they also be called one church , as the moscovites are now called part of the greek church ? . and why might it not be called the lydian church while it was a part of the empire , as the african and other countries were ? but what is all this de nomine to the controversy ? all grant that the civil power must be obeyed in their place , and the church-power in theirs . . but here you grant that they are several churches before their union in one kingdom . and i suppose they were churches , . of another species than the national described by you , . and were of divine institution ; . and continue so after their union in one kingdom ; . and have power to govern and reform themselves still , though not regal power . § . . serm. [ just as several families united make one kingdom , which at first had a distinct and independent power : but it would make strange confusion in the world to reduce kingdoms back again to families , because at first they were made up of them . ] answ . and are they not several families still ? and have they not still a distinct family-power to govern and reform themselves , tho not a regal power ? doth making a city or kingdom dissolve families ? you cannot mean it . what mean you then by reducing these kingdoms back to families , when they are families still ? had you said , that dissolving kingdoms or cities , and reducing them to be only families is confusion , it 's undeniable . but still as families in a kingdom retain family-power , so particular churches in a kingdom retain the church-power which god by his institution gave them . and this is that we desire . § . . serm. [ thus national churches are national societies of christians under the same laws of government and rules of worship . ] ans . . all christians are under the same divine laws and rules . . some princes make no church-laws to christians , but their civil laws for the common peace . and some make various laws for various sorts of christians under them . § . . serm. [ for the true notion of a church is no more than a society of men , united together for their order and government according to the rules of the christian religion . ans . . there be many true notions of such an equivocal word as a [ church ] is . . the generical notion sure is not enough for the definition of each species . there must be more . the universal church is a society of men so united ; and so may the churches of divers kingdoms ; and so is a christian kingdom as such ; and so is a provincial church , and a diocesan church , and a particular parochial church : yet all these are not of the same species , for they have different terminos in specie . . this is a very defective definition , where . [ men ] are made the qualified subject , when it should have been [ christians ] . . the two constitutive essential relations of pastor and flock are not mentioned , as if a kingdom were defined without the mention of king and subjects . . they are said to be united in general , without telling us what uniting is meant , whether only by force , command , or consent ; whereas most take even the mode of investiture ( baptism ) as well as consent to be necessary ad esse , as to the visible church . . it is said they are united [ for order and government , ] as if these were but the terminus ; and so may those by agreement de futuro , that yet have no government : whereas the government is the constitutive form. . this definition leaving out the specifick form and terminus , maketh an army , a navy , a ship , a company of christian merchants , or corporation , &c. to be a church : for all these may be societies of men united together for their order and government , according to the rules of the christian religion : for the christian religion giveth rules to all sorts of christian societies . these are not the usual ways of defining , nor give me any true notice of your sence . . and you make it not intelligible , whether by the rules of the christian religion you mean only the divine rule ? and whether you mention it as the uniting bond , or only as a rule to some humane rule ? but though the application look this way , yet your words speak no more than what is common to the churches which you accuse , that are [ united for order and government according to the rules of the christian religion ] . if this will serve , those are thus united that take the bible for their rule of order , &c. but is not this against those churches , that take not the bible , but canons , or other humane laws , for the bound of their church-vnion , or their rule . if it be uniting for order and government according to the rules of the christian religion , which maketh a church , let us then try which societies are so united , and let that be the matter of our dispute . § . . serm. p. . [ and it is a great mistake to make the notion of a church barely to relate to acts of worship , and consequently that an adequate notion of a church is an assembly for divine worship ; by which means they appropriate the name of churches to particular congregations : whereas if this held true , the church must be dissolved as soon as the congregation is broken up . but if they retain the nature of a church when they do not meet together for worship , then there is some other bond that uniteth them ; and whatever that is , it constitutes the church . ans . . did you write this as a confutation of any body ? if so , you should have told them who are your adversaries . i never met with one to my remembrance that saith , the church is no longer a church than they are congregate , but mr. cheney who writeth against my plea for peace . and so the two first who now write against me , write against one another , and i must please them both . when you so far differ among your selves , you should bear with them that less differ from you . . what mean you by the [ notion of a church ] which all men know is an equivocal word ? do you mean that a [ church ] hath but one notion ? i pray you tell us , whether the notion be the same as it is used , matth. . . & . . corinth . . , . acts . , — , . crrinth . . . psalm . . ephes . . . tim. . . acts . . acts . . rev. . , . rom. . . phil. . . acts . , . eph. . . col. . . eph. . . & . . doth any man believe that it is in all these texts taken in the same notion ( or sence ) ? i am sure i need not ask this of you as to the sence of prophane authors , who use the word for any sort of concilium , coetus , concio , congregatio , convivia , as in lucian , demosthenes , aristotle , thucidides , &c. . if you will pardon me for telling men in print so often , that a church is constituted not only for communion in worship , but also in doctrine , and holy living , i will not ask you , why you dissembled this ? nor why you would intimate the contrary to your readers ? repetition is not the least fault of my writings , and all will not prevent the mis-intimations even of such worthy men as you . ad nauseam usque i have repeated , that the office of the ministery standeth in a subordination to the three parts of christ's office , prophetical or teaching , priestly or worshipping , kingly or ruling ; and that a particular church is associated for the use and benefit of all three conjunctly . were you not willing to take notice of this ? or not willing that others should take notice of it ? . how many writings of ours have told the world , that we appropriate not the notion of a church to a particular congregation . do not my books which you cite , copiously express the contrary ? do we not over and over tell men , that the word [ church ] must be considered as equivocal , generical , and specifical ? do we take [ the holy catholick church ] in the creed for a particular congregation ? worthy sir , this is unworthy dealing , whether it be by ignorance , negligence , rashness or wilfulness . we distinguish between churches of god's institution , and of man's invention . and of the first sort , what independent is there that holdeth not an vniversal church at least , besides particular congregations ? and of man's making , who can number the sorts that are and may be made ? . did you ever know man , ( save such conformists as he that answered my plea ) whether greek , papist , episcopal , presbyterian , independent , or anabaptist ; who denieth a church bond , that uniteth them when the congregation is dismiss'd . all confess , that the union of the pars regens and pars subdita for church-ends doth make it a church . and who doth not distinguish between the constitution and administration , the status and the exercitium ? . how then could you say , [ if this be true , the church must be dissolved as soon as the congregation is broken up ] ? what shew is there of such a consequence ? what if we held that the church were so called barely in relation to publick worship ? doth it follow that this relation ceaseth as soon as the several acts of worship cease ? their mutual consent , and the union of the vvorshippers , priest and people associated for that use , may continue when the act of vvorship is intermitted . may it not continue a school , when the boys go home or play ? may it not be a parliament when the house is risen , tho it be only for the work of assembled men that they are related and denominated ? . but sir , do you not confess , even in your iroenicon , where you maintain that no form of church-government is of divine command : . that god hath commanded that there be assemblies ordinarily used for his vvorship . dly . and that pastors are to be the guides and chief managers of this vvorship . dly , and that they should be also their teachers . thly , and that they govern them by their keys . and if all this be true , then such assemblies are of divine institution ; not such as are associated only for vvorship , but for doctrine , worship , and holy living , under the teaching and conduct of their pastors . if you deny that such churches as we call particular are of divine institution , we have often proved it , though few christians deny it , or need any proof . and it is so oft repeated in the books which you cite , that i must suppose you know it , though you seem to dissemble it , that the definition which i give of such a church doth make the terminus to be ( not the whole church meeting at one time and place , but ) personal , presential communion in doctrine , vvorship , and holy conversation , as distinct from absent communion by delegates or letters only . your parish is associated for such personal presential communion , and yet they meet not all at once , but some one day , and some another , and some not at all , which is a fault in exercitio , but overthroweth not the being of the church , while it is personal present communion which they associate for and profess , and that states the church-relation . and they meet not all in one place , but some in the bishop of ely's chappel , ( and it is pity but you had many more ) ; and yet chappels of ease consist with some obligations on the whole parish ordinarily , to have per vices sometime personal communion in the parish-church . if you would have told us plainly , that parish-churches are no churches , or that god never ordained such single churches , as are associated for personal communion in presence , in doctrine , vvorship , and conversation , which have their proper pastors , we should have known what to say to you . but if you deny not such , ( which we undertake fully to prove ) plainly confess their constitution , vvorth , and privileges , and we shall readily next debate the case with you , how far men may associate these into larger churches of another species . but still we say , that as families cease not to be families , when they are combined into a village or city ; no more do particular churches lose their constitution or administration by being associated into any lawful larger churches . § . . serm. [ and if there be one catholick church consisting of multitudes of particular churches , consenting in one faith ; then why may there not be one national church from consent in the same articles ? &c. ] ans . . i pray confess first , that your national doth consist of a multitude of such particular churches of god's institution , and cannot destroy them or their power and privileges : secondly ; and once tell us what you mean by a national church , whether regal or sacerdotal . if you mean a christian kingdom , who denies it : if you mean all the churches of a kingdom associated for concord as equals , we deny it not . if you mean that the nation must be one church as united in one sacerdotal head , personal or collective , monarchical or aristocratical , we must have further satisfaction about this : first , whether it be of divine or of humane institution ? secondly , whether ( if humane ) its power be from the prince , or from the consent of the particular churches ? thirdly , what it is empowered to do ? . not to make necessary laws for the churches of the same sort with christ's already made . . not to cross any of his laws . . not to destroy any privilege of the particular churches instituted by christ . . but if it be only to determine of such circumstances as the christian prince may determine of , we shall obey them as his officers . and now to your [ why not ? ] i answer . man is not god. god made the form of the vniversal church , of which the particular are parts ; whose form also is of his making : and if god hath made national regent churches as distinct from christian kingdoms and commonwealths , we will obey them ; if not , we must know what men made them , and by what authority , and whether god authorized them thereto ; if not , your [ why not ] is answered . § . . serm. p. . [ nay , if it be mutual consent and agreement which makes a church , then why may not national societies agreeing together in the same faith , and under the same government and discipline , be as truly and properly a church as any particular congregation ? ans . . is it only de nomine , or de re that you ask ? if de nomine , we grant you , that a parliament , an army may be truly called ecclesia ; if de re , we grant you that it is truly a church of another kind . . mutual consent makes a church , but god's consent or institution must go first to warrant that consent , and make it a church which he will own : else mutual consent may make it but jeroboam's church , or a false and sinful policy . prove if you can , that god hath authorized men to make as many new church-species , policies or forms as they please ; or any against , or above , or equal to those of his institution , besides magistracy . § . . serm. p. . why many of these cities , united under one civil government , and the same rules of religion , should not be called one national church , i cannot understand : which makes me wonder at those who say they cannot tell what we mean by the church of england : sacrileg . desert . p. . answ . . admiratio est ignorantis : i am as ignorant of you , as you are of 〈◊〉 ; therefore may answer wondering with wondering ; . that such a man should not know the reason when i so plainly and distinctly wrote it down , . and that while you wonder , you should not vouchsafe to give me the least means of satisfaction . for i suppose few will think that you do so much as attempt it here . . you make it still as if the controversie were de nomine ▪ what it may be called ; when i only spake de re , and bid you call it what you will , if you will but tell us your meaning . . yea in my plea , sect . ▪ . and in the addition : i fully shewed what we grant de re , & de nomine , and what we deny ; and what the state of our controversie is : and do you think to satisfie us , after all this with wondering that we understand not what you mean ? § . serm. [ in short , we mean , that society of christian people , which in this nation are united under the same profession of faith , the same laws of government , and rules of divine worship . ] answ . and will not they , that know not your heart any otherwise than by such words , deride us , if we should pretend by these words , to be ever the nearer understanding your resolution of the controversie ? . the essential constitutive parts of a political society are the pars rege●s & pars subdita ( as is aforesaid . ) and here is no mention of the regent part at all ; can any man tell by this whether it be the king , or a clergy head , that you take to be the constitutive head ? . laws and rules , are part of the administration , and our question is of the constitution . is this then any satisfying definition ? . the papists by this definition are the national church [ they are a society of christian people , which in this nation are united under the same profession of faith , the same laws of government , and rules of divine worship ] viz. pap●l . if you say , they are not all the nation . i answer , . nor doth your definition require it . . you are not all . if you say that they are not the major part . i answer , . whether you are i know not . . in ireland they are , and so are there the national church by your definition . if you say that you mean the laws of lawful governours . i answer , . the papists take the pope for their lawful governour : . if a usurper get possession ( as k. stephen and many others , ) is the national church then dead or null ? . there is no mention of lawful in your definitions . . but though you will not tell us whether you mean divine or humane laws and rules , yet i may confidently conjecture that it is humane you mean : for else , . i am of the same national church that you are ; yea if i prove that i am more conformable to god's laws than you , and such as you , i shall prove that it will be a harder question whether you are of the church of eng. than whether i am . . and you might know that such a church we no more deny than you do ( at least ) . but then it can be but sincere ( not perfect ) obedience to god's laws and rules , which must prove one to be of this church ; or else no man is of it . and then you must shew us whether a mistake in as small a matter as meat and drink , or a ceremony , or liturgick form , or diocesan order , do cut one off from that church . if yea , than how much more would such conformity to sin do it ? which we fear . but supposing that you mean humane laws . . why may not divine laws make a church ? if humane laws were necessary ad bene esse , the christians that i have read and converst with , think that they are not necessary to the being of a church in sensu famosiore ; why then should they be in the definition , and only they ? . but the difficulty recurreth as to humane laws , which of them are necessary to the being of the church : for your definition distinguished not : the king hath great and excellent laws which we all conform to : doth not our conformity to these seem to prove us of the national church , though we conform not to your formalities and oaths and ceremonies ? imperfect obedience serveth to continue men subjects to the king : it is not every drunkeness , or oath , or fornication , much less the miss of a complement or ceremony , that makes a man a rebel or an outlaw : why then should the refusal of a prelates subscription or formality unchurch a sound and honest christian ? . and if the humane laws and rules which you mention ( what ever you mean by them ) be subordinate to god's laws , and so be honest , good and obligatory , why should they cut off those from the church which christ's laws cut not off ; yea , which christ receiveth and commandeth us to receive ? receive him , for god receiveth him : and , receive him as christ receiveth us , ( notwithstanding our infirmities ) were good reasonings in st. paul's judgment , which i prefer before any bishops that i know . . and a man of less acquaintance or wit than you , cannot be ignorant , what abundance of differences there are among your selves . i have named you no small number in my ●d . plea : some of you are hot against that which is called arminianism , and some hot for it : some are for bishops and presbyters being of one order , and some of divers : all are not of the mind of the bishop of hereford that wrote naked truth : some ( even bishops ) think that the damnatory part of athanasius's creed is not approved by conformity : others , think that it is all to be approved : a multitude such differences there are among your selves : and why should not this as much unchurch some of you , if it be [ being under the same laws ] that maketh you one church , as the forbearing of a declaration of assent and consent , or of a surplice , &c. . especially tell us , whether the conformist's difference about the constitutive regent part of the church of england , some being for one species , and some for another , do not plainly make them to be of two distinct churches of england , and further different from each other than we are from any part . we justly say the papists , who are for two species of soveraigns , some for the pope , and some ●●r a general council , are plainly of two churches : for the regent part is essential . and i am sure that one part of the most eminent disputers for the church of england and conformity , say that the king is the extraneous civil governour , but the bishops are the constitutive essential internal governours of the church as a church ; and that if the bishops command the use of one translation , version , metre , liturgie , and the king another , we are to obey the bishops , and not the king : and that the efficient cause of a national church , is the bishops agreement among themselves to associate into such a church . and others say , that it is the king and his laws , that are the efficient of such a church , and are to be obeyed in matter of the circumstances of worship , &c. before the bishops . can you prove that this difference between the conformists , about the very constitutive regent power , is not greater than mens differences about a ceremony or form ? and doth not more to make them to be of two churches ? . if all this confused stir be but about a christian kingdom , be it known to you that we take such to be of divine command : and if you know it not , or dissemble it , after i have said so much of it , in the first plea , and elsewhere , i cannot help that , viz. if you will talk publickly against what you know , or know not when told , because you will not know . but i have there largly told you , what the power of princes about church matters is , which if you will not read , i will not repeat . . your words [ laws and rules ] would induce one to think that you joyned the kings laws and the bishop's canons together in your meaning , as the bond of u●ity . if so , is it two sorts of governours , ( by the swo●d , and by the word , magistrates and pastors ) which you take for the constitutive regent parts of the church ? if so , then either in coo●dination and coal●tion , or in subordination . the first cannot be , that the two species in coalition should make one head , unless both were in the kings as persona mixta . both lay and clergie , as some affirm him to be like melchiz●deck : but this both king and clergie disown . nor can the second be , because a subordinate power is not essential to the whole body politick , but only the supreme . and the magistracy & ministry are coordinate species , both depending immediately on god , and subordinate mutually only secundum quid : nor is the legislative power in england any other than one , which is in the king and parliament conjunct . the bishops canons are not laws ejusdem speciei ; till the king and parliament make them such . if this be your judgment , there are i think but few conformists of your mind . . i must conjecture therefore by your words , that the laws and rules which you define the church by , are the laws of the king and parliament ; and that it is the civil christian sovereign that you take for the constitutive head of that national church which you plead for ; or else i know not what to conjecture . and if this be your meaning , i add to what is said : . erastians have hitherto been distasted by the bishops , and i doubt they will by this take you for somewhat worse . . what doth your national church differ from a christian kingdom , which we deny not ? . do you think there is no other species of a church , besides that which is constituted by the christian magistrate as head ? . all the christian world , as far as i can learn by history ( no considerable part excepted ) have been in all ages , and to this day are of another mind . and who then is the great nonconformist and separatist , you or i ; if this be your mind ? . the magistracy , and pastoral office are of different species : therefore the churches constituted by their regency are of different species . . constantines words have hitherto been commonly received , that he ( and so christian kings ) was bishop without the church , and the proper bishop within : that is , that he was the governour of the church , by the sword , as the king is of all scholars , physitians , families , &c. but not the governour by the word and keys ; as the king is not a school-master , physitian , or the formal specifying governour of school , colledge , family , as such . bishop bilson , of subjection , most clearly openeth the difference , and i think christians commonly agree to it ; between the office of governing by the sword ; and by the word ; even about the church it self . . christ settled immediately the pastoral office , and did not leave it to princes to make it : and he settled churches under the pastors , when there were no christian princes ; and when the emperours became christians , they never took themselves to be the intrinsick constitutive rectors of the churches , but accidental heads , as is aforesaid . and all the councils , and their canons fully shew , that the bishops were still of this mind . and our greatest defenders of the power of princes , bilson , andrews , buck●ridge , spalatensis , &c. were of the same mind , and ascribe to them no more . . else heathen , and infidel princes might be essential to the church in the gospel-notion : for they are the governours of it by the sword , and may possibly by the counsel of christians , make them as good laws as many christian princes do . julian made no great change of the church-laws . but i labour in vain , in proving that there is a sacerdotal or clergy-church-form or species ; for i suppose you cannot deny it ; and if you do , few others will. i suppose it is only the national form , which you take to be constituted by a lay-head . but few christians will deny , that the sacerdotal or clergy-form of a particular church , is of divine institution ; and that men have not power to destroy that form ; or change the office there , instituted by the holy ghost . though the forms of ass●ciated churches , diocesan , metropolitan , provincial , patriarchal , are judged by very many , to be of humane invention : and what man may make , man on good reason may unmake or alter . but if you grant us the divine form before mentioned ; i shall grant you that a national church is also of divine command ; if you mean but a christian kingdom . but when one form is denominated from the pastoral office related to the flock , and the other from the magistrates office : what hath a man that can understand the state of the controversy , to do here ; but to shew what is the pastoral office towards the church , and what is the magistrates ? for sure they are not the same . and yet because that it is the pastoral form , which the word [ church ] denoteth in the strict and usual christian sense ; our sovereignes in england , to avoid the papists exceptions , have forsaken the title of [ head of the church ] lest they should seem to claim a constitutive headship of a church strictly taken , and use only the term [ governour . ] even as christ is said by st. paul , eph. . to be head over all things , to the church [ over and to ] much differ . and i yet see not why on the same reason that we call a christian kingdom , or republick a national church ; we may not 〈◊〉 call lo●don , york , &c. a city-church , as headed by the mayor , as the christian magistrate , and so talk of provincial , consular , and proconsular churches , monarchical , aristocratical , democratical churches ; and make all the controversies [ which church-form is best ] as politicks do what form of a common-wealth is best . and thus they that chide the independents for making the people governours of their little congregations ( which i think yet most of them disclaim ) do this way quite exceed them in popularity , and in democraties will make the people governours of all the churches , even national including the particulars . for i suppose they will not say , that democratical , civil government is unlawful . and whereas cyprian saith : vbi episcopus , ibi ecclesia ; you will say , where the mayor or bayliffe is , there is the church . but i trow the bishop of london believeth that there is another sort of london-church-form , besides my lord - mayors relation to them . but what abundance of church-forms , supream and subordinate may diversity of magistracy make ? § . . sermon p. . [ i do not intend to speak of the terms upon which persons are to be admitted among us to the exercise of the function of the ministry ; but of the terms of lay-communion , i. e. those which are necessary for persons to joyn in our prayers and sacraments , and other offices of divine worship . ] answ . . but your work would have been done more effectually if you had begun at the part which you intend not to speak of : i suppose it is not for want of charity , nor concern , that you intend it not ; and therefore , suppose that somebody else will do it at last . i have heard of some above your order , that could better spare the nonconforming ministers than the people , and said plainly , that they increased the impositions , because they could do better without us , than with us : and some have said , if this will not cast them out , more shall do it . i take it for granted , that this pretermitted part of your work , is indeed , the all that you have to do , in the works of accusing , and afflicting the nonconformists ; and till this be done , the rest of your accusations will confute themselves ; and i doubt not but it will be attempted ; and if it be truly , and satisfactory , i will give you thanks . . your term of [ lay-communion ] remembreth me , that if ( as you seem ) you essentiate your church of england by a lay-ruler , and his laws , viz. the king , and the laws made by him for religious government ; the people that you accuse are no separatists , though they separate from the diocesanes ; because they hold this lay-communion ; that is , though they are not perfectly obedient , they are subjects of the lay-governour , and so members of the kingdom , which is the national-church . . and as to your lay-communion here spoken of , so far as it is lawful , where you have preach'd or written for it once , i think , i have done it many times : i shall be far from contradicting you in that . § . . sermon p. . [ i will not say , there hath been a great deal of art used to confound these two ( and it is easy to discern to what purpose it is . ) answ . . i have not art enough well to reconcile your negative , and your parenthesis , which intimateth an affirmation : if you will not say such art was used ; how can you intimate [ to what purpose it 's used . ] can you tell so easily why it was done , and not tell that indeed it was done at all ? but perhaps you can tell , though you will not . i would fain know why : no man that reads your words , can well believe that it is through the redundancy of your kindness . . forgive this truth : of all men that have written against nonconformity , i remember few that may , worse than you speak against confovnding ; as i shall further prove . . if i be one of those that you speak of , confounding is not the greatest fault of your words ; while it is visible that in my first plea i distinctly enumerated the case of the nonconformity of the laity and the clergy . and i spake by consent for many of my acquaintance . and i am likest to be meant by you , because divers others , that go farther from you , take lay-conformity to be unlawful , and largely give their reasons for it . how then did you expect to be believed when our books are in so many hands ? . none are fitter judges of arts , than the most exercised artificers : if you are skill'd and exercised in such arts your self , you may the easiler discerne both the , art and purpose . and yet we are so neer our selves that i cannot easily believe that you know my arts or purposes so well as i do my self . § . serm. [ i dare say the people ' s not understanding the difference of these two cases , hath been a great occasion of the present separation . ] ans . no doubt but there is a great difference between the ministers case of conformity , and the peoples , which makes some of them think much worse of a conforming minister , than of a conforming lay-man : which sheweth that the difference is not wholly unknown to them . but i think i have done more to acquaint them with the difference , than you or any of your tribe have done . § . serm. [ for in the judgment of the most impartial men of the dissenters at this day , though they think the case of the ministers very hard on the account of subscriptions and declarations required of them , yet they confess , very little is to be said on the behalf of the people , from whom none of those things are required . ] ans . . this is but such confusion as constituteth this sermon . we think that nothing of truth can be said for any of the people's errors ; no more than for the [ very hard ] and sinful case of our selves if we should conform : if any go one step too far from you , they are unjustifiable therein : but we have shewed those that will see , that much may be said on the people's behalf for much of their nonconformity , and also for such assembling as you call separation . . and surely if you had the due sense of your brethrens case , of your own case , and of the kingdoms case , you would perceive how necessary the forbearing of the imposition of those very hard things is to the healing of that which doth offend you ; and to greater ends than that . § . serm. [ so that the people are condemned in their separation by their own teachers ; but how they can preach lawfully to a people who commit a fault in hearing them , i do not understand . ] ans . . the people that are guilty of any sinful separation are reproved by us ; but not those that separate no further than is their duty . in my first plea i described no less than cases in which separation is a sin ; and neer instances in which some separation is a duty or no sin : and of all this you here take no notice , and toss the bare confounding name of separation , as if the sound ought to affright men from all that you are against ; sure you could never think that we had brains or consciences , if such dealing should pass for satisfactory with us : can any man tell by this bare name , or any thing in your book , what that separation is which you condemn . the word heresie with a papist , and the word [ separation ] and [ schism ] with some conformists , seem to be terms of art : but what art is it ? sure it is not the cartesian nor the epicurean philosophy , which layeth so much on atomes and motion : i cannot imagine what contexture of atomes should cause the sound of the word [ separation ] or [ schism ] to make such a motion as should drive men out of their religion and wits . i am not so happy as to be an academical graduate ; but i have long ago read lullius●nd ●nd many of his commentators ; and i find no philosophy more likely , to lay much on the power of words ; except that which we call magick or charming . for my part , i was born with a disease ( if it be such ) that hateth confusion and deceit , and inclineth me to bring things into light , and to discern between things that differ . and if you doctors have learned the art of reduceing a syllogism into a simple terme or na●e , it is quite above my kind of learning : i suppose it is such a logical contracted syllogism that you intend : but as short writing called characters , though expeditious , is hard to be read by others ; so your contracted syllogism , in the name [ separation ] and [ schism ] will be more useful to you and yours , than to strangers that never saw your heart . if vsefulness and vsedness , even by some of the reverend , may afford us a prognostick , i may conjecture that even lying ( and other necessary arts ) are ascending in hope to be placed among the cardinal virtues , and those that scruple it , may be numbered with schismaticks , separatists and rogues . § . if i would here again tell you what separation i take to be lawful , and what unlawful , and desire you to define that which you accuse me of , i may expect that in your reply you will dissemble it ; but i will trie you with a few instances of one sort , and desire you to tell me which it is that you mean. i. do you think that he is a separatist that meeteth not in the same parish church with you ? no sure : for then you are one to others , and other parishes such to you . ii. is he a separatist that liveth in your parish , and ordinarily meeteth not in your temple , but another allowed place ? if so , the bishop of el● is a separatist in your parish , that keepeth a meeting in his chappel when you preach . if not so , when we had the kings license at least , the place made us not separatists . iii. is every one a separatist that differeth from you in doctrine , in publick preaching ? if so , are you not separatists one from another , when one preacheth for that wich is called , absolute election , reprobation , universal redemption , free-will , falling from justification , the morality of the sabbath , &c. and others against these ? if not ; is not difference in such doctrines as great a difference , as using and not useing some of your liturgick forms and ceremonies ? iv. are all different modes of worship enough to make our party separatists ? then the french and dutch churches are separatists , and either the cathedrals or the parish-churches , as to their vestments , organs , chore , mode of singing , &c. and the allowed private baptismes and communion with the sick , are separations . v. doth every disobedience to the king , and laws , and canons in matters of religion , government and worship , make men separatists ? if so , then when ever a conformist disobediently shortneth his common-prayer , or leaveth off his surplice , or giveth the sacrament to one that kneeleth not , or receiveth one of another parish to communion , &c. he is a separatist . yea no man then is not a separatist sometimes . vi. if the diocesane be the lowest political church , and a parish but a part of a church , as they hold that take a bishop to be a constitutive part ; how is he said to separate from the church that owneth his diocesane and the diocess , what ever place in that diocess he meet in , seeing he separateth not from the kingdom that stayeth in it and owneth the king , though in some acts he disobey ? nor doth every boy that is faulty separate from the school . vii . is he a greater separatist that confesseth you to be a true church , and your communion lawful , but preferreth another as fitter for him ; or he that denieth communion with true worshiping assemblies as unlawful to be communicated with , when it is not so . if the former , then condemning you as no church is a diminution or no aggravation of separation , and the local presence of an infidel or a scorner would be a less separate state , than the absence of your friends . if the latter ( which is certain ) then if i can prove the assemblies lawful which you condemne , you are the true separatists that condemn them , and deny communion with them , and declare such communion to be unlawful . i communicate with your assemblies , and you utterly shun , refuse and condemn communion with ours ; which then is the separatist , if i prove ours to be as good as yours ? viii . many english doctors say , rome is a true church , as a knave or thief is a true man , and we separated not from it , but they cast us out for doing our duty , and not sinning as they do . i say not as they ( for as the pope claimeth the headship of the church universally , that form of policy is not of god , and we separate from that essencial form of their pretended church : ) but ad hominem if the diocesane also be a true church , and we cast out of it for not sinning , are we separatists , or are our ejectors such ? ix . i have shewed you that the canons excommunicate ipso facto all that say the imposed conformity is unlawful . if this be unjust , is it separation to be so excommunicated ? and who is the schismatick here ? and what shall be thought of such church-men as will first ipso facto excommunicate us for our duty , and then , as you do , call us separatists . would you have excommunicate men , communicate with you ? i ( and many ) do so , because you shall be the executioners of your own sentence , and not i : but with what face can men cast men out by canon ipso facto , and then revile them for not coming in . you can mean no other in common sense , but that we are schismaticks or separatists because we are not of the conformist's judgment : and that is not in our power : and you differ more in judgment in greater matters from each other ; and yet call it not schisme or separation . yea you differ about the very essential form of your national church , one part taking it to be the kings supremacy , and another to be the bishops or clergy's power : and therefore you cannot be truly of one national church , that are not for one essential form. x. if men be wrongfully excommunicate , are they thereby absolved from all publick worshipping of god ? or do they lose their right to all church-communion ? i have else where cited you canons enow that say the contrary , and that clave errante the excommunication hu●teth none but the excommunicator : and i have cited bishop tailor 's full consent . must we not then meet and worship as we can , when you wrongfully excommunicate us ? xi . are not the laity , by your canon , forbidden to receive the sacrament in another parish ? or , any other to receive them , if they dare not receive it from a non-preaching minister at home ? and if the people judge , that he that is unable or unwilling to preach , or that is a heretick , or that liveth in such heinous sins , or preacheth malignantly , as to do more harm than good , may not lawfully be owned by them for christ's ministers , nor their souls be committed to their pastoral trust ; must they therefore be without a pastors care , or all publick worship and communion , and be condemned for being wronged ? xii . were all those councils separatists , that decreed , that none shall hear mass from a fornicating priest ? and , were the canons called the apostles , and the greek-church that used them , for separation , that said , [ episcopus ignorantiâ aut malo animo opplotus , non est episcopus , sed falsus episcopus , non a dee , sed ab hominibus promotus ? ] was guildas a separatist that told the brittish wicked priests , that they were not christ's ministers , but traitours ? and that he was not eximius christianus , that would call them priests , or ministers of christ ? were cyprian , and all the carthage-council , separatists , that wrote the epistle about martial and basilides , which i translated ; and told the people , it was their duty to separate from peccatore praeposito , a scandalous prelate ? and that the chief power was in them , to choose the worthy , or refuse the unworthy ? and that they were guilty of sin , if they joyned with such sinners ? who made you a more reverend and credible judge of separation , than cyprian , and this council ? at least , who will think , that you may judge them separatists , or guilty of schism ? xiii . are not the laity , by your canon to be denied the sacrament , if they be not willing of your episcopal confirmation ? and when imposition of hands is made the signe by which confirming or assuring grace is conveyed , and some bishops assigne no less to it ; they fear , lest it be made a sacrament . be their doubts just or not , they cannot overcome them . and ▪ must they therefore live without sacramental communion ? by what law ? xiv . are not the laity , that dare not receive the sacrament kneeling , for the reasons else-where mentioned , to be denied the sacrament by your rule ? and though herein they fear sin more than they have cause , must they that cannot change their own judgments , live all their dayes without the sacrament ? when as general councils decreed , that none should adore kneeling on any lord's day , and the church for a thousand years , practised accordingly ; are all separatists , that dare not do that in such an instant , which they judge to be flat sin ; nor yet did cast off sacramental communion ? xv. when the laity cannot have their children baptised , without such use of the transient dedicating image of the cross , and such use of entituling and covenanting ●od-fathers ; which , on the reasons largely given by me , they take to be no small sin ; is it separation to joyn with pastors , that will otherwise baptise them ? are they bound to sin against their consciences , or to leave their children unbaptised ? or , prefer such pastors as refuse them ? xvi . is it separation for men to refuse ▪ pastors that are usurpers , and have no true power over them ? sure it is not to refuse an usurper of the kingly power ? and , why then of the church-power ? which of the bishops thought it any sin , in the dayes of usurpation , to forsake their parish-churches ? and in my abridgment of church-history , i have cited many canons , which prove it the common judgment of the church for one thousand years , or near ; that he was no bishop , that was not chosen by the clergy , and the people ; or came in ▪ without the peoples consent . and if you will read a late treatise of father paul servita of venice , ( a very venerable author ) you will see this at large confirmed . and , if this be true , is it schism to take such for none of our pastors ? and patrons choose pastors for the peoples souls , who too often care not for their own : yea , though they believe not that man hath an immortal soul , their power of electing those that man must take for the guides of their souls , is nevertheless for their infidelity . what law of god bindeth all men to stand to their choice ? how many hundred congregations have incumbents , whom the people never consented to ; but take them for their hinderers and burden ? xvii dispositio materiae necessaria est ▪ ad receptionem formae : non ex quovis ligno fit mercurius . if a person be uncapable of the ministerial office , it is no sin to judge him no minister . those are uncapable , . who have not tolerable ministerial knowledge and utterance . . who are hereticks . . who malignantly oppose serious religion as hypocrisie , or a needless thing . . who , by their wicked lives , do more hurt than they do good. from such , st. paul bids men turn away ; that have a form of godliness , but deny the power . is it schism , to obey such commands ? and how great a number of such cases there are , i need not tell the people . xviii . i am loth to displease you ; and i write not to accuse you , or other conformists . but as paul was constrained by accusers , to speak sharply of them , and like a fool ( though not foolishly ) of himself : so you constrein us to say that in our own defence , which will exasperate you ; and , i doubt , you cannot easily bear . and god saith , thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart : thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour , and not suffer sin upon him . i have told you only , how many and heinous the sins are , which we fear we should be guilty of , should we conform . the thirty aggravations , named sect. . are tremendous . we have yet heard from none of you , any thing which should excuse us from such guilt , if we did conform . and if the people think , ( though they should mistake ) that all the conformists are guilty of the like , can ye wonder , that they prefer less guilty ▪ pastors , to trust the conduct of their souls with ; when heb. . they are commanded to be followers of their guides ? if they mistake , [ cor. . with such not● to eat , ] and [ from such turn away 〈◊〉 it i●tolerable ? but bear with needful truth , as to your self . you here would disswade the nonconformists from their publick ministry , and plead it to be their sin ; by this you own the silencing and alienation of about two thousand such ministers , till they conform . i ask't you formerly , is it not sacrilege , to alienate ( unjustly ) devoted , consecrated persons , and worse than to alienate lands or monies ? and , is it not a hindering of god's word ? for which the liturgy disswadeth men from the sacrament , lest the devil enter into them . i only say , if men be guilty of this , ( which you think , the nonconformists are , by not conforming ; and they think , others are . ) if you had robbed thousand churches of the communion plate , or the glebe-land , or consented to the doing of it : were it separation and schism for your parish to prefer another pastor of their own choice ? and when you publish your consent to the alienating or silencing about two thousand such ministers , if men think that you do much worse than a thousand church-robbers , though they should mistake , is not their trusting another pastor with the conduct of their souls , a tolerable thing ? dear brother , try to take off the byass of your judgment ▪ and bear with necessary truth , though rough . though your logical faculty run lamentably low in this your accusing sermon , i impute it to the badness of your cause . undoubtedly , you have learning enough , to know that ye must die ; and that after death , judgment must be expected ; and that the time is short ; and the fashion of these deceiving vvorldly things , doth pass away . and , can you think , that your approbation and endeavours to silence so many such ministers while your own experience might tell you , that even you do need much help in such a charge as you undertake , will be the matter of a comfortable account ? if you think so , i must say , that a little sober , impartial , believing consideration , will make a man vviser , than the reading of many books with an unhumbled , byassed mind . the day is coming , when you will see , that ye were in a better , safer way , when with peaceable dr. tillotson , you seemed to consent to the plat-form of an act for our concord and restoration ? which made me tell many parliament-men , [ refer our cause to the councel of dr. tillotson and dr. stilling-fleet , and we shall presently be healed . ] but , what is man ? and , vvhat need have we to pray , lead us not into temptation ? xix . if men know the need of the full use of the pastoral-office for their souls , and cannot spare it , and yet live where they cannot enjoy one half or quarter of it ; is it schism for them to seek to enjoy the rest ? dr. hammond , in his annotations , o●t tells us , that the office of a bishop , was , to preach , to direct mens consciences , to visit and pray with the sick , to take care of all the poor , and the moneys gathered for them , to be their guide in publick worship , to exercise christ's discipline , admonishing , rejecting the obstinate , restoring the penitent , strengthening the weak , comforting the afflicted , resolving the doubtful , convincing gain-sayers , &c. some of your most peaceable conformable hearers tell me , [ we have need of a frequent help , by the company and councel of a pastor . ] but we never see him , but in the pulpit . and if we should all go to seek him in another parish where he dwells , when ever we need a pastor's councel , were he at leisure and willing , he could not have time to speak to one of an hundred , that might ( at once ) wait to speak with him : so that , we have none of this necessary pastoral help , when we greatly need it . yea , not the sixth , or tenth part of the parish can come to hear him in the church . and when we that most desire it get in , it troubleth us to think , that we thereby keep out those that least desire it , but most need it ; who , knowing the difficulty of getting room , do stay at home , and never seek it : so that , five parts of six of our neighbours , use not to go to any church at all , no more than infidels . and if in pity we perswade them to go to any nonconformist's meeting , they say the clergy will damn them as schismaticks . the question now is , whether ten thousand , or twenty thousand in a parish , are bound to live without all private pastoral help and councel ; yea , and to forbear all publick worshipping of god , and hearing of his word ? and , if they seek relief of nonconforming ministers , publickly and privately , whether it be sinful separation ? if men can spare the ministry , why are they maintained ? if they are needful for the safety of mens souls , must so many thousands hazard their souls for want of needful help , lest they be called separatists ? if the dean of st. pauls be called the parson of the parish , and preach to others that can hear him , will that serve the needs of all the rest ? xx. in moscovie , where a christian prince , and the laws forbid all preaching , and publick worship , save the reading of homilies and liturgies ; is it separation , and sinful schism , to disobey this , and otherwise to preach and worship god ? xxi . is it schism in france , and such other countries , for the protestants to meet to preach and worship god , against the wills of the king and bishops ? it 's true , that great sin is necessarily thus avoided by them , which are not imposed upon us . but if it prove , that any sin is made necessary to communion , the degree will not much vary the case , as to the point of separation . xxii . in divers countries , the prince is of one religion , or mode of religion , and the bishops of another : the question is , who are the schismaticks , the people that in their assemblies , and mode of worship , do ●ollow the prince , or they that follow the bishops ? some great writers for conformity tell me , that if the king command one liturgy , translation , version , ceremony , &c. and the bishop another , i must obey the bishop before the king : others say , i must obey the king before the bishop , ( of which before . ) bishop goodman of glocester ( a papist ) complaineth of the king , that would not consent that clergy-men should be chancellours : and i speak with no bishop , that disowneth not lay-chancellours use of the keys . the helvetian magistrates are erastians , against the clergies power of excommunication : many of the pastors are of the contrary judgment . the duke of brandenburgh is a calvinist : his bishops and clergy are lutherans . which party are the schismatick ? xxiii . were all those separating schismaticks , who , from the apostles dayes , did meet , preach , and worship god against the will and laws of princes ; sometimes of heathen princes , and sometimes of christians ; ( constantine , valens , theodosius the second , anastasius , zeno , justinian , &c. ) if so , most christian bishops have been such separatists . i have in my first plea , and my church-history ▪ given instances enough . xxiv . is it schism , or sinful separation , to disobey a command about religion , which no man hath true authority to give ? authority is the objectum formale of obedience ; and where there is no authority , there is no disobedience , in a formal sense , or privative . most politicks say , that princes have no authority against the common good : all power of princes and pastors is of god , and is for edification , and not for destruction . god giveth no power against himself , or his laws , nor the souls of men. if the king should command me to marry a wife , whom i know to be intolerably unmeet for me ; or to feed my self , and family with food , which i find to be against our health ; or to use a physician , whose ignorance or negligence , or untrustiness , would endanger my life : i am not bound to obey him , both because it is a matter that is without the verge of his governing authority , and because it is against the end of government . regal power destroyeth not family-power , nor personal interest and self-government : no man hath power to destroy or endanger the souls of men , nor forbid them seeking their own edification and salvation . i repeat bishop bilson's words , p. . of subjection : [ princes have no right to call or confirm preachers ; but to receive such as be sent of god , and give them liberty for their preaching , and security for their persons . and if princes refuse so to do , god's labourers must go forward with that which is commanded them from heaven : not by disturbing princes from their thrones , nor invading their realms , as your father doth , and defendeth he may do ; but by mildly submitting themselves to the powers on earth , and meekly suffering for the defence of the truth , what they shall inflict . — pag. . the election of bishops in those dayes , belonged to the people , and not to the prince : and though by plain force , he placed lucius there ; yet might the people lawfully reject him as no bishop , and cleave to peter , their right pastor . ] on this , i further ask , xxv . if the nonconforming people can prove ; that ( notwithstanding the times of civil usurpation , and bishops removal ) their pastors had a lawful call and title to their office over them , and they were truly obliged to them , as in that just relation , whether the magistrates or bishops acts , have made those relations , and obligations null ? that the temples and tythes are in the magistrates power , we doubt not : but more than bishop bilson , even many councils deny it of the office , and pastoral relation . yea , the universal church was of the same mind . and if so , how prove you , e. g. that the relation of the ejected london ministers , and their flocks was dissolved , and that the succeeders were true pastors to the non-consenting flocks ? xxvi . that there are ( alas ) multitudes of young , raw , injudicious , besides scandalous priests , no man can deny that knoweth england , and hath any modesty . if then honest people , that are not willing to be damned , shall say : [ we best know what is suitable to our needs , and what teachers profit us , and what not . and we find that some are so ignorant that they are unmeet as plowmen , to resolve the most concerning cases of conscience ; and their conversation savoureth not of any serious belief of christianity , and the world to come , and they do but read a few dry words , like school-boyes saying a weak oration , without life or seriousness , and we can but little profit by them . ] how prove you that it is lawful for such to use more suitable helps , though men forbid it ? a soul is precious : god worketh by means , and according to the suitableness of means : that agreeth not to some , which others can make shift with : two or three words from a conformest , that saith : [ god can bless the weakest means to you ; or the fault is in your self ] will not serve instead of needful helps . the king or bishop have not authority to tie a sick man to eat that which he cannot digest , or hurteth him . every man is neerliest concerned for his own soul , and most entrusted with it . parish-order it self , is but a humane alterable circumstance , which i am not bound to observe at the hazard of my edification and salvation . xxvii . what if the magistrate grant a toleration of divers modes of worship , as the french , and dutch churches are here tolerated , and many in holland , and in many other countries ? are these separating schismaticks , that differ from each other ? if so , it is not because they disobey the magistrate ; for he tolerateth them all : if not , then meer diversity of modes of worship maketh not schismaticks . xxviii . if it be no true political church ( in the strict sense as an organized society , which hath not true authorized pastors , and if any parish have either vncapable persons ▪ or such as were never consented to by the flocks , and so have no true pastor ; and if the bishops hold , that parishes are not proper political churches , but parts of churches , having no pastors that have the power of the keyes , or the whole essence of the pastoral office ; but only half-pastors , that want an essential part of the power . if on any such account , any parishes are no true pastoral churches : qu. whether to separate from such a parish , be to separate from a church in the sense in question ? xxix . the mutual condemnations in the times of the novations , donatists , nestorians , evtychians , monothelites , phantasiasts , image-patrons , &c. tell the world how needful , mutual forbearance is , to prevent worse divisions and confusions : and the papists take themselves to be all of one church , though they differ even in doctrines of morality , as dangerously as the jansenists , against the jesuits have shewed ; and though many sects and orders be permitted to live , and worship god with very great diversity in their several sorts of monasteries : why then should the little differences of our questioned assemblies be thought to be so great as maketh us not to be of one church . xxx . some good christians think , that though an undisciplined church may be communicated with , occasionally , yea , and constantly , while there is a hopeful tryal of its reformation ; yet when there is no hope after patient t●yal , a better course and communion should be chosen , where it may be had : and they think , that multitudes whom they know to be prophane swearers , cursers , drunkards , fornicators , haters of serious piety , hobbists , infidels , atheists , sadduces , &c. are continued in the church of england : and they say , they scarce ever heard one man of all these excommunicated ; nor one man of them all , ever brought to publick confession and repentance . and they think , lay chancellours , having not rightfully the power of the keys , there is no ordinary means of hopeful reformation , and exercise of discipline ; especially , the largeness of the diocesses making it impossible to be used to one of an hundred , that ( according to the law of christ ) it should be used on . and they think , that the church-discipline is not only none , as to the right use , and made impossible ; but worse than none , while it is used most to excommunicate from christ's church , the true and conscionable members of christ , that dare not conform ; and so to lead to their imprisonment , and utter ruin. and they think , that no man hath true authority , to confine them to such an undisciplined , and illdisciplined church ; and forbid them the use of better , where christ's discipline may be used . whether these men be in the right , or in the wrong , if the matter of fact be true , i should desire rather the reformation of such a church , than the reproach or afflicting of men , as separatists and schismaticks , that choose another sort of communion , as to their more ordinary practise ; not denying this to be a true diseased church . and so much in these thirty instances , about that which i think deserveth not the reproach of any dangerous separation . i told you thirty instances also of unlawful separation , which i named . and now you may judge , whether you spake to edification , when you said , that the [ people are condemned by their own teachers ; ] without telling , whom , and for what ; and how far they condemn them , and how far not . § . . and , did you think the consequence good , that because we think it lawful to hear you , yea , and to many a duty ; therefore we condemn them , for hearing any one else , that conformeth not ? as if they that have communion with your diocesan-church , must have communion with no other ? so far am i from your opinion , that i take it to be wofully separating and schismatical : and will never be a member of a particular church , which will forbid me communion with all others that differ from them ; yea , that doth not hold its communion in unity with all the true christian churches on earth ▪ though a schismatical disputer for prelacy , tells me , that though i communicate with the church of england , i am a schismatick for communicating with nonconformists , who ( saith he ) are schismaticks . but he that will communicate with no church that hath any guilt of schism , when the christian vvorld is broken into so many sects , i doubt , will be the greatest schismatick ; and will communicate with few on earth . and as smith baptized himself , not liking any other baptism , this man may become a church to himself . and indeed , the word [ condemn them ] sounds harsh ; when it signifieth no more , than that we judge them to be mistaken and culpable . if i condemn every man , or every church , which i judge to be sinners , i must condemn all mankind . i use not so harsh a phrase of your self , as to say , i condemn you : when yet i judge your book to be more schismatical , than the meetings of most that i am acquainted with ; which you accuse . § . . but yet , your mistake is greater than i have hitherto mentioned . i know not many ( if any ) that use to hear me , who separate from you : many of them are episcopal , and for your liturgy and ceremonies . i think , most of them go to the parish-churches ; and few ( if any ) that i know , do deny it to be lawful . how then can you prove it true , that we condemn them ? what is it for ? is it because they neither separate from the conformists , or nonconformists ? this is it , that we exhort them to . it was an ill slip , to put our condemning them , for commending them : but a fair exposition will make it lawful . § . . but you say [ how they can preach lawfully to a people that commit a fault in hearing them , i do not understand . ] ans . now you come to your business : but . what if you by calumny call my ordinary hearers separatists , and they are not such ? . what if we prove it to be their duty to hear both you and us in season , if they need it , or lawful at least ; and so do commend them , and not condemn them ? may we then lawfully preach to them ? what if the fault which we blame some for , be their judging it unlawful to hear such as you ? will your logick prove , that we call it their fault to hear us ; as if hearing us , and not hearing you , were words of the same signification ? and is all necessary which is lawful ? do we condemn men that do not all that is lawful to do ? and because you after infer , that if it be lawful , it is a duty ; i would you had told us , whether you take this universally , that [ what ever is lawful is a duty , ] or only in this case for some special reason , and what that is . i suppose it is , because it is commanded : as if every lawful thing commanded were a duty : but we think otherwise , unless the command be an act which god authorizeth the commander to do . all mens authority is limited by god : and they have none but from him . for instance , it is lawful to eat brown bread , and drink water , ( or wine ; ) but if the king or bishop forbid me to eat better , when my health requireth it , i am not bound to obey them : it is lawful to were sackcloth , but none have power to forbid me fitter clothing : it is lawful to set a son apprentice to a chimny-sweeper , or to an ale-seller or vintner ; but if the bishop or any other forbid one to place him better , it obligeth not : it is lawful to marry a blackmore , or an ugly scold , or beggar : but the bishop or king cannot oblige men to chose no better , because it is out of the verge of their jurisdiction , and belongeth to personal and family power . it is lawful to put my self into the hospital , and care of an unskilful physician , till my health require better : but when my health requireth it , i will use a better if i can , whoever forbids it . for it is usurpation in them , that shall take the necessary care of my health and life out of my own hands . it is lawful to give the king our estates : but lawyers say , we are not bound to do it , meerly because he or the bishop commandeth it . but perhaps you think , that men may do more against our souls than against our bodies ; and have more power in religion than in civil or bodily things : but we are not bound to think so if you do . it is lawful for men to hear one that only readeth the scripture and liturgy , and never preacheth : but when my needs requireth more , i will use it if i can , whoever forbids me ▪ it is lawful to hear an ignorant raw lad , that saith over a dry sermon as a boy saith his lesson , and hath neither spiritual life nor light , nor is fit to take the charge of souls : and it is lawful to hear such a sermon as yours , or one that peacheth against other mens preaching : yea , we rejoyce , and will rejoyce , that christ is preached , though by such as do it in strife and contention to add affliction to the afflicted , and not sincerely : but wise men that believe a life to come , and love their souls , will choose better if they can , whoever forbiddeth them . men have no power to hurt our souls , nor to deprive us of the help which god affordeth us , nor to make themselves the only judges , what is profitable or hurtful to our souls or bodies , or what is best for our edification . § . but [ to commit a fault in hearing us ] is of doubtful signification . in the manner of hearing , all commit faults ; by some defect of attention , faith or application : but that 's not it that you mean : but that it is their sin to hear us . and indeed , if this were true , is it above your learning to understand , that it is lawful to preach to them that commit a fault in hearing them . . what if culpably they would hear no other ? is it better let them hear none at all than that we preach to them ? if peevishness or sickness make a child refuse the food or physick which he should take by his parents command ; will you say , that it is better that he famish or die , than that you give him any other ? men may be saved that hear not you : but how can they believe , unless they hear , or hear without a preacher ? the means is for the end : i will have mercy and not sacrifice , is a lesson which i perceive more than the pharisees are to learn. order is for the thing ordered : parish order is not so needful as faith and salvation . it may be , such a mans sin , that he will not hear such as he should hear ; and so by consequence that he heareth me , and yet also consequently his duty to hear me , supposing that his fault hath blinded him , to think that he may hear no other , till his errour be cured : or at least , it is my duty to take him as i find him , and preach to him in his own mistake . . the canon forbids going out of our own parishes : suppose twenty or five hundred infidels , or papists of the next parish resolved , we will hear no protestant but dr. stillingfleet ; were it unlawful for you to preach to them ? . if i should preach to them all against separation , and for prelacy , were it unlawful ? one of the doctors at the savoy , . motioned , that he and i might go up and down england to preach for conformity : and if any ask us why we do not , we may tell them , dr. stillingfleet taketh it for unlawful : if it be a sin to preach to them , it is a sin to preach to them against separation , or for conformity . . it is ordinary for men of other parishes to hear you , and dr. tillotson , and others , such as you esteem : and i suppose most weekly lectures are preached most to men of other parishes , and yet you take it not for sin to preach to them . . it is ordinary for many protestants to go hear and communicate wi●h the french or dutch churches which differ from you in the mode of worship : and yet i never heard it proved , that it is a sin for the preachers thus to preach to them . . what if your children as prodigals over-run you , or the kings subjects causelesly fly into another land : they ought not to be there . is it herefore unlawful , for any to teach them there , or receive them to pub●ike worship ? . almost all the christian world , is so tainted with some degree of errour and partiality , that men will hear none but those of their own mind , for their errour sake . the armenians , abassims , greeks , papists , nestorians , jacobites , luth●rans , arminians , calvinists , anabaptists , &c. it is unlawful for any of these , to refuse sounder teachers than their own , and to confine themselves to their own only meerly for their singular opinions : and yet it will be hard for you to prove , that all the preachers on earth , must give over preaching to any such as these . what shame , blood , and odious schisines , followed this schismatical principle , while in doubtful disputations , or tolerable differences , each party condemned and cursed the other , i have fully manifested in my abridgment of church history . vvhile by one emperour and council all the orthodox were deposed ; and by another , all the nestorians ; and by another , all the eutichians ; and by another , all the monothelites ; and by another , the corrupticolae ; and by another , the iconoclasts ; and so on ; how few were there un-cursed , and un-cordemned in the roman world ? and this keepeth the churches in schism to this day . . do not you thus teach the nonconf●rmists to require you with the like ; and by your own rule to judg it unlawful for you to preach . they judg indeed , that it is lawful to hear you ; . when better 〈◊〉 , without greater hurt than benefit . . to s●ew their 〈◊〉 by their practise , viz. that they separate not from you as 〈◊〉 church , nor ●●ke it for simply unlawful to have 〈…〉 you : but they that think conformity as great a 〈…〉 have told you , they fear it would be to them , must needs think that it is a fault in those that choose your assemblies , when c●teris paribus , and without greater hurt than good , they might have better . and must we therefore conclude , that it is unlawful for you to preach . suppose it were ●ut , when we had the kings licence . or , if in the times of usurpation , and thought to leave the parish churches tended culpably to division : it followeth not , that it was unlawful for a bishop to preach in private , though when you , under the usurpers , kept the parish church , he had preacht to some of your flock . but here you shew what your labour tendeth to , viz. to prove it unlawful for us to preach , that you may perswade us to give over . if god will , i shall elsewhere give you an account of the reasons of our preaching ; and answer what you , and others say against it : and therefore , shall say but little of it here . but i am heartily sorry , that you are come to such a desire : that you had rather so many hundred such ministers were silenced , than suffered to preach without your covenants , and ceremonies ! that you no more regard the needs of the people , that abound in ignorance , carelesness , and vice ; nor observe no more the power of sin , nor the great want of help to such parishes , as your own , and too many in the land , that have need on other accounts . o! how dreadful and unsearchable are the judgments of god ? that when so many hundreds were forbidden to preach the gospel , the plague must first give them some degree of liberty , and the flames continue it the next year , and the kings clemency after , and horrid popish treason next divert their prosecutors ; while the laws and bishops all the while forbad them : even when the parish-preachers fled from the plague , and it was dying men that the nonconformists preach't to . and when the churches were burnt down , and the people had no priest , or place to go to for their own way of worship ; yet neither laws nor bishops consented to our preaching : and such men as dr. stillingfleet also , come in to engage their wit , reputation , industry , and conscience , in the silencing design . o! what cause have we all to vvatch and pray , that we enter not into temptation ? and to dread the spiritual judgments of god ? remember lot ' s wife , was a needful warning . a solomon , that is numbred with the wisest men , may be se● up as a frightful monument , to bid us take heed , lest we revolt . and i take it for a greater injury to us , to perswade us to silence our selves ; than to perswade the magistrate only , to silence , banish , or imprison us : for so to suffer from another is not our sin. but sacrilegiously to break our ministerial vow , and forsake the calling , which we were solemnly vowe● to , and this while the necessity of souls cry for help ; is a sin , which few men are so bad , as to perswade us to with open face , without some pious fraudulent pretence . § . . serm. p. . [ i do not confound bare suspending communion , in some particular rites , which persons do modestly scruple , and using it in what they judge to be lawful ; with either total , or ordinary forbearance of communion , in what they judge to be lawful ; and proceeding to the forming of separate congregations , i. e. under other teachers , and by other rules , than what the established religion alloweth . and this is the present case of separation , which i intend to consider , and to make the sinfulness , and the mischievousness appear . answ . i am sure , i am one that you expresly charge , as of this number ; and i can best speak for my self , and those of my acquaintance . . is it true , that i totally or ordinarily forbear ? . what mean you by [ forming ] a congregation ? if their presence be my forming them , it is but because i speak to them : for , i neither perswade nor drive them to be there . but if you mean , forming them into a distinct church , and becoming their pastor , i was never related as a pastor , to any church , but kiderminster ; nor have these twenty years , been a pastor to any ; but borrowed other mens pulpits , to preach a lecture ●o such as say they need it . . your word [ separate , ] i have examined before . you separate from my auditory , and more than separate ; and i separate not from yours : who then is the separatist ? . all the parishes about you , and the bishop of ely in your parish , that judge it lawful to hear you , yet are absent from you ; and so are some nonconformists , that think they must preach themselves ; and cannot be in two places at once . is that separating ? . the french and dutch churches do all that , which you here describe , as sinful and mischievous ; only they have more leave , than we . . is all the matter , that we are teachers , which the law alloweth not ? so were the orthodox under the nestorian , eutychian , monothelite , &c. princes . and so i have proved , that the christian religion hath been much propagated in the vvorld . . vvhat are the rules which we go by , which the established religion alloweth not ? doth it not allow the sacred scriptures ? or , have you proved , that i go by any other rule ? if the act of vniformity , or the canons be your religion , do not they allow god's word ? or , if they be your rules , omitting that , is not vsing another ? yet those that do joyn in churches under chosen pastors , when i do not , i shall not condemn , till i hear their reasons : they may have more cause than i have . § . . serm. p. . [ they vnanimously confess they find no fault with the doctrine of our church . ] answ . . and yet are you one that would have them all silenced ? . but this is not true : you name four or five , and then say [ vnanimously ; ] and this because they offer to subscribe the doctrine of the thirty nine articles : and yet i suppose you know , that they more unanimously dissent from the doctrinal article in the liturgy of baptized infants , certain undoubted salvation without exception , and some of them to the doctrinal damnation of all condemned in athanasius creed ; and some of your selves , as well as mr. humphrey could wish the article against free-will , and that which damneth all the heathens , and some others , had been otherwise than they are . § . . [ they generally yield , that our parochial churches are true churches ; and it is with these that communion is required ] say you so ? . the diocesans are little beholden to you , if this be all ! do you require no communion with them . . i think i shall shew you anon , that you take your parishes for no true churches your self : at least your chief brethren do not , who make them but parts of a church , the diocesan being the lowest proper church . . are you sure , that the independents take your parishes for true churches ? i cannot tell . but i know john goodwin and mr. brown have writ to the contrary . . and for my self , how oft have i told you , that i distinguish , and take those for true churches , that have true pastors ( but that is , because i judge of their office by gods word , and not by the rule which depriveth them of an essential part of the office of a pastor of a true church . ) but i take those for no true churches , that have . . men uncapable of the pastoral office . . or not truly called to it . . or that deny themselves to have the power essential to a pastor . such congregations i can joyn with , as chappels or oratories : but they are not churches of the political organized from which we speak of , as wanting an essential part . § . . next you tell men , what i said in print , of our conclusion , that communion with you , was lawful . ] ans . this is true : and when said we otherwise ? dr. manton , dr. bates , dr. jacomb , mr. poole and others were there ! i told you before , how far lawful . § . . serm. p. . [ who could have imagined , but they should have all joyned with us , in what themselves judged to be lawful , and in many cases a duty . but instead of this , we have rather since that time , found them more inclinable to courses of separation , &c. ] ans . if this be not true , i take it not for sinless . since that time . mr. pool , mr. humphery , my self and others , that took our selves to be no pa●●ors to any particular church , have usually joyned in your assemblies ; and i usually keep to my parish-church . . since that time , in a treaty set on foot by the lord-keeper bridgman , we agreed in terminis , with bishop wilkins , and dr. burton ; and judge hale drew up our agreement into the form of an act. . since that time , at your own motion , we treated with honest dr. tillotson and you ; and the same men and more , consented to the form and words of an agreeing act , and you both seemed to consent . . where you read my words , you might have read the reason , why no more communicated with you . and it is not like a lover of truth to dissemble them ; . i told you , that even at the present , new heats arising against dissenters , we thought it our duty , till they were over , to forbear a lawful thing ; which was like to occasion the sufferings of such as in that were not satisfied as we were . marriage is lawful : but if it be not necessary , one may forbear it , if it would ruine another , though the bishop command it him . . i told you , that the oxford act of confinement , came out when we were intending to come to your churches : and then had we been seen there in the city or corporations , we had been sent to jayle : but many in the countries came to your churches . this is your cathedrall justice ; the law is [ come to church in london , &c. and you shall go to jayle six months . ] and if we do not , such as you tell the world , that we are separatists . . i told you , men cannot preach to others , and hear you both at once . must we repeat these things as oft as you accuse us ? § . in the charge are joyned dr. owen and my self , my error is [ p. . serm. that to devise new species of churches ( beyond parochial or congregational without gods authority ▪ and to impose them on the world yea in his name ) and call all dissenters schismaticks , is a far worse usurpation than to make or impose new ceremonies or liturgies ] . ans . a man would think that this doctrine should justifie it self and confute the accuser . . will you own your churches de specie to be new , and yet appeal to antiquity ? . will you own them to be devised without gods authority , and yet to be preferred to those that he instituted ? . will you own that yet they may in his name be imposed on the world ? . and will you own that for these , dissenters may be called schismaticks ? . and is not this a worse usurpation than to make new ceremonies ? if you will plead for so much presumption , profanation of gods name , usurpation , uncharitableness , and schism , i will leave you to fight against the light , and not labour in vain in a needless confutation . . but , sir , you should have told your reader the full truth . . that i never denied but largely asserted the magistrates power of the sword over all persons and causes ecclesiastical ; much less christian kingdoms , or cities de re . . and that i maintained that magistrates make officers to judge of the circa sacra ; or undetermined accidents of religion . . and if you will equivocally call these churches , i quarrel not de nomine . . nor yet at the thing or name of the association of many churches for concord . . but i say ( in the page cited by you ) that as humane forms should not be pretended falsly to be divine , so neither have they authority against those that are divine , to change them and destroy their priviledges : unless you will fight for man against god , you must reverse this accusation . § . as to your case , of the extent of the first churches , i have so much to say of it elsewhere , if god will , that i shall not here stay on so short a touch . only you put me to repeat , if god make families , and men make cities , do but confess the different efficients , and usurp not a power to destroy the power instituted by god , and we shall not much differ . § . you greatly strengthen my cause by the testimony of so well read a man [ serm. p. . [ though when the churches increased , the occasional meetings were frequent in several places , yet still there was but one church , and one altar , and one baptism , and one bishop , with many presbyters assisting him : and this is so very plain in antiquity , as to the churches planted by the apostles themselves in several parts , that none but a great stranger to the history of the church can ever call in question . ans . bishop gunning will give you no thanks for this , it seems after all the anger we are much agreed . i never denied chappel● to a church , nor thought they must all meet at once . if they all meet per vices at one altar , they are associated for presential communion , and not distant only , and this is that i am for . make it but such a church that meet at one altar , and that can know one another , and are associated for such personal communion in presence , and ( though i could wish it neither too small nor too great ) it is of the species which i plead for as of god. there is certainly a specifique difference between a church that hath a constitutive formal governour , who hath the whole pastoral power , and is associated for presential mutual help in faith worship and holy living , and one that either hath but a half pastor without the power of the keyes , or that is associated only for distant communion , and never see each other ; even for another sort of communion . conformists hold that bishops and presbyters are distinct orders : therefore churches differing in the very order or species of the constitutive governours , and in the triminus or end , and the nature of the communions are certainly of distinct species , and not only of distinct degrees in the same species : but such are our parochial and diocesan churches . just such a church as you here describe is it that i would have , and yet if the chappels also have altars , and there be more than one to the church , as long as they are under the same bishop and presbyters , associate for communion in presence , it alters not the species . § . i thank you also for adding p. . [ and yet this distribution even in creet was so uncommon in those elder times , that epiphanius takes notice of it as an extraordinary thing at alexandria and therfore it is probably supposed that there was no su●h thing in all the cities in his time ] . ans . . it s true of creet , which had an hundred cities : but your [ therefore ] makes me think , you put creet for cyprus : for there it was that epiphanius was a bishop . . but you grant me the foundation of all my cause . let the diocess or parish or church ( call it what you will ) be no bigger than that the same bishop may performe the true pastoral office to them in present communion , and not only by writs , and delegates , rule men that have no personal present communion , nor ever intend it as the end of their relation , and i have my desire as to the species of the lowest sort of churches . thes . . . . know them which labour among you , and are over you in the lord , and admonish you . but such are not those whom we never saw nor heard , and never laboured among or admonished the twentieth or fortieth or hundredth congregation in their diocess , and whom the people cannot know . heb. . . remember then which have rule over you , who have spoken to you the word of god , whose faith follow , considering the end of their conversation . . obey them that have the rule over you and submit your selves , for they watch for your souls as those that must give account . but such are not they that the people never heard the word of god from , nor knew their conversation nor the men : and bishop taylor saith , no man can give account of those that he knoweth not ; that is , pastors account . make parishes true churches , and restore them church discipline , and we are satisfied . § . serm. p. . [ if we look over the ancient cannons of the church , we shall find two things very plain in them : . that the notion of a church was the same with that of a diocess ; or such a number of christians as were under the inspection of a bishop . ] ans . . very true ; and the bishop was their ordinary preacher , and only pronounced the blessing &c. therefore till the species was altered it was like a school , whose schollars lived in city and country , but were under a bishop that governed them personally in presence . but after they were like many score or hundred schools that had teaching ushers , and one absent governour ( to the most ) . to govern as a schoolmaster in presence specifically differs from governing as princes or visitors , by laws , or extraordinary inspection . . i pray you forget not that by this measure ( if you hold to it ) you unchurch all our parish churches : every church then had a bishop , no parish now hath a bishop ( proper to it self ) , or at least not many : therefore no parish ( by this rule ) is a church . ecclesia est plebs episcopo adunata . you make no church below a diocess . § . serm. [ . that those presbyters who rejected the authority of their bishop or affected seperate meetings , where no fault could be found with the doctrine of a cburch , were condemned of schism ] . ans . good still : they were not to set up altare contra altare , but joyn with the bishop in governing the same church in present communion at least per vices : but if a bishop than had put down a hundred or a thousand bishops and churches about him , and said , you shall be all but one church in another sort of communion , and i will be your only bishop , christians then would have abhorred him : now we have hundreds of altars locally separated from the bishop . . but yet if then the doctrine of faith had been never so sound , christians would have separated . . from unlawful worship ( specially idolatry ) , . and from wicked bishops ; as the forementioned epistle of cyprian and the carthage council sheweth . § . you confess martin and theognostus separation from the synods and communion of the neighbour bishops : and if it were not lawful for neighbours to communicate with them , i shall believe as cyprian , that the same reason would at least warrant the people to forsake them , till you shew reason to the contrary . and you confess the joannites separation , and only say that after they returned . it s true : but did they do well or ill before ? they returned not till gentleness and honouring chrysostome reduced them : and though cyril alex. called them schismaticks and said it was fitter the church canons should be kept , than such refractory nonconformists gratified by restoring the honour of their ejected pastor , yet atticus had more wit and honesty then to follow his council or be moved by his threatning ; our case hath ten times more to be said for it , than the joannites had , who were not cast out , but departed , nor had any impositions forced on them , which they took to be many hainous sins . had you been impartial , you had easily seen this : but as cyril and others accusation of the joannites , as separatists and schismaticks , did not finally attain his ends against the joannites , no more shall yours against the more excusable . in an ale-house or crowd of the debauched or ignorant [ they are puritans , presbyterians , fanaticks , separatists , schismaticks , hereticks , rogues ] is effectual arguing and convincing , and some preachers it seems take their hearers for such judges ; but men will be men , and reason will be reason , and truth will be truth , and innocency will be innocency , and pride , and slander will shame their authors more than the slandered , when you and i are dead and gone . § . serm. p. . [ but suppose the first churches were barely congregational by reason of the small number of believers at that time , yet what obligation lies upon us to disturb the peace , of the church we live in to reduce churches to their infant state ] and here is mentioned the community of goods , washing feet , and then [ they believe that the first civil government was appointed by god himself over families : do they therefore think themselves bound to overthrow kingdomes to bring things back to their first institution , &c. ] ans . . we call them not [ barely congregational ] but [ associated for personal communion ] if all the kingdom had but one bishop , that were another species of government and communion than parochial . . if one like you should plead for turning all the families in london into one , and making only one common father or master of a families , who should send stewards to every house , of his own making , to give them their victuals , he only being the proper governour , and this man should plead as you do , that it is disturbing the peace of the great family , to reduce them to their infant state , by restoring particular families , more wit or reputation than yours would not keep his cause from shame . or if he pleaded that all the schools in a diocess , or many or , should have but one schoolmaster with ushers that have no power to take in or put out or use the rod , and that to retrive this to the infant state is seditious , the reason of mankind would shame his reasoning . and when men know what pastoral guidance is , the case here will be as plain . . our reason for desiring ( not the primitive paucity of christians , but ) the primitive form of christ is . . because christ by his apostles instituted it : ( mr. thorndike once spake well to that ) . . because we can prove that he was faithful in forming his house and church , as moses was in forming that of the jews . . because we never heard it proved that man had power to alter what christ by his spirit in the apostles founded : neither having their infallibility nor commission . . at least we think it is the surest way to hold to that which we are sure god setled , till we can prove that men have power to change the very form . . teach us what to say to the papists , when they shall accordingly say to us [ what though there was no vniversal pastor in the primitive times ? what though many things in discipline and worship be changed since ? why must you disturb the peace of the church by reducing things to the infant state ? what though there were no cardinals , nor general councils of prelates to make universal lawes for the churches , what though the sacrament was given in both kinds , and there were no private masses , or prayers for the dead ? must the church be still in infancy ? what though the apostles instituted the lords day for publick worship and holy communion , may not the church put that down , and set up one day of her making once a month or year instead of it ? but i will not be one of those that will fight for man against god ; for i know who will overcome . if you can prove that christ gave your church authority to pull down the church offices and form which he appointed , and set up another , and call it the churches growth , or emendation , i will obey them . but i have elsewhere asked who they were that made your new church form . if the first church ( of gods making ) it was only the universal headed by christ , and particular churches for personal communion , if these made the new forms , tell us who , when , and by what power , and why they may not unmake them , if there be cause : and whether the efficient church be not better then the effected as the parent than the child . if you say that bishops of parishes did 〈◊〉 by consent in asia or elsewhere above a thousand years ago , how come we in england to be bound by them ? if you say that princes were the makers of the new church species . . heathen princes did it not . . the bishops will give you little thanks , if you grant not that it was done before there were any christian princes to do it . . one prince cannot make laws for anothers country . . prove that ever christ authorized princes to change the constitution of the churches instituted by him , and make new ones above his form ; except making officers for the circa sacra or variable accidents . . and what princes do , they have power to undo . and it concerneth us to enquire ( much more then about ceremonies ) how far this power of man extendeth . may they make as many new church species as they please . why then may they not make as many forms as there are kingdomes , if not an universal pope by the consent of most ? . but that which the papists take for the churches growth from infancy , the protestants take for its gradual depravation ; and have written many treatises to shew when and how such corruptions were introduced : and the forementioned book of paulus sarpi servita lately translated , tells us by what degrees much of that evil did spring up , which some take to be the churches man-hood , and the amending of the defects of christs institutions . . and you that wonder that i know not what you mean by [ the church of england ] may next wonder that i know not what it is that you call [ the protestant religion ] in my [ full satisfaction ] i have told you that i mean by it , simple christianity expressed in the sacred scriptures as the recorded rule , with the rejection of all humane additions which suppose the scriptures imperfect as to their regulating use : but if you suppose that men may , without any scripture proof of authority , take down and change the church species , which christ by his apostles made , and make new ones instead , and thus add to christs laws , equal , yea superior and derogating laws of their own , this is not that protestant religion which i am of , and therefore i intreat you to define what it is you so call . . when you have as well proved the very essential form of the first churches to have been instituted but pro tempore as a mutable thing , as we can prove the like of washing feet , and community of goods , we will submit . and so we will when you have proved that god that made families made not cities or republicks , that is , did not institute civil government of many families ; or that men who diversifie the forms of republicks , may overthrow families or their proper power : yea and that god hath left men as much power to make new species of churches , as to diversifie the forms of common-wealth . . and as to our [ disturbing your peace ] if you had built your frame on christs foundation , and laid your peace on the unity of the spirit , and the seven particulars named eph. . . . and had not built it on uncharitableness , on imperious usurpation , nor that love of the world , which paul servita saith brought in the church corruptions , you would not have been so tender , nor your peace like an aspen leaf in the wind , as that your brethren , who , you say , agree in doctrine and the substance of worship with you cannot quietly joyn near you in the worship of god , without your imposed words , and ceremonies , but they become disturbers of your peace . it s a sickly peace that is so easily disturbed by so small dissent . as rome thinketh that all wrong her that do not obey her , and pleadeth for empire under the name of communion , so do some others ; and will enter a suite against them as schismatiks , that will not let them ride and lash them without complaint . if you have the humility and charity of a christian , without envy &c. what harm doth it do you that i and such others worship god in another room , without your book , while your church is as full as it can well hold ? do you not differ much more among your selves ; as i before shewed ? and the papists yet more among themselves ; and yet are in one church , and tollerated . but so their power and wills may be obeyed , some men can bear with much more against god. who heareth such out cries against ten thousand or twenty thousand in a parish that come not to any church at all , as against a few christians that pray and preach without your book ? what informers , what indictments , what prosecutions , what invectives are equally against all these aforesaid ? § . serm. p . [ it is very uncertain whether the primitive form were such as they fancy &c , but it s certainly our duty to preserve peace and unity amongst christians ] . ans . . then it is certainly a sin to make racks to tear them , and make concord impossible , and say , none shall have communion with us , that will not say and swear what we bid them , and that think any thing sin which we impose ; and to shut men out by cannonical excommunication , and then call them schismaticks in presse and pulpit for not coming in . . if it be uncertain whether that which we desire be the primitive form , it is uncertain then whether you oppose not and fight not against the primitive form . . what you say is uncertain i shall god willing prove certain elsewhere ( and have done ) . all is not uncertain to others which is so to you . . mark this , you that are for the divine right of episcopacy as the primitive forme instituted by christ ; as he taketh it for uncertain ( as beyond congregational formes ) , so were it so , if the church should cast it out , he seemeth to hold your endeavours to reduce it , to be a sinful breaking of the churches peace . you are disturbers if in holland , geneva , helvetia , you would reduce them to that which you suppose to be the primitive form . it may be it was but from the circumstances of the times : and so the head of the church hath made no particular church species , but left all to the better wit of men ( who knowes to whom ) . § serm. [ it is impossible so to do , if men break all orders in pieces , for the fancy they have taken up of a primitive platform ] . ans . anglice , [ it is impossible to preserve peace and unity among christians if men will not suppose that christ never instituted his own church formes , or will not forsake his institutions , but fancy that they must be conformable thereto , and will not preferre the wills and commands of bishops to whom they never consented , and take it to be a breaking of all orders in pieces , not to do all that they enjoyn us , though we take it to be heynous sin , and will not give over gods worship and our ministry when they forbid us . dan. . we shall find no fault against this daniel , except it be concerning the law of his god , but if he pray openly when forbidden , away with him to the lyons for the laws of the medes and persians are more inflexible than gods. § . as to what you say of preferring morals and the ends , it is more truly than prudently mentioned as to your cause : for the very naming of it will make the readers think , whether your subscription and declaration and oaths and imposed practices , which the nonconformists judge unlawful , be greater matters than their preaching the gospel , avoiding great sins , the concord and strength of the protestant churches , and the avoding temptations to wrath , and persecution and divisions which will be bitter in the latter end . go learn what this meaneth i will have mercy and not sacrifice ; ( or needless ceremony ) § . serm. p. [ men may please themselves in talking of preserving peace and love under separate communions : but our own sad experience shews the contrary : for as nothing tends more to unite mens hearrs than joyning together in the same prayer and sacraments ; so nothing doth more alienate mens affections , than withdrawing from each other into separate congregations ] . ans . . but do all separate from you that are in other parish churche● than yours ; if not , do all separate that differ , as cathedrals from parish churches , or as conforming preachers do from one another : if not , do they separate that omit a form or ceremony of yours ? . i am sorry , if you have experience of the alienating of your affections from your neighbours , that quietly worship god by you : but it s like you know what you say : for my part many of them have said and written more against me , them against you , and , i thank god , i love them heartily ; yea and that your own party from whom i have suffered far more . it is mens diseases that make them impatient of a cross opinion or word or censure , and then they cry out of mens unpeaceableness : as seneca saith , they that are sore complainif they but think their sore is touched . . let the magistrates keep peace and punish all that abuse their brethren . . but we easily grant to you , that when men do not only differ , but fly from each others communion as unlawful , it hath a great tendency to the alienations and evils which you mention . had we not thought so , we had never stoopt , and pleaded , and begg'd of the bishops to prevent or heal it as we did , and . and wo to the impenitent that are the cause of all , and to this day will not be perswaded by all the sad experience that they complain of . sir , instead of all your accusations and reasonings , it would have better dispatched all the business , would you but consider , who it is that must cure the distance which you complain of ? i have fully proved to you in my book of concord that we are utterly unable to remedy it . if you will not know , who can make you know . do you think , that when you say to all the land [ say and do all that is imposed , or you shall not be admitted to our communion ] that it is morally possible to make all good christians agree in b●lieving that it is all lawful ? or to make them all do that which they think to be unlawful ? i must freely tell you , that he that thinks that his own or any others reasonings will ever so far change all the truly honest christians in the land , knoweth so little of matters , men or conscience , as that he is unmeet to be a bishop or a priest . but is the remedy impossible to the imposers ? i am ashamed to debate the question : but some men are so learned and wise , that they will not quench the fire in a city , nor save the ship from sinking , no forbear silencing christs ministers and scattering the flocks , as long as they can but say , there will such or such an inconvenience follow . it would cost you nothing to cure all this , which it is impossible for us to cure . therefore all your just aggravations of the mischiefs of schism or separation fall where it concerneth some of you to look to it , if you believe that there is a future judgement ; rather than to call your selves schismaticks under the name of others , and pu● god and man to say , thou art the man. § . pag. . you come to me , for denying that i separate causelesly from the communion of true churches , or set up antichurches , [ though ( say you ) they prea●● when and where it is forbidden by law , and administer sacraments by other rules and after a different manner than what our church requireth : this is not dealing with us with that fairness and ingenuity which our former brethren used — they deny the fact which is evident to all persons : for do they not the very same things and in the same manner that the others do . how comes it to be then separation in some and not in others . they are very unwilling to confess a separation because they have formerly condemned it with great s●●erity , and yet they do the same things for which they charged others as guilty of a sinful separation . ] and i am cited . ans . . this is like h. f●wlis , the puritans are the worst men on earth : the papi●●s , are far prefer'd before them , because the papists differ in fundamentals , but the puritans take mass for a ceremony . so we are the most disingenious and not fair dealers , that own them to be true churches and ministers and hold communion with them ; and yet deny that we are schismaticks or separate : we leave you therefore , to treat with the lesser disingenious and the fair dealers , that say you are no true ministers , nor is it lawful to have communion with men that openly avow such hainous sin , and covenant against ever endeavouring to reform notorious church corruptions : because with such we are forbid even to eat , and commanded from such to turn away ; it s well you have some more ingenious and fair dealers than i am . but the disingenuity is my denying your accusation : i heard of a gentleman that cou●d silence any man : and his way was , he would accuse him ( of murther , adultery , the●t or what his cause required ) and if he denied it he would say ; [ what will you make me a lyar ? to give me the lie deserveth a stab . ] it is not only a crime if we do not toto pectore telum recipere , or with camero unbutton our selves and say feri miser , or whe●ever we are beaten , confess that we deserved it : it 's an odd kind of suit for a man that calleth an innocent man traytor , to bring his action against him , for saying , you slander me . but it is the name or thing that we must not deny . we will gratifie you in the first : i do separate from your church , by half a miles distance , and by going to my own parish , and by preaching my self , and so do most of the parish preachers , that will not sit hearing you when they should preach . but it is de re . and what is it , first i must tell the matter of fact : i never took any pastoral charge these twenty years ; i gathered no church : i never baptized one person : i never administred the lords supper once , in about eighteen or nineteen years ; but of late seldom to some few , since aged weak persons who were in my house , and near , who gave me special reason for it ; and the liturgy alloweth it to the sick and all their friends that joyn with them : while i lived at acton and toteridge i went twice each lords day to the publick church , even to the beginning : here i go when i am able usualy once a day to hear the parson of the parish ; and i communicate with them in the sacrament : i preach twice a week in another mans pulpit ( borrowed ) most to strangers that i have no more to do with : my gain i thank them , the accuser put me not to excuse : i write and preach against schism and all unjust separation , and perswade all to go no further from any than they go from christ , or than they drive us away , or than we needs must , to avoid actual sin . well ; now what is the crime of separation ? . i preach ( you say ) when and where it is forbidden by law. ] ans . is this the formal reason of separation ? then disobedience and separation are all one . i suppose you mean the law of the king and the parliament , and not the canons save as by them made laws : when i had given you so many historical instances of the ancient bishops and christians , doing the like , and justified commonly by the church : did you think while you silently pass all that over , and all the rest that i said for my justification , that two lines of your saying was enough to confute all ? certainly it was not me that you meant to satisfie , nor any impartial man that had read my books . this dealing beseemeth , not so weighty a cause . you seem to say [ all preaching when and where it is forbidden by law , is sinful separation : but , &c. i deny the major . the primitive preachers did so for three hundred years : the orthodox did so afterwards under constantius , valens , theodosius junior , anastasius , philippicus , justinian and many more : the albigenses , waldenses and bohemians did so : the reformers did so : the protestants when the interim was imposed did so : episcopius justifieth it at large , and the arminians in belgia , did so : the martyrs in england and elsewhere did so . the jesuits in the east indies did so . but what if the law forbad you to preach at a certain hour — do you separate from the church , if you miss your hour ? they that preacht afternoon sermons when forbidden were taken for disobedient but not for separatists . and what if when the churches here were burnt the ministers had read the liturgy and preacht in a place forbidden by the law : had that been separation ? and how cometh [ when ] and [ where ] to be in , when we are forbidden every time and in every place , to preach to more than four . is any time or place allowed us to preach in ? you mean [ he is a separatist who preacheth being forbidden by law : but i am ready to give you a fuller proof than is now to be offered on this occasion , that no man hath authority to forbid a faithful minister of christ , who forfeiteth not his office-power , to perform the office to which he is ordained . and , secondly ▪ that we remain under a divine obligation to it , which such a law 〈◊〉 dissolve , as bishop bilson before saith [ if princes forbid us , we must go on with our work : what if the king had turned against episcopacy and liturgy , and forbad all the episcopal to preach . would you think it sinful separation to preach . by this you shew how easily you would lay down the work you are vowed to , if the law did but forbid you . how much then are papist and protestant casuists mistaken , that say the law is null that is against the common good , and that all power is only to edification . and what limits do you set to this . till you tell us , how can we judge of our separation : what if an interdict silence all the ministers in a kingdome , must all obey ? what if it be most , must most obey ? what if it be more then can be spared without the churches wrong ? and whose laws be they that so binds us : is it infidel princes or only christians . is it papists , arrians , eutychians , &c. or only the orthodox ? and do you set the people all to judge whether the king be orthodox , as the rule of their obedience to his laws . if i prove not that god bindeth me to preach , call me disobedient , but yet that will not prove me a separatist . by this rule you may be a separatist , as oft as the law changeth , if you will not change as fast as it . yea though you judge the laws impositious to be hainous sins , yet you must do them all or give over your ministry : and so god must ask leave of the rulers to be worshiped as god. if he were a god of their making , they might put him down . and , i think , it will prove confusion and worse disobedience than our preaching is , to lay all the peoples obedience herein on their opinion of the rulers orthodoxness : no doubt , but the heathen and heretical rulers are governours even of the church , though none hath power for destruction or against god. the duke of brandenburghs subjects judge him not orthodox : are they therefore absolved from obeying him in matters of religion ? calvenists subjects think lutherane princes not orthodox ; and protestants , in france , hungary , poland , judge their papist kings not orthodox : yea , what if we judge the bishops not orthodox that made the cannons or liturgy , are we absolved from obeying them . and what if any subjects think that the king is not orthodox ? and parliaments , who also make our laws , contain men of many minds : and the parliament of . is said by the bishops to have been far from orthodox , even to have been presbyterians , and erastians , and even for rebellion ; and yet they made divers laws which the king consented to and ratified : were not men obliged by those laws : and indeed if the lawmakers being not orthodox null his laws about religion , why not all his other laws . but it may be you will say , that it is not all the people that must judge whether the king and parliament be orthodox , but the bishops for them . ans . but who shall judge whether the bishops be orthodox ? and if all be resolved into the implicite belief of the bishops , why not of the civil rulers as well ? or why not as the papists on pope and councils ? i suppose to avoid all this you will not say , that he is a separatist that preacheth when forbidden by any prince whatsoever , turk , heathen , arrian , eutychian , idolater , papist ? where then will you fix the notifying character ? all men are heterodox in some degree ? how shall we know the degree which absolveth us from our obedience , and how cometh an orthodox man to be authorized to do mischiefs and forbid the needful preaching of the gospel any more than a heretick ? or a christian more than a heathen ? i think he is bound to do more good then they , and not authorized to do more hurt ? god never made him a judge whether the gospel shall be preacht or not , nor whether the people shall be saved , or left to perish in their ignorance and sin . either then all are separatists that preach against the laws of heathens , hereticks or papists : and so the orthodox churches have in many or most ages and places been separatists : or else we are cast upon confounding impossibilities to know who the separatist is . especially in aristocracies and domocracies , where the rulers are of many minds , and the people can never know them all , nor when the orthodox , have the major vote . and i would know , whether it be only rightful princes or also usurpers , whose laws are the bond of the churches unity . if of usurpers , then all the prelates that conformed not in the times of the late usurpation were schismatical separatists by your definition : but to do them right , few of my acquaintance that could by conformity slay in , did then refuse conformity : i hear that you were then no separatist . but bishop guning , dr. wild , dr. hide and a great many more , took another course ; and will not thank you if you stigmatize them with us . but if it be not the laws of usurpers in the roman empire by your measure ? how few were the emperours that came not in by meer conquest , or by killing , putting out the eyes or ejecting their predecessors , or without any justifiable right ? and what a case rome , italy , spain and africa were in after the first conquests of the gothes and vandals , and all the western empire in the days of the henries , frederick and many others , while men were fighting for the empire and popes claimed the making and unmaking of them all ; and even in france ever since the days of chilperic for many ages , especially among the progeny of charles the great , it is not to be hid : this way you destroy or confound the churches . i cannot imagine what you will reply to this ? unless you say that , [ it is neither the title , nor the orthodoxness of princes , which is necessary to make their lawes the bond of church unity : but it is the goodness of their laws : at least that they impose no sin upon us ] . ans . . then if the usurpers imposed no sin , they were schismaticks that obeyed them not . ● . let that be the rule : who shall be judge whether it be sin or not ? if i be a discerner for my self , i have told you how much and great sin i fear , till you are displeased with the intimation : and when you have proved all those particulars named , to be no sins , you have done more than yet is done : and if you think you can or do prove it , must none have christian communion who think your proof invalid , and that you do it worse than bishop taylor that maintained hurtless lying . § . but the other half of the definition of a separatist is [ they administer sacraments by other rules and after a different manner than what the church requireth . ans . . why will you so reproach your church ? we do it by no other rule but the scripture ; and doth not the church require that the scripture be a rule ? you know polydore virgil and other papists , ordinarily make this signal difference of protestants and papists , that the protestants make the scripture the only rule of their religion : on which supposition francis peron formed his act of disputing against them . and are not the church of england protestants ? if you add another rule , it followeth not that we have another than you have , though you have another besides what we have . . you say [ we deny the fact which is evident to all persons ] and you speak of me : is this true ? what sacraments do you mean ? i never ordained any : i never confirmed any : i have married very few , if those be sacraments : i have baptised no one these twenty years : i gave the lords supper to none for about eighteen years , and rarely since as i told you . but , others do ? ans . and if they have no better reason to justifie the forsaking of their ministry than you give , well may they go on to do it . . do you mean here by [ rulers ] the same as before by [ laws ] or what mean you ? i suppose it 's the canon and liturgy that you mean. and if by the [ church ] you mean any thing but the king and parliament you are unintelligible : for the church hath but two visible essential parts , the regent and the subject parts . and of the regent only the supream is essential , the rest being also subjects , and but integrals : and it is a [ requiring ] church which you mention . and so it seemeth that it is but a lay church : and nothing but a christian kingdom . . i have told you that the french and dutch churches here administer the sacraments by another rule than your liturgy , and yet are no schismaticks . . and your rule hath many parts : it requireth preaching , praying , reading the psalms and two chapters , and delivering baptism and the lords supper in christs words , and repeating the creed , the lords prayer and the decalogue . and all that i do when i officiate for any man ( for i have no church , ) and others do it with whom i converse . but if it be omitting any thing else in your rule that maketh a separation , what is it ? i oft hear conformists omit divers prayers . i have seen dr. horton give the lords supper , i think , to the greater part that sate . i doubt most parishes separate , if every omission make a separatist . . but thus far you satisfie me , that you judge all for separatists [ that preach without all your assent , consent , subscriptions , that the covenant bindeth no man living , no not the parliament men that took it , to endeavour any alteration of church government , that it is not lawful to resist any commissioned by the king , ( without exception ) and much more such : that all are ●●●●ratists that administer not sacraments according to your rule , which pronounceth baptized infants saved so dying , without excepting atheists , infidels , or any , and this as undoubted and certain by gods word ; which requireth the minister to refuse baptism and christendom , where the dedicating image of the cross is not submitted to , when the parent or adult judge it an unlawful sacrament : and where baptism must be denyed to all that will not make godfathers and godmothers the sole covenanting undertakers for their children , without speaking a covenanting word themselves : and when your rule requireth all ministers to deny sacramental communion to all that scruple kneeling in the reception , and yet excommunicateth them and ruineth them for not communicating when they are rejected : and also ipso facto excommunicate : to omit much more such , this is your rule , which he that swerveth from it , is a separist . . but i had thought that we had not been like those late cavilling papists that will not distinguish fundamentals from any little points , lest it lose them a paultry advantage of abusing men . doth not every good law and rule distinguish between essentials , integrals , and accidents , and make more accidents than are integrals , and integrals , than are essentials ? and doth your rule do otherwise ? if not , tell us what parts of your rule are necessary to one , and what to the other , or you say nothing to resolve the case . is every line and ceremony essential to the church , and to each member ? if not , how cometh our omitting a form of ceremony to cut us off as a separated church any more than every breach of law cuts off a man from the common-wealth ? yea , if your church be but a christian kingdom , do not you cut off all from that kingdom too , that refuse your forms or ceremonies or subscriptions ? . but sir , to be short with you , i will yet believe that christ is the institutor of the church ; and that he hath himself made laws which are sufficient to be at least the bond of their unity , yea for more than essentials , even the integrals , and many accidents ; and hath given laws to regulate all mens laws that determine of needful undetermined accidents : and that no man should be cut off from the church or taken as separated that breaketh no law of god , yea those that are necessary to church unity and communion : and that the grand schismaticks of the world , are the engineers that fabricate needless , impossible dividing terms and conditions of unity and communion . § . . but you tell me that [ we do the same things in the same manner as the separatists : ergo we are disingenuous for denying your accusation . ] ans . . judge of the fact by what is said . . we do not say , . that you are no true ministers or churches . . nor that it is unlawful to communicate with you : ergo it is not true that we do the same things . . but it is the external action [ the whole same ] that maketh a separatist . a parson in the ale-house lost his common prayer book : when he came to church , he told them his mishap , and only read what was in the bible , query whether his flock and he were separatists ? an old parson that i was bread under , could scarce see , but could say most of the prayers without book : he said what he could remember , and got a day labourer one year , and a taylor another to read the chapters : query , whether we were all separatists ? § . . but you undertake to tell the reason why i am unwilling to confess a separation , because we have formerly severely condemned it in others , and yet do the same things for which we charged others as guilty of a sinful separation . ans . if this be not true , it is not well ; shew me where , and prove , when i ever condemned any for the same that i do , or else take more heed what you write hereafter . § . . serm. p. . [ for the assembly of divines urged their dissenting brethren to comply with the rules of government , and charged them with schism , if they did not , &c. ans . . it 's a foul mistake in matter of fact , if you think that i was that assembly , yea or any one of them ; or that what they did , i did : or those of my acquaintance did it . and it is not much better to pretend that i or they were in all things of their mind : doth the assemblies judgment concern me any more than you ? did not you conform to them as much as i did ? . but what mean you to wrong your hearers by such gross confusion , to joyn in your application dr. owen , and me , ( and mr. corbet i think ) with the assembly , when it is publickly known that in those matters we were of three several opinions : ( and who are they that differ not in as great matters ? ) ( . ) it 's known that except seven or eight , the assembly men were all conformists when they came thither : and either they were suddenly changed , or not : if not , they were conformists still , and then no wonder that they were of your mind . and indeed i know that they were not all of one mind : most of them were moderate conformists that thought it lawful , but that were much better be without it , than make it a snare to silence ministers , and divide the church , and therefore were glad that it was laid by : such were mr. vines , mr. burgess , and , i think , most . some were for dr. fleet 's way , that no one form of church government was of christs command , but all left to prudence as civil government is : such was dr. edward reignolds and some others ; some were for the sole government of the magistracy , called erastians : such was mr. thomas coleman , and how many more i know not . many of the parliament liked these men best : and these were also for an indifferency of the clergy form : and when mr coleman was chosen to give the covenant to the house of lords , they took it on his exposition , that it meant not the exclusion of the primitive episcopacy : some were more tenacious of the primitive episcopacy , and about to enter a protestation for it ; but that it was declared that only the english form as described in the concatenation was excluded : these were dr. cornel. burges , the excellent thom. gataker , and many more ; and some few were for the divine right of presbytery ( and after more : ) and the five dissenters and mr. philips were independents . but take them as conformists , as erastians , and as indifferents , and judge whether they were not more of your judgment , then of dr. owen's or mine , and it 's no dishonour to you : for i think i have not read of many assemblies of worthier men since the apostles days . but they were but men . but if indeed they were all suddenly changed from conformity to presbytery , when they came to westminster ; what a dishonour is such mutability to conformists ? and how little hold is there of them ; if so many of the best of them will so easily change with the times ? what wonder if you shall do so ? . and as for dr. owen , he was known to joyn with the independents : and sure you will not interess him in the assemblies judgment . . and mr. corbet and i are of one mind ; and i thought that the truth was divided beween the three parties , and that all of them wanted necessary skill and diligence for the healing of those divisions and the concord of the faithful : and the event excused me in that censure . and now , is the synods judgment more ours or yours ? ( . ) but either this synod were in the right or not : if not , why then will you follow them , or plead their testimony ? if yea , then they did well in being against the liberty of the prelatists also . ( . ) but is it possible that you can expect that men should believe , that their case and ours are the same , or that either all must be tolerated or none that conform not ; and that the bare talking for or against toleration , without distinguishing the tolerable from the intolerable , doth tend to mens edification ? he that will tolerate all , is bad ; and he that will tolerate none that differ , is mad . as it 's an ill argument , vespae habent favos , & apes habent favos ; ergo vespae sunt apes : so it is not a good one to say , wasps nests should be destroyed : ergo bee-hives should be destroyed . § . but wherein lay the different cases ? ans . in many things and great , however you untruly make them like . first the assembly never endeavoured to turn the independents out of the parish churches , and benefices , nor to silence them , forbidding them publick preaching , as you do us ; but only would hinder them from gathering churches out of other mens parishes . . the assembly put on the independants , no oath , no declaration , profession , subscription , or covenant as necessary to their ministry , which both sides confessed not to be lawful ; and so would have imposed no positive bond which they scrupled , but only the said omission of their promiscuous unlimited church-gathering . . they imposed no liturgy , no one ceremony , no practice on them , contrary to their consciences . . they urged them to declare but what limits they would allow to their church-gathering liberty ; that it might not extend to hereticks and the intolerable , and could not prevail ; judge now whether these cases are of any kin ? save in the genus of not allowing unlimited toleration , which we hold to as well as they . grant us leave to preach in the publick churches , and to be capable of guiding reformed parish churches , yea , or but to preach or officiate publickly for nothing , though we live on alms and beg our bread , and we will thank you : yea , though you hold us to all the terms and concessions in the kings declaration about ecclesiastical affairs : and is this like the case of the assembly , that never offered either to silence an independent , or forbid him parsonages , lectures , colledge preferments , or impose on him any one scrupled promise , profession or practice ? and yet i again say , both sides were faultily wanting in the knowledge and use of the terms of peace . § . . serm. p. . [ so that whatever false colours and pretences some men make use of to justifie their present practices , if the judgment of their own brethren may be taken , 't is no better than plain and down-right separation . ] ans . . were they not as much your brethren as mine , and nearer to your judgment ? . let the reader judge , whether it be half so great separation or distance , as the conformists have among themselves , while one part say that their church is but lay in the essential head , and the other half say , it is clergy , and so are really of two churches : and when one party saith , if the king and the bishops command contrary translations , versions , times , places , liturgies , and modes of worship , the bishops are to be obeyed before the king , and the other saith the king is to be obeyed before the bishops . to omit abundance of greater differences than some would perswade men is between us and them . § . serm. [ and i must needs say , i never saw any cause more weakly defended , no not that of polygamy and anabaptisme , than that of those who allow it to be lawful to joyn in communion with us , and yet go about to vindicate the separate meetings among us from the guilt of a sinful separation . ] ans . . i have long observed , when some men pass a sentence on others , and call them by reproachful names , it ordinarily more ●ruly sheweth what the speaker is , than what the person or cause is that he speaks of : for it is so natural for the streams to be like the spring , and the fruit like the tree , and the mouth to speak from the abundance of the heart , that one may much conjecture what the speaker is by his words : but what the cause and man is that he speaketh of , you can little know , while the speaker oft little knoweth it himself or would not have another know it . neither your confidence nor mine will determine a wise reader . § . . to pag. . i answer , . your text is so clear and full a confutation of your sermon , that it 's hard to know how a mind not strongly prejudiced could have preached such a sermon , or pleaded for the silencing of so many such ministers from such a text ; yea , or can need any more to confute you than to read your text : . it is supposed that it was all that had attained to the truth of christianity that must walk by the same rule . . it was a divine rule then known . . they were to bear with each other in loving communion while they grew up to more . if this condemn not making and imposing new humane unnecessary rules , containing that which multitudes of impartial conscionable men as wise as their reproachers cannot excuse from much heynous sin , and silencing and excommunicating all that obey them not , and when they forbid them communion , call them separatists ; i do despair of understanding sence . and to pag. . we come as near you as we can in conscience ; and we know our own conseiences better than you do . but whether you condemn not your selves as separatists in denying communion where we preach as if you only were the church , and any that want but your liturgy were none , yea when we had the license of the king ; unbyassed men will be able to discern . § . serm pag. . [ but why then is this kept as such a mighty secret in the breasts of their teachers ? why do they not preach it to them in their congregations ? is it for fear they should have none left to preach to ? that is not to be imagined of mortified and conscientious men : is it lest they should seem to condemn themselves while they preach against separation in a separate congregation ? this , i confess , looks odly ; and the tenderness of a mans mind in such a case , may out of meer shamefacedness keep him from declaring a truth which flies in his face while he speaks it . ] ans . . alas , you shew us , that some men perceive not when it flyeth in their faces . [ reader , hence take heed of believing words of reproach against adversaries , when interest and sideing hath made men partial . would you think that all this intimated silence were an untruth against publick testimony ? . i have many and many times declared in print what he intimateth that we dare not preach . and is not printing a far more publick declaration , than speaking it in one room ? . when i began to preach at st. james's , i read a profession to the congregation openly , that i preacht not there as to a separate church , but as in concord with all christs church on earth , for the necessity of the people that had not many of them heard a sermon many a year , the parish having if not souls more than could hear in the parish church . . i built a chapel by money partly begg'd , and partly to my greater loss than i will mention , that i might but have helpt those needy souls for nothing : for the second sermon , one that preacht for me ( that had suffered imprisonment for the kings cause ) was sent to gaol , to my great trouble and charge . and when i might not use it ( said one in power , though you would use the common-prayer there ) i gave it up to the use of the parish , and take it thankfully of dr. lloyd that he will there teach his people . . i have many and many a time in the pulpit openly preacht against separation , even what he now desireth . . not past a fortnight before his sermon , i preacht near him ( at the verge of his parish in my lecture ) two whole sermons of it , on luk. . the case of the two sons ; shewing that there are three notable sorts of separation . . the persecutors that forcibly scatter the flock , as the papists by dividing , sinful impositions . . the prophane separatist like the prodigal , who had rather be at the tavern , the play-house , the whore-house , &c. than at church . . the passionate peevish honest christian , as in the text , [ he was angry and would not come in . ] here i shewed by many reasons , how faulty and hurtful this mistaking passionate separation is : and i took that occasion to give them many reasons why i communicate with the parish church my self , and separate not from them ; and i told them my judgment , that they that suffer meerly for not-hearing , or not-communicating thrice a year as the law requireth , cannot justifie their cause without some extraordinary reason , if they live in a parish that hath a minister capable of that office. but i did not malignantly equal the son that had long served his father , and not transgressed his commandment , with his brother in his prodigal desertion of his father : but on the next words [ his father went out to him and intreated him to come in ; ] i shewed that gods condescention , and method in satisfying his mistaken passionate children , should direct ministers and others how they also should deal with such . and that violence instead of loving condescension , reasoning and necessary forbearance of such infirmities , sheweth , . that such consider not the corruption of humane nature , and how bad all m●n are . . they know not what need of forbearance they have themselves ; nor how liable they are to error and to sin. . they imitate not god our father and saviour , and know not what manner of spirit they are of . . they have not due acquaintance with the preciousness of gods grace and image , that cannot perceive it , if there be but such an errour or passion to obscure it . . they consider not that they also may be tempted , and what temptation may do even with upright souls . . they are strangers to the pastoral office ; they should excel in love and tenderness as much as in knowledge , and as mothers quiet crying children , and not therefore cast them out of doors . . they cross the ends of the ministry , if they take the converting of souls to be any of its end : for as generation so regeneration maketh infants and children before they are grown men ; and children will be weak and troublesome : and he that would have no such children , must not endeavour mens conversion . . yea , they greatly increase the disease which they would cure : men will not love those that hurt them so easily as others : and when they are displeased with you , they are the hardlier pleased with your doctrine . . driving men into the church , maketh it like a prison and corrupteth it as composed of involuntary members . . yea , they must destroy the church , if they will suffer none in it that have as great weaknesses as these . thus i declared both the evil of passionate separation , and of mistaking the way of cure. i would repeat the sermons , were it not for fear of being tedious . . i have printed in my second plea for peace , what our non-conformity is not , containing as much in this point as he can reasonably desire , as it was approved by many others ( named in our judgment about the interest of reason in religion ) so that he cannot say that i speak but of my self . . i suppose he believeth that i am acquainted with more non-conformable ministers than he is ( or else he will not think that i am any such antesignam●s as bishop morley calleth me : ) and i meet with few or none that contradict what in this case of separation i have published ; they are commonly for reformed parish churches ( not taking all in the parish for the church , but bounding churches in parishes for order ; ) and preach elsewhere but on necessity and as assistants and not as adversaries . . doth not our practice ( who go to the parish churches ) shew our judgments to the people if we said nothing ? . i could not have drawn the people so much from too great distance if i had not preached to them . at acton i constantly heard dr. rieves , and his curate , and i preached only in my house between his sermons , and then led the people to the church , which judge hales my neighbour thought was good service to the church . and the very sermon that i was sent to the common gaol for , was on matth. . blessed are the meek , perswading to submissive peace and patience . . when bishop morley forbad me to preach in his diocess , and i could not get leave at my departure to preach to my hearers one farewel sermon in publick ; i preacht in a private house to them on david's words [ bring back the ark of god into the city , if i have found favour , &c. ] purposely to perswade them as my last advice , not to depart from the publick parish assembly , though the liturgy be there the publick worship . but if the minister that is there shall be intolerable . . as utterly unable . . or a heretick . . or so malignant an enemy of godliness as to do more hurt than good ; i advised them not to own any such minister , nor encourage him in his usurpation . and it was on that account that they long forbore , till the vicar was dead and a better succeeded him . . since then i have written to my old flock to perswade them to joyn in the parish assembly , and i hear not of three that do refuse it . and all this i have said as to that matter of fact , to shew you how farr to believe this reverend doctor 's intimated ironical accusation . if he say , that other preachers do not so . i answer first , how knoweth he the negative that never heareth them , but like a separatist avoideth it as unlawful ? . is it not likely that in season they preach their judgment ? . but i confess they may find more profitable work than to preach over all the suspected passages in the liturgy , and other parts of conformity , and answer all the peoples objections against them . the builders and owners of the houses are the fittest to do such offices to maintain it . § . . is it that they fear the reproaches of the people ; which some few of the most eminent persons among them , have found they must undergo if they touch upon thi● subject ? ans . . so farr as your accusation is untrue as to the fact , it 's but a further ill intimation to ask , why they do not that which they do ? . if they that should better know what their auditors most need , must preach what you appoint that know them less , you may make their sermons for them as well as their prayers . . those few persons it seems at least toucht on what you say they preacht not : and for my part , whom i know you mean for one , i never felt my self much tempted to grudge at the dissenters that therefore will not hear me : if they hear others more suitable to them by whom they can more profit , as more esteeming them , what hurt is that to me ? would i have none taught the knowledge of christ , but by my self ? while we have all one faith , it 's some convenience for men to assemble and hear , where they do it with unprejudiced , undisturbed minds . . if those persons you mention have before and since such censures as you intimate , done what you would perswade men that they do not , your self-contradiction is most palpable . § . . serm. [ for i know not how it cometh to pass that the most godly people among them , can least endure to be told of their faults . ] ans . . did you not intend [ the most godly ] for a scorn , you would confess it false . . if you mean those that we esteem most godly , it is not true neither . . if you mean those that think themselves so , it 's no wonder if they mistake ; if not , it 's not true . . i pray you take warning by them , or by your own reproof , and do not now shew that you are one of the most godly by less enduring to be told of your faults . if otherwise , you have forecondemned your own impatience . . verily they have dealt much more patiently with me than the bishops and canoneers have done : though some have spoken their dislike of me , none of them ( even when they were in power ) did ever silence or imprison me nor ever forbid me to preach ( save once at an assizes . ) how can you think that we can feel their censures , when we have so much worse to feel from the canoneers ? and when you ask , [ is it for fear they should have none left to preach to ? ] if you separated not from us , you would see that such have some left still . § . . serm. p. . [ whence we see the church of englands endeavour after uniformity , is acquitted from tyranny over the consciences of men , by the judgment of the most learned of the assembly , &c. ] ans . . of the assembly i have said enough . . if you think the assemblies vniformity , or their endeavours for it , were the same with th● church of englands , none that know the case will be of your mind . if you are intelligible we must suppose that you cite them to defend this as the conclusion which you own . the word [ tyranny ] is too harsh to be used without need : but i suppose you include that the said endeavours for vniformity have no culpable severity in them . that is , that the acts for vniformity , the canons , the executing of them in declarations , subscriptions , oaths , practices , punishments corporal and spiritual ; are no sin , but lawful . in your epistle you say they are ill men that say this is stirring up to persecution : all that i will say is , that if you own these endeavours for vniformity , i do not : and the judge is at the door . § . . serm. p. . [ if they form their judgments rather by prejudice and passion and interest , than from the laws of god , or just rules of conscience , &c. ans . . this is true and good : if we make not gods laws the rule of conscience , no wonder if we err : god preserve us from all corrupting prejudice , passion , interest and canons . . but when you compare our temptation from interest with yours , i hope you will not say as dr. asheton , that as going to the bar of god he undertakes to make good , that it 's through pride and covetousness that we conform not ; that is , that we choose the contempt of high and low , and to live on alms , and multitudes in pinching poverty . § . . serm. p. . [ we find vniformity and order condemned as tyrannical , till men come into power themselves ; and then the very same things and arguments are used and thought very good and substantial , which before were weak and sophistical . ] ans . a true and sad confession ; when i read your irenicon and this sermon , i the more believe you : therefore it hath been my happiness that i was never in power , no nor ever on the uppermost side unless as i am for the king. i remember dr. rieves told us in the pulpit that the reason why we were against diocesan bishops , was because we could not be bishops our selves : and many others have said the like . § . . serm. [ those that now plead for toleration , did once think it the mother of confusion , the nurse of atheism , &c. ] ans . . sure though you often cite dr. owen , you mean not the independents . . if they spake either for or against toleration as you do without distinction , and were for all or against all , and distinguished not the tolerable from the intolerable , it 's no great heed to be taken what they say . if there were but one false word imposed on you , which you could not assent to , and on such as you , should you be no more tolerated than a mahometan ? § . . as to your advice to us p. . . . did you think that because we must bear with much that is amiss in the church , that therefore we must either consent to it , or practise it , and covenant against all endeavours of amending it , or prefer it before better . the man you talk of out of mr. ball was near bremicham , and was melancholy to a kind of madness . to your second i answer , it followeth not , that because we must not judge too hardly of impositions , therefore we must say , swear and do all that is now imposed on us . or that he that dares not do it , is unpeaceable . i would we knew in what cases only you would deny obedience and conformity your self . doubtful passages and undoubted evils somewhat differ . a fault-finding disposition , and the roman art that boccaline mentions to swallow a pimpion , have a mean between them . papists , socinians , or any that are uppermost , may call for conformity under the names of unity and peace . to the third , separation was not the same thing in the mouth of the old non-conformists as in yours : they took it first for unchurching the parish churches . . or holding it a sin to communicate with them , if they might be excused as to kneeling , crossing , &c. you take it for [ preaching when forbidden . ] i have named to you the old non-conformists that preached when they could . and half of them i think got into small priviledged places , exempt from the bishops power , and there preached most of them without the liturgy , and all without the ceremonies : and was not this against law. sure bishop bancroft that describeth their attempts to set up new churches and discipline was not of your mind concerning the non-conformists judgment . we had but two in all shropshire , and dr. allestree when a boy was the catechiz'd auditor of one of them , being his next neighbour ( in a peculiar chapel , without the liturgy , &c. ) and yet i think not that his father and all that assembly were separatists for hearing him . bradshaw thought we should submit to a silencing law , where our ministry was unnecessary , and so do i. dr. gouge was a conformist when he wrote the book which you cite . to your fourth ; woe to them that believe our divisions indanger the land and let in popery , and yet will cause them , and no intreaty can procure them to forbear dividing us , when they may ; and then revile them that have no way to remedy it , unless wilful heinous sinning be the way . § . that it is diseases ( that love not their own names ) in mens hearts , that make the trouble more than our different judgments and assemblings , experience telleth us : i was never a settled teacher , but in two places ( saving a lecture at coventry in the war , ) viz. an assistant at budgnorth , and a pastor at kidderminster : and in both places there is an honest conformable and a non-conformable minister : and the people go to the publick assembly , and many hear the non-conformist privately between the publick meetings : and both parties ( as i hear ) live in very much love and peace , and why might it not be so in other places , if there were the like ministers and people , without all this envyous clamour and bugbear words of anti-christian ] on one side , or ( separatists and schismaticks on the other . § . . as to your next advices p. . . first qui monet ut facias , &c. we speak so much against rash ignorant zeal , that you commend us against your purpose . . we thank you for the admonition [ not to be always complaining of hardships and persecutions . ] doubtless our mercies are so great as forbid us to be over querulous ; nay leave us unexcusable , if we are not very thankful . for my own part my sufferings have been very small from man , in comparison of what i endure in soul and body from my self . they are few days in which i am not a heavier burden to my self , than all my enemies are . but first , i may not be senceless of the case of many better men , who have great families and no bread but what they have by alms in poor countreys where the people are fitter to receive than to give . and if they remove to bigger towns the clergy tell them it is for gain , and they that have one , two , three or more perferments , reproach them as covetous that will rather beg than sin or famish , yet your mr. hickeringil on the contrary proclaimeth how little they get : were it my case as it is very many non-conformists , to be in other mens debts , and have nothing to pay house rent , for cloaths , for bread , &c. and to have wife and many children to pacifie , and to live on bread and water , or little more , and be offered plenty if i would but do that which i take to be the hazard of my soul , i should be sensible of the temptation . . and alas all this is nothing to the suffering of thousands of souls ! to perish for lack of knowledge , whose case it is lawful to compassion and lament . . and nature maketh it lawful to feel when one is hurt , and to confess that feeling . . and methinks if julian that abuseth the christians should say , your master bid you turn the other check , his scorn would but aggravate his sin : patience is our duty ; but if they call us to it who preach and print , and call out for the execution of the laws against us ( as many of the most eminent of the clergy have long done ) as you said in another case , it will look but odly : to preach to the parliament , to put fire to the faggot , to accuse the king for his licences and clemency , to tell the magistrates and the world , that our schisms are because they execute not the laws , even the laws that fine us forty po●nd a sermon , and lay us in the common gaol with malefactors , and banish us from cities and corporations , i say for these men to say [ complain not , ] is a smart accusation of themselves . for from good men good is to be expected ; but if i meet with gentlemen on the road that take away my mony , clothes and horse , and wound me , and tell me how much i am beholden to them , because they did not cut my throat , it 's lawful to know what they are , though i must be patient . and i told you before , when you talk of being made a sacrifice , if a few despised men censure you , while you have all your honour , reputation , riches and many preferments to arm you against their thoughts and breath , methinks sheweth that this counsel is as seasonable to your self as to the suffering non-conformists . § . . serm. . [ where are the priscillians that have been put to death by their instigation ? what do such insinuations mean , but that our bishops are the followers of ithacius and idacius in their cruelty ; and they of the good and meek bishop st. martin , who refused communion with them on that account ? if men entertain such kind thoughts of themselves , and such hard thoughts of their superiours , whatever they plead for , they have no inclination to peace . ] answ . . that is , to your terms of peace , and you being judge . . knowledg is oft constrained : it is no sin to know history , much less publick matter of present fact , and least of all , that which we see and feel . is it a sin to know when a man is in prison , or when his goods or books are distrained , & c ? i the rather speak to this , because a reverend bishop tells me also of this wrong , as if those bishops case were unlike to his ; and citeth the words of the historian that mentioneth the suffering of the churches in spain on that account , as if maximus had but taken advantage of the bishops spleen to tyrannize , and prey upon the churches . i desire not to make any men seem worse then they are , nor causelesly to open the faults of any . i profess to the world that it is not in an impatient aggravating of any sufferings of my own ( which are small , ) that i write this , but as the true stating of the case between us . if the matter of fact be not truly stated , the matter of right cannot be well determined . i hate false history . . it is agreed on by many of the best historians of that age , beside beda , that maximus wanted nothing but a good title to make him one of the best of emperours : that he was said to be made emperour by the british souldiers , against his will , and being once in , could not go back . his usurpation was wicked , but a way too common in the empire . he was of a pious life , and great zeal for the bishops and the orthodox religion ; what he did was to please the bishops and to suppress heresie and schisme : and it 's like enough he thought by their friendship to strengthen himself . he rescued ambrose at milan from the arrians , and by his threats deterred valentinian ( provoked by his wife ) from persecuting him , and so preserved the church of milan and many others . i read not of any of the bishops in all his countreys that complyed not with this usurper , save martin , theognostus , and ambrose , ( that was preserved by him . ) . it was not ithacius and idacius only , but all the synod of the bishops , that were guilty , and that martin separated from . . the priscillians were down-right gnosticks , and so are not the nonconformists , who you say agree with you in doctrine , &c. . it is but the death of priscillian and a very few more that the bishops were said to have procured ; and they were ashamed of it when they had done , and denyed that it was their doing . you force me for historical verity to tell you , that they did not silence about ministers , which is worse than many bodily afflictions ; nor did they desire maximus to make a law that all that did not such things as ours , should be ruined by fines , imprisoned , &c. make them not worse than they were . our quakers are much like the priscillianists . had it been but twice as many of them that had dyed in prison , as were put to death of the priscillianists , the cases had not been much unlike . but mr. thompson that dyed in prison at bristol , mr. field that dyed in prison here ; mr. hughes that in prison catcht his mortal sickness ; mr. joseph allen that had the same lot , and many more such , were none of them like the priscillianists ; but men of whom i and such as i come far short . . the great mischief that those bishops did was by suspecting men that fasted and prayed much , to be priscillians ; they brought reproach by unjust suspicions in all countreys on the most strict religious men ; and martin was called by them a priscillianist for being against the bishops persecution of them let not me , but publick knowledge here make the comparison : how small was this reproach , for extent and continuance , in comparison of that which by occasion of non-conformity hath been cast on men in england ? my memory serveth me from or ; commonly in the countreys , if a man did but pray in his family , and spend the lords day in religious exercises , reading the scripture , or repeating a sermon , or reading a good book , or singing a psalm , and was against swearing and drunkenness , he was made the common scorne , as a puritane , and the bishops articles , and their reproach of non-conformists , occasioned all this in the rabble against those that were no non-conformists if you believe not me , believe a conformist rob●rt bol●on , that saith more of the horrid abuse of piety by the name of puritane . and since then the same spirit hath used the name of presbyterian , schismatick , separatist , fanatick , to the like reproach of seriousness and diligence in religion , though not so universally as the name puritan was ; yea if a man had but been for lectures , and such like helps as arch-bishop grindall was for ( to his cost ) or for afternoon sermons , or would not read the book for sunday dancing , &c. he was worse than suspected and reproached . my neighbours that i once was a teacher to , did never presume to preach nor invade the ministerial office , nor do anything but the work of private christians , that is , to pray and repeat the sermon , and sing a psalm , but because many ignorant families that could not read , could not do any of this in their houses , they joyned with the neighbours that performed it , and this not at time of publick worship : yet because that more than four such met , they were distrained on and laid in gaoles . compare all this ( and the removal of many hundred families our of the land heretofore ) with the consequents of the bishops zeal against the priscillians . but remember that it is not in my thoughts to lay any of this upon the bishops that came in since the impositions and actions aforesaid , and had no hand in them , and cry not to magistrates to execute the laws , much less on men of such known moderation as divers of them are , nor on the peaceable conformists that own none of this . . and it must be remembred that martin was but an odd man , and seemed singular against the synods of all the bishops , and a man of little learning , like one of our trades-men that is religious . and therefore i have wondred that baronius and binnius , and our rich. hooker , did so openly decry the faults of the bishops here , and take part with martin , and not rather turn the reproach on him , as an unlearned separatist , and fanatick : but his miracles silenced all reproaches ; with the rooted esteem which serious christians will still have for serious piety , when the reproachers have said and done their worst else one unlearned man that went in sordid attire , and lived in a small thacht cottage , and lay on the ground , and eat worse than our beggars do , and pleaded for the gnosticks persons , was liker to have been born down as a mad fanatick , than such men as dr. twisse , thomas gataker , richard vines , anthony burges , mr. hughes , joseph allen , and about more . . lastly , let it be noted that the cause of st. martin was his judgement that heresie and schisme , even as bad as the gnosticks , was not to be punished by the sword , but only by church censures ; and therefore that the bishops did wickedly , in calling for the magistrates sword against them for then if the heretick can get the magistrate to be for him , the same sword may be drawn against the orthodox : and so the priscillianists once got a great courtier to be for them , and a while turned the sword against their adversaries , which occasioned sufferings in spain and other parts . and i wonder how baronius , binnius , or you that plead for the silencing and other afflicting of non-conformists , under the name of [ non-toleration ] and the churches endeavours for vniformity , can possibly keep out the light which would tell you that we may give you twenty to one in weighing your case and ours with ithacius and martins , if any impartial hand do hold the ballance . is not your whole cause , who cry out for the execution of the laws , and against our toleration , ( that is , that we are not to be endured ) clean contrary to martins cause ? § . . as to your d. advice , pag. . [ not to condemn others for that which themselves have practised . ] i answer , . prove that i or any of my acquaintance ever practised ejecting , silencing , ruining men for things unnecessary , yea or for greater things . whom did we ever forbid to preach the truth ? whom did we cast out of all church maintenance ? whom did we imprison ? . if any in new-england had done it , is that our doing ? they that are against christs righteousness impated , i hope will not joyn with you in imputing to us the sins of those that were no kin to us , and we never saw . . what a pitiful case is mankind in , if such an harangue of confounding words can make them believe , that tolerating or not-tolerating in causes vastly different , are the same ? is it all one to deny men liberty to seduce men from the essentials of the faith , and to forbid many hundreds to preach christs gospel , unless they will openly profess that they assent and consent to three books , and covenant never to endeavour the reforming of the government of the church , & c ? might not the papists have said to us just as you do [ it is the same thing for us to burn protestants as hereticks , as for you to expel the subverters of the faith. ] but you that are for silencing us all , for not consenting to , you know what , have less excuse for calling it [ the same thing ] unless you think christ and a liturgy to be same . it is therefore fitter to be answered with compassionate tears than words , when you say pag. . that [ every one of them would practise the same were it in their power , and think it very justifiable so to do ] ans . o whither may he rowl that is tumbling down the hill ! i was never in power : the independents once were : they used it not as i would have had them : but did they or the presbyterians eject or silence one another ? is it a good consequence [ you would silence a quaker that denieth the essentials of christianity : ergo , every one of you , were it in your power , would silence , imprison , and ruine them , that differ from you in ceremony , form , or subscription like ours ? ] o how incredible are the words of some applauded men ! i remember that at the savoy when it was said how some had used the episcopal , bishop walton excused and reproved me , and said , that [ indeed i had then written against ejecting or troubling any honest worthy man for being episcopal or against the parliament , but that the incompetent and vicious of all sorts equally should be ejected but ( saith he ) did not you write that if the sword interposed not , but meer liberty to volunteers were granted to all parties , the prclatical liturgick church would be like a tavern or inne where many sober persons come , but so many others also , as would make it a place of no very great inviting fame ? ] i confessed the truth , and still confess it . § . . to your th . advice , [ not to make our differences seem greater than they are . ] i do consent . but . did our or years silencing them , do that ? . do not you do it , that make men believe that we are intolerable and to be silenced , and that separate from our congregations as if it were a sin to join with us ? . we desire only a true stating of the case . the honest dealing which you demand , i and many others constantly perform ; and it 's ill to intimate that we do not . but you add , § . . [ it 's hard to understand if occasional communion be lawful , that constant communion should not be a duty . ] ans . some truths are hard to men of great wit. it 's lawful to have communion in our assemblies ( as i am ready to prove ) and yet you think not any , much less constant , communion to be a duty . it 's lawful to have communion with the french , dutch , or greek church ; must constant communion be therefore a duty ? it 's lawful to have communion with an ignorant reader , or a drunken priest ( at least in your judgment ; ) is it therefore a duty to seek no better ? § . . serm. [ all understanding men will conclude that they p●efer some little interests of their own , before the honour of christ and the peace of the church . ] ans . . the word [ little ] came well in as to your sense : truly poverty and ruin are little interests : i cannot imagine what you mean , 〈◊〉 it be reputation . but is not your reputation with the highest persons , and the multitude , a more tempting interest than our reputation with such as you much contemn . . but do you understanding men know our hearts better than we ? and are you sure that none are understanding that be not as partially censorious as you ? if we prefer our little interest , why do we not conform ? if you take us all for mad men , dispute not with us : if not , can we be ignorant that carnal interest is on your side , and are none of us capable of it ? . i should have taken it as too sharp an intimation to say that your greater interest swayeth you : no man that is a christian taketh this vain vexatious world for his great interest . and to make the little interest of prosecuted , beggared , ruined non-conformists to be that which beareth down , both all the interest of wealth , ease and worldly honours and the interest of the churches peace and the interest of their own salvation , and all this by no other proof than a supposition that your sagacity knoweth their hearts , and that all understanding men are of your mind ] the naughtiness of this is so great that it will not suffer you to see it . sir , as wise as you are , i know my own heart better than you do ( and so do my brethren know theirs . ) if you would swear the contrary i will not believe you . and i tell you , it is no little interest that moveth me ; it is greater than a deanery or a bishoprick . i were worse than mad , if . i consumed my small estate . . and my health . . and denied my ease . . and all worldly wealth and pleasure . . and exposed my self to be called a schismatick and a rogue , by the conformists . . and lay my self under the ruining dangers of the law. and . to be written against as doing all this by sin . . and all this under the languishings and pains of sickness , expecting when i am called to my account ; i say i were worse than mad , if i chose all this for that which you call [ little interest . ] . and if reputation with my poor despised party be that little interest , you confute your self before , where you say how much i have undergone of their impatient censures . have i flattered them ? have i not said more against their faults than you have done , though not against their duty ? . some of my heart-judges say , it is a semel 〈◊〉 , to avoid the imputation of mutability . but their companions confute them who charge me with my retractations ; and who see by my writings that i left room for second thoughts , and have not silenced them to escape the censure of any whomsoever . i have left my reputation to god , and never was so thin skin'd as to be unable to bear a cholerick breath : i liv● not upon air , or the thoughts of men , who will shortly with me be silent in the d●st . they that know how many books , perhaps scores , have been written against me , by sectaries of many sorts , and some by good and sober men , presbyterians , independents and prelatical , and how little they have broke my peace , will not think applause is my little interest . had i b●en as you i wo●ld have left cut this charge of little interest , lest it should te●pt men to compare your case and ours . § . . your th . advice is just : i hate charging you or any with unjust suspicions of inclinations to popery . i know some sew men whom i have reason to say , defend grotius as one of their religion ; who thought that the protestants can never unite among themselves till they unite with rome as the mistress church ; and that the councils even that of trent are sound in the faith , and that securing the rights of kings and bishops , and disowning the schoolmens abuses , and the clergies evil lives , and reducing the pope to rule us , not arbitrarily but by the canons , are enough to satisfie and reconcile us . but to charge this on all , or most , is unjust : we know what bishop barlow , bishop crosts , and divers others have done to signifie their faithfulness to the protestant cause . and if c●ntzen's way prevail not , to drill men they know n●t whither by degrees , i hope of the or clergie men in england , one thousand will not turn to popery . but i must say , that when some prelates made it their great business to silence , shame and ruin us , and drive us far enough from persons of power , undertaking to preserve the protestant religion better without us than with us , and after all , cry out themselves that we are in danger of popery by their own pupils and disciples , whose instruction they undertook ; men will have leave to think of this awake , and to judge of causes by effects . § . . your counsel is good , [ not to run the hazard of all for a show of greater liberty to our selves . ] should i tell you three stories of our hazarding our own liberties because we would not do what you disswade us from , one in , and another , and another about , it would be a pair of spectacles to some . . but will not all that have eyes see , who doth more for toleration of popery , they that say [ popery and you shall stand and fall together , except you will say , subscribe and do all that is prescribed you ; ] or they that say [ we cannot do that which we take to be hainous sin ? ] do you think the papists had not rather ( with you ) that we were silenced , than that we preach , who have been their greatest adversaries ? if you will rather let in toleration of popery , than you will tolerate protestants that fear the guilt of lying , perjury , and many other evils , should they do that which you confess indifferent , let god be judge between you and us . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e §. . §. . §. . §. . §. . §. . §. . §. . §. . §. . §. . §. . §. . §. . §. . §. . §. . the committee; or popery in masquerade l'estrange, roger, sir, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing l estc r this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) the committee; or popery in masquerade l'estrange, roger, sir, - . sheet ([ ] p.) : ill. printed by mary clark, for henry brome, at the gun in st. paul's church-yard, london : . attributed to l'estrange by wing. text printed in four columns. upper half of the sheet is an engraved allegorical plate, attacking commonwealth parliamentarians, the solemn league and covenant, the regicides, and various dissenting sects. reproduction of the original in the british library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng dissenters, religious -- england -- controversial literature -- early works to . religion and politics -- england -- early works to . lampoon -- early works to . religious satire, english -- early works to . great britain -- history -- restoration, - -- humor -- early works to . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - john latta sampled and proofread - john latta text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the committee or popery in masquerade . the explanation . behold here , in this piece , the plague , the fate of a seditious schism in church , and state : its rise , and progress ; with the dire event of a blind zeal , and a pack'd parliament . it was this medly that confounded all ; this damn'd concert of folly and cabal , that ruin'd us : for ye must know , that fools are but state-engins ; politicians tools ground to an edg , to hack , and hew it out ; till by dull sots knaves ends are brought about . think on 't , my masters ; and if e're ye see this game play'd o're again , then think of me. you 'l say this print's a satyr . against whom ? those that crown'd holy charles with martyrdom . by the same rule the scripture you 'l traduce , for saying christ was crucifi'd by th' iews : nay , and their treasons too agreed in this ; by pharisees betray'd ; and with a kiss : conscience , the cry ; emanuel was the word ; the cause , the gospel , but the plea , the sword. [ a ] now lay your ear close to that nest of heads . look , don't ye see a streaming ray , that sheds a light from the cabal down to the table ; t' inspire , and push on an enthusiast rabble ? in that box sits a iunto in debate , upon their sovereigns and three kingdoms fate : they 're hot , and loud enough . attend 'um pray'e , from point to point ; and tell us what they say . is it resolv'd then that the king must down ? not for a world ; we 'l only take his crown : he shall have caps , and knees still ; and the fame of a fair title , and imperial name : but for the sword ; the power of war , and peace ; life and death ; and such fooleries as these ; we 'l beg these boons our selves : and then , in course , what cannot be obtain'd by prayer , we 'l force . it rests , now , only ; by what arts and friends , methods , and instruments , to gain these ends. first , make the people sure ; and that must be by pleas for conscience , common liberty : by which means , we secure a popular voice for knights and burgesses , in the next choice . if we can get an act , then , to sit on till we dissolve our selves , the work 's half-done . in the mean while , the pulpits , and the presses must ring of popery , grievances , addresses , plots of all sorts , invasions , massacres , troops under ground , plague-plaisters , cavaliers : till , mad with spite and iealousie , the nation cry out , as one man , for a reformation . having thus gain'd the rabble ; it must be our next part , the common-council to secure : and then ; let king , law , church , and court-cabal vnite , and do their worst ; we 'l stand 'em all. our design 's this ; to change the government ; set up our selves ; and do 't by a parliament . and this t' effect needs only resolution ; we 'l leave the tumults to do execution . the popish lords must out , bishops must down ; strafford must dye ; and then , have at the crown . we will not leave the king , one minister ; the house , one member ; but what we prefer : no nor the church , one levite ; down they go : we , and the 'prentices will have it so . [ b ] this was scarce sooner said , than the thing done : for up starts little isaac , in the room of loyal gourney , with a sword in 's hand ; the ensign of his new-usurpt command : out of his mouth , a label , to be true to the design of the caballing crew : [ c ] his holiness at 's elbow ; heart'ning on , a motly schism ; half-pope , half-puritan ; who , while they talk of vnion , bawl at rome ; revolt , and set up popery at home . [ d ] now , bring your eye down to the board ; and see th' agreement of that blest fraternity : cov'nanters all ; and by that holy band sworn en'mies to th' establisht law o' th' land. these are the men that plague all parliaments for the impossible expedients of making protestant dissenters , one , by acts of grace , or comprehension : when by their very principles , each other thinks himself bound to persecute his brother . they never did , they never can unite in any one point , but t' o'rethrow the right : nor is 't at all th' intent of their debate to fix religion , but t' embroil the state ; ill accidents and humours to improve , under the fair pretexts of peace , and love ; to serve the turn of an vsurping power . but read the minutes , and they 'l tell ye more . [ e ] take a view , next , of the petitioners . but why , ( you 'l say ) like beasts to th' ark in pairs ? not to expose the quaker , and the maid , ( by lust to those brutalities betray'd ) as if those two sects more addicted stood to mares , and whelps , than other flesh and blood : no , but they 're coupled here , only to tell the harmony of their reforming zeal . [ f ] now wash your eyes , and see their secretarius of vncouth visage ; manners most nefarious ; plac'd betwixt pot and pipe , with pen and paper ; to shew that he can scribble , tope , and vapour : beside him , ( craving blessing ) a sweet babby ; ( save it ! ) the very image of the daddy ! he deals in sonnets , articles , takes notes , frames histories , impeachments , enters votes , draws narratives , ( for four pound ) very well ; but then 't is forty more , to pass the seal . beside his faculty , at a dry bob , that brings him many a comfortable job . [ g ] mark , now , those club-men ; that tumultuous rout crown , bible , magna charta , under foot ! those banners , trophies ; and the execrable rage , and transports of an incensed rabble ! here , the three states in chains ; and there , the head of a good king , by rebels murthered . and all this while , the creatures of those knaves , that blew the coal , themselves , the greatest slaves . what devil could make men mad , to this degree ? only mistaken zeal , and iealousie . liberty , conscience , popery , the pretence ; rapine , blood , sacriledge , the consequence . [ h ] let 's cross the way , now , to the doctors side . 't is a good , pretty girl , that holds his head ! what 's his disease , sweet-heart ? nay , that 's a question ; his stomach 's foul , perhaps , 't is ill digestion ; but 't is a mercy , 't comes so finely away : here 's canons , surplices , apocrypha ! look what a lump there lies of common-prayer . ay , but the cross in baptism , that lies there : o , how he reacht ; and still , as i provok'd him , he 'd heave for life ; 't was ten to one 't had choakt him ! nay verily ; this stuff , in holder-forth , may be as much as a man's life is worth . how do ye sir ? why somewhat more at ease , since i 've discharg'd these legal crudities . but if your stomach be so extremely nice ; what course d' ye take ? o , i have good advice : all the dissenting protestant-divines ; there 's not a man in the whole club , but joyns . this pect'ral , ●ou must know , keeps me alive ; sequester'd livings are preservative ! but for the sovereign remedy of all , the only , never-failing cordial ; there 't is upon that shelf : that composition th' assembly took , it self , in my condition . the tears of widows , orphans hearts , and blood they made their daily drink , their daily food : behold our christian cannibal's oblation , to auspicate their moloch reformation . [ i ] well! but what means this excremental swarm of humane insects ? how they fret , and storm ; grin at the vomit ; and yet for all this pother ; at the same time , lie teizing one another . alas ! 't is too , too true , you 've hit my grief : and there 's no help , no help for 't ; no relief . while they joyn'd hands with vs , against the crown , and church ; how sweetly the lords work went on ! but when we came to plant our directory , ' bless me , what freaks they play'd ! you know the story . oh! of themselves , they 're e'en a vip'rous brood ; begot in discord , and brought up with blood. 't was we that gave 'em life , credit , and name , till the vngrateful brats devour'd their dam. what could ye look for else ? for 't is dominion , that you do all contend for , not opinion . if you 'l have any government ; then say , which party shall command , and which obey . power is the thing ye both affect , and hate , every one would , ye cannot , all be great . this is , in short , the sum of the contest ; still he that 's up , 's an eye-sore to the rest. presbytery breeds worms : this maggot-fry is but the spawn of lawless liberty . license , is like a sea-breach to your grounds ; suffer but one flaw , the whole country drowns . london : printed by mary clark , for henry brome , at the gun in st. paul's church-yard , . the presbyterians remonstrance & declaration to the people of this nation, and their desires concerning the parliament, his excellency the lord gen. cromwell, and the rest of the officers of the army with a wonderfull prophecy presented to m. love in the tower of london the same day that he was brought to the place of execution by mr. smith, the minister, who on munday night last, being the of this instant moneth, was buried in saint giles cripplegate church london. this text is an enriched version of the tcp digital transcription a of text r in the english short title catalog (wing s ). textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. the text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with morphadorner. the annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. this text has not been fully proofread approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. earlyprint project evanston,il, notre dame, in, st. louis, mo a wing s estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) the presbyterians remonstrance & declaration to the people of this nation, and their desires concerning the parliament, his excellency the lord gen. cromwell, and the rest of the officers of the army with a wonderfull prophecy presented to m. love in the tower of london the same day that he was brought to the place of execution by mr. smith, the minister, who on munday night last, being the of this instant moneth, was buried in saint giles cripplegate church london. smith, mr., d. . coleman, samuel. [ ], p. printed for g. wharton, london : . "to the reader" signed samuel coleman. reproduction of original in union theological seminary library, new york. eng love, christopher, - . dissenters, religious -- england. a r (wing s ). civilwar no the presbyterians remonstrance & declaration to the people of this nation: and their desires concerning the parliament, his excellency the l [no entry] d the rate of defects per , words puts this text in the d category of texts with between and defects per , words. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - jason colman sampled and proofread - jason colman text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the presbyterians remonstrance & declaration to the people of this nation : and their desires concerning the parliament , his excellency the lord gen. cromwell , and the rest of the officers of the army . with a wonderfull prophecy , presented to m. love in the tower of london , the same day that he was brought to the place of execution . by mr. smith the minister , who on munday night last , being the . of this instant moneth , was buried in saint giles cripplegate church london . london , printed for g. wharton . . to the reader . it is given in charge by the blessed apostle paul , that we mark them that cause divisions , contrary to the doctrine which we have learned , and avoid them ; sure then , we should observe them that have it in design , to promote union , according to the doctrine we have received and acknowledge and embrace them , and esteem them very highly in love for their works sake . such is the worthy author of this ensuing subject , who ( with others of his brethren ) lookes with a sad heart upon the heart-divisions of our times , and laments to see such as are happily divided from the world , unhappily divided among themselves . the work and labour of love , which he hath here performed , is a labour for love that 's the subject-matter of his discourse ; a lovely argument worthy the handling , a precious grace most worthy the possessing ; so much as we have of it , so much we have of god ; so much as we expresse of it , so much we expresse of god ; for god is love . high and honourable are the elegies and encomiums given of it in scripture , such as set forth the excellency , and usefulnesse of it ; to account them then here , would be to anticipate what the following subject will more fully and fruitfully perform : this only would i say , it is the spirituall cement , by which believers , as materialls in a building ▪ are compaginated ; that spiritual ligament , by which ▪ as members in a body , they are united : and this is the happy agreement between faith and love , as touching union that love should y●eld it up to faith , to be the blessed instrument of our union with christ our head in a mystical way ▪ and that saith should yeeld●i up to love , to be the grace , that unites us one to another in a morall way . the author holds out love in the ensuing discourse , according to the guidance of the text he handles , under the notion of a way wherein we are to walke ; a good way it is , the good old way , or if you must have a new way , the gospell new way . the old commandment is for it , the new commandment is for it also . it is a right way , a safe way , a plain way , a pleasant way , and in a good sence , a broad way , large enough : were we in it , we should not need to justle and shoulder one another as we do . pity it is that such a way is not better known , more travelled . but so it is , we may justly compl●ine , as of old , many walke , but so as they wander from the right way . i say , as the prophet of old , this is the way , walke in it . every step we take in this way , is a part of payment of a debt we owe , which though we are required to be still owing , and never in paying , we are too far in arrears one to another already ; let us take heed least our uon payment bring us under an arrest , and cast us into prison . a wordmore , and the part●stall speake , we all professe to be for heaven , love must be our way to bring us thither , love must be our businesse , when we come there , the work in heaven to all eternity shall be to be reciprocally acting and expressing love . let us doe that now which we hope to do for ever , but i forbeare to inlarge in this kinde , referring you to the following discourse , which i heartily commend to the perusall and practise of t●e godly : apply to it , it will be found of precious use , to set us into the way wherein we are to walke , to hand us up into that charriot which is paved with love . samuel coleman . the presbyterians remonstrance : the high court of justice having denounced sentence against m. love , he was remanded back again to the tower of london , where m. smith ( a pious and religious divine ) gave him a visit , saying ; ah , my dear brother , & precious saint of jesus christ , the lord strengthen you in this your day of temptation and tribulation : and blessed be the name of the most high god , who hath ordered and disposed of all things , as seemes most requisite and sitting in his divine power and wisdom ; for , indeed , you know that it is the usual way of the lord to take away from off the earth his precious saints and servants , before the casting down of his judgments ; and to remove those bright stars ( whom the world are not worthy of ) to a higher orb. and truly thus much i dare divine , that when you are gone , i shall not stay long after . which propheticks proved true ; for immediatly after the execution of m. love , he was exceedingly troubled in mind ; and being asked the reason , of so sudden a change , and melancholy disposition , he answer'd , it was the will of god so to translate him ; and that he never should be well , till he was translated from an earthly tabernacle to a heavenly paradise , to be singing hallelujan with his brother in the presence of an innumerable guard of angels , &c. soon after it pleased god to afflict him with a great visitation , where he vsed these divine expressions in the presence of many friend , and others . mercy and peace , and love be multiply'd . for , saith he , the scripture tels us , that many waters will not quench love cant. . . and experience tels us , that much fire will not kindly love ; especially such fire as we have among us , the sire of contention , ( i mean ) much augmented , inflamed , and blown up , by the bellowes of unnecessary and unprofitable disputes ; which are carryed on with much heat , most men contesting rather for victory then verity ; few arguing for god , fewer according to god : hence is many different opinions , which beget so many difference in opinions amongst us ; that as in the primitive times the beloved disciple was banished ; so in our times , the love of disciples is banished ; sad times ! when so sweet a thing , so choice a grace , is so little set by : when men study more to gratifie sathan by dividing , then to please jesus christ by uniting ; when instead of helping we are hurting ; instead of hearing with , we are binding of one another . but the lord manifest his love to you all , and teach you to manifest your love to him , to the truth , to one another , and to all the saints ; and grant , that the parl. his excellency and officers , may be jethroes justices , men of courage , fearing god , dealing truly , and hating covetousness . alas ! we see that the ax is even laid to the root , and many thereby have undergone an untimely death : but happy are all those that suffer for the cause of christ ; nay , thrice happy are they who suffer for him , that so willingly laid down his life for them . o! consider , i beseech you , the torments he indured : . jesus christ died a shamefull death , he died as a malefactor , among malefactors , and yet innocent ; isa. . . he was numbred with transgressors . crucified between two theeves , as if he had been the captaine or chief over them , yet the apostle saith , pet. . . he did no sin , neither was guile found in his mouth , though he were slaughtered , yet he was a lamb without blemish , and without spot . . jesus christ died an accursed death , and that not only according to mans conceit , or opinion , but according to the decree of the divine law , deut. . . he that is hanged , is accursed of god : which the apostle brings in applying it to christ , gal. . . who was made a curse for us : for it is written , cursed is every one that hangeth on the tree . . jesus christ died a painful death , and this wil appear in several particulars : . he was scourged , mat. : . when he had scourged jesus , he delivered him to be crucified . this scourging was painful ; for christ was not scourged virgâ with a rod , but stagello with a whip or scourge , which pierced the more , & put him to more pain . . his head was crowned with thorn , mat. . . they platted a crown of thorns , and put it upon his head : these thorns pierced his temples , & this must needs aggravate his pain and misery . . his hands and feet were nailed , which was very grievous , for those members being full of nerves , and sinews , they feel torture so much the more . . he died a lingering death , sudden death is not so painfull as a lingering death ; to be dying , but not dead , is painfull indeed ; when he was nailed to the crosse he was not presently dead . secondly , let us consider his inward soul-sufferings , and these we shall look upon under three heads . . consider what temptations he lay under , as soon as he was baptized and set apart for his office , satan tempted him , mat. . but now he being ready to depart the world , and to compleat his conquest , satan set upon him with fresh force , this was in his agony , luk. . : . consider what sence of wrath he went under , he was wont always to have his father smiling on him , now he finds him frowning on him , discovering nothing but anger and wrath , on him was laid the iniquitie of us all , and the wrath that was due to all the elect for all their sin ; yet all this christ bears , even all the wrath that the father had to lay upon all the elect ; yea , and he cries out , joh. . . i thirst : that i● , i thirst after the salvation of poor sinners ; i thirst after more wrath , if there be any more to be charged upon them , i thirst to have it laid upon me ; and then when there was no more to be laid upon him , he cries out , ●etel●stai . it is finished ; he would not off the crosse till all were done , and then he gave up the ghost . . consider what desentions he lay under , all comfort was gone , god seemed to have forsaken him ; matth. . . he cried with a loud voice saying , eli , eli , lamasabachtheni , my god why hast thou forsaken me ? let misery be never so great , yet if we enjoy the presence of god , it will make amends for all : hell would be no hell , if we might enjoy gods comfortable presence there : so let outward enjoyments be never so great , yet without the presence of god they are nothing : heaven would be no heaven , if the comfortable presence of god could not be enjoyed there : here was christs misery iudas betrayes pilat condemnes , the iews crucifie , and to make up the measure , god forsakes him too . oh what a sad thing was this ! now , let us put all these together , and we must needs conclude , that christ loves us dearly . jesus christ the son of god in whom was no iniquity ; looks upon us polluted creatures , that were his enemies ; and is contented to suffer a shamefull , cursed , prinfnll death , and to be ●empted of sathan , to feel the great wrath of his fathers and to be forsaken of him also , and all this to do us good , that we might escape these things , oh inxpres-love . if christ love us dearly , then 〈◊〉 love him intirely , we are not worthy of his love , but he is worthy of ours . did he so love us , as to give himself for us , & shall we not so loue him , as to give our selves to him . i beseech you by the mercies of god , by the love of chist that ye present you●selves a living sacrifice ●y him : oh that this love of christ to us might constrain us to do , or suffer any thing for him ! did christ so great , so good : shew such love to us , so weak , so unworthy ? and shall not we love one another ? did he that is god so holy , shew such great love to man so unholy , and shall not we love one another ? did he that is so high above us , love us so low , so inferiour to him , and shall not we that are equals love one another ? did christ give himself for us when he were enemies ●nd shall not we love one another whom he cals friends ? doth christ love all that are godly , and shall not all that are godly love one onother ? this is the apostles argument , iohn . . if god so loved us we ought also to love one another . oh that it might be a prevailing argument with us , that it might have such a power over us , as to perswade us to observe the text , to walk 〈◊〉 love , as christ hath loved us . finis . an answer to the dissenters pleas for separation, or, an abridgment of the london cases wherein the substance of those books is digested into one short and plain discourse. bennet, thomas, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing b estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) an answer to the dissenters pleas for separation, or, an abridgment of the london cases wherein the substance of those books is digested into one short and plain discourse. bennet, thomas, - . [ ], p. printed at the university press, for alexander bosvile ..., cambridge : . reproduction of original in bodleian library. attributed to thomas bennet. cf. nuc pre- . created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng church of england -- doctrines. protestantism -- controversial literature. dissenters, religious -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - emma (leeson) huber sampled and proofread - emma (leeson) huber text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion an answer to the dissenters pleas for separation , or an abridgment of the london cases ; wherein the substance of those books is digested into one short and plain discourse . cambridge , printed at the university press , for alexander bosvile at the sign of the dial over against st. dunstan's church in fleet-street . . imprimatur . gul. dawes , procan . humf . gower , ss . theol. pro d na margareta prof. gul. saywell , coll. jes . praefect . ja. johnson , coll. sid. s. magist . the preface . that collection of cases and other discourses , which was lately written by the most eminent of the conforming clergy , to recover dissenters to the communion of the church of england , has met with such an universal approbation , that i need not speak any thing in commendation of it . therefore i shall wave all discourse of that nature , and only give a short account of this abridgment . the collection it self being large and dear , it was thought convenient to reduce it to a less bulk and smaller price ; that those persons who have not either money to buy , or time to peruse so big a volume , may reap the benefit of it upon easier terms . this , i presume , will justify my design , if i have not fail'd in the prosecution of it . i have us'd my best endeavours to avoid obscurity , and all those other faults which are often charg'd upon abridgments ; and i hope i may venture to say , i have omitted nothing that is material ; tho' the number of these sheets is not the sixth part of those that contain the original . for the learned authours of the collection do frequently glance , and sometimes discourse largely , upon the same subject : so that by avoiding repetitions and blending all the substance together , i have much lessen'd the expence of money and time. this and some other advantages arise from the digestion into chapters ; which cou'd not have been gain'd , if i had made a distinct abridgment of every single discourse . i hope , i have fairly represented the sense of my authours ; but if i have mistaken or injur'd it in any particular , i am sorry for it , and do heartily beg pardon of them and the reader . the th and th chapters , i am sure , are exact ; for they have receiv'd the a. bp. of york's own corrections , for which i am obliged to return his grace my humblest thanks . other parts i have submitted to the censure of other worthy persons , to whose judgment i shall ever pay the greatest deference : but i have reason to suspect my self for what i have receiv'd no assistance in ; and therefore i desire the reader to correct me , when he finds occasion . i have follow'd not only my own opinion , but the directions of several very judicious persons , in the omission of a. bishop tillotson's discourse of frequent communion ; which is wholly foreign to the design of the collection . the quotations in the london edit . . which i follow , are very badly printed ; and therefore , if any mistakes of that nature have crept into this book , i hope they will not be charg'd upon me . many of them appear'd false at first view ; and many i knew not what to make of : but some of them i have ventur'd to correct . god almighty grant , that this weak endeavour may be of some service at least towards the cure of those divisions , which have endanger'd the ruin of the best church in the world. st. john's coll. in cambridge , octob. d . . tho. bennet . a catalogue of those books , the substance of which is contain'd in this abridgment . . archbishop tennison's argument for union , taken from the true interest of those dissenters in england , who profess and call themselves protestants . . archbishop sharp's discourse concerning conscience . in two parts . . bishop grove's persuasive to communion with the church of england . . bishop patrick's discourse of profiting by sermons . . bishop fowler 's resolution of this case of conscience , whether the church of england's symbolizing , so far as it doth , with the church of rome , makes it unlawful to hold communion with the church of england . . his defence of the resolution , &c. . bishop williams's case of lay-communion with the church of england . . his case of indifferent things used in the worship of god. . his vindication of the case of indifferent things , &c. . dr. hooper's church of england free from the imputation of popery . . dr. sherlock's resolution of some cases of conscience , which respect church-communion . . his letter to anonymus , in answer to his three letters to dr. sherlock about church-communion . . dr. hicks's case of infant-baptism . . dr. freeman's case of mixt-communion . . dr. hascard's discourse about edification . . dr. calamy's discourse about a scrupulous conscience . . his considerations about the case of scandal , or giving offence to weak brethren . . dr. scott's cases of conscience resolv'd , concerning the lawfulness of joining with forms of prayer in public worship . in two parts . . dr. claget's answer to the dissenters objections against the common prayers , &c. . dr. resbury's case of the cross in baptism . . dr. cave's serious exhortation , with some important advices relating to the late cases about conformity . . mr. evans's case of kneeling at the holy sacrament . the contents . the introduction , containing an argument for union , taken from the true interest of those dissenters in england , who profess and call themselves protestants . pag. chap. i. of the necessity of living in constant communion with the church of england . pag. chap. ii. the use of indifferent things in the worship of god , no objection against our communion . pag. chap. iii. of the lawfulness and expediency of forms of prayer . pag. chap. iv. objections against our morning and evening service and litany , answer'd . pag. chap. v. of infant-baptism . pag. chap. vi. objections against our form of baptism , and particularly that of the sign of the cross , answer'd . pag. chap. vii . objections against our communion-office , and particularly that of kneeling at the sacrament , answer'd . pag. chap. viii . the objection of our symbolizing or agreeing with the church of rome , answer'd . pag. chap. ix . the objection of mixt-communion answer'd . pag. chap. x. the pretences of purer ordinances , and better edification among the dissenters , answer'd . pag. chap. xi . the pretence of it's being against one's conscience to join with the church of england , answer'd . pag. chap. xii . the pretence of a doubting conscience answer'd . pag. chap. xiii . the pretence of a scrupulous conscience answer'd . pag. chap. xiv . the pretence of scandal , or giving offence to weak brethren , answer'd . pag. the conclusion , containing an earnest persuasive to communion with the establish'd church of england . pag. the introduction , containing an argument for union , taken from the true interest of those dissenters in england , who profess and call themselves protestants . 't is plain , that the ready way to overthrow a church , is first to divide it ; and that our dissentions are divisions properly so call'd . how mortal these breaches may at last prove , any man may easily foretell ; and therefore 't is the business of every good man to dissuade from them . one way of doing this is to shew dissenters calmly and plainly , that their ends are not likely to be obtain'd ; and that by the means they use , they will bring upon themselves those very evils , which they fear , and hope to remove . this argument i design to handle by way of introduction to the following discourse ; and in the management of it i intend to shew , first what those ends are , which are propos'd by the wiser and better dissenters ; and secondly , that the ends which they propose , can never be procur'd by the dissettlement of the church of england . the dissenters ends are two ; first , the establishing of themselves , either as a national church or as several distinct churches ; secondly and chiefly , the farther advancement of the reform'd religion , by the removal of popery and making the protestant religion more pure and perfect , than it is or can be under the present constitution of the church of england . first then , as for the establishing of themselves as a national church , 't is impossible that all of them shou'd be united . for what communion can the presbyterians have with arians , socinians , anabaptists , fifth-monarchy-men , sensual millenaries , behmenists , familists , seekers , antinomians , ranters , sabbatarians , quakers , muggletonians , sweet-singers ? such a medly of religions cannot frame amongst them any common scheme , in which their assents can be united . nor can any prevalent party hope to establish themselves as a national church ; because they want episcopacy , which hath obtain'd in england since it's first conversion , and is so agreeable to the scheme of the monarchy , and will not easily be exchang'd for a newer model by the general consent of the english , who are naturally tenacious of their ancient customs . again , all the parties amongst us have of late declar'd for mutual forbearance ; and therefore they cannot be consistent with themselves , if they frame such a national constitution , by which any man who dissents from it shall be otherwise dealt with , than by personal conference ; which also he must have liberty not to admit , if he be persuaded it is not fit or safe for him . now such a body without any other nerves for its strength and motion ; for the encouragement of those who are members of it , and the discouragement of those who refuse its communion , will not long hold together ; nor hath it means in it sufficient for the ends to which it is design'd . and indeed by this means the spiritual power of excommunication will be rendred of none effect . for what punishment , what shame , what check will it be to cross and perverse men ; if being shut out of the national church , they may with open arms and with an applause due to real converts , be receiv'd into this or the other particular congregation , as it best suits with their good liking ? some persons think , that since they gathered churches out of churches , there are not many true and proper presbyterians in england ; and if this be true , independency is the prevalent side : but i know not how a national church can be made up of separate independent churches . for each independent congregation is a church by its self , and has besides the general covenant of baptism , a particular church-covenant ; and therefore 't is difficult to imagine , how all of them can be united into one intire society . but be it suppos'd , that the presbyterians are the most numerous and prevalent party ; yet experience shews how hard a work it is for all of them to form themselves into a church of england . in the late times of public disquiet , tho' they had great power and fair opportunities , and seem'd nigh the gaining of their point , yet they widely miss'd of it . there were in the assembly of divines , some for an independent , others for an erastian interest . (a) there were a party in the nation , who were then call'd dissenting brethren ; who hated the directory , and printed a remonstrance against presbytery , and reproach'd the presbyterians in the same phrases , which they had us'd against the church-liturgy . (b) some presbyterians did openly confess that their hopes were not answer'd , and that instead of a reformation they had a deformation in religion . those independents , who adher'd to that part of the house which joyn'd with the army , prevail'd for a season ; but they also were disturbed by the lilburnists , levellers , and agitators . (c) then wynstanly publish'd the principles of quakerism , and enthusiasm brake forth . joseph salmon a member of the army publish'd his blasphemies and defended his immoralities ; and printed a book in which he set forth himself as the christ of god. cromwel favour'd enthusiasm , and together with six souldiers preach'd and pray'd at whitehall ; and confess'd to a person of condition ( from whom i receiv'd it , as did others yet living ) that he pray'd according to extraordinary impulse ; and that not feeling such impulse ( which he call'd supernatural ) he did forbear to pray , oftentimes for several days together . at last he and his house of commons were publicly (d) disturb'd by quakers , bespatter'd in their books , his preachers interrupted by them in his own chappel before his face ; and himself conspir'd against by those who call'd themselves the free and well affected people of england . other memorials might be produc'd relating to the hopeful rise , mighty progress and equal declension of the presbyterian party : but in short , the longer the church of england was dissetled , the greater daily grew the confusion ; so that those very distractions prepar'd the way for the restitution of the king and the church . now if dissenters cou'd not settle themselves when they had such fair opportunities , much less can they do it now ; because , first the platform of discipline so much applauded and contended for in the reigns of q. elizabeth and k. james , has been partly tried , and lost some of that reverence which several had for it . secondly , there is not now such an union amongst dissenters as appear'd at the beginning of the late troubles . thirdly , those who then favour'd the discipline , do now incline to independency and plead for toleration . fourthly , the sincere zeal and power of many pious men of quality , who favour'd the discipline in the simplicity of their hearts , could not then settle it ; much less will it now succeed , since these men have seen such revolutions , and discover'd the vile interests of many under pretence of pure religion . these have seen their errour , and will not be a second time engaged . lastly , by reason of the gross hypocrisies , numberless parties and opinions , irreligious books and laxation of discipline in those wars , atheism has much increas'd ; and they say that some undisguised sceptics and atheists have , since the king's return , been much us'd in the cause of our dissenters ; and surely such hands cannot do , what well meaning zeal could not effect . nor can they settle themselves as several distinct parties by a general toleration . for first , some dissenters believe some of the parties to be incapable of forbearance , as maintaining principles destructive of christian faith and piety . this opinion they still have of antinomians , quakers and muggletonians ; and they formerly declaim'd against the toleration of erastians and independents . (e) nay many ministers declar'd a toleration to be an appointing a city of refuge in mens consciences for the devil to fly to — a toleration of soul-murther , the greatest murther of all others , &c. secondly , there is no firmness in this union ; for the union that lasteth , is that of the concord of members in an uniform body . thirdly , parties cannot be kept equal in number and interest , but one will always prevail and be favour'd as the religion of the state. and it is natural for the strongest to attempt to subdue all the rest ; so that they will not be at peace , but in perpetual discord . some indeed think , this inclination to the swallowing up of all other parties is to be found almost only in the romish church : but there is something of it to be discerned ( i will not say in all churches , for our own suffered bonner himself to live , yet ) in all factions and parties ; tho' the inequality of power makes it not seem to be alike in all of them . parties , who are not ( otherwise than in shew ) concern'd for religion , will perpetually covet after power ; and parties that are conscientious in their way , will do the same . for they withdraw from others , because they think communion with them to be unlawful ; and if they think those of another way ( without repentance ) to be lost eternally , charity will urge them to reduce them ; and they will think , that suffering them to wander declares them to be contented with their condition . besides , experience shews that where there is power there is little forbearance ; and the same men , as their conditions alter , speak of mercy or justice . thus did the (f) donatists of old , and the (g) heads of the discipline in the late times . those that remov'd to new england for liberty of conscience , when they had gotten footing there , refus'd indulgence to anabaptists and quakers , and use them to this day with great severity . the (h) commons in gave indulgence to all , but those that us'd the common prayer . the dutch suffer none to speak against those doctrines , which the state hath authoriz'd ; and the remonstrant party contend for superiority , whenever they have any encouragement . the popish orders mortally hate , and ( were they not restrain'd ) wou'd soon devour one another . and gittichius his behaviour towards (i) ruarus a socinian of better temper , shews the spirit of the socinians , those great asserters of liberty in religion . the quakers themselves , when form'd into a society , began to excommunicate and domineer ; and g. fox (k) declar'd , he never lik'd the word liberty of conscience , and wou'd have no liberty given to presbyterians , papists , independents and baptists . i proceed now to the second and chief end of the dissenters , the removal of popery and perfecting the protestant religion . as for the removal of popery , 't is plain that the ruin of our church , called by diodati the eye of the reform'd churches , will rather advantage it both at home and abroad . for she being more like the primitive pattern than some others of the reformation , can better answer the papists objections , than those that are cramp'd in a few points ; and therefore if dissentions ruin her , popery will the sooner spread over foreign reform'd countries . and since the romanists are so powerful , diligent and cunning ; have so much learning and interest ; and pretend to antiquity , miracles , &c. nothing can secure us from them at home , but the christian constitution and strong nature of the primitive , learned , pure , loyal and pious church of england ; which is a national body already form'd , that is able to detect the forgeries of rome , and hath not given advantage to her by running from her into any extreme . monsieur daille , who was not likely to be partial in this matter , and was at that time engaged in a controversy with one of our divines , (l) says , as to the church of england , purg'd from foreign wicked superstitious worships and errours , either impious or dangerous , by the rule of the divine scriptures , approv'd by so many and such illustrious martyrs , abounding with piety towards god and charity towards men , and with most frequent examples of good works , flourishing with an increase of most learned and wise men from the beginning of the reformation to this time ; i have always had it in just esteem , and till i die i shall continue in the same due veneration of it . and indeed it is strange , that any who know other churches and states , shou'd be displeas'd at ours , which so much excels them . now is it probable , that such a church shou'd have less strength in it for the resisting of popery , than a number of divided parties , the best of which is not so primitive , learned , united , numerous or legal ; and is but of yesterday ? these parties have scarce any form'd way of keeping out popery ; for what hinders a crafty jesuit from gathering and modelling a particular congregation ? and what a gap do they leave open for seducers , who take away all legal tests , and admit strangers to officiate upon bare pretence of spiritual illumination ! the romanists have more powerful ways of drawing men from the dissenting parties , than from the church of england . for men separate ( too frequently ) thro' weakness of imagination , for which the church of rome has variety of gratifications . they will offer strictnesses to the severe , and mental prayer to those who contemn or scruple forms . they have mystical phrases for such , who think they have a new notion when they darken understanding with words ; and accordingly the third part of a very mystical book , written by father benet a capuchin , was reprinted in london in , with a (m) new title and without the authour's name , and it pass'd amongst some of the parties for a book of very sublime evangelical truths . they use much gesture and great shew of zeal in preaching . they have rough cords and mean garments , bare feet and many other great shews of self-denial . they have processions and other rites to humour the soppishness of others . but our church is sufficient for this encounter . she designs to make men good by making them first judicious ; but some others desire to bring them to their side by catching of their imaginations ; and so some new device shall , in time , bring them over to a new party . dissention it self amongst protestants weakens their interest ; and that which weakens one side strengthens another . many that are wearied with endless wrangling , are too apt for quiet sake to run to infallibility . some dissenters prepare the way for popery by running into another extreme to avoid it . by decrying episcopacy , liturgy , festivals , &c. as popish , they condemn that as popish which is decent and christian , and so bring popery into reputation . for men will be apt to say , if such good things be popish , surely that which is popish , is also primitive and evangelical . what we have examin'd is good , and probably the rest may be of the same kind . it appears also from the history of our late wars , that popery gains ground by the ruin of our church . for it made such a progress in those times , that the dissenters charge the jesuits with the king's murther ; thereby tacitly owning , that they had so great a power over some of them , as to make them their instruments in it . 't is evident to any man that popery was not then rooted out ; (n) 't is notorious , that many priests and other papists fought and acted for the parliament against the king ; nay , in , there was a design to (o) settle the popish discipline in england and scotland . the papists generally sheltred themselves under the vizor of (p) independency . a college of jesuits was settled at (q) come in ; and were reconciled to rome that year· cromwel (r) said , that he had some proof that jesuits had been found amongst the discontented parties ; and dr. bayly the papist (ſ) courted him as the hopes of rome . one of his physicians (t) saith , he was treating with the papists for toleration , but brake off , because they came not up to his price , and because he fear'd it would be offensive . we are (u) told also that an agreement was made in even with owen oneal that bloody romanist ; and that he in pursuance of the interest of the state , rais'd the siege of londonderry . a great door was open'd to romish emissaries , when the oaths of allegiance and supremacy were by public order taken away ; and the doctrine of the unlawfulness of an oath , reviv'd in those days by (w) williams , gorton , &c. help'd equivocating papists to an evasion ; as i fear it may the quakers at this day . it was the church of england that kept out popery in those times . the patient sufferings of her members prov'd that they were not popish or earthly-minded ; and the writings of laud , chillingworth , bramhal , cosins , hammond , &c. kept men stedfast in the protestant religion . to this we may add , that the papists themselves think their cause is promoted by our divisions , as appears from jesuits , viz. campanella in his discourse of the spanish mon. cap. . p. . printed at lond. in english in . and contzen's polit. lib. . cap. . sect. . and they act accordingly ; for they widen our breaches that themselves may enter , and hope that we shall be dissolv'd at last by our distempers . they expose protestants as a disunited people ; and ask men how they can in prudence join with those , who are at variance among themselves ? as for the design of advancing the protestant religion to greater purity and perfection by dissetling the church , it is not likely to be effected for six reasons . first , the dissetling that which is well setled , corrupteth religion by removing charity , which is the spirit of it . it lets men loose that cannot govern themselves ; it moves men to atheism , idolatry and contempt of the church , and confirms them in sin . it exposes the church for a prey to the enemy , as it did formerly in africa and egypt . those that dissent from a national church , generally move for alterations in it , when there is a ferment in the state ; and in such seasons a church may be pull'd in sunder , but there is not temper enough to set it together to advantage . state-dissenters generally begin revolutions with the pretence of reforming religion ; and well-meaning dissenters ( when in such hands ) can establish nothing , but what pleases their secular leaders . a change in the church naturally produces some change in the state ; and who can secure the event for the better ? none can foresee all the ill consequences of disturbances . when the vessel is stirr'd , the lees come up ; and religion is made less pure by commotions . politicians promise fair , and use conscientious men to serve a turn ; but afterwards they take other measures . men may intend well , but by using the illegal arm , they frequently render that which was well setled , much worse by their unhinging of it . secondly , in the times of vsurpation , which began with pretence of a more pure religion , our dissentions caus'd great corruptions both in faith and manners . the war was preach'd up as the christian cause ; and many believ'd that god wou'd not lay the greatest villanies to the charge of an elect person . the instances of their extravagancies are endless ; and the lords and commons , as well as the ministers , were (u) highly sensible of them . thirdly , if by purity of religion be meant such doctrine , discipline and life , as the gospel teaches , and a removal of human inventions ; that purity is in our church already : and as for her injunctions , they are ( like those of the primitive church ) rules of ecclesiastical wisdom in pursuance of the general canons in holy writ . but if by purity of religion be meant a fewness of parts ; as the quakers believe their way is purer , because they have taken away sacraments and outward forms ; by the same reason the papists may say , that their sacrament of the lord's supper is more pure than that of the protestants , because they have taken the cup from it . but it must be consider'd , that that which makes a pure church , is like that which makes a pure medicine ; not the fewness of the ingredients , but the goodness of them , how many soever they be , and the aptness of them for the procuring of health . therefore our church being already pure , the ruin of it will not tend to the purity and advancement of the protestant religion . fourthly , the establishing of contrary parties by a toleration is not the way to perfect religion , any more than the suffering of divers errours wou'd be the means of reforming them . one principle only can be true ; and a mixture of sacred and profane is the greatest impurity . fifthly , many dissenters are not like to improve christianity , because they lay aside the rules of discretion , and rely not on god's assistance in the use of good means ; but depend wholly upon immediate illumination without the aids of prudence . sixthly , our church has already better means to promote pure religion , than any the dissenters have propos'd . any church may be improv'd in small matters ; but 't were very imprudent to change the present model for any that has yet been offer'd . we have all the necessaries to faith and godliness ; primitive discipline , decency and order are preserved ; we have as many truly pious members as any nation under heaven , and such excellent writers and preachers as god ought to be prais'd for : whereas amongst the parties the folly and weakness of preachers is delivered solemnly as the dictate of god's holy spirit . i may add also , that the dissenters doctrine of god's secret decrees , their ordination by presbyters without a bishop , their long unstudy'd effusions , their leaving the creed out of the directory for public worship , their sitting at the lord's supper ( and that sometimes with the hat on ) their alteration of the form of giving the holy elements , and their forbidding the observation of festivals , were not so conducive to the edifying of the body of christ , as those things which were in the late times illegally remov'd by them . it is easy enough to alter a constitution ; but 't is extreme difficult to make a true and lasting improvement . to conclude , since it appears that dissenters are not like to obtain their ends of establishing themselves , of rooting out popery , and promoting pure religion , by overthrowing the church of england ; therefore they ought both in prudence and charity to endeavour after union with it . chap. i. of the necessity of living in constant communion with the establish'd church of england . that i may discourse with all possible clearness , it will be necessary before i proceed , to explain a few things . . what is meant by a christian church . . what church-communion is . . what is meant by fixt communion and by occasinal communion . i. then a church is a body or society of men separated from the rest of the world , and united to god and to themselves by a divine covenant . it is a body or society in opposition to particular men and to a confus'd multitude . for tho' it do's consist of particular men , yet those men are consider'd not in a private capacity , but as united into a regular society . for god is not the authour of confusion . and if the meanest societies cannot subsist without order , much less the church of god , which is a society instituted for the most spiritual and supernatural ends . the jewish church had exact order ; and the christian church with respect to the union and order of it's parts is not only call'd a body , but a spiritual building , holy temple , and the house of god. but then the church is one body in opposition to many bodies . the jewish church was but one , and therefore the christian , which is grafted into the jewish , is but one. the church is call'd the temple of god , and the temple was but one by the command of god. christ also tells us , that there should be but one fold under one shepherd , joh. . . and indeed it is extremely absurd to say , that the christian church , which has the same foundation , the same faith , the same promises , the same priviledges ; should be divided into separate bodies of the same kind . for certainly where everything is common , there is one community . 't is true , distinct men , tho' of the same common nature , have distinct essences , and this makes them distinct persons ; but where the very essence of a body or society consists in having all things common , there can be but one body . and therefore if one lord , one faith , one baptism , one god and father of all , be common to the whole christian church ; and if no christian has any peculiar privileges ; then there is but one church . i add , that the church is a body or society of men separated from the rest of the world ; upon which account christians are call'd the chosen or elect people of god , having a peculiar faith , laws , rites , &c. which are not common to the whole world. it is also a society of men united to god and to themselves by a divine covenant . it is united to god , because it is a religious society ; and the men are united to themselves , because they are one society . but the chief thing to be observ'd is , that the union is made by a divine covenant . thus god made a covenant with abraham , of which circumcision was the seal ; and the christian church is nothing else , but such a society of men , as are in covenant with god thro' christ . i suppose all men will grant , that god only can make a church ; and that the only visible way he has of forming a church is by granting a church-covenant , which is the divine charter whereon the church is founded ; and by authorizing some persons to receive others into this covenant by such a form of admission as he shall institute , which form under the gospel is baptism . so that to be taken into covenant with god , and to be receiv'd into the church is the same thing ; and he is no member of the church , who is not visibly admitted into god's covenant . from what has been said it plainly follows , . that a covenant-state and a church-state are the same thing . . that every profest christian , who is receiv'd into covenant , as such , is a church-member . . that nothing else is necessary to make us members of the christian church , but only baptism , which gives us right to all the privileges of the covenant . . that no church-state can depend upon human contracts and covenants , and therefore the independent church-covenant between pastor and people is no part of the christian church-covenant ; because it is no part of the baptismal vow , which is one and the same for all mankind , and the only covenant which christ has made . and why then do the independents exact such a covenant of baptiz'd persons , before they admit them to their communion ? . that it is absurd to gather churches out of churches , which already consist of baptiz'd persons . for there is but one church , which is founded upon a divine covenant , and this we are made members of by baptism ; if therefore an independent church-covenant be necessary , then the baptismal covenant is of no value , till it be confirm'd by entring into a particular church-covenant . . that if the church be founded on one covenant , then the church is but one . for those that have an interest in the same covenant are members of the same church ; and tho' the universal church , for man's conveniency , be divided into several parts or congregations , yet it cannot be divided into two or more churches . so that two churches which are not members of each other , cannot partake in the same covenant , but the divider forfeits his interest in it . a prince indeed may grant the same charter to several corporations ; but if he confine his charter to the members of one corporation , those who separate from the corporation , forfeit their interest in the charter . thus has god granted a charter or covenant , and declares that by this one covenant he unites all christians into one church , into which we are admitted by baptism ; and therefore if we separate from this one church , we forfeit our interest in it . god has not made a particular covenant with the church of geneva , france , or england , but with the one catholic church ; and therefore if we do not live in unity with the catholic church , we have no right to the blessings promis'd to it . ii. by church-communion i mean church-society . to be in communion with the church , is to be a member of it . and this is call'd communion , because all church-members have a common right to church-privileges , and a common obligation to the duties of church-members . 't is true , this word communion is commonly us'd to signify praying , hearing and receiving the sacrament together ; but strictly speaking those offices are not communion , but an exercise of communion . church-communion is church-union ; for as a member must be united to the body , before it can perform the natural action of a member : so a man must be in communion with the church , before he has a right to pray , &c. and therefore , tho' a man that is not in union or communion with the church , shou'd perform those offices ; yet the performance of them do's not make him a member of the church , but an intruder . such offices are acts of communion , if perform'd by church-members ; but not otherwise . so that to be in communion with the church is to be a member of it ; and by being a member a man has a right to the blessings promis'd to it , and an obligation to perform the offices of church-society , viz. obedience to the churches authority , joining in prayers , &c. and he that acts otherwise , renounces his communion with it . from what has been said i observe , . that church-communion principally respects not a particular , but the universal church , which is but one all the world over . for membership may extend to the remotest parts of the world , if the body , whereof we are members , reach so far : and baptism makes us members of the universal church , because it admits us into the covenant , which god made with the universal church . . that every act of christian communion , such as praying , &c. is an act of communion with the whole catholic church , tho' it must be perform'd in a particular congregation , because all christians cannot meet in one place . thus do we as fellow-members pray to god the common father of christians , in the name of christ the common saviour of christians , for the same common blessings , for our selves and all other christians . thus also the supper of the lord is not a private supper , but the common feast of christians , and an act of catholic communion . . that the only reason , why i am bound to live in communion with any particular church , is because i am a member of the whole christian church . for i must live in communion with the whole christian church ; and this cannot be done without actual communion with some part of it . so that i have nothing else to do but to consider , whether that part of the catholic church wherein i live , be so sound that i may lawfully live in communion with it ; and if it be , i am bound to do so under peril of schism from the catholic church . . that those churches which are not members of each other , are separate churches ; because the catholic church being but one , all particular churches ought to be members of it . to make this plain , i shall lay down some few rules , whereby we may certainly know what churches are in communion with each other , and which are schismatical conventicles . . there must be but one church in one place ; because private christians ought to join with those christians with whom they live ; and to withdraw our selves from ordinary communion with the church in which we live into separate societies , is to renounce its communion ; and when there is not a necessary cause for it , is a schismatical separation . every particular church must have its limits , as every member in the body has its proper place : but when there is one church within the bowels of another , it is a notorious schism . this is the case of our dissenters , who refuse to worship god in the same assemblies with us . distinct churches at a distance may be of the same communion : but distinct churches in the same place can never be of the same communion ; for then they wou'd naturally unite . so that all separation from a church wherein we live , unless there be necessary reasons for it , is schism . 't is true , a nation may permit those foreigners that are among them , to model their congregations according to the rules of those churches , to which they originally belong ; and that without any danger of schism . for a bare variety of ceremonies makes no schism between churches , while they live in communion with each other . now every particular national church has authority over her own members to prescribe the rules of worship : but as she does not impose upon other churches , at a distance ; so she may allow the same liberty to the members of such foreign churches , when they live within her jurisdiction . for tho' all true churches are members of each other , yet each church has a peculiar jurisdiction ; and therefore for the church of england to allow foreigners to observe their own rules , is not to allow separate communions , but to leave them to the goverment of that church , to which they belong . so that distinct congregations of foreigners , who own the communion of our church , tho' they observe the customs of their own , are not schismatical , as the separate conventicles of our dissenters are . . those are separate churches , which divide from the communion of any church , from any dislike of its doctrine , goverment or worship . for in this case they leave the church , because they think it unsafe to continue one body with it . two churches may be in communion with each other , and yet not actually communicate together , because distance of place will not permit it : but it is impossible that two churches , which renounce each others communion , or at least withdraw ordinary communion from each other from a profess'd dislike , shou'd still continue in communion with each other . because they are opposite societies , sounded upon contrary principles , and acting by contrary rules , and pursuing contrary ends , to the ruin and subversion of each other . . those are separate churches which do not own each others members as their own . the christian church is but one houshold and family and whoever makes two families of it , is a schismatic . if christians in the same kingdom hold separate assemblies under distinct kinds of goverment and different governours , and condemn each others constitution and modes of worship , and endeavour to draw away members from each other ; they cannot be thought to be one church . and indeed we may as well say , that several sorts of goverment in the same nation , with distinct governours , distinct subjects and distinct laws , that are always at enmity and war with each other , are but one kingdom ; as we may say , that such congregations are but one church . iii. i am to explain what is meant by fixt and by occasional communion . by fixt communion the dissenters understand an actual and constant communicating with some one particular church , as fixt members of it . by occasional communion they mean praying , hearing and receiving the sacrament at some other church ( of which they do not own themselves to be members ) as occasion serves ; that is , either to gratify their own curiosity , or to serve some secular end , or to avoid the imputation of schism . now fixt communion is the only true notion of communion , for occasional communion do's not deserve the name of communion . for i have prov'd that he , who is not a member , cannot perform an act of communion ; and therefore it is as plain a contradiction to talk of an occasional act of communion , as of an occasional membership . since every act of communion is an act of communion with every sound part of the catholic church , therefore the exercise of christian communion is equally fix't and constant , or equally occasional with the whole catholic church . 't is true , in one sence we may be members of a particular church , that is , we may live under the goverment of a particular bishop in a particular national church ; but yet every act of communion perform'd in this particular church is an act of communion with every sound part of the catholic church . so that wherever i communicate , whether in that church in which i usually live , or in any other particular church , where i am accidentally present , my communion is of the same nature . now our ordinary communion with those churches where our constant abode is , may be call'd fix't communion ; and our communion with those churches where we are accidentally present , may be call'd occasional communion ; and all this may be done without schism , because all these churches are members of each other : but we cannot lawfully join sometimes with the establish'd church and sometimes with a separate congregation ; because the case is vastly different . for the establish'd church and the dissenters congregations are not members of each other , but separate churches . now 't is impossible for any man to be a member of two separate churches ; and whatever acts of worship we join in with other churches , of which we are no members , they are not properly acts of communion . having thus explain'd the three foregoing particulars , i proceed to the main business , which was to shew , that it is the indispensable duty of all english men to live in constant communion with the establish'd church of england . this i shall do by shewing , first , that communion with some church or other is a necessary duty . secondly , that constant communion with that church , with which occasional communion is lawful , is a necessary duty ; from whence i shall make it appear , thirdly , that it is necessary to continue in constant communion with the establish'd church of england . i. then , it is plain , that communion with some church or other is a necessary duty . because to be in communion is to be a member of christ ; and he that is a member , has a right to the privileges and an obligation to the duties of a member ; and 't is certain that communion in prayers , &c. is none of the least privileges of christianity , and that 't is the duty of a member to communicate in religious offices . but to put the matter out of all doubt , i shall offer five things , to prove that external and actual communion is a necessary duty . . baptism makes us members of the visible church of christ ; but there can be no visible church without visible communion , and therefore every visible member is bound to visible communion , when it may be had . . this is essential to the notion of a church , as it is a society of christians . for since all societies are instituted for the sake of some common duties and offices , therefore some duties and offices must be perform'd by the society of christians ; especially since the church consists of different offices and officers , as pastors , &c. eph. . . which are of no use , if private christians are not bound to maintain communion with them in all religious offices . . the nature of christian worship obliges us to church-communion . for we are bound to worship god according to christ's institution , that is , by the hands of the ministry authoriz'd for that purpose , acts . . and therefore tho' the private prayers of church-members are acceptable , yet none but public prayers offer'd up by the ministers are properly the prayers of the church and acts of church-communion . nay the lord's supper , which is the principal part of god's worship , is a common supper or communion-feast , and cannot possibly be celebrated but in actual communion . . the exercise of church-authority , which consists in admitting men to , or excluding them from the external acts of communion , supposes that church-members are obliged to visible communion . . if separation from religious assemblies be to break communion , as it plainly appears to be from cor. . . joh. . . heb. . . then to live in communion with the church , requires our actual communicating with the church in all religious duties . accordingly to have communion with any , is to partake with them in their religious mysteries , cor. . , . so that tho' we must first be in a state of communion , before we have a right to communicate ; yet we cannot preserve our church-state without actual communion . and a right to communicate without actual communion , which is an exercise of that right , is worth nothing ; because all the blessings of the gospel are convey'd to us by actual communion . this is sufficient to prove the necessity of actual communion with the church , when it may be had ; for when it can't be had , we are not obliged to it . but then the greater difficulty is , whether it be lawful to suspend communion with all , because the church is divided into parties . now a man may as well be of no religion , because there are different opinions in religion ; as communicate with no church , because the church is divided into parties . for 't is possible to know which is a true and sound part of the catholic church ; and when we know that , we are bound to maintain communion with it . indeed if divisions excuse from actual communion with the church , then church-communion never was or can be a duty ; for there were divisions even in the apostles times . but the rule is plain ; for we are bound to communicate with the establish'd church , if it may be done without sin . the advantage lies on the side of authority , and to separate from such a church is both disobedience and schism . but what is meant by suspending communion ? these men will not say that it is lawful never to worship god in any public assemblies during the divisions in the church ; and therefore they mean , that in case of such divisions they may refuse to enter themselves fixt and settled members of any church , but communicate occasionally with them all . but i have already shewn how absurd this distinction of fixt and occasional communion is ; and that whoever is a member of the church is a fixt and not an occasional member ; and that every act of communion is an act of fixt communion . so that when men communicate occasionally , as they speak , with all the different parties of christians in a divided church , they either communicate with none or with all of them . if with none , then they maintain communion with no church , which i have prov'd it to be their duty to do : but if they communicate with all , then they are members of separate and opposite parties ; that is , they are contrary to themselves , and on one side or other are certain to be schismatics . ii. i am now to shew in the d . place , that constant communion is a necessary duty , where occasional communion is lawful . every true christian is in communion with the whole christian church , that is , is a member of the whole church ; and therefore he must constantly perform the acts of communion in that part of the church in which he lives . so that he cannot without sin communicate only occasionally with that church , with which he may and ought to communicate constantly , as being constantly present there . there cannot be two distinct churches in the same place , one for constant , and another for occasional communion , without schism ; and therefore where my constant abode is , there my constant communion must be , if there be a true and sincere part of the catholic church in that place . for it is not lawful to communicate with two distinct and separate churches in the same place , as for instance , sometimes with the church of england , sometimes with the presbyterians ; because this is directly contrary to all the principles of church-communion . for to be in communion with the church is to be a member of it ; and to be a member of two separate and opposite churches , is to be as contrary to our selves as those separate churches are to each other ; and whoever communicates with both those churches , on one side or other communicates in a schism . so that if schism be a very great sin , and that which will damn us as soon as adultery or murther , then it must needs be unlawful and dangerous to communicate with schismatics . nothing less than sinful terms of communion can justifie our separation from the establish'd church wherein we live ; for otherwise there cou'd be no end of divisions , but men might new model churches as often as their fancies alter . that is a sound and orthodox part of the catholic church , which has nothing sinful in its communion ; otherwise no church can be sound and orthodox . now that man that separates from such a sound part of the church , separates from the whole church , because the communion of the church is but one . since therefore those who communicate occasionally with the establish'd church , do thereby own that there are no sinful terms of communion with it ; and since he who separates from that establish'd church where there are no sinful terms of communion , is guilty of schism ; therefore a man is obliged to join constantly with that church , with which he owns it lawful to communicate occasionally . iii. now if these things be true , which i have so plainly prov'd , then it will easily be made appear in the third place , that it is necessary to continue in constant communion with the establish'd church of england . for since a man is obliged to join constantly with that church , with which he owns it lawful to join occasionally ; therefore it is plain , that all english men are obliged to join constantly with the establish'd church of england , because they may lawfully communicate with it occasionally . but if any man say that 't is not lawful to communicate occasionally with the establish'd church of england , i doubt not to make it appear in the following discourse , that he is greatly mistaken . 't is not my present business to prove , that the pastors of dissenting congregations ought to subscribe to the articles , &c. for tho' that matter may be easily made out , yet 't is foreign to my purpose ; my design being only to satisfy lay-dissenters , and to shew that they may lawfully join with our church , because then it will appear to be their duty to do so constantly . and certainly if the case of lay-communion were truly stated and understood , the people wou'd not be far more averse to communion with the parish-churches , than the non-conforming ministers , who have often join'd with us . and as the ministers by bringing their case to the peoples , may see communion then to be lawful , and find themselves obliged to maintain it in a private capacity : so the people by perceiving their case not to be that of the ministers , but widely different from it , wou'd be induced to hold communion with the church . it appears therefore from what i have already said , that if that part of the church in which we live be a true and sound part of the catholic church , then we are obliged to maintain constant communion with it . and that the establish'd church of england is such a true and sound part of the catholic church , even our dissenters themselves have fully prov'd . for all or most of those , with whom i am to treat , have join'd in our solemn offices of devotion ; which they cou'd not lawfully do , if our church were not a true and sound part of the catholic church of christ . but i shall not insist upon that personal argument ; because i design to descend to particulars , and to shew first , that our church is a true and sound part of the christian church , and secondly , that those pleas which the dissenters make use of to excuse their separation from her , are vain and frivolous . first , then , the establish'd church of england is a true and sound part of the catholic church . that 't is a true church , appears from the confession of the most eminent and sober (a) non-conformists ; nay the old non-conformists undertake to (b) prove it , and so do's the (c) authour of jerubbaal ; and if i shou'd proceed to particulars , i might fill a volume with (d) testimonies . 't is true they own her to be a true church upon different grounds , because some of the dissenting writers are for a national , and others for a congregational church ; but they (e) all agree in this that the church of england is a true church , tho' they say she is a corrupted one . nay our (f) brethren do not only grant her to be a true church , but also declare her to be one of the most valuable , if not the very best in the world . but i shall say no more of this matter , only i refer the reader to mr. baxter's cure of ch. divis . dir . . p. . that the establish'd church is also a sound , as well as a true part of the catholic church might easily appear by an examination of it ; but i shall not enter upon so large a work , because it is not necessary : for i conceive that our dissenters will be not only willing but forward to acknowledge it , when i shall have answer'd those objections which they are pleas'd to make against our communion , and shewn that those pleas which they raise from them , are by no means sufficient to make separation lawful . i proceed therefore to the several pleas , and design to examine them in their natural order . chap. ii. the use of indifferent things in the worship of god , no objection against our communion . the first objection against our communion is drawn from the use of indifferent things . our adversaries say , that indifferent things may not lawfully be us'd in the worship of god , and that our communion is therefore unlawful , because we require men to use such indifferent things . now that this objection may be fully answer'd , i shall do four things ; viz. first , i shall shew what is meant by indifferent things . secondly , i shall shew that indifferent things may be lawfully us'd in divine worship . thirdly , i shall consider how we may know , what things are indifferent in the worship of god. fourthly , i shall shew , how we are to determine our selves in the use of indifferent things with respect to the worship of god. i. then , i shall shew what is meant by indifferent things . all actions are either duties or sins , or indifferent , that is , such as are neither duties nor sins . duties or sins are so , either in their own nature or by divine law. that which is commanded is a duty ; that which is forbidden is a sin ; but that , which is neither commanded nor forbidden , is indifferent ; because 't is neither duty nor sin ; and we may either chuse or refuse it without sin . for where no law is , there is no transgression ; rom. . . duty is duty , because 't is commanded ; and sin is sin , because 't is forbidden ; and indifferent is indifferent , because 't is neither commanded nor forbidden . so that we may as well know by the silence of the law what is indifferent , as we may know by its authority what is a duty or a sin . for where there is no law for or against , the matter is indifferent . as for instance , suppose there should be a dispute concerning daies set apart for the service of god ; how must this be determin'd , but by the law of nature or revelation ? now if neither the law of nature nor the law of revelation say any thing of the observation of such daies , then we are at liberty to observe or not to observe them . ii. indifferent things may be us'd in the divine worship ; as appears , . from the consideration of the gospel-rules of worship , which ( except what relate to the two sacraments ) are taken from the nature of the thing , and were the same in all ages ; viz. such as respect order , decency and edification . cor. . , . so that we are no otherwise bound , than all the world ever was ; and therefore , since others have always determin'd the outward circumstances of worship , we have also the same liberty . the rules themselves are general , and the apostles rarely descend to particulars ; but whenever they do , they shew how far custom , charity and the reason of the thing ought to govern us ; ( as in the case of a man's being uncover'd in god's worship , cor. . , . ) for they thought it impossible or not worth their while , to tie all nations to the same modes , since god may be honour'd by one as well as the other . if it be said , that when things are determin'd in general , the particulars are therein virtually determin'd , and so are not indifferent ; i answer , that then nothing is indifferent , since there are general rules about every thing . as for example , all meats are now lawful to christians ; but yet there are general rules , by which we are determin'd in the use of them , such as our own constitution , &c. but those rules do not make the meats to be other than indifferent . so there are general rules for god's worship ; but yet the particulars are indifferent , and prudence is to regulate them . the general rules of order , decency and edification depend upon variable circumstances , and may be different according to those circumstances . that thing may tend to order , decency and edification in one country or age , which in another may tend to the contrary . thus being cover'd in the church , and the custom of love-feasts , &c. were once thought decent ; but afterwards the opinions of men alter'd . so that order , decency and edification being changeable things as circumstances vary , only general rules can be prescrib'd ; but the particulars must be left to authority to determine . . our saviour and his apostles did use indifferent things , which were not prescrib'd , in divine worship . thus he join'd in the synagogal worship , john . , &c. tho' ( if the place it self were at all prescrib'd ) the manner of that service was not so much as hinted at . thus he us'd the cup of charity in the passover , tho' it was not instituted ; luke . . the feast of dedication was an human institution , yet he vouchsaf'd to be present at it . nay he comply'd with the jews in the very posture of the passover , which they chang'd to sitting , tho' god had prescrib'd standing . the apostles also observ'd the hours of prayer , which were of human institution , acts . . now if christ and his apostles did thus under the jewish law , which was so exact in prescribing outward ceremonies ; certainly we may do the same under the gospel . i may add , that the primitive christians not only comply'd with the jews in such rites as were not forbidden , but also had some ritual observations taken up by themselves . thus they (a) wash'd the disciples feet in imitation of christ , and (b) us'd love-feasts ; till they thought it convenient to lay them aside . from whence it appears that prescription is not necessary to make a rite lawful ; 't is enough if it be not forbidden . if it be said , that these usages of the christian church were civil observances , and us'd as well out of god's worship as in it ; and therefore what there needed no institution for , might be lawfully us'd without it ; i answer , . that this justifies most of our usages ; for a white garment was us'd in civil cases as a sign of royalty and dignity , &c. . a civil observance , when us'd in religious worship , either remains civil , when so apply'd ; or is religious , when so apply'd . if it be civil , then kneeling in god's worship is not religious , because 't is a posture us'd in civil matters . if it be religious , then a rite that is not prescrib'd , may be us'd in worship to a religious end . . 't is evident , that (c) neither the washing of feet nor the holy kiss were us'd as civil rites ; and that the latter is call'd by the fathers the seal of prayer and the seal of reconciliation . . if a rite's being civil makes it lawful in divine worship , then any civil rite may be us'd in worship , and consequently all the ridiculous practices of the church of rome wou'd be warrantable . . if a rite's being civil makes it lawful in worship , then how can our adversaries say , that nothing is to be us'd in worship , but what is prescrib'd by god , except the natural circumstances of action ? for there are many civil rites which are not natural circumstances of action . feasting and salutation are civil usages ; but divine worship can be perform'd without them . and if these and the like were antiently us'd in worship , then we have the same liberty to introduce such customs . . if things indifferent , tho' not prescrib'd , may not be lawfully us'd in god's worship , then we cannot lawfully join with any church in the world. for all churches do in some instances or other take the liberty of using , what the scripture has no where requir'd . thus the (d) antients observ'd the feasts of the passion , resurrection , &c. stood in their devotions on the lord's day , &c. these things they all agree'd in , and thought it unlawful to act against an universal practice . besides , some churches had peculiar customs within the bounds of their own communion . the church of rome fasted on saturdays , others indifferently on any day . that of milan wash'd the feet of persons to be baptiz'd , but that of rome did not . thus in our daies some receive the lord's supper kneeling , others standing , &c. so that if we must have an institution for every thing done in the worship of god , and if we must join in nothing which has it not , then we cannot be members of any church in the world. nor indeed can i learn how a christian can , with a good conscience , perform any part of god's worship , if this principle be admitted for true . for habits and gestures are not determin'd in scripture , and god's worship cannot be perform'd without them ; and if they are unlawful , for not being commanded , then a man must sin every time he praies or receives the sacrament . nay those that condemn the use of such things as are not commanded , do in their practice confute their opinion . for where , i pray , are they commanded to sprinkle the children that are baptiz'd ? or to receive the lord's supper sitting ? or to use conceiv'd prayers ? or to touch and kiss the book in swearing ? or to enter into a particular church-covenant ? nay where do they find that the scripture saith , that there is nothing lawful in divine worship , but what is prescrib'd ; or that what is not commanded is forbidden ? where are we told , that god will be angry with us for doing that , which he has not forbidden ? our brethren themselves will allow , that the time and place of god's worship may be prescrib'd by authority ; and why then may not necessary circumstances , such as gestures and habits , be thus determin'd , tho' they be not commanded ? certainly the command of a lawful power does not make that unlawful , which was not forbidden , and by consequence was lawful before . they say indeed , that nadab and abihu sinn'd , because they offer'd strange fire before the lord , which he commanded them not , &c. lev. . , &c. and therefore there must be a command to make any thing lawful in divine worship . but to this i answer , that the phrase not commanded is constantly apply'd to such things as are absolutely forbidden . the fire also is call'd strange ; which phrase when apply'd to matters of worship , signifies as much as forbidden . thus strange incense , exod. . , . is such as was forbidden , because it was not rightly made ; strange vanities is but another word for strange gods , jer. . . and thus the fire of these men was strange , that is forbidden fire . for there was scarce any thing belonging to the altar , of which more is said than of the fire burning upon it . lev. . . & . . & . . 't was lighted from heaven , and was to be always burning . when atonement was to be made by incense , the coals were to be taken from thence , and therefore surely 't was peculiar to those offices . nay just after the account of the extraordinary way of lighting the fire , follows this relation of nadab and abihu , to shew wherein they offended . for before it was the office of aaron's sons to put fire upon the altar ; and now they suffer'd for attempting to do as formerly , because heaven had declar'd to the contrary . there was also a conformity between the punishment and the sin ; for as fire from the lord consum'd the burnt-offering , so fire from the lord consum'd them . so that their case seems like that of vzzah , chron. . , , & . . for they acted contrary to god's command . i may add that in other places also the phrase not commanded is apply'd to things forbidden ; such as are call'd abominations , that is , idolatrous worship , false prophets , &c. deut. . , . jer. . . & . . & . . so that since the phrase is always spoken of things plainly forbidden , 't is a sign , that 't is rather god's forbidding that made them unlawful , than his not commanding . but , say they , why shou'd the phrase be us'd at all in such matters , if not commanded is not the same as forbidden ? to this i answer , that not commanded is only a softer way of speaking , which is usual in all languages , and frequently to be met with in scripture . thus god saies , that hypocrites chuse that in which i delighted not , is . . . that is , their abominations , as we read , v. . so the apostle saies , the gentiles did things not convenient , rom , . , . that is , envy , murther , &c. and the phrase not commanded is of the like kind , when the things it 's apply'd to , are alike abominable . besides , if not commanded be the same as forbidden , then the very notion of indifferent things is destroy'd , and there is no indifferent thing in the world ; because a thing indifferent is , as i said before , that which is neither commanded nor forbidden . but 't is said , that all things not commanded in god's word are additions to it ; and that such additions are unlawful , because god saies , ye shall not add unto the word which i command you , neither shall ye diminish ought from it , deut. . . and the scribes are condemn'd , matth. . . because they taught for doctrines the commandments of men. now to this i reply , that if by adding to the word they mean doing what the word forbids ; or appointing somewhat else instead of what god has appointed ; or expounding away the design of the word ; or making that which is not the word of god , to be of equal authority with it , as the scribes did ; or giving the same efficacy to human institutions as god does to his ; if i say by adding to the word they mean any of these things , we think that adding to the word is unlawful . and if by diminishing they mean neglecting what the word requires , or thinking god's institutions not compleat , we think that diminishing from the word is unlawful . but if they say , that doing any thing not commanded in the worship of god , tho' it have none of the ingredients before spoken of , is a sinful adding to the word ; we therein differ from them . . because christ and his apostles and all churches have done things not commanded . . because this destroys the nature of indifferent things ; which cannot be indifferent , if they be sinful additions to god's word . besides , adding is adding to the substance , and diminishing is diminishing from the substance ; so that when the substance remains intire without debasement or corruption , it cannot be call'd an addition or diminution in the scripture-sence . however our adversaries themselves are really guilty of what they charge upon us ; for they forbid , as absolutely unlawful , to use any thing in the worship of god , which is not prescrib'd ; and certainly he that forbids what the scripture do's not forbid , do's as much add to it , as he that commands what the gospel doth not command . as for the words of the d commandment , thou shall not make unto thee any graven image , &c. they do by no means prove , that we must worship god by no other religious rites , than what he has prescrib'd . 't is true , we are there commanded to worship none besides god , and to worship god in a manner sutable to his nature and agreeable to his will : but surely rites instituted by men for the solemnity of god's service are not there forbidden . it has been said indeed , that ceremonies , being invented by man , are of the same nature with images ; but we must observe , . that images are expresly forbidden , and ceremonies are not . . that images tend to debase god in the thoughts of those that worship him after that manner , but ceremonies do not ; and therefore ceremonies are not a breach of the d . commandment . ceremonies are not essential parts of divine worship , but only circumstances of it ; and certainly our brethren cannot find fault , that such circumstances are us'd to further devotion . for they themselves do plead for sitting at the lord's supper , &c. upon this very account , because they think such external circumstances do further devotion . but , say they , if there be not a rule for all things belonging to the worship of god , the gospel wou'd be less perfect than the law ; and christ wou'd not be so faithful in the care of his church , as moses , who was faithful in all his house , heb. . . therefore as moses laid down all the particular rules for god's worship under the law , so has christ under the gospel ; and it is as dangerous to add , as to detract from them . now to this i answer , that the design of the epistle to the hebrews is to compare moses and christ , or the law and the gospel , and to shew the exact correspondence between the type and the antitype ; and not to shew that our saviour had as particularly prescrib'd the order of christian worship , as moses had that of the jewish . the gospel is not so particular in the circumstantials of worship as the law was ; and we must not affirm that it is , because we wou'd have it so . we cannot prove , that christ has actually done this , because we imagine that he shou'd have done it . we may better argue , that since these things are not expresly determin'd under the gospel , as they were under the law ; therefore they are left to the determination of our superiours , whom we are commanded to obey . nor are the sufficiency of scripture and faithfulness of christ , to be judg'd of by what we fancy they shou'd have determin'd , but by what they have . since we do not find in the scriptures such particular prescriptions in baptism as in circumcision , nor in the lord's supper as in the passover , nor in our prayers as in the jewish sacrifices ; therefore 't is plain , that the sufficiency of scripture and faithfulness of christ do respect somewhat else , and that they are not the less for want of them . christ was faithful as moses to him that appointed him , in performing what belong'd to him as a mediatour , and discovering to mankind in scripture the method and means , by which they may be sav'd ; and the sufficiency of scripture appears in its being a sufficient means to that end , and it 's putting men into such a state , as will render them capable of attaining to it . iii. i am next to consider , how we may know , what things are indifferent in the worship of god. to this i might answer briefly , that in things forbidden by human authority , the not being requir'd in scripture ; and in things requir'd by human authority , the not being forbidden in scripture , is a rule , whereby we may know , what things are indifferent in the worship of god. but because things in their nature indifferent , may become unlawful in their use and application , therefore i shall add the following particulars . . things are call'd indifferent from their general nature , and not as if they were never unlawful ; for they are lawful or unlawful , as they are us'd and apply'd . . a thing may not be requir'd or forbidden by one law , which is by another ; and that may be indifferent in one state which is not in another ; and therefore when we say a thing is indifferent , we must consider the case and law which it respects . thus to discourse about common affairs is a thing indifferent ; but it is unlawful , when practis'd in the church , and in the midst of religious solemnities . . as there are certain rules , which we are to respect in common conversation , and which even in that case ought to tie us up in the use of things ( otherwise ) indifferent : so there are some rules , which we must have a regard to in the administration of divine worship . and as in common matters the nature of the thing , in actions the end , in conversation the circumstances are to be heeded , viz. time , place , persons ; as when , where , before whom we are cover'd and uncover'd , &c. so in sacred matters , the nature of the thing , in the decency and solemnity of the worship ; the end for which it was appointed , in the edification of the church ; and the peace , glory and security of that , are to be respected . by these rules we are to judge of the indifferency of things in god's service . but because these rules are general ; and decency , edification and order are variable according as circumstances alter ; and because different men have different opinions of them ; therefore i shall give more particular directions . . some things are so notoriously agreeable or opposite to decency , edification and order , that common reason will be able to judge of them . thus 't is plain , that a tumultuous speaking of many together is less for edification , and has more of confusion , than the orderly speaking of one by one ; and service in an unknown tongue do's less conduce to edification , than when 't is in a language commonly understood . but , . there are other things which are not so evident ; and therefore for the clearing of them we may observe ; . that decency , order and edification depend upon each other , and must not be consider'd asunder . and therefore we must not throw down the bounds of public order , and bring all things into confusion , for the sake of edification , or because we think any matter indecent . what is against public order and practice , is for that reason indecent , were there no other reason to make it so . so that if we wou'd judge aright of either of these , we must judge of them together ; and as order alone is not enough to make a thing decent , which is in it self indecent ; so decency or particular edification is not enough to recommend that , which cannot be introduc'd without the disturbance of public order . . that when the case is not apparent , we shou'd rather judge by what is contrary , than by what is agreeable to these rules . we know better , what things are not , than what they are ; and therefore , since we better know what is indecent than decent , disorderly than orderly , against edification than for it , it 's best to take this course in judging about it . as for instance , if we wou'd inquire into the decency of the posture to be us'd in the lord's supper , or the edification that may arise from it ; it may not perhaps be so easy for a man to judge of the greater decency and edification of kneeling or sitting ; but if he find that the posture injoin'd is not indecent or destructive of piety , and of the ends for which the ordinance was instituted , he is therewith to satisfy himself . if , says st. austin , epist . . what is injoyn'd be not against faith or good manners , it is to be accounted indifferent ; and i may add , if it be not indecent , disorderly and destructive of piety , it 's lawful . . that if the case be not apparent , and we cannot easily find out how the things injoin'd are decent , &c. we are obliged to be cautious how we condemn an action , which those men practice whom for other things we cannot condemn . when we find that they argue , and produce experience and reason for it , and we have a whole church against our opinion , we shou'd be apt to think the fault may be in our selves ; and that 't is for want of understanding and insight , for want of use and tryal , and by reason of some prejudices , that we thus differ in our judgment from them . we see what little things do determine men ordinarily in these matters , how addicted they are to their own ways and customs ; and therefore we shou'd think again . so may we be reconcil'd to the rites of a church , as we are to the customs and habits of a nation , which at first seem as indecent , as the ceremonies of a church can do . in short , we have reason to suspect , 't is a zeal without knowledge , when we presume to set our judgment , reason and experience against the judgment , reason and experience of the christian world. iv. i am now to shew in the last place , how we are to determine our selves in the use of indifferent things , with respect to the worship of god. . then as particular persons , solitary and alone , we may forbear to use what is indifferent , when no law of man requires it ; and we may freely use it , when no law of man forbids it . . in our conversation with others we must so use our liberty , as shall be less to the prejudice and more to the benefit of those we converse with . we may act or forbear in complyance with persons of weaker judgment . but . as we are members of a church , we are to obey the commands of it . for if the not grieving a brother or endangering his soul obliges us to restrain the exercise of our liberty , much more do's the peace of the church oblige us to the same . let every one please his neighbour , for his good to edification , rom. . . that is , to his improvement in knowledge , grace , or piety , and the promoting of concord and charity . now edification is chiefly so with respect to the whole , as the church is the house of god , pet. . . and every christian is a stone of it , and therefore ought to study what may be for the edification of the whole . and how is that , but by promoting love , peace and order , and taking care to preserve it ? for so we (e) find peace and edifying , comfort and edification , union and edification join'd together , as the one promotes the other . and therefore as the good and edification of the church is to be always in our eye ; so 't is the rule by which we ought to act in all things lawful ; and to that end we shou'd comply with its customs , observe its directions , and obey its orders , without reluctancy and opposition . if any man seem , or have a mind to be contentious , we have no such custom , neither the churches of god ; cor. . . whatever might be urg'd , the apostle concludes , we have no such custom , &c. the peace of the church is to a peaceable mind sufficient to put an end to all disputes about it ; and since the peace of the church depends upon the observation of its customs , that is infinitely to be preferr'd before scrupulosity and niceness , or a meer inclination to a contrary practice . there must be somewhat establish'd ; and the very change of a custom , tho' it may happen to profit , yet doth disturb by its novelty , saies st. austin , epist . . infirmity in a church is better than confusion ; and in things which neither we nor the worship are the worse for , but the church the better for observing , peace and order are to be preferr'd far before niceties ; and certainly neither we nor the service of god can be the worse for what god has concluded nothing in . in a word , what st. austin and his mother receiv'd from st. ambrose is worthy to be recommended to all ; that in all things not contrary to truth and good manners , it becomes a good and prudent christian to practise according to the custom of the church where he comes , if he will not be a scandal to them , nor have them to be a scandal to him . epist . , & . and if the custom and practice of a church must oblige a good man ; much more ought it so to do , when 't is establish'd by law , and back'd by authority . for then to stand in opposition , is not only an offence but an affront ; 't is to contend , whether we or our superiours shall govern ; and what can be the issue of such a temper , but distraction ? 't is pleaded , that there shou'd be a liberty left to christians in things undetermin'd in scripture ; but there are things which they must agree in , or else there can be nothing but confusion . for instance , what order can there be , if superiours may not determine , whether prayers shall be long or short , and the like ? to conclude , when the scripture do's neither require nor forbid an action , we ought to obey the orders of the church in the performance or omission of it . but 't is said , that if we be restrain'd in the use of indifferent things , we are also restrain'd in our christian liberty , which the apostle exhorts us to stand fast in , gal. . . now to this i answer ; . this is no argument to those that say , there is nothing indifferent in the worship of god ; for then there is no matter of christian liberty in it . . a restraint of our liberty , or receding from it , is of it self no violation of it . the most scrupulous persons plead , that the strong ought to bear with the weak , and give them no offence by indulging that liberty , which others are afraid to take ; and why , i pray , is a man's liberty more damaged , when restrain'd by superiours , than when 't is restrain'd by another's conscience ? if it be said , that the superiour's command restrains it perpetually ; i answer , that the case is still the same ; for the apostle who knew his own liberty , supposes that it wou'd not be damnify'd , tho' it were restrain'd for his whole life . for , saies he , if meat make my brother to offend , i will eat no flesh while the world standeth ; cor. . . and this he wou'd not have said , had he not thought it consistent with standing fast in that liberty , &c. . christian liberty is indeed nothing else , but freedom from the restraints , which the jewish law laid upon men . this is that liberty which we are exhorted to stand fast in ; and i think , that in obeying the orders of our church , there is no danger of judaism . but we must note that christian liberty consists , not in our being freed from the act of observing the jewish law ; but in being freed from the necessity of observing it . for the apostles and first christians did observe it for some time upon prudential considerations ; but they did so , not out of necessity , but in condescension to their weak converts . and if they cou'd observe some judaical rites without infringing their christian liberty ; certainly we may safely use a few indifferent ceremonies . from what has been said it plainly appears , that the use of indifferent things is no objection against living in communion with our establish'd church ; and this is enough to satisfy those persons , who upon no other account , than that of a few harmless impositions , are guilty of separation from her . but because they have some particular objections against some particular things impos'd by her , therefore i shall not satisfy my self with proving the lawfulness of using indifferent things in general , but endeavour to satisfy all their scruples which relate to single instances , as i shall have occasion to treat of them in the following chapters . chap. iii. of the lawfulness and expediency of forms of prayer . the next objection against our communion is the use of forms of prayer . this the dissenters judge to be unlawful , or at least not expedient ; and they think it a sufficient excuse for their separation from us . i shall therefore in this chapter endeavour to rectify their mistakes ; . by shewing that both scripture and antiquity do warrant forms of prayer . . by answering their objections against forms of prayer . and . by proving that the imposition of forms of prayer may be lawfully comply'd with . first then i shall shew , that both scripture and antiquity do warrant forms of prayer . the dissenters indeed require us to produce some positive command of scripture for the use of forms of prayer ; but this is needless , because i have shewn in the foregoing chapter , that things not commanded may be lawfully us'd in divine worship . however , for their full satisfaction i shall endeavour to prove these two things ; . that some forms of prayer are commanded in holy scripture . . that tho' no forms were commanded , yet forms are as lawful as extempore prayers . i. then , some forms of prayer are commanded in holy scripture . i do not say that god's word commands us to use none but forms ; but i affirm that several forms of prayer are injoin'd in god's word . thus numb . . , &c. the priest is commanded to pray for the people in this very form of words , the lord bless thee , &c. and deut. . , . the people are injoin'd to say , be merciful , o lord , &c. and . , &c. i have brought , &c. look down from thy holy , &c. david also by divine inspiration appointed the book of psalms for the public service , as appears by the titles of many of them . and tho' some of them have no titles at all , yet we find they were deliver'd by david into the hands of asaph and his brethren , for forms of praise and thanksgiving , chron. . . and accordingly hezekiah commanded the levites to make use of them , chron. . . this liturgy also was renew'd by ezra , ezr. . , . besides our saviour saies , when ye pray , say , our father , &c. in which he do's as plainly prescribe that very form , as 't is possible . nay had he said , use this form , it cou'd not have been more expressive of his intention to impose it as a form. if it be said , that the lord's prayer is not a form , but only a pattern or directory of prayer ; because our saviour , matt. . . commanded his disciples to pray after this manner , our father , &c. i answer , . when the same matter is mention'd ambiguously in one text , and plainly in another , then the doubtful or ambiguous text must be determin'd by the plain one . now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , matt. . . may be as well translated pray in these words , as pray after this manner ; but i confess , we cannot certainly know from that text , whether christ commands us to use that very form , or one like it . but then the words , luke . . when ye pray , say , our father , &c. are so express a command to use that very form , that nothing can be plainer ; and therefore the other text must be determin'd by them . . our saviour gave this prayer not after the manner of a directory , but of a form. had he design'd it for a directory , he wou'd have bidden them to call upon god for such and such things : whereas he gives them a form'd prayer , and bids them say it ; and we may reasonably suppose , that he intended we shou'd use it as a form , since he gave it as such . . tho' the words in st. matthew were only a directory , yet those in st. luke are a form of prayer . for the former were deliver'd in the sermon upon the mount , in the second year after his baptism ; but the latter upon another quite different occasion in the third year after it . therefore 't is probable , that the disciples understood those in st. matthew only as a directory ; and requested our saviour afterwards to give them a form. for , . the occasion of christ's giving them this prayer in st. luke , was their requesting him to teach them to pray , as john taught his disciples . for 't was the custom of the jewish doctors to teach their disciples a particular form of prayer ; and st. john had done the same , and the disciples desire , that christ wou'd do so too . for neither st. john's , nor our saviour's disciples cou'd be ignorant how to pray ; but their request was , that christ wou'd give them his particular form according to the jewish custom ; and this form he gave them , which we call the lord's prayer . but 't is objected , that supposing our saviour did prescribe it as a form , yet it was only for a time , till they shou'd be more fully instructed and enabled to pray by the coming of the holy spirit . for , say they , before christ's ascension the disciples had ask'd nothing in his name , joh. . . but all prayers after christ's ascension were to be offer'd in his name , joh. . , . & . . now this prayer has nothing of his name in it ; and therefore was not design'd to be us'd after his ascension ; and accordingly , say they , in all the new testament we have not the least intimation of the disciples using this form. but this objection is of no force , if we consider the following particulars . . that our saviour has not given us the least intimation , that he prescrib'd this form only for a time , and not for continual use . and if we may pronounce christ's institution to be null without his authority , then baptism and the lord's supper may be temporary prescriptions , as well as the lord's prayer . whatever christ has instituted without limitation of time , do's alwaies oblige . . that his not inserting his own name into it , is no argument at all , that he never intended it shou'd be us'd after his ascension . for to pray in christ's name is to pray in his mediation , depending upon his merits and intercession for the acceptance of our prayers ; and therefore prayers may be offer'd up in christ's name , tho' we do not name him . thus without doubt the disciples pray'd in his name , acts . . tho' his mediation is not mention'd . 't is true , his name is not expressed in the lord's prayer ; because when he gave it , he was not yet ascended , and his disciples were not to ask in his name , till after his ascension : but now that he is ascended , we can as well offer it in his name , as if it had been express'd in it . nay 't is so fram'd , that now after his ascension , when the doctrine of his mediation was to be more fully explain'd , we cannot offer it at all , but in and thro' his mediation . for god is peculiarly our father in and thro' jesus christ . and therefore christ's not inserting his own name , do's by no means prove , that he did not design it for a standing form. . that tho' the scriptures do not mention the apostles and disciples using the lord's prayer , yet this is no argument either that they did not use it , or that they did not believe themselves obliged to use it . for we may as well conclude from the silence of scripture , that they did not baptize in the name of the father and of the son , and of the holy ghost , tho' christ had commanded them so to do ; as we may conclude , that they did not use the lord's prayer , tho' christ commanded them to say , our father , &c. especially if we consider , that those who liv'd nearest the apostolical ages , and so were the most competent judges of what was done in them , where the scripture is silent , did alwaies use this form in their public prayers , and believe themselves obliged to do so . now that this prayer was look't upon as a standing form , to be perpetually us'd , appears from tertull. de orat. st. cyprian de orat. dom. st. cyril , cat. myst . . st. jerom. in pelag. l. . st. austin . hom. . . epist . . st. chrysost . de simult . st. gregory ep. lib. . cap. . and to be sure , they who believ'd the institution of it to be perpetually obliging , cou'd not doubt , but that it was constantly us'd in the apostolic age. and methinks 't is very strange , that had the institution been temporary , the church of christ for fifteen hundred years , shou'd never be wise enough to discover it ; and it seems to me a very high presumption for us to determin against the constant belief and practice of the church in all ages , without the least warrant so to do , either from our saviour or his apostles . but it is objected yet farther , that tho' forms of god's appointing may and ought to be us'd , yet forms of man's composure ought not : and that we may as well appoint new scripture for public instruction , because the inspir'd persons did so ; as we may appoint new forms for public worship , because they did so . but this objection also will be of no force , if we consider four things . . that this objection allows the prescribing of forms to be lawful in its own nature ; for otherwise god must have done that which is unlawful in its own nature . nay our saviour's prescribing his form was a tacit approbation of other forms , that were prescrib'd before , and that not only by god , but by men too . for the jews us'd several forms of human composure in their temple and synagogues in our saviour's time , yet he was so far from disapproving them , that he prescrib'd a form to his own disciples ; which form , as mr. gregory has prov'd , he collected out of the jewish forms , in whose books the several parts and clauses of it are extant almost verbatim to this day . and certainly had he disapprov'd their forms as evil and sinful , he wou'd never have collected his own prayer out of them . since therefore our saviour's giving a form in such circumstances signifies his approbation of other forms , 't is plain either that he approv'd what is evil , or that forms are lawful . . that this objection must allow the prescribing of public forms to be not only lawful , but also useful . for otherwise god , who alwaies acts for wise ends , and uses the most proper means , wou'd never have prescrib'd any forms . and certainly what was once useful , is useful still . for . we are now dull and carnal enough to need forms ; and . our saviour has prescrib'd one to be us'd in all ages , which he wou'd not have done , had it not been useful for the gospel-state . . that this objection must also allow , that god's prescribing forms by inspir'd persons may be lawfully imitated by us , provided we have the same reason for it . and therefore governours may prescribe forms as long as forms are useful . . that tho' governours may prescribe forms after god's example , yet they may not prescribe them as scripture , or divine inspiration . for as spiritual governours must take care to instruct the people after god's example , but are not obliged to do it by inspir'd persons : so they may prescribe forms of prayer after god's example , but cannot pretend to do it by inspiration . they have god's example for doing the action ; but they cannot pretend to inspiration in the doing of it without manifest falshood and presumtion . and therefore , tho' god's example will warrant for the one ; yet it will not warrant them falsly to pretend to the other . thus then it appears , that some forms of prayer are commanded in holy scripture ; and that our governours are authoriz'd by god's example to prescribe others , when they judge them useful . ii. therefore , i am to prove , that tho' no forms were prescrib'd , yet forms are as lawful as conceiv'd or extempore prayers . certainly there is no command of god to pray extempore ; and therefore forms have a better claim to divine authority , than they . 't is said indeed , that wheresoever we are commanded to pray vocally , we are commanded to pray in our own conceptions and words ; but this is a great mistake . for certainly when god commanded men to pray by his own forms , they did pray vocally , tho' not in their own words . and here let me take notice , that dissenters appropriate the name of prayer to praying in their own words ; and call the using a form ( not prayer , but ) reading a prayer . but surely the levites did really pray , when they us'd the words of david and asaph ; and so did the primitive christians , when they said the lord's prayer ; and if so , then a form may be truly call'd a vocal prayer . for vocal prayer consists in the speaking of our devout affections to god whether with , or without a form. but they pretend , that whatsoever instances there may be of forms in old times , god has declar'd in the new testament , that it is his will , we shou'd pray by our own gift of utterance for the future . now methinks , had it been the will of god , that we shou'd not pray by forms , 't is very strange that in all the new testament there shou'd be no express prohibition of it . especially since i have prov'd that the jews had forms , and philo de victim . p. . and the modern rabbins own the same ; they were also a people most tenacious of their customs , and therefore needed to be forbidden the use of forms , had our lord design'd to exclude them out of his worship . nay the essenes , who of all the sects of the jews , did most readily embrace christianity , had certain forms of prayer , as josephus observes , de bell. jud. l. . c. . p. . now when those that were most likely to receive the christian faith , were so addicted to forms , can we imagine , that had christ intended they shou'd use them no longer , he wou'd not have given them express warning of them ? but when instead of so doing , he bids them say , our father , &c. how cou'd they think , but that he design'd they shou'd still use a form , as they did before ? were not that his design , 't is strange , that he took no care to undeceive them . but that i may fully prove , that the scripture does not command us to pray without a form ; i shall examine the reasons for which the dissenters think it do's . god , say they , has promis'd us an ability to utter our minds in vocal prayer , and therefore to pray by forms of other men's composure is contrary to his intention . but i shall afterwards prove , that this ability , which they pretend is promis'd for the purpose of vocal prayer , is a common gift , which god has no more appropriated to prayer , than to any other end of utterance and elocution ; and that therefore to omit the using it in prayer , is no more contrary to the intention of god , than to omit the using it upon any other just and lawful occasion . however , because they urge some places of scripture to prove , that 't is design'd merely for vocal prayer , i shall therefore consider them . . they urge zach. . . i will pour out upon the house of david and the inhabitants of jerusalem , the spirit of grace and supplications . the hebrew word , translated supplications , do's alwaies ( say they ) denote vocal prayer , and therefore pouring out the spirit of supplications must imply communicating an ability to pray vocally . to this i answer , that the word is no more restrain'd to vocal prayer , than any other word that signifies prayer in scripture . 't is true we read , psal . . . hear the voice of my supplication , when i cry unto thee ; but the voice of my supplication do's not necessarily denote vocal prayer . for 't is a hebrai●● , and may signify no more than my supplication or prayer . for so gen. . . 't is said , the voice of thy brother's blood cries , &c. now the blood had no real voice to cry with , but cry'd just as mental prayer do's . in other places the word signifies both mental and vocal prayer indifferently , psal . . . & . . or prayer in general , jer. . . but suppose the word were alwaies us'd for vocal prayer , yet surely the promise of pouring out the spirit of supplications intends a much greater good than the gift of extempore utterance in prayer , of which bad men may have a greater share than the most devout . and what is that greater good , but the gift of heavenly affections in prayer ? if it be urg'd , that god has sent forth the spirit of his son , crying , abba father . gal. . . and that we have receiv'd the spirit of adoption , whereby we cry , abba father , rom. . . and that these texts prove us to be enabled to pray vocally by the spirit , and that therefore we ought not to pray by forms ; i answer , . that if these words oblige us to cry vocally to god by our own gifts , then we are equally obliged in all our vocal prayers to cry to him in these words , abba father ; because that is the cry which the spirit enables us to make , and the text is every whit as express for one as for the other . . i deny that crying here do's necessarily denote vocal prayer . for how often do we find the word apply'd to things that have no voice at all ? thus the stones wou'd immediately cry out , luke . . and the labourers hire is said to cry to god , james . . and indeed crying to god has the same latitude with prayer , which includes both vocal and mental . . suppose that crying , abba father , by the spirit , signifies vocal prayer ; yet all that can be gather'd from it is only this , that when we pray vocally , we are enabled by the holy spirit to address our selves to god with assurance , as to a merciful father ; and this we may as well do in a form as otherwise . for if we never cry abba father by the spirit , but when we word our own prayers , we can no more be said to do it when we join with a public extempore prayer , than when we join with a public form , because we word our own prayers in neither . 't is true , the scripture speaks of a gift of utterance , which , say they , was given for praying as well as preaching ; but i answer , that the gift of utterance was miraculous and particular to the primitive ages . this gift , saies saint chrysostom hom. . ad eph. c. . is that which christ promis'd , mark . . by which the disciples spake without premeditation , and what they spake was the inspir'd word of god ; and this gift no sober dissenter will pretend to . the apostles began to speak with tongues , as the spirit gave them utterance , act. . . and the dissenters may as well pretend to the gift of tongues , as that of utterance , they being both extraordinary . but say they , tho' all men have not the gift of praying extempore , yet some have ; and therefore god requires such to pray by their gift and not by a form. for he requires them not to neglect the gift , tim. . . but to stir up the gift , tim. . . and to minister the gift , pet. . . and that having gifts , &c. rom. . . and if men are obliged to exercise their gifts in general , then they must exercise their gift of praying extempore in particular . now to these things , i answer , first , that the gift bestow'd upon timothy was the gift of episcopal power , which he is exhorted to exercise diligently . for at the first plantation of the gospel , the holy ghost pointed out the men , that were to be bishops , as the (f) fathers testifie . for this reason the gift is said to be given him by prophesy . 't was given also with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery ; and these two circumstances prove , that the gift was not the gift of prophesying , but the gift of episcopal authority bestow'd upon him by imposition of hands at god's particular appointment . and now i pray , how do's this text prove , that we must use a gift of vocal prayer in our own words ? as for pet. . . rom. . . i answer , . that there can be nothing in them against praying by a form ; for then they wou'd make as much against using the lord's prayer , as any other form. . that the design of those texts is to stir men up to diligence in the exercise of those several offices , viz. the office of a bishop , a priest , a deacon , and a rich man. for 't is plain that the word gift do's oftentimes signifie an office ; and tho' it may be said , that the relief of the poor is rather the exercise of an ability than an office , yet i answer , that 't is properly the exercise of an office , because the very having ability do's as much put a man into the office of shewing mercy to the poor , as if god had appointed him to it by a solemn ordination . . supposing that by these gifts were not meant offices , but only abilities , yet we are obliged so to exercise them , that all things may be done to edification ; for so the apostle declares that those extraordinary gifts , that were pour'd out in the primitive times , were to be us'd , cor. . , , , . as 't is particularly plain by the instance of the gift of tongues , vers . , , . now if we are not to exercise our gifts , but as they tend to edification , then we must not exercise the gift of praying extempore any farther than it tends to edification . and since praying by a form in public worship do's ( as i shall afterwards prove ) tend more to edification , than praying extempore ; therefore 't is plain that we ought to suspend the use of the gift of conceiv'd prayer . thus , i hope , i have made it appear that some forms of prayer are commanded in scripture , and that those texts which are urg'd against the use of forms of prayer , do prove nothing against them ; and therefore i think i may safely affirm , that the scripture do's warrant forms of prayer . i proceed now to shew that antiquity do's the same . this i shall do , . by answering those authorities , which are objected by the dissenters against the use of forms in the primitive ages . . by proving that they were us'd in those ages , by a short historical account of the matter of fact. . then 't is objected , first that justin martyr saies , apol. . p. . that the minister at the communion pray'd , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that is , say they , according to his ability ; from whence they infer , that in his daies the ministers pray'd by their own gifts and abilities . to this i answer , that the words do signify with all his might , i. e. with his utmost fervency . for the same words are spoken of the people in the same book , p. . who did not compose their own prayer at the eucharist ; and the same phrase is us'd in the same sence by nazianzen , orat. . dly , because tertullian in his apology affirms , that christians did pray without a monitor or prompter , because they did pray from their hearts ; they think he alludes to a custom of the heathen , who in their public worship had a monitor to direct them in what words and to what god they were to pray . now since the christians pray'd without a monitor , therefore say they , they pray'd without any one to direct them what form of words they were to pray in . to which i answer , . that without a monitor cannot signify , without any one to dictate a form of words . for in their public prayers the minister was the mouth of the people ; and therefore whether he pray'd by form or extempore , his words were a form to the people . whatever therefore this obscure phrase means , 't is certain it cannot mean without a form , unless it means without a minister too . . it seems to me most probable , that by without a monitor is meant , without any one to correct them , when either the people repeated or the minister recited the public prayers falsly . for (g) the heathen priests began their sacrifices with a form of prayer , which began with an invocation of janus and vesta , and proceeded with the invocations of all the greater deities by name . now that none of the greater god's might be pretermitted , and (h) none of the prayers falsly or disorderly recited or repeated , (i) one priest read out of a ritual , and another was appointed for a public monitor , to oversee and correct such mistakes as might be made . when therefore tertullian saies , we pray without a monitor , his meaning is not , that we pray without a priest to dictate our prayers to us , whether out of a book or extempore ; but that we pray without one to oversee , to admonish the priests or people , when they dictate or repeat falsly . because , saies he , we pray from our hearts ; that is , either by joining our affections and desires with the priest without repeating the words , or by saying our prayers by heart ; so that we need none to correct us . for tertullian affects to express the greek ; and therefore 't is probable his de pectore , or from the heart may be a translation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which signifies to say by heart . so that tertullian's words do rather argue for the use of forms , than against them . the third and last testimony against the antiquity of forms of prayer , is that of socrates scholasticus , whose words , hist . lib. . c. . they thus translate ; every where and in all worships of prayer , there are not two to be found , that speak the same words . and therefore , say they , 't is very unlikely , they shou'd pray by forms . but we must observe , that he had been speaking of the different ceremonies and customs of the chief churches ; and then concludes , every where and among all worships of prayer , there are not two to be sound , ( not that speak the same words ) but that agree 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in the same thing . where by worships of prayer he means rites of prayer , which the churches differ'd in . and how do's it follow , that because they did not use the same rites and ceremonies of prayer , therefore they did not use forms of prayer ? for even now we see there are different rites and ceremonies of prayer among those churches , which do yet agree in using forms of prayer . . therefore i am to prove , that forms were us'd in the primitive times , by a short historical account of the matter of fact . 't is probable , that in the first age there was a gift of praying extempore by immediate inspiration ; and while this gift continu'd , perhaps there might be no other form in public worship , but only that of the lord's prayer . but 't is probable , that upon the ceasing or abatement of it , forms were compos'd after the method of those inspir'd prayers . for 't is most likely , that even from the apostolical age some part at least of the public worship was perform'd in forms of prayer ; because , so far as we can find , there never was any dispute among christians concerning the lawfulness of praying by a form. for 't is strange that , if forms were an innovation , such a remarkable and public innovation shou'd be introduc'd without the least contest or opposition . for tho' some innovations did creep in ; yet every one of that public nature alwaies found powerful adversaries to withstand it . but not to insist upon probabilities , wee 'l enquire into matter of fact . the liturgies of saint peter , st. mark and st. james , tho' corrupted by latter ages , yet are doubtless of great antiquity , and probably even from the apostles times . for besides many things , which have a strong relish of that age , that of st. james was of great authority in the church of jerusalem in st. cyril's time , who wrote a comment upon it even in his younger years ; and 't is declar'd by (k) proclus , and the (l) sixth general council to be of st. james's own composure ; and 't was probably receiv'd in the church of jerusalem within years after the apostolical age. and that there are forms of worship in it as ancient as the apostles , seems highly probable ; for first , all the form sursum corda is there , and in st. cyril's comment ; and the same is in the liturgies of rome and alexandria and the constitutions of clemens , which all agree are of great antiquity ; and st. cyprian , who was living within an years after the apostles , (m) mentions it as a form then us'd and receiv'd ; and st. austin tells us , that form is words deriv'd from the very age of the apostles . the same is asserted by nicephorus of the trisagium in particular , hist . lib. . c. . 't is evident , that from that primitive age there was a form of questions and answers prescrib'd in baptism , from the questions and answers , which tertull. de resur . carn . st. cypr. . . origen in numer . hom. . speak of . and if the minister may be limited to a form of question , why not to a form of prayer , there being as great a necessity to prescribe for the latter as for the former ? but that de facto there were forms of prayer , as well as questions and answers us'd in baptism , clemens's constitutions affirm ; and some of the prayers are there inserted , l. . and that christians did very early use forms of prayer in their public worship , is evident from the names given to public prayers ; for they are call'd the (n) common-prayer , (o) constituted prayers and (p) solemn prayers ; which last was the title by which the heathens distinguisht their (q) public forms of prayer , and consequently in the language of that age must signifie a public form. (r) st. basil fetches the glory be to the father , &c. from the tradition of the apostles , and cites it from st. clemens the apostles scholar , and from dionysius of alexandria , who was living in the year ; and clemens of alexandria , who was living in the year , sets down these words as the christian form of praising god , (ſ) praising the father and the son with the holy ghost . so that this form is older than the time of the arians ; for they are sharply (t) reprov'd by the orthodox fathers for the alteration of it . and indeed a great part of the primitive worship consisted of hymns , which must necessarily be compos'd into set forms . tertull. apol. cap. . and before him lucian in philop. and justin martyr also , epist . ad zen. & heren . speak of their singing such hymns . they spend whole nights in watching and singing of psalms , saies lucian ; and pliny saies , that early in the morning 't was their manner to sing by turns a hymn to christ as god ; which hymn was doubtless of human composure , there being no hymn to christ in scripture of that length , as to take up a considerable part of their public service . eusebius tells us , that very early there were various psalms and odes compos'd by christians concerning the divinity of christ (u) ; and that paulus samosatenus was condemn'd for suppressing those hymns that were made in the honour of christ , as being the composition of men of late daies (w) ; tho' in all probability those hymns were compos'd within much less than an hundred years after the apostolical age. but as for this hymn which pliny speaks of , it was earlier , for it cou'd not be much above ten years after the death of st. john , that pliny gave this account of the christians to trajan ; and therefore to be sure the hymn he there speaks of , was us'd in the age of the apostles . about the same time , lucian makes mention of a prayer which they us'd in their public worship , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , beginning from the father ; which doubtless was the lord's prayer : and of a famous hymn added to the end of their service , (x) which in all probability was the hymn that pliny speaks of . since therefore the primitive worship , did in a great measure consist of hymns , which were forms of praise intermixt with prayer , and some of these of human composure ; this is an evident testimony of the primitive use of forms . and doubtless , they who made no scruple of praying by form in verse , cou'd not but think it lawful to pray by form in prose . now that praying in meeter or compos'd hymns was a very early practice in the christian church , is evident from the apostolical constitutions , where it is injoin'd , let the people sing the verses which answer adversly to one another (y) : which way of singing was so very ancient , that eusebius (z) urges it as an argument to prove the essenes christians , because they sung by turns , answering one another ; and how cou'd they thus answer to one another in their hymns and prayers , unless they had constant forms of prayer ? but that they had such responsals in prayer , is evident , because , when julian for the credit of gentilism wou'd needs dress it up , (a) after the order of the christian worship ; one thing wherein he sought to imitate it was in their constituted prayers ; that is , not in having constituted forms of prayer , for that the heathen had before ; but in having such constituted forms as the christians had ; that is , as nazianzen (b) explains it , a form of prayer to be said in parts ; for this way of praying in parts nicephorus (c) derives from ignatius , who was a scholar of the apostles . all which to me is a plain demonstration of the great antiquity of forms . and that in constantine's time , the church us'd public forms of prayer , is evident from that often-cited place of eusebius , (d) where he tells us of constantine's composing godly prayers for the use of his soldiers ; and elsewhere tells us in particular what the prayer was ; we acknowledge thee , o god , alone , &c. (e) which is a plain evidence that it was a set form of words . but it 's objected that this form was compos'd only for the use of his soldiers , who were a great part of them heathens ; and that constantine's composing it , is a plain evidence , that at that time there were no public forms in the church ; for if there had , what need constantine have compos'd one ? to which i answer , that this form indeed was compos'd only for his heathen soldiers ; for as for his christian soldiers , the story tells us , that he gave them liberty to go to church (f) . and therefore all that can be gather'd hence is , that the christian church had no form of prayers for heathen soldiers , which is no great wonder ; for if they had , it 's very unlikely that the heathen soldiers wou'd have us'd it . but that they had forms is evident , because he calls the prayers which constantine us'd in his court , according to the manner of the church of god ; ▪ (g) authoriz'd prayers ; which is the same title which he (h) gave to that form which he made for his heathen soldiers . and therefore if by the authoriz'd prayers which he prescrib'd to his soldiers , he meant a form of prayers , as 't is evident he did : then by the authoriz'd prayers which he us'd in his court after the manner of the church , he must mean a form of prayer also . and since he had a form of prayer in his court after the manner of the church , the church must have a form of prayers too . 't is plain then , that the three first centuries had public forms of prayer ; after which ( not to insist upon the liturgies of st. basil , st. chrysostom and st. ambrose ) we have undeniable testimonies of the same . see st. chrysost . . ad corinth . homil. . st. austin de bapt. cont . donat. lib. . and concil . carth. . c. . concil . milev . c. . justin . novel . . pref. & , , . nazian . orat. in basil . saies , st. basil compos'd orders and forms of prayer : and st. basil himself , epist . . reciting the manner of the public service , that was us'd in the monastical oratories of his institution , saies , that nothing was done therein , but what was consonant and agreeable to all the churches of god. nay the council of laodicea , holden about the year , expresly provides , that the same liturgy , or form of prayers , shou'd be alwaies us'd both morning and evening , can. . and this canon is taken into the collection of the canons of the catholic church ; which collection was establish'd in the general council of chalcedon , in the year , by which establishment the whole christian church was obliged to the use of liturgies , so far as the authority of the general council extends . and then in the year , these canons were made imperial laws by justinian , novel . . c. . see zonar . and balsam . on can . . see also smectym . answ . to the remonst . p. . grand . deb . p. . and concil . laod. c. , . thus for near years after christ we have sufficient testimony of the public use of forms of prayer . and from henceforth , or a little after , down to mr. calvin's time , all are agreed , that no prayers but establish'd liturgies were us'd . nay calvin , who pray'd extempore after his lecture , alwaies us'd a form before , pref. ad calv. prael . in min. proph. and he compos'd a form for the sunday-service , which was afterwards establish'd at geneva . nay he saies , for as much as concerns the forms of prayer , and ecclesiastical rites , i highly approve that it be determin'd so , as that it may not be lawful for the ministers in their administration to vary from it ; ep. . nor is there any one reform'd church , but what has some public form of prayer ; nor was the lawfulness of forms ever call'd in question before . nay mr. ball , dr. owen , mr. baxter , mr. norton and mr. tombes do (i) expresly own them to be lawful ; and this is said (k) to be the tenent of all our ( dissenting ) best , and most judicious divines . it is very well known ( saies (l) one ) that the flower of our own divines went on in this way , when they might have done otherwise , if they had pleas'd , in their prayers before sermons ; and we find mr. hildersham's prayer before sermon (m) printed . this was so universally and constantly practis'd , that mr. clark (n) tells us , that the first man who brought conceiv'd prayer into use in those parts where he liv'd , was mr. sam. cook , who died but in the year . nay the chief dissenting writers do not only assert , but they also undertake to prove the lawfulness of forms (o) from the nature , use and ends of prayer ; and charge the contrary opinion with enthusiasm (p) and novelty (q) . they grant also , . that forms are not only lawful , but that there are footsteps of this way of worship both in the old and new testament , as mr. tombes and others have shew'd , (r) and mr. ainsworth ( that did otherwise argue against them ) do's confess (ſ) . . that they are very ancient in the christian church . the christian churches of ancient times , for the space of this years at least , if not from the apostles time , had their stinted liturgies , saith mr. ball (t) : and (u) they answer objections to the contrary . . that in the best reform'd , nay , in all reform'd churches , they are not only us'd and tolerated , but also (w) useful and expedient . . that those amongst us , to whom the use of the common-prayer has been most burthensome , have from time to time , profest their liking and approbation of a stinted liturgy , as mr. ball assures us (x) . that they thought it altogether unlawful to separate from churches for the sake of stinted forms and liturgies , is not only frequently affirm'd by mr. ball (y) , but little less even by mr. norton , (z) who saies , it is lawful to embrace communion with churches , where such forms in public worship are in use ; neither do's it lie as a duty on a believer , that he disjoin and separate himself from such a church . and they give this reason for it , that then they must separate from all churches . so mr. baxter (a) , is it not a high degree of pride , to conclude , that almost all christ 's churches in the world , for these hundred years at least to this day , have offer'd such worship unto god , as that you are obliged to avoid it ? and that almost all the catholic church on earth this day , is below your communion for using forms ? and that even calvin , and the presbyterians , cartwright , hildersham , and the old non-conformists were unworthy your communion ? as for praying extempore , 't was set up in england in opposition to our liturgy . for in the ninth year of q. eliz. to seduce the people from the church , and to serve the ends of popery , one friar comin began to pray extempore with such fervor , that he deluded many , and was amply rewarded for it by the pope . see foxes and firebrands , p. , &c. after him tho. heath did the same , p. . see also vnreason . of sep . pref . p. , &c. and i hope when the dissenters have well consider'd , whom they join with , and whose cause they advance , by decrying our liturgy and extolling extempore prayers , they will see cause to think better of forms of prayer . secondly , i am now to answer the dissenters objections against forms of prayer . . they pretend , that the use of public forms do's deaden the devotion of prayer ; whereas i doubt not to make it appear , that they do quicken devotion much more then extempore prayers . 't is plain that forms of prayer do fix the minister's attention more than extempore prayers . for his matter and words being ready before him , he has nothing else to do but to attend his inward devotion , which is the life of prayer : whereas praying extempore forces him to attend to the recollection of matter , and invention of expressions ; which must more or less divert him , it being impossible to attend to several things , as closely as he may to one . 't is true , he that uses a form , may permit his thoughts to wander ; but then the sault is in the man , and not in the form ; for he converts that which in it self helps devotion , into an occasion of indevotion . he that praies extempore is more bound to attend to words ; but he that praies by form , has better opportunities of attending to the proper business of prayer , viz. contrition , sense of our wants and dependence upon god , &c. and by being an example of these in his prayer , the minister do's very much excite the devotion of the people . but 't is objected , that while his thoughts are imploy'd in inventing the matter and words of his prayer , they are well imploy'd ; because they are attending to the duty of prayer , tho' they be not so fixt upon the inward devotion of it , as they might be in the use of a form. to this i answer , that to invent the matter and words of prayer , is not to pray , but to study a prayer , which cannot be prov'd to be a part of our duty . but we believe , that when we pray devoutly by a form , we discharge the whole duty of prayer , tho' we do not invent the matter and words our selves ; and till we see the contrary prov'd , we shall always think so . if it be said , that praying extempore will not suffer the minister's thoughts to wander ; i answer , that if the minister have devout affections , they will keep his thoughts from wandring , when he praies by form , as much as when he praies extempore ; but if he has not , he cannot utter his words from his affections either way . but 't is pretended , that praying extempore do's heighten the minister's affections more than a form. because , say they , in reading a form his affections follow his words , and are rais'd and excited by them ; whereas in praying extempore his words follow his affections . but why may not a man , who knows before hand what he is to pray for , be devoutly affected with it , before he expresses it in a form , as well as before he expresses it extempore ? and why may not he that praies extempore , be as little affected with what he praies for , before he has exprest it , as he that uses a form ? may not a man's tongue run before his heart either way ? but suppose it true , that in extempore prayer the words follow the affections , and that in a form the affections follow the words ; do's it follow that praying extempore heightens the affections more than a form ? why may not the affections , viz. desire , &c. which follow the words , be as great as those that go before ? especially since our dissenters say , that expressive words do naturally quicken affections . if it be said , that the minister cannot so well express his devout affections in other mens words , as in his own ; i answer , that he is the mouth of the congregation , and that his business is , not to express his own particular and extraordinary fervours , as the common case of the congregation ; but so to speak , as every honest and ordinary christian may join with him . for 't is as bad for him to express such heights of devotion , as few or none of them are arriv'd to ; as to confess in their names such sins , as few or none of them are guilty of . now the common sense of the congregation may be as well express'd in another man's words as in his own ; unless we suppose that extempore words can more fitly express it , than those that are premeditated ; which no sober dissenter will affirm . but , say they , the minister's soul is so busied in reading a form , that it cannot be so much affected , as when he praies extempore . now i leave the reader to judge , whether being busied about the matter , method and expressions of prayer , do's not much more imploy the ministers soul , than bare reading ; that is , whether he that can read a prayer without the least trouble , cannot read a prayer more easily than invent one . however , they tell us , that praying always in the same words , do's cloy the attention of the people ; whereas the newness and variety of conceiv'd prayers do's naturally awaken their minds and keep them more sixt and intent . but i answer , that the matter of public prayer is , and for the main will be , the same ; and therefore if the matter fixt their minds , 't wou'd as well do it in the same , as in new expressions . but if it be the phrase , that their minds are fixt on , there is nothing in it , but an amusement of their fancies , which do's rather unfix them from the inward acts of prayer , and distract their devotion . forms may be compos'd and pronounced as affectionately as extempore prayers , and may as well excite the people's devotion ; but novelty of method and expression do's as much deaden the devotion of those that are fixt upon it , as worldly business . that seeming devotion , that is rais'd by the jingling of words , is not devotion but mechanism ; for a man may be strangely affected with the words of prayer , who has not the least spark of true devotion to the matter of it : but if the mind do's affect the matter of prayer for it self , and not for the sake of the words , i cannot imagin , how new words shou'd any way advantage its devotion , unless they were to express new matter . thus it appears , that even what is urg'd in behalf of extempore prayers , do's plead much more for forms ; but then there are sundry advantages peculiar to forms , which extempore prayers cannot pretend to . for . people may consider the matter of a form , and endeavour to affect their minds with it before hand ; and so they may pray with greater preparation . . people may join in a form with more understanding , than in an extempore prayer , wherein the minister is forced to use such expressions as come first to hand ; and sometimes he is forced to use a hard word , which half of the congregation do not know , because an easier do's not come to his mind ; besides many other inconveniencies , which 't is impossible alwaies to avoid . now in composing public forms more care will be taken that the words may be intelligible , than there can be in extempore prayer . and truly , if the words be not intelligible , the people's prayer must be as much interrupted as if the minister spake in an unknown tongue . . men may join in a form with much more faith , and hope of being heard , than they can in extempore prayer . for they may be satisfied before hand , that the matter of a form is good ; but they cannot be so satisfied of an extempore prayer ; considering that the minister is many times a stranger , and may be perhaps erroneous , rash , ignorant , &c. and even those ministers whom they know , may sometimes mistake their passion for their zeal , and reake their anger or their faction in their prayers , or let drop an errour , before they are aware , or express themselves so , as an honest mind may not be able to join . so that in joining with an extempore prayer a man must judge what is said , before he can consent to it : and if he meet with a rub , the minister goes on in the mean time , and the man is left behind at a loss , and perhaps confounded , before he can join again ; and no sooner perhaps is he well fixt , but he is troubled again with the same inconveniency : all which is easily prevented by the use of forms . . forms do not divert the affections of the people from the matter of prayer , as extempore prayers do , which disturb devotion , whenever the minister hesitates , or blunders , or expresses himself improperly ; for then some will be pitying , others contemning , others carping , &c. and if he perform well , some will admire his phrase , judgment , readiness , &c. all which things do call off their minds from the matter . . the decency and solemnity of public worship , which things are highly advantageous to the devotion of the people are better secur'd by forms , than by extempore prayers , where they depend wholly upon the minister . for if he happens to be a man of a bad memory , or apt to blunder , or be dull , &c. then the devotion of the congregation may be turn'd into scorn and laughter ; and of this i have seen too many sad experiments . but suppose him to be an able and pious person , yet he may be liable to indispositions of body , dulness , inadvertency , &c. with outward cares and accidents ; and if he be , he must many times pray confusedly , or with broken , indecent expressions , and omit a great deal of the matter . sometimes he will be at a loss , and be forced to use fulsome repetitions ; and how is it possible almost , but that a great deal of flat and empty nonsence , undigested conceptions and unadvis'd expressions shou'd escape from his lips , before he is aware ? and this , if he has a grain of modesty , must put him into greater confusion , and so amaze him , that he will be hardly able to recover himself . now is it not a hard case that the devotions of five hundred or a thousand persons must be disturb'd by one man's disorders ? for they must either pray after him , or not pray at all . but all these evils are prevented by set public forms . . those that join in a form , may be better secur'd of the reality and sincerity of their own devotion . for they knowing before-hand the expressions of the form , are not so much surpriz'd with the phrases ; and therefore , if they find themselves affected , may more safely conclude , 't is the matter and not the words , that moves them . whereas a man that is tickled with the words of an extempore prayer may fancy himself to be very devout , when he has nothing of true devotion in him . i might add more ; but i think these things are enough to convince an unprejudiced person , that forms of prayer are so far from hindring , that they very much help devotion . but if any man shall still object , that he finds by experience , that forms do actually deaden his devotions ; because his affections are flat and heavy , when he uses them , but he is almost transported when he hears a man pray extempore ; i beseech him to consider , whether his experience be not founded in prejudice , and whether his prejudice ought to prescribe to the whole church . 't is certain , other men find by experience , that joining with a form do's help their devotion ; so that here is experience against experience . now since two contrary experiences cannot proceed from the nature of the thing , therefore one must proceed from the temper of the man. now i have prov'd , and many men find by experience , that forms do help devotion ; and therefore if he do's not find the same , the fault must be in himself ; and i doubt not , but if he will consider the matter impartially , he will soon be of the same opinion . for we have scripture and reason on our side ; but he is led by his passions , which may be charm'd and flatter'd , and will betray him into strong delusions . 't is plain , 't is not the matter of the extempore prayer , that affects him ; for that is the same as in a form : and if he be taken with the chiming of words , 't is but a sensitive delight ; and he must not make a division in the church , only to gratifie his fancy . besides , i desire him strictly to examine his conscience , whether he has not often been as dull at a conceiv'd prayer , as at the public forms . if so , then the person is to be blam'd , and not the form ; and he is guilty of a double iniquity , who divides the church without sufficient cause , and charges his own formality upon a good and wholesome constitution . . they pretend , that praying in a form of words do's stint and limit the spirit of prayer . but before i answer this objection , it will be necessary to explain , . what it is that the scripture attributes to the spirit in prayer . . what is meant by stinting or limiting the spirit in prayer . first then , what is it that the scripture attributes to the spirit in prayer ? i answer , there are some things attributed to him , which were extraordinary and temporary ; and others that were ordinary , fixt and standing . the extraordinary and temporary were the immediate inspiration of the matter of prayer , and an ability to express it in known or unknown languages . we read in the old testament of prayers and praises , which for the matter of them , were immediately inspir'd . thus pray'd hannah , who , as the targum paraphrases it , pray'd by the spirit of prophesy , that is , by immediate inspiration . for praying and praising by immediate inspiration are frequently call'd prophesying ; sam. . . numb . . . chron. . . luc. . . for the matter of all those prayers and praises , together with those in the book of psalms , and sundry others recorded in scripture , was immediately dictated by the holy ghost . but after the descent of the holy ghost at pentecost , wherein the gift of tongues was communicated , 't is certain , that not only the matter , but the very language of their prayers was immediately inspir'd . this gift was peculiar to the primitive ages of christianity ; because the design of it was , not only to enable the first planters of the gospel to perform their office in the languages of the several nations they were sent to , but also to be a sign from god , as other miracles were , for the confirmation of the gospel . tongues were for a sign — to them that believe not , cor. . . and therefore since all miracles were extraordinary , and after a time to cease , certainly this miraculous gift of prayer was so too . however , because many dissenters think it ( not an extraordinary , but ) a standing gift , which the spirit will communicate to all successive ages of the world ; i desire them to consider , . that there is no promise of such a gift by vertue of the new covenant , and therefore no reason to expect the continuance of it ; and 't is presumtion to promise our selves , what god has not promis'd us . for as for the spirit of supplications , zac. . . 't is plain , that 't is the same with the spirit of grace , or of inward piety and devotion . but that there is no such promise in the new covenant , is evident from what is acknowledg'd on all hands ; viz. that there are many good christians , who cou'd never pretend to any such inspiration . for all good christians have a right to the blessings of the new covenant ; and i am very confident , 't wou'd be look'd upon by all sober dissenters , as a very rash and unjust censure , to affirm , that a man cannot be a good christian , who do's not pray by immediate inspiration , but is alwaies fain to depend either on his own invention , or a form. . that as there is no promise , so there is no need of any such immediate inspiration . 't is true , the spirit will assist us in all necessary things , wherein our duty and spiritual life are concern'd ; but 't is an unwarrantable presumtion to expect an immediate inspiration in prayer , because there is no necessity of it . for , . as for the matter of our prayers , the holy spirit has already sufficiently reveal'd it to us in the gospel , and as plainly instructed us what we are to pray for , as he can be suppos'd to do by any immediate inspiration . and therefore , to suppose after all , a necessity of immediate inspiration , is in effect to suppose , that we have neither reason enough to understand the sense of plain words , nor memory enough to retain it . but , say the dissenters , we know not what to pray for as we ought , but the spirit it self maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered , rom. . . and therefore we cannot in all cases know the matter of our prayers without immediate inspiration . but i answer , that the words relate not to the matter , but to the manner of our prayers . what to pray for as we ought , we know not ; that is , we know not how to pray with that fervency and resignation , which we ought , unless the spirit assist us . . as for the words of prayer , there is no necessity they shou'd be immediately dictated to us , since we may use forms ; and those forms ( with small additions ) may be adapted to all particular cases and circumstances . . if prayers are inspir'd , they are equal to scripture , and are infallible and the word of god ; because whatever god inspires , must needs be so . but this , i am sure , no sober dissenter will presume to say . . there is no sign of this immediate inspiration remaining among us . heretofore all inspiration was attested by miracles ; but the pretended inspiration of prayer has no miracles to warrant it . whereas if the inspiration be continu'd , 't is requisite that proper signs shou'd be continu'd , that so we may be able to distinguish that which is divine from that which is natural or diabolical . if it be said , that the scripture is sufficient to distinguish them ; i answer , that tho' the scripture may be sufficient to distinguish , whether the matter of the inspiration be true or false : yet it 's not sufficient to distinguish the inspiration it self , whether it be divine or natural , or diabolical . for , . 't is certain , a man may pray agreeably to scripture by natural inspiration , that is , by a natural or accidental fervency of temper , as might be prov'd by many instances . and in this case how shall he know by scripture , whether his present inspiration be natural or divine ? 't will be said perhaps ; that god inspires good men with fervency in prayer , and yet this fervency sometimes proceeds from temper of body ; and why do's not the want of a sign to distinguish , conclude against the inspiration of fervency , as well as against the inspiration of the matter and words of prayer ? i answer , that we have a promise of the spirit 's assistance for the fervency of our prayers , but not for the matter or words of them . besides , we may easily distinguish , whether the inspiration of fervency be natural or divine , by our own sense . if it be accompany'd with a fixt and constant devotion of soul , 't is divine ; but if it be only a sudden fit , and leaves us habitually indevout , we have just reason to think it natural . but we cannot distinguish by scripture between one and the other ; for both may be agreeable to scripture . and can it be imagin'd , that had god meant to continue the gift of inspiration to us , he wou'd have left us thus in the dark concerning it , without any certain sign to distinguish , whether it be from his spirit , or from an ill-affected spleen , or a fever ? . as for diabolical inspirations , we have sundry instances , such as wier , hacket , d. george and john basilides duke of russia , who had such gifts of prayer , as ravish'd the auditors , and in the opinion of the most impartial seem'd to exceed the power of nature , and made many think them immediately inspir'd by god. now since by such inspirations the devil may sometimes serve his own ends , by recommending false teachers , &c. we may reasonably suppose he do's use that method . and since he may inspire men with such matter of prayer as is agreeable to scripture , we cannot by scripture certainly distinguish between his inspiration and that of the spirit . but surely 't is blasphemy to think , that if god had continu'd this gift of inspiration , he wou'd leave us without a sign to distinguish it from that which is diabolical . and since there is no sign , we have all the reason in the world to think the gift is ceas'd . but farther , we have not only no certain sign of the divine inspiration of conceiv'd prayers , but many very certain ones of the contrary : i will instance in four . . the great impertinence , nonsence , and rudeness ( to say no worse ) that are sometimes mingled with these extempore prayers , and which we cannot attribute to the holy ghost without blasphemy . . that they are so generally tinctur'd with the particular opinions of those that offer them . whether this be not so , i appeal to all the world ; and if it be so , then surely they are not inspir'd . for either we must suppose this gift of inspiration to be consin'd to one party , which wou'd be to stint the spirit with a witness ; or else we must blasphemously say the spirit inspires contradictions , and indites contrary prayers to men of opposite parties . . another plain sign that conceiv'd prayers are not inspir'd , is , that that which gives them the reputation of being so , is not so much the matter , as the manner of expressing them . as for the matter , i suppose the dissenters will not deny , but our forms may equal at least , if not excell their conceiv'd prayers : and therefore all the difference must be in the manner . but are conceiv'd prayers the more inspir'd , because the words are extempore ? did god continue the gift for no other end , but that men might ask those things extempore , which they might as well have asked in a form ? or are they more inspired , because they do generally more enlarge , and express the same matter over again in different words ? was the spirit continu'd only to vary phrases ? our saviour forbids us to use vain repetitions ( or as munster's hebrew reads it , to multiply words above what is fit and seasonable ) thinking we shall be heard for our much speaking ; and therefore these enlargements are so far from being signs of their immediate inspiration , that supposing the spirit to be of the same mind with christ , they are generally signs of the contrary . . that extraordinary manner and way of expressing them , for which they are thought to be inspir'd , ordinarily proceeds from natural causes , viz. natural enthusiasm or present fervour of temper . for , . the dissenters confess , it comes upon them much oftner in their public , than in their private devotions . and the reason is plain , because the passions of the congregation do so excite their affections , and the reverence of an auditory obliges them so much to wreck their inventions , that their spirits are many times transported into raptures . . they are not so fluent in the beginning , as when they have pray'd a while ; the reason of which is this , because the spirits do not move so briskly , till they are chafed and heated with labour . then do they naturally raise the fancy , and render the invention more copious and easy . and certainly 't is unwarrantable to attribute that to inspiration , which do's so apparently proceed from natural causes . thus have i shewn , what the extraordinary operations of the spirit are , and that they are not to be pretended to in these times ; i proceed in the next place to shew very briefly , what those ordinary operations are , which he has promis'd to continue to the end of the world. they are therefore the proper graces and affections of prayer , such as shame , sorrow , hope , &c. but as for the expressions of prayer , they are of no account with god , but as they signify to him the graces and affections of it . now can any man imagin , that those affections will be the less acceptable to god , because they are presented in a form , and not extempore ? will a father deny bread to his child , because he askt it to day in the same words , that he did yesterday ? is god more taken with words , than with affections ? certainly his withdrawing the inspiration of words , and continuing the inspiration of affections , prove the contrary . now that god do's continue the inspiration of devout affections in prayer , is manifest from gal. . . jude . and rom. . . where the spirit is said to make intercession for us with groans , which cannot be utter'd , that is , with most flagrant affections . for these words do not , as some persons wou'd persuade us , prove the inspiration of the words of prayer ; because the inspiration of those things that are too big for words and cannot be uttered , cannot mean the inspiration of words : but this intercession of the spirit signifies his exciting such affections , as make our prayers acceptable . for as christ , who is our advocate in heaven , enforces our prayers with his own intercessions : so the spirit , who is our advocate upon earth , begets those affections , which render our prayers prevalent . and these are the standing and ordinary operations , which the scripture attributes to the spirit in prayer . secondly , stinting or limiting the spirit is a phrase , that is never mention'd in scripture or antiquity ; and therefore 't is a very new objection against forms of prayer , which i have shewn to be warranted both by scripture and antiquity . however , what the dissenters mean by it is this ; viz. that by confining our selves to a form of words , we ( stint or limit , that is , ) restrain the spirit from giving us that assistance , which he ordinarily vouchsafes in conceiv'd prayer . and now having explain'd the two forgoing particulars , the answer to this objection will be very easy . for if the spirit be stinted or restrain'd by forms of prayer , it must be either from inspiring the words , or from exciting the affections of prayer . but i have prov'd that forms are so far from restraining the devotion of prayer , that they do very much promote and improve it ; and as for the words , i have prov'd , that since the first propagation of the gospel the spirit has withdrawn the immediate and miraculous inspiration of them . and since that cannot be stinted which is not , therefore the inspiration of the words of prayer is not stinted by forms . . 't is objected , that public forms are a sinful neglect of the ministerial gift of prayer . for , the dissenters say , the gift of prayer is an ability to express our minds in prayer , which god has given to ministers , as a means of public devotion ; and therefore they may not omit the exercise of it , by using forms of other mens composure . now to this i answer , . that supposing that 't is a fault in ministers to omit the exercise of their ability , yet the people are not to be charged with it . god will not reject the people's devotions , because the minister is to blame . he only is accountable for that ; for the people do not join with him in his omission , but in that which is acceptable to god. . this gift of prayer is either natural or acquir'd . for certainly 't is not inspir'd at ordination ; because the scripture do's not promise any such thing , nor is there any experience of it . nay the dissenting ministers must own , that just before their ordination they were as able to express the devotions of a congregation , as they were just after ; which shews that they had no new ability to pray inspir'd in their ordination . now since this gift or ability is nothing more than a quickness of invention and speech , which is either natural , or acquir'd by art and practice ; therefore 't is no otherwise the gift of god , than our natural strength , or skill in history , or the like . all that god has promis'd his ministers , is to concur with their honest endeavours , as far as is necessary to the discharge of their office : and to suppose that this cannot be done without praying extempore , is to take the matter in question for granted . . this freedom of utterance is never call'd the gift of prayer in scripture . praying in unknown languages is once call'd a gift , but praying in our own language is never call'd so . therefore 't is plain that the gift of readiness of speech is not appropriated by god to prayer , but left in common to all other honest uses , that it can be apply'd to ; and it may as well be call'd the gift of pleading at the bar , or of disputing , or conversation , as the gift of prayer . accordingly we find , that those who have this gift in prayer , have it also upon other occasions ; which proves , that 't is not appropriated to prayer . . since this gift of expressing our minds is not appropriated to prayer , it may be as lawfully omitted in prayer , as in any other purpose which 't is design'd for . for if it be unlawful to omit the use of the gift of elocution , then he who has the gift , may not lawfully use a form in petitioning his prince , or in a court of justice : but if it be lawful to omit it in these cases , as a man sees occasion , then it is equally lawful to omit it in prayer . in short , if a man has two gifts , he may use which he pleases ; and since we have other means of prayer , none is obliged to use his ability to pray extempore . . using a form is as much a means of public devotion as praying extempore ; because the end of public prayer is at least as effectually serv'd by a form , as by a conceiv'd prayer . now since there are two means of prayer , and both cannot be us'd at the same time , therefore one may be lawfully omitted ; and consequently the use of a form , which is one means , is not a sinful neglect of the other . . the last objection is , that the common cases and wants of christians cannot be so well express'd in one constant form , as in conceiv'd prayers ; because the circumstances of men are infinitely variable , and require sutable petitions and thanksgivings , which the minister cannot otherwise provide than by praying extempore . to this i answer , . that the common cases and necessities of christians are for the main alwaies the same , and therefore may be more fully comprehended in a form , than in an extempore prayer . for public prayers , which are offer'd up in the name of the whole congregation , ought not to descend to particular cases , but only to the common cases of all , and what every one may truly and sincerely join with . now a form will express them much better than an extempore prayer , which is subject to many omissions . . forms can make as good provision for extraordinary cases , as extempore prayer . for , as for those that can be foreseen , such as the want of rain , fair weather , &c. there may be forms compos'd for them afore-hand : and as for others that cannot be fore-seen , forms may be provided , when they happen ; and this has ever been done in our church . . if forms must not be us'd , because they do not alwaies reach extraordinary cases , certainly extempore prayers ought not to be us'd , because by reason of omissions , they will not alwaies reach even ordinary cases . in a word , it appears that all extraordinary cases may be very well provided for by forms ; but supposing it otherwise , yet since it has been prov'd at large , that the use of forms is upon sundry accounts of great advantage to the public devotion , 't is unreasonable to spoil the church of them , and leave her to the mercy of extempore effusions , only for the sake of a few contingencies , which may happen but very rarely , if at all , in a whole age. iii. i am now to prove in the last place , that the imposition of forms may be lawfully comply'd with ; and for this a very few words will suffice . for since the use of public forms is lawful in it self , therefore it may be lawfully comply'd with ; because i have shewn in the second chapter , that a man may lawfully do a lawful thing , when 't is injoin'd by authority . and now i hope , it is evident to all impartial readers , that forms of prayer are not only lawful , but expedient also . chap. iv. objections against our morning and evening service and litany answer'd . having justified forms of prayer in general , my duty and method oblige me to justify that of the church of england in particular . i must confess , i have alwaies thought the liturgy of the church of england to be such , as wou'd rather have invited protestants to our communion , than have kept them from it . and i believe , if the dissenters wou'd seriously read over dr. beverege's sermon concerning the excellency and usefulness of the common-prayer , they wou'd go near to be of the same mind . but alas ! this very liturgy is that which many persons are incens'd against . it has been cry'd down as idolatrous , popish , superstitious , &c. 't is true , we do not now so often hear those bitter exclamations of rome and babylon , baal and dagon ; for the common-prayer is not now esteem'd such an abominable thing , as some ignorant and heady zealots were wont to count it : but yet some objections are still insisted upon , to which i hope to return a fair answer . . then 't is objected , that the confessions of sin in our liturgy are too general ; and that there are many particular sins , which ought to have been distinctly confess'd , of which there is no mention . but i desire the objectors to consider , that there is hardly any thing in public worship , which requires more caution and prudence in the ordering of it , than that confession of sin , which is to be made by the whole congregation . 't is hard to prevent its being either too general or too particular . the reason is , because such different persons must join in it , and the sins of some are more numerous and grievous than the sins of others ; so that all persons cannot possibly make the same particular confession . but i think our confessions , viz. the daily one and that in the communion-office , are so judiciously fram'd , as to avoid both extreams : and i am persuaded , all persons may profitably use them . however , the confession of sin after the minister has recited each of the ten commandments , is as particular , as can reasonably be desir'd ; and by this a man may confess all his known offences in thought , word or deed . if a man must not use a confession , that is possible to be mended , he must never confess at all : and if a form of confession were compos'd by the wisest dissenters , i suppose no more wou'd be pretended , but that it might be profitably us'd . now this may be said of our form , and ought to end the dispute . indeed there are examples of jeremiah , nehemiah , &c. confessing such sins as they were not guilty of : but this was done upon solemn humiliation for those known and public idolatries of the nation , which had brought god's heavy judgments upon them , or for common and scandalous transgressions afterward . they consider'd themselves as a part of the community which had provok'd god ; and they bare a part in the calamity and in the confession , as if they had offended as greatly as their country-men . but i conceive there is a great deal of difference between those confessions upon such public humiliations , and those that are fit for the ordinary service of the church . i may add , that particular confessions are more properly the matter of private devotion ; and if we did seriously practise strict examination and secret contrition in our closets , we shou'd then find our affections prepar'd to comply with those more general confessions of sin , which we make with the whole congregation . and we shou'd then have less reason to complain , that those confessions are too general and not apt to move us ; because this wou'd cure the deadness of our hearts , which are commonly most to blame , when we find fault with the means , that god has provided for us . . the next objection is the shortness of our collects , by reason of which 't is pretended , that the prayer is often suddenly broken off , and then begun again : and this is thought not so agreeable to the gravity wherewith this duty ought to be perform'd , nor so likely a means of exciting reverence and devotion in the people , as one continu'd form of prayer , that might be as long as all those put together . to this i answer , . that the mere shortness of a prayer is not to be blam'd ; since that wou'd disparage the form , which christ taught his disciples . . that 't will be hard to prove , that many of these short prayers being offer'd up to god one immediately after another , is either not so grave or not so edifying , as one continu'd form. for the work of praying is as much continu'd all the while , as if there were but one continu'd form ; because we pass from one petition to another , or from one matter of invocation to another , as immediately as if the distinct forms were all brought into the compass of one . nay the attention of the people is rather help'd by the frequency of saying amen : and their godly disposition of mind , which is the best thing in prayer , may be kept alive and more effectually secur'd , by calling upon the name of god and pleading the merits of christ so often as we do . besides , the invocation of god somewhat often by his attributes , maintains in our minds a reverent sense of his majestic presence ; which we all know , is needful to make us pray as we ought : and the frequency of mentioning christ's merits and mediation , strengthens our faith and assurance that we shall be heard . 't is also the peculiar character of christian devotion ; and distinguishes us from the papists , in declaring our detestation of calling upon god in the name of saints , or any other but that of christ . if it be said that we say amen , and break off our prayers too often ; i reply , that all wise and humble men will submit themselves in that case to the judgment of their superiours . . some except against the repetition of the lord's prayer , and of glory be to the father , &c. and of lord have mercy upon us , and the like ; because they think our saviour forbids it by saying , when ye pray , use not vain repetitions . but it appears by our saviour's caution against vain repetitions , that some repetitions are not vain , and consequently not forbidden . this must be suppos'd , because he himself , when in his agony , pray'd thrice in the same words . now christ forbids the fault of the heathens , whose vain repetitions proceeded from an affectation of speaking much , or from a belief that god wou'd not help them , unless they repeated the same thing over in a tedious manner : but the repetition of good prayers is nothing like their practice . repetitions are not vain , if two things be regarded ; . that the matter be very weighty , and apt to move those pious affections , which god is most pleas'd with in our addresses to him ; and in this respect , i dare say , our repetitions are secur'd from vanity . . that they be fram'd with judgment , that they come in fitly and in due place , and not too often . and these rules are observ'd in our liturgy ; for as none did ever blame the disposal of our repetitions , so none can justly blame the sequency of them . for our repetitions are very few ; but if our number be too great , what shall we think of the psalm , where his mercy endureth forever , is repeated times ? to conclude this matter , i desire those , who do not yet approve our repetition of the lord's prayer , &c. to consider , whether it be so easy to spend the time it takes up more profitably , than by joining in good earnest with the congregation in these prayers .. . some persons dislike the responsals of the congregation , and the people's saying the confessions and the lord's prayer after the minister , and their alternate reciting the psalms and hymns , and some petitions in the daily service . now i beg these men to consider , what has been often said , viz. that this way is apt to check a wandring spirit , to help attention and quicken a lively zeal in god's service , whilst we invite and provoke one another to pray and give thanks . they say indeed , that the minister is appointed to be the mouth of the people in god's public service : but to this i answer , . that granting the minister to be appointed for the mouth of the people , yet it must not be so interpreted , as to make all vocal prayer and thanksgiving in religious assemblies unlawful to the people . for then the people must not say amen , which is a short responsal to the minister ; nor must they join in singing psalms , which oftentimes contain matter of prayer . . the scripture do's not say , that the minister is the mouth of the people to god , or that no prayer must be offer'd up in religious assemblies , otherwise than by the mouth of the minister . 't is true , the minister is the mouth of the people in all those prayers which he utters for them ; and because these are many more than what the people themselves utter , he may be said to be their mouth to god comparatively , but not absolutely . 't is true also , that the minister is appointed for the people in all public services appertaining to god , if this be understood for the most part , or of all with little exception . some public services are pronounced by him only : and as for the rest , 't is fit he shou'd ever utter most of them ; and that in those wherein the people have their part , he shou'd ever go before and lead them , and guide the whole performance ; which is all taken care for in our liturgy . nay the dissenters themselves do not utterly debar the people from all vocal prayer and thanksgiving of their own in god's solemn worship . for they allow the people to sing psalms ; and why then may they not bear a part in the hymns and psalms by alternate responses ? i cannot see , why singing or not singing shou'd make such a difference . 't were better , if they were every where sung ; because it is more sutable to the design of them , than bare reciting is : but if they be not sung , the next use of them , that is most agreeable to their nature and design , is reciting them by answering in turns , as the custom is with us ; for this is much nearer to singing , than the minister's reciting all himself . but , say they , the people's verse is in a manner lost to some of the congregation ; since in the confus'd murmur of so many voices nothing can be distinctly heard to this i answer , that those who can read , may bring books ; and those that cannot , may attend to those that are near . nay i have been credibly inform'd , that some devout people that cou'd never read , have attain'd to an ability of reciting most of the psalms without book , by often hearing them in those churches where they are alternately recited . i shall add , that for the most part , the psalms are recited alternately in those churches only , where it may be reasonably presum'd , that the whole congregation can read , very few excepted . now if the people may join in vocal praise , why may they not also join in vocal prayer ? if it be said , there is some example or warrant in scripture for the one , but not for the other ; it seems to be a good answer , that there is such a parity of reason , as that the express warrant of scripture for the one , is an imply'd warrant for the other . i have already shewn , chap. . that the people's joining in vocal prayer was very anciently practis'd ; and if this was the primitive way , 't is probable , that it was the way in the apostles times . i know , 't is objected , that the people's speaking to god in the church is disorderly , and a breaking in upon the minister's office . but will they say , that the children of israel intrench'd upon the priest , when they all bowed themselves upon the pavement , and worshipped the lord , and prais'd him , saying , for he is good , for his mercy endureth for ever ; chron. . ? ecclesiastical order is secur'd by the minister's presiding in god's public worship , and guiding the performance of it : but not to allow the people to make an audible confession of sin after the minister , nor to utter some few affectionate petitions , and those very short , to which they are also invited and ●●ted by him , seems rather to favour of an affectation of undue superiority over the people , than to proceed from any fear of the minister's office being invaded . some urge , that women are forbidden to speak in the church , cor. . . but this is strangely misapply'd to the matter in hand . for 't is plain , that the speaking mention'd by the apostle , signifies nothing but prophesying , interpreting , preaching and instructing ; and that the reason , why he will not allow this to the woman , is , because preaching implies authority , whereas the woman's part is obedience and subjection . they that will read the whole chapter , will find that this is the meaning of st. paul. . i proceed in the next place to consider , whether there be any just cause to find fault with the reading of the apocryphal lessons in our church . now if sermons and catechizing be allowable , besides the word of god ; why may not some apocryphal lessons be read , which contain excellent rules of life ? especially since those writings were greatly esteemed by the church in its purest ages , when they and other human writings also were publicly read , as well as the scriptures : and those chapters of the old testament , which are omitted , do either recite genealogies , or the rules of the levitical service , or matters of fact deliver'd in other chapters that are read , or which are hard to be understood . if it be said , that because the scripture is all of divine authority , 't is more profitable to read any part of that , than any other good lesson ; i answer , that then no place will be left for sermons , which are no more of divine authority , than the apocryphal lessons . there is no danger of any person 's mistaking the apocryphal lessons for canonical scripture , because the church speaks so plainly in her sixth article : nor do we read them otherwise , than the antient church did . i shall only add , that no apocryphal lesson is read upon any lord's day in the year ; and as for other exceptions , i refer the reader to dr. falkener's libertas eccles . p. , &c. . if any object against our standing at the creed ; mr. baxter saies , his judgment is for it , where it is required , and where not doing it wou'd be aivisive and scandalous . nay , elsewhere he saies , that 't is a convenient praising gesture , &c. see his christ . direct . p. . i proceed now to the vindication of the litany , against which 't is pleaded , . that the people utter the words of invocation in the litany for the most part , the minister all the while suggesting the matter of it to them . but this objection is of no force , if what i have said concerning the lawfulness of allowing the people an interest in vocal prayer , be admitted . if it be said , that the people bear too considerable a part , to the disparagement of the minister's office ; i answer , that 't is a great mistake ; for . tho' the people say good lord deliver us , and we beseech thee to hear us good lord ; yet the minister saies the other , and the far greater part of the prayer . . they are but these two short and known petitions , which are excepted against : and if the people may be allowed any part in vocal prayer , i know of nothing more proper than these ; nor are they repeated , but when they are apply'd to new and distinct matter . besides , they relieve our attention , and cherish our warm affections in prayer : and i could almost appeal to the keenest of our adversaries , whether , if good lord deliver us were apply'd but once in gross to that part of the litany , we shou'd not be more apt to languish in the offering it up , than as it is now ordered . but , . 't is plain , that in those prayers , the minister has the principal and guiding part , in that he utters all the distinct matter of the prayer , which the people do not ; whereas he utters words of invocation as well as they . and consider , i pray , whether if the people were to utter that which is the minister's part now , and the minister to say that only which is theirs ; we shou'd not have more grievous complaints , that the minister's authority was slighted in the whole design ; since he seem'd only to learn from the people , what the congregation was to pray for . . 't is objected , that we pray to be deliver'd from all deadly sin , which seems to imply , that there are some sins which are not deadly . now in answer to this , it is by some truly enough said , that these words do not necessarily imply a distinction between sins that are , and sins that are not deadly . but admitting that such a distinction were intended , yet we must observe , that tho' all sin be in its own nature deadly or damnable ; yet thro' the mercy of god and the merits of christ , sins of mere infirmity are not imputed , and therefore not deadly to us . but there are some sins so heinous , that he who commits them , is thereby put into a damnable state : and 't is of such sins as these that this passage is to be understood ; as appears by deadly sin being added to fornication , from fornication and all other deadly sin , good lord deliver us . . some are offended with our praying against sudden death . but why shou'd we not by sudden death understand our being taken out of this world , when we are not fit to die ? for sometimes a thing is said to be sudden to us , when we are not prepar'd for it . and in this sence can any good christian find fault with the petition ? but suppose that by sudden death we mean what is commonly understood by it , that is , a death of which a man has not the least warning by sickness ; are there not reasons why even good men may desire not to die suddenly ? may they not , when they find themselves drawing towards their end , by their good instructions and admonitions , make impressions upon their friends , companions , and relations , to the bettering of them ? may not their counsels be then more effectual with them , than ever they were before ? and is it not reasonable to believe they will be so ? as for themselves , may not the warning they have of approaching death be improv'd to make them more sit to die , than they were in their perfect health ? in a word , he that thinks himself to have sufficiently perfected holiness in the fear of god , and not to stand in need of those acts of self-examination , humiliation , and devotion , by which good men improve the warning of death , which mortal sickness or extreme age gives them ; let him suspend his act , and refuse to join with us , when we pray god to death· . some are offended , that we pray to be deliver'd by the mystery of christ's holy incarnation , &c. by his agony and bloody sweat , by his cross and passion , &c. and by the coming of the holy ghost . some say this is swearing , others conjuring , and i know not what . to these i answer , that when we say , by the mystery of thy holy incarnation , and by thy cross and passion , &c. good lord deliver us ; we implore christ , who has already shew'd such inestimable goodness towards us , by taking our nature into his divinity , to die upon the cross , to be buried , to rise again , to ascend into heaven , and there to intercede with the father for us , and by sending the holy ghost to qualifie the apostles for their great work of carrying the word of salvation into the world : i say , we implore him who hath already done such mighty things for our salvation , and we plead with him by that goodness which he has already given us such great demonstrations of , by those wonders of mercy that he has wrought for us , that he wou'd now go on to deliver us by his powerful grace from those evils which we pray against . and this is so reasonable , so devout and affectionate , so humble and thankful a way of praying , that i am sorry that any who call themselves believers shou'd be so ignorant as not to understand it , or so profane and unlike what they pretend to be , as to deride it . to conclude , i must confess , that of all the prayers in our liturgy , that are of humane composition , i shou'd be most unwilling to part with the litany . it seems to be , what it was design'd to be , a form of prayer apt to excite our most intense and fervent desires of god's grace and mercy . the whole office is fram'd , with respect both to matter and contrivance , for the raising of the utmost devotion of good christians , and for the warming of the coldest hearts by the heat of the congregation . and in such a disposition it is most fit to express our charity , by praying for others , even all sorts of men , as distinctly and particularly as public prayers will bear . chap. v. of infant-baptism . before i proceed to the vindication of our office of baptism , i think it is proper to justify infant-baptism , which is practis'd by us , and dislik'd by some of the dissenters . and that my discourse concerning infant-baptism may be the better understood , i shall take the liberty of premising a few things . . that the original of the jewish church ( consider'd purely as a church ) is to be dated from the covenant which god made with abraham ; but that of the jewish common-wealth from the delivery of the law by moses . for that the jewish church and common-wealth are distinct things , is plain , because the apostle makes this distinction , rom. . . gal. . . and therefore , . the way to find out the nature of the jewish church is to consider the nature of the covenant made with abraham , upon which the jewish church was founded . now 't is plain from rom. . th to the th , and . , &c. gal. . , &c. that the covenant made with abraham was a spiritual covenant , made with him as the father of believers , and with his posterity , not as proceeding from him by natural , but by spiritual generation , as heirs of his faith. hence saies the apostle , in the name of the christians , we are the circumcision , which worship god in the spirit , and have no confidence in the flesh , phil. . . and it is one god , which shall justify the circumcision by faith , and the vncircumcision thro' faith , rom. . . and if ye be christ's , then are ye abraham's seed , and heirs according to the promise , gal. . . nay 't will farther appear , that this covenant was made , not with abraham's natural , but his spiritual off-spring , if we consider , . that the initiatory sacrament into it was circumcision . for the covenant is call'd the covenant of circumcision , acts . . and circumcision on the other hand is call'd the seal of the righteousness of faith , rom. . . faith or faithful obedience being the condition of that covenant , which god requir'd of the children of abraham , and which they promis'd to perform . it also signify'd the circumcision of the heart , deut. . . and . . rom. . , . . as to the persons to be admitted into the covenant , we have a very plain account at the institution of it , gen. . from whence it appears , first , that the children of heathens were to be circumcis'd ; ( see exod. . , . ) which also proves that the promise was made , not to his natural , but to his spiritual children . hence in all ages great numbers of gentiles were admitted into the jewish church by circumcision . secondly , that persons of all ages were to be circumcis'd , and that god was so far from excluding children from circumcision , that he order'd that the circumcision of them shou'd not be deferr'd beyond the th day . god was pleas'd to be so gracious as to chuse the children with their parents , and look upon them as holy upon their account . this was ground enough for their admission into the church , and for god to look upon them as believers , tho' they cou'd not make open profession of their faith . the faith and consent of the father or the god-father , and of the congregation under which he was circumcis'd , was believ'd of old by the jews to be imputed to the child as his own faith and consent . see seld. de jure , lib. . c. . de synedr . lib. . c. . and they had good ground in scripture for this opinion ; because the infidelity and disobedience of the parents , in wilfully neglecting or despising the circumcision , was imputed to the children , who were esteem'd and punish'd as breakers of the covenant , when they were not circumcis'd , gen. . . and therefore , if the act of parents in neglecting to bring their children to circumcision was reputed theirs : much more their act in bringing them to it , might well be reputed as their act and deed . thus numb . . . we find the keeping of the sanctuary imputed to the males of the cohathites , of a month old and upwards ; because their fathers actually kept it , and they were to be train'd up to it . thus deut. . , . the little ones are expresly said to enter into the covenant with god , because the men of israel did so . thus also , tho' christ heal'd grown persons for their own faith , matth. . . yet he heal'd children for the faith of their parents , or others who besought him for them ; as it were imputing it to them for their own faith ; mark . . matth. . . john . . vid. cassand . de baptismo infant . p. . taylor of baptiz . inf. great exemplar , part . sect. . . the church was the same for substance under the law , as it was before it ; and still remains the same for substance under the gospel , as it was under the law. for abraham is still the father of the faithful : and we that believe under the gospel , are as much his children , in the true meaning of the words , as those that were believers under the law. hence st. peter , epist . . calls christians by those titles , which god gave to the jews , as to his peculiar people , viz. a chosen generation , royal priesthood , &c. and st. paul compares the calling of them to the engrafting of the wild olive-tree into the olive-tree's stock , rom. . christ and his apostles introduc'd as much of judaism into the christian church , as the nature of the reformation wou'd bear : and adher'd as much as they cou'd to the old , both in the matter and form of the new oeconomy . for the proof of this the reader may consult grot. opusc . tom. . p. , , &c. hammond of baptizing infants , selden de jure , l. . c. . de synedr . l. . c. . lightfoot's horae heb. p. . hammond on matth. . , alting . dissert septima de proselyt . mede's b. disc . . b. christ . sacrif . cudworth on the lord's supper , thorndike of religious assembl . taylor 's great exemplar . part. . disc . of baptism . numb . . dodwell's one altar and one priesthood , light●oot on cor. . . some things , i confess , they laid aside ; but their reasons for so doing were , . because very many of the jewish rites were fulfilled in christ ; and this is so plain , that i need not prove it . . because many of them were inconsistent with the nature of christianity ; which was to be , . manly , in opposition to the law , which was but a school-master to bring them to christ , gal. . . and the jews were under it , as children are under tutors , chap. . , , , . for they had childish understandings , and were like children , to be instructed by symbolical lessons , viz. washings , &c. . free , in opposition to the servile nature of the jewish church , which was loaded with numberless observances , of which the jews were grown weary , and with which they had been for a long time heavy laden , when christ call'd them to take his yoke upon them , which was to be so easy and light . . vniversal , god injoin'd the jews many things , in oposition to the neighbouring idolatrous nations ; that there might be a mutual strangeness between them , and that by ceremonial singularities they might be distinguisht from the rest of the world : but then christ coming to break down the middle wall of partition betwixt the jews and gentiles , and to abolish the enmity of ordinances that was betwixt them , that he might make peace between them , and reconcile them both into one body ; it was requisite to this end , that he shou'd abolish these , and all oher distingishing characters betwixt them , which wou'd have hindred the progress of the gospel , because they were become so odious and ridiculous to the gentile world. and this is the reason , why the bloody rite of circumcision is changed into the easy rite of baptism . . circumcision was a sacrament of equal significancy , force and perfection with baptism ; and baptism suceeded in the room of it , not as an antitype succeeds in the place of the type , but as one positive institution succeeds in the place of another . for we must note , that strictly and properly speaking , there was the same difference betwixt the type and the antitype , as betwixt the shadow and the substance , or betwixt a man and his picture in a glass ; insomuch that what was in the type , did only represent something which did in a more perfect manner belong to the antitype . thus the blood of sacrifices represented the blood of christ , which do's truly purge the conscience from dead works ; and the healing vertue of the brazen serpent was a symbol of the healing vertue of christ upon the cross . but the case is not so betwixt circumcision and baptism ; because circumcision has no symbolical likeness with baptism , nor any thing belonging to it common to baptism , which doth not as fully belong unto it , as unto baptism it self . for , . circumcision was heretofore a real sacrament of initiation into the covenant of grace , a seal of the righteousness of faith , and a confirmation of the covenant betwixt god and man , as much as baptism is now . baptism do's nothing under the gospel , which circumcision did not as properly and effectually do under the law : and therefore it cou'd not be a type of baptism , any more than the broad-seal of england years ago was a type of this . and accordingly 't is never mention'd in the new testament as a type of baptism , nor baptism as the antitype of it : but succeeded in the room of it , not as the antitype did in the place of the type , but as one absolute ordinance or positive institution do's in the place of another . . circumcision was not a type of baptism , because a type is an exemplar appointed under the old testament to prefigure something under the new : but baptism was it self of jewish institution under the old testament ; and by consequence cou'd not be typify'd and prefigur'd by circumcision , because it was us'd together with it in the jewish church . the jewish church made it a ceremony of initiating proselytes under the law ; and our saviour liking the institution , continu'd the use of it , and made it the only ceremony of initiating proselytes under the gospel ; superadding to it the compleat nature of an initiatory sacrament , or the full force of circumcision , as it was a sign of the covenant , and a seal of the righteousness of faith. having premis'd these six things , i proceed to the main business , in treating of which i design to shew , . that infants are capable of baptism . . that they are not excluded from baptism by christ . . that 't is unlawful to separate from a church , which appoints infants to be baptized , . that 't is the duty of christian parents to bring their children unto baptism . . that 't is lawful to communicate with believers , who were baptiz'd in their infancy . i. then i shall shew , that infants are capable of baptism . god commanded infants to be circumcis'd , as well as adult persons ; and surely , if they were capable of circumcision , then they are also capable of baptism . for the two covenants , of circumcision and baptism , are for substance the same , and the grace of those covenants the very same ; and therefore if the initiation of infants was then no absurdity , it can be none now . nay , if infants were admitted into the church , when the entrance was more grievous and not without blood ; how unreasonable is it to assert , that they are now uncapable of admission into it , when the entrance is made more easy , and more agreeable to the weakness of a tender child ? 't is said indeed , that infants are uncapable of baptism , because they cannot answer the ends of it ; they cannot understand the gospel , or profess their faith and repentance , or submit to baptism out of their own choice , nor can they have their faith and hope further strengthen'd in the use of it . but this way of arguing is very weak and fallacious , and reflecting upon the wisdom of god. first , it is weak and fallacious , because it makes no distinction betwixt a strict institution , which is instituted by god for one , or a few ends , and precisely for persons of one sort ; and an institution of latitude , which is instituted by him for several ends , and for different sorts of persons , differently qualify'd for those several ends . of the first sort was the jewish ordinance of fringes , which cou'd only concern grown persons , because they only were capable of answering the end , for which it was instituted , viz. to look upon them and remember the commandments of the lord : and of the latter sort is the holy ordinance of marriage , which was appointed for several ends , and for persons differently qualify'd for those several ends ; insomuch that persons who are incapacitated as to some ends of marriage , may yet honestly marry , because they are capable of the rest . for this reason , those who are not capacitated for the procreation of children , may marry , because they are capable of answering another end , for which marriage was ordain'd . now our adversaries cannot prove , that baptism is a strict institution , because it succeeded in the room of circumcision , which was an institution of latitude ; and because our saviour was baptiz'd , who was less capable of baptism , than infants possibly can be . for john baptiz'd with the baptism of repentance , and thereby seal'd unto the people the remission of their sins . now our saviour was without sin , and yet he was baptiz'd ; which shews , that a man who is capable of some ends of baptism , may be baptiz'd , tho' he is not capable of the rest . secondly , 't is reflecting upon the wisdom of god , because god commanded young babes to be circumcis'd , tho' all the ends of circumcision cou'd not be answer'd by them . for , since there lies the same objection against infant-circumcision as against infant-baptism , therefore those men who argue thus against infant-baptism , do reproach the divine wisdom , which injoin'd infant-circumcision . children are capable of all the ends of baptism , as it is a sign , to assure us of god's favour , and to consign to us the benefits of the covenant of grace . they may be made members of a church , and adopted heirs of eternal life ; as well as they may be made members of a family , and adopted heirs of a temporal estate . and if they are capable of the benefits and privileges of christianity , why shou'd not the sign of those benefits and privileges be apply'd to them ? suppose a prince shou'd send for an attainted traytor 's child , and in the presence of several persons assembled for that purpose , shou'd say , you know the blood of this child is attainted by his father's treason ; by law he has forfeited all right to his ancestors estate and titles , and is quite undone , tho' he be not sensible of his wretched condition . my bowels of compassion yern upon him , and here i restore him to his blood and inheritance , to which hence forward he shall have as much right , as if the family had never been attainted . i justify him freely , and declare my self reconcil'd to him ; and that no spot or imputation may hereafter lie upon him , i here before you all wash him with pure water , to signify that he is cleans'd from his original attainder and corruption of blood , and that he is as fully restor'd to his birth-right , as if he had never been attainted . suppose , i say , this were done for a poor attainted infant ; cou'd any man say , the action was insignificant and invalid , because that child knew nothing of it ? or that he was incapable of the sign , when he was capable of being wash'd from the attainder , which was the chief thing signify'd thereby ? besides , tho' abraham believ'd , and solemnly profess'd his faith before he was circumcis'd ; yet isaac was circumcis'd , and enter'd into the covenant with god , before he was able to understand what the condition of the covenant was . and will any man say he was circumcis'd in vain , or that god commanded a foolish thing ; tho' he was under the very same incapacity as to the ends of circumcision , that infants now are as to the ends of baptism ? if it be said , that circumcision was more proper for infants than baptism , because it left a mark in the flesh , to instruct them what was done in their infancy , which baptism does not ; i answer , . that even the mark of circumcision was as insignificant during the non-age of the child , as baptism is to christian infants : neither afterwards cou'd he tell what the meaning of that character was , but by the instruction of others . and therefore according to their way of reasoning against infant-baptism , it ought to have been deferr'd till the full years of discretion , when the circumcis'd person might have understood the spiritual signification thereof . . allowing that circumcision was more proper for infants than baptism , yet we must consider that the jews knew very well , that baptism left no mark upon the person . and therefore those who argue against infant-baptism , must condemn the jewish church , which for many ages baptiz'd infants and minor proselytes into the covenant , as well as actual believers , and yet were never reprov'd for it by any prophet ; which we may presume they wou'd have been , had baptismal initiation of infants into the covenant been so absurd , insignificant , and abusive a practice , as the professors against infant-baptism pretend it is . ii. i am to shew , that infants are not excluded from baptism by christ . that he never excluded them by any express prohibition , the anabaptists themselves do grant , because there is no such prohibition to be found in the new testament : but then they pretend , that it was christ's intention , that none but grown persons shou'd be baptiz'd , because the gospel requires , that persons to be baptiz'd shou'd , . be taught , matth. . . . believe , mark . . . repent , acts . . but those and the like texts do no more prove , that none but grown persons ought to be baptiz'd , than the apostle's words , thess . . . do prove , that none but grown persons ought to eat . for he requires that if any wou'd not work , neither shou'd he eat ; now none but grown persons can work , and therefore by this way of arguing none but grown persons ought to eat . again , suppose there were a plague in any country , and god shou'd miraculously call or men , and give them a meditine against this plague , and say ; go into such a country , and call the people of it together , and teach them the vertues of this medicine , and assure them , that he that believeth and taketh it from you , shall live , but he that believeth not shall die . now since children are capable of the medicine , tho' they are ignorant of the benefits of it ; wou'd any man conclude , that it was god's intention , that none but grown persons shou'd receive it , because they only cou'd be call'd together , and be taught the vertues of it , and believe or disbelieve them that brought it ? no certainly . wherefore , seeing children , as i have prov'd , are capable of the benefits of baptism ; and the apostles , who were sent to baptize all nations , knew them to be capable of it , and to have receiv'd both circumcision and baptism in the jewish church : how shou'd it be thought , but that it was christ's intention , that children as well as grown persons shou'd be baptiz'd ? shou'd god , in the daies of david , have order'd some prophets to go and preach the law to every creature , saying , he that believeth , and is circumcis'd and baptiz'd , shall be sav'd , but he that believeth not shall be damn'd ; wou'd those prophets have circumcis'd and baptiz'd only grown persons , contrary to the practice of the jewish church ? or if in a short history of their mission we shou'd have read , that they circumcis'd and baptiz'd as many proselytes , as gladly receiv'd their word ; wou'd this have prov'd , that they did not also circumcise and baptize the infants of those believing proselytes , according to the laws and usages of their mother-church ? or shou'd god bid men , of a church that had always practis'd infant-baptism , go and preach the gospel in the indies , saying , he that believeth and is baptiz'd , shall be sav'd ; wou'd those men , that were bred up to the practice of infant-baptism , think it was god's intention , that baptism shou'd be deny'd to infants ? no certainly ; and therefore by parity of reason , the apostles cou'd not so understand their commission , as to exclude infants from baptism . now since our saviour has not , either expresly or otherwise , excluded infants from baptism , certainly his command to baptize all nations , do's comprehend infants as well as men. for the apostles liv'd under a dispensation , where infants were initiated both by circumcision and baptism into the church ; and unless they had been instructed to the contrary , they must naturally understand their commission of baptizing to have extended unto infants , as well as actual believers . our adversaries indeed put the greatest stress upon these words of our saviour , mark . . he that believeth and is baptiz'd , shall be sav'd : but if they wou'd well consider the next words , they wou'd find , that infants are not at all concern'd in them ; because it follows , but he that believeth not , shall be damn'd . the same want of faith , which here excludes from baptism , excludes also from salvation : and therefore it cannot be understood of infants , unless they will say , that the same incapacity of believing which excludes them from baptism , excludes them from salvation too . wherefore 't is plain , that the believing or not believing in that text , is only to be understood of such as are in a capacity of hearing and believing the gospel , that is , of grown persons ; just as the words , john . . he that believeth on the son of god , hath everlasting life ; and he that believeth not , shall not see life , but the wrath of god abideth on him . but they urge also , that baptism is unprofitable for infants , because putting away the filth of the flesh , which is all that infants are capable of , signifies nothing ; but only the answer of a good conscience towards god , of which , say they , infants are wholly uncapable . to this i answer , that another apostle tells us , that external circumcision , which is all that infants are capable of , profiteth nothing without keeping the law , which infants cou'd not keep : but that the inward circumcision of the heart and in the spirit , was the true circumcision , and yet infants are uncapable of it . so that their way of arguing proves nothing , because it stretches the words of the apostles beyond their just meaning ; which was to let both jews and christians know , ( not that their infants were unprofitably circumcis'd or baptiz'd , but ) that there was no resting in external circumcision or baptism . but farther , had not the church been alwaies in possession of this practice , or cou'd any time be shew'd on this side the apostles , when it began ; nay cou'd it be prov'd that any one church in the world did not baptize infants , or that any considerable number of men ( otherwise orthodox ) did decline the baptizing of them upon the same principles that these men do now : then i shou'd suspect , that their arguments are better than they really are , and that infant-baptism might possibly be a deviation from the rule of christ . but since it is so universal and ancient a practice , that there never was any church , ancient or modern , which did not practise it ; it can be nothing less than an apostolical practice and tradition . if it be said , that false apostles and false teachers brought in infant-baptism in the very first ages ; i wou'd fain know , how it came to pass that the very companions and contemporaries of the apostles , and the ancient saints and martyrs , who wrote against other heresies , pass'd it over in silence , tho' we are sure from irenaeus and tertullian , that it was (a) practis'd in those early times . 't is impossible , that they shou'd all consent in such a dangerous errour , or that they shou'd all peaceably and tamely submit to it without opposition , or that such an alteration shou'd be made without observation , no body can tell how or when . certainly those places of the new testament , which require a profession of faith and repentance in grown persons before baptism , were understood by the ancient fathers : and yet they never concluded from thence , that infants ought not to be baptiz'd . but if the scriptures were doubtful in the case , i appeal to any man , whether the harmonious practice of the ancient churches , and the undivided consent of the apostolical fathers , be not the best interpreters of them . let any modest person judge , whether it be more likely , that so many famous saints and martyrs , so near the apostles times , shou'd conspire in the practice of mock-baptism , and of making so many millions of mock-christians ; or that a little sect shou'd be in a grievous errour . the brevity which i design , will not permit me to recite the authorities of the ancients , and therefore i refer the reader to cassander , and vossius de baptism . disp . . only i desire him to consider the following particulars . . that 't is hard to imagine , that god shou'd suffer his church to fall into such a dangerous practice , as our adversaries think infant-baptism to be , which wou'd in time . unchurch it ; and that even while miracles were yet extant in the church , and he bare them witness with signs and wonders and divers gifts of the holy ghost . and yet 't is plain , that irenaeus , tertullian , origen and cyprian , who are witnesses of infant-baptism in those daies , do assure (b) us , that miracles were then not extraordinary in the church . . if infant-baptism was not an apostolical tradition , how came the (c) pelagians not to reject it for an innovation , when the orthodox us'd it as an argument against them , that infants were guilty of original sin ? but they were so far from doing this , that they practis'd it themselves , and own'd it as necessary for childrens obtaining the kingdom of heaven , tho' they deny'd that they were baptiz'd for the remission of original sin . . if infant-baptism be not an apostolical tradition , how came all churches (d) whatsoever , tho' they held no correspondence , but were original plantations of the apostles , to practise it ? one may easily imagine , that god might suffer all churches to fall into the harmless practice of infant-communion ; or that the fathers of the church might comply with the religious fondness of the people in bringing their children to the lord's supper , as we do with bringing them to prayers : but that god shou'd let them all ( not preserving one for a monument of apostolical purity ) fall into a practice , which destroys the being of the church , is a thousand times more incredible , than that the apostles , without a prohibition from christ to the contrary , shou'd baptize infants according to the practice of the jewish church . . wou'd not the jewish christians , who were offended at the neglect of circumcision , have been much more offended , if the apostles had excluded their children from baptism , as the children of unbelievers , and refus'd to initiate them under the new testament , as they had alwaies been under the old ? wherefore , since among their many complaints upon the alteration of the jewish customs , we never read that they complain'd of their childrens being excluded from baptism : we may better argue , that the apostles baptiz'd their children ; than we may conclude from the want of an express example of infant-baptism , that they did not baptize them . iii. i am to prove , that 't is unlawful to separate from a church , which appoints infant-baptism . now it appears from what i have already said , that infant-baptism is a lawful thing , and therefore 't is a sin to separate from that church which commands it ; because the church has authority to ordain that , which may be done without sin . but farther , infant-baptism is not only lawful , but highly requisite also . for purgation by water and the spirit seem equally necessary , because except a man be born again of water and of the spirit , he cannot enter into the kingdom of god , john . . and 't is reasonable to think , that children are capable of entring into covenant , because they are declar'd capable of the kingdom of god , mark . . nay we may justly conclude , that children were baptiz'd upon the conversion of their parents , after the custom of the jewish church , because the apostles baptiz'd whole housholds , acts . , . cor. . . for 't is probable , that the federal holiness of believers children makes them candidates for baptism , and gives them a right to it ; because the children of believers are call'd holy , cor. . . to which i may add other texts , psal . . . rom. . , . joh. . , . cor. . , . and . , . which have been alledg'd by the ancients , both before and after the pelagian controversy , to prove the baptism of infants necessary to wash away their original sin , which makes them obnoxious to eternal death . see voss . hist . pelag. p. . thes . . p. . l. . i say , it may be fairly concluded from these texts , that infant-baptism is requisite : but then these texts in conjunction with the practice of the ancient church do demonstrate that 't is requisite ; because the church in the next age to the apostles practis'd infant-baptism , as an apostolical tradition , and by consequence , as an institution of christ . i do not say , that baptism is indispensably necessary to the salvation of infants , so that a child dying unbaptiz'd thro' the carelesness or superstition of the parents , or thro' their mistaken belief of the unlawfulness of infant-baptism , is infallibly damn'd : but i affirm , that infant-baptism is in any wise to be retain'd in the church , as being most agreeable to the scripture , and the apostolical practice , and the institution of christ . and if baptism be not only lawful but so highly requisite , as it appears to be ; then certainly 't is unlawful to separate from that church which injoins it . iv. in the next place i shall shew , that 't is the duty of christian parents to bring their children to baptism ; and in doing this i must proceed , as i did in the foregoing particular . since infants are not uncapable of baptism , nor excluded from it by christ ; nay , since there are good reasons to presume , that christ at least allow'd them baptism as well as grown persons : therefore the command of the church makes it the people's duty to bring their children to baptism , because 't is lawful so to do . but farther , infant-baptism is highly expedient also . for , . it is very beneficial to the infants , who are thereby solemnly consecrated to god , and made members of christ's mystical body the church . besides , they being by nature children of wrath , are by baptism made the children of grace , and receive a right to eternal life . i cannot deny , but they may be sav'd without baptism by the uncovenanted mercy of god : but then the hopes of god's mercy in extraordinary cases , ought not to make us less regardful of his sure , ordinary , and covenanted mercies , and the appointed means to which they are annex'd . nay , infants do by baptism acquire a present right unto all the promises of the gospel , and particularly to the promises of the spirit 's assistance , which they shall certainly receive , as soon and as fast , as their natural incapacity removes . now , since these are the benefits of baptism , and since infants are capable of them ; let any impartial man judge , whether it is more for their benefit , that they shou'd receive them by being baptiz'd in their infancy , or stay for them till they come to years of discretion . is it better for a child that has the evil , to be touch'd for it while he is a child , or to wait till he is of sufficient age to be sensible of the benefit ? or is it best for a traytor 's child to be presently restor'd to his blood and estate , and his prince's favour , or to be kept in a mere capacity of being restor'd , till he is a man ? i must add , that baptism laies such an early pre-engagement upon children , as without the highest baseness and ingratitude they cannot afterwards retract . for there is no person of common ingenuity , honour or conscience , but will think himself bound to stand to the obligation which he contracted in his infancy ; when he was so graciously admitted to so many blessings and privileges , before he cou'd understand his own good , or do any thing himself towards the obtaining of them . and therefore the wisdom of the church is highly to be applauded , for bringing them under such a beneficial pre-engagement , and not leaving them to their own liberty at such years , when flesh and blood wou'd be apt to find out so many shifts and excuses , and make them regret to be baptiz'd . . infant-baptism is very expedient , because it conduces much to the well-being and edification of the church , in preventing those scandalous and shameful delays of baptism , which grown persons wou'd be apt to make in these , as they did in former times to the great prejudice of christianity . since therefore infant-baptism is not only lawful and commanded by the church , but most expedient in it self , and most agreeable to the practice of the apostles and primitive christians , and to the will of christ ; it must needs be concluded , that there lies the same obligation upon parents to desire baptism for their children , as there do's upon grown persons to desire it for themselves . for what authority soever exacts any thing concerning children or persons under the years of discretion , laies at least an implicit obligation upon parents , to see that it be perform'd . for , if in the time of a general contagion , the supreme power shou'd command , that all men , women and children , shou'd every morning take such an antidote ; that command wou'd oblige parents to give it to their children , as well as to take it themselves . just so the ordinance of baptism being intended for children as well as grown persons , it must needs oblige the parents to bring them to it . what i have here said about the obligation , which lies upon parents to bring their children to baptism , concerns all guardians , &c. to whose care children are committed . and if any ask , at what time they are bound to bring them to baptism ? i answer , at any time ; for the gospel indulges a discretional latitude , but forbids the wilful neglect , and all unreasonable and needless delays thereof . v. as to communion with believers , who were baptiz'd in their infancy , 't is certainly lawful , and has ever been thought so ; nay 't is an exceeding great sin to refuse communion with them , because that wou'd be a disowning those to be members of christ's body , whom he owns to be such . nothing now remains , but that i take off two objections . first , 't is said that infant-communion may be practis'd , as well as infant-baptism . but i answer , . there is not equal evidence for the practice of infant-communion ; because st. cyprian is the first author which they can produce for it , and then the author of the ecclesiastical hierarchy , and cyril of jerusalem , mention it towards the latter end of the fourth century , and st. austin in the fifth : whereas for infant-baptism we have the authority of st. cyprian and a whole council of fathers , over which he presided , of origen , tertullian , irenaeus , st. jerom , st. ambrose , st. chrysostom , st. athanasius , gregory nazianzen , and the third council of carthage , who all speak of it as a thing generally practis'd , and most of them , as of a thing which ought to be practis'd in the church . i may add , that none of the four testimonies for infant-communion speak of it , as of an apostolical tradition , as origen do's of infant-baptism . . there is not equal reason for the practice of it . for persons of all ages are capable of baptism : but the holy eucharist is the sacrament of perfection , instituted for the remembrance of christ's death and passion ; which being an act of great knowledge and piety , children are not capable to perform . nor is there an equal concurrence of tradition , or the authority of so many texts of scripture for infant-communion ; it being grounded only upon john . . except ye eat the flesh of the son of man , and drink his blood , ye have no life in you . now 't is doubtful whether this be meant of the eucharist or no , because it was not as yet instituted : but if it be so to be understood , yet the sence of it ought to be regulated by the chief end of its institution , do this in remembrance of me . nay , the western church , discerning the mistake upon which infant-communion was grounded , have long since laid it aside , tho' they still continue the practice of infant-baptism . but in truth , the practice of infant-communion is so far from prejudicing the cause of infant-baptism , that it mightily confirms it ; because none were , or cou'd be admitted to partake of the holy communion , till they were validly baptiz'd . and therefore the practice of infant-communion fully proves , that all the churches , wherein it ever was , or still (e) is practis'd , were of opinion , that the baptism of infants is as valid and lawful , as that of grown persons . secondly , 't is objected , that children who have not the use of reason , cannot know what a covenant means , and therefore they cannot contract and stipulate ; tho' st. peter says , the baptism which saveth us , must have the answer , or restipulation of a good conscience towards god. to this i answer , . that this objection is as strong against infant-circumcision , as against infant-baptism . . that god was pleas'd to seal the covenant of grace unto circumcis'd infants upon an implicite and imputative sort of stipulation , which at years of understanding they were bound to own ; because if they renounc'd it , the covenant was as void , as if it had never been made . and therefore an implicite stipulation is sufficient for the baptism of infants ; and st. peter , 't is likely , had not respect to all baptism , or baptism in general , but only to the baptism of adult proselytes , whom the minister us'd to interrogate at the time of baptism , much after the same manner as we interrogate adult proselytes now . but it is plain that tertullian (f) makes mention of sponsors or sureties for children at baptism ; and 't is very probable , that the apostles made parents , &c. stipulate in the name of their (g) minors , when they baptiz'd them , as the jews were wont to do ; and t is certain , that our saviour speaks of children , that believe in him , matth. . . and therefore st. peter might also probably allude to all baptism , because children might be answer'd for by other persons . thus , i hope , i have sufficiently justify'd the practice of infant-baptism , and shewn , that it is by no means a sufficient excuse for separation from us . chap. vi. objections against our form of baptism , and particularly that of the sign of the cross , answer'd . i proceed now to consider the objections against our form of baptism . i. it is said , that all baptiz'd infants are suppos'd to be regenerated , of which , some think , we cannot be certain . but since they are baptiz'd into christ's body , cor. . . and into christ , and have put on christ , gal. . . and consequently are new creatures , cor. . . since , i say , they are baptiz'd for the remission of sins , acts . . and since baptism is call'd the washing of regeneration , tit. . . therefore the scripture , as well as our church , supposes them to be regenerated ; unless the ordinances and promises of god are of none effect towards them . ii. 't is objected , that godfathers and godmothers have no authority to covenant or act in their names . to which i answer , . that the sureties are procur'd by the parents ; and therefore , since 't is granted that the parents may act in behalf of the infant , the sureties have all that authority which the parents can give them . . the church do's hereby take great security , that the infant shall be religiously brought up : inasmuch as , besides their parents , an obligation is laid upon others also to take care of it . if the parents shou'd die or be negligent , the sureties are engaged to admonish the child , and have greater authority and better advantages of doing so , than other persons . and in this age , when the duty of christian reproof is so generally omitted , 't were well if the defect were this way a little supply'd : but 't is by no means fit , that the opportunity thereof , and obligation thereto shou'd be taken away . if it be said , this is seldom practis'd ; i answer , that the goodness of a rule is to be judg'd of by the good that is done where 't is kept , and not where 't is broken . and if the dissenters have nothing to say , but that 't is neglected ; they may remove this objection themselves , by returning to the church and increasing the number of those that observe it . thus they shall have the benefit of the order of the church , and the church the benefit of their examples . as for the interrogatories put to the sureties , and their answers , they are a solemn declaration of what baptism obliges us to ; and that infants do stand engag'd to perform it , when they come to age. this is the known meaning of the contract ; and therefore i see not , why it shou'd be said to be liable to misunderstanding . iii. but that which is most dislik'd , is the cross in baptism , against which 't is objected , . that the sign of the cross has been so notoriously abus'd by the papists , that our retaining of it makes us partakers of their superstitions and idolatry . . that it seems a new sacrament , and therefore is an invasion of christ's right , who alone may institute sacraments . as to the first pretence , tho' i readily acknowledge that the cross has been notoriously abus'd by the papists , yet this do's not prove our retaining of it to be unlawful , if we consider three things . . that the use of this sign was common in the primitive times , and is more ancient , than any of those corruptions , for which we differ from the papists . tertullian (a) speaks of it , as of a practice which tradition had introduc'd , custom had confirm'd , and the believers faith had observ'd and maintain'd : which words , together with his frequent and familiar mention of it , make it very improbable , that he receiv'd it from the montanists . fourty years after him , and about after christ , origen (b) mentions those , who at their baptism were sign'd with this sign : and about years after , st. basil (c) gives this usage the venerable title of an ecclesiastical constitution , or fixt law of the church , that had prevail'd from the apostles daies , that those who believe in the name of the lord jesus christ , should be sign'd with the sign of the cross . but of all the fathers , st. cyprian who was before st. basil and very near ( if not contemporary with ) tertullian himself , not only speaks very familiarly of the use of this sign , but has some expressions that wou'd now seem very harsh and unwarrantable : and yet the authority of this father has sav'd him from being question'd about it . he (d) tells us , that they are sign'd in the forehead with the cross , who are thought worthy of the lord ; that baptism is sanctify'd by the cross ; and that it compleats every sacrament . the great the antiquity of this usage is manifest ; nay , the fathers frequently use being sign'd in the forehead for being baptiz'd . i shall not instance in st. cyril , st. ambrose and st. austin , who sprinkle their writings with the common mention of this ceremony , and oftentimes frame arguments for a good life , from this very sign upon their foreheads . only i shall add this remark ; that the first christian emperour constantine the great , had his directions probably from heaven it self , to make this sign the great banner in his wars , with this encouragement , that by this he shou'd overcome . that this dream or vision was from heaven , and a thing of great reality , is evident from the success of that prince's army under it : and we cannot suppose , that our blessed lord wou'd , by so immediate a revelation , countenance such a rite as this , already us'd in the church , if he had resented it before as superstitious or any way unwarrantable . i may add , that we ought not to be too petulant against that , which the holy spirit has sometimes signaliz'd by very renown'd miracles ; as those that consult the ecclesiastical histories of the best authority , cannot but be convinc'd : and that those conceits of the fathers concerning this sign , which perhaps may be too fanciful , do confirm the ancient reception of it into the primitive church . if it be said , that the antient christians us'd this sign , because they liv'd amongst jews and heathens , to testify to both , that they made the cross the badge of their profession , and wou'd not be asham'd of it , tho' 't was a stumbling-block to the one and foolishness to the other : whereas we have no such occasion for it , who do universally profess christianity ; i answer , . that this objection supposes the sign to be lawful , and that it may be us'd upon weighty reasons ; and surely then the command of authority may justify the practice of it . . that we have as just reason to use it as the primitive christians , because of the blasphemous contempt that is generally cast upon the whole scheme of christianity , particularly the merits of our saviour's cross and passion , by the pretended wits of our age. so that st. cyprian's (e) words are now pertinent , arm your foreheads , that the seal of god may be kept safe ; as if he shou'd have said , remember the badge you took upon you in baptism , and so long as you have that upon your foreheads , never be asham'd or laugh'd out of countenance as to the memory of our saviour's love , and the foundation of your hopes laid in his death and passion . i grant indeed , that the use of the cross is an indifferent ceremony , and that baptism is , as our church declares , compleat without it : but what i contend for , is fully prov'd , viz. that the cross was us'd in the first ages of christianity ; from whence it follows , that tho' 't is not necessary , yet 't is warrantable . . our use of this sign is not in the least like the popish use of it . for , . we admit of no visible crucifixes ; nor has any of our writers ventur'd to say (f) with mr. baxter , that a crucifix well befitteth the imagination and mind of a believer ; and that it is not unlawful to make an image ( of a crucifix ) to be an obiect or medium of our consideration , exciting our minds to worship god. the sence of our church is truly exprest by mr. hooker , who (g) says , that between the cross which superstition honoureth as christ , and that ceremony of the cross which serveth only for a sign of remembrance , there is as plain and great a difference , as between those brazen images which solomon made to bear up the cistern of the temple , and that which the israelites in the wilderness did adore . ours is a mere transient sign , which abides not so long as to be capable of becoming an object or medium of worship , any more than any words we use in worship may do . . our use even of this transient sign is nothing like the popish use of it . for the papists use it upon all occasions ; and at baptism they use it much oftner , and so differently from our way , that 't is not us'd at the same time and with the same words that we use it with . this is evident from the roman ritual . . tho' the church of rome has notoriously abus'd this sign , yet 't is not unlawful for us to continue the use of it , as i shall fully prove in the eighth chapter . as to the second pretence , that the sign of the cross is a new sacrament , i answer , that we all agree , that a sacrament is an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace given to us , ordain'd by christ himself , as a means whereby we receive the same , and as a pledge to assure us thereof . and therefore , since we never suppos'd , that the use of the cross in baptism cou'd confer grace , nor have ever made the least pretence to any divine appointment for it ; we ought not to be charg'd as introducing a new sacrament . if it be said , that we make the cross a sign betokening our faith and christian courage , because we apply it in token that hereafter he shall not be asham'd to confess the faith o● christ crucify'd , &c. and that therefore we make it an outward sign of an inward and spiritual grace ; i answer , that we own it to be a significant ceremony , as all other ceremonies are ; for we do not account a ceremony innocent , because 't is insignificant and impertinent : but yet we deny it to be an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace . for our ceremonies are not seals and assurances from god of his grace to us , but hints and remembrances of some obligation we are under with respect to him ; and this kind of significant usages has ever been taken up , without any imputation of introducing a new sacrament . for , . the jewish church chang'd the posture of eating the passover , from standing to sitting in token of their rest and securi●y in the land of canaan . there was also an altar of witness rear'd on the other side of jordan ; and the synagogue-worship , rites of marriage , form of taking oaths , &c. were significant ; and yet they were all receiv'd in the purest times of the jewish church , and comply'd with by our saviour himself . the christian church of the first ages us'd the same liberty , as appears by the customs of the holy kiss and the feasts of charity . tertullian , de orat. speaks as if the public service were imperfect , if it concluded not with the holy kiss ; which was us'd in token of the mutual communion and fellowship , that christians had with one another . the feasts of charity also signify'd the mutual love and communion of christians , and the equal regard that god and our saviour had towards all sorts and conditions of men , when they were all to eat freely together at one common meal . i might further instance in the ceremony of insufflation , which was us'd as a sign of breathing into them the good spirit ; and the baptiz'd person 's stripping off his garment in token that he put off the old man ; and the trine immersion , at the mention of each person of the trinity , to signify the belief of that great article . now all these things were anciently practis'd without any jealousy of invading the prerogative of christ in instituting new sacraments . . all the reformed churches , nay the very dissenters themselves , do use some symbolical actions in their most religious solemnities . for , . their giving to the baptiz'd infant a new name seems to betoken its being made a new creature . nay the dissenters generally give it some scripture-name , or one that betokens a particular grace ; and this is an outward and visible sign , and this too sometimes of an inward and spiritual grace ; and yet they do not think it a new sacrament . . the dissenters plead for sitting at the lord's supper , because 't is a table-g●sture , and expresses fellowship with christ , &c. this is an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace ; and yet 't is not accounted an additional sacrament to that of the lord's supper . . and lastly , suppose that an independent , when he is admitted into their church-covenant , shou'd signify his assent by holding up his hand , or the like ; this is an outward and visible sign of no less then a new state of life , that is , of being made a member of christ's church , and being engaged to all the duties and instated in all the privileges of it : and yet this was never charg'd upon them by the presbyterians , as introducing a new sacrament . now from all these instances 't is evident , how unreasonable a thing it is , that our using the sign of the cross , in token that hereafter he ( the infant ) shall not be asham'd to confess the faith of christ crucify'd , &c. shou'd be thought an adding of a new sacrament of the cross to that of baptism . but 't is objected , that our convocation , c. . declares , that by the sign of the cross the infant is dedicated , &c. now , say they , baptism is it self a seal of dedication to god , and therefore our dedicating the infant by our own invented way of the sign of the cross , is adding a new sacrament . to this i answer , that dedication may properly signify a confirmation of our first dedication to god , and a declaration of what the church thinks of a baptiz'd person ; and the sign of the cross is the medium of this declaration . that this is the meaning of our church , is evident , if we compare the office of baptism and the canon together . both the rubric and canon say , that baptism is compleat without the sign of the cross . it is expresly said , we receive this child into the congregation of christ 's flock , and upon that do sign it with the cross ; so that the child is declar'd to be within the congregation of christ 's flock , before 't is sign'd with the cross . since therefore the person is dedicated in baptism , and the baptism is acknowledg'd compleat without , or before the sign of the cross ; we cannot be thought to dedicate in baptism and to dedicate by the cross again : but the dedication by the cross must be something very distinct from the dedication of baptism ; that is , the one is the sign of the dedication , and the other the dedication it self . so that this is plainly no other , than a declaration the church makes of what the baptiz'd person is admitted to , and what engagement he lies under . which declaration is therefore made in the name of the church in the plural number , we receive this child , &c. and do sign him with the sign of the cross , &c. whereas in baptism , the minister alone , as the immediate agent of christ , pronounces in the singular number , i baptize thee in the name of the father , and of the son , and of the holy ghost . from what has been said , i hope , it appears , that our office of baptism has nothing in it , that may in the least justify a separation from us . chap. vii . objections against our communion-office , and particularly that of kneeling at the sacrament , answer'd . tho' the communion-office , for the gravity and holiness thereof , is preferr'd by the dissenters before all other offices in the common-prayer-book , yet it has not past free from exception . for , i. 't is objected against it , that the petition in the prayer before consecration , that our sinful bodies may be made clean by his body , and our souls wash'd by his most precious blood , implies that the blood of christ has greater efficacy than his body , inasmuch as the soul is said to be cleans'd by the blood of christ , and only the body by christ's body . but i answer , that at the delivery of the bread and wine , the priest saies , the body of our lord jesus christ , which was given for thee , preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life ; and the blood of our lord jesus christ , which was , &c. and therefore 't is plain , that our church teaches , that the sanctification and salvation of our souls and bodies flow from the body as well as the blood of christ . nor do's the mentioning of one alone exclude the other ; for the apostle speaks sometimes of the bread alone , cor. . . and sometimes of the wine alone , cor. . . and yet all men must grant , that he meant both . ii. 't is said , that christ did not deliver the elements into every person 's hands , with a form of words recited to every one of them , as we do . but i answer , . that this do's not appear from christ's words ; for the evangelists may well be suppos'd to give a short account of the institution , and then what might be particularly said or done to every one , wou'd be sufficiently related in being said to be done or spoken to all . . suppose that our practice do's vary from this circumstance of the institution , it may be as easily defended as celebrating the lord's supper at dinner-time , and not at supper , which the dissenters themselves do not scruple . . our saviour commanded his disciples , matth. . . to teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the father , and of the son , and of the holy ghost . but will any man think , that when great numbers are to be baptiz'd together , the form of baptizing in the name of the father , &c. may not lawfully be express'd severally to every person ? and why then may not the same be done in the lord's supper ? wherefore the practice of our church herein is no way unsutable to the institution of christ , or the nature of the sacrament ; and the alteration of it wou'd be for the worse , and abate the solemnity of its administration . see falkner 's libert . eccles . p. , &c. iii. the last and great objection is against the posture of kneeling at the sacrament ; and therefore i shall consider it largely , and endeavour to shew , . that christ has not forbidden us to kneel at the sacrament . . that kneeling is not a deviation from his example . . that 't is not unsutable for its being no table-gesture . . that 't is not contrary to the practice of the church in the best and purest ages . . that kneeling is not therefore unlawful , because 't was introduced by idolaters , and is still notoriously abus'd by the papists to idolatrous ends and purposes . first then , christ has not forbidden us to kneel at the sacrament . for in all the scriptures god has not given us any express command to determine our practice one way or other : and , if authority did not restrain our liberty , we might either sit , kneel or stand , without the least violation of the law of god. the apostles and disciples of our lord at the institution of the sacrament , which the scripture relates in several places (a) were the representatives of the whole church , and are to be consider'd under a double capacity ; either as governours and ministers , intrusted by christ with the power of dispensing and administring the sacrament , or as ordinary and lay-communicants . if we consider them as governours and stewards of the mysteries , their duty to which they are oblig'd by the express command of their lord , is to take the bread into their hands , to bless and consecrate it to that mysterious and divine use to which he design'd it , to break and distribute it ; and so in the like manner to take and bless the cup , and give it to their fellow-christians . but if we consider them as private men , and in common with all believers , their duty was to take and receive the bread and wine , and to eat and drink in commemoration of christ's love. but what syllable or shadow of a command is there in all the history for the use of any gesture in the act of receiving ? since then the holy scripture is altogether silent as to this matter , it 's silence is a full and clear demonstration , that kneeling is not repugnant to any express command of our lord , because no gesture was ever commanded at all . but the scotch ministers assembled at perth , affirm that when our lord commanded his disciples to do this , he did by those words command them to use that gesture , which he us'd at that time , as well as to take , eat , drink , &c. to this i answer , . that if our lord did sit at the institution ( which we will suppose at present ) yet there is no reason to think , that he intended by these words , do this , to oblige us to observe this gesture only , and not several other circumstances , which he observ'd at the same time , as well as this . for example , if the words may be interpreted thus , do this , that is , sit as christ did ; why not thus also , do this , that is , celebrate the sacrament in an upper-room , in a private-house , late at night or in the evening , after a full supper , in the company of twelve at most , and they only men , with their heads cover'd according to the custom of those countries , and with unleavened bread ? there lies as great an obligation upon us to observe all those circumstances in imitation of our lord , as there do's to sit . . even the two last of those circumstances are generally allow'd , but all the rest are mention'd in scripture , and were most certainly observ'd by christ : whereas the gesture us'd by them is not mention'd , and what it was is very disputable , as i shall afterwards prove . how then can any man think himself oblig'd in conscience to do what christ is not expreslly said to do ; and not oblig'd to do what the scripture expresly saies he did ? . 't is clear from st. paul , cor. . , &c. that do this , respects only the bread and wine , which signify the body and blood of christ , and actions that are specify'd by him , which are essential to the right and due celebration of that holy feast . for when 't is said , do this in remembrance of me , and this do as oft as ye drink it in remembrance of me , and as oft as ye eat this bread and drink this cup , ye do shew the lord's death till he come ; 't is plain , that do this , must be restrain'd to the sacramental actions there mention'd , and not extended to the gesture , of which the apostle speaks not a word . our lord instituted the sacrament in remembrance of his death and passion , and not in remembrance of his gesture in administring it : and consequently , do this , is a general command , obliging us only to such particular actions and rites as he had instituted , and made necessary to be us'd in order to this great end , viz. to signify and represent his death , and that bloody sacrifice which he offer'd upon the cross for us miserable sinners . nay the practice of our dissenters proves , that no particular gesture is commanded . for there are many serious and sincere persons among them , who profess that ( were they left to their liberty ) they cou'd use kneeling as well as any other gesture : but they think that an indifferent thing becomes unlawful , when 't is injoin'd by authority . i have already confuted this opinion ; but 't is certain , that by granting they cou'd use the posture of kneeling , were it not injoin'd , and consequently that 't is in it's own nature indifferent ; they do thereby grant that there is no command for any particular posture . i must add , that the reform'd churches of france , and those of geneva and helvetia stand , the dutch generally sit , but in some places ( as in west-friesland ) they stand . the churches of the bohemian and augustane confession , which spread through the large kingdoms of bohemia , denmark , and sweden , thro' norway , the dukedom of saxony , lithuania and ducal prussia in poland , the marquisate of brandenburg in germany , and several other places and free cities in that empire , do for the most part , if not all of them , retain the gesture of kneeling . the bohemian churches were reform'd by john husse and jerom of prague , who suffer'd martyrdom at constance about the year . long before luther's time , and those of the ausbourg or augustan confessions were founded and reform'd by luther , and were the first protestants properly so call'd . but these churches so early reform'd and of so large extent , did not only use the same gesture that our church injoins at the sacrament ; but they , together with those of the helvetic confession , did in three (b) general synods unanimously condemn the sitting gesture ( tho' they esteem'd it in it self lawful ) as being scandalous for this remarkable reason , viz. because it was us'd by the arians ( as their synods call the socinians ) in contempt of our saviours divinity , who therefore placed themselves as fellows with their lord at his table . and thereupon they entreat and exhort all christians of their communion to change sitting into kneeling or standing , both which ceremonies we indifferently leave free , according as the custom of any church has obtain'd , and we approve of their use without scandal and blame . moreover they affirm , that these socinians who deny christ to be god , were the first that introduced sitting at the sacrament into their churches , contrary to the practice of all the evangelical churches in europe . among all these foreign churches of the reformation , there is but one that i can find which uses sitting , and forbids kneeling , for fear of bread-worship ; but yet in that synod wherein they condemn'd kneeling , they left it to the choice of their churches to use standing , sitting , or an ambulatory gesture ( as the french (c) do ) and at last conclude thus ; these articles are so setled by mutual consent , that if the good of the churches require it , they may and ought to be chang'd , augmented or diminish'd . what now shou'd be the ground and reason of this variety both in opinion and practice touching the gesture to be us'd at the lord's supper ? is it to be imagin'd that an assembly of learned and pious divines , met together on purpose to consult how to reform their churches , according to the pure word of god , shou'd thro' weakness and inadvertency overlook an express command of christ for the perpetual use of any particular gesture , if any such there had been ? or shall we be so uncharitable as to think , that all these eminent churches wilfully past it by , and establish'd what was most agreeable to their own fancies , contrary to the known will of god ? wou'd they have given liberty to all of their communion to use several gestures according to the custom of their several churches , if our lord had tied them to observe but one ? wou'd they declare ( as the dutch synod doth ) that what they injoin'd might be alter'd , if the good of the church so requir'd ; if so be sitting had been expresly commanded by our lord , to be us'd by all christians to the end of the world ? no undoubtedly , they wou'd not ; we cannot either in reason or charity suppose it . the true principle upon which all these reform'd churches built , and by which they are able to reconcile all this seeming difference in this matter , is the very same with that which the church of england go's by in her synods and convocations ; viz. (d) that as to rites and ceremonies of an indifferent nature , every national church has authority to institute , change and abolish them , as they in prudence and charity shall think most fit and conducive to the setting forth god's glory , the edification of their people , and the decent and reverend administation of the holy sacrament . whosoever therefore refuses to receive the lord's supper according to the constitution of the church of england , purely because kneeling is contrary to the express command of christ , must condemn the judgment and practice of all the reform'd churches beyond the seas , who all agree in this , that the gesture in the act of receiving is to be reckon'd among things indifferent ; and that whether we sit , or kneel or stand , or receive walking , we transgress no law of god ; and consequently they prove my assertion true , that kneeling is no more contrary to any express command than any other gesture ; because they allow of all , as lawful in themselves to be us'd , which cannot consist with an express command for the use of any one gesture whatsoever . upon the whole matter , i think we may certainly conclude , that there is not a tittle of a command in the whole new testament to oblige us to receive the lord's supper in any particular posture : and if any be so scrupulous , as not to receive it in any other gesture , but what is expresly commanded , they must never receive it as long as they live . secondly , i shall prove , that kneeling is not a deviation from christ's example . this will appear , if we consider , . that 't is doubtful what gesture our saviour us'd at the institution of the sacrament . for the scripture do's not inform us what it was , and the jews us'd variety of gestures at the passover ; and therefore , since our lord's example cannot certainly be known in this matter , our church cannot be charg'd with deviation from it . . those who kneel at the sacrament in compliance with the orders of the church , do manifestly follow the example of christ . for our saviour comply'd with that passover-gesture , which the jews then us'd , tho' it was not the same that was us'd at the institution in egypt : and his compliance may teach us , not to be scrupulous about gestures , but to conform to the innocent and prevailing customs of the church , wheresoever we live . and if christians did walk according to this rule , they wou'd greatly promote the peace and welfare of the church of christ , and in so doing procure quiet and peace to themselves , with unspeakable comfort and satisfaction . but supposing our lord did sit , as the dissenters will have it ; yet his bare example do's not oblige all christians to a like practice . . because naked examples , without some rule or note added to them , to signify that 't is god's will to have them constantly follow'd , have not the force of laws perpetually obliging the conscience . and therefore , in this case , because no such note is to be found , we are not tied in conscience to a strict imitation of christ's example . thus the example of our saviour do's not oblige us to defer our baptism till the age of years , or not to receive the sacrament till a little before death ; and , i pray , what reason is there to follow his example in sitting at the sacrament , any more than in those particulars ? . we are bound to imitate christ in those things only which he has commanded : but where there is no command , there is no necessity . indeed we must follow christ and his apostles ; but in what ? why , in acting according to the gospel-rule . an example may help to interpret a law , but of it self it is no law. against a rule no example is a competent warrant : and if the example be according to the rule , 't is not the example , but the rule , that is the measure of our actions . . the bare example of christ is no warrant for us to go by , because he was an extaordinary person , and did many things which we cannot , and many which we must not do . he fasted daies and nights , wrought miracles , &c. which we are not to pretend to . they say indeed , we are bound to imitate christ and the commendable example of his apostles , in all things wherein it is not evident , they had special reasons moving them thereunto , which do not concern us . but i wou'd willingly be inform'd how we shall be ever able to know when they acted upon special reasons , and what they were , that we may know our duty , if a bare example without any rule obliges us . and if we guide our selves by scripture or reason in this matter , then they are the measures of the example . besides , if we are not to imitate them in such things , as they were mov'd to do upon special reasons , which did not concern us ; then we are obliged to imitate their examples in such things as they did upon general and common reasons , which concern us as well as them , or we are not oblig'd at all by any example : and if so , then those reasons are to be our rule , to which we are to reduce their examples . unless we find some general or common reason , we have no warrant ( according to their own principle ) to follow their examples : and when such reasons do appear , then it 's not the example alone that obliges us , but reason that approves the example . to bring their own rule to the case in hand , how do they know but our lord was mov'd to sit at the sacrament by special reasons drawn from that time and place , or the feast of the passover , to which that gesture was peculiar ? how do they know , but that our lord might have us'd another gesture , if the sacrament had been instituted apart from the passover ? the necessity of the time made the jews eat the passover after one fashion in egypt , which afterward ceasing , gave occasion to alter it in canaan ; and how do we know , but that our lord comply'd with the present necessity , and that his example ( if he did sit ) was only temporary , and not design'd for a standing law , perpetually obliging to a like practice ? if christ acted upon special reasons , then we are not obliged , by their own rule : and if he did not , let them produce the reasons if they can , which make this example of christ of general and perpetual use , and to oblige all christians to follow it . . 't is absurd to talk of christ's example apart from all law and rule , and to make that alone a principle of duty distinct from the precepts of the gospel , because christ himself alwaies govern'd his actions by a law. for if we consider him as a man , he was obliged by the natural law , as a jew by the mosaic law , as the messias by the gospel-law . he came to fulfil all righteousness , and to teach and practise the whole will of god. if therefore we look only to his example , without considering the various capacities and relations he bare , both towards god and towards us , and the several laws by which he stood bound , which were the measures of his actions ; we shall miserably mistake our way , and act like fools , when we do such things as he did pursuant to infinite wisdom . thus , if we shou'd subject our selves to the law of moses , as he did , we shou'd thereby frustrate the great design of the gospel : and yet even this we are obliged to do , if his example alone be a sufficient warrant for our actions . thus it appears that christ's bare example do's not oblige us to do any thing , that is not commanded . i shall only add , that they who urge the example of christ against kneeling at the sacrament , do not follow it themselves . for our saviour probably us'd a leaning gesture ; and by what authority do they change it to sitting ? certainly , our changing the gesture is as warrantable as theirs . nor is it enough to say , that sitting comes nearer our saviour's gesture than kneeling ; for if they keep to their own rule , they must not vary at all . the presbyterians ( if one may argue from their practices to their principles ) lay very little stress on this argument taken from the example of christ . for tho' they generally chuse to sit , yet they do not condemn standing as sinful , or unlawful in it self ; and several are willing to receive it in that posture , in our churches ; which surely is every whit as wide from the pattern our lord is suppos'd to have set us , ( whether he lay along or sate upright ) as that which is injoin'd and practis'd by the church of england . there is too a confessed variation allow'd of and practis'd by the generality of dissenters , both presbyterians and independents , from the institution and practice of christ and his apostles , in the other sacrament of baptism . for they have chang'd dipping into sprinkling ; and 't is strange , that those who scruple kneeling at the lord's supper , can allow of this greater change in baptism . why shou'd not the peace and unity of the church , and charity to the public , prevail with them to kneel at the lord's supper ; as much as mercy and tenderness to the infant 's body , to sprinkle or pour water on the face , contrary to the first institution ? thirdly , kneeling is not therefore repugnant to the nature of the lord's supper , because 't is no table-gesture . the sacrament is a supper ; and therefore , say they , the gesture at the lord's table ought to be the same , which we use and observe at our ordinary tables , according to the custom and fashion of our native country : and by consequence , we ought to sit , and not to kneel , because sitting is the ordinary table-gesture , according to the mode and fashion of england . here , by the way , we may observe , that this argument overthrows the two others drawn from the command and example of christ . for , . different table-gestures are us'd in different countries ; and therefore , tho' christ did sit , yet we are not oblig'd to sit after his example , unless sitting be in our country the common table-gesture . . if the nature of the sacrament require a table-gesture , and that gesture in particular which is customary ; then god has not commanded any particular gesture , because different countries have different table-gestures . however , i shall fu●ly answer this argument drawn from the nature of the sacrament , by shewing , . what is the nature of it . . that it do's not absolutely require a common table-gesture . . that kneeling is very agreeable to the nature of the lord's supper , tho' 't is no table-gesture . . then , the nature of the sacrament is easily understood , if we consider that the scripture calls it the lord's table and the lord's supper . the greek fathers call it a feast and a banquet , because of that provision and entertainment which our lord has made for all worthy receivers . 't is styl'd a supper and a feast , either because 't was instituted by christ at supper-time , or because it represents a supper and a feast ; and so it is not of the same nature with a civil and ordinary supper or feast , tho' it bear the same name . three things are essential to a feast , plenty , good company and mirth : but the plenty of the lord's supper is a plenty of spiritual dainties ; and the company consists of the three persons of the trinity , and good christians ; and the mirth is wholly spiritual . so that the lord's supper differs in its nature from civil banquets , as much as heaven and earth , body and spirit differ in theirs . farther , the lord's supper is a feast upon a sacrifice for sin , wherein we are particularly to commemorate the death of christ . 't was also instituted in honour of our lord , and to preserve an eternal memory of his wondrous works , and to bless and praise our great benefactour . 't is also a covenanting rite between god and all worthy communicants , and signifies that we are in a state of peace and friendship with him ; that we own him to be our god , and swear fidelity to him ; we take the sacrament upon it ( as we ordinarily say ) that we will not henceforth live unto our selves , but to him alone that died for us . 't is also a means to convey to us the merits of christ's death , and a pledge to assure us thereof . lastly , 't was instituted to be a bond of union between christians , to engage and dispose us to love one another , as our lord loved us , who thought not his life too dear , nor his blood too much to part with for our sakes . this therefore being the nature of the sacrament , it follows , . that it do's not absolutely require a common table-gesture . for if the nature of the sacrament , consider'd as a feast , necessarily requires a table-gesture ; then the nature of the sacrament , consider'd as a feast , do's as well require all other formalities that are essential , either to all civil feasts whatsoever , or to all feasts as they obtain among us : and consequently we must carve and drink one to another , &c. at the lord's supper , as we alwaies do at other feasts . but this our dissenters will by no means allow ; nor do they think themselves obliged to observe all the other formalities of a feast , tho' they are as agreeable to the nature of a feast , as sitting is . it 's not agreeable to the nature of a feast , that one of the guests , and the principal one too , shou'd fill out the wine , and break the bread , and distribute it to the rest of the society ; but this the dissenters generally allow of , and practise at the holy communion . it 's not agreeable to the nature of a feast to sit from the table , dispers'd up and down the room . in all public feasts there are several tables provided , when one is not big enough to receive the guests ; and yet the dissenters generally receive in their pews , scatter'd up and down the church , and think one table is sufficient , tho' not capable of receiving the twentieth part of the communicants in some large parishes and numerous assemblies . and where there are so few , that they may come up to , and sit at the table , they generally are against it ( especially the presbyterians ) and think they are not obliged to observe that formality , tho' constantly practis'd at common and civil entertainments . it 's by no means agreeable to the nature of a feast to be sorrowful . to mourn and grieve at a feast is as indecent and unsutable , as to laugh at a funeral . but sure our dissenters will not say , that to come to the sacrament with a penitent and broken spirit ; to come with a hearty sorrow for all our sin , which caus'd so much pain and torment to our dearest and greatest friend , our ever blessed redeemer ; to reflect upon the agonies of his soul in the garden , the bitterness of his deadly cup , the torture he endur'd on the cross , with a deep sympathy and trouble for the occasion ; they will not surely , i say , affirm , that such a disposition of heart and mind is improper and unsutable to the nature of this feast , which we solemnize in commemoration of his death for our sakes . this sacrament is also call'd the lord's supper ; and consequently the nature of it requires the evening , as the proper season for it : and yet our dissenters make no scruple of communicating at noon . again , the nature of the lord's supper do's not necessarily require a table-gesture , because 't is not of the same nature with common and ordinary feasts . for we cannot argue from natural and civil things to spiritual ; or conclude that , because they agree in their names , they are of the same nature . and therefore , tho' the sacrament is a feast ; yet because 't is a spiritual feast , and not of the same nature with common and ordinary feasts , we must not think , that such a gesture as is necessary to the one , is also necessary to the other . i must add , that the nature of the lord's supper , consider'd as a feast , do's not necessarily require a common table-gesture in order to right and worthy receiving ; because the dissenters grant , that it may be worthily receiv'd standing , tho' standing is no common table-gesture . if any shou'd yet urge , that no gesture besides sitting is agreeable to the nature of the sacrament , consider'd as a feast ; and that to use any other gesture wou'd profane the ordinance ; i answer , that god calls the passover a feast , exod. . . and yet he commanded the israelites to celebrate it with their loins girt , their shoes on their feet , and their staff in their hands ; which were all signs of haste , but no table-gestures either among the jews or the egyptians . now to say , that god injoin'd gestures unsutable to that ordinance , is to call his wisdom in question : and to say , that the feast of the passover did in it's nature admit of several gestures , is to yield all that i desire ; for then the sacrament , consider'd as a feast , will admit of several too , and consequently do's not oblige us to observe only a feast-gesture for the due celebration of it . . kneeling is very agreeable to the nature of the lord's supper , tho' 't is no table-gesture . . because 't is a very fit gesture to express reverence , humility and gratitude by ; which holy affections are requisite to the sacrament . . since christ ought to be ador'd at the lord's supper for his wonderful kindness to us , therefore whatsoever is fit to express our veneration , is not unsutable to the sacrament ; and consequently bowing the knees is proper , because 't is an external sign of reverence . . since lifting up our hands and eyes , and imploying our tongues in uttering god's praises , are agreeable to the lord's supper ; why shou'd kneeling be thought unsutable , which is only glorifying god with another part of our body ? . the holy sacrament was instituted in remembrance of christ's death and sufferings ; and therefore i desire the dissenters to consider his gesture in the very extremity of his passion , and to observe , that he then pray'd kneeling , luke . . and surely no sober person will say , that 't is improper to kneel at the sacrament , where we commemorate those sufferings , part of which he endur'd upon his bended knees . . if we consider the benefits of the sacrament , we cannot think kneeling an unbecoming gesture at it . if a grateful hearty sence of god's infinite mercy thro' the merits and sufferings of his son , and of the manifold benefits which our lord has purchas'd with his most precious blood ; if a mind deeply humbled under the sense of our own guilt , and unworthiness to receive any mercy at all from the hands of our creator and soveraign lord , whom we have by numberless and heinous crimes so highly provok'd and incens'd against us ; if such an inward temper and disposition of soul becomes us at this holy feast , ( which i think no man will deny ) then surely the most humble and reverential gesture of the body will become us too . why shou'd not a submissive lowly deportment of body sute with this solemnity , as well as an humble lowly mind ? and this is that which our church (e) declares to be the end of her injunction , in requiring all the communicants to kneel , viz. for a signification of an humble and grateful acknowledgment of the benefits of christ therein given to all worthy receivers . the commemoration of the death and passion of the son of god will strike a man , almost naturally , into the humblest posture of adoration : but if any reverence be due at such a time , i am sure sitting is a very unfit posture to express it . in a word , whatsoever gesture best answers the principal ends of this holy feast , do's best sute it 's nature , and ought to be best esteem'd of , if we will be guided by the nature of the thing : and that kneeling do's best answer the nature and ends of the lord's supper , i think , i have fully prov'd . i shall crave leave to observe in the last place , that the primitive church had no such notion of the necessity of a table-gesture , as the dissenters maintain . there is not the least mention made of the name table , in any of their writings , for the space of years after christ . for they call the place , on which the consecrated elements stood , the altar ; and the eucharist they call an oblation and a sacrifice : and what connexion , i pray , is there between an altar or a sacrifice , and a table-gesture ? the dissenters indeed (f) say , that kneeling or an adoring-gesture is against the dignity of guests , and debars us the privileges and prerogatives of the lord's table , such as social admittance and social entertainment ; that it is against the purpose of christ , whose intention was to dignify us by setting us at his table ; and much more of this nature : but 't is plain that the fathers thought otherwise , as the phrases they use , and the titles they give the sacrament , plainly demonstrate . they call it as st. paul doth , the lord's supper , the kingly , royal , and most divine supper , which import deference , distance , and respect on our parts ; the dreadful sacrifice , the venerable and vnbloody sacrifice , the wonderful and terrible mysteries , the royal , spiritual , holy , formidable , tremendous table . the bread and wine after consecration , are in their language call'd the most mysterious , most holy food and nutriment , the most holy things ; and the place where the table stood , the most holy part of the temple , in allusion to that of the jewish temple , to which the jews paid the highest reverence . the bread in particular they styl'd the bread of god ; the cup , the holy and mysterious , the royal and dreadful cup. they advise the communicants to reverence these holy mysteries , to come with fear and trembling , with sorrow and shame , with silence and down-cast eyes , to keep their joy within , and to approach the table with all the signs and expressions of reverence and humility imaginable . how can these speeches consist with that social , familiar carriage at the sacrament , which the patrons of the table-gesture contend for , as the privilege of guests , and the prerogative of the lord's table ? fourthly , i am to shew that kneeling at the lord's supper is not contrary to the general practice of the church in the first ages . this i shall do by proving , . that it 's highly probable , that the primitive church us'd to kneel in the act of receiving the holy sacrament , as our custom at present is . . that it 's most certain they us'd an adoring posture . first then , it 's highly probable , that the primitive church us'd to kneel in the act of receiving the holy sacrament . i have already shewn , that the scripture do's not inform us , what gesture was us'd at the institution of the lord's supper : and i desire those , who contend for a common table-gesture , and particularly sitting , to observe , that the primitive church thought sitting to be a very irreverent posture in the service of god. the laodicean synod , finding great inconveniences to arise from the love-feasts , which were kept at the same time with the lord's supper , forbad the said feasts , and the lying upon couches in the church , as their manner was at those feasts . the same practice was forbidden by the council of carthage , c. . and the decree was ratify'd by the sixth trullian council , c. . and that under the pain of excommunication . now the reasons , upon which 't was forbidden , were in all probability taken from the disorder and irreverence , the animosities and excess , that accompany'd those feasts . justin martyr , who liv'd in the second century , saies , we rise up together and send up our prayers , apol. . from whence 't is clear that they did not sit : but in most other places they were not permitted to sit at all , not so much as at the lessons or in sermon-time ; as appears plainly from what philostorgius (g) observes of theophilus an indian bishop , that among several irregularities , which he corrected in those churches , he particularly reform'd this , that the people were wont to sit , when the lessons out of the gospel were read unto them ; and sozomen (h) notes it as a very unusual thing in the bishop of alexandria , that he did not rise up when the gospels were read . optatus bishop of milevis (i) cites a passage out of the . psalm , and applies it home to parmenianus the donatist , after this manner ; thou sittest and speakest against thy brother , &c. in which place god reproves him that sits and defames his brother : and therefore such evil teachers as you , saies he , are more particularly pointed at in the text , for the people are not licens'd to sit in the church . now if it had not been the general custom to stand the whole time of divine service , and particularly at the lessons and sermons , parmenianus might easily have retorted this argument upon optatus , as concluding nothing against him in particular , but what might be charg'd in common upon all private christians , who sate in the church as well as he . (k) tertullian reproves it as an ill custom , that some were wont to sit at prayer ; and a little further in the same chapter he has these words ; add thereunto the sin of irreverence , which the very heathen , if they did perceive well and understand what we did , wou'd take notice of . for if it be irreverent to sit in the presence of , and to confront , one whom you have a high respect and veneration for ; how much more irreligious is this gesture in the sight of the living god , the angel of prayer yet standing by ? vnless we think fit to upbraid god that prayer has tir'd us . eusebius also (l) commends constantine , because when he was present at a long panegyric concerning christ's sepulchre , and was sollicited to sit down , he refus'd to do so , saying , it was unfit to attend upon any discourse concerning god with ease and softness , and that it was very consonant to piety and religion , that discourses about divine things shou'd be heard standing . thus much may suffice for satisfaction , that the ancient church did by no means approve of sitting , or a common table-gesture , as fitting to be us'd in divine service , except at the reading of the lessons , and hearing of the sermon ; which too was only practis'd in some places ; for in others the people were not allow'd to sit at all in their religious assemblies . which custom is still observ'd in most , if not all the eastern churches at this day , wherein there are no seats erected or allow'd for the use of the people . now if the apostles had taught and establish'd sitting ( not only as convenient , but ) as necessary to be us'd in order to worthy receiving the lord's supper ; 't is most strange and unaccountable , . that there shou'd be such an early and universal revolt of the primitive church from the doctrine and constitutions of the apostles . . that so many churches in distant countries , being perfectly free and independent one upon another , shou'd unanimously conspire together to introduce a novel-custom contrary to the apostolical practice and order ; and not only so , but that , . they shou'd censure the practice and injunctions of inspir'd men , as indecent and unfit to be follow'd and observ'd in the public worship of god ; and all this without any person 's taking notice , or complaining or opposing , either then or in the succeeding generations . as for standing in the time of divine service , both at prayers and at the sacrament , 't is so evident that the ancient church did use it , that i shall not endeavour to prove it : and as for kneeling , 't is plain the primitive christians us'd that gesture also . for , tho' on sundays and the fifty daies between easter and whitsunday they observ'd standing ; yet at other times they us'd the gesture of kneeling at their public devotions , as appears from the authorities cited at the (m) bottom . now since they were wont , in the first ages of christianity , to receive the holy sacrament every day ; and since (n) it was deliver'd and receiv'd with a form of prayer , and that on those daies when they constantly pray'd kneeling ; and since it is probable , that when they receiv'd the sacrament , they did not alter the praying-posture of the day ; therefore i conclude , that they receiv'd the sacrament kneeling upon those daies , on which they pray'd kneeling . for , since sitting was generally condemn'd as an indecent and irreverent gesture by the primitive church ; and since no man in his wits will say , that prostration , or lying flat upon the ground , was ever us'd in the act of receiving , or ever fit to be so ; therefore the posture of receiving must be either standing or kneeling . and from hence i gather , that on their common and ordinary daies ( when there was no peculiar reason to invite or oblige them to stand at the sacrament ) in all likelihood they us'd kneeling , that is , the ordinary posture . they us'd one and the same posture ( viz. standing ) both at their prayers and at the sacrament on the lord's day , and for fifty daies after easter , contrary to what was usual at other times ; and why then shou'd any man think they did not observe one and the same posture at all other times ? viz. that as at such times they did constantly kneel at their prayers , so they did also constantly kneel at the sacrament , which was given and receiv'd in a prayer . from the strength of these premises i may promise my self thus much success ; that whosoever shall carefully weigh and peruse them with a teachable and unprejudiced mind , shall find himself much more inclin'd to believe the primitive church us'd at some times to kneel ( as we do ) at the holy communion , than that they never did kneel at all , or that such a posture was never us'd or heard of , but excluded from their congregations , as some great advocates for sitting have confidently proclaim'd it to the world. but secondly , suppose they never did kneel as we do , yet this is most certain , that they receiv'd the lord's supper in an adoring posture ; which is the same thing , and will sufficiently justify the present practice of our church , as being agreeable to that of pure antiquity . for the proof of this , numerous testimonies both of greek and latin fathers might be alledg'd ; but i will content my self ( and , i hope , the reader too ) with a few of each sort , which are so plain and express , that he who will except against them , will also with the same face and assurance except against the whiteness of snow , and the light of the sun at noon-day . and first for the greek fathers , let the testimony of (o) st. cyril be heard , than which nothing can be more plain and express to our purpose . this holy father in a place before cited , gives instructions to communicants , how to behave themselves when they approach the lord's table , and that in the act of receiving both the bread and the wine . at the receiving of the cup he advises thus ; approach ( saies he ) not rudely stretching forth thy hands , but bowing thy self , and in a posture of worship and adoration , saying amen . to the same purpose (p) st. chrysostom speaks in his fourteenth homily on the first epistle to the corinthians , where he provokes and excites the christians of his time to an awful and reverential deportment at the holy communion , by the example of the wise men , who ador'd our saviour in his infancy , after this manner ; this body the wise men reverene'd even when it lay in the manger , and approaching thereunto worshipp'd it with fear and great trembling . let us therefore who are citizens of heaven , imitate at least these barbarians . but thou seest this body , not in a manger , but on the altar ; not held by a woman , but by the priest , &c. let us therefore stir up our selves , and be horribly afraid , and manifest a much greater reverence than those barbarians , lest coming lightly , and at a venture , we heap fire on our heads . the same father in another place expresly bids them to fall down and communicate , when the table is made ready , and the king himself there : and in order to beget in their minds great and awful thoughts concerning that holy and mysterious feast , he further exhorts them , (p) that when they saw the chancel doors open , then they shou'd suppose heaven it self was unfolded from above , and that the angels descended , to be lookers on . i suppose he means , of their courage and behaviour at the table of the lord , and by giving their attendance to grace that solemnity . with the testimony of these ancient writers theodoret agrees , who in a dialogue between an orthodox christian and an heretic , brings in orthodoxus thus discoursing of the supper of the lord. the mysterious symbols or signs in the sacrament ( viz. bread and wine ) depart not from their proper nature ; for they continue in their former essence , and keep their former shape and form , and approve themselves both to our sight and touch to be as they were before : (q) but they are consider'd for such as they are made , ( that is , in respect to their spiritual signification , and that divine use to which they were consecrated ) and are believ'd and ador'd a● those very things which they are believ'd to be . which words plainly import thus much , that the consecrated elements were receiv'd with a gesture of adoration ; and at the same time assure us , that such a behaviour at the lords supper was not founded upon the doctrine of transubstantiation . for there is not a more manifest instance in all the ancients against that absurd doctrine , which the roman church so obstinately believes at this very day , than what theodoret gives us in the words abovemention'd . lastly , ( to alledge no more out of the greek fathers ) that story which gregory nazianzen (r) relates concerning gorgonia , will much confirm what has been said , viz. that being sick , and having used several medicins in vain at last she resolv'd upon this course . she went in the stilness of the night to the public church , and having with her some of the consecrated elements which she had reserv'd at home , she fell down on her knees before the altar , and with a loud voice pray'd to him whom she ador'd , and in conclusion was healed . i am not much concern'd , whether the reader will believe or censure this miracle ; but it 's certain , that this famous father has recorded it and commends his sister for the way she took for her recovery . this is home to my purpose ; and clearly discovers that gorgonia did kneel , or at least us'd a posture of adoration when she ate the sacramental bread. and without doubt in communicating she observ'd the same posture that others generally did in public : she did that in her sickness , which all others us'd to do in their health , when they came to the sacrament ; that is , she kneeled down . for it can't be suppos'd , that at this time , when she came to beg so great a blessing of almighty god in the public church and at the altar , call'd by the ancients the place of prayer , she wou'd be guilty of any misbehaviour , and make use of a singular posture , different from what was generally us'd by christians when they came to the same place to communicate , and pray over the great propitiatory sacrifice ; which they lookt upon as the most prevailing and effectual way of praying , the most likely to render god favourable to them , and to prevail with him above all other prayers which they offer'd at any other time , or in any other place . so much for the authorities of the greek fathers , who were men eminent for learning and piety in their daies , and great lights and ornaments in the primitive church . with these the latin fathers fully agree in their judgments concerning our present case . and of these i will only mention two ( tho' more might be produc'd ) and those very eminent and illustrious persons , had in great veneration by the then present age wherein they flourish'd , and by succeeding generations . the first is (ſ) st. ambrose bishop of milan , in a book he wrote concerning the holy ghost , where enquiring after the meaning of the pslamist , when he exhorts men to exalt the lord , and to worship his footstool , he gives us the sense in these words : that it seems to belong unto the mystery of our lord's incarnation ; and then goes on to shew for what reason it may be accommodated to that mystery , and at last concludes thus ; by the footstool therefore is the earth to be understood , and by the earth the body of christ , which at this day too we adore in the sacrament , and which the apostles worshipp'd in the lord jesus , &c. st. austin ( bishop of hippo ) comments , on the very same words and to the same purpose . for thus he resolves that question , how or in what sense the earth his footstool may be worshipp'd without impiety ? because he took earth of the earth , for flesh is of the earth ; and he took flesh of the flesh of mary ; and because he convers'd here in the flesh , and gave us his very flesh to eat unto salvation . now there is none who eateth that flesh , but first worshippeth . we have found then how this footstool may be ador'd ; so that we are so far from sinning by adoring , that we really sin if we do not adore . in the judgment therefore of these primitive bishops , we may lawfully adore at the mysteries , tho' not the mysteries themselves ; at the sacraments , tho' not the sacraments themselves ; the creator in the creature which is sanctify'd , not the creature it self ; as a late (t) protestant writer of great learning and quality among the french , distinguishes upon the forecited words of saint ambrose . i think it appears evident from these few instances that the primitive christians us'd a posture of adoration at the communion in the act of receiving . it were easy to bring a cloud of other witnesses , if it were necessary so to do , either to prove or clear the cause in hand : but since there is no need to clog the discourse with numerous references and appeals to antiquity , it wou'd but obscure the argument , and tend in all likelihood rather to confound and distaste , than convince and gratify the reader . by what has been already alledg'd , the practice of our church in kneeling at the sacrament is sufficiently justify'd , as agreeable to the customs and practice of pure and primitive christianity . for if the ancients did at the sacrament use a posture of worship and adoration , ( which is very plain they did ) then kneeling is not repugnant to the practice of the church in the first and purest ages ; no , tho' we shou'd suppose that kneeling was never practis'd among them : which will be plain , if we cast our eyes a little upon that heavy charge which some of the fiercest , but less prudent adversaries of kneeling have exhibited against it . they object against kneeling , as being an adoring gesture ; for they affirm , (u) that to kneel in the act of receiving , before the consecrated bread and wine , is formal idolatry . so also to kneel before any creature as a memorative object of god , tho' there be no intention of giving divine adoration to that creature , is idolatry . now if the primitive christians may be suppos'd to prostrate themselves before the altar upon their first approach to it in order to receive , or immediately after they had receiv'd the bread and the cup from the hand of the minister ; or if they bow'd their heads and bodies after a lowly manner , in the act of receiving ; or if they receiv'd it standing upright , and ate and drank at the holy table with their hands and eyes lifted up to heaven ; then they incurr'd the guilt of idolatry , as well as we who kneel at the lords supper , in the judgment of those scotch casuists ; and by consequence , kneeling at the blessed sacrament according to the custom of our church , is not contrary to the practice of the christian church in the first and purest ages . for all those postures before mention'd were postures of worship and adoration , and us'd as such by the primitive christians ; especially standing , which is allow'd by the (w) patrons of sitting , to be anciently and generally us'd in time of divine worship , and particularly in the act of receiving . to conclude all with an instance in their own case about a common table-gesture , let us suppose the primitive christians in some places did receive the holy sacrament sitting , or lying along upon beds , according to the ancient custom in those eastern countries , at their common and ordinary tables ; let us put the case that in other places they sate cross-legg'd on carpets at the sacrament , as the persians and turks eat at this day ; or that they receiv'd standing in other places , after the common mode of feasting ; which we will suppose only at present . cou'd any man now object with reason against the lawfulness of sitting upright at the sacrament upon a form or chair ( according to the custom of england ▪ ) as being contrary to the practice of all the ancients , who never sate at all ? no certainly . for tho' they differ from the ancients as to the site of their bodies , and the particular manner of receiving ; yet they all consent in this , that they receive in a common table-gesture . they all observe the same gesture at the sacrament , that they constantly observ'd at their civil feasts and ordinary entertainments in the several places of their abode . and so say i in the present case ; what tho' the primitive christians stood upright some of them at the sacrament , and others bow'd their heads and bodies in the act of receiving , and none of them ever us'd kneeling ? yet they and we do very well agree for all that , because we all receive in an adoring or worshipping posture . it is one and the same thing variously exprest , according to the modes of the different countries . fifthly , and lastly , i am to prove , that kneeling is not therefore unlawful , because 't was first introduced by idolaters , and is still notoriously abus'd by the papists to idolatrous ends and purposes . this will appear , if we consider , . that it can never be prov'd , that kneeling in the act of receiving was brought in by idolaters , as is pretended . . that 't is not sinful to use such things , as are or have been notoriously abus'd to idolatry . i. then , it can never be prov'd , that kneeling in the act of receiving was brought in by idolaters . i have already made it very probable , that the primitive christians receiv'd the sacrament kneeling ; and i hope our dissenters will not charge them with idolatry . i know , that they pretend the kneeling-posture was brought in by honorius the third ; but that which he brought in , was a reverent bow to the sacrament , when the priest elevates the patten or chalice , or when the host is carry'd to any sick person ; and not any kneeling in the act of receiving . for these are the very words of the decree , (x) that the priests shou'd frequently instruct their people to bow themselves reverently at the elevation of the host , when mass was celebrated , and in like manner when the priest carry'd it abroad to the sick. nay , as bishop stilling fleet (y) saies , tho' kneeling at the elevation of the host be strictly requir'd by the roman church , yet in the act o● receiving it is not ; as manifestly appears by the pope's manner of receiving , which is not kneeling , but either sitting , as it was in bonaventure 's time ; or after the fashion o● sitting , or a little leaning upon his throne , as he doth at this day . if any shou'd ask , when the gesture of kneeling came in , i confess i cannot certainly tell : but this is no argument against , but rather for the ancient and universal use of it . novel-customs are easily traced to their originals : but generally we cannot tell from whence the most ancient usages of any country are deriv'd . however , i am so far from thinking ( as our dissenters do ) that kneeling owes its birth to the doctrine of transubstantiation , that i verily believe that the kneeling or adoring posture us'd by the ancient christians in the act of receiving , did very much ( among other things ) conduce to beget and nurse up in the minds of superstitious and fanciful men , a conceit , that christ was really and corporally present at the sacrament ; which notion , by subtil and inquisitive heads , was in a little time improv'd and explain'd after this manner : that after the elements of bread and wine were consecrated , they were thereby chang'd into the substance of christ's natural body and blood. this i am sure of , that the patrons of transubstantiation did very early make use of this very argument , to prove that they taught and believ'd no more than the primitive bishops and christians did . for what else cou'd they intend or mean ( say they ) by that extraordinary reverence and devotion , which they manifested when they receiv'd the dreadful mysteries ( as they call'd the bread and wine ) if they were bare and empty signs only , and not chang'd into the very body and blood of christ ? which is in effect the very argument us'd by (z) algerus , a stout champion for transubstantiation . and (a) costor , another popish writer , is so far from saying , even after transubstantiation took place , that the pope introduced it , that he resolves it into an ancient custom continu'd from the apostles times . but , ii. suppose it were otherwise , yet 't is not sinful to use such things , as are or have been notoriously abus'd to idolatry , as i shall shew in the next chapter . i shall only observe at present , that if it be sinful to kneel at the sacrament , because that gesture has been , and is notoriously abus'd by papists to idolatrous ends ; then sitting is also sinful , which is contended for with so much zeal . for the pope himself fits , in the act of receiving , as was before noted ; and that for the same reason ( saies a (b) popish author ) which our dissenters urge for sitting , viz. because the apostles sate at the first institution of the sacrament . and every priest by the order of the mass-book , is to partake standing at the altar , and not kneeling there . nay , if kneeling be unlawful , because it has been abus'd to idolatry ; then we must never receive the holy sacrament . for we must receive in some convenient posture , such as kneeling , sitting , discumbing , standing ; and yet every one of these , either has been or is , notoriously abus'd by heathens and papists to idolatrous ends . i hope , i need not add , that it wou'd be very unjust , to say , that our kneeling is an act of worship to the outward elements ; when the church has declar'd this to be idolatry to be abhorr'd of all faithful christians . i shall conclude this chapter with the opinions of the dissenting writers . mr. tombes has undertaken to shew , that whatever the gesture of our saviour was , yet we are not obliged to it , theod. p. . 't is granted by mr. bains , christian lett. . and mr. bayly , disswas . c. , . that the nature of the ordinance do's not make sitting necessary , or forbid kneeling ; and mr. bains , ibid. grants that kneeling is not idolatrous ; and mr. cartwright , who thought it inconvenient , yet did not think it unlawful , harmon . on luke , . . lastly , mr. baxter , christian dir. part . p. . quest . . sect . . saies , for kneeling , i never heard any thing yet to prove it unlawful . if there be any thing , it must be either some word of god , or the nature of the ordinance which is suppos'd to be contradicted . but , . there is no word of god for any gesture , nor against any . christ 's example can never be prov'd to oblige us more in this , than in many circumstances , that are confess'd not obligatory ; as that he deliver'd but to ministers , and but to a family , to twelve , and after supper , and on a thursday - night , and in an upper-room , &c. and his gesture was not such a sitting as ours . and , . for the nature of the ordinance , it is mixt : and if it be lawful to take a pardon from the king upon our knees , i know not what can make it unlawful to take a seal'd pardon from christ ( by his embassador ) upon our knees . chap. viii . the objection of our symbolizing or agreeing with the church of rome answer'd . but , say the dissenters , there is so great an agreement between your church and the church of rome , that we cannot think communion with your church to be lawful . they tell us , that our first reformers were indeed excellent and worthy persons for the times they liv'd in ; that what they did was very commendable , and a good beginning ; but they were forced to comply with the necessities of the age , which wou'd not bear a compleat reformation . they left a great deal of popish trash in the church , hoping by degrees to reconcile the papists to it , or at least , that they might not make the breach too wide , and too much prejudice or enstrange them from it : but we now live under better means , have greater light and knowledge , and so a further and more perfect amendment is now necessary . now i cannot but inwardly reverence the judgment , as well as love the temper of our first reformers , who in their first separations from rome , were not nice or scrupulous beyond the just reasons of things . doubtless they were in earnest enough , as to all true zeal against the corruptions of that church , when they seal'd the well-grounded offence they took at them , with their warmest blood ; and cheerfully underwent all the hardships that the primitive christians signaliz'd their profession with , rather than they wou'd intermix with rome , in any usage of worship or article of faith , that had the least favour of idolatry , superstition , or false religion at all in it . and yet these holy and wise men , when they had the power and opportunity of reforming wholly in their hands , being equally jealous of enthusiasm , as they were of superstition , wou'd not give themselves up to those fantastic antipathies , as to abolish this or that ceremony , merely because it had been in use among the papists , if some other very substantial reason did not plead against it . and verily , had they not alwaies us'd these temperate and unbyass'd methods of reformation , they wou'd not so easily have justify'd themselves to their adversaries , or the world ; or have made it so evident ( as by their wise management they did ) that what was done by them , was from the mere urgencies of conscience and reason , and not the wantonness of change and innovation . so that , where any mean honestly ( as i doubt not but many of those do , that dissent from us ) they ought to have their reason very well awake , that the mere charge of popery upon any disputed point , may not so prejudice them in their enquiries into things , as to leave no room for mature consideration . however , that i may fully answer this objection , drawn from our agreement with the church of rome , i shall endeavour to shew , . that there is a vast distance between the churches of england and rome . . that a church's symbolizing or agreeing in some things with the church of rome , is no warrant for separation from the church so agreeing . . that the agreement between the churches of england and rome , is in no wise such , as will make communion with the church of england unlawful . i. then , i shall shew that there is a vast distance between the churches of england and rome ; as appears by our church's having renounced all communion with rome , and utterly cast off the pope's power . but i shall descend to particulars , and shew the vast distance between them , first , in all those doctrines and practices , whereby the church of rome deprives her members of their due liberty , and miserably enslaves them . for , . she denies them all judgment of discretion in matters of religion , and binds them all , under pain of damnation , to believe her infallible : but our church permits us to prove all things , that we may hold fast that which is good ; she disclaims all pretence to infallibility , and owns her self to be obnoxious to error in matters of faith. . the church of rome imposes a most slavish drudgery in the vast multitudes of vain and childish , odd and uncouth rites and ceremonies , which a man wou'd wonder how they cou'd invent . the like may be said of their cruel penances , in imposing of which the priests are arbitrary . but our rites are exceeding few , plain , easy , grave and manly ; founded on the practice of the church , long before popery appear'd in the world. our sacraments are but two ; and consequently we are not burden'd with the superstitious fopperies of the other five popish ones . in short , our rites are agreeable to the rules of doing things decently , and in order , and doing all things to edification . nor do's our church impose them ( like the church of rome ) as necessary , and as parts of religion , but as merely indifferent and changeable things . as for our penances , 't is needless to shew that they are not cruel , like those of rome . . the church of rome subjects her members by several of her doctrines to enslaving passions . for instance , purgatory subjects them to fear , and auricular confession to shame , and the dependence of the efficacy of the sacraments upon the priest's intention exposes them to great anxiety . but our church rejects the doctrines of purgatory , and the dependence of the efficacy of the sacraments upon the priest's intention ; and do's not oblige her members to confess their sins to men , but when for the relief of their consciences , or making satisfaction , &c. it is their duty so to do . . the church of rome maintains licentious principles and practices , which our adversaries cannot charge upon the church of england . secondly , in all those doctrines and practices in which the church of rome is justly charg'd with plainly contradicting the scripture . for instance , our church rejects and utterly abhors the popish doctrines and practices of image-worship , invocation of saints , transubstantiation , pardons , indulgences , sacrifice of the mass , denying the bible to the vulgar , prayers and sacraments in an unknown tongue , robbing the laity of the cup in the lord's supper , prohibiting marriage to priests , merit , superogation , making simple fornication a mere venial sin , damning all that are not of her communion , &c. nor is there any church , that more severely condemns all instances of unrighteousness and immorality , than the church of england do's . thirdly , in their public prayers and offices . to shew this in all particulars wou'd be a tedious task ; therefore i shall instance only in the office of infant-baptism , by which the reader may judge of the rest . before they go into the church , after many preparatory prescriptions , the priest being drest in a surplice and purple robe , calls the infant , saying , what askest thou , &c. the godfather answers , faith. p. what shalt thou get by faith ? g. eternal life . p. if thou therefore , &c. then the priest blows three gentle puffs upon the infant 's face , and saies , go out of him , o unclean spirit , &c. then crossing the infant 's forehead and breast , he saith , receive the sign of the cross , &c. then he praies that god wou'd alwaies , &c. and after a long prayer ( the priest laying his hand on the infant 's head ) comes the idle and profane form of the benediction of salt ; viz. i conjure thee , o creature of salt , in the name , &c. with many crossings . then he puts a little salt into the infant 's mouth , saying , take thou the salt of wisdom ; ( and adds most impiously ) be it thy propitiation unto eternal life . after the pax tecum he praies , that this infant , &c. then the devil is conjur'd again , and most wofully be-call'd . then the priest crosses the infant 's forehead , saying , and this sign , &c. then he puts his hand on the infant 's head , and puts up a very good prayer . then he puts part of his robe upon the infant , and brings him within the church , saying , enter thou , &c. then follow the apostles creed and the paternoster . then the devil is conjur'd again ; and the priest takes spittle out of his mouth , and therewith touches the infant 's ears and nostrils , saying , &c. then he conjures the devil again , saying , be packing , o devil , &c. then he asks the infant , whether he renounces the devil , &c. then dipping his thumb in holy oyl , and anointing the infant with it in his breast and betwixt his shoulders , he saies , i anoint thee , &c. then he puts off his purple robe , and puts on another of white colour , and having ask'd four more questions , and receiv'd the answers , he pours water thrice upon the child's head , as he recites over it our saviour's form of baptism . then dipping his thumb in the chrism or holy ointment , he anoints the infant upon the crown of his head in the figure of a cross , and praies , o god omnipotent , &c. afterwards he takes a white linnen cloth , and putting it on the child's head , saies , take the white garment , &c. lastly , he puts into the child's or his god-father's hand , a lighted candle , saying , receive the burning lamp , &c. besides those things which are in the common ritual , there are divers others added in the pastorale , which i shall not mention . and now , if any man will read our office of baptism , he will acknowledge , that no two things can be more unlike , than these two offices are . our litany indeed has been condemn'd by dissenters , as savouring of popish superstition ; but nothing is more false , if a man compares it with the popish one , the greater part of which consists in invocations of saints and angels . but the brevity i am confin'd to in this discourse , will not permit me to abide any longer upon this argument . fourthly , in the books they receive for canonical . for the church of rome takes all the apocryphal books into the canon : but the church of england takes only those , which the primitive church and all protestants acknowledge . 't is true , she reads some part of the apocryphal books for instruction of manners : but she do's not establish any doctrine by them . fifthly and lastly , in the authority on which they found their whole religion . the church of rome founds the authority of the scriptures upon her own infallibility ; and the authority of many of her own doctrines on unwritten traditions and the decrees of her councils , which she will have to be no less inspir'd than the prophets and apostles : but the church of england builds her whole religion upon scripture , which is her rule of faith and practice . she reverences ancient general councils : but do's not think them infallible . and as for that authority , which our church claims in controversies of faith , by requiring subscription to articles , 't is plain that she means no more authority , than to oblige her members to outward submission , when her decisions do not contradict any essentials of faith or manners ; but not an authority to oblige men to believe them infallibly true ; and this is necessary for the peace of any church . 't is true , she thinks it convenient , that none should receive orders , be admitted to benefices , &c. but such as do believe them , not all as articles of our faith , but many as inferiour truths ; and she requires subscription as a test of this belief : but the church of rome requires all persons under pain of damnation to believe all her false and wicked doctrines , as much as the most undoubted articles of faith ; as may be seen in the creed of pius the fourth . as to the motives which our church proposes for our belief of the doctrine of the holy scriptures , they are such as are found in the scriptures themselves ; viz. the excellency of them , and the miracles which confirm them : and as to the truth of the matters of fact , she places it ( not in the testimony of any particular church , but ) in the vniversal tradition of jews and pagans , as well as of all christians . ii. i am to shew , that a church's symbolizing or agreeing in some things with the church of rome , is no warrant for separation from the church so agreeing . the dissenters tell us , that those things which are indifferent in their own nature , do cease to be indifferent and become sinful , if they have been us'd by the church of rome . for , say they , we read , lev. . . after the doings of the land of egypt wherein ye dwell , shall ye not do , and after the doings of the land of canaan , whither i bring you , shall ye not do , neither shall ye walk in their ordinances . now , not to insist on the vast difference of our circumstances from those of the israelites , i answer , that it is an absurd thing to imagin , that the israelites were so bound up by god , as to be obliged to be unlike those people in all their actions . the things forbidden from verse th . to th . are not indifferent , but incestuous copulations and acts of uncleaness ; and god do's expresly enough restrain that general prohibition to those particulars , in saying , v. th . defile not your selves in any part of these things , for in all these the nations are defil'd , which i cast out before you . and they were therefore forbidden under the notion of things done after the doings of the egyptians and the canaanites , because they were the doings of those people , whom they were exceedingly prone to imitate , even in their greatest immoralities . if it be said , that in other places god forbids the israelites to imitate the heathens in things of an indifferent nature ; i answer , . that supposing this were so , it do's not from thence follow , that god intended to forbid such imitations in this place ; the contrary being so manifest as we have seen . but , . that god has any where prohibited the israelites to symbolize with heathens , in things of a mere indifferent and innocent nature ; i mean , that he has made it unlawful for them to observe any such customs of the heathens , merely upon the account of their being like them , is a very great mistake : which will appear by considering those places which are produced for it . one is deut. . . you shall not cut your selves , nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead . now , as to the former of these prohibited things , who sees not , that 't is unnatural , and therefore not indifferent ? and as to the latter , viz. the disfiguring of themselves by cutting off their eye-brows , this was not merely indifferent neither ; it being a custom at funerals misbecoming the people of god ; and which wou'd make them look as if they sorrow'd for the dead as men without hope . another place is lev. . . thou shalt not let thy cattel gender with a diverse kind ; thou shalt not sow thy ground with mingled seed ; nor shall a garment of linnen and woollen come upon thee . but i answer , that tho' these things are indeed indifferent in their own nature , yet they are forbidden ( not because the heathens us'd them , but ) because they were mystical instructions in moral duties . if it be objected also , that god forbad the jews , hos . . , . to call him by the name of baali , which was a very good name and signify'd only my lord , because that word was abus'd in being the name of the idol baal ; i answer , that god did not forbid the name baali , because an idol was call'd by that name ; for he is call'd baal in other places of the hebrew bible , and also jah , which the heathens us'd for an idol : but because the word baali signifies an unkind husband or lord , such as baal was to his worshippers ; whereas god promises he wou'd be call'd ishi , that is , a tenderly-loving husband ; for he design'd to be kind to his people israel . i shall add , that baalim in the next verse signifies idols , which god there promises to destroy . but , suppose that god forbad the jews to call him baal for the future , yet it might be because of their vehement inclination to the worship of baal , lest by using it they shou'd be tempted to worship him again : whereas our ceremonies were us'd by the ancient fathers without any superstition or idolatry , and we are not in danger of returning to popery by retaining them . well ; but they say , it appears from scripture-precepts and examples , that it is unlawful to symbolize with the church of rome in things , that have been notoriously abus'd in idolatrous and grosly superstitious services . to this i answer , first , that it is not sinful to use those things which have been abus'd to idolatry , as i shall prove by these following arguments . . no abuse of any gesture , tho' it be in the most manifest idolatry , doth render that gesture simply evil , and for ever after unlawful to be us'd in the worship of god upon that account . for the abuse of a thing supposes the lawful use of it ; and if any thing otherwise lawful becomes sinful by an abuse of it , then it 's plain that it is not in it's own nature sinful , but by accident , and with respect to somewhat else . this is clear from scripture ; for if rites and ceremonies , after they have been abus'd by idolaters , become absolutely evil , and unlawful to be us'd at all ; then the jews sinn'd in offering sacrifice , erecting altars , burning incense to the god of heaven , bowing down themselves before him , wearing a linnen garment in the time of divine worship , and observing other things and rites which the heathens observ'd in the worship of their false gods . if the dissenters say , they except all such rites as were commanded or approv'd of by god ; i reply , that such an exception avails nothing . for if the abuse of a thing to idolatry makes it absolutely sinful , and unlawful to be us'd at all , then it 's impossible to destroy that relation , and what has been once abus'd , must ever remain so ; that is , an infinite power can't undo what has been done , and clear it from ever having been abus'd . and therefore i conclude from the command and approbation of god , that a bare conformity with idolaters in using those rites in the worship of the true god , which they practise in the worship of idols , is not simply sinful , or formal idolatry . for if it be ; god had obliged the children of israel by his express command to commit sin , and to do what he strictly and severely prohibited in other places . in truth , such a position wou'd plainly make god the author of sin . . this principle intrenches upon christian liberty , if st. paul himself may judge , who tells us , cor. . , &c. that to the pure all things are pure ; and affirms it lawful to eat of such things as had been offer'd up in sacrifice to idols , and to eat whatsoever was sold in the shambles . and what reason is there , why a gesture shou'd be more defil'd by idolaters , than meat which they had offer'd up in sacrifice to idols ? and why shou'd one be sinful and idolatrous to use , and not the other ? certainly st. paul wou'd never have granted them such a privilege , if he judg'd it idolatrous to use what idolaters had abus'd : especially considering that he in the same chapter exhorts them earnestly to fly from idolatry . . this principle subjects the minds of christians to infinite fears , scruples and perplexities : whereas the true and great design of the gospel , is to breed in men a filial cheerful frame of heart , the spirit of love , and of a sound or quiet mind ; to give us a free , easy , comfortable access to god as to our father ; and to encourage every good man to a diligent , constant , and frequent attendance upon his worship , by the delight that follows it . but now , if nothing may be us'd by us without highly offending god , that either has been , or is abus'd to idolatry ; who sees not what trouble and distraction will arise in our minds hereupon , when we meet together to worship god ? it 's well known that most of our churches were erected by idolatrous papists , and as much defil'd by idolatry as any gesture can be . they are dedicated to several saints and angels , whose images were once set up and ador'd . our bells , pews , fonts , desks , church-yards , have been consecrated after a superstitious manner . many cups , flagons , dishes , communion-tables , have been given and us'd by idolaters . what now is to be done ? perhaps all these things have been abus'd ; and if certain information cannot be had , we can't worship in public without great disquiet of mind . . this principle will destroy all public worship . for if nothing must be us'd which has been , or is abus'd by idolaters ; it will be in the power of idolaters , by ingrossing all the outward marks and signs of that inward veneration and esteem which we owe to god , to smother our devotions , so as they shall never appear in the world ; and by that means frustrate the very end and design of religious assemblies . and truly this work is already , by the strength of this principle , very well effected . for kneeling at prayers , and standing and sitting , and lifting up the hands and eyes to heaven , and bowing of the body , together with prayer and praise and singing , have been all notoriously abus'd to idolatry , and are so to this day . if the dissenters say , they except such things as are necessary to be us'd in the service of god , tho' they have been abus'd by idolaters ; i reply , that so long as the reasons hold to make any thing sinful , so long it is so . if the use or abuse of any thing by idolaters make it simply evil ; then it must for ever remain so , and no necessity whatsoever can make it lawful . so that this principle drives us into such streights , that we must sin one way or other . for either we must not worship god in public , or we must be guilty of idolatry if we do : and tho' of two evils or calamities the least is to be chosen , yet of two sins neither is . christian religion flows from infinite wisdom ; and the laws of god do not cross one another , but are even and consistent . we are never cast by god under a necessity of sinning , of transgressing one law by the observance of another : but thus it must be , if we take up and stick to this principle . . the dissenters condemn themselves in what they allow and practise , by the same rule by which they condemn kneeling at the sacrament , and other rites of our church . for they themselves did use , without scruple , such places and things and postures as had been defil'd and abus'd by idolaters . they were wont to be bare-headed in time of divine worship , at prayer and at the sacrament ; and so do idolatrous papists . they never affirm'd , that it was sinful to kneel at our prayers , both public and private ; yet this gesture the papists use in their prayers to the virgin mary , to the cross , to saints and angels . they us'd our churches , church-yards , and bells , and never thought they sinn'd against god by so doing ; tho' they knew they had been abus'd . nay , the directory (a) declares , that such places are not subject to any such pollution by any superstition formerly us'd , and now laid aside , as may render them unlawful and inconvenient . mr. rutherford (b) saies of bells grosly abus'd in time of popery , that it is unreasonable and groundless , that thereupon they should be difus'd . upon which the reverend dr. falkner has this judicious remark ; the pretence of their convenient usefulness wou'd be no better excuse on their behalf , than was the plea for sparing the best of the amalekites cattel , that they might be a sacrifice , when god had devoted them to destruction . for if god ( as they say ) had commanded , that all such things and rites shou'd be utterly abolish'd , as were of man's devising and had been abus'd to idolatry ; then the convenient usefulness of such places and things will never bear them out . . if this principle were true , it wou'd go nigh to throw a scorn upon all or most of the reformations that have been made from the church of rome ; for they do not seem to have govern'd themselves by this rule . some of them in their public confessions (c) declaring , that they might lawfully retain such rites and ceremonies as are of advantage to faith , the worship of god , or peace and order in the church , tho' they had been introduced by any synod , or bishop , or pope , or any other . . nay , this principle wou'd render christianity impracticable ; because there is no circumstance , no instrument , no ministry in worship , but may have been some way or other abus'd by pagan or romish idolatries . it wou'd make every garment , of what shape , or of what colour soever , unfit for use in our religious service ; for not only the white , but the red , the green , and the black , have been us'd ( even for the significancy of their respective colours ) by the gentile or romanist , to very superstitious purposes in divine worship . secondly , there is no express precept of this nature , and the texts alledg'd do not infer it . for , . tho' some churches are blam'd for suffering some to teach the people to eat things sacrificed to idols , rev. . , . yet the instance is impertinent , because that was no better than communicating in idol-worship , as the gnostics did . but st. paul declares , cor. . and chap. . , , . that eating things offer'd to idols without any respect to idols in cating is unlawful upon no other account , but that of scandal . . st. jude's words , v. . hating even the garment spotted by the flesh , teach us indeed to be as cautious of temptations to sin , as of the garments of infected persons ; but there is no danger , when they are well cleans'd from infection . . tho' the jews were commanded to destroy idols and the appurtenances of them , deut. . , . is . . . because they were so prodigiously inclin'd to idolatry ; yet surely the dissenters will not say , we must destroy all things that have been abus'd to superstitious uses ; for then we must destroy our bells and fonts and churches . therefore , as mr. calvin , upon the second commandment , saies , we do not in the least scruple , whether we may lawfully use those temples , fonts and other materials , which have been heretofore abus'd to idolatrous and superstitious uses . i acknowledge indeed , that we ought to remove such things as seem to nourish idolatry ; upon supposition , that we our selves in opposing too evidently things in their own nature indifferent , be not too superstitious . it is equally superstitious to condemn things indifferent as unholy , and to command them as if they were holy . as for the example of hezekiah's breaking in pieces the brazen serpent , because the children of israel burnt incense to it , kings . . it will not prove , that whatsoever has been notoriously defil'd in idolatrous or grosly superstitious services , ought to be abolish'd ; and much less , that the not abolishing some such things , is a good ground for separation from the church that neglects so to do . for , . the brazen serpent was not only defil'd , but an idol it self , and that at the very time when it was destroy'd . nay , it was worshipp'd by the generality of the people ; to those daies the children of israel did burn incense unto it ; and there was little hope of their being reclaim'd , while the idol stood ; and moreover , the use of it was ceas'd for which it was first erected . now without doubt governours ought to take away those indifferent things which have been abus'd , when the people are inclin'd to abuse them again ; at least , if such abuse cannot probably be prevented by any other means : but then i deny that our rites have been or are any temptation to idolatry , or to the embracing of popery . had hezekiah suffer'd the brazen serpent still to stand , no doubt private persons ( who have no authority to make public reformations ) might lawfully have made use of it , to put them in mind of , and affect them with the wonderful mercy of god , express'd by it to their forefathers ; notwithstanding that many had formerly made an idol of it , and did so at that very time . and much more might they have lawfully continu'd in the communion of the church , so long as there was no constraint laid upon them to join with them in their idolatry ; nor do we read of any that separated from the church , while the brazen serpent was permitted to stand , as wofully abus'd as it was by the generality . . if example were a good way of arguing , we find by hezekiah's practice in other things , he did not think it an indispensable duty , to abolish every thing that had been made use of to idolatry ; if it did not prove an immediate snare at that time . for as to the temples , which solomon had erected for no other end but the worship of false gods , kings . . hezekiah did not make it his business to destroy them , as being in his time forlorn and neglected things , of which no bad use was then made . altho' indeed king josiah afterwards ( probably upon the increase of idolatry , and renew'd use of those places ) found it expedient to lay them wholly waste , kings . . let not any , says (d) calvin , think me so austere or bound up , as to forbid a christian without any exception , to accommodate himself to the papists in any ceremony or observance ; for it is not my purpose to condemn any thing , but what is clearly evil and openly vicious . iii. i proceed now in the last place to shew , that the agreement between the churches of england and rome is in no wise such , as will make communion with the church of england unlawful . this i shall evince in the chief particulars , which our dissenters take offence at . first then , episcopacy is so far from being an unlawful symbolizing with the church of rome , that it is an apostolical institution ; and shall we allow the pope so much power , as to make that unlawful by his use , which the apostles and their disciples have recommended to us by theirs ? nay , (e) beza , p. du moulin , and calvin grant , that this was the goverment of all churches in the world , from the apostles times for about years together . nor do i know how the dissenters will defend the observation of the lord's day , while they contend that episcopacy cannot be concluded from the uninterrupted tradition of the church from the apostles times : or how those that separate upon the account of episcopacy , can defend the lawfulness of communicating with any christian church for about years together . i shall add no more upon this point ; only i refer my reader to chillingworth's institution of episcopacy , and stillingfleet's unreasonableness of separation , p. , &c. secondly , our symbolizing with the church of rome in having set forms of prayer , is so far from being culpable , that 't is highly commendable . for herein we symbolize with the primitive church ; nor is any thing more expedient for the public service of god , as i have already shewn in the third chapter . now if the papists , nay if the heathens us'd set forms , because it was the fittest way for the service of god ; must we be forbidden to use them ? because they did well , are we therefore to do worse ? thirdly , our liturgy in particular do's not so much symbolize with the roman service , as to cause a separation . for tho' some collects are taken out of the mass-book ; yet that is not enough to make them unlawful . for then the lord's prayer , the psalms , and a great part of the scripture besides , and the creeds also must never be us'd . i know it has been said , that the scriptures being of necessary use must be retain'd by us , tho' the church of rome retains them : but that there is not the same reason for forms , which are not necessary ; and that in those we ought to go as far from that church as we can . but what reason is there for this ? for the danger that may happen to us in coming too near them , lies in things wherein they do ill , and not in things wherein they do well . no man can shew a good reason why those passages in the common-prayer-book , which are to be found in the mass-book , but which were us'd also by the church before romanism had corrupted it , are not as much to be valu'd , because they were once us'd by good christians ; as to be run down , because they have been since us'd by superstitious and idolatrous men. if any man wou'd set himself to expose the mass-book , he wou'd , i suppose , lay hold upon nothing but the corruptions that are in it , and things that are obnoxious to just reproof ; not on things that are justifiable , and may easily be defended . and the reason of this is plain , because the mass-book is to blame for those parts of it only , but not for these . lastly , our symbolizing with the church of rome in the use of ceremonies will not justify a separation . for ours are scarce the hundredth part of hers : nor are ours impos'd as necessary . if it be said , that christ severely condemn'd the jewish traditions ; i answer that he condemn'd only those by which they made the commandments of god of none effect , and in which they placed special holiness . but to descend to particulars ; . the surplice in the church of rome is solemnly hallow'd , &c. but we use it only for distinction and uniformity , and place no more holiness in it , than in the hoods which denote degrees . besides , in the primitive church ministers did officiate in white garments ; and beza and calvin were (f) against contending about the surplice ; and , i pray , why is a minister 's linnen garment more popish , than a lawyer 's gown or a judge's robes ? our famous hooker (g) saies , to solemn actions of royalty and justice , there sutable ornaments are a beauty ; are they only in religion a stain ? . the cross in baptism is not us'd by us , as 't is by the church of rome . she enjoins numberless crossings in the administration of that sacrament ; but we retain it in conformity to the ancient practice , and have abolish'd all superstitious abuses of it . . kneeling at the sacrament is requir'd by us , only as a reverent gesture ; and the abuses of this kneeling in the church of rome are perfectly remov'd . the papists indeed kneel to their host , as to their god : but we do nothing like them ; for we kneel not to the bread and wine , but at our receiving of them . now what they do on no reason , why may not we do on the best ? especially when our church declares , that adoration of the of the elements is idolatry to be abhorr'd of all faithful christians . as we are not to disuse the holy sacrament , because the papists have made it an idol : so we may continue our reverence , tho' they have paid it adoration . . the ring in marriage is most notoriously abus'd in the church of rome , as may be seen in their office : but we practise no superstition about it , and use it ( not as a sacramental sign , but ) as a token of the marriage vow . lastly , the feasts and fasts of our church cannot be justly accounted popish . for the time of assembling is a circumstance of our worship that cannot be left to particular choice , but must be determin'd in common ; and what is to be done at that time , must be determin'd too in an ordinary orderly assembly : so that it must be left to the discretion of the governours , when we are to keep a festival , and when a fast . as to the keeping of the lord's-day , our church was not at liberty ; unless she wou'd have rashly departed from apostolical observation , and the continu'd practice of all ages and places since the beginning of christianity . as for the keeping of easter , she was under the like obligation ; the annual feast of the resurrection , the great lord's-day , being known to have been the chief , and the cause of all the weekly . and as to the fast of good friday , it was nigh as early as the feast of the resurrection . they lamented their sins our saviour died for on the friday before , as constantly as they commemorated his rising again for our salvation the sunday after . and in order to the keeping of those two great daies with more devotion , there was likewise in the church some time before-hand set apart , for better recollection and greater preparation ; the number of daies was in some places more , in some less . that of forty , had obtain'd in the western country ; and therefore was still kept : and wou'd to god it were as religiously observ'd , as it was piously appointed . whitsunday too , the day on which the holy ghost descended , was observ'd alwaies and universally by the ancient church . only the nativity of our saviour was of latter remembrance , but yet before popery came in . 't was first observ'd in the western church ; and afterwards taken up by the eastern , in st. chrysostom's time , as it stands recommended by him to the people of antioch . other times besides these , have been appointed for our religious assemblies ; in which , besides the general worship of god , the examples of his saints and martyrs are gratefully remembred and piously propos'd . those daies are call'd commonly by the name of the person then particularly commemorated : not that the worship is to the saint , or that the day is imploy'd in his honour ; but because on the occasion of his memory or martyrdom we come together , as to pay our other duties to our god , so to thank him for the graces of his servant , and to be edify'd and instructed by the example . it is true , the church heretofore , when god had been bountiful to them in the number of his saints , increas'd in some proportion the daies of his worship ; and it is to be confess'd that popery had both acknowledg'd saints to god , which he might not own , and gave the true saints an honour which they must disclaim : but with us the number of those daies is not greater than what the affairs of the world may well comply with ; and as the number of the apostles is not large , so their sanctity sure is unquestionable ; and then on those daies we neither beseech by their merits , nor recommend our selves to their intercession . you see then how unreasonable the objection of popery is here too : but see to what absurdity it go's on . first , it is suppos'd popery to keep a day in the memory of an apostle ; and then it is thought as popish , to call him a saint . a great person at geneva , it seems , presum'd it somewhat popish to observe sunday it self ; and consider'd about changing the day . nay some are so perversely superstitious on the other hand , as that that day , on which all the christian world remembers our saviour's bitter passion , has seem'd to them the fitter for a feast ; and the time universally now set apart for the joyful memory of his blessed nativity , the more proper for a fast . this indeed is not like the papists : no , it is like a jew or a heathen . to conclude , by popery nothing can be meant , but the corruptions and usurpations of the church of rome . for the faith of that church was once as fair spoken of as it's errors are now ; and had she continu'd in that purity , we ought to have been of her communion : and now we are to depart from her no otherwise , than she shall be found to have departed from her self , and to have corrupted that doctrine which was once deliver'd unto the saints . as we must not receive the evil for the sake of the good , so we must not reject the good for the sake of the evil. we have not one doctrine or ceremony that is purely popish : but we must part with the best things in our religion , if all those things are sinful , which the papists abuse . and as for the papists themselves , we do not in the least countenance them in those things wherein they are wrong , by agreeing with them in those things wherein they are right . chap. ix . the objection of mixt-communion answer'd . some think that the church is to consist of none but real saints ; and therefore finding many corrupt members in the church of england , they separate from her communion , and set up churches of their own , consisting , in their judgment , of none but truly sanctify'd persons . the ground of this dangerous mistake is their false notion of that holiness , which the scripture applies to god's church . holiness in scripture is twofold . . inherent holiness , and that can be in none properly but god , angels and men. in god originally , as he is that being , in whom all excellencies do possess infinite perfection ; and hence he is call'd the holy one of israel . in angels and men by way of participation . . relative holiness founded in a separation of any thing from common uses , and an appropriating it to the service of god. thus the sabbath is holy , and judea and jerusalem are holy ; and thus the church is holy , that is , a society separated from the world to serve god after a peculiar manner . thus the israelites , even when very much corrupted , were call'd god's holy people ; deut. . . and the apostles call the churches by the name of saints , tho' there were strange immoralities amongst them , because they were separated to god and in covenant with him . well ; but did not christ die , that the church shou'd be holy and without blemish , eph. . . that is , really holy ? yes . but then by church we must understand not the whole universal church , but either that part of it which is really holy in this world , or that church which shall be hereafter , when the corrupt members shall be utterly cut off . neither is this to make two churches , but only to assign two different states of the same church . this being premis'd , i shall prove these three propositions ; . that an external profession of the christan faith is enough to qualify a person to be admitted a member of christ's church . . that every such member has a right to all the external privileges of the church , till by the just censure of the church he be excluded from those privileges . . that some corrupt members remaining in the church is no just cause of separation from her . first then , an external profession of the christian faith ( made either by himself or by his sureties ) is enough to qualify a person to be admitted a member of christ's church . for , . this is the qualification prescrib'd by our lord , go , teach all nations , that is , make disciples of all nations , baptizing them , &c. matth. . . now the pastors of the church cannot know the sincerity of mens hearts , but their profession of christianity entitles them to baptism . by this rule the apostles acted whilst christ was upon earth , and baptiz'd more than were sincere ; for of so many persons that were baptiz'd , not above continu'd with christ to the last . . by the same rule they acted afterwards ; for st. peter baptiz'd about in one day upon their professing the word , acts . . tho' all wou'd not probably prove sincere ; and two of them , ananias and sapphira , were gross hypocrites . st. philip , acts . . baptiz'd both men and women at samaria , and and amongst them was simon magus ; whom the holy deacon might justly suspect for his former practices , and whose hypocrisie appear'd afterwards . such other members of the church were demas , hymeneus and alexander , whose bare profession entitled them to that privilege . . christ foretels (a) that his church shou'd consist of good and bad , by comparing it to a field of wheat and tares , a net of all sorts of fishes , a flour of corn and chaff , &c. st. paul saies , (b) they are not all israel , that are of israel ; and christ saies , that many are call'd , but few chosen . . the many corrupt members (c) of the churches of corinth , galatia , and the seven churches in asia , prove the same . for if the apostles themselves admitted mere formal professors , we may conclude , that they thought it god's will , that it shou'd be so . . no other rule in admitting persons into the church is practicable ; since the officers of christ cannot make a certain judgment of men , because they themselves have short and fallible understandings . secondly therefore , every such member has a right to all the external privileges of the church , till by the just censure of the church he be excluded from those privileges . by external privileges i mean only a communion with the church in the word and ordinances ; for the pardon of sin and comforts of the holy ghost , &c. are internal privileges , which belong to none but the truly good , who are born not of water only , but of the spirit . now when a man by gross and notorious wickedness has forfeited the internal privileges of the church , he ought by the censures of the church to be excluded from the external privileges also : but till the sentence of the church is past upon him , we must not forsake the church ourselves to avoid communion with him ; because , till then , his right to them remains inviolable , and that for several reasons . . because the baptismal covenant gives men a right to god's promises , as far as they perform the conditions . if a bare federal holiness gives men a relation to god , then it gives them a title to the blessings that belong to that relation . not that unworthy men shall receive the special reward of the truly good ; but they are to be allow'd the liberty to partake of those external blessings , which he in common bestows upon the whole family . . church-membership necessarily implies church-communion , or else it signifies nothing . for to what purpose is a man a member of a society , if he cannot enjoy the privileges of it ? . all the jews were commanded to join in the public worship , tho' i doubt many of them were wicked livers ; and therefore mere circumcision was enough to put a man into a capacity of communicating with the jewish church in it's most solemn and sacred ordinances . . it appears , that st. paul makes the number of those that receiv'd the lord's supper to be as great , as that of those that were baptiz'd . for they were all made to drink into one spirit , cor. . . that is , in the cup of the blessed sacrament , and all are partakers of one bread , . . and we read that they , all the , ananias and sapphira being of the number , continu'd in the apostles doctrine , and in breaking of bread and in prayer , acts . . . church-membership is in order to the edification and salvation of mens souls ; and this cannot be attain'd without being admitted to all the acts and offices of church-communion . for it is of mighty advantage to us to hear god's word duely preach'd , to have our prayers join'd with those of other christians , and our grace strengthen'd in the holy communion ; and these things cannot be had , but in church-communion . nay , our improvement in holiness is more to be ascrib'd to the operations of the spirit , than to the external administrations ; and therefore , (d) since god promises his spirit to believers only as they are members of of his church , and no otherwise than by the use and ministry of his word and sacraments ; since his ordinary method of saving men is by adding them to the church ; since chri●● suffer'd for us as incorporated into a church , and the operations of the spirit are confin'd to the church ; we see the necessity of holding actual communion with the church in order to sanctification and sa●vation . but it may ●e said , that those who have only the form and not the power of godliness , are guilty of the body and blood of christ , and eat and drink their own damnation , when they receive the sacrament , cor. . , . and such men cannot have a right to that , in doing which they sin so heinous●y . now to this i answer , . that in a strict sense the very best men are unworthy receivers ; but , . those members , that we have asserted to have a right to the external privileges of christ's church , are not guilty of that unworthiness which the apostle speaks of . for we do not plead for the right of such open and scandalous sinners , whom st. paul charges with schism and divisions , pride and contempt of their brethren , sensuality and drunkenness . such swine as these ought not indeed to come to the holy table of our lord , because they have forfeited their right to it , and ought by the censures of the church to be excluded . if it be said , that those receivers , who are destitute of saving grace , tho' they are free from scandalous sins , are yet in an unconve●ted condition ; and that this sacrament is not a converting , but confirming ordinance ; i answer , that taking conversion for turning men to the profession of christianity , ' t●s true that none but converted or baptiz'd persons must receive the sacrament : but if we take conversion for turning those who are already baptiz'd , to a serious practice of holiness , then this is a converting ordinance . for what more powerful motives to holiness can be found , than what the sacrament represents to us ; wherein the great love of god in christ , and our saviour's sufferings , and god's hatred of sin , and the dismal consequences of it are so lively set forth ? thirdly i proceed to shew , that some corrupt members remaining in the church is no just cause of separation from her . and , . from the example of the jews . what sins cou'd be greater than those of eli's sons , who arriv'd to such impudence in sinning , that they lay with the women before the door of the tabernacle ? yet did not elkanah and hannah refrain to come up to shilo , and to join with them in public worship . nay , they are said to transgress who refus'd to come , tho' they refus'd out of abhorrence of the wickedness of those men , sam. . , . in ahab's time , when almost all israel were idolaters , and halted betwixt god and baal ; yet then did the prophet elijah summon all israel to appear on mount carmel , and hold a religious communion with them in preaching and praying , and offering a miraculous sacrifice . neither did the seven thousand that had kept themselves upright , and not bow'd their knee to baal , absent themselves because of the idolatry of the rest ; but they all came and join'd in that public worship perform'd by the prophet , kings . . and . . in the old testament , when both prince and priests and people were very much deprav'd and debauch'd in their manners , we do not find that the prophets at any time exhorted the faithful and sincere to separate ; or that they themselves set up any separate meetings , but continu'd in communion with the church , preaching to them and exhorting them to repentance . . from the example of christians . many members of the churches of corinth and galatia , and the churches in asia , were grown very scandalous ; yet we do not read that good men separated from the church , or that the apostles commanded them so to do . . from our saviour's own example , who did not separate from the jewish church , tho' the scribes and pharisees , who rul'd in ecclesiastical matters at that time , had perverted the law , corrupted the worship of god , were blind guides and hypocrites , devoured widows houses , and had only a form of godliness , matth. . , , . how careful was he , both by his example and precept , to forbid and discountenance a separation upon that account ? they sit in moses 's seat , saies he ; all therefore whatsoever they bid you observe , that observe and do , matth. . , . . from the apostle's express command to hold communion with the church of corinth , notwithstanding the many and great immoralities that were amongst the members of it . (e) there were schisms and contentions amongst them , strife and envyings , fornication and incest , eating at the idols table , and coming not so soberly as became them to the table of our lord ; yet do's the apostle not only not command them to separate , but approve their meeting together , and exhort them to continue it . but (f) let a man examine himself , and so let him eat of that bread , and drink of that cup. in these words the apostle plainly solves the case i am discoursing on , and shews what private christians , in whose power it is not judicially to correct vice , are to do , when they see so many vicious members intruding to the blessed sacrament ; viz. not to abstain from it , but by preparation and examination of themselves to take care that they be not of their number . if to separate had been the way , the apostle wou'd then have manag'd his discourse after this manner ; there are many schisms and strises in the church , there is an incestuous person not cast out , many proud contemners of their brethren , men of strange opinions , of untam'd appetites , and unbridl'd passions , and therefore i advise you not to come amongst them , nor to partake of the holy sacrament with them , lest you be infected with their sores , and partake of their judgments . but by advising men to examine themselves , and then to come , he plainly intimates , that 't was their duty to continue in the communion of the church notwithstanding these ; as if he had said , i do not mention the foul enormities of some that come to this holy table , to discourage you from coming , lest you shou'd be polluted by their sins : but to excite you to a due care and examination of your selves , that you be not polluted by any sinful acts and compliances of your own ; and then there 's no danger of being defil'd by theirs . . from the nature of church-communion . i have already prov'd in the first chapter , that every act of church-communion is an act of communion with the whole christian church , and and all the members of it , whether present or absent : and therefore those , who separate from a national church for the sake of corrupt professours , are schismatics in doing so ; and all their prayers and sacraments are not acts of communion , but a schismatical combination . because , tho' they cou'd form a society as pure and holy as they desire , yet they confine their communion to their own select company , and exclude the whole body of christians , all the world over , out of it . their communion is no larger , than their gather'd church ; for if it be , then they must still communicate with those churches , which have corrupt members , as all visible churches on earth have . 't is true , good men must frequently exhort and advise corrupt and scandalous members ; they must reprove them with prudence , affection and calmness ; they must bewail their sins and pray to god for their reformation ; they must as much , and as conveniently as may be , avoid their company , especially all familiarity with them ; and if repeated admonitions , either private or before one or two more , will not do ; then they must tell the church , that by it 's more public reproofs the scandalous members may be reclaim'd , or by it's just censures cut off from the communion . these things the holy scriptures command us to do , and the primitive christians practis'd accordingly . but if after all the endeavours of private christians , some scandalous members , thro' the defect of discipline , shou'd remain in the church ; they cannot injure those persons that are no way accessary to their sin . for no sin pollutes a man , but that which is chosen by him . noah and lot were good , even amongst the wicked ; nor did judas defile our saviour and his apostles at the passover . the good and bad communicate together ( not in sin , but ) in their common duty . to communicate in a sin , is sin : but to communicate with a sinner , in that which is not sinful , cannot be a sin . 't is true , the apostle saies , cor. . . a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump ; but this is a proverbial speech , and shews only that sin , like leaven , is of a very spreading nature . the people are as a lump , and a wicked person is as leaven amongst them : but , tho' the leaven is apt to convey it self thro' the whole lump , yet only those parts are actually leaven'd with it , that take the leaven ; and so , tho' the sinner by his bad example is apt to infect others , yet those only are actually infected , who communicate with him in sin . beware of the leaven of the pharisees , saies our saviour ; he do's not advise his disciples to leave their assemblies , but to beware that they take no leaven of them . the incestuous person was not cast out of the church of corinth ; and yet the apostle saies , at least of some of them , ye are unleavened , cor. . . and why may not the joint prayers of the church , and the examples of good men , be as sovereign an antidote against the infection ; as the bare company of wicked men is of power to convey it ? especially considering that the sins of the wicked shall never be imputed to the righteous : but the prayers of the righteous have obtain'd pardon for the wicked . if it be said , that the pollutions of sin were typify'd by the legal uncleanesses , and that every thing that the unclean person touch'd , was made unclean ; i answer , that those legal pollutions did not defile the whole communion , but only those whom the unclean person touch'd . for , . there was no sacrifice appointed for any such pollution , as came upon all for the sin of some few . . tho' the prophets reprov'd the priests for not separating the clean from the unclean , ezek. . . yet they never taught , that the whole communion was polluted , because the unclean came into the congregation thro' the neglect of the priests duty . as those that touch'd the unclean person , were unclean : so those that have fellowship with the wicked in their sins , are polluted . . when 't is said , that the unclean person , that did not purify himself , defil'd the tabernacle and polluted the sanctuary ; the meaning is , that he did so to himself , but not to others ; so does a wicked man the ordinances of god , in respect of himself , but not of others . the prayers of the wicked , tho' join'd with those of the church , are an abomination unto god ; whilst at the same time the prayers of good men go up as a sweet-smelling savour , and are accepted by him . the person that comes unworthily to the sacrament of the lord's supper , eats and drinks judgment to himself : but that hinders not , but that those who at the same time come better prepar'd , may do it to their own eternal comfort and salvation . to the pure all things are pure : but to them that are defil'd and unbelieving , is nothing pure ; but even their mind and conscience is defil'd , tit. . . i grant indeed , that the apostle saies , cor. . . wherefore come out from among them , and be ye separate , saith the lord , and touch not the unclean thing : but this makes nothing against my assertion , if we consider , . the occasion of this exhortation . for the christian corinthians liv'd in the midst of heathens , by whom they were often invited to their idol-feasts , at which some of them did not scruple to eat things sacrificed to idols : but the apostle persuades them not to go , not only upon the account of scandal to their weak brethren , whose ignorance might suffer them to be drawn by their example to go and eat at them , even in honour to the idol ; but also , because 't was plain idolatry so to do . for as we receive the lord's supper in honour of christ : so they must be thought to eat in honour to the idol ; because the sacrifice was offer'd to the idol . but blessed be god , we live in a christian country , wherein there are no idol-feasts at all . . that the persons , from whom they were to separate , were no better than vnbelievers and idolaters . but now , because christians by the apostle's command were to separate from the assemblies of heathen idolaters , do's it therefore follow that they must separate from the assemblies of christians , because some , who while they profess christ , do not live like christians , are present at them ? is there no difference between a pagan or an infidel , that denies christ and worships devils ; and an immoral christian , who outwardly owns christ and worships the true god ? . that the unclean thing they were not to touch , was the abominable practices us'd by the heathens in the worship of their gods. but now , because christians are not to communicate with heathens in their filthy mysteries , nor to partake with any sort of wicked men in any action that 's immoral ; do's it therefore follow , that they must not do their duty , because sometimes it cannot be done but in their company ? must they abstain from the public worship of god and the lord's table , to which they are commanded ; because evil men , who , till they repent , have nothing to do there , rudely intrude themselves ? as for st. john's words , revel . . . come out of her , my people , that ye be not partakers of her sins , and that ye receive not of her plagues ; they are a command to all christians to forsake the communion of idolaters ; and according to most interpreters , those in particular of the church of rome : but the text do's not afford the dissenters the least plea to separate from us , who are reform'd from popery , and retain nothing of it , but what it retains of the gospel and the primitive church . i have nothing now to add , but that the eminent dissenters do utterly (g) disclaim this plea of mixt-communion . mr. vines saies it is donastical ; and others , as mr. brinsly , and mr. jenkin , that it 's the common plea or pretence , which for the most part hath been taken up by all schismatics , in defence of their separation from the church ; and therefore that it is necessary the people should be untaught it , as mr. baxter advises . and as they do disclaim it , so they declare that those who separate upon this account , do it very unjustly ; that the scandals of professors are ground of mourning , but not of separation ; that there may be a sufficient cause to cast out obstinate sinners , and yet not sufficient cause for one to leave the church , tho' such be not cast out ; that the suffering of profane and scandalous livers to continue in the church , and partake in the sacrament , is doubtless a great sin ; yet the godly are not presently to separate from it . there is , saies mr. burroughs , an errour on both sides ; either those that think it concerns them not at all with whom they come to the sacrament , or those that if they do what they can to keep the scandalous away , and yet they shou'd be suffer'd to come , think that they themselves may not come to partake of it . this both the presbyterians and independents agree in , and endeavour (h) to prove by several arguments . nay , they answer an objection drawn from , cor. . . if any man that is called a brother , be a fornicator , &c. with such an one no not to eat ; and tell us , first , that if it be meant of excluding such an one from church-communion , it must be done by the church , and not by a private person . but you are not commanded to separate from the church , if they exclude him not . so mr. baxter , &c. secondly , that it concerns not religious , but civil communion ; and that not all civil society or commerce , but familiar also . for which they produce several reasons ; . they argue from the notion of eating bread , which is a token of love and friendship in the phrase of scripture ; not to partake of , or to be shut from the table , is a sign of familiarity broken off . so mr. ball , &c. . the eating which is here forbidden , is allow'd to be with the heathen : but it 's the civil eating which is only allow'd to be with an heathen ; therefore it 's the civil eating which is forbidden to be with a brother . so mr. jenkin , &c. (i) and as for other objections , mr. baxter's answer is sufficient ; if you mark all the texts in the gospel , you shall find that all the separation which is commanded in such cases ( besides our separation from the infidel and idolatrous world , or antichristian and heretical confederacies , and no-churches ) is but one of these two sorts ; . either that the church cast out the impenitent by the power of the keys ; or , . that private men avoid all private familiarity with them ; but that the private members shou'd separate from the church , because such persons are not cast out of it , shew me one text to prove it if you can . to conclude , this objection of mixt-communion proves nothing but a supercilious arrogance , and a great want of charity in those that make it . what care they may take in their new way of discipline , i cannot tell : but our church has given the minister a power of rejecting scandalous sinners , (k) and this is as much as can be done ; for the close hypocrite will escape the narrowest search . every man is charg'd to examine himself , and not another ; and 't wou'd be well , if all wou'd do so . for he that enquires seriously into his own sins , will find great cause to be humble and penitent : but he that is curious to pry into the miscarriages of others , will be apt to be vain , proud , self-conceited , and censorious ; which will make him as unfit for the table of the lord , as any of those faults which he so scornfully condemns in his neighbours , that he esteems himself and the ordinances of god polluted by their company . chap. x. the pretences of purer ordinances , and better edification among the dissenters , answer'd . well ; but tho' our communion be not sinful , yet they can find purer ordinances and better edification amongst the dissenters ; and therefore they may lawfully separate from the church of england . but first , what purer ordinances wou'd men have than those of our saviour's own institution , without any corrupt and sinful mixtures to spoil their vertue and efficacy ? the purity of divine administrations must consist in their agreement with the institution , that there is not any such defect or addition as alters their nature and destroys their vertue : but he who thinks that the sacraments lose their efficacy , unless they be administred in that way which he likes best , is guilty of gross superstition ; and attributes the vertue of sacraments to the manner of their administration , not to their divine institution . secondly , the pretence of better edification will by no means justify separation . for this edification must be understood , either of the whole church , or of particular christians . now edification is building up , and is apply'd to the whole church , consider'd as god's house and temple . this is the true scripture notion of it , as appears by many texts , cor. . , . and . . and . , . eph. . . and . , , , . matth. . . acts . . cor. . , , . and . . now it 's an odd way of building up the temple of god by dividing and separating the parts of it from each other . as for the edification of particular persons , which is also spoken of in scripture , thess . . . it is therefore call'd edification , because it is an improvement of a man's spiritual condition ; and it is wrought in the unity of the church , and makes particular christians one spiritual house and temple , by a firm close union and communion of all the parts of the church ; so that every christian is edify'd , as he grows up in all christian graces and vertues in the unity of the church . and indeed , if our growth in grace be more owing to the assistance of god's spirit , than to the external administrations , as st. paul tells us , cor. . , . and if the spirit confines his influences to the unity of the church , there being but one body and one spirit , eph. . . then it do's not seem a very likely way for edification , to cut our selves off from the unity of christ's body . st. jude , v. . seems to tell us , that true edification was a stranger to those who separated from the common building : but those who kept to the communion of the church , built up themselves in their most holy faith , and pray'd in the holy ghost ; and a man may with greater assurance expect the blessing of god , if he continue in the church , than if he separate . but i shall examine this pretence at large ; and shew , that it is unlawful for any particular christian to separate from the church of england , because he thinks he can edify better amongst the dissenters . this i shall prove by four arguments . . because better edification cannot be had in separate meetings , than in our churches ; as will appear , if we consider , first , how fit our constitution is to edify mens souls ; secondly , that this constitution is well manag'd for edification . first then , that our constitution is fit to edify souls , will appear , if we consider four things . . our creeds contain all fundamental articles of faith , that are necessary to salvation ; but we have no nice and obscure matters in them . we believe all that the early christians in the first three hundred years thought needful ; that is , all that christ and his apostles taught : and this faith will sufficiently and effectually edify the souls of men. . the necessity the church laies upon a good life and works . the articles of her creed , when firmly believ'd , do plainly tend to make men good . she declares , that without preparatory vertues the most zealous devotion is not pleasing to god ; and that it is but show , unless obedience follow . such a faith she laies down as fundamental to salvation , as produces excellent vertues ; and determines , that without faith and good works no man shall see god. her festivals commemorate the vertues and recommend the examples of excellent men. her ceremonies are decent ; her prayers are for holiness ; her discipline is to force , and her homilies to persuade men to that piety , which her whole constitution aims at . she tells sinners plainly , that unless they repent , they must perish ; and saies that plain vertues are the ornament and soul of our faith. and certainly the civil interest of a nation is edify'd by such a church , as teaches men to perform the duties of their several relations so exactly . . she is fitly constituted to excite true devotion ; because she gives us true notions of god and our selves , by describing his attributes and our wants . her prayers are grave and of a due length ; and she has proper prayers for most particular occasions . she has offices to quicken our affections and confirm our obedience . the offices of the lord's supper , baptism and burial , are extremely good in their kind . bring but an honest mind and good affections to all these parts of devotion , and they will make the church a choire of angels . . her order and discipline are such , that she makes religion neither slovenly , nor too gay . wise and good men have judg'd all her ceremonies to be decent and useful ; and they are of great antiquity , and fit to make our services comely . and truly , whilst we have bodies , these outward helps are very convenient , if not necessary . her goverment is so well temper'd , that her members may not be dissolute , nor her rulers insolent . and if all vices are not chastiz'd , the reason is , because unnecessary divisions have stopp'd her discipline upon offenders . her goverment is apostolical , primitive and universal . none of her parts or offices give just cause for any to revolt from her ; but considering all things , she is the best constituted church in the world. if therefore (a) edification be going on to perfection , or growing in grace ; if it is doing good to the souls of men ; if it be to make plain the great things in religion to the understandings of men ; then it is to be found in this church . secondly , that our constitution is well manag'd for edification , will appear if we consider , . that pastors are not left to their liberty , but strictly commanded under great temporal penalties to direct their flocks , to preserve faith and a good conscience with substantial devotion , which will to the purpose edify mens souls , and effectually save them . . that these commands are obey'd by our pastors . for this we appeal to good and wise men in our communion , who have honesty and judgment enough to confess that they have found it true ; and to say that they are prejudiced , and want sincerity and knowledge to pass a judgment , is uncharitable . our protestant neighbours have commended our goverment , condemn'd the separation , magnify'd our pastors , and wish'd they were under such a discipline , and translated many of our mens works to edify their people . dissenters themselves own our sermons to be really good . and tho' some few may not be able to answer the true design of preaching , yet in general men may edify very well among us . nor has there been for these many hundred years a clergy so learned , pious , prudent and industrious to edify mens souls , as now is in the english church . ii. because those who make this pretence , do commonly mistake better edification . and surely ▪ to desert the plain and great duty of church-communion for disputable or mistaken edification , is to be guilty of the sin of schism . now the mistakes of these men are principally three . . in taking nice notions for edifying truths . he that discourses about angels , separated souls , the situation of paradise and hell , &c. shall be thought a sounder divine , than he that teaches the way of salvation plainly , by faith and a good conversation . such things pass with too many for saving truths ; and many ignorant and corrupt men , that espouse parties and interests , readily embrace them . the apostle speakes of some that have itching ears , tim. . . if the food , tho' wholsom and good , be not to their fancy , they complain of starving . bring but an honest , sincere and teachable mind , and you may edify in a worse church than ours ; but otherwise the best doctrine will be insipid to you . place edification in the substantial things of religion , in a right faith and a holy conversation , which our church presses upon us under the penalty of eternal damnation ; for these things alone do truly edify the souls of men , and to these all religion tends . the kingdom of christ consists in righteousness and peace and joy in the holy-ghost , rom. . . now such a religion as this being so strongly enjoin'd and zealously taught in our church , we need not complain for want of edification ; and the desire of other nourishment is spiritual pride and wantonness . wherefore desire the sincere milk of the word ( the food of your understanding , and not of your fancy ) that you may grow thereby . for if you had but such an increase of grace , as to hear meekly god's word and to receive it with pure affection , you cou'd not easily fail to bring forth the fruits of the spirit . therefore 't is dangerous and sinful to give men a liberty to run from any establish'd church for better edificaton , which is so often and easily mistaken . and may we not add , that when a quarrel arises from an unjust denial of the minister's dues , then he is call'd dull , and a better must be sought elsewhere . thus one fault helps out another , and defamation must excuse the schism . . in taking the opinions of parties for essential truths . this those men do , that are wedded to a party ; and if we do not explain all things in their way , they cry , we destroy the gospel truths , and that instead of being edify'd they are weaken'd in their faith . the early and best christians thought it sufficient to know jesus and the resurrection in their full extent ; and it were well if men were satisfy'd with this old way ; otherwise they break the peace of the church and obedience to governours , which are the great things of religion , upon the score of better edification . . in taking sudden heats and warmth , arising from melting tones and other arts , for edification ; whereas a bright or a lowring day , or a dose of physic can do the same things ; and they have often happen'd in the worst of men. according as these heats and bodily passions are stirr'd , so in some mens opinion the ministry is edifying or unprofitable . but sound and solid reasoning is the true way to edification ; whereas the silly and weak , who are most subject to these heats and colds , are inconstant , and turn round in all religions . such persons being all sail , are the more easily tost about with every wind of doctrine . iii. because the pretence of better edification will cause endless divisions in the church . for since every man must judge , and the governour must not restrain him , therefore people may run from teacher to teacher to find out better edification , ever learning and never coming to the knowledge of the truth , tim. . . and when once they have torn the unity of the church in pieces , then envy , detraction , strife , murmurings , fierceness , and numberless other mischiefs will come in ; and that which divided them from the church , will crumble them into endless parties , to the joy of our enemies . but all this wou'd be avoided , if men were sensible of the heinous nature of schism , which the apostles and all the ancient christians have painted forth in the blackest colours . iv. because this is a discouragement to an honest and truly christian ministry . for if the flock run from a pastor , that instructs them rightly , upon pretence of better edification ; will it not cool his zeal , check his labours , and affront his person and office ? and this may be done to the best pastors , as well as to others ; and the most judicious dissenters have complain'd of it : tho' upon this principle it cannot be remedy'd , because the people must judge for themselves . and ought the ministers to be scorn'd and discountenanc'd and have their ministry rendred useless , for the fancies , peevishness and humour of the people ? if it be said , that the pastor is idle or unsound in doctrine ; i answer , that our governours , upon a just and modest complaint will quicken the lazy and negligent , and correct the heretical pastor , and restore the flock to true edification . i may add , that the eminent dissenters do declare , that the pretence of better edification is not a sufficient excuse for separation , as those who have leisure may find in these books of theirs which i have quoted (b) at the bottom . but after all that has been said , i know some persons will object , that our ministers are unedifying preachers , for they cannot profit by their sermons . therefore i shall endeavour to give these men full satisfaction ; and i doubt not to demonstrate , that they may profit by our sermons , if it be not their own fault . we are all agreed , that the scriptures contain all things necessary to salvation ; and therefore when they are rightly open'd and duly apply'd in a sermon , so that the hearers improve in christian knowledge , or in faith , or in well-doing , then they profit by that sermon . now if any man do not improve in these by the help of our sermons , the fault must be , either in the matter of the sermon , or in the manner of it . and as for the former of these , i can scarce think , that any dissenter will except against our sermons upon that account ; they being taken out of the scriptures , which were never better open'd and apply'd , than in our sermons . i am sure , all heavenly truths are faithfully declar'd in them . matters of controversy are rarely handled in our pulpits ; for the drift of our preachers is to make the people good . they resolve cases of conscience , and press the motives to believe , and the arguments to convince men of their duty . they condemn all vices , recommend all vertues , and apply the promises and threatnings of the gospel . and if men cannot profit where such things are constantly well managed ; i am sure the fault do's not lie in the matter of the sermons , but somewhere else . if some say , that the matter is good , but the manner is such , that they cannot reap the like benefit by them , as by the non-conformists preaching ; i answer , that the fault must then lie , either in the composition or the delivery . first , as to the composition , i am confident , that never did men more endeavour after clear method and plain language , than our preachers now do . if it be objected , that they do not keep the old method of doctrine , reason and vse ; i answer , that they alwaies chuse it , when it is natural : but the ancient doctors never observ'd any constant rule ; and yet the people profited much more , than they do now . secondly , as to the delivery , if it be objected that our preachers are not vehement enough ; i answer , that they are , when the matter requires it ; but vehemence loses it's effect , if it be spent upon all things alike . vehemence do's not consist in the strength of voice , nor yet in that heat of temper , which makes some men speak earnestly , when they are not so deeply affected , as some of cooler tempers are . sedate men may instruct and move by the help of serious consideration ; and those affections that are rais'd without it , are little worth . but neither all your men , nor all ours , have the same voice or the same temper ; and therefore this can be no more hindrance to edification among us , than among you . if reading of sermons be objected , i answer , that some of our preachers use no notes in the pulpit , others read but little ; and if a man will but turn his head another way , and not look upon the preacher , a sermon that is read altogether , will sound as well , as if it were pronounced without book . if reading make a thing unprofitable ; the bible , when 't is read , must be unprofitable , and it must be got without book to make it edifying . besides , some famous preachers of your own read every word ; and therefore you may profit by ours as well as by them . but i fear , that when men complain they cannot profit by our sermons , they mean nothing , but that our preachers do not move their affections , as the non-conformists do . to this i cou'd say much , but it will be sufficient to mention only three things . . your men and ours have several talents , some for informing the judgment , others for moving the affections , and others for both . all your men do not move you alike ; and yet you make such account of all , that you think it a very disorderly thing for people to run from their own to another minister ( tho' of the same way ) merely to have the affections more mov'd . because , . it is far from profiting by sermons , to be tickl'd for a while and never to grow the better for them . . the chief thing is this , that affections rais'd merely by the earnestness of the preacher , are nothing comparable to those , which we raise by consideration and reflection upon what we have heard . and these affections our sermons will certainly raise , if you will take a little pains with your selves , and lay them close to your consciences . now since our sermons cannot be blam'd ; i pray , consider where the fault must lie , if you cannot profit by them . i beseech you , in the fear of god , by whose word we must one day be all judg'd , to consider impartially , and ask your consciences such questions as these . . had you not some prejudice against the minister you came to hear , either for his conformity , or his strictness in it , and the like ? if you had ; such prejudices bar the heart so strongly against the most excellent instructions , that a man will not profit by them . . did you not come to church but once or twice , and then conclude too hastily , that there was no good to be gotten there ? and were you not willing to have this excuse for absenting your self wholly from it ? had you attended much , perhaps you had never left it . try again for some time ; and when you are acquainted with your minister's method and stile and way of reasoning , his sermons may be clear , easy and awakening to you . the scriptures themselves are obscure to the best of us , till we are acquainted with them ; and if they had been treated , as our sermons are , ( i mean , rejected because they are not presently understood ) they had been thrown away long since as unprofitable . . did you not leave the church , because , when you came , the minister happen'd to treat of a subject cross to your opinion ? hasty persons fling away from those that contradict them ; but had you had patience , you might have been profited and convinced by such discourses . . was not the minister , when you chanc'd to go to church , treating of some distastful subject , which you love not to hear of ? was it not schism , or disobedience to governours ? it is certain there are such sins , which are very dangerous , and he ought to treat of them some time or other ; and if he preach of vnity and obedience , may not you profit by it ? i doubt you have heard some of your own ministers speak harder words of conformity and conformists , than you wou'd have had them , and you fancy you can profit even by those sermons ; why then shou'd you leave our ministers , because they press some duties more strictly than you like ? do not many of your own way complain of their unprofitableness under your own ministers , which arises perhaps from a natural dulness ? and will not prejudice , passion , and disaffection to the way of worship , or to any christian doctrine , hinder profiting much more than natural indisposition ? so that if you complain of deadness and unprofitableness under our ministry , it is no more than many do under your own . you shou'd not rashly conclude our ministry to be unedifying , but rather suspect your selves to be guilty . those also who fancy , that tho' they can profit something by our ministry , yet they can profit more by others , ought to consider the same things , and ask their own consciences the same questions . do's not this conceit arise from the foremention'd causes ? are you not more earnestly press'd in our congregations to be throughly good , than in those where you think you profit more ? this i must say , that if you do not grow more holy in all respects , you do but deceive your selves with an opinion of profiting more by the non-conforming ministry than by ours . if you wou'd attend at our churches , you need not go any whither else for true edification . there is no end of seeking better entertainment of the fancy ; and the old non-conformists thought this a dangerous principle , that men must go where they can profit most . and because the opinion of a famous man of your own may prevail with you more than ours , i 'le tell you what mr. hildersham saies of mens leaving their own pastors to hear others , lect. . upon john . first he saies , it is the ordinance of god that every pastor shou'd have his own flock to attend , and every one of god's people shou'd have a pastor of his own to depend upon . now they who dwell next together , shou'd be of the same congregation . and if thy own pastor be a man whose gift is approv'd by god's church , and one who is conscionable in his place , and of unblamable life ; tho' his gifts be far inferiour to some others , yet take heed thou leave him not at any time with contempt of his ministry , saying , i cannot profit by him . for a man may be a true minister , tho' his gifts be far inferiour to many others . and you are bound to love him and reverence him , and thank god for him . and doubtless thou mayest profit by him , if the fault be not in thy self . nay , there is never a minister , that is of the most excellent gifts ( if he have a godly heart , ) but he can truly say , he never heard any faithful minister in his life , that was so mean , but he cou'd discern some gift in him , that was wanting in himself , and cou'd profit by him . the fruit and profit that is to be receiv'd from the ministry , depends not only , nor chiefly , upon the gifts of the man that preacheth , but upon the blessing that god is pleas'd to give unto his own ordinance . and god doth oft give a greater blessing to weaker , than to stronger means . and consider , the fault may be rather in thy self than in thy teacher , that thou canst not profit . and indeed how is it possible thou shoud'st profit by his ministry , if thou come with prejudice , without any reverence , and delight unto it ? some follow another pastor because of his human gifts , some only for varieties sake ; some because they shew more zeal in their voice and gesture , and phrase of speech , and manner of delivery ; tho' ( haply ) the doctrine it self be nothing so wholsom , as the doctrine of their own pastor is . but he only makes right use of the benefit of hearing such as have more excellent gifts than his own pastor , as learns thereby to like his own pastor the better , and to profit more by him ; as they use physic well , whose appetite is amended , and who are by it made able to relish and like their ordinary food the better . these are his words who was of such note heretofore among non-conformists ; and how come you to differ so much from the best of your own way in former daies ? the same authour speaking of the partial estimation of ministers , saies , this factious disposition in the hearers of god's word hath in all ages been the cause of much confusion in the church of god , and greatly hindred the fruit of the gospel of christ , and made them uncapable of profit by the word . lect. . o that you wou'd ponder such profitable instructions ! which were said on purpose to check that , which is since grown the prevailing humour . yes , will some say , we might be persuaded to hear your preachers constantly , but you can never justify the compelling us to it . but , saies mr. hildersham , lect. . it is certain , that where there is a good ministry establish'd , the magistrate may and ought to compell all his subjects to come and hear ; notwithstanding all pretence of their conscience to the contrary . in short , a sermon is then profitable , when it strengthens faith and promotes holiness ; but the best sermon in the world , tho' indited by the spirit of god , will not profit , unless men will attend without prejudice , passion , partiality , conceit and spiritual pride ; and unless they will impartially consider those things , which are contrary to their present sence ; for want of which , multitudes did not profit by our saviour's sermons , but were rather more exasperated by them . consider , i beseech you , whether this be not your case ; and submit unto what shall appear to be reason , after you have weigh'd the matter impartially . this i hope will bring you to church ; where if you do not presently find such profit , as is promis'd , you may conclude in mr. hildersham's words ; first , either you have not sought it aright , not with earnestness , or not with a good heart : or secondly , if you have , and do not find it at first ; yet you shall hereafter , if you seek it here with an honest heart . you wou'd profit more by sermons , if you wou'd observe some rules deliver'd by the same authour , lect. . which now , alas ! are generally neglected . one is , that at your coming into the congregation , and during the whole time of your abode there , you wou'd behave your selves reverently . for an awful sence of god's presence wou'd be an excellent preparation to receive benefit by his service . another rule is , that we must all come to the beginning of god's public worship , and tarry till all be done . yea , it is the duty of god's people , saith he , to be in god's house before the beginning ; for it becomes them to wait for the minister of god , and not to let him wait for them . for he shews , that men may profit by all parts of the service ; for ( saies he ) as he that is away from any part of the sermon , shall profit the less by that which he doth hear : so he ' that is away from any part of the divine service , gets the less good by that at which he is present . nay , he saies , lect. . tho' we cou'd receive no profit by the exercises us'd in our assemblies , yet we must be present at them all , to do our homage unto god ; and shew the reverent respect we have to his ordinances . a third rule is , that we ought to join with the congregation in all the parts of god's worship . for it is comely , that all things in god's service shou'd be done in good order , as if the whole congregation were but one man. and in several places he reproves with a great deal of zeal , men's great carelesness in this . a fourth rule is , that we ought to teach our children and servants to shew reverence to the sanctuary and public worship of god. for god hates profaness even in children ; and contempt done by any may bring god's curse upon all . and certainly , saies he , among other causes of the plague , and other judgments of god upon the land , this is not the least , that god's public worship is perform'd among us with so little reverence and devotion as it is . but i will transcribe no more ; only i shall earnestly desire two things . first , that you wou'd consider seriously , how you wou'd have lik'd what i have transcrib'd from mr. hildersham , if one of our men had preach'd it ; especially if he added , that for the reverence of god's public worship , care shou'd be taken , that the place where the congregation assembleth , may be decent and comely ; and that 't is a foul sin and contempt of god's house , to be careless about the neatness of it . if you wou'd have thought it unprofitable ; then consider , why such things as please out of one man's mouth , shou'd displease out of another's . is it not manifest , that partiality makes you not profit by our sermons ? or if you cou'd not like such discourses , either from non-conformists , or our ministers ; then are you not mistaken about profiting by sermons , when you think those discourses unprofitable , which sober men of all sides have thought necessary ? for mr. hildersham saies , prophaness and atheism hath made us too void of all care in beautifying the house of god. secondly , if you think such a sermon profitable , consider whether you have learnt so much out of scripture , as to study and observe those rules . do you , for instance , pay reverence to god's house , and come at the beginning of service , and stand up and kneel with the congregation , & c ? if you do not , then the fault is not in our sermons , that you do not profit ; for you do not profit by the scriptures themselves , which plainly teach these things . to conclude , if we have all things necessary to the building us up in our most holy faith , in the communion of the church ; it will be but a poor excuse for our dividing from it , that we hoped to be better edify'd : when we had no encouragement at all to hope it , as long as we continu'd in the state of separation upon this pretence . for it is the blessing of god alone , and not any man's skill in dispensing them , that can make the word and ordinances any way beneficial to us . with the help of his grace , those means of instruction which we undervalue most , may be profitable to our salvation . without it our ears may be tickled , and our fancies pleasantly entertain'd for the time ; but we cannot be truly edify'd by the most fluent and popular tongue , or the most melting and pathetical expressions in the world. chap. xi . the pretence of it's being against one's conscience to join with the church of england , answer'd . having answer'd the most considerable objections against our communion , i am now to deal with such persons as separate from us , tho' they have nothing to object against us ; such as pretend that they are not satisfy'd in our way , that 't is against their conscience to join with us , or that they doubt of the lawfulness of our communion , or at least they scruple it . but i shall shew , that these excuses are utterly insignificant ; and that they cannot escape the wrath of god , who commit a sin , and think to cover it by pretending conscience for it . but before i enter upon these matters , i shall lay down the principles i mean to proceed upon , by treating distinctly on these five heads . . of the nature of conscience . . of the rule of conscience . . of the power of human laws to oblige the conscience . and particularly , . in the instances of church-communion . . of the authority of conscience ; or how far a man is obliged to be guided by it in his actions . i. then , to find out the nature of conscience , let us consider what every man doth really mean by that word , when he has occasion to use it . now as to this , i observe , first , that a man never speaks of his conscience , but with respect to his own actions . we do not , for instance , make it a point of conscience , whether a thing be true or false , or whether an accident be prosperous or unfortunate , or whether another man has done well or ill . these things indeed may please or trouble us ; but our conscience is affected only with that , which is willingly done or left undone by us , or which we may do , or may forbear . secondly , we never use the word conscience about our actions , but only so far as those actions are to be directed by some law or rule ; with which if they agree , they are good , and if they disagree , they are evil . thirdly , our actions , as we concern our conscience in them , are either already done , or not already done . but whether they are done or not done , whether past or future , they are either commanded by god , and so they are duties ; or forbidden by god , and so they are sins ; or neither commanded nor forbidden , and so they are indifferent actions . our actions , i say , do not touch our conscience , but as they fall under these considerations ; and in all these respects we mean the same thing by conscience . for , first , if the action be not already done , we think it either commanded by god , and say , we are bound in conscience , or think it our duty to do it ; or forbidden by god , and say , it is against our conscience , or we think it a sin to do it ; or else we think it is indifferent , and say , we may do it with a safe conscience , that is , we believe the action may be done without transgressing any law of god. this is undeniably every man's meaning , when he talks of conscience as to actions , that are not yet done . secondly , if we speak of our actions , that are done and past , saying , my conscience bears me witness , or i am satisfy'd or troubled in conscience for doing , what i have done ; we mean nothing more than this , that reflecting upon our own actions , we find , that we have either done , as we are convinc'd we ought to do , and this is a satisfaction to us ; or not done , as we ought to do , and the remembrance of this troubles us . but in all these cases we mean the same thing by conscience , to wit , our judgment and persuasion concerning what we ought to do , or ought not to do . only in the first sort , conscience is consider'd as the guide of actions to be done ; and in the second sort , as the witness of those that are already done : but in both sorts conscience is the same thing , to wit , the judgment of a man's mind concerning the morality of his actions . this is the true notion of conscience in general ; but if we put epithets to it , and talk of a good or evil conscience , a tender conscience , or the like , then it includes more than i am now concern'd to give an account of . ii. i proceed to the rule of conscience . it appears by what i have said , that conscience must alwaies have a rule to follow . for , since conscience is a man's judgment about actions as good , or bad , or indifferent ; it is certain , a man must have some measure , by applying which , he may judge of what sort the action is . this measure is the rule of conscience , and conscience is no farther safe , than as it follows that rule . now this measure or rule of conscience can be nothing else but the law of god ; because nothing can be a duty , or sin , but what is commanded or forbidden by god's law ; and that thing only is indifferent , which his law neither commands nor forbids . now by the law of god , which is the rule of conscience , i mean god's will for the goverment of men's actions ; whether declar'd by nature , or revelation . by the law of nature i mean those principles of good and evil , just and unjust , which god has written in our minds , and which every man is naturally convinced of . some things are eternally good , as to worship god , &c. and we know them to be our duty ; others are eternally evil , and we know them to be sins , by the light of reason ; and the apostle saies , the gentiles had this law written in their hearts . but christians have the law of revelation too contain'd in the scriptures ; by which god do's not make void the law of nature , but declare it's precepts more certainly and accurately , with greater strength , and greater rewards and punishments , than before . by this also he has perfected the law of nature , and obliged us to higher instances of vertue , and added some positive laws ; as for instance , to believe in christ , to pray to god in christ's name , to be baptiz'd and partake of the lord's supper . thus then the natural and reveal'd law of god is the great rule of conscience . only we must remember , that by the law of nature is to be understood , not only the chief and general heads of it , but also the necessary deductions from these heads ; and by the reveal'd law is to be understood , not only express commands and prohibitions , but also the necessary consequences of those commands and prohibitions . so that whatever is by direct inference or parity of reason commanded or forbidden , is a duty or a sin ; tho' it be not commanded or forbidden in the letter of the law. and if it be neither commanded nor forbidden by the letter of the law , nor yet by inference or parity of reason ; the thing is indifferent , and we may do it , or let it alone , with a safe conscience . iii. in the third place i must consider the power of human laws to oblige the conscience ; for in a secondary sence they are a part of the rule of conscience , by vertue of , and in subordination to the laws of god. this i shall explain in four propositions . first , it is most certain , that god's law commands us to obey the laws of men. for all society is founded in this principal law of nature , that we must obey our governours in all honest and just things . otherwise no state , city or family can subsist happily . and 't is most evident , that god commands us in scripture to obey them , that have the rule over us , and to be subject not only for wrath , but also for conscience sake . so that a man is bound in duty to obey human laws , and consequently they are a part of the rule of conscience . secondly , human laws do not bind the conscience by any vertue in themselves , but merely by vertue of god's law , who has commanded us both by nature and scripture , to obey our superiours . conscience is our judgment of our actions according to god's law , and has no superiour but god alone : but yet we are bound in conscience to obey men , because therein we obey god. thirdly , human laws do no farther bind the conscience , than as they are agreeable to the laws of god ; so that when men command any thing sinful , we must not obey . for god has not given any man power to alter his laws , or impose any thing inconsistent with them . fourthly , tho' human laws , generally speaking , bind the conscience ; yet i do not say , that every human law ( tho' consistent with god's law ) do's at all times and in all cases , oblige every man's conscience to active obedience to it , so as that he sins against god , if he transgress it . for then who could be innocent ? but first , where the public or some private person shall suffer damage or inconvenience by our not observing the law ; or secondly , where the manner of our not obeying it argues contempt of authority , or sets an ill example , there the transgression of a human law is sinful ; and not in other cases . so that there are many cases , in which a man may transgress a purely human law , and yet not be a sinner before god ; provided , i say , there be no contempt of authority , or ill example in it ; for either of these makes it a sin . for this i insist upon , that god's law and the public good require , that authority be held sacred ; and therefore when governours insist upon a thing , tho' it be trifling or inconvenient , yet we must not even seem to contest the matter with them , provided it be not sinful . for to affront their authority , or to encourage others by our example to do it , is a greater evil to the public , than our obedience to an inconvenient law can easily be . iv. i shall now consider the power of human laws to oblige the conscience in the instance of church-communion . and here i affirm , that every man is bound in conscience to join with the church establish'd by law in the place where he lives , so long as that church is a true sound part of the catholic church , and nothing sinful is requir'd as a condition of communion with it . for i have already shewn , that men are bound to obey human laws , that are not contrary to the laws of god ; and therefore they must obey in church-matters ; unless it can be shew'd , that god has forbidden men to make laws about religion ; which can never be done . but farther , i earnestly desire it may be well consider'd by dissenters , that we are all really bound by the laws of jesus christ and the nature of his religion , to preserve as much as in us lies , the unity of the church , which consists not only in professing the same faith , but joining together in the same worship . and therefore whoever breaks this unity , doth really transgress the laws of jesus christ , and is guilty of schism , which is so much caution'd against , and so highly condemn'd in scripture . those therefore , who think they are no more bound to come to church , than to obey any common act of parliament , are greatly mistaken ; because they break not only the law of man , but the law of god. for tho' all the circumstances of worship are human institutions , yet the public worship it self , under public lawful governours , is of divine appointment ; and no man can renounce it without sinning against christ as well as human laws . a divine law cloath'd with circumstances of man's appointment , creates another kind of obligation , than a law , that commands a thing perfectly indifferent . in the former case we must obey , because 't is god's own law ; in the other we only obey man , because god has obliged us in general to obey our superiours . god commands every subject to pay tribute to whom tribute is due : but human authority determines , out of what goods , and in what proportion he must pay . now , because human authority interposes , if a man can by fraud detain the king 's right , do's he incur no other guilt , than breaking an act of parliament , and being liable to penalties , if he be detected ? yes certainly ; for tribute being injoin'd by god's law , the man is unjust , and breaks god's law ; and his willingness to suffer the penalties do's not lessen his guilt . the case is the same as to church-vnity ; for tho' human laws prescribe particular circumstances and forms of worship : yet god's laws oblige us to keep the unity of the church , as much as to pay the king his due . and that man , that paies his just debts by such a method , as the law of the land declares to be unjust , may as well acquit himself from knavery before god ; as that man , that chuses a way of public worship in opposition to the church-laws , can acquit himself of schism before god. nay , separation from the church is so much against the law of god , that shou'd human laws grant a toleration , and call no man to an account for separation from the establish'd church ; yet such a separation wou'd still be a schism , and a sin against god. for no human law can make that lawful , which god's law has forbidden . v. it remains , that i speak of the authority of conscience , or how far a man is obliged to be guided by his conscience in his actions ; that is , how far we are obliged to act or not act , when we are convinc'd in our judgment , that the action is commanded or forbidden by god. now our judgment concerning what god has commanded , or forbidden , or left indifferent , is either right or wrong . if right , we are said to have a right conscience ; if wrong , we have an erroneous conscience . there is also a doubting conscience , when we know not well how to make any judgment at all ; but of this i shall treat in another place . now if our conscience or judgment be right , that is , according to god's law , without doubt we are forever bound to act according to it ; nor can we sin in doing so , whatever the consequence be . but the great question is , what we must do , when our conscience is erroneous and mistaken ; and to answer this , i lay down three rules , which i think , may give any man satisfaction . first , where a man is mistaken in his judgment , even in that case it is alwaies a sin to act against it . tho' we take a sin for a duty , or a duty for a sin : yet so long as we are thus persuaded , it will be a great crime to act against this persuasion . because by so doing we act against the best light we have at present ; and therefore our will is as wicked , as if it acted against a true light . nothing but conscience can guide our actions ; and tho' an eroneous conscience is a very bad and unsafe guide ; yet still 't is the only guide we have : and if we may lawfully refuse to be guided by it in one instance , we may with as much reason reject it's guidance in all . what is a wilful sin , or a sin against knowledge , but acting otherwise , than we were convinc'd to be our duty ? is not that man thought sincere , that acts as he believes ; and that man an hypocrite , that acts otherwise , whether his judgment be true or false ? he , who being under a mistake , acts contrary to his judgment , wou'd certainly upon the same temptation act contrary to it , were his judgment never so well inform'd . and therefore his will being as bad in the one case as in the other , he is equally a sinner as to the wilfulness of the crime , tho' indeed in other respects there will be a great difference in the cases . shou'd a jew turn christian , or a papist turn protestant , while yet they believe their former religions to be true , we shou'd all believe them to be great villains and hypocrites ; because they did it upon base principles , and in contradiction to their judgments . nay we shou'd all think more favourably of a protestant , that being seduced by a cunning papist , did really out of conscience go over to the romanists , than of such persons . all this put together shews , that no man can in any case act against his judgment , but he is guilty of sin in so doing . secondly , the mistake of a man's judgment may be of such a nature , that as it will be a sin to act against his judgment , so it will likewise be a sin to act according to it . for that action is good and a duty , which god has commanded , and that is a sin which he has forbidden . 't is not our opinion , but his law , that makes things good or evil . and therefore we shall be forever obliged to do some actions and forbear others , whatever our judgment be ; because we cannot alter the nature of things . for if the moral goodness or badness of actions were to be measur'd by mens opinions ; then duty and sin wou'd be the most uncertain things in the world , and what is good or evil to day , wou'd be the contrary to morrow , as any man's opinion alters . but such consequences are intolerable ; and therefore , tho' a man do's follow his judgment , yet he may be guilty of sin ( and be damn'd for it too ) if his judgment lead him to act against the law of god. but it must be observ'd , that i do not say , that every action according to a mistaken judgment is sinful ; but that a man's mistake may be such , that it will be a sin to act either against it , or according to it . for a man may often mistake , and yet not sin ; provided his mistakes do not lead him to a breach of god's law. for first , if a man believe a thing to be commanded by god , which is neither commanded nor forbidden ; as if he think himself obliged to pray seven or three times a day ; he is certainly mistaken , because god has bound him up to neither . and therefore , since god has not commanded the contrary , he may safely act according to his mistake ; nay , so long as his mistake continues , he is bound to do so . secondly , if a man believe a thing to be forbidden by god , which is neither commanded nor forbidden ; as if he think that god has forbidden him to play at cards ; in this case he may follow his false opinion without sin ; nay he is bound to follow it . because , since god has not forbidden it , 't is no sin to follow his mistaken conscience ; but it is a sin to act against it . but then in other cases , when a man thinks that to be sinful or indifferent , which god commands ; or that to be lawful or a duty , which god forbids ; here the mistake is dangerous , and it is a sin to act against his judgment , or according to it . thirdly therefore , for the untying this great difficulty , i say , that the great thing to be attended to in this case of a man's following a mistaken judgment , is the faultiness or innocence of the mistake upon which he acts ; for according as this is , so will his guilt in acting according to it , be either greater or less , or none at all . if the mistake be such , as an honest minded man might make ; if he did his best to understand his duty , and wanted means to know it better ; then we think him innocent , and not properly guilty of any sin , tho' the action is contrary to god's law. for no man is obliged to do more , than what is in his power to do ; and whatever a man is not obliged to do , it is no sin in him , if he do it not . since he cou'd not understand better , his mistake and acting according to his mistake are not sinful . the only point is this ; whether the man be to be blam'd for his erroneous conscience , or no. if the errour be not his own fault , he doth not sin in acting according to it : but if he had power and opportunities of informing his conscience better , and yet neglected so to do , tho' it was his duty ; then the man sins , while he acts contrary to god's law under the mistake ; and his sin is greater or less in proportion to his negligence . thus you see , that god enables all men to do their duty ; and that none lie under a necessity of sinning , but those who wilfully embracing false principles , fall into sin , whether they act according to their conscience , or against it . having now done with the five principles of my discourse , i proceed to my first intended business ; that is , to speak to the case of those that separate from the communion of the church of england upon this pretence , that it is against their conscience to join with us in it . and that i may clear this point , i shall do two things ; first , i shall separate those who can plead conscience for their non-conformity , from those that cannot ; for a great many that pretend conscience , refuse communion with us upon another principle . secondly , i shall enquire , how far this plea of conscience , when truly made , will justify any dissenter , that continues in separation from the church . first then , that i may distinguish the true pretenders to conscience from the false ones , i shall lay down this proposition , that no man can justly plead conscience for his separation from the church of england , or say , that it is against his conscience to join in communion with it , unless he is persuaded , that he cannot communicate with us without sinning against god in so doing . for god's law is the only rule to judge , whether an action be a duty or a sin , or indifferent ; and conscience is nothing else , but a man's judgment of an action , whether it be a duty , or a sin , or indifferent by that rule . so that a man cannot be bound in conscience to do or forbear any action , unless he is persuaded , that god's law has commanded or forbidden it ; and therefore no man can justly plead conscience for non-conformity , unless he is persuaded , that god's law has forbidden him to join with us . if it be said , that a man , who do's not think our communion directly sinful , may notwithstanding think it his duty to join constantly with others , for his greater edification , or the like cause ; i answer , that my proposition still holds , because he thinks , that he is bound by god's law to join with others , which law he must not break by leaving them to join with us . again , if it be said , that a man , who do's not think our communion unlawful , but only doubts of the lawfulness of it , may justly plead conscience for non-conformity , so long as his doubts remain ; i answer , that if he thinks it a sin to do any thing with a doubting conscience , then he thinks , that our communion is forbidden by god , so long as his doubts remain : but if he do's not think it a sin to act with a doubting conscience , then it cannot go against his conscience to join with us . so that my proposition remains true , that none can justly plead conscience for non-conformity , but those who think , that they cannot join with us without sin . now since this proposition is so certainly true , how many men's pretences to conscience for their separating from us , are hereby cut off ? for first , those that separate , either because they have been disobliged by some church-man , or to please a relation , or increase their fortunes , or procure or regain a reputation , or for any other worldly consideration , cannot plead conscience for separation . nor secondly , can those lay-people , who are resolv'd to hear their beloved teachers in conventicles , since they cannot hear them in our churches , and who wou'd join with us , if we wou'd suffer those godly men to preach ; nor thirdly , those who dislike forms of prayer , ceremonies , &c. thinking them not convenient , tho' they do not judge them to be sinful ; nor fourthly , those who separate upon the account of edification , or acquaintance with persons of another persuasion ; or because many godly persons condemn our way ; all these , i say , cannot justly plead conscience for their separation . because neither fancy , nor example can be the rule of any man's conscience , but only the law of god : and therefore such persons cannot justly plead conscience , because they do not think our communion to be forbidden by god's law. nor fifthly , can those plead conscience for their separation , who think that our governours have encroach'd too much upon christian liberty , and laid too much stress upon indifferent things ; for suppose the governour 's be faulty in it , yet the conscience of the subject is not concern'd , so long as the things commanded do not interfere with any law of god. nor sixthly , can those justly plead conscience for their separation , who can join with us sometimes both in prayer and the lord's supper ; for if our communion be sinful , with what conscience do they dare to join in it at all ? and if it be lawful once , it is a duty alwaies . but leaving these false pretenders , i proceed to the case of those , that can justly plead conscience for their separation , or who think it a sin to join with us ; for i shall consider the case of those that plead a doubting conscience afterwards , in a particular discourse . secondly therefore , i shall inquire how far this plea of conscience , when truly made , will justify any dissenter , that continues in separation from the church . for there are many , that say , they wou'd join with us with all their hearts , but they are really persuaded , they cannot do it without sin . for they think , that it is against the command of christ to use forms of prayer , the cross in baptism , kneeling at the sacrament , and the like . and surely , say they , you wou'd not have us join in these practices , which we verily believe to be sins . they are so well satisfy'd in their separation upon these accounts , that they think themselves safe , and that they are able to justify themselves to god and all the world . now in answer to this , i grant , that if the things they except against , be really forbidden by god , then they are not to be blam'd ; for then separation from us is not a sin , but a duty . nay , supposing that they think that to be forbidden , which is not really forbidden ; yet so long as they think so , they cannot act against their mistaken conscience without sin . but then the point we stand upon is this , that our governours do require nothing that is forbidden by god ; and therefore their thinking our communion unlawful will not acquit them from being guilty of sin before god. i am not now to answer the particular objections against our establishments . this has been sufficiently done already in the several foregoing chapters . the point i am concern'd in , is this , whether a man 's thinking our communion to be unlawful , when indeed it is not unlawful , will justify his separation from it : and i answer , that a man's false persuasion will not justify his breaking of god's law. so that if god's law do's command me to hold communion with the church where i have no just cause to break it , my false persuasion will not acquit me from sin before god , if i separate from it without just cause . tho' the truth of this appears from what i have said before , yet i shall further confirm it by asking this question . when st. paul thought himself bound in duty to persecute christians , was his persecution sinful , or no ? yes surely ; for he call's himself the greatest of sinners for that very reason . and therefore a man's thinking a thing to be a duty or lawful , will not acquit him before god for doing that thing , if it be against god's law. so that it infinitely concerns all dissenters to consider well , before they separate . for schism is a crying sin , and as vehemently spoken against by christ , and his apostles , and the fathers , as any sin whatever . let dissenters look to it , that they be not guilty of it ; for their false persuasion , that our communion is unlawful , will not make their separation to be no schism . this matter will appear a little more evident , if we put the case in another instance , wherein we are not so nearly concern'd . suppose a papist , that heartily believes popery to be the only true religion , do's in obedience to it worship images and the host . this person wou'd certainly abhor these practices , did he think them to be idolatrous ; but he believes them to be necessary duties . and yet we do all charge such papists with idolatry , tho' they disclaim it , and profess they do no more than their duty , when they give divine worship to such objects . and we charge them rightly in this ; for if it be really idolatry by god's word to do so ; then it will be idolatry in any man to do so , let his opinion be what it will. for a man 's false opinion doth not alter the nature of things . now the case is the same in the matter before us ; for causeless separation is as properly schism , as worshipping a creature is idolatry : and he is as much a schismatic , who thinks it his duty to separate , as he is an idolater , who thinks it his duty to worship a creature . a man's mistake , according to the greater or less culpability of it , will more or less excuse him before god in both instances : but it cannot change the nature either of schism or idolatry . but it will be said ; what shall a man do ? he cannot conform with a safe conscience ; and yet he sins , if he do not . i answer , he is to take all imaginable care to rectify his mistakes , and then he may do his duty without sinning against his conscience . now the only way of doing this , is by laying aside pride , passion , interest and all other carnal prepossessions , and endeavouring seriously and impartially to understand his duty ; considering without prejudice , what can be said on both sides , advising with the wisest men , and above all things seriously endeavouring to understand the nature and spirit of the christian religion , practising all undoubted duties , and begging god's assistance for the matters in question . well , but supposing a man has done all this , and after all his endeavours is persuaded that he cannot join with us without sin ; what shall this man do ? this is the great difficulty , and i have two things to say to it . first , we do heartily wish , that this was the case of our dissenters ; for then i am persuaded , our scandalous divisions wou'd presently be at an end . but alas ! we fear they have not done their duty in this matter ; that they have not heartily endeavour'd to satisfy themselves . if they had ; surely they shou'd , before they pronounc'd conformity to be unlawful , be able to produce some one plain text to prove it so . for the texts they produce are such , as had they in the least examin'd them , cou'd scarce have been wrested to such a sence . nay , the generality of dissenters do not seem to have much consulted their own teachers in this affair . if they had , they wou'd think better of our way than they do . for the most eminent of their own ministers are ready to declare , that tho' some things may be inconvenient , yet a lay-person may lawfully join with us in all things ; nay , they themselves are ready upon occasion to join in all the instances of lay-communion . in short , most of our dissenters have taken up their opinions hand over head , and scarce think it possible for them to be in the wrong . shew us a man , that has no end to serve by religion , but only to go to heaven , and in the choice of his way is only concern'd that it be the way that leads him thither ; that is wonderfully sollicitous about his duty , and will refuse no pains to understand it ; that in the midst of church-divisions is modest , humble and docible , and believes that he and his friends may be mistaken ; that thinks his governours may be wiser than himself , and that every opinion , that he has inconsiderately taken up , ought not to be maintain'd against authority ; a man , that where his duty to god seems to thwart his duty to man , endeavours to be truly inform'd ; and to that end begs god's assistance , and uses the best helps and guides he can , hears and reads the arguments on both sides , and is byassed neither way ; i say , shew us such a man , and we readily grant , he has done his best to satisfy himself . but then we must add , that we believe , such a man will soon think it , not only lawful , but his duty also to conform . secondly , if a man has really done his best to satisfy his conscience , and yet thinks it a sin to conform ; tho' his separation be materially a schism , yet he is not formally guilty of it . for all those that commit schism , are not equally guilty of it , those that separate to serve a turn , are horribly and inexcusably guilty of schism ; and those that separate thro' such mistakes , as they might have avoided if they had been careful , are very blameable , and are bound , as they love their souls , to take more care of informing their consciences , that so they may leave their sin : but when god , who searches the hearts , knows that a man did his best , and had not means or opportunities of understanding better ; then tho' the man commit schism , yet he is innocent of it . and god , who judgeth of men by their inward sincerity , will impute it to his ignorance , and forgive it at the last day ; especially if this innocently mistaken man be careful in the following points . first , that he be not obstinate , but ready to receive conviction . secondly , that he separate no more , than he needs must ; but comply in all those instances , where he is satisfy'd he may do it with a safe conscience . thirdly , that where he cannot comply , he patiently submit to the penalty of the law ; neither exclaiming at his governours or the magistrates , nor using illegal means to get more liberty , but living as a quiet and peaceable subject . fourthly , that he do not censure those of another persuasion , but shew himself a good neighbour and friendly to them . whoe're observes these things , tho' he dissent from us , i shall be loth to censure him as an ill man , ill subject , or ill christian . but then all that i have said , do's no more justify or lessen the sin of schism , than the sin of idolatry ; for the case is the same in both , whether the man be a deluded dissenter , or a deluded papist . and therefore , notwithstanding all that may be said concerning the innocence or excusableness of some mens mistakes about these matters ; yet nevertheless , it infinitely concerns every person , to have a care how he be engaged either in the one or the other . to conclude ; i have shewn how absolutely necessary 'tis , that every man shou'd endeavour to inform himself aright , before he disobey his governours or separate from the church ; and that tho' something in our worship be really against his conscience , yet separation may be a great sin , if a man shou'd prove to be mistaken in his notions . and therefore every dissenter ought presently to set about the true informing of his judgment , for fear he live in a grievous sin . let him not satisfy himself with frivolous pretences . for tho' we agree in the rule of faith and manners ; yet schism is a dreadful sin , and a man may be damn'd for that as certainly , as for heresy or drunkenness . sure i am , the ancient fathers thought so . what if the points of conformity be matters of dispute ? who made them so ? the church of england wou'd have been well pleas'd , if these controversies had never been . we think a man may be a very good christian and go to heaven , that is not able to defend our ceremonies , &c. but he that separates upon the account of them , is bound at the peril of his own salvation , to use the best means he can , to be satisfy'd about them . to those that pretend , that these are subtil points above their capacity , i answer , that since they have understanding enough to find fault and separate , they ought to have honesty enough to seek satisfaction ; which is all that we desire of them : otherwise they will never be able to answer to god or man for the mischiefs of separation . we are bound , especially in this case , to prove all things , and hold fast that which is good . for no man can disobey his superiours without sin , unless after he has us'd his best endeavours , he finds their commands inconsistent with his duty to god. for a man to disobey till he has done this , is an unwarrantable thing ; and in the case i now speak of , it is no less than the sin of formal criminal schism . chap. xii . the pretence of a doubting conscience answer'd . i come now to the case of those , who separate , because they doubt , whether they may lawfully communicate with us or no ; and who fear they shou'd sin in doing any thing with a doubting conscience . to this i might answer from the former chapter ; that if communion with our church be a duty , no man's doubts concerning the lawfulness of it , will justify his separation from it . for if a man's setled persuasion , that an action is unlawful , will not justify his omission of it , supposing that god commands it ; much less will his bare doubt excuse him . but because this answer seems rather to cut the knot , than to unty it , i shall particularly examine this plea of a doubting conscience , by giving an account , first , of the nature of a doubting conscience . secondly , of the rule of it . thirdly , of the power that human laws have over it . fourthly , of its authority , i. e. whether at all , or how far a man is obliged by it . i. in speaking of the nature of a doubting conscience i shall treat , . of doubting in general . . of such doubts as affect the conscience . . of the difference between the doubting and the scrupulous conscience . first then , a man is said to doubt , when he cannot determin , whether the thing he is considering , be so , or be not so ; he thinks the question probable on both sides , but cannot fix upon either . so that his mind is like a ballance , when by reason of equal weight in both scales , neither scale comes to the bottom . 't is true , a man may lean more to one side of the question , than the other ; and yet be doubtful still ; just as one scale may have more weight than the other , while yet that weight is not able to carry it perfectly down : but when there is so much more evidence on one side , that the mind can determin it self , then the man doubts no longer , but is said to be persuaded ; as the ballance is said to be fixt , when there is weight enough to carry it down on either side . 't is true , a man has not alwaies the same degree of persuasion . sometimes the evidence is so strong , that he intirely assents without the least doubtfulness . this is assurance or full persuasion . at other times the evidence may gain an assent , but not such as excludes all doubts of the contrary . this kind of assent is call'd opinion or probable persuasion . so a greater or less weight carries down the scale with greater or less force and briskness . but still , in both these cases , the mind is determin'd , the ballance is turn'd , and the doubt is ended ; tho' perhaps the man is not perfectly free from all scruple about that thing . secondly then , i shall treat of such doubts as affect the conscience . a man may doubt of any thing , which he has to consider , but every doubt do's not affect the conscience . as a man's conscience is affected with nothing but his own actions , so his doubts do not affect his conscience any farther , than they concern his own actions . and as his conscience is not affected with his own actions any otherwise , than as they are commanded or forbidden by god's laws ; so his doubts concerning them affect his conscience no otherwise , than as god's law may be transgressed in them . so that , where a man apprehends no danger of transgressing god's law , his doubts about an action do not concern his conscience . thirdly , from what has been said 't is easie to perceive the difference between the doubting and the scrupulous conscience . every body knows , that when we speak of a resolved conscience , we mean , that the man is satisfy'd , whether the action be a duty or a sin , or indifferent . now the scrupulous conscience is a conscience in some measure resolved , but yet accompanied with a fear of acting according to that resolution . the person is convinced , that the thing is fit to be done , and has nothing considerable to object , nor any new reasons to unsettle him ; but yet when he comes to act , he is troubled with unaccountable fears . but the doubting conscience is quite different , and is nothing else but the suspense of a man's judgment in a question about the duty or the sin of an action , occasion'd by the equal ( or near equal ) probabilities on both sides . the resolv'd conscience acts chearfully ; the scrupulous conscience acts fearfully : but the doubtful conscience is not satisfy'd at all , because of the equal appearances of reason on both sides . the man that has either a resolv'd or a scrupulous conscience , passes a judgment on the thing : but a doubting conscience passes no judgment at all ; for then it wou'd no longer be a doubting conscience . after all it must be acknowledg'd , that truly and strictly speaking , a doubting conscience is no conscience at all . for conscience , as we have often said , is a man's mind making a judgment about the morality of his actions : but a doubting conscience wavers , and is a man's mind making no judgment ; and therefore it is not properly a conscience . and we may as well say an unresolv'd resolution , as a doubting conscience . however , to comply with custom , i follow the common way of speaking . ii. i proceed now to the rule of a doubting conscience ; in speaking of which i shall shew , first , what kind of rule conscience needs in a doubtful case . secondly , what that rule is . first then , by the rule of a doubting conscience i mean , not a rule by which a man may resolve all doubts concerning every point , so as to doubt no longer about it ; but a rule , by which he may determine in every doubtful case , so as to act with a safe conscience , whether he can get rid of his doubts or not . a rule , that determines , not whether a thing in general be lawful , or no ; but what i am to do , where i doubt of the lawfulness of the thing . for instance , the rule of a doubting conscience is not to determine , whether is be lawful to play at cards ; but what i must do , if i doubt of the lawfulness of playing at cards . before a man acts , he ought to be satisfy'd , that that side of the action , he determines himself to , is , all things consider'd , the more fit and reasonable to be chosen : but it is absurd to say , that no man must act , till he is able to unty all the difficulties , and resolve all the doubts , that may have been started about the action . for this in many cases is utterly impossible ; the person may not have sufficient time or means for the doing it . and in such a case , a man cannot possibly do better , than to get satisfy'd by reason and advice , what is fittest for him to do in the present circumstances , and to proceed accordingly . and this is certainly the the usual way of proceeding among the most conscientious men . thus have i shewn what kind of rule conscience needs in a doubtful case . secondly therefore , i shall shew what that rule is , first by giving an account of the general rule it self ; and then secondly , by applying it to the several heads of doubtful cases . . first then , since a man never doubts but upon equal appearances of reason on both sides , it is plain , that nothing ought to turn the ballance , but greater weight of reason ; and therefore the rule of a doubting conscience is , that in all doubtful cases , that side which , all things consider'd , doth appear more reasonable , is to be chosen . some indeed say , that in doubtful cases the safer side is to be chosen : but i do purposely avoid the expressing it so , because the rule is true or false , according as the word safer side is expounded . for first , if by safer side we mean that side which is more free from danger of sinning , i think the rule will prove rather a snare , than a guide to a man's mind . for if this rule be true , most persons do transgress it every day ; nay the best of men do frequently expose themselves to such dangers of sinning , as they might have avoided ; and this without any reproach from their own conscience , or any censure from other men . he that avoids all entertainments , is certainly more free from the danger of intemperance , than others are ; and yet when occasion serves , no man makes any great scruple of going to them . we are not commanded to avoid all possible danger of sinning ; but only to avoid all sin , when we are in danger . for otherwise , he that wou'd be religious , must forsake all worldly business , and retire to a cloyster . but to come more strictly to the point ; there are many cases , in which the most honest person do's not think he is obliged to determine himself to that side of the action , on which he apprehends there is least danger of sinning . for first , greater probability will often turn the ballance against the greater safety . thus if a man scruple eating blood , and afterwards by discoursing with a learned person be satisfy'd , that it is far more probable that he may lawfully eat it , than that he is forbidden to eat it ; i believe most men will think , that he may eat it with a quiet conscience . and yet it is certainly more safe not to eat it ; because many do question whether it be lawful to do so , but all men grant it may be lawfully forborn . secondly , greater temporal advantages will have weight enough with a very honest man to over-ballance the greater safety . thus if after the strictest inquiry a man be not satisfy'd , that he owes a sum of money , which another demands confidently and with great appearances of reason ; there are equal probabilities on both sides . if he pay the money , perhaps his circumstances are such , that he wrongs his wife and children ; and if he refuse to pay it , perhaps he detains another man's right from him . in this case , since it is as probable that the demand is unjust , as that it is just ; i believe most men will say , that he ought not to prejudice himself and his family , till it be either by law adjudg'd , or he have more convincing proofs , that he ought to pay it . it appears therefore , that any man ( who is wise as well as good ) may in many cases wave the safer for the more prudent side ; and consequently it is not alwaies a rule to a doubting conscience to chuse the safer side , or the side which is more free from danger of sinning . but secondly , if by safer side we mean that which is freest from all dangers and inconveniences of all kinds whatsoever , and do's best serve all the spiritual and temporal interests that a wise and good man can propose ; i freely grant , that it is the only rule to a doubting conscience to follow the safer side . for then the safer side is the more reasonable side , which , as i said before , is in all doubtful cases to be chosen . . having given an account of the general rule of a doubting conscience , i come now in the second place to make application of it to the several heads of doubtful cases . now all doubts of conscience are either single or double . it is a single doubt , when a man doubts on one side , but is satisfy'd on the other . for instance , he doubts , whether it be lawful to do the action , but is satisfy'd he may lawfully omit it ; or he doubts whether he may lawfully omit it , but is satisfy'd he may lawfully do it . it is a double doubt , when a man doubts on both sides ; when he is at a loss what to do , because he fears he may sin , whether he do's the action or do's it not . first , as to the case of a single doubt , we may thus apply the general rule . when a man doubts only on one side , it is more reasonable , if all other considerations be equal , to chuse that side which he hath no doubt of . in such a case we must not do what we doubt of ; for it is unreasonable to run the risque of sinning , when a man can without any inconveniency avoid it . if a man doubt , whether it be lawful for a christian to go to law , and cannot positively determine with himself , whether it be lawful or vnlawful so to do ; in this and all other such-like cases the rule is plain , that while he doubts , it is more reasonable to forbear ; because he runs a hazard in venturing upon what he doubts of , but he runs no hazard in forbearing . but then if there be other considerations to over-ballance this consideration of uncertainty ; it will be more reasonable to chuse that side , which i did before doubt of . nay it is our duty so to do ; for if i doubt , i do by doubting own , that i cannot tell whether the action be lawful or vnlawful ; and surely then the weight of pressing considerations ought to turn the ballance ; otherwise i cannot answer to my self or the world , for the consequences that may ensue . thus if i am guardian to an orphan , whose estate is so entangled , that a law-suit is necessary for the clearing it ; i am obliged , notwithstanding my doubt , to secure his right by going to law. to conclude ; it is not only lawful , but advisable , to do that which we doubt of , if a great good may be compass'd , or a great evil may be avoided by the doing of it . secondly , in the case of a double doubt , when a man fears he may sin , whether he do the action or do's it not , it is in vain to say , he must get his doubt remov'd ; for perhaps that may be impossible thro' want of time or good counsel . he is therefore to follow the same rule as in other doubtful cases ; that is to say , he is to act as reasonably as he can : and if he do this , i am sure he incurs no blame . but because the application of this general rule is various , according to many circumstances that may happen , therefore i shall comprise all the varieties in these four following propositions . . if the sin we are afraid of , appear equal on both sides , we must do that , which we doubt the least of ; that is , we must do that which appears more probable to be free from the danger of sin . . if we think there is equal danger on both sides , we must do that which appears to be the less sin . . if we think the one side more probable , and the other less sinful ; we must act according to the degree of the probability , or the sin . if there be much more probability on the one side than on the other , and but small difference between the sins ; then we must act that which is more probable . but then , if the consequences on one side , if a man shou'd happen to be mistaken , be so terrible , that they over-ballance all the probabilities on the other side ; a wise man will act that , which sets him free from these consequences . thus if a man be try'd for his life , and the evidence against him be not so full as to create a persuasion in the jury that he is guilty ; in this case , they shou'd rather acquit him , notwithstanding some probabilities of his guilt , than run the hazard of doing murder by condemning the innocent . . if a man doubts equally on both sides , and the sin appear equal on both sides ; then his own ease , or advantage , or reputation , or any other prudential inducements must determine him to do the action he doubts about , or to let it alone . when all is said , every man in doubtful cases is left to his own discretion ; and if he acts according to the best reason he has , he is not culpable , tho' he be mistaken in his measures . but to render these rules about a double doubt more intelligible and more useful , i shall give the reader an instance of a case , in which they are all apply'd . the case is this , here is a man , that thinks it his duty to receive the sacrament constantly , or at least frequently ; but on the other side , tho' no grievous sin lies upon his conscience unrepented of , yet by reason of his mistakes about the nature and ends of the lord's supper , and the dispositions that fit a man for it , he is under great fears of his being unqualify'd for it . now the question is , what this man , who after all his endeavours cannot get over these difficulties , ought to do . for if he do not come to the sacrament , he doubts he sins on that account ; if he do come , he doubts he approaches unworthily , and so sins upon that account . shall he receive the sacrament doubting as he do's ? or shall he forbear it doubting as he do's ? now a man cannot resolve this question , but by applying the foregoing rules after this manner . first , since the man doubteth , that he sins , whether he come to the sacrament or forbear ; it must be consider'd , which side appears most likely to free him from sin . now i am confident , he will think it more reasonable to come meanly prepar'd than customarily to abstain ; because he is much more certain , that 't is his duty to frequent it , than that he is unprepar'd for it . indeed were he a debauch'd person , or had he been lately guilty of some notorious sin , and came to the lord's table with that sin unrepented of ; he had reason to dread unworthy receiving , as much as abstaining : but since the case is quite otherwise , since he is mistaken while he thinks himself unworthy ; certainly he runs a greater danger by absenting himself , than by coming with his doubts about him . because his doubts of his unworthiness , being only surmises , cannot possibly be so well grounded , as his doubts , that he sins by habitually abstaining , which is expresly forbidden by god's law. secondly , tho' it can hardly be suppos'd in our case , yet let us suppose , that the man has as much reason to believe , that he is an unworthy receiver , if he receive at all ; as he has to believe , that it is a sin in him if he do not receive ; the question then is , which is the least sin , to receive unworthily out of a sence of duty , or not to receive at all . for the least sin is to be chosen , when he cannot avoid both . for my part i think , that a man , who obeys one known law of god for conscience sake , when he cannot do it without breaking another law in the manner of performance ; i say , i think that that man , tho' he is not innocent , yet is far less guilty , than he who omits a known duty , and so breaks a known law of god for conscience sake . suppose two men , who know themselves to be unfit so much as to say their prayers ; one of these men doth upon this account forbear all prayers ; the other dares not to forbear his usual offices , tho' he believes he performs them sinfully . now i dare say , that all men will think him the better man , who says his prayers ; tho' both of them be very faulty . because whatever a man's indisposition be , he is oblig'd to do his duty as well as he can ; and it is better to perform a duty after an ill manner , than wholly to omit it . since therefore the greater sin is to be avoided , when a man is under a necessity of committing one ; it 's more reasonable that a man shou'd come to the sacrament , doubting of his unworthiness , than that he shou'd habitually abstain from it . if it be said , that he that eateth and drinketh unworthily , eateth and drinketh damnation to himself ; cor. . . and that there cannot be a greater sin , than that which will actually damn a man : i answer , that let the sin of receiving unworthily be as damnable , as we can reasonably suppose it ; yet the sin of totally withdrawing from it , is much greater and more damnable . so that if he who partakes unworthily , doth eat and drink damnation to himself ; he that partakes not at all , is so far from mending the matter , that he doth much increase that damnation . and certainly , did men seriously consider what a sin it is to live without the sacrament , and what dreadful consequences they bring upon themselves hereby , they wou'd not look upon it as so slight a matter to neglect it : but what apprehensions soever they had of the sin and danger of receiving unworthily , they wou'd think it more sinful and more dangerous not to receive at all . thirdly , suppose the man takes all opportunities of receiving the sacrament , tho' perhaps he is not often very well satisfy'd about his preparation : but since his last receiving he finds he has liv'd more loosly than he was wont , or he has been very lately guilty of some grievous sin ; so that he thinks himself unfit to receive at his next usual time . upon this he is in a great perplexity ; for he thinks he has more reason to believe he sins , if he receives in these circumstances , than if he forbears ; because he is more certain that god forbids him to receive unworthily , than he is certain , that god commands him to receive upon every opportunity . but then if he be really bound to receive upon every opportunity , he is sensible in that case , it is a greater sin to neglect this duty , than to perform it unworthily , so long still as he performs it out of conscience . on one side he runs a greater danger of sinning ; on the other , if he be mistaken , he sins in a greater degree . what now is the man to do in this case . i answer ; first , it is very reasonable that he shou'd forbear receiving , once or twice , for his exercise of repentance and better preparation against another opportunity . because , since we have no reason to think that god has commanded us to receive so many times a year , any more than that we shou'd pray so many times a day ; we are not oblig'd by an express law to receive upon every opportunity : but there is an express law against receiving unworthily , and therefore there is greater danger in doing so . so that the consideration of the certain danger ought to over ballance that of the greater sin ; and the man ought rather to defer his receiving , than to receive in his present circumstances . but secondly , a man must not habitually absent himself upon the the account of unworthiness . for i have shewn , that there is more danger of sinning by not receiving at all , than by receiving unworthily ; and there is a much greater sin in wholly withdrawing , than in coming with never so great fears of being unfit . and therefore he must receive frequently , tho' he be in danger of doing it unworthily ; rather than not receive at all . fourthly , if the person think , that the danger of sinning and the sin it self are equal , whether he receive or no ; then he is to consider the inducements of prudence and interest , and they are to turn the ballance . and it is plain , that it is better to receive than to forbear , upon those accounts . for besides the temporal advantages of receiving , he reaps this spiritual profit by it , viz. that he takes the best method of growing more worthy , and curing his doubts ; whereas by absenting himself his doubts increase , and he is in great danger of losing that sense of religion , which he now has . thus have i shewn how to apply all the rules concerning a double doubt ; and if i have dwelt too long upon this subject , i hope the frequency and importance of the case will excuse me . iii. having setled the notion and rule of a doubting conscience , i come now in the third place to speak of the power of human laws over a doubting conscience . and my assertion is , that wherever lawful authority has commanded an action , that command is ( generally speaking ) a sufficient warrant for a man to do that action , tho' he doubts whether in it self it be lawful or no. that i may speak clearly to this point , i shall , . premise some things . . shew the grounds of my assertion . . answer the objections brought against it . . i premise five things . first , that no authority upon earth can oblige men to do what god forbids , or to forbear what god commands . secondly , if a man thinks that thing , which his governours oblige him to , is sinful ; tho' he be mistaken , he cannot obey them without sinning . but then , if he be mistaken , he also sins in disobeying ; if he be mistaken thro' his own fault . thirdly , if a man doubt , whether the action injoin'd by authority be sinful or no ; yet if he think it unlawful to act against his private doubt , he cannot do that action without sin . but then if this notion of his be false ( as i shall shew it is ) he sins also in disobeying , if he be mistaken thro' his own fault . fourthly , if a man has been so extremely careless in learning his duty , that he doubts of the plainest matter ; in such a case a man is highly accountable for doing that which contradicts the law of god , tho' he did it purely in obedience to that authority which god has set over him , and purely in compliance with this true principle , that in doubtful cases we must be guided by our superiours . for certainly , if a sinful thing be commanded , not only he that commands , but he that obeys also , must answer for it , whether he do it doubtingly , or with a persuasion of it's lawfulness . only we must remember , first , that this is true only in such cases where the man might have known his duty , had he not been careless ; for if a man be ignorant or doubtful , because he wanted means or opportunities of informing himself , he is not guilty of sin before god , tho' he break god's law. secondly , that when this case happens , the sin doth not lie in obeying his superiours with a doubting conscience ; but in his doing that , which he wou'd have known to be sinful , if he had been so careful as he shou'd have been . for obeying his superiours , whether with a doubt or without one , is no part of the sin . fifthly i premise , that whatever the power of superiours be for the over-ruling a private doubt ; it must not destroy the truth , or take away the use of the foregoing rules in the case of a double doubt . because the case of obeying superiours , when we doubt of the lawfulness of their commands , is a double doubt as properly as any other : and therefore , if it be two to one more probable , that the command is unlawful , than that it is lawful , we must not obey it by the first rule . but then , tho' the authority of superiours alone will not turn the ballance ; yet there are usually such considerations of the greater sin and more dreadful consequences of disobeying , as will outweigh all the probabilities on the other side , and make it more reasonable to obey . however , if the command be lawful , a man's false opinion that it is sinfiul , will not excuse him ; unless his mistake be such as he cou'd not rectify . these things being premis'd , the plain question is this ; whether in the case of a pure doubt about the lawfulness or unlawfulness of an action , where the probabilities are on both sides pretty equal , and where likewise the man concern'd has done all that he was obliged to do for the satisfying himself ; whether , i say , in this case the command of a lawful superiour do's not oblige the man to do that of which he doubteth . i affirm , it do's oblige him so to do ; and therefore , . i shall shew the grounds of my assertion . and first , modesty obliges us to pay as much deference to the judgment of our superiours , as this comes to . if a doubt shou'd arise about the lawfulness of any civil practice , we shou'd without any great difficulty be determin'd by the judgment of a few learned , prudent and honest persons , whom we think better able to judge of the case than our selves ; and do's it not argue much self-conceit and great contempt of our superiours , to refuse the same respect to their judgment , whose business it is to consult and command for the best ? secondly , bishop sanderson and other casuists agree , that in all disputed cases , he that is in possession of the thing contended for , has the advantage of the other , that contends with him , supposing all other things be equal . thus , if i am in possession of an estate which another claims , i cannot justly be dispossessed , till the other man's title appears to be better than mine . now in our case the superiour asserteth his right and commandeth ; the subject questioneth his right , because he doubts whether the command be not sinful : but since the superiour is in possession of the authority to command , the subject must by no means by his disobedience dispossess him of that authority , till he is convinced , that he has greater reason to disobey , than to obey . but this is impossible , because the reasons are suppos'd equal on both sides . thirdly , since in all doubtful cases it is a common rule , that the safer side is to be chosen , 't is certain , that 't is safer to obey than to disobey in a doubtful case . for there is a plain law of god that commands us to obey superiours in all lawful things ; and if the command be unlawful , the only hazard we run , is of transgressing some law of god , which we did not know , and which perhaps we were not bound , or had not means to know : but in a doubtful case it is very uncertain , whether the law of god forbid the thing or no ; and if the command be lawful , then we run the hazard of transgressing a plain law which we cannot but know , and which is of the greatest importance to mankind . fourthly , since in all cases we must do as we would have others do to us , let us consider whether we should not think it unreasonable for our own inferiours to contradict our rules upon pretence of doubting about their being lawful . if a parent should command his son to sit uncover'd before him , or a master command his servant to dress a dinner on the lord's-day , and either of them should refuse to do so , because he is not satisfy'd that the thing is lawful ; would not a parent or a master say , i am to judge what is fit for you to do , and you must not think by your foolish doubts and scruples to controul my commands ? i dare say , most men will think this a very just reply . and if so , then our superiour also is to be obey'd in purely doubtful cases , notwithstanding our doubt . and if we think otherwise , it is because our own liberty and interest are concern'd , and we are prejudiced in favour of our selves . fifthly , if superiours may not determine in merely doubtful cases , their authority signifies nothing , nor can it secure the public happiness . for there is no indifferent thing , but some person or other will doubt whether it be lawful ; and if such a doubt be a just reason to deny obedience , what will be the consequence of such a principle , but perpetual confusions ? for instance , if a prince make war , and every ignorant and unexperienced subject may lawfully withdraw his assistance , in case he doubts whether that war be lawful or no ; what a sad case wou'd that kingdom be in ? but these consequences are intolerable ; and therefore the principle from whence they flow , must needs be thought intolerable also . . having thus prov'd my assertion , i come now to answer the arguments that are brought on the other side . first then they say , if the superiour must determine in every doubtful case , the inferiour must often commit most grievous sins . as for instance ; if a man doubt whether jehovah or baal be the true god , and the ruler command that baal shou'd be worshipp'd , the man must renounce the true god. but this is no argument against us ; for i have already said , that neither doubtfulness nor ignorance will excuse an action that is plainly sinful , tho' it be done in obedience to authority ; and i only assert , that the superiour is to over-rule , when we doubt equally , whether an action be lawful or no , and have done our best to satisfy our selves . nay , this argument concludes as strongly against them , as against us . for if a man doubt , whether jehovah or baal be the true god , and the ruler command that jehovah only should be worshipp'd ; what advice wou'd they give the doubting man ? if they say , he must obey the ruler , they give up the cause ; and if he must not obey the ruler , he must worship baal , and so be guilty of idolatry . secondly they say , that god has commanded us to obey our superiours , not in all things , but in those things only , which are not contrary to his law. so that when we are uncertain , whether the command be lawful , we are also uncertain , whether we are bound to obey ; and therefore it is no more our duty to obey , than to disobey . but i answer , that i have already given many weighty reasons , why we should rather obey than disobey , when we equally doubt whether the command be lawful or no. but thirdly , the principal argument is drawn from st. paul's words , he that doubteth is damn'd , if he eat , because he eateth not of faith ; for whatsoever is not of faith , is sin ; rom. . . from whence they argue , that if it was a sin to eat any food , tho' in it self lawful to be eaten , so long as they doubted whether it was lawful or no ; then by parity of reason it must be a sin to do any other action , so long as we doubt of the lawfulness of it ; and if so , the ruler's command will not make it lawful to do it . this is the great argument , and i shall give it a full answer ; only i think it needful to premise a general account of the text it self , before i take of the objection that is drawn from it . now st. paul discourses in this chapter of the case of those jewish christians , who were persuaded , or at least thought it most probable , that they were bound to keep moses's laws concerning the observation of daies and difference of meats ; whereas other christians , who were better instructed , made no scruple of eating any kind of food , tho' forbidden by the law of moses . if it be said , that the second verse intimates their total abstinence from flesh , and eating only herbs , which moses's law did not oblige them to ; i answer ( with some fathers ) that they thinking the law still in force , chose to eat only herbs , that their way of living might pass rather for a religious abstinence , than a legal observance ; and so the other christians might not reproach them for keeping the law. as for the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which we translate he that doubteth , it do's as properly signify he that maketh a difference ; and it is so us'd both in scripture and other writers . and therefore the text is thus to be rendred , he that maketh a difference ( between meats ) is damn'd or condemn'd if he eat ( any thing which he judgeth to be unclean ) because he eateth not of faith . this rendring is put in the margin of our bibles , and is approv'd by most latin expositors . the word faith also in this and the foregoing verse , do's not signify , in the large sence , a belief of the christian religion , but only a man's assent to the lawfulness of any particular action , that he takes in hand . so that to have faith about an action , is to be persuaded that it is lawful ; and to do an action not of faith , is to do that which we have reason to think is unlawful . and whereas st. paul saith , he is damn'd if he eat , we must observe that he do's not mean damnation in hell , but the condemnation of his own conscience ; so that the sense is this , he that maketh a difference between meats , and yet eateth , is condemn'd for it in his own conscience ; because he do's that which he apprehends to be sinful . that man will soon be satisfy'd of the truth of this interpretation , who considers that st. paul had been persuading the stronger christians , who thought it lawful to eat any sort of food , not to give scandal to the weak christians , who thought otherwise . and he thus concludes his advice ; hast thou faith , art thou satisfy'd that it is lawful to eat any sort of food ? have it to thy self before god , enjoy thy persuasion ; but do not upon every occasion make use of it , least thy weak brother be embolden'd by thy example to do that , which he thinks to be unlawful . 't is true , happy is he that condemneth not himself in that which he alloweth , happy is he that do's not do what he thinks to be unlawful ; but he that doubteth , that maketh a difference between meats , is damn'd or condemn'd in his conscience , if he eat what he thinks it is not lawful to eat , because he eateth not of faith , and is not satisfy'd that it is lawful to eat it ; and whatsoever is not of faith , whatsoever a man thinks unlawful , is sin to him that thinks it so . having thus given an account of the text it self , i am now to consider the objection , which is drawn from it , and which , as i have already said , is this ; if it was a sin to eat any food , tho' in it self lawful , so long as a man doubted , whether it was lawful or no ; then by parity of reason it must be a sin to do any other action , so long as we doubt of the lawfulness of it . but i answer , that this text is nothing to the purpose ; for st. paul here speaks not of a doubting conscience , but of a resolv'd conscience only . for the persons he speaks of , were not wavering in their minds ; but were persuaded that those meats were unclean , because they thought the law of moses still in force . this is clear from the , , and verses of this chapter ; i know ( saith st. paul ) and am persuaded , ' that there is nothing unclean of it self : but to him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean , to him it is unclean . if it be said , that the word doubteth is us'd , and that to doubt of the unlawfulness of an action , is quite another thing , than to be persuaded of it ; i answer , that the word may as properly be rendred , he that maketh a difference between meats , as he that doubteth . but tho' the word doubteth be retain'd , yet it is undeniably plain that st. paul speaks of a doubt strengthen'd with so many probabilities , that it wanted but very little of a persuasion ; or rather it was a persuasion with some mixture of doubtfulness . if the man was not fully persuaded that it was a sin to eat , yet he thought it much more probable that it was a sin , than that it was not . for he cou'd not be condemn'd of his own conscience for eating , if he did not think his eating to be unlawful , and were not in some degree persuaded of it . well , but the apostle says , v. . one man esteemeth one day above another , another man esteemeth every day alike : let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind . from whence 't is plain , that a man must be persuaded that the action is lawful , else he doth not act with a safe conscience . and is not that the very same thing that is here said , he that doubteth is condemn'd if he eat , because he eateth not of faith , or with a full persuasion ? the apostle therefore by the former text directs us to interpret this latter in the proper sence of doubting . but i answer , that st. paul did not oblige them to get full persuasions in their several waies , for there was too much of that already amongst them ; and 't was nothing to his purpose to tell them , that if they acted without a full persuasion of the lawfulness of the action , they sinn'd against conscience : but his design was to persuade them , quietly to permit each other to enjoy their several persuasions in those little matters without censuring one another . so that the words must be rendred , let every one be fill'd with his own mind , or satisfy'd with his own persuasion . this indeed differs from our english translation : but grotius and the vulgar latin , as well as st. chrysostom and theodoret do thus interpret it ; and moreover the matter requires it . for otherwise the precept is neither reasonable nor possible ; since if there appears reason of doubting , it is in vain to command a man not to doubt . nay it is then as much his duty to doubt , as in other cases to believe . thus then it appears that these words ( he that doubteth is damn'd if he eat ) do not overthrow my assertion . but , tho' this is a true and substantial answer to the argument , yet i shall give another , which unties the difficulty upon the dissenters own principles . supposing therefore ( what is utterly false ) that st. paul speaks of a really doubting person , and not of one that is persuaded ; and that the man did sin in eating those meats , of the lawfulness of which he doubted : yet it do's not follow , that a man sins in obeying authority , where he doubts of the lawfulness of the command . for there is a vast disparity in the cases ; since the man st. paul speaks of , was at liberty to forbear eating , and sinn'd in chusing to run a needless hazard of transgressing god's law ; but when the superiour commands , a man is not at liberty . in the former case the man might forbear without any danger , but in the latter case there is greater danger in forbearing than in acting ; and therefore he is bound to act in the latter case , tho' it might be sin to act in the former . but further , the reason , why he that eateth doubtingly , sins in so doing , is this , because he eateth not of faith ; and therefore st. paul do's not say , it is alwaies sinful to act in a doubtful case ; because there are some doubtful cases , wherein a man may act with faith , notwithstanding his doubt . for he that is satisfy'd that he acts according to his duty in the present circumstances , do's act with faith ; and therefore when a man is satisfy'd that it is more reasonable , all things consider'd , to do an action than to forbear it , and that it wou'd be sinful in his circumstances to act otherwise ; that man do's not sin in acting , tho' he act with some kind of doubt ; because he acts in faith , being satisfy'd that he acts according to his duty in his present circumstances . thus then 't is plain , that to obey authority in a purely doubtful case is not sinful ; because a man may soon be satisfy'd , that it is not only more reasonable , but his duty so to do . if it be said , that a man cannot have faith , that is , be satisfy'd about an action , and yet doubt of it at the same time ; i answer , that the case often happens . a man has often very great doubts about the lawfulness of an action in general , and yet may be satisfy'd , that considering the circumstances he is in , it may be lawfully done . all doubting is not contrary to faith . it is sufficient if the doubts be over-ballanc'd . tho' a man's doubts be hard and troublesome , yet if he is persuaded , that all things consider'd , it is more advisable to do the action , than to forbear it ; he has faith enough to act with a safe conscience . because he acts according to his best judgment , and more than this a man cannot do . iv. i am now to speak in the fourth and last place of the authority of a doubting conscience , and to inquire , whether at all , or how far a man is obliged by it . i say therefore in general , that a doubting conscience do's not oblige at all . for a doubting conscience is the suspence of a man's judgment about a particular action ; he doubts whether he be bound to do it or forbear it . now to suppose that a man thinks himself bound in conscience , while he is disputing whether he is bound or no , is to suppose a contradiction . a man cannot be bound in conscience to do or forbear any action , but as he thinks that god's law has commanded or forbidden it ; and therefore he that is doubtful , whether it be commanded or forbidden , cannot be obliged in conscience either way . there is no particular law of god , which determines our actions one way or other in the case of a doubt ; and the general laws , whether natural or reveal'd , can oblige us to no more , than to endeavour to understand our duty as well as we can ; and when we are at a loss , to act as reasonably as we can . he that do's thus , acts with a safe conscience , tho' he act doubtfully . having thus largely discuss'd the case of a doubting conscience , i think it will not be amiss to apply what has been said to the case of our present dissenters . there are several persons , that are unsatisfy'd about the lawfulness of our communion ; some upon the account of ceremonies , others of other things . none of them can say , that these things are unlawful ; for that is the case of a resolv'd conscience , with which we have nothing here to do : but they are uncertain , whether they be lawful or no ; and so long as they thus doubt , they dare not join in our worship , fearing they shou'd sin against god in so doing . of these persons some have a single doubt , that is , they doubt whether they may lawfully join with us , but they are satisfy'd they may lawfully separate from us : others have a double doubt , that is , they doubt whether they may lawfully join with us , and they doubt whether they may lawfully separate from us . as to the first of these sorts , tho' in a single doubt it is more safe to chuse that side on which a man has no doubt , than that on which he doubts ; yet this rule holds only in such cases , where a man may forbear the action without danger of sinning , tho' he cannot do it without danger of sinning . but in our case 't is evident , that as there may be sinning in conforming , so there is certainly danger of sinning in not conforming . nor is it more safe to separate in case of a single doubt , than of a double one . for the man who is satisfy'd in his mind , that he may lawfully cut himself off from the communion of the church , and live in constant disobedience to his superiours ( which things are directly contrary to god's laws ) must needs be grosly and criminally ignorant of his duty ; and therefore his being satisfy'd about such sins will not excuse him ; because he was able , and it was his duty to know better . nay further , tho' god had left it indifferent , whether we keep the unity of the church and obey our superiours or no ; tho' the case were really that of a single doubt ; tho' there was no danger in forbearing these things , but the only danger was in doing them ; yet i say , it is more reasonable to conform than to separate notwithstanding . for tho' in a single doubt a man is to chuse that side on which he has no doubt , rather than that on which he doubts ; yet this rule ( as i said before ) do's not hold , unless all other considerations be equal . and therefore if a great good may be obtain'd , or a great evil avoided by acting on the doubtful side , that consideration ought to turn the ballance , and over-rule the doubt ; as i shew'd in the case of going to law. and certainly , if weighty considerations ought to over-ballance a single doubt in any case ; then the considerations of the peace of the kingdom , the security of religion , and those many public and private mischiefs that attend separation , ought to prevail in this of ours , and oblige men to conform . and i wish this were well consider'd by our doubting dissenters . as to the second sort , who doubt both of the lawfulness of conforming , and also of the lawfulness of separating from us ; i say first , if the probabilities appear pretty equal on both sides , then it is their duty to obey authority as i prov'd in the third general head of this discourse . secondly , if they think it more probable that they ought not to conform , than that they ought ; then , tho' the authority of superiours alone have not weight enough to turn the ballance , yet the consideration of the great sin and the more dreadful consequences of separation are sufficient , and ought to oblige them to conform , as appears from the third prop. about a double doubt , p. , . now let any indifferent man judge between us and our dissenters . 't is plain , that the things they doubt of , are not directly forbidden by god. and if they are forbidden by consequences , those consequences are so obscure , that tho' such usages have ever been in the christian church , yet they were never condemn'd as sinful till our daies . and even now these consequences are not discover'd by our superiours ; no , not by as great and good divines of all persuasions , as any in the world. nay the far greater number , and those as pious and able as any , do plainly own our injunctions to be innocent at least , if not apostolical . so that if they are all mistaken , it can at most be but a sin of ignorance in an ordinary person , where so many of the best guides are mistaken , if he shou'd transgress . but now on the other hand , if our governours be in the right , and our communion lawful ; then how great a sin are they guilty of , in breaking the laws of church-vnity , which are as plain as any in the bible ; and that in such instances , where the whole catholic church of old , and the greatest and best part of the present church , are of a different persuasion from them ? the consequences also of their separation are most dreadful ; for by it they deprive themselves of the ordinary means of salvation , and keep up those discords and animosities in the church , which have torn the bowels of it , and caused atheism and prophaness to overspread it ; they affront their governours , give scandal to all peaceable persons , and offer a very fair pretence to factious men to practise against the best of goverments . so they take the most effectual course to ruin the best church in the world , and with it the reform'd religion in this kingdom . and now let any man judge , whether any doubt about the lawfulness of our communion , and all the probabilities of the doubt , have weight enough to ballance against such a sin and such consequences . certainly an unconcern'd person will pronounce , that in such a case a man is bound to conform , rather than to separate ; and that is all i contend for . chap. xiii . the pretence of a scrupulous conscience answer'd . i proceed now to the pretence of a scrupulous conscience ; in treating of which i shall , . shew what i mean by it . . observe some few things concerning it . . offer some plain rules and means , by which we may best get rid of it . first then , conscience is a man's judgment concerning the goodness or evil or his actions ; and a scrupulous conscience is a scrupulous judgment concerning things in their own nature indifferent ; and consists either , . in strictly tying up our selves to some things , which god has no where commanded ; as the pharisees made great conscience of washing before meat , &c. and observ'd such usages as religiously , as the most indisputable commands of god : or , . in a conscientious abstaining from some things , which are no waies unlawful ; doubting and fearing where no fear is ; thinking that god is as much offended by our eating some kind of meats , or wearing some garments , as by adultery or murder ; and being more precise about little matters , than other good christians are , or our selves ought to be . secondly , concerning this scrupulous conscience we may observe , . that it is a sickly temper of mind , and a state of infirmity , arising from a want of right understanding our religion , from timerousness , melancholy , and prejudice . now this is no more a vertue or commendable quality in us , than 't is to be sickly and often indispos'd . a good conscience is firm and steady , well setled and resolv'd : but such needless scruples are at the best a sign of an ungovern'd fancy and a weak judgment ; just as the niceness and squeamishness of a man's stomach , that distasts wholsom food , is a symptom of an unsound and unhealthy body . . 't is often a sign of hypocrisy ; as 't was in the scribes and pharisees , who strain'd at a gnat and swallow'd a camel , and hoped to make amends for their gross transgressions in other cases of far greater weight and moment , by their curiosity about some external observances . they therefore who are so scrupulous about little indifferent matters , ought to approve their honesty and sincerity by the most accurate diligence in the practice of all other duties of religion , which are plainly and undoubtedly such . they who pretend to such a tender conscience above other men , must know , that the world will watch them as to the fairness and justice of their dealings , the calmness of their tempers , their behaviour in their several relations , their modesty , humility , charity , peaceableness , and the like . if in all these things they keep the same tenor , use the same caution and circumspection , and be uniformly conscientious ; then it must be acknowledg'd , that it is only weakness or ignorance that raiseth their scruples , and not any vicious principle ; and the condition of those who are under the power of such scruples , is much to be commiserated . but when i see a man scrupling praying by a book or form , and yet living without any sense of god , or fear of him ; afraid of a ceremony in god's worship , and not afraid of a plain damnable sin , of coveteousness , rash censuring his brethren , of hatred and strife , faction and schism , and disobedience to superiours ; when i see one that out of conscience refuseth to kneel at the sacrament , and yet dares totally neglect the communion ; who takes great care not to give offence to his weak brother , but can freely speak evil of dignities , and despise his lawful governours : it is not then uncharitable to say , that it is not a dread of displeasing god , but some other end or interest that acts and moves him ; and that in pleading the tenderness of his conscience he is no other than a downright hypocrite . . 't is excessively troublesome and vexatious . it robs a man of that peace and satisfaction , which he might otherwise find in religion , and makes his condition continually uneasy and restless . . it 's scruples are infinite and endless ; for there is hardly any thing to be done , but some small exceptions may be started against it . scrupulous men go on from one thing to another , till at length they scruple every thing . this is notorious amongst us ; for those who have taken offence at some things in our church , and have thereupon separated from us , and associated themselves with a purer congregation , have soon dislik'd something amongst them also ; and then they wou'd reform themselves farther , and after that refine themselves more still , till at last they have sunk down either into quakerism , popery , or atheism . . this needless scrupling has done unspeakable mischiefs to the church of christ , especially to the reform'd church of england . in the great and necessary truths of religion we all profess to be agreed . we all worship the same god , believe in the same lord and saviour , have the same baptism , the same faith , the same hope , the same common interest : our sacraments , as to the main , are rightly administred according to our saviour's institution ; our churches are acknowledg'd to be true churches of jesus christ ; but there are some constitutions which chiefly respect outward order , and the decent performance of divine worship , against which men have receiv'd strange prejudices , on the account of them have rais'd a mighty noise and clamour against the church , and have openly separated from her communion ; as if by renouncing of popery we had only exchanged one idolatrous service for another . about these skirts and borders , the dress and circumstances of religion , has been all our quarrelling and contention ; and these differences have proceeded to such an height , as to beget immortal feuds and animosities , to break and crumble us into little parties and factions ; whereby mutual edification is hinder'd , our common religion suffers reproach , the enemies of it are strengthen'd and encouraged , public peace endanger'd , and brotherly love , the badge of christ's disciples , quite lost amongst us ; and the continuance of these miserable distractions amongst us upon such frivolous accounts , is a matter of sad consideration , and forebodes great evils in church and state. i doubt not to say , that the devil has fought more successfully against religion under the mask of a zealous reformer , than under any other disguise whatever . thirdly , i shall offer some plain rules and means , by which we may best get rid of a scrupulous conscience . . we shou'd endeavour to have the most honourable thoughts of god ; for accordingly as we conceive of his nature , so shall we judge what things are most pleasing or most offensive to him. now consider , i pray ; do's not god principally regard the frame of our minds in prayer ? or will he refuse to hear us , because he dislikes the garment of the minister ? do's god regard any particular gestures or habits , which are neither dishonourable to him , nor unsutable to the nature of the religious performance , so far , as that the acceptance of our worship shou'd depend upon such circumstances ? to surmise any such thing is surely to dishonour god , as if he were a low , poor , humoursom being ; like a father that shou'd disinherit his dutiful child , only because he did not like his complexion , or the colour of his hair. the wiser and greater any person is , to whom we address our selves , the less he will stand upon little punctilioes . mean thoughts of god are the true ground of all superstition , when we think to court and please him by making great conscience about little things ; and so it has been truly observ'd , that there is far more superstition in conscientious abstaining from that which god has no where forbidden , than there is in doing that which god has not commanded . a man may certainly do what god has not commanded , and yet never think to flatter god by it , nor place any religion in it : but he may do it only out of obedience to his superiours , for outward order and decency , for which end our ceremonies are appointed ; and so there is no superstition in them . but now a man cannot out of conscience refuse to do what god has not forbidden , and is by lawful authority requir'd of him ; but he must think to please god by such abstaining : and in this conceit of pleasing or humouring god by indifferent things , consists the true spirit of superstition . . we shou'd lay out our great care and zeal about the necessary and essential duties of religion ; and this will make us less concern'd about things of an idifferent and inferiour nature . st. paul saies ; rom. . . the kingdom of god is not meat nor drink , but righteousness , peace , and joy in the holy ghost . what needs all this stir and bustle ? this censuring , disputing and dividing , about standing or kneeling ? these are not the great matters of our faith ; they are not worth so much noise and contention . the great stress and weight in our religion is laid upon the duties of a righteous and holy life , and a peaceable spirit and conversation ; for , saies st. paul , ver . . he that in these things serveth christ , is acceptable to god and approv'd of men . he that minds those things most , on which the efficacy of his prayers for christ's sake do's depend , will not need new phrases every time to raise his affections : and the more a man is concern'd about the necessary preparation for the sacrament , the less afraid will he be of offending god by kneeling at it . for he will find , that true religion consists in the constant practice of holiness , righteousness and charity ; which make a man really better , and more like to god. . if men were but really willing to receive satisfaction , this alone wou'd half conquer their scruples : but when they are fond of them , and nourish them , and will neither hear nor read what is to be said on the other side ; there can be but little hopes of recovering them to a right apprehension of things . wou'd they come once to distrust their own judgments , to suppose that they may perhaps be all this while mistaken ; wou'd they calmly and patiently hear , faithfully and impartially consider , what is said or written against them ; as eagerly seek for satisfaction , as men do for the cure of any disease they are subject unto ; wou'd they , i say , thus diligently use all fit means and helps for the removal of their scruples , before they troubled the church with them ; it wou'd not prove so very difficult a task to convince and settle such teachable minds . when they have any fear or suspicion about their worldly concerns , they presently repair to those who are best skill'd , and most able to resolve them ; and in their judgment and determination they commonly acquiesce and satisfy themselves . has any man a scruple about his estate , whether it be firmly setled , or he has a true legal title to it ? the way he takes for satisfaction is to advise with lawyers , the most eminent for knowledge and honesty in their profession . if they agree in the same opinion , this is the greatest assurance he can have , that it is right and safe . thus is it with one that doubts whether such a custom or practice be for his health ; the opinion of known and experienc'd physicians is the only proper means to determine him in such a case . the reason is the same here . when any private christian is troubled and perplex'd with fears and scruples , that concern his duty or the worship of god ; he ought in the first place to have recourse to the public guides and ministers of religion , who are appointed by god , and are best fitted to direct and conduct him ; i say , to come to them , not only to dispute with them , and pertly to oppose them ; but with modesty to propound their doubts , and meekly to receive instruction , humbly begging of god to open their understandings , that they may see and embrace the truth , taking great care that no evil affection , love of a party , or carnal interest influence or byass their judgments . i do not by this desire men to pin their faith upon the priest's sleeve ; but only diligently to attend to their reasons and arguments , and to give some due regard to their authority . for 't is not so absurd , as some may imagine , for the common people to take upon trust from their lawful teachers , what they are not competent judges of themselves . but the difficulty is , how a private christian shall govern himself , when the very ministers of religion disagree . by what rule shall he chuse his guide ? i answer , . if a man be tolerably able to judge for himself ; let him impartially hear both sides , and think it no shame to change his mind , when he sees good reason for it . cou'd we thus prevail with the people diligently to examine the merits of the cause , our church wou'd every day gain more ground amongst all wise men. for we care not how much knowledge and understanding our people have , so they be but humble and modest with it : nor do we desire men to become our proselytes any further , than we give them good scripture and reason for it . . as for those who are not capable of judging , they had better depend on those ministers , who are regularly and by the laws of the land set over them ; than on any other teachers , that they can chuse for themselves . i speak now of these present controversies about forms and ceremonies , which are above the sphere of common people ; not of such things as concern the salvation of all men , which are plain and evident to the meanest capacities . when therefore in such cases , about which we cannot easily satisfy our selves , we follow the advice of the authoriz'd guides ; if they chance to mislead us , we have something to say for our selves ; our error is more excusable , as being occasion'd by those , whose judgment god commands us to respect : but when we chuse instructors according to our own fancies , if we then prove to be in the wrong , and are betray'd into sin ; we may thank our own wantonness for it , and are more severely accountable for such mistakes . thus if a sick person shou'd miscarry under a licens'd physician ; he has this contentment , that he us'd the wisest means for recovery : but if he will hearken only to quacks , and then grow worse and worse ; he must charge his own folly as the cause of his ruin. . we shou'd throughly consider , what is the true notion of lawful ; and how it differs from what is necessary , and from what is sinful . that is necessary , or our duty , which god has expresly commanded ; that is sinful which god has forbidden ; that is lawful which god has not by any law obliging us , either commanded or forbidden . for where there is no law , saith the apostle , there is no transgression , rom. . . there can be no transgression , but either omitting what the law commands , or doing what the law forbids . for instance , if any man can shew where kneeling at the sacrament is forbidden in scripture , and sitting is requir'd ; where praying by a form is forbidden , and extempore prayers are injoin'd ; then indeed the dispute wou'd soon be at an end : but if neither the one nor other can be found , as most certainly they cannot , then kneeling at the sacrament , and reading prayers out of a book , must be reckon'd amongst things lawful . and then there is no need of scrupling them , because they may be done without sin : nay , where they are requir'd by our superiours , it is our duty to submit to them , because it is our duty to obey them in all lawful things . this way of arguing is very plain and convincing , and cannot be evaded , but by giving another notion of lawful . and therefore it is commonly said , that nothing is lawful , especially in the worship of god , which god himself has not prescrib'd and appointed , or that has been abus'd to evil purposes : but having fully confuted these two mistakes in the second and eighth chapters , i shall pass them over here . . i desire those who scruple to comply with our church , to consider that there never was , nor ever will be , any public constitution , that will be every way unexceptionable . the best policy , whether civil or ecclesiastical , that can be establish'd , will have some flaws and defects , which must be born and tolerated . some inconveniences will in process of time arise , that never cou'd be foreseen or provided against ; and to make alteration upon every emergent difficulty , may be often of worse consequence , than the evil we pretend to cure by it . let the rules and modes of goverment , discipline , public worship , be most exact and blameless ; yet there will be faults in governours and ministers as long as they are but men. we must not expect in this world a church without spot or wrinkle , that consists only of saints , in which nothing can be found amiss ; especially by those who lie at the catch , and wait for an advantage against it . men must be willing , if ever they wou'd promote peace and unity , to put candid constructions and favourable interpretations upon things ; and not strain them on purpose , that they may raise more considerable objections against them . . if these and the like considerations will not conquer a man's scruples ; then let him lay them aside , and act against them . but here i easily imagine some ready presently to ask me , do you persuade us to conform to the orders of the church , tho' we are not satisfy'd in our minds concerning them ? i answer , that i think this is the best advice that can be given to such scrupulous persons . it wou'd be an endless thing , and communion with any church wou'd be altogether unpracticable , if every private christian was obliged to suspend joining himself to it , till he was perfectly satisfy'd about the reasonableness and expediency of all that was requir'd , or was in use in that church . for indeed ; private persons are by no means proper judges of what is fit and convenient in the administration of church-goverment , discipline , or public worship , any more than they are of matters of state , or the reasonableness of all civil laws . things of a public nature belong to superiours ; and if they appoint what is indecent or inconvenient , they only are accountable for it : but 't is not the fault of inferiours , who join with such worship , or yeild to such injunctions ( not plainly sinful ) for the sake of peace and order . i do not by this encourage men to venture blindfold on sin , or to neglect any reasonable care of their actions ; but if people raise all the difficulties and objections they can start , before they proceed to a resolution about things that have no manifest impiety in them , nor are plainly , nor by any easy consequence , contrary to the reveal'd will of god ; this cannot but occasion infinite perplexity and trouble to mens minds , and there are but few things they shall be able to do with a safe and quiet conscience . before we separate from a church , or refuse to comply with it's orders , we ought to be fully satisfy'd and persuaded , that what is requir'd , is forbidden by god ; because by leaving the communion of any church , we pass sentence upon it and condemn it , which ought not to be done upon light and doubtful causes . but there is not the same necessity , that we shou'd be thus fully satisfy'd about our conformity to all things prescrib'd by the church . we may presume them to be innocent , unless they plainly appear to us otherwise . if any one think , that this principle will introduce popery , and make people without any examination submit to every thing , which their superiours please to impose upon them ; let him only consider , that there are many things in popery , which god has manifestly forbidden , which render our separation from it necessary : whereas ours are at the worst only doubtful , or rather not so good as might be devis'd ; and this surely makes a wide difference in the case . but do's not st. paul say , rom. . . i know and am persuaded by the lord jesus , that there is nothing vnclean of it self ; but to him that esteemeth any thing vnclean , it is unclean ? do's he not say , he that doubteth , is damn'd if he eat , v. . and that whatsoever is not of faith , is sin ? i answer , yes . but then , when i speak of a scrupulous conscience , i suppose the person tolerably well persuaded of the lawfulness of what is to be done : but yet he has some little exceptions against it ; he do's not think it best and fittest all things consider'd . this is properly a scruple ; and is certainly the case of all those , who do sometimes join in our worship ; which they cou'd not do , did they judge it absolutely sinful . so that , tho' it shou'd be granted , that a man cannot innocently do that , of which his conscience doubts whether it be lawful or no , which case i have discours'd of in the foregoing chapter : yet a man may , and in some cases is bound to do that , which is not unlawful , tho' upon some other accounts he scruples the doing of it . now , if we have no very weighty reason for the doing of them ; then it may be the safest way to forbear all such things , as we scruple at . of such cases the apostle speaks in the fore-mentioned places of eating or not eating some meats ; neither of them was requir'd by law. eating was no instance of duty , nor was it any waies forbid christians . where to do or not to do is perfectly at our own choice , it is best for a man to forbear doing that which he has some suspicion of , tho' he be not sure that it is sinful . as suppose a man have scruples in his mind about playing at cards and dice , or going to see stage-plays , or putting out his money to usury ; because there is no great reason or necessity for any of these things , and to be sure they may be innocently forborn , without any detriment to our selves or others ; tho' we do not judge them absolutely sinful , yet it is safest for him who cannot satisfy himself concerning the goodness and fitness of them , wholly to deny himself the use of them . but in these two cases it is most for the quiet of our consciences , to act against , or notwithstanding our fears and scruples , when either our superiours , to whom we owe obedience , have interpos'd their commands , or when by it we prevent some great evil or mischie● . . all fears and scruples only about the conveniency and expediency of things , ought to be despis'd , when they come in competition with the duty of obedience . wou'd men but think themselves in conscience bound to pay the same duty and respect to the judgment and authority of magistrates and governours , whether in church or state , as they do expect their servants and children shou'd to themselves ; they wou'd soon see the reasonableness of such submissions . for all goverment and subjection wou'd be very precarious and arbitrary , if every one that did not approve of a law , or was not fully satisfy'd about the reasonableness of it , was thereby excepted from all obligations to obey it . this is to give the supreme authority to the most humoursome or perverse sort of christians ; for , according to this principle , no public laws and constitutions can be valid and binding , unless every scrupulous , tho' a very ignorant conscience , consent to them . . we are not to mind or stand upon our scruples , when they probably occasion a great evil , or general mischief . they are not fit to be put in the ballance with the peace of the church and unity of christians . suppose for once , that our public way of worship is not the best that can be devis'd ; that many things might be amended in our liturgy ; that we cou'd invent a more agreeable establishment than this present is ; ( which yet no man in the world can ever tell , for we cannot know all the inconveniencies of any alteration , till it comes to be try'd ) yet granting all this , it cannot be thought so intolerable an evil , as contempt of god's solemn worship , dividing into sects and parties , living in debate , contention , and separation from one another . if there be some rites and customs amongst us not wisely chosen or determin'd , some ceremonies against which just exceptions may be made ; yet to forsake the communion of such a true church of jesus christ , and set up a distinct altar in opposition to it , to combine and associate into separate congregations , is ( as it is somewhere express'd ) like knocking a man on the head , because his teeth are rotten , or his nails too long . how much more agreeable is it to the christian temper , to be willing to sacrifice all doubts and scruples to the interests of public order and divine charity ? for better surely it is to serve god in a defective manner , to bear with many disorders and faults ; than to break the bond of peace and brotherly communion . chap. xiv . the pretence of scandal , or giving offence to weak brethren , answer'd . but there are some , who tell us , that they are indeed themselves sufficiently persuaded of the lawfulness of all that is injoin'd by the church of england ; but then there are many other godly , but weaker christians of another persuasion , with whom they have long been join'd . and shou'd they now totally forsake them and conform ; they shou'd thereby give great offence to all those tender consciences , which are not thus convinc'd of the lawfulness of holding communion with our church . which sin , say they , is so very great , that our saviour tells us , matth. . . whosoever shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me , it were better for him that a mill-stone were hang'd about his neck , and that he were drown'd in the depth of the sea : and in st. paul's account 't is no less than spiritual murther , a destroying him for whom christ dy'd , rom. . . these persons i design to answer in this chapter , by shewing that no private christian ( as the case now stands amongst us ) is obliged to absent himself from his parish-church for fear of offending or scandalizing his weak brethren . and this i shall do by inquiring , . what is the true notion of a weak brother . . what it is to offend such an one . . how far , and in what instances we are bound to consider the weakness of our brother . i. then , a weak brother or weak in faith in scripture language denotes one newly converted to christianity ; and so neither throughly instructed in the principles , nor well setled in the practice of it ; the same whom our saviour calls a little one , and the apostle a babe in christ , cor. . . conversion to christianity is call'd our new-birth ; and the converts were for a while reckon'd as in an infant state : and accordingly were to be most gently us'd , till by degrees , by the improvement of their knowledge , they came to be of full age , heb. . . they were at first to be fed with milk , to be taught the easiest and plainest doctrines , and great prudence and caution was to be us'd toward them ; lest they shou'd suddenly fly back and repent of their change . for they having been jews and gentiles , retain'd still a great love for many of their old customs and opinions ; they had mighty and inveterate prejudices to overcome ; the old man was by degrees to be put off : and therefore they were at first treated with all the tenderness and condescension imaginable . the stronger and wiser christians wou'd not stand rigidly on any little matters , but tolerate many things , which were necessary afterwards to be done away ; hoping that in time they might be brought off those mistakes they now labour'd under . hence i observe , . that the rules , which are laid down in scripture concerning weak brethren , are not standing laws equally obliging all christians in all ages : but were suted to the infant-state of the church , till christianity had gotten firm footing in the world. the apostle's design in all his complyances , was to win many to christ ; cor. . . now to do as st. paul did , wou'd alwaies be the duty and wisdom of one in his circumstances , who was to spread christianity amongst heathens and infidels : but his directions and practice do no more agree with our times , wherein christianity is the national religion ; than the same cloaths which we did wear in our infancy , wou'd serve us now at our full age. we ought indeed to remove every straw out of childrens way , lest they stumble and fall : but 't is ridiculous to use the same care towards grown men. there is not now amongst us any such competition between two religions : but every one learns christianity as he do's his mother-tongue . st. paul wou'd not take that reward that was due to him for preaching the gospel , but himself labour'd hard night and day , because he wou'd not be chargeable to his converts , thess . . . and this he did for the furtherance of the gospel , that all might see he did not serve his own belly : but surely our dissenters do not think themselves obliged by this example , in places where public maintenance is setled on ministers by law , to refuse to take it , and earn their own bread by some manual occupation ; tho' thereby they avoid giving offence to quakers , and those who call them hirelings , and say they prophesy only for filthy lucre . in short , there are no such weak persons now amongst us , as those were for whom the apostle provides ; or as those little ones were , for whom our saviour was so much concern'd . . the dissenters , according to their weak opinion of themselves , are of all men the farthest off from being weak christians in any sense . they who take upon themselves to be teachers of others , wiser and better than their neighbours , the only sober and godly party , and are too apt to despise all other christians as ignorant or profane ; with what colour of reason can they plead for any favour to be shewn , or regard to be had to them in complyance with their weakness ? tho' they love to argue against us from the example of st. paul's condescension to the ignorant jews or gentiles ; yet it is apparent that they do not in other cases willingly liken themselves to those weak believers , or babes in christ . they have really better thoughts of themselves , and wou'd be leaders and masters in israel , and prescribe to their governours , and give laws to all others , and prefer their own private opinion ( which they call their conscience ) before the judgment of the wisest men , or the determinations of their lawful superiours . and if in all instances we shou'd deal with them as weak persons , turn them back to their primmer , advise them to learn their catechism ; they wou'd think themselves highly wrong'd and injur'd . but the truth is , they ordinarily look upon their opposition to the orders of our church , as the effect of an higher illumination , a greater knowledge than others have attain'd unto . they rather count us the weak christians , if some of them will allow us so much ; for otherwise , if they do not take us for the weaker and worse christians , why do they separate from us ? why do they associate and combine together into distinct congregations , as being purer , more select christians than others ? now , tho' such persons as these may be in truth very weak , of little judgment or goodness , notwithstanding this conceit of themselves and their party ; yet these are not by any means to plead for indulgence under that character , nor to expect we shou'd forego our liberty , to please and humour them . . those who are really weak , that is , ignorant and injudicious , are to be born withal only for a time , till they have receiv'd better instruction : but we cannot be alwaies babes in christ , without our own gross fault and neglect . such as will not yield to the clearest reason , if it be against their interest or their party , can upon no account claim the privileges of weak persons . of these our saviour had no regard , who were so unreasonable and obstinate in their opposition , matth. . . not that i wou'd be so uncharitable as to condemn all , or the generality of dissenters for being malicious and wilful in their dissent from us : but however , . i beg them to examine , whether they have sincerely endeavour'd to satisfy themselves , and have devoutly pray'd to god to free their minds from prejudices and corrupt affections ; for otherwise their weakness is no more to be pity'd , than that man's sickness , who will not , tho' he may be cur'd . . i must say , that old and inveterate mistakes , that have been a times answer'd and protested against , are not much to be heeded by us . if people will by no means be prevail'd upon to lay aside their fancies , they do not deserve that compassion , which st. paul prescribes towards weak brethren . in matters of a doubtful or suspicious nature , that are capable of being misunderstood and abus'd , yet if there be no moral evil in them , and the doing of them is of some considerable consequence to me ; i am bound to forbear them no longer , than till i have endeavour'd to inform them rightly concerning the innocency of my action and intention , and given them notice of the evil , that might possibly happen to them . if i dig a pit or lay a block in the way , whereby others not knowing any thing of it , are hurt and wounded ; i am guilty of causing them to fall : but if they are plainly and often told of it , and yet will run into the danger ; they are then only to thank themselves . now , if it be thus in cases that are liable to suspicion and misinterpretation ; it holds much more in the orders of our church , where the offence arises not so much from the nature of the injunctions , as from mens gross ignorance , mis-conceit , or perverseness . this shall suffice to shew , what is the true notion of a weak brother . ii. i am now to shew , what it is to offend such an one . people are generally mistaken about the sense of offending or giving offence . for by it they commonly understand displeasing or grieving another , and making him angry with them ; and so they think themselves bound in conscience to forbear all those things , which godly persons do not like or approve of , or are contrary to their fancy or judgment . 't is true , there is one place , that seems to favour this conceit ; rom. . . if thy brother be grieved with thy meat , now walkest thou not charitably . but it must be observ'd , that by grieving our brother , is not meant displeasing , but wounding and hurting him : and so it is us'd to denote that which causeth grief or sorrow ; and is the same with destroying , and putting a stumbling-block or an occasion to fall , v. , . to be offended or griev'd is not to be troubl'd at what another has done out of pity and concern for his soul : but to receive hurt our selves from it , being drawn or deceiv'd into some sin by it . but because many well-dispos'd people do think , that they must not do any thing , which good men are displeas'd or griev'd at , i desire them to consider a few things . . that to censure and condemn , and be displeas'd with the actions of those that differ from them , or refuse to join any longer with them in their separate congregations , is a great instance of peevishness and uncharitableness ; and is that very sin which st. paul often warns his weak believers against , viz. that they shou'd not rashly judge those , who understood their christian liberty better than themselves . at this rate any company of men , that shall resolve to quarrel with all that do not do as they do , must oblige all to remain forever with them , for fear of giving them offence . if what i do , is not evil in it self ; it cannot become such , because another man is causlesly angry with me for doing of it . . they that pretend , that this fear of offending , that is , displeasing their weak brethren , hinders their complyance with the church , ought seriously to examine themselves , whether it is not really only the care of their credit and reputation with that party , or else the securing of some worldly interest , that keeps them from conformity . . if to displease our weak brethren were the sinful offending him condemn'd by st. paul ; it wou'd prove an intolerable yoke upon mens consciences , and beget such endless perplexities , that we shou'd not be able to do any thing , tho' never so indifferent , with a well-assur'd mind ; since one or other will in this sense be scandaliz'd at it . we shall anger some by doing , others by forbearing : and since those , who call themselves weak , are divided into several factions , each condemning all the other ; 't is impossible for us to comply with any one of them , but we shall thereby displease all the rest . . if we do nothing which may displease our weak brethren ; we do submit our judgments and consciences to the conduct of the most ignorant and injudicious christians : and yield them that authority over us , which we deny to our lawful superiours . and 't is strange , that those who think their christian liberty so much violated by the determinations of their superiours about indifferent matters , shou'd yet suffer themselves to be thus ty'd up by the passions of their weak brethren . whatever condescension may be due to the weak , yet 't was never intended they shou'd govern the wiser : and who can govern more absolutely than those , whom none must displease ? since then scandalizing or giving offence do's not signify doing something which another takes ill , i design to shew what is the true meaning of it in scripture . the greek word which we translate scandal or offence , signifies either a trap or snare , or else more commonly something laid in the way of another , which occasions his stumbling or falling , by which he is bruis'd and hurt . and so , whatever it was that hindred men from becoming christ's disciples , or made them entertain unworthy thoughts of their profession , or discourag'd them in it , or tempted them to forsake it , is call'd a scandal or offence . it is sometimes rendred an occasion to fall , rom. . . occasion of stumbling , joh. . . a stumbling block , rev. . . or a thing that doth offend , matth. . . in all which places there is the same original word . hence to offend or scandalize any one , as 't is commonly us'd in the (a) new testament , is to do something which tends to fright him from christianity , to make him think hardly of it , or is apt to make him repent of his conversion . so that in the most general sense , to scandalize or offend any one , is to give occasion to his sin , and consequently his ruin and undoing ; and this i suppose will be granted by all , that do not receive their opinions from the mere sound of words . hence i observe four things . . the better men are , the harder 't is to scandalize them . those are not such godly persons , as they wou'd be thought , who are so ready at all turns to be offended . for how can they excel others in knowledge or goodness , who are so easily drawn or tempted to sin ? . that man , that saies , he shall be scandaliz'd at what another man do's , speaks falsely . for it is as much as to say , that he shall be led into sin ignorantly : whereas his saying so confutes his ignorance ; for if he knows it to be a sin , he commits it wilfully . . since offending or scandalizing signifies tempting to sin , there can be no fear of offending any one by conforming to the church ; because there is nothing us'd in it , but what may be comply'd with without sin . for the man that fears giving offence to the weak , is suppos'd to be satisfy'd himself , that conformity is lawful : and how then shou'd he fear that his example will tempt others to sin in doing an innocent action ? if it be said , that tho' what i do is lawful , yet it may give occasion to others to do something else that is unlawful , and so i may become truly guilty of giving offence ; i answer , that we are accountable only for the natural tendencies of our actions , and not for such consequences , as wicked or silly men may draw from them ; for at that rate a man cou'd not speak or do any thing without the guilt of giving scandal . if it be said , that tho' i am satisfy'd my self , yet i may by my example tempt others that are not satisfy'd , or that think conformity to be sinful , to follow me with a doubting or gainsaying conscience ; i answer , . that 't is as unlawful to go to separate meetings against one's conscience , as to conform against one's conscience : and the man ought to fear , lest he draw some to separate meetings against their conscience ; as well as he fears the drawing of others to church against their conscience . the influence of his example is the same in both instances , and the danger of scandal is equal ; and therefore his own persuasion must determine his practice . . a man that is satisfy'd himself , ought to endeavour to satisfy others , especially those whom he formerly persuaded to separation by his example ; and when he has done thus , he has done what lies in his power to prevent the ill effect , and shall not be farther answerable for the consequences of what he doth . . since scandalizing is leading into sin , we may scandalize others as soon by complying with them , as by thwarting their humour . st. paul , who circumcis'd timothy , acts . . in favour of the weak jews , lest they shou'd have forsaken the faith ; refus'd to circumcise titus , gal. . . ( tho' he angred the jews by it ) lest they shou'd think the jewish law still in force . and this he did , because the condition of the persons was different . if he had pleas'd them , he had truly scandaliz'd them , by hardening them in their folly and ignorance . mr. baxter saies ( in his cure of church-divisions ) many a time i have the rather gone to the common-prayers of the public assemblies , for fear of being a scandal to those same men , that call'd the going to them a scandal ; that is , for fear of hardening them in a sinful separation and error . because i knew , that was not scandal which they call'd scandal ; that is , displeasing them , and crossing their opinions ; but hardening them in an error or other sin , is true scandalizing . vnderstand this , or you will displease god under pretence of avoiding scandal , p. . this surely ought to be well consider'd of by a sort of men amongst us , who shall go to church in the morning , and to a conventicle in the afternoon ; who halt between both , and wou'd fain displease neither side , but indeed give real offence to both . from all this , i think , it is very plain , that he , who is satisfy'd in his own mind of the lawfulness of conformity , but is afraid of giving offence by it , if he be true to his principle , ought to hasten the faster to his parish-church , that he may not offend those very dissenters , of whom he wou'd seem to be so tender . iii. in the last place i am to inquire how far , and in what instances we are bound to consider the weakness of our brethren . in answer to this i shall now suppose , notwithstanding all i have already said , that the dissenters are truly weak persons , and that there may be some danger of their being , thro' their own fault , offended by our conformity ; yet taking this for granted , i shall plainly shew , that he who is in his own mind convinced of the lawfulness of conformity , ought not to forbear it for fear of giving such offence to his weak brethren . for , first , nothing that is sinful may be done to avoid others being scandaliz'd . we must not do evil , that good may come , rom. . . we must not commit the least sin our selves , to prevent the greatest sin in another . the very best things may be perverted , and christ himself is said to be set for the fall of many , luke . . but this do's not cancel our obligations to obey god's laws . if offence be taken at my doing any duty , those only that are offended are chargeable with it . since those who fear giving offence , do themselves think conformity lawful ; and since conformity is injoin'd ; and since nothing is more plain from scripture , than that we must obey our superiours in all lawful things ; therefore 't is evident that we must not omit the duty of conforming for fear of giving offence . but 't is objected , that those precepts which contain only rituals , are to give place to those which concern the welfare of mens bodies , and much more to those which concern the welfare of their souls : so that when both together cannot be observ'd , we must break the former to observe the latter . god will have mercy , and not sacrifice . now if sacrifices prescrib'd by god himself , must give place to acts of mercy , much more must human inventions yeild to them . to this i answer , that the commands of our superiours do not bind us either in a case of absolute necessity , or when they plainly hinder any moral duty to god or our neighbour : but this is only when the necessity is urgent and extreme , and the sin we must otherwise commit , evident and certain ; and at last our obedience is dispensed withal only for that one time . we may be absent from church to save the life of our neighbour , or to quench the firing of his house : but 't wou'd be a pitiful pretence for the constant neglect of our public prayers , because in the mean time our neighbours house may be fired , or his life invaded , and so he may stand in need of our help . tho' this argument may serve to excuse the omission of something commanded by lawful authority , in extraordinary cases which very rarely happen : yet to be sure it will not help those , who live in open disobedience to the laws , only because they are loth to offend those who are not satisfy'd with what is appointed . but , say they , scandal is spiritual murther : and if we must obey authority , tho' scandal follow ; then , when authority commands , we may murther the soul of our brother , and destroy him by our meats , for whom christ dy'd . but i answer , that wearing a surplice , kneeling at the sacrament , &c. will not make men forsake christianity ; which i have prov'd , is the only proper scandalizing our brother , which st. paul charges with the guilt of soul-murther . nay , this argument concludes as strongly against obedience to any other command of god , if a brother be offended at it ; as it do's against submission to superiours in things lawful . for 't is not only the law of man , but the law of god also , that is broken by disobedience to superiours . we cannot be bound to transgress a plain law of god for fear of some evil , that may chance to happen to some others thro' their own fault : because every one is bound to have a greater care of his own , than of others salvation ; and consequently to avoid sin in himself , than to prevent it in his brethren . nay , as bishop sanderson saies , to allow men , under pretence that some offence may be taken thereat , to disobey laws and constitutions made by those that are in authority over us , is the next way to cut the sinews of all authority , and to bring both magistrates and laws into contempt ; for what law ever was made , or can be made so just and reasonable , but some men or other either did , or might take offence thereat ? if it be here asked , whether any human authority can make that action cease to be scandalous , which if done without any such command , had been scandalous ; i answer , that no authority can secure that others shall not be offended by what i do out of obedience to it : but then it frees me from blame , by making that my duty , which if i had otherwise done , might have been uncharitable . if it be said , that avoiding of scandal is a main duty of charity ; and that , if superiours may appoint , how far i shall shew my charity towards my brother's soul , then an earthly court may cross the determinations of the court of heaven ; i answer , that here is no crossing the determinations of god , since it is his express will , that in all lawful things we shou'd obey our governours ; and he who has made this our duty , will not lay to our charge the mischiefs , that may sometimes without our fault , thro' the folly and peevishness of men , follow from it . and certainly it is as equal and reasonable , that our superiours shou'd appoint how far we shall exercise our charity towards our brethren ; as it is , that the mistake and prejudice of any private christians shou'd set bounds to their power and authority ; or that every ignorant and froward brother shou'd determine , how far we shall be obedient to those whom god has set over us . but farther , duties of justice are of stricter obligation than duties of charity . now obedience to superiours is a debt ; and we injure them , if we do not pay it : but avoiding scandal is a duty of charity ; which indeed we are obliged to , as far as we can , but not till we have given to every one his due . it is therefore , saies bishop sanderson , no more lawful for me to disobey the lawful command of a superiour , to prevent thereby the offence of one or a few brethren ; than it is lawful for me to do one man wrong , to do another man a courtesy withal ; or than it is lawful for me to rob the exchequer to relieve an hospital . if it be reply'd , that tho' the care of not giving offence be in respect of our brother but a debt of charity , yet in regard of god it is a legal debt , since he may , and do's require it as due , and we do him wrong if we disobey him ; i grant indeed , that we are requir'd both to be obedient to superiours , and to be charitable to our brother : but then i say , this is not the charity which god requires , when i give what is none of my own . a servant must be charitable to the poor according to his ability : but he must not rob his master to relieve them . our superiours only must consider the danger of scandal : but we must consider the duty we owe them ; this being a matter wherein we cannot shew our charity without violating the right of our superiours . thus then it is plain , that they are things merely indifferent , not only in their own nature , but also in respect to us , in the use of which we are obliged to consider the weakness of our brethren . what is our duty , must be done , tho' scandal follow it : but in matters , wherein our practice is not determin'd by any command , we ought so to exercise our liberty , as to avoid ( if possible ) giving any offence . 't is an undoubted part of christian charity , to endeavour by admonition , instruction , good example , and by the forbearance of things lawful , at which we foresee our neighbour out of weakness will be apt to be scandaliz'd , to prevent his falling into any sin or mischief . after this manner do we profess our selves ready to do or forbear any thing in our own power , to gain dissenters to the church : but we must not omit our duty for it . i shall only add , that this very rule of yielding to our brother in things indifferent , ought to have some restrictions ; but i think there are no unalterable rules to be laid down in this affair . for it being an exercise of charity , must be determin'd by the measure of prudence according to circumstances : and we may as well go about to give certain rules for men's charity in other cases , and fix the proportion which every man ought to give of his estate towards the relief of the poor ; as positively to tell how far a man must deny himself in the use of indifferent things , and forego his own liberty for the sake of his brother . this whole matter ( saies dr. hammond , disc . of scand . ) is to be referr'd to the christian's pious discretion or prudence ; it being free to him either to abstain , or not to abstain , from any indifferent action ( remaining such ) according as that piety and that prudence shall represent it to be most charitable and beneficial to other mens souls . secondly , to avoid a less scandal being taken by a few , we must not give a greater offence , and of vastly more pernicious consequence , to a much bigger number of persons . and if this matter were rightly consider'd ; we shou'd soon f●●d our selves much more obliged , upon this account of scandal , to join with our church , than to s●parate from it . for , . our separation hardens other dissenters in their persuasion of the unlawfulness of conformity . for they will think we separate upon the same reason with themselves ; and this is true scandalizing them , or confirming them in an evil cause . . whatever sect we join with , we offend all the other parties ; who sometimes speak as hardly of one another , as of the conformists . . hereby great offence is given to the conformists . for this separation is a public condemning of the church , and is apt to breed scruples , distast and prejudices , in the well-meaning , but least-knowing members of it . . scandal is thereby given to superiours , by bringing their laws and authority into contempt . and if it be so sinful to offend a little one ; what shall we think of offending a prince , a parliament , & c ! no scandal taken at an indifferent thing can be so great , as both the sin and scandal of confusion , and contempt of authority . . hereby scandal is given to the papists , who are harden'd in their own way , because they only have peace and unity ; and this is a mighty temptation to many wavering christians to turn papists . the papists alwaies hit us in the teeth with our divisions : whereas by our hearty uniting with the church of england , we may certainly wrest this weapon out of their hands . . separation is a scandal to religion in general . it prejudices men against it as an uncertain thing , and matter of endless dispute ; when they see what dangerous quarrels commence from our religious differences : and all the disorders they have caus'd , shall by some be charged upon christianity it self . thus our causeless separations open a wide door to atheism , and all kind of profaness and irreligion . the conclusion , containing an earnest persuasive to communion with the establish'd church of england . and now , having shewn the necessity of maintaining constant communion with the church of england , and answer'd those pleas , by which the dissenters endeavour to excuse their separation from her ; nothing remains , but that i add an earnest persuasive to the practice of that , which i have prov'd to be a christian duty . i beseech you therefore with all the earnestness that becomes a matter of so great importance , and with all the kindness and tenderness that becomes a christian , to suffer the word of exhortation , & duly consider what i offer to you . i have shewn you in the first chap. of this discourse , that nothing but sinful terms of communion can justify a separation ; and therefore you must charge our church with sinful terms of communion , or else you cannot possibly defend your practice . suppose that there were some things in our constitution , that might be contriv'd better ; yet every defect or suppos'd corruption in a church is not warrant enough to tear the church in pieces . the question is not , whether there be any thing in our constitution , which a man cou'd wish to be alter'd : but whether any thing unlawful be appointed , which will make an alteration not only desirable , but necessary ; & whether you are bound to withdraw , till such alteration be made . we separate from the church of rome , because she has corrupted the main principles of religion , and requires her members to join in these corruptions : but this charge cannot be fasten'd upon the church of england , and therefore separation from her must be unlawful . mr. ca●●●● (a) saies , that wherever the word of god is duly preach'd , and reverently attended to , and the true use of the sacraments kept up , there is the plain appearance of a true church , whose authority no man may safely despise , or reject it's admonitions , or resist it's counsels , or set at nought it's discipline ; much less separate from it , and violate it's vnity . for that our lord has so great regard to the communion of his church , that he accounts him an apostate from his religion , who obstinately separates from any christian society , which keeps up the true ministry of the word and sacraments ; that such a separation is a denyal of god and christ ; and that it is a dangerous and pernicious temptation , so much as to think of separating from such a church , the communion whereof is never to be rejected , so long as it continues in the true vse of the word and sacraments . this is as plain and full a determination of the case , as if he had particularly design'd it against your own practice . nay , the ministers of new-england tell you , that to separate from a church for some evil only conceiv'd , or indeed in the church , which might and shou'd be tolerated , and heal'd with a spirit of meekness , and of which the church is not yet convinced , tho' perhaps your self be ; for this or the like reasons to withdraw from public communion in word , seals or censures , is unlawful and sinful . if you say , that the governours may as well come down to you , by forbearing what you dislike , as you come up to the law , by doing what it requires ; i beseech you to consider , whether our case will bear this wantonness , and whether such expressions be consistent with your duty . i do not think it hard , i confess , to make out the prudence of their determinations : but i think it hard , that a public rule shou'd not be thought reason enough to justify things of this sort , and to oblige the people to complyance without more ado . certainly there is no prospect of union , till men learn humility and modesty , and are contented to be govern'd . what is the duty of superiours in our case , i cannot determine : but sure i am , that a change ( tho' in things perfectly indifferent ) is no indifferent thing ; and 't is infinite odds , but if once they begin to change without necessity , there will never be an end of changing . but farther , i desire you to consider , that the most eminent even of your own writers , do flatly condemn your separation from the church of england . for they acknowledge her to be a true church , and (b) hold , that you are not to separate farther from a true church , than the things you separate for , are unlawful , or conceiv'd so to be ; that is , they hold that you ought to go as far as you can , and do what you lawfully may , towards communion with it . they (c) hold also , that you are not to separate from a church for unlawful things , if the things accounted unlawful , are not of so heinous a nature as to unchurch a church , or are not impos'd as necessary terms of communion . nay they (d) produce several arguments to prove , that defects in worship , if not essential , are no just reason for withdrawing from it . . because to break of communion for such defects , wou'd be to look after a greater perfection , than this present state will admit of . . our saviour and his apostles did not separate from defective churches . . christ doth still hold communion with defective churches , and so ought we . . to separate from such defective churches , wou'd destroy all communion . nor , . is it at all warranted in scripture . nor , . is it necessary , because a person may communicate in the worship without partaking in those corruptions . nay , . they urge that 't is a duty to join with a defective worship , where we can have no better . and as for our injunctions in particular , they (e) own them to be tolerable , and what no church is without , more or less ; that they are not sufficient to hinder communion ; and that they are but few . nay farther , several of the old non-conformists zealously oppos'd separation from the church of england , and join'd with it to their dying day , tho' they cou'd not conform as ministers : and several of the modern non-conformists have written for communion with it , and have in print (f) declar'd it to be their duty and practice . but besides the sentiments of your own teachers , there is greater authority to be urged against you . for in those things , wherein you differ from us , you are condemn'd by the practice of the whole catholic church for fifteen hundred years together ; and surely this consideration ought to prevail with modest and peaceable men. this might afford a large field for discourse : but i shall only hint at a few particulars . . we desire you to produce an instance of any setled church , that was without episcopacy , till calvin's time . the greatest opposers of episcopacy have been forced to grant , that it obtain'd in the church within a few years after the apostolic age ; and we are sure we can carry it higher , even to the apostles themselves . there are but two passages , and both of them not till the latter end of the fourth century , that may seem to question episcopal authority . that of (g) st. jerom , when improv'd to the utmost that it is capable of , only intimates episcopacy not to be of apostolical institution . and very clear it is to those that are acquainted with st. jerom's writings , that he often wrote in hast , and did not always weigh things at the beam , and forgot at one time what he had said at another ; that many expressions fell from him in the heat of disputation , according to the warmth and eagerness of his temper ; and that he was particularly chased into this assertion by the fierce opposition of the deacons at rome , who began to usurp upon , and overtop the presbyters ; which tempted him to magnify and extol their place and dignity , as anciently equal to the episcopal office , and as containing in it the common rights and privileges of priesthood . for at other times , when he wrote with cooler thoughts about him , he does plainly and frequently enough assert the authority of bishops over presbyters ; and did himself constantly live in communion with , and subjection to bishops . the other passage is that of aerius , who held indeed that a bishop and a presbyter differ'd nothing in order , dignity , or power . but he was led into this error merely thro' envy and emulation , being vext to see that his companion eustatbius had gotten the bishoprick of sebastia , which himself had aim'd at . this made him start aside , and talk extravagantly : but the church immediately branded him for an heretic , and drove him and his followers out of all churches , and from all cities and villages . and epiphanius , who was his cotemporary , represents him as very little better than a mad-man . . we desire you to name any church , that did not constantly use forms of prayer in public worship ; but of this i have discours'd at large in the third chapter . . shew us any church , that did not always observe festivals in commemoration of christ and his saints . . name any one church since the apostles times , that had not it's rites and ceremonies , as many ( if not more ) in number , and as liable to exception , as those that we use . nay , there are few things ( if any at all ) requir'd by us , which were not in use in the best ages of christianity . nay farther , i could easily (h) shew , that most ( if not all ) the usages of our church , are either practis'd in foreign churches , or at least allow'd of by the most eminent and learned divines of the reformation . consider also , that separation is the ready way to bring in popery , as mr. baxter (i) has prov'd . the church of england is the great bulwark against popery , and therefore the papists have us'd all possible means to destroy it , and particularly by divisions . they have attempted to pull it down by pretended protestant hands ; and have made use of you to bring about their own designs . in order hereunto they have upon all occasions strenuously promoted the separation , and mixt themselves with you ; they have put on every shape , that they might the better follow the common outery against the church as popish and antichristian ; spurring you on to call for a more pure and spiritual way of worship , and to clamour for liberty and toleration ; as foreseeing , that when they had subverted all order , and beaten you out of all sober principles , you must be necessitated at last to center in the communion of the romish church . this trade they began almost in the very infancy of the reformation ; as appears by the (k) stories of comin and heath : and no doubt they held on the same in succeeding times ; as appears ( besides all other instances ) by (l) bellarini's letter concerning the best way of managing the popish interest in england upon the restoration of king charles the ii. for therein it was advis'd to foment fears and jealousies of the king and bishops ; to asperse the bishops and ministers of the church of england , and to represent it's doctrine and worship as coming too near the church of rome ; to second the factious in promoting an indulgence , and to endeavour , that the trade and treasure of the nation might be engross'd between themselves and other discontented parties . we know how restless and industrious the romish faction has ever been ; and the only visible security we have against the prevailing of it , lies in the firm union of protestants . and therefore i conjure you by all the kindness , which you pretend for the protestant religion , heartily to join in communion with us . for the common enemy waits all opportunities , and stands ready to enter at those breaches , which you are making . you might condemn the rashness of your own counsels , and lament it , it may be , when it wou'd be too late ; if you shou'd see popery erected upon the ruins of that church , which you your selves had overthrown . it wou'd be a sad addition to your miseries , if the guilt and shame of them too might be laid to your charge . with what remorse wou'd you reflect upon it , ( when the heat of your passion was over ) if the protestant profession shou'd be farther endanger'd , and the agents of rome get greater advantages daily by those distractions , which have been secretly managed by them , but openly carried on and maintain'd by your selves ? with what face wou'd you look , to see the papists , not only triumphing over you , but mocking and deriding you , for being so far impos'd upon by their cunning , as to be made the immediate instruments of your own ruin ? therefore i beseech you not to act , as if you were prosecuting the designs of the conclave ; and proceed just as if you were govern'd by the decrees of the pretended infallible chair . you may be asham'd to look so much like tools in the hands of the jesuits ; when you suffer your selves to be guided by those measures which they had taken , and talk and do as they wou'd have you , as if you were immediately inspir'd from rome . to these arguments i must add another , which i hope will prevail with you ; viz. i cannot see , how you can avoid being self-condemn'd , if you continue in your separation . for certain it is , that most of you have been at our churches , and receiv'd the sacrament there ; and i am not willing to think , that you acted against your consciences , or did it merely to secure a gainful office , or a place of trust , or to escape the lash and penalty of the law. these are ends so very vile and sordid ; this is so horrible a prostitution of the holy sacrament , the most venerable mystery of our religion ; so deliberate a way of sinning , even in the most solemn act of worship ; that i can hardly suspect any shou'd be guilty of it , but men of profligate and atheistical minds . but then , why do's not the same principle , that brings you at one time , bring you at another ? why can we never have your company , but when punishment or advantage prompts you to it ? we blame the papists for dispensing with oaths , and receiving the sacrament to serve a turn , and to advance the interest of their cause : but god forbid , that so heavy a charge shou'd ever lie at the doors of protestants ; and especially those who wou'd be thought most to abhor popish practices ; and who wou'd take it ill to be accounted not to make as much , if not more , conscience of their waies , than other men. now i beseech you to reason a little ; if our communion be sinful , why did you enter into it ? if it be lawful , why do you forsake it ? is it not that which the commands of authority have ty'd upon you ; which commands you are bound to submit to , not only for wrath , but also for conscience sake ? are not the peace and unity of the church , things that ought greatly to sway with all sober , humble and considering christians ? if it be possible , saies the apostle , and as much as lies in you , live peaceably with all men . and shall peace be broken only in the church , where it ought to be kept most intire ? and that by those who acknowledge it to be possible , and within their power ? are you satisfy'd in your conscience to join in communion with us ; and will you not do it for the sake of the church of god ? will you refuse to do what is lawful , and ( as the case stands ) necessary in order to peace ; only because authority commands , and has made it your duty ? let me intreat you , as you love your dear redeemer , to do as much for the peace of his church , as for a vote or office ; and to come to the sacrament of his body and blood as christians , and not as politicians . let these great truths sink into your hearts ; and consider , i beseech you , what you are doing . be well advis'd , before you venture upon that , which makes you guilty of a sin of the blackest nature . be not blinded by prejudice or passion , nor take opinions upon trust : but search and examine into the truth . consciences truly tender are willing and desirous to embrace all opportunities of resolution ; and are ready to kiss the hand , that wou'd bring them better information . they will not neglect , much less thrust from them , the means that might ease them of their doubts and scruples . but it looks very odly , that so many of you are no more concern'd to understand the true state of the church of england , and the nature and reasons of her constitutions ; that so few of you care to confer with those that are able to instruct you : but cry out , you are satisfy'd already ; nay , some of you , to my knowledge , when desir'd to propose your scruples , in order to the giving you satisfaction , have plainly and absolutely refus'd to do it . there is little reason to believe , that such persons have ever read and examin'd , what the church of england has to say for her self . are there not many , that not only scruple , but rail at the book of common-prayer , that yet never heard it , nor perhaps ever read it , in all their lives ? and if this be not to speak evil of what they know not , i cannot tell what is . you generally forbear our public worship , upon no other ground , but because you prefer your own arbitrary way before it : whereas i may take the confidence to affirm , that our liturgy was made and revis'd with that prudence and moderation , that care and circumspection , that there is nothing now extant in that kind , that has been compos'd with greater wisdom and piety . if i shou'd compare it with the performances in the other way ; ( not to mention the many indecent , incoherent , irreverent expressions , to say no worse , that might be collected ) let any extempore prayer , made by the ablest of those , that magnify that way and despise ours , be taken in writing and publish'd to the world ; and i am confident , that one man , without any great pains , may find more things really exceptionable in that single prayer , in a short time ; than the several parties of dissenters , with all the diligence they have hitherto us'd , have been able to discover in the whole service of our church , in more than an hundred years . and yet some of you , that seek industriously for scruples in the common-prayer , will readily join in extempore prayers without any scruple . this is such partiality and unequal dealing , as cannot easily be excus'd . 't is true , the early prepossession of a contrary opinion , the powerful prejudices of education , an implicit and unexamin'd belief of what their guides and leaders teach them , have a strange force upon the minds of men ; so that in effect they no more doubt of the truth and goodness of the cause they are engaged in , than they question the articles of their creed . these and the like are very dangerous and usual mistakes , that do frequently proceed from the prevalency of our passions . now the first step towards concord in opinion and affections , is to dispose your minds to a calm and teachable temper ; to be alwaies ready to acknowledge the force of an argument , tho' it contradict your persuasions never so much . wherefore i do once and again intreat you , that laying aside all pride , partiality and self-conceit , you wou'd not think more highly of your selves , and of your own way , than you ought to think . truth makes the easiest entrance into modest and humble minds . the meek will he guide in judgment , the meek will he teach his way . the spirit of god never rests upon the proud man. but especially you must be very careful , that secular interest did not either engage you in the separation at the beginning , or provoke you to continue in it . and there is the more reason to put you upon this inquiry , not only because secular ends are very apt to mix with , and shelter themselves under the shadow of , religion ; but because this has been an old artifice , made use of to promote separation . thus the donatists upheld their separation , and kept their party fast together , by trading only within themselves , and imploying none but those that wou'd be of their side ; nay and sometimes hiring persons to be baptiz'd into their party , as crispin did the people of mappalia . and how evident the same policy is among our modern quakers , is too notorious to need either proof or observation . whoever looks into the nation , must needs take notice how interests are form'd , and by what methods parties and factions are kept up ; how many thousands of the poorer sort of you depend upon this or that man for your work and livelyhood ; how many of you depend upon others for your trade , whom accordingly those men can readily command , and do produce to give votes and increase parties on all public occasions ; and what little encouragement any man finds from you , that deserts you , and comes over to the church of england . let me beseech you therefore impartially to examine your selves ; and to search , whether a worldly spirit be not at the bottom of your zeal and stifness . these , i confess , are designs too base and sordid to be own'd above-board : but be not deceiv'd , god is not mock'd ; man looks to the outward appearance , but god looks to the heart . if you hope to gain and grow rich by your separation ; if you are asham'd or scorn to retract your opinions ; if you imagine you have more light than the first reformers , when indeed you are very ignorant ; if you cannot endure to be oppos'd in any thing ; if you murmur and repine at your governours , when they require your obedience , where you are unwilling to pay it ; these are signs , that your affections are turbulent and unruly : and while you are thus dispos'd , you can never be assur'd , but that coveteousness , pride , and impatience , might be the greatest motives , that induced you to make a separation , and the strongest arguments that you have to maintain it . but above all things , i beseech you for the sake of your precious souls , to consider the heinous nature and guilt of schism ; which is nothing else but the separating your selves from a true church , without any just occasion given . i doubt , you are not sufficiently sensible , how much you oppose that spirit of peace and brotherly love , which shou'd diffuse it self thro' the whole body of christian people ; when you suppose every slender pretence enough to justify your departing from us , and setting up a church against a church . the old non-conformists charg'd the people to be as tender of church-division , as they were of drunkenness , whoredom , or any other enormous crimes ; whereas you seem to think it a matter almost indifferent , and that you are left to your own choice to join with what society of christians you please . which giddy principle , if it shou'd prevail , wou'd certainly throw us into an absolute confusion ; and introduce all the errours and mischiefs , that can be imagin'd . but our blessed lord founded but one universal church ; and when he was ready to be crucify'd for us , and pray'd not for the apostles alone , but for them also that shou'd believe in him thro' their word ; one of the last petitions which he then put up , amongst diverse others to the same purpose , was that they all may be one , as thou father art in me , and i in thee ; that they also may be one in us , that the world may believe that thou hast sent me . 't is plain this was to be a visible vnity , that might be taken notice of in the world , and so become an inducement to move men to embrace the christian faith. peace and amity , and a good correspondence betwixt the several members of which they consist , is the only beauty , strength and security of all societies ; and on the contrary , the nourishing of animosities , and running into opposite parties and factions , do's mightily weaken , and by degrees almost unavoidably draw on the ruin and dissolution of any community , whether civil or sacred . concord and union therefore will be as necessary for the preservation of the church , as of the state. it has been known by too sad an experience , as well in ours , as other ages , what a pernicious influence the intestine broils and quarrels among christians have had . they have been the great stumbling-block to jews , turks , and heathens , and the main hindrance of their conversion ; they have made some among our selves to become doubtful and sceptical in their religion ; they have led others into many dangerous errors , that shake the very foundations of our faith ; and some they have tempted to cast off the natural sense they had of the deity , and embolden'd them to a profess'd atheism . therefore as you wou'd avoid the hardening of men in atheism and infidelity , and making the prayer of our dying saviour ( as much as in you lies ) wholly ineffectual ; you ought to be exceeding cautious , that you do not wilfully divide his holy catholic church . you are often warn'd of this ; and how many arguments do's st. paul heap together to persuade you to keep the vnity of the spirit in the bond of peace ? one body and one spirit , even as you are call'd in one hope of your calling , one lord , one faith , one baptism , one god and father of all ; eph. . , , , . and how pathetically do's the same apostle exhort you again to the same thing , by all the mutual endearments that christianity affords ? if there be therefore any consolation in christ , if any comfort in love , if any fellowship of the spirit , if any bowels and mercies ; fulfil ye my joy , that ye be like minded , having the same love , being of one accord , of one mind ; phil. . , . these vehement exhortations to peace and concord , do strictly oblige you to hold communion with that church , which requires nothing but what is lawful of you . they that have the same articles of faith , and hope to meet in the same heaven , thro' the merits of the same lord ; shou'd not be afraid to come into the same assemblies , and join seriously in sending up the same prayers , and participating of the same sacraments . besides the many strict precepts and other strong obligations which you have to this duty , our saviour dy'd , that he might gather together in one , the children of god that were scatter'd abroad ; john . . and do you not then contradict this end of his death , in setting those at variance , whom he intended to vnite ? nay , may you not be said to crucify the son of god afresh , by mangling and dividing a sound and healthful part of that body , of which he owns himself to be the head ? if indeed our church did require you to profess any false doctrine , or to do any thing contrary to any divine command ; you were bound in such instances to withdraw from her : but since her doctrine , discipline and worship are good and lawful ; you are indispensably engaged to join in communion with her . for , as i said before , and it cannot be inculcated too often , nothing but the vnlawfulness of joining with us can make a separation lawful . let it pity you at least to see the ghastly wounds , that are still renew'd by the continuance of our divisions . be persuaded to have some compassion on a bleeding church , that is ready to faint , and in imminent danger of being made a prey to her enemies , by the unnatural heats and animosities of those , that shou'd support and defend her . why shou'd you leave her thus desolate and forlorn , when her present exigencies require your most cordial assistance ? if the condition of her communion were such as god's laws did not allow ; you might forsake her that had forsaken him : but since this cannot be objected against her ; since she exacts no forbidden thing of you , you ought to strengthen her hands by an unanimous agreement . since the substantials of religion are the same , let not the circumstances of external order and discipline be any longer an occasion of difference amongst us . and so shall we bring glory to god , a happy peace to a divided church , a considerable security to the protestant religion ; and probably defeat the subtil practices of rome , which now stands gaping after all , and hopes by our distractions to repair the losses she has suffer'd by the reformation . may the wisdom of heaven make all wicked purposes unsuccesful ; and the blessed spirit of love heal all our breaches , and prosper the charitable endeavours of those that follow after peace . amen . the end . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e (a) vid. whitlock's memoirs , p. . & . harm . consent . p. . (b) testim . to the truth of j. c. p. . (c) myst of godlin . anno . wynstanl . in sts. paradise . c. . p. , &c. whitlock's memoirs , p. . salmon's rout. in pref. & p. , , &c. hist . of indep . part . p. . view of the late troubles . p. . (d) whitlock's memoirs , p. , , . burroughs's trumpet of the lord. p. . (e) harmon . consent . p. . (f) vid. august . cont. petil. lib. . (g) mr. calamy's great dang . of cov. ref. p. . (h) whitlock's memoirs . p. . (i) ruari epist . par . . p. , . (k) spirit of the hart. p. . (l) de confess . adv . hammond . c. . p. , . (m) a bright star centring in christ our perfection . printed for h. overton , in popes-head alley . (n) vid. rob. mentit de salmonet , hist . des troubles de la grand bret. lib. . p. . short view of the troub . p. . arbit . gov . p. . whitl . mem. p. , , . exact . coll. p. . (o) ibid. p. . (p) edwards's gangr . par . , p. . (q) b. of heref. narrat . to the lds. p. . (r) cromwel's declar. oct. . . (ſ) dr. bayly's life of bp. fisher . p. , . (t) elen. mot . par. . p. . (u) hist . indep . part . p. , &c. (w) cotton's lr. exam. p. , . simplicit . defence . p. . min. of lond. test . p. . (u) vid. ordin . feb. . . min. testim . p. . notes for div a -e (a) bayly's dissuasive , c. . p. . corbet's discourse of the religion of england , p. . non-conformists no schismatics , p. . see ball 's friendly trial , c. . p. . letter of ministers in old england to ministers in new england , p. . (b) a grave and sober confut. p. . &c. p. . (c) jerubbaal , or the pleader impleaded , p. . & . (d) concerning her doctrin , see the opinion of the presbyt . in corbet's discourse . §. . p. . baxter's disp . pref , p. . of the independents in the peace offering , p. . see also baxter's def. of his cure , part . p. . part . p. . wadsworth's separ . yet no schism , p. , . throughton's apology , c. . p. . and of the brownists in their apol. p. . anno . see also bayly's dissuasive , c. . p. , . stillingfleet's unreasonableness of separ . part . §. . p. . for opinions concerning her worship , see hildersham's lect. . on joh. p. . contin . of morn . exercise , serm. . p. . throughton's apology , p. . peace offering , p. . for opinions concerning the truth , sufficiency and ability of her ministry , see bradshaw's unreasonableness of separ . p. , , . grave and mod. confut. p. . apologet. narrat . p. . cotton's infant baptism . p. . for the defence of the ordination of our ministry , see jus divi. minist . evangel . part . p. , , , , &c. jus div. regim . eccles . p. , &c. cawdry's independency a great schism , p. . and his defence of it , p. , . (e) jus div . min. evangel . p. , &c. brinsly's church-remedy , p. , . cawdry's independency a great schism , p. , , , . tombes's theodulia , §. , . pref . &c. . §. . crofton's reformation not separation p. . and bethshemesh clouded , p. , &c. church refor . p. . corbet's account of the principles , &c , p. . throughton's apology , p. . baxter's defence of his cure , part . p. . cotton's way clear'd , p. . his letter , p. . hooker's survey , pref . & part . p. . goodwin on the ephes . p. , , . (f) grave and mod. confut. p. . goodwin's sion coll. visited . bradshaw's unreasonableness of the separation , p. . notes for div a -e (a) tim. . . ambros . de sacram. lib. . cap. . (b) tertull . de orat. cap. . (c) buxtorf . exere . hist . s●c . caen. (d) vid. august . epist . , . basil . de sp. s. cap. . ambros . de sacram. lib. . cap. . & lib. . cap. . (e) cor. . . cor. . . tim. . . rom. . . thess . . . eph. . , . notes for div a -e (f) clem. epist . ad corinth . chrysost . in act. . . (g) a. gell. noct. att. l. . c. . rosin . antiq. l. . c. . (h) plin. l. . c. . (i) liv , l. . (k) allat . de lit. sti. jac. (l) concil . trull . c. . (m) de orat. dom. (n) justin . apol. . ignat. epist . ad magn. (o) orig. cont . celf. l. . (p) cypr. de laps . serm . . (q) vid. ovid. de fast . lib. . stat. lib. . senec. in oedip. act . . scen . . (r) de spir. s. c. . & . (ſ) paedag. (t) theod. hist . l. . c. . (u) euseb . hist . lib. . (w) ibid. hist . lib. . (x) lucian . philop. (y) constitut . apost . l. . cap. . (z) euseb . hist . eccles . l. . c. . (a) soz. hist . l. . c. . (b) nazian . orat. . p. . (c) niceph . l. . c. . (d) euseb . de laud. constant . (e) id. de vit . constant . c. . (f) ibid. c. . (g) ibid. c. . (h) ibid. c. . (i) see ball 's trial , pref. &c. , , , . baxter's cure of ch. divis . p. . owen's work of the spirit in prayer ▪ p. . , . norton's answer to apollon . c. . (k) clark's lives of divines , p. . (l) bradshaw's life in clark's coll. in fol. p. . (m) see his doctrine of fasting and prayer , anno · (n) collect. of lives , to , p. . (o) see ball 's tri l. c. . rogers's tr. . bryan's dwelling with god , p. . egerton's practice of christianity , c. . p. . edit . . (p) grave confut . epist . to the reader . contin . morn . exerc. p. . (q) priest , serm. on joh. . . (r) theodulia , p. . baxt. cure , p. . ball 's tryal . p. , . grave confut . p. , . (ſ) annot. on ex. . . (t) tryal , p. , , , . & p. . (u) tombes's theodulia , p. . (w) ball 's tryal , p. , &c. rogers's treatises , p. . tombes's theod. p. . (x) tryal , p. , , . (y) resp . ad apol. c. . (z) sacril . desert . p. . (a) defence , part . p. . see ball 's tryal , p. , rogers's tr. p. . notes for div a -e (a) see suicerus in the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , hammond on matth. . . john . . selden de jure , lib. . c. . vossius de baptismo . p. . (b) see irenaeus adv. haer. l. . c. , . tertull. apol. and ad scapul . origen adv . celsum , camb. p. , , , , , , . cyprian ad donat. and ad magn. and ad demetrian . p. . edit . rigalt . (c) see voss . hist . pelag. lib. . p. . id. de baptis . disp . . thes . . and disp . . ●hes . . cassand . praef. ad duc. jul. p. . and te●●im . vet . de bapt. parv . p. . (d) see brerewood's enquir . c. . . cassand . expos . de auctor . consult . bapt inf. p. . osor . l. . de rebus gest . eman. cit . a voss . disp . . de bapt. (e) as in the greek , russian , and abyssin churches , and among the christians of st. thomas in the indies . (f) de baptism . cap. . (g) see selden de synedr . lib. . cap. . notes for div a -e (a) de coron . mil. (b) hom. . in psal . . (c) de spir. s. c. . (d) see cyprian . de laps . p. . adv . demet. p. . de unit. p. . (e) epist . . ad thiber . (f) christian direct . eccles . cas . p. . p. , . (g) eccles . pol. l. . p. . notes for div a -e (a) matth. . , &c. mark . , &c. luke . . &c. cor. . , &c. (b) . at cracow , anno dom. . . petricow or peterkaw . . . wiadislaw , . (c) harmon . . synods of holl. (d) vid. art. . observat . of the french and dutch divines on the harmony of confessions , edit . geneva . sect. . p. . in hoc etiam ritu ( speaking of kneeling at the sacrament ) suam cuique ecclesiae libertatem salvam reliquendam arbitramur . (e) see the declaration at the end of the communion service in the b. of com. prayer . (f) dispute against kneeling ▪ arg . p. . ● . &c. (g) hist . eccles . l. . p. . (h) hist . eccles . l. . c. . (i) de schism . donat. l. . see also albaspin . not . in optat. (k) de orat. c. . (l) de vit. constant . l. . (m) conc. . nic. c. . resp . quest . inter opera just . mart. p. . tertull. de coron . mil. c. . epiphan . expos . fid . cath. p. . edit . par. st. jer. prol. com . in epist . ad eph. st. aust . epist . . ad jan. c. . tertull. de orat. c. . (n) see tertull. apol. c. . p. . st. aust . epist . const . apol. l. . c. . st. chrysost . hom. . in c. . ep. . ad tim. st. ambros . de sacram. l. . c. . cave's prim. christ . c. . st. cyril catech. myst . . st. aust . resp . ad oros . quest . . tom. . p. . basil . . euseb . hist . eccles . l. . c. . (o) st. cyril . hierosol . mystag . catech. . versus finem , paris . edit . p. . (p) hom. ep. ad cor. p. . to. . paris . (p) st. chrys . hom. . in ep. ad ephes . in moral . p. . (q) dialog . . to. . p. . paris . edit . (r) o●at . in laud. gorgon . p. . paris . edit . (ſ) ambros . de sp. sanct. l. . c. . (t) phil. mornay du plessis de missa , l. . c. . p. . (u) gillesp . p. , . altar . damas . p. . rutherf . divine right of ch. gov. c. . qu. . sect. . . (w) gillesp . disp . against e. po. c●r . p. . disp . of kneel . p. . (x) decret . greg. l. . tit . . c. . (y) unreasonab . of separat . p. . (z) alger . de sacramentis . l. . c. . (a) costor . enchirid. p. . edit . . (b) alex. hales de miss● , p. . quest . . p. . notes for div a -e (a) direct . of the day and place of worship . (b) rutherf . of scandal , q. . . (c) confess . bohem. art. . (d) de vitand . superstitione . (e) bez. episcop . du moul. past . off . calv. inst . lib. . cap. . sect. . & epist . ad reg. pol. (f) cont. westph . vol. . p. . epist . ad bull. (g) eccles . pol. book . . notes for div a -e (a) matth. . . and . , &c. joh. . . (b) rom. . . (c) cor. . , . cor. . , . cor. . gal. . rev. . (d) acts . . eph. . . and . . (e) cor. . , . and . . and . . and . . (f) cor. . . (g) see vines on the sacrament , p. , . platform , c. . §. . brinsly's arraignm . p. , . jenkin on jude v. . baily's disswasive , p. . sacri● . desert . p. . cawdrey's reformation promoted , p. . manton on jude , p. . cotton's holiness of church-members , p. . burroughs's gospel-worship . serm. . p. . (h) see vines on the sacrament , p. , , , , . vindicat . of presb. gov. p. . brinsly's arraignm . p. . firmin's separ . exam. p. . cawdrey's church-re●or . p. . tombes's theod. p. . hooker's survey , pref. a . platform , c. . §. , . grave confut. part . . p. , . burroughs's gospel-worsh . serm. . p. , . ball 's tryal , c. . p. , , . jean's discourse on the lord's supper . rutherford's right of presbyt . blake's vindic. p. . cotton's inf. bapt. p. . cartwright on proverb . edwards's apol. baxter's christian direct , p. . non-conformists no schismaticks , p. . bains on the ephes . c. . v. . p. . (i) see baxter's defence part . p. . ball 's tryal , p. . jenkin on jude , v. . cawdrey's church-reformat . p. , , . brinsly's arraignment , p. , , . tombes's theodul . p. , , . grave confut. part . p. , . & part . p. . vines on the sacrament , p. , , , . cartwright's def. of the admon . p. , , . goodwin on the ephes . p. , . blake's vindic. c. . p. , . gillisp . nihil respondet , p. . knutton's queries . throughton's apol. p. . baxter's cure , dir. . p. . owen's evangel . love , c. . p. . brian's dwelling with god , sermon . . p. . firmin's separat . exam. p. . collins's provocator provocatus , p. , . england's remembrancer , serm. . p. . (k) see rubr. after the communion . notes for div a -e (a) heb. . . pet. . . rom. . . cor. . . (b) see hildersh . lect. , . , , . methermeneut . p. , , . baxter's cure , p. . his defence , part . p. . his farewell-sermon . continuat . of morn . exer. serm. . jenkin on jude , v. . england's remembrancer , serm. . burroughs's irenic . c. , . platform , pref. p. . &c. . ball 's tryal , c. . brinsly's arraignment , p. . cawdry's independ . a schism , p. . vines on the sacrament , p. . tuckney's serm. on acts . . jus div. min. evangel . p. , . letter of the minist . in old-eng . to the brethren in new-eng . p. . nye's case of great use , p. , . tombes's theodul . c. . §. . notes for div a -e (a) see matth. . . and . . mark . . and . . joh. . . . cor. . . notes for div a -e (a) institut . lib. . sect . , , . (b) see burroughs 's iren. p. . vind. of presb. gov. brinsly's arraignm . p. , . corbet 's plea for lay-c●m . newcomen 's iren. epist . to the read. ●all's tryal , c. . je●u●ba●l ▪ p. . . throughton's apol. p. . robinson of the lawful . of hear . p. ult . (c) see tombes 's theod. answer to pref. sect. . blake's vind. c. . brinsly 's arraignm . p. . noyes 's temple meas . p. . owen 's evangel . love , p. . cotton on the epist . of john , p. . baxter's cure , dir . . vines on the sacram. p. . corbet 's acc. of sep. p. . jerubba●l , p. . (d) see brownists confess . art . . jenkin on jude , v. . allen's life , p. . engl. remembrancer , serm. , , . ball 's tryal , p. , &c. , &c. , &c. . platform of discipl . c. . sect . . hildersham on john , lect. , . brian 's dwell . with god , p. , . bradshaw's unreason . of sep. p. , . non-conf . no schismat . p. . cawdry 's indep . a great schism , p. , . owen 's evang. love , c. . throughton 's apol. p. . vines on the sacram. p. . crofton's hard way to heaven , p. . noyes's temp. meas . p. , . davenport's reply , p. . cotton on epist . of john. p. . calamy's godly man 's ark , epist . ded. allen 's godly man's portion , p. , . b●ins on ephes . . . contin . morn . exer. serm . . baxter's cure , dir . . def. of his cure , part . . p. . & part . . p. . burroughs 's iren. c. . morton 's memorial , p. , &c. blake's vind. c. . tombes's , theodul . answer to pref. sect. . conf. savoy , p. , . calamy's door of truth open'd , p. . corbet's n. c. plea , p. . robinson 's lawful . of hear . p. , . nye's case of great & pres . use , p. , , . (e) see lett. min. of old-engl . p. , . bryan's dwell . with god , p. . troughton's apol. c. . p. . owen's peace-off . p. . misch . of impos . epist . ded. (f) baxter's sacril . desert . p. . mr. j. allen's life , p. . collins's doctr. of schism . p. . lye's reas . account , &c. hickman's bonas . vap. p. . baxter's plea for peace , p. . (g) in epist . ad tit. cap. . (h) see durel 's view of the goverm . &c. and spirit 's cassend . anglic. p. , &c. (i) defence , p. , . (k) foxes and firebrands . (l) see stillingfleet's unreasonableness of separation , pref. p. , &c. an argument for union taken from the true interest of those dissenters in england who profess and call themselves protestants. tenison, thomas, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing t estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) an argument for union taken from the true interest of those dissenters in england who profess and call themselves protestants. tenison, thomas, - . [ ], p. printed for tho. basset ..., benj. tooke ..., and f. gardiner ..., london : . written by thomas tenison. cf. bm, halkett & laing ( nd ed.). errata: p. 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ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng dissenters, religious -- england -- early works to . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - judith siefring sampled and proofread - judith siefring text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion an argument for union , taken from the true interest of those dissenters in england , who profess , and call themselves protestants . london , printed for tho. basset , at the george in fleet-street ; benj. tooke , at the ship in st. pauls church-yard ; and f. gardiner , at the white-horse in ludgate-street , . the contents . dissentions are dangerous to the church . page . if the church should be dissettled by such means , our dissenters would not obtain their ends. p. . their first , or subordinate end , is the establishing of themselves . p. . the first branch of it is the establishing themselves as a national church , which cannot be hop'd for , either first by all of them ; p. . or , secondly , by the prevalent party amongst them , p. . this is prov'd first , from several reasons . p. , . secondly , from the history of our late revolutions . p. . to . after which it is shewed , that if they could not then gain their point , they can , much less , do it now . p. , &c. the second branch of their subordinate end , is the settling of themselves by mutual sufferance . p. . this is proved still more improbable . p. , . also , it is shewed that parties tolerate each other no longer then one gets power to suppress the rest , with publick safety . p. . to . the second end of the dissenters is more principal , and the first part of it is the keeping out of popery . p. . that this end cannot be obtained by dissenting from our church , is shewed from reason . p. . to p. . from the history of the late times . p. , &c. from the iudgment and methods of the papists themselves . p. , . the second part of the more principal end of the dissenters , is the advancing of pure religion . p. . but , there are reasons to perswade us that upon the dissettlement of this church , religion would not be advanced , but embased . p. , . to . and the history of the late troubles sheweth this to have been so in fact. p. , , , . by virtue of the premisses , dissenters are perswaded to consider seriously the state of things in this time of prosecution , and to hold constant communion with our church , with which the wisest and best of them hold occasional communion ; that the blessed ends of truth , holiness , and peace , may be obtained . p. , , , . errata . page . line . for perswasive read persuasion . p. . l. . for laxation read luxation . p. . l. . for opposed read proposed . p. . l. , for ties read impurities . an argument for union , &c. i take it for granted ( seeing a truth so very plain needs no formal proof ) that the ready way to overthrow a church , is , first to divide it . it is , also , too manifest , that our dissentions are divisions , properly so called , or publick ruptures . it is true , notwithstanding these ruptures , the church still lives , and , in some good measure , prospers : but how mortal these breaches may , at last , prove , through their continuance and increase , a man , who has but a competency of judgment , may easily foretel . it is , therefore , the business of every good man , as far as in him lies , to disswade , with prudent zeal , from these divisions ; which are , in their nature so uncharitable , and so perillous in their consequence . now , one way of moving men to desist from their undertakings , is , the shewing of them , with calmness of temper , and plainness of reasoning , that their ends are not likely to be obtain'd : as , also that , by the means they use , they will bring upon themselves those very evils which they fear , and of the removal of which they have expectation . wherefore , i have chosen an argument of this nature , in order to the persuading of dissenters to joyn in the exercise of constant communion with the church of england . and i have , here , endeavoured to make it evident to them ; that , in attempting to pull down this establish'd church , they , unwarily , turn their own force against themselves , and prepare materials for the tombs of their own parties . this argument is , here , offer'd to them in the spirit of christian charity , and without any design of exposing or exasperating any person who differs , is his notions , from the sence of the writer . for he had rather lie at the feet of the meanest man who is overtaken with an errour , then spurn insolently against him . now , in the managing of this argument , it is necessary to shew two things . first , what those ends are which are proposed by the dissenters ? i mean , those which seem , with any tolerable colour of reason , fit to be proposed ; and which are designed by the better and wiser of that number . secondly , what reasons may make it manifest that the ends which they propose , can never be procured by the dissettlement of the church of england . these things being shewed , there shall follow such a conclusion , as is suitable to the premisses . first , for the ends proposed by the more prudent dissenters , they are of two kinds . the first end is subordinate . the second is principal : or the end to which the former serventh in the quality of the means . the subordinate end is , the establishing of themselves . and it hath two branches . either , the setling themselves ( first ) as a national church : or , ( secondly ) as several distinct churches , giving undisturbed toleration to one another . for i am not willing to believe all of them to be given up to such a degree of infatuation , as to be intent only upon beating down , without considering what is fit to be set up . that is the way of tempests , and not of builders . the principal is , the further advancement of the reformed religion . this also , hath two parts . . the removal of popery . . the introduction of the protestant religion in greater purity and perfection , then the church of england is ( in their opinion ) as yet , arrived at , or can probably attain to by vertue of its present constitution . if there be amongst them , men disturbed in their understandings , by the heat of enthusiasm ; if there be amongst them , any men whose wisdom is sensual and worldly ; who presumptuously make heaven stoop to earth , and conceal their private and secular designs under the venerable name of pure religion ; i do not concern my self with them in this persuasive to vnion . the former cannot , and the latter will not be convinc'd : for there is no ear so deaf , as that which interest hath stopp'd . and there is a great deal of earnest truth suggested in the jocular speech of iames the fifth of scotland ; who , when his treasurer desired liberty to be plain with him , * drew out his sword , and said merrily to him , i shall slay thee , if thou speak against my profit . the first branch of the first , or subordinate end of the dissenters is , the establishing of themselves as a national church . this is either designed by all of them , or by a party which believeth it self to be most sober , and most numerous , and most likely to prevail over the rest ; so far at least as to become the state-party . for all of them to expect to be united in one uniform body , is to hope , not only against the grounds of hope , but of possibility . for the parties are very many , and very differing , ( or rather very contrary ) and they cannot frame amongst them , any common scheme in which their assents can be united . what communion ( for example sake ) can the presbyterians have with arians , socinians , anabaptists , fifth-monarchy-men , sensual millenaries , behmenists , familists , seekers , antinomians , ranters , sabbatarians , quakers , muggletonians , sweet-singers . these may associate in a caravan , but cannot joyn in the communion of a church . such a church would be like the family of errour and her daughters , described in mr. spencer's fairy-queen , of which none were alike , unless in this , that they were all deform'd : and how shall the christians of this present church be disposed of to their just satisfaction ? they will never incorporate with such a medly of religion ; and they are such , both for their quality and their number , as not to be beneath a very serious consideration . for the prevalent party , there seemeth to be both reason , and experience , against their hopes of establishing themselves as a national church . these reasons , amongst others , have moved me to entertain this persuasive concerning them . first , such a party not maintaining episcopal government , which hath obtained here from the times of the britaine 's ( who in the apostolical age , received the christian religion ) and which is so agreeable to the scheme of the monarchy ; it is not probable that they shall easily procure an exchange of it for a newer model , by the general consent of church or state. i may add , the body of the people of england , whose genius renders them tenacious of their antient customs . again , all the parties amongst us , have of late declared , for mutual forbearance . they cannot , therefore , be consistent with themselves , if they frame such a national constitution , by which any man , who dissents from it , shall be otherwise dealt with , then by personal conference ; which , also , he must have liberty not to admit , if he be persuaded it is not fit or safe for him . and such a body without any other nerves for its strength and motion ; for the encouragement of those who are members of it , and the discouragement of those who refuse its communion ; will not long hold together : nor hath it means in it , sufficient for the ends to which it is designed . and indeed by this means , the spiritual power of excommunication will be rendred of none effect . for , what punishment , what shame , what check , will it be to cross and perverse men , if being shut out of the national church , they may with open arms and with applause due to real converts , be received into this or the other particular congregation , as it best suiteth with their good likeing ? furthermore , it is commonly said , that since the presbyterians have gathered churches out of churches , there are not many true and proper disciplinarians in england . if it be so , then independency is amongst dissenters , the prevalent side ; and i know not how a national church can be made up of separate independent churches ; for each congregation is a church by it self , and hath , besides the general covenant of baptism , a particular church-covenant ; and therefore , it is difficult to imagine how all of them can be , by any coherence of the parts , united into one intire society . but , be it supposed , that the disciplinarians are of all parties , the most numerous and prevalent ; yet experience sheweth how hard a work it is for all of them to form themselves into a church of england . in the late times of publick disquiet , they had great power ; they had in humane appearance , fair and promising opportunities ; and yet there grew up at their roots another party , which , in conclusion , over-dropped them , and brought their interest into a sensible decay ; it being the nature of every faction , upon victory obtain'd over their common adversary , to subdivide . in the year , * the commons had a debate about a new form of ecclesiastical iurisdiction : and they agreed that every shire should be a several diocess . that there should be constituted , in each shire , a presbytery of twelve divines , with a president as a bishop over them , that this president with the assistance of some of the presbyters , should ordain , suspend , deprive , degrade , excommunicate . that there should be a diocesan synod once a year ; and each third year , a national synod . a while after , * it was voted by them , that , to have a presbytery in the church , was according to the word of god. many other steps were made in favour of the discipline . the common-prayer-book was removed ; an assembly of divines was established : their directory was introduced ; they were united in the bond of a solemn league and covenant . there was sent up * from the county of lancaster , a petition signed with hands for the settling of classes in those parts . a petition of the like importance was framed by divers of the common-council of london . they seemed nigh the gaining of their point ; yet they widely missed of it . there was in the assembly it self , a ferment of dissension . mr. sympson , and some others , favoured an independent ; mr. selden and some of his admirers , an erastian interest . there was a party in the nation who were then called dissenting brethren ; and to these the directory was as offensive , as the canons and liturgy had been to those of the discipline . they drew up reasons * against the directory of church government by presbyters . they afterwards printed an open remonstrance against presbytery , of which the assembly complain'd to the house , as of a scandalous libel . and there were those who reproach'd the presbyterians , in the same phrases in which they had given vent to their displeasure against the liturgy of the church of england . the ministers of lancashire * complain'd concerning them , that they had compared the covenant to the alcoran of the turks , and mass of the papists , and service-book of the prelates . as likewise , that they said , it was a brazen-serpent fit to be broken in pieces and ground to powder , rather then that men should fall down and worship it . amongst the disciplinarians , some were confident of success . one of them * ( for he was not then gone over to the part of the independents ) expressed his assurance in these most unbecoming words , before the commons . it will ( said he ) bring such a blot on god as he shall never wipe out , if your poor prayers should be turn'd into your own bosomes ; that prayer for reformation . a speech not fit to have been repeated , if it were not necessary to learn sobriety of wisdom from the remembrances of extravagance in former times . others acknowledg'd their hopes , but did not dissemble their fears . six years ago ( said a person eminent * amongst them ) after this parliament had sate a while , it was generally believ'd that [ the woman , the church ] was fallen into her travel — but she continues still in pain . insomuch , as they begin to think she hath not gone her full time , and earnestly desire she may ; because they fear nothing more then an abortive reformation . others did openly confess that their hopes were not answer'd , and that the state of religion was much declined . the ministers of the province of london * used upon this occasion , these passionate words . instead of a reformation , we may say with sighs , what our enemies said of us heretofore with scorn , we have a deformation in religion . those independents who adher'd to that part of the house which joyned with the army , prevailed for a season , but they also were disturb'd by those who went under the names of lilburnists , levellers , agitators . ‖ then likewise , gerard wynstanley * publish'd the principles of quakerism , discoursing ( or rather , repeating the dreams of his imagination ) in such expressions as these . if you look for the resurrection of jesus christ , you must know that the spirit within the flesh is the jesus christ. — every man hath the light of the father within himself , which is , the mighty man christ iesus . then enthusiasm , excited in part by the common pretence of an extraordinary light , revealed ( as of a suddain ) in those days in england , brake forth into open distraction . then ioseph salmon , a present member of the army , publish'd his blasphemies , and defended his immoralities . he justify'd himself , and those of his way , saying , * that it was god who did swear in them , and that it was their liberty to keep company with women for their lust. wyke , his disciple * , kissed a soldier three times , and said , i breath the spirit of god into thee . salmon himself printed a pamphlet call'd , a rout , in which he set forth his villainous self as the christ of god , saying , * i am willing to become sin for you , though the lord in me knows no sin. we love to sweat drops of bloud under all mens offences . — we shall see of the travel of our souls . enthusiasm , tho' not in this rankness of it , was now openly favour'd by cromwell himself ; who , together with six soldiers , prayed and preached at whitehal . * his own temper was warmed with fits of enthusiasm . ‖ and he confess'd it to a person of condition † ( from whom i receiv'd it , as did others , yet living ) that he pray'd according to extraordinary impulse . and that , not feeling such impulse ( which he call'd supernatural ) he did forbear to pray , oftentimes , for several days together . in process of time , his house of commons and he himself were publickly disturb'd by that wild spirit , in the raising of which they had been so unhappily instrumental . a quaker came to the door of the house * , and drew his sword , and cut those nigh him , and said , he was inspir'd by the holy spirit to kill every man who sate in that convention . and he himself was not only conspir'd against by those who call'd themselves , the free and well-affected people of england , * , but openly bespattered by the ink of the quakers in several pamphlets , ‖ and by their clamours , affronted in his own chappel ; where before his face , they gave bold interruption to his preachers . † other historical memorials might be here produced , relating to the hopeful rise , and mighty progress , and equal declension of the disciplinarian party . but , in such cases , i choose rather to take of my pen , then to lean too hard upon it . yet the nature of my argument did necessarily lead me to the former remarks ; and if useful truth smarts , let guilt suffer a cure , and not kick against the charitable reporter . in sum , the longer the church of england was dissettled , the greater daily grew the confusion ; and the division of sects was multiplyed not unlike to that of winds in the marriners compass , in which artists have increas'd the partitions , from four to two and thirty . insomuch , that the very distractions which were among us did , in some measure , prepare the way for the return of the king , and the restitution of the church : men finding no other common bottom on which the interests of religion and civil peace might be established . now , if the dissenters could not then , when so fair opportunities were in their hands , carry on their cause to any tolerable settlement ; much less may they now hope to do it . for there are now , many hinderances which did not then lie cross their way . first , the platform of discipline , so highly applauded , so earnestly contended for , during the reigns of queen elizabeth and king iames , hath now been in part tryed ; and the presence of it ( to omit other reasons ) hath abated the reverence some had for it . secondly , there is not at this time , such an union amongst dissenters , as appeared at the beginning of our late troubles . the number of those dissenters who were not for the discipline , was then very inconsiderable . but in a few years , they brake , as it were , into fractions of fractions . insomuch , that the ministers of the province of london , expressed the estate of things in the year , on this manner . * instead of vnity and vniformity , in matters of religion , we are torn in pieces with distractions , schisms , separations , divisions , and subdivisions . thirdly , those who then favoured the discipline , are much departed from their former scheme of government , inclining to independency , which they once denyed to be god's ordinance * , and pleading for toleration , which they once called , the last and strongest hold of satan . ‖ fourthly , at the beginning of our disturbances , many men of quality , and such who had a zeal of god , favour'd the settlement of the discipline in the simplicity of their hearts . they had not then seen any revolutions ; they had not discovered the secret springs of publick motions ; nor the vile interests of many men which lay concealed under the disguise of pure religion . they saw ( what all men may see in all times ) abuses in church and state ; and the very name of reformation was sweet to them . now , notwithstanding the sincere zeal and the power of these men , the discipline could not long be carried on ; much less could it be perfected by them . there is , therefore , at this time , a much greater improbability of success in the like design . for many considerable men , piously inclin'd , have seen their error ; and will not be a second time engaged : and they will not say of our late changes , as the protector did , * that they were the revolutions of god , and not humane designs ; that they were the revolutions of christ upon whose shoulders the government was stayed . they are not of the same mind with him who told the commons , * that if they acted faith , then the records of those times on their side , should bear thus to all posterity , the book of the wars and counsels of god. also , since those days , through the laxation of discipline during the licence of the war , the discovery of great and black hypocrisies , the multiplication of parties and opinions , the publishing of many lewd and irreligious books from unlicens'd presses , atheism hath made very formidable advances . and they say , that some undisguised sceptics and atheists have , sometimes since the king's return , been much used in the cause of our dissenters . now , if well meaning zeal could not establish the discipline , it is not likely to be promoted , much less settled , by the help of such hands of which the outsides are not washed by so much as an external form of godliness . the second branch of the first end of dissenters , seems more improbable then the first , viz. the settling themselves as several distinct parties , giving undisturbed toleration to each other . this seems not probable upon many accounts . first , some dissenters believe some of the parties to be incapable of forbearance , as maintaining principles destructive of christian faith and piety . this opinion they still have ( for instance sake ) of antinomians , quakers , and muggletonians . and they formerly declamed against the toleration of divers others . they publish'd here ( by authority so called ) an act of the assembly at edinburgh , * against erastians , independents , and liberty of conscience , bearing ( as they speak ) their publick testimony against them , not only as contrary to sound doctrine , but as more special letts and hinderances , as well to the scottish received doctrine , discipline , and government , as to the work of reformation and uniformity in england and ireland . the ministers of the province within the county palatine of lancaster , in their harmonious consent * with the ministers of the province of london , publish'd their judgments in these zealous words . a toleration would be a putting of a sword into a mad-man's hand — an appointing a city of refuge in mens consciences , for the devil to fly to — a proclaiming liberty to the wolves to come into christ's fold to prey upon his lambs — a toleration of soul-murther ( the greatest murther of all others ) and for the establishing whereof , damned souls in hell would accurse men on earth . neither would it be to provide for tender consciences , but to take away all conscience . — if error be not forcibly kept under , it will be superior . it seems , they were not then of the later perswasion of the protector , who said , ‖ concerning the people of several judgments in this land , that they were all the flock of christ , and the lambs of christ , though perhaps under many unruly passions and troubles of spirit whereby they gave disquiet to themselves and others : and that they were not so to god as to us . again , there is no firmness or social influence in the nature of this union . it is the union of a multitude who meet and disperse at pleasure . and he who proposeth this way as the means to knit men into christian communion , is like a projector who should design the keeping of the stones together in the strength of a firm and lasting house , by for bearing the use of cement . the union that lasteth , is that of the concord of members in an uniform body . moreover , it is to be consider'd , that there are no parties in this or any other nation , so exactly poised , that they have equal numbers and interests . there is always one of them which over-ballanceth the rest . and one of the several ways must always be favoured as the religion of the state. and it is natural for the strongest side to attempt the subduing of the weaker . and though this be not soon effected ; yet 'till one side getteth the mastery , the parties remain , not as distinct bodies settled in peace within themselves , and towards each other , but as convulsions in the common body of the state. some think this inclination to the swallowing up of all other parties to be found almost only in the romish church . but there is something of it to be discerned ( i will not say in all churches , seeing i well understand the good temper of our own which suffered bonner himself to live ) yet in all factions and parties ; though the inequality of power makes it not seem to be alike in all of them . the catt hath the same inward parts with the lyon , though they differ much in size : and some such likeness they will find who dissect humane nature , and bodies civil . there is this disposition in men , whether they be the politick , or the conscientious . the external practice of all parties is answerable to this inward disposition . there is this inward disposition in men who espouse any faction , whether their ends be designs of state , or of religion . parties who are not ( otherwise then in shew ) concerned for religion , will perpetually covet power after power . and parties who are serious and conscientious in their way , whatsoever it is ; will not remain in an indifference of tempers towards thosewho treadin contrary paths , and with whom they do not maintain communion . for therefore they with draw from them , because they believe communion with them to be unlawful . otherwise they have no judgment in the price of peace and unity , if they willingly part with it , when they may , without sin , enjoy it : and if they esteem their way sinful , and believe those persons who remain without their pale , to be so gone astray , as without repentance , to be eternally lost ; charity it self will urge them to use all means probable towards the reducing of them . and they will be apt to think , that the suffering of them in their wandrings , declares them to be contented with their perdition . the external practice of all parties do's shew plainly what is their inward disposition . all would do what is good in their own eyes ; but i do not perceive that any are willing to let others do so . where there is power , there is little forbearance : and the same men , as their conditions alter , speak of mercy or iustice. amongst those of the party of donatus whose schism opened so dangerous a wound in the churches of africa ; all pleaded earnestly for forbearance , whilst their power was in its minority . yet , s. austin ▪ remindeth one of them * of a practice contrary to their profession , whilst they turn'd against the maximianists , the edge of the theodosian laws ; and abus'd the power which they had gotten under iulian , in oppressing , as far as in them lay , the catholick christians . amongst those of the protestant perswasion ; the heads of the discipline , were plainly unwilling that any should have leave to make a separation from their body . and one of them ‖ , with a mixture of grief and expostulation , thus discoursed before the commons . the famous city of london is become an amsterdam ; separation from our churches is countenanc'd ; toleration is cried up ; authority lieth asleep . every one would have power to rowse upit self , and maintain his cause . and indeed it is , and has been too often in religion , as it is and was in philosophy , where the divers sects do not contend meerly for the enlarging the bounds of philosophical arts in a sincere and solid inquiry , * but for the translating the empire of opinion , and settling it upon themselves . the same men who pleaded for forbearance in this church , and remov'd themselves into new-england ( as by themselves was said ) for the liberty of thier conscience or persuasion ; when once they arrived there , and made a figure in that government , they refused indulgence to the anabaptists and quakers , and us'd them ( as to this day they do ) with great severity . those commons who in the year ‖ , made an order , for the giving of indulgence to tender consciences ; did at the same time make another order , that this indulgence should not extend to tolerate such who used the common-prayer . some who do not well understand the policy of the dutch , do believe it to be otherwise in those netherlands . but , by their constitution , none have liberty to speak against any publick error or corruption , on which the states shall stamp their authority . and episcopius * complain'd that the calvinists would tolerate none whom they had power to punish . there are now great numbers of his own remonstrant party , who , when any juncture of affairs gives them encouragement , are apt to contend for superiority . the parties in their sermons and writings , speak with bitter zeal against each other : and where the ordinary conversation of men of different judgment is peaceable amongst them ; divers who mind traffick more than religion , seem rather to be an heterogeneous body frozen together by a cold indifference , then a society united by christian love. in the church of rome , the several orders , who at present mortally hate one another , if they were not restrain'd by the force of the common politie , they would soon devour one another . we are not without a remarkable instance in this kind , published by a dominicans bishop , and a capuchin fryer . certain dominicans ‖ had seated themselves nigh the river of plate in paraguay , where there are gold mines in the earth , and gold sands in the rivers . of this the jesuits , who have long ears , had good intelligence . they desired to go thither in order to the further instruction of the american-people , and the education of youth . they obtained leave , procured letters of credence , were furnished with money for the voyage . after having gotten sure footing , they soon removed the dominicans and spanish laiety , and established themselves . among the socinians , the great asserters of liberty in religion , both in thinking and speaking ; though they cannot impose , because they have not yet been any where ( that i know of ) the prevailing party ; yet they shew sometimes what spirit they are of . gittichius was , beyond all good manners , troublesom to a socinian of better temper ( i mean ruarus* ) because he had chosen to fast one day in a week , and had taken friday for the day , though without any fixed purpose . among the quakers themselves , whose principle seems to be the guidance of each man by his personal persuasion , there want not signs of that fierce heat with which their light is accompanied . when some had form'd them into a society , and gotten the governance into their hands , they excommunicated others ; they suffered them not to marry or bury in their manner who would not be guided by what they called the light of the body , and the light of antient friends . * george fox declar'd he had power to bind and loose whom he pleased , ‖ and said in a great assembly † that he never lik'd the word liberty of conscience , and would have no liberty given to presbyterians , papists , independents , and baptists . from the subordinate end of the dissenters , i pass to the principal ; and begin with the first part of it , the removal of popery . a very good and commendable end . and i heartily pray to god to prosper all christians who persue it by fit and lawful ways . but the methods of dissenters do not so well lead to it as those of the established church . bare reason maketh this manifest . it may be also proved to us by historical inference . this likewise , is the iudgment of the papists themselves , who take their measures from this principle , that they shall enter in through the breaches of the church of england . first , common reason sheweth , that the interruption which , may be dissension , be given to this church , will rather weaken , then improve the protestant interest , both at home and abroad . abroad , the protestant interest will suffer much , in the overthrow of this church . for , by such means , a principal wheel is taken out of the frame of the reformation . nay , signior diodati * was wont to praise it in a more excellent metaphor , and to call it the eye of the reformed churches ; and it is plain to considering men that the church of england , which had greater regard to the primitive pattern than some others of the reformation , can give a more full and unperplexed answer to all the objections of the romanists , then some other churches , who are cramped in a few points unwarily admitted . if therefore dissentions put out this eye of the protestant churches , the dark doctrines and traditions of popery will the sooner spread themselves over reformed christendom . at home , the dissettlement of the church of england will sooner introduce then root out poperty . i am constrain'd thus to judge by the following considerations . first , the design of keeping out popery by the ruine of this church , is like the preposterous way , of securing the vineyard by pulling up of the fence ; or of keeping out the enemy by the removal of our bullwark . under that name this church is commonly spoken of , and they do not flatter it who give it that title . it s constitution is christian , and it is strong in its nature ; and if such a church hath not ability ( with god's assistance ) to resist the assaults of romish power , much less have they who dissent from it . and it is fanaticism properly so called , or religious frenzie , to lay aside a more probable means , and to trust that god will give , to means which are much less probable , supernatural aid and success . god supporteth a good cause by weak means ( if they are the only means he hath put into our power ) agaisnt a bad cause though externally potent . but he , who in cases of emergence assisteth honest impotence and infirmity , will never work miracles in favour of mens presumptions and indiscretions . the romanists are a mighty body of men ; and , though there are intestine fewds betwixt the secular and regular clergy , as likewise betwixt the several orders , yet they are all united into one common politie , and grafted into that one stock of the papal headship . they are favoured in many places by great men ; they have variety of learning ; they pretend to great antiquity , to miracles , to martyrs without number , to extraordinary charity and mortification ; they have the nerves of worldly power , that is , banks of money , and a large revenue : they have a scheme of policy always in readiness ; there are great numbers of emissaries posted in all places for the conveying of intelligence , and the gaining of proselytes ; they take upon them all shapes , and are bred to all the worldly arts of insinuation . there is given to their way , in the iargon of mr. coleman * , a very fit name of trade , traffick , merchandize . against all this craft and strength , what ( under god ) can protestants oppose which is equal to the power of the church of england ? a church primitive , learned , pure , and not embased with the mixtures of enthusiasm or superstition . a church , which is able to detect the forgeries and impostures of rome ; which hath not given advantage to her by running from her into any extream ; which is a national body already formed ; a body both christian and legal ; a body which commendeth it self to the civil powers by the loyalty of its constitution ; a body which hath in it great numbers of people judiciously devout , and who are judged only to be few * , because they are not noysie , but prudent , though truly exemplary , in their religion . and , there is in the church of england , something more considerable then number ; for union is stronger then multitude . take the character of this church from monsieur daille * , a man whose circumstances were not likely to lead him , in this matter , into any partiality of judgment ; and who , at that time , was engag'd in a learned controversy with one of our divines . the character is this . as to the church of england , purged from forrein wicked superstitious worships and errours , either impious or dangerous , by the rule of the divine scriptures ; approved by so many and such illustrious martyrs ; abounding with piety towards god , and charity towards men , and with most frequent examples of good works ; flourishing with an increase of most learned and wise men from the beginning of the reformation to this time ; i have always had it in just esteem , and till i die , i shall continue in the same due veneration of it . and , indeed it is to me a matter of astonishment , that any men who have been beyond the seas , and made observations upon other churches and states , should be displeased at ours which so much excel them . now , is it probable that such a church as this is , should have less strength in it for the resisting of popery , then an inferior number of divided parties , of which the most sober and most accomplish'd , is neither so primitive , nor so learned , nor so united , nor so numerous , nor so legal : and against which it will be objected by the romans , that it is of yesterday ? amongst these parties , there are some who have not fully declared themselves . and who knows whether they have not a reserve for the romish religion , against a favourable opportunity , though sometimes they speak of rome as of babylon ? i mean those people who are called quakers , who speak in general of their light ; and in such doubtful manner , that inquisitive men cannot yet understand from what quarter of the heavens it shineth . the men of design amongst them may embrace any religion , and the melancholy will make a tolerable order amongst the romans ; and the priests will find for them a second st. bruno . again , there are some who though they have declared themselves against popery , yet they have scarce any formed way of keeping it out . for what hindreth a crafty jesuite from gathering a particular congregation out of many others , and modelling of it by degrees according to his pleasure ? and what a gap do they leave open for seducers , who take out of the way all legal tests , and admit men who are strangers to them to officiate amongst them upon bare pretence of spiritual illumination ? furthermore , the romanists have more powerful ways of drawing men from the parties of the dissenters , then they have of enticing them from the church of england ; for such men ( too frequently ) go out from us through weakness of imagination , for which the church of rome hath variety of gratifications . they will offer , to the severe , such strictnesses as are not consistent with the general laws of a national church , which being framed for men of such various conditions , must have some scope and latitude , though no licence in it ; and many of those who now joyn themselves to the dissenting parties , would then chuse to be admitted as members of this or the other superstitious fraternity : and it is ( at least ) my private conjecture , that if the revenue of the religious houses which were dissolved , had been judiciously applyed to the service of men , either weak in mind , or indisposed by temper , or singular in their inclination , amongst the reformed ; there might have been a diversity here ( i mean such as there is in our present colleges ) without a schism . likewise , they have mental prayer , and ( as they call them ) spiritual eructations , for those who contemn or scruple forms . * they ahve mystical phrases for such who think they have a new notion when they darken understanding with words . and accordingly , the third part of the rule of perfection , ( a very mystical book , written by father benet a capuchin ) was in the year , reprinted in london , * , with a new title , and without the name of the author ; and it passed , amongst some of the parties , for a book containing very sublime evangelical truths . and it pleased some enthusiasts when they read in it , that christ's passion was to be practis'd and beheld as it was in our selves rather than that which is considered at jerusalem . * also , they use much gesture , and great shew of zeal in preaching , and have singular ways of moving the zealous temper of the english , from whence some of them , in rome it self , had the name of knock-breasts , * given to them . a romish preacher comes forth out of an obscure cloyster into the pulpit , and appears all heavenly in the exercise : and having excited a warmth in their affection , he retires again , and does not mix with conversation , and is not observed ( as other ministers ) by many eyes ; and the people never seeing him but in this divine figure , look upon him as an angel coming to them out of heaven , and then ascending ▪ thither again . it may be observed , also , that the romanists have greater shews of self-denial for the moving of english pity , then the dissenters . they have rough cords , mean garments , bare feet , disciplines , whips , pretences of not touching money , or enjoying property ; though some of these are often no other then arts used by ordinary beggars . again , they have ways , not only of humouring the infirmity , but even the foppishness of humane nature . processions and other rites of the romish religion are so ordered as to be games for diversion ; and the mass with scenes pleaseth , though it be not understood . dissenters do now think , that popery may be very easily subdued by their arms : but if recluses were once crept out of their dark cells ( as serpents from under the deadly night-shade ) they would have cause to alter their opinions , and not to think too highly of themselves , after a wilful removal of the church of england which is sufficient ( under god ) for this encounter . this church designs to make men good by making them first judicious , as far as means can do it . but some others desire to bring them to their side by catching of their imaginations ; and by that way they can neither reform nor fix them . some new device shall , in time , bring them over to a new party . dissention it self amongst protestants weakneth their interest ; and that which weakens one side , strengthens another . and many men , entangled in controversy , and wearied with endless wrangling , are too apt , for mere ease and quiet sake , to cast themselves , in servile manner , into the arms of pretended infallibility . our dissentions have already introduced too much of that which is the very spirit of iesuitism , the doing of evil that pretended good may come of it ; the serving of a cause by any means , whether they be just or unjust . some dissenters do accidently prepare the way for romish religion by running into an other extream upon pretence of avoiding popery ; by decrying the church of england as antichristian and popish ; and by condemning that as popish which is christian and decent . [ as , episcopacy , liturgy , observation of the nativity of christ , and other festivals , reverence of bodily gesture , particularly in receiving the holy communion ; preservation of places and things set apart for holy uses , with reverend care . ] by this means they bring popery into reputation . men will be apt to say , if such a body as the church of england be popish , it is fit we set down and consider of it ; for surely they are not so inclined without weighty reasons . if the clergy of it be inclined to that religion the introduction of which , together with great numbers of the popish-clergy , will diminish their preferment ; it must be the power of truth which moveth them against their worldly interest . they will continue their argument and say further ; if such good things as these abovementioned be romish , and it be lawful to judge of the whole by the parts of it which are before us , surely that which is popish is also primitive and evangelical . that which we have examin'd is good , and that which we have not , may probably be of the same kind . secondly , the history of our late revolutions sheweth that popery will not be smother'd in the ruines of the church of england , but rather be advanced upon them . it made great progress in the late times ; insomuch , that the dissenters do remove the odium of the late king 's execrable murther from themselves , and lay it upon the iesuites ; thereby tacitly acknowledging that they had so great a power over some of them , as to make them to become their instruments for the cutting of the lord 's anointed . for if they will not allow cromwell and ireton and some others of that order , to have been dissenters , properly so called ; yet certainly they must not deny that name to mr. peters , mr. iohn goodwin and many like to them , who appeared publickly in that very black and insolent wickedness . how far it is true that the jesuits influenc'd those counsels , i do not now examine , nor do's my talent lie in mysteries of state. but that in the late revolutions , popery was not rooted out , no man can remain ignorant who is of competent age , and has not perfectly lost the use of his memory , though he has made the most negligent observations . robert mentit de salmonet * a scotchman , and a secular priest in actual exercise of communion with the church of rome , hath publickly taken notice of the many priests slain at edge-hill , and of two companies of walloons and other catholicks ( as he is pleased to style them ) in the service of the states . it hath been commonly said ‖ that gifford the jesuite appeared openly in the year , amongst the agitators , and that his pen was used in the paper drawn up at a committee in the army , and call'd the agreement of the people . † k. charles the martyr speaketh of such things as notorious , in one of his printed declarations * ; all men know ( said he ) the great number of papists which serve in their army , commanders , and others . in the year , * those in the house were acquainted with divers papers , taken in a french man's trunk at rye , discovering a popish design to be set on foot in england , with commissions from the bishop of chalcedon , by authority of the church of rome , to popish priests and others , for settling the discipline of the romish church in england and scotland . mr. edwards * reports , from mr. mills a common-council-man , who was so informed by a knowing papist , that the romanists did generally shelter themselves under the vizor of independency . it is certain , that a college of jesuits was established at come * in the year . and in a paper found there , mention was made of reconcil'd that year to the church of rome . oliver himself used these words in a declaration publish'd by the advice of his council . ‖ it is not only commonly observed , but there remains with us , somewhat of proof , that iesuites have been found among some discontented parties in this nation , who are observed to quarrel and fall out with every form or administration in the church or state. dr. bayly * the romanist openly courted oliver as the present hopes of rome , and , with a flattery as gross as the jingle was ridiculous , call'd him oliva vera : and one of his physitians † hath said of him , that he was once negotiating with the romanists for toleration , but brake off the bargain , partly because they came not up to his price , and partly because he feared it would be offensive to the people . it is also publickly told us , ‖ that an agreement was made in , even with owen ô neal , that bloody romanist ; and that he , in pursuance of the interest of the state , so called , raised the siege of london-derry . a great door was opened to romish emissaries when the oaths of allegiance and supremacy were , by publick order , taken away : for they were tests of romanism . likewise , the doctrine of the unlawfulness of an oath , revived in those days , by roger williams , * samuel gorton , and others , helped equivocating papists to an evasion ; as ( i fear ) it may do , at this day , among the quakers . so we may be induced to believe , by comparing present with former transactions . for we are infomed that in the reign of king iames , † thomas newton , pretended to have had a vision of the virgin mary , who said to him , newton , see thou do not take the oath of allegiance : and being of this publickly examined at the commission-table , and asked , how he knew it to be the virgin mary which appeared ? he answer'd , i knew it was she , for she appeared unto me in the form of her assumption . it was the church of england , which , in our late troubles , principally fortify'd and entrench'd the true protestant religion against the assaults of rome . this church was still in being , though in adversity . she had strong vitals and did not die , notwithstanding there was some distemper in her estate . there was still a constitution where primitive order and decencie might be found , and in which men of sobriety might be fixed . and great numbers of the church-men , by their constant adherence to their principles , under publick contempt and heavy pressure , gained daily on the people , and convinced the world that they were not so popish and earthly-minded as popular clamour had represented them . also , their learned books and conferences reduced some , and establish'd many , and we owe a part of the stability of men in those times to god's blessing on the writings of arch-bishop land , mr. chillingworth , dr. bromhall , dr. cosins , dr. hammond , and others . last of all , it is the opinion of the papists themselves , that their cause is promoted by our dissensions ; and , according to these measures of judgment , they govern their councils . this was the opinion of the iesuite companella in his discourse touching the spanish monarchy , written about the year ; and , in , publish'd at london in our language . * concerning the weakning of the english ( says that jesuit ) there can no better way possibly be found out , then by causing divisions and dissentions among themselves . — and as for their religion , — it cannot be so easily extinguished and rooted out here , unless there were some certain schools set up in flanders , — by means of which there should be scattered abroad the seeds of schism , &c. and whether these kinds of seeds have not come from hence to us , as well as those better ones of the brabant-husbandry , remaineth not now any longer a question . it was the advice of the iesuit contzens , * to make as much use of the divisions of enemies , as of the agreement of friends . after this manner it is that they manage themselves ; they endeavour to widen the breach , in order to the introducing of popery into a divided nation . they will have hopes , as long as we have divisions . they will believe , whilst they see the humours are in conflict , that the body will be at last dissolved . if they will hope for resettlement , as they declare they do , upon such inconsiderable grounds as the printing of a monasticon * or the provincial ‖ of lynwood amongst us , though in the quality of history rather then of title or law ; what will they not expect from our un-christian distempers , and from our forbearing of communion with the establish'd church , as if it were the synagogue of satan ? by this artifice it is that they gain proselytes . they expose the protestants as a dis-united people . they demand of injudicious men how they can , in prudence , joyn with those who are at variance among themselves ? though at this time , in the church of england it self , there is much more agreement then in the church of rome , in which ( they say ) there are great numbers of more private deists , † and socinians , and some ( we are certain ) who publish it to the world * that the primacy is antichristian ; in which there are solemn and publick assemblies who declare openly against one another in the great point of the papal supremacy ; and shew , by so doing , that ( in their opinion ) their common head cannot certainly tell the nature of his head-ship . there remaineth to be considered , the second more principal end , the advancing christian religion , in these kingdoms , to greater purity and perfection . but neither in this is their expectation likely to be answer'd . for first , the means towards the settling of themselves is the dissettlement of that which is well fixed . and this is the way , not to a greater purity in religion , but to the corruption of it . for , it removeth charity which is the spirit of the christian religion . it letteth loose great numbers who cannot govern themselves ; it moveth unbelievers , atheists and idolaters , to pour contempt upon the church of christ ; and confirmeth them in their evil course . it exposeth the church as a prey to the common enemy . thus the divisions in africa gave encouragement to the arms of the barbarous nations ; and those , in the aegyptian churches , made way for the saracens . and the proposal of the maintenance of charity and pure religion by the overthrow of a tolerable ecclesiastical constitution , is as improbable a project as that of flammock ; who , in henry the th's time , * prosed a rebellion without a breach of the peace . and it is here to be considered , that those who dissent from a national church , do generally make use of such junctures , as are apter to debase , then refine religion . they often move for alterations in the church when there is a great heat and ferment in the state : and in such seasons , the form of a church may be pulled in sunder , but there is not temper enough and coolness of unbyass'd consideration to set it together to advantage . such times are the junctures of state dissenters , and amongst them revolutions generally begin , though without the pretence of reforming religion , they are not carried on amongst the people . for it will not serve their purpose to say plainly , they are against the government , because the government is against their interests . now , when well meaning dissenters are in the hands of such worldly power , they will not be able to establish what they think is purest , but that which pleaseth their secular leaders . a change in the church naturally produceth some change in the state ; and in such changes who can secure the event for the better ? the words of bishop andrews * , about the midst of the reign of k iames , touch this point , and they doubtless are worth our observation . when ( said he ) they have made the state present naught , no remedy ; we must have a better for it , and so a change needs : what change ? why ! religion , or the church-government , or somewhat ( they know not what well ) : stand a while , ye shall change your religion ( said they of this day [ the gun-powder-traytors ] ) and have one for it wherein , to your comfort , you shall not understand a word ( not you of the people ) what you either sing or pray ; and for variety , you shall change a whole communion for an half . now , a blessed exchange , were it not ? what say some others ? you shall change for a fine new church-government ; a presbytery would do this better for you than an hierarchy , and ( perhaps ) not long after , a government of states , then a monarchy . meddle not with these changers . now when a state is either disturb'd or dissolv'd , men cannot foresee all the ill consequences of it . when the vessel is stirr'd , the lees come up , which lay before undiscerned in the mass of the liquor . and so it is in religion ; it is not fined , but rather render'd less pure , by motions in the body spiritual or civil . then politicians use conscientious instruments no further then they serve a present purpose ; and for new purposes they find new instruments . one of the assembly of divines * discoursed , on this manner , at a publick fast. have not these trumpets and these poor pitchers had their share , and a good share too , in bringing down the walls of jericho , and the camp of midian ? and have not they ( like the story in ezekiel ) if i may so express it , prophesy'd you up an army ? the witness of these things is in the whole kingdom , and a witness of them is in your own bosomes . yet the preacher was very sensible at the same time , that those whom they had helped to power , were turning it against them , and breaking them to pieces by dashing independency against them . aspiring men make fair promises , till they have gained their point ; but when that is once secured , they take other measures . they say * that maximilian , for the gaining of votes in order to the empire , used secret preachings to please the protestant princes [ the elector palatine , the dukes of saxony and brandenburgh ; ] and went openly to mass to please the popish bishops of mentzs , triers , and collein . also , the claims of the worldly increase with their power : and ( for illustration-sake ) when the house , being garbell'd had much less right but more force ( the army as yet agreeing with them and the good king being in their hands ) then they gave to the declarations of their pleasure the title , not as before of ordinances , but of acts of parliament . ‖ oliver , likewise declared plainly , * that there was as much need to keep the cause by power , as to get it . and being potent , he entred the house , and mock'd at his masters , and commanded , with insolent disdain , that that bawble * ( meaning the mace of the speaker ) should be taken away . men may intend well , but using the help of the illegal secular arm , they can never secure what they propose , but frequently render that which was well settled , much worse by their unhinging of it . by such means it comes to pass , that the civil state is embroyl'd , and religion sensibly decays , ●●stead of growing towards perfection , where publick order is interrupted , and men gain a liberty which they know not how to use . secondly , it appeareth , by the history of our late revolutions , which began with pretence of a more pure religion , that our dissentions occasion'd great corruptions both in faith and manners . then the war was preached up as the christian cause . and one of the city-soldiers , mortally wounded at newberry-fight , was applauded ( in an epistle * to the houses ) as one whose voice was more then humane when he cryed out , o that i had another life to loose for iesus christ. then this doctrine ( so very immoral and unchristian ) was by some † preached , and by great numbers embrac'd . the lord hath no more to lay to the charge of an elect person , yet in the heighth of iniquity and the excess of riot , and committing all the abominations that can be committed — then he hath to lay to the charge of a saint triumphant in glory . then certain soldiers ‖ enter'd a church with five lights , as emblems of five things thought fit to be extinguish'd , viz. the lord's-day , tythes , ministers , magistrates , the bible . then by a publick intelligencer , who called himself mercurius britanicus ** the lord primate usher himself was reproach'd as an old doting apostating bishop . instances are endless ; but , what need have we of further witnesses then the lords and commons , and the ministers of the province of london , whose complaints and acknowledgments are here subjoyned . the lords and commons , in one of their ordinances , * , use these words . we — have thought fit ( left we partake in other mens sins , and thereby be in danger to receive of their plagues ) to set forth this our deep sence of the great dishonour of god , and perillous condition that this kingdom is in , through the abominable blasphemies , and damnable heresies vented and spread abroad therein , tending to the subversion of the faith , contempt of the ministry and ordinance of jesus christ. the ministers made a like acknowledgment , saying , instead ‖‖ of extirpating heresie , schism , profaness ; we have such an impudent and general inundation of all these evils , that multitudes are not asham'd , to press and plead for publick , formal , and universal toleration . and again , we the ministers of iesus christ , do hereby testify to all our flocks , to all the kingdom , and to all the reformed churches , as our great dislike of prelacy , erastianism , brownism , and independency ; so our utter abhorrence of anti-scripturism , popery , arianism , socinianism , arminianism , antinomianism , anabaptism , libertinism , and familism ; with all such like , now too rise among us . thirdly , some dissenters , by the purity of religion , mean agreeableness of doctrine , discipline , and life , to the dispensation of the new testament , and a removal of humane inventions : and thus far the notion is true ; but , with reference to our church , it is an unwarrantable reflexion . for it hath but one principal rule , and that is the holy scripture ; and subordinate rules in pursuance of the general canons in holy writ , are not to be called in our church , any more then in the pure and primitive christian church , whose pattern it follows , humane imaginations , but rules of ecclesiastical wisdom and discretion . but there are others among the dissenters , who , by the purity of religion , mean a simplicity as oppos'd to composition , and not to such mixtures as corrupt the circumstances , or parts of worship which in themselves are pure . quakers and some others believe their way the purer , because they have taken out of it sacraments and external forms of worship , and endeavoured ( as they phrase it * ) to bring the peoples minds out of all visibles . by equal reason the papists may say their eucharist is more pure then that of the protestants , because they have taken the cup from it . but that which maketh a pure church , is like that which maketh a pure medicine ; not the sewness of the ingredients , but the good quality of them how many soever they be ; and the aptness of their nature for the procuring of health . men who have this false notion of the purity of religion , distill it till it evaporates ; and all that is left is a dead and corrupt sediment . and here i have judged the following words of sir walter rauleigh not unfit to be by me transcribed , and considered by all . * the reverend care which moses had in all that belong'd even to the outward and least parts of the tabernacle , ark , and sanctury — is now so forgotten and cast away in this superfine age , by those of the family , by the anabaptist , brownist , and other sectaries , as all cost and care bestow'd and had of the church , wherein god is to be served and worshipped , is accounted a kind of popery , and as proceeding from an idolatrous disposition : insomuch , as time would soon bring to pass ( if it were not resisted ) that god would be turned out of churches into barnes , and from thence again into the fields and mountains , and under the hedges ; and the officers of the ministry ( robbed of all dignity and respect ) be as contemptible as these places ; all order , discipline , and church-government left to newness of opinion , and men's fancies : yea , and soon after , as many kinds of religions would spring up as there are parish-churches within england : every contentious and ignorant person clothing his fancy with the spirit of god , and his imagination with the gift of revelation ; insomuch , as when the truth , which is but one , shall appear to the simple multitude , no less variable then contrary to it self , the faith of men will soon after dye away by degrees , and all religion be held in scorn and contempt . fourthly , if several contrary parties be established by way of sufferance ; no progress is likely to be made towards the perfecting of religion . for the suffering of divers errors is not the way to the reforming of them . one principle only can be true ; and the blending of such as are contrary with it , createth the greatest of ties ; a mixture of that which is profane , with that which is sacred . fifthly , many dissenters are not likely to erect a model by which christianity may be improved amongst us , because they lay aside rules of discretion , and rely not on god's assistance in the use of good means , but depend wholly upon immediate illumination , without the aids of prudence : and some of the more sober amongst them , have inclined too much towards this extream . in reformation ( said one * in his sermon before the commons ) do not make reason your rule nor line you go by . it is the line of all the papists . — the second covenant doth forbid , not only reason , but all divine reason , that is not contain'd by institution in the worship of god. — god's worship hath no ground in any reason but god's will. sixthly , there are already provided in this church , more probable means for the promoting of pure religion , then those which have been proposed by all or any of the dissenting parties . it is true , each church is capable of improvement , by the change of obsolete words , phrases , and customs ; by the addition of forms upon new occasions ; by adjusting discreetly some circumstantials of external order . but , to change the present model for any other that has yet been offered to publick consideration , is to make a very injudicious bargain . there are in it , all the necessaries to faith and godliness ; there is preserved primitive discipline , decency , and order : and , under the means of it , there are great numbers grown up into such an improvement of judicious knowledge and useful , prudent , serious piety ; that it requireth a laborious scrutiny to find parallels to them in any nation under the heavens . i do not take pleasure in distastful comparisons . yet i ought not ( sure ) to pass by with unthankful negligence , that excellent spirit which god hath raised up among the writers and preachers of this church ; their labours being so instrumental towards the right information of the judgment , and the amendment of the lives of unprejudic'd hearers . it must be confessed , that there is some trifling on all sides : and it will be so whilst men are men. but there is now ( blessed be god ) as little of it in the church of england as in any age. and the very few who do it , appear plainly to be what they are , phantasticks , and actors , rather then preachers . but , amongst the parties , the folly and weakness puts on a more venerable pretence , and they give vent to it with studied shews of mighty seriousness , and deliver it solemnly as the immediate dictate of god's holy spirit . and i cannot call to mind one minister in this church , who would ( for instance sake ) have deliberately used these words of mr. rutherford , in a solemn audience , * and after his solemn manner . god permits sins , and such sins , that there may be room in the play for pardoning grace . it seemeth also , not unfit for me to take notice , that the changes formerly made in church-matters in england by dissenters , were not so conducive in their nature , to the edifying of the body of christ , as the things illegally removed . the doctrine of god's secret decrees taught in their catechisms , was a stronger and more improper kind of meat then that with which the church of england had fed her children . ordination by a bishop , accompany'd with presbyters , was more certain and satisfactory then that by presbyters without a bishop . there was not that sobriety in many of the present and unstudied effusions , which appeared in every of those publick forms which were considered and fixed ▪ and it sounded more decently ( for example sake ) to pray in the churches words , and say , from fornication good lord deliver us ; then to use those of an eminent dissenter , * lord un-lust us . nor did the long continued prayers help men so much against distraction as those shorter ones , with breaks and pauses in the liturgy ; and the great and continued length of them introduced , by consent , sitting at prayer . neither did it tend less to edification , to repeat the creed standing , then to leave it quite out of the directory for publick worship . neither was it an advantage to christian piety to change the gesture of kneeling in the eucharist when the sacred elements were given together with prayer , for that less reverend one of sitting : of sitting especially with the hatt on , as the most uncomely practice of some was ; the people being taught to cover the head , * whilst the minister was to remain bare amongst them . nor was the civil pledge of the ring in marriage , bettered by the invention of some pastors , who ( as is storied of them ) took a ring * of some women-converts , upon their admittance into their church . neither was the alteration of the form of giving the holy elements , an amendment . for the minister was directed to the use of these words . ‖ take yee , eat yee ; this is the body of chirst which is broken for you . — this cup is the new testament in the blood of christ , which is shed for the remission of the sins of many . — the words denoting christ's present crucifixion , ( either actually or in the future certainty of it ) give countenance to the romish sacrifice of the mass ; though i verily believe they were not so intended . nor did the forbidding the observation of christ's nativity and other holy-days , add one hairs bredth to the piety of the nation ; but , on the other hand , it took away , at least from the common people , one ready means of fixing in their memories the most useful history of the christian religion . it is easy enough , even for men who are dwarfs in the politicks , in such sort to alter a constitution as to make it more pleasing for a time to themselves during their passion , and the novelty of the model in their fancy not yet disturbed by some unforeseen mischief or 〈◊〉 ; but 't is extream difficult upon the whole matter , to make a true and lasting improvement ; there being so many parts in the frame to be mutually fitted , and such variety of cases in humane affairs . i pray from my heart for the bettering , but i dread the tinkering of government . the conclusion . if then , dissenters are not likely to obtain their ends ; of establishing themselves , of rooting out of popery , and promoting pure religion , by overthrowing the church of england ; the inference is natural , they ought , both in prudence and christianity , to endeavour after vnion with it . they will ( it may be ) say to me , can men be persuaded two contrary ways ? can they both assent and dissent ? and whilst they secretly dissent , would you force them into an hypocritical compliance ? i answer thus . first , though a man cannot at the same time wholly assent and dissent ; yet there are means for the rectifying of a false persuasion ; and he may , upon good ground , change his mind . secondly , no man's mind can be forced ; for it is beyond the reach of humane power . thirdly , good governours do not use severity to force men to dissemble their minds , and to make them hypocrites , but to move them , after a tryal of fair means , to greater consideration . i am not concerned in the emblem of the persian dervi * who , whilst they go about their office of teaching the law to the people , carry a great club in their hand . but neither do i think that the best way to remove pernitious error from men , is never to give them any disturbance in it . i have two things only to recommend , first to the consideration , and then to the practice of such as dissent . first , this is a time of prosecution , and a time of adversity is a proper time for consideration , and consideration is a means to make us hold fast that which is good , and reject that which is evil . i beseech you , make such advantage of this juncture . sit down , and think once more of the nature of this church . confer with the guides of the national religion ; read without prejudice , the books commended by them to you . peruse seriously the books which authority hath set forth . some who have spoken against them , have by their own confession , never read them . examine , and judge . many of your scruples have arisen from what you have heard , and read ; they would not have otherwise been ingendred in your minds . hear and read for your information , as well as your entanglement . secondly , do as much as you can do . do as much as the dissenters , who are most eminent for learning , piety , preaching , writing , experience , and fame ; sometimes actually do . they have owned our communion to be lawful . * they have received the communion kneeling . they have bred up children to the ministry of this church . they have joyned in the liturgy . they have been married according to the form of it . nay , one who assisted in making the directory , would have his own daughter ( in those times ) be married in the way of the book of common-prayer . * do as the antient non-conformists did , who would not separate , though they feared to subscribe : who wrote with such zeal against those of the separation , that mr. hildersham was called , ‖ the maul of the brownists . do more for the peace of god's church , then for a vote , or office , or fear of legal penalty . come as christians to the sacrament , and not as politicians . those who have so done , yet break the unity of the church , are said to use the arts of jesuites , and to be without all excuse , by a dissenter * who writes with commendable temper . do constantly what you do upon occasion . no preaching , or praying , which is better liked , can ballance the evil of separation from a church , which imposeth no terms of communion which are sinful . for peace sake , let that be more constant , in which your conscience alloweth occasional exercise . a member who joyns himself to any established church , and also to any churches which are set up , not as legal supplements of it , but as forts against it , seems to be a kind of wooden legg ; if i may represent so grave a matter by so light a similitude . he is tyed on , and taken off , at pleasure ; he is not as , by natural ligaments and nerves , knit to such ecclesiastical bodies . if all would do constantly what they can in conscience do sometimes , they would create a better opinion of themselves , in the governours , and move them to all due favour , and hinder all the destructive breaches amongst us . for the remain of other dissenters would be so inconsiderable , as to abide in the body of the nation , as ill humors thrown off to the extream parts , from which there may arise some little pain , but no mortal danger . now , the god of peace grant peace to us always , by all fit means . the end . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e the introduction . the argument it self . it s partition and method . the ends of the dissenters . * melvil's memoirs p. . the first branch of the first end of the dissenters : viz. union in a national church . * july . . whitlock's memorials p. . * a. . id. ibid. p. . * in sept. . . diurnal , p. . whitlock's memoirs . p. . * id. ib. p. . a. . ib. a. . p. . * harm consent . p. . * mr. s. symp. in serm. of reform . a ▪ . p. . * d ▪ iohn arr. in ser. call'd , the great wonder , &c. before the commons . a. . p. . * testim . to truth of jesus christ subsiribed dec. . . p. . ‖ see hist. of indep . part . p . * in myst. of godlin , &c. anno. . wynst . in saints paradise c. . p. . &c. * whid . memoirs . a. . p. . * id. ibid. * salmon's rout. in pref. and p. , , &c. * on sund. after east . day . ann. . h. of indep . part . p. . ‖ see view of the late troubles . p. . † e. m. l c. * whitl . memoirs . a. . p. . * see their declar. in a. . in whitl . me. p. . ‖ see ed. burroughs trumpet of the lord sounded . p. . a. . † whitl . memoirs . p. . * testim . to the truth of i. chr. p. . * mr. h●●l . &c. ‖ the title of mr. edwards's book . . see testim . of min. p. . * oliver's speech in the painted chamber . ian. . at the dissolv . of the parl. p. . . * mr. caryl in ep. ded. bef . ser. called the arraign . of unbelief . a. . the s●cond branch of the st end of the dissenters . viz. union by mutual forbearance . * a . act of assemb . p. . * harmon . consent . a. . p. . ‖ protect . speech . ian. . p. . * petil. ap . s. aug. cont petil. l. . absit , absit à nostra conscientia , ●t ad nostram fidem aliquem comp . ilamus , &c. ‖ mr. cal●my in ser. called , the great danger of covenant refusing . a. . p. . * lord bacon's pref. to adv. of learn . ‖ whitlock's memories . p. . * episc. exam. thes. cap. op. vol. . par . . p. . ‖ see lettres sinceres . trois . partie sixieme lettre . p. . ruarl . epist. par . . p. , . * see spirit of the hatt . p. , , &c. ‖ p. . † p. . the principal end of the dissenters the first part of it . * florentissima anglia ocellus ille ecclesiarum , peculium christi singulare , &c. * coll. of lett. p. . &c. * see l. de moulin's advances , &c. p. . * de confess . advers . h. hammond . c. . p. , . * see rational discourse of prayer chiefly of mystic contemplation . chap. . pag. . * a bright star centring in christ our perfection . printed for h. overton in popes-head alley . * ch. . p. . * picchia - 〈◊〉 s. r. c. posth . p. . * hist. des troubles dela grand bret. a paris . liv . . p see short view of the late troubl . p. . ‖ arbitr . government p. . † see whitl . memoirs . p. , . * exact coll. p . * id. ibid. p. . * gangrena p. par . . * narr . sent up to the lords from the bishop of hereford p. . ‖ prot. declaration octob. . . * in the life of bish. fisher. p. , . † v. elench mot. par . . p. . ‖ h. indep . part . p. , &c. * see mr. cotton's lr. exam. a. . p , . simplicit . defence . a. . p. . min. of prov. of lond. testim p. . † gee 's foot out of the snare . p. , . a. . * campan . disc. of span. mon. c. . p . * cont● . polit. l. . chap. . sect . * journal des scavans de l' ann. . p. . ‖ iourn . &c. de l' an. . p. , . &c. † v. polit. of france , * moyens surs , &c. pour la conversion de tous les heretiques . the second part of the second or more principal end of the dissenters . * l. bac. h. . p . * ser. . on nov. . . * d. j. l. on psal. . . feb. . a. . * melvil's mem. p . ‖ whitl . memoirs . p. . * speech at the dissol . of the house . ian. . . p. . * id. ibid. p. . * hill's se● . called temple work . a. . † d. crisp in ser. called , our sins are already laid on christ. p , . ‖ h. of indep . part . . p , . ** mert. brit. n . nov. a. . p. . * die jovis . febr. . . ‖‖ testlm . to truth of i. chr. p. . * g. fox in . j. perrot 's hidden things brought to light . p. . * hist. of the world. l. . . part c. . p. . * mr. s. sympson in a. . reform . preservat . pl , . * ruth . on dan. . . p. . a. . bes . the commons . * prayers at the end of farewell sermons . mr. u's prayer bef . serm. p. . * edwara's gangrena . part error . p. . * see edw. grangr . . part p. . ‖ directory for publick worship . p. . * tavern . pers. trav. l. . c. . p. , . * see lawf . of hearing the publick ministry , &c. by mr. nye , mr. robinson , &c. and mr. corbet's non-conformists plea for lay-communion . * mr. marshall in hist. of indep . part p. . ‖ see dr. willit's epistle dedicatory before his harm . on sam. schismaticorum ( qul vulgò brownistae ) malleum . * vox . 〈…〉 . p. , , &c. a view of some exceptions to the practical catechisme from the censures affixt on them by the ministers of london, in a book entituled a testimony to the truth of jesus christ, &c. / by h. hammond. hammond, henry, - . this text is an enriched version of the tcp digital transcription a of text r in the english short title catalog (wing h ). textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. the text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with morphadorner. the annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. this text has not been fully proofread approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. earlyprint project evanston,il, notre dame, in, st. louis, mo a wing h estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a view of some exceptions to the practical catechisme from the censures affixt on them by the ministers of london, in a book entituled a testimony to the truth of jesus christ, &c. / by h. hammond. hammond, henry, - . [i.e. ] p. printed for rich. royston ..., london : [ ] error in paging: no. - and - repeated. date of publication suggested by wing. reproduction of original in the university of illinois (urbana-champaign campus). library. eng church of england -- apologetic works. dissenters, religious -- controversial literature. theology, doctrinal. a r (wing h ). civilwar no a view of some exceptions to the practical catechisme from the censures affixt on them by the ministers of london, in a book entituled a tes hammond, henry d the rate of defects per , words puts this text in the d category of texts with between and defects per , words. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - emma (leeson) huber sampled and proofread - emma (leeson) huber text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a view of some exceptions to the practicall catechisme : from the censures affixt on them by the ministers of london , in a book entituled , a testimony to the truth of jesus christ , &c. by h. hammond d. d. london , printed for rich : royston at the angel in ivie-lane . a view of some exceptions to the practicall catechisme , &c. seeing it again appears to me by a book , that came to this town on saterday last , ( entituled , a testimony to the truth of jesus christ , &c. pretending to be subscribed by ministers of christ within the province of london ) that it is gods good pleasure to deliver me up to be evil spoken of , and accused , and to bear a yet deeper part of his bitter cup , then many others of my brethren have done , i desire to blesse and praise his name for this his goodnesse and mercy to me , and to embrace all those , who have joyn'd their hands to be instruments in this , as those whom by christs command ( particularly belonging to me on this occasion ) i am bound to love , to blesse , to pray for , and not to think of any other way of return toward them . this , i thank god , i can most cheerfully doe , and would satisfie my self to have done it in private , between god and my own soul , were there not another occasion , which makes it a little necessary for me to say somewhat publickly ; and that is the vindication of the truth of christ jesus , which they who are willing to give testimony to it , will , i hope , take from me in good part . these men pag. . in the beginning of the second branch of their testimony , ( which it seems by pag. . the whole number of the ministers have subscribed ) make mention of unsound opinions , especially abominable errors , damnable heresies , and horrid blasphemies , which are broached and maintained here in england among us , under the notion of new lights , and new truths ; many of which they have reason to judge destructive to the very fundamentall truths of christianity , &c. all of them utterly repugnant to the sacred scriptures , the occasion of much grief of heart to all the friends of truth and piety at home , the scandal and offence of all the reformed churches abroad , the unparalleld reproach of this church and nation , totally inconsistent with the covenant , and the covenanted reformation , and in a word , the very dregs and spawn of those old accursed heresies which have been already condemned , &c. after this preface and expression of their zeale to gods truth , they conclude the period with a profession , that they more particularly abominate these infamous and pernicious errours of late published among us , and hereafter recited in this ensuing catalogue , viz. errours , &c. in this catalogue , three particulars there are recited from the practical catechisme of h. hammond , . edit. london , . for which premises , i suppose , any reader will conclude , that those three particulars are by these ministers thought guilty of all those charges which they had affixt to all the unsound opinions , &c. noted by them , viz. that they are utterly repugnant to the sacred scriptures , &c. and in the modestest of their expressions , that they are infamous and pernicious errours . upon this supposition , i hold it my duty by setting down these three particulars punctually , to referre to all impartiall christians to judge whether it be a testimony to the truth of jesus christ to passe such censures on them . the first is recited by them , p. . and it is this , that christ was given to undergoe a shamefull death voluntarily upon the crosse , to satisfie for the sin of adam , and for all the sins of all mankinde . this is thus plainly set down in their catalogue of infamous and pernicious errors , but without the least note to direct what part of this proposition is liable to that charge , any farther then may be collected from the title of the errors under which 't is placed , viz : errors touching universall or generall redemption . from whence i presume to discern their meaning to be that to affirm christ to have satisfied for , or redeemed all mankinde , is this pernicious error by them abominated . and such i confesse i should acknowledge it to be , if it had any right to be joyn'd with that other by these men set under the same head [ that the damned shall be saved ] but i hope that errour hath received no patronage from that catechism , nor sure from that assertion of christs redeeming all mankind . these two propositions being very reconcileable , that christ redeemed all men , and yet that the whole number of the impenitent , unbeleiving , reprobate world shall never be saved by him . if there were any need of it , i should easily shew the way of reconciling these two , by adding that the great benefits of christs death , which i affirm to be generall , are given upon condition , not absolutely ( as gods love to the world , and , the effect of it , given his son , is not designed , that all absolutely , but that all conditionally , i. e. whosoever beleiveth in him should not perish , but have everlasting life ) & that they which doe not perform that condition ( as god knows a great multitude doe not ) shall never be saved by his death : to which purpose is that of prosper , one farre enough from all kindness to the pelagians , redemptor mundi dedit pro mundo sanguinem suum , & mundus redimi noluit , &c. the redeemer of the world gave his blood for the world , and the world would not be redeemed . ad gal : cap. . but , to confine my discourse ( without consideration of the consequences ) to the assertion it self ; i desire it may be observd , that this was not crudely set down in that catechism , but with this immediate addition [ to tast death for every man , heb. . . ] by that plain testimony of scripture confirming the truth of what was asserted , as punctually as could be imagined . for sure [ every man ] signifies all mankind , as that notes singulos generis humani , in the largest notion of the word , and tasting death for them is satisfying for their sins . if this testimony ( so clear , that it alone hath , to my knowledge , convinc'd one as learned a man as doth in this church of ours maintain the doctrines contrary to the remonstrants ) be not thought sufficient to support this assertion , i shall then ex abundanti adde these other plain testimonies ; not onely that of gods giving his onely sonne , mentioned by christ as an effect or expression of his love to the world , ( which it would not be , if he did not give him for the world , whom he is said to love ) but ( to prevent all distinctions concerning the notion of the world , as if it signified , onely the elect ) more particularly these two ; first that of pet. . . where the lord , i. e. christ , is plainly said to have bought ( i. e. paid the price , satisfied for ) them , who deny him , and bring upon themselves swift destruction : to which agrees chat of cor. . . where the weak brother , of whom 't is said , that by another mans scandal he shall perish , is described to be one for whom christ died . the other testimony which i shall adde , is that of s. paul , cor. . . which i desire the intelligent reader to observe : where speaking of the constreining obliging love of christ , he saith , we thus judge , that if one died for all , then were all dead , that is , surely , all in the full latitude , not only the elect but all others ; and this conclusion the apostle infers by this medium , because one , i. e. christ died for all , which being a proof of the other , must certainly be as true , and as acknowledged ( if not more ) as that which 't is brought to prove : and particularly the [ all ] for whom he died , be as unlimited as the [ all ] that were prov'd from thence to be dead , or else the apostle could not judge ( as he saith he doth ) or conclude the death of all in adam by that mediū . from this arguing of the apostle i shall make no question to infer , that in s. pauls divinity , christ died for all who are dead in adam ; and on that occasion i shall adde , by the way , that the contrary doctrine [ of christs not dying for all ] was by the antients affixt on pelagius upon that ground , of his affirming that all ( i. e. that infants ) were not faln in adam , and so needed not to be redeem'd by christ . thus is appears by s. aug : cont. . epist. pelag : l. . c. . pelagiani dicunt deum non esse omnium aetatum in hominibus mundatorem , salvatorem , liberatorem , &c. and when the massilians , to vindicate themselves from that charge of s. augustines , confesse that christ died for all mankinde , as it appeares by prospers epistle ) prosper expresses no manner of dislike of that confession , but formes other charges against them . and the truth is , there is scarce any antient writer before pelagius , but hath directly asserted christs dying for all , the testimonies of irenaeus , clemens , origen , macarius , cyrill of jerusalem , eusebius , athanasius , and many others might readily be produced , if that were needfull . and then let it be guest also , which of the two positions , the affirmative or the negative , best deserves the charge of being the spawn of those old accursed heresies , which have been already condemned , &c. the same i could adde from many the learnedst protestants , which never were thought to be tainted with any antient or modern heresie ( though others i know have exprest themselves otherwise ) but i need not such auxiliaries . to conclude this point , i suppose in affirming or vindicating this position , i have born testimony to the truth of christ , from whom , and whose apostles i professe to have learn'd this truth , and to conceive it ( for the sense of it ) as fully testified by plain scriptures , as many articles of the creed ; and for the expression used in the pract : catechisme of [ all mankind ] i must acknowledge to have learn'd it from the church of england ( of which i doe yet with joy professe my self an obedient son and member ) in those words of her catechisme , establisht by act of parliament , and inserted in the book of lyturgie , where i was taught , [ to beleive in god the father , who created me and all the world , in god the son , who redeemed me and all mankinde , and in god the holy ghost , who sanctified me and all the elect people of god ; where mankinde as it is of a narrower extent on one side then all the world of creatures , so is it to be understood of a larger , then all the elect people of god ; and so much for the first charge . the second is set down pag. . and it is this . that neither paul nor james exclude or separate faithfull actions or acts of faith from faith , or the condition of justification , but absolutely require them , as the only things by which the man is justified . what is thus set down i acknowledge to be in terminis in the practical catechisme , but cannot easily guesse wherein the errour or perniciousnesse is conceived to lie , unlesse it should possibly be thorow a mistake of the phrase [ the only things by which the man is justified ] as if by that speech should be understood , either that the faithfull actions or acts of faith without faith it self , were the only things by which we are justified , or else that all the things there spoken of , faith , and faithfull actions , or acts of faith are the only cause , and so some cause of our justification , or by which , as by a cause , we are justified ; either of these i confesse might passe for an errour , but both these doctrines i have sufficiently disclaim'd ; and indeed in this very proposition 't is affirm'd that the faithfull actions or acts of faith are not excluded or separated from faith ( which they must be if they justifie without faith ) or the condition of justification ( i. e. from that faith which is considered as , and affirm'd to be the condition of our justification ) but by those two apostles absolutely required , to what ? why to faith , or the condition of our justification , as the only things together with it by which as by a condition , and only so ( as 't is clearly set down all over that part of the catechisme , which handles faith or justification ) the man is justified . this i suppose may give these men some light of their mistake , if it were such : but if they understand the speech as then and now i doe , and yet think it error , and pernicious , i must then only prove that what was said from s. james and s. paul , was not by me falsly imposed upon them , and then they must either maintain my speech , or fall with me in the same condemnation . that s. james doth not exclude or separate faithful actions , or acts of faith , from faith , or the condition of justification , but require them , ( i. e. faith , and faithfull actions , or acts of faith ) as the only things by which , as by a condition , the man is justified will be clear by the definition of a condition in logick , and the plain words of s james ; a condition is a qualification of the subject required to make him capable , or a causa sine quâ non ; and so a condition of justification is no more , then that without which a man cannot be justified ; and that is the direct affirmation of s. james , c. . . ye see that by works ( i. e. faithful actions , or acts of faith ) a man is justified , and not by faith only : and again , faith if it have not works , v. . and faith without works , v. . is dead , and so sure , not such as by wch we are justified . from whence i form this syllogisme , that , without which , in s. james's opinion , we are not justified , and by which joyn'd with faith we are justified , not by faith only , is not by s. james excluded or separated from faith , or the condition of our justification , but required together with faith , as the only things by which ( as by a condition ) the man is justified . but without acts of faith or faithfull actions , in s. james's opinion , we are not justified , and by them we are justified , and not by faith only , therefore faithfull actions , or acts of faith are not by s. james excluded or separated from faith , or the condition of our justification , but required together with faith , as the only things by which ( as by a condition ) the man is justified . the first proposition is clear from the nature of a condition ; the second from the words cited out of s. james , and then i hope the conclusion will neither be errour nor pernitious . then for s. paul 't is made evident in the pract : catechism that the faith by which according to his doctrine abraham was justified ( and not by works ) rom. . was not only a depending on god for the performance of his promise ( which yet was a faithfull action , or act of faith , but also a resigning himself up wholly to him to obey his precepts ; or more clearly , was a faith , which , howsoever it was tried by promises or commands , did answer god in acts of faith , or faithfull actions ; and so was accepted by god ( without absolute unsinning obedience , much more without obedience to the mosaicall law , i e. without works ) all which is clear in the story of abraham , and i suppose need not farther be evidenced . and then concerning s. pauls part in the businesse , my syllogisme shall be this , he that affirms abraham to be justified by that faith , which , howsoever 't was tried , did answer god in acts of faith or faithfull actions , doth not exclude or separate faithfull actions or acts of faith from faith , or the condition of our justification , but absolutely requires them , &c. but s. paul affirms abraham to be justified by that faith , which howsoever 't was tried , did answer god in faithfull actions , or acts of faith , therefore s. paul doth not exclude or separate faithfull actions , &c. the first proposition i conceive wants little proving , after that which hath been already premised in this matter . and for the second i shall desire that abrahams faith , as it hath justification attributed to it by s. paul , may be viewed both in the th to the rom. and the th to the heb. in the former his faith was tried by the promise of a numerous seed , &c. and he answered that with one act of faith , or faithfull action , beleived in hope , beyond hope , v. . was strong in faith and gave glory to god , v. . was fully perswaded , that what god had promised , he was able to perform , v. . all which what are they but acts of faith , or faithfull actions ; all , which ( when the object of the faith is gods absolute promise ) the matter is capable of , and for this it was counted to him for righteousnesse , or he was justified , v. . and thence sure i may conclude , that these were so required , as the condition by which he was , and without which he should not be justified . in the th to the heb. many other acts of his faith or faithfull actions are mentioned , v , . by faith he obeyed to goe out of his own country , not knowing whither he went , and v. . by faith he sojourn'd in a strange land , v. . by faith he expected a city , that hath foundations , v. . by faith he offered his son , and v. . counted that god was able to raise him up from the dead , v. . by faith he blessed isaac concerning things to come . what are all these but acts of faith , or faithfull actions in all kinds of tryals ? and therefore i suppose all this being out of s. paul , as the former out of s. james , 't will be no errour or pernicious from their very words to have affirm'd this doctrine , and affixt it on them . i suppose also this may serve for the second proposition . the third is set down p. . from pract : catech : p. . and 't is this , that [ thou shalt not take the name of the lord thy god in vain ] is undoubtedly no more then [ thou shalt not forswear thy self . ] to this charge i answer first , that it is a little strange , that a bare explication of a phrase of scripture , a part of the third commandement in exod. though it were acknowledged false , or forc'd , should yet be so farre improvable by any , as to come under the title of an infamous pernicious errour , a spawn of the old accursed heresies , &c. and be capable of all those other aggravations at first mentioned , which being affixt to all the errours in the catalogue , must also be affixt to this which is set down for one of them . but then secondly , for the truth , ( most undoubted certain truth ) of this explication , or interpretation , thus censured , i have formerly at large made it appear , that the words [ to take the name of god ] signifie to swear , and no more , and the hebrew which we render in vain , signifies [ falsly ] and is so rendred in the ninth commandment , and agreeable to that , psal. . to lift up the soul to vanity , is to swear by the soul or life falsly , as it there followes , nor sworn to deceive his neighbour , and beside my own judgment in this matter , back'd with the consent of as learned as this age hath , or the antient church had any , i conceived that i had a most authentick warrant from christ himself , who renders it {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} , thou shalt not forswear thy self : for so we read mat. . ye have heard that it was said to them of old , thou shalt not kill , and again in the same manner , thou shalt not commit adultery , that is , that of the ten commandments delivered in sinai , and brought down by scripture , to them his present auditors , one commandment was , thou shalt not kill , another , thou shalt not commit adultery , and so again in the very same form of words , another , thou shalt not forswear thy self , from which i did assure my self ( and so still doe ) that {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} , is as directly the interpretation ( in christs judgment ) of the first part of the third commandment , as {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} , or {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} of the seventh and sixth , and so that it is undoubtedly no more the one then the other . and indeed this was the only occasion of delivering those words in the practical catech : to shew that christ did not misreport the words of the commandements , nor yet referre to any other place but that commandment in those words of his . and though i have many other things , that i could say to that matter , able to free that speech from all imaginable inconveniences ( especially when in that place christs prohibition is explain'd to be against all kind of swearing ( by any other as well as by god ) in ordinary conversation , or in any case but wherein it is necessary to confirm by oath ) yet i am very willing to leave the matter here , upon this account at this time given of it , ● . e. in my opinion on christs score , and not fear what any ingenuous reader will charge on me for this interpretation . i beseech god to forgive them which have brought this unnecessary trouble upon the reader ; and for my self i have to them these two only requests , . that they will examine themselves sincerely , and as in gods sight , what the motive or design was , which perswaded them to single out me alone ( who professe my self , and am by all that know me acknowledged to hold nothing contrary to the church of england , and will justifie it to any man that knows what the church of england is ) and joyn me with the broachers of all the blasphemies and heresies of this age : and ly , that they will lay to heart the consequences which may naturally flow from hence , if god doe not uphold weak christians , who seeing so many doctrines of very distant natures blended together , with the same brand of [ heresie and blasphemy , infamous and pernicious ] fastned on them , and no kind of proofs annext , that any are such ( beside the judgment of the censors ) may possibly find some of them to be the infallible truths of god , and be tempted ( if they have not stronger antidotes then this bare testimony will afford them ) to have the same thoughts of the other also ; or if not , whether they will not be inclined to have the same severity and condemnation for me , or any other asserter of such propositions as these , as they are taught to have for the authors of those other blasphemous propositions , and so be tempted to uncharitablenesse . having said thus much , i shall hope it may find some good successe among some who have subscribed that testimony : but if i am mistaken in all of them , i shall then desire that this improsperous paper may gain me but thus much , that either the first subscriber mr john downam ( who did license the printing of this very book , from whence all these pretended errours are cited ) or else dr gouge , or mr gataker , who are foremost of the second rank , or some other person of learning and christian temper will afford me their patience personally , and by fair discourse , or any other christian way , to debate the truth of our pretensions ; and for this i shall wait their leisure . from my study , christ-ch : in oxon. jan. . munday . h. hammond . the end . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a e- edit. iiꝪ . but p. . edit. vꝪ . an. . a faithful rebuke to a false report lately dispersed in a letter to a friend in the country concerning certain differences in doctrinals, between some dissenting ministers in london. alsop, vincent, or - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing a estc r this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a faithful rebuke to a false report lately dispersed in a letter to a friend in the country concerning certain differences in doctrinals, between some dissenting ministers in london. alsop, vincent, or - . , [ ] p. printed for john lawrence, at the angel in the poultrey, london : m.dc.xcvii. [ ] by vincent alsop. final leaf bears errata and advertisement. a reply to: williams, daniel. gospel truth stated and vindicated .., and to lobb, stephen. a report of the state of the differences .. reproduction of the original in the british library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng williams, daniel, ?- . -- gospel-truth stated and vindicated wherein some of dr. crisp's opinions are considered -- early works to . lobb, stephen, d. . -- report of the present state of the differences in doctrinals, between some dissenting ministers in london -- early works to . dissenters, religious -- england -- early works to . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - judith siefring sampled and proofread - judith siefring text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a faithful rebuke to a false report : lately dispersed in a letter to a friend in the country . concerning certain differences in doctrinals , between some dissenting ministers in london . exod. . . thou shalt not raise a false report . jer. . . report ( say they ) and we will report it . london : printed for john lawrence , at the angel in the poultrey . m.dc.xcvii . dear friend , it 's grown of late the mode with some to communicate their sentiments , under the colour and cover of a letter to a friend in the country . in complyance with the humour , i have given mine ● same inscription : but you shall excuse me if i imi●e not the disingenuity , the prevarication , the parti●ty of the reporter , though i comply with the fashion general . whoever makes a report , ought to be un● the severe law of conscience , to speak the truth , whole truth , and nothing but the truth ; that is , who●r will report , ought not to make his report ; for an ●●●torian must never be the author of his history . i can afford to pass by the reporters assuming spirit , ●o determines who are the most learned of each party , ●ause i know not by what authority he ventures upon 〈◊〉 nor whether he be duly qualified for such a deter●ation ; tho' he has a friend in the city , who has pro●med him all over the town , a learned divine : ● shall i concern my self at his reflections on those or seven presbyterians ; who , he says , are of the bignames amongst them ; hoping they can be content ●e of no name , when the name of the lord iesus ●st , may be glorified in them : though perhaps they ● not so tamely suffer their names to be trampled in dirt by every insolent scribler . i pass by also his temptuous stuff , at those who meet at little st. hel● though you know it is the body of the united bre● who meet there ; of which number he himself one with others , however now absented from the ● and the union too ; and is now laudably imploy'd in misrepresenting them or some of them , principal or accessaries as inclining towards the unitarians : nor will it be worth the while to take notice of his affected terms , pursuances , explosion , &c. for your great wit● fancy now and then to be pedantick , nor are they fo● little fooleries to be accountable . but it will deserve a serious remark , that since these persons are resolved never to unite with them , ye● they might have suffered the poor presbyterians to live quietly by ' em . they might at least have let the spark● of contention silently die and be buried in their own ashes , and not have blown them up into this flam● in the country , which they had kindled in the city light indeed is pleasant , but i like not the sparks an● flames that come from a forge . that little artifice which the reporter may glory i● is obvious , and needs not my observation , that his paper came out at a juncture when he knew the unite ministers had adjourned their meetings , and so mig● hope to poison the country , before they could prescrib● and send down the proper antidote ; and that his fir● balls might put you all in a flame , before the ministe● could rally to quench it . but you expect to be entertained with more substanti● matters . i. and therefore i present you with the substance of the gospel of christ , as he has presented it : we are all● nature under the curse of the law , and destitute of righteousness intituling to eternal life . this is our state a● condition : this is the place in which we are : in which , we dye , we are undone eternally : for vindicative iustic which is essential to god , makes it necessary that the wra● be inflicted , and that there be no right to eternal life , wit● out a perfect meritorious righteousness . that all who believ● might escape the wrath to come , and have everlasting life the lord iesus christ undertakes for us , by making satisf●ction both to punitive and remunerative iustice : and that might do so , he put himself into our place , state and condi●●on : so that whereas we were sin , and under a curse , ●y this blessed change christ is made sin , and a curse , and ●e delivered from sin , and the curse , cor. . . gal. . . pag. . this he tells us is the substance of the gospel of christ : which if it be , and sound at the bottom , is the worst ●rawn up of any i ever read . ( . ) out of his substance of the gospel , he has left regeneration , conversion , repentance , holiness , sanctification a new heart , and new obedience , good works &c. a blessed report for the country ! you are eased at least of one moiety of your work , though i question whether your consci●nces will take his security that this is the substance of ●he gospel which you are to preach to the people . woe ●o that poor people , whether in city or country , who ●t down under such preachers , who make this the substance of their preaching ; for though they may now and then , upon the by , hint a little at repentance and so ●orth , yet that 's but accidental to the gospel ; the sub●ance lies in what christ has suffered for them ; 't is meer accident what he is by the spirit to work in them ; much more what is ( if any thing be ) to to be done by ●hem . ( . ) but suppose this were intended only as the substance of the gospel so far as we are to believe what christ has done and suffered for sinners without them , ●nd with god ; yet there 's something in this draught ●hat gives cause of suspicion to those who are of no ●ealous inclinations : for whereas he informs us , that christ suffered and satisfyed , that all who believe might ●cape wrath to come , and have everlasting life : here 's ●o necessity of faith in order to justification , no be●eving necessary to pardon of sin , or peace with god : no faith needful to union with christ , that we may ●ave an interest in his righteousness , but only to escape ●rath to come , and the having everlasting life . well! give me my bible again ! i will subscribe without equ●vocation to the apostle , rom. . . being justified b● faith we have peace with god through our lord iesus christ. ( . ) be pleased to observe . he instructs you : tha● we are all by nature under the curse of the law , and dest●tute of a righteousness that may intitle us to eternal life and that this was our place , state and condition : which we all own and lament as too true : but then he instruct you also , that christ put himself into our place , state and condition : will you not , must you not conclude from hence , that christ also was destitute of a righteousness t● intitle him , and if himself , us too , to eternal life ? ( . ) such an inference is obvious ; but it will requir● more application of mind to discern the fallacy i● these words . so that whereas we were sin , and unde● a curse , by this blessed change christ is made sin , and under a curse , and we delivered from sin and curse ; here beg your most critical attention . . we are sin ; and under a curse : can you with a● your penetration , divine the reason , why it 's said , w● are sin ? that we are sinners by nature , that we are sinful is an acknowledged truth ; but how are we sin we are altogether delighted with sin , we are under th● condemnation of the law for sin , but that is no other than to be under the curse : why must it be phrase● thus , we are sin ? it was poetically and satyrically said that alexander the sixth was non tam vitiosus quam vi●tium , non tam scelest us quam scelus : but we need to be taught how man was sin ? sin it self ? . you shall now see the mystery of his phraseology it was to mis-lead you into that abomination ; tha● christ was sinful , that he was a sinner : for if christ was sin in the same acceptation that we are , then he was sinful , he was a sinner , and the greatest sinner tha● ever was in the world : that christ was made sin , sacrifice for sin , that he bore the curse due to sin , is so express the language of scripture , that he that denies th● former must disbelieve the latter : but what needed he say that we were sin , and then that christ was made sin , unless he would insinuate that christ was sin in ●he same sense that we were sin , that is sinful ? but this is the fruit of going to cambridge to learn to quibble . ( . ) will you observe with me the last words of his ●cheme , and substance of the gospel of christ : by his blessed change christ is made sin , and curse , and we delivered from sin and curse . ipso facto ! no doubt ; but i humbly conceive , without the usual complement ●f submitting to better judgments , that whatever christ suffered , however he was made sin , and curse , yet here 's an order setled by the divine will in which ●e application of the sufferings of christ , and satis●ction given thereon , shall be made : and that whoeer expects to partake of the benefits thereof , ●aust by ●race believe , repent , and accept of christ , as god as offered him in the gospel ; and that the elect are ●ot justified from that moment wherein christ suffered ●nd gave satisfaction to justice for their sins : this ●ght to have been more clearly worded before it had ●een proposed to , or imposed upon our faith as the substance of the gospel of christ. ( . ) you would be satisfied , and so would i , why ●is gentleman could not be contented to give us the doctrine of redemption and satisfaction , as they are ●ady drawn up to our hands in the confession of faith ● the church of england , as in that of the assembly at westminster , or in that of the savoy ; but that we must ●ve a super●oe●ation of articles , new schemes of reli●on every new-year , spawning of creeds , and equip●ng of confessions every campaign , when the thing ●s been done so of●en already , and much better ? for ●e that cannot allow him to be a faithful reporter in ●atter of fact , can much less trust him to pen for us ●atter of faith. that he took on him the person of sinners : you must understand that he now refers to a certain paper drawn up by some private ministers , whereof you will hear more in due time ; now their words run thus : we conceive that the doctrine of iustification , and of christ's satisfaction , on which it depends , cannot be duly explained , and defended consistently with the denial of any commutation of persons between christ and believers : so then according to this paper there must be some commutation of persons between christ and believers . but . he has foisted in those words taking on him the person of sinners : . that the commutation those brethren speak of , is between christ and believers ; and therefore i am convinced that this reporter will never be trusted in his arguings , or repeating of other mens words . § . and to what end does he thus needlesly multiply terms of art without any apparent necessity , that the controversy has of ' em ? all that the case of sinners required for satisfaction to divine justice , was a substistute , or sacrifice to be offered for our sins ; for the substitute to take on him the punishment due to them ; but to take upon him the person of sinners ; as the phrase is new and uncouth , so it 's to me unintelligible , till they who have invented it shall interpret it , and if ever they should be so ill advised as to give it a fixed sense , they must either make it signify no more than that christ died in our stead ; or else enlarge it to such a breadth as will admit all the extravagancies of antinomianism . § . for i will make a fair motion , or propound a modest question : this phrase of christ's taking upon him the person of sinners ; does it signify more or less , than christ's taking on him our sins , and suffering for them in our place and stead ; or does it signify neither more nor less , but is just adaequate and commensurate to , and with it ? if it signifies less , then it limits and narrows the end of christ's sufferings , and will be a sense only serving the turn of a socinian ; if it signifies more than that , then it comes of evil and leads to evil , even to the dreggs of antinomianism ; but if it signifies neither more nor less than christ's standing and suffering in our place and stead , when he offer'd himself to god ; then i embrace it , subscribe it with my whole soul. but then what need is there to pester and vex the christian faith with a word which signifies neither more nor less than that old term which has obtain'd so long in the world , that we cannot be deceived in it : whereas this new phrase , christ suffered in , or took upon him the person of sinners , is a phrase to puzzle and confound mens understandings . § . i think therefore we ought in the first place to inquire what they mean by the person of sinners ? and then to inquire about christ's taking it up . does it import that all sinners are united , and are to be supposed , conceived , considered as one person ? and so christ died , suffered , satisfied for that one person ? very good ! then i perceive we are tackt about to the tents of the arminians , and do suppose that christ died for all equally : for if all sinners be one , or to be reputed as one person , and christ took upon him that one person , it will be difficult for all their divi●ing and prescinding skill to make it out how he died for one , and not for another , seeing all these sinners , as in christ's eye , are but one single person . now i do not once conceive that this is their sense , for they are too far gone the other way : but by this way of expressing my self , i would provoke and tempt 'em to fix a tolerable meaning upon the phrase ; though it were more reasonable that they should choose a sound phrase for a sound meaning , than torture an incorrigible phrase into an honest meaning against its will. the purer primitive times were wisely concerned for the preserving the truth , that they decreed in the sixth general council ; that it should not be lawful to introduce 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , any unusual way of speaking , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , any new invented terms , upon great penalties ; and a modest regard to this canon had prevented a world of miscief , and all this blunder and confusion which 〈◊〉 arbitrary terms have produced among 〈◊〉 § . i will shut up this head of discourse with this modest proposal : let this matter be thus worded : that christ in his suffering and dying was considered by god , and placed himself in the place and stead of all the elect ; so that he made satisfaction to the divine iustice for all their sins ; the benefits and advantages whereof , every individual person shall partake of , in that order and method , and upon those terms , which the wise and holy god has prescribed in the gospel : which proposition you , and i , and all sober persons in the city and country would readily subscribe , and leave these gentlemen , who it seems are at leisure to invent new controversies , to their own imperious humours . ii. the reporter has miserably imposed upon you in matter of fact , nor has he shewn that due regard to truth , which he and all of us owe to so great a soveraign : a few instances i will give you , that you may be convinced how little reason you have to take him or his narrative upon their bare words . ( . ) one specimen of his honesty , you shall meet with at the entrance of his paper ; and its ominous to stumble at the threshold , lest he should break the neck of his whole discourse . and thus in a pompous stile he breaks into the business : after sundry attempts made by the industrious pacificators , an instrument was pitcht upon , which gave satisfaction to the most learned of both parties : this paper was sent by six or seven of the biggest name among them , who do , or at least have gone under the denomination of presbyterians , unto some congregational brethren , and gladly embraced by them . now , sir , do you not judge that this instrument which gave such satisfaction to , and was so gladly imbraced by the congregational men , had redintegrated the violated union , had reclaimed them who had deserted their former station ; that all distances were wholly removed , and jealousies and suspicions of socinianism on the one side , and antinomianism on the other were cured , and that a coalition between the two parties had hereupon ensued ; that they were all now got together again at little st. hellens ? i assure you , sir , not one word of this was true ; and that you shall truly learn from these particulars : . whereas he affirms this gave satisfaction to the most learned of each party : what does he then think of mr. tho. cole , and mr. nath. mather ? are not these to be reckon'd in the number of the most learned of that party ? these great persons will hardly return him thanks for expunging them the catalogue , unless they judge him no competent judge of their learning . . whereas he tells us that it gave satisfaction to the most learned of each party : it appears it gave no satisfaction at all : for they of the congregational interest never intended to receive such satisfaction , as to return to a re-union ; and this was openly avowed by one of that number , who was not of the least name , nor made the smallest figure amongst them , that they never designed to enter into an union with the presbyterians : and of this i can produce incontestible proof ; this rational jealousy was the reason why mr. g. hammond refused his hand to that paper , yet declaring , ( if the reporter says true ) he would gladly have done it , if it might be a mean to restore union ; which he had just grounds to believe it never would , and therefore refused . the truth is , it was known from first to last through the whole transaction of that affair , that this expedient would never retrieve the union ; only if they could get any advantage by it , to put a slur upon mr. d. williams , this they would gladly embrace , and then let the union shift for it self . . but will you see with your own eyes how these gentlemen were satisfied , and how gladly they embraced the first paper ? thus it was ; after all the pains taken ; after much attendance , great courting of , and waiting upon them , they obtained this little , this no●hing , or nothing to the purpose of re-union : they are glad to find so good an agreement amongst us , as this paper doth express : no doubt , a little is better than nothing , and so much agreement as this comes to , is better than going to logerheads : but are there any expressions that intimate they are satisfied upon the terms of this paper to unite ? do they express any embracing of communion with one another ? ( . ) i come now to a second instance of the reporters regard to truth , where you will easily observe how by a wretched synecdoche , he has given you a part for the whole of a just narrative . this is called the politicks of the pismire , which nibbles off the grain at both ends , that it may never grow , but come to nothing : or rather , this report is framed according to the law of a good heroick poem , which , our criticks tell us , must always commence at the middle of the story ; this is the method of our reporter , who enters upon his report about the middle of his matter , and therefore expect a pure poetical fiction . he begins with the mention of pacification : i think he should have informed his country friend ; that there was once an union ; that this union was broken ; and then who they were that made the breach , and upon what grounds ; and how the breach was pieced up again ; and then how it was without any visible reason broken again ; and then he might seasonably have enter'd upon the story of his so celebrated attempts for pacification : now , sir , to supply the deficiency of his story , i 'll give you a full and faithful account of the whole , wherein i shall inform you of nothing but what you know already . § . in the year . after many meetings of ministers of both persuasions , after frequent applications to the throne of grace ; certain heads of agrement were drawn up , and assented to by about eighty ministers in and about the city of london , and by some others in a little time . this agreement was solemnly transacted , and seriously concluded with this protestation : as we assent to the forementioned heads of agreement , so we unanimously resolve , as the lord shall enable us , to practise according to them . amongst those heads assented to , the eighth contains the test and standard of orthodoxy , and speaks thus : as to what appertains to soundness of iudgment in matters of faith , we esteem it sufficient that a church acknowledge the scriptures to be the word of god , the perfect and only rule of faith and practice ; and own either the doctrinal part of those commonly called the articles of the church of england ; or the confession , or catechisms shorter or larger , compiled by the assembly at westminster ; or the confession agreed on at the savoy , to be agreeable to the said rule . this agreement was the honour and strength of the dissenters , and in the practice of which they made the greatest figure in the eyes of all wise men : they became the rejoycing of their friends , the envy of their enemies , to whom they had formerly been a scorn . in the practice of this union they walked together ●eaceably , holding communion in prayer , preaching ●he word , and sacraments ; mutually strengthning the hands of each other , consulting , counselling and advi●ng , and assisting one another ; and one of the great ●lessings of this union was , that they contributed to the relief of their poorer brethren in the country , supporting and encouraging them in the work of the lord. § . but a little before this , a new impression , of dr. crisp's works , with an addition of some sermons came into the world , which was judged by some to contain divers strange doctrines , ether evidently erroneous , or of dubious construction , creating a suspicion in some tender minds , lest some doctrines were openly vouched , or secretly couched in them which might disturb the harmony of the confession they had signed , and without great care and caution , might weaken , if not dissolve the union . § . this awaken'd some of the more zealous among the united brethren to consider of some proper expedient to obviate the growth of those errors : amongst and before the rest , mr. williams , a brother of the union , composed a book stiled , gospel truth stated and vindicated , wherein some of dr. crisp ' s errors are considered , &c. a book , to say no more , ingeniously penned ▪ exactly methodized , the truths and errors fairly stated , and for ought i can see , piously designed . to this book upon its first edition , several ministers gave their judgment thus far ; that he had ( in all that was material ) fully and rightly stated the truths and errors , &c. and in 〈◊〉 second edition many more gave their iudgment of it in th● same words . § . but now , sir , as if aeolus had opened all the treasures of his blustring winds ; or a flood-gate had been drawn up to let in the sea upon us ; such a storm of passion , such indignation against the author and his book , broke out , as had almost overset the united brethren with their union , if providence had not timously interposed by a powerful word ; peace , be still ! for upon the th of october , . a paper wa● brought in to the brethren at dr. annesly's meeting● house , importing a heavy and high charge against th● ●uthor and his work , subscribed by six brethren , is●ancy , geo. griffith , tho. cole , nath. mather , rich. tay● , rob. trayle . accusing him , amongst other things , fall in with the antinomians , under colour of opposing ●em : for setting up a way of justification by evangeli● works : that he denies the covenant of grace to● made with christ , with some others , and a reserve more objections , and articles of impeachment to ● alledged in due time . now , sir ! whilst its fresh upon my memory , let ●e beg your patience while i make , and your pardon ●at i do make some short observations upon this ●aper . . i will observe to you , that among the many and ●ievous crimes laid to his charge , they never objected ●at he denied a change of persons between christ and us : 〈◊〉 that he denied christ's taking upon him the person of sin●ers ; and yet now all the quarrel centers in this one ●ing ; that which i note it for is , that you may employ our piercing head in considering what should be the ●eason that all the weight , all the stress is ●aid upon this ? . observe further , that the phrase of change of per●ns between christ and us , and his taking upon him the ●erson of sinners , are terms wholly unknown to those ●onfessions and articles which were made the test of ●oundness in the faith , by the united ministers . nay , ● you have the leisure , search the whole body of con●essions of the reformed churches from helvetia to tran●ylvania , thence to america , and you shall not find these terms , phrases or expressions in any one of them . . hence you will infer that mr. williams cannot , up●n that account , be judged erroneous by any of the reformed churches , seeing he has not ( as it does not appear that he has ) contravened any of their doctrinal articles ; nor can he , or ought he to be censured by the ●ody of the united ministers , because he never subscribed to these expressions , inasmuch as they 're not to be found in any of those articles which made the standa●● of soundness in the faith. . and let me observe this further , that amongst 〈◊〉 six persons that gave in the charge against mr. william one moiety of them never entred into the union ; a●● it 's strange upon what principles they should char●● mr. williams as breaking that union , when they the●selves had never enter'd into it . after this short , but necessary digression , i will no● re-assume my narrative . § . matters standing in this dubious posture , and v●sibly inclining to a scandalous rupture , some brethre● of a cooler temper ( and there were always such amo● the differing parties ) moved that an equal number 〈◊〉 the brethren , and of each side , might be chosen to a●vise and consider if any healing expedient might 〈◊〉 found out to beget a right understanding between th● litigant parties : it was done , the ministers convene● and after many servent prayers for the spirit of lig●● and love , the result was this ; that nine articl● were drawn up and subscribed by the chosen brethre● by mr. williams and mr. chauncy , and when brought 〈◊〉 the body of the united brethren , it received their approbation . § . amongst the nine articles then agreed on , 〈◊〉 shall only mention part of the third and the fift● articles , because these relate to our present controversies . . article , of christ the mediator . the lord iesus christ by his perfect obedience , and sacrifice of himself , which he through the eternal spirit once offe●ed up to god , hath fully satisfied the iustice of his father . . article . of iustification , &c. those whom god effectually calleth , he also freely justifieth ; 〈◊〉 by infusing righteousness into them , but by pardoning their ●●ns , and by accounting , and accepting their persons as ●ighteous , not for any thing wrought in them , but for ●●rist's sake alone ; nor by his imputing faith it self , the act of ●elieving , or any other evangelical obedience to them , as ●●eir righteousness , but by imputing the obedience and satis●●ction of christ unto them , they receiving and resting on him ●nd his righteousness by faith , which faith they have not of ●●emselves , it is the gift of god. § . these things thus setled , they proceed to a for●al and solemn agreement . decemb. . this day the brethren who endea●oured to accommodate the controversy , did with mr. wil●iams , mr. chauncy , and the other five brethren , who with him objected against mr. williams his book , subscribe 〈◊〉 this agreement , and these doctrinal propositions . samuel annesly . daniel williams , isaac chauncy . matth. barker . edw. veal . iohn iames. stephen lobb . iohn howe . vinc. alsop . geo. hammond . rich. mayo . sam. slater . geo. griffith . tho. cole . nath. mather . rob. trayle . rich. tayler . dec. . . this expedient was brought to a meeting of the united ministers , who unanimously expressed their approbation . but for the preface to these articles , the articles themselves , and the words of the approbation , i must , to avoid tediousness refer you to the printed paper . § . to proceed : the two sticks are once mo● made one , and the broken bone being set by a skill hand , we hope will be the stronger ; not because it w● luxated , but because it was skilfully restored . th● matters are happily compromised , union and peace covered , and the united brethren chearfully pursue t● great ends of their union : a great disappointment t● gave to the devil , who rejoiced in their divisions . a● now , dear sir , what are your thoughts ? can the ● nemy any more sow his tares in the field amongst t● good grain ? will not the brethren hereafter take mo● care of taking and giving offences ? will they n● henceforth watch lest any root of bitterness shou● spring up , and give 'em trouble ? i will noe to you few things : . here was the result of what understanding th● all had , in drawing up these articles , and they thoug● they had sufficiently fenced their union against all inv●sions from socinian , arminian and antinomian op●nions . . all objections then made against mr. williams h● book are accounted ●or : all antecedent quarrels a● buried in the grave of this agreement : whatever co●troversies might arise from any thing mr. williams ha● then written , are from the day of the date hereof , f●ever shut out of doors . . therefore any new started debates about chang● of persons , or christ's taking upon him the person of sinners , are void , and of none effect ; if mr. williams shal● hereafter write or preach any thing in derogation of the subscribed articles , it will oblige him to make satisfaction ; but for his book , that has received its com-pur●gation . as the law will not permit suits to be immortal the gospel forbids controversies to be eternal . 't is only the savage creature the hyaena , that loves to dig up dead bodies out of their graves ; and none ought to be ambitious of the woman of endor's excellency , that she would not let samuel sleep quietly among the ●ad . . notwithstanding the late re-union , the united brethren soon found there was some dissatisfaction in 〈◊〉 breasts of the reconciled brethren , who gradually ●drew from their assemblies and common meetings , ● not only so , but set up another opposite meeting , ● neighbouring place , at the very hour , and on the ●e day that the united brethren assembled at dr. an●ey's : some few of them would now and then drop when they had occasion to serve themselves of the ●ion , and commonly there was one or two to spy 〈◊〉 their liberty , whether meerly from their own in●ations , or ordered to that unworthy imployment their principals ; and if they could pick up any thing ●y conceived might be grateful at pinners-hall , they ●uld not fail to give advice of it , while the poor incent presbyterians were seriously consulting the ho●●ur of their lord , and promoting the interest of reli●●●n , without respect to party or faction . nevertheless the brethren went on in the way of their ●ty , and though they had but slender hopes of retrie●g their brethren to reason , were willing to call them ●pes still , rather than to sit down and sink in utter ●espair : and therefore not standing on points of ho●●ur , as if they who first departed without cause , should ●st seek to return , they were willing rather to imitate ●eir gracious god , who first invites the sinners to re●nt , and turn , though the sons of adam were first in ●e revolt . they thought it more glorious to yield in ●der to peace ; than to be stiff , though in a just war. ●here being therefore a brother yet left of the other ●umber , who had not quite fallen off ; one that had ● excellent talent in dressing up creeds and articles , ● was imployed , or imployed himself to bring in rude ●raughts of new articles ; and they were rude ●●deed . in may , . another attempt was made for peace● if peradventure they might recover the dissenting bre●thren into the bosom of the union , and articles we● framed of different natures ; by some of which they e●●deavoured to clear themselves of the least suspicion 〈◊〉 arminianism ; by the others they were desirous the di●senters should purge themselves of all suspicion of incl●●ning to the antinomians . the paper then sent to the other party was as fo●●lows . we the united ministers in and about london , co●sidering of a way to preserve the union and preve● any mistakes , and remove any prejudices that may arise amo●● us to interrupt the said union ; do declare , that we do st●● adhere to the terms thereof ; and do still submit our selves 〈◊〉 the holy scriptures , as the perfect and only rule of faith 〈◊〉 practise : and do own the doctrinal part of those commo● called the articles of the church of england ; or the conf●●sion , shorter and larger catechisms compiled by the assem●● at westminster , or the savoy confession ; and do renou●● and testify against all opinions and doctrines dissonant the● from : as for instance , amongst many others . . that there is no definite number of persons elected fr● all eternity , whom god will by his appointed means , certa●●ly save and bring to eternal life . leaving the rest , 〈◊〉 fall under a just condemnation for their original and act● sins , especially for their neglect and contempt of the me● of salvation . . that christ dyed equally for all men , not intending 〈◊〉 final salvation of some more than others . . that men have it in their own power , by the use of th● natural faculties of reason and will , unassisted by the espe●●al light and grace of the holy ghost , to perform all that necessary to salvation ; or that his special efficacious lig● and grace is not necessary to their conversion , perseveran● and final salvation . . that any of them whom god hath foreknown , predesti●ated , called effectually according to the purpose of his grace , ●all fall away either totally , or so as not to be finally saved . . that faith , repentance , a holy conversation , or any act or work done by us , or wrought by the spirit of god in ●s , are any part of the righteousness , for the sake of which , 〈◊〉 on the account whereof , god doth justify any man or intitle ●im to eternal life . § . the united brethren when they had thus gi●en their jealous brethren this over-abundant satisfacti●n of their innocence as to any tincture of arminianism , ●y their subscribing articles , turn'd into all possible ●hapes and forms , did think it reasonable that the dis●enting brethren should a little answer their expectation ●lso , by a more express renouncing some odd notions which savoured pretty strongly of the other extreme . and it 's an unquestionable truth that some of them had ●ented such strange doctrines , that it gave umbrage to ●hem that there might be found among them one or two ●r so , that had dipt very deep in those crispian hetero●●xies : and therefore for a trial , they transmitted to ●hem these seven following propositions . on the other side [ we renounce these doctrines . ] ( . ) that men are under no obligation to make use of their natural faculties , with such external means of salvation as god affords them ; praying in hope , for his gracious assistance , in order to that blessed end. ( . ) that god hath not made offers of grace by christ , 〈◊〉 all within the sound of the gospel , testifying that whoever believeth shall be saved , without excluding any , and commanding them to believe accordingly . ( . ) that any are in the sight of god iustified or entituled 〈◊〉 eternal life , before they are effectually called , or while ●hey continue unregenerate , or in unbelief . ( . ) that any may expect pardon without repentance . ( . ) that continued repentance towards god , and fai● in our lord iesus , and holiness of heart , and life , are 〈◊〉 in the nature of the thing , and by the gospel constitution ●●cessary to salvation . ( . ) that the moral law is not of use to unregener● men , to awaken their consciences to fly from the wrath come , and drive them to christ , or that it is not a rule life to them that live under the gospel as well as others . ( . ) that believers falling into grievous sins , do not i● curr god's displeasure thereby : or that they may expect ●●●surance otherwise , than by the evidence of those graces which the promises of salvation are made , and by the test●●mony of the spirit of adoption witnessing with our spir● that we are the children of god. we have thought it our duty to bear our testimony agai● all these erroneous opinions , or any other contrary to the pla● tenour of the gospel of god : and we do further protest ●●gainst all undermining one another in any matter of churc● discipline and government , and do heartily desire to mai●●tain communion with each other , according to the heads agreement which we have assented to . and if any thi● hath been done or spoken by any of us , through mistake or ina●●vertency that may cause any just offence to the prejudice the aforesaid union ; we are ready upon better informati●● to rectify the same , still desiring and resolving mutually , brotherly forbearance towards one another , in any less points wherein we may differ . and now , sir , do you , and let the impartial world judg● whether these dissenting brethren did not owe a sati●●faction to the united ministers , as well as the unite● brethren to them ; and whether there were not mo●● pregnant reasons to suspect some of them inclining 〈◊〉 antinomianism , than they could pretend to reasons 〈◊〉 suspect any of these veering towards arminianis● and yet , to the amazement of all considerate person● though the five first articles were received ; the seve● last were wholly rejected . i say this further , it was not without cogent reasons ●at the united brethren after they had given such fre●uent and incontestible demonstrations of their sound●ess in the faith , against all arminian and socinian er●ors , and were still ready to give all further reasonable ●roofs thereof , did try these dissenting brethren , whe●her they were sound in the faith , in opposition to the antinomian heresies ; especially when some of the big●est name amongst them , from the press and pulpit had ●isseminated such horrid opinions as filled all intelligent ●ersons with equal astonishment and indignation ; now ●ir , because most of you in the country are innocent ●n these matters , and perhaps not many of you have yet ●eard what abominable doctrines the wantonness of ●ome mens fancy in this city doth produce ; i will give you a little taste of some few of them , with this caution , that you would implore the special grace of god to fortify your souls with that antidote , least this ●ittle taste should prove your bane and poyson . . to talk of a gospel threat is at best a catachresis , and nothing else can save it from being a bull. . pardon is rather the condition of faith , and much more haveing a causal influence thereunto , than faith and repentance are of pardon . . it was sin as to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that christ bore ; the fault of sin was laid on christ ; the sin it self as opposed to guilt ; christ was reputed a criminal , not only by man , but by god. . as to the elect there was never any guilt upon them , in respect of the righteous judgment of god , in foro dei , but that which accompanied the letter of the law , setting in with conscience . . union with christ is before faith , ( at least naturâ ) and we partake of the spirit by virtue of that union . . justification in regard of application , must be before believing . . the first application , ordine naturae saltem , is to ungodly man , eo nomine , that he may believe . . we believe that we may be justified decla●●tively . . it is denied that god requires faith as an indispe●●sable qualification in them , whom he will justify 〈◊〉 christ's merits . . all that a believer can pray for , is the furth●● manifestation of pardon , for he knows that all his s●●● are pardoned . . a believer is to work from life , and not 〈◊〉 life . . it 's a great truth , that god sees no sin in a b●●liever . . sin can do no real hurt to a believer . . god is not displeased with his people , and is 〈◊〉 angry with the persons of believers for their sins . . legal convictions before saving faith are no mo●● than sin ; it 's but the filthy , conscience polluting , gu●●● of sin. . all imperfect holiness is sin. . turn ye , turn ye ; why will ye die ? is but the t●●umph of the law over a dead sinner . . the eternal life in which the angels were cr●ated and confirmed by christ , differs from that etern●● life which believers have in christ : the one is creature life , or a created life ; the other is the ete●●nal life of god communicated in time . . believers are as righteous as christ ; i mean no● in a way of similitude , but in a way of equality . . christ's incarnation was no part of his humiliation . . we coalesce upon believing into one mystical person with christ , which is distinguisht from legal union which is before faith. i doubt not but by this time , you are abundantly sa●fied that the united brethren had just reasons to 〈◊〉 and of the dissenters , and might reasonably expect ●om them , that they should clear themselves in these ●oints , when they had given such offence to the uni●●d brethren , who had over and over , given them all ●anner of satisfaction , in all points wherein they could ●etend any suspicion of them , to be leaning toward ●e arminians : but alas ! no satisfaction could be ob●ined , they were inflexible ; and would not comply in ●y one of the seven articles proposed to them ; and ●us the breach became beyond the united brethrens ●aking up . iii. in this melancholick posture of affairs , pray ●ell me what could the united brethren do more than ●o sit down in a sorrowful silence , and commit them●elves and their cause to god , whose cause indeed it ●as ; yet comforting themselves that they had the te●timony of their own consciences that they had pur●ued the things that made for peace , though without ●uccess . in this juncture , there were some brethren piously disposed , and with sincere intentions no doubt , who would be doing something , though they little knew what that something should be , or what would be the success of it ; and that would make another attempt for union ; and these were they whom our reporter calls , and may they deserve to be so called , the industrious pacificators . now these acting upon their personal account , and without instructions or directions from the body of the united ministers , held many meetings , had many debates , the product whereof was a paper signed by nine of those brethren who had put their names to mr. williams his book ; some others who had not subscribed that book , only express'd themselves thus ; we are glad to find so good an agreement amongst us , as th● paper doth express . but this poor paper produced no real effect , both because some of the leading men of the dissenters , woul● not , or did not sign it ; and because the paper grew into small credit , when it was known , and it was soo● known , that some of those whose names were affixt t● it , disowned that they had put their hands to it , no● had impow'red any to do it for them , and by what way or by whose means their names were put to the paper they could give no account . after some considerable time of expectancy , finding no real effects of this paper , no approach made by the other party towards re-union , the body of the united ministers judg'd themselves concerned to take the matter into consideration ; and appointed some of their own number to prepare matters , who drew up somewhat , which being presented to them , after mature deliberation , they put their thoughts into tha● form , which is now called the third paper ; of which i will give you some entertainment , when i have firs● premised a few things . ( . ) the body of the united ministers did not , could not look on themselves as concluded or bound up by the former paper , because it was managed without their privity , and however without their order . ( . ) therefore they proceeded upon the whole matter as intire and clear in it self , not prepossessed by , or prejudiced against it , but as free , and in their own power to resolve as god and their own consciences should direct them . ( . ) and yet they carried it with a decent respect to those of their brethren who had engaged in the drawing up the former paper , and accordingly retained as much of that paper as they safely could , and drew-up this other in conformity to the former , saving in some expressions and phrases , which were either judged of dubi●s sense , or dangerous consequence . ( . ) they well knew that those brethren who had a and in penning the first paper , laboured under some conveniencies in that whole transaction , from which ●ey were now set free . for . their own strong pro●ensities to peace , might possibly lead them to swallow own some harsh expressions , and to accept of peace ●on very hard terms . . there were some persons 〈◊〉 the other side , who being much given to the poli●●cks , and great intrieguers , might easily over-reach ●ch as proceeded with plainness and integrity of heart , ●d suspected not to be out witted by those , to whom ●ey were no ways inferiour in learning , or any useful ●nowledge . ( . ) those brethren who had their heads , and ●ands , and hearts too , in drawing , dressing and sign●g the former paper , when they had heard the reasons ●d arguments of the whole body , where all matters were ●anaged , not in a hasty and precipitate way , but with ●e greatest calmness , by slow paces , with great li●erty , and freedom of debate and being now dis-in●mbred from the counterpoize of oppositions or in●uations ; might , and did see just reasons to alter the ●rase , and new model some expressions , which had ●ept into the former . ( . ) and hereof you may be fully assured , inasmuch those individual nine brethren , who for , and in ●pes of peace , had signed the former paper , had their ●ands , and heads , and hearts too , in the forming , ●ording , and assenting to this third : nor did they ●rein alter their judgments , or vary in the least from ●eir zealous desires of peace and union , only they ●w saw , this last paper was the same in all things ●ith the former , saving in some few passages and expres●ns , which carried a face of some dangerous tenden●es ; which , however they might escape the notice of private brethren , could not pass the observation of many discerning heads , who with utmost applicati● set themselves to prevent any inconvenience that mi● arise to the truths of the gospel . ( . ) lastly , the controversy lying chiefly in so● school terms , or jargons of art , and of very late 〈◊〉 trivance ; such as a change of persons between christ 〈◊〉 us ; which may possibly be capable of receiving a so● meaning , and yet is more sounding towards a dan●●rous sense ; the brethren did unanimously agree to gr● as much as the sound sense could bear , and modes● to wave and pass by the other , which was liable to interpreted to a sense and sound of malignity to 〈◊〉 whole of the gospel ; and they are now more fully 〈◊〉 swaded that they were in the right by the reporters ●●tions , and those of the manuscript exemplified in the 〈◊〉 port , if that was not of the reporters invention , wh● to me is not material . iv. proceed we at last to the consideration , and 〈◊〉 amination of the reporter's objections , with those the manuscript . the present controversy ( says the reporter , p. . ) is about church order , but doctrinals ; and may be reduce● two general heads , viz. christ's satisfaction , and the pe● sanction of the law ; though hitherto , the greatest strug● has been about the first , unto which my papers confine me● methinks i need not observe to you , that they rese● more heads of contention under deck , to be cal● above-board , when they have occasion for them : 〈◊〉 that if this impertinent quarrel were at an end , ab● the change of persons ; they have another ready , and 〈◊〉 knows how many legions more , to keep up the strug● and that we shall never want either the ball of cont● tion to keep us in breath , or the bone of content● to set us together by the ears . hitherto ( says he ) greatest struggle has been about the former . yes ; hith● what shall be hereafter , who can divine ? like ●se pettyfoggers , qui lites litibus serant mortalibus im●taliter : however it be , i am heartily glad that he reduced the controversy to two heads ; if they ●ve not like those of the hydra , that where one was 〈◊〉 off , two more succeeded in their place and 〈◊〉 . but he asserts , that hitherto the greatest struggle has ●n about these two : whereof the first is about christ's ●isfaction . but herein you will need better informa●●● , and a truer report : for never , hitherto , have the ●ited brethren , nor any one of that number , given least occasion to any to struggle with them about 〈◊〉 point ; but they have clearly stated , vigorously ●intained that great fundamental ; and for this they ●appeal to whatever of impartiality and honesty is in this lower world. they appeal to the thirty ●e articles ; to the assemblies confession ; that of savoy ; to the shorter and larger catechisms , and to ●ir own papers publisht in to which they have ●reely subscribed , and never yet in the least departed , 〈◊〉 by the grace of god , will they ever depart , no not ●h their lives . ●nay , i will speak a great word : none has ever more ●arly stated this truth , than mr. williams ; for which ●fer you to his gospel truth , chap. though our sins 〈◊〉 imputed to christ with respect to the guilt thereof ; so 〈◊〉 he by the father 's appointment , and his own consent , ●me obliged as mediator to bear the punishment of our ini●ies , and he did bear those punishments , to the full satisfa●n of iustice , and to our actual remission when we ●eve , &c. now , sir , because you well understand the socinian ●ntroversies in all points , and therefore in this , pray me if he has not in these words obviated whatever ●asions the socinians make use of , to avoid the argu●nts brought to confirm this truth : . the guilt of sins imputed to christ. . christ bore the punishme● of our iniquities . . and this was according to his f●●thers appointment and his own consent . . this p●●nishment he bore to the full satisfaction of justice . to our actual remission when we believe . about what then is all this struggle , or rather squabbl● why sir , 't was lately they objected to mr. william that his righteousness would not go ; 't was clipt within t● ring : witty enough in all conscience ! but now su●●ceeds the coining age , and they have stampt or cou●●terfeited some new phrases , terms , expressions , su● as christ's taking on him the person of sinners , dying in t● person of sinners ; and raising a huge dust about the● they call it a struggle about christ's satisfaction , when i●●hing less : and i am afraid this false coine w● not go . will you observe with me , as we go along , how u● easy these gentlemen sit under all the old confessions faith , all the articles of religion , drawn up to be bo● instruments of peace and truth . i will for a mome● leave you to your meditations , and a little freely d●●course with them . come , gentlemen ! will the a●●cle of satisfaction as propounded by the church of e●●land , please you ? o , no! we are weary of that : th● were episcopal ! will that content you which was co●●piled by the assembly at westminster ? least of all ! th● were presbyterians ! will then that of the brethren at 〈◊〉 savoy satisfy you ? they were independent ! no! 〈◊〉 have had enough of that ! well! will that arti● drawn up by your own selves in . make you eas● no! we have occasion for some other phrases ! w● is it i beseech you ? will a change of person quiet yo● yes ; in our own sense ! then again i beseech you t● us what that is ? why that it be interpreted to sign● christ's taking on him the person of sinners ; and that died in the person of sinners . and how long will that c●●tent you ? i can tell you that ! till the next croc● comes in your heads to invent another , and then the ●tress of peace and truth shall be laid upon that : i per●eive we may as well bind proteus , as fix your desulto●y humours , or as the comaedian expresses it , canem ●ugitivum agninis lactibus alligare . for this has been our method all along ; you draw up a proposition , ●ou hope mr. williams will boggle at it , he subscribes . ●hen study another ; invention is fertile : it 's done ; ●nd mr. williams subscribes to that too ! then invent a ●hird , a fourth , and so on till he refuses , and then you ●ave gained your point , and done your business : mr. williams shall be an obstinate heretick . it 's now high time to examine their objections , whe●er against mr. williams for the papers sake , or against ●e paper for mr. williams's sake , it 's not very clear ; or whether against both , for divisions sake , i am not con●ern'd ; nor will i promise to confine my answers to the ●rguments against either ; but yet i think i shall chief●● confine my self to those levelled against him , and ●ot wholly waving what they say against this third pa●er ; though in truth there is but one paper that the ●nited brethren are concerned to own and justify : ●nd the reason of my procedure is plainly this ; i have ●o warrant to vindicate the brethren , they are more ●ble to answer for themselves , which if they think such report deserves it , they will certainly do ; and for mr. williams , i need none of his leave or allowance ; ●r any man may defend the common cause of christi●nity , or answer any arguments brought against it , ●ithout his permission or commission . mr. williams as asserted and publickly owned that christ died in our ●ead [ vice nostrâ , loco nostro . ] and more fully as i ●uoted him , gospel truth , chap. . now the manuscript 〈◊〉 the report answers : ( ) that our modern innovators ( does he mean them●lves ? ) have assumed to themselves a priviledge of impo●g an heterodox sense on sound terms and phrases : and that these words [ in our place and stead ] do not with many now a days signify a surrogation , or a proper change of persons in a legal sense , but import no more than [ for our good . ] to which disingenuous objection i return thi● reply : § . it is here then acknowledged , that these word● of mr. williams's are sound and orthodox , ; and wha● would these unreasonable men have him do ? how shal● he speak to please them ? must he use heterodox term● and phrases ? and then qualify them with a sound meaning ? they that revile him for speaking soundly , because others put an ugly meaning upon his words , how would they have reviled him had he spoken heterodoxly , and then thought to salve all with a good meaning ? let mr. williams speak the words of truth and soberness , and preach the doctrine which is according to godliness , and let the uncharitable judge what they please . § . but have these modern innovators usurp'd this priviledge , to impose an heterodox meaning upon sound words ? then it will follow that these men , who without cause have put an evil meaning upon mr. williams his expressions , are modern innovators ; nay , malicious slanderers : and they are guilty of a more heinous sin , that they usurp the priviledge of god to judge the heart ● charity thinks no evil ; that is , where none appears ; an● where has it appeared that mr. williams reserved any heterodox sense under those holy and wholesom● words . and what if these words [ in our place and stead ] do not with many now a days signify a surrogation ? how can mr. williams help that ? if surrogation signifies [ in our place and stead ] it s very fair ; for i would always have the more dark term explained by the more clear and familiar , and not that which is plain by the more dubious and dark : i should think the light should comment better upon darkness , than darkness would inter●ret the light. still he carries on the charge ! these words do not sig●ifie a proper change of persons in a legal sense . i answer : ●ho can tell that , till they shall tell us , what a proper ●hange of persons in a legal sense , does signify its own self ? ●t them agree , if they can , to fix what the meaning of proper change of persons in a legal sense , does import , and ●en it may be judged whether [ in our place and stead ] ●oes signify as much as that comes to . but the caviller proceeds ; in our place and stead ( with ●me ) signify no more than for our good : why 't is impos●ble they should : that which christ suffered in our ●ead was for our good ! to bear the punishment of our ●ns , to satisfy divine justice was certainly for our good ! ●hat by his death and sufferings , he delivered us from ●e greatest evils , hell and wrath ; and that he pur●ased for us the greatest blessings , heaven and glory , ●as most certainly for our good : so that he argues ●us ; if for our good , then not in our stead ! but i will inert the argument ; if in our stead , undoubtedly for our ●od ; and therefore for our good because in our stead . ( . ) the manuscript gives a second answer : the ●nglish socinians declare that the hinge of the controversy ●tween them and us , turns not on the words [ in our stead ] ●at the men of the racovian way consider our saviour as ●ffering for us , and in our stead . take this reply . § . 't is all the better ! i had rather have them speak ●onestly , though with a knavish meaning , than speak ●d mean both like knaves . § . but pray , sir , ( i direct my self to you , mr. ma●script ) if the socinians will put an unsound sense up●n sound words , will you quit the sound phrase because ●ey put a wretched sense on 't ? what other remedy ●ill you advise us to ? why our wise gentlemen have ●und out an expedient that shall out-wit them ; for if ●ey think to evade [ in our place and stead ] they have another ready , viz. that in the sufferings and death of christ there was a commutation of persons : but this wil● not do the feat ! for socinus and crellius , will grant there was such a change of persons ; and what will they do now ? why here 's a new phrase ready to put in it● place , viz. that christ died in the person of sinners ; or that he took on him the person of sinners . not too fast that would have served for next time . but assure your self , sir , though your invention be never so fruitful i● new phrases , the socinians are as pregnant in equivocations , and interpretations to elude and evade the new terms ; and you must be put to the needless trouble to make new intrenchments as they distinguish you out o● the old , and so on till you have not one foot of ground to 〈◊〉 . see now to what a wretched pickle you have reduced your self , and which is more , the cause and truth of christ. the socinians have by a false gloss driven you from that old excellent phrase [ in our place and stead ] you retreat to [ a change of persons between christ and us . ] they put a false gloss upon that , and then you retire to christ's [ dying in the person of sinners . ] do you think they cannot give a false construction of that too ? and so you must make and coin new terms and phrases in infinitum . § . i will therefore in charity ( if you are pleased to ●ccept it ) recommend an easy expedient to you : i● you suspect that any under a sound expression conceals an unsound meaning , ask him , if he understands it properly in a legal sense , or no ? ask him , if he means that christ suffered in our stead as a sacrifice to satisfy god's iustice ? and there you have driven him to the end of his equivocations , for which mr. williams has given you the only proper draught in the place i have already exemplified . and beyond this you cannot go , unless you will have recourse to the rack or spanish inquisition , which is a remedy worse than the disease . § . i add one thing more : if both these phrases , christ's suffering and dying in our place and stead ; and that other , a change of persons between christ and us , be liable to be thus practised upon by men of great wit and little conscience ; and that no terms can be found out so plain , but crafty heads will suborn them into an evil meaning , i would then a thousand times sooner chuse , to adhere to this phrase , christ suffered and died in our stead and place , [ loco nostro , vice nostra ] than to that other , in the sufferings of christ , there was a change of persons between christ and us : for the former has had its signification strongly fixed and setled , by long usage and prescription ; whereas this latter is but of yesterday , and scarce two persons , no not the inventers , are agreed amongst themselves , what sense to stamp upon it . again , the plainest christians have a tolerable understanding of the former ; whereas the other does but amuse and confound them : nor is it so dangerous to the main of the cause , to mistake in the one as in the other ; for he that by christ's suffering in our stead intends he suffered for our good , speaks the truth ; but he that mistakes in the sense of commutation of persons , may err the whole heavens , and mis-lead himself and others into the dreggs of antinomianism . in a word therefore ; the socinians are subtle , and have put a false gloss upon christ's dying in our stead ; shall we therefore discharge that phrase ? so have they put a false one upon commutation of persons ; shall we therefore by the same reason discharge that also ? why , they have put as absurd a sense upon the term satisfaction ; which with them signifies no more than satisfaction made to the will or wisdom of god : must we therefore relinquish that too ? then we give them up the whole cause : how much more advisable would it be , to keep to the old land marks , and adhere to what mr. williams with all that are sound in the faith , have asserted ; that christ suffered and died in our place and stead , as a sacrifice to satisfy divine justice ; and then let the socinians , and whoever have a wicked mind , try their skill in evading and eluding it . ( . ) a second heavy charge against mr. williams is , that he absolutely denies a change of persons between christ and the elect : to which the united brethren in their third paper ( as he calls it ) give a clear answer ; that it could not be intended as a denial of a change of person between christ and us in a general sense , but only in opposition to the opinion of his adversary , he wrote against , for in that very place he expresly affirms , that christ suffered and died in our stead : that is , mr. williams did not deny a change of person , simpliciter , sed secundum quid ; not universally , but restrictively ; for the most universal terms are not always universally to be understood . but the manuscript will not acquiesce in this answer . § . he therefore says ; that his denial of a change of persons between christ and the elect , or between christ and believers , is so express and full , that he leaves no room for a distinction , limitation or restriction , &c. to which i return this ; mr. williams has left room enough for all the distinctions that are proper to the matter in hand ; for thus he expresses himself : gosp. truth . p. . edit . the difference lies in these points : . whether there be a change of person between christ and the elect ? yea , or between christ and believers ? this the doctor affirms , and i deny : whence i argue ; mr. williams denies nothing , was concerned to deny nothing , but what the doctor had affirmed ; but the doctor had affirmed a wild , monstrous sense of change of person between christ and the elect , or believers ; and therefore mr. williams did not , could not deny any thing else , according to all the rules and laws of pertinent discourse . now then the determination of what mr. williams denies , must depend on the knowing what it was the doctor affirm'd : and for this see pag. . where he cites dr. crisp , speaking thus ; marke it well ! christ himself is not so compleatly righteous , but we are as righteous as he ; nor we so compleatly sinful , but christ became , being made sin , as compleatly sinful as we ; nay more , we are the same righteousness ; for we are made the righteousness of god ; that very sinfulness which we were , christ is made the very sinfulness : so that here is a direct change ; christ takes our person and condition , and stands in our stead ; we take christ's person and condition , and stand in his stead : so that if you reckon well , you must always reckon your selves in anothers person , and that other in your person . and now you have it , what is that change of persons , which the doctor affirms , and mr. williams denies ; which had he not , he had denied his redeemer and betrayed the gospel . § . but the manuscript comes upon mr. williams with his logical talent , p. . the negation of a change is so general , that unless no change signify a change ; and a negative is of the same import with an affirmative , you will never be able to find him allowing of a change of person between christ and us , &c. this case is very hard , i confess ; for of all morsels , i never loved to swallow a contradiction : but the question is , where the contradiction lies ? they that would find it between mr. williams and the united brethren , must seek elsewhere : they affirm the same things . if they will find it between mr. williams and dr. crisp , they need not look far , the doctor affirms , mr. williams denies : but now to find mr. williams contradicting himself , that would be sweet ! why does not he own a change , and yet deny a change ? he does so ! yet without any contradiction to himself or the truth . there is nothing more nauseous to an understanding reader than to see a man paratragaediate in trifles , and to raise a mighty storm in a sorry bucket of water . a change and no change ! yea , and nay ! did this gentleman in good earnest never hear or read , that single terms or propositions , which are really contradictory , must be spoken or intended , ad idem , eodem modo , eodem respectu , eodem tempore : suppose i should tell him , lazarus was dead , and lazarus was not dead ; he 'll cry out perhaps , o horrid contradiction ! o barbarous nonsense . but be not so fierce , both are true : he was dead before christ raised him , and not dead when christ said loose him and let him go : to what purpose then do they fill our ears with the din of an imaginary contradiction , which has no ground but in the fansy and wind of their own heads . to conclude , there may be an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where there is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a seeming , where there is no real contradiction : ay , but our manuscript thinks he has nickt it : p. . he should have told us the sense in which his adversary affirmed a change. but to what purpose should he tell you it , when you stop your ears ; or to what end shew you it , when you are blinded with prejudice , or wink very hard and will not see ? he has told it to all the world besides ; every one else can hear it , see it , or read it : only he has not told it you , because you do , male audire , i. e. are thick of hearing . but what would they have this poor man do ? will they allow him to hold his liberty of writing by no other tenure than than that of villanage ? what are the conditions of his 〈◊〉 he has written for a whole page together , in what sense his adversary takes it ; and i have here given you enough , you may have more if you please to open your eyes , and yet he has not told you one word of it . but this reminds me of a passage i once heard from a reverend and learned divine in the pulpit ; who discoursing upon the words of the apostle paul , rom . . therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith , without the works of the law : and comparing them with ●hose of jam. . . ye see then how that by works a man ● justified , and not by faith only . here as that learned ●erson observed , is a seeming contradiction , not by works , ●nd yet by works ; by faith only , and not by faith only : for ●e clearing of which , he prudently wav'd all the com●on solutions , and upon the whole thus determined ; ●hat if god should reveal contradictory propositions to our faith , we were obliged to believe them both to be true . this would be a compendious way , i confess , in salving contradictions ; only it has an odd inconvenience in it ; for ●hen god must give us other faculties than these we now have ; for according to those poor ones we are at pre●ent masters of , whatever god may oblige us to , i am certain it 's simply impossible that both the propositions ●an be true ; and i think too , it 's as certain , god can ne●er reveal or oblige us to believe a lie. ( . ) but the reporter , in my opinion , has discharged more formidable argument against the paper●nd ●nd mr. williams too ; p. . for whereas the third pa●er had said ( or the cover to it ) that on our so happy ●stablishing the doctrine of iustification , we need say but lit●le to the point of commutation of persons . and to speak a ●lain truth , that little they said , was enough , because ●hey had establisht the doctrine of justification upon its ●roper basis , namely , divine revelation , upon which bot●om god himself had establisht it , and then it stands unmoveable , and the gates , the power and policy of hell ●all not prevail against it . now hearken to the report of ●is canon , a great report without ball. it 's impossible to establish the doctrine of iustification on its ●ue and proper basis , any otherwise than by clearing the point of commutation of persons . impossible ! what a huge opinion have these men of ●he vast extent of their intellectuals ? they can admea●ure it to a hairs breadth , just where the possible ends ; and where the impossible begins : it had been more modest to have qualified the word with [ for ought i know , or 〈◊〉 apprehend ] but if that great doctrine cannot possib●● be establish'd upon its basis without clearing the poi●● of commutation of persons ? why do they not , why hav● they not long since cleared it ? dr. crisp has cleared i● and to say truth , though he be erroneous , yet he spea● clearly , we see his sense ; but these gentlemen spea● dubiously , darkly , at best but in the twilight , an● whether there be a sound sense under those obscur● phrases , we know not , nor perhaps they neither . this doctrine had need be well setled , and in ord●● thereto the basis of it well cleared ; for i have ever t●ken it to be articulus stantis , out cadentis ecclesiae : if th● article fails , the church fails and falls with it ; and 〈◊〉 were better the whole world should fall than either give me leave to offer a few things to his high con●●dence . . he that will build a castle in the air , must b● content with a foundation of air to support it ; and 〈◊〉 that will form an imaginary notion of justification , mu●● provide a basis in his own imagination , for it to rest u● on . if indeed justification admits no faith , as dr. cri●● has contrived it , then we must admit his pedestal to se ●e it upon ; to reckon our selves in christ's person , an● christ in ours , which is his commutation of persons , but 〈◊〉 the holy ghost unites the soul to christ by faith , i● no such impossible thing to conceive how both our si●● may be imputed to christ , and his righteousness to th● be lieving sinner . . this great doctrine of justification is already se●●led upon divine revelation , there it has stood from th● beginning , there it shall stand to the end of time , an● things , and needs not the presumptuous fancies 〈◊〉 towring wits to place it on a more from bottom . bu● are we not brought to a sine pass ? we must trust go● no farther than we can see him ; believe no more tha● we can understand a reason for ; that is , we must whee● about to the main principle of the socinians , to admit no more into our creed than we can comprehend : he that will settle the great revealed doctrines of religion on a humane foundation overthrows it . the scripture has sufficiently revealed the doctrine of justification , to be through christ's righteousness accepted of god , received by faith ; and for this commutation of persons in their sense , it knows nothing of it . let not therefore this gentleman be so over-officious ●o erect a basis for justification of his own head , or of wiser heads than his ; the holy spirit has done that already , left putting forth his daring hand to stay the ark , which he dreams begins to totter , he should meet with the fate of presumptuous uzzah . . i would ask this modest question : where has this doctrine of justification been setled all this while , since the reformation ? since the purest primo-primitive times ? what! has it hung , like mahomet's tomb , in ●he air ? or floated , like the ark , upon the water ? no! it has stood firm and unmoveable upon scriptural foun●ations , against all the assaults of papists , socinians , ar●inians , and antinomians : it has stood visible in the ar●icles of the church of england ; in the confessions of the assembly at westminster ; in that of the savoy , in the ca●echisms shorter and larger , and yet this uncouth phrase never yet heard of : it is strange to me , that councils general , and provincial synods , assemblies of holy learned men , should so often , so strenuously assert , and confirm by the word of god , this great truth , and yet never once dream of dr. crisp's commutation of persons , ●pon which to superstruct the doctrine of justification . nay , i would intreat these gentlemen to look at home ●nd inquire whether any particular congregation of ●hat denomination soever , did ever insert any of these terms amongst their credenda , even that to which he ●ay belong , or over which he may preside , and yet i will presume they have the doctrine of justification orthodoxly propounded , judiciously explained , and solidly confirmed without these innovations and strange term of commutation of persons , christ's taking on him the person of sinners , or dying in the person of sinners . . this phrase , the change of the person of christ ; may have , and truly has , an honest and sound sense ; in which it may be of some good use to explain the doctrines of satisfaction and justification ; and it is that which the right reverend the bishop of worcester , with grotius against crellius do put upon it . reason of christ's suffer . edit . . p. . viz. the substitution of one person in the room of another , and pag. . a proper redemption may be obtained by the punishment of one in the room of another ; which is neither more nor less , than that christ suffered and died in our room and stead . and this is it , which the former and latter papers , which mr. williams , and all others do freely own , and that which is denied , is only such a sense of the phrase as his antagonist asserts ; 〈◊〉 therefore christ's dying , by way of change or exchange be all they would have , 't is no more than what is granted in that other expression , he died in our place and stead but if they must have a further sense , we are afraid o● nonsense ; if they must have a higher reach , we are afraid of an over-reach ; and therefore let them tell us how much larger a sense they have some secret services for , and when we know , it will be told them whether we judge it orthodox , or otherwise . ( . ) casting my eye upon the manuscript i meet with a small cavil against commutation of persons as i● stands either in the third paper , or in mr. williams and if it be indifferent to him whether of them be misrepresented or reproached , it shall be as indifferent to me , if either of them be set right or vindicated . now the words he cavils at ( as he quotes them ) run thus it is apparent , that commutation of persons is to be understoo● in a legal or judicial sense ( as we may call it ) : he by agreement between the father and him , came into our room and stead , to answer for our violation of the law of works . at which he cavils thus : [ as we may call it ] not that it is really so in a legal or judicial sense , only we may so call it . to which i reply . . as we may call it , is not opposed to reality , and the criticks do commonly observe that there is a sicut veritatis , as well as similitudinis ; and we must expect when the humour takes him to cavil at the apostle , who heb. . . uses a like phrase ; and as i may so say , levi also , who received tythes , paid tythes to abraham : the phrase there does not deny the truth of the thing ; but is a form of speech wherewith we usually mollify an expression , which to tender ears may seem a little harsh and strange : such as these terms , legal and iudicial , might do to vulgar understandings . he that will answer another man's words ought faithful●y to quote them , and oblige himself to a syllabical exactness : but i perceive this answerer wears not such a ●crupulous conscience : not that it is really so , only we may so call it : now his not and his only , are either his own text or his own comment , and let him see to it to ●econcile them to truth , for the words may carry this sense : as we may call it , i. e. as we may lawfully call ●t ; and not as his gloss bears , only we may so call it , which ●s either a gross perverting of the meaning , or a bold ●alsification of the words . but i have an answer worth two of this ; and will produce their great master in this very case , thus qualifying his own words , gosp. truth , p. . edit . thus , ●ays dr. crisp , in giving christ , god is pleased ( as it were ) ●o make a change ; and yet none questions but that do●tor thought the change as proper , as literal as they can ●esire , or words can be found to express . but will they ●ive us the liberty to interpret the doctor 's , as he does mr. williams's words ; god is pleased as it were to make a change : yea , not really or properly to make a change ; ●ut only as it were : and so we shall have glost away the ●eloved phrase of change of persons . but still the manuscript proceeds in his objecting faculty ; a commutation in a legal sense , is the same with 〈◊〉 proper surrogation ; and what is a proper surrogation , but a placing one person in the room and place of another and thus god placed his son , and the son so placed him self in our room and stead , and he was a sacrifice to satisfy divine justice : are they not all agreed ? one would think so ! ay , but there is more at the bottom what is that ? why , where the surety puts on the person and stands in the quality , state and condition of the debtor , and lies under the same obligation to answer for him . i wish i were worthy to advise this confident man not to insist so strictly upon that notion , of debt and debtor : for if he supposes sin to be only a pecuniary debt and that the sinner stands only obliged as such a debtor he has betrayed the cause he seems so zealous to defend and yielded it up irrecoverably to the socinians ! and this is that which the learned author of the reasons of christ's sufferings , p. . has warned him of long since : the true state of the controversy ( says he ) has been rendred more obscure by the mistakes of some , who have managed it with greater zeal than iudgment , ( he had never seen the report nor manuscript ) and by this means have shot over their adversaries heads , and laid their own more open to assaults . it 's easy to observe that most of the socinians arguments are levelled against an opinion , which few who have considered these things do maintain , and none need think themselves obliged to do it . that christ paid a rigid and proper satisfaction for the sins of men , under the notion of a debt , &c. the sinner therefore is to be considered as a malefactor , who has forfeited his life to justice , and here the surrogation and substitution of christ intervenes , who has by agreement between his father and him , offered himself as a sacrifice to satisfy divine justice . but still says the manuscript , in this paper , ( the ●hird ) christ's putting on the person of sinners , and his undertaking for them the obligations of the law of works is ●ft out . to which i will return these things : . if christ's ●tting on the person of sinners be left out : it 's better out ●an put in , till it be known what it signifies . . and for the other expression ; christ's undertaking answer for them the obligations of the law of works : is at left out too ? and not a word put in their place , that peculiar to a proper satisfaction ? pray then let 's read the ●ords as he has quoted them , p. . christ , by agreement●●ween the father and him , came into our room and stead , answer for our violation of the law of works . what is ●e nice difference then between christ's answering for 〈◊〉 violation of the law , and answering for us the viola●on ? or what the critical difference between christ's ●●swering for them the violation , and answering their●●iolation ●●iolation of the law of works : he that answers for 〈◊〉 the violation of the law , answers for my violation the 〈◊〉 law ; but this it is to be hypnewcriticks in the●gy , when it 's often ridiculous even in philology . but the eye that sees all other things , sees not it self ; ●d this manuscripturist , that could discern the more the eye of the third paper , could not see the beam at was in his own : let the impartial judge ! the first ●●per expresses it self thus : christ putting on the person , ●●d coming into the room and stead of sinners to answer for ●m the obligations of the violated law of works : the ●hird paper thus : — to answer for our violations of the ●●w of works : but this faithful person repeats it thus : answer for them the obligations of the law of works . the ●bligations of a law , as it stands intire , is one thing , and 〈◊〉 obligations of a law as violated , is clearly another , 〈◊〉 where passion prevails we must not expect imparti●ty , especially if any thing of mr. williams falls under ●onsideration . i will close this head with this short note : it is freely granted that christ suffered and died for the persons 〈◊〉 sinners ; that he suffered and died for the sins of the persons ; that he suffered and died in the room and stea● of their persons ; that he suffered and died to make satisfaction to the iustice. to the vindictive iustice of god : nay he lives in their persons by faith ; and lives for ever 〈◊〉 plead for their persons on the throne ; and yet all th● is nothing , unless it be granted that christ died in the person of sinners too : which they are resolved he sha●● do , whether he or the scriptures will or no. ( . ) i had almost forgot a passage in the manuscrip● for which i ought to have begg'd pardon , because 〈◊〉 contains so much learning : in p. . what more comm● amongst the learned than subrogatum & suffectum in locu●alterius , ejus naturam sortiri : here is learning enoug● in all conscience ! the mischief is , 't is but a scrap bo●rowed out of calvin's lexicon iuridicum ; and will neve● do the business of him that quotes it : for that term 〈◊〉 surrogate , he might have fetcht it nearer hand from d●ctors commons ; and for his suffectus in locum alterius , yo● have it interpreted , consul suffectus , est qui pro alio substtuitur ; sic enim appellabatur qui in demortui consulis locu● sufficiebatur : ab ordinari is autem consulibus non autem suff●ctis , anni computabantur ; & id circo minor eos honor , m●nor laus sequebatur . now what is their parallel betwee● this suffect●s consul ; and our blessed lord jesus , as surrgated and placed in the room of sinners ? this substitute not in being , till the former be dead : this substitu●● was of less honour than the former ; nothing was re●koned in his name , but in the others ; and therefor● though he might sortiri officium , yet not naturam ; 〈◊〉 supplied the office , but acted not in his person ; he w●● substituted in locum alterius , non in personam alterius . i have observed all along , and shall now once for al● give you my observation : that this reporter , bega● at first to hint a change : in a while , he smoothly slid● into a change of persons between christ and us : then insensibly he steals into christ's taking upon him the person of sinners : and at last he silently comes to , christ's dying in the person of sinners ; and i note it for no greater end , but that i may requite his civility , with a little thred of the civil law ; as i find it , tit. digestorum , de verb. signif . no. . natura cavillationis haec est , ut ab evi●denter veris per brevissimas mutationes disputatio ad ea , quae videnter falsa sunt pr●ducatur . this is the nature of cavilling , when from some things evidently true , the disputation is lead by short changes to those as evidently false . sir , it 's time , high time that i ease you and my self of this trouble , and i will effectually discharge you , when i have left with you a few queries , which you may consider at your leasure . § . do you understand the true reason why these gentlemen in the city will not be persuaded to settle the true notion of christ's taking on him the person of sinners ? dying in the person of sinners ? for i find that the true reason why some do not subscribe it , is because they do not understand it : and yet on the other side , there are some who say , they understand it too well to subscribe it ; there are yet some who affirm , that the words have only this honest plain meaning , that christ suffered and died in the place and stead of sinners , to make satisfaction to divine justice , for them , and for their obligations to his violated law : but then , should they declare as much , all the design would be defeated and utterly blown up , for then mr. williams would certainly subscribe it . § . pray , sir , inform me quo warranto ? by what right do these gentlemen impose such hard terms of union and communion ? why must all the world be hereticated that dare not subscribe to these apocryphal phrases , which neither scripture nor ancient fathers , nor general , nor particular councils , nor synods , nor assemblies , nor nation reformed , nor single churches ever brought into their creeds , confessions , or articles of faith , to be the standard , or test of orthodoxy , or the terms of communion ? and i am the more earnest in this query , because the dissenters formerly have complained heavily , that some things were imposed on them as necessary to communion , which were n● ways necessary to salvation . § . and i would be satisfied how it comes to pass that if these terms insisted on , be necessary to support the doctrines of satisfaction and iustification ; they themselves never once mentioned or moved , or insisted on them , that they might be inserted into the heads of agreement , upon which they united in . nor into those articles debated , agitated at great pinners-hall , and afterwards agreed to , at little st. hellens , where yet the highest , hottest , and greatest names of the contender● did subscribe to the articles of the person of the mediator and of iustification , when yet not a word or syllable o● christ's taking on him the person of sinners , dying in th● person of sinners , &c. was once spoke of , and therefore conclude were never then thought of ; . § . i wish you could inform me , whether they have received any new revelations , or made any new discoveries of these great secrets , and the indispensible necessity of these new notions ? whether they are become 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the adepts in the rosacrucian mysteries , 〈◊〉 have found out the philosopher's stone , to turn all antinomianism into pure gold ; or whether the true reason of all this pother be not , that they are resolved to beat their brains till they have found out some terrible term that shall check mr. williams his faith , and gravel his conscience , that so he may be discarded , for non-subscriber . though i am pretty confident , if 〈◊〉 understand him , he 's both wiser than to be bubled and made a cully , and honester than to be hectored out of his understanding . § . i would propound it as a moot point , whether ●e socinians , who have blasphemously degarded the ●erson of christ , into a god by office , though a meer man by nature : or the antinomians , who own him a god by nature , yet affirm him to have been a sinner , ●he greatest of sinners ; nay , sinfulness it self , do more ●erogate from the honour of our redeemer ? he that ●enies me to be a man , does less reproach me than he ●at affirms me to be the greatest villain . and it might ●rther be queried , whether it was not the absurdest ●ing in the heathens to confess that their gods were ●oly , dan. . . the spirit of the holy gods , and yet to ●ll such stories of their rapes , adulteries , and thefts , ●at bear the greatest contrariety to holiness ? § . whether therefore it be not equally a duty to ●oviate the de●estable doctrines of the one as well as ●e other ? if this be a day ( as the reporter , p. . assures 〈◊〉 it is ) wherein socinianism is rampant ; it 's a day too , ●herein antinominism is no less triumphant . and there●●re the united brethren , like wise men , have provied against both , whereas some , like foolish mariners , ●ontent themselves to stop one leak in the ship , though will as certainly be sunk by the other : if therefore ●word was so wise as to set a hedge , a bar , a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , about 〈◊〉 doctrine of christ's satisfaction ; why should not pru●ence advise to set a hedge about the others , and first would have a hedge , a thorn hedge set about the ●octrine of god's holiness ; that he be not made the ●uthor of sin , as some mens principles inevitably do : ●nd i would have a bar , a barriere ( stronger than that flanders against the french ) set about the divine ju●ice , that men may not dare to represent him as a ty●nt , in making so many millions to damn them eter●lly , to damn them without respect had to their de●erits : especially i would have a strong 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pla●d about the doctrine of iustification ; and that faith made indispensably necessary to it , in all the adult : and i am the more urgent in this matter ; for if faith be not necessary to iustification , perhaps it may not b● so to salvation : because if god can delight and tak● complacency in an unbelieving sinner , an impeniten wretch that hates him , his son and spirit , and all hi● ways , and laws , for one minute , there 's nothing i● the nature of the thing that hinders , but he may tak● complacency in him to eternity . but if this gentleman will hedge about this doctrine as i take him to be a good hedger ; if i were worthy to advise him , he should never set a hedge of human invention , about a doctrine of divine revelation . le● the garden and the hedge be both of a piece , and le● him never think that the doctrine of the gospel will eve● be secured by his own ●ond contrivances . § . whereas this reporter with his brother manuscript have pretended such a marvellous kindness , if no● foundness , and to be so desperately enamoured of th● first paper , they are grieved and afflicted , and i know not what , that it was rejected ; and yet that paper expresses a bearing with one anothers infirmities , and different sentiments about logical or philosophical terms , or meerly . humane forms of speech : why they should make such a hideous out-cry and hubbub about christ's taking o● him the person , dying in the person of sinners ; when these are meer humane forms of speech , at best ; as humane denotes infirm , though not as it signifies rational . i would be satisfied further , why that first paper did not think it reasonable or just to charge upon any brother such consequences of any expression or opinion of his , which he himself shall disown ; and yet mr. williams shall no● have the benefit of the clergy to explain his own words , and such consequences must be forced on him and them , as the words do not admit , and the author does abhor . § . seeing the great struggle has been not about the satisfaction of christ , as the report misrepresents it , but about some odd phrases and expressions , in which 't is cloathed , especially these of christ's suffering in the person of sinners , &c. whether if this be a sound and safe way of expressing that great doctrine , it will not endure to shew its naked face , in some other of the learned languages ? and if you please , make an experiment how well it will look in latin ; christus passus ●est in personâ peccatorum , seu peccantium : how do you like it ? what do you think of it ? again we are told , p. . of christ's sustaining the person of sinners : now , good sir , what is sustinere personam alterius ? what then can these expressions signify , but that christ wore the mask , the vizor , the disguise of sinners ? that he was personatus histrio ? like a stage player , that puts on the person of a king , when indeed he is but some sorry fellow ; now what a wretched blasphemous representation of all the love and goodness of our glorious redeemer is this ? which yet shone forth in his cross though much eclipsed by his dreadful sufferings . you may possibly have read salmasius his defensio regia ; which he enters upon , with the news , de parricidio apud anglos in personâ regis , &c. to which , i. milton , who wrote and understood latin , as well as the great critick , makes this return : quid quaeso , est parricidium in personâ regis admitter ? quid in personâ regis ? quae unquam latinitas sic locuta est ? nisi nobis aliquem forte pseudo-philippum , narras , qui personam regis indutus , nescio quid parricidii apud anglos patraverit . whatever excuse they can make for the english phrase , i know not ; but this i know , it 's pretty hard to damn all the world for an anglicism . § . tell me freely , what do you think of that strange spirit that runs through the whole of the report , and manuscript ? they would both make us believe how grieved , how afflicted they are that this third paper was sent , and the former rejected , by the body of the united brethren , p. . this is one thing that grieves the offended brethren : and another passage increaseth their sorrow , &c. and p. . we cannot but be grieved to observe , &c. and p. . they have added to the grief of the offended brethren : now do not you in the country fancy from these expressions , that they have been melted and drowned in floods of grief and sorrow ? and why then did they not grieve to make the breach in the union , to break it again , when it seemed to be closed up ; in all which they were certainly the aggressors : and why did not they advance one single step towards the re-union , upon the signing of the first paper ? they had time enough between that and the sending of the other : which may remember you of what you read in some naturalists , that the crocodile weeps over his prey and then devoures it . of the same temper you will interpret the reporter's strange transport of passion , with which he concludes : to the all wise god , be render'd honour , and glory , that the indefatigable pains of the pacificators have issued out in so happy an agreement of the most godly , learned , and iudicious ministers in and about this city , &c. to which he should have added ; — et quorum pars ego magna fui . yea , no doubt , an indefatigable pacificator , who was first imployed to lowze mr. williams his book , that he might pick quarrels with it ; and as little question of his godliness , learning and iudiciousness ; but these tears , these praises are all mo●kery . and these doxologies are like the modern te deums , which take pay on both sides , and are calculated for any elevation ; and will serve indifferently paris and vienna . i have much more to observe to you , and paper would sooner fail me than matter ; but i will spare you , and indeed my self ; if you blame me for writing , thank your self , from whom i received the first news and sight that there was such a creature as the report , to your self therefore justly belongs the answer . now i am aware they will say , that you are no real person , but like letters which they use in law-cases , for which any in the alphabet will serve the turn , but because i know you well , as you me , i recommend you to the protection of the almighty , and with you , i. and b. &c. yours in all faithfulness . a postscript . reader ! thou mayest possibly wonder that the report and manuscript should bear so hard upon the third paper , and yet so graciously smile upon the first : and what sufficient causes there can be conceived , to justify their height of passion against the one , and yet the most endeared affection towards the other . but the secret will manifest it self , when thou shalt consider , that all this is nothing but a trial of skill between the apocryphal story of tobias , and the canonical history of daniel . now that i may deliver thee from this uneasy posture of soul , i will set before thee the mystery in a clear light , that so thou mayest be capable of using thy eyes ; and therefore know : i. that the true reason of their severe displeasure conceived against the third paper is , that it has so clearly and fully born its testimony against the antinomians in the fundamental article of iustification : and thus it speaks : we further declare , as to to the special matters in difference concerning justification : that although the express word of god doth assert , the necessity of regeneration to our entring into the kingdom of god : and requires repentance that our sins may be blotted out ; and faith in christ , that we may be justified ; and holiness of heart and life , without which we cannot see god : yet that none of these , or any work done by man , or wrought by the spirit of god in them , is under any denomination whatsoever , any part of that righteousness , for the sake , or on the account of which , god doth pardon , justify or accept sinners ; or intitle them to eternal life : that being only the righteousness of christ without them , imputed to them , and received by faith alone . from hence it is most evident , that the brethren have secured the doctrine of iustification against the socinian , papal , and arminian errors ; and themselves too , from all , even the least suspicion of any inclination that way , with all impartial , reasonable and indifferent persons , by the latter clause : yet the former , by which they were willing to give a fair opportunity to the opposite party , to vindicate themselves from all jealousy of leaning towards antinomianism , is the unpardonable sin against dr. crisp ; which shall never be forgiven by the reporter , and his brother manuscript ; if they may carry the keys of admission and exclusion , absolution and condemnation at their girdles . ii. as i have now given the secret reason of their immortal pike against the third paper , so will i gratify the reader with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or secret reason of their over-passionate fondness to the former , and that must be wholly ascribed to its severity upon mr. williams . and let it be observed that a few hard words and censures upon him , shall at any time , even in their most morose hours , purchase their good will and friendship : and this paper having honoured them herein to the utmost , could not fail of insinuating it self into their favours . mark therefore the conditions of his peace , and the terms of being restored to some small degree of acceptance : if therefore , mr. williams shall concur with us in what we have declared , touching the doctrine of iustification ; and in the sense we have given of a change of persons between christ and believers ; and of christ's undertaking the displeasure of his father for our sins ; and shall give satisfaction about any thing else , that any brother excepts against in the rest of his writings , agreeably to the abovesaid articles and confessions , we shall so far acquiesee therein , as not to make them the matter of further publick contest or altercation amongst our selves . was ever a poor creature thus tyed to a stake to be baited by the english molossi , and every whaffing whelp that could bark , though not bite ? must a man stand in the pillory all his days , there to be palted with rotten eggs , till they can find no more to throw at him ? how much more merciful were the terms put upon the men of iabesh-gilead by nahash , sam. . . he would only thrust out their right eyes ; but these would cut off his right hand too : and now because the brethren in their third paper , exprest more humanity , durst not be so unreasonably cruel , but proposed more moderate terms , the former paper must be cried up above the skies , and the latter thrown down to hell. reader , thou shalt pardon me if i exercise thy patience in making some remarks upon the conditions of mr. williams his absolution ; the rather , because they are wiser than to allow any for their own : and first i will observe the conditions required , and then the grace promised upon fulfilling the conditions . § . and for the conditions required . the three former conditions , i will not mention to save time and paper , but the last condition , which is a complex of many , i will a little , though gently examine : if he shall give satisfaction about any thing else , that any brother excepts against , in the rest of his writings . now here we have what he must give , and then to whom he must give , it , and then , how far he must give satisfaction . ( . ) what is it they expect mr. williams should give ? satisfaction . but what will satisfy ? he has given already ●ust and reasonable satisfaction ; he has subscribed the assemblies confession of faith ; he has subscribed the article of iustification drawn up by themselves , . he has subscribed the article of iustification in the third paper , which satisfies all but socinians , arminians , papists and antinomians : and must he satisfy them that are resolved nothing shall satisfy ? these terms savour too much of empire over souls , and dominion over the consciences and faith of men : let them tell him explicitly and plainly what will content them , and not vex men with indefinite , unlimited satisfaction . ( . ) but to whom must he give this satisfaction ? why truly to any brother ? i wish they had confined their number to — about twenty thousand ; that had given some possibility , at least some little hope that he might at last have given satisfaction . but to any brother is really hard : for in what sense must he interpret brother ? in a general sense , it may reach all mankind ; in a much narrower it may include all protestants , reformed at least : but suppose it extends to none but independents , where there are no clergy-brethren , nor lay-brothers , it would find him picking work for one ten years at least : but what if these any brothers , should prove weak and injudicious ? what if cavilling and captious ? what if proud and imperious , their character as well as number , would render it next to impossible to satisfy them : and what if one will be satisfied and another dissatisfied ? this will suspend the performance of the promise for his life ; and i know no way for him to satisfy all , but by leaving the world ; to which i will never advise him , least some other should be set up in his place and stead , with whom to quarrel , and of whom to demand satisfaction ; and i am not sure but i may be the man. ( . ) how far must this satisfaction extend ? to any thing else , excepted against in the rest of his writings ? i am glad however this allows no exceptions against his thoughts ; though the manuscript has adventured upon that too : here 's a wide field for exceptions ; for mr. williams has written a pretty many things , and it were hard , if ten thousand men , having ten thousand sentences to except against , could not make earnings of it for three lives , and the longest liver of them , and so they have entailed the fibble frabble to succeeding generations . you have heard the hard terms required , will you § . now hear the favours promised upon his fulfilling the conditions : we shall so far acquiesce therein as not to make them the matter of farther publick contest or altercation amongst our selves . o quantum oh quantillum ! what a world of work must he do for such sorry wages ! what severe penance for this hungry absolution ! will they acquiesce ? o no! but so far only ! how far ? pray , that he may know the worst on 't ! they will make no further contest : well , but if they make no further , they may keep the old or the present contests a foot still ; but will they promise to make no further contest ; not to raise new objections , pick new quarrels ; but be content with the old ones ? i mistake ; they will make no further publick contests ; but private whisperings and evil surmises , and insinuated slanders , and clan●estine reproaches may be multiplied , whilst mr. williams lives , and 't is to be feared , will feed upon his carcase , and survive his dust and ashes . to shut up this ungrateful subject ; those very brethren , who from amongst the presbyterians had some , concern in this first paper , after having heard the debates and reasonings of the united brethren , being satisfied that they had gone beyond the bounds of moderation , did ingenuously ( to say no more ) joyn with their brethren of a more benign temper , in the third paper , which is that crime , amongst some others , which these bigotts will never forgive . iii. give me leave , reader , to bestow one thought more , upon the manuscriptors tragical harangue , upon mr. williams's pretended contradiction : a change and no change ! what , a negative of the same import with an affirmative ! yea and nay , words of the same signification ! crimen inauditum cai caesar ! but did he never hear or read of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; a gift and no gift ? i make no question but he had heard of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; a marriage and no marriage : and though there might be some solaecism in 't theotogically , yet it was no grammatical or logical contradiction : and if the one of these does not offend his tender ears , nor the other grate upon his tender conscience , he might have spared his pompous rhetorick upon a change and no change ! nor indeed in this case ; does a change signify no change : nor is a negative of the same import with an affirmative : nor yet are yea and nay , words of the same signification ( as he childishly fancies ) but that there may be a change ( in a certain sense ) which is well consistent with no change in another sense , without the mortal hazard of a contradiction ; even as he that may be said to be married and yet not married , may be said also with equal truth , to have changed , and yet not changed his condition : of which some may have heard on both sides of their ears . iv. reader , thou hast heard much noise about that book , gospel truth stated and vindicated , &c. and of the subscription to it by some ministers ; i could wish thou wouldest be so true to thy self , and just to the subscribers , as to view with thine own eyes how far the subscription extended ; for this is the pretended and assigned reason of their fire and faggot , with which they have presented it and them : it was no more than this : they judged that he had in all that was material , fully and rightly stated the truths and errors therein mentioned . now if the things be not rightly and fully stated , in all that is material , why have not these gentlemen , with all their acuteness and exactness , stated them better ? the same quarrel they had formerly raised against the book and the subscriptions , or rather against the author and subscribers , which most men thought had been composed , and full satisfaction given , and in which the opposite party did acquiesce ; as appears from the printed transactions of dec. . . but it seems they reserved some seeds of further and future quarrels in their own breasts , and had smothered some secret sparks of contention under the ashes of their compliance , which now after some years they have blown up into a greater flame : but if they were then satisfied , why are they now dissatisfied ? and whence is it , that in the first paper , they have changed the former declaration into this other : that the generality had given their names only to a short abstract of truths , and errors which they had seen ( and since is much enlarged ) and not to the book it self , which they had not seem . reader ! mr. williams , and the generality of the subscribers do hereby demand justice of the authors of this assertion ; and they doubt not thou wilt do 'em right , upon this evidence : . the author doth protest there was never yet any abstract , short or long , of the truths and errors , since they were first stated . . that the state of the truths and errors was seen by all that subscribed , and printed before any one subscribed . . whereas there were sixteen who suscribed the first impression , and three and thirty who gave their names to the second ; there were three or four of the first sixteen who had read , not only the state of the truths and errors , but the book it self : and therefore ●he author and subscribers do humbly and modestly ask , ●y what construction , by what interpretation it can be ●id , that the generality gave their names , &c. unless twelve ministers could be the generality of nine and forty ? which we must leave to be adjudged by those of ●hese gentlemen who are so versed and skilled in mer●hants accounts . i will conclude with this ; if these contenders will go on to exact so much , and yield so little for the sake of union ; they sell their own innocency and the churches peace for nothing . errata . pag. . l. . for stuff , read huff . p. . l. . for delighted read defiled . p. . l. ult . for wholly , read for the most part . p. . l. . for any one read most . p. . l. ult . read hypercriticks . p. . l. . for their , read shere . finis . books printed for john lawrence at the angel in the poultrey . the life of the reverend mr. richard baxter . published by mr. matthew sylvester . folio . mr. pool's english annotations ; with the additions of content to each chapter : and a concordance written by mr. sam. clark the third edition : in two volumes . folio . mr. giles firmin's review of mr. richard davis his vindication giving no satisfaction . to . mr. lorimer's apology for the ministers , who subscribed only unto the stating of the truths and errors in mr. william's book shewing that the gospel which they preach , is the old , everlasting gospel of christ : and vindicating them from the calumnies , wherewith they ( especially the younger sort of them ) have been unjustly aspersed by mr. trail's letter to a minister in the country . to . mr. lorimer's remarks on mr. goodwnin's discourse of the gospel : proving that the gospel covenant is a law of grace ; answering his objections to the contrary , and rescuing the texts of holy scripture and many passages of ecclesiastical writers both ancient and modern , from the false glosses be forces upon them to . sir heward's free discourse , wherein the doctrines that make for tyranny are displayed ; the title of our rightful and lawful king william vindicated ; and the unreasonableness and miscievous tendency of the odious distinction of a king de facto and de iure , discovered . vo . remarks on a late discourse of william lord bishop of derry , concerning the inventions of men in the worship of god. also a defence of the said remarks against his lordship's admonition . by i. borse . vo . mr. slater's earnest call to family religion ; beiing the substance of sermons . vo . mr. george hammond's , and mr. matthew barker's discourses of family worship . written at the request of the united ministers of london . ves . an account of the life and death of mr. philip henry , minister of the gospel near whitchurch in shropshire . who died iune . . in the sixty fifth year of his age. ves . his majesties declaration to all his loving subjects, march . . published by the advice of his privy council. england and wales. sovereign ( - : charles ii) approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page image. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). b wing c estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. b ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) his majesties declaration to all his loving subjects, march . . published by the advice of his privy council. england and wales. sovereign ( - : charles ii) charles ii, king of england, - . sheet ([ ] p.) re-printed by evan tyler, printer to the king's most excellent majesty, edinburgh : . caption title. royal arms at head of text; initial letter. dated at end: given at our court at whitehall, this fourteenth day of march, in the four and twentieth year of our reign. reproduction of the original in the national library of scotland. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng church and state -- england -- th century -- early works to . dissenters, religious -- england -- th century -- early works to . great britain -- politics and government -- - -- early works to . broadsides -- scotland -- th century. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - mona logarbo sampled and proofread - mona logarbo text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion c r honi soit qvi mal y pense royal blazon or coat of arms his majesties declaration to all his loving subjects , march . . published by the advice of his privy council . our care and endeavours for the preservation of the rights and interests of the church , have been sufficiently manifested to the world , by the whole course of our government , since our happy restauration , and by the many and frequent wayes of coercion that we have used for reducing all erring or dissenting persons , and for composing the unhappy differences in matters of religion , which we found among our subjects upon our return : but it being evident , by the sad experience of twelve years , that there is very little fruit of all those forceable courses , we think our self oblieged to make use of that supream power in ecclesiastical matters , which is not only inherent in us , but hath been declared and recognized to be so by several statutes and acts of parliament ; and therefore , we do now accordingly issue this our declaration , as well for the quieting the minds of our good subjects in these points , for inviting strangers in this conjuncture , to come and live under us , and for the better encouragement of all to a chearfull following of their trade and callings , from whence we hope by the blessing of god , to have many good and happy advantages to our government ; as also , for preventing for the future , the danger that might otherwise arise from private meetings , and seditious conventicles . and in the first place , we declare our express resolution , meaning and intention to be , that the church of england be preserved , and remain entire in its doctrine , discipline and government , as now it stands established by law ; and that this be taken to be , as it is , the basis , rule , and standard of the general and publick worship of god , and that the orthodox conformable clergy do receive and enjoy the revenues belonging thereunto : and that no person , though of a different opinion and perswasion , shall be exempt from paying his tythes , or other dues whatsoever . and further we declare , that no person shall be capable of holding any benefice , living , or ecclesiastical dignity or preferment of any kind , in this our kingdom of england , who is not exactly conformable . we do in the next place declare our will and pleasure to be , that the execution of all and all manner of penal laws in matters ecclesiastical , against whatsoever sort of non-conformists or recusants , be immediately suspended , and they are hereby suspended . and all judges , judges of assize and goal-delivery , sheriffs , justices of the peace , mayors , bayliffs , and other officers whatsoever , whether ecclesiastical or civil , are to take notice of it , and pay due obedience thereunto . and that there may be no pretence for any of our subjects to continue their illegal meetings and conventicles , we do declare , that we shall from time to time allow a sufficient number of places , as they shall be desired , in all parts of this our kingdom , for the use of such as do not conform to the church of england , to meet and assemble in , in order to their publick worship and devotion ; which places shall be open and free to all persons . but to prevent such disorders and inconveniencies as may happen by this our indulgence , if not duly regulated , and that they may be the better protected by the civil magistrate , our express will and pleasure is , that none of our subjects do presume to meet in any place , untill such place be allowed , and the teacher of that congregation be approved by us. and lest any should apprehend , that this restriction should make our said allowance and approbation difficult to be obtained , we do further declare , that this our indulgence , as to the allowance of the publick places of worship , and approbation of the teachers , shall extend to all sorts of non-conformists and recusants , except the recusants of the roman catholick religion , to whom we shall in no wise allow publick places of worship , but only indulge them their share in the common exemption from the execution of the penal laws , and the exercise of their worship in their private houses only . and if after this our clemency and indulgence , any of our subjects shall presume to abuse this liberty , and shall preach seditiously , or to the derogation of the doctrine , discipline or government of the established church , or shall meet in places not allowed by us , we do hereby give them warning , and declare , we will proceed against them with all imaginable severity : and we will let them see , we can be as severe to punish such offenders , when so justly provoked , as we are indulgent to truly tender consciences . given at our court at whitehall , this fourteenth day of march , in the four and twentieth year of our reign . edinburgh , re-printed by evan tyler , printer to the king 's most excellent majesty , . james stewart's answer to a letter writ by mijn heer fagel, pensioner to the states of holland & wes friesland concerning the repeal of the penal laws and tests. answer to a letter writ by mijn heer fagel stewart, james, sir, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; 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(eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) james stewart's answer to a letter writ by mijn heer fagel, pensioner to the states of holland & wes friesland concerning the repeal of the penal laws and tests. answer to a letter writ by mijn heer fagel stewart, james, sir, - . p. printed and are to be sold by andrew sowle ..., london : . reproduction of original in huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng fagel, gaspar, - . -- letter writ by mijn heer fagel, pensioner of holland, to mr. james stewart, advocate. dissenters, religious -- legal status, laws, etc. -- england -- early works to . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - andrew kuster sampled and proofread - andrew kuster text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion james stewart's answer to a letter writ by mijn heer fagel pensioner to the states of holland & west-friesland , concerning the repeal of the penal laws and tests . this may be printed , ja. vernon . london , printed and are to be sold , by andrew sowle , at the three kyes , in nags-head court , in grace-church street , over-against the conduit . . james stewart's answer to pensioner fagel's letter . my lord , i was so much surprised to see a letter appear in print , in january last , entituled a letter writ by mijn heer fagel pensioner of holland to mr james stewart advocate , giving an account of the prince and princess of orange's thoughts concerning the repeal of the tests , and of the penal laws ; that reflecting on my own meanness , with the far different figure that your lordship makes in the world , and withal considering the remoteness of the occasion given for that letter , the high and tender import of the matters therein treated , with the obvious singularity of such a forraign interposition , beyond all ordinary lines and rules , i was , at first inclined to dis-believe my own eyes . true it is , that after my return into england in july last , i was so well satisfied with what i observed of his majesties sincere intention , and steady resolution , to perfect the settlement of our religious liberty by a legal and perpetual establishment , ( which i doubted not would calm the late violent disstractions of these kingdoms , and in the end overcome that froward opposition which remains in some spirits , too narrow for such a blessing ) that i thought i could not , in my little sphere , do a piece of better service both to god and man , than to contribute my small endeavours , towards the advancing of so good a work , and particularly , towards the removing of some mistakes and jealousies , which i knew to be entertained in those parts that i had left . for this end , having obtained leave to write to a private friend , who i judged might have opportunity to represent any thing i could say , to the best advantage , i did by several letters directed to him ( for to your lordship i neither sent nor directed any , as looking upon that to be a thing not only too presumtuous , but also most improper , and against which i was expresly cautioned ) declare in what a different posture i had found things in these kingdoms , from what i and others had believed them , while i was in holland ; and having in two of them especially , ( the only letters intended for communication ) laid down for my ground his majesties sincerity in all this affair , evident not only by his royal word , but even demonstrable by things themselves , i proceeded to evince by a few arguments the equity and expediency of repealing both tests and penal lawes , and that with a peculiar regard to the prince and princess of orange's interest . and being grieved in my self at the consideration of their highnesses reluctancy to the thing , and uneasiness about it , especially as to the repeal of the test ; and wishing , as i do still , that from the beginning they had complyed more heartily with his majesties pleasure for the establishing of this liberty , and that they would yet resolve to concur with him in it , or that at least the obstruction of their known dissent might be removed ; i adventured to add the best perswasives i could think on for that effect ; desiring in the end that what i had written should be imparted to friends , & chiefly to those at the hague , ( whereof i hope your lordship is still one , according to the honour you were pleased to allow me while i was there ) for their more full information and satisfaction . and this , to the best of my remembrance , is the sum and substance of all i writ on that occasion . to this , after some waiting , i had my friends answer , telling me that he had confer'd with you upon the subject , and found that the prince had already declared himself in these matters , and particularly to the lord albeville his majesties envoy ; and that he was not to be moved to go any greater length in them than he had then exprest . that answer having drawn from me a return of some more earnest expressions of my grief for so great an unhappiness , i resolv'd to insist no further . only my friend insinuating that he had still hopes to get a more distinct and satisfying answer from a better hand , ( tho without naming any person ) i attended the issue : and accordingly about the beginning of november ( almost three months after my first writing ) he sent me a letter from your lordship writ in latin ; with an english version . those i received at london : and acknowledge with all humility the singular honour you were pleased to do me therein ; which on any other occasion i should certainly have expressed my sense of , with all readiness . but finding them to be letters directly from your lordship , ( to whom i had not written ) and that they contained an account of their highnesses thoughts , about the repeal of the tests and penal lawes , ( which i had not desired ) together with your own reasonings in justification thereof ; both your publick character , and the matters treated , moved me to put them immediately out of my hands , in the most safe and dutiful manner ; resolving rather to refer my self to the knowledge that some persons had of my ways , for clearing the mistake insinuated in the entry of your letter , ( as if i had presumed to write to you , or for such a purpose ) than to pursue with more noise an explication of what i thought would proceed no further . yet my friend advising me , by the next post after that which brought your letter , that when you gave it to him , you told him you had given out a copy or two to friends there ; and my apprehensions suggesting that a letter , so dilligently and accurately writ upon so slender an occasion , might either have a further prospect , or at least be further made use of , i immediately returned him answer , that , tho i was confident you were far from interposing in his majesties affairs , by causing any thing to be printed to his disservice , and no less assured that you would not suffer so obscure a name as mine to be unnecessarily heard of in so great matters , yet i knew how ready some persons in your parts were to lay hold on any thing that might cross his majesties purpose for the establishing of this liberty ; and therfore i intreated him to use his utmost indeavours for the prevention thereof . and accordingly i had his return , that though he feared you were no more master of the copies you had given out , yet as to my private letters , writ so familiarly and ingenuously to himself , he would undoubtedly secure them . so that truly when i first saw the printed letter above mentioned , and perceived by the impression that it was done in holland , i did not doubt but it was done without your lordships privity , and therefore laid it aside without once reading it . but now that there is come abroad a new print in your lordships name , ( upon what provocation i know not ) which plainly affirms that you were very earnestly desired by me to write what were the prince and princess of orange's thoughts , concerning the repealing of the test and penal laws , and that it was intimated to you that these pressing desires were made by his majesties knowledge and allowance ; i can no longer forbear , for the vindication of his majesties honour , and my own duty , to crave leave to say , with all submission , that the difference of this account from what i have above represented , ( and which i am sure is true in every point ) must of necessity flow from some mistake in the report you have had of my letters . for since i did not write any letter to your self , and that my writing to my friend was not out of any curiosity to know their highnesses thoughts about the repealing of penal laws and tests , ( which it is evident i already knew sufficiently , and which had been , as you well say , before particularly signified to the marquiss of albeville ) but for a quite different purpose , as i have before ingenuously represented it ; how could his majesties knowledge and allowance be avouched by me for that which was not ? it is true , i find it said in one of mine , that what i writ on the nineteenth of july was writ not only with permission , but according to his majesties minde sufficiently expressed . and this may also have been elsewhere repeated in other terms . but it s as true that the intent and meaning of those words was only to inforce some arguments i had used for liberty , which my friend inclined to think i had too confidently advanced ; and no wayes to assume to my self an authority for writing what i really neither had writ , nor intended to write . there being nothing more certain than that , although his majesty might have permitted me , as he doth many others , to use my little endeavours for the advancing of his service , yet it was never either thought by my self , or moved to me by any other , to write to your lordship , or to any other person , either in his majesties name , ( a presumption and indecency which i cann ot mention without blushing ) or in the name of any of his secretaries : and neither was there the least necessity to inquire into their highnesses thoughts in the aforesaid matter , since they were already perfectly known , and to none more distinctly than to his majesty himself , as all my letters do very plainly suppose . seeing therefore that this last print doth , in several passages , intimate that your letter of the fourth of november was not only a true letter , but published by your order , ( tho i know not why it should insinuate as if that letter had been first printed in england ) and that any thing relating to me is manifestly extrinsick to the point of the reality of your letter ; i cannot but again in all humility wish that your lordship had forborn to press so hard upon me , for justifying a publication which evidently was a pure act of your own free choice , and no doubt calculated for a far different end than what was by me intended . but since i have acknowledged that you did me the honour to write to me , and that you now own the printed copy to be the true copy of what was so writ , and thereby as it were call me to consider it more particularly ; i shall no longer decline the liberty you allow me , but freely explain my thoughts upon it in all sincerity ; and submit them to your profound judgment ; especially seeing it is in order to no other ends than those i formerly proposed , and which i am perswaded you approve as much as i do . what you declare to be their highnesses thoughts and opinion , concerning the repeal of the test and penal laws , as it was not the subject of my inquiry , so is it above the sphere of my consideration ; only seeing they seem to be under no restraint , as to a full compliance with his majesties design , except from their care of the security of the protestant religion , i am not without hopes that , when they shall have considered his majesties no less express purpose for the establishment of liberty , ( the only secular security and advantage that gods religion requires ) than for the procuring of the aforesaid repeal in order to men's just relief , their highnesses second thoughts may yet happily advance , and ripen so fair an appearance . but the question , as by me formerly stated , was precisely , whether all protestant dissenters ought not to concur with his majesty , by contributing their best endeavours to have the penal laws in matters of religion and conscience abrogated , and the present liberty legally established and fixt ; and whether , if his majesty should in favour of his roman catholick subjects think fit to make the abrogating of the test a condition of the continuance of his grant of liberty , he ought not in this also to be readily gratified , for so great a favour . now your agreement as to the entire abrogation of all penal coercive laws is altogether becoming your sound judgment and christian charity . your haesitation seems to be about the law of the test , and those other laws made for excluding romancatholicks from publick trusts , and securing the protestant religion ; to the repeal whereof you think no protestant can in conscience consent . and the sum and force of all your reasonings resolves into this ; that the laws for the test and disabling roman cotholicks to enjoy publick trusts contain no severities against them , nor import any wrong that any who cannot comply with their conditions ought justly to complain of ; but that they were fairly made according to the custom of all christian states , and the very natural right of all politick bodies , who have ever made laws for securing the publick established religion , and their own safety , by excluding the enemies thereof from all publick employments . and the law for the test being of this sort , you conclude that the repeal of it would take away all the security of the protestant religion , and expose the nation to most certain danger ; because all governours do naturally favour those of their own religion ; and the way of roman catholicks is so unequal towards protestants , that it must be concluded they would never agree with them in the joynt-administration of publick trusts , but would press his majesty in conscience until they were possessed of all , even to the depriving protestants of the support of the law , and protection of the magistrate . so that on the one hand it is indeed manifest by the whole substance of your discourse that , if the repeal of the test and admission of roman catholicks to publick employments do take away all the security of the protestant religion , and expose it to ruin ; then no true protestant ought to consent to it : but on the other hand it follows no less evidently , that if it can be shewed that the protestant religion may be sufficiently secured without the law of the test , and moreover that the legal establishment of the present liberty ( as design'd by his majesty ) doth in all probability tend more to the advantage than prejudice of the protestant religion ; then they both may , and ought to do it . but because the matters in hand do , above all others , require a clear and sound minde , free from all prejudice and pre-possession , and are not to be determined by general rules only and abstract notions , but ought to be examined with a just exactness in all their circumstances ; before i go any further , i must intreat you ( in the first place ) to remember the solid reflection you make in your letter upon the spirituality & heavenliness of the christian religion : which i am sure , if duly considered and improved , would not only convince others , as it doth you , of the absurdity of all forcible and compulsory methods for its advancement , but also compose and sweeten mens minds , and thereby prepare them to a more clear understanding and equitable determination of the point in controversie . that faith and obedience towards god ( which are only so far acceptable to him , so they proceed from a willing minde ) cannot be constrained , without an open mockery of god , and violence to the rights of men , is a plain dictate of reason , which all times and dispensations have acknowledged . but more especially that gentle spirit of the gospel , which christ so often owns and recommends , and whose characters are so visible in all his own and his apostles practices , seems to carry the thing yet a greater length . i need not put you in minde that the gospel was not sent ( as the law ) unto one , but unto all nations ; that our lord , by asserting his kingdom not to be of this world , doth not only assure to all men their civil rights , as then by them possessed , but in my opinion removes its administration further than is commonly supposed from all secular mixtures ; and that god's choice of the foolishness and weakness of men for its propagation ( design edly and expresly to the greater commendation of the power of his grace ) doth very probably supercede much of that humane caution which men have thought fit , but never with any success , to add to his better counsel . but undoubtedly if any man seriously ponders how the gospel at first set out , and how by its own pure and spiritual weapons , without any assistance of men's laws , it prospered , to the subduing of the world ; and at the same time call to mind that certain truth , that every thing is best preserved by the same causes that produced it ; he will hardly be induced to think that these exclusive laws , which you say are now so customary in all christian kingdoms and states , are indeed so necessary as is imagined for the conservation and security of religion . for my part , when i reflect on plain matter of fact , viz. that when the gospel did at first get footing in cities or kingdoms , and its disciples came afterwards to be persecuted by the government and body of the people , still pagan , ( it may be by tests as well as other penal laws ) they did not lay the stress of their apologies upon the truth of their profession ( which they knew their persecutors rejected ) but only upon their civil rights and liberties , as men ; i cannot but think it very unjustifiable for the same persons , or others of the same perswasion ( when afterwards grown more numerous and powerful ) to retaliate the same dealing to their old adversaries . but , not to press too hard upon these excluding laws , which i believe many , thinking piously that gods gift deserved their best care , have introduced in great sincerity ; i shall only add , that as it is evident they were never any where enacted for the preservation of religion , until religion had first prevailed and done its greatest work , so the best effects they have ever produced , have always been , either to make hypocritical converts , or else to distinguish , irritate , and unite into a factious obstinacy , such as in probability would sooner have yielded to a more equal and moderate treatment . but the best of it is , that tho a ruling clergy , ( the worst of politicians ) have always been observed to be most forward to procure such sanctions , yet are they still but human laws and expedients , and therefore absolutely at the disposal of the same powers that made them . but in the next place , since you have been pleased to interpose so far in our affairs , let me now intreat you to enlarge your thoughts a little further upon our present circumstances . the king is our soveraign ; and his majesties perswasion and religion , with what he hath already done , and may hereafter do , as also what he designs to have done in parliament touching this liberty , are su●●●…ently known : nor are you altogether a stranger to the state of religion , the parties who compose it , the laws made about it , and the effects they have produced , within these kingdoms . now for my part , i heartily wish that the church of england had always been as much protestant as at present she pretends to be ; that now , when she hath leisure , she may no less zealously mind and cleave to her own doctrine , and its sincere lovers , than sometime we have seen her violent for her ceremonies , and angry at men that were not of her fashion ; and , what ever may be the issue of things , that all protestant dissenters may always love her more ( if more be possible ) for our agreement in substantials , than she hath hated and persecuted them for their disagreement in circumstantials . but considering what opinion some men have entertained about the good effects of these penal and exclusive laws , and , on the contrary , what sufferings many thousands of protestants have in all times undergone , and should still in all appearance have undergone by them , even to their utter undoing , if his majesty had not graciously vouchsafed to hinder it ; and observing at the same time how improbable , or rather impossible , it is that the church of england , if in power , should either remain without those laws , or suffer those laws to remain without execution ; i must humbly crave leave to say , that for protestant dissenters to neglect the present opportunity , and not to comply with his majesties pleasure to have them totally and for ever abrogated , is , in my opinion , no better than to reject the goodness of god , and to abandon themselves to their adversaries . it hath been the fate of these kingdoms since the first beginning of our reformation , that all parties , papist , protestant , prelate , presbyterian , and independent also , have in their several turns , both practised persecution and repented their doing it : and now of late when the last scene was the blackest , and mens troubles were further hightened by their apprehensions of what was to come , it hath pleased god to raise us up a prince , who tho he be of another perswasion , and had ( as all thinking men must grant ) the fairest advantage to promote it , by pnrsuing only those methods which he found ready disposed to his hand ; yet hath been pleased , out of his just consideration of the true rights of god and man , and his tender and fatherly care of all his people , to deliver us out of bondage , and introduce us into a state of christian liberty . this as it is his majesties peculiar glory , denied to all his predecessors , ought the rather to be closed withal by his people . and surely we are not justly blamable , if neither the unhappy relicks of old prejudices , nor present jealousies , nor even future hopes , do hinder us from embracing the present opportunity of securing to our selves and to our posterity so great a blessing . the greatest part of what i have here said i know you will readily assent to , and that it is only the law of the test , ( which you judg to be both righteous and necessary ) that you would have still maintained . and therefore ( referring my full answer upon that head to its proper place ) i shall only here again put you in mind that the king is our soveraign , whose power goes far , both as to the bestowing of publick imployments , and also as to the continuing or restraining of our present liberty at his pleasure ; that it is to me unaccountable how any protestant should think the enjoyment of our present liberty not to be more valuable than all our exclusive laws ; and that , as i have above given a hint of my own sense of all such human cautions , so i hope it will easily be made appear , that there is neither that security in the test nor danger in its repeal , which some men , pretending in shew to keep up the test against roman catholicks , but intending in reallity to keep up the penal laws against protestant dissenters , would gladly have you and other strangers to believe , on their bare assertion . but further yet , i would again humbly beseech you to observe , that it is not a simple repeal of tests and penal laws that his majesty proposes , but really and principally the establishment of an equal and fair liberty ; which is the onely secular advantage , as i have already said , that true religion requires . men talk ordinarily of the repeal of tests and penal laws , as if that were the only thing intended : and thereupon their minds are immediately over-clouded with this prejudice ; that the protestant religion must needs be thereby divested of all legal security . whereas on the other hand , if they would take notice how careful his majesty hath been in his first proclamation , and in his answer to most of the addresses , to declare himself for such a just and secure liberty of conscience as may for ever set us free from persecutions and impositions , and how , in his late proclamation of the twenty seventh of april last , he publisheth his resolution to use his utmost indeavours to establish liberty of conscience on such just and equal foundations as will render it unalterable , and secure to all people the free exercise of their religion for ever ; they might easily rest satisfied that the protestant religion is to lose none of the security she now enjoys , by all that is intended ; save only the power of persecuting and imposing upon others , which you your self do condemn . it is true , you think the imposing of tests upon all persons in publick imployments is no undue imposition . but whether it be so or not , and whether the law of the test be that great and indispensible security of the protestant religion which you indeavour to make it , i shall now go on to consider . and because in effect nothing can be added to what hath been so fully said , and often repeated , by others , on this subject , i shall do it with all possible brevity . you say then against the repeal of the law of the test , and other exclusive laws ; first , that they contain no unjust severity . dly , that such laws are agreeable to the right and rules of all kingdoms and civil societies , and are used in all christian kingdoms and common-wealths . and dly , that they are the chief security of the protestant religion in these kingdoms , and that the taking them away would expose both the protestant religion and the people of these kingdoms to danger and ruin. as to the first , whether the exclusive laws contain any unjust severity i shall not much contend . it is known that within these few years we have had in england tests of several fashions , and for divers perswasions , and that some of them have been so severe as to throw men not only out of publick imployments , but out of their private callings , and so to deprive them of their daily bread. a man may also adventure to say that , all things duly weighed , those pretended pious and political tests have in our real experience been more prejudicial to the true interest of religion , and the peace and wel-fare of these nations , than ever their total repeal can , in the most strained rational conjecture , be hurtful to either of them . so strange and unaccountable a thing is this humour of testing . but seeing you seem to confine your self to the test against roman catholicks appointed principally for the two houses of parliament , i shall add more particularly ; first , that according to what i have above touched , this appears to be but an extraneous unwarranted human caution , and that it may justly be thought strange that , after religion had through its own heavenly power and methods prevailed against all the human laws , councils , and other hinderances that stood in its way , men should relaps , from such divine grounds of confidence , to their own weak contrivances , for its support and continuance : and further , that , however innocent you may now judge this injunction to be ; take the test , or quit all publick imployments ; yet i am fully assured , that , if in the primitive times a prince or other magistrate , turning christian , had , for the better conservation of his religion , set forth an edict to his still pagan subjects , commanding them to turn from vain idols to serve the living and true god , or else to forsake all publick places and trusts , he would have been condemned for it by christ and all his apostles . secondly , that the effects of such exclusions in all times have been no better than their causes ; and that , instead of preserving and securing our religion , they have onely brought into it hypocritical and false converts , or provoked those that were rejected to a more froward obstinacy , and worse practices , who otherwise might have been gained by gentleness and patience , which are the genuine methods of true christianity . and thirdly , that those who by birth-right have a real title to all the honours and priviledges of peerage , and even all men , who , upon the like ground , do naturally judge that they have at least an equal right of access to places and preferments in the societies whereof they are members with others of their degree and quality , will never be perswaded to think that there is no unjust severity in those excluding laws which deprive them either of their acknowledged priviledge , or no less valuable pretensions . and since you are pleased to tell us that it is their highnesses judgment , that no man should be ill used because he differs from the publick and established religion , i question a little how you can reconcile the deposing of peers , and civil excommunication of all others , ( which i am sure is no good usage ) for not taking the test , to so true and honest a judgment . it is easie for men who have either got themselves into publick places , or got above the desire of such places by a true christian mortification , to say with you , that it is but a small , if indeed any , advantage to have a share in the government . but , on the other hand , if it be considered that , as hundreds of freemen can willingly confine themselves to the narrow corner of a private house , who yet could not endure to be imprisoned in a palace , so it is the exclusion , especially when lookt upon as causeless and unjust , that in this case is really grievous , i am perswaded no impartial man will undertake to vindicate the laws that enacted it from a great measure of severity . and this i say from so disinteressed and so unbyassed a judgment , that , for my own part , i sincerely protest that i am not only well content with my present condition , but ( if it might in any sort facilitate his majesties christian design of liberty ) i would also readily consent that all dissenters , and my self amongst the rest , should be made incapable of all the more tempting publick imployments for ever . but for justifying of these exclusive laws , you say in the second place , that they are agreeable to the right and rules of all kingdoms and civil societies , to whom it was never denied to make laws for their own safety , and for that end to prescribe the conditions and qualities that they judge necessary for all that shall bear publick imployments . now that all governours may and ought to make rational and just laws for their safety , and for the due conferring of their publick imployments , is in my mind so little to be doubted , that it needed not at all to have been mentioned . the only speculation proper for our case is , whether these exclusive laws upon the account of difference in religion , be either warrantable or profitable . and seeing that i have already told you that they not only incroach upon mens natural and civil rights and liberties , the principal ends of government , but do also in some sort bring a constraint upon the profession of the truth , which ought to be most free , and which the apostle expressly will have to stand not in the wisdom of man ( such as penal laws and tests are ) but in the power of god , or in the same spiritual and heavenly means whereby it was first established and is undoubtedly best preserved , i shall not trouble you with repetitions . i see you add that such laws have also been and are used in all christian kingdoms and common-wealths ; and you might as truly have subjoyned , that even protestants , when prevalent , do by their practices justifie roman catholicks in that very point for which they condemn them in their discourses . but tho i confess that there is nothing more natural than for men to be anxiously careful to preserve what they esteem , and in this their anxiety to judge their own way the best , especially when either passion or self-interest enter into the deliberation ; yet considering the experience we have had of the fruitlesness of these exclusions , and that there is nothing more becoming men professing to be assured that their religion is christs true religion , than to rest upon the same methods for its conservation which he , who had the choice of all , thought only fit to make use of for its propagation ; and considering also that it hath pleased god so to order things , that his majesty ( the head & fountain of the government ) is of a different perswasion from the main body of the people , and so might justly turn all this your reasoning against us ; i can scarce forbear to wonder that men should refuse the fair equality which he proposeth . had it been the divine will that his majesty and his people had agreed in the same profession , it is more than probable that , whatever might have been his majesty's indulgent disposition the present question would not have been moved . but since this is not our case , and that the kingdom and government are certainly in his hands , i must crave leave to say that your arguments from the rights and customs , and from the providencial councils of all governments , makes more against you than for you ; and that i am very inclinable to believe that if the soveraign power were as much roman catholick in your provinces as it is with us , it would produce suitable effects . and therefore , since your argument rather commends his majesties gracious condescention , than any way impugns his design , i cannot but wish that , in a matter in itself so indifferent , it may accordingly perswade all men to a just compliance . but because the indifferency i here mention is that which you can hardly bear , and that the force of all your reasonings lies in the third point , viz. that these exclusive laws are the chief security of the protestant religion , and that the taking them away would expose the protestant religion , and the people of these kingdoms , to danger and ruin , i shall now proceed to examin more closely what you are pleased to say upon it : not doubting , in the mean while , but we are fully agreed that the true and principal security of the protestant religion consists in its being the immovable truth of god , which if well laid to heart would contribute more to its preservation than all the tests and penal laws in the world ; and in treating you still to remember that it is not a bare repeal of penal laws and tests that his majesty designs , but the sure and firm establishment of liberty , ( the only secular advantage , as i have often said , that gods truth requires ) which if rightly understood , and if a just distinction were made between the free enjoyment of civil rights ( the proper object and end of government ) and that liberty of conscience in matters of religion over which god has reserved to himself the incommunicable right , would quickly bring the world to the happiest state that it can ever attain to . these things , i say , being premised , i proceed to observe what you say for making out your assertion , viz. that the taking away of these exclusive laws would bring roman catholicks into both houses of parliament and all other publick imployments ; that in these imployments they would not agree with protestants ; but that because of their contrary principles , jealousies would arise , which his majesty would not be able to repress ; and that there is a great difference between roman catholicks and protestants , because the former exclude , suppress and persecute , where ever they can do it safely ; and if they were admitted into trusts they would not only favour their own religion , as all menin power do , but it would not be easie for the king to resist them , because they would press him in point of conscience ; and that then protestants would want all support of law , and encouragement from the magistrates . this way of reasoning , so manifestly proceeding from an over anxious jealousie , must needs be so much the less satisfactory , in that it is obvious to all men how much that cross and froward humour is disposed to convert the most proper antidotes for its cure , into the nourishment of its malady . but more particularly , first , it is evident that the strength of all objected , tho in softer expressions , is that this design of liberty is only pretended and carried on for the better advancement of popery . but , seeing his majesty hath in this matter declared the uprightness of his intentions with the clearest and most forcible expressions , delivered with all the binding circumstances of a full assurance , which from a prince of his veracity and firmness may be sufficient to convince the most incredulous , and also confirmed the sincerity of his purpose by the evidence of things incapable of any consistency with the design suspected , what place can be found for so improbable a suggestion ? for it being undeniably evident to all considering men that the plain contrary methods to what his majesty now practises had been the most direct and effectual ones for the introducing of popery ; and that the pressing and carrying on the execution of penal laws , begun to his hand , might in all human appearance have broken and undone that party which has in all times been judged remotest from , and most opposite and zealous against popery ; and so have left that other party , the church of england , ( who after the acting of such an unchristian persecution , would never have been strong enough nor have had the hearts to indure the like , and whose sequacious temper in matters of religion , falling in with the interest of their livings and dignities , may abundantly be seen in our records ) to be the only feeble defenders of protestancy , already more than half ruined ; ought not his majesties moderate and generous deportment so contrary to those methods for ever free him from so foul a suspition ? this real and most sensible demonstration of his majesties truth and sincerity is so much the more to be regarded , in that it is known how his entry into the government was fortified with the suppressing of insurrections ; which not only might have rendred his power more terrible , and provok'd him to greater severities , but also might have been made use of to have involved one way or other ( no new thing in the world ) a great part of the dissenters in the fate and ruin of those broken parties . but , secondly , although you say there is a great difference betwixt roman catholicks and protestants in the business of persecution , yet in the present controversie , i must beg leave of you , and all protestants , to say that this comes ill from those of the church of england , whose exclusions , suppressions and persecutions , ( to use your own terms ) all things considered , are in the judgment of many sober people more unchristian ( tho perhaps not so severe ) than any of those deplorable instances which you say are in many places abroad this day before our eyes . it is true that strangers , having easier opportunity to know the doctrine of the church of england , agreeing with that of the best protestants , than to observe their dealings with their dissenting brethren for the rejecting of her ceremonies , can scarce think it possible that this difference should have produced so violent a persecution ; especially against such who immediately before had done them the greatest service , in contributing so readily to the means of their restitution . and it is true also that some of that communion , especially in your parts , ( as appears by their late prints ) do endeavour to apologize for their former rigours and cruelties , partly by exclaiming against persecution , and partly by suggesting that the late severities used against dissenters were set on foot by a popish party and design at court , on purpose to increase their number and render them more unquiet , that so the parliament might have been constrain'd to grant a general toleration wherein the roman catholicks might be included ; the great design of this mistery . but the first of those excuses being now too late , and the other being false , and visibly affected ; i cannot but still wish that this their extraordinary zeal for the exclusion of roman catholicks be not a meer effect of their itch after their former power and practice of persecuting protestant dissenters ; and withal that the remembrance of our late sufferings may put protestants as well as roman catholicks in mind of their failings , to the end that all parties may become more sober and averse to all manner of persecution for ever . thirdly , seeing you lay the greatest stress of your argument upon the hazard that you pretend lies in the making of roman catholicks capable of , and giving them entry into publick imployments , and particularly to take places in both houses of parliament , i intreat you to observe that it is evident in point of fact , that roman catholicks are already in many publick imployments , and that those imployments will always depend , as they have ever depended , upon the pleasure of the prince regnant : so that considering how it is with us at this present , any man that is possessed with this fear ought rather to rejoyce then to be grieved at his majestie 's design of liberty ; because it plainly carries a relief against this apprehension , by opening a door to dissenting protestants also to enter into such imployments , who are not forward to do it while the restraining laws , that lie upon them also , remain in force . and as his majesty hath already begun to shew his equality in conferring of publick imployments as well on dissenters as on roman catholicks , the taking away of those laws will certainly induce him to a yet greater freedom in that particular . whereas on the contrary , it is more than probable that the refusing to gratifie him in that repeal , may , instead of hindering roman catholicks to be further imployed in publick trusts , rather provoke him by the disobligation to intend the thing more vigorously ; and also irritate that whole party , ( who must needs look upon this denyal for the present as a threatning for the future ) to more extraordinary and worse courses . and as to what is commonly said , that the keeping up of the test will at least be a bar to many , who otherwise might be tempted to turn by the bait of a good imployment ; as also that it will be some restraint upon such as are advanced , and make them act moderately ; i must crave leave to say that the contrary is to me far more probable : for whosoever can be supposed capable to turn for a place , will certainly time his turn , so as that it may have most of merit ; and consequently will rather seek to recommend himself by a frank reliance upon the kings declaration for liberty , than come in sneakingly afterwards under the security of the desired repeal ; especially when it cannot be doubted but that , both by the fundamental laws of government , and also by the force of his majestie 's prerogative , from which no successor will willingly derogate , those that are or shall be imployed are in all events secured ; and that at least it is incontravertibly as safe for a man to accept of a publick imployment as to go to a conventicle . fourthly , the most material consideration on this point seems to be much by you neglected , viz. that we are not in the condition of an absolute free choice , but under the limited offer of a plain alternative , i mean , either that the present liberty shall be continued on condition that the restraints of tests be also taken off from roman catholicks ; or else , if this be denyed , that the other shall at least become more precarious . now , whether a true protestant , having the fear of god , ( as you express it ) in this conjuncture , and in a just view of all our circumstances , may not very allowably think that the free liberty of the gospel ( as being gods way ) is more valuable , as to the interest of the protestant religion , than the exclusion of a few roman catholicks from having place in parliament , ( for to this narrow compass we see it plainly brought ) which is but man's way ; and whether this last may not well be consented to , for the establishing of the first , let all impartial men judge . you tell us that if the protestant dissenters should , upon this acceunt , be deprived of their libetty , the roman catholicks are only to blame for it ; who , rather than be restrained from having a share in the government , do chuse to have both themselves and the protestant dissenters ly still under the weight of the penal laws . but if the proposal made to the dissenters be fair , and their complyance not sinful , you must of necessity grant that for them to be dispossessed of their liberty ( the great concern of their souls , and the best method of supporting true religion ) is but poorly repaired , by telling them that the roman catholicks are to blame for it . fifthly , your frequent supposing that the roman catholicks will be still attemping to overturn the protestant religion , and disturb the kingdoms peace , and that they will get into all places of trust , and press the king in conscience , and give him no rest until they accomplish their designs , appear to me to be too manifest improvements of a melancholy jealousie . for , as hath been often said , it is not a simple repeal of penal laws and tests , but the establishment of an equal liberty , whereby the protestant as well as the roman catholick may be secured against all persecution , that his majesty designs . so that it is not possible that you should judge the repeal of the test to be the licensing of roman catholicks to attempt the ruin of the protestant religion , unless you think that the protestant religion can never by law be secured against the attempts of others , if it be not at the same time armed with a power to persecute them . sixthly , you tell us , that roman catholicks are not shut out amongst you from military imployments , and that it had been hard to have done it ; both because the good services they did you in the wars for defence of your liberty deserved that recompence ; and because their numbers being but few , any inconvenience arising from their admission might easily be prevented . now by this you plainly acknowledge that this whole matter is subject to a rational deliberation , and is to be determined by the weighing the conveniencies and inconveniencies that attend such an admission or exclusion , without entering into any deeper reflection , about the lawfulness or unlawfulness thereof . and further , i must tell you that his majesty has not only the same considerations that you mention to move him in favour of his roman catholick subjects , but , all things considered , i think it may very well be asserted that the admitting of roman catholicks with you to military imployments is much more unnecessary , than the admitting of them with us to place in parliament ( upon the conditions declared ) can be dangerous ; and that if the adventure be on this side more hazardous , yet it it compensated with counterbalancing advantages , that render it much more excusable than your unnecessary practice . seventhly , tho you are pleased according to your ordinary prudence and moderation to propose your fears with much modesty , yet others there are in your parts , as well as here , who speak out the devices of their own imaginations more plainly , and tell us that if the test were taken away , his majesty might by a new creation of peers , and by bold returns into the house of commons , get a parliament of such a temper as would absolutely forbid the exercise of the protestant religion , revive the act de comburendo and make yet greater alterations in the government . but how vain and groundless , to say no worse , these apprehensions are may appear by what his majesty hath already done in putting a stop to our late persecution ; which in the opinion of many might have carried on that change in religion more effectually ( because more easily and insensibly ) than the act de comburendo , and all the fires that it kindled . besides , whatever be the security that men ascribe to these excluding laws , it is only from the force they have as acts of parliament that it arises . why then should not the same force of a law as well secure the protestant religion in its just liberty , without the power of persecuting , as now its thought to do with it ? and as for the facility the king may have to fill both houses with roman catholicks , when the test shall be abrogated , why may he not as well first fill them in that manner , and abrogate it afterwards ? for it is judged by many to be no less than a fundamental in our government that the king 's call , with the peoples choice , and the lords and commons assembling thereupon with his majesties approbation , are all the essentialls of a parliament ; and that no parliament can so pre-engage and limit another , by any act or oath , that it cannot act as a parliament until it first comply therewithal . if such a power of limitation were admitted , one parliament might , by an oath framed for the purpose , restrain , weaken , and even make void the power of all succeeding parliaments for ever . so long indeed as oaths and tests appointed by acts of parliament do stand unrepealed , they are undoubtedly binding . but to think that one parliament can so bind up and prescribe rules to another , that , tho it may repeal the very act so binding and prescribing , yet it hath not power to do so till first it submit it self by oath unto the rules prescribed ( and then perjure it self by the repeal ) is an absurdity against the very essence of parliaments . but lastly , as matters ought not to be strained on either side , ( especially when all things concur on his majesties part to perswade to a fair and right understanding , in order to the establishing of peace , securing of right and property , and the putting an end to our so unnatural and unchristian persecutions ) so it cannot be doubted by any discerning person , that the present security of the protestant religion in these kingdoms doth scarce at all depend on either penal laws or tests , but principally on his majesties wisdom and moderation , on the constitution of our government , and on those just arguments for mutual forbearance , which our present circumstances do forcibly suggest to all men , of all parties , that are capable to understand their own interest , and have not wholy abandoned the care of it . seeing therefore that it remains evident , from what hath been said , that all these exclusive laws upon account of religion , however lewd they may be called , are no ways evangelical ; and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they may have been at first piously intended for the conservation of religion , and for the publick safety , yet in the event they have always proved unprofitable and unpolitick ; and seeing also that all the jealousies so industriously raised to obstruct his majesties present design of liberty are sufficiently removed , not only by the assurance of his royal word , and the manifest engagement of his honour , but by the demonstrative evidence that lyes in the circumstances of things themselves , i cannot but heartily wish that all men , and above all their highnesses , may give their effectual concurrence to so good and great a work . it is i confess , as you say , very natural for all persons in power to favour those of their own religion : and this in my opinion ought to oblige us to make the fairest construction of what his majesty doth in behalf of those that are of his . but it must also be acknowledged that it is a very extraordinary , and a most noble and generous disposition , in his majesty , to be so gentle and indulgent to those of his subjects that are of a different religion from his : and that ought to beget in us an intire confidence in what he promises , and perswade all his subjects , of what profession soever , to rest assured both of a firm support in the designed law of liberty , and of a favourable protection in his majesties authority . in my former letters i adventured to insinuate to my friend how much i judged their highnesses obliged , as well by their own interest and that of the portestant religion , as by their relation to his majesty , to comply with him in this affair . but that being a subject too high and too delicate for me to ingage any further in , i will not now presume to add any thing further upon it . my lord , having thus faithfully represented to you such thoughts as have occur'd to my mind upon the perusal of your letter , i judge it not needful nor decent for me to enter into further particulars ; as how this liberty may be established , to all the intents and withal the advantages above mentioned . but , in my humble opinion , his majesties proclamations of the fourth of april . and of the twenty fourth of april last , are a very excellent foundation for that work ; which i wish were compleated by a parliamentary ratification , to the vindicating of the divine right of religion and conscience from all human impositions , the confirming of our peace , and the advancement of his majesties glory and the kingdoms prosperity . it is not doubt a great undertaking to offer to satisfie all the jealousies and fears that , in such high and tender matters , may arise from the conflict of so various interests as are concerned therein . but this small essay that i have made , being truly involuntary , & such as your lordship hath in a manner extorted from me , i hope those considerations will be accepted as a just apology for my having thus far pursued it in all sincerity . and for the future tho i am firmly resolved to meddle no more in such debates , yet i shal always remain , as i acknowledge my self to be indispensibly obliged , edinburgh , may the th , . my lord , your lordships most humble and most obedient servant james stewart . finis . a true narrative of the popish-plot against king charles i and the protestant religion as it was discovered by andreas ab habernfeld to sir william boswel ambassador at the hague, and by him transmitted to archbishop laud, who communicated it to the king : the whole discoovery being found amongst the archbishops papers, when a prisoner in the tower, by mr. prynn (who was ordered to search them by a committee of the then parliament) on wednesday, may , : with some historical remarks on the jesuits, and a vindication of the protestant dissenters from disloyalty : also, a compleat history of the papists late presbyterian plot discovered by mr. dangerfield, wherein an account is given of some late transactions of sir robert peyton. habervešl z habernfeldu, ondřej. approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing t wing h estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : or : ) a true narrative of the popish-plot against king charles i and the protestant religion as it was discovered by andreas ab habernfeld to sir william boswel ambassador at the hague, and by him transmitted to archbishop laud, who communicated it to the king : the whole discoovery being found amongst the archbishops papers, when a prisoner in the tower, by mr. prynn (who was ordered to search them by a committee of the then parliament) on wednesday, may , : with some historical remarks on the jesuits, and a vindication of the protestant dissenters from disloyalty : also, a compleat history of the papists late presbyterian plot discovered by mr. dangerfield, wherein an account is given of some late transactions of sir robert peyton. habervešl z habernfeldu, ondřej. boswell, william, sir, d. . laud, william, - . prynne, william, - . [ ], p. printed for robert harford ..., london : . attributed to habervešl z habernfeldu by wing and nuc pre- imprints. this item can be found at reels : and : . errors in paging: p. misnumbered , and p. misnumbered . reproduction of original in union theological seminary library, new york and the british library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng charles -- i, -- king of england, - . jesuits. popish plot, . dissenters, religious -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - tcp staff (michigan) sampled and proofread - olivia bottum text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a true narrative of the popish-plot against king charles i. and the protestant religion : as it was discovered by andreas ab habernfeld to sir william boswel ambassador at the hague , and by him transmitted to archbishop laud , who communicated it to the king. the whole discovery being found amongst the archbishops papers , when a prisoner in the tower , by mr. prynn ( who was ordered to search them by a committee of the then parliament ) on wednesday , may . . with some historical remarks on the jesuits , and a vindication of the protestant dissenters from disloyalty . also a compleat history of the papists late presbyterian plot discovered by mr. dangerfield , wherein an account is given of some late transactions of sir robert peyton . london , printed for robert harford at the angel in cornhil , near the royal exchange : m. dc . lxxx . the preface . it may appear strange to some , that this conspiracy against king charles i. was never divulged till found by mr. prynn in . seeing it was known both to the king and archbishop in . but if they do but reflect upon the actions of those times , the wonder will cease : for these romish traytors having by their devillish cunning raised a rebellion in scotland , and fomented the divisions between his majesty and parliament to that heighth , as soon after brake forth into a most bloody and unnatural war between prince and people : his majesty ( as they design'd ) was sufficiently diverted for the present ; and afterwards ( the devil of discontent raised by these wicked incendiaries of rome , proving too head-strong for them , and threatning their ruin ) the conspirators were so disperss'd , that it would have been a difficult thing for his majesty ( if he had been free from the rebellious clamours of be-jesuited men ) to have brought them to conviction . the person who had the greatest opportunity of advancing this design , was sir f. w. a man in all outward appearance a protestant , and verily believed to be so by the archbishop , whose interest with the king made him secretary of state ; as we find it set down by the archbishop in the journal of his life , in these words , june . . mr. fr. windebank , my old friend , was sworn secretary of state , which place i obtained for him of my gracious master king charles . how industrious this secretary was in carrying on the plot , may partly appear by the charge against him in parliament , novem. . and decem . . . viz. seventy four letters of grace to recusants in four years , sixty four priests discharged by his warrants , twenty nine by his verbal order , and twenty three by his authority under read's hand : but he prevented the the necessity of answering to this or any other charge by his flight into france , where he was generously entertained by cardinal richelieu , ( no doubt for the good service he had done the catholick cause in england ) and lived and died a profest papist . his son went to rome , where he was received with the like kindness by cardinal barbarino , the chief contriver of this popish plot . as for read , he was an actor in this plot , much in the same nature as coleman was in that lately discoved by doctor oates , and others ; and because he was a profest papist , the secretary above-mentioned , ( to whom i think he appertain'd as clerk ) procured for him the following protection , which for his greater immunity was recorded in the crown-office , and in the clerk of the peace his book for middlesex in open sessions . by the king . whereas we have received good testimony of the loyalty and duty of our trusty and well-beloved captain john reade , and because he may be subject to the laws for recusancy ; these are to signifie , that we are graciously pleased to extend our special grace towards him : and do hereby command , that no indictment , presentment , information , or suit in our name , or in the name of any other , be henceforth commenced , prosecuted , or accepted against him , by any of our officers or subjects whatsoever , for or concerning recusancy : and if any such shall happen , then our will and pleasure is , that upon sight hereof , the same shall be discharged and made void , or otherwise not prejudicial to him . given under our signet at our court at theobalds , the thirteenth day of july , in the tenth year of our reign . to all and singular our judges of assize , justices of the peace , &c. whom it doth or may concern , and to every of them . thus was that good king so far abused ( by having a traytor represented to him as a loyal subject ) as to grant a protection to this read , who intended to make no other use of it , than thereby to destroy with the more safety his royal protector . this plot against king charles the first , was buried in a bloody civil war , but raised again against king charles the second , in time of peace , by the blood-thirsty jesuits ; the discovery whereof has been sufficiently made known by the tryal and execution of several of them , as well as by the printed narratives thereof . to get up their reputation again , they plotted to throw their guilt upon the dissenting protestants ; but the all-seeing eye of god prevented their villanous designs by a timely discovery : the design and discovery whereof , you will find particularly related at the end of this book . a true relation of the popish-plot against king charles i. and the protestant religion . if there be any professing the protestant religion within his majesties dominions , who are yet so wilfully blinded , as not to believe the reality of the late conspiracies , or that it has not been a long time carrying on to extirpate the protestant religion , reestablish popery , and inthral the people in all the three kingdoms , let them but advisedly fix their eyes and minds , upon the ensuing letters and discoveries , and they will easily find papistical plots have been no new things in this nation . to omit their attempts upon king edward , queen elizabeth , and king james , these papists make it evidently out , that the same design , and the same contrivances were on foot in the reign of our late sovereign charles the first , of blessed memory ; a true narrative whereof these sheets contain , as they were found in the arch-bishop of canterbury's study in the tower , may . . the first who discover'd it , was an actor in it , sent hither from rome , by cardinal barbarini , to assist con , the pope's legat , in the pursuit of it , and privy to all the particulars ; who being touch'd with remorse of conscience , for being guilty of so detestable a crime , reveal'd the whole mystery to sir william boswell , the king's leiger embassador at the hague , who gave private notice of the same to the arch-bishop of canterbury , by whom it was declar'd to the king himself . sir william boswell's first letter to the arch-bishop , touching this plot. may it please your grace , the offers ( whereof your grace will find a copy ) here enclos'd toward a farther and more particular discovery , were first made to me at the second hand , and by word of mouth by a friend of good quality and worth in this place . but soon after , as soon as they could be put into order , were avowd by the principal party , and deliver'd me in writing by both together , upon promise and oath , which i was required to give , and gave accordingly , not to reveal the same to any other man living , but your grace , and by your grace's hand to his majestie . in like manner they have tied themselves not to declare these things to any other but my self , untill they should know how his majestie , and your grace would dispose thereof . the principal giving me withall to know , that he puts himself and this secret into your grace's power , as well because it concerns your grace so nearly after his majestie , as that he knows your wisdom to guide the same aright , and is also assur'd of your grace's fidelity to his majesties person , to our state and to our church . first , your grace is earnestly pray'd to signifie his majesties pleasure , with all speed , together with your grace's disposition herein , and purpose to carry all with silence from all but his majestie , until due time . secondly , when your grace shall think fit to shew these things to his majestie , to do it immediately , and not trusting letters , nor permitting any other person to be by , or within hearing , and to intreat and counsel his majestie as in a case of conscience , to keep the same wholly and solely in his own bosom from the knowledge of all other creatures living , but your grace , until the business shall be clear'd out . thirdly , not to enquire or demand the names of the parties from whom these overtures do come , or any farther discoveries or advertisements in pursuit of them , which shall come hereafter , until satisfaction shall be given to every part of them . nor to tell to any person but his majestie , that any thing of this nature is come from me . for as i may believe these overtures are veryfiable in the way they will be laid , and that the parties will not shrink ; so i may account , that if never so little glimpse or shadow of these informations shall appear by his majesties or your grace's words or carriage unto others , the means whereby the business may be brought best unto tryal , will be utterly disappointed . and the parties who have in conscience toward god , devotion to his majestie , affection toward your grace , and compassion to our country disclos'd these things , will run a present and extream hazard of their persons and lives . so easily it will be conjectur'd upon the least occasion given either by his majestie or your grace , who is the discoverer . these are the points and offers which they have prest me to represent more especially to his grace . for my own particular , having already most humbly crav'd pardon of any errour or omissions that have befallen me in the managing this business , i do beseech your grace to let me know , first , whether , and in what order i shall proceed with the parties . secondly , what points of these offers i shall first put them upon to enlarge and clear ? thirdly , what other points and queries i shall propose to them , and in what manner ? fourthly , how far further i shall suffers my self to hear and know these things . fifthly , whether i shall not rather take the parties answers and discoveries sealed up by themselves , and having likewise put my own seal upon them , without questioning or seeing what they contain , so to transmit them to your grace or his majestie . sixthly , whether i may not insinuate upon some fair occasion , that there will be a due regard had of them and their service by his majestie and your grace ; when all particulars undertaken in these general offers , and necessary for perfecting the discovery , and work intended , shall effectually be delivered to his majestie and your grace . upon these heads , and such other as his majesty and your grace shall think proper in the business , i must with all humility beseech your grace to furnish me with instructions , and warrant for my proceedings , under his majesties hand , with your grace's attestation , as by his majesties goodness and royal disposition is usual in like cases . may it please your grace to entertain a cipher with me upon this occasion ; i have sent the counterpart of one here inclos'd . if these overtures happily sort with his majesties and your grace's mind , and shall accordingly prove effectual in their operation , i shall think my self a most happy man , to have any oblation in so pious a work for my most gracious soveraign and master . more particularly in that your grace under his majesty shall be opifex rerum & mundi melioris origo . which i shall incessantly beg in my prayers at his hands , who is the giver of all good things , and will never forsake or fail them , who do not first fail and fall from him , the god of mercy and peace , with which i remain ever more , your grace's most dutiful and obliged servant , william boswell . hague in holland , sept. . . stylo loci . i have not dar'd to trust this business ( without a cipher ) but by a sure hand , for which reason , i have sent the bearer my secretary express , but he knows nothing of the contents thereof . superscrib'd for your grace . endors'd by the arch-bishop with his own hand . received sept. . sir william boswell , about the plot against the king. andreas ab habernfeld's letter to the arch-bishop , concerning the plot revealed to him , written by him in latin. most illustrious and most reverend lord , all my senses are shaken together as often as i revolve the present business , neither doth my understanding suffice , to conceive what wind hath brought such horrid things , that they should see the sun-shine by me : for unexpectedly this good man became known unto me , who when he had heard me discoursing of these scotch stirs , said , that i knew not the nerve of the business , that those things which are commonly scattered abroad are superficial . from that hour he every day became more familiar to me , who acknowledging my dexterity herein , with a full breast poured forth the burdens of his heart into my bosom , supposing that he had discharged a burden of conscience wherewith he was pressed . hence he related to me the factions of the jesuits , with which the whole earthly world was assaulted ; and shewed , that i might behold how through their poison , bohemia and germany were devoured , and both of them maimed with an irreparable wound ; that the same plague did creep through the realms of england and scotland , the matter whereof , revealed in the adjacent writing , he discovered to me : which things having heard , my bowels were contracted together , my loyns trembled with horrour , that a pernicious gulf should be prepared for so many thousands of souls : with words moving the conscience , i inflamed the mind of the man ; he had scarce one hour concocted my admonitions , but he disclosed all the secrets , and he gave free liberty that i should treat with those whom it concerned , that they might be informed hereof . i thought no delay was to be made about the things : the same hour i went to sir william boswell , the king's leiger , at the hague , who being tied with an oath of secrecy to me , i communicated the business to him , i admonished him to weigh these things by the ballance , neither to deser , but act , that those who were in danger might be speedily succoured : he , as becomes an honest man , mindful of his duty , and having hearer looked into the business , refused not to obey the monitions . moreover , he forthwith caused that an express should be dispatched , and sent word back again what a most acceptable oblation this had been to the king and your grace ; for which we rejoyced from the heart , and we judged , that a sase and favourable deity had interposed it self in this business , whereby you might be perserved . now that the verity of the things elated might be confirmed , some principal heads of the conspiracy were purposely pretermitted , that the knowledge of them might be extorted from the circumvented society of the conspirators . now the things will be speedily and safely promoted into act , if they be warily proceeded in at bruxels . by my advice , that day should be observed wherein the packet of letters are dispatch'd , which under the title of , to monsieur strario arch-deacon of cambray , tyed with one cover , are delivered to the post-master ; such a packet may be secretly brought back from him , yet it will be unprofitable , because all the inclosed letters are written characteristically . likewise another packet coming weekly from rome , which is brought under this superscription , to the most illustrious lord count rossetti , legat for the time ; these are not to be neglected : to whom likewise letters writ in the same characters are included . that they may be understood , reade is to be consulted with . the forenamed day of dispatch shall be expected : in reade's house an accumulated congregation may be circumvented ; which succeeding , it will be your graces part to order the business . the intestine enemy being at length detected by god's grace , all bitterness of mind , which is caused on either side may be abolished , buried in oblivion , deleted and quieted , the enemy be invaded on both parts : thus the king and the kings friend , and both kingdoms neer to danger , shall be preserved and delivered from eminent danger . your grace likewise may have this injunction by you , if you desire to have the best advice given you by others , that you trust not overmuch to your pursevants , for some of them live under the stipend of the popish party . how many rocks , how many scilla 's , how many displeased charybdes appear before your grace , in what a dangerous sea , the cock-boat of your graces life , next to shipwrack , is tossed , your self may judge ; the fore-deck of the ship is speedily to be driven to the harbour . all these things ( i whisper ) into your grace's ear , for i know it bound with an oath of secrecy ; therefore by open name , i would by these presents become known to your grace , hague sept. . s. n. . your graces most observant , and most officious , andrew habernfeld . superscribed by andreas ab habernfeld , a noble bohemian , dr. of physick to the queen of bohemia , illustrissimo ac reverendissimo dom. domino gulielmo archiepiscopo cantuariensi , primati & metropolitano totius regni angliae dom. meo . the arch-bishops indorsement with his own hand . received , octob. . . andreas ab habernfeld . his letters sent by sir william boswell , about the discovery of the treason . i conceive by the english latin herein , that he must needs be an englishman , with a concealed and changed name . and yet it may be this kind of latin may relate to the italian . or else he lived some good time in england the declaration of this treason i have by his majesties special command , sent to sir w. boswell , that he may there see what proof can be made of any particulars . the general overture and discovery of the plot , sent with sir william boswell's first letter , and written in latin. the king's majesty and the lord arch-bishop of canterbury are to be secretly informed by letters , . that the king's majesty , and the lord arch-bishop are both of them in great danger of their lives . . that the whole common-wealth is by this means endangered , unless the mischief be speedily prevented . . that these scotch troubles are raised , to the end , that under this pretext , the king and arch-bishop might be destroyed . . that there is a means to be prescribed , whereby both of them in this case may be preserved , and this tumult speedily composed . . that although these scotch tumults be speedily composed , yet that the king is endangered , and that there are many ways , by which destruction is plotted to the king and lord arch-bishop . . that a certain society hath conspired the death of the king , and lord arch-bishop , and convulsion of the whole realm . . that the same society , every week deposits with the president of the society , what intelligence every of them hath purchased in eight days search , and then confer all into one packet , which is weekly sent to the director of the business . . that all the confederates in the said conspiracy may verily be named by the poll. but because they may be made known by other means , it is thought meet to defer it till hereafter . . that there is a ready means , whereby the villany may be discovered in one moment , the chief conspirators circumvented , and the primary members of the conjuration apprehended in the very act . . that very many about the king , who are accounted most faithful and intimate , to whom likewise the more secret things are intrusted , are traytors to the king , corrupted with a foreign pension , who communicate all secrets of greater or lesser moment to a foreign power . these and other most secret things , which shall be necessary to be known for the security of the king , may be revealed , if these things shall be acceptable to the lord arch-bishop . likewise they may be assured , that whatsoever things are here proposed , are no figments , or fables , nor vain dreams , but such real verities , which may be demonstrated in every small tittle . for those who thrust themselves into this business , are such men , who mind no gain , but the very zeal of christian charity suffers them not to conceal these things : yet both from his majesty and the lord arch-bishop some small exemplar of gratitude will be expected . all these premises have been communicated under good faith , and the sacrament of an oath , to mr. leiger embassadour of the king of great britain , at the hague ; that he should not immediately trust , or communicate these things to any mortal , besides the king , and the lord arch-bishop of canterbury . subscribed , &c. present , &c. hague , com. . sept. . in the style of the place . the arch-bishops own indorsement . recieved sept. . . the plot against the king. the arch-bishop of canterburies letter to the king , concerning the plot ; with the king's directions in the margin , written with his own hand . [ i beseech your majesty read these letters as they are endorsed by figures , , , , &c. ] may it please your majesty , as great as the secret is which comes herewith , yet i choose rather to send it in this silent covert way , and i hope safe , than to come thither , and bring it my self . first , because i am no way able to make hast enough with it . secondly , because should i come at this time , and antedate the meeting , sept. . there would be more jealousie of the business , and more enquiry after it : especially , if i being once there , should return again before that day , as i must , if this be followed , as is most fit . the danger it seems is eminent , and laid by god knows whom ; but to be executed by them which are very near about you . ( for the great honour which i have to be in danger with you , or for you , i pass not , so your sacred person , and the state may be safe . ) now , may it please your majesty , this information is either true , or there is some mistake in it : if it be true , the persons which make the discovery will deserve thanks and reward ; if there should be any mistake in it , your majesty can lose nothing but a little silence . the business , ( if it be ) is extream foul . the discovery thus by god's providence offered , seems fair . i do hereby humbly beg it upon my knees of your majesty , that you will conceal this business from every creature , and his name that sends this to me . and i send his letters to me , to your majesty , that you may see his sence both of the business and the secrecy . and such instructions as you think fit to give him , i beseech you let them be in your own hand for his warrant , without imparting them to any . and if your majesty leave it to his descretion to follow it there in the best way he can , that in your own hand will be instruction and warrant enough for him . and if you please to return it herewith presently to me , i will send an express away with it presently . in the mean time , i have by this express returned him this answer , that i think he shall do well to hold on the treaty with these men , with all care and secrecy , and drive on to the discovery , so soon as the business is ripe for it , that he may assure himself and them , they shall not want reward , if they do the service . that for my part he shall be sure of secrecy , and that i am most confident , that your majesty will not impart it to any . that he have a special eye to the eighth and ninth proposition . sir , for god's sake , and your own safety , secrecy in this business : and i beseech you , send me back this letter , and all that comes with it , speedily and secretly , and trust not your own pockets with them . i shall not eat , nor sleep in quiet , till i receive them . and so soon as i have them again , and your majesties warrant to proceed , no diligence shall be wanting in me to help on the discovery . this is the greatest business that ever was put to me . and if i have herein proposed , or done any thing amiss , i most humbly crave your majesties pardon . but i am willing to hope i have not herein erred in judgment , and in fidelity i never will. these letters came to me on , thursday , sept. . at night , and i sent these away according to the date hereof , being extreamly wearied with writing this letter , copying out those other which come with this , and dispatching my letters back to him that sent these , all in my own hand . once again secrecy for god's sake , and your own . to his most blessed protection i commend your majesty and all your affairs : and am , lambeth , sept. . . your majesties most humble faithful servant , w. cant. the arch-bishop's postscript . as i had ended these , whether with the labour or indignation , or both , i fell into an extreme faint sweat ; i pray god keep me from a feaver , of which three are down in my family at croyden . these letters came late to me , the express being beaten back by the wind . the arch-bishops indorsement with his own hand . received from the king , sept. . . the king's answer to the plot against him , &c. superscrib'd by the arch-bishop , for your sacred majesty : by the king , yours apostyled . sir william boswel's second letter to the arch-bishop . may it please your grace , this evening late i have received your graces dispatch , with the enclosed from his majesty , by my secretary oveart , and shall give due account with all possible speed of the same , according to his majesties and your graces commands , praying heartily that my endeavours , which shall be most faithful , may also prove effectual , to his majesties and your grace's content , with which i do most humbly take leave , being always hague , sept. . . s. angelo . your graces most dutiful and humblest servant , william boswell . the arch-bishop's indorsement . received , sept. . . sir william boswell his acknowledgement , that he hath received the king's directions in my letters . sir william boswell's third letter to the arch-bishop . sent with the larger discovery of the plot . may it please your grace , upon receipt of his majesties commands , with your grace's letters of , and , sept. last , i dealt with the party to make good his offers formerly put in mine hand , and transmitted to your grace : this he hopes to have done , by the inclosed , so far as will be needful for his majesties satisfaction ; yet if any more particular explanation or discovery shall be required by his majesty or your grace , he hath promised to add thereunto , whatsoever he can remember , and knows of truth . and for better assurance and verification of his integrity , he professeth himself ready ( if required ) to make oath of what he hath already declared , or shall hereafter declare in the business . his name he conjures me still to conceale , though he thinks his majesty and your grace , by the character he gives of himself , will easily imagin who he is , having been known so generally through court and city , as he was for three or four years , in the quality and imployment he acknowlegeth ( by his declaration inclosed ) himself to have held . hereupon he doth also redouble his most humble and earnest suit unto his majesty and your grace , to be most secret and circumspect in the business , that he may not be suspected to have discovered , or had a hand in the same . i shall here humbly beseech your grace to let me know what i may further do for his majesties service , or for your graces particular behoof ; that i may accordingly endeavour to approve my self , as i am , hague , octob. . . your grace's mest dutiful and obliged servant , william boswell . the arch-bishop's indorsment . received octob. . . sir william boswell in prosecution of the great business . if any thing come to him in cyphers , to send it to him . the large particular discovery of the plot and treason against the king , kingdom , and protestant religion , and to raise the scotish wars , written in latin. most illustrious and reverend lord , we have willingly and cordially perceived , that our offers have been acceptable both to his royal majesty , and likewise to your grace . this is the only index to us , that the blessing of god is present with you , whereby a spur is given , that we should so much the more chearfully and freely utter and detest those things whereby the hazard of both your lives , the subversion of the realm and state both of england and scotland , the tumbling down of his excellent majesty from his throne , is intended . now lest the discourse should be enlarged with superfluous circumstances , we will only premise some things which are meerly necessary to the business . you may first of all know , that this good man , by whom the ensuing things are detected , was born and bred in the popish religion , who spent many years in ecclesiastical dignities . at length being found fit for the expedition of the present design , by the counsel and mandate of the lord cardinal barbarini , he was adjoyned to the assistance of master cuneus ( con ) by whom he was found so diligent and sedulous in his office , that hope of great promotion was given to him . yet he , led by the instinct of the good spirit , hath , howsoever it be , contemned sweet promises , and having known the vanities of the pontifician religion ( of which he had sometime been a most severe defender ) having likewise noted the malice of those who fight under the popish banner , felt his conscience to be burdened ; which burden that he might ease himself of , he converted his mind to the orthodox religion . soon after , that he might exonerate his conscience , he thought fit , that a desperate treason , machinated against so many souls , was to be revealed , and that he should receive ease if he vented such things in the bosom of a friend : which done , he was seriously admonished by the said friend , that he should shew an example of his conversion and charity , and free so many innocent souls from imminent , danger to whose monitions he willingly consented , and delivered the following things to be put in writing , out of which the articles not long since tendered to your grace , may be clearly explicated and demonstrated . . first of all , that the hinge of the business may be rightly discerned , it is to be known , that all those factions with which christendom is at this day shaken , do arise from the jesuitical off-spring of cham , of which four orders abound throughout the world. of the first order are ecclesiasticks , whose office it is to take care of things promoting religion . of the second order are politicians , whose office it is by any means to shake , trouble , and reform the state of kingdoms and republicks . of the third order are seculars , whose property it is to obtrude themselves into offices with kings and princes , to insinuate and immix themselves in court businesses , bargains and sales , and to be busied in civil affairs . of the fourth order are intelligencers , ( or spies ) men of inferiour condition , who submit themselves to the services of great men , princes , barons , noble-men , citizens , to deceive ( or corrupt ) the minds of their masters . . a society of so many orders , the kingdom of england nourisheth : for scarce all spain , france , and italy , can yield so great a multitude of jesuits , as london alone ; where are found more than scotish jesuits . there the said society hath elected to it self a seat of iniquity , and hath conspired against the king , and the most faithful to the king , especially the lord archbishop of canterbury , and likewise against both kingdoms . . for it is more certain than certainty it self , that the forenamed society hath determined to effect an universal reformation of the kingdom of england and scotland . therefore the determination of the end , necessarily infers a determination of means to the end . . therefore to promote the undertaken villany , the said society dubbed it self with the title of , the congregation of propagating the faith ; which acknowledgeth the pope of rome the head of the college , and cardinal barbarini his substitute and executor . . the chief patron of the society at london , is the popes legat , who takes care of the business ; into whose bosom , these dregs of traytors weekly deposite all their intelligences . now the residence of this legation was obtained at london in the name of the roman pontiff , by whose mediation it might be lawful for cardinal barbarini to work so much the more easily and safely upon the king and kingdom . for none else could so freely circumvent the king , as he who should be palliated with the popes authority . . master cuneus did at that time enjoy the office of the popes legat , an universal instrument of the conjured society , and a serious promoter of the business , whose secrets , as likewise those of all other intelligencers , the present good man , the communicator of all these things , did revive and expedite whither the business required . cuneus set upon the chief men of the kingdom , and left nothing unattempted , by what means he might corrupt them all , and incline them to the pontifician party : he inticed many with various incitements , yea , he sought to delude the king himself with gifts of pictures , antiquities , idols , and of other vanities brought from rome , which yet would prevail nothing with the king. having entred familiarity with the king , he is often requested at hampton court , likewise at london , to undertake the cause of the palatine , and that he would interpose his authority , and by his intercession perswade the legat of colen , that the palatine , in the next diet to treat of peace , might be inserted into the conditions ; which verily he promised , but performed the contrary . he writ indeed , that he had been so desired by the king concerning such things , yet he advised that they should not be consented to , lest peradventure it might be said by the spaniard , that the pope of rome had patronized an heretical prince . in the mean time , cuneus smelling from the archbishop , most trusty to the king , that the kings mind was wholly pendulous ( or doubtful , ) resolved , that he would move every stone , and apply his forces , that he might gain him to his party : certainly confiding , that he had a means prepared . for he had a command to offer a cardinals cap to the lord archbishop in the name of the pope of rome , and that he should allure him also with higher promises , that he might corrupt his sincere mind . yet a fitting occasion was never given , whereby he might insinuate himself into the lord archbishop . free access was to be gained by the earl and countess of a — likewise secretary w — the intercession of all which being neglected , he did flie the company or familiarity of cuneus , worse than the plague : he was likewise perswaded by others of no mean rank , well known to him , neither yet was he moved . . another also was assayed , who hindred access to the detestable wickedness , secretary cook , he was a most bitter hater of the jesuits , whom he intercepted from acces , to the king , he entertained many ( of them ) according to their deserts , he diligently enquired into their factions ; by which means every incitement , breathing a magnetical ( attractive ) power to the popish party , was ineffectual with him ; for nothing was so dear unto him , that might incline him to wickedness . hereupon being made odious to the patrons of the conspiracy , he was endangered to be discharged from his office ; it was laboured for three years space , and at last obtained . yet notwithstanding there remained on the kings part a knot hard to be untied , for the lord arch-bishop , by his constancy , interposed himself as a most hard rock . when cuneus had understood from the lord arch-bishops part , that he had laboured in vain , his malice and the whole societies waxed boyling hot : soon after ambushes began to be prepared , wherewith the lord arch-bishop together with the king should be taken . likewise a sentence is passed against the king ( for whose sake all this business is disposed ) because nothing is hoped from him which might seem to promote the popish religion ; but especially when he had opened his mind , that he was of this opinion , that every one might be saved in his own religion , so as he be an honest and pious man. . to perpetrate the treason undertaken , the criminal execution at westminster , caused by some writings of puritans , gave occasion of the first fire : which thing was so much exasperated and exaggerated by the papists to the puritans , that if it remained unrevenged , it would be thought a blemish to their religion ; the flames of which fire , the scotch book of prayers increases , occasioned by it's alterations . . in this heat , a certain scotish earl , called maxfield , if i mistake not , was expedited to the scots by the popish party ; with whom two other scotish earls , papists , held correspondency : he was to stir up the people to commotion , and rub over the injury afresh , that he might enflame their minds , precipitate them to arms , by which the hurtful disturber of the scotish liberty might be slain . . by this one labour , snares are prepared for the king ; for this purpose the present business was so ordered , that very many of the english should adhere to the scots ; that the king should remain inferiour in arms , who ( thereupon ) should be compelled to crave assistance from the papists , which yet he should not obtain , unless he would descend unto conditions , by which he should permit universal liberty of the exercise of the popish religion ; for so the affairs of the papists would succeed according to their desire . to which consent , if he should shew himself more difficult , there should be a present remedy at hand . the king is to be dispatched : for an indian nut , stuffed with most sharp poyson , is kept in the society ( which cuneus at that time shewed often to me in a boasting manner ) wherein a poyson was prepared for the king ; after the example of his father . . in this scottish commotion , the marquess of hamilton , often dispatched to the scots in the name of the king , to interpose the royal authority , whereby the heat of minds might be mittigated , returned notwithstanding as often without fruit , and without ending the business : his chaplain at that time repaired to us , who communicated some things secretly with cuneus . being demanded of me in jest , whether also the jews agreed with the samaritans ? cuneus thereunto answered ; would to god all ministers were such as he : what you will may be hence conjectured . . things standing thus , there arrived at london from cardinal richelieu , mr. thomas chamberlaine , his chaplain and almoner , a scot by nation , who was to assist the college of the confederate society , and seriously to set forward the business , to leave nothing unattempted , whereby the first heat might be exasperated . for which service he was promised the reward of a bishoprick ; he cohabited with the society four months space ; neither was it lawful for him first to depart , until things succeeding according to his wish , he might be able to return back again with good news . . sir toby matthew , a jesuited priest , of the order of politicians , a most vigilant man of the chief heads , to whom a bed was never so dear , that he would rest his head thereon , refreshing his body with sleep in a chair for an hour , or two , neither day nor night spared his machinations ; a man principally noxious , and himself the plague of the king and kingdom of england ; a most impudent man , who flies to all banquets and feasts , called or not called ; never quiet , always in action and perpetual motion ; thrusting himself into all conversations of superiours ; he urgeth conferences familiarly , that he may fish out the minds of men ; what ever he observeth thence , which may bring any commodity , or discommodity to the part of the conspirators , he communicates to the pope's legat ; the more secret things he himself writes to the pope , or to cardinal barbarini . in sum , he adjoins himself to any mans company ; no word can be spoken , that he will not lay hold on , and accommodate to his party . in the mean time , whatever he hath fished out , he reduceth into a catalogue , and every summer carrieth it to the general consistory of the jesuits politicks , which secretly meets together in the province of wales , where he is an acceptable guest . there counsels are secretly hammered , which are most meet for the convulsion of the ecclesiastic , and politic estate of both kingdoms . . captain read , a scot , dwelling in long-acre-street , near the angel tavern , a secular jesuit , who for his detestable office performed ( whereby he had perverted a certain minister of the church , with secret incitements to the popisn religion , with all his family , taking his daughter to wife ) for a recompence , obtained a rent , or impost upon butter , which the country people are bound to render to him , procured for him by some chief men of the society , who never want a spur , whereby he may be constantly detained in his office. in his house the business of the whole plot is concluded , where the society , which hath conspired against the king , the lord arch-bishop , and both kingdoms , meet together , for the most part every day : but on the day of the carriers ( or posts ) dispatch , which is ordinarily friday , they meet in greater numbers ; for then all the intelligencers assemble , and confer in common , what things every of them hath fished out that week ; who , that they may be without suspition , send their secrets by sir toby matthew , or read himself , to the pope's legat ; he transmits the compacted packet , which he hath purchased from the intelligencers , to rome . with the same read , the letters brought from rome are deposired , under fained titles and names , and by him are delivered to all to whom they appertain : for all and every of their names are known to him . upon the very same occasion , letters also are brought hither under the covert of father philip ; ( he notwithstanding , being ignorant of things ) from whom they are distributed to the conspirators . there is in that very house , a publick chappel , wherein an ordinary jesuit consecrates , and dwells there . in the said chappel masses are daily celebrated by the jesuits , and it serves for the baptizing of the children of the house , and of some of the conspirators . those who assemble in the forenamed house , come frequently in coaches , or on horse-back in lay-mens habit , and with a great train , wherewith they are disguised , that they may not be known , yet they are jesuits , and conjured members of the society . . all the papists of england contribute to this assembly , lest any thing should be wanting to promote the undertaken design . out of whose treasury , a widow , owner of the houses , wherein secretary w. now dwelleth , dead above three years since , bestowed forty thousand english pounds ; so likewise others contributed above their abilities , so as the business may be promoted unto its desired end . . besides the foresaid houses , there are conventicles also kept in other more secret places , of which they dare not confide , even among themselves , for fear lest they should be discovered . first , every of them are called to certain inns , ( one not knowing of the other ; ) hence they are severally led by spies to the place where they ought to meet ; otherwise ignorant where they ought to assemble , lest peradventure they should be surprised at unawares . . the countess of a — a strenuous she-champion of the popish religion , bends all her nerves to the universal reformation ; whatsoever she hears at the king's court , that is done secretly , or openly , in words or deeds , she presently imparts to the pope's legat , with whom she meets thrice a day . sometimes in a — house , now at the court , then at tarthal . he scarce sucks such things by the claw . the earl himself , called now about three years since , this year ought to go to rome , without doubt to consult there of serious things concerning the design . at greenwich , at the earls cost , a feminine school is maintained , which otherwise is a monastery of nuns ; for the young girls therein , are sent forth hither and thither , into foreign monasteries beyond the seas . mr. p — of the king's bed-chamber , most addicted to the popish religion , is a bitter enemy of the king , he reveals all his greatest secrets to the pope's legat ; although he very rarely meets with him , yet his wife meets him so much the oftner , who being informed by her husband , conveys secrets to the legat. in all his actions , he is nothing inferiour to sir toby matthew ; it cannot be uttered , how diligently he watcheth on the business . his sons are secretly instructed in the popish religion ; openly , they profess the reformed . the eldest is now to receive his fathers office , under the king which shall be . a cardinal's hat is provided for the other , if the design shall succeed well . above three years past , the said mr. p — was to be sent away by the king to marocco ; but he was prohibited by the society , lest the business should suffer delay thereby . he is a patron of the jesuits , for whom , for the exercise of religion , he provides chappels both at home and abroad . secretary w — a most fierce papist , is the most unfaithful to the king of all men , who not only betrays and reveals even the king 's greatest secrets , but likewise communicates counsels , by which the design may be best advanced . he , at least thrice every week , converseth with the legat in nocturnal conventicles , and reveals those things which he thinks fit to be known ; for which end , he hired a house near to the legats house , whom he often resorts to , through the garden door ; for by this vicinity , the meeting is facilitated . the said secretary is bribed with gifts to the party of that conjured society , by whom he is sustained , that he may the more seriously execute his office. he sent his son expresly to rome , who was to insinuate himself into the roman pontif. sir d — sir w — mr. m — the younger , who hath been at rome ; my lord s — a cousen of the earl of a — the countess of n — the dutchess of b — and many others , who have sworn into this conspiracy , are all most vigilant in the design . some of these are inticed with the hope of court , others of political offices ; others attend to the sixteen cardinals caps that are vacant , which are therefore detained idle for some years , that they may impose a vain hope on those who expect them . the president of the aforesaid society was my lord gage , a jesuit priest , dead above three years since . he had a palace adorned with lascivious pictures , which counterfeited profaneness in the house , but with them was palliated a monastery , wherein forty nuns were maintained , hid in so great a palace : it is situated in queen-street , which the statue of a golden queen adorns . the secular jesuits have bought all this street , and have design'd it into a quadrangle , where a jesuitical college is built in private , with this hope , that it might be openly finished , as soon as the universal reformation was begun . the pope's legat useth a threefold character or cipher ; one of which he communicates with all nuncioes ; another , with cardinal barbarini only ; with a third , he covers some greater secrets to be communicated . whatsoever things he either receiveth from the society , or other spies , those he packs up together in one bundle , dedicated under this inscription ; to monsieur stravio , arch-deacon of cambray : from whom at last they are promoted to rome . these things being thus ordered , if every thing be laid to the ballance , it will satisfie in special , all the articles propounded . wherein . the conspiracy against the king and lord arch-bishop is detected , and the means whereby ruin is threatned to both , demonstrated . . the eminent dangers of both kingdoms are rehearsed . . the rise and progress of that scottish fire is related . . means whereby these scottish troubles may be appeased , are suggested : for after the scots shall know by whom and to what end their minds are incensed , they will speedily look to themselves , neither will they suffer the forces of both parts to be subdued , lest a middle party interpose , which seeks the ruin of both . . with what sword the king's throat is assaulted , even when these stirs shall be ended , cuneus his confession , and a visible demonstration , sheweth . . the place of the assembly in the house of captain read is nominated . the day of the eight days dispatch by read and the legat is prescribed . how the names of the conspirators may be known . . where this whole congregation may be circumvented . . some of the principal unfaithful ones of the king's party are notified by name ; many of whose names occur not , yet their habitations are known ; their names may be easily extorted from read. if these things be warily proceeded in , the strength of the whole business will be brought to light ; so the arrow being foreseen , the danger shall be avoided ; which that it may prosperously succeed , the omnipotent creator grant . the arch-bishops indorsement with his own hand . received , october . . the narration of the great treason , concerning which he promised to sir william boswell to discover , against the king and state. historical remarks on the jesuits . whoever shall compare the before-recited plot against king charles the first , of glorious memory , with that against his most sacred majesty now reigning ; shall find them so like in all the parts and circumstances , that never were two brothers more : the design the same , the contrivance the same , the working and machination , all moving upon the same wheels of king-killing , and state-destruction ; and in reference to condition , quality , religion , and motive , the conspirators the very same . from whence it follows , that there is no such improbability of the late discovered plot , as the papists would have us believe . an ill name is half a conviction ; quo semel est imbuta recens , & naturam expellas furcalicet , are the jesuits morals : plot , contrivance , and cruelty are so much the essential attributes of jesuitism , as if like so many romulusses and remusses they had suckt the milk of wolves rather than of christian mothers , that when you hear of plots and designs against kings and princes , you may be assur'd what sort of cyclops were the forgers of such conspiracies . neither is this bare allegation , but matter of fact , there being nothing more frequently taught , nor more frequently practis'd , than the rebellious principles of the jesuits and their adherents . how abominably the reigns of several of our princes here in england has been pester'd with this generation of vipers and blood-suckers , the penal statutes of the kingdom , and the utter expulsion of the popish priests and jesuits out of the nation , are convincing evidences . and as to their behaviour in other countries , take this following account . first then it is a maxim most true and undoubted , that a vacuum in nature may be as soon allow'd , as that there is any court of king of prince where these jesuits do not swarm and abound , if they can but creep in at the least creviss . to come to particulars , we will begin with portugal , a kingdom altogether acknowledging the papal jurisdiction . in the year . the jesuits perswaded sebastian king of that kingdom , to undertake that fatal expedition into africa , to the end that by his ruin they might transfer the kingdom to the dominion of the spaniard . the success answer'd their expectation ; for sebastian being cut off , together with his son , and the greatest part of the portugal nobility , presently philip king of spain prepares to invade portugal with two powerful armies : but well knowing how little right he had on his side , and how much he should be censur'd as well in italy as in portugal for such an action , he began to make it a point of conscience , and referr'd his scruples to be discuss'd by the jesuits and franciscans in the colledge of alcana de henares , and of them he desires to know , whether if it were apparent that he had a right to the crown of portugal by the death of henry , he were not oblig'd in conscience to submit himself to some tribunal , that should adjudge the kingdom to him . secondly , whether if the portugals should refuse to admit him for their king before the difference were decided between the competitors , he might not by force of arms invest himself in the kingdom by his own authority . to which the jesuits and pranciscans made answer , that philip was bound by no tye of conscience to subject himself to the will of another , but might act as he saw fitting by his own authority . which flattering sentence of those irreligious cusuists being approved by philip , he presently began the war. in the heat of which war , the jesuits were they that would have betray'd the chiefest of the azores islands to the spaniards , which so incens'd the people , that some would have had them try'd for their lives , others would have had them and their colledge burnt together . in france , joane albret queen of navarr , was poysoned with a pair of perfumed gloves , at the procurement of the jesuits , for being the patroness of those of the reformed religion . that rebellious league of the guizes against henry the third of france , was carried on and promoted by the jesuits , both at paris and other places : insomuch , that when the league got strength and began to appear , the jesuits making a wrong use of their power of confessing and absolving , would absolve none that professed themselves obedient subjects to the king. this unfortunate prince was not only harrass'd and tormented by this villanous and jesuitical league , not only driven out of his chief city , but at length at the instigation of the jesuits , stabb'd and murder'd by a dominican monk , by them procur'd . the murder was also applauded by pope sixtus the fifth , in a long oration spoke in a full consistory of cardinals in these words : that a monk ( saith he ) should kill the unfortunate king of france in the midst of his army , was a rare , noble , and memorable act. and a little further , this act , saith he , was done by the providence of god , design'd by the inspiration of the holy ghost ; a far greater act than that of judith , who slew holofernes . expressions rather becoming the mouth of a devil , than of a vicar of christ. after him henry the fourth was first attempted by barrier , exhorted and confirm'd in the lawfulness of the fact by varada the jesuit , and others of the same gang. secondly by john castell , at the instigation of gueret and guignard , both jesuits : and francis verona the jesuit , publisht an apology in vindication and justification of the fact : and lastly , murder'd out-right by francis ravaillac a great disciple of the jesuits . and for no worse pranks than these , they were banished out of france by decree of parliament , as corrupters of youth , disturbers of the public peace , and enemies to the king and kingdom . truly very honourable characters for those that pretend to be of the society of jesus . the venetians expell'd them upon this occasion : the senate observing that the ecclesiastics , especially the jesuits , began to engross lands and houses of their territories under the pretence of legacies , to the great damage of the public income , thought it convenient to put a stop to this jesuitical engrossment ; and provide by law that ecclesiastical persons should not possess all the temporal estates in their territories to themselves , but give leave for others to share with them , it being positively against the constitution of their order , and the institution of christ their founder . the jesuits took this in great dudgeon , and wrote to pope paul the fifth about it . the venetians being summon'd to answer , would not relinquish their right , protesting withal , that they had the supreme jurisdiction in their own territories , and consequently to make laws ; and that the pope had nothing to do with them in those matters . upon which answer , the pope thunders out his excommunication . the duke and senate by public decree condemn the excommunication as unjust and invalid ; which done , they call the whole body of their clergy , and to them declare how affairs stood . the elder sort take part with the commonwealth , and maintain the argument against the pope in writing , among whom paulus venetus was most eminently signal : the jesuits not enduring the kneeness of his reasons , hire two ruffians , and upon the fifth of october , . set them to assassinate paulus venetus , who thinking they had done his work , left him for dead , and fled away . this was something near sir edmundbury godfreys case . the senate hearing this , by a new law banish the jesuits for ever out of their territories , and cut them off from all hope of ever returning : and this was their fortune in venice . in the year . the bohemians made a complaint to the emperour against the jesuits , for the same encroachments of which the venetians had accused them before , desiring of caesar that they might no longer be permitted to transfer and translate into their own possession such ample patrimonies , under pretence of donations and legacies , as they did continually . of which when the emperour took little notice , they were by the bohemian states themselves in the year . utterly expelled out of that nation for ever , with these characters : . that they were lavish wasters of the public peace and tranquility of the nation . . that they endeavour'd to subject all kingdoms and nations to the power of the pope . . that they did nothing but set the magistrates together by the ears . . that they made particular advantage of confessions , to the destruction of the people : with many other crimes of the same nature . the same year they were expell'd out of moravia for the same reasons ; and the next year out of hungaria for the same causes . in silesia also a decree was made , that the jesuits should not enter that province upon pain of death , as being the onely means to preserve peace in the nation . as to other villanies in poland , a polonian knight , himself a papist , in an oration by him made in a full assembly of the polonian nobility , declares , that cracow the most famous city of poland , and ornament of the kingdom , was so plagu'd by the jesuits , that several good men , though catholicks , affirmed , that they would rather live in the woods among wild beasts , than abide in the city . one time among the rest , these jesuits having brought their conspiracy to perfection , brake into the most ancient monument of antiquity in the city , and to the great danger of the whole city , set it on fire , as being granted to the evangelics by consent of the king , and states of the kingdom . in posnania another great city of the same kingdom , they set fire on the church belonging to those of the augustan confession , and committed so many insolencies without controul , that the nobility refus'd to meet at the dyet shortly after to be held at warsaw , resolving to repair further off to lublin , for the redress of these misdemeanours . neither indeed was there any thing more grievously burdensom to that kingdom than the pride and avarice of those miscreants . in muscovy , upon the death of the great duke basilowich , the jesuits set up one demetrius against the lawful heir , who had made them large promises , if he obtain'd the dukedom . thereupon by the help of these jesuits , the said demetrius gets aid from the king of poland , which was not onely the occasion of a great war in muscovy , but had like to have cost them the alteration of their laws , and loss of their ancient customs and priviledges , had they not prevented it by a desperate attempt upon the impostor , and put him to death ; surrounded with impostors and jesuits . the transilvanians publicly and with one consent laid all the cause of their miseries and calamities , upon the subtilties and contrivances of the jesuits , for which reason by a public decree of the states of that province , they were ejected out of the limits of their territories . nevertheless they secretly fomented the ruin of that country , and were the reason that sigismund bathor involv'd himself in war and trouble , and at length died an inglorious and miserable death . by their contrivance also stephen potski , prince of transilvania , opposing their bloody sect , was put out of the way , as they call it , by poyson , in the year . in styria and carinthia , provinces of germany , they never left till they had voided those provinces of all the inhabitants of the reformed religion . in holland , they never left till they saw the blood of william prince of orange , spilt by the trayterous hand of balthasar gerard , a burgundian and disciple of their own . the same attempts did peter de tour , and other ruffians make upon the person of maurice his son , a brave and martial prince , and all at the instigation of the jesuits , those insatiable sons of blood and perdition . a vindication of the dissenting protestants , from being authors of the rebellion against the late king , and plotters of treason against his majesty now reigning . seeing then no corner of europe has been free from the plots and conspiracies of these jesuitical fiends , it would be a kind of crime and sleepy desertion of our own safety , to suffer our selves to be charm'd by the delusions of insinuating libels and rumors of presbyterian plots , to mistrust the truth of the continu'd jesuitical contrivances against the kingdom . neither can they be thought the best subjects of england , who are so willing to gratifie the popish party , by giving credence to such idle surmizes which they can have so little ground to believe . the jesuits have committed a great piece of villany in this nation ; they have attempted the life of the king , and have been plotting to subvert the established religion of the kingdom , and now they would throw it upon the presbyterians : which is a fourbery so plain , that common sense and policy may easily discover the full intent and meaning of it : and therefore it is fairly to be hop'd , that neither presbyterians , nor any other protestant dissenters will be so unchristian-like disloyal , as to receive any exasperation from these calumnies ; but rather unite against the common enemy , from whom they can expect no more mercy , than the severest champion of episcopacy can hope for . but you will say , the presbyterians are not accus'd of any design to bring in popery , but miraculously discover'd , as the authors of a plot to set up the classes of their own ecclesiastical government . well! if it were so , they were the arrantest bunglers of plotters that ever plotted mischief in this world : for i do not find their plot to be above a years standing ; and it was a plot that was driven on out of pure kindness to the papists . for the presbyterians understanding that the papists , ( their incarnate enemies ) were under a premunire , as being accused of treason and conspiracy against the king and kingdom ; they therefore would needs enter into a plot , which they would so order as to be discover'd a twelve-month after , to ease the papists of the load they groan'd under . so that as considering the time , it fell out most confoundedly unluckily , that the presbyteriaus should conceal this plot from the papists , till so many good , honest , pious and loyal priests of baal , and sons of belial were hang'd , which would never have been done , had there been the least inkling given of the meal-tub in season . but when the names of the persons came to be seen that were to be actors in this presbyterian tragedy , then to the laughter of the whole world , there never appear'd such a dow-bak'd plot out of a meal-tub since the creation , to bring so many great men plotting against their own prosperity and enjoyments ; so many wise and politie states-men , by whom the nation has been so long steer'd , to be plotters and conspirers against their own preservation . these are plots of such a strange nature , that if they could be thought reall , they would occasion the unhinging of the whole frame of order and government , while it were impossible for honour , probity , and reputation to remain upon the earth . obedience and allegiance to government are grounded either upon religion , or moral vertue ; or if these two fail , there is a necessity which obliges the ordinary fore-sight of prudence . against these ambition or revenge are the only combatants ; but neither ambition nor revenge can bear so great a sway in persons that understand the intrigues of policy , or the more mysterious management of prudence , as to delude them into plots and conspiracies where there is no prospect of a secure change. the presbyterians are a sort of people wary and deliberate : neither are their tenents , which had their rise and beginnings from men whom the papists themselves confess to have been men of great learning , eloquence , and exemplary lives , of that crimson constitution , as to prompt them to lay the foundations of their hierarchy in blood and massacre ; or so deeply to wound the reputation of the protestant religion , by the clandestine treachery and secret contrivances of disloyalty . for as for that design of the huguenots under francis the second , king of france , of which the prince of conde , and the admiral coligni were said to be chief ; that was no design against the life or person of the king , but against the exorbitant pride of the guises , duke and cardinal , who were at the same time papists , and were themselves contriving to take away the life of the young king , and translate the royal dignity into their own family . neither could the civil wars of france be said to be the rebellion of the hugonets : but a war of the queen regents , and the two guises own weaving , while they all strove to preserve their own authority . and the queen regent her self was the first that caus'd the prince of conde to take arms , as fearing the guises would wrest the government out of her hands , by recommending to his protection the young king charles the ninth her son , her self , and the kingdom . nay they were so far from being rebels to their king , that they joyn'd with the catholiques for the recovery of haure out of the hands of queen elizabeth , who had been their friend : and though the admiral and danaelot were not at the siege , for fear of being tared by the queen of ingratitude , yet they sent both their forces and friends . some indeed justly deserved to be blamed for the violence of their conduct in the late wars ; but it is a question , of which some make no doubt , whether those violences were not occasion'd by the papists in masquerade , who well knew how to intermix themselves both in their counsels and actions ; whether they did not stand behind the scene and prompt those sons of jehu ? whether they did not pour oyl upon those flames ? for it appears that the presbyterians ( if names of distinction may be us'd among people of the same religion ) were the first that relented , as is evident by votes of addresses , and their treaty at the isle of wight , not broke off by them , but by one that was playing his own game , and meditating the destruction both of his sovereign and them too : who having made his exit , they then considered what ill phaetons they had been before , and return'd the more skilful phoebus the reins of his chariot again . but that you may know that 't is an old dog-trick of the papists to play the devils incarnate , and lay their most wicked actions upon the innocent ; i will repeat this short story out of one of the choicest french historians , and a catholique to boot . the queen regent of france having long design'd the destruction of the protestants in france , and of all the chief heads of the reformed religion ; and among the rest of admiral coligni , the life and soul of the whole party , projects the execution , with the assistance of the duke of anjou , the counts of tavanes and raix , and the chancellor birague , and easily drew in the young king , whom they made believe that there was no safety so long as those persons were alive , and the young guises were as ready as she to revenge their fathers death . as for the king of navar , they had so order'd it , that he was to be marry'd at paris at that time , and that brought the prince of conde to the city . but the admiral more wary kept aloof , till the king had begun the war with spain in the low countries , which the admiral had so passionately desir'd , and of which the king and queen regent , had assur'd him the management . then he came an end , seeing the war begun , and two of his own favourites , noue and genlis , at the head of some thousands in flanders . and these three great personages , the king of navarr , the prince of conde , and the admiral coligni , brought such trains after them , as throng'd all paris with the flower of all the protestant nobility and gentry of france : who being all thus within the net , orders were given to make a general slaughter of all without distinction , excepting the king of navarr , and the prince of conde . hence proceeded that horrible massacre in the year . which lasted for seven days together , to the destruction of above persons of all ages and sexes ; and among these above persons of quality . after this deluge of blood , and that the queen had sent the head of coligny embalm'd as a present to the pope , the queen regent had contriv'd to lay the load of all the committed impiety upon the guises , who were captains of the massacre , believing that the monmor ancies would certainly seek to revenge the admirals death upon them : so that while those two factions ruin'd and destroy'd one another , she might have all the power in her own hands , and rule according to her own will. but the guises being aware of this design , and having the catholique nobility , the duke of montpensier , and the parisians on their side , caus'd the queen to change her note ; and thereupon she caus'd the king to write abroad , that all was done to prevent the detestable conspiracy of the admiral and his confederates , againsh his life and royal family . thereupon there was a court of justice erected , wherein the admiral was condemn'd , and after they had murder'd him , executed again in effigies , his goods confiscated , and his children degraded : and the better to colour this , two poor innocent gentlemen that had escaped the massacre , were apprehended for saving their lives , briquemaut , and arnaud de covagnes , as his accomplices , condemn'd to the same punishment , and executed accordingly . thus what these did , our late plotters would have done : we may then say to all protestants in general , felices agricole sua si bona norint , happy would they be , would they but know their own strength , would they but make the right use of these wicked contrivances of their enemies , and laying aside all froward puuctilio's of private opinions , joyn unanimously against the common adversary . for if it be a maxim falsly argu'd against , that peace and diversity of religions cannot be preserved in the same nation , as the ambassadors of the germane princes urg'd to charles the ninth of france ; much more truly may it be said , that little matters of difference between persons of the same religion can be no impediment to their union and conformity . but further to clear the dissenting protestants , i shall here add a perfect narration of the management and contrivance of the jesuits , to render the greater part of the principal men in this kingdom , as well those of the church of england , as the dissenters , obnoxious to the government , thereby utterly to ruin them and the protestant religion , which design god of his infinite goodness has been pleased to bring to confusion , and the instruments thereof through the same divine providence , we hope shortly to see brought to condign punishment . a compleat history of the last plot of the papists , upon the dissenting protestants . the late plot of the romish priests and jesuits for murdering his majesty , subverting the government and protestant religion , and introducing popery , being proved by undeniable evidences and circumstances ; the cunning jesuits thought it their best way ( since peoples eyes were too open to be made believe there was no plot ) to confess there was a plot , and to aggravate it too ; but withal to use their utmost skill to prove , that this plot was not a popish-plot , as was generally believed , but a pure design of the presbyterians , and other dissenters from the protestant church of england , to ruin the loyal roman chatholiques , whilst indeed themselves were the conspirators ; who ( whereas they gave out that the papists intended by murdering the king , &c. to bring in popery ) really intended by killing his majesty , to introduce presbytery and a commonwealth , and so at one blow subvert the government both in church and state , and then to set up a new one of their own under the name of conservators of the liberties of england : and for this purpose they had secretly given out commissions for raising an army , the principal officers whereof were such persons who seemed to have the greatest share in the peoples affections . this design being agreed to by these hellish miscreants , all possible diligence was used to bring it to execution ; and for this purpose they drew up the scheme of a government they intended to impeach several of the truly loyal nobility and gentry , and the whole body of dissenting protestants , of conspiring . this being done , they began to form letters of intelligence concerning this presbyterian plot , and also to provide themselves with persons to swear for the truth of their allegations . to this end mrs. cellier ( a zealous papist , and midwife to the lady powis , and other roman catholic ladies ) procures the enlargement of one wiltoughby , aliàs dangerfield , aliàs thomas ; aliàs day , who had been a prisoner in newgate about six weeks , and had been convicted once at salisbury assizes , ( where he was fined five pounds , and sentenced to stand three several times in the pillory , which he did twice , and then brake prison and escaped ; ) and twice at the old bailey , for uttering false guineys , ( where for the first offence he was fined fifty pounds , and for the second he got his majesties pardon . ) he was no sooner released from newgate , but he was arrested and thrown into the counter , from whence by the means of bannister and scarlet she got him removed to the king's-bench , where ( after some fruitless attempts to get some papers relating to captain bedlow from one strode a prisoner there ) he was furnished with money by the five lords in the tower , viz. the lord bellasis , the lord powis , the lord petre , the lord arundel , and the lord stafford , ( mrs. cellier also giving him l. ) to compound all his debts , &c. before mrs. cellier would discharge him from newgate , she made tryal of his wit , by ordering him to draw up articles according as she directed , against captain richardson , which he perform'd to her liking , and confirm'd her in the choice she had made of his being a fit person to carry on the designed plot. the general esteem the conspirators had of him is evident by the trust they reposed in him ; for though they had several others to carry on their new plot , yet he appears to have the chief management of it . being now sufficiently provided with instruments to execute their damnable designs , this dangerfield was recommended to his majesty by a great person , as one who was much concerned in a plot of the presbyterians against his life and government , and that from time to time he would make discovery thereof . thus they endeavoured to insinuate into his majesties mind a belief of the plot , that he might not be surpriz'd at the discovery they intended to make . another of the intended actors in this tragedy , was thomas courtees , once a clerk to sir william bucknal , one of the excise farmers , then a servant to mr. henry nevil , and after to a worthy member of parliament ; from whose service , he fell into a lewd course of life : but being thought a man fit for the design in hand , he was entertained for one of the witnesses . this person was very industrious in promoting a belief of this presbyterian plot ; for being well acquainted with mrs. bradley , who keeps the house called heaven in old palace-yard ; and there being a club of several honest gentlemen kept at her house , he desired her to bring him into their company , which she promised to endeavour . discoursing with her about the late plot , he told her , that it would shortly appear to be a plot of the presbyterians , and that they were privately giving out commissions for raising an army : whereupon she demanded , who gave out the commissions ; to which he replyed , it was mr. blood ; and added further , that if she would use her interest with mr. blood , to get a commission for him , though it were but for an ensign , he would give her l. and told her also that he should get l. by it . mrs. bradley told this to mr. blood , who fearing the consequence , acquainted his majesty therewith , and from him received encouragement to make a further inquiry into this matter . mr. blood hereupon desired the woman to keep still her correspendency with courtees , and if possible to find out the mystery of this business . courtees came several times afterwards to the house , and discoursed freely with her about the before-mentioned matter , and told her , that he knew seven or eight persons who were employed upon the same account as he was . but that which follows put a stop to his proceedings , and made these wicked agents carry themselves more warily . the jesuits thought it not sufficient to throw the plot upon the presbyterians ; unless they could likewise bring off the evidence that had sworn against them , and by getting them to recant , put their innocency out of question . for this purpose mr. dugdale , one of the kings evidence , is attempted by one mrs. price , ( for whom it is said mr. dugdale had formerly some kindness ; ) she warily discovers her design , and he as warily entertains it ; and after some treaty , one mr. tesborough appears in the case . they promis'd mr. dugdale a great sum of money , upon condition that he would recant what he had sworn , and sign a paper , which they had ready drawn up to this effect . being touched with a true remorse of conscience , and an hearty sorrow for the great evil i have done , in appearing as a witness against the catholicks , and there speaking that which in my own conscience i know to be far from the truth ; i think my self bound in duty to god , to man , and for the safety of my own soul , to make a true acknowledgment , how i was drawn into thesewicked actions ; but being well satisfied that i shall create my self many powerful . enemies upon this account , i have retired my self to a place of safety , where i will with my own hand discover the great wrong that has been done the catholicks , and hope it may gain belief : i do likewise protest before almighty god , that i have no motive to induce me to this confession , but a true repentance for the mischiefs that i have done , and do hope that god almighty will forgive me . having done this , they told him he might immediately withdraw himself beyond the seas into spain , where he should be honourably entertained , during his stay there , which should be no longer than till they had brought their designs to their desired end , and then he should be recalled , and have both riches and honour conferr'd upon him as a reward for faithfully serving the catholick interest . mr. dugdale seemed willing to agree to their proposals , ( though at the same time he acquainted several honest gentlemen of every particular that passed ) if the reward could be ascertained to him ; but as for the two proposers he would not take their security for it ; whereupon they offered the security of a forein ambassador , but he told them that he thought him a person not fit for security , because he might suddenly be commanded home , and then he could have no remedy against him . then they proposed several others , whose security they said he need not question ; but still he found a plausible excuse ; his design being onely to gain time , that he might make a further discovery who set them on work . his delays created a jealousie in them , that he never intended to answer their desires ; wherefore least he should discover this treaty , and render them liable to punishment , ( as it happened in mr. readings case ) they were resolved to begin with him first ; and by the assistance of a great person , a complaint was made against mr. dugdale , that he offered for a sum of money to recant his evidence , and that he would have signed such a paper as before-mentioned ; adding withal , that it was a lamentable thing to consider how much blood had been shed upon such evidence . upon this mr. dugdale was summoned before the king and council , where giving a full relation of the affair , and having those gentlemen ready , whom he had all along acquainted with the intrigue to prove what he said ; and it plainly appearing , that mrs. price and mr. tesbrough had endeavoured to take off the kings evidence , they were both committed to safe custody . this it was that alarm'd courtees . mr. dangerfield in this time had been employed to murder the earl of shaftsbury , which he twice attempted , but could not meet with an opportunity , the earl refusing to speak in private with him ; which he urged , under pretence that he had something to reveal to his lordship of great concern to his lordships person . he waited on his lordship by the name of day , and went armed with a dagger , which he received from mrs. cellier , to whom three or four were brought by mr. rigaut . to perform this murther , he was promised l. by the lords powis and arundel , ( the lord arundel giving him then guineys ) and encouraged by the lady abergaveny , lady powis , mrs. cellier , and others , and his confessor sharp conjur'd him to stab him with all possible speed . after his first disappointment , they advised him to tell the earl that he was in danger of being impeached for high treason , and that from letters under his own hand ; and that when he should find himself in the tower , he would have cause to repent that he had refused to hear what he had to tell him . these instructions he followed , and told his lordship that his servants had copied out his letters , from whence would be drawn matter to form an impeachment : but the earl would not be wheadled by this to give him a private audience , and thereby administer to him an opportunity of taking away his life ; but askt him which of his servants they were that had copied out his letters : to which dangerfield replyed , that he knew not . then the earl answered , that he knew that all he said was false , for that if his letters were made known to all the world , there would not be found matter sufficient to endanger the least hair of his head , much less to form an impeachment . whereupon dangerfield told him , that if that was his lordships opinion , he would take his leave ; and so departed , leaving his lordship a little jealous of his intentions . the lady powis would have perswaded him upon a third attempt , which he refusing , she struck him gently on the hand with her fan , calling him cow-hearted fellow , telling him , she would do it her self ; but mrs. cellier told her , that should not be , for she would perform it . in order to which , the very next day she went armed with a dagger , to wait upon his lordship , who received her very civilly ; but being made more wary than formerly , by dangerfields last carriage , he strictly observ'd her , and perceiving her fumbling about her pocket , betwixt jest and earnest , he clapt his hands upon hers , and there held them , pleasantly drolling with her till she was ready to depart ; but she was not gone so far as the door , before she offer'd to return , which his lordship observing , stept to her again , and clapping his hands upon hers , quite dasht her out of countenance ; so that she departed without attempting further . thus was his lordship thrice , by divine providence , miraculously preserved from the bloody hands of papists . the plot being now ripe for execution , and treasonable letters ready written , to be conveyed into the custody of such persons they intended to accuse , and two or more witnesses prepared to swear the delivery and receit of such letters or commissions against every man in their black list ; dangerfield under the name of thomas , takes a lodging in ax-yard in westminster , ( pretending himself a country-gentleman ) where lay one colonel mansel , whose chamber he soon made himself acquainted with , and therein conveyed about nine or ten of the aforesaid treasonable letters , superscribed to several honest gentlemen and persons of quality , some of which were favourers of the dissenting protestants : when he had so done , he informed some of the officers belonging to the custom-house , that in that house there was concealed great quantities of french-lace , and other prohibited goods , desiring them the next morning to bring a warrant with them and search the house , which they promised . at night he brought one captain bedford to lie with him ( as is supposed ) that he might be a witness against the colonel : next morning after the colonel was gone forth , came the officers to search for prohibited goods ; dangerfield was very officious in assisting them to search the colonel's chamber , and at length from behind the bed brings forth the before-mentioned pacquet of letters ; upon which , casting his eyes , and seeming surprized , he cryed out , treason , these are all treasonable letters ; whereupon the officers carried them away to the commissioners : but the colonel coming in soon after , and being acquainted with all that had past in his absence , found means to retrieve them again ; and when he had so done , he made some enquiry after dangerfield , of whose quality being well informed , he carried the letters to his majesty , with protestations of his own innocency , and dangerfield's villany . whereupon on the . of october , the council ordered dangerfield to be taken into custody by a messenger , and after a full hearing of the business before them , oobct . . they committed him to newgate . when colonel mansel had thus detected dangerfield , the above-mentioued captain bedford came in very generously of himself , and confessed several things he was privy to , amongst which , one was , that this dangerfield would have perswaded him to swear that sir thomas player spoke treason , thereby to have taken away the life of that honest gentleman . the letters before-mentioned gave light enough to perceive what the design was the papists were then contriving ; whereupon sir william waller ( who has been all along very zealous in discovering the priests , and their wicked plots , notwithstanding their threats and attempts to take away his life ) understanding that dangerfield used to lodge at mrs. celliers , went thither on wednesday , octob. . to search her house ; and that he might leave no place unsearcht , he ordered a tub of meal to he emptied , which being done , at the bottom thereof was found a little paper-book tyed with red ribbons , wherein was a list of several persons of quality , and others , to the number of above . whom they designed to ruin by this their new plot. they had set down his grace the duke of monmouth for general of the army to be raised ; the lord grey , lord brandon and his son , and sir thomas armstrong , for lieutenant-generals , sir william waller and mr. blood for major-generals , &c. the duke of buckingham , lord shaftsbury , lord essex , lord roberts , lord wharton , and lord hallifax , were to have been accused for the chief counsellors and managers of this plot. many other things were contained in these papers , relating to the management of their design : upon this mrs. cellier was committed to the gatehouse . their plot being now sufficiently laid open , dangerfield ( notwithstanding mrs. celliers encouragement to be constant and firm to the catholick cause ) thought it time to confess the truth , and being brought before the right honourable sir robert clayton lord mayor of london , on friday octob. . . he made a large confession , which held them from five of the clock in the afternoon , untill two next morning . part whereof was , that he was sent for to the tower , whither he went in disguise , where after some discourse with the lord powis , the lord arundel asked him , if he were willing to do any thing to advance his fortune ; to which he answered he would do any thing . then the lord arundel asked him if he would kill the king for a good reward ; to which he replyed , he would kill any body but the king , or his royal brother . that then the aforesaid lord asked him the same question again ; and he answered , no. then said the lord powis , no , no , my lord arundel does onely this to try you : but my lord ( continued he ) what would you give him to kill the king ? 't is worth ( said the lord arundel ) l. that then the lord powis told him , he should have l. to kill the lord shafisbury . that mr. gadbury told him , the lords in the tower were angry with him , as also chiefly the lord castlemain , for that he would not kill the king , when he might easily do it , and no hurt befall him . that here , upon he asked mr. gadbury , how no hurt should befall him , when in his opinion it could be no less than death ? to which gadbury made answer , that he knew he might do it safely , for at the request of the lady powis he had calculated his nativity , and that it was clear from thence . that the lord castlemain very angrily askt him , why he was so unwilling to do that for which he was released out of prison ; and fearing some mischief from him , he left him , and went and told mrs. cellier , that the lord castlemain was angry ; to which she replyed , that it was his custom to fall out one hour , and be good friends the next . that his confessor sharp told him he must do penance for denying to serve god , as the scriptures taught . that he askt him , if they taught him to kill his king ? to which sharp replyed , yes , if he were condemn'd by them . that when he told the lady powis and mrs. cellier , of having been alone with the king in his closet ; they both said , what an opportunity have you lost ? and the lady powis added , how bravely might you have killed him , if you had been provided ! that he was sent by the lady powis to mr. webb's at petterley in buckinghamshire , with a letter directed , for mrs. jean ; which mrs. jean he found to be a priest in womans habit. that upon reading the letter , jean administred the sacrament to him , obliging him thereby to secrecy ; and then gave him papers containing a rough draught of the plot against the presbyterians , which he told him were to be drawn up into particulars by the lords in the tower , and mr. nevil in the kings-bench . that mr. wood told him , the lords in the tower had consulted , that before mr. oates wat indicted , something should be made appear of a presbyterian plot. that one duddel brought him letters , written most by by mr. nevil , which mr. turner the lord powis his priest , desired some catholiques might transcribe ; whereupon mrs. cellier sent for mr. singe who wrote there about a week . that the contents of these letters were , that there business went on well here at london , as they hoped theirs did in the country : that commissioners would shortly be ready ; ( mentioning in some of these letters the names of divers persons of quality ; ) and that they would now be their own choosers in matters of government , and use papists as they pleased . that these letters were to be sent into all parts of the kingdom where any presbyterians liv'd , and privately to be put into their houses , and then their houses were to be searcht , and these papers produced for evidence against them , as they intended against colonel mansel . saturday , novem. . his lordship waited on his majesty and council with dangerfield's confession ; and dangerfield being again sent for to come before the council , did further declare , that all the lords in the tower gave him money , more or less , and did desire him to go to turner the popish book-seller to get his remarks on the tryals printed . that the lord powis advised lane should be sent out of the way , lest if mr. oates should find him at his house , they should all be ruin'd . that he saw sir g. wakeman at mr. stamford's house , ( the duke of newburgh's agent ) in whose own room he lay , and that sir george told him , he hid himself there for fear of the people , who had posted a threatning paper over his door ; and that he had received l. by the queens order for his transportation . that sir george asking his advice , how he might get away , he told him , he had best send for a shallop from calice to take him in about six miles from dover , which he did , and escaped to newport . that dormer was author of traytors transform'd into martyrs ; and that gadbury had writ a ballad and several pamphlets . that the second time he visited the earl of shafssbury , he intended to stab him , and then put out the candle , and under pretence of running down to light it , have made his escape . that the two books taken ( whereof one was found in a meal tub ) was writ by him , and that the names therein were all dictated to him by the lady powis . that mrs. cellier and he used the words , lady mary for the king , and lady anne for the duke . in the afternoon mrs. cellier was examin'd , and declar'd , that dangerfield had for some time lain at her house . that she paid l. . s. out of the money to be distributed to prisoners for his release , but denyed the paying of twenty pounds , or five pounds , as had been alledged . that she employed dangerfield onely to get in some desperate debts belonging to her husband , and to bail two or three persons out of prison , and in nothing else . that she did lie at the lady powis ; but denied she sent a note to dangerfield in newgate , till the note was produced , and then she own'd it . that she knew nothing of killing the earl of shaftsbury . that she did indeed go to the said earl upon business . that dangerfield did draw up articles against captain richardson , but not by her order . then dangerfield was call'd in again , who said further , that banister and she visted him in the kings-bench , and that she order'd him to get the papers from strode about mr. bedlow ; to which end , hitton the priest advised that opium should be put into strode's drink . that margaret mrs. celliers maid brought him opium from mrs. celliers son-in-law , plasdel ; and that mounson told him how to use it . that knowles and sharp , priests , told him if he continued firm to the business , he would thereby merit heaven . mrs. cellier confess'd , that she hid the papers in the meal-tub : that she did agree with mr. dangerfield to use lady mary in stead of king , and lady anne in stead of duke . and that gadbury did calculate dangerfield's nativity , but said , he would be hang'd . then the lady powis was examined , who denied all , except , that she paid ten shillings per week to mrs. cellier for dangerfields diet. that she saw him in the stone-gallery , but was not near enough to speak to him . that once and no more she discoursed him at mrs. celliers , and that then he told her of some treasonable letters hid at westminster , and that the secretary refused to give him a warrant to search for them , unless he would make affidavit of it ; and that then mrs. cellier advised him to make use of the custom-house officers to search for them . on sunday , nov. . mr. gadbury was examined , who acknowledged , that he had seen mr. dangerfield once or twice at his house with mrs. cellier , and that he thought he cast his nativity under the name of thomas , and that looking on his horoscope , he did say , it prognosticated a bold and adventurous man , but does not remember that he told mrs. cellier he would be hang'd . that he likewise cast the lord powis his nativity , and that it was a usual thing with him to cast the nativities of such persons of quality , whose time of birth he could be assured of . but as to other things , he said , he was innocent . nov. . susan edwards , mrs. cellier's maid , deposed , that she carried notes to mr. dangerfield from her mistress , when he was in newgate ; as also a guinney , twenty shillings in silver , and two books of accounts : as likewise a message by word of mouth , importing , that mrs. cellier's life lay in mr. dangerfield's hands . and said , that the lady powis had been three times at her mistresses in five weeks time that she lived there , and that once she had discourse with mr. dangerfield . nov. . william woodman deposed , that mr. dangerfield was two months at the lord powis's house , and that mrs. cellier and he writ often ; and that he carried letters from them to the lady powis in the tower ; as also letters from the lady powis to nevile in the king's bench ; to whom also he had carried letters from mr. dangerfield and mrs. cellier . mary ayray deposed , that duddel and she carried notes taken by mr. willoughby , aliàs dangerfield , at langhorn's trial , to mr. nevil in the king's bench , and that they left dangerfield at a coffee-house in the mean time . that she carried a letter from nevil to mrs. cellier , and another from mrs. cellier to the lady powis . that she had seen sing often with mrs. cellier . that dangerfield writ the speeches of the five jesuits , as they were dictated to him by mrs. cellier . that she had seen lane ( by mrs. cellier's order called johnson ) at powis-house . bennet duddel a carpenter , deposed , that he had seen mr. dangerfield at powis-house . that he went with mrs. ayray to the king's bench , and mr. dangerfield stayed in the mean time at a coffee-house there by . that they brought papers back with them , and that soon after mrs. ayray went to the tower. that at powis-house he has often seen mr. dangerfield , mrs. cellier , and others , writing . that mr. lane lay in the house , and that mrs. cellier was once much concerned when she thought him lost . that dangerfield once asked him if he could make a printing-press . that he went to the gate-house once or twice with mrs. ayray , who carried money to the prisoners . that by the lady powis's order he made a private place in powis-house . to all these depositions , the lady powis being called in , answered particularly . to susan edwards , that when she came to mrs. cellier , she never lighted from her coach. to woodman , that she never receiv'd a letter from nevil , or sent one to him . that she had received several from mrs. cellier , and perhaps she might have received one from dangerfield . that going to see the lady gage in the kings-bench , some body pointed to nevil as he stood at the window : and excepting once she never saw him besides that time . to duddel , that mrs. ayray did bring her some remarks upon langhorns tryal , but she never saw any thing from nevil . to mrs. ayray , that she never brought her any message from nevil . being demanded , whether mrs. cellier had not been with her in the tower from mr. willoughby ? she answered , yes ; but that she never saw willoughby but twice . hereupon mrs. cellier being called , and askt , whether she had not been in the tower with the lady powis ; she stiffly denied it : but being told , the lady powis her self had own'd it , she then confess'd she had been there . captain bedford was then called in , and said , that he was at several clubs with dangerfield . that he was at thompsons the printers , where was printing , the presbyterian unmask'd . that dangerfield paid money to dormer in s. john's . that dangerfield would have got a list of the club at the kings-head , but the drawer would not give it him . that at the green dragon he got the names of about persons that used to meet there . that he went with him to the sun and ship taverns , where he enquired if the duke of monmouth had not been there the night before he went away . that dangerfield said , gadbury brought him acquainted with sir robert peyton . that dangerfield told him , the lord shafisbury , sir william waller , doctor tongue , and others , had private meetings near fox-hall about the plot. the earl of peterborough being called in , and having an account of what was laid to his charge , made a very plausible speech in answer thereto ; and as to the business of sir robert peyton , he said , that mrs. cellier told him that among others which she had brought over to be serviceable to his majesty and the duke , sir robert peyton was one , who had declared to her , that he would gladly come in , but that he thought the duke of that temper , that he would never forget an injury . that then he assured mrs. cellier , the duke was no such person ; and then she replyed , that sir robert would willingly meet him at mr. gadbury's . that they did meet accordingly at mr. gadbury's , where sir robert did say , that he would serve the king to all purposes ; but seemed to doubt of the dukes being reconciled to him . that afterwards he waited on the duke at his lordships lodgings , and from him received all the assurance of favour he could desire . these are the principal things that were acted before the king and council , the result whereof was , that the earl of castlemain ( first ) and ( after ) the lady powis was committed to the tower , mr. gadbury to the gate-house , mr. 〈◊〉 and mrs. cellier to newgate , and several others to the custody of messengers . about this time sir william waller ( searching a house near the arch in lincolns-inn fields , leading to duke-street ) seized on several habits , vestments , crucifixes , reliques , and other popish trinkets , all very rich ; as allodivers trunks and boxes full of books and papers , that did belong to father hercourt lately executed , wherein are set down several great sums of money paid by him in about or years last past , for carrying on the catholique cause ; as likewise many other things that confirm the truth of the kings evidence . among the relicks was found one great piece of antiquity , and by computation of time near years old . it was a cross of gold , weighing about ounces , upon which on the one side was engraven these words , defendite gentes hanc partem crucis omnipotentis ; in english , defend o ye nations this part of the omnipotent cross : on the other side were engraven the arms of alfred king of england , who dyed in the year . besides which engraving , it was empail'd with divers precious stones of a considerable value . within this cross was another cross of ebony , to which the gold one seem'd to serve onely for a case ; and as if it had been a little nest of serpentine idolatry , the ebony cross was inlaid with another cross of a quite different wood , which it is suppos'd , they believ'd to be a piece of our saviour's cross. there was also a gold ring with a motto wrap'd up in white paper , upon which was written , the ring of the bishop of glascow , with several other curiosities , which are as yet preserv'd . on novem. . mr. courtees was taken and brought before justice warcup , who having taken his examination , sent him to the gate-house . at his examination , he gave an account of his first acquaintance with mr. willoughby , ( not knowing then that he went by any other name ) and that willoughby told him , that the presbyterians were conspiring against the king and government , and were privately raising an army , and that mr. blood was one that gave out commissions for that purpose ; and perswaded him to use his endeavour to get one , and if he could do so , he would bring him to the king , whereby he should get l. and that upon this he made his application to mrs. bradley in order thereto , believing what dangerfield said , and that there was really a presbyterian plot on foot : so that what he did , he said was upon a loyal design . but there is some cause to suspect what he said , if we reflect on what mrs. bradley deposed on nov. . and what he acknowledged now ; viz. that the last time mrs. bradley saw him , asking him when they should get the l. he replied , that he would not meddle in it , that it troubled his conscience , and that it would be treachery if it were done , and it is to no purpose to meddle in it now , for there is a list found out . however it be , he is since bailed out of the gate-house : and for a confirmation of his guilt , is gone aside . and now almost every day new discoveries are made , either of priests or their appurtenances , reliques and feditious papers . dormer a priest was seized by dr. oates at the door of the council-chamber , on nov. . as he was busie in discourse with the lady powis , and was sent to newgate . on nov. . sir william waller seized at turner's in holborn , several seditious and scandalous libels , popish books and pamphlets ; as also divers beads , and priests habits , and some reliques , one of which was a very fine handkerchief , which had been dip'd in the blood of the five jesuits lately executed . not long after sir william seized on one william russel , alias napper , a franciscan fryar , and titular bishop of norwich : with him were taken the garments belonging to his office ; as also the form of an oath of abjuration , for his proselytes , to this effect ; that they did from thenceforth renounce those damnable and heretical doctrines , wherein they had been educated and instructed , and that they did oblige themselves under the penalty of damnation to remainsted fast in the faith of the mother-church of rome , &c. together with a latin prayer , in the margin whereof was written in english , whoever says this prayer shall be free from the plague . and several popish books , &c. on friday . nov. . sir robert peyton , mr. nevil , mr. gadbury , mrs. cellier with her maids , and others were severally examin'd ; when it was sworn , that sir robert peyton had had frequent conferences with mr. dangerfield ; and the further hearing of the matter being put off till wednesday , nov. . sir robert was then ordered to give bail for his appearance at the kings-bench-bar , the first day of the next term , to answer to such informations as should then be brought against him by the attorney-general . dr. oates during these transactions had two of his servants , lane ( often mentioned in this history ) and osborn , confederated with one knox belonging to the lord treasurers family , against him , who indicted him for no less a crime than sodomy : but it being proved a malicious slander , and his accusers perjured villains , who were hired by the lords in the tower , to invalidate his evidence , the jury brought it in ignoramus . and dr. oates thereupon bringing in an indictment against them in the kings-bench , knox and lane ( osborn being fled ) were tried on tuesday , nov. . when the whole design was so particularly laid open , especially by mr. dangerfield , ( whose pardon was perfected the day before ) that every one present was convinc'd of the intended villany , and the jury ( without the lord chief justice's summing up the evidence ) declared them guilty of the indictment : but their sentence is deferred till next term. we shall here close our history with our prayers to god , to bring to light all the dark contrivances of jesuits and wicked men ; and to their plots , and our divis●●●●● dangers , put finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e ye had reason so to do . it is an unanswerable dilemma . i concur totally with you in opinion , assuring you , that no body doth , or shall know of this business ; and to shew my care to conceal it , i received this but this afternoon , and now i make this dispatch before i sleep . herewith i send his warrant , as you advise , which indeed i judge to be the better way . i like your answer extreme well , and do promise not to deceive your considence , nor make you break your word . i have sent all back . i think these apostyles will be warrant enough for you to proceed , especially , when i expresly command you to do so . in this i am as far from condemning your judgement , as suspecting your fidelity . york , sept. c. r. . . the case of the protestant dissenters represented and argued approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing h estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) the case of the protestant dissenters represented and argued howe, john, - . stretton, richard, or - . p. [s.n.], london : . caption title. attributed both to john howe and richard stretton. cf. rogers, h. life and character of john howe, , p. ; halkett & laing ( nd ed.). imprint from colophon. "licensed and entred according to order" reproduction of original in huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng church of england -- controversial literature. dissenters, religious. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - jonathan blaney sampled and proofread - jonathan blaney text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the case of the protestant dissenters , represented and argued . licensed and entred according to order . they are under one common obligation with the rest of mankind , by the universal law of nature , to worship god in assemblies . men of all sorts of religions that have ever obtain'd in the world , jews , pagans , mahometans , christians , have in their practice acknowledg'd this obligation . nor can it be understood how such a practice should be so universal , otherwise than from the dictate and impression of the universal law. whereas the religion profest in england , is that of reformed christianity ; some things are annexed to the allowed publick worship , which are acknowledged to be no parts thereof , nor in themselves necessary ; but which the dissenters judg to be in some part sinful . they cannot therefore with good conscience towards god , attend wholly and solely upon the publick worship , which the laws do appoint . the same laws do strictly forbid their assembling to worship god otherwise . which is in effect the same thing , as if they who made , or shall continue such laws , should plainly say , if you will not consent with us in our superadded rites , and modes , against your consciences , you shall not worship god : or if you will not accept of our additions to the christian religion , you shall not be christians ; and manifestly tends to reduce to paganism a great part of a christian nation . they have been wont therefore to meet however in distinct assemblies , and to worship god in a way which their consciences could approve ; and have many years continu'd so to do , otherwise than as they have been hindred by violence . it is therefore upon the whole fit to enquire , q. . whether the dissenters are to be blamed for their holding distinct meetings for the worship of god ? for answer to this , it cannot be expected that all the controversies should be here determined , which have been agi●ated about the lawfulness of each of those things which have been added to the christian religion and worship , by the present constitution of the church of england . but supposing they were none of them simply unlawful , while yet the misinformed minds of the dissenters could not judg them lawful , tho they have made it much their business to enquire and search ; being urg'd also by very severe sufferings , which thorough a long tract of time they have undergone , not to refuse any means that might tend to their satisfaction ; they could have nothing else left them to do , than to meet , and worship distinctly as they have . for they could not but esteem the obligation of the universal , natural , divine law , by which they were bound solemnly to worship god , less questionable than that of a law , which was only positive , topical , and humane , requiring such and such additaments to their worship , and prohibiting their worship without them . the church of england ( as that part affects to be called ) distinguisht from the rest by those additionals to christian religion , ( pretended to be indifferent , and so , confest unnecessary ) hath not only sought to engross to it self the ordinances of divine worship , but all civil power . so that the priviledges that belong either to christian or humane society , are inclosed , and made peculiar to such , as are distinguisht by things that in themselves can signify nothing to the making of persons either better christians , or better men. q. . whether the laws enjoyning such additions to our religion , as the exclusive terms of christian worship and communion , ought to have been made ; when it is acknowledged on all hands , the things to be added , were before not necessary ; and when it is known , a great number judg them sinful , and must thereby be restrained from worshipping the true and living god ? a. the question to any of common sense , answers it self . for it is not put concerning such as dissent from any part of the substance of worship which god hath commanded ; but concerning such additions as he never commanded . and there are sufficient tests to distinguish such dissenters , from those that deny any substantial part of religion , or assert any thing contrary thereto . wherefore to forbid such to worship that god that made them , because they cannot receive your devised additions , is to exclude that which is necessary , for the meer want of that which is unnecessary . and where is that man that will adventure to stand forth , and avow the hindering of such persons from paying their homage to the god that made them ? if we thus expostulate the matter on gods behalf , and their own ; will you cut off from god his right in the creatures he hath made ? will you cut off from them the means of their salvation , upon these terms ? what reply can the matter admit ? 't is commonly alledg'd , that great deference is to be paid to the laws ; and that we ought to have forborn our assemblies , till the publick authority recall'd the laws against them . and we will say the same thing , when it is well proved , that they who made such laws , made the world too . and by whose authority were such laws made ? is there any , that is not from god ? and hath god given any men authority to make laws against himself , and to deprive him of his just rights from his own creatures ? n●r if the matter be well searcht into , could there be so much as a pretence of authority derived for such purposes from the people , whom every one now acknowledges the first receptacle of derived governing power . god can , 't is true , lay indisputable obligation by his known laws , upon every consci●nce of man about religion , or any thing else . and such as represent any people , can according to the constitution of the government , make laws for them about the things they entrust them with . but if the people of england be askt man by man , will they say , they did entrust to their representatives , their religion , and their consciences , to do with them what they please ? when it is your own turn to be represented by others , is this part of the trust you commit ? what dr. sherlock worthily says , concerning a bishop , he might ( and particularly , after , doth ) say , concerning every other man , he can be no more represented in a council , than at the day of judgment ; every man's soul and conscience must be in his own keeping , and can be represented by no man. it ought to be considered , that christianity , wherein it superadds to the law of nature , is all matter of revelation . and 't is well known , that even among pagans , in the setling rites and institutes of religion * , revelation was pretended at least , upon an impli'd principle , that in such matters humane power could not oblige the peoples consciences . we must be excused therefore , if we have in our practice exprest less reverence for laws made by no authority received either from god or man. we are therefore injuriously reflected on , when it is imputed to us , that we have by the use of our liberty , acknowledg'd an illegal dispensing power . we have done no other thing herein , than we did when no dispensation was given or pretended , in conscience of duty to him that gave us breath . nor did therefore practice otherwise , because we thought those laws dispens'd with , but because we thought them not laws . whereupon little need remains of enquiring further , q. . vvhether such laws should be continued ? against which , besides what may be collected from that which hath been said , it is to be considered , that what is most principally grievous to us , was enacted by that parliament , that as we have too much reason to believe , suffered it self to be dealt with , to enslave the nation in other respects , as well as this ; and which ( to his immortal honour ) the noble earl of danby procur'd to be dissolv'd , as the first step towards our national deliverance . and let the tenour be considered of that horrid law , by which our magna charta was torn in pieces ; the worst and most infamous of mankind , at our own expence , hired to accuse us ; multitudes of perjuries committed ; convictions made without a jury , and without any hearing of the persons accused ; penalties inflicted ; goods rifled ; estates seiz'd and imbezel'd ; houses broken up ; families disturb'd , often at most unseasonable hours of the night , without any cause , or shadow of a cause , if only a malicious villain would pretend to suspect a meeting there . no law in any other case like this ; as if to worship god without those additions , which were confessed unnecessary , were a greater crime than theft , felony , murder , or treason ! is it for our reputation to posterity , that the memory of such a law should be continued ? and are we not yet awaken'd , and our eyes open'd enough , to see , that the making and execution of the laws , by which we have suffer'd so deeply for many by-past years , was only , that protestants might destroy protestants , and the easier work be made for the introduction of the popery that was to destroy the residue . nor can any malice deny , or ignorance of observing englishmen overlook this plain matter of fact : after the dissolution of that beforementioned parliament , dissenters were much caress'd , and endeavour'd to be drawn into a subserviency to the court-designs , especially in the election of after parliaments . notwithstanding which , they every where so entirely and unanimously fell in with the sober part of the nation in the choice of such persons for the three parliaments that next succeeded ( two held at westminster , and that at oxford ) as it was known would , and who did most generously assert the liberties of the nation , and the protestant religion . vvhich alone ( and not our meer dissent from the church of england in matters of religion , wherein charles ii. was sufficiently known to be a prince of great indifferency ) drew upon us , soon after the dissolution of the last of those parliaments , that dreadful storm of persecution that destroy'd not a small number of lives in goals , and ruin'd multitudes of families . let english freemen remember , what they cannot but know , that it was for our firm adherence to the civil interests of the nation ( not for our different modes of religion from the legal way , tho the laws gave that advantage against us , which they did not against others ) that we endur'd the calamities of so many years . when , by the late king , some relaxation was given us , what arts and insinuations have been used with us , to draw us into a concurrence to designs tending to the prejudice of the nation ? and with how little effect upon the generality of us , it must be great ignorance not to know , and great injustice to deny . but he that knows all things , knows , that tho , in such circumstances , there was no opportunity for our receiving publick and authoriz'd promises , when we were all under the eye of watchful jealousy ; yet as great assurances as were possible , were given us by some that we hope will now remember it , of a future establisht security from our former pressures . we were told over and over , when the excellent heer fag●ll's letter came to be privately communicated from hand to hand , how easily better things would be had for us , than that encourag'd papists to expect , if ever that happy change should be brought about , which none have now beheld with greater joy than we . we are loth to injure those who have made us hope for better , by admitting a suspicion that we shall now be disappointed and deceiv'd ( as we have formerly been , and we know by whom ) or that we shall suffer from them a religious slavery , for whose sakes we have suffer'd so grievous things , rather than do the least thing that might tend to the bringing upon them a civil slavery . we cannot but expect from english-men , that they be just and true . we hope not to be the only instances , whereby the anglica fides , and the punica , shall be thought all one . but if we who have constantly desired , and , as we have had opportunity , endeavour'd the saving of the nation , must however be ruin'd , not to greaten ( one hair ) the wealth and dignity , but only to gratify the humour of them who would yet destroy it ; we , who are competently inured to sufferings , shall through god's mercy be again enabled to endure . but he that sits in the heavens will , in his own time , judge our cause , and we will wait his pleasure ; and , we hope , suffer all that can be inflicted , rather than betray the cause of reformed christianity in the world. but our affairs are in the hands of men of worth and honour , who apprehend how little grateful a name they should leave to posterity , or obtain now with good men of any persuasion , if under a pretence of kindness to us , they should now repeat the arts of ill men in an ill time . great minds will think it beneath them , to sport themselves with their own cunning in deceiving other men , which were really in the present case too thin not to be seen through , and may be the easie attainment of any man , that hath enough of opportunity , and integrity little enough for such purposes . and 't is as much too gross to endeavour to abuse the authority of a nation , by going about to make that stoop to so mean a thing , as to make a shew of intending what they resolve to their uttermost shall never be . but some may think , by concessions to us , the church of england will be ruin'd , and a great advantage be given to the bringing in of popery . to which we say , the generality of the dissenters differ from the church of england in no substantials of doctrine , or worship , no , nor of government , provided it be so managed , as to attain its true acknowledg'd end . the favouring of us will therefore as much ruine the church , as its enlargement , and additional strength will signify to its ruin . and doth not the world know , that wherein we differ from them , we differ from the papists too ? and that , for the most part , wherein they differ from us , they seem to agree with them ? we acknowledg their strong , brave , and prosperous opposition to popery : but they have oppos'd it by the things wherein they agree with us . their differences from us are no more a fence against popery , than an inclosure of straw is against a flame of fire . but 't is wont to be said , we agree not among our selves , and know not what we would have . and do all that go under the name of the church of england agree among themselves ? we can shew more considerable disagreements among them , than any can between the most of us and a very considerable part of them . they all agree , 't is true , in conformity ; and we all agree in nonconformity . and is not this meer accidental to christianity and protestantism ? and herein is it not well known , that far the greater part of reformed christendom do more agree with us ? an arbitrary line of uniformity in some little accidents , severs a small part of the christian world from all the rest : how unreasonably is it expected , that therefore all the rest must in every thing else agree among themselves ? suppose any imaginary line to cut off a little segment from any part of the terrestrial globe , 't is as justly expected , that all the rest of the world should be of one mind . if one part of england be taylors , they might as well expect , that all the people besides should agree to be of one profession . perhaps some imagine it dishonourable to such as have gone before them in the same ecclesiastical stations and dignities , if now any thing should be altered , which their judgments did before approve and think fit . but we hope that temptation will not prove invincible , viz. of so excessive a modesty , as to be afraid of seeming wiser , or better natur'd , or of a more christian temper than their predecessors . but the most of us do agree not only with one another , but in the great things above mentioned , with the church of england too : and in short , that that reproach may cease for ever with those that count it one ; they will find with us , when they please to try , a very extensive agreement on the terms of king charles the second's declaration about ecclesiastical affairs , an. . q. . whether it be reasonable to exclude , all that in every thing conform not to the church of england , from any part or share of the civil power ? the difference , or nonconformity of many is so minute , that it would be as reasonable , to exclude all whose hair is not of this or that colour . and what if we should make a distermination , by the decision this way or that of any other disputed question that may be of as small concernment to religion ? suppose it be that of eating blood ; for the decision whereof , one way , there is more pretence from god's word , than for any point of the disputed conformity . would it not be a wise constitution , that whosoever thinks it lawful to eat black-pudding , shall be capable of no office , & c ? but we tremble to think of the exclusive sacramental test , brought down as low as to the keeper of an alehouse ! are all fit to approach that sacred table , whom the fear of ruin , or hope of gain may bring thither ? we cannot but often remember with horror , what happened three or four years ago : a man that led an ill life , but frequented the church , was observ'd not to come to the sacrament , and prest by the officers to come ; he yet declin'd , knowing himself unfit ; at length , being threatned and terrified , came : but said to some present at the time of the solemn action , that he came only to avoid being undone ; and took them to witness , that what he there receiv'd , he took only as common bread and vvine , not daring to receive them as the body and blood of christ. 't is amazing , that among christians , so venerable an institution should be prostituted to the serving of so mean purposes , and so foreign to its true end ! and that doing it after the manner of the church of england must be the qualification ! as if england were another christendom ; or it were a greater thing to conform in every punctilio to the rules of this church , than of christ himself ! but we would fain know whose is that holy table ? is it the table of this or that party , or the lord's table ? if the lord's ; are not persons to be admitted , or excluded upon his terms ? never can there be union or peace in the christian world , till we take down our arbitrary inclosures , and content our selves with those which our common lord hath set . if he falls under a curse that alters mens landmarks , to alter god's is not likely to infer a blessing . the matter is clear as the light of the sun , that as many persons of excellent worth , sobriety , and godliness , are entirely in the communion of the church of england ; so that there are too many of a worse character that are of it too ; and divers prudent , pious , and sober-minded persons that are not of it . let common reason be consulted in this case ; suppose the tables turn'd , and that the rule were to be made the contrary way , viz. that to do this thing , but not by any means after the manner of the church of england , were to be the qualification ; and now suppose one of meaner endowments as a man and a christian , do what is required , and not in the way of the church of england ; another , that is of much better , do the same thing , in that way ; were it suitable to prudence or justice , that because it is done after the way of the church of england , a fitter man should be reckon'd unqualified ? and one of less value be taken for qualified , because he does it a different way ? then is all that solid weight of vvisdom , diligence , sobriety and goodness , to be weighed down by a feather . it must surely be thought the prudence of any government , to comprehend as many useful persons as it can , and no more to deprive it self of the service of such , for any thing less considerable than those qualifications are by which they are useful , than a man would tear off from himself the limbs of his body for a spot upon the skin . and really , if in our circumstances , we thus narrow our interest , all the rest of the world will say , that they who would destroy us , do yet find a way to be our instructors , and our common enemies do teach us our politicks . postscript . the names of mr. hale of eaton college , and of a later most renowned bishop of the church of england , who asserted this principle [ that if things be impos'd under the notion of indifferent , which many think sinful , and a schism follow thereupon , the imposers are the schismaticks . ] will be great in england , as long as their writings shall live , and good sense can be understood in it . finis . london : printed in the year , mdclxxxix . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e vindication of some protestant principles , &c. p. . * as by numa , from his egeria . and their priests to whom the regulation of such matters was left , were generally believ'd to be inspir'd . notes upon the lord bishop of salisbury's four late discourses to the clergy of his diocess particularly upon the last, relating to the dissenters, in a letter to a friend. chorlton, john, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing c estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) notes upon the lord bishop of salisbury's four late discourses to the clergy of his diocess particularly upon the last, relating to the dissenters, in a letter to a friend. chorlton, john, - . [ ], p. [s.n.], london : . reproduction of original in the university of illinois (urbana-champaign campus). library. attributed to john chorlton. cf. bm. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng burnet, gilbert, - . dissenters, religious -- great britain. great britain -- history -- william and mary, - . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - jonathan blaney sampled and proofread - jonathan blaney text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion notes upon the lord bishop of salisbury's four late discourses to the clergy of his diocess . particularly upon the last , relating to the dissenters . in a letter to a friend . right prelating is busie labouring , and not lording , bishop latimer's sermon of the plough . wherefore lift up your heads , brethren , and look about with your eyes , spye what things are to be reformd in the church of england ! is it so hard , is it so great a matter for you to see many abuses in the clergy , many in the layety ▪ his sermon before the convocation . london , printed in usum sarum . mdcxcv . errata . page . line . blot out the , p. . l. . for acted upon read acted by , p. l. . in some of the sheets the words in metre should be put in after psalms . notes , &c. sir , i thank you for obliging me with the sight of my lord sarum's four late discourses to the the clergy of his diocess , the last of which your self must needs own the worst tim'd , and the worst linkt of any thing in the world. for what reason his lordship was pleas'd to reflect upon the dissenters as separatists at this time of day , when by act of parliament they enjoy ( tho' not equal advantages ) an equal establishment with his own constitution , i will not pretend to determine : nor perhaps can he himself give any better account of his tacking a discourse against them to the rest , than that the same spirit of contention which his lordship hath before now discover'd , had in that moment an unconquerable ascendancy over him . his lordship , it must be confess'd , writes with one singular advantage which the poor noncons must never expect , he hath the civil government for his security , and free liberty to vent whatever he pleases ; tho' 't is true , he must have a care how he misrepresents the foundations of our government , his frequent remembring a vote of parliament , and mr. johnson's most ingenious notes on a pastoral letter , with what the common hangman was once employ'd about in his lordships service , will be of admirable use to him in this case . but in spiritual matters he may e'en talk all that is in his heart , and whatever else he finds agreeable to his interest ; for being himself a spiritual lord , one of the six and twenty lights of the nation , and a chief among the guides of the church , he may hold himself safe from any contradiction , especially now he knows the press is entirely at the devotion of his own party , and they must very much expose themselves who would get in but one word against a whole volume of his lordships : tho' methinks an ecclesiastical peer of all others should be of too generous a temper , either to call the more names because he wears a protection , or to take any advantage against his brother of lower degree , that mildly jogging him by his lawn sleeves , may happen to tell him , an 't please you , my good lord , in this thing i humbly conceive you were not a little overseen . a great champion it must be confess'd the prelatical church hath in this salisbury bishop , and no doubt both he and the cause he pleads will flourish eternally , if the greatness of their circumstances can but deter all others , as it doth their own underlings , from questioning their pastoral oracles . what success our prelate will have against his other antagonists , i will not divine , but the dissenters ( i make no question ) will hold themselves oblig'd to him for the episcopal confirmation which his weak management of his own hath given to their cause , to the goodness of which this must be imputed , unless this right reverend author hath incurr'd the same unhappy fate from which the great livy himself was not wholly exempt , that the last part of his works should be a sufficient disgrace to all the rest . these four discourses coming out together in a body , afford us a notable specimen of his lordships abilities ; but the learned world hath been long acquainted with his many productions , and hath already given them an universal applause ; yet i am apt to believe they have not at any time seen a more pregnant instance of his cunning and dexterity than appears in his uniting these last compositions into one volume , where most invidiously , and with a strange kind of impartiality the atheist leads the van , and the dissenter brings up the rear . it will be no just cause of offence ( i hope ) to this noble prelate or his party , if in our own vindication we take the liberty to requite his lordships kindness with a few just and serious reflections on each subject of his several discourses ; and i shall choose sir to begin with that against the atheists ! first then let us enquire , what is it hath given the greatest occasion to the rise and progress of atheism in the english nation ? is it not that men have made religion , and the sacred function of the ministry , truckle to the gratification of their lusts , especially their avarice , pride and sensuality ? but a few will be convinced that there is any solid foundation for that belief , which they see made use of to such vile and sinister ends ! many are mistaken , if the extravagant grandeur of prelates , and other church dignitaries , hath not exceedingly contributed to diffuse this horrible contagion . it would make a man sick to hear our prelate declaim against the poverty of the inferior clergy , as a crying grievance , and a scorn put upon the gospel , when those that enjoy some thousands a year ( among whom i do not say his lordship is one ) shall yet behold their poor brethren who minister in spiritual things , so slenderly supply'd in temporals , that nothing but extream necessity can induce them to serve in such cures , who are put to wrestle still with the same necessity , especially if they have families that grow upon them . nor is it less ridiculous , and criminal in our prelate , to tantalize them with hopes of relief by new methods , whilst the true cause and remedy are so obvious , and yet so much slighted , and in effect renounced . our law-makers ( i am of opinion ) will be so kind , to try how far a more equal partition of the ecclesiastical revenue will go towards the supply of the poor clergy , before they lay any more burdens upon the people on that account . there will be no want of atheists so long as church-men are thus desperately enamour'd of great benefices , and so careless of their cures ; while they heap one steeple upon another 'till their heads grow giddy , and they can scarce look low enough to converse with their inferior brethren . they may preach up humility and mortification long enough in their cold , formal , florid discourses , before they perswade one atheist that themselves are convinc'd of its necessity , while they vye in fullness and gaiety not with the gentry only , but with the nobility too . how should atheism but thrive in a land , where men can declare , and swear , and preach , ay , and print dialogues too , for such a kind of loyalty , as when they are try'd they perfectly leave in the lurch , to be redeemed by those that can find in their hearts to submit to a suffering state , which they might avoid at the same easie but unconscionable rate as these men do . it cannot but be a mighty strengthening to the atheistical party , that some men who preach up piety , will not endure the strict exemplary practise of it , no not in others , whether of their own or a different communion , much less in themselves , but make it the subject of scorn and ridicule when they are out of the pulpit . nor doth it want a share in this malignant influence , that there are so many prints and footsteps yet visible , of those more than heathenish barbarities which have been all along acted upon one sort of christians upon their protestant dissenting brethren . from all this it is undenyably evident , that the faith , humility and self-denyal of the nonconformists , in parting with their livings , and casting themselves entirely upon providence , their stedfastness in refusing the oaths and subscriptions by them judg'd unlawful , their sobriety , and endeavouring to practice what they have preacht to others , hath been a standing ( not to say the only ) witness to this generation , that there is a god , and that the convictions of his being and government lye at the bottom of some mens actions . secondly , concerning his discourse against the socinians , give us leave to observe what have been the fruits of the church-mens over-valuing the rational way of preaching , as if all points were capable of being comprehended , and explained by it to a demonstration : it had been better in this respect , if our rational divines had contented themselves in many cases with the direct affirmations of the scriptures , and paid some more deference to the simple act of believing them ; for whilst every thing must be brought down to our reason , and levell'd to our capacities , they have conjur'd up the evil spirit of socinianism , which will exercise all their skill to get down again . it hath been the constant way of this church to let in the worst of evils upon the nation , ( as in the late reigns popery , and socinianism now in this ) and when they have made themselves and others abundance of labour , and grievously expos'd the nation , then if they have helped never so little to extinguish the fire , which but for themselves had never flam'd out , nor consum'd so many worthy patriots , to set up their crests , and loudly to proclaim their own atchievments , and that too when their victories are not so compleat , nor the enemy's defeat so absolute as they themselves do represent . and here , sir , by the way , i hope you will not forget to enquire in what communion atheists and socinians do most abound : and further , i wish all to be caution'd against arminianism by the prevalency of socinian errors ; for those who magnifie the power of man's will , and those that exalt his understanding beyond the measures of truth and sobriety , are not very far distant from each other . thirdly , as for popery , we are sorry to see the church of england so much symbolizing with it , and so hard put to it to defend its self upon its own bottom ; our concern on this account will appear very just , by making use of the instance before us : here is a renown'd prelatical bishop discoursing vehemently against infallibility , and at the same time pleading with might and main for the power of the church , in imposing symbolical ceremonies ; but can any thing be more absurd , than that men who confess themselves fallible , and prove it too both by word and deed , to the satisfaction of all the world , should obtrude their sentiments and composures ( forsooth ) as if they were as infallible as his holiness at rome pretends to be , or our blessed saviour and his apostles really were ? and is not this done to the height of arrogance , whilst all that will be benefic'd among them , are forced indispensably to declare , assent and consent , to all and every thing contain'd and prescrib'd in and by the book of common prayer : and all that have refus'd to comply with their modes ( how much soever against their consciences ) have been prosecuted with the utmost severity ! how laudable and consistent , when compar'd with our prelatical platform , is the popish way of first asserting the infallibility of the church , and then erecting a court of inquisition to defend it ? how will this , or any other prelate , be able to overthrow our popish adversary's arguments for salt , oyl and spittle , when their ceremonies stand upon the very same foundation ? and will they nill they , our church-men shall be constrain'd to admit them , whensoever their good lords and masters shall think sit to follow the romish prelates in the imposition of them . the truth on 't is , when the protestant prelates have to do with the papists , they are forced to the dissenters arguments against themselves , by magnifying the sufficiency of the scripture rule ; but when the same men encounter the dissenters , because the scripture-sufficiency is but an unpromising topick , and sure enough to fail them , they shift hands , and wield the same weapon against us , which they will by no means allow the papist , ( viz , the power of the church ) this is no very good sign of a good and defensible cause ; but who can blame the patrons of it , that attends to the straits and necessitys to which they are sometime reduced , not excepting the bishop of sarum himself ! and thus by degrees have we trac'd our prelate down to his fourth discourse , wherein he is pleas'd to charge the dissenters with the guilt of a needless separation , we hope presently to make it appear that his lordship is guilty of a much more needless clamour ; but that we may the better discover the unreasonableness of that whole party , which raises such a dust about separation , and how unjustly they appropriate to themselves the title of the church of england , we shall in few words attempt an impartial stating of this case . the church of england is a thred-bare term , that may signifie many things of a very different nature , which therefore ought not to be huddl'd up under one name , without some little explication ; and since our author hath not thought it at all advantageous to his cause to give us any , for your clearer insight into the present controversie you may please , sir , to take the following just distinctions . first , the church of england may very properly signifie that part of the catholick church of christ which is resident in england . in this sense the church of england is neither one sect of christians nor another among us , but every man that hath given up himself to god in christ by baptism , or hath been warrantably devoted by others in his infancy , and leads a christian life , is truly a member of it : from the church of england in this sense , we neither do nor can separate , but upon such grounds as would separate us from the body of christ . the only separatist here then is he that is no christian , and any one with half an eye may see to whose share the greatest part of separatists of this sort will fall . secondly , the church of england may signifie the christians of england , as form'd into distinct societies for the worship of god , and presential communion with each other therein . now that the dissenters are form'd into such worshipping bodies , and consequently not of this sort of separatists , is more visible then many would have it , and therefore 't is undeniable they are a part of the church of england in this sense also . the separatist here then is he only , that though he professeth christianity , doth not ordinarily worship god publickly , or with an assembly united to that end , and of this sort of separatists the loose devotees of the titular ▪ church of england are all that we know . thirdly , the church of england may signifie the christian congregations of england as united under the same civil government , and submitting to it ; and the separatists from the church of england in this sense are chiefly the jacobites , the generality of whom are so far from belonging to the dissenters , that they arrogate to themselves the sole honour of being the true sons of the church of england . yet here indeed it must be confess'd , that though the dissenters have approv'd themselves the fastest friends to the civil government , they are really separated from some very considerable advantages , which it hath thought fit to bestow upon the prelatical party ; for , whereas the dissenting ministers and people enjoy no more than the bare protection of the civil magistrate in their religious worship , from the rage of malignant persecutors , the prelatists have a very considerable part of the profit of the land assign'd them by law , for the maintenance of their ministry , vastly exceeding in proportion what is left to the poor layity : the clergy having a tenth of the profits of the land , though 't is probable they are not one man to a thousand . all the separation then that can be found under this head , among the dissenting clergy , is , a separation from tithes and maintenance , from archbishopricks and bishopricks , from deaneries , and archdeaconeries , from prebends and parsonages , from masterships and fellowships , and from other such fat benefices . our layity too are chargeable with a separation of this very kind , they being separated from all civil and military offices , whether those of justices or mayors , sheriffs or recorders , generals or admirals , colonels or captains , or whatever other honourable or profitable posts can be thought upon : the sacramental test having secured all such places to the members of a distinct communion . this separation we doubt not but the conformists ( though they are never like to be guilty of it themselves ) will have the charity to pardon to us , because it redounds so very much to their own advantage . fourthly , the church of england may signifie the christian congregations of england , thus united under one civil government , as agreeing or disagreeing with each other in doctrine , church goverment , or worship ; for there can be no separation ( but that which is local and unavoidable to all ) farther than they differ in some one of these . and here , sir , you must own ( . ) as to doctrine , that the dissenting ministers by their subscriptions plainly shew there is no separation on their part ; and indeed , those that are acquainted with the preaching and writing on both sides , will easily judge who keep closest to the doctrinal articles . the separatists from the church of england then in this sense are on the one hand the socinians and arminians , by what names or titles soever dignifi'd or distinguisht , and on the other hand the poor deluded quakers , and such like enthusiasts . ( . ) in the business of church government the dissenters are not asham'd to own a separation , rather do they think they should have great cause to be asham'd of themselves , and their churches , if herein they separated not from the prelatical party . the dissenters say there 's a great deal of reason , why the power of governing a church should be vested in the same person that hath and exerciseth the power of teaching , and administring the sacraments therein ; and who can this be but its proper pastor ? who best knowing the diseases of the people , is therefore most fit to apply the remedy : the power of the keys is certainly essential to the office of a gospel minister , and whoever ordains him to that office , must of necessity invest him therewith ; and though he should express a contrary intention , either that act or the whole ordination must be a nullity . every minister of jesus christ hath authority from him to govern no less than to teach , but through the influence of the ceremonious party , the laws of the land have debarr'd the pastors of single congregations in their own communion from the exercise of this power , and have made them miserable vassals to the hierarchy . here then our separation is from the prelates as creatures impos'd upon the church , and ingrossing to themselves that power which belongs to the pastor of every congregation , and which 't is naturally impossible duly to apply while it lodges in so few hands . and together with the prelates , the dissenters acknowledge a separation from lay-chancellors , officials , surrogates , proctors , and the whole gang of spiritual court-men , whom they look upon ( as having no authority from jesus christ but ) as the spawn of a monstrous prelacy , and the most intolerable grievance that the nation this day groans under . and as the dissenters separate from the subjects of this church-government ( the prelates , lay-chancellors , &c. ) so also do they own a separation from the exercise of it , as it proceeds from them , and is manag'd by them . themselves in the preface to the commination acknowledge their want of a godly discipline , and since they have the front to own this defect , and never had the grace to reform it , in all the time that is run out since edward the sixth's reformation to septimo gulielmi tertij , it would be no less then high treason against jesus christ , the head of the church , not to disown and separate so far at least from this imperfect church as to supply this want , by a godly discipline among our selves . there is this further disorder among them which will very much account for our separation , that whereas they distrust , and dishonour the ordinance of excommunication , by putting all their confidence in the carnal sword , the dissenters think the discipline of christ sufficient to its own end , without such a supplement as quite enervates the virtue , and obscures the lustre of it . this constrains them to separate from many of the prelatical canons , particularly from those wherein they excommunicate persons for saying , that there is any thing in the government of the hierarchy , or in their articles , or in the book of the common prayer that is repugnant to the word of god : and above all , the dissenters hold themselves bound in conscience to abominate that canon which excommunicates all those that shall say such assemblies as theirs are true churches . ( . ) as for what relates to worship , let it be consider'd , that the whole body of the dissenters worship is either found among the church party , or is generally own'd by them as lawful . free prayer , reading the scriptures , and expounding them , praising god by singing of psalms , celebrating the sacraments according to christs institution , with the gesture which his own example hath warranted , ( in all which ways the generality of the dissenters worship the god of their fathers ) are clearly unexceptionable . as for the ceremonies and the new gestures , and the prescrib'd forms , as they are still used by the prelatical party , which are the things in this worship from which we separate , they are at best questionable , and certainly very far from being essential to gospel worship . the summe of what hath been said on this head is this , in doctrine there is no separation at all on the dissenters part , rather are they the truest sticklers for the doctrinal articles . in church government they are so far from separating from the true scriptural episcopacy , that in defence of it , they disclaim that diocesian prelacy which is inconsistent with it , and hath only made use of its name to destroy the thing : 't is ( in a word ) no more but a noxions antescriptural prelacy from which the dissenters separate , together with the pernicious rabble of its ecclesiastical dependants , ( and if we 'll take their own words for it , ) there is nothing among them that deserves the name or bears the face of true christian discipline . in worship our separation is not from the object , or medium , or matter , or end , which are professedly the same in both parties : we worship the same god , through the same mediator , in the same evangelical duties , in order to the same great end ( the glory of god ; and our own salvation ) we separate only from certain dubious or sinful forms and ceremonies , of humane devising and imposing . so that here they cannot with the least truth or modesty accuse us of any separation , seeing our worship is the very same with theirs , unless they are disposed to speak improperly , and will mean by their worship the ceremonies that clogg it , which upon occasion they themselves have discarded from being any parts of their worship . this mighty separation ( the noise of which hath for so many years fill'd the pulpits , and which the prelate of salsbury is so fond of buzzing afresh into his clergies ears ) being thus dwindl'd into a separation from nothing in the world but from humane forms , from certain devis'd rites and modes of no value , from usurpation and church-tyranny , give me leave , sir , to enquire how the cause of the separation ( as our prelate phrases it ) does reflect upon the prelatists themselves . and first , they are the authors of that separation , be it more or less , which they condemn in us , it is most notorious that themselves both began and continue it , and theirs it must be more than ours , because it is not in our power to change our sentiments about the things impos'd , but it is evidently in their power to forbear the imposing of them , which they may well afford to do , as being ( according to their own confession ) no matters of necessity or good importance . we do not desire to ravish their ceremonies &c. from them , ( not we truly , e'en let those that are fond of 'em keep 'em all to themselves , with all our hearts , ) we only wish to enjoy our own christian liberty , either in joynt local communion with them , or in distinct assemblies , according to our present posture , without being persecuted as the vilest of men , or ( if such a favour could be granted ) without being scandalized with the odious and unjust titles of schismaticks or separatists by any english or scotch prelatists , whenever the testy fit takes ' em . secondly , they are guilty of a separation peculiar to themselves , of a very high nature , and of a mischievous tendency : some are so steel'd with hellish impudence as to deny our ministry and sacraments ; and others there are who refuse to join with us occasionally , when it might be done without slighting their own church order . if any be so wise and charitable to desire the liberty of testifying their agreement with the dissenters in all that is of absolute necessity to salvation , by joining with them occasionally in their publick worship , 't is great odds but he loseth their favour as much as if he quite relinquisht their party ; such irreconcileable enemies are some men to union , while they would be thought the great promoters of it : certainly the union of which these are ambitious is plainly , that all men , yea , even the ark of god its self should bow to the dagons of their own setting up . thirdly , the prelatists are full of schisms and separations among themselves : let them never boast either of their unity or uniformity , unless instead of all their jarring discords there were a more harmonious consent in their own worship . and here , sir , i shall take the liberty of diverting you with two or three instances of their good agreement , which are the more remarkable , as being peculiar to the prelatical constitution , and which therefore cannot be recriminated upon the dissenters , in defence of whose minuter differences it may be said , that they are the less to be condemn'd , for that they were never impos'd as absolutely necessary , nor have the dissenters ever had the impudence to pretend to that unity and uniformity which these men make so much their boast , with what reason or justice let the following instances of their own particular dissentions determine . some bow at the name of jesus , while others of the same communion pay no more reverence to that than to the name of christ . some bow to the east or altar , ( which you will , ) while others that would be thought as good church-men , condemn that practice as superstitious . some use the lords prayer kneeling , others pay no more respect to that than to any other prayers . some are very clamorous in their responds , others there are more modest , and a less noisy sort still content themselves with an amen only at the end. some only say over their prayers , while a more merry sort sing them out ; nay , there are not wanting some jovial sparks , that cant out their very creed . some preach in the surplice , while most pull it over their own ears before they go into the pulpit . some make prayers in the pulpit after the liturgy's over , others are only pray wee's , that bid prayer . some read the service in the desk , while others go with a part of it to the communion-table . the communion table in some churches is rail'd about , in many 't is e'en left as open as any other part of the church . in some topping churches you shall see huge unlighted candles , ( for what use no body alive can tell , but ) the meaner churches are forc'd to shift without them . some are for a consort of musick , others only for organs , some dislike both , and others can get neither . and here , sir , by the way , 't is worth your while to observe , that among the dissenters , the poor and rich congregations , the larger and the lesser , worship god in the same innocent unceremonious manner ; whereas in the prelatical church the rich congregations worship with abundance of pomp , while the poverty of others obliges them to a like simplicity with the dissenters . so that a church of england courtier is one sort of a worshipper , a c. of e. cathedralist of another kind , a c. of e. citizen yet less theatrical , and a c. of e. peasant of a sort by himself . in a word , this diversity of worship is so very considerable , and makes these pretended uniformity men look so little like ▪ members of one and the same church , that i am very confident , a perfect stranger to them all , at one time visiting the royal chappel at high devotion , and by and by looking into westminster-abbey , and anon tracing to st. lawrence's in the city , and shortly after travelling to some homely countrey church , and strictly observing all their various ways of worshipping , would be ready to swear , that these men never had an act of uniformity read among 'em , but were each of them a much more distinct sort of worshippers , and less of a piece than the dissenters are with the last mention'd , and honestest sort among themselves . from all this we may naturally infer , that either the several formalities instanc'd in , which are so much magnifi'd by one party , and neglected by another of the same communion , do appertain to the prelatical church , or they do not ; if they do , those separate from it that use them not , if they do not belong to it , those are separatists that use them ; this however is certain , as they differ more or less in these things , so far they separate each from other . if the church guides have only recommended these things without enjoining them , and have left them to be observ'd or omitted , as best agrees with the judgments and consciences of others : why might not the same course be taken with all the other ceremonies ? why is not the gesture at the supper , why is not the cross in baptism , why are not the surplice and other vestments , and many things of the like nature , left in their own indifferency , to be embrac'd or rejected as every one is determin'd in his own mind ? if so considerable a diversity may consist with uniformity , and is actually found in the prelatical church , why might not this be allow'd , in order to so great a benefit to the church , as the union of the two great parties would be ? but besides , what hath been already said of their discord , i dare be so bold to affirm , that abundance who ordinarily join in local communion with the prelatists , do mentally and really separate more from them than many others of a distinct communion . so do all those , both ministers and people , that pervert the doctrinal articles , and hold opinions inconsistent with the most natural and genuine meaning of them . they are in the same predicament who lead a vicious course of life ; for , as the former have separated from the truth which the church doth profess , so have these from that purity which it declares necessary to salvation . a dissenter that is sound in all the articles of faith , and orders his conversation accordingly , is incomparably more of the church of england than the most exquisite formalist , that hath learnt all his gates and his postures , but is neither sound in his head nor in his heart . the one separates only from some little particularities that are against his conscience , and the other from that which is vital and essential both to a christian and a church , and which his own conscience , and the scripture , and the consent of all christians urge upon him as indispensably necessary . nay , so obnoxious is the prelatical church on the account of separation , that great numbers of those who join with them , have as mean an opinion of their ceremonies , and in their judgments and affections separate as much from them as the dissenters , having nothing that engages 'em to an observation of them , but a bare establishment by the civil magistrate , whose authority in this case has been rejected by many very great men : but a legal establishment is a formal word that enchants abundance , and it 's enough for these that somewhere or other they have met with some word that gives 'em a little liberty in their own minds to communicate with the church : and whilst with very hard shifts this sort of church-men have made themselves judge it barely lawful to abide in that communion , they are loth to leave the sun-side of the bank ; little thinking in the mean time , that to join with a church less pure and edifying , when a better may be had , ( tho' with reproach ) is to prefer carnal policy before christian wisdom , pollution to purity and peace with men to peace with god and our souls salvation . but lest it should be objected , that these are but trimmers , or half churchemen at best , let me observe to you , sir , that on the other hand there are very many who have the honour to be of the high church ( as they themselves phrase it ) who do yet very substantially separate from the main body . among these we will first rank the jacobites , who have private assemblies and ministers ( if not prelates ) of their own , and who perhaps can be content to wave the consecration of places , as the dissenters have done before them : matters are now come to that pass even among high church-men themselves , that the voice is lo here is the church in one mans mouth ! and lo there in anothers ! in the judgment of these churchmen the far greater number of the prelatical church have deserted its principles , and have lost the great characteristick of a true church of england man , ( viz. ) passive obedience loyalty to a jure divino succession ; upon which verry account it is , that the abdicated prelate of bath and wells hath scatter'd his pastoral letters against holding communion with that part of the church which have taken the oaths to the present government . 't would do well if his brother of sarum and he cou'd concert this affair , at least we desire that our prelate ( befor he addresses any more discourses against the dissenters ) would free himself and his party from that guilt of a sinful separation which the jacobite sons of the church are daily reflecting upon them . but besides these high church separatists , there are not wanting a considerable number of another sort , who would willingly exclude some of those offices which themselves and their congregations statedly perform : how glad would many of this strain be to have conceiv'd prayer before sermon , and singing of psalms totally suppress'd ? but they know well enough , should not these be parts of their service , great numbers would soon desert 'em : tho' how they can reconcile this kind of prayer , and singing , with their own solemn promise to use the liturgy , and no other form , i leave to their own consciences to determine ! nay , it is further considerable , that where they are agreed to practise alike , 't is upon such very different principles , and so destructive of each other , that from hence 't is notoriously evident , how powerful a worldly interest is to make contrary principles sweetly conspire to its own support . let the several opposite principles upon which the hierarchy is built be our instance , the poor simple vulgar , and many of a better sort that would be thought champions for the church , take it for granted , that all the learned men on their side do firmly believe our english episcopacy to be jure divino , and in this they think them most unanimous : but ( alass ! ) they little imagine how very differently and inconsistently sometimes their great doctors , and those that wear lawn sleeves all at once , shall argue in its defence . give me leave , sir , to name two or three several opinions on this very head : ( . ) some church-men tell us , that a bishop and a presbiter were all one in the scripture-times , and that the bishops afterwards made the distinct order of presbiters or priests , as they are now call'd . this ( i humbly conceive ) you will say was a great piece of boldness , and certainly it can be call'd no less , for any men to make a new subordinate office in the church without authority from the great bishop of our souls , the lord jesus christ . ( . ) others of the same church , ( and those the most before laud's time , ) us'd to say , that by divine institution there were no bishops over presbiters , but prebiters to avoid divisions set up one among themselves above the rest , and gave him the title of bishop , by way of eminency . but this sort of episcopacy is a little too low and mean for our modern prelates to content themselves with . ( . ) many of this high church think that diocesan episcopacy is jure divino , and that an uninterrupted succession of such bishops is absolutely necessary to the being of a church , and to the validity of every ministers ordination : to these i might add , no small names among them who differ from their brethren in this , that they would have the universal church govern'd by a colledge of bishops ( by letters missive or in council ) and the pope as prime patriarch to be the principium unitatis . are not these very hopeful churchmen think you ? and don 't they put us in the ready way to catholick unity ? roman catholick i mean ? ( . ) there are yet others of this very church who think that there is not any particular form of church-government of divine institution , but that in the communion or subordination of churches we can only follow the general rules of scripture , and the common principles that belong to the conservation of societies . this sort of all others contributes most effectually to the destruction of that common conceit , that our diocesan episcopacy is of divine right : and of these some ascribe more to the power of magistrates in this point , and some more to the agreement of churches among themselves : yet all these must and do subscribe ( but god knows how ! ) to one and the same position , that it is evident to all that have diligently read the scriptures , and the antient fathers , that bishops , priests , and deacons have been three distinct offices , ever since the apostles times . i would to god the whole levitical tribe of this divided communion , would seriously lay to heart this one thing . but at present i spare our prelate any further trouble of this kind , and the rather because i am confident by this time you are fully convinc'd , and will with me readily conclude , that this goodly church of england , ( which notwithstanding all its boasts of unity and uniformity , do's next to the popish , abound with the most schisms and separations of any in the world ) is the least qualify'd , and has the poorest title of any that ever pretended to be the standard , and center of union to all other churches whatsoever . and in this faith i subscribe my self sir , yours , &c. finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e first discourse against atheism . ☞ preface , p. . preface , p. vide dr. burnets dialogues ☞ second discourse against socinians . ☞ witness opposing the bill of exclusion . e of essex , ld. russel , col. sydney , &c. third discourse against papists . vide p. , . fourth discourse against dissenters . doctrine church government . vide , , . canons . vide , , , canons . worship . vide troubles of francksort . ☜ ☞ ☜ ☞ ☜ dr. hammond &c. mr. dodwell , &c. bps. gunning , bramhal , &c. dr. stillingfleet , &c. ☜ ☞ a second letter to a dissenter, upon occasion of his majesties late gracious declaration of indulgence lobb, stephen, d. . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing l a estc r this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a second letter to a dissenter, upon occasion of his majesties late gracious declaration of indulgence lobb, stephen, d. . halifax, george savile, marquis of, - , attributed name. [ ], p. printed for john harris, at the harrow against the church in the poultrey, london : . by stephen lobb. sometimes also attributed to george savile, marquis of halifax. reproduction of the original at the british library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng dissenters, religious -- england -- early works to . freedom of religion -- england -- early works to . great britain -- history -- james ii, - -- early works to . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - olivia bottum sampled and proofread - olivia bottum text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a second letter to a dissenter , upon occasion of his majesties late gracious declaration of indulgence . london : printed for iohn harris , at the harrow against the church in the poultrey . . a second letter to a dissenter , &c. we are subject to nothing more than forgetfulness of blessings , unthankfulness for mercies , or to abuse or misuse them . when israel was delivered from egyptian slavery , they sang gods praise , but soon forgot his great goodness to them ; in their distress they cried unto god , but when he delivered them from their oppressors and oppressions , they kicked against him ; when beyond their faith or hope they were freed from their captive state in babylon , most of them contemned that mercy , and chose to continue under servitude , and only a few embraced that liberty . i hope none of you will be found to imitate them in that ungrateful obstinacy . that the obligations god by his late merciful providence of the like kind hath laid upon you , and the sence thereof , and of the blessing you have received by his majesties most gracious declaration , may remain upon you , and that you may consider what your sufferings were , and what you are delivered from , this seasonable advice is given to you , by one of your own number , that now is , and for about forty years hath been , a member of a congregational church , and purposeth so to continue unto his death . your deliverance was from the jaws of destruction ; you are brought from slavery , to a state of liberty ; the shackles of conscience , and bolts of your prisons , are knocked off , and you left free to worship god in truth , without fear ; your houses are no more rifled , nor your goods plundered , seized , or sold , nor your persons , wives , children , relations , and friends , crowded into nasty goals , on the perjuries and false informations of the dregs of the people , such who by debaucheries violated all bonds of conscience , and whose trade it was to spoil you ; men as compassionate as ravenous wolves , to whose insatiate avarice there were no bounds . you were not suffered to plead your own cause , ( the press being shut against you ) a favour heathens always allowed ; you were forced to bear all injuries , though innocent : if you complained , it increased your punishment ; if silent , you were sullen ; condemned , fined , and imprisoned , without being heard , or knowing your accusers , and that too many times for supposed crimes you were not guilty of ; ruined , banished , and destroyed , because you were unwilling to be damned for violating your consciences ; your worshipping of god as you judged according to his own appointment , was accounted a greater iniquity than adultery , perjury , atheism , or blasphemy . these were easily expiated ; but no attonement for non - conformity , or for not coming to church ; though in many parishes in and about london , the churches would not hold one third part of the parishioners . these proceedings were accounted legal , and your not conforming reckoned obstinacy , and such as deserved no pity ; nothing would evince the contrary , or that conscience was concerned therein ; loss of all the comforts of this life would not do it , and further evidence you could not give . this was your state and condition , as to your sufferings and persecutions , from which your deliverance was extraordinary and unexpected ; whereby you are at once engaged under many obligations , which if you fail to answer , will lie as a brand of infamy upon you . . you are therefore to bless and adore god , for this his great goodness and deliverance , the effect only of his merciful bounty , to whom the praise is due , and to be exprest in a godly , peaceable , meek , circumspect , humble , and fruitful conversation , that will bring glory , not only to his name and truth , but also to your profession , and establish in the consciences of your oppressors a conviction , that without any cause they unjustly persecuted you ; be not therefore wanting herein , least you provoke the lord thereby again to take this blessing from you . . thankfully to acknowledge the kings benignity and compassion ; his grace was free , and that too after many great provocations ; nor were there wanting those that so misrepresented his majesty , ( which you too readily credited ) as if he had been another nero , or caligula , that nothing but blood and cruelty was in his nature and designed by him ; and at the same time you were represented as his most implacable and irreconcileable enemies , drest up in bears skins to be baited ; and yet under these circumstances , without petition or intreaty , of his own innate goodness and clemency , he both pardoned , and freed you from merciless oppressors , and from those cruel laws , the engins made use of to debauch your consciences , deprieve you of your communion with god , and to make your lives bitter ; a more seasonable mercy could not be given , and if you are wanting in thankfulness , love , and subjection to his majesty , you will justly be branded as the most ungratefull and perfidious . . 't is incumbent on you also as men and christians , to use your utmost endeavours by all lawful ways and means to extirpate all those laws and tests , that deprieve you of this freedom , or lay any restraint on conscience in matters of religion , you accounted it your duty ( as daniel did ) to break these laws , when their keenest edge was turned against you , judging it better to obey god then men ; and shall there now be the least hesitation in your minds , as to the vacating of them ? can you desire again to be in bondage , even whilst your wounds are bleeding fresh , and your backs soar with the lashes you received from them ? will not all men brand your folly , that when you have an opportunity to be free , and nothing but your own remiss inadvertancy can continue or renew your bondage , you should be wanting to your selves herein ? who will then pity you , if your bonds are again repeated ; and can you expect otherwise , so long as these laws and tests are in force , for they have not lost their sting , nor your persecutors their malice , prejudice , and revenge ; are they not the children of their fathers , that formerly drove thousands into the american wilderness for their consciences ? are your sufferings the first persecution by these laws ? what then means the many petitions and apologies against them , made by dissenters in each kings reign since they were first enacted ? were there no ministers silenced , nor persons executed , banished , or imprisoned before your days ? and if so , by what laws ? and who were the authors or actors therein ? and will you suppose they will do so no more ? and that too when those very men whose pleasure was in your ruine , do still rage like a bear bereaved of her whelps , and curse you with bitter execrations , because restrained from their cruelty , and deprieved of their felicity , which with their debauchery , issued in your destruction , whose wrath is so boyled into envie , that they cannot forbear their threats , but set their tongues on mischief , even to the most undecent expressions of his majesty himself , for his fatherly compassions to you . . consider that when his majesties declaration of indulgence could no longer be prevented , but was published , how many stratagems and contrivances were used , and endeavours to deprieve you of the blessing and mercy thereof ; those that first addrest his majesty with thanks for his grace and clemency therein , were ( to deter others from the like ) stigmatized as the unworthiest of men , betrayers of the liberties of the nation ; as if to accept liberty on the kings declaration , was to destroy all law and property at once , when yet nothing was done therein but what all ages have recognized , as his majesties most undoubted right ( which also in a little time will beyond contradiction be made most apparent ) as to his power in dispensing with all these laws and tests . when these endeavours failed , and many followed that good example of addressing his majesty with thanks for his declaration , and openly met in their congregations to bless god for their liberty , and worshipped him according to their consciences ; praying most heartily for all blessings for his majesty : then it was more than whispered , that there were snakes in the grass ; their indulgence would be like the morning-dew ; it was but a scaffold to be taken down so soon as the building of popery was errected . the provoked church of england would turn their rods into scorpions to all that accepted this liberty , of whom lists were taken : that it was not their disposition to persecute , but they were necessitated thereunto , to comply with the government , and so could not help it ; that they would do so no more ; that it was not safe to take away the penal laws and tests , for thereby the papists would be let into parliament , and would make what laws they pleased to ruine the church of england , the bull-work of the protestant religion ; that those restraints and penalties being removed , a great part of the nation would turn roman catholicks , and could serve in all employments with impunity ; and idoliters would be tollerated , &c. for propagating these jealousies , specious and invective reasons were drawn up and dispersed ; with a report , that priests and jesuits preached in your meetings ( without instancing where or when , or the names of such preachers ) ; supposing these endeavours might again be successful as they had been in preventing the dissenters petitioning his majesty for their liberty ; and in king charles the il's time , to the rejecting his declaration of indulgence ; which gave him such provocation , as that it became an occasion of his withdrawing his tenderness and clemency to dissenters , in that they were not true and steady to their interest , and not be trusted , but consented to be as a cats paw to gratifie the humour and designs of those that sought their ruine . . all these suggestions , insinuations , and aspersion are manifestly groundless and absurd ; for if these laws and tests be taken away , what then can abridge your liberties ? men may ( as you must expect they will ) be angry but they cannot hurt you : the snake in the grass , viz. a spirit of persecution , may hiss , but not bite . the building will endure and stand as firm as a rock , and the protestant religion not shaken ; all ( but such as delight in mischief and oppression ) will rejoyce : see the blessing and benefit of liberty of conscience ! the peace and concord , the increase of trade , and prosperity to the whole nation . that the foundation of the government it self will as soon be taken , as your liberty infringed ; so that you need not fear the rage of any , or their threats of scorpions . what danger can there be of papists , or any other in parliament , when all interests will be engaged against such as shall attempt to invade this liberty ? besides , who shall elect such great numbers of papists , and where will they be chosen ? if it be supposed that they may sit by undue returns ; that may also be prevented by the very act of parliament that repeals those tests and penal statutes , and such security provided for therein , as that it shall not be in the power of any to infringe the liberties of the nation , or of any sort of people therein ; and that too by more justifiable and safer methods than those tests and penal statutes that have been the burthen and oppression of the nation ; shutting out of parliament and all places of trust , not only the papists , but also all others , which are not a few , that cannot conform to the ceremonies of the church of england ; and is it your interest to be shut out of all trusts , and rendered useless ( however otherwise quallified ) or that all honours , places , and profits , should be distributed only amongst one sort of men , many of whom have been your oppressors , and are not a little provoked at your liberty , and such as please themselves with the hopes of revenge ? the allegation , that their persecuting was to comply with the government , and that they could not help it , is manifestly absurd to all that knew his late majesties temper , who , did he brow-beat for his clemency , was he passive , 't was to please the men of the church of england ; did he at any time give directions for it , 't was at the pressing instance of their many-repeated irretating addresses , and false representations made of the dissenters . and his present majesty on his first access to his government , proposed the indulgence granted by his gracious declaration , in which he was opposed by the men of that perswasion and practice : however , they were not necessitated thereunto , but acted therein freely , either out of principle , or against conscience ; and in neither case are they again to be trusted : for the same men will re-act the same thing on the like occasion , if those laws and tests continue in force . . that liberty of conscience should bring in popery , is a paradox not to be understood by any thinking man. if popery be the effect of preaching the gospel , let popery come in : and if the learning and piety of the church of england , with their dignities , honours , livings , and fat of the land , will not preserve it , and maintain those bulworks , without tests and penal statutes , her canons of crueltie and destruction domineering over other mens consciences , and inslaving the nation to their pride and avarice , let that church fall , and no more pretend to be such an impregnable fortress . . that the papists should be so increased by taking away the tests and penalties of the law in matters of religion , is not very probable , since hope of preferment , and the princes favour , doth not now so prevail with many , though men of that perswasion serve in their employments with impunity ; but if it should have such effect , yet the church of england are no losers , since thereby they are only freed of such as would never be serviceable to them nor their interest , and at best but deceitful friends , a noxious humour in the body , fit to be purged out . . by tolerating idolaters , i suppose is intended the roman catholicks , who now dwell amongst us , have by law equal right with others to protection and their birth-rights , bound by common interest , as english-men , to desire , wish , and endeavour the welfare of the nation : and after all this , must their throats be cut , or they banished , because of their different sentiments in matters of religion ? will not such usage justifie the persecution of protestants in other countries , since there is no more difference betwixt a papist and a protestant , than there is betwixt a protestant and a papist ? we cannot here practise and justifie it our selves , and yet condemn the same thing as wicked and cruel in others ; nor can any suppose any popish opinion worse than the jews execrations and blasphemies of our saviour , and yet there 's no scruple of tolerating them : they are at worst but tares , and by christs directions such are to grow with the wheat , until the harvest ; besides , it 's the angels , not men , that must weed them out . . be true therefore to your own interest ; spare neither root nor branch of those tests nor penal statutes , they are and always have been snares , in which only consciencious men , such as scrupled impositions and humane inventions in the worship of god , have been catched ; when atheists , and men of debauched consciences , have not been bound by them . the uniformity in religion inforced by them , hath ruined many thousands . let them do no more such mischief , since the church of christ needs no such auxiliaries for its preservation ; and truth is stronger than error , without such coertion : therefore let not designing surmises and insinuations of dangers , where there are none , amuse your heads , nor weaken your hands . remember , that had nehemiah been discouraged by the like threats and surmises of sambullat and tobiah , he had never freed they jews from their oppression , nor provided for their safety , by finishing his building of the walks and city of ierusalem . there remains one suggestion more , which is commonly prest as unanswerable , viz. that considering the king's principles , 't is folly to suppose he granted his indulgence to dissenters out of kindness , 't was only to make tools of them ; nor can they trust his word , since 't is a maxim amongst the roman catholicks , that faith 's not to be kept with hereticks ; and such they account all protestants and dissenters . this will require a more distinct answer than was given to any other suggestion ; and therefore i shall be more particular therein . admitting this to be the case , yet his majesties indulgence is such a blessing , as calls for thankfulness to god and to the king ; for thereby you have your present liberty and freedom from all the slavery and oppression before-mentioned : a reprieve to a condemned man , present ease from accute pains of stone of gout , are mercies for which men are thankful to god , and the instrument by which they obtain such favors and blessings ( and surely your liberty is not of less value . ) will a condemned man reject his reprieve , because it 's not yet a full pardon , or any one a present relief , on supposition that the stone or gout may months after return upon him ? this is the worst that can be imagin'd of your case , as to your present liberty . but suppose his majesty granted this indulgence out of design , and not out of love to you , yet your condition thereby is not worse than it was ; you are sure , by woful experience , that your persecutors hated you , and causelesly sought your ruine , the other can do no more ; or is it less grievous to be ruined by cruel merciless protestant persecutors , than 't is by papists ? nor is this suggestion made out of kindness or friendship , but of hatred , mischief , and design , viz. that since they can no longer turn the edge of those penal laws against you to your ruine , they create fears and jealousies , to the end that thereby you may become so useless and ungrateful , as to turn the king's favour into displeasure ; and if this can be done , they have gained their point effectually , with an opportunity , according to their threats , to turn their rods into scorpions . do not too easily credit this suggestion ; yet make a good and profitable use of it , make the best construction , and take it as real , and carry it to his majesty : accordingly be not wanting in your thankfulness , love and dutiful subjection and obedience to him , that so his majesty may have a full satisfaction that his favours are not bestowed on an ungrateful and obstinate people . and let this suggestion become an incitation to more circumspection : hereby you will disappoint the designs of your enemies , and so prevail on his majesty , that if it could be supposed that he was not yet real to you , he would become so ; for he is not impenitrable , nor is he uncapable of understanding his own interest : and if he finds you men useful and serviceable to a common interest , and fit to be trusted , you need not fear being made tools of . but since the suggestion is made , if there 's any truth therein , it becomes absolutely necessary , according to the advice already given , to take your first opportunity to root out those penal statutes and tests ; that so they may be no more the instruments of destruction , either in the hand of the king , or any other that desires your ruine ; until then , you are ruined by law ; and your persecutors justified therein : but when these laws and tests are abrogated , they will be as cautious therein , as they are in the breach of any other law , as to theft or murther . so that your security and liberty is to be established in , and by the vacating these laws and tests . for that part of the suggestion , that there 's no trust to be put in the king's word , since faith is not to be kept with heriticks : you have much more than his majesty's bare word for your liberty ; hath he not by his declaration removed your fears , and to his own satisfaction , thereby errect his throne in your hearts ? what else means his gracious acceptance of the many addresses of thanks presented to him , for his gracious declaration ; and his condescending , obliging , and gracious answers thereunto ; his dismissing out of his service ( how useful soever ) such as would not by any means be reconciled thereunto ; and trusting and imploying those that are for establishing by law , this liberty ; and encouraging all to concur with him therein ; he desires and designs you should not onely have his word , but a magna charta for security of liberty of conscience , as well as you have for your properties ? if his majesty did not intend as real , and as high a security for your liberty , as he can give ; he hath acted most impolitickly : what need was there then of publishing , in his declaration , the grounds and reasons on which he granted his indulgence ? which are so weighty , and such as will abide the severest test. hath he not thereby exposed himself , his honour , and glory , to the highest sensure and obliquie , both at home and in all nations , if he violates his word ? hath he not laid the greatest obligations on himself , to assure the whole world that he will be true and steady thereunto ? what need else was there of publishing those reasons , since a bare indulgence without them , might have served a turn ? or what reason is there for his frequent solemn promises to make it good ? why else is it a pleasing and delightful subject to him to be commonly talking and discoursing of , and of the benefits and blessings that will accrue thereby to the nation ? these things , if not real , are inconsistent with a prudent politick prince , and below the common sentiments of an ordinary man. before we can imagine his majesty is not fully resolved to make good his declaration , we must suppose him to be a man that hath no zeal for , nor sense of his religion , nor for the men of his own perswasion : and this cannot be supposed by any that knows him , and how constant he is at his devotions , and how he adventured three kingdoms for his religion , when wind and tide ran most violently against him : would he but have dissembled his religion , or quitted it or his party , he might have been the darling of those times ; but he chose to run the greatest risks and dangers , rather than not to appear what he was . and shall we , after this , imagine he will have no regard to his word , nor provide for the safety of his party , which else so soon as he dies , must be exposed to the uttermost ruine , and to the rage and fury of these laws and tests . we have also besides his majesties word , the highest security he can give for our liberties ; we have not onely the particulars before mentioned , but also with his word , we have his interest , which will not lye : so that if his word were of no force , yet he is bound by interest to make it good . doth not his majesty know , that the dissenters are not a sort of treacherous cowardly men ; where 's the instance that any of them ever betrayed their trust , or refused any service they undertook , or were called unto , how perilous so ever ? are they droans that live by the sweat of other mens brows ; or rather , are they not painful and industrious , addicted to trade and manufactories ? is not a great part of the trade of the nation managed by them , whereby the poor are imployed , his majesties customs and revenues increased ? nor are they an inconsiderable number of his majesties subjects ; so that to part with them , he must part with a great part of his strength and treasure , in which his glory and security consists : which happily was no small consideration with his majesty , when he published his declaration . and this remains as an additional security unto his majesties word ; and so much the rather , because he hath aspiring neighbours who will readily embrace all opportunities of increasing their numbers , especially such as bring wealth , trade , and manufactories with them : of which they were in hopes , and so blew the coals of our late persecution , until his majesty happily extinguished them by his healing declaration , and thereby called home many that on great incouragements were setling amongst them . though some of the roman catholicks have asserted that maxim , that faith is not to be kept with hereticks ; yet god forbid there should not be a man of truth found amongst them ; or that the opinion of some should be charged on all : what principle or party of men , can then be trusted ? are all the church of england cruel merciless persecutors , because some of them are so ( and that not a few of them neither ) ? are they all socinians ? and yet they are greatly belyed if there are not some such amongst them . are they all debauched , or guilty of adultery , atheism , blasphemy , and murther ? and yet there are such to be found in that church . besides , his majesty is not onely willing , but most desirous to put it beyond his power to break the word and faith of his declaration : what can he do ( or is not ready and willing to do ) to give farther satisfaction herein ? let any man rationally propound it , and let his majesty refuse the same , before this , or such like surmises be credited . is he not willing and desirous that an equal liberty to all should grow up with , and be twisted in his government ? doth he not establish his throne on that basis ? hath he made any limitations or restrictions therein , to exclude any for their religious sentiments ? hath he ever solicited any man to change his opinion and become roman catholique , to increase his party ? who , or where is the instance of this kind ? hath he ever brow-beaten any man for his opinion ? and i am confident he will most readily concur with his parliament on the largest and comprehensivest terms for securing this liberty : and then it will not be in his , nor any other man's power to break this faith , any more than it is to subvert the government it self : shall all men be trusted on their bare word ; and shall his majesties solemn repeated word and promise ( that ought to be accounted sacred ) be no security , thô real instances , strong and most weighty obligations are conjoyned therewith . where is that person of any note or figure in the world , that would be so used for his kindness and benignity ? the persons that make these , and such like suggestions , are unworthy of his majesties goodness ; nor are there any but ignorant , wicked , and malitious men that will give them entertainment . you have other work incumbent on you , viz. since you have now full liberty to worship god without any imposition on your consciences , make conscience to be found in the constant practice of his worship ; live not in the neglect thereof , for that 's a contempt of the mercy god hath given you : was the truth and religious worship , worth the adventuring all you had for ? 't is not of less value because it now comes to you at a cheaper rate : do not turn scepticks , nor grow remiss in religion ; that 's the way to loose the blessing of your mercies ; but whilst you have seasons and opportunities , make conscience to improve them diligently . hearken not to any councels , nor give way to any passions that tend to stir up quarrels , contentions , or divisions ; this will deprive you of this liberty , or of its blessing , to the gratifying of the devil and your adversaries ; who for carrying on such designs , will take on them new shapes , and deal by you , as the samaritans did with the iews ; cover their designed malice with a cloak of pretended charity and friendship ; your strength is in concord , and whilst you mind a common interest , your enemies cannot hurt you . let not an imposing spirit or principle be found amongst you ; for that 's a persecution in its kind , as well as mulcts , prisons , and blood , but bear with , and forbear each other , notwithstanding differences in judgments , or incitations to the contrary ; this is the spirit of christ , and of his gospel , to which you ought to be reconciled ; for you profess to walk by christ's rule , to do to others , as you would be done by ; and not to censure and judge others for differing sentiments ; which will always be , until we come to the same degree and measure of knowledge ; a state not to be expected on this side heaven : till then let charity ( which is the bond of your perfection here ) knit you together in the pursuit of holiness and concord . remembring always , that the bond of conscience binds all other men as well as yours binds you : and if it were grievous to you to be opprest herein by enemies ; can it be easie to another to be in any respect so opprest by you , that ought to be friends ? will you contradict your own professed principles , to gratifie your enemies and your lusts ; and grieve your friends to the prejudice of your own interests ? when haply the matters contended for , may be some obstruse notions , not determinable by the ablest and most learned . consider that since conscience ( though erronious ) binds both to principles and practice ; and acting contrary thereunto , is sinful : it s not possible that one man's conscience can be affected or polluted simply by another man's principle or practice ; otherwise to avoid sin , we must sin against our own consciences , or by our dictates , force other mens consciences ; or sin wilfully to avoid the supposed guilt of another man's : let therefore that noble principle be maintained , and not in the least infringed . . consider that an imposing spirit , under which we lately groaned , is the very spawn and spirit of antichrist , the sourse of all impiety and cruelty ; to which appertains the iniquity and guilt of all the bloud of the prophets , apostles , martyrs , and millions of christ's servants ; what wars , confusions , and disolations hath this spirit always made in the world ? robing it of its peace and tranquility , bringing glorious churches into confusion , wasting and impoverishing mighty monarchs and kingdoms ; when , on the contrary , poor and contemptible states , by cherishing this principle of liberty of conscience , have continued their peace , and grown to greatness of power and wealth . shall we , that have wofully experienced the verity hereof , approve the contrary , or in any measure contract this guilt ? is that lawful , commendable , or a vertue in you , which is hateful , wicked , and abominable in others ? do not justifie your adversaries in all their cruelties and inhumanities , by making and imposing your understanding and practice as a guide or measure for other men ; for thereby every one becomes a dictator , for what 's lawful for one , is lawful for every man. do not therefore , on pretence of conscience , multiply nor streighten the terms of communion , nor make new articles of faith and communion ; let those christ hath left in his word suffice , lest out of blind zeal you turn , and keep out of the way , those that christ would have gathered and cherished . . finally , do not studie revenge , for that appertains to god ; let not your spirits boil up into prejudice against those that have injured you ; give no opprobrious provoking expressions , that 's uncomly for christians ; remember your lord and master reviled not again , but meekly and patiently endured the contradiction of sinners ; walk as you have him for your example ; pray for your persecutors , as christ did ; forgive your wrongs ; walk holily to god , and righteously to men ; live up to your profession : hereby you will stop the mouth of envy , and possess the blessing of this day of your liberty , and god will continue your tranquility . amen . postscript . it 's not my province , to enquire into the times , occasions , or reasons , on which the penal laws and tests were made , nor whether they are not ( especially the tests ) against gods word , the indispencible , immutable , and moral law of god , common right , iustice , equity , and law of the land ( though this will be enquired into , and published ; ) only this is most apparent , that by the act by which the test is established , the sacrament ( the most sacred gospel ordinance of christ ) is profanely made subservient to carnal and secular ends and purposes , and designed to incapasitate his majesty from having any servant about him ( how useful or necessary soever ) but such as either in reality or hypocrisie conforms to the ceremonies of the church of england ; or to reward any other for any service , though it should be the preservation of his life , crown , or kingdom ; or to employ them in any service , how fit or important soever : whereby , in effect , he is rendered to be king only of some part of his subjects , and haply not of the greatest part of them neither ; nor can he advise in council , for his own preservation , or common good and safety of his kingdom , with any other sort of men , nor dispense the iustice of the nation by any other hands ; whereby also it 's in their power , at any time , without comptrole , to impose what terms and inconveniencies they please on the king and kingdom , and to make both his majesty and all others truckle to them . on this consideration , many are content to part with all the penal laws , but struggle for the test , as knowing that it capacitates them at any time to revive again those laws , or to make worse , if worse can be made , and to subject all men to what state and condition they please : therefore never account the nation free , but subjected to an iron yoke , and your selves to be lashed with scorpions for your consciences , until these tests and penal statutes are abrogated , and thereby both his majesty and every body else absolutely freed from them . the end . the true non-conformist in answere to the modest and free conference betwixt a conformist and a non-conformist about the present distempers of scotland / by a lover of truth ... mcward, robert, ?- . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing m estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) the true non-conformist in answere to the modest and free conference betwixt a conformist and a non-conformist about the present distempers of scotland / by a lover of truth ... mcward, robert, ?- . [ ], p. s.n.], [amsterdam? : . reproduction of original in union theological seminary library, new york. attributed to robert mcward. cf. nuc pre- . table of contents: p. [ ]-[ ] errata: p. 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texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng burnet, gilbert, - . -- modest and free conference betwixt a conformist and a non-conformist. dissenters, religious -- scotland. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - tcp staff (oxford) sampled and proofread - aptara rekeyed and resubmitted - judith siefring sampled and proofread - judith siefring text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the true non-conformist in answere to the modest and free conference betwixt a conformist and a non-conformist , about the present distempers of scotland . by a lover of truth , and published by its order . hebr. xii . ver. xiv , xv. follow peace with all men , and holiness , without which no man shall see the lord , looking diligently lest any man faile of the grace of god , lest any root of bitternes springing up trouble you , and thereby many be defiled . printed in the year . to the author of the conference . although i judge it no less of my concernment then of yours , to be concealed and unseen in this undertaking ; yet seeing , that i do not captate the empty praise of an affected modesty , i am resolved in liew of your stationer to the reader and friend to the stationer , to give the following sheets this direct and immediate adress . and to begin with my self , as your friend doth with you , really i think i should have had nothing to say of such a nothing , were it not in opposition to that character wherewith he pretends to honour you . he sayes , you are a person of extraordinary moderation and peaceableness ; and no doubt these qualities understood in their due mediocrity and subordination , are of notable value : but that you can allow any difference of opinion but such as is incompatible with the peace & quiet of the chuch , is an ampliation so little favourable to truths preference , & so inconsistent with these scripture intimations of heresies and divisions through mans corruption inseparably attending it , that i cannot otherwise esteeme it to be extraordinary , then as it is excessive . if truth do allow , nay require a synathletick zeal , which error doth no wise warrant ; to accommodate their contradictions by an easie indifferencie , is more agreeable to the love of this world , then the love of god. and verily your friends excusing the tartness of some of your expressions , from a zeal that he allowes against that uncharitable spirit , which can suffer nothing that is not exactly of its own vvay , is not more calumnious in its insinuation against us , who desire utterly to disclaime selfe conceit in all thir matters , then unjustly restrictive of the true zeal of god , no less enemy to an irreligious lukewarmness , the apparent measure of your latitude , and the extreme now so dreadfully prevalent , then an humorous severity so little at present to be apprehended . but let all who desire to be found of a true christian temper seek first the kingdome of god , and his righteousnesse , and as his peace and the love of the brethren cannot be wanting , so the quiet of the church is best submitted to his good pleasure . for the occasion of my writing , the account which your friend gives of the occasion of yours doth equally justifie it . the english dialogues please you , and i assure you , both they and their answer are displeasing to me . i reflect not upon the method of dialogues ; nay i am so far from censuring it , though i relish it not in thir matters , that i am confident , that had you and your english pattern managed it sincerily , it had proven the ruine , and not the support of your design . but finding the english man so insolently scornful , as not to rest satisfied with an answere , which by taking sanctuary in the act of indemnity , & other such fearful & fainting shifts , did rather bewray , then vindicat the commoun cause , and perceiving , by your little essay , the humors of the unquiet spirit in both nations ( as you are pleased to speak evill of the uprightnesse of such who run not with you to the same excess of ungodlinesse ) not to be more the same , then it is the same strange spirit of hypocrisie and irreligion that at present abounds so much in these lands , to the perverting of both truth and righteousnesse , i was moved by these considerations to make you this free and round reply . your friend sayes , you designed not vanity by your few sheets , written almost as hastily as they could be transcribed : and the truth is , i am so much convinced of it , that i am more enclined to apologize for the seriousnesse that i have used in confuting such a trifling bable , then to purge my endeavours of any such suspicion . only , because he saith , you wish that every one may see the weakness of these grounds upon which such specious structures are built , which , when they come to be examined , prove but painted sepulchers , i thought it worth my paines , by clear descriptions , & firme demonstrations , both of the solidity of the foundations , and beauty of the superstructure of the work of god , to check the tumor of this insinuat boasting . but in the next place , we have your great designe in your small book , and it is , to let some well-meaning people , who have a love , to godlinesse , see that religion is not at all concerned in things wherein they do concern themselves very much , and that in contending for the shell , we are like to lose the kernel of religion . why herein is a marvellous thing , if i may use the blind mans words , since i think you would almost have me to lose that sight which he had then lately received , while the things wherein we did concerne our selves were sincerily owned and improven , religion flourished , holinesse was in request , profanity was ashamed , & iniquity stopt its mouth ; and since by you and your partakers , they were subverted and decried , wickednesse only hath exalted it selfe , and its blasphemous impieties and violences have abounded , to the very horrour of every ingenuous man : and yet we must believe that religion is not at all concerned in the change . and your friend doth attribute to you the confidence , not only to write , but to direct your writing to well-meaning people , lovers of godlinesse . for this effect , i shall not anticipate my performance in the ensuing answer ; only , as i have singly aimed at the establishment of the lord 's faithful remnant in this hour of great & manifold temptations ; so i am hopefull , that eternal life , and the meanes thereof , the gospel and its ordinances , shall never be so divided in this land , as to separate the things that they and i do contend for , from religions real and true interest : your friend sayes , they are but the shell , and not the kernel of religion . and if i may presse his lame similitudes , i would enquire , whither he call's them so because of their use for conservation , or their superfluity when broken off ? and though it be manifest , that this later sense can only warrand his undervalue , and is indeed a proper allusion for such who have not stood to devoure that which is holy , and after vowes to make enquirie ; yet i am assured , that unto his second thoughts its absurdity will appear so palpable , as by forcing him to the first meaning , it will constrain him rather to contradict his asserting of religious inconcernment in these matters , being the special means of its preservation , then prophanely to despise them as rejectaneous trifles . the language and manner of my writing is such , as i conceived to be most proper for my purpose ; if the prosecution of your particularities , specially in an essay , pretended indeed to be equally managed , but without question unequally designed , for the parties therein contending , prove irksome and tedious to others , as it hath been to my self , i have no apologie , but the necessity of a full reply , aswel to deliver the true non-conformist from your disingenuous imposings , as to refute your conformist's objections . as for other matters , i referr all to the reader . there is one thing only i would intreat , and that is , that if in the perusal of what i have written , you do find any thing that may move you again to take up your pen , you would not imploy it in any further continuation of this dramatick way of scribling : but seeing truth's interest is that which both of us ought to regard , let the differences in controversie be fairly stated , propositions clearly drawn forth , and by you either defended or impugned , according to the exigence of your cause , and i promise you either my assent , or the reasons of my dissent without passion or partiality . now as to your language and manner of writing , your friend sayes , it is accommodated to these meaner capacities , who are most apt to be abused , by such as care not , nay , which is very sad , but too true , wish not religion nor godlinesse to prosper in the hands of those who differ from them in opinion about external things , which are not of great moment . sir , this is a charge of too high an import to be let flye at randome . there are , i confesse , amongst us , who do apprehend , that both the opinions and practices of you and your associats do directly tend to the debauching of conscience , by the false pretences and undue extensions of civil obedience and allegeance , the perverting and destroying of gospel ordinances , not only of church-government and a sent ministry , but even of the two sacraments , by turning their divine institution into ecclesiastick custome , and lastly , to the subverting of the very foundation , justification through faith in jesus christ , by the superadding of our own to his righteousnesse , and who therefore justly fearing that your colouring and covering of these most momentous points , as if different opinions about things externall were all the controversie , to be only a turning of things upside down , and a seeking deep to hide your counsel from the lord , do wish that the lords people may bewar of such deceivers , specially , seeing their universal perjury and intrusion , their common profanity and ordinary insufficiency , are obvious to all men : but that there are any of us , who care not , nay , wish not religion to prosper , even in the manner here represented , is not more groundlesse , then it is most certain , that the prospering of religion and godlinesse would be the most effectual mean both to ruine your course , and establish what me maintain . but let us hear how your friend makes out his accusation ; and he saith , it may appear from their perswading poor souls to take for a mark of zeal that which in all christian nations is lookt on as a very great mark of impiety , to wit , not going to church . a mighty conviction , and worthy to be write in greater letters . but where did he learn , that not going to church , in the meaning only pertinent to his reflection , viz , our not going to the house appointed indeed for publick divine worship , but invaded and usurped by perjurious intruders , for the most part , as palpably wicked and naughty as their intrusion is undeniable , is lookt on in all christian nations as a great mark of impiety ? or how will he make it out , that we perswade not going to church , that is , to the assembling of our selves together for the more solemn worship and adoration of god , and hearing of our lawful pastors , though in corners , as god gives opportunity , which is most certainly all whereunto christianity doth oblidge ? let him prove either , and then let him boast himself : but seeing either of these demands must of necessity sinke him into perpetual silence , how foolishly doth he second his allegeances ? he subjoynes , that you mean no prejudice to any person in writing of it ( viz. ) your dialogues , & that it is only published to informe sincere people . whither it be so or not , let the work bear witness ; as for my intention in answering , i have already declared it , and i hope the answer it selfe will not contradict , i wish indeed it had been more timous : but as i affect not hasty productions , so there are many other reasons , easily supposible for the delay : if it may give any light for establishment in this evil time , i know it is not yet unseasonable : and in this single and earnest desire , i recommend it to all that love our righteous cause , and wait for the lords appearance . a short index of the chief things handled in this treatise . dial . i. non-conformists vindicated from some groundlesse and odious charges suggested in the entrie . pag. , , &c. the sound & clear rule for christian practice in the point of separation , with the true reason why non-conformists cannot join with curats . , &c. the work of god which non-conformists owne no rebellion . whether that argument , taken from the prophets their not exhorting to popular reformation doth militat against subjects their fighting for religion . positive grounds from scripture warranding subjects to defend religion by armes , , &c. the peoples obligation to popular reformation cleared . the example of the maccabees a good ground for peoples maintaining religion by armes . , the invalidity of these objections , taken from the mortifying design of religion and our lords beginning the gospel with suffering , discovered . , , &c. whether that injunction of our saviours to his disciples not to draw for him , and his words to pilat , iohn . . . doth militat against the defending of religion by armes . , &c. whether the practice of the primitive christians be a sufficient argument to condemn fighting for religion . , why n. c. cannot keep the anniversary day . the publick course against the adversaries of the covenant & work of reformation vindicated from the calumny of cruelty and rigor , and proven to be most rational and righteous . , a short account of the barbarous and inhumane cruelty of the prelats and their party , against innocent non-conformists . ministers cleared from that charge of medling in state or publick affairs . superstition how unjustly charged upon n. c. , &c. dial . ii. a discovery of the evil of the new convenient contrivance of religion . kirk-sessions vindicated . , their excellent use for suppressing ungodliness . the ministers liberty and manner of reproving sin vindicated , also their cariage toward the late king. ibid. their preaching vindicated . communions vindicated . of the posture in time of publick prayer . family worship and private meetings vindicated . , &c. the divisions charged upon n. c. whence they did proceed . dial . iii. presbytery and prelacy how falsly said to be only mere distinguishing names . the present looseness most unjustly charged upon non-conformists . unanswerable arguments against episcopacie . whether this title of lord be due to bishops . that scripture . pet . . cleared from the false glosses of adversaries . , &c. the ius divinum that presbyterians plead for , together with these things that do fairly exhibite the platform of presbyterian government . , &c. of lay-elders . , &c. of deacons . of diaconesses . of evangelists . of the classical subordination of sessions to presbyteries , &c. of discipline and whether the penitence of lent , the table altar-wayes , and officiating in a surplice may be as lawfully appointed by the church , as the circumstances of publick repentance to wit , so many dayes , a place of repentance and the use of sackcloath for scandalous persons . , &c. of the decree of the first council at ierusalem . of the washing of feet , where you have the conformist's design of resolving the necessity of sacraments into the arbitrement of the church discovered . , &c. anointing the sick with oyl why not used by n. c. of the change of the sabbath . whether the scriptures contain direct rules for the churches policy which is wholly ecclesiastick . of the kingdom of christ , & how the officers , laws , censures and order of his house are by himself established . , &c. whether the angels of the churches assoord any ground for bishops . the plea of antiquity for bishops , together with a short delineation of the rise , progress and product of prelacy in the first churches . , &c. dial . iiii. submission to , and complyance with , the present prelatick government cannot be without sin . whether paul's conforming to iews and gentiles doth enforce compliance with prelacie . , , &c. whether it be unsufferable peevishness , if the magistrate enjoin a thing , declaring it free in itself , and only necessary because commanded , upon that score to refuse obedience . of christian liberty , and wherein it stands . prelatick exactions high impingements upon christian liberty . why non-conformist's cannot joine in prelatick courts for church discipline . , , & , &c. the conformist's reasoning for joining answered , where that question , why ought we not to submit to the bishops , as wel as to the late usurpers in the state ? is fully answered . , &c. the just ground people have of disowning curats , and charging them with that schisme whereof they would make n. c. guilty . , the conformists arguments for owning and hearing curats fully answered . , &c. how and in what cases children are bound by their fathers oath . , &c. that charge of breach of covenant in some things , viz. silence and not declaring against the apostacy , tyranny and perjury of the usurpers , and a faint giving over to pray for the king , answered . , the national covenant vindicated . &c. whether the laws annulling the covenant doth loose its obligation , where you have a plain account of the nature & obligation both of vows and laws . , &c. the conformist's allegations for justifying the king's setting up of prelacie false and calumnious . dial . v. the grosness of the conformist's perswasion of extemporary prayer redargued . that q●estion about the composing and imposing set-forms fully handled , , &c. the conformists reasoning against extemporary prayer answered . whether singing psalms and scripture-songs be a restraining of the spirit . ● why all david's psalms is used in praising , together with the right way of singing psalms-prayers . of the english liturgie . , &c. of the . articles of perth . , &c. dial . vi. anent the name and principles of latitudinarians . , the opinion of the author of the dialogues anent justification ●xamined and found unsound . , &c. the men of the latitude more inclineable to favour papists . arminians or any sect or party , rather then conscientious non-conformists . , , &c. dial . vii . whether the conformist doth sufficiently purge himself of socimanisme , popery and arminianisme . , non-conformists unjustly charged with the progress of quakerisme . , whether the prayers and actions of the prelatick conformists evidence any tenderness of love towards non-conformists , , &c. naphtali's doctrine vindicated , specially his doctrine upon phineas his act. , &c. the surveyer's calumnies and objections against naphtali removed . , &c. that doctrine concerning private persons their punishing of crimes in case of the supinnels of the magistrat cleared . , that religion was maintained by resistance , is no vulgar error , but a thing undenyable , . from the waldenses their resisting of the king of france . , &c. . from the bohemian wars under zisca . , &c. . from the wars in germany . , . from sweden . . from the practice of helvetia and genev● . . from the practice of basile . . from the wars in the netherlands . , &c. . from the civil wars of france . that allegeance , that the church of scotland was condemned by the churches abroad , for her maintaining reformation by armes , shown to be false . , that the pop's usurpation is not abolished in brittain and irland , but in effect only transferred from him to the king. of the supremacy , and whether it takes away the churches intrinseck power . , arguments for the supremacie answered . what account is to be had of the indulgence as flowing from the supremacie . whether there can be an accommodation with the present prelatick party . , whether peace , love and charity be due to conformists . reader , ere thou read correct with a pen these errata as followeth . pag. . lin. . read mightily . p. . l. . r. directions . ibid. l. . r. out . p. . l. . r. it is . p. . l. . peter . r. pilat . p. . l. . is r. it . p. . l. . r. off . p. . l. . r. stipend . p. ● l. . r. suffering . p. . l. . r. in . p. . l. . r. into , in . p. . l. . r. thought . p. . l. . r. place . p. . l. . r. poenitentem . p. . l. . r. the. ibid. l. . r. are . p. . l. . r. your . p . l. . r. preachers . p. . l. . r. acknowledge . p. . for first dialogue , r. third dialogue . p. . l. . r benches . p. . l. . r. least . p. . l. . r. inconsistence . p. . l. . r. least . p. . l. ● . r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . p. . l. . r. do p. . l. last . r. continued . p. . l. . r. kingdomes . p. . l. . dele whrest . p. . l. . r. purity . p. . l. . r. the. p . l. . r. appointment . p. . l. . r. contrary . p. . l. . r. perceive . p. . l. . r. thing . p. . l. . r. restless . p. . l. . r. subjected . p. . l. . r. out . p. . l. . r. concerned . p. . l. . for , r. to. p. . l. . r. fealty . ibid. l. . r. and any . p. . l. . r. that . p. . l. . r. our . p. . ●l . . r. . ibid. l. . r. doubted . p. . l. . r. on . p. . l. . r. one . p. . l. . r fervent . p. . l. . r. pattern . p. . l. . r. ridiculous . p. . l. . r. mostly . p. . l. . r. mitigated . p. . l. . r. ashamed . p. . l. . r. this . p. . l. . r. maintained . p. . l. . r. convinced . ibid. l. . r. qualifies . reader , what others thou may find through a letter wanting , or redundant , or one for another , or through a comma , colon , or the like misplaced or wanting thou mayest correct as thou readest . the first dialogue answered . sir , if i premise , that your modest and free conference doth obviously appear to me , to be rather a phantastick rancountre of a mocking conformist , and a mock-non-conformist , it is not from any design to preoccupy , by so severe a character ; but only to releeve both you and my self , of the fruitless observation , and tedious prosecution of the many impertinencies incident to such a practice : and therefore , as you are not to expect my particular noticing of the high pretensions , weak replyes , faint cedings , ridiculous evasions , plain concessions and flattering insinuations , whereunto you prompt your puppet-non-conformist , either for your own advantage , or diversion ; so , in the tracing of these things that seeme to be more serious and important , in your dialogues , i promise you all the candor and calmness whereof i am capable : yea , though your double dealing in this cause ( which not content to impugne as a conformist , you go about also as a non-conformist to betray ) might well warrant a more sharpe and large animadversion , both upon your end and method ; yet , being only desirous of truths vindication , and in the occurrence of so many temptations justly jealous of my own infirmitie , i do here francklie cease from , and lay aside all wrath and bitterness , that i sin not ; and shall , as sincerely & distinctly as i can , review and answere your reasonings , as they ly . before you fall to your direct accusations , you suggest . that the non-conformists do boast of their way as the glory . . that , their ministers tell them only of christs death , which is not to preach him . . that they study more to convince them of the need of christs righteousness , then of having an● of their own . . that non-conformists think they may quite the communion of the church , if , in their opinion , no● in the truth , in every point . . that in former times they repressed some sins , specially of the flesh , but scarcely in a gospel way : and as for other sins , were very gentle to them ; nay were themselves guiltie of them . sir , were i not very loath to irritate you in the entrie , i would tell you , that to commence your conference , with such groundless , odious and incoherent hints , which you dare not positively affirme , is more agreeable to a design of prejudice , then to the charitie you so amply professe . but to particulars , & to the first , that the non-conformists do boast of their way as the glory . . we bless our god our glory , who hath made all the manifestations and means of his grace glorious : these are the overflowings of the excellent glory , by the streames whereof all our gloryings and praises ought to be carried back to , concentred in , and swallowed up of the ocean-fountain , whence they proceed . . the scripture is plain , that jesus christ the prince of glorie , in the revelation of his glorious gospel , hath made the ministration thereof so farre to exceed in glory , that , even he himself accounteth the messengers thereof his glory . whether these things be not sufficient to justifie both the non-conformists boasting and regrete , needeth not my assertion . sure i am , if a pure ministrie , not modelled by the policy and pride of man , but singly squared to our lords institution ; if able ministers of the new testament declaring all the counsel of god , and imparting the fulness of the blessing of the gospel ; and lastly , if the growing and multiplying of the word of god , and his peoples desire after , and rejoicing in it , have any lustre of this glory , the present sad catastrophe , whereby all these have been so wickedly and wofully changed to their contraries , may more justly move every concerned & serious soul to a lamentation for the departed glory , then these occasions that first produced that complaint . if you judge these to be swelling words of vanitie , remember that , as i do speak the true non-conformist , so it is your part , by this your conference more solidly to redargue him . the second thing you suggest , is , that the non-conforming ministers tell us only of christs death which is not to preach christ. sir , this allegeance , short as it is , presents it self with a disgust , that i can scarce express ; not that i think the non-conformists are thereby in the least noted : nay , on the contrarie , i am confident that , in whatsoever sense you are able to render the accusation pertinent , the non-conformists are most free to deny it , and that with the universall evidence of all their unprejudicate hearers , and the unanimous testimony of all their confessions and writings extant : and whether this be more to their advantage , or your dishonour , i hope you will consider : but that which in my heart i detest , is to hear the glorious subject of the precious death of christ so both slighted , and narrowed within its scriptural acceptation , by such a cold restrictive . if the apostle paul desired to know nothing but christ and him crucified , and gloryed only in his cross , if the death of christ doth necessarily suppose ; and did certainly confirme his preceeding testament ; nay , if in the gospel it be often mentioned , as the substance and root of all , had you no fitter words for your intended accusation of n. c. then that they tell us only of christs death ? i know your meaning viz. that to tell people onely of an interest in christ , while they are strangers to his laws and gospel , is to deceive them , is as sound , as it is untruly charged upon the non-conformists . neither would i have taxed an innocent lapse in the phrase observed ; but it s too visible tendencie to the discredite of the doctrine of justification by the bloud of christ , and to the new rationall method of more exalting our righteousness , to an equality with his merit , then pressing it in conformity to his life and love , is the cause of my aversion . the non-conformists therefore do indeed tell us of the death of our lord jesus , not with your ill appropriat and restringent only ; but do preach to us alwayes and principally this doctrine of his cross , as that whereby , both the great mean of our reconciliation ● and the strongest motive , best pattern , and most certain assurance of our dying unto sin and living unto god ( wherein our sanctification consists ) are held forth . . you say , that you feare the non-conformists do study more to convince us of the need of christs righteousness , then of having any of our own . 't is answered , this your suggestion is a great confirmation of my reflection on your last passage : i have already shewed , that the fear whereby you usher it in , hath no reall nor palpable ground , none were more serious , sound and powerful , in the pressing of holiness , then the men you would accuse : neither do i stand to appeal to the fruites of their ministery , notwithstanding of your cavilling at our practice ; but i have a greater fear of your fear , that it prove only proud reason , spurning at the righteousnes of jesus christ , and aspiring to adde a mantissa , an addition of your own , to his sole purchase : if i could conceive you a man to propose feares , both groundless and designless , i might be judged uncharitable ; but the certainty of the first , by removing the second , too plainly justifies my apprehension : beside your fear is so solicitous for your own righteousnes , that it doth not so much as allow the righteousness of jesus christ to be more pressed ; and yet you know that not only his righteousnes , as being the price , spring and acceptation of ours , doth therefore acclaime an infinite preference , but that the conviction of its necessity , by reason of the untoward reluctancie of the pride of reason , and blindness of unbeleefe , doth require a more powerful perswasion . and therefore i must again tell you that i almost suspect your insinuation of a very deep tincture of a greater sophistrie then that which you give warning against ; but seing you do profess to beleeve that christ came to lay down his life a ransome for our sins : and non-conformists are perswaded , that without holiness we shall never see the face of god , it is certainly the better part for me to applaud your good agr●ement : only that you may be assured of this necessarie holinesse , and also of its acceptance , see that you hold fast jesus christ as the sole foundation ; for he it is who of god is made unto us wisdom , and righteousnes , and sanctification , and redemption . and remember , that although non-conformists love not to talk much of their own righteousnesse , at best both freely bestowed , and , as in us viatores , while we are in the way , such , as of it self , can no wayes endure the consuming fire of divine jealousie ; yet they not only subscribe to your necessity of holinesse , but further do beleeve with joy , that it is impossible for any man to lean truely and entirely unto christ , who doth not imbrace him , and have him both his red●emer , lawgiver and sanctifier . . you suggest , that non-conformists think , they may quite the communion of the church , if , in their opinion , nor in the truth , in every point : at least you will have this to be the case , betwixt you and your non-conformist . really might it not offend your reverence , i would remit you to eph , . . and abide the reproof of the . without more answer , but , because 't is like the sottishnesse of the person you confer with , hath induced you to this mistake , beleeve me in name of all true non-conformists , that as they do not think they may quite the communion of the church , if in their opinion , not in the truth , unless the difference be both reall , & in profession & practice ; so it is not every reall difference , in profession or practice , that they hold to be a sufficient cause ; nor do they judge that , even the cause being sufficient , the separation should be alwayes carried to the extremity ; but the sound and clear rule which they propose for christian practice in this matter is , that where the controverted difference is such , as would render a conjunction therein either sinful or contagious , then a just and proportionat sepa●ation , precisely and with all tenderness , commensurate to the exigence , is the safer course . as for your conceit , stating the cause of separation , upon difference of opinion , in a truth of greater importance then the article of our faith , the catholick church , the communion of saints ; the examining of it , by what i have said , plainly discovers both its mistake and ambiguitie . in the next place let me tell you in behalf of honest non-conformists , that the true reason of their present withdrawing is none other then what you allow : that they account themselves bound to obey god , in adhering to their true pastors , and disowning intruding-hirelings , rather then man commanding the contraire . i will not digress to a more particular inquirie , since you are pleased to carry your non conformist by it : but if you had made him give this answer together with a clear condescendence , i doubt not but either he or i had made it out : i might here take notice how smoothly and perswadedly you suppose , that non-conformists do separate from the church , although they for the most part think your conceiting your partie to be the church , no better founded then the rest of your usurpations , but because this point will againe occurre i proceed to your 〈◊〉 hint , that in former times non-conformists repressed some sins specially these of the flesh , but fc●rce in a gospel way , and for other sins , were very gentle to them , nay , were themselves guiltie of them . sir , your suggestion being so general and groundless , i only wish that its latter part were as void of malice , as its former is farre from truth : i know that all men are sinners , and heartily desire that all non-conformists may be serioussly warned , throughly and impartially to search , and examine their wayes , and unfainedly to repent of their transgressions . nay , though the frequencie and high import of your generall accusations render the sinceritie of your meeknes , in forbearing particulars , many wayes suspected ; yet i urge it not : only remember , that as i disown the patrocinie , either of mens failings or infirmities , so i do as little hold the work of god chargeable with any such extrinsick and accidentall objections , but should thy impudence make men hold their peace , and when thou mockest shall no man make thee ashamed , when you offered to reflect upon the infirmities and failings of former times , might not , and should not , the present irreligion and wickednesse , every were abounding , which are not only connived at by your church-men , but do visibly go forth from them into all the land ( for they commit lewdnesse and walk in lies , they strengthen also the hands of evil doers , that none doth returne from his wickednesse ) have confounded you unto silence ? certainly this your procedour cannot but suggest to all sober men , that too applicable passage of the gospel , and why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brothers eye , but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye ? thou hypocrite , first cast out the beam out of thine own eye , and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brothers eye . and thus , sir , i am arrived at your plain and set impugnation of the n. c. courses : and to begin the matter , you make your n. c. in place of a solid representation of the truth controverted , rap out an indigested heap of pompous titles , and , by this personat blustering , you take the occasion , very kindly to commend your own personall modestie : whether this be not more invidious then ingenuous dealing let others judge ; certainly if you had used that candor which you professe , your n. c. would have told you , that the work of god we desire to own , is that inlightning grace , and assisting presence of god , whereby , after that the lord had caused his people to receive the truth in its power , he mightly stirred them up , and inabled them to resist the growing corruptions , and shake off the heavie yoke of wicked prelacie ; to restore and establish his ordinances , specially the ministerie , and government of his church , in puritie ; to maintain and defend the same against the violence of adversaries ; and to direct all these endeavours and attainments to the advancement of our lords kingdom , over the hearts and consciences of men , and the prospering of his pleasure in these lands , and that by such righteous means and methods , as are clearly warranted and approven , by scripture , reason and many uncontroverted precedents : this is the truth your non-conformist ought to have witnessed , not more confirmed by the publick writings and actings of these times , then indelebly sealed in the hearts , and by the experiences of many thousands of the seekers of god ; but seing i am astricted to follow you , i returne to your objections . and first , you say , rebellion was the soul of our whole work , & our covenant a bond to cement us in it , & , in an excess of faire dealing , not questioning the particular merit of the hypothese of our cause , you demand one place in both the testaments , warranting subjects their fighting for religion , & say plainly you can bring many against it . sir , if you had thought it convenient , i judge it was proper for you , to disprove , from scripture , subjects their fighting for religion , & not to require your non-conformist to prove it , for seing you know that quae sunt juris permissivi , such things as law and right permit , if not prohibited , 〈◊〉 su●ficiently understood to be permitted , any n. c. by an undeniable subsumption may easily evert your argument . if a miserable melancholian , falling in disgust with certain necessary means of 〈◊〉 , should affi●me that it is unlawful to use them , because he finds not one place in either testaments expresly warranting it , would you account his reasoning conclusive ? i am confident you would not : wherefore then do you urge us with his dreams ? now your negative objection a testimonio negato , from a negative testimonie , as they say , being such a notorious fallacie , i need say nothing to what you adde of the scriptures silence , of the jews & israelites their not rising up against their apostat idolatrous princes , much less can their omitting what they might and ought to have done be of any import . if you could bring an example from scripture of a king polluting the sanctuary , and the people offering to oppose him , restrained either by rational perswasion , or the lords plain prohibition , that only were apposite to your purpose . but you say , the faithfull prophets their not exhorting to popular reformation , or resisting princes , doth evidently show that the omission of it was no sin . 't is answered , to make this argument better then your last , it is not enough to alleage , that the prophets did not provock to such courses , unless you adde , that they did industriously forbear so to do , even in its season . you know so well the necessity and beautie of tide and season to every purpose and work , that your inconsideratnesse in this point is scarcely excusable . the scripture tells us most frequently of the perversnesse and bentness of that peoples heart to idolatrie and rebellion against god ; and no doubt in publick defections they were either the kings entisers , as hos , . . or did willingly walk after the commandment . hos. . . what wonder then if the prophets did forbear to ply them with any such expresse exhortation , let be , that you should account their simple omission , as you love to speak , or rather the scriptures silence in the thing , of any force : and here i cannot but note the unequall dealing of the men of your perswasion , who notwithstanding of their clamorous arguings from the silence of the prophets , against subjects their taking armes ; yet , when , in the case of the ten tribes their falling away from rehoboam , by them condemned for rebellion ; by others justified as warrantable , they are pressed , not with a bare negative silence , which is all that you object , but with a silence of reproof , circumstantiat with all that could render it significant , they wave it as of no strength . but lest you should think me too rigid , in insisting only against your methods , i proceed to give you , though not obliged , a positive return to your demand , and to shew you some of the positive warrants that i finde in sripture , for subjects their sighting for religion , and although , as doubtful of the old testament , you seem to alleviat its testimony by terming its dispensation more carnall and fierie ; yet , i hope , you are perswaded , that change of dispensations doth no wayes alter the truth and righteousnesse of god. the first ground therefore which i take from scripture , is , from the law of moses , where i finde the keeping of the lords covenant not only injoined to the people of israel , as one body incorporat , under the highest perswasives , and strongest sanctions that can be conceived , and established to be their supreme law ; but also its vindication and execution recommended to them , in such a manner as doth clearly evince , that it was the constant dutie of the faithful amongst them , all other regards set aside , even by force , to have asserted and maintained it : if salus populi , the safety of the people , under the interpretative notion and force of suprema lex , soveraigne law , have in all just exigences , in all ages , amongst all nations , licensed and warranted a defensive resistance and controll against their king and rulers , can religion , infinitly preferable in it self , and confirmed by such an expresse law , be thought destitute of this prerogative ? it is in vain to alleage a disparitie from the inconsistencie of carnall weapons with the spirituality of religion , this is already obviat by the lords own determination deut . . if israel was to animadvert with the sword against any city turning aside to idolatrie , can we doubt that it was lawful for them , in the same manner , to defend the true worship ? do not recurre and say it was certainly lawfull in many cases , but not against the prince ? for , if you allow religion this weapon , i have already proved its right and privilege , by a higher title , and clearer evidence , then any other received cause of defence can pretend to : but if you utterly disallow defensive armes against the powers , you destroy nature , deny reason , contradict scripture , pervert the subordination of laws , preferre midses to their end , and repugne to the unanimous consent of all nations , as you may elswhere understand . the next ground i alleage , is from deut. . vers . . where you have the law of the kingdome delivered and committed to the people , and in it an express provision , that the king to be set up , should keep all the words of this law ; and these statutes to do them : whence i inferre , that , as the delivering of the law to the people doth undeniably import , that they were to be its keepers and exactors ; so the prince his deportment , in conformity to this part of it , did in such manner belong to their cognition and oversight , as he could not , impunè , without danger of punishment , mal-verse , much less subvert religion , and persecute its true professors without control . the only difficulty in this argument is , whether the tuition and custodie of this law be , by its addresse , intrusted to the people ? i may not stand upon long elucidations , but if you consider . that there is not an jota of the law of god in vain . . that this directing of the law to the people can have no other signification . and . that both the continued tenor of the words , and the just analogie of reason , must make the oversight appertain to them , to whom the election , and setting up is so expressely given , your hesitation , if prevalent , can only appeare obstinacie . . as the frequencie or infrequencie of instances doth wholly depend upon matter of fact ; so one clearly found in scripture , i know , will be to you as a a thousand : i shall therefore content my self with the case and practice of libnah . this citie being a citie of iudah , and also of priests , ios. . . in the reign of iehoram , a wicked and idolatrous prince , and one who compelled iudah to the like abominations , revolted from under his hand , because he had forsaken the lord god of his fathers . say not as the surv. of n. profanely alleageth , that this was a citie of priests seditiously inclined , or that the revolt was only providentiall , like to that of edom , and not lawful , by-reason of the kings apostasie . if you but read the text , bearing that edoms revolt was from under the hand of judah , without any motive annexed ; and then , in a distinct period , mentioning libnahs to have been from under iehoram's hand , ( not iudahs , intimating plainly their resistance to an idolatrous tyranne , without any apostasie from the common-wealth , which edom did make ) and because he had forsaken the lord , you will discover both his unsincere handling of scripture , and the clear evidence of this passage , specially if you remember , that thereafter under better kings , we find libnah returned to her subjection , and affoorded a wife to good iosiah . if it were needfull to superadde more examples , i might adde another scripture , chron , . . where you may read how after that amaziah did turne away from following the lord , they made a conspiracie against him in ierusalem , and he fled to lachish : but they sent to lachish after him , and treated him more severely then i love to mention : and really were not this storie too tragicall for me to dip in , the justice of the cause , the generality of the concurrence , and the impunitie of the actors , specially adverting to the difference of this case from that of the fathers exit , may be so evidently held out from scripture , to the advantage of my assertion , that any reply , which you could make from the application of a dubious word , conspiracie , would prove a poor reliefe . with these might also be remembred king vzziah's elevation in a pretended supremacie , and his invasive attempt of the priests office , with the noble resistance made by azariah and the fourscore valiant priests , who went in after and withstood him . 't is true it broke out into force upon a second occasion , which i think i cannot so fairly urge , yet if you consider their number , character , and peremptorie manner of speech , so particularly noted by the spirit of god , i doubt not but you will grant that the same force was very agreeable to , if not influenced by , their first resolution , but it is enough . . though i have already told you , that the prophets their not provoking unto popular reformations is no argument for you , unless you could represent their om●●●on in an opportune season , as well as a clear exigent , yet now i further adde , that the frequent exhortations made by the prophets to both king and people , as , in the first place , they have a respect to every ones proper station , so , by reason of their principal intendment of the great end , to which all politick degrees and their order are subordinate and do referre , in the deficiencie or perversion of the more immediate midses , they must of necessity lay a subsidiary obligation upon the people , as succedaneous , in that exigence . if the nature of this discourse did allow me to inlarge , i could confirme this position . from nature , which , in the perturbation of its established harmonic , forcing things , for the good of the whole , contraire to their proper tendencies , exhibite●a clear emblem of these vicarious assistances . . from things rationall , wherein the prevalencie of the end , and its obligation , doth alwayes overrule the order and regard of the midses , to a convenient subserviencie . . from the received acknowledgement of a twofold calling , appertaining to every man , one generall , flowing immediatly from the end , and exerting it self in extraordinarie emergents : another particular , aranging to a certain fixed station , in the regular course of ordinarie events . . from the approven instances of many extraordinarie stretches , in the case either of our own , or others their unforeseen , and imminent dangers , specially from that most apposite example of the noble effort of sauls souldiers in rescueing ionathan from his fathers unreasonable violence , without the least imputation of a transgression . . from this plain supposition . a certain king commands a bodie of souldiers to chose their own generall and other officers , and march against one of his provinces apostatized to idolatrie , severely injoining unto both generall officers and souldiers the execution of his pleasure , under pain of death : in the expedition , the general chosen and others with him , forgetting dutie , fall away and joyne with the idolaters , whereupon the remaining part of the armie , although in a sufficient capacitie to have effectuat their prince his command , yet deserte and returne , making no other pretense then that they were not free to exceed their private vacations , whereunto they held themselves absolutely confined : would this be sustained for a good defence , and not rather looked upon as a cowardly , and lasie shift , taking refuge in the words , contraire to the certain meaning of the orders ? let any man judge and apply . but leaving all these grounds to your better improvement , the plain and obvious reading of the scripture is my entire satisfaction : and really when with these warnings generally made , i also take a view of the commensurat threatnings wherewith they are enforced , and the suiteable execution ordinarily ensuing , i almost marveile that the obvious connexion , adequating the guilt and punishment , doth not discover unto all this secondarie obligation incumbent to the people , in its punished and therefore sinfull , omission . i know the soveraignity of the most high , & the nothingnesse , & noughtinesse of all flesh in his sight , will be alleaged sometime to justify the extent , not only of his judgements , but also of his threatnings , beyond the desert of the formal expresse provocation , whereby they are occasioned , without the least shadow of unrighteousnesse . but ( that i may forbear lanching forth unto that unsearchable deepth ) to recurre to these mysteries , when both the strain , and reason of the exhortation do lye so faire for the obliga●ion pleaded , is visibly to enervat the aw● and dread of the lords commandments . do not alledge , that to persuade this subsidiarie call and engagement to popular reformations , is not only to put tender consciences upon the rack , of a continual scrutinie into publick affaires ; but to draw them altogether out from the inward and most important duties of christianitie , unto an over-curious search , and consequently a sinistrous jealousie , of the actions of their rulers , of all practices the most pernicious , both to religion and peace : for as at best , these are only the pretensions of men , upon the other extreme sunke into themselves , and wholly devoted unto their own ease , so , the very consideration of mans politique as well as private capacitie , with the many incontroverted precepts and directio●s pertaining to it , do necessarily hold on t a laudable mediocrity● i have already told you , that these exhortations do , in the first place , oblige every man to procure the trust of his own proper assignement , and you cannot be more desirous then i am consentient , that private men abstract from officious medling , forbear presuming censures , and render unto their rulers , with their due obedience , all the honour , esteem , submission , charitie and tendernesse , that both their high dignitie , insuperable infirmities , and manifold temptations call for , but as these duties have their proper limites , in matters secular , known and acknowledged by all , so , i am confident , that to hold them illimited in matters of religion , no less privileged and defined , by most certain and evident rules , is a most manifest inconsequence , either of ignorance or malice . then indeed is a kingdom truely happy ; when all , in their several orbes , do observe their proper motions about the same common centre of , the glory of god , and good of the publick , without any other communication then that of benigne influences , and due assistances , and this though without the reach of hope , ought not the lesse to be our wish , and the patern of our endeavours : and therefore in these inevitable jarrings , whereunto we are subject , the next remedie is certainly in the applications of charitie , first , covering as much as is possible , then by its gentle means of intreatie and counsel , curing these disorders , that cannot be hid ; but if the evil proceed to the endangering of the whole , and all the more moderate courses become desperate ; as it were vain , in that case , to alleage mens visible and felt discoveries , to be curiosities and jealousies ; so the extraordinary and resolute interpositions of the sounder part , is assuredly the only probable safety of the common-wealth . to these grounds adduced from the old testament for subjects their fighting for religion and popular reformation , i take leave to adde one more from the apocrypha : and that is the example and historie of the maccabees . i need not narrate the matter of fact , how the king polluted the sanctuarie , and persecuted the poor people of the jews unto a conformitie with his abominations ; and how mattathias , first resisted , then killed the kings commissioner , with the whole sequel of these warres , all is evident upon record . that it exactly quadrates to the case of our controversie , is apparent from the single proposal . if you deny it , it is your part , and i am sure , will prove your singular wit , to shew a disparitie . these ordinarily objected by the men of your opinion , are either that antiochus was not the jews lawfull king , or that the opposition was made in the spirit , and under the dispensation of the old testament , and is not approveable by the new. as to the first , grotius thinks the contraire so clear , from the plain phrase of the books of the maccabees , wherein antiochus is frequently termed the king , that he addeth no further confirmation : if this do not satisfie it may be considered that antiochus his title to jurie , is not obnoxious to any particular exception , which doth not equally implead his right to all his other dominions : for seeing the land of judah was first by the lords gift , ier. . . . . . . zedekiahs covenant with nebuchadnezar , ratified and confirmed by the lord , whereby the kingdome became base , ezek. . vers . . to . . by right of conquest upon the revolt , ier. . and . by cyrus his restitution , restoring the jews to their own land , religion and laws , but only with a provinciat liberty , as ezek : had prophesied , and is most apparent from the books of ezrah and nehemiah , unquestionably an annexed part of the babylonish monarchie , antioc hus his clame to it and his whole realme , is evident by the same ; nay though you could prove him an usurper of the principal monarchie , as you cannot , the violence of the first conquest , being by long prescription , and a faire succession wholly purged ; yet you must remember , that , that would not al●er the condition of the dependent provinces , nor render the usurpers right , as it respecteth them , in the least debetable . let not the law of the kingdom , delivered by moses , demurre your persuasion : it excludes indeed a forrainer from the peoples free election , but doth no way limite the disposition of divine soveraignity . as to the second objection made , that the resistance of the maccabees was old testamentaire , and now antiquate , seeing it hath no contingence , either with the nature , or reason of the things innovate by that change , you cannot alledge it , without expresse warrant , which notwithstanding grotius his attempt , is yet undiscovered . what your invention will further adde against this passage , i cannot conjecture . i know you think it marvellous dealing in your n. c. to tell you of the law of nature , aud possibly may call it monstruous for me to use the apocrypha : but not to trifle , either with your quiblings , or the respect that your prelatick church beareth to these books , when i consider , that the historie of these worthies , is not only honourably pointed at by the prophesie of daniel , cap. . . . but also appeares to be with applause commemorat by the author to the heb. chap. . , . i look upon it as an argument , not more strongly founded in reason , then firmly established by the unite testimony of both testaments . here i might take notice of what you say of the new testament , viz. that its whole strain runs upon suffering : but seeing your insinuation is general and inconcludent , and that afterward , you do more particularly object from it , i proceed . having thus at some length supplied your n. c. omission , in the next place i come to the argument where with you furnish him , viz. that the law of nature teacheth us to defend our selves , & therefore there is no need of expresse scripture for it : in answere to this , having broke your j●ast , you begin very magisterially with your n. c. & tell him , that he is a stranger to the very designe of religion , which is to mortifie nature ; that it is a thing super natural , that the scriptures are strangely contrived , ever telling us of suffering , without the exception of resistance , if in a capacitie ; you appeal to conscience if either ●ighting , which a carnal man may do , or suffering , which he cannot do , be the likelier way to advance religion ? whence you conclude ; that it is not to be defended or advanced by rules borrowed from nature , but from grace . fye upon you m. conformist , where is ingenuitie ? your n. c. sayes that nature teaches us , to defend against injuries , though inflicted for religion , & you tell him that religions desig●● is to mortifie nature , & that it is not to be defended or advanced by natures rules . is not this strangely contrived reasoning ? the n. c. is as persuaded as you are , that the grace of god bringing salvation , hath appeared unto all , teaching us to deny ungodlinesse and wordly lusts , and so to mortifie corrupt nature ; but doth it therefore contradict pure natures light ; or warrant us to destroy our selves ? if any private person should injuriously impose upon and invade another for religions sake , were it not lawful for the person thus injured to defend himself ? or were this contraire to the designe and nature of religion ? you cannot say it . i know the magistrat invested with authority , is no private person : but remember , that you now argue from the supernatural quality of religion , and not from the character of the magistrats power : and therefore as upon this subject i would tell you , that notwithstanding the magistrat , by reason of his place , may deserve a greater ( though no illimited ) forbearance , yet he hath as litle warrant for , and greater sin in persecuting then a privat person ; so in the case in hand , it is evident , that if the mortifying designe of religion reject all natures assistances , in must of necessity do so as well against a privat as a publick person . and verily if this be your understanding of the designe of religion , you are too forward to teach others : but what you lacke in skill , you endeavour to make out by cunning . the n. c. asserts natures warrant only for defence which you perceiving religion not to controll , draw out a faire conclusion , not against defending , but against defending and advancing of religion by natures rules . sir you know so well the difference of these two , defending and advancing ; and that non-conformists are no turks , that i wish my charitie could hide your calumnie . setting aside therefore this your foisted in , advancing , which all non-conformists do disown , let us hear what you adde against defending ? you say the scriptures do ever tell us of suffering without the exception of resistance when in a capacitie , i grant the scriptures do speak of many and great sufferings , according to the holy counsel of god , and frequent lot of his saints ; that all that will live godly , must suffer persecution . they contain also many precepts , and excellent encouragements to patience under suffering : but that they do hold out any direct command to men simply to suffer , abstracting , from patient suffering , or the least insinuation , that , though in a full capacitie , they should not at all resist , which in effect doth little differ , the many passages adduced by me in the contraire , with the advice of flight often given , show to be as remote from truth , as requisite to your inference . as for your appeal to conscience , whether fighting or suffering be the likelier way to advance religion ? i appeal to common sense , if it be pertinent to contest for that , which your adversarie doth not deny . the glorious power of the grace of god , in propagating religion by the weaknes and sufferings of his servants , is the great miracle of the gospel , and the praise of all saints : and yet if at any time , the lord in pitie to his afflicted , did raise them up a saviour , or give them a banner for truth , was this blessing therefore despised , or the means of it condemned● god forbid . the works of the lord are all holy , beautifull and well consistent , and in this the non-conformists do experimentally joy . as to your close of this passage , that a carnall man can fight , wee know that spiritual men have done it also , heb. . . and where you adde , that he cannot suffer , it is no further my concernment , then to bid you be more advertent , seeing you tell us in the very next leafe , of some murtherers that suffered gallantly , and that the seal of a martyrs bloud is not alwayes the seal of god ; and to ponder the native import of cor , . . now , as if you had demonstrate the unlawfulnesse of fighting , you still your n. c. regrate , for the neglect and ruine of the work of god , by the consideration of gods power and providence ; and tell him , that to defend religion by force , is but the wrath of man ; that religion was first propogate by suffering , whereas fighting hath been ever fatal to it . it s answered , as it is but to tempt and mock god and his providence , to neglect the means of preservation allowed by him ? so in the love of his glory to appear for his interests against persecuters and subverters , with the hasard of all our worldly concernments , is not the sinfull and selfish wrath of man , but the very power and zeal of god. that religion hath been much propagated by suffering , is already acknowledged : but that fighting hath been ever fatal to it , is manifestly contradicted , by the establishment of almost all the reformations in europe . but you go on and tell your n. c. that our lord did begin the gospel with suffering , when he could have commanded legions in his defence , and when you have made him to mutter out , that christ knew it was his fathers will , you proceed to tell , with compassion for his ignorance , of christs injunction to his disciples , not to draw for him , and add his words to pilat , not only as an evident assurance of what you assert , but as a manifest conviction of the coldnes of your adversaries . sir , such is the hight & severity of your conceitednesse in this place , that if the aversion i have for all things like it , did not restrain ; i should hardly forbear to give you a humbling retaliation : but all i desire is , that by descending a little from it , you may be in case to receive a sober answere . that our lord , did not only begin , but found the gospel upon his most voluntarie , free and desired , as well as commanded suffering , is a truth so high and precious , and justly accounted inimitable in substance , that i strange you should debase it , by making it a part of your argument , when you know that christ came into the world , that he might freely give himself a ransome ; and that therefore he neither would be diverted , nor use the flight which he had formerly both commanded and practised , do you rationally argue , that because he thus suffered , so ought we to do : or because he refused his disciples endeavours of rescue , that therefore christians in persecution should neither give nor admit of assistance . i grant , that if god so order it , in suffering , we ought to imitate his patience , pet. . . but what maketh this for you ? you insinuate , as if his not commanding angels to his defence , had been a meere effect of his patience ; but as this opinion is not countenanced by the description thereof given by the apostle in the place cited , so , i pray you hear our lord himself , thinkest thou that i cannot ( which i am certain soundeth plainly may not ) pray to my father , & he shall presently give me &c. but ho● then shall the scripture be fulfilled , that thus it must be ? here then is the reason of our lords forbearance , presume not to fancie another . but you say he forbad his disciples to draw the sword in his defence , whith a severe threatning , for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword , take you this to be a threatning against the disciples ? which for their comfort is so plainly spoken against the traiterous band that came against him , upon whom also it was most dreadfully accomplished . thus grotius upon the place , though in the point of defence he be very inconsequent ; if you cannot understand it thus from the context , i desire you onely to read it in a parallel application , rev. . . he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword ; here is the faith and patience of the saints ? are you not then ashamed to make it their threatning and fear ? next you adde , that what our lord said to peter , my kingdome is not of this world , &c. is so plain language , that you wonder it doth not convince all . if i were to oppose confidence to confidence , i should make no other reply , then that this is indeed so plain language , that i wonder what conviction you mean ; but because this is the ground of your proud and vain boasting which you are not affrayed to seal with the veracity of god , let us hear the words at length iohn . . where our lord being questioned by pilat , art thou the king of the jews ver . . returnes the direct answere . ver . . thus , my kingdom is not of this world if my kingdom were of this world , then would my servants fight , that i should not be delivered to the jews : but now is my kingdom not from hence . in which words , as he witnesseth his kingdom , so , to remove the jews accusation , and pilats jealousie , he declareth the quality of it viz. that it is not of this world , that is , a worldly kingdom , to be exercised as other kingdoms of the world are in out ward power and splendour , and therefore can neither interfeere with , nor diminish caesars empire and grandour ; and this he confirmeth by a most plain and convincing argument , if my kingdom were of this world then would my servants fight , that i should not be delivered to the jews : that is , if i designed a worldly kingdom , i would have gathered followers ; or rather ( according to the assistance mentioned by him at his first taking ) called angels my servants , to fight for my rescue● but since i imploy no reliefe , but willingly give my self unto the death , now is it plain that my kingdome is not from hence . thus i have set down both the plain language , and i hope the plain meaning of the place but whence it is that you derive your advantage , i protest i cannot divine . if the lord prove his kingdom not to be a worldly one , because he imployed no aid for his rescue from the jews , doth it therefore follow , that all persecute christians should reject all assistance , and deliver themselves up to suffering after the same example ? are you not yet satisfied that the manner only , and not the act of our lords suffering , is proposed to our imitation . beleeve me sir , i have been often serious to finde out wherefore this text is so much talked of by the men of your persu●sion ; but unless is be that men who would be content that christs kingdome were not in the world , do love to hear a phrase so neer it , that it is not of the world , or that the great devotionaries of ease , without adverting to the reason , and making an emphasis in that which is a clear speciality , would force from the words , contraire to their plain tenour and scope , this general rule , that his servants fight not , no not ( as they would read it ) for his rescue . i could never attain to a better conjecture . it comes in my thought while a writing , that it is possible , that in reading the words forward , you may understand them backward ; as if our lord in saying , if my kingdom were of this world , then would my servants fight , had reasoned thus ; because my kingdom is not of this world , therefore my servants do not fight : but seeing his argument is evident as the meridian sun , my servants do not fight for my rescue , therefore i pretend to no worldly kingdom , the force of the inference is no more clear then it is certain , that the spirituality of his kingdome neither is in this place , nor can be at all used to astrict his followers to his unimitable example , in this his free and voluntaire suffering : but because i am resolved to constrain you to an acknowledgement , that the non-conf . answeres to your scriptures , are neither irrational nor ridiculous as you alledge , i shall enlarge a little more upon this subject : some men of your way say , that seeing christ doth here declare his kingdom not to be of this world for the clearing of pilat and all powers of the jealousies , which such a thing might raise , of necessity the inconsistencie and prohibition of fighting ( the great fear of the princes of the earth , ) must be imported : it 's answered , our lords answere is no doubt framed and suited to the jews accusation , which beyond question ; both in pilats and in their understaning , was his affecting an outward kingdom in prejudice of caesar , and , as of this he doth unanswerably purge himself , and , thereby fully satisfy all the just feares that could be objected , so , to imagine that his purpose was to remove all the false apprehensions , and restlesse inquietudes , which only the wickednesse and violence of tyrannes do suggest● and thereby to gratify tyranny , is , both groundlesse and impious : but to convince you plainly , that the spirituality of christs kingdom doth not restrain fighting for religion● i ask you in a word , what is the reason that the christian world , doth not patiently stretch out its neck to the turkish cruelty ? sure you are not ignorant that the pretended cause of his invasions , hath often been to destroy the christian faith : if then the spirituality of christs kingdom doth altogether prohibite his servants fighting , wherefore do not christian states and princes lay down their carnall defensive weapons , and rest quietly in this , that god who governs the world can maintain his own right , and the wrath of man doth not work his righteousnesse , as you are pleased to cant to your n. c. i know the only reply you can make , is , that the case of free estates and soveraigne princes against foreiners is very different , from that of subjects against their rulers ; but doth not this plainly discover the sophistrie of your method , you tell us , first , that subjects may not fight for religion against their persecuting prince , because the spirituality of christs kingdom forbids all fighting upon that account . and then when you are urged with the incontrovertible practice of christian kingdomes , you just recurre & say , that the instance not being of subjects against their prince , doth not quadrat , and not remembring that this is the very quaes●●um , you make the vain and emptie assertion of the irresistibilitie of princes , without any proofe , both head and tail of all your reasonings : i may not insist to tell you , that if the spirituality of christs kingdom did cause the king of kings , and him , who even on earth owned himself greater then solomon , to suffer without resistance ; the soveraignity of christian princes cannot give them a contrary privilege . i know these of your way , and many others also , carried away with their error , forgetting both the authority which christ exercised , and for which he was questioned by the jewish rulers , and also his own most expresse words , no man taketh my life from me , but i lay it down of my self . i have power to lay it down , and i have power to take it again , stick not to make an obligation of subjection to the then tyrannes & murtherers , an ingredient in his submission : but i am tedious , more consideration of the worth and wonderful love of our lord jesus christ , would teach you no doubt , both a better understanding in the truth of god , and more reverend and tender vindications then these you make of the true and faithfull witness . you proceed in the next place , upon occasion of your . n. c. alledging that you condemne our first reformation , carried on by fighting , to tell us , that the ages immediatly after christ afford the best examples , in these the christians , though suff●●iently numerous , and cruelly irritate , did onl● increase by suffering , and not by fighting : the force used in our reformation was the enemies tares , and no precedent of men is to be opposed to the expresse● word of god. sir , to begin where you leave , i hope i have already fully cleared , that the expresse word of god is against you , and not for you : neither will i expatiat upon the undeniable necessitie , righteousnesse , reason and evident blessing of that force used in our first reformation , by which our religion , libertie , yea the royall line and crown , were under god only preserved● nay your reprochful likening of it to the devils tares , is so far from lessening the evidence of that spirit , which after having resisted unto bloud , and wrestled through many great and strong persecutions , did animate the lords people to a very noble defence , countenanced by all the then reformed churches , that it doth not so much as demurie my charitie , that if you your self had been in these dayes , you had taken part with the congregation : that which i shall stay a little upon , is the practice of the primitive christians , whereby you think fighting for religion , to be as much condemned , as suffering is highly commended . and because this objection doth lead unto the delightful search and vindication of the works of god , for answere , i observe first , that as in the holy and determinate counsel of god , it became the captain of our salvation to be made perfect through suffering , so it pleased him for the greater manifestation of the power of his grace by the foolishnesse of preaching , and weakeness of suffering , to render the propagation of his truth more glorious , and thus in the first times of the gospel , the greater the crueltie , and the more ineluctable that the necessity of the suffering was , the more inexpressible was the glory of that presence and the joy of that consolation , whereby the church in its deepest distresse did most highly triumph . . so unspeakeablie did the power of this assistance prevail , to the dispelling of the fear , and removing of the horrour , of all these torments and afflictions , that many instead of flying , incontrovertibly lawfull , did directly run to suffering ; and to a great part , the garland of martyrdom became a most ambitionat crown ; by the mistake of the exuberance of which assisting grace , not only many odd practices in precipitating themselves unto suffering and death , but opinions also then held , such as that of the unlawfulnesse of all resistance for christians , even against robbers and murtherers , can only be excused . . but if the beautie and splendor of this grace did in some measure dazle the eyes of its more immediate witnesses , how much more did it astonish its more remote and after admirers , who receiving the report with fames increase , and taking their measures , more from their own good design , then the exact simplicitie of truth , by their pious and affectionat rhetorications , stopt not to strain matter of fact , sometimes beyond probabilitie . if you be a stranger to this truth , advert how the almost immediate after age magnifies their patience and sufferings , such as veflra omnia reple●i●us , with more then one grain of allowance . . as this was the dispensation of the first ages of the gospel , so , when the lord advanced the church to a certain and visible capacity of defence , peruse histories , and you will find plenty of instances of christians their fighting for religion . the armenii very early even before constantine his empire , libertatem exercendi christianismi armis vindicant , clade afficiunt maximinum as the history beares , and how the persecuted christians , under the persian and arrian , did implore and receive the aid of the roman and orthodox emperours , would be superfluous to narrate . by these few reflections as i have cut of from your argument all the necessary suffering and strained capacities of the primitive christians , so i have given you such a full and evident account of their not searching after , or improving sooner , any real measure of sufficiencie for defence , which probably they did but little minde , that this their omission cannot without manifest calumnie , be adduced to disprove , either their immediate after● practises , or the agreeable and universally approven examples of our late reformations . now if for proving their more early capacite for , or expresse dissent from defensive armes , you do further urge particular authorities , when you have answered all my just scruples against the former , and satisfied me in all their other opinions in the matter of armes , then you shall have my answere : but in the mean time pardon me , if while i do indeed admire and praise the grace and glory of these primitive sufferings , i be neither too credulous of the mistakes of men , nor do condemn the diversitie of the operations of the same god , which worketh all in all , specially seeing that by the same sufferings whereby you go about to impugne , he hath so signally confirmed these practises , which i do maintain . but to this last you answere , that you are far from thinking the better of a cause because some die handsomlie for it : neither atheis● , heresies nor murthers want their pretended martyres . sir , i neither approve your too much magnifying . pag. . nor your too much undervaluing , pag. . of mens sufferings : and therefore as at best i account them only a confirming and accessory , and not a principal and leading argument ; so i must tell you that i conceive the force of its inference to flow from a certain lustre and insinuation of grace , which your jejune epithets of handsomnesse and gallantrie do but meanly expresse ; whether or not this appeared in our late sufferers , i wonder nothing that you deny it : but sure i am that all the sincere lovers of the truth , have to their joy both acknowledged it , & been established by it . after this by a transition of your own framing , making your n. c. faintly and childishly disown and wave bygones , whereof , to deal plainly , i do as little fear the odium , as i account your a●ologies , taxing them of rebellion , to be most odious , you come to enquire wherefore wee keep not the day of thanksgiving for the kings restauration ? and seing you are not pleased with your n. c. answere i will give you mine . aud first , it is not because you make it a holy day ; i know this is as much above your power , as your act is presumptuous in ordaining it to be observed , and your practices are far from keeping it as a holy day ; nor do i now debate the magistrates power in appointing pro re nata dayes of solemne thanksgiving , wherein it is more then certain , that the apparent abuse that hath been in institutions of this kinde , and the end and designe of the appointment , do give the church a very necessary interest of advice . nor lastly will i detain you in the application of the difference of designing a day as a circumstance for thanksgiving to be performed on it , and dedicating a day to be kept as holy in commemoration ; a popish error , expressely by us abjured and by you revived ; he who desires a full clearing in this matter , with a satisfying answere to all objections , may find it in the english popish ceremonies ; but the great reason wherefore n. c. neither doe nor ought to keep that day , is because you have assigned for the cause of it , not only the mercie of the kings returne , but also the wicked overturning of the work of god ; and that with such a libeling preface of blasphemies against god and his cause , and vile reproches upon the whole nation , that no true hearted man can read the act , without abhorrencie . now before you reject this my answere , i only desire you to peruse and consider the act , and i am almost certain that although perhaps , you will not come the length of the character i have made of it , yet you will think it strange that men accessorie to many of these righteous things , against which it so foully railes , should have been on the one hand indulgently indemnifyed without any acknowledgement● and on the other obliged , under the pain of losing their s●ipends , to a thanksgiving , expressing the highest recantation . are these wayes equal ? think not that my indignation against this act , is all and only from my disaffection to your establishment , that is indeed one cause , sufficient to produce a just detest ; but ingenuously i have so much of true loyaltie to my prince and affection to my countrey , that the disservice done to the king , in rendering the celebration of that day ( which in its righteous and proper use might have been an acceptable & kindly warming of his subjects affection ) a very odious provocation to aversion and alienation , is to me not a more just then powerfull incentive : but such were the healings of these violent physitians , and such have been and will be the effects . again , making a stepping stone of both your n. c. and his cause , after you have made him confess disloyaltie , because you are not able to prove it , you hold out his way to be evil , because of its crueltie and rigor in forcing men to take the covenant , and punishing such as refused . and your n. c. granting this to be a fault also , you charge it home very odiously against our leaders . as men unacquainted with the meek spirit , and obstinat in those severities . it s answered , whether these things be objected or not in a meek spirit is more your concernment then mine , who regard not your bitternesse in any dresse ? that which you call cruelty , if counter-ballanced with the guilt of the recusancie , will quickly be alleviat to moderation : if the covenants ( for i shall touch both ) pressed , had been new oaths arbitrarely imposed ; there were some ground for your challenge : but as to the first , was it not the same , wherein the nation stood engaged from the first beginning almost of the reformation ; and if after a great and visible defection it was , upon our returning , renewed , and with a more expresse application against these corruptions , whereunto we had backslidden , required to be taken by all , who could not decline without a manifest declaration of both their unsoundnesse and insinceritie in the oath of god ? call you this rigor ? and as to the second , the league , if the communion of saints , and that sympathie wee ought to have with all christs sufferings members , did persuade it as a dutie , and if your then ejected prelats , did by their restlesse instigations , and the breaches of faith , and hostile invasion from england thereby procured , render it convincingly a most necessary meane , for the preserving and prosequuting the ends of the first , was it not both rational and righteous that they , who stood thus obliged , by vertue of the first covenant , to take the second , upon their recusance , should be proceeded against as deserters : and the truth is , as they were not many that were troubled simply , for not taking the covenants ; so there were but few , if any , who refused the second , who either before were not , or thereafter became not , directly opposite to the first ; nor did these few refusers subsist in a quiet dissatisfaction ; but for the most part turned violent and bloudy enemies , or at least partakers with such adversaries , notwithstanding of all which perjury and wickedness , the procedour against these recusants , or rather apostates , was so litle adequate , either to their guilt or number , that upon a considerate and impartiall review , i am assured , all the excess that can be qualified will not suffice to purge your objection of cruelty against the publick courses of these times , of plain calumnie : i say the publick courses ; for as to the particular practises of private persons , although the corruption inherent to the best , and the many and rapid temptations of times of division and wars , do offer me large matter of apologie ; yet i doe rather wish that the outbreakings which wee have seen , and felt , of the lords holy jealousie , may make both the lovers of his work to remember their provocations , and tremble before this holy lord god , who will be sanctifyed in them that come nigh him : and also the haters of his name to consider how much more upon such he will be glorifyed : but you , not content to pervert the righteous wayes of god , go about mainly to represent his ministers as bloudy men , rejoycing and obstinate in bloud ; certainly such a grievous and horrid accusation ought to have been evidently instructed ; but since it is impossible to imagine the least shadow of ground for it , unlesse that sometimes his servants , either in the more eminent and signall appearances of gods vengeance upon his bloudy and perfidious adversaries , have joined their praises with heavens alleluiahs , for the manifestation of his true and righteous judgements , or that when the lord called to punish , they have regreted an unseasonable and partial excesse of lenitie : are not these arrows , firebrands and death , which you throw in your pretended meekness , like to the symptomes of madnesse ? and now sir , since you will have it so , give me leave to manage the retortion for your n. c. you accuse our times of cruelty , for forcing men to take the covenant ; though in effect it was only to make them stand to an oath , whereby all were antecedently obliged ; but have not you and many of you , such as formerly were very forward to presse it upon others , now , without either reason given , or repentance so much as pretended , been most violent to have all men to renounce it ? i will not mention the exclusion of all non-renouncers from publick trust , and the first arbitrary fining , and remitting or abating , upon condition of the declaration , temptations not only unjust , but no less powerful , and a hundred fold more extensive , then all the certifications execute upon simple noncovenanters : the very instances by you given shall also serve my turne : are not to concurre in the present church-government , and to promise submission to episcopacie , certain reductive disclamations ? and yet you cannot deny , that for the refusing of these things many hundred , of ministers have been thrust out , and in such manner vexed and tossed with imprisonments , banishments , consinements , and proclamations upon proclamations , that if the lord had not provided , your mercie in sparing their lives , had been only the complement of your cruelty : it s true that ministers are not made to sweare to maintain the present establishment ; but if they be required to break a former lawful and approven oath , where is the disparity ? as for the people , you tell us they are desired to do nothing , but live peaceably , and join in worship : and verily though this were all , and though your publick peace were not so perverted , as it cannot be subscribed unto , and your worship so polluted , and profaned , as may give too just occasion of scruple , it were easie to demonstrate , that such hath been the rigor , and violence of your methods , that it is a wonder that a hundred to one have not been thereby irritate to more unpeaceablenesse , and greater desertion : but because you have brought against us and our leaders , the odious accusation of bloud , although i have already removed it ; yet in pursuance of the parallel i must further tell you , that the bloud of the former times , abstracting from its justice , was in a manner the bloud of war i● war : but in your times wee have seen ; over and above its injustice , the bloud of war shed in peace , and that of such persons , for such causes , and with such circumstances , as time doth only increase and not diminish its astonishment : next , the tragedie of these poor harmlesse persons , who by your insufferable insolencies and exactions were provoked to take armes , is yet recent . i shal not resume particulars but i am confident , their cause , their number , their condition and their rout being considered , the tortures and bloudy executions that ensued , not upon the chief actors and instruments , but upon the inferior yea meanest of these innocents led out to the slaughter , without choise , are hardly to be matched : what hand your lords of the clergie had in these things ; how suift their feet were to shed bloud , and how burnet the a. p. of glasgow , taught the executioner to truss him up with a pulley , who for weaknesse could not be otherwise execute , and the armie officers commanded drums to be beaten to drown the testimony of the lords dying witnessess , is well known . nay it is more then probable that if the king had not put a stop to that but cherie , and these oppressions and barbarities wherewith the west was afterward aflicted , your prelats had not given over , until that partie had been utterly cut off , and that whole countrey laid desolate for their cause : i might further tell you of your other severities , and how by your rigid exceptions and other ensnaring acts , not only the intended favour of the kings indemnity was corrupted ; but also its very designe and effect frustrat : but what need of many words , let the fervent aud conspiring desires of the , and the more ex●lting joyes of the . with the many disappointments , grievances and exactions that ensued , together with the present universal coolness , dissatisfaction and distraction , and unsetled condition of the kingdom be considered , and impartially searched into their proper cause , and if prelacie be not found the only marrer of our joy and quiet , ferment of our distemper and moth of our loyalty , then rejoice yee in the bishops , and let them also rejoyce in you : but if thus it be , then &c. thus you have forced me to retaliat your provocation , and i am more then wearied of the subject . in the next place you taxe the n. c. of great hight and insolencie , in assuming the big names of the godly partie , and the people of god , and calling their way the cause and kingdom of christ. sir if they did indeed contend for the ministery and ordinances of christ ; and that for the vindication of his power and government over his church , and the prospering of his pleasure , i think truely they had good right to all these names : but that they did vainly and arrogantly use them , it is more then you have proven , or i doe remember : and really j am in the opinion that upon search , it will be found , that the titles of the people of god , and of the godlie partie , were at first not so much assumed by the asserters of our cause , as appropriat unto them by the reproach and mocking of their adversaries : as for after contests ( if any were ) among their own subdivisions , they were no doubt the sad consequents of other evils , wherewith it pleased the lord that his own should be tried ; but if you think that for all the competition the titles , are still vacant , i wish from my heart that both you and your partie may be thereby animat to put in , and to shame and exclude all lowd pretenders , by reall demerite . to this you subjoin another great article , that our ministers who complained , of bishops , their medling in matters of state , when the scene turned , did therein absolutely govern : and to this challenge you make your n. c. returne the popes answere for his usurpations : viz : that all was done in order to religion , on purpose that you may make the reply , that the pope and presbiterians doe much agree in politiques . sir , waving the immodest terme of impudence and other arrant peccancies against truth , where with you set forth your modest representing of faults , as yow are pleased to call it . i returne shortly for answere this clear and certain position , wherein i am sure we cannot disagree viz. that as the direction of conscience appertains to the pastoral charge , so the ministers of gods word ought both to advise , exhort and warne thereanent , according as in every occurrent , the circumstances of the thing which make its season , do thereto cleare their call and accesse : this truth is evident in its own light : whoever owneth conscience , the word of god to be its rule , and its ministers to be our teachers and guides , cannot deny it . all the diffic●ltie is in the right performance ; the exceeding goodnesse and rare beautie of a word in season , is no ordinary attainment ; because to every purpose there is time and judgement ; therefore the miserie of man is great upon him . if i should ascribe the exactnesse of this observance to our ministers , i should forget them to be men : but as to the instances , which you alleage of their warnings given against the engagement and all deeds directly relating to it , and of their ministeriall accession to a prudent exclusion , in the year of such as had proven unfaithfull : their singular importance as to the very summe of the work of god , hath been so signally comprobat by after events , that if upon the matter , you doe condemne these practises , you in effect doe adjudge ministers to absolute silence , at least in opposition to state determinations , whatever be the concernment of the cause of god , or good conscience : it were superfluous to mention the difference of prelatick medlings , or what are the popes invasions : the meanest capacitie may easily distinguish a ministeriall advice in point of conscience , all , either attribute to , or assumed by ministers in state , or any other extrinsick affaire , from these corrupt practises : and with the same facility join prelacie and papacie in their common pride and usurpation . you add a particular reason wherefore ministers should not medle with war and matters of bloud , because of its contrarietie to the pastoral dutie , which obligeth to feed and not to kill . but as none hath been more guiltie of this sanguinary medling then , these who with most ceremony would appear to observe the letter of the rule ; so , considering what i have lately touched of your clergie , and who did principally direct the suppression and executions of the late risers in armes , i am in the opinion you designed this reflection more for your own lords , then our leaders : but it is enough i agree with you fully , that pastors ought not to be criminall judges , farre less instigators to war and bloud ; yet if in these matters you allow to conscience any place , they are no doubt subjects proper both for ministerial warning and advice . for a conclusion of your charge , ye surprise both your n. c. and me with a challenge of superstition , whereof you say wee are in many things guilty : sed quis tulerit gracchos de seditione querentes . sir yee are not so wittie in this anticipation as yee trow ; for tho ye have taken the first word of fliting ; yet the successe is rather a foaming out your own shame , then the fixing of that reproach upon us , which was the mark ye yought to hit . what ? sir , did ye dream by this device to terrifie your n. c. into a forbearance to charge you with the guilt of superstition ? or did you think by this artifice to vindicat your partie , and be avenged at once on these great worthies , who have so manifestly laid open unto the world the superstition of the men of your kidney and gang ; that though they have travelled to rome to fetch water to wash these spots , and have put their invention upon the rack to palliat them with all imaginable pretenses ; yet the shame of their nakednesse was so unfolded by these searching seers , that it could never be hid . but sir , are ye in good earnest ? or have ye been in the foregoing lines so transported with rage in fighting against defensive armes , and wresting the sword of just defence out of the hands of poor innocent and oppressed subjects , that in this paroxysme ye have forgotten to be honest and rational at once ? did you beleeve that you spoke truth when you represented us as such ? if i thought ye did , and continued to doe so still , i professe i am so litle your enemie that i would pitie you , as one who walketh in the darknesse of gross delusion , and knoweth not whether he goeth , because the darkeness hath blinded his eyes . but i would gladly know how ye make out the charge : ye did wisely only in one thing , to condescend upon none of these many things , wherein you say we are guilty of superstition , when ye make your charge good ye will be admired for your invention ; till then , it will neither be shame nor reproach to the n. c. to be silent , or laugh at the audacitie of such a novice . but to be serious with you , sir , if ye would not take it amisse to be catechized in the chair , doe ye understand what superstition is , that ye call us so ? are we such to you in many things , because in every thing we owne the scriptures as the rule of faith and manners , and assert that there is a sufficiency in these to make wise to salvation , and that , without the wild mixture of humane inventions , they are able to make the man of god perfect , thorougly furnished unto every good work ? is it because we own no office-bearers in the house of god , save such as are of his own appointment ? is it because we judge the episcopal hierarchie apocryphal , and cannot acknowledge the prelat and his juncto for the courts and officers of jesus christ ? is it because we maintain that all things in the house of the god of heaven ought to be done according to the will of the god of heaven , and because we stand fast in the libertie where with christ hath made us free , and will not suffer our selves to be imposed upon or intangled with a yoke of bondage ? is it because we maintain that no power upon earth can make things necessary which god hath made indifferent , more then they can make things , indifferent , which he hath made necessary ? is it because we know or will acknowledge no law-giver or lord in the house of god , beside our lord jesus christ , and are bold to put all pretenders to produce our masters warrant when they call for our obedience to their commands , as not darring to make the will of a poor frail fallible creature the law of our conscience ? in a word is it because we dare not with you homologat all the impieties of that partie , who have burst these holy bonds for reformation and righteousnesse , wherewith together with us they had so solemnly bound their souls , and are now returned to their former vomit ? is our esteem of , and adherence to , the wayes of righteousnesse , an overrating of things more then we ought ? and are we only guilty of superstition because we cannot be metamorphosed into a detestable newtrality and gallio like indifferencie in the matters of god ? truely sir providing our zeal for these things were such as our own heart did not reproach us for a sinful short coming and defect in , ( as alas it is not ) we could bind al your reproaches , for what ye count excess and over-rating , unto us as a crown , and indulge you a libertie to lay to our charge things that we know not , and cast iniquitie upon us , without taking further notice of what ye have said , then thereby to be stirred up to pour out our complaint before god , and pray him that he would not hold his peace , since the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitfull is opened against us , and have spoke against us with a lying tongue . but i know ye follow your old leaders d. mortown , d. burgess &c. who had the same unhappiness to go before you in accusing the brethren , who could not be cudgelled into a complyance with , nor cast in the mould of your ceremonies , that you have in following of such , who in this did not follow the lord fully , and had not the lamp of the word to shine in their way : they did plead innocent , asserting they were not guiltie of superstition in using and imposing ceremonies , but the n. c. were in refuseing . but sir , ye should either have had the head to have made the insuficiencie of these great mens vindication manifest , or not have had the fore-head to renew the same challenge , without taking notice of their replyes which stand unanswerable to this day : your over-rating 〈◊〉 the doctors reason , such as it is , couched in it : they alledged the n. c. guiltie of superstition , why ? because , forsooth , the n. c. ( say they ) place a special peice of religion in not using of these ceremonies , and teach others to abstain from using them for conscience sake , and this is the vermiculation of your pu●se too , but what would these gentlemen have said , or what will the altitude of your invention suggest to the apostles words , why are ye subject to ordinances , touch not , taste not , handle not , &c. i. e. keep you● selves free from these things which are after the commandments and doctrines of men , be ye not subju●●● as the servants of men to the observation of such things , which are obtruded upon you as a peice of religion , being meer human inventions without any warrant from the word of god ? was there nothing of religion in abstaining from these ? sir ye and your fellows have the unhappiness to be of a different minde from th● apostle who had the minde of christ. are me●s consciences nothing concerned to stand fast in the liberty where with christ hath made them free , and to withstand , while a dominion over their faith is usurped , and the thing intended is to wreath a yoke of bondage to the doctrines of men about the neck of the conscience ? . if this be good arguing , may not the prophane multitude have the same plea against all who abstain from fleshly lusts that war against the soul ? may not these i say be prompted by your ●ogick to flout at all who run not with them to the same excess of riot , as superstitious fools , because they place any thing of religion in these negatives , and suppose that conscience is concerned in that abstinence ? hence . we say that we look upon our abstaining from a complyance with the commands and doctrines of men , from foolish and vaine ceremonies , from whatsoever is obtruded upon us in the matters of god without his warrant , as acts of common obedience , and as service to our lord and master ; but we no more fansie this abstinence to be an act of immediat and formal worship ( as you would make the world beleeve we do , to the end that beleeving us they may beleeve ye speak truth and reason ) then we do a keeping of our selves unspotted from these pollutions and corruptions , which come not within the compass of worship ; so that we may be aswel said to over-rate things superstitiously , because we do not drink , who●e , lye , steall , break covenants , persecute the people of god , who desire to hold fast their integrity , while broken in the place of dragons and covered with the shadow of death ; as , because we cannot we dare not comply with abjured and wicked prelacie , lording it over gods inheritance , and recuiring obedience to their vain inventions . i must tell you moreover that i do not admire your definition of superstition , ye had it , i grant , from your friend doctor hamond , and to make it your own , you have supplyed the doctors nimiety with your over-rating : but if you think it not an honour to erre , and be put to a disadvantage with the doctor , you should have guarded your self and your partie from the rebound of your own blow . sir , what your over-ratings of foolish traditions and vain ceremonies are , hath been at a very dear rate experienced , by the bleeding and weeping people of god , in whose bloud , exile , bonds , spoilings , persecutions and afliction , you have made your minde and exorbitant esteem of these things legible : your most bigot and fond conformist must grant , that the things ye plead for , patronize and press , are not necessary in themselves , and have no connexion with the salvation of the soul , by way of midse , or by virtue of divine precept ; and that all the degrees of necessity they can pretend to , is only from the will of the imposer . now sir , may a man ask you without putting you in●o a chaffe , what an over-rating of these things is it , for you to debarre , eject , vex and smite faithfull shepherds , scatter the flocks , turne such labourers out of the vine-yard who have a seal of their being the sent embassadours of jesus christ upon the souls of many , and a testimony of faithful servants in the consciences of some of their grand opposites , as hath been found when their conscience began to speak , and they saw themselves ready to be sisted before the righteous tribunal of god , and that for no other cause , but because they durst not do as you would have them , in adoreing your dagon ; and upon the other hand , to compleat your wickedness , thrusting in men upon these flocks , who were bereft of such as did stand and feed in the strength of the lord , without any thing else to commend or qualifie them , save that ye knew them to be of such mettal and complexion , as they would not decline nor dispute your impositions , which is certain as to matter of fact , that i might here appeal to your own conscience & to the conscience of the chiefe men who are chiefe in the transgression , persecuting them who adhere to their covenant , keep the commands of god , and have the testimony of jesus christ , because they will not ackowledge and submit to such obtruded intruders as the sent & called ministers of jesus christ , if they would committ the keeping of their dogs , the careing for their swine , or the feeding of their horses to persons who had so little skill to do , and faithfulness to performe it , as most of these have , to whom , the flock of god purchased with his own blood is committed . sir , this is an over-rating with a witness , and such as , if ye will rate right and reflect upon it , may , and certainly will , f●ll your soul , with horrour : if the wrath of god be come upon them to the uttermost , who forbid his sent servants to speak unto his people these words , by which they must be saved , it only argues a judicial blindness of minde & benumnedness of conscience , in the chiefe of your partie and promoters of that interest , that their lyableness to the wrath of god almighty , for the desolations made in his sanctuary by them , doth not make them roar by reason of the disquietness of their heart , and cry out as persons against whom the terrors of god have sett themselves in array . i might tell you of an over-rating also , of which ye ( as we have in part heard already ) and your companions glory , wherein the very fundation of our salvation is struck at , viz such an over-rating of works and our pitiful performances , as advances them to the altitude of being the condition of the justification of a sinner before god , and is utterly inconsistent with the teno● of the covenant of grace ; the unhappie author , whom we last named , hath led you and your companions into this ditch also , and ye glory in this shame ; but i shall forbear the discovery of your dangerous folly and false-hood , about this great foundation of salvation by you put out of course , till i come to examine your sixt dialogue . it was only fit here to give the reader an hint , and let him see what over-raters ye are . but sir , why are ye so shye as to shun the true known , and common definition of superstition given by godly and learned men : ye know that that excellent definition , given by zanchy , and followed by other great men , makes superstition to consist in the addition of ceremonies in the worship of god not instituted by christ , as well as in the addition of more substantial matters ; but , easiely foreseing that this would not serve your evil designe of loading the servants of christ with reproach and calumnie , and that the bulk of your burdensome ceremonies must be rejected as reprobate mettal , if nothing pass for current as a part of worship in the church , but what hath the seal and impress of god upon it , ye substitute in its place one wherewith ye are at present better pleased , but with what advantage to your cause i leave it to be judged . but sir , since you do not ingage further upon the head of superstition , then first to cast it into such a mould as may sute your designe , and having done so , then to cast the iniquitie of it upon us , i shall at present satisfy my self with what is said , and for your further satisfaction i will give you all the assurrances you can require , both in my own name , and in the name of all the n , c. that when ever you are able to instruct your challenge , we will thank you for your charitie ; and if your evidence as to proof answere your confidence in the charge , yee shall find us so far from a pertinacious obstinacie , that we will abandon with a blush , whatsoever of superstition we might through ignorance have indulged in our way , and in the mean time rest confident that , as , in demonstration of my reality in what i undertake , i shall endeavour henceforth to affect my own heart more and more into a deep abhorrence at , and detestation of , all your abjured usurpations , antiscriptural methods , and episcopal impositions , in the matters of god , and , so far as i am able , shall interpose with all the people of god to do the same ; yet sir , there is one thing more before we part ; i must tell you that when i consider your straine thorow the whole , by the superstitious over-rateing of things , imputed unto us in your first , and our being charged with our overprizing of ordinances in the next , with the neglect ( as you say ) of your moralitie , and your stretch of charity for papists , with your insinuat censures of all who have stood up in the defence of the absoluteness and immutabilitie of the decrees of god , the efficacie of his grace &c. against arminians , which is to your moderation and latitude but a digladiation about niceties and curiosities ; i say sir , when i consider these things , and grant you the common privilege acclaimed by every man , to be optimus interpres suorum verborum , the best expounder of his own words , i must take this to be your meaning , that we are superstitious over-raters of things in standing at so great a distance from papists , and in contending with arminians , about these things in controversie betuixt them and u● : and because we are not cast into that new convenient mould of yours , whereby you can coutch under and comply with any mutation in the matters of god , and in your profound heights , deep silences , abstractions and novell latitude , ●ush at all these things as not to be contended for , and despise all the men who are not cast in the new mould of your perfection , as pitifull puntes of the lowest sise ; this we see is manifestly your meaning , and truely sir , i only regrate we are so litle worthy of your indignation , and that the truths of god are not more deare to us , and that the zeal of his house doth not more eat us up . and while you contemne these things as not to be contended for , to make the world beleeve your holy fire is not extinguished , though nothing of its flame appear , about the conservation of these , ( to us precious things though to you despicable , ) ye would make all these stirrings for them , and striveings about them , to be the sparkles of a superstitious wild fire , and not a flame of god. i cannot remember how plinie , in his epistle to trajan , does paint the tender and conscientious practice of the primitive christians with the same vermilion of superstition ; but i am apt to think , it is still the same spirit of opposition to the puritie of ordinances , power and practice of godliness , which prompts men to these unjust representations of such , as dare not run the same course with them , or who are constrained by the love of christ to hold fast that , which is below their luke-warme temper to contend for . but i need not be further solicitious in this vindication ; being , confident that you are not able to proselyte into a beliefe of this reproach any sober or rational men , nor will i envie you the advantage you are like to reap as a just retribution from every unprejudiced reader ; and that is , not to be beleeved afterward when ye speak the truth , having with so much calumnious confidence solicited them into the beliefe of what they know to be a falsehood . but sir , to shut up this dialogue with you , though raro vidi clericum penitentem i have seldome seen a clergy man a repenter hath been mostly verified in the men , who have perverted the right ways of the lord ; yet the calumnie is so gross and groundless , that i would willingly ●latter my self into a hope , that when ye think on what ye have said , ye will smite upon your thigh , and be brought to an acknowledgement of the sin of unjust accuseing the brethren : and i assure you sir , our joy would be almost equal with your advantage , to see you weep over the falshoods , and calumnies , and evil designe , of this first borne of your strength . the second dialogue answered . you begin with a question , what great goodnesse it was which so commended our partie ? and having made your n. c. make a pitifull simple vaunt , that you may out-vaunt him , you proceed to accuse and censure , as you list . sir if we dared to make our selves of the number , or compare our selves with them that commend themselves , we want not matter wherein we might indulge a little to the foolishnesse of boasting ; but seeing that he whom the lord commendeth , and not he who commendeth himself is approved , we will not boast of things appertaining to our selves ; but endeavour that all our glorying may be in the lord. i have already told you , how god blessed us with his ministery , and that ministery with power and presence : it was he who gave the word , and great was the company of these that published it ; it was he who clothed his priests with salvation , and made his people to shout for joy : it was he who in the more special times and shinings of his love , made the graces of his people to flow , and souls were ravished with these discoveries : and if not only in the publick assemblies gods fear was great , but families also did seek him apart ; if the vulgar whom you undervaluingly so name , did greatly delight in the law of the lord , and the sabbath was called a delight , the holy of the lord honourable , we cannot but account these great matters , and the very paths and methods which do most assuredly lead to the great hights of christianity ; yea surely these gospel ordinances do lead unto the living god , and to jesus the mediatour of the new covenant , and unto communion with him , and the participation of all graces . i know there is a shorter way , which too many take , who forming unto themselves faire ideas , and words of self-denyal , resignation , abstraction of minde , and the like , do entirely and pleasantly rest in the phansie , and talk of these things , and as much of a specious outward converse as may in some sort salve their reputation , from these many forfeitures , which by the sinfull accommodations of their love of ease , they manifestly incurre : and these men commonly in their self-elevation , do not only slight the true ordinances , and from the infirmities of ●raile men intrusted therewith , do take advantage to mock ; but license themselves unto an absolute compliance with every mode and dress , in church-government and worship , which humane policie , or sathans malice please to invent , nothing regarding how much thereby they may make themselves partakers of the perjury , bloud and violence , which promove , and the profanity , that followeth the courses that they approve ; but as they prudently provide for their own advantage and credite , by the abused pretext of an illimited respect to authoritie , so they easily quiet all the reluctancies of their inward light , with any verball , slender , and inoffensive dissent . this is the new convenient contrivance of religion , which indeed desires to be admired , for its pretended mortifications , high attainments , and peaceful enjoyments ; but in effect , doth only recommend it self , by a luke-warme and quiet indifferencie in the matters of god , a flattering and safe deference to authority , and a sinfull and sweet veneration of outward peace , whether your discourse and practice do ●avour or not of this way , i do not judge : i hope the serious seekers of god will still see and ask for the old paths , and do know that it is the good way , wherein neither by a pharisaick show of external devotion , not yet by vain and notionall pretendings , but by humble and sincere waiting upon god , in the means of his own appointment , they have really attained to these graces in the names whereof you boast , and so do finde rest to their souls : and certainly if to such the present sad alteration ( which , for the former light , power and frequencie , observed in the assemblies of the lords people , hath covered his house with darkeness , death and desolation ) doth minister suitable reflections , it can be no matter of wonder : when david remembred these things , and did consider the like changes , he poured out his soul in him , because he had gone with the multitude , and went with them to the house of god , with the voice of joy and praise : for this ieremiahs heart di●d faint , for these things were his eyes dimme because of the mountain of zion which was desolate , the foxes walking upon it : o what want had they of you for a comforter , who could have carried them farre above these external shaddows , and taught them resignations and abstractions , in such a hight , that neither the corruption , nor the removing of gods ordinances , should have overclouded their easefull serenety ? but you insinuat , that n. c. do overprize ordinances , and undervalue moralitie . i have already told you , that this is but a calumny , and that an holy and pure conversation , is the greatest and best part of religion , is not by us in the lest questioned ; without the endeavour of holinesse ; the other parts may possibly in hypocrisie be pretended , but cannot indeed have any reality , only remember that christ jesus who is our all , is also our sanctification , and let your morality be indeed christianity . in the next place , you fall upon particulars and alleage , that our discipline was wholly different from the rules of the gospell , and far short of that of the ancient bishops ; this you instance in our kirk sessions , which you say were like birlaw courts . i will not examine your expressions , but your reasons . you tell us first that the church should only medle with sins as they are scandals , and not as they are injuries ; whereas our sessions cognosced upon wrongs which belonged to the magistrat . but pray sir , may not the same offence be both as a wrong cognoscible by the magistrat , for the reparation of the plaintiffe , and punishment of the delinquent , and as a scandal appertain to church censure , for the reproofe and amendment of the offender , reconciling of the offended , and instruction of all ? certainly it cannot be denied : now seeing our sessions did only medle with sinnes , under the second formality , what doth your challenge amount to ? this matter is to me so plain , that i incline to think , that the too narrow acceptation of scandal , for the offence of one brother against another , without any external injury , must be the only ground of your scruple ; but as all injurie is attended with a very sensible scandal , and every open sin hath also a general harding scandal in it , for which it is to be rebuked before all , that others also may fear , so it s necessarily previous traill , cannot in reason be separated from its commanded rebuke . but your next objection carping at the dilations made to these courts , because not preceeded by private admonition made by the partie offended , shews more plainly your mistake , in as much as the gospel order of admonition can only have place in private offences , in the which case it was also by us observed . but to require the like method in publick offences , is manifestly to exempt from their censure all open sins , which being equally offensive unto all , render this procedure wholly improper . . you object that our church sessions did exact fines : but if you consider , that these fines which you mention are particularly imposed and determined by statute , and thereby appointed to be applyed to pious uses : and therefore the demanding and uplifting thereof only , aswell for the more summare and effectual restraint of sin , as for the end whereto they are d●stined , in use to be exercised by kirk sessions , or rather by their officers and bedels in deficiency of the magistrate , who should have been appointed in every paroche for that effect , this your scruple must quickly cease : but if you still think that notwithstanding both the manner and conveniencie of this practise , the ●amine is unsuitable to a church iudicatorie , do ye not strain at a g●at , and swallow a camel : nay a monstruous one viz your spiritual lords in the highest temporall courts where both civil and capital punishments are irrogated and inflicted . . you say that we forced people to stoup to our discipline by threatning them with the temporall sword . sir , this is a great untruth , we never owned nor exercised high commissions , and if obstinat transgressours were then , and still be , punishable by the laws of the land , wherefore seek you to make this our burthen ? . you say that the the time of our pennance was short ; the ancient bishops did separat offenders as many years , as we did weeks . just now you accused us of rigour , and here you complean of our lenity , and not remembring that the ancient bishops , did not more exceed us in strictness of discipline , then we do exceed the modern , you are not ashamed to make your own sloth the charge of our mediocrity . however , the lawfull , though various , regulations of prudence ( whereof according to the diversity of times and circumstances , things undetermined by scripture are acknowledged to be capable ) may sufficiently reconcile any apparent discrepancie in our practise , from that of the ancients , . you say , we used discipline to put a temporal shame upon offenders . again we are too rigid : but wherefore may not discipline be used to shame offenders , as well as the disobedient are commanded to be noted and separated from , that they may be ashamed ? . thes. . . and the incestuous person is ordained to be delivered to sathan for the destruction of the flesh , cor. . . as for your phansie , that penitents are more gazed at , as you phrase it , upon the high place you mention , then at the church doore , we are not of your opinion , and the church doore was ever thought a place of more obvious observance , and severe pennance , you say we wretchedly abused discipline by subjecting people to censure for trifling matters ; and that ministers were more zealous against opposition to their courses , then against opposition to the everlasting gospel . but sir as these trifling matters , which i suspect you hint at , were no lesse then the whole import of the present differences ; so , whether the opposition you make so light of , hath not in the event proven a most pernicious opposition to the everlasting gospel let any serious soul judge ? this vindication , whereunto ye have engaged me for our kirk sessions , obliges me to add in their behalf , that although these courts be very low , and plain in themselves ; yet hath their excellent use , for the suppressing of all ungodlinesse , been alwayes very observable . i need not go back to former times , nor adduce , as i may , even , k. iames his expresse testimonie ; to represent the notable and effectual influence of their right exercise ; the present increase of prophanity , through the ceasing of this remedy , and the most ordinary jeer of dissolute persons , taxing one another for their exorbitancies , with this sco●●ing regrate , oh for a strick kirk ! are too obvious confirmations : and truely , as , i have o●ten marveiled to see a thing so mean in appearance , so much the eye sore and scorne of proud licentious persons ; so i doubt not but this consideration alone ; by pointing out the reason , may abundantly satisfy all serious scruplers . from your dissatisfaction with our kirk sessions you go to taxe our ministers their libertie and manner of reproving sin . and as to the first , you do so invidiously exaggerat their dealing in order to the late king , and him who now reigneth , that i cannot dissemble my surprizal , at your so excessive and abusive railing on the ministers of christ , and some whereof you your self say , within two leaves , are very good men , fearing god , but all are here reproached without distinction , as unnatural hams , incendiaries , open lyars , inhumane , unchristian and malitious persecutors of the memory of a pious dead prince and that with the hight of insolencie and barbaritie : deliver my soul o lord from lying lips , and from a deceitful tongue . sir i pretend not to your privilege to scold in a meeke spirit , and to lie walking in the spirit and falshood ? but as i cannot but commend your wisdome , in tristing the vent of your rage and malice against the lords ministers , to such a subject , not more advantageous against a retribution , then apt to point the keen arrows of your spite , with a most mortal odium ; so were it not for the reall and high respect , that i bear to the person , and many excellent qualities of our deceased prince ; and the dutie i owe the now king , nothing else could refuge you from the full returnes of a just resentment . passing therefore the many horrid blasphemies , lies and reproaches , wherewith your clergie during these unhappie wars did not cease continually to proscind the cause and people of god , more precious to him then all the monarchs on earth , and did most instantly labour to render both detestably hateful unto the prince , until they brought all to ruine : i shall in a few sober words , vindicat the lords servants from all these umbrages● and appearances , whereby you endeavour to set off your reproach . that the late king by evil counsel , specially that of unconscionable and ungrate prelats , wickedly abusing , for their own ends , a conscientious prince unto a fatal obstinacie , was precipitat into many grosse errours of government , such as an excessive indulgence to papists , illeg●ll and violent exactions , many unusuall and high attempts against fundamental laws and liberties , a strange connivance at the irish rebellion , and at length , a bloudy and pertinacious war against his parliaments , his greatest and best friends and counsellours ; it was not the invention of evil affected men or ministers , as you alleage , but the sad evidence of plain deeds , and the unanimous verdict of these most capable and proper to discern . now if in this state of things , the lords ministers , favouring his righteous cause , did endeavour , by a true representation , both to avert the people from , and animat them against evil courses , destructive to religion and right ; wherein are they to be reprehended ? you say they charged the king with all ; but know you not that as whatever passed upon the kings side , did beare the impresse of his name and authority , so they did continually charge the guilt and wickednesse of all , mostly upon bad counsel , praying the lord uncessantly , with much tendernesse to the kings person , that the wicked might be removed from about the throne , that so it might have been established . and as to what you alleage , that contraire to humanity and christianity they did persecute the memory of that prince after his death and that with the hight of insolencie and barbaritie , in the presence of his son , who now reigneth . it is a calumnie , which you are not able to justify : it s true they wished and moved the king to repent , of his accession to , and mourne for the opposition to the work of god , violence and bloud , wherein his father was unhappily engaged , and from which the throne , except by serious repentance , will never be purged . if this be the inhumane , insolent and barbarous raking into his ashes which you lay to their charge , you remember little , and fear lesse , the jealousie of god , who ●isiteth the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation : neither doe you consider , that the stain of bloud is such , specially upon a throne , that the unfeigned teares , even of the author , do not wash it away . ezrah and nehemiah mourned and repented for the provocation of kings and princes , many ages past , without the least reflection upon their memories . seeing therefore , that the practises whereupon you found these high accusations , were altogether consonant to the word of god , and the principles then acknowledged both by king and people , and to which in conscience , we do , and must still adhere , doth not your apparent bearing with us in the main , and yet so virulently inveighing against a clear dependencie , manifestly discover more then an inveterate malice ? as to our ministers their manner of reproving sin , you say they reproved not in secret , but triumphed in the pulpit without controll , and against absents , and that either out of malice , or ostentation . thus the tumor raised by the poison of your last calumnie doth still swell , and you forget that you your self are vainly triumphing in print against a mock-adversarie : but as you cannot verifie , that ordinarely , or allowedly , secret reproof was omitted , where there appeared reason , and accesse for it ; so , i am confident , your allegeance hath no better ground , then , that ministers for the strengthning of the lords people , did freely hold out the apostacie and wickednesse of his declared enemies for whom such a reproofe had been but in vain intended . in the next place you tell us , that the sermons of our ministers , were no extraordinary things . sir i will not compare , i am no lover of extraordinary things ; but i heartily wish that such preaching were now more ordinary : to believe , and therefore to speak , though with speach contemptible , is certainly infinitly more gracefull , then to speak , even seraphickly , and in practise to counter-act . there is a foolishnesse of preaching commended by paul , above the wisdom of man : whether you would value it as an ordinary or extraordinary thing i know not ? but this epithet of extraordinary , which you seeme to desiderat , is very little consonant to luthers opinion , hi sunt optimi ad populum , conc●onat●res , qui pueriliter , populariter , & quàm simpli●issime docent . these are the best preachers unto the people , who teach in a plain , homely , and most simple way , you adde , that their sermons were half stuffed with publick matters , nothing concerning souls : why do you hyperboliz● so widely in prejudice of truth ? you know publick matters were not medled with , but in a clear exigence , and if some did exceed , others were defective ; and these were the infirmities of both ; but you tell us , that these things concerne not souls . this is a touch of your convenient religion . pray sir , are publick maters transacted without private mens accession ? or in this accession , hath conscience no concernment ? nay are not the solid practises of christianity , such , as the contempt of the world , for the most part , most necessaire and conspicuous in wrestling with , and overcoming the great and frequent temptation of a publick sinful course ? but o the rare temper of this new device , that both inwardly elevats to the highest spiritual abstractions , and outwardly smooths to a most easie temporizing complyance ? you say further , that the solid practises of christianity were scarce ●ver named , and that vertue was little preached by us , and far lesse practised : but why do you make so little conscience of truth ? your often touching upon this string , with the presumption of common ingenuity , which i have and desire to retain for all men , have made me apply to all conjectures , to find out your ground for this allegance ; but in the end i see it is a plain forgerie . the lord knows that i am far from boasting of former practises , but that in this so visible a change , attending the present establishment , from the generall restraint and aw of sin , that before did oblige even the most profligat , unto a seeming conformity , unto these confessed aboundings of all manner of profanitie , which do now fill the land , you should have the confidence to say● that vertue was by us little preached and far lesse practised , is that , which , i am sure , these of your own way do laugh at , and which , if ever ye returne to the right way ye will weep at . and yet you proceed , to oppone to us our saviours sermons , particularly that upon the mount : i will not contend with your mockeries . i wish that both yours and ours may reflect on short-comings , and endeavour amendment according to that pattern . next you say , that the true hights of spirituality were as little preached as the living in abstraction , silence , solitude , and the still contemplations of god , the becoming dead to all things , and being much in secret fastings . sir you are so much upon your hights , that you see nothing about you . pray descend a little and consider that your own ministers are as great strangers to these fine expressions of yours , and you and they to the things signified , to say no worse , as ours are , and much more : and in effect seeing that you only measure your self by your self , you are not wise ; and this affected noveltie of words doth argue litle sincerity . but if communion with god , fellowship with the father and with his son iesus christ , a heart and conversation in heaven . christ our life , dying dayly , victorie over the world , and the like , may relish with you , in this , if courser , yet scriptural style , our ministers , i am sure , were not unfrequent in pressing of them , and secret prayers and fastings also , and , i am confident , their ministrie hath a seal yet abiding , which may witness that it hath not been unfruitfull . i cannot follow you in your again repeated accusation , as if our ministers had only preached a pharisaick observance of ordinances , and a bare relyance on christ without obedience to his gospel . these are only your allegeances destitute of truth . your next charge is that our ministers handled nice subtilties , which they called cases of conscience . but sir , as you grant that some devout people may be under doubtings , and fears ; so in reason , you must allow , not only a privat application for their remedy , but also publick doctrine , both necessaire for prevention , and conducible for cure : that in this there was an excesse , i believe few would have imagined , unless you had said it ; yet when i call to minde , what men of conscience the generalitie of your partie are , and how in effect , unacquainted with , nay declared enemies to , all tendernesse thereof , if you had termed conscience it self , & melancholy imagination , as well as cases of conscience , nice subtilities , it had added but little to my wonder . as for what you adde that it is unsufferable to hear people who led but common lives talke of such things : it is a truth which i have often heard our ministers assert , as also , that the best way of silencing all doubts , is , as you speak , to act faith , renew repentance , study holinesse , humility , and the other great practises of christianity : why then are you so divisive , as to object things to us , wherein we do not differ ? but alas the reason is too evident ; the designe to render us odious must be observed , and pursued by all arts ; and therefore , when you cannot contradict the power , that appeared in , and the fruit of conversion and edification , which accompanyed our ministers preaching , yet your eye being evil , by carping hints at methods , and by unnecessary cautions , you suggest the things , which you have not the confidence to object : thus you bid your n. c. see that by power , he do not mean a tone in the voice , a grimace in the face &c. and by conversion a change in opinion , or outward behaviour , influenced by interest ; but sir , as both in power and the fruit of conversion , our ministers have been througly made manifest amongst us ; so i must add for their voice and gesture , that although some of them might have been rude in speach , yet not in knowledge : and if your better breeding , and sight of the scene , have modelled your tone and action , above the rate , as you phansie , of both yours and ours , you but the more marre its ridiculous gracefulnesse , by undervaluing others . and as for the conversions attending our preachings , many of them are tryed and cannot be blasted by your mocking . i grant some were proselyted , in whom the evil spirit having by apostacie re-entered with seven more , they are become more the children of the devil then they were before ; but seeing they are now yours , make them not our reproach . your next challenge , is , that wee termed our preachings the word of god , and you tell us that to call them so , and yet to confesse that ministers may be mistaken in them , is a contradiction ; but why do you not rather accuse us plainly , for terming our ministers the ministers and embassadours of christ ? if their preachings be not his message , no doubt they are not his embassadours : and if they be his embassadours , how can you deny their preachings in his name , to be his message ? these things have such an evident , and convertible coherence , that i am in a suspence whether to impute this passage , to your mistake , or not rather to a designe to subvert the ministerie : and as many of your way would have it , to turne all christs preaches unto royal orators . as for your contradiction , it doth no more impugne preachings then preachers : for to call preachers the lords embassadours . and their embassie the word of god , have the same appearance of inconsistencie , with the infirmity of mistaking , wherein you phansie your repugnancie to lye ; the truth is then first , that ministers are the lords messengers ; next that their preachings in his name , and conforme to the warrant of his word , have not only that derived authority , which the scripture equally imparts to all rational and sound deductions made from it , but also , a particular superadded obligation from the lords commission , wherewith the preacher is ministerially cloathed , whence it clearly follows , that , as all true ministers , their preachings are in his name , and ought to be agreeable to his truth , so , the preachers their admixed mistakes , are of no more force , either to deprive preaching of the name , or these things therein , that are sound and true , of the special authority of the word of god , then the accidental miscariage of an embassadour , to make void his mission , in other things consonant to his instructions . how unsound then is your insinuation that the text indeed is the word of god , but ministers glosses , ( by which terme you mockingly understand all preaching or expounding ) the words only of fallible men , as if a ministers sound interpretation and application did pertake of nothing speciall from the character which he sustains , whereas you know that not only his mission , doth impresse his words , with his masters authority ; but hath also many and great promises of a suitable assistance : having thus cleared the common cause of the ministrie , and that their preachings when sound , are from a special ground the word of god : that which you subjoin of ministers their usurping this name to their preachings by way of artifice , that thereby they might procure the credite of the infallible and inspired prophets , is as far from truth , as their diligence in searching of , and their care of confirming all their doctrine by the scriptures , with their frequent and continual intimations , that the people ought to build all their faith upon that sure foundation , are notourly known . but you have not yet done with our ministers , you tell us again , that our great men were medling men , and most of them were very little spiritual in their conversation , and seldom in the commendation of god and religion to the people . sir , omitting your insinuate distinction of greater and lesser ministers amongst us , which you know we acdnowledge , no further , or otherwayes , then the lords free grace & gifts do make it : and passing your accusation of medling , which i have already answered : as to spirituality of converse , it is indeed a thing so excellent , and beautiful , that it can never be enough studied , never enough practised , and never enough pressed ; but the manner and designe of your reflection considered , it is so void of truth and charitie toward non-conformists , whereof so many have been burning and shining lights , and so sadly applicable to your clergie , the very scume of men , let be of christians , that i can only marvel at , and regret the excesse and confidence of your malice . pardon me , if the strangenesse of your procedour force me to such expressions : i protest sincerely , your methods are so perverse , that i have no greater difficultie then how to find civil termes , sufficient to detect them : thus after you have delivered a groundless and calumnious challenge of our leaders , their want of spirituality , in ordinary discourse , you hold out its singular usefulnesse : and falling to question us , as wholly strangers to these great things of devotion , and holinesse , which you enumerate , you falsely conclude , truely these things are as little among you , as any partie i know : well sir , as i wish heartily that they were more , and that they may still encrease , even to your conviction , which , i am certain , requires a degree equall to , if not beyond perfection ; so , my prayer is , that god who both knows all the darring and open wickednesse and ungodlinesse of these of your way , and sees your heart , and weighs your words , may discover unto you the sin of speaking wickedly , and talking deceitfully against him and his servants . in the next place , telling us , that we seeme very desirous to be noticed in our religion , you charge our communions as tumultuary , disorderly , and talkative . it 's answered , that sometime they were numerous , is not denied ; but if you consure great multitudes their following of christ as tumultuary , and disorderly , it is more then the jews ever did : that our running many miles to them shews us to be idolizers of men , your objected opporrunity of the sacrament nearer hand , does not prove it : for as we were far from neglecting neerer occasions , or undervaluing any of the lords sincere servants ; so , to acknowledge also and improve the difference of gifts , which the lord hath dispensed , savours nothing of idolizing , and cannot , without palpable envy , be dissallowed : if in other things i were satisfied , and in the libertie of a free election , i am confident , that without slighting the call of neerer invitations , i might chuse rather to go ten miles to your communion , then five to anothers , and yet you cannot say that i idolize you . as to what you object that at our communions , all our businesse , both in preparation and participation , was to hear and talk . it is but your mis-information or mistake , i am su●e previous self-examination ( whether by the names or inward stilnesse and recollection i do not indeed well remember ) was alwayes most seriously pressed , and also much practised , and in the action it self , a short convenient silence , was the more general custome . as for your other alledged inconveniences of croud and distraction , these are but the peculiar aversions of your particular genius , other more strong and lesse delicate and nice spirits did easily overcome these difficulties . you further say , that you cannot think them very devout , who love rather to hear one talk , then to retire inwardly and commune with their own hearts ; but what esteem have you for him , who disliking the hearing of others , and pretending to inward retirements , maketh the talk of these things all his work ? and why do ye without ground accuse us of a preference , whereof we are not guilty ? as we hold both hearing and meditation to be duties , and beautiful in their seasons ; so , we endeavoured to practise , without either the partiality which you object , or its contrary which you incurre , o but you adde that some of us will be many hours in publick worship , and perhaps not a quarter of an hour in secret . that there may be such amongst us , and worse , i nothing doubt ; but if you intend this for an accusation , either against our way , or the generality that own it , it is an allegeance , for which our father who seeth in secret will in due time rebuke you . another fault which you find about our communions is their i●●requencie as being brought by us from the dayly practice of the apostles , and the after frequent custome of the whole church , to once a year . sir , you know so well the churches power , and the differing observations that have been in use , as to this circumstance of time , that i think although your disatisfaction had been founded on better grounds ; yet you should have been tender to make of it an objection . that the primitive church did soon f●ll from the first dayly celebration , your own argument grants : what was the after practice , and is at present your custome , i need not mention : it is certain that neither the one , nor the other , do agree to your rule of weekly communions . suppose then our church had by a suitable regulation of this matter , designed the greater solemnity of gods ordinance , had this been a licentious admixing● four own devices , as you are pleased to terme it : but the plain account of the thing , is , that there was no positive prescription , as to the times of this observance , known amongst us . only , as the churches of old did ordain that all christians should communicate , at least once a year ; so our church did appoint that at least once , if not tuice , in the year this sacrament should be administrate : now if we liking better a joint then a separate participation of the people of the same parish , and knowing that the particular exigences and desires , possibly incident to private christians , might be easily supplied in other places , none being tyed to any fixed time , did therefore not so often celebrate , and for the most part but once a year , truely i think that the variation from the former frequencie , was visibly compensed with a greater advantage of solemnity● as for your demands why the communion was not keept every lords day ? it 's answered , as there is no command for it , so you have already heard , that we wanted not reasonable considerations , which did persuade the contrarie . for the hint you give of the strict notice should be taken of receivers , i have often heard our church charged with the excesse , but never before with the defect in this particular . you fall next to censure the posture of sitting in time of publick prayer , as very irreverent . sir , not to detain you i am not far from your opinion : for my own part , and i have many of our way assenting , i dislike sitting in prayer , ( if infirmity and other great inconveniences do not hinder it ) and for proof of it , i adde to your answere made to the instance of davids sitting before the lord. chron. . . that he who considereth the occasion of david's address , even the gracious and high exalting message that the prophet had delivered to him , with the tenour of his words , expressing rather an astonishing meditation of wonders , not able to forme it self at first into either direct prayer , or praise , then any thing els , will find no difficulty to acknowledge that the decent enough propriety , yea almost the necessity of sitting in such an oppressing amazement , cannot rationally be drawn in consequence : but as in this we agree , so i cannot but disagree from you in your overprising and exacting the postures that you plead for : for though i am convinced that there is an indecencie , and other inconveniences in sitting , for which i wish , that where-ever it may be , it were wholly disused ; yet i am far from offending at , let be imposing upon , these who of no intended irreverence , but for the most part from a just disgust of the too great weight hath been laid upon such circumstances , do innocently practise it. i confesse that kneeling and standing in prayer , are in the scriptures very frequently mentioned : but as thereby the thing is only circumstantially noted , and no where , no not in these invitations , o come let us worship and bow down ( where the gesture is only mentioned as the more ordinary , and the substance exhorted to ) designedly pressed ; so there are also upon record , such clear instances of an undetermined liberty in these matters , apparent enough in our lord his disciples and company , their ordinary sitting down to meat , and blessing and giving thanks in that posture , that i cannot bu● strange at your bringing any of these practices under an obligation : but that which i do most admire , is , that you who just now were telling us that even heavenly publick pra●ers , ●asts , communions , keepin● the sabbath , and the like , are but externall devotion p , . and spirituall things of a very lo● syze and degree● such as cannot car●●on to perfection p . should on a sudden descend so far below your spirituall hights and great christian practices , as to debate about sitting or standing , as the cardinal points of religion nay to such a heat , that though you do not say , you would separate upon this ground from these si●ters ; yet in substance you say no less , then that you would be content that they did separate from you , and so do both approve and wish for a separation : sir , you are discovered beyond the disguising of all your shifts : god grant you to consider it . and also how neer this doth approach , to what our lord sayeth , in almost the like case , this people honoureth me with their lips , but their heart is far from me , howbeit , in vain do they worship me , teaching for doctrines the commandments of men : for laying aside the commandments of god , ye hold the tradition of men . your next reflection is upon the family-worship that was so frequent in former times , and here you taxe masters of families , for expounding scripture , and wish that we do not overvalue other lawfull exercises . sir , as to what yow make your n. c. say of expounding scripture , i look upon it as a meere suggestion of your own , that yow may finde somthing to reprehend even in our best performances : you know all that was allowed in the directions for familie-worship , was , that masters with their families should read the scriptures with understanding , and by mutuall conference edifie one another , neither are you against expounding by masters , who are very intelligent : and for the practice , it was in effect so rare , and imperfect , that i am con●ident your accusation of excesse to most n. c. will only prove a check for their deficiencie . as for your wish i verily think it good , but no good wish . when the calling upon the name of the lord in families is now so universally and irreligiously flighted , and by many openly mocked at , think you it a season for such over-cautelous advices ? nay sir , in the so sad and lamentable decline of this dutie to the extreme of neglect and contempt , groundlesly to caution against the other , of an over-value , is but to harden the wicked , who forget god , and weaken the hands of such as seeke his face in sinceritie . from this point , in the eagernesse of your pursute of the people of god , you passe to private meetings . and with you i can grant , that they have had both their use and abuse , i can grant also that , in the setled plentie of pure ordinances , to bring church-exercises to chambers ; or private conference to a publick confluence , is ( in my opinion ) superfluous and affected ; not that i would have religion wholly astricted in its exercises , to churches , families , or to mens closets : but ●s i acknowledge a communication and speech alway with grace , to be the very ●alt of christians their converse , & would judge nothing more becoming then to see religion so seriously & constantly minded , that men were pursuing & observing its occasions more then these , either of bussiness or recreation ; so i think to contrive & keep particular meetings with a visible affectation of singularity were a thing justly to be avoided ; & thus in our better times , it was commonly both held & followed . but sir , ye must suffer me withal to tell you , that as satan had a speciall envy at these , perceiving how much , when in singleness and sincerity gone about , and performed with just caution , they did contribute to the grouth , comfort , and mutuall edification of the saints ; and therefore to make the thing it self odious , he abused the well-meaning honesty of some , and used the sinister designes of others to a turning of these out of their proper channels , that so they might miss of their just ends : though i must tell you , that to talk so much of these justly reprehensible escapes , without incouraging to the dutie , whereby so many have reaped advantage , seems to be a fault no less challengeable in a minister of the gospel , one part of whose work it is , if he be a worker together with god , to exhort his hearers to comfort themselves together , and edifie one another , then any of these abuses amongst private persons in such meetings , against which you with so much eagerness exclaime : it would no question much better become one careing naturally for ye flock of christ , and carrying as a faithfull feeder , to be assiduous in pressing the dutie , carefull in directing , and deeply affected with any advantage that sathan got over the saints , in the use of such a mean , then to publish to the world his victories , that the thing it self might pass for a vice . as for the practice of private meetings in evil times , all your supposed and accidental inconveniences , to which even the best of things are obnoxious , are far from making me condemn that , which to the lord is very acceptable , and to his people profitable , mal. . . so that , if the inten●●ment and application of your discou●se be levelled at our latter customes , seeing you cannot truely charge them with any of these evils which you mention , and since your opinion doth clearly depend upon your different judgement as to the main . i must take liberty to dissent from you , with the same confidence wherewith you assert it , and withall tell yow that i wish their frequencie did keep a proportion with the deep distress of the people of god , in this penury of pure publick preaching ; and then , i am sure , we should have ten for one , and if so , there were ground of hope that they might , in these private meetings , pray your intruders out of their publick capacities , that so these , who now dare not be over●heard in their meetings to mourne for the desolation of the sanctuary , and the departings of the g●ory , might bless him together in these assemblies , out of which they are thrust and keept , and might once more , as of old , be made glad in his house of prayer . for a close to this dialogue , you make your n. c. boast of the glory of our unitie , to the effect that you may the more foully set out the divisions that fell out amongst us , and to do it with the greater advantage , you endeavour prudently to remove by a preface , the suspicion of what you are resolved to practise ; and therefore you tell us , you love not the spirit of detraction ; but whether you be acted by it or not , let these epithets you give us , of unchristian , malitious , brethren in cruelty , and implacable , bear witness : for my part , though i do so much detest divisions , that i am content to let your representation passe , with all its excesse , on purpose , that to all concerned they may appear more odious , and that if it be the lords will , even your reproachful tongue , may smite the guiltie into repentance ; yet for the vindication of the truth , i must say , that such hath been its bad fate , and worse reception in the earth , that i should sooner judge division ; then unitie , to be the signe of orthodoxie , to be found among a partie ; perfect unity in truth , is a blessing so great , that it is reserved for glory : if you think that our lord came to send peace on earth , remember his own words ; i came not to send peace but a sword , and to set a man at variance against his father , &c. schismes must be , nay were the very first temptations and trial of the church , against which all the light and power of the apostles could not guard it . as therefore sir , you do falsely make us to glory in our unity , so , take head lest by making division our charge , yow do not far more calumniously reproach the christian faith. do not imagine that i do hereby patronize divisions ; nay i know and am persuaded , that because there is nothing more repugnant to the genius , and hurtfull to the progresse of truth , then contentions , therefore it is , that the devil hath even laboured most to infest it : with these temptations ; but i would have you to understand , that seeing these strifes , whereof you accuse us , did certainly proceed from the remaining dreg , and adventitious mixture of ane evil spirit , relaxing former engagements , remitting the first zeal , and not a little bending to your way , and from mens corruptions on all hands , although that you could say that our course did take away peace , and in place thereof being war ; yet it would no more inferre the spirit that moved therein to be contentious , then you can justly object against the blessed gospel of peace , these schismes , hatred , and tumults , wherewith in all ages it hath most ●●●ocently filled the world. as therefore our lord doth make it the great characteristick of himself , blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me , so let not the heats and contests about tru●● , affright you from its search , or foolishly induce you , unconcernedly , without disstinction , to condemn all contenders ; but rather more engage you to seeke and hold it fast , and highly to esteem all its zealous adherents , where ever you perceive the devil to best●●re himself most actively against it : surely if this disposition were in you , the offense you seem to take , either at the greater oppositions betwixt the friends & adversaries of the lords work , or these humane infirmities wherewith his servants amongst themselves hapened to be exercised , would soon be removed . as for you● veneration , whereof you judge us unworthy , we acclaime it not , we wish your most reverend and right reverend did truely merite it , which is all the scolding wherewith i repay your malice . the third dialogue answered . sir , you cause your n. c. begin this conference with so just an animadversion upon your ●eeming pretenses to some extraordinary sublime thing and reall deficiencies , not only in being guilty o● our common evils , but also in ●ou● want o● these good things , which you acknowledge were amongst us , that i cannot but wi●h you had reserved as much ingenuity to your self in your answere , as you make , and acknowledge him to speak truth in his alledgance . but in place of considering his challenge , of the ev●ls of your way , and the sad and strange alteration it hath procured , in this poor church , you subti●ly labour to evade , by telling , that you are not so engaged , as blindly to desend any interest : you are so far episcopal , as to love the order , and submit to it , but you have not sworn fealtie to any sect : your prayer is , that all distinguishing names were buried : you do not patronize , but mourn in secret , for the sins , that are amongst you , adding that non-conformists are guiltier of the present loos●●sse then perhaps they think . and thus , after that in your second dialogue , you have not only riped up , mis-construed , and exaggerated to the hight , the infirmities of the men o● our side ; but imployed all the invention of calumny , to render them odious , and then charged all these things directly upon our way ; when you see a retortion appear , you instantly decline it , by insinuating the evils to be the faults of men , and no wayes chargeable upon your cause . i will not complain of this unequall measure , neither shall i take notice , that , when you apprehend a stress , for all your inveighing against the one , and love to the other , you can for a shift alleviate both prelacie and presbytrie to emptie names , & shreud your self in the sanctuary of ease the convenience of your new divised latitude . but i must remember you , that as the thing we contend for is an ordinance of jesus christ , both institute for , and greatly commended by the effectual propagation of the gospel , and conspicuous advancement of holinesse ; so the ignorance and licentiousness , which ( as the shadow doth the body ) do attend the prevailing of your order , are not more the imputation of men , then the bitter and corrupt fruits , that undeniably demonstrate the corruptnes of that plant of prelacie , not planted by god , whereby they are produced . ye shal know them by their fruits is a test for courses , as well as persones , and that a good tree bringeth forth good fruit , but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit , is no lesse applicable to , and clearly verified in , the one then in the other . the pure ordinances of a gospel ministrie , and church-government , according to our lords appointment ; as they have his warrant and promise ; so they may expect his blessing ; but lordly prelacie the unwarrantable invention of man , accomodate to a politique or worse designe , and carried on by palpable avarice , pride and falshood , for the reducing of the just liberty of preaching , and due respect to conscience , unto a subserviencie to mens lusts , and secular interests , cannot be more attended , with the evil effects of ignorance , profanitie , and irreligion ; then it hath a peculiar influence , directly productive thereof : and therefore sir , as you say that you are so far episcopal as to love the order ( i suppose because it is ordered ) and submit to it , because you see that rest is good ; so ● intreat you to be so far rational , as to consider that presbytery and prelacie are not meere distinguishing names ; but such realities as have even in our experience produced most important and different effects , and then i question not , but the sad and woful consequences of that abounding sin , and profanenesse , which from your prophets are gone forth into all the land , will render you so far christian as to know by such fruits , the corruptnes of your episcopacie , that hath brought them forth● and without adjuring you to any sect , turne you not only to be a mou●ner for the sins of your parti● but a serious supplicant , that the accursed cause thereof may be removed , but you say that non-conformists are guiltie of the present loosnesse who . . by making religion a cloak to so many state-designes , make too many suspect religion to be but a designe o● it self . . by driving people to an outward compliance in formes , cause them to nauseat at all religion : but. . and mostly , by their waxing cold in love , to which our saviour plainly knits the abounding of iniquitie . sir , as to your two first reasons , if i should as lightly deny them , as you do affirme them , you should be fully answered ; but this your accustomed confidence of objecting to non-conformists these things , whereof their adversaries are mostly , if not only , guilty , obliges me to a further reflection : that religion may be made a cloak to state-designes , nay , to the greatest villanies , is certainly one of the most grievous of these offences , because of which a wo is pronounced to the world ; but that this hath not been so much the accidentall practice of any person of our way , as the very substance of your whole course , is obvious to the meanest consideration . how austerly our first reformers were denied to all worldly advantages , and how faithfull to the crown , and then infant king , i leave it to the candid and impartiall consideration of all sober men , not preferring the vain pretenses , made for perverted , yea profaned authority in odium of truth , to the most convincing evidences , of all impotencie and wickednesse , that can be instanced from any history : the next passage that occurres of these who on our part in a most stedfast simplicity , did assert , and establish presbytrie , untill the year . & of others , who on your part , by fraud , perjury and violence , did , in compliance with king iames , his design of complementing the english clergie , on the one hand , and attaining to a greater freedom , of indulging and gratifying the popish partie , on the other ( both supposed necessaire for assuring , the then much courted succession ) endeavour , the overthrow of presbytrie , as being too straight for such crooked courses , is an instance against your first reason , which i am bound in charity to think , you did not call to minde : sure i am , that which you object , of our aiming at state-designes , change but state , into court , and you will finde it was so far from being our guilt , that it was king iames his regret , on our behalf , that honest men would not be thereby tempted . but it is like , the times you hint at , are these of our late troubles : wherein , though i acknowledge , that the feigned concurse , and corrupt designes of some , did in their occasion discover themselves ; yet , it cannot be denied , that such was , and is , the truth of the work of god , and stedfastnesse of its faithfull adherers , that even unto this day , through all the various temptations of malignancie , on the one hand , and sectarianisme on the other , both it , and they , do retain their integrity . really sir , when i consider , that neither the tempting terrour of the prevailing malignant interest in the years . and . nor the succeeding victory , usurpation and very plausible and insinuating offers of the sectarians , with all these strange revolutions that have since happened , have moved the lords faithfull remnant in the land , from that well tempered , and justly ballanced fear of god , and honour to the king , which from the beginning they professed , and do hold forth in the covenant , and all their publick actings , your accusation of the work of god , as a state design , appears to me a very palpable inconsistencie , and ridiculous calumny ; to design state changes or advantages , and yet , to omit and slight all the probable , yea and possible opportunities , of compassing them , are things , which malice it self cannot affirme to be compatible . as for these , who not being upright , nor stable in the lords covenant , have , according to the impulse of their own worldly designes , turned and figured themselves , unto every sort of compliance , they are now so unexpectedly , and wholly almost , become of your way , that there needs no other evidence , of the eàsie accommodation , that all self●seekers , and time-servers do finde in it : but wherefore do i seek to retort ? can there be any thing more certain , then that as corrupt court designes , have only imposed this heavy yoke of prelacie , upon the lords church , and people amongst us ; so such have been , and are the wicked and ungodly practices of its lords , and their dependents , & the vast dissonancie of their lives , even from their own canons and profession ; that i do not so much wonder at your impudence , in objecting against our course ; the tempting of many to suspect religion to be but a design of it self , as that the monstrousnesse of your hierarchy hath not scandalized the whole world to account all religion but a cheat . . you say by driving of people to an outward compliance in forms , we have caused them to nauseat at all religion . who would think that this were the accusation of non-conformists , who from the very beginning of reformation , have been continually vexed , by your impositions ; and not rather conceive , the objection to be made by them , against your violent pressing of crosse , surplice , service-book , book of canons , and other ●rash , wherewith the lords people have been uncessantly urged , as the main , yea only things of religion ? but i cannot stand upon every one of your calumnies , the lord deliver you from this perverse spirit : only if by the driving objected , you do understand our causing the people of the land to stand stedfast , and adhere to the lords covenant , whereby they were formerly obliged , it is already fully answered . but , that which you say is of greatest weight , is , that we are guilty of the waxing cold in love , to which our saviour knits the abounding of iniquity : and this challenge you qualify , by our judging you in matters which are doubtful disputations , spreading tattles● of you , as you call them , carrying sowrly toward you , and casting odious aspersions upon you , as apostates and the like , with petulant railings , and this you adde , is a greater persecution , then any little suffering of ours in the world. sir , though i cannot sooth you as you do your felf , by the mouth of your n. c. ( whose tongue you teach to speak lyes ) in your smooth words of deceit , by telling you , that too much of what you speak is true ; yet i heartily wish , there were more charity on all sides ; but where you accuse us , of waxing cold in love , and thence would inferre our accession , to the present abounding iniquity , i would first have you to read the text aright , which runeth thus , and because iniquity shall abo●nd , the love of many shall wax cold , which is a plain inversion of your causality . . admitting your ground to be good , i seriously wish , without vanity , that the waxing cold in love , both toward god and your neighbour , were not more your sin , then ours ; then had we not been scorched into a blacknesse , and consumed almost into ashes , by these fiery trials , kindled , blown and kept into a flame , by the grandees of your way ( pourtrey them as you please ) whose heat speaks them to be set on fire , against the work , people , and interests of god. . to call the causes of our differences matters which are doubtfull disputations , when both by scripture , reason , and solemne engagements , and many sad experiences , they are so fully determined , is indeed , to put false glosses upon things ; and to pretend to be a good christian , and to acclaime the charity and kindnesse of others , in an avoued persistence , in open perjury , opposition to the cause of god , and persecution of his people , is it not to wipe your mouth , and say you have done no wickednesse ? but you say it is from the spirit of the devil to fasten the brand of apostasie upon the leaving of a partie , and that to grow wiser is not to play the changling , nor is a consciencious obedience to standing laws time-serving . sir , as i love neither to irritate , nor prejudicate by hard words ; so i approve not either your or your n. c. tattles ; but if to leave god , and not a partie , be apostasie ? if to forsake the way , and truth of god , be to play the changling ? and if to obey , and conforme to mischief , framed by a law , be time-serving ? i am sadly apprehensive , that , what you account to be , but the malice of the spirit of the devil , shall one day be found , the verdict of the spirit of god ; whether it be thus or not , in our controverted differences , let the things themselves , and the issue of our discourse declare ? what you tell us of the primitive application , of the word apostasie , is no restriction of its proper acceptation : and for your other petty conceits , in this place , with your mock-complaint , of the persecution of a just , but disdained censure , they are not of that moment , to stop my procedour , to that part of your conference , which concerns episcopacie . this head you say falls asunder in two , the one a general consideration of that government , the other , supposing it were amisse , how far it ought to be separated from : and for the government , in place of all these weighty and unanswerable objections , viz. the want of our lords warrant . . repugnancie to his , and his apostles precepts and practice of restless labour , simplicity , equality , humility and contempt of the world , &c. . disconformity to the first , and purer times of the primitive church . . the pride , avarice , usurpation , and cruelty , to which , it naturally tends , and hath been depraved : and lastly , these evil and bitter fruits , of profanity , ignorance , and superstition , that it hath ever in its prevalencie produced , which have been charged upon , and made out against it , by many of the lords faithfull witnesses ; you make your n. c. faintly and poorly to aledge , i cannot think that church-men should be called lords , and be great persons ; that this is a desingenuous prevarication , is obviously manifest . yet such is the weaknesse of your cause , that the meanest argument , you could put in your n. c. mouth , is stronger then your answere , wherein you tell us , that this belongs not to the thing it self ; but is an addition of the christian magistrat . but i must remember you first , that church-men and ministers , are not capable of every addition : civil offices , and administrations , are very lawfully bestowed by the magistrat , upon fit recipients : but as for ministers , they are not only an intolerable distraction , many degrees above that charitable imployment which the apostles could not bear , but so inconsistent with the nature , manner , and end of their ministrie , that , even our lord , while in this capacitie , doth bruskly decline , to be so much as an amicable trister : and therefore to justify bishops titles , from this ground , that they are extrinsick additions , or from their civil place , and voice in parliament , is no wayes concludent . . though this were not ; yet , i am confident , that who ever considers , the received use , and import of this title of lord amongst us , will find it an addition , as full of fastuous vanity , for ministers , as the title of rabbi , ( even admitting that its excess did lye another way ) therefore excepted against , and prohibited by our lord , was unlawfull for the apostles : but . this title is not an addition flowing from the christian magistrat , as you pretend ; but the very product , of that pride , and usurpation , that at first exalted prelacie , which , as as first , it was assumed by the connivence of , if not , rather forced from the civil magistrat ; so now , by the bishops , it is only derived from him , in consequence of that supremacie , which both falsly against our lord jesus christ , and traiterously to the pope , in this respect their proper head , they have , for their own conveniencie , transferred upon him . but you add , that we consider not that , sir , and lord , gentleman and nobleman , differ but in degree : since therefore , a minister by office , ●hes the temporall ●onour of a gentleman , why may not the temporall honour of a lord , be as well put upon a bishop ? sir , if you were as innocent of the vanity , as you seem to be ignorant of the nature of these titles , our controversie were at an end : a faithfull minister , truely minding his work , values not himself upon points of herauldri● ; to acquit himself as becometh an embassadour , for the glory of christ , is all his ambition , and truly honourable , beyond the accession of all temporall dignity , if it were not so , i could further inform you , that a gentleman and nobleman , do not only gradually differ , but are prorsus disparata wholly different . the king , wee say , can make the one , but cannot make the other . i grant the privileges of a gentleman , are commonly supposed to belong to ministers , and decent civility may respect them , as of that ranck , but really , there appears to me such a disparity , betwixt these things , and a bishops receiving , let be the usurping , of the temporall , and more eminent honour or lord specially as above his brethren , that if a minister as such , should but tenaciously lay claime to the title of a gentleman , i would think it not only very misbecoming his profession , but a plain forfeiture of the pretended privilege . but , your n. c. urges to better purpose , that bishops should not lord it over gods heritage : and you for answere , tell us , that by lording , is meant a tyrannicall domination , and not a tittle . next , that gods heritage , applyed by us to the clergie , is not in the text , bearing only not lording over their lots or divisions , to which you adde that whatever argument we use to put down bishops from being as noble-men , will also prove ministers not born such , not to be gentlemen . sir , to put this foolish trifling about titles , first by hand , bishops neither are noblemen , nor ought to be esteemed quasi noblemen : because . the thing is altogether incompetent , and the title without the thing is a vanity . . either title or thing , as it exalts them above their brethren , is sinful , and the very reverse of our lords command : whosoever will be chief among you let him be your servant not your lord. he that is chief , let him be as he that serveth not as a nobleman : how then can ye acclaime either thing or title ? . the title of lord in its ecclesiastick usurpation , hath been , and is so grossly abused by church-men , above all that our lord reprehends , in the pride of the pharisees , not only to the pretending to the uppermost roomes at feasts , and the chiefe seats in the synagogues ; but the chief places in states , and the first banches in parliaments , not only to greetings in the merca●s , and to be called of men rabbi , rabbi , but to ride next to the honours , and be called grace , grace , that , seriously i marveil how you or any christian , regarding our lords express words , can justify it ? that these reasons do not militate against the civil , and ordinary respect commonly payed to all ministers , and men of any fashion , without either a vain usurpation in the receivers , or any other thing , then that courteous mutua●l preference , commended by the apostle in the givers , & which without falling into the ravings of the quakers , their austerity , you cannot from our lords words redargue , i think it needlesse to resume . now you say that by lording , prohibite to church-men , a tyrannical domination is only meant , why do you thus offer to impose , contraire both to the import of the word , and tenour of the scripture ? the word used by peter is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and the very same used by our lord math. . whence peter himself learned the prohibition , that it signifies not to tyrannize , bu● simply authoritative dominari , to rule with authoritie , all lexica attest ; neither doth the proposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 joyned to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 import more of force , then what doth more expressively denote , and distinguish the dominion of empire and authority , from that of propriety : as for the tenour of scripture , that it repugnes to your exposition is manifest . because that where math. in this passage useth the compound 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , luke doth indifferently use the simple 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as of the same import to the present purpose , by which your gloss , of a tyrannicall domination is deprived of all shadow of ground . . because our lord by both words , doth only prohibite such a domination , and authority amongst his disciples , as was exercised amongst the gentiles by their princes , and which they who were called their benefactors did use over them , but certain it is , that neither was the dominion of the princes of the gentiles , allowedly or commonly tyrannick ; nor is it our lords purpose in this place , to brand them with such a character . . the positive command plainly set down , and enforced by our lords own example , is too evident , to leave any man hesitant , as to the prohibition : but it shall not be so among you , but whosoever will be great among you● truely great in virtue and reward , let him be your minister : let him exercise the ministery committed to him , by way of humble and painfull service , denyed to all worldly advantages , and neither affect , nor assume the grandour , and authority of civil governours . even as the son of man came not to be ministered unto , but to ministere , and to give his life , &c. and made himself of no reputation ( contemning his gentility , and not valuing his nobilitie ) but took upon him the form of a servant : sir , do we indeed beleeve that this is commanded , and proposed for a pattern to gospel ministers ? and yet it is not only most certainly so , but also undeniable , that if there were in ministers and church-men , that same spirit of obedience to god , and love to souls , which was in him , who accounted it his meat and drink to do the will of him that sent him , and to finish his work , and if they had the same eye , and regard , to the joy set before them , which he had , who is the author and ●inisher of our faith , it could not be other wayes . for my part , i think a serious reflection on these things , is not only enough to confound for ever , the ease , vanity , and pomp of aspiring prelats , but to make the best of ministers ashamed , to appear so much above their master , even in their indulged honesties , and conveniencies . but . because the place that you touch is taken from peter , see how it also agrees with that of math. feed the flock of god &c. not as being lords or lording , over gods heritage , but as being ensamples : where it is evident , that the adversative , doth not only reject your gloss , of a tyrannick domination ; but by commanding rather to lead and instruct by example , then to rule by authority , hold furth the same humble and simple ministerie , to be enjoined here , which by our lord was before recommended . the next thing you answere , is , that gods heritage applied by us to the clergie , is not in the text , pray you sir , how came this in your head , that we apply the title of gods heritage to the clergie , or own them under this name ? know you not , that the usurping of this prerogative , both by your , and the popish church-men , hath been alwayes esteemed by us , an high arrogance ? as for your pretending to correct our translation , pray sir , be sober , and remember the respect which you bear to the authors . . i grant the greek verbatim ●●ndered seemeth to sound , neither as exercising lordly authority over the lots by which as your interpretation of a tyrannical domination is disproved , so , even your pretended exactnesse ( your being wanting● is exceeded . . since the lords people are certainly here meant , whether you understand them to be termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lots , in order to their respective pastors , who●e ●ortitions , and divisions they are , or as being gods heritage , according to the usuall signification of the singular 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 heritage● and the clear synonymous import of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the following part of the verse , but being ensamples to the flock it matters nothing , as to our present business , but plainly shews your impertinent curiosity . however , i wish you to consider , that as we condemn the worldly , and pompous usurpations of prelats , above their own degree , and over their brethren , so , we most of all condemn their spiritual tyranny , in lording over the consciences of gods people , whom they cease not now , as alwayes , to vex with their pharisaick imposing , and exacting of implicite obedience to vain traditions and humane inventions , more then obedience to the commandments of god , as will afterward appear . your n. c. proceeds to say that his chief quarrell against bishops , is , that they are a function of mans devising , and no where instituted by god. to this you think fit to answere , by way of retortion , telling us of our great , but vain pretenses , to a jus divinum in severall things : as first , in the matter of lay elders , thus sir you deall wittily , when you can do no better● seing you cannot confirme your own opinion , you endeavour at lest to subvert your adversarie ; but before i enter with you upon particulars , i must tell you first , that presbyterians in pleading for a jus divinum , do not pret●nd to a posi●tive , and expresse prescription from scripture , of all the smaller points and circumstances , either of decencie or order , requisite to their government and discipline , in as much , as , the regulation of these , being abundantly provided for , by the general rules revealed , and the things themselves , and their use , such as ingenuous persons cannot probably mistake , the want of express warrants , in all or any such particulars , cannot be justly cavilled at as a defect : . that it had better become the sobriety , that you require of your n. c. for you to have answered , what many worthy men have written , for the jus divinum of presbyterie , then to have passed all with the empty censure of your own airy character of big talking , and minding it as little , as any could , to the effect , you may amuse your poor n. c. with a fear of your conceited quiblings ; but leaving these things with as confident an estimation , as your undervaluing is vain , and groundlesse , to the impartial perusal of judicious readers , i do only here premise , that , whoever abstractly and seriously considers , the clear light , and obvious project of the gospel , will of necessity finde . . that our lord jesus by vertue of that kingdom , and all power given to him , in heaven and in earth , did , for the carrying on , and prospering of his pleasure , the salvation of sinners , appoint , in the persons of his apostles , a perpetual ministrie in his church , the summe of whose charge , is both severally & jointly , to take heed , to oversee , and feed the church of god , and the chief part and dutie of which office , is , to preach and teach , and consequently to reprove , rebuke , exhort , remit and retain , bind and loose &c. in which things , the heads of doctrine , and discipline , with their immediate power , and warrant from jesus christ , and their connex●on , and dependence betuixt themselves , do certainly consist , and are clearly held out . : as the apostles were all the ministers ( waving the matter of the seventie , whose mission and imployment was only locall , and preparatorie , unto every citie , and place , whether he himself would come , and to say the kingdom of god is come nigh unto you , and de facto , ended at their returne , luk . . . & . ) appointed by christ , and in them , the order , office , and full pattern of the gospel ministrie established , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even unto the end of the world , so they are by our lord vested with such equall power , so expresly prohibited the aspiring to , or usurping these degrees , lawfull and allowed in secular dignities , and so enixely commanded the lowliest humility and submission conceivable , not only in their personall conversation , but in their ministrie , that to introduce an imparity , either of power , dignity , or stated preheminence , amongst gospel ministers , is plainly to reject , and deny our lords institution , and ordinance . . that although the apostles were singular above their successors , in many respects , such as an infallible assistance in the discharge of their ministrie , eminencie of gifts , an unconfined exercise , an universall oversight , and the privilege , not only of our lords peculiar and chosen witnesses , but of being the spirituall fathers , and authors of conversion , to almost the whole christian church ; yet were these prerogatives only temporary , and necessarily requisite , and suited to , or depending upon the particular exigence of the gospels first propagation , and so far from changing , or innovating that equality , parity and lowlinesse of ministers , most manifest from our lords command and appointment , that on the contraire , these other advantages , hindered not the apostles , to respect and acknowledge the pastors of particular churches , as partakers with them of the same ministeriall power , their fellow-labourers , brethren ( not in the bare name , as your prelats scorne their curates , and the pope in his pretended sevus servorum dei , the whole roman church ) compresbyters , and in the pastoral charge , altogether their equals . . as the power of government , consisting in the authoritative deciding of controversies , according to the word of god , the due application of ecclesiastick discipline , and censures , and the right regulation of all other things , pertaining to the ministeriall function , is clearly imported in the command of feeding , and over-seeing , beside its naturall inseparability from the conduct of every rational , let be christian , institution and society , and consequently only assistent , and secondarie to the other offices of the ministerie ; so , the lords command of that most lowly submission , and simplicity , incapable of the very notion of imparity , which he opposeth even to that lawfull authority , and dignity allowed in civils , doth in such a peculiar manner , regard the exercise of this governing power , that whether it be more absurd , to introduce a stated degree of superiority and dignity among ministers , in the point of government , or to separate and exalt government , from and above the office of preaching , to which it is subservient , and to appropriate it to certain ministri-prelati , above others , can hardly be determined , i need not here caution concerning ruling elders , seeing the more full description of ecclesiastick government , is here given , in order to ministers , in which these elders being only partiall sharers , it is not more agreeable to their warrant , then suitable to this position , . as the grounds of the equality and parity of ministers by us asserted , are by these truths plainly held out ; so that superiority of power , though still ministerial , competent to the meetings of the brethren , as well over the severall constituent members , as over the church according to their warrant hereafter declared , is thereto very consistent , and thereby mostly established : whether these things , all evident in the doctrine , and practice of christ and his apostles , do not fairely exhibite , the principles and platform of a presbyterian ministerie and its ministerial parity , let men judge . really sir , when i consider preaching , to be the main office , even our lords own commission , & great erand into the world , discipline to be dependent upon it , and wholly referable to its end , and a simple ministerial government , only allowed for the regulation and advancement of both , and when i do remember , that neither the glorious excellencie of the lord jesus , hindered him to be amongst his disciples , as he who served ; nor did the many advantages of the apostles , and others extraordinarily gifted , and accordingly imployed and sent out , as their assistents , requisite in the churches infancie , make them assume to themselves , or endeavour to settle in the church , any superior order , above the degree of preaching elders , and overseers , whom they allwayes respected as their equals , in the work of the gospel : and thirdly when i call to minde , that wherever a church came to be gathered , the apostles did either by themselves , as at lystra , iconium and antioch , or by their fellow labourers ( as timothy at ephesus , and titus in crete ; there left and appointed by paul for the work , and charged to leave the place when called ) therein ordain elders , without any imparity , or higher order , and that paul after , having testified that he had keep back nothing profitable , nor shuned to declare all the counsel of god ; but shewed them all things , did commit to the elders of ephesus , the full charge and oversight of the church of god , without appointing any angel . prelat over them : and lastly when i reflect how that in the beginnings of the gospel at ierusalem , all things almost were acted by common counsel : that where , and when , the christian name did first take place , there and at the same time , we finde a presbyterie of prophets and teachers assembled , and acting jointly , and by the command of the holy ghost , sending out even the greatest of the apostles , as subject to them , that paul imposeth hands with the presbyterie , & termeth it their deed , & peter exhorts elders , as his fellows & their compresbyter ; when i say i ponder these things● they do make me assuredly conclude , the ministrie & government of the church in the way of presbyterie , to be as much iuris divini , as it is opposite to , and removed from your hierarchie . having thus discovered the foundation , and traced the undeniable lineaments of presbyterie in the word of god , i may not insi●t upon the inconsonant deformities of prelacie , only this i must say , that though prelacie were not attended , with many and great corruptions , and in its exaltation ( mark it lest you think me injurious to good men ) had not been alwayes enemy to religion , and godliness ; yet a superiour order of church-men , usurping from the pastors of the flock of god , the ministerial power of iurisdiction , and the only right of ordination , and acclaiming to themselves the sole management of government , as their proper work , with dignity and authority over their brethren , hath neither warrant , nor vestige in the scripture of the new testament : but is so palpably the invention of man , that , it is not a greater wonder , that the devil should have improved it to all that pride , avarice , wickednesse and villany , which it hath produced , then it is a mysterie , how the world should have been thereby imposed upon , and have endured , all its rapine , sacrilege and usurpation , under the pretext of religion , to which it is so repugnant . i come now to try how you impugne the jus divinum , which we assert for lay elders , and other matters condescend●d up on by you , and therefore hitherto by me not touched : you say lay-elders are founded on no scripture , as the most judicious amongst us acknowledge ; and you wonder , that when we urge from the apostles giving rules only for bishops , and deacons , that diocesans must be shu●fled out , how we do not also see , that ruling elders , are not there . who these most judicious amongst us in scotland , may be , who deny lay or rather ruling elders , to have any scripture warrant , seeing your own n. c. is none of the number , i cannot apprehend ; but for your wonder , i think it may be easily satisfied , if you will but consider , that it is not from the simple omission of diocesans , in this text , that we exclude them from the church : but since it is manifest from the epistles to timothy and titus that the true apostolick bishop was no other , either in name or office , then a presbyter : nay , that by the rules to him set down , your diocesans is plainly cast , and rejected , like as both in acts chap. . and titus the names of bishop and presbyter are promiscuously used , is it not clearly concludent , that your diocesan hath no scripture warrant , whereas the ruling elder , as he is not in these places confounded , and made the same with the preaching elder , but may justly enough share both in the general names of elder , and over-seer , and also in their rules without any incosistence ; so his liquid warrant , as a distinct officer , is elswhere obviously extant . in the next place you add , that the brethren in the council at ierusalem prove too much , viz. that our elders are judges o● doctrine● but if their concurrence , both in the me●ting and in the decree , may be fairly understood of an assisting and approving suff●age , without attributing to all unanimous assenters , the same power and authority of deciding , as is very casible , in any other heterogeneous assembly , whether our argument conclude from the brethren , as distinguished from the apostles , and preaching elders , and therefore to be taken for ruling elders , or from the elders there mentioned , as including both the preaching and ruling elders , your ab●u●dity doth not follow , and our argument is nothing convelled : but you say , it is absurd to think , that , that was a church judicature : pray sir , not so fast , you would say , that , that meeting was not a general synod ; for that it was a church judicature its decree doth evince : as to the arguments taken for ruling elders from the exhortation to rule with diligence , and the enumeration of helps , and governments , amongst other gifts bestowed on the church , seeing they are not adduced as by themselves , so convincingly concludent , but as accessory to these other places , whereby the distinct office being proved , the promise and gift agreeable , cannot but add a considerable light : your terming them sandie foundations is as foolish , as your calling helps , and governments , extraordinary gi●ts , is groundlesse . but both your n. c. and i inquire what you say to that scripture let the elders that rule well , be counted worthy of double honour , especially they who labour in the word and doctrine , that here both the preaching and ruling elder are included , in the word elder , as i hinted before , and that a distinction is made , of him who both preaches , and rules , from him that only rules , is manifest , from the words ; and you are so far thereby convinced , that you acknowledge the office controverted to be spoken of , but you say the text supposeth its bei●g , but doth not bear its institution , this is truely exact and strict ; it seems you remember not , that although all that was ever pleaded in behalf of your bishops , and the faire likelikood for them , which you would draw from the angels of the churches , proceeds only upon a supposition , of the thing in being ; yet none of our side , do redargue your arguing , from that place only , for want of an express institution : consider therefore sir , that , if the being of our elders office , be in this scripture supponed , and commended , its institution is also thereby supponed , and commended , and this nicety of yours , is no evasion ; but adding that there are five or six glosses put on these words , which you protest ( without any reason ) to be better then ours , you give us your own , thus : [ let such among you , as are fixed to rule particular charges , be doubly honoured ; but specially these evangelists , who medle not in rule , but labour in word and doctrine . ] sir , i am sorry that having plenty , you have made choise of one , so many wayes peccant , as importing , first , that at the time of the writing of this epistle , there were elders fixed to particular charges or parishes within ephesus , whereof the contraire is most commonly and probably held , . that either there were at the same time , beside your fixed elders unfixed evangelists , belonging properly to ephesus ; or that the apostle speaks here of these catholick evangelists , who belonged not to timothie's inspection , but which is worst of all , your gloss plainly destroyes the text , for whereas paul doth first deliver a general , that all well-ruling elders be doubly honoured , and addes a speciall ampliation , d● natura regulae of the nature of a rule , in favours of these , who also preach , you expresly say , that these preachers medled not with rule , and flatly deny them to be of the number of these well-ruling elders , which are to be honoured : next , where the text makes labouring in the word , an additament to well ruling , and therefore deserving a special allowance , you preferre the sole merit of preaching to the double deserving , of both preaching and well-ruling : but i pursue your raveries too far , the words are plain , well-ruling elders , preachers or not preachers , are to be doubly honoured ; but such who do both preach and rule well , have the preheminence : now whether or not you have shown , our elders to be ill grounded i leave it to your second thoughts . but you proceed to surprize your n. c. with a how want you deacons ? and then you tell him , that we had indeed somewhat called deacons , but they were not scripture-deacons ; for such were not lay-persons but ecclesiastick , separate by imposition of hands , for the function , and so were to continow , whereas we yearly altered our elders , and deacons . sir , though in this point you represent our leaders as deceivers , yet really , i should be sorry , that you were aswell known to be a calumniator , as the deacons used in our churches , are clearly found in our bibles : their institution acts . is plain , specially vers . wherefore brethren , look ye out among you seven men of honest report , full of the holy ghost and wisdom , whom we may appoint over this businesse viz. the dayly ministration , and serving of tables : from which scripture , our practice of chosing honest , approved men , for the ministration of charity , there meant , and the serving of tables , is so exactly copyed out , that i cannot but admire your confidence : but you say , that scripture deacons were not lay-persons , but separate by imposition of hands : if by separation you mean the solemn appointment and designation of deacons , and hold the same sufficient to make them ecclesiastick , our deacons as well as these in the text , are indeed ecclesiastick ; but if by separation you understand a totall and perpetual sequestration , from secular medling , as you cannot be ignorant , that it was and is the wish of many worthies amongst us , that the church could have been served with such elders and deacons ; so , seing inevitable nece●●●tie , through the want of an al●mony , hath forced both our church , & other reformed churches , which observe the same practice with ours , to make use of such as they can get , it is no commendable practice in you , who are such a pretender to modestie and civility , to cast up this lamented de●ect , as our unpardonable blemish ; since it had become you rather , who would be accounted a kindly child of the church of scotland , to have overtured a way how the church patrimony ( whereby these officers of the church might have lived ) may be recovered from the harpyes who devoure it now without remorse : neither hath the after abuse of deacons , unto a preaching order , used in the roman church , any scripture warrant , as is clear from the text , and the rules therein expressed : i grant we finde in scripture philip chosen a deacon in the . chap , and preaching chap . vers . acts , and that it is probable , that this and the like practices , were there after made the occasion , and colour , of the formentioned abuse , but if you suppose that the first deacons did preach by vertue of their institution , you have no just ground for it in the word : and philips preaching , is so plainly annexed to an extraordinary dispensation , or tacite mission to him and to many others , upon the dispersion after stephens ma●tyrdom , insinu●te in the . vers of the . chap. that i doubt not , but a second reading will convince you . next you add , that scripture deacons , were separate by imposition of hands , for the ●unction . i grant , that was the manner of their first solemn d●signation ; but if the chuch , by reason of the posterior abuse , of which , in probability , the mistaking of this forme hath not been the lest cause , or because of the reason formerly hinted viz. that because of the want of a competent maintainance , they could not get such as would be totally and perpetually separa●ed fo● that work , hath thought fit , notwithstanding that they do warrantably retain it in the ordination of ministers , yet prudently to disus●●● in that of deacons , will you therefore conclude that we disown the thing it self ? but you tell us , that scripture deacons were to continow , whereas we alter ours every year : you said first , that we took away from them their church-office , without a fault ; but remembring that our annual change , is not a deposing from the office , only used by us in the case of demerit , but a relieving from the exercise , you did well to phrase your charge better , in the terme of altering : in answere whereunto , i deny that the scripture doth repugne to our custome , nor can yow show any text in the contraire : nay i question not , but he vvho considers the end , for which deacons were first institute , vvill easily grant , that vvhen philip became an evangelist , he ceased from the exercise of his diaconat , and that though the then particular condition , and communion of goods , in use amongst the first believers at ierusalem , did not require this reliefe to be expresly provided for ; yet the after state of things , both there and in other churches , not permitting their constant attendance , nor providing for them any stipend , might have induced it . having thus weakly objected against our deacons you ask in the next place , why want you diaconesses , whose order , qualifications , age and imployment , are particularly set down in scripture ? to which you cause your n. c. very poorly answere , that he hath heard many of our ministers say , the want of them was a fault : but seing i am not of his opinion , i make this reply to your demand , that we want diaconesses . because the appointment of the office hath no clear scripture testimony ; its true , that passage . tim. . . is commonly understood of your diaconesse , and by these better seen in antiquity of these feminine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quae faeminarum mores formabant , who did teach the women good manners and differed as much from the diaconesse , whose office it was , faeminas pauperes , aut aegrotas pecuniâ aut operâ sublevare , to help the poor , or sick women with money or service . as our elders do from our deacons ; yet if a man should interprete that whole text , to be meant of such , who were to be received unto a more special manner of the churches charity , seeing their by-past deservings only , and not their future imployment , appear there to be noted , and the command subjoined ver. . to believers to releive their own widows , doth insinuat no less , i could not accuse him of any straining : and as for that other scripture , rom. . ver . . where we finde phebe termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a servant of the church , it may be so properly , and easily understood of her occasional services , without making her an officer , that it signifies nothing in the contraire . but . admitting that the primitive church among the grecians , whose women did live under a more severe rule , and were not so accessible , as among the jews , as interpreters doth note , had therefore both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and diaconissas , aswel as presbyteros and diaconos , whereas the jews did only use the latter , it may possibly inferre that women in case of an urgent necessity , are not incapable of these offices ; but doth no wayes conclude either distinct offices institute in the primitive church● and unknown among us , or that we who enjoy and practise a more free converse , like unto that of the jews , ought to imitate the practice of the grecian austerity , and weaknes : and therefore since our deacons are sufficient to perform the duties appertaining to the office , and are not by our customes excluded from a due and decent administration to both sexes , your objection of our want of diaconisses , is but an emptie inadvertent cavil : i could further tell you , that a form or constitution , observing all things that are of divine precept , though using other things of no necessary nature , only according to their exigence , may neverthelesse be perfect and of divine right , but the former answeres do fully cleare the matter . the third defect you challenge is , why wanted you evangelists ? and because your n. c. answeres , that , that was ane extraordinary thing , you think you picque him wittily , when you say , any thing in scripture that makes f●r you , call it ordinary ; and what doth not please , is extraordinary : and yet in the very preceeding page , in answere to the argument for ruling elders , from helps and governments , you tells us more bluntly , that by these are meant some extraordinary gi●ts ; but not to detain you in this matter , that evangelists are only proper , and profitable in the penurie o●●e●●ed ●astors , not only their first use , but both the order and edification , that clearly appears , in a distinct affixing of ministers to their respective flocks , doth abundantly evidence : as to what you say of the peculiar eminencie , of some pastors , and the imp●ssibility of such a mini●●erie for a whole ch●rch , as wer● to be d●sir●d , as it doth not a little impinge upon the dispensations of the most high , so , it is more vain , then to counterballance the inconveniencies , which would follow on your conclusion ; but if you will ref●ect how in the beginnings of our reformation , both superintendants and others were sent out by our church , upon the like imployment , having provinces , and not parishes committed to their oversight , you must of necessity acknowledge , our due esteem , and seasonable use-making of this excellent gift in that exigent of necessity ; and if you account these to have been evangelists ( though you shall have many who shall dissent from you in this , upon many accounts , ye● ) ●ou will be constrained to acknowledge , that we do not construe it to be so extraordinary , as to restrict it wholly to the primitive times . you object in the nex● place , where do you read in scripture , your classical subordination of sessions to presbyteries , & c ? before i make use of your n. c. answere , let me first imp●ove ●our own acknowledgement : you say● this is indeed rational , and orderly , and thence i inferre , in opposition to your assertion , that therefore it is founded on a divine right : i am not so captio●s , as to build this consequence , upon that na●ural divine right , which is the undoubted impr●ss , and light of reason , na● , but taking divine right● for a divine right positive , as they speak , my conclusion proceeds thus : the church of christ , by express divine appointm●●t● is constitute in one society being made one body , gathered into one ; and from the beginning , the more pur● , the more joint , and unite in all counsels and prac●ices : therefore what ever is the natural , and rational right and privilege of a society , must also appertain to it , by vertue of the same right , whereon its constitution subsists ; the reason is , because , in every concession , the things natural and proper to that which is conceded , are certainly understood , to be imported : now that union in counsel , and power in the whole , over the parts , and the subordination of the parts unto the whole , in matters pertaining and relating to the body , and concerning its end , are the inseparable propri●ties , and privilege of a society , is evident a●ove exception : which argument is the more confirmed , that in the acts of the apostles , we finde the church assembling , and by common counsel managing its affaires , and determining differences , not by any speciall and expresse warrant or command , but meerly in the exercise of this intrinsick power , compet●nt to the church as gathered , and erected in one society : this right then and power of meetings being undeniable to the whole by the same reason & precedent they are confirmed to the parts , the subordination whereof to the whole , cannot be drawn in doubt : thus you see , how your own grant , affirmeth what you d●ny : but your n. c. answeres further that they at antioch send up to them at jerusalem ; and are not the spirits of the prophets subject to the prophets . to these scriptures you reply , beginning with the last , that it is clear , that in that place the apostle is speaking of p●r●chial churches , which subjection none deny : but sir , is not that which you call in question , the subordination of sessions to presbyteries : now if the apostle tell us , that the spirit of the prophets , who in the dayes o● the apostles , had many of them charge pro indiviso jointly , over the same church , but now a dayes , have their distinct charges over parochial churches , are subject to the prophets , gathered in one assembly , may not the subordination questioned , be sufficiently thence concluded , especially seing i can hardly suppose you so anti-episcopal , as to be independant , and still to doubt , after the many irrefragable demonstrations given by the presbyterians , whether this church of corinth was a presbyterial , and not a meer congregational or parochial church . as for what else may be in your return i confesse i reach it not , seeing that at the time of the apostles writing , we finde no divided parishes , and to fancie that the subjection spoken of , wa● of the prophets , in one parochial church , such as at that time there was properly none , and not rather of the many prophets , having the charge pro indiviso jointly , over the whole company of the beleevers , in that citie , in which many parishes were virtually included , is groundless and absurd . to the first instance you say , it is ridiculous to urge it , seing they of antioch sent not up to jerusalem , either as to a church superior , or as to an oecumenick councel , but to men there who were immediatly inspired . that they sent not up as to an oecumenick councel , i cannot dissent from you , seing i finde in the text no suitable concurse for , or vestige of such an assembly ; but that they sent not up as to a church superior is by you ill asserted and worse proved , seing . the phrases in the letter sent from that meeting , that certain which went out from us , and it seemed good &c. to lay upon you , and that the same letter is termed a decree , do clearly prove a superior authority in the writers . . because the example which ye adduce from the jews their high priest for confirming your gloss , doth plainly redargue you , in as much as the jews consulted not the high priest , his urim and thummim without regard to his authority ; but consulted him as the high priest , and the person to whom god had therefore committed them , deut. . v. . . & . putting them in the breast-plate termed of judgement , and not of responses : but you may say , supposing the matter was thus carried , what makes it for your assemblies ? i answere , yes very much : for it sheweth . that , if the apostles , who all of them severally were immediatly inspired , and so might have determined this controversie , did notwithstanding join with other ordinary elders or church●officers , and by common counsel give out their decrees , that common councels & their authority in the church , are juris divini . . that as the church of antioch , in which the apostle paul , barnabas , and several other prophets were● and the other churches in asia , received and submitted to the decrees , so , it evidently intimats a subordination of these , making as it were one provincial church , to that great assembly of the apostles & elders conveened at ierusalem . you subjoin in this place , that if that meeting at jerusalem was a councel , then all councels may speak in their stile , it seems good to the holy ghost , &c. it 's answered . the connexion o● your proposition , containeth an obvious non sequitur , in as much , as it is not from their being a councel , but from the certainty of these scripture evidences whereupon their determination proceeds , that their prefacing of the minde and sentenc● of the holy ghost doth flow . . that , that meeting was a councel of the apostles , and elders at ierusalem , a conveened in one to consulte , reason and exercise authority , which severally was not so satisfying ●or the very apostles to do , notwithstanding of their immedi●●e assistance , is plain from the text , & especially pauls deference to them . . if you imagine that ecclesiastick councels cannot be of divine right unlesse they have the spirits absolute and infallible assistance , you erre as grossly , as he who for want of this infallibility , should deny to the church a standing min●strie , by divine institution . . though the infallible guidance of the holy ghost given to the apostles , a●d being to them in stead of the rule , was indeed singular and extraordinary ; yet as the lord to all his ordinances , hath annexed the promise of an agreeable presence , which doth not fail the sincere and faithfull improvers , so , church assemblies in matters of faith to them committed , and following the rule thereto prescribed are also thereby countenanced , and in sound beleeving and upright walking , may both attain to , and profess their assurance of the holy ghosts assistance . ● seing that all councel-acts and canons , anent matters of faith , ought to be guided by the spirit , and conform to the word of god , and enacted and emitted in this persuasion , these meetings that truly keeping the rule , and sincerely laying hold on the promise , do proceed in their determinations , may therein warrantably use the apostles words ; and such as do otherwayes , are only culpable in the presumptuous usurpation , because they have not rightly followed , and in effect attained unto the rule of the word , and the conduct of the spirit , which ought indeed to be their warrant . . having on these clear grounds declared the authority of ecclesiastick meetings in matters of faith , i freely grant that in other things , which may be incident to their cognition , and are not of faith nor defined in scripture , they have neither the like warrant , nor may they use the like expressions ; and therefore as in this case , they cannot found upon the lords commandments , so they are only to be respected as such , who are intrusted to give their judgement , and have obtained mercie of the lord to be faithfull . . the contradiction which you alledge it is for fallible men to say , it seems good to the holy ghost , is abundantly salved , both by the infallible rule of the word , to which they are astricted , and by the never-failing promise of him who is the truth , and will be with his own to the end of the world : and your lapse in this objection , is but the same with your former against ministers , their calling their preaching the word of god , which i have already fully confuted : and thus i hope all impartial men may see that the jus divinum , being in this matter our rule , the independants have not the better of us , as you groundlesly give out . next you proceed to challenge our discipline , and what warrant we have for it ? but , seing as to the substance you are satisfyed by your n. c. answere , from the excommunicating the incestuous person , and the noteing these that walk disorderly , together with his & caetera ( which you may finde very clearly amplifyed by many able men ) and do only fall a nibling at the circumstances of publick repentance , why so many dayes ? ( which might be questioned of any number ) and why in a place of repentance ? and why sometimes the use of sack-cloath ? all well enough answered by your n. c. his telling you of the power of order in external circumstances , given to the church for edification , i come to weigh , the stollen advantage , that you flatter your self to have gained , over your poor adversarie , which you carry on● with the like questions : as . why may the church impose such days of penitence , and not as well order to all , for the sins of the year , the penitence , of lent. . why is a part separate for penitents , and not for communicating ? and thirdly why may not a church-man officiat in a surplice as-well as a penitent put on sack-cloth ? and that the simple may fancie a pungencie in these empty conceits , you make your n. c. confess a surprisall , and refuge himself in a childish implicite belief of his ministers ability above his own : whereupon you so vainly triumphe , that i am ashamed to represent such a mean piece of pageantrie , but to the matter , dayes are assigned to penitents , because time being a necessary requisite , and its lengthening or shortening , very conducible for the end of publick penitence , the edification of the church the deterring of others , and the through convincing and gaining of the person , according to either the quality of the offence , or condition of the offender , its prudent regulation , as of a matter therefore left undefined , can no more be denyed to the church , then the exacting of penitence it self ; but as for your expiatory quarantam of lent , as it bears no parity to the reason by me adduced , so , it imports such a delay of repentance , hardening in sin , encrease of superstition , and relaxing again to licentiousness , that it is hard to say , whether its appointment be more groundless , or its effects pernicious ? if you , object its first rise , and occasion , from the wel-meaning observance of pious men , i will not tell you , that the samine flowed from their mistake , of our lords total and miraculous abstinence by the space of dayes , neither by himself repeated , nor by his apostles imitated : nor what a superstructure of vanity , may be built on such foundations : but when you consider its great depravation , and bad fruits , i hope you will easily incline to say what is the chaff to the wheat ? the invention of man , to the ordinance of god ? . a place is separate for penitents that they may be noted , rebuked and ashamed , that others may fear ; but to separate a place for communicating , more then is done by us , in the time of the administration , what shadow of reason can be adduced for it ? specially after the idolatrous superstition , whereunto it hath been abused , and from which unto this day , mens mindes are not throughly purged : witnes these superstitious bowings , cringins , and kneelings , which your english prelatick-church doth still retain . as to the third point , i will not say , that where the surplice in t●ken of innocencie is most used , the sack-cloth of penitence would be more agreeable : nor may i stand to shew you the usurpation , and evils of mens imposing significant ceremonies , others have done this already unanswerably , but the disparity which i finde in your inference , is that sack-cloth in penitence for grosser sins , was by us appointed ( though not universally and constantly practised ) not as properly significant , either of the penitents guilt , or remorse , seeing it hath to neither any suitable report ; but as that , which being at first the squallid neglect flowing from , and thence becoming the customable effect of deep and bitter mourning , might be both a humbli●ng badge to the delinquent , and a mean of fear to others ; whereas your surplice , is arbitrarily institute , and imposed to signify innocencie , without either reall foundation , or sufficient warrant , wherein , whether you do more usurp against god's prerogative , to appoint sacred and mysterious signes , and that simplicitie , in which he hath set forth his gospel , or be more grosly mistaken in the event , and fruit of your application , is a great question ? i grant , that necessity or decence , have introduced many things circumstan●ial , that are rational , and consequently upon some real antec●dent ground , expressive of their use and end : as grave apparel in pastors , a becoming covering of pulpits , tables in sacred use , regulation of time , postures , gestures , and the like , without which , wo●ship cannot be performed ; but to ascribe a liberty to the church , of appointing ceremonies , having for reason of their signification , the will of the instituter , and their use only in the representation , is so manifest an impingement upon divine authority , and the sacraments thereby o●dained , and hath already produced such a mass of superstitious superfluity , in the romish-church , that i much admire to finde a serious person , pleading for such fopperies ; specially seing , that this once granted , and common resemblances sustained for good warrants , not only all christians might be put to year● at least to assemble alwayes in their whites , but all the all●gories in scripture , as the drinking in of the sincere milk of the word , stand therefor● having your loins girt , &c. and hundreds more , may be turned unto such vain shows , yea all imagerie more probably allowed : where you say that both surplice and sack-cloth were equally practised under the law , i must by the wa● tell you , that i finde not sack-cloth therein commanded as a solemn significant ceremonie , i say commanded as a solemne ceremonie , for that you finde it , not only mention●d , as the ordinary concomitant of more grievous mournings , nay by the prophets even literally commanded , as also baldnes , sitting in the dust , ●owling and wallowing in ashes , the better to express that serious mourning , whereunto the lo●d did call , is plainly obvious , and can only inferre , that therefore , and after this manner , it is the more capable to be still contained . and for the surplice , or rather the white linen and the ephods , beside their expr●ss warrant , the main thing of this controversie , they had such an agreeable conveniencie , and de●encie to the service of sacrificing , then in use , and might probably in the priests , to whom they appertained , have had such a prefiguing respect to the immaculate innocencie of jesus christ , our great priest and sacri●●ce , and yet did so little appear in the more solemne garments of th● high priest , that the example adduced doth rather redargue , then confirme your continuance of this , now idle rite : i might further tell you , that the use of sack cloth among us was not offended at ; and if it had , would probably have been forborne ; and also adde to these clear disparities , your rigid imposing and exacting of these your doctrines , more then the commandments of god , both in prejudice of christian liberty , and to the slighting of true godliness ; but whether the disparities above mentioned be subtile shifts as you are pleased to judge , before you hear , or solid differences , these who are less prejudicate will easily discerne . in the next place , you returne , to show us our difformity , with the scripture-pattern , in demanding why we do not observe the decree of the first councel at ierusalem ? to which i answere ; that we observe it , except in so far as it was designed to be temporarie , and framed to bury the synagogue with honour viz. in the matters of bloud and things strangled : and as for meats offered to idols , the apostle paul did thereafter declare that point , so that in these particulars , the decree doth not reach us : this answere as to your reply differeth nothing from your non-conformists . and therefore i proceed , and really sir , i finde in your return such pitiful inadvertencies , as to the text of scripture , that i cannot but premise my wish , that in the study of it you may become more serious . . you say that to alledge that the exceptions in the decree were made to please the jews , is a divised phansie against expresse scripture , and yet the text beareth , iames first propounding the thing , and plainly adding , this reason act. . . for moses in old time hath in every city them that preach him , &c. whereupon it follows , then pleased it the apostles , pray sir , consider the text , and what this then can els import ? . you say st paul wrote his epistle before he went to jerusalem and yet james tells him these things were still observed there ; whence you infer that commands in externals may be both local and temporarie : what indistinctnesse , and bad logick have we here ? if you mean that paul wrote his epistle , that i mean anent meats offered to idols , before he went up to ierusalem , from the church of antioch , to that councel of the apostles , and elders , the scripture is contraire , showing that his travels unto greece , and all his dealing with the corinthians , yea and almost all his epistles , were thereafter ; but if you mean that he wrote befor his going up thereafter mentioned act. . it may be so indeed , as to his epistles to the corinthians , and some other , but then the apostle iames , only tells him , that the beleeving jews were still zealous of the law , and that they were offended , that he taught the iews among the gentiles to forsake moses , which is so far from concerning the decree under consideration , or the proving your point , that a thing may be obligatory in one place , and not in another , that as iames adviseth paul to purge himself of that calumny , anent the jews , so v. he expresly resumeth , and secludeth the case of the gentiles , before determined : as to your other inference , that commands in externals , are not intended ●or lasting obligations , i grant this decree , or any other having a temporary reason , is thereby determinable ; but if your meaning agree to your too visible design , to resolve the e●durance of these things , which are absolutely setled , into the arbitriment of the church , or rather of the civil powers ( for it is evident , that , though in all your discourse , you pretend the church , yet you take your measures from the civil authority ) it is not only groundless , from the matter of the apostles th●ir decree , but of dangerous consequence , to the shaking loose of all religion : for proof whereof , see how upon the back of this discourse , you boldly attempt to make even the very sacraments arbitrarie , by asking why we●●se not washing of feet , since there is no sacrament set down more punctually in scripture ? and when your n. c. retorts , that you are under the same obligation ( which retortion may be pertinently made to most of your objections ) you tell him , that you have a clear answere , that in these externals , god intended no perpetual obligation ; and therefore in them you follow the practice of the catholick church : o unhappy bohemians , and you other christians , who suffered so much , and so grievously , for the retainning of the cup , in the sacrament of the lords supper ; if this new doctor , who with his new light , can penetrate unto the secrets of god , and measure the duration of his intentions , had lived in your dayes , he could have told you , that the cup is but an externall thing , under no perpetual obligation , and by his doctrine of conve●●encie , led you to a safe and peacefull accommodation to the practice of the catholick church : but sir , they are at rest : as for this your laxe acceptation of a professed indifferency in externals , what part of the christian religion or worship , may it not corrupt , or subvert ? and seing it doth tolerate and allow , the not practising of the washing of feet , to you , as well founded in scripture , as either of the sacraments , would it not in a just parity of reason , dispense with , and forego these also ? this is indeed doctrine so damnable , that i hope it shall never need an antidote , and therefore i returne to examine your third or eight sacrament ( i know not which , for all are but externall ) of washing of feet , and you say , that it hath in scripture of element , water , the action , washing the feet , the institution , as i have done so do ye , and ye ought to wash one anothers feet ; and the spiritual use of it , humility : whence you conclude . why do ye not there ore use this rite ? to which last point , it is , that waving any further discourse an●nt the nature , and requisites of a sacrament , whereof , notwithstanding your parrallel description of this washing , yet i perceive you are loath to apply the name , i shall direct my answere viz. that this washing is not to be used , because , though our lord did practise this lowly act of condescendence , as eminently expressive of that humility , whereunto he would have his disciples instructed ; yet , neither is it in it self , of the nature of a sacramental signe , whereof all the significancie is from the institution , and vertue in the exhibition of the thing signified , which you cuningly omit to mention ; nor doth christ perform it by way of institution , for repetition ; but by way of example , for imitation , as is manifest from the text , iohn , . . &c. where we finde , that our lord doth first wash his disciples feet , before he told them what he was a doing , and then having done the act not simply significant by his appointment ; but of it self as the effect expressing the greatest humility as its cause , he teaches them not a ●o●emne reiteration , but the use in these words , if i your lord and master have washed your feet , ye also ought to wash on anothers feet : if i have been among you as he that serveth , so ought ye to serve one another ; for i have given you an example that ye should do as i have done to you . i have not shewed you humility in a figure , to be repeated for your remembrance , but by a solid practice taught you , the like performance : so that to turne this pattern unto a rite , is in effect as far from our lords purpose , as the instruction of plai● examples , is preferable to that of mystick representations : which exposition is so true , and sound , that as this phansie of yours , was never owned by the church of christ , so , it is most certain , that wh●re it hath been followed , ( i mean by the pope ) and this action hath been used , as a rite , it hath only been made a colour to the most prodigious , and superlative pride , that ever the sun beheld : and thus i hope all men may see that the not using of this washing , never again used , for any thing we read , by way of sacrament , or ceremony , either by our lord , or his apostles , and churches ; is neither a difformity in us , from the scripture , nor an argument for your irreligious laxenesse in things you call externals . as for your demand , why in your worship do you not kiss one another with a holy kiss ? seing it is no where commanded in worship , as you seem boldly and ignorantly to suppose , and the christian manner of the thing , in customary civility , is only recommended by the apostle , as an allay of chastity , and kindnesse in civil rencounters , the question is , but a petulant extravagancie of your vain imagination . next you enquire why do you not anoint the sick with oyl ? i answere though you addresse this demand to a n. c. yet it is evident , that your conclusion of difformity to the scripture pattern thence inferred , is equally levelled , against the whole protestant church , wherein this ceremony is univer●a●ly di●used , and that not from your vain warrant of the churches authority in and over things expressly commanded , as you judge this rite to be ; no , this is a presumption so high , and laxe , that even the grossest papists , are unwilling to avouch it ; but the ●ound answere of all the churches is , that as the custome of anointing might have been occasioned , from an observance then in use in these parts , where anointings were much more ordinary then in our parts of the world ; so , it is mentioned in the scripture by the apostle iames , not by way of command , but as the accustomed symbole , adhibite in the exercise of the gift of healing , which being then ordinary in the church , is commanded to be applyed by the prayer of faith , whereunto the effect is solely re●erred , and only with the formality of anointing , as being then customary in the like cases , seing then that the text runs clearly thus , is any sick ? let him call the elders , and let them pray over him anointing him with oil in the name of the lord , and the prayer of saith shall save the sick ; and that the application of the extraordinary gift of healing by prayer , with the then us●all circumstance of anointing● is here only enjoyned , how can you make this text binding as to the manner and circumstance ? when you cannot but acknowledge , that the substance viz. the power of healing is ceased . but having made your n. c. say that the apostle promises recovery upon the anointing , you turne to fight with your own shadow , and tell him there is no such matter ; that the recovery is promised to prayer , and also forgivenesse ; and seing we pray by all for their raising up , and that they may be forgiven , why do we not aswel anoint ? but , what logick can make out this consequence in as much as anointing being there only spoken of as the concomitant rite used in the application of the gift of healing , it is manifest that without the existence and exercise of the gift it self , it is not now to be repeated ; and therefore though prayer be principally commanded as the speciall mean , by which even the gift of miracles was actuate and made effectuall , and to this day doth remain as the great one by which all the promises either for raising up or remission are drawen out unto effect ; yet thence to inferre that anointing , a peculiar solemnity in the gift of healing , should still continow , notwitstanding the gift it self be ceased , is , very absurd : now that anointing was an ordinary observance in the exercise of the gift of healing you may read it clearly in the disciples practice mark . . and they anointed with oil ma● that ●●re sick and healed them . this being then the just and true account , not only of our practice , but also of that of the whole reformed churches , how vain and ridiculous are you to tell us , that our pretense of scripture is but to impose on women and simple people , and all our persuasion , grave nods and bigwords : but leaving you to puff petulantly where you can prove nothing , i proceed to your next demand , who taught us the change of the sabbath ? and you say we will read the bible long ●re we finde it there ; which you think sufficiently proved , when you tell us that the churches meeting recorded to have been on the first day of the week , saveth not that they antiquated the saturnday , ( as you are pleased very cours●y to speak ) and that of the lords day , sayeth yet less : sir , for answere , let me only tell you , that by this your conceited slighting of arguments , which you cannot answere , with your vain arguings , against these things which you cannot disprove , you have discovered to me the deep wisdom of solomons contradictory-like advice , answere a fool● and answere him not , prov. . and . in so sa●●s●●ying a reconciliation , that remitting you for answere , lest you be wise in your own conceit , to the labou●s of these who have cleared this point above cavillation , i ●orbear to make any further answere lest i should be like unto you ; only i think it worth the observing how like the progresse of your dangerous libertinisme is to that verdict of the apostles , . tim. . . your first sally was only against ruling elders and deacons , the next attacques the very discipline of church , your third endeavours to introduce the superstition of lent , the table altar-wise , & the surplice , & to corrupt the worship , your fourth resolves the necessity of baptisme and the lords supper , into the churches arbitriment , your fifth pleads for extreame unction , or els a liberty and power to the church above the scripture , and your sext to compleat the carier of your delusions . notwithstanding that the cl●arest light both of reason and religion , do exact a definite constant portion of time , for a rest , and this rest to be holy unto the lord , that the law of god in recommending the celebration of the old sabbath , doth found it upon a perpetual determination of the seventh part of time , grounded on divine authority , and example , and lastly , that the scripture in the antiquating of the service and observation of the jewish sabbath , doth evidently translate the keeping of the perpetual holy rest unto the lords day , the first of the week , notwithstanding , i say , of these firme grounds your sext attempt darres to unfix this grand ordinance , the reverence or contempt whereof , hath in all ages of the church , by experience been found of great moment , and unquestionable influence , either as to the promoving or decay of true piety and godlinesse : how justly may it be said of you and your compli●es , who endeavour to make void the divine institution of this day , which your predecessours so grosly and wickedly profaned , ye be witnesses there ore unto your selves , that you are their children , fill ye up the measure of your fathers : but o ●ear lest you do not escape the damnation of hell : i will not take notice of your own or your non-conformist's meen reflection on these things , that they may prove our church was not perf●ct , but will not justify you , your answere to that , which follows viz. do you mean to lay aside the scripture ? 〈◊〉 rather to be considered , wherein leaving the retortion of ●ou● objected insolence , and big pretending , to the impartiall examiner of what you have alledged and i replied ● come ●o your summe of the whole matter , which you say , is , that the scriptures were designed b● god , for the purifying of the hearts and conversations of men ; most true : and therefore it was not necessaire they should contain direct rules for the church-policie , which being a half civill matter , needs not divine warrants , a strange inference , whereof almost every word is a ridle : for first you grant that the scripture doth contain rules though not direct rules for the church-policie , and yet you adde almost immediatly , that it needs no divine warrant : then what mean you by direct rules , if you mean particular as the subjoined antithesis of common doth give us to understand , let these scripture rules common or not be observed , and particular determinations thereto duely squared , and it is all we contend for : search therefore the scriptures and whatever latitude may be left therein , as to the regulation of necessary and common circumstances , according to decencie and order , for edification ; yet i am confident , that as to the substance and main of the officers , discipline , and government of the church ( the matters in controversie betuixt us ) both you shall be found thereby clearly condemned , and we justified : but if by denying the scripture , to contain direct rules , for the church-policie , you understand , that it only holdeth out indirect , unstraight and ambiguous rules , applicable to any forme , as may best sute & serve the interests , and lusts of vain men , this indeed is agreeable to your scope ; but as far from scripture , as it is dissonant to the truth of god , and great ends of the gospel : . what do you understand by the church policie ? its officers , discipline and government are the things which we contend for , if you think these half civil , i would gladly learn what a church as such can have more ecclesiastick ; certainly if a distinct head , jesus christ ; a distinct authority , flowing from that all power given to him ; a distinck manner , nothing like but wholly opposite to the way of civil rule ; distinct effects and ends , as holinesse and eternall perfection , are from external justice , and temporal peace ; and lastly a distinct subsistence of the church , and its policie , not only when disowned , but mortally persecute by the civil powers , may prove the policie ecclesiastick to differ from the civil , there can be nothing more clearly disterminat ; but if by policie you only mean the externall protection , and assistance , which the civil magistrat may , and ought to give to the church , it is not only half , but wholly civil , as to its rise and cause ; and therefore the acknowledgement thereof we render , under god , heartily and entirely , to the powers , which he setteth up : i might further question what you call half civil ? and how you come to deny that divine warrant which at first you half grant ? but i shall content my self , to declare the falshood of your inference , understood of the discipline and government of gods house , the subject of our debate , by shewing you that its plain contradictory is a scripture truth : viz. the scriptures were designed by god for the purifying of the hearts , and conversations of men , and therefore it was necessary they should & they do contain direct rules for the churches policie , wholly ecclesiastick , & appointed by jesus christ : the reason of the consequence is clear , not only because the church policie , viz. its officers , discipline and government , are expresly and directly ordained by our lord , for our sanctification & salvation as i have formerly shewen , & therefore their necessity such as cannot without the highest presumption be called in question : but also , because their usefulnesse , in order to these ends , is by diverse scriptures undeniably held forth : and he ( who as the son was faithful over his own house ) gave some apostles and some prophets . &c. yea and all the gifts , power , authority , and directions to be found in scripture , concerning them , for the work of the ministrie , the edifying of the body of christ , and perfecting of the saints is a truth so evident , that i marvail , how you could adventure on this architectonick reasoning , and offer to lay down the end and project of the gospel , and then frame and modell its institutions , and midses according to your own imagination , and not rather humbly endeavour , in the recognisance of his wonderfull love , and fidelity to , and care of his church , his own body , with all sobriety , to pursue the knowledge , and practice of what things-soever he hath ordained for its edification ? i might further remember you , that the rebuke , and all the censures of discipline are for edification , the saving of the soul , making sound in the faith , and causing others to fear : and that we finde the exercise of the churches authority , and government , in that meeting and decree made at ierusalem , attended with the consolation and establishment of the churches , but if your own concessions be but a little pressed , they will easily exhibite the inconsistencie of your vanity : you say then , that the common rules are in scripture . that there should be church officers , and are not their power , degrees and ministerial authority , as certainly therein defined . that these should be separate for that function , ought not then the best among them , give themselves continually and wholly to prayer , and to the ministerie of the word , without usurping a stated superior order of governing , as their special work , let be immixing themselves by privilege in secular courts and affaires ? . that they should be obeyed : is this their power for discipline and government set down in scripture , & not also its rules & limites ? were the apostles more then ministers of christ , and stewards of the mysteries of god ? was not the sure word of prophecie their great warrant ? when the apostle paul is about to set order in the church of coriath , hear his preface by ye followers of me even as i also am of christ : and as in the ordinance of the lords supper , he only delivers what he had received of the lord , so , even as to that smallest of matters , the length and fashion of the hair , doth he use any other authority , then what he seconds with rational persuasion ? how far was he then from that dominion over our faith , which you ascribe to the church , not only of appointing significant instructing ceremonies , but of abrogating things as expresly ordained , in your opinion , as the true sacraments . , you say , that things should be done to order , edification and peace , keep within these bounds , and invert not this method , and we are agreed ; but if you subsist not in the regulation of the manner , but wil impose new things , which the lord requireth not , nay , which he abhorreth even your own inventions , framed to your own lusts and interests , or produced by your delusions , & then make peace your argument , because ye will not allow it to such , as in conscience cannot conforme ; the lord , who hath founded zion & reigns in it , & who hath builded his house & rules over it , will one day judge : thus you see how these your everlasting obligations , do fully conclude , all the truths that we assert : where you adde that the other rules are now altered with the alterable state of things whereunto they were accommodate , if you understand it soundly , of these things only which are indeed ceased , it is a very certain and allowable truth ; but you remember not that in the very page preceeding , you impute this alteration so grosly● to the bare practice of the catholick church , ( a very doubtfull terme ) and thereby not only unsetle scripture foundations , as to the sacraments , but endeavour to introduce such an arbitrary authority in the church , that in place of establishing true christian liberty , which you seem here to assert , it is evident , that you go about plainly to set up ; an absolute spiritual tyranny , over the church of god , and so to load it with the ceremonies , and innovations , a bondage more severe then the old dispensation , from which we are liberate ; but blessed be our lord jesus christ , who hath delivered us , not only from that old law of ordinances , but hath made us free , that we should be no more the servants of men , nor liable to be judged in meat or drink , or in respect of an holy day , or of the new moon , or of the sabbath ; and having blotted out the hand writting of god's ordinances , that was against us , hath put no new blank in mens hands for their own devices , and superstitions : to conclude then , in your own words , these things are so rationall and also so clearly deduced from your own concessions , that i see nothing either to be excepted against our conformity to the scripture pattern and the true christian liberty , both in opinion , and practice , which we maintain ; or to be alleaged for your pretended liberty , consisting in a licentious absurd imposing on such , whom you acknowledge to be free . but in order to this last point , viz. your attempt to remove a scripture rule , easie in it self , and imparting true libertie to its observers , and to set up an unwarrantable yoke of church authority in its place , i conceive it is , that here you go about , to represent your n. c. as a vain and clamorous boaster , of the crown , throne and kingdome of our lord , on purpose , to prejudicate against our just complaint of your invasion and robbery ; but waving your calumnious methods , i shal only endeavour to speak ●urth the words of truth and sobernesse . i shall not here discourse of the kingdom of christ in all its parts , whereunto we finde in scripture both the outward protection of the church , vengeance upon adversaries , and all judgement , even the great and last ascrived ; but , in order to our present purpose , i affirme plainly , that our lord jesus as the redeemer , is in a peculiar manner exalted to be head and king in and over his church , by vertue of which kingdome , he sendeth forth , and authorizeth his ministers , hath defined their order and power , determined censures , and given and declared laws to be observed in his house , and that in such a manner , and in that perfection , that in all things properly thereto relating , he hath only left to the officers by himself appointed , a ministerial power of administration ; so , that there is neither place left , nor power given , to diminish from , or adde to the officers , laws , censures , and orders , which he hath therein established that these things are so , cannot be better cleared , then by remitting you to our larger catechisme , where , as you will finde satisfying scripture proof for their confirmation , so really i cannot but , by the way , recommend to you its more serious study , for the curing of that loosenesse in principles , which almost in every thing you discover : my part at present shall be to consider your strange discourse on this subject ; you say then , christ's throne , crown and kingdom are inward and spirituall not of the world , nor as the kindoms of the world. sir , though i acknowledge the scripture phrase , in this matter to be metaphoricall ; yet i wish you had better observed it , and forborn the hard and unused expression of an inward crown : but to the question , christs kingdom is indeed in its power , and effects ( the restriction a little above premised being remembred ) internall and spirituall , but doth it therefore follow , that its administration is not externall and visible , when the lord declared all power to be given unto him , and by vertue thereof sent forth his apostles and ministers , and gathered churches , having peculiar rulers , laws , and ordinances ; was not this both visible , and audible ? are not all the acts of discipline and government , properly thereto referable , of the same nature ? our lords kingdom is truely not of the world , nor as the kingdomes thereof , is it therefore not in the world ? what doth this arguing conclude ? you proceed , a great part of his kingdom is the liberty whereto he hath called us , and i grant , that as liberty , and deliverance from sin and satan , are among its choise benefites , and therefore the exultation of zachariah his thanksgiving , so our liberation from the yoke of jewish ceremonies , and all such bondage , is that which we readily acknowledge , in opposition to you● unwarrantable exactions : but what would you thence inferre ? because christ hes liberate us from the former slavery , and pedagogie , hath he therefore left us to the worse tyranny of mens pretended , and corrupted power , and deluded imagination ? god forbid ; but as the hath set us free for ever , so he hath only laid on us , his own easie ●●oke , and light burthen , of pure and evangelick ordinances , by which our liberty is so far from being intringed , that it is thereby both preserved and enlarged . in the next place you say since no allegorie holds , it is ridiculous to argue , because offices in a kingdom are named by the king , therefor it must be so in the church . it 's answered . do you then think that our lords kingdom is only allegorick ? or because the symboles and badges , usuall in earthly kingdoms , are , in a figure , thereto transferred , is it therefore wholly a figure ? but god hath set his king upon his holy hill of zion , and know you assuredly that god hath exalted him to be both lord and christ , b●wis● therefore and be instructed kiss the son lest he be angr● , and learn to acknowledge his kingdom , in all the parts and privileges thereof , by him declared : next it is most evident , that not only christs kingdom , in and over his church , is reall and certain , and that officers truely such , vested with his authority , and therefore depending on christ as king , are held forth by the scripture , and to be really found therein ; but seing he himself hath in the gospel so expressly founded their mission , upon that all power , given unto him , and paul so plainly referres the giving of apostles &c , unto his ascension and exaltation , are you not ashamed to alledge these things , to be only by us concluded from the vain appearance of an allegory and thus to make your self ridiculous , in that scorne you intended for others ? but poor wretch , you adde , that we may as wel say , that there must be coin stamped by christ , as officers appointed by him in his church : ( for this is the runing of your words ) lord deliver you from this profane spirit : thinkest thou , that the kingdom of christ , hath need of money , as it hath indeed need of officers ? or , because money is current and symony a frequent practice in your church , hes it therefore any place in christs true church ? sir , your profane scoffing at the kingdome of christ is one passage , amongst many , that give me confidence to say , arise o god plead thine own cause , remember how the foolish man reproacheth thee dayly . but i professe i am confounded in my self , when i think of my own provocations , and on the iniquitie of his sons and daughters ; for if the abuse of the glorious gospel , shineing amongst us in so much puritie , had not been great , he would not have given up the dearly beloved of his soul into the hand of such persecuting adversaries , and such scoffers at him , who justifie these malicious mockers in cajaphas hall , with an over-plus of wickednesse . o if he would returne , he would quicklie emptie pulpits , and chairs in universities of such , who bend their tongues for lies , and make the world see , because they have rejected knowledge , he hath also rejected them that they shall be no priests to him . the next thing you subjoin is , what king will think his prerogative lessened , by constituting a corporation , to whom he shall leave a liberty to cast themselves into what mould they please , providing they obey the general laws , and hold that liberty of him . thus you will alwayes aspire to enter into the counsel of god : if your vote had been here asked , it is very like you would have bestowed large privileges upon that church , where you might have been a sharer ; but we bless him to whom the church is committed , and on whom the government is laid , who hath provided better , and given unto his church complete officers , perfect ordinances , true laws , and good statutes ; and ordered his house in all things : and therefore as we are not to enquire , what the lord might have done but humbly and thankfully to acknowledge what he hath done , so , in these things for men to disown his authority , and deny his bounty , and usurp to themselves a power of altering , what he hath established , and fashioning the worship and government of gods house , according to the device of their own heart , is no doubt no lawful liberty , but a licentious invasion of christ's prerogative , and a jealousie-provoking sin of laese majestie divine . that thus it stands , betuixt you and us , the preceeding passages do plainly witness , and the faithfulness of jesus christ , as a son over his own house , so expresly commended , and preferred before the faithfulnesse of moses , is an argument , which you will never dissolve : you say his faithfulnesse consisted in his discharging the commission given him by his father : most certain ; but you ask who told us that it ( i suppose you mean the appointing the officers ordinances and government of the house of god ) was in the fathers commission ? herein is a marvellous thing . you know that jesus christ whrist was sent by the father , to redeem , gather , feed , guid and govern his church ; and you see , that as the things in question are thereto necessarie , so in discharge hereof , he sends out apostles , and ministers , ordains officers , vests them with power and authority , instructs them to a ministerial , and lowly administration and deportment , defines censures , appoints his ordinances , and laws , liberats the worship of god from the shadows , and types of the jewish pedagogie , and cleares its true and spiritual exercise and liberty , and finally acquits himself faithfully in all his house : do you then question , if he did these things , or doubt you that he did them by commission ? it is a hard dilemma which you will never evade : but you adde that if we argue from moses it will inferre that all particulars must be determined : whereupon you urge , that as moses determines the dayes of separation for a legal uncleannesse , why doth not the gospel the like for spirituall uncleannesse ? it 's answered , if you had taken up the argument aright and considered the faithfulnesse of christ and moses , not in order to the same ; but with relation to their respective commissions , you had not fallen into this mistake ; but the scripture parallel , is clear , moses as a servant did faithfully & completely order gods house , therefore our lord much more as a son , hath thus ordered the church , his own house : whence as it doth no wayes follow , that whatsoever things were institute by moses , ought to have been in like manner imitate by our lord ; so this is most concludent , that as moses , as a servant , did diligently and exactly execute his commission , in order to the tabernacle , its service , ministers , and all its appurtinents , so christ , both by reason of a command received and of his interest and power , hath exceeded the faithfulnesse of moses , in the ordering and appointment of things appertaining to his church : but for the better confirming our reasoning , and the removing of your mistake , i do only recommend to you this obvious truth , viz. that the commendation of our lord held out by the apostle in this comparison , institute betuixt him and moses , regardeth the manner , but not the subject , of their administrations : not what was the nature of extent of moses his trust , but what was his diligence , and faithfulnes in the discharge ; is the light and argument of the parallel : suppose two intrusted in imployments , wholly diverse , and inadequate , and the exact fidelity of the one trustie , to be notourly known , may not the faithfulness of the other , be thence very properly commended ? and wil not this commendation very evidently inferre , that as the first was punctually observant of all things committed , so , the second did equall his exactness , without giving the least ground to conclude , that therefore either the second must have done the same or like things , with the first , or yet that the first administration was as extensive , as that entrusted to the second : this being duely perpended , and it being certain , that not the establishing of an universall , and perpetual order to all and every of the concerns of the jewish church , as appeares from the alteration and addition made thereafter , by david , and solomon ; but only the setting up of the tabernacle , its sacrifices , and service , according to the command , accommodate to the then state of that people , was to moses ( and that only by peremptory prescript , as to a servant ) enjoined ; whereas unto our lord , as a son over his own house was freely committed the unchangeable establishment of his church , in all its requisits unto his coming again : then if our lords faithfulnesse be indeed equall to that of moses , his appointing of officers , ordinances , and laws , necessare and convenient to his church , with all requisite exactnesse , though neither after the pattern , nor in that particular and peremptory strictnesse , of moses his prescriptions , can neither be denied nor declined : if you yet cavill , that this sayes too much viz. that all particulars must be now as of old determined , it 's answered , the determining of particulars under the law , was from the expresse ●enour of moses his commission , and therein did consist much of the pedagogie , and rigour of that shadowing dispensation , from which god having now relieved us , and given us the clear light of the gospel , and these things necessare and convenient to its holy ends , in simplicity , parity and liberty , it is evident , that as our lords faithfulnesse under this gospel administration , did oblige him to provide the church , in all things necessary and convenient , and liberate us from all further burthen of antiquate rites and ceremonies , beyond the necessary exigences of decencie and order , so , he hath fully acquit himself , in this his own house , as moses in his house , and by this his faithfulnes , for ever excluded all your superinduced humane inventions , whether in church-officers , government or worship : in a word , so ill grounded is the absurdity , wherewith you would urge us ; and the faithfulnesse of christ , compared to that of moses , is so farre from saying too much , viz. that all particulars must be in the gospel determined , that it inferres the direct contraire , viz , that seing god having committed to moses a law , descending to a most strict prescription of particulars , and ceremonial observances , he was therein faithfull ; therefore our lord more faithful having a dispensation entrusted to him only of gospel ordinances , with a becoming liberty , hath in his fidell discharge , both fully defined the former , and established the latter , free from all humane , either general or particular inventions , and impositions : but you go on and tell us , that moses instituted no church-government in the way we use it , and that synagogues their rulers & chief rulers were not appointed by moses , & yet no unlawful thing , since countenanced by christ & his apostles : whence you conclude , that either what they did , was founded on divine tradition , ( which no christian will grant ) or that a form of government was devised by men ; and if the iews had that libertie , certainly the christian church is more free , as to these externals . sir , not to detain you in a curious enquiry into the special composition , gradual advance and necessarie alterations of the jewish policie , it 's answered , . i have just now told you , that granting moses did not institute any church-government as used by us , because neither given him in commission , not at that time needfull , and agreeable to the condition of a wandering people , and the dispensation they were then under ; yet the scripture argument from our lords faithfulnesse , preferred to that of moses , being conclusive of the same , yea of a greater care of all things necessarie , and requisite for his church , to the end of the world , then that which moses did adhibite , even in the setting up of the tabernacle , and it s commanded service ; must of necessity inferre , both that our lord did de facto provide for the ministerie , and government requisite in his own house , and that the ministerie and government , which we finde descrived in the scriptures of the new testament , are of his appointment , and such as may not be altered . . not to mention the evident necessity of synagogues , up and down the land , for the end of teaching the people , a most certain dutie , which could hardly otherwayes be performed , the dispersion of levi among the tribes , moses blessing , designing him to teach iacob judgements , and israel gods law , davids appointing . of the hebronites , chron. . . . . thorow all israel , in all businesse of the lord , and for every matter pertaining to god , as well as affaires of the king , and asaphs regret , for the burning up of all the synagogues of god in the land ( not to mention the coincidence often hinted at in the old testament , of judges and teachers of the law , in every city , and their appointment out of the tribe of levi ) are grounds , more then probable of the divine institution of synagogues , and their rulers ; and that they were no humane invention , . the evident testimonies that we have in the word of god , not only of the lords special appointing of the tabernacle , its whole service and ordinances , framed and suited to the then state and posture of that people ; but also , how that he reformation , and establishment made in davids dayes , together with the building of the temple , its officers and porters , were particularly directed by the spirit of god , in samuel , david , and the seers of these times , instrumental in that work , chrom . . . and . . may sufficiently evince to any rational discerner , that the synagogues , more material , then many of these circumstantial things expresly commanded , were also ordained by the lord , and likewise instruct all to a most tender , and precise adherence to the express will of god , in all matters relating to his house and worship : and here , upon the mentioning of david , i cannot omit to remember , how that in all the scripture , we finde not a parallel and type , more frequent then that of our lords kingdome , in and over his church , to that of david over israel : seeing then , that these ●igures have their certain grounds of resemblance , and there is not a more conspicuous typifying character , in the person of david ; then , that of his royall ordering , and establishing the house , and church of god , whereunto he was raised up , and particularly inspired , and commanded , though the faithfulness of christ , preferred to that of moses , should not , yet his succession in the throne of david to reigne over the house of jacob for ever , doth undeniably conclude both the government and complete setlement of the church , by us contended for : . if you would reflect upon the lords singular providence over his people israel , first , in that theocratie , whereby in a peculiar manner he governed them , unto the dayes of saul , . in their urim and thummim , and the holy oracles of god , which they constantly enjoyed , . in the continuall assistance , which they had almost in all times , of prophets immediatly inspired , you cannot lightly suppose , that either synagogues , or any other lawfull institution , concerning their law and worship , were a meer humane invention ; but though the evidences of their appointment , remaining with us upon record , were more obscure , these passages alone , do render it more then probable , that their authority and rise was divine . the comparing of the church of christ , to that of the old-testament is so unfavourable to your cause , and there are such manifest disparities in that parallel , that it rather maketh against you then for you ; for as the ordinances of that dispensation , were such , as were to be done away and abolished ; and therefore were appointed by god ( who in times past spake unto the fathers by the prophets at sundry times and in divers manners ) in a variant and mutable forme , so , the lord having in these last dayes , and now in the end of the world , spoken unto us by his son , to whom he sayeth , thy throne o god is for ever and ever , the anointing of the most holy , attended by the sealing up the vision , and prophecie , and the setting up of his everlasting dominion , do infallibly conclude , the introducing of a more excellent ministerie , and the full and immutable establishment of all ordinances , requisite to the ingathering , and perfecting of the saints : sir , if these things were considered by you , and that our lord hath now at last , by himself , given and ordered , for us , a complete and perfect ap●ointment , of all means necessary in his church , you should finde more soul-satisfaction in walking at true liberty in the observing of his precepts ; then in the lascivient fancies of your own vain imagination , which not content to rest in the blessed change that our lord hath made , of the first covenant , not faultles , unto this new one and better ordered , under the specious aspiring to a liberty , equal to that of the jewish church , doth plainly charge , the christian church , with the imperfections of that , which is decayed , and vanished . having thus examined and answered the strain and scope of your discourse , i shall briefly go over what remains : you say our saviour and his apostles countenanced the synagogues and their rulers , and why not ? seing not only their first institution appears to have been such , as i have declared ; but also other occasions , noted in the gospel wherein you have no advantage , did clearly thereto invite : next you say that this their practice was either founded on divine tradition ( which no christian will grant ) or that a form of government not unlawful was devised by men : i answere . i have exhibited already warrants for their practice , beside tradition . . might not the positive manner of the institution of synagogues , have been then more clear , while the thing was in observance , then now it is , after its abolition , and the revolution of so many ages ? . if i were concerned in your parenthesis , against divine tradition , i would ask you , why do you thus without distinction , make the admitting of it in the jewish church so great an absurdity ? that there were divine traditions before the word was committed to writing , and that under the dark , imperfect , and progressive dispensation of the old testament , assisted nevertheless by a more immediate presence , unwritten traditions might both have been more usuall , and were less fallible , may be probabely enough held , by these who yet , now , after the full and perfect revelation of the gospel by our lord jesus christ , do upon solid grounds , very justly reject unwritten traditions , in the christian church ; by which reasons , you may perceive , that the one member of your dilemma , labouring so sadly of untruth , both in its supposition and the absurdity thence inferred , it can no wayes be cogent to enforce the other , of the liberty of mans devising in the point of church-government , even in the jewish church , let be in the christian , so many wayes more excellent : but in the close you insinuate that the greater liberty you plead for to the christian church is in externals : that this general ambiguous objection is only intended for a convenient retreat , is apparent from all the preceeding discourse , seeing , if by externals , you understand things in their own nature extrinsick to the constitution of the church , and which in the new testament have no further use allowed , then is conducible to decencie , and order , we willingly grant , that the christian church ( being in effect absolutely liberate from the old burthen of ceremonies , and not ( as you vainly conceit ) endowed with a greater , and more arbitrarie power of imposing ) is indeed herein more free then the iewish was : but if by externals you mean , as alas the instances premised do too plainly speak , all the visible ordinances of the church , specially that of government at least , what ever is in it visible , the liberty that you would introduce , is not more contraire to the scripture , both of the old and new testament , as i have shown , then most licentious and irreligious . your last cavill against the exercise of our lords kingdom , in ordering the visible administration of his church , is , that if this were inferred by his headship over the church , his being also the head of the world , should argue the same determination in the order of the world , as well as in that of the church . and having made your n. c. seemingly and poorly check you by saying , that christs church is dearer to him then all the world : then you restrict the absurd●●y , which you press , unto the civil matters of the church , and proceed in such a rambling discourse , that i am at a stand , how to medle with it : but waving the censure of your impertinencies , i answere . that the mediatory kingdom of our lord over his church , and his natural ( so to speak ) soveraignity over the world , are so grosly here by you confounded , that i can only intreat you to be more serious in reading , and searching what the scripture doth very distinctly hold forth : . of their different rise , the one given , the other not given . . of their different objects and ends , the one having & proposing the world & men in order to a regular and peaceable being in it , the other the church and men therein called unto spiritual duties and eternal life : and lastly of their different administrations , the one grounded on the dictats of reason , and using external magisterial authority and power , and sensible rewards and pains , the other proceeding on divine revelation , and carried on by no such externals , save a simple ministerie , and the power internal and spiritual ; and then i doubt not but you will of your self rectify such aberrations , . the parallel of gods government over the world , with the kingdom of christ over his church , is , so far from concluding , that arbitrary or architectonick power , which you endeavour to set up in ecclesiasticks , equall to that in civils , that the contraire may from thence be sufficiently evinced , thus , therefore god hath not determined the order of civil matters , either in the world or in his church ; because an architectonick and free disposing government , limited with general rules , necessare to its ends , was most suitable to that almost absolute right and power , which he hath given unto man , in and over the things about which it is conversant : but so it is that the things of the church , about which our lord jesus his kingdom is exercised , being wholly spiritual , are neither committed to our power , nor left unto our arbitriment ; and plainly such , whereof , the lord in all times , hath reserved to himself , the sole determination : and therefore it was clearly necessare , that all the ordinances , ministerie , and government thereto pertaining , should be also by him alone , ordered , and appointed ; which disparity , doth not only reject but unanswerably retort your argument from this pretense . . your great error , and greater presumption in this question is , that apprehending our argument for the determined ordinances and government of gods house , to be taken from the simple position of his kingdom , and the consequences , that by allusion to the kingdoms of the earth may be thence deduced , you remember not that the scripture not only holds out his kingdom , and the nature thereof , very distinctly ; but also doth particularly exhibite , all the ordinances necessare unto its ends , and appointed to be therein observed ; so that our reasoning being wholly scriptural , both in its ground and superstructure , your redargution from imaginary reason , opposed to the clear and positive counsel of god , is plainly irrational : if in the dayes of old , israel had changed the law , and ordinances given , and therein disowned gods particular kingdom and government over them , and notwithstanding thereof pretended to the liberty of the nations about , seing this their liberty was no wayes determined by , but very consistent with , the lord 's high soveraignity , under which all do bow , had this poor reasoning , justifyed their rebellion ? certainly not : how much less then , can it conclude the exemption of the church from christs kingdom , in these ordinances therein by him established , of which the lords peculiar kingdom over israel was but a slight adumbration . but you say , seing justice is a part of gods law , as well as devotion , why doth not the lord determine how his church should be governed , in civils . it 's answered , justice is indeed a part of gods law , and he hath therein determined , as particularly as the right , which god hath given to man in civils , doth permit ; or the ends thereof do require ; but as this your arithmetical equalizing of mans liberty , in matters of devotion , to that power he hath in things civil , doth sadly discover the woful vanity of an unserious spirit ; so the geometrical analogie of gods determining , anent our devotion , wholly dependent upon his prescript , unto his general appointment in matters of outward justice , accommodate to that power and liberty he hath therein left us , in place of inferring an equal power to man in both , doth , on the contraire , evidently demonstrate , that the lords determination , in matters of religion , is as much more particular , then his commandments are in the things of justice , as our liberty in the former , is more restricted , then our liberty in the latter : if you had but considered , th● th● 〈◊〉 hath given the earth unto the children of men , and that , the things thereof being put under his feet , an agreeable power of government thereanent is certainly given unto his hand ; whereas our lords church and people are his peculiar people , his chosen nation , redeemed and bought with his precious bloud , and not their own ; let be to have the things , concerning their souls redemption , in their power , how happily had you been delivered from this strange confounding of things , sacred and prophane ; and how clearly might you have perceived , that gods dominion over the world , consisting in general laws , suited to its object , and swayed by his soveraign providence , in order to his holy ends , doth bear but little likenesse , to our lord jesus his rule , and government in his church , as a son over his own house , and also its ordinances . but to inforce your point you adde , that you hope we will grant that the civil peace is more necessary to the very being of the church , then is order in discipline : whence you insinuate that the former as well as the latter , requires chri●●s particular determination : not to scandalize you by frustrating your hope ; sir , you know so well , that a thing though more necessary ; yet if such only by a mediate and consequential necessity , may therefore fall under a quite diverse disposition , from that , which though less necessary , by this mediate and extrinsick necessity , to the being of the church , then the sacrament of the lords supper , do the former therefore , aswell and in the same manner with the latter , belong to christs kingdom ? as to what you adde , that it was for this reason that the things of civil peace were determined in the old law : this did so certainly flow from gods peculiar interest in that people , as a kingdom , as well as a church , that i make no answere ; that which you subjoin , for evincing , that either the lords kingdom over the earth doth extend to the appointing of civil officers , or els his kingdom over his church imports no such thing ; is so manifestly , repugnant to the very nature of the things , and the lords declared pleasure ( the best decision ) nay this whole discourse doth so foolishly , and laxely cast , and weigh things religious and profane in the same ballance of vain conjecture , that i almost repent my noticeing of it so much ; but see the flatterie of delusion , having made your n. c. childishly to decline all reason , as carnal , and , in the fright forsooth of your strong reasons , retreat to his ministers and the bible , you ridiculously triumph over him , and think , your self so much master of the field of reason , that insinuating your own praise , in the description of sound reason , you puff at other mens , as pitiful niblings : thus being first in your own cause● you would seem just , how i have searched you let others judge : for scripture , you tell us . that to qu●te it , is not to build sure upon it , the devil did that , and so do all sects : do you therefore mean , that it should be laid aside , as an insufficient judge , or that we use it no better then the devil did ? i desire you may explain your self , if not for our concernment , at least for the scriptures vindication : in the mean time , i am heartily willing that both what you and what i have said be rightly pondered , and whether the church in matters of government be lest to rove in your pretended liberty , or more excellently established by the infinite wisdom , unspeakable love , and most tender care of its only lord and head , let scripture and reason impartially decide : but to conclude all , you tell us with a preface , that the angels of the churches afford us fairer likely hoods for bishops , then ever we shall finde in the bible for presbyterie it 's answered , seing you your self do acknowledge , that nothing in it ( whether you mean in this place , or in the whole scripture , the words are ambiguous ) amounts to a demonstration ; i remit the matter to the scriptures by me adduced , whereby i am confident all your likelihoods are more then counterballanced : he who is further desi●ous to have them removed , may consult m. durham upon the text ; for my own part , since ever i had the understanding to consider , that the r●velation was made in a mystick phrase , that the seven starres who are the angels , do certainly signifie the many teachers that were in every one of these churches , that in the candle-sticks , as in the starres , we finde the same oneness , and number , and lastly that though to the angel be the inscription for address ; yet we finde the body of all the epistles written directly to the whole churches , these things i say occurring i protest i could never discerne more reason in this argument , for subjecting these churches unto seven superior single prelates ; then for making the same prelats really angels , or turning every church into a candle stick ; or if i may adduce another instance , not absimilare to your faire likelihoods , for interpreting the two witnesses , to be the two arch-bishops of st. andrews and glasgow . when you have spent your endeavours upon the authority of episcopacie , you think to seconde it in the next place with its antiquity derived you say , from the times next to the apostles , whereupon you conclude in these words that how this excrescing power , should have crept into the whole church , and no mention when it came in , no prince or universal council to introduce , it , in the times of persecution when the church usually is purest , and most free of pride , no secular consideration to flatter , but the first brunt of the persecution alwayes against it , and how none opposed it , if this was not introduced by apostles , or apostolicall men , passeth my divination : and really sir , as to its particular methods , and increase , so doth it mine : and so much more then it doth yours , that i am perswaded from clear scripture , that it was not only not introduced , but plainly reprobate by our lord and his apostles ; yet am i so little thereby stumbled , that the more dark and obscure i finde its rise and progresse , i am the more confirmed , that it is the very mysterie of iniquity , and do so much the more admire the incorruptible and eternall truth of the gospel , which as in the beginning it foretold the coming , and took very early notice of the first motions of this prodigie of wickednesse ; so hath it , through the many ages of its exaltation , preserved it self against , and now in the latter dayes overcomes its malice ; but to review your discourse more particularly , i have already shewed , that the ministery and government institute by our lord , and confirmed and practised by the apostles , was plainly presbyterian ; if so , what place for further inquirie ? is your alledged traditional subsequent humane institution of prelacie of greater moment ? . that even in the primitive times , and for . years after our saviour , no vestige of prelacie appears upon record , is the consentient opinion of the best searchers , both on your , and our part . . this plea of antiquity hath already been so fully handled , and improved both by yours , and ours , specially hamond on your part , and blondel , salmasius , and other learned servants of christ on ours , that there needs nothing be added : and where the advantage is , the ingenuous may easily discerne : he that desires a solid and short accompt of the matter , may read the appendix to the jus divinum ministerii evangelici : but you proceed to give in some poor scrapes of pretended antiquity , which not only the most sure , and clear , and farre more ancient scriptures of truth , but even the convincing answeres which they have often receaved might well have made you to forbear : and first you say that ignatius his epistles are plain language : and so they are indeed , but too plain for you to have cited , as the following passages , compared with the scriptures subjoined may evince : in the epistle to the tralliani , we have [ what is a bishop , but he , that is possest of all principality , and authority beyond all , as much as is possible for men ? reverence the bishop as ye do'christ , as the holy apostles have commanded , &c. as the lord christ doth nothing without his father , so , must ye do nothing without your bishop , let nothing seem right or equall to you , that is contra to his judgement . ] in the epistle to the philad . [ let the princes obey the emperours , the souldiers the princes , the deacons and the rest of the clergie , with all the people , and the souldiers , and the princes , and the emperour , let them obey the bishop ] ( no doubt the bishop of rome ) in the epistle to the smyrnenses ; [ the scripture saith honour god and the king , but i say , honour god as the author and lord of all things , and the bishop as the prince of priests , resembling the image of god , of god for his principality , of christ for his priesthood , &c. there is none greater then the bishop in the church , who is consecrated for the salvation of the whole world , &c. let all men follow the bishop as christ the father , &c. it is not lawfull without the bishop to baptize , or offer , &c. he that doth any thing without consulting the bishop worshippeth the devil : now on the other hand let us hear what the scripture saith to this purpose , who then is paul who apollo but ministers by whom ye beleeve ? be ye followers of me , even as i also am of christ ; for we preach not our selves , but christ iesus the lord , and our selves your servants for iesus sake : not that we have dominion over your faith , but are helpers of your joy : for by faith ye stand . but so shall it not be among you , whosoever will be great among you shall be your minister , and whosoever of you will be the chiefest , shall be servant of all : to these adde the practices , and other professions of the apostles concerning themselves , and their fellow-labourers , and really sir , when you shall make these things found in ignatius , consistent even with the strain of pure religion , and the truth of the gospel , let be to the orthodoxie , and piety of ignatius , and the simplicity of his times ; then shall i cede to the authority of these letters : only in the mean time let me tell you , that for all the pains that hamond hath taken , to assert their faith , the words above cited , do savour so strongly of most gross and corrupt interpolation ; that not only i reject their testimony , as to the matter of prelacie ; but do esteem even the passages that may be therein found for presbyterie , as to the trallians , be subject to the presbyterie , as to the apostles of iesus christ , the presbyters are the council of god , and joint , assembly of the apostl●s , and such like of little or no value . . you mention cyprians time , but hold , i preceive your second edition mends your first , and this your practice like to that of your more innocent friend mr. coluin , in his verses , of giving us second editions , bearing additions , without advertissment , had indeed abused me , if by accident i had not fallen in the review of my papers , to make use of your second copie , and in this you tell us , in the next place of the apostolicall canons , a work of very venerable antiquitie , at least the first fiftie of them , though perhaps none of the apostles : but first why say you perhaps , in a matter beyond all peradventure . . not to trouble you with criticisms , he who would be resolved anent the authority of these canons , let him only read them : and as i am confident , he will be farre from thinking either the first , or the rest of them apostolicall , so i am certain the mention made in the . can. of sacrificium , altare , oleum in candelabrum , & incensum oblationis tempore , a sacrifice , altar , oyl in the lamp , and incense in the time of offering , the . can , qui viduam duxit , episcopus aut presbyter aut diaconus esse non potest , he who hath married a widow , cannot be a bishop , or a presbyter , or a deacon , the . can. ex his qui caelibes in clerum pervenerunt , jubemus ut lectores tantum , & cantores , si velint , nuptias contrahant , of bachelors who hath entered into orders , readers only and singers if they will , may marrie , the great and constant distinction therein , made , inter clericum , & laicum , and the many other vanities therein to be found , specially in the last part of them , will easily render their venerable antiquity of no moment , in our present controversie : so that neither your but in effect the . canon , though it were more positive , and expresse for your prelatick preheminence , nor your synodicall injunction , to the same purpose , both posterior to the first primitive purity , are of any regard : but . so wretched is the cause that you defend , that even in your clearest evidences , your partiality and hypocrisie is manifest : you alledge the apostolicall canons in defence of your prelatick order , and yet you consider not , that the same canons , do not only condemn your prelates ; but subvert their present constitution . i shall not insist upon the . canon episcopus aut presbyter in fornicatione , aut perjurio deprehensus deponitor : let a bishop or a presbyter guilty ofsornication or perjury , be deposed : the . episcopum aut presbyterum qui fideles delinquentes ( quid ergo si innocentes ) percutit , & terrorem ipsis hoc modo incutit , deponi praecipimus . we command that the bishop or presbyter who smiteth delinquents , and so becometh a terrour unto them , be deposed , what then , if they smite the innocent : the ● . . & . which i am most assured , if observed would remove all the present bishops and curats in scotland : but the canons i offer are the . omnium aliorum pomorum primitiae episcopo & presbyteris domum mittuntor , manifestum autem est quod episcopus et presbyteri inter diaconos & reliquos clericos eas dividunt , let the first ●ruits of all others aples be sent home to the bishop and presbyters , for it is manifest that the bishop and presbyters , divide them among the deacons , and the rest of the clergie , . cujusque gentis episcopos oportet scire quinam inter ipsos primus sit , neque sine illius voluntate quicquam agere insolitum , illa autem quemque prosetract●re , quae ad parochiam ejus & loca ipsi subdita attinent ; sed neque ille citra omnium voluntatem aliquid facito . . bis in anno episcoporum celebrator synodus , & pietatis inter se dogmata in disquistionem vocanto . and . dicimus quod non oporteat episcopum aut presbyterum publicis se admini●●rationibus immiscere , sed v●care & commodum se exhibere usibus ecclesiasticis , animum igitur inducito hoc non facere , aut deponitor : together with the obvious strain of the whole plainly insinuating , the bishop to be the person , to whom the flock is principally and immediatly committed , and who as the primus presbyter , the first presbyter , ought chiefly to minde the charge , in which canons although i grant that their appears a precedencie of order , given to the bishop , over the presbyters , ( who in these times were many ministers , living in one city and society ; having the charge in common among themselves , and with and under their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 over the church , and flock in their bounds ) and also to the first bishop of a province , over his coëpiscopi ; yet i am sure your prelatick power , and superiority , acclaiming the sole power of ordination , and jurisdiction is no where thereby approved ; but rather condemned : your third testimony you bring from cyprian , in whose time you say that the power of bishops was well regulate and setled , and here knowing that he professeth that he would do nothing without the clergie , that he could do nothing without them , nor take upon him alone : whereby the antient prostasia ; and not your prelacie , is plainly and only held forth : you insinuate as much , as if he had afterward retracted this opinion , and this you prove very pitifully , . from his answere to one rogatian a bishop , that he by his episcopall vigour , and authority had power presently to punish a deacon , for an affront received , which yet doth not at all seclude the presbyters , according to the rule of the canon law episcopus non potest judicare presbyterum vel diaconum sine synodo , & senioribus , the bishop cannot judge a presbyter or a deacon without the synod , and elders● . from this censure of hereticks and schismaticks , for proud contempt of their then bishops , which we do as little allow as you do . . from a letter written by the presbyters and deacons of rome , after the death of fabian , wherein they complain of the want of one to moderate , and with authority and advice to take accompt of matters , whence you say , that surely they thought little of persbyters being equal in power to bishops , who write so , where the episcopal power seemed to be devolved upon them : but pray sir , if a society consisting of members all equal in power , but having a head or president for order , and good rule , do regret his loss , during the vacancie , in these very termes , wherein lyeth the inconsistence ? how foolish then is that stricture of your vanity , which you here subjoin ? viz. but. i believe , few of you know these writings ; whereas to be plain with you , in my thought , neither you nor i have given any great specimen of this knowledge , or said so much , as the half of what is obviously to be found , in almost any printed debate anent this matter . sir , i must tell you further , if i my selfe were alone concerned in this reflection● i would scarce look upon it as a reproach worth the wipeing off , to be as great a stranger to these things as ye take me to be , nor would i think many cubits were added to my stature to be as knowing in them as your self ; yet it is known that i tell the world no news , when i say , that there have been ( and to this day are ) not a few great men of our way who have given such proof of their knowledge in these ancillarie and minutious things , whereof you represente us as ignorant ; as have made your greatest rabbies finde , that wherein they gloried they were not short of them ; and if ye know not this , yet seem to have lost your silly self in the labyrinth of antiquitie , and by this means are fallen under the shameful reproach of being peregrinus domi : and if ye know it , and yet so superciliously assert the contraire , what apologie can ye make for speaking so great an untruth , that will either satisfie the world or your own conscience . but sir , ingenously i professe , i pitie you for your vanitie and folly ; for it seems ye think this the only expedient to make the world beleeve the pregnancie of your pate , and pronounce you worthie of the chair : but sir , it will onely make the more serious weep to remember who did once fill it , and should have filled it still , when they consider how it is become the seat of a scorner ; and the lesse serious will laugh at your prodigious folly . i have only one overture to propose unto you , that your vanity may be with some handsomeness hereafter coutched , and the world may let pass what you say without quarrelling at it , as a known falshood : and it is this , in your after comparings and measurings of your abilities , that you may be taken notice of for a nonsuch , be so wise as to compare your self with your fellow-curats , if ye hope to bear the bell , but when ye insinuate a comparison , with so many burning and shining lights , and then , in your juvenile pride and self-conceit , arrogate a preference to these , ye do only force men to take notice of , and enquire into , your shame and short-coming : and , if i mistake not , fall upon the most certain method of making your self ●●ink above ground . sir , if , in these two or three lines , i have digressed contrary to my inclination , the occasion will justifie it , and charity persuades to it . but , . you tell us , that in the council of nice , speaking of the power of metropolitans ; the canon sayes , let the ancient customes be in force : it 's answered . we finde that council did conveen in the year . . now admit , that certain customes concerning metropolitans , as well as bishops , were b●ought into the church about . years , before the councel ; which is the highest period from whence they can be calculat , these customes in this respect , might will therein be termed antient , without the least contrariety to my assertion . . it 's evident enough from many suffrages , that as the primitive episcopacie , which succeeded to presbyterie , the government first institute by our lord and his apostles , and exercised in the christian church , did only import the humane invention of a prostasia , for order ; so the custome of metropolitans , in these times , did differ nothing from it , as may appear from the . canon of these called apostolical already cited , wherein he is only termed primus gentis episcopus , and tyed to the advice of his coëpiscopi : in the next place , you tell us , that nothing can be alledged against your episcopal power , but some few or disjointed places of some authors , which at most prove , that they judged not the origen of bishops to be divine , and none save aerius , repute an heretick , did ever speak against the difference , betuixt bishops and presbyters : sir , if you did not here acknowledge , almost all that i desire , i could easily shew you , that not only the scriptures of the new testament , and the agreeable practice of the apostles , and their immediate successors are against your prelatick excrescent power ; but that even for several ages thereafter , while both bishops and metropolitans did exercise their prostasian , your diocesan prelat , having the sole power of ordination and jurisdiction , was unknown , yea expresly reprobate : but because the appendix whereunto i have already referred , and smectymnus , do plainly make out this point , i shall not detain you : as for a●rius , it 's true , he held that a bishop and a presbyter do not differ , and that augustin cals this proprium ejus dogma , his proper opinion , and epiphanius , dogma furiosum et stolidum , a furious and foolish opinion , and that both of them do ranck him among hereticks ; but seing they also accuse him of arr●anisme , and withal do also taxe him for error in some points which are cl●ar truth , viz. that it is not lawful to pray and offer for the dead , their censure is as little to be noticed , as his testimony ; specially seing many learned men do plainly assert , that not only hierom , but even augustin himself , chrisostom and many others of the fathers , were of the same opinion with aërius as to the matter of this difference : but for ierom you go about to alleviat his testimonye , viz. idem ergo est presbyter qui episcopus . therefore a presbyter is one and the same with a bishop , & noverint episcopi se magis consuetudine quan dispositionis dominicae veritate presbyter is esse majores , &c. and let the bishops know that they are above preebyters more through custome then any divine warrant . because he himself was but a presbyter . pray sir , who were they whom your men cite so fast for bishops , were not they themselves bishops , and yet the truth is , there were bishops also at that time of his opinion . . you say that his fervent if not sirie spirit drives him along in every things to an excess . good sir , where is now your veneration for antiquity and the holy fathers ? for us , seing we do not found on mans authority , this your brusk character , discovering more of your partiality then of ieroms infirmity , doth not offend : only this i must say , that whatever be his fervor in his other writtings ; yet i am sure that both in his commentarie upon titus and in his epistle ad evagrium , he confirms his assertion above set down , with scripture arguments , most calmly , solidly and unanswerably . . you alledge , that notwithstanding that he make the bishop and presbyter to differ in degree only , and not in office , and that by ecclesiastick and not divine authority , yet he confesseth that presbyters did not ordain , and that the origen of the exercising power was in the dayes of the apostles to prevent schismes , &c. it 's answered he saith indeed , quid enim facit , exceptâ ordinatione , episcopus quod presbyter non facit ; but as he is there pointing only at the custome , then in use , so , this doth nothing derogate from that equality , yea identitie of power , which he attributeth to both from scripture : what you mean by the origen of the exercising power , &c. is not so clear . it 's true he affirmeth that at alexandria from mark the evangelist to heraclas , and dionysius bishops , the presbyters did always name one , chosen of themselves , and placed in higher degree , bishop ; but what says this more then that in all that time for orders sake , they had successive presidents at first , it 's like moveable , and thereafter fixed during life : and we have already both acknowledged , and regreted the grievous abuse , occasioned by that latter practice : you adde that he compares , the bishops , presbyters , and deacons in the church , ●to the high priest , priests and levites in the temple : and since there was at that time , from ecclesiastick custome then allowed ( which according to his use , and as he useth to speak promiscuously , writing of lent , he here indifferently termeth an apostolick tradition ) a ground of resemblance , why might he not use the similitude , without stretching it either to evert , what he had said , or countenance your prelacie ? lastly you alledge that he sayes , that it was decreed through the whole world that a presbyter should be over the rest , to roote out the seede of difference : it 's answered that this in toto orbe decretum est , may , and is , to be understood , not of an express decree , which doth no where appeare ; but of a general consentient custome , taking place every where : both the truth of the thing , and hieroms after paulatim ad unum omnis solicitudo est delata , by little and little all the care is devolved upon one , do abundantly cleare , how ever this may be warrantably said , that as this custome did with time universally obtain , and in ieroms dayes , not having much exceeded the limits of a simple prostasia , was by him also approved , as the remedy of dissention , so , he holding it to be not of divine disposition , no doubt if he had these other holy men , were this day to see the hundred part of these sad , and fearful effects , that it hath produced , nothing could be able to breake their astonishment , at the surprizing sight of such prodigious consequences of this mystery of iniquity , but sorrow and lamentation , together with deep regrete , that they did not better forsee , and more timously resist , the first tendencies and beginnings of this evil : now whether or not antiquity be on your side , and if our grounds from scripture against your episcopall authority , be not much confirmed , both by ierom and the other passages here handled , i willingly submit it to all the lovers of truth : but lest you think that by the representation i have made in the beginning of my answere to your alledgeance from antiquity , of the early and strange rise and grouth of episcopacie , i do thereby derogate from that light and purity , which with you i acknowledge in these primitive times , i must note , first , that pride as it was the first sin and corrupter of mans integrity , from which the felicities of paradise could not exempt him ; so is it of all sins the most inward , rooted , and subtile , attending a man in all conditions , finding matter in all occasions , and immixing it self even in our fairest and purest actions . . that the disciples of our lord , notwithstanding of his own presence , holy instruction , and humble example were not free of the motions of this evil , the history of the gospel doth plainly testify . . i note that the times of the apostles , the most pure and powerfull that ever the church enjoyed , were many wayes infested with this plague , i mention not the contentions betuixt paul and barnabas , which no doubt sprung from this latent corruption ; but he who considereth the great number● and many wicked practices of false apostles , hereticks and schismaticks , in these days boasting against , and despising even paul himself , with the affected preheminence of diotrephes , and the then begun working of the mystery of iniquity , toward the exalting of the son of perdition , in place of denying , must of necessity marveil , how this devil of pride could in so gracious and short a time , destitute of all earthly encouragements , so greatly prevail , and plainly perceive , that this active spirit , would not be wanting , to imbrace and improve all occasions and opportunities offered ; , that as order did no doubt at first in all meetings require a president , whom i also easily grant to have been , as any occasion did require , rather recommended by desert , no evil consequence being then apprehended , then presented by a constant and compleat rotation ; so it is very probable , and confirmed by hieroms suffrage , that contentions did first both fixe the presidencie or prostasia , and exalt it to any notable eminencie ; but whether by way of remedy , or by way of victory , to the increase of the maladie , is indeed the most observable points , and , as i apprehend , that whereupon we will divide : and therefore i note . that although the authority of able and holy men at first , advanced to a fixed presidencie , might then appeare , as in these dayes of great simplicity and humility , in it self very innocent , and in the event also effectuall to concord ; yet without all question at best it was but an humane invention , copied from the patern of the manner of the then civil government of the empire , to which our lord expresly commanded his disciples not to conforme . . that seing affected preheminence and the contentions thence arising , did clearly occasion the introducing of this prostasia , though in many , yea most places , the prevailing number of good men , might thereto advance worthy and deserving persons , studying more the prospering of the gospel , and unity of the church then adverting to the bad consequences , that thence might ensue ; yet it is not only most certain , that this promotion was that , whereunto these strivings did every where directly aspire ; but also most probable , that even in the first beginnings , many ambitious pretenders , wanting a just opposition , did carry their design , and were preferred . . that by plain dealing i may satisfy all pretenses , i observe , that albeit power and authority , unite in the prostasia of one amongst many , may be thereby rendered more strong , and effectual ; yet seing the benefits of this union , and advancement , doth only flow from the accidental worth , and ability of the person that happens to be promoted , and that the order or institution it self , destitute of divine warrant , and promise , and clearly occasioned by evil contention and introduced into the house of god by humane invention , could not at first have any thing in it recommendable , and hath since produced most corrupt ●ruits ; neither the existence of many excellent and great men in this degree , nor the laudable , yea extraordinary advantages , that the church hath received from them in the concret , can now justify , and maintain the order it self in the abstract : if this arguing were good , able and well qualifyed men vested with such a power , or placed in such a condition , have proven and may prove notable instruments of good : therefore it is reasonable and expedient , that such a constant order should be erected , we might not only have bishops , but most of the monastick orders of the roman church : we finde peter with the singular benefite of the church , exercing a power of life and death , and that given him from above , and not assumed ; could therefore an order of church-men , pretending to the like authority , be rationally thence maintained in the church ? no wayes : accidental advantages do not commend unwarranted institutions , much less can they justle out our lords express constitution : but it is he , the perfect orderer of his own house , who hath positively defined , and blessed its officers , and their power , and not left the matter arbitrarie , to the probable contrivances of apparent benefite , farre less to the dissembling pretenses , of mens lusts , and corrupt interest . . it is to be noted , that although the great measure of grace , given to the primitive church , and the hard and frequent persecutions , wherewith it was exercised , did for a time hinder that strange depravation and incredible ●ruption of wickedness , whereunto the setting up of the ancient prostasia , the rudiment of your prelacie , did from its first beginnings , secretly and covertly bend ; yet this is most evident , that so soon as the church of god obtained the countenance , and was favoured by the more fond in many things ( such as excessive do●ations and grants of privileges ) then prudently pious benevolence of secular princes , this prelatick order , which in its depression had been indeed honoured , with many shining lights and glorious martyres , attaining then to its ascendent , did not only debauch the lords ministers , for the most part unto idleness , avarice and luxurie ; but continually climb up according to its proper genius of ambition , until the devils design in its rise , and progress , was fully discovered , and consummate , in the revelation of the son of perdition : . this being the rise , progress and product of prelacie in the first churches , as may be clearly gathered from the writtings of these times , how it was introduced in other churches , thereafter gathered and brought in , may be found in their histories : only this is certain , that as in almost no church it can be shewed , to have been coëvous with christianity , and in all the western churches where it obtained place , was ever a sprig of romes hierarchie , propagate by her ambition and deceit , and the like practices ; so the church of scotland in special , was in the beginning , and for some centuries thereafter , instructed and guided by monks , without bishops until palladius from rome , did set up prelacie among us , as many authors witness ; nay , we may finde it on record , that even in the . year a synod in england did prohibite the scots any function in their church , because they gave no honour to metropolitans and other bishops . by these observations , having in some sort delineate the mysterious and crooked windings , of this excrescing power , in its first motions , and setting forth : and very clearly and naturally traced its progressions , and thence deduced that most prodigious production of the antichristian papacie , as any considerate man may thereby easily perceive , not only how it might , but how de facto it hath crept into the whole church , without an apostolicall introduction , notwithstanding of all your contrarie insinuations , so i am confident , that what ever other advantages , these primitive times had above our latter dayes ; yet our discovery , made after so full a revelation , compared to the obscure appearances of this wickedness , in the first ages of the church , cannot be thereby rationally disproved : and your scurrile disparaging of the latter times of reformation , as the fagg end o● sexteen hundred years , doth with little less success , plead for the pope and antichrist , then for your an●ichristian prelacie . as for the rest of your discourse , wherein you tell your n. c. that though the ancient bishops were better men , then either bishops or presbyters alive ; yet , in presbyteries , specially in the matter of ordination , they were sine quibus non , and what ever be the present abuse of the episcopall power ; yet it is a rational and most necessary thing , that the more approven and gifted , be peculiarly incharged with the inspection of the clergie , an order of men ne●ding much to be regulate ; and seing all humane things , and presbytery also , are liable to be abused , the common maxime remains to be applied , remove the abuse of bishops , but retain their use . in answere hereto , i need not inlarge , he who knows church history best , will easily grant , that as for the first centurie and an half , we have no vestige upon record , of your prelatick power ; so when 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had place , their concurrence in presbyteries , was only for order , as being the mod●rators , a consideration of the same exigence and effect , whether they be fixed , or unfixed , and not from any peculiar power , proper to them as a superior order ; a thing so certainly disowned by the primitive church , that , even after the bishops thought themselves well stated in their prelacie , and were beginning to contend among themselves , for the papacie , hierom doth plainly deny them any such prerogative above presbyters , and was not therefore contradicted by any : how much more then doth this condemn that sole power , both of ordination and jurisdiction , whereunto your bishops do pretend . as for your alledged reason , and necessity of promoting the better gifted over the unruly cl●rgie , whatever application it may have to that naughty company of your insufficient and profane curats , or conformity to the court ; yea , the worlds prejudice against our lord jesus , his ministers , and all his followers ; yet these two things are most evident . . that as that lowely and ministerial government , appointed by christ in his own house , admitting no superiority or inequality of power among ministers , is not subjected to , and alterable at the arbitriment of humane reason ; so , the advantage of gifts , whereupon you would found it , doth so little favour your conclusion , that the direct contrarie is recommended by our lord , as its best evidence and fruit , he that will be chief among you let him be your servant ; and that not only as to the grace of humility , but in plain opposition to that superior authority exercised in secular rule , whereof the imitation in this place , is expresty prohibite to gospel ministers : but the ground of your mistake is , that notwithstanding our lord hath said of himself and his ministers , that one is your master ; and all you are brethren and fellow-servants , among whom an inequality of gifts , may well consist with an equality of condition ; yet restess and most subtile ambition , for grati●ying its evil lust , will , even in a plain opposition commanded , alleage the affectation , and not the thing it self to be discharged ; and in the low liest state of service , devise superior and inferior degrees . the second thing is , that though i be ●arre from denying humane infirmities incident to ministers , as well as others , and do heartily wish , that the of ●nces by them occasioned , may be alwayes , as the most hurtful to the gospel , most seriously precautioned and regreted ; yet i am sure , that , without regard to our lords most gracious gifting , and most wise ordering of his ministery for the feeding and ruling of his people , to affirme that neverthelesse there is no order of men needs so much to be regulated , is a presumptuous and vain imputation , against jesus christ , the head and king of the church , and his oeconomie : hath our lord taken so great paines to separate , instruct , sanctify , and send forth ministers , and promised them so special a presence and assistance , for the oversight and conduct of believers , and darre any christian say , that even the order it self ( for alas i grant the men are but earthen vessels ) needs more then any other , the contrivance of mans invention for its regulation ? but let none that honoureth jesus christ , or remembreth the former beautie , order and successe of his ministrie and courts amongst us , be offended ; this reflection proceeds from the same spirit , that accused our great master , as a rebell and usurper , and his apostles as the troublers and subverters of the world. as to your conclusion , when you have disproved the divine warrant of presbytrie , and shewed both its occasion , rise , tendencie , and proper fruits to be only evil , as i have done in the matter of prelacie , then you may equiparat them in the point of abuse : but seing the abuse of presbytrie is only accidental , from humane infirmity , and that of prelacie , its most native genius and product ; na● , seing presbytrie is indeed the right use of the churches government , and prelacie its manifest depravation , the maxime which you adduce , in its just application , doth most clearly say , remove the abuse of prelacie , and let the use of presbyterie be re●ained . the fourth dialogue answered . sir , since you have said nothing that i have not to my self ( and i hope to all rational and impartial men ) satisfyingly answered , and seing i can say it in gods sight , that in all the matters hitherto treated , i finde in my heart a serious desire to please him in all things ; and also to comply with his church , and obey the laws of the kingdom , in what i judge agreeable to his will , with as much distrust of my self , and charity towards others , as humane frailtie doth permit : in this perswasion truely , and by your own verdict , conscientious , without either noticing the pitiful shift of a blind conscience , which you make your n c. pretend , or charging you with that arrogance , whereupon you make him weakly to exclaime , i shall proceed to consider the grounds which in this place you lay down , you say then , private persons have nothing to do with government ; submission and not judging is their part . i cannot stand to discusse all the ambiguities that may be latent in this general ; but it is strange . . that the government of gods house ( ●or that is the point betwixt us ) should be instituted by him , for the edification and salvation of private persons , and his own glory , as you cannot deny ; and yet they to have nothing to do with it . . you say , submission i● their dutie . and would you have it blind , and not rational , and conscientious ? . our lord hath defined the government of his church , and did establish the same among us , engaging us thereinto by a perpetual covenant , is it then nothing of our concernment ? but may we breake these sacred tyes , and abandone our selves to an implicite compliance , with every humane invention ? i grant that private persons are neither , under a righteous constitution , to usurpe the part of the governours ; nor yet under a sinful , unlawfully to solicite , and endeavour an alteration : but as in the former case , both reason and religion , specially where an oath hath interveened , doth oblige to maintenance , so in the latter , i am assured that all active owning and approving ( the thing whereunto we are pressed ) beyond a providentiall acquiescence , is utterly sinful : if you require my reasons , there is none like your own , viz. first , because , i am perswaded that , what ever may be the comparative innocencie of an erring , but well-meaning opinion ; yet of every soul , who hath seen the glorious light and work of god in the lands , and engaged himself thereto by solemn covenant , and now of late , hath broken these bonds , and concurred to change christs pure ordinances , and set up , establish or countenance prelacie , and its wicked hierarchie , god will surely either in this life , as we have already seen , in the convictions of many , or in the last and great judgement , openly require it . . because not only perjury , manifestly ingredient in the active submission and compliance which you exact , hath a plain and direct tendencie to the blotting of the soul ; but as the gospel and all its ordinances , are designed to purify the heart ; so , this of government , so clearly therein appointed , and of so necessaire and effectual influence , for the conserving of truth , edifying of the body of christ , and perfecting of the saints , doth undeniably contribute to the same end : and by these two easie rules it is whereby i heartily wish , that both you and i , and all men may examine our conscienc●s . in the next place you tell your n. c. that we have no rationall ground to think you wrong , in matters of religion : do you then think that obedience to the lords command , against swearing falsely , and adhering to , and owning the kingdom , and ordinances of jesus christ , are no matters of religion ? or have you already answered the full and just account , that i have given of our differences ? but , supposing there may be error on your side , you adde , that unless the error be of greater importance , then the communion of saints is , it ought not to unty the bond of the unity of the catholick church . this is the rule which you gave us before , in your first dialogue , and therefore i shall say little to it , only if your meaning be , that except the conjunction with the erring partie , be of greater prejudice , then separation upon that account , we ought not to unty the unitie of the church , i willingly assent : but if there be any other latent sense in your strange weighing the import of error , with an article of faith , things quite opposite , without all communication of degrees ; when you explain your self , i shall consider it . to this you subjoin many things of pauls conforming both to jews and gentiles , in matters of greater scruple , then what we contend about , and thence conclude , that if paul did so freely and out of charity , then are we much more bound , from whom the dutie of obedience to law doth also exact it : now , because in this place , it is , that you not only abuse pauls practice , but go about to intricate and destroy , by a new knack of pitiful court sophistry , the privilege of christian liberty , i shall therefore endeavour briefly to give you a distinct and adequat return . and i say that paul's conformity doth no wayes enforce the compliance required of us ; because that all we finde in the apostle , is a free and prudent accommodation of himself , in things wholly externall and indifferent , for the gaining of such , with whom he conversed ; whereas the compliance demanded of us , is plainly to owne and approve unwarranted , wicked and accursed prelacie , and its abominations : which , both by the command , and oath of god , we are bound to extirpate : if paul , notwithstanding of the accomplishment of the● mosaick dispensation , at first institute by the lord , and not then expresly antiquat , did neverthelesse continue some of its observances , that by shewing a respect to , and not despising of these shadows , though already evanished , he might the better convince the jews , of the fulfilling of what they prefigured ; can any man thence inferre , that therefore we ought not only to relinquish the true ordinances of christ , but acknowledge the inventions of men , such as prelacie , and its vain ceremonies , although the samine be found contraire both to the word of god , and power of godliness , and therefore are by us solemnly abjured . as for pauls freedom of converse toward the gentiles , admitting that there appeares a seeming excess in it , obnoxious to misconstruction : yet , was it not in meat and drink only ? and is not its principall design of asserting , in these things , such an absolute liberty , as might warrant the deed in it self , notwithstanding the possibility of some mens mistakes , wholly opposite to your purpose ? so that , without question , the outmost advantage you can draw from this matter , is , that we have the liberty to do materially many of these externall things , by you enjoined , without homologating your intention in the imposing , which , whether you would accept of , or account consistent with sincere dealing , i leave to your self to judge ? but 't is like your meaning is , that all the things whereunto we are pressed , passing from our covenant , relinquishing of our sent and sealed ministers , owning and active submitting to abjured prelats , and the like , are in themselves things wholly externall , insignificant , and nothing ; wherein we may as lawfully complement authority , by our obedience , as paul , by a free exercise of his liberty , in washing , shavings , circumcising , eating , and drinking did complacently insinuat upon jews , and gentiles : and if in these there be any parity , let the meanest capacity discerne . although the things required of us , were indeed in themselves wholly indifferent ; yet we cannot be urged with pauls conformings , because the reason and design of pauls practice , being diametrally repugnant to yours , instead of confirming , plainly subverts the compliance by you demanded : paul's practice , did flow from liberty , and the reason and warrant of that , was , because that christ hath made us free , and called us unto liberty , blotting out the hand-writting of ordinances that was against us : dare you then , or any mortall else , offer to write and fixe another , and again intangle us with a yoke of bondage , and subjecte us to , or judge us concerning ordinances , after the commandments and doctrines of men ? what reasoning can be more absurd then that of yours ? paul did these things freely , therefore , you are bound to obedience : do contraries , that remove , establish one another ? i grant that , if in charity to our equals , even aliens , we are bound to a compleasant and gaining acting or forbearance , in things indifferent , and in our power ; much more doth the same charity bind us , to the like compliance toward our superiors ; but by what consequence can you extend this obligation of charity , to a plain surrender of our liberty ; and turn the praise of a free benevolent exercise , unto a bondage of obedience , wherefrom our lord hath so clearly liberat us , as to all these externals , which you so much plead for ? but as to this point , you tell your n. c. that he bewrays great simplicitie ; because forsooth paul did not re●use compliance by reason that the things were commanded by authority : but because certain false brethren came to spy out his liberty , to whom he gave place by subjection , no not for an hour . really , sir , your n. c. must indeed be very simple , that he could indure such imposing . you say , paul did not re●use compliance , by reason that the ceremonies were commanded , and yet his own words by you cited , say plainly , that though at other times , in the free and edi●ying exercise of his liberty , he hath in charity ceded to the weaker ; yet , to give place by subjection ( mark it ) the correlat and homologation of command , he would not , no not for an hour , is not then to repeat only your discourse , to redargue it ? i might tell you further , that by the context , it is evident , that the apostle speaks in this place , of these that would have brought gentiles under the law of moses , and the observance of the jewish ceremonies , who certainly did pretend divine authority for their doctrine : and therefore , and for this only reason , were in the vindication of christian liberty opposed by paul , and barnabas : but let us hear what stilling-fl●et hath put in your mouth as to this matter : you say then that , if an● require of us compliance , as if it were necessarie of it self , we have reason to stand fast in the liberty wherewith christ hath made us free . but it is unsufferable peevishness , if the magistrat enjoin a thing , declaring it free in it self , and only necessary because commanded , upon that score to refuse obedience . to this it is answered . that it is unsufferable boldness for you , to alledge a peevishness in a practice , so exactly parallel to that of the apostles , who , as they understood the liberty wherewith christ had made them free , to consist in that reall relief and freedome granted to them from the yoke and burden of the jewish ceremonies ; so , they do exhort believers to stand fast to it , which certainly imports a non-submission , and resisting to the imposition , either of these antiquat jewish observations , or any other of mans invention , seing that these are indeed contrarie , and not only an astrictedness , in opinion , unto the liberty purchased : 't is true , the false apostles pressed their observance from divine authority ; but seing the christians then did except , upon the liberty which christ hath obtained , and thereby proclaimed to us an exemption even from the old divine law of ordinances , is not the same much more forcible against mens usurpation of an unwarranted tyrrany ; or think you , that our lord hath only freed us from moses impositions , that we might fall into the hands of more severe task-masters , who not only take upon them to appoint , without gods warrant into the house and matters of god , and introduce will-worship , which he abhorres ; but after they have urged our obedience , as only civill , and out of respect to authority , and not from conscience , do then tell us , that by a generall and supervenient law of god , their statutes become to reach even the conscience also ? but . you say , if the magistrat declare the thing to he free in it self , and only necessary because commanded , christian liberty is not thereby lessened . 't is answered , is not christian liberty alwayes opposed to the jewish bondage ? now , sir , i demand wherein did this bondage consist , was it in the authority only , whereby these ordinances were enjoined , and which did indeed immediatly reach the conscience , and not rather in the obligation to that burthensome practice , which thence did ensue ? and certainly , you , and all men , must grant the latter ; seing the speciality of divine authority , is so far from rendering an imposition , otherwayes light , to be burthensome ; that without question , as its precepts are the perfect law of liberty ; so the clearnesse of its warrant , is the greatest relief of conscience : nay , this is a truth to certain , and apposite to our present purpose , that i am sure you are convinced , that if the prelats could produce divine commands for their injunctions , these would quickly satisfy all our scruples , and make non-conformists , the most conformable of the nation . give over then your empty quibling , in telling us , that you exact not our compliance , as necessaire in it self by divine prescript , for though i could shew , how that notwithstanding you pretend not to any immediate divine warrant , for your imposings ; you not the less alleage that divine authority , whence magistracy doth descend , for astricting our obedience ; yet this is so far from being our exception , that plainly on the contraire , your ceremonies commanded in the matters of god , against that liberty purchased unto us , are not in themselves , or in any other respect , so much a burthen , as for lack of that very same authority , whereof you do most inadvertently pretend , that the want should be our solution . but . what can be more manifest , then that , as the hardship of the jewish pedagogie , did consist in the multitude of their ceremonies , and observances , whereunto they were tyed in practice , and neither in the obligation of divine authority , whereby they became bound , nor yet in their opinion of things , which , notwithstanding of their being injoined by the lord , they knew to be in themselves free , and were not in the least , by this liberty of opinion , delivered from the rigour of that pedagogie , so the releasement , which our lord hath purchased , consists in freeing us from that yoke , and burthen , which the jews were not able to bear , and in liberating us from the law of ordinances , and the rudiments of the world ? pray sir , is this only to change the opinion of things , and leave us as much ob●oxious , to be subjected in obedience as ever the jews were ? who can admit it ? if you be still unclear , answere this demand with your self in sobriety : if the false brethren had said to the christians of old , we acknowledge with you , that the jewish dispensation is accomplished ; but since the lord hath not expressly discharged the continuance of its observations , and they are but things external , and of themselves free , let us in the recognizance of his authority , or for peace sake , still be subject in a conformable obedience : would not the apostle have returned the same answere ? it is the lord who hath made us free , let us not again be brought unto bondage : the sun of righteousness is arisen , and hath obscured all the former shadowing lights , we have no need either of these , or the more pitiful tapers of mens blind invention : and here i must tell you by the way , that as i have drawn out my answere on purpose , to meet with your significant rites introduced in gods service ; so , as to the first part of it , anent the liberty purchased to us by christ , i further adde , that it is a groundless conceit , to think that the only reason of abolishing the jewish ceremonies , was , because they did prefigure our lords coming , seing it is most certain , that although the whole complexly , was indeed a pedagogie to lead unto him , and make that people to wait and long for his redemption ; yet a great many of them did not properly prefigure , such as the observation of dayes , distinction of meats , and the like , to which no such relative signification can be attribute , without a groundless and violent straining : and therefore , as i grant , that many of these rites , as being only shadows of the good things to come , did evanish upon their appearance , and consequently could not have been kept up , without a tacite hint , that the things thereby typifyed were still expected ; yet i am very assured , that as to a great part of these mosaick ordinances , our lord did remove them , as a yoke and burthen , by the gracious concession of that liberty , wherewith he made us free , and that to bring back that servitude , or to introduce the like , is plainly to bring us back again to the rudiments of the world , from which we are dead with christ , to disown the liberty which he hath purchased , and consequently , and as plainly as in the former case , to deny that our deliverer is come . . having shewed that the liberty of thinking the things to be free in themselves , the practice nevertheless being strictly injoined , is not christian liberty , and that it is irrational to affirme , that an observance commanded by the law of god , becomes o● this account more burthensome , then if mans authority only did make it binding : and seing on the other hand i easily grant , that in things in themselves free , and in our power , no reason of religion or righteousness gainstanding , it were peevishness to decline the request of an equal , let be the command of a superior : i shall here shortly declare wherein it is that christian liberty stands , and consequently what the injury is of your invasion : as then christian liberty , is neither a licentiousness to sin against god , nor to rebel against the powers that are over us ; so i plainly understand it , to be that free●dome of serving god in spirit and in truth , whereunto our lord iesus , by releeving us of all outward observances , either as media in our worship , or for themselves requisite to the acceptation of our service , other then he himself hath expressly appointed , hath redeemed , and restored his church . that the circumstances of time , place &c. and their due regulation for decencie , and order , are not here rejected , the quality , for themselves , that is , for some respect , by special command , peculiarly to them appropriat , sufficently holds out ; it being very certain , that , under this consideration , the matters of decencie , whereof both the conveniencie and use flows only from the common exigence of all humane actions , do not fall : and that this is the true notion of christian liberty , the scriptures whence i take it , and wherein it is so clearly distinguished , from the jewish bondage , there also described , iohn . . gal. . and . col. . are so plain , that nothing can be added . only i observe , that because by this liberty , we are delivered from these performances , whereunto the exercise of religion , requiring , in every act of worship or service toward god , the faith and conscience of a divine prescript , without which it is impossible to please him , was formerly by moses law astricted : therefore it is indeed and is rightly termed , liberty of conscience , which while you and others do conceive , to be nothing else then a freedom to think things to be free in themselves that are not commanded by the lord , you do not only grossly mistake it , as distinguished from the jewish servitude ; but open a door to humane lust , and invention , to incumber and deprave the whole body of religion , and the worship of god , with whatsomever fopperies they please to devise : seing that , in your opinion , it is impossible , that christian liberty of conscience , can be thereby prejudged . now , to prove that your exactions are high impingements upon this freedome , i need not mention these compliances , which you crave , and are in effect directly opposite to the will of god ; but even your other ceremonies , all added as in and by themselves significant , to the worship and service of god , without the warrant either of his word , or of the common exigence of all performances , and so thereby made religious in their use , and object ; and therefore certainly belonging to conscience , needeth no other argument to evi●ce it , then the subsumption of a condescendence . having thus in some measure cleared what i proposed , lest you or any other should account these things , to be matters of meere doubtfull disputations , i must adde , that as it hath alwayes been observed , that the greatest urgers of conformity in the externalls of humane invention , have been very little , if at all , serious , in the life and substantials of religion ; so the great prejudice thence ensuing , to the power and practice of godliness , partly by reason of the imposers evill lusts and ends , partly by reason of that spirit of delusion , to which they are given up , and partly by reason of the vanity of the things imposed , and the lords abhorrence of them , doth both discover that mysterie of hypocrisie , and wickedness , which secretly worketh under these vain formes , and should ever render them most odious , to all the lovers of truth and holiness . i might here further adde , that as your impositions are invasive of christian liberty , injurious to conscience , and corruptive of the pure and acceptable worship of god , and consequently such , as no power on earth can lawfully command them , or we therein obey ; so , were it but for the offence that may thence redound , to the stumbling of the weak , and hardening of the imposers , to proceed from small beginnings to the grossest mixtures , all conscientious men may very justly be therefrom deterred ; but to this i shall speak at greater length . . having shewed that paul's christian civility , doth make nothing for your imposed conformity , and that to turne the free exercise of a charitable compliance , unto a yoke of bondage , is a perversion intolerable , i shall summe up the whole matter with this brief reflection , viz. that admitting the things required of us , were only such externals and nothings as you would groundlessly perswade , and that our forbearance had , in it , more of weakness then sound reason ; yet the free spirit of christianity , which you alleage , and paul describeth rom. . is , so farre from urging us to your desired compliance ; that i am very confident to affirme , that if the severest non-conformist , had had the rule to dictate ( pardon the supposition , blessed be the dictator ) he could not more manifestly and directly have condemned your rigid exactions in thir matters , then the apostle doth in this place : i need not insist upon particulars , the whole chapter is most expresse , let not him that eateth ( and you think all the points of the controverted conformity of no greater moment ) despise him that eateth not . how do you then vex them with hard laws , and grievous pains , more then you do heynous malefactors : who art thou that judgest another mans servant ? is a demand which one day will concerne kings and rulers , more then any of their subjects : why do they then judge ? why do they set at nought their brethren ? for all shall stand ( and that on even ground ) before the judgement seat of christ : let us not therefore judge one another , but let us judge this rather , that no man put a stumbling-block , or an occasion to fall in his brothers way : you assure us , and seem perswaded , that the things pressed are of themselves nothing ; but to him that esteemeth them unlawfull , to him they are unlawfull , and he that doubteth is damned if he do , because he doth not of faith ; how then can you require this conformity ? and of how different a temper , was the free and charitable spirit of the apostle , who not only indulgeth the weak non-conformist ; but becometh such himself to evite his offence ? if thy brother be grieved with thy meat ( or with any of the matters now in debate , for you make no difference ) now walkest thou ( spoken in my opinion to the prince as well as peasant ) not according to charity , destroy not him with thy meat ( or your acknowledged humane inventions ) for whom christ dyed : say not that the things in controversie being concluded by law , are no more free , or in the condition of the things here mentioned ; for , if not only judging and despising the forbearer be here forbidden ; but even the con●raire practice , when to him offensive , how much more must the designed framing , and strick executing of laws , for no other visible end , then the violenting of scruplers , and racking of their consciences , ( acknowledged by your self for the widest step to atheism that can be made ) be in this scripture condemned ? if you urge , that to carry this indulgence so high , is to frustrate all humane laws , seing the person unwilling to obey , may alwayes pretend , from conscience , the privilege of forbearance ; and as de facto you reason , any offender may decline discipline , and say that the thing being indifferent , by command it becomes necessary , and so a burthen of conscience . 't is answered , that as the burthen of conscience , doth not stand in a necessity , by divine precept , of the things imposed , otherwayes the lords commandments , that are certainly most easie , should thence become most grievous ; but , in effect , in a forced obligation to practice , in things wherein conscience , requiring the lords warrant in order to his acceptation , cannot at all finde it so ; the liberty and privilege here spoken to , is only in order to conscience , viz. that christians ought not to press , or judge one another in the performance , or forbearance of things in themselves indifferent , as acceptable and well-pleasing to god , without his warrant : and therefore the force and effect of humane laws , ordering and commanding things in order to the politick ends of government , and , in so farre , by the lord commanded to be obeyed , are not by this doctrine in the least demurred : now that your ceremonies and other impositions , being all relative to the service and worship of god , wherein as every thing is to be observed , with the faith of the lords acceptation , so nothing can be acceptable without his warrant , are not of the nature of things , as objected to civill commands ; but plainly such , wherein paul pleads for liberty , is manifest : nay , you your self know so well , that the very things scrupled at by us , as enjoyned toward a religious observance , would be readily complied with upon any other reasonable occasion ; and that thousands , who detest the surplice , would chearfully engadge in a camisado , for their prince's service , that i add nothing : if you say , that the things in debate , though commanded for religious uses , are never the less enjoyned not as acceptable to god and under this formality ; but are only necessary because commanded ; you bewray , not only a sinful gaudie licentiousness , of doing things for , and in the house of the god of heaven , not commanded by the god of heaven ; wherein even heathens , let be christians , have been tender ; but expose the purity and simplicity of religion , to all the corruptions of mans vain imagination : as to what you adde anent the pretext , which this liberty may give to offenders , to decline discipline , it is yet less to the purpose , in as much as submission to discipline , doth in effect flow from the lords authority , whereby it becomes necessary , and mens part therein is only a naked ministerial application . lastly if you object , that publick peace and order require your conforming obedience : your opinion and method in this point , is much different from the apostles , he makes it his great argument , not only for not judging and censuring non-conformists ; but also , in the case of offence , for complying with them in their forbearance , that we ought to follow the things which make for peace , and wherewith one may edisie another : but you and your partie , for all the noise you make for publick peace ; before you tolerat a non-conforming in the greatest indifferencies , and howsoever tender and innocuous ; will sooner both deprive your brethren of peace , and for your vain trifles destroy the work of god : whereas though you had faith in these things , yet you ought to have it to your selves before god : but , sir , it is already too manifest , that as in practice you know not the way of peace , so , in this discourse , by pressing a strict obedience from the free spirit of christian liberty , which you seem to commend , you palpably condemn your self in that which you appear to allow . having thus farre , in the pursute of your reasonings , digressed , in the explanation of true christian liberty ; because of its after use , in the perusal of your remaining purposes , i shall not stick in the considering of what you make your n. c. add , that we forbear the things pressed , for avoiding the scandal of others : i have already told you , that the reasons of our forbearance have no less then the indispensable motive of the will and oath of god : yea , suppose the things required were meere externals , and indifferent , as they are not ; yet i have so clearly proven that your abridging of our christian liberty therein , by vertue of your commands , is in it self repugnant to the apostles doctrine , and in its effects pernicious , that your requiring to make the restraint of authority , abused to these impositions , the warrant of practice to the forcing of conscience , and the offending of a christian brother , is a sophisme , no better , then if the hardie practiser , or proud imposer , who is expressly commanded in christian tenderness to regard his brothers offence , should by a vain pretending of his own offence , taken from the others indulged forbearance , or recusancie , thereby turne the argument , and elude the exhortation , to the very scorne of scripture : that which i rather observe , is , that seing that to give scandal is not ill defined by you , to be a stretching of our liberty to practice , to the drawing of others to the like ( or grieving or making them weak ) who have not the same clearness , why do you not begin your application at prelats , who having first streatched their practice , to the ens●aring , do also frame unjust decrees to the forcing of such who have no clearness to conform ? and on the other hand , ought you not to indulge such , who only desire to re●uge their conscience , in the sanctuary of an allowed forbearance ? but these are the men , whom having first sinfully spoiled of liberty , you scornfully abuse , by telling they may now act , without regard to scandal , since you do permit them no liberty to the contraire : but i hasten to your more closs examination of the matter of conformity . and first you ask , why do not our ministers join with your courts for church-discipline ? it 's answered , it were tedious to examine the follies of you , and your n. c. in this point ; we join not in your courts , because they are not the courts of jesus christ ; but of the king , and prelates : if this you deny read the act par . sess● . concerning religion and church-government , the proclamation of councel thereafter , discharging all presbytries untill authorized by the bishops , and the act par. eod . sess. . for the restitution of bishops , where , as you will finde that presbytries were made precarious ; as to their continuance ( not as to their right , which is indeed divine ) by the first act , and then simpliciter discharged , and broken up by the proclamation ; so that which returnes , in their place , by the last act and what ensued , is not the former presbyteries , but only the exercises of the brethren , having both their regulation and authority from the bishops , who have all their church-power and jurisdiction in a dependance upon , and subordination unto the soveraign power of the king as supream . so that the kings authority and prerogative royal , is plainly the proper fountain , and last resort of all the power and jurisdiction to be found , either in your church , or its meetings : nay further , this 〈◊〉 so certain , that as his majesty doth not so much as pretend a commission from jesus christ , as the anointed king of his church , for this effect ( which yet the pope , in his most wicked usurpation , did alwayes judge necessary ) so , if it be treason , as it is dict . sess . of the same parliament , act . . to derogat from the prerogative of the imperial crown of this realm , and if absolute supremacie in ecclesiasticks , incapable either of superior or conjunct , do thereto by the late act of supremacie appertain , certainly to make our lord so much as a sharer with the king , in this matter , would fall under the compasse of this crime : however , not to rake into this abysse of wickedness , that act of supremacie , giving to the king , over all persons , meetings , and in all causes of the church , all the power , that christ as head of the church , in these things hath or can acclame , ( a piece of such desperat solly , that i am assured , that as he that sitteth in the heaven doth laugh , so shall he one day have all its contrivers , and abettors in dirision ) in this i am very positive , that according to the present legall establishment made in these matters , to derive the power of your courts from , or connect the same with , the power and headship of our lord jesus , is utterly impossible . that we then , who as ministers of the gospel , do take upon us , and exercise no power , save that which is our lords , cannot join and partake with your meetings , your self may judge . but you say , that all that is divine in discipline , is , that scandalous persons be noted , and separated from worship ; but how this shall be administred , can be no matter of religion , or of the concernment of souls , providing it be done : 't is answered , to argue thus , all that is divine in preaching , is that the truth of the gospel be declared : but how this shall be performed can be no matter of religion , or of the concernment of souls , providing it be done , would it not be false and weak reasoning . . as your providing it be done viz. rightly , is a salvo , whereby a man may as pertinently argue against all means whatsomever , which certainly are nothing useful , providing the end for which they are appointed be rightly done , so this quality hath such an exigence even of these midses , which you suppose to be of no import , that it plainly subverts your argument : but . your position , that all that is divine in discipline , is , that scandalous persons be noted , &c. is false , in as much as this is no more clearly to be found in scripture , then the persons and officers therewith incharged , are evidently thereby ordained , yea this matter is so certain , that there is scarce one place to be seen in scripture , for the warrant of discipline , which doth not with the same evidence , hold out the persons intrusted with its administration : and i will give unto thee the keyes of the kingdom of heaven : whose sins soever ye remit they are remitted unto them : feed , over-see , rule the slock , are commissions so full , ordaining the persons , as well as designing their work , that i can hardly impute the laxeness of your reasoning , to your oversight . in the next place ( for as for your quibling with your n. c. anent the foolish answere which you put in his mouth it is altogether frivolous as shall be shewed in your . dial. ) you urge , that , seing that presbytries do by divine right acclaime a power o● jurisdiction , they ought to meet in these courts , let the law call it what it will , even as i● the king should abrogate all laws for the worship of god , and declare , that all that assemble to worship god , shall be understood to worship mahomet , and thereupon command all to meet ; though we meet not on that ground , yet you hope we would s●ill meet to worship god , how ever it be interpret : 't is answered , if the jurisdiction competent to presbyteries by divine right were in these courts , your argument might have some weight ; but seing they are not the former presbyteries , but new courts set up , as i have already declared , no more deriving power from jesus christ , then your late high-commission , how can you think in reason , that either the right and power of presbyters , or his majesties call , should oblige ministers to com to the one more then the other : for my part , as i esteem it a less sin upon the kings call to come to a court of his own erecting , then to abuse christs warrant to the establishing of a court , as his , which by its institution manifestly disowns him ; so , i should sooner resolve , upon the kings command to meet in the high-commission , then , by coming from the motive of our lords warrant , acknowledge your exercises of the brethren for his courts , which are so palpably setled upon the basis of another authority : as for your similitude , not to insist upon such claudicant arguments , it is like to the legs of the lame which are not equall , but make it straight , thus , the king dissolves all christian churches , and erects mahometan mosches , charging all to repaire there to worship , and declaring that he will account th●ir so doing , a testimony of their compliance with the change by him made : now if one should stand up , and for the perswading of just recusants , say , that they may safely go there , and worship god , without either owning of mahomet , or regarding the construction may be made of it : pray , sir , how would you understand it ? and what ever you , or any reasonable man think should be the practice or christians in this case , i am content the n. c. be thereby judged : i confesse the termes of the similitude are hard ; but remember they are of your own choosing , and my work is only to make them just ; to conclude therefore , it is not mens interpretation or mis-interpretation ( although in many cases these homologations , whereby either enemies may be hardened , or friends stumbled , require also a very weighty consideration ) that we regard in this matter : but the reall state of things , whereby as christ's power is ejected forth of your courts ; so the divine jurisdiction of presbyters cannot possibly therein have place : to this you subjoin that suppose episcopacie were tyrannie , and bishops were tyrannes in the church ; why ought you not to submit to them , as well as you did to the late tyrannes in the state ? it is answered , if i did think there were any emphasis , more then the strain of your discourse , in this your urging our submission to the late usurpers , i could tell you that though the cases were parallel , as they are not , all the submission made by us to oliver would not make out your inference : and that it is your , and not our submission which only can serve your turn ; i need not mention that mr. sharp now of st. andrews , was the first , if not the only minister in scotland , that took the tender , and thereby , deserting his fellow-prisoners , procured his own liberty : nor how the late introductors of episcopacie , were most or many of them such as by subscriving the tender , abjuring the king , and the like compliances , had wholly deboshed their consciences unto the perfidious re-establishing of your abjured prelacie : whereas the tenacious honesty of the faithfull of the land , was both then , and is now , accounted their bigotrie and folly . but to the purpose . . if bishops had only been intruded upon presbytries as they were in former times , it is not questioned , but faithfull presbyters , not outed of their possession founded on divine right , might have continued the same with a due testimony , and opposition against unlawfull usurpations , conforme to the old practice of gods servants among us in the like case ; but seing in the late revolution , not only presbytries were broken , and discontinowed , but the very foundations razed , a new foundation of the kings supremacie laid , and a new superstructure thereon built , our compliance now , as you require it , would not be an act of submission , but a plain partaking in this wickedness . . the case of mens usurpation in the state is so vastly different from that of your usurpations in the church , that it greatly alters the latitude of these submissions , which you go about to equiparat , for though , in civils , the aspiring and usurpation of wicked men , be a hainous transgression , before god ; yet , such is the nature , and condition of the kingdoms of the earth , in themselves mutable , and at the disposal of the most high , who ruleth therein , and giveth them to whomsoever he will , and setteth up over them sometime the basest of men , that the attaining thereto becometh such a providentiall title , as may sufficiently warrant , not only necessary submission , and obedience in things lawfull , but even these other acts of seeming compliance , that do directly acknowledge the usurper to be in titulo ; providing that they proceed no further , either to anticipate divine providence , in the establishment , or homologate the wickedness of the usurpation . if of this you have any doubt , i remit you to scripture-practice , the customes of all nations , the opinion of most casuists , and reason it self , whereby the taking and exercising of inferior offices , under undeniable usurpers , is most certainly confirmed : and this is plainly the case , both of state-usurpations , and of the largeness of that submission , which it admittes . now as for church-usurpations , the kingdom of our lord jesus , not being mutable and perishing , like unto the kingdoms of this world ; but his dominion of it self extra commercium , as lawyers speak , of things not acquirable , and by divine decree , an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away , and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed : as it is therefore incapable of all acquisition , and his crown such whereunto ( however the great ones of the earth may bandie together and boast themselves against it ) neither violence nor possession , can intitle ; so , in case of a pretended usurpation , though providence may order a passive submission ; yet most certain it is , that in this case , where there neither is nor can be any title , all deeds , so much as of simple recognizance , are utterly unlawful : and therefore albeit that under the late usurpation it was lawfull to partake , in the capacity of inferior magistracie , of that power , whereunto the usurper had in providence attained ; yet , in the case of our present church-usurpation , to acknowledge it in the least , by partaking of a jurisdiction founded in the pretended supremacie , and not derived from christ , to which neither the events of of providence , nor immemoriable possession , can give the least shadow of title , is altogether unlawfull . thus i have unfolded to you the disparity that invalidates your argument , and have also granted the passive submission , which providence and christian patience do alwayes recommend : if the grounds here insinuate do not so easily engage you assent , when you shall add thereto these certain truths , . that in civils , though the manner of purchasing may be in many cases injurious and unlawful ; yet it may be sufficient to acquire the dominion . . that whereever the length of time , or prescription may superinduce a right , there , even from the beginning , naked possesion is quasi titulus , & qui pro suo possidet potest usucapere . . that although lawyers speak of certain vitia , that in private rights hinder definite prescription ; yet all polititians grant , that immemorial possession , or even that of three ages , is sufficient to confirme over any people the most violent usurpation . and lastly , that on the other hand , our lords throne and scepter are everlasting , and such as can never be moved , i doubt not but all your difficulties will evanish . you proceed to say , that our ministers are content to preach and quite discipline , a part of their rights , why may they not aswell exercise discipline , though not with a full liberty ? 't is answered , . as i have already told you , that to sit in your courts , is not at all to exercise christs discipline , but a pretended power dependent upon another head ; so , you do not truely accuse our ministers of quiting discipline : it is well known , that , in so farre as is permitted , they do not separate doctrine and discipline , which our lord hes conjoined : and if full liberty be not permitted , and they necessitat to acquiesce to what the powers will allow , it is very disingenuous in you , to misconstrue this force , which they suffer , unto a voluntaire quiting . . though by the manner of your proposing the objection , you would have us to believe , that the cases are parallel , and that in the case urged , as well as in that instanced , there is only a restraint laid upon a more full liberty ; yet the disparity is most manifest in this , that in the matter of preaching , without the exercise of discipline , we are by force debarred from doing full dutie , in which case , the doing of a part permitted , cannot be censured ; whereas in the compliance you require , the very act is sinful , and is therefore , and not because we are denied a more full liberty , very justly by us refused : but having vainly concluded , upon the poor arguments which we have , heard , our ministers to be peevish , and made your pitiful n. c. confess himself non-plust by his general pretence of conscience ; you ask him , what he can pretend for the peoples withdrawing from your churches , since there is only a small alteration made in point of government . 't is answered , if all the matter be a small alteration in point of government , it had farre better become that charitable , healing and free spirit , whereunto you so often pretend , to have reflected thus ; since the change lately made , by its previo●s perjury , and subsequent deluge of profanity ; the desolating of churches , and dispersing of shepherds and flockes ; the disquieting , and vexing of thousands , unquestionably godly and loyal ; the fiering and filling all the corners of the land with contention and discontent ; the burdening of a countrey , formerly exhausted and now expecting relief , with heavie impositions , and strange exactions ; and lastly , the necessary and worst result of all these evils , the provocking the lord to anger , and rendering his majesties government less comfortable , and desireable , hath occasioned so great a perturbation , and yet , is in it self , and imports so small a matter , why do not our king and nobles consider for what the land perisheth ? wherefore do not all men bend their knees and pour out their prayers to god and the king , that so seen destructive , and easily remedied a cause , may be removed ? but seing for all your sparingness in passing judgment ; yet you cease not scornfully to censure a poor people , needlessly and unchristianly , by you ensnared , and thereafter more cruelly persecute , and oppressed , not repeating what hath been said by others in their vindication , i shall briefly run over what you here subjoin . you say then that separation being a tearing of the body of christ , to forsake the unity of the church , when there is scarce a colour of pretence for it , must be a great sin , 't is answered , i will not stand to descant upon the nature and several degrees of separation , and how that non-conforming to , and compliance with a prevalent backsliding partie , in effect the worst of separatists , which is our present case , is very different , from the case of separation , from a church formerly acknowledged , and joined with ; nor love i to inquire how farre a mans entrie into the ministrie , by open perjury and violence , and his profane and flagitious deportment therein , notourly known , may in the perturbed state of the church , supply the want of a declarative sentence , making void his mission ; nor lastly , will i make use of your own plain laws , viz. the act anent the restitution of bishops , and the late act of supremacie , whereby all church-power ( mark it ) is made dependent upon , and subordinat unto the kings supremacie , to prove your ministers , to be but court curats : but in this i am plain and confident , that if the prophets , who , by their lyes and lightness , cause the people to erre , and speak peace to such as despise the lord , and strengthen their hands , who walk in the imagination of their own heart , be not to be hearkened unto ; if we ought to bewarre and flee from false prophets , whose fruits ( of ungodliness as well as heresie , as is clear from the context ) do discover them , to be but ravening wolves , destroying souls , under the sheeps cloathing of an exterior call , and hypocritical composure ; if such who cause divisions and offences , contraire to the received truth , and who serve not our lord jesus , but their own belly , are to be avoided ; and lastly , if these destroyers , and offenders be the only persons guilty of all the separation , and other inconveniences , which ensue , then are your curates ( as dignoscible by all , or one or other of these characters , as the night is by darkness ) justly , yea necessarily , to be disowned , fled from and avoided , and only chargeable with that schisme whereof you endeavour to make us guilty . but you add , that , in a schismatical time-serving humour , we come sometimes to church , to ●vite the punishment of law ; but seldom , that we may retain our interest with our partie ; that we hear some of you but not others ; that some go to churches in the countrey , but not in the city ; and finally some join with you in the ordinary worship of prayer and praise , yet will not join in the eucharist , which is but solemn praise . sir , if you had been candid in this reflection , in place of imputing this variety to humour , and faction , it would indeed have moved you to pity the strait of so many good people , redacted to such a multi●arious perplexity ; which yet , in its outward appearance , is but light , in comparison of these inward inquietudes , wherewith the contraire workings of the fear of god , love of truth , abhorrencie of wickedness , tenderness toward authority , respect to union and peace , and fear of punishment , do continually sollicite them : if i might presume so farre upon your credite , i could tell you that , in my certain knowledge , some have been , against their consciences , forced by violence and spoill to hear your curates , who therefore have mourned many moneths thereafter , and certain of them even unto death ; that others whom the generality of your curates did either offend , or , according to the lords prediction ier. . v. . after long triall not profite at all , have searched by a choise to remedy the evill ; ( for , that there are better and worse not only as to private , but also as to publick transgressions , you groundlessly deny ) and lastly , that some have prevailed with themselves to hear and join with you in prayer and praise , who have yet still scrupled in their consciences to communicate with you , in that sacrament ; which , beside the adjunct of solemn praise , is designedly institute to signify and confirme our communion in , as well as our union with christ , from whom , we have reason to apprehend , that many of you , according to scripture-rules , and the grounds which your conversations hold out , are at great distance : if then these things be so , let it satisfy you in this point , that , as the generality of the whole land would account it a great reliefe to be delivered of all your tribe , and many of the godly are convinced , that your ministery being neither of nor for our lord jesus , is not to be owned ; so all these umbrages of compliance , which you observe , are only the effects of curiosity , fear , or some other humane frailty , wherewith by you we can , neither in charity nor ingenuity , be urged : but you are so desireous to win us to this conformity of owning your curates , that you are willing to suppose them to be but intruders occupying the places of our faithfull shepherds violently torn away ; and yet you argue , that although the high priest-hood was in our lords dayes violently invaded by the romans , and by them exposed to sale , and those symoniacks , did also usurp th● right of others ; yet we find cajaphas , as high priest , prophes●ing , and our saviour answering to his authoritative adjuration ; and though the pharisees were wretched teachers , and very guilty persons ; yet our saviour saith , hear them ; for they sit in moses chair : which you sa● is unanswerable and was the doctrine of our own teachers ? 't is answered , not to insist upon the particular , and full answere already made by others , for dissolving the apparent force of this objection , it is to be considered . . that as this argument doth proceed upon parallel instances , and similitudes for the most part lame , and unequal ; so the jews their particular customes and observances , in the examples adduced , are to us so hid and unknown , and the jewish constitution in general , of a church and nation joined in one special people , unto god , by virtue of a divine law , for matters both civil and religious , committed , even in its civil part , to the custody and interpretation of their religious officers , is so manifestly different from that of the christian church , gathered in one , out of all and every nation , only for things religious , without any alteration in their civil state , under jesus christ their head and king , and the ministers by him sent forth , that little light as to our present purpose , can be thence concluded . . that not only in the point of the churches ministerie but also in its worship and other ordinances , to reason from the dispensations of soveraigne providence , in the decline of churches , the lawfull compliance of good men with these churches , in owning them in things found , and bearing with corruptions , which they could not remedy ; and lastly from the lords assistance and presence , that never the less hath therein appeared , for the declaring of what is dutie , or not dutie , in the exigence of the first innovations , tending and leading unto the setlement of these abuses , is very deceitfull and dangerous . if in this ye be doubtfull , my charity , i hope , shall give you satisfaction : what , before the reformation , were the gross corruptions of the romish church , both in its ministers worship and sacraments , is to you well enough known : and yet , that many pious and devout souls , and some of them convinced and mourning for its abominations , did nevertheless therein sincerely seeke and serve the lord , and found the strength and joy of his presence , shall never be by me denied : if then it should happen , that in your high pretensions for union & peace , a popish ministerie , or other abuses should be set up , and enjoyned among us , would you think it just to require our conformity , and to offer to square dutie , in such a case , to any of these particular precedents to be found in the times of the former darkness ? i am confident you would not : if our lord , when on earth , did for a while connive at certain corruptions , in a dispensation drawing to its period , and if at the times of ignorance god sometime wink , and according to the obscurer light , and witnessing thereof , do allow the endeavours of such , who happily may feel after him , and finde him ; for any man thence to conclude , that the change unto the gospel administration , made no alteration in dutie ; or that in a greater measure of revelation , whereby we are commanded either to repent of former , or to resist returning corruptions , we ought to be stinted to the old rule , and make no further advance , are wide mistakes : it ought to be the study of gods servants , to discerne times , and to know , in this their day , the things which belong unto their dutie , as well as unto their peace : to ty up practice , that ought to be advertent unto , and hath a dependence upon every circumstance , unto generals abstracted and concluded from the particular instances of other times , is altogether fallacious . . let me remember you of what i have already hinted at , viz. that seing separation is a departing from an union once acknowledged , even in these things which are not in themselves condemned , which certainly is of great importance , and of a very weighty and various consideration ; whereas non-conforming to , or non-compliance with the introduction of things that are clearly sinfull and unlawfull , hath a manifest warrant , and is of no such extent : from instances of not separating , to conclude against non-compliance ; and from denying the majus of non-separation , to deny the minus of a tender forbearance , is bad logick : nay , so ill doth this parity hold , that on the contraire , the very aversion that every true christian ought to have for separation , doth mostly recommend this non-compliance , which being a soveraigne and prescribed antidote against these evils , which , if once received , may go on to greater corruptions , and necessitat a sadder division , is therefore to be timeously adhibite . for clearing of this , let me but ask you this one question : the allowed separation of the reformed churches from that of rome , doth it not plainly inferre , that it had been better , and was the dutie of these informer ages , to have seasonably resisted , and not complied with the first beginnings of these errors , and evils , which afterward did procure the rent ? and however you may judge , that the causes of that separation were no more then sufficient , and could have laked nothing ; yet i am assured , that you and every rationall man will say , that a timeous non-conforming , warrantable upon lesser motives , might have proven the better course . i shall not enforce this consideration by suggesting the evill tendencie of your way ; nor do i tell you that it is a reviving of the same causes , that in processe of time did produce all romes abominations , and that these floods of error , and superstition , had their visible rise from smaller aberrations ; so that , if god should suffer the course of your defection to prosper , and weare out the present opposition , the ages to come might more justly take up against us the complaint of our not timeous resisting ; then we can regret the too easie compliance of these , who should have withstood the beginnings of romes backsliding . on these things , i say , i do not insist ; but , that you may the more plainly understand the difference that i conceive to be betwixt non-compliance , and separation , i freely acknowledge , that if god had permitted this whole church , to slide into the present evils of your prelacie and corrupt ministers ; and thereafter had blessed us with a discovery ; yet i would not , in that condition , allow the same necessity , and expediencie of a separation , that now i finde , to plead for a non-compliance ; in as much as our present non-compliance , is not only a more certain , seasonable , and safe dutie ; but is also attended with a faithfull and edifying adherence to our true and sent teachers , who though removed to corners , do still remain the lords ministers , and our pastors : which things do much difference it , from the case of a proper separation , as above descrived , and do not a little justify these more tender practices which you would disprove . now , though these few things premised do obviously satisfy the difficulty objected ; yet , to render the application more full and easie , you may further consider , that your instance from these corrupt high priests , set up by the rom●ns , doth not help you . . because that the high priest was ordained by the lord , as in order to sacrifice , so also for rule and judgement , and that not only in matters purely religious ; but also in all things determinable by moses law : at least as to the ministerial declaring of the ius , which , albeit in a great part meerly civill , are yet , in this respect , termed the matters of god , and jubjected to the high priest his judgement , in the respect mentioned . . there is no statute in moses law , affixing , as you alleage , the high priest-hood to the eldest son of aaron's line , who possibly might have happened to be an infant , or legally incapable ; but only to his race in generall , so that there was a necessity that the determination of the choise should be in the hand of the sanhedrin , thus eli , abiathar and ahimelech were all of ithamar , and not of eliazer his branch . as for the promise made by the lord to phineas , it is neither made to the eldest son of his posterity , nor did it give any proper right ; but only an assurance , whereof the accomplishment is sufficiently performed in the return of the priest-hood to zadock , and his line , notwithstanding the preceeding interruption . . not to enter into a particular debate anent the form and power of the jewish church , as distinct from the state , and wherein the differences did consist ; this is the received opinion of the orthodox , that though at the first institution , their supreme church-sanhedrin was , as to causes and several other particulars , distinguished from their supreme civil-sanhedrin ; yet through process of time , and many revolutions of affaires , a confusion of the two grew more and more , and at length the ecclesiastical sanhedrin , whereof the high priest was president did degenerate into a mixed court , and having the advantage of enjoying their religion under their civil mutations , and keeping their high priests and his courts , when they lost their king and civil courts , for their greatest matters , did exerce by their ecclesiastical sanhedrin all the civil power they could be permitted to exerce . . particularly it is evident that , from the dayes of the maccabees , the high priest-hood was much changed from its primary institution ; and as more extended to and busied in civil rule , then conversant in holy things ; so much exposed to frequent invasions at home , and at length , with the whole nation , swallowed up by a forraigne dominion : which things being d●e●y perpended , it clearly appears , that neither the practice of the romans , founded in the right ( though an abuse of the exercise ) of their conquest , nor the symony of the purchasers , a clandestine crime , did make void their priesthood : how much less then do cajaphas his prophesying , a providential dispensation , or our lords free answering and confession to his adjuration , whether authoritativè made by him as a judge of the nation , or otherwise , scarce sufficient to prove a non-separation , militat against our non-compliance , with your re-introducing of abjured prelacie , and its corrupt ministery . as for your instancing of the pharisees , our lords words in this matter math. . , . are , the scribes and the pharisees sit in moses seat ; all therefore whatsoever they bid you observe , that observe & do ; but do not ye after their works , &c. and that hereby you have no advantage appears , . because it doth not manifestly appear , that the scribes and pharisees here spoken of were intruders ; but , on the contraire , it is most probable that they were doctors of the law , lawfully appointed according to the use of that people . . the scribes & pharisees , sitting in moses chair , did teach the law , not as appertaining meerly to the soul● & religion toward god ; but as the municipal law of that nation containing also the rules of external righteousness and policie ; and therefore are to be regarded not so much as ecclesiastick teachers , but rather as doctors of the law : whereby it is evident , that your argument from our lords command , is as farre , in this respect , from concluding our compliance with your intruding preachers , as these national doctors , with whom our lord was not to medle further , then to vindicat the law of god from their corrupt glosses and practices , are different from out spiritual pastors , who being sent by jesus christ , cannot by man be discharged . . if it be urged that the scribes and pharisees were also the teachers and directors of all matters of religion ; and even in civils did only respondere de jure from the law of god , although this do no way remove the disparity , immediatly assigned ; yet this is further to be observed , that as our lord in this regard did expressly warn his disciples to beware of the leaven of the pharisees , and in many things correct their vain and perverss doctrines ; so his tolerance of them in moses chair was only temporarie , as of many other things , until the then approaching end of that dispensation , which he would not anticipate : during which time , if our lord do command a well-cautioned observance , for the best improvement of that which was shortly to be abolished , can you rationally thence inferre , that we ought , at the pleasure of men , both deserte his sent ministers , whom he hath not recalled , and comply with and owne intruders , so lightly violating , and abusing his ordinance ? but . admit that the scribes and pharisees their entrie to that office , were not in every point justifiable , and that they truely were very wretched teachers ; yet , their occupying of that charge , seing our lord did not send forth and establish his perpetual gospel ministerie , until after his resurrection , was not circumstantiat with , and peccant in the violent exclusion of others , lawfully setled in that chair , which they possessed . sir , this is so casting a difference , that i nothing doubt , but if you will only pose your self , what you think our lord would have determined , in case that , there being among the iews , an established order of lawful teachers , the pharisees had risen up , and by open perjury and violence ejected them , and that the business being still recent , and many of the teachers remaining on life , and by all acknowledged for such , whom man could not exauctorate , the people had firmly adhered to them . let your conscience , i say , in these suppositions , sincerely resolve the question , and , i am most assured , the verdict of your own breast will be , that whatever was our lords connivance for a time , at a non-separation from a course , whereunto he was shortly to put a period : yet , in the case here stated , he would not have commanded the people to deserte their lawful guides , and follow intruders , and thereby countenance such a wickedness . . although i love not to play the critick , and do grant , that the observance here enjoined , doth indeed inferre hearing not to be prohibite ; yet your exhibiting of the command in these words , not found in scripture , hear them , for they sit in moses chair , doth found so like to that heavenly voice , this is my beloved son , &c. and that emphatick hear ye him there commanded ; whereby , the old letter and typical shadows of moses law being antiquat , life and immortality were brought to light ; that i cannot but account ( that , however our lord permitting the hearing of the pharisees so long as that dispensation did stand not abolished doth here directly aime only at its right improvement , ) the two , hear ye him , and hear ye them , in the same signification , to be inconsistent ; and this representation , a stretch savouring more of favour to your cause , then tendernesse of truth and scripture-phrase . but i am tedious in a matter , so obvious , the summe , wher in i would have you and all to fixe , is this , that whatever may have been or may be the various dispensations of providence , in the overcloudings of churches , and decline and corruption of ordinances , wherein no doubt the holding the foundation jesus christ , by sound faith , and sincerity in gods sight , have gone a great length ; yet as the instancing of such times , cannot , with any shew of reason , or measure of honesty , be alledged for a tacite , and toward compliance , with the re-introducing of the evils of these dark times , in doctrine or worship , contraire to the revelation of a more full and pure light ; so no more can it be made use of , after the manifest and sealed blessing of a sent and faithful ministery , to perswade a voluntaire abandoning , at the lust and arbitriment of man , of our true pastors , and a willing and tame imbracing , and owning of manifest and profane intruders . according to which rules , if you will be pleased to re-examine your instances , i doubt not but you will find them , neither to be unanswerable , nor that the doctrine of our teachers , against causeless separatists , doth homologate your inference . as to what you add , that it is a great cruelty , if a minister be put from his place , whether justly or unjustly , that the people should be starved . sir , i am verily of your opinion ; and therefore , as i wish our outed ministers , had testified more love , in despising hazards for the relief of souls ; so i cannot but remember you , how dreadful a charge this driving away of pastors , and starving of souls will one day amount to , against such who have been its direct authors : however , seing the love and faithfulness of christ , the great shepherd , hath secured the event , they that believe need not make haste , for verily they shall be fed . your n. c. next argument , is , that your curates are naughtie men , and weak preachers . sir , such is the notoriety of this charge , and so afflicting ought it to be to every one , concerned in the credit of the gospel , and honour of its ministery ; that , i am assured , all sober men will rather impute it to tenderness , then want of matter , that i incline not either to inlarge the objection , or insist in the examination of your answere . you think it an odd piece of religion , for us to reproach our pastors by the name of curats , a designation not to be ashamed of : but though the name curate , ows its invention , only to the vanity of men , by whom the lowly scripture-stile of minister was disdained , and be of no proper origination , and in effect the product of the corruption , both of the churches humility , and purity of the latine tongue ; yet , seing you account it honourable , and i and many others do rather use it for distinction , i heartily wish that you and others , who do appear so sensible of an apprehended reproach , may be as serious in reflecting upon that important aggravation , it shall furnish in the last judgement , against these who , in stead of caring for souls , do visibly destroy them . as for what you insinuat , that the curats are our pastors , and over us in the lord , pardon me to say , that i cannot finde the relation , either in their office or exercise , and that , if scripture-marks do intitle to scripture-names , these intruders , entering not by the door , are liker to theeves , these false teachers are but revening wolves , and these prophets , who teach lies , are but the taill : nay , every one , who rightly considers , how that in place of minding the lords work , whereunto they pretend , and honouring him before the people , they have made his offering and sanctuary to be abhorred , and his name to be prophaned , in liew of that honour which you acclaime , may justly conclude , that they that despise the lord , shall be lightly esteemed . say not where is christian charity ? to call the manifest lewdness and lies of these pitiful miscreants , whose gross abominations are , almost every where , the grief of the godly , and the very scorn of all , nay such , whereof your self pag. . doth abhorre the patrociny , and for which , you pretend to be a bitter mourner in secret , slight grounds , and to bid men be slow to take thence an impression , is plain mockery ; charity that beleeveth all things , resteth and rejoiceth only in the truth , and rejoiceth not in iniquity : neither can you alleadge , our grounds being good , your church , in our not complaining , to be neglected ; it were strange charity to beleeve , as the proverb runs , that satan will reprove sin . as for your alledging , that to separate upon the personal ●ailing , much more weakness of a preacher , will open a wide door to separation . whatever danger may be in your smooth generality ; yet , i am confident , not to owne ( for , as to separation , i have already cleared how the practice of these you do condemn doth differ from it ) for ministers , such vitious intruders , and flagitious livers , as your curates are , is a soveraign expedient for preserving both of truth and christian unity : and that as to ty the good of worship to the sincere intention of him that manageth it , is an error ; so , to think that gifts and a suitable converse in a minister , are of no influence or regard as to the work of his ministery ; and that because , not to hear sermons only , but the solemn worship of god is the chief end of our meeting ( wherein you are mistaken , if you think that you and we do not agree ) which we can do , be the minister what he will , is irreligion unmixed , which your jejune commending of the reading of good scriptures , and singing of good psalmes , doth not palliate . be the minister what he will : what ? be he socinian , arminian , notoriously flagitious , an adulterer , or incestuous person , a despiser of discipline , a strengthener of the hands of the wicked , and sander of the hearts of the godly , a symoniack , is nothing but what he may will , and many of yours do , de facto , will : nay , be he popish , mahumetan , pagan or atheist , all are but what he may will : o execrable latitude ! but you conclude this point , that our crouding to hear such weak men , now in conventicles , who formerly were of no esteem among us , sayes we are not so zealous for good preachings , as we would make the world beleeve . pray , sir , if a man in plenty , make choise , and in penury make a shift , will you thence inferre , he is not desirous of the best , this is too weak : but , to be ingenuous with you , i question not , but some curats make constantly more able , and frequently better sermons , for the matter , then weaker non-conformists ; and vet , the just grounds of our exceptions , do still conclude , that they are neither so good men , nor acceptable preachers , as these whom we preferre . as for what you add , that the way to make a man popular among us , is to rail against church and state , it is a malitious calumny , wherewith you endeavour to slander us unto our rulers , and which they , who ought to be as the angels of god , may easily discerne and repell . your n. c , in the next place objects to you , the obligation of the covenant : wherein the whole nation and the posterity are engaged , to maintain our former presbyterian ministery , extirpat your prelacie and all depending on that hierarchie , and whatsoever shall be found con●raire to ●ound doctrine , and the power of godliness . i shall not improve this argument , being of such an obvious evidence , in any further explication ; but briefly review what you answere , on the contraire : and . your evil conscience foometh forth your indignation against the covenant , in your reproachfull calling it , our goliah , alwayes brought out by us , to defy the armies of the living god , whose strength , like sampsons , lay in its hair , the armies that fought for it , and not in any innate vigour . but as , notwithstanding all the arrowes of malice , blasphemy , and rage , that you and your party , have shot at it , it still abideth in strength , and the armies of its followers have been made strong , by the hands of the mighty god of iacob , and , even in their most desperat extremity , did by the bloud of the lamb , and the word of their testimony , obtain the most signall victory ; so , the virgin , the daughter of zion , hath despised thee and laughed thee to scorn ; whom hast thou reproached ? and against whom hast thon exalted thy voice ? even against the holy one , the god of truth ( ●or what are men or their doings , that you murmure against them ) the swift witness against such , as sweare ●a●sly : he it is that it regardeth the rage , and tumult of your partie , and will turne you back : and as the inconsistencie , of your assimilations to sampson , a worthy of the lord and to goliah , a champion of the philistines , do plainly discover the unreasonableness of your spite ; so the lord who hath already proved the innate vigour of his covenant , in the bloud and suffering of his martyres , can also , in his good time , make its hair to grow , and strength to returne , to the utter ruine of your prelacie , and all its adherents . but . you proceed to tell us , that it is a ridiculous fancie , to say , children can be bound by their fathers oath , which is to make us the servants of men , and give them authority over our consciences , gods peculiar power : sir ; i perceive that whether you rage or laugh there is no rest : just now we heard you railing , and certainly here you are rallying : but first , i am glad to find your assert so plainly , the liberty of our consciences from mans imposing , and shall only remember you , that if a father , in respect of this liberty , may not , at his arbitriment , bind his son by an oath , requiring a conscientious performance , undoubtedly farre less can rulers , whether civil or ecclesiastick , perscribe at their arbitriment in matters of religion , which , without question , do exact a conscientious observance . . though , the lords authority over conscience do indeed exempt it from mans usurpation ; yet , in so farre as it hath pleased the lord , to vest any person with this power over another , all usurpation ceaseth , and the lords reserved dominion doth rather establish it : for example ; therefore it is , that the righteous and necessary commands of lawfull rulers , do even in conscience bind their subjects ; because in so farre as they observe the limits of their power , by him appointed , their authority is understood to be of god , and by him approved and allowed . . it is manifest that the lord hath , in many things , given to fathers , by virtue of his precept , a power of command , reaching even unto conscience , without an interveening oath : honour the father and thy mother , is that which god hath enjoined ; and doth certainly require a sutable obedience ; if then this authority be not impugned by your alledged reason , that we are not the servants of men , can the interposing of an oath , or the fathers adjuration , in things otherwayes under the compass of his power , render your objection more effectuall ? but . that i may returne you a round and full answere : i say , that in many cases , whereof our present case of the covenant is of all the most probable , children , by virtue of the paternal authority given and allowed by the lord , can be , and de facto are bound , by their fathers oath : and first , where-ever the fathers command doth engage to a perpetuall obedience , there can be no question , but , in that case , an accessory adjuration doth greatly intend the obligation : i need not confirme this by the parallel instance of saul's adjuring the people , while in the pursuite of his enemies ; the reason of this position is above exception , viz. that if a simple command , flowing from the paternall power which god hath established , be therefore binding , the solemn invocking of the same god to be an avenger of the contempt of that authority , by himself approven , cannot but add to the obligation : but if you desire to know in what things , and how farre the command of a father , even of it self , without the consent and acceptation of the children , ( which i grant , when intervenient , doth alter the case ) doth oblige ? take the instance of the rechabites , who for obedience to their father ionadab●s command , who lived some ages before , . kings . . not to drink wine ( a thing free in it self , and not under any divine precept ) they nor their sons for ever , have therefore the lords express commendation , sealed with a perpetuall blessing : if then a father's command in things free , and arbitrary , may be confirmed by the accession of an oath , and , in the case adduced , doth perpetually bind , how much more , must the sworn engagement of the father for himself and his posterity in things commanded by the lord , be everlastingly obliging . . in what case soever , a father's bond or contract is binding to himself and his posterity , if he confirme the ●amine by an oath , the force and vertue thereof doth also reach all the off-spring , cocerned in the obligement . for explication of this truth , it is not needful that i determine particularly , what contracts are perpetual , and what only personall : if these be perpetual , whereof the subject matter being either under the necessity of an express perpetual command , or having an evident and lasting conveniencie , agreeable to the principles of truth and righteousness , the party contracter doth expressly thereby engage for himself and his posterity : as it is short of the true and full extent of perpetuall contracts , which cannot in reason be restricted within the limits of paternal commands , so it is more then necessary for my purpose , and more then proven by the instances subjoined . now that there are such obligations , as perpetual of their own nature so , carrying along with them the virtue of that accessory oath , whereby at first they were established , is clear , not only from that covenant and oath deut. . & . whereunto moses did engage the people of israel , and which he declareth to be made with them that stood there that day , and also with him that was not there ; to with the generations to come , as appears by the sequele of that chapter , specially , v. . an example whereof the exceeding evidence can only expose it to exception ; but also from these more controverted instances . of that promissory oath taken by ioseph of the children of israel , for carrying up his bones from egypt , gen. . . which the after-generation in the conscience of its religion did punctually observe , exo. . ver . . . from the oath sworne by the people of israel to the gibeonites , iosh. . . for the breach whereof , we find , the lord severall ages thereafter , severely animadverting against all israel , and sauls house in particular : sam. : , . for these you may add , the sworne leagues , and agreements of all nations among themselves , which do undoubtedly , with the same force and quality , descend to their posterity . but wherefore should i insist in a matter so evident , and , at least as to the difference betwixt us , universally acknowledged ? if your meaning , in affirming that children can not be bound by their fathers oath , were only , that however , a promissory oath , may be binding upon the posterity , in the nature of a promise , and for performance ; yet the religion of the oath , is not so transmitted , as to render the posterity , in case of a breach , perjured ; there might possibly appeare to be some ground of debate betwixt us ; ( of which afterward ) but seing it is apparent both from your proposition , explication subjoined , and design aimed at , that you deny a fathers promissory oath , even in the substance , viz. so much as a promise , let be in the quality of an oath , to be obliging as to his children , you manifestly repugne , not only to the instances given ; but to the common opinion , reason , yea and sense of all men , nations and ages , whereby it is most constant , that such is , and hath been alwayes repute , the power and representation of fathers quoad their children , that their pactions and contracts , not only in matters determined by divine precept ; but also in things in themselves free and indifferent , viz. their condition in order to the society civil , whereof they are members , yea even their state , as free men of slaves , have , without the least challenge of usurpation over conscience , seing founded in that authority which god approves , been holden perpetually binding . but that i may immoveablie establish the obligation of this covenant , which i am perswaded god will require , for ever : i shall not content my self with these common concessions . . that the sworne pactions and covenants of a nation or people incorporate in one body politick , do , even in the quality of oaths , descend to after generations ; because , while the same civil form of their constitution remains , they are still understood to be the same people , notwithstanding of the change whether partial or total of the individual constituents , which doth no more alter the formal identity of the nation , then the fluxe and change of parts in our bodies , waters in a channel , or boards in a ship , do change the samness of the person , river , or ship. . that the promissory oaths of fathers , in all things , whereunto the sphere of their authority doth extend , do at least bind the children , as promises , and to the implement : which concessions granted by all , do nevertheless , above all scruple , confirme the obligation of our covenants , which you impugne : yet , seing that i do apprehend , both the disparity placed betwixt a nation and a private person , to be narrow and groundless , and the second position , to fall short of truths full extent in this matter ; to remove from you all ground of scruple , i shall reduce the whole matter to these certain positions . . that though assertory oaths , being only accessory for further security , do indeed intend , but cannot extend , the force of any obligation , either as to its subject matter , or the persons thereby bound , beyond its rational import ; yet such hath alwayes been the religion , and reverence of promissory oaths as , ( nothing impeding either from the peculiarity of the subject , or other circumstances , or from the declared will of the person engaging ) ever to ampliat , and extend the interpretation , and make the successors , as well as the promiser himself , understood to be therein comprehended . . that the true ground and measure , both as to the determination of the subject , and extent of the obligation , whereby the force of the fathers contract , expressly binding himself and his posterity , may be known and defined ; is , this paternal power and authority , it being in it self evident , that , as by reason hereof the children follow the state and condition of the father , ( unless in so farre , as the favour of liberty , or positive law hath made an alteration ) so , where the father by command may oblige to obedience , if by his obligation he do bind to performance , he is thereby truly to be understood much more , de facto , to exercise all the power he hath , whereby he may render his engagement effectual : now in what things , and how farre fathers may both dispose upon and command their children , is sufficiently known , and their undoubted authority , not only to command obedience to the law of god ; but also to determine them in matters free , are , by the examples of pious parents , and that of ionadab upon record , much more cleared , then is necessary to our hypothesis . . seing it is from the virtue and influence of this paternal power , that the contract of society , whereby politick bodies do at first coalesce , doth descend unto the posterity , and so continue the society , and its constitution to after-generations ; the reason wherefore the other contracts , either simple or sworne , engaged into by these associat people , do bind their successors , must of necessity resolve into the same cause ; and to referre it to an imaginary samnesse , having no other reality then the first intercession , and continuance of the fundamental contract of society , is but an emptie notion , importing no real difference : for , as the perpetual obligation of the original contract , constituting the society , can have no other cause then what is assigned ; and it were irrational to attribute its continuance , to a samness , which it produceth ; so , it is only in the force and power thereof , that all other after-national-contracts , are binding upon the whole , and propagat to the succeeding race . . this third position being certain , it necessarily follows , that the oath taken by ioseph , of the children of israel , anent his bones , and that given by them to the gibeonites , both , by scripture declared to be binding , as oaths , upon the posterity , have no proper and peculiar reason , but do unanswerably conclude , that whereever the father's obligation , otherwayes binding to his off-spring , is confirmed by an oath , it is transmitted to them with the same accessory force , to ●ender them guiltie in god's sight , not only of breach of promise , but breach of oath : which argument is so much the more evident , in the first case of ioseph , that the children of israel were not , when they sware to him , imbodied in a politick state ; but did only stand in their natural relation of consanguinity . . seing we finde in scripture the lord covenanting with fathers , for themselves , and their posterity ; as in the case of abraham : fathers engaging to the lord in the same manner , as ioshua for himself and his house ; the above-mentioned import , and extent of ionadab's command , and ( not to mention the fathers power of devoting their children , and of making void their vowes ) even the adjuration and curse of rulers , taking effect , many ages thereafter ; as that of ioshua against the rebuilders of iericho : with what shew of reason , can we deny ( the matter , or other argument of a contraire intention , not prohibiting ) that the sworne obligations of fathers , are binding upon their children , aswell for the religion of the oath , as the truth of the promise ? i know that , as to mans tribunal and judgement , it is thought hard poenam perjurij illi irrogari , qui ipse deum testem ac vindicem non invocaverit , that one should be punished as perjured , who hath not himself invocated god as witness and avenger . but as we do clearly see , the lords judgement in the contraire ; doth not the same reason , which , by making the father's promise , for himself and children , also their promise , and therefore binding , by transmitting the oath in like manner , confirme its righteousness . i need not here precaution , against the children their invincible ignorance of the fathers promise , and oath ; their innocencie in this case , descending from a clearer distinct head , and purging from breach of promise , as well as breach of oath , doth neither inferre the liberty , which you plead for ; nor impugne the transmission of a sworne promise , in its religion , as well as in its obligation . our covenant , being in the matter necessary and righteous ; for the manner , made with and before god , to be perpetually binding ; and for its solemnity , unanimously sworne , by almost the whole nation , and confirmed by all the authority in it , hath , such a concurring evidence , of all arguments , and opinions , for its perpetuity , as an oath , that your nibling at it , upon this head , is not a greater proof of your perfidie , then testimony of your inconsiderate ignorance ; but if you be ignorant your self , you do well to make your n , c● no better : and therefore you make him objecte against your assertion , that children cannot be bound by their fathers oath : doth not the fathers debt oblige the son ? and why not his oath ? but to give you the advantage you designe : i willingly turne the argument to make for you , thus : the father's debt doth not oblige the son , unless he be also his heir , and in this respect , only as possessor of his goods : therefore &c. to which i answere , that as by the tenor of written bonds for debt , it is clear , that the debtor doth only oblige himself , & his heirs , and successors in his lands and goods , so , both law and reason do interpret , all ordinary promises for debt , to be of the same nature , viz. to bind the person himself , and to follow and affect his estate , together with the person , who , enjoying , by universal title , the promiser his estate , is , by the interpretation of law , understood to accept of the same , with that burthen , and no further ; so , that , if a son , as son , be not liable , it is evidently from the restriction of the obligation , according to the meaning of the parties ; which i already told you , that an accessory oath doth not exceed ; and maketh nothing for a son's freedome in conscience , as to such other engagements , whereunto both the father's power , and intention , do concurre to make him liable . in the next place , i confess you do your n. c. reason , and as just now we have heard , the ridiculous objection you put in his mouth ; so , in this place , to his unanswerable argument , for the childrens obligation by the parents oath , from the dutie of our allegeance , descending from our fathers their swearing the same ; you returne as ridiculous an answer : viz. that we are not at all obliged to the king by their oath , but because the right of the crown is in his person : who can forbear to laugh ? are you a doctor in israel , and also a high pretender for the king , and understands no better ? you say the right of the crown is in his person , but supposing it came there by the originall consent , and allegeance sworne to his first predecessor , ( which i am sure is a title which , in this place , you will not quarrel ) is not the same that is the cause of his kingship , also the reason of our subjection ? or will you admit it to be the creating , and not also the conserving cause ? how do the most common maximes of reason militat against you ? you add , and we are born his subjects : but , pray , doth our birth as men , or as men born in such a place , bring us forth with this character ? then should all men , or at least even strangers , casually born in the place , be also born subjects : whereunto then can it else be ascribed , unless it be , that we are the off-spring of such , who for themselves and their posterity , did submit to the king , by a perpetuall surrender , transmitted upon us , passivè with the same obligation ? if these things do not satisfy , i intreat you to reflect , upon the ordinary strain of all impeachments : where you will finde , the person accused of treason , though he never actually swore , or promised allegeance ; yet constantly , and very congruously , charged , with breach of faith , failty , and allegeance : nay , i nothing doubt , but if you were describing to us the crime of rebellion , you would at great length prove , it , to be both falshood and perfidy . your n. c. proceeds to argue thus : how was adam obliged for his posterity , if parents cannot binde their children ? and in return you say , this is strange dealing : and because you will have the instance an inapplicable mystery , therefore , you recurre to secret divine transactions , without either warrant , or necessity : but , sir , is not this a strange stupiditie in you ; be it so , that god's covenanting with adam , as the common head of mankind , so as upon his deed , to make their standing or falling depend , is a difficulty , which only gods soveraignity can explicat : is this therefore also a mysterie , that adam might have been , any other father may be obliged , both for himself and his posterity ; so as to ty them to obedience , and upon their own 〈◊〉 obedience ( not their fathers , which is the singularity o● gods covenant with adam ) to render them guilty ? or can there be any thing more plain , both in scripture and reason , then that not only the lo●ds command , according to his will , should be perpetual to the posterity ; but also a peoples covenant , made with him to observe the same , doth oblige both them and after-generations , to continuall obedience ? as the . of deut. most convincingly holds out . but you go on still stumbling , thus : i parents can binde duties upon their children , they may as well binde sins , and this is to make way● or more originall sin then adams . who would not pity such impertinencies ? the thing asserted , is , that a parent may oblidge for his children to dutie : and you subjoin , he may as well bind sins upon them : certainly , sir , these are not the words of sobriety : a parent may command his son to dutie , may he also command him to sin ? the ignis fatuus that seduces you , is that you appear to be dazled , by an imagination of your own , that we go about to im●ute to children , not the parents obligation ; but their deeds , their duties , or failings , which , truly we as little dream of , as certainly you will finde your present dream , about originall sin , when you returne to your self , wholly extravagant . but the next lapse you make , is , in the person of your n. c. whom you cause in place of adducing an obligement by a father , binding himself and his posterity , to bring in the instance of the baptismal vow , undertaken by the father , in name of the child , which seing it meets not our question , you both objecte , and answere to no purpose . the next demand your n. c. makes , is , how then is saul charged , and his children punished , for killing the gibeonites ? and to this you make a very pleasant return , not unlike your answere made to our obligation of allegeance , viz shat saul is taxed for bloud , and killing the gibeonites , who by the lords rati●ying the princ●s their oath to them , had got a right to their lives ; and not for perjur● against that oath , which the princes swore : before i consider this answere , let us first hear the scripture . sam. . . [ now the gibeonites were not of israel ; but of the amorites , and the children of israel had sworne unto them , and saul sought to stay them , &c. wherefore david said to the gibeonites , what shall i do for you ? ] do not these words clearly intimate , that the injury done them , was contraire to that former oath , whereby they were secured ? to this you say , the oath is only here mentioned , to reminde the reader of the former history ; but doth not at all say , that the oath was still binding : but , if the words be set down to reminde the reader , certainly , it is in order to some apposite purpose ; and the blind account that you make , is scarce worthy of your self , let be the scriptures of truth . next , what can be more evident , then , that the oath is first mentioned , to shew their right , thence derived ; and saul's injury , being thereto subjoyned , it is manifest , that for his breach thereby incurred , a reparation for an attonement is offered : and seing the scripture saith enough , if it say not expressly , that the oath was still binding , it seems only to be omitted , because in that age , there was none who doubted , much less of your opinion● to deny it : now as to your answer , i must take notice of what you seem to insinuat , that the gibeonites were spared , not by reason of their covenant , made with the princes ; but by the lords ratisying of it , whereby they became to be excepted , from the rest of the devoted canaanites ; but pray , sir , do you not in so supposing con●adict your fellow-brother the surveyer of naphtaly who ranteth ( as you use to do ) against his adve●sary the author of the apologetical relation , who asserted the same which you here suppose . . you speak of a ratification of this oath of the princes , by virtue of which , abstracted from the oath these gibeonites were spared , which you would do well to explain and cleare . seing then you cannot but grant that the gibeonites were spared , and enjoyed their lives , by the right of that peace sworne unto them , my next reply is most evident , viz. that your answere , alledging saul's killing the gibeonites , to have been cruell , and bloudy against their right ; but not perfidious against that oath and covenant , whereby their right was granted , can no more be said of saul , then it might have been said of the princes , who at first swore , if so be they had , the very next hour , brocken their oath , and destroyed these , whom they had saved , it being a truth most certain , that as every violation of faith , is , an injurious invasion of that right , which was thereby secured ; so , it is impossible for a right , arising from a contract or covenant , to subsist , unless its cause do still stand , & be repute to be in force : you add , that saul is taxed of bloud and not of perjury : a poor shift ; but i have already shewed him to be noted for both ; & bloudy & deceitfull are of too near a conjunction , to allow of your negative inference , of the exclusion of the other , because one only expressed . and now , sir , i have ended this point : only let me say it without vanitie that as i judge , your folly in this last discourse to be such , as no sober man could lightly fall into , without a judicial desertion ; so , i am confident if there be any ingenuity in you , the return which i justly make you of the epilogue , which in this place you so vainly use , will cover you with blushes , viz. thus i have taken more pains , then was needfull , to shew the ridiculous fondnesse of your absurd notion . viz. that children can not be bound by their fathers oath ; and have said more to disprove it then ever you will be able to answere . what follows in this dialogue is a meere rapsodie of railing , and in the first place to decline your n , c. too pungent demand , that for all you have said , you cannot deny but the covenant binds these who tooke it , you make a hydeous noise , of that little noise , which , you say , we made in breaking it in some things : viz. in our silence , and not declaring against the apostacy , tyranny , and perjury of the usurpers , and in our faint giving over to pray for the king , sir , contemning your calumny , i answere , were not the usurpers sufficiently opposed in their evill courses , while there was hope ? and is this all you can say , that the lord having broken us , and brought us under their feet , in the humbling sense of his dreadful displeasure , we did not madly declaime against such , to warn whom , after their rejecting of our brotherly admonition , the lord did not further require us : we love not to vye with you , or any other , either in stedfastness in the covenant , or faitfulnes to the king , in these confused and calamitous times ; but of this one thing i am most confident , that his majesty was more obliged to the covenant , and these who to this day , adhere to it , for the continuance of his remembrance , both with god and men , in the dayes of his exile , and in disposing to , and preparing the way of his return ; then to all the present high and false pretenders who are not ashamed , in their flattering impudence , to averre , that the most notorious and base acts of compliance , whereof they were then guilty , were yet the effects of a pure and constant loyalty : as for the thundering , you say , was in your pulpits , against your course , before we were silenced , and is at this day in our conventicles : is it not enough , that you mock at the warnings of the lords servants , whom for no other cause , then true zeal for god , and tender love to your souls , and just indignation at your sin , you have beaten and expelled ; but you must also thereto add falshood , in your alledgeance anent what you call conventicles , and insolent insulting over our undeniable short-coming , in due admonition , after his majesties restitution ; whereunto an excessive desire , by faireness and moderation , to stop the precipitant current of your late defection , did too generally tempt us , before we were ejected : but the lord hears , and regards● you tell us , in the next place , that the tyrann's cruelty did formerly terrify us , and now we presume upon the king's clemencie . if i had ever professed the hundred part of that respect for oliver that the chief of your way did , i would say , and say it truely , that what ever he was titulo , he was no tyrannus exercitio ; however , i am farre from justifying the usurpers their practices , or denying altogether his majesties clemencie , whereof the indemnity given to the same usurpers doth exhibite so faire an evidence ; but this i must say , that as i do wholly impute the withholding of much of the kings goodness and favour from us , to the malign influence of the unlucky conjunction of accursed prelates , whereby some even of the great and most solemn acts of his maiesties intended bountie have been frustrat and depraved ; so such hath been , and is , the implacable spite and rigour of their malice , and persecution , that not only it hath surmounted their resentment of the sectarian invasion , and made them ascribe all these mischiefs to us , who were their most constant enemies ; but by many degrees exceeded all the violences , wherewith the englishes , during their domination among us , can be charged : if you require a proof ; instead of a long condescendence that i might adduce , the case of the then tories in the north , and late risers in the south , with the respective measures , where with they have been treated , being impartially pondered and compared , is an irrefragable instance . as to the trip , you mention , of these who ceased , for fear of loss of stipend , publick praying for the king , which they had in print owned for a dutie : as at the worst you can call it but a trip , which i think , if not the respect you owe to your arch-master sharp , who , at that time , not only desisted whith others ; but , as he may remember , did overture it to his brethren , to pray in publick for the then protector ; yet , the many horrid lapses whereof , upon smal●er temptations , yours are guilty , might have made you forbear to mention it , so , all circumstances being examined , and the practices of the prophets and people of god in old times duely considered , a prudent correction of an over-zealous assertion , will be found its more just censure . but your n. c. adding oyl to your flame , by telling you , that for our particular failings , you have renounced all , you go on in your accusation , and laying aside our private faults , as if our publick alone were more then your indignation can decipher , and expressly waving all design of reflection , that by this smoothing unguent , you may render the spears of your envy better pointed , you tell us , that all you do , is , but to let us see , we are but as other men ; and not such wonders as we would have the world believe ? sir , though the world knowes , that this is but your accusation , and not our arrogance ; yet i must add , that so strangely hath the apostasie , and wickedness of your course prevailed in this land , that a very small measure of faitfulness , is enough , without any miracle to make any man both a sign & a wonder : but you proced to tell us of monstruous faults we committed in exacting the oath of the league , over & above that it was a bond of rebellion , as you hinted in your first dialogue , & i have fully there refuted : and as to the nationall covenant , you say , it was a cruell imposing upon consciences , to make a nation sweare , what they could not understand : a man would think that you having turned us from being wonders o● piety to be monsters of cruelty , and after so high a charge given● that you were big with some amazing discovery to ensue ; but behold the ridiculus mus ; you made the nation renounce all the articles of poperie , and amongst the rest opus operatum a latine word , and abstruse conceit ; with many other niceties that simple people did not understand : and to mend the jest , you add , was it not a contr●diction , to make them sweare against worship in an unknown tongue , and yet in the oath , which is an act of worship , to use it ? yea , you made them preface this , with a great l●e , that it was after full & mature consideration , of all particulars whereof they were not capable , beside the tyranny of making men sweare in matters , whereof some were debetable : &c. before i enter upon this weighty challenge of words : i cannot but note the ingenuity that hath escaped you : your brethren commence our work from the , and tell us , that we were false pretenders to old foundations ; but you by a plain impugnation of the national covenant , as it was first contrived , and sworne , in the . . and ; do clearly intimate , the true consequentiall extent of your common prejudice and very plainly signify , that malignancie and poperie , for all the industrious dissembling of your partie , are nevertheless of a near cognation : nay forgetting , that this covenant was framed at first by king iames his speciall command , and by his reiterat authority and example , very solemnly confirmed , and even by king charles , in the beginning of the troubles expressly ordained to be renewed ; so prevalent is the malice of your errour , that all the regard to the powers , whereof at other times you do so vainly boast , doth not here in the least restrain you from staging these two kings with us , as monstruous imposers . but to the objection it self , 't is answered , first , that it is indeed a cruell imposing upon conscience , to make a nation sweare an oath , they could not understand ; but do you think that because opus operatum is a latine word , that therefore the people , who , under poperie , had been too much acquainted with latine termes and phrases , and at the first breaking up of the light o● reformation amongst us , had often , both in private and publick , heard the popish errors of justification by works , opus operatum , &c. fully explained and refuted , neither did , nor could understand its meaning ? or because to you , the opinion of opus operatum , appeares an abstruse conceit , and many other popish tenets , renounced in that covenant , seem to be but niceties : must they therefore be so to all ? and was it impossible for these servants of the lord , who where imployed in the conversion of the nation , and did at first tender that oath , to make the grossness of these popish falshoods , and of this in particular , though under a latine name , sufficiently plain , even to the meanest capacities ? certainly , sir , the very simple ones , whom you despise , do laugh at the weakness of this arguing . . as you do not remember , that this covenant was first taken , u●on the back of our reformation from poperie , when all the errors , therein renounced , were recent in mens memories ; so , you consider not , that thereby we first declare , the true christian religion , to be that which is revealed to the world , by the preaching of the blessed evangell , and received and beleeved , by the kirk of scotland , &c. and therefore do abhorre , and detest , all contrarie religion and doctrine ; but chiefly all kinde of papistrie in generall , and particular heads as they are damned by the word of god , and in speciall the usurp●d authority of that roman antichrict , &c , and finally , all his vain rites , and traditions , brought into the kirk , without , or against the word of god , and doctrine of this reformed kirk . now i would inquire , if these general clauses , clearly referring to the word of god , as the only binding rule of truth , may not be la●fully sworn to , without a distinct knowledge of all the particulars , that possibly may therein be included ? and if the condescending upon particulars , doth import any thing more , then our sincere profession , that we judge the same to be comprised under the generall rule , and therefore as such , do renounce them : seing then , that this enumeration , when omitted , doth not invalidate ; and when expressed , doth require rather a sincere acknowledgement , then a dilucide and through knowledge ; your arguing against it , from the possibility , nay even from the probability of an incident mistake , while in the mean time the perswasion of the truth of the blessed gospel , as the regulating rule is held firme and sure ; is nothing solid nor concludent : but because the two latine words , opus operatum , are the great ground of your quibling , i suppose that the oath , after the positive part , and generall abjuration of papistrie , had only begun to enumerate particulars , thus , [ and in special , the usurped authority of that roman antichrist , all his tyrannous laws , ] and in place of the rest , had given us a faire et caetera : certainly as the premised , and subjoyned qualification of this & caetera , would have fully salved its generality ; so no doubt the known signification of the words , had prevented the offence of their being latine : if in this you be doubtful , let me only reminde you , by way of argument ad hominem , of the prelatick oath ex officio , with its blind & caetera which , though for its illimited laxeness , joined with its evil tendencie , did give to all sober men , just ground of seruple ; yet upon the account of the latine , was never quarrelled , by either man or woman . but you say it was a contradiction , to make them sweare against worship in an unknown tongue ; and yet in that very oath so to use it : a wittie knack indeed ; if you were arguing with the apostle , against worship in a strange language , because the unlearned cannot thereto say amen , would you not account this reply , viz. that it is a contradiction , to bring an argument from the unlearned , not being in case to assent to a strange language , when that very assent is , as to us , so expressed , absurd and ridiculous ? why then doth this vain subtilty so pitifully delude you ? and why do you not advert , that a tongue in general may be unknown , and yet , many of its words and phrases , not only transferred to our vulgar with a suteable accommodation ( as is manifest in all our speech ) but also simply borrowed , and by custome rendered to all significant ? seing therefore , it is the tongue , as unknown , and not as latine , greek , or the like , that is the ground of the abjuration , against worship in an unknown tongue ; and yet in that same oath to use a word from it , of a known signification , is no contradiction . next you add , that we made the people preface this oath with a great lye , of full and mature consideration of all particulars , whereof we nevertheless knew they were not capable : but why do you in fixing lyes upon others , impinge so manifestly your self ? the covenant doth only preface , long and due examination of our own consciences , in matters of true and false religion : as to your mature and full consideration of all particulars , it beares nothing : . as every oath is to be made in truth , righteousnes , and iudgement ; so , certainly , the examination mentioned , is both every ones capacity , and dutie ; and no doubt , in all times , when this oath was taken , was not only recommended , but sufficiently warned of , instructed , and promoved by these faithful men , by whom it was administrate : but . think you it so hard a matter , for any person serious in matters of religion , according to the truth revealed in scripture , to be able from mature consideration , to reject all these vain popish inventions , and superstitions , enumerate in this covenant ; whereof , as there are a great many that , without any curious scrutiny into their nature , meerely for want of warrants and through scripture-silence , come to be renounced ; so , in special , the conceit of , opus operatum , being contrary to the very life and spirituality of religion , must to every one , who knows that god requires the heart , and is to be served and worshiped in spirit and in truth , certainly appear to be most detestable ? sir , your scrupulous doubting and mincing in these matters , do sadly intimate a greater measure of unsoundness , then i am willing to express : but you tell us , that many of the things sworne against , are disputable : pray , sir , tell us which , that you may be known ? there are now nintie years since they were all abjured , as popish errors and superstitions , without the least doubt in the contrary by any protestant among us : if you judge otherwayes , it were better you were known , by a condescendence , then by your generall and subdolous hints , left to render mens mindes unstable . but you plead only charity● and think it hard , that no man may be of our communion , except he be of our opinion in all things : sir , this is a groundless accusation , seing it is sufficiently plain , that , whatever tenderness we are to exercise toward such , as in points less materiall , do modestly differ from us ; yet this covenant , being entered into , in obedience to that command , come out of her ( that is babylon ) my people , that ye be not partakers of her sins : and be ye separate saith the lord : and touch not the unclean thing : the totall abjuration of poperie , as opposite to the blessed evangell , the summe and end of this oath , doth not in the least interfere , with that christian forbearance , which persons of the same communion , are mutually to shew , in matters doubtfull and of less moment : and where you compare this covenant , for rigor , to the bloudy and cruell conjuration of trent , thereby interminis renounced , it is too plain , that your turning of the adequate extent of a just and necessary opposition , designed by this covenant , to that wicked & impious bond , to be a ground of an invidious likeness , is only a demonstration of your calumnie and malice . having thus vindicate the nationall , covenant , as it was first taken , i shall only put you in minde , that the renewing thereof , in the . and making the people to stand to it , is so consonant to reason and scripture-practice , that it needeth not my patrociny . but you say , it was a great trepane to make the nation sweare it in the . and then by an after-game to declare that episcopacie was abjured in it . i might tell you that your so frequent use of the termes of art , do not a little insinuate , how expert a jugler you are , in the matter of oaths : but it is answered , the nation swore it in the . in the same termes wherein it was first taken , in the year ; but because that some doubts , whether the innovations of prelacie , and the perth articles , thereafter introduced , were by this oath condemned ; notwithstanding that its obvious meaning doth abundantly import the same , both in the particular abjuration , of the popes corrupt doctrine , anent the nature , number , and use of the holy sacraments , his unwarrantable dedication of dayes , and his worldly monarchie , and wicked hierarchie ; and also in the generall detestation , which it contains , of all rites , and traditions , brought into the kirk , without , or against the word of god ; and that the generality of the godly in the land did so understand it ; yet , such was the tenderness then used , that the practice was only at first agreed to be forborn , and the determination of the question , for the gaining of the doubtfull and refractory , referred to a lawfull assembly . now , if this assembly , in the light of the reasons , already touched , and others mentioned in their act , did clearly determine this matter , and the covenant was thereafter taken , with an agreeable declaration , where can you fixe your challenge ? to alledge , after an oath is taken , that to be thereby abjured , which doth no where appear in it , is certainly , as false , as the termes you use are scurrilous ; but to declare from undeniable grounds , these things to be contained , in a prior oath , which only the temptation , and darknesse , of an after-defection did make to be questioned ; is nothing els then a just vindication and application , requisite to a faithfull pursuance , and whereof the instance of nehemiah his renewing covenant with god , with a more large declaration of the manner of the sabbaths observance , then is to be found in the law , is an undeniable warrant . but reason failing , your passion and big words must be made use of , to supply that de●ect : for you say , what violence did we use , to oblige all to bow on this idole ? church-men refusing were deposed ; yea both they and lay-men also excommunicat . 't is answered , a faithfull , and zealous prosecution , of the lords oath , from the conscience of his holy jealousie , is only the just and laudable effect of his fear , and no wayes to make it an idol : but seing you love such expressions , to sweare and forsweare , as your partie hath done , without either constancie or repentance , is certainly to make an idol not of the covenant only ; but of the great god thereto invocked , who infallibly will one day avenge it : as for the censures you speak of , if the perfidie of that refusall , with the other transgressions and delinquencies , whereof , the persons particularly censured , were , for the most part if not all , notoriously known and found to be guilty , be duely pondered , they will rather be found to fall short of , then exceed the proportions of righteousness : and though i deny not , but the heats , prejudices , and other temptations , inevitable , in such changes , to humane infirmity , may possibly have rendered the lot of some few ( and these very few ) recusants ( rather obstinate then malitious ) a little hard and apparently rigid ; yet , this is most obvious , that the late revolution , hath so infinitly exceeded , not only for iniquity ; but also in the measure of its oppressions , all the excesses chargeable on former times ; that nothing less then an impudence , sutable to the late perjury , could prompt you , or any of your partie , to move such an objection : but let us hear your conclusion : what man of common sense can think this the cause of god , which had such monstruous errours in its first conception ? sir , though i think that in the matters of god , you do appeal to an ill judge yet i am so little diffident of the cause , which i maintain , that only wishing you to be more sparing , in obtruding your own ridiculous delusions for monstruous errours , i heartily referre our discourse , to my greatest opposite . in the next place , making a step of your n c. weak and groundless concession , that there were faults in the imposing of the covenant , and taking it up at your own hand . that the matters of the covenant are in themselves indifferent : you go on to argue , that seing in these things , a man is not his own master ; but by the command of god obliged to obey the magistrat , in all things lawfull , a tye before all oaths ; as by no act of ours , we can be bound to break the command of god ; so no more can we oblige our selves to do any thing , in prejudice of anothers right , our soveraign's authority ; and therefore , since the king and parliament , have by law annulled the covenant , and required submission to episcopacie , our antecedent oath , a voluntary deed of our own , can no longer ●ind us , against the commands of the powers , which are the mediat● commands of god. i have set down this argument of yours more fully , to the effect , you may perceive , that if i have not so much of your common sense , as to comprehend it , as a clear demonstration ; yet it is not for want of a just and true apprehension ; but really from the greater evidence of the answeres subjoined : and first , i say , your foundation fails , the matters of the covenant are not things indifferent ; but in themselves true , righteous , and holy , importing such an antecedent obligation , as , in the occurrence of the preexistent circumstances , did render the taking and requiring of that oath , an indispensable dutie : and this when you think good to quarrell , i am most ready to make out . . supposing with you , that the matter of the covenant is indifferent , and that in such things , the magistrates power of commanding cannot , by any oath or deed of ours , be prevented or prelimited ; yet , sir , think you , that your omission , must so farre charme us to oblivion , as to make us forget , that as king charles the first , did in plene parliament , an. . under his hand-writing , ratifie the nationall covenant , with the explication , and bond thereto annexed , and prior acts made anent it , with such solemnities and concurrent considerations , as it is impossible to question it ; so , his son , who now reigns , did , in the year . and . take and confirme both it and the solemn league and covenant , with such oaths , subscriptions , ( as well private and unrequired , as publick ) declarations and acts , that greater grounds of assurance , were never heard of , amongst men : if then this was the case of the obligation of these covenants , at his majesties returne ( admitting all that you suppose ) dare you , or any say , that the king and parliament had power , either to resile , or to loose others , from the bonds , which they themselves had thus established ? if a fathers silence , and non-contradiction , to a daughters vowing , and whose vowes he may disannull , do make her vowes to stand ; so that he cannot thereafter make them void ; how can the express , solemn , and sworne confirmation of king and parliament , in favours of a covenanting people , with any colour of reason , be thought to be either , in it self ambulatory , or toward others less effectual ? but to undeceive you , of the vain esteem you have for this argument , the very grounds of it , are manifestly fallacious : for , granting that , in things indifferent , we are by the command of god obliged to obey the magistrat ; yet this subjection is nothing so absolute , as is requisite to the inferring of your conclusion : viz. that therefore he hath such a right , as no antecedent deed , or oath of ours , can stand in the case of a subsequent annulling command : but , the solid principles whereby this matter is clearly resolved are . that , as the magistrat is vested from above with power , requisite and proportional to the ends of government , whereunto he is appointed ; so such is his right by virtue thereof , that no subject can either decline his lawful commands , or yet bind himself in all events , by any such antecedent oath or other deed , as , being inconsistent with the condition of a subject , may fall to interfere with a supervenient rational command : for example , sitting , standing , walking , are certainly things indifferent , and in a mans power ; if then , in these things , a man should bind himself , by an oath , as never to stirre from such a place , or walk without certain bounds , though , without question , the man left to his own liberty be rather to observe his oath ; yet it is as little to be doubted , that in opposition to , or for exemption from the magistrat's lawful and rational command , it could neither be binding , nor relevantly alledged : i say , rational command , because i am of the opinion , that if the magistrat , without any necessity , should for meer o●tentation of his power , command the person contrary to his vow , on purpose to make it void ; such an injunction would be both sinful in the magistrat , and no liberation to the poor votarie . the principle , i lay down is , that , as the magistrat's lawful power doth indeed grant him a large right over a mans liberty , in manner just now explained ; so it is most certain , that there are many things , still left to himself , and at his own free dispose , wherein he may freely vow , and having vowed , must not break his word ; but do according to all that proceedeth out of his mouth , and which are plainly of that nature , that the magistrat's countermand would be only an accession , and no excuse to a breach : i need not adduce examples , every passage of our life , doth obviously exhibite them : if a man vow the tenth of his substance to the lord , it is evident , that the magistrat's power cannot discharge the performance : and the lord 's expresse and well-cautioned concession of this dissolving power , only to a husband over his wife , and a father over his daughter in familia , and that by way of exception , to the general command , whereby all other free vowes and bonds are ratified , is such a confirmation , and extension of the rules , to the case in hand , as admits no evasion ? but to give you entire satisfaction in this point , the summe is , first , that god hath bestowed upon men a faire liberty , suted to their dignity : next , he hath also ordained the powers , and cloathed them with authority and right , requisite to the ends of their appointment ; whereof the preservation of our just liberties , is not the meenest : as therefore , by virtue of the former , a man , in recognizance of the lord's bountie , so farre as his liberty is not restrained , either by a lawfull command , or by a visible inconsistencie of the thing vowed to any other dutie , may freely vowe , and ought to performe ; so all the effect of the latter , is only to make void such vowes , as are directly , or designedly made to frustrate its right ; and to suspend the execution of others , in so farre as the famine doth eventually cross its lawful exercise : if you had perpended these things , you would not have obtruded on us , such a raw discourse , for a clear demonstration : the magistrat hath right to command , and , it is the will of god that we obey him , in all things lawful ; and this tye is before all voluntary oaths : but , doth it therefore so swallow up our liberty , that it leaves a man no power in the same things , to binde himself by a vow , unto the lord ? or may the magistrat annul , and make void the same , at his pleasure ? i am certain , your own common sense tells you , these things are too laxe , and liable to another regulation . no act of ours can indeed oblige us to do any thing in prejudice of anothers right , neither can any covenant binde to deny obedience to the kings just laws : but as i have already told you , that the magistrat hath no such right , as doth wholly evacuate our liberty , and leave us no power in things indifferent , of binding our souls by an oath to the lord : and that the outmost extent of his power , in these things , is only to make void the vow , or restrain the execution , which is inconsistent with his government , or doth check its lawful exercise : so i allow no such covenant as bindeth directly to deny lawful obedience ; but such a covenant , such a vow , such an oath , yea such a promise , as being freely taken , without any direct or designed inconsistencie to the magistrat's lawful power , and whereof the performance doth not eventually thwart any of his rational commands , i affirme to be so binding , that it is neither in the prince his power , at his pleasure , to dissolve it ; nor can a supervenient law enacted , expressly for that purpose , make void its obligation : and this is the true and plain account , of the nature and obligation , both of vows and laws , which while you , in your design to exalt the power of the late acts , above the bond of the covenant , do so iniquously ballance , as to make laws , the mediate commands of god , and oaths , only our own voluntarie deeds , to which we are not bound , by any divine precept , you grossly forget , that he who hath commanded rulers to be obeyed in all things , committed to their trust , hath , on the other hand , not only ratified the subjects their reserved liberty , but also , by his own sanction , confirmed all the vowes , and oaths , that by virtue thereof , they do freely make : whereby it is most manifest , that as the obligation , and binding virtue of lawes and vowes , is coordinate , and not subordinate ; so , nomore can an arbitrary after-law dissolve our vowes , at first freely and lawfully made , then our voluntary prior oaths can impaire or prejudge the magistrat's righteous power , and edicts . as for the application of these things , to the case in hand , viz. whether the covenant , being once sworne , in matters at present supposed to be indifferent , the magistrat could thereafter , by an after-act , render the matter unlawful , and so make the obligation to cease ? it is very easie to expede : for , seing all the laws which you plead for its dissolution , and submission to episcopacie , are such as do most arbitrarily condemn it , without the least conviction to any serious person , of the unlawfulness of our entering into that oath , either from its matter , or inconsistencie with government , and its righteous ends ; it is evident , that to admit such as sufficient to make it void , were to destroy all liberty , and render men in every oath , how free and voluntary soever , obnoxious to the magistrat's absolute control , and plainly to ranverse both the freedom of making , and necessity of keeping all vowes ; which nevertheless the lord hath most expressly allowed , and confirmed . sir , as i have , with you , supposed the matters of the covenant to be in themselves indifferent , and taken this pains for no other end , then to rectifie your common sense , and refell your pretended demonstration , notwithstanding of so faire a concession : so , give me leave again to remember you , and all concerned , that , seing the matters in these covenants , were antecedently true and righteous , and are now concluded under the great oath of god , your pitiful quibling , upon the kings power in matters free and indifferent , is so far from licensing us to the least violation , that , though we do further unanswerably alledge his majesties supervenient ratification ; yet it is more for your redargution , then our own confirmation , whose consciences are , by the former ground , most satisfyingly established : and here i might put a period to my reflections , on this dialogue ; seing , that what remaines doth nothing convel these sure grounds , whereupon we are founded ; but because , in pursuance of your conceit of the magistrats power , of rendering the matter of vowes , antecedently free , unlawful ; and thereby making their obligation to cease , you , in returne to the question , what could move the king to preferre episcopacie to presbyterie ? pretend to many strong inductives , whereby you suppose the change to be undeniably authorized : this calumny must also be removed . and before i enter upon this matter , i cannot but commend your providence , who , fearing that your allegations would be found false , do prudently provide a refuge , in the profound and recluse deepth of princes their secrets , which you think should put a stop to the inquirie : which indeed neither you , nor all men beside , are able to answere ; but as the strange wickedness and folly of this act is such , as all the devices imaginable cannot so much as vernish it , with any apparent colour , and its consequences have been so pernicious , as have left no subject in the nations unconcerned in their smart ; so , i hope , without the imputation of a mutinous curiosity , i may take the liberty to tell you , that it was not our leaders , which occasioned the work , you hint at , to the king's grand-father , his father , and himself ; art thou he that troubleth israel ? is an old and royall accusation of the lord's ministers : i wish the answer now a dayes , were as improper , as i am tender to use it : we have not troubled israel , but thou and thy fathers house , in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the lord , and thou hast followed thy own inventions : i need not put you in minde of k. iames his engagements to defend the gospel , and maintain the true and pure ordinances and discipline of god's house , and how he thereafter turned , and corrupted his way , by no less then a direct invasion of christ's throne , manifest perversion of his ordinances , designed subjection of the liberty of the gospel and its ministery , to his lust and pleasure , and open persecution of many faithful ministers and professours ; these things , if you were ingenuous , you should rather have essayed to answere , as being already objected and proven by others , then provoked me to the repetition : as to what you objecte , from latter times , i am sorry that by so rude and false an accusation , viz. you involved the nations in bloud , and not satisfyed with all the security you could demand ; you engaged with the king his enemies in england : and opposed the design of his deliverie an. , you should engage me to reflect upon a worthy , but abused , prince , all whose faults i think both may , and ought to be buried under his mis-fortune ; but seing this you will not suffer , i shall only desire you and others to consider these sad grievances , which are elswhere undeniably cleared viz. . the prelatick tyranny and impositions of these times . . the rage and fury wherewith they endeavoured to inflame and stirre up all against this kingdome , after that they had first constrained us to just defence . . their notorious and reiterate persidies , whereby they rendered all securitie desperate : and lastly the sin of that backsliding course . now so evidently unmasked , by the act of the late parliament , which , instead of delivering , did visibly precipitate his majestie 's sad fate : these things are so manifest , even from the publick records of the nation , that i can not but admire the effronterie of your confidence , that can so overly pass them . but you add a question , in a word , what jealousies had you justly raised in the hearts of princes , of your government ? sir , i wish you had deigned your self with another word of answere ; for really i know none , except these old and endless ones , the temptation , and sin of all worldly powers , against the lord and his anointed . as for our tyranny . against the nobility , you should first have answered for their breach of trust , : but since they themselves have publickly , by the act above mentioned , avowed it ; your charge of tyranny against the moderately disproportionate censures , then inflicted , merites no answere . in the last place , you say : our ministers divided shamefully among themselves , i grant , and sinfully also , though that all engaged were not equally guilty , and this was a great triall ; but since , that an excess of charity toward your party , on the one hand , and a sounder judgement of your principles or rather looseness , on the other , was the only cause of the difference , is it not invidious in you , not only to have dissappointed your favourers ; but to taxe the greater number , whom you have since so fully justified , as men of maximes incompatible with government : sir , this is the summe of the account , you make us , of the reasons of his majesties change , with what evidence , the reader and not you , must judge ? if he miss your sun in its meridian , and finde your light to be but darkness , a more simple eye and heart , may be both his satisfaction and your remedy : if i might enlarge in a more full returne , i could easily demonstrate , that , all things being considered , both before , at , and since the kings restauration , his adhering to the covenant , and owning that interest , had been not only his safety and peace ; but his most certain establishment and glory : if the favour and countenance of the most high , the firme love and loyalty of all good men , and the undoubtedly equal compliance and submission of the other parties , may be fit media , in such an argument ; the conclusion is obvious : but lest you say , art thou made of the kings councel ? forbear ; leaving events to god i shall be silent . having all along endeavoured to burne , in the close of this dialogue , you go about to blowe us : i am not for triffling with you , in such unsincere and mixed complements : the lord purge both you and us from all dross , and restore to the land truth and purity , and then shall we certainly enjoy peace and unity . as for the liberty you taxe in our discourses , and writings , i hope no right discerner , will finde it to be an invective ; but the native , genuine , and well-becoming freedom of truth and uprightness : whether the license that you usurp , in your pretended justifications of the king , the laws , and your consciences , be indeed uncharitable , bitter and malicious , i neither say nor judge ; he whose glory is concerned he also judgeth : but for the allowance of your defence by tongue and pen , which you would appear to plead , from our asserting of defensive armes ; you cannot be so serious in the demand , as i am free to accord it ; seing i am perswaded , that if the defensive armes , which we maintain , were no better warranted , and as little to be feared , as the self-defence , which you pretend , neither you , nor any other , would have accounted them to be worthy of the opposing . the fifth dialogue answered . sir , neither envying you that poor applause , which you vainly captate , from your mock-non . c. confessing himself to be by you much shaken in the matter of bishops , nor regarding the pitiful scorne , you would cast on us by making him , or your self rather , ridiculous in avowing a blind aversation , notwithstanding of his professed conviction , i come to consider his quarrel against the bishops on the account of your common-prayer-book , and what you answere . your n. c. alledges that this common-prayer-book is a dead and formal lyturgie , set up instead of the pure and spiritual worship of god : in answere whereunto , pretending as vainly , that these are but big words , as i have already clearly proved , that the government which we contend for , is the interest , and doth appertain to the kingdom of christ ; and thereby manifestly shewed this your confidence to be meer calumny , you undertake to discover the fallacy , by telling us what it is to pray by the spirit : and you say , [ to pray by the spirit , is , when out of a deep sense of our misery and need , and firm confidence in god , we draw near to him , to offer up our prayers and praises to him , through iesus christ : ] and you add , [ that our hearts being moulded in this frame , we pray by the spirit , use we words or not , the same or different ; nay , it will appear we are carnal , when we need to have our devotion tickled , and provoked , with new words : ] which description , and the deduction from it , being laid for a ground , exciting your self , by the faigned interjections of your n. c. surprises , at the wit and novelty of your invention , [ in representing the liturgie-worship , as spiritual , and the conceived one , as carnal : ] you go one , to discourse [ of the differences , betwixt spiritual devotion , and prayer by words , ] the termes , wherein you are pleased , very groundlessly , and impertinently , to state the distinction : [ and the former ( you say ) lying in the will , and not in the fancy , and being affected with the thing , and not with words , can with the newness of affection , make the same prayer in words , though an hundred times repeated , at every return new : and , is a still , humbling , and melting thing , and so equable , that it is above the frisking fits of the fancy ; neither doth it require a variety of words ; but , in its sublimest exercises , can persist long , with great sweetness , in the simplest acts ; whereas , multiplicity doth perhaps lead out the minde , from pure and still devotion , interior prayer , and spiritual converse with god : on the other hand ( you tell us , that ) prayer by words , lying in the fancy , and its gratifications , by the varying of things into several shapes , the devotion raised by such chimes , is only sensible , needing new phrases , to renew its fervour ; and words , and all the heat begot by words , are but a false fire , in the natural powers of the soul , which may heat the brain , draw forth teares , seem to wring the heart , b●t amounts to nothing , save a sensible fervour , and present tickling , wherein , he that abounds most in mem●r● , fancy , el●quence , and confidence , is likely most to excell : ] from all which you conclude , [ that it expresseth a more spiritual temper , to be able to worship god in simple , and constant forms , and that extemporary prayer , cannot be called praying by the spirit ; except by spirit be understood the animal or natural spirits . this i suppose is a true account of your first floorish , upon this subject , to what purpose , remaines yet to be inquired . and first , i might take notice of the inaccuracy of your expression , of praying by the spirit ; whereas the scripture-phrase , is , to worship in spirit , iohn . . . praying in the spirit , eph. . . to worship in the spirit , phil , . . to pray with the spirit . . cor. . . and though the difference be more in words then matter ; yet , as the scripture-diction is certainly the founder ; so , i am apt to apprehend , that your not adverting to it , may have in part occasioned your vain and impertinent digression , upon praying by the spirit , and praying by words , as if these were by us wholly distinguished , and the latter preferred . . i might observe , that the description which you give us of praying by the spirit , is more suteable to the calme and serene progress of a christians course , then to these doubtings , feares , wrestlings , depressions , and overwhelmings , so frequently found , in the experience of all , to be thereto incident , which being no less removed from , and destitute of , a firm confidence , then the staying and assisting of the spirit , with groanes that cannot be uttered , is therein observable ; your description appeares to be narrow , and inadequat : but the plain answer , which i returne , is , that as the stating of the question , is by you wholly neglected ; so the reasoning , whereby you go about to maintain your lifeless and superstitious liturgie , is altogether inconcludent . the controversie betwixt you and us , anent your service-book is twofold . . whether the publick worship of god ought to be astricted to set and imposed forms ? and . whether that form of worship , which your book contains , be not in it self in many particulars , unsound and impertinent , and consequently not to be received by way of directory , farre less acquiesced unto as a precise injunction ? that these are the two hinges of this debate , will easiely be acknowledged ; but what your above mentioned discourse doth contribute to its determination , i must again solicite your second thoughts , to render us an account . we have your definition of praying by the spirit ; and we let it pass . next you subjoin , and that with many empty reiterations , that praying in words , specially extemporary and various , is sensible , fancical , affecting and heating the brain in lower minds , and producing only a natural fervour ; and that thus it may be , with such , who pray in words without the spirit , was never by us denied ; but darre you , or any man els , not abandoned to utter irreligion , propose this as your opinion , of all prayer in conceived , and not precontrived and prescribed words ? do not the very truth of religion , requiring both heart and mouth ; the reasonableness of our service , consisting in their harmony ; the practice of the lords people , in all ages ; the frequent examples , every where in scripture ; the experience of every serious soul ; yea the common reason of all men , redargue the gross absurdity of such a perswasion ? were david's thanksgiving , chron. . . solomon's prayer , king. . . and i●hosaphat's supplication , chron. . . all without book or set-form , only extemporary heats ? are the praying psalmes , with all the exercises of the lord servants , in the nynths of ezrah , nehemiah , and daniel , and in other places , clearly flowing , as the spirit gave utterance , without any taught frame of words , frisking fits of the fancy ? was our lords prayer , ioh. . only a sensible servour ? 〈◊〉 , sir , i would rather suppose , that although your airy discourse , hath wildly seduced your observation ; yet your heart abhorres such impiety : i will not therefore insist on the advantage , which this your laxe inadvertencie so fairely offereth ; nor shall i content my self with this obvious retortion , that where one instance can be given of conceived prayer , only managed by fancie , and subsisting in its vain exercise , thousands may be found of persons , through the practice and custome of set-forms , habituate to a most lifeless and superstitious mummery , more suteable to the worshiping of stockes and stones , then to the service of the true and living god : nor lastly will i vex you , by shewing , that the distinction which you make of praying by the spirit , and by words , is so impertinently by you applied , to our present purpose ; that though you endeavour thereby , to impugne extemporariness , multiplicity , and variety of words , in prayer ; yet , it plainly concludes all words to be superfluous : for , seing that in opposition to the spiritual worship of god , which we contend for , you tell us , that we may pray by the spirit , use we words or not , and that spiritual devotion is a still inward thing : is it not evident , that all outward forms , whether set or extemporarie , are thereby rejected ? but freely waving these your lapses , that i may come more closely to the present purpose , it is to be considered , that the right and true worship of god , is certainly inward in the minde , will , and affections : god who demandeth the heart , doth thence expect , that tribute of reverence , love , fear , acknowledgement , and praise , which in his sight is acceptable ; and all other outward performances , as they ought to be the sincere expressions , and significations of this internal devotion , so they are wholly and only regulable , by the prescriptions of divine appointment . if this truth were as seriously heeded , ( as i am perswaded it is fixed , and constant , ) both by you and me , our controversie would soon be ended : the question then , is not , concerning the life and truth of internal prayer , wherein , without doubt , the spirituality of that exercise doth principally consist ; but , seing that you and we are agreed , that god whom we serve , is to be worshiped in spirit and in truth , the debate is , anent the manner , how this worship , specially when publick , is to be performed ? whether in set and imposed forms ; or as the spirit giveth utterance ? or if , for preventing mistakes , you please to take it at greater length ; whether it be lawful for men , to compose and impose set forms for prayer , and worship , and thereto to astrict the people of god , in their performances ? or , whether it be more agreeable to the will and service of god , that prayer and worship , which are to be performed inwardly , in the liberty and truth of the spirit and understanding , in their outward expression , be left to be managed , by the free and sanctified use of the rational faculty , for that end given , and in many observably gifted ? by which state , as you may easily perceive that i do allow , not only the antecedent improvement of the expressive power , by all warrantable aides and advantages ; but also the free using , upon occasion , of such words , as others have formerly , either dictated , or made use of : nay even in so ne cases of several of you set forms ; both which i conceive are very consistent with praying by the spirit , either as by you or by us defined : so , the precise point controverted , and to which i would have you all along to advert , is anent the imposing , and astricting , which i plainly judge to be both destitute of divine warrant , and contrary to the liberty of spiritual devotion ; and so repugnant , in both qualities , to that worship in spirit and truth , which only is acceptable . but before i proceed to a confirmation , there occurre some mistakes to be removed : one is , of some of your way , who , defining praying by the spirit , the uttering of such petitions , as are immediatly suggested , both matter and words , by the holy ghost , hold it for a gift proper to the apostles , and their times , and now ceased : thus the english debater , and your own headless allegeance , that extemporarie prayer cannot be called praying by the spirit , unless we also call it infallible , doth also coincide : but , seing by your description , above mentioned , you do allow of praying by the spirit , as not yet ceased , and do thereby very justly understand , rather the grace , then the gift of prayer ; although even the gift , where it is ( as it may be ) without the grace , may also have the name of praying by the spirit ; and seing that both the debater , and you , i suppose , would be offended , if any should affirme , that no man using the service-book-forms , could pray by the spirit , i only add , that as the spirit is the great promise of the gospel , its grace , the life , and its gifts , the strength of all christian duties ; so , praying by or in the spirit , can no more be impugned , for want of infallibility , then any other good work , of the same spirit in us denied , for want of perfection : but who would not pitie two doctors of the church , either so disingenuous , or unable , as not to distinguish , betwixt the spirits ordinary measures , and extraordinary assistances . the next mistake is , that reflecting upon the greater exactness of phrase , attainable in a set-form , above what can be expected in an extemporarie work ; and commending the propriety , conci●neness and gravity , that may be in the former , in respect of that rudeness , incohesion , and levity , supposed to be incident to the latter , you exaggerate the comparison , as if the whole stress of the debate , did ly in this point , whereas he that duely considereth , will not only finde your forms , at best to be but humane and imperfect , and that the gift of prayer promised , if duely improved , in and with the exercise of the grace , is , farre more likely , to furnish sound , savory and acceptable words ; then these jejune and lifeless composures ; for framing and enjoining whereof , men have no promise of the lords assistance : and lastly , that the whole word of god , and the excellent patterns therein recorded , with many other helps , are at hand , and allowed by us , by way of directory ; but he must also grant , that it is not our choice , but the lords own prescription , which he doth accept : suppose your forms were as much better , then our conceptions , as a mans first-born , is preferable to the beast of the field ; yet , if not required , they cannot come up with acceptance on his altar : and therefore , i conclude , that however the sincere users may finde grace in his sight ; yet the peremptory imposers , cannot be innocent . a third mistake , is , that because in the use of certain set-forms , a man may possibly pray , with deep spiritual impressions , and high elevations : nay the sublimest acts of communion with god , may be expressed in the simplest forms , such as , thou art my god ; therefore you conclude , that s●inted forms , are more suted to true spiritual devotion , then the multiplicity and variety of words , in an extemporarie exercise , which do lead out , and do too frequently only excite a phantastick transient pleasure , almost evanishing with the sound , wherewith they are pronounced : but seing , that the variableness of the condition of a militant viator can hardly be defined , much less the free actings of the spirit , in such exigences , confined to any prescribed forms , and that the more seraphick raptures of divine contemplation , do therefore subsist in few and plain words , because above the reach of expression ; it is undoubtedly certain , that neither the right use-making , or rather agreeableness of certain forms to very sincere and serious devotion , nor the simplicitie of words , used in the nearest admission of heavenly fellowship , do at all remove the unwarrantableness and inconveniencie of the restraint of set forms , when under the necessity of an imposition . as for what is insinuate of these fancical heats and pleasures , wherewith words , ex tempore , may possibly delude ; it is only an accidental inconvenience , from our corruption , and by the faults of your imposed forms , infinitly overballanced , as i have already shewed . these things , being thus cleared : for confirming of my assertion , against your stinted , and imposed forms , i say first , that these impositions are peccant against the truth of gods worship ; because the samine requires his own express warrant , and prescript : it is in vain to worship after the commandements of men ; the service which he requireth not , he abhorreth ; will-worship is an abomination : but such is your imposed and commanded liturgie : if now , what doth the lord require ? ought to be the serious reflection of every one , that draweth near unto him ; if , in all things commanded , we ought to be circumspect , without adding to , or diminishing ought from it ; if the lord did most exactly define the manner , and every rite and ceremony of the legal sacrifices and service , yea every pin of the tabernacle , with the whole contrivance and orders of the succeeding temple ; if strange fire , made use of even in an offering to god , be so severely vindicat ; and the erecting of another altar , then he had appointed , even for his sacrifices , what can we conclude , concerning your imposed forms and the manner of that service , which you so arbitrarily enjoin ? that they are of farre greater moment in his worship , then many of these things , about which we see , his holy jealousie to be so attentively conversant , commonsense doth evince : how then can they be receaved without his warrant , without which , all humane devisings are rejected ? say not , that the rigor of this strictnes was a part of the old legall bondage : for granting that it may be so , as to the particular manner of that dispensation ; yet you are so farre from being thereby helped , that , as i have formerly shewed that the burthen of the things , by you imposed , stands manifestly convicted by our gospel-liberty ; so , the immoveable principle , that , in his worship , his own prescription is the alone warrant of acceptable performance , doth equally redargue the presumption of your imposing , in whatsomever model , without his command . but it may be objected , that , seing our extemporarie prayers , are as well a part of divine worship , as your stinted forms , and that as to the frame of the words , the former can no more , yea rather less , then the later , pretend to a congruity to the word and will of god , the argument from the unlawfulness of will-worship , doth militat more against us , then you : 't is answered , if the question in this matter were only whether set-forms , or extemporarie straines , may possibly be composed with the greater consonancie , in words , unto scripture-phrase , the objection might have some , ( though in respect of what i have already touched of the promised gift of prayer very little ) , weight ; but seing our debate runs clearly , concerning the manner , how the true and spiritual worship of god is to be externally performed ; if the lord , whole alone it is to prescribe in this matter , hath in a just congruity to the liberty of his own spirit , left it to the night and sanctified use of the rational expressive facultie , and the due improvement of these helps and promises , wherewith he hath instructed us ; for man vainly to arrogat a better contrivance , in his devised impositions , is an intolerable presumption : and therefore , though the conceived , as well as the stinted prayer , be a part of gods worship : nay , though this , as well as the other , singly and sincerely used , may be accepted ; yet seing the lord hath allowed the liberty of the former , and doth not at all require the obligation of the latter , the imposing thereof must , of necessity , be repute and cast , as an humane invention . i need not stay to resume , that conceived prayer , for the reasons above mentioned , and in respect of the promised gift , and assistance of the spirit , whereof the composing and commanding of set-forms is destitute , may probablie be , and is often found to be , the better phrased : nor shal i tell you , that the manner thereof is so undoubtedly the more rational , genuine , and lively , that if even those of your way could be perswaded , that men were sufficiently thereto qualified , they would easily grant the imposing and use of forms , to be less necessary : it is enough for us , that the lord , who knoweth the best of our performances , in whatsomever sort , to be but lame and imperfect , hath both allowed , and accepted of our extemporarie petitions , whereas your injoined forms are no where required . . i say , that the imposing of forms impingeth upon the spirituality of prayer and worship ; that which boundeth and restraineth the free spirit of the lord , in the motions and breathings whereof , the very life of prayer doth consist , impingeth upon the spirituality of prayer and worship : but so it is , that the imposing of forms restraineth and bindeth up , &c. therefore , &c. that the spirit of the lord , whereby his people , especially in prayer , are guided and acted , is free , not only in its gift , but also in its operations , both scripture and experience do teach ; the winde bloweth where it listeth , &c. and so is every on that is born of the spirit : where the spirit of the lord is , there is liberty : not only from the bondage of corruption , but in the wayes and paths of the lord ; and more especially , in the large and all-searching discoveries of the minde , yea of the deep things of god : and what strange exercises have been , and may be , in the experiences of the saints , the result of this liberty , and of the variety of our unstable condition , iacob's wrestlings , davids heart commu●ings , spirit-searchings , overwhelmings , and again exultings , ierimiah's mournings , and daniel's supplications , do exhibite a few examples . now that the imposing of forms , which are set , certain , and determined , doth stint this liberty , and cannot possibly quadrat to all the variety above mentioned , needeth no other evidence , then that of an ingenuous reflection . i have already acknowledged that in the right using of several of your forms , a man may have his heart very deeply affected ; and now i further suppose for argument , that such may be the aptitude of a full and sound composition , as may possibly suppeditat petitions and expressions , convenient to every exigence ; but yet , that the spirits free use-making , and mens stinting thereof to these forms , do vastly differ , cannot be denyed ; since that , notwithstanding of all conceded , the enjoining of these impositions is not only inconsistent with the free methods , but also doth confine the illimited enlargements of the spirit , as cannot but be obvious to any exercised discerner : but that which , i suppose , doth induce you and many others into an error , in this particular , is a preposterous observation of certain good motions , and sincere and servent devotions , which possibly some may feel , in the use of your common-prayer-book , whence you inadvertently conclude , that the same forms , not appearing obnoxious to the escapes , incident to extemporarie expressions , may , more safely and sufficiently , serve to the exciting and signifying the like spirituall motions and devotions , in all ; whereas it is certain , that as in the former case , these motions were only the free breathings and stirrings of the spirit , and in a manner accidental to these forms , wherein they come to be uttered ; so to ty the same free influences to the manuduction of a set of words , is more absurd , then the same words are often found to be incompetent to the setting forth of the singularity that may be in the case of the supplicant , whether a whole church or single person . really , sir , when i consider , that the lord craves the heart , and that men worship him in spirit , and that it is thence , and out of its abundance , that the mouth ought to speak ; and from a beleeving heart , that the tongues confession is acceptable , i cannot but wonder , how this inversion of preceeding and leading forms should be so much asserted : and certainly if we may , after the lord's example , mal. . . reason , in these things , from self reflection , may not the knowledge we have of our own way , in such supplications , to or from our neighbours , wherein the heart , and not the justice and merit o● the sute , comes to be regarded , teach us , to reprobate , and nauseate such impositions ? if in hearty requests , we ourselves can neither be confined , in the making , to a rat of words put in our mouth , nor relish the like practice from others , and do censure such methods , as too cold and indifferent ; how much more should we stand in awe , to obtrude them to the father of spirits , the searcher and lover of the heart ? i might arise higher , upon this subject , and demonstrate to you , from the order of nature , which certainly the lord hath principally ordained for his own worship , service and glory , that the heart , and minde , and not the eyes , common sense , or memory ( unless in so farre as is requisite , to the joining of the hearers in publick prayer ) ought to preceed , in all ; and without question did preceed , in the first acknowledgements rendered to him by his creatures ; but i neither love nor need to admixe such reasonings to these scripture-grounds already adduced : i shall therefore summe up this argument , with answering two objections viz. that i seem . to forget , that our ministers in publick prayer , do , as much , preceed and lead the peoples devotions and affections , by their conceived words , as if they were set and predevised : . to suppose , that all who can or ought to pray in heart , are also qualified to a suteable utterance . and to the first it is answered . . that it is evident , that the people may , and ought to joine in publick prayers , uttered by one as their mouth , although the samine be by him conceived , and to them unknown , until expressed● this is clear from the practices of god's people , in these publick prayers of david , solomon , iehosophat , and others already mentioned : and you your self lay it for the ground of an argument , viz that the people can joyne , and pray by the spirit , though the words be not of their framing . , that although our ministers do preceed in words ; yet seing the people are gathered in the lords name , and he , with the power of his spirit , in the midst of them ; and the minister is called and appointed to oversee them , know their condition and necessities , and to be their mouth toward god ; and lastly , seing there is a promise of the spirits publick , aswell as private assistance , whereupon we may assuredly confide , both for a due instruction , sense , and utterance in the minister , of the peoples state , and exigence , and a sweet uniting of their hearts , in an harmonious concurrence , the agreeablenesse and advantages of conceived , and not imposed prayer , are thereby abundantly conserved : and the difference betwixt the ministers preceeding , in free and spirit-directed words , from the manuduction of your restricting forms , manifestly held forth . offend not that i say spirit-directed words ; for if i should descrive prayer in the utterance , to be the expressing of these desires , which through the spirit we make unto god , in the name of jesus christ , for things agreeable to his will , in words directed by the same spirit ; and thence draw an argument , for reprobating your vain devising , and rigid commanding of forms , which practice the lord hath neither ordered nor blessed , i should but define the dutie , according to the precept and promise , which is no more impugned , by the mixture of your infirmities , then the account given by you , either of internal praying by the spirit , or external , by a set-form , which , as from us , do alwayes labour of imperfection , are thereby made void . as for the second objection , that i seem to suppose , that all that can , or ought to pray in heart , are also qualified , to a ●u●eable utterance ; i answere . that my present discourse , of conceived prayer , doth no more suppose , all to be thereto qualified , then your discourse of internal prayer by the spirit , doth warrant the like construction : how men do pray , and how they ought to pray , are easie to be distinguished . . the spirit of supplication , is no doubt promised , not only for inward motions , but also for outward suteable expressions ; and the teaching of god is sufficient , and may be forthcoming for the one , as well as for the other : nay as we know , the expressive facultie , where the organes are not impedite , to be alwayes more or less subservient enough to the mindes conceptions ; so , notwithstanding that the gift , and grace of prayer , be certainly distinct , yea in such sort separable , that the gift may be , where the grace is wanting ; yet seing the gift is promised , and given , for the help of the grace , at lest in general ; ( for , that in particular persons , the gift may be found without the grace , for helping of the grace in others , is not refused ) it is scarce to be supposed , nor can it be easily instanced , where one in whom the grace was found , was totally destitute of all measure of the gift ; i say , of all measure , for that many have had the grace , without that eminencie of the measure , that men do ordinarily terme the gift , cannot be denied ; but the thing to be principally here adverted to , is , that we judge not of the competencie of this gift , according to mens too frequent estimation . that the mixtures of that wofull vanity , from which , of all vices , our minds are most hardly purged , occasioned by a just aversion of forms , ill framed and worse imposed , have too far altered the ordinary rule , from sincere and acceptable simplicitie , is too true a regret ; certainly , if men were more denied unto their own wisdome , and more surrendered to the conduct of the holy ghost , even for the words which he teacheth , both the ungodly scorn of many , mocking at apparent weaknesses , and the pretended modesty , but reall vanity , of others , their self-diffidence ; and lastly our true and undeniable insufficiencies , for a suteable utterance in prayer , would soon , and happily be corrected : but . admitting that most men were more unqualified , and worse furnished , then really they are , for conceived prayer , pray , sir , what doth your imposing of forms help the matter ? that the representing of forms , and other rules by way of directorie , may conduce for instruction , will easily be agreed unto ; but that the imposition wherein the evill of your way lyeth , addeth nothing by way of help ; but on the contraire , is a presumptuous prescriving in gods worship , a manifest restraining of the spirit of grace and supplication , and plainly injurious , both to the exercise and improvement of the gift of prayer , is not less obvious , to every ones apprehension , then by the arguments adduced evidently evinced . having thus discussed the first part of our present debate , anent the imposing of forms in general : the second part , whether that systeme of forms , contained in your service-book , be not ( for not a few of them ) unfound , and impertinent , and not to be received , so much as for a directory , remains yet to be handled ? but since it is a little after , that you are pleased only to give a touch on this head , and that the samine on our part , hath been fully spoke to , by such , who by their examinations and anatomies , have abundantly discovered , both the errors and superstition , which your liturgie contains ; i proceed to answere , what remains of your reasoning . and . you lay it down as a ground , that , in opposition to your forms , we hold spiritual devotion to be only the using and pouring out of unprescrived words , as if that were all required : which is altogether false , and ridiculous ; seing it is evident , that as no prayer is acceptable , unless made in the spirit ; so we therefore call our way spiritual , yours formal , in respect , that ours is suted to the liberty , and made dependent on the spirits direction , whereas your impositions , do both restrain the spirit , and are plainly a humane invention . . you say , that it expresseth a more spiritual temper , to be able to worship god in simple and constant forms : but . that this doth indeed import more spirituality , then the imaginative straines of these , who only flow , and are fervide in words , and are not fervent in spirit , serving the lord ; which is the very summe of your discourse , is no more certain , then impertinently by you insisted on . . that the elevations of spirit may , sometime , surmount the faculty of expression , as i have already touched , is as little to your purpose . . that it expresseth a more spiritual temper , to be able to worship in a set-form , then , in the same inward frame , to be able in free and spirit-directed words , in a more full and lively manner , then any stinted forms can pretend , to expresse our prayers , and our praises unto god ; i utterly deny : and am very confident , that when you attain to the experience , you will be farre from thinking , that this is a multiplicity , which doth lead out . . you say , that if extemporarie prayer be by the spirit , it must be infallible : but poor man , do you not consider . that the spirits direction , and out imperfection are not incompatible . . that this doth as much militat against spiritual prayer , in , and by your humane forms , which you so much magnify ; and yet they are neither perfect , nor infallible . . i have already told you , that the spirits extraordinary infallible assistance , and ordinary presence and direction , are most distinguishable . . you your self plead , that as we affirme , that the people may join with the minister , and pray by the spirit , though the words be not of their framing ; so the minister may also pray in the spirit , though he use words framed by others , and yet you know , that neither the one nor the other are infallible . . you say , if one should with a short-hand follow his prayer , whom we say prayes by the spirit ; then , may not that prayer be used over again ? or , is the spirit in the prayer so volatile , that it evaporats in the saving ? really , might i be free without offence , i would tell you my fears , that both your reason , and religionare evaporat : art thou a master of israel and askest such questions ? do either we affirm , that praying by the spirit , doth consist principally in the conceiving of words , so , as another using , but not conceiving the same words , cannot pray by the spirit ? or , do you imagine that the spirit in prayer , is in the dress and form of words , so that whoever doth use them , doth pray by the spirit ? and seing that both members are groundless , what can your question import ? what it is to pray by the spirit , we have already heard , which , as it doth not impede , why a man may not possibly join , and pray in the spirit , though in the words of your forms , when uttered by the coldest form alist ; so , neither is it by us tyed to the conceiving and expressing of words ; nor doth a mans praying by the spirit , yet in words , either composed , or uttered by another , in the least impugne that spiritual liberty in orall prayer , by us asserted , against your unwarrantable impositions ; which liberty , consisting in the unconfined use of words , left to the spirits direction , as it is most agreeable to the freedom of the spirit , and our rational service , which the lord , who requireth it , hath not astricted unto forms ; so , in respect of your carnal , restringent , and unwarrantable imposings , is therefore , and most justly , termed spiritual . but it were only a wearinesse to trace all your mistakes , and inconsistencies in this question ; he who can conceive , that the spiritual manner of prayer by us commended , is neither , on the one hand , a praying alwayes in new words , nor , on the other , such as can be lawfully tyed up , to humane stinted forms ; but is to be performed , whether by a man for himself , or with and for others , in words freely directed by the same spirit , from which the inward desires and motions ought to proceed , will easily tell you , that the case of a ministers following this rule , and being astricted to words , framed by another , hold no parallel , and with the same facility , unravel all your other quiblings , and pitie your impertinencies : and therefore i go forward . your n. c. asks , but doth not the spirit help our infirmities and teach us to pray ? and you tell him , that , the words aright considered , speak out a far different thing from what he would draw from them , and that the spirit doth indeed teach us the matter of our prayers , and also the manner , to wit , the temper of our hearts ; but , that words are not meant , appears from what follows , and maketh interc●ssion for us with groans that cannot be uttered . but , sir , if the apostle commend the spirits assistance to us , in prayer , in intending our desires , above the earnestness that words can express ; doth it therefore follow , that , in the directing of our utterance , which is a lesser matter , his help is not to be expected ? . though in this place , the spirits help for the direction of our words were not meant ; can you deny , that , that gift , is not fully elsewhere promised ? have you forgot the anointing that teacheth us of all things ? the spirit that giveth utterance ? and the father of lights from whom cometh every good gift ? and who enricheth us by iesus christ in all utterance and in all knowledge ? or , need i to remember you of the promises , that the heart of the rash shall understand knowledge , and the tongue of the stammerer shall be ready to speak plainly , or elegantly : and again the tongue of the dumb shall sing : really , sir , if a man diffident of the readinesse of his expression , cannot from these open fountains draw supply , i am confident that the brocken cisterns of your imposed forms , will make him but small reliefe . after this , relapsing into your former prejudice , and causing your n. c. to say , that in this imbodied state , we need to have our souls stirred up by the commotion of our fancies , you accept of the acknowledgement , and thence inferre , that at least , such a way of praying , is not so sublime , and therefore ought not to be called praying by the spirit : but , sir , as i have already told you , that he , who being internally moved by the spirit of grace , neither needeth a set-form , to obstetricat his expression , nor therein confineth himself to it ; but out of the abundance of his heart , and , in words directed by the holy ghost , doth flow forth in his prayers and praises ; is indeed of a higher size , then he who having the same devotion toward god , is therein either stinted by another , or straitened in himself , to a limiting and restricting form ; so , your talking in this place of the stirrings of the soul , by the commotion of fancie , and the gratifications of nature and imagination , is , but the gratification of your own vanity , in as much , as it neither pertaineth to the present question , whereof the lawfulness or unlawfulnesse of mens imposing set-forms of worship , and not the life or spirituality thereof ( wherein i hope we are agreed ) is the subject ; neither do we either teach or defend , but plainly reject , these carnal methods , here by you supposed to excite devotion by fancie , and kindle our affections by imaginations , where the inspiration of the spirit ought to warm the heart , and blowe the flame , as being the offering of strange fire unto the lord , in place of the heavenly fire , that descends from himself , upon his altar : it is true , the heart , and desires thereof , being once set on work , by this divine principle , may , and ought to enlarge it self , by the summoning and exciting of its affections , and whole minde and strength , for the intending of its fervor , and elevating of the soul ; but this truth , doth so little favoure your impositions , in preference to our way , that by a new argument , it further , and evidently confirmes , the narrownesse and insufficiencie of your stinted forms , to that spiritual soul-devotion , wherein the lord delights . but you say , that , you will convince us of the evill of extemporarie forms ; and . you say , that , i must long exercise my attention , to consider what he who prayes intends , and this strangely draweth out the minde from devotion , which cannot vigorously act two powers at once ; and therefore you conclude , that both in reason and experience , set-forms do conduct a mans devotion , with less anxiety , wavering or distraction : to this it is answered . that seing the churches of christ are united , not only in the same form of profession , but in the same spirit , and have the promise of the presence of the lord and his power , in all their assemblies gathered in his name , whereby both minister and people , may expect all due assistance in their performances ; your supposed unacquaintedness in the people , with what the minister intends , with the long attention , and strange out-drawing of the minde , which you thence inferre , are but your own groundless and faithless imaginations : . that a certain measure of previous attention in joining , either with conceived , or imposed forms , is necessary to instruct our devotion , is neither by you , nor us to be denied ; but how you can thence conclude , that attention , as such , which in this case , both in your and our way is absolutely necessary , directly preparatory , and leading into , should lead out from the devotion to ensue ; and by what logick you make the attention , or inclination of the minde , and the devotion thence arising , almost as connected , as the inclining of the ear , and hearkening are , two powers , ( and not two acts ) and these also incompatible , surpasseth common understanding : it is true , if i could suppose with you , that the people , nay the minister himself , going about to pray , were wholly ignorant , how he will discharge it , and that therefore , they , either join blindly , or with anxiety ; nay further that our way labours under many abuses of tedious length , scurrilous expressions , involved periods , petulant and wanton affectations , and the like ; i might possibly finde some shadow of reason for your alledgeance : but since , you not only speak as a stranger to the grace and gift of prayer , and to the unity of the church of christ , which is one body , baptised and united into one spirit , having one hope , one faith , one lord , one baptisme , one god and father of all , who is above all , and through all , and in us all ; whereby christians before forms were imposed , are found both to have been , and to have continued with one accord in prayer , and supplication , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to have lift up their voice , and that one voice , in the same extemporarie words to god , in prayer and thanksgiving ; but do also subtilly and profanely take advantage , from escapes incident to humane frailtie , to proclame the same as gross abuses , and thereupon scoff and mock at the heartie and spiritual prayers of the upright , wherein the lord delighteth : i hope your own vanity and folly shall reprove you : but . as attention is requisite , even in the publick use of your forms , and in our way is attended with such advantages , that do both render it sweet and easie , and fully secure the conduct of our devotion ; so , by your course , it not only happens , that oftentimes the attention is sore put to it , and perplexed , as you objecte to us ; but the very rule of devotion is made altogether insecure and uncertain : for proof of this , there needeth no other argument , then that you observe these forms , lately added to the english service , that these were as uncouth to the people , at the first hearing , and required as great attention , as our extemporarie conceptions ; is clear and obvious : but seing beside this , the people are put to join in words , they know not by whom framed , and for the composing and commanding whereof , their appeareth neither precept , nor promise in scripture ; that their attention in this case , must be more exercised , and their devotion in more hazard to be distracted , then when they join with him , whom they judge to be appointed by the lord , to be their mouth to him-ward , and on good grounds suppose , to b● instructed , both with the knowledge of their condition , and the rule and spirit , whereby he ought to make the samine known , in supplications , unto god , is beyond contradiction : neither is this the only inconvenience , of this sort , in your manner , there is a court-practice , that i could tell you of ; how the king pro re nata , useth to issue out a form of prayer , either for his own chappel , the citie-churches , or further as he pleaseth to extend his orders ; and if these novell prescriptions , be not more chargeable to the attention , and disturbing to the devotion , then any thing in our way ; nay , if it be not a method , as dangerous in its tendencie , as destitute of warrant , let men judge : but this is the supremacie , too high for you to have remembred : . if there were a greater exercise of attention in our way then in yours ; yet when i consider , that attention , if not surcharged , or confounded , doth certainly tend to the quickening of the devotion , and that on the other hand , by the coldness of your stinted forms , both the attention , is , for the most part wholly slackened , and the devotion deadened ; the instance you make of a few serious , it may be , but weak and peevish persons of your partie , professing a great stayedness in the use of set-forms ; whereas in extemporarie prayer , they could not keep their minde from distraction , doth neither impugne these more lively and powerful devotions , whereunto the lord , and not man , hath ordered our method● nor , in the least , doth it counterballance these myriads of dead formalists , whom your way doth burie in utter securitie , and irreligion : in this place you tell us by way of wittie discovery , that the way of extemporarie prayer , was well devised for spreading of error , or sedition , in respect , forsooth , that ministers prayed over their sermons ; so that what in the discourse seemed the words of man , in the prayer was called the dictat of the spirit : but , sir , darre you or any man deny , that extemporarie prayer , was the first manner of mens calling upon the name of the lord ? are you not then ashamed , to talk of it , as a late device ? . how come you to suppose , that words in prayer , spoken by us to god , may rather seem the dictat of the spirit , and more speciously seduce , nor the same words delivered in sermon , in the name , and as the word of god ? certainly admitting you had forgot , that you did already upon this very pretext , endeavour to devest preaching of this authority ; yet common sense might have told you , that in this there could be no deep artifice : but . wherefore may not a partie given to sedition , or error , devise and compose forms to the same purpose , and with more success ? if forms be but of humane invention , and if , as you suppose , they be more weightie and impressing , then extemporarie words , it is obviously evident , that they furnish a far more advantageous opportunity to this your excellent devise : i might confirme this , by telling you , how much this method hath been made use of , and prospered , for the propagating , and establishing of many errors and superstitions in the romish church ; but a nearer and latter instance of that piece of herauldrie , blazoning the kings titles , and prerogative , very irreverently and undecently , to god , foisted in by act of councel , in your church-prayers , for inculcating and advancing the exorbitant supremacie , may satisfy the world , that your evill and vain conjecture against us , was suggested by your own practice . after the false and calumnious charge of gross abuses , incident to our extemporarie forms , given in by you , with much pretended tenderness and insinuation , as i have already touched ; you n. c. answeres , that we had a directory of the things we should pray for ; which , no doubt , if you had been pleased to propound it , in its ●ull latitude , viz. that the whole word of god , many other instructions and forms thence drawn and delivered , and left to us by godly men , with our own publick directory , and these of other churches , and lastly , that the teaching of our parents , masters , and pastors , are all given to us , to guide us , and assist us , both for matter and words , in the prayers we ought to make : and if you had understood it aright , viz. that seing the rule in our way , is , as certain , though not so stinted , as that in yours , and that our ministers appointed to be the peoples mouth , in publick prayer and worship , are not only tried , in their utterance for preaching , but also for prayer ; and lastly that any material aberration , is as discoverable and censurable among us , as among you , you might have been fully satisfied , that neither the infirmities nor abuses of men , are chargeable upon our manner of worship ; nor doth your peremptorie imposing of set-forms , more secure the matter , from the like , and greater enormities . but being resolved to carp , you say , why may not we have a directory forwords , as well as things ? 't is answered . . a directory for things to be prayed for , is no doubt a directory for words also , if the things be fully directed , the application of words , the known signes , can have litle difficulty : . the directory , distinctly and particularly ordering the method , and condescending upon the heads of prayer , with as much exactness , as the latitude to be reserved to the free grace and gift of god , will admit ; cannot but be received for a directory , both of words and things . but you add , that it was but a cheat , to cozen the world who might have startled , to have seen us , without any rule for worship , in as much as our leaders quickly wearied of it . it is answered , first , so long as any church doth own the revealed will and word of god , for the rule of worship , none , but such phantastick formalists as you will prove startlers at this sure and acceptable simplicity : . whence you alledge our ministers their wearying of the directory , as such , except from the suggestion of your own malice , i cannot conceive : that our leaders neither turned it , nor astricted themselves to it as , to an imposed liturgie , is very certain ; but that they did not at all regard it , is a groundless calumnie . in the next place , you add , that , hence it clearly followed , that the preaching was the great matter of the worship ; but the constant acts , wherein the church should adore god , were thought too homely : how you will make out this connexion , seing , both the ground is false , and the consequence doth not hold , i recommend to your second thoughts ; though our prayers and psalms related to our preaching , yet it will not conclude , that therefore the preaching , was the great matter of the worship ; your service-book makes many , both prayers , gospells , epistles , and collects , relative to certain festivall dayes , is therefore the observation of these dayes , the great point of worship ? the great matter of worship is the rendering of our acknowledgement unto god , which , if performed by prayer , hearing of his word , and praises , and that in such a harmony , as all the exercises may conspire , and be mutually helpful , is thereby greatly advanced , and not in the least marred . as for these constant acts , which you desiderat in our service ; if thereby you mean your constant set-forms , you are already answered ; but if only the dayly solemn performances of prayer and praise , which in liew of the morning , and evening sacrifice , ought , as the stated and fixed recognizance of the great god , be observed and kept up , in every christian society , when other things shall be restored , i frankly promise you my assent . in the last place , you say : it is the least evill of extemporarie forms , that a minister is ready to pour out his soul to god , in such devotions as are then most in his own spirit , which may possibly happen to be very unfit for publick worship , sir , this is so groundless a fear , and so plain a diffidence of the assistance and presence of the lord , that i shall not trouble you with any further answere , then to add , that as a thoughtfull serious spirit , is ever found to be most prepared for dutie , and divine influences ; so , all experiences do conclude , that a ministers particular exercises , have been so farre from marring , that , on the contraire , they have alwayes rendered his publick performances , more spiritual and lively . and thus at length your dull n. c. comes to see that you are for set-forms , and demanding your reason , tels you , that the apostles used them not , to which you answere , that you cannot doubt , but they used our saviour's prayer , and really , though i do as little doubt , but they might have done it ; yet i think , both you and i , must acknowledge , that we finde no vestige of their doing of it . for as for your distinguishing , betwixt mathew's after this manner therefore pray ye ; and luke's when ye pray , say , the pattern to be proposed in the first , and the practice intended in the second : seing the form is formally the same , in both places , and the patterm so proposed by mathew , that the practice might be its most exact imitation , and the practice so enjoined by luke , that yet the latitude of a pattern , is not discharged , your notion is but airie , and of no moment . but if it were needful , to give you my thoughts in this matter , i would say , that considering . . that this pattern was given to the disciples , in the infancie of their knowledge , before the out-pouring of the spirit , as a short and easie rudiment . . that thereafter the spirit is promised , and that in such an abundant measure , as it should flow like rivers of living water . . that our lord in his last discourse , commands them frequently to pray to and ask the father , in his name , and that the spirit being given de facto , they were enriched unto all utterance , and both in their own prayers , and in their directions to others , how to pray , do constantly make mention of the name of iesus , these things i say considered , i am verily in the opinion , they did not precisely use , either this form of prayer , or any other ; but leaving this digression ; and esteeming this form to be the most excellent modell , and the very substance of all prayer , and granting the apostles might have used it ; yea supposing with you , they did use it ; yet what makes all this for your imposing and enjoining of forms , the only point of our present difference ? but you go on and say , the iews at that time had a liturgie , and hours of prayer , which our saviour never reproves : ergo quid . i have told you already , that to inferre an approbation , from our lords tolerance for a time , of either the whole , or any of the parts of that service , which he was in a short space to abolish totally , is bad logick . . admit this tolerance were an approbation , how will you make it out , that the iews their lyturgie , was more then a directorie , and that they were thereby astricted , to an imposed set-form ? specially seing we finde , that where , in their best times , certain forms of prayer and thanksgiving , dictated by the spirit , are committed by david , and other men of god , to the ministers for publick use ; yet the thing was both done , and observed , without the mention of any precise astriction , or limitation . in the next place you tell us , that the lords prayer is word for word taken out of the iewish lyturgie : and thence you think , that exception against the english service , that some of its prayers are out of the roman missal and ( not , or ) breviarie , to be foolish and groundless : but pray , sir , why talk you so confidently of the iewish liturgie of these times , ( for other posterior liturgies availl not ) since to this day , though much search hath been made , and many forgeries have been obtruded , no such thing could assuredly be found : next , if such a thing sound and pure was in our lord's dayes , think you it was then no better pattern , nor the roman missal , ritual , and breviarie were , in the very profoundest darkeness , of that superstition , immediatly before the reformation broke up ; and when the first glimmerings of that light , managed as much by police as piety , did translate from it , the english liturgie ? the disparity of these things is too palpable . . admitting the iewish liturgies , used in the dayes of our lord , were yet truely extant , it will not be sufficient for you , to ●hew the words and sentences of the lord's prayer , to be therein disorderly found , for so no doubt a good christian prayer , might almost be said , to be taken out of the alcoran ; but even for evincing , that our lord did respect them , so much , as directories , you must make out the whole context of his prayer , to be formally found therein : but you add , that , though the apos●les and others immediatly inspired , might pour out extemporarie prayers , it doth not follow , that every one may use the same liberty : who would not pitie this folly ? if infallibilitie be required in our extemporarie methods , wherefore not also in your set-forms ? but seing the apostles , were only the better assisted , and not singularly privileged , to pray ex tempore , by their extraordinary gifts ; and if the same command of god , and promise of the spirits assistance , are still with us , for our warrant , and encouragement to this dutie , your argument here insinuate , is emptie and inconcludent , and in effect , doth as much prove , neither the apostles their preaching , nor praying , to be at all by us imitable , as the point you aime at . your next argument for set-forms , you usher in , by the instance of the corinthians , who in their worship used hymnes of their own composing , as well as prayers , and then you adde , that , you could never comprehend , why we allow the spirit to be restrained in praising , as to words , and not in praying : sir , whether you preface the custome of the corinthians , for enforcing your imposed forms , or as the reason of your doubt , anent the difference used by us in praying , and praising , doth not appear from your words ? however , as it is evident , that in that church , there was rather an exuberant liberty , then any thing like to your stinting ; so , our practice , and theirs , shal soon be reconciled ; but first , let us take your n. c. answere to your main scruple , and he and i tell you , that , because the psalmes and scripture-songs , are a collection of praises , dictated by the spirit of god , for worship ; and have been so made use , both by the church of the iews , in the time of the old testament , and by the christian church , in all ages ; therefore , they are used by us , to the same end , without either restraining the spirit , in the performance , seing it is his own appointment , or tying all our praises , to these forms , seing god hath thereto , only tyed our solemn praise , by singing , and otherwayes left and allows us , a furder liberty : to your n. c. part of this answere you reply , that never were more absurdities crouded in less bounds : and if i may also anticipat , i am certain , there were never more profane and ignorant fopperies , stuffed into a return , then in that , which you here do make . and first , you say , it is clear we may worship in the spirit , and yet be restrained as towords ; since we acknowledge , that god hes done it in praising : but waving that , which i have already plainly , and so often told you , viz. that it is the imposing of men , and not the free use-making of set-forms , that we condemne ; how absurd is it for you , to alledge , that a man worshipping in words , prescribed by the spirit , is , in so doing , restrained in spirit ? could you not advert , that the spirits prescriving , and mens , are different , and that he prescriveth to himself , without any restraint ? . you say , there are many psalms prayers ; and why may they not be used for constant prayers , as well as the other for constant praises ? nay why , for instance , may we not use the psalme in plain words , with a plain voice , as prayer , as well as in hobling rime , with a tune● 't is answered , that i may first take out the waspish sting of your mockerie ; is this the tender respect , that you profess p. . to every thing , that relateth to gods service ; to call the psalmes in meeter , used both by you , and us , hobling rime ? or is your poëtick vain so nicely delicate , that you can endure no verses inferior to your loftie pindarick ? which yet , if criticks mistake not , doth trote more rudely , and lamely , then our hobling meeter : for my part , i see not what answere can be given to these questions , save this , that it seems both your tenderness , and poesie , are but false , and forced : but to the purpose , . i answere , that the psalms-prayers , and particularly the psalm , may in plain words , with a plain voice be used in prayer , as prayer , if so be , the spirit do so direct our utterance ; but if by constant prayers , you mean , that the praying-psalms , may as well be imposed , and enjoined for prayer , as the other for praise ; you want the warrant of the word , and spirit of god , who hath appointed the whole psalms , to instruct our praise ; but not to regulat our prayers , and so you widely miss your marke . but here you insinuat two difficulties ; . how we come to sing psalms-prayers ? and this you afterward enlarge by demanding , our warrant , for using all david's psalms , since many of them relating to particulars of davids life , belong not to us ? others of them are imprecatorie , hardly to be sung , and many things there are in the psalmes , which we understand not , and lastly there were not above twentie of the psalms used by the jews in worship . to this it is answered , that being commanded we sing psalms-prayers , not with direct thoughts suted to the strain of prayer , wherein they were first framed , and said , before they were appointed to be sung ; but with a reflexe acknowledgement of the goodness and mercy of god , the hearer of prayer , who both turned the authors mourning into a song of gladness , and hath appointed it to be so used by us , that we may be encouraged , and praise him , in the like hope : if in almost all psalms of praise , we finde the preceeding distress and afflictions , with the prayers and groanings , therein made , first pathetically commemorat , as the ground of the ensuing praise , for the deliverance ; is it not easie to apprehend , how that a small reflection , might , after the lord's reliefe , have made the reciting of a psalm wholly of lamentation , the most exulting expression of the delivereds joy , and may commend it to us , to the same purpose ? for my part , when i read or hear the psalme beginning with crying , and ending with darkeness , and like iob's imprecation upon the day of his birth , having no light shining , but a cloud dwelling upon it , and yet finde it a song of the sons of korah , directed to the chief musician , i cannot but acknowledge it , for a psalme of high praise unto god , who turned such dolefull mourning , to be the matter of rejoicing ; and thus , if you will rightly consider , that the psalmes are ordained for the matter of praise , whereof the manner , consisting in reflexe acts , directed by the spirit , unto such suteable meditations , as may excite our joy in , and praises unto god , is most rationally , and warrantably expressed , by singing , you may very quickly be satisfied , that the saints their complainings , david's particular history , victories , and the like , with all the composures made thereupon ; yea , even these imprecatorie psalmes ( which though in the direct act , they appear to be hard , and to need a special warrant , may nevertheless furnish , unto all , sweet reflections of praise ) are , most proper for the matter of song , whereunto they were , both at first framed , and have since been used : are all the works of god wonderful , and such as may excite to praise ? and do you think it strange that the various exercises of his servants and people , should be accounted proper matter for this exercise ? sir , though i be no pretender to poesie , farre less presumptuous pindarum aemulari ; yet i conceive the smallest intelligence of the nature , and manner of encomiasticks , and elogies , finding matter in every subject , might have guarded you from this escape ; but here i must digress unto a very pertinent discovery ; i have already told you , that though by command we use the psalmes in our praises ; yet seing these forms are prescribed by the spirit , it can import no restraint , and therefore can furnish no argument for your humane impositions ; but now there appears a more significant disparity , viz. that the psalmes being commanded by the lord , only for the matter of our praises , though many of them may suggest , both inward elicite conceptions , and outward proper expressions of praise ; yet it is evident , that by the injunction , the reflex acts , wherein the nature and exercise of praise doth formally consist , are not in the least narrowed , or confined , let be stinted , or restrained ; whereas by your imposed forms , framed on purpose , not simply , to furnish matter , but to direct , nay to suggest , lead , and express our petitions , the very formal desires of the heart , and spirit , in their substance , at least , though not in their degree , are so led and bound up , that it is hard to determine , whether this restraint be more visible , or injurious . having thus farre diverted i return to our purpose : you say , there are many things in the psalmes that we understand not . to sing without understanding is certainly sinful ; but unless you affirme the psalmes to be in themselves unintelligible , you may not , because of our ignorance , or weakness , reject the institution of god : lastly you tell us , that there were not above twentie of the psalmes used by the jews in worship . 't is answered . . you observe not , that all this clatter , is no more against us then against you , at least your episcopal church ; for as for your self , i am almost in the opinion , that you are yet so little fixed , that the clearest redargution , will prove no conviction : . the very inscriptions of more then thrice the number of psalmes by you named , do demonstrat the groundless confidence of this your alledgeance ; beside that we finde , chron. . . the very first psalm , delivered by david to the publick singers , insert in the book of psalmes , without any direction by way of title , what may we then conceive of the rest ? . reforming hezekiah commanded the levites to sing praises unto the lord , with the words of david and of asaph the seer ; and this the opinion and custome of the church in all ages , have understood of all the psalmes : whence then is it , that you do assert so boldly ? the difficulty which i am to remove , is , that you say we are not bound , or rather have no warrant to use the psalmes in meeter or with tunes . to this i answere , that we are bound to sing is evident , both from scripture-precept and example ; and that we are thereby warranted , to have the psalmes in meeter with tunes , is as clear , as both are necessary , at least convenient in the propriety of our language , for the use of singing : i deny not , but prose may be sung ; but seing it is certain , that our language hath no such exact prosodie , as either to render it easiely measurable , or the measures distinguishable by points and accents ; nay that the import of the musici or tonici accentus , in the hebrew , qui olim moderabantur harmoniam musicam , is so farre now lost , and unknown , that if we were now to sing the hebrew psalmes , we could not make use of them : pray , sir , leave us but the way of meeter , in place of points and accents , untill you teach us better grammar : whereas you hint , that we may have all david's instruments as well as tunes , if you could learn us to sing without tunes , as we may well do without organs , i shal not contend , but seing that david did , no doubt , invent and introduce these his instruments , as well by the special direction of the spirit , as he did all other things , anent the service of the temple , and that the primitive christians , worshipping more in the simplicity of the spirit , then in outward showes , canebant assâ voce non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , i think you may now put up your pipes , and spare the cost . next you say , why may not the christian church compose new hymnes , as they of corinth did ? and this you judge to be the more necessarie ; because that david's psalmes have not such full and clear hymnes , upon the great mysteries of the christian beliefe : and you think the liberty , which we plead for in prayer , should much perswade it . 't is answered , if you consider , that scripture , cor. . and particularly the . v. you may understand , that as the apostle's business , in the place , is , to set an order to the use of extraordinary gifts , wherein that church abounded ; so , the psalms , doctrine , tongue , revelation , and interpretation , there spoken of , appear to be inspired and afflatitious motions , which will not found you any argument : and you your self do so plainly observe , that these psalmes of the corinthians were framed by private persons , that i marvell , that your remembring of the thing , to be extraordinary , did not stop your translation of it , by way of privilege , to the churches in our dayes . . seing the lord hath provided us with a plentiful variety of psalmes and hymnes ; and beside , hath allowed us as full a liberty of praising in prose , as of prayer , i think it doth fully remove , all that is here by you objected , and abundantly warrant us , both to abide content with gods institutions , and refuse a superfluous mixture of humane odes , with these divine psalmes , which he hath appointed , for the matter of our more solemne praises . but your scope is , why do not ye use the glorie to the father , and your n. c. answering , because it is not in the scripture and is but the device of men : you reply , who would not be sick with such pitiful folly ? thus your nice ceremonious stomach , nauseats sure and solid truths : you add , shew me a reason , why you make prayers and not praises ? i answere . whatever we make we impose none . . we do not say , that we make either prayers or praises ; our plain profession is , that as the lord , whose it is , hath commanded , so we worship him , using that allowed liberty of spirit , and utterance , both in prayer and praise , whereunto he himself hath promised to direct and assist us : and as for the psalmes given us by divine appointment , for the matter only ( and not for the formal expression of our more solemn praising ) we are satisfied with his bountie ; and therefore do refuse your vain superaddition of an humane invention : that our meeter-psalmes are no device of men , seing they are the same in substance and sen●e , with these in prose , without any greater variation , then the application of the command of singing to us scots-men , doth both require and warrant , is obvious to any mans candid reflection : as to the possibility of singing in prose , as well as in rime , i have already acknowledged it , and when you shall make it plainly and safely practicable , i presume none will dissent . but you again return to the doxologie , and asks , why it may not be used in the end of singing , as well as it is used by us in the end of praying ? and this second demand heats you to be unmannerly , and to tell us , that such childishnes makes you doubt our rational faculties : when in faire dealing , it would become your charitie better to informe them : but , passing your folly , i say , we close our prayers ordinarily , with praise and glory to the father , the son , and the holy ghost ; because it is warrantable from scripture-practice , to wit , in blessing ; and agreeable to the truth and liberty of gospel-worship ; and yet we refuse it in singing , ( marke it , not in praising ) because , for that exercise , the lord having instructed us with a sufficient plenty of divine composures , we think it neither needfull nor acceptable , that we should gratifie an arbitrarie imposition , in receiving the supplement of an humane addition : it is true , the words are scriptural , but can you say , that the scripture beares any such allowance , for their use in singing , as it doth for the psalmes of david ? yea and many other spiritual songs , in scripture , whereof you might indeed with some reason reprehend our too great disuse : hence therefore it is manifest , that not only the offence of your unlawful imposing ; but also the want of scripture-warrant , doth exhibit the reason of our different practice , in praying and solemn sung praises , which you so hotly urge . having thus , sir , vindicat , both the truth and our rational faculties , with how much advantage , might i retort your reproach of childish weakeness ? suppose our reasons for refusing were no better then yours for imposing , is it not a childish impotencie , to be angrie● let be to make such a stirre , for our scrupling to do a thing , when you have no better reason for you , then because we exactly and fully do the equipollent ? and really , when in my self i consider , that on your part , such is the nature of almost all the differences , that fill this church and kingdome , with so much distraction , how can it be sufficiently regreted ? for men , yea christians , yea christian rulers , to vex and toss poor innocents , whom they ought with tenderness to protect , for no other reason , even in your acknowledgement , but because , they will not surrendare their consciences to arbitrarie , vain and frivolous impositions , which the very natural liberty of reason would disdain , is indeed a matter of wonder , which nothing save a devillish design to debosh conscience , and judicial delusion from the lord , can satisfie : but i pray the lord to open their eyes , who ought to see . in the next place , returning to prayer , you bid us consider how hosea the prophet prescribes a form , when he sayeth take with you words and say : strong reasoning ! the prophet is exhorting a backslidden , impenitent , and obdured people , to returne ; and , for their help and encouragement , instructing them , how by a short supplication to god , they might avert his wrath : and this you make a warrant for men , rigidly to impose forms : if a non-conformist should go ●orth in the spirit of the lord , and proclame , o scotland returne unto the lord thy god , take with you words , and say , take away the iniquity of a despised gospel , and brocken covenant , and receive us graciously &c. would not you think him very impertinent , who should thence conclude , that man to be for a set liturgie . but our saviour prayed thrice still in the same words , and yet the third time more ●ervently : i will not tell you , that even in the text there may be a little variation observed ; but pray , sir , who of us ever affirmed , that fervour in prayer did consist in a varying of the phrase , which is the inference you here make , against us ; and yet that a stinted form , specially when imposed , may restrain fervour , is as evident to any impartial discerner , as that a deep fervor of spirit may oftentimes fixe in one short petition , nay sometimes be intended to a degree beyond words , is certainly confirmed by manifold experience . you conclude that in the church they used forms very early : i will not tell you , that antiquity is not a better plea for set-forms , then it is for bishops : and really in my opinion , it is so much the worse for either , that it pleads so jointly for both ; for that corruptions do draw on one another , and especially a declination in government , a declination from the pure worship , though the first beginnings , and antient examples were more obscure , yet the joint progress and increase of these evils , in the roman church , and the renewed late experiments , which we have had at home , confirme it above exception : but my answere is first , that the liberty of prayer , which we plead for , was in the church long before set-forms , even from the dayes of our lord , during the times of the apostles and their apostolick successors , is a most certain truth , and a better pattern then any after-alteration : why do you not then hold to it ? as for the liturgies of iames and mark , you your self disowne them , and they are notour forgeries . . admit that in the third and fourth centuries , partly through declining formality , and partly for a remedy of the then much advanced decay , both of piety and gifts in the christian church , certain liturgies were composed and used ; yet the very variety of them , which you acknowledge , as of that of basile that of chrysostome , that of ambrose , doth sufficiently testify , that though they might then have been proposed for helps , and so used ; yet there was not one of them imposed by peremptory injunction : as for what you say of the reformed churches , that they have their liturgies , and that so had we ours at our first reformation , it so exactly quadrats to what i have answered , anent the antient liturgies , their being framed for helps , that there can be nothing more apposite ; in as much , as it is a most certain truth , that both our old liturgie , ( since you do name it so ) and these of the reformed churches , are so farre different , and free from the impertinencies , corruptions ceremonies , and rigid restriction of your service-book , by which it grossly bewrayes its foul popish fountain , that they do more oppugne , then fortify your principal intent : but the matter speaketh for it self : what shall we then say of your bold assertion , viz. that never were extemporarie hea●s ( as you love to speak of the liberty of prayer , as rudely and profanely as if you were talking of race horses ) used in the church ? when not only frequent instances from the old , the constant practice of the times of the new testament , the first and purer ages of the church , but the professed allowance , and known practice , of all the reformed churches , do so directly witness against you : verily this is such an impudence , that le●t it tempt my mediocrity , i rather leave it to your own conscience . in the next place , you make your n. c. alledge . that our church was purer then any by you named , on purpose , that you may take the advantage to say ; that we were cheated to believe , that all the world was wondering at us , a cheat like unto that of our alledged prophetess : whereof you , and you forsooth , on your word only , assure , that neither were true : sir , if the grossnes of that lye , anent the use of extemporarie prayer , wherein i have just now attraped you , did not sufficiently secure us from the slander of your scoffing calumnies ; i could easily make it appear , that all the paines we took , in our own just vindication , was many degrees inferior to that restless labour taken by your partie , to represent us to all , as most arrant rebells , and load us with the most atrocious reproches , which the father of lies could invent : but cui bono ? it is sufficient for us , that as the work of the lord , among us , was honourable and glorious , many wayes countenanced by his grace , and presence , ●oth in ordinarie and extraordinary appearances , particularly in m. m. whom , i suppose , you have learned , from balcanquels mani●esto , and not from us , to call her our prophetess , and only levelled against the wickednes and tyrannie of a prelatick partie , enemie to all conscience , and the scandal and betrayer of the protestant interest ; so these hard and contrarie things , that have of late befallen us , in place of obscuring , do only tend to its greater manifestation , and more universal approbation , from all that love our lord jesus christ in sincerity : but you proceed and tell us , that it is strangely inconsequentiall for us not to pray in a liturgie ; yet alwayes to bless the people in a set-form : but , is it not strangely rediculous for you , to dessemble such an obvious disparity ? and will you still arrogantly pretend to be a master of ceremonies , in the court of heaven ? the blessing , used by us to be pronounced upon the people , at the breaking up of the assembly , is only a short formula of a christian fare-well , warranted by , and coppied from , the practice both of moses under the old testament , and the apostle paul in the shutting up of his epistles ; and therefore in use to be performed , sometime in the words of paul only , sometime in the words of both , and sometime also with an● agreeable variation from both : what then can this make , for the imposing of set-forms , for all publick prayer and worship ? do not both the diverse nature of the things , and the difference , betwixt a peremptory imposition , and a free imitation , red●rgue this your reasoning ? in civill converse , our ordinarie ran counters are commonly prefaced & concluded , with certain received formulae of a respective benevolence ; should therefore all mutuall addresses , be reduced , and strainted to the same methods ? certainly the smallest attention will both acknowledge the just application , and marvel that ( as you say of us ) you are so little governed by reason . but now to the english liturgie , which commending as an excellent rule of worship , and using other vain floorishes , not worth the noticing : in answere to your n. c. you tell us : that it is farre from being an easie way of praying , and that a natural man , would be better pleased , to be runnig out with his own conceptions ; then to use the form of the church , which is more simple and humble . 't is answered , that there may be some conceated hypocrites , from such a carnal motive , despising set-forms , i shall not controvert ; but as i have already told you , what are our just exceptions against their imposition ; so , that the generality of men , who , for the most part , do only lay clame to the name , and make a slight profession of religion , without busying themselves further in it , are by the carnal easines , that they finde in your way , not only more engaged to it , then to ours ; but habituat to a superstitious , stupid formality , wherein placing the all of religion , they ruine their own souls , is a truth that millions of sad instances do confirme : seing therefore , this strong● food ( as you terme it ) of your service is indeed both ranck and poisonous , we wish that , that princely tenderness in our soveraign , to which you impute his forbearance to impose it , may at length , in its just exercise , extend to remove and discharge it , in all his dominions . as for the discreet prudence of our superiors ( the bishops no doubt ) which you would also commend to us , upon the same account ; pardon us , sir , if we be not such babes : we have shared too largely of the strong food of their violence ; and of the bread of adversity and water of affliction , from their hands , to be so abused ; he who rightly considereth will easily assent , that they have hitherto been sparing , to enjoin these corruptions , for no other reason , then that which moved the iews to forbear to take christ on the feast-day , viz ; lest there be an uproare among the people . as for the ensuing contest , betwixt you and your n. c. anent that dulnesse and stupidity , which we see occasioned by , and attending your formality , the preceeding discourse , doth so rationally connect them , and common observation so evidently confirme the matter , that your alledgeance of some godly people , who , in a well-meaning sincerity , have , in the use of your service , attained to some feelings of pure and simple devotion , doth furnish you no stronger exception , then what the papists may also pretend for their mass and latine-service . after this , you make your non-conformist objecte the vanity of your service-book-repetitions , in the often redoubling of lord have mercy upon us , and . its confusion , in that all the people say some of the prayers together , and use amen : but seing these objections are amongst the least of these exceptions , made by ours against that liturgie , which ye altogether neglect : i only say , that as the . psal. containing a summare enarration of the great things god did for israel , and most pathetically interrupted by these frequent eruptions of praise , agreeable to such a reflection , can be no precedent or warrant for the framing , and imposing the battologies of your letanie , vainly composed , and as deadly exercised , in compa●ison to such a pattern ; so , your instance adduced from acts . where it is said , that the whole company lift up their voice with one accord to god , and the custome intimated by paul , of the saying amen at the giving of thanks , do not remove the confusion objected , . because , it is the opinion of some , that that passage in the acts , was an afflatitious motion , both dictat and uttered by the spirit●s immediate inspiration : . it may be doubted , if the whole company did all of them lift up their voice , in as much as one speaking in a company , and the whole consenting and joining , they may be properly enough said to lift up their voice with one accord , though every single member do it not : . supposing , as is not improbable , that the great exultation of that smal company , did then express it self , in that extraordinary manner ; would you make such extraordinary examples , precedents for ordinary service ? sure reason repugnes , and the effect of decencie doth not answere : . for your amen , as i am certain , that the apostles words , may be understood of a consentient , though silent , amen ; so it is evident , that , even in the point of order , your so frequently repeated amen is superfluous , and vain : but if you will reduce your practice to a decent use , seing the matter appears to be indifferent , if you love to express it , use your liberty , only permit us the like favour of ours . as to what you subjoine , that the people all with their voice , join in the psalmes , and therefore may also in prayers : the disparities are clear . . we are warranted , and commanded to sing , which necessarily requires our own vocall performance and concurrence ; whereas the command of prayer , either private , or publick , hath no such import . a man may pray in his heart , or join with another , without using words : i hope you will not say , that he can also properly sing , and not use his voice . . i grant , your liturgie being admitted , the joining of all with their voice in prayer , though not very orderly or decent , is yet practicable ; but seing we refuse these forms , the reason of our different practice , in this matter , from our use in singing , must by your self be acknowledged : having considered your answeres to what you make your n. c. objecte , against the english lyturgie , i might give you an appendix of many more important exceptions : as . it s scenical , and mimical composure throughout , very unbecoming the worship of the great god : . the many impertinencies of its letanies , gospels , epistles , and collects . . it s mancking and confounding of holy scripture , specially in its collects : . the superstitious observation of dayes and other ceremonies , twisted all alongs with its whole tenor , and exercise : and . it s corrupt tincture , and unsavorie and unacceptable straines and methods , which it derives from the roman idolatrous missal , and superstitious ritual , and breviarie . whence it was translated ; but seing others have fully declared them , to whom you have thought good to make no answere , civility forbids me to urge a declining adversarie . and thus we are arived at the controverted ceremonies , viz. the five articles of perth : which you say , were all lawful , and most of them useful and necessary : sir , the matter of ceremonies in general , and also of these by you specially named , with all the pretenses that possibly can be alledged for them , have been so fully treated and examined by ours , particularly by didoclavius alias mr. calderwood in his altare damascenum , and gillespie in his english popish ceremonies , that i marvell , how you had the confidence , to set forth these poor mustie , and many times and wayes refelled and basted reasonings , which you adduce : neither are you in this only censurable : but when i compare that wit and acuracie , adhibit by others of your way , in the handling of this subject , with that bluntne●s and confusion , wherewith you repone to us the very meanest of their arguments , not so much as in the least recocted , nay , that the short motives and insinuations mentioned in the tenor of the articles themselves , are of farre more weight , then all your superficial discourse , my censure doth almost exceed to accuse you , either of bold ignorance , or a designed treachorie : however , since all the arguments , either used by others , or abused by you , with all that could be invented , for maintaining your vain plea , doth stand by us , fully and evidently discussed ; i minde not by a disadvantageous repetition , to lapse into your error ; and therefore shall content my self , by a summare and close review of what ensues , in this dialogue , to bring it to a period . the first of the five articles , which you begin with , is , confirmation : and you say , that if it had been introduced as a sacrament , we had reason to except against it ; but seing it was only designed for a solemne renovation of the baptismal vow , that children who do not therein engage themselves , when they come to the years of discretion , may then do it ; and is confirmed by antiquity , the probable meaning of the laying on of hands mentioned , heb. . and the assent of most reformers , the thing seems to be sufficiently warranted . 't is answered , . it seems that in this place you forget your self : did you not tell us , in your . dialogue , that washing the feet , and anointing the sick with oyl ; though in appearance , as particularly descrived , and as well warranted by scripture , as either of the sacraments ; yet , since antiquat by the church , are now lawfully difused , wherefore then may not the church , having power to exauctorate sacraments , be also allowed the power to institute new ones , and so establish your confirmation , as a sacrament , specially since the roman church doth so practise it ? . not to contend with you anent the name and definition of a sacrament : how come you to deny to the church , the power of introducing confirmation as a sacrament , and yet to allow it the power to appoint it , as a solemn renovation of the baptismal vow ? certainly , whatever be the difference betwixt the two , yet the unquestionable rule , that in the house and ordinances of god , men are not , without divine prescript , either to add or change , doth equallie refute innovations of all sorts . . you speciously obtrude your confirmation , as a solemn renovation of the baptismal vow ; but , if you consider the thing , as it stands in the article , whereby it is enjoined , it is plainly the bishops solemn benediction of young beginners , for the increase of knowledge ; whereby it is manifest , that your description , importing the young beginner his act , is manifestly different from the thing , ( being the bishops act ) which you undertake to maintain . but . whatever way we take it , its singular solemnity , wherein its form consists , is not only without all scripture-warrant , but plainly superfluous ; seing that , as the bishop or presbyters their blessing is not thereby bettered , or materially differenced from their ordinary benediction ; so the ordinary profession of beginners , in their examinations , and especially their after-partaking of the sacrament of the lords supper , doth more then supply your pretended solemn renovation . . as this conceit of confirmation , as it is explained by you , doth evidently derogate from the sacrament and covenant of baptisme , as to infants ; so , your appropriating the administration thereof to the bishop , objected by your n. c. in his next demand , doth yet more discover its vanity and evill design : to the arguments therefore which you bring for it , and . to its antiquity : i answere , that the simplicity and purity of the first ages of the church , knew it not : . as , it s very first beginnings cannot be calculate , beyond the times of the churches declination , so , it is most certain , that from an arbitrarie well-meaning institution , it hath since been depraved to such an abuse , as may sufficiently justify the total removal of its use . . as for your scripture probability , from the laying on of hands so notourly known to have been then only used , in the conferring of the extraordinary gifts of the spirit , or in the ordination , or mission of ministers , neither it , nor your alleaged assent of most reformers , do merite any answere . next you tell us , in defence of private baptisme , that for us to confine the sacramental actions , to the walls of a church , is gross superstition : but , who would have thought , when you clamour so much upon our non-conforming meetings , you would have stumbled into such a mistake ? our exception against privat baptisme is therefore , not the want of a dedicated house , as you do vainly alleage ; but because our lord , having , by his commission , annexed it to the preaching of the word , whereof it is the seal , and it being the sacrament of our initiation into the church , its performance doth evidently appear to be most agreeable to the ordinary church assemblies , where-ever held ; beside , that peoples mindes , prone to superstition , may , by the practice of private baptisme , be readily inclined , both to apprehend the popish absolute necessity of baptisme , and thence to regard the exterior action , more then the spiritual signification and efficacie , is confirmed , by undeniable experience , both in your and the roman churches : for the inconveniency , which you poorly exaggerate , from the distance of many churches , the badness of seasons , and tenderness of infants : as , unto this day , it was never made the ground of a reall complaint , so you should understand , that the dispensations of gods providence do not alter the dispositions of his holy will. from baptisme , you pass to plead for the private administration of the communion to persons on death-bed , and this you think , the seasonablenes of its use , and the propriety of its ends to such a case , do abundantly perswade : to which i answere , . that though at no time , faith and love need more to be quickened , the death of christ more to be remembred , nor communion with the church to be declared , then in the approach of the last pangs , it will not thence follow , that therefore the communion may then be privatly administrat : for , since not the seasonableness of the fruits , but the warrant and rule given unto us , is first to be heeded , in the going about of holy administrations ; nay , since that , without this regard duely adhibit , the blessing and fruits are but in vain expected , it is evident , that barely from the exigence of the fruits , to conclude , in any case , the lawfulness of the celebration , is preposterous religion , and worse reason : now . that the rule set down to us , in this sacrament , doth reprobate this your observance , is evident not only from that connexion , that there is and ought to be observed , betwixt the word , and sacraments : but , . from our lords own pattern in the institution , keeping this solemnity with the company of his disciples , making as it were a little christian church : . because the apostle in his regulation of this sacrament , according and with respect to his masters pattern , doth suppose the churches coming together into one place , and consequently the ordinary church assemblies , as a necessary requisite , in the free and peaceable times of the church : . because the very mysterie of the lords supper , representing the union of believers with , and their communion in iesus christ their head and the name that it hath thence obtained , cor. . v. , . is not well consistent with this private administration : 't is true , the authors of your articles , not being able to decline the convincing evidence of this reason , do , among other preparations , require that there be three or four , free of lawful impediments , present with the sick person to communicate with him ; but as such a packt conventicle , beside other inconveniences , hath no just resemblance of the church her ordinary assemblies ; much less can communicating with hand-weal'd companions be a signe of that free , equable and comprehensive communion , signified by this sacrament ; so , it is manifest , that the forementioned requisite is only a colourable evasion , manifestly acknowledging the force of our argument , & in fraudem legis , salvis verbis sententiam ejus circumveniens : but . this your private communion is to be reprobate ; because , as the decumbents faith , love , and other graces , in that hour of his need , are only best excited by the means at that time allowed and competent , and the sanctified remembrance and improvement of other privileges , and ordinances , formerly enjoyed ; so , it is certain , that this observance hath not only been abused by the papists , unto the abomination of their private ma●● ; but is also rejected , by the reformed churches , not lutheran , as found to be inductive of vain superstition , whereever it is used ; and for this i need not go farre in search of confirmations , for you your self in telling us , that your practice was very early in the church , subjoin , that iustin martyr sayes , they sent of the eucharist , to them that were absent , and that the story of serapion shews , how necessary , christians then thought it , to be guarded by this holy viaticum , which two instances , whether true or false , being generally held to be an excess , both inclining to , and introductive of vain superstition ; and therefore , reckoned among the first naevi , appearing in the face of the primitive church , and now generally disused , by all the churches of christ , as they are by you adduced , do too evidently demonstrate , how much , both your spirit and customes , do bend to a relapse , in these evils . in the next place your n. c. asks you what you say for kneeling in receiving ; sure this looks like superstition and idolatrie : and in return you confess , that it is the article of them all , which you have least fondness for . and this indeed , is very fitly expressed , in as much as it is evident , it can be no rational or solid liking , which inclineth you , to any of them ; but since even your fondness , as to this article , is defective ; how farre must you be from doing the thing in faith ? and how much more sound and christian would it be for you , here to subsist , and say , since , for want of the warrant of faith , this kneeling cannot possibly please god , let it be removed from his holy ordinance ? but you proceed and tell us , that since the kneelers do declare , that they neither believe christ to be corporally present , nor intend any worship to the bread or wine ; but direct their worship to god and christ , for that death which is therein shewed forth , it is great uncharitableness , for us , to call this kneeling idolatrie . 't is answered , sir , as in the general , i have as dull a facultie , and small an inclination , for constructive inferences , specially in the worser part , as most of men ; so really ; if the purpose of this discourse were only a contest of opinion , upon the practice of persons , professing , as you say , and gracing the same with humility , meekness , and sincere love of the truth , the great apologists for a dubious performance , for all the evill appearances , which i finde in this matter , i think i ought rather to informe , in the spirit of meekness , by pointing out the error , then by a severe naming of it , though just enough , both involve in more doubtfull disputations , and like wise irritate , but seing our business lyes with such , who , having rejected and scorned all information , resisted yea gone over unanswerable light , and shewed perverseness in practice , do further go about , subtilly to seduce , nay rigidly and violently to impose upon others , who both have escaped and renounced these vanities : if the purity and truth of gods ordinances , and the very end of charity , do in this case allow , a more peremptory plainness , i think your censure of our uncharitableness altogether unseasonable : now that all your ceremonies , but specialy this act of kneeling are idolatrous , and that not only reductivè and participativè , as they speak ; but also directly , and formally , by rendering formalists such , gillespie in his english popish ceremonies , hath so fully demonstrat , and therein hath so diligently searched you out , in all your subterfuges , and clearly discussed all imaginable pretensions ; that i should but wrong both him , and my self , and the cause , by offering either to repeate , or add : only to convince you yet more , how little , in this affaire , i am inclined groundlesly to taxe your way of idolatrie : i grant that your kneelers do not only profess , as you say , which may aswell be alledged for worship done before a crucifixe , and yet doth not purge it of idolatrie . but further do acknowledge , the act of receiving and communicating to be no direct act of worship ; but first commemorative , having the acts of praise and thanksgiving , in the next place , resulting from it , and the gesture of adoration to be thereto only ascriveable ; yet , seing in mediate worship , the media are necessarily objected , and of the very substance of the ordinance , without which it cannot subsist , it is manifest , that external adoration therein used , inevitably , though neither rationally , nor intentionally , respecting and relating to these objects , must of necessity be idolatrous : for instance , suppose a person abstracting in profession , as much as you do from all respect to the minister , who in his preaching sustaines his masters person , and declaring , that neither rationally he could , nor intentionally did , attribute any more then becoming reverence to the word heard , should nevertheless in hearing , still kneell , would not you and all men say , that such an excess were superstitiously idolatrous ? how much more then , must this kneeling in the actual receipt and commemoration , ( an act nothing so immediat betwixt god and the soul , as that of hearing his word ) of necessity respecting the elements , in as much as without the presence thereof , it would not at all be by you exacted , fall under the same , yea a worse , construction ? but , not to dip further in a discourse , which i have already told you , that i judge superfluous , as i have here exhibited the fairest interpretation of your way , and yet there is nothing found , even under the legal ordinances , wherein the signes and instruments , often honoured with a visible divine glory , were advanced to the highest pitch of a becoming reverence , that can , by any act of adoration , thereto properly directed or relative , any where recorded , justify your practice ; so , when it occurres , that the samine is both contrary to our lords own example , incongruous to the meaning , and end of the institution , and lastly known to be introduced by a superstition , that very quickly discovered , and brought forth , the most gross of all the popish idolatries ; how strange must this delusion be , that not only retaineth , but presseth it upon others ? but when your n. c. urgeth you with our lords example of sitting in a table-gesture● you tell him , that none should alledge this , but such as communicate leaning , and after supper , and in an upper room : and wherefore did you not add in the house , where one carrying a pitcher doth enter ; and in a citie like to ierusalem : and the like , that so the folly of your reply might have discovered it self , without my medling ? but the matter is plain : our lords example is to be our pattern and rule , both for the substance , and in the circumstances properly respecting its nature and ends : the substance of the institution , is , a mysterious eucharistick commemoration of christs death , by the symboles of bread and wine , used in the manner prescribed ; the circumstances are , that the samine be performed by way of a festivity , at a table , and the like : these things being observed , as the particular roome , time and manner of the iews sitting mentioned in the gospel , were only accidental ; so , the samine are variable , according to the customes of every people , and nation , without the least derogation from the lords ordinance , nay if you would but deall with ordinarie ingenuity , in these matters ; seing that our lords familiar converse and table-gesture , adhibite in this appointment , is not the least testimony of that condescending love , thereby represented , the just and faire imitation of his example , consisting in the like familiar manner , in genere actus , regulate by a due decencie , doth equally reject , both the affected reverence of your impertinent adoration , and also the other extreme of that rigid apish conformity , in things purely accidental , whereby you go about to redargue our censure of your superstition . but you say , seing the jews , without any written warrant , did change the commanded posture of the pass-over , from standing to sitting , and christ did thereto conform , wherefore may not christians , who are less restrained , change the first gesture , which is not commanded , and only lamely exemplified , by leaning ? 't is answered , the posture mentioned , exod. . . in the institution of the passe-over , is , that they should eat it with their loins girded , their shoes upon their feet , and their staff in their hand : there is no express mention made of standing . . some are of opinion , that supposing standing to be imported , by what is injoined ; yet the posture was particular to that eating , at israels departure from egypt , and that thereafter the posture was free , in respect that the formal perpetual ordinance , given after the first celebration , exod. . . makes no mention of the gesture ; and therefore , that the iews did thereafter use sitting , at least from the dayes of ioshua , in sign of rest and secure liberty : however , certain it is , that as our lords posture in eating the passe-over , whatever it was , was not contrary to the divine prescription ; so , the iews their practice , acknowledged by you to have been the same , can be no ground for your superstitious innovation of kneeling , introduced contrary to our lords example , the rule of the institution ; and both introductive of , and tending to plain idolatrie . as for that greater liberty allowed to christians , which you here plead ; as we have already heard , that you only alledge our liberty , from the former rigor , to the effect you may impose your new yoke of a more i●rational bondage ; so , it is evident , that in this pla●e you mention our freedome of gesture , on purpose , 〈◊〉 you may enslave us to the imposition of your superstitious kneeling : but he truely walketh at liberty , who keepeth the lords commandments . you shut up this article with a perhaps , that more veneration is due to this action now , that our saviour is exalted ; then he could have allowed of in his humiliation : but. . the veneration , that you here speak of , to the action , sufficiently intimateth , that for all the pretenses made in the contraire , the kneeling , which you plead for , is in some sort relative to the elements therein used , and therefore idolatrous . . your perhaps , unsoundly insinuats , that our lord could not have allowed of the same adoration , now due to him in exaltation , in the state of his humiliation ; which you know to be false . . at best , it is a conjectural intruding into these things , which you have nor seen , and so not meriting any regard . in the last place , you treat of the article , anent the observing of dayes , and denying that you pretend to make them holy dayes : you tell us , that it is another thing , to keep peculiar dayes of thanksgiving , for the great and signal mercies of the gospel-dispensation , and in such customes you can apprehend no evill ? and really , sir , i am confident you have seen as little good : but to be short , remitting what may be said against this article , to the pious and learned labours of these authors , which i have already commended ; i only add , that although the construction which you put upon this observation of dayes , is certainly the most plausible that can be made ; yet you know so well , how grossly these dayes have , in the roman church , been abused to superstition and profanity , both in their dedication and observation , and it is so obvious to any , how , to this day , the generality in these reformed churches , where they are observed , do , in the persvasion as well as practice , continue the same abuse , that i think , since they are only an humane invention , not good in itself , your own rule , p. . that , when such things are grossly abused , then there is ground to change their use , may fully satisfy you , as to the justice and reason of our dissent . but you affirme confidently , that in all ages of the church , christians have had a peculiar veneration for these dayes : 't is answered , a veneration for these dayes , how doth this language agree with the above mentioned interpretation , whereby , reducing these dayes , to the condition of a meere circumstance of a constant anniversary thanksgiving , you go about to purge them of all further superstition ? but this wind of your vanity can not he hid : it is as the ointment of the right hand which bewrayeth it self . . these dayes , were not in veneration , in the first and purest age of the church , whereby , both the generality of your assertion , and your argument , from antiquity , are subverted : you tell us that the observation of easter and pentecost , are clearly derived from apostolical practices : what you understand by apostolical practices , concernes me not , seing that the apostles , and church , in their times , knew no such thing : and this negative , proving it self , cannot be controlled : i grant , the succeding ages became soon fond of these vanities ; but , what were the bitter fruites of contention and schisme , which the lord in his justice , did suffer this earely corruption to produce , is notourly known , and certainly such , as alone might have taught the whole ensuing generations , to be more tender of gospel purity and simplicity : shall we then also refuse instruction ? but you say , paul hasted to be at jerusalem to keep the feast of pentecost : pray , sir , be more sincere ; all we find in scripture , is , that he hasted to be at ierusalem , the day of pentecost : and i appeal to common ingenuity , if that any rational man , considering paul to be a iew , and to hasten , against one of their three great feasts and convocations , then by the iews still observed , to his own countrey and its metropolis , where the general and solemne confluence of his whole nation was to meet , can thence conclude , that he went thither to keep the feast of pentecost , in the meaning by you insinuate and requisite to your purpose ? in the last place you tell us that paul sayeth of the legall holy dayes , he that regardeth a day , to the lord he doth regard it : whence you inferre , that if moses his feasts might have been kept holy to the lord , much more may these be , which the church hath institute . really , i am so wearied with this poor stuff , that civility , forgetting it to be your own , doth almost prompt me to demand your pardon , for resuming it : the apostle paul in that chapter , is most expressly declaring , our christian liberty , and its right use , and in the case of a weak brother , esteeming one day above another , belike from the difference made by moses law , he only adviseth , that he be fully perswaded in his own minde , and seing he regardeth it unto the lord , he would not have him therefore judged : now tell me plainly , is this either the case or the controversie betwixt us ? are bishops the weak brethren , from the abiding impress , of a divine dispensation fulfilled and evanishing , but not expressly antiquat , tenderly and conscientiously over-esteeming and regarding certain dayes ; and therefore only pleading a charitable forbearance . or lastly : seing the bishops do not only , without warrant , keep up these superstitious observations ; but peremptorily enjoin and impose them upon others ; whereas the apostle in the same place , doth both declare our liberty , and , with equal care , prescribe , that , seing he that regardeth not the day , to the lord he doth not regard it ; that therefore he should not be judged : are they not by the very text here alledged manifestly convicted ? but it is enough : and whether our dislike of these festivals , and the other articles of perth , be not well grounded , and your observing and enjoyning of them both superstitious and irrational , i leave it to the judgement of all the lovers of truth . the sixth dialogue answered . sir , to this conference , very visibly contrived for the commendation of your self and your way , and wherein pretending , by sublime speculations and the swelling words of a faire profession , to elevat souls to the solid hights , and true liberty of christianity , you plainly go about , to introduce a regardless indifferencie , for all these corruptions and superstitious practices , whereunto , in a convenient compliance with the present course , you cunningly endeavour to subjecte us ; you make you n. c. preface , that there is no good to be hoped from you , who are so fierce against us , and to add with little serious reverence , but god be thanked an ill-willed cow hath short hornes : whence taking the occasion , you tell us of your extreme aversion from fierce and violent courses , your love to all christians , your pitie of such as you judge mistaken , and that you quarrel with no man for his opinion , in these lesser matters , which are but the skirts and suburbs of religion , and so forth . sir , if censure were either my genius or office , how easie were it for me , to strip both you and your partie of this your sheeps clothing : we have heard in the preceeding dialogues , your frequent accusations of rebellion and faction , your virulent calumnies of the most inhumane , unnatural , and barbarous wickedness that can be paralleled , your insolent mockeries at fancied mistakes , and lastly , all that hath preceeded , a continual quarrel about these things , which you call lesser matters , and all this , against the generality , nay , against the whole of the godly and sober in the land ; but especially , the lords faithful and suffering ministers ; and yet you have the boldnes , to wipe your mouth , and make a boast of your singular gentlenes , christian love , compassion upon them that are out of the way , and tender forbearance toward dissenters in lesser things . but , i have already medled too far in this concention , only , as i would not have men mistaken concerning you , so , for preventing of their mistake of us , from your n. c. suggestion , i assure you plainly , that though any man may affirme , without fear of a contradiction , that the prelatick spirit , mingled in the midst of you , is irreligious , false , fierce , jealous , cruell , covetous and proud ; and , in these few years bygone , hath less or more appeared , in all these evill qualities , yet as the seen fury , folly and prophanitie of your bishops and curates , and a secret conviction , in all men , of the consistencie of true loyalty with the countreys just aversion from them , may in politick prudence , induce our governours to restrain some what of the rage of that partie , which we are thankfully to acknowledge , so it is our prayer to god , that he would lead them on , to a full and just consideration of the true causes of all our grievances , and to serious repentance and returning unto god , who alone , with truth , can restore unto us true peace and establishment . you subjoine here the late king's advice of moderation to his son , who now reigneth ; and would , forsooth , have us to beleeve , that his words to express both your opinion , and temper : and really , though i cannot altogether acquit their strain of prejudice , nor carrie their designe higher then the ends of policie ; yet they contain so much of sound reason , and the later part of them , viz. take heed , that outward circumstances and formalities of religion devour not all , or the best , encouragements of learning , industrie , and pietie , is so sadly verified , in the present condition of affaires , that i cannot but with wonder reflect , how such a rational instruction , taught to the author , by long and costly experience , should at his majesties return , have been so much neglected , and , even to this day , after so visible an accomplishment , so little remembred ? but the use you make of this passage , is only to bewray your n. c. childishnesse , and shew a little of your own affectation , by causing him first to say , it seems you are a latitudinarian , and then by your answering , that if by latitude be meant charity , you glory in it ; but as i have already demonstrat , in the second dialogue , that it is conveniencie , more then sincerity , which relaxes and dilates your charity ; and , as it is too too evident , that it is the love of peace , more then of truth , which doth recommend men to the favour of your good opinion ; so , i would have you to consider , that rectitude , and not latitude , is the measure and character of the wayes of god : nay , when i remember our lord's words , enter ye in at the strait gate ; for wide is the gate , and broad is the way , that leadeth to destruction ; but strait is the gate , and narrow is the way , that leadeth unto life : the fairest gloss , whereof your latitude is capable , cannot reconcile me to the designation : it is therefore , in the streightness , yea and straitnes of this rule , and in the practice of the new commandement of love , that you may truly glory , but only in the lord : the assuming of names , other then that of christian , is but an emptie vanity , and that of latitude , is so little expressive of pure christian charity , that you see it is the very gospel-epithet of the broad way of damnation . in the next place , taking , as it appears , with this new name of latitudinarian , for all your disowning of it , within a few lines preceeding , you and your n. c. together , playing to others hands , compound a prettie garland of praises , for your self , and complices : and where he acknowledgeth , that you live very good lives , are strong witted people , sound against socinianisme , clear and free from popish errors , you add on your part , that your principles are neither dangerous nor loose ; that there are none greater haters of , and enemies to , atheisme ; that you give a rational and convincing account of christianity , to all clear witted men ; that with a due measure of charity for papists , and regard to the union of the catholick church , you disclame all errors , and give a most clear and scriptural account , of the points debateable ; and lastly , that even where the attributes of gods soveraignity , and goodness , seem to interfere , by faith , you stope the mouth of weak reason : certainly , then , the men of the latitude are sound , and orthodox men ; nay , no doubt , but ye are the people , and wisdome shal die with you : yet , if i might a little search you out , i would demand , . why you thus distinctly characterize your self , under a peculiar name ; for , that you do not understand these epithets of all your partie , nay , not of your bishops , and most of your curates , is evident , even from the first , whereby you assert , that you live very good lives , which , i am certain , many of them do not so much as pretend to ? . if the principles of you latitudinarians , be the same , that we have set down , in the preceeding dialogues , viz. that preaching is not to be termed the word of god ; and consequently that ministers are not his messengers ; that the church ( and we know not what church ) may antiquat and cause to cease , the obligation of practices , such as the washing of feet , and anointing the sick with oil , though , as punctually and perpetually enjoined in the scripture , as either of the sacraments ; that christs kingdome is so inward and spiritual , that offices , and officers , can no more be thence pleaded for , in the church , then the stamping of coin ; that , if the inward opinion be left free , no imposition upon the outward practice can wrong christian liberty ; that extemporate prayer is but fancicall and carnal ; that there is no praying by the spirit , unless in a manner and in words infallible ; that the english liturgie is an excellent rule of worship ; and many such like things : certainly , if these , i say , be the principles of the latitudinarians , as they are yours , they are very loose and dangerous , even subversive of the very foundations , the word of god , and the ordinances therein appointed . . you take to your selves the commendation of very good lives : i wish you may not be deceived ; the pharisees made clean the outside of the cup and of the plater ; but god requireth and searcheth the heart , and these things that come forth from the heart , evill thoughts , deceit , blasphemies , pride , foolishnes , as well as adulteries , murders , thefts , these defile the man : what of these may be found in this little volume of your dialogues , especially , lies , calumnies , mockings , it were too rigid for me to recapitulat ; i leave it to the impartial perusal of what both of us have said : only as i desire not to be accounted so uncharitable , as to propose this , as a proportional cognizance of all the writings and sayings of the men of your way ; so , i heartily pray the lord , to make all of you , indeed , rectitudinarians . . as for your strong wits , i wish you may be as little puffed up with the conceit of them , as we are terri●fied by their opposition ; that you do not abuse them to atheism , or socinianism , we chearfully accept of the acknowledgement : only let me tell you , that though we be as loath , as you are , to deny christianity , both in its articles of beliefe , and precepts of practice , to be highly congruous , to the dictats of right reason ; and do grant , that religion , the highest accomplishment of nature , is suteable to mans supreme faculty ; yet , that thus to propose them , is the most convincing way to all clear witted men , labours of these difficulties , . that , although there be not only as much obvious reason , in the revelation of the gospel , as may stop the mouth of all gainsayers , and unanswerably confound the vanities of atheism , and all false religions , but also , such a divine congruous light , as , once entering and dispelling the natural man's darkeness , causeth these things , which formerly were to him as foolishness , appear to be the wisdome of god ; yet , it is certain , that the things of god , depending solely upon his free , holy , and unsearchable good pleasure , and decree , and being only communicat by the revelation , and receivable in the illumination of the spirit , to think to propose and enforce them , by rational perswasion , for the conversion of men in the state of nature , is vain and presumptuous : and therefore , if it be in this manner , that you do understand your assertion , viz. that thus to propose them , is the most convincing way to all clear witted men , seing , it both imports a sufficiencie in the proposer , and a possible capacity in the hearers , to convert without efficacie of divine grace , and the light of revelation , it is doubly peccant . . in what sort soever your assertion be understood , the superlative preference , which it giveth to your way of reason , directly impingeth upon the apostles their manner of preaching ; which was not with the wisdom of words , but in that simplicity , which unto these , that sought after wisdom , was as foolishness : it was neither by the wise , nor by the scribe ; nor by the disputer ; but god choosed the foolish things of the world , to confound the wise : consider the apostles their sermons , yet extant ; specially peters , not only to the iews , but also to cornelius and the first converts of the gentiles , there can be nothing more simple , either in perswasion , or in expression : hear pauls testimony of himself [ and i brethren , came not with excellencie of speach , or of wisdom , declaring unto you , the testimony of god ; but was with you , in weakness , and in fear , and in much trembling : ] &c. and certainly , if you will be pleased to ponder the reason and end , which he subjoins , viz. [ that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men ; but in the power of god ] you cannot but perceive , both the difference of this way from , and its excellencie above that of rational perswasion , which you so much commend . . as neither the undoubted congruity of christianity to reason once enlightned , nor the sufficiency of reason , by its own force , to redargue proud mockers and despisers , do conclude its aptitude for the discovery , explication , or right uptaking of the things of god , without the spirit , which alone knoweth them ; so , it is justly to be feared , that this new method , of adventuring by reason , without the testimony of the word , to propose and explain these mysteries● do not only prove ineffectual , for true instruction ; but also inductive of the authors themselves , into many misprisions and errors : for men to quite and lay aside the conduct of the true and only light which is the best evidence and manifestation , both of its self , and of its object , and in a vain curiosity , to set up and demonstrat by the taper of reason , in the sunshine of revelation , and to endeavour , to cause reason lead or guide , which , with much difficultie , is able to follow , is a presumption , not more full of pride then of danger : paul was a man very learned , long exercised , and no doubt mightily fervid in all the arts and methods of reasoning ; but from the time , that , that light from heaven , above the brightnes of the sun , shined about him , and laid him on the ground , trembling and astonished , we find his speech in the matters of the gospel , was not with entising or perswasive words of mans wisdom ; but in demonstration of the spirit , with much fear : sometime indeed he disputes , and thereby also confounds ; but it is his preaching that mostly converts . think not that , by these reflections , i aime particularly at either the fault or fate of the men of your way : no , let their writings speak for themselves ; but that there is such a vanity , too much in present practice , the late , more pretendedly rational , then scriptural , essayes of many , do too sadly evince . . you say that you latitudinarians are neither papists , nor cassandrians ; but , in effect , charitable protestants , and that you are far from that hight of rigour , of damning all papists , which some of us owne . 't is answered , that we are sufficiently tender in this point , is notour to all , and this your challenge , if rightly understood of papists , that is of all , who live within the verge of and own the church of rome , is as groundless as your needless profession of an uncontroverted charity , because they hold the foundation iesus christ , though they build upon it , wood , hay , and stuble : i confess that , seing thereby you plainly enough insinuate , that papists , even as such , do not erre fundamentally , and consequently , under this reduplication may be saved , it imports to me an excess , wherewith we ought not to comply . to join with the merit of jesus christ , that of their own good works , nay , of their own superstitious inventions ; and to his mediation , that of saints , seem to me to impinge upon the very foundation , which you acknowledge . what shal we then say , of the avowed gross idolatries and superstitions , ridiculous penitences and perverted morality , whereby , both the truth , and spirituality of gods worship and service , with the inward and genuine grace of obedience and sanctification , are subverted ? really , sir , these appear to me , to be a superstructure of such naughty stuffe , as neither the sincerity of grace , with which i judge them incompatible , nor even the flames of their own purgatory , will ever purge away . but you proceed : that though you will not say , that all things controverted , betwixt the reformed churches and them , are matters of salvation ; yet in their greater errors , such as the popes supremacie , the churches infallibility , the corporal presence &c. you condemne them , and perhaps on clearer grounds , then we do : 't is answered , . that the things controverted with the papists are not all of them such , as do directly and necessarily , in beleefe or practice , appertain to salvation , is not by us denied ; but , where , in this your latitude , you do in effect intimate such a dissent from the reformed churches , as if many things betwixt us and the papists , were needlessly by us drawn in question , it is such an undervaluing of the will and way of the lord , whereupon , even in our smallest differences , we hope , we are founded ; that i could not pass it , without an observation . . whether you do indeed condemn the papists , in many of the points by you enumerate , let be on better grounds , is to me very dubious ? you say , you are against the popes supremacie ; but how is it then , that you have transferred it upon his majesty , and that with a more ample extent , then ever was conceded to , nay , or arrogat by any pope ? that the king , may enact such acts , and orders , concerning the administration of the external government of the church , and the persons therein imployed , and concerning all ecclesiastick meetings and matters , therein to be proposed , as he shall think fit , is more then any pope ever assumed : pray , sir , is the difference betwixt the persons of the pope , and prince , the hinge of the controversie ? or , is this one of the clearer grounds , you talk of ? consider it at your leisure . in the next place , you tell us , that you condemn the churches infallibility , and yet , p. . of this same book , your affirme that even in matters , as punctually set down in scripture , as either of these sacraments , the church may judge , that god did not therein intend any perpetual obligation , and , by her practice , oblige us to a cessation , and consequently , alter scripture-determinations : beside , you know what power you attribute to the church , to impose significant ceremonies and other observances ; which , although you tell us , for an evasion , do not take away the liberty of inward opinion ; yet you affirme , that they do bind in conscience to a conformable practice : verily , if a church so impowered be not infallible , the concessions are too large ; but the truth is , scripture defectible , the church fallible , and nothing fixed , appear to be most aggreeable , to the lightnes of your brains , and the conveniencie of your new latitude . . you affirme , that you are against the corporal presence , and also the worshiping of images ; and yet , you are for adoration , to , before , or , in order to , the eliments : for call it as you will , you plead for it , as due veneration , in the action , whereof , they are the necessary objects : how these do consist , i see not : for my part , i cannot but judge , the papists , though more gross , yet more consequent . but we have enough of this subject , and these few instances premised may indeed well justify the excessive love , which you profess to the unity of the catholick church , wherein you include the roman ; and your esteem for such , meaning by cassander , and others of his way , who have studied to bring things to a temper , do palpably hold out your byass to their haltings : but if the unity and temper , that you aime at , be of this temper , since it hath not truth for its foundation , the lord deliver his churches from it . in the next place your n. c. and you fall a quarrelling , about iustification , and after you have first taxed , then smoothed , and again , in a manner , rejected the papists their iustification by works , and their merit , you proceed to iustification by faith only : and when you have given us your explanation of it , you make a prettie bo●st , as it , forsooth , by your right apprehension of things , you had , in a few words , told that , which , with much nicety swels amongst us to volumes : sir , i so greatly defire to find you walking in the truth , and am so little in love with contention , especially in a matter of this importance , that i am resolved , rather fanely to pass , then rigidly to strain , even your more ambiguous expressions ; but since you would make the world beleeve , that , with you and you only , is to be found both truth and light ; and that , on the other hand , we do perplexe this point , with nic●ties and subtilties , it will not be amiss , that in this matter , i examine you more particularly : which that i may performe , with the greater candor and perspiciuty , i shall first exhibit your words , in their full context , and thereafter review them in parts . you say then , that iustification and condemnation are two opposite legall termes , relating to the judgement shal be given out , at the last day : for though we are said to be condemned already , this is only , that we are now in the state of such , as shal be solemnly justified or condemned . now , at the great day , we must give an account of our actions , and we must be judged accordingly ; but since all must be condemned , if god enter in judgement with them ; therefore god gave his son to the death for us , that thereby we might obtain salvation : and all judment is , by the father , committed to the son : and iesus christ hath proposed life , through his death , to as many as receive his gospell , and live according to it : and as that , which gives us a title to the favour of god , is the blood of christ ; so that which gives us an interest in his death , is faith , with a life conforme to the rules of the gospel , and the root of this new life , is a faith which worketh by love , purifyeth the heart , and overcometh the world , and therefore iustification is ascribed to it in scripture : and this , you say , is the right apprehension of things ; both ascribing all to christ , and declaring clearly the necessity of a holy life . 't is answered ; the matter of justification , being , in effect , the very substance of the gospel , and its right uptaking , of the greatest moment , in order to our salvation , for as much , as you , by an affected simplicity , and simulat smoothness , do palpably laboure to involve and pervert it ; i shal first represent , in your words , and in its own colours , the error which you would impose , and then discusse these reasons , and insinuations , whereby you endeavour , rather cunningly to cover and convey it , then plainly to maintain it . the scope then and aime of your discourse is , that the proposall of life in the gospel , through the death of christ , is to as many as receive it , and live according to it ; that , that which giveth us an interest in the death of christ , is ●aith with a li●e con●orme to the ral●s of the gospel , and that because of the fruits of faith , love , purity of heart , and victorie over the world ; therefore iustification is ascribed unto it in scripture . the meaning of which expressions in plain language , is , that it is by good works , joined with faith , nay , by good works principally , and faith referred to them , as the root thereof , and not by faith only , as the instrument , whereby the perfect righteousness of jesus christ is laid hold upon , and becometh ours , in gods sight , that we are justified . now , that this your opinion is false , and is to be rejected , appeareth by these many , and plain scriptures : by the deeds of the law there shal no flesh be justifyed in his sight , rom. . . the man is blessed , to whom god imputeth righteousnesse without works , rom. . . by grace we are saved , not of works , lest any man should boast , eph. . . . not by works of righteousnesse , which we have done , but according to his mercy he saved us , tit. . . god was in christ reconciling the world unto himself , not imputing their trespasses unto them , . cor. . . god hath saved us with an holy calling , not according to our works ; but according to his own purpose and grace , which was given us , in christ iesus , before the world began , tim. . . he hath made him to be sin for us , who knew no sin , that we might be made the righteousness of god in him . . cor. . . iesus christ , is made of god , unto us , wisdom , and righteousness , and sanctification , and redemption , . corin. . . he is the lord our righteousnesse , ier. . . we are justified freely by gods grace , through the redemption that is in christ iesus . whom god hath set forth to be a propisiation through faith in his blood . rom. . , . by the righteousnesse of christ , the free gift came upon all men to the justification of life : and by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous , rom. , . . we are justifyed by the faith of iesus christ , and not by the works of the law gal. . . he that worketh not , but believeth on him that justifyeth the ungodly , his faith is counted unto him for righteousnesse , rom. . . and lastly , a man is justifyed by faith , it without the works of the law , ro. . . this 〈◊〉 hope is plain scripture language , without any subtil●y : how can you then joine our works of the law with the righteousnesse of faith , even the righteousness of jesus christ , which faith doth apprehend , & appropriat for our justification in gods sight , contrary to these most manifest testimonies ? certainly , if men would but seriously examine and consider what gods word doth so plainly and rationally hold forth , anent this purpose , how quickly would that pure and perfect light dispel darknesse , clear doubtings , and give us both a right understanding , and sound and easie expression therein . god did creat and appoint man to bear , and be conformable to his image , for the manifestation of his own glory ; and thereby to partake and enjoy his favour , for our felicity : for that end , he gave his holy and righteous law , on the one hand , being both the way to , and bearing the promise of life unto the obedient ; and on the other , pronouncing wrath and death , against such , as should be disobedient : the sanction and pain of this divine law being by 〈◊〉 incurred , and all mankind standing thereby condemned , and bound over to wrath in gods sight , the grace of god that bringeth salvation , appeareth , holding forth jesus christ , manifested in our flesh , and therein fulfilling all righteousnesse , suffering in both bodie and soul , dying , shedding his bloud , and making his soul an offering , for a propitiation and ransome , for satisfiing divine justice , and reconciling us unto god , rising again for our justification , and being made perfect through suffering , became the author of eternal salvation to all them that obey him ; that is , believe and receive this gospel-covenant ( whereof he himself was also the minister ) holding him forth , for wisdom , righte , ousnes , sanctification , and absolute redemption-to all that come unto and imbrace him : and therefore , as at first , christ came into the world , by doing the will of god , and making his soul an offering for sin , to bring in everlasting righteousnes , even the righteousnesse of god through faith in his name ; so , because he was obedient unto death , even the death of the cross , god hath therefore highly exalted him and given him a name , which is above every name , and , vesting him with all power in heaven and in earth , hath made him the head of all things , unto his church , and committed unto him all judgement , that he may , one day , render both vengeance unto the disobedient and unbelievers , and receive unto himself and the fathers glory , his own , who , through faith in his name , are justifyed in gods sight , and by his grace purifyed , and preserved unto his heavenly kingdom . this being then the plain gospel-revelation , to lost and condemned sinners : what els doth it require , then , that in the knowledge and sense of this our sinful , wretched and miserable estate , flowing from jesus christ our wisdom , we , by faith , lay hold on him and his righteousnesse , for our ransome from wrath , and alone acceptation in god's sight ; and also for obtaining of sanctification , consisting in the purging away of all filthiness of the flesh and spirit ; which the penitent convert ; as he feareth its guilt and wrath , doth , in like manner , detest and abhorre ; and the perfecting holiness in the fear of god : and lastly for compleat redemption from , and victorie over , sathan , the world , the body of this death it self , in the triumph of the resurrection , and the plenarie possession of eternal life . by all which , it is evident , that whatever be these other graces and blessings , which we partake , in and through our lord jesus ; yet it is through and by faith alone , as an instrument , and in respect of its peculiar aptitude for that end , apprehending or laying hold on christ jesus , the only propitiation , and his righteousnes , the alone satisfaction , that we are justifyed in gods sight . and really , sir , when in this sincere and clear light , i have proposed this matter , i wonder , what vanity or ignorance could seduce you , to the doctrine which you here deliver . to grant , as you do , justification to be a judicial act , whereby , no doubt , we are to understand , that god as the great judge , attempe●ing justice with mercie , doth thereby accept of a ransome and surety offered , and therefore absolve , yea justify the criminal ; and yet , notwithstanding of the evident scripture testimonies , that shew the lord our righteousness to be , in very deed , this ransome and surety , and faith only its instrumental application , to join good works with it , and state both , as the condition of our justification , is not only reproved by the papists their more consequent explication , who , because they admit of works in justification , do therefore hold it , not to be a judicial act ; but rather a gracious work ; but by the common sense of all men , in these similare instances , from which the manner of explaining these things is borrowed : if in our ordinarie courts , the law being transgressed , and the transgressor convicted , the pronouncing of the doome of judgement , and its execution , were stopt , by the interposition of a ransome and surety offered , so fully satisfying and acceptable in the eyes of the judge , that , for his sake , the poor criminal were both pardoned and received to special favour , would any rational man say , that the person guilty , were thus absolved and justifyed , either for his act of laying claime to the price and pledge , as a condition ; seing it is only the moral instrument , whereby the true motive of the ransomers satisfaction is applyed ; or yet for the act it self , together with the absolved person his consequent good behaviour , which is the parallel of your interpretation which is yet more absurd ; and not rather affirme plainly , that it is for the ransome and surety only , that the man is acquit and accepted ? certainly common ingenuity , which must acknowledge all the defects of this similitude , to be the manifest advantages of the point , principally pressed , will both cede to the conviction of its evidence , aud transferre it plainly to the case in hand . having thus set down a scriptural and easie account of this important truth , which ( reflecting upon almost all protestant divines , with whom in this we agree , and wandering in your raveries , after no better guid then patrick the pilgrim ) you say , is by us handled , with much niceness and subtilty : for it s further clearing , and the better discoverie of your vanity : i shal now examine your discourse in its particulars : and . you say , iustification and condemnation are two opposite legal termes . by legal , i know you mean judicial , and therefore , in place of urging your mistake , i seriously wish that the tenor of what ensues , had been consistent to so true and solid a ground : but you add : that they relate to the judgement shall be given out at the last day : a strange fetch to compasse a false designe , i might remember you , that the scripture is express , that being justifyed by faith , we have peace with god , through our lord iesus christ : and there is now therefore , no condemnation to them which are in christ iesus , who ( by their assured partaking of his grace , and in consequence of their true faith in him , and justification therethrough ) walk not after the flesh , but after the spirit : and that thence it is evident , that , as it is god that judgeth ; so it is by an act of his free grace , in jesus christ , antecedent to the last judgement , that we are reconciled unto him , and justified in his sight . but your own words , viz. for though we are said to be now justified as the unbeleeving are said to be condemned already , this is only , that we are now in the state of such , as shall be solemnly justified or condemned ; do sufficiently reprove you , because , . it is certain , that the unbelieving are not , improperly , and with respect only to that future judgement , said to be condemned already ; but , as by reason of sin , judgement is already come upon all unto condemnation , and he that beleeveth not the son shall not see life , is under the curse , and the wrath of god abideth on him ; so it is manifest , that now it is , that they stand truely under the condemning power and sentence of gods holy law , from which , it is most unquestionable , that condemnation doth directly proceed against all transgressours ; however , in the forbearance of god , they are not only for a time reprived , but place left for a ransome . . to be justified freely through grace , doth plainly import , the person justified to be antecedently under condemnation ; if by the offence , judgement had not come upon all to condemnation , there had been no need of the righteousnes of christ , to the iustification of life : how then , can the opposite instance of condemnation , be by your referred unto the last day ? far less made an argument to deferre , untill that judgement , our iustification , which of necessity doth presuppose it : certainly , you cannot but grant it to be most absurd , to think , that believers shall , in that day , be first condemned , and thereafter justified . . when you say , that it is in that day , that men shall be solemnly justified or condemned , you clearly resolve the matter : viz. that as the solemnity of the judgement of that day , shall be only declarative , and finally executive ; so it evidently concludes , that the judgement , then to be pronounced , was given and established of before . pray , sir , do you think the spirits of just men made perfect , are not as yet justified ? but . you grant , that we are now in the state of such , as shall be solemnily justified or condemned ; which clearly shews ; your insinuation premised to be only a designe , to obscure by words without knowledge , in as much , as the question remains the same , anent this state , and how we now attaine to it , as anent the justification , which you would deferre : and . what is the state of iustification ? is it not that we who were under the curse and aliens , are accepted unto favour , pardoned , and brought near ? wherein doth it then differ , from actual iustification ? . how is it , that we attain to this state ? sure not by works , either alone , or in conjunction with faith , as we have heard from scripture , and shall be further evinced . but if it be by faith alone , as the instrument laying hold on the sole meritorious righteousnes of christ , our difference is only verbal , wherein you foolishly resile from scripture phrase : if you shall further add , that by faith we do indeed attain to this state , but only inchoatly , or unfixedly , and changeably , then you evidently impinge , both upon the perfection of christs righteousnes , and the faire and certain grounds of the saints their perseverance . it followeth in your discourse , now at the great day we must give an account of our actions , and we must be judged accordingly : and i note in your ensuing words that since all must be condemned , if god enter into judgement with them , and that not only , if he should charge us with our transgressions , but even if he should only reckon with us , upon our good works , and for that imperfection and weakness , wherewith , as they are from us , they are tainted ; doth not the certainty of this judgement , above all things , plead the necessity , and alone sufficiency of the righteousness of jesus christ , for our justification ? but to restore your words to their own channell , you say , that since all must be condemned , if god enter into judgement ; therefore god gave his son unto the death for us , that thereby we might obtain salvation : and though by this passage , it be clearly enough imported ; that it is before god , and by the sentence of his law , that all men stand condemned ; and that therefore , he hath given his son , whose death and bloud is the propitiation , and in whom he is well pleased , to be a ransome , for liberation and acceptation to all that believe on him ; whereby justification by faith in jesus christ , without the deeds of the law , is in substance granted ; yet for ushering in your good works , to share with faith , in justification , by a strange connexion , you subjoin : and all judgement is committed by the father to the son , and iesus christ hath proposed life through his death to as many as receive his gospell , and live according to it . but i must take notice . . that by laying down the commission of judgement given to the son , as a ground to his proposing of the gospel offer , you manifestly repugne to our lords own words and testimony , expressly distinguishing the character of his first coming , which was in the form of a servant , to minister , not to be ministered unto , and by performing the fathers commandment , to save the world , and not to judge it ; from that of his second coming , which shall be with power and great glory , to the salvation of all that look for him , and to judge and to execute judgement upon all , that are ungodly . . by making our lords commission to judge , antecedent to his ministration of the gospel , you invert truth and plain scripture-evidence , whereby it is clear , that our lord was first sent into the world , to preach the gospel , and lay down his life for sinners ; that , whosoever believeth on him should not perish , but have everlasting life : and then , because of his compleat , and perfect obedience , is exalted to be the head of all things , unto the church , and hath authority also to execute judgement committed to him , because he is the son of man. but. . by this your doctrine , you in effect subvert the grace of the gospel , in as much as , in the place of the gospel-covenant , offering pardon and peace to poor lost sinners , through christ jesus , and , with and in him , all grace and glory ; you introduce our lord , as having , by his death , indeed merited the privilege of a new offer of life unto sinners ; but making and renewing the same , in no better termes , then these of the law-covenant ; for as the law sayeth , that the man that doth these things shall live by them ; so , you tell us , that the termes of the gospel-tender , are to receive the same , and live according to it : now , if the law doth offer life , to such as receive and live according to it ; and our lords proposal stand in the like termes , admit the proposers not to be the same ; yet the proposals are certainly coincident : and therefore , although the eternal transaction betwixt the father and the son , may be of grace ; yet it is undeniable , that , in your opinion , the tenders of the law and gospel , as to us-ward , do rune in the same tenor ; and the condescendence of both , prerequiring our works , is equally to be reckoned of debt : these being the consequences of that gospel-method , by you here contrived , and its designe no less evident , to make works with saith , the condition and procuring cause of our iustification , at least in the sight of christ , as the judge appointed : i add ; . that your attributing of iustification to christ , as judge ordained over all , in the last judgement , is contrary to the scripture , that telleth us , that it is one god that justifieth , it is christ that died , marke the distinction made ; and no doubt , reason it self informing us , that it is the law and law-giver , and not the judge , which define dutie , determine paines , and condemne the transgressors , poenae enim persecution , non iudicis voluntati mandatur ; sed legis authoritati reservatur : it doth also confirm , that it appertaines unto god only , as the law-giver , to remit the punishment incurred , and accept and justify sinners , upon an aequipollent satisfaction . . the authority to execute judgement being given to our lord , as the mediator ; and because he is the son of man , in which respect , he is not the principal author and efficient , but only the meritorious cause of our iustification ; not the very act , but only the solemn declaration thereof , can be ascrived to him , in this capacity ; unless you can conceive , that our lord is not only , both the ransome , and the accepter thereof , but that , by becoming the propitiation , he also becometh the partie to be appeased , which are palpably inconsistent . . the plain scripture-truth , in this point , is that our lord having compleatly obeyed the will of god , and being made perfect through suffering , is therefore highly exalted above every name , and hath all power and judgement committed to him ; whereby , as he doth , here in time , enrich with all grace , guid , support , and preserve all that beleeve in him ; and also over-rule , restrain , and punish all his , and their adversaries ; so , shal he , in the last day , appear , first , to receive and welcome all his redeemed ones , formerly justified by his righteousnesse , and sanctified by his grace , unto his fathers joy : and then with them , to judge the reprobate , and take vengeance on all , that know not god , and obey not the gospel : by which it is evident , that justification proceeding from god , for christs sake , and necessarily preceeding , both our sanctification here , and glorification in the last day , cannot be referred unto that judgement , which is only declarative and executive , according to these words , come ye blessed of my father , nor explicate , according to its scheme : and therefore , although our lord do therein , for our encouragement in well doing , and the commendation of the riches of his bountie , make mention of our good works , and shall certainly , in that day , also crown his own free grace in us , with a reward ; yet , thence to inferre , that our justification before god , and in order to his holy justice , having for its alone cause , the righteousnes of jesus christ , and imported in the compellation , ye blessed of my father , is founded , on our weak love , and scant charity which , even the righteous in that day , seeme ashamed to owne , is both a groundless error , and high presumption . but i proceed to your next words viz. that christ iesus hath proposed life through his death , to as many as receive his gospel and live according to it . that , this is a manifest perversion of the free grace of god , whereby our lord jesus doth freely hold out himself unto us , not only for to be our righteousnesse for justification ; but also our sanctification through his spirit , unto the glory of god ; and therefore doth not require our holinesse , as an antecedent condition , seing , it is indeed his own subsequent gi●t , the obvious evidence of so clear a truth , may sufficiently confirme , and the following argume●ts do unanswerably evince . . our lords own words , the surest rule for understanding the proposal controverted , do contain a free tender , and not the termes by you represented : hear what he saith to nicodemus : whosoever beleeveth in the son of man , shall no , perish , but have eternal life : for god so loved the world , that he gave his only begotten son , that whosoever beleeveth on him , should not perish , but have everlasting life , iohn . , . iohn addeth , he that beleeveth on the son , hath everlasting life , chap. . v. . and again , our lord sayeth , this is the work of god , that you beleive on him , whom he hath sent : and this is his will , that every one which seeth the son , and beleeveth , may have everlasting life : verily verily i say unto you , he that beleeveth on me , hath everlasting life . iohn . . , , . surely these are gospel proposalls , yea the very summe and substance of its offer , whereof your condition of a conformable life , maketh no part : i might add paul's words to the jailour , believe on the lord iesus christ , and thou shall be saved ; but it is so much the strain of the whole new testament , that it were unnecessary to enlarge . . if when we were enemies , and not for works of righteousnesse , which we have done , we were reconciled unto god , by the death of his son , then the proposal of life , and justification , is made through faith in his name , without the condition of these good works , which you join with it ; but so it is , that the antecedent is plain scripture ; therefore that the consequent is identick with it , as justification and reconciliation are , cannot be denied . . that which is the end of our election , calling and redemption by jesus christ , & is his undertaking for us , in that respect , and is the fruit of our faith , and of our acceptation therethrough , yea , and is the product of the fathers care over us , as accepted in the beloved , cannot be said to be required of us as a condition antecedent to our justification , no more then the same thing , can be thought , to be really both antecedent and subsequent . but so it is , that we are chosen , and called to be holy , and created in christ iesus unto good works ; through faith it is , and that not of our selves , it is the gi●t o● god , that we become partakers of christ , for reconciliation , and of all his graces for sanctification ; and lastly we are in him , gods husbandrie , that we may bring forth the fruits of righteousnesse . therefore &c. . your requiring of good works , together with faith , previous to our acceptance by jesus christ , is an uncertain and desperat thing , in as much , as it is evident , that unless we be first accepted of him , and united to him , it is not possible for us to do any thing : without me you can do nothing , are our lords own words . say not that this argument , equally militats against previous faith , if we did hold faith , as it is our act to be required as a proper potestative foregoing condition of our acceptance , the objection might be of some moment ; but since we do affirme , faith to be only the instrumental act , ( to which the word of power exciting ) the soul doth thereby lay hold on , and close with jesus christ , it is thence manifest , that immediatly , without any other prerequisite , he becometh our propitiation , peace , and all . . to these may be added , that this your doctrine joining good works to faith , for attaining to our lords acceptation , subverteth the peace , taketh away the joy of beleevers , checketh paul's exultation , in his so much professed assurance of the love of god in christ jesus ; and lastly , as to sinners in extremity , called immediatly before the twelfth hour , removeth all ground of hope ; but i am already too full , in a matter so clear , and so largely handled by many more able pens . i might here subjoin , that as your joining of good works , as a condition with faith , in the proposal of the gospel , is a manifest perverting of the free grace of god , upon which these good works , having a subsequent dependence , cannot , by any reall antecedent influence , possibly move it ; so your turning faith , by this conjunction , to be a motive of the same nature , and to be also respected in the quality of a condition , is a palpable depravation of its use , and comfort . it s true , our divines taking the word condition , in a large sense , as it signifieth any thing prerequired , do ordinarily say , that faith and faith only is the condition , on our part , of the gospel-covenant ; but that it is not therein a condition , as a condition doth properly and legally import : viz. that which , though by convention only , yet hath a meriting or moving influence , upon the other parties performance , and such as works , previously required , either in the covenant of works , or in that of grace ( as you would have it , ) certainly hath , and can have , no other , i firmly maintain . i further grant , that the requiring of faith , as a proper condition , doth no less exact the existence of the thing , then if it were repute to be necessary as an instrument ; yet that it clearly changeth the office of faith , in the new covenant , unto that of the condition of works , under the old ; and that by respecting it as a condition , on our part , it doth diminish that immediat regard , we ought to have to , and comfort , which we derive from , jesus christ and his righteousnesse , tendered unto us to be laid hold upon , as the alone motive and satisfaction , acceptable to god for our justification , cannot be denied . but i go on with your discourse , you add , and as that which giveth us a title to the favour of god , is the bloud of christ ; so that , which giveth us an interest in his death , is faith , with a life conforme to the rules of the gospel : but passing your conjunction , and this your third and which i am certain would require more study , to discover therein a connexion , then you did adhibite in the using ; let me ask if the bloud of christ giveth us a title to the favour of god , is it not then the sufficient , and sole price and purchase of our iustification , in his sight ? and must not faith its alone proper application render us accepted to the beloved ? what then can your , so , further import , viz. so , that which giveth an interest in the death of christ , is faith , with a life conforme to the gospel ? can you , or any man els● , conceive , that a man by faith alone in the propitiation , the bloud of christ , should be reconciled unto god ; and yet not attain , to an interest in christs death , without a holy life , superadded and concurring , in the same causality ? nay , these things are plainly inconsistent : . the fairest sense that your words can bear , is that , as we are restored to a capacity of favour with god , by the bloud of christ ; so , it is faith , with a life conforme to the gospel , that gives us an actual interest in his death , and thereby unto the peace of god ; but seing the result of this , in plain language , is no other then , that our lord , having by his own bloud ransomed fallen and forfeited mankind , hath in liew of the first covenant , made with man and by him transgressed , proposed to us a second , adding to the condition of a holy life , required by the f●●st , that of beleeving . that this is altogether dissonant , both to the declared love of god , and the grace revealed by jesus christ , in his gospel , any christian may discern . your next words are , and ( a fourth and ) the root of this new life is a faith , which worketh by love , purifieth the heart , and overcometh the world ; and there fore iustification is ascribed unto it , in scripture : but pray , sir , how is it , that faith becometh such a fruitful root ? is it not by laying hold on christs righteousnesse , by which , pardon being obtained , and we reconciled unto god , we have right unto , and so do attain , in due time , the benefite of all the promises of grace , which , in christ jesus , are yea , and amen ? or , that the same faith , which layeth hold on him , as our righteousnesse in gods sight , doth also unite us to him , for sanctification , and ingraffing us , as it were in him , through the communication of his grace , purifieth the heart , and overcometh the world ? or lastly , is it not , that by faith we are brought to the bloud of sprinkling , which is both the bloud of atonement , that sprinkleth from an evill conscience ; and also the laver , which cleanseth from all sin , and wherewith we are sanctifyed ? this being then , the scripture account , and it being most apparent , that christ , through faith , becometh , first our righteousnesse , for remission of sin and justification in gods sight , and then our sanctification unto good works ; your own acknowledgement , that faith is the root of this new life of holiness , may evince , that a holy life , subsequent to faith , and our acceptation therethrough , cannot be therewith joined , as a condition , for our justification . but that which followeth in your discourse , and therefore ( i. e. because of the above enumerat frui●s , which it produceth ) iustification is ascribed unto faith , in the scripture : is , the grossest error of all , because . it directly repugnes to scripture , clearly intimating , that it is unto faith , as the instrument only , whereby the righteousnesse of jesus christ is unto us applyed , that justification is in scripture ascrived . if we be justifyed by the faith of jesus christ , and if , by the righteousnesse of jesus christ , the free gift cometh upon all , to the justification of life ; if he be the propitiation , through faith in his bloud ; and our righteousnesse , which is of god by faith , are you not affrayed to say , that justification , requiring a satisfactorie righteousnesse , is ascrived to faith , because of its poor , and imperfect fruits in us , and thereby to ●light and vilipend the perfect righteousnesse of christ , the immediat object , whereon it layeth hold , and our only acceptation in gods sight ? . because this your error derogates from divine justice . we have already heard you call justification a legal or judicial act , and consequently , an act , wherein free grace doth not more favour the lost sinner , then justice doth regard a valuable ransome and surety : if iustification then be ascribed in scripture to faith , this must certainly be understood , either as faith is in it self , or is relative to a compleat and adequat satisfaction . now , to think that faith in it self , or as it is an act , or habite , which is the gift of god ; or its fruits , which , ( beside , that they are also the gift of god , and our dutie as from us , are mixed with much weakness and imperfection : or lastly , that any thing else then the righteousnesse of jesus christ apprehended by faith , can be commensurable to holy iustice , is more then redargued , by the simple proposal . . this your ascribing iustification unto faith , in regard of a holy life , which it produceth , doth no less detract from the praise of the glory of the grace of god wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved : is it the praise and commendation of this wonderful love , and grace , that he spared not , but gave his only begotten son , to be a ransome for sinners ; and that it is in the beloved , that we are accepted and justifyed ; and should not you be ashamed to say , that it is unto faith , as the root of a holy life , and not as it doth respect and take hold on him , who was made to be sin for us , and knew no sin , that we might be made the righteousnesse of god in him , that iustification is in scripture ascrived ? . this your error , as it is contrary to the scripture , and derogatorie to the righteousnesse of christ , the holinesse of divine justice , and the glory of free grace ; so , it is the manifest product of , and cannot but be a most dangerous temptation to , that inward and spiritual pride , in the heart of man , of all sin the most subtilly insinuating , deeply rooted , and pernicious : a price , or something meriting , or moving , at least of our own , is that which the natural man liketh well ; nay knoweth not how to renounce : was it not a subtile and strange effect of this pride , and corrupt selfe ? shall i give my first-born for my transgression , the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul ? when as the thing required by the lord , was to do justly , love mercy , and walk humbly with god. and whence did the iews their stumbling at the gospel proceed ? was it not , that they went about to establish their own righteousnesse ; and therefore , they did not submit themselves unto the righteousnesse of god ? say not , that this accusation against you , is unwarranted : i know you tell us , that your explanation ascribes all to christ , through , whom it is , that our sinnes are pardoned , our services accepted , and grace and glory conveyed to us , but it is evident , that these are but vain words ; in as much as , though you here tell us , that our services are accepted through christ ; yet almost immediatly before , we heard you say , that it is faith and a life conforme to the gospel , by way of antecedent condition , which gives us an interest in his bloud : now , that our services cannot be prerequired , by way of condition , to his acceptance of us , and also only accepted as performed by us , in him● is of it self manifest . . though you should , more clearly , and consistently , ascribe all unto jesus christ ; yet by turning his grace into a condition , the subtilty and folly of your pride doth but the more bewray it self : for , as simply to obtrude our own good works , which in the acknowledgement of the most exact and confident legalist , are both commanded and given us of god , is a proud presumption ; so , the more you attribute either the strength or the acceptance of performances unto the grace of god in christ jesus , while , in the mean time , you do still arrogate them , as a condition on the creatures part , you the more declare the folly , but in nothing diminish the sinfulnesse , of your vanity . these things need not to be illustrat : questionless , who ever doth consider his lost condition , by reason of sin and wrath , and hearkeneth unto that fundamental gospel-precept , deny thy self , imprimis all self-righteousnesse , and beleeve ; will find the power thereof so deeply descending into his soul , that all the desire , trust , and hope thereof , will be fixed on jesus christ alone , and to be found in him , not having his own righteousnesse , which unto his sincere reflection , will be so far from appearing a condition , that it will disappeare as dung ; but that righteousnesse , which is through the faith of christ , the righteousnesse which is of god by faith . but who can sufficiently declare and regret the madnes and ingratitude of this pride of man ? jesus christ is made of god unto us , righteousnesse ; and yet we will thereto join our own , for justification in gods sight : he is also made unto us sanctification , that in him we may bring forth the fruits of holinesse unto the glory of god ; and the very same fruits , will we impropriat , to be the condition , and , as it were , the price of our acceptance , even with himself , who is our only acceptation , and our all . sir , be not deceived , as they who in the sight of sin , and fear of wrath , f●ee unto christ alone , for a refuge , do finde his righteousness , not more sufficient , then freely offered , to every one that willeth , for justification in gods sight ; so , your doctrine , requiring both faith and a holy life , as the previous conditions , to give an interest in christs death , and ascriving justification to faith , because , forsooth , of the pitiful fruits of our righteousnesse , and not that perfect righteousnesse of jesus christ , which it doth apprehend , is wholly dissonant unto the method of the gospel , and cannot possibly attain its end . what shall be then said of your ensuing words ? now judge , but a little , what it is , to have a right apprehension of things ? since i have , in a few plain words , told you that , which with much nicety , swels among you , to volumes : really , sir , if i may use the liberty of answering , by you permitted : i would say , what a sad thing is it , to have a wrong and conceited apprehension of things ; since you have in a few involved words , in such a manner , obscured and confounded a plain point of truth , that notwithstanding of express scripture-light ; yet it hath necessarily required a great many words , clearly to unsold it . there remaineth now to be considered the main reason , whereby as you shut up , so you would seem to enforce , the opinion which we have heard : and that is the necessity of a holy life , which you say , your way of iustification , doth clearly declare ; as being that , whereupon we shall be solemnly judged , justified , and absolved , at the last day : and afterward , you add , that it may correct the error of many carnall christians , who love well to hear of salvation , by the death of christ , provided they be bound to do nothing themselves , that they may be saved . 't is answered . . that there are many seeming christians , who have a name that they live and are dead , who have and do delight in a form of knowledge , but want the power ; of whose delusion , the error which you mention , may be a part , is an old and true regret : and yet the explication by you delivered , being so many wayes unsound and peccant , as we have heard , cannot possibly be an antidote . . as these carnal christians , pretending to lay hold on jesus christ for righteousnesse , and yet wholly neglecting the study of holiness , are , of all men , the most sadly deceived , and most wretched deceivers ; so , your manner of justification , derogating from the holy iustice of god , and the perfect righteousnesse of jesus christ , flattering the natural mans pride , to which , of all vices , we are most prone , and seducing souls , from the free grace of the gospel , cannot be less dangerous and pernicious . but . this your reason , for departing from justification by faith only , as encouraging to licentiousness , is so directly the objection which the apostle paul taketh notice of , and fully answereth , after his having declared the truth of justification , as by us professed , that we are thereby exceedingly fortified : the passage is thus , the apostle having shewed , that it is by the righteousnesse of jesus christ , that the free gift cometh upon all men , to iustification of life , and that it is by the obedience of one , that many are made righteous ; and summing up the whole matter , that it is grace that reigneth through righteousnesse , unto eternal life , by iesus christ our lord ; he subjoineth , what shall we say then ? shall we continow in sin that grace may abound ? seing it is not by our works , but of free grace , through faith in the righteousness of jesus christ , that we are justified from sin , shall we therefore , in as much as sin commendeth grace , and our good works availl not , continow in sin , that grace may abound ? the plain insinuation of what you object : now hear the apostles answere both for us and himself . . he saveth justification by faith only , cannot encourage to sin ; because such as do thereby , truely lay hold on jesus christ , partake of his death , and are made conformable thereto : how shall they then , that are dead to sin , live any longer therein ? sin may indeed remain , but that they who through faith in his death , are planted in the likenesse thereof , and become as crucified with him , should live any longer in sin , is not possible : to the same purpose it is , that the apostle iohn , saith , whosoever is born of god doth not commit sin , and he cannot sin , because he is born of god : and yet , if any false pretender , should therefore say , either that he cannot transgress , or that his transgressions are no sins , and so license himself unto wickedness , he but deceiveth himself , and the truth is not in him . . paul saith that justification through faith importeth a more certain assurance of good works , then any thing by you urged . the necessity of good works , which ye plead for , is only that of a condition , strict indeed , as to its obligation ; but very uncertain , if not desperat , as to its cause and reall existence ; being previously required , unto our acceptance by , and being in , christ , as i have already shewed : whereas the apostle tells us plainly , that according to the truth of justification , by him and by us asserted , the necessity of good works , is causally certain , depending upon such infallible causes , that whereever true faith is , the study of holiness must necessarily ensue ; and where this is not , the pretense of faith , and justification thereby , is but vain and groundlesse : for seing by faith , the only requisite , on our part , for justification , we are not only dead indeed with jesus christ unto sin , but planted together with him , in the likeness of his resurrection , and alive through him unto god , that we also should walk in newness of life , the necessity of holiness is evidently thereby as much assured , as the acts of life are in their proper principle : how can it then be alledged , that , in our way , the necessity of holiness is less secured , then in yours ? nay , such is the certainty of this truth , that true faith in jesus christ , is the root and principle of the new life of holiness , that , as it is by you acknowledged ; so , i cannot but wonder , how reason could so quickly desert you , as to think , that any necessary effect , such as you must grant good works to be of true faith , can be rationally joined with its cause , in the consideration of a condition , which your discourse imports ? if fire or life were , in any case , required as a condition , he that should thereto join heat or motion , necessarily thereon dependent , were plainly ridiculous : i need not take notice , of what may be objected , from these seeming beleevers , who , because of their profession , are said to be in christ , and yet for want of fruits , to be cut off ; as it doth not more militat against us , then against you , who acknowledge true faith to be alwayes fruitful ; so , it answereth it self : but . because by necessity , its like that you do understand , the obligation to holiness , as if , in your way , it were rendered more binding and pressing , and thence would commend your explanation , as more engaging unto a holy life ; i shall not here resume , what i have already declared , viz. . that to press the necessity of holiness , antecedently to our being , and acceptation , in jesus christ , is vain , and fruitless . . that to join our imperfect holiness , with christs unspotted and alone sufficient righteousnesse , which is faiths value , is proud and presumptuous ; but rather represent these true grounds of the necessity of holinesse , which are found in our way , equally , yea more obliging , then all your vain pretenses . and . we say with the apostle , that the holy and just and good law of god remaineth in its entire force , threatning and condemning all sin , whereever found ; and as the poor sinner convicted , is thereby urged to flee for refuge unto christ , who alone delivereth from the wrath to come ; so , he who expecteth salvation , by the death of christ , and doth not witness the truth of his profession , in a holy life , is , in so farre , no less exposed to its severity and terror ; neither can the beleever sinning , whatever may be the difference of his state in gods sight , more pretend to the peace and favour of god , without repentance renewed , and faith in christ reacted , whence the study of holiness will undoubtedly revive and flow ; then the wicked , persisting in his impenitence : what is then the difference betwixt you and us ? you must acknowledge , that the great obligation of holiness doth descend from the law of god ; and we grant that this holy law continueth , in the same force and power , against all sin ( i say not sinners ) whereever found , whether in the beleever or unbeleever ; so , that thereby , in our way , licentiousnesse to sin must be equally excluded . if you say , that by requiring faith alone for iustification , we relaxe the study of holiness ; i must again tell you , that true faith in christ iesus , the thing which we require , cannot be without the study of holiness : next , if any person should thence delude himself unto licentiousness , the holy law of god remaining in the same severity against it , cannot but , in our way , wherein that high aggravation of turning the grace of god unto wantonnesse , is more manifest , be also more powerful . if any man go on to urge us with the possible delusions of presumption and libertinisme , whereunto the devil both hath , and may abuse the truth and free grace of god , he but fighteth with the devils weapons , whereby mans wretched frailty is indeed discovered ; but the truth , by paul plainly asserted against the like cav●●●a●ions , and by us owned , not in the least impugned : nay , i may further affirme , that as all error is delus●on , and inductive of more ; so , where one hath been tempted to abuse the proposal of free grace , hundreds , through natures pride , both desiring , and overvaluing propriety , have stumbled upon this your so descrived conjunction of our good works , and fallen into that , not entire submitting unto the righteousness of god , and a going about to establish their own righteousness ; by which sin , the rock of salvation became unto the iews a rock of offence . . as the law , in the severity of its sanction , doth still abide in force , to deterre from all sin , to bring in and reclaime unto iesus christ our righteousnesse and also our sanctification ; so , it s more binding authority , derived from the greatness and goodness of god , it s own holiness and perfection , are , upon none so powerful , and in none so effectual , as these , who , through faith , have laid hold on christ iesus , for righteousness , and therethrough alone have attained unto peace . i need not tell you , that true repentance , discovering the sinfulness , as well as the guiltiness of sin , cannot but endeare holiness ; and that god appearing in christ iesus , in that inconceivable glory of his holiness , iustice , love and mercy , and justifying us through faith , in his name , cannot , but beget a deeper reverence , and a greater regard to his will and commandments ; then all the thunderings of mount sinai , the greatest motive to holiness in the construction of your way . but when i consider , that christ is the end of the law for righteousnesse , and that the law through faith is not made void , but more established ; and therefore we are chosen , and created in him unto holiness , and good works , to the glory of god ; when i observe the connexion , that god hath established , and his word holds out , betwixt iustification and sanctification : ( . ) in his purpose , eph. . . thess. . . ( . ) in his promise , ezek . , , . micah . . pet. . . ( . ) in his precept , tit. . . ( . ) in christs purchass , tit. . . ( . ) in the gift of christ to his people , cor . . ( ) in the sincere desire of and great d●light in holiness , as well as pardon , recorded of the saints , in all the scripture , specially psal. . & . . ( . ) in the description of lustification , given us by paul , in the first chap. rom. and gal. . i seriously wonder , how you , or any man , can doubt , but a holy life , both in its obligation , and also in its performance , is , by the way of iustification by faith only , molsty assured . . in the way of justification by faith only , not only the obligation of the law of god remains , in the manner declared ; but also , our lord , for our further encouragement unto holiness , hath graciously intimat , that even these good works , w●ich we performe in his strength , shall be , by the same grace from which they flow , also graciously rewarded : wherefore the apostle saith , that being made free from sin , and become servants to god , we have our fruit unto holiness , and the end everlasting life . now then , if there be a constraint in love and gratitude , above the perswasion of fear ; and if the desire of reward be powerful , above the apprehension of punishment , these considerations are certainly cumulative , and , in our way , above any thing that yours doth contain . that i may therefore summe up this discourse , anent the necessity of holiness : know , that without holiness none shall see the lord : but hence it doth so ill follow , that holiness by way of previous condition , is to be joined unto our faith , in order to our justification , that on the contrary , as god hath elected us in christ jesus to be holy ; so , he also justifieth us through faith in his name , not because we are , but that in , and by him , we may be partakers of the glorious riches of his free grace , in begun holiness here , and consummat holin●ss in glory hereafter ; and hereby is our obligation unto and study of holiness , so far from being remitted ; that it is both promoved , by the same standing fierie law against all sin & ungodliness , and strengthened , by that alsufficiency of grace , which is in christ jesus for our compleating , to whom , through faith , we are united : and lastly , we are bound and encouraged unto it , by all that is most binding in the laws authority , and obliging in divine bounty . to all which , this consideration may also be superadded ; that , as the exercise of holiness remaineth with us , still under the obligation of divine precept , and is certainly the end and effect of our acceptation in gods sight ; so , the same being the necessary consequence , and inseparable effect of beleeving , and thereby becoming its most assured test , must , upon this ground , stirre up as effectually unto the truth and sincerity of faith , whence it flows , and which doth again incite to the sincere , closs , and constant study of holiness , by a reciprocal influence , as your vain stating of it , as a condition in our justification , doth but lamely perswade its persuite . but i hasten to the last part of your discourse , viz. that it is upon the necessity of holiness that we shall be solemnly judged justified and absolved at the last day : i cannot now enlarge upon these mistakes , that are again by you crouded into these few words , it may here suffice , that i tell you , that it is without all doubt , that , on that day , all men shall be solemnly judged , according to the holy law of god ; and therefore seing , by the deeds of the law , there shal no flesh be justifyed in his sight , the righteousness of god , which is by faith of jesus christ unto all , and upon all them that beleeve , without the mixture , or conjunction of our imperfect righteousness , in the often forementioned respect , is only thereby the more recommended . where you say , that it is upon this , so understood , necessity of holiness , or upon our holiness , that we shall be , in that day , solemnly justifyed and absolved ; you erre , and impinge most grosly , contrary to scripture-evidence , the value of christs righteousnesse , the holiness of gods justice , and the glory of free grace . as i have already demonstrat . i grant indeed , that , in that day , when our lord shal gather into one , welcome , and appear glorious in , all beleevers , he will also confess them before his father , and the holy angels , commemorate their charity and good works , and , in the exceding riches of his bountie , reckon his own grace in them , unto the increase of their reward ; but thence to inferre , that it is upon our holiness that we are justifyed , and absolved in gods sight , is destitute of all truth and reason : nay , the very figure of that judgement , wherever represented in scripture , bearing , only , in order to beleevers , their solemne reception and welcome from our lord and saviour , as such , who are already , in him , blessed and justifyed , and by him redeemed and sanctifyed , doth , most plainly , and powerfully confute it . and thus , i hope , i have evidently demonstrat , not in the language of men , or in schoole termes , which on purpose i have declined ; but in the express revelation of the gospel , that , that doctrine of yours , which you make your n. c. only to taxe , as singular in its phrase , and you your self do the more commend , as being closely scriptu●al , is in effect , both vain and antiscriptural , in matter , as well as expression . what you mean by preferring the stile of the catholick church to modern and scholastical expressions , under which the doctrine of all the reformed churches is unavoidably comprised , let others judge : but as for the abuses which you mention , viz. the presumption of such , who love to hear of salvation by the death of christ● provided they be bound to do nothing themselves , that they may be saved : seing there can be nothing more engaging , and effectual unto holiness , then that , which in scripture termes we do assert ; viz. that we are saved , and called with an holy calling , not according to our works , or doings ; but according to his own purpose , and grace , given us in christ jesus , the sin thereof remaineth with the authors , and pure and certain truth , is neither thereby lessened , nor ought to be stumbled at : and therefore having fully redargued the falsehood of your doctrine , and the vanity of all your pretenses , that i may , once for all , vindicat this most precious and important truth , of iustification by faith only , from all calumnie ; and warne all of that delusion , which you would , very unjustly , make proper to our way ; i plainly and positively affirme , that the study of holiness is a most necessary and indispensable dutie , unto the justifyed beleever , . by the necessity of divine precept , at length above declared . . by the necessity of loves constraint ; holiness being both amiable in it self , and the high path way leading unto the seeing and enjoying of god , who therein delights . . by the force of fears perswasion , in regard of gods fatherly displeasure against all sin ; a motive most tenderly perswasive to all , that are truely godly . . by the obligation of gratitude , which is indeed the cords of a man , and cannot but powerfully engage the beleever to the constant acknowledgement of god's free love , and grace , and to walk worthy of him , who hath delivered us from death , and called us with so heavenly a calling . . for the manifestation , to our selves , of our faith , and justifyed state , to our own peace and comfort . . for the adorning of the gospel , to the edification of others ; nay , in a word , if our felicity be in god ; if glory be our desire ; if free grace be the most powerfull attractive , and sufficient help ; and if there be any dread and terror from gods displeasure , the study of holiness , is by the united force of all these motives , most strongly recommended , and by the wonderful free love of god , in our justification , through faith in christ jesus , only yea infinitly intended . in the next place , your n. c. having acquit you of poperie , how justly , or unjustly , i leave it to the reader : you make him say , but are you not , arminians ? and to that i must confess , in the words of your n. c. you answere with so much legerdemain , that you are not easily discovered ; yet these few things are manifest . . that such is the strange extent of this your latitude , that it is more inclineable , and favourable to any sect or partie , then conscientious non-conformists : if you deal with papists , then all their gross idolatries and superstitions , yea and their horrid rebellions and cruelties , are forgotten , and they forsooth , hold the foundation , and only build upon it wood , hay , and stuble : and you earnestly wish for a temper , which , undeniable experience shews , your partie hath endeavoured after , at the rate of a hundred fold more condescendence , then is required to the appeasing of all our complaints : if arminians , come in your way : not one word of all these errors , so highly injurious to the doctrine of the certainty & immutability of gods holy decrees ; of the freeness and efficacie of his grace , of the extent of the merit of christs death ; and to the comfortable truth of the saints perseverance ; nor yet of these disorders and tumults , wherewith , we know , they have infested the reformed churches : but away with these controversies , the itch of multiplying , and canvassing subtill questions , hath proven the chief pest of the church : it is good to be sober-minded : and , thus , we see , they do indeed vent , profess , and seduce , according to their pleasure , whereas , if this your tendernesse of religion , and sober-mindedness , were reall , would not the first more readily teach you , that the departing from the simplicity , and humility of the gospel , hath been the visible inlet to all the wickedness , and darknesse , at this day in the church of rome ? and the second , that in nothing sober-mindednesse , is more sober , then anent imposing upon such , as do really scruple in conscience , things that the lord hath no where commanded : which two , are the hinges of most of these debates , which at present disturbe us . now on the other hand , how you have treated non-conformists , all alongs , i leave it to your own , and every mans obvious reflection : rebellion , hypocrisy , and peevishness , you , falsely , make their ordinary epithets : and for your inclinations towards them , a short look forward exhibits them in verse , wherein , after your approbation of the bloud and fynings , that we have suffered , you melodiously sing . this strange distemper doth all skill defy : physicians hopes still falsify . but as a joint , which gangren doth corrupt , must be cut off , from the sound lump , better the body grow a stump ; then by such members , banckrrupt . and then again , lest such rigour may prove a stain to your christian and catholick latitude , you add a forbearance for us , such as it is , wherein , though your own interest plead for a delay ; yet you can forgive nothing , it is only till brimful be their cup ; then chaffed justice , shall the chaff devour , and angel-reapers bring the iust to heavens floor : this , this , i fear , is the inside of your pretended charity ; and it but too plainly evinces , that all your professed stretches of a faire and comprehensive latitude , are , in their regard to us , but the forced product , of your own conveniencie . . by your opposing to the soveraignity of god , which the arminian opinion doth proudly impugne , his infinite goodness , and holiness , which they make their great pretense ; and declaring , that the reconciling of these attributes is beyond your capacity ; it is evident , by resolving this objection in the common difficulty of the unsearcheablenesse of gods judgements , both by them and by us acknowledged , you take part on their side ; however it is not my purpose to draw you unto debate ; the counsel o● god , though imperscrutable , yet it standeth sure , having this seal , the lord knoweth them that are his : the soveraignity o● god , though part ●●nding ou● ; 〈◊〉 it only so much the more , establisheth the liberty and certainty of his decrees , without all shadow of unrighteousnesse , and in stead of interfering with , doth plainly render , both his goodness and holiness , the more eminent , and glorious : these are the ref●ections , that the apostle maketh upon this subject : pray consider the passage , rom. . where the apostle , after having shewed , that before the children had done any good or evil , god in his free purpose according to election , not of works , but of 〈◊〉 that calleth , preferreth the younger , and passeth by the elder , loving iacob but hating esaw , to vindicate the righteousnesse of god , which is your stumbling , recurreth to his soveraignity , having mercie on whom he will have mercie , and whom he will hardening : and he is so far from conceiving with you , that the soveraignity of god , on the one hand , and his infinite goodness and holiness on the other , are to humane capacity irreconcileable attributes ; that it is from this high soveraignity , that he not only deduceth the excellencies of mercy , and illustrateth the glory of gods power , and wrath ; but rationally answereth , the proud reply of poor clayes carnal arguings against the lord , its infinite maker , and free and absolute disposer . but you say , that you may well take his own oath for it , that he taketh no pleasure in the death of sinners : and so you may indeed very safely , if either you understand it , of the death of sinners , simply and abstractly in it self considered , or with respect to his serious call , to them to repent , and live , as the context of that passage doth hold out ; but if you would thence deny , that god willing to shew his wrath , and to make his power known , purposed from all eternity , to pass by such , on whom he willeth not to shew mercy , enduring with much long● uffering the vessel●s of wrath , fitted to destruction ; you directly contradict the apostle , and all these other scripture-passages , whereby god , and the saints their rejoicings , in the manifestation of his righteous judgements , are clearly holden out . but . wishing to you , and all men , much fear , sobriety , and scripture-simplicitie , in the doctrine of this high mystery of predestination , and not urging further the designed indifference , which , under a faire general , you clearly go about to introduce , for all arminian tenents ; my earnest desire is , that the rule , which you give for a conclusion , may indeed both stint curiosity , and direct practice , viz. let none of our good be ascribed to our selves , and none of our evill be imputed unto god. you proceed to make your n. c. alledge our ministers their jealousies , of this your new way ; that you ma● again appeal to , and make a boast of your fruits ; but since i have , without boasting , abundan●ly searched , and shaken you , and left all to open view ; i also referre the judgem●nt , to that most righteous cognizance . but now , you are wearied of these your wranglings , and therefore you resolve to leave these dry , and arid matters , and talk a little with your n. c. on better subjects . sir , your resolution is just and good ; only transferre not the faults , of your vain , airie , and insipid reasonings , upon the matters themselves by you treated : if you have foolishly and petulantly impugned , not only the work of god , and his covenant , in these lands ; the ordinances , of the government , discipline , and worship of his house ; but also endeavoured to unsetle and subvert the very foundations of justification by faith in christ jesus , without the deeds of the law ; a sent gospel-ministerie , determined sacraments , and christian liberty ; and if your n. c. pretending to be the respondent , hath on the other hand , manifestly betrayed the cause , by such a faint , ridiculous , and absurd defence , as you were pleased to suggest , the folly of this your wrangling remaineth with your self alone ; the matters therein handled , as they continow still to be the firme truths , signal blessings , and especial means given us of god , for the declaring of his glory , and the promoving of our salvation , and are not by your discourse , in the least , prejudged ; so , they are so farre from excusing , that they greatly aggravat these jejune and gustless methods , wherewith you manage this your conference ; but foreseeing this censure , you cunningly cast in our way , the mention of better subjects ; whether with a designe thus to evade , or by your insinuat distinction betwixt the forgoing matters , as dry , and arid , and your subsequent speculations , as these better things , only to be pursued , to drive on the deceit of an irreligious indifferencie , so much at present studied by the adversarie , and his emissaries , let others judge ? two things only i must say . . that to go about to smooth the world , with the pretensions of sublime and seraphick attainments , and , in the mean time , from these hights , as it were , but really , in a convenient accommodation to every guise , whereunto carnal ease doth invite , and outward peace perswade , to slight , despise , and labour to relaxe from , the conscientious observance of these ordinances and midses , which the lord hath given and appointed , as the only way , leading to himself , and the felicity of his favour , is the most delusive appearance of an angelick light , wherewith sathan can possibly palliat his blackest enterprises . . though your subsequent discourse were much more sound and candid , both in its tenor and scope , then truely it is ; yet , therein to figure your self , to be , as it were , a new burning , and shining light , teaching your n. c. in such a strain , as if all of us , whom by him you personat , were wholly ignorant of the truth of religion , both in its methods , and ends ; and altogether strangers to its life , is visibly more disingenuous and arrogant , then sincerely charitable : say not that i am ill natured , if you find these words a little more pointed , it s you that hath sharpened them : nay , if i should assume a furder confidence of boasting , in behalf of the lords ministers , and the true seekers of his face , found amongst us , according to the measure of the grace , which god hath distributed unto us , and even become a fool in glorying , for the abasing of your self-flatterie , i do neither want a just provocation , nor a clear precedent , for my warrant . but seing there are several things by you here proposed , which may be for the use of edifying , to a serious and considerat soul , and wherein a real union would indeed prove a most effectuall corrective , both of sinistruous designes , and evill mixtures ; i shall therefore wave the direct prosecution of such discoveries , and wishing that , that power , light , and life , which is in true and pure religion , may indeed end all our differences , i heartily join my assent to your subsequent discourse , with all the harmony and affection , that truth doth allow . that some do place religion wholly in debates , others in external forms , others in some privat devotions , others in the regulation of the outward man , and others in certain inward speculations , and self-devised strains , are things not so strange , as grievous ; but as to know the father , the only true god , and jesus christ whom he hath sent , is the summe and substance of religion , and eternal life , in which profession we are all agreed ; so , it is the power of this knowledge , descending from christ jesus our wisdom , and apprehending him , for righteousnesse , sanctification , and redemption , which is mostly , and most sadly wanting : if in the conduct thereof , men were abhorring and denying themselves , and in the acknowledgement of him , who hath called us unto glory , and virtue , laying hold on these great and precious promises , which in christ jesus are all yea and amen ; then , from the application of his righteousnesse should the peace of reconciliation , and joy in the holy ghost abound ; from the communication of his life and grace , should the divine seed propagat , and diffuse it self through the whole man ; and from and by this truth , and power of religion , believers should be transformed , into the likeness and image of god , and rendered partakers of the divine nature , by which , it is manifest , that as christ jesus is the only foundation ; so it is , that in him alone , there is salvation , neither is there any other name under heaven given amongst men , whereby we must be saved : the power , as well as the reward , of natures light , was long since forfeited in adam ; and though in the succeeding ages , god left not himself without a witness , in that he did good , and gave the invisible things of him , from the creation of the world , to be clearly seen , being understood by the things that are made , even his eternal power and godhead ; yet , the ungodliness of men still prevailing , and holding the truth in unrighteousness , this weaker light , served only to render them without excuse : 't is true , the patriarchs were burning and shining lights ; but it was from divine revelation , and the oracles , and promises of god , in which they saw christ's day and rejoiced , and not from natures light , that this their radiancy was derived : the dawning opened by moses , had certainly a great splendour , and therein christ jesus , the end of the law for righteousnesse , was very observably held forth ; but as it pleased the lord to vail the glory of this discovery , with many types and shadows , not making it a great ridle , as you do unadvisedly affirme ; but keeping and conducting that people , under the pedagogie of that more burdensome and severe dispensation , until the fulness of the time should come ; so then it was , that he sent forth his own son , a light to lighten the gentiles , and the glory of his people israel ; to bless them , in turning away every one of them , from their iniquities : to turne them from darkness unto light , and from the power of satan unto god , that they might receive forgiveness of sins , and inheritance among them which are sanctifyed , by faith that is in him : & thus our lord jesus abolished death ; and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel : and the great designes thereof not lying in that preposterous in coherent order , by you represented , are first , by proposing to us that stupendious mysterie of the redemption of sinners through jesus christ ; and proclaiming , that whosoever beleeveth on him , shal not perish , but have everlasting life ; to reconcile us enemies , and bring us aliens , nigh unto god ; and then being thus accepted , that in the same lord jesus , we may be filled with all grace , by the spirit of grace , to the knowledge , and acknowledgement of god his wonderful bountie , his unmeasurable love , his glorious holiness , his eternal truth and faithfulness , and unto the exciting , in us● of that ravishing and constraining love , that filial and perswasive fear , and that comforting and joyous hope ; which graces , more and more moulding us into a lively conformity unto him , that loved us , and washed us from our sins , in his own bloud , and is become our life , our light , and our all ; and thereby causing us , to bring forth the fruite , of holiness , meekness , patience , brotherly love , and of all virtues , to the praise of god , are the sweetness , excellency , and delight of grace , here , untill it shall be perfected by , and swallowed up of glory , hereafter : this , this is the work and purpose of the gospel . and seing , it shall availl us nothing , to gain the whole world and lose our own souls , it ought indeed to be the great designe of our lives , to conforme unto it , even to hearken unto the call of god , and by beleeving in christ jesus , that we may be delivered from the wrath to come , to labour to be fou●d in him , not having our own righteousness , which is of the law ; but the righteousness , which is of god by faith ; that so we may know him , and the power of his resurrection , and the fellowship of his sufferings , and still reaching forth , unto these things which are before , press toward the mark , for the prize of the high calling of god , in christ jesus . the way then , to purify and save our souls , is not barely to affect a little virtue , or morality ; nay , nor yet , from our selves , without the mediator , to apply our mindes to god : god not in christ jesus is a consuming fire , the contemplations of his glory , and holiness , instead of deriving , into our souls , his excellent perfections , would but fill them with amazement and horrour : if the externall shew and figure only of this sight , was so terrible even to moses , that he said , i exceedingly fear and quake ; how do you think , that poor sinners can approach ? we are therefore , to apply onr minde unto god ; but , only in and through christ jesus , that by him , obtaining peace , and from him , grace , we may have access , and by faith ( not by speculation only ) have our hearts purified . your precepts of stilness and abstraction of minde , to become of a thinking temper , and give up with passions &c. and use much inward recollection : as by you proposed , for the way to spirituality , without jesus christ , who is the only true way ; are but stoical dreames● and deluding vanities : the awakened sinner , whom sin affrights , and wrath terrifies , findeth no rest nor refuge ; but in christ jesus , and the peace , and favour of god in him ; and being in him accepted , is by his grace purified , and made to partake of that blessedness , pronounced by the procurer of it , blessed are the pure in heart , for they shall see god : and thus with open face , beholding as in a glass , the glory of the lord , he is changed into the same image , from glory to glory , untill that hereafter , he be brought to see him , as he is , and thereby be perfected ; these are the great means , to attain to , and continue in , converse and fellowship with god. if any man love me , saith our lord , he will keep my words , and the father will love him , and we will come unto him , and make our abode with him : and thence , no doubt , it is that , not only all that sweetness of the meditation of god and his attributes , the admiration of his mercie and love in christ , the adoration of his excellencies , and these soul breathings , and continual aspirings toward him , which you here mention , will flow in into the soul , to its constant satisfaction , in an entire submission and delightsome complacencie , in all gods wayes and actings ; but also the beleever will be stirred up , prompted , and animat , in the holy and pure zeal of god's glory , to fight out the good fight of faith , acquit himself strenuously , in that warfare , with the world , sin , and sathan ; wherein now we stand ingaged , and readily to embrace every occasion , whereby he may approve himself unto him , who hath so dearly loved us ; and walk worthy of god , who hath called us unto his kingdom and glory : but to suppose , that a man may think himself into this frame , or by the simple means of that metaphorick ass●●ilation , that is in meer thinking , attain to this divine likeness , is no less groundless , then the active militant state of christians , within time , is ill defined , by your imaginary stilness . now , if any man would understand , wherein the sweetness , that is to be found in divine converse , doth consist ? the stilness , wherewith the minde is overflowed ; the clearness of the judgement , stedfastness of the will , and calmeness of the passions , wherein you place it , are indeed qualities , which do highly advance a man , unto the perfection of his nature ; and the divine touches , that you mention , whereby the soul is sometimes carried unto sublimities not utterable , are also found in the records of christian experience : but the only proper answere , which can be returned , is , o tast and see , that the lord is good ! the unsearcheable treasures of his goodness have no measure ; the excellencies of his glorious perfections , have no parallel ; the poor narrow soul , admitted unto these felicities , by attributing unto god , the very form , essence , and substance of all its pleasure ; and magnifying him , as its alone love , joy , and delight , hath , by these , as by the application of whatsomever else it doth conceive to be amiable and delectable , endeavoured to adumbrat this divine satisfaction : but as the constant result of these ref●ections hath been ever admiration and wonder ; so , a forced silence in that transport , of the spouse her raptures , yea he is altogether lovely , is only its most significant period . what part our affections and passions have , in these enjoyments , it is not needfull to mention ; certainly , god who hath commanded , that we love him , with all the heart , with all the soul , with all the strength , and with all the minde , will both purify and satiat all these capacities . as for your telling us , that sensible passions may be very high , in an impure minde , and of a natural devotion ; specially in a person melancholick , a woman , or hysterical , which may mount very high ; but doth not humble , or purify the minde . i judge it , to be such an unsavorie and little pertinent mixture , that i must expresse my fears , that it doth denote a minde , in your self , little humbled , and less purified : but that which you add , of persons divinely acted their deniedness unto all things , their absolute resignation unto , and intense delight in , and desires toward god , as the blessed effects of the souls union with him , is that which i rather observe . and here indeed it is , and in your declaring self abhorrence , and abnegation , and humble applications of the soul , unto jesus christ , to be that strait passage , and low gate , which is by violence to be entered , for attaining unto that heavenly state , wherein , spiritual solaces here , and immediat divine enjoyments hereafter , do not only compense and swallow up all the preceeding anguish ; but surpass all possible apprehensions of that unconceived glory , that i do most heartily embrace that saving truth , if rightly understood , of faith and repentance , which hitherto i have desiderat . o that in the possession of so great a joy , and the hope of a greater blessedness expected , we would all vigorously set about the duties of a christian life , not intangling our selves with the pollutions of this world , nor with the affaires of this life , how to serve our own lusts and ease , and comply with every device , and invention of men , but enduring hardness , contradiction , reproach , and all persecution , that we may please him , who hath chosen us to be souldiers ! certainly , he whose heart is thus fixed on god , in and through christ jesus , his life and actions will quickly manifest , that he hath not only the forme , but the power of godliness ; his rational and unconcerned contempt of this present world , his hatred of base and debasing lusts , his undervaluing of the things of sense , his well squared and solid indifferencie for all conditions and occurrents ; and lastly , his love of truth , and study of innocencie , and delight in goodness , in all his words , and works , do evidently shew forth the love , and fear of god , to be , as it were , the vital springs of all his thoughts and motions , while self-denyall emptieth , and humility vaileth him , as nothing , and out of the world , the native and genuine lustre of free grace in him , is thereby rendered more conspicuous , and his light , doth the more shine , unto the praise of god , who hath called us unto glory and virtue : he peaceably , and chearfully obeyeth the publick father of his countrey , but only in the lord ; he remembreth and honoureth such , who watch for his soul , who speak unto him the word of god , of these he is a follower , as they are of christ , following their faith , and considering the end of their conversation ; he pursueth charity , as the crown of perfection . be ye therefore perfect , even as your father , which is in heaven is perfect , hath not with him a more commanding authority , then an inviting and soul●a●ishing attraction : hence it is , that as his bounty and beneficence toward men is prompt and unconfined ; so , his obedience toward god is most punctual and circumspect , having respect unto all gods commandments , and esteeming his precepts , concerning all things to be right , and hating every false way ; a latitude of love , and good will toward all men , he heartily acknowledgeth , and rejoiceth in ; but a latitude of compliance with sinful courses , and indifferency , even in the smallest matters of god , under whatsomever pretext , he from his heart abhorreth . these , indeed , are a few of the faire lines , that compose the christians character , by which , as you may see in part , wherein christian religion doth consist ; so , it is too too apparent , that many , who in their vain vaunting of serene and still speculations and high abstractions , do alledge the strickness of conscientious practices , to be but loud pretenses , do themselves sadly and most dangerously , recede from it . o how much is it to be desired , that not only such , but all , would , in their secret retirements , often review and examine their actions , that , discovering their errors and fa●lings , they may be humbled and brought , unto the renewed and more serious exercise of repentance , stirred up by a more lively , and active faith , to lay hold on jesus christ , and from him , and by the power of his grace , quickened to new vigour and alacrity , in the wayes of god! then should the divine love , in christ jesus , inflame and elevat the soul , and captivate the whole powers thereof , unto these pure and free resignations , wherewith god is well pleased ; then should the power of the grace of our lord , mortify sin , overcome temptations , and advance , in every thing acceptable , unto god. and lastly , then should the offerings of our praises to god , for all his mercies , especially for the invaluable and unspeakeable gift of christ jesus , ascend with gladness , and bring back the returnes of more grace , and joy : and our prayers and supplications , in the name of christ , according to the will of god , for all things , that we may be careful in nothing , and for all men , especially for kings , and all that are in authority , that we may lead a quiet , and peaceable life , in all godliness and honesty , should be set forth before him , as incense , and mount up , as the evening sacrifice : and it is , from these heavenly exercises , and the communications of grace , which flow therein , that the heart is firmly fixed and strenthened , to order and do all to the glory of god , and the minde continually bended , by the strong applications of fear and love , to direct all its wayes , as in his sight : and these truely are the frame , and fruits , of inward and secret devotion . as for publick worship , he who considereth it , as commanded by god , for the avowed and more solemn acknowledgement of our dependence upon him , and testifying our union with his church , and that therefore , not only in reason , but also by express precept , it is to be seriously and sincerely performed , with and from the heart , and in that holy and pure manner , which he himself hath prescribed , without the contaminating mixtures of mens presumptuous and vain inventions , will certainly go unto the congregation of the lords people , met together in his name , and sincerely professing thus to seek his face , not out of custome or formality , whereunto , of all things , the devising and imposing of humane forms and modes do most powerfully delude ; but , that he may , jointly with others , cordially adore , and praise his maker , and redeemer , and give , not only an external concurrence , according to the rule and decency of the worship ; but with his soul , and all that is within him , will blesse his holy name , and joine his amen . thus you have my hearts assent , to the truth that i find in your conclusion , my desire to god is , that both you , and we , were by a serious , humble , and holy practice ; and not by talking only , experimenting the solid edification , and pleasure , that lyeth in these heads : if this you had minded more , you and your partie would have been farre from vexing the lords church and people , in these lands , contrary to the word of god , solemn oaths and covenants , established laws , sound reason , and policy , and the general inclinations of all , with that grievous yoke of wicked and pervese prelacie , and these vain and burthensome corruptions , wherewith , in all ages , it hath been attended : which things , as to your own recollected thoughts , they appear to be but extrinseck , and of little moment ; so , pray sir , whence did they proceed ? and what have they produced ? certainly , if either serious reflections upon all the ages of christianity , especially upon these alterations , that have happened amongst us , since the reformation ; or a just consideration , of the present condition , and state of affaires , could have place ; as the pride , and avarice of corrupt church-men , and consequently , of the worst of men , assisted , since the rejection of the pope , with the same irreligious spirit , and practices , observed in former times , of an aspiring supremacie , moving under the specious pretexts of order , and peace , will appear to be the only spring , and cause ; so , ignorance , profanity , violence , and distraction , will be found , the woful fruits of these innovations . but it is of the lord , for the punishment of our iniquities ; especially , our not receiving , and walking worthy , of the glorious gospel , that judgement is farre from us , neither doth justice overtake us , we wait for light , but behold obscurity , for brightness , but we walk in darkness : we look for judgement , but there is none , for salvation , but it is farre from us . the lord see to it , and let his arme bring salvation , and his name be glorified . as for the concluding complement of affection , which you do here give your non-conformist , and make him to repay , at our cost , with the confession of his former unmeasured fury , it is but too palpably the wantonnesse of your own extravagant fancie , wherein to looke for more truth , then you do shew constancie in your resolution , to put a point to these matters controverted , and never to resume them againe , were great weaknesse . you add in words , let us provoke therefore one another to charity and good works , and yet we know your practice to be , to press your trifling conformity , and provoke the powers , against such , as cannot comply : we have indeed a blessed exercise for our tongues , even with them to bless god the father ; but since you do persist , in your maligning the wayes , work , and people of god , your mouth must , and shall be stopt , if the small endeavours , by me used , might make you minde the pursuance of truth more , then the study of your so often repeated temper , my satisfaction would be little inferior to your advantage ; but seing both your words and works , do shew , that thou art neither cold , nor hot ; but lukewarm : i counsel the , in the words of the great counseller , to be zealous therefore , and repent : behold he standeth at the door , and knocketh , if any man hear his voice , and open the door , he will come in to him , and sup with him , and he with him . to him that overcometh , will he grant , to sit with him in his throne ; even as he also overcame , and is set down with his father , in his throne . and thus passing your preposterous postscript , and your icarian pindarick i proceed to your continuation . the continuation , or the seventh dialogue answered . sir , beginning this your seventh dialogue with your ordinary insinuations , whereof the slender artifice , obvious to the first view , needeth no further discovery , i only take notice , that where your preface affirmeth that the true reason of your consenting to the publishing of the former dialogues , was , that since yow had allayed , a great deall of the heat you met with in your n. c. upon these matters , you presumed it might produce the like good effect in others . it is an alledgeance too serious to be groundless , and beyond what the license of the fictitious form of your conferences will allow ; and therefore , since any excess of heat that appeares in your n. c. is not ours , but purely your own invention , your pretense of having allayed it , doth both bewray your vanity , and shew this to be indeed the true cause of the publication . as for the advantages yow reckon upon , yow reckon before your host , reckon again , and then boast of your reason . but you would also be accou●ted a droll forsooth , though you say , you have only adhibite somwhat of that , not out of humour , but for sweetening the transitions , according to the manner of all dialogues ; certainly you latitudinarians are all brave comprehensive spirits , masters of all good qualities , whether you possesse them or not , and yet i dare affirm , that a pleasant humorist , will laugh more at this passage of your conceitedness , then all the drolries that hitherto you have vented . but now begins your half-proselited n. c. and without connexion tells you , that some charge you with socinianisme , others with poprie , others with arminianisme , and others with quakerisme , though as it seems to him upon very slender grounds . sir , what may have moved you , after what we have heard in your sixt dialogue , again in this place to resume these things to so small purpose , i do not conceive . you shew as if you were extremly picked by such reproaches , and tell us , that you know the arts of such , who will tell their people , that you are unsound and heteredox , and back ther hard words , with grave nods and ivry faces . poor man , your passion is stirred , and i am sorry to find you so impotent , as again to relapse in such a childish reflection , whereas to have used it once before was too much and unworthy of your gravity . bu● sure who ever are your accusers , ( who really to me are unknown , ) they have too visible an advantage , in this your weakness ; and if many men be not mistaken , no less ground of retortion in your own scenical gesticulations , and affected grimaces . the thing i am concerned to notice is , why being so sharp in your resentment , are you so scant in your purgation ? you ask , if they do understand things , who charge him with socinianisme , who believeth that christ is the eternal son of god , and hopes for salvation only through his blood . and i grant that these things being truely understood and believed , as i hope you do , are indeed the truth opposite to the socinian errors : but seeing you know that some socinians do also very easily admit , and acknowledge the same form of words , and that the cardinal point of this controversie is , whether or not iesus christ the son of god , be indeed essentially & naturâ deus , according to that scripture , and we are in him , that is true , even in his son iesus christ , this is the true god and eternal life . i wish you had chosen the same positive assertion for your vindication . as for your clearing your self of poprie in the matter of justification , because forsooth , that you ascribe all we receive in this life , and in that to come , to the love and grace of god , thorough iesus christ. it is so far from being a sufficient test of your orthodoxy , that i am confident , there is scarce one understanding papist , who would not say it were a calumny , to charge them with the contrary . nay you your self , in your sexth dialogue do plainly say , that they hold the foundation jesus christ , and expressly wave their opinion of justification , in the enumeration of their errors , which in effect amounts to all by you here asserted ; however , having already at great length handled this purpose , and not loving to vex any with odious names , i shall only adde , that when you shall believe and teach , that christ alone , is our righteousness and peace , and that it is by the faith of jesus christ , and not by the works of the law , that we are justified , then shall you have a good report of all men , and of the truth itself . next you subjoin , that we know that all that calvin and his followers aime at in the matter of arminius his points , is that all our good be ascribed unto god , how then can he be erroneous in this matter , who asserts that ? sir , having already waved these debates , i shall not now resume them , but though i have formerly accorded , and am still perswaded that this general principle , rightly understood and seconded with a sincere practice ; would prove a happie antidote against the arminian errors ; yet i am far from the opinion , that its bare profession , which hardly any other then an atheist will disown , should acquit you as to soundness in these controversies . where you say that calvin aimed at no more , i might tell you , . that that might be true , and yet he and arminius differ in the manner . . it is certain that calvin's aim was farther from scripture-revelation , to vindicat both the soveraignity of god , and the deep mysterie of the divine counsel and decrees , from mens narrow self-devised and presumptuous notions and apprehensions , & also more evidently to defeat the errors of universal redemption and the uncertainty of perseverance bottomed upon the same ground : but since arminius himself and all his followers , would be far from denying god , to be the alone author and fountain of all good , what need of more words , for redarguing such a pitiful vindication . now follows your purgation of quakerisme , which i confess is plain and positive , and i am indeed convinced , ( though ignorant of them ) that the grounds of that accusation , which you are ashamed to name , are in effect ridiculous ; the severity of that mode , is no doubt too strict for yours of the latitude : however it shall still be my wish , that its large comprehension , may not at least include some of the peculiar principles of that sect , which to the discerning of all , that have penetrat into its deeps , you do very justly terme the subtilest device yet broached for the overthrow of the christian religion . to this you adde , but if that spirit be not the womb , from whence all these sects and errors have sprung amongst us , let all that look on judge . pray , sir , what spirit do you meane ; that there is a chasma here is manifest , but whether in the print , as is obvious from the letter , or rather in your brains , as the futility of the reasons subjoined do more evidently perswade , may be very rationally doubted : in the mean time , if for the better examining of your discourse , i may supply the first , i suppose you meane , that the presbyterian spirit is the womb spoken of ; and this you go about to prove , because none fall to them viz. to quakers , as i judge , but such as were formerly most violent in their . i. e. the presbyterian ( for all is here manck and conjectural ) way . but . if you knew how to reason fairly , to give your argument a collour of probability , you should have taken it , not from the falling away of the most violent , which may be the issue of that excess from the soundest profession , but from the most serious in whom the natural tendency of opinions is best discerned . . that the more serious presbyterians do remain stedfast and unbrangled with these delusions , is that which you dar not deny . . even of these most violent that you speak of , the number fallen away is so few , that urged to a condescendency you would be ashamed to reckon them . . your argument , whatever way understood , is no more applicable to presbytery , then to christianity ; nay if such loose reasoning , were of any moment , the thousands of heresies , which the christian religion hath occasioned , should postpone it to paganisme . but you say , though you are sure , that we are far ●nough from being quakers , yet our principles have a natural tendency that way , and for evidence , you demand , whence , think you , have they suckt there rejecting of all forms and order ( under a pretence that the spirit is not to be prelimited ) but from your notions against liturgies and for extemporary heats . 't is answered . . seing that we disprove your imposing of set-forms , and reject your liturgie from solid scripture-grounds , as i have already evinced , the quakers their abuse thereof being the same , whereby they pervert the plainest scriptures , signifieth nothing in your behalf . as for the mention you make of extemporary heats ; though your profane spirit , doth not stick to mock at the true manner of spiritual prayer , so much practised in scripture , and by the people of god in all ages , under this false character , yet i think your own vanity , may make you blush at such a conceited repetition . . if i did not love to exceed in candor , more then you do hate calumny , i could retort to you with very good reason , that it is not so much the very abuse of our grounds against your liturgies , that have deluded the quakers unto the rejection of all form and order , as it is the manifest irreligion of your rigor in imposing , and dead formality in practising of these vain inventions , that have stumbled not only quakers into their fancies , but many thousands into palpable atheisme . next you tell us , that the liberty we take to medle in matters too high for us , and judge of every thing , without thinking on the reverence we owe the church , opens a wide door for their pretensions , to a liberty of the spirit , renouncing all modesty and humility . really , sir , this arguing appeares to me so mean , that i can scarce repete it without blushing , we have heard you frequently object , that our ministers did labour much to ty up the people , in an implicite faith , and here you taxe us for the contrary excess ; if you say , that the fault here mentioned might be true of our ministers , and your former challenge hold of the people , you miss your mark , since you cannot charge our ministers with that falling away which you object ; but why do i trifle ? as you cannot convince our way , either of the excessive liberty or irreverence alledged ; so it is evident , that it is only our not subjecting our faith to your lordly prelacy , and complying with every foolish device of man in the matters of god , that moves your spleen . but you proceed to object , that our humor of separation , begets that giddiness in people , that no wonder they , being shaken from the unity of the church , also stagger through unbeliefe . thus you move every stone that you may reach us ; in former times the rigor of presbytery against separation , was a great clamour , and no doubt , if you had been prelatick in those dayes , you would have made it a far more plausible medium for the same conclusion . and now our constancy to the truth once received , and most solemnly ingaged unto , and our abhorrence of the falshood and perjury of such , who , casting off all fear of god , and regard to their own reputation , either as christians or men , have subverted the righteous and pure constitution of this church , usurped its name and authority , and are turned to be persecutors of such who cannot comply with all this wickedness , is made by you not only a charge of separation , but exaggerat as a preparative to the quakers their folly . o with how much more reason , and undeniable evidence , might the perjurious lightness , and versatile falshood of your prelats and their adherents , who have been carried about by every wind of tentation , be accused as the cause , not only of the quakers their giddiness , by you objected , but of all that contempt and regardless indifferency , whereinto at present , we see religion thereby precipitat . your next quarrell is , that we cherish in our followers , a dejection of mind too much , as if religion , which gives a man a right to the purest joyes , should become a life of doubting , and this , you say , introduceth a spirit of melancholy making way to pretended enthusiasme . whether or not this your challenge doth not in effect coincide with the cavils of the profane world , and directly encourage that spirit , which continually decrieth religion , as a ●our melancholy and inconversable conceit , let every serious soul judge . it is enough for our vindication , that we do not teach any other dejection , then that of humble repentance , mortification and self-denial ; this is indeed a hard work , compared in scripture to the most bitter and grievous mournings , nay unto death it self ; and seeing the superstructure of grace and glory thereupon founded , is exceeding weighty and high , it is certainly very necessary , that these foundations be firmly laid , and ever the deeper the better : but as it is by the power of the spirit of jesus , and in the sense of his wonderful , both depressing and exalting love , that these things are best performed , so an excess of humbling ( if not despairing ) abasement in this matter , is no just fear , and more unjustly made our reproach . as for religion , no question it gives a man a right to the purest joyes , and is also even in this life , attended with a most ravishing foretaste , and a most glorious and satisfying hope : but if in this our bodily estate , the same pure excellency of the thing , and searching discoveries which it makes , do by reason of the enmity of satan , and detestable and yet inevitable importunities and warrings of the world and the flesh , render us necessarily obnoxious to many doubtings , fears and oppositions , against which we are oblidged and by the word commanded to pray , watch , wrestle and fight continually ; do you therefore , because we thus warn , justly accuse us , as if we made religion a life of doubting , let be to countenance these melancholy affectations and pretended enthusiasmes ? sir , if you were as serious in the practice , as you appear affected in the speculations of religion , your experience of the many devices of satan , the deceitfulness of your own heart , the uncessant oppositions of the flesh and spirit , together with the oppressing and grievous sense of a body of death and sin which doth so easily beset , would certainly convince you , not only that security and not doubting is the common bane of professors , but that our brightest shinings of joy in time , are after the saddest shours of mourning , that the most relishing wine of our consolation is made of the water of repentance , that it is from the seed of teares , that the harvest of our joy groweth ; nay that our blessedness here is in a manner wrapped up in mourning , and that it is hereafter only that we are to look for the times of refreshing when we shall be fully comforted : but the lord grant your more reall and solid dejections , and deliver you from the vanity of an airy imagination which both in it self doth bend to , and is frequently in righteousness plagued by these enthusiasmes , wherewith you do reproach us . and thus all men may see , how unjustly we are by you blamed , for the progress that quakerism maketh amongst us ; and how directly , not only that , but most of the irreligion and profanity of these dayes , is chargeable upon your way . to this vindication i could further subjoin a very significant testimony viz. how that king iames , in his first and more innocent years , did make his boast of the constitution of presbyterian government , as the most effectual bulwark against error and heresie , but the certainty of this truth needeth no such support . for your insinuation of piety and love here subjoined , we have so often found the most keen arrowes of your calumny dipped in this oyntment , that i think you oblidged to my civility , when i pass it as one of your poor sweetening transitions . in the next place you license your n. c. to characterize you freely , to the effect that , seeing you are resolved to let him prove nothing , even what is truth in his charge may be construed prejudice : but seeing it hath been my endeavour , so to draw and design in vive collours , that naming would appeare superfluous , i need not prosecute such a representation . as for the answere you return of your brave temper against reproach , apostolick firmness against all reports , your pure anger without sin , and more then humane goodness even to die for your hating traducers , it were folly in me to question the truth , where sincerity alone would be an incredible happiness ; but seeing these elogies are the smoak you cap●at , i grudge you not . you go on , and truly i beleeve with no less candor , to class us , in some sober and modest , and others sour , heady , uncharitable and unsociable : and for the first , yow honour them , great civility , & honour them the more , for their first founder calvin , great wit , and then lest this be taken for a jeer , you tell us that the first being ever presoytery had , was in calvin's brain ; and this you assure , a great evidence indeed ; and verily whether your civility , wit , or evidence be the greater , it were hard to determine ; only as it must be an extraordinary complement , to which a scoffing jest doth make an accession , and an extraordinary jest , to which falshood gives the point , and an extraordinary falshood which both the scriptures , the practice of the first and purest times of the church , and the more judicious and ingenuous of your own partie do redargue ; so questionless in all the three you are eminently singular . now for the second class of us , which you make to consist of narrow headed , hot brain'd , crosse grain'd fanaticks , you must be licensed to use them severely ; and with all my heart use such as you please , only use the whole party and their cause truly , and then i am confident this member of your distinction , will be found but a groundless malicious forgery ; but to confirm it , you remember a passage of one of our preachers , allowing sharpness in defence of the truth , and to check the proud conceit of adversaries , and though it arise most natively from the words , and be clearly verifiable in all times and occasions ; yet , loving to rake in our former divisions , you will have it to be directed against the insolence , forsooth , of the then protesting partie , and to serve as a complete apology for any sharpness you have used : but , sir , as you cannot subsume in the termes of that doctrine , either upon your own defense of the truth , or upon our proud conceit , and consequently do fall short of your designed apology ; so your reflecting upon these differences , wherein you are nothing concerned , being plainly intended for the disgracing of the whole party , doth far more discover your malice , then our infirmities : and therefore to use the words of the text , seeing you use these of the doctrine , although there be mockers with us , and our eye doth continow in their provocation , at which upright men may be astonied , yet let the innocent stir up himself against the hypocrite and the righteous hold on his way , and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger . the next wedge which you set and drive for to divide us , is to tell the world , that our humors and sollies , are not chargeable upon the whole presbyterian party , that the english presbyterians are ●ar beyond us in moderation , as appeares from baxter's disputations on church-government , and all they desired in the late treaty , was to be joyned with the bishops in the exercise of discipline which we refuse . 't is answered , what your opinion is of the whole party , shall not be taken from your fraudulent insinuations , but as these are plainly enough confuted , by your more free expressions in other parts , particularly in your , . dialogue , pag. . where you say , rebellion was the soul of our whole worke , and the covenant the bond thereof , and dial. . p. . where you charge both english and scots , with all the blood of the late war ; so these umbrages of differences , which you alledge , either from a particular person his problematick disputations , or a streatch of accommodation , flowing in a great pressure of necessity from men not by oath tyed with us to this preservation of that where unto they had not actually attained , but only to endeavour a reformation according to the sure rules therein set down , ought not to be either a matter of stumbling , or an excuse to your deceit . but now forgetting your distinction , with the same breath you exhibite one of your former charges against us all in these words , before the late dissorders , all the presbyterians in scotland , did sit in the courts for church-discipline , and why may not you aswel do the like ; and to this you make your n. c. answere upon the old legal establishment then standing , and never rescinded untill the year . . on purpose that you may surprise him , as you speake , with a new discovery forsooth of an act published , and printed now years ago , whereby you say , the act. . s●tling presbytery , was expresly annulled , and hereupon you pretend such amazement , and do make such exclamations upon our disingenuous forgery , or intolerable ignorance and groundless and presumptuous shisme , that this whole passage , saving your reverence , doth plainly appeare to me to be but the schareleton tricks of a pitiful impostor . for , . i told you before upon your . . di●l ( where i confess i waved this matter as not worthy the answering ) that the reason of our different practice now in order to your meetings , from what was used formerly , is plainly this , that prelacy , being at first introduced in this church mostly by cunning , and a lent procedure , our true presbyteries were not thereby discontinued , but only injuriously invaded and usurped upon ; of which practices , any honest minister being free , and purging himself of all appearance of accession , by open protestation , might very lawfully sit still , and serve his master therein : but in the late overturning , all things being carried at a far different rate , and not only the old presbyteries distol●ed , but a new foundation being laid , of the kings supremacy , and all the power and jurisdiction of this church therein fountained , and both bishops and the present pretended presbyteries , thereon founded , it is most manifest , that your present meetings , being no lawful church● in●sicatories , are not to be countenanced by any true minister of jesus christ. . you make your . n. c. lay claime to a legal establishment , as a necessary warrant to impower ministers to meet in ecclesiastick-courts , whereas you know , that although we judge magistrats bound to give christs church the assistance and protection of their authority and laws , yet we constantly hold the power of assembling , as well as of discipline , to be intrinseck in the church , derived unto it from jesus christ its head , and this is certainly a jus divinum , to which all true non-conformists do constantly adhere , and which your . n. c. doth very foolishly and weakly omit . . the noise you make , that it is in all our mouths that the law for pres●yteries , was in force untill the year . ( which for my own part , i may declare , i never either thought or heard alledged , as the account of the different practice wherewith you here urge us ) and your pretended surprise , and vain account of being undeceived , by a person of great honour who shewed you the act. . ( which i hardly believe , that there is any in scotland of your coa● ignorant of ) what do they signify , but the dress of a ridiculous fable , to impose upon the simple to our prejudice ? . if the matter were worth the contending for , i could shew you , that , that person of great honour , is not much oblidged to your report for the credit of his knowledge , in as much as your words do import that both he and you do understand the act. . setling presbytery , to have been by the act . totally rescinded , and presbyteries thereby totally disolved ; whereas the clause of the act runneth verbatim thus , annulling and rescinding the act. parl. . aud all and whatsomever acts , laws , ordinances and customes , in so far as they or any part thereof are contrary or derogatory unto the articles above written , so that there being no article or provision in the act. . making void the approbation , given to the being and meetings of presbyteries by the . ( although i grant their power and priviledges , are thereby much diminished ) it is evident , that the power of meeting , and doing all other things , not altered by the posterior , did still remain allowed to presbyteries by vertue of the prior . say not that the first part of the abovementioned rescissory clause , relative to the act. . is simple , and doth there terminat , as i heard once affirmed by one of your party , not , 't is like , of so great honour as your informer , but , i am sure , in this point , of more knowledge then your self , who proving it by the point ordinarily set after the figures of the year of god , would have the following restriction , only to concerne the acts and lawes generally annulled . but as it is evident , that the point maketh no period , and protestant religion contained in that act. . should be vacated and annulled ; so the obvious tenor of the words , together with the sense of the parl. anno. . who in the new establishment of your prelacy , did judge it convenient to the grounds therein laid down , to rescind de novo , that old act , in all its heads , clauses and articles , whatever might be the consequence , do abundantly elide this conceit . however i do again tell you , that our consciences , in this matter , are better founded , and not squared to such mutable rules : and , therefore , seeing our grounds are firme and stable , let me in the words of your own exhortation , obtest you and your party to consider your way better , cease from your persecution , repent of your apostasy and usurpation , and return into favour with god and union with us . now follows a childish quarrel between you and your n. c. anent the tenderness of your love and prayers in our behalf , above that measure which we use towards you , and . you say , wo should be to you and you n. c. if the love of god to you did appear in such effects as the love of some of ours doth , the invidious strain of their prayers being universally , that god would bring you down , destroy the incorrigible , and shew the rest the evill of there defection : but , you say , how would we take it , if you should pray , that god would destroy our party , and shew us the evill of our rebellion , and other wicked courses . 't is answered , . seeing that wo shall certainly be unto all such , and they are far from the love of god , who are incorrigible , that god by making manifest his righteous judgments , would glorify his own name , and deliver his church from such adversaries , is a prayer clearly warranted , both from the word , and the practice of the saints , nor is it in the least discordant , from that christian charity , whereby i am really moved , earnestly to desire the lord to deliver you and all both from the thing , and its punishment . . that god would bring down the proud that exalt themselves against jesus christ , and give repentance to backsliders , is a prayer so agreeable to the will of god , and full of love to the persons prayed for , that i am certain , whatever may be said against our principles , which i remit to the impartial discerner , yet our practice in this , as being both tenderly christian , and fairly consequent , cannot but be approven . . mistake not , if you should pray for us , in the same strain , we might possibly , and with great reason , account it an aggravation of the evils of your other principles and practices : but we are not so narrow , as to construe it a particular breach of charity : nay for my part , as i would think it rationally consequent , so , abstracting from the errors which it suppos●th , i would take it for the greatest testimony both of your zeal toward god , and love toward us . but if i may use a little freedome , why do you please your self so much in vain talk ? though we hear not many of your prayers , yet , i am sure , all know , that we want not plenty of matter and instances for a retortion , in what termes soever you please to frame your challenge : are we so short in memory , as not to remember how your pulpits sounded , both in preaching and prayer , after the late rising , and that not only against these poor broken innocents , but in such a manner against our whole party , as , by false and fierce accusing of all without distinction , might almost have excused in them the like attempt , to save from that fury that thundered every where ? if you would have any latter and more particular instances , pray inquire after the b. of st. andrew's sermons , specially that preached by him the of jan. . and the other before the last parliament : you complain of the severe stile of our prayers , he , good man , being ill satisfied , with such soft and a●rie tooles , and having passionately fumed out a most bitter invective against our presbyterian ministers , not long since his brethren and benefactors , did very agreeably close it in these words , these are circumforaneous demagogues , acted by a spirit , otherwise to be cast out then by fasting and prayer . but what need i mention your prayers , when indeed many of your practices have most visibly been such , as may justly make your fairest words suspected of the deepest dissimulation . i know some of you have a fashion of praying , that god would unite this poor church , and heall our breaches : but if that be all the evidence you can bring , to shew the healing and peaceable spirit to be on your side . pray tell me , why the church of rome , that may boast as much of the same formula , may not as justly pretend to it ? i might further adde , that it appears to be no extraordinary merit for such as are countenanced by the powers , and do idolize peace and ease , to wish for an union with any whom they apprehend to be their opposits , and that perhaps the more sober amongst you , for all their compliance under the tentation , yet are not so far abandoned , as that they dare in gods sight justifie there defection , and pray against the party and courses , which they know they did not desert , from any conscientious conviction . but i have insisted too long on so poor a subject , and i can in your own words assure you , that we are not only ready to unite with you , but are extremly , though not implicitly , desirous of it ; and do therefore dayly pray , that god would open your eyes , reclaim you from your backslidings , and grant unto us union and peace , in truth , to his glory . this is the accommodation , that is only desireable , if you pursue any other , i am certain , that , however it may be consonant to your designes , yet it is altogether dissonant from your pro●ession ; and therefore , if we be more rational and upright , to hate all sinfull accomodation , and rather to wish that our differences may stand , and be perpetuat in the behalf of truth , then cemented by a sinful compliance , wherein are we to be reprehended ? now that this is all that we teach in this matter , the same books which you referre to , do testify ; and that it is none other , then the very doctrine of the school of christ , the frequent scripture-injunctions to the defence of , and stedfastness in the truth , with the commands of a just opposition to , and avoiding of every false way and its promoters , do sufficiently evince . but you adde , let all men judge , if there be not a bitterness in the preface to mas●er rutherfoords letters , the apologetical narration , and naphtali , unsampled in any satire , let be grave and christian writing . sir , since you are pleased to ingage me into particular vindications , i answer , that , seeing the plainness of truth hath alwayes been an unsufferable bitterness to all perverse spirits , this your reflection doth not deserve any special notice , if i were inclined to retort , it were not more easie for me , then evident to say in your own words , and let all men judge , if there be not a subtile poisonous malice , in your few dialogues , above all the pretended bitterness against which you clamour : but , seeing these writings , that you here mention , are not only too clearly warranted by undeniable truth , but manifestly approven by scripture-practice , and almost stile , in the like cases of backsliding and apostasy , your charging them with a bitterness unsampled in any satire , hath a higher tendency then probably you did advert unto . but you proceed , and what cursed doctrine is it naphtali broacheth , concerning private persons their punishing of crimes in case of the supinnesse of the magistrat ? pray , sir , what is it ? for really i am of the opinion , that , notwithstanding of your insinuat supposition , the thing is only notour to your self . we finde indeed , that naphtali , respecting the order and subordination of ends , viz. the glory of god in the first place , the good of the whole society , wherein the safety of the particular members is included in the next place , and thirdly , the maintenance of government and governours , for the procuring of these other ends , doth accordingly determine the obligation and duty of subjects ; and as from this principle , both he and many others do , in the case of intolerable and inevitable oppression , allow , even to the smaller part , the right of self-defence ; so , in the case of notorious rebellion against god , and perversion of his righteous lawes , he , by an inference as much stronger and clearer in this case , then in that , as the indearing importance of the matter , viz. the glory of god and the salvation of souls , is greater then that of our perishing lives and fortunes , and a manifest revolt from god and open overturning of his work , is a more enforcing exigence then any necessity can be pleaded for self-defence , the principal grounds of that privilege , proceedeth to assert , to these small or great , few or many whom the lord stirreth up in the ceasing and failing of other means , the power and right of reformation ; and thence , by way of anticipation of an objection , he goeth on to shew , that the deed of phineas may not be made a cavill , and that the samine , being only an heroick stretch of his more fervent zeal , and not an extraordinary act by reason of any special express warrant , may , both for encouraging unto , and justifying the like practices , very justly be regarded as an imitable example : but as for your blunt and uncautioned general , viz. that private persons may punish crimes in case of the supinness of the magistrat , i am confident who ever peruseth that whole passage in naphtali , will find it no less calumnious on your part , then it is remote from the account that i have exhibited , now , if you remain still of the opinion , that even the doctrine , by me acknowledged for naphtali's , is accursed , when you shall have answered the reasons and scriptures by which he confirms it , and particularly the command given , deut. . v. , , , . with the examples of phineas executing judgment without legal process , saul's souldiers rescuing ionathan from the kings injustice , elijah killing saul's priests , not by any special command mentioned , in the presence of the king , without his leave , as the king himself narrates it , kings , . and azariah with fourscore valiant priests , their resisting uziah in his proud usurpation , all of them less or more dependent , upon the forementioned position , it will be seasonable for me to reply . it is true , one o● your party hath been at the pains to survey naphtali , and particularly , and at great length , the points above mentioned , whether with candor , or with clamor , by strong and sound reason , or by carping , wresting and falsifying sophistry , i leave it to others to examine . only when i consider , that where , in the beginning , naphtali doth treate of thir matt●rs , he doth it expressly and tru●ly by way of narrative from the doctrine and practices of our first reformers , and that with a very observable caution and moderation , and that when in the end he doth resume this purpose , he carrieth on his assertion , from most simple and evident principles , by a very rational and pe●spicuous connexion , to the conclusion designed , i do indeed ma●vel at the method wherewith i find him treated : but waving g●neral vind●cations , seeing your whole party as well as your self , do not a little talk of naphtali his making use of that instance of phineas , and do think , by the inferences which you thence make , to render the truth odious , it will not be amiss that i enlarge a little on this subject . and first i say , that the fact of phineas appeares to me , not to have been extraordinary , or to have proceeded upon any particular commission to him given , but plainly to be such , whereunto in its then-proper circumstances , any one of the congregation was equally warranted , and which in the like exigence , hath still a laudable use for imitation . if you inquire my reasons , there can be none more convincing , then the scripture account of this matter , israel in shittim , joines himself unto baal-peor , and the anger of the lord being therefore kindled , the judges are commanded to slay every one his men that were joined unto baal-peor ; yet the plague by this execution is not stayed , and the whole congregation are weeping before the door of the tabernacle , when , behold , even in there sight about such an exercise , because of a destroying plague raging in the camp , a man of israel in his most impudent wickedness cometh , bringing a midian●tish woman unto his brethren , which phineas perceiving , he riseth up from among the congregation ( tanquam quilibet ) taketh a javelin , and going in after the israelite brevi manu , in the very act , thrusteth both the man and the woman thorow , and so the plague was stayed , and the lord saith unto moses , phineas hath turned my wrath away from the children of israel , while he was zealous for my sake among them , wherefore , behold , i give unto him my covenant of peace and thus numb . . which the spirit of the lord again commemorating . psal. . describeth in these words , then stood up phineas , and executed judgment , and so the plague was stared ; and that was compted to him for righteousnesse , unto all generations for evermore ; by which scriptures this deed , in it self upon the matter agreeable unto a positive and clear command , being represented , as proceeding , in the author , not from any special call from god , or command from moses , whereof there is not the least vestige in the text , but from the alone impulse of an holy and fervent zeal , exciting him to stand up to execute judgment , and therefore counted to him for righteousnesse , &c. if these be not the undeniable circumstances and characters of a deed only in the manner heroick , and which any person in that congregation , acting from the same sincere zeal of god , might without any particular warrant have performed with equall acceptance , let all ingenuous men judge . . i say that whatever capacity may be attribute to phineas , as the son of eleazar then high priest , ( which indeed is all we find in scripture concerning him preceeding this time ) or upon the ground of any other conjecture ; yet the samine doth no wayes make out , that this deed was an act of ordinary administration , and consequently deprives not naphtali , of its pertinent application , in as much as it is evident , that phineas did not do this deed , either by vertue and using the power of any authority , wherewith possibly he might have been vested , or yet by moses his order , or command , but simply from the motive , of that sincere and high measure of zeal whereby , without waiting the command of the superior magistrat , or observing a legal procedure , he was suddenly acted in such a flagrant , and openly provoking wickednesse , immediatly to interpose and execute judgment ; and therefore we see , that as nather by moses his command , nor by the judges there obedience , in slaying every one his men that were guiltie , the fierce anger of the lord was turned away ; so it was only by phineas his fact , as being of another nature , and his eminent zeal appearing & prompting him in such a manner that the lord was appeased , & the plague stayed . and really when i observe , that it is in the readinesse and fervor of phineas , his zeal transporting him , as it were , to the omission of the ordinary solemnities of judgment , for the punishing of such a manifest and provoking villany , that the spirit of the lord seemeth to place the high and singular praise of this action , i cannot but equally admire , how that any person , should either attribute it to an extraordinary command , or account it an act of common obedience to moses , or yet of ordinary jurisdiction . . i say , that although in certain particular cases , such as abraham his stretching out his hand to slay his son , the israelits there borrowing to the spoiling of the egyptians , and samsons killing of himself with the philistines , all obviously interfering with the general commands contained in the law , where an express warrant is not recorded , the samine may , and ought to be supposed ; yet where the deed is in substance agreeable to the precept , and the apparent singularity of any circumstance remitigated by another extraordinary occurrent , and where the performance is expressly ascribed to the actors zeal or fortitude , and not the least mention made of any special command , there , to recurre to tacite warrants , is altogether groundless . if this the author of the survey had adverted to , he could not in the pursuance of his alledgeance , that the soveraigne god can cross ordinary rules , and appoint some to execute his judgments extraordinarily , wherein they are not to be followed without the same special commission ( a truth which we do not controvert ) have thereto subjoined examples so widely different , as moses his killing the egyptian which having vengeance admixed over and above the quality of the israelits defence , is by scripture referred to an express warrant act. . , . ehud's killing of eglon , which on the other hand was without all question lawful to any israelite against such an oppressor , elias his destroying of the fifties with fire from heaven , which no doubt doth not more upon the matter require , then by its extraordinary manner it is witnessed to have had an special command , his killing of baal's priests , which on the other part i do nothing question , to have been only a noble act of executing gods judgment , which a wretched uxorious prince fearing to do , the people themselves might lawfully have done : abraham going to kill issac , which is plainly and particularly commanded , david's ingaging in duell with goliah as i judge , which any in the camp of israel might laudably with the same permission have undertaken , and lastly samson's killing ( not murthering , as he inadvertently speaks ) of the philistines with himself , which for the reason above assigned did certainly proceed upon a particular license . but the surveyer's design in this so inconsistent a mixture is evident , viz. that having premised so many , part pertinent , part impertinent examples to his position , he might with the lesse observation adde the lords stirring up of phineas as a suteable instance , whereas it is obvious , that the same is not more unlike to the cases of abraham , moses , samson & elias with the fifties , then it justly quadrats to that other of elias against baal's priests , & both this & these of ehud & david , are nothing referable to the ground he layeth down , but do plainly proceed by vertue only of general rules taking place in there respective exigences without the necessity ( what ever message ehud de facto had ) of any special commission . . i say , that phineas his fact , was indeed a stretch beyond the line of his ordinary vocation , but so far from importing upon this ground the necessity of a special warrant , that as the scripture doth clearly impute this his transport to the rare measure of his zeal , inflaming him in a manner to the present execution of a just vengeance upon such a detestable abomination ; so it doth no lesse evidently hold forth how that particular and extraordinary exigences de facto occurring , the very common principles of duty , may , without a special extraordinary warrant , carrie to singular performances . and thus we are arrived at the main point , whereunto this example of phineas is by naphtali applyed , and about which both the surveyer , and you do raise such a noise , and yet in effect the matter doth contain no greater difficulty in thesi , then that which is fully satisfied and removed by the most common and ordinary distinction of a mans calling unto that which is proper and particular , whereunto in the ordinary course of things , he is regularly and commonly confined , and unto that which is general , which not being circumscribed by any particular rule , doth , from the common obligation of the end for which all particular stations are institute , in the clear exigence of an extraordinary incident according to the general rules of righteousnesse bind , to an agreeable practice . i know naphtali in his tenderness to offend for preventing of mistakes , insinuates severall distinctions and subdistinctions , whereby an action heroick , and a call thereto , may be discerned from that which properly and strictly is termed extraordinary , and its call , and that the surveyer in his rambling way , by proponing the distinction of acts heroical and extraordinary to consist in this , viz. that acts heroical do not deviat from the common rules of vertue , but differ only from its common acts quoad modum perfectiorem , whereas acts extraordinary go beyond ordinary rules and are founded upon special warrant , goes about to impugne naphtali in that wherein they both agree . but seeing that all the difficulty of these distinctions , as i have said , is very easily and plainly resolved by these several aptitudes of a person in order to a commanded performance , which depending upon circumstances , may be thereby so diversified , that what in the ordinary and unperturbed condition of things would be accounted an excesse of our particular calling and an usurpation , in an e●●●aordinary occurrence becometh a necessary duty of our general calling , and seeing the certainty and usefulness of this distinction , according to the continual variety of humane affaires , may be undeniably instanced in thousands of experiences , and particularly in that more ready then regular concurrence , which we see practised in the case of fire , or any such surprising calamity , the more zealous then orderly interposition which all men would allow to a son , even in the presence of a righteous magistrat , for preventing or staying a sudden outrage intended against his fathers person , that resentment of justus dolor , which the common law indulges to a husband against his wife and an adulterer found in the act in his own house , and in many such cases , i think , i say , that these things considered without pursuing any further inquiry , i may from the grounds already laid down fairly conclude , that as phineas his fact was not extraordinary in respect of any special warrant , neither probable nor necessary in this subject , but a pure product of that large measure of holy zeal wherewith he was endued , and whereunto all men ought to aspire : so there may be certain exigences of the glory of god , which tristing with a suteable degree of the same zeall without waiting the consent of a godly , far more without regarding the opposition of an ungodly magistrat , may , upon the general grounds and obligations to righteousnesse , lawfully provoke and excite to convenient action . now , if it be objected , that this conclusion being only general , allowing the power , but not defining what is the exigence requisite to its exercise , may more readily prove a snare and an offence , then conduce to any good purpose , it is answered . that seing my undertaking was , to vindicat the scripture truth of phineas his deed , recorded for our instruction , from mens mistakes , and naphtali from their calumny , if i thence rationally elicite the inference made , the accidental hazard of mens misapplication , flowing from their own weakness and corruption , cannot more properly be charged upon naphtali , then vpon his surveyer ; but it is in effect an inconvenience , which all are concerned to explicate . . i freely acknowledge that such is the fervour of corrupt passion , far more rapid , almost in all , then the pure zeal of god is to be found active in any , that too much caution , tenderness and fear , can scarce be adhibite in a subject , wherein even the most warrantable provocation of holy zeal is ordinarily attended , with such a concurrence of self-interest and other carnal temptations , as it is impossible without the signal assistance of the spirit of grace , to have its exercise , in any notable measure or manner , without the mixture of a sinful allay , beside the evil of ill example , whereunto , it may be very readily and most pernicio●sly drawn ; and therefore seing the consideration , resulting from the concurrence of all circumstances , whereupon the right dignoscing of such deeds doth mostly depend , is oftentimes most difficult , and delicate , the more easie and safe course , and best use of this whole doctrine , is rather to give judgment upon a case of that nature , when actually existent , and its whole contexture exposed to certain examination , then to set down general rules directive of such practices , but . as the lord hath delivered unto us the rules of righteousness , in themselves certain and evident , and absolutely comprehensive of all cases incident , so he , who knoweth and doth the same , is no doubt of a good understanding , and whose heart is sound in the lords statutes , walking therein continually in fear , humility and uprightness , he walketh surely and shall not be aehamed ; the law of the lord is perfect converting the soul , the testimonie of the lord is sure , making wise the simple , the statutes of the lord are right , rejoycing the heart , the commandment of the lord is pure , enlightening the eyes . here is the complete and fixed rule , and who so taketh heed thereto diligently , in faith and fear , is not only fitted and prepared for all ordinary duty , but thorowly furnished unto all good works . it is true , that in all heroick , and more elevat acts , beside the rule and common vertue whence it flowes , we do find the exciting and impelling motions of the spirit frequently mentioned , as customary and necessary thereto ; but seing unto every righteous performance , the assistance of grace is requisite , and the impulse and excitation mentioned is nothing else but a greater measure of that assisting grace , which the extraordinariness of the case , and the difficulties therein occurring , do call for , and , at most , doth only determine to the species ( as lawyers speak ) of the action ; but it is not at all its rule and warrant , the interveening of such motions dot not alter the rule , or restrict its obligation , nor yet hinder the action so performed , to be to all an imitable example . that actions following from and depending upon special antecedent commands , which , for the most part , are singular in their matter , as well as in their manner , are not to be taken for examples , is very readily confessed : but that an extraordinary motion , first supposing duty , and in the next place only requisite and given because of some uneasiness in the execution , should restrict the duty in general to the person so gifted , when the same or the like measure of assisting grace is rather to be by all desired , is not at all agreeable . i say first , supposing duty ; for , that great gi●ts , or strong impulses are not the rule of duty either under an ordinary or extraordinary exigence , much less do give men a call to go beyond the rules of their calling ( as the surveyer captiously alledgeth naphtali to suggest ) is by me heartily conceeded , as a very important point for clearing the truth which i maintain : that which only remains to be adverted to is , that although these singular motions and impulses be indeed subsequent & subservient , both to the rule of duty , & to a mans calling resulting therefrom , and from the circumstances wherein he is stated ; yet , they seem to have such a peculiar determining influence in these heroick performances , as to the species of the action , that it is not so much the particular deed , that we are to heed for our imitation , as we are to emula● the grace and principle of zeal , which produceth it , and is therein so conspicuously relucent , for our upstirring to acts in like manner , as god shall give us the opportunity . from all which it is obvious , that as it is the opportunity , res facti , and the assistent motion of the lord's spirit , which chiefly do determine , by way of excitation , as to the particular species of an heroick enterprise ; so , it is only from the known and immoveable law of god , and the nature of the occasion , wherein the samine doth take place , & from which two our calling doth proceed , that the obligation of phineas his deed , and of all other the like practices , doth descend , and according whereunto they are to be examined , and in their conformity thereto be proposed for imitation these things then being thus explained , i shall take leave to lengthen this digression a little further , for the removing the surveyer his calumnies and objections against naphtali on this point . and first , he saith , that naphtali by adducing the instance of phineas , for the patrociny of such , whom he would have esteemed , as having acted from the like warrant and principle , maketh every man judge in his own privat discretion , to fall in hand with such practices , and consequently giveth leave to all or any , upon pretense , or because he thinketh that rulers have fallen into apostasie , by any means to cut them off . but . if phineas his fact be indeed such , and of use for imitation , as i have already proven , the perversness of the surveyer's malignity , is not so much levelled against naphtali , as against the very scriptures of truth , whence his doctrine is taken . where doth naphtali allow mens private judgment and discretion to be their warrant in such practices ? that every man doth de facto judge , and practise according to his own private discretion , is indeed no more requisite to the procedure of rational agents , then , because of mans ignorance and corruption , it hath both in matters of this kinde , and all other matters of truth and righteousnesse , been the sad productive of many great inconveniences ; and if , for such inconveniences , the sure rules of truth and righteousnesse must be altered , i am certain , as there is nothing truth , either in natures light or scripture revelation , which hath , through mans abuse , produced so many and so sad evils , as that of the power of , and submission due to soveraignity , which almost every where , and in all ages hath been perverted unto tyranny and oppression , and , for one instance of disorder or sedition that , can be charged upon popular liberty , is attended with thousands of far greater extravagancies ; so the surveyer & his party of all men ought to be most sparing in the sophistry of such objections : but seing naphtali alloweth no other judges de jure , save these unerring rules , which the lord hath appointed , this fallacy which the surveyer doth continually and most foolishly beat upon , thorow all his survey , alledging still where naph . alloweth to rational men a discerning facultie , ( without which it is most certain , that nather reason nor morality can subsist ) that therefore he doth set up this judgment of discretio● to be the only dictat of righteousnesse , is by that most notour and obvious distinction , of the last result of the practical judgment from the fixed rule of righteousnesse , unanswerably refuted , it being thereby manifest , that , as the former is , de facto , the necessary interveinent medium of application to every moral action ; so , the later is that , by which , de jure , both the judgment it self , and the action thence ensuing , ought to be regula● and judged , and without either turning the use of our discerning , unto an implicite and stupid deference and submission , or exauctorating the rules of righteousnesse , by a lawless licentious liberty . . the surveyer urgeth naphtali with another calumny ; and that is , that although naphtali doth alledge , that he holdeth not such instances as that of phineas for regular precedents , for all times and persons ; yet he giveth no caution against the false pretense of heroical excitations , it is easie to raise the divell , but not so to lay him ; if he could set down rules to bar a headie people from tumult and confusion , he would say something to satisfaction . but . is not his declaring such instances to be no regular precedent , but restricting their imitation to the cases of extreme necessity , or the like manifest exigence , a very considerable caution . . naphtali doth so plainly require , not only that the matter of the action be just and lawful , and of it self natively and really conducing to the glory of god , but , in an evident necessity , formally intended by the actor from a spirit of holy zeal , wrought and excited by the lord , with whom is the residue of the spirit , & who thereby breatheth upon people and persons , when and as he listeth , that i marvel how the surveyer was not ashamed to contradict so clear an evidence● but if he say all these things may be pretended , where they are not , and for this there is no caution given . 't is answered , seing it is impossible to adhibite a better caution against hypocritical shewes , then the touchstone of truth , whereby they are to be tryed , and the abuse of lying pretensions is incident unto the most evident and certain duties , naphtali , requiring truth and reality , and not admitting mens delusions , and imaginations , cannot be herewith justly charged ; but , the truth is , the surveyers whole representation of naphtali in this matter is so foully calumnious , that , without following him further , i shall content my self briefly to review the objections , which he maketh against the doctrine delivered , anent the imitableness of phineas his act , where finding himself caught by scripture-evidence , how with disjointed reasons , and lame testimonies , he strangely tosseth and turneth himself for an issue , the impartial eye , in his eight particular answers to naphtali subjoined , will easily discern . and. . he doubteth if phineas was a private person , and thence doth groundlesly pretend the warrant of his ordinary calling , as to the fact controverted . . departing from this , upon the supposition that he was a private person , he , without any reason , insinuateth from moses his being present in that great assembly of the people , and his after-approving of the deed , that therefore it was done by his authority and command . he impertinently differenceth the case of israels sin , from that of our present backsliding , whereas ( waving the too manifest parity of our present open rebellion against the lord , usurping his kingdom , changing his ordinances , and filling the land both with the idolatry of poperie and all leudnesse , to the then horrible idolatry and villanous whoredome , wherein he places israels sin ) the main disparity of a then godly magistrat , is naph . undeniable advantage . . he falsly , and inconsistently with his former grounds , alledgeth , that phineas acted by special commission , of which the scripture is not only silent , but doth very significantly intimate the contrary , as we have heard . . he foolishly cautioneth , that actions specially warranted , are not for common rules , to which i freely adde , that not only such , but even these , which are special from the sole reason of their singular exigence , are not to be drawn to common example . . he needlesly quarrelleth , anent the distinction of acts heroical and extraordinary , and misconstruing the lords approbation of phineas , numb . . he plainly wresteth the elogie . psal. . and that was counted unto him for righteousnesse , as if its emphasis were not the rare commendation of the deed , but that otherwise it might have been imputed to him for sin , unto an inconcludent inference of a special command and calling . . he calumniously asserteth , that naphtali holds great gifts , and secret impulses to be a sufficient call for men to go beyond the ordinary rules , which god hath set to them in their callings , whereas , all we find in naphtali is , that joyning a zealous excitation to the lords command , in an exigence of extreme necessity , he thereof , for superabundance , maketh up a sufficient call to the heroick action thereon ensuing , and. . and lastly , he grosly perverteth the question , as if any of us did affirme , that we have warrant now to look for extraordinary persons , having gods special and secret mandat to do works , which neither reason nor scripture do warrant , when , on the contrary , naph . labours mainly , to show , that even phineas had no such character . now that these are the surveyers reflections upon this fact of phineas , and this their successe , the perusal of his papers with what i have here said doth aboundantly cleare . it remains , in the next place , that i declare , how that , as naphtali's doctrine , here vindicated , is by him only narrativè delivered from the records of our first reformation ; so , the samine is there truely and more fully to be found ; and that master knox and our worthy reformers were of the same opinion , as to the instance controverted , and from the ground thereof did give a resolution , in a case far more debatable , then that of naphlali , the following passage may evence . in the year the queen having emitted a proclamation against the mass , and yet conniving thereat , and the kingdom being visited by an universal death , which master knox sayes , was for the idolatry of our wicked rulers , and our ingratitude , that suffered them again to defile the land with that abomination , the brethren generally offended , determined to put to their own hands , and to punish , for example to others , and so they practised on some , and made intimation to the rest . the queen offended here at , sendeth for master knox , and dealeth with him earnestly , to perswade the people , and principally the genlemen of the west , not to put to their hands to punish papists . master knox , on the other hand , exhorteth her to execute justice , which , if she omitted , he feared some would let the papists understand , that they should not be suffered so manifestly to offend without punishment . to this the queen answereth , will yow allow ●that they shall take my sword in their hand ? now observe his reply the sword of justice , madam , is gods , and is given to princes and rulers for one end , which if they transgress , sparing the wicked and oppressing the innocents , they , that in the fear of god execute judgment where god hath commanded , offend not god , although kings do it not ; nather yet sin they , that bridle kings to strike innocent men in their rage , the examples of samuel s●aying agag , elias jezabels prophets , and phineas , zimri and cozbi are evident . and so , madam , your majestie may see , that others then cheif magistrats have lawfully punished , and may punish , the crimes that god commands to be punished . by which discourse it is evident , as the sun light , that naphtali in place of being the broacher of this doctrine doth indeed come short of that , which mr knox hath long since asserted ; it is true , in his conclusion he saith , others then chief magistrats , & as if meaning by inferior thereafter subjoines , that by act of parliament power is given to all judges , to search and punish mass-mongers and hearers ; but seing the same is only spoken with an accomodation to the then case , and that both the grounds of master knox his reasoning , in this place , and his declared opinion , in his appellation & admonition to the commonalty , viz. that the punishing of idolatry and such crimes , as touch the majestie of god , doth not appertain to rulers only , but to the body of the people , and every member thereof , according to his vocation , and according to that possibility , which god doth minister , together with the manifest consequence of clear reason , give no lesse power to the people against subaltern then to subaltern against supreme magistrats , i need not hereupon enlarge , far lesse to answer the surveyers profane & inconsistent reflections upon these times : if the opposition then made to idolatrous and persecuting rulers , had been indeed sedition or rebellion sinfully raised for some unjust cause extrinseck to the matter of religion , by our first reformers , as many professors of that time were no dout too palpably guilty of sacriledge and self-seeking , there had been ground to have placed all into one category , and vindicate the lords word from the sin of such instruments : but seing , the then-resistance was visibly made in the same spirit , which , in the preceeding dispensation of and call to suffering , had so patiently and constantly endured firie and bloudy trialls , for the testimony of jesus , and was carried on by these reformers , who continually testifying against the sacriledge and self-seeking mentioned , did from clear scripture-grounds , out of the manifest zeal of god , and for the maintenance of his gospel , strenuously assert and promove these courses , it is certain , that their testimony is very significant , adding as much confirmation , as can be drawn from humane authority : and the surveyers alleviating thereof , by alledging that our lord was crucified by wicked hands , and yet the result was the worlds redemption , that reprobat ministers have saved their hearers , a leprous hand may sow good seed , and that heirs of glory may be gotten in bastard● , is not more impertinent from its non consequence , these works being manifestly evil , then wickedly contumelious and ungrate : but behold the instability of this double minded man , who having vented all this foul malice , against these doings of our first reformers , subjoineth , let it be so , that much of their way was justificable upon the account of these motives , which then impelled them ; yet how unlike was the case then , to what it is now , &c. whereby it is evident , that it is neither naphtali's principles , nor yet his doctrine concerning phineas , but the surveyers different present apprehension of the hypothesis & consequently the blindfolding charme of self-interest against the power of truth , that seduceth him and his accomplices to their absurd contradiction . having thus asserted naphtali's doctrine against your maligne misrepresentation , it is time that i consider , what you objecte against him . and you ●ay ransack all the provincial letters , escobar or the other pro●ane casuists , you shall not find a more impious and detestable opinion among them , then this doctrine concerning private persons their punishing of crimes , in cas● of the supinnesse of the magistrate . but pray , sir , . wherefore do you enumerat the provincial letters , so elaboratly write against them , among other profane casuists ? this your escape , if designed , should be a bad reward for the authors pains taken against that wicked school , . though the assertion , as by you indefinitly laid down , be not a little invidious ; yet seeing it is undeniable , that phineas and elias did , neither as magistrats , whatever was their capacity , nor by special warrant , punish crimes and execute judgment ; and that desperate disorders in the publick government , may , by the force of necessity , license to private persons , specially parents and masters , this power controverted , to affirme without exception that the doctrine concerning private persons their punishing of crimes , in case of the supinness of the magistrate , is cursed , seemeth rather to be the effect of passion then of reason . . divine impulses have been and are still casible , and that the lord thereby , without the giving of any special commission , may stirre up to such an heroick act , as though necessarily debording from common methods , may not the less , in its whole tract and event , be attended with so peculiar a lustre and evidence of gods approbation , as may even force from you an assent , notwithstanding that the deed can only be maintained by these general positions , which you seeme to disprove , is to me unquestionable . and therefore , your so severe disowning , without any reserve , of private persons their punishing of crimes , in case of the supinness of the magistrate , excluding all possibility of divine excitations to that purpose , appeareth to be very precipitant . are the contingencies of humane affaires , and their surprisals and pressures such as to move kings and princes on earth , over and above all fixed and regular courses , to define certain causes and occasions , quando liceat unicuiqne sine judice se vindicare , velpublicā devotionem , & subjug are edicto quod serum esset punire judicio , it a ut cuncti , adversus latrones publicos , desertoresque militiae , jus sibi sciant , pro quiete communi , exercendae publicae ultionis , indultum : and if , in the far more pressing and conspicuous exigences of the glory of god , when soul-murderers and christ-deserters , are not only permitted but patronized , the lord , in that case , animat private persons to heroick undertakings for his glory , when all other judgment faileth , shal the justifying of such practices , though otherwise countenanced by many undeniable testimonies , be exclaimed against as accursed doctrines ? far be it from us , and all that love the lords glory , and adore his soveraignity . i say , otherwise countenanced , &c. for that some men , under these collours , may pretend to the like warrant , when in reality they have it not , is indeed to be regreted , nay , that the present loose , and lewd practices of some , who most licentiously invade conformists , under cloud of night , in their own houses , to no good purpose whatsomever , but to the great scandal of religion and prejudice of the countrey , are such as by many clear circumstances , are utterly to be condemned , whatever they may pretend , is , i hope , manifest without any observation , and needeth not any further caution . . if i may come a little nearer on this subject , wherein , i protest sincer●ly , i have no designe , but to vindicat the truth and wayes of the lord , with all tenderness and fear , and with all due regard to the deceitfulness of humane passion and corruption , are there not many suppositions casible , wherein , to speake roundly & freely in the extreme pressure either of our own , or our neighbours interest in matter of life or estate , both you , and i , and all others , whatever be our shynesse in opinion , would have a clearnesse to act many things of the same nature with , or as important as the punishing of crimes , not only without , but even , in some cases , against the magistrate : how can we then deny the like obligation and warrant to the highest and most important concernment of the glory of god , in its just and manifest exigence ? sir , i know that the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of god : but , verily , when i reflect , how that in many cases relating to self , the most part of men , and even dissemblers in profession , are neverthelesse in practice firmly perswaded , and , in some cases , all without exception , are even in opinion most determined , as to their right and obligation of defence and resistance , and withall consider , that our love , which is certainly the foundation of this right and obligation , ought to be infinitly more intended toward god , then toward all things else , i cannot but wish , that both the perswasion and zeal of all men , in his matters , were accordingly proportional to their value : but oh ! who is now on the lords side ? and who are they that aspire unto levi's blessing , who said unto his father and to his mother , i have not seen him , neither did he acknowledge his brethren , nor knew his own children ? . although the position be by you exhibited , in such a laxe manner , as if , upon the emergencie of every crime , every private person were constitute the magistrats overseer and exacter of his administrations , that you may the better load us with your forged absurdities ; yet naphtali's doctrine above declared , over and above the just exigence required , is so clearly set down in the case only of gross and notorious backsliding and defection , countinanced or connived at by the magistrate , wherein the concernment of gods glory , and our call to assert the same , is far more discernable and manifest , then in the punishing of other crimes , that , i hope , i have said enough to cut off vain and impertinent cavillations . it is therefore certain , that though this doctrine concerning private persons their punishing of crimes , in case of the supinnesse of the magistrate , in its undefined and uncautioned latitude , may be obnoxious to gross abuses , yet absolutely to deny the same , and thence to condemne not only many fair scripture-examples , but all heroick excitations , which , in their suteable exigences , are by a clear concurrence of circumstances manifestly demonstrate to be from the spirit of god , as to the matter warranted by his command , and , in their manner dependent on his soveraignity , were most rigid and unjust , but you go on and tell us , that what cursed effects this cursed doctrine produced , all the nation saw , when in the sight of the sun , a villain , with a pistol , invaded the persons of two of the fathers of the church , and that in the chief ●●rect of our royall city what an empty pomp of words have we here to make out this cursed effect , a villain , fathers of the church , chief str●et , royal city , big words indeed . sir , the way to be just in your resentments , is first to be equal , and then i doubt , but if you have as much respect to our lord jesus , king over his church , as you pretend to your fathers of the church , that the wrongs and invasions by them villainously committed , with a high and insolent hand , in the sight of all the nations , against his glory and prerogative , will not only make you give to them the epithet , wherewith you censure their invader , but account the effects of their wickednesse a hundred-fold more accursed : but lest i offend you by such extenuations i verily think , all circumstances considered , & their exigence duely ballanced , that the deed was rash , precipitant & of evil example ; but wherefore accursed , since against such a sacrum caput , and a person self-devoted , upon whom and his associats , by executing justice , both our rulers , and the whole land , may so certainly consecrate themselves unto the lord , that he might bestow a blessing upon us , i confesse i hesitate . in the next place you adde , that though the providence of god sheilded one of your fathers to●ally from his fury , and preserved the life of the other , though with the losse ( or rather disabling only ) of his arm ; yet his malice was not to be blamed , for that assassinations were only wanting to complete the parallel betwixt that spirit and the iesuits , which is indeed the same moving in different characters . but , seing you would appeare so accurate an observer of providence , why do ye not also remember , how easily and safely the invader did escape ? surely whatever may be the moment of these circumstances of the sight of the sun , and the chief street of our royal city , as to the aggravation for which you adduce them ; yet , in order to this passage of the escape they are of a more important consideration to render it remarkable . if you say that eventual impunity , doth not argue innocency , the retorsion is so just and manifest against your reasoning from the bishops their providential preservation , that i need not insist . but this was an assassination only wanting to complete the parallel betwixt that spirit and the iesuits , which is indeed the same moving in different characters . sir , if i did intend the patrocinie of this fact , i could tell you . . that there can be no proper assassinat , without an interveening price , which in this case , you do not so much as alledge . . admitting your meaning to be only of a deliberat insidiating murther , yet , i would have you to consider , that it is from the matter , and not from the manner that the guiltiness of many deeds , doth principally descend : for , as we must acknowledge the greatest villanies to have been sometimes perpetrat in forme of justice , so it cannot be denyed , that very eminent acts of righteousness have been performed without any legal process , as the deed of phineas and the other examples above adduced , with many such like histories that might be alledged , do plainly hold out ; and really , when i consider but this one viz. how saul's murthering of the lords priests , and iehu his killing of the priests of baal ; as to their summare manner of procedor , of so near alliance , nay , that this later hath plainly , in respect of the dissimulation used , a worse appearance then the former , i think this one reflection may direct you unto a more solid judgment in thir matters . . the iesuits their mischievous plots , flowing from a pernicious principle , enslaving mens consciences to an implicite compliance to their dictats , without all regard to forms of justice , and being levelled against innocent persons , in order to their most wicked ends , and designes , are not only most remote , yea most opposite to naphtali's doctrine , but nothing countenanced by this very fact wherewith you urge us . but having above , seriously disowned this rash and inconsiderat attempt , and already cleared , how that it is not only the matter , but the concurrence of circumstances , bearing such a pressing exigence , as either cannot be satisfied by , or needeth not to attend the ordinary course of law , which doth sustain their more singular and heroick attempts , your paralleling of that spirit ( of naphtali's i suppose ) so congruous both in principles and practice , unto undeniable scripture grounds and precedents , with that perverse and cruel one , working in the iesuites , and making them to be the same moving in different characters , is like unto the rest of these bold and groundless calumnies , wherewith you study to reproach : however , it were to be wished , that you who , upon so unlikely grounds , have the confidence to draw parallels , were upon the other hand as ingenuous , as to consider these most certain and evident arguments of pride , violence , falshood & irreligion , whereby your prelatick spirit doth discover it self , to be not only jesuitick , but unquestionably antichristian and diabolick . now in the close , and after having made it your work all along to brand any measure of zeal for god to be found amongst us , with the characters of a ●our , unsociable , violent and cruel disposition , you adde , that you charge not this fact upon the party , but acknowledge that all of them abhorre it ; but yet you subjoine , that , without all uncharitableness , you may charge it on the author of naphtali : and thus having before mentioned naphtali , as one of their books and authors , at lest owned by them , the vanity and deceit of this your insinuation is too too palpable . but seing that which is crooked cannot be made streight , it shall suffice me to say , that , as i have evinced naphtali's doctrine to be none other , then the just vindication of phineas his practice copied from our first reformers , and also shewed , that the fact , which you do here objecte , hath not thereon any rational dependence ; so your particular charge , with all the foolish clamour of your party , upon this account , against naphtali , doth not so much reflect upon him , as on phineas , and the holy ghost by whom he was acted . after this , you cause your n. c. complain , of your design , to make him regardlesse of the state of the church , and neglective o● the interest of christ , contrary to that tender aff●ction we ought to bear him , and the example of his saints , and only after the manner o● gallio's indiff●rency . and to this you answer , that all things have two sides , and so this doctrine o● resignation , on the wrong side , seems like unconcerned stupidit● ; and yet , rightly considered , it is one of the highest pieces o● christianity . whence you go ●n , from the infinite power , goodnesse , and wisdom of god , to reprove the ●olly a●d pres●mption of anxiety , a●ent the lords management o● matters , specially the conc●r●●ments of his church , and to perswade us to commit the ●ame to him , and to rest securely on this , tha● all things cooperat &c. but still you say , we are to concerne our selves in the good of the chur●h , as by fervent soliciting of ●od in her behalf , w●ereby our zeal for god's glory , and charity to the brethren are expressed ; so by improving all opportunities of doing good in as for as we are called , upon all hazards : yet , even in this , we are , with david , not to meddle , in matters too high for us , and with paul , not● to s●retch our s●●ves bey●nd ●ur line : and with all not to let de●ecting melancholy possess our selves , contrary to the end and contrivance of reli●ion , which is to beget in us ●verla●ing joyes , which by such sorrows are mostly marred . sir , i have set down this passage at large , not that i find in your answere abstractly considered , any error ; seing it is very certain , that the wrongs done to these most dearly affecting concernes of god's glory and his churches welfare , ought not to be more tenderly afflicting , and powe●fully exciting to duties of prayer , and all righteous indeavours , then the lords high and holy soveraignity is both most strengthening to these duties , and comfortably exc●usive of all sinful anxiety and dejection , the heav●nly return made to our lord , i have both glorified my name , and will glori●y it again , doth abundantly hold out this consistency ; and is so far from being contrary to a holy touching grief , upon that account , that on the other hand , you may find the necessary cercainty of god's glory , the ground both of the earnest and assurance of our lo●●'s supplication , and of the comforting answere made to his troubled soul , whence it did proceed . but , that which i would enquire , is how you come to make such an answere to your n. c. challenge , which being very rational and sound , complaining only of a stupid misregard and profane indifferency , without the least ●●exure to the other extreame of sinful anxiety , had , in my thought , been better and more ingenuosly answered by a simple denial , then by your unnecessary cautions : to oppose one truth to another can have no innocent design : nay , i● i may use your own maxime , that all things have two sides , i fear this your discourse prove also double faced , and that , under the colou● of excessive anxiety & dej●cting melancholy , you do indeed condemn that mean of a concerning solicitude for gods glory and his churches wellfare , which you seem to allow , and by i●sinuating , joy to be the end and fruit of relig●on , resolve all its seriousness into the indifferency objected . but lest you judge this challenge , which is only an anticipation , to be want of charity , i proceed to what ensues , which is first your n. c's reply , to wit : that all this your preceeding discourse is still contrary to the holy men of god ; the psalms , prophets , & lamentations are full of sad complaints , and certainly a greater measure of zeal becomes the more clear manifestation of the love of god under the gospel . and to that return which you give to it , running out upon the difference of the old and new dispensation , shewing forsooth , that outward desolations and losses , which under the former were curses and grievous , under the later are pronounced blessings and matter of joy , and so forth . what strange dealing and doctrine is this ? your n. c. tells you of the complainings and mournings of the holy men of god in old times , for the desolation of gods house , departing of his glory , and the blasphemie of his adversaries , which i am certain every serious soul will take to be no other , then the same careful regard to the glory of god , and the good of his church , which just now we heard you approve , and is , no doubt , inseparable from the true love and zeal of god in all ages : but you , in your present answere , would have these regretes to be only suteable to a carnal dispensation , and nothing agreeing to that of the gospel . now , if this be not a palpable discovery of your sinistrous design , let all men judge : or if you think that i do wrest your words , do you , or any man els , make them pertinent , in any other sense , & i am content to bear the blame . but neither is this your doctrine in it selfe more sound : you say , that outward desolations and afflictions , were of old , signes of gods displeasure , & curses : but now they are pronounced and made blessings . pray sir , make you no distinction betwixt a sign of gods displeasure , and a curse : or do you think , that sufferings and afflictions , may not be , both signs of displeasure against sin , and yet profitable corrections , yea matter of joyous consolation in the event ? certainly , if you had consulted scripture in this matter , you would have found , that , as the sufferings of gods people under the new testament : are accounted chastisements , and consequently signs of the lords displeasure against sin , which thereto provokes ; so , under the old they were no less to be by them regarded , as the chastenings of a loving father , and the rebukes of love : but it seems you have forgotten the exhortation , which under both dispensations speaketh unto the lords people , as unto children , my son despise not thou the chastening of the lord , nor faint when thou art rebuked of him ; for whom the lord loveth the chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth . nay , blessed is the man whom thou chastenest , o lord , and teachest out of thy law , being so plainly said of old● i wonder how you could lapse into thir mistakes . i grant that the jewish dispensation is much countenanced by temporal promises , and that even the manner of divine service thereby appointed , did much depend upon their performance , whereas that better covenant being established upon better promises , is , in effect , so ordered , that afflictions and persecutions did and do tend rather to its advancement : but , if thence you conclude , either that the people of god in old times were to regard their sufferings , as they respected themselves , differently from what is commanded to , and commended in christians , or that their complaints for the corrupted or suppressed worship of god , and the departed glory by reason of prevailing backsliding , or outward desolation , may not now under the gospel , in the like calamities , be lawfully and laudably resumed , over and above your evil design mentioned , you bewray palpable ignorance . i might here further adde , that you may not only observe the same patience and fruit of chastisements under the old , that is found under the new dispensation , but also read the grace and glory of their confessions and martyrdomes , in almost the same termes , wherein you go about to represente the sufferings under the gospel as new and singular . others were tortured not accepting deliverance , they were stoned , they were sawn asunder , were tempted , were s●ain with the sword , they wandered about in sheep-skins , being destitute , afflicted , tormented , of whom the world was not worthy . pray sir , who were they , or wherein is this account short of that , which you exhibite of christians their rejoicing in sufferings , except in the vain excess of your superstitious festivals , viz. the dayes of the death of martyrs , observed by the church under the name of natalitiae mart●rum ? but i have already sufficiently demonstrate both the folly and falshood of this your impertinent distinction : and the mixture of the cup of gods children , being clearly confirmed by the experience of all ages , your taxing of our mourning because of a broken covenant , a profaned sanctuary , and abounding wickedness and violence , as sinful repining , because of personal sufferings , notwithstanding that the joy and strength of the lord hath been very conspicuous in our dying witnesses , and our other sufferers , doth plainly adde malice to your ignorance . but in our complainings you reprehend both injustice and excess , and for injustice you tell us , that the reason thereof is only the alteration of the law 's and the magistrat's denying to us further encouragement , and punishing us not for conscience , since none hath suffered because he was for presbytery , or against episcopacy ; but for unruly humors and practices . sir , if our complainings and mournings , were according to their just causes , viz. our high handed rebellion against god , unparalleled breach of covenant , perjurious subversions and alterations of the ordinances of god , aswel as the laws of the land , with the profanity , ignorance and violence , that have thence abounded and filled the whole land , neither should i , or any of the fearers of the lord , have eyes to write or read this my vindication . it is true , all this iniquity and mischief is introduced and established by form of law , and thence you take the impudence to smooth it over , as if there were no more in it , then the alteration of laws ; nay , as if what before the act & law made were righteously refused out of conscience , after the accession of an humane injunction could not be forborn , but out of humor : and as if conscience and laws could not inte●●ere , you go on to tell us , that the reason of our suffering is neither our adhering to presbytery , nor our non● compliance with episcopacy , but only our unruly humors and practices . but seing the colour of law , which you p●etend , is indeed no relief of conscience , but the greatest aggravation of that apostacie and persecution , whereof we complain , and that notwithstanding of any reproch wherewith you do slander it , the true cause of all our sufferings is none other then our stedfastness in the oath of god , binding us to the maintenance of presbytery , and extirpation of your prelacy . and , lastly , seing that we bemoan no violence , either to death , banishment , bonds or spoile , which , the taking of your declaration against the covenant , would not certainly have prevented , the witness of our cause and sufferings , who is in heaven , heareth , and will reprove your lies . as for our excess , you say , we make complaints to to god , as if heaven and earth were mixed , and adapt all the lamentations of ieremiah to our sorry matters , comparing the overthrow of presbytery , to the babylonish captivity : but oh that the causes of our grief were thorowly weighed , and the hainous●ess of our provocations , with the calamities come upon gods house , ordinances and servants , laid in the balance together ; certainly then , you should more regrete our defect , then now you mock at our excess : and in asmuch as sin is more grievous then judgment , and judgments spiritual , heavier then judgments temporal , nay , gospel ordinances more precious , then these of the old dispensation , you would judge the overthrow of presbytery visibly accompanied with breach of covenant , and the rejecting and expelling of the lords ministry , far more important , at least in these respects , ( whatever other aggravations there might have been in that distress ) then the babylonish captivity . to these objections you adde , now , were your way what you imagine , you should rejoice that you are called to suffer for it , and not make such tragical complaints . who ever heard such ridiculous discourse in such a serious purpose ? your n. c. doth only plead for a due concerning regard to the state of the church , and the interests of iesus christ , you your self allow a fervent solicitude to god-ward , in behalf of his glory and the good of his people : and we do not only propose for imitation the practice and exercise of gods servants , who , both of old & of late & in all times , have from the love & zeal of gods glory , made the desolation of gods sanctuary , the corrupting and removing of his ordinances , with the persecutions of his people , matter of heavy complaint , and deep mourning , but do also , greatly rejoice in that grace and glory , whereby the lord hath countenanced and beautified the tryals of particular sufferers amongst us , no lesse then these of any other his martyrs upon record : and yet after you have confounded the complainings of the lord's people of old , for the desolations of his sanctuary with their concernment in their own private losses , and falsely , and vainly distinguished betwixt the duty and deportment of gods people under the old and under the new dispensation , in order to afflictions , you say dully , without any connexion or regard to the mixtures of the cup of gods people , our way is not what we imagine , els we should rejoice , that we are called to suffer for it . but the lord , who giveth us both strength and joy in our sufferings , doth also know and hear our mournings , and will reprove your mocking . but you say , that our bitternesse against our enemies , looks nothing like the mildnesse of christ or the primitive sufferers . how long will you love vanity , and seek after leasing ? that we approve not bitternesse against our persecutors upon any account , is our serious profession whereunto our practices ought to be conform : but with all , that we hate their way , pray that they may lay aside their opposition to the cause and people of god , otherwise , that such troublers were even cut off , and when god enables and calls , do stand up for the defence of the gospell and our selves against evill doers , is so far from jarring with primitive precedents that both scripture , reason , and the practice of all times do allow it . and really sir , when i consider these your discourses , so directly tending to the blunting nay extinguishing of all zeal for god , and the perswading of a stupid ( not patient ) endurance of all injuries , under the pretext of christian resignation , that wickedness and violence , so much at present prevailing , may the better be estabilished , as i cannot but regrete this point of your conformity to primitive examples , ( not indeed these of christians , but of their persecutors , who in the madnesse of their wickedness did often whe● their violence , and intende their cruelty to the persecuted by their scornful reciting of the gospell precepts to patient suffering ) ; so , i must tell you my fears , that your pretendings to the serene and dove-like spirit , are only collours to palliat your deep deceit and malice . but making your n. c. decline your instance of the primitive christians with a vain scoff of your own suggesting , that far fowls have ●air feathers , and appeal to the practice of late reformers , as such who universally resisted the magistrate , out of an exceding veneration , as you pretend to the same reformers , you do undertake from undeniable evidence of history , to convince us of the falshood of that vulgar error , that the reformation was carryed on by resistance . but here , in the entrance , you must give me leave , ( though i acknowledge that you take no advantage from it ) first to rectify your expression , that the reformation in many places , where opposed by force , was maintained by resistance , is that which we with as plain and full an evidence as can be instanced in any matter of fact , do very confidently assert : but that it was carried on by resistance , is not only inconsistent , resistance sounding rather for the defence then the advance of any cause , or interest whatsomever ) but according to the proper import of the phrase , carrying on , intimating force to have been the mean used to propogat religion , very false and caluminous . . i must premise that when i reflect on your undertaking in this place , and there with compare that of doctor heylen in his aërius redivivus , i can not but observe the deep deceit of sathan's contradicting methods for advancing one & the same error : for whereas to disprove the righteousnesse of defensive armes , in behalf of religion , you go about to show that all the lawfull wars instanced on our part for our assertion , had their rise from an other cause ; he , on the other hand , aiming at the same mark , is so far from referring these wares to any other cause , that in his fury against presbytery , he chargeth all home upon the reformed protestant churches , as religious rebellions , just as in an other case , viz : for one and the same design of destroying conscience and making void the ordinances of god , we find the devill the old serpent winding him self in courses no less opposite : for while on the one hand taylour standeth up for the liberty of prophesying , and henrie more for his liberty of conscience ; and on the other hobes and parker do no less plead for the subjection of conscience to the magistrat's dictates ; that both do joyntly point , though differently , the former by dissolute relaxing , and the later , by a wretched blindfolding and enslaving , to make void conscience and all its obligation in these matters of god , which they would have to be arbitrary , is evident as the sun 's light . but passing these preliminaries , and without further prefacing upon the strange and selfe contradicting arguments , whereby you go about to make an undenyable , nay generally on all sides an undenyed truth , a vulgar error , i come to examine your proofs . and first , you say , the waldenses resisted not the king of france , as is clear in the history , notwithstanding of unparalleled persecutions , viz. . killed in one town of beziers , & . murdered at once in one church . it is true that there were wars betwixt the count of montfort & the count of tholouse ; but tholouse was a p●er of france , and a vassal rather then a subject , besides he only ●ought against montfort , who was a bloudy emissary of the popes , not authorized by philip then king of france , who only permitted his subjects to arme in this war. so that here there was no resistance of subjects against their soveraigne . a man would think , by the reading of this passage , that certainly all these thousands killed at beziers , were in a submissive non-resistance persecuted to death by the kings authority , els to what purpose is their not resisting of the king , notwithstanding of their unparalleled persecutions by you mentioned ? and what can the connexion import ? for , if either they were not persecuted by the king , or not killed without resisance , it is evident , that the instance is altogether impertinent . and yet it is certain , that as this execution was indeed one of the funeste effects of the war , which you afterwards mention , and therefore not suffered without resistance ; so , you your selfe , upon the same consideration , do deny the king's concurrence & there● by plainly subvert the insinuation here made of their submission , & discover your own absurdity . but that i may cleare the truth in this particular from your confusion & deceit ; the matter of fact ( as by all recorded ) is most clear , viz. that , that time being the very hour & power of darkness , wherein all the world wondered after the pope , it was indeed by his instigation , and , in a manner , under his banner , viz. the croisade , that this war was raised against the waldenses ; & consequently by him was the count of montfort nominate to the conduct thereof● and , for his better encouragement , had , by decree of councel , the dominions of tholouse gifted unto him . but as it is most apparent that the king , who not only permitted his subjects to go to that war , but sent his son to take the crosse in it , as you your self do alledge , and also allowed of the commission , and confirmed the gift ●ade to simon , did therein concurre ; so your denying thereof is both groundless and absurd● groundless , because of the deeds of his concurrence mentioned and confirmed , by all the histories of these wars , and by your selfe confessed ; absurd , because if the king did not concurre , the example proves not your affirmation , viz. that the waldenses did not resist the king of france notwithstanding they were grievously persecuted . now before i proceed , for confirmation of what i have said both of the king's persecution and the waldenses their resistance , take the following testimonies , viz. hortatu papae & francorum regis permissu , per univers●m galliam , quam plurima armatorum millia crucem sumpserunt &c. nec vero tantum permisisse phil●ppum regem hanc expeditionem ; ( quod plerique solum dicunt verum & ipsummet , suo nomine sumptiousque exemplum aliis prebentem , quindecem millia armatorum ad eam dedisse ( ●ipse namque aliis bellis detentus haud ire potuit ut cupiebat ) asserit gu●ielmus brito , qui tunc vivebat &c. bitteras , urbem celebrem & copiosam , ●ed prae caeteris haeresi infectam vi ceperunt & combusserunt , &c. vel mil● ia internecione delentur , atque intra ipsius ecclesiam occisa septem millia ; & quam multa castra & oppida , quâ vi quâ deditione simon montisfortis , dux belli electus cepit ; & quae simon in hoc bello prestiterit , you may find at great length in the historie spond . ad ann . & sequentes , idem ad ann . . varia certamina , marteque vario inter inbertum bellojocensem istarum partium regium rectorem , & raymundum tholosanum haereticorum sive sectatorem sive fautorem , inita sunt : & anno . sanctius atque illustrius rebus interea in gallia sub strenuo & sancto rege puero , ac foemina prudentissima regni procuratrice procedentibus , dum ex una parte &c. & ex alia perduelles religionis , vi & suasionibus manus dare coguntur &c. obsessa enim ab imberto cum exercitu regio tholossa , &c. with many the like passages which may be seen in this author , innocentius tertius ad istam ( albigensium ) haeresin extirpandam &c. arma in eos excitat , curam autem belli leopoldo &c. & simoni comiti montisfortis demandat , urbes vi captae erant bitterae , &c. item francorum regi instinctu innocentii . papae cum albigensium haereticis negotium fuit : belli dux simon montisfortis erat , magdeb. cent. . pag. , & . what then can be more evident , then that not only these waldenses resisted their persecutors , though countenanced and authorized by the king ; but that even though the king himself had been dux belli , as his son , by your own relation , was belli particeps , he had met with the same opposition . but you say , that the count of tholouse was a peer of france , and by hugo capetus constitution , peers were rather vassals then subjects . it is answered , ne ultra crepidam , if peers be vassals , as they are indeed , being such peers among themselves only , and not with the king , that therefore they are of all the most strictly oblidged subjects , is notour to all that know the fidelity and gratitude which vassallage doth import , so that whatever priviledge their peerage may give them over their inferiours , yet that , in order to their soveraign and liedge lord , they are in every respect subjects , is uncontroverted . but why should i spend time on your triflings ? admitting that the waldenses , in this war , had not so directly and immediatly resisted the king their soveraign , as not being their direct and immediate persecutor , have we therefore no advantage from this passage ? and are there not many other precedents in the history of that people , which do fully and exactly infer our conclusion ? and as to the first , do we not at least finde , even in your own concession , the waldenses persecute for religion standing to their own defence . now if once you allow to religion the common priviledge of a defensive resistance , the main strength of your arguments , founded upon a pretended singularity in the cause of religion , as disowning forsooth all resistance , and , in a special manner , astricted to suffering both by gospell precept and primitive practice , is thereby dissolved and removed . i may not here insist on this subject : but , once for all , let me demand you , may not religion be defended aswell as other rights and interests ? if you say it may , but neither that nor any other against the invasion and persecution of the king and soveraign power : this is indeed a consequent , but so destitute of all reason , that , as there is scarce a man in the world so stupid or debauched by flattery , that will not , in some suppositions , grant the lawfulness of resistance ; so , the most precious import of religion , and the atrocity of the injuries , whereby it useth to be persecute , can not but render it the first and most favourable of all excepted cases . but if you say it may not ; then , whether is it your meaning , that it may not at all be defended either against superior , equall , or inferior ? and certainly , the scripture , and also many of the primitive instances , abused to prostrate religion unto tyranny , do seem to run in this latitude , without insinuating any distinction , so that this generality , being manifestly absurd , doth of necessity evince them to have an other meaning , and to be nothing conclusive to your purpose . or do you understand , that in this the cause of religion is singular , that though against persecuting inferiors or equals , religion , aswell as other rights , doth permit defence ; yet against the powers over us , it is subject to a special restraint . assigne me for this speciality but any colourable pretext , & cris mihi magnus apollo . that the gospel precepts , resist not evill , turn your cheek to the smiter , love your enemies &c. have their holy and christian use of patience and godliness , for all manner of injuries from whatso●ever hand ; and that these other commands of subjection , non-resistance , honour , and obedience to kings and all in authority , have also their righteous influence of determining , in every occasion , our due compliance and submission , without the least vestige either in all or any of the places , of injoining a singular subjection to powers persecuting for religion , is obviously evident . what speciality you will gather from primitive practices , the general mistakes that we find in their opinions , as we may understand from ambrose and augustine , condemning private defence even against robbers , ne dum salutem defendit pietatem contaminet , may give us a satisfying conjecture . from all which we may assuredly conclude , that seing religion doth lay no speciall prohibition of resistance● in order to superiors , upon subjects by them persecuted ; and that the above-written passage of the waldenses doth at least evince , that in other cases it hath the common priviledge , your inferring of spec●al consequences , in favours of the powers , from abused generalls , is but a politick improving of your lies unto base and selfish flattery . now as to other examples that may be found among the waldenses , pray sir , was this the only passage in all that history , which you conceived did favour our cause , or was you loth to follow them over the alpes , unto the valleys of piemont , to meet with instances , which indeed you have reason to think can only be best answered by concealing them , in the obscurities of the places where acted ? and really , this omission is so grosly supine , that you must pardon me to think it designed . however , the history that i referre you to , for a full and particular account , aswell of the faith , stedfastness and simplicicy of these waldenses in piemont , as of their many and great persecutions by their own rulers and princes , and their just and frequent oppositions made against them , particularly from the year to the year . and how in the year they entered into a league of mutual assistance , and from that year did undergo many vicissitudes , sometimes of peace and quiet , then of cruell and barbarous persecutions , wherein they testified great constancy and patience , and sometimes of necessary defensive resistances , wherein they witnessed no less uprightnesse and courage , even until the year , wherein the narration terminates , is that of the evangelical churches in the valleys of piemont , very faithfully and acuratly collected and written by mr morland , where , i am confident , every ingenuous person will finde the case of defence , for the cause of religion , against persecuting rulers , so justly stated , so tenderly and submissively proceeded into , and , lastly , so singly and moderatly prosecuted ; and that not only once or twice , but often ; that as he will be thereby greatly confirmed in the righteousness of this practice , so he can not but observe the inexcusable omission of your silence . the next instance which you undertake to vindicate , is that of the bohemians under zisca , their fighting and resisting when the chalice was denyed them . and for answere to this , you bid us consider , that the crown of boheme is elective ; in which case , certainly the states of a kingdom share more largely of the soveraign power . but . you hereby plainly acknowledge that religion is not indefendible , except by meer subjects , against their soveraign : so that again we see , it is not from the cause of religion , but from the quality of the persons , that you foolishly go about to exclude religion from defence , which yet notwithstanding , in several excepted cases , all inferior to that of persecution , is to subjects against their oppressing princes by all almost allowed . . that the states of a kingdom share more largely of the soveraign power , in an elective , then in a successive kingdom , hath no proper dependence upon the way of election , but is thereto meerly accidental , the dictators in free rome were elected , and that only occasionally , and for a short space , and yet were uncontrollable : the roman empire , though elective , yet gave to the emperours absolute soveraignity : and , on the other hand , we see many kingdoms successive , wherein nevertheless the soveraignity is divided betwixt the king and the estates ; so that your ground doth not hold . as grotius de jur . belli l. . c. . § . . in explication of that distinction , aliud esse de re querere aliud de modo habendi , doth fully cleare . . admitting the crown of boheme to be elective , which yet you know , in the competition betwixt ferdinand and , frederick , was much controverted ; and that the estates do indeed share largely of the soveraignity , and further , that they were the authors of this resistance , which also you ought to have alledged ; yet the opposition by them authorized upon the denying and with holding of the chalice , and undertaken upon the common and just grounds of defence , considering the participation of power , which our estates , before his majesties restitution did constantly acclaim , and oftentimes by themselves exercise , this similitude of the cases doth only the more assimilate this instance to that of our last reformation . . although the hussites , being numerous in bohem , and their provocation very injurious and intolerable , the success of zisca , their chieftain , did in a little time draw the whole estates of the kingdom to appeare on that side ; yet it is apparent from history , that the beginnings of these troubles were so far from being authorized by the estates , that they were rather occasional , and , as it were , tumultuary , upon the hindering of some hussites in the town of prague to celebrat the lords supper with their accustomed solemnities , which the hussites by force resisting , it was from this spark that the flame kindling , the party became to be headed by zisca ; and he and they advanced , breaking down images , and dissipating cloisters , until at length he contracted a just army , and strenuously stood to his defence , and thereby obtained the concurrence of the estates against sigismond then both emperour , and upon venceslaus his death , become king of boheme : now whether this was not a clear resistance of the people , begun at least without the states , against their soveraign , upon the account of religion , i remit it to your second thoughts . but you say , that comenius gives but a slender character of zisca and his business , extolling him chiefly as a good souldier . and , i pray sir , what would you have him to say more ? beside that it is not comenius his testimony , but the practice of the bohemians , which upon your own appeal , we are concerned to notice . in the next place you tell us , that the iustifiers of the late bohemian wars never run upon this strain of subjects resisting their soveraign , upon the account of religion , but upon the laws and liberties of that elective kingdom . i intreat you , sir , to consider what you say , that the injuries provoking to that war , were the invasions made upon the liberties of religion , formerly confirmed by maximilianus and rudolphus , is notour and manifest : now , if in this case they did aggravate the wrong , not only from that liberty , which is every where due to truth , but from these royal concessions thereto superadded , certainly this can make no disparity to our prejudice . but if you mean that these resisters had not only law for them , as to the making out of the wrongs which they suffered , but were in a legal capacity , as being the states of the kingdom , to resist the invasions of their prince , i have already told you how much this , if it were true , would make for and not against us . . you must consider , that the opposition , which gave the immediat occasion to the war . and the war thereon ensuing , did proceed from , and was carried on only by the religionis bohemicae socii ordines , and not by the whole ordines regni , which were partim p●ntificii , partim religionis bohemicae . so that the share , which the estates of the kingdom had of the soveraignity , in this case , doth not assist you . i grant , that the ordines religionis bohemicae , at first prevailing , seem thereafter to have attained to the whole power , and so to have proceeded to the election of frederick . but the lawfulness of his election is not now the point in question . you add , neither were the protestants too well satisfied with the last bohemian businesse . and it is very like , that the briskness of the first assaul● upon the king's counsellers , with other miscarriages in the progress of that businesse , might possibly offend ; but can you thence infer , that either these defensive wars were not undertaken for religion , or that on this account , the protestants did dislike them ? as for what you subjoin , yea k. james notwithstanding of his interest in the elected king , was no way cordial for it . he who desires a true account of king iames his deportment in this affair , & how , contrary to the inclination of all english protestants , the advice of his best councellers , and the earnest solicitation of archbishop abbot , he strangely delayed to assist , and in effect deserted both his son in law , and the cause of the protestant religion in that juncture , may finde it at length in . mr. rushworth●s collections . but the truth is , his majestie in that particular was so possessed and captivat by a design , or rather an humor , that then overacted him toward a spanish match , not only in prejudice and to the ruine of his own daughter and son in law , his own and englands honour and interest , but contrary to his sounder opinion in ●●vors of the french protestants necessitate to a resistance , that if you had consulted the honour of his memory , you had in this matter chosen to be silent . your third instance is adduced by your . n. c. in these words , but you know there was fighting in germany upon the account of religion , to which you answere , this showes how overly you read history when you bring this as a precedent . and truly sir. i do conceive , t●at the most overly reading may give so full and intire satisfaction , as to this point , that i exceedingly long to hear , how your more accurat perusal will convel the evidence . you say when luther rose the duke of saxon , moved of god , did receive the reformation peaceablie into his principalities , &c. and what then as to the matter of defence ? but you adde , that in the years . . and . there arose a war in germanie fomented by some troublesome preachers , as saith the historian , who pretended the liberty of the gospel for their chief quarrel ; and this war of the rusticks was again and again condemned by luther as an execrable rebellion , nay opposed and broken even by protestant princes . all the concludency of this passage on your part , depends upon the supposition , that this war of the rusticks , was by them necessarily ingaged into , for defence of themselves and the true religion , against their persecuting adversaries . which though you be bold enough indirectly to insinuate , yet all your confidence durst not positively assert : but , that all men may see your disingenuous dealing , in this allegeance , it will not be amiss that we take a more exact account of it , in sliedan's own words , where we find in his fourth book , mense novembri , ann. . ceperunt a suo domino comite luphio suevo dissidere homines rusticani , propter onera quibus gravari se nimium querebantur , idem & alii deinde vicini faciebant in suum quisque magistratum . here you may perceive that the liberty of the gospel was not so much as pretended to be the quarrel , let be the chief quarrel ; but that as oppression only and not religion was the cause which they held out , so their too prompt and illegal resentment by way of violence , without the pressure of an extreme necessity , is that for which they are very justly censured . the next mention we have of them is in the same book , the following year , cujus verè primo per sueviam , &c. altera fuit exorta tempestas ordinis plebeii contra quosdam proceres ecclesiasticos . jamque jurejurando ac fide data societatem coibant obducta causa , quasi & euangelii veritatem tueri , & servitutem ab se profligare vellent : and the author adds , magistratus quidem cognoscere de quaerimoniis ipsorum , & quod iniquum esset , emendare se velle dicebat ; verum illi perseverabant , & eorum postulata , mox aliis communicata , passim novos incendebant motus . which obstinacie and refusal was certainly unjust . now what these postulata were , i need not repeate , in so far as they did only demand the liberty of the gospel and the reliefe of their oppressions , all men will judge them reasonable ; yea luther , for all his vehemence against them , yet upon these considerations , doth not only seriously admonish and reprehend the princes for their persecution and tyranny , and tell them that , talis est vester dominatus , ut eum homines nec possi●t , nec velint , neque sane debeant ferre diutius , & cujus deus aut per plebem , aut per novos hostes quos excitabit , poenam exposcet : but also concluds , that if neither the one nor the other party will abate and hearken to right counsels , se fore utriusque ruinae spectatorem : nesas enim utrinque versari , & bellum esse plebi contra principes ut in oppressores ipsorum , salutis atque doctrinae , magistratum invicem conflictari cum plebeiis ut cum latronibus , & iis , qui nomini christiano contumeliam faciunt . but the casting reasons against these tumults , were , that in effect what was right in their demands was only speciously alledged , to palliat an unjust design of a licentious levelling liberty in all , and a more wicked ambition in their chief leaders and instigators , and that as carnal impatience and revenge , did give the rise to these stirs ; so , their contagion and progress every where was carried on rather by an inconsiderate and fatal fury & rage then any shew of reason , or good conduct . whence it is manifest , that these courses , being so plainly seditious , cannot be paralleled to the cases of defence by us mentioned . but you say , they were fomented by some seditious preachers , who pretended , the liberty of the gospel for their chief quarrel ? thus you love deceitfully to insinuate where you cannot justly accuse . but because that thomas muncer , quiting first the truth , and then his station , did , under that general fa●● pretext , with some others his associates , heeding their own delusions and dreams , and aspiring to enthusiasmes , become ringleaders to a mutinous rable , for the cutting off , of all magistrats as wicked , and the destroying of propriety , dare you thence infer , that the practices , which we defend , are of the same nature , and that the lords ministers amongst us were no better ? certainly your calumny not hardie enough to turn this oblique reflection unto a direct accusation , doth clearly enough evince its own falshood . but you add , that luther wrote again & again unto them , condemning what they did , as an excerable & cursed rebellion . it is answered , what luther did write , first in answere to their appeal and demands , more soberly , by way of disswasive , and then upon their eruption unto hostility , more vehemently by way of incentive , to incite all , even private persons , by what somever manner of way , to repress and kill them , is extant on record . and ●eing that i have already cleared , how widely the rising of these rusticks , doth differ from the defensive risistances by us asserted , i am very free , upon the matter , to subscrive to his judgment . but because i confess his reasoning doth proceed upon the same grounds of subjecting to the magistrate , not resisting of evill , and our lords hindering of peter to fight in his defence , which the men of your perswasion do commonly abuse , and are indeed handled by him in such a manner , as may seem to give you an apparent advantage , yow must pardon me , for this my ingenuity , to use a sutable liberty , and tell you , first , that although luther , in his first discourse doth make certain suppositions , viz , of the magistrat's being intolerable for persecution and oppression , and that we suffered as atrocious injuries from him , as peter and the rest of the apostles did when our lord was taken and led away from them ; and even in such cases doth prohibite fighting ; yet examine his words , & you will finde , that it is to restrain from revenge , and not to prohibite , that he there useth these passages . as for example , after having said , sit magistratus plane intolerabilis , he addeth , non tamen idcirco excitandi motus : nec enim cujuslibet est coercere maleficia &c. and after having mentioned christs commanding peter to abstain from his defence , he subjoyneth , gravi latâ sententiâ in eos qui gladio ●eriunt , hoc est , qui contempto magistratu vindictam privatam exercent : so that albeit his words after the usual manner of dehortatives , do seem some what tending to the contrary extreme ; yet his scope being fairly adverted to , as the surest rule of genuine interpretations , they ought not to be extended beyond the condemning of impatient revenge . . i say , that as all humane authorities are but accessory and not leading arguments , and luthers judgement in the matter of war , as in other things , was but progressive , and not at first thorowly enlightned ; so although he had been more positive against us , at this time and upon this occasion , it ought not to stumble us ; for as much as , in the first years of his reformation , from which this war of the boures was not far removed , sleidan tells us , that he wrote not only that the magistrat● was in no case to be resisted lib. . but that to war against the turk was to resist god ; who useth him as a scourge to chasten us . lib. . both which he afterward , in his own manner , did retract and qualify as you shall hear . . albeit the boures their wars , were unjust , and seditious , as we have heard ; yet that luther in his arguing against them might , and did overstrain , beside the arguments already adduced , is easie to be gathered from his excessive vehemence , in his second writing , wherein , forgetting his main principle of appropriating the sword of justice and vengeance unto the magistrate , he instigates even private persons to take vengeance on them , and ( if you will understand it a right ) to turn phineases in the case , and this sleidan sayes , ut nimis aerem et cruentum multi passim vituperabant . the next thing you alledge anent thir wars , is that the protestant princes stirred up by luther , did fight against the boures and break them . and why not ; seing their rising● specially that of muncer , against which they took armes , was plainly seditious and rebellious ? and thus we see , how that by laying down of false suppositions , you do only accumulat impertinencies . ● but the best advice that i can give you , is that which your confidence blindly offereth unto your n. c. viz. not to hearken to the tatles of ignorant persons , but read the history it selfe and there you may both understand the truth , and the true estimat to be made of luther's papers . in the next place you tell us , that upon the invasion and combination of the duke of brunswick & others against the lutherans , the duke of saxon the lantgrave of hesse , & other princes and free cities met at smalcald to unite among themselves : but luther was dissatisfied until that from the bulla aurea , and other constitutions of the empire , it was shewed him , that it was lawful for them to defend themselves . whereupon he consenting , they entered into that famous league . to this you add , and every one knows , the princes of the empyre are soveraigns within themselves , and that the emperour is only the head of the union . from all which , it seems , you would infer , that though this be an instance of inferiour princes standing to their own defence , upon the account of religion , against their superiour ; yet it can not warrant people to resist their soveraign : but here let me reminde you first , of your own undertaking , which was to convince us of the falshood of that vulgar error , that the reformation was carried on or mantained by resistance : now , whether this passage of the smalcaldick league doth answere your designe , or not , i appeal to your second thoughts : you present your selfe in the proposal , as if you were to prove , that the reformers were altogether for suffering , and not at all for resistance according to the misconstructions that you make of the practice of the primitive christians ; and yet when you come to this instance , all your offer is a politick consideration de facto , incident , which neither as to gospel-rules , or antient precedents , by you commonly abused , is of the least moment , as i have already shewed . . although the provocation , which you mention , to the smalcaldick league , viz. the invasion & combination of the d. of brunswick & others against their neighbour protestants , do signify nothing in your behalfe , but be altogether proper and agreeable to the nature of defence , which we do maintain ; yet , seing it is not so consonant to truth , in matter of fact , and that the true and genuine rise and progress of that league do much more illustrate our assertion , you must give me leave to note your inadvertency , in asmuch as we finde that the league of smalcald was both proposed and entered into , long before the opposition of brunswick and the confederacy of norimberg , whereby it was fortified . and as to the first beginning of the league at smalcald , we have it , in the year . at spire , where the d. of saxon , and the langrave calling the commissioners of certain cities , tell them quoniam ipsis charam esse videant evangelii doctrinam , & vero quid episcopi moliantur , atque pontificii non sit obscurum , deliberare sese dicunt num qua societas atque ●aedus iniri possit , ut , si quem hujus causa periclitari contingat , mutua subministrentur auxilia &c. thereafter when several princes and cities had first protested against the second decretum spirense , and , by many meetings and other previous transactions , had prepared the thing , in the year . these protestants meet at smalcald , atque faederis concipiunt formulam , non quidem offendendi quemquam , sed sui defendendi causa , & huic continuo principes subscripserunt , &c. quod foedus postea anno . in annos decem renovatur ; whereas it was in the year . and after the popish princes and bishops had leagued together at norimberg , against the protestants , that we find henricum brunswicensem totum ad rumpendum ocium publicum spectantem , & in hoc incumbentem , ut belli fieret initium adversus protestantes . and it was in the year . that , ob vexatas goslariam & brunswicum smalcal . foederis civitates saxo & langravius communi sociorum nomine bellum ei faciunt , clear arguments of your mistake . but , by all these and many other passages incident in these times , it is evident , that the principles of the then protestants did maintain the lawfulness of resistance , no less against persecution for religion , then against any other injurie . i might here adde the league made in the . by the argentinenses cum tigurinis , bernatibus , & basiliensibus for mutual defence in case of invasion for religion , and that other , made the following year , upon the same grounds by the langrave with the same cities , but i forbear to insist on examples so obvious and frequent . as for what you say of luther's dissatisfaction , until that lawyers shewed him , how that , by the bulla aurea and other constitutions of the empyre , it was lawful for them to de end themselves ; that which i find in sleidan to this purpose is , that luther had ever taught that the magistrate was not to be resisted : but when in this deliberation , lawyers did shew , that the lawes did sometimes permit resistance ; and that now matters were stated in one of these excepted cases , he ingenuously professeth , that he knew not this to be lawful . and because the gospel doth not impugne or abolish politick lawes , and also because , in that so doubtful and dangerous a time , many things might fall out , so● that not only law , but the very force and necessity of conscience , might make us take armes , he concluds , that a league for defence might be entered into . now , whether this passage do more favour your design , or our assertion , is very discernible , if we consider , first , that there is no mention here of the bulla aurea , which though it do indeed contain the rights , liberties , priviledges and dignities of the princes and states of the empyre ; yet beareth no permission of resistance referable to this case . . the laws here spoken of sometime permitting resistance , are , no doubt , no other then these ordinary exceptions founded in the law of nature , whereby the laws of subjection and submission , flowing from the inferior law of nations , are by all lawyers held , in some cases , to be restricted . and though i grant , that many casuists do require to the lawfulness of subjects their resistance , beside the justice of the cause , the concurring of inferior magistrates ; yet that the same grounds , with better consequence , do also allow to the people by themselves ( inferior magistrates either joining with the supreme oppressor , or deserting their dutie ) the right of defence , is the opinion of the more judicious . nay , seing it is most certain , as i have often touched , that there are certain atrocious injuries , which do force , even from the most rigid royalist , a particular exception in favors of single persons thereby attacqued , it is evident , that all this controversie is more in hypothesi then in thesi . . if it be remembred what were luther's mistakes , in his younger years , in the matters of war & resistance , & withall that beside the information of lawyers , he had a further and a most important reflection upon the force and necessity of conscience , in times of uncertainty and danger ; it must of necessity be acknowledged , that this passage is not meerly a politick discovery , whereof before he was ignorant , but a manifest retractation of former mistakes . i have already hinted , how absurdly the scriptures , for not resisting of evill , and for subjection to powers , are abused , by court-flatterers , to a special prohibition of all resistance from christians persecuted , for conscience sake , against their oppressing princes , only for sooth , because their unconcernedness in religion , doth sufficiently secure them from the consequence ; whereas it is clear as the sun-light , that the same scripture-rules do make no distinction , from what cause , let be from what person , the injurie doth descend ; but equally and indefinitly enjoyn patience and submission , in their exigence and season ' without the least prejudice to these other rules of righteousness , whereby , aswell in the case of persecution for religion , as of injurious invasions upon other accounts , the persons invaded , when in an otherwise unrestrain●d capacity , are warranted to resistance in their own defence . and for this , it may suffice , though there were no more , that luther tells us , that he ever taught , that the gospel doth not impugne or abolish politick laws , much less then the fundamental laws of nature , to which all politick laws do cede . but what he further addes , of a force and necessity of conscience , thereby joyning the obligation to the right of defensive resistance , is certainly a ground , which if it were here pertinent , i could improve to more then i have hitherto asserted . but you say , that every one knowes , that the princes are soveraigns within themselves , and the emperour is only the head of the union . how doth this blinde confident medle without understanding . that the constitution of the empyre is purely feudal , the emperour liege-lord , and all the princes feudataires recognoscing him , and subject to the imperial chamber , where they have been often doomed and for faulted● is a thing most obvious . what do you then bable of united soverraigns , and soveraigns within themselves ? by which dialect of discourse , and a fair descent a majori ad minus , you or any other private person may quo ad his reserved rights and liberties , be termed a soveraigne within himself : we know , that by concession they have large priviledges , and that most of the regalia appertain to them , but are they therefore soveraignes ? or is the emperour only the head of the union ? beside , how will you make thir things quadrat to the hanse-townes and free cities , who certainly , for all their immunities and priviledges , are immediatly , and directly subject to the emperour , and yet have often ingaged in these defensive leagues and wars against him . thus i answere you , in your folly . but , pray sir , do you think , that ever our lord commanded , or the gospel meant , that , though the poor people may not defend themselves , when persecute for religion ; yet great men their superiors , though subject to the supreme , may ? or , if you be more rational , can you imagine , that an oppressed people upon any account , with the concurse of inferior rulers may defensively resist their soveraign , to whom all are subject , and that the same people , no more , but rather less subject to these inferior , then all are to the supreme , may not as lawfully , upon the like provocation , defend themselves against both the supreme & inferror joyning in an oppressive combination ? specially , seing it is most certain that , as the supreme hath all his power from the peoples suffrage and consent ; so , the inferior doth wholly and precariously for the most part , subsist by his grant . but i proceed , you say , as for the war that afterwards followed betwixt charles the th . & the duke of saxe , besides that the duke was free to defend himselfe , as i have told , charles the th . declared it was not for religion he fought . 't is answered , for the freedom of the duke of saxe , that it was no greater in this case , then the people may acclaime in the like , as also , that if the duke of saxe his war was lawful , upon the account of injuries , for other causes then that of of religion , religion doth only aggravat , and not alter the case , i have already cleared . but what a pitiful allegeance is this , that charles the fift forsooth declared it was not for religion he fought ? whereas first by the league betwixt him and the pope , it is expressely convented , that wherefore many years germany had continued in great errors , for which the councel of trent was called and set down , and that these of the smalcald confederacy , did reject the same : therefore the pope and caesar , for the glory of god and safety of that people , have transacted , that caesar levy an army against iuny next , and by force of armes reduce these refusers of the council , and defenders of errors , into the old religion and obedience of the holy see. . the duke of saxe and the langrave writ to him to disswade him , closing , that when ever they should understand his pretended causes for that war , they would so answere , ut quivis intelligat , & injuriam nobis fieri , & te romani antichristi ac impii concilii tridentini impulsu bellum hoc suscipere , ut & euangelii doctrina & germaniae libertas opprimatur , nec ullam aliam subesse causam docebimus . . they at the same time , emit a publick vindication for themselves , proving by unanswerable arguments that religion was the only cause of that war. and should not you be ashamed , to obtrude to us caesar's groundless and calumnious assertion , against both the princes their declaration and reasons ? . the very letters written by caesar to the argentinenses and other protestant cities , wherein , accusing the princes of rebellion and oppression , under the pretext of religion , he really maketh out nothing , together with their answer , wherein all his pretensions are taken off ; nay sleidan's whole sevententh book , containing the pop's bull , his letters to the helvetii , the distinct returnes made to caesar's demands by the protestant and popish cantons , with many other letters and declarations , is but one evidence , and that irrefragable , against you . what impudence is this then whereinto you are hardened ? but the electors of cullen amd the palatine both protestants lay neuters . and what then ? do we not know how rare a things it is , in a time of danger , for all concerned to unite even in the most uncontroverted duties ? beside , the elector of cullen was then recently deposed and excommunicate , and his people ( specially his principal clergie ) and he at great variance , for the reformation by him intended . and the palatine inclining to favoure , & in effect aiding the princes with horse , was by the evil success of the war forced to retreat and excuse himselfe . next you adde , that the elector of brandenburg and maurice of saxe armed for the emperour . and i grant , that albertus & ioannes brandenburgici quanquam erant religionis , & ioannes quidem etiam foederis protestantium , tamen quod caesar , non propter r●ligionem , sed quorundam rebellionis ulciscendae causa , bellu● sucsipi diceret , suam illi operam addixisse . but as their resting upon caesar's assertion and promise , for the security of religion , was , by all the circumstances of that war , declared to be but an emptie pretext ; so iohn's breach of faith , in this his ingagement , can as little be denyed , as his relation of son in law to henrie of brunswick , then detained captive by the langrave , seemes to have been his great motive . however it is certain , that the elector of br●ndenburg , for whom it is like , that , in your heedless way , you take one of his above mentioned brothers , did stand off neuter , endeavouring rather to mediate , as the history testifies , and we may see by his interposing betwixt the elector of saxe and maurice , at the seige of lipsick . as for maurice , his part , it was indeed foulest , and deservedly condemned by all equal judges . but seeing you can adduce no other argume●ts for your pretended vindication , then undeniable wrong and perfidy , the truth and righteousness of that defensive war , on the princes their part , against the emperour needeth not my further patrociny . and yet , as if you had said something to purpose , you have the boldness to conclude in these words , so you may see what piti●ul his●orians they are who alledge the precedent of germany . o os durum ! who would not laugh at such excessive confidence , above the excuse of all possible ignorance ? the fourth instance which you go about to cleare , is that of sweden , and you say , that king gustavus , with the states of that kingdome , did in the year . peaceably receive the reformation , and who would not wish that religion and reformation might have had the same fate every where , neither were there any broils about it , till after seventy years , that sigismond king of polland , the son of their former king , and therefore by them acknowledged , though a papist , was by force entering the kingdome , resolving to root out the protestant religion : whereupon they deposed him ; no strange thing in the sweedish history , that being before an elective crown , and but newly then become hereditary , and the states still retaining the supreme authority . sir , i must confess , that this is a passage , whereunto i can make no reply ; your undertaking was to convince us , by undeniable evidence of history , of the falshood of that vu●gar error , that the reformation was carried on ( that is maintained as , i have before shewed ) by resistance ; and here you give us an instance of a kingdome , not only resisting , but deposing their king , because of his invading of religion : which , in place of a vindication , is a full and plain concession : for , as to what you insinuate , that that crown had been a little before elective , i told you , upon the instance of boheme , that though it had been even for the time elective , yet it could not make for you , much less when you acknowledge that then ( for , as for your own or the printers escape , referring the change to the year . i urge it not ) it was become successive . and where you alledge , that the states did still retain the supreme authority , if you understand it otherwayes then according to that power and priviledge which appertains to our parliaments , it is only your own fiction . but you , subjoyne that , if this serve not to vindicat the sweds , at least , the reformation was not introduced by wars among them . and pray sir , who of us did ever defend such a practice ? to introduce , and to maintain , are things so different , that they can not be fairly confounded . the last shift you make is , that the actions of that state were never looked upon as a precedent to others : but , if so , why then do you mention them , and if they be indeed a precedent , certainly it is hard to determine , whether you be more false in your general assertion anent the establishing of the reformation , or ridiculous in this part of your vindication . the fift instance you mention , is , that denmark received the reformation peaceably . but seing this hypothese excluds the question controverted , anent the maintenance of religion by armes , not casible without the antecedent violence , it is evident , that it is rather transiently then pertinently by you adduced . the sixt instance is tabled by your n. c. thus , but you cannot deny there was force used in helvetia and geneve . a●d to this you answere both in the manner and termes of your accustomed vanity , that this shewes , what a superficial reader of history your n. c. is . and then you tell us , t●at zurich received the reformation peaceably , but being maligned by the other cantons , and by them injured , at the popes instigation , it broke out into a civil war , purely defensive upon zuriches part , likeas the cantons are not subject to one another , but free states only united in a league . it is answered , that here , upon the account of religion , there was force used in helvetia is clear from your own narration . how then do you taxe your n. c. for this allegeance , as a superficial reader of history ? as for that , that it was used by one associat against another , and not by subjects against their superior , it is only accidental from the condition of these cantons , & the other circumstances of that war. and seing , that neither the gospel , nor reason , do lay any special restraint upon subjects , in case of their superiors intolerable persecution because of religion , as i have already shewed , this precedent is no small confirmation of the practices by us maintained . . i must tell you further , that this war , on zuriches part , was not so purely defensive , as you give it out , in asmuch as it is certain from sleidan . . and . books , that the provoking injuries were , for the most part , committed upon their citizens without their territories , and the first act of hostility , by the interclusion of passages , was done by these of zurich , so that , although their guards were indeed surprised ; yet dating the war from the hostile interclusion , it appears rather to have been assertive then purely defensive . . the advantage , which this example doth give us , is the more observable , from that preface they make to their expostulation , emitted to their confederats in these words . christus , inquiunt , unam ferienti maxillam jubet alteram quoque preberi feriendam , hanc eius doctrinam sequ●ti , multa profecto toleravimus & patienter quidem : nunc autem quando nullus est injuriarum finis , aut modus , cogimur ad illud confugere quod christus usurpavit , & , si malè quid egimus , doceri petimus illud atque demonstrari , &c. whereby understanding the patience ; which our lord enjoynes , according to its just exigence and measure , and , by a very exact and sound observation , holding out how in a continued tract of injuries the duty of patience may at length cease , and the liberty of defence then take place , they plainly reject these abusive inferences of absolute subjection , or rather stupidity , in the cause of religion , which men , assured by their indiffe●encie in these matters against the temptation and hazard , would thence inferre . . when you remembred the practice of the suitzers , in the point of reformation , how came you to forgett basile , where you may finde ( sleid. l. ) that after the reformation was in a manner established , the papists nevertheless did prosecute their own designe , until the citizens thereby provoked , assemble and supplicate the senate , that certain of their number , countenancers of the popish preachers , might be removed ; which being refused , they make an other assembly and supplication & quamvis sine armis , ● non tamen tam demisse quàm antea , whereupon the senate returning a second displeasing answere , and the people being more offended , because of the apprehended usurpation of a few , they openly declare that they would take a course , not for religion ( viz. simply and only ) but for the vindication of their own right : and so they instantly take armes , and the same day , one of them casting down a certain statue , they suddenly take the occasion to throw down all the idolls and statues within the city making answere to such , who came from the senate to compose the matter , that what the senate had been advising upon , for three years , they would perfect in one hour , that idols might no more be the cause of contention . upon which the senate grants th●m all their desire , removing the suspected senators , abolishing the messe , and settling the reformed religion . in which passage , subjects their maintaining and asserting of the reformation by armes , against● their superiors , is so evident , that it is very easie to conjecture the reason of your silence and omission . it is true the people do mention the vindication of their right , and not religion , as the immediate cause of their taking armes : but seing their meaning is plain enough , that their just demands in behalf of religion were in such a manner refused , as not only their common right , but their special priviledges were injured ; and seing , in the progress , the cause of religion was by them most directly intended and pursued , it is manifest above exception , that , as it was the occasion , so the reformation of religion , was the principal motive and end of all this stir . as for geneve , you say ; the bishop fled from it out of a pannick fear , when the reformation was received . and 't is true the history saves , that upon the change , episcopus atque clerus irati discesserunt ab urbe . but is it then pertinent for you to observe , that no force was used where there was no provocation . but you subjoine , that geneve was a free town , neither subject to the bishop , nor the duke of savoy . and no doubt you give this caveat for that war , which , you know , was made against them , in the year . by the duke of savoy , adjutus ab ejus urbis episcopo , vel potius instigatus partim ob evangelii pro●essionem , partim aliis de causis . but , seing although geneve was a free town , yet it had a considerable dependence upon the bishop , and though it had not , yet the instance is no less concludent for us , then that of the war of zurich , i will not insist in any longer reply . the seventh instance , you also adduce by your n. c. questioning what you say to the war in the netherlands . to which you answere , that you say still they fought not for religion : and that they fought not for religion , that is , to propagate it by armes you are in the right : but that persecution for religion , carried on by the making of new bishops , the inquisition , and bloody edicts , was the principal cause of all these wars , historians on both sides , such as bentivoglio , strada , grotius , grimstoun and his authours do so fully attest , that your confidence is to me admirable . but you say , papists and protestants did jointl● concurr in it . it is answered , . that the cause of these wars being complexe , the spaniard endeavouring no less to subvert the liberties of these provinces , then to extirpate the reformed religion , it is nothing strange , that there should have been a joint concurrence i● the opposition . specially seing , . even the persecution at that time , practised upon the protestants in these countries by the spaniards strangers , was so tyrannous , ragefull and pernicious , that many of their compatriots , though otherwise not of their religion , were yet induced to favoure their cause . but . as it was the spreading of the reformed religion in these parts , that first gave the spaniard occasion to exercise tyranny , and , by violating and subverting their liberties , to designe an uniforme royalty over all his dominions ; so it is unquestionable , that religion and the cruelty practised upon its professors , were the originall and principal cause of that war as the apology , set out by the protestants , after their first defeat , in the end of the regency of margaret , doth fully witness . and here i might tell you of the joynt supplications and confederacies made about that time by these of that religion for their own preservation , and also the concessions made to them in that behalf ; but the history is so large in this matter , that it were superfluous in this place to be more particular : and therefore i say . that although in the beginning , the mixed designe of the extirpation of religion mainly intended , and of the erecting of an uniforme monarchy assumed through the occasion thereof , carrying along a manifest and most injurious violation of all rights , liberties and priviledges , did at first ingage even papists in the resistance ; yet it is most certain , that the principal cause of the war , viz , religion , more and more prevailing , of the flamings themselves there were few , save protestants , that took part on the defensive side . and as for the french or others , who joyned afterwards upon a clear ground of interest , it belongeth not unto the present consideration . you adde , that egmond & horn beheaded , by the d of alve , as the chief instruments in it , died both papists . 't is answered , egmond and horn plainly accused of having joined to the confederats against the inquisition , & for remisness in the maintenance of the romish religion , were very early cut off , even in the first fermenting , as it were of these tumults , before the ensuing war was formed ; but , however , certain it is , that although they professed and practised mainly for the liberty of their countrey against tyranny , yet they greatly favoured the persecute protestants , and also much inclined to their way , as is clear from their very accusation , and also from the manner of their death , specially horn's , who , for all grotius his saying , that they were execute , post sacra romano ritu peracta ; yet , at first refused to confess to the bishop of ypre , saving that he had confessed himselfe unto god. what then doth this allegeance , destitute of reason and little favoured by truth , avail you ? your next argument is , that the states by a placaet declared it scandalous , to say they fought for religion . sir , i wish you had given us the words , at least the date of that placaet : for , sure i am , that in what termes soever , the estates in policie might think fit to declare and publish the cause of these wars , and to assigne for the same rather the invasion of liberties and priviledges , which was the effect of the spanish persecution , then religion , which was the more remote cause ; yet whoever reflects upon their first beginnings will finde that it was after this manner . the flamings receiving the light of the gospel , & being therefore sore vexed by long and cruel persecutions , the same upon the succession of philip to his father charles , are by the spainards much intended , and a resolution being taken , to root out the protestants , new bishops are created , the spanish inquisition is threatned , and many terrible edicts emitted , by which courses , not only in themselves wicked , but also contrary to the priviledges , and destructive of the liberties of that , people , many tumults and confusions were in all parts occasioned , untill at length the nobles do confederate for resistance , and mutual assistance and relief ; in consequence whereof , they petition the regent , and applications are made to the king , when in the meane time , on a suddain , these of the religion seeing no success that way , keep their meetings and assemblies openly , assuming armes for their own defence aggainst suddain violence , and by the meaner sort of the people , images and idols are as with a whirl-winde ( quales olim saepe motus iudeorum erant which is grotius his remark ) thrown down almost in all places . these things make the regent more easie towards the protestants , and force her to remit bygons , and indulge their preachers : but the lords retearing to their respective charges , for rendering the concessions effectual , and being terrified by the reports of the king 's implacable displeasure , betake themselves to divided councels , whereupon the regent resiles from the agreement , renewes the persecution , levies new forces , imposeth new oaths , and the spainards , supposing the whole people one way or other to have been involved in the late tumults , conceive them , as guiltie of rebellion , to have forfaulted their former liberties , and to be become obnoxious to an absolute domination . this being the condition of matters when the duke d'alva was named to the government , the prince of orange & brederode , both protestants , retire . brederod his forces of the same religion resist and are beaten , and many shift for themselves : then the duke arriving fills all places in a moment with tyranny and persecution , putting to death many lords and gentlemen , and many thousands beside , because of the former confederacie , and upon the account of their religion : and the prince of orange , being cited and not compearing , his estate and lands ar seised on , and thereafter takking armes by the perswasion of the banished , and declaring to the world both the injuries done unto him , and that he was of the religion , he is once and again beaten ; so that there remained no opposition to the duk 's rage & violence , save what was made by a few , escaped from the former defeats given to the protestants , who made war in the princes name , partly by piracie at sea , and partly from woods and forests , against priests only and officers of justice . in this deplorable estate , under most insolent tyrannie and violent persecution , these poor countries remain , untill the earl vander marke with his protestants or sea gueux , as they were then called , surpriseth the town of breill , after which flussing and several other townes in zealand and holland , refuse spanish garisons , and being protestants revolt to the prince of orange , who having implored the aid of all protestant princes , after a successess enterprise for the succour of his brother ludovick at mons , and a proclamation emitted , declaring the cause of his ingagement to be for relief of these countreys form alva's tyranny , and from the crueltie and oppression of his proclamations , edicts , taxes , and imposts , cometh unto holland , from which time the war for religion and liberty , proceedeth thorow many and various accidents , and both are in all places equally restored . this is the plain and true and account of the rise of these wars , at which period , even grotius , who , of all the writters of that history , doth most decline and wave the cause of religion as an ingredient in the quarrel , noteth , religionis causa primi talibus caeptis sociaverant smalcaldico faedere germani , post quos galli proceres plurimis etiam scriptis disseruerant non peccare , in fas obsequii minores potestates qui invito quàmvis principe divina ac publica jura , vitam que innocentium , si necesse ●oret , armis defenderent , &c. and a little after , romanae ceremoniae ejectae templis , &c. whether or not then persecution for religion appears to have been the cause of these wars , let all impartial men judge . but you tell us , that the true ground of the quarrel , as we may read in all the histories , was that their prince was not an absolute soveraign , but limited in his power and that by expresse compact , they might use force if he transgressed his limits , as he notoriously did . sir , for the true and proper ground of the war i have alreadie clearly narrated it , from the best historians : that which you point at here , is rather a justification of their resistance from the right and capacity whereunto their prince was astricted . but . you cannot deny that persecution for religion , whereby they were injured both in their special priviledges , and common and natural rights and liberties , was the provoking cause of these wars ; and consequently that religion no more then other interests , doth not forbid to subjects necessary defence and resistance against their superiors . . for all the vaine talke that you and your fellowes make against us for allowing to the people a discretive judgement , anent their princes actings , yet you not only suppose and approve it , in these of the netherlands , in order to their prince , but stick not to vent your aime , in saying that the king did most notoriously and tyrannically pass his limits . . though we should urge this instance no further then you allow it ; yet it stil remaines a very agreeable precedent for justifying our late courses , it being certain , that not only the rights and priviledges of both kingdomes were violate , but that the undoubted priviledges of parliament , and the resticted nature of the kings soveraignity over us , did give us as good and sufficient a warrand for the oppositions then made , as upon this head can be alledged and instructed by these of the netherlands . and really , when i reflect upon the particular case of the late warres betwixt the king and parliament , and how that in the papers printed by consent of both , for clearing the controversie , there appeareth nothing , save the pretensions and pleas of prerogative and priviledge , and yet all do acknowledge religion to have been the original cause , i think this sole consideration might have made you to forbear this poor vindication . it is true , grotius sayes , and seems to lay much weight upon it , quod brabanti illud quoque proprium pacisci solent , ut , principe leges violante , ipsi fidei & obsequii vinculo liberantur donec demantur injuriae . but not to draw you to long discourses , anent the effect of an irritant provision adjected to a mutual contract . . it were no great difficulty to shew you from undeniable reason , nay from grotius himselfe , in his de iur. bell. that as there is such a connexion in all contracts , that the failzeer of the one party doth in so far liberat the other from his mutual & corresponding ingagement , and repone him to his antecedent condition and liberty ; so in the present case , an irritant provision , though , in other cases , it may sometimes extend its vertue and influence beyond the intrinseck import of the failzie wherby it is committed ) , appears not to have any special use , but only to serve , ad majorem , quia expressiorem cautelam . . it might here be sufficient to make that answere for us , which grotius a little , after in the same place makes for the other provinces , viz. ab aliis quoque belgarum nationibus idem jus moribus usurpatum ; which may be verefied as to scotland and england , by many most pregnant and luculent examples . but● . as i grant that a reservation of these things , which otherwse would be imported in the peoples surrender , & appertain to the soveraign , fortified or not fortified , by an irritant provision , may give to the people when therein wronged , the liberty of asserting their own right , which without a special reservation had been none ; so undoubtedly , as to such rights , which do reserve themselves , and are so much ours , that even by an express surrender , they cannot be absolutely resigned ( such as the right of religion , our lives and whole fortunes are , the preservation whereof , being the very ends of go , vernment , can not be understood to be permitted to the governour 's absolute arbitrement ) the people therein invaded , by vertue of the power inherent to rights reserved and the liberation , flowing from all such failzeours , though not expressed , may very justly resist , and demand reparation . and , is it indeed possible , that any rational man should think , because of a reservation of things of less value , and therefore within our power , a prince transgressing may lawfully be resisted , and that nevertheless these high and atrocious invasions , in matters of the greatest value , and which therefore can neither be absolutely surrendered , nor do need an express reservation , should and ought to be stupidly swallowed down ? but seing the greatest royalists do , in certain suppositions , wherein their own sense and interest do give them a better understanding , not stick both to acknowledge and practise , according to this principle , it is very evident , as i have often said , that it is only their indifferency in matters of religion , and the security that they thence derive , which makes them and us to differ on this subject . in the close of this instance , you tell us , that for all this , you refer us to grotius . and for matter of fact , i decline him not , as you may perceive , but if his too manifest prejudice in matters of religion , do make him less express to our purpose , i hope the supplement of other authors , and also of solid reason , shall obtain from you & al men a just acknowledgment . the th instance that you would vindicate , is that of the civil warrs of france , and first you say , their first civil wars , were managed by the princes of the blood , who by the laws of that crown are not ordinary subjects . and certainly by all law and common sense , extraordinary persons may well be said not to be ordinary subjects ; but are they therefore not subjects ? surely the conferring of high dignities and great authority , may well intend their obligation , it doth not alter their condition . and how often have we heard and seen them accused and forfeited for rebellion ? why do you then render you● selfe ridiculous by such a pitiful alledgeance ? but you add , besides , the wars were begun in the minority of the king. and do you seriously think , that ( setting aside the greater incapacity it might have put them into ) had the king been major , they would have been of another minde ? but you say , that , in this case , the power of the princes is greater ; and we have indeed often heard , that the dignity of the princes doth consist mainly in two , viz. their right of succession , and privilege of regencie , during the kings minority or absence : but as , in the matter of regencie , the nearest , and not all the agnati of the royal blood can pretend to it , and that only in the case of no nomination made by the preceeding king , and during the space of the young king's pupillarity , just according to the common rules of tutela legitima ; so you may remember , that the wars , we speak of , falling out in the reigne of francis the second , being for the time , at least , sixteen years of age , there was no place for the princes their pretence of regencie : beside the first appearance of these wars was only supposed to be countenanced , but not openly by them owned . and as for the continuation of the war , in the non-age of charles the nynth , it is certaine , that the king of navarre , to whom , as nearest agnat , the regencie belonged , did voluntarily renounce his pretension , in favours of the queen mother , nay that he joined with her & the guisians , and died fighting against the protestants headed by conde and the admiral . and likewise , these wars were againe renewed in the king his majority ; but , not to enter further into these iliads of tumults , and confusions , occasioned by the restles perfidie and unsatiable cruelty of the adversaries , though i should admit , that these wars were not only incited and provoked to by persecution , but that also , even on the protestants their side , they were not a little influenced both by particular interests and passions , and the general fervor of that nation ( which in effect is the very worst account that even the enemies of the truth do give of them , and cannot be received by any impartial inquirer ) yet , seing it is most evident , that persecution for religion was the true cause moving the body of the protestants to their own defence , and that their ministers and teachers , whom god had honoured to be instrumental in their conversion , as beza and others , did countenance these wars , and constantly maintain , that a defensive resistance to subjects in a due capacity , was no more prohibite , upon the account of persecution for religion , then in the case of any other intolerable oppression . the mixture of mans corruption ( inseparable even from his best actions ) in the prosecution of so good a cause , can neither prejudge its justice , nor deprive us of the advantage of this precedent . but knowing your former answers to be weake and unsatisfying , you subjoyne , that you do not deny their following wars to have been direct rebellion . and is this the vindication you promised ? only , you bid us , consider the fierce spirit of that nation , and we must confess it was not religion , but their temper that was to be blamed . well sir , is this your candor ? the question is , whether or not religion was the cause of these wars , which , if the lawfulness thereof were not first supposed , were utterly impertinent ; and you not darring to deny it , do first tell us by a blunt petitio principii , that the wars were rebellion , and then , that the french temper more then religion is to be therefore , blamed , who should regard such a pitiful sophister ? but , seing it can not be denyed that the many and great injuries , suffered upon the account of religion , were the just provocation to these wars , although some small censu●e either of precipitancy , or of excess in the prosecution may possibly be imputed to the hote temper of that people , or excused by the signal insolencie of ther provocations ; yet , sure i am , that neither the cause of religion , nor the justice of it , is thereby in the least disproven . but now you say , many of the eminent men of that church are fully convinced of the evill of these courses , yea one of the glories of our nation cameron , in the wars of the last king , directly preached against their courses as rebellion . i will not answere , that possibly it hath befallen the eminent men of that church , as it did many of our own , who , as they were removed , from the first times of the reformation , & the then opposition of adversaries , & from the evidence of the lord's spirit & presence that therein appeared ; so according to the influence of after temptations , were induced to condemne that , which otherwise they would have approven . it is enough for us , that your many eminent , whoever they be , are more then overballanced by many more and more eminent still abyding on our side . and for cameron , whom , forsooth , in your pedantick stile , you more then cannonize , by terming a glory , you must pardon us , who know him better , whatever be his opinion in this matter , not to be dazled by his splendour , specially seing you know , that , if we were disposed to vie with you in such vanities , we might by adducing king iames his justifying of the french protestants their defensive wars , in his answer to cardinal perron , eclipse this your glory into obscurity : but what need of more words . if these last wars were purely defensive for religion , they could not be rebellious ; and if they were not , we only lose the instance , but not the argument , as i have abundantly proven . but to this you make your n. c. answer by asking , how did the late king give assistance to the rochellers , in the last wars , if so be they were rebellious ? and to this you reply , that it proceeded from a particular reason , viz. because the king of britain had become the surety in the former pacification that the french king should observe the agreement . sir , if i had the management of your n. c. part . i think i should not have troubled you with this answer . the assistance you mention was so like rather to a treachery that both for the good of these poor protestants , and for the honour of our king's memory , i wish it had never been . but , since you suppose it to have been real , how is it that by your return , you do so pitifully betray your cause ? for , seing by your acknowledgment the late king did in the pacification , after the second war of rochell , with consent of the french king , become surety to his protestant subjects for due observance , and , by this his accession , clearly acknowledged the lawfulness and validitie of the protestants their treatie , it is a more manifest confession of the peoples right and capacity to restrain both by contract and necessary force the unjust and persecuting violence of their prince , then all the instances adduced do afford . it is true , you adde , that this assistance was on our kings part most just , what ever the subjects of france their part in it might be . but where is your reason for this insinuat distinction ? or what logick● can prove that a just concurring assistance may be given in an unjust war ? that the king of britain interposing was injured and affronted by the king of france , his breach is not denyed by , or contrary to , us , more then the injury done by the french king unto these his protestants subjects . but to clear this passage of your foolish quibles . the duke of rohan in the ninth of his politick discourses , entituled , his apology upon the last troubles of france because of the religion , plainly tell us , that the king of britain did , by a gentleman sent to him , remonstrat how he was surety in the last peace , and did compassionate the protestants their sufferings , that if by fair means he did not obtain relief , he would ingage his whole kingdomes , and his proper person in so just a war to which he found himselfe oblidged in honour and conscience , providing that the protestants would take armes with him , and promise , as he would do , not to hearken to any treatie , but jointly with him . and thereto the duke subjoines , that this promise of assistance was his principal ingagement to arme : what think you then ? do not these words plainly enough denote both religion to have been the cause , and what was the kings approbation of these wars ? or , if you doubt the french man's faith , pray take but a view of mr rushworth's collections as to this affair , and there , beside the confimation of what the duke sayes , i am perswaded you will find , the king so express , and the parliament so cordial , in their resentments of the wrongs done to these poor protestants , and in their readinesse to assist for their relief , that you will be ashamed hereafter to scorn your selfe by such confident childish conjectures and distinctions . but , i am sorry , that by reflecting upon the part of the french protestants , in that war , as less just then the king of britains , you should have forced me to a discovery , which rendreth its event so dishonourable to our king's memory . having run thorow so many examples , with such success , as we have spoken , you conclude , and thus i have cleared the churches abroad of that in●urious stain you brand them with . but seeing i have so mamanifestly discovered your falshood and presumption , in this matter , i will not insult over this your folly . you go on in the next place to our britain , and tell us of the english reformation , and how that it was stained with no blood , save that of martyrs , and that indeed was no stain , but , as you do well correct your selfe , its chief ornament . but sir , if the reformation in other places were no less confirmed and rendred glorious by this zeal and testimony , and withall the people , by defensively resisting , when in a sufficient capacity , did evidence a greater and more universal constancy , not versatile by every blast of authority , and ambulatory at princes their pleasure , doth it not rather augment then diminish their praise . you adde , that in england , though a popish and persecuting queen interveened , betwixt the first reformation of king edward , and the second of queen elizabeth , yet none rebelled . and what then ? pray sir , how or wherefore doth scotland want that glory ? sure i am , that the reformation being established in scotland , after a sharp war ( and by the way , you may remember , that queen elizabeth sided with the subject ) both by pacification , authority and determination of a general assembly , yet we received queen mary from france , a declared violent papist , without the least question anent her right of government , or any opposition moved against her , until provoked by such weakness & wickednesse , as i am ashamed to mention . wherein then in this regard are we inferior to england , unless it be that neither for the favour nor fear of a woman , we were moved by any publict act , let be by vote of parliament , as the representative of that nation , to deny the ●aith , and again take on theyoke of the romane antichrist ? or how are you not ashamed , to reproach your nation with a nimious fervour , specially upon this occasion , wherein our worthy reformers did make the court complyance , back-drawing and lukwarmness of a few temporizers , their great and continual complaint . in the next place , you tell us , that all that travelled the world , can witness that we were not approven in our late rebellion , and passing by diodat , spanhem , rivet , salmasius , blondel , amerald , de moulin , and others , not named , as all either in print or publick discourse declaring for you , you say , there was an act made by the consistory of charentoun that no man should be barred the communion for the scots excommunication , except it were for a crime ; and this , forsooth was a loud declaration of their disowning of our practice ? 't is answered . . though you could give a account of the opinion of the nations abroad , concerning our late wars , yet their judgement , in matters so remote from their knowledge , and wherein , the favour generally born to kings , specially when so fatally unfortunat as charles the first was , is able to create in the most part , very little inquisitive , a very strong prejudice , cannot amount to a testimony of any moment . . that the more knowing among them did , both by their histories and other writtings , & also by their letters , approve our proceedings , might be very easily made out by an unanswerable condescendence ; nay that the generality both of dutch and french protestants did condemne the king's party and their practices , i am certain , none of these to whom you appeal , in this matter , can justly disown it . as for diodat , and the rest you name , why do you not e●hibite their words ? you say indeed for some of them , very wisely and safely , that they did only declare themselves in their discourses and sermons . and for these i think you must be excused , because you heard them not . but for the rest i ingage , that whatever passages you shall adduce from them on your part , i shall redargue either their information , in matter of fact , or their reasons in matter of right , to the satisfaction of all unbyassed men : beside salmasius is most exceptionable , in respect he was imployed , and got money in the cause : and yet , in the judgement of many , though he had unanswerable advantages , as to the main design of his defence , he was even in that shamefully baffled . and for amerauld , read but his own vain and ridiculous dedication of his paraphrase , upon the psalmes , to the king , in the year of his restitution , and i am certain you will allow us to think the want of his suffrage no prejudice to our cause . now for your act made at charenton i confess your not producing of it doth the more dissatisfy , because you represent it in termes little consistent , viz. that the sco●s excommunication should not debar , unless it were for a crime . that you take a crime in this place in its larger acceptation , for an offense , and not in that more strict and proper wherein lawyers use it , it were disingenuity in me for to call it in question . but then how excommunication can otherwise proceed without the allegation of any crime , as you seem to accuse us , is indeed to me a difficulty inexplicable , & whereof , i am sure , our church could not be guilty ; and therefore seing the consistorie could not doubt that the church of scotland did hold an offense and obstinacie to be the necessary causes of excommunication , for them to have ●lighted the tryal by us made , and judged the particular grounds of our procedure not answerable to the general rule , had been breach of christian communion and charity , whereof your naked assertion shall never make me think the french church guilty : withal yow know that the bishop of galloway , whom you alledge to have been upon this act admitted to the lords table , notwithstanding of his excommunication , was excommunicate upon the accusation of clear crimes . so that , what you call a loud declaration on the consistories part , i apprehend to be only a loud calumny on yours . but , whatever be in that act , or the bishops admission , upon his own information , in opposition to all your vain pretenses of contrary authorities , it is certain , that not only the truth and right was on our side , but also that our practices were approven , yea applauded and we therein encouraged by letters from several of the reformed churches , yet extant upon record . but , in the next place , your . n. c. demanding it , you undertake to tell him ingenuously what precedents there are in history for subjects fighting upon the account of religion . and the first , you say , that you know , is that of gregory the seventh arming the subjects of germanie against henry the fourth , from whom other popes taking example , they made no bones upon any displeasure , pretending alwayes some matter of religion , to depose princes , and liberat their subjects , as you instance in frederick the. . und . lewes of bavier , and several others , but the latest precedent , you say , is the holy league of france , from which you think our whole matter seems to be transcribed . i have on purpose exhibited these passages together , that men may the better perceive the malice of your calumny , which prefacing and palliating with a great show of ingenuity , you prosecute with meer falshood and impertinency . but first , dare you , after second thoughts , affirme upon your ingenuity , small as it is , that this history of gregory is the first precedent that occurres to you of fighting for religion ? i have already told you , how , before constantin's empire , the christians in the east , the armenii by name , did by armes assert the liberty of the gospel , and rout maximinus their persecutor , and that the persian christians , persecute by their princes , did implore the assistance of the romanes against them , is obviously notour . are not these then antient and undeniable precedents ? but . what likeness find you in gregories case to these practices that we maintaine ? an usurping prelat , according to the spirit of pride and violence , moving in that order , quarrels with the emperour , anent the investiture of bishops , whether upon just grounds or not , is not the present concern , and thereupon excommunicating him , extites his subjects , yet unstable after a recent rebellion , to a second rising . pray sir , was this a war provoked to by persecution & the necessity of defence , in which points , the justice of our courses doth cheifly consist ? sir , do you think that a war , being sometime made upon a false or unjust pretense of religion , should be an instance sufficient to disprove all warres whatsomever upon a religious account ? certainly , if we admit of such reasoning , the most necessary and just defensive war that ever was or can be supposed , may by the objecting ( though most groundlesly ) of any of the most arrant rebellions , by the same consequence be condemned . seing therefore that gregorie's course was plainly wicked . . because his medling with the emperour after this sort was a proud usurpation . . because whatever right or wrong was in the matter , abstractly considered , yet , without doubt , the emperour's pretense was better founded , then the pop's . . because he not only abused the spirituall censure , but perverted it to the instigatting to perjury , rebellion , and blood , for his own tyrannous lust and ambition , your reproaching us , who from our heart detest all such wayes ; either with this or any the like act of the papal insosolence and domination , is but dull and ridicluous envy . as for the holy league of france , from which , you say , our whole matter seems to be transcribed , was it not contrived and entered into , at least in pretense , for the restoring and settling of romes superstition , and consequently for the extirpation of the protestant religion ? how then can our necessary undertaking for the defence of our selves , in the maintenace of the true religion , and covenanting together , in this cause , expresly against romes designes and instruments , be assimulat to that precedent ? out of what topicks will you prove such direct opposites , as a league for establishing error against truth , and a covenant for truth's defence , to be parallel ? or do you think , that the same common name and forme of a league , or the accidental similitude of certaine ordinary methods and circumstances is sufficient to conclude all ingagements , accordingly modelled , under the same character ? but it is so certaine , that the most wicked combinations of the ungodly may proceed in the same form & manner , with the righteous covenants of the faithful , and that as these may joyn themselves to the lord , in a perpetual covenant , so those also may conspire against the lord and against his anointed , plote against the just , and make a covenant even with hell and death , that i am ashamed of your futility . but you say , that herein we symbolize with courtiers , canonists and iesuites the worst gang of the romane church , and yet fill heaven and earth with clamors against the church of england , for innocenter resemblances . sir , this your ( herein ) needeth explication ; for that as they did , so do we enter into leagues , is too general to import any reflection : and as to the specifications of that popish league , seing they disterminate our cases to no less opposition , then that of error , persecution and destruction , on their part , to truth , necessary defence and preservation , on our part , what remains to make out this your objected agreement ? 't is true , these french leaguers were subjects , and did pretend for their religion , with an avowed preference to the subordinate duty of their allegeance to their prince : but seing their religion was a false superstition , and their ingagement neither provoked by injurie , nor limited to defence , but in manifest malice , without the countenance of authority , entered into , to suppresse , by bloud and violence , truth and innocenie , our covenant , authorized by● the unanimous vote of the estates of parliament , for the necessity of defence , in an exigent , very demonstrable both from our first and chief obligation unto god , and unquestionable liberty and priviledge of selfe defence , can not without an impious effrontery , be compared to that wicked and cruel bond. and here , if comparisons were not more odious then pungent , it were easie for me to prove , that as our national covenant was at first made in opposition to the bloudy decrees of the council of trent , and the combinations framed for execut●ing thereof ●and our league and covenant afterward ingaged in , upon the express consideration of the continual plotes and conspiracies of the enemies of god , against his truth ; so , it is only the practice of your prelats , their persecuting bonds and subscriptions , with their persidious ●ellum episcopale , and not our defensive covenants , that can be reproached with the imitation of these popish courses . but seing the necessity and justice of our cause was plainly such , as neither can be convelled by your aspersions , nor needeth the confirmation of the known precedents of the french , and other protestants , counter-leaguing , in opposition to that wicked league devised against them , i shall not detain you longer on this subject . as for the church of england's seeming to symbolize with rome , in some innocenter things , as you phrase it , i wish she were indeed as innocent in that matter , as we are in what you objecte . but seing what you would only have to be a seeming appearance , is a manifest reality , already clearly demonstrate , by the authors of altare damascenum , and the english popish ceremonies ; passing this poor reflection , as one of your affected transitions , i follow you to your next purpose . which you table by a challenge from your n. c. that you still retain the papacie , and do only change the person from the pope , to the king , whom you make , and swear to , as head of the church . and to this you answere very vehemently , that it is an impudent calumny , as you promise to clear by an account of the whole matter . but behold the worthie performance ; a lame , confused , pitiful storie , how the pope , beside his general tyrannie , did , upon king john his base r●signation , exercise over england a particular authority ; that after the reformation and the shaking of the papal voke , the oath of supremacie was brought in , to exclude all forraign iurisdiction , and reinstate the king is his civill authority ; that henrie the th did indeed set up a civill papacie , but the reformation of england was never dated from his breach with rome : that the oath of supremacie was never designed to take away the churches intrinseck power , or to make the power of ordination , of giving sacraments , or of discipline to flow from the king , that however , because the generality of the words might suggest scruples , they are explained in an act of parliament of q. elizabeth , and in one of the . articles , and morefully by b. usher with king iames approbation . and lastly since we have this oath from england , none ought to scruple , the words being sufficiently plain , and the english meaning ours . this is the full and clear account which you promise ; but who knows not these poor and insignificant pretenses : king iohn's resignation was indeed so base , that by all disinterested it was ever held to be invalid , and in after times scarce ever mentioned , let be pleaded . it is therefore the pop's general tyrannie , and what it was , and whether abolished , in these kingdomes , or in effect only transferred from him to the prince , that we are here to consider . and , i think , i may take it for granted , that you judge the pope's exorbitant usurpation , specially his assumming to himselfe , not an external assisting oversight ( which we grant to be the proper right of princes ) but , by way of an intrinseck and direct power , the sole and uncontrolable care of the church , her ministry and ministers , with his arrogating an architectonick power in the ordering of gods worship , so that in all ecclesiastick meetings and matters therein proposed , he may enact what canons he pleases , to be parts of the papal tyranny , not only as in him , but in all men under our lord jesus christ , unwarrantable and antichristian ; nay some of these are points of so high a nature , that the greater part , even of the members of the romish church , do reclaim against them . now questionlesse if this power be to the pope unlawful and incompetent , all secular persons and princes are therefore much more excluded , in asmuch as the pope being at least in shew a church-man , and , according to the hypothese even of your hierarchy , the first bishop of the westerne , if not of the whole church , he is fortified by certain seeming pretenses , of which the clame of civil princes is wholly destitute . to come then to our purpose , that after the reformation , the popish yoke not only as to the particulars above mentioned , but also as to his forreign jurisdiction , unlawfully usurped over church-men in civills , to the prejudice of the king's soveraignity ; was righteously shaken off , and the king re-instated in his civil authority , over all persons , and also , in all causes , in so far as they are committed to his royal direction and tuition , is not at all denyed : if that matters had here sisted , and upon the abolition of the papal domination , the things of god and of caesar had been equally restored , who could have gain-said it ? but that , on the contrary , by the pop's exclusion , and , in place of this righteous restitution , the king , under pretence of the vindication of his own supremacy , did procure to himself a very formal and full translation of what the pope had not only usurped from him , but arrogate from god , specially in the things above-specified , both the occasion of this change , and the manner how this supremacy hath since been exercised , do aboundantly declare . and for clearing the occasion , it may be remembred , . that the peter-pence , called in the beginning the king's almes , imposed by on ina king of the west saxons , was discharged by act of parliament in the reigne of edward the third , and the contention anent the exemption of church-men from the king's courts most hotly agitate , in the reig●es of henry second and king iohn , was composed many years before the dayes of henry the eight : so that neither that exaction , nor this old debate , and far less king iohn's most invalide resignation , not worth the naming , could be the cause of king henry his acclaiming the supremacy . . the only motive that we find in history , whereby henry was instigat to reject the pope , and to declare himself to be supreme in causes ecclesiastick , aswell as civil , was his purpose of divorce from queen katharine , wherein , finding himself abused by the pope and his legates their delayes , he discharges all appeals to rome , appointing them to be made from the comissary to the bishop , from the bishop to the archbishop , and from the archbishop to the king , and is thereafter first called by the clergy , and then declared by the parliament , to be supreme head of the church , in liew of the pope , whose authority was abrogat by the same act : these things then being certain , and you your selfe acknowledging that king henry did set up a civil papacy , it is easy to determine , that this change was not a bare exclusion , but a plain translation of the popes usurped power . we know the reformation of england was never dated from that breach with the bishop of rome : but what then ? can you deny that this was both the rise and establishment of the supremacy , which being transmitted to edvard the sixth , and then renounced by queen mary , and again restored to the pope , was by queen elizabeth reassumed , and so continueth untill this day ? it is true , that after the breaking up of the more clear light of reformation , whereby not only rom's superstition , bot also the popes usurpation and tyranny , in many things , was , upon better reasons , rejected , and especially after the succession of queen elizabeth , to whose sexe the former title of headship , for all the smoothings that had been before used , was nevertheless construed not to be so agreeable . many explications were adhibite for qualifying the supremacy , both in answer to the opposition of papists and for removing the offence of the protestant churches . but the truth is , these explications , though more sound in their grounds , yet , in their explication , were nothing conclusive as to the present debate , and their authors arguing for the supremacy from the examples of reforming kings and emperours , acting not by vertue of an assumed prerogative , but only from that extraordinary power , which the necessity of the end , upon the failzour of other midses , doth measure out to princes first , and to others also , if in a competent capacity , did rather infer the justification of the work , then conclude the approbation of the supremacy , notwithstanding it was therein imployed . nay , while by these their reasonings , they went about from such extraordinary interpositions , only warranted by the exigence of necessity , and the rectitude of the work thereby effectuat , to establish to the prince a constant setled authority , properly conversant about these matters , the argument is far more absurd , then if because a governour may , in a manifest incident disorder falling , for example , in a family , repone the father and head thereof to his paternal oversight , one should thence conclude to the same governour , a proper power and faculty of placeing and displaceing heads of families , and appointing the rules thereof at his pleasure . now that thus it fell out in england after the reformation , and that the same ( if not a more exorbi●ant power ) taken from the pope , was transferred and setled upon the crown , as a perpetual privilege thereof , is in the second place by the manner of its exercise , and its ensuing fruits , ve●y evidently held out . for proofe whereof , the office and actings of the lord cromwell , as vicare general , appointed by henry the eight , over the spirituality , though by the good providence of god ordered to be a notable mean for advance of the reformation , is an undeniable argument . and as to the continuance of the same usurpation , in order to other effects in themselves evill , and not to be justified , there needeth no curious search ; the frequent practices of after princes , laying claime to this power , namely elizabeth , iames and charles , in their ecclesiastick medlings , but especially of his majesty now regnant , in his interposing in church-matters , and thereby overturning a true gospe-●ministry , introducing a new model of church-government , absolutely dependent upon himselfe , reviving vain , groundless and antiq●●● ceremonies , appointing and imposing new religions , dayes and forms . and lastly , giving rules to ministers their doctrine , what points to preach and what to omit all according to the device of his own heart , are an obvious demonstration : which things are in themselves so evident , that i strange you should accuse henry the eight of a civil papacy , and so inconsequently acquit al his successors : whereas , in effect , they not only acted in church-matters after the same method by him observed , using the same prerogative , in the grant of their high commissions and in other acts , which he exercised in his vicarious deputation ; but he is the prince who ( waving his haltings upon the other side , and considering the necessity there was at that time , of an extraordinary remedy , for the good things that he did ) seemeth to have employed their usurped supremacy most excusably , and also very advantageously for the promoving of the reformation . bot you tell us , that the oath of supremacy was never designed , to take away the churches intrinseck power , or to make the power of ordination , of sacraments , and of discipline , flow from the king. it is answered , seing the many evill effects of this supremacy , do so pla●●ly evince its direct and proper tendency , and its late explanation by act of parliament , doth put its nature and extent beyond all controversy , to tell us what at first it was or was not designed for , is but a vain suggestion . and therefore according to these ●urer grounds , i must now tell you . . that although the king , not likely to be tempted by such an empty curiosity , hath neither expresly declared in his own favour , nor assumed to himselfe the exercise of this power of administration ; yet that by vertue of his supremacy , as it now stands explained , he may do both or either , when he pleaseth , is not to be doubted . i need not reminde you that any church-power , not acknowledging a dependence upon , and subordination unto the soveraign power of the king as supreme , is abrogate and discharged . but , pray sir , he who may enact what he thinketh fit concerning all ecclesiastick meetings and matters , may he not , if he think fit , declare himself to have the power of the ministerial function ? nay , what may he not do ? but . admitting that this was not meaned by the parliament , in their explanation , and that in probability the king will never affect the imployment ; yet that the intrinseck power of government belonging to the church , both as to a society of our lords erection , and by his express gift and concession , is by the supremacy taken away , i beleeve it will be so far from being disowned , that it is rather vaunted of as its principal end and advantage . but referring the truth and evidence of this point , anent the power of government , given by our lord immediatly to his church , to what hath been very fully by others declared , and is by me above hinted at , i verily think , that though we had no other argument , save the sad changes that of late have ensued upon the usurpation of this supremacy , the usefulness and excellency of this intrinseck government , is thereby rendered apparent , beyond the evidence of any further confirmation . and really when , together with the authority of its founder , i consider the undeniable necessity and expedience of an internal power of government in the church , as the most significant mean for making all its other gifts , powers , & offices effectual , and how much it is commended by the signal usefulness of a proper government in every society , but more especially to our adversaries by that high yea sacred estimat , which they so much inculcat of that civil-government , and all its punctilios , whereupon their interest depends , and when , on the other hand , i reflect upon the pe●●●●ous and woful influences , that in all ages have constantly attended either the suppression or usurpation of this great divine ordinance , i cannot sufficiently regrete , that the pride , ambition and vanity of men , in setting up and advancing this supremacy , should be so sinfully subservient to the divell 's great design , of crossing the progress of the gospel , and propogating irreligion : which evil is the more to be lamented , that nothwithstanding that our own experience of its wretched consequences , doth evidently redargue this usurpation , yet these men who , in the matter of civil government , make every circumstance sacred , and exclaime against the smallest innovation , as if all confusion were imminent , can and do , in the business of ecclesiastick government , with a more then gallio indifferency and coldness , slight all its concerns , in opposition to their carnal designes , as questions of meer outward forms , and the skirts and suburbs of religion , far removed from its life and substance . whereas it is very certain , that eternal life and salvation , the great end , is not more preferable to temporal peace and outward tranquillity , then our zeal for the government of god's house , institute by himselfe in his church , in order to our everlasting welbeing , ought to exceed our regard to civil government , which in this respect , are but the ordinances of man , in order to our temporal interests : nay , so apparent is the lukwarmness & hypocrisy of mens reasonings in behalfe of this supremacy , that though in the supposition that our lord had by himselfe immediatly erected in any kingdom , a society or incorporation with masters , laws , and a competent jurisdiction , in order to some temporal advantage , as he hath , in the acknowledgement of all , institute his church with ordinances , officers , and government suited to its great ends , all ration●● men let be the members of that society , would judge the king 's pretending to an arbitrary and absolute disposal of these previleges thus granted , to be an injurious invasion and usurpation . yet , in order to the church and her rights and immunities , they are not ashamed to cut off ●o even and just a parallel , and deny so evident a consequence in behalf of her righteous liberty : but wisdome is justified of her children . and how much were it to be wished , that , at the least , the children of light were as wise as the children of this world are in their generation . . beside the invasion threatened to the church , in its power of administration , and the usurpation from the church of the power of government , which this supremacy imports , it further attributes to the prince , according to our parliaments late explication , an illimited power in matters of religion , proper and reserved to god alone . to enact whatever a man thinketh fit in ecclesiastick meetings and ma●●ers , i am certain , is that which the lord did never allow to any meer man under heaven ; and yet that this power is assumed , and how , by vertue thereof , old , unwarrantable superstitions have been retained , new rites and ceremonies in divine worship devised , and churches turned and overturned , according to mens pleasure , is sufficiently known without my condescendence . and therefore , seing the king , by vertue of his supremacy , doth not only intermedle , by giving his civill sanction and confirmation to the intrinseck powers of the church , by you mentioned , as you do allege , or by acts imperate , as others , in contradistinction to elicite acts in these matters , doe use to express it , but doth lay claime to an absolute power in and over all church-matters and persons , the filly pretense whereby you go about to smooth it is not worthie of any mans notice . in the next place , you tell us of some explications provided for removing of the scruples , which the generality of the words of the oath of supremacy might suggest . and to this it may suffice for answer , that seing these explications are certainly confined to england , and by no publick act received or owned among us , your allegeance , with your childish ground , that we have this oath from them , is wholly impertinent as to our releife● but seing the setting down of these explications , contained in the english act and articles above cited , ( which you do counningly omit ) will not only , by comparing therewith the far different practices of the kings of that realme , discover the inadequatnesse , not to say the slightnesse of these sensings , in effect meerly devised to palliat an excess in it self nowise justifiable , but more fully manifest the strange extravagance both of the practical acceptation , and late express interpretation of this supremacie . you may read them as follows ; the words of the act in quinto elizab. declare her power and authority to be a soveraignity over all manner of persons , borne within the realme , whether they be ecclesiastical or temporal , so that no forreigne power hath or ought to have any superiority over them , and these of the articles , run thus . art. . we give not to our princes the ministring either of gods. word or of the sacraments , the which thing the injunctions also lately set forth by elizab our queen do most plainly testifie : but that only prerogative , which we see to have been given alwayes to all godly princes , in holy scriptures , by god himselfe , that is , that they should rule all estates and degrees committed to their charge by god , whether they be ecclesiastical or temporal , and restrain with the civill sword the stubborne , and evill doers . these being the termes of these explications , what consonancie the medlings of their princes in imposing rites , ceremonies and formes of worship , enjoyning their own dayes , and profaning god's , commanding what doctrine ministers should forbear , permitting excomunication in their own name jointly with the lords , and finally , by sitting and ruling in the temple of god , as in their own court , do hold therto , is obvious to the first reflection : only this i must say , that if the kings of england their ecclesiastick actings be indeed sufficiently warranted , by the foregoing explanations , the author of the late discourse of ecclesiastick policy , who , in prosecution of the king's supremacie , doth plainly annexe unto it the authority of the preisthood , and power over the conscience , at least the obedience of men , in matters of religion ; in place of that applause , wherwith he is generally received at court , deserves rather to be demeaned as the highest calumniator and depraver of his majesties government . but not to trouble you further with these double english senses , viz that pretended by their acts of parliament and articles , which i grant to be more sound , and such wherewith many godly men have rested satisfied , and the other more true , received and followed by their court and clergie , nor yet to insist upon your incomparable and blessed ( who now hath mens persons in admiration ? ) bishop usher his more full interpretation equally redargued by what i have alreadie said . let us consider our scots most excessive , though more ingenuous , explanation ; and although , i do apprehend the words of the oath of supremacie to be in themselves capable of a sound sense , and that by understanding supreme governour of this kingdome● not to be a limiting designation , but a plain qualification of the nature of the government as being in order to its correlat this kingdome , in it selfe civil , and only in this notion , to be extended to persons and causes ecclesiastick , all difficulties may be salved ; yet , when to the rise and manner of this supremacie above declared , i adde how of late it hath been made the ground of the king his restoring of bishops , and framing their government to an absolute dependence upon himselfe , granting of the high commission , appointing the constitution of a national synod , and of other strange acts before touched , and especially that as the act parl. . expresly and justly limiting this supremacy , was by the first act 〈◊〉 . parl. . wholly abrogate and made void● so by the first act of the par. . the same supremacie is ass●rted to that absurd hight , as doth import a plain surrender of conscience , and submission of all matters of religion ( for as to civills , we are not so rash ) to his majesties pleasure , in a more absolute manner , then ever to this day hath been acclaimed either by pope or general council . these things , i say , being weighed , i think i may safely conclude , that i look upon the supremacie not only as a civill papacie , but an height of usurpation against our lord , king in zion , whereunto never christian prince nor potentate did heretofore aspire . and here , your n. c. seconding my assertion tells you , that this supremacie clearly makes way for erastianisme . to which you answer , that this is one of our mutinous arts , to find out long & hard names , and affixe them to any thing displeaseth us . but passing the childishness of this conceite , as if either a long or hard name were more odious then a short , in my opinion , s●ch is the manifest wickedness of this your supremacy , that it is one of your ●elusive arts to make your . n. c. rather vail it with an obscure name , then leave it to an open discoverie ; and in the same manner it was , that the men of your gang , after they begun to broach their dangerous , dissolute , and undermining principles , thought fairly to have palliate all with the gentle name of latitudinarian , as apparently obleidging to all parties : but now that they are detected , they turn their talk , and loth to marr their affected smoothness by terming it otherwise then , the long name , they blame us for loading them with reproach : whereas , to the best of my knowledge , it was their own invention and choise . but not to detaine you about names , which really i do so little value , in any respect , that i do not so much as regard the name fanatick , nor these many other , wherewith the truth , and partie , which i maintain have been standered , let us proceed to what you say to the things . and first you tell us , that in the old testament the kings of judah frequently medled in divine matters , and the sanhedrin , which was a civill court determined in all matters of religion , 't is answered , did you not just now give us an account of certain restrictive explications made of the supremacie ? what do you then intend by these instance ? not that i do exclude kings from a due medling in divine matters , or do decline the righteous practices of the kings of iudah , in the largest construction that they can receive ; but certainly , if what you say of their sanhedrin be true , it will overturne all your pretended limitatio●s , at least , give to the king a determining judgement in all matters of religon , which neither ought , nor can be admitted . but. . this threed-bare argument , taken from the kings of iudah and the sanhedrin , for your supremacie , is so fully answered by others , specially by mr. gillespie , in his aaron●s rod ; and he hath so evidently cleared , that there was a sanhedrin ecclesiastick , distinct from the civill , and that these two governments were not confounded , that i wonder you are not ashamed of such jejune repetitions . and , in effect , it is so plain in scripture , that none of these kings did interpose in matters of religion , otherwise then by their extrinseck oversight and assistance , except either by immediat commission and direction from god , as it happened in the establishment made by david and solomon , not to be drawn in consequence , or els in the case of necessary reformation , in which , ordinary means ceasing , the obligation of the end doth authorize even more extraordinary endeavours , that seing the lord himselfe did immediatly reprove the usurpation of uzziah , i can not imagine from what particular precedent you do designe your advantage . however , of one thing i am most perswaded , and i am charitable to think that all your confidence dare not deny it , that had any one of the kings of iudah arrogate to himselfe a supremacie in all causes , and over all persons , aswell ecclesiastick as civill so as to declare that whatsoever he , should enact , anent ecclesiastick meetings or matters should be obeyed and observed by all his subjects , he had been repute no other then a rebell and usurper against god , and a proud contemner of his law : and as for the sanedrin , though it were not proven that there was one ecclesiastick , and ●n other civill , yet their distinct , sacred , and inviolable preisthood , doth so strangly plead for a constant separation where we find the lord to have made a divided institution , that any conjunction in that court , or any thing beside occasioned by their singularly mixed policy , can nowise infer the conclusion you plead for . the next thing you say is , that the christian emperours did medle in matters of religion , 't is ans . that the first chistian emperours did medle in matters of religion , so as to confirme the truth and ecclesiastick decrees by their civill sanction , to establish the chu●ch in the condition wherein they found her , to adorne her with certain priviledges , enrich her with revenues , and beautifie her with fair structures , is not denyed ; but what is all this to your supremacie ? and who is he who doth not wish for a just measure of the like favour and assistance ? you add , that they called the first general councils . and why not ? who denyes that the king may , within his dominious , do the like ? but the point you drive , is to have this power to the king solely , and exclusive of any right and power in the church to appoint and meet in such assemblies , ( what ever be the necessity ) contrary to the kings prohibition : and that , for order and decency , the king's consent and countenance should first be sought , nay , that his refusal ought to be of that moment as not to be counter-ballanced , but by a very visible urgencie , is by all granted . only that he hath an absolute veto in this matter , i positively and firmly deny : for , seing it is evident , that the church , while under pagane princes , did enjoy this power , how she should lose it , upon their becoming christian , otherwise then to be tyed , out of respect and for order , to make to him the first application , to be regulable by his reasons , and very tender of his displeasure , is utterly unexplicable , and were in plain termes to defer to them as christians , though acting as antichristians , and worse then their pagane predecessors . and further it may be considered , that the power of conveening in council , being founded on the same warrant with the churches liberty to meet for the duties of worship , the former no more then the later can be made dependent upon the prince his pleasure . but you subjoine , that they presided in these councils : and to this there is no answer like unto your own , viz. that in presiding they only ordered matters but did not decide in them ; which , together with a moderator , after the example of the first nicen synod , wherein constantine presiding , eustathius of antioch did by prayer open the council , you know we do willingly allow . but to help you a little in this point , i grant that theodosius in the council of constantinople seems to have gone a great length ; yet all that we find upon record is that the council being divided without issue , by the opinions of the orthodoxe , & of the macedonians , arrians & ennomians , the emperour requires their several confessions , and , after much earnest prayer to god for light and direction , he declares for the nicen faith ; whereunto the synod agreeing , the contrary heresies are condemned : and this was no doubt a very laudable practice , warranted both by the exigent and the truth it selfe , whereby many things less regular , without inferring an ordinary and proper power in the author for their warrant , have very often been sustained . a good turne , specially when done in the cessation of other midses , doth sufficiently subsist by its own merit . iehojada a priest in a state of necessity , armes against a tyranne , and reformes the kingdome : but can you or any man thence conclude , that therefore he acted from an ordinary power and facultie , a priviledge proper to his office ? why then should men be so absurdly unequal , as from the like extraordinary interpositions of princes , in church perturbations , to attribute to them a proper inherent right and perpetual prerogative ? next you say , that the emperours also judged in matters of schisme . but seing that any judgement given by them was consequent to the churches determination , though perhapes with a little attemperation for conveniency , whereof determinations in these matters do very naturally allow , the instance is no more favourable then the rest you have adduced . but the code , basilicks & capitulers of charles the great shew that they never thought it without their sphere to make laws in ecclesiastick matters . 't is answ . this objection shewes , that either you are little acquainted with what is in these books , or little advertent to the conclusion you have in hand . the laws you mention , are either imperial confirmations of the truth , owned by the church , or for condemning and punishing of declared hereticks , or for authorizing and ordering a slender umbrage of jurisdiction called episcopalis audientia , granted to church-men in charitable and favourable cases , or for restraining and correcting their dissolute manners , or lastly , anent the regulating , of hospitals , alms-houses , & other things , pertaining to the outward policy of the church . pray sir , what make these for your supremacie ? or was ever this part of his majesties power by us questioned ? but where wil you finde , in all approven antiquity , that ever a prince by vertue of a pretended inherent right in his crown , or any acclaimed prerogative and supremacie , in causes ecclesiastick , took upon him , with one blow , summarily to overturne the established ministery of a church , by himselfe formerly by solemn oath confirmed , introduce new office-bearers , set up a new frame of church-government , declaring himselfe to be the sole head and fountain thereof , to whom all others , as subordinat , must be accountable for their admistrations ? in what antient record did you ever read of a commission granted by a king for ecclesiastick affaires , impowering secular persons to appoint ministers to be censured by suspension and deposition , and church-men to punish by fining , confining , incarcerating , and other corporal paints ? what emperour or prince did ever assume to himselfe , in the right of his royal power , at once to impose upon a whole church a new liturgie and form of service never before heard of among them ? or , did it ever enter in the heart of a christian potentat to declare for a law , that what ever he should please to enact anent church-meetings and matters should upon the publication be by all obeyed and observed , and , in suite of it , to statute , that if either minister or other person , not allowed by his or his bishops authority , do preach , expone scripture , or pray , except in his own house , and to these only of his own family , it shall be judged a coventicle , and liable to pains of law ? these are a part of the native fruits of your supremacie . if you look back to confirme it by antient precedents , pray , give us but one parallel . i grant , that iustinian , in some of his constitutions , after having declared and confirmed the truth , received by the church , and d●termined by her councils ; not only condemnes , but anathematizes the contrary heresies . but seing his using of that phrase peculiar to the church , and properly importing a power , acknowledged not to be competent to secular athority , doth only express his more enixe detestation of these errours , and approbation of the church her censures against them , it cannot with any colour of reason , be made use of for your purpose . but you proceed to tell us , that the bishops , not excepting the bishope of rome , were named , at least their elections approven by the emperours . and what then ? for my part , if the emperour , and all christian princes should agree at once , to reduce them , aswell as they advanced them , it should not be accounted an invasion of the churches power or priviledge . but , because it is like that these emperours , you speak of , did indeed regard them , as true church-officers , & nevertheless medled , as is mentioned , in their elections , i answer further , that the true cause of princes their first medling in the elections of bishops was , either the diffidence of the bishops , as to that office and title , wherein not being satisfied from scripture-warrant , they were inclined to apply to the emperour for the supplement of his confirmation , or els their solicitous ambition , which , in thesearly contests that they had for precedency , did prompt them , among other artifices , to fortify their pretensions by the emperour's favour and suffrage . however this is very certain , that whether the emperour 's medling was first procured by the bishops address , or did flow from their own proper motive , had these church-men contained themselves within the rules and limits set to them by our lord , they had never judged the emperours confirmation requisite to the validity of their office and title : and therefore seing the true account of this matter , is , that the aspiring of ecclesiasticks did give the first rise unto this secular medling , whether we take it to be no usurpation , as being conversant about that , which , to say the truth , is not christian , let be ecclesiastick , or to be a partaking in the church-men their usurpation , either of the two do●h equally make void your argument . after the reasons , which we have heard , you conclude , that kings their medling in ecclesiastick affaires , was never controverted , till the romane church swelled to the hight of tyranny , and since the reformation , it hath been still stated , as one of the differences betwixt us and them . it is answered . if princes had at first exceeded and intruded too far in church-matters , and then the pope acted by a worse spirit , and no less aspiring , had risen up against his masters , and thrust himselfe into their rooms , what would this make for your advantage ? or doth it to either of them conclude a right ? suppose a papist debating this question should argue thus , that the pope his headship in ecclesiastick affaires in england was never controverted , till henry the eight , impatient through lust , did arrogate to himself the supremacy , and since that time it hath still been stated as one of the controverted differences , would you think this reasoning pungent ? why then is not your discerning equall to your judgement ? but the clear truth in this matter is , that although the emperours of old did , at no time , lay claime to this supremacy questioned , yet they and the succeeding princes , having too much connived at and countenanced the antichristian ambition , working in prelacy toward the papacy , it was from the righteous judgement of god , that , upon its exaltation , they were blinded and involved in these contentions , and justly plagued by the transcendent insolence of an evill , which they had too much fomented : and therefore your dating the period of these contests from the setting up of the papal tyranny , doth contribute nothing to your advantage . and where you say , that since the reformation the supremacy hath still been stated as one of our differences from them , 't is very certain , that it hath been granted by all the reformed churches , that princes may and ought to reassume their own power and kingdome , given unto the beast , in so far as , in the times of the prevailing of the mystery of iniquity , it was either by force extorted , or by fraud elicite from them : but that any king or prince , upon the pretense of recovering his own from the pope , should lay claim to all that he hath usurped , either against our lord , or over his church , nay to more then ever any pope did arrogate , which is the case and import of your supremacy , is that whereunto , i am confident , no true subject of jesus christ , and enemy of antichrist can judiciously assent : and therefore if in this we do more solidly & soundly maintain the differences betwixt the reformed and popish churches , and , while we assert our lord's prerogative and his churches priviledge against the pope , do not betray them to any other pretender , we hope our differing from you , aswell as the papists , in this matter , shall only witness us to be the more upright defenders and no deserters of the protestants plea , and the truth of god. now , this is that supremacie which as i have very plainly and graphically represented without making use of scolastick termes or distinctions , in my opinion not more frequent then super●luous in a matter so palpable ; so i am confident that every one who hath that true understanding of the fear of god , and the sincere love of our lord jesus , will ever abhorre it with all its wicked effects . but you in your crastines do not only make your . n. c. cede as it were to your reasonings , but in a manner own the late pretended indulgence , as flowing from the supremacie , on purpose to fix upon these few ministers of ours , who have been thereby restored , at least , a constructive approbation of this evill . and thus you move your n. c. to say that he hopes you are so much for the supremacy , as not to quarrel at this indulgence lately granted ; and by way of reply you tell him , how good subjects you are not to criticize upon your soveraign's pleasure , and how much more moderate then we , who would not have received ann . such a proposition from the king in favours of the doctors of aberdeen ; and from this , falling to touch our opposing the readmission of malignants to the army against the englishes , you exceedinly please your selfe in your own well-natur'd compliance , and would have even the jealousy and aversion , which some of you have for this favour , commend your submission as the greater vertue , because against your inclination . but , not to lose time in these your trifflings , the weak shadowings of your vain imagination , to be brieff and round with you , i differ from your n. c. and am so much against the supremacy , that i abominat the indulgence under this name . that god hath disposed the king , to restore , in any measure , what was so sinfully taken away , we account it a great blessing , wishing that he may be in such manner satisfied with the fruits of this course as may more and more convince him of its righteousness , and encourage him to its prosecution : but if you or any els do think , by this poor and scant restitution , to bribe the lords people to a consent to the rest of your usurpations , and a more tame compliance with all the other wrongs and mischiefs , that you have done and are still doing , we trust the lord shall deliver his own from so fearfull a snare : and that as hitherto our ministers have looked upon themselves as such , neither of man nor only by man , but by jesus christ and god the father ; so they will accordingly acquit themselves , and in a special manner ( as they expect our lords presence to be with them ) testify for his right and ordinance against all invasions , and that so much the more , as the hard condition of the present times hath in some sort ingaged them to a seeming allowance , of which they ought to purge themselves in the first place . as for your being better subjects to the king then we are ; we know indeed that many , if not all , of you , either principally designing , or els simply deluded by outward peace and ease , do , in order to this end , not only acknowledge the king as supreme , but in effect adore and revere him as the most high , and for the freedome of your persons and fortunes , really enslave your consciences to his dictates : but , as this is a subjection no more stable and fixed , then the mutability of that interest , whereon it depends ; so it is a measure thereof , for which we do neither envy you , nor for the want thereof fear to be less accepted , either with god or man. only let me tell you , that i take your not criticizing upon the late licence , a thing , though very hardly resolved upon , and no better digested by your evill natures and foolish malice ; yet , in it selfe , most conducible , and in its effect very advantagious to your ends , to be so much the concernment of your interest , as scarce to be a mark of just and ordinary subjection , let be to furnish a complement to your slavish flattery . but you talk to us also of your greater moderation : o the impudence ! the prelates having raged several years in persecution and violence against persons , only chargeable with a simple not-countenancing of their evill courses , to the ruining of a part , and distressing of the whole countrey , and to the manifest hazard of turning all to confusion , a few of our rulers more wise ( foreseeing the consequences ) are at length perswaded to a small relenting , and in hope thereby more assuredly to compass their end of suppressing and extinguishing the party by them feared , they resolve rather to allay and break them , by pretended favour and seeming indulgence : and this having succeeded more happily , then either reason or sense can convince the ever-jealous and cruel prelatick clergie , you would have us so stupid as to applaud you for your moderation , as exceeding any thing by us practised . but to convince you , by the retortion of your own instance , will you or any knowing man affirme , that if there had been no more of necessity and interest to plead for us , then appeared in the behalfe of the doctors of aberdeen , we had notwithstanding have attained to this favour ? for my part , i think it may be demonstrate , that had that freedome been used by us in open disputing and opposing , which was permitted , nay allowed to the doctors , instead of answers , and answers to replyes , as they are termed , we had certainly got prisons and gibbets . and yet for all your calumnious alleageance , that they and other worthy persons ( whom nevertheless you wisely forbear either to name or number ) were by us driven away by tumults and not by laws , it is known that all they suffered was , after desperate obstinacy , to be removed either by law or ecclesiastick-censure . the next thing whereby you go about to make out your charge of rigor against us , is , that we purged our armies . and wherefore not ? that evill men do not by reason of sin forfeit their rights , and consequently may lawfully defend them , is not denyed : but that the lord , having then so lately testified his displeasure against the malignant courses of the . and we having thereupon so solemnly vowed a detestation thereof , and a non-conjunction with all their bettors , there was just reason , when the necessity was not such as to leave no place for election , in the fear of the lord's displeasure , to preferre his command . deut. . v. . and our own ingagements unto the then contrary pretensions ; and to keep us from every wicked thing , can not rationally be disproved . however these things being now past , i love not to rake in them , my hearts desire is , that the things which have since befallen us , and seem to have so clear a dependence upon the unstedfastness , insincerity , mockery , heats and contentions of these bygone transactions , may at length lead every serious fearer and seeker of the lord , unto a single and through discovery , and the repentance which the lord requires . as for the advantage you would draw from this objection , i have already told you that necessity and interest do too visibly influence all your pretended moderation , to leave you any matter of boasting in your late abatements . but he who pleaseth to turne his eye upon the other side , and there , with your former ecclesiastick rigors , behold your other methodes , in appointing the declaration , as an indispensable condition of state-trusts , and in your manifest discountenancing all of a different perswasion , will certainly admire to find you so much exceed , even in these very evills , which you would appeare to condemne . now to your stiffling of jealousies , which vexe some of your more weak and malicious modells . we know too well their selfish and cowardly dispositions , to impute their not whispering to any true respect to authority , more then the compliance of others to your alledged moderation . to obey god more then man , and therefore to suffer affliction cross to our inclination , is indeed a faire accession to the praise of the grace of god in this greater vertue you vaunt of , and wherein we desire to be found : but as for your submission against certain blind perswasions , and peevish fears ( which you call your inclination ) to that absolute overswaying devotion , which we know you bear to peace and ease , many of you have so notourly already basely renounced , not only your god , but your king ( for whom you do more highly pretend ) for this interest , that you must pardon us , neither to applaud your obedience nor submission from such suggestions . and so indeed you insinuat more intelligibly then you are awar ; for you say , that if we abuse not this liberty we have got , you shall never complaine of it : which according to the construction of abuses , held out by your lawes and practices , doth so plainly sound , if you neither offer to reclaime the people from their rebellion against , and backsliding from the lord , nor to warne and testify against the courses , and tendencies of an antichristian supremacy and profane prelacy , that the benefite and security , which you would obtain by the performance of this condition , doth render your pretended acquiescence almost ridiculous . but you go on to adde , nay , you would rejoice to finde it produce the effects , for which it is designed , viz. to bring us to a more peaceable temper . and who either doubteth this in your sense , or refuseth it in a just sense ? could we exchange a good conscience for court-compliance , or prefer peace to truth , which do plainly appear to be the termes of difference , wherein we stand , there is no question of your victory and our agreement : but seing this may not be , and your designe is at best preposterous , i hope , i shall more easily obtaine your concurrence in my wish , that the gospel and godliness being by this indulgence advanced , true peaceableness and peace may thence ensue . the second effect of this indulgence by you intended , is to make us value and love more one of the noblest and most generous princes that ever ruled . sir , you just now commended your selfe for a better subject , then to criticize upon your soveraign's pleasure , and , i think , i should at least be so civill , as not to controvert his praise ; but as i do heartily pray that the lord would make it a hundred times so much truly greater then it is ; so , let me tell you , that to state your superlatives of nobility , and generosity , upon the grant of this licence , a very mean and scant act of justice , elicit by a visible state-conveniency , if not necessity , and many degrees inferior to the liberty granted either by the king of france , to his protestants , or the great turk to his christian subjects , is rather to betray then advance your prince his reputation . i say not this to diminish the just acknowledgement of his majesties justice , that every good subject ought on every occasion to express ; but this your artifice , either to baffle our consciencious non-compliance with your remaining corruptions , as ingratitude , or to stop the procedure of the king's goodness , as being already in the next degree to an excess , must not go unnoticed . your third effect designed , is to dispose us to a brotherly accomodation with you , which you say , the fathers of the church are readie to offer , on such termes as refused will declare us to be schismatical . but seing all along you would have this licence to be a free favour , and would thence plead its obligation toward a brotherly accommodation , as i have hitherto told you , that i cannot regard it under that character ; so , i hope , the insinuation that this pretense may import , shall be of no moment to byass any to an accomodation , in the termes of so stated an opposition . sir , mistake me not , it is not , that i love division or studie faction ; union and peace in the lord are the earnest desire and prayer of my soul , and that not more for the manifestation of the glorious power of the grace of god , in turning you from your evill wayes , then for that beautie , joy and strength , wherewith it is accompanied , and whereby the pleasure of the lord might be so effectually promoted : but while you continue impenitent , yea obstinat in your perjury and rebellion , whereby you have overturned the lord's work , with the ministrie and government of his house , and do own that idol of jealousie and root of wickedness , the supremacie , and its dependent prelacy , wherby under the pretense of peace and order , the kingdome of our lord , aswell over consciences , as in his church , is borne down , prophanity , popery , nay atheisme and all wickedness connived at , and nothing become more odious and persecute , then a conscientious acknowledgement of the most high , not prostitute to mens lusts & devices ; while , i say , you are still such , what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness ? & what communion hath light withdarkness ? and what concord hath christ with belial ? or what part hath he that keepeth covenant with him that avowedly breaketh it ? if these be schismatical insinuations , we are very willing to be accounted such , and do heartily imbrace the reproach : nay , if i should tell you , that such are the nature and circumstances of the present defection , that it doth not only enjoyne a necessarie separation from your pretended and corrupt ecclesiastick courts , for eviting the sin that attends a conjunction ; but also a witnessing & withdrawing to testify against backsliders , i might as easily evince it both from scripture-precept and example . but , may be i am too prompt ; if the termes that you are about to offer be as fair as is promised , that is , as can be demanded by any rational person , no doubt they will satisfie all our scruples . and therefore wishing that the event may redargue this apparent anticipation , i goe on to your following promise , viz. to give your n. c. at next meeting a full prospect of the state of the ancient church , and you doubt not to convince him that their frame was better suted for promoting the ends of religion , then ever prebyterie could be . sir , your performance is expected , and for your encouragement , i am free to tell you , that though the improbabilitie of the undertaking may possibly give the world a disappointment , yet it will be no surprise . it is not the first promise that you have failed in , upon more unaccountable reasons : mean while , you forbid us , to abuse our soveraign's royal goodnesse , nor the tendernesse of these he sets over us . but this , in my opinion , is a superfluous caution ; the prelats have taken a surer course to prevent your fears ; for such hath been their care to secure this goodnesse and tendernesse from our abuse , that hitherto they have thought fit to keep it without our reach . i know this will appear a hard reflection to some of your party , who would have even the common air estemed his majesties , and us to breath it by his indulgence : but a flattering mouth worketh ruine , and the lord shall cut off all flattering lips . we despise not his majesties favour , nay , we desire and long for it that it may come down like raine upon the mowen grasse : but while there is so great a short-coming in the things , which are right in the eyes of the lord , and righteous toward his servants , why should flatteries deceive ? and thus we are come to your conclusion of prayers for and exhortation to peace , love , and charity ; a very expedient one to so bad a cause , so badly managed : your rebellion against god , your usurpation against our lord jesus christ , the wrongs done to his church and people , by which your prelats have got into the chair , and in compliance wherewith you your self do at least find ease , if they cannot be mentioned by reason , yet may in a manner be secured by peace . and , no doubt , the love and charity , which you crave would go a great length . i will not say with iehu , what have you to do with peace ? but there is no peace to the wicked , saith my god ; and that ought to be unto you of more moment , then if iehu , with all his fury and forces , were at your heels . but you are of that number , who would have peace though you walk in the imagination of your own hearts ; nay , you seduce this people , and heal their hurt slightly , by saying peace , where there is no peace : but if you had stood in the counsel of the lord , and had caused his people to hear his words , then you should have turned them from their evill way , and from the evill of their doings : am i a god at hand , saith the lord , and not a god a far off . can any hide himselfe in secret places that i shall not see him , saith the lord , do not i fill heaven and earth , saith the lord. i have heard what the prophets said who prophesie lyes in my name , and do cause my people to erre by their lightnesse , yet i sent them not , nor commanded them , therefore they shall not profite this people at all , saith the lord. as for the love that you desire ; should we love them that hate the lord : you know whose profession it was , do not i hate them , o lord , that hate thee ? and am not i grieved with these that rise up against the ? i hate them with perfect hatred , i count them mine enemies . neither are these the words of one only under the old dispensation , which elswhere you are pleased to terme , more carnal and fierie . he who wished that they were even cut off , who troubled the church , appeareth to be of the same spirit . nay , god who is love , and perfect in goodnesse to all his creatures , is neverthelesse a consuming fire unto his adversaries . and our lord jesus , who came in lowlinesse and meeknesse to seek sinners and dye for enemies , enjoyning love as a badge , and legating peace as his proper blessing to all his followers , doth notwithstanding pronounce many a sad wo unto the hypocritical , proud , covetous & in a word ( if as shamlessly irreligious ) prelatick pharisee . let us therefore , above all things , in the first place contend for the love of god , and to be found , and to abide therein : this once purging our hearts from dividing and distracting lusts , will only happily cement us by its own bond . but if you continue your opposition against god , perversion of his righteous wayes , and persecution of his saints , you do in vain pretend to that peace , which is the saints their priviledge , and without which , outward peace is no better then one of these snares that the lord raineth upon the wicked . your next wish is for charity , and o! that it might be both your and our blessing , in its full extent ; charity not rejoycing in iniquity , but rejoycing in the truth , would quickly produce a desireable accommodation , but this is not the charity which you study ; 't is like a charity thinking no evill of your evil doings , beleeving all your imposings , enduring all your usurpations , and bearing all your rigours , would please you well . and at this rate the most violent irreligious persecutor would become your concurrent . but we have not so learned christ. it is a very easie and advantagious thing , to men possest of their desires to wish for security in the peace , love , and charity even of their adversaries . and yet we are not so short of rememberance as to believe that this was alwayes , the language of your partie . at first it was , make a chaine the land is full of bloodie crimes , and the city is full of violence , and your cry was , rase it , rase it , even to the foundation . and when after much crueltie and blood your prelats would scarce by the restraint of more safe counsel be taken off their eager pursuites , how hardly are they prevailed upon , even by their own interest , to teach this doctrine of peace ? it is not many weeks since the chief of your fathers , as you terme them , preaching before the king's commissioner and many members of parliament on that text , let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace , told his hearers , in the very entrie , that the particular rules of mutual for bearance and tendernesse , given in that scripture by the apostle , were only convenient for the then state of that church wanting a christian magistrate : but now there being a christian magistrat , his authoritie should quiet all scruples , and might not be demurred by these pretenses : and going on to show that the only way to peace , is to allow to the king not only an outward coercive power , but also an inward , directive , architecktonick , uncontrollable power ( o fear the lord all ye his saints ) over conscience , in the matters of worship , with much ado , as eye and ear witnesses do attest , he stammered through a part of the first chapter of a new piece , entituled a discours of ecclesiastical policie . and thus , he delivered to us the very same doctrine of peace , which , in several places of your dialogues , you do very plainly hold out . whether or not then it be in the same principle , and for the same end , that ye do here pray for peace , love and charity , let men judge . for our part , your power , riches , and dignities ( in themselves , to say the truth , the very meenest of these trifles ) are by us neither coveted nor envied . our souls desire and earnest prayer to god , both in your and our own behalfe , is that god would open our eyes , turne back our hearts , heal our backslidings , and restore unto us his gospel and blessed ordinances in power and purity . o turne us again lord god of hosts , cause thy face to shine and we shall be saved , then shall glory dwell in our land , mercy and truth meet , and righteousnesse and truth kisse each other , then should the work of the lord appear unto his servants , and the beauty of the lord our god , even peace , unity and love be upon us . as for these scriptures wherewith you second your wish for peace , were i not more tender in opposing scripture to scripture , then you are in abusing it to your own designe , it were easie for me to repay your admonition to love , by a more seasonable exhortation to you of repentance : but since the very consideration of the words , by you cited , may rectify your misapplication , my single desire is , that you had pondered or could yet ponder them . if there be therefore any consolation in christ , if any comfort of love , if any fellowship of the spirit , if any bowels and mercies , let us fulfil the lords joy , that we be first of a sound minde , & then like minded , having the same love , being of one accord , of one minde , let nothing be done , through strife or vain glory ( a short discharge of all the pride , persecution and pompe of your prelatick order ) but , in lowlinesse of minde , let each esteeme others better then themselves . who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among us ; let him show out of a good conversation his● works with meeknesse of wisdome . but if you have bitter zeal , or envying ( for seeing that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , wanting this adjunct , signifieth also envie , without the least reflection upon that holy zeal of god's house which is said to eat up even the pattern of meekness & prince of peace , your poor criticisme , in altering the translation , shewes more of your malice then your learning ) and strife in your hearts , glory not , and lye not against the truth ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be zealous there fore and repent of your perjurie and covenant breaking ) this wisdome descendeth not from above , but is earthly sensual and devilish ; for where zeal or envying ( the word is indeed still the same , and so is your folly in this remarke ) and strife is , there is confusion and every evill work . but the wisdome that is from above is first pure , then peaceable ( not first peaceable and then impure , as that of your partie is ) gentle and easie to be entreated , full of mercie and good fruits , without partiality , and without hypocrisie ( o desirable quality ) and the fruit of righteousnesse is sowen in peace of them that make peace . let us put on therefore ( as the elect of god , holy and beloved ) bowels of mercies , kindnesse , humblenesse of minde , meeknesse , long-suffering , forbearing one another and forgiving one another , if any man have a quarrel against any , even as christ forgave us , so let us do ; and above all things put on charity which is the bond of perfectness . and let the peace of god rule in our hearts , to the which also we are called in one body , and let us be thankfull . let the word of christ dwell in us richly , in all wisdome , teaching and admonishing one another in psalmes and hymns and spiritual songs , singing with grace in our hearts to the lord , and whatsoever we do in word or deed ( pray observe this fundamental direction ) let us do all in the name of the lord iesus ( what shall we then say to these who in the bond to the publict peace would not admit the name of the lord to be mentioned ) giving thanks to god and the eather by him . in all this i wish we were sincerily agreed . and that these words were more deeply infixed in our mindes , for i confesse i am wearie of vain janglings , as much as you are , and do long for truth and peace , as much as you do for your much courted peace ; and indeed there is nothing that doth so much portend the lords displeasure and imminent wrath as that not any pleadeth for truth ; they trust in vanity and speak lies , they conceive mischief , and bring forth iniquitie , they hatch cockatrice eggs , and weave the spiders web , he that eateth of their eggs dieth , and that which is crushed breaketh out into a viper ; their works are works of iniquitie , and the act of violence is in their hand ; they do much love outward peace , but the way of peace they know not , and there is no judgement in their goings , they have made them crooked pathes , whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace . therefore is judgement far from us , and justice doth not overtake us ; we waite for light , but behold obscurity , for brightness , bot we walk in darkness ; for our transgressions are multiplied before thee , and our sins testifie against us ; for our transgressions are with us , and as for our iniquities we know them , in transgressing and lying against the lord and departing away from our god , speaking oppression and revolt , conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falshood , and judgement is turned away backward , and justice standeth afar off ; for truth is fallen in the street , and equity cannot enter , yea truth faileth , and he that departeth from evill maketh himself a prey . whether you or your n. c. account these words to proceed from a fretted minde , or not , i know not ; sure i am there is that truth in them that though david's wished for wings may better suit your desire of rest , yet ieremiah's waterie head , and weeping eyes , with his retirement to a wildernesse , would be the more agreeable wish to our condition . but our relieff is , that the lord seeth , and who knowes , but he is displeased that there is no intercessor , and that therefore his arme may bring salvation , when he shall put on righteousnesse as a breast-plate , and an helmet of salvation upon his head , when he shall put on the garments of vengeance for clothing , and cloath himself with zeal ( even that zeal which you go about to maligne ) as with a clock . however this is most certaine that the redeemer is come to zion and unto them that turne from transgression in jacob , saith the lord. but your . n. c. recals me and tells us , that the further he seeth in the great businesse of religion , he is the the more coovinced of a serene and placide temper , which so qalisies the soul for divine converse . and these words do ravish and unite your heart to him in such a manner , that , for a conclusion to these your roving dialogues , you do very agreeably evanish in a fancied transport . and really sir , i do as little question that the further a man seeth , and is seriously exercised in the great businesse of religion , he will certainly be therby rendered of a more serene and placide temper . the statutes of the lord are indeed right rejoyceing the heart , the commandement of the lord is pure enlightning the eyes ; the divine light doth certainly give pure joy , and pure joy no doubt doth elevat above all carnall perturbations , and drossie pleasures : there is a vertue in religion , that , powerfully rebuking not only the windes of our tempestuous passions , and the tossings of our vaine desires , but the dreadful tempest of gods anger , doth make a great calme , which bringeth unto jesus christ for refuge , unto god for our rest , and blesseth us with his peace that passeth understanding , and filleth us with all joy in believing . but your insinuation , as if a serene and placid temper not flowing from , but previously disposing unto , religion and fellowship with god , were of special influence as to divine converse , is at best but a continuation of your delusion , i shall not say deceit , suited to your great designe of preferring peace , to truth , and fraiming religion to your own accommodation . and truly in order to that end , the advantages of a serene indifferencie and placide compliance , resolving all difficulties by the conveniencie of ease , and not striving in any case against the authority and commands of such , on whom our outward peace depends , can not be denyed . but seing it is the great work of religion , first to open the eyes , and to turne from darkness unto light , and from the power of satan unto god , that we may receive forgivenesse of sins , and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith , and in these excellent graces true peace and full joy , let him who would have a minde truly serene , and not only a placide temper , but a tranquill and joyful conscience , studie and walk in this light , discovering and abhorring every evill way , and by purity and faithfulnesse , even in that which is least , make sure his peace , and so shall he not only be qualified for , but certainly attaine unto divine converse . serenity and tranquillity of minde , when flowing from that wisdome from above , which is first pure then peaceable , and is the product of pure religion and undefiled , is no doubt , no other then that light wherein god dwells , and that calmness and weakness of spirit , wherein he delights . but as for your serene and placid temper , whith you exhibite to us , rather as preparatory , then subsequent to religion , i must again tell you my feares that i find it so little agreeable to religion's genuine methode , and so very suitable to your carnal designes , that i greatly apprehend , that , instead of advancing you to true divine converse , it only seduce you into a fools paradise of your own dreams and imaginations . whether your ensuing raptures do thence proceed , i leave it to others to judge . but , sure i am , were you as earnest to pray , deliver my soul , o lord , from lying lips , and from a deceitful tongue , as you would appear serious in the following regrete of having too long dwelt among them that hate peace : you had rather choosed to suffer affliction with the people , of god , esteeming the reproach of christ ( even treason and sedition ) great riches ; and respecting and looking for the recompense of the reward , the eternal love and peace of god , then to have taken the compendious , way of a sinful compliance , for obtaining this worlds ease and quiet . which i am confident● that holy man , whose words you usurpe , would have abhorred at the rate . as for the thick fogs and mists of contention , which you complaine of , if this life were indeed to you a valley of tears , as you give it out , while all light and purity is almost destroyed by the lust and ignorance of your prelatick party , it would have been to these infernal vapors , and clouds of smok , by which our sun and air are darkned , and not to the just and necessary opposition of a small faithful remnant against your apostacy , that you had ascribed the noisomness which you mention . but , behold the nimblenesse , aswell as the delusion , of the mans fancy ; he hath for outward ease cast away a good conscience , and preferred all along peace unto truth : all the disturbance he mee●eth with , is the dissent of a few faithfull unto god , and stedfast in his covenant ; whom he and his party do therefore persecute : this small innocent non-complyance he complaineth of , as if he were the most refined and tender saint , grieving for the wicked and rageful persecution of the ungodly , from which imaginary and feigned distresse , with the same artifice and facility , he pretendeth that his relieff is in divine contemplation , whither , as to the mountaine of god , he flieth , forsooth , for sanctuary that he may take rest . but this triumphing of your presumption shall be but short , the joy of the hyhocrite is but for a moment , though his excellency reach up to the heavens , and his head reach unto the clouds ; yet he shall perish for ever , like his own dung , they which have seen him shall say , where is he , he shall fly away as a dream , and be chased away as a vision of the night : for who , lord , shall dwell in thy holy hill , and who shall ascend unto the hill of the lord , and who shall stand in his holy place ? he that walketh uprightly and worketh righteousnesse , and speaketh the truth in his heart ; he that backbiteth not with his tongue , nor doth evill to his neighbour , nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour , in whose eyes a vile person is contemned , but he honoureth them that fear the lord , he that sweareth to his own hurt and changeth not ; he that hath clean hands , and a pure heart , who hath not lift vp his soul unto vanity , nor sworn deceitfully , he shall receive the blessing from the lord , and righteousnesse from the god of his salvation . if therefore your pretensions be such as you professe , you must not overlooke the way that god himselfe hath designed , but walk in it with fear . your vain phantastick soarings will not carry you , either over , or by it . nay in the end they will prove a lie , and tumble you into destruction : for what is the hope of the hypocrite when he hath gained , when god taketh away his soul ? think not that these things are from ill nature , and spoken in bitterness ; nay , sir , i may very seriously protest , that when i reflect on your laxe and unsound principles , not only in the matters of government and worship , but even in the head of justification , and several other parts , that you have given me occasion to touch , with your enmity and reproaches against the work of god , and the kingdome , ministry and ordinances of our lord iesus christ , and how , on the other hand , you endeavour to shreud your self under the high pretenses of peace , love , charity , and devotion , wholly heavenly , i can scarce refrain from trembling , in the thoughts of such deep and abusive hypocrisie . and therefore though you should scorn my compassion , yet will i not forbear to give you my best advice . you seem to have the forme of knowledge , and of the truth in the word . nay thou makest thy boast of god , and divine contemplation , the secret of gods presence , and the refreshfull shades of the almighty , where joy unspeakable , and the most pure solaces flow , appear to be your familiar retreat . but as it is too too evident that neither your principles nor practice are very suitable to this profession , nay , that there is no noise heard of this profession , while you are bussied in serving mens designs , and your own fancies : and that it is only after you have striven to the outmost in perswading or contradicting , that you seek to evade or delude by these pretensions ; so my earnest request is that in place of fancie , that evaporats all your knowledge into imagination , faith and love may suck down the truth into your heart , to convert you indeed unto god , and reveal in you with power his son iesus christ , that you may love the lord with all your soul and strength , and trust in him alwayes , have respect unto all his commandements , and observe all his ordinances ; then should you walk in the way safely , and the lord should be your confidence . and though you should be exercised with the same perverse disputings of men of corrupt mindes , the same strife of tongues and persecution of adversaries , whereof we have so large an experiment ; yet amidst all these boisterous windes and tossing waves , god would be your rock , light , joy , strength , and salvation for ever . sir , this is our faith and also our victory , for which , when you shall as seriously contend , as you do vainly pretend to outward peace and mans favour , then shall true peace , even that peace , which the world neither gives nor can take , abound unto you to establish you unto the end . let us therefore fight the good fight , keep the faith and lay hold on eternal life , that we may finish our course with joy , so shall we receive that crown of righteousnesse which the righteous iudge shall give unto us at that day , and not unto us only , but unto all them also , that love his appearing . even so come lord jesus . finis . an essay concerning the power of the magistrate, and the rights of mankind in matters of religion with some reasons in particular for the dissenters not being obliged to take the sacramental test but in their own churches, and for a general naturalization : together with a postscript in answer to the letter to a convocation-man. tindal, matthew, ?- . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing t estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is 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(eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) an essay concerning the power of the magistrate, and the rights of mankind in matters of religion with some reasons in particular for the dissenters not being obliged to take the sacramental test but in their own churches, and for a general naturalization : together with a postscript in answer to the letter to a convocation-man. tindal, matthew, ?- . [ ], p. printed by j.d. for andrew bell, london : . attributed to matthew tindal. cf. halkett & laing ( nd ed.). advertisement: p. . a letter to a convocation-man was written by sir bartholomew shower. reproduction of original in union theological seminary library, new york. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng shower, bartholomew, -- sir, - . -- letter to a convocation-man. dissenters, religious -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - judith siefring sampled and proofread - judith siefring text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion an essay concerning the power of the magistrate , and the rights of mankind , in matters of religion . with some reasons in particular for the dissenters not being obliged to take the sacramental test but in their own churches ; and for a general naturalization . together with a postscript in answer to the letter to a convocation-man . london , printed by j. d. for andrew bell at the cross-keys and bible in cornhil . . the contents of the chapters . part i. chap. . that government is from the people , who had a right to invest the magistrate with a power in those matters of religion which have an influence on humane societies , but not in others that are meerly religious , or have no such influence page chap. . that god has not , either by the law of nature , or his positive law , given the magistrate a power in matters meerly religious pag. chap. . that a power in the magistrate to use force in matters of meer religion , tends to mens eternal ruin pag. chap. . that compulsion is inconsistent with all those duties that god , for the sake of mens temporal happiness , requires of one towards another p. chap. . that the doctrine of compulsion is directly contrary to the honour of god pag. part ii. chap. . an answer to arguments from scripture on behalf of persecution pag. chap. . arguments from humane authority answered pag. chap. . object . that compulsion tends to make people impartially consider , examined pag. chap. . object . that the magistrate has a right to use force , to prevent the increase to those erroneous opinions that a toleration would produce , examined pag. chap. . that all force upon the account of meer religion , is inconsistent with the principles of the protestant religion pag. chap. . of the method to destroy not only schisms and heresies , but hatred and vncharitableness amongst christians , notwithstanding their different opinions pag. chap. . that the good of the society obligeth the magistrate to hinder different professions of religion , examined pag. chap. . some few reasons for the dissenters not taking the sacramental test but in their own churches , and for a general naturalization , pag. postscript , pag. errata . ] page . line . for truth , read lawfulness . p. . l. . r. seventy times . p. . l. ult . r. notion . p. . l. . r. one . p. . l. . r. betrayed him . p. . l. . r. if force should . p. . l. . r. chap. vii . p. . l. . r. creating . an essay concerning the power of the magistrate , &c. chap. i. that government is from the people , who had a right to invest the magistrate with a power in those matters of religion which have an influence on humane societies , but not in others that are meerly religious , or have no such influence . . a discourse on this subject cannot be unseasonable , whilst so many , instead of shewing their gratitude to the government for rescuing them from the apparent danger of popish persecution , are so disaffected for being depriv'd of the power of persecuting their brethren , that they had rather run the risque of the nation 's being ruined by the french , and themselves under popish persecution , than to be without that power ; and for want of it , do in their daily invective discourses and sermons ( besides a great many other malicious insinuations ) pretend the church now to be nearer its ruin than it was in the late reign . i cannot but be sensible i incur a great hazard of exposing my self , by writing on a subject in a manner wholly exhausted by the three incomparable letters concerning toleration ; which yet i had rather do , than be wanting in my endeavours to encourage impartial liberty and mutual toleration ; which instead of ruining , is the only way to preserve both church and state. yet this was not the only motive that engag'd me in this design ; for intending to write concerning what is commonly called church or ecclesiastical power , i thought it necessary , for the better handling that subject , first to examine the extent of the magistrate's power in matters of religion , lest the civil and ecclesiastical power should in my discourse ( what in the world they frequently do ) clash one with the other . i shall therefore , without further prefacing , attempt to shew what power the magistrate has in matters of religion . tho to prevent all occasion of mistake or cavil , i shall first explain those terms . . by the magistrate , i mean the person or persons who in every society have the supream power , which consists in a right to make laws , and by force ( without which all laws would be to no purpose ) to oblige the unwilling and disobedient to govern their actions according to them . . by religion , i understand the belief of a god , and the sense and practice of those duties which result from the knowledg we have of him and our selves , and the relation we stand in to him and our fellow creatures ; or in short , whatever appears to us from any convincing evidence to be our duty to believe or practise . . in things relating to our selves , or what is in our disposal , any action is lawful where there is no law to forbid it : but there is more than this required to invest a man with a right to deprive others of their natural freedom , and make laws that in conscience oblige them . whoever pretends to this , must have a commission either from god or men : but there is no person that can pretend to have an immediate commission from god ; therefore they that lay the foundation of any magistrate's power , not on a humane , but a divine right , destroy all obligation of obedience to him : for why should i be oblig'd to obey him on the account of a divine commission , when he can neither show , nor ever had any such commission ? and there are none of his subjects but what have as good a pretence ( that is , just none at all ) to a divine right . therefore since no man can pretend an immediate right from heaven , all the right that one more than another has to command , must be the consent of the governed , either explicitly or implicitly given . but it 's said , the powers that be are ordain'd of god ; which may very fitly and justly be said , since they are chosen and appointed by those , who had not only a power from god to chuse them , but were absolutely required by the law of self-preservation ( imprinted by god on their natures ) to avoid the inconveniences and dangers of an unsafe state of nature , by placing the power of governing them in one or more hands , in such forms , and under such agreements as they should think fit . to suppose the powers that be , to be otherwise from god than as they are the creatures of the people , made by them , and for them , is not only to contradict st. peter , who calls government 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the creature or contrivance of man , but the experience of all ages , wherein men have contrived and framed various sorts of governments , as they thought most convenient for themselves : which makes it sufficiently evident that all the powers the magistrates have , are the gift of their fellow men. and , . it 's as evident that men could not give the magistrate a power they themselves had not . now by the law of nature no man had a right to deprive another of his life , liberty , or property , but in defence and for the preservation of his own , which by that law he is obliged to preserve , and consequently had a right to what-ever is necessary to that end. but the difficulty of exercising this right , ( every one having the same ) obliged men to enter into societies , and to commit to some particular persons the inspections of those things that relate to their common good : so that matters of right and wrong , and generally all that part of morality relating to the reciprocal duties of man to man , are under the cognisance of the magistrate ; and any man ( tho he never so much pretends conscience ) may be punished for acting against the welfare of the society ; because no man's conscience ought to hinder the magistrate from discharging his trust. . but his power does not extend to those duties only that one man owes another , but even to those that man owes to god ; i mean those that have an influence on humane life , and conduce to the welfare and support of societies , viz. the acknowledging a supreme being , who can discern mens actions , and is both willing and able to punish them for neglecting those duties that are necessary for the well-being of mankind . it being impossible ( as is own'd by pagans as well as christians ) that any society can subsist without some notions of religion , or the acknowledging of invisible powers . therefore the magistrate is obliged to punish those who deny the existence of a god , or that he concerns himself with humane affairs ; it being the belief of these things that preserveth them in peace and quiet , and more effectually obliges them to be true to their promises and oaths , and to perform all their covenants and contracts , and all those other duties in which their mutual happiness consists , than all the rods and axes of the magistrate . nor can the maintainers of atheistical principles , seeing they destroy conscience by subverting all religion , have any pretence from it to challenge to themselves a toleration . and this is no greater power than one man had over another in the state of nature ; for an atheist may justly be reckoned an enemy to mankind whatsoever state they are in , and therefore is to be disarmed , and bound to his good behaviour . so far then it 's evident that the magistrate's power extends in matters of religion . but , . as to those opinions and actions which relate to god alone , in which no third person has an interest , wherein conscientious people may and do differ , ( which i call meerly religious , to distinguish them from those wherein others have an interest ) there is no law of nature that gives one man a right to use force on another ; and consequently they could not invest any of their brethren with this power . all the right that equals ( as all by nature are ) have over one another , is a right to prevent or repel force by force , and to punish the aggressor , thereby to discourage him or any other from attempting the like , and to seek reparation for the loss sustained . they that have no such power over themselves , as to do themselves any hurt , much less to take away their own lives , have as little right to deprive others ( whom they are obliged to love as themselves ) of their lives or properties , or commit any violence on them otherways than may be necessary to defend themselves , and their own rights . but what right of his neighbour's does any man invade ? or what injury or injustice does he do him , in worshipping god according to that method he judgeth best for the saving his own soul ? if men think one another in the wrong , common charity will oblige them to shew each other their errors ; but this gives neither a right to punish , because neither of them are any-wise injured : and it 's against the immutable and eternal law of justice , to punish a person that neither does , nor designs to do another an injury . yea , christianity , that requires men to abstain from revenge , even after repeated provocations , and multiplied injuries , can much less be supposed to oblige them , who suffer nothing , nor have any harm done them , to molest and ill use their brethren . . if the magistrate was intrusted by the society to use force on those that hold wrong tenets in things merely religious , this power upon his neglect , or incapacity to use it , would devolve on them that gave it him ; and then every one would have the same right to use force on them that are in the wrong , as to use it in defence of their own lives and properties , when the magistrate either upon the suddenness of the danger , or otherwise , does not protect them . it 's an undeniable argument , that government , or ( in other words ) the right to use the force of the society , in defence of the peoples lives or properties , is their own gift ; because when the magistrate does not this , the right of defending themselves returns to every one of them , ( who may in defence of themselves , or what belongs to them , take away the life of an invader ) and so must the right of using force in matters of meer religion , upon the magistrate's either not using or misusing it , had they at first intrusted him with it . but they were so far from having such a right one upon the other in the state of nature , that force to bring a man to a religion which he thinks not true , was an injury , which in that state every one would avoid ; and consequently protection from that as well as any other injury , was one of the ends of constituting civil society . . could men have liv'd in peace , without any fear of fraud or violence one from the other , there would have been no need of government : nor can it be supposed that men who are by nature equal , would have submitted their lives and properties to the discretion of a single , or a few persons , but to prevent those greater inconveniences . and that which was the end of erecting government , ought certainly to be the measure of its proceeding . now it 's evident men might have lived peaceably and quietly together , and yet have differ'd in those things that give no biass to their conversation , or actions , with respect to one another as members of the society ; and therefore the using force in these matters was not one of the ends of uniting under laws , and submitting to government , but the direct contrary to prevent it ; and consequently every one by being a member of a civil society , has as much right to be protected in his religious worship , as in any other matter whatever . and if in civil matters the magistrate never does , and it would be look'd on as an injustice if he should any farther than relates to the good of the publick , enjoin men the care of their private concerns , or force them to a prosecution of their private interest , but only protect them from being invaded , ( which is much the same as toleration ) there is the same reason he should no farther use force in matters of religion , than the publick good is concerned , and only protect men from being injured by others in their private concerns between god and themselves . . to suppose that one man in the state of nature had a right to use force on another on the account of meer religion , is to suppose that state a state of anarchy , war , and confusion ; because every one supposing himself in the right , and not being willing to submit to another , there must necessarily happen perpetual quarrels , confusions and destruction , which is contrary to the law of right reason , whereby in that state men were wholly to be governed . the only difference between being in a state of nature , and under government , consists in this , that under government men have debarred themselves from exercising their natural rights , and intrusted the magistrate to do those things that in the state of nature every one of them had a right to do ; so that the magistrate's power is not larger , but their 's more contracted than it was in that state. . if in the state of nature men had a right to use force one upon the other for differences of opinion ; different nations , who with respect to one another are still in that state , may upon that account justly use it , which would involve almost all nations ( since there are scarce any but differ , and in their own opinions , very materially ) in endless wars . but they are so far from thinking they ought to make war for this reason , that by the sacred laws of nations , ambassadors , and all vested with a publick character , have a right to exercise their own religion in the country they are sent to , tho never so contrary to that there established . but , . if the magistrate of one society has no right to use force on the members of another , he can have as little to use it on those of his own , because in becoming their governour , he has obliged himself to promote their happiness and welfare : and he that is entrusted with a power for the good of the society , can never have a right to use it to the prejudice of it , as he manifestly does who deprives his subjects either of their lives or properties for things that do not relate to the safety or good of the civil society . which either against foreign or domestick enemies , is best provided for by the peoples union , which arises from the mutual enjoyments of their liberty , whereby the source and foundation of domestick enmities is taken away , and their strength against foreign enemies encreased ; which union , and with it the general welfare of the people , can only be secured by such a conduct in the governors , as gives impartial encouragement to all that are vertuous and industrious , and perfect security to every one in the fruits of their labours : which is altogether inconsistent with the magistrate's depriving them of those fruits , or any part of them , for matters meerly religious , which can only tend to divide a people into parties and factions , and to weaken the state by their disunion , and endanger it by their discontents . but this is not the worst ; it necessarily tends to the ruining and beggaring of a nation , not only by destroying all encouragement to industry , frugality , and labour , but by depriving people of the means to carry on those trades , upon which the safety and riches of a nation depend ; which must in time depopulate a country , as we find evident in all those where men are not secure in the enjoyments of the fruits of their own and their ancestors labours . but such tyranny is much more destructive , when it happens upon the account of religion ; then it wholly falls on the truly religious , and conscientious , who are the most just , most frugal , most industrious , and in a word most serviceable to their country both in peace and war : for that conscience that makes them suffer rather than act against it , causeth them to abound with all those moral vertues ( about which there are no contentions ) that are necessary and useful to the publick . but because i shall have further occasion to mention the fatal consequences of persecution , i shall only add here , that there never was a nation ( especially a trading one , where men could with ease remove themselves and their effects ) long either rich , populous or happy , where persecution prevail'd : and on the contrary , no nation but what has thriven proportionably as they have allowed a toleration . . in a word , since it 's the magistrate's duty to preserve as much as possible , when it 's not contrary to the greater good of the society , the property , quiet and life of every individual person ; neither man nor god can oblige him to inconsistent or contradictory things , viz. to do this , and deprive the members of the society of these , when the good of it is not concerned : but the more the good of the society forbids him , the more he is obliged to use force , because as the number of those he judges to be erroneous encreases ; so not only the number of the sufferers , but even their sufferings ought to encrease , to put a stop to those spreading errors . but the more the sufferers are , and the more they suffer , the more the publick is damnified ; so that it 's evident the magistrate cannot be obliged both to promote the publick good , and to use this power . nay , the very exercising such a power is inconsistent with government , and as far as it extends destroys it : because a design to deprive people , not only of their lives , but properties , ( for conservation of which government was instituted , and therefore more sacred than government it self ) and a design to govern them are inconsistent . and has not the magistrate such a design , when he invades the peoples rights for things not tending to the good of the society , nor as much as in their power , but morally impossible , such as acting contrary to their conscience is ? and it 's a greater piece of tyranny to punish men for what is morally , than what is naturally impossible . . if the magistrate on pretence of the honour of god , or the good of souls , can use force to make men of that religion he judgeth to be true , there can be no reason why the same religious causes should not oblige the dissenting subjects to use force on the magistrate and his sect , in order to cause them to be of that religion they judg to be true . the same reason that will justify one , will equally justify the other : for property is no more founded in speculative opinions or ceremonial practices , than dominion is ; and the magistrate is as much bound to protect his subjects , and not to destroy their privileges , as they are to obey him , and not to invade his prerogatives . the duties are reciprocal , and consequently one party cannot be bound , but the other must be so too , so that both or neither are free to use force in such cases . it 's said , the good of the society hinders the subjects from using force : the same reason then must hinder the magistrate too , because men will not endeavour to use force against him , but when they judg themselves strong enough , and then they will ( whatever passive principles they may pretend ) as little fail to do it , if he persecutes them ; and in the mean time they must suffer all he will inflict : which makes the argument to conclude much stronger against the magistrate ; the abuse of whose power produces greater and more unavoidable mischiefs to mankind than any thing else can . . by what has been said , i think it 's evident that men , tho they are answerable to god for every breach of his laws , yet are accountable to one another , for those things only that relate to their mutual security and welfare ; because every man has so much interest ( and no more ) in another's conduct ; and therefore government is no further concerned in matters of religion , than as the principles or practices of the different professors tend to make them more or less fit for the duties of the society . for which reason those opinions that are meerly speculative , or practices that are purely ceremonial , as having no relation at all to the true foundation of government , ought to be tolerated ; for nothing can be evidently more unjust , than for the representative of the civil society ( as the magistrate is ) to deprive any of the rights of the society , who has done nothing against its interest : nor can any thing be more ridiculous , than to suppose a man's rights to the enjoyment of this life , ought to depend upon his thinking just as the magistrate does about things relating to the next ; or that a man's property in this world is founded upon his having right notions of things no ways relating to it ; which is as absurd as that property is founded in grace : and there is as much dispute who is in the right opinion , as who has grace , every one alike pretending to it , and none being obliged to submit to the determination of another . chap. ii. that god has not , either by the law of nature , or his positive law , given the magistrate a power in matters meerly religious . since it appears that the magistrate has not his power immediately from god , but from the people ; and that god has not authoriz'd or capacitated them to bestow a right on him to use force in cases of meer religion , it necessary follows that he has no such right . but however , to avoid all pretence of cavilling , let us suppose , that government , both as to the form and to the persons that administer it , is immediately from god ; yet still it 's most evident that the magistrate has no such power . . which thus i prove : a right in the magistrate to punish for not doing as he commands , necessarily supposes it a duty in the subject to obey , otherwise he would punish a man for not doing what he is not obliged to do : and where there is no power to make laws , or to command , there can be no disobedience ; and where there is no disobedience , there punishing on pretence of disobeying is manifestly unjust . but that god has the sole legislative power in matters meerly religious , or what only concerns himself , and can alone prescribe what honour , worship , &c. shall be paid him , none ( i suppose ) will deny ; therefore the magistrate has no legislative nor coercive power , which cannot subsist without legislation , to which it necessarily adheres . and , . as god has reserv'd to himself the sole legislature , so he has not given the magistrate a right to interpret for others his law , or to impose on them in what sense they must understand it . but he has endowed men in general with reason , which is the only guide he has obliged them to follow in judging of the sense and meaning of his laws ; and he that does not follow it , degrades himself from the rank of rational creatures , and highly offends god. and this is not only evident by the light of nature , but confirmed by god's positive law , which frequently commands us to make use thereof in matters of religion : we are bid to prove all things , and hold fast that which is good ; to try the spirits ; to let no man deceive us ; to beware of false prophets , seducers , deceivers ; to judg of our selves what is right . but how shall we judg and try ? not as the horse and mule which have no vnderstanding , but as circumspect and wise ; that is , by making use of those faculties god has given us to discern between truth and falshood , good and evil. and he not only forbids us to act contrary to our judgment , but requires we should be fully satisfied before we act : for he that acts when he doubts , is damn'd ; and whatsoever is not of faith , is sin. the reason is most evident , why a man ought not to do an action when he judges it to be ill , because to judg an action to be ill , or displeasing to god , is the same ; and he that forms such a judgment of an action , and yet does it , does knowingly and willingly displease god , which is eternally and essentially ill , because no circumstances what-ever can make it lawful for a creature to do that which he judges will offend his creator , or even to act when he doubts whether it will or no. if then god rewards and punishes men according as they have followed the dictates of their reason , that must needs be the rule of their actions , and not the commands of the magistrate ; and consequently the magistrate can have no more right to use force on a subject , than a subject has on him : for tho he is his subject in other matters , yet in those meerly religious , he is equally a soveraign , equally independant as the magistrate himself ; because where there is no other judg on earth but every one 's own reason , every man ( one as well as another ) is a supream judg : nay , this sovereign right of judging every one for himself is so inherent , that none can make this power over to another . so that it 's impossible that the magistrate upon any pretence whatever , can claim a magisterial power in these matters , but only a right to advise , which belongs to every one as well as to him . and , . the difference between advice and command consists in this , that advice one is oblig'd to follow , not for the sake of the person that gives it , but for the good that is contained in it , which he , to whom and for whose sake it is given , is to judg of ; and consequently if he does not think it good , is not obliged to follow it . it 's ridiculous as well as unjust to use force in matters of advice , and by civil sanctions oblige people to follow it . whoever does this , does in effect ( however he may deny it in words ) claim a legislative power . but where there is such a power , one is oblig'd to obey upon the account , and for the sake of the authority that commands it : and if the magistrate had such a power , men would be obliged to profess whatever religion he commands them . . the reason why a judg is necessary in civil and not in religious controversies , is , because in civil matters it is impossible that titius should enjoy the things in controversy , and sempronius too ; therefore the plaintiff must injure the defendant by disquieting his possession , or the defendant wrong the plaintiff by keeping his right from him , so that there is a necessity of a common judg between them , who would be to no purpose if both parties were not obliged to acquiesce in his sentence , i mean , with an external obedience , so as to suffer it to be put in execution ; but not with an internal , so as to believe it always just . but in religious controversies the case is otherwise , for there each may hold his opinion , and do the other no wrong nor himself neither , if he did his best in judging concerning his opinion , so that there can be no occasion of a judg : and it 's further considerable that here can be none but what is a party , as being before engaged either for or against the opinion that is to be decided : but for a party to judg it against all natural equity , tho it 's the constant practice of the clergy to make profest and highly interessed parties , whose preferments are held by declaring for such opinions , to be both accusers and judges ; that is , to declare themselves orthodox , and therefore to engross all preferments , and their opponents heterodox , and consequently not to share with them . but if there is a judg to whose determination one is obliged to submit , he that is so obliged must give an internal consent , because here all external compliance contrary to one's judgment is a sin ; but all the power in the world is not able to make a man give an internal consent , because it 's not in his own , much less in another's power to make him believe or think as he pleaseth : yet were that possible , no man is qualified to be a judg but he that is infallible ; besides , were there any such judg , yet a man was not to be ruled by him , except he was convinced he was so . but , . there being no such judg on earth , there is an absolute necessity of leaving those controversies to be decided by god himself , as being matters wholly relating to him , and consequently wholly to be left to him . therefore for the magistrate to punish any for acting according to their judgments , is not only invading the rights of his fellow-men , but the prerogative of god himself , in taking upon him to judg those matters god has reserv'd for his own tribunal . nay , he goes further than this , and punisheth men for obeying god rather than himself . god requires man to worship him as he in his conscience thinks most agreeable to his will ; and the magistrate threatneth him if he does so , to fine , imprison , and ruin him , which is setting himself above god ; a crime greater than that of lucifer , who only attempted an equality with his maker , not a superiority above him . . it 's said , the magistrate has a right to hinder his subjects from following their consciences when erroneous . which is very absurd ; for if a man was not oblig'd to act according to his conscience for fear of its being erroneous , no man would be obliged to act according to his conscience at all , since the mistaken person thinks himself as much in the right , nay is generally more confident than he that is really so : so that if one must follow his conscience , there 's the same necessity for all , because all equally judg themselves in the right . but if the magistrate is to judg whose conscience is erroneous , then men must desert their consciences , and all the world over profess the same principles with the magistrates they live under . for civil government is every where the same , and one magistrate as well as another has an equal right to judg who of his subjects have erroneous consciences . . if it be mens indispensible duty to worship god according to conscience , and that publickly too , ( for the more publick the worship is , the more it tends to the glory of god ) it must be their duty to use the means that are necessary to that end ; and consequently , if it be necessary , oppose force to force : for the magistrate in things beyond his commission , is but a private person ; and people do no injustice in defending that right none can have a right to deprive them of , and which themselves cannot part with ; it being the essential right of human nature , to worship god according to conviction , which is antecedent to all government , and can never be subject to it . but , . if the magistrate has a right to use force in matters of meer religion , he must have this right by god's positive law , or by the law of nature . but that he has no such power by god's positive law , is evident from this one consideration , that all mankind ( except the jews whose laws were not obligatory to other nations ) were under no law but that of nature , until the coming of christ : but christ , whose kingdom is not of this world , and who disclaimed all civil power , made no change or alteration in the civil rights and conditions of mankind , which he must have done had he made mens properties depend upon their thinking or acting in matters purely religious according to the magistrate's judgment . as christ and the magistrate have each their distinct kingdoms , so they must have each their limits and bounds ; the magistrate's kingdom ( it's true ) must be subservient to christ's in punishing vice and immorality , and in preserving people from being molested in their civil rights for worshipping god according to conscience ; and here he still keeps within the confines of his own kingdom : but if he exerciseth a legislature in christ's , and makes use of violence to put his laws in execution , he assumes a greater power than christ himself claims . but , . if the magistrate claims such a right by the law of nature , that right ought fully to be made appear , because there is no part of that law but what is most clear and evident . to prove he has such a power , it 's usually urged , that if parents by the law of nature have a right to use force on their children in matters of meer religion ; the magistrate , whose power over his subjects is much greater than that of parents over their children , has at least as great a right . i answer ; it 's a duty in parents , for the good of their children , ( for which they are fitted by their natural love and tenderness ) to supply the defects of their understanding , until they are capable of understanding for themselves . before which time parents no doubt will instruct them in their own religion , whether paganism , judaism , or mahometism ; yet no man will suppose that they can justly use force on them when they come to years of discretion , to make them embrace those religions or any other . and yet the case between the magistrate and his subjects , is very different from that of parents and children in their nonage ; because the magistrate is not in those matters to supply the defects of his subjects understanding for a time , but his power reaches to men of all ages and capacities : so that it 's evident that the reason that subjects children in their nonage to the use of force , does not all concern men at years of discretion . . it 's granted by all , that a heathen magistrate has no right to judg in matters simply religious ; how then comes a christian by the law of nature to obtain this charter , since that law allows one magistrate no more power than another ? and what is done by a competent authority , tho not right , yet is valid , ratum si non rectum . and as civil power is every where the same , so let me add church-power is so too ; so that the church cannot give any new power to the magistrate by his becoming a member of it , nor the magistrate any new power to the church by his coming into it . . it 's said , the law of nature obligeth every one in his station to promote the true religion ; and for that reason the magistrate is obliged to exercise a coercive power in matters meerly religious . the magistrate no doubt is to make use of his power in things that belong to his station , but meerly religious ones , as it has been already proved , do not ; as to those he is no more than a private person , nay , the clergy cannot own him for more , without destroying their own supremacy in matters spiritual , which includes meerly religious ones , except there can be more than one supream in the same thing . chap. iii. that a power in the magistrate to use force in matters of meer religion , tends to mens eternal ruin. . but if the magistrate has any such power from the law of nature , it must be because it tends to promote , either the eternal or temporal good of mankind , or the honour of god : but to take away the least colour of any right upon these pretences , i shall show , first , the exercise of such a power is destructive of man's eternal happiness . dly . of his temporal , and contrary to all those laws that for our mutual good god requires of us . dly . that it is directly opposite to , and inconsistent with the honour of god. . as to the first ; it is of fatal consequence to the eternal happiness of mankind , in having a direct tendency to make them act contrary to their consciences . for since force can no more work a change or alteration on the mind , than arguments can on matter , all that it can do , is to make men unwilling to lie under the weight of it ; which they have no way of avoiding , but by acting as the magistrate will have them ; the truth of which force is wholly unapt to convince them of , and can only produce an outward compliance , the conscience still remaining averse : for nothing is more evident , than that where a thing is wholly impertinent to convince the conscience , ( as violence is ) and yet it obligeth a man to act , it obligeth him to act contrary to his conscience ; which is directly contrary to his eternal happiness : for if he that acts when he doubts is damned , he cannot certainly be in a better condition , who wholly revolts from his conscience , and basely lieth both to god and man. . the true religion it self can neither judg nor punish ; but the magistrate by the true religion means his own ; and since all magistrates think themselves in the right , they ( if force is to be used ) must think themselves oblig'd to use it : and consequently if one useth force to make people profess a true doctrine or religion , there are at least five hundred who would use it to make people , contrary to their consciences , profess a false religion , either in whole or part , than which there can be nothing more impious ; nor would the matter be much mended , if the magistrate forceth men to profess the true religion , which yet is certainly false to them whilst they believe it so . and the forcing people to profess either a true or false religion , is equally prejudicial to the common-wealth , and consequently upon that account equally sinful ; because when men , by acting against their consciences , are brought to have no regard to them , they will not scruple to break those moral duties which all religions teach , and in the observing of which man 's mutual happiness consists : therefore the magistrate is so far from having a right to punish men for acting according to their consciences , that it 's his duty to see they do not violate them , tho supposed never so erroneous ; and consequently all force is religiously to be abstain'd from ; which , as mr. chillingworth ( chap. . n. . ) observeth , may make men counterfeit , but cannot make them believe ; and therefore is fit to breed form without , and atheism within : yet this is not the only fatal consequence of this doctrine , but as i shall show in my next , chap. iv. compulsion is inconsistent with all those duties that god , for the sake of mens temporal happiness , requires of one towards another . . nothing can be more diametrically opposite to all those precepts of love , charity , kindness , gentleness , meekness , patience , forbearance , the gospel is in a manner composed of , than mens ill using one another for different sentiments in things meerly religious . to pretend love , kindness , friendship , &c. and yet vex , oppress , and ruin , is no better than mocking and sporting with the miseries of those we have so treated . first to kiss and then betray , is the basest hypocrisy , if that can pass for hypocrisy which openly proclaims at how great a distance mens words and actions are . the kindest office one man can do to another is , if he thinks him in an error , to endeavour to convince him of it ; who tho he continues in his former opinion , yet the obligation to the other for his good intention still remains , and this benefit he may obtain by it , that by examining the reasons on both sides , he is more likely to discover the truth ; yet should he mistake after he has impartially examined the point , his error would be wholly innocent , since he has done what he can to find out the truth , and god requires no more ; but to cause a person to be persecuted for being instrumental in this , is the most unnatural and diabolical thing that can be . . object . it 's usually said , 't is not want of charity , but the greatest that can be to hinder men by force from professing such opinions as are destructive to their souls . answ. but i say , first , that it 's against charity for the magistrate to do a real ill to his subjects , when by it he ( who is as fallible as those he persecutes ) is as likely to promote error as truth ; because if the error ballanceth the truth , it 's doing mischief for mischief's sake : now since truth is but one , and falshood almost infinite , there 's a prodigious odds ; he persecutes his subjects to establish error . dly . i answer , that opinions meerly as such , are not destructive of mens souls ; for god who has made man liable to mistake , does not require an impossibility of him , never to be mistaken , but that he impartially searches after religious truth , and sincerely endeavours to discover it by those helps and abilities he has bestowed on him to that purpose : he therefore that does this , has the satisfaction of doing his duty as a rational creature , and may be sure , tho he misseth truth , he shall not miss the reward of it , since he has followed , as well as he could , ( and no more could be his duty ) the only guide god has given him to judg of truth and falshood . and if it be no fault in a judg that condemns an innocent person , if upon sufficient evidence he appears guilty ; the same reason will hold as strong for the innocence of an opinion , that a man after he has impartially considered embraceth for truth , and by which he prejudiceth no person . and if he that has lost his senses , if it be not by his own fault , is not accountable for what he does ; there is as little reason that he should , who acts according to the best of his understanding ; for it 's the sincerity of the heart , and the goodness of the intention that god wholly regards : and the ignorant and mistaken ( if it be not their own fault ) are as acceptable to him as the knowing and not mistaken ; since it 's he that causes the differences of mens understandings , as well as circumstances , ( which last makes the widow's mite , tho very inconsiderable in it self ) as acceptable as the great presents of the rich. so that two men that are of different religions , may be both in the right way to heaven , provided they do their endeavour to find out the truth . for it 's inconsistent with justice to give a being to any creature that must necessarily make it more miserable than not to be ; which must be , if men are to be punished eternally for unavoidable mistakes : but god who could have no other design in creating our immortal minds , than that they should be happy , consequently has given them all ( since they are all equally from him ) sufficient means to make themselves so ; so that it 's strangely absurd , as well as injurious to an infinitely perfect being , to suppose he is a respecter of persons , or that he has made mens eternal happiness or misery to depend on such accidents , as being born in england , rome , turky , china , &c. promulgation is certainly essential to a law ; and therefore those that have no opportunity of being convinced of the truth of the gospel , shall not be accountable for not believing it , but shall be judged by the law they know , and not by that they did not know ; nor shall those that do believe the gospel , if after a diligent search they are mistaken in some points of it , be condemn'd for it , because those points cannot be said to be sufficiently promulgated to them . to doubt of this , is to question the justice of god ; therefore i may safely conclude , that whoever does what god requires from him shall be rewarded ; and that god requires no more from every one , but that he shall use his honest endeavour by all means , to know and understand his will as perfectly as he can , provided when known he does his best endeavours to live up to it ; and consequently the greatest charity the magistrate is capable of doing , is not to prejudice men in their grand choice by punishments or rewards , but to leave them entirely at liberty as the most likely way to find out the truth ; or if they miss it , to make their mistakes wholly innocent . but of that more hereafter . . all the uncharitableness , animosities , envy and hatred that reigns amongst dissenting parties , are owing to persecution , and not to the bare differences of opinions , which of themselves are no more apt to produce these effects , than different complexions or palats ; for to see a man in an error , is apt to create pity in us , a passion very opposite to hatred : nor would there be the least grounds for uncharitableness , if no man was to be harassed in his name , goods , or person , for any speculative opinion or outward way of worship ; but to use one ill upon that account , sets him at perfect enmity , and creates a quarrel . the heathens , who had more and wider differences about matters of religion than the christians , yet because they tolerated one another , had not those irreconcilable animosities , fierce contentions and unnatural wars , which have frequently happened since the propagation of the christian religion ; which yet without impiety cannot be imputed to its genius , which is pure , peaceable , and inoffensive , and requires a universal love and charity for all men of what profession soever . no , it 's the antichristian doctrine of persecution that has transformed the mild and sociable nature of man into greater ferocity than that of wolves and tigers : for nothing ( it's certain ) can more exasperate the minds of men , than to be ill used for following the dictates of their consciences ; for then every one of them , since they all suffer upon the same account , will be apt to resent , not only what is done to himself , but to the rest of his sect , who cannot but think their persecutors their mortal enemies , since they not only use them ill without any manner of provocation , but ( as they cannot but suppose ) endeavour to force them to ruin themselves eternally ; and they , if ever they get their persecutors in their power , will in all likelihood double or treble on them what themselves suffered : so by degrees men arrive to the height of fury , rage and madness , and break thrô not only all the ties of christianity , but even humanity ; tho whilst they thus furnish such powerful provocations to endless discords , hatreds , factions , wars , massacres , &c. they have nothing in their mouths but the good of the church and salvation of souls , not considering that without love they cannot be christ's disciples , ( john . ) and that all other duties without charity profit nothing . but what is more opposite to these , than to tempt men to make themselves miserable hereafter , to avoid being so here ? for either they must continue all their lives under persecution , ( which who can support ? ) or else they must buy their temporal quiet with the loss of their eternal happiness . but , . this doctrine of compulsion is not only inconsistent with love , meekness , and such-like , but directly contrary to the very foundation of natural equity and justice , in causing men to do as they would not be done unto ; for they that are ( when they have the civil power on their side ) for judging for others , and punishing them for not acting according to their judgments , are unwilling that others , when the scales of authority are turned , should judg for them in like manner . tho then there 's nothing they can plead for themselves , but what before they condemned in others ; and it would be as ridiculous to request those that they before ill used , to have regard to the common rules of justice , as it would have been in those scythians who sacrificed all strangers to their gods , to desire others to have respect to the laws of hospitality . . it may be objected , that the rule of doing as you would be done unto does not hold , because one magistrate is in the right , and the other not ; and consequently he that is in the right himself , has a right to judg , but not vice versa . answ. but since the dispute is who is in the right , it 's ridiculous to say , he that 's only in the right has a power to judg , except there were some superiour to determine which of them is in the right ; but there being no such superiour , every magistrate is to judg for himself , who to be sure will judg himself in the right , and consequently those that differ from him in the wrong : and there can be no reason why one magistrate as well as another has not a right to judg , since that right is founded in being a magistrate , which is common to them all : and there can be no reason for the orthodox punishing schismaticks , hereticks , mahometans , jews , pagans , &c. but what will equally oblige them , as long as they believe themselves to be orthodox , to punish those that really are so . therefore the defenders of any persecution are guilty of encouraging and abetting all persecution whatsoever , even that under which themselves suffer , since they can frame no arguments to justify the using force to promote the true religion , but what will equally serve in behalf of any religion that 's believed to be true : as we find the loose harangues of austin upon that subject are urged by the patrons of persecution , of what sect or denomination soever . and since there can be no argument to prosecute error , but what will be turned upon truth it self , let the persecutors themselves judg whether it 's not better to leave all such disputable points to the only just judg , than to take them into their own hands ; who , were they wholly ignorant in what part of the world their station was to be , would be glad there was no such thing as persecution , rather than run the risque of being persecuted themselves , which shows that even they look on it in general as an ill thing ; and it 's better certainly that a particular inconvenience ( supposing toleration to be such ) should be permitted , than such a universal mischief as persecution is , should prevail . it 's said , do as you would be done unto , is not properly a law to warrant the thing we are about , but only a rule to direct us what measures we ought to observe in our acting with others , when the thing it self is lawful . which granting to be true , yet for a man to judg which is the true religion , and act according to that judgment , all agree is not only lawful , but a duty , because all agree themselves are obliged to act so ; and therefore if i desire this liberty for my self , i ought not to deny it to my brother , seeing he is a man , and i am no more , and therefore no more infallible than he , and for that reason can have no more right to persecute him into my opinion , than he has to force me into his ; for between equals there ought to be an equal measure : now by nature all men are equal , and have an equal and natural right of serving god as they think best ; and no accidental difference as to other matters , can deprive them of this right . in a word , there can be no reason to deny the obligation of this rule in this case , but what will equally destroy it in any other . but , . persecution destroys not only natural equity and justice , but breaks all the ties of kindred , blood , gratitude , merit ; because , let a man be never so nearly related to one of persecuting principles , or have done him all the important kindnesses imaginable , or have never so much merit , be never so useful to the publick , or be never so exemplary in his life and conversation , that will but the sooner expose him to suffer , not only because people are apt to be influenced by such a one , but because according to the persecutor's principles he is obliged to harass him sooner than another , out of pure love to him , it being the kindest thing he is capable of doing him : so that without a figure it may justly be said of all persecutors , that their very mercies and kindnesses are cruelties . but , . this is not all , this doctrine of compulsion annuls all obligations of the most sacred oaths ; for if the magistrate is obliged by god to use force on his dissenting subjects , no promises to indemnify them , tho sworn to with the most solemn oaths , ought to be kept , because all such oaths are void from the beginning , the magistrate being under a prior obligation to god ( which is not in his power to dispense with ) to punish them ; which must make all quarrels between the magistrate and his dissenting subjects immortal , since there can be no security given that they shall not be punished for their religion when-ever it is in the magistrate's power : and by the same reason , all articles and covenants that towns or countries make for liberty of conscience , upon their submitting themselves , are null and void ; and so are all the promises which popish kings have made to their protestant subjects , because they are obliged to punish hereticks , ( which they suppose protestants to be ) and consequently cannot but think their oaths unlawful . and all our late laws for liberty of conscience are in themselves void , because he that has the power of the sword , is required by god's laws ( which no human ones can supersede ) to punish dissenters from the true church : and if all these obligations are void in themselves , what reason is there that those between sovereign and sovereign should be more firm , when either of them judg the breaking them will tend to advance the honour of god , since , as they cannot pretend to have so great a tenderness for the right of foreigners , as of their own subjects , so they cannot but know that god is equally dishonoured by false religions in one place as in another ? and it 's but a poor zeal for his honour , that looks no farther than such a lake , river , or mountain , the usual boundaries of kingdoms ; which would be the way to set all mankind together by the ears . but , . suppose it should not always have that effect , yet it must necessarily destroy all trade and commerce between nations of different perswasions ; for who would venture into a foreign nation , except he were of the same perswasion with them , if they were equally obliged to punish men for false religions or doctrines , as well as for theft and murder , & c ? which must necessarily discourage all commerce , and make nations most inhospitable and barbarous : and if persecutors do not follow this method , it 's because they do not act according to their own principles , . which root out all mercy , and take from the magistrate all power of pardoning any crime whatever , and from all private persons the forgiving their enemies : for if the magistrate is not to act as the representative of the civil society only , but also to punish offences against god , meerly as such , tho he may forgive any crime against himself , or pardon the breach of his own laws ; yet these being also sins against god , he is obliged upon god's account to punish men for the breach of them , as well as for infidelity or heresy : and all private persons , tho they must forgive their brethren , not only seven , but seven times seven , yet the not punishing them by this doctrine is wholly put out of their power , because it obliges them to shew their zeal for god's honour , in getting the magistrate to punish them , who by injuring their brethren , offend against god. . in a word , this doctrine of force is directly contrary to the main design of all god's laws , wherein men are concerned one with another , which is their mutual good : as for instance ; the forbidding murder is intended for the security of mens greatest good , their lives ; which would be strangely defeated , if the supream powers were to punish with death those they judg do dishonour god with their false worship , because it would not fail to fill the world with blood and slaughter , since the governours of it are as opposite in their judgments about these matters , as in the fable the man's two wives were , where his old one pluckt out his black hairs , and his young wife his gray ones . but suppose the supream powers were not oblig'd to deprive people of their lives , but only of their properties , ( not to mention that even that would destroy great numbers by robbing them of the necessaries of life ) the end of all those laws which forbid all kinds of injuries , and require mutual assistance one towards another for their common good , would be in a manner destroyed , since a great part of mankind must be unavoidably miserable , by being either at once , or by degrees , deprived of the means of subsisting happily , and the rest would hold what they possess but by a precarious tenure , since it would depend on their governours , ( tho they had never so many successively ) or their own not changing their opinions , ( neither of which is in their power to hinder ) whether they should enjoy any thing or not . therefore it shews the greatest indiscretion in those ( who tho they have a share in the legislature , yet are subject to the laws themselves ) to consent to any persecuting ones , because they cannot be sure but that they are contriving rods for their own backs , or for their childrens or near relations : and i believe there are few persecutors ( for all their zeal ) but would rather speculative points were wholly left to the merciful and wise judgment of god , than to have their own families or friends ruin'd about them . but to return ; in vain are the magistrates required not to tyrannize over and oppress their subjects , if they are to punish them for not being of the same perswasion with them . it had been much happier for men in relation to their temporal , as well as eternal condition , to be in a state of nature , than to let tyrants deprive them of the comforts of this life , for no other reason than not daring to act contrary to their consciences in things not relating to this life : and people , where they oppress one the other , when the good of the society cannot be pretended , may justly be reckoned in a worse state than that of nature , viz. of war , which is never at an end as long as there are men who cannot comply with all those things , that out of ignorance , superstition , ambition , &c. are established as necessary to church-communion . . in a word ; can men oppress , ruin and kill for god's sake , and destroy all moral honesty on pretence of religion ? which when it serves to no other end than to enflame the tempers of men , and set a keener edg on their spirits , and to make them ten times more the children of wrath and cruelty than they are by nature , does surely lose its nature , and ceases to be religion ; for let men say worse of infidelity and atheism if they can . but if , on the contrary , the ruining those that do nothing against the welfare of the society , becomes an act of piety , when it 's made use of to extirpate a false religion or opinion , there are no crimes whatever but by the same reason will become religious and vertuous actions , if they are equally serviceable to the same pious end ; scelera ipsa nef asque hâc mercede placent : and consequently it would be an act of piety and vertue to make use of pious frauds to calumniate , to lie , to bear false witness , to murder , to assassinate even the magistrate himself . . thus , whereas religion has no other design than the advancement of man's happiness , and god's glory ; this persecuting humour is so far from being serviceable to the former , that it 's plainly destructive of it : for whereas in order to that good end , the scripture has directed all stations and relations of men so to act , as may best tend to love and peace , ( the true basis of the happiness of the society ) this drives them all to contrary motions ; for magistrates are incited to ruin those for whose good they were instituted . subjects are tempted to disobey their governours , and retaliate persecution so much the more fiercely , by how much greater influence their opinions and actions have upon the community . nor does it only destroy the peace of a nation within its own bowels , but it engageth one nation against another . and , . as it destroys all these publick obligations , by the same reason all private ones ( which are not so great as those owing to the publick ) must cease ; so that it embroileth private families , subverts the mutual duties between parents and children , husbands and wives , masters and servants , &c. seducing them into a belief , that the way to be serviceable to one another's eternal interest , is by being cruel to their temporal ; and consequently the more charity they owe one another , the sooner they are to use one another ill . nor can there by any reason why the doing this of themselves is not as effectual to promote each others eternal happiness , as the doing the very same at the command of the magistrate , ( who is every whit as fallible as they ) or why they need more to expect a command to use force , than to give advice , if one as well as the other has a tendency to promote ( which is every ones duty ) the good of souls , and the honour of god. now tho persecution tends no less to the dishonour of god , than the unhappiness of man ; yet because hitherto we see god's honour no otherwise concerned than indirectly and by consequence , i shall therefore show in my next , chap. v. that the doctrine of compulsion is directly contrary to the honour of god. . the only way that men can render immediate honour to god , is by worshipping him according to that method they think most agreeable to his will : if therefore the magistrate punisheth them for so doing , he setteth himself in direct opposition to the honour of god : for then he must by force endeavour to hinder them , either from worshipping god at all , which is the way to make them down-right irreligious , or else force them to worship him in a way they believe he has forbid ; which is adding to the neglect of worshipping him as they ought , down-right affronts , and under pretence of appeasing his anger , ( which is the design of their solemn devotion ) provoking him by a notorious dissimulation and a mock-worship . therefore without setting himself against god , he cannot deny them the entire liberty of worshipping him as they think best , and that publickly too ; for the more publick the worship is , the more it tends to his honour . to acknowledg that men in private ought to worship god according to their consciences , and to deny it 's their duty to do so in publick , is very absurd ; or if it be their duty , to pretend to have a right from god to hinder them from doing their duty , is more absurd . in short , what can shew a greater defiance of the almighty , and relish more of the spirit of the devil , than to persecute men for expressing their love and zeal for the honour of god , which they can no otherwise do , than by worshipping him according to their consciences ? and god will resent as done to himself , what-ever is done to a child of his upon that account . and persecutors do not come much behind that italian in impiety , who made his enemy blaspheme god , and then stab'd him , when they make innocent persons who are no ways their enemies , or have not done them the least injury , not only once , but for all their lives , guilty of a most detestable apostacy , in revolting from their consciences , and instead of honouring , offer god nothing but indignities and affronts , and ready to commit ( the ties of conscience once broken ) all manner of impieties and villanies . . men can no otherwise honour god , than by entertaining such conceptions of him , as tend to make them love , reverence , and fear him . now the more any nation doth this , the more by it they honour him ; and since what gives one a higher idea of god and his perfections , may have a different effect upon another , men may have different ideas , and yet equally honour god. therefore it 's very unjust in the different sects to condemn each the other for dishonouring god , when each party prefer their own opinions , because they create in them the greater esteem , reverence and honour for god ; and the opposite they apprehend , in respect of their own , as injurious and dishonourable to him . therefore to punish men for honouring god according to their own ideas , or to think they can honour him any otherwise , is very absurd . . besides , this doctrine of compulsion reflects highly on the honour of god , in making him act inconsistently , by obliging men to judg for themselves , and honour god according to the best of their judgments ; and at the same time requiring the magistrate to judg for them , and to make them act according to his , and not their own judgments . what i pray can be more injurious to the justice as well as goodness of god , than to suppose he has exposed the truly religious and conscientious to be every-where ill used , whilst men of no religion will be sure to escape by outwardly complying with that of the magistrate's ? so that none but the conscientious , and they too for being such , are subject to perpetual misery . such an impious doctrine is so far from having a divine original , that it could owe its rise to no other than the grand enemy of mankind , it being his contrivance to tempt men to dishonour god by their hypocrisy , or else gratify his malice on those that refuse . but , . it 's farther dishonourable to god , in making the two grand commands , the honour of god , and the good of mankind , ( which comprehend all religion ) to clash one with the other : because the magistrate cannot promote the honour of god by using force on all he judges to have wrong notions in matters of meer religion , without acting ( as has been already proved ) contrary to the good of mankind . but god's laws are so far from being inconsistent , that there 's so perfect an agreement and connection between them , that the breaking one is the breaking all : nay , the love of god , and of our neighbour , do so evidently imply or include each other , that they are in effect the same . for as our loving god is so absolutely necessary to our well-being , that without it we should be the most miserable of all creatures ; so our loving our neighbour ( which includes all those duties we owe one another ) is necessary to our loving god : for if a man say , i love god , and hateth his brother , he is a liar : for he that loveth not his brother whom he has seen , how can he love god whom he has not seen ? john . . and it 's impossible we should honour god more , than by making our love as extensive as all mankind ; because by it we imitate him whose tender mercies are over all his works , and who designs that all men , what-ever their opinions are , should live in love and peace , ( rom. . . as much as lieth in you , live peaceably with all men ) it being the only way to promote our mutual happiness , which is the reason we are requir'd to believe in , and honour god. for he who is infinitely happy in himself , and consequently incapable of receiving any satisfaction or dissatisfaction from his creatures , could have no motive in requiring any thing from us , but as it naturally tends to promote our general good ; and therefore we can do nothing more agreeable to his will , than to use one another as it requires : nay , so infinitely great is the love of god , that lest we should fail to be happy here , he has made our temporal good ( which can only be procured by observing those rules he has prescribed us ) the means to obtain our eternal . hence it is that love , which worketh no ill to his neighbour , is the fulfilling of the law ; and charity is preferred before all vertues , even faith it self , which ( jam. . . ) without good works is dead , and is no better than the faith of devils . but the faith of a persecutor is not only without good works , but the greatest incendiary that can be to ill ones , since nothing can qualify a man to do so much mischief , as believing he does god service therein ; therefore his belief is worse than atheism , or no faith at all . that faith that must save us , is that which works by love ; but his faith destroys his love. the apostle james ( chap. . v. . ) tells us , pure religion , and undefiled before god and the father , is this , to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction . but his religion is to bring affliction to fatherless , and widows , and every one else that has a different perswasion from himself . in a word ; if it were so great a crime in the jews , that it could not be forgiven in this world nor the next , to impute the miracles our saviour did , when he went about doing good , and healing all that were oppressed with the devil , not to the holy spirit , but to that of beelzebub ; can it be much less to impute to the holy ghost a doctrine which destroys the end and intent of all natural as well as revealed religion , and can serve to no other end , than to dishonour god , destroy conscience , and confound mankind ? by what has been said , i think it 's plain that nothing can be more provoking to the supream protector of mankind , than to pervert the knowledg he has given us of himself for the good of his creatures , to their ruin , and make the honour of god a pretence for destroying the welfare of human societies . besides , . what can be more absurd , than that in judging of these matters wherein we differ from brutes , we should be subject to brutal force ? which is the highest indignity that can be put , not only on reason , which is the candle of the lord , but upon religion it self , which is the highest and most exalted reason ; and even upon the infinitely rational nature of god , which can receive no satisfaction but in a rational service , which must be free and spontaneous . force has only a natural tendency , and therefore can only lawfully be used to cure brutal passions , where men act contrary to their knowledg , and in defiance to their reason ; where the inconveniences they suffer , may over-balance the pleasure they receive in indulging their unlawful appetites . but he seems to be void of all understanding himself , who by force attempts to inform the understanding . if reasons and arguments cannot convince , it 's downright madness to think fines , imprisonments , or tortures can . . the destroying men , when the publick good does not require it , on pretence it's pleasing to god , what is it , but in effect imagining he delights in man's blood , and human sacrifices ? and as under the law none were to be offered but unspotted and clean beasts ; so here none are to be sacrificed but pure and undefiled men , who prefer the honouring and obeying god according to the best of their knowledg , before any worldly advantages whatever , even the saving their own lives . and as the heathen priests , amongst the most brutish and barbarous nations , introduced the sacrificing of men , not so much to gratify their gods , as their own ambition , there being no way more effectual to bring a man ( who otherwise would be in danger to be mark'd for a sacrifice ) into perfect subjection ; so the christian priests ( who have given the world as little reason to suspect their neglecting any means that make for their advantage ) promoted the sacrificing the peoples lives and properties much upon the same account : for they having obtained the direction of the sword , made it fall , with unparallel'd cruelty , on all that opposed or ( by a separation ) disowned their usurped powers and jurisdictions ; by which means they made the people ( on whom they imposed what doctrines they thought fit ) absolute slaves , and magistrates no better than their executioners , who durst not refuse to put their sentences in force . . it may be said , that the magistrate when he deprives people of their lives or properties , does not offer them as a sacrifice to god , but as god's vicar in spirituals , executes his wrath on those that offend him . but if it be the magistrate's duty to punish those offences that relate meerly to god , it cannot be presumed but that god has sufficiently qualified him for that employ ; which how can it be , whilst he is incapable of knowing , not only the greatest part of the actions , but all the thoughts of men , in which alone consists by far the greater part of the offences against him ? nay , to qualify the magistrate for this employ , 't is not sufficient he knows the present , but it 's necessary he should discern the future thoughts of men , and how god himself will deal with them : for if god , instead of punishing , will highly reward those that come in at the eleventh , as well as at the first hour , it would be unjust in the substitute to punish , where the principal ( for whose sake alone he punisheth ) will not only pardon , but highly reward . but , . this is so far from being so , that the magistrate is obliged to punish , not only those that will be , but those that are actually innocent in the sight of god ; otherwise he could punish no criminal at all , because there 's none but will pretend he has truly repented of his crime , and consequently is wholly innocent in the sight of god. and the magistrate being no discerner of hearts , could punish none for fear of punishing such a one , had he not a right to punish those who with respect to god are entirely innocent ; so vice versa , had he not a power to forgive those that in relation to god are as nocent , it would not be in his power to forgive any one . nay , the magistrate may justly be the occasion , even of the death , not only of those that have repented of their crimes , but even of innocent persons , as he is by forcing his innocent subjects into the wars , where it 's unavoidable but numbers must be slain ; and in attacking ships and towns of enemies , where children that never offended either god or man , are very often destroyed ; and this without any fault in the magistrate , because protecting the common-wealth being his indispensible duty , any lesser good , in competition with that , ought to be looked upon sub ratione mali. all which sufficiently shows , that the only thing he concerns himself with as magistrate , is the good of the society ; and that he rewards and punishes his subjects only as it tends to this end , without respect to their being either innocent or nocent in the sight of god ; and that when he punishes any sin , he does it not as it 's a sin against god , but as it 's prejudicial to the society ; and consequently he does not act as god's deputy in punishing offences meerly as they relate to him . but to make this ( if it be possible ) more plain . . the magistrate , as he has no right , so he pretends to none to punish for things that are owned by all to be notorious offences against god , and where men cannot plead conscience to justify themselves , such as pride , ambition , ingratitude , breach of promise , lying , uncharitableness , envy , ill-nature , covetousness , prodigality ; or indeed any thing else that does not invade the right of others , or is consistent with the welfare of the society . and if it be unreasonable that he should harass men about these things , ( which have some relation to the civil society , tho not sufficient to erect courts of judicature about them ) is it not much more so to molest them about nice controversies , speculative points , meer ceremonies or forms of outward worship , in which the interest of the society is not at all concerned ? in a word ; if the magistrate is to punish for some things in religion , and not for others , what other rule can there be to know what belongs to his jurisdiction , and what not , but that about those things of religion which relate to the civil society , he is to use the force of the society , and that what do not , ought wholly to be left to god and the parties concerned ? for as it 's absurd that the force of the society should be imployed about things that do not belong to it ; so it 's very unjust that a man should not be suffered to act as he judgeth best in those things , wherein no other has an interest , but his own eternal good or ill is only concerned . . god , who does not require of men to be infallible , but to do their best to discover truth , can never be supposed to be willing that they should be punished for invincible error : but the magistrate , who by reason of the infinite variety of mens parts and apprehensions , does not know what errors are invincible , and what not , cannot but punish unjustly , since he cannot tell whether the person he punisheth ( supposing him in an error ) is in a fault ; or if in a fault , cannot know what degrees of weakness or wilfulness it has , or how to proportion his punishment according to the different abilities of every individual person ; which he ought to do , since where much is given , much is required ; and where little is given , as little is required : but as he is not capable of doing this , so he cannot tell after he has done his best , but that he has made them guilty of a much greater fault than what he pretends to correct , by forcing them to act against their consciences . all which no less than demonstrates , that the magistrate is not qualified , and therefore not ordained to punish such offences , but that they are to be left to the searcher of hearts , the great and righteous judg of all men , who alone discerns all the powers and workings of mens minds , when they sincerely seek after truth , or by what ( if by any ) default they miss it ; and who alone knows whom to punish , and how to proportion his punishments . . to suppose god has constituted the supream powers to judg , not only concerning civil crimes , ( for which he has sufficiently qualified them ) but also meerly religious ones , is inconsistent with the justice , as well as wisdom and goodness of god. for if we cannot suppose so very unjust and foolish a thing of a king on earth , as that he should constitute for his vicegerents , those of whom he certainly knew not one in a thousand but would punish his faithful subjects , and that for no other reason but because they were so , and reward those that were not so ; how then can we suppose so very absurd a thing of the king of kings , that he should appoint them for his vicars in spiritual matters , and arm them with a coercive power to punish those offences that relate solely to himself , who ( as he could not but infallibly foreknow ) would make use of their power , to encourage even their rebelling against him , by setting up of false gods in his stead ? for idolatry was every where quickly the publick religion of their dominions , except amongst god's own people the jews ; and even there very often it was the national religion . and after their captivity until constantine's time , not one of god's ( supposed ) vicars in matters of meer religion , but were themselves idolaters , and did all of them discountenance , and several of them persecute the worshippers of the true god : and when the christians ( if persecutors deserve that name ) made use of force upon christians , what did it produce but popish superstition and idolatry ? . persecution is so far from being a means to promote the true religion , that it must necessarily hinder its progress , because the infidels must think themselves as much obliged to hinder the preaching of the gospel amongst them , as the christians their religion here : and in vain do we pray for their conversion , whilst we assert such a doctrine as will not let us suffer them to live here in order to their conversion , nor them to suffer us to preach the gospel there . but this is not all , for had this doctrine of promoting the true religion by force been believed by the heathen , it would have obliged them to have extirpated the christian religion ; and certainly that can scarce be thought to be a christian doctrine , which if practised , would have destroy'd the very name of christian. . it may be said , no persecution could extirpate the christian religion , because the severest methods were so far from destroying it , that they were the occasion of its encreasing the faster . not to mention if this were so , and the magistrate was to persecute , it ought to be the true religion , because it 's the way to make it increase , and by parity of reason use a contrary method with false religions ; i say that persecution , if it continues but a short time , will make any religion to increase and flourish the more , because the bravery , the courage of those that suffer , prepares people to have a good opinion of the cause they suffer for : but if it continue for an age , or ages , so that the old professors are all destroyed , the succeeding generations will all be of the religion they are educated in . thus we find christianity , by the continued cruelty of its enemies , rooted out of the greatest part of africa , and other places it entirely possessed . and should the persecution in france continue , the next generation would be all papists , as they are in spain and portugal : so that the reason why persecution had not the like effect under the pagan emperors , was , because god did not permit it to continue long at a time , and not without great intermissions . but had all those emperors been for promoting by force , what according to their sentiments was the true religion , they had utterly extirpated the very name of a christian . . nay , had the heathen emperors abhorr'd persecution , ( as all but what were monsters did ) yet they had been under an indispensible duty , as they valued the peace and welfare of mankind in general , and of their subjects in particular , to root out a religion , which when it got power into its hands , would have no other measure of justice and equity than its own interest , and would deprive men , tho never so strict observers of the laws of morality , and the society , of their properties , and even lives , ( as the christian emperors did ) for acting according to their consciences . and the heathens , who in spight of their religious differences , cultivated peace and friendship amongst themselves , could not but have a just indignation for a religion that ( had compulsion been a part of it ) brought with it so many horrid consequences , which were sufficient to make them not only reject it as contrary to the light of nature , but to treat the professors of it as publick enemies of mankind ; who , like vipers , could make no other return to those that nourish them , but the sooner to sting them . and it 's for the sake of this doctrin , that the christians , instead of propagating their religion , have been so cruelly persecuted of late years in several places : as in japan , where it 's evident they were not so rigorously dealt with upon account of any aversion the japoneses had to the christian religion , for they suffered it quietly a good while to grow amongst them , who were not so zealous for a uniformity , since they had seven or eight sects as different , as the mortality and immortality of the soul : no , it was the doctrines and practices of the persecuting christians , that made them believe the christian religion was dangerous and destructive to human societies . . were the magistrate ordained by god to punish for matters meerly religious , the heathen persecutors , supposing they acted according to the best of their skill , were no more to be condemned for punishing the christians , than a judg is , when he acts according to the best of his knowledg , in punishing an innocent person . all that can be said they were faulty in , was , their being governed by the prejudices of their education , and influenced by their priests , and not suffering the christians , before they condemned them , fairly to represent their religion , nor themselves impartially to consider it . if this were the sole crime of the heathen persecutors , i am afraid the christian ones are as much influenced by their priests , or prejudiced by their education , and do as little as they freely permit men , before they condemn them , to propose their opinions , back them with their reasons , and answer the objections of their adversaries , that they may impartially judg whether they ought to receive or reject them : and if it be their duty so to judg , all their subjects ought to do the same ; which is inconsistent with their hindering any by penalties , from instructing them in those opinions , and the reasons and arguments that make for them . if the magistrate without thus examining should condemn men for professing even an erroneous opinion , that would no more justify him , than it would a judg that condemns a man , without hearing his defence ; or a person that swears a thing to be true , without knowing whether it be so or no. . those matters about which christians persecute one another , are generally such as neither tend to the honour of god , nor the good of man , and at the best are but appendices to religion , and withal so perplext , mysterious and uncertain , that men of the greatest learning , judgment , and probity , are strangely divided in their opinions about them ; and consequently they will not admit of such proof , as in justice and equity ought to subject a man to punishment ; for there should be as much certainty and evidence that the matter one is condemned for , is a crime , as that he is guilty of it : but can the magistrate be as sure ( supposing a meer error to be a crime ) that not only his subjects are in an error , but himself in the right ; as he is , that the causless punishing them is injustice and tyranny ? but could he be as certain , yet that depends either upon criticism in the sacred tongues , and skill in the customs and ways of speaking in use amongst the jews , or in distinguishing between genuine and spurious readings , or upon metaphysicks , school-divinity , fathers , councils , church history , &c. which the supream powers have neither inclination nor leasure to study and examine ; and consequently they cannot but act most tyrannically in making laws for condemning whole parties of men at a venture , for things that , for ought they know , may be true , and which they do not think worth their while to examine : and yet to see them act contrary to their known indispensible duty in ruining their subjects about such points , is strangely unaccountable : all that can be said , is , delirant reges , plectuntur achivi . . to prevent the magistrate's intermedling , god has expresly declared , that he will have the tares and wheat grow together until the harvest , or day of judgment , where the angels are the reapers , &c. and the reason is , lest the wheat be rooted up with the tares ; which relates not to civil , but only to matters meerly religious , where men generally ( so grosly do they mistake ) root up the wheat instead of the tares ; and the same reason will hold , not only against the rooting up , but any ways molesting them . the magistrate ought to render to god those things which belong to him , as well as claim to himself what is cesar's due ; but if he assumes an absolute ( viz. a legislative and coercive ) power in matters wholly relating to god , he leaves nothing to him , but usurps his peculiar and inseparable power and jurisdiction , and is as much guilty of treason against the king of heaven , as a private person in assuming a sovereign power over his fellow subjects , is guilty of treason against his king : and it will no more excuse the magistrate , if he whom he punisheth should have committed an offence against god , than it would the other , if his fellow subjects had broke the law of the land : but the infinite inequality that is between the king of kings and a king on earth , must strangely aggravate the magistrate's crime . if god wanted either skill to judg , or power to punish those offences that concern himself only , there might be some colour for the over-officiousness of the magistrate , if uncommissioned and uncalled for , he offers his infallible judgment and almighty arm ; otherwise there can be no reason , as grotius ( de jur . bell. & pac. c. . l. . ) observes , cur non talia delicta deo relinquantur punienda , qui ad ea noscenda est sapientissimus , ad expendenda aequissimus , ad vindicanda potentissimus . and this i take is sufficient to show that the magistrate has not only no right to a coercive power in matters meerly religious , but that such a power is directly contrary to the honour of god , and most destructive of mens eternal and temporal happiness , and consequently the greatest and most comprehensive of all sins whatever . but because this is a point of so great a consequence to mankind , i will most impartially examine the reasons and arguments ( how frivolous soever they are ) that the defenders of persecution urge in its behalf . part ii. chap. i. an answer to arguments from scripture on behalf of persecution . i having offered several , and ( if i flatter not my self ) concluding arguments against the magistrate's using force in other matters than those relating to the civil society , i shall now examine with all impartiality , the reasons that are urged in behalf of the contrary opinion , from divine and human authority , and from reason : but first as to divine authority . . all that can be urged from the new testament , with the least colour of reason , is contained in rom. . where it 's said , rulers are not a terror to good works , but to the evil : wilt thou not be afraid of the powers ? do that which is good , and thou shalt have praise of the same . if thou dost that which is evil , be afraid ; for he beareth not the sword in vain . where , say they , by evil and good works , not only those actions that relate to the civil society , but those that are meerly religious are meant . to make this out , they ought to prove , ( . ) that meer errors of the understanding are evil works : so that those who act justly in all matters of a civil nature , and in all others according to the best of their understanding , are evil doers . ( . ) that the apostle means such here , which ought fully to be proved , because without it the magistrate's jurisdiction is not to be presumed , much less penal laws to be extended . but not to mention , that they whose opinions are no wise prejudicial to others , are never for the sake of those opinions termed malefactors or evil doers , it 's clear from the text , that evil and good works there spoken of , relate only to civil matters ; because otherwise the latter part will not consist with the former , where it 's said , if thou wilt not fear the power , do good , and thou shalt have praise of the same : which , supposing good and evil relate to matters simply religious , was so far from being true , that they were at that time persecuted for doing good , and encouraged in doing evil ; and consequently the apostle's reasoning would be so far from being an argument ( as he here intends it ) for the christians paying obedience and tribute to the powers in being , that it would have been a good one to the contrary , since they bore the sword worse than in vain , being only a terror to good works , and were not god's but the devil's ministers , attending continually upon this very thing . the primitive christians ( it 's certain ) would have been loth it should have been taken in this sense , since it would have given an unanswerable argument to nero ( to whom the apostle here requires obedience ) and the other emperors , for punishing christians , who according to their notions , taking evil in this sense , were the most evil doers . . as to the old testament , that 's positive , say they , that the magistrate ought to punish for idolatry , ( which is no injury to the state , but an offence simply religious ) and consequently has a right to use force in those matters : for job ( chap. . . ) speaking of idolatry , saith , this were an iniquity to be punished by the judg. but to give no other answer , it appears from the very prints of our bibles , that to be punished by the is not in the original , which only saith , for this might be accounted to me an iniquity ; and agreeable to the hebrew the septuagint renders it , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . it 's an easy thing to have proofs , if men when they cannot find them are resolved to make them . . but they further add , that if by the jewish law idolaters , and those that denied the god of israel , were to be put to death ; by the same reason christians , who ought not to be less zealous for the honour of god , should destroy all idolaters and blasphemers . i answer ; the jewish laws oblige no nation but that of israel , to whom alone they were given : and if any of these laws are now obligatory , it 's not because they were commanded them , but as they are parts of the law of nature ; for there were several things requir'd under the jewish oeconomy , which are so far from being now obligatory , that they are utterly unlawful . therefore to conclude , that a thing which was binding to the jews , is so to the christians , it ought to be proved to be part of the law of nature , or at least that they are under the very same circumstances ; and there can be no reason why it should hold in one case , and not in another . but whoever considers this point , will quickly perceive as vast a difference as can be : for the jewish common-wealth being a perfect theocracy , god himself was their king , and as such he gave them their whole body of politick laws , with no other sanction but what was civil , viz. temporal rewards and punishments ; and did himself judicially determine controversies of legal rights , and other matters of moment : so that he was not to be considered by them only simply as he was the creator of all men , but as their king , the laws established concerning the worshipping of one god , being the civil law of the nation , and a fundamental of their constitution : so that none could be a member of that common-wealth , without owning the god that brought them out of the land of egypt ; and they that revolted from him , by disowning him for their god , ( it being impossible to own him for their king , and yet disown him for their god ) were proceeded against as traitors and rebels : so that such a manifest revolt no-wise consisting with his kingship , there was an absolute necessity that all idolatry should be rooted out of god's peculiar kingdom , the land of canaan . and that it was for this reason , is evident from this one consideration , because in all other places where the jews extended their conquests , none were put to death , nor punished for their idolatry , tho it were manifest all were guilty of it ; it reached only to the members of the jewish common-wealth , who as they were free people upon their coming out of egypt , so it was not without their express consent ( exod. . ) that god became their king ; and consequently for disowning him , they were most justly treated as rebels and traitors . but christ , as he had no civil power himself , so he did not establish those precepts he was to deliver with any temporal sanctions . but as those of the law were meerly temporal , so those of the gospel are purely eternal ; he that does this shall live , and he that does it not shall be damned : yea , christ was so far from bestowing a temporal canaan on his disciples , that he foretold they should suffer persecution for his sake . and he , when his disciples urged a precedent from the jewish dispensation to oblige him to destroy , severely rebuked them , saying , ye know not what spirit you are of ; for the son of man is not come to destroy , but to save mens lives : which is far from being true , if men are to be punished with death for idolatry , or material blasphemy ; for then the christians would think themselves obliged to destroy the indians and other heathens for idolatry , in owning more gods than own , and all jews and turks for blasphemy , in denying more than one to be god : and the protestants the papists , for worshipping a bit of bread ; and the papists them for blaspheming their breaden god : and the different parties of the trinitarians , not only the antitrinitarians , but each the other , since they condemn one the other of either idolatry or blasphemy . but this is so far from being true , that the gospel expresly requires the christians so to walk in wisdom towards those without , that they give offence neither to jew nor gentile ; and is so far from justifying any violent means against them , that it requires we should not only allow them the narrow measure of justice , but that charity , liberality , and bounty must be superadded ; we must do good , not only to the houshold of faith , but to all men. and if this be the method the gospel requires christians should observe to infidels , it cannot be presumed they ought to treat one another less kindly for lesser differences . and when the first christians differed amongst themselves about the observation of the mosaical rites , &c. the apostle paul was not so much concerned about the controversies themselves , as that they might not be the occasion of any uncharitableness , unkindness , variance and strife ; therefore he frequently recommends to them love and peace in the most passionate terms , and tells them , they must deal with one another in the spirit of meekness , bear one anothers burdens , otherwise they could not fulfil the law of christ : and that we cannot walk worthy of our vocation whereunto we are called , but with all lowliness and meekness , with long-suffering , forbearing one another in love : and it 's evident , that the unity of the spirit , the bond of peace , love and concord , cannot be preserved , but by the rule the apostle gives , that the strong should bear with the weak , and the weak not judg the strong ; and that every one is to be fully perswaded in his own mind , and not to judg his brother , but to leave him to the judgment of god ; and the reason he gives is , because it 's a matter that does not belong to his judgment , but to god's , and a man 's own conscience : for what art thou , o man , that judgeth the servant of another ? to his own master he standeth or falleth . and according to these directions we find that the apostle is so far from requiring the gentile church to excommunicate the jewish for following their superstition , ( tho it did in a manner make void the death of christ ) that he orders the gentiles to deny themselves in several things , rather than give an offence to their weak brethren . this way of managing controversies ought to have been the measure by which the succeeding ages of the church ( whether the civil magistrate was a member of it or not ) ought to have formed themselves . and when the apostle , who had an infallible assistance , thought fit to treat of these matters in such an obliging method , as the only way to maintain christian charity , and to lead men into the knowledg of the truth ; those who cannot pretend to such a direction , but are as subject to be mistaken as those they differ from , ought not imperiously to dictate , much less urge the magistrate to force their dictates on the consciences of their brethren , whom tho weak they are to receive , &c. in a word ; for the magistrate to pretend to have a right upon an ecclesiastical account , as head of the church , to punish men because they are either schismaticks , hereticks , or infidels , is to punish them for that very reason for which he has nothing to do with them , because the churches power wholly consisting in putting men out of her communion , has nothing to do to judg those that are without , and consequently cannot authorize the magistrate to use them ill : and indeed he is so far from having such a right upon his being a christian , that the apostle declares , that the weapons of our christian warfare are not carnal , but spiritual ; and the using of violence he makes the mark of a carnal and reprobate mind ; for it 's he that is born after the flesh , that persecutes him that 's born after the spirit : but for such a one to persecute , is impossible , because the fruits of the spirit are love , joy , peace , long-suffering , gentleness , meekness , which are certainly inconsistent with the spirit of persecution ; which where it prevails , destroys the fruits of the spirit ; for it 's naturally as impossible to love persecutors , as persecution and the fear of retaliation , makes men hate those they ill use , as much as those they are ill used by . . to evade the almost innumerable texts that are levelled against persecution , and show after what manner we are to deal with those who differ in their sentiments from us , it 's said , they concern private christians only , but do not hinder them from using contrary methods when the magistrate requires them . but how can the magistrate , by becoming subject to christ's laws , have a right to oblige his subjects to act directly against them ? no , those gospel-rules are eternally obligatory , as being built , not only on the general good of mankind ( the only foundation of all those duties men owe one another ) but upon the honour of god ; and therefore they that would rather obey god than man , ought to be no ways instrumental in putting any persecuting laws in execution , which are null and void in themselves , as being contrary to the laws of god : and the magistrate , and all that assist him in depriving any of their lives or properties on this account , are as guilty of murder and robbery , as if they should serve men so for not committing perjury , or any other crime , that is both against the honour of god , and the good of man. besides , this supposition renders the christians , especially with respect to the heathens , most vile and scandalous hypocrites , in being kind and obliging to them only , when they could not well help it ; but no sooner were their circumstances changed , but the disguise is to be thrown off , and all their former most endearing rules are to be laid aside ; and the poor pagans , who before were to be used so tenderly , are to be stript , not only of their properties , but even of their lives . chap. ii. arguments from humane authority , answered . it 's said , that the christians ever since they had power in their hands , have not only punished blasphemers , and common swearers , but the erroneous , whether in matters of faith or discipline . . if by blasphemers they mean those that are guilty of formal blasphemy , it 's nothing to the purpose ; because the interest of the society requires that they should be punished , as well as atheists , and that for the same reason too ; which also requires that common swearers , ( who can no more pretend conscience than blasphemers or atheists ) should be restrained by penalties , because otherwise oaths which are the bonds of humane society , will have but small force on those who by frequent swearing , run the risque of breaking them daily , and beside give a pernicious example to others . but if men out of conscience worship false gods , and are thereby guilty of what is called material blasphemy , the reason for punishing them wholly ceaseth , for force cannot convince , but only make them false to their consciences ; and they that are so , will never be true to the publick : therefore the magistrate is so far from having a right to hinder them from honouring those false gods , that he ought to punish those , who whilst they pretend to worship them , do dishonour them by blasphemy , perjury , or any other manifest contempt ; nay , god himself will punish such contempts as if done to himself , and consequently will punish the magistrate for hindering them from worshipping those false gods , when they believe them to be true ones . . but as to christian magistrates punishing for matters wherein conscientious persons may and do differ , it shows their great wickedness and impiety in acting contrary to the light of nature , and those precepts and practices of christ and his apostles ; and ( if there be any weight in meer human authority ) i may add contrary to the sentiments of the primitive church for the first three hundred years ; who we do not find but were all unanimous in condemning the use of force in matters of religion ; and had they been of another opinion , nothing could be more absurd than those frequent addresses they made to the heathen for liberty of conscience : for then they could not deny that it was the duty of the heathen magistrate , as long as they rejected what he judged to be the true religion , to punish them ; nor could they urge any thing for themselves , but a shameless begging the thing in dispute , which the magistrate ( the proper judg ) had determin'd against them . and to hear them acknowledge , that were the power in their hands , they were oblig'd to serve them after the same manner , could not but encourage the heathen in their persecution . but they were so far from having any such thoughts , that even when the empire became christian , the very heathen worship ( as the bishop of sarum observes in his most excellent preface to lactantius ) was not only tolerated for a whole age together , but the heathens continued to be in the chief employments of the empire . . compulsion was not only against the sense of the primitive christians , but the rest of mankind : for tho the differences amongst them were more in number , and wider than those amongst the christians , yet we do not find that they used force to compel one another . socrates ( it's true ) was put to death for his religion ; but were not the people ( tho still averse to his principles ) as soon as their fury was abated , sensible of the crime they had committed , and of the injury done him ? therefore to make him what amends they could , they erected a statue to his memory ; and most of those that set them on were so abhorred , that this , together with their own remorse , made them become their own executioners . but what the sense of the heathen was about this matter , cannot be better known than from the sentiments of gallio , the town-clerk of ephesus , agrippa and felix , in the acts of the apostles . nay so zealous assertors of liberty of conscience were the heathens , that we find themistius and other philosophers using all their eloquence to perswade the christian emperors to give liberty to the different sects of christians , whilst at the same time the bishops were urging them to persecute their brethren . if the heathens would have persecuted any , it would have been the jewish nation , whose religion they most disliked ; yet we do not find they were so used by the various masters they were under , from their first being subject unto foreigners , until the destruction of jerusalem , and their being no longer a nation , but by the mad antiochus , who at last grievously lamented that crime . nay , nero himself , the first persecutor of christians , durst not do it bare-fac'd , but pretended they were incendiaries , and set rome on fire , and therefore were to be punished as enemies to the state : and it was their being so represented , that was more than any thing else the cause of their sufferings . for trajan , as soon as he perceived that they were innocent , and disobeyed no laws of the empire , but those that forbad their worship , straight commanded that they should be no longer enquired after . and adrian , under severe penalties , forbad any to accuse them : the same did antoninus pius . and aurelius went further , and made it death to inform against them . nay , commodus himself , as great a tyrant as he was otherwise , enacted the same most just law ; so that it was then no less than a capital crime to cause any to be molested upon the account of religion , tho supposed never so false . . nay , i think i may add , that persecutors act not only contrary to the sense of mankind , but their own sentiments : for ask any of them , why the swift and sudden encrease of the mahometan religion should not be as good an argument for its truth , as 't is for that of the christians ; they straightway answer , that maugre its swift progress , 't is little less than a demonstration of its falshood , that it has the character of persecution annexed to it , and made use of violence as a lawful means for its promotion . which answer of theirs shows , that themselves believe force an unlawful means of promoting religion ; for how else can that be an argument of the falseness of any religion , if it be a means ordained by god to promote the true ? and therefore the mahometans may justly say , how can the christians condemn them for using that method , which themselves , as soon as they get power into their hands , ( and the mahometans could do it no sooner ) practised with far greater cruelty , even one upon the other ? thus they give occasion for the enemies of the christian religion to triumph , and that so much the more confidently , by how much less christians suffer under them for religion , than they do under one another . . nay i may go further and add , that there 's no party of christians but what have , ever since persecution has been in use , expresly condemned it , and have writ in defence of liberty of conscience . and tho the orthodox made use of persecution as well as the arians , yet they not only condemn'd it , but thought it so very odious , that they supposed it as great a crime as they could brand their adversaries with . and athanasius , in epist. ad solit. saith , persecution alone is a manifest proof that they ( the arians ) have neither piety , nor the fear of god : for , adds he , it 's essential to piety , not to force any in imitation of our saviour ; it 's the devil that comes with violent means . and the synod of alexandria condemns all force in religion , and reproaches the arians as the inventers and promoters of it . it 's strange they should be so very forgetful , as not to mind that the nicene fathers over-perswaded constantine , contrary to his faith given in a publick edict for liberty of worship , not only to deprive and banish those of the clergy that professed arianism , but even to put all men to death on whom any of arius his works were found . . but it may be said , that if the christian priests in the first general council , and all ever since , have been for persecution , there must be some very good reason to influence them . i answer ; just as much as influences the jewish priests not to own jesus to be the messias : for as they were prejudiced against him , because he did not come to advance their temporal power , so the christian priests have been as much prejudiced against those gospel-methods of love , gentleness , &c. as being wholly inconsistent with their pride , ambition , and that dominion over conscience they so much affected ; as is manifest by their own histories , which represent them after such a manner ever since persecution prevailed , as one would imagine he was reading a story of devils , rather than of the successors of the apostles . but if there is confusion , and every evil work , where envying and strife is , it 's no wonder these should prevail in the highest manner , when barbarity and cruelty are superadded . and not only ecclesiastical history , but the best of the clergy , almost as soon as persecution was in use , give a very scandalous character of their body ; as st. jerom , st. basil , st. ambrose , st. hilary , who in his comment on the psalms , scruples not to compare them to the scribes and pharisees ; and st. gregory nazianzen , who in his first oration , amongst other things , saith , they are no better than scribes and pharisees ; that they looked on the priesthood , not as a ministry of which they must give an account , but as a magistracy which is liable to no examination ; that no charity was observed in them , but only anger and passion ; that their piety did only consist in condemning the impiety of other men , whose conduct they observed , not to reclaim , but to defame ; that they blamed or praised men , not because of their good or bad life , but according to the party they embraced ; that they admired in themselves what they sharply censured in another party ; that they wrangled about trifles , on the specious pretences of defending the faith ; that they were abhorred by the heathen , and despised by all good men among the christians . . in a word ; there can be no argument from human authority for persecution , because that destroys any argument that 's built upon authority , even in the judgment of the persecutors themselves : for ask them why the council of ariminum , which was double in number to that of nice , and which even the nicene fathers themselves subscribed , is not of any authority ; the answer is , because they were not a free council , but were over-awed by the emperor . but if persecution destroyed their authority , the reason will hold against any other council or meeting of men ever since force has been in fashion . and it 's no wonder that the nicene fathers who were so divided into parties and factions , and full of heats , fewds , and quarrels , ( as marvel in that small , but admirable essay of creeds and councils fully shows ) should revenge themselves on their adversaries , on pretence of advancing the true religion ; or that the arians , when they had been so provoked , should serve them after the same manner ; or that the different parties after these precedents , which must necessarily encrease their hatreds and animosities , should be more and more for persecuting one the other . but more than enough of human authority . and , now i shall examine what they urge from reason , for the magistrate's using force : which may be concluded under these three heads . . that it causeth people impartially to consider the arguments and motives that make for the true religion . . that it hinders the propagation of errors . . that the interest of the common-wealth obligeth the magistrate not to permit different professions of religion . chap. iii. object . that compulsion tends to make people impartially consider , examined . . i agree with them , that nothing can be more agreeable to the dignity , and more apparently the duty of rational creaturs , than to make a strict inquisition , in their advanced and capable years , into matters of religion ; and that of all the uses reason was designed for , the chief , no doubt , was in relation to our eternal happiness : but how can we expect that happiness from the hand of god , if what we are to believe or practise be by meer accident , or for the sake of worldly interest , and not the effects of our own industry and reasoning ? for god will judg us as we are rational creatures , and consequently our rewards from him will be in a just proportion to the use we make of our reason . this being premised , it 's evident nothing can well be a greater crime than to hinder people from a free exercise of their reason in matters of religion , which , i say , nothing can more effectually do than punishments and rewards : for what can bias and prejudice more than punishments on the one hand , and on the other not only protection , but the prospect of preferment and advantages ? for as much weight as they carry in mens minds , so much will they be influenced by them . and to put discountenance and punishment in one scale , and impunity and preferment in the other , is as likely a way to make a man judg impartially for himself , as it is to bribe and threaten a judg to make him judg so for others . in a word ; what can be more absurd , than to suppose , that the way to make men consider calmly , and without prejudice of those things that require their utmost attention , is to provoke them to passion by ill usage , and to distract them on one hand by the terrors of punishment , and to agitate them as strongly on the other by the hopes of worldly enjoyments ? . it 's usually said , men are careless and negligent , and of themselves unapt to make a strict inquisition into religion ; therefore are to be forced . but force will make them but more so , and instead of remedying , encrease the malady : for men will then be afraid to examine the magistrate's religion for fear of finding it false , and any other for fear of finding it true ; both which will equally subject them to punishment . in such circumstances if they examine at all , it will be very slightly and partially : for a small , a very small reason will make most men profess a religion on which their worldly happiness depends ; and it must be a monstrous one indeed , that they will not make a shift to own , rather than be all their lives subject to punishment . in short ; what can be more unnatural than to imagine , that to terrify people into this or that perswasion , is a more likely way to induce them to examine impartially the different perswasions , than to let them freely examine , and as freely profess what upon examination they are perswaded is the truth ? . if men ought to be influenced in the choice of their religion by no other motive than that of their eternal happiness , what right can the magistrate have to make them do otherwise by the awes and bribes of this world ? to pretend to establish a church by penal laws , is inconsistent with the very nature of it , because it 's essential to a church to be a voluntary society , that meet for no other intent than to serve god as they think most agreeable to his will. if men therefore associate not for this consideration , but because of penal laws , they may be called any thing sooner than a church . . if worldly awes and bribes were away , there could be little or nothing to prejudice men in their grand choice ; education would not then make half so deep an impression : for it 's persecution that 's the occasion that people of different perswasions contract so early and so great an aversion one for the other , that it becomes in a manner part of their nature ; and makes it so very difficult to perswade them to hear , with tolerable patience , what their adversaries have to offer : but were they taught to have that love and kindness which is due from different sects to each other , and instead of being frightned from , were heartily advised to examine , and impartially consider other perswasions besides those they were bred in , education could create little or no prejudice in mens minds ; who when they found themselves in an error , ( as , what thinking men do not discover some imbibed in their greener years ? ) would then as freely leave them for the sake of their souls , as they do now their diet or physick , when they judg the health of their bodies requires it ; nor would others then be more disturbed or concerned at the one than at the other : i am sure there is more reason to change in one case than in the other , since the professing an opinion one believes to be false , is so far from doing him good , that that alone turns it to rank poison ; which is otherwise in physick , where a man may be cured by a medicine he has no faith in . by what has been said , it 's evident that force is so far from causing people impartially to consider , that it can only serve either to prejudice them as they become capable of judging , or else when they have chosen , make them act against their judgments . . but it 's urged ; that when the magistrate is of the true religion himself , his using force will contribute to make others to be so , by causing them to consider ( since it 's their interest so to do ) the reasons and arguments that make for the true religion . that the magistrate's using force when he is of the true religion , tends to make others profess it , there is no doubt ; but that it is by making them impartially consider , ought not to be taken for granted , since we find it as effectual to make them imbrace a false as a true religion , ( else the french tyrant had not forced above a million to turn papists ) ; and therefore by how much the number of the erroneous magistrates is greater than of the orthodox , by so much more it causeth the profession of false perswasions : and if we should judg what may , by what has already happened , not only before but since christ's coming , it 's as probable that all magistrates may use force to promote error , as that any one should do it to propagate truth . it 's absurd to suppose persecution makes men impartially consider , because they generally look on it as so just a prejudice against any religion that useth it , that it tempts them without any further looking into it , to conclude it wants reason to support it self , and therefore the professors of it have recourse to brutal force to uphold it ; and the way that persecutors take to make men hate their persons , is a very improper way to take off the prejudices they have to their opinions ; and as suffering prejudices them against the religion that causeth it , so it strangely endears to them the religion for which they suffer , and makes them apt to think , nothing but the grace of god could cause them to adhere so firmly to their religion , and apply to themselves the prophecies that foretel the persecution of true believers . and in such a case it 's almost impossible to convince them they have suffered for being in the wrong . and , . as to the spectators , it will be very apt to produce the same effects , and fill them with horror and indignation against the principles of such men as go about to ruin innocent persons for serving god according to conscience , and make them judg as favourably of the sufferers ; for there 's a natural compassion that follows all in misery , which creates likeness of affection , and this very often likeness of perswasion , especially when they suppose the sufferers would not expose themselves to those punishments , which by a compliance they might easily avoid , were they not fully convinced of the truth of their opinions . and it 's very probable that the quakers ( to give no other instance ) had not been so very numerous , had not the sufferings , which they generally bore with more than ordinary resolution , created in many of the by-standers , not only an aversion for the church that persecuted them , but a very great esteem of them , and by degrees of their opinions . . that violent and rough methods are not the way to make prejudiced persons impartially consider , is evident from the contrary method that all men take when they endeavour to perswade : and they are but little acquainted with mankind , who do not know how absolutely necessary it is for a man , by all insinuating ways , to ingratiate himself with those he endeavours to perswade , especially if it be of the falseness of an opinion they have a long time imbibed . nay , i desire no body to go further than his own breast for an experiment , whether ever violence gained any thing on his opinion ; or whether arguments managed but with heat , did not lose somewhat of their efficacy , and have not made him even the more obstinate in his opinion : so much concern'd is human nature to preserve the liberty of that part wherein lies the dignity of man , which could it be imposed on by force , would make him but very little different from a beast . the properest means to maintain any thing , are those that first made it grow : if therefore the gospel had owed its first encrease and progress to force , that had been still the best means to support it ; but since it was nursed , and grew up by fair means , they must be the fittest to preserve it . the apostles , in conquering the almost invincible prejudices of the jews and gentiles , made use of all those endearing methods that are so directly opposite to force . and st. paul , the great converter of the gentiles , became all things to all men , that he might gain some . and he tells timothy , that the servant of the lord must not strive , but must be gentle to all men , apt to teach , patient , in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves , if god will peradenture give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth . and if this be the way to make even the obstinate acknowledg the truth , the contrary method can but the more prejudice and harden them ; and they must not be the servants of the lord , but of another master , that either practise it themselves , or what is as bad , endeavour to perswade others to use it . it 's said , that the apostles could work on peoples prejudices and passions by miracles , and that therefore they had no occasion for force . but if whilst they had the power of doing miracles , they were obliged to make use of all those endearing arts to gain on the affections of those they designed to proselite , there is much more reason now to do it , and even to double the natural means , when the supernatural ones have ceased , as the only way that remains to cause men to hear and consider . the contrary method is so unlikely to produce such an effect , that i believe there can be no instance given of any man being sincerely brought over by it to embrace any religion ; tho , no doubt , there have been several , who when they have been forced to profess a religion contrary to their consciences , have at last made a shift ( so natural is it for men to love their present ease ) to stifle the checks of their consciences , and at last to believe it : but this is evidently wicked , because it 's doing a real evil , on pretence that good may come of it . . it has been all along the pretence of persecutors , to justify their cruelty , that those they punished were obstinate and perverse , and would not impartially consider . upon this head antiochus ( as josephus in his dominion of reason tells us ) put to death great numbers of the jews , because they were so obstinate to refuse what he judged an indifferent thing , the eating swines flesh : and on the same pretence of obstinacy , pliny ( epist. . l. . ) murdered a great many christians . and the christian persecutors have all along made use of the same plea to persecute their brethren . this is the chief argument the french clergy used for dragooning of protestants : and the main topick of our late persecutors was , that the dissenters were obstinate and peevish , in not complying in things they judged indifferent . if such reasoners are in earnest , it shews the height of pride , presumption , and self-conceit , in supposing their reason the standard of all others ; and that none can differ from them , without being guilty of a most criminal inconsideration . in a word ; since the magistrate cannot know whether a man has or has not impartially considered , to punish him upon that account is manifestly to usurp that authority that can belong only to the discerner of hearts : the most he can pretend to , ( were this matter under his cognisance ) is to oblige those he thinks have not impartially considered , to read the reasons , or hear unprejudiced and judicious persons argue the matter on both sides ; any thing more than this is evident injustice , and is nothing else than endeavouring to make men act against their consciences . . another thing persecutors agree in is , an endeavour to disguise their cruelty in the softest terms imaginable , which shews that the thing it self is so very odious , that themselves are ashamed of it . the inquisitors , when they deliver over to the secular magistrate those they condemn to be burnt , they intreat him after this manner ; domine judex rogamus vos cum omni affectu quo possimus , ut amore dei , pietatis , & misericordiae intuitu , & nostrorum interventu precaminum , miserrimo huic nullum mortis vel mutilationis periculum inferatis . and the french tormentors , tho they highly condemn the cruelty of the inquisition , yet they as much extol their own good-natur'd tyrant for reclaiming hereticks by methods full of mercy , gentleness , and sweetness . and our late persecutors , tho they abhorred the devilish cruelty of the french dragooners , yet they greatly magnified the moderation and gentleness of the penal laws , and wondred any should be so disingenuous as to dislike them ; which yet , with submission , equalled , if not exceeded those of france they so much exclaimed against . to mention no other than those made in the , , and of elizabeth ; which indeed are so very moderate , that they extend only to the loss of estate , country , liberty and life . and bp burnet , in his preface to lactantius , very justly tells those hypocrites , that they let themselves loose to the rage of a mad persecution ; and adds , ( a most charitable advice ) that they ought seriously to profess their repentance of this fury , in instances that may be as visible and legible , as their rage has been publick and destructive . but since the protestants are forced to condemn the severities the papists use , they have no way to justify their own penalties , but by pretending they are so very gentle and moderate , that they will not have those ill effects the others produce ; that is , they will not cause men to play the hypocrites , nor prejudice or bias their judgments , nor even destroy their charity , by causing them to hate their persecutors . but , punishment may be reckoned severe , either upon the account of the length or greatness of it . . as to the first ; if a man is to continue all his life under any punishment , tho in it self but moderate ; or which is all one , can see no hopes of redress , without ruining his soul , that punishment is certainly severe . and since men are not always alike upon their guard , but the world is more apt to make an impression at one time than at another , there is a very great danger , that some time or other they may be tempted to free themselves by a guilty compliance . who was more ready to lay down his life for our saviour , than st. peter ? yet his zeal was not constant , for we find him capable of fear to the last degree , so as to deny his master with oaths and curses , when there was no other punishment for those that believed in christ , but turning them out of the synagogue . nay , at another time , he shamefully complied with the jews to the drawing aside of many ; and this at antioch , where the jews had no civil power . and if so great a person could be so easily wrought on , who can be secure when he lieth under constant temptations ? and he who considers , that of the twelve disciples one denied his master for fear , and another denied him for a paltry sum of money , will not wonder that punishments and rewards , tho not excessive , may have too great an influence on others . as to the second ; perpetual imprisonment , and little less than outlawry , which are the inseparable consequences of excommunication , are severe in themselves , as well as upon the account of the length of them , which can scarce fail some time or other so to affect men , as to make them desire their liberty , tho at the price of their consciences : and yet your protestant persecutors , for all their pretences to moderation , would be as loth as the papists their excommunications should be without them . as to punishing people in their properties , considering the almost infinite variety of mens circumstances , there can scarce be any fines or mulcts so small , but the constant paying of them must ruin great numbers , and be grievous to many more . there 's nothing can well be more moderate , than the price that christians pay for liberty of conscience under the mahometans ; yet to avoid that , great numbers of them turn mussulmen . in a word ; there is no such thing as moderate penalties in any persecuting protestant country : and considering mens tempers , how much sooner some than other will be wrought on by punishment , or losing some temporal advantage , it 's impossible to say what degree of force will not make some act against their conscience , and prejudice others in their choice of religion , and destroy the charity of most , since there 's no where that brotherly love and friendship between different sects , where persecution prevails , as the gospel requires , or as there is where they tolerate one another . and where there is a man whom force will not cause to act against his conscience , or prejudice his judgment , or destroy his charity , it cannot be presumed but that the thoughts of future rewards and punishments have made so religious a person impartially consider ; so that the punishing him , tho but moderately , would be very unjust . . and yet if the magistrate has a right to use force , to make people profess what religion he judgeth to be true , that degree of force ought to be used that is most effectual to that end , because where the end is a duty , the means that are most conducive to it must be so too . now it 's evident , a greater degree will cause men to profess , where a less will not ; and consequently the greater degree will have the greatest effect . besides , what can the magistrate do if men will still go on in a constant defiance to his laws , to assert opinions he judgeth do dishonour god , or not assert others that do honour him ? must he not at last come to capital punishments , except he will see god continually dishonoured ? and if meer opinions are of that fatal consequence to the souls of men , ( as persecutors pretend ) it 's the highest charity that can be , to destroy all promoters of such pernicious opinions ; for is it not better that a few ( and those too hated of god ) should be cut off , rather than they should destroy the souls of a great many , ( for who knows where such opinions will stop ? ) not only of the present , but of succeeding generations ? so that here 's no room for clemency : for how can the life of a man counterpoise the loss of a soul ? and since nothing can , at least so certainly , root out such opinions , as putting the professors of them to death , is it not the highest charity to the souls of others to serve them so ? nay , it 's more for the safety and interest of a nation , that a few should be destroyed upon the account of religion , than that great numbers by lesser punishments , which suffers them to encrease , should be grieved and provoked ; which must necessarily create disturbances , tumults , wars , &c. nay , such proceeding will be the occasion of the death of more people ; as it was here in the late persecutions , where more were starved , or otherwise died in noisom prisons , than what are destroyed in the like proportion of time , where the inquisition is established . and how little it 's able to bring people to a uniformity , may be judged from charles the first 's time , where the church was so far from rooting out the different sects by punishments , and those too not very moderate , that those methods were the ruin of the persecuting church ; so that in respect of the good of men , as well as the honour of god , all sectaries , if they are not to be set wholly at liberty , are to be quite rooted out , for all middle ways are both absurd and unsafe . chap. iv. object . that the magistrate has a right to use force , to prevent the increase of those erroneous opinions that a toleration would produce . if force prevents men from running into errors , it must be because it hinders men from freely and impartially examining matters of religion ; which if men would as freely do where force is used , as where 't is not , it could no ways hinder the supposed encrease of errors , because the not using it does no wise blind , nor the using it enlighten mens understandings . and as error , where impartial diligence is used , is wholly innocent ; so where it 's neglected , the accidental stumbling on truth will not justify or excuse the neglect of it : therefore if it should tend to hinder error , by preventing men from impartially considering , it would not give the magistrate a right to use force . but how can force , in the hands of men as liable to be mistaken as those they use it on , contribute to hinder mens falling into error ? there may perhaps be more errors in a country where there is liberty of conscience , but not more in error , because it 's more than probable , ( as i shall fully prove hereafter ) that where persecution prevails , they are all unanimous in the wrong . but where will the magistrate , using force , prevent errors ? only in that place where the persecutor's particular sect is established ; in all other places it will as much serve to promote and immortalize them : so that except the persecutor can find out a way that only his sect shall use force , he cannot deny but that there are at least a thousand arguments to one , even upon this head , against the use of it . but , . a free permission from the pulpit , or press , for men of different opinions to propose their reasons to the people , that they may search into them in order to discern the truth , is so far from being the way to maintain and propagate falshood , that it 's the only way to destroy it ; except we will say , that tho god has given us faculties to judg of truth and falshood , and has commanded us to make use of them in order to find the truth , yet the more we do so , the further we shall be from discovering it . to hinder men from doing this , on pretence they would be led into error by it , what is it but to make our selves wiser than god , and in effect to say , he is mistaken in the method he has proposed to us for our discovering the truth ? therefore , say the persecutors , let us keep the people in ignorance of any opinion but our own , for fear lest when they come to understand the different opinions , and the reasons that make for one side as well as the other , they should be unqualified to judg of them . . it may be said , upon supposition of this liberty , opinions , tho never so absurd , may be published . but if every one is to judg for himself , he ought not to rely upon another's judgment , but examine himself whether they are so or not ; and it 's probable that they that are against this freedom , maintain such opinions : for the more they are afraid of having their opinions examined , the more absurd it 's likely they are ; and the more any opinion is grounded in reason , the more willing the professors of it are to have it undergo the test ; it 's only those with flaws in them , that ( like crackt titles ) cannot bear a scrutiny . if the bereans were for ever enobled by st. paul for not relying on what he said , ( tho he had the power of miracles to confirm his doctrin ) but for trying whether those things he affirmed were so or not ; there 's certainly as much reason now to do it , otherwise we are slaves where we ought to be most free , in our noblest part , our understanding : and if in all other matters , the more any thing is scanned , the more the strength of those reasons appears that make for truth , as well as the weakness of those that are pleaded in behalf of error ; why should it not be so in matters of religion , since we must judg of their truth and falshood , as we do of all other things , by their agreement or disagreement with our common notions , especially considering religion is no obscure and unintelligible thing , but so plain and easy , that it 's suted to the capacity of the simple and ignorant , the bulk of mankind ? it 's to me wondrous strange , that any should have so ill an opinion of the reasonableness of the true religion , or else of the impotency of those rational faculties god has given men on purpose to judg of religion , as to suppose they would not prefer it ( were they not prejudiced by temporal motives ) before the inventions of men. it 's said , the affectation of singularity and novelty is apt to cause a man ( if the magistrate by force does not restrain him ) to wander from the true religion . but what charms can there be , in being thought not only ignorant and mistaken , but also despised and hated , as he too certainly is , that differs in his sentiments from his neighbours ? and therefore it 's not only a sign that a man thinks of religion , but that he is very hearty and sincere in it , when he exposeth himself to a constant disgrace and disrepute by it ; for there 's not one of a thousand that 's stiff and insensible enough to bear the perpetual dislike of his neighbours , and those he is forc'd to converse with : and therefore there 's no need of force to make men profess the publick religion , which ( for no other reason but because it is so ) they are too apt to do . hence it is , that not only the careless and negligent , but the immoral and vicious , are generally of the religion established by law , where they can best indulge their vices , as having the countenance of the people , and the favour and indulgence of the magistrate . . another argument they usually urge is , that mens lusts and passions would make them prefer false religions before the true , had not the magistrate a right to hinder them by force . but not to mention , that since the magistrates are as much governed , as their subjects can be supposed to be , by their lusts and passions , force in their hands will more likely promote than hinder false religions ; i answer , as to the meerly religious , or speculative points of the true religion , mens lusts or passions , since these are no way concerned how those are held , do not encline them to prefer falshood before truth . and as for those parts of religion wherein mens lusts and passions may be supposed to sway them , those i own ( as far forth as my adversaries ) do belong to the magistrate's jurisdiction , and all men , for the sake of their common good , are obliged to get them believed and practised ; for it 's equally the interest of governours and governed , to embrace the true religion , contrived by the infinite wisdom of god for the benefit of mankind : for god , as he could not envy his creatures any enjoyment they are capable of , so he has forbad them nothing but what naturally tends to their ruin and destruction ; and were it not for persecution , and those opinions supported by it , which interested men have tack'd to the christian religion , there can be no doubt but that it had long before now been the universal profession of mankind . . as a free and impartial liberty is the only way to promote truth , so where persecution prevails , it 's morally impossible but that error , ignorance , aud superstition must do so too ; because men when they are hindred from exercising their reason , by being forced blindly to follow the opinions of others , become ignorant and superstitious , and are apt to take any absurd impressions : and the priests themselves , where they are sure of the force of the magistrate to make people profess what they please , will not much trouble themselves about reasons and arguments ; and consequently by degrees grow very ignorant and superstitious , as we find it in spain , italy , portugal , and other popish places where the inquisition is settled ; tho in france ( where till of late more liberty has been allowed ) they have not for the generality been so grosly ignorant . it 's very true what a late author observes , that the ministry is more learned , more diligent , and more exemplary , where a government carries it self equally to the different parties , than if one party being absolute masters , should therefore ( so much is human frailty more apt to be corrupted by prosperity than by all other snares together ) abandon it self to licentiousness , ignorance , idleness , and superstition . and this holds not only in popish but protestant countries ; also in which the less there is of liberty , the more error , ignorance , and superstition abounds . . besides , when men shall be hindred from professing any doctrin but what the priests in their convocations shall decree , will not these be tempted to establish such opinions as shall tend to promote their own power and dominion , tho to the destruction of true piety ? and this is no strange supposition , considering how fond in general mankind are to advance their own power and authority . and do not the protestant clergy own that popery is nothing but a politick design to advance the power of the clergy under the bishop of rome , tho to the ruin of christianity ? but as rome it self was not built in a day , so it was not but by a long , steady and uniform design for many ages , that the clergy by degrees arrived to such a power . and it 's sufficiently evident , that long before the pope usurped such superiority over the rest of the clergy , they were carrying on the design of aggrandizing themselves , and tyrannizing over those they call the laity . in a word ; it has been the pride , ambition , and covetousness of the priests , and the force and violence that by their means and instigation the persecuting magistrates have used on the people to make them pay a blind submission to the decrees of the clergy , that has been the cause , not only of all the mischief and miseries that upon the account of religion have happened in christendom , but of the great corruption of religion ; which being a thing so plain and easy in it self , and suted to the capacity of the people , would never have been so much and so universally depraved , had there been an entire liberty of conscience : for tho upon several accounts , such as prejudice of education , mistaken philosophy , interest , &c. errors might have crept into the church , yet had they not been established by penal laws , there would have been some in all ages , who not being under the like prejudices , would have opposed them ; and consequently upon a free examination , error could not long have withstood the power of truth . luther , calvin , &c. were more successful than others , ( who before them saw the corruptions the clergy had introduced ) only because they had better fortune in meeting with princes that allow'd them a liberty that was denied to the others . . one of the chiefest means of corrupting religion , was occasioned by the heathen philosophers , those pretenders to science , falsly so called ; who when they thought it worth their while ( tho few or none of them at first were converted ) to come into the church , and became governours and leading men in it , brought in with them ( so hard it is to conquer the prejudice of education ) their absurd metaphysical notions , wholly inconsistent with the plainness and simplicity of the gospel , which they wrested to their preconceived opinions ; and being then unwilling to make a meaner figure , upon the account of their learning , than they did formerly , they blended together two very different things , christianity , and that vain philosophy st. paul so much cautions people against . and they that succeeded them , made it their business to render religion more and more mysterious and unintelligible , that the laity should admire them for their profound knowledg in things past their own understanding , and be wholly governed by them in matters of religion , as being above their apprehensions ; and so get their consciences , and consequently their estates in their disposal . which design succeeded accordingly , for we find that it was wholly left to them to make what creeds , impose what opinions they thought fit on the laity ; who , whenever they asserted their natural right of judging for themselves , and acting according to that judgment , were by the magistrate's sword ( always ready ) forc'd to a compliance . thus it was that priest-craft began , and persecution compleated the ruin of religion . and if this was the method the clergy took in the most early times , what reason is there to suspect , that in these latter times they are less in love with power and dominion ? . it 's said , that the magistrate's force is necessary to preserve religion ; because for want of it the world was quickly and universally overrun with idolatry . i answer ; a right in the magistrates to use force , would in no wise have prevented idolatry , except they had been against it when the people were inclined to it ; which was so far from being true , that the kings themselves ( as that great and good man , the author of the letters concerning toleration , plainly shows ) were the promoters of idolatry , by introducing their predecessors into the divine worship of the people , to secure to themselves , as descended from the gods , the greater veneration from their subjects ; and therefore erected such a worship , and such a priesthood , as might awe the seduced multitude into the obedience they desired . and it 's much more probable , that courts by their instruments the priests , and by their artifices , the fables of their gods , their mysteries and oracles , should thus advance the honour of their kings amongst the people , for the ends of ambition and power , than that the people should find out those refined ways of doing it , and introduce them into courts for enslaving themselves . and it 's no wonder that absolute and arbitrary monarchs ( as the first introducers of idolatry were ) could impose what they pleased on their subjects , bred up in slavery , ( and consequently in ignorance ) ; for where men are poor and miserable , ( the necessary consequence of arbitrary power ) they have no leisure to examine into matters of religion , their time being wholly taken up in providing necessary subsistence ; and consequently they must be grosly ignorant , and have mean , low , and abject thoughts sutable to their condition : so that 't is not strange that these emperors might by degrees impose on them the worshipping their ancestors , especially when they saw the priests and courtiers scarce forbear adoring the present monarch ; which is almost unavoidable in arbitrary governments , ( witness the most fulsome and blasphemous flatteries that are offered up to the french king , even by his christian subjects ) . nay , how many instances have we of such monarchs , whose impatience would not permit them to stay till after their death for divine honours , which then custom had in a manner made their right ? and , . one ( and not perhaps the least ) reason why the generality of the priests are for preaching up absolute arbitrary power to be jure divino , is , because that necessarily causes an universal ignorance , and thereby gives them a fair opportunity of imposing on the people what they think fit : for ignorance , tho it 's far from being the mother of devotion to god , it 's certainly so to the church , as the priests call themselves ; and therefore there is nothing they dread more than a knowing laity : and to show all the arts and methods they have taken to keep them ignorant , would require a large history . and we find that in those places where the clergy are most numerous , potent and rich , the people are most ignorant and superstitious , as well as most enslaved ; and where the clergy are fewest in number , religion abounds most as well as knowledg and liberty . it was piedmont , and some such barren places , which could not well maintain many priests , and where it was scarce worth their while to advance priest-craft , that best preserved the purity of the gospel . and not to go so far from home , as nothing made way so much for the reformation as the depriving the priests of their monasteries , and other ill-gotten goods ; so nothing has since contributed more to the continuing of it , than those possessions being out of their hands . and the method by which they have generally corrupted religion , is by wheedling or forcing the people into a blind submission to what they impose on them . and it was by these artifices that the jewish priests and rabbies imposed on that nation the traditions of men for the commandments of god. and it 's by this method that the mahometan religion supports it self , there being no debate nor discourse allowed of what the mufties shall teach the people . and every body knows that the forcing people into an implicit faith , is the bulwark of the popish religion . and now having answered , and ( i think i may say ) retorted the arguments for compulsion , upon pretence of advancing the true religion , i shall next examine what is said for it upon a civil account ; but before i do that , i must beg leave to show , ( since it 's for protestants this discourse is chiefly designed ) first , that this doctrine of compulsion is inconsistent with the very foundation of the protestant religion . and , secondly , to lay down the true method , consonant to protestant principles , of destroying ( maugre all the differences of opinions ) not only schisms and heresies , but all hatred and uncharitableness , and bringing people to true christian love and friendship , which will in a manner prevent all that can be urged for compulsion upon a civil account . chap. v. that all force upon the account of meer religion , is inconsistent with the principles of the protestant religion . . as it was persecution that advanced popery , so it was freedom and toleration that ruined it , and established protestantism ; the essence of which consists in every one's having an impartial right to judg for himself , and which is the necessary consequence of it , acting according to that judgment : and therefore , as a very worthy person saith , a persecutor is no where at home but at rome . the papists in persecuting , act consistent with their own principles : but protestants , whilst they persecute any , condemn themselves . the former pretend there are doubts and difficulties in all , even the most important points of religion ; and therefore there must be ( say they ) some ultimate and external judg to appeal to , by whose decisive judgment all persons must be concluded , otherwise so many men so many minds , and the church will be filled with controversy and confusion . the protestants on the contrary say , that god has appointed no such judg , but that every one is to judg for himself , and to act according to that judgment : and therefore , since they judged the terms of communion with the church of rome unlawful , they acted according to their duty in separating from it , and in forming religious assemblies of their own , and endeavouring to make as many converts as they could : and that they were obliged to do this when the government was against them , as well as when it was for them , in q. mary's days as well as q. elizabeth's ; according to the practice of the primitive christians , who held their religious assemblies contrary to the commands of the heathen government . grant me these principles , or by any other justify the reformation if you can , and shew me then how any man , or body of men , can pretend to judg for others , and by force endeavour to make them profess their sentiments . nay , can the persecuting protestants any otherwise justify themselves against the church of rome , but by the very same arguments their brethren ( who desire but the same liberty from them that they claim from the papists ) make their defence with , against whom they can alledg no other reasons than the papists use against all of them ? than which there can be nothing more disingenuous . and what is it but mocking both god and man , first to bid men use their reason in matters of religion , then punish them if they will not act contrary to it ? to tell them they must judg for themselves , and act according to that judgment , and yet excommunicate , imprison , and fine them for so doing , is a most fulsome contradiction . with what face can the clergy tell their hearers , that they ought not to take things on trust , but impartially examine the reasons on all sides , and yet make it their business to hinder the preaching or printing of any thing but what makes for their own side ? the author of the perswasive to an ingenuous trial of opinions in religion saith , ( pag. . ) they that have a good cause , need no disingenuous arts ; they will not fright men from considering what their adversaries say , by denouncing damnation against them ; nor forbid them to read their books , but rather encourage them to do so , that they may see the difference between truth and error , between reason and sophistry , with their own eyes . this is the effect of a well-grounded confidence in truth ; and there is this sign of a good cause apparently discernable in the application of the clergy of this church both to their friends and enemies , they desire the one and the other to consider impartially what is said for us and against us : and whatsoever guides of a party do otherwise , they give just cause to those that follow them to examine their doctrines so much the more carefully , by how much they are more unwilling to have them examined . it 's bad sign , when men are loth to have their opinions seen in the day , but love darkness rather than light. whether this last does not agree to that church which endeavours to hinder any thing from being preached or printed that is not of their own side , as well as to the church of rome ; or with what conscience he could make such a panegyrick on that church , whose persecution in that very book he attempts to justify , let the reader judg . and it would be very diverting ( were it not on such a subject ) to observe the miserable shifts the clergy make to condemn the practice of the popish church , and at the same time to justify their own , which , as well as the papists , claims a legislative and coercive power in matters of meer religion . . but they say , the papists sorbid the people from reading the scripture , and thereby hinder them from judging for themselves . to which i answer : which is worse , to give men leave , by reading the scripture , to judg for themselves , and then use force to make them act contrary to their judgments , or to make them follow their guides with a blind implicit faith ? the one tends to make men ignorant and superstitious , the other down-right hypocrites and villains : if men were above force , they would neither blindly follow their pretended guides , nor act against their consciences . but however both papists and protestants use the means that naturally tend to effect these wicked ends. besides , i ask these protestant persecutors , whether they think the reading of the scripture alone , without hearing or reading some learned men of their party , sufficient to make them understand the controverted points ? if they own they ought to hear them , why not the opposite side ? if they were to hear neither , they would be more likely to form a true judgment , than to hear the studied and elaborate arguments on one side only . if the people are not to be trusted to hear all that can be said on all sides , for fear of taking a different opinion from the licensed guides , why shall they be more trusted with reading the scriptures , which they may apprehend in a sense different from that of their guides ? except you say , that as long as these alone have the interpreting of it , and have the force of the magistrate on their side , they may impose what opinion they please on the people . in short , did the priests of any protestant party act consistent with their own principles , and had a mind that the people should not blindly follow them , they would be so far from hindering them ( by restraining the liberty of the press and pulpit ) from examining the reasonableness of those opinions that are contrary to theirs , that they would make it their business to perswade them to it , and obtain an entire liberty for their adversaries to preach and print what they think good . . it was the protestant priests acting most apparently , and most shamefully inconsistent with themselves , that put a sudden stop to the reformation , which at first , like a mighty torrent , overturned all that opposed it : and here it is that the church of rome insults , and saith , that the principles of the protestants , by which they endeavour to justify their separation from her , are so absurd , that themselves are obliged to act contrary to them , and do the very same things they condemn in her . thus the persecution of the popish church has been kept in countenance by the protestants following her example , which otherwise would have appeared so odious , that all must have abhorred her for it , or else obliged her to grant that liberty which would infallibly ruin her . . as persecution was the chief cause of hindering the further spreading of the reformation , so to that we must impute that this was not more perfect and compleat . for tho the first reformers deserve very great commendation for what they did , yet it cannot be imagined , that being bred up in popish darkness and superstition , they should be able to discern , much less remove all those corruptions that had been so long a gathering , ( that could only be the work of time , or men inspired ) ; and therefore it 's no wonder there were so many different opinions amongst them at first . but had those that succeeded them , instead of paying a blind implicit submission to their decrees , and getting them established by penal laws , taken the same liberty in examining their opinions as the reformers did their predecessors , all differences , at least of any moment , would in some time have been composed ; which became impossible by the clergy , being obliged ( as they valued their subsistence ) to assert such opinions , right or wrong , as were established by law , and by persecution causing such animosities and prejudices amongst the different sects , that instead of examining one anothers opinions sincerely and impartially , they ran daily further into ignorance , superstition , narrowness and uncharitableness . chap. vi. of the method to destroy not only schisms and heresies , but hatred and uncharitableness amongst christians , notwithstanding their different opinions . but suppose few or none of the different opinions that are amongst protestants , had been composed by their acting consistent with their own principles ; yet there could not well be any divisions or schisms amongst them , which do wholly arise from that antiprotestant and impious practice in imposing on others our own uncertain and dubious comments as necessary terms of communion , and requiring people to profess them on pain of temporal or eternal punishment ; which is nothing less than making our own opinions of divine authority , and as necessary to salvation as the express words of the scripture ; which if men did only make use of in any controverted point in the publick forms of worship , they might be of the same communion for all their variety of opinions . and indeed nothing seems more absurd , than that instead of the expressions the infinite wisdom of god thought fit to make use of , men should be so zealous for imposing on their brethren their own conceits , especially of things they confess to be inconceivable , and their own explications of what they acknowledg to be inexplicable , and their own reason of what they own is above their reason , and their own meaning of what they confess their words cannot reach the meaning . but it 's no wonder that they that make themselves wiser than god in contriving methods , even opposite to those he requires , to make men embrace the faith , should think themselves better able to express that faith than god himself , and therefore condemn those as hereticks who declare their belief in the terms of truth , except also they will admit their expressions and terms , from which it 's by no means lawful to vary ; which shows that they put a greater value on them , than on the divine word . . to this they say , they oblige people to use their expressions in order to discover hereticks . but if god requires no more of a christian than that he believes the scripture , and endeavours to find out the true sense of it , and to live according to it ; he that does this can be in no fault , but is to all intents and purposes as safe in respect to his eternal happiness as if he were infallible , and consequently is far from being a schismatick or heretick . tho the imposers are not only schismaticks , by causing a needless separation , but hereticks by their own definition of heresy , which is erring in fundamentals , and erring obstinately against knowledg ; because when they have determined the holy scriptures to be the only foundation of faith , nevertheless they lay down certain propositions as fundamental that are not in the scripture ; which is declaring against their own principles , and destroying the very foundation they have laid : so that instead of finding out others to be hereticks , they make themselves such by requiring a divine faith to their own imagined deductions ; which how clear soever they seem to themselves to be drawn from scripture , appear quite contrary to others . if a king going a far journey , should give certain injunctions to his subjects , and appoint no judg to determine any dispute that should happen about interpreting them , but that every one according to the best of his skill should judg for himself , and not act until he was fully perswaded in his own mind ; would not they that do this , how much soever they were mistaken in interpreting his injunctions , have done all that he required ? and would not he be justly enraged at his return to see them , for doing this , beaten and abused by their fellow-subjects ? and what reason therefore can there be urged why christ should deal otherwise , at his return to judgment , with your persecuting heretick starters , and reward those good and faithful servants ( the supposed hereticks ) for following his directions , in judging of his will according to the best of their abilities ? . if the predestinarians and antipredestinarians , who condemn one anothers tenets as most impious , may , and ought , notwithstanding their different sentiments , to continue in the same church ; or if the orthodox can so infinitely differ in matters of faith , that one party of them shall worship but one infinite almighty being or spirit , and another three such , and yet be of the same communion , and agree in the same terms of human invention ; why may not all ( since it 's scarce possible any should differ more widely ) join together in the same communion , if nothing be mentioned in those matters wherein they differ , but in scripture-expressions , in which they all agree ? and is it not the imposers , that not only in the arminian controversy ( which has caused a schism in the protestant countries beyond sea ) but in all others , that are guilty of the separation ? for i do not see ( as that very honest and judicious man mr. hales , in his tract of schism , observes ) that opinionum varietas & opinantium unitas are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or that men of different opinions may not hold communion in sacris , or both go to the same church . why may not i go , if occasion requires , to an arian church , so there be no arianism expressed in their liturgy ? and were liturgies and publick forms of service so framed as they admitted no particular and private fancies , but contained those things in which all christians agree , schisms on opinions were utterly vanished . and let me add , that not only schisms or heresies , but all hatred , animosities , and uncharitableness would be destroyed : for then the clergy , since it would be their common interest to unite together , would maintain peace , love , and kindness amongst themselves , and preach the same to the people , who would never , were they but left to themselves , hate , or molest one another for meerly speculative opinions ( which make but little impression on them ) especially too , when they did not create any divisions or schisms amongst them ; nay , then all opinions of moment ( i mean those which men cannot neglect examining into without a fault ) would , being handled without prejudice or passion , quickly be rightly understood ; and those of little or no moment ( which are chiefly kept up by the hatred and animosities of the different sects , and the artifices of the priests ) soon fall to the ground . and this is the sense of the ablest champion that the protestant religion could ever boast of , the brave chillingworth , who tells us , ch. . n. . if men would be themselves , and be content that others should be , in the choice of their religion , the servants of god and not of men ; if instead of being zealous papists , earnest calvinists , rigid lutherans , &c. they would become themselves , and be content that others should be plain and honest christians ; if all men would believe the scripture , and freeing themselves from prejudice and passion , would sincerely endeavour to find the true sense of it , and live according to it , and require no more of others than to do so , not refusing their communion to those that do so , would so order their publick service of god , that all may , without scruple , or hypocrisy , or protestation against any part of it , join with them in it ; who does not see , that seeing all necessary truths are plainly and evidently set down in scripture , there would of necessity be amongst all men in all things necessary unity of opinion , and ( notwithstanding any other differences that are or could be ) unity of communion and charity , and mutual toleration ; by which means all schism and heresy would be banished the world , and those wretched contentions which now rend and tear in pieces , not the coat , but the members and bowels of christ , with mutual pride and tyranny , would speedily receive a most blessed catastrophe . so , chap. . n. . this presumptuous imposing of the senses of men upon the word of god , the special senses of men upon the general words of god , and laying them on mens consciences , under the equal penalty of death and damnation ; this vain conceit , that we can speak of the things of god , better than the words of god ; this deifying our own interpretations , and tyrannous enforcing them upon others ; this restraining the words of god from that latitude and generality , and the understanding of men from their liberty , where christ and his apostles left them , is and hath been the only fountain of all schisms of the church ; and that which makes them immortal , the common incendiary of christendom , ridente turca , nec dolente judaeo . take away these walls of separation , and all will quickly be one : take away this persecuting , burning , cursing , damning of men , for not subscribing to the words of men as the words of god ; require of christians only to believe christ , and to call no man master but him only : let those leave claiming infallibility , that have no title to it ; and let them that in their words disclaim it , disclaim it likewise in their actions . in a word , take away tyranny , which is the devil's instrument to support errors , superstitions , and impieties , in the several parts of the world , which could not otherwise long withstand the power of truth : i say , take away tyranny , and restore christians to the just and full liberty of captivating their understanding to scripture only ; and ( as rivers , when they have a free passage , run all to the ocean ) so it may well be hoped , by god's blessing , that universal liberty thus moderated , may quickly reduce christendom to truth and unity . but to add a greater authority , even that of the apostles themselves ; who tho they were to teach the people the christian faith before they baptized them into it ; nay , it 's impossible any should be of the christian church , before he knew the faith that must make him a christian ; yet they required no more of those that before believed the unity of god , to qualify them to be members of the church , than to believe jesus to be the christ , and that god has raised him from the dead , and the doctrine of repentance : and upon this belief which all christians profess , they constantly admitted both jews and gentiles into the church ; and consequently whilst this belief remains , they are not unqualified to be members of the church , except men have a right now-a-days to disown those for brethren and members of the church that the apostles owned as such . but they are indeed ( as mr. chillingworth observeth ) the greatest schismaticks , who make the way to heaven narrower , the yoke of christ heavier , the differences of faith greater than they were made at the beginning by christ and his apostles ; they talk of unity , and aim at tyranny , and will have peace with none but their slaves and vassals . . but it 's said ; a heretick , after two or three admonitions , is to be rejected , or ( more properly ) avoided ; therefore difference of opinions will hinder men from being of the same communion . by a heretick is not meant one that thrô the weakness of understanding is in an error , but an immoral man that acts against his conscience , for the apostle describes him as one that 's conscious of his crime , as being condemned of himself , on whom admonitions might have a good effect ; or if they should not be sufficient , yet that the trouble and disgrace of being shunned by his brethren , might reclaim him ; which methods could have no such effect , if his fault had been a meer error of the understanding : and heresy cannot but be a fault of the will , because it 's called a work of the flesh , and damnable , which a meer error of the understanding by no means is : and if the apostle had meant , that a simple erroneous person was to be avoided , he would have contradicted himself , since ( as it has been already proved ) he requires such a one to be born with . . but it 's said , we are bid ( rom. . . ) to mark and avoid those that cause divisions and offences . to which i answer , that bare differences of opinions do not cause them ; for what two men , even of the same communion , agree in all points of divinity ? no , it 's imposition that has been the unhappy occasion of all the offences , schisms , divisions , and heresies , that have confounded the church . besides , it 's plain , the apostle does not speak here of the meerly erroneous , because he says they are those that serve not the lord jesus christ , but their own belly ; and philip. . where he renews the same discourse , he describes them as enemies of the cross of christ , whose end is destruction , whose god is their belly , who mind earthly things . a character which generally agrees but too well with those that are for imposition , who thereby cause divisions and offences , contrary to the doctrine the apostle taught them . if schism be ( as it 's pretended ) so great a crime , that every one that is guilty of it is out of the ordinary way of salvation ; what can be more uncharitable and impious , than to make so many things even of an indifferent nature , necessary to church-communion , as tho it were on purpose to make schismaticks ? . in a word , to be shunned and avoided by every one as some pest or plague , can be no small punishment to so sociable a creature as man ; and therefore none ought to be so punished for an error of the understanding , an involuntary thing , and no fault at all , when also that punishment does not tend to convince him of his error , but to make him act against his conscience , and to cause uncharitableness , and most of those other pernicious consequences ( tho not in so high a degree ) that force does . in a word , none can forfeit his right to the civil converse and familiarity of his fellow creatures , so that they shall combine together to avoid him , but by his being a man of no conscience , or of such principles as engage him to break those common rules which tend to their mutual happiness , and thereby is become their common enemy . and if christians would not act against the light of nature in doing as they would not be done unto , they ought to give to all men ( how different soever their religion may be ) the same freedom of judging and acting according to their judgment as they would desire from them , and impose no more on them than they would be willing to suffer themselves were they in their power ; and require no more of their own people who have the same rule of faith , than to endeavour to find out the true meaning of it , and to live up to it ; and of their clergy , than their best diligence to discover the true sense of it , and their sincerity in instructing others in it . . without this freedom it 's morally impossible but that the clergy must be the chief promoters , not only of schisms and heresies , but of uncharitableness , envy , strife , fewds and factions ; since not only their interest , but the method of their education enclines them thereto . for men that are bred in the world , as they every day meet with variety of opinions , so they can with ease see others differ from them , and freely give them the same liberty they take themselves : on the contrary , they that are educated ( as the clergy are ) in cloisters or colleges , where they come not to examine the truth of such opinions as are established by law , but to profess them as a trade they are to get their living by , and consequently are all as to those matters of the same opinion , when they come into the world , and set up for teachers , they cannot bear so unusual a thing as the least opposition ; whereas were they left to themselves to examine things in their own minds , and after this to profess what they judg to be truth ; this would teach them patience , modesty , and humility , by showing how subject , not only themselves , but even the most celebrated are to be mistaken ; and that nothing discovers truth like a free and sincere examination ; and consequently they must abhor any restraint to the freedom of judging . that this different way of education has as different effects on the minds of men , is so very evident , that you will scarce find a thinking man but abhors all imposition , and every thing that tends to hinder freedom and liberty of judging . on the contrary , you shall scarce meet with one who has had a different method of education , whose reason generally lieth in authority , and his brains in his common-place book , that can bear with any opposition , but is for imposing upon others by force and violence . and this proud imperious persecuting spirit betrays it self in all their writings , where , without respect to christianity or good manners , they stick at no expressions , tho never so scurrilous and abusive , that will but serve to expose and vilify their adversaries . and which not a little adds to this sort of temper , is the arbitrary and despotical government in the places of their education ; for there is none so insolent and assuming , so apt to insult and domineer , when he has an opportunity , as he that has been bred in an absolute obedience , and a slavish compliance : and experience shows , that the longer people have lived in such places , the readier they are to fly into extravagance when they come abroad into the world ; and if they happen to influence the counsels of the magistrate , they seldom fail to press him on to illegal arbitrary practices , or to practise the same themselves in those places of power they are advanced to . and the chief reason that makes the regular clergy amongst the papists so much more for persecution and cruelty than the secular , is , because the government in their cloisters is more tyrannical and arbitrary than the others : therefore it behoves all government to take special care that those places where the youth receive their learning , should be , what they are usually called , places of free and ingenious education . but to return . can it be expected from men thus educated , that they should by their precepts and examples , perswade those of their own party to any charity and benignity for any other sect that looks on them ( as all sects do on each other ) either as schismaticks or hereticks , and endeavours to perswade all people to do the same ? which strikes not only at the power and jurisdiction , but even the maintenance the people bestow on these priests . it 's no wonder that in this case they possess the people with hatred and animosities against all dissenters , and are continually urging the magistrate to persecute them . but it would be as absurd for him to be governed by them , as it would have been in the town-clerk of ephesus to have been ruled by demetrius , and the rest of the silver-smiths in punishing paul , whose preaching spoiled their trade . . did the clergy but consider the ill effects that persecution has all along had on them , they would not be so zealous for it . as long as the emperors had the power in their own hands , there never was a council but what was an imperial machine , either for or against a trinity , or worshipping of images , &c. as it seemed good , not to the holy ghost , but to those emperors : and when the priests , by their cunning compliance in matters of faith , had by degrees advanced their own power above the emperors , and the bishop of rome , as their head , had the summoning of councils ; then they were meer papal engines , and in their synods voted and acted as they were influenced from the vatican . but if these things be too remote , the english history affords us fresher examples in the reigns of henry the th , edward the th , mary and elizabeth ; how easily and how smoothly did the clergy then change their articles of faith , and forms of worship , nay every thing , according to the inclinations of those kings and queens ? but we need not go so far back for examples ; let us but cast our eyes upon the present state of religion in every part of christendom , and we cannot but see that the opinions of the clergy ( as much as they pretend not to take things on trust ) are every where such as the terms of preferment ( appointed by the laws of each country ) require of them . are they not in italy , and in all the dominions of spain , zealous and thorow roman-catholicks ? in france catholicks , tho with reserve to the liberties of the gallican church , and the regalities ? or rather are they not whatever that absolute king will have them to be , as we see by their acting with the see of rome ? and are they not in one half of germany papists , in the other protestants ? in denmark and sweedland lutherans , in the alps calvinists , & c. ? this is impossible should so universally happen , if interest had not too great an influence over them , which makes them very unfit instruments to find out truth ; or if found , sincerely to discover it . and how can they be fit guides to others , who are not trusted to guide themselves , but , right or wrong , are obliged to assert such opinions , or else to starve ? which certainly destroys all manner of argument from their authority , since interested persons are of no credit , and therefore are every where repelled from giving their testimony . but , . the clergy had a quite different design by such imposition , viz. to keep the people in a blind obedience , and make them give an implicite faith to what they so unanimously agree in , whether con or transubstantiation , or any other such points ; which has had the designed effect : for , to speak the truth , the great fault of the laity has been in paying a servile and blind deference to the opinions of the clergy ; or , as mr. hales , in his tract of schism , speaking of the laity even of the second century , expresseth it , through sloth and blind obedience , they examined not the things that they were taught , but like beasts of burden , patiently couched down , and indifferently underwent whatever their superiors laid upon them . and thus much do the clergy of each sect object to the laity of those sects they differ with : and tho the laity are so much more numerous , and it 's their business , as well as the clergy's , to examine into matters of religion in order to know what they are to believe or practise ; yet if we look into history , we shall find that most , if not all , the errors , schisms , heresies , that have confounded the christian world , have had their origin and chief support from the clergy , and that the laity have been with much ado perverted ; and as they have held out longest against false and absurd opinions , so they have been always the first and most forward for a reformation . . it 's to the clergy's being every where obliged to defend the established opinions , we in a great measure owe that in the writings of controversial points the words there used are much more obscure , uncertain , and undetermined , than they are even in ordinary conversation , by which means they are enabled to talk eternally in opposing or defending any proposition , tho never so absurd ; for men may wrangle perpetually if they affect an obscurity and an uncertainty in the use of their words : and in truth , the whole learning of the schools is only disputing about words ; there a man may be furnished with several words , without ideas annexed to them ; and nothing so common as distinctions without any difference . but it had not been so intolerable , if this sort of jargon had been confined to things meerly speculative , and had not obscured the material truths of law and religion , nor invaded the concernments of human life and society , bringing confusion , disorder , and uncertainty into all affairs of moment . but i shall say no more on this point , only adding , that it was imposition , and the consequence of it , excommunication for matters of opinion , which first brought in uncharitableness , envy , strifes , fewds , factions amongst christians ; and after that , persecution not only heightened them , but was the occasion of the prodigious encrease of all other wickedness , by forcing men to break the ties and obligations of conscience : and it 's impossible but that all manner of immorality must abound whilst imposition prevails , which eats out the very heart and life of religion , and at the best makes men profess , as a matter of form , whatever opinions they find necessary for their worldly convenience . and this i think is sufficient to show the execrableness of it , especially in protestants , whose principles it 's so inconsistent with . chap. iv. that the good of the society obligeth the magistrate to hinder different professions of religion , examin'd . . and now i am at leisure to examine the only remaining pretence for the magistrate's using force in matters of meer religion , that without this power he would be destitute of the means to prevent tumults , disturbances , commotions , wars ; &c. which are the necessary consequences of a toleration . not to repeat what i have said , chap. . § . . or chapter the th , of the horrible mischief of persecution ; nor to mention that what is so directly contrary to the honour of god , and the good of souls ( as i have proved it to be ) can no wise contribute to the temporal good of mankind ; i say , if the professing of any religion that in whole or part is different from that established by law , will cause these dismal effects , then the protestant perswasion in popish countries , and the christian religion in those of the heathen , will produce them . but if persecutors cannot affirm this , it 's false to say that any religion , meerly because it 's different from that of the publick , tends to create disturbances ; therefore if they have any value for the true religion , they ought not to make use of such an argument for persecution , which will make that criminal , and subjects its professors to persecution . and if those wide and many differences that distinguish the christian from all other religions , will not cause any commotion in heathen countries ; why should these fewer and minuter differences that are among christians themselves , produce them in christian countries ? mens different opinions , in meer religious things , are no more apt to create those effects , than different opinions in philosophical matters , which certainly would equally cause disturbances , did men persecute one another about them ; and we see different opinions in religious matters do not , when men for all their different sentiments are permitted to continue in the same church ▪ it 's said , 't is not barely different opinions , but the schism and separate meetings caused by those opinions , that create disturbances . if schisms have such effects , they are in the fault that by imposition cause those schisms . yet there 's no reason why mens meeting at different places , with different forms and ways of worship , should sooner cause commotions or wars , than their meeting at different places with the same forms and ways of worship , did not temporal disadvantages attend one , and advantages the other . in a word , there are no reasons upon the account of any danger to the state , which forbid religious meetings that are open and free to all , and where men are so far from caballing , that they do not discourse together , but do more strongly hold against all meetings of any other sort . it 's said , those meetings are composed of persons of the same opinions ; but being of the same opinions ( except they are such as are prejudicial to the government , and those i do not defend ) cannot be of any ill consequence to the government . but this or any other argument that is drawn from what is common to all religious assemblies , will make the magistrates own church as dangerous as any other ; and it can be nothing but the different usage , that one is caressed , and the other persecuted , that makes one dangerous , and the other not . in a word ; there can be no reason drawn from the safety of the society , for the different sects of christians to condemn the religious assemblies of each other , if they teach nothing that 's destructive to the civil society , as seditious conventicles , and nurseries of rebellion , but what would have justified the heathen for treating all christian congregations as such . and if the differences in opinion , and number of sects amongst the heathens were far greater than those amongst the christians , and yet there was no commotion upon the account of religion , there can be no reason but that the christians , did they allow the same liberty , would be as free from any such mischief , because as long as each sect thinks it their duty to tolerate others , no quarrel can possibly happen upon the account of a toleration . it 's not therefore error ( as the bishop of sarum observes ) or mens following the dictates of their understandings , that has caused disturbances , and broke the peace and order of their civil government , and of the church ; but the spirit of imposing so commonly found in prevailing parties : the erroneous , as the stronger side think they may call them , would have been quiet if they had not been made to apprehend inquisitions , or other miseries , or ill usage upon the account of their opinions ; but when they have cause given them to fear bad treatment for a bare dissent in an article of faith , the natural and most just principle of self-preservation obligeth them to combine together for their necessary defence . and from hence have risen all those convulsions that have so violently shaken churches and kingdoms . . seeing this is evidently so , what can be more disingenuous , as well as wicked , than to ill use and oppress people , and thereby render them justly disaffected , and then make use of that as a pretence for the punishing them ? if men in such cases are disaffected , take away the cause of it by forbearing to use them ill ( which is a very easy and natural remedy ) and you take away all pretension of dissatisfaction . it destroys all assurance of human affairs to suppose men will run the risque of losing their lives , or being ruined by a civil war upon the account of religion , when they have all the freedom in religious matters they are capable of . for which unusual obligation , they will be ever studious to show a grateful fidelity , and endeavour by all services imaginable to lay up a stock of merit , to secure their future quiet ; and the different sects , as so many guardians of the publick peace , will be very watchful over one another , and do their utmost to discover and prevent the designs of any party whatever , that would be innovating or changing the form of government , because by such alteration they are likely to be losers , and they can hope for nothing better than what they already enjoy ; so that the more numerous the sects are , the safer the government is like to be . . but on the contrary , where they want this liberty , the publick peace will never be secure ; for common interest will oblige the persecuted sects ( tho never so contrary in their principles ) to combine together against their common enemy : and men when they fight for their religious as well as civil liberties , do it with more than ordinary resolution ; and there 's scarce any party so inconsiderable but what upon some emergency or other may endanger a government . therefore it 's evident , 't is the magistrates security , as well as duty , to grant an impartial inviolable liberty of conscience . the truth of what has been said , sufficiently appears by the different conduct of the dissenters , who ( tho widely differing from one another ) did in the time of persecution combine together for their just and necessary defence against their persecutors ; yet since they enjoy liberty of conscience , are most entirely loyal , hearty , and zealous for the government that grants it . and it 's visible to all that are not wilfully blind , that the quiet and peaceable behaviour of the sectaries , ( since each party worships god according as they think best , without endeavouring to molest or disturb their neighbours for doing the same ) destroys all the arguments against toleration upon the account of discord and disturbances ; and the longer the toleration endures , the more peaceable and inoffensive will the different sects be to one another ; because by degrees all those remains of animosities and hatred , that persecution did produce , will wear off . i believe there can be no instance where ever a general and impartial toleration did produce any disturbances and commotions , much less that there ever was any government overturned by an indifferency and impartiality to different sects ; but when that has happened , it has always been by a professed partiality for one side against the others : for the people will never be so wholly void of all humanity and pity , as to be pleased to see their relations , neighbours , and countreymen barbarously used , for serving god according to the dictates of their consciences . and there 's no person , where he has not a direct interest to the contrary ( as the body of the people have not ) but would wish that men had the choice of serving god as they think best , rather than that any one way ( even that which himself at present espouses ) should be forced on them by penal laws , because not only his own , but any of those magistrates he may chance to be subject to changing their opinions , ( neither of which is in his power to hinder ) must subject him to punishment ; beside , the thing in general being so prejudicial to the publick , must make them abhor it : therefore it 's madness to suppose they are fond of any persecuting laws , much less that they will create a civil war to obtain them ; but on the contrary , by a toleration , all colour and pretence is taken away from those that might be supposed to desire civil commotions ; and the more people are used to liberty of conscience , the greater and more irreconcileable will their dislike be of imposition , and consequently will the more heartily unite in a general abhorrence of popery as the grand promoter of it , and by no pretences whatever will be brought to endure the thoughts of popish kings and princes . . it may be urged , that tho the people of themselves will be content that others should have the same freedom of judging for themselves , and acting according to that judgment ; yet that the clergy , by the great influence they have over them , may engage them in commotions , &c. where men have liberty to examine what the priests teach , and dissent from them , if they think fit , they will never be able so far to impose on them , as to oblige them to act so directly contrary to their interest : it 's persecution that chiefly supports a blind implicit faith and obedience , but an entire liberty will put a necessity on the people ( their guides differing amongst themselves ) of judging and examining for themselves ; and the longer toleration continues , the more will they be freed from a blind implicit obedience : and in these days , where light and knowledg does so much aboud , it 's impossible they should be so grosly imposed on by the clergy , whose conduct , especially in points relating to their interests , have given them too just an occasion not to give a blind assent to what they affirm . and whoever does but consider with what zeal and fury the clergy are for persecuting men for a dissent in speculative points , or a matter of form , above what they are in matters of vice and immorality , nay , that they are for caressing even very wicked persons , if they appear but zealous for their interest , will quickly see it 's not a sense of religion that hurries them on , and consequently how little reason people have to be blindly guided by them in those points . besides , the magistrate may make the clergy be for liberty of conscience , by not suffering them to enjoy any preferment , except they will declare their abhorrence of force in matters meerly religious , and then they will be as much for liberty as now they are against it ; except we can suppose that they will be true to their interest , only when that is against the truth . . on the contrary ; let us suppose the most favourable that can happen to a persecuting magistrate , that he destroys all sects but his own . all that he would get by it , would be to make himself a property to his priests ; to whom then it would be too late to deny any thing , and who will not fail to advance such antichristian doctrines as shall exalt them above all that 's called god ; and make all the bigotted and superstitious ( which would then be the greatest part ) of their side : so that all the magistrate would get by persecuting his subjects , would be to enslave himself . and what other , i pray , was the effect of the christian kings and emperors persecuting their subjects , but to make themselves vassals to the pope the head , and to the rest of the clergy ? and had it not been for the toleration ( without which a reformation was impossible ) that was allowed the first protestants , they had been daily more and more enslaved ; so that it 's owing to those hereticks the popish magistrates are for extirpating , that the chains are filed off from their hands and necks , and that they no longer lie prostrate at the feet of an insolent priest , or are obliged to hold his bridle or stirrup , &c. and tho since the reformation , much of the extravagant pretences of the popish clergy are abated ; yet it 's observable , that in those places where persecution is highest , the magistrates are most subject to the power of the priests . and if the magistrates themselves are thus dealt with , what usage must the people have , who are indeed made most miserable and wretched slaves , as tho nature had intended them to be ( what the clergy there suppose they are ) asini ad portenda onera clericorum ? . it may be said , this will only happen in popish countries . but if persecution was the cause of these most pernicious effects in the more early times of christianity , when men were supposed to be better ; what reason is there to imagine , that in these latter and worser times , it will not have as bad if not worse effects ? and if the protestant clergy can perswade the magistrate to use force to hinder people from examining , or even knowing any doctrine but what they have a mind to impose on them , a thing so contrary to the light of nature , the gospel , and their own principles ; what is there that by their joint endeavours they could not , or would not introduce when it served to promote their interest ? nay , have not the protestant clergy been every jot as much , if not more zealous and industrious than the popish , to enslave the people , and promote arbitrary power , and have preached up absolute passive obedience even as much as faith in christ , as knowing that the only way to secure tyranny in the church , was first to get it established in the state ; because tyranny , by bringing the generality to poverty and slavery , must depress their minds , and debase their thoughts , and make them ready blindly to submit to the determinations of the clergy ? and tho some would be in better circumstances , yet what they enjoy would be so precarious , that they could not be secure without they comply with the religion of the prince ; who if he be a great bigot , ( as the clergy would do their utmost to make him so ) would be sure to use all the violence arbitrary power could give him to force men to profess the court religion : or if he should turn to the other extream , and instead of being superstitious , should have little or no regard for religion ; yet if he should sometime or other be troubled in conscience , ( as even the most vicious often are ) the clergy would be sure to perswade him , that the only way to expiate his former guilt , would be to promote the true religion , by depriving those that are not of it of their possessions , and investing the church ( that is , themselves ) with it . and to speak the truth , it 's to such that the clergy have been most obliged , either for destroying their opposers , or else for endowing them with vast riches . in a word ; it 's not meerly speculative matters , or forms , or ceremonies , wherein the papists differ from the protestants ; but those things ( which i have now mentioned , and wherein they agree ) that make popery and slavery inseparable : nay in church-matters , do not the protestant clergy ( even those that own the magistrate , under christ , to be , no causes or persons excepted , supream head or governour of the church ) claim , as well as the papists , a supream power , and assert themselves independent and absolute governours of the church ? and consequently , since there cannot be two supreams in the same matters , they can extend that power , as occasion serves , even further than the pope does , since they and not their subject the magistrate , will be judg of the extent of their own power . and have not the priests of the different parties , as occasion served , enlarged their pretences ? witness the kirk , which as it had an opportunity , exercised as great a power , and with as high a hand as the pope himself . and had laud and that party conquered , there 's no doubt but the people had been as much enslaved to them , as they are in other countries to the pope . in short , could any one party have extirpated by persecution the others , ( it being the division amongst the clergy , which of them should lord it over god's heritage , that has hindred each others attempts ) we had long before now been under as great a tyranny as the papists ; especially had they those revenues , which in a manner enabled the popish priests to effect what they had a mind to , and which our clergy think so much their due , that they look on it no less than sacrilege that they are hindred from enjoying them . but , . this is not all the mischief that attends forcing the people to a uniformity in all those points the priests get to be established as necessary to church-communion ; because where people are wise , knowing , and have any value for religion , they will be sure to employ their thoughts about it ; which if they do , it 's morally impossible that they should be of a mind in all those points : therefore such a uniformity is only practicable in a nation overrun with sottish ignorance and gross stupidity . but what can be more prejudicial to a nation , than want of knowledg , which is necessary to preserve a state , and encrease its strength and riches , by promoting all useful arts and trades , which we see by experience will not thrive but where there is liberty of conscience ? besides , where ignorance and superstition , the necessary consequence of persecution , prevails , it 's almost unavoidable but that men , either of themselves will run into , or else by designing persons be perswaded into several opinions prejudicial to the state , as amongst the papists so many holy-days are ; or , which is much more prejudicial , such prodigious numbers going into orders , ( by which the clergy are enabled to carry on the common interest , and therefore will every where design it ) which oppresseth the common-wealth with so many useless persons , who no-wise contribute to the support or the encrease of the riches of a country ; who also , considering how they must be maintained , will be more burdensome than a standing army of double the number . these , or other as prejudicial superstitions , are scarce possible to be avoided where persecution reigns . . but i need mention no other effects of persecution than the disorders , tumults , confusions , wars , desolations , which are the immediate and necessary consequences of it , and which have always happened in persecuting countries ; which to relate , would be to write a history of those countries , and which alone is sufficient to convince any one how fatal it is to human societies . it was persecution that so weakened and ruined the roman empire , that it became an easy prey to the barbarians : and it had done the same to the germans , had not the treaty of munster put some stop to it ; since which time the papists and protestants ( taught by woful experience ) are content to allow one another , in several places , not only their distinct congregations , but to meet in the very same churches ; and ( which is more to be wondered at ) the preferments of those churches are enjoyed by them alternately with the greatest quiet and peace imaginable . but if we have a mind to have a nearer prospect of the advantage of liberty of conscience , we need not look farther than the province of holland ; which tho a very small tract of land , labouring under a great many natural disadvantages , and in which , before a toleration was indulged , were only a few small scattered villages and huts of fishermen , is now crowded with vast numbers of people , filled with immense riches , and adorned with many stately and magnificent cities ; and all this in a manner owing to its receiving those saints and confessors , ( for so i must call them , whatever their opinions are ) who for their love to god , and zeal for his service , were forc'd to leave their country , and fled there for protection . and it 's to this ( the greatest and noblest charity ) that amsterdam ( in a peculiar manner the care of heaven ) ows its greatness . here especially 't is that the prophecy of esay seems to be fulfilled , that the wolf shall lie down with the lamb , and the leopard with the kid , &c. each sect striving to outvie one another in promoting the interest of the city , and in being charitable to those that want it ; no differences of opinions causing the least distrubance to the publick , or hindering the friendship of private persons ; tho it was otherwise , not only in this city , but in all places of the vnited provinces , when they had the unhappiness to be influenced by the clergy , and the weakness to call a synod on pretence of composing the arminian or quinquarticularian controversies : which , as it usually happens , only encreased them ; and which is worse , created not only animosities and rancour in the minds of men , but discontents , disorders , tumults , to almost the ruin of the common-wealth ; whilst in england , the government neither condemning or censuring either party , the contention had no mischievous effect , but of it self died away . had the nation acted as wisely with respect to those foolish controversies about ceremonies and other trifles , how much blood and treasure had it saved , and how happy had it been , tho now it has ( grown wiser by experience ) clearly perceived that nothing but liberty in those points could quiet and compose the minds of the people , or preserve the nation so much exhausted by persecution . . we need not look abroad for arguments for a toleration , since we never made a step towards it , but what has been of happy consequence to the nation ; witness the mighty advantages we gained by the liberty allowed the walloons , and other dissenters from the church established by law. what was it that made norwich , ( which in the beginning of queen elizabeth's reign was so desolate , that it was often debated in council , whether it should be demolished as being a receptacle of vagrant and idle persons , and therefore dangerous to the government ) become so very considerable for its riches and trade , but the granting liberty to the flemins ( whom d'alva's cruelty had forced to fly their countrey ) to settle there , and set up their manufacture of stuffs , as they did at colchester their bays , to the infinite advantage of the nation ? and there 's no reason why we may not expect greater advantages by those manufactures and trades the french refugees ( if well encouraged ) may set up with us . on the contrary , persecution has been as prejudicial to the nation , by driving not only the traders and trades themselves beyond seas , ( as it has happened with respect to those woollen manufactures wrought in sussex and essex , which those that by persecution were forced to leave their countrey , have set up in holland and other places , to the almost ruin of our trade of those woollen manufactures in the places within the sound ) but by hindring great numbers ( of which many instances can be given ) who had they liberty to exercise their religion , would have settled here to as great advantage to the nation as any it has permitted to inhabit here . but it would be endless to mention the great mischiefs persecution has caused , even in the memory of man , by either driving great numbers of our most useful people beyond seas , or by starving them , or causing them to perish in noisom jails , or by imprisoning or beggaring them , and thereby depriving them of the opportunity and means to carry on their trades . to give no other instance but in bristol , where , by reason of the persecution in ch. d's time , the customs of that place were diminished by almost three parts in four ; and it 's no wonder , for men will not then expose themselves by trading , but hide their heads to avoid persecution . and 't is owing to toleration , that our trade is in so good circumstances as it is . but nothing was so fatal to england as that unnatural war in king charles the st's reign , chiefly caused by imposition and persecution , fatal at last to the persecutors themselves . and the king after he had seen the great encourager and promoter of them brought to condign punishment , was himself publickly executed before that palace from whence he issued out his persecuting orders ; yet his son charles the second , to the unspeakable prejudice of the nation , took the same method of persecuting his protestant subjects , even those that were the chief instruments of his restauration ; which however ungrateful as well as unjust it was in him , yet in respect of several of them , it was but a just judgment , who , when it was in their own power , were themselves persecutors . and it 's more than probable , that that king ( who had no other design in causing the protestants to persecute one another , but that they might more easily become a prey to the papists ) was taken off by those very people whose interest by it he designed to promote . and as to the late king ( the chief promoter of persecution in his brother's time ) the nation was very sensible , for all his prevaricating , what a dreadful persecution he intended them , and therefore it 's not strange they would not trust him . . it 's no wonder that god brings down signal judgments on the heads of persecutors , since they , like the giants of old , make war against heaven it self , and endeavour to deprive god of his peculiar empire over conscience , which obligeth him ( if i may so say ) to assert his right by making examples of such bold and impious men. and examples of this nature are so frequent , that men begin to wonder at the long uninterrupted prosperity of the grand persecutor , the french king. but let it be considered , that persecution is much more odious in protestants in general , as being directly contrary to their principles , but with all the aggravating circumstances in these nations , if upon their being freed from the danger of popery , they should themselves practise the worst part of it , in persecuting those they judg to be hereticks , which is the very same thing they so loudly exclaim against in the french king. and let it be remembred , the supream power is every where the same , and that they have as much right in france to judg who are hereticks as any where else . therefore may it not be feared , that instead of the french king being made an example of god's anger , he may be made an instrument to punish others ? . the great advantage the nation has gained by the liberty that has been allowed , might , one would think , destroy all the remains of a persecuting spirit , since it is that which has preserved church and state ; else it had been impossible that the nation could have supported it self under such calamities as a war and a general persecution . and it 's the securing to the people their religious as well as their civil rights , that has made them with so much patience and contentedness undergo all hardships , and in the midst of them be so very zealous for the government . and for my part , i doubt not but it's owing to providence , that so signally declares it self for liberty of conscience , that in the course of this war we have had so many signal mercies and miraculous favours : and certainly we ought not to provoke god to repent of his mercies , by persecuting any sect whatever . . by a partial toleration we act inconsistent with our selves , for either the magistrate ought to punish , or ought not to punish those that err in matters meerly religious . if the first , why are there so many of the erroneous exempted even from the least punishment ? if the last , why are not all exempted ? where shall we find a rule to punish some and not others , nay with the same punishment , if the end of it be , as it 's pretended , to make men impartially consider ? i do not mention this so much upon the account of a small sect that 's still liable to the lash of the law , but for the sake of all sects in general ; because whilst that doctrine of using force upon the account of matters meerly religious , is not wholly abhorred , no sect can be safe . for , . if any one sect is to be punished upon a civil or religious account , it will involve all : for as to the first , the arguments from discord and disturbances will equally affect all that dissent in matters simply religious . and as to the last , there 's no reason to excuse schisms , and punish heresies ; since , as it 's owned by all , a schismatick cannot be a member of the church of christ , which is but one , and consequently he is out of the ordinary way of salvation ; and a heretick , nay an infidel can be but so ; and the antient church , as mr. dodwell has sufficiently proved , made no difference between a heretick , and a schismatick that pretended to justify his schism upon principles . . besides , the greater moment any point is of , the greater reason there is for liberty of conscience , because men ought not by punishment to be hindred from examining into it , which if they do sincerely , and should be mistaken ( as we are all fallible , very fallible men ) that mistake will never be imputed to them . and if all that are mistaken in these nice abstruse points of belief should be punished , it would involve the greatest part of the now orthodox clergy , who are so much divided amongst themselves in these points , that there 's no one party equal to all the rest , and yet there can be but one party in the right . and it ought to be observed , that the arguments any one party of the dissenters formerly urged for their own liberty , tho otherwise unanswerable , were easily evaded by saying , they would equally hold for allowing liberty to hereticks as well as them ; so that it 's evident , except persecution is wholly abhorred , any little accident or turn may hazard the liberty of any sect whatever . chap. viii . some few reasons for the dissenters not taking the sacramental test but in their own churches , and for a general naturalization . . before i conclude , i must first beg leave to add a word in behalf of all the dissenters in general , that hold no opinions destructive to the government , disown all foreign power , acknowledg the king to be rightful and lawful , and contribute equally to the support of the government , that they may be capable to enjoy all places of trust and profit : for how is it consistent with that justice and impartiality the government ought to have for all its subjects , to deprive any of them of the privileges of their countrey to which they are born , ( and for the discharge of which they have no ways incapacitated themselves ) for no other reason , but because their consciences will not permit them to receive the sacrament after the manner of the established church , which is a matter wholly foreign to civil power , and a dispute about a thing in it self indifferent ? and since the parliament has made them legal churches in other respects , why should not the receiving the sacrament in their own meetings qualify them as well as at any others ? the denying it them can only hinder the truly conscientious ( of which there never was a nation that had more need ) from supplying places of trust. and as this ( with humble submission ) is a very great hardship on them , so it is as great a prejudice to the publick , not only as it tends to discourage the loyalty and affection of those that have such marks of suspicion and disgrace fixed on them , but as it depriveth the government ( which at this time especially has need of the hearts and hands of all its subjects ) of the service of no small number of the most useful , who in spight of all the disadvantages they lie under , are most hearty and zealous for the government . had they sworn to bear true allegiance to the king , and yet looked on him as a usurper , or ( which is all one ) a king de facto , and had made use of such foolish equivocations , distinctions , reservations , ( as would even shame a jesuit ) to evade the force of their oaths , and under-hand act against the government , there might be some preten●● to exclude them from these advantages ; but otherwise there can be no reason for it , and those that will be disobliged by the granting it , are as much so already , as they well can be by the liberty that is given them . in short , no government can be well served that makes any thing a condition of obtaining an advantage but what evidently contributes to its establishment , or any thing a means of exclusion but what tends to its ruin : and as capacity and fidelity should be the only just titles to advance men , so incapacity and infidelity to debar or exclude them . but when the being of this or that sect is a step to preferment , they will be sure to prefer the interest of that sect before the publick ; and men will be more considered for their zeal to a party , than for their ability to serve their countrey . and when they shall be commended or condemned , favoured or opposed , not according to their merits , but as they are of this or that sect or party , it must fill all places , even the chief council of a nation , with confusion and faction , and make them influenced by indirect and sinister ends , instead of the publick good. but if all sects were equally and impartially dealt with , there would be no other than a noble emulation amongst them who should do most good to the publick , and be most serviceable to their king and countrey , and with respect to one another , a most laudable contention to outvie each other in all acts of charity and kindness , and all other good offices , and a pious strife who should be most exemplary in their lives and conversations , as the best way to support themselves , and gain credit and esteem to their party ; which must needs bring an unexpressible happiness to the nation , and restore again the golden age , by reviving amongst us the true spirit of christianity . by what has been said , i think i may easily conclude , that a universal , impartial , inviolable liberty of conscience , ( except where the principles of any sort of professors tend evidently to the prejudice of the community , and the ruin of the government ) is the true interest and great duty , both of governours and governed . and , if to this liberty a general naturalization was added , it could not fail of causing an infinite deal of good to the nation , and quickly repair the loss we have sustained , either by the war , or by persecutions : for the excellency of our constitution and laws ( not to be equalled in any other country ) and the happiness of the climate abounding with so many natural advantages , especially for trading , will tempt , not only great numbers of useful handicrafts-men , but also of merchants and trading people to settle here , and bring their effects with them ; by which means we should have no reason to doubt of our being masters of those trades we want , and improving those we have already , by making the manufactures either cheaper or better . and then , and not till then , we shall have a sufficient number of hands to carry on the fishing trade , and not want them any where else ; by all which means we should so encrease our seamen and shipping , that we could not fail of being masters at sea , tho all europe should combine against us . and since the success of a war does now in a manner wholly depend upon the riches of a nation ; and they that have most money , are almost certain to have the better of it ; the riches that must flow into the nation by this means , would enable them ( tho they stood alone ) to be a match for their most potent enemy , when perhaps otherwise we may sometime or other be in danger of being oppressed by him . and when a troublesome neighbour encreases in riches and strength , we are very much wanting to our selves , if we do not to our utmost endeavour to do the same . all that the government would suffer by a naturalization , would be to have not only the number of its subjects ( in which consists the riches and strength of a nation ) encreased , and them also under as strict an obligation of loyalty and duty as any of the native subjects , but its revenues also augmented , by not only more of the exciseable commodities being consumed , but by the vast encrease of trade , which must proportionably increase the customs . all the disadvantage the natives would receive by such an act , would be , that by a quick vent and consumption of the products of the country , the value of all home commodities would be raised , land and houses yield greater rents , and money by its encrease and quick circulation be plenty ; and those that have a mind to dispose of their estates , would ( the number of the chapmen being so much encreased ) sell to a much greater advantage ; and all the purchase-money the foreigners give , would be an additional treasure to the nation . but it requires a just treatise to show , ( what i have not as much as time to hint at here ) all the advantages we should receive by a naturalization act : therefore i shall only answer an objection of some , who tho they cannot but own that it would be advantageous to the nation , yet are against it , upon an apprehension it may be prejudicial to religion . but i think i have already proved , that no part of religion can be opposite to , or inconsistent with the good of societies ; but on the contary , the promoting the publick good is the chiefest part of it . and if to supply the wants of the poor and needy be the greatest duty , viz. of charity , and to visit the fatherless and widows , in order to relieve their necessities , be pure and undefiled religion , it must be so in the highest manner , to prevent peoples falling into want and poverty : and whatever contributes to this , ( especially when it tends to the support , not only of a few , but of a whole nation ) must be the duty of every one to promote that is a lover of his god , his king , and his country . and whatsoever is inconsistent with doing this , is so far from being a matter of religion , that it must be either sinful in it self , or by the circumstances that attend it become so , and therefore by no means is to be opposed to the good of a nation . and indeed nothing can be more strange , than to suppose god has commanded any thing inconsistent with the publick good : yet without this supposition , not only persecution , humane sacrifices , and absolute passive obedience , ( the most pernicious doctrines that can be ) but no other destructive ones could have prevailed . and it 's this monstrous absurdity that jacobites are guilty of , in thinking they are obliged to sacrifice the peace and happiness of a nation to the interest of a particular person . but i shall conclude , only adding , that i hope what i have said will not displease the magistrate , since i have no other intent , than to hinder him from committing one of the greatest sins humane nature is capable of , and which cannot but turn to his prejudice here , as well as hereafter . and as to the clergy , this cannot displease those that have what the bishop of sarum ( in his preface to lactantius ) calls lay pity , since i have endeavoured to show how much they are in the right in abhorring persecution , and how causlesly they are for that reason hated ( as generally they are ) by their brethren : and for those that are for persecution , the greatest kindness i could do them , was to represent , as fully as i could , in so short a discourse , the fatal tendency and consequence of that doctrine , that they may repent of it ; which if i any ways contribute to , i think my pains happily bestowed ; if not , i yet hope a reward from him who accepts the hearty sincere endeavour of those that do their best to promote peace and charity : which if any hinder or obstruct , it 's the duty of all good christians to pray that god would abate their pride , asswage their malice , and confound their devices ; that there may be glory to god on high , peace on earth , and good will towards men. a postscript concerning the letter to a convocation-man . i must beg the reader 's pardon for further trespassing on his patience , in making some remarks on a pamphlet entituled , a letter to a convocation-man ; i mean , as to that part of it which ( under the pretence of giving reasons for the sitting of a convocation ) rails at a toleration in matters simply religious , and endeavours to deprive men of the right of judging for themselves about religious doctrines and opinions . . the author of this letter ( p. . ) affirms , that the indifference of all religion is endeavoured to be established by the pleas for the justice and necessity of a vniversal unlimited toleration . which assertion , were it true , would make the king and parliament indifferent whether they were quakers , since they have given them a toleration : but it 's so far from being true , that there cannot well be a greater demonstration of mens not thinking all religions indifferent , than a desire to be tolerated in the profession of that they judg the best . did they suppose all religions equal , it would be indifferent to them whether there was a toleration , since they would be sure to avoid all persecution , by being of the magistrate's religion . . the author ( p. . ) saith , tho the clergy have no power of changing , adding , or diminishing the law of god , yet the applying this law to particular cases , explaining the doubts that may arise concerning it , deducing consequences from it in things not explicitly determined already by that law , and the enforcing submission and obedience to their determinations , are the proper objects of their power and jurisdiction , who are to act by ordinary and natural means , such as assembling , debating , and by majority of voices deciding . but here i must demand , who shall judg whether what the clergy thus determine , be either adding , changing , or diminishing the law of god ? if the priests , to be sure they will not say their determinations are so : but if i must judg , then i ought to reject their determinations , if i believe them not consonant to scripture ; but if i think them agreeable to it , then i must believe them ( not for the sake of their determinations , but ) because i judg them to be so ; and consequently i must be guided by my own reason in all things of religion . if by the doubts that may arise , be meant any thing that admits of dispute , there is scarce any thing so clear but what may , or does ; and if in all such cases i am obliged to submit to the determinations of the clergy , i may be forc'd to believe what i judg is either adding , changing , or diminishing the law of god , as it 's manifest all sects , by believing it to be of their own side , do judg their adversaries do add , &c. but if it be meant , that the clergy have a right to make me believe a thing whilst i doubt of the truth of it , that is impossible ; and so it is to change my mind , before i see reason for it . it may be said , tho it 's not in my power to believe as they will have me , yet i may do as they command , even whilst i doubt of the lawfulness of the action : but then to obey them , would be the ready way to damn my self ; for he that acts when he doubts , is damn'd . no law , whether of god or man , can scarce be of any use , without applying it to particular cases , and deducing consequences from it , and explaining doubts that arise : but if the laity must be determined by the priests in all such cases , they must become brutes , and renounce their reason , where they ought to make the most use of it . our author , i confess , says not that a man should rest in the determinations of the clergy in deducing consequences in things explicitly determined by the law of god : but what is meant by things explicitly determined , i do not well understand ; for tho words are explicit , yet the things implied in those words , are certainly implicit : and if the clergy can oblige men to follow ( right or wrong ) their determinations in deducing consequences in things implicitly determined by scripture , they may oblige men to add , change or diminish the law of god in most points . . the popish priests never carried their pretences higher than this author does ; they have not the impudence to assert , they can oblige people to believe contrary to the law of god ; but that for the sake of the church's peace , they have a right to determine those controversies that may arise among the faithful ; and when they have done so , none ought to begin to examine those points again . in a word , there is no medium between the protestant doctrine of every one having a right to judg for himself , and the popish one of being obliged to believe as the church does . but this author is much more absurd than the papists , in making truth and falshood to be decided , not by an infallible pope or council , whose decrees are to bind the catholick church , but by the casting voices of a fallible convocation in every nation ; which may in spain oblige the people to believe transubstantiation , in sweden consubstantiation , in england the real corporeal presence ; so that a man may be bound to change his sentiments with his habitation , and the difference of a degree or two may oblige him to opposite opinions . and yet , as absurd as this is , since the clergy are so infinitely divided amongst themselves , the laity must either do so , or else judg for themselves , if it were but to know which of the clergy were in the right . but , . the pamphleteer supposes this impossible , and ( pag. . where he speaks out ) he roundly tells the commons of england , that it 's a little too much to suppose countrey gentlemen , merchants , or lawyers , to be nicely skill'd in the languages of the bible , masters of all the learning of the fathers , or of the history of the primitive church , which they must in some measure be , who sit judges of religious doctrines and opinions , which ought to be left to their proper tribunal , a convocation . had people at the reformation been of this mind , we might still have groaned under the popish yoke ; for the majority of the clergy , not only in england , but every where else , were as averse to this reformation ( which may justly be called a lay one ) as the jewish priests were to that of christ and his apostles . if to be masters of all the learning of the fathers , be necessary to the judging of religious doctrines , it 's as necessary the laity should understand them , because the clergy are strangely divided amongst themselves about them , each sect pretending they are on their side ; which shows that either the clergy are not to be trusted with giving us the sense of those fathers , because they make them say any thing according as it serves their present interest ; or that the fathers talk forward and backward , contradict themselves as well as one another ; which if so , shows great disingenuity in the clergy not to own it : and if we may trust mr. chillingworth ( a man unsuspected of the least priestcraft ) he tells us , chap. . that he sees plainly , and that with his own eyes , that there are councils against councils , some fathers against others , the same fathers against themselves , a consent of fathers of one age against a consent of fathers of another age , the church of one age against the church of another age. . the apostles were so far from requiring the christians to give up their judgments to any number of fallible men , that they command them all to make use of their reason in judging of religion , commend those ( as the bereans ) that did so , and blame those that did not ; why have you not judged these things of your selves ? and if men were then obliged to try the spirits , because there were many false prophets gone out into the world , there is certainly much more reason to do so now . but having spoken fully to this point in ch. . par. . i shall only add , that it 's a rule authorised by common sense , not to consent to any thing till we are capable of judging of its truth ; nor can we , without renouncing our reason , suppose god will have us believe any thing without seeing good reason for it : and nothing can reflect more on the wisdom and goodness of god , than to suppose that he , who would have all men come to the knowledg of his will , should yet make it so obscure , that not one in a thousand is capable of knowing it , because it depends upon skill in fathers , criticks , church-history , &c. a man may therefore justly conclude , if there be any such doctrines pretended , ( as there are in most systems ) the impossibility of the peoples judging of them , alone demonstrates they come not from god ; who as he was able , so his goodness made him willing to express truth so clearly , that all who are not wilfully blind may understand it in order to practice ; and it would seem strange that god should chuse fishermen , and such simple persons , to preach a religion intelligible only to the learned and philosophers . there 's no need of running to fathers , criticks , &c. for he that will do the will of god , shall know ( as our saviour , john . saith ) of the doctrine whether it be of god ; that is , if it be such as tends to make me love , reverence and honour god , or is beneficial to man ; and a doctrine cannot shew it self to be of god any otherwise than as it has this mark and character stampt upon it . hence it is that god , heb. . speaking of the gospel-time and covenant , saith , i will put my laws into their minds , and write them in their hearts : and they shall not teach every man his neighbour , and every man his brother , saying , know the lord ; for all shall know me , from the least to the greatest . and to interpret this law ( which is written in our hearts , and which we cannot from the greatest to the least fail to discover , if we attend to our own minds ) by fathers , councils , &c. is to interpret a rule that 's clear and evident in it self , by what is most obscure and mysterious . if the gospel be hid from any , it 's not the poor , the babes , the simple , but the pretenders to vain philosophy , and science falsly so called , the wranglers and disputers of this world , who would fain be thought to be the wise and prudent ; and as it was their prejudices and prepossessions made them esteem the gospel the foolishness of preaching , so it afterward made some of them corrupt the foolishness of preaching with their wise unintelligible philosophy ; and their successors , by following the tradition of men , made void the commandments of god. the first reformers despised any authority but that of reason and scripture ; and had those that succeeded them followed their example , they had no doubt destroyed popery , whose chief support consists in human traditions , as fathers , councils , &c. . the subject of this book shows how little is to be relied on the authority of those men , on which they will have every thing to rely : for tho the light of nature , by placing man in such a helpless condition , that he cannot subsist without the assistance of others , does oblige all men ( except he that is orthodox to himself is al sufficient for himself ) to be most kind , loving and friendly one to another ; and agreeable to this , the scripture most passionately recommends the love of our neighbour , but most frequently and zealously when we differ from him ; and tho the observance of this command has at all times been absolutely necessary , the christians from the beginning being divided in their sentiments ; yet for all this , there never was a convocation of priests , but what notoriously broke this rule , by not only most uncharitably anathematizing and damning those that could not comply with their sentiments , but by obliging men to abstain from all commerce and converse with them , and ( as soon as the christians had the power of the sword ) to treat them most inhumanely and barbarously : and by degrees the clergy so intoxicated the people , that they were perswaded that this branch of the fundamental law of nature and the gospel , ( so absolutely necessary in this state of ignorance and darkness ) was one of the greatest crimes imaginable . the author of the letters concerning toleration , is ( if not absolutely the first ) the first that amongst us has ventured to assert the justice and necessity of a toleration in its due and full extent . an author that on more accounts than one , is to be esteemed a patron of the liberties of humane nature , and a guardian of the happiness and safety of civil societies , and who has by his writings been most serviceable to mankind , in enlightning their minds , and in improving their understandings , for which he must never expect forgiveness by men of the pamphleteer's principles . . but to return : tho our author supposes it no small crime ( p. . ) for the parliament to judg of matters of religion ; yet he grievously complains , that notwithstanding the urgency of the occasion , no relief has been effected that way ; and tho the commons have a standing committee for religion , nothing ( as i remember ) has since the revolution been done by them in behalf of it . but what can men in a legislative capacity do more for religion , than ( besides punishing vice and immorality ) to protect every one in worshipping god as they judg most agreeable to his will , and give them the best opportunity of informing themselves of his mind ? and have they not done this , by granting a toleration , and by refusing a bill for restraining the liberty of the press ? . in short ; when the clergy had corrupted the christian , as much as the heathen priests had natural religion , it pleased god , out of his great goodness , that the noble art of printing should be discovered , whereby men could with ease communicate their thoughts to the world ; and some free-spirited men ( who durst judg with their own understandings ) doing this , and copies of their works being dispersed , it caused many to perceive how miserably they had been imposed on by their spiritual guides , which ( as it may well be imagined ) strangely alarm'd the kingdom of darkness , of which i shall give but one instance . cardinal woolsey ( lord herb. hist. of h. . ) in a letter to the pope , tells him , that his holiness could not be ignorant what divers effects the new invention of printing had produced ; that it had brought in and restored books and learning , and had been the occasion of those sects and schisms that daily appear in the world , and chiefly in germany , where men begin to question the faith and tenets of the church ; that if this were suffered , the common people , besides other dangers , might come to believe there was not so much need of the clergy . the priests , to secure themselves from any harm from this new invention , did their utmost to hinder any thing from being printed but what was on their own side , and by that means to turn this dreadful engine on their enemies , which as far as it was quickly and steddily put in execution , had its desired effect in preserving of popery ; but in those places where ( by the connivance of the government , or otherwise ) this method was not strictly observed , the people threw off the popish yoke , and the generality of the clergy were forced to comply ; yet loth to forgo their beloved empire over the consciences of men , they quickly endeavoured to make the people pay the same obedience to their determinations as they formerly did to the romish clergy ; and as they made use of the same arguments and the very same method to enslave them , so they were no less zealous to hinder the liberty of the press ( which puts me in mind of what le clere observes at the latter end of the life of nazianzen , that tho theology is subject to revolutions , as well as empire , and has undergone considerable changes , yet that the humour of the divines is not much altered ; ) but the powers the clergy claimed to themselves being inconsistent with the principles of the reformation , and in england with the oath of supremacy , and that power the laws have invested the king with , there is nothing so contradictory as their pretended power , and that which they are forced to own does belong to the magistrate : so that our high church-men are not consistent with themselves , no not in one point , but ( what is worse ) assert such principles as make the reformation it self criminal ; and which must unavoidably oblige a man that acts agreeable to those principles , to return to the popish yoke , as shall be demonstrated in my next discourse . it was these principles that made the most judicious person the church could ever brag of , the famous chillingworth , return to the church of rome , and continue there a long time : but what his principles were upon leaving it , and how inconsistent with that of high church , may be learn'd by what i have quoted of him . and i could give an instance of one who in the late reign going into the world from the university , ( where he had a long time imbibed these notions of the power of the clergy ) and meeting with the romish priests , who then were very busy , they quickly show'd him the inconsistency of the reformation and the protestant religion with these powers ; which had that influence over him , as to cause him ( who did not then suspect the falseness of those notions owned by both churches ) to join with them , who are consistent with themselves in the powers they claim , until so many particular absurdities in their practice made him happily examine these notions ; which had like to have cost him dear , for refusing to join with them after candlemass , and receiving the sacrament the next opportunity , the easter after , in his college chappel , it exposed him to the malice and revenge of the popish priests , ( then in the height of their prosperity ) who of all men will the least spare a relapsed heretick . but why do i instance in particulars , since it 's these extravagant notions of the clergy's power the support the romish cause , and make thousands embrace that religion ; for men with scorn and contempt reject contradictory and inconsistent opinions . but of these things more fully in my next discourse , where i doubt not to demonstrate , as far as a thing of such a nature is capable , that the clergy are so far from having these powers by the law of god , that there is no power or jurisdiction whatever belongs to them by that law. but to return ; . i 'll demand of this author , should a convocation determine contrary to his judgment , ( which may easily enough be supposed , since he saith , p. . that there is no order , degree , or place amongst us , wholly free from the infection of undermining or overthrowing the catholick faith ) whether he could , or ( were it in his power ) would renounce his faith for the sake of the casting voice or voices in a convocation ? if he dares not say he will prostitute his belief at so vile a rate , why should he suppose others either should or would do so ? tho i believe he may assure himself that there 's none amongst those he calls infected , so little christians and protestants , but what think they ought to be able to give a better account and reason of their faith than the determination of a convocation now-a-day , especially when they know that not only particular but general councils , have constantly made their market of their faith , and always sold it to the fairest chapmen ; and that it was a meer accident that established the present orthodoxy ; theodosius being bred that way , and so resolved to force his subjects to be of the same sentiments , and his living a long time so as to survive most of the hereticks , was the cause that there were no more emperors to make the christian world become again arian : and the cruelty used to establish orthodoxy , would at the same rate have established mahometism : so that the mere authority of a convocation can no ways influence hereticks , who by being out of the church , show how little they value the authority of church-men . and for any power , by which they might be forced , he very honestly owns the church has none over them : for ( p. . ) you pretend not to meddle with those without , nor to exercise any act of jurisdiction over them , but only to frame rules and decisions that shall hold within your selves , and to govern and judg your own members . and the design of a convocation is , it seems , to censure some of the church , and make them retract their opinions : for , ( p. . ) as long as these books pass uncensured and unretracted , under the stile and name of men of great place and character in the church , the mischief which the authority they have yet left with some men may be able to do , is not sufficiently prevented , nor the scandal wiped off from our church and nation . but what can be more scandalous to the church and nation , than to force people to lie both to god and man , by making them retract those opinions they believe to be true ? and nothing can be more abominable than this constant practice of the clergy , in making men solemnly and publickly disown what in their hearts they still believe : and this is generally done without the least colour of convincing them , nay without giving them any new arguments , or any further time to consider ; and lest they should relapse , as they call it , that is , dare to be no longer hypocrites , they threaten them with greater punishments , and even death it self . so that if this be the business of a convocation , i know not a more compendious way of making men villains . i have been the longer insisting on this point , to show that the very end and reason that the author pretends for the sitting of a convocation , and the powers , he saith , belong to them of judging of religious doctrines for the people , and enforcing submission and obedience to their determinations concerning them , are antiprotestant and antichristian , and consequently not to be permitted in any protestant country . . it 's one of the most important duties incumbent on the clergy ( as i have shown , par. . chap. . ) to take care that differences of opinions ( which in this state of darkness and ignorance are unavoidable ) should not destroy love and charity , nor disturb the peace of the church , by erecting schisms and divisions : but the pious clergy , so far from doing this , have made the direct contrary their almost sole business , by imposing their own conceptions ( instead of the word of god ) on the people , and by industriously contriving such expressions as are the likeliest to create divisions , and then cursing , damning , persecuting , and ruining them for those divisions themselves were the sole cause of ; and this has been their constant practice in their synods and councils . and therefore it 's not at all strange that that great and good man , the late abp should say ( what , p. . of the letter , is objected to him ) that he never knew any good come from those sort of meetings : but he is not the only person has said it ; for gregory nazianzen ( epist. . ) has long ago said , ( when heresy was more universal than now it is ) that he was resolved to avoid all assemblies of bishops , because he never saw a synod that had any success , but what did rather encrease than lessen the evil ; without any exaggeration the spirit of dispute and ambition is so very great in them , that it cannot be expressed . and this was not spoke in a heat , or dropt carelesly from him , for he repeats it , not only in his th , st , d and th letters , but in his poetical pieces , p. . where he saith , he will never go to any synod , because there 's nothing to be heard there but geese and cranes , who fight without understanding one another : there one may see divisions , quarrels , and shameful things which were hid before , and are collected into one place with cruel men. and basilius ( in his epist. ) is of the same mind , in resolving carefully to avoid all assemblies of bishops , of whom he saith most severe things , even worse than nazianzen . it cannot be supposed that these good men ( and i might add , all that had any ingenuity amongst them ) would say so very shameful things of their brethren , were there not very great disorders amongst them : but i need not mention the opinions of particular persons , when the church-history sufficiently shews there can scarce be more scolding , wrangling , disorder and confusions in a bear-garden , than there has constantly been in those sort of meetings : so that one would be apt to think there was some ground for what the great episcopius saith in his institutes , that the bishops led on by fury , faction and madness , did not so much compose as huddle up creeds for the christian world. and considering the heats and animosities , as well as differences of opinions amongst the clergy , no better effect at present can be expected from a convocation , which instead of destroying , will in all likelihood encrease divisions , widen our breaches , heighten our animosities , and rend and tear the church , by excluding all those ( who are no contemptible number ) that could not agree with the sentiments of the prevailing party , and treating them ( according to usual custom ) as hereticks . and what thoughts ( prejudicial to the state as well as the church ) this disgrace , and the loss of their preferments , may inspire them with ; or what a ferment by their instigation it may cause in peoples minds , cannot well be imagined . the confusion was so great after the council of nice , that the good emperor begs of his bishops to vouchsafe him peaceable days and quiet nights , that he might continue his expedition against the infidels , and not be obliged to return to keep them in order . and in all probability , the consequence of a convocation would be a great interruption to the king 's prosecuting the war against the enemies of our religion and liberties , tho i hope our author has no such design in seeming so very zealous for a convocation ; yet who can think him in earnest when he supposeth ( pag. . ) the next age will not believe a religion revealed by heaven , except the convocation make such a declaration ? which is so far from being true , that nothing would more expose revealed religion than the heats and quarrels , and other irregularities that would happen in a convocation . if synods are so necessary to preserve the christian religion , how comes it that mahometism ( propagated at first but by a private man ) should in spight of frequent councils get in most places so much the better ; and that in others nothing but the name of the christian religion should be left , the councils having destroyed the essence of it , by introducing ignorance , superstition , uncharitableness , persecution , popery , and idolatry . and no considering man can doubt , that had convocations ever since the reformation , not only met , but debated of religious matters as they thought fit , as frequently as our author pretends it 's their right , the clergy long before now had assumed to themselves a papal power ; or if since the revolution only , a toleration as well as all other religious matters had been left to a convocation , which was to sit as frequently , and to debate matters as freely as the parliament does , but it would have caused such a ferment both in church and state as would have destroyed both : so that nothing has shown the prudence and wisdom of our protestant ancestors more than not allowing them those powers our author so zealously pleads for . . nothing more preserved the church in the late king's reign , than the dissenting gentry and nobility unanimously refusing to join with him in taking off the test and penal laws , for which the church-men were not wanting in words to express their grateful acknowledgment , and to promise them upon the first opportunity all the kindness imaginable ; which when it was in their power , and the convocation was desired to come to some accommodation with the dissenters , they thought ( notwithstanding their former obligations ) that faith was as little to be kept with schismaticks , as the council of constance did with hereticks : but this is not the worst . a great many , it 's to be feared , of our high church-men were so dissatisfied with the government 's depriving them of the power of persecuting their brethren , ( which is almost as great a grievance as to be persecuted themselves ) that they have ever since hated the government , and have endeavoured , as far as they durst , to subvert it ; tho they cannot but be sensible that at the same time they attempt the ruin both of church and state , and of themselves into the bargain . but where will not some mens spleen and revenge carry them ? and it 's plain , 't is for want of their beloved persecution they are thus prejudiced , for none were more zealous ( notwithstanding the oxford decree ) than these church-men to associate in defence of their legal rights , and for the security of the prince of orange's person , and did several other things more inconsistent with their former notions , than any they now pretend to scruple ; but none seems more inveterate than this author , who ( knowing nothing endears the king to the people more than his zeal for the protestant religion , and securing to them the quiet enjoyment of it with the daily hazard of his life ) has endeavoured to take off their affections , by maliciously insinuating as if his majesty were a person of no religion : for not to mention his hints and sly insinuations , as p. . that those that were against the sitting of a convocation , were enemies to all religion , and the professors of it ; and , p. . to this effect , as if men whispered that it was not the king's judgment and piety that inclined him to be present at the service of the church , and a great deal more to the same purpose ; he speaks out more plainly , p. . where he takes occasion , ( nothing to the purpose ) after he has said , as for his majesty's good will , we do not , i say we will not in the least doubt it , to add , tho some , who would be thought to understand his mind best , and to be most in his interests , are pleased in all companies to admire and celebrate a prince of no religion as the best of governours : which is more malicious , than if he had said it himself in direct terms , since it 's the likeliest way , not only to make it the more creditable by laying it at their door who pretend to know the king best , and to be most in his interest , and to make them as well as his majesty , be thought men of no religion , for not only once or twice , but in all companies admiring and celebrating a prince of no religion as the best of governours , but to make the king discharge his friends from any trust about him when he hears they suppose such dishonourable things of him , and to imploy his enemies , men of our author's principles : so that fenwick , it seems , is not the only person the party has put on this hellish contrivance of aspersing those that are most in the king's interest , knowing they have no way of doing their business like creating in his majesty a jealousy of his true friends . and our author , that he might not be thought to speak without book , endeavours to make the king guilty , not only of a breach of his declaration , but of his coronation-oath , in not causing the convocation to sit and act as frequently as he has done the parliament . it 's true , after this he saith , with his usual way of hypocrisy , p. . we are sure his sacred majesty did never oppose their sitting and acting . but how could he oppose it otherwise than by not calling them to sit and act , which our author says by his coronation-oath he is bound to do ? which brings me to his law-part , in which ( as i shall shew in a few words ) he is as much mistaken as in his divinity . . he asserts , first , that the convocation is the highest court of judicature , having jurisdiction in crimes ecclesiastical . secondly , that a convocation is not only to meet as often as the parliament , but has the same right to debate as freely of ecclesiastical matters , as the parliament has about temporals . thirdly , that a convocation is as necessary and essential to the church and constitution , and does bind all people in ecclesiasticals , as a parliament does in civils . as to the first : if a convocation be a court of judicature , they must have cognizance of original causes , or of appeals . if they had to do with any causes in the first instance , they would have a greater power than either house of parliament claims ; and our author dares not assert that a convocation has greater power belonging to it than a parliament . besides , by h. . none is to be cited out of his own diocess except in some few cases , whereof heresy is one , for which the arch-bishop of the province , and he only , can summon a man out of his own diocess ; by whom ( h. . ) causes were finally to be determined , except causes touching the king , his heirs and successors , for which there was an appeal to the prelats , abbots , and priors of the upper house , ( and this excepted case confirms the law in the non-excepted : ) and by a statute made the next year , ( c. . ) all manner of appeals , of what nature , condition or quality soever they be of , or what cause or matter soever they shall concern , shall be made according to h. . with this further proviso , that there lieth an appeal from the arch-bishop's courts to the king in chancery , from whence no further appeal is to be had or made . which cuts off all pretences from the convocation of having any jurisdiction now , whatever they had in the popish times . . as to the second ; whether a convocation is to be summoned as often as a parliament ; tho he has offered nothing that looks like a proof of it , yet that i shall not dispute with him at present , but i shall whether they have a right to confer about making any canons without a special licence from the king : which tho he asserts , he cannot bring one lawyer of his opinion , they being all against him , as is the constant practice of the clergy , as zealous as they are to maintain their privileges , who never since h. . attempted the making any canons without the king's licence first obtained under the broad-seal of england ; which our author supposes to be but a meer compliment , and a bare mark of respect : and he affirms , to say otherwise , is to wound the liberties of a parliament through those of a convocation . but is there no difference between the commons desiring , by the mouth of their speaker , liberty of speech ( that is , that the king would not be displeased with their freedom in speaking of those things they have a right to debate ) and a solemn licence under the broad-seal of england , to enable the convocation to confer about such or such particular points ? it 's ridiculous to suppose the broad-seal is used with so much formality for the sake of mere compliments , to convey nothing but a right the convocation had without it : the broad-seal is so necessary to enable the clergy to make canons , that all that is done without it is null and void ; and so would it be in respect of parliaments themselves , if they were to have such a licence to debate of any particular point , in order to make it a law. as for instance , by an act made h. . call'd poining's act , it 's provided , that all such bills as shall be offered to the parliament in ireland , shall be first transcribed hither under the great seal of that kingdom ; and having received approbation , shall be put under the broad-seal bere , and so offered to that parliament : and if a parliament be held contrary to this form , it shall be deemed null and void . and in scotland the parliament , until this revolution , could debate of nothing but what the lords of the articles had first agreed should be debated . the act of h. . ( which we say forbids the clergy to confer about making any canons without the king's licence first obtained ) was made at the petition of the clergy , and in the very words of that petition : and certainly they were good judges of the sense of their own petition , and how far they meant to restrain themselves . and we find that the clergy * being assembled in convocation not many years after , ed. . ( therefore several of them the same persons at whose petition the act was made ) do most humbly desire , that the king's licence for them may be obtained according to the effect of the said statutes , ( and ) authorising them to attempt , entreat and commune of such matters , and therein freely to give their consents , which otherwise they may not do upon pain and peril premised , that is , of being fined and imprisoned during the king 's will. and now we come to the act it self , which recites in the preamble the petition and submission of the clergy , wherein they promise , in verbo sacerdotii , that they never from henceforth would presume to attempt , alledg , claim , enact , &c. any new canons , constitutions , &c. unless the king's licence may be to them had , to make , &c. the same , and his majesty do give his most royal assent and authority in that behalf . and be it enacted according to the submission , &c. that the clergy shall not presume to attempt , &c. unless they have the king 's most royal assent and licence to make , &c. so that it 's evident the king's licence is antecedently necessary to their making , or even attempting ( which includes all conferring or debating in order to the making ) any new canons ; and that they are to be punished , unless they have the king's authority on that behalf . and none but our author can be so absurd as to think the king 's confirming the canons the convocation has made , is a licence to them to make , or attempt the making new ones : is the king 's signing an act a licence to the parliament to make a new one ? but the author's ingenuity in reciting this act , and his reasoning upon it , is much alike . . the author demands , why are the clergy called to a convocation , if when they come they are not to act ? the convocation was once a limb of parliament , and the writ they are now summoned by , is not much different from that of the commons ; and no doubt did then meet , were adjourned , prorogued , dissolved with the rest of the parliament ; and this continued till h. . when they lost all their parliamentary rights but of taxing themselves , for the doing of which they were still summoned according to the antient form ; and tho they have now lost that right too , and so the reason of summoning wholly ceaseth , yet the writs are issued out still after the same manner . it is not their being summoned by this writ that alone makes them a synod for ecclesiastical matters : for in the popish times they were always summoned with the rest of the parliament , yet they were not a synod , nor could not act as such without authority from the pope ; and instead of any such authority now , the king makes them a synod , and gives them power to enact canons by licence under the broad-seal : and this with submission i take to be the true state of the case . . as to the third , that a convocation is as essential and necessary to the church and constitution , and binds all people in ecclesiasticals , as a parliament does in temporals : i answer . if the clergy have another right to make canons besides the will of the legislative power , viz. a divine right , their canons would be valid without the king 's confirming them ; nor could an act of parliament abrogate or annul any of those canons made by a spiritual authority ; which is so far from depending on theirs , that the parliament it self is subject to them in those matters ; nor could they hinder them from sitting when , and as long as they had a mind to , because they that have a divine right to make ecclesiastical laws , must have the same right to sit in order to make them , which is but necessary to the making them : and in a word , they must be as absolute and independant in all things relating to ecclesiasticals , as the lay-state is in civils ; but there cannot be two independant or legislative powers about the same or different things , for then people would be obliged to obey contrary commands about the same things , or different commands at the same time , which is impossible ; but that power which can annul the commands of the other , must be able to command in all cases , and be alone supreme , because as great a power is required to take off as to lay on . if therefore the civil power can annul any ecclesiastical laws , the convocation can have no power but what is dependant on theirs , which they can abridg , curtail , or annul , as they think fit ; therefore it 's absurd to pretend that a convocation has the same rights or privileges , or is as essential to the constitution as a parliament , without whose authority no laws relating to church or state can be made . and a convocation is so far from being necessary to make laws for the church , that it 's usurping the rights of the english churches , or christian people of england , who are to be tied up by no laws about indifferent things ( which alone are subject to humane empire ) whether of a civil or ecclesiastical nature , but by their own consent given in parliament . and i know no law of christianity that deprives them of this right , which from the first spreading of the gospel here they have always claimed . there were no laws in the british and saxon times that concerned the whole church , but ( as our historians testify ) were made by the same power that made the temporal laws , and were put in execution by the same persons . the tearing the ecclesiastical power from the temporal was the cursed root of antichrist ; those powers were not distinct in england , nor in most nations , till the see of rome got the ascendant ; then , and not till then , did the clergy attempt to bind the laity by those laws they never consented to : but their design was never brought to perfection , for such was the genius of a government built upon this noble foundation , that no man ought to be bound by a law he does not consent to , that as muffled up in darkness and superstition as our ancestors were , yet that notion seemed to be so strongly engraven in their nature that nothing could deface it ; and accordingly we often find them protesting that this and the other thing does not bind them because done without their consent * ; that they would not be bound by any ordinances of the clergy without their assent ; that they would not subject themselves to the clergy no more than their ancestors had done : and h. . cap. . they tell the king , that besides acts of parliament , the people are bound by no other laws but what they have taken at their free liberty by their own consent to be used amongst them , and have bound themselves by long vse and custom to the observance of the same . no marvel if we find this people submitting to nothing in religion , but what was ordained by themselves . de majoribus omnes , was one of their fundamental constitutions before they came hither † , and so it has continued to this day ; and matters of religion were amongst their majora , even before they received christianity . and what neither the pagan nor popish priests could cheat or scare them from , our author will find a hard matter to harangue them out of . if no canon is valid that is contrary to the custom or law of this realm ; how can a canon oblige contrary to this most antient custom and fundamental part of the constitution of the peoples being obliged by no laws but of their own making ? what 's become of the boasted english liberty , if they may be excommunicated , and consequently imprisoned for contempt or disobedience to a law they never made ? this , i think , is sufficient to show the frivolousness of our author's reasons for making his majesty guilty of the breach of his coronation-oath , in denying those rights to the convocation he pretends are their due ; which i think i have proved to be contrary both to the law of god and the realm . i shall therefore conclude , praying that the god of patience would grant that no priests of this man's principles , in or out of convocation , may hinder men from being like-minded one to another , nor disturb the peace of church or state. finis . books sold by andrew bell , at the cross-keys and bible in cornhil . a new history of ecclesiastical writers : containing an account of the authors of the several books of the old and new testament ; and the lives and writings of the primitive fathers ; an abridgment and catalogue of all their works , &c. to which is added , a compendious history of the councils , &c. written in french by lewis ellies du pin , doctor of the sorbon . in seven volumes . fol. a detection of the court and state of england during the four last reigns , and the interregnum . consisting of private memoirs , &c. with observations and reflections : and an appendix , discovering the present state of the nation . wherein are many secrets never before made publick ; as also , a more impartial account of the civil wars in england , than has yet been given . by rog. coke , esq the third edition much corrected , with an alphabetical table . advice to the young ; or the reasonableness and advantages of an early conversion ; in three sermons on eccles. . . by joseph stennett . — his sermon at the funeral of mr. john belcher . scotland's sovereignty asserted . a dispute whether the k. of scots owes homage to the k. of england . written in latin by sir tho. craig . translated by geo. ridpath , with a preface against mr. rymer . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e answ. . notes for div a -e * d r. burnet 's hist. reform . part . col●ect . n. . * rot. parl. edw. . num. , . rot. parl. . edw. . art. . rot. parl. rich. . num. . † tacitus de moribus germanorum , c. . the verdict upon the dissenters plea, occasioned by their melius inquirendum to which is added a letter from geneva, to the assembly of divines, printed by his late majesties special command, with some notes upon the margent under his own royal and sacred hand : also a postscript touching the union of protestants. womock, laurence, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; 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(eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : or : b) the verdict upon the dissenters plea, occasioned by their melius inquirendum to which is added a letter from geneva, to the assembly of divines, printed by his late majesties special command, with some notes upon the margent under his own royal and sacred hand : also a postscript touching the union of protestants. womock, laurence, - . diodati, giovanni, - . answer sent to the ecclesiastical assembly at london by the reverend, noble, and learned man, john deodate. [ ], [ ], , , [ ] p. printed for robert clavel ..., london : . the copy of this work found on reel : is bound with: pierce, t. two letters containing a further justification of the church of england against the dissenters (wing p ). advertisement: p. [ ] at end. reproduction of originals in the union theological seminary library, new york. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng alsop, vincent, or - . -- melius inquirendum. goodman, john, or - . -- serious and compassionate inquiry into the causes of the present neglect and contempt of the protestant religion and church of england. dissenters, religious -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - andrew kuster sampled and proofread - andrew kuster text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the verdict upon the dissenters plea , occasioned by their melivs inqvirendvm . to which is added , a letter from geneva , to the assembly of divines . printed by his late majesties special command ; with some notes upon the margent , under his own royal and sacred hand . also a postscript touching the union of protestants . london , printed for robert clavel , at the peacock in st. paul 's church-yard , . the introduction to a person of honovr . assoon as a tedious distemper would give leave , i have returned you the inquisition , taken at your command , upon the melius inquirendum , which you sent me . to deliver my opinion freely , ( as you have conjur'd me ) the author seems to have very little of that tender conscience , which he pleads sor . if we may take our measures from him , who is a judge beyond exception , such as will strain at a gnat and swallow a camel ; scruple at a ceremony , and play the wanton with deadly sin ( schism and rebellion ; ) who with the scribes and pharisees of old will make no difficulty to sacrifice the fifth commandement , to their own superstitious phansies ; these are men of no conscience . matt. . . with chapter . , , . this author makes himself an advocate for the dissenting party ; and he manages their cause with as much artifice and advantage as his confidence , wit , or malice can afford . he takes upon him all shapes and insinuates himself by fables , metaphors and similitudes . he is often scurrilous , and sometimes worse . he drolls , quibbles , and makes sport for men of no religion ( the tribe into which he seems to be adopted , ) and this is the farce of his discourse , as if he were not serious , or the subject he treats of not worth a sober thought . this begets a vehement suspicion ; his design is not to satisfie the judicious , but to impose upon the weakness of the common reader , and by tickling his imagination to delude his understanding . to follow him , step by step , is no part of my concern ; let the compassionate enquirer ( who trod out the way for him ) look to that , if he thinks fit . but to make short work , he hath reduced all , the dissenters insist upon , to eleven sections . and ( if this their advocate understands their principles ) their whole cause and plea , being so concisely sum'd up , and comprised within the compass of less than four pages in octavo * , i shall attentively consider it , to give you and my self the better satissaction . and herein i shall neither cant , nor rail , nor rhetoricate ; but with such arms and weapons as the holy scriptures , the light of reason , and the writings of learned men , especially those of the protestant churches have provided . i shall presently approach the trenches of these profest and implacable adversaries of this most primitive and excellent church of england . melivs inqvirendvm , page , , , . what dissenters usually insist upon for their justification , i shall reduce to these heads . section . they plead , that some things are imposed upon their faith , tendered to subscription , as articles of faith , which are either false , or at best , they have not yet been so happy as to discover the truth of them . in art. . they are required to subscribe this doctrine , the church hath power to decree rites and ceremonies ; which clause of the article , as we fear , it has been by some indirect means shuffled into the article , it not being found in the authentick articles of edward . so it proves also , that the terms of communion have been enlarged since the first times of the reformation . p. they object also against the doctrine in the rubrick ; that it is certain from the word of god , that children baptized , and dying before the commission of actual sins , are undoubtedly saved . the scripture , the protestant churches , nor any sound reason , have yet given them any tolerable satisfaction of the truth of the doctrine about the opus operatum of sacraments . that doctrine laid down in the catechism , that children do perform faith and repentance by their sureties , is also as great a stumbling to our faith , and we cannot get over it . how the adult should believe and repent for minors ; or infants believe and repent by proxie . i omit many others . sect. . they plead , that they are not satisfied in the use of any mystical ceremonies in god's worship ; and particularly they judge the use of the cross in baptism to be sinful . a sacrament of divine institution , according to the definition of the church in her catechism , is an outward and visible sign of an inward and invisible grace , given to us , ordained by christ himself , as a means whereby we receive the same , and a pledge to assure us thereof . where we have , . the matter of a sacrament , an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace . . the author of a divine sacrament , christ himself . . the end of it , to be a means to convey the thing signified , and a pledge to assure us of it . hence it 's evident , that it 's simply impossible that any church should institute a divine sacrament ; because they cannot give it a causality to those graces it is instituted to signifie . nevertheless it 's possible for men to institute humane sacraments ; which shall have the matter of a sacrament , that is , an outward visible sign of an inward spiritual grace ; and they may pretend to ascribe an effect to it also , to stir up , to excite or increase grace and devotion : and yet because it wants the right efficient cause , it 's no lawful sacrament , though it be an humane sacrament . such an institution ( say they ) is the sign of the cross. an outward visible sign of an inward spiritual grace , ordained by men as a means to effect whatever man can work by his ordinance . here is the matter without divine signature , which is the thing they condemn it for . p. . sect. . they plead , that since communion with the church is suspended and denied , but upon such terms as take away christian liberty in part , and by consequence leave all the rest at mercy ; they dare not accept of communion upon those terms . there are some things , which in the general , god has left free and indifferent , to do or not do ; yet at some times , and in some cases it may be my great sin if i should do some of them ; as when it would wound the conscience , and destroy the soul of a weak christian. if now i shall engage my self to the church , that i will never omit such an indifferent thing ; and the soul of that weak christian should call to me to omit it , i have tied my hands by engagements , i cannot help him , though it would save his or a thousand souls out of hell , because i have given away my freedom to the church . p. . sect. . they plead , that they ought not to hazard their souls in one congregation , if they may more hopefully secure them in another ; for that their souls are their greatest concernment in this world , and the next . now , say they , there 's no question but men preach such as they print with publick allowance ; and therefore they ought to provide better for their souls elsewhere . especially they say , that the doctrine of justification , is articulus stantis , vel cadentis ecclesiae , an article with which the church falls or stands . this article , say they , in the parish where we live , is quite demolish'd by the doctrine of justification by works : we are bound therefore to provide for our safety and depart ; and when we are once out , we will advise upon another church , not which is tolerable , but which is most eligible , and in all things nearest the word . p. sect. . they plead , that there 's no obligation upon them to own the churches power to impose new terms of communion , unless the church can prove her power from christ. it 's not for them to disprove it ; it lies upon her to prove it , and to prove it substantially too , or else it will be hard to prove it their duty to own it . p. sect. . they say , the world is pestered with disputes about worship , about religion ; and therefore since all cannot be in the right , they are willing to go the safest way , and worship god according to his word : if the things disputed be lawful to be done , let them be so ; they are sure it is lawful to let them alone . and they think there 's no great hazard in keeping to scripture rule ; nor can believe that christ will send any to hell , because they did not worship god in an external mode , more neat and spruce them god commanded . p. sect. . they pretend , that the things impos'd are parts of worship , which none can create but god , nor will god accept of any but such as are of his own creating ; and whether they be integral or essential parts they do not know ; but in the worship of god they find them standing upon even ground with those that are certainly divine , or at least as high as man can lift them . p. sect. . they do not find , that god ever commanded the things imposed , either in general , in special , or their singulars : if god has commanded a duty to be done , the church must find a place to do it in . but though the church must find a place for the duty , a time for the duty , she may not find new duty for the time and place . p. sect. . they are the more cautious of all ceremonies , because the old church of england , in her homilies , serm. . of good works , tells us , that such hath been the corrupt inclination of man , superstitiously given to make new honouring of god of his own head , and then to have more affection and devotion to keep that , than to search out god's holy commandments , and do them . p. sect. . they say , they have read over all the books that have been written in justification of those things ; and they find their arguments so weak , their reasons so frivolous , that setting aside rhetorick and railing there 's nothing in them , but what had been either answered by others , or is contradicted by themselves , which hardens them in their errour , who are gone astray into the right way . p. sect. . they say , it 's their duty to endeavour a reformation according to the word , which if others will not they cannot help it , and hope they will not be angry with the willing . p. a fresh inquiry into the plea of the non-conformists , &c. sect . i. they plead that some things are imposed upon their faith , tendred to subscription as articles of faith , which are either false , or at least , they have not yet been so happy as to discover the truth of them . in article . they are required to subscribe this doctrine , [ the church hath power to decree rites and ceremonies . ] which clause of the article , as we fear it hath been by some indirect means shuffled into the article , ( it not being found in the authentick articles of edw. . ) so it proves also that the terms of communion have been enlarged since the first times of the reformation . the answer . the articles of the church of england are not imposed under oath , nor required to be received with a like affection and piety as the holy scriptures are ; nor to be believed as articles of faith , further then they can approve themselves to be contained in the holy scriptures : for the sixth of those articles declares thus ; [ holy scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation , so that whatsoever is not read therein , nor may be proved thereby , is not to be required of any man , that it should be believed as an article of the faith , or be thought requisite and necessary to salvation . the moderation of the church of england herein is evinced in another treatise , viz. the proselyte of rome called back , &c. p. . to the . there is no protestant church of any creditable denomination , more moderate and ingenious in this point then ours is . to keep them from sects and corruptions , and tie them up close to the doctrine of the augustan confession , we find it decreed among the lutherans , nemo quicunque sit , that no man whatsoever shall be admitted to any office or ministry , in their churches , schools , or otherwise ; nor shall any such be tolerated therein , unless they shall approve and receive such a body of doctrine ( as there mentioned ) and shall persevere therein , and neither by word nor deed oppose the same . and it is further decreed and established , that if any shall be but suspected as contradicting those doctrines , and the unanimous consent therein , if they refuse to be better instructed , and give no place to the fatherly admonitions of others ( their superiours ) they shall be removed from their offices or employments , or else their names shall be signified , that due execution ( of punishment ) may proceed against them as persons refractory and contumacious . and 't is their practice too , upon occasion , to make their ministers and professors to renounce such opinions as are declared to be erroneous , sub jurisjurandi sacramento , even under the sacrament of a solemn oath . and the calvinists are no less strict in this point . the proxies or deputies to be sent from the provinces to the national synod , ( as is expressed in the form of the letters written à synodo victoriacensi in brittain ) are tied to this solemn engagement , promittimus coram deo , &c. that is , we do promise before god , that we will submit our selves to all things which shall be agreed and decreed by your holy assembly , and will execute the same with all our power ; because we are persuaded that god presides over it , and that he will direct you by his holy spirit according to the rule of his word , into all truth and equity . here we have a promise of submission made before god , ( by a kind of implicit faith and blind obedience ) to the decrees of a synod of calvinists before the convention of it : and this is grounded upon a divine persuasion ( else with what confidence can they promise before god : ) that god would preside amongst them , and direct them into all truth and equity . the church of england requires no such subjection , as to the twentieth article ; they object first , against the substance , and secondly against the superfoetation of it since the time of edward vi. . that the church hath power to decree rites and ceremonies . this , they say , is false ; or at least a truth which hitherto they have not been able to discover . this is a bold charge against the church of england ; that she obtrudes a falshood to be subscribed . but doth it not argue an affected blindness in these dissenters , that they will not see the churches power ; or else a malicious obstinacy that they will not acknowledge it ? but to clear the article , it will not be amiss to declare what we mean by church , and what is intended by rites and ceremonies , which we assert the church hath power to decree and establish . as to rites and ceremonies * david rungius for the lutherans ) tells us , that the necessity of order and decency , which the apostle injoins ; doth require that there should be some ceremonies in the church ; and among the calvinists it is the peremptory assertion of zanchy * , that the church of god on earth , never did , or ever can want ceremonies , cum sine ceremoniis , &c. because the faithful can neither grow up into one body , nor perform any publick worship to almighty god , without them . hereupon * grotius has very well observed , that the christian church , as established by christ , and propagated by his apostles and their successors , is a body joined together , not onely in opinions as the sects of the philosophers : nor in rites and ceremonies only , as the pagans of old : nor in government onely , as the people of poland : sed in tribus his vinculis colligatum , but ( a body ) bound up together in all these three bonds of union . to this effect ⸫ others have observed , that there are two sorts of laws prescribed to the church of god ; some concern the very essence , life and substance of christianity , and the necessary acts ( and duties ) of faith , hope , and charity . and these are the primary , the principal and fundamental laws of christs kingdoms ; these are of christs own institution and appointment ; and for any church to pretend to a power herein is vsurpation . in reference to these laws and ordinances , the church hath but the office of an ark , to preserve and keep them ; and of a pillar , to support and declare them to the world. other laws are secondary and suppletory , having respect to the circumstances of those principal acts and duties , and tending to the more facile and commodious observation of them . these laws may be called positive and inservient for that reason ; and the whole legislative power of the church consists in making laws of this inferiour nature . to this purpose zanchy observes a twofold power given to the church , one definite and determined , quatenus scilicet determinata & praescripta habet mandata , ultra quae non licet progredi . inasmuch as it hath commands determined and prescribed , which it ought not to transgress . and such is the power which the church hath in preaching the word administring the sacraments , &c. the other power of the church is indefinite , and more ample ; whereby according to the circumstances of time and place , and as shall seem most expedient : she may appoint many things of their own nature indifferent , that may make for good order , decency , and edification . [ sub ceremoniarum nomine complecti quicquid externe geritur ad cultum divinum celebrandum , religionisve causa peragitur , saith * joan bunderius . under the name of ceremonies , is comprehended all that is outwardly acted in the celebration of gods worship , or performed for religion sake . but this definition takes in all gods external worship ; even the holy sacraments are ceremonies in this sense and notion : whereas the rites and ceremonies we treat of , have their scene in a lower sphere among things indifferent . such are , the time of publick worship , not onely as to the ordinary proportion , but likewise as to extraordinary occasions , for fasts and festivals . the persons , in their several stations and parts of the ministration : the place , with all the furniture of books , utensils , and ornaments thereto belonging : the forms of all particular offices and administrations : the ministerial habit ; and the gestures both of priest and people respectively in the performance of divine service : with all observances , actions , and circumstances of deportment ( pro hîc & nunc ) in religious assemblies , which may be judged more commodious to procure reverence and devotion , or to add solemnity to gods publick worship and service . these in the general , are called rites and ceremonies ; and as to the specification and particulars of them , they are in the churches power , and are left to the prudence and care of governours to determine and set in order . but we meet with complaints in many holy men and learned authors , that the church of god hath been made a theatre of ceremonies , many of which are unintelligible , and some of them opposite to the word of god ; and yet , in these , men place their righteousness and holiness ; and in these , consist the whole practice of their piety . these ceremonies are made matters of merit and of merchandice too ; remission of sins and other spiritual effects are attributed to them : they are made so essentially necessary , as if christ could not save us , nor be served at all , without them . the grievances which have afflicted godly minds upon this account do arise . . from the number and multiplicity of these ceremonies . . from their futility and lightness . . from the necessity and value that hath been put upon them . and lastly , from the use and end that hath been assigned them . and indeed they are not onely vain ( as our saviour calls them ) but pernitious , when through the high esteem men have for them , . they do depretiate gods word and ordinances . . when they incumber and justle ●ut gods substantial worship and service . . when men rely upon them in an expectancy of grace and life from them , as if the use of these could supply the want of reformation and amendment . that we may not split upon this rock , we have certain marks given us by the great apostle to steer our course and practice by ; and those marks are four . the ceremonies ordained , must be , . expedient . . decent . . significant . . prescribed by authority . . they must be expedient : and that requires two things : . that they be few and easie . . that they be safe and inoffensive . . they must be few and easie , because we are not under the law but under grace ; and christs yoke is easie , his burden light . whereupon he hath knit together the society of christian people [ novi populi ] by sacraments , in number few , in their observation easie , and in their significancy most excellent , saith s. augustine : who therefore towards the end of his . epist. complains , that the religion , which the mercy of god had made free , was so oppressed with servile burdens , through the presumption of men , that the condition of the jews was much more tolerable than that of christians : multitudo ceremoniarum suffocat potius opera spiritus ; a multitude of ceremonies doth rather choak the fruits of the spirit than refresh them , saith catharinus : for they are like the leaves upon a tree , quae si nimis densa sunt , succum fructibus suffu●antur , ut nequeant maturare ; if they be too thick , they steal away the juice from the fruit that it cannot ripen . many times by their multiplicity , and the burden of them , they do both obscure and hinder gods substantial worship , ritibus operosis distenti praecepta dei minus curare solent , saith grotius , such as are busied in troublesome rites and ceremonies , care so much the less for gods commands . but this objection lies not against the church of england , whose rites and ceremonies in a strict sense are but two or three ; and very easie . we must remember therefore , that religion is not therefore to be stript naked , because hypocritical professors will dote upon her outward ornaments , to the neglect of her substantial worship . to such we must say as our saviour did to the scribes and pharisees in a like case ; these things ought ye to have done , and not to leave the other undone . as these rites and ceremonies must be few and easie , so . they must be safe and inoffensive ; and the apostles rule of expediency was given more especially upon this account . the jews and gentiles respectively had their federal rites , characteristical and distinctive notes of their several religions . these were now ( upon the promulgation of the gospel ) become matters of indifferency in their own nature ; yet very inexpedient to be continued . for the use and practice of them had been apt to harden the jews and gentiles , and make them more obstinate in their several professions ; and to tempt christian converts either to judaize , or to think it innocent enough to conform to the custom and religion of the gentiles . it was a rite among the gentiles to eat of things offered to their idols in their idols temple , and thereby to testifie their communion with such idols . now though the apostle did account an idol nothing , and to eat of things offered to idols a matter of indifferency , yet he told them it was highly inexpedient for christians to use those rites ; for the practice would tempt others to think they did it in honour to the idol , that they were friends to that way of worship , that there was no harm in it , and that they had more gods than one ; and that the god , they profest especially to believe in , did not disallow , what they saw , these his pretended servants did not abhor : and so this practice might be apt to inthral some , and insnare others into idolatry . hereupon st. austin * resolves touching the conversion of pagans . si quaeritis , &c. if you inquire how pagans may be won , how inlightned and brought to salvation ; forsake their solemnities , forsake their trifling and superstitious ceremonies : that if they will not consent to our truth , they may be ashamed of their own falshood . zanchy hath very well observed , that though we are obliged by the law of nature to worship god with external worship , yet it is not lawful to worship him as the jews were commanded to worship him , because their sacred ceremonies were appointed for their discipline onely till christs coming ; so that he who should reduce ⸫ them again to practice , should deny christs coming , and renounce his christianity . so that in matter of rites and ceremonies in the practice of religion , that injunction of the apostle binds inviolably , give no offence to the jew , by hardening him in his persuasion ; nor to the gentile , by tempting him to play the jew ; nor to the church of god , by seeming to communicate in their worship , either with jew or gentile . . these rites and ceremonies must be decent . and for the rule of decency , the apostle directs us to have recourse to nature or common * custom . cor. ▪ , . this direction was of some necessity to confront the custom of the gentiles , who had rites in their religious worship , which were dishonest . they worshiped † devils , to whom they offered themselves for slaves , and their children for sacrifices . they had a god of turpitude * [ baal peor ] and many of their rites were such as are not to be named among christians , [ v. bonfrer . ad exod. . . especially ad numb . . . ] the men put on womens apparel , and the women such as used to be worn by men : and this was in honour of the deities they took upon them to worship † . this induced the apostle to call so earnestly for all things that are honest and decent , among believers , especially , at their religious assemblies , and in the performance of gods publick worship † . and that is the sum of his discourse , cor. . wherein saith bullinger * , there is nothing else delivered , quam publica quaedam honestas , ut decorem & modum in vestitu , totoque corporis habitu servemus , maxime in coetu ecclesiastico , in quem colligimur ut humiliemur , ut peccata nostra deploremus , ut verbum vitae & veritatis audiamus , utque puris precibus fide ac veritate ipsum numen demereamur : quibus rebus quam non conveniat luxus & superbia nemo est qui non videt . the apostles discourse , saith he , is of publick honesty , that we should observe a decorum in our vests , and the whole disposition of the body , and especially in church assemblies where we meet together , that we may be humbled , that we may bewail our sins , that we may hear the word of life , and by pure devotion in faith and verity , win the favour of god. and there is no man but sees that pride , luxury , and all undecencies are very opposite to that effect . but . decency implies more then common * honesty . the rites we use in gods worship must be grave and solemn , suitable as well to the majesty we adore , as to the offices we perform in his service . . david and solomon his son , have given us an instance as to the place of gods worship . when his people were in the briars god was well content to dwell in the † bush : but when they were setled in peace and a flourishing prosperity , then a stately temple was to be prepared for his solemn and publick worship ; the house which i build must be great , wonderful , and exceeding magnifical . and why ? for great is our god above all gods. hereupon it follows with great reason , god is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints : and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him , psal. . . wherefore he urgeth , give unto the lord the glory due unto his name : worship the lord in the beauty of holiness , psal. . . and this occasions the church to make that invitation in our entrance upon our publick service , o come let us worship and fall down and kneel before the lord our maker , psal. . . . there should be some congruitie in the external rites of our worship , to testifie the inward reverence and affection we have for the god whom we serve ; and also a congruity and suitableness to the duties which we are to perform ; a worthiness in all other solemn addresses , as well as in receiving the holy sacrament of our lords blessed body and bloud . his condescention to be incarnate hath not depretiated his majesty , nor lessened his greatness ; but heightned our obligation to a greater duty and observance . upon these clearer revelations which we have received , our worship indeed should be more spiritual , but not at all the less solemn or celebrious . the rites and ceremonies with her external worship , s. augustin terms the vesture of the church . and she should be clothed as becomes the kings daughter , and the spouse of christ. she may be all glorious within , and yet have her clothing of wrought gold. upon the coming of the empire into the church , there is promised such a glorious state and face of things , as is resembled to a new heaven , and a new earth ; and when the kings of the earth should bring their glory and honour into it , it was also promised that the church should be prepared as a bride adorned for her husband . hic ea cum novo cultu procedit , latè conspi●na , & fulgore suo hostibus aciem oculorum praestringens , saith grotius , so conspicuous in her worship and the beauty of holiness , that her splendor should dazle the eyes of her adversaries . in short , when we approach gods presence we must remember we are not in an earthly court , but in a holy temple . all our actions therefore , and our deportment should not be light , ludicrous , or histrionical , but grave , serious , and reverent ; not such as befits a stage , but such as becomes the altar . and care must be taken that the splendor of external forms may not detain the mind , not eclipse and lessen that inward and spiritual worship , which they are designed to promote and heighten . . these rites must be significant ; if they be dumb , idle , and insignificant , they are not onely useless , but nugatory and ridiculous . certum est ceremonias omnes corruptas esse & noxias , nisi per eas homines ad christum dirigantur , saith calvin , it is certain that all ceremonies are corrupt and hurtful , unless they direct men unto christ. if they be not significant they cannot reach the end of their institution , which is gods glory , and the churches edification . that they may make for gods glory , they must not be against his word ; for his word is his will , and what is done against his will is done to his dishonour . these rites therefore must in their use be inservient to the moral law , and be as helps in the nature of objects to promote our spiritual duty . it is therefore a great mistake , that because they are reckoned among things indifferent , therefore they are but like chips in porridge . when we call them indifferent , we do not mean , that they are neither good nor bad in any sense : but that they are betwixt commands , and prohibitions : 't is no sin to omit , nor bounden duty to perform or use them ; yet such things they are , as by a prudent use , may be very profitable and of good advantage . these rites and ceremonies were invented , saith p. martyr , partly that we might transact divine matters with the greater decency , partly that they might be signs , whereby we might manifest and profess the inward piety of our minds , et aliquam eruditionem divinarum rerum per sensus acciperemus , and by our very senses receive some kind of instruction in divine matters ; and that learned author saith further , that ceremonies are the more laudable , si sint instar concionum ; if they be like sermons to put us in mind of our duty . that learned protestant was far from condemning significant and teaching ceremonies ; for this was it that all rites and ceremonies in the church should aim at . why of old , did they rent their cloaths , but to shew their indignation ? why did they put on sackcloath and ashes , but to express their humiliation , and their sorrow ? why did james , cephas , and john give paul and barnabas the right hand of fellowship , but to be a sign and evidence of their concord ? did not the holy kiss , and the feasts of love among the primitive christians , put them in mind of that accord and charity , that ought to be betwixt them ? by a threefold dipping or sprinkling of the baptized , they profest their faith in the blessed trinity ; and by standing at their prayers betwixt easter and whitsontide , they did assert the article of the resurrection . and why did st. paul give order , that men should be uncovered , and the women cover'd in the place and at the time of god's publick worship ; but that the very rite and ceremony might proclaim the modesty of the one , and the reverence of the other ? so that if we look upon these rites and ceremonies , as the wisdom of god and his holy church would have us , this is the end of their appointment and observation , to awaken the senses , to whet the memory , to fix the understanding , to inflame the affections , to encourage and exalt devotion , and make it ( according to the occasion ) either more retir'd and severe , or more exultant and festival ; as st. austin says of the lord's nativity , that upon the annual revolution of it , it ought festâ devotione significari ; to be celebrated with a festival devotion . . these rites and ceremonies must be prescrib'd ; some rites and ceremonies are suggested by natural religion , and that makes them so spontaneous and familiar , that we are apt , upon all occasions , to practice them , without any other authority or monitor , besides the light of nature ; such are the lifting up of the hands and eyes to heaven , when we stand in need of help or blessing . there is a sursum corda imply'd in all these natural and arbitrary gestures . but in other matters , if every man should be left to do what is right in his own eyes , we should have no publick worship † , no solemn assembly for it ; some would be for the ninth , some for the tenth , some for the twelfth hour : some for the field , some for the barn , some for the tabernacle ; one would sit , another stand , another loll ; one would be mute , and another vent himself in an unknown tongue , or in a canting and unintelligible language ; and in this tumult and distraction of parties , we should become barbarians to one another , and seem to worship a god of confusion , and not of peace and order . to prevent which , all the parts of god's worship are to be perform'd in a due and commodious order and method ; and to this effect there must be a standing rule , a just authority , and a due appointment ; * the order must first be duely made , and then carefully observed . . for this cause left i thee in crete ( saith st. paul to titus ) that thou shouldst set in order the things that are wanting . the foundations were laid , and the men instructed in all the articles , which concern'd the sum of salvation ; what concern'd , the government , the order and decorum of the church , these things were yet wanting : and great care was to be taken lest these cretians should forget the truth they had been taught , or suffer themselves to be drawn from it by perverse and wicked teachers ; therefore to supply what was requisite to the conservation , external discipline , and ornament of the church of crete , titus was left there and impower'd by the great apostle . such orders we find made among the corinthians , cor. . . . . and among the colossians , col. . . and when such orders were made , the apostle was very strict to have them observed , thess. . , . let all things be done decently , and according to order . cor. . ult . * he had scattered some notions about rites aud ceremonies in the former part of his epistle ; but here he collects all into one short sum : he does establish an order * to avoid confusion and preserve a decorum in god's publick worship and service ; and this , mr. calvin † makes the rule , ad quam omnia quae ad externam politiam spectant , exigere convenit ; which is to measure all things that belong to the outward polity and administration of the church . the power to decree and make such orders is lodged in the hands of such as are in authority . the bishops , who are called stewards and rulers , who have the keys of christ's kingdom intrusted to them , a power of jurisdiction both directive and coercive . this power we find exercised by single persons , and persons convened in councils whose authority is of greater extent and veneration . the rest will i set in order when i come , saith st. paul , cor. . ult . from whence grotius does very well infer , that the apostles had right and authority to appoint such things as served for good order , the liturgy of the church , and the ministery about holy things . haec est origo canonum , qui dicuntur apostolici ; here , saith he , is the original of those canons , which are called the apostles , which tho' not ( all ) written , yet were brought into use by them . and we see st. paul invested titus with the like power ; for this cause left i thee in crete , that thou shouldst set in order the things that are wanting . this charge the apostle gives , that no man might think titus undertook any thing of his own head , or the desire of vain glory † ; but according to the mind , and at the command of the apostle , saith crocius . but it may be objected , that the apostles and apostolick men were inspired of the holy ghost , and did act by revelation * . to this i answer , if they had done all by immediate inspiration , there had been no need of ocular inspection : but st. paul did not only receive information touching the state of particular churches ; but he comes to see their temper , and observe their wants , and what will be most convenient for their present condition , before he offers to establish orders to regulate their practice ( cor. . the last ) the rest will i set in order when i come * . but if he had made orders by revelation , he might have done it at a distance . that the apostles and revelations is out of question . and that they took pains to search the scriptures , and had been instructed in them by christ himself , cannot be denied . 't is certain also , that after such instruction and search of scriptures , as wise men , they knew how to use their reason better than others of their quality . hereupon when they taught , ( being endued with more than a vulgar stock of grace and divine assistance ) they propounded , not only those revelations which they had received ; but also whatever they had attain'd to under the discipline of christ , and by a continual search of scripture , and the prudent use of reason . and so in a different respect , they may be call'd prophets and divine doctors . that title was due to them as they had their prophetical revelations : this as they confirm'd their doctrine after an infallible manner , both by a divine assistance above the vulgar rate , and by holy scripture , and their own reason * . but that st. paul did not order all things by immediate inspiration , is evident from his own text , cor. . * . and herein mr. calvin † makes him an example of a faithful teacher , fidelis hîc veracem significat , qui non tantum pio zelo agit quod agit , sed etiam scientiâ praeditus est , & purè & fideliter doceat ; such a one as is a man of truth , who acts , not only out of a pious zeal , but out of a pure and stedfast knowledge . neque enim in doctore sufficit bonus animus , nisi adfit prudentia & veri cognitio ; for a good meaning is not sufficient in a teacher , unless he be endued with wisdom and the knowledge of the truth . it will be a very hard matter to prove that titus ( who had authority to make orders in the church ) did act by inspiration : the whole epistle which st. paul wrote to him ( being a kind of ritual , or system of canons for his direction in the management of his episcopal office ) speaks otherwise . and yet if we speak of a more general assistance of the holy ghost , i doubt not , but the bishops and prelates of the church , when they weigh and establish their decrees and canons , according to the rule of god's word , have a fair title to it , from the promise of our saviour , mat. . , loe i am with you always to the end of the world . this power is essential to the church , and inherent in the governours thereof , who did exercise the same when there was never a christian magistrate in the world . 't is true god was pleased to supply the want of such civil administrations by a miraculous assistance * ; for such as were delivered up unto satan by the censures of the church : he had power grievously to afflict them , and many times did torment them bodily † . how long this miraculous assistance lasted ; or whether it be in any measure in the greek church ( now under persecution ) as some affirm * , i shall not take upon me to determine . but this i am sure of , christ did not intend to leave his church always exposed , and like an orphan ; for he has promised her , thou shalt suck the breast of kings ( isa. . . ) that is , ( v. . ) kings shall minister unto thee . and to the same purpose , ( isa. . . ) kings shall be thy nursing fathers , and their queens thy nursing mothers ; which signifies ( saith mr. calvin ) their ministery and obsequiousness to protect and succour the church of god : vnde observandum est , &c. whence we may observe , saith he , that besides the common profession of the faith , there is required of princes something more : because god gives them power and authority to protect the church , and to advance god's glory . this indeed concerns all men : but for kings , the greater their power is , the more they are obliged to lay out themselves [ for the interest of the church ] and the more carefully to regard it . vnde videmus , saith he , quàm alieni sunt à regno christi , &c. hence we may see , how repugnant they are to the kingdom of christ , who would take away the authority and power of kings [ in church affairs ] that they may transfer it upon themselves . but here we are to observe , that the power of kings in ecclesiastical matters , is not privative but cumulative , not design'd , or intended by almighty god , to infringe or weaken the authority of the church ; but to fortifie and assist it . to this purpose the professors of leyden tell us , it is the duty of the prince or magistrate , to settle the worship of god according to his ordinance by the ecclesiastical ministery ; and when it is setled , to preserve it intire and pure , per judicia ecclesiastica , and when corrupt or depraved , to reform it , by the advice and judgment of ecclesiastical officers , and as much as in him lyes , to prevent and suppress all seducers and false teachers , that would hinder the practice and progress of true religion . in hoc enim reges sicut eis divinitùs praecipitur , deo serviunt , in quantum reges sunt , si in suo regno bona jubeant , mala prohibeant : non solum quae pertinent ad humanam societatem , verumetiam quae ad divinam religionem : herein kings serve god according to his command , when they enjoyn what is good , and forbid what is evil ; not only in things relating to humane society , but in matters of religion . and this is all the accompt needful to be given to that inquiry , what we mean by the church , in this article . that the church hath a power to decree and settle rites and ceremonies to support her own government and administrations ; and to promote the publick and solemn worship of god , may be proved irrefragably out of the premisses . . what things are needful or expedient to be decreed , appointed and settled in the church to support her government and administrations , and to promote god's publick and solemn worship , those things the church hath a power to appoint , decree , and settle ; otherwise christ hath not been faithful in his house , is deficient in things expedient and necessary , and has not provided for the well-ordering of his church and kingdom . but some rites and ceremonies are expedient and needful to be decreed and settled in the church , to support her government and administrations , and to promote god's publick and solemn worship . this has been proved already , by reason and authority in the former part of this disquisition . i shall add but one or two authorities more ; the first shall be mr. calvin's , who delivers himself fully in the point ; hoc primum habeamus , saith he , let us lay down this for a rule , that if in every society of men we see some government necessary to preserve the common peace and concord : if in the performance of all matters , some rite or other is in force , which it concerns the publick honesty , and humanity it self not to reject : that is more especially to be observed in the churches of god , which being best supported by the well-composed constitution of all things [ therein administred ] when they are without concord , they fall to nothing : wherefore if we regard the safety of the church , we must take care of st. paul's injunction , that all things be done decently and according to order and appointment . but seeing there is such diversity in mens manners , so great variety in their minds , such opposition in their wits and judgments : no government can be firm and stedfast , unless it be establisht by certain laws : nec sine statâ quadam formâ servari ritus quispiam potest ; nor can any rite be preserved , without some set form. huc ergo quae conducunt leges , tantum abest ut damnemus , ut his ablatis , dissolvi suis nervis ecclesias , totasque deformari , ac dissipari contendamus ; such laws therefore and decrees as tend to this effect , we are so far ( saith he ) from condemning , that if these be taken away , we may avouch that the nerves and sinews of the churches are dissolved , and that they are all deform'd and shattered to pieces : thus mr. calvin ; and we find it by sad experience ; whereupon whitaker does acknowledge , habuit ecclesia semper authoritatem leges ecclesiasticas condendi , & sanciendi , easque aliis imperandi , ac eos puniendi , qui non observarent : the church had always a power and authority to make ecclesiastical laws , and to establish them , to injoyn them to others , and to punish such as would not observe them . . that power which hath peculiar officers assigned , and special rules prescribed to direct the exercise of it in the church , that power is invested in the church ; otherwise that assignation of persons , and prescription of rules would be nugatory , trifling , and to no purpose . but to direct the exercise of appointing and settling rites and ceremonies in the church peculiar officers are assigned , and special rules prescribed . of the officers assign'd to exercise this power in the church , we have said enough already ; and of the rules prescribed , i shall add no more than what is said by one or two protestant writers , upon that text , let all things be done decently and according to order ; hinc colligere promptum est , saith mr. calvin , from hence we may gather , that those ecclesiastical laws which concern discipline and order are pious , and not to be accounted humane traditions ; because they are grounded upon this general command , and have a clear approbation as out of the mouth of christ himself . my next authority shall be out of david dickson , a scotchman and a presbyterian ; he reckons it the seventh precept touching good order ; vt decorum observetur in personis ad publicum conventum ecclesiae accedentibus , & in rebus ad publicum cultum necessariis : ut omnia cum gravitate , & modestia , sine superstitione , & sordibus peragantur ; & partes cultus divini inter se ita ordinentur , & temporibus suis disponantur , ut dei gloriae , & aedificationi ecclesiae inserviant maximè ; that a decorum be observed of all persons that come to the assemblies of the church , and in all things allyed to the publick worship : that all things be performed with modesty and gravity , without superstition , and a clownish sordidness ; and that all the parts of divine worship be so ordered among themselves , and so disposed to their proper times , that they may be inservient , as much as is possible to the glory of god , and the edification of the church : this is an apostolical precept . . that power which the church exerted from the beginning , and has exercised in all after-ages , that power the church is invested with ; ( if not , let them shew us some defeasance , or forfeiture of it . ) but a power to appoint and settle rites and ceremonies the church did exert from the beginning , and has exercised in all after-ages . st. paul exercised this power in appointing ; their method and course of prophesying , their weekly collections for the poor , that they speak not in an unknown tongue , unless they do interpret ; that the women keep silence in the church , that the men be covered , and the women uncovered in the time and place of publick vvorship . and 't is the affirmation of the most learned and judicious sanderson , posse de novo leges condi , de ritibus , de rebus , & personis ecclesiasticis , omnibusque sacri cultus externi circumstantiis , ad ordinem , honestatem , & aedificationem spectantibus , extra eas , quae sunt à christo & ejus apostolis traditae in sacris literis ; adeo manifesta res est & rationi consentanea , ut perversi judicii , obstinatique animi suspitione aegre se liberaverit , qui siccus & sobrius id negaverit ; that new laws may be made concerning rites , things , and persons ecclesiastical , and all the circumstances of our external holy worship concerning order , honesty , and edification ; besides those delivered in holy scripture by christ and his apostles , is a thing so manifest , and agreeable to reason , that he will very hardly free himself from the suspition of an obstinate mind and a perverse judgment , who shall soberly deny it . and this power is of necessity to be perpetually in the church ; because such rites and ceremonies are not perpetual ; for they are of things in their own nature indifferent and alterable ; and there may be a just cause ( if the church thinks good ) to alter them ; and consequently there must be a constant power in the church to appoint , or alter them accordingly as occasion serves . and this is the judgment of the learned whitaker , fatemur apostolos in singulis ecclesiis ritus aliquos atque consuetudines , ordinis & decori causa , sanxisse , non autem scripsisse : quia hi ritus non erant perpetui futuri , sed liberi , qui pro commodo & temporum ratione mutari possent : we acknowledge , saith he , that the apostles did in all churches establish some rites and customs , for order and decency sake ; and yet did not commit them to writing : because these rites were not to be perpetual , but free , and such as might be changed , in regard of the time and benefit of the church . see * hemmingius . . that society whose custom and practice in matter of rites and ceremonies ( not repugnant to god's word ) is a supersedeas to all objection , and ought not to be disputed , that society hath a power to appoint rites and ceremonies ; i say not repugnant to god's word ; for custom is not pleadable in god's church without right , or against god's word ; for consuetudo sine veritate est vestustas erroris ; custom without truth is but the dotage of errour . but the custom and practice of the church in matter of rites and ceremonies ( not repugnant to god's word ) is a supersedeas to all objection , and ought not to be disputed . this is st. paul's own argument ( cor. . . ) in a matter of ceremonies , the womans vail in the time and place of publick worship ; if any man seems to be contentious , we have no such custom , neither the churches of god. quae sententia , tam ad contentionem , quam ad velandi ritum referri potest , which sentence may as well be referred to the contention , as to the rite of covering the head , saith bullinger . duabus securibus disputationes amputat , saith grotius , he cuts off disputes with two hatchets , apostolical institution , and the custom of the churches . quod per omnes ecclesias receptum est , to call that in question which is received among all churches , est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , is the part of such as are contentious . and as bullinger very well observes , hoc ultimo hujus negotii loco , this being added in the last place , by the apostle , to conclude the whole matter , vehementèr potuit eorum pungere mentes , qui non omninò praefracti atque deploratae erant pertinatiae : it might have nettled them exceedingly , who were not altogether stubborn , and desperately obstinate . to conclude this matter , christ hath settled in his church a power to make laws , and appoint rites and ceremonies , for the decent and orderly performance of all her administrations ; and such as do otherwise than these laws command ▪ with a contemptuous and disloyal mind , mr. perkins has declared them guilty before god , in sundry places of his works . for that general rule of the apostle , let all things be done decently and according to order , must be look'd upon with the same reverence as if it dropt from the lips of christ himself , saith mr. calvin . this is the foundation upon which the whole ecclesiastical discipline is built , saith hemmingius . and from hence it is confirm'd , that the pious constitutions of the church are so far sorth divine , as they serve to edification , by their decency and good order . whereupon they bind us to obedience , saith he , in that respect , etiam jure divino , even of divine right . when st. austin therefore had received this advice from st. ambrose , [ whatsoever church thou comest into , observe the customes of it . that thou may'st not be a scandal to others , nor others to thy self , ] this saying of that holy father st. austin often thought on , and always embraced it as an oracle from heaven . and concludes from thence there is no better rule or instruction for a discreet and sober christian to follow , than to do as the church does where e're he comes : quod enim neque contra fidem , neque contra bonos mores injungitur , indifferenter est habendum , & pro eorum inter quos vivitur societate servandum est : for that which is injoyn'd , if it be neither against the faith , nor against good manners , it is to be esteem'd as a thing indifferent , and ought to be observed in regard of their society , with whom we do converse . and so much for the power of the church to decree and injoyn rites and ceremonies . as to the superfaetation of this article , that it is not found in the authentick articles of k. edward the sixth ; and so the terms of communion have been enlarged since the first times of the reformation . to this i answer , . that the corinthians and the cretians might have made the like objection , as well against st. paul as against titus ; because all things were not presently settled at the first plantation of the gospel , cor. . last . tit. . much may be abolisht in an instant , but such as pretend to reformation , and yet do nothing but pull down , they will never edifie the church , but most certainly deform it . rome we say , was not built in one day . the apostle left something unsettled till a further consideration , cor. . last . and when he departed from crete , he left titus his vicar , saith crocius , to supply what the shortness of his stay would not allow him to accomplish ; and as st. hierome observes , to super-correct what he could not then bring to perfection . zanchy * observes very well , that it is the duty of the bishops to take care of the whole church , and whatsoever may conduce to the welfare of it , whether it be in point of life and manners , in the ministery of the word and sacraments , or in the discipline of pennance , or in the wants of the poor , or in matters of ceremonies ; and to give diligence , that whatsoever has been constituted in such matters , either by the lord himself , or by his apostles , or by the after-church , may be observed . but if there be any thing that is not appointed . and yet may concern the edification of the church : let laws be appointed concerning those things , that they may be confirmed in the name of the whole church , and by the authority of pious princes , and be observed of all , [ respectively subject to their jurisdiction . ] . i answer , that according to the common prayer-book in king edward the sixth's time , the church injoyn'd the priest at the consecration of the eucharist , to sign the elements with the sign of the cross ; and so if she did not declare her power in her articles , yet she declared it sufficiently in her practice ; in ordering the priest to make the sign of the cross upon the symbol , in the patin and chalice , she did exercise her power in decreeing and practising that rite ; which has since been taken away , ( tho' it has proved of very little consequence ) to avoid scandal ; and consequently , the terms of communion have been somewhat contracted since those times , and not inlarged , as is pretended . however that rule of st. austin will certainly hold , his enim causis , id est , aut propter fidem , aut propter mores , vel emendari oportet quod perperam fiebat , vel institui quod non fiebat : for these causes , that is , either for the faith , or for manners sake , that ought to be amended which was done amiss , or appointed to be done , which was not done at all . but this is not all ; in this section , they object also against the doctrine in the rubrick , that it is certain from the word of god , that children baptized and dying before the commission of actual sin , are undoubtedly saved . the scripture , the protestant churches , nor any sound reason , have yet given them any tolerable satisfaction of the truth of the doctrine about the opus operatum of sacraments . that doctrine laid down in the catechism , that children do perform faith and repentance by their sureties , is also ( saith he ) as great a stumbling to our faith , and we cannot get over it . how the adult should believe and repent for minors , or infants believe and repent by proxy . thus the dissenters . the answer . . the silence of other protestant churches ( if they be all silent ) herein , is but a negative argument from authority , and that 's of no validity . but we are sure the most learned amongst protestant writers do favour this article ; the form of a sacrament , they say , is the sacramental conjunction of the signs and the things signified , which conjunction consists not only in the signification , and obsignation , but also in the exhibition of the things signified by the signs . so wendelin ; and he makes the effect and end of the sacraments to be not only , the confirmation of our faith in christ ; but also the obsignation of his gracious promise touching our communion with him , and our participation of the benefits purchased by his death . and particularly among the effects of baptism , zanchy reckons these , . our admission into covenant with god. . our ingraffing into his church and the communion of saints , which are the faithful . . the remission of sins , and the imputation of christ's righteousness . and calvin upon those words [ cor. . . else were your children unclean ; but now are they holy ] comments after this manner , this is a high point of divinity : for it teacheth that the children of the faithful are segregated from others by a special prerogative , and are accounted saints in the church . and to reconcile this with those other words of the same apostle , eph. . . we are all by nature children of wrath ; he saith thus , aequalis est igitur in omnibus naturae conditio , the condition of nature is alike in all ; they are all obnoxious both to sin and death eternal . but this privilege which the apostle attributes to the children of believers , that flows from the benefit of the covenant , upon the intervention whereof , the malediction of nature is blotted out : and they are consecrated to god by grace , who are prophane by nature . from which testimonies we shall draw an argument presently , that children baptized and dying before actual sin , are undoubtedly saved . but first let us consult the holy oracle . the scripture tells us , that christ tasted death for every man , ( hebr. . . ) for children . ( vers . . ) and to what end did he do this ? to reconcile them , ( vers . . ) to sanctifie them , ( v. . ) to free them from the bondage of the devil , ( v. , . ) and to bring them unto glory . ( v. . ) can christ fail of his end without any obstacle in the subject ? has he done enough to save a drunken noah , an incestuous lot , an idolatrous manasses , and a perjur'd peter ; and yet left a poor innocent babe without a remedy ? 't is our saviour's comfortable assertion , with a gracious invitation thereupon ( mat. . . ) suffer little children , and forbid them not , to come unto me : for of such is the kingdom of heaven . if these dissenters be of a cross opinion , that of such is the kingdom of satan ; they should in modesty keep their faith to themselves , till they can find a better proof than the post-poning of esau , whose person notwithstanding learned men do think was saved . in the discourses of our saviour , little children are candidates for heaven , and set forth as a pattern to such as shall undoubtedly inherit it , ( mat. . . ) and he tells his disciples , ( v. . ) it is not the will of your father which is in heaven , that one of these little ones should perish ; which in all reason must be understood of little children literally , according to the first intention of the words . but ( . ) baptism is the laver of regeneration . ( eph. . tit. . ) hereupon st. peter makes his exhortation to the people , repent and be baptized every one of you , in the name of jesus christ , for the remission of sins , and ye shall receive the gift of the holy ghost . for the promise is unto you and to your children . ( act. . , . ) whence i argue thus , such as are admitted to the benefits of the covenant , ( remission of sins , and the imputation of christ's righteousness ) and do neither break the conditions , nor put a bar to the virtue of it , they are undoubtedly saved : but children baptized , and dying before actual sin , are such . pueri enim fidelium ideo servantur , quia in foedere dei sunt & sancti , saith the learned zanchy . the children of the faithful are therefore saved , because they are in the covenant of god and holy . for ( as he hath it in another place ) what is acted ( at our baptism ) outwardly , symbolum ejus , is the sign of symbol of that which the holy ghost worketh in our souls . . children so dying , have no guilt upon them but original ; if christ has not saved them from that , he has not broke the serpents head in them ; he has not blotted out the hand-writing that was against them , not taken it out of their way , nor nail'd it to his cross for them ; then the antidote is not so extensive and powerful as the poison ; the old proverb stands still in force against them , ( ezek. . , , . the fathers have eaten sower grapes , &c. ) christ is an insufficient mediator , and defective in his institutions . for there is no other means appointed for their salvation besides baptism ; and if that be not effectual to them to that end ; then either christ is defective in his priestly office , and has not made an expiation for their sins ; or in his prophetick office , and has not revealed his father's will concerning the means of their salvation ; or else he is defective in his kingly office , not a compleat law-giver , having not prescribed what is sufficient for their salvation : all which assertions are absur'd , erroneous , and impious . we are told , that touching the opus operatum of the sacraments , they have , as yet , received no tolerable satisfaction ; and we need not wonder at this , if we consider how hard a matter it is to please them in any thing . yet instances we have of this opus operatum , as 't is wrought in the body , and why may not these help us to apprehend what may be done in the soul ? how was naaman cleansed of his leprosie ? he was commanded to wash seven times in jordan : he did so , and his flesh came again as the flesh of a little child , and he was clean , kings . . this was ex opere operato ; and the means was appointed by the prophet . thus was the blind man restor'd to his sight ( joh. . , . ) thus were the ten lepers cleansed . ( luk. . . ) thus was the woman healed of her bloudy issue , mark . . * and thus the plagues of a whole multitude were healed : ( luk. . . ) these by a means of their own choosing , the other by means of christ's prescribing . this opus operans & opus operatum , is a school distinction ; and tho' not found in his summs , 't is as old as the prince of school-men . and the great excellency of that sort of writers appears in their distinctions , whereby many times they clear great difficulties in few words . this brevity makes them many times obscure ; and that obscurity oftentimes makes them liable to misconstruction ; and so it has happened in the case before us . sacramentum dicitur conferre gratiam ex opere operato , quia proeter exhibitionem signi forinsecùs adhibiti , non requiritur bonus motus interior in suscipiente . the sacrament is said to confer grace , ex opore operato , because besides the use of the outward sign there is required no inward good motion in the receiver ; saith biel , * and paludanus ⸪ to the like purpose , non requiritur in sacramentis novi testamenti ut homo se disponat , sed dispositio efficitur ab ipso sacramento ; & hoc est conferre gratiam ex opere operato : in the sacraments of the new testament , it is not required that a man should dispose himself for them ; but the good disposition is wrought by the sacrament ; and this is to confer grace ex opere operato . this doctrine is most absur'd and scandalous ; because it makes all pious dispositions , all worthy preparation for the sacraments , needless . in opposition therefore to this doctrine , the reverend and learned davenant † has thus determined , sacramenta non esse nuda signa , sed gratiae exhibitiva ; the sacraments are not naked signs , but they do exhibit grace ; yet so , that this grace is not wrought in the minds of men ex opere operato sacramentorum , but through the ordinance and operation of god alone , who in the right use of sacraments , does always perform , that which he hath promised . there is another sort of school-men more orthodox in their sense of this distinction , and the opus operatum of the sacrament ; they say the sacraments are a means to confer grace upon such receivers as are worthily prepared to receive them . wherefore when they say , the sacrament confers grace ex opere operato , their meaning is not that it confers grace as it is a kind of natural action , but as it has a divine institution , and an infallible promise to that effect , so saith estius * and because that promise is conditional requiring a due preparation in the adult , it follows , nor from this phrase rightly understood , that according to the opinion of catholicks , the sacraments are effectual without any good motion in the receiver . a sacrament is causa conditionalis , says , argentina , a conditional cause ; and all the power and causality of the sacraments in respect of divine grace , is from divine institution , and from the covenant , which god hath made with his church . and de natura causae conditionalis est , quod non observatâ conditìone ; 't is the nature of a conditional cause , that if the condition be not perform'd , the effect does not follow : but if the condition be perform'd , the effect follows infallibly . in short then , they say grace may be produced in the soul two manner of ways , either ex opere operantis ; which is by the elicite and acceptable devotion of the church , and the work of the ministery , or the meet and worthy disposition of him that receives the sacrament . or else it is produced ex opere operato , by virtue of the sacrament it self , as of christ's institution , and by the application of the external work , by the power whereof ( according to god's ordinance and promise ) grace is given . now i suppose we may safely say , that grace is confer'd by the sacrament of baptism both these ways . . as it is a part of god's worship , in genere orationis , under the genus of prayer , so it procures grace , ex opere operantis , per modum impetrationis , by way of impetration . . as it is a sacrament of christ's institution . so it confers grace , ex opere operato , by way of exhibition , conveying , through the divine benediction and compact , that grace which it doth consign , and which christ hath promised to his church . but here two rules are very useful and necessary to be observed : . that in the operation of the sacraments ( as in all other of god's ordinances ) the excellency of the power is of god and not of us . ( cor. . . ) and who can deny the effect when we have god's fiat for it ? when he said , let there be light , there was light ; so it was at the creation of the external light ; and so it is at the creation of internal light , when god is pleased to put forth his power to that effect . ( cor. . . ) and methinks , those men should easily be satisfied about the opus operatum of the sacrament , who are of opinion , that we are merely passive in the work of our regeneration ; that it is wrought in nobis sine nobis , wrought in us , ( but ) without us , and that irresistibly . the second rule is , that we must not substitute the opus operatum to supply the neglect , or want of moral duty , and a worthy disposition in the adult ; for in such , to make the sacrament effectual , there must be no bar of a deadly sin , ( as the schoolmen call it ) but a fit and worthy disposition for the sacrament . for tho' the sacrament hath a power of it self , through christ's institution and promise , to produce grace , yet that it may actually produce it , 't is necessary that the receiver puts no obstacles * , but if he be adult , i.e. ( of age ) that he dispose himself by some meet and fitting acts to receive it . by means of the sacraments , saith holden † , god confers his grace upon such as being worthily prepared , are made partakers of them . and franciscus a victoria * , semper & infallibilitèr , omnibus & singulis digre ea suscipientibus conferunt gratiam : the sacraments do always and infallibly confer grace upon all and every man , who worthily receives them . the next objection is against the doctrine of the catechism ; that children do perform faith and repentance by their sureties . this they say is so great a stumbling to their faith , they cannot get over it . but we know full well that some of these dissenters will scruple at little things , stumble at a straw , and yet so full of agility at other times , they can nimbly leap over a block , that very block upon which they made their soveraign a sacrifice to their tender consciences . how the adult should believe and repent for minors ; or infants believe and repent by proxy , they cannot understand . and 't were well if this were the only thing wherein they could plead a want of understanding . but peter martyr * will tell them , fidles in liberis , qui suscipiuntur dùm parvuli sunt , non requiritur , vel ad id , ut christiani sint , vel ad remissionem peccatorum ; faith is not required in children who are baptized , while they are little ones , neither to obtain remission of sins , nor to make them christians ; this is true of an actual faith , and a personal disposition ; yet they have a title to such a faith as is of good advantage to them . to this purpose we have the judgment of mr. perkins , and in him the opinion of the ancient church . 't is objected that infants have no faith , and consequently , that baptism is unprofitable to them . to this objection he answers thus , some think they have faith , as they have regeneration , that is the inclination or seed of faith. others say , that the faith of the parents is also the faith of their children : because the parents by their faith , receive the promise of god , both for themselves and their children : and thus to be born in the church , of believing parents , is instead of the profession of faith. to this second opinion , ( saith that pious and learned man ) i rather incline , because it is the ancient and received doctrine of the church ; i wish our present dissenters would be so sober and well advised , as to follow his example . for receiving the sacrament of baptism , faith and repentance are said to be the qualifications in the adult : to infants they are supplied by the faith and piety of the church in general ( as well as by their particular sureties respectively ) ; and where there is an absolute necessity for it ( because god is not wanting in necessaries ) 'tis piously credible , that the supply is made by the high priest of our profession * ; and sure these dissenters will allow him to be a good proxy for them . have they forgotten that levi paid tythes in the loins of abraham ? was not that as great a matter as this they stumble at ? let them tell us how the adult do transgress and sin for minors ; and how infants do transgress and sin by proxy ; and we shall be able presently to remove their scruple . if the adult themselves may receive advantage by the faith of others , as undoubtedly they may ( mat. . . ) how much more infants , who are neither capable of sin , nor of grace , but upon the account of their relations under guilt , or under covenant . ( cor. . . ) but we must look upon that person as a cruel step-father , who gives his child nothing but a stone , when he wants bread , and instead of fish a deadly serpent . dissenters second section . they plead , that they are not satisfied in the use of any mystical ceremonies in god's worship ; and particularly they judge the use of the cross in baptism to be sinful . a sacrament of divine institution , according to the definition of the church , in her catechism , is an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace given unto us , ordained by christ himself , as a means whereby we receive the same , and a pledge to assure us thereof . where we have , . the matter of a sacrament , an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace . . the author of a divine sacrament , christ himself . . the end of it : to be a means to convey the thing signified , and a pledge to assure us of it . hence ( they say ) it 's evident , that it 's simply impossible that any church should institute a divine sacrament ; because they cannot give it a causality to those graces it is instituted to signifie : nevertheless it 's possible for men to institute humane sacraments ; which shall have the matter of a sacrament , that is an outward and visible sign of an inward spiritual grace ; and they may pretend to ascribe an effect to it also , to excite , to stir up or increase grace and devotion : and yet because it wants the right efficient cause , it 's no lawful * sacrament , though it be an humane sacrament . such an institution ( say they ) is the sign of the cross ; an outward visible sign of an inward spiritual grace , ordained by men , as a means to effect whatever man can work by his ordinance . here is the matter without divine signature , which is the thing they condemn it for . answer . here we see they profess themselves unsatisfied ; and indeed it 's a very hard task to satisfie such as study more to contend and make themselves scrupulous , then to be quiet and to do their own business . they are unsatisfied , that the rites and ceremonies of the church are not divine sacraments ; which she never did pretend a power to institute . they are unsatisfied at the use of mystical ceremonies in god's worship : but so was not st. paul. the wife is subject to the husband , saith he , ergo gerat insigne subjectionis , let her therefore wear her veil , the badge of her subjection , saith mr. calvin . and he speaks of an external rite in sacred assemblies ; and we are taught that this is to be observed in such rites , that they be suitable to admonish us of our duty , ut ceremoniae sint instar concionum ; that ceremomonies may be like sermons , which is then done when we have an account of their mystical meaning , saith pet. martyr . but the great scandal they pretend to take , is at the sign of the cross in baptism . but god forbid , saith the great apostle , that i should glory save in the cross of our lord jesus christ ; and i cannot persuade my self , that he who worthily glories in the meritorious cause of his redemption , will abhor the sign of it as sinful , or be offended at it . if we inquire after the antiquity of this badge , we shall find it in the banner of our militia from the time of the first christian emperor . church story tells us , that when constantine had gathered an army in france and britain to repress the tyrant maxentius , he was afraid of his charms , wherewith he was supposed to have vanquished severus ( whom gal. maximinus had sent against him formerly . ) and as he stood in doubt what to do , he cast his eyes often up to heaven ; and saw a brightness therein , about sun-set , in the likeness of a cross , with certain stars of equal bigness , which afforded this symbol ( like an inscription in latin letters ) in hoc vince , that is , in this shalt thou overcome . after this vision , his banner was made in the similitude of a cross , and carried before him in his wars ; the tyrant maxentius was conquered and drowned . and to ascend higher , some think this was the cognizance of christians from the first plantation of the gospel , being mention'd by the most ancient writers of the church . zanchy * concludes from the practice in justin's time , that the mingling water with wine in the eucharist , came from christ and his apostles . the sign of the cross is a ceremony of as long a standing ; wherefore the use of it , upon all occasions , in all times , over all parts of the church , is to be ascribed to the apostles ; as a very reverend and learned man observeth † . and st. austin has given us a rule that does assure it , quod vniversa tenet ecclesia , nec à conciliis institutum , sed semper retentum est , non nisi authoritate apostolicâ traditum rectissimè creditur . that which is held , ( or practised ) by the universal church , and was never appointed by any council , but always held and maintain'd , is most justly believed to have been delivered ( at first ) by apostolical authority . for such an vniversal effect must have a cause equally vniversal . the apostle tells the ephesians of their being seal'd to the day of redemption , eph. . . whether the church took occasion from those words , to appoint that ceremony to be used in baptizing , i am not able to determine : but the prophet ezekiel tells us of a man with an ink-horn by his side , who was commanded to set a mark upon the foreheads of such as did sigh and cry for the abominations , that were done in jerusalem . ( ezek. . . ) now says deodati ( that learned minister of geneva ) because the word mark in hebrew is thau , and that the same word is the name of the letter t. which letter in ancient hebrew characters , is made in the figure of a cross ; hence some ancients ( saith he ) have believed , that this mark was a sign of the cross , which figured christ's blood , the only mark of salvation to believers . if any credit be to be given to this suggestion , the sign of the cross upon the forehead has been of longer use than is imagined . 't is true , that learned professor says , there is no certainty in it : but he does not say 't was superstitious to be done , or sinful to believe it . some mark there was , and 't was of some importance ; and so is this ceremony now in question . we read ( jos. . ) that the children of reuben , gad and manasseh , built a great alter upon the borders of jordan ( for which they had no divine warrant , nor did they pretend to it . ) hereupon the congregation of israel took offence , and leavyed war against them . but before they entred into any act of hostility , they thought it reasonable to expostulate , & debate the matter fairly with them ; which they managed in these words : [ what trespass is this , which ye have committed against the god of israel , to turn away from following the lord , in that you have builded you an altar , that ye might rebel this day against the lord ? to this heavy charge those tribes return'd this calm and sober answer . the lord god of gods , he knoweth , and israel , he shall know , if it be in rebellion , or in transgression against the lord , that we have built us an altar to turn from following the lord , if to offer sacrifice thereon , save us not this day ; ( and ) let the lord himself require it : and if we have not done it rather , for fear your children should say unto our children , in time to come , jordan is the border that divides between us and you ; ye have no part in the lord ; no right or title to the benefits of his holy altar ; therefore we built this altar , not for burnt offering , nor for sacrifice , but to be a witness between us and you , and our generations after us , that we have an interest in the lord as well as you , a right to approach his altar , to perform our service at it , and receive the benefits thereof . and they called the altar ( ed , ) a witness ; for it shall be a witness between us , that the lord is our god as well as yours . by this story , we see , that altar was erected as a monument , not for a remedy of what was , but for a caution against what might be hereafter . and to apply this matter of fact to our present purpose , was not the cross the altar upon which our blessed lord offer'd * up himself to god , as a sacrifice of a sweet smelling savour , to expiate our sins , and make an attonement for the world. now we know very well , there are a generation of men that say of us ( and will say 't of our children after us ) that we are out-casts to the common-wealth of israel , schismaticks and separate from the body of christ , and the communion of the catholick church ; that we are enemies to the cross of christ , and have no interest in his ordinances , or right to the benefits of his death and passion . in answer to which objection or cavil , we can alleadge , that we have the copy , the representation of that altar ( upon which our b. saviour suffered that shameful , that painful , that accursed death for us ) the sign of the cross was made upon our foreheads ( when we were dedicated to him at our baptism ) : not that we are drawn from our duty and allegeance to god by it , or expect any supernatural grace or virtue from it , or intend to pay any manner of devotion to it : but to assert our own priviledge , and relation to our crucify'd jesus , to be a symbolical protestation of our faith and affiance in him , a memorial of the solemn profession we have made to own and serve him . this is our ed , our witness to this purpose ; and , as far as i am able to discern , no less commendable in our practice , than that was in those tribes . but these dissenters tell us , 't is impossible that any church should institute a divine sacrament ; and they have good authority to back them , no less than the suffrage of trent * to bear them out in this assertion ; which has denounced anathema to all that shall say otherwise : si quis dixerit , sacramenta novae legis non fuisse omnia à jesu christo , domino nostro instituta , anathema sit : if any one shall say , that all the sacraments of the gospel ( which they call the new law ) were not instituted by jesus christ our lord ; let him be accursed . but ( they say ) 't is possible men may institute humane sacraments , an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace ; and they may ascribe an effect to it also , to excite and increase devotion ; and yet because christ is not the author of it , ( they say ) it is no lawful , ( which is but a begging of the question , for they should only say , it is no divine ) sacrament : tho' it be a humane sacrament . such an institution ( they say ) is the sign of the cross ; the matter of a sacrament , without divine signature ; which is the thing they condemn it for . now the question is , whether this condemnation be just , or no ? the other day , as i remember , i saw a pack of cards , which according to this account may very well be call'd a pack of sacraments ; for each card had the matter of a sacrament , that is an outward and visible sign , of some inward and spiritual grace , in the martyr * ( whose barbarous murder they were design'd to represent ) ; and sure the ingenious contrivers of those cards , intended some effect from them , to excite , to stir up , to increase grace and devotion by the sight of them , viz. an utter abhorrence of treason , and all popish principles which lead to it ; and must this poor pack of cards be condemned to the flames for the ingenuity of the author ? i am so far from being the executioner of such a sentence , that i wish such another pack to represent the horrid mischiefs of schism and sedition , to teach our children for the time to come , to have the practice , and doctrines , which lead to it , in utter detestation . that such mystical ceremonies , or symbolical representations are not sinful , i am fully convinced ; because they are good for the use of edifying . for whatsoever is apt to inform me , and put me in mind of my duty , and to excite me to perform it , that is certainly for my edification ; because to inform , to admonish and excite , is to edifie † and that some mystical ceremonies are of this nature , is too notorious to be denyed . est homini connaturale , ut per sensibilia ad cognitionem intelligibilium deveniat , says a person well verst in the prince of schoolmen . t is connatural to man by the help of sensible things , to arrive at the knowledge of such things as are intelligible . this i learn from all the prophets , amos has his basket of summer fruit , ( amos . . ) jeremy , his seething-pot , and the rod of an almond tree , ( jer. . , . ) ezekiel has his roll , his seige , his chain , his fire , his wheel , and his razor ; all these representations in vision , for the service of god's people , and the interest of religion . and the great prophecy concerning the state of the christian church is displayed in mystical and symbolical representations . shall i quarrel with the book of the apocalypse , and the seven golden candlesticks , because they are full of mystical ceremonies , and some men may erroneously fancy , they put them in mind of seven sacraments ? i will not . but to see how far the force of prejudice and a superstitious conceit will carry these men ! by their invention daniel's chamber-window is made a sacrament . the opening of it towards jerusalem was the outward and visible sign ; the inward and spiritual grace was his faith and affiance in god , with his zeal for god's holy temple and worship . yea , so unreasonable and extravagant is this their act of condemnation , it will reach all the most pious accomplishments of holy men ; the practice of piety , the whole duty of man , the saints everlasting rest , the institutions of mr. calvin ; i confess , i cannot say so of those many books which these dissenters have written and sent abroad , to shake the people , and unhinge the government , to foment faction , and disturb the peace of church and state. i cannot say it of such ( that they are outward and visible signs of an inward and spiritual grace ) : but of every pious and learned book , i say , it will fall under this their rash and unadvised condemnation : it is a humane sacrament ; that is , it has the matter of a sacrament , which is an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace ; and the author ( whoever he be ) will hope for some good effect from it , ( else he is ill advised to make it publick ) , to excite , to stir up , to increase grace and devotion by it , and whatever man can work by his discourse , and ordinance ; and yet ( according to these dissenters notion and logick ) because it wants the efficient cause to make it a divine sacrament , it must be unlawful , it must be sinful ; for 't is upon this accompt , they do ( here ) judge the sign of the cross in baptism , to be so , and so condemn it . what he means by a divine signature , is a matter of some question : if some institution or promise to annex grace to it , we understand it not ; but if he understands by signature , some impression , that discovers something of god's attributes , we say with the great apostle , that the preaching of the cross sets forth the power of god , and the wisdom of god. there is this divine signature upon all creatures : for the invisible things of god from the creation of the world are clearly seen , being understood by the things that are made , ( rom. . . ) the heavens declare the glory of god ; ( psal. . ) and every rational creature should echo to that declaration , and say , when i consider thy heavens — lord what is man. for a sacrament properly so called , that is a divine sacrament ( in the sense of the church ) , that is a thing of another constitution . for , . it must have christ for its author ; all ordinances of divine worship design'd to exhibit , to seal and convey supernatural grace are of his institution ; because eorum tantum est signum instituere , qui jus habent promittendi signatum , & potentiam applicandi ; he only has power to appoint the sign who has right to promise , and power to apply the thing signified . in this we are agreed . . as we are agreed in the author , so in the matter of a sacrament ; sacramentum est sacrae rei signum , saith st. austin . a sacrament is the sign of a thing sacred ; yet not every such sign ( for then we should multiply sacraments beyond reason ) but such a sacred thing as sanctifies the receiver ; sacramentum propriè est signum rei sacrae in quantum est sanctificans ; properly a sacrament is the sign of a thing sacred , inasmuch as it is ordain'd to sanctifie . . we are agreed in the effect and end ; that god by the mediation of his sacraments , gives his grace to such as are worthily prepared for them , and made partakers of them . . we are , i hope , agreed too , as to the constituents of a sacrament . to the making of a sacrament , the word is required , the word of consecration , the operative word , ( sermo operatorius , as st. ambrose calls it , ) accedit verbum ad elementum & fit sacramentum ; the word apply'd to the element does make a sacrament , saith st. austin . we acknowledge , saith zanchy , that a sacrament is a visible sign : but of what ? of an invisible grace . but whence has it this ( habitude ) to be a sign of such a thing ? from the word of christ's institution , saith zanchy . from hence 't is evident , that the sign of the cross is far from the nature of a sacrament in the proper notion of the church . for , . it has no office of consecration to hallow it , no word of prayer or benediction bestow'd upon it . . it has not christ for its author ; we do not find , we do not say he gave it institution to that effect . . it has no internal sanctifying grace for its matter . and from hence it will undeniably follow , . that it does not confer , convey , or exhibit grace , as the end of its appointment . it is the resolution of fran. hallier * ( a sober and learned sorbonist ) nullum signum practicum gratiae habitualis , ex opere operato eam conferens , instituere potuit ecclesia : the church cannot institute any practical sign of habitual grace , that can confer , that grace , ex opere operato ; because it is in the power of god alone to confer habitual grace upon us : nor can the church of god appoint any sign to confer supernatural helps and motions of grace , ex opere operato ; because actual grace is no less supernatural than habitual , and god is equally the author and dispensor of them both . and secondly , saith he , we cannot understand how any spiritual or supernatural effect should follow upon the putting of any sign , unless we have some covenant or divine promise to warrant us , that such effect is annext to such a sign : but ( saith he ) we have no testimony either of scriptures , or councils , or fathers , to assure us of any such promise . and for the sign of the cross in baptism ( wherein we are now particularly concern'd ) it has no peculiar reference to god , or the sacred rite of baptism : but to the congregation into which we receive the baptized , and to the duty as to the end , unto which he is consigned ; that he should not be ashamed to confess , &c. this therefore is appointed to assert our privilege , and the duty incumbent upon that account , so that in the use of this ceremony , there is no divine authority presumed , no consecration perform'd , no promise pretended , no grace expected among us . we cannot therefore be supposed to use it as a suppletory sacrament ; nor ( tho' of very great antiquity ) was it ever design'd to add any the least melioration , virtue , or efficacy , to our holy baptism : but used as a collateral appendage and contesseration of our solemn engagement : to notifie our relation to a crucified redeemer : to assert our interest in the merits of his death and passion : to put us in mind of our christian profession , and to excite us unto our duty . after this account , if the offence of the cross be not yet ceased , i shall add these further considerations for the reader 's satisfaction . . these dissenters make use of these words , humane sacraments , symbolical rites , mystical ceremonies , out of design to make a noise , to amuse and affright the scrupulous and common reader . the word sacrament is of a very large signification ; an oath is call'd a sacrament ; so is the creed by st. austin * , and the whole christian doctrine by tertullian ; in the vulgar latin , marriage , is a sacrament , eph. . . so is the incarnation of christ ( tim. . . ) nebuchadnezzar's dream . ( dan. . , , . ) the seven stars and candlesticks ( revel . . . ) the use of that word therefore ( whatever these dissenters make of it ) is no matter of offence or objection in this case . . we may make a sanctified use of all creatures , of all works of art , and of all emergent accidents : this cannot in reason be denyed ; for by this holy usage of them , we turn them into a ladder ; and by them our minds ascend up to god. and such outward and visible signs have an aptitude to that effect . signum est quod praeter speciem , quam ingerit sensibus , facit aliquid aliud in cognitionem ( alias cogitationem ) venire , saith st. austin . a sign is that which brings something else into our thoughts and knowledge , besides that which it offers to our senses . and such signs , whether they be natural or arbitrary , if the things suggested by them or collected from them , be spiritual and heavenly , it makes no matter of consequence , whether they be called mystical ceremonies , symbolical rites , or humane sacraments ; for they are really nothing else but outward and visible things applied to a spiritual and heavenly use . that such signs , or humane sacraments or mystical ceremonies ( call them what you will ) are , not only lawful , but laudable and of good use , is easie to evince . what if the sight of a dial , puts me in mind , that my life is as a shaddow that departeth ? and if i make the like reflection upon the striking of the clock ; and thereupon break out into this ejaculation : [ so teach us to number our days , that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom ] what sober christian could blame me for it ? he was not an ill man , who took occasion from the feast at which he was entertain'd , to cry out , blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of god ; and our saviour took occasion from thence to discourse of his great gospel supper . there may be much divinity , and much moral duty , taught by hieroglyphicks ; and natural religion taught the ninevites to put on sack-cloath , to publish their sorrow and humiliation , jonah . . to the th . we have need enough of such helps ; and god himself directs us to the use of them . go to the ant , to learn industry : and consider the lillies of the field , to avoid anxiety . and he teaches us to make this spiritual improvement , not only of the works of nature ; but of art also , and of emergent accidents . he commanded that the censers of corah and his accomplices , ( tho' abused to superstition and sacriledge ; yet should still be continued in use about the worship of god ) that they should be made a covering for the altar , to be a memorial , to prevent all sacrilegious vsurpations of the priests office ( numb . . . ) hereupon mr. calvin observes ( as he had done before of god's mercies and wonderful works , so now of his judgments ) statim excidere ac deleri ex cordibus hominum , nisi adminiculis quibusdam exerceantur in eorum meditatione ; that they do soon slip out of the memory , and are soon blotted out of the hearts of men , unless they have some helps for their exercise , in the meditation of them . and ( he says ) this happens not only through their ignorance , but through their neglect ; we should therefore be more attentive to such helps of memory as may keep us to our duty . another instance we have to the same purpose ( numb . . . ) and the lord said unto moses , bring aarons rod again before the testimony , to be kept , for a token against the rebels ; and thou shalt quite take away their murmerings from me , that they die not ; upon which words , the same mr. calvin takes notice , that men are forgetful and sluggish in considering the great works of god , and many times they do wickedly drown and bury the memory of them ; and therefore not without an exprobation , god commands that rod to be safely kept as a sign of their contumacy and rebellion . and it will not be amiss to take notice , that these instances as well as that of the altar erected by those tribes , are in reference to religion and god's worship . all rites and ceremonies appointed in the church , and about god's worship , must be designed for order , decency and edification ; vt retinacula sint & incitamenta pietatis , that they may be stays , helps , and incentives unto piety , says a learned lutheran * . such as are idle , insignificant , and unprofitable would be nugatory and ridiculous . but we must always remember , that whatever the church appoints , she does not pretend to add to divine institutions ; but to assist our infirmities in the use of them . it is not in her power to meliorate an ordinance of god's appointment ; but to adorn the solemnity to imprint our duty and heighten our affections to it . god's sacraments cannot be made better in their own nature : but the faith , the devotion and piety of the receivers and worshippers may be more or less intense and vigorous , according to the impressions made upon their faculties : and he that is not sensible of the force of words and visible signs to this effect , is too stupid and bruitish to write himself a man. there is scarce any object but may be helpful to our devotion , and serve us to some spiritual and heavenly end and purpose ; and when there is none offer'd , we should study and make occasions to be heavenly minded . 't is a good observation of mr. arrowsmith , in a sermon before the house of commons , ( on revel . . , . ) that besides the natural , there is a spiritual use to be made of all the creatures , ( and i will add , of all the works of art , and of all occasional emergencies , ) man 's soul ( says he ) is an alembeck , in which , when the creatures are laid like so many herbs , if there be any fire of devotion within , many sweet meditations may be distilled . natural hearts are apt to make a sensual use of divine things : but spiritual hearts have an art of making divine uses even of natural things , which ( says he ) we should all do well to learn. and may we not set up our furnace in god's house ? may we not extract such spirits and essences in matters of religion , and divine worship ? should we endeavour to be devout and heavenly-minded at all times , and shall we be prophane in god's house ? when we are about his worship and service shall we be prophane then , for fear we should be accounted superstitious ? god forbid . let us always bear in mind the apostles rule , and let our practice make it ours ; do all to the glory of god. to help the truely weak and conscientious over that , which these dissenters have made so great a stumbling block , i mean the sign of the cross ; i shall conclude this section with a meditation of that polite and learned prelate ( bishop hall. ) his subject is a red cross upon a door , and his devotions run out thus , [ oh sign , fearfully significant ; this sickness is a cross indeed , and that a bloody one ; both the form and the colour import death ; the israelites doors , whose lintels were besprinkled with blood , were passed over by the destroying angel ; here the destroying angel hath smitten , and left this mark of his deadly blow ; we are wont to fight cheerfully under this ensign abroad , and be victorious ; why should we tremble at it at home ? oh god , there thou fightest for us , here against us ; under that we have fought for thee , but under this ( because our sins have fought against thee ) we are fought against by thy judgments . yet lord , it is thy cross , tho' an heavy one ; it is ours by merit , thine by imposition ; o lord , sanctifie thine affliction , and remove thy vengeance . certainly there 's more devotion and piety in such godly meditations upon the cross , then in quarrelling at the innocent use of it ; and i am sure 't is no superstition to use any thing for a help to heavenly meditation ; but only then when i treat it with affections and a regard , above the true value of it ; and court it with adoration . to conclude this subject . if i be low of stature , ( as zacheus was ) and shall meet with any tree , that lifts me up to a salutary apprehension of my saviour , i will neither make it my idol by a religious veneration , nor will i superstitiously reject it , upon a vain or pretended fear of becoming an idolater at the sight of it . see more of this subject , sect. . at the end . dissenters third section . they plead , that since communion with the church is suspended and denyed , but upon such terms as take away christian liberty in part , and by consequence leaves all the rest at mercy ; they dare not accept of communion upon those terms . there are some things , which god has , in the general , lest free and indifferent , to do or not do ; yet at some times , and in some cases , it may be my great sin , if i should do some of them ; as when it would wound the conscience , and destroy the soul of a weak christian : if now i shall ingage my self to the church , that i will never omit such an indifferent thing ; and the soul of that weak christian should call to me to omit it , i have tyed my hands by ingagement , i cannot help him , tho' it would save his or a thousand souls out of hell ; because i have given away my freedom to the church . the answer . tho' the church does restrain our liberty in part , yet the whole is not in danger ; because she does declare , that where there is no sin in the imposition , of things indifferent ( as to the nature of the things ) yet authority may be excessive , as to the multiplicity and number of them . if the governours of the church , as the pharisees of old , should lay heavy burdens upon other mens shoulders , and not so much as touch them with one of their own fingers , there might be some colour for this objection : but we know , they are the first , the most eminent and punctual , in the practice of what is injoyn'd ; and to think they will ever incumber and overload themselves with ceremonies , is irrational . and god be thanked , we have a prelacy so moderate , so discreet and learned , there 's no ground to fear it . this author was convinced of this ; and therefore he sets up his consequence for a bug-bear ; and so perhaps when the sky falls we may have a quarry for his jealousie . the mean while we acknowledge that christ hath purchased a liberty for his church : if the son shall make you free , then shall ye be free indeed , joh. . . this is liberty from a yoak of bondage : a yoak that had a heavy burden annext to it ; from the bondage of the devil , the superstition , idolatry , and vncleanness , with all the pomps and vanities , wherewith he had inthrall'd the wicked world ; from the captivity and law of sin in our members ; from the curse of the moral law , and from the wrath of god , the fear of death , and the bondage of corruption upon that account ; from the obligation of moses law , of the levitical rites and ceremonies , with such humane traditions as had taken their rise from thence ; and altho by analogy some divines are wont to reduce unto this head such ceremonies as become matter of superstition in their use , or burdensom for their variety and number ; yet this does not impeach the authority of the church , in commanding such as shall be deemed meet to adorn the solemnity , and procure reverence and devotion , in god's house and worship . 't was the design of our redeemer to make us free from the bondage before mentioned ; but not to set us at liberty from a decent habit , from a reverent gesture , or from any innocent observance , which the authority of prudent and pious governours shall appoint . for the liberty which christ hath purchased for us is consistent with civil servitude ; ( cor. . , . ) art thou called being a servant ? care not for it . for he that is called in the lord being a servant , is christs free-man . therefore , when he saith ( in the next verse ) be not ye the servants of men ; his meaning is , as bruno hath very well exprest it , it a quòd in vobis pereat servitus christi ; be not the servants of men , so as to abandon , lessen or depretiate the service of christ. tho' ye cannot serve god and mammon , christ and belial ; yet ye may fear god , and the king ; ye may serve them both , and ye serve the lord in your duty to your relations . ( col. . . ) christ came not to dissolve the law betwixt any relations , but to tye their mutual obligations faster , tho' with the silken strings of love and charity . if we should instance in all relations , the matter of fact is evident . . betwixt masters and servants , ( eph. . . col. . . & . . ) . betwixt parents and children , ( eph. . . col. . , . ) . betwixt husband and wife , ( eph. . , &c. col. . , . ) . betwixt prince and people , ( rom. . , &c. pet. . , &c. 't is not probable , that he , whose laws do enforce the duty of all other relations with stronger ties of obligation and endearment , should leave his own house and kingdom to be the only stage for an unbridled licentiousness . things were never left so indifferent since the first creation , as to leave any man without restraint . and did christ purchase himself a church with his own blood , did he espouse her to himself in a covenant of peace and loving kindness , and then abandon her to the conduct of blind chance , to the extravagant caprichoes and wild whimseys of fanaticks , or to the lust , humour , or ambition of pretenders to religion ? no ; he has establish'd a regiment and subordination ; and altho' the government he has appointed be not despotical but ministerial , not lordly , but paternal and fatherly ; yet hath he invested his pastors and bishops with a power to order and command * , and has put his flock and his disciples under an obligation to obey † ; for authority without obedience , would be trifling and to no effect . dic ecclesiae * has sometimes been the last resort in every difference . and the sentence of the church like the oath of god ( for confirmation of the truth ) has put an end to all strife . for 't is god's solemn promise to his church ( isa. . . ) the nation and kingdom that will not serve thee , shall perish . and here we must observe a great difference between the church of christ , and some civil societies . for these may have their being first , and then frame their government ; they are first free , and have all jurisdiction originally in themselves , and then they communicate the same to kings or magistrates . but the church did not make it self , nor its own government : but christ , who is prince and head , did first appoint rules and orders , constitute laws and officers , by which his church should be governed , and then did call and assemble it ; and wherein he hath determin'd any thing , we are obliged to look upon it as necessary to the support and well-ordering of that society . whether such orders were made by himself , or determined by his apostles , ( who were immediately sent by him to that purpose ) makes no difference . for he spent forty dayes with them after his resurrection , instructing them about the constitution and government of his kingdom , ( act. . , . ) and after his ascension , he sent down the holy ghost , to establish and impower them ; that is , not only to make them prudent , but infallible . hereupon they did not only profess that they had the mind of christ , ( cor. . . gal. . . ) but that they acted all in his name † , that is , by his power , commission and authority . from hence it will undeniably follow , that such as come under this apostolical government , ( which is the government of christ's kingdom ) have no christian liberty , but what is restrain'd and limitted by the laws of that government ; because that very charter by which they claim their liberty had establish'd that government before they were called to be christians , and admitted into that society . i say , this authority and ecclesiastical government , being antecedent to the incorporation of all particular churches , the liberty of the members ( being subjects ) of those churches , must needs ( de jure ) be restrained by the laws and orders , which are inacted and appointed by that authority . what those laws and orders are , have been declared already ; we shall add these further observations of them . . they were occasional ; yet the occasions for their introduction were such , as will perpetuate the force and obligation of them . the moral law , which prescribes the substantial worship of god , teaches a double duty , . to glorife our god. and , . to edifie our neighbour . this gives the occasion and ground to the rule of significancy * ; that in the publick performance of divine worship and service , we do all things with understanding ; cor. . . i will pray with the spirit , and i will pray with understanding also : i will sing with the spirit , and i will sing with the understanding also . orabo spiritu , i. e. in demonstratione donorum spiritualium ; & orabo intelligentia , i. e. ut intelligar ab aliis ; that is , i will make such a demonstration of my spiritual gifts as shall be intelligible : here is a single instance in point of language ; for prescinding from the consideration of god's glory in the churches edification , 't is indifferent what language we use in our prayers and sermons : and by a parity of reason , not all offices and forms of administration only , but all rites and ceremonies should be significant . . under colour of christian liberty , many let loose the rains to their lusts and sensual appetites , were luxurious and libidinous even to a proverb , accounting fornication amongst things indifferent , as is generally observed by learned men. and this was a noted vice among the corinthians ; insomuch as corinthiari prisci vulgato joco dicebant eos , qui voluptatibus & scortationibus indulgerent & lenocinium exercerunt , saith bullinger ( ad cor. * . . ) they were wont to say of such as did indulge their lusts and lived in carnal pleasures , that they plaid the corinthians . others again , tho' they did not addict themselves to such leud and dishonest courses , yet would take liberty to walk contrary to the decorum of civil modesty and common custom , whereof the apostle has given several instances , ( cor. . , , , , , . ) and they would needs make religion their pretence , and the house of god their sanctuary for this prophaneness . these unseemly and dishonest courses , gave occasion for that rule of decency . . under pretence of extraordinary gifts and sudden impulses of the spirit , some would start up ( and possibly at the suggestion of the tempter , or the motion of fancy ) to the interruption of more grave , modest , and solid teachers , and to the disturbance of the whole congregation : [ vid. grot. ad cor. . , . ] quando unus adversus alterum tumens , illo adhuc loquente , loqui tentabat , dissentionem faciebat , saith haymo , & hoc deo execrabile erat : when one man swell'd against another , and would attempt to speak before the words were out of the other man's mouth , this made dissention , and was execrable to almighty god. this occasion'd that rule 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : let all things be done according to order . . when the gentiles had cast off the yoak of their heathen superstition and idolatry , and embraced the faith of christ , there were false apostles , who made it their business to reconcile them to the law of moses ; and did tempt them to adopt the foederal rites of the jews , yea , and of the gentiles too , into their practice , with the profession of christianity : this was plausible upon the account of christian liberty , and the pretence that these things were now become indifferent ; but the apostle observes the practice , not only to be hypocritical ( and unwarrantable for that reason ) : but to be full of peril and hazard otherwise : and this gave rise to his rule of expediency . . these laws and rules as they were occasional , so they are general ; and there was some reason for it : the same particular and special rules would not suit with all places , times and tempers . several nations have their several manners , humours , customs ; and we see what is veneration and decency in one part of the world , is not accounted so in another . hence we find variety of rites , forms and customs in several churches ; and those churches are not to be blam'd for it , keeping to the general and apostolick rule . absit ambitio , absit pervicacia , absit fastus & contemptus aliarum : adsit è conversò studium aedificationis , adsit moderatio & prudentia : & tunc in rituum varietate nihil exit repraehensione dignum , saith mr. calvin ( ad cor. . . ) away with ambition , away with obstinacy , away with pride and contempt of others : and on the other side take in prudence , take in moderation , take in a care of edification ; and then in the variety of rites and customs there is nothing to be reprehended . the apostles rule is general ; and the prudence of governours must deduce particulars ( as for decency , so for significancy and intelligibleness ) as occasion serves , suitable to the circumstances of times , places , and persons . . we may observe also , that these laws , and rules and orders , being apostolical , are , as to the original , the root and ground of them , divine , as if they came from the very spirit and mouth of christ himself : so the apostle , they are the commandments of the lord , ( cor. . . ) the reader may reflect upon what was mentioned above , from calvin , hemmingius , dickson , and grotius , in confirmation hereof . calixtus glosses thus upon the words , [ divinoe voluntati consentaneum esse . ] let him know that 't is consonant to the divine will , that all things be performed , which the apostle has prescrib'd , for order and edification . for that good order be kept is a divine command . but what order ought to be kept , this or that , is to be collected from the diverse consideration of persons , times , and other circumstances . thus calixtus . and bullinger to the like purpose ; when the apostle saith , if any one seems to be a prophet , let him know , that what i write unto you are the commandements of god ; he does clearly confirm , that all , which he had written of prophecy , and the use of tongues , and of ecclesiastical assemblies in general , non ex humana sed divina traditione scripsit ; he wrote it not upon any humane , but a divine tradition . from hence it will follow in the last place . . that laws made according to such general rules , are necessary to be obeyed ; we must look upon them as having their approbation from the mouth of christ , saith mr. calvin ; and ( jure divino ) says hemmingius , they do call for our obedience . and we have the suffrage of a great council with the assistance of the holy ghost for it , act. . . the things there injoyn'd , are call'd necessary things and accordingly hierome glosses upon those words of st. paul even now mentioned , cor. . * . these things are the commandements of the lord ; that is , god has by me commanded , quae factu sunt necessaria , those things which are necessary to be done . but as calixtus and malcolm have observ'd ( to give you the sence of them both in the words of the last ) necessitas illa non fuit absoluta , that necessity was not absolute , but ought to be referred to the condition of the time , that there might be the nearer approach and better agreement in their course of life between the jews and gentiles ; those things were necessary to be decreed respectively to the general rules of order and expedience , to take off the aversion of the jews , and to prevent the obduration of the gentiles , and to promote their coalition into one body , their association into one communion in the church of christ. brockman * says roundly , quod in se est liberum , propter publicum ecclesiae decretum servari debet ut necessarium , non necessitate simplici & absolutâ , sed necessitate ordinis & decori , teste dei spiritu , act . . that which is free in it self , upon the account of the churche's decree , ought to be observed as a thing necessary , not by a simple and absolute necessity , but by a necessity of order and decorum ; and he alleadgeth that very text for it , act. . . nothing therefore can be more evident than that our liberty is restrained both by positive laws , and a standing authority . i shall add yet further , that the apostle did never set up any liberty against authority , never intended to subject authority to the designs of false apostles , or the pretences of the spirit , or a tender conscience . he gave this charge , ( rom. . . ) let every soul be subject to the higher powers , and having the mind of christ ( as he professes ) he could not forget that decretory sentence , he that will not hear the church , let him be unto thee as a heathen and a publican . he was sometimes very indulgent out of his great zeal to gain all that were or might be tractable : but when he observed a faction came in as spies to find out their christian liberty , in order to intangle them in a new yoak of bondage , he opposed it with an inflexible stoutness by his apostolical authority . again , when he saw others put a restraint upon the use of things indifferent , for fear of sin , or of offending god , or on pretence of religion , he severely checkt them as superstitious , col. . . touch not , tast not , handle not . whatever faction was in vogue , he ever interposed his authòrity to quench it . when christian liberty was invaded upon the account of necessity , in order to justification and salvation ; he commands them to stand fast in their christian liberty ; but then lest they should grow high and insolent , sleight the examples of their worthy presidents , and withstand the laws of a just authority , he refers them to their spiritual guides , and injoyns them to follow their faith and practice , ( hebr. . , . ) phil. . . nor is this all , he asserts his authority at a higher rate than this : he tells them he has [ power enough ] in a readiness to avenge all disobedience ; and to encounter such as were puffed up against his clemency ; which makes him put it to their deliberation what method of discipline he should use among them : what will you ? shall i come unto you with a rod , or in love , or in the spirit of meekness ? ( cor. . last . ) and if they will urge him to it , if he must use the rod , he tells them he will not spare , he will use sharpness according to the power the lord had given him , to edification , and not unto destruction , ( cor. . . ) by excusing himself from this severity , he makes his threatning the more formidable , ( saith oecumenius ) the power of inflicting censures , he ascribes to christ ; and tho' this power may by accident be destructive to the flesh , yet it is certainly design'd for the benefit of the church ; nam punire peccantes aedificatio ecclesiae est , the punishment of offenders , is the edification of the church , while by the punishment of such , others are rendred more stedfast and more approved , says the same author , when he made any ordinances , he did expect a due observation of them : now , i praise you , brethren , that you remember me in all things , and keep the traditions ( or the ordinances ) as i delivered them unto you . ( cor. . . * . ) and 't is observed , these traditions were not dogmatical , but ritual , and about things indifferent ; nor yet were they perpetual , but temporary , ( as sclater notes ) and when his ordinances of this nature were neglected or despised , he could express himself like a son of thunder . witness , what he writes upon this argument ( cor. . , . ) and he appeals to such as pretended to the spirit , and to the gift of prophecy , if any man think himself to be a prophet , or spiritual , let him acknowledge , that the things which i write unto you , are the commandment of the lord. but if any man be ignorant , let him be ignorant . the apostle does here anticipate the prejudice of proud men , ( saith sclater ) who had it in their hearts to object thus ; seeing we are spiritual , we are able enough surely to judge of these things ; so that you shall not need to interpose your opinion . there were a sort of high-minded men , who thought themselves above the apostles teaching ; and the only wise men of all the church , and therefore they prefer'd themseves above all others ; and here the apostle does repress their supercilious arrogance ( saith aretius . ) dickson calls them sciolists ( for all their pretended gifts , ) and tells us the apostle does here contemn their affected ignorance , and a precept being now given to the governours of the church , that they should acknowledge these commands to be divine , he remits these ignorant contemners of them , to the moderators of discipline ( that 's the phrase it seems among the scotish presbyterians ) to be dealt withal according to the rule and judgment of the apostle . in settling these rules and orders , the apostle seems to say , i have done my duty ; if any man will yet continue obstinate , and will not understand his own , let him affect his ignorance at his own peril ; nam spreta authoritas apostolica , deum habet vindicem , saith grotius ; for when the apostolical authority is despised , god is the avenger of it . atque ita contentiosis qui acquiescere nesciunt , & nullum finem disputandi faciunt , froenum injicit ( saith calixtus : ) and thus he casts a bridle upon the contentious , who know not how to acquiesce , or make an end of their disputing . by all this it is evident , that the apostle never set up any christian liberty against a just authority ; never intended to subject authority to the designs of false apostles or pretenders to the spirit ; what he hath delivered in favour of weak christians we shall consider anon . in the mean while ( and in order to that ) it may be worth our inquiry , why the great apostle should vary so much in his way of handling the same argument . of circumcision and other ceremonies , it is observable , he treats more mildly and gently in his epistle to the romans , but more severely and sharply a great deal in his epistles to the galatians and colossians . was it out of condescention to their weakness at his first writing , which was not to be continued , when success of time might have afforded them sufficient means of better information ? so the author of the synopsis * thinks ; but then the epistle to the romans should be more early written , then the learned do allow it was . soto † is of opinion , that the mystery of st. peter's vision ( which directed him to converse with cornelius and other gentiles , act. . , &c. ) was not yet published to the romans , or at least that they did not understand the meaning of it ; and thence he collects also , that the council mentioned , act. . was not then assembled . in the epistle to the romans the controversie chiefly lay between grace and nature ; but in that to the galatians , it was betwixt the law and faith , saith ambianus , ⸫ the apostle was angry with the galatians ; because , tho' they were very well instructed , yet they were easily seduced . but he ought not to be angry with the romans , but to commend their faith , quia nulla virtutum videntes insignia susciperunt fidem christi ( saith the comment of st. ambrose ‖ ) because they had embraced the faith , tho' they had seen no miracles ; and tho' they mistook the sense , it was , because they had not yet been sufficiently instructed in the mystery of christ's cross. the epistle to the galatians was written only to gentiles ; that to the romans , was written both to jews and gentiles , as s. hierom * has observed . the jewish converts tho' they embraced the faith , yet they thought themselves still obliged to moses law , to abstain from certain meats , and to observe certain days according to the jewish customs : on the other side , the gentiles , ( and such as were better instructed in the truth of the gospel ) they embraced the faith of christ , but would not be concern'd in those mosaical observances , to which they had never been addicted ; hereupon heats and animosities did arise , which kindled into a despising and condemning of one another . now in this epistle to the romans , it was the great temper and prudence of the apostle to carry an even hand betwixt the two contending parties , and amicably to compromise † the difference between them . we must remember st. paul had not yet been at rome : and altho' upon information and complaint from some other churches , he gave orders ( at a distance ) for the redress of some particular miscarriages ; yet some other things he thought fit to reserve till his own personal presence should give him an opportunity to inspect the temper and conditions of the people , that he might be the better able to settle such rules and orders as should appear to be most convenient . thus he did in the church of corinth : many undecent carriages he corrected by his epistle , coetera autem quae ad aedificationem ecclesiae pertinent , praesentiâ suâ ordinare se promisit , ( saith st. ambros. ad cor. . ult . ) other things which concern'd the edification of the church , he promised to set in order by his presence . and thus de did touching the church of rome . some points of doctrine he carefully stated ; as justification by grace , through the faith , which is in christ jesus , &c. he taught the jew and gentile-converts likewise , how they should carry themselves respectively to one another ; that the strong should not despise the weak , nor the weak judge and condemn the strong . but these were directions for common use among private christians : but for decrees and orders of publick use and practice , he gave out none to this church ; because as yet , here was no jurisdiction settled , no laws made , no governours appointed to put them in execution . this grotius collects from rom. . , , & . this makes me believe , that there were then no common assemblies ( of christians ) saith he , or no presbyterie at rome . otherwise in stead of commanding to mark such as caused those scandals , or schisms , he would have had them excommunicated . for when the church is without such government , single persons can do no more than avoid familiar conversation with such as live not according to the rule of christ. thus grotius catharinus seems to collect no less from the apostles expostulation , rom. . . who art thou that judgest another man's servant ? cùm non sis pastor aut dominus ejus , seeing thou art neither his pastour nor his lord : and therefore thou hast no right to pass sentence on him . and as much is to be concluded from the verse , hast thou faith ? have it to thy self before god. had there been a bishop settled there , it had been their duty in any matter of hesitation , to consult him , to resolve their doubts , and settle their persuasions ; but as yet there was no such establishment ; hereupon he does advise them to be sincere in their profession , and to carry themselves uprightly between god and their own conscience . catharinus to this purpose saith thus ; thou hast faith ; that is , thou hast a clear knowledge of thy liberty in matters indifferent : but have this faith to thy self before god ; that thou mayest not hurt thy weak brother . and this is always to be the practice in such things as the church does tolerate : they are to be dissembled or concealed , and we must yield to infirmity , for a time , till the matter comes to be made more clear . but then we ought to dissemble or conceal ( our persuasion ) no longer , but freely to declare , and boldly to follow what the church hath established : thus catharinus ; for then obedientia praecepti est , our obedience is under precept , as tolet hath observed * . the apostle doth predict and promise them a happy conquest over all adversary power , whether exercised by subtlety and imposture or otherwise , rom. . † . the god of peace shall bruise satan under your feet shortly . he means the false apostles , deceivers , and disturbers of the churches peace , the signal instruments of satan ; and their overthrow should be by his speedy comming to them , to ordain what was wanting to their settlement . the design of this digression is to shew , that the apostle did never give colour to set up christian liberty against the laws and authority of the church . and 't is further evident , that the church did from time to time prescribe and limit the use of things indifferent , as they judged it most expedient , to avoid scandal , and promote edification . and to this purpose they did observe times , and determine things , and distinguish persons . . they did observe times ; for the people of the jews had been so long wedded unto moses , had so great a veneration for all his laws , rites , and ceremonies , and these were so constantly inculcated into them every sabbath day ( as st. james observes , act. ▪ . ) that they could not suddenly be weaned from the practice of them . and they were a people so perverse , stubborn , and inflexible , that st. peter himself was pendulous and knew not well how to handle them : yea , tho' he had a vision from heaven to instruct him in his duty that way ( act. . . ) yet still he was sometimes afraid to own the conversation of the gentiles ; and as his fear had once betrayed him to disown christ himself , so in this case it betray'd him to disown his own christian liberty . gal. . . st. paul was pendulous too , and acted the same part for some time upon the same account ; for one while , to comply with their zeal for the law of moses , he circumcised timothy , ( act. . . ) and purified himself with other votaries , after the rites and custom of the law , ( act. . . ) but afterward he grew more resolved ( as he perceived the jews grew more obstinate and malicious ) and would neither yield to have titus circumcised , nor endure peter's counterfeit compliance with the humour of the jews , to the prejudice of the gospel , gal. , . . but when certain of the sect of the pharisees would needs intail salvation upon circumcision and the law of moses ( act. . , . ) 't was high time to consult the apostles and elders about this matter ; lest the gentiles in general should be discouraged from embracing the gospel , and such as had embraced it already should be tempted to apostatize from the profession of it . the council convened at jerusalem to decide this controversie , determines in this decree , that the gentiles should abstain from meats offered to idols , and from blood , and from things strangled , and from fornication , ( vers. . ) here is a restraint put upon the gentiles in favour of the jews ; and they restrain'd them in one practice which was amongst them , as a foederal rite of their religion , eating in their idols temples , and of such meats as had been offer'd unto idols ; these things of themselves were indifferent , ( as st. paul proves at large , cor. . . and chap. , , . and among these they reckon fornication ; because ( tho' forbidden by the moral law ) it was lookt upon , as a thing indifferent among the gentiles . in order to a coalition of jews and gentiles into one communion , they would have the gentiles so far to conform to the jews in their daily and familiar conversation , as to abstain from ( such things as the jews did most abhor ) the eating of things offer'd to idols , from blood , and from things strangled ; these were not necessary simply and in strict speaking , but indifferent ; yet being so highly expedient to the edification and unity of the church , they were pass'd into the decree as necessary things , act. . . here was nothing determin'd as to the point of circumcision ; yet in this very decree it was tacitly imply'd , that after the death of christ , neither circumcision , nor the sacrifices or ceremonies of the law , were necessary either to the jews or gentiles , toward the obtaining of faith or salvation . and yet to such jews as became christians , and lived in palestine , they concluded the observation thereof so far forth necessary , till the destruction of the temple , that they might not seem to have lost their reverence for god's commands , and by that means so alienate the minds of their countreymen both from themselves , and from christianity . to decide the case concerning the ceremonial law , st. austin does distinguish three periods of times . the first , before christ's passion , wherein those precepts were alive , in vigour and of great obligation . the second time was from the passion of christ to the sufficient promulgation of the gospel , wherein those precepts were dead , and did neither bind nor profit any body , yet they were not deadly : but tolerated and exposed to view as a herse lay'd in state , till they might receive an honourable burial , in the rubbish of the temple . but when men began to pay an awful reverence to this deceased body of moses , and to put their trust in it for grace and salvation ; then the rites and ceremonies of this law became deadly , and began to stink , as false signs of a thing to come , which really was already past ; and then this law was utterly exploded as an imposture and an object of superstition . to this observation of times by the apostles , i shall add but one thing more : there was a time when the apostle thought fit to tell the philippians , that in some cases , they might ( then ) expect a clearer revelation , phil. . . but we being so well assured , that the perfect canon of scripture is consigned to the church , he will be in great danger of enthusiasm , who now expects a further revelation . . as the apostles did observe times , so they did determine things . what things were determined by that council , ( act. . ) ( for a temporary observation among the gentiles ) you have seen already : but the capital question , that about circumcision , was left undecided . at this the false apostles and sect of pharisees took advantage . that gentiles might be admitted into their communion they did not deny , but would have them made proselytes of the covenant , whereof circumcision was the foederal rite : this sacrament therefore they must receive for their initiation , else they could not be saved ▪ ( as act. . . ) this makes the apostle write so sharply against circumcision ( which in effect did imply an obligation to observe the whole law , gal. . in short , those converts , whether brought into the christian church , from the communion of the jews or gentiles , their case was this : the jewish part of them had been educated under the discipline of moses ; the false apostles told them they were yet under the bond of that dispensation , and some were so simple and weak as to believe them . hereupon they had still an eye to those jewish rites and sacraments , even in the use of christ's own institutions . they did judaize in the matter of circumcision , and paschatize in the use of the lord's supper , wherein they had a greater veneration and respect for their old passover than for christ's sacrifice ; and for this reason * the apostle taxeth them , that in the celebration thereof , they did not discern the lord's body . by this means the apostle tells them they did renounce their part in christ , and were faln from grace , ( gal. . , . ) and he says , as ill things of the gentiles . for by the rites and ceremonies of their religion , and particularly by their feasts in the idols temple , they held a communion with devils . now to see such as had taken upon them the profession of christianity , play the jews and gentiles , in addicting themselves to the institutions , rites , and ceremonies of that religion and worship , which those jews and gentiles respectively did profess and practise , this was such a scandal to the conscientious and weak disciples , the apostle could not dissemble the resentment of it ; but tells them plainly , they did renounce christ in it , they were faln from grace , and were in communion with devils * , and christ should profit them nothing ; and the scandal they gave hereby might harden unbelievers , and betray weak christians to fall into the same state of condemnation † . hereupon they came to a determination , and did actually restrain the use of christian liberty in these things . . they did distinguish of persons : among christians , they found some that were weak , and some that were strong : the strong were those that were sound in the faith ; they perfectly understood the extent of christian liberty , the nature and use of things indifferent : they could forbear or use them as occasion served , without hesitation or doubtfulness : they were offended at nothing ; the weak were such as had the faith newly planted in them : they were novices in christianity , and their faith being yet tender , was apt to be shaken by ill documents and examples . 't is an observation of st. hìerom ( on mat. . . ) quòd qui scandalizatur , parvulus est : majores enim scandala non recipiunt : he that is offended is ( weak , or ) a little one : for the greater ( strong in the faith ) receive no offence , or scandal : but all men had not this faith , ( rom. . . ) there were some weak ( saith catharinus ) qui metuebant , ubi omnis timoris cessaverat ratio , & volebant semper manere in legis lacte & elementis : such as did fear where there was no reason at all for it ; and they would ( by their good will ) be always feeding upon the milk of the law. from this distinction of persons , some things are observable . . that this weakness proceeds from ignorance , cor. . . howbeit there is not in every man that knowledge . then when the church was an infant , certain of the converted from judaism did believe , and contend , that the law was not antiquated by the gospel ; but was rather to be observed together with it . and these ( saith soto ) the apostle calls weak in the faith , quasi nondum satis progressos confirmatosque in cognitione fidei : as if they were not as yet sufficiently instructed and confirmed in the knowledge of the gospel . and this brings great mischief to the church ; saepenumero enim turbae in ecclesiis oriuntur , ex eo , quod imperiti & ignari , nolint imperiti & ignari videri , sed peritiorum & doctorum locum occupent , saith hemmingius * , debates and factions in the churches do , for the most part , arise from hence , that such as are ignorant and unskilful will not seem to be such , but will needs possess the place of the more skilful and learned . vnde enim turbae magnâ ex parte , ( saith sclater ) nisi quòd imperiti nolunt imperiti esse , sed peritorum locum occupant ? ad corinth . . . in scholiis . . the second observable is this , that these weak ones are more prone to superstition . some renders the word * [ weak ] by one that is more [ scrupulous , ] si quis fuerit inter eos , fortassis judaeorum genere , qui ob diutinam superioris instituti vitaeque consuetudinem , sit adhuc superstitiosior ; nec adhuc sic in eo sides adoleverit , ut omnem pristinae legis observationem excludat , &c. de la cerda , ad rom. . n. . & n. . alius enim , qui sc. est perfectus & firmus in fide , vacansque omni superstitione ; he is persuaded he may lawfully eat all things : that is , he that is most free to use his christian liberty , is most free from superstition . for from hence there arose such contentions and disputes between the convert jews and gentiles , illis reliquos damnantibus tanquam profanos & contemptores legis divinae , his vicissim habentibus illos pro imperitis & superstitiosis : saith calixtus † ; they ( the jews ) condemning the rest as prophane ; and contemners of the divine law , these on the other side ( the gentiles ) accounting them for ignorant and superstitious . for what signifies superstition , but an immoderate fear ? ( saith mr. calvin ⸫ ) quo se anxiè torquent superstitiosi homines , dum sibi fabricant inanos scrupulos ? whereby superstitious men do torment themselves with much anguish , while they frame vain scruples to themselves . . a man may lose the title of a weak brother , and the benefits indulged by the apostle to such persons . 't is mr. perkin 's distinction of persons ; some are weak , and some are obstinate . weak ones are such , as having turned unto god , and carrying in their hearts a purpose in all things to please god , nevertheless do sundry things amiss , upon simple ignorance , or bad custom , till they be better inform'd . and a little after , this being always remembred , that weak ones truely turn to god , and carry in their hearts an honest purpose not to sin against his laws at any time wittingly and willingly . obstinate persons are such as profess the faith , and yet hold and practice bad things of wilful ignorance , and of malice . these persons , ( saith he ) are not to be born with , nor to be respected . . after sufficient time and means of information , if a man will be offended , 't is supposed to be out of stubborness and malice : si ille qui scandalum accipit , vel quodvis aliud detrimentum ex ignorantia , fuerit eo usque admonitus , ut non possit jure & merito ignorantiam obtendere , jam ex malitia censetur scandalizari ; saith soto : if he that takes offence through ignorance , shall be so far admonish'd , that he cannot justly pretend ignorance , he is supposed to be offended out of malice . . when from a modest inquirer , out of a timerous scrupulosity , a mancomes to be positive and dogmatical , and will not endure sound doctrine , but after his own lusts shall heap up to himself teachers , having itching ears ; he can no longer pass the muster for a weak brother . as long as there is any appearance or probability , that a heretick , a schismatick , or seditious person , and other persons of pestilent principles to the publick good , are sick of ignorance , it is safe , and an office of charity to bear with them , and to admonish them of the truth with gentleness ; quoniam ignorantia medicabile est vitium , ( saith de la cerda * . ) because ignorance is a medicable vice : a fault that may be healed † , but ( saith he ) assoon as it appears , that such persons adhere to their sects , out of pride and frowardness , out of affection and animosity , they are presently to be avoided , according to that of the apostle , hoereticum , &c. a man that is an heretick , after the first and second admonition , reject : knowing that he that is such is subverted , and sinneth , being condemned of himself . ( tit. . , . ) and ( thes. . . ) we command you , that you withdraw your selves from every brother that walketh disorderly , v. grot. ad locum . . when a man is pufft up with an opinion of his own knowledge , when he becomes a fierce disputant , and a malicious insidiator ; when he grows stubborn and despiseth dominion ; when he does dogmatize and censure , and take the scorner's chair ; he does then commence schismatick ; and is by no means to be treated as a weak brother , but as a seditious mutineer : for now , 't is evident , he dissents not out of weakness , but out of pride , animosity , and stubbornness . ferus could say , very truly and pertinently ( on rom. . ) non loquitur de his , quae ex impudentia , pertinatia , aut destinatâ malitiâ committimus : the apostle speaks not of such things , as we commit , out of impudence , obstinacy , or prepensed malice and design . for , if he who takes offence , does it out of malice : nempe quòd vel nullâ offuscatur ignorantiâ , vel illâ penitus , cujus potest facile convinci , sed aut per vafritiem , aut per obstinationem scàndalizatur , neutiquam tenemur morem gerere nequitioe ejus , saith soto : if he be not clouded with ignorance , or with such ignorance only as he may easily be convinced of , and yet is scandalized , either out of craftiness , or through obstinacy , we are by no means bound to satisfie his wickedness : for otherwise ( as he says ) we should be bound to connive at hereticks , and ( for instance ) to abstain from flesh , for fear the jovinians should take offence at us . and because the dissenters take sanctuary , upon all occasions in the fourteenth chapter to the romans , we shall the more particularly consider it . that the doctrine therein delivered was peculiar to the jews , is the affirmation of the learned estius * , and he has it twice for failing ; and our synopsis † says the same after him . de ceremoniis judaicis , non christianis apostolus loquitur : the apostle speaks of jewish , not of christian ceremonies , saith matthisius * : and mr. perkins † is of the same judgment ; for he saith , that commandement ( rom. . . ) was given by paul for those times , when men were not fully persuaded of the use of god's creatures , as meats , drinks , &c. but to these times it is not . nor indeed can it directly be applied to us for this reason . the apostle there gives directions to accommodate the differences betwixt private persons : but among us the contest is , between authority and faction , the church and private dissenters from her communion . now when from an indifferent action , or the omission of it , one of two evils will necessarily follow , right reason dictates , that i must so act or omit acting , that i may avoid the greater evil . but certainly , being under her jurisdiction , 't is a greater evil to offend the church * than any private person or persons , who are but members of it . and , as when the competition is betwixt them , i must obey god , rather than man : so when the competition is between the church , and private persons , common reason will soon determine , which is to be prefer'd . the right stands presumptively for the governing party , who are in possession of their authority ; and i am certainly obliged in law and conscience to adhere and submit to them ; because the law concludes , melior est conditio possidentis * ; they that are in possession have the fairest right : especially where the possession began upon so good a title , and has been of so long continuance without interruption . give none offence , saith the apostle , neither to the jews , nor to the greeks , nor to the church of god , cor. . . which we must interpret by that other rule of the apostle , gal. . . let us do good unto all men , especially to them , who are of the houshold of faith. if i cannot please all , i must be sure not to offend the church , to which i stand more strictly obliged than to any conventicle or private person whatsoever . i would fain know also of these dissenters , under what form they will place themselves . if they be strong in the faith , then they are so well instructed in the nature of christian liberty , and things indifferent , they cannot be offended at the use or forbearance of such things : if they be weak , that weakness proceeds from ignorance ' , and a proneness to superstition ( as was observed above ) : and 't is their duty to seek for better information , and acquiesce in the sense and resolution of authority , when they have it . but they should do well to remember , there is another sort of men , a faction , that is a sort of obstinate men ; and how little value is to be set on such , we have heard from mr. perkins . . but it will be alleadged , that the apostle will have us to receive him that is weak in the faith ; but not to doubtful disputations , ( rom. . . ) we must use them gently as we do by sick persons , the weakness of whose constitution , will not indure stronger medicaments ; we must apply remedies that are more mild , take care of their diet , and attend them with great care and diligence . but we must not forget , that this was only a temporary provision to keep the peace among private christians : itaque suscipiendi erant ad tempus & non spernandi ( saith catharinus ) quoad usque securis ad radicem poneretur ; they were not to be despised but to be received for a time , until the axe was laid to the root ; that is ( saith he ) until the apostles had made a perfect determination , and by that means had cut off those leaves of the law , which were without fruit , and the wholsom sap of truth . we know it is the office of the bishop , not only to instruct in meekness , but to reprove , rebnke , and by sound doctrine both to exhort and convince gainsayers . and when authority hath settled matters of difference , the subjects rule is express and positive , ( phil. . . ) do all things without murmuring and disputing , v. act. . . . but it is objected , as the charge of the apostle , that no man put a stumbling block , or an occasion to fall in his brothers way , rom. . . but this is to be understood of an active scandal , design'd , as a mouse-trap set and ready baited on purpose to entice and catch the unwary mouse , as tirinus * notes from the word . it is to be understood , saith cajetan , of putting a stumbling block formally , secundum propriam rationem scandali , according to the proper account of scandal to the mortal ruine of another person . this scandal is in a matter , that is in my own choice and power , rom. . . and it is to be understood in cases wherein authority has not interposed her determination ; for that does supersede my choice . 't is very well observed therefore by g. ambianas † , that liberty is promiscuous both to the strong and to the weak , but with this limitation , vbi nec pietas violatur conscientiae , nec ecclesiae temeratur auctoritas ; where the piety of conscience is not violated , nor the authority of the church infring'd . but here we must observe some rules to direct our practice . . i must not omit a duty to avoid scandal ; for that were to do evil that good may come , which the apostle says is damnable , ( rom. . . ) nor . can i properly be said to give scandal by performing that which is my duty antecedently to that scandal ; for then my duty should be my sin : and i should be under a necessity of sinning , whether i do my duty , or do it not ; which is absur'd . . spiritual things which are necessary to salvation * are not to be omitted to avoid scandal ; for then i should be bound to go to hell to avoid scandal : but obedience to my superiours is a thing spiritual , and 't is necessary to salvation , rom. . . hebr. . . . i give no offence in doing my bounden duty : but he that takes offence at it , he does it at his own peril . if my dissenting brother doubts of the authority that commands the duty ; yet if i be well persuaded of it , i must govern my self not by his , but by the persuasion of my own conscience , rom. . . . it may be objected further , that the apostle would have us do ( as he says he did himself ) please all men : but we should remember there is a restraint put upon the duty : we must only please them for their good , that is , their spiritual profit , that they may be saved , rom. . . with cor. . . quod ergo saluti eorum contrarium est , illis concedere non oportet , says mr. calvin . i must not grant them that which is contrary , or prejudicial to their salvation . i must therefore do nothing , that may , . encourage them to oppose authority ; because this very apostle tells me , that such as resist shall receive to themselves damnation , rom. . . therefore if i act conform to the rule of charity , ( rom. . . ) i must take care ( as the apostle saith ) to please my neighbour to his good ; not to feed his humour and make him the more obstinate , as vorstius hath well observed ; for that were to lay a new scandal in his way , contrary to this very apostle , rom. . . cor. . . . it must be for his edification ( rom. . . ) non tam ut grati simus assentando & palpando , quam ipsorum utilitati ac saluti inserviendo , saith matthisius : not so much to make our selves acceptable by soothing and flattering them , as by making our selves serviceable to their salvation . this applying our selves to his edification , supposes him indeed to be weak , but it supposes him also to be tractable ; but if he be proud , an admirer , of his own abilities , one that leans to his own understanding and will not indure sound doctrine , he has no title to my tenderness or forbearance ; his conversation is rather to be rejected by the rule of this apostle , tim. . . . i am so far to please him as is consistent with the truth and priviledges of the gospel . where these were wittingly infringed , the apostle had not the least patience to dissemble the resentment of it , no not for an hour , gal. . , . with . and the truth and priviledges of the gospel are no less infringed by the interdict and superstitious forlearance of a thing indifferent , than by the injunction and superstitious usage of it , colos. . . . to this , i may add another allegation ; the apostle requires christians to follow after the things which make for peace , rom. . . but . 't is some comfort that in this case , he ties us not to impossibilities . and to humour some men in their superstitious scrupulosities is little less , 't is a task too great for any ordinary virtue , a burden more intolerable than the jewish yoak of bondage , such a circumcision of all our freedom as would never suffer us to be at ease in any of our enjoyments . the worst of tyranny is more eligible than such anarchy and confusion , wherein every false apostle or factious teacher sets up a tribunal and supremacy for himself and such disciples as he can draw after him , paramount to the judgment and authority of his superiours . but . st. paul is , in that place , prescribing an expedient for the peace of private christians ; to which nothing can conduce more than a mutual tenderness and forbearance ; when the strong and more-knowing do not despise the weak , for their ignorance and folly ; nor the weak and ignorant judge and condemn the more knowing for their freedom in the use of things indifferent . nor ought one man to condemn or despise another , dum coelesti praecepto non obviet , saith a moderate and learned romanist , while he walks not contrary to any divine precept * . but persons in authority are to take care of the publick peace ; whereof there can be no better preservation than order † and vniformity , in submission to the decrees of governours . this made the apostle so careful to deliver the decrees to be kept , which were ordained by the apostles and elders at jerusalem , act. . . optimum tunc fovendae inter ecclesias concordiae vinculum erat , servare quod per apostolos fuerat transactum . in eo cùm diligens est paulus , bonâ fide cavet , ne quid oriatur turbae suâ culpâ , saith * calvin . the best tie of concord among the churches in those days was , to observe and keep what had been transacted and determined by the apostles , and governours . in which st. paul being very diligent , did faithfully provide that no disorder should arise through any fault in him . that synod gave an example to after ages , and taught them by experience what course is best to follow ; and 't is that which all protestant churches do observe to this day . this is evident among the calvinists ; for in the fifth chapter of their discipline , under the title , de consistoriis , art. . where they prescribe a way for the ending of controversies , which may arise concerning any head , whether of doctrine , or of discipline , when the matter is brought to a national synod , they resolve thus , hîc integra fiet & ultima per verbum dei totius quoestionis decisio , cui si renuant omninò acquiescere , erroresque disertè abjicere , ab ecclesiâ abscindentur : here shall be made the intire and ultimate decision of the whole matter in controversie , by the word of god ; and such as refuse to acquiesce in it , and to forsake their errours , let them be cut off from the communion of the church . the apostle therefore does not enjoyn the prince to lay aside his sword to make peace ; nor will he lay by his own rod , when occasion serves to use it , ( cor. . last . ) for that is design'd for edification as well as the spirit of meekness , ( cor. . . ) and they that were of a factious and untractable disposition , he did not advise the christians at rome to flatter or humour them for their edification ; but to mark and avoid them , to shame them into conformity , rom. . . for in truth , when a law is made and orders given , ( and all care taken to give satisfaction touching the equity of them ) then to walk disorderly * , is the part of absur'd and unreasonable men , such as will keep no place , no rank , no decorum ; and such are to be look'd upon as proud , stubborn , and of ill humour ; and st. paul will have them treated accordingly , tim. . , , . but the apostle himself seems to be much more tender in the point , as appears , not only by his general advice , but also by his personal resolution . it is good , saith he , neither to eat flesh , nor to drink wine , nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth , or is offended , or is made weak , rom. . . and cor. . . if meat make my brother to offend , i will eat no flesh while the world standeth , lest i make my brother to offend . to this i answer , that many expositors do restrain the words of the apostle , to such wine and flesh as had been offer'd up in sacrifice to heathen - idols ; and so the sense is clear and easie ; and i know no good christian but would observe the rule , if there were occasion for it . for , as s. ambrose noteth upon ( cor. . . ) a measure is to be observed in those things which the law allows us . vxorem certè licet habere : sed si fornicata fuerit , abjicienda est : ita & carnem licet edere , sed si idolis oblata fuerit , respuenda est : it is lawful to have a wife ; but if she commits fornication , she is to be put away : so we may eat flesh ; but if it be offer'd up to idols , it is to be refused : thus st. ambrose . but this concerns not us at all ; for we have no such flesh sold in our shambles ; no such wine in our taverns , no such heathen feasts , no such idols ( god be thank'd ) among us . but , i answer , . the apostle writes ( especially to the corinthians ) as an orator , by way of hyperbole & exaggeration * . we have the like kind of expression mat . . as grotius has observed . there is apparently an excess in it ; and 't is impossible that rule should be observed to a general satisfaction . this we may learn from st. austin ; for ( as he hath it * ) sicut quod ait apostolus verum est , malum esse homini , qui per offensionem manducat ; ita malum est homini , qui per offensionem jejunat : as that of the apostle is true , 't is evil to him that eateth with offence : so it is no less true , 't is evil to him that fasteth with offence . hereupon de la cerde † , doth very well observe , that sometimes it may be necessary to eat flesh and drink wine , to avoid scandal ; lest by abstaining from such things as were prohibited by their respective laws , a man should fall under a suspition , that he plays the jew , or observes the law of the saracens . wherefore in strict speaking , this branch of the apostles discourse , is neither to be drawn into practice or argument . for one man ( as he himself hath told us , rom. . . ) will observe a day , another will not , one man will eat ( swines ) flesh , another does abhor it . i cannot satisfie them both ; for both are scrupulous , and both respectively offended at one anothers practice . to eat and not to eat ; to esteem a day , and not to esteem it ; these are perfect contradictions ; and 't is impossible for any charity , for the charity of an apostle , to reconcile his practice to both their scruples . st. paul himself ( at last ) found this insuperable difficulty by experience , upon the congress of the jew , and gentile converts . therefore instead of a charitable and prudential expedient ( which in this case was impossible to find out ) he withstood st. peter to the face , and with great integrity and stoutness , asserted the truth of the gospel ; and the extent of christian liberty . ( gal. . ) and herein he left us ( his own practice ) an example , to maintain our privilege ; and not to govern our selves by the timorous squeamishness , or pretended scruples of superstitious men ( which may be contradictory and endless ) but by the solid rules of truth , and the prudent resolutions of pious governours . . it may be further alleadged , that the apostle would not have us make use of our christian liberty against charity , ( rom. . . ) 't is very true charity should direct and moderate our christian liberty , that our mutual content may not be disturbed by the abuse of that liberty : but rather , that we may worship and glorifie our god with unanimity . charity is a great mistress within her own jurisdiction ; and when positive laws may be superseded , the law of charity will oblige us . but must the church spend all her stock of charity upon these dissenters , while they have no love , no respect at all for the church ? in reference to a private neighbour , there is debitum charitatis , a debt of charity : but in reference to my governours there is † debitum necessitatis , ( in respect of their authority over me ) a debt of necessity . * . the apostle tells us , that love is the fulfilling of the law ; and certainly , if it be an ordinate love , when it looks upon the second table , it will begin with the practice of the fifth commandment . and it ought to be considered , that st. peter speaks with reference to authority , when he gives that injunction ( pet. . . ) as free , and not using your liberty as a cloak of maliciousness , but as the servants of god. my liberty is like my cloak in this , that i may lay it down , or put it on , as occasion shall require . and it shews very little respect to my superiours , if i will not lay aside my cloak to take an innocent walk with them into the house of god. and if , notwithstanding our christian liberty , ( gal. . , . ) the law of love does oblige us to serve all men , sure it can never allow us to dispise our governours , or their commands . besides there are other ways to express our charity : potest is qui infirmus est sufficienter instrui & doceri ; fratrem bene agere ; quodque ejus facto offendi non debeat : the weak may be sufficiently instructed and taught , that his brother does well , and that he has no reason to be offended at him ; so saith estius , and this will be the best instance of our charity . whereas if i encourage him in his disobedience , either by my discourse or example , i do certainly give him scandal ; and that we are sure is against charity . but what if my weak brother will not lay aside his errour ? * that learned man hath answer'd this question too ; post quam sufficientem ac plenam instructionem , si adhuc in scandalo perseveret , non erit illud scandalum datum sed acceptum ; after sufficient and full instruction , if he still perseveres in his scandal , it will not then be a scandal given , but taken ; for then it will proceed not out of ignorance , but out of malice : quale erat scandalum pharisaeorum , quod dominus in evangelio docuit , non esse curandum , mat. . and such was the scandal of the pharisees , which the lord hath taught us in the gospel , is not to be regarded ; thus the learned estius , ( ibid. ) and now i suppose , we shall not need to fear any objection from christ's example in this case ; tho' propound by the apostle , rom. . . . for never could any man be more tender of giving offence , ( whether by word or deed ) than he was ; and that he would have us to be so too , ( when the party is to be treated with tenderness ) we may conclude from the severity of his sentence upon such as do the contrary . ( mat. . . ) but for all that great compassion , which he had for his little ones , his weak and infirm disciples , his divine wisdom was pleased to make a difference ; and he had his vae vobis , his let them alone , his sharp reproofs , and his dereliction for the scribes and pharisees ( mat. . , , . ) and truely , we do not desire , much less dare we pretend to be wiser , or more charitable than our lord and master . danda quidem opera est , quoad licebit , ne qua ex nostra dicendi ratione offensio nascatur : sed extremae insaniae foret , velle nobis prudentiùs moderari , quam edocti sumus à coelesti magistro ; saith mr. calvin * : care must be taken ( as much as in us lyes ) that no osfence arise from the manner of our words ( or actions ) ; but it were a part of extreme madness , to think we can carry our selves more prudently , than we are taught by our heavenly lord and master . christ knew very well that the pharisees were offended at his doctrine ( saith the learned luc. brugensis : ) sed non judicabat operae pretium ut placandis illis intenderet , aut clariùs interpretaretur doctrinam contumacitèr rejecturis : but he did not think it worth the while to endeavour to pacifie them , or to give a clearer interpretation of his doctrine to them , who would reject it with contumacy and stubborness . and a little after , significat hîc porro christus — christ does signifie thus much to us , that such men are not so much to be regarded , as that their offence should greatly trouble us , who take occasion of osfence from our good , when the cause of it is solely in themselves . yet there is some need of judgment and prudence , that we may distinguish betwixt the weak , who being offended out of ignorance , mox se reddunt sandbiles , do quickly become curable , and the malignant and contumacious , who study , invite and pick up scandals , almost out of every word and action . thus luc. brugensis . the dissenters go on thus . there are some things which god hath in the general left free , and indifferent , to do or not to do ; yet at some times , and in some cases it may be my great sin if i should do some of them ; as when it would wound the conscience , and destroy the soul of a weak christian. to this i answer : . that the pleas of christian liberty and weakness , were never more abused than by such as have pretended to defend them . the abuse hereof against sobriety and temperance , have been taken notice of by the two great apostles , and caveals entred by them both against it , gal. . . pet. . , , . see soto ad rom. . , . p. . the abuse hereof against authority , st. paul takes notice of rom. . vnde non dubia conjectura colligimus , fuisse tum quosdam inquietos , qui libertatem christianam stare non putarent , nisi deturbata civili potestate . from whence we undoubtedly collect , that there were unquiet spirits in those times , who thought christian liberty could not stand without the disturbance of the civil power , saith mr. calvin * . hence st. peter , as free , and not using your liberty as a cloak of maliciousness , ( pet. . . ) freed by christ from many yoaks , but not from that of subjection to god or to superiours , and therefore not pretending to any such liberty , nor covering sedition , &c. under colour of christianity , as the gnosticks did † , who said they were free from all publick laws , and despised dominion , as st. jude hath it ; but as the servants of god ; ac proinde etiam eorum , servi , quibus deus nos servire jubet , ⸫ and therefore the servants also of those , whom god commands us to serve . in short , when christian liberty is set up against order , decorum and common honesty , 't is set up against authority , ( cor. . last . ) when it is set up against the common methods of edification and peace , 't is set up against charity ; ( rom. . . ) when 't is set up against temperance and sobriety ; 't is made an occasion to the flesh , ( gal. . . ) when it is made use of to palliate the designs of factious and ambitious men , 't is used as a cloak of malitiousness . in all these cases there is apostolical authority to restrain our liberty . and in matters of religion , what liberty can we justly claim , more than what christ hath obtain'd , and his grace conferr'd upon us ? a liberty to serve god acceptably ( in all instances of the first and second table ) with reverence and godly fear ? hebr. . . to this purpose mr. calvin * observes , that st. peter pronounceth them free who are the servants of god , vnde colligere promptum est , hanc esse finem libertatis nostrae , ut promptiores & magis expediti simus ad obsequium dei. neque enim aliud est quam manumissio à peccato . atqui peccato dominium tollitur , ut se in subjectionem justitiae homines addicant . from whence , saith he , 't is easie to collect , that the end of our liberty is , that we may be the more prompt and ready for god's service ; and obey him with the greater expedition . nor is this liberty any thing else , but a manumission from sin. and the dominion is taken from sin , that men may render themselves up to the subjection of righteousness . thus calvin . . i must tell my weak brother , that christ hath establisht a church , and placed me under governours , and given them authority to restrain and determine the use of my liberty , according to their christian prudence , by such rules , and to such ends and purposes as he himself has prescribed . and tho' he has left some things free , and indifferent in the general , yet it will certainly be my great sin to do them unseasonably , as when i despise authority , break good order , and destroy the vnity and peace of the church ; for this will be an affront to christ himself , who establisht such a constitution ( in his church ) long before i came into the communion of it ; and hath said , he that heareth you heareth me ; and he that despiseth you despiseth me : and every soul , which will not hear that prophet , shall be destroyed from among the people . hereupon i take it for granted , that i am justified in my obedience to the voice of the church by the concession of this author , ( which hath been mentioned already somewhere in the margent of these papers ) for ( saith he ) if my brother will be offended at what god has made my duty , there 's no remedy , but that he lay aside his unjust offence , and not that i lay aside my necessary duty . mel. inquir . page . which rule , ( if well apply'd ) will ( very near ) determine the whole case betwixt us . i may add for the further information of such a brother . that god expects , a solemn publick worship should be settled in his church , and religiously perform'd to his honour and glory . that there can be no such , unless the use of our liberty be retrench't ; for otherwise how shall we come to an agreement , for time , place , forme , gesture , language , and all such other circumstances as are to be determined ? god hath therefore appointed laws and orders , and establisht authority and governours to this effect : that this government and authority is divine and sacred , and not to be controul'd but by a warrant and commission from some authority that is higher . that we must come to an agreement about time and place to celebrate and solemnize god's publick worship , our author is very positive * . for this command ( saith he ) is so straitly bound upon the consciences of all churches , that tho' none should determine for them , nay tho' all should determine against them , yet are they under its authority , and must come to an issue about it , ( but by what means is unintelligible , if there be none to determine for them , nay , if all determine against them , yet to an issue , and agreement , about it , come they must ) unless ( saith he ) they will draw the guilt of the neglect of worshipping god upon their souls , with that wrath , which is due to so great contempt of the divine law. thus our melius inquirendum . besides , i will tell this brother , i cannot go to church and be at home at the same time ; no more than i can make both parts of a contradiction true : wherefore that i may not continue pendulous , and be ever in suspense , and so make no use at all of my liberty , i must determine my self one way or other . but if the church , which i take to be wiser than my self , shall in some instances ( as she sees occasion ) determine for me , i will dutifully submit my self to her authority . and he walks very uncharitably , who takes upon him to censure my practice , or judge my conscience for so doing . for i know it is not this carnal liberty of the flesh ( to do or not to do ) that makes me a christian ; but righteousness and peace , humility , and other virtues of religion . and upon a full examination of particulars , i am very well satisfied that the rites and ceremonies in use among us , are not introductive to any false religion or worship ; but rather a bar against it , ( even against that of rome , which by the ignorant ( and by no man else ) it is most suspected to favour . ) they gratifie neither the opinion of the jew , nor of the gentile ; they lead neither to idolatry , nor superstition ; they are not ridiculous for any levity that is in them ; nor burdensome for their number ; and in short , they are not sinful ; because against no law ; for sin is the transgression of a law ; and where no law is , there is no transgression . . 't is the supposition of our author , that this liberty must hold in utramque partem , that we may act or not act , determine , this or that way , or it can be no liberty , ( pa. . ) from hence i infer , that our christian liberty is more infringed by the dogmatical prohibitions of the dissenting teachers , than by the prudent and regular impositions of ecclesiastical governours . for besides their want of authority , over me ( which makes their pretended power an vsurpation ) i am no more free under him that will not let me kneel ( for example ) then i am under him , that will make me do it . nay , he that tyes my hands behind me that i may not act at all , does restrain me more , than he that does but take me by the hand to guide me in my acting . to this purpose we have the suffrage of david rungius ( a learned lutheran ) who ( after a short catalogue of some things indifferent in use amongst them ) tells us thus , haec & similia qui simplicitèr necessariò retinenda , vel necessariò abolenda docent , utrinquevim libertati christianae faciunt , & tanquam pseudo-doctores , jugo traditionum humanarum nos captivare volentes , fugiendi sunt : these things and the like , such as teach , they are simply and necessarily to be reteined , or necessarily to be abolished , they do , on both sides , offer violence to our christian liberty , and they ought to be avoided as false teachers , who would hold us captive in the yoak of humane traditions . he that forbids me the use of things indifferent , does no less inthrall me then he , who requires the practice of them . and the apostle , as he inveighs against the superstitious use of things , ( gal. . . ) ye observe days , and months , and times and years : ) so he does likewise against the superstitious forbearance of them ( col. . . touch not , taste not , handle not ) they that are so fierce for these negatives , ( and have little besides their own fancy to shew for it ) would draw us into the very same superstitions , which st. paul condemns in the colossians ; and if they condemn the use of them as sinful , they are never the less superstitious , but much more intollerable . . the restraint put upon our natural liberty , by the laws of the church , is no impeachment of our christian liberty . for christian liberty is a spiritual privilege peculiar to the church ; and 't is seated in the soul. vbi clanculò tibi licuerit , fruere hoc jure , saith soto * & peter martyr † , de rebus adiaphoris in animo libertas est servanda . the notice of our liberty being matter of faith , has properly respect to god , saith mr. calvin , ⸫ ergo qui ejusmodi certitudine praeditus est , eum conscientiae tranquilitate coram deo contentum esse oportet , neque opus est venire in possessionem coram hominibus : he therefore , who enjoys a certainty hereof , ought to be contented with his peace of conscience before god , and needs not take possession of it before men ; for as soto * , to the same purpose , qui credit licitum esse matrimonium , non protenùs tenetur vxorem ducere . he that thinks the state of matrimony very lawful , is not obliged presently to take a wife . . consistit libertas conscientiae cum abstinentiâ non minùs quàm cum esu rei , & vice versa , saith d. dickson * ; liberty of conscience consists no less in the use of things , than in the forbearance ; nor a whit less in the forbearance , than in the use of them . but till i be determined i am in suspense ; and while i am in suspense , i am in pain . i must therefore come to a determination for my own ease . when i am determined , i am not then at liberty ; yet herein i do but exercise my liberty , not lose it . what man ( well in his wits ) did ever feel the loss of his christian liberty , by putting a gown upon his cassock ? or a surplice over both ? . i would desire such a dissenting brother to lay his hand upon his heart , and examine himself betwixt god and his own conscience , whether the aversion he has to the present constitution and orders of this church , does not proceed from some one or more of these grounds , viz. either from want of humility and modesty in himself ; or from want of love and reverence to the governours ; or from want of a due examination of the nature , ends , and usefulness of the things establish't ; or from want of candour and ingenuity in putting a fair construction on them ? for the very same rites and ceremonies , which we have in the church of england are in use in all the lutheran churches with many others . and although the churches under calvin's denomination have not all that are practised amongst us , yet none are more strict than they in the observation of such as they have establisht . for obedience to authority is certainly the duty of god's servants : st. peter calls it well-doing ( pet. . , , . ) and makes it as well a branch of god's will , as an exercise of our christian liberty . for , as mr. perkin's ( on gal. . . ) has very well observed , this is perfect liberty , when man's will is conformable to the will of god. nor does any church think her liberty impeach't by such impositions . for the use and excellency of my christian liberty lyes in this , that it teaches me to be just and dutiful without constraint ; and so 't is no burden to me . i can comply with the commands of my superiors , and carry my liberty along with me . and all the while i hold to the generous resolution of the apostle , cor. . . all things are lawful for me : but i will not be brought under the power of any . knowing the dominion i have over such indifferent things , i will gratifie my weak brother as far as i am able , treat and instruct him with all ingenuity and freedom in the use of them . and if my superiours shall think fit to retrench the practice of my freedom in some particular instances , ( that the world may see i am not under the sullen spirit of fear and bondage , but acted by a free gospel-spirit , the spirit of power , of love , and of a sound mind , ) i will conform my self to their commands with so much ease , cheerfulness , and satisfaction , that it shall not look like a force or restraint upon me , but as an exercise of my liberty , being very well assured for whose sake , and upon what account and principles i do it . and , . when i consider , that things indifferent may be well or ill used ( as mr. perkins has observed , and every man's experience can tell him ) i cannot but think my self happy in the churches appointment ; for when she has determined my choice by her injunctions , ( to stand or kneel for example ) if i perform it with alacrity and reverence , ( as i should do ) i find a satisfaction in my humility and obedience ; and i am the more obliged to my superiours for the good use of my liberty , which i might have used amiss ; and for making that which was but indifferent of its own nature , to become of good advantage to me by her authority . and yet such is my christian freedom even in the use of these things , that while i practice them , i am not at a loss either for my liberty or my duty . i am not in bondage either to fear a curse , or to hope for merit , or to seek for ease of conscience , or salvation in them . the dissenter goes on thus . if i shall engage my self to the church , that i will never omit such an indifferent thing ; and the soul of ( a ) weak christian should call to me to omit it , i have tied my hands by engagement , i cannot help him , though it would save his or a thousand souls out of hell , because i have given away my freedom to the church . answer . that all clergymen are engaged to the churches , in which they are appointed to administer is no new thing , no matter at all of wonder . for how else can the church be secure of their fidelity ? how can she trust them with the sacred office ? this therefore is the practice of every church of any creditable denomination . but when men get into a vain of scrupling , they can seldom or never find the way out of it . one scruple begets another like circles in a troubled water . mr. calvin has pursued this observation rarely well in his institutions , to which i refer the reader ; he concludes , when some superstitious opinion has cast a scruple into our heads ; things that are pure in their own nature , become contaminated and unclean to us ; and we can make use of nothing that god allows us , without perturbation and disquiet of mind . when a man begins to scruple at the cross , soon after the wedding ring will pinch the finger ; the surplice will become an eye-sore , or a burden ; and bowing the knee to our heavenly father ( at the sacrament ) will be thought so hard a task , we shall not be willing to buckle to it . nay , if we suffer our selves to be haunted with these fears , a religious oath , a honorary title , a civil salutation will be a bug-bear to our jealous minds . 't is the duty of a ghostly father , or spiritual guid , not to foment , but to dissipate and expel such scruples . and though they have voluntarily tyed up their hands for the satisfaction of the church , yet their tongues are let loose enough . do they therefore lay open the nature of things indifferent ? do they declare that they may be used or let alone without sin , till authority does interpose about them ? do they acquaint the people with the power wherewith the church is invested by the king of saints ? and instruct them in their duty to that their spiritual mother , as the spouse of christ ? do they represent the excellency and reward of obedience to superiors , according to the fifth commandment ? and back their discourses with their example to lead them unto conformity ? these things they ought to have done , whatever they have left undone . those good women of the church of corinth , might have scrupled at st. paul's injunction of the vail , and silence in the church : they might have objected that it went against the grain of a tender conscience , and their christian liberty , to submit to such impositions ; which were nothing else but some of the old traditions amongst the jewish rabbins * ; they might have alleadged that christ had made them free : that they had innocency , as well as confidence , enough to lift up their faces before angels , and that for sion's sake they could not hold their peace . whatever the women did , we know there was among them a sort of bold men , who thought they had good warrant to controul the apostles orders ; co. . and how does the apostle encounter them , but by an allegation of god's gentle nature , and the temperament of the church according to it ; god is not the god of confusion , but of peace , as in all churches ; and the impulse of his spirit does not push men on to contention , but to love and unity ; and are you , o ye corinthians , aggrieved at those rites which are observed of all churches ? did the preaching of the gospel proceed first from you , that we must dance after your pipe ? and are you the only wise men of the world , and are all the churches else in dotage ? for those vain janglers you so much admire , i will not odiously contend with them . but if any of them be a true prophet , and really endowed with those gifts of the spirits , which ye pretend to , he will easily perceive and acknowledge , that i do not vent my own passions in this matter , but the commandments of the lord , who without all doubt is contemned by such as will not obey our prescriptions . but if any man be so prophane , or blind with prejudice , that he will not , or cannot see it , let him be ignorant at his own peril . 't is not my part to contend , but to teach and admonish ; if he despiseth the precepts of the lord , which i have delivered , he betrays his own impiety ; and if he will not obey , but continue in his filthiness , let him be filthy still . thus bullinger comments upon the apostles expostulation . and 't is very material , that the apostle writes this in justification of his own orders prescribed for edification and decency ; and he writes thus not to the rude and ignorant populacy , but to such as being desirous to seem prophets and spiritual , studied more to introduce their own mastership into the church , than to acquiesce in the doctrine apostolical , as musculus well observeth . he that has st. paul's principles , and governs himself by those general rules , which he has laid down as the oracles of god , he may use the same expostulation to dissenters . such faithful ministers , tho' they can compel none , yet they may call them to a voluntary amendment ; if they find them refractory they may say with a good conscience , qui obedire detrectet , detrectat ; he that denys to obey , let him deny it ; he that rejects the truth , let him reject it ; he that had rather perish ( in his perversness ) than be saved ( by being tractable ( as a little child ) let him perish : i have done my part , if he refuse the lord's commands , let him see to it . thus musculus . but do our dissenting brethren speak thus home to the consciences of their followers ? do they not love to draw disciples after them ? and do they not many times speak * perverse things to that effect ? we are well assured there have been flattering teachers , who have blest the people in their seduction † , that they might get the vogue , and keep up their power and interest , to lead them against the injunctions of the law , and the edicts of divine authority . and by such courses 't is no wonder , if , with the pharisees , they proselyte their disciples into hell. ⸫ do not some of our dissenters give the like scandal to their disciples ? do they not dogmatize them into ill principles , and encourage the practice thereof by their example ? do they not fill their heads with doubts and jealousies , possess them with vain and superstitious fears , till they bring them to an avowed disobedience and separation from the communion of the church ? do they not perplex their consciences with endless scrupulosities about those minutes made sin by their doctrine , which else ( to use our author 's own words ) had been as innocent as a piece of powdred bief and turnips ; and such are the rites and ceremonies , which are in use among us , if they were as inoffensive in their discourses as the church is in the practice of them . do they not condemn the church that themselves may seem righteous ; and to justifie their own schism , do they not quarrel at the terms of her communion ? they say god hath left something free , but they would leave nothing free ( in matters of religion ) but their own fancy . they make that sin which god never made so : and that i do not slander them , you have their own instance in the sign of the cross. of which they do not speak of modestly as to say , they think , they doubt , or scruple : but positively and definitively they tell us , they judge it sinful : but by what express law , or clear deduction , they can never make us understand . they menage the consciences of their proselytes betwixt so much awe and boldness , that they can make them either take the hedge , or start at a shadow . they tickle them with a conceit of liberty , while they inthrall them to their own dictates , and put upon their necks a yoak of their own making ; much heavier , than that of their governours , which they attempt so strenuously to shake off . and when they are charged with such unwarrantable practices to the scandal of religion , and the disturbance of the publick peace , where do they take sanctuary but in the temple of a tender conscience ? conscience , i confess , is a centurion of great command ; but yet 't is under another jurisdiction , and must be accountable for her conduct . nor is her liberty or privilege so great as is imagined . for the whole nature and force of conscience is exprest in a practical syllogism , which consists of three propositions according to the three offices of conscience . for instance ; he that will not obey the church , is to be treated as a publican and a heathen : this is the major proposition , and our saviour's express revelation . but thou do'st not obey the church : this is the minor proposition , produced and attested by the conscience . therefore thou art to be treated as a publican and a heathen . this is the third proposition or conclusion inferr'd from the other two. by this instance we see conscience hath a threefold office. . to dictate and declare the rule of the law. this is call'd synteresis . the second is to record and declare matters of fact ; and this is call'd syneidesis . the third is to give sentence according to the merits or demerits of the cause , and so to determine the condition of the person ; and this is called crisis . here is all the power that conscience hath ; and 't is clear that conscience hath no liberty in any of these offices . not in the first : not a liberty to call evil good , or good evil : not a liberty to dictate or declare what every man please to be the sence or letter of the law ; for then it should have a liberty to erre and to deceive , by imposing that for a rule of law , which is not so . for conscience ( in this notion , that is , the synteresis ) is obliged to take direction from the light of reason , and the revelations of god's will , and from humane laws consonant thereto ( for such laws made by persons set over us in god's stead , must be obeyed for the lord's sake : ) if the conscience directs otherwise , it is erroneous , and leads to sin , and binds over to damnation , till it be corrected , and become conformable to its rule . nor has the conscience any liberty in the second office , in reporting matters of fact ; for then it should have liberty to misinform or tell a lie , in representing matters of fact otherwise than they are . nor has conscience any liberty in the third office , in determining the case ; for then it should have liberty to be an unjust judge , to absolve or condemn ; that is , to pass sentence contrary to the evidence and verdict . 't is true an evil conscience may , now , make use of many shifts , tergiverses , and evasions ; but at the grand assize , ( or time of judgment ) god will beat it off from all its subterfuges , and starting holes , he will rectifie and refine it , and make it a faithful suffragan to him in that exercise of his jurisdiction . for then the synteresis , ( call'd sometimes the inward man ) shall fully consent to the law of god , that it is holy , and just , and good. and for the breach of that law ( which is matter of fact ) it will be a thousand witnesses . and in the issue of the trial , it will subscribe to the sentence of the judge , in a due acknowledgment of his justice , saying with the angel out of the altar , even so lord , god , almighty , true and just are thy judgments . thus it will be at that great day . and now , all the liberty that a good conscience has , or can pretend to , is a freedom from the power of satan , and the law of sin , from the rigour and yoak of moses his dispensation , to do our duty to god and man , ( to work or forbear working ) without hesitation or scruple , according to the injunctions or permissions of the gospel ; the measures whereof we have already given some account of , ( if i be not much mistaken ) to a reasonable satisfaction . here , if it be a digression , it is very pardonable , to take notice of a sort of busie men , who seem to carry on a subtil project ( and there are more than one o' foot ) under this disguise ( of liberty of conscience . ) they make love to natural religion , choose her for their mistress , and cry up her discipline to so great a height , as if christ and his apostles came out of her school , and the moral of the gospel were to be taken from the philosophy of the heathens . i know very well , we may borrow jewels of the egyptians , provided we do not turn them into idols , or value them above the gospel-pearl , which is truely orient . for the apostle tells us of the heathens , that when they knew god , they did not glorifie him as god. that professing themselves to be wise , they became fools ; for their foolish heart was darkned , and they changed the glory of the uncorruptible god , not only into an image made like to corruptible man , but also to birds and four-footed beasts , and creeping things ; and worshipped and served the creature more than the creator : in their theology , which was that wisdom which had god for the object * , they knew not god ; and generally their morals were as corrupt as their divinity † . hence the apostle saith , after that in the wisdom of god , the world by wisdom knew not god , it pleased god by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe , cor. . . yet this natural religion is laid down with much art , and embellished with great commendations as an immoveable foundation for liberty of conscience . and this liberty of conscience is , by several engineers , set up to supplant the present church of england . and this done , the great mysteries of our faith , and the institutions of the gospel will with little difficulty , be depretiated at the first , and at last utterly evacuated and exploded . then the socinian system , or model of divinity will pass for currant ; and that by subtile wits , will easily ( by degrees ) be reconcil'd to the alcoran . and what will the issue be but this ? men , at the long run , will be at a loss for their religion . they will see the holy sacraments laid aside , if not trampled under foot , as obsolete or temporary institutions : the mystery of the blessed trinity accounted a vain speculation of doting schoolmen : the incarnation of the eternal son of god , an incomprehensible and unaccountable thing , and an omnipotent redeemer , with his satisfaction and pretious merits , but an useless imagination . and in fine what will all this amount to ? pious and sober persons will in time , not only be awakened , but offended at it ; and will think themselves highly concern'd also to search , ( tho' it be among the much rubbish of the church of rome ) to find out the primitive christianity . this i confess will be the furthest way about ; but it will advance the jesuits design as certainly , as if it were accomplish't by a shorter method . which would very well become the wisdom of our governors to take into their most serious consideration . but to return , our great patrons of liberty , are wont to rely much upon that charge of the apostle , gal. . . stand fast in the liberty , wherewith christ hath made us free , and be not intangled again with the ( or in a ) yoak of bondage . but what is that liberty he writes of ? he is writing unto gentiles . and the gentile world , ( the creature ) which the apostle mentions , rom. . . was to be delivered from the bondage of corruption , à jugo & servitute corruptionis peccaminosae , from the yoak and bondage of a peccaminous or sinful corruption , that is , from the bondage of their lusts and depraved affections , ( under which they lay so long inthral'd ) into the noble liberty of the sons of god. this is a liberty not of the brain , but of the heart : freedom from the power of sin , to serve god , which is to reign ; and that is the glorious liberty of god's children : i shall run the way of thy commandments , when thou hast set my heart at liberty , psal. . the liberty the apostle speaks of , is opposed to a yoak : but 't is not to be understood of every yoak ; for there is a yoak of privilege as well as a yoak of bondage ; such is christ's yoak ; and this yoak we are obliged to take upon us . ( mat. . , . ) this yoak is his law , ( mat. . . ) which consists of two tables ; and this yoak is made up of both . the commands and ordinances of the civil magistrate are a part of this yoak ; and we must submit our necks to that , pet. . , . rom. . . the orders and injunctions of the church are another part of this yoak , and we must put our necks under that too , or else we are to be look't upon as publicans & heathens . ( mat. . . ) and that we may not be at a loss for the church , our saviour has committed the keys thereof to certain select persons , that we may know who have the right and power to govern in his stead ; and to their discipline we are to submit , cor. . , . and chap. . . this is a yoak which we must not shake off . hebr. . , obey them that have the rule over you , and submit your selves : mr. calvin does not doubt at all but the apostle speaks of the governours of the church ; and he says , he tells those hebrews , that their ingratitude would bring those governours grief and trouble , ut significet , to signifie , that we cannot be troublesom or disobedient to our pastours , sine propriae salutis jacturâ , without the loss of our own salvation . and gerhard is very full to the like purpose : the word signifies , to submit themselves by a most exact and obsequious subjection . and he adds for all the protestants of their party , that there is none of them denys but bishops are to be obeyed in their office ; and not only when they preach the divine law , but when they press such ecclesiastical constitutions as are introduced for order and decency . and altho' these do not immediately and of themselves , bind the conscience , yet in the general they do bind , by reason of that general precept , to obey such as have rule over us . and that this is not a whit against the liberty of conscience , we have mr. calvin's suffrage , who thus sums up our christian liberty * . in summa , est libera servitus , & serva libertas : our christianity is a free service , and a servile freedom . nam sicuti servos dei esse nos oportet , ut hoc bono fruamur ; for as we ought to be god's servants , that we may enjoy this benefit , so moderation is required in the use of it . after this manner ( saith he ) liberae quidem sunt conscientiae , our consciences indeed are free , sed hoc non obstat quin deo serviamus , qui etiam nos hominibus subjicit , but notwithstanding this , we must serve god , who hath also made us subject unto men : thus calvin . thus much of christ's yoak ; which is not our bondage , but our privilege ; and ought to be our choice as it is our duty . the yoak of bondage is two-fold , . that of moses's law. . that of satan's tyranny . . satan's yoak , is a yoak of tyranny : for he is the prince of the power of the air , the spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience , eph. . . this yoak is made up of the pomps and vanities of the wicked world , the superstition and idolatry ( with all the unclean and filthy practices which did attend them ) wherewith the devil had inthrall'd the heathen world . these galathians , for a long time , had had their necks under this yoak : but were now set at liberty by the light of the gospel ; yet were there a sort of false apostles , who for their own ease & advantage , made it their business to entangle them in another yoak , which they had not been accustom'd to , the yoak of circumcision , and the law of moses ; and therefore he saith , be not entangled again in a yoak of bondage , quia si vos fideles jam circumcidimini , idem est quod ad idola converti , quibus antea serviebatis , saith bruno ; for if you , who are believers should now be circumcised , 't is the same thing as if you should be turned unto the idols you served before . to iterum non eandem servitutis speciem sed simpliciter & generalitèr iteratam servitutem significat , quasi dicat : nolite iterum servire , ut pridem idolis , ita nunc umbris & merosis ceremoniis , saith g. calixtus : this word [ again ] does not signifie the same kind of bondage , but simply and generally an iterated , or repeated bondage ; as if he had said , be not now again in bondage , to shadows and burdensome ceremonies , as you had been formerly to dumb idols . you are actually freed from one heavy yoak , be not intangled in another ; be not insnared and inthrall'd , so as to seek your ease , your pardon , your salvation , in another , which is of no more validity to that effect , than the former , which christ hath therefore equally freed you from : but what is all this to the rites and ceremonies of the church of england ? he that will undertake , from the doctrine of st. paul , to impeach the practice of the church of england , in commanding the observance of rites and ceremonies , and thereby restraining the use of our christian liberty in things indifferent , must make good these two propositions . . that st. paul has set up christian liberty above the authority of the church ; for in all things wherein the church hath not interposed her authority to determine our practice , we have the use of our christian liberty as much and as fully as we can desire . but that st. paul hath set up christian liberty above the authority of the church can never be made good as long as the epistles to the corinthians , to timothy & titus are extant & held canonical . . he must prove , that , in the use of those rites and ceremonies , which the dissenters impugn , we do renounce our christianity , & are faln from grace , that ( therein ) wé have fellowship with devils , and that christ shall profit us nothing , but we must eternally perish in our practice : for those things which the apostle inveighs against , he forbids upon this account , as is most evident from all those texts of scripture ; wherein he does professedly and peremptorily handle this matter * . but i do challenge the prudence and justice as well as the charity of him who dares say , if you wear a surplice , if you sign with the cross , if ye kneel at the sacrament , ye renounce your christianity , and are faln from grace ; ye have fellowship with devils , and christ shall profit you nothing , but ye must eternally perish in that practice . to conclude this section , i must put the dissenting brethren in mind , that the charge or injunction they insist upon ( gal. . . ) was not written against the church , but against a superstitious faction , which opposed apostolical authority . and if they look upon the superstition and tyranny of the church of rome as a yoak of bondage , then , by a parity of reason , they are highly concern'd in the charge upon that account . for they do oppose that very authority by which christ hath ( once ) made them free from that yoak . which authority doth still , with the like zeal and courage , call upon them also , to stand fast in that liberty : but if they will continue to give the emissaries of that church advantage , by their unreasonable separations , to creep into their conventicles , and make proselytes with them , ( which i can see no way to be avoided , but by their cordial return to the communion of the church of england ) the scandal and burden must lye at their doors , if we be again entangled . the dissenters fourth section . they plead , that they ought not to hazard their souls in one congregation , if they may more hopefully secure them in another ; for that their souls are their greatest concernment in this world and the next : now say they , there 's no question but men preach such as they print with publick allowance ; and therefore they ought to provide better for their souls elsewhere . especially they say , that the doctrine of justification is articulus stantis vel cadentis ecclesiae , an article with which the church falls or stands : this article say they , in the parish where we live is quite demolisht by the doctrine of justification by works ; we are bound therefore to provide for our safety and depart ; and when we are once out , we will advise upon another church , not which is tolerable , but which is most eligible , and in all things neerest the word . the answer . that the soul is a very pretious thing , whether we look into its creation and original , or into the purchase and redemption of it , we do readily acknowledge . we should not hazard it ; for 't was god's great care , and should be ours . but we must take heed , ( and we have a proverb to admonish us , ) that we do not leap out of the frying-pan into the fire . for in this case of seperation , we may fitly ask the question . what authority have you for it , and and who gave you that authority ? whatever your corner-stone be , we question whether your new erected church will be built upon the foundation of the prophets and apostles . yet upon second thoughts , we find you have something to say out of scripture for your practice . for we find you john . they went out from us , but they were not of us : for if they had been of us , they would no doubt have continued with us : but they went out that they might be made manifest , that they were not all of us . we find you again , acts . . also of your own selves shall men arise , speaking perverse things to draw disciples after them . and we find predecessors of yours , cor. , . and part of your character , at least , is to be seen in st jude's epistle , psal. . these be they who seperate themselves ; and whether diotrephes was not the president of the new colledge , you should do well to consider ; for he had an aspiring spirit , and was imperious , and ( as our author observes of him ) his fingers itch't to be tampering ; for he loved to have the preeminence and set himself to oppose order and apostolical authority . but there 's little satisfaction in following such examples . that schism is a work of the flesh , and excludes such as are guilty of it , from the kingdom of heaven , is the express doctrine of the apostle ( gal. . . * ) 't is one of his rules cor. . . wherein a man is called to the profession of christianity ( whether in a state of servitude , or freedom ) therein to abide ( so as he may abide the servant of god. ) if my christian liberty dos not warrant , or allow me , to desert the service of man ( to whom i am antecedently ingaged ) much less the service of the church , into whose communion i was baptized , and under whose jurisdiction i was bred and born . quo pax & concordia vndique constat inter christianos homines , quaedam dissimulanda sunt , quaedam ferenda , quaedàm benigniüs interpretanda , saith the learned de la cerda : that peace and concord may be kept on every side among christians , some things are to be dissembled , some things to be tollerated , and some things to be favourably interpreted . where there is nothing injoyn'd to the peril of our souls , or the impeachment of our salvation , we are oblig'd to keep the vnity of the spirit in the bond of peace , not to break the communion of the church , but to observe the orders and decorum practised in it . 't is the faith , which the learned zanchy profess'd and published , when he was years of age , in the name of himself and family ; † tho defects and errors are never to be dissembled , yet peace and communion is to be held with all societies , as the true churches of christ , in which the foundation and sum of apostolical doctrine is reteined , and no manifest idolatry admitted . episcopius * ( who was no great admirer of rites and ceremonies ) says there can be no just cause of seperation from the church , but what seperates from christ , from god's paternal favour and the kingdom of heaven . and seeing there can no such thing be charged upon this church , 't is undoubtedly schism to seperate from her communion . hence the very worthy dr. falkner makes this solemn asseveration : i account my self to have as plain evidence from the laws of god and the constitution of the christian church , that schism and unnecessary seperation is a sin , in the breach of christian unity , as that adultery is a sin in breaking the bond of wedlock . and i account my self to be as certain , that if ever there was any unwarrantable separation , from any known church since the apostles time , the separation from the church of england is really such : since our church is truly as free from any just exception● in its constitution , doctrine and worship , as any other since that time , either was , or is . thus that worthy author . but these dissenters do alledge , that the doctrine of justification , is articulus stantis vel cadentis ecclesiae : an article with which the church falls or stands . and that in the parish where they ( or some of them ) live , this article is quite demolisht by the doctrine of justification by works . but i must tell them that one error broacht in one parish ought not to make them desert the whole establisht church . that error , tho grievous , cannot be deadly to them , that have all necessary truth laid before them , if they do cordially embrace and profess the same . the error is only his , who , through the weakness of his judgment , cannot discern that the necessary truth is not overthrown by it . but because they alledge a print and publick allowance , this reflects upon authority and our governors ; and therefore the charge requires a more strict and punctual examination . and here we must premise . that justification without christ's merits and mediation , or without faith in his blood , dissolves the church of christ , because there is salvation in no other . ( act. . . ) the christian church is built upon the foundation of the prophets and apostles , jesus christ himself being the chief corner-stone . ( eph. . . ) and other foundation can no man lay , then that is laid , which is jesus christ. ( cor. . . ) fides est caput & initium christianismi , saith st. austin . * into this olive-tree , we are ingrafted and stand by faith : the jews were broken off † through unbelief . but in justification , we find several persons concerned : there is something attributed to god : something to christ , and something to man himself . . god is lookt upon as the author and efficient , for who can forgive sins but god only ? i have blotted out , as a thick cloud , thy transgressions , isai. . . and rom. . . who shall lay any thing to the charge of god's elect ? it is god that jnstifieth . . there is something attributed to christ. we are to look upon him , as the meritorious cause and procurer of it . he is said therefore to have loved us & to have washed us from our sins in his own blood. ( apoc. . . ) for by him we have received the atonement , ( rom. . . ) and for his sake god hath forgiven us . ( ephesians . ult . ) . there is something attributed unto man : he is the subject of this great benefit , and some qualification is required in him towards his own justification . christ is set forth to be a propitiation , ( but it is ) through faith in his blood : tho we are said also to be justified freely by god's grace . see rom. . , . and with the heart man believeth unto righteousness ( rom. . . ) and to the saving of his soul. ( heb. . ult . ) 't is out of controversy , on all sides , that believers are justified freely through god's mercy , and that believers are justified for the merits of jesus christ. all the matter of question amongst sober men is this , whether in our justification , faith be our own act , whether considered as our act , and as a lively act , and fruitful of good works . as we own no other author of our justification but god , no other merits but christ , so likewise do we acknowledge no other condition but faith. but that is not a dead faith , for st. james tells us flatly , that 's unprofitable . ( jam. . ) this faith must be an evangelical faith , which though the holy ghost , maks a change ; not only in our relations , but in our habitude , in our hearts and practice . ( act. . . ) he that pretends to remission of sin before repentance , may with as much reason pretend to a pardon ( as some do ) before he is guilty . we must not confound the condition with the cause either efficient or meritorious . the presence of some disposition may be requisite as a qualification in the person to be justified , and yet have no efficiency into his justification . i think it is agreed among all men learned and sober minded , that 't is a lively faith , which is the condition of our justification . and if we be agreed in this , to wrangle about notions , quae & quâ , is not of so great importance as to study to be quiet , and to follow the things which make for peace , and the things whereby we may edify one another . 't is true st. paul ( in the matter of justification ) does exclude the works of the law. ( rom. . . ) but there are works of faith. ( thes. . . ) are they excluded too ? by what law ? the apostle prays , that the work of faith may be fulfilled . thes. . . to say we , are justified by the efficiency of these works of faith , that 's against god's prerogative : to say we are justified by the merit of them , that is against christ's mediation : but will you deny the presence and concomitancy of them , to attend , to evidence and to attest our justification ? if it be faith only , yet it is not faith alone ; of all qualifications ( which the gospel requires ) faith must have the respect of soveraign ; but it stands not with her enemies to be solitary . faith therefore may be considered in a double capacity . ( . ) receptivè , as she has the office of a receiver . ( . ) redditivè , * as she has the office of a dispenser . . as a receiver , ( so taken joh. . . ) she receives christ in all his capacities and offices , as a king , as a priest , as a prophet , in his state of humiliation , in his state of exaltation . in this habitude or capacity , to believe in christ is the most natural act of faith , her elicite act , and as much a work , as is the elicite act of hope , or love , or of any other virtue . the people ask ( john. . . ) what shall we do , that we might work the work of god ? our blessed saviour answers : this is the work of god , ( the work commanded by god ( john . . ) but to be performed by you ) that ye believe on him whom he hath sent . 't is mans duty at god's command , and by his assistance . . take faith redditivè in the capacity of a dispenser so it is much more a work * , and the mistress of it : for so she disburses all her talents ; and she sets all other virtues a work , and so pays homage to christ in all capacities . as he is a prophet , so she hears his voice , and own 's his doctrine ; as he is a priest , so she trusts to his atonement and relies upon his merits and mediation ; as he is a king , so she obey's his laws , and observes his institutions ; she renders up the whole man to the dispose of his redeemer , and makes him resolve with full purpose of heart to cleave unto the lord , and to submit to all his commands and impositions . take faith therefore in the whole habitude and capacity of it , and ( for a qualification to justification and life ) i may say , 't is all in all : it comprehends ( the sense of the word is so large ) the whole principle of grace , and all the effluxes and egressions of it . this dr. owen does acknowledge ; for speaking of habitual grace , which dwels in us and makes it abode with us , he saith thus , [ this , according to the dictinct faculties of our souls wherein it is , or the distinct objects about which it is exercised , receiveth various appellations ; being indeed all but one new principle of life . in the vnderstanding , it is light , in the will , obedience in the affections , love ; in all faith. ] he that desires to be fully satisfied in this point let him consult , the learned and judicious divine , mr. thomas hotchki's , * in his second part of a discourse of imputed righteousness . chap. . and especially the th . where he treats hereof solidly and perspicuously . st. james gives us a double instance or example of justification by works , abraham and rahab ; and concludes with a kind of demonstration , thereupon , ye see then how that by works a man is justified , and not by faith only . ( jam. . . to the end . ) we must not therefore deny the proposition in every sense ; for it is more modest to throw that epistle quite out of the canon as luther did , then to question the truth of this doctrine in it . but does not st. paul contradict st. james ? no , in no wise . for in christ jesus ( he tells us ) neither circumcision availeth any thing , nor vncircumcision , ( and these two divided the whole world ) but faith which worketh by love , * ( gal. . . ) if nothing but faith , which worketh by love , then no dead , nor idle , no other kind of faith : and if not avail to any thing , then not to our justification . and 't is the observation of p. martyr , talem semper apo●●olus describit fidem , cum de justificatione agit , quae necessario confessionem , & opera bona habeat conjuncta : where the apostle treats of justification , he always describes such a faith , as has confession and good-works necessarily joyn'd with it . and calvin upon the same text tells us , that the apostle notes there , which is the true faith , from which this fruit ( of justification ) flows , lest any man should pretend to an empty title of faith instead of it ; for ( the true faith ) ought so to affect the heart with the glory of god , that the flame may break out and appear openly . and a little after , caeterum viderint quid respondeant paulo ; qui nobis hodie imaginariam quandam fidem fastuosè jactant , quae secreto cordis contenta confessione or is veluti re supervacaneâ & inani supersedeat . nimis enim nugatorium est , asserere ignem esse ubi nihil sit flammae neque caloris : let them consider what they can answer to st. paul , who at this time do proudly boast of a certain imaginary , faith , which being conteined secretly in the heart , supersedes confession ( and all good works ) as vain and needless things . for it is too grosly nugatory and trifling to affirm there is a fire there , where there is neither heat nor flame . in the doctrine of justification let these dissenters take faith in the general gospel-sense , or in the sense now mentioned from dr. owen , and there will be no dispute , much less offence about this article . but there are very learned men , who return this objection upon ( at least some of ) these dissenters ; who overthrowing the remission of sins , do utterly demolish ( as our author words it ) the article of justification , as well by faith as by works , and the necessity of new obedience . for if the satisfaction and death of christ , were suffered and made in our stead , and formally made ours , they do certainly expiate all our sins ▪ and free us from all guilt as well of omission as of commission . and upon this account being made , not only innocent ( as free from all commissions ) but also actually just , ( as omitting no part of our bounden duty ) we have no need of pardon or remission ; because here remains no sin to be remitted . and then we have christ's obedience and merits for a surplusage , and consequently have no need of repentance or new obedience ; but a fair title to eternal life , upon christ's account without them . so that this authors argument turns clearly upon themselves . for they who take away the necessity of remission of sins , do demolish the article of justification : but these dissenters ( or a sect of them ) do take away the necessity of remission , therefore they do demolish the article of justification ; which consists in remission . rom. . , . eph. ult . colos. . . we appeal therefore to all protestant churches to judge how well they provide for their safety by departing from our communion . yet depart they will ; and ( as this their advocate saith ) when they are once out , they will advise upon another church , not which is tolerable , but which is most elegible , and in all things nearest the word . but suppose you mistake the word ? 't is possible men may think themselves nearest , when indeed they are furthest off from it ; for you dare not pretend to be infallible . 't is calvin 's * observation , tanta est ferè in omnibus morositas — . there is among men such morosity , envy , contempt of others , and such an immoderate esteem of themselves , that were it lawful , every man would erect a church to himself ; because he finds ( in his own disposition ) some difficulty to accommodate himself to the manners of others . some thought themselves as near the mark certainly , as these dissenters ; * so near that they took upon them to controul the orders ( about matters of indifferency and decorum ) of the great apostle ; and t is worth our observation to take notice how severely he checks them for it ; cor. . . what ? came the word of god out from you ? or came it unto you only ? objurgatio asperior , calvin * calls it , a sharp objurgation or chiding : but no more than what was needfull , to abate and blunt the pride of those corinthians , who studying nothing but themselves , would defer , ( or allow ) nothing to the primary churches from whom they had received the gospel : but carried themselves ( saith d. dicson * ) as if they had been the only christians ( in the world ) to whom the apostles had been sent , and to whom alone it did belong to judge of matters of order and decency in the church . the apostle therefore does justly expostulate with them ; are you the prime and only christians ? no , you are not ; there are other churches besides yours , and of more antiquity . it is not meet therefore , that you should despise them , their customs , and practice , to do all things according to your own way , mode and arbitrement . thus the learnud calixtus . * to separate from any church of an apostolical constitution , ( which cannot be justly charged with heresy , idolatry , or the practice of any deadly sin , with allowance or without controul , ) as from a body full of wens and vlcers to the great scandal , of many of that communion , is undoubtedly schism . for the church ( and such a church ) is undoubtedly the spouse of christ ; who gave himself for it , that he might sanctify and clense it with the washing of water by the word : that he might present it to himself a glorious church not having spot or wrinkle , or any such thing , but that it might be holy and without blemish : this is the end of christ's dispensation , tho not accomplisht to perfection till she comes to heaven . the mean while ▪ if she be chaste and loyal , he does embrace and cherish her , not give her a bill of divorce for little faults and curable infirmities ; no more must we : mr. baxter himself could once tell the world , [ i confess , i have no great zeal to confine the church to the party that i best like , nor to shut christ out of all other societies , and coop him up to the congregations of those few , that say to all the rest of the church , stand by , we are more holy than you . he therefore that separates from , such an orthodox church , out of a real intent to be take himself to another , which he thinks more pure , he ought , to be very sure that it is so , ( and not to stand in need to advise about it , whether it be or no ) and he ought also to observe these two rules . ( . ) that he do not profess a total separation from it , much less to do it with reproach , as if it were not a member of christ's body ; for that will defame the spouse of christ , of whose honour and safety christ is very tender and jealous . ( . ) that he does it so , as may give no scandal to those truly pious , tho but weak ones , of that communion which he deserts . solius enim puritatis majoris amor tanti fieri non debet , quanti unius fratris infirmi scandalum atque offensio : for the love only of greater purity * ought not to be so much regarded , as the scandal and offence of one such weak brother , when by such a breach of concord he gives scandal also to his superiors , and by that means may hinder that reformation , which in due time ( if need were ) his sober carriage and example might promote in that communion . hereupon the apostle exhorts , ( heb. . , . ) let us consider one another , to ( whet and ) provoke unto love and to good works . not forsaking the assembling our selves together — but exhorting one another . he that forsakes the church , whether it be out of a damnable neglect , or the fear of persecution , or a perswasion of greater perfection , falls soon into schism and apostacy ; and cannot perform that duty of charity , which he is obliged to by his christianity . vult deus adorari , & nos in verâ congregari charitate , saith oecolampadius , * god will be worshipped , and will have us to be assembled in true charity : qui ab ecclesia dei se scindit , non orat versus hierusalem , quando quidem illam non cupit reparatam , a qua ipse seperatur : he that cuts himself off from the church , does not pray with his face towards jerusalem ( as the prophet daniel did ; ) because he does not desire that ( the church ) should be repaired from which he is seperated . thus oecolampadius . these dissenters may reform and purify the church ( they are to advise about ) till they leave it naked , not only of rites and ceremonies , but also of useful truth , faederal conditions and holy duties , as others have done , and do still to this day . here mr. baxter shall vouch for me , and i will instance in the great article of justification . he charges ( not a small party ) with misunderstanding of the nature and use of christ's death and obedience , ( as he says ) thinking that christ obeyed or satisfied by suffering , or both , as in our persons , so that the law takes it to all ends and uses , as done by us our selves as when a man payeth his debt by his delegate : this opinion ( saith he ) if i understand it , blots out law and gospel at one dash . and he adds a little after , that from that doctrine this opinion follows . that , we are justified before we believe , nay before we sin , nay before we are born , nay that it is an immanent act in god , ( and therefore eternal ) and that infidels are justified as infidels . and a little after he says , the beginning of these mens misery is usually pride of their supposed graces , this leads them first to a seperation from their brethren , and contempt of their guides next to anabaptistry , and at last they turn antinomians and libertines , and are given up to a spirit of madness . as luther † observ'd in his time , eo feruntur spiritu satanae , ut rideant doceri a nobis fidem & charitatem : they are carried with such a spirit of satan , that they deride we should teach them faith and charity . but to return to mr. baxter , who goes on thus , [ when men will so horribly abuse thse on of god , as to make him a friend to sin , who hath done and suffered so much to destroy it , and to make his blood the chiefest defensative of transgression , and the price of a lawless and licentious life , which was shed to demonstrate god's hatred of sin , and to purge the souls of men from its power and pollution , &c. it 's no wonder then ( as he concludes ) if god bears no longer , but do appear against them , from heaven , excommunicate them , and deliver them up to satan the spirit of delusion . it appears by the confutation of that physician , that mr. baxter thought , dr. lewis moulin , had taken too strong a dose of that pernicious doctrine . and he tells us further , that my lord brooks made this the basis of all their vanity , pride and insolence . they have the spirit , and so know more than all the learned , pious , godly men in the world. they have the spirit they cannot sin , they cannot err . — adultery is but an act of the flesh , but they are all spirit and no flesh. — in this case , if they be traitors heady , highminded , &c. who will wonder ? what may they not be carried up to by the imagination of the spirit ? that lord ( as mr. baxter cites him ) goes on with their character and concludes : how can these ( things ) be spoken of arminians , socinians , or our prelates ? these dissenters should resolve the world whether these be the more eligible , or only the tolerable party , they communicate with , in their separation from the church of england . but because they appeal to the word , to the word let them go : that word tells us of prelates , and refers us to their authority , and sets forth their faith and practice for our pattern . heb. . . . it tells us also of false apostles , deceitful workers , transforming themselves into the apostles of christ , cor. . , , . but it charges us not to follow their pernitious ways . and so i leave them . the dissenters fifth section . they plead , that ther 's no obligation upon them to own the churches power to impose new terms of communion , unless the church can prove her power from christ ; it 's not for them to disprove it , it lies upon her to prove it , and to prove it substantially too , or else it will be hard to prove it their duty to own it . the answer ▪ . that power , which the church had from the apostles she had from christ ; for the apostles ( as was proved above ) had the mind of christ ; if they did not deliver what they had received , they were unfaithful ; and if they were unfaithful in this , they might be unfaithful in all the rest ; and so our whole christianity will be call'd in question . . the church hath not only made her claim to a power , but has bin in actual possession of it for more than . years without interruption . that plea is enough , for her to keep possession ; and many rules of law will justify her in it , ( . ) melior est conditio possidentis , he that is in possession has the best title , and ( . ) cum partium jura sunt obscura , favendum est reo : when the rights of the parties litigant or contesting are obscure and doubtful , we are to favour the defendant ; that is ; the party , whom the actor or accuser desires and labours to thrust out of possession , or lay a guilt upon . and the law says further in dubio favendum est superiori imperanti ; in doubtful cases we are to favour the commands of our superiors . that the church is not bonae fidei possessor , and comes not honestly by her title and possession of this power , cannot by the rules of law or equity be determined by the melius inquirendum of an adversary . the actor , aggressor or plaintiff must bring his writ of ejectment to try the title ; and ( if these dissenters have not yet been sufficiently bafled in this attempt ) let them at last offer us substantial proofs to this effect , and i dare promise them ( we shall not follow the example of this author ) we will not be scurrilous , not droll or quibble upon him , about a substantial proof of circumstantial matters . . this power is not pretended to be such a plenitude of power as they claim in the church of rome , not a power to all intents and purposes : no , not a power to make any new articles of faith ; or institute any new sacraments , or parts of divine worship : but only to make orders touching circumstances , rites and ceremonies in the publick performance of god's service , and the administration of discipline amongst the members of the church . to me it is incredible that almighty god should appoint an order of men to be the guides * of souls and the stewards of his divine mysteries , and the means to bring them to eternal bliss ; and yet not intrust them with sufficient power for the due and worthy administration of that office . 't is the great charge laid upon bishops to feed the flock of christ , ( act. . . ) and , in scripture-sense , this is to be done not only , by preaching the gospel , but also by wholsome laws and discipline . some means they must have to accomplish this end , which can be no other then a legislative power . and this is evident from matt. . . what ever ye bind on earth , &c. which is understood not only of absolution , but of excommunication , and inflicting censures . * and in those words of the synod , act. . . it seemed good to the holy ghost and to us to lay upon you no other burden than these necessary things . hence it is manifest that the apostles imposed a law upon believers , which they were obliged to observe ; else , they would never have called those things necessary and a burden . and why did our blessed lord establish superiority and subordination in his church , some persons to govern , and others to obey ; but to keep good order and prevent confusion ; and this is no less needful in ours , then it was in the apostles times ; this power therefore is to be continued in the church to the worlds end . matthew . for a full and clear demonstration hereof , these several particulars have been proved in some other papers . . that christ and his apostles intended vnity , and to obtain and preserve that vnity , they enjoyn'd order and vniformity in churches . . that the apostles at their first preaching of the gospel did not presently establish that order , which the state of the church did afterwards require . . that the apostles expected such a settlement should be made , by such as were entrusted with the government of the church . . that they gave certain general rules or canons to direct the governours of the church in making such establishmenrs . . that they left it to the judgment and prudence of church-governours to determine the particulars to be established in such cases . now let us lay these principles together . . that the solemn worship and service of god cannot be performed without some rites and ceremonies , * as was observed above from zanchy , rungius , and others ▪ . that these rites and ceremonies are to be observed according to the rules of decency and order . and . that these rules are to be adjudged and determined by such as are invested with authority to that effect ; from hence it will follow unavoidably , that all subjects and members of the church are obliged to obey such laws and establishments . for 't is most certain , where some are impower'd to command , others are injoyned to obey ; else the power given to superiors were nugatory , and given to no effect . whereas they mention [ new terms of communion : ] i confess the word new , to my self is somewhat scandalous : i am no lover of innovations in religion ; tho the addition of collects and forms of prayer , upon emergent occasions is both frequent and very usefull ; and alterations are allowable too , when the change is of importance , and does not argue levity , or give scandal . as to [ terms of communion , ] the expression may be equivocal . for my part i would have nothing establisht in the church of god , but what has , at least , general rules and directions in holy scripture , and a just authority , to warrant it . and this has been very carefully observed in all the rites and ceremonies establisht in this church of england . for any man to imagine , that these things make a new worship , is a very great mistake . any thing added to divine institutions as essential , or substantial , and simply necessary , does change the worship , saith zanchy and makes it another . but what are added , yet only as things indifferent , propter ordinem , propter decorum , & ad edificationem ; ea substantiam sacramentorum , eòque cultum non mutârunt : such things added for order , for decency and to edification , they change not the substance of the sacraments ( for example ) nor the nature of the worship . now ( if i understand what he means by his terms of communion , ) i argue thus . she that has a power to appoint rites and ceremonies for edification , decency and order , she hath a power to impose terms of communion : but the church has a power to appoint rites and ceremonies for edification , decency and order . therefore the church hath power to impose terms of communion . besides the proofs already produced , is not this evident in the practice of all churches ? are the terms of communion numerically the same in the greek and latin churches ? if we look into the constitution of the several protestant churches shall we not find variety of customs , rites and ceremonies among them ? this discord we cannot but observe in the harmony of confessions ; whether we examine cambridge edition of . or geneva edition , ▪ and the church of england declares her self in these words : we think it conveient , that every countrey should use such ceremonies as they shall think best , to the setting forth of god's honour and glory , and to the reducing of the people to a most perfect and godly living without error or superstition . are the terms of communion the same among the lutherans and calvinists ? the lutherans reckon these things in the catalogue of things indifferent . . to place historical images , ( or pictures ) in the church for ornament , and commonefaction . . to use stone-tables ( which they commonly call altars ) in the administration of the lords supper . . to adapt a peculiar kind of garment to the minister in his publick administration of the holy office. . in the administration of the eucharist ; either to break and divide little cakes or wafers , or else to make use of single small ones , fit for distribution . . in baptism to use the lessons of exorcismes , and the sign of the cross. . to sing the sacred hymns , either in the german or latin tongue , with the voice , or musical instruments . haec & similia , &c. these and such like things , they who teach , that they are simply necessary to be reteined , or necessarily to be abolished , they do offer violence to christian liberty on both sides , and are to be avoided as false-teachers , desirous to inthrall us in the yoake of humane traditions . notwithstanding this their declaration , we cannot be admitted to their communion unless we submit to the terms of their establishment . and is not the case the same among the presbyterians ? why were the directory , the ordinance for ordination of ministers , the form of church-government for england and ireland , their confession of faith , and their advise for catechisms ; were not all these designes to be imposed as terms of commmunion ? and i am sure they were new ones ; never heard of in the world , till the years . , and . and ( as , i remember ) before the year . they were quite out of request , and laid in the dust . and have not the independents their peculiar terms of communion too ? and are not these new likewise ? the synod of charenton . takes notice of their error , that they teach , vnamquamque ecclesiam suis propriis legibus ita gubernari debere , &c. that every church ought so to be governed by its own laws , that , in matters eccclesiastical , it be subject to no other , nor depend upon any other , nor is it bound to acknowledge the authority of any conference or synods , in reference to its own government and administration . of which error that synod of charenton gives this sentence , esse hanc sectam tam reipublicae , quam ecclesiae perniciosam ; absurdis quibuscunque insanisque commentis viam aperire ; omnes iis medendi rationes tollere ; ac si illi sententiae locus esset , posse tot religiones fingi , quot paraeciae privativè conventus forent : that is , this sect is pernicious both to church and common-wealth ; it opens a gap to all absurd and mad inventions whatsoever ; it takes away all the ways and means of healing them ; and if way should be given to that opinion , there would be as many religions , as there are parishes or private meetings . by this we see that the protestants of france do not agree with the independents of england about the terms of communion . but in truth if the business be sifted to the very bottom , the question is not so much about the power it self ; ( for these dissenters suppose it in all their own expedients , which they propose : ) but , really , the question is , what hands shall menage this power . the laws of christ and his apostles , of church and state , have placed the power in few hands , to make the government the more regular in it self , the more safe to the king , and the more easy to the subject : but these dissenters would put it into every parish priest , and so set up ten thousand independent jurisdictions in the kingdom . and such a church as this is most eligible in their conceit . the dissenters sixth section . they say , the world is pester'd with disputes about worship , about religion ; and therefore since all cannot be in the right , they are willing to go the safest way , and worship god according to his word : if the things disputed be lawful to be done , let 'em be so ; they are sure it 's lawful to let 'em alone ; and they think there 's no great hazard in keeping to scripture rule , nor can believe that christ will send any to hell , because they did not worship god in an external mode , more neat and spruce than god commanded . answer . the world is pester'd with disputes about religion : hereupon some men resolve they 'le trouble themselves with none at all . wo be to them by whom this scandal is given ! i pray , from whence come these wars and fightings amongst us ? the reformation silenced them , and setled vniformity to establish peace . some men are of restless spirits and can never study to be quiet , making it their business to disturbe the repose of christendom . and all the disputes for these . years , ( and we may say , ever since the reformation , ) whether menaged by pen or otherwise , have been commenced and carried on ( against this church of england ) by the jesuits and dissenters . and upon what account this is done ( as to our dissenting brethren ) mr. baxter has told us long ago in these words , [ every one must needs reduce all others to his opinion as if his judgment were the infallible standard of verity ; and so we have proved too proud and uncharitable , while we would be orthodox overmuch . ] and a little after he gives good advice , ( if he had been stedfast enough to follow it , ) i advise my brethren , to prepare their weapons , against the papists , and socinians , and antinomians . above all other sects : and to associate speedily , and carry on all their work in vnity , if ever they will succeed . . 't is sure all cannot be in the right ; 't is fit therefore , we should take some pains to learn the safest way . but self-conceit and the private spirit are the worst guides in the world. he that is wise in his own eyes is very apt to put darkness for light , and light for darkness ( isai. . . ) the holy ghost has observ'd this to our hands , and adviseth us therefore not to lean to our own understanding : for ( as that devout man said ) he that is his own scholar has a fool to his master . the neerer the fountain the clearer the stream . god calls upon us to tread the * good old way ; sends us to the law and the testimony . † but as he gave the word , so he gave the preachers too . the priests lips should preserve knowledge ; and they should seek the law at his mouth . ‖ in difficult matters god did refer earnest and cordial inquirers to the sentence of such as were in authority , deut. . our saviour did not slight that order , wherein that dispensation was on foot , but lik'd it so well ( as he did many other of those institutions ) that he transcribed it into his gospel , and adopted it into the practice of his church . they sit in moses chair , &c. obey them that have the rule over you , and submit your selves . heb. . , . and if a dic ecclesiae be of so great authority ( in our saviours account ) to decide our civil differences , much more those of a spiritual and religious nature ( as schism and heresie ) which belong more properly to her cognizance * . whereas they say there 's no great hazard , i say there 's none at all , in worshipping god according to his word , and keeping to scripture-rule ; provided we rightly understand it . for luther * observes , there are two sorts of prophets ( hinted at by moses ) that should rise up against sound doctrine . one should come in the name of the lord , and bring the word of god and holy scripture with them . such should be the jews in christ's time , who alledged the scripture against the gospel , for the righteousness of the law ; and such should be hereticks after them , &c. men will wrest the scriptures to serve their own hypothesis . is any thing more clear than the scripture-rule for governors , that they set all things in order ( where it is not done to their hands ) and then to see , that ( in the worship and service of god ) all things be done decently according to that order ? and that these are the commandments of god. * and the scripture-rule for such as are under authority is as plain as words can make it , ( heb. . , . ) and yet if there were no such scripture-rule , common reason would infer the duty . where some are impowered to give orders , others are under an obligation to observe them : else authority is nugatory and ridiculous , as has been observed formerly . . if the things disputed be lawful to be done , we are not of these dissenters opinion , that 't is lawful to let 'em alone : but we believe the contrary . for if they do not dogmatize themselves and their followers into superstition ( which is highly probable , ) yet by their pretermission , and neglect of what is injoyned them , they break the law , despise authority , and give scandal to the church ; and whether hell may not ly at the bottom of such disobedience , i leave it between god and themselves to judge . does not god require and delight in verity ? and can there be vnity without obedience ? does he not require us to avoid offences , and follow peace , especially with his church ? is not schism a work of the flesh as well as murder , or adultery ? is not a wilful and groundless separation from the mystical body of christ , a separation from communion with him ? and is there no peril in breaking our selves off from this vine ? do they think they can climbe up to heaven by a ladder of their own , when they place the foot of it upon ground of their own devising ? no , no. graviter peccant , saith the learned zanchy , they sin grievously , who for these indifferent ceremonies disturb the churches , and damn all other magistrates and rulers , because they use their liberty in these things : is this the piety which is boasted of ? is this the charity which we ow to the churches of god ? if they want piety and charit who contend with other churches about ceremonies , how little of those christian-virtues have they to pretend to , who quarrel with their own ; because she will not prostrate her self to gratify their humors ? . if christ will send none to hell for performing his worship and service rudely and slovenly , with a stiff and peremptory sawciness ( which i am sure is no where allowed ) certainly he will not send to hell such as worship him in the beauty of holiness , with a due reverence and solemnity , which he hath commanded . the dissenters seventh section . they pretend , that the things imposed are parts of worship , which none can create but god : nor will god accept of any but such as are of his own creating ; and whether they be integral or essential parts , they do not know ; but in the worship of god they find them stand upon even ground with those that are certainly divine , or at least as high as man can lift them . the answer . when the apostle saith , let all things be done 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , according to rule and order , he does imply that somethings are to be decreed and ordered ; and that must be done after such a manner as is decent and to such an end as edification . orders to this effect are not the essentials of religion , but the appendages , circumstances and modifications of it ; which in a general sense , we call rites and ceremonies . and of the dissenting brethren , this their advocate tells us . they pretend , that the things imposed are parts of worship . this , he says , they pretend ; and 't is one of the modestest expressions i have observed fall from his pen. but why do they pretend ? why , because they are resolved to object and cavil . but why do they but pretend ? because they cannot prove ; and perhaps because some of them do not believe themselves in what they suggest against the church , viz. that the rites & ceremonies imposed immediately by her authority are parts of worship . the worship of god is twofold . . internal , * which consists of the internal actions of a pious soul , for example , the act of faith , is to believe , the act of hope , is to hope , the act of charity , to love god and our neighbour , with other internal exercises of piety . . there is an external worship of god , and that consists in the external exercises of piety ; and these are of two sorts . some are of themselves good , and acceptable to god , and necessary to salvation : such are confession of our lord and saviour , ( the external works of faith , ) beneficence , or doing good to our neighbour , ( the external work of charity ) these are such effects of piety that piety it self cannot be without them ; whereupon they are more properly called works of piety , and no less pleasing to god than the internal works themselves . there are other external exercises of piety , which are conversant in , external rites and ceremonies of god's institution , and opposed to the inventions , exercises and offices of mans devising : such are sacraments and sacrifices ; which are ordained not for their own sakes , but to be inservient to internal piety , to bring that to light and protest it , to exercise and promote it , to god's glory , the good of our neighbour and the salvation of our own souls . piety is the soul of all our worship ; without which the observation of these external rites and ceremonies are but as a dead carcass † which god will reject as a thing of an ill savour . in this worship of god 't is doubtless the duty of the church to give direction , and call upon us to perform it : but this worship is of gods appointment and imposition , not the churches . if the rites and ceremonies imposed by this church be part of worship : how came they to be so ? it must be either by divine institution , ( which we are so far from pretending to , that we do stedfastly deny it , ) or else , by humane estimation : if we did value them at so high a rate , this must appear . . either by the necessity we lav upon them . or , . by the merit and efficacy we ascribe to them . or , . by the preference we give them . . the scribes and pharises indeed set such a value upon their traditions , ( which had no competent authority to establish them , but were wicked and repugnant to divine authority ) that they prefer'd them so far before god's law , as to have force enough to rescinde it , and make it of none effect . ( matt. . . ) but for rites and ceremonies establisht among us , the church has declar'd , that ( upon , just causes ) they may be altered and changed , and therefore are not to be esteemed equal with god's law. * . that we should place any merit in the use of them cannot well be imagined , when we allow no such to the very best works we can perform at god's appointment . and when authority has injoyn'd or restrain'd the use of them , so that ( upon such a supposition ) they become necessary , according to such restraint or injunction : yet they remain indifferent still in their own nature : and do not immediately bind mens consciences , as if they were immediate parts of god's worship , or of absolute necessity to salvation , for which the church has tyed our faith strictly to the holy writ ; and to nothing else . artic. . but to proceed . they say , none can create parts of worship but god , nor will god accept of any , but of such as are of his own creating : here we have two things , which call for our consideration . . the creation of worship . and . the acceptableness , of such performances as have not that stamp of god's creation on them . . by creation of worship ( or the parts of it ) we suppose he means the erection and dictating of it ; which may be done either by natural suggestion , or by general and positive institution . and then we must distinguish betwixt erection ( as i may call it ) and direction ; betwixt natural suggestion ( by which we understand the dictate or impression of the law of nature ) and occasional application : betwixt general institution ) and particular determination . the erection , ( whether by natural suggestion or general institution , ) may be from the wisdom and will of god ; and yet the direction as to occasional application and particular determination , may be referr'd to the power and wisdom of the church . this will appear in some acts or rites of external worship . nonnullas ( ceremonias ) diotat ipsa natura ; nature her self does dictate some sort of ceremonies , for example , to kneel down when we pray , to smite the breast , to lift up the eyes and hands to heaven ; which are therefore common to the heathen with all sects , saith herinex . * and zanchy † proves that some external rites used in god's worship , are from the law of nature : because they were common to jew and gentil : he does instance in howing and kneeling , when they worship god , and in lifting their eyes up to heaven when they said their prayers . &c. and he adds , we can use no ceremony , wherein the law of nature has not some place . vsque adeo natura nos ad deum adorandum , ac ritè honestèque ac pie colendum instigat : so far does nature incite us to adore and orderly and honestly and piously to worship god. to give some instances , bowing the head , bowing the knee , and bowing the body , are external rites , or if you will acts of external worship ; and so is prostration : they are suggested to us even by the law of nature : and injoyned by the decalogue * in general : but in regard it cannot be performed all at once , therefore the particular determination pro hic & nunc , or the occasional application of them to god's service is left to the wisdom and order of the church . in like manner the confession of christ , is a rite , or an act of god's external worship ; ( for there was never any nation that did believe a god , but would also declare that he was to be own'd and acknowledged . ) but whether this confession and acknowledgment should be made viva voce , by word of mouth , or by subscription , or by some symbolical signe or gesture . this is left to the prudence of such as are concern'd to determine it . thus much touching the creating of worship ( as our author calls it ) with such rites as do attend and protest the truth and piety of it . . the acceptableness thereof follows : some things are acceptable to god ▪ as they are suggested by the law of nature , which is from god ; and therefore cannot but be very pleasing to him : some things are acceptable as they are inservient to the exercise of internal piety ; and so alms and beneficence are well pleasing to him . ( heb. . . ) and some things he is pleased with , because they are inservient to the solemnity of publick worship and ornamental to it : such was the holy temple with the musical instruments , and all the magnificence of it ; the lord loveth the gates of sion , psal. . . for adiaphorae actionis possunt deo placere ( saith vrsin ) licet aliter quam cultus dei proprie dictus : indifferent actions , may please god , tho not upon the same account , but in a different manner , from the worship of god properly so called . god may therefore accept what he does not particularly , or directly injoyn . in the free-will offerings under the law , tho god determined the quid and the quale , yet he let the quotum undetermined , * which nevertheless was acceptable to him . and what shall we say of david's purpose to build the temple ( which resolution he took up , not ( as our author says of some others ) jure prophètico ; ( for it was not the manner of prophets to be mistaken in their intendments , as david was in that case ) yet god accepted the piety of his design , tho he would not allow him , the execution of it . another instance we have in the great apostle . potuit b. paulus ex evangelio sibi victum quaerere : quod maluit operari amplius erogabat , saith st. austin : blessed paul * might have lived of the gospel : that he chose rather to earn his own living , he laid out himself so much the more : and was not this acceptable to god ? gratis evangelium praedicare , voluntaria quaedam est libertas , eoque & gloriam promeretur : to preach the gospel freely is a kind of ingenuous liberty and deserves glory , saith the theophylact : and a little after , haud quaquam tantundem futurum est , ut is mereatur , &c. he that preacheth the gospel for reward , can never deserve so much , as * shall be given to him , who preacheth the gospel freely . * i will instance but once more and that shall be in mary magdalen ; who commanded her , either to wash christ's feet with her tears , or to wipe them with the hair of her head , or to poure so costly a box of ointment upon his head , which according to law might have been sold at a great rate and given to the poor ? was she not accepted herein ? she had the son of god to be her advocate , against the cavils of his own disciples , she received the comfort of a declarative absolution , and the honour to have her devotion celebrated whereever the church should preach the gospel . these dissenters say further , whether the things imposed , be integral or essential parts ( of worship ) they do not know , but in the worship of god they find them standing upon even ground with those that are certainly divine , or at least as high as man can lift them . that the church does impose or command any parts of worship , not of god's creating , is but their pretence and our denyal . affirmanti incumbit probatio : the proof lies on their side ; and if they cannot make it good they are uncharitable and false accusers . what ranke they hold in the esteem of the church and learned protestants we may best learn from her and themselves . this church of england saith , that without some ceremonies it is not possible * to keep any order , or quiet discipline in the church ; they were reserved therefore ( and establisht ) as well for a decent order in the church , as because they pertain to edification . what rivet * saith from robert loëus , of the time consecrated to god's service may be applyed to all ecclesiastical rites and ceremonies , moralis potius legis usui subservire , quam vim & naturam ejus continere ; nec tam propriè quidem virtutem aut pietatem , quam nervum virtutis vinculumque pietatis dici : he saith that it is rather subservient to the use of the moral law , then that contein the force and nature of it ; neither can it so properly be called virtue or piety , as the sinew of virtue and the bond of piety . the titles given to these rites and ceremonies by learned men are these , * retinacula , adminicula , incitamenta , ornamenta : they call them the hold-fast , the helps , the incitements and ornaments of religion and piety . these were the traditions mentioned by the apostle , cor. . . precepts left by christ to the wisdom of the governours and presidents of his church , pertaining to good order and decency . there were many of this kind saith grotius , of no great moment to piety , but therein 't was fit and profitable that something should be setled in common , lest a different use and custom should blemish the church , beget disputes , and , as it often happens , of disputes and schismes . so that these rites are like the leades in a glass-window , not design'd to let in light , but to hold the quarries of glass together , to keep the window tite and strong , and make it the more serviceable to keep out storms and cold . that these things , in the esteem of the church stand upon even ground with such things as are certainly divine is so great an untruth that a modest man would blush at it . they have not the same author , not the same end , nor the same necessity , nor the same obligation . . they have not the same author , divine things have god for their only author : but for these ecclesiastical rites and ceremonies , they ow their original , either to the customes of several places , as standing in sign of reverence . judg. . . eglon stood up , when ehud told him he had a message to him from god. when the word of god was mentioned eglon gave honour to it by rising up , saith pet. martyr . and he says , it is to be believed , that it was the custom of those countries at that time . or else . they derived their original from the authority of superiors , as cor. . . . and tit. . . and the practice of their institutions in process of time become customs too . cor. . . upon these words the rest will i set in order when i come : st. austin * saith , that christ commanded no-nothing in these matters , but left them to the ordering of the apostles , with whom he entrusted the disposal of the churches , &c. read the epistle at large . or . the rites and ceremonies may take their rise from the devotion of pious persons ; as the practice of the publican and mary magdalen , luke . . c. . . . as they have not the same author , so they have not the same end : the end of divine institutions is internal grace and sanctification : this is said to be the end of christ's dispensation to his church . that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water , by the word . eph. . . but the end of these ecclesiastical rites & ceremonies is not to confer grace , but to preserve good order and decorum , to procure reverence , and ( as objects fit for that purpose ) to help devotion . . they have not the same necessity ; for as touching divine things , an absolute necessity is laid upon us to observe them ; and it may be a double necessity , praecepti & medii , not only because they are under command , but also because they may be means without which salvation is not to be had : but for ecclesiastical rites , the necessity is not absolute ; they may be changed , they may be abolished , and we may be saved without them ; and that they do not stand upon equal ground , the church professeth in her articles ; and this is clear upon an other account . for , lastly , there is a great difference in their obligation . divine commands and institutions do bind the conscience , immediately and of themselves , under peril of eternal death : ecclesiastical rites doe not so : and where there is no breach of charity , and that is , where there is no contempt of authority , or scandal to our neighbour , the omission does not wound the conscience , nor incur the guilt of deadly sin , as the reverend and learned davenant * has determined . but perhaps there lies a fallacy , in the expression ; for to stand upon even ground does not always argue an equality . 't is said exod. . . the people believed god and his servant moses : likewise 't is commanded , prov. . . my son , fear thou the lord and the king : there , god and moses may seem to stand upon even ground in the term [ believed ; ] and here , the lord and the king , stand upon even ground , in the term [ fear : ] yet he were little less than a mad man , that should conclude from hence , that god and moses , or the lord and the king ; are of equal consideration , when notwithstanding the difference between them is no less then infinite . we read in the book of josuah of an unlucky jealousy , which did arise in the heads of some of the tribes of israel against their brethren ; and this begat a dissent ; and that dissent had ended in a fatal and deadly breach , if it had not been made up by interposing the innocent parties protestation . the two tribes and half , when they left the camp of israel , in their return to their own inheritance , they built an altar for memorial and a testimony : hereupon their brethren lookt upon them as apostates and idolaters , and took up armes , ( as they imagined ) to avenge god's quarrel . when the children of ruben and god and those of manasseh , had heard ( by their legates ) of their preparation for war , and their bitter expostulation , they calmly made their defence , the lord god of god's knoweth , and israel shall know our innocency . if we have built this altar in rebellion or for sacrifice to turn from the lord , let the lord himself require it ; but we have done this only to intitle our selves and our posterity to a share in god's publick and solemn worship , and to an interest in his tabernacle and altar . when the priest and princes of the congregation had heard their apology , they were well pleased , and declared their hearty satisfaction : this day we perceive that the lord is among us : and they blessed god ; and all was concluded in a happy peace . calvin * reflecting upon phinehas and the ten princes which were with him , he commends the temper of their zeal , that they did not insist upon the prejudice which they had conceived against their brethren : but admitted their excuse with kindness and alacrity . for there are many ( saith he ) if they take offence , no apology can be calm them : but they will always be finding out something unjustly to carp at , rather then yeild to reason . 't is lavaters complaint ( in treating of this story ) hodiè reperies magnos theologos qui tam sunt importuni & praecipites , ut nondum auditis aut lectis aliorum argumentis , statim responsiones fabricent & in lucem emittant : we see great divines at this day , who are so importune and precipitant , that before ever they have considered or read the arguments of other men , they are busy at framing answers , and sending them abroad in publick . but both parties ought to be heard with meekness and good attention . quam hoc utile & necessarium sit in causâ religionis , hic locus apertè ostendit : how profitable and necessary this is in the cause of religion , ( saith he , ) this place does plainly manifest . and that moderate divine adds a little after , si viri boni jure jurando , vel aliis idoneis rationibus se legitimè excusent , recipienda est eorum excusatio : if good men can purge themselves by oath , or by other meet ways , their excuse is to be received . there are some , that will stubbornly maintain what they have once propounded : such men , ( saith he , ) are authors of great mischief in church and state. let not the reader wonder that i insist so much upon these authorities : for has not the church of england purged her self sufficiently by argument against these dissenters and entred her protestation too , to satisfy their jealousies ? let us hear the learned , pious , and judicious bishop , dr. sanderson ; our church ( god bethanked , saith he ) is far from any such impious presumption ( viz. as that of the pharisees and the church of rome : ) and hath sufficiently declared her self by solemn protestation , enough to satisfy any ingenuous impartial judgment , that by requiring obedience to these ceremonial constitutions , she hath no other purpose , then to reduce her children to an orderly uniformity in the outward worship of god , so far is she from seeking to draw any opinion , either of divine necessity upon the constitution , or of effectual holiness upon the ceremony : thus dr. sanderson . our dissenting brethren should have been so charitable as to have followed the steps of those ten tribes : they should have declared their satisfaction upon the churches protestation ; and have blessed god that she is so perfectly clear of their suspition : they should have been highly pleased that matters are so well ; this they should have done rather then to revile and cavil ( as they have done , ) rather then to condemn and forsake her communion , upon their own jealousy , to set up a new altar , and altar against altar , condemn'd by all the orthodox among the antients . they have indeed the jealousy & rashness of those tribes but not their ingenuity and condour . and to shew their uncharitableness , they bear the world in hand that , we set up these rites and ceremonies as parts of god's worship , matters of necessity and design'd to insnare the conscience . but to mollify the objection and censure , they say ( at last , ) if these rites and ceremonies do not stand upon even ground with those things which are certainly divine , yet , at least , they stand as high as man can lift them . but by their good leave , they are mistaken in this suggestion too : for they stand not so high , as they are set up in the church of rome . aquam sale conspersam populis benedicimus , ut eâ cuncti aspersi sanctificentur , ac purificentur : as alexander the first has it in an epistle : we bless water and salt for the people , that all who are sprinkled therewith may be sanctifyed and purified . they attribute spiritual effects to their ceremonies : not only a power to cure diseases to expel and drive away the devil : but to procure grace , to remit venial sins , to sanctify their persons . and they use spiritual acts of consecration and solemn benedictions to hallow them to these effects . do the rites and ceremonies of the church of england stand thus high ? for shame , in cool blood , they will not say it . i suppose therefore , the meaning is only this , that they stand as high as of due right and lawfully we can lift them . if this be their meaning , ( tho there may be a malitious insinuation , that we do something more then we ought , yet ) really , to do what , of due right and lawfully , we may do , is no sin in us : but 't is sin in them to break communion and seperate from us upon that account . here we may observe the method and progress of discord ; first , they fancy and pretend a fault : then they take the confidence calumniari fortiter , to make the calumny as black as may be , and to stick it upon us with as great an odium as they can ; and when they have shewn their spite , they mince the matter ; they were mistaken in their exaggeration ; we have done nothing but our duty , or at least what is warrantable , in exalting god's solemn worship and service , by lifting up the appendages thereof to their due and decent station . for other protestant churches do lift up their establisht rites and discipline as high as we ; and this is evident from the severity they design and inflict upon such as are refractory to the use and practice of them . when such rites and laws about them , are established , the church does not account the observation of them so mean and vile , as to be violated through contempt and with the scandal of others : but such transgressors she looks upon as undecent and disorderly walkers , and exerciseth her authority , to note , to admonish , to reprove and rebuke them , and endeavours by all wholsom means to reduce them to a sound mind : this is the duty of the church ( when it may be performed seasonably , ) saith a protestant divine of great learning and an acute judgment . and does not mr. calvin say the same ? i am sure it was his practice : and upon those words . cor. . . if any man seems to be contentious , he writes thus , tales sunt omnes qui bonos ritus & utiles convellunt nulla necessitate , &c. such are all they , who without any necessity root out good and profitable rites and ceremonies ; such as make controversies about matters of no difficulty , such as no reason can satisfy , such as will not endure to be reduced to order , such also are they who are unsociable , and are carried away with a foolish affectation of novelties . such as these st. paul will not vouchsafe to answer : because contention is a pernicious thing , and ought to be banisht out of the church . hereby ( as calvin goes on ) he teacheth , that refractory and contentious persons are to be bridled by authority , rather then refuted by disputations , * &c. and grynaeus † upon these words , colos. . . [ joyning and beholding your order , ] refers order , to the whole liturgy and discipline of the church ; and of such as walk disorderly , ( as those mentioned thes. . . ) he saith , quoad ejus fieri potest , in ordinem , disciplinae ecclesiasticae severitate adhibitâ , redigendi sunt , they must be reduced to order , by the severe use of church discipline . haec ille . the dissenters eighth section . they do not find that god ever commanded the things imposed , either in general , in special , or the singulars of them ; if god has commanded a duty to be done , the church must find a place to do it in ; but tho the church must find a place for the duty , a time for the duty , she may not find new duty , for the time and place . the answer . . to this i answer , that the church can never fix upon a time or place for publick worship without order and authority . for , when matters are left at random , quot homines tot sententiae : so many men so many minds ; and the confusion of tongues is not so destructive as that of judgments . one will be for the hour nine , another will not have his devotion up and drest till at least eleven . one again will be for the barn , another for the tabernacle . and although this gentleman tells us of a church that will and must certainly agree about such things , though all determine to the contrary ( as was observed above ) yet i have not been so happy as to converse in that vtopia . . natural circumstances are not rites in the practice of religion and god's worship upon that account : but as they are capable of improvement in a moral or religious respect . that all things be done decently , according to order , and to edification ; these rules look a little higher then those natural circumstances , which adhere inseperably to all actions ; for which there was no such need of a solemn charge or apostolical direction , time being a fluid thing and always in motion , we can fix no respect upon it , but as we seperate several portions of it , to be the measure of our worship and service for point of duration , and take care for the strict observance of them . † but the place is capable of more advantage to help devotion . god therefore seems to distinguish them as to the respects we are to give them : for he saith , levit. . . * ye shall keep my sabbaths and reverence my sanctuary , i am the lord. and here i must repeat , that order requires the same time , the same place , the same gesture ; and decency requires , that the rites and vsages ( in god's worship ) be honest , grave , solemn , suitable to the majesty we adore , and the offices of divine worship ; which we pay to him . . we say new rites do not make a new duty , not alter god's law , or change his worship , as was noted out of zanchy . 't is the same duty still , whether performed at . or the th . hour in a church or chappel , cathedral or a parish church , in a cloak or cassok , gown or surplice , standing or kneeling . and because ▪ our author is so good at illustrations , i will make bold , for once , to borrow a familiar instance from him ; suppose a law promulgated by the legislator : that every subject shall sweep his door once a week with a beesom : now to sweep my door with a beesom of birch or broom , cannot possibly be any addition to that law ( or , say i , the setting up of a new duty ) because 't is necessarily required to the putting of the law in practice , that i do it with the one or the other , and therefore they are both comprehended virtually in the law by way of disjunction , that is either with this or that or some other . again to sweep my door on the third day of the week , and at the ninth hour of the day , can be no addition to the law , because i am commanded to do it , upon some day in the week , and at some hour of the day , and the law not having defined the precise day and hour , supposes it indifferent to the lawgiver which i choose , but one or other i must choose , unless i will obstinately disobey the law. we shall make use of this illustration thus : god makes a law that we shall give him external worship : now to worship him by bowing , kneeling , or prostration , cannot possibly be any addition to that law , because 't is necessarily required to the putting of the law in practice , that i do it with the one or the other , and therefore they are ( all three ) comprehended virtually in the law by way of disjunction , that is , either after this or that , or the other manner . again god commands me to confess the faith of christ crucified , and profess my self a christian : now to make this confession or profession by word of mouth , or by the subscription of my hand , or by some symbolical sign or significant gesture , cannot possibly be any addition to that law , because 't is necessarily required to the putting of the law in practice , that i do it , either the one way or the other ; and therefore they are all comprehended virtually in the law by way of disjunction ; that is , i must do it either this way , or that or the other . and the law not having defined the precise way , supposes it indifferent to the lawgiver , which i chuse ; but one or other i must chuse ( unless the church has chosen for me ) or else i am an obstinate transgressor . . it is no derogation to the perfection of scripture as a rule , that the singulars , or particular instances of worship are not specified in it . for ( as our author well observes ) 't is always supposed , that every one in his private or more publick capacity be able to use and apply the rule . as the square , or rule of the architect , however exact in it self , yet presupposes him to have eyes to see , and brains to apply it to his work ; so the scripture as a law teaches duty , and whatever of well-pleasing obedience we can perform to god , yet supposes us at least to be rational creatures , that can apply that law to our own particular actions , whence these two things must necessarily follow . . that it was not only needless but impossible , that the scripture should enumerate or determine upon the particular natural circumstances , of general time , place , person , when , where , who should worship god , every day , hour , minute to the end of the world : for so the whole world would not have afforded sufficient stowage for rubricks , nor have been able to contain the volumns that must have been written : for as the end and use of a rule is not to teach the artificer , when he shall begin to work , but how he may do it like a workman , whenever he begins ; so neither was the scripture design'd for a clock to tell us at what hour of the day we should commence the publick service of god , but that whenever we begin or end , we mannage it according to this rule . . that when the scripture hath prescribed us all the parts of worship , instituted the administrators of worship , given rules how to seperate them to that office , and laid down general rules for the regulating those natural circumstances , which could not particularly be determin'd , as that they be done to edification decently , and in order ; and has withal commanded us to attend to this rule , and no other , ( which is true sano sensu ) it has then discharged the office of of a rule , and , as a rule , is compleat and perfect . thus our author has architectonically erected his hypothesis : but the singulars are not yet determined : and what must be done for them ? jus naturae docet esse deum , ip sique reddendum esse quod suum est , nempe cultum , tum internum , tum externum , says our synopsis : * the law of nature teaches there is a god , and that we ought to render him his due , that is , both external and internal worship . and the learned zanchy † resolves , substantia legis ceremonialis est perpetua : ‖ that the substance of the ceremonial law is perpetual , natural religion does dictate something , and where there is equity and a parity of reason , and a due analogy for it , we may take some directions from the levitical law , as the very learned and judicious sanderson observes . our blessed saviour reteined many ceremonies and usances of that carnal commandment , as imposition of hands and both the sacraments . and from whence did the apostle take the hint , to injoyn the women to wear a vail , and keep silence in the church , but from the custom among the jews ? * and how does he establish maintenance for the evangelical ministry but upon this bottom . tim. . . cor. . , . sanciens leges vet. test. conformes , establishing law conformable to those of the old testament , saith theophylact. † and perhaps this analogy may be a fair ground for the strict observation of the lord's day , of fasts and festivals ; provided they do not typically respect things to come ( as those of the law did , ) but reflect upon what is past , and fix us upon present duty . the apostle did not always pretend to inspiration in such matters , but used christian prudence ( yet not without a divine assistance ) and made inferences out of generals ; yet strictly observing such general rules , he concludes , that the particulars were the commandments of god. cor. . , . the learned mede * observes , that it is a synechdoche proper to the decalogue , vt ex una specie intelligeremus , omnes ejusdem generis species , unâ rerum sacrarum specie , omnes omnino res sacras : that from one species we are to understand all of the same kind . quaedam & sunt & dicuntur in scripturis , ( saith dr. sclater out of nazianzen ) quaedam verò sunt in scripturis tametsi non dicuntur . and . rules are laid down by that learned dr. first , . where generals are delivered , there are all particulars comprised in those generals intentionally delivered ; because generals comprehend their particulars . . where principles and causes are delivered , their effects are also intended : as being virtually conteined in their principles . . where one equal is taught , all of like reason is taught , quia parium par ratio : and where is par ratio , there is par lex : where is like reason there is like law. so take contents of scripture ( saith he ) no instance of any point of necessary , or but convenient faith and practice , can be given , but what is delivered in the written word . thus dr. sclater , on thes. . . p. . the psalmist tells us , the commandment is exceeding broad . and very learned protestants * think all matters of decency impli'd in that of rom. . . and the apostles expression phil. . . is of a very great latitude , whatsoever things are true , whatsoever things are honest , — if there be any virtue , if there be any praise : these with the other particulars there enumerated will extend a great way : and the learned a. rivet † makes good use of that text against works of supererrogation ; nor is it less valid or useful against will-worship . omnia quaecunque homines possunt ex gratia dei , deo debentur : all that ever men can do by the grace of god , is due to god , according to that exhortation ; and consequently they are ( in the general ) injoyn'd by god. at least , ( as luther hath observed , from the apostle ad gal. . . ) they are under the law of charity : quaecunque ceremonialiter & humaniter statuuntur — pro charitate servanda sunt propter eos , cum quibus vivendum est nobis , donec ipsi easdem servari a nobis exigunt , ne pax solvatur in schismata & seditiones : what things soever are appointed by way of ceremony ‖ and civility ; ⸫ are to be observed out of charity , for their sakes , with whom we live , so long as they require us to observe them , lest peace should break loose into schismes and seditions . and a little after he conclude , that there is no law , but is comprehended in charity . nam sine omni dubio , si tu quicquam statuisses , &c. for without all doubt , ( saith he ) if thou shouldest injoyn any thing , thou would'st be obeyed : therefore thou art obliged by the law of nature and charity to perform the same to another , especially to god and his vice-gerents : provided you do not place salvation in the precepts of men : but only consider that you are bound to serve others in charity . hereupon calvin ( argument . in ep. ad romanos in fine ) observing a sort of men , who thought their christian liberty could not stand without a disturbance of the civil powers , he resolves the case thus , verum ne quid videretur imponere ecclesiae paulus praeter officia charitatis : hanc quoque obedientiam sub charitate contineri indicat : lest st. paul should seem to impose any thing upon the church besides the offices of charity : he declares ( viz. rom. . . ) that this obedience ( to the higher powers ) is comprehended in charity . those impositions therefore which these dissenters quarrel at , are commanded in general , and ( not being against any command of god , ) if there were no more in the case , yet they are under a general rule , because done according to order . . it is to be noted , that external worship is a duty of religion ; and of great necessity . it is the observation of the author of our synopsis , upon josuah . . ita est mortalium ingenium , ut adminiculis opus habeant , quibus mentes erigant in coelum : such is the disposition of mortal men ; that they stand in need of helps to raise their minds to heaven . whereupon it often comes to pass , vt ubi cultus externus negligitur , that where god's outward worship is neglected , ibi animorum quoque religio sensim tabescit & minuitur ; there the ( internal ) religion also of the soul flaggs , and by degrees dwindles away to nothing . rectè igitur ( as that author goes on ) wherefore they made a very good inference , that if the ritual worship were obstructed or hindred , the spiritual worship , that i may so call the inward piety of the mind will decay and depart with it . and the learned grotius * hath very well observed , that to make external worship but a matter indifferent , is the way to make the courage and constancy of christians to languish ; and nothing is more destructive to christianity then to bring in conciliating expedients , to mingle the christian religion with others , whether approved , or only tolerated . . we must consider , that when there are many ways of external worship to express our inward piety , ( which cannot all be performed at once ) god has left it to the wisdom of his church ( in publick administrations ) to determine which we should observe . and for the proof of this , i 'le go no further than one of our own divines , learned and zealous and very famous in his generation : 't is mr. perkins in his cases of conscience , concerning the gesture to be used in prayer ; wherein he lays down these three rules ( he speaks of publick prayer . ) . when publick prayer is made in the congregation , our gesture must always be comely , modest and decent . . all gesture used publickly , must serve as much as may be , to express the inward humility of the heart , without hypocrisy . now these kinds are manifold ( saith he ) some concern the whole body , as the bowing thereof , the casting of it down upon the ground . some again concern the parts of the body , as lifting up of the head , the eyes , the hands , bowing the knees , &c. touching these the scripture hath not bound us to any particulars . . ( therefore ) we must ( saith he ) in publick prayer , content our selves to follow the laudable fashion , and custom of that particular church , where we are . for to decline from customs of particular churches , in such cases , often causeth schism and dissentions . and what he says , upon the epistle to the galatians to the same purpose is worthy to be noted , and seasonable for our christian practice . the use of the law among the jews ( saith he ) was to shut them up into the unity of one faith and religion . for this cause they had but one temple , one mercy-seat , one highpriest , &c. hence it follows ( saith that holy man ) that in a godly and christian common-wealth , when true religion is established , there may be no tolleration of any other religion . for that , which is the end of god's laws , must also be the end of all good laws , in all common-wealths and kingdoms , namely to shut up the people into the unity of one faith. the church of the jews ( saith he ) is called a fountain sealed , a garden enclosed , cant. . . ) a vineyard hedged in ( isai. . . psal. . . ) and here ( viz. gal. . ver . , , . ) we see what is the hedge or wall of this garden , or vineyard : namely the regiment or policy of moses by a threefold kind of law. this admonisheth us ( saith he ) to respect , and with care to observe good laws : because they are as it were hedges and fences of all good societies : and the breaking of them is the pulling down of our fence : thus mr. perkins , from which principles of his , good god! how much are these times degenerated ? and let all the world judge , who honours the reformation most , they who professedly violate , or they who zealously maintain the laws and legal establishment of it . . we may add , that the church hath this power , not only in sacred rites , and acts of external worship , but also , in such as are civilly decent ; and such is the womans vail , which i look upon not as a thing properly religious or sacred , but only as a decent habit , according to custom , common estimation and the law of nature , especially in ecclesiastical assemblies ; * whereupon bullinger † concludes his commentary upon that head thus , haec verò de habitu ecclesiae ingredientium dicta sufficiant : this shall suffice to have spoken touching the habit of such as approach the church of god. and , now , one of the apostles instances , ( when he is giving orders to establish decency in publick assemblies ) being in the matter of habit ; methinks this should be warrant enough ( as a general rule ) for the use of the surpliss by ecclesiastical ministers in the publick offices and administrations of the church . for to officiate naked is against natural decency , and so dishonest : to officiate in a fools coat ( or some singular habit taken for it ) is ridiculous and scandalous . and such as are peculiarly seperated to the service of the most high god , why should not they be distinguisht by special habits , ( in the publick and solemn administration of their sacred offices ) as well as civil judges , mayors , and other publick officers ? does this make any alteration in the substance of religious worship ? quòd veteres episcopi coenam administraturi , aliam induerint vestem , ad mutationem coenae nihil pertinet , saith zanchy ; * that such as administer the holy office , do put on another vesture , this does not change the worship : but adds solemnity to it . to prevent indecency , we have the order of a just authority to determine the point . and our governors , for their direction , ( besides the light of nature , and common custom , where any religion was in vogue ) had the rule of analogy from the vests of the priests and levites , in their solemn assemblies , under the law , and an invitation by a fair allusion to that practice , in the vision of st. john. ( apoc , . , . ) and what habit more decent then white to represent , that holiness becomes both the priest , and the christian profession aswell as the house of god ? however , this being about the use of a habit in ecclesiastical assemblies ( as was the womans vail , which the apostle gave special order for ) it must certainly be comprised under the general rule of decency , and consequently as such , under the command of god , according to the observation of hemmingius ( in . ad cor. . . ) sunt mandata domini , quae hîc à paulo praecipiuntur , quantum quidem ad genus attinet , quatenus praecipiunt decorum , & ordinem in ecclesia publicae aedificationis & pacis gratia : they are the commandments of god , which are there injoyn'd by st. paul , as to the genus or generality of them , inasmuch as they require decency and order in the church of god , for edification and peace-sake . as to kneeling at the sacrament , ( a ceremony much scrupled at heretofore ) much need not be mentioned to judicious persons . for kneeling it self is undoubtedly an act , or part of god's external worship ( and not a mere rite , or naked ceremony ; ) 't is suggested by the law of nature , dictated by common sense and the reason of all nations , and declared to be our duty by the second commandment of the decalogue . a gesture so familiar and frequent at our prayers , that 't is many times put for the whole duty , aswell-under the old as under the new testament , micah . . ephes. . . zanchy * makes it a part of adoration or external worship . where the bowing of the knee to baal is disapproved , and they are commended who did not bow the knee to him : whereever we find a command that every knee should bow to god and christ : in all those places , the speech is not of internal but of external adoration . whence 't is easy to collect , that god requires external adoration also ; and external worship , as the testimony and fruit of that which is internal . zanchy and mr. perkins * is clear and express for it . adoration in general ( saith he ) is outward worship , signifying and testifying the inward worship of the heart . more especially by it we must conceive the bowing of the head and knee ; the bending and prostrating of the body ; the lifting up of the hands , eyes , and such like . and a little after , adoration that is due to god the creator , must not be social ( for we are not god's mates and companions ) but only religious . and that this external religious worship is due to god , and to god only , he proves thus . the devil when he tempted our saviour , desired no more of him but the pròstrating of his body . but christ denies it and answers , thou shalt worship the lord thy god , and him only shalt thou serve . matt. . . this is a part of god's worship , but of whose creating ? not of the churches , but of god's ; the church does not immediately and originally injoyn it , but rather exhorts to it , ( psal. . . ) o come let us worship and fall down , and kneel before the lord our maker ; she directs also and determines when it is most suitable and decent to be used . all the question then will be whether the appointment of the use of it at the sacrament be convenient . kneeling doubtless is a gesture , which very well becomes supplicants ; and 't is very suitable and decent , in such as pay their homage , or beg a boon , or commemorate a sad tragedy , wherein they have been and are still concern'd ; and all these cases meet together in such as come worthily to the sacrament . that this sacrament was always received with adoration , * we have authority and evidence beyond expectation . that in the primitive church they received it standing was , ( thereby ) to assert the great article , ( that supports our christianity , that is ) christ's resurrection . but when the church was well setled in the belief hereof , ( without any more hesitation , ) and the world generally perswaded of it , then ( to shew her own power and liberty , in the alteration ) she changed that practice for another no less consonant to god's law , and more suitable to the nature of the duty . for tho standing be more proper to assert tho resurrection , being a gesture of reverence with erection and alacritie of spirit : yet kneeling being a gesture of reverence , with dejection and humility , is more suitable at the lords supper , being the annunciation of the lord's passion and death , wherein we had a guilt , and now expect a benefit ; which cannot but bring an apprehensive soul ( that is devout ) upon her knees , as well to bewail the one , as to receive the other . the rite and ceremony , at which the greatest offence is taken , is the sign of the cross ; which is fal'n under the same fate with the preaching of it ; * and i heartily wish , this were , ( only as that was ) among jews and gentiles . but if we can find a general command , and some parity of reason in scriptural instances to warrant it , i am in good hope among wise and modest christians , this scandal of the cross will vanish . . that confession of christ crucified , is an external act of worship , cannot reasonably be denyed ; and the necessity hereof is grounded upon the words of our blessed saviour , and his apostles : be ready to give an answer always to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you . pet. . . here is a flat commandment for confession , saith mr. perkins . and our saviour saith , whosoever shall be asham'd of me in this adulterous generation , of him shall the son of man be asham'd also , when he cometh in the glory of his father , with his holy angels , mark . . . this confession or profession has a threefold way to shew it self . . by the mouth , * and that is most ordinary ; and of this express mention is made rom. . . for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness : and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation . non solum fidem & interiorem affectum requirit deus ; sed & externam confessionem & liberam ejus professionem , saith our synopsis : † god requires not only faith and an inward affection ; but outward confession also , and a free profession of it . but then . this profession may be exprest by the hand , by subscription , isai. . . one shall say , i am the lord , another shall call himself by the name of jacob : and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the the lord , and surname himself by the name of israel : upon which place mr. calvin observes that true faith will break out into confession . and there are four words used to intimate so much ( invocari nomine israel , &c. ) to be call'd by the name of israel , to subscribe , to surname himself , and to say , i am the lords . nec enim obmutescere oportet qui verè deum colunt : sed quod intus in animo gerunt , factis etiam & dictis testari : such as truly worship god ought not to be mute : but by words and deeds to testify their inward piety . whence it follows . . this profession may be made by symbolical signs or real tokens . caeremoniae ad dei cultum , institutae pars quoque sunt nostrae confessionis , saith calvin ( on rom. . . ) this i doubt not will easily be granted of such rites as are under particular command and of divine institution , as baptism and the lord's supper . but we can produce other instances for which there is no such command or institution to be alledged . what was the true meaning of that altar , forementioned ? the building of it gave offence to the ten tribes , as if it had been a monument of superstition or idolatry : but , as calvin observes , congeriem lapidum erigere trophaei loco , vel in testimonium miraculi , vel in memoriam insignis dei gratiae , nusquam lex prohibuit : to erect a heap of stones as a trophy , in testimony of a miracle , or in memory of some special favour of god , this was never forbidden by the law : otherwise both joshuah , and many holy judges and kings after him , had defiled themselves with profane novelties : but those words [ ver . , . ] let us build an altar , that it may be a witness , that we may do the service of the lord before him with our burnt offerings : which words make it plain , that they intended that pattern of the altar , ( jos. . . ) to be a recognition of the god of israel , a real protestation of their relation to him , and of their sincere devotion to his solemn worship . and that the use of the cross in the christian church was introduced upon the like account is affirm'd by our synopsis upon that very text : the words are these , sic ecclesia nobis ante oculos ponit crucis christi figuram : thus the church sets the sign or figure of christ's cross before our eyes , not to invite us to worship it , but to put us in mind of that true and salutary cross , the passion and death of christ , which wrought our atonement and redemption . but we have a more pregnant instance than this to our purpose . we read ( dan. . . ) when prayer to almighty god was interdicted , daniel went into his house , and opening his windows towards jerusalem , he kneeled down and prayed . the opening of his windows was an open protestation of his faith and worship . for why did he open them ? not to let in heaven , or to let out his devotion : but to give light to his profession and practice . hic erat confessionis casus , saith our synopsis , here was a case of confession : and so saith lyserus , in his aulâ persicâ , p. , &c. fidem suam egregiâ confessione testatur , saith oecolampadius * ; he testifies his faith by an egregious confession . he enters into his house , but he does not shut himself up for fear ; for if he had done so , he would have shut his windows : but he set them open on purpose , that such as watcht to betray him , might have the clearer prospect of his faith and piety . notandum est , saith mr. calvin † ; it is to be noted , that 't was not the inward worship of god that was here in agitation , but the outward profession of it . when he saw his faith was put upon the trial , and an experiment to be made of his constancy , he would not so much as dissemble or counterfeit a forgetfulness of his religion and piety . and no doubt the holy prophet opened his windows , that by this help ( saith he ) he might consult his own infirmity , and stir up himself to a greater liveliness of faith and ardour of devotion . and from hence we should learn , saith mr. calvin , when we are sensible or jealous of our own infirmity or coldness , to collect all the helps and advantages we can to awaken our care , and correct that torpour and sluggishness , whereof we find our selves conscious . this was the prophets design when he opened his windows towards jerusalem . hoc etiam symbolo ; he had also a mind to let his family see , by this symbol , ( or mystical ceremony ) the constancy of his faith , and his stedfast hope of the promised redemption . this is the sense and judgment of mr. calvin . where we cannot but observe , that the holy prophet , out of the fervent zeal of an inward piety , made use of a symbolical sign , before the princes of the empire , to protest the truth and sincerity of his faith and worship . and also here was no special command , or divine institution for the practice ; yet it gain'd an approbation from heaven , and such as was attested and seal'd by a miraculous deliverance . now , that the sign of the cross among the ancients , was a real protestation of their faith , and like daniel's opening of his windows , to let others see what religion he profest , we have the attestation of no less man that mr. perkins * ; who saith , annis à christo ; that the first three hundred years after christ , the sign of the cross was taken for an outward profession of the faith , used in their common course of life , or their ordinary actions . and a little before he reports thus ; veteres se cruce contra daemones muniêrunt : the fathers used to arm themselves against the devil with the sign of the cross ; not that they ascrib'd any such power to the outward figure , but because they would make shew , and profest to others , suam fiduciam in crucem , their trust in the cross , that is , saith he , in the passion and death of christ , by this solemn ceremony ; and use it ( also as he goes on ) quodam quasi monitorio fidem excitare ; as an item ; or watch-word , to awaken and stir up their faith , which conquers ( the world and ) all evils ( in it ) . here , from this holy man , we may observe , that this transient sign of the cross was in use from the beginning and in the purest , which were also the persecuting times of christianity ; and 't was used upon a double account : ( ) as a symbolical profession of their faith : ( ) as a ready monitor to excite and quicken the exercise of it . this twofold use of the cross mr. perkins does not disallow , though with all good protestants he utterly condemns the worship of it . crux non fuit à veteribus adorata ; the cross was never worshipt by the ancients , much less with divine worship . they had only a veneration for it , that is , saith he , they used it with reverence , and for an attestation of their faith ; and extoll'd it also as a sign of their undaunted belief in christ crucified before the gentiles ; and this they did even then , when the gentiles threatned them with torments . thus mr. perkins . non sine causa , saith venerable bede * out of st. austin , &c. 't was not without cause that christ would have his own sign fixt upon our forehead as the seat of modesty , that the christian may not be asham'd at the reproach of christ. and soto , hac ratione , &c. for this reason the sign of the cross is made upon the forehead of the baptized , that ( as the church of england also hath it ) they may not be ashamed publickly to confess the faith of christ , and him crucified . de la cerda , and hugo cardinalis say the same thing upon the same text , rom. . . and the learned gerhard † tells us also , that christians , to shew they were not asham'd of the cross of christ , painted it upon the midst of their foreheads ; and cyril of jerusalem * , long before him , exhorts the christians after this manner ; let us not be asham'd of christ crucified ; but with our fingers let us imprint the sign of the cross upon our foreheads . by these , and a multitude of other testimonies , which might be produced , 't is evident that the sign of the cross hath alwaies been lookt upon as a real confession of the faith of christ crucified , and a symbolical protestation of it ; so that we may sum up our discourse in short after this manner : confession is an act of external worship , under a general command of christ , which does bind semper , though not ad semper ; and consequently the duty is alwaies lawful , though not alwaies ( in prudence ) practicable . ( ) that a general command comprehends all particular instances . ( ) that the sign of the cross is one instance of confession , and so determined by the authority and practice of the church . from which premisses it will unavoidably follow , that we are under an obligation to observe it . and indeed there is sometimes a necessity for it ; for a confession by word of mouth , or by subscription , is neither practicable nor possible , at all times , by all persons , in all places . some have their tongues cut out , some are mute and speechless , some are among barbarians , who understand not their language . some other way therefore is to be pitcht upon ; and what should that be , rather then what may reasonably be concluded from such intimations of holy writ as these : looking at jesus , who endured the cross , despising the shame : ( and ) i have determined to know nothing , but christ and him crucified ; ( and ) god forbid that i should glory save in the cross of our lord jesus christ : ( and ) if any man will be my disciple , let him deny himself , take up his cross and follow me . from which expressions , granting a real confession of the faith , or a symbolical protestation of it , to be requisite , what could be more convenient , than that which hath been in use ( as far as we are able to collect ) from the first establishment of christianity . and , as that very learned and judicious divine , hath determined ; there are , certainly , many occasions for a christian to have recourse to god for his grace , upon protestation of his christianity , ( which is the condition upon which all grace of god becomes due ) when there is neither time nor opportunity to recollect his mind unto a formal address by praying unto god : all which this ceremony ( the sign of the cross ) fitly signifieth . i shall conclude this with a matter of fact ; the practice and behaviour of a member of the greek church at the time of his martyrdom ( a few years since ) sent to me by a very worthy , learned , and ingenuous person , ( who was upon the place at constantinople . one thing ( saith he ) i cannot but take notice of , that all the way this deplorable creature was hurried backwards and forwards to the cady and the kaima cam , and afterwards to execution ; when either he could not speak through weakness of body , or else could not be heard among the thronging multitude : he , in a manner continually made the sign of the cross upon his breast , to testifie to the world by this dumb rhetorick , his undaunted resolution of being and dying a true christian. i confess it made me with great pleasure reflect upon that ancient rite used by our church in baptism , i mean the sign of the cross. it may be , that to men who never lived abroad amongst vnbelievers , nor considered the state of the primitive church , in which this practice first prevailed , it may seem a very useless and empty ceremony to make this sign upon an infants forehead at his reception into christ's flock ; much more for a man in publick to do it upon his own breast : but for my own part i shall rather for ever esteem it as an vniversal character of a christian , forasmuch as it is sufficient to signifie throughout the whole world ( when no other language is mutually understood ) that the person so sign'd is own'd , or owns himself to be a member of christ's mystical body . and therefore many of the primitive christians were branded with a cross , and the walls of their cities , and castles , and houses ( as we see some yet remaining in many places to this very day ) bore this mark upon them , only as a note of distinction at first , though the superstition indeed of succeeding ages much altered the original intent of it . the christian slaves and other miserable and indigent believers , who up and down the streets beg our charity , when all language is insignificant , or perhaps their tongues are cut out , will declare their profession to us by this only sign . and we have several times travelled abroad in turkish habits , and happening into a christian village , we have found the people at first very fearful and averse from giving us any entertainment ; but assuring them by this sign , that we were of their own belief , we have been immediately admitted and kindly treated . and without any further instances , i have found this outward token alone in these countries to be a sufficient shibboleth to distinguish a christian from an infidel . now though perhaps in your parts of christendom a christian of riper years , may never have a real occasion of making profession of his faith by this outward character ; yet i think our church doth extreamly well in retaining so much as she doth of this ancient custome , i mean in crossing , at least the persons that are newly baptized ; since the words which she useth in that office sufficiently expound the meaning of the first institutors of this ceremony ; to wit , it signifies , that as they should manfully maintain the inward and spiritual fight against sin and the devil and all pomps and vanities , under the inward banner of a stedfast and lively faith in christ , so they should not be asham'd publickly , even by this outward sign * to confess the same faith to the world , and all the powers thereof , when , and wheresoever they should have occasion for it . thus far i am gratified by my worthy friend's letter . we see then , that the use of this symbol in all the christian church , has alwaies been accounted a real protestation of the christian faith ; and consequently , they have understood and practised it , as comprehended under the general command of confession ; which contradicts the hypothesis of these dissenters . the dissenters ninth section . they are the more cautious of all ceremonies , because the old church of england , in her homilies , serm. . of good works , tells us , that such hath been the corrupt inclination of man , superstitiously given to make new honouring of god of his own head , and then to have more affection and devotion to keep that , than to search out god's holy commandments and do them . the answer . . that which was the old church of england , we desire may be the old church of england still . but martin luther * observed a sort of men in his time , who were all for novelties . he was very fearful , he saies , of changing old things for new ones , in respect of the weak : but especially propter leves illos & fastidiosos spiritus , in regard of those light and fastidious spirits , qui ceu sues immundae , sine fide , sine mente irruunt , & solâ novitate gaudent , atque statim ut novitas esse desiit nauseant : who like unclean swine without faith , without sense , rush upon novelty , and delight in nothing else ; and as soon as ever it ceaseth to be a novelty , it becomes nauseous to them . if these dissenters had any veneration for the old church of england , they would not be so importune and fierce , as their party are , for innovations . for what is it but a new church which they attempt to set up ? new laws , new liturgy , new form of ordination , new ministry , new governours , new government , new discipline . all new. . that these dissenters are more like to be given to superstition than the church of england ; for the more scrupulous are ever the more superstitious , as matthisius observes of those weak ones ( rom. . ) tanquam evangelicae libertatis nescios , & superstitiosos ; they were ignorant of the liberty of the gospel , and superstitious . and though mr. perkins ( as was noted above ) says , that discourse of st. paul was intended peculiarly for those times , not for ours ( who should and might understand as well our liberty as our duty , a little better than those raw converts , ) yet these men fill their heads with the like scruples , and imitate their superstition . for what does superstition signifie , but an immoderate fear , quo se anxiè torquent superstitiosi homines , dum sibi fabricant inanes scrupulos , as mr. calvin hath it ( in act. . . ) an immoderate fear , wherewith superstitious men do sadly torment themselves , while they frame vain scruples to themselves . and a superstitious man is defined to be a person affected with a vain and superfluous fear of god ; * qui metuit ibi deum offendere , ubi non offenditur ; one that fears to offend god in that wherein he is not offended . hence proceeds that tremulous aversion to such things as god has no where forbidden , as if the use of them were sinful . this the apostle reproves in the colossians , touch not , taste not , handle not , coloss. . . whence this observation does naturally arise , that such as are afraid they should offend god , and wound their conscience , by the use and practice of such things as god hath not forbidden , are superstitious . and into what absurdities and extravagant whimsies this humor will carry men , we may read ( as has been said ) in mr. calvin , if our own experience were not pregnant with examples to that purpose . how many men have formerly , and do still trouble themselves and the church of god upon this account ! sensi enim saepe dolens & gemens multas infirmorum perturbationes fieri , per quorundam fratrum contentiosam obstinationem , & superstitiosam timiditatem , &c. they are the complaint of the great st. austin † ; i have seen with grief and sorrow , that the weaker sort are much disturb'd by the contentious , obstinacy , and superstitious timorousness of certain brethren , who in matters of this ( indifferent ) nature , which can be brought to no issue , either by the authority of the holy scripture , or the tradition of the universal church , or upon the account of their being beneficial towards the amendment of life ; but only , because they fancy they have some reason for them , or some forreign practice , ( which they esteem so much the more learned , because it is the more remote ) tam litigiosas excitant quaestiones , ut nisi quod ipsi faciunt , nihil rectum existiment * ; they raise such litigious questions and disputes hereupon , that they will allow nothing to be right , but what they do themselves . which is as true a character of our dissenters , as if st. austin had been alive , and acquainted with their disposition and practice before he wrought it . fear is a passion very apt to enthral us ; and a fear upon the account of religion most of all . this fear many times sets up strange opinions in mens minds ; and when these are once framed , † humanum ingenium quod suum est illic recognoscit , & recognitum libentiùs amplectitur , quàm optimum aliquid , quod suae vanitati minùs conveniret ; 't is the nature of man to recognize his own conceptions , and not only to acknowledge them , but to be fond of them , and prefer them before the best things , which contradict their vanity . . being wedded to these new fangles , ( the issue of their own imaginations ; ) out of devotion to them they sacrifice ( they offer up ) the very commandments of god ; and perhaps by this means they run into idolatry , as well as superstition , ( though such as are most concern'd therein , are not presently sensible of the guilt of it . ) i am sure st. austin and st. hierome are both of this judgment . perverse opinions ( says hierome ) are the graven and molten images , which are adored by such as frame them in their imaginations , ( comment . l. . in habak . , ) and ( in dan. . ) qui falsum dogma componunt * — ; they which set on foot a false opinion , set up an image , and as much as lies in their power , by their perswasion , they compel others to fall down and worship the idol of their falshood . and again ( in his commentary upon jerem. . ) sed usque hodiè in templo dei quae interpretatur ecclesia , &c. even at this day ( saith he ) in the temple of god , which is interpreted to be the church ; or in the hearts and minds of believers an idol is set up , when a new doctrine is broached : and as is said in deuteronomy ( the th ) is worshipped in secret . nor does that doctor rest here , but he saith further ( in that second of habakuk ) si quando videris aliquem nolle cedere veritati , &c. when thou seest a man that will not yield to truth , but persist still in his error and studied opposition , when the falshood of his doctrines is made manifest ; thou maist very fitly say , sperat in figmento suo , & facit simulachra mu●a vel surda ; he puts his trust in his own figment , and frames to himself dumb or deaf idols . nor does st. austin differ in his judgment ; for he says plainly * , they are involved in a baser kind of superstition , idolatry and servitude , who worship their own fancies , than they who worship the host of heaven . his words are these , est alius deterior & inferior cultus simulachrorum , &c. there is another inferiour and baser kind of idolatry , when men worship their own fancies ; and whatever the imagination sets up in the mind through pride or fear † , religionis nomine observant , they observe it strictly as their religion . now whether these dissenters , out of zeal to their negative superstition [ touch not a surplice , sign not with the cross , kneel not at the sacrament , &c. ] do not peremptorily reject the express command of god , for obedience to their governours , let all sober men and the world judge . . i would ask this question ; do these dissenters value those homilies , or do they not ? if they trust our reformers for that observation , they have reason also to believe them , that there is no such peril of superstition in those ceremonies , which the church then enjoyned and they themselves practised ; for , i hope their insinuation should not be more prevalent to keep them from superstition , than their constant practice to keep them in obedience , especially when , 't is evident , that their disobedience runs them into one sort of superstition , which in the general they pretend to be so very shy of , that they can overlook an express and necessary duty to avoid it . the dissenters tenth section . they say , they have read over all the books that have been written in justification of those things , and they find their arguments so weak , their reasons , so futilous , that setting aside rhetorick and rayling , there 's nothing in them , but what had been either answered by others , or is contradicted by themselves , which hardens them in their error , who are gon astray into the right way . the answer . . he saith , they are gon astray into the right way : this is no time for bullbaiting ; therefore if they have a mind to gad let them take their jest along to make merry with . but corah had as fair a way and as safe a convoy too , in his own conceit : yet st. jude was of another judgment ; and we know he fell into the pit at last . and 't is somewhat an unlucky expression , [ to go astray into the right way , ] for we read of wandring stars ; whose motion ( if we may believe any old philosophy , ) is very regular , in respect of the first mover , ( and so they are in the right way : ) but they have erratick motions of their own ; and to these were those false-teachers resembled by st. jude , who are said to wander ; because really they do so ; by their fluctuation in their doctrines , deviation from the common practice of the church , and by seducing their simple followers . but they that are such , st. jude tells us , there is a sad reserve of vengeance allotted for them . jud. ep. v. . . they say , they have read over all the books , &c. but do they bring minds prepared to receive the truth , and patient of convictions ? lavater ( as was observed above ) tells us of zelots in his time , that would write and publish answers , before they had well considered or so much as read the discourses , they did oppose . and one would think that some of these dissenters dealt so by their adversaries ; for they call their arguments weak , many times , when they cannot answer them : and their reasons futilous when they find them too convinceing to be eluded . what their performances have been , when they menaged this province before that learned prince king james , at the conference at hampton court , his majesty has told us in his proclamation , * of march . in the first year of his reign , in these words [ we found mighty and vehement informations supported with so weak and slender proofs , as it appeared to us and our counsel , that there was no cause why any change should have been at all in that which was most impugned , the book of common prayer containing the form of the publick service of god here established neither in the doctrine ; which appeared to be sincere , nor in the forms and rites , which were justified out of the practice of the primitive church . thus saith that learned and judicious prince . and whatever partial men may think , the judicious and well discerning will conclude , that our present dissenters ( after all their great pains and study ) have made very little accession of advantage to their cause by argument and sound reason , whatever may accrew to it , by noise , tumult , and importunity . . for rayling 't is so much our authors own talent , i know no man will claim it from him , especially finding that the spirit ; which acts in him , prompts him not only to scoff and rail , but now and then to be smutty and obscene . . this author seems to be very kind in allowing his adversaries to have rhetorick . and 't is a quality so ornamental and useful , i shall not wish them to part with it , but to make use of it still ( to better purposes then he does his witt and reading ) to advance obedience peace and piety . but for contradicting themselves ( by which we are not to understand any ingenuous retraction upon second thoughts and better information ) 't is a new observation of this authors , never before collected out of their writings . 't is true , we have read of richard against baxter ( in pages , ) but never of richard against hooker , or any the like , in all my time . if he has found him out let him name the party . . but the main quaere will be , how these dissenters come to be hardened in their errour ; for ( tho he calls it a going astray into the right way ) there is no less truth in this his drollery , than in their conviction , who are mentioned wisd. . . they have erred from the way of truth ; and how so ? malunt perversis vocibus veritati reluctari , quàm confessis erroribus paci restitui , as st. austin says of the donatists ; they had rather perversly resist the truth , than confess their errours to be restored to the peace of the church . let scripture , and antiquity ; let the best authority and the highest reason urge what they can , they will not be convinced or perswaded ; the reason is given by the learned davenant ; they are inscitiâ occaecati , or malitiâ abrepti , or philautiâ fascinati : either blinded by mistakes and ignorance , or hurried away by envy and malice , or bewitch'd by self-love and vain-glory. they are pre-engaged , and having embarqued themselves upon other principles ( and drawn so many well-meaning souls into association with them ) they are resolv'd to keep possession for their own reputation and interest . for this reason , they study , not to be inform'd , but to contradict . they read what is writ against them , not with a preparation of mind to receive the truth in the love of it ; but to contrive the better to justifie their separation ( with the odd pranks which have been plaid upon that account . ) this makes them to gavil at little things , and to rest in nothing ; nor will they ever be satisfied , but in the use of forms and canons of their own devising . for ( to such as have read them thorowly ) in the opinion of their own personal infallibility they come not much short of the pope himself ; and ( had they power in their hands ) we have some reason to believe , they would no less imperiously impose the effects of it . i need go no further for evidence , than the front of a book written by mr. b. which bears this arrogant title [ the true and only way of concord of all christian churches : ] which puts me in mind of what bullinger observed of the like sort of men ( which pesterd the church of god ) in his time : invenias hodiè ( saith he ) morosos quosdam , qui tametsi non negare possint , alios paria docere , & unum cum ipsis christum praedicare , cupiunt tamen se religionis dominos appellari , imò à se profectum esse evangelium christi . you may find ( saith he ) at this day certain froward men , who , though they cannot deny , but other men preach the same christ , and the same truth with themselves ; yet they ambitiously affect to be called the masters of religion ; yes , and to have men believe they stand engaged to them for the light and purity of the gospel . to such arrogant pretenders , we are taught what reply to make by the expostulation of the great apostle , to those deceitful workers ( as he calls them ) among the corinthians ( cor. . . ) what ? came the word of god from you , or came it unto you only ? but of this place we have given some account already . i shall conclude this section with the words of the reverend and learned professour ( who was not then bishop ) prideux ; haud scio an filios alat magis degeneres quaevis ecclesia , quam anti-synodicos nonnullos novatores , qui seorsìm saperent à majoribus , aut fratribus ; & satis ducunt ad contemptum , si quis non statim se incurvet ad eorum vestigia . hisce plerunque familiare est , transmarina , & longè petita admirare ; domestica extenuare ; ignotos deperire ; praepositis vero suis , quibus debito tenentur obsequio , quavis arreptâ occasione , recalcitrare ; sua tantùm deosculari , quae non pallam * astruunt , sed occultò disseminant . tantum abest ut tales ecclesiam audiant , ut indignantur plurimùm , si ipsos non audiat ecclesia , & saltet ad ipsorum fistulam , etiamsi incertissimum edat modulamen , hujusmodi superstitiosi , factiosi , furiosi , insidiosi , destinandi vel debellandi sint à vobis , ( dilecti filii ) si benedictionis coelestis messem uberem , pacatam & optatam expectetis . i know not ( saith he ) whether any church can nourish more degenerous children , than some anti-synodical innovators , who would be wiser than there betters , or their brethren ; and take it for a great contempt , if any one should not bow himself at their feet . 't is very familiar with these men , to admire what is forreign and far-fetcht ; and to depretiate and lessen what they have at home ; to be fondly in love with strangers ; but upon all occasions , to kick against their governours , to whom they owe a due obedience : to embrace only their own ( sentiments , ) which ( in those days ) they did not openly assert , but privily disseminate . such men are so far from hearing the church , that they take it in great disdain if the church will not hear them , and dance after their pipe , though it gives never such an uncertain sound . such superstitious , factious , furious , insidious persons , you ( my beloved sons ) are to mark out , or vanquish , if you expect the plentiful , quiet , and desirable harvest of the heavenly benediction , &c. thus that learned doctor in his lecture , * july . . the dissenters eleventh and last section . they say , it 's their duty to endeavour a reformation according to the word , which if others will not , they cannot help it , and hope they will not be angry with the willing . the answer . . is it their duty to endeavour a reformation ? how ? endeavours have several waies and methods to exert and declare themselves : is it by force of arms , and with garments rolled in blood ? this is the practice of the jesuites ; and it was in use in the times of all our princes since the reformation of queen elizabeth , king james , king charles the first : and from the like practice in the reign of our present dread sovereign ( we may make it a part of our litany ) good lord deliver us . for we are sure this is not christ's way , not according to the word . it may very well be their temptation , but it cannot be their duty . but in order to a clear and full answer , we shall consider , . the scandal and danger of innovations ; scandal , i say , for if there be not very good ground for it , the very change it self is scandalous . hereupon the ( then ) lord commissioner fiennes , in his speech * to protector crumwell , tells him , [ so far as old things can be reteined without danger or inconvenience , it is the wisdom and duty of all governours to retein them . ] things by good advice once settled , are not presently to be altered , because some men presume they can make them better . ipsa etenim mutatio consuetudinis , quae etiam adjurat utilitate , novitate perturbat , as st. austin has it ; the change of an old custome gives more trouble and disturbance by the novelty , than it can give advantage otherwise . and , as is judiciously declared ( in the preface † of ceremonies ) if they grant any ceremonies to be necessary , or so much as convenient ; surely where the old may be well used , they cannot reasonably reprove the old only for their age , without bewraying of their own folly . for in such a case , they ought rather to have reverence unto them for their antiquity , if they will declare themselves to be more studious of vnity and concord , than of innovations and new-fangleness , which ( as much as may be with true setting forth of christs religion ) is alwaies to be eschewed . hereupon king james concludes his proclamation * ( of march . in the first of his reign ) in these words , we do admonish all men , that hereafter they shall not expect nor attempt any further alteration in the common and publick from of god's service from this which is now established ; for that neither will we give way for any to presume , that our own judgment having determined in a matter of this weight , shall be swayed to alteration by the frivolous suggestions of any light spirit . neither are we ignorant of the inconveniencies that do arise in government , by admitting innovation in things once settled by mature deliberation : and how necessary it is to use constancy in the upholding the publick determinations of states ; for that such is the unquietness and unstedfastness of some dispositions , affecting every year new forms of things , as if they should be followed in their vnconstancy , would make all actions of state ridiculou● and contemptible : whereas the stedfast maintaining of things by good advice established , is the weal of all common-wealths . it was a law among the locrians , that he who offer'd to repeal or change ancient laws , and put up new , should come with a halter about his neck to their senate ; that if there were better reason against his new laws ( then for them ) he should be hang'd up for his bold attempt . demosth. contr . democr . . we should consider whose duty it is to reform . private persons have their proper duty assign'd them : but they want learning , skill and judgment for the work of reformation ; and consequently , should they attempt it , the remedy were like to be worse than the disease ▪ and , secondly , they want authority too ; and so their attempt would be but an vsurpation , and commence rebellion , and so proceed to arms and blood ; and perhaps end in a submission to popery , to bring us again to some rule and order , after we are weary of confusion . common people have business enough of their own , which the apostle confines them to , thess. . . they must study to be quiet , and to do their own business . they must live soberly , justly , and godly : to keep themselves from idols ; to suffer persecution , rather than defile their conscience with superstition or profane worship ; for as lactantius hath observed , defendenda est religio à privatis omnibus , non occidendo , sed moriendo ; non saevitiâ , sed patientiâ ; non scelere , sed fide : religion is to be defended of all private persons ; not by taking away the lives of others , but by laying down their own ; not by cruelty , but by patience ; not by wickedness , but by fidelity . for st. peter tells us , they suffer justly as malefactors , who suffer as busie-bodies in other mens matters . no reformation can be made but some laws and customes must be laid aside , and some establisht . but none have any legal power to dissolve such constitutions , but they who make them . and they must have some commission to shew for this purpose ; for it would be too arrogant in men , to take upon them to make laws for the government of christ's houshold without his authority . hereupon the learned and judicious sanderson has determined , jus condendi leges ecclesiasticas esse penes episcopos , presbyteros , aliasque personas à totius regni clero ritè electos , & in legitimâ synodo ritè congregatas ; that the right of making ecclesiastical laws , is in the bishops , presbyters , and other persons duly chosen out of the clergy of the whole kingdom , and rightly conven'd in a lawful synod . ita tamen ut ejus juris sive potestati exercitium in omni rep. christianâ , ex authoritate supremi magistratus politici pendere debeat : and yet so , that the exercise of that right and power in every christian common-wealth ought to depend upon the authority of the supream civil magistrate . wherefore that learned and ingenious s. p. in the case of the church of england ( p. , . ) hath very well observed , that the bottom we build upon is this , that the church own'd by the law of england , is the very same that was establisht by the law of christ. for unless we suppose , that the church was originally settled by our saviour with divine authority , we deny his supremacy over his own church ; and unless we suppose that the supream government of the kingdom has power to abet and ratifie our saviours establishment by civil laws , we deny his majesties supremacy over his christian subjects ; and therefore both together must be taken into the right state and constitution of the church of england . there are some rites and ceremonies whose original cannot be trac'd out , having bin in use in the church of god , at all times and places : these are supposed with great reason to have been derived from the apostles themselves ; for such an vniversal practice could not be introduced but by a common and vniversal authority , as an vniversal effect must have a cause of no less efficacy to produce it . now for any particular church to attempt a change of such rites and ceremonies , is as if a quarter sessions in a private corporation , should take upon them to dissolve or over-rule what has been regularly done and settled in a full parliament . . we should consider , whether there be any need of such reformation as they endeavour ? there are some rites and ceremonies , which no person , no particular church should presume to alter ; because the vnity and vniformity of the catholick church is preserved hereby ; and if we will possess our selves to continue in her communion , we must observe them upon the account of our conformity to her practice . but other particular rites and ceremonies are left to the prudence of particular churches , to exercise their power and liberty , with respect to the manners and temper of the people . but , that there is no necessity of reformation of the publick doctrine of the church of england , hath been made good against doctor burges by the right reverend , learned and judicious doctor pearson , now lord bishop of chester . and that there is no need of such a reformation of the publick . doctrine , . worship , . rites and ceremonies , . church government , . discipline , as is pretended , hath been proved by h. s. d. d. . but we shall not take it for granted , ( tho we know no answer returned to these , and several other learned men , who have wrote in justification of the church of england to that effect , ) but give our proof for it ; that church which is already reform'd and establisht , according to the word , as far as a state of frailty and humane prudence will admit ; that church hath no need of further reformation : but such is the church of england . i would not be mistaken ; for i know there ought to be a proficiency in grace * and holiness , and the practice of all christian vertues , till we arrive at such a degree of perfection as this mortal condition is capable of . but for a further reformation of doctrine or government , of liturgy , rites and ceremonies , or of laws and canons , ( if what are already enacted were duly inforced and executed ) we have no need of it . it is duly observed by that worthy person even now mentioned , that if every defect from christs institution should forfeit the rights of a christian church , there never was , as we may find by the apostles account of the churches in their times , nor ever will be such a thing as a church in the world. for in this life it is not to be expected that any thing should be absolutely perfect , the very nature of christianity supposes imperfection , and accepts of integrity ; and as long as with sincere affections men adhere to the principles of the church , they are within the promise of the grace of god. that the church of england is not reformed up to those principles , who can make good the charge against her ? where was the failure ? did not our reformers use sufficient means ? ( ) did they not search the scriptures , according to the rule of our blessed saviour ? did they not understand the sense and latitude of the scriptures ? had they not an eye to the rules of decency and order , to god's glory and the edification of the church ? ( ) did they not consult antiquity , according to divine direction ? job . , . jer. . . . ( ) did they not use a moral diligence to search into the nature of things , for their full satisfaction ? ( ) did they not make this inquiry after the truth with a christian simplicity and godly sincerity ? we appeal to the searcher of hearts to witness this , and to their own learned and judicious writings to assert the other . ( ) had they not as full authority , both ecclesiastical and civil , as was needful to establish that reformation ? and , ( ) and lastly , have we not had god's blessing ( while we conform'd obediently to it ) to assure us he was well-pleased with that establishment ? king james tells us in his proclamation even now mentioned , [ we had no reason to presume that things were so far amiss as was pretended , because we had seen the kingdom under that form of religion , which by law was established in the days of the late queen of famous memory , blessed with a peace and prosperity , both extraordinary and of many years continuance ; a strong evidence that god was therewith well-pleased . ] but 't is an ill sign of a growing reformation , when the times afford us ( as they have done a long while ) so many evil men and seducers , who wax worse and worse , deceiving and being deceived , ( tim. . . ) a reformation of manners and practice we acknowledge highly needful ; but for ecclesiastical orders and constitutions about the worship and service of god , there wants nothing but a hearty observation to improve them . . it is to be considered with great attention . whether such as are in authority , and are satisfied that there is no need of reformation , should alter legal constitutions to gratifie , whether the humor or importunity of dissenters ? in the management hereof i shall consult no passion or interest , nor be swayed by any prejudice , resolving only to give the sense of other protestants , and i shall begin with the lutherans . 't is the resolution of david rungius * , after a faithful account given of the free use of things indifferent , such as will not submit to a just authority , nothing is to be done in their favour ; but as persons persisting in their purpose , out of hypocrisie or stubborness , out of a love of contention , or some other mental distemper , they are sharply to be reproved . brochmand † , another eminent man of that party , saith , some respect is to be had of the weak in order to their information : but to such as are obstinately superstitious , maliciously treacherous , or falsé brethren , there ought not to be the least yielding . his reasons are these , lest hereby we should confirm the superstitious in their superstition , or minister scandal , and an occasion of errour to such as are conformable , or afford such false brethren matter to glory in . the learned meisner * has muster'd up no less than seven arguments to the same purpose , which i shall collect as briefly as is possible . . the first is drawn from the nature of things indifferent ; which is such as that they may be freely used , or freely disused or abrogated ; but when the disuse , abrogation or practice is obtruded as of necessity and coaction , the nature of such indifferent things is violated . . from the nature of christian liberty . this is a valuable treasure , and of christs own purchasing : but 't is endanger'd by a double invasion . . when things not commanded by god's word , are imposed as absolutely necessary to be observed . . when things not forbidden by god's word , are restrain'd as sinful to be practised . there is errour and superstition on either side , and christian liberty is equally betrayed in them both ; which authority therefore should neither abet , nor tolerate . . from the duty of true christians . an ingenuous profession of the gospel ; to assert the whole truth thereof , with the priviledges which accrue to us thereby , especially when assaulted and opposed : and such is our christian liberty , with the free use , or disuse of things indifferent ( not determined by authority , whose power the gospel has established . ) this is a christians duty ; a flat denial whereof is against that profession which christ requires ( matt. . . ) and to dissemble it is unwarrantable , and we ought to avoid the appearance of it , ( as one of the unfruitful works of darkness ) that we betray not our profession . . from the general command touching the lawful use of ceremonies and things indifferent : wherein three things are to be observed , order , decency , and edification . good order is not kept in tumultuous alterations : all change is dangerous in church and state. no man can foresee what disturbance will ensue upon an inconsiderate variation of indifferent and inoffensive ceremonies , especially in a time when such christian priviledges and publick authority ought to be own'd and preserved inviolable . what doubts may arise upon such a change , and what confusion may follow it , who will take upon him to determine ? is not the confusion great , when things indifferent are exposed for necessary , and things absolutely necessary accounted but indifferent ? can it be inservient either to order or decency , when there is no degree of superiority and subordination among the ministers of the church ? no distinction of habits between the laity and the ministers of the gospel , observed ? who can think the church is edified , where all genuflexion , all reverence , all evidences of a devout mind are out of practice ? when all the proper lessons , that should inculcate the great mysteries , which are to be represented for our memory , our devotion and gratitude , on the festivals of the nativity , the resurrection and pentecost , &c. are abrogated ; and perhaps the history of lot's incest , and the like , things most incongruous for such sacred solemnities , shall be surrogated and read in their stead ? . a fifth argument is drawn ab incommodo , from the great incommodiousness of it . as the general command requires in matters of indifferency , that all things be done to edification : so the law of charity forbids us to do any thing that may either offend the weak in the practice of their conformity , or confirm the adversaries in their errour ; the example of the great apostle affording us signal instances to these purposes . the mischiefs of such a scandal ▪ are sufficiently collected from the woe our saviour has denounced against the authors of them , matt. . , . . and the mischiefs of such a confirmation of obstinate dissenters , are too evident ( saith he ) by experience : the peace of the church is not hereby obtained , but the safety thereof much endangered ; for the adversaries do not acquiesce in such concessions ; but take occasion from thence to proceed in defending their errours , and disturbing the church ; an example whereof has given us a late experiment in the dukedom of anhalt . if they can obtain to have things abrogated , because they are pleased to load them with the reproach of superstition and sinfulness , they cannot with a fairer occasion to traduce other matters , and by this specious argument of yielding in such cases , among the weaker and worse sort of men , to render them suspected in their principles , whom they had formerily treated with all respect and reverence as the ministers of god : hereupon such as are not well confirmed , will be apt to fall away , and others will be offended at their defection ; and so the church ( saith he ) will not be edified , but destroyed ; the course of the gospel not promoted , but hindred ; and at last truth it self not asserted , but weakened and subverted . . a sixth argument he draws from the practice of the primitive church . circumcision being then but a thing indifferent ( as he observes ) st. paul , according to the rule of charity and christian liberty , did sometime practice it ; but when false brethren did fraudulently intrude , to spy out and betray the liberty of the church , and attempted to impose it as a matter of necessity ; st. paul did absolutely reject it and condemn it . simile ergo , &c. in like manner the rites and ceremonies used in the lutheran churches are adiaphora , things indifferent , neither commanded nor forbidden , either by any divine law , or prohibition ; god leaving them as a middle sort of things , which the church may either freely use or not use at her pleasure . now ( saith he ) seeing the calvinists would put a necessary abstention and restraint upon us as to the use of these things , 't is out of all question , they would ( in effect ) betray our liberty . wherefore such as are faithful asserters of the christian liberty , ought not to yield to them in the least ; that ( according to their duty ) the truth and priviledges of the gospel , may be preserved inviolable from all bondage and dissimulation . such as do otherwise , by a tame and cowardly cession , do betray our liberty , give scandal to the weak , and offer a manifest violence to apostolical practice . . his last argument is drawn from the insufficiency and weakness of the adversaries reasons to make good their pretensions ; which he does clearly evince , as will appear to any man that shall take the pains to examine the discourse it self , to which i remit the reader . i have studied to be concise in the abridgment of his arguments , which he concludes thus : that the calvinists may obtain what they desire , 't is necessary that they urge their abrogation upon an honest title ; and prove by evident reasons , that the rites received in our churches are not purged from the superstitions and abuses of the romanists , but serve to nourish them . which , since they never did attempt , because experience is a clear evidence to the contrary ; therefore according to the liberty purchased for us , saith he , we do retain these ceremonies , which are indifferent in themselves , and no where forbidden by the word of god. and that the nature of things indifferent may remain entire , christian liberty safe , and the truth unshaken ; we are resolved not to yield , no not so much as for one moment , to the intemperance of our adversaries , who under a pretence of zeal do nothing in matters of religion , but with tumult and an immoderate asperity . thus the learned meisner , on behalf of the lutherans . yet i cannot omit another pregnant evidence of their strictness in adhering to their establishment , which we find in an extract out of the national synod , held by the churches of france at charenton , in september . in the chapter which contains their general acts , their answer made to an address of some of the lutheran perswasion , ( translated into english either by mr. samuel hartlip , or mr. john dury , printed . ) runs in these very words , viz. touching the request made by the province of burgoigne , that such of the faithful as embrace the augustane confession , might be permitted to contract marriages , and bring their children to be baptized in our churches , without abjuring the former opinions which they hold , contrary to the belief of these churches . the synod doth declare , that seeing the churches of the confession of ausburg do agree with the other reformed churches , in the principles and fundamental points of true religion , and that in their discipline and form of divine worship , there is neither idolatry nor superstition . such of the faithful of that confession , as shall with the spirit of charity , and in a truly peaceable way joyn themselves unto the publick assemblies of the churches in this kingdom , and desire to communicate with them , may , without the abjuration * aforesaid , be admitted to the holy table , contract marriages with the faithful of our confession , and present themselves in the quality of god-fathers to the children which shall be baptized : upon their promise given to the consistory † , that they will never solicite them to contradict or do any thing , directly or indirectly , against the doctrine believed and professed in our churches ; but shall content themselves with giving them instruction only in things wherein we all agree . — the note in the geneva bible ( at cor. . . ) is worth our observation , [ the church ought not to care for such as be stubbornly ignorant , and will not abide to be taught ; but to go forward notwithstanding in those things which are right . nay , in their books of discipline , as was observed above , they decree , that such as will not acquiesce in the decision of their national synod , and expresly cast of their errours , shall be cut off from the communion of the church . and this we find practised in genevah with great severity ; for goulartius , and the rest of the consistory , deprived rotarius , one of their ministers , and thrust him out of their city ; and ( which is more ) they hunted him by their letters out of a town not far from thence , which had entertain'd him for their pastour . and all this was done , because he gave the cup , in his own church , with his own hand , not permitting a lay-man to deliver it . this fact of his was not the breach of any ancient canon of the church , but consonant to our saviour's own practice , at the institution of the sacrament ; yet being against the custome of that place , they did thus sharply punish it . and mr. calvin does seem to justifie such rigour , upon a rule of the apostle ( cor. . . ) which affords him this observation , authoritate magìs compescendos esse pervicaces , & rixandi cupidos , quàm refellendos longis disputationibus ; that is , such as are stubborn , and addicted to dispute and wrangle , ( and refuse to sit down quietly by the publick determinations and practice of the church ) are not to be treated with disputations , but to be bridled by authority . and there 's an end . an answer sent to the ecclesiastical assembly at london , by the reverend , noble , and learned man john deodate , the famous professor of divinity , and most vigilant pastor of genevah ; with some marginal notes by the late king. printed at newcastle by stephen bulkley , . the translators preface to the simple seduced reader . reader , may the father of lights open thine eyes to see over this strangers shoulders , and by this impartial perspective , what thou , whilst kept down thus low by the new masters and through thy seducers false mediums , hast not hitherto been suffered to perceive , it being till now purposely hid from thine eyes : behold a meer stranger that notwithstanding his manifold obligations and personal ingagements to a contrary discipline in the church , and different form of government in the state , yet overruled by the manifest truth and honesty of the kings cause , breaks through all those restraints of his liberty ( as far as he may ) to tell the thus much plain english truth ; behold here geneva's veneration and full vindication too of thine own mother the church of england , as it stood under episcopacy , traduced here at home by her own spurious brood for superstitious , popish , antichristian , what not ? and this apology directed to the assemblymen in answer to their letter what ever it was . behold here again a clear justification of the king , vilified by his own for that for which strangers do admire him ; his clemency , his inclinations to peace , his acts of grace , &c. behold here the root of gall , that which hath brought forth all these national mischiefs , the popular tumults and conspiracies pointed at there , as the only evident cause of the kings divorce from the parliament . see here by whom poor ireland was deserted ▪ one thing also thou mayst here take notice of from these standers by , that the clergy , in their own proper sphere , may be as fit and as honest , and perhaps in some respect more able , for the good speed of a treaty , than those that do slight them with utter preterition . last of all behold here the loyal and religious subjects only militia or his own proper magazine , to witt , the known laws of the land , that and prayer and submission are the only defensive weapons allowed here by this master of fence . i say no more to thee , save only , that i do heartily pity thee , and therefore i do still pray for thee , and for all thy fellow-bondmen , that god will bring into the way of truth all such as have erred and deceived , amen . reverend , godly , and worthy sirs , our dear brethren and companions in the work of the lord. if proportionably to the grief , we have conceived at your letters , ( wherein you have expressed the most sad face of your affaires , ) we had but as much ability either by our consolations to asswage your sorrows , or by our counsels to ease . your burthens , or by any our co-operation to help your extremity , we should think our selves very happy in so well corresponding with your honourable , and most loving compellation of us ; and right glad we should be thus to requite you with our best and effectual good offices . but alass , as the scantness of our capacity in this kind , so the ignorance of the more inward causes of so many miseries , and chiefly the perplex and dangerous nature of the matters now in agitation among you : all these put together , strike us quite dumb : we are as men wholly at a stand , able only ( in a kind of silent astonishment or holy horrour ) to admire , and to adore that finger of god , which is now listed up over you all . but since , being by you so lovingly invited to it , we must needs at last break off our silence , we are reduced to an extraordinary suspense both of mind , and of pens , what to say first or last , or indeed what to say at all . and now in the end , after long deliberation , lest , as job's friends , we should transgress by precipitate or unseasonable discourse : behold our hearts and mouths top-full of the senses and expressions of our hearty commisseration , our eyes running down with tears of compassion , our breasts even swol'n up with sighs and groans at your calamities . these are they , god is our witness , that fill up the greatest part of our private prayers , of our publick devotions , fastings and humiliations : in all which we are resolved to give the father of mercies no rest , untill your tranquility being once more ordained in heaven , god do extend peace upon earth unto you all like a river , and the fulness of his blessing , like an overflowing stream . our affaires , yea , the general interest of all the reformed churches are so closely involved in yours , and so mutually depending thereon , that your safety once procured assures us all of our own good estates . therefore especially during this grevious tempest , which may seem to bring about again the heavy time of the saints great primitive tribulation , we are , in a manner compelled with trembling hearts and lips , to pour out our lamentations into the ears of our most gratious and heavenly father , no longer now only preparing to contend by fire , as he once revealed it in a vision to his prophet amos. . , . but already for a long time really contending by fire indeed : and how then can we forbear from crying out , o lord forgive , cease we beseech thee , by whom shall jacob arise for he is small , and round about all in flame , by the fire of thy burning indignation . from this our own watch-tower , untoucht as yet by divine miracle , we have beheld this furious conflagration spreading it self all over ; we have seen the grisoen-italian churches utterly defaced , the gospel in bohemia its ancient seat , wholly extirpated ; the palatinate devoured ; the french church as deprived of all humane supports , and refuges , like so many poor little callow birds alive indeed , but only during pleasure : the german churches almost all over shaken , yea , more then half destroyed ; your own ireland swallow'd up with an unexpected deluge of assassines and robbers ; one only thing was wanting to that huge heap of publick calamity , namely , that florishing england , the very eye and excellency of all the churches , christ's own choice , purchase , and peculiar ; the sanctuary of the afflicted , the arcenal of the faint-hearted , the magazine of the needy , the royal standard of good hope , * should be so unlookt for an accident , without any external enemy , or forrain impression , become in a manner , it 's own felo de se , and make an end of it self with it's own cruel hands . what a sad spectacle is this to see that church thus trodden under foot ? to see that glorious fold of our lord thus ransackt , yea worried , not by the wild beasts of the forest , not torn in pieces by the merciless paws of the lion , or of the wolfe , but utterly dismembred by it's own unnatural sheep enraged and exasperated one against another ▪ an horrid example this , and till now never heard of among the reformed churches ! it seems heretofore like christ's own true sheep , they were kept tame by the fear of god , united by the same bond of faith , knit together by the apprehension of the common enemy , and so long they did both express and exercise holily and faithfully their mutual charity , quiet , and vnity amongst themselves ; in all which they preserved themselves from the rage of the wolfe , by the christian simplicity of their own good conditions , by the innocency of their pious lives , by the sanctity of their religion , by the constant undauntedness of their holy faith. but now we are wholly struck with horror at the change of that glorious face of your church , * whilst we hear at this distance the loud report of those deadly wars that are now flaming up betwixt the king and his people ; to see at daggers drawing indeed , brethren against brethren , parents against their own children , christ's sheep pushing against and goaring their own fellows , nay their own sheepherds : at all this we are utterly amazed , and would scarce have believed , that in the self-same pitched field , one and the same god and father , in the name of one and the same mediator , at one and the same time , could be invocated for help on both sides , to shed the blood of those , that for the major-part had hitherto by so many clear demonstrations , in the whole equal course of their lives , equal in their piety towards god , equal in their love and loyalty towards their country , approved themselves such faithful and true brethren one to another ; strange , that these should now against their own bowels turn all their warlike-power , far better if imployed in the just punishments of their own treacherous neighbours , or towards the relief of their dearest brethren , so long bowing the back under the weight of their bondage , and even at the last gasp for help . what marvaile then , if these your cruel distractions have awakened , yea , divided even to a variety the judgments and affections too of christendom ? neither do we our selves deny but that for a while we did somewhat stagger at , and as it were fluctuate about it ; yet that demur of ours did neither proceed from prejudice against ; nor from partiality towards either side , as not being called upon by either , neither publickly nor privately , till now of late in your reference unto us , which we do reckon as no small piece of honour , since in your esteem our judgment may seem of so much weight , as able to advance or ballance down either party , both being of such extraordinary quality . we have conteined our selves within the bounds of a conscionable judgment , and impartial charity , towards both parties , for indeed ye are both brethren ; we have neither way exceeded the compass of our own measure , but still kept a meane , as rejoycing on the one hand at those good things which we did hear were entertained with the general applause of all good men ; so on the other hand , we could not but behold with grief those other sinister passages that in themselves did carry a more fatal appearance : we were overjoyed at the * issue of the scottish troubles , that seemed at first to presage a combustion not unlike this of yours , and yet far sooner quenched ; for as by god's own admirable handi-work ( so by the never-enough-magnified piety and wisdom of your most gratious king , and by the concord of that wary nation ) that fire was in time put out , ere ever it did burst into a more open flame . at the first report of these your own commotions , our minds were possessed with a good hope that all past offences might with the same promptitude and facility be forthwith repaired , and all matters composed : so that what actions or counsels should appear amiss , might by the benignity of the best of princes be easily redressed , and consequently both church and commonwealth without noise or bloodshed be kept in due order : in pursuance of all which , we could not but admire the happy and glorious beginnings of the parliament , and the more than fatherly affections of his his most gratious majesty , evidenced by his enacting those laws , from which for the time to come , there was a clear hope of a government full of equity , and freed from all corruption : an example not so rare , as indeed singular in this our wild generation , so fertile of violent powers and princes . but all these our goodly hopes were soon blasted by that raging storm and tempest of popular tumults among you , that did force away both your most gratious prince from his parliament , as also a great part of the parliament from it self , since which we have heard indeed of many attempts and enterprizes , many propositions and projects , but all of them come to nothing , nothing is yet brought to perfection , nothing is yet rightly settled or established . the business of the church might seem the chief object of your care and solicitude : if it had been handled and debated at times , and with minds calme and quiet , had the opposite judgments been compared and impartially weighed one with another such an orderly course might happily have purchased a lasting peace to your kingdom , and also rendred unto your church that most desired primitive face of the apostolical times , * but behold how quite contrary the event hath fallen out ! for the minds of both sides being averse from , yea , violently bent one against another , this very matter hath proved the rock of offence by exasperating the wound and tearing it wider and wider by distracting more and more asunder the hearts of each party distempered enough already through former partiality and discord of affections . nay , if the report be true , these church-distractions have opened a wide gap to so many boysterous and private spirits , which we hear have assumed to themselves the most mischievous title of independants , than which destructive sect nothing could more undermine , yea , quite overturn the very foundation of the church . besides all that , we have been extreamly grieved at this , that the spirit of division hath so plentifully sown among you his pernicious tares of fears and jealousies , that they have not only fructified , but even overgrown all manner of mutual trust , in despight of so many royal protestations sealed and bound up with most grievous imprecations . but the very top and height of all our sorrows on your behalfs , hath been this , that all that cursed fuel thus heaped on , is now at last kindled into a bloody war , lengthned on both sides , by a multiplication of deadly feudes ; so that during such an universal combustion , what ever mens bare words , and never so frequent protestations otherwise may pretend , yet the royal honour , power and dignity cannot but fall into utter contempt : and on the contrary the licentiousness of the most audacious and lawless cannot but gather strength and out-grow the other : and then , consequently piety must needs decay , mutual love and charity must utterly vanish away , and instead thereof a kind of savage disposition , yea brutish rage must needs at last invade the minds and manners of the men of this generation , who in process of time will no longer look upon the old original causes that began the war , but rather upon the new mutual injuries freshly done , or received in the very progress or prosecution of the war between two parties divided far more by an odious difference of reproachful names , as it were , infamous brands fixed upon each other , then really by the cause it self , it had been far more easy unto us , and all good men else , to deliver our judgments upon your cause ; had the major part of either side differed from the other either in the more essential points of religion , or else dissented about the fundamental laws of the common-wealth ; or had either party been oppressed * by the other in a direct way of open persecution , or had there been an introduction of publick tyranny against the laws through the baseness and pusillanimity of the other party : but as for you , you have abundant cause of comfort of security against all these evils * since by vertue of your own most just and powerful laws , those laws that already have been indifferently agreed upon by the general consent of all parties concerned , you may with ease prevent , or put by all those forementioned evils , which in other kingdoms may seem almost unavoidable : all these considerations put together , have moved us for a long while seriously to deliberate and advise what might be at last , the best expedient lest to procure an honest and sure peace among you . indeed we have been much scandalized , that all the mediations of several kingdoms and provinces in league with you , have been tryed and used all in vain : howbeit it came into our mind to propound this one medium more , whether now at last there be yet any hope to obtain from the king 's most gracious majesty , and from the parliament , that of both sides ecclesiastical persons may be chosen of unquestioned trust , and fameproof beyond all suspition , to whom this great business may be committed ; namely , that comparing the chief points now in controversy , they may chalck out some good way towards an holy peace . but first these men must by god's good spirit , themselves be dispossessed of all factious inclinations , that so they may become sit vmpires and trustees of the publick peace , and impartial ambassadours of reconciliation between both parties , and also able and studious too , by all their speeches , exhortations , and sacred obtestations , to charm the hearts that on both sides are so obdurate in war and bloodshed . this were the ready way , by this interposing the sacred censer in the very midst of these publick flames to quench all the heart-burnings : for who knows whether at the devout prayers and holy groans of persons sacred , thus prostrate at the footstool of the heavenly grace , the divine power and glory may not break out once more , and shew forth it self by moving the hearts of both parties to lay down all hatred , and publick enmities . the only way to procure such sound counsel of both sides , and to purchase again the pretious blessing of a general peace , is especially when all humane helps fail , to call in the divine assistance , which no man did ever try in vain . by these good means that may be brought to pass ( what cannot be hoped for from civil-war , however the success prove ) that by a voluntary inclination of minds , the wound shall be so fully closed up , as that love and charity may in time perfectly be recovered . the good opinion which you have conceived of us may suffer us to offer these considerations unto you , it might be immodesty in us to prescribe , or to advise you any further : but no law of modesty can ever forbid us to wish , and to vow , and to beseech god for you , yea to appeal unto god , and to adjure you all in his name . o then above all , take a speedy and special care for a sure and sound peace ; what ever it be * 't is to be preferred before any civil broyls . beware lest the fortune of war smiling upon you , draw you on , and tempt you to commit your great affairs to the ambiguous chance of victory , then which nothing can happen more deadly , yea , pernicious unto the common-wealth . roule away that huge scandal that lies so heavy upon the whole christian world , yea , wash and wipe of that foul stain of black oppression , charged especially upon the purest profession of the gospel , as if still it did in a kind of antipathy , or secret hatred , oppose and oppugn all kingly power , and supreme authority . mitigate and asswage the exulcerated and too too much provoked mind of your king , and do not compel him * to pinacles and precipices . rather bear with some blemishes and corruptions , from which , no empire could yet wholly be free , no not in its most flourishing estate . account not those remedies the best , that are abruptly applyed and accumulated , but those rather that being taken in by degrees , may in time , by little and little , go down more easily , end digest the better , and so at last obtain a confirmation . and last of all by the bowels and mercy of christ , suffer your selves to be intreated , that we may no longer see that wealth , power and strength , which god hath graciously bestowed upon you , imployed , yea , utterly wasted in the fatal ruine of your own selves , but rather let it be stretched out to the relief , and support of so many of your own most afflicted * brethren , even panting after your own peace . may the god of peace himself bear , accep● , and grant these our sincere devotions ; may god defeat all the plots , disappoint all the machinations of the devil , and of antichrist . may the same god restore your kingdom and restore your churches , to that high state and pitch of holiness and glory , in which , on the theatre of the universal church , they have hitherto excelled and out-shined all the * churches upon earth . as for us , take in good part this our plain sense delivered freely unto you in a brotherly confidence ; pardon also and impute our delay of answer unto these weighty reasons : the roport was here very strong , that you were now very fair for a treaty of peace : therefore we thought fit to expect what a day might bring forth , so that all our words and all our affections too , might overflow with meer gratulations and full expressions of our joys . but sorry we are , that we have yet again been deceived with vain hopes : and now that we may speedily recover and enjoy that happiness , we both wish and pray ( with as much devotion as becomes your dearest brethren , who glory not a little in your good esteem of us . ) that god will pour down upon you his richest benedictions , together with a large measure of his wisdom , and spiritual strength . farewell , and prosper in the lord finis . postscript . sir , you have put me upon a fresh task , and i must obey you . the projected vnion among protestants , ( to tell you my opinion , ) is a thing most desireable , and of the highest consequence , if possible to be accomplished . but if we design an union of all protestants in general , we must consider the circumstances under which they ly . . some of them are under such subjection and awe , to popish princes , 't is not safe for them to come into any debate about the means and methods of it . where it may be done with freedom and safety , it may be prudent and advisable to consult the most eminent divines as well of the lutheran as the calvinian churches . and the concurrent judgment of such ( if to be obtain'd ) might contribute more to the satisfaction of the truely conscientious , in uniting the protestant interest , than the gratifying of every sect , hand over head , within our selves . but i confess 't is almost out of doubt , that the sects ( which swarm among us ) of anabaptists , socinians , antinomians , ranters , quakers , fift-monarchists , and ( which comprehends them all ) independents , would never pass the muster with such divines , for any publick establishment or protection . and can any wise man think fit we should loose or hazard our character and esteem abroad , the honour of the most prudent and regular reformation , to gratify such sectaries as would certainly be exploded among all protestants of any creditable denomination ? . besides , being a maxim and rule generally received among them , that every particular church hath power within it self , to frame canons and constitutions ; and to settle rites and ceremonies , for the exercise of religion and discipline among their own members , they may very well think it impertinent for them to interpose , or to be call'd upon for their advise and judgment in this matter . . besides , it is to be considered , that we stand all ready upon the same bottom with other protestant churches , only we are better built , ( as they know very well ) both for strength and beauty ; in so much , as that noble and learned pastor of genevah , calls the church of england the arsenal of the protestant profession , the crown and glory of all the church of that denomination . can there be any reason or good policy to cut of the locks of this spouse of christ , and ecclipse her glory ? to pull down the pallisadoes and demolish the fortifications of such a fabrick ? to rob her of her venerable antiquity and primitive lustre ? and all this upon no other account , than to gratify a restless and uneasy sort of people , by falling under the same reproach with themselves , of being addicted to nothing else but lightness , change , and novelties . . but we are to consider further , that the laws are the bond of union , the sinnews and ligaments of all bodies politick ; and where these are had in veneration , and observed with due respect , that people are as well united as humane policy can aim at . such as will not submit to such prudent and wholesome constitutions , do voluntarily shut themselves out of the lines of communication . and when the door is open if they will not enter in to joyn with us , they must stand expos'd upon their own leggs , and expect no defence from us , whose communion they do causelesly desert . but to think the walls of the city are presently to be broken down to let in this trojan horse , ( as a great prelate * exprest himself at court ) is an attempt like to be fatal , and a certain way to bring in ruine . . that some should be obliged to obey the laws and shew conformity , and others be dispensed with , cannot stand with equity . aequalitas prima pars aequitatis , saith seneca , equalitie is the first and chiefest part of equite . we are taught also by a dear experience that such a dispensation will breed division : for a division in laws makes † division in kingdoms , a choosing of sides and a mustering into parties , whence strife infallibly , with envy , emulations , contentions , and a worldr of other mischiefs do arise . and as division in laws causes division in kingdoms ; so those divisions cause the subversion and overthrow of such kingdoms . for 't is gospel that a kingdom divided against it self cannot stand . satans kingdom thus divided would come to desolation ; how then can a kingdom of flesh and blood , a kingdom of mortal men subject to impetuous passions , subsist under agony and conflict of divisions ? if there were no such danger likely to ensue upon a toleration or connivance ; yet it cannot stand with decency and honour , that one people , within the same land , and under the same government , ( and especially monarchical ) should be under divers laws . 't is like an oracle in curtius , ejusdem juris esse debent , qui sub eodem rege victuri sunt ; such as are under the government of one and the same king ( within the same land and nation ) should be under one and the same law , especially as to publick administrations . . but the prevailing argument is , the hellish plots , the implacable malice , and the secret combinations of the popish party to destroy us ; the consideration whereof is thought sufficient to induce us to take into union and association with us , all sorts of dissenters , that have but mettle and edge enough to encounter and oppose the chuch of rome . but has the matter been duly weighed in an equal ballance ? or has not the dreadful apprehension of a present attempt from the one party so far transported us , as to make us forget the like ( tho perhaps a little more remote ) danger which threatens us from the other ? queen elizabeth ( in her time ) thought it a measuring cast which of the two factions was the more pernitious to the rights of the crown , and the establisht government . she knew the principles of these dissenters , as well as those of the popish priests and jesuites ; she observed their practices also and the methods they took ; * that , altho they began with tender and meek petitions , yet they proceeded to admonitions ; nay , to sharp and satyrical remonstrances ; and at last , having calculated their numbers , and computed who was , and who was not , for their cause , they supposed themselves certain of so great a party that they durst , and began to threaten , first the bishops , then the queen and parliament . hereupon the queen having a strict eye and check upon them , in a parliament held the th . of her reign , commanded serjeant puckering , ( who was then her mouth , as well as the speaker of the house of commons ) to declare her majesties sense , and to caution her subjects against them ; which was done in these expressions . and especially you are commanded by her majesty ( saith he ) to take heed , that no ear be given , or time afforded to the wearysome solicitations of those that commonly be called puritans , wherewith all the late parliaments have been exceedingly importun'd . which sort of men , whilst ( in the giddiness of their spirits , ) they labour and strive to advance a new eldership ; they do nothing else but disturbe the good people of the church and commonwealth ; which is as well grounded for the body of religion it self , and as well guided for the discipline , as any realm that professeth the truth . and the same thing is already made good to the world , by many the writings of godly and learned men ; neither answered nor answerable by any of these new fangled refiners . and as the present case standeth , it may be doubted , whether they , or the jesuites do offer more danger , or be more speedily to be repressed . for albeit the jesuites do impoyson the hearts of her majesties subjects , under a pretence of conscience , to withdraw them from obedience due to her majesty ; yet do they the same but closely ; and only in privy corners . but these men do both publish in their printed books , and teach in all their conventicles sundry opinions ; not only dangerous to the well setled estate , and policy of this realm , by putting a pyke , between the clergy and the laity , but also much derogatory to her sacred majesty and her crown , as well by the diminution of her antient and lawful revenues , and by denying her highnesses prerogative and supremacy , as by offering peril to her majesties safety in her own kingdom . in all which things , howsoever in many other points , they pretend to be at war with the popish-jesuites ; yet by this seperation of themselves from the vnity of their fellow subjects , and by abasing the sacred authority and majesty of their prince , they do but joyn and concur with the jesuites , in opening the door , and preparing the way to the spanish invasion , that is threatned against the realm . this was the sense of that great queen and her great council . and hereupon such laws were inacted , as were designed to strike equally at both factions . now upon the premisses the quere will be , whether such as attempt to violate and dissolve those laws which she made to secure the church and kingdom as then established , do cordially affect the authority she had , and the government she exercised . in all reason such as pretend so great a veneration for her name , should defer some thing to her judgment , and yield something to her wisdom and experience . but if she were now alive might she not find just cause to expostulate with subjects , as our saviour did some time with his disciples ? why call ye me lord , lord , and do not the things which i say ? you call me renownd and glorious , a queen of blessed memory , and you honour me with a piece of formal pageantry ; * but you have no reverence for the authority which i was invested with . for have you not the same crown , the same sword , and the same scepter still ? have you not the same government , the same reformation , the same religion , which was publickly profest , maintained and honoured in my reign ? for where 's the difference ? no alteration , no addition has been made but for the advantage of the nation and the protestant cause in general , yet what elogies are given of her daies ? and how is the protestant religion cry'd up for the flourishing condition of it under her government ? the protestant religion ( says vox populi ) in which they and their fathers have been so many years bred , and under which they have seen so many happy days , freed from the tyranny and oppressive yoke of the pope , &c. what is the reason we cannot live by the same laws , and perform the like obedience as our forefathers did ? after such elogies of that queens times , and such acclamations after her , is it not a wonder to see men act so counter to her laws and government ? and is it not clear that the change is solely in our selves ? that our hearts are not frought with the like loyalty as theirs was , and that we do not govern our selves by the same principles of duty and honour as they did ? for shame let every man lay his hand upon his heart , and consult his own reason and be awakned to some degree of temper and sobriety ; for 't is as clear as the sun at noon day , that the change is not in the constitution of the government , but in the principles of our loyalty and affection to the king and church . for , have we popish plots now among us ? so they had in the days of queen elizabeth . are there attempts upon the life of our dread soveraign ? so there were likewise upon the life of queen elizabeth . have we designes on foot to extinguish the protestant religion , to subvert the government , and introduce the popish tyranny and usurpation over us ? the very same things were in agitation in the days of queen elizabeth . did the queen and her council therefore bend all there force against those popish conspirators , and indulge the dissenters of the other factions ? no ; * they know their principles were no less destructive to the establisht government , and therefore they had an equal eye and check upon them , and provided to fortify the government against them both . what ? do we pretend to be wiser than the queen and her whole council ? or do we take new measures , espouse new principles and resolve upon new models and forms of government ? if so , how this course will tend to the preservation of the king's person , the protestant religion and government established , let wise men judge . but if it appears further that these dissenters do manage and carry on the same designs , with the jesuites and popish party ; espouse and maintain the same principles , and improve the popish plots to their own ends of unhinging the government to get the power into their own hands ; what vnion or communion can be expected with them ? nor are these hypotheses the chimera's of a distempred brain , or the wild caprichio's of an idle fancy ; our proofs of them come nothing short of demonstration ; for indeed they are matters of fact , and we shall produce no less than three witnesses apiece to establish them . . that they study to improve all po-pish plots , to advance their own ends , is observed by many judicious worthy persons . the reverend dean of st. pauls takes special notice what influence the discovery of the late most horrid plot had upon these men , and tells us . we were still in hopes that men so wise , so self-denying , as the non-conformist-ministers represented themselves to the world , would in so critical a time , have made some steps or advances towards an vnion with us . — instead of this , those we discoursed with , seem'd further off than before ; and when we least expected such a blow , under the name of a plea for peace , out comes a book , which far better deserved the title of a plea for disorder and separation , not without frequent , sharp and bitter reflections on the communion of our church , and the conformity required by law ; as tho it had been design'd on purpose , to represent the clergy of our church as a company of notorious , lying and perjur'd villains , for conforming to the laws of the land , and orders established among us . — and all this done without the least provocation given on our side ; when all our discourses that touched them tended only to union and the desireableness of accomodation . . our second evidence shall be out of the short view of our late troubles , &c. where the author rells us , that which afforded them ( the dissenters of those times ) no little advantage , was that horrid gunpowder-plot ( in the d. of king james ) being hatch'd by those fiery-spirited men of the romish perswasion , whom the bloody minded jesuites had influenc'd for that most wicked practice . for , after this , to terrifie the people with the church of rome , their sermons were little less then declamations against the papist ; aiming thereby to represent them formidable & odious ; insinuating to the world , that all the fear of danger was from those of that religion ; whilst they themselves , in the mean time , did insensibly poyson the people with such other unsound doctrines , as became at length the fountain of this late unparallel'd rebellion , which terminated in the execrable murther of our late gracious king : and would have put an end to this famous and long flourishing monarchy , had not allmighty god of his great mercy miraculously prevented it . and to shew that this sort of men are not given to change . . the author of the seasonable address to both houses takes notice of the like improvement of this present plot , † we have ( saith he ) been continually allarm'd with libels against the government ; at last a discovery is made of a popish contrivance , sifted as far as possible by the king in council ; and after ( that ) earnestly recommended to the parliaments further consideration . this is pursued , but some men laying hold on this , ( occasion ) designe to drive it on to further purposes ; and under pretence of defending the king's person , and expelling popery , ( to ) set up presbytery and pull down the monarchy . that these dissenters are of an humour not to vnite with the church in the time of plots and troubles , but to improve the advantage to carry on their own designes , by making the breach wider ; hath been observ'd by cambden * in the reign of queen elizabeth , and upon the very juncture of the spanish invasion ; for ( saith the historian ) schismatical impiety waxeth allways insolent when any wars be stirring , nor ever did shameless or rebellious impudence , and outragious malice more insolently beard the ecclesiastical magistracy ; ( than at that time . ) and this is our proof of the first hypothesis , that these dissenters , do improve popish plots to their own ends , of unhinging the government , to get the power into their own hands . . that they do espouse and maintain the same principles with the jesuites is no less-evident . they deny the king's supremacy and headship ( under christ ) over the church , or churches within his dominions : they deny his power of calling councils and church assemblies , of his presideing over them , moderating , judging , and determining in them ; they grant him no legeslative power in matters ecclesiastical : they make him but a cypher as to the constitution of their rules and orders ; and a servant only , ( to themselves ) in the execution of what they prescribe . to this purpose , and in confutation of their doctrine , oliver ormerod of emmanuel colledge in cambridge , wrote a book , . intituled , the picture of a puritan , to which he has annexed a discovery of puritan-papisme . and after him david owen wrote another ( . ) which he stiles , herod and pilate reconciled , or , the concord of papist and puritan , for the coertion , deposition , and killing of kings . to the dutiful subject , in his epistle , he observes , that the puritan-church-policy , and the jesuitical society began together : the one in geneva , . and the other in rome , . and the last chapter of his book , contains , the general consent of the principal puritans and jesuites , against kings , from the year . until the year , . out of the most authentick authors . i shall refer the reader to the book it self ; which if it be out of print , does very well deserve a new impression . . my third proof of this assertion may be found in a late book , being , a short view of our late troubles : whereof , any man ( that desires a full and impartial account of those affairs , ) may please to consult the parallel in the second chapter . lastly , we do affirm , that these dissenters and such as so eagerly abet them , doe carry on that very design , which they pretend to abhor with so great a detestation in the jesuites . and in order to the proof of this , let me take leave to propound a question , viz. whether to abolish those decent rites and customes , which were generally in use in the primitive and purest ages of the church , and to grant a toleration of all religions ; or , to allow conventicles for the free and publick worship of protestant-dissenters ( as they will needs call themselves ) be not an argument of great levity , a dishonour to the reformation , a scandal to our own and forreign churches , and a means as well to betray our own profession , as to gratify the common enemy , by complying with such methods as they have from time to time , contrived and practised , for the subversion of the church of england , which through divine providence , hath been so happily reform'd and setled , and so long preserv'd and prosper'd , to the envy of some , and the admiration of others of our neighbours ? the reason of this quere is , . because it is the practice of the popish party to promote change and innovations among us ; and then to disparage our religion upon the account of novelty . and by that argument many times they prevail to make proselites , and to draw men from the communion of our church . . because they have made it their great business to purchase a toleration ; and to this effect , they have used all the arts of bribery and crafty insinuation . . because it is a matter of fact and clearly evident , that their priests and jesuites creep into conventicles , and frequently make use of such meeting to pervert the nation . for all which we have sufficient evidence , and that solemnly deposed upon the corporal oaths of the king's witnesses . first , mr. smith doth depose , that abbot mountague told him , the popish religion would very soon come into england ; and , upon his demanding a reason for it ; he was pleased to give him these two . . that they did not doubt but to procure a toleration of religions , by which they should bring it in without noise . . that the gentry which went abroad did observe the novely of their own religion , and the antiquity of theirs , and the advantages that were to be had by it . a second witness is mr. jenison , who deposeth thus , that ireland and jenison did declare , that for the destruction of the protestant religion ( he means that establisht in the church of england ) they hop't to procure a toleration ; and the way was ( they said ) by procuring a sum of money to bribe the parliament . but suppose the parliament will not be brib'd ? why ? it is the same thing in effect , whether we be brib'd by papists , or cajol'd by dissenters , who have imbib'd their infusions ; whether we take money , or be insnar'd by insinuation ; if we deny a toleration , yet if we set open a door to conventicles , we give them as fair an opportunity to do their business , as if a toleration were granted . to this purpose the evidence of dr. oates is very full and clear ; * for speaking of the popish design for the reduction of england — to the popish religion and obedience , among other means , ( he tells us ) it was to be done [ by seditious preachers and catechists set up , sent out , maintained , and directed , what to preach in their own , and other private or publick conventicles and field-meetings . and he deposeth , * that father moore and father saunders alias brown , were sent into scotland , with instructions to carry themselves like non-conformist ministers , and to preach to the disaffected scots , the necessity of taking up the sword , for the defence of liberty and conscience . these the deponent saw dispatcht and ordered to go by father harcourt in the name of thomas white provincial . he deposeth likewise , that richard strange provincial , john keins , basil langworth , john fenwick , and mr. harcourt jesuites , did write a treasonable letter to one father swiman an irish jesuite at madrid , in the kingdom of spain , in which was continued their plotting and contriving a rebellion in scotland of the presbyterians against the episcopal government . in order to which they had imploy'd one mathew wright and william morgan , and one mr ireland to go and preach , under the notion of presbyterians , and give the disaffected scots a true understanding of their sad state and condition , in which they were , by reason of his episcopal tyranny exercised over them : and withall to tell them , they had now a fair opportunity to vindicate their liberty and religion ; and that it could be done by no other way but by the sword , and that now the king was so addicted to his pleasure , that he would , and could take but little care in that concern . that the popish plot is carried on by the schismatick ( whom he calls the jesuite in masquerade , ) is noted by machiavil redivivus ( p. . ) for ( saith he ) the principal contrivers of that machination are now removed , the jesuites hang'd , the lords in the tower , and the great men secured from action : yet nevertheless the same bloody tragedy is still acting , and the cursed design carried on , by the popes other engines ; and the spirit of antichrist is sifted from the conclave to the conventicle . and this is further evident from that late plagiary , who has stol'n materials out of parsons the jesuite , under the name of doleman , to shew that the monarchy is rather elective than hereditary . * the design of that book in queen elizabeth's time was to distract the people , and make way for the spanish conquest and inquisition : and this presbyterian transcriber proves himself of the same jesuitical principles , and with equal honesty pursues the same ends , usurpation and slavery . from which testimonies it does undeniably follow , that such as do attempt . . either to introduce a toleration for the exercise of all religions , or , . to support conventicles for the free and publick worship of all dissenters . or , . to abolish those decent rites * and customes , which were generally in use in the primitive and purest ages of the christian church . they are factors for the pope , i do not say directly , by confederacy and an avowed consent , but yet really and in effect , they do carry on the plot and design of the church of rome ; which is to remove the king out of their way , that they may destroy the protestant church of england and , introduce the popish religion and tyranny in stead of it . having made it thus evident , that these dissenters hold the same dangerous principles as to king and government , which are maintained by the jesuites , improve their plots , and carry on the same design of subverting the protestant church of england ; i shall proceed , with the complaint of liberty and property against arbitrary government . i would only desire the honest reader to enquire who they were that first cryed out against arbitrary government , or the designs of it in the reign of king charles the first ? it was the protestant dissenters and principally those then called presbyterians . who was it that animated the people to take up arms for defence of liberty and property ( invaded only by themselves , ) against the king ? the very same . who maintained , continued , and finished the war , and the tragedy of the king's murder ? the same men , though now they had gotten new frocks and vizards on , and call'd themselves independents , or congregational-church-men ; a name that comprehended all sects and opinions . who were they that banisht his present majesty , sought that life which could not have been preserved but by a miracle ? who composed and commanded olivers standing army ? who commanded all the garrisons , forts , castles , ships ? who rul'd according to will , without and against law ? even the very same men , the the godly party of congregational protestant dissenters . who are they that cry out now against the government , and talk of the great danger of arbitrary power ? search the city , examine the countrey , ransack the coffee-houses , frequent the clubs : if you hear any person inveigh against the government , or discourse of the fear of arbitrary designs , you may pawn your life on 't , you may find him in a conventicle upon a sunday , if he pretends to any religion , or reading hob's divinity , and atheistical principles at home . it is an old saying , he that accuses another ought to be clear himself : and therefore ( saith that author ) for shame , let the congregational-men leave clamouring about persecution and arbitrary government , of which they are so horribly guilty , and for which they have so great an accompt to make to allmighty god. and now let us appeal to the common sense of all mankind ; is it reasonable , that a prince should give establishment to any party , that maintains principles destructive to himself and his government ? sure no wise or loyal person can imagine it . for if self-preservation be allowable in any case , without doubt , of all men the sovereign has the fairest title to it . i remember mr. ormerod near four score years ago , having made a parallel betwixt the papists and dissenters of those times , concludes his address to them in these words ; and thus i leave you , wishing first of all your conformity : if that cannot be had , my next wish is , that you were dealt withal , as philip of macedon dealt with two of his subjects , in whom there was little hope of grace ; he made one of them to run out of the countrey , and the other to drive him , so his people were rid of both . but this shall not be my conclusion . these dissenters would have us comply with them : but in what ? in the change of government and discipline in the church according to their fancies ? in abolishing the forms of god's solemn worship , with the rites of decency and order to promote the same ? we cannot in prudency or conscience gratify this their humour against the general rules of holy scripture , the light of reason , the practice of the primitive church , and the common sense of the most sober and learned protestants . what then ? would they have us comply with them against the church of rome , and the practices of the jesuites ? with all our hearts . but we must remember the jesuites have two heads of doctrine , both destructive to the principles of christianity , wherein we utterly dissent from them . the first in reference to god's worship and service ; the second in reference to the king , his crown and government . we renounce the whole : let them do so likewise ; else let them be lookt upon as parcel-jesuites ; for such they are , unless they renounce not only such doctrines as lead to superstition and idolatry : but such also as lead to sedition and rebellion . let them say the pope is antichrist ; and let them say the same ( as the apostle does , thes. . . ) of every adversary , * that resists the lord 's annointed , that opposeth and exalteth himself above kings and potentates to whom the name of god is attributed . in which sense , we doubt not to say with st. john , that even now are there many antichrists . let them renounce those popish and jesuitical principles , which were condemn'd for treason in the spencers * even by papists themselves ; * let them renounce , . that damnable doctrine , of taking up arms by the kings authority , to fight against his person . which as is very well observed by a worthy person , * was hatcht under the romish territories , and made use of in the holy league of france . . that we may seize the kings revenues , stop his customes , deny him all due supplies to support and preserve the honour and peace of his crown and kingdoms , ( as they did in . ) and bring him into necessity , that we may reform his mind , and gain our own ends of him per asperte , as lawyer 's phrase it , that is , by rigour or constreint . . that if his majesty will not repeal laws and take off the wheels of government , and model it to our humour , we may enter into leagues and associations without his consent , and govern in aid of him . there are jesuitical doctrines , and we desire they may joyn with us in a hearty renunciation of them . let them also protest , they will never attempt , what the jesuites are presumed to have plotted and contrived , the death of the king , the ruine of the church with the subversion of the establisht laws and government . ( for ther 's little hopes of a hearty union till men come to so much ingenuity and remorse as to acknowledge how far they have gon astray , and declare their change with a stedfast resolution to return into the right way . ) let them therefore submit to the laws establisht , and joyn with us in the performance of god's publick and solemn worship . let them subscribe and preach the homilies against rebellion , and declare ( as we do ) in the midst of their respective congregations , their unfeigned assent and consent to them . this will secure the king's person , the protestant religion , and the government established . and ( whatever becomes of the protestants abroad for want of supplies to enable the king to interpose on their behalf ) it will certainly vnite us at home in one communion to the emulation of our friends , the terrour of our enemies , and our own lasting peace and happiness . which god grant we may be so wise as to discern and establish . finis . books printed for , and sold by robert clavel at the peacock in st. pauls church-yard . brutum fulmen , or the bull of pope pius th . concerning the damnation , excommunication and deposition of queen elizabeth ; as also the absolution of her subjects from their oath of allegiance , with a peremptory injunction upon pain of anathema never to obey any of her laws and commands , with some observations and annimadversions upon it . the second edition , by thomas lord bishop of lincoln . whereunto is annexed the bull of pope paul the third , containing the damnation , excommunication , &c. of king henry the th . the first impression of the book was printed about . months since in a large quarto and letter , and is now contracted into a less volumn and price . the general catalogue of books printed in england since the dreadful fire of london in . to the end of trinity-term . ( with the term catalogue since printed , ) together with the texts of single sermons , with the authors names ; playes acted at both the theaters ; with the abstract of the general bills of mortality since . with the titles of all the books of law , navigation and musick , and a catalogue of school-books , the third edition . to which is now added a catalogue of latin books printed in forreign parts and in england since . collected by robert clavel , in folio stitcht . those that desire either the general catalogue of english-books or latin-books alone , may have them so . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e * from p. , to . notes for div a -e abra. calo. system . p. . &c. anno . * disput. . ex ep. ad rom. thess. . * de cultu dei externo . thess. . in p. . * de dog . rit . & guber . eccl. christ. in princ . ⸫ jac. armin . disp. privat . thess. . in quart . praecept . in p. . * comp. concert . tit . . ar . . p. martyr . ad cor. . m. p. . luther ad gal. . in p. . ep. . in princip . epist. . ad gal. . in princip . ibid. ad marc. . vers . . v. grot. ad cor. . . &c. . . et bullinger . ad cor. . &c. . . * apud bedam ad cor. . in fol. . col. . a● . de cultu externo . in p. . ⸫ hoc enim derogasset veritati , rei , & evangelio christi . calixtus ad gal. . cor. . . * paulus utitur symbolis , prout ea significare apud eos rep●rit , cum quibus agebat . p. mart. ad cor. . p. . . m. † cor. . . * inter res indifferentes ponitur scortatio — quod passim agentibus indifferens haberetur , nec flagitium judicaretur adolescentem scortari , quin apud ipsas pars aliqua religionis & cultus numinum in prostitutione corporum poneretur . calixt . in act. . . † grot. ad deut. . . † rom. . . phil. . . cor. . * ad cor. . in p. . b. liquet satis apostolum agere de velatione solum cum versaretur in sacris ; & respici aliquid quod attinet ad foeminam respectu dei potius quàm respectu mariti . lightfoot . summa huc spectat , ut decorum in ritibus conservetur . p. martyr ad cor. . in p. . * honestè illud fit , quod cum pace & disciplinâ fit . ambros. in ep. ad cor. . c. . † deut. . . chron. . . chron. . , . habet enim hoc humanus affectus , ut quae communia sunt minus revereatur , quam quae habent aliquam excellentiae discretionem ab aliis . petr. à s. joseph . idea theol. moral . cap. . resol . . in p. . see rev. . , , . sancta sanctè . cor. . . mal. . . psal. . rev. . . with the . grot. ad loc . instit. l. . c. . sect. in p. . v. rivet . in decal . in p. . . in cor. . m. p. . . a. f. in . cor. . p. ▪ . m. bullinger ad gal. . m. p. . . epist. . in princ. † tolle ordinem , mis●●bis caelum terra . musc. ad cor. ▪ ult . vid ▪ * v. lightfoot ad cor. . . tit. . . calixtus ad locum . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . according to appointment . hammond . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad totam ecclesiae tum liturgiam tum disciplinam refero . grynaeus ad colos. † ad locū . act. . . cor. . . hebr. . , . mat. . . c. . , . act. . . cor. . . grot. ad cor. . last . tit. . . † crocius ad locum . tit. . . * consider what mr. calvin writes on act. . . he calls it , stultam indulgentiam , vitio non carebat zelus ille : vix longo tempore apostolis revulsa fuerit haec superstitio , these expressions do not speak immediate inspiration in those apostles and governours . * v. dicson ad cor. . . regner . à mansvelt . adversus anonymum theologo . politicum . cap. . in pr. v. calvin ad cor. . . * and thus did st. james , act. . , to . * ego dico , non dominus , i.e. ex authoritate mea ; non quod dominus non consentiat ; sed quod authoritatem ejus de hac re in scripturâ non invenio . bruno . † calv. ad cor. . . ubi non habuit expressum dei praeceptum , sibi tribuit decisionem . aret. ad . cor. . . tit. . . prideaux lect. . m. p. , . * we have examples in ananias and elymas . act. chap. . . & . . † v. hammond on cor. . . notes e , f. * rycaut . ad isa. . . ad isa. . . ibid. idem ad cap. . . synopsis pur . theol. disput. . thes. . august . contra crescon . l. . cap. . calv. instit . l. . c. . sect. . controvers . . de concil . quaest . . cor. . . calvin ad locum . d. dickson ad locum . de legum human. oblig . prael . . p. . v. zanchy in . praecept . p. . . f. edit . neostad . palat. . de script . sacr. controvers . a q. ta in statu quaestionis : m. pag. . * ad. cor. . ult . ad locum . ad locum . ibid. his treatise of conscience , and in his commentary upon the galatians , chap. . , &c. ad cor. . ult . aug. epist. . in princip . ibid. v. hierome & joan. crocium in tit. . . * in m praeceptum . m. p. . . f. edit . necstad . palat. . epist. . theol. christ. l. . c. . thes. . & . lib. . de baptis . m. p. , . de rel. christ. fides cap. . sect. . & cap. . sect. . v. col. . , . * here was opus operantis too . v. . thy faith hath made thee whole . * lib. . sent. dist . q. . ⸪ l. . dist . . quaest . . † deter . . in fine . * in . sent. d. . sect. . col. . litera f. dist . . ar . . p. . col. . p. princ . ad resp . ad m in fine artic. labat theol . schol. tom. . pag. . & petr. a s. joseph idea theol. sacram . p. . there is suffragtum ecclesiae , cujus personam minister sustinet : & stipulatio bonae conscientiae . pet. . . * petr. a s. joseph ubi supra . † de resolut . fidei . l. . c. . sect. . p. . * sum. sacram . p. . * in cor. . on the galat. c. . p. . * hebr. . . with rom. . , . sicut adamus fuit porta & fons peccati & mortis , ita christus justitiae & vitae . — gratia christi potentior est ad salvandum , quam offensa adami ad perdendum , &c. david dickson . ad rom. . . & . vide calixtum , &c. v. exod. . , . & numb . . . * they should have said , no divine sacrament . ad cor. . . in cor. . p. . . m. * de redempt . p. . . fin . naostad . palat. . † epilog . l. . p. . lib. . de bap. c. . * sanguinem crucis cum vocat , eò quòd in illiûs arâ effusus est . grynaeus ad colo. p. . * sess. . can. . de sacram. * sir edm. godfrey . † cor. . . bon joan. comp. a part. c. . p. . . cor. . . with . de relig. christ fides . p. . f. * defens . eccles. hierarch . c. . sect. . pag. . * so is the paschal feast . epist . v. labat de sacram. p. . & . v. lyserus fornax babilonica , p. , &c. * meisner . jan. . . * tim. . . † heb. . , . * mat. . . † cor. . . cor. . . cor. . . * suspicor eos judaizasse in confusâ vocum suarum commixtione : lightf . in ep. ad corin. . . p. ● . lightfoot . consider st. paul's discourse takes in musical instruments . cor. . , and verses . apoc. . . * vid. grot. ad locum . ad cor. . . uti supra , v. perkins on gal. ● m. p. . . a. * nihil suum tradere se dicit , sed domini . ambros. ad loc . ad act. . . * tom. . c. . . . p. . v. thes. . . . * v. grotius , ad cor. . . sclater . synops. in proleg . ad roman . * proleg . ad roman . † in ep. ad rom. c. . . p. . . ⸫ argum. ep. ad rom. ‖ presat ▪ ad rom. * ad gal. . † et hoc egisse paulum ut neuter populus offenderetur , quo sc. utraque plebs privilegium possideret . hieron . ad galat. . * ad rom. . p. . vid. soto ad rom. . p. . col. . fir. . † vid. grotium , & de la cerda ad locum & oecumen . * dr. lightfoot . ad cor. . . * gal. . . cor. . , . † cor. . , , , . ad rom. . ad rom. . in princ. * in . ad cor. c. . . * horat. sum paulo infirmior . i. e. scrupulosior , † ad rom ▪ . in princip . ⸫ in act. apost . . . on the ep. to the galat. ch. . p. . . d. ad rom. . p. . . f. tim. . , . * ad rom. . n. . † quid ergo , licet esse in fide infirmum , licet in errore positū permanere ? minimè : sed naevus non praecipiti , sed prudenti manu abstergendus , nec zelo praeter scientiam ▪ sed remedio curandus ad conscientiā apposito . g. ambian . ad rom. . p. . . d. in rom. . p. . ● . f ▪ * ad rom. . p. . . † p. . . ad rom. * ad rom. p. . † cas. of conscience , b. . chap. . of confession . v. hieron . in . ad galat. * mat. . . * quia ille opinione dominus est ; ad opinionem autem evertendam firmissimae requiruntur demonstrationes , ex re ipsâ petitae . joan. à felden . annot. in hu. grot. de jure b. & pacis lib. . c. . sect. . m. p. . matthis . ad rom. . p. ● . ad rom. . p. . . m. tim. . . c. . . tit. . . * ad rom. . fin . † ad rom. . p. . * soto ad rom. . p. . ad loc. ad rom. p. . ferus ad rom. . * nam legem regni dei nemo debet pro bonofratris violare . soto ad rom. . p. . . † col. . . unde rom. . . * ad locū . — facit quoque ad disciplinae conservationem & pacis vinculum tuendum piorum , rituum constitutio & dispositio , vrbo dei consentanea . david rungius disput. . ex epist. p. ad romanos . thes. . p. . * thes. . . thes. . , , . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * non autem hoc dicit , quod hoc aliquo casu opus sit grotius , & ex eo synopsis . * epist. . m. † ad rom. . n. ▪ p. . ex origine . ponatur quod ille scandalizetur de quolibet ? quid fiet ? respondeo , tunc debet comedere , &c. v. hugo card. ad rom. . & soto ib. pa. . . a. f. † ferus , ad rom. . . * if my brother be offended at what god has made my duty , there 's no remedy , but that he lay aside his unjust offence , and not that i lay aside my necessary duty . mel. inquir . pa. . ad cor. . * correctio opus est eleemosynae spiritualis , & propterea , quae locum habent in eleemosyna , & ab ea excusant , habent etiam in correctione , ut excusent ab eâ . paul. à palat . in mat. . mat. . * in mat. . . in mat. . . v. jud. ep. vers. . * argum. in ep. ad roman . † ham. ⸫ gro● . * in pet. . . act. . . * v. p. . & , . of melius inquirendum . ferus ad rom. . disput. . ex epist. ad rom. th . . p. . col. . . * ad rom. . p. . . † in cor. . p. . . pp. ⸫ ad rom. . . * ibid. pa. . . pr. * ad rom. . . lib. . c. . sect. , . * v. lightfoot in cor. . . &c. . . bulling . m. ad cor. . ves. v. . v. . v. . v. . in ep. ad cor. . p. . musculus ubi supra . * act. . . † isa. . . see the orig . ⸫ mat. . . mel. inquir . p. . job . . rom. . apoc. . . rom. . * see dr. lights . cor. . † rom. . to . and eph. . , . lightfoot . v. joh. . . ad hebr. . . ad locum vide . * in ep. petri. c. . v. . * col. . , . gal. . . c. . , . cor. . , . rom. . , . p. . * voce synonyma , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , episcop . p. disp. . thes. ad rom. . n . p. . † cap. . thes. . p. . * part. disp. . thes. . &c. vindic. of liturgies pag. . * 〈…〉 † 〈…〉 * v. perkins case of consc. b. . ch. . ans. to . q. p. . . b. in the first capacity she justifies the person , in the second she justifies her self , as some distinguish . but in this last sense , mr. perkins makes it the way and means to life . eternal . * cal. . . of communion with god pag. . * he has also another part ready which deserves to be made publick . * st. paul does there discourse expresly of justification . see gal. . , . . ad rom. . . p. . ad rom. . . mr. calvin . * ad hebraeos . c. . . * see the confidence of corah and his consederates num. . . and such as follow their pernitious ways ep. jude v. . * ad locum . * ad. loc . * calixtus ad locum . ep. . , . preface to mr. hotchki's his exercitation of the forgiveness of sins . * ( when he may be personally as pure as he please ) ought not ▪ vid gerhard . ad heb. . v. . * in dan. . . confutation of dr. lewis moulins dissertation in the epistle dedicatory . † in deut. . this was printed . ibid. * heb. . . * vide mat. . . the late proposal of union reviewed and rectified . p. , . * without some ceremonies it is not possible to keep any order , or quiet discipline in the church . of ceremonies before the common prayer , &c. vid. de redempt . lib. . c. . p. . . edit . neostad palatin . in una side nihil ossicit ecclesiae sanctae consuetudo diversa . gregor . of ceremonies before the common prayer . david rungius ex epist. ad roman disput . . p. . and what was the worcestershire agreement ? were there no terms of communion in it ? in his apologetical preface to his confutation of dr. l. moulin . * jer. . . † isa. . . ‖ mal. . . matt. . . matt. . . * dr. prideux sect. . de author . ecclesiae in rebus fidei . cap. . p. . * annot. in deut. cap. . * cor. . . gal. . . lib. de redempt . cor. . . &c. * internam sinio , quam mens & affectus habent : externam , quae ab illis for as octenditur actu aliquo externo . jos. mede de sanct. relat. in levit. . . op p. . † isai. . . to the . preface of ceremonies before the book of com. prayer . * summa theol. schol. & moral . part . . p. ● ● . . † de culru externo 〈…〉 . michah . . eph. . . cor. . . * second command ment , &c. psal. . . cat. . . in . . praec . * v. cor. . . de certa summa in eleemosinis nihil certi aut praescripti imponere deum , &c. sclater & calvin . ad locum . v. grot. ad . sam. . . &c. * cor. . , : in epist. ac cor. cap. . * cum christiana libertate optime convenit summa servitus , sed quae sit ex charitate ultroneâ & voluntariâ peter mar. in . ad cor. . p. m. . . m. is not this acceptable to god ? * cum christiana libertate optime convenit summa servitus , sed quae sit ex charitate ultroneâ & voluntariâ peter mar. in . ad cor. . p. m. . . m. is not this acceptable to god ? luke . v. . &c. * of ceremonies . preface before the common prayer , & calv. instit vid. l . c. §. . * in decalog . p. . . m. * meisner . * epist. . * nostra ecclesia agnoscit hasce leges suas de rebus adiaphoris & ceremonialibus , autore , materiâ , fine , longè distare a divinis ; & in tantâ omnium rerum imparitate non posseexurgere aequalem conscientiae obligationem . davenant . determ . . p. , v. caet . josu . . ver. . ver. . ver. . ver. . ver. . * ad ver . . homil. . in librum josuae . ibid. hom. . ad clerum on rom. . . p. . apud f. her●●● . see above out of the calvinists book of discipline ▪ c. . de . consistoriis act. . * nunquam enim contentionum erit finis , si certando velis hominem pugnacem vincere : quia centies victus , nuaquam satigabitur haec calvinus ibid. † ad col. let . . † nisi quit forte usitatum illud festis diebu● ornandi & vestiendi studium eo referat . jos. mede . ubi infra . p. . * v. jos. medes concio ad cler. in levit. . . p. . p. . * ad dan. . . † de religione observ. in cap. . aphoris . . m. p. . ‖ unde alii a carendo deducunt , q. ceremonia ; non potest enim religio exerceri illis destituta & carens . camer . * see dr. lightfoot on cor. . . & cap. . . † in ad cor. . , . * in levit. . . conc . ad clerum vide . * conf. remon . c. . §. . † animadver . in consult . de oper . superer . m. p. . luther ad galat. . m. p. , ‖ this i refer to religion . ⸫ this to humane societiy . * ad mat. . . b. . c. . q. . p. . * see . pet. . . † ad corin . ep. c. . v. . p. . * de cultu externo : m p. . * de cultu ext●rno●m . p. . * cases of conscience b. . chap. . pag. . he that does not fall upon his knees where cōveniently he may , illud indicium est non tantum magnae socordiae & pigritiae , verum etiam profanae mentis lyserus in aula persic . p. . * nemo autem carnem illam manducat nisi prius adoraverit . austin . in psal. . et non solum non peccemus adorando , sed peccemus non adorando . ibid. * cor. . , . * opus habet & cor oris ministerio . theoph . ad rom. . . † in dan. . v. . ad josu . . . * ad dan. . . † ad dan. . . * demonst. problem . tit. signum crucis . §. . ibid. §. . ibid. §. . * ad rom. . . v. august . de verb. dom. ser. . † de baptis . §. . * catech ▪ . in princip . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . ibid. ante sinem . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . aug. in joan. tra. . signum crucis nisi adhibeatur sive frontibus credentium , sive ipsi aquae quâ regeneramur , &c. nihil ritè perficiatur , i. e. not according to the custome of the church , the rule of decency . crucis signo in fronte hodiè tanquam in poste signandus es , omnesque christiani signantur . de catechiz . rud. c. . epilogue lib. . cap. . p. . see tertul de cornu militis , cap. . * vexillum crucis in fronte portans . hieron . apol. advers . ruffi● . l. . r. . * in formula missae , in pr. * calv. lexic . jurid . verbo superstitiosus . see the proposal rectified , p. , . † ep. . januario . * bullinger citing these words of st. austin ep. ad corinth . . p. . [ haec mirè quadrant nostro saeculo ] in his margent . † calvin . instit. l. . c. . §. . matt. . . * he speaks of all hereticks , qui fulgore eloquentiae secularis falsum dogma componunt . * de verâ religione , cap. . † timore ( aliàs ) tumore ▪ jud. v. . cajetan . ib. * printed before the old common prayer : but left out in the new one . de baptismo contra donatist . lib. c. v. isai. . . quisquis sibi in errore suo placet , nec inquirit an rectum sit institutum suum , is nunquam animam suam liberabit . calv. in isai. . in ep. ad gal. c. . p. . see grotius , georg. calixtus , dav. dicson , jo. calvin . de authorit . eccles. lect. . in benedict . m. p. . * this lecture was read when authority prevailed . * in vesperiis comitiorum , july . . * treasons mr. ●i●●● , page . epist. . † before the com. prayer . * printed before the old common prayer book , and fit to be reprinted . inst. . . pet. . . de legum human. obligat . praelect . . p. . * pet. . . the case of the church of england , p. . * ex ep. ad rom. disput. . thes. . † system . tom. . artic. . cap. . §. . p. . * colleg. adiaphor . disput. . thes. , &c. * this was a special favour . † this is their strictness . notes for div a -e see dr. deodates notes on rom. . . and elsewhere . * this is a very large testimony o● the flourishing estate of the church of england as it stood under it's episcopal government . * still that was under episcopacy . * without battel or bloodshed . * such was episcopacy in it's first apostolical vigour of discipline ; and government , the which as at the synod of dort , this very man did both acknowledge unto bishop carleton , to be the best form of church government , and also did heartily wish for it in his own church ; so doth he sufficiently commend the happy effects of it above page . in that full passage on his containing the superlative praises of the former flourishing estate of the church of england , as before these troubles it stood under episc●pacy ; the restauration of which former good estate , is again by this auth●r at the latter end of this epistle , p. . earnestly wished and prayed for . * wo be to them that first began that war , whose non-necessity , yea , injustice , strangers themselves can so far off so plainly perceive and condemn too . * to wit , in a fair , quiet , legal parliamentary way , not in a martial way : therefore he mentions not at all the power of arms , but only the power of the laws . * what would this peace-maker have said if he had seen or heard of so many royal reiterated offers of peace wherewith the soveraign hath and still doth woo his stif-necked subjects ? certainly , the more peaceable side hath always amongst good men had the reputation of the better side . * this was very good counsel from a stranger , had the subjects had the grace to follow it in time , then had there been an end of the old-war , and a happy prevention of a new war , which except stopt by timely submission , can portend nothing but the utter national ruine of church and state , which god in mercy avert . * of ireland . * this full testimony of the excellent state of the church of england ( st●ll as it heretofor● stood under episcopacy ) out-speaks all the former ; and to this good ejaculation from genevah , no right protestant-malignant but will heartily say , amen . notes for div a -e * bp. lany . † oliver ormerod . puritano-papismus . p. . * mr. isaac walton in the life of hooker . see a short view of the late troubles , &c. p. . . see a seasonab●e address to both houses . p. . * november . * if the people in an island are alarm'd that an invasion is design'd , and that only at one port , and they become so foolish as for the guard of that , to neglect and expose all other , they do but make the easier way , for their enemies to land and overcome . a seasonable address to both houses . p. . unreason . of separat preface . . &c. pag. . † pag. . * annals engl. l. . p. . staffords trial p. , . ib. pag. . * his narrative , p. . n. . * ib. pa. . n. . pag. . n. . * a seasonable address to both houses of parliament . p. . * i have been credibly inform'd that the priests and jesuites in france were so inraged with dr cosins for wearing the surplice at the burial of a corps , that he was in some danger of his life . page . and . * deodati , sclater . dicson upon the place . john . . * cooks reports lib. . p. . * dr falkner of christian loyalty . p. ▪ a perswasive to moderation to dissenting christians in prudence and conscience humbly submitted to the king and his great council by one of the humblest and most dutiful of his dissenting subjects. penn, william, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing p a estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a perswasive to moderation to dissenting christians in prudence and conscience humbly submitted to the king and his great council by one of the humblest and most dutiful of his dissenting subjects. penn, william, - . [ ], p. printed and sold by andrew sowle, london : . preface signed: w.p. lacking all after p. . reproduction of original in the harvard university library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng dissenters, religious -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - jonathan blaney sampled and proofread - jonathan blaney text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a perswasive to moderation to dissenting christians , in prudence and conscience humbly submitted to the king and his great council . by one of the humblest and most dutiful of his dissenting subjects . let your moderation be known unto all men , for the lord is at hand , phil. . . a christian toleration often dissipates their strength , whom rougher opposition fortifies , k. charles . to the late king. london , printed and sold by andrew sowle , at the crooked billet in holloway-lane , in shoreditch , . the preface . if it was permitted to antient christians to address pagan emperours , and infidels to solicite christian caesars for indulgence , with success , 't were rude in us , to doubt the issue of a discourse of this stile and tendency , with our superiors , when the interest of the monarch , as well as miseries of some of his subjects make it necessary . for if we consider the great numbers that are disabled in their livelihoods , and some that languish to death by confinement , and the spoil that is daily made of the estates of others by fines , and the lavish and excessive way of raising them , for pure dissent in matters of worship : and on the other hand , how injurious a state of severity is to the interest of the prince , by the discouragement and poverty of so great a number of his people ; and consequently how much a discreet indulgence would contribute to the trade , peace and amity of his kingdom , we shall be forc'd to conclude , that in prudence as well as conscience , moderation is a desirable thing . it were , doubtless , one of the most agreeable things in the world , that mankind were of one mind , because the occasion that we see is taken at the differences men have about religion , that should teach them to agree , make them so uneasie , and unhappy one to another . but the pleasure of that harmony is a thing to be wisht , rather than yet expected . 't is fact we differ , and upon a point wherein vnity is out of our power : such as we are , what shall we do ? destroy one another for our differences , or be moderate , and try a discreet liberty ? men must thank themselves for their animosity , that suffer their opinions to destroy their affections . let us reflect what it was confounded the first tongue , and if disobedience has not divided man's judgment ? yet we do not war for mother-tongue , nor ought we for religion . man's fault has been to slight the divine oracle in his persuit of truth , and he is apt to entitule his own thoughts to her reputation . too many things in religion , and those too fine and nice , made necessary to be believed , have prest so hard upon the liberty of mankind , that nature heaves against the burden . we ought in charity to presume , that all men think they chuse the best way to heaven , especially where the choice is against the stream , and draws loss or disgrace after it . if they are mistaken , they must be rectified there where the mistake lies , and that is in the understanding : and to do it successfully , there must be light and moderation : god gives one , and it is our duty and wisdom to exercise the other . let us then pray to almighty god , that he would enlighten our vnderstandings ; and to the end we may obtain our desire , let us be sure to use the light we have , and more will be given us . let us with it see if expedients may not be found to unite our interests , and so our affections , if not our faiths . how to keep the peace , and indulge dissenters safely , serves the government . and to see clear , we must put away the prejudices of former heats ; and not call wrath , zeal , nor railing , loyalty . as things now are , what is best to be done ? i take to be the wise man's question ; as to consider and answer it , will be his business . moderation is a christian duty . let your moderation be known to all men : and has ever been the prudent man's practice . those governments that have used it in their conduct have succeeded best , and the contrary been unhappy . i remember , it is made in livy the wisdom of the romans , that they relaxed their hand to the privernates ; for by making their conditions easie , they made them most faithful to their interest . and it prevailed so much with the petilians , that they would endure any extremity from hannibal , rather than desert their friendship , that had governed them with so much moderation , even then , when the romans discharged their fidelity , and sent them the dispair of knowing they could not relieve them . so did one act of humanity overcome the falisci above arms : which confirms that noble saying of seneca , mitius imperanti , melius paretur , the mildest conduct is best obeyed : a truth celebrated by grotius & campanella : practised , doubtless , by the bravest princes . for cyrus exceeded when he built the jews a temple , and himself no jew . alexander astonisht the princes of his train with the profound veneration he paid the high priest of that people . and augustus was so far from suppressing the jewish worship , that he sent hecatombs to jerusalem to encrease their devotion . moderation fill'd the reigns of the most renowned caesars : they were nero's and caligulas that lov'd cruelty then . but that which in a singular manner makes moderation the king's interest , is that those penal laws which vex dissenters seem in themselves antimonarchical ; and it is therefore less to be wonder'd if any of them have been tempted to be so too . for whereas the prerogative is the peculiar glory of the king ; that which gives weight and lustre to his crown , it , is so shar'd by these laws , to poor and informers , that the king can but put in for a third of his own power : a triumvirat-ship , or three estates of prerogative : king , poor and informers : for tho' the king would remit , and the circumstances of the person deserve a pardon , it cannot be , without the consent of the other two : which is a kind of an exclusion from two thirds of his power , and so a dissolution of that entire prerogative that his ancestors had , & is his undoubted right in the like cases . and as some of these laws injure the prince , so they deeply affect the subject . for people are not only tempted to inform by rewards , ( to be sure , not the cleanest way of justice ) but the oaths of such are made the evidence to convict ; which is swearing in their own cause , and to their own profit . but this is not all , men are try'd , cast and fin'd , without a jury . an express contradiction to one of the most celebrated branches of the great charter . so that the interest of prince and people ( as they ever should ) conspire in the repeal of those laws that furnish harsh and unkind folks with the power of disturbing their conscientious neighbours , and which disable the prince to receive and redress the complaints of such of his suffering subjects . the example is to both dangerous , but to the king most . if the church of england claims the king's promise of protection ; 't is fit she has it . but her dissenters cannot forget that of his clemency : and as they were both great , and admirably distinguish't , so by no means are they inconsistent or impracticable . and if his justice will not let him be wanting in the one , his wonted greatness of mind will hardly let him leave the other behind him in the storm , unpitied and unhelpt . pardon me , we have not to do with an insensible prince , but one toucht with our infirmities . more than any body fit to judge our cause , by the share he once had in it . who should give liberty of conscience like the prince that has wanted it ? to suffer for his own was great , but to deliver other mens , were glorious . it is a sort of paying the vows of his adversity , and it cannot therefore be done by any one else , with so much justice and example . far be it from me to solicite any thing in deminution of the just rights of the church of england : let her rest protected where she is , and if in any thing mistaken , let god alone perswade her . i hope , none will be thought to intend her injury , for refusing to understand the king's promise to her , in a ruinous sense to all others . for it is morally impossible that a conscientious prince can be thought to have ty'd himself to compell others to a communion , that himself cannot tell how to be of , or that any thing can oblige him to shake the firmness of those he has confirmed by his own royal example . having then so illustrous an instance of integrity , as the hazard of the loss of three crowns for conscience . let it at least , excuse our constancy , and provoke the friends of the succession to moderation , that we may none of us loose our birth-rights for our perswasion ; & us dissenters to live dutifully , and so peacably under our own vine , and under our own fig-tree , with glory to god on high , to the king , honour , and good will to all men. the publication of the following discourse is occasioned by an appeal made by a late author , to all crowned heads against toleration and liberty of conscience , in his pretended answer to the duke of buckingham i shall not commend it , and i hope , it will need no excuse . 't is writ with duty to the king , and compassion to many of his peaceable people . the usual objections against the moderation desired , are stated and answered . the whole recommended to the reader , by his affectionate friend , w. p. a perswasive to moderation , &c. moderation , the subject of this discourse , is in plain english , liberty of conscience to dissenters : a cause i have , with all humility undertaken to plead against the prejudices of the times . that there is such a thing as conscience , and the liberty of it , in reference to faith and worship towards god , must not be denyed , even by those , that are most scandal'd at the ill use some seem to have made of such pretences . but to settle the terms : by conscience , i understand the apprehension and perswasion a man has of his duty to god. by liberty of conscience , i mean , a free and open profession and exercise of that duty : but i alwayes premise , this conscience to keep within the bounds of morality , and that it be neither frantick nor mischievous , but a good subject , a good child , a good servant : as exact to yield to caesar the things that are caesar's , as jealous of with-holding from god the thing that is god's : for he that with-holds from man the thing that god requires him to pay , with-holds it from god , who has his tribute out of it . they do not reject their prince , parent or master , but god , who enjoyns that duty to them : the difference being only this , they deny not god his due immediately , and to his face , but they do it too often in the person of his deligate . those pathetick words of christ will naturally enough reach the case , in that ye did it not to them , ye did it not to me ; for duty to such relations have a divine stamp : and divine right runs through more things of the world and acts of our lives than we are aware of : and sacriledge may be committed against more than the church . nor will a dedication to god , of the robbery from man , expiate the guilt of disobedience : for though zeal could turn gossip to theft , his altars would renounce the sacrifice . the conscience then that i state , and the liberty i pray , carrying so great a salvo and deference to publick and private relations , no ill design can with any justice be fixt upon the author , or reflection upon the subject , which by this time i think i may venture to call a toleration . but to this so much craved , as well as needed toleration , i meet with two objections of weight , the salving of which will make way for it in this kingdom . and the first is a disbelief of the possibility of the thing . toleration of dissenting worships from that establish't , is not practicable ( say some ) without danger to the state , with which it is interwoven . this is political . the other objection is , that admitting dissenters to be in the wrong ( which is alwayes premised by the national church ) such latitude were the way to keep up the dis-union , and instead of compelling them into a better way , leave them in the possession and persuit of their old errors . this is religious . i think i have given the objections fairly , 't will be my next business to answer them as fully . the strength of the first objection against this liberty , is the danger suggested to the state ; the reason is , the national form being interwoven with the frame of the government . but this seems to me only said , and not only ( with submission ) not prov'd , but not true : for the establisht religion and worship are no other ways interwoven with the government , than that the government makes profession of them , and by divers-laws has made them the currant religion , and required all the members of the state to conform to it . this is nothing but what may as well be done by the government , for any other perswasion , as that . 't is true , 't is not easie to change an establish't religion , nor is that the question we are upon ; but state religions have been chang'd without the change of the states . we see this in the governments of germany and denmark upon the reformation : but more clearly and near our selves , in the case of henry the eighth , edward the sixth , queen mary and elizabeth ; for the monarchy stood , the family remained and succeeded under all the revolutions of state-religion , which could not have been , had the proposition been generally true . the change of religion then , does not necessarily change the government , or alter the state ; and if so , a fortiori , indulgence of church-dissenters , does not necessarily hazard a change of the state , where the present state-religion or church remains the same ; for that i premise . some may say , that it were more facile to change from one national religion to another , than to maintain the monarchy and church , against the ambition and faction of divers dissenting parties . but this is improbable at least . for it were to say , that it is an easier thing to change a whole kingdom , than with the soveraign power , followed with armies , navies , judges , clergy , and all the conformists of the kingdom , to secure the government from the ambition and faction of dissenters , as differing in their interests within themselves , as in their perswasions ; and 〈◊〉 they united , have neither power to awe , nor rewards to allure to their party . they can only be formidable , when headed by the soveraign . they may stop a gap , or make , by his accession , a ballance : otherwise , till 't is harder to fight broken and divided troops , than an entire body of an army , it will be always easier to maintain the government under a toleration of dissenters , than in a total change of religion , and even then it self , it has not fail'd to have been preserved . but whether it be more or less easie , is not our point ; if they are many , the danger is of exasperating , not of making them easie ; for the force of our question is , whether such indulgence be safe to the state ? and here we have the first and last , the best and greatest evidence for us , which is fact and experience , the journal and resolves of time , and treasure of the sage . for , first , the iews , that had most to say for their religion , and whose religion was twin to their state ( both being joyn'd , and sent with wonders from heaven ) indulg'd strangers in their religious dissents . they requir'd but the belief of the noachical principles , which were common to the world : no idolator , and but a moral man , and he had his liberty , ay , and some priviledges too , for he had an apartment in the temple , and this without danger to the government . thus maimonides , and others of their own rabbles , and grotius out of them . the wisdom of the gentiles was very admireable in this , that though they had many sects of philosophers among them , each dissenting from the other in their principles , as well as discipline , and that not only in physical things , but points metaphysical , in which some of the fathers were not free , the school-men deeply engaged , and our present accademies but too much perplext ; yet they indulged them and the best livers with singular kindness : the greatest statesmen and captains often becoming patrons of the sects they best affected , honouring their readings with their presence and applause . so far were those ages , which we have made as the original of wisdom and politeness , from thinking toleration an error of state , or dangerous to the government . thus plutrach , strabo , laertius , and others . to these instances i may add the latitude of old rome , that had almost as many deities as houses : for varro tells us of no less than thirty thousand several sacra , or religious rites among her people , and yet without a quarrel : unhappy fate of christianity ! the best of religions , and yet her professors maintain less charity than idolators , while it should be peculiar to them . i fear , it shews us to have but little of it at heart . but nearer home , and in our own time , we see the effects of a discret indulgence , even too emulation . holland , that bogg of the world , neither sea nor dry land , now the rival of tallest monarchs ; not by conquests , marriages , or accession of royal blood , the usual wayes to empire , but by her own superlative clemency and industry ; for the one was the effect of the other : she cherisht her people , whatsoever were their opinions , as the reasonable stock of the country , the heads and hands of her trade and wealth ; and making them easie in the main point , their conscience , she became great by them : this made her fill with people , and they fill'd her with riches and strength . and if it should be said , she is upon her declension for all that . i answer , all states must know it , nothing is here immortal . where are the babylonian , persian and grecian empires ? and are not lacedemon , athens , rome and carthage gone before her ? kingdoms and common-wealths have their births and growths , their declensions and deaths , as well as private families and persons : but 't is owing , neither to the armies of france , nor navies of england , but her own domestick troubles . seventy two sticks in her bones yet : the growing power of the prince of orange , must in some degree , be an ebb to that states strength ; for they are not so unanimous and vigrous in their interest as formerly : but were they secure against the danger of their own ambition and jealousie , any body might ensure their glory at five per cent. but some of their greatest men apprehending they are in their climacterical juncture , give up the ghost , and care not , if they must fall , by what hand it is . others chuse a stranger , and think one afar off will give the best terms , and least annoy them : whilest a considerable party have chosen a domestick prince , a kin to their early successes by the fore-father's side ( the gallantry of his ancestors . ) and that his own greatness and security are wrapt up in theirs , and therefore modestly hope to find their account in his prosperity . but this is a kind of digresgression , only before i leave it , i dare venture to add , that if the prince of orange changes not the policies of that state , he will not change her fortune , and he will mightily add to his own . but perhaps i shall be told , that no body doubts that toleration is an agreeable thing to a common-wealth , where every one thinks he has a share in the government ; ay , that the one is the consequence of the other , and therefore most carefully to be avoided by all monarchical states . this indeed were shrowdly to the purpose , in england , if it were but true . but i don't see how there can be one true reason advanc'd in favour of this objection : monarchies , as well as common-wealths , subsisting by the preservation of the people under them . but , first , if this were true , it would follow by the rule of contraries , that a republick could not subsist with vnity and hierarchy , which is monarchy in the church ; but it must , from such monarchy in church , come to monarchy in state too . but venice , genova , lucca , seven of the cantons of switzerland , ( and rome her self , for she is an aristocracy ) all under the the loftiest hierarchy in church , and where is no toleration , show in fact , that the contrary is true . but , secondly , this objection makes a common-wealth the better government of the two , and so overthrows the thing it would establish . this is effectually done , if i know any thing , since a common-wealth is hereby rendred a more copious , powerful and beneficial government to mankind , and is made better to answer contingencies and emergencies of state , because this subsists either way , but monarchy not , if the objection be true . the one prospers by vnion in worship and discipline , and by toleration of dissenting churches from the national . the other only by an universal conformity to a national church . i say , this makes monarchy ( in it self , doubtless , an admirable government ) less powerful , less extended , less propitious , and finally less safe to the people under it , than a common-wealth ; in that no security is left to monarchy under diversity of worships , which yet no man can defend or forbid , but may often arrive , as it hath in england , more than five times in the two last ages . and truly 't is natural for men to chuse to settle where they may be safest from the power and mischief of such accidents of state. upon the whole matter , it is to reflect the last mischief upon monarchy , the worst enemies it has could hope to disgrace or endanger it by ; since it is to tell the people under it , that they must either conform , or be destroyed , or to save themselves , turn hypocrites , or change the frame of the government they are under . a perplexity both to monarch and people , that nothing can be greater but the comfort of knowing the objection is false . and that which ought to make every reasonable man of this opinion , is the cloud of witnesses that almost every age of monarchy affords us . i will begin with that of israel , the most exact and sacred patern of monarchy , begun by a valiant man , translated to the best , and improv'd by the wisest of kings , whose ministers were neither fools , nor fanaticks : here we shall find provision for dissenters . their prosoliti domicilii were so far from being compelled to their national rites , that they were expresly forbid to observe them . such were the egyptians that came with them out of egypt , the gibeonites and canaanites , a great people , that after their several forms worshipt in an apartment of the same temple . the jews with a liturgy , they without one : the jews had priests , but these none : the jews had variety of oblation , these people burnt offerings only : all that was required of them was the natural religion of noah , in which the acknowledgement and worship of the true god , was , as it still ought to be , the main point ; nay , so far were they from coercive conformity , that they did not so much as oblige them to observe their sabbath , tho' one of the ten commandments : grotius and selden say more . certainly this was great indulgence , since so unsuitable an usage lookt like prophaning their devotion , and a common nusance to their national religion . one would think by this , that their care lay on the side of preserving their cult from the touch or accession of dissenters , and not of forcing them , by undoing penalties to conform , must needs be evident . for if gods religion and monarchy ( for so we are taught to believe it ) did not , and would not at a time , when religion lay less in the mind , and more in ceremony , compel conformity from dissenters , we hope we have got the best of presidents on our side . but if this instance be of most authority , we have another very exemplary , and to our point pertinent ; for it shows what monarchy may do : it is yielded us from the famous story of mordecai . he , with his jews , were in a bad pleight with the king , ahasuerus , by the ill offices human did them ; the arguments he used were drawn from the common topicks of faction and sedition , that thy were an odd and dangerous people , under differing laws of their own , and refused obedience to his ; so denying his supremacy . dissenters with a witness ; things most render to any government . the king thus incenst , commands the laws to be put in execution and decrees the ruin of mordecai with all the jews : but the king is timely entreated , his heart softens , the decree is revokt , and mordecai and his friends saved . the consequence was , as extream joy to the jews , so peace and blessings to the king. and that which heightens the example , is the greatness and infidelity of the prince : had the instance been in a jew , it might have been plac'd to his greater light or piety : in a petty prince , to the paucity and entireness of his territory ; but that an heathen , and king of one hundred and seven and twenty provinces , should throughout his vast dominions , not fear , but practise toleration with good success , has something admirable in i● . if we please to remember the tranquility , & success of those heathen roman emperors , that allowed indulgence ; that agustus sent hecatombe to jerusalem , and the wisest honoured the jews , and at last spared the divers sects of christians , it will certainly oblige us to think , that princes , whose religions are nearer of kin , to those of the dissenters of our times , may not unreasonably hope for quiet from a discreet toleration , especially when there is nothing peculiar in christianity to render princes unsafe in such an indulgence . the admirable prudence of the emperor iovianus , in a quite contrary method to those of the reigns of his predecessors , settled the most imoroiled time of the chistian world , almost to a miracle ; for though he found the hearts of the arian and orthodox carried to a barbarous height , ( to say nothing of the novations , and other dissenting interests ) the emperor esteeming those calamities the effect of coercing conformity to the prince's or states religion ; and that this course did not only waste christians , but expose christians to the scorn of heathens , and so scandal , those whom they should convert , he resolutely declared , that he would have none molested for the different exercise of their religious worship ; which ( and that in a true ( for he reigned but seven moneths ) calmed the impestous storms of dissention , and reduced the empire , ( before agitated with the most uncharitable contests ) to a wonderful serenity and peace ; thus a kindly amity , brought a civil unity to the state ; which endeavours for a forc'd unity , never did to the church , but had formerly fill'd the government with incomparable miseries , as well as the church with incharity ; and which is sad , i must needs say , that those leaders of the church that should have been the teachers and examples of peace , in so singular a juncture of the churches ferments , did , more then any , blow the trumpet and kindled the fire of division . so dangerous is it to super-fine upon the text , and then impose it upon penalty for faith. valantinian the emperor ( we are told by socrates scholasticus ) was a great honourer of those that favoured his own faith ; but so , as he molested not the arrians at all . and marcellinus further adds in his honour , that he was much renown'd for his moderate carriage during his reign ; insomuch , that amongst sundry sects of religion , he troubled no man for his conscience , imposing neither this nor that to be observed ; much less with menacing edicts and injunctions , did he compel others , his subjects , to bow the neck , or conform to that which himself worshipped , but left such points as clear and untouch'd as he found them . gratianus & theodsius the great , indulged divers sorts of christians ; but the novations of all the dissenters were prefer'd : which was so far from insecuring , that it preserv'd the tranquility of the empire . nor till the time of celestine bishop of rome , were the novations disturbed ; and the persecution of them , and the assumption of the secular power began much at the same time . but the novations at constantinople were not so dealt withal ; for the greek bishops continued to permit them the quiet enjoyment of their dissenting assemblies ; as socrates tells us in his fifth and seventh book of ecclesiastical story . i shall descend nearer our own times ; for notwithstanding no age has been more furiously moved , then that which jovianus found , and therefore the experiment of indulgence was never better made , yet to speak more in view of this time of day , we find our contemporaries , of remoter judgments in religion , under no manner of difficulty in this point . the grand signior , great mogul , zars of mnscovia , king of persia ; the great monarchs of the east have long allow'd and prosper'd with a toleration : and who does not know that this gave great tamerlan his mighty victories ? in these western countries we see the same thing . cardinal d'ossat in his d letter to villroy , secretary to h●nry the fourth of france , gives us doctrine and example for the subject in hand ; besides ( says he ) that necessity has no law , be it in what case it will ; our lord jesus christ instructs us by his gospel , to let the tares alone , lest removing them , may endanger the wheat . that other catholick princes have allow'd it without rebuke . that particularly the dake of savoy , who ( as great a z●●●ot as he would be thought for the catholick religion ) tolerates the hereticks in three of his provinces , namely , a●groyne , luerne and perose . that the king of poland does as much , not only in sweedland , but in poland itself . that all the princes of the austrian family , that are celebrated as pillars of the catholick church , do the like , not only in the town , of the empire , but in their proper territories , as in austria it self , from whence they take the name of their honour . in hungary , bohemia , moravia ▪ lusatia , stirria , camiolia and croatia the like . that charles ' the fifth , father of the king of spain , was the person that taught the king of france , and other princes , how to yield to such emergencies . that his son , the present king of spain , who is esteemed arch catholick , and that is , as the atlas of the catholick church , tolerates notwithstanding , at this day , in his kingdomes of valentia and granada , the moors themselves in their m●humatisme , and has offer'd to those of zealand , holland , and other hereticks of the low-countries , the free exercise of their pretended religion , so that they will but acknowledge and obey him in civil matters . it was of those letters of this extraordinary man , for so he was ( whether we regard him in his ecclesiastical dignity or his greater christian and civil prudence ) that the great lord fulkland said , a minister of state should no more be without cardinal d' ossat's letters , than a parson without his bible . and indeed , if we look into france , we shall find the indulgence of those protestants , hath been a flourishing to that kingdom , as their arms a succour to their king. 't is true , that since they help't the ministers of his greatness to success , that haughty monarch has changed his measures , and resolves their conformity to his own religion , or their ruin ; but no man can give another reason for it , than that he thinks it for his turn to please that part of his own church , which are the present necessary and unwearied instruments of his absolute glory . but let us see the end of this conduct , it will require more time to approve the experiment . as it was the royal saying of stephen , king of poland , that he was a king of men , and not of conscience a commander of bodies , and not of souls . ; so we see a toleration has been practised in that country of a long time , with no ill success to the state ; the cities of cracovia , racovia , and many other towns of note , almost wholly dissenting from the common religion of the kingdom , which is roman catholick , as the others are socinian and calvanist , the most opposite to that , as well as to themselves . the king of denmark , in his large town of altona , but about a mile from hambrough , and therefore called so , that is , all to near , is a pregnant proof of our point . for though his seat be so remote from that place , and another strong and insinuating state so near , yet under his indulgence of divers perswasions , they enjoy that peace , and he that security , that he is not upon better terms in any of his more immediate and vniform dominions . i leave it to the thinking reader , if it be not much owing to this freedom , and that a contrary course were not the way for him to furnish his neighbours with means to depopulate that place , or make it uneasie and chargeable to him to keep ? if we look into other parts of germany , where we find a stout and war-like people , fierce for the thing they opine , or believe , we shall find the prince palatine of the rhine , safe , and more potent by his indulgence , 〈◊〉 his improvements at m●nhine : and as ( believe me ) 〈◊〉 the prince to his people in other things , so in this to the empire ; for he has made bold with the constitution of it , in the latitude he gives his subjects in this affair . the duke of bradenburg is himself a calvanist , his people mostly lutherain , yet in part of his dominions , the roman-catholicks enjoy their churches quietly . the duke of newburg , and a strict roman catholick , brother-in-law to the present emperor , in his province of juliers , has , not only at dewsburg , mulheim , and other places , but in deuseldorp it self , where the court resides , lutherain , and calvanist , as well as roman catholick assemblies . the duke of saxony , by religion a lutherain , in his city of budissin , has both lutherains and roman catholicks in the same church , parted only by a grate . in ausburg , they have two chief magistrates , as their duumvirat , one must alwayes be a roman catholick , and the other a lutherain . the bishop of osnabrug is himself a lutherain , and in the town of his title , the roman catholicks , as well as lutherains , have their churches ; and which is more , the next bishop must be a catholick too ; for like the buckets in the well , they take turns , one way to be sure , so that one be but in the right . from hence we will go to sultzbach , a small territory , but has a great prince , i mean , in his own extraordinary qualities ; for among other things we shall find him act the moderator among his people . by profession he is a roman catholick , but has simultaneum religionis exercitium , not only lutherains and roman catholicks enjoy their different worships , but alternatively in one and the same place , the same day ; so ballancing his affection by his wisdom , that there appears neither partiality in him , nor envy in them , though of such opposite perswasions . i will end these forregin instances with a prince and bishop , all in one , and he a roman catholick too , and that is the bishop of mentz ; who admits , with a very peaceable success , such lutherains with his catholicks , to enjoy their churches , as live in his town of erford . thus does practice tells us , that neither monarchy nor hierarchy are in danger from a toleration . on the contrary , the laws of the empire , which are the acts of the emperor , and the soveraign princes of it , have tolerated these three religious perswasions , viz. the roman-catholick , lutherain and calvanist , and they may as well tolerate three more , for the same reasons , and with the same success . for it is not their greater nearerness or consistency in doctrine , or in worship ; on the contrary , they differ much , and by that , and other circumstances , are sometimes engaged in great controversies , yet is a toleration practicable , & the way of peace with them . and which is closest to our point at home it self , we see that a toleration of the iews , french and dutch churches in england , both dissenters from the national way : and the connivance that has been in ireland ; and the down-right toleration in most of his majesties plantations abroad , proves the assertion , that toleration is not dangerous to monarchy . for experience tells us , where it is in any degree admitted , the king's affairs prosper most ; people , wealth and strength being sure to follow such indulgence . but after all that i have said in reason and fact , why toleration is safe to monarchy , story tells us that worse things have befallen princes in countries under ecclesiastical vnion , than in places under divided forms of worship ; and so , tolerating countries stand to the prince , more than upon equal terms with conforming ones . and where princes have been exposed to hardship in tolerating countries , they have as often come from the conforming , as non-conforming party ; and so the dissenter is upon equal terms , to the prince or state , with the conformist . the first is evident in the iews , under the conduct of moses ; their dissention came from the men of their own tribes , such as corah dathan and abiram , with their pertakers . to say nothing of the gentiles . the miseries and slaughters of mauritius the emperor proves my point , who by the greatest church-men of his time was withstood , and his servant that perpetrated the wickedness by them , substituted in his room , because more officious to their grandure . what power but that of the church , dethron'd childrek king of france , and set pippin in his place ? the miseries of the emperors , henry the fourth and fifth , father and son , from their rebellious subjects , raised and animated by the power of conformists ; dethroning both , as much as they could , are notorious . 't is as plain that sigismond king of sweedland , was rejected by that lutherain country , because he was a roman-catholick . if we come nearer home , which is most suitable to the reasons of the discourse , we find the church-men take part with william rufus , and henry the first against robert their elder brother ; and after that , we see some of the greatest of them make head against their king , namely anselm , arch-bishop of canterbury , and his party , as did his successor thomas of becket to the second henry . stephen usurpt the crown when there was a church vnion : and king john lived miserable for all that , and at last dyed by one of his own religion too . the dissentions that agitated the reign of his son henry the third , and the barrons war , with bishop grosteeds blessing to mumford their general . the deposition and murther of the second edward , & richard , & sixth henry , and his son the prince . the vsurpation of richard the third , and the murther of the sons of edward the fourth , in the tower of london . the civil war that followed between him and the earl of richmond , afterwards our wise henry the seventh were all perpetrated in a country of one religion , and by the hands of conformists . in short , if we will but look upon the civil war , that so long raged in this kingdom , between the houses of york and laneaster , and consider that they professed but one and the same religion , and both back't with numbers of church-men too ( to say nothing of the miserable end of many of our kings princely ancestors in scotland , especially the first and third james ) will find cause to say , that church-vniformity is not a security for princes to depend upon . if we will look next into countries where dissenters from the national church are tolerated , we shall find the conformist not less culpable than the dissenter . the disorders among the iews , after they were settled in the land that god had given them , came not from those they tolerated , but themselves . they cast off samuel , and the government of the judges . 't was the children of the national church , that fell in with the ambition of absolom , and animated the rebellion against his father david . they were the same that revolted from solomon's son , and cryed in behalf of jeroboam , to your tents , o israel ! not two ages ago , the church of france , too generally fell in with the family of guise , against their lawful soveraign , henry the fourth : nor were they without countenance of the greatest of their belief , who stiled it an holy war ; at that time , fearing ( not without cause ) the defection of that kingdom from the roman see. in this conjuncture , the dissenters made up the best part of that king's armies , and by their loyalty and blood , preserved the blood royal of france , and set the crown on the head of that prince . that king was twice assinated , and the last time murdered , as was henry the third , his predecessor ; but they fell , one by the hand of a church-man , the other , at least by a conformist . 't is true , that the next civil war was between the catholicks and the hugenots , under the conduct of cardinal richlien , and the duke of roan . but as i will not justifie the action ▪ so their liberties and cautions so solemnly settled by henry the fourth , as the reward of their singular merit , being by the ministry of that cardinal invaded , they say , they did but defend their own , and that rather against the cardinal , than the king , whose softness suffered him to become a property to the great wit and ambition of that person : and there is this reason to believe them , that if it had been otherwise , we are sure that king charles the first would not in the least have countenanced their quarrel . however , the cardinal , like himself , wisely knew when to stop : for though he thought it the interest of the crown , to moderate their greatness ▪ and check their growth , yet having fresh in memory the story of the fore-going age , he saw , ' twaswise to have a ballance upon occasion . but this was more then recompenc'd in their first adhesion to the crown of france , under the ministry and direction of the succeeding cardinal , when their perswasion had not only number , and many good officers to value it self upon , but yielded their king , the ablest captain of the age , namely , turene : it was an hugenot then , at the head of almost an hugenot army , that fell in with a cardinal himself , ( see the union , interest makes ) to maintain the imperial crown of france , and that on a roman-catholicks head : and together with their own indulgence , that religion , as national too , against the pretences of a roman-catholick army , headed by a prince , brave and learned of the same religion . i mention not this , to prefer one party to another ; for contrary instances may be given elsewhere , as interests have varied . in sweedland a prince was rejected by protestants ; and in england and holland , and many of the principalities of germany , roman-catholicks have approv'd themselves loyal to their kings , princes and states : but this suffices to us , that we gain the point ; for it is evident in countries where dissenters are tolerated , the insecurity of the prince and government , may as well come from the conforming , as dissenting party , and that it comes not from dissenters , because such . but how happy and admirable was this civil union between the cardinal and turene ? two most opposite , religions , both followed by people of their own perswasion : one says his mass , 'tother his directory , both invoke one deity , by several wayes , for one success , and it followed with glory , and a peace to this day . o why should it be otherwise now ! what has been , may be : methinks wisdom and charity are on that side still . it will doubtless be objected , that the dissenting party of england , fell in with the state dissenter in our late civil , but vnnatural war : and this seems to be against us , yet three things must be confessed ; first , that the war rather made the dissenters , than the dissenters made the war : secondly , that those that were then in being , were not tolerated as in france , but prosecuted : and lastly , that they did not lead , but follow great numbers of church-goers , of all qualities in that unhappy controversie , which began upon other topicks than liberty for church-dissenters . and though they were herein blameable , reason is reason , in all climates and latitudes . this does not affect the question : such calamities are no necessary consequences of church-dissent ; because they would then follow in all places where dissenters are tolerated , which we see they do not : but these may sometimes indeed be the effects of a violent endeavour of vniformity ; and that under all forms of goverment , as i fear they were partly here under our monarchy . but then this teaches us to conclude , that a toleration of those , that a contrary course makes uneasie and desperate , may prevent or cure intestine troubles ; as anno forty eight , it ended the strife , and settled the peace of germany . for 't is not now the question , how far men may be provok'd , or ought to resent it ; but whether government is safe in a toleration , especially monarchy . and to this issue we are come in reason and fact , that 't is safe , and that conformists ( generally speaking ) have for their interests , as rarely known their duty to their prince , as dissenters for their consciences . so that the danger seems to lie on the side of forcing vniformity against faith , upon severe penalties , rather than of a discreet toleration . in the next place , i shall endeavour to shew the prudence and reasonableness of a toleration by the great benefits that follow it . toleration , which is an admission of dissenting worships , with impunity to the dissenters , secures property , which is civil right , and that eminently the line and power of the monarchy : for if no man suffer in his civil right for the sake of such dissent , the point of succession is settled without a civil war , or a recantation ; since it were an absurd thing to imagin , that a man born to five pounds a year , should not be liable to forfeit his inheritance for non-conformity , and yet a prince of the blood , and an heir to the imperial crown , should be made incapable of his inheritance for church-dissent . the security then of property , or civil right , from being forfeitable for religious dissent , becomes a security to the royal family , against the difficulties lately labour'd under in the business of the succession . and though i have no commission for it , besides the great reason and equity of the thing it self , i dare say , there can hardly be a dissenter at this time of day so void of sense and justice , as well as duty and loyalty , as not to be of the same mind . else it were to deny that to the prince , which he needs , and prays from him . let us not forget the story of sigismund of sweedland , of henry the fourth of france , and especially of our own queen mary . had property been fix't , the line of those royal families could not have met with any let or interruption . 't was this consideration that prevail'd with judge hales , though a strong protestant after king edward's death , to give his opinion for queen mary's succession , against that of all the rest of the judges to the contrary : which noble president , was recompenc'd in the loyalty of arch-bishop heath , a roman-catholick , in favour of the succession of queen elizabeth ; and the same thing would be done again , in the like case , by men of the same integrity . i know it may be said , that there is little reason now for the prince to regard this argument in favour of dissenters , when it was so little heeded in the case of the presumtive heir to the crown . but as this was the act and heat of conforming men within doors , so if it were in counsel or desire , the folly and injustice of any dissenters without doors , shall many entire parties pay the reckoning of the few busie offendors ? they would humbly hope , that the singular mildness and clemency , which make up so great a part of his majesties publick assurances , will not leave him in his reflection here . 't is the mercies of princes , that above all their works , give them the nearest resemblance to divinity in their administration . besides , it is their glory to measure their actions by the reason and consequence of things , and not by the passions that possess and annimate private breasts : for it were fatal to the interest of a prince , that the folly or vndutifulness of any of his subjects , should put him out of the way , or tempt him to be unsteady to his principle and interest : and yet , with submission , i must say , it would be the consequence of coertion : for by expossing property for opinion , the prince exposes the consciences and property of his own family to the church , and disarms them of all defence , upon any alteration of judgment . let us remember that several of the same parliament-men , who at first sacrificed civil rights for non-conformity in common dissenters , fell at last to make the succession of the crown the price of dissent in the next heir of the royal blood. so dangerous a thing it is to hazard property to serve a turn for any party , or suffer such examples in the case of the meanest person in a kingdom . nor is this all the benefit that attends the crown , by the preservation of civil rights ; for the power of the monarchy is kept more entire by it . the king has the benefit of his whole people , and the reason of their safety is owing to their civil , and not ecclesiastical obedience : their loyalty to caesar , and not conformity to the church : whereas the other opinion would have it , that no conformity to the church , no property in the state : which is to clog and narrow the civil power ; for at this rate , no church-man , no english-man , and no conformist , no subject . a way to alien the king's people , and practise an ecclusion upon him , from , it may be , a fourth part of his dominions . thus it may happen that the ablest state-man , the bravest captain , and the best citizen may be disabled , and the prince forbid their imployment to his service . some instances of this we have had since his late majesties restoration : for upon the first dutch-war , sir william penn being commanded to give in a list of the ablest sea-officers in the kindom , to serve in that expedition . i do very well remember he presented our present king with a catalogue of the knowingest and bravest officers the age had bred , with this subscrib'd , these men , if his majesty will please to admit of their perswasions , i will answer for their skill , courage and integrity . he pickt them by their ability , not their opinions ; and he was in the right ; for that was the best way of doing the king's business . and of my own knowledge , conformity robb'd the king at that time of ten men , whose greater knowledge and valour , than some one ten of that fleet , had in their room , been able to have saved a battel , or perfected a victory . i will name three of them . the first was old vice-admiral goodson ; than whom , no body was more stout , or a sea-man . the second , captain hill , that in the saphire beat admiral everson , hand to hand , that came to the relief of old trump . the third was captain potter , that in the constant warwick , took captain beach , after eight hours smart dispute . and as evident it is , that if a war had proceeded between this kingom and france , seven years ago , the business of conformity had deprived the king of many land-officers , whose share in the late wars of europe , had made knowing and able . but which is worst of all , such are not safe , with their dissent , under their own extraordinary prince . for though a man were a great honourer of his prince , a lover of his country , an admirer of the government : in the course of his life , sober , wise , industrous and useful ; if a dissenter from the establish't form of worship , in that condition there is no liberty for his person , nor security to his estate ; as vseless to the publick , so ruin'd in himself . for this net catches the best : men true to their conscience , and who indulged , are most like to be so to their prince : whilst the rest are left to cousen him by their change ; for that is the unhappy end of forced conformity in the poor spirited compliers . and this must always be the consequence of necessitating the prince to put more and other tests upon his people , than are requisit to secure him of their loyalty . and when we shall be so happy in our measures as to consider this mischief to the monarchy , it is to be hop'd , it will be thought expedient to dis-intangle property from opinion , and cut the untoward knot , some men have tyed , that hath so long hamper'd and gaul'd the prince as well as people . it will be then , when civil punishments shall no more follow church faults , that the civil tenure will be recover'd to the government and the natures of acts , rewards and punishments , so distinguish't , as loyalty shall be the safety of dissent , and the whole people made useful to the government . it will , perhaps , be objected , that dissenters can hardly i obliged to be true to the crown , and so the crown unsafe in their very services ; for they may easily turn the power given them to serve it , against it , to greaten themselves . i am willing to obviate every thing , that may with any pretence be offer'd against our entreated indulgence . i say , no , and appeal to the king himself , ( against whom the prejudices of our late times ran highest , and therefore has most reason to resent ) if he was ever better lov'd or serv'd , than by the old roundheaded sea-men , the earl of sandwich , sir william penn , sir j. lawson , sir g. ascue , sir r. stainer , sir jer. smith , sir j. jordan , sir j. harmon , sir chris. minns , captain sansum , cuttins , clark , robinson , molton , wager , tern , parker , haward , hubbard , fen , langhorn , daws , earl , white ; to say nothing of many yet living , of real merit , and many inferior officers , expert and brave and to do our prince justice , he deserv'd it from them , by his humility , plainness and courage , and the care and affection that he always shew'd to them . if any say , that most of these men were conformists : i presume to tell them , i know as well as any man , they serv'd the king never the better for that ; on the contrary , 't was all the strife that some of them had in themselves , in the doing that service , that they must not serve him without it ; and if in that they could have been indulged , they had perform'd it with the greatest alacrity interest will not lye . where people find their reckoning , they are sure to be true. for 't is want of wit that makes any man false to himself . 't was he that knew all mens hearts , that said , where the treasure is , there the heart will be also . let men be easie , safe , and upon their preferment with the prince , and they will be dutiful , loyal , and most affectionate . mankind by nature fears power , and melts at goodness . pardon my zeal , i would not be thought to plead for dissenters preferment ; 't is enough they keep what they have , and may live at their own charges . only i am for having the prince have room for his choice , and not be crampe and stinted by opinion ; but imploy those who are best able to serve him : and i think out of six parties 't is better picking , than out of one of them ; and therefore the prince's interest is to be head of all of them ; which a toleration effects in a moment ; since those six ( divided interests , within themselves ) having but 〈◊〉 civil head , become one intire civil body to the prince : and i am sure , i have monarchy on my side , if solomon and his wisdom may stand for it , who tells us , that the glory of a king is in the multitude of his people . nor is this all , for the consequences of such an universal content would be of infinite moment to the security of the monarchy , both at home and abroad . at home , for it would behead the factions without blood , and banish the ring-leaders without going abroad . when the great bodies of dissenters see the care of the government for their safety , they have no need of their captains , nor these any ground for their pretences : for as they us'd the people to value themselves , and raise their fortunes with the prince , so the people followed their leaders to get that ease , they see their heads promis'd , but could not , and the government can , and does give them . multitudes cannot plot , they are too many , and have not conduct for it , they move by another spring . safety is the pretence of their leaders : if once they see they enjoy it , they have yet wit enough not to hazard it for any body : for the endeavours of busie men are then discernable ; but a state of severity gives them a pretence , by which the multitude is easily taken . this i say , upon a supposition , that the dissenters could agree against the government ; which is a begging of the question : for it is improbable ( if not impossible without conformists ) since besides the distance they are at in their perswasions and affections , they dare not hope for so good terms from one another , as the government gives : and that fear , with their emulation , would draw them into that duty , that they must all fall into a natural dependance , which i call holding of the prince , as the great head of the state. from abroad , we are as safe as from within our selves : for if leading men at home are thus disappointed of their interest in the people , forreigners will find here no interpreters of their dividing language , nor matter ( if they could ) to work upon ; for the point is gain'd , the people they would deal in , are at their ease , and cannot be bribed ; and those that would , can't deserve it . it is this that makes princes live independent of their neighbours ; and to be lov'd at home , is to be fear'd abroad : one follows necessarily the other . where princes are driven to seek a forreign assistance , the issue must either be the ruin of the prince , or the absolute subjection of the people ; not without the hazard of becoming a province to the power of that neighbour that turns the scale . these consequences have on either hand an ill look , and should rebate extreams . the greatness of france carries those threats to all her neighbours , that , politically speaking , 't is the melanchollist prospect england has had to make since eighty eight : the spaniard at that time , being shorter in all things but his pride and hope , than the french king is now of the same universal monarchy . this greatness begun by the eleaventh lewis , some will have it , has not been so much advanced by the wisdom of richlieu , and craft of mazarene , no , not the arms of the present monarch , as by the assistance or connivance of england , that has most to lose by him . cromwell begun , and gave him the scale against the spaniard . the reason of state he went upon , was the support of his usurp'd dominion : and he was not out in it ; for the exile of the royal family was a great part of the price of that aid : in which we see , how much interest prevails above nature . it was not royal kindred could shelte a king against the solicitations of an vsurper with the son his mother's brother . but it will be told us by some people , we have n●● degenerated , but exactly follow'd the same steps ever since , which has given such an increase to those beginnings , that the french monarchy is almost above our reach . but suppose it were true , what 's the cause of it ? it has not been old friendship , or nearness of blood , or neighbourhood ; nor could it be from an inclination in our ministers , to bring things here to a like issue , as some have suggested ; for then we should have clogg'd his successes , instead of helping them in any kind , lest in doing so , we should have put it into his power to hinder our own . but perhaps our cross accidents of state may sometimes have compell'd us into his friendship , and his councils have carefully improv'd the one , and husbanded the other , to great advantages ; and that this was more then made for our english interest ; and yet 't is but too true , that the extreams heats of some men , that most inveighed against it , went too far to strengthen that understanding , by not taking what would have been granted , and creating an interest at home , that might naturally have dissolved that correspondence abroad . i love not to revive things that are uneasily remembred , but in points most tender to the late king , he thought himself sometimes too closely prest , and hardly held ; and we are all wise enough now to say , a milder conduct had succeeded better : for if reasonable things may be unreasonably prest , and with such private intentions as induced a denial , heats about things doubtful , unwise or unjust , must needs harden and prejudice . let us then create an interest for the prince at home , and forreign friendships ( at best , uncertain and dangerous ) will fall of course ; for if it be allow'd to private men , shall it be forbid , to princes only , to know and be true to their own support ? it is no more than what every age makes us to see in all parties of men . the parliaments of england since the reformation , giving no quarter to roman catholicks , have forced them to the crown for shelter : and to induce the monarchy to yield them the protection they have needed , have with mighty address and skill , recommended themselves as the great friends of the prerogative , and so successfully too , that it were not below the wisdom of that constitution to reflect what they have lost by that constiveness of theirs to cath●licks . on the other hand , the crown having treated the protestant dissenters , with the severity of the laws that affected them , suffering the sharpest of them to fall upon their persons and estates , they have been driven successively to parliaments for succour , whose priviledges , with equal skill and zeal , they have abetted : and our late unhappy wars are too plain a proof , how much their accession gave the scale against the power and courage of both conformists and catholicks , that adhered to the crown . nor must this contrary adhesion , be imputed to love or hatred , but necessary interest : refusal in one place makes way for address in another . if the scene be changed the parts must follow ; for as well before as after cromwell's usurpation , the roman catholicks did not only promise the most ready obedience to that government in his printed apologies for liberty of conscience : but actually treated by some of their greatest men , with the ministers of those times for indulgence , upon the assurances they offer'd to give of their good behaviour to the government , as then establisht . on the other hand , we see the presbyteriens , that in scotland began the war , and in england promoted and upheld it to forty seven , when ready to be supplanted by the independants , wheel to the king. in scotland they crown him , & come into england , with an army to restore him , where their brethren joyn them ; but being defeated , they help , by private collections , to support him abroad , and after the overthrow of sir g. booth's attempt ; to almost a miracle , restore him . and which is more , a great part of that army too , whose victories rise from the ruin of the prince they restored . but to give the last proofs our age has of the power of interest , against the notion opposed by this discourse . first , the independants themselves , held the greatest republicans of all parties , were the most lavish and superstitous adorers of monarchy in oliver cromwell , because of the regard he had to them ; allowing him , and his son after him , to be custos vtriusque tabule , over all causes , as well ecclesiastical as civil , supream governour . and next , the conformists in parliament , reputed the most loyal and monarchical men , did more than any body question and oppose the late king's declaration of indulgence ; even they themselves would not allow so much prerogative to the crown . this proves the power of interest , and that all perswasions center with it : and when they see the government engaging them with a fix't liberty of conscience , they must for their own sakes seek the support of it , by which it is maintained . this vnion , directed under the prince's conduct , would awe the greatness of our neighbours , and soon return europe to its antient ballance , and that into his hand too . so that he may be the great arbiter of the christian world. but if the policy of the government places the security of its interest in the distruction of the civil interest of the dissenters , it is not to be wondered at , if they are less found in the praises of its conduct , than others to whom they are offered up a sacrifice by it . i know it will be insinuated , that there is danger in builing upon the vnion of divers interests ; and this will be aggravated to the prince , by such as would engross his bonny and intercept his grace from a great part of his people . but i will only oppose to that meer suggestion , three examples to the contrary , with this challange , that if after rummaging the records of all time , they find one instance to contradict me , i shall submit the question to their authority . the first is given by those christian emperors , who admitted of all sorts of dissenters into their armies , courts and senates . this , the ecclesiastical story of those times , assures us , and particularly socrates , evagrius , and onuphrius . the next instance is that of prince william of orange , who by a timely indulgence , united the scattered strength of holland , and , all animated by the clemency , as well as valour of their captain , crown'd his attempts with an extraordinary glory ; and what makes , continues great . the last is given us by livy , in his account of hannibals army ; that they consisted of divers nations , languages , customs & religions : that under all their successes of war and peace , for thirteen years together , they never mutinied against their general , nor fell out among themselves . what livy relates for a wonder , the marquess virgilio malvetzy gives the reason of , to wit , their variety and difference , well managed by their general ; for said he , it was impossible for so many nations , customs and religions to combine , especially when the general 's equal hand gave him more reverence with them , than they had of affection for one another . this ( says he ) some would wholly impute to hannibal ▪ but however great he was , i attribute it to the variety of people in the army : for ( adds he ) rome's army was ever less given to mutiny , when ballanced with auxiliary legions , then when intirely roman . thus much in his discourses upon cornelius tacitus . and they are neither few , nor of the weakest sort of men , that have thought the concord of discords the firmest basis for government to build upon . the business is to tune them well , and that must be by the skill of the misitian . in nature we see , all heat consumes , all cold kills : that three degrees of cold to two of heat , allays the heat , but introduces the contrary quality , and over-cools by a degree ; but two degrees of cold to two of heat , makes a poize in elements , and a ballance in nature . and in those families where the evenest hand is carried , the work is best done , and the master is most reverenced . this brings me to another benefit , which accrues to the monarchy by a toleration , and that is a ballance at home : for though it be improbable , it may so happen , that either the conforming or non-conforming party may be ●●…tiful ; the one is then a ballance to the other . this might have prevented much mischief to our second and third henry , king john , the second edward and richard , and unhappy henry the sixth , as it undeniably saved the royal family of france , and secured holland , and kept it from truckling under the spanish monarchy . while all hold of the government , 't is that which gives the scale to the most datiful ; but still , no farther than to show its power , and awe the disorderly into obedience , not to destroy the ballance , lest it should afterwards want the means of over-poizing faction . that this is more than fancy ; plain it is , that the dissenter must firmly adhear to the government for his being , while the church-man is provided for . the one subsists by its mercy , the other by its bounty . this is ty'd by plenty , but that by necessity , which being the last of tyes , and strongest of obligations , the security is greatest from him , that it is fancied most unsafe to tolerate . but besides this , the tranquility which it gives at home , will both oblige those that are upon the wing for forreign parts , to pitch here again ; and at a time when our neighbouring monarch is wasting his people , excite those sufferers into his majesties kingdoms , whose number will encrease that of his subjects , and their labour and consumption , the trade and wealth of his dominions . for what are all conquests but of people ? and if the government may by indulgence add the inhabitants of ten cities to those of its own , it obtains a victory without charge . the antient persecution of france and the low countries , has furnisht us with an invincible instance ; for of those that came hither on that account , we were instructed in most useful manufacturies , as by courses of the like nature , we lost a great part of our woollen trade . and as men , in times of danger , draw in their stock , and either transmit it to other banks , or bury their talent at home for security ( that being out of sight , it may be out of reach too ( and either is fatal to a kingdom ) so this mildness entreated , setting every mans heart at rest , every man will be at work , and the stock of the kingdom employed ; which , like the blood , that hath its due passage , will give life and vigour to every member in the publick body . and here give me leave to mention the experiment made at home by his late majesty , in his declaration of indulgence . no matter how well or ill built the act of state was , 't is no part of the business in hand , but what effect the liberty of it had upon the peace and wealth of the kingdom , may have instruction in it to our present condition . 't was evident , that all men laboured cheerfully , and traded boldly , when they had the royal word to keep what they got , and the king himself became the universal jusurer of dissenters estates . white-hall then , and st. james's were as much visited and courted by their respective agents , as if they had been of the family : for that which eclipsed the royal goodness , being by his own hand thus removed , his benigne influences drew the returns of sweetness and duty from that part of his subjects , that the want of those influences had made barren before . then it was that we look't like the members of one family , and children of one parent . nor did we envy our eldest brother , episcopacy , his inheritance , so that we had but a child's portion : for not only discontents vanish't , but no matter was left for ill spirits , forreign or domestick , to brood upon , or hatch to mischief . which was a plain proof , that it is the vnion of interests , and not of opinions , that gives peace to kingdoms . and with all deference to authority , i would speak it , the liberty of the declaration , seems to be our english amomum at least , the soveraign remedy to our english constitution . and to say true , we shifted luck as soon as we had lost it ; like those that loose their royal gold , their evil returns . for all dissenters seem'd then united in their affection to the government , and follow'd their affairs without fear or distraction . projects then , were stale and unmerchantable , and no body cared for them , because no body wanted them : that gentle opiate at the prince's hand , laid the most busie and turbulent to sleep : but when the loss of that indulgence made them uncertain , and that uneasie , their persons and estates being again exposed to pay the reckoning of their dissent , no doubt , but every party shifted then as they could : most grew selfish , at least , jealous , fearing one should make bargains apart , or exclusive of the other . this was the fatal part dissenters acted to their common ruin : and i take this partiality to have had too great a share in our late animosities ; which , by fresh accidents falling in , have swell'd to a mighty deluge , such an one as hath overwhelmed the former civil concord and serenity of the kingdom . and pardon me if i say , i cannot see that those waters are like to asswage , till this olive branch of indulgence be some way or other restored : the waves will still cover our earth , and a spot of ground will hardly be found in this glorious isle , for a great number of useful people to set a quiet foot upon . and to persue the allegory ; what was that ark it self , but the most apt and lively emblem of toleration ? a kind of natural temple of indulgence . in which , we find two of every living creature dwelling together , of both sexes too , that they might propagate ; and that as well of the unclean as clean kind : so that the baser and less useful sort were saved . creatures never like to change their nature , and so far from being whip't and punish't to the altar , that they were expresly forbid . these were saved , these were fed and restored to their antient pastures . shall we be so mannerly as to complement the conformists with the stile of clean , and so humble as to take the vnclean kind to our selves , who are the less noble , and more clownish sort of people ? i think verily we may do it , if we may but be saved too by the commander of our english ark. and this the peaceable and virtuous dissenter has the less reason to fear , since sacred text tells us , 't was vice , and not opinion that brought the deluge upon the rest . and here ( to drop our allegory ) i must take leave to hope , that thought the declaration be gone , if the reason of it remain , i mean , the interest of the monarchy , the king and his great council will graciously please to think a toleration , no dangerous nor obsolete thing . but as toleration has many arguments for it , that are drawn from the advantages that have & would come to the publick by it , so there are divers mischiefs that must unavoidably follow the persecution of dissenters , that may reasonably disswade from such severity . for they must either be ruin'd , fly or conform ; and perhaps the last is not the safest . if they are ruin'd in their estates , and their persons imprison'd , modestly computing , a fourth of the trade and manufactury of the kingdom sinks ; and those that have help't to maintain the poor , must come upon the poors book for maintenance . this seems to be an impoverishing of the publick . but if to avoid this , they transport themselves , with their estates , into other governments ; nay , though it were to any of his majesties plantations , the number were far too great to be spar'd from home . so much principal stock wanting to turn the yearly traffick , and so many people too , to consume our yearly growth , must issue fatally to the trade one way , and on the lands and rents of the kingdom the other way . and lastly , if they should resolve , neither to suffer nor fly , but conform to prevent both . it is to be enquired , if this cure of church-division be safe to the state ; or not rather , a raking up coals under ashes , for a future mischief ? he whom fear or policy hath made treacherous to his own conscience , ought not to be held true to any thing but his own safety and revenge . his conformity gives him the first , and his resentment of the force that compels it , will on no occasion let him want the last . so that conformity couzens no body but the government : for the state phanatick ( which is the unsafe thing to the state ) being christen'd by conformity , he is elegible every where , with persons the most devoted to the prince : and all men will hold themselves protected in their votes by it . a receipt to make faction keep , and preserve disloyalty against all weathers . for whereas the nature of tests is to discover , this is the way to conceal the inclinations of men from the government . plain dissent is the prince with a candle in his hand : he sees the where and what of persons and things : he discriminates , and makes that a rule of conduct : but forc'd conformity is the prince in the dark : it blows out his candle , and leaves him without distinction : such subjects are like figures in sand , when water is flap't upon them , they run together , and are indiscernable : or written sedition , made illegible by writing the oaths & canons upon it : the safest way of blotting out danger . and i know not how to forbear saying , that this necessary conformity makes the church dangerous to the state : for even the hypocrisie that follows , makes the church both conceal and protect the hypocrites ; which together with their liberality to the parson , charity to the poor , and hospitality to their neighbours , recommends them to the first favour they have to bestow . that fort is unsafe where a part of the garrison consists of disguised enemies ; for when they take their turns at the watch , the danger is hardly evitable . it would then certainly be for the safety of the fort , that such friends in masquerade were industrously kept out , instead of being whipt in . and it was something of this i remember that was made an argument for the declaration of indulgence in the preamble , to wat , the greater safety of the government , from open and publick , then private , dissenting meetings of worship ; as indeed the rest bear the like resemblance . for these were the topicks , quieting the people , encouraging strangers to come and live among us , and trade by it ; and lastly , preventing the danger that might arise to the government by private meetings . of greater reason then from private men , not less discontented , but more concealed and secured by the great drake of church conformity . it is this will make a comprehension of the next dissenters to the church dangerous , tho' it were practicable , of which side soever it be . for in an age , the present government shall feel the art and industry of the comprehended . so that a toleration is in reason of state to be prefer'd . and if the reasons of the declaration were ever good , they are so still , because the emergencies of state that made them so , remain ; and our neighbours are not less powerful to improve them to our detriment . but it will be now said , though the government should find its account in what has been last alledged , this were the way to overthrow the church , and encourage dissenters to continue in their errors . which is that second main objection i proposed at first , to answer in its proper place , and that i think this is . i humbly say , if it prove the interest of the three considerable church-interests in this kingdom , a relaxation , at least , can hardly fail us . the three church interests are , that of the church of england ; that of the roman-catholick-dissenter ; and that of the protestant-dissenter . that the church of england ought in conscience and prudence to consent to the ease desired . i pray first , that it be considered , how great a reflection it will be upon her honour , that from a persecuted , she should turn a persecuting church : an overthrow none of her enemies have been able to give to her many excellent apologies . nor will it be excused , by her saying , she is in the right , which her persecutors were not ; since this is a confidence not wanting in any of them , or her dissenters ; and the truth is , it is but the begging of a question , that will by no means be granted . no body ought to know more then church-men , that conscience cannot be forced . that offerings against conscience , are as odious to god , as uneasie to them that make them . that god loves a free sacrifice . that christ forbad fire , though from heaven ( it self ) to punish dissenters ; and commanded that the tares should grow with the wheat till the harvest . in sine , that we should love enemies themselves : and to exclude worldly strife for religion ; that his kingdom is not of this world. this was the doctrine of the blessed saviour of the world. saint paul persues the same course . is glad christ is preached , be it of envy ; the worst ground for dissent that can be . it was he that ask't that hard , but just question , who art thou that judgest another mans servant ? to his own lord he standeth or falleth . he allows the church a warfare , and weapons to perform it , but they are not carnal , but spiritual . therefore it was so advised , that every man in matters of religion , should be fully perswaded in his own mind , and if any were short or mistaken , god would , in his time , inform them better . he tells us of schismaticks and hereticks too , and their punishment , which is to the point in hand : he directs to a first and second admonition , and if that prevail not , reject them : that is , refuse them church fellowship , disown their relation , and deny them communion . but in all this there is not a word of fines or imprisonments , nor is it an excuse to any church , that the civil magistrate executes the severity , while they are members of her communion , that make and execute the laws . but if the church could gain her point , i mean conformity , unless she could gain consent too , 't were but constraint at last . a rape upon the mind , which may encrease her number , not her devotion . on the contrary , the rest of her sons are in danger by their hypocrisie . the most close , but watchful and revengeful thing in the world. besides , the scandal can hardly be removed : to over-value coyn , and rate brass to silver , beggers any country ; and to own them for sons she never begat , debases and destroyes any church . 't were better to indulge forreign coyn of intrinsick value , and let it pass for its weight . 't is not number , but quality : two or three sincere christians , that form an evangelical church ; and tho' the church were less , more charity on the one hand , and piety on the other , with exact church-censure , and less civil coertion , would give her credit with conscience in all sects ; without which , their accession it self would be no benefit , but disgrace , and hazard to her constitution . and to speak prudently in this affair 't is the interest of the church of england , not to suffer the extinction of dissenters , that she may have a counter ballance to the roman catholicks , who , though few in number , are great in quality , and greater in their forreign friendships and assistance . on the other hand , it is her interest to indulge the roman-catholick , that by his accession . she may at all times , have the ballance in her own hand , against the protestant dissenter , leaning to either , as she finds her doctrine undermined by the one , or her discipline by the other ; or lastly , her civil interest endangered from either of them . and it is certainly the interest of both those extreams of dissent , that she , rather than either of them should hold the scale . for as the protestant-dissenter cannot hope for any tenderness , exclusive of roman catholicks , but almost the same reasons may be advanced against him ; so on the other hand , it would look imprudent , as well as unjust , in the roman catholicks , to solicite any indulgence exclusive of protestant dissenters . for besides that , this keeps up the animosity , which it is their interest to bury : the consequence will be , to take the advantage of time , to snatch it from one another , when an united request for liberty , once granted , will oblige both parties , in all times , for example sake , to have it equally preserved . thus are all church-interests of conformists and dissenters , rendered consistent and safe in their civil interest one with the other . but it will last of all , doubtless , be objected , that though a toleration were never so desirable in it self , and in its consequence beneficial to the publick , yet the government cannot allow it , without ruin to the church england , which it is obliged to maintain . but i think this 〈◊〉 not affect the question at all , unless by maintaing the church of england , it is understood that he should force whole parties to be of 〈◊〉 communion , or knock them on the head : let us call to mind , that the religion that is true , allows no man to do wrong , that right may come of it . and that nothing has lessen'd the credit of any religion more , than declining to support it self by its own charity and piety , and taking sanctuary in the arms , rather than the vnderstanding of men . violences are ill pillars for truth to rest upon . the church of england must be maintain'd : right ; but can't that be done without the dissenter be destroyed ? in vain then did christ command peter to put up his sword , with this rebuke , he that kills with the sword , with the sword shall be killed , if his followers are to draw it again . he makes killing for religion , murder , and deserving death : was he then in the right , not to call legions to his assistance ? and are not his followers of these times in the wrong , to seek to uphold their religion by any methods of force ? the church of england must be maintain'd , therefore the dissenters , that almost hold the same doctrine , must be ruined . a consequence most unnatural , as it is almost impossible . for besides that , the drudgery would unbecome the civil magistrate , who is , the image of divine justice and clemency , and that it would fasten the character of a false church , upon one that destres to be esteemed a true one ; she puts the government upon a task that is hard to be performed . kings can no more make brick without straw , than slaves . the condition of our affairs is much chang'd , and the circumstances our government is under , differ mightily from those of our ancestors . they had not the same dissents to deal with , nor those dissents the like bodies of people to render them formidable , and their prosecution mischievous to the state. nor did this come of the princes neglect or 〈◊〉 : there are other reasons to be assigned , of which , the opportunities domestick trouble gave to their increase and power , and the severities used to suppress them , may go for none of the least . so that it was as involuntary in the prince , as to the church anxious . and under this necessity to tye the magistrate to old measures , is to be regardless of time , whose fresh circumstances give aim to the conduct of wise men in their present actions . governments , as well as courts , change their fashions : the same clothes will not always serve : and politicks made obsolete by new accidents , are as unsafe to follow , as antiquated dresses were ridiculous to ware . thus sea-men know , and teach us in their daily practice : they humour the winds , though they will lie as near as they can , and trim their sails by their compass : and by patience under these constrained and uneven courses , it is they gain their port at last . this justifies the governments change of measures from the change of things ; for res nolunt male administrari . and to be free , it looks more then partial , to elect and reprobate too . that the church of england is prefer'd , and has the fat of the earth , the authority of the magistrate , and the power of the sword in her sons hands , which comprehends all the honours , places , profits , and powers of the kingdom , must not be repined at : let her have it , and keep it all , and let none dare seek or accept an office that is not of her . but to ruin dissenters to compleat her happiness , ( pardon the allusion ) is talvauism in the worst sence ; for this is that horrendem decretum reduc'd to practice : and to pursue that ill-natured principle , men are civilly damn'd for that they cannot help , since faith is not in man's power , though it sometimes exposes one to it . it is a severe dilemma , that a man must either renounce that of which he makes conscience in the sight of god , or be civilly and ecclesiastically reprobated . there was a time when the church of england her self stood in need of indulgence , and made up a great part of the non-conformists of this kingdom , and what she then wanted , she pleaded for , i mean a toleration , and that in a general stile , as divers of the writings of her doctors tell us : of which let it be enough but to mention that excellent discourse of dr. taylor , bishop of down , entituled liberty of prophecy . and that which makes severity look the worse in the members of the church of england , is the modesty she professes about the truth of the things she believes : for though perhaps it were indefencible in any church to compel a man to that which she were infallibly assured to be true , unless she superceeded his ignorance by conviction , rather than authority , it must doubtless look rude to punish men into conformity to that , of the truth of which , the church her self pretends no certainty . not that i would less believe a church so cautious then one more confident ; but i know not how to help thinking persecution harsh , when they ruin people for not believing that , which they have not in themselves the power of believing , and which she cannot give them , and of which her self is not infallibly assured . the drift of this is moderation , which well becomes us poor mortals , that for every idle word we speak must give an account at the day of judgment , if our saviour's doctrine have any credit with us . it would much mittigate the severity , if the dissent were sullen or in contempt . but if men can't help or hinder their , belief , they are rather vnhappy than guilty , and more to be , pitied than blamed . however , they are of the reasonable stock of the country , and though they were unworthy of favour , they may not be unfit to live . 't is capital , at law , to destroy bastards and by-blows are lay'd to the parish to keep : they must maintain them at last : and shall not these natural sons , at least , be laid at the door of the kingdom ? unhappy fate of dissenters ! to be less heeded , and more destitute then any body . if this should ever happen to be the effect of their own folly , with submission , it can never be the consequence of the government 's engagements . election does not necessarily imply a reprobation of the rest . if god hath elected some to salvation , it will not follow , of course , that he hath absolutly rejected all the rest . for tho' he was god of the jews , he was god of the gentiles too , and they were his people , tho' the jews were his peculiar people . god respects not persons , says st. peter , the good of all nations are accepted . the difference at last will not be of opinion , but works : sheep or goats , all , of all judgments will be found ; and , come , well done ; or go ye workers of iniquity , will conclude their eternal state : let us be careful therefore of an opinion-reprobation of one another . we see the god of nature hath taught us softer doctrine in his great books of the world : his sun shines , and his rain falls upon all . all the productions of nature are by love , and shall it be proper to religion only to propagate by force ? the poor hen instructs us in humanity , who , to defend her feeble young , refuses no danger . all the seeds and plants that grow for the use of man , are produc'd by the kind and warm influences of the sun. 't is kindness that upholds human race . people don't multiply in spight : and if it be by gentle and friendly ways , that nature produces and matures the creatures of the world , certainly religion should teach us to be mild and bearing . let your moderation be known to all men , was the saying of a great doctor of the christian faith , and his reason for that command cogent ; for the lord is at hand . as if he had said , have a care what you do , be not bitter nor violent , for the judge is at the door : do as you would be done to , lest what you deny to others , god should refuse to you . and after all this , shall the church of england be less tender of mens consciences than our common law is of their lives , which had rather a thousand criminals should escape , than that one innocent should perish ? give me leave to say , that there are many innocents ( conscience excepted ) now exposed , men honest , peaceable and useful ; free of ill designes ; that pray for caesar , and pay their tribute to caesar . if any tell us , they have , or may , ill use their toleration . i say , this must be look't to , and not liberty therefore refused ; for the english church cannot so much forget her own maxim to dissenters , that propter abusum non est tollendus usus . it suffices to our argument , 't is no necessary consequence , and that fact and time are for us . and if any misuse such freedom , and entitle conscience to misbehavour , we have other laws enough to catch and punish the offendors , without treating one party with the spoils of six . and when religion becomes no mans interest , it will hardly ever be any mans hypocrisie . men will chuse by conscience , which at least preserves integrity , though it were mistaken : and if not in the wrong , truth recompences inquiry , and light makes amends for dissent . and since a plain method offers it self , from the circumstances , of our case , i take the freedom to present it for the model of the entreated toleration . much has been desired , said and prest in reference to the late king 's being head of a protestant league , which takes in but apart of the christian world ; the roman and grecian christians being excluded . but i most humbly offer , that our wise men would please to think of another title for our king , and that is head of a christian league , and give the experiment here at home in his own dominions . the christian religion is admitted of all in the text , and by all acknowledged , in the apostles creed . here every party of christians meet , and center as in a general . the several species of christians , that this genus divideth it self into , are those divers perswasions we have within this kingdom ; the church of england , roman-catholicks , grecians , lutheraus , presbyterians independents , anabaptists , quakers socinians : these i call so many orders of christians , that unite in the text , and differ only in the comment ; all owning one deity , saviour and judge , good works , rewards and punishments : which bodies once regulated , and holding of the prince , as head of the government , maintaining charity , and pressing piety , will be an honour to christianity , a strength to the prince and a benefit to the publick : for in lieu of an unattainable ( at best an unsincere ) vniformity , we shall have in civils , vnity and amity in faith. the iews before , and in the time of herod , were divided into divers sects . there were pharisees , sadduces , herodians and essenes . they maintained their dissent without ruine to the government . and the magistrates fell under no censure from christ for that toleration . the gentiles , as already has been observ'd , had their divers orders of philosophers , as disagreeing as ever christians were , and that without danger to the peace of the state. the turks themselves show us , that both other religions , and divers sects of their own , are very tolerable , with seourity to their government . the roman church is a considerable instance to our point ; for she is made up of divers orders of both sexes , of very differing principle , fomented sometimes , to great feuds and controversies ; as between franciscans , dominicans , iesuits and sorbomists ; yet without danger to the political state of the church . on the contrary , she therefore cast her self into that method , that she might safely give vent to novelty and zeal , and suffer both without danger of schism . and these regulars , are by the popes graunts , privileg'd with an exemption from episcopal visitation and jurisdiction . changing then the terms , from church to state , the whole contrivance looks very wise and imitable . for as by this , schisme in their church , so faction in our state may be prevented . and these civil regulars depending on the civil power , as those religious ones do upon the popes , will naturally , like them , become the perpetual votarys of its greatness . and thus all parties hanging , like keys , by one ring , at the civil magistrates girdle , tho' each has its several lock , he that keeps them can open and shut every door , as the persons deserve and the publick safety requires . to make this more easie a 〈◊〉 and practice , i humbly propose ; first , that every party do present a voluntary assurance of their fidelity to the government , in terms the most full and pain that may be : in which , as the king will have an account of their number , so of their duty to the government , and abhorrence of all faction and rebellion . secondly , that they should give in a list of their meetings , as to place , time , and the persons properly belonging to them . thirdly , that once in every year , the names of proselytes be delivered into the clark of the peace for every county , and that all of that party , as well as those new adherents , do renew their obligation of obedience , by annual subscriptions . fourthly , because it is not impossible that some or other may mis-behave themselves , and abuse this liberty , or be abused in the use of it . that in every county three persons of most eminency be yearly named to the magistrates by each dissenting interest , to stand a kind of representatives , both to inform them what they can , upon inquiry , of persons or things among the people of that party , which may in the least be thought to affect the government , and to have redress of injuries done to persons in the sober use of their allowed liberty . these are the methods that have had most weight with me , and the best i know to create a reciprocal confidence and interest between the prince and his dissenting people : to be sure , this course hath succeeded well elsewhere , even in monarchiacal states . and therefore in it self not inconsistent with monarachy . and lastly , because this freedom will be best kept and improv'd to the publick benefit , by maintaining a good understanding between the divers orders of christians within themselves . 't were farther requisit , that , first , no nick-names were continued , and all terms of reproach , on all hands , punishable . secondly , that controversial points were carefully avoided , and vice declin'd , and holiness prest , without which ( st. paul tells us ) no-man shall see the lord. god almighty inspire the king's heart , and those of his great council , to be the instruments of this blessing to the kingdom . i shall conclude this perswasive with the judgment of some pious fathers and renowned princes . quadratus and aristides , wrote two apologies to adrian , for the christian faith , and against the persecution of it . iustin martyr , an excellent philosopher and christian , writ two learned disswasives against persecution , which he dedicated ( as i take it ) to antoninus pius , and marcus aurelius antoninus . melito , bishop of sardis , a good and learned man , 〈◊〉 smart defence for the christian religion , and a toleration , dedicated to verus . tertullian , in his most sharp and excellent apology for the christians , fastens persecution upon the gentiles , as an inseperable mark of superstition and error ; as he makes the christian patience a sign of truth . in his discourse to scapula , he sayes , 't is not the property of religion to persecute for religion ; she should be received for her self , not force . hilliary , an early and learned father , against auxentius , saith , the christian church does not persecute , but is persecuted . atticus bishop of constantinople , would by no means have the minister of nice to respect any opinion or sect whatsoever , in the distribution of the money sent by him for the relief of christians ; and by no means to prejudice those that practise a contrary doctrine and faith to theirs : that he should be sure to relieve those that hunger & thirst , and have not wherewith to help themselves , and make that the rule of his consideration . in short , he made the hereticks to have his wisdom in admiration , in that he would by no means trouble or molest them . proclus ( another bishop of constantinople ) was of this opinion , that it was far easier by fair means to allure unto the church , than by force to compell : he determined to vex no sect whatever , but restored to the church the renowned virtue of meekness required in christian ministers . if we will next hear the historians own judgment , upon a toleration , i am of opinion ( says he ) that he is a persecutor , that in any kind of way molesteth such men as lead a quiet and peaceable life . thus socrates in his third book : in his seventh , he tells us , that the bishop of sinada , indeed , did banish the hereticks , but neither did he this ( says he ) according to the rule of the catholick church , which is not 〈◊〉 to persecute , ( l. . ) lactantius , tells the angry men of his time , thus , if you will , with blood , evil and torments defend your worship , it shall not thereby be defended , but polluted . chrysastom saith expresly , that it is n●● the manner of the children of god , to persecute about their religion , but an evident token of antichrist . thus the fathers and doctors of the first ages . that emperors and princes have thus believed , let us hear some of greatest note , and most pressing to us . ierom , a good and learned father , saith , that heresie must be cut off with the sword of the spirit . constantinus , the father of constantine the great , laid this down for a principle , that those that were disloyal to god , would never be trusty to their prince . and which is more , he liv'd thus , and so dy'd , as his great speech to his great son , on his death-bed , amply evidences . constantine the great , in his speech to the roman senate , tells them , there is this difference between humane and divine homage and service , that the one is compell'd , and the other ought to be free . eusebius pamphili , in the life of constantine , tells us , that in his prayer to god , he said , let thy people , i beseech thee , desire and maintain peace , living free from sedition to the common good and benefit of all the world ; and those that are a petition for peace with the reformation of the liturgy, as it was presented to the right reverend bishops, by the divines appointed by his majesties commission to treat with them about the alteration of it. baxter, richard, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing b estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : , : ) a petition for peace with the reformation of the liturgy, as it was presented to the right reverend bishops, by the divines appointed by his majesties commission to treat with them about the alteration of it. baxter, richard, - . [ ], p. [s.n.], london printed : mdclxi [ ] attributed to baxter by wing and nuc pre- imprints. errors in paging: p. , , misnumbered , , respectively. reproductions of the originals in: harvard university library ( : ) and folger shakespeare library (reel : ). . created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng church of england -- liturgy -- controversial literature. dissenters, religious -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - john latta sampled and proofread - john latta text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a petition for peace : with the reformation of the liturgy . as it was presented to the right reverend bishops , by the divines appointed by his majesties commission to treat with them about the alteration of it . london , printed , anno dom. mdclxi . a petition for peace . to the most reverend archbishop and bishops , and the reverend their assistants commissioned by his majesty to treat about the alteration of the book of common-prayer . the humble and earnest petition of others in the same commission . most reverend fathers , and reverend brethren , the special providence of god , and his majesties tender regard of the peace and consciences of his subjects , and his desire of their concord in the things of god , hath put into our hands this opportunity of speaking to you as humble petitioners , as well as commissioners , on the behalf of these yet troubled and unhealed churches , and of many thousand souls that are dear to christ ; on whose behalf , wee are pressed in spirit in the sense of our duty , most earnestly to beseech you , as you tender the peace and prosperity of these churches , the comfort of his majesty in the union of his subjects , and the peace of your souls in the great day of your accounts , that laying by all former and present exasperating and alienating differences , you will not now deny us your consent and assistance to those means that shall bee proved honest and cheap , and needful to those great , desirable ends , for which wee all profess to have our offices , and our lives . the things which wee humbly beg of you are these . . that you will grant what wee have here proposed and craved of you in our preface ; even your charitable interpretation , acceptance of , and consent unto the alterations and additions to the liturgy now tendered unto you , that being inserted , as wee have expressed , it [ may bee left to the ministers choice to use one or other at his discretion ] upon his majesties approbation , according to his gracious declaration concerning ecclesiastical affairs . and that ( seeing wee cannot obtain the form of episcopal government , described by the late reverend primate of ireland , and approved by many episcopal divines ) wee may at least enjoy those benefits of reformation in discipline , and that freedome from subscription , oaths and ceremonies , which are granted in the said declaration , by the means of your charitable mediation and request . . seeing some hundreds of able , holy , faithful ministers are of late cast out , and not onely very many of their families in great distress , but ( which is of far greater moment ) abundance of congregations in england , ireland and wales , are overspread with lamentable ignorance , and are destitute of able , faithful teachers : and seeing too many that are insufficient , negligent , or scandalous , are over the flocks ( not meaning this as an accusation of any that are not guilty , nor a dishonourable reflection on any party , much less on the whole church ) wee take this opportunity earnestly to beseech you , that you will contribute your indeavours to the removal of those that are the shame and burdens of the churches ; and to the restauration of such as may bee an honour and blessing to them . and to that end , that it bee not imputed to them as their unpardonable crime , that they were born in an age and country which required ordination by parochial pastors , without diocesans : and that re-ordination ( whether absolute or hypothetical ) bee not made necessary to the future exercise of their ministry . but that an universal confirmation may bee granted of those ordained as aforesaid , they being still responsible for any personal insufficiency or crime . were these two granted ( the confirmation of the grants in his majesties declaration , with the liberty of the reformed liturgy offered you , and the restoring of able , faithful ministers to a capacity to bee serviceable in the church of god , without forcing them against their consciences to bee re-ordained ) how great would bee the benefits to this unworthy nation ? how glad would you make the peoples hearts ? how thankful should wee bee ( for the cause of christ , and the souls of men ) to those that grant them , and procure them ; being conscious that wee seek not great things for our selves , or for our brethren ; that wee are ambitious of no greater wealth or honour , than our daily bread , with such freedome and advantage for the labours of our ministry , as may most conduce to the success , the increase of holiness and peace ; wee shall take the boldness to second these requests , with many of our reasons , which wee think should prevail for your consent , chusing rather to incur whatsoever censures or offence may by any bee taken against our necessary freedome of expression , than to bee silent at such a time as this , when thousands of the servants of the lord , that are either deprived of their faithful teachers , or in fears of losing them , together with the freedome of their consciences in gods worship , do cry day and night to heaven for help , and would cry also in your ears with more importunate requests , if they had but the opportunity as now wee have . and . wee beseech you bear with us while wee remember you , that you are pastors of the flock of christ , who are bound to feed them , and to preach in season , and out of season , and to bee laborious in the word and doctrine ; but are not bound to hinder all others from this blessed work , that dare not use a cross or surplice , or worship god in a form which they judge disorderly , defective , or corrupt , when they have better to offer him ( mal. . , . ) is it not for matter and phrase at least as agreeable to the holy scriptures ? if so , wee beseech you suffer us to use it , who seek nothing by it , but to worship god as neer as wee can , according to his will , who is jealous in the matters of his worship . if indeed yours have more of strength , and ours of weakness , yet let not fathers cast the children from the house of god , because they are sick or weak , and need the more compassion ; let not our physicians resolve their patients shall all bee famished , or cast off , whose temperature and appetites cannot agree to feed on the same dish , with the same preparation and sauce . hee that thrice charged peter as hee loved him , to feed his lambs and sheep , did never think of charging him to deny them food or turn them out of his fold , or forbid all others to feed them , unless they could digest such forms and ceremonies , and superscriptions as ours . . may wee presume to minde you , that the lord of the harvest hath commanded us to pray that more labourers may bee sent into the harvest . ( for still proportionably the harvest is great , and the labourers are few ) mat. . . and that the lord hath not furnished them with his gifts in vain , nor lighted these candles to put under a bushel , but to bee set on a candlestick , that they may give light to all that are in the house , mat. . : and that there are few nations under the heavens of god , as far as wee can learn , that have more able , holy , faithful , laborious and truly peaceable preachers of the gospel ( proprotionably ) than those are that are now cast out in england , and are like in england , scotland , and ireland , to bee cast out , if the old conformity bee urged . this witness is true , which in judgement wee bear , and must record against all the reproaches of uncharitableness , which the justifier of the righteous at his day will effectually confute . wee therefore beseech you , that when thousands of souls are ready to famish for want of the bread of life , and thousands more are grieved for the ejection of their faithful guides , the labourers may not bee kept our , upon the account of such forms or ceremonies , or re-ordination ; at least till you have enow as fit as they to supply their places , and then wee shall never petition you for them more . . and wee beseech you consider when you should promote the joy and thankfulness of his majesties subjects for his happy restauration , whether it bee equal and seasonable to bring upon so many of them so great calamities as the change of able , faithful ministers , for such as they cannot comfortably commit the conduct of their souls to , and the depriving them of the liberty of the publick worship ; calamities far greater than the meer loss of all their worldly substance can amount to : in a day of common joy to bring this causelesly on so many of his majesties subjects , and to force them to lye down in heart-breaking-sorrows , as being almost as far undone , as man can doe it ; this is not a due requital of the lord for so great deliverances : especially considering , that if it were never so certain , that it is the sin of the ministers that dare not bee re-ordained , or conform ; its hard that so many thousand innocent people should suffer even in their souls for the faults of others . . and if wee thought it would not bee mis-interpreted , wee would here remember you , how great and considerable a part of the three nations they are , that must either incur these sufferings , or condole them that undergo them ; and how great a grief it will be to his majesty , to see his grieved subjects ; and how great a joy it will bee to him , to have their hearty thanks and prayers , and see them live in prosperity , peace and comfort under his most happy government . . and wee may plead the nature of their cause , to move you to compassionate your poor afflicted brethren in their sufferings . it is , in your own account , but for refusing conformity to things indifferent , or at the most , of no necessity to salvation . it is in their account for the sake of christ , because they dare not consent to that which they judge to be an usurpation of his kingly power , and an accusation of his laws as insufficient , and because they dare not bee guilty of addition to , or diminution of his worship , or of worshipping him after any other law , than that by which they must bee judged , or such as is meerly subordinate to that . suppose they bee mistaken in thinking the things to bee so displeasing to god ; yet it is commendable in them to bee fearful of displeasing him , and careful to obey him ; a disposition necessary to all that will bee saved , and therefore to bee loved and cherished in them by the pastors of the church ; who should bee very tender of putting them to suffering , or casting them out of the church , because they dare not do that which they judge to bee so great a sin against the lord , deserving damnation to themselves . should not the love of christ command us to bee tender of those that are so tender of his honour , and to take heed what wee do to men for taking heed of sin , and being afraid to offend the lord ; and should not the special love of christians , and the common love of men , command us , to bee loath to drive men by penalties , upon that which they judge doth tend to their everlasting damnation , and which indeed doth tend to it , because they judge it so to do ; for hee that will do that which hee thinks to bee so great a sin as is before described , to please men , or to escape their punishment , no doubt deserveth the wrath of god , and should wee not bee loath to drive men upon sin and condemnation : though wee were sure that their own infirmity is the occasion . if it bee said , that by this rule nothing shall bee commanded , if men will but scruple it . wee answer , things in themselves necessary , or commanded by god , must bee commanded by man , because scruples make them not unnecessary , and make not void the laws of god , and it will bee a sin even to the scrupulous to disobey : but things dispensible , and of themselves unnecessary , should not bee rigorously urged upon him , to whom they would bee a sin , and cause of condemnation . it is in case of things indifferent in your own judgement , that wee now speak . if it bee said , that it is humour , pride , or singularity , or peevishness , or faction , and not true tenderness of conscience that causeth the doubts , or non-conformity of these men . wee answer , such crimes must bee fastened onely on the individuals , that are first proved guilty of them ; and not upon multitudes unnamed and unknown and without pro●● ; and you know it is the prerogative of god to search the heart , and that hee hath said , judge not that yee be not judged , for with what judgement yee judge , yee shall bee judged , and with what measure yee mete , it shall bee measured to you again . mat. . , . and who art thou that judgest another mans servant , to his own master , hee standeth or falleth ; yea , hee shall bee holden up , for god is able to make him stand . rom. . . and who can pretend to bee better acquainted with their hearts , than they are themselves ! for what man knoweth the things of a man , save the spirit of a man , which is in him ; cor. . . and they are ready to appeal to the dreadful god , the searcher of hearts , and the hater of hypocrisie , that if it were not for fear of sinning against him , and wounding their consciences , and hazarding , and hindering their salvation , they would readily obey you in all these things ; that it is their fear of sin and damnation that is their impediment , they are ready to give you all the assurance , that man can give by the solemnest professions , or by oath if justly called to it . and one would think that a little charity might suffice to enable you to beleeve them , when their non-compliance brings them under suffering , and their compliance , is the visible way to favour ; safety , and prosperity in the world . and if men that thus appeal to god concerning the intention of their own hearts , cannot bee beleeved , even when the state of their worldly interest bears witness to their professions , but another shall step into the throne of the heart-searching god , and say [ it is not as they say , or swear , it is not conscience , but obstinacy or singularity ] all humane converse upon these terms will bee overthrown : and what remedy have they , but patiently to wait , till god that they have appealed to , shall decide the doubt , and shew who were the assertours of truth or falshood . and wee crave leave to represent to you the great disproportion , in necessity and worth , between the things in question , and the salvation of so many , as may bee obtained by the free and faithful exercise of the ministery , of those that now are , and that are yet like to bee laid aside ; do you think the lord that died for souls , and hath sent us to learn what that meaneth [ i will have mercy and not sacrifice , mat. . . ] is better pleased with re-ordination , subscription and ceremonies , than with the saving of souls , by the means of his own appointment : if it bee said that publick order and peace and concord do promote the salvation of many , and therefore are to bee preferred before the salvation of fewer . wee answer , concord in holy obedience to god doth indeed promote the salvation of all that entertain it ; but concord in ceremonies , or re-ordination , or oaths of obedience to diocesans , or in your questioned particular forms of prayer , do neither in their nature , or by vertue of any promise of god , so much conduce to mens salvation ; as the preaching of the gospel doth , by able faithful and laborious ministers . and how comes it to pass that unity , concord and order must bee placed in those things , which are no way necessary thereto ! will there not bee order and concord in holy obedience and acceptable worshiping of god , on the terms which wee now propose and crave , without the foresaid matter of offence ? wee here shew you that wee are no enemies to order , and our long importunity for the means of concord , doth shew that wee are not enemies to concord . if it bee said , that other men that will conform to the things in question may convert and save souls better than those that are factious and disobedient : wee first humbly crave that reproach may not bee added to affliction , and that none may bee called factious that are not proved such ; and that laws imposing things indifferent in your judgement , and sinfull in theirs , may not bee made the rule to judge of faction : but that men who live inoffensively under civill government , and in matters of faith and worship , subscribe to all contained in the holy scriptures ; and indeavour to promote universal peace and cha●…y on these termes , may not bee made offenders by the making of laws and canons , that must force them to bee such : consequently daniel was an offender that would not forbear praying openly by the space of thirty daies . but antecedently to that law , hee was confessed just , by them that said [ wee shall not finde any occasion against this daniel , except wee finde it against him concerning the law of his god ] dan . , , . the law which hee must break was made to make him a breaker of that law ; take away that law and take away his fault . wee accuse none of the like intentions , but wee must say , that it is easie to make any man an offender , by making laws which his conscience will not allow him to observe , and it s as easie to make that same man cease to seem disobedient , obstinate , or factious , without any change at all in him , by taking down such needless laws . wee may again remember you what christ a second time doth press , mat. . . [ but if yee had known what this meaneth , i will have mercy , and not sacrifice , yee would not have condemned the guiltless . ] and next , to the rest of the objection , wee answer ; that sad experience tells the world , that if the ministers that wee are pleading for , bee laid aside , there are not competent men enough to supplie their rooms , and equally to promote the salvation of the flocks : this is acknowldged by them who still give it as the reason why ministers are not to bee trusted with the expressing of their desires in their own words , nor so much as to chuse which chapter to read , as well as which text to preach on , to their auditours , because wee shall have ministers so weak , as to bee unfit for such a trust : and men that are not wise enough for so easie a part of their duty , as to chuse fit portions of scripture to read , are unlikely to afford an equal assistance to the salvation of the people instead of the labours of such as wee are speaking for . and it must bee remembred that in our ordination , wee must profess that [ wee are perswaded that the holy scriptures contain sufficiently all doctrine , required of necessity for eternal salvation , &c. ] and that wee will teach or maintain nothing as required of necessity to eternal salvation , but that which wee are perswaded may bee concluded and proved by the same ] and that one of the articles of the church containeth the same doctrine of the scriptures sufficiency : and to these wee are called to subscribe ; and the persons that wee now speak for , are ready to subscribe to all contained in the holy scriptures , and willing to bee oblieged by the laws of men to practise it : and hee that hath all things necessary to salvation is received of god , and should therefore bee received by the church , if the apostles argument bee good , rom. . . . [ for god hath received him ] seeing then you do profess that none of your impositions that cannot bee concluded from the scripture , are necessary to salvation , let them not consequentially bee made necessary to it , and more necessary than that which is ordinarily necessary . if you say , that so many men shall bee forbidden to preach , unless they dare subscribe and use these things ; you will tempt them to infer , that preaching being ordinarily necessary to salvation , rom. . . and these things called indifferent being made necessary to preaching and preferred before it , therefore they are made necessary to salvation , and preferred before that which god hath made necessary ; if it bee said , that this will as much follow the making of any other indifferent thing to bee necessary to preaching , and so the church shall make no orders ; wee answer . . that smaller things must not bee imposed by unproportionable penalties . . that though the church may prefer a sober , peaceable preacher before one that is schismatical and unpeaceable ( which is not at all to exclude preaching ) yet the church may not make any thing necessary to preaching it self ; that is of it self unnecessary , and not antecedently necessary , at least by accident . . and if our religion be laid upon your particular liturgy , wee shall teach the papists further to insult , by asking us , where was our religion two hundred years ago ? the common-prayer-book as differing from the mass-book , being not so old , and that which might then bee the matter of a change , is not so unchangeable it self , but that those alterations may bee accepted for ends so desirable as are now before us . . and wee humbly crave that wee may not in this bee more rigorously dealt with , than the pastors and people of the antient churches were : if wee may not have the liberty of the primitive times , when for ought can bee proved , no liturgical forms were imposed upon any church , yet at least let us have the liberty of the following ages , when under the same prince there were diversity of liturgies , and particular pastors , had the power of making and altering them for their particular churches . . and if you should reject ( which god forbid ) the moderate proposals which now and formerly wee have made , wee humbly crave leave to offer it to your consideration , what judgement all the protestant churches are likely to pass on your proceedings , and how your cause and ours will stand represented to them , and to all succeeding ages . though wee earnestly desire the tolleration of those that are tollerable , and the peaceable liberties of all that agree on the catholick terms of primitive simplicity , in doctrine , worship and discipline , yet have wee our selves so far drawn neer you , as that the world will say , you reject those that are for episcopacy it self , and set forms of liturgy , and are not so much as charged by you at all , as disagreeing in any point of faith , if you shall reject us . if after our submission to his majesties declaration , and after our own proposals of the primitive episcopacy , and of such a liturgy as here wee tender , wee may not bee permitted to exercise our ministery , or enjoy the publick worship of god , the pens of those learned , moderate bishops will bear witness against you , that were once employed as the chief defenders of that cause ( wee mean such as reverend bishop hall , and usher ) who have published to the world , that much less than this might have served to our fraternal unity and peace . if you would not grant this liberty , and communion to others , with whom christ will hold communion in grace and glory ; yet it will appear more strange to the world , that you should cast out the episcopal also , that dare not go beyond the rule of holy scripture , and the example of primitive simplicity . and wee doubt not but you know , how new and strange a thing it is that you require in the point of re-ordination : when a canon amongst those called the apostles deposeth those that re-ordain , and that are re-ordained ; and when it is a thing that both papists and protestants condemn , when not onely the former bishops of england , that were more moderate were against it , but even the most servent adversaries of the presbyterian way ; such as bishop bancroft himself , how strange must it needs seem to the reformed churches to the whole christian world , and to future generations , that so many able , faithful ministers should bee laid by as broken vessels , because they dare not bee re-ordained ? and that so many have been put upon so new and so generally dis-relished a thing ? . and wee crave leave to remember you , that the holy ghost hath commanded you to over-see the flock , not by constraint , but willingly , not as being lords over gods heritage , but as ensamples to the flock : and that it is not onely more comfortable to your selves to bee loved as the fathers , than to be esteemed the afflicters of the church , but that it is needful to the ends of your ministry for the people● when you are loved , your doctrine will more easily bee received : but when men think that their souls or liberties are endangered by you , its easie to judge how much they are like to profit by you . . and you know if wee are not in point of ceremonies or forms in every thing of your mind ; it is no more strange to have variety of intellectual apprehensions in the same kingdome and church , than variety of temperatures and degrees of age and strength . if his majesty should expel all those from his dominions , that are not so wise , as solidly to judge , whether the liturgy as before , or as thus reformed , bee the best , yea whether this bee intollerable in comparison of yours , and whether god bee pleased or displeased with your ceremonies , it would bee too great a diminution of his subjects , and if you should turn all such out of the kingdome of christ , it would bee liker a dissipating , than a gathering , and a destroying , than an edifying of his church : and you have not your power to destruction , but to edification , cor. . . & . . you must do all things for the peoples edifying , cor. . . ephes . . . . and how christ will take it of you , to cast out from the ministry or communion of the church , or to grieve and punish all those that dare not conform to you in these matters ; for fear of displeasing the law-giver of the church , wee beseech you judge ( when your souls are most seriously thinking of the day of your accounts ) by such passages of holy scripture as may fully acquaint you with his mind . hee is himself a merciful high-priest , a gracious saviour , a tender governour . hee despiseth not the day of small things , zech. . . hee feedeth his flock like a shepherd , hee gathereth his lambs with his arm , and carrieth them in his bosome , and gently leadeth those that are with young , isa . . . a bruised reed will hee not break , and the smoaking flax will hee not quench , isa . . . matth. . . god doth instruct the plow-man to discretion , and teacheth him not to thresh the fetches with a threshing-instrument , nor to turn the cart-wheel upon the cummin , but the fetches are beaten out with a staff , and the cummin with a rod , isa . . , . gods servants are his jewels , mal. . . hee will spare them as a man spareth his son that serves him , and hee that toucheth them , toucheth the apple of his eye , zech. . . remember the neer relation they stand in to god in christ , that they are the children of god , co-heirs with christ , rom. . . the members of his body , his flesh and bone , which hee cannot hate , who ever hate them , ephes . . , . remember how dear they cost him , and to what honour hee will advance them ; and that these same persons that love him in sincerity , must be where hee is , to behold his glory , joh. . . & . . and shall be like the angels of god , luk. . . and shall judge the world , cor. . , . and that christ will come to bee glorified and admired in them , thes . . . and they shall shine forth as the sun in the kingdome of their father , mat. . . remember with what tender usage hee treated his weak imperfect members upon earth , and when hee was ascending to prepare a place for them , that they might bee with him where hee is , how affectionately hee bespeaketh them , joh. . . go to my brethren , and say unto them , i ascend up to my father , and your father , and to my god , and your god. and lest you should say , that hee will not own those little ones , that ( whether for truths sake , or for their infirmities ) do bear disgraceful titles in the world ; remember that at the day of udgement hee will say , inasmuch as you did it not , or did it , to one of the least of these my brethren , you did it not , or did it unto mee , mat. . . . if his elect cry to him day and night , though hee bear long , hee will avenge them , and that speedily , luke . , . bear with us while wee add this terrible passage , which wee once before made mention of , mat. . , . [ who so shall receive one such little childe in my name , receiveth mee ; but whose shall offend one of these little ones that beleeve in mee , it were better for him that a milstone were hanged about his neck , and that hee were drowned in the depth of the sea. ] undoubtedly if you consider duly by such passages , how christ will take it to have his servants not onely notvisited , not-relieved , but to bee afflicted , not onely in body , but in soul , with that great affliction to be cast out of the ministry , or church , for an unavoidable dissent in things indifferent , you will never joyn with those that shall stretch forth a hand against them for such a cause as this . if yet the old pretence be made , that they suffer as schismaticks , and disobedient ; wee must say again , if any shall make men disobedient by imposing things unnecessary , which they know are by learned , pious , peaceable men , esteemed sins against the lord , and then shall thus heavily afflict them for the disobedience which they may easily cure by the forbearance of those impositions ; let not our souls come into their secret , nor our honour be united to their assembly : if they shall smite or cast out a supposed schismatick , and christ shall finde an able , holy , peaceable minister , or other christian , wounded , or mourning , out of doors , let us not be found among the actors , nor stand among them in the day of their accounts , when tribulation shall be recompenced to the troublers of beleevers , thes . . . . wee beseech you also to consider , that men have not their understandings at their own command , much less can they be commanded by others , if they were never so willing to beleeve all that is imposed on them to bee lawful , they cannot therefore beleeve it , because they would , the intellect being not free . and to dissemble , and say , and swear , and do , the things which they beleeve not , is such an aggravated hypocrisie ( being in the matters of god , and joyned with perfidiousness ) as wee may suppose cannot render them acceptable to any , that have not renounced religion and humanity , much less should they bee constrained to it . and when it is known that mens judgements are against the things imposed , and that penalties are no means adapted to the informing and changing of the judgement ; but to force men to do the things they know , wee conceive they should not bee used , and so used in the case of things indifferent , where they are not necessary to the common good , and where the sufferers , have never had sufficient means to change their judgements . if it be said , that it is their own sault , that their judgements are not changed , and that the means have been sufficient . wee answer , that it is their fault , is the point in question , which the sword can easilier take for granted , than the tongue or pen can prove : but if it be so , it is their fault , as it is that they are the sons of adam , partakers of the common corruption of humane nature ; and as it is their fault that they are not all of the highest form in the school of christ , above the common ignorance and frailties of beleevers , and that they are not all the most judicious divines of the most subtile wits , and had not the same education and society to advance your opinions , and represent things to their understandings , just as they are represented unto yours . and if men must be cast out of the church , or ministry , because they are not wiser than such learned men , as the pastors of the most of the reformed churches , and as hildersham , bar●e , parker , ames dod , ball , nichols , and many such others as have here taken this conformity to be a sin , how few , alas , how very few will there be left ! and if it be said , that men do willingly keep out the light . we must say , that few men are obstinate against the opinions that tend to their ease and advancement in the world , and to save them from being vi●ified as schismaticks , and undone ; and when men profess before the lord , that they do impartially study and pray for knowledge , and would gladly know the will of god at the dearest rate ; wee must again say , that those men must prove that they know the dissentors hearts , better than they are known to themselves , that expect to be beleeved by charitable christians , when they charge them with wilful ignorance , or obstinate resisting of the truth . . and wee crave leave to ask whether you do not your selves in some things mistake , or may not do so for ought you know ? and whether your understandings are not still imperfect , and all men differ not in some opinions or other ? and if you may mistake in any thing , may it not be in as great things as these ? can it be expected , that wee should all be past erring about the smallest ceremonies and circumstances of worship ? and then should not the consciousness of your own infirmity , provoke you rather to compassionate humane frailty , than to cast out your brethren , for as small failings as your own ? . and wee further offer to your consideration , whether this be doing as you would be done by , would you be cast out for every fault that is as bad as this ? and doth this shew that you love your neighbours as your selves ? put your selves in their case , and suppose that you had studied , conferred and prayed , and done your best to know whether god would have you to be re-ordained , to use these forms or ceremonies , or subscriptions , or not ? and having done all , you think that god would be displeased if you should use them , would you then be used your selves , as your dissenting brethren are now used , or are like to bee ; love them as your selves , and wee will crave no further favour for them . . but nothing more affecteth us , than to think of the lamentable divisions , that have been caused and are still like to bee , whilest things unnecessary are so imposed : and on the contrary , how blessed an unity and peace wee might injoy if these occasions of division were removed , and wee might but have leave to serve god as his apostles did . as in doctrinals , ten thousand will sooner agree in an explicite belief of the creed , than an hundred in an explicite belief of all that ockam or scotus have determined ; so in the matters of government and worship ; it is easier to agree upon few things , than upon many , upon great and certain and necessary things , than upon small uncertain and unnecessary things , and upon things that god himself hath revealed or appointed , than upon things that proceed from no surer an original , than the wit or will of man. the strict prohibition of adding to or diminishing from the things commanded by the law-giver of the church , deut. . ● . doth put such a fear in the minds of multitudes of the loyal subjects of christ , lest by such additions or diminutions in the matters of his worship , they should provoke him to displeasure , as will bee a certain perpetual hindrance to any common unity or concord , in such humane impositions , of which many of the servants of the jealous god will have a continual jealousie . with grieved hearts wee now renew the lamentable divisions , occasioned already by these impositions , ever since the reformation in the daies of king edward th . and the grievous fruits of those divisions ! how they destroyed charity ( the character of christs disciples ) and exasperated mens minds against each other : how they corrupted mens prayers and other exercises of devotions , and made them pray and preach against one another : how their tongues were emboldned to the censuring of each other , one party calling the other , factious , schismatical , singular , and disobedient ; and the other calling them antichristian , proud , tirannical , superstitious , persecutors and formalists : and such language still increasing the uncharitableness and divisions ; till the increase of imposing rigour on the one side , and of impatience under sufferings on the other side , was too great a preparation to those greater calamities which are yet bitter to the remembrance of all whose interests or passions have not conquered their humanity . and the continuance of so much of the causes and effects , doth infallibly prove , that if the same impositions bee setled upon us , the same heart-divisions will bee still continued : brethren will disdain the name and love of brethren to each other ; which yet christ himself by condiscending and reproving love , vouchsafeth to them all . instead of loving one another with a pure heart , fervently , there will bee , if not hating , yet grudging at one another , censuring and despising one another ; which effects will still increase their cause , and make one side think , that they are necessitated to bee more rigorous in their coercions , and the other think that they are allowed to bee more censorious against those by whom they suffer . and how many thousands on both sides by such a stream of temptations , will undoubtedly bee carried on in a course of sin from day to day , and by heart sin , and tongue sin , by pulpit sins , or sins in other parts of worship , will dishonour god and provoke him to indignation against them and the land , wee may not without astonishment and grief of heart foresee or foretell . and its easie to foresee how the innocent will bee numbred with the faulty , and those that do but feel their sufferings ; and the sufferings of the church on these occasions , and do but groan and sigh to god , and pray for succour and deliverance , will bee thought to bee guilty of discontent and faction , and bringing the government of the church , and consequently of the kingdome into hatred or dislike , and so their sufferings will be increased : and hee that is commanded by the laws of humanity to be compassionately sensible of the calamities of others , shall bee thought an offender for being sensible of his own . it s easie to fore-see , how those expressions in mens sermons , or prayers , or familiar conference , which seem to any mis-understanding , or suspicious , or masicious hearers , to intimate any sense of sufferings , will be carried to the ears of rulers , and represented as a crime ? and nature having planted in all men an unwillingness to suffer , and denied to all men a love of calamity , and necessitated men to feel when they are hurt , and made the tongue and countenance the index of our sense ; these effects will be unavoidable , while such impositions are continued , and while a fear of sinning will not suffer men to swallow and digest them , and what wrong such divisions about religion will be to the kingdome ; and to his majesty , wee shall not mention , because our governours themselves may better understand it . on the other side , what universal ease , and peace , and joy would be the fruits of that happy unity and concord , which the reasonable forbearances which wee humbly petition for , would certainly produce ; how comfortable would our ministerial labours bee , when wee had no such temptations , burdens , or disquietments ? when wee lay not under the reproofs of conscience , nor the suspicions , or displeasure of our superiours , but might serve the lord without distraction , and bee among his servants without such fears , ( phil. . . cor. . . ) how much would the hands of the builders be strengthened for the work of god , when they speak the same things , and there are no divisions among them , but they are perfectly joyned together in the same minde and judgement , cor. . . when they are like-minded , having the same love , being of one accord , of one minde , doing nothing through strife or vain glory , which will never be while the one calls the other factious and schismatical , and the other calleth him superstitious and tyrannical ; but when christ hath taught us in lowliness of minde to esteem others better than our selves , and not to look every man on his own things ( his own gifts , and virtues , and worth , and interest ) but every man also on the things of others ; and till the same mind bee in us , that was in christ jesus , that humbled himself , and took upon him the form of a servant , and made himself of no reputation , phil. . , to . how much should wee honour the body , the spirit , the hope , the lord , the faith , the baptism , the god and father of all beleevers , which are one , if wee were one among our selves , which will never be , till with lowliness , and meekness , and long-suffering , wee forbear one another in love , instead of hating , reviling and persecuting one another ; and till wee endeavour to keep the unity of the spirit ( though given in various degrees ) rather than an unity in unnecessary things ) in the bond of peace , ephes . . , , , , , . and till the well-joynted and compacted body do edifie it self in love , by a due contribution of mutual supply , and grow in christ the proper head , instead of contending with it self , and dis-joynting and tearing it self into peeces , because of our different measure of understanding , and our unavoidable differences about some small unnecessary things , vers . , , , . how beautiful would our holy assemblies be , and how delightful the worship of god there celebrated , if wee had all laid by , the unchristian spirit of hatred , envy , emulation , murmuring , wrath , variance , strife , heresies , seditions , and all uncharitableness , and with one minde , and one mouth did glorifie god ( gal. . , , . rom. . . ) which will never be done , till those that are strong do bear the infirmities of the weak , and please not themselves , but every one of us please his neighbour , for his good to edification , instead of vilifying him , or undoing him ; and till instead of casting each others out of the church or ministry , on the account of things indifferent , wee received one another , as christ received us to the glory of god , rom. . , , , . and till wee are thus like-minded one towards another ; according to christ jesus , vers . . instead of being selfishly minded as men , or maliciously as enemies ( cor. . . cor. . . col. . . titus . . ) if the very babes were fed with the sincere milk of the word , and all malice , and guile , and hypocrisie , and envies , and evil-speaking were laid aside , it would prove the best way to their growth , and a surer way to your present and eternal peace , than casting them out because they cannot bear your burdens , or digest some unnecessary things , pet. . , , . how good and how happy a thing would it bee for brethren to dwell together in unity ? ( psal . . . ) and as those that by one spirit are baptized into one body , and know they have need of one another , to contribute honour to the parts that lack it ; yea to bestow more abundant honour upon those members which wee think to be less honourable , and more abundant comliness , on the uncomely parts , as knowing those members are necessary that seem to be more feeble . if indeed wee would have no schism in the body , the natural way is , for the members to have the same care one for another , as suffering all with one that suffereth , and rejoycing all with one that 's honoured , cor. . , , , , , , , . take their sufferings as your own , and you will not be hasty to bring them unto suffering . it must be the primitive simplicity of faith , worship , and discipline , that must restore the primitive charity , unity , and peace , and make the multitude of beleevers to bee of one heart , and of one soul , and to converse with gladness and singleness of heart , as having all things common , act. . . & . . no such things as our controverted impositions , were then made necessary to the unity and concord of the members of the church . . and wee humbly offer to your consideration , which way will most gratifie satan in his cause and servants , and which will most promote the work and interest of jesus christ . the ungodly that have an inbred enmity to holiness , and to the holy seed , will bee glad to see so many of them suffer , and glad under the shelter of your displeasure and afflictings , to finde opportunity to reproach them , and add affliction to affliction . the common adversaries of our religion , and of the king and kingdome will rejoyce to see us weakned by our divisions , and employed in afflicting or censuring one another , and to see so many able ministers laid aside , that might do much displeasure to satan , by the weakening of his kingdome , and by promoting the gospel and kingdome of the lord. and whether this will tend to the edification of the saints , and the pleasing of christ , wee have inquired before . . and if what you stand for , bee indeed of god , this course of unmerciful imposition , is the greatest wrong to it , that you can easily bee drawn to , unawars ; while somany truly fearing god , are cast out or trodden down , and tempted to think ill of that which themselves and the church thus suffer by , and when so many of the worst befriend this way because it gratifieth them , it tendeth to make your cause judged of , according to the quality of its friends and adversaries . and how great a hand this very thing hath had already in the dislike of that is befallen diocesans , ceremonies , and the liturgie , is a thing too generally known to need proof . . lastly wee repeat what formerly wee have said , that the holy ghost hath already so plainly decided the point in controversie , in the instance of meats and daies , rom . . that it seemeth strange to us that yet it should remain a controversie . a weak brother that maketh an unnecessary difference of meats and daies , is not to bee cast out , but so to bee received and not to bee troubled with such doubtful disputations : despising and judging the servants of the lord , whom hee receiveth and can make to stand , and that upon such small occasion is unbeseeming true beleevers , vers . , , , , . all should bee here left to the full perswasion of their own minde , vers . . both parties here acknowledgeth the soveraignty of christ , and in observing , or not observing such things , they do it all to him , vers . , , , . his judgement should affright us from despising or judging one another , vers . , , . instead of judging others wee should judge it our duty , that none of us put a stumbling block , or occasion to fall in his brothers way ; vers . . if wee grieve those that esteem that unclean which we do not , wee walk not charitably ; destroy not the work of god , nor him for whom christ died , by your indifferent things ; vers . , , . it is evil to him that judgeth it to be evil . vers . , . do you beleeve these things to bee indifferent , have this belief to your self before god , and condemn not your selves in that which you allow , vers . . your brother is damned if hee practise doubtingly , for whatsoever is not of faith is sin . vers . . and you drive him upon damnation ! wee may well conclude then , that it is good , even your selves to avoid such things unnecessary , by which your brother stumbleth , is offended , or made weak . vers . . much more to forbear the forcing them upon him , which those that the apostle reproveth did not attempt . it is the kingdome of god that wee must all promote ; and that kingdome consisteth not in meat or drink , but in righteousness , and peace , and joy in the holy ghost . and hee that in these things serveth christ , is acceptable to god , and should bee approved of men vers . , . let us therefore follow after the things , which make for peace , and things wherewith one may edifie another . verse . if you say , rulers imposition maketh indifferent things cease to be indifferent ? wee answer , . they are not indifferent , in the judgement of dissenters , though they bee so in yours . . paul was a ruler of the church himself , and yet would deny his own liberty , rather than offend the weak , so far was hee from taking away the liberty of others : cor. . . and it is to the church of rome and corinth , and so to the pastours as well as the rest , that paul thus writeth : wee beseech you therefore plead not law against us , when our request is that you will joyn with us in petitioning , to his majesty , and the parliament , that there may bee no such law. the apostles and elders act. . . declare unto the churches , that it seemed good to the holy ghost , and them , to lay upon them , no greater burden , than necessary things ; imposing them because antecedently necessary ( for that is given as the reason , of their selection , and imposition ) and not only making unnecessary things , necessary , by imposition , for then the imposition had been unnecessary , though it was not a simple , unchangeable necessity , yet it was a necessity by accident , pro tempore & loco ; antecedent to the imposition of that assembly . seeing then such things commend us not to god ; and if you use them , at least , you are not the better . sin not against christ , by sinning against your brethren , cor. . , , , . much more take heed of forcing them to sin . wee have presumed to bee thus plain and large , in shewing you some of our reasons , for your consent , to the necessary abatement , of things unnecessary to the consciences of your brethren . in the conclusion , wee beseech you to compare with these the reasons , that can move you to deny us these requests . if you will needs use such things your selves , will it gain you so much to force them upon others , as will answer all the foresaid inconveniences ? will it cost you as dear to grant this liberty , or abate these things , as the imposition will cost your brethren and you ? o how easily , how safely , how cheaply , yea , with what commodity and delight , may you now make this nation happy , in granting your brethren these requests ? if you say that others will bee still unsatisfied , and you shall never know when you have done : wee answer , . the cause of the non-conformists hath been long ago stated , at the troubles at frank-ford , and having continued still the same , you have no reason to suspect them of any considerable change . . grant us but the freedome that christ and his apostles left unto the churches ; use necessary things , as necessary , and unnecessary , as unnecessary , and charitably bear with the infirmities of the weak , and tolerate the tolerable , while they live peaceably , and then you will know when you have done . and for the intolerable , wee beg not your toleration : wee intercede for those that have christ for their intercessor in the highest : wee know when all 's done , there will bee heresies . cor. . . there will bee self-lovers , covetous , bousters , proud , blasphemers , disobedient to parents , unthankful , unholy , without natural affection , truce breakers , false accusers , incontinent , fierce , despisers of those that are good , traytors , heady , high-minded , lovers of pleasures more than of god , having a form of godliness , while they deny the power . tim. . , , . there will bee filthy dreamers , that defile the flesh , despise dominion , speak evil of dignities . jud. . and many will follow their pernicious ways , by reason of whom the way of truth will be evil spoken of . pet. . . it is not these for whom wee are petitioners : but for those that are faithful to god and the king , that fear offending , that agree with you in all things necessary to salvation ; and the common union of beleevers , and that you are like to see at christs right hand , who will finally justifie them , and take them to his glory . if you suppose us in all this to have pleaded our own cause ; wee hope wee are not such as are intolerable in the ministry or communion of the church : if you suppose us to plead the cause of others , wee hope you will accept our desires as impartial , when it is supposed the persons differ from us as well as from you . wee have now faithfully , and not unnecessarily , or unreasonably , spread before you the case of thousands of the upright of the land : wee have proposed honest and safe remedies for our present distractions , and the preventing of the feared increase . wee humbly beg your favourable interpretation of our plain and earnest language , which the urgency of the cause commands , and your consent to these our necessary requests : which if you grant us , you will engage us to thankfulness to god and you , and to imploy our faculties and interests with alacrity to assist you for the common peace . but if you reject our suit ( which god forbid ) wee shall commit all to him that judgeth righteously , and wait in hope for the blessed day of universal judgement , when the lord of hosts their strong redeemer shall throughly plead his peoples cause , and execute judgement for them , and bring them forth into the light , and they shall behold his righteousness . in the mean time , wee will bear the indignation of the lord , because wee have sinned against him . come lord jesus ! come quickly ; amen . the reformation of the liturgy . presented to the right reverend bishops , by the divines appointed by his majesties commission to treat with them about the alteration of it . right reverend , having already given you our judgement of several things in the book of common-prayer , and our desires for the altering of some parts of it , leaving the rest unaltered ; wee here tender you some of the said alterations , which in our former paper wee shewed to bee needful , and some additional forms in scripture phrase ( as neer as wee well could ) suited to the nature of the several parts of worship . the texts are cited in the margin , to justifie partly the matter , and partly the phrase . if any be mis-applied ( which wee hope will not bee found ) wee shall be willing upon information , to retract such mis-application . if some of the prayers here offered seem of too great a length , the substance of them being allowed , wee shall upon conference and mutual consideration , endeavour to contract them . and whereas his majesties commission doth impower and authorize us : to take into our consideration the several directions , rules and forms of prayer , and things contained in the book of common-prayer ; and further addeth , when wee shall have drawn our consultations to any resolution and determination , which wee shall agree upon as needful or expedient to bee done for the altering , diminishing , or enlarging the book of common-prayer , or any part thereof , &c. wee have here accordingly added some rules or directions as requisite to give light to the whole , shewing when and how those several prayers shall bee used . but if any of those rules or directions upon debate shall bee judged by the commissioners unnecessary , or over long , wee shall bee very ready to submit either to the alteration , or omission of them . and since wee for our parts do so freely profess not to insist on any thing now or formerly proposed , which shall bee manifested to bee unmeet ; so wee humbly crave , and hope for your consent to all the rest ; and that these alterations and additions now offered , may finde your favourable interpretation and acceptance , and may by our joynt consent bee presented to his majesty , to the end they may obtain his gracious approbation ; and the several particulars thereof may bee inserted into the several respective places of the liturgy , to which they do belong , and left to the ministers choice to use the one or the other , according to his majecties gracious declaration concerning ecclesiastical affairs . the ordinary publick-worship on the lords-day . the congregation being reverently composed , let the minister first crave gods assistance and acceptance of the worship , to bee performed in these or the like words , eternal , incomprehensible , and invisible god , infinite in power , wisdome and goodness , dwelling in the light which no man can approach , where thousand thousands minister unto thée , and ten thousand times ten thousand stand before thee , yet dwelling with the humble and contrite , and taking pleasure in thy people : thou hast consecrated for us●…a new and living way , that with boldness wée may enter into the holiest , by the blood of jesus , and hast bid us séek thée , while thou mayest be found ; wée come to thée at thy call , and worship at thy footstool . behold us in thy tender mercies . despise us not , though unworthy . thou art greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints , and to be had in reverence of all that are about thée . put thy fear into our hearts , that with reverence wée may serve thée ; sanctifie us , that thou mayest be sanctified of us , when wée draw nigh thée . give us the spirit of grace and supplication , to help our infirmities , that our prayers may be faithful , fervent , and effectual . let the desire of our souls bée to thée ; let us draw néer thée with our hearts , and not only with our lips , and worship thée , who art a spirit , in spirit and truth . let thy word be spoken and heard by us as the word of god ; give us attentive , hearing ears , and opened , beleeving , understanding hearts , that wee may no more refuse thy calls , nor disregardthy merciful , cut-stretched-hand , nor sleight thy counsels and reproofs ; but be more ready to hear , than to give the sacrifice of fools . put thy laws into our hearts , and write them in our minds , and let us bee all taught of god. let thy word bee unto us quick and powerful ; a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the hearts ; mighty to pull down strong-holds , casting down imaginations and reasonings , and every high thing that advanceth it self against the knowledge of god ; and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of christ ; let us magnifie thée with thanksgiving , and triumph in thy praise . let us rejoyce in thy salvation , and glory in thy holy name . open thou our lips , o lord , and let our mouths shew forth thy praise . and let the words of our mouths , and the meditation of our hearts , bee acceptable in thy sight , through jesus christ our lord and onely saviour . amen . or thus , when brevity is necessary . o eternal , almighty , and most gracious god , heaven is thy throne , and earth is thy footstool , holy and reverend is thy name ; thou art praised by the heavenly hosts , and in the congregation of thy saints on earth , and wilt bee sanctified in all that come nigh unto thee . wée are sinful and unworthy dust , but being invited by thée , are bold , through our blessed mediator , to present our selves and our supplications before thée . receive us graciously , help us by thy spirit ; let thy fear bee upon us : let thy word come unto us in power , and bée received in love , with attentive , reverent , and obedient minds . make it to us the savour of life unto life . cause us to be fervent in prayer , and joyful in thy praises , and to serve thée this day without distraction , that wee may finde , that a day in thy courts , is better than a thousand , and that it is good for us to draw néer to god ; through jesus christ our lord and saviour . amen . next , let one of the creeds bee read by the minister , saying , in the profession of this holy christian faith wee are here assembled . i beleeve in god the father , &c. i beleeve in one god , &c. and sometimes athanasius creed . the ten commandements . god spake these words , and said , &c. for the right informing and affecting the people , and moveing them to a penitent beleeving confession , some of these sentences may bee read . god created man in his image . by one man , sin entred into the world , and death by sin : and so death passed upon all men , for that all have sinned . for all have sinned and come short of the glory of god. god so loved the world , that hee gave his only begotten son , that whosoever beleeveth in him , should not perish , but have everlasting life . hee that beleeveth on him shall not bee condemned , but hee that beleeveth not , is condemned already , because hee hath not beleeved in the name of the only begotten son of god. and this is the condemnation , that light is come into the world , and men loved darkness rather than light , because their deeds were evil . for every one that doth evil hateth the light , neither cometh to the light , lest his deeds should bee reproved . christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law , beeing made a curse for us . except a man be born of water and of the spirit , hee cannot enter into the kingdome of god. that which is born of the flesh is fl●sh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit . verily i say unto you , except yee bee converted , and become as little children , yee shall not enter into the kingdome of heaven . say unto them , as i live saith the lord god , i have no pleasure in the death of the wicked , but that the wicked turn from his way and live ; turn yee , turn yee from your evil waies ; for why will yee dye oh house of israel . i say unto you there is joy in the presence of the angels of god , over a sinner that repenteth . i will arise and go to my father , and say unto him , father , i have sinned against heaven and before thee , and am no more worthy to bee called thy son. the confession of sin , and prayer for pardon and sanctification . o most holy , righteous , and gracious god , who hatest all the workers of iniquity , and hast appointed death to bée the wages of sin , but yet for the glory of thy mercy hast sent thy son to be the saviour of the world , and hast promised forgiveness of sin through his blood , to all that beléeve in him , and by true repentance turn unto thée , and that whosoever confesseth and forsaketh his sin , shall have mercy ; wée confess that wée are vile and miserable sinners , being conceived in sin ; by nature children of wrath , and transgressors from the womb . all wée like shéep have gone astray , and turned every one to his own way . thou madest us , and not wée our selves . thou boughtest us with a price , and wée are not our own ; and therefore wée should have wholly given up our selves unto thée , and have glorified thée with our souls and bodies , as being thine . what ever wée did should have been done to thy glory , and to please thée , in the obeying of thy will. but wee have displeased and dishonoured thée , and turned from thée , exalting , séeking and pleasing our selves . thou art the king of all the world , and thy laws are holy , iust and good . but wée have denied thée our due subjection and obedience , being unruly and self-willed , minding the things of the flesh , and making provision for its lusts ; wée have staggered at thy word through unbeléef , and have not fully placed our trust and hope in thée . wée have rather feared man that is dust , and can but kill the body , than thée ; that canst destroy both soul and body in hell. thou art infinitely good , and love it self , yet have wée not fully taken thée for our portion , nor loved thée with all our heart , and soul , and might , nor mads thée our full desire and delight . but wée have inordinately loved our selves , and the world , and the things of the world , and lived by sense when wée should have lived by faith , and cared and laboured for the food that perisheth ; when wée should have laboured for the one thing néedful , and that which indureth to everlasting life , wée have béen slothful servants , yéelding to temptations , ashamed of our duty , losing our precious time ; when wee should have béen fervent in spirit , serving the lord , cleaving to thée with full resolution , redéeming the time , and with diligence making sure our calling and election . wée have not with due holiness and reverence drawn neer thée , and used thy holy name , thy worship , and thy day : wée have dishonoured and disobeyed our superiours , and neglected our inferiours . wée have béen guilty of not loving our neighbours as our selves , and not doing to others , as wée would they should do to us , but have sought our own against their welfare , not forbearing , and forgiving , not loving our enemies , as wee ought , nor following peace , nor studying to do good to all according to our power . wee have sinned secretly and openly , in thought , word and déed , ignorantly and presumptuously , in passion , and upon deliberation , against thy precepts , promises , and threats ; against thy mercies and thy judgements , under thy patience , and in thy sight , against our consciences , our purposes , and our covenants ; when wée were hasting to death and judgement , for which , through all our lives wée should have prepared ; thou hast commended thy wonderful love towards us in giving thy son to dye for sinners , to reconcile us to thée while wée were enemies ; and all things being made ready , thou hast sent thy messengers to invite us to come in , preaching to us the glad tidings of salvation , and fréely offering us pardon and life in jesus christ , but wee have made light of it , and neglected this great salvation , and made excuses or too long delaies ; undervaluing our redeemer , his blood and merits , his offered grace , and endless glory , rejecting his holy doctrine and example , resisting his spirit , ministers , and wrod . wee have sinned , o lord , against thée , and against our own souls , and are not worthy to be called thy children : wée have deserved everlasting wrath ; to us belongeth confusion , but mercy and forgiveness unto thée . have mercy upon us , o god , according to the multitude of thy mercies . heal our souls that have sinned against thée , and enter not into judgement with thy servants . hide thy face from our sins , and blot out all our iniquities . cast us not away from thy presence , and avenge not upon us the quarrel of thy covenant . wash us in the blood of the lamb of god , who taketh away the sins of the world . accept us in thy beloved son , who was made a curse for us , and was wounded for our transgressions , that wée might bee healed by his stripes . turn us , o god of our salvation , and cause thy face to shine upon us . give us repentance unto life ; cause us to loathe our selves for all the evils that wée have committed . give us that broken contrite spirit , which thou wilt not despise . create in us a clean heart , o god , and renew a right spirit within us . take out of us the old and strong heart , and give us a new and tender heart . give us the spirit of thy son , and bee our god , and let us bée thy people . enlighten our understandings to know the wonderful things of thy law , the dimensions of thy love in christ , the mysteries of thy kingdome , and the riches of the glory of thy inheritance in the saints , and that wee may approve the things that are excellent , and may escape the snares of the devil , and may hate every false way . shed abroad thy love in our hearts by thy holy spirit , and cause us so to love thee , that nothing may separate us from thy love . put thy fear into our hearts , that wee may never depart from thee . cause us to seek first thy kingdome , and its righteousness , and ( as those that are risen with christ ) to seek the things that are above , and to lay up a treasure in heaven ; and let our hearts and conversations bee there ; mortifie our earthly inclinations and desires . crucifie the world to us , and us unto the world by the cross of christ . cause us to live by faith , and look at the things that are unseen ; and use the world , as not over-using it , seeing the fashion of it passeth away ; striving to enter in at the strait gate , and running so as to obtain ; let us no longer live the rest of our time to the lusts of men , but to the will of god , studying in all things to please thee , and to bee accepted of thee ; let us not seek our own wills , but the will of him that called us ; yea let us delight to do thy will , o god , let our delight bee in thy law , and let us meditate therein day and night ; cause us to deny ungodliness , and worldly lusts , and to live soverly , and righteously , and godly in this present world , as obedient children , not fashioning our selves to the former lusts of our ignorance ; but as hee that hath called us is holy , let us be holy in all manner of conversation . cause us to love one another with a pure heart , fervently , forbearing and forgiving one another , if any have a quarrel against other , even as christ forgave us . give us the wisdome which is first pure , and then peaceable . in our eyes let a vile person bee contemned , but let us honour them that fear the lord. cause us to walk circumspectly without offence , and to bee zealous of good works , to love our enemies , and not to give place to wrath ; and in patience to possess our souls . help us to deny our selves , and take up our cross , and follow christ ; esteeming his reproach to bee greater riches than the treasures of the world , that having suffered with him , wee may also bee glorified with him . though wee must bee tempted , help us to overcome , and bee faithful unto the death , and then let us receive that crown of life , through the merits and intercession of christ jesus our lord and onely saviour , in whose comprehensive words wee summ up our requests , saying as hee hath taught us , our father which art in heaven , hallowed bee thy name . thy kingdome come , &c. or thus when brevity is necessary . o most great , most iust and gracious god , thou art of purer eyes than eo behold iniquity , thou condemnest the ungodly , impenitent , and unbeleevers ; but hast promised mercy through jesus christ to all that repent and beleeve in him . wee confess that wee were conceived in sin , and are by nature children of wrath . and have all sinned and come short of the glory of god. in our baptisme thou tookest us into the bond of the holy covenant , but wee remembered not our creator , in the daies of our youth , with the fear , and love , and obedience which wee owed thee : not pleasing , and glorifying thee in all things , nor walking with thee , by faith in an heavenly conversation , nor serving thee fervently with all our might : but fulfilled the desires of the flesh , and of the carnal minde . wee have neglected and abused thy holy worship , thy holy name , and thy holy day . wee have dishonoured our superiours , and neglected our inferiours : wee have dealt unjustly , and uncharitably , with our neighbours , not loveing them as our selves , nor doing to others as wee would they should do to us , wee have not sought first thy kingdome , and righteousness , and been contented with our dayly bread , but have been careful ond troubled about many things , neglecting the one thing necessary . thou hast revealed thy wonderful love to us in christ , and offered us pardon and salvation in him : but wee made light of it and neglected so great salvation , and resisted thy spirit , word , and ministers , and turned not at thy reproof . wee have run into temptations ; and the sin which wee should have hated , wee have committed in thy sight , both secretly and openly , ignorantly and carelesly , rashly , and presumptuously , against thy precepes , thy promises , and threats , thy mercies and thy judgements ; our transgressions are multiplied before thee , and our sins testifie against us ; if thou deal with us as wee deserve , thou wilt cast us away from thy presence into hell , where the worm never dieth , and the fire is not quenched . but in thy mercy , thy son , and thy promises is our hope . have mercy upon us most merciful father . bee reconciled to us , and let the blood of jesus christ cleanse us from all our sins . take us for thy children , and give us the spirit of thy son. sanctifie us wholly , shed abroad thy love in our hearts , and cause us to love thee with all our hearts . o make thy face to shine upon thy servants ; save us from our sins , and from the wrath to come ; make us a peculiar people to thee , zealous of good works , that wee may please thee , and shew forth thy praise . help us to redeem the time , and give all diligence to make our calling and election sure . give us things necessary for thy service , and keep us from sinful discontent and cares . and seeing all these things must bee dissolved , let us consider what manner of persons wee ought to be , in all holy conversation and godliness . help us to watch against temptations , and resist and overcome the flesh , the devil , and the world ; and being delivered out of the hand of all our enemies ; let us serve thee without fear in holiness and righteousness before thee all the daies of our life . guide us by thy counsel , and after receive us into thy glory , through jesus christ our onely saviour . amen . [ here use the lords prayer as before . ] for the strengthening of faith , and raising the penitent , some of these sentences of the gospel , may bee here read . hear what the lord saith to the absolution and comfort of penitent beleevers . the lord your god is gracious and merciful , and will not turn away his face from you , if yee return unto hine . if any man sin , wee have an advocate with the father , jesus christ the righteous , and hee is the propitiation for our sins , and not for ours only , but also for the sins of the whole world. bee it known unto you men , and brethren , that through this man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins , and by him , all that beleeve are justified , from all things , from which they could not bee justified by the law of moses . where sin abounded , grace did much more abound , that as sin reigned unto death , even so might grace reign through righteousness , unto eternal life through jesus christ our lord. if wee walk in the light as hee is in the light , w●● have fellowship one with another , and the blood of jesus christ his son , cleanseth us from all sin . if wee say , that wee have no sin ; wee deceive our selves , and the truth is not in us . if wee confess our sin , hee is faithful and just to forgive us our sin , and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness . come unto mee all yee that labour , and are heavy laden , and i will give you rest . take my yoak upon you and learn of mee for i am meek and lowly in heart , and ye shall finde rest unto your souls for my yoak is easie , and my barden is light . whosoever will let him take of the water of life freely . all that the father hath given mee , shall come to mee , and him that cometh to mee , i will in no wise cast out . i will bee mercifull to their unrighteousness , and their sins , and iniquities i will remember no more . hear also what you must bee , and do for the time to come , if you would bee saved now if any man have not the spirit of christ , hee is none of his . if any man bee in christ , hee is a new creature , old things are passed away , behold all things are become new ? there is no condemnation to them that are in christ jesus , who walk not after the flesh , but after the spirit . for they that are after the flesh , do minde the things of the flesh , but they that are after the spirit , the things of the spirit . for to bee carnally minded is death , but to bee spiritually minded is life and peace . for the carnal minde is enmity against god , for it is not subject to the law of god , neither indeed can bee . so then they that are in the flesh cannot please god. for if yee live after the flesh yee shall die , but if through the spirit yee mortifie the deeds of the body , you shall live . now the works of the flesh are manifest , which are these , adultery , fornication , uncleanness , lasciviousness , idolatry , witchcraft , hatred , variance , emulations , wrath , strife , seditions , heresies , envyings , murders , drunkenness , revellings , and such like , of the which i tell you before , as i have told you in time past , that they which do such things , shall not inherit the kingdome of god. but the fruit of the spirit is love , joy , peace , long suffering , gentleness , goodness , faith , meekness , temperance , against such there is no law. and they that are christs , have crucyfied the flesh with the affections , and lusts . let us walk honestly as in the day , not in rioting and drunkenness ; not in chambering and wanionness , not in strife and envying . but put yee on the lord jesus christ , and make no provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof . love not the world , neither the things that are in the world , if any man love the world , the love of the father is not in him . for all that is in the world , the lust of the flesh , the lust of the eye , and the pride of life , is not of the father , but is of the world . enter yee in at the strait gate , for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction , and many there bee that go in thereat . because strait is the gate , and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life , and few there bee that finde it . for the grace of god that bringeth salvation , hath appeared unto all men , teaching us , that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts , wee should live soberly , and righteously , and godly in this present world , looking for the blessed hope , and the glorious appearing of the great god , and our saviour jesus christ . who gave himself for us , that hee might redeeme us from all iniquity , and purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works . blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly , nor standeth in the way of sinners , nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful . but his delight is in the law of the lord , and in his law hee doth meditate day and night . the ungodly shall not stand in the judgement , nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous . wherefore wee , receiving a kingdome which cannot bee moved , let us have grace , whereby wee may serve god acceptably , with reverence and godly fear , for our god is a consuming fire . seeing then that these things shall bee dissolved , what manner of persons ought yee to bee , in all holy conversation and godliness , looking for and hasting to the comming of the day of god. therefore my beloved brethren , bee yee stedfast , unmovable , alwaies abounding in the work of the lord , for as much as yee know , that your labour is not in vain in the lord then may bee said the . or the . psalm , or the . and next the psalms in order for the day ; and next shall be read a chapter of the old testament , such as the minister findeth most seasonable ; or with the liberty expressed in the admonition before the second book of homilies . after which may be sung a psalm , or the te deum said , then shall bee read a chapter of the new testament , and then the prayer for the king and magistrates . and after that the . or . or some other psalm , may bee sung or said , or the benedictus , or magnificat . and the same order to bee observed at the evening worship , if time allow it . next after the psalm the minister shall ( in the pulpit ) first reverently , prudently , and servently pray , according to the state and necessities of the church , and those especially that are present , and according to the subject that hee is to preach on . and after prayer , hee shall preach upon some text of holy scripture suiting his matter to the necessities of the hearers , and the manner of delivery to their quality and benefit . alwaies speaking from faith and holy experience in himself , with plainness , and perspicuity , with reverence and gravity , with convincing evidence , and authority , with prudence , caution , faithfulness , and impartiality , with tender love and melting compassion , with servent zeal , and perswading importunity , and with frequency and unwearied patience , waiting on god for the success . after sermon hee shall pray for a blessing on the word of instruction and exhortation , which was delivered ; and in his prayers ( before or after sermon ) ordinarily hee shall pray for the conversion of heathens , jews , and other infidels ; the subversion of idolatry , infidelity , mahometanisme , heresie , papal tiranny and superstition , schisme and prophaneness , and for the free progress of the gospel , and the increase of faith and godliness , the honouring of gods name , the enlargement of the kingdome of christ , and the obedience of his saints through the nations of the earth . and in special for these nations , for the kings majestie , and the rest of the royal family , for the lords of his majesties counsel , the judges and other magistrates of the land , for the pastors of the church , and all congregations committed to their care , and government . alwaies taking heed that no mixtures of imp●●dent , disorderly expressions , of private discontent and passion , of unreverent , disobedient , seditious , or factious intimations , tending to corrupt , and not to edifie the peoples minds , do turn either prayer or preaching into sin . and ordinarily in church communion , especially on the lords day ( which is purposely separated for the joyful commemoration of the blessed work of mans redemption ) a considerable proportion of the publick worship must consist of thanksgiving and praises to god , especially for jesus christ , and his benefits ; still leaving it to the ministers discretion to abbreviate some parts of worship , when hee seeth it needful to bee longer , or some other . the sermon and prayer being ended , let the minister dismiss the congregation with a benediction , in these or the like words . blessed are they that hear the word of god , and keep it . the lord bless you , and keep you ; the lord make his face to shine on you , and bee gracious unto you ; the lord lift up his countenance upon you , and give you peace . the grace of our lord jesus christ , and the love of god the father , and the communion of the holy ghost , bee with you all . amen . except there bee a communion in the sacrament of the lords supper to bee celebrated , or any further worship to be performed , and then the minister may delay the benediction till the end. and because when there is leisure , the prayers of the church should bee as full as the rule and our necessities require ; let the following general prayer bee used , when the ministers findeth it convenient instead of the letany and collects . here are also adjoyned a thanksgiving for christ and his benefits , and a hymn to bee used at the discretion of the minister either after sermon , or at the communion , or on other daies . a prayer for the king , the royal family , and magistrates . almighty god , by whom kings reign , and princes decree justice , who rulest in all the kingdomes of men , and givest them to whomsoever thou wilt , who by thy special providente hast set over us thy servant charls our king : crown him with thy blessings , and satisfie him with thy goodness . save him by thy right hand , and defend him against such as rise up against him ; prolong his life in peace and righteousness , grant him the spirit of wisdome and counsel , the spirit of holiness , and the fear of the lord , that he may know how to go in and out before this great people over whom thou hast fet him . let not thy law depart out of his mind , or mouth , but let him meditate in it day and night . make him as an angel of god to discera between good and evil , that in his eyes a vile person may be contemned , due hee may honour them that fear the lord ; that his eyes may bee upon the faithful of the land , that they may dwell with him , and they that are perfect in the way serve him ; remove the wicked from before him , that his throne may bee established in righteousness , and grant that under him wee may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty . and when hee hath finished his course on earth , let him inherit a crown of righteousness , and reign with christ for ever . bless the queen mother , the illustrious prince james duke of york , and the rest of the royal family , endue them with thy holy spirit , inrich them with thy heavenly grace , and make them blessings in their generation . endue the lords of his majesties counsel , and all the nobility , the judges , and all the magistrates of the land with wisdome from above , that they may rule as in thy fear , and iudge righteous judgement , and may take heed what they do , as iudging not for man , but for the lord , that justice may run down as water and righteousness , as a mighty stream ; let all his maiesties subiects duly submit to him and obey him , not only for wrath , 〈◊〉 for conscience sake ; let all his kingd●mes bee the kingd●mes of the lord , and of his son christ , that god may dwell amongst us , and if it may bee said of them , the lord bless thee , o habitation of justice , and mountain of holiness . for thine o father , with the son and holy ghost , is the kingdome , and power , and glory for ever . amen . the general prayer . omost holy ▪ blessed and glorious trinity , father , son , and holy ghost , three persons , and one god , our creator , redeemer , and sanctifier , our lord● our governour and father , hear us , and have mercy upon 〈◊〉 , miserable sinners . o lord our saviour god and man 〈◊〉 who having assum●… our nature by thy sufferings , and death , and burial , wast made 〈◊〉 ransome to take away the sins of the world ; who being raises from the dead , ascended and glorified , art made head over all things to the church , which thou gatherest , justifiest , sanctifiest , rulest , and preservest , and which at thy coming thou wilt raise and judge to endless glory . wee beseech thee to hear us , miserable sinners , make sure to us our calling and election , our unfeigned faith and repentance , that being justified , and made the sons of god , wee may have peace with him , as our reconciled god and father . let thy holy spirit sanctifie us , and dwell in us , and cause us to deny our selves , and to give up our selves entirely to thee , as being not our own , but thine . as the world was created for thy glory , let thy name bee glorified throughout the world ; let self-love , and pride , and uain-glory bee destroyed , cause us to love thee , fear thee , and trust in thee with all our hearts , and to live to thee : let all the earth subject themselves to thee their king. let the kingdomes of the world become the kingdomes of the lord , and of his christ . let the atheists , idolaters , mahometans , jews , and other infidels , and ungodly people bee converted . send forth meet labourers into the harvest , and let the gospel bee preached throughout all the world. preserve and bless them in thy work. sustain in patience , and seasonably deliver the churches that are oppressed by idolaters , infidels , mahometans , or other enemies , or by the roman papal 〈◊〉 . unite all christians in jesus christ , the true and onely universal head , in the true christian and catholick faith and love , cast out heresies and corruptions , heal divisions , let the strong receive the weak , and bear their infirmities , restrain the spirit of pride and cruelty , and let nothing bee done in strife , or vain-glory . keep us from atheism , idolatry , and rebellion against thee , from infidelity , ungodliness and sensuality from security , presumption and despair . let us delight to please thee , and let thy word bee the rule of our faith and lives ; let us love it , and understand i● , and meditate in it day and night . let us not corrupt or neglect thy worship ; nor take thy holy name in vain , keep us from blasphemy , perjury , prophane swearing , lying , contempt of thy ordinances , and from false , unworthy , and unreverent thoughts and speeches of god , or holy things , and from the neglect and prophanation of thy holy day . put it into the hearts of the kings and rulers of the world , to submit to christ , and rule for him as nursing-fathers to his church , and save them from the temptations that would drown them in sensuality , or would break them upon christ , as a rock of offence , by engaging them against his holy doctrine , waies , and servants . have mercy on thy servant charls our king , protect his person , illuminate and sanctifie him by thy spirit , that above all things hee may seek thine honour , the encrease of faith , and holy obedience to thy laws ; and may govern us , as thy minister , appointed by thee for the terrour of evil doers , and the praise of them that do well , that under him wee may live a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty . have mercy upon all the royal family , upon the lords of the counsel , and all the nobility , the judges , and other magistrates of these lands . let them fear thee , and hee ensamples of piety and temperance , haters of injustice , covetousness , and pride , and defenders of the innocent : in their eyes let a vile person bee contemned , but let them honour them that fear the lord. let every soul bee subject to the higher powers , and not resist ; let them obey the king , and all in authority , not only for wrath , but for conscience sake . give all the churches able , holy , faithful pastors , that may soundly and diligently preach thy word , and guide the flocks in waies of holiness and peace , over-seeing and ruling them not by constraint , but willingly , not for filthy lucre , but of a ready minde : not as being lords over thy heritage , but the servants of all , and ensamples to the flock , that when the chief pastor shall appear , they may receive the crown of glory . let the people know those that are over them in the lord , and labour among them , preaching to them the word of god ; let them highly esteem them in love for their works sake , account them worthy of double honour , and obey them in the lord. let parents bring up their children , in holy nurture , that they may remember their creatour in the daies of their youth , and let children , love , honour and obey them . let husbands love their wives and guide them in knowledge , and holiness ; and let wives love and obey their husbands . let masters rule their servants in thy fear , and servants obey their masters in the lord. kéep us from murders and violence , and injurious passionate words and actions . kéep us from fornication and all uncleanness , from chambering and wantonness , from lustful thoughts , and filthy communication , and all unchaste behaviour . kéep us from stealing or wronging our neighbour in his propriety , from perverting justice , from false witnessing and deceit , from slandering , backbiting , uncharitable censuring , or other wrong to the reputation of our neighbours . kéep us from coveting any thing that is . our neighbours , let us love our neighbours as our selves , and do to others as wee would they should do to us . cause us to love christ in his members with a pure and fervent love , and to love our enemies , and do good to all , as wée are able ; but especially to the houshold of faith. give us our necessary sustentation and provision for thy service , and contentedness therewith ; bless our labours , and the fruits of the earth in their season , and give us such temperate weather as tendeth hereunto ; deliver us and all thy servants from such sickness , wants , and other distresses , as may unseasonably take us off thy service . kéep us from gluttony , and drunkenness , slothfulness , unlawful gain , and from making provision for the flesh , to satisfie its lusts . when wée sui , restore us by true repentance and faith in christ : let us loath our selves for our transgressions ; forgive them all and accept us in thy well beloved son ; save us from the curse and punishment which they deserve , and teach us heartily to forgive others , convert our enemies , peri●culors and slanderers and forgive them . cause us to watch against temptations , to resist and overcome the flesh , the devil and the world , and by no allurements of pleasure , profit or honour , to bee drawn from thée , to sin , let us patiently suffer with christ that wée may reign with him . deliver us and all thy people from the enmity and rage of satan and all his wicked instruments ; and preserve us to thy heavenly kingdome . for thou only art the universal king : all power is thine in heaven and earth : of thee , and through thee , and to thee are all things , and the glory shall bée thine for ever , amen . concerning the psalms for publick use . wee desire that instead of the imperfect version of the psalms in meeter now in use , mr. william bartons version , and that perused and approved by the church of scotland there in use ( being the best that we have seen ) may bee received and corrected by some skilful men , and both allowed ( for grateful variety ) to bee printed together on several columnes or pages , and publickly used ; at least until a better than either of them shall bee made . a thanksgiving for christ , and his gracious benefits . most glorious god , accept , through thy beloved son , though from the hands of sinners , of thanksgiving , which thy unspeakable love and mercies , as well as thy command do binde us to offer up unto thée . thou art the father of mercies , and the god of all consolation , full of compassion , gracious , long suffering , plenteous in goodness and truth , keeping mercy for thousands , forgiving iniquitie , transgression and sin. for thy glory thou didst create us after thine image ; thou madest us a little lower than the angels , and crownedst us with glory and honour , giving us dominion over the works of thy hands , and putting all these things under our feet . and when wee fors●●k thée , and broke thy covenant , and rebelled against thée , and corrupted our selves , and turned our glory into shame ; thou didst not leave us in the hands of death , nor cast us out into utter desperation ; but thou didst so love the sinful world , as to give thy son to bee our saviour . hée took nor upon him the nature of angels , but of man , the word was made flesh and dwelt among us . this is the unsearchable mystery of love which the angels desire to pryints , hee was tempted that hee might succour them that are tempted , and conquered the tempter , that had conquered us ▪ hee became poor that was lord of all ; to make us rich . hée did not sin , but fulfilled all righteousness , to save us from our unrighteousness . hée made himself of no reputation , but was reviled , scorned , and spit upon , enduring the cross , and despising the shame , to cover our shame , and to bring us unto glory , thou laidst upon him the iniquity of us all . hée was bruised and wounded for our transgressious , that wée might bée healed by his stripes . hée gave himself a ransome for us , and died for our sins . and rose again for our justification . wée thank thée for his death that saveth us from death , and that hée bore the curse , to redeem us from the curse , and for his life which opened us the way to life . thou hast given him to bée head over all things to the church , and hast given the heathen to bée his inheritance , and given him a name above every name , and given all power , and judgement unto him . wée thank thée for the new and better covenant , for thy great and precious promises ; that thou hast given us eternal life in christ . that wée have the clear and sure revelation of thy will in the holy scriptures . that thou foundedst thy church upon apostles and prophets , jesus christ himself being the head corner stone . and hast committed to thy ministers the word of reconciliation , that as embassadours speaking in the stead of christ they might beseech us to bee reconciled unto thee . wée thank thée that by them thou hast opened our eyes , and turned us from darkness unto light , and from the power of satan unto god. wée were sometimes foolish , disobedient , deceived , serving divers lusts and pleasures , taken captive by satan at his will ; but thy mercy saved us by the washing of regeneration , and renewing of the holy ghost . thou mightest justly have left us to the blindness of our mindes , and to the hardness of our hearts , to seared consciences , to bee past feeling , to our own hearts lusts , to walk in our own counsels , and to work uncleanness with greediness , when we so oft refused to come to christ , that wee might have life , and would not have him to reign over us . but thy patience waited on us in our sin ; and all the day long didst thou stretch forth thy hand to a disobedient and gain-saying people . when wee turned from thee , thou calledst after us , to turn and live . thou drewest us to thy son , and openedst our hearts to attend unto thy calls : thou lovedst us first , and was found of them that sought thee not . thou hast pardoned our great and manifold transgressions , and iustified us by faith in christ , and given us repentance unto life : thou hast adopted us to bee thy sons , and joynt heirs with christ ; and made us his members , and given us his spirit : wee are no more strangers but fellow citizens with the saints , and of thy houshold ; blessed bee the god and father of our lord jesus-christ , who of his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope , by the resurrection of jesus christ from the dead , to an inheritance incorruptible , undefiled , that fadeth not away , reserved in heaven for us . thou keepest us by thy mighty power through faith unto salvation , ready at last to bee revealed , though ( when they are needful ) wee must for a season bee in heavyness under tribulations ; thou hast promised , that all things shall work together for our good ; in all our straits thou grantest us access to the throne of grace , bidding us call upon thee , in the time of trouble , and promising to deliver us , that wee may glorifie thee , every where wee have leave to lift up unto thée holy hands , especially in the house of prayer , and the assembly of the saints . thou hast heard the voice of our supplications when wee have cried unto thee ; great is thy mercy towards us , o lord. thou hast delivered our souls from the lowest hell ; thou hast sent forth from heaven thy mercy and truth ; and saved us from the reproach of him that would swallow us up : thou art our hiding place ; in the secrets of thy presence thou preservest us from trouble , from the pride of men , and from the strife of tongues . thou doest compass us about with songs of deliverance . o love the lord all yee his saints ! for the lord preserveth the faithful , and plentifully rewardeth the proud doer . hee dealeth not with us after our sins , his anger is but for a moment , but in his favour is life . in his wrath hee remembereth mercy ; all thy paths o lord are mercy and truth to such as keep thy covenant . wee come into thy house in the multitude of thy mercies , o give thanks unto the lord for hee is good , for his mercy endureth for ever . glory yee in his holy name , let the hearts of them rejoyce that seek him . blessed are the people that know the joyful sound : they shall walk o lord in the light of thy countenance . in thy name shall they rejoyce all the day , and in thy righteousness and favour shall they bee axalted ; blessed are they that dwell in thy house , they will be still praysing thee . o satisfie us early with thy mercy , that wee may rejoyce and bee glad in thee all our daies . guide us by thy counsel , and afterwards receive us unto thy glory ; where with all the blessed host of heaven , wee may behold , admire , and perfectly and joyfully praise thee . our most glorious creator , redeemer and sanctifier , for ever and for ever . amen . the hymn . the first part. bless the lord o my soul ! and all that is within mee bless his holy name , bless the lord o my soul , and forget not all his benefits : who forgiveth all thine iniquities , and healeth all thy diseases ! who redeemed thy life from destruction , and crowneth thee with loving kindeness and tender mercies . as far as the east is from the west , so far hath hee removed our transgressions from us ; behold what love the father hath bestowed on us , that wee should bee called the sons of god ; because thy loving kindeness is better than life , my lips shall praise thee . thus will i bless thee while i live , i will lift up my hands in thy name . my soul shall bee satisfied as with marrow and fatness , and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips . whom have i in heaven but thee , and there is none on earth that i desire besides thee . my flesh and my heart faileth , but god is the strength of my heart , and my portion for ever . for , lo , all that are far from thee shall perish , but it is good for mee to draw near to god. i am continually with thee . thou hast holden mee by my right hand , in the multitude of my thoughts within mee , thy comforts delight my soul. thou shalt guide me with thy counsel , and afterward receive mee to glory . the second part. how excellent is thy loving kindeness o god , therefore do the sons of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings . they shall bee abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house , and thou shalt make them drink of the rivers of thy pleasures , for with thee is the fountain of life . in thy sight we shall see light ; therefore my heart is glad , and my glory rejoyceth . my flesh also shall rest in hope . thou wilt shew mee the path of life . in thy presence is fulness of joy , and at thy right hand are pleasures for ever more . surely goodness and mercy shall follow mee all the daies of my life . and i shall dwell in the house of the lord for ever . o continue thy loving kindeness to them that know thee , and thy righteousness to the upright in heart . to the end that my glory may sing praise unto thee , and not bée silent , o lord my god , i will give thanks to thée for ever . the third part. glory to god in the highest : on earth peace ; good will towards men ! praise yée the lord , sing to the lord a new song ; his praise is in the congregation of saints . for the lord taketh pleasure in his people , he will beautify the meek with salvation . let the saints be joyful in glory . let the high praises of god bée in their mouths . all thy works praise thée o lord , and thy saints shall bless thée . they shall speak of the glory of thy kingdome , and talk of thy power ; to make known to the sons of men thy mighty acts , and the glorious majestie of thy kingdome . thy kingdome is an everlasting kingdome , and thy dominions is through all generations . the elders and saints about thy throne , rest not night nor day , saying holy , holy , holy , lord god almighty , which was , and is , and is to come . thou art worthy o lord , to receive glory , and honour , and power , for thou hast created all things , and for thy pleasure they are and were created . they sing unto thée the song of moses , and of the lamb , saying great and marvellous are thy works . lord god almighty , just and true are thy waies thou king of saints . who shall not fear thée , o lord , and glorifie thy name ! for thou only art holy : for all nations shall come and worship before thee , for thy judgements are made manifest . worthy is the lamb that was slain , to receive power , and riches , and wisdome , and strength , and honour , and glory . for thou hast redeemed us to god by thy blood , and made us kings and priests to god. the fourth part. o that men would praise the lord for his goodness , and for his wonderful works to the children of men ! let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving , and declare his works with rejoycing . sing unto the lord , bless his name , shew forth his salvation from day to day . worship the lord in the beauty of holiness , fear before him all the earth . let the heavens rejoyce , and the earth bee glad before the lord ; for hee cometh , for hee cometh to judge the earth . with righteousness shall hée judge the world , and the people with equity . bless the lord yée his angels that excel in strength , that do his commandements , hearkening to the voice of his word . bless yée the lord all yée his hosts , yee ministers of his that do his pleasure ; bless the lord all his works in all places of his dominions . bless the lord , o my soul , my mouth shall speak the praises of the lord , and let all flesh bless his holy name for ever and ever . let every thing that hath breath praise the lord. praise yee the lord. the order of celebrating the sacrament of the body and blood of christ . this or the like explication of the nature , use , and benefits of this sacrament , may bee used at the discretion of the minister , when hee seeth it needful to the instruction of the communicants . that you may discern the lords body , and understand the nature , use and benefits of this sacrament , you must know that god created man in his own image , to know , and love , and serve his maker ; that man fell under the guilt of sin and condemnation , and left his holy fitness for the work for which hee was created . that hereupon the wonderful love and wisdome of god provided us a remedy in our redeemer , to the end hee might not lose the glory of his creation , that hee might pardon and save us upon terms . securing the honour of his justice , and attaining the ends of his law and government , and recover us to his love and service , by appearing to the world , in the greatest demonstrations of goodness , love , and mercy ; by the greatest miracle of condiscension , hee first promised , and then gave his onely son the eternal word , to take mans nature into personal union with his god-head ; that being god and man , hee might bee a fit mediator between god and man , to restore us , and reconcile us to himself . thus jesus christ , conceived by the holy ghost , and born of the virgin mary , became the second adam , the physician and saviour of undone sinners , the captain of our salvation , to bee the glorious king and head of all that are sanctified and saved . hee revealed the holiness , the goodness , and the love of god , by the perfect holiness , goodness , and love of his blessed person , doctrine , and conversation , and by suffering for us all the afflictions of this life , and at last the cursed death of the cross , as a sacrifice and ransome for us . that all this might be effectual to our recovery , hee made for us a new and better covenant , and preached it himself , undertaking the pardon , justification , and sanctification of all that by unfeigned faith do take him for their saviour , repenting of their sins , and consenting to be sanctified by his word and spirit ( by which also hee inviteth , and draweth men to himself , and giveth them to beleeve ) into this blessed , pardoning , saving covenant , wee are first solemnly entred by baptism . and when christ was ready to leave the world , and to give up himself a sacrifice for us , and intercede and exercise the fulness of his kingly power , as the churches head ; and by his grace to draw men to himself , and prepare them for his glory ; hee did himself institute this sacrament of his body and blood at his last supper , to bee a continued representation and remembrance of his death , and therein of his own and his fathers love until his coming ; appointing his ministers by the preaching of the gospel , and administration of these sacraments to bee his agents without , and his spirit within , effectually to communicate his grace . the lords supper then [ is a holy sacrament instituted by christ , wherein bread and wine being first by consecration made sacramentally or representatively the body and blood of christ , are used by breaking and pouring out to represent , and commemorate the sacrifice of christs body and blood , upon the cross once offered up to god for sin ; and are given in the name of christ unto the church , to signifie & solemnize the renewal of his holy covenant with them , and the giving of himself unto them , to expiate their sins by his sacrifice , and sanctifie them further by his spirit , and confirm their right to everlasting life : and they are received , eaten , and drunk by the church , to profess that they willingly receive christ himself to the ends aforesaid ( their justification , sanctification , and glorification ) and to signifie and solemnize the renewal of their covenant with him , and their holy communion with him , and with one another . ] it being the renewing of a mutual covenant that is here solemnized , as wee commemorate christs sacrifice , and receive him and his saving benefits , so wee offer and deliver to him our selves , as his redeemed , sanctified people , to bee a living acceptable sacrifice , thankfully and obediently to live unto his praise . before the receiving of this holy sacrament , wee must examine our selves , and come preparedly : in the receiving of it , wee must exercise holy affections suited to the work ; and after the receiving of it , wee must by consideration of it , indeavour to revive the same affections , and perform our covenant there renewed . the holy qualifications to bee before provided , and in receiving exercised , and after receiving , are these . . a true beleef of the articles of the christian faith , concerning the father , son , and holy ghost ; the person , offices , works , and sufferings , and benefits of christ . . the sense of our sinful and undone condition , as in our selves , and of our need of christ : so as humbly to loath our selves for our transgressions : with the sense of our present weaknesses to bee strengthened , and sins to bee forgiven . . a true desire after christ for pardon , and spiritual nourishment and salvation . . a thankful sense of the wonderful love of god , declared in our redemption , and in the present offers of christ , and life . . the exercise of holy love and joy in the sense of this unspeakable love , ( if these two bee not felt before wee come , yet in , and after the sacrament ) we must strive to exercise them . . a love to one another and forgiving wrongs to one another , with a desire after the communion of saints . . the giving up our selves in covenant to god , with resolution of renewed obedience . . a patient hope for the coming of christ himself , and of the everlasting kingdome where wee shall bee perfectly united in him , and glorified with him . those onely are to bee invited to the lords table , and to come , that truly repent and beleeve , and unfeignedly consent to the terms of the covenant ( though all are not to bee invited thus to beleeve and repent , and so to come ) but those are to be admitted , by the pastors , if they come , who , having the use of reason to understand what they do , and examine themselves , have made a personal profession of faith , repentance and obedience ; and are members of the church , and not justly for heresie , or scandalous sin removed from its present communion . the benefit of the sacrament is not to be judged of onely by present experience and feeling , but by faith. god having appointed us to use it , and promised his blessing , wee may and must beleeve , that hee will make good his promise , and what ever wee feel at present , that wee sincerely wait not on him in vain . the exhortation . you are invited hither , dear brethren , to bee guests at this holy table , by the lords command , to receive the greatest mercy , and to perform the greatest duty . on christs part , all things are made ready . the feast is prepared for you , even for you that by sin have deserved to bee cast out of the presence of the lord ; for you that have so oft neglected and abused mercy . a feast of the body and blood of christ , free to you , but dear to him . you were lost , and in the way to bee lost for ever , when by the greatest miracle of condiscending-love , hee sought and saved you : you were dead in sin , condemned by the law , the slaves of satan ; there wanted nothing but the executing-stroak of justice , to have sent you into endless misery : when our dear redeemer pitied you in your blood , and shed his own to wash and heal you . hee suffered , that was offended that the offender might not suffer . hee cried out on the cross , my god , my god , why hast thou forsaken mee , that wee who had deserved it , might not bee everlastingly forsaken . hee died , that wee might live : o how would the mercy of redemption have affected you , if you had first lyen one year , or month , or day in hell ; had you but seen your dying lord , or seen the damned in their misery , how do you think you should have valued the salvation that is now revealed and tendred to you ; see here christ dying in this holy representation . behold the sacrifized lamb of god , that taketh away the sins of the world . it is his will to be thus frequently crucified before your eyes . o how should wee bee covered with shame , and loath our selves , that have both procured the death of christ by sin , and sinned against it ? and how should wee all bee filled with joy , that have such mysteries of mercy opened , and so great . salvation freely offered to us ! o hate sin , o love this saviour ; see that you come not hither without a desire to bee more holy , nor with a purpose to go on in wilful sin ; bee not deceived ; god is not mocked , but if you heartily repent and consent to the covenant , come and welcome ; wee have commission from christ to tell you , that you are welcome . let no trembling , contrite soul draw back , that is willing to bee christs upon his covenant-terms , but beleeve that christ is much more willing to bee yours . hee was first willing , and therefore died for you , and made the covenant of grace , and sent to invite and importune you to consent , and stayed for you so long , and gave you your repentance , your willingness and desire . question not then his willingness , if you are willing . it is satan and unbeleef that would have you question it , to the injury both of christ and you . come neer , observe , beleeve and wonder at the riches of his love and grace . for hee hath himself invited you , to see and taste , that you may wonder . you are sinners , but hee inviteth you to receive a renewed , sealed pardon of your sins , and to give you more of his spirit to overcome them . see here his broken body and his blood , the testimonies of his willingness . thus hath hee sealed the covenant , which pardoneth all your sins , and secureth you of your reconciliation with god , and your adoption , and your right to everlasting blessedness . deny not your consent , but heartily give up your selves to christ , and then doubt not , but your scarlet , crimson-sins shall bee made as white as wooll , or snow . object not the number or greatness of them against his grace . there is none too great for him to pardon to penitent beleevers . great sins shall bring great glory to his blood and grace . but strive you then for great loathing of your sins , and greater love to such a god , and greater thanks to such a saviour . unfeignedly say , i am willing lord to bee wholly thine , and then beleevingly take christ , and pardon , and life , as given you by his own appointment in the sealed covenant . and remember that hee is a coming . hee is coming with thousands of his mighty angels , to execute judgement on the ungodly , but to bee glorified in his saints , and admired in all that do beleeve . and then wee shall have greater things than these . then shall you see all the promises fulfilled , which now are sealed to you , on which hee causeth you to trust ; revive now your love to one another , and forgive those that have wronged you , and delight in the communion of the saints : and then you shall bee admitted into the church triumphant , where with perfect saints you shall perfectly rejoyce and love , and praise the lord for ever . receive now a crucified christ here represented , and bee contented to take up your cross , and follow him . and then you shall reign with a glorified christ in the blessed vision and fruition of that god , to whom , by christ , you are now reconciled . let faith and love bee working upon these things , while you are at this holy table . then shall the minister use this or the like prayer . most holy god , wée are as stubble before thée , the consuming fire , how shall wée stand before thy holiness , for wée are a sinful people , laden with iniquity , that have gone backward and provoked the holy one of israel , when wée were lost , thy son did séek and save us , when wée were dead in sin , thou madest us alive . thou sawest us polluted in our blood , and saidst unto us live . in that time of love thou coveredst our nakedness , and enteredst into a covenant with us , and wée became thine own . thou didst deliver us from the power of darkness , and translate us into the kingdome of thy dear son ; and gavest us remission of sin , through his blood . but wée are grievous revolters , wée have forgotten the covenant of the lord our god ; wée were engaged to love thee with all our hearts , and to hate iniquity , and serve thée diligently , and thankfully to set forth thy praise . but wée have departed from thée , and corrupted our selves by self love , and by loving the world , and the things that are in the world , and have fulfilled the desires of the flesh , which wée should have crucified . wée have neglected our duty to thée , and to our neighbour , and the necessary care of our own salvation . wée have béen unprofitable servants , and have hid thy talents , and have dishonoured thée , whom in all things wée should have pleased and glorified . wée have béen negligent in hearing and reading thy holy word , and in meditating and conferring of it , in publick and private prayer , and thanksgiving , and in our preparation to this holy sacrament , in the examining of our selves , and repenting of our sins , and stirring up our hearts to a beleeving and thankfull receiving of thy grace , and to love and joyfulness , in our communion with thée and with one another . wée have not duely discerned the lords body , but have prophaned thy holy name and ordinance , as if the table of the lord had been contemptible . and when thou hast spoken peace to us , wée returned again to folly , wée have deserved o lord to bée cast out of thy presence . and to bée forsaken , as wée have forsaken thée , and to hear to our confusion , depart from mée , i know you not , yée workers of iniquity . thou mayest justly tell us , thou hast no pleasure in us , nor wilt receive an offering at our hand . but with thée there is abundant mercy . and our advocate jesus christ the righteous , is the propitiation for our sins : who bare them in his body on the cross , and made himself an offering for them , that hée might put them away by the sacrifice of himself ; have mercy upon us and wash us in his blood , cloath us with his righteousness , take away our iniquities , and let them not bée our ruine , forgive them and remember them no more : o thou that delightest not in the death of sinners , heal our backslidings love us freely , and say unto our souls , that thou art our salvation . thou wilt in no wise cast out them that come unto thée , receive us graciously to the feast thou hast prepared for us , cause us to hunger , and thirst after christ , and his righteousness , that wée may bée satisfied , let his flesh , and blood bee to us meat and drink indéed , and his spirit bée in us , a well of living water , springing up to everlasting life . give us to know thy love in christ , which passeth knowledge . though wée have not séen him let us love him . and though now wée see him not , yet beleeving let us rejoyce with joy unspeakable , and full of glory ; though wée are unworthy of the crums that fall from thy table , yet féed us with the bread of life , and speak and seal up peace to our sinful wounded souls . soften our hearts that are hardened by the deceitfulness of sin ; mortifie the flesh , and strengthen us with might in the inward man ; that wee may live and glorifie thy grace , through jesus christ our onely saviour . amen . here let the bread he brought to the minister , and received by him and set upon the table , and then the wine in like manner ( or if they be set there before ) however let him bless them , praying in these or the like words . almighty god , thou art the creator , and the lord of all things . thou art the soveraign majesty whom wée have offended ; thou art our most loving and merciful father , who hast given thy son to reconcile us to thy self , who hath ratified the new testament and covenant of grace with his most precious blood ; and hath instituted this holy sacrament to bee celebrated in remembrance of him till his coming . sanctifie these thy creatures of bread and wine , which according to thy institution and command , wee set apart to this holy use , that they may bee sacramentally , the body and blood of thy son jesus christ . amen . then ( or immediately before this prayer ) let the minister read the words of the institution , saying ; hear what the apostle paul saith , cor. . [ for i have received of the lord , that which also i deliver unto you ; that the lord jesus the same night , in which hee was betrayed , took bread , and when hee had given thanks , hee brake it , and said , take , eat , this is my body which is broken for you : this do in remembrance of mee : after the same manner also , hee took the cup , when hee had supped , saying , this cup is the new testament in my blood , this do yee , as oft as yee drink it in remembrance of mee ; for as often as yee eat this bread , and drink this cup , yee do shew the lords death till hee come . ] then let the minister say . this bread and wine , being set apart , and consecrated to this holy use by gods appointment , are not now common bread and wine , but sacramentally the body and blood of christ . then let him thus pray . most merciful saviour , as thou hast loved us to the death , and suffered for our sins , the just for the unjust , and hast instituted this holy sacrament to bee used in remembrance of thée till thy coming ; wée beséech thée , by thine intercession with the father , through the sacrifice of thy body and blood , give us the pardon of our sins , and thy quickening spirit , without which the flesh will profit us nothing . reconcile us to the father ; nourish us as thy members to everlasting life , amen . then let the minister take the bread , and break it in the sight of the people , saying . the body of christ was broken for us , and offered once for all to sanctifie us ; behold the sacrificed lamb of god , that taketh away the sins of the world. in like manner let him take the cup , and pour out the wine in the sight of the congregation , saying ; wee were redeemed with the precious blood of christ , as of a lamb without blemish , and without spot . then let him thus pray . most holy spirit proceeding from the father and the son , by whom christ was conceived ; by whom the prophets and apostles were inspired , and the ministers of christ are qualified and called , that dwellest and workest in all the members of christ , whom hou sanctifiest to the image , and for the service of their head , and comfortest them , that they may shew forth his praise ; illuminate us , that by faith wée may sée him that is here represented to us . soften our hearts , and humble us for our sins . sanctifie and quicken us , that wée may rellish the spiritual food , and feed on it to our nourishment and growth in grace . shed abroad the love of god upon our hearts , and draw them out in love to him . fill us with thankfulness , and holy joy , and with love to one another ; comfort us by witnessing that wée are the children of god. confirm us for new obedience . bée the earnest of our inheritance , and seal us up to everlasting life . amen . then let the minister deliver the bread thus consecrated and broken to the communicants , first taking and eating it himself as one of them , when hee hath said ; take yée , eat yée , this is the body of christ which is broken for you , do this in remembrance of him . in like manner hee shall deliver them the cup , first drinking of it himself , when hee hath said , this cup is the new testament in christs blood , or christs blood of the new testament which is shed for you for the remission of sins , drink yee all of it in remembrance of him . let it be left to the ministers choice , whether hee will consecrate the bread and wine together , and break the bread , and pour out the wine immediately ; or whether hee will consecrate and pour out the wine , when the communicants have eaten the bread. if hee do the latter , hee must use the fore-going prayers and expressions twice accordingly , and let it bee left to his discretion , whether hee will use any words at the breaking of the bread , and pouring out the wine , or not ; and if the minister chuse to pray but once , at the consecration , commemoration , and delivery ; let him pray as followeth , or to this sense . almighty god , thou art the creator , and the lord of all . thou art the soveraign majesty whom wee have offended . thou art our merciful father , who hast given us thy son to reconcile us to thy self ; who hath ratified the new testament and covenant of grace with his most precious blood , and hath instituted this holy sacrament to bée celebrated in memorial of him , till his coming . sanctifie these thy creatures of bread and wine , which according to thy will , wée set apart to this holy use , that they may bée sacramentally , the body and blood of thy son jesus christ . and through his sacrifice and intercession give us the pardon of all our sins and bée reconciled to us , and nourish us by the body and blood of christ to everlasting life . and to that end give us thy quickning spirit to shewchrist to our beléeving souls , that is here represented to our senses . let him soften our hearts and humble us for our sins , and cause us to féed on christ by faith ; let him shed abroad thy love upon our hearts , and draw them on in love to thée , and fill us with holy joy and thankfulness , and fervent love to one another , let him comfort us by witnessing that wée are thy children , and confirm us for new obedience , and bée the earnest of our inheritance , and seal us up to life everlasting , through jesus christ our lord and saviour , amen . let it bee left to the ministers discretion , whether to deliver the bread and wine to the people ( at the table ) onely in general , each one taking it , and applying it to themselves ; or to deliver it in general to so many as are in each particular form ; or to put it into every persons hand : as also at what season to take the contribution for the poor . and let none of the people be forced to sit , stand , or kneel in the act of receiving , whose judgement is against it . the participation being ended , let the minister pray thus , or to this sense . most glorious god , how wonderful is thy power , and wisdome , thy holiness and justice , thy love and mercy in this work of our redemption , by the incarnation , life , death , resurrection , intercession , and dominion of thy son ! no power or wisdome in heaven or earth , could have delivered us but thine . the angels desire to pry into this mystery , the heavenly host do celebrate it with praises , saying , glory bée to god in the highest ; on earth peace ; good will towards men . the whole creation shall proclaim thy praises , blessing , honour , glorie and power bée unto him that sitteth upon the throne , and unto the lamb for ever and ever . worthy is the lamb that was slain to receive power , and honour , and glory , for hée hath redeemed us to god by his blood , and made us kings , and priests unto our god. where sin abounded , grace hath abounded much more . and hast thou indéed forgiven us so great a debt , by so precious a ransome ? wilt thou indéed give us to reign with christ in glory , and sée thy face , and love thée , and bée beloved of thée for ever ? yea , lord thou hast forgiven us , and thou wilt glorifie us , for thou art faithful that hast promised . with the blood of thy son , with the sacrament , and with thy spirit , thou hast sealed up to us these precious promises . and shall wée not love thée , that hast thus loved us ? shall wée not love thy servants , and forgive our neighbours their little debt ? after all this shall wée again forsake thée , and deal falsly in thy covenant ? god forbid ; o set our affections on the things above , where christ sitteth at thy right hand , let us no more minde earthly things , but let our conversation bée in heaven , from whence wée expect our saviour to come and change us into the likeness of his glory . teach us to do thy will , o god , and to follow him , who is the author of eternal salvation , to all them that do obey him . order our steps by thy word , and let not any iniquity have dominion over us . let us not henceforth live unto our selves , but unto him who died for us and rose again . let us have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness , but reprove them . and let our light so shine before men , that they may glorifie thée . in simplicity , and godly sincerity , and not in fleshly wisdome , let us have our conversation in the world . o that our waies were so directed that wée might kéep thy statutes ! though satan will bée desirous again to sift us , and séek as a roaring lion to devour , strengthen us to stand against his wiles , and shortly bruise him under our féet . accept us , o lord , who resign our selves unto thée , as thine own ; and with our thanks and praise , present our selves , a living sacrifice to bée acceptable through christ . useful for thine honour . being made frée from sin , and become thy servants , let us have our fruit unto holiness , and the end everlasting life . through jesus christ our lord and saviour . amen . next add this , or some such exhortation , if there bee time . dear brethren , wee have been here feasted with the son of god at his table , upon his flesh and blood , in preparation for the feast of endless glory . you have seen here represented , what sin deserveth , what christ suffered , what wonderful love the god of infinite goodness hath expressed to us . you have had communion with the saints , you have renewed your covenant of faith , and thankful obedience unto christ ; you have received his renewed covenant of pardon , grace and glory unto you . o carry hence the lively sense of these great and excellent things upon your hearts : you came not onely to receive the mercy of an hour onely , but that which may spring up to endless joy : you came not onely to do the duty of an hour , but to promise that which you must perform , while you live on earth . remember daily , especially when temptations to unbeleef , and sinful heaviness assault you , what pledges of love you here received ; remember daily , especially when the flesh , the devil , or the world , would draw your hearts again from god , and temptations to sin are laid before you ; what bonds god , and your own consent have laid upon you . if you are penitent beleevers , you are now forgiven , and washed in the blood of christ . o go your way , and sin no more . no more through wilfulness , and strive against you sins of weaknesse . wallow no more in the mire , and return not to your vomit . let the exceeding love of christ constrain you , having such promises , to cleanse your selves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit , perfecting holiness in the fear of god : and as a chosen generation , a royal priesthood , an holy nation , a peculiar people , to bee zealous of good works , and shew forth the praises of him that hath called you . next sing some part of the hymn in meeter , or some other sit psalm of praise ( as the . . or . or , &c. ) and conclude with this or the like blessing . now the god of peace , which brought again from the dead our lord jesus christ , that great shepherd of the shéep , through the blood of the everlasting covenant , make you perfect in every good work , to do his will , working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight , through jesus christ , to whom bée glory for ever and ever , amen . the celebration of the sacrament of baptism . let no minister , that is therein unsatisfied , be forced against his judgement , to baptize the childe of open atheists , idolaters , or infidels , or that are unbaptized themselves , or of such as do not competently understand the essentials of christianity ( what it is to be a christian ) and the essentials of baptism , nor of such as never since they were baptized did personally own their baptismal covenant , by a credible profession of faith and obedience , received and approved by some pastor of the church , as before confirmation is required , and in his majesties declaration . nor yet the childe of parents justly excommunicate , or that live in any notorious , scandalous sin , or have lately committed such a sin ( as if the childe be gotten in adultery or fornication ) and being justly convict of it , refuseth penitently to confess it , and promise reformation . but if either of the parents bee duly qualified , and present the childe to bee baptized ( or another for them in case they cannot bee present ) the childe is to bee received unto baptism . and if both the natural parents are infidels , excommunicate , or otherwise unqualified , yet if any become the pro-parents and owners of the childe , and undertake to educate it in the faith of christ , and fear of god , and so present it to bee baptized ; let it bee done by a minister , whose judgement doth approve it , but let no minister be forced to it against his judgement . let the parents or owners come to the minister at some convenient time the week before , and acquaint him when they intend to offer their childe to baptism , and give an account of their fore-said capacity , and receive his further ministerial assistance for the fuller understanding of the use and benefits of the sacrament , and their own duty ; the font is to bee placed to the greatest conveniency of the minister and people . the childe , or children being there presented , the minister may begin with this or the like speech directed to the parent , or parents ( that presenteth it . ) that you may perform this service to god with understanding , you must know , that god having made man in his own image , to love , and serve him , our first parents wilfully corrupted themselves by sin , and became the children of death , and the captives of satan , who had overcome them by his temptation ; and as by one man sin entred into the world , and death by sin , so death passed upon all , for that all have sinned , and come short of the glory of god. wee are conceived in sin , and are by nature children of wrath . for who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean . by the offence of one , judgement came upon all men to condemnation . but the infinite wisdome and love of the father hath sent his son to bee the saviour of the world. the word was made flesh , and dwelt on earth , and overcame the devil and the world ; fulfilled all righteousness , and suffered for our sins upon the cross , and rose again , and reigneth in glory , and will come again , and judge the world in righteousness ; in him god hath made and offered to the world a covenant of grace , and in it the pardon of sin to all true penitent beleevers ; and power to bee the sons of god , and heirs of heaven ; this covenant is extended to the seed also of the faithful , to give them the benefits suitable to their age , the parents dedicating them unto god , and entring them into the covenant , and so god in christ will bee their god , and number them with his people . this covenant is to be solemnly entred into by baptism ( which is a holy sacrament instituted by christ , in which a person professing the christian faith ( or the infant of such ) is baptized in water into the name of the father , the son , and holy ghost , in signification and solemnization of the holy covenant , in which as a penitent beleever ( or the seed of such ) hee giveth up himself , ( or is by the parent given up ) to god the father , son , and holy ghost , from henceforth ( or from the time of natural capacity ) to beleeve in , love , and fear this blessed trinity , against the flesh , the devil , and the world ; and this especially on the account of redemption , and is solemnly entred a visible member of christ , and his church ; a childe of god , and an heir of heaven ] how great now is the mercy , and how great the duty that is before you ? is it a small mercy for this childe to bee accepted into the covenant of god , and washed from its original sin , in the blood of christ , which is signified and sealed by this sacramental washing in water , to be accepted as a member of christ , and of his church , where hee vouchsafeth his protection and provision , and the means and spirit of grace , and the renewed pardon of sin upon repentance , and for you to see this happiness of your childe ! the duty on your part , is , first to see that you are stedfast in the faith and covenant of christ , that you perish not your self , and that your childe is indeed the childe of a beleever ; and then you are beleevingly and thankfully to dedicate your childe to god , and to enter it into the covenant in which you stand . and you must know , that your faith , and consent , and dedication will suffice for your children no longer than till they come to age themselves , and then they must own their baptismal covenant , and personally renew it , and consent , and give up themselves to god , or else they will not bee owned by christ . you must therefore acquaint them with the doctrine of the gospel , as they grow up , and with the covenant now made , and bring them up in the fear of the lord. and when they are actually penitent beleevers , they must present themselves to the pastors of the church to bee approved , and received into the communion of the adult beleevers . if the persons bee before well instructed in the nature of baptism , and time require brevity ; the minister may omit the first part of this speech , and begin at the description of baptism , or after it . if there bee need of satisfying the people of the duty of baptizing infants , the minister may here do it ; otherwise let the questions here immediately follow . the minister shall here say to the parent , and the parent answer as followeth . it being the faithful , and their seed , to whom the promises are made ; and no man will sincerely dedicate his childe to that god that hee beleeveth not in himself ; i therefore require you to make profession of your own faith. quest . do you beleeve in god the father almighty , & c ? answ . all this i do unfeignedly beleeve . quest . do you repent of your sins , and renounce the flesh , the devil , and the world , and consent to the covenant of grace , giving up your self to god the father , son , and holy ghost , as your creator , and reconciled father , your redeemer , and your sanctifier ? ans . i do . [ or thus rather , if the parent bee fit to utter his own faith. ] quest . do you remain stedfast in the covenant , which you made in baptism your self ? ans . repenting of my sins , i do renounce the flesh , the devil , and the world , and i give up my self to god the father , son , and holy ghost , my creator , and reconciled father , my redeemer , and my sanctifier . ] quest . do you present and dedicate this childe unto god , to bee baptized into this faith , and solemnly ingaged in this covenant unto god the father , son , and holy ghost , against the flesh , the devil , and the world ? ans . it is my desire ( or ) i do present and dedicate him for this end . quest . do you here solemnly promise , that if god continue it with you , till it bee capable of instructions , you will faithfully indeavour to acquaint this childe with the covenant in which hee was here by you ingaged and to instruct and exhort him to perform this covenant , as ever hee looks for the blessings of it , or to escape the curses and wrath of god : that is , that hee renounce the flesh , the world , and the devil , and live not after them ; and that hee beleeve in this one god , in three persons , the father , son , and holy ghost , his creator , redeemer , and sanctifier ; that hee resign himself to him as his absolute owner , and obey h●m as his supream governour , and love him as his most gracious father , hoping to injoy him as his felicity in endless glory . ans . i will faithfully indeavour it . quest . will you to this end faithfully endeavour to cause him to learn the articles of the christian faith , the lords prayer , and the ten commandements , and to read , or hear the holy scriptures , and to attend on the publick preaching of gods word ? will you endeavour by your own teaching , and example , and restraint , to keep him from wickedness , and train him up in a holy life ? answ . i will faithfully endeavour it by the help of god. then let the minister pray thus , or to this sense . o most merciful father , by the first adam , sin entred into the world , and death by sin , and wée are all by nature children of wrath ; but thou hast given thy only son to bée the séed of the woman , the saviour of the world , the captain of our salvation , to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself , and to wash us in his blood , and reconcile us unto thée , and to renew us by the holy ghost , and to bruise satan under our féet : in him thou hast established the covenant of grace , and hast appointed this holy sacrament of baptism for our solemn entrance into the bonds of the covenants , and stating us in the blessings of it , which thou extendest to the faithful and their séed . wée dedicate and offer this childe to thée , to bée received into thy covenant and church . wée beséech thée to accept him as a member of thy son , and wash him in his blood from the guilt of sin , as the flesh is washed by this water . bée reconciled to him , and take him for thy childe , renew him to the image of thy son , make him a fellow citizen with the saints , and one of thy houshold . protect him and provide for him as thy own , and finally preserve him to thy heavenly kingdome , through jesus christ our lord and saviour . amen . then the minister shall ask of the parent the name of the childe to bee baptized , and naming him , shall either dip him under the water , or else pour water upon his face , if hee cannot be safely or conveniently dipt , and shall use these words without alteration . i baptise thée in the name of the father , and of the son , and of the holy ghost . and hee shall thus declare . this childe is now received by christs appointment into his church , and solemnly entred into the holy covenant , and engaged if he● lives to the use of reason , to rise with christ to newness of life , as being buried with him by baptism , and to bear his cross , and confess christ crucified , and faithfully to fight under his banner against the flesh , the devil , and the world , and to continue his faithful souldier and servant to the death , that hee may receive the crown of life . then hee shall give thanks and pray . wee thank thée , most merciful father , that when wée had broken thy law , and were condemned by it , thou hast given us a saviour and life in him , and hast extended thy covenant of grace to beleevers , and to their ●éed , and hast now received this childe into thy covenant , and church as a member of christ by this sacrament of regeneration . wée beséech thée , let him grow up in holiness , and when hee comes to years of discretion , let thy spirit reveal unto him , the mysteries of the gospel , and the riches of thy love in jesus christ , and cause him to renew and perform the covenant that hée hath now made , and to resign himself , and all that hée hath entirely unto thée his lord , to bée subject and obedient to thée his governour , and to love thée his father with all his heart , and soul , and might , and adhere unto thée and delight in thée as the portion of his soul , desiring and hoping to enjoy thée in everlasting glory . save him from the lusts and allurements of the flesh , the temptations of the devil , and the baits of the pleasure , profit and honour of the world , and from all the corruptions of his own heart , and all the hurtful violence of his enemies . kéep him in communion with the saints in the love and use of thy word and worship . let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow christ the captain of his salvation , and bée faithful unto the death , and then receive the crown of life , through jesus christ our saviour . amen . then use this exhortation , or the like , to the parents . you that have devoted this childe to god , and ingaged it in covenant to him , must bee thankful for so great a mercy to the childe , and must be faithful in performing what you have promised on your parts , in instructing and educating this childe in the faith and fear of god , that hee may own and perform the covenant now made , and receive all the blessings which god hath promised . hear what god hath made your duty , ephes . . . fathers provoke not your children to wrath , but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the lord. prov. . . train up a childe in the way hee should go , and when he is old he will not depart from it . prov. . . the rod and reproof give wisdome , but a childe left to himself bringeth his mother to shame . deut. . , , . thou shalt love thy lord thy god with all thy heart , and with all thy soul , and with all thy might , and these words which i command thee this day , shall bee in thy heart , and thou shalt reach them diligently unto thy children , and thou shalt talk of them when thou sittest in the house , and when thou walkest by the way , and when thou lyest down , and when thou risest up . joshuah saith , josh . . . as for mee and my house , wee will serve the lord. and paul saith of timothy , tim. . . from a childe thou hast known the holy scriptures , which are able to make thee wise unto salvation , through faith which is in christ jesus . then say to the people thus , or to this sense . you have heard beloved , how great a dignity we were advanced to in our baptism , to how great duty wee are all ingaged . o search and try , whether you have kept or broken the convenant which you made , and have lived according to the dignity of your calling . and if any of you bee atheists , unbeleevers , or ungodly , and love not god above all , and neglect christ and his salvation , and are yet unsanctified , and live after the flesh , the devil , and the world , which you here renounced ; as you love your souls , bewail your perfidious convenant-breaking with god. trust not the water of baptism alone ; if you are not born again of the spirit also , you cannot enter into the kingdome of god , joh. . , . baptism will not save you , if you have not the answer of a good conscience unto god , pet. . . if any man have not the spirit of christ , the same is none of his , rom. . . much less those wretches that hate sanctification , and despise and scorn a holy life , when they were by baptism engaged to the holy ghost the sanctifier ; can you think to bee saved by the covenant , which you keep not ? o no! your perfidiousness aggravateth your sin and misery , eccles . . , . when thou vowest a vow to god , defer not to pay it , for hee hath no pleasure in fools : pay that which thou hast vowed ; better it is that thou shouldest not vow , than that thou shouldest vow and not pay . o bless the lord , that it is a covenant of such grace which is tendred to you , that yet upon true repentance and coversion , even your covenant-breaking shall bee forgiven ; and therefore penitently cast down your selves before the lord , and beleevingly cast your selves on christ , and yeeld to the teachings , and sanctifying operations of the holy ghost , yet know the day of your visitation , and forsake the flesh , the devil , and the world , and turn to god with all your hearts , and give up your selves intirely to your creator , redeemer , and sanctifier , and hee will have mercy upon you , and will abundantly pardon you . but if you still live after the flesh , you shall dye : and if you continue to neglect this great salvation , there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin , but a certain fearful looking for of judgement , and fire , which shall devour the adversaries . let no children bee privately baptized , nor any minister forced to baptize them any where , besides in the publick assembly , unless upon some special weighty cause , if there be occasion for baptizing the adult , let the minister accordingly sute his expressions . of catechizing , and the approbation of those that are to bee admitted to the lords supper . seeing none can bee saved at years of discretion , that do not actually beleeve , and personally give up themselves in covenant to god the father , son , and holy ghost ; therefore as parents must do their parts , so ministers must catechize the ignorant ; and diligently labour to cause them both to learn the form of wholsome words ( even the lords prayer , and the ten commandements , and some brief , yet full and sound catechism ) and to understand the meaning of them , and to engage their hearts into the love of god , and a holy obedience to his laws . to this end let the minister either every lords day , before the evening prayers , or at some convenient hour , or on some other day of the week , as oft as hee can , examine publickly such as are not admitted to the lords supper , and take an account of their learning , and understanding the creed , the ten commandements , the lords prayer , and the catechism . and let him by questioning and explication , help them to understand them ; and let such of the several families of the parish come in their turns , when they are called by the minister to bee thus catechized . also let the minister either go to their houses , or rather appoint the persons aforesaid in their courses at a certain hour and place ( in the church or any other fit place ) to come to him for personal instructions , where hee may confer with those that are unmeet to bee catechized publickly , or unwilling to submit to it , and there with humble , prudent , serious instruction and exhortation , let him indeavour to acquaint them with the substance of christian-faith and duty , and to help them to make sure their calling and election , and to prepare for death and judgement , and exhort them to love , and to good works , and warn them lest they bee hardened through the deceltfulness of sin . but let him not in publick or private meddle with impertinencies , or spend the time about smaller matters , or singular opinions , nor sift people to know things unfit , or unnecessary to bee disclosed , nor meddle with matters that do not concern him , as a minister , to inquire after ; but help them to learn , and understand , and practise the christian religion expressed in the catechism . the catechism , let none be admitted by the minister to the sacrament of the lords supper , till they have at years of discretion understood the meaning of their baptismal covenant , and with their own mouths , and their own consent openly before the church , ratified and confirmed , and also promised , that by the grace of god they will evermore endeavour themselves faithfully to observe , and keep such things as by their own mouth and confession they have assented to ; and so being instructed in the christian religion , do openly make a credible profession of their own faith , and promise to bee obedientt o the will of god. a profession is credible , when it is made understandingly , seriously , voluntarily , deliberately , and not nullified by contradiction in word or deed and that profession is incredible , that is made ignorantly , ludicrously , forcedly , rashly , or that is nullified by verbal or practical contradiction . and it must bee practice first , that must make words credible , when the person by perfidiousness hath forfeited his credit . it is not private persons onely , but the pastors of the church that must approve of this profession . therefore before any are admitted to the lords supper , they shall give a good account of their knowledge , faith and christian conversation , conformable thereunto unto the pastors of their respective congregations , or else shall produce a certificate , that they have been approved or admitted to the lords supper in another congregation , of which they were members , and that by an allowed minister , upon such approved profession as aforesaid . if the person bee able and willing , let him before the congregation give the foresaid account at large of his knowledge , faith and obedience ; but if through backwardness or disability for publick speech , hee shall refuse it , let him make the same profession privately to the minister , and own it in the assembly , when the minister shall declare it , and ask him whether hee owns it ; but unless it bee in case of some extraordinary natural imperfection , and disability of utterance , let him at least openly recite the creed , and profess his consent to the covenant with god the father , son , and holy ghost . let the minister of every parish keep a double register ; one of the names of all that are there baptized , another of the names of all that are approved upon their foresaid credible profession , and so admitted into the number of communicants , or that have a certificate of such approbation , regularly , elsewhere performed . and if confirmation bee continued , let his majesties declaration bee observed , requiring [ that confirmation bee rightly and solemnly performed by the information , and with the consent of the minister of the place . ] let no minister bee inforced to admit any himself to the lords supper , who hath been clancularly and irregularly approved . those that after this approbation , prove scandalous offenders , shall not by the minister be suffered to partake of the lords table , until they have openly declared themselves to have truly repented , and amended their former naughty lives . of the celebration of matrimony . before the solemnizing of marriage between any persons , their purpose of marriage shall bee published by the minister , three several lords daies in the congregation , at the place or places of their most usual abode respectively . and of this publication , the minister who is to joyn them in marriage , shall have sufficient testimony before hee proceed to solemnize the marriage ; the parents consent being first sufficiently made known . at the celebration the minister shall either by a sermon ; or other exhortation , open to them the institution , ends , and use of marriage , with the conjugal duties which they are faithfully to perform to each other . and then shall demand of them whether it bee their desire and purpose to bee joyned together in the bond of the marriage-covenant , and if they answer affirmatively , hee shall say to them . i require and charge you as you will answer at the dreadful day of judgement ( when the secrets of all hearts shall bee disclosed ) that if either of you do know any impediment by precon●ract or otherwise , why you may not law●ully bee joyned together in marriage , you discover it and proceed not . if no impediment bee discovered by them or others , hee shall proceed to pray . most merciful father , who hast ordained marriage for mutual help , and for the increase of mankinde ▪ with a legitimate issue , and of the church with a holy séed , and for prevention of uncleanness : bless thy own ordinance to these persons , that entring this state of marriage in thy fear , they may there ●●tirely devote themselves unto thée , and bée faithful in all con●…gal affections , and duties unto each other [ and if thou bless them with children ] let them bee devoted unto thée , and accepted as thine own , and blessed with thy grace , and educated in thy fear . subdue those corruptioins that would make their lives unholy or uncomfortable , and deliver them from temptations to impiety , worldlyness , unquietness , discontent or disaffection to each other , or to any unfaithfulness to thée or to each other ; make them meet helps to each other in thy fear , and in the lawful management of the affairs of this world. let them not hinder , but provoke one another to love , and good to works , and foreséeing the day of their separation by death , let them spend their daies in a holy preparation ; and live here together as the heirs of life , that must re●oyce at the great marriage day of the lamb , and live for ever with christ and all the holy angels and saints in the presence of thy glory . amen . the woman if sh●e b●e under parents or governours , being by one of them , or some deputed by them given to b●e married , the man with his right hand shall take the woman by the right hand , and shall say . i. a. do take thée b. to bée my married wife , and do promise and covenant in the presence of god , and before this congregation , to bée a loving and faithful husband to thée , till god shall separate us by death . then the woman shall take the man by the right hand , with her right hand , and say . i. b. do take thée a. to bée my married husband , and i do promise and covenant in the presence of god , and before this congregation to bée a loving , obedient , and faithful wife unto thée , till god shall separate us by death , then let the minister say . these two persons a. and b. being lawfully married according to gods ordinance , i do pronounce them , husband and wife . and those , whom god hath conjoyned , let no man put asunder . next hee may read the duty of husbands and wives out of e●hes . . . coll. . . pet. . and psalm . . or some other pertinent psalm may bee said or sung ; and let the minister exhort them to their several duties , and then pray . most merciful father , let thy blessings rest upon these persons , now joyned in lawful marriage , sanctify them and their conversations , their family , estates , and 〈◊〉 unto thy glory . furnish them with love to thée and to each other , with méekness , patience , and contentedness . let them not live unto the flesh , but unto the spirit , that of the spirit they may reap everlasting life , through jesus christ our lord and saviour . amen . then let him conclude with a benediction . god almighty , the creator , redéemer , and sanctifier , bless you in your souls and bodies , family and affairs , and preserve you to his heavenly kingdome . amen . the visitation of the sick , and their communion . the visitation of the sick being a private duty , and no part of the pub●ick liturgy of the church , and the case of the sick being so exceeding various , as to soul and body , and it being requisite that ministers bee able to sui● their exhortations and prayers to the condition of the sick , let the words of such exhortations and prayers bee left to their prudence . so urgent is the necessity of the sick , and so seasonable and advantagious the opportunity , that ministers may not negligently over-pass them , but in love and tenderness instruct them according to their several conditions ; endeavouring the conversion of the ungodly , the strengthening of the weak , and comforting such as need consolation , directing them how to improve their afflictions , and helping them to bee sensible of the evil of sin , the negligences and miscarriages of their lives , the vanity of the world , their necessity of a saviour , the sufficiency of christ , the certainty and excellency of the everlasting glory ; exhorting them to repentance and to faith in christ , and to set their affections on the things above ; and ( if they are penitent beleevers ) comfortably to hope for the kingdome which god hath promised to them that love him , committing their souls to their redeemer , and quietly resting in the will , and love , and promises of god ; resolving if god shall recover them to health , to redeem the time , and live the rest of their lives unto his glory . and being willing , if it bee their appointed time , to depart and bee with christ ; and they must bee exhorted to forgive such as have wronged them , and to bee reconciled to those with whom they have been at variance , and to make a pious , just , and charitable disposal of their worldly estates . the order for solemnizing the burial of the dead . it is agreeable to nature and religion , that the burial of christians bee solemnly and decently performed , as to the cases ; whether the corps shall bee carried first into the church , that is to bee buried in the churchyard ? and whether it shall bee buried before the sermon , reading , or prayer , or after , or in the midst of the reading , or whether any prayer shall bee made at the grave , for the living , let no christians uncharitably judge one another about these things , let no people keep up groundless usages , that being suspicio●s , grieve their minister and offend their brethren . let no minister that scrupleth the satisfying of peoples ungrounded desires in such things , bee forced to do it against his conscience , and let ministers that do use any of these customes or ceremonies , have liberty , when they suspect that the people desire them upon some error , to profess against that error , and teach the people better . whether the minister come with the company that brings the corps from the house : or whether hee meet them , or receive them at the burial place , is to bee left to his own discretion . but while hee is with them , let him gravely discourse of mans mortality , and the useful truths and duties thence to bee inferred : and either at the grave , or in the reading place , or pulpit , by way of sermon , according to his discretion . let him ( at least if it bee desired ) instruct and exhort the people concerning death , and the life to come , and their necessary preparation . seeing the spectacle of mortality , and the season of mourning , do tend to prepare men for a sober considerate entertainment of such instructions , and hee may read such scriptures as may minde them of death , resurrection , and eternal life , as cor. . or from vers . . to the end , and job . . & . , , . john . , . & . , . and his prayer shall bee suited to the occasion . when ever the rain , snow , or coldness of the season , make it unhealthful to the minister or people to stand out of doors , at least then , let the reading , exhortation , and prayers , bee used within the church . of extraordinary daies of humiliation , and thanksgiving , and anniversary festivals . when great afflictions lye upon the church , or any special part or members of it , or when any great sins have been committed among them , it is meet that in publick , by fasting and prayer , wee humble our selves before the lord , for the averting of his displeasure ; and on such occasions it is the pastors duty to confess his own , and the peoples sins , with penitence , and tenderness of heart , and by his doctrine and exhortation , to endeavour effectually to bring the people to the sight and sense of their sin , and the deserts of it , and to a firm resolution of better obedience for the time to come , being importunate with god in prayer for pardon and renewed grace . upon the receipt of great and extraordinary mercies , the church ( having opportunity ) is to assemble for publick thanksgiving unto god , and the minister to stirre up the people to a lively sense of the greatness of those mercies , and joyfully to celebrate the praises of god , the author of them . and it is not unmeet in these daies to express our joy in feasting and outward signes of mirth , provided they bee used moderately , spiritually , and inoffensively , and not to gratifie oursensual desires , and that wee releeve the poor in their necessities ( which also on daies of humiliation and other seasons . wee must not forget . ) the occasions of such daies of humiliation and thanksgiving being so various , as cannot bee well suited by any standing forms , the minister is to apply himself to the respective duties , suitable to the particular occasions . though it bee not unlawful or unmeet to keep anniversary commemoration by festivals , of some great and notable mercies , to the church or state , the memory whereof should bee transmitted to posterity ; nor to give any persons their due honour who have been the instruments thereof ; yet because the festivals of the churches institution now observed , are much abused , and many sober godly persons , ministers , and others , are unsatisfied of the lawfulness of the celebrating them as holy daies , let the abuse bee restrained , and let not the religious observation of those daies by publick worship , bee forced upon any that are thus unsatisfied , provided they forbear all offensive behaviour thereupon . of prayer and thanksgiving , for particular members of the church besides the petitions that are put up for all in such distresses , in the general prayer , it is meet that persons in dangerous sickness , or other great affliction of body or minde ; and women that are neer the time of childe-bearing , when they desire it , shall bee particularly recommended to god in the publick prayers of the church . because all the members constitute one body , and must have the same care one for another , as suffering all with one that suffereth , and rejoycing all with one that is honoured . and the effectual servent prayer of the righteous , especially of the whole congregation , availeth much with god. but because diseases , distresses , and greif of minde , are so various that no forms that are particular can suit them all ; and because every minister should bee able to suit his prayers to such various necessities of the people : wee desire , that it may bee left to his discretion to pray for such according to their several cases , before or after sermon . but wee desire that except in case of sudden necessity , they may send in their bills of request to him , the night before , that hee may consider of their cases , and may publish only such , & in such expressions , as in prudence hee shall judge meet for the ears of the assembly . in the more ordinary cases of persons in sickness , danger , and distress , and that are delivered from them , these following prayers may bee used , or such like . a prayer for the sick , that is in hopes of recovery . most merciful father , though our sin doth finde us out , and wée are justly afflicted for our transgressions , yet are wée not consumed in thy wrath , but thou punishest us less than our iniquities do deserve , though thou causest grief , yet wilt thou have compassion according to the multitude of thy mercies , for thou dost not willingly afflict and grieve the children of men ; thou revivest the spirit of the humble , and the heart of the contrite ones , for thou wilt not contend for ever , neither wilt thou bee alwaies wroth , for the spirit would fail before thée , and the soul which thou hast made . look down in tender mercy on the affliction of this thy servant ; o lord rebuke him not in thy wrath , neither chasten him in thy hot displeasure . all his desire is before thée , and his groaning is not hid from thée ; have mercy upon him o lord for hée is weak . o lord heal him , whose boues and soul is vered . in death there is no remembrance of thée , in the grave who shall give thée thanks . remember that wée are but flesh , a wind that passeth away and cometh not again , wilt thou break a leaf driven to and fro , and wilt thou pursue the dry stubble ? remember not the iniquities of his youth , or his transgressions : look upon his afffiction , and his pain , and forgive all his sins . though the sorrows of death do compass him about , yet if it bée for thy glory and his good recover him , and let him live and praise thy name . rebuke his sickness , direct unto such means as thou wilt bless . in the time of his trouble wée call upon thée , do thou deliver him , and let him glorifie thée , however shew him the sin that doth offend thée , let him search and try his waies , and confess and turn from his inquity , and let it bée good for him that hée was afflicted . let this bée the fruit of it to purge and take away his sin , that being chastened of the lord , hée may not bée condemned with the world . and though chastisement for the present séemeth not to bée joyous , but grievous , yet afterwards let it yéeld the peaceable fruit of righteousness to this thy servant , that is exercised therein . in the mean time o lord bée thou his portion who art good to the soul that séeketh thée , and waiteth for thée . let him patiently and silently bear thy yoak , let him hope and quietly wait for thy salvation : considering that thou wilt not cast off for ever , that thy anger is but for a moment , but in thy favour is life . wéeping may endure for a night , but joy cometh in the morning : and that whom thou lovest , thou chastenest , and scourgest every son whom thou receivest ; and that if hée indure chastening thou dealest with him as a son. if hée bée recovered , let him devote himself entirely to thy glory : that when thou hast put off his sackcloath and mourning , and girded him with gladness , hee may speak thy praise , and give thée thanks . if hée receive the sentence of death in himself , let it cause him to trust in thée that raisest the dead , knowing that as thou didst raise up the lord jesus , thou wilt raise him up also by jesus : therefore suffer not his hope to faint : but though his outward man perish , yet let his inwardman bée renewed from day to day and let him live by faith and look at the things which are not séen , even at the excéeding eternal weight of glory ; let him bée found in christ , not having his own righteousness , but that which is of god by faith . restrain the tempter , and deliver thy servant from the sinful fears of death , by christ , who through death , destroyed the devil that had the power of death ; that hée may finde that death hath lost his sting , and triumph over it by faith in him , through whom wée are made more than conquerers . that by faith and love , his soul may now ascend with christ , that ascended unto his father and our father , and to his god and our god , and is gone to prepare a place for us , and hath promised , that where hée is , there his servants shall bée also ; that they may behold the glory which thou hast given him . magnifie thy self in his body whether by life or death , and safely bring him into thy glorious presence where is fulness of joy , and everlasting pleasures , through jesus christ our life and righteousness . amen . a prayer for women drawing neer the time of childe-bearing . most merciful father , who hast justly sentenced woman that was first in the transgression , to great and multiplyed sorrows , and particularly in sorrow to bring forth children ; yet grantest preservation and reliefe , for the propagation of mankinde . bée merciful to this thy servant , bée néer her with thy present help , in the néedful time of trouble , and though in travel shée hath sorrow , give her strength to bring forth . being delivered , let her remember no more the anguish , for ioy that a childe is born into the world. bless her in the fruit of her body and being safely delivered , let her return thée hearty thanks , and devote it and the rest of her life to thy service , through jesus christ our saviour . amen . a thanksgiving for those that are restored , from dangerous sickness . wee thank thée o most gracious god , that thou hast heard us when wée cryed unto thée , for thy servant in his weakness and distress , that thou hast not turned away our prayer ; nor thy mercy from him , wée cryed to thée and thou hast delivered and healed him , thou hast brought him from the grave , thou hast kept him alive , that hée should not go down into the pit , thou hast forgiven his iniquity , and healed his diseases thou hast redéemed his life from destruction , and hast crowned him with loving kindeness , and tender mercies , thou hast not deprived him of the residue of his years , thou hast repented thée of the evil : his age is nor departed ; thou hast renewed his youth , and given him to sée man , with the inhabitants of the world ; and to sée the goodness of the lord , in the land of the living , day and night thy hand was heavy upon him , but thou hast turned away thy wrath , and hast forgiven the iniquity of his sin , for this every one that is godly shall pray unto thée in a time of trouble ; 〈◊〉 thou art a hiding place , thou preservest us from trouble , when our flesh and our heart faileth us , thou art the strength of our heart , and our portion for ever ; indéed lord thou art good unto thine israel ; even to such as are clean of heart ; many are the afflictions of the righteous , but thou deliverest them out of all ; though all the day long they bée afflicted , and chastened every morning , yet are they continually with thée ; thou holdest them by the right hand , thou art a present help in trouble ; when all the help of man is vain . let thy servant love thée , because thou hast heard his voice and supplication , let him offer unto thée , the sacrifice of thanksgiving ; and pay his vowes to the most high ; and take the cup of salvation , and call upon thée all his daies , let him bée wholly devoted to thy praise , and glorifie thée in soul and body , as being thine , and seasonably depart in peace unto thy glory ? through jesus christ our life , and righteousness . amen . a thanksgiving , for the deliverance of women , in childe-bearing . wee return thée thanks , most gracious god , that thou hast heard our prayers for this thy hand-maid ; and hast béen her helpin the time of her necessity , and delivered her from her fears and sorrows death and life are in thy power , thou killest and thou makest alive , thou bringest down to the grave , and thou bringest up ; thou makest the barren to keep house , to bée a ioyful mother of children . wée thank thée , that thou hast given thy servant , to see the fruit of her womb , and that thou hast brought her again to thy holy assembly , to go with the multitude to thy house , and worship thee with the voyce of ioy and praise , that shée may enter into thy gates with thanksgiving , and into thy court with praise , and wée may all bée thankful to thée on her behalf , and speak good of thy name ; thou art good o lord to all , and thy tender mercies are over all thy works , thou preserveit them that love thée ; thou raisest up them that are vowed down ; thou fulfillest the desire of them that fear thée , thou also dost hear their cry , and save them , command thy blessing yet upon thy servant and her off-spring ; let her not forget thée and thy mercies , but let her devote the life which thou hast given her to thy service , and educate her off-spring as a holy séed , in the nurture and admonition of the lord , and as thou hast said , that thy scurse is in the house of the wicked , but thou blessest the habitation of the just ; let her , and her house serve thée , and let holiness to the lord bée written upon all wherewith thou blessest her ; let her make thée her refuge and habitation ; give her the ornament of a méek and quiet spirit , which in thy sight is of great price , let her not love the world , nor minde earthly things , but use the world as not abusing of it ; seeing the time is short , and the fashion of this world passeth away ; restore her soul , and lead her in the paths of righteousness ; though shée must walk through the valley of the shaddow of death , let her fear no evil ; let thy goodness and mercy follow her all the daies of her life , and let her dwell for ever in thy glorious presence ; through jesus christ our lord and saviour . amen . if the childe bee dead , those passage which imply its living must be omitted , and if the woman bee such as the church hath cause to judge ungodly , the thanksgiving must bee in words more agreeable to her condition , if any bee used . of pastoral discipline , publick confession , absolution , and exclusion from the holy communion of the church . the recital of the curses are said in the book of common prayer , to bee instead of the godly discipline of the primitive church , till it can bee restored again , which is much to bee wished , which is the putting of notorious sinners to open penitence ; his majesties declaration concerning ecclesiastical affairs , determineth that all publick diligence bee used for the instruction , and reformation of scandalous offenders , whom the minister shall not suffer to partake of the lords table , until they have openly declared themselves to have truly repented and amended their former naughty lives , provided there bee place for due appeals to superiour powers . and the law of christ commandeth , if thy brother trespass against thee , go and tell him his faults between him and thee alone , if hee shall hear thee , thou hast gained thy brother , but if hee will not hear thee , then take to thee one or two more , that in the mouth of two or three witnesses ; every word may bee established , and if hee shall neglect to hear them , tell it unto the church , but if hee shall neglect to hear the church ; let him bee unto thee as a heathen man , or as a publican . mat. . , , . and it is the office of the pastors of the several congregations , not only to teach the people in general , and guide them in the celebration of the publick worship , but also to over-see them , and watch over each member of their flock particularly , to preserve them from errours , heresies , divisions , and other sins , defending the truth , confuting gain-sayers , and seducers , instructing the ignorant , exciting the negligent , incourageing the despondent , comforting the afflicted , confirming the weak , rebuking and admonishing the disorderly and scandalous , and directing all according to their needs in the matters of their salvation , and the people in such needs should have ordinary recourse to them , as the officers of christ , for guidance , and resolution of their doubts , and for assistance in making their salvation sure ; and in proving , maintaining , or restoring the peace of their consciences , and spiritual comfort . if therefore any member of the church bee a scandalous sinner , and the crime bee either notorious or fully proved , let the pastor admonish him , and set before him the particular command of god which hee transgresseth , the supream authority of god which hee despiseth , the promises and mercies , which hee treadeth under foot , and the curse and dreadful condemnation , which hee draweth upon himself , let this bee done with great compassion and tender love to the offenders soul , and with gravity , reverent , and serious importunity , as beseemeth men imployed on the behalf of god , for the saving of a soul , and yet with judgement , and cautelous prudence , not taking that for sin which is no sin , nor that for a gross and scandalous sin , which is but an ordinary humane frailty , not dealing as unreverently with a superiour as with an inferiour , nor making that publick , which should bee concealed , nor reproving before others , when it should bee done more secretly , nor speaking unseasonably , to those who through drink or passion are incapable of the benefit , nor yet offending by bashfulness or the fear of man , or lukewarmness , negligence , or slighting over great offences , on the other extream . prudence also requireth them to bee cautelous of over-medling , where the magistrates honour , or concernment , or the churches unity , or peace , or the reputation of others , or the interest of their ministry requireth them to forbear . these cautions observed , if the scandalous offenders continue impe●itent , or unreformed , after due admonitions and patience , let the pastor in the congregation when hee is present rebuke him before all , that the church may sufficiently disown the crime , and others may see the odiousness & danger of the sin . but let this also bee with the love , and seriousness , and prudence , before mentioned . if the offender in obstinacy will not bee there , the pastor may open the crime before the congregation ; and present or absent ( in case hee remain impenitent ) if the case will bear so long delay , it is convenient , that the pastor publickly pray for his conviction , and repentance , that hee may bee saved . and this hee may do one , or two , or three , or more daies , as the nature of the case , and prudence shall direct him . if during these means for his recovery ( after the proof of the crime ) there bee a communion of the church in the lords supper , let the pastor require him to forbear and not suffer him to partake of the lords table . if yet the offender remain impenitent , let the pastor openly declare him ●●meet for the communion of the church , and require him to abstain from it , and require the church to avoid communion with him . and let him binde him by the denounciations of the threatings of god , against the impenitent . but before this is done , let no necessary consultation , with other pastors , or concurrence , of the church bee neglected , and after let there bee place for due appeals , and let ministers consent to give account when they are accused of mal-administration . but if after private admonition ( while the offence is such , as requireth not publick confession ) the sinner bee penitent , let the minister privately apply to his consolation the promises of the gospel , with such cautelous prudence as is most suitable to his condition . and if hee repent not till after publick admonition , or that the scandall bee so great and notorious , as that a publick confession is necessary , let him at a seasonable time appointed by the pastor , with remorse of conscience , and true contrition , confels his sin before the congregation , and heartily lament it , and clear the honour of his christian profession , which hee had stayned , and crave the prayers of the church to god for pardon , and reconciliation through christ , and also crave the ministerial absolution and restauration , to the communion of the church , and profess his resolution to do so no more ; but to live in new obedience to god , desiring also their prayers for corroborating and preserving grace . it is only a credible profession of repentance , that is to bee accepted by the church . the foregoing cautious must bee carefully observed in such confessions , that they bee not made to the injuring of the magistrate , or of the church , or of the reputation of others , or of the life , estate , or liberty of the offender , or to any other shame than is necessary to the manifesting of his repentance , and the clearing of his profession , and the righting of any that hee hath wronged , and the honour , and preservation of the church . when hee hath made a credible profession of repentance , it is the pastors duty , ministerially to declare him pardoned by christ , but in conditional terms [ if his repentance be sincere ] and to absolve him from the censureof non communion with the church , if he was under such a censure before his penitence , and to declare him meet for their communion , and to encourage him to come , and require the church to entertain him into their communion with gladness , and not upbraid him with his fall , but rejoyce in his recovery , and endeavour his confirmation and preservation for the time to come : and it is his duty accordingly to admit him to communion , and theirs to have loving communion with him : all which the penitent person , must beleevingly , lovingly , & joyfully receive . but if any , by notorious perfidiousness , or frequent covenant breaking have forfeited the credit of their words , or have long continued in the sin which they do confess , so that their forsaking it hath no proof ; the church then must have testimony of the actual reformation of such as these , before they may take their professions and promises as credible ; yet here the difference of persons and offences is so great ; that this is to bee much left to the prudence of pastors , that are present , and acquainted with the persons , & circumstances of the case . in the transacting of all this , these following forms , to bee varied as the variety of cases do require , may bee made use of . a form of publick admonition to the impenitent . a. b. you are convict of gross and scandalous sin , you have been admonished and intreated , to repent . the promises of mercies to the penitent ; and the threatnings of god against the impenitent , have not been concealed from you ; wee have waited in hope for your repentance , as having compassion on your soul ; and desiring your salvation ; but wee must say with grief , you have hitherto disappointed us ; wee are certain from the word of god , that you must bee penitent , if ever you will bee pardoned , and that except you repent , you shall everlastingly perish . luke . . , . act. . . luke . . to acquaint you publickly with this , and yet here to offer you mercy from the lord , is the next duty laid upon us for your recovery . o! blame us not , if knowing the terrours of the lord , wee thus perswade you , and are loath to leave you in the power of satan , and loath to see you cast out into perdition , and that your blood should bee required at our hands , as not having discharged our duty to prevent it . bee it known unto you therefore , that it is the god of heaven and earth , the great , the jealous , and the terrible god , whose lawes you have broken , and whose authority you dispise ; you refuse his government , who is coming with ten thousands of his saints , to execute judgement upon all , and to convince all that are ungodly of their ungodly deeds , and speeches , who hath told us that [ evil shall not dwell with him ] the foolish shall not stand in his sight ; hee hateth all workers of iniquity ( jude , . psalm . . , . ) the ungodly shall not stand in judgement , nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous ( psalm . . , . ) god hath not made his lawes in vain . though the wicked contemn god , and say in their hearts , hee will not require it . ( psalm . . . ) yet their damnation slumbereth not , they are reserved to the day of judgement , to bee punnished ( pet. . , . ) and hee seeth that their day is coming ; ( psalm . . . ) if men cut off the lives of those that break their laws , will god bee out-faced by the pride , and stubborness of sinners ? hee will not ; you shall know hee will not ; hee threatneth not in jest . who hath hardened himself against him and hath prospered ( job . . . ) are you not as chaffe and stubble , and is not our god a consuming fire ( psalm . . . isa . . . heb. . . ) if briers and thorns bee set against him in battel , will hee not go through them , and burn them up together ( isa . . . ) can your heart endure , or your hands bee strong in the day when god shall deal with you ? it is the lord that hath spoken it , and hee will do it . ezek. . . what will you do , when you must bear wich the pains of hell from god , that now , can scarce endure to bee thus openly & plainly warned of it ; if wee to please you should bee silent and betray you , do you think the god of heaven , will fear , or flatter you , or bee unjust to please a worm . do you provoke the lord to jealousie , are you stronger than hee . ( cor. . . ) o man ! for your souls sake , let not satan abuse your understanding , and sin befool you , must you not die ? and doth not judgement follow , when all secrets shall bee opened , and god will no more intreat you to confess . ( heb. . . matth. . . ) behold the judge standeth at the door ; ( jam. . . ) will sin goe then with you for as light a matter as it doth now ? will you then deny it , or will you stand to all the reasonings , or excuses , by which you would now extenuate or cover it ? will you defend it as your friend ? and bee angry with ministers and reprovers , as your enemies . or will you not mourn at last ( with weeping and gnashing of teeth ) and say ; how have i hated instruction , and my heart despised reproof ? and have not obeyed the voyce of my teachers , nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed mee . ( pro. . , , . mat. . ● . . ) o that you were wise , that you understood this , and that you would consider your latter end. ( deut. . . ) beleeve gods wrath before you feel it : bee convinced by the word and servants of the lord , before you are confounded by the dreadfulness of his majesty ; yet there is hope , but shortly there will be none , if you now neglect it ; yet if you consess and forsake your sins , you shall have mercy , but if you cover them , you shall not prosper . ( prov. . . ) and if being oft reproved , you harden your neck : you shall suddenly bee destroyed , and that without remedy . ( pro. . . ) bee not deceived , god is not mocked : whatsoever you sow , that shall you also reap . ( gal. . . ) o man ! you know not what it is to deal with an offended , and revenging god. nor what it is to hear . christ say , depart from mee yee workers of iniquity ; i never knew you , depart from mee yee wicked into everlasting fire ( matth. . . and . . ) you know not what it is to bee shut out of heaven , and concluded under utter desperation , and in hell to look back upon this obstinate impenitence ; and rejecting of the mercy that would have saved you ; and there to have conscience telling you for ever , what it is that you have done ; did you not know what this is , could you think a penitent confessing , and forsaking your sin , to be a condition too hard for the preventing of such a doleful state ? o no! you know not what a case you are casting your immortal soul into . the lord give you repentance . that you may never know it by experience . to prevent this , is our business with you : wee delight not to displease or shame you . but god hath told us , [ that if any do err from the truth , and one convert him , let him know , that hee which converteth the sinner from the errour of his way , shall save a soul from death , and shall hide a multitude of sins . jam. . . ] i do therefore by the command , and in the name of jesus christ , require , and beseech you , that you do without any more delay , confess your sins and heartily bewail them ; and beg pardon of them , and resolve and promise by the help of god to do so no more , and bless god that you have an advocate with the father jesus christ the righteous , whose blood will cleanse you from your sins ; if you penitently confess them ( john . , . and . , . ) and that mercy may bee yet had on so easie terms . if you had any sense of your sin and misery , or any sense of the dishonour done to god , or of the wrong that you have done to others , and of the usefulness of your penitent confession , and amendment , to the reparation of all these , you would cast your self in the dust in shame and grief before the lord , and before the church : to day therefore , if you will hear his voyce , harden not your heart , least god forsake you , and give you over unto your own hearts lust , to walk in your own counsels , and resolve in his wrath , you shall never enter into his rest ; ( psalm . . . . and . . . ) and then god and this congregation will bee witnesses that you were warned , and your blood will bee upon your own head . but if in penitent confession , you fly to christ , and loath your self for your iniquities , and heartily forsake them , i have authority to promise you free forgiveness , and that your iniquitie shall not bee your ruine ( luke . . . ezek. . , , . ) a form of confession , to bee made beeore the congregation i do confess before god , and this congregation , that i have greatly sinned , * i have offended , and dishonoured god , wronged the church , and the souls of others , i have deserved to bée forsaken of the lord , and cast out of his presence and the communion of saints , into desperation , and remediless misery in hell , i am no more worthy to bée called thy son , or to have a name or place among thy servants : i do here declare mine iniquitys , and am sorry for my sins ; they are gone over my head as a heavy burden , they are too heavy for mée , they take hold upon mée , i am ashamed , as unworthy to look up towards heaven , but my hope is in the blood & grace of christ , who made his life a sacrifice for sin , and came to séek and save that which was lost ; whose grace aboundeth , where sin hath abounded . the lord bée merciful to mée a sinner : i humbly beg of the congregation , that they will earnestly pray , that god will wash mée throughly from mine iniquity , and cleanse mée from my sin , that hée will forgive them , and blot them out , and hide his face from them , and remember them no more , that hée will not cast mée away from his presence , nor forsake mée as i have forsaken him , nor deal with mée according to my deserts : but that hée will create in mée a clean heart , and renew a right spirit in mée , and grant mée the joy of his salvation ; and i beg pardon of the church , and all that i have wronged : and resolve by the grace of god to do so no more ; but to walk more watchfully as before the lord , and i desire all that are ungodly , that they think never the worse of the laws , or waies , or servants of the lord , for my misdoings ; for if i had béen ruled by god , and by his servants , i had never done , as i have done ? there is nothing in religion that befriendeth sin , there is nothing so contrary to it , as god and his holy laws , which i should have obeyed . rather let all take warning by mée , and avoid temptations , and live not carelesly , and hearken not to the inclinatious , or reasonings of the flesh , nor trust not their weak and sinful hearts , but live in godly fear , and watchfulness , and kéep under the flesh , and kéep close to god , and hearken to the faithful counsel of his servants , and intreat your prayers to god , that i may bée strengthened by his grace , that i may sin thus no more , least worse befal mée . a form of prayer for a sinner impenitent , after publick admonition . most gracious god , according to thy command wée have warned this sinner , and told him of thy threatenings , and foretold him of thy certain terrible judgements , that hée might sly from the wrath to come , but , alas , wée perceive not that hée repenteth , or resenteth , but hardeneth his heart against reproof , as if hée were able to contend with thée , and overcome thy power ; o let us prevail with thée for grace , that wée may prevail with him for penitent confession and reformation , o pitty a miserable sinner ! miserable , as that hée laieth not to heart his misery , nor pittieth himself . o save him from the gall of bitterness , and from the bonds of his iniquity ? give him ●…tance unto life ; that hee may recover himself out of the snare of the devil , who is taken captive by him at his will. give him not up to a blinde minde , to a seared conscience , a heart that is past feeling , nor to walk in his own counsels , and after his own lusts ; let him no longer despise the riches of thy goodness , and forbearance and long-suffering , nor with a hardened impenitent heart , treasure up wrath , against the day of wrath and revelation of thy righteous judgement , who wist render to every man according to his déeds , even to them that are contentious and obey not the truth , but obey unrighteousness , indignation , and wrath , tribulation and anguish , upon every soul of man that doeth evil . let him bée sure that the judgement of god is according to truth , against them that commit such things , and let him not think in his impenitency to escape thy judgement ; o suffer him not , when hée heareth the threatnings of thy word , to bless himself in his heart , and say , i shall have peace , though i walk in the imaginations of my heart , and add sin to sin , lest thy anger and jealousie smoke against him , and thou wilt not spare him , but blot out his name from under heaven , and all thy curses lye upon him , and thou separate him to evil , even to the worm that dyeth not , and to the fire that is not quenched . o save him from his sins , from his impenitency , and the pride and stubborn . ness of his heart ; o save him from the everlasting flames , and from thy wrath , which hée is the more in danger off ; because hée féeleth not , and feareth not his danger ; let him know how hard it is for him to kick against the pricks , and how woful to strive against his maker , lay him at thy footstool in sackcloath , and ashes , in tears , and lamentation , crying out , woe unto mée that i have sinned , and humbling his soul in true contrition , and loathing himself , and begging thy pardoning and healing grace , and begging the prayers and communion of thy church , and resolving to sin wilfully no more , but to live before thée in uprightness , and obedience all his daies ; o let us prevail with thée for the conversion of this impenitent sinner , and so for the saving of his soul from death , and the hiding , and pardoning of his sins ; that hée that is lost may bée found , and hée that is dead may bée alive , and the angels of heaven , and wée thy unworthy servants here on earth may rejoyce at his repenting , let us sée him restored by thy grace , that wée may joyfully receive him into our communion , and thou mayest receive him at last into thy heavenly kingdome , and satan may bée disappointed of his prey ; for thy mercy sake , through jesus christ our lord and only saviour , amen . a form of rejection from the communion , of the church iesus christ , the king and law giver of the church hath commanded that [ if a brother trespass against us , wee go and tell him his fault between him and us alone , and if hee will not hear us , wee shall then take with us , one or two more , that in the mouth of two or three witnesses , every word may bee established ; and if hee shall neglect to hear them , that hee tell it to the church , and if hee neglect to hear the church , that hee bee to us a heathen man , and a publican . matth. . , , . ] and that wee keep not company ; if any that is called a brother , bee a fornicator , or covaious , or an idolater , or a raylor , or a drunkard , or an extortioner , with such a one , no not to eat . cor . . and that wee withdraw our selves from every brother , that walketh disorderly , and note him , and have no company with him , that hee may bee ashamed : thess . . . . according to these laws of christ , wee have admonished this offending brother , who hath greatly sinned against god ; and grieved and injured the church , wee have earnestly prayed , and patiently waited for his repentance , but wee have not prevailed . but after all , hee continueth impenitent , and will not be perswaded to confess and forsake his sin : wee do therefore according to these laws of christ declare him unmeet , for the communion of the church , and reject him from it ; requiring him to forbear it , and requiring you to avoid him , and wee leave him bound to the judgement of the lord , unless his true repentance shall prevent it . a form of absolution , and reception of the penitent . though you have greatly sinned against the lord , and against his church , and your own soul , yet seeing you humble your self before him , and penitently fly to christ for mercy , resolving to do so no more : hear now the glad tidings of salvation , which i am commanded to declare unto you ? john . , . if any man sin , wee have an advocate with the father , jesus christ the righteous ; and hee is the propitiation for our sins . john . . if wee confess our sins , hee is faithful , to forgive us our sin , and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness . isa . , , . seek the lord while hee may bee found , call upon him while hee is near : let the wicked forsake his way , and the unrighteous man his thoughts , and let him return unto the lord , and hee will have mercy upon him , and to our god , for hee will abundantly pardon . prov. . . hee that covereth his sin shall not prosper , but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy . gal. . . brethren , if a man bee overtaken in a fault , restore such a one in the spirit of meckness , considering thy self least thou also bee tempted . according to this word of grace * do loose the bonds here laid upon you , and receive you again into the communion of the church ] requiring them to receive you , and not upbraid you with your sin , but rejoyce in your recovery . and i do declare to you the pardon of all your sins in the blood of christ , if your repentance bee sincere . and i exhort & charge you , that you beleevingly and thankfully accept this great , unspeakable mercy , and that you watch more carefully for the time to come , and avoid temptations , and subdue the flesh , and accept reproofes , and see that you return not to your vomit , or to wallow again in the mire , when you are washed , but obey the spirit and keep close to god in the means of your preservation . a form of thanksgiving , and prayer , for the restored penitent . omost merciful father , wée thank thée , that thou hast brought us under so gracious a covenant , as not only to pardon the suis of our unregenerate state , but also upon our penitent confession , and return , to cleanse us , from all our unrighteousness , and pardon our falls by the blood of christ , and to restore our souls , and lead us again in the paths of righteousness , and command thy servants to receive us . wée thank thée that thou hast thus restored this thy servant , giving him repentance and remissian of sin * and returning him to the communion , of thy church ! wée beséech thée comfort him , with the beleeving apprehensions of thy forgiveness and reconciliation through jesus christ . restore unto him the joy of thy salvation , and uphold him by thy frée spirit , stablish , strengththen , settle him , that with full purpose of heart , he may cleave unto thée , and now thou hast spoken peace to him , hée may not return again to folly , as hée nameth the name of christ , let him depart from iniquity , and never more dishonour thée , thy church or truth , nor his holy profession , but save him from temptation , let him watch and stand fast , and sin no more , least worse befal him . let him not receive this grace in vain , nor turn it into wantonness , nor continue in sin , that grace may abound . but let this old man bée crucified with christ , and the body of sin be destroyed ; that henceforth hée may no more serve sin , remembring what fruit hée had in those things , whereof hée is now ashamed , and that the eud and waies of sin is death , and let us all take warning by the falls of others , and bee not high minded but fear ; and let him that thinketh hée standeth , take héed least hée fall . let us watch and pray that wee enter not into temptation remembring that the flesh is weak ; and our adversary the devil , walketh about séeking whom hée may devour . and let none of us hate our brother in our hearts , but in any wise rebuke our neighbour , and not suffer sin upon him , and confirm us unto the end , that wée may bée blameless , in the day of our lord jesus christ , to whom with thée , o father ! and thy holy spirit , bée kingdome , and power , and glory for ever . amen . appendix a larger letany , or general prayer , to bee used at discretion . o most holy , blessed , and glorious trinity , father son , and holy ghost , thrée persons , and one god , infinite in power , wisdome , and goodness , our creator , redeemer , and sanctifier ; our owner , governour , and father ; hear our prayers , and have mercy upon us , miserable sinners . o lord our saviour , whose jucarnation , nativity , subjection , fasting , temptation , poverty , reproaches , agony , and bloody sweat , scourging , desertion , crucifying , death , and burial , were all undergone to take away the sins of the world ? who being risen , ascended , and glorified , art the great priest , and prophet , and king of thy universal church , for which thou makest intercession , which thou doest gather , teach , and guide by thy spirit , word , and ministers , which thou dost justifie and wilt glorifie with thyself , who wilt come again , and raise the dead , and judge the world in righteousness ; wée beséech thée hear us miserable sinners : cast us not out that come unto thée : make sure to us our calling , and election , our unfeigned faith and repentance , that being justified , and made the sons of god , wee may have peace with him as our reconciled god and father . let our hearts bee right with thee our god , and stedfast in thy covenant , cause us to deny our selves , and give up our selves entirely unto thee , our creatour , redeemer , and sanctifier , as being not our own but thine . let thy holy spirit dwell in us , and sanctifie us throughout , that wee may bee new creatures , and holy as thou art holy , let it bee in us the spirit of adoption , and supplication , and the seal and earnest of our glorious inheritance , and let us know that wee are thine , and thou abidest in us by the spirit which thou hast given us . as thy name o lord is holy , and thy glory covereth the heavens , so let the earth bee filled with thy praises : let our souls ever magnifie thee , o lord , and our tongues extoll thée . let us speak of the glorious honor of thy majesty , of thy greatness , thy power , thy glorious kingdome , thy wisdome , holiness , truth and righteousness , thy goodness , thy mercy , and thy wonderous works ? let all flesh , bless thy holy name . let the desire of our souls bee to thy name : cause us to love thee with all our hearts , to fear thee , trust in thee , and to delight in thee , and bee satisfied in thee as our portion , and what ever wee do , to do it to thy glory . kéep us from inordinate self love , from pride , and vain glory , and self séeking , and from dishonouring thée , thy word , or service in the world. let the world acknowledge thee , the universal king. give thy son the heathen for his inheritance , and the utmost parts of the earth for his possession : let the kingdomes of the world become his kingdomes : convert the atheistical , idolatrous , infidel , mahomitan , and ungodly nations of thè earth , that every knée may bow to christ , and every tongue confess him , the king of kings , and lord of lords ; to the glory of god the father . let the word of thy kingdome and salvation be preached to all the world , let it have frée course and be glorified ; and by the power of thy spirit , convert many unto christ , and let him be thy salvation to the ends of the earth . send forth more labourers into the harvest , which is great , and fit them for so great a work ; and deliver them from unreasonable and wicked men , that ( to fill up their sins ) forbid them to speak to the people , that they might be saved . deliver the churches that are oppressed by idolaters , mahomitans , or other infidels and enemies . give all thy servants , prudence , patience and innocency , that suffering as christians , and not as evil-doers , they may not be ashamed , but may glorifie thée , and wait for thy salvation , committing the kéeping of their souls unto thée , in hope of a reward in heaven . deliver the church from the roman papal usurpations and corruptions , dispel the deceits of heresies , and false worship , by the light of thy prevailing truth ; unite all christians in christ jesus , the true and onely universal head : that by the true christian catholick faith and love , they may grow up in him , and may kéep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace ; the strong receiving and bearing the infirmities of the weak ; heal the divisions that are among beléevers ; let nothing be done through strife or vain-glory , but in lowliness of mind ; let each estéem other better than himself , and let all men know that wée are christs disciples , by our fervent love to one another . let us be heartily and entirely thy subjects , beléeving that thou art just , and the rewarder of them that diligently séek thée , kéep us from atheism , idolatry , and disobedience , from infidelity , ungodliness , and sensuality , from security , presumption and despair . let us study to please thée in all things : let thy law bée written in our hearts , and let us delight to do thy will ; let our faith and lives be ruled by thy word , which is able to make us wise unto salvation ; let us love it , search it , and understand it , and meditate in it day and night . let us not please our selves or other men against thee , nor be led by the wisdome or desires of the world and flesh , nor regard lying vanities , nor through carelesness , rashness , or presumption , offend thée . as all nations must be judged by thée ; let them be ruled by thy laws , and not make them void by mens traditions , nor worship thée in vain , teaching for doctrine the commandments of men . but what ever thou commandest , let them take héed to do it ! let them add nothing thereto , nor take ought therefrom . let us not take thy holy name in vain , but use it in truth and reverence . kéep us from all blasphemy , perjury , prophane swearing , from lying before the god of truth , and from contempt and forgetfulness of thy presence , from false , unworthy , unreverent thoughts or spéeches of god , and holy things , and from neglecting , or abusing thy holy word and worship . help us to kéep holy thy day , in remembrance of the blessed work of our redemption , and reverently to attend thée in publick worship ; and obediently to receive thy word , and fervently to call upon thy name ; and to delight our selves in thanksgiving , and joyful praises to thy holiness in the communion of thy saints ; and let us carefully sée that our housholds , and all within our gates do serve thée , and not abuse thy holy day . have mercy on the kings and rulers of the earth , that they may escape the temptations of worldly greatness , honours , and prosperity , which would captivate them to the flesh , and draw their hearts from thée , thy laws and waies , and would engage them against thée , and thy servants ; and as they are thy ministers , and magistracy is thine ordinance , sanctifie and dispose them to be nursing fathers to thy church , to own thy interest , and rule for thée . especially have mercy on thy servant charls our king , illuminate and sanctifie him by thy holy spirit , that above all things hée may séek thy glory , the increase of faith and obedience to thy laws , and may rule us as being thy minister for good , not to be a terrour to good works , but to evil ; that under him wée may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty . have mercy upon all the royal family , the lords of the counsel , and all the nobility , the judges and magistrates of these lands . cause them to fear thee , and to be eminent in sobriety , righteousness and godliness , to protect the innocent , and be a terrour to the wicked , hating injustice , covetousness and pride . let every soul be subject to the higher powers , and not resist . let them obey the king , and all that are in authority under him , not onely for wrath , but for conscience sake , as knowing , that they rule by thée , and for thée . give all the churches able , holy , faithful pastors , and cause them laboriously to preach , and rightly to divide the word of truth , to féed thy people with knowledge , and lead them in the way of faith and love , of holiness and peace , and to watch for their souls as those that must give account ; over-seeing and ruling them , not by constraint , but willingly , not for filthy lucre , but of a ready mind , not as being lords over thy heritage , but as the servants of all , and ensamples to the flock : that when the chief pastor shall appear , they may receive a crown of glory . let the congregations know those that have the ruling of them , and are over them in the lord , that labour among them , preaching to them the word of god. let them submissively , and obediently hear and esteem them very highly in love for their works sake , and account them worthy of double honour . let parents bring up their children in the nurture and admonition of the lord , diligently teaching them thy word , talking of it when they are in their house , and when they walk by the way , when they lye down , and when they rise up , that they may know their creator . redeemer , and sanctifier in the daies of their youth : and cause children to hear , love , honour , and obey their parents , that they may have the blessing of thine especial promise unto such . let husbands love their wives , and prudently guide them in knowledge and holiness ; and let wives love , honour , and obey their husbands , as méet helpers to them . let masters rule their servants in holiness , and mercy , remembring they have a master in heaven , and let servants reverently , singly , and willingly bée obedient , and do service to their masters . as to the lord ; from him expecting their reward . kéep us from murder , uiolence and all injury to our neighbours life , or health , from malice , cursing , reviling , and unadvised anger : let us not resist evil with evil , but forbear one another , and not give place to wrath . kéep us from adultery , fornication and all uncleanness , and the occasions and appearances thereof . let us take care as becometh saints , that they bée not immodestly named among us ; and that no corrupt communication , procéed out of our mouths , kéep us from chambering and wantonness , from lustfull thoughts , and all immodest attire , behaviour , looks , and actions . kéep us from theft , and oppression , and any way wronging our nieghbour in his propriety and estate . kéep us from false witness-bearing , lying , and deceiving from slandering , backbiting , unjust , uncharitable censuring or reproaching , from all perverting of justice , and wronging the reputation of our neighbour , and from all consent or desire of such wrongs , kéep us from envy , and from coveting any thing that is our neighbours , to his wrong , and from séeking our own , or drawing to our selves , to the injury of his welfare ; but let us love our neighbours , as our selves , and do to others as wée would they should do to us . teach us to love christ and his holy image in his members , with a dear and special love , and to love our enemies , and pray for them that hate and persecute us , and to do good to all as wée are able , but especially to them of the houshold of faith . cause us with patience to submit to all the disposals of thy will , and wait thy end , and to love the demonstrations of thy holiness , and iustice though grievous to the flesh , and kéep us from impatient murmurings , and discontent , and arrogant reasoning against thy will. give us our daily bread , our necessary sustentation , and provision for thy service , and let us use it for thée , and not to satisfie the flesh ; let us depend on thée , and trust thée for it in the lawful use of means ; and bless thou our labours , and give us the fruits of the earth in season , and such temperate weather as tendeth thereunto . deliver us and all thy servants from such wants , distresses , griefes , and sicknesses , as will unseasonably take us off thy service , and from untimely death : and teach us to value and redéem our time , and work while it is day . kéep us from gluttony , drunkenness , and all intemperance ; from sloth and idleness , from inordinate desires of pleasures , or abundance ; but having food , and rayment let us bée therewith contented . of thy abundant mercy , through the sacrifice and merits of thy son according to thy promise , forgive us all our sins , and save us from thy deserved wrath , and condemnation . remember not o lord our offences , nor the offences of our fore-fathers , but though our iniquities testifie against us ; spare us and save us for thy mercy sake ▪ o let not our sin deprive us of thy spirit , or of access unto thée , or communion with thée , or of thy favour or comfort , or the light of thy countenance , or of everlasting life . cause us to forgive from our hearts , the injuries done against us , as wée expect to bée forgiven by thée the greatest debt . kéep us from all revengfull desires and attempts . and do thou convert and pardon our enemies , slanderers , oppressors , persecutors and others that have done us wrong . keep us from running upon temptations , suffer not the tempter by subtilty or importunity to corrupt our judgements , wills , affections , or conversations . cause us to maintain a diligent and constant watch over our thoughts and hearts our senses and appetites , our words and actions , and as faithful souldiers by the conduct , and strength of the captain of our salvation with the whole armour of god , to resist and overcome the world , the devil , and the flesh unto the end. save us from the temptations of prosperity , and adversity , let us not bée drawn from thée to sin by the pleasures , profits or honours , of the world , strengthen us for sufferings , let us not forsake thee or fall in time of tryal , help us to deny our selves , and take up our cross and follow christ , accounting the sufferings of this present time , unworthy to bée compared with the glory to bée revealed . deliver us from the enmity and rage of satan , and his instruments and give not up thy servants , their souls or bodies ; their peace or liberties , estates or names to their malicious wills : but save us and preserve us to thy heavenly kingdome . wée ask all this of thée , o lord ! for thou art the universal king , holy and just , to whom it belongeth in righteousness to judge the world , and save thy people ; all power is thine to execute wrath upon thine enemies , and to deliver and glorifie thy flock ; and none is able to resist thée : of thée and through thée , and to thée , are all things , and the glory shall bée thine , for ever . amen . the churches praise , for our redemption , to bee used at discretion . our souls do magnifie thée o lord ! our spirits rejoyce in god our saviour , who remembred us in our low , and lost estates , for his mercy endureth for ever . by one man sin entred into the world , and death by sin : wée kept not the covenant of god , and refused to walk in his law : for all have sinned and come short of the glory of god , and judgement came upon all men to condemnation . but blessed bée the lord god of israel , that hath visited and redéemed his people , and hath raised up a mighty salvation for us in the house of his servant david : as hée spake by the mouth of his holy prophets : which have béen since the world began : a uirgin hath conceived and brought forth : the holy ghost did come upon her ; the power of the highest did over-shadow her , therefore the holy one that is born of her , is called ; the son of god : his name is called jesus , for hée saveth his people from their sins : to us is born a saviour , which is christ the lord. hée is the image of the invisible god : the first born of every creature , for by him all things are created that are in heaven and in earth , visible and invisible ; whether thrones or dominions , or principalities or powers ; all things were created by him and for him , and hée is before all things , and by him all things do consist . hée is the power of god , and the wisdome of god : the true light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world ; the word was made flesh , and dwelt among us , and men beheld his glory , as the glory of the onely begotten of the father , full of grace and truth : for it pleased the father that in him should all fulness dwell . when the fulness of time was come , god sent his son made of a woman , made under the law , to redéem them that are under the law. this is the beloved son , in whom the father is well pleased . for such a high priest became us , who is holy , harmless , undefiled , separate from sinners , hée did no sin , neither was there any guile found in his mouth , when hée was reviled , hée reviled not again , leaving us an ensample ; who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the trée . for god layed on him the iniquity of us all , and by his stripes wée are healed . when wée were without strength , in due time christ died for the ungodly , the just for the unjust , in this was manifest the love of god towards us , that god sent his only begotten son into the world , that wée might live by him . forasmuch as the children were partakers of flesh and blood , hée himself likewise took part with them , that hée might destroy through death , him that had the power of death , that is the devil , and might deliver them , who through fear of death , were all their life time subject to bondage . having spoiled principalities and powers , hée made shew of them openly triumphing over them in his cross . hée was buried and rose again the third day according to the scriptures . for god raised him having loosed the pains of death , because it was not possible that hée should bée holden of it , hée hath abolished death , and brought life and immortality to light by the gospel . o death ! where is thy sting ; o grave ! where is thy uictory . all power is given him in heaven and earth ; when hée asscended up on high , hée led captivity captive , and gave gifts to men : and hee gave some apostles , and some prophets , and some evangelists , and some pastors , and some teachers , for the perfecting of the saints , for the work of the ministry , for the edifying of the body of christ , till wee all come in the unity of the faith of the knowledge of the son of god , to a perfect man ; hee is set at gods right hand in the celestials , far above all principalities , and powers , and might , and dominion , and every name that is named , not only in this world , but in that to come : god hath put all things under his feet , and gave him to bee head over all things , to the church which is his body , the fulness of him that filleth all in all . without controversie great is the mystery of godliness ; god manifested in the flesh , justified in the spirit , seen of angels , preached to the gentiles , beleeved on in the world , received up into glory . this is the record , that god hath given us eternal life , and this life is in his son ; hee that hath the son hath life , and hee that hath not the son hath not life . hee was in the world , and the world was made by him , and the world knew him not ; hee came to his own and his own received him not ; this is the condemnation that light is come into the world , and men loved darkness rather than light , because their deeds are evil. but as many as receive him , to them gives hee power to become the sons of god , even to them that beleeve in his name ; there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in christ jesus , who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit . he forgiveth our iniquities , and will remember our sins no more ; who shall lay any thing to charge of gods elect ? it is god that justifieth , who is hee that condemneth ? it is christ that died ; yea , rather that is risen again , who is even at the right hand of god ; who also maketh intercession for us . who gave himself for us , that hee might redéem us from all iniquity ; & purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works . if any man have not the spirit of christ , the same is none of his . hee that nameth the name of christ must depart from iniquity . if wee regard iniquity in our hearts , god will not hear our prayers . but wee are washed , wee are sanctified , wee are justified in the name of the lord jesus and by the spirit of our god. not by works of righteousness which wee have done , but according to his mercy hee saved us by the washing of regeneration , and renewing of the holy ghost . and being justified by faith , wee have peace with god through our lord jesus christ ; by whom also wee have access by faith into this grace wherein wee stand , and rejoyce in hope of the glory of god ; and hope maketh not ashamed , because the love of god is shed abroad in our hearts , by the holy ghost which is given to us . for if when wee were enemies wee were reconciled to god by the death of his son , much more being reconciled , wee shall bee saved by his life ? hee that spared not his own son , but gave him up for us all , how shall hee not with him also freely give us all things ? hee that is gone to prepare a place for us , will come again and receive us to himself , that where hee is , there wee may bee also . it is his will that they that , the father hath given him bee with him where hee is , that they may behold the glory that is given him , because hee liveth wee shall live also ; for wee are dead , and our life is hid with christ in god : when christ who is our life , shall appear , then shall wee also appear with him in glory ; when hee shall come to bee glorified in his saints , and to bee admired in all them that do beleeve . then shall men discern between the righteous and the wicked , between those that serve god , and those that serve him not . then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdome of their father , hee that overcometh shall inherit all things . hee shall enter into the joy of his lord : hee shall bee a pillar in the temple of god ; and shall go out no more . christ will grant him to fit with him in his throne , even as hee overcame , and is set down with his father in his throne , hee will rejoyce ever as with joy , hee will test in his love : even in the holy city , the new jerusalem , prepared as a bride adorned for her 〈◊〉 , where the tabernacle of god will bee with men , and hee will dwell with them , and they shall bee his people , and god himself shall bee with them , their god , and shall wipe away all tears from their eyes , and there shall bee no more death , nor sorrow , nor crying , nor pain , for the former things are passed away . and the city needeth not the sun , or the moon to shine in it , for the glory of god doth lighten it , and the lamb is the light thereof . the throne of god and of the lamb shall bee in it , and his servants shall serve him , and shall see his face , who is the blessed and only potentate the king of kings , and lord of lords ; of him , through him , and to him are all things : to him bee glory for ever . amen . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e tim. . . psal . . . mat. . . tim. . . dan. . . isa . . . psal . . . heb. . , . isa . . . psa . . . , . & . . & . , . & . . jer. . . heb. . . thes . . . levit. . . zech. . . rom. . . jam. . . & . . isa . . . matth. . . joh. . , . thes . . . act. . . mark . . phil. . . prov. . , . eccles . . . joh. . . heb. . , . cor. . , . psal . . . psal . . . psal . . . psal . . . psal . . . psal . . . heb. . . isa . . . psa . . . luke . . psa . . . heb. . . psa . . . lev. . . gen . tim. . . dan. . . hos . . . rom. . . heb. . . 〈◊〉 thes . . . luke . . isa . . . cor. . . james . psal . . . cor. . . psal . . . & . . gen. . . rom. . . rom. . . joh. . . . gal. . . joh. . . . mat. . . eze. . . luk. . , . psal . . . rom. . . ephes . . . . john . . rom. . . ephes . . . luk. . . act. . . prov. . . rev. . . psal . . . ephes . . . isa . . . isa . . . psal . . . corinth . . . cor. . . cor. . . & . . thes . . . joh. . . rom. . . chron. . . phil. . . luke . . rom. . . psal . . . rom. . . dan. . . . tit. . , . rom . . & . . & . psal . . . . isa . . , . luke . , . psal . . . joh. . . psal . . . mat. . . psal . . . . john . tim. . . joh. . . luke . , . mat. . . rom. . . eph. . , , . mark . . tim. . . ephes . . rom. . . act. . . pet. . . luke . . heb. . . psal . . . tim. . . . phil. . . psal . . . rev. . . rom. ● . . tit. . . ephes . . mat. . . & . . cor. . . ephes . . . . mat. . . heb. . . gal. . . psal . . , . rom. . . psal . . . rom. . . psal . . , , ● . luke . , , ● . rom. . , , . luke . . & , . act. . . rev. . . joh. . , . matth. . . heb. . . psal . . . john . . heb. . . act. . . tim. . . luk. . . numb . . . rom. . . ephes . . . dan. . , . psal . . . psal . . . & . . psal . . , . lev. . . rev. . . joh. . . ephes . . . mat. . . gal. . . isa . . . psa . . . & . . act . . ezek. . . psa . . . ezek. . . gal. . . co● . . . jer. . . ezek. . . psal . . . ephes . . . mat. . . eph. . . rom. . . tim. . . psal . . rom. . . & . , . jer. . . mat. . . col. . . matth. . , . phil. . . coloss . . . gal. . . rom. . . heb. . . cor. . pet. . . luke . . cor. . . pet. . . col. . . cor . . john . . psal . . . psal . . . tit. . . pet. . , . pet. . ● . ephes . . , . james . . psal . . . ephes . . . phil. . . titus . . mat. . . rom. . . luke . . mark . . heb. . . rom. . . rev. . , . hab. . . jud. . luk. . . mar. . psa . . . eph. . ▪ rom. . . ez● . . . mat. . ecc. . . deut. . . col. . . cor. . . gen. . cor. . . phi. . . rom. . . deut. . . eph. . . rom. . . exod. . , , , , , &c. per. . . rom. . . . mat. . . mat. . . tim. . . luk. . , . rom. . luk. . . rom. . . mat . , . heb. . . act. . . p 〈◊〉 . . . jam. . p●t . . . psa . . . psa . . , isa . . . psa . . & . . mar. . psa . . eph. . , . psa . . . & . . & . . & . . . cor. . , . joh. . . gal. : . thes . . . rom. . . deut. . psa . . mat. . . thes . . . t●t . . . col. . . pet. . . ephes . . . pet. . . mat. . . tim. . . heb. . . mat. . . &c. pet. . ● . mat. . . james . . gal. . . john . , . revel . . , &c. pet. . , luke . . psal . . . chron. . . john . . acts . , . rom. . . . joh. . . , . mat. . , , . rev. . . joh. . . heb. . . rom. . . cor. . rom. . . . . 〈◊〉 . . gal. . ● . . . . . . rom. . . . joh. . . . mat. . . . tit. . . . . . psa . . . . . heb. 〈◊〉 . . . pet. . ● . . cor. . . luk. . , . . act. . & . . neh. . . . & . , , , , . . act. . . tim. . . act. . . & . . tim. . . cor. , , . luk. . , . neh. . . act. . , . tim. . , . act. . . cor. . . joh. ● . . cor. . . . mat. . . t●… . . mar. . . mar. . , , . eph. . , . jude . . act. . . tim. . . . tim. . . act. ● . psa . . rev. . . tim. . , , . thes . . , . & . ● thes . . . rev. . . mat. . . &c & . , . tim. . . eph. . . thes . . . joh. . . sam. . ● cor. . . phi. . . . jam . . , , . luk. . . cor. . . cor. . ● . psa . . . rev. . act. . . col. . , . psal . . cor. . , . tim. . . & . . tim. . , . act. . , . luke . . levit. . , , . cor. . . p●or . . . dan. . . heb. . . psal . . . & . . & . . & . . & . . & . . & . . isa . . ● . mat. 〈◊〉 . . isa . . . & . . k●n. . , , . josh . . . z●oh . . . sam. . . psal . . . & . . pro. . . tim. . . tim. 〈◊〉 . , . rev. . . zec● . . isa . . . jam. . . sam. . . joh. . . chron. 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . amos . . rom. . , , . rev. . . psal . . . jer. . . matth. . . mat. . . john . . co. . . . tim. . . mal. . . he● . . , , , . pet. . . psal . . . cor. . , , . 〈◊〉 . ● . . l●k . . . act. . . heb. . . . cor. . . tim. . . john . . ephes . . , . rom. . . , . eph. . thes . . , . pet. . . tim. . . rom. . , , . cor. . . gal. . . pet. . . rom. . . mat. . , . cor. . . cor. . , . rev. . . joh : ● . . mat. . . psal . . , , . tim. . . mat. . . gal. . . gal. . . ps . . & . . rev. . . tim. . . act. . . rom. . . mat. . . & . . thes . . , . rev. 〈◊〉 . , . & . . luke . . rev. ● . & . eph. . , , , , . tites . . cor. . . ●o . . . rom. . . & . . john . rom. . . luk. . . psal . . . phil. 〈◊〉 . . psa . . eph. . . . tim. . , , . cor. . . ●e . . . rom. . . psa . . . & . . isa . . . psa . . . . mat. . . exod. . , , . mark . , . jam. . . eccl. . , . ezek. . . neh. . . rev. . . pro. . . psa . . , , . isa . . . chro. . . rom. . . tim. . . mat. . . john . . psa . 〈◊〉 . , , . tim. 〈◊〉 . . psal . ● . . chron. . . & . . & . , . rom. . , . pet. . . tim. . . psal . . . p●ov . . . exod. . . job . isa . . . . psal . . . rom. . , , . tim. . . pet. . . cor. . . jer. . . tim. . . eph. . . . jam. . . ezek. . pet. . , , . mat. . , . . heb. . . . thes . . , . tim. . . eph. . . eccl. . . exo. . . ep● . . . & . . . pet. . . col. . . & . , , . joh. . . luk. . cor. . . pro. . . mat. . mat. . , . ●or . . rom. . . eph. . , . . eph. . . thes . . 〈◊〉 . psa . . . pro. . . & . psa . . . mat. . ●● . exo. . mat. . mat. . . mat. . . pet. . . mat. . ● . gal. . luk. . . tim. . . deut . , . psa . . & . deut. . phi . . rom. . , . & 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 mar. . . joh. . , . gal. . jam. . , . eze. . . eph. . ●… heb. . mat , . , & . . luk. . . mat. . . jam. . 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . . . & . rom . . gal. . . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . ● . 〈◊〉 . . . rom . . pet. . psa . . , , , tim. ● . 〈◊〉 tim. 〈◊〉 . . m●t. 〈◊〉 . . rom. ● . . psa 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . . psal . . . co● . . ●sa . . cor . . ●s . . exo. , . isa . . rev. . . gen. . . psa 〈◊〉 d●… . . ● . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . ●sa 〈◊〉 . . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 g●… . . ● ioh. . h●b . . ioh. . 〈◊〉 . . 〈◊〉 tim. . . pet. . . heb. . 〈◊〉 . mat 〈◊〉 co● . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . m●● . 〈…〉 . 〈…〉 . . 〈◊〉 ● . . h●… . . 〈…〉 . . rom. 〈◊〉 . heb. . . gal. . . mat. . . rev. . . eph. . . psa . . phil. . . mat . ioh. . . heb. . pet. . . ioh. . . . pet . ● . psa . . . eph. cor. . . . act. , tit . , , 〈◊〉 tim. . eph . . joh. . tim. . 〈◊〉 psa . , joh . . luk. . ● . pet. . . rom. . heb. . . ezek. . . pro. . , . ioh. . act. . . ioh. . rom. . . amos . . rom. . . act. ● . . rom. . , , . . eph. . . gal. . eph. . . pet. . , , , rom . eph. . . heb. . . psa . . . tim. . . m●t . . ps● . . . & . . & . . psa . 〈◊〉 . psal . . & . . & . . & . . & . & . . hab. . . psal . . . psal . . . psal . . psal . . . psal . . psal . . . psal . . psal . . psal . . . iohn . . rev. . . psal . , . , . . joh . . psal . . , . psal . ● . . , . . psal . . psal . , . psal . . , . . psal . . . psa . . , psal . . . psa . . . luk. . . psal . , , , . psa . . , . rev . . & . , . & . . . . psa . . . ● . psal . . . psal . . . psal . . , . . psal . . . . psal . . . psal . . . notes for div a -e mal. 〈◊〉 . heb . . sa● . . . mal. . . isa . . luk. . ● . eph. . luk. . . eze. . , , . col. . . jer. . . deut. . . deut. . , . & , . psa . . . . heb. . . deut. . & . . tim. . . joh. . . eph. . . gal. . . mat . , . luk. . . mat. . rom. . . cor. . . thes . . . luk. . ● . mat . . psa . . ● . deut . . phil. ● . cor . . isa . . col. . act. . , , , . cor. . . mal . , . ● . & . . ● . psal . . . gen. . psa . . chron. . . mat. . . ma● . . mal. . . pet. . isa . . . psal . . rev. . . hos . . . eze. . . heb. . , eze. . hos . . psa . . . ioh . . hos. . mat. . . mat. . . joh. , . & . . eph. . , . pet. . . mat. . . ioh. . . . psal . . . ephes . . . heb. . . col. . . ephes . . . psal . . . psa . . rev. . . tim. . . psa . . . deut. . . ioh. . . ioh. . . luk. . . heb. . . luk. . . cor. . . . . . act. . , . rev. . . pet. . . luk. , , . cor. . . heb. . , . & . . john . . & . . rom. . . . heb. . . col. . . john . . mat. . . heb. . . john . . mat. . . joh. . . matth. . . pet. . . act. . . rom. . . cor. . . pet. . . . & . . joh. . . ephes . . , . luke . . ezek. . . zech. . . rom. . . joh. . , , , , . rom. . . cant. . . ephes . . , . rom. . . thes . . . rom. . . cor. . . ephes . . , . cor. . . mat. . , . cor. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . rom. . cor. . . eph. . rom. . . . tit. . . rom. . . act. . . pet. . . luk. . , . rev. . , . . . rom. . . pet. , . mat. . . . rev. . . & . . rom. . , . heb. . . pet. . . heb. . . eph. . . luk. . . mat. . . joh. . . ezr. . , . psa . . . rom. . , . col. . ● . phil. . , , , . psa . . . heb. . . psa . . . cor. . . eph. . . mat. . . cor. . . psa . . . luk. . . pet. . , eph. , . rom. . . cor. . . rom. . . tim. . rom. . . notes for div a -e rom. . . eph. . . joh. . . gen. . . joh. . . heb. . . rev. . . rom. . . tit. . . rom . . heb . . mat . , . gen. . , . ezek. . rom. . , . tit. . . cor. . . gen. . rom. . . act. . mat. . . deut. . , . mat. . , . cor. . , . rev. . . eph . . joh. . . heb. . . eph. . . & . . zech. . , . . pet . . tim. . . rom. . , . gal. . . joh. . . act. . . cor. . , . psal . . , . cor. . psa . . . eph. . . mat. . . deut. , . & . & . psal . . & . . tit. . . & tit. . . & . . joh. . , , gal. . . mat. . . psal . jam. . 〈◊〉 . . ▪ cor. . . joh. . . 〈◊〉 cor. psa . , . joh. ● luk. . . 〈◊〉 . . . rev. . . notes for div a -e see the rubrick for catechism , and confirmation in the common-prayer , and also his majesties declaration concerning ecclesiastical assa●●s . notes for div a -e ●●n . . & 〈◊〉 . . mal . . cor. . . . heb. . . luk. . . ephe. . &c. mal 〈◊〉 . , . p●al . . . mat. . , . d●ut . . , ●zek . . . pro. . . eph. . . pet. . , . tim. . . & . , . co● . . , . gen. . . p●o. . . heb. . cor. . . luk. . . pet. . . rev. . . joh. . . if they bee young , it may ●ee said , bless them with ●hildren , and l●t them b●● de●…ed , &c. gen. . . tit. . . tim. . . cor. . . thes . . . eph. . . gal. . . rom. 〈◊〉 . . . gal. . 〈◊〉 . notes for div a -e num. . . luk. . . lam. . . ezra . . . lam. . . . isa . . , , . psal . . . & . . & . . & . . , , . & . . joh. . . psal . . , . & . . isa . . , . psal . . . luke . . isa . . . psa . . . job . . . psal . . . lam. . . psa . . . . isa . . . cor. . . heb. . . lam. . , , . , . psa . . . heb. . , . isa . . , . psa . . . . &c. psal . . . . cor. . . & . . & . . heb. . cor. . , . phil. . . cor. . . heb. . . cor. . . rom. . . col. . . ioh. . & . . & . . & . . phil. . . psal . . . tim. . . gen. . . tim. . . psal . . . psa . . . ioh. . d●… . . col. . , . sam. . & . ● . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . . & , . & . . & . . & . , . ●sa . . , . jer. . . . psal . . . isa . . . ●sa . . . psa . ● . , , & . . & . , . & , , . & . . & . & . , psa . . . & . psa . . , , , , . isa . . . cor. . . luke . . cor. . . notes for div a -e psa . . . . rev. . . sam. . . psa . . . & . & . . & . . & . . , . . deut. . . psa . . . isa . . . deut. . . . psal . . isa . . . mal. . . cor. . . eph. . . deut . . prov. . . josh . . . zech. . , psa . . . joh. . . phil. . . . cor. . , , . psa . . , , . jude , notes for div a -e the sin may be named and aggravated when it is convenient . notes for div a -e jos . . . pro. . . psal . . . exo. . . gal. . . chro. . . gen. . . psa . . . mat. . . luk. . . mat. . . psal . . & . . luk. . . tim. . . heb. . . luk. . . rom. . . jam. . . psa . . . . heb. . . 〈◊〉 . . , . & . & . . psal . . , . cor. , , . john . . mat. . psal . . , eccle. . . chron. . . jam. . , . psal . . . joh. . . gal. . . * here the sin must bee named and aggravated , when by the pastor it is judged requisite . cor. . . . sam. . . gen. . . mat. . . heb. . . cor. . , , . chron. . . eph. . . john . . notes for div a -e cor. . . mat. . . prov. ● . . cor. . . luke . . act. . . . act. . . tim. . , . joh. . . ● tim. . . eph. . . psal . . . rom. . , & , . , . , . deut. . . . mark . . math. . . deut . . cor. . . luk. . . . prov. . . act. . isa . . . joel . . . lam. . . psal . . jam. . . luk. . gal . . luke . . ezek. . , tim. . . notes for div a -e luke . . mic. . . mat. . , . cor. . . t it . . thes . . , , . sam. . . act. . . tim. . . cor. . . matth. . . notes for div a -e sam. . . ch . . , . rom. . . joh. . . . . john . ● . isa . . , . pro. . gal. . . mat. . ● . * this must bee omitted if the person was not first rejected . luke . cor. . . . act. . . act. . . luke . . . mat. . psal . . cor. . , , . psal . . 〈◊〉 . pet. . . notes for div a -e rom . . john. . . & . . . psal . . & . . mal . . * leave out this if hee was not rejected . rom. . , , , psa . . . pet. . . act. . . psa . . . tim , . rom. . . mar. . . cor. . . john . . cor. . . jude . notes for div a -e mat. . . john . . cor. . . . tin . . ps . . , , . & . . isa . . . nehe. . ● . rev. . . & . 〈◊〉 eze. . . psa . ● . . & . . & . mal. . . deut. . . luke , . 〈◊〉 act. . , . heb. . . phi. . , , . luk. . . mat. , . cor. . . mat . luk. . . mat. . , . . mark . . & . . cor. , ioh. . . heb. . . & . . & . . & . . act. . . heb. . . ioh. . . mat. . , . cor. . eph. & . . . ioh. . the. . , , ioh. . . act. ioh. . . pet. . tim . . act. . ioh. . . rom. . cor. . . psa . . . mar. . . cor. . . cor. . . , rom. . . thes . . . cor. . pet. . . rom. . . zech. . . eph. . , . ioh. . luk. . . hab. . luk. . . psa . & . , , , , , . &c. . isa . . . deut. . . & , , . psa . . . & . . & . . & . , cor. . . tim. . . . phi. . . . rom. . , mat. . . psa . . . . & . . . rev. . . tim. . . . joh. . . . . phil. . . . matth. ● . . thes . . . dan. . . isa . . . matth. . . eph. . . thes . . . thes . . . luk. . . matth. . . luke . . pet. . . & . . & . , . micah . . mat. . , . psa . . ● . mat . . r v. . & . . john . . luk. . . . pet. . jude tim. . . ephes . , . & . . rom. . & . . jer. . . cor. . . phil. . . john . . ephes . . , . rom. . . heb. . . ephes . . , . thes . . ● . rom. . . psa . . . rom. . . col. . . heb. . . psal . . . isa . . . act. . . tim. . . thes . . . joh. . . lu. , . ps . . rom. . , . gal. . . cor. . . cor. . rom. . . joh. . . 〈◊〉 . , , . rom. . . micah . . matth. . 〈◊〉 . , , . deut. ● . exod. . . psal . . . ier. . . mat. . . iames . . rev. . , ier. . act. . . & . . mal. . , . & . , , , . rev. . . act. . . cor. . . isa . . . heb. . . cor. . act. . . . psa . , &c. . . iosh . . exod. . . tim. . . psa . . ier. . , . luk. . , . cor. 〈◊〉 . . luk. . . ioh. . . ezra . , &c. rom. . , . isa . . . chron. . . lam. . . king. . . ● . psa . . . sam. . . kings . , . . rom. . , . tim. . . psal . . . prov. . . exod. . . job . isa . . . . luke . , , . rom. . . . pet. . . tim. . . cor. . . tim. . . tim. . . ier. . . tim. . . & . . and . . heb. . . pet. . , , , . thes . . , . heb. . . tim. . . ephes . . . deut. . , . eccles . . . ephes . . , , . ephes . . . . pet. . . . gen. . . eph. . . . joh. . . luk. . . cor. . mat. . , . rom. . . eph. . . rom. . . mat. . , . cor. . . rom. . . th. . . eph. . . & . . pet. . , . job . . eph. . . psa . . . & . thes . . . pro. . . & . . & . . mat. . ● , . psa . . . & . . lev. . . prov. gal. . . . exo. . . phi. . . mat. . & . . mat. . . pet. . . mat. . , . 〈◊〉 . gal. . . psal . . mat. . . act. . . jam. . , , . king . . mal. . , . luk. ● . . deut. . . rom. . . luk. . . ephe. . . joh. . . deut. . , . &c. phi. . . psa . . . luk. . . eph. . . joh. . . rom. . . cor. . . and . iam. . , . eph. . . 〈◊〉 . . . and . tim. . . psa . . . joh. . p●… . . . dan. . . . jer . psa . ● . . psa . . , . . rom. . . mat. . . . . rom. . . luk. . , . luk. . act. . . mat ● . . jam. . . p●o. . . job . . mat. . . heb. . . tim. ● . . joh. . . and . . rom. . . tim. . . pro. , . john . , . rom. . mat. . . . mat. . . rom. . . mat . . rom. . . psa . . , , . and ● . . and . , . tim. . . tim. . . ps . . . act. . . psal . . . . jude , . thes . . . psa . . ● . and . . job . . . rom. . . notes for div a -e luke . . psa . . . rom. . . psa . . . rom. . . and . . luke . . . . isa . . luke . . mat. . . luke . . col. . , . . cor. , . joh. . . , col. . . gal. . . mat. . . heb . . pet. . , , . isa . . , . rom. . pet. . . john . . heb. . , . col . . cor. . . act. . tim. . . cor. . . mat. . . ephes . . . . , . ephes . . , , . tim. . . john. . . john. . . . , , rom. . . heb. . . psa . . . rom. , . tit. . , . rom. . . tim. . . psalm . . cor. . . titus . . rom. . , , . . rom. . . john . , . john . . iohn . . collos . . , . thes . . . mal. . . matth. . . rev. . . matth. . . rev. . . . zeph. . . rev. . . . . . rev. . . . tim. . . rom. . . the case stated between the church of england and the dissenters wherein the first is prov'd to be the onely true church, and the latter plainly demonstrated from their own writings and those of all the reformed churches to be downright schismaticks / collected from the best authors on either side ... by e.s. e. s., d.d. approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing s estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, 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(eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) the case stated between the church of england and the dissenters wherein the first is prov'd to be the onely true church, and the latter plainly demonstrated from their own writings and those of all the reformed churches to be downright schismaticks / collected from the best authors on either side ... by e.s. e. s., d.d. [ ], p. printed and sold by john nut, london : . reproduction of original in the union theological seminary library, new york. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng church of england -- apologetic works. dissenters, religious -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - emma (leeson) huber sampled and proofread - emma (leeson) huber text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the case stated between the church of england and the dissenters , wherein the first is prov'd to be the onely true church , and the latter plainly demonstrated from their own writings , and those of all the reformed churches , to be downright schismaticks . collected from the best authors , on either side and made publick for the conviction of those who have reviv'd matter of controversy , and are finding fault at this time of day with the london cases , when they dropt the dispute while their authors were living . by e. s. d. d. victrix causa deis placuit , sed victa catoni . — lucan . london , printed and sold by john nut ne●● stationers-hall . mdcc . to the reader . the dissenters having again taken the field , and reviv'd a dispute which had been some time laid aside , i could neither think it useless or impertinent to rise up in defence of that holy religion , against which they are declar'd enemies ; and vindicate the best of churches in its excellency of government , and purity of doctrine . and tho' many learned persons have already oblig'd the publick with unanswerable discourses in her favour , and left us sufficient arguments of the goodness of her worship and discipline , yet since her adversaries have rally'd again , and taking the advantage of the death of some of her champions , as dr. scot , dr. calamy , &c. are employ'd in picking holes in the london cases , i could not but think it very proper to remind 'em of the strength of what they are attacking , and give 'em the true knowledge of her beauties , whilst they are making enquiries after her faults . in order to this , i have collected the arguments which have been made use of on both sides , and given the reader the true state of a controversy , which none but men of invincible obstinacy would maintain , after such clear convictions , that the church which i have the honour to be a member of , by making use of her ceremonies , worships god in the beauty of holiness , and by breathing forth her desires in set forms of prayer , shews a reverence which is due to him that made her. i need say very little in relation to the names of those authors i have had recourse to on either side . they are gentlemen of known authority by their writings , and are eminent in the several congregations ▪ they belong to . but the reader will be satisfied after a due perusal , that the dissenters have eyes and see not , have ears and will not hear , and like the adder are deaf to the voice of the charmer , charm he never so wisely ; else they would fling themselves into the arms of a church whose constitution is unity , and whose purity so persuasive , as might make even her enemies to be at peace with her. the case stated , &c. when god almighty first gave a being to man , and did him the honour of permitting him to wear his makers image ; he appointed him no other guide to be directed by , than the law of nature or reason , under the government of which he liv'd the first two thousand years after his creation . but as the law of reason was not sufficient of it self , to keep man in that unalterable obedience which was due to his creator ; it was but necessary to give him more positive rules to walk by . wherefore the lord commanded moses to write a law for his people , which bears the name of the mosaical , and sometimes of the moral law , and is contain'd in the old testament . this law was reveal'd to men by the mediation of an angel ; but it consisting chiefly of types and ceremonies , and consequently not having that plainess which was necessary for humane capacities , as that of the new testament , god did then often appear to his people himself , and instruct 'em more immediately in the ways he would have 'em go by , and the paths it was his will they should shun . and men liv'd under this law of the old testament , superadded to the law of nature ( which is the same in reasonable creatures ) till god vouchsafed to convey the knowledge of his pleasure to us , after a more full and excellent manner , by the mediation of our lord jesus christ , and the holy ghost , in the new testament : and this law of the new testament is that which we are directed by to this very day , being absolv'd by it from our obedience to a great part of the old. vid. galat. . and as this law of the new covenant was reveal'd to us after a more excellent manner , than that of the old ; so the precepts which are contain'd in it are most extraordinary , having nothing in 'em which is either superfluous or wanting towards the leading men to heaven on very reasonable conditions . it is so adapted and fitted to all conditions of men , that the very meanest capacities may easily understand every thing contain'd in it , which is necessary to their salvation . and this evangelical law , christ and his apostles have left as a rule for all succeeding ages to walk by . but notwithstanding that our saviour and his apostles had left the world such plain and positive rules to walk by , that none that were not wilfully so cou'd be mistaken in them ; yet such has been the unhappiness of the christian church , that it never wanted some within it of such restless and peevish spirits , as to disturb its peace and quiet , by making divisions and schisms in it ; which st. paul foresaw , when he told the elders , acts . . also of your selves shall men arise , speaking perverse things , to draw disciples after them . but though there have been always some divisions in the church ever since the first planting of it ; yet for the first three or four hundred years , they were much fewer than what have been since , and those that were , were much more discountenanc'd and oppos'd by the generality of christians , than they were afterwards . in the church of africa , a little before st. augustine's days , there arose the schism of the donatists ; who separated upon the account that the bishopricks were too large , and the power of the bishops too great . and because the ministers were not so able and holy men as they should be , and because they dislik'd the liturgies and publick prayers of the church , and for such-like reasons . and a little before in the third century , began the novatian schism at rome ; for that novatus thinking the bishopricks too large , would needs be chosen bishop in the same city where cornelius was chosen before : but both these schisms were condemned , this by the council of carth. and the council of constantinople , and by st. cyprian , ep. . n. , &c. and that of the donatists by all the catholick bishops at the conference at carth. see conference of the third day , chap. . and by st. augustine in his books against permenian , petilian , and the other donatist bishops . but not long after , about the fifth and sixth century , the errors , and corruptions in the church , began to increase more abundantly , and appear more bare-fac'd and openly , than formerly they had done ; for that as the roman empire began to decline , there follow'd a general decay of learning , and gross ignorance had over spread the earth ; insomuch , that many of the priests themselves cou'd not read latin ; and then it was no difficult matter to bring in what heresies and schisms men wou'd . and this was the time that most of the errors and corruptions of the church of rome , were introduced , as dr. comber observes , in his advice to the roman catholicks of england . under this cloud of ignorance and darkness , did the church lie hid for many hundreds of years ; till about the year . when it pleased god to open the eyes of some of his people , and to let them see those great abuses with which the world had been so long abus'd , and under the burden of which , the church had groan'd for so many hundred years . and though here in england , there has been for many years before the reformation , a strong disposition that way , as may appear by the several acts of parliament made since the conquest , to lessen and take away the pope's power and authority , as well in ecclesiastical as civil matters within these kingdoms . see coke's th rep. de jure regis ecclesiastico . yet the pope had always so great an interest at court , and the clergy in the nation , having got most of the lands into their own hands , that this glorious design cou'd never be accomplish'd , till it pleased god to make an open breach between king h. . and the pope ; upon which , he totally rejected the pope's supremacy , and assum'd to himself the stile of supream head of the church in these nations , and defender of the faith. and thus the pope being quite forsaken , 't was likely popery wou'd not live long , having lost its infallible head. and so indeed it prov'd ; for in king edw. . days , popery was quite turn'd out of doors , by the general consent of the whole nation ; whose example many of the churches beyond seas follow'd . and thus the general reformation was happily begun ; and the christian church being stript of all its antick disguises , began to appear again , and shine forth in its natural form and brightness . but because 't was impossible to bring the people clearly off , from what they and their ancestors had been bred up in , and accustom'd to for so many ages ; or to make them capable of distinguishing on a sudden , between things hurtful in religion , and things indifferent ; therefore 't was thought convenient , that no alterations shou'd be made in things indifferent , nor any scruples rais'd about them ; which wou'd at that time have hinder'd much the reformation , since many were with difficulty enough brought to things necessary : so that for this reason , as also to let our enemies see , that we did not break communion with them for indifferent things , many things were retain'd at the beginning of the reformation , that were afterwards reform'd . in the days of edw. vi. the liturgy and publick service of the church was corrected and amended : and this was done with all the care and deliberation imaginable , and the king and parliament took the best advice in the doing of it that cou'd be had either at home or abroad . which makes me , indeed , admire to hear every illiterate dissenter find so many faults in the liturgies and worship of the church of england , that was so well approv'd of then by all those holy bishops and martyrs that were our first reformers , and by calvin , bucer , and all the eminent divines beyond seas : 't is very strange to think that such excellent men , and men of such indefatigable pains , and great integrity , as cranmer , ridly , latimer , and bradford , &c. were , after all their diligent enquiry , and fervent prayers to god , that he would direct them in the performance and management of so great a work , cou'd not after all , spy so much as a mote of unlawfulness , in those things that now every dissenting preacher , though never so raw or illiterate ; yea , and the very meanest of the people can see such beams in . 't is certain , that our terms of communion are the same , or rather easier now than they were then , as most of the dissenters will allow ; and as dr. stillingfleet has prov'd at large , in his mischiefs of separation . during all the reign of king edward vi. there were no divisions in this church about these matters . there might have been some in those days that might have wish'd for a farther reformation , as no church ever yet wanted such ; but there was no such thing as separation from the church , and going to separate meetings upon that account : no , 't was so far from that , that when actual separation was first beg●n in queen elizabeth's days , those who practis'd it , were severely condemned by most of those who were very desirous of a farther reformation . the time when separation first began in the church of england , was about the beginning of queen elizabeth's reign : for after queen mary's death , the ministers and others , who were banished and fled in her time , began to flock back again into england ; but the impressions which were made on some of our divines , during their banishment ; especially those who continued at geneva , ( a place always inveterate against ceremonies ) did not wear off at their return home ; but after a little while , they began to insinuate into the people ( who are ever fond of novelties ) a hatred to the livery of antichrist , as they call'd the vestments , and ceremonies ; upon which , some of the people began to separate ; and this was the first occasion of pressing uniformity with laws and penalties . the queen and parliament now began to see it necessary for the quiet of the church and nation , and for the avoiding farther divisions upon this account , that all the clergy shou'd give some assurance of their conformity and obedience to the laws of this land , and the religion establish'd by law , and to the orders and discipline of the church , agreeable to law. and accordingly , certain articles and subscriptions were agreed on ; and such of the clergy as would not subscribe thereto , were suspended : they who were suspended , writ to their oracle at geneva , beza , who was a man of greatest authority with them , to know what they shou'd do ; beza advises them , that if they cannot otherwise be continued in their offices , but by wronging their consciences , that they should submit , and live quietly , but by no means to exercise their function against the will of their queen and bishops ; for , says he , we tremble at the thoughts of that * . but he tells them farther , that though he does not approve of the ceremonies , yet being 〈◊〉 evil in themselves , he does not think them 〈◊〉 that moment as that the ministers shou'd leave their functions for them , or the people forsake the ordinances , rather than hear those who did conform . and it seems , indeed , that the more serious and learned of those divines , who in their banishment had suck'd in a dislike to the church of england way of worship , did not think fit to separate from it upon that account , or to endeavour too hastily the reforming of it ; for dr. burnet in his book of travels , tells us , that in switzerland he met with several letters from some of our english clergy to bullinger , who had procur'd a kind reception to be given to several of them in switzerland , during the persecution of queen mary . by which letters it appears ; that several of the clergy who had been beyond seas , upon their return home , did endeavour to perswade queen elizabeth to let the matters of the habits for the clergy , &c. fall ; particularly sands , afterwards archbishop of york , horn afterwards bishop of winchester , jewel and grindal : but grindal in one of his letters to bullinger , says , they were all resolved to submit to the laws , and to wait for a fit opportunity to reverse them : and he laments the ill effects of the opposition that some had made to them ; he also thanks bullinger for the letter he wrote to justifie the lawful use of the habits , &c. and in fine , they all allow'd the lawfulness , but not the fitness of them ; and that they ought to submit to the law , till it shou'd please god to reverse it lawfully . see burnet's travels , p. , . but though the wiser sort among them did not think fit to proceed to actual separation from the church , upon the account of those indifferent things ; yet some there were of a more fierce and turbulent spirit , who had not patience to wait god's leisure , but either a reformation must be made presently according to their wild notions ; and the queen and parliament must tack about immediately to their pleasures , or else to your tents , o israel ; they will set up churches of their own , and forsake us utterly as a superstitious and idolatrous church , not fit to be communicated with . and thus began our unhappy divisions in the church of england . i shall not trouble my self to trace this matter through the reigns of queen elizabeth , king james the first , and king charles the first ; nor to show how they daily increas'd and grew wider : nor the many sub-divisions , and scandalous breaches that were daily made among themselves , ever since the beginning of separation : as between brown and barrow , brown and harrison , barrow and johnson , johnson and ainsworth ; who all left england to gather separate churches to themselves in the low-countries ; but scarce had been well there , till they fell out all among themselves ; one man and his company being accurs'd , and avoided by the other and his followers , and the one church receiving the persons excommunicated by the other ; till they became ridiculous to spectators , and at last some of them were glad to return into england . this matter has been so fully related by dr. stillingfleet , in his mischiefs of separation , p. , , &c. that 't were needless here to repeat it . i shall only take notice , that ever since king james the second's accession to the crown , the church of england had laid aside all thoughts of controversie with the dissenters , in hopes that they wou'd have joyn'd for their common safety with them , in stopping the inundation of popery , that was ready to break in upon these nations , and swallow them both up . but while most of our eminent divines of the church of england , as dr. tillotson , dr. stillingfleet , dr. burnet , dr. comber , dr. sherlock , and the rest , were imploy'd in writing against the incendiaries of rome ; the dissenters , our brethren , instead of assisting us , were making themselves ready for war with us ; as appear'd soon after . for when god almighty had happily plac'd king william in the throne , a convocation was immediately call'd , in hopes that some terms of accommodation might have been agreed upon between us ; and which , in all probability , wou'd have taken effect , if the dissenting ministers had been as forward as we ; for how much inclin'd our clergy were to a reconciliation ( notwithstanding the aspersion laid on them by the dissenters , of their having no such design ) does sufficiently appear by several of their writings ; see dr. tillotson's sermon preached at the yorkshire feast , anno . pag. . and dr. sherlock's sermon before the lord mayor , nov. . see likewise the petition of the archbishop of canterbury , and the other bishops ; for which they were committed to the tower : and see the articles recommended by the archbishop of canterbury to all the bishops within his province . and dr. stillingfleet's preface to his mischiefs of separation . by all which , it sufficiently appears how desirous they were for a reconoiliation . but instead of listning to any such thing , does our dissenters break forth into open acts of hostility , and at that very time when we were actually treating of accommodation with them , do they publish several of their books , one upon the back of another ; in which , they endeavour nothing less than the total overthrow of our church , by pretending to prove , that the constitution of our church is new , and unlawful ; and that our worship is idolatrous and sinful . had this been at a time when their way of worship was not tolerated , or ours impos'd on them with penalties , they had been the more excusable ; or , had we began to expose their extempore way of praying , as we might easily have done ; but at such a time as that was , to become the aggressors , was ungrateful as well as unseasonable . but now , since the dissenters have thought fit to revive the controversie between us , i hope they cannot take it unkindly of us , if we endeavour to vindicate our church , and to remove those aspersions that they have groundlesly cast upon her . but this has been done so learnedly and fully by so many of our learned divines already , that i will not pr●●end to do it better , or to say much more than what they have said before me ; i shall only here lay down briefly the substance of what i have collected out of the best authors on both sides , that have writ larely on this subject : for there may be some who wou'd be willing to be satisfied in this matter , and yet can neither bestow the time nor pains to read all the books of controversie over , which have been writ on this subject . first then , we will examine the pleas which the dissenters use for separation , and show the insufficiency of them ; and that they do not justifie separation according to their own principles . all the pleas at this time made use of for separation , may be reduced to these three heads : first , such as relate to the constitution of our church . second , to the terms of communion with it . third , to the consciences of dissenters . as to the first , to wit , such as relate to the constitution of our churches ; they say , first , that our parochial churches are not according to christ's institution , as being different from those of the congregational way . secondly that our diocesan bishops are unlawful . thirdly , that our national church has no foundation , and wants discipline ; all being swallowed up in the bishops : and the pastors of every parish who ought to have full power to execute every part of it , are depriv'd thereof . and fourthly , that the people are depriv'd of their right of chusing their own pastors . first , say they , our parochial churches are not according to christ's institution . for christ , they say , instituted no other kind of churches , than particular congregations , to which he gave full power and authority to govern themselves , distinctly and independent of all other churches . but where have they authority for this opinion ? where do they find that churches were limitted to particular congregations ? not in scripture ; for there is no tolerable proof , that the churches planted by the apostles , were of this nature . 't is possible at first there might have been no more christians in a city , than might meet together in one congregation ; but where doth it appear , that when they multiply'd into more congregations , they made new and distinct churches under new officers , with a separate power of government ; of this dr. stillingfleet says , he is well assu●'d there is no mark or footstep in the new testament , or the whole history of the primitive church . if they will follow the plain instances of scripture , they may better limit churches to private families , than to particular congregations ; for of that we have a plain instance in scripture , rom. . . . col. . . in the house of priscilla and aquilla , but not a word of the other : and if they wou'd keep to these plain instances of scripture , they might fully enjoy the liberty of their consciences , and avoid the scandal of breaking the laws . but the scripture is so far from making every congregation an independent church , that it plainly shews us , the notion of a church was then the same with a diocess , or all the christians of a city , which were under the inspection of one bishop : for , if we observe the language of the scripture , we shall find this observation not once to fail ; that when churches are spoken of , they are the churches of a province : as the churches of judaea , thess . . . the churches of asia , cor. . . of syria and cilicia , acts . . churches of galatia , cor. . . gal. . . churches of macedonia , cor. . . but when all the christians of a city are spoken of , it is still call'd the church of that city ; as , the church of antioch , the church at corinth , the church of ephesus , &c. so that it seems plain from the testimony of scripture , that churches were not limitted to particular congregations , unless they will say , that all the christians in the largest of these cities mention'd in scripture , were no more than cou'd conveniently meet in one congregation ; which shall be shown to be otherwise hereafter . but suppose we shou'd grant that the apostolick churches were congregational ( as 't is plain they were not ) what then ? that might have been from the circumstances of times , or small number of christians in those days ; must it therefore follow that they must always continue so ? why do they not wash one anothers feet , as christ did , and commanded his apostles to do the same * : so the first civil government was by god's own institution over families ; they may by the same rule think themselves bound to overthrow kingdoms , to bring things back to god's first institution . from whence it appears how ridiculous that fancy of theirs is , that the scripture is the only rule of all things pertaining to discipline and worship ; and that we must stick so precisely to the letter of it , and to the practice of those days , as that 't is not lawful to vary from it in any little indifferent circumstance for the sake of publick order , or conveniency . but as this notion of congregational churches does not agree with the words of the new testament ; so neither does it with the judgment and practice of the primitive church ; for by the ancient canons ▪ of the church it appears , that the notion of a church , was the same with that of a diocess , which comprehended many congregations , or parishes . see canons nicen. , , . constant . c. . chalcedon . . . antioch c. . . codex eccles . africae , c. . . concil . gangrae . c. . concil . carthag . c. , . and thus much as to the first objection against the constitution of our church , as differing from those of the congregational way ; and therefore not of christ's institution . the second objection against the constitution of our church is , that our diocesan churches and bishops are unlawful ; for say they , 't is making a new species of churches and church-government , without god's appointment ; for , says mr. baxter , according to christ's institution , no church must be bigger , than that the same bishop may perform the pastoral office to them in present communion : and so he will have three sorts of bishops by divine right : first , general bishops , that in every nation are over many churches . secondly , episcopi gregis , or ruling pastors of single congregations , which are all true presbyters . thirdly , episcopi praesides ; which are the presidents of the presbyters in particular churches : this is mr. baxter's notion of bishops : but others are not of his mind , and will allow of but one kind of bishop , and such they make the pastor of every congregation . but that both these notions of episcopacy are false , will appear ; for that first , 't was an inviolable rule in the primitive church , that there must be but one bishop in a city , though 't were never so large ; for our saviour having left no rule about limits , the apostles follow'd the form of the empire , planting in every city a complete and entire church , whose bishop , as to his power and jurisdiction , in ecclesiastical matters , resembled that of the chief magistrate of the city ; the presbyters , that of the senates ; and the several churches , the several corporations . so says dr. still . in his mischiefs of separation , p. . and quotes origen , c. cels . l. . and dr. maurice in his def. of dioces . episcopacy , p. , &c. affirms ▪ the same , and proves it at large . and as far as the territories of the city extended it self , so far did the diocess of the bishop extend ; for the church and the city had but one territory . but though this be a thing agreed upon by most learned men of all persuasions , that there was but one bishop in a city in the primitive church ; yet because some may be so hardy as to deny this , i will appeal to the practice of the african church ; for which mr. baxter , dr. owen , and the rest of the dissenters , express an esteem above all other churches . 't was an inviolable rule among the african churches , that there must be but one bishop in a city , though never so large and populous . see cod. eccl. africae , c. . and at the famous conference at carthage , between the catholick and donatist bishops , by the command of constantine the emperor , who was become christian , the rule on both sides agreed was , but one bishop in a city , or diocess . see conference of the first day . and if there cou'd have been more than one bishop in a city , the two great schisms of the donatists in africa , and the novatian at rome , might have been avoided ; but instead hereof , see how st. cyprian among others , aggravates the schism of novatius , for being chosen bishop in the same city where cornelius was chosen before ; for , says he , since there cannot be a second after the first , whosoever is made bishop , where one is made already , is not another bishop , but none at all , cypr. epist . . n. . and the same st. cyprian in his epistle . n. . . declares , that to have only one bishop in a city , was the best means to prevent schism . see st. cypr. de vnitate eccles . n. , . and st. augustine in his epistle . to the same purpose . but now that 't is so plainly prov'd that there was never allow'd but one bishop in a city in the primitive church , they have no way to reconcile this to their hypothesis , but by endeavouring to prove that either the cities were very small in those days , or else the number of christians in them were so few , as that they might all conveniently meet in one congregation . and this they are not satisfied to do in the ordinary cities , which mr. clarkson in his book of primitive episcopacy affirms , were no larger than our ordinary market-towns in england . but even in the very largest , and most populous cities , they will not allow that there were more christians than cou'd conveniently meet together in one church to serve god ; as in rome , alexandria , constantinople , carthage , and the rest : all which far exceeded any now in the world , both for largeness and number of people . this seems to be very strange . old rome was at that time a city so large and populous , that it excell'd london , as it is at this day , as far as london now does new rome , and had by computation at that time above inhabitants ; as dr. maurice shows in his defence of diocesan episcopacy , p. . and seems indeed to be very probable , if one considers those vast and mighty pieces of workmanship , that appear to have been done there ; the ruins of which are to be seen at this day , as dr. burnet in his travels tells us , who gathers from thence , that that city must have been vastly populous about that time . and it was in aurelius his days miles in circumference , dr. m. p. . and yet will mr. clarkson allow no more christians in this great city than cou'd meet in one congregation . so of alexandria , which was miles in circumference , according to pliny , l. . . and the rest , all greater far than london now is . but to serve their turn they will reduce them all to the narrow limits of a single congregation , and by consequence give all the rest to the devil , by making them unchristian , hereticks , schismaticks , &c. 't is strange that christianity shou'd make no better a progress , considering the largeness of the cities , and multitude of people in them ; and considering the care and industry of the apostles and learned fathers of those ages , and their extraordinary gifts ; that in so large and populous a city as rome , christianity shou'd gain no more proselytes in years , than cou'd meet all in one church , notwithstanding st. paul himself had preach'd there for many years : the very quakers in london , which is not comparable to old rome , have made more proselytes already , than the apostles in much longer time ; for were all the quakers in london assembled in one congregation , i doubt that never a church in the kingdom wou'd be found large enough to contain them . but besides , if the number of christians were so few as these dissenters wou'd make them , how was it possible for them to possess themselves of the whole roman empire in less than years ? they had no interest at court nor in the army ; but were presecuted by the emperors all that time , unless in two reigns ; so that there can be no other human cause assign'd for it , but their great numbers . but farther 't is plain that there were some great cities entirely christian from the apostles days , as cesaria , and lydda , acts . . and others . so that in the first years , whole cities and countries being become christian , as eusebius affirms , praep. evang. l. . p. , . 't was impossible for a single congregation to contain a quarter of the christians of a city , much less of a whole diocess ; for besides the large and populous city , every bishop had a territory within his diocess , which extended it self for several miles round the city . for every city had a large territory , as it were a county round about it , which was under the jurisdiction of the civil magistrate , who govern'd the city , and as far as the jurisdiction of the magistrate reach'd in civil matters , so far did the jurisdiction of the bishop reach in ecclesiastical matters . see can. apostolic . . by which a bishop is forbid to do any thing without the consent of his metropolitan or archbishop , but what relates to his own diocess , and the territories under it ; and see can. antioch . & . but that the bishops territories and jurisdiction extended far beyond the walls or bounds of the city is most evident ; for theodoret , who was bishop of cyrus , had a diocess miles square , and yet he reckon'd his episcopacy of divine institution . see his epist . . and he had within his diocess parish churches , as appears by his epist . . to leo. this is an instance so clear against our dissenters , that mr. baxter , and mr. clarkson , and the rest , have no way to answer it , but first that it came from the vatican library ; which objection is fully removed by dr. stilling fleet in his mischief of separation , p. . and by dr. maur. def. of dioc. episc . p. . and this epist . of theod. prov'd to be his own , by comparing it with his other writings ; and also by the clear testimony of liberatus , who infallibly knew theodoret's stile and writings . neither does it follow , that because it came from the vatican library , therefore it must not be authentick : but when people are drowning , rather than sink they will catch hold of a bull-rush . the other exception they take to this testimony of theodoret is , that he was not bishop of a single diocess , but of a province ; and that theodoret was an archbishop : but that cyprus , of which he was then bishop , was no metropolis at that time , nor theodoret primate of a province , but under a metropolitan , appears by his ep. and by his , , , , and . alexander was then his metropolitan . but theodoret was not the only bishop that had such a large diocess ; for st. chrysostom had one full as large , and which contained as many parishes ; he was bishop of constantinople , and all the territories thereto belonging , and did not think it in his conscience too large ; for if he did , so good a man as he , would either have divided or quitted it . and athanasius was bishop of alexandria and the territories belong to it ; for he says , ap. p. , . maoretis is a region belonging to alexandria , and all the churches there are immediately subject to the bishop of alexandria . but because dr. owen , mr. baxter , mr. cotton and the rest , have made choice of the church of carthage in africk , in st. cyprian's time , to make their appeals to ; dr. stillingfleet , to avoid all cavils , ( as he tells us ) has chosen that very church to be decided by , as to the episcopal government now in dispute between us . and therefore , first he proves that there were a great number of presbyters , belonging to the church of carthage at that time ; and therefore not likely to be one single congregation . and this he proves , out of st. cyprian's own epistles in his banishment . particularly in his th . book , ep. . he complains , that a great number of his clergy were absent , and the few that remain'd , were hardly sufficient for their work. and that these presbyters , and the whole church were under the particular care and government of st. cyprian , as their bishop , appears by his own words , lib. . ep. , and . to the people of carthage ; he complains to them of his presbyters , that they did not reserve to their bishop that honour due to his place ; for that they received penitents to communion , without imposition of hands by the bishop , &c. and in his epist . . he threatens to excommunicate those presbyters that should do so for the future . and all the other bishops gave their approbation to st. cyprian for so doing . and the same st. cyprian in his book , ep. . tells them that a bishop in the church is in the place of christ ; and that disobedience to him is the occasion of schisms and disorders . see more fully concerning this matter , in dr. stillingfleet's mischiefs of separation , p. , . &c. and now since dr. owen , mr. baxter and the rest , have agreed to appeal to the church of carthage , we must suppose they allow no deviations in that church , from the primitive institution , and what that was then , any one may judge . and st. augustine was another bishop in the african church ; he was bishop of hippo regia , the diocess of which extended at least forty miles , as appears by st. augustine's own epist . . 't is true , the african church came most near the congregational way of any other , the diocess being smaller by reason of the many sectaries there ; the donatists , and many others : ▪ and that is the reason , mr. baxter and the rest express so great an esteem for it . but that their bishopricks were much too large , to serve either the presbyterians or independents turn ; and , that they never allowed more than one bishop in the largest cities , sufficiently appears by what has been said . and in the african code , there is a canon that says expresly ; no bishop shall leave his cathedral church , and go to any other church in his diocess to reside there , see codex eccl. africae c. . which shows that the bishops territories and jurisdiction extended into distant places from the city , as well in the african churches as in others . i shall only add to this , that calvin look'd upon it as a thing out of dispute among learned men , that a church did not only take in the christians of a city in the primitive times , but of the adjacent country also . see calv. instit . l. . c. . n. . but though there were never more than one bishop in a city , in the primitive church , * yet some bishops have had two or more cities in their diocess . timothy was bishop of farmissus and eudocias ; athanasius was bishop of diveltus and sozopolis . and there have been some bishopricks that have had no city at all in them , but only villages , for there were some countries that had no cities in them ; so have we at this day , bishops in ireland and wales that have no cities in their diocess : but it cannot be prov'd that the jurisdiction of the bishop , and the extent of his diocess was confin'd to any single village . so far from that , that by the canon of sardica vi. all the bishops assembled at sardica agree , that it shall by no means be lawful to ordain any bishops in villages or small cities , that the dignity of a bishop may not be contemptible from the meanness of the place . but , says mr. clarkson and the rest , the apostles ordain'd elders in every church , and then mr. clarkson names the places , to wit , antioch , iconium , lystra , and other villages : and these elders or presbyters they will have bishops . but first , i say , that during the apostle's days , the names bishop and presbyter were commonly used , the one for the other ; ( but not after , as shall be show'd hereafter ) and therefore these elders , or presbyters here spoken of may be as well taken for ordinary presbyters or priests , as for bishops . but allowing these presbyters were bishops , what advantage will it be to them ? for first , it does not appear , that the apostles confin'd their authority to those places , but the contrary is evident ; and unless they can prove this , it will not serve their turn . but , secondly , these cities over which the apostles appointed elders , were large cities at that time , by much too great to come together in one congregation . iconium was then a metropolitan , and had many other cities under it . and the rest were all large cities . but before i conclude this point i must make one observation , and that is , that mr. clarkson , to prove that a bishop of a city had no more but one congregation , undertakes to shew how small some cities were ; but 't is remarkable he quotes for his authority some author who speaks of them long before there were any bishops ; and because they might have been small places then , will needs have them to be so in the days of the apostles , which is very ridiculous ; for under the roman emperours , both the roman and the grecian cities were at their height , and did very much surpass both for their magnificence and number of people , any that have been before or since ; nor is this to be wonder'd at , since our cities do now stand upon much narrower foundations as to their constitution ; our cities have seldom any liberties half a mile beyond their walls ; and are generally but an assembly of trades-men : whereas the roman cities had each a territory , as it were a county belonging to it , which was under the jurisdiction of the city magistrate ; and the citizens were the lords of the adjacent country . i have now shew'd that the government of the church by diocesan bishops , is agreeable to the practice of the best and purest ages of the church , and to the judgment of the wisest and holiest fathers of it . and that their power and jurisdiction was as absolute , and extended as far , or farther than any bishops this day in england . i shall shew hereafter that episcopal government , as now settled in england , has been , and is at this day , commended and approved of by all the most eminent divines beyond seas . perhaps some may say , if the government of the church by diocesan bishops , be so agreeable to that of the primitive church ; and approved of by other reform'd churches , as we pretend it is ; how comes it that they all did not follow the pattern of england , and become all diocesan churches ? i answer , they may as well ask us , why all the nations of the world that were subject to the roman emperors , did not upon the decay of the roman empire , when they resum'd their just rights of government to themselves , become all monarchies , according to the pattern of england . some nations besides england , ireland and scotland , did assume episcopal government ; as denmark , sweden , &c. but perhaps it was not consistent with the present circumstances , or politick constitution of all places at the time of the reformation , to set up episcopal government , as indeed it was not . and therefore since neither episcopal , nor any other particular kind of government is so essential to a church , as that a true church may not be without it in case of indispensible necessity ; they put themselves some under one form of government , some under another , as was most agreeable to their present constitution ; but with this caution every where , that all protestants of every whole church , be the government what it will , should be oblig'd to conform to the establish'd church in which they liv'd : for though every national or whole church had a power to chuse what kind of government they pleased for themselves , yet 't was never allow'd that particular scrupulous people among themselves , had power to do so too ; this power of subdividing was never pretended to , nor practis'd in any other nation since the reformation , but in england . so that though they do all allow the antiquity and usefulness of episcopal government ; yet since 't is not essential to a true church no more than that of the presbyterian or independent , nor convenient at this time for all places , some may refuse it ; and yet it does not follow that we in england should do so , since 't is convenient for us , and more agreeable to the laws and constitution of these kingdoms , and comes by much nearer the practice of the primitive churches , than any other whatsoever . but they say , we make episcopal government essential to a true church , for that we will suffer none to execute the office of a minister here in england , unless they be ordain'd by a bishop . to this i answer , 't is plain , we do not make episcopal government essential to a true church ; for we allow all the reform'd churches to be true churches , and communicate with them , and yet some of them have no diocesan bishops . 't is true , by the laws of this church and nation , none are to be admitted to execute the office of a minister in any cathedral or parish church or chapel , nor to hold any ecclesiastical benefice within these kingdoms , but such as are willing to submit to the orders and government of this church , and the laws of the land : and therefore since both the laws of this church and nation do require that all ministers who desire to serve in this church , shall declare publickly that they assent to and approve of our form of worship , &c. and are willing to use the same as the church appoints , and that they shall receive their ordination , and licence to execute their office from the bishops ; 't is but reasonable that such as want these qualifications , shou'd be refus'd the liberty of executing their office in these kingdoms . * but the reason we refuse them is not so much because that presbyterian ordination does not make them true ministers , according to god's law ; ( as though no instance can be given of ordination , without a bishop in scripture or antiquity ; but all to the contrary ) because they stubbornly refuse to submit to our laws and constitutions , and contemn the lawful authority under which god has plac'd them , and commanded them that they should obey . and this is evident from the statute of car. . in which there is a particular proviso , that all ministers of foreign reform'd churches , who come into this kingdom by the king's permission , are to be excepted out of , and excus'd from the penalties of that act. and this custom of requiring conformity , and subscriptions from all who desire to be admitted to the office of the ministry , is agreeable to the practice of every settled church that has been ever since christ's days ; as will appear hereafter . the d. objection against the constitution of our church is , that our * national church , which we call the church of england , has no foundation , and wants discipline ; all being incroach'd and swallow'd up in the bishops ; and the pastors of every parish , who ought to have full power to execute every part of it , are depriv'd thereof . but this is false ; for the presbyters in our church , have as great power in ecclesiastical matters , as ever they had in the primitive church . what power are they depriv'd of by the bishops that they had then ? by the laws of our church , no rules of discipline , no articles of doctrine , no form of worship can be introduc'd by the bishops , or impos'd upon any , without the consent of the whole presbytery of the nation in convocation , who appear either in person or by proxy . the only authority that the bishops of the church of england have above the presbytes is , government , ordination , and censures ; which were all appropriated to the apostles , and bishops in the primitive church : st. cyprian assures us it was so in the african church , in his third book , ep. . & . . . and so it was in st. augustine's ▪ time. see cod. eccl. afr. c. , , , &c. but , say they , the power of ordination is taken away from the presbyters , and lodg'd solely in the bishops ; and 't is plain ( say they ) in the apostles days the presbyters did ordain ; for timothy was ordain'd by laying on the hands of the presbytery , tim. . . but dr. hammond in his paraphrase on this text says , that these presbyters here spoken of , who ordain'd timothy , were apostles : that timothy was ordain'd by st. paul is most evident ; for st. paul in his second epistle to timothy , ch . . v. . says , i put thee in mind , that thou stir up the gift of god which is in thee , by the laying on of my hands . and the apostles might then have been likely enough call'd presbyters ; for that during the apostles time , bishops and presbyters were the same , and sometimes us'd the one for the other ; as appears plainly by comparing tim. . . with tim. . . in the former verse , st. paul bids timothy neglect not the gift that is in him , by laying on the hands of the presbyters ; and in the latter , he bids him , stir up the gift of god which is in you , by the laying on of my hands . for while the apostles liv'd , they manag'd the affairs of government in the church themselves , and therefore there were few or no bishops in their days ; but as they withdrew , they committed the care and government of churches to such persons as they appointed thereto , of which we have an uncontroulable evidence in timothy and titus : so that although the apostles left no successors in eodem gradu , as to those things that were extraordinary in them , as the infallibility of their doctrine , and the writing new gospels , the extent of their power , &c. yet to other parts of their apostolick office , they had successors , as in teaching and governing , and such like things that were not extraordinary . which power of governing , ordaining , &c. being given to such particular presbyters as the apostles thought fit for it , was properly the episcopal power : and thus these who were but presbyters in the apostles days , by the accession of this governing and ordaining power , became bishops after their decease or departure . and thus will all those seeming differences between the words presbyter and bishop , spoken of in antiquity , be reconcil'd . and herewith agrees the opinion of archbishop whitgift and bishop bilson , and dr. stillingfleet in his mischiefs of separation , p. . and many others . see king charles i. his debates about episcopacy , more fully concerning this matter . but 't is plain , that since the apostles days , presbyters were not bishops , but a distinct order from them : and this is agreed by most ancient and modern writers . see among others , ignatius his epistle ad trall . where he says , that without bishops , priests , and deacons , it cannot be call'd a church . and aerius who declar'd , that there was no difference between a bishop and a presbyter , was represented by epiphanius as a prodigy , and his opinion madness . see epiph. haer. . n. . . so ischyrus pretended to be a presbyter , because coluthus had ordain'd him ; but athanasius represents it as a monster , that one shou'd esteem himself a presbyter , who was ordain'd by one who died himself a presbyter . see dr. maur. defence of diocesan episcopacy , p. . and in the primitive church , if a bishop himself did ordain any one against the canons and establish'd discipline of the church , they did not stick at declaring such ordination void , and in some cases to re-ordain . see can. nicen. , . . . and can. antioch . . , &c. what sentence shall we think then they wou'd have pronounc'd against our presbyterian ordination , as practis'd here in england , contrary both to the canons of the church , and the laws of the land too . but besides all this , the plea which our dissenters make for separation upon this account , that the presbyters are totally depriv'd of their power of ordaining , is false ; for by the canons of the church of england , four presbyters are to assist the bishop in giving orders , and after examination , to joyn in laying on of hands on the person ordain'd . see can. . and . but another objection which they make to the church of england , for want of discipline is , for that the power of excommunicating notorious offenders , is taken away from the parochial minister , and lodg'd only in the bishop . but sure they who make this objection , never read the th . canon , which is one of them acknowledg'd to be the authentick church canons : for that canon says expresly , that no minister shall admit any of his flock to the l●●d's supper , who is known to be guilty 〈…〉 scandalous sin , until he hath openl● 〈◊〉 that he has truly repented . and 〈◊〉 ●ase the offender continue obstinate , he must give an account to the ordnary within days , who is then to proceed to greater excommunication , for the other is call'd a penitential excommunication . so then it seems the pastors are not totally depriv'd of the power of censuring for scandalous offences ; nay , they have a greater and more absolute power , than is allow'd them in many other reform'd churches ; for indeed , the exercise of discipline is a work of so much prudence and difficulty , that the greatest zealots for it , have not thought fit to trust it in the hands of every parochial minister , and his particular congregation . calvin himself says , to do so , is contrary to the apostolick practice . see calv. ep. . and beza , speaking of the discipline of geneva , in his ep. . says , the parochial ministers proceed no farther than admonition , but in case of contumacy , they certifie the presbytery of the city , who sit at certain times to hear all censures relating to discipline . but allowing a church wants true discipline , does it therefore lose its being , or justifie separatio● 〈…〉 sure , if so , there were few 〈◊〉 churches to be found in the 〈◊〉 , many of them having no discip●●●● a● all among them for many years , nor so much as the lord's supper administred in some parts of this kingdom for ten or a dozen years together . but now we come to the th . objection against the constitution of our church , which is , that the people are depriv'd of their right of choosing their own ministers . pray let me ask them how this original and inherent right ( as mr. baxter calls it ) of choosing their own ministers , came to be lodg'd in the people ? was there not a church to be form'd in the beginning ? did not christ appoint apostles , and give them authority for that end ? where was the church power then lodg'd ? was it not in the apostles ? did not they in all places as they planted churches , appoint officers to teach and govern them ? and were not then the pastors invested with a power superior to that of the people ? how came they then to lose it , ●or how came the people to pretend an original right thereto ? besides , how cou'd the people make choice of men for their fitness and abilities , when at that time their abilities depen● 〈…〉 on the apostles laying on of 〈◊〉 ●ands for then the holy ghost 〈…〉 them . it seems then that this 〈◊〉 and inherent right was not in the people in the apostles days , nor in the first ages of the church , for if it had , st. clement , st. cyprian , st. chrysostom , &c. could not have been ignorant of it ; st. clement says in his ep. , , , . ( the apostles thought fit to reserve this power of appointing officers in the church to themselves , to prevent the contentions that might happen about it : and that all the people had to do , was to give testimony of the person chosen ; ) and to that end , 't is true , the people were to be present at the nomination of a new bishop ; for since , they were to be men blameless and of good report ; 't was but fit that the people that best knew his life and conversation , should be present to testify the same . and herewith agrees st. cyprian ep. . ( whom mr. baxter vouches for the contrary ) says he , ( the bishop shou'd be chosen in the presence of the people , that by their presence their faults may be publish'd , or their good actions commended , ) but says not a word of the peoples power of electing him . as to the elections of deacons , 't is to be noted that 't was properly no church power which they had , but they were stewards of the common stock ; and therefore 't was but reasonable the community should be satisfied in the choice of them . st. chrysostom in his book de sacerdotio , complains much of the unfitness of the people to judge in such matters . so does st. augustine ep. . and indeed , were there no other reasons against the peoples choosing their own ministers , but the mischiefs that would necessarily attend it , 't were sufficient ; for when ever the people assum'd this power of choosing , it caus'd so great disturbances in the church , that at antioch the divisions of the people about the choice of a bishop , in the time of constantine , had kindled such a flame , as had almost destroy'd both church and city . the like at rome upon the choice of damascus . and if the people have the power of choosing their own ministers , what shou'd hinder but there may be a presbyterian , independant , anabaptist , quaker and papist teacher all in one parish , and so this would set open a door to infinite divisions . and therefore to avoid the great evils , and inconveniences of popular elections , the power of choosing their ▪ own ministers was taken away from the people by several councils , as . and . can. conc. laodicea , conc. antioch . c. . &c. conc. d. of nice . c. . the reason that first gave lay-men a title to the nomination of ministers , was when christian princes and others , had given large endowments to the church , 't was thought but just that they should have the nomination of the ministers for those churches that they had built and indow'd . and this was a prerogative in the kings of england ever since the first foundation of a christian church here , and long before any freedom of elections was pretended to . see stat. . edw. . and the case of the king 's ecclesiastical power in lord cook 's th . rep. and the case of praemunire in sir davenant's reports , case ult . and this title of patronage has been confirmed to lay-men by several councils , as st . coun. of orange , anno dom. . d. counc . of arles , anno . th . counc . of toledo , &c. and this right of presentation is not only us'd in england , but in other reform'd churches : in denmark the archbishops , and bishops are appointed by the king , so they are in swedeland . so in other lutheran churches , the superintendants are appointed by the several princes , and the patrons present before ordination . the synod of dort hath a salvo for the right of patronage . in france , the ministers are chosen by ministers ; at geneva by the council of state ; who have power likewise to depose them . and beza in his ep. . declares against the peoples choosing their ministers as a thing without any ground in scripture . grotius ep. ad boatslaer ep. . p. . agrees herein . how comes then our english dissenters to make this a ground of separation , to wit , the depriving the people of their right of choosing their own ministers , when 't is evident they never had any such right , but when they got it by usurpation : and 't is contrary to the general practice of the church in all ages , and even to the practice of other reform'd churches at this day . but besides the unwarrantableness of the peoples choosing their ministers , and the great mischiefs that attend it , by making the people run into divisions and factions ; 't is a thing very unreasonable in it self that such an ignorant , proud , unpeaceable sort of people , as mr. baxter himself confesses in his sacrilegiae dissert . p. . &c. the ordinary sort of christians to be , should be made judges of their ministers abilities , and soundness of doctrines ; who are most apt to revile the best and gravest ministers , as the same mr. baxter says himself in his cure of divis . p. . sure 't is more likely that the king and parliament and the governours of the church shou'd provide able and fit ministers for us , than such sort of people as these ; unless any will be so ridiculous as to suppose that the magistrates , and clergy are all bad men , and the ignorant common people the only incouragers of vertue . they may say 't is as unreasonable on the other hand , that all the people of a parish shou'd be oblig'd to take a minister put into the cure by some young , raw , extravagant heir that had the good fortune to be born to an estate , to which the advowson did belong , but perhaps is as ignorant , and unfit to judge of the abilities of a minister as the meanest in the parish . to this i answer , that though such ignorant persons may sometimes have the right of presentation , yet they have not the power of putting into the cure any minister they please , for the patron has only the right of presenting his clerk , who must be admitted and instituted by the bishop , before the cure is said to be full , and if the bishop with the rest of his clergy , after examination had , &c. do think him any way unqualified for the cure of souls , he may reject him , and put the patron to present another qualify'd for the office ; which if he neglect to do within six months from the time the church became void , he shall lose his presentation for that turn , and the bishop shall present . so that the patron , it seems cannot put whom he will on the people for their pastor , but is bound to find personam idoneam , a fit person . and now before we pass from this matter , let us see whether the civil magistrate has power to silence ministers or not . doubtless he has , otherwise 't is impossible that any kingdom should be safe ; for since the generality of the people are so apt to be led by their spiritual guides , and take their notions of loyalty and obedience from them , 't is strange to imagine that ministers shall be allow'd to preach up sedition , heresy , or what doctrine they please , and it shall not be in the power of the magistrate to silence them . but say our dissenters , we are call'd to the office of the ministry by god almighty , and have received our commission to preach the gospel from him ; and therefore must not neglect to discharge our duty in obedience to any power upon earth , for we must obey god rather than man. but first , i hope they will grant that when god almighty gave them this commission , he did not limit it to any certain place , but 't was general to preach the word to all nations , so that in obedience to god's command , doubtless they ought to go and preach in those countries where their preaching is most wanted , and will do god most service . there are many countries in the world that know nothing of christianity , and many that do , have not able ministers enough to serve their turn ; sure these men that think themselves bound in conscience to preach , wou'd much better ▪ discharge their consciences by going into those countries , and preaching to those poor people that are in so great want of it . christ sent his disciples to preach to the lost sheep of the house of israel . the apostles who doubtless had as universal a commission to preach , they never went to abide in those cities or places where sound teachers were settled before , but they chose to go into those parts where christianity was least known , and their preaching would do most good . why will not our non-conformist ministers follow their example ? several of our foreign plantations want able ministers among them , they want universities and famous schools to breed them in , and therefore must needs be but poorly supplied . if they would leave this nation , and go and preach there , 't would convince the world that they design'd nothing but god's glory and the discharge of their own consciences in desiring to preach ; but since they do not , 't is evident whatever their pretences may be , that 't is self-interest and their own conveniency , that makes them desire the liberty of preaching in these nations . what have they to say to this ? indeed the best of them give but a very unsatisfactory answer hereto . mr. baxter in his answer to dr. stillingfleet , says , the reason why they do not go to preach among the indians is , because they cannot speak their language , and because many of them have wives and families which they cannot leave : but for his own part , he says , if he were but young enough , he would not trouble this censorious persecuting part of the world any longer : mr. baxter has not been always old , he was young enough when first he began to write against the church of england , why did he not go when first he was prohibited to preach here , if he had , perhaps our divisions about matters of religion , had been much narrower than now they are , and a reconciliation much more easy between us . as for their not speaking the language , there are many of the new plantations in america , &c. that understand english and latin , and want able diligent pastors among them . and as to all their other reasons for not going , the leaving their families , &c. they may carry them with them ; but surely no reasons of this kind , can come in competition with the great advantage of propagating the gospel of christ , and the peace and quiet of three kingdoms . but again ; they say god has commanded them to preach the gospel , and they must obey god rather than man. so god has also commanded them to obey their governours and magistrates , and to preserve the peace and unity of the church and nation in which they live . now since they must of necessity break one of these commands by staying at home and preaching in separate meetings ; and may perform both by going to preach beyond seas , certainly the best and safest way must be to doe the latter . and if god almighty has given them commission to preach , as they say , i am sure he has given them commission no where to disturb the peace and settlement of a christian church and state , especially a true church . he bid them go and preach the word , and teach all nations , but we all know that the greatest part of the world was then unconverted , and had no christian teachers and ministers orderly settled among them ; so that those whom christ then sent could have come no where amiss , every one of them was to make as many converts as he could , there being no limits put how far their particular charge should extend , and no farther ; but soon after , even in the apostles days , when particular distinct churches were gather'd , and committed to the care of particular persons , i suppose , none of our dissenters will say , that any ministers , by virtue of their general commission , to teach all nations , might have come into another pastor's congregation or parish and preach in a separate meeting without licence , and draw as many people from their lawful pastour , to whose care they were particularly committed , as they could . no , they who did so were often condemn'd by st. paul , as appears in many of his epistles . and this is the very case of the church of england , with relation to our present dissenters ; allowing their commission to preach be as full as they pretend to , yet it gives them no authority to invade other mens rights , or to draw away the people from their lawful ministers ; and especially since , if they please , they may exercise their office in other places , and do no man wrong . the apostles had as full a commission to preach as any of our dissenters can pretend to , and something more extraordinary ; and yet we don't find that they thought themselves oblig'd to preach directly in opposition to the civil magistrate though a heathen . 't is true , for the first years christianity had not generally the laws to countenance and defend it , as now it has . so that the apostles and fathers of the church could not have the command or authority of the civil magistrate for what they did , yet they had his connivance , and never preached directly in opposition to his positive command . st. paul says , acts . . they neither found me in the temple disputing with any man , neither raising up the people , neither in the synagogues , nor in the city . and again , acts . . neither against the law of the jews , neither against the temple , nor yet against caesar , have i offended any thing at all . so it seems the practice of the apostles was to preach the gospel where they came so long as they were tolerated or conniv'd at by the government . but as soon as they were prohibited by the magistrate , they left that city or place and went to the next , but thought it no ways their duty to oppose the will of their lawful prince , though a heathen . and will not our dissenters shew the same respect to a christian prince that the apostles did to heathen magistrates ? but whether christian magistrates have power to silence some ministers , such as they think fit , or not , it is a thing questionless that has been practis'd by 'em in all ages , ever since the time of constantine the great , which is near years . constantine by his edict suppress'd all separate meetings , and among the rest the novatians , and silenc'd their preachers , though their ordination was as good as any among our nonconformists . see eusebius vita const . lib. . cap. , , , . and st. augustine did very much commend the emperour for so doing . see aug. ep. . and see also his th ▪ book against cresconius a donatist , ch . . all the reform'd churches in the world , do , at this day , silence such ministers as refuse to submit to the orders and government of their church , and believe they have power so to do . at geneva their council of state has the sole power of electing and deposing ministers . nay , farther , by the constitution of geneva , they have power not only to silence , but to excommunicate such ministers as shall contemn the authority of the church , or by their obstinacy disturb the order of it . in the french church , if any refuse to subscribe to the orders of their church , he is to be declared a schismatick ▪ and calvin himself , ep. olevian . pag. , and . says , let him that will not submit to the orders of a society , be cast out . but what need we go so far from home for instances of this kind ? let us see what the opinion of our own dissenters heretofore was in this matter . first then in the great dispute between the brownists and the non-conformists about the ministers preaching , &c. against the will of the prince , the non-conformists all agreed , that the apostles had power immediately from god to set up his kingdom , but their power was extraordinary , and under heathen magistrates . but our ministers have no such extraordinary power ; and our magistrates being christian are much more to be respected . see gifford , a non-conformist minister his answer to barrow : and see the confutation of the brownists , by several non-conformists , who join'd together for that purpose ; publish'd by one rathband by their command , p. . and see mr. bradshaw his answer to johnson , to the same purpose ; where he says , that the magistrate had no power to silence the apostles , for that 't was manifest by the silencing of them , was intended the utter extirpation of christianity : but the case is alter'd among us , for the intent of a christian magistrate is not to silence all christian ministers but some particular men only ; so that the question is not whether minister or no ? but whether this or that minister of christ ? and doubtless every christian prince has power to chuse what men he thinks fittest for publick offices in church or state , so long as they be equally qualified according to god's law. but to go on , the opinion and practice of the dissenters in the late unhappy times , are not yet forgotten , they were all then of an opinion that christ's ministers may be silenc'd and accordingly put it in practice every party as it serv'd their turn : see their solemn league and covenant , all who would not enter into it , and solemnly swear to doe their utmost endeavour to abolish episcopacy and set up presbytery , were immediately not only silenc'd but sequester'd ; though their ministry was as much of divine right as any of theirs now . conscience then was no plea for not taking this solemn oath . they would not suffer one of the old clergy to teach a school . nay , they would not allow their own independent brethren to preach , though they had all taken presbyterian orders , as they themselves . see the letter from the presbyterian ministers of london , to the assembly of divines at westminster , ann. . jan. . and the grand debate , &c. and in new-england where the independents have the power they are all of the same mind , none is to preach publickly , by their laws , where any two organick churches , council of state , or general court , shall declare their dissatisfaction thereat . see their body of statutes which they have lately printed . nay , they are not satisfied to silence such ministers as will not conform , but they banish them too , as they did mr. willams and others . and is it not very strange then that the silencing of such ministers by the king and governours of the church , who positively refuse to submit to the orders of the church , or to give their governours such a test of their obedience and conformity to the laws of the church and state , as they in their discretion have thought fit to require of them ; that this should be a thing so unlawful and wicked now , that has been practised in the purest ages of the church , and by the dissenters themselves when they were in power , and by all the churches in the world at this day . and indeed if the tests which the laws require of their obedience and loyalty be too severe and rigid , they may blame themselves for it ; for governours cannot be too cautious in securing the peace and safety of the kingdom against a faction that has once already overthrown this monarchy , and church . and give us all the reason in the world to believe , that they are ready to do the same again ( especially the latter ) as soon as ever it is in their power . the bitter spirit they show in scotland already , and their unchristian like behaviour to all those that differ from them in opinion , shews us plainly what we may expect here when ever they are able . and thus much for the pleas which the dissenters use for separation , which relate to the constitution of our church . the second sort are against the terms of communion with it . they say our terms of communion are unlawful , for that the church of england injoins some things in god's worship which are not expresly commanded in scripture , and so makes the scriptures insufficient . and these things are our ceremonies , and prescribed forms of prayer , &c. first , as to our ceremonies . the church of england uses no ceremonies , but such as were us'd in the purest ages of the church , as dr. stillingfleet has prov'd in his mischiefs of separation : and such as are now us'd by the greatest part of the reform'd churches beyond seas . the lutheran churches have the same , and more ceremonies than we have : and yet these churches have been thought fit to be united to the best reform'd churches by the best and wisest protestants , as appears by a synod of the reform'd churches at chareton in france , anno . and indeed , there is no christian church in the world , but what do make laws , and canons in matters of circumstance , and compel both ministers and people to obey the same . they do not believe that every variation in circumstance , in god's worship is setting up new parts of worship as our dissenters seem to do when they charge us with setting up new parts of worship , and making the scriptures insufficient . adoration , we all agree , is a substantial and proper act of divine worship , but whether this adoration is perform'd by prostration , or by bowing , or by kneeling , is a circumstance in it self indifferent ; and therefore they who differ in these circumstances , do not differ in the act of worship , but in the manner . see the harmony of confessions , where you will find what the opinions of other reformed churches are concerning the lawfulness and usefulness of ceremonies : the latter helvetian confession saith , that there are different rites and ceremonies found in the churches ; let no man judge hereby that the churches dissent . and the confession of bohemia hath , wherefore those rites and those good ceremonies ought only to be kept , which among the people of christ do edifie ; therefore whether they be extent , or brought in by the bishops , or by the councils ecclesiastical , or by other authors whatsoever , the simpler sort are not to trouble themselves about that , but must use them to that which is good . and a little after , although our men do not equally observe all ceremonies with other churches , which is not a thing necessary to be done , yet are they not so minded as to move any dissentions for the cause of ceremonies , although they be not judged to be altogether necessary , so that they be not found contrary to god's word . and the augustine confession has ; some men then may ask , whether we would have this life of man to be without order , without ceremonies ? in no wise : but we teach , that the true pastors in their churches may ordain publick rites or ceremonies . and beza in his th . epist . agrees herein , as has been said before . and calvin in his book of the true way of reformation , ch. . says , he would not contend about ceremonies , not only those which are for decency , but those which are symbolical . let all thing s be done decently and in order , says the scripture . and st. paul tell us , cor. . . god is not the author of confusion but of peace , as in all the churches of the saints . but to come home to our dissenters , mr. baxter in his poor man's family book , p. . speaking of our publick worship in our parish churches , says , in all the lawful orders , gestures , and manners of behaviour in god's worship , affect not to differ from the rest , but conform your self to the use of the church , for in the church singularity is a discord , &c. see vines on the sacrament to the same purpose , p. . and many more instances of this kind might be given , but what has been said is sufficient to shew that such ceremonies as serve for order , or edification , and are not directly contrary to god's law , are to be used according to the opinion of all the reformed churches , and most eminent men both at home and abroad . now , how shall we know what ceremonies are lawful , and what not ? it is to be noted , that the nature of ceremonies is to be taken from the doctrine which goes along with it , and may be lawful and not lawful , as that is . if a ceremony be made a substantial part of god's worship , and unalterable ; or be suppos'd so necessary , as that the doing of it would be a thing meritorious or pleasing to god , and the not doing of it sinful , tho' there were no human law which requir'd the doing of it ; then it becomes sinful , because it makes the scriptures insufficient . and this it was that made the jewish ceremony of washing before meat sinful : and so it is in many of the ceremonies of the church of rome . but when ceremonies are injoin'd for the sake of order and uniformity in god's worship , according to the general rules of the scripture , and to prevent the great mischiefs which we should inevitably fall into , if every pastor and people were suffered to follow their several different judgments in the manner of god's worship , then they are lawful and good . but , say they , if these ceremonies do not bind the consciences of men , why does the discipline and censures of the church , force men to use them ? i answer , the church does not oblige men to the observance of these ceremonies , as things that bind the conscience , or which are necessary to be done or not done in themselves ; but the reason why men are forced to observe them , and punish'd if they refuse , is because they are appointed by the church , and disobedience to the laws of church or state , made not contrary to the law of god , is sinful , rom. . . and . and for this they are punish'd , and also for disturbing the publick peace . and thus we justify our bowing at the name of jesus at seasonable times , and all our ceremonies ; since the church has appointed them , we ought to obey , unless we can prove them to be sinful , which no man can do , so long as the worship is directed to a true object , to wit , the person of christ . as for the ceremony of bowing towards the altar , note the canon that appointed it , did not oblige any to the observance of it , but left them to their liberty . as to the posture appointed by the church of england , for receiving the lord's supper , to wit , kneeling , 't is a circumstance which may be varied according to the discretion of the church . in the primitive church it was always taken in the posture of adoration , which posture varied according to the customs of countries . now kneeling being the posture of adoration in these kingdoms , the church of england has therefore appointed , that it be taken kneeling . and indeed , 't is but very reasonable that so sacred an ordinance , and so great a benefit , should be received in the most thankful and humble posture that may be , and that surely is on our knees ; which is also the fittest posture for those high strains of devotion , with which so sacred a work ought to be attended at the very instant of taking it . the only objection that i know is made against this posture of kneeling at the sacrament , is because it is idolatrous and contrary to christ's own practice . 't is strange that they will make us and the greatest part of the reform'd churches all idolaters whether we will or no : does not our book of common prayer at the end of the communion service tell them as plain as words can express it , that we pay no adoration to any thing in the sacrament , but christ himself which is in heaven , and yet will they make us idolaters for all this ? has any of them ever writ so strong against idolizing the elements of bread and wine in the sacrament of the lord's supper , as our divines of the church of england have done ? and yet will they perswade us we are idolaters ? they may as well believe , that we worship the stones in the church-walls , when we kneel down to pray in them : and truly , i fear many of them do so ; which makes them use that posture so seldom in their publick meetings : for you shall seldom see in any of their meetings , scarce one of the whole congregation on their knees , not even at repeating the lord's prayer , if it happen to be said , which is not often . their usual postures of praying in their publick congregations , are either standing , or lolling on their elbows : and at the reading of the holy scriptures ; nay , even of the psalms themselves , tho' they are the very highest strains of devotion , you shall see them all sitting on their breeches , and many of them with their hats on . but pray , how comes the posture of sitting to be the only fit posture for receiving the lord's supper ? was that the posture christ us'd ? no , if we will believe most learned men , they will tell us , christ gave it leaning ; which perhaps , he might have done on purpose , to let us see , that he did not require any one set posture , for leaning is a mean as it were , between kneeling and standing , and seems to incline equally to both . why do they not take it leaning as christ did , and after supper , and in an upper room ? why do they not observe all these circumstances ? if one may be dispens'd with without sin , why not another ? if they will not be so civil as to conform to the church of england , why will they not follow the example of other reformed churches ? the churches of france and most of the reformed churches , take it either standing or kneeling , as being postures of adoration : but because they do , our english dissenters will take it in no other posture , but that which is most irreverent , and farthest from adoration in the world ; to wit , sitting on their breeches . 't is a feast ( say they ) and therefore sitting being a posture of ease , is most suitable to it : we own 't is a feast , but not a common , but spiritual feast ; and therefore we ought to take it not in the posture we use at our common tables , but in a more decent and reverent posture . to conclude this point , i shall give you the words of one of the most eminent of the non-conformist preachers in this matter . vines , in his book on the sacrament , p. . says , 't is no corruption to vary in occasional circumstances in administring the lord's supper , such as time and place , and posture , &c. mr. baxter has several times declar'd the same , and so has most of the non-conformist ministers . and herewith agrees hooker in his eccles . polity , lib. . p. . as to the sign of the cross in baptism , 't is us'd only as a solemn rite or ceremony of admission into the church of england , as 't is usual in admissions into societies to use some particular ceremonies : therefore as baptism , besides its sacramental efficacy , is a rite of admission into christ's catholick church , so the sign of the cross , is into our church of england . we do not use it as 't is used in the church of rome ; for they use it as a dedicative sign to god , we only as a token , or declarative sign to men ; they use it before baptism , and make it part of it ; we after , and make it no part of baptism , but allow the baptism to be good without it ; and it to be omitted in private baptism , if it be scrupled . if it be said , that since these ceremonies are allowed to be things indifferent in themselves by the church of england , and are scrupled by the dissenters , why will the church of england impose them ? i answer , first , 't is not fit nor convenient that such things as are thought necessary by the governours of a church , to preserve the order and unity of it , should be cast aside , to humour some over scrupulous and restless minds , and who , 't is like , would not be satisfied , were that granted . secondly , it is more safe for the church of england to follow the example of the greatest part of the reformed churches , which do allow and practise them , than such a handful of people as the dissenters of england , &c. and thirdly , there were as insignificant ceremonies injoyn'd by the apostles themselves , as any of ours are now , notwithstanding some men's scruples concerning them ; as the love feasts , and holy kiss , &c. till abolish'd by general consent . and the assembly of their own divines at westminster , tell us , the apostles ( say they ) notwithstanding the difference of men's judgments , did prescribe rules of vniformity . see papers for accomodation , p. . the next great objection which the dissenters make to the terms of our communion is , for that we tie up our ministers to prescribed forms of prayer , which is a stinting of the spirit , and hinders them from exercising their gifts , and is contrary to scripture , and the practice of the primitive church . the arguments which they commonly use against written forms of prayer are , first , they say that nothing but the canonical scripture , and the lively voice of god's graces ( which they call preaching and extempore prayer ) are to be brought into the publick worship of god ; and nothing that is humane , because subject to infirmities and errors . but if so , then must we exclude not only all written prayers , but the whole bible too , unless in the original tongue ; for all translations of it are humane , and subject to errors . and also the prayers and preaching of the pastors must be excluded , for the errors in the sermons ; and prayers of the pastors , cannot be said to be the lively voices of god's own graces . and the psalms in metre must be also excluded . another argument is , that we must not make use of any outward helps in the action of prayer ; for the spirit they say helpeth our infirmities , and therefore written forms , and all other outward helps are sinful . but let me ask them , whether the voice of another that prayeth , or fasting , or the lifting up of the hands and eyes , tim. . . or kneeling , be prayer it self , or only outward helps to prayer to make it more fervent ? sure they are outward helps only ; and yet they are used in the very action of prayer . again , they say reading a prayer cannot be praying ; for prayer is the pouring forth supplications to god , the other a receiving in of such things as we read. but when one hears a prayer pronounced by another , his hearing does receive it into his soul ; but yet at the same instant he doth power it forth as a prayer to god. why then may not this be done as well when 't is read as when 't is pronounced by another ? but then they tell us , that all forms of prayer are a stinting of the spirit . if so , why will they hear the extempore prayer of another man ? is not this as much a form of prayer to all the hearers , as any written form can be ? doubtless it is . how comes it then , that the spirit of the hearers is not as much stinted when they joyn in this form , as if they had joyn'd in a written form ? but since our dissenters have the confidence to affirm , that forms of prayer are sinful ; and were never used among christians till lately , in the time of popery and superstition , and are supported only by the ignorance and lazyness of our clergy , i will shew , that forms of prayer and praises have been used by god's people in the time of the old testament , and have been practised and recommended by christ himself in the new : and that both forms of prayer and liturgies , were composed by the fathers , and appointed to be used in the church ever since christ's days : and that even the most eminent of our own non-conformists have heretofore declared their liking thereto : and that all the reformed churches do use and approve of prescribed forms in their publick worship at this day : and lastly , i will shew , that our english common-prayer book has been particularly commended and approved by the most learned and eminent men of the reformed churches beyond seas . and when this is done , if any will be so hardy , as to affirm , that forms of prayer are so sinful , as to cause a necessity of separation , he is incorrigible , and not to be convinced by reasons . first then , forms of prayer , &c. were used by god's people in the time of the old testament ; for the lord prescribed a form of blessing to aaron , saying , on this wise ye shall bless the children of israel , saying , &c. numb . vi . . and again , deut. xxvi . he prescribed a form of prayer , which he commanded the people to use . and the xxij . psalm is a prayer , which the people were commanded to sing or say , every morning ; so are several of the other psalms forms of prayers , as lxxxvi , xc , cij , &c. see origen cint . cels . l. . p. . and here observe , that the dissenters will allow these psalms to be prayers , and that they ought to be sung to god ; yet they will not allow that a man should pray singing . for , say they , when they are sung , they are not prayer . see now what an absurdity they will run into , rather than forsake their own opinion : for here they affirm , that a man may say the words of prayer to god devoutly , and yet not pray . secondly , christ himself used a form of prayer ( though doubtless he had a power of praying extempore , much beyond what our dissenters , or any that ever was on earth , can pretend to ) when he was in the garden , a little before his suffering , he prayed twice or thrice in the same words , matth. xxvi . . mark xiv . . and that too at a time when he was in so great extremity and sorrow , that he sweated drops of blood ; and at such a time one usually prays after the most prevailing and fervent manner . and to assure us that our saviour thought forms of prayer very necessary to help our infirmities , we have not only his example , but his precept for it too . for our saviour taught his disciples a form of prayer , matth. vi . . and bid them use it . and the occasion of our saviour's giving his disciples this form of prayer was to obviate the inconveniencies which he saw did usually attend extempore prayers ; to wit , the using vain repetitions , &c. which he tells them are not pleasing to god ; and therefore he first bids them beware of that , and then immediately after he gives them a short and perfect form of prayer , as the best way to prevent that evil . whether our dissenters have not as much reason to use forms of prayer for that very reason as christ's disciples had , let the world judge that hears their tedious ex tempore prayers fill'd with as many vain repetitions , and bald , and sometimes sensless expressions as any of theirs . but say the dissenters , when our saviour taught his disciples to pray , he did not design that they should use any certain form of prayer . for he bad them , luke . . when ye pray , say thus ; and ( thus ) being an adverb of similitude , does shew that our saviour did not intend they should use the same words , but some other such like . to this i answer , in the d. chap. of exod. v. , . the lord said unto moses , thus shalt thou say to the children of israel , eheie hath sent me unto you . and again , the god of your fathers , the god of abraham , the god of isaac , and the god of jacob hath sent me unto you . here ▪ moses ( by this rule ) must not say these words , not eheie hath sent me unto you ; not the god of abraham , the god of isaac , and the god of jacob hath sent me unto you , but the like . and by the same reason the scripture is not the very word of god , but the words of the prophets ; for all along , when the prophet says , thus saith the lord , they do not tell the very words of god , but the like . from what has been said , 't is evident that we have scripture on our side , both old and new testament , for using prescribed forms of prayer . we will in the next place enquire what authority we have for it in the first and purest ages of the church . first then , that forms of prayer were us'd in the church in the first century , i gather from ignatius who was bishop of antioch , anno dom. . in his epist . to those at magnesia , he bids 'em , do nothing without the bishop and presbyters , nor to make tryal of things agreeable to their own private fancy , p. . and socrates in his history , l. . c. . says , that ignatius first brought the usage of singing alternately ( as we use in our choirs ) into the church of antioch . photius affirms the same of him . and theodoret says , hist . lib. . c. . that this custom of singing alternately , began at antioch , and was soon received all the world over . in the second century , tertull. de orat. c. . and c. . tells us , they us'd forms of prayer then in the african church . he calls the lord's prayer , ▪ the lawful and ordinary prayer , and that the christians daily repeated that very form. and he shews they sang hymns , &c. then in the church alternately as we do now , tertull. ad vxor . l. . p. . and calvin in his instit . l. . c. . affirms the same , that the christians did use to repeat the lord's prayer daily , and that they did it by christ's command . how will our dissenters reconcile this to their seldom or never using of it , even on the lord's day ; every young preacher , yea , and every perhaps drunken cobler , preferring their own rash and indeliberate prayers before it . in the third century , st. cyprian who lived then , affirms the same , that the lord's prayer was us'd daily , for says he , the father will know the words of his own son , see cypr. de orat. dom. p. . and the same cyprian in his ep. . ad cler. & pleb . p. . says , christ commanded us to pray for all men in a common prayer wherein all agreed . it appears also that the priest and people pray'd by way of responses ; as when the priest said , lift up your hearts , the people answer'd , we lift them up unto the lord. see cypr. de orat. dom. § . . see more for this interchangable way of praying between priest and people , b. bils . of christian subjection , part . p. . in the same century , origen says , they who served god through jesus in the christian way , use frequently night and day the injoined prayers : see orig. in cels . l. . p. . and st. basil in his book de spirit . sanct. c. . p. . tells us , that gregory thaumaturgus , who was his predecessor in the bishoprick of neocaesarea and cotemporary with st. cyprian , composed a liturgy , and appointed ceremonies for that church . and that too in an age when miraculous gifts lasted . in the beginning of the fourth century , ann. dom. . the first christian emperor constantine ( as eusebius tells us in his life of constantine , lib. . c. . p. . ) order'd his palace after the manner of a church , and would take the books himself into his hands , either for explaining the holy scripture , or repeating the prescrib'd prayers in his royal family . in the same century , athanasius bishop of alexandria ; shews us , that the priests and people pray'd by way of responses in that church ; for in his epist . to solitar . p. . he says , the people mourned and groaned to god in the church , all of them crying to the lord , and saying , spare thy people , good lord , spare them , &c. by which it seems the church did not think it enough then for the people to say , amen , but appointed them distinct and intelligent answers . in the same century , the council of laodicea , can. . bev. tom. . p. . appointed canonical singers , who sang out of books , and none but they were allow'd to begin the hymns . and the same council , can. . bev. tom. . p. . ordained that the very same liturgy of prayers , should be used always both at three in the afternoon and in the evening . and now because this council is so plain evidence against the dissenters , that they have no way to answer it ; they fly again to their last refuge , which is to deny the authority of this council ; for , they say , this council of laodicea was but a provincial synod , or council : but tho' we grant 't was no more but a provincial synod , yet i hope a provincial council of orthodox bishops were good authority . but besides , this very canon concerning liturgies , was taken into the code of the universal church , and confirmed by the council of chalcedon , which was a general council . and that they us'd forms of prayer , and responses , and alternate way of singing in the african church , appears by st. cyprian before : and by optatus melevianus , l. . p. . for there he blames the donatists , for shutting the mouth of all the people , and forcing them to be silent . see also st. augustine de eccles . dog. c. . tom. . p. . many more instances and authorities may be given to the same purpose as st. basil , ep. . p. . and ep. . p. . ( where he says , that a prayer wherein there are not conjoin'd voices , is not half so strong as otherwise it would be ) conc. carthag , can. . bev. tom. . p. . but i will referr the reader to dr. comber of liturgies , and dr. falkner his defence of liturgles . our dissenters object against our alternate way of praying , as in our litany , where the priest says half the sentence , and the people the rest , for that neither priest nor people speak a complete sentence , and therefore our prayer is imperfect , and we do but mock god. but by what has been said it appears that this praying by way of responses , was us'd in the purest ages of the church , and by the holiest men. but pray , why may not the words make as perfect a prayer when they are pronounced by two mouths , as when only by one ? prayer is not the pronouncing of words , but the joining the desire and consent thereto , and this they may do as well when they are pronounced by several mouths as by one . they may as well say , that when a tune is play'd by a consort of musick , and the trebles rest and let the tenors and bases go on , as sometimes they do , that the tune is not a compleat and perfect tune , for if you take either part singly , it is not ; but altogether it is too great advantage . the advantage of this way of praying by responses is , that we can give our hearty consent to each petition , after a more lively manner than by barely saying , amen . and also by our frequent answering of whole sentences , our fancies are the more stirr'd up and enliven'd by shaking off that dulness and drowsiness , that otherwise would be apt to seize upon our spirits , in barely listening to one long continued prayer . and in the primitive church , they had certain prayers for certain times and occasions , as easter-eve , &c. see leo in vit. chrysost . tom. . p. . &c. thus much for the practice of the primitive church . now let us come a little nearer our own time , and see what the opinion of other reformed churches is concerning prescrib'd forms of prayers and liturgies ; and this we do the rather , because the dissenters are perpetually calling upon us to reform our selves to the example of other reform'd churches . tho' i think under favour , we of ▪ england have no more reason to follow the pattern of other nations as to the reforming and governing of our church , than we have to do so in matters of state , since we have as absolute and independent power of reforming our selves as any of them ; and god be thank'd , as able and godly ▪ ministers both in church and state to direct us therein . they may as well quarrel with us , because we do not depose our king , and reduce our government from that of a limited and mixt monarchy , to a common-wealth , like that of geneva . but since they insist so must upon this , i will make it appear that the church of england comes nearer to the judgment and practice of all the reformed churches , in using prescribed forms of prayer , than the dissenters do in rejecting them . i will begin with the lutheran churches , which i shew'd before , are acknowledged to be true churches , and which far exceed in number the churches that follow calvin's method . luther himself compos'd a form of common-prayer for the church of wittemburg , taken out of the mass book : see luther's epist . tom. . p. . and all the churches of his communion at this day do use a liturgy containing collects , epistles , gospels for every sunday , prayers and litanies , together with all other parts of ecclesiastical ministration , as our common-prayer book does ; and which agrees with ours almost verbatim , especially in the litany . and these are impos'd on the churches , as particularly the churches of denmark , and the churches in upper hungary , which are all lutheran . and the lutheran churches do chant their publick prayers as we do in our cathedrals . and they observe holy days . see all this proved at large from their own writers by dr. comber his defence of liturgies d. part , p. , &c. next for the churches of poland , and lithuania in synods held there , ann. dom. . and . one certain liturgy is injoin'd , to be us'd in all those dominions . certain prescrib'd liturgies are also us'd in transilvania , hungary , bohemia , &c. see at large dr. comb. ubi supra , and monsieur durell his view of the government , and publick worship of god in the reformed churches beyond seas . printed , london , . now for the churches reform'd by calvin and others ; as geneva , france , helvetia , holland , &c. calvin compos'd a form of divine service , which is us'd in the church of geneva , and those of france at this day , and their ministers are bound to use them . and see calvin's letter to the protector of england , during the minority of king ed. . the protector at that time , when the common-prayer book was to be settled by act of parliament , thought fit first to advice with so eminent a man , as calvin was , about it . he writes to calvin to know his opinion therein ; calvin returns him this answer , for so much as concerns the prayers and ecclesiastical rites , i much approve that they be determined ; so that it may not be lawful for the ministers to vary from it , that it may be a help to the weakness of some ; that it may be a testimony of the churches consent ; and that it may put a stop to the levity of such as are for new things . see calv. ep. p. . ep. . to the protector . and see his letter to cox , a church of england divine upon his arrival at franckford , among his epistles , , . see beza his approbation of forms of prayer , tom. . p. . in the french church , mornay lord du-plessis , in his book of the mass , allows of the use and antiquity of prescribed forms : see at large dr. comber of liturgies d . part , p. . and see there the famous monsieur daille agreeing herewith . in the church of helvetia , bullinger tells us , they used prescribed forms , keep fasts and holy-days , &c. bulling . decod . . serm. . p. . the churches of holland use forms of prayer for baptism , the lord's supper , and all occasional offices , and also liturgies , &c. which are all put into a book of common-prayer . and even in scotland they have had a common-prayer book , for there are some of them now extant , which were printed , ann. . supposed to be writ by mr. knox for the use of the kirk of scotland . see the latter end of dr. comber his defence of liturgies , d . part. and the leyden professors say , that forms of prayer are not only lawful , but very advantageous ; because every christian cannot fitly conceive new prayers : and the attention of auditors , are not a little help'd in great assemblies by usual forms . see dr. falkner , his libertas ecclesiastica . p. . thus much for forms of prayer in general : but some perhaps may object against our common-prayer in particular . to clear that , i think , 't were sufficient to tell them , that it has been approv'd of by all the learned and godly divines of the church of england ever since the reformation , and confirm'd by several parliaments : and it cannot reasonably be suppos'd that god almighty shou'd conceal his will from the greatest number of the most learned , pious and judicious people of a nation , notwithstanding their frequent prayers to god , that he would direct them , and their great care and study which they take to come to the knowledge of the truth ; and reveal it only to a few , and those of the rawer injudicious sort , who have had least time , and study , and means to come to greater knowledge , such as our dissenters generally are . this alone were sufficient to recommend our particular common-prayer : but since our dissenters will not allow so many several parliaments , and so many successions of learned divines to be competent judges in this matter , we are willing to stand to the judgment of our neighbour churches of the reformed religion concerning our common-prayer , and the other matters in controversy between us . in king edward th . his days , archbishop cranmer did request the famous bucer to peruse the whole book of common-prayer , in order to his censuring what he thought was to be amended . bucer accordingly did so ; and declares his judgment of it thus : in the prescript form for the communion , and the daily prayers , i see nothing written in this book , which is not taken out of the word of god , if not in express words , as the psalms and lessons , yet in sence , as the collects : and also the order of these lessons and prayers , and the time when they are to be used , are very agreeable to the word of god , and the practice of the ancient church . see bucer's censure upon the book of common-prayer , c. . p. . and note this was before the common-prayer was amended as now it is . some things 't is true , bucer did wish to be amended , which has been since done , and most of them according to his advice there . next , the archbishop of spalato in his book against suarez , p. . says , that the english liturgy contains nothing in it , which is not holy , which is not pious , and truly christian as well as catholick . causabon in his epistle to king james the first , affirms the same ; and says farther , that none at this day comes nearer the form of the ancient church , following a middle way between those who have offended both in excess and defect . the next authority for us is the learned grotius , who 't is certain had no obligation to the church of england , but rather the contrary . he says , i am sure the english liturgy , the rite of laying on of hands on children in memory of baptism , the authority of bishops , of synods consiting of none but the clergy , &c. do sufficiently agree to the orders of the ancient church ; from which we cannot deny but we have departed both in france and holland . see grotius ad boatslaer , ep. . p. . the next is the famous lud. capellus , who was a famous french divine of the reformed church , and divinity professor in a famous protestant university . this man lived to hear of our independent sect in england , and writ most learnedly against ' em . says he , when miraculous gifts ceased , there was a necessity for liturgies , which were used in the first iv. ages uncorrupted ; but afterwards corruptions were introduced by the following popes . but upon the reformation the liturgy was purged from all its corruptions , and has been happily used in the several reform'd churches , and with good success ; until very lately ( says he ) there arose a sort of morose , scrupulous , ( not to say downright superstitious ) men , who for many trifling reasons , of no moment , not only dislike the liturgy hitherto used in that church , but would have both it , and the whole order of bishops to be utterly abolished ; in place whereof they would substitute that , which they call their directory , &c. and so goes on . and then he proves at large , that forms of prayer , are not only necessary for the unlearned , but the learned also ; and shews the insufficiency of their directory . and how ridiculous it is to suppose , that we have that extraordinary gift of prayer , that they had in the apostles days , and some little time after . 't were too long to put it all down here , i will referr you to dr. comber's defence of liturgies , ii. part , pag. . and will go on to shew the opinion of some of the most eminent of our own dissenters concerning our common-prayer . mr. baxter in his poor man's family book , pag. . says , do not peevishly pick quarrels with the prayers of the church , nor come to them with humoursome prejudice , &c. and in his preface to the same book , he says , he mightily approves of forms of prayer . see dr. owen to the same purpose , his evangelical love , pag. . and mr. baxter in his dispute of liturgies , prop. . says farther , that the constant disuse of forms is apt to breed a giddiness in religion , and may make men hypocrites , who delude themselves with conceits , that they delight in god , when 't is but in those novelties and variety of expressions that they are delighted . see also gifford , a non-conformist , his answer to greenwood ; he writ a whole treatise , proving the lawfulness of read prayer . and now i have shew'd , that praying by forms has been used by the saints in the old testament , enjoyned by christ in the new , practised by all the holy fathers and devout christians who lived ever since the first setling of the church ; and is now allowed and practised in all the regular protestant churches , and approved by some of the most eminent of our own dissenters . let any man now in his right reason judge , whether praying by forms be so wicked , and abominable a thing as most of our dissenters make it . one of the non-conformist ministers , in a book which he publish'd not many years since , speaking of forms of prayer , calls it , that pitiful contemptible thing , called vniformity in words , and syllables , and phrases ; which was never desired of god , nor ever entered into his or his son's heart . let the world judge now , whether using forms of prayer , &c. be this pitiful , contemptible thing they are pleased to make it , or the books that contain them deserve no better usage from christians , than to be burnt in the streets by the common hangman . in the days of julian there was never any thing done more wicked , than to burn the holy bible : but even to that height are those who call themselves christians arrived already , in our neighbouring kingdom : if these things be suffered , what must we think will follow . but the main text of scripture , which our dissenters rely on , for to defend their extempore prayers is , rom. viij . . where st. paul says , the spirit helpeth your infirmities ; and therefore they conclude , they ought to use no outward helps . but i have shew'd before , that outward helps are to be used , as kneeling , lifting up the hands and eyes , &c. so that 't is plain they mistake this text of scripture . and 't is evident they do so , for that all the fathers , and the most eminent men of the church , as calvin , luther , &c. whenever they recommended the use of liturgies , they gave this reason for it among others , to prevent the inconveniences which some mens folly would betray them to in their using rash and unpremeditated prayers : now if the spirit helpeth our infirmities in the sence that our dissenters will have it : how come all these learned men ; yea , and mr. baxter himself , &c. to recommend forms as necessary for the helping of our infirmities , and so make the holy spirit insufficient ? shall we believe that all these learned men did not understand the meaning of that text so well as some of our dissenters do ? 't is very likely that st. augustine and st. chrysostom ( who liv'd nearer the apostles days by above twelve hundred years , than any of our non-conformists ) might have understood the apostles meaning , better than any of them : now let us hear what their sence was of these words of st. paul , we know not what to pray for , as we ought , but the spirit helpeth our infirmities . st. aug. ad prob. ep. . p. . will not grant that any christians wanted the spirit to help them with words and expressions : for he says , it is not credible that the apostle or they to whom he wrote were ignorant of the lord's prayer . and therefore they must necessarily have known what to have pyra'd for ; therefore these words , ( the spirit helpeth our infirmities ) he tells us must be expounded , of the spirit 's giving us patience not to pray absolutely to be delivered out of our afflictions , but in god's due time . and st. chrysostom in his hom. . in . rom. p. . says , that there was a miraculous gift of prayer in the apostles days ; to which st. paul alluded in those words ( the spirit helpeth our infirmities . ) but he tells us there , that 't was ceas'd long since , that is , before his days , tho' he liv'd in the fourth century ; so that whatever the apostles meaning was then , it can no ways be taken in the sence our dissenters would have it , nor does it condemn prescribed forms , now that that miraculous gift of prayer is ceased . but were there no other argument against the use of extempore prayers in publick assemblies , than the inconveniency of them , 't were sufficient to reject them : 't is impossible that order or unity can be preserv'd in any church , where every congregation hath liberty to worship god in a different way from all the rest ; one minister praying for one thing , and another perhaps for the quite contrary at the same time , according to their different judgments and interests , as was usual in the late times , when that extempore way was us'd . besides , in great congregations , 't is impossible that all the people should keep their attention so well fixt on an extempore prayer to which they are utter strangers , as on a prayer to which they have been accustom'd : for how can they join with the minister in every petition as they ought to do , till they have reflected a little upon what it was he said , for when the minister is left to his own fancy in his prayer , 't is very like he may either through mistake or wilfully come out with some petition that all his hearers cannot join with him in : so that 't is necessary for every one of the congregation to watch every expression , and reflect a little on it , before he consent to it . in the mean time , the eloquent pastor to shew his extraordinary gift of prayer , runs away with the business , as if his tongue was indeed the pen of a ready writer . thus the poor people must either be left behind , or join with him at random . another inconveniency which attends extempore prayer , is , that 't is impossible for a man who trusts to his own memory , to retain all his wants , and the wants and necessities of the people so in his mind , but that something or other , will very oft be forgotten , which may be avoided by using of a well compos'd form. but again , can we reasonably imagine that god almighty can be pleas'd with vain repetitions , and with bald , and unproper , and ( too often ) nonsensical expressions such as usually attend their extempore prayers ? doubtless he cannot ; for where he has given judgment , and wit , and eloquence , he expects it should be us'd in his service , as well as in our worldly business . our saviour bids us , when we pray , not to use vain repetitions , nor think to be heard for our much speaking , matth. . . and solomon , eccles . . , . says , keep thy feet when thou goest to the house of the lord ; and be not nash with thy mouth and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before god , for god is in heaven and thou on earth , therefore let thy words be few . how agreeable now this doctrine is to the practice of the dissenters , in their rash approaching to god with a long inconsiderate prayer , let any man judge . when they made their addresses to the late king james ; they drew it up with all the caution and premeditation imaginable , and every sentence was carefully considered on by several of the best heads among them , but they address the great king of heaven , with the rash and inconsiderate expressions of one person , and he perhaps , a weak onetoo . but some of them say , why should not ministers be tied to a form of preaching , as well as of praying ? why sure , there is a great deal of difference between preaching and praying : preaching is directed to a congregation , which is made up of several people , who have different capacities and apprehensions , and therefore require different phrases and arguments to move them . some are drawn with one argument , some with another , some apprehend a man's meaning by one expression , some by another , according as they are suited to their several capacities ; so that 't is impossible to frame a form in preaching , to answer all these ends . but prayers are directed to one god , who is always the same , and not to be pleased with variety of phrases . i shall conclude this point with this observation , that those who are most inveterate against praying by forms , do daily use the same individual form themselves , word for word , throughout the whole year , as any one that frequent their publick or private meetings , may observe . the third sort of pleas which the dissenters use for separation , are such as relate to their consciences : for , say they , what tho' the terms of communion with the church of england be lawful , since we cannot satisfy our consciences , that they are so ? we must not act against our consciences , for that were sin in us . for st. paul says , let every one be fully perswaded in his own mind , rom. . but i answer first , this scripture is meant of indifferent things , and no other as appears by the coherence of the words with the whole chapter : for the apostle is there speaking of meats , times , days , &c. and blames the romans for condemning , and quarrelling with one another about them . but secondly , 't is plain that * scruples of conscience will not excuse from sin , in some cases . for 't is agreed by all , that conscience will not excuse from sin , unless all proper helps and means are us'd to inform our judgments , and to come to the right knowledge of the thing scrupled ; this mr. baxter owns in his dispute of church government , p. . where he says , that if a man through ignorance or prejudice , takes unlawful things to be lawful , or lawful things to be unlawful , this will not excuse him in his disobedience . suppose then for instance , that the magistrate imposes a thing which he lawfully may impose ; as that all men should begin the publick worship at an hour , and end at an hour . the quakers , they say , this is stinting of the spirit , and therefore sinful , and that they cannot in conscience communicate with us , till it be remov'd , i will ask a presbyterian or independent , whether this be a sinful separation or not , they will own it is , notwithstanding their pretended scruple of conscience : for the sin must needs lie some where , either on those who impose the thing , or on those who separate ; not on those who impos'd it , because they allow the thing injoyn'd to be lawful , therefore it must be on those who separate , because they do not inform themselves truly of the lawfulness of the thing scrupled . and indeed , if a bare scruple of conscience will justify separation , the anabaptists and all other sects , may as well justify their separation from the presbyterians and independents , as they can do theirs from the church of england . and by the same rule , we may subdivide , till there be as many religions as men. i grant that the obligations of conscience are the greatest that can be , and to act against the clear dictates of a man's conscience , is a very great sin ; but this must be meant of a conscience when all due care and diligence has been us'd to rectify and inform it . and then what is this to the case of our dissenters ? do they separate from the church out of pure conscience ? yes , say they , doubtless we do : but have they us'd all proper means to inform their judgments , and come to the knowledge of the truth ? surely they will not say they have . are not the greatest part of the dissenters a poor illiterate sort of people , who know nothing of the controversie between us , nor ever trouble their heads about it ; but will go to the meetings , because their fathers and mothers did so before them , and will rail at the church , tho' ask them what is amiss in it seriously , and they cannot tell you . and as for those few of the better sort among them , who perhaps , have had greater advantages of education , is it not remarkable that they read and converse altogether on one side , and associate themselves into clubs and cabals of such who are of the same opinion with themselves , but avoid all occasions of creating the least intimacy with any who differ from them in opinion ? and if any shall but offer to inform them , tho' in never so peaceable and friendly a manner , does it not prove the occasion of an eternal quarrel ? or at least put a stop to any farther intimacy between them ? is not this truly the case among them ? i appeal to their own consciences , whether this be truth which i say . how can these men pretend then that they have us'd all proper means to satisfie their consciences ? they who really scruple things out of tenderness of conscience , would be sincerely willing to be better inform'd , and would look upon them as their best friends who endeavour to inform them , but instead of this , they fly out into rage and violent passions against those who offer to remove their scruples , and for their kindness , return most reproachful , bitter language , both on the persons , tho' never so eminent , and the thing tho' never so sacred ; which is visible in all their books of controversie . and even in common discourse , how difficult is it to obtain from the zeal of many of our dissenters so much truce as to hear what one can say to them , with patience and civility ? they tell us in plain terms we may spare our breath , and not pretend to teach them , they understand their duty better than we do ; they are satisfied in their own minds that they are in the right , and will not be wheedled out of their opinion , by all that we can say . this is truth , mr. baxter himself has own'd as much in his answer to dr. stillingfleet , p. . where he affirms in his own name , and the name of his people , that he who thinks that his own or others reasonings will ever change all the truly honest christians in the land , knows so little of matters , or of men , or of conscience , as that he is not fit to be a bishop or a priest . what will they say now to this , will their scruples of conscience excuse their separation and disobedience , when 't is evident they will not use the proper means to satisfie their consciences ? ▪ nay farther , when they declare 't is needless to go about to remove their scruples , for they are resolv'd beforehand they will not be convinc'd ? let no man say so for shame , 't is against common reason , and the opinion of all learned men , and even of mr. baxter himself . but we will suppose for once , that every particular dissenter has done his utmost indeavour to satisfie his conscience , and that after all they cannot conquer their scruples ; what then ? must they therefore proceed to separation ? no , this was never allowed by christ nor his apostles , nor by any christian church since their time , not even by our dissenters themselves heretofore . our saviour himself did not separate from the jewish church , though there were many things amiss in it , nor advise others to do so , says vines , a non-conformist , in his book on the sacrament , pag. . in the apostles days we find there were some who scrupled some things that were enjoin'd , but notwithstanding the difference of men's judgments , and their pretended scruples of conscience , the apostles did prescribe rules of uniformity , and allow'd none to separate from the church , and frequent meetings of their own setting up , because they could not conquer their scruples . and this very argument did the assembly of divines at westminster , anno dom. . use against their dissenting brethren , the independents , who pleaded for separation upon the account of conscience , as the dissenters do now . see papers for accommodation , pag. . and when the independents told them they could not satisfie their consciences so as to conform to their church government ; and therefore begg'd , that they may be allow'd separate congregations , the assembly positively refused it , and urged them to conform to their way of worship , &c. and charged them with schism if they did not : for , say they , to desire separate congregations , as to those parts of worship where they own they can join with us , is very unreasonable ; for tenderness of conscience may justifie non-communion in the thing scrupled , but it cannot justifie a separation ▪ see the papers for accommodation , pag. , , , , &c. for if it should , say they , it then would make way for infinite divisions , and sub-divisions , and give countenance to perpetual schism in the church , ib. p. , , &c. and then the assembly justifie themselves in so doing , by the practice of the saints in the apostles days : for they tell them , they desire no more of them hereby , than what they were confident was practised by the saints at philippi ; namely , to hold practical communion in things wherein they doctrinally agreed , ib. p. . so that if the judgment of their own brethren in a full assembly , may be taken upon the most weighty debate and serious deliberation ; their setting up separate meetings , and forsaking the church upon the account of some scruples which they pretend they cannot conquer , is sinful and schismatical . and when the assembly of divines was pressed farther by their dissenting brethren , they desired them to answer in this one thing , whether some must be denyed the liberty of their conscience in matters of practice or none ? if none , then ( say they ) we must renounce our covenant , and let in prelacy again , and all other ways : if a denial of liberty to some may be just , then vniformity may be settled notwithstanding men's different judgments or pretence of conscience , papers for accommodation , pag. . agreeable hereto is the practice of the independents themselves , where they have the power ; as in new-england , no separation is there allow'd upon the account of scruples of conscience , as appears by their book of statutes which they have lately printed ; and by their telling mr. williams , a famous minister among them , that if nothing will serve him but separation , because he could not conquer his scruples , the world was wide enough ; and so away they banish'd them in the midst of winter . from what has been said it appears , that though there were some things amiss in the church of england , which our dissenters could not satisfie their consciences about , yet this would not justifie separation from the church , though perhaps it might ( after due pains taken to inform themselves aright concerning them ) justifie their non-communion in the things scrupled . now i will shew that there is really no cause to forsake the church of england upon the account of conscience ; and that all those who do forsake the church , and frequent separate meetings , are condemn'd for schismaticks by the most eminent divines of all the reformed churches beyond seas , and by mr. baxter , dr. owen , mr. gifford , corbet , and many other of the non-conformists themselves heretofore . for , first , they all agree , that no man is obliged in conscience to separate from any church that is sound in doctrine , and has the sacraments rightly and duly administer'd . the scripture allows separation only in these three cases ; first , in case of idolatrous worship . secondly , in case of false doctrine imposed instead of true. and , thirdly , in case things indifferent be made necessary to salvation . but where these three are wanting , nothing will justifie separation . see canon nicen. , , . constant . c. . chalced. , , . antioch . c. , . cod. eccles . afr. c. , . conc. gangrae . c. . conc. carth. c. , . cod. can. eccles . vniv . can. . all these canons and many more do condemn separation from a church that is sound in doctrine , and has the sacraments rightly and duly administred . so does calvin in his inst . lib. . c. . numb . . where he says , that great allowances ought to be made to such churches , by the example of the apostolical churches . and , ibid. sect. . he says , that the lord esteem'd him a runnagade , and forsaker of religion , whosoever he be , that separated frowardly from any christian society , which imbraceth but the true ministry of the word and sacraments . and , ibid. sect. . he says , that though something that is faulty may creep in , either in the administration of the word or of the sacraments , yet we ought not to separate us from the communion of that church ; for , says he , there are principles of religion , without which we cannot be saved ; and there are other points in which men may differ , and yet the vnity of the faith be kept . and , ibid. sect. . he says , it is not for every private man to separate from the communion of a church , tho' faulty in some things , &c. beza in his epist . . p. . agrees herein , so does monsieur daille , and several other of the foreign divines : see dr. still . misch . of separ . . and . so does the assembly of divines , as i have just now shewn , and papers for accommodation , p. . they declare farther , that they look upon separation from a true church , tho' somethings may be amiss in it , not as a sin of mere humane infirmity , but as a wilful and dangerous sin . and mr. baxter in his poor man's family book , p. . tells us , many churches were blam'd in scripture , but none are requir'd to separate from them . see the answer to dr. stillingfleet 's sermon by several non-conformists , where they all acknowlédge our worship in the nature of it , to be intrinsecally good , and a total separation from it sinful , ibid. p. . so then it seems so long as a church retains the marks and signs of a true church , tho' there be many things amiss in such a church , separation from it is sinful . but what if open sinners be admitted to the communion before they have made publick confession of their faults , as is too frequent in the church of england , must i be obliged to communicate with such ? may i not separate in such case ? the apostle , cor. . , , . bids us , if any that is call'd a brother be a fornicator , an idolater , or covetous , &c. with such see that ye eat not . i answer , that this very reason did the donatists in st. augustine 's days give ( among others ) for their separation , and quoted the same texts of scripture , but they were condemn'd for schismaticks as i shewed before . and st. augustine and all the catholick bishops did then agree that these texts were meant only of separation in heart , not in body . and therefore they say , when such a multitude offends as that the casting of them out , would be in danger to cause a schism , there they ought to be tolerated , least while ye go about to pull up the taxes , ye pull up the wheat also , therefore let them both grow together ( say they ) till the harvest . but when only a few are guilty of scandalous sins , there they say , let not the severity of discipline cease ; but it must not be so severe as to root up , but to amend . see aug. lib. . against permenian a donatist bishop , ch . . lib. . c. . and herewith agrees calv. lib. . instit . c. . sect . . where he says , that tho' sinners be admitted to communion , we ought to keep our selves from their fellowship , but not to separate from the church . mr. baxter says the same in his poor man's family book , p. . and vines , on the sacrament , p. . but suppose the parson of the parish be weak , or a man of a loose conversation , and i can hear a better preacher elsewhere , and a man of a more exemplary holy life , and conversation , may not i go to that church or meeting where i find most edification ? no , for this still makes way for schisms and divisions in the church , and therefore was never allow'd in any regular church , provided the parson of the parish be tolerable . the followers of estathius sebastenus , who separated upon this account in paphlagonia , were condemned of schism by the council at gangrae . ; and see calvin's instit . lib. . c. . sect . . to the same purpose . and indeed , it is not reasonable that so ignorant and proud , unpeaceable sort of people , as mr. baxter himself in his sacraleg . disert . p. . &c. confesses the ordinary sort of zealous professors of religion to be , shou'd be at liberty to rend and tear a church to pieces , out of a conceit of a purer way of worship , as if they knew what was better for their edification , than the wisdom of the whole nation in parliament , and the governors of the church do . the pretence of greater edification was never allow'd by the dissenters themselves heretofore , as a sufficient cause for separation , as appears by the papers for accommodation , and the grand debate , both printed when the assembly of divines sat at westminster . nor did mr. baxter ever allow of this to be a sufficient cause for separation , as appears by his cure of divisions , p. . where he sets forth the pernicious consequences of complying with the ungovernable and factious humours of the ordinary sort of people who are ever apt to revile the best and gravest ministers , and follow the more conceited , and such as are of most fierce and bitter spirits . and in his poor man's family book , p. . he says , for want of understanding the right terms of church communion , how woful are our divisions , you must have vnion and communion in faith , and love with all christians ; let your usual meeting be with the purest churches , if you lawfully may , and still respect the publick good : but sometimes occasionally communicate with defective faulty churches , so be it , they are true churches , and put you not upon sin : think not that your presence makes all the faults of ministry , worship , or people to be yours ( for then i would join with no church in the world. ) division is wounding , and tends to death , abhor it as you love the churches welfare or your own , &c. and again , ib. p. . if your minister ( says he ) be intolerable through ignorance , heresy or malignity , forsake him utterly ; but if he be tolerable , though weak and cold ; and if you cannot remove your dwelling , then publick order , and your soul ▪ s edification must be joined as well as you can : in london , or other cities , you may go ordinarily to another parish church ; but in the country , and where 't would be a great offence , you may one part of the day hear in one parish , and another in the next , if there be a man much fitter , but notwithstanding , you must communicate with the church you dwell in . and a little after , he says , i advise you if there be parish churches orderly settled under the magistrates countenance , whose teachers are sound , tho' an abler minister should gather a separate congregation in the same place , out of that and other neighbouring parishes , and should have stricter communicants and discipline , be not too forward to join your self to that separated church , till you can prove that the hurt that will follow by discord , offence , division , encouraging of schisms and pride , &c. is not likely to be greater than your benefit can compensate ; but if this separate church be a factious church , set up contentiously against the concordant churches , tho' on pretence of greater purity , and if their meetings be imploy'd in contemning and reviling other churches whose people are not of their mind , and in puffing up themselves with pride , as if they were the only true churches of christ , avoid such separate churches , as the enemies of love and peace . and again , in the same book , p. . he bids us , not peevishly pick quarrels with the prayers of the church , nor come to them with humorsome prejudice : think not that you must stay away , or go out of the church for every passage that is disorderly , unmeet , yea or unsound or untrue ; for the words of prayer are the work of men , and while all men are fallible , imperfect and sinful , their prayers and preaching will be like themselves , and he that is the highest pretender and the peevishest quarreller hath his own failings , &c. so that if our dissenters will allow their own mr. baxter to be a competent judge , or any of the other learned divines beforesaid , they must own , that neither the weakness of the ministry , nor better edification , is a sufficient cause for separation . but there is another thing , say they , which makes it necessary for us to separate from the church of england , and that is the oaths and subscriptions which they require from us . what says mr. baxter to this ? why , mr. baxter in his poor man's family book , p. ▪ . says , if a church in other respects sound require of you any false subscriptions , promises , or oaths , or any unlawful thing , you must not do it , but hold communion in other lawful things . it seems then he does not allow of separation upon this account neither . the scruples which men make to the oaths and declarations , are grounded upon mistakes , for that they take the words in a strained and unnatural sence . whereas if they would remember what the famous bishop sanderson tells us , de juran . praelect . . sect . . p. . and what all learned men do agree in , to wit , that in every oath , all those conditions or exceptions ought to be understood , which by right or common use , are implied in it , viz. as far as i can ; and 't is lawful for me ; things remaining in the same , state , &c. with these conditions , there is nothing in these oaths or subscriptions , that can reasonably be scrupled ; and without them , 't is impossible to frame an oath that a man can safely venter to swear to . besides , though these subscriptions were sufficient cause for separation , how can the lay people justifie their separation upon this account ? no such oaths or subscriptions are required of them , they are only required from the ministers . why then do the people forsake the church ? is it in reverence to the ministers , least they should have none to preach to ? this is what they never could answer with any colour of reason ; and therefore many of the non-conformist ministers do frequently in discourse fairly and honestly own , that the terms of lay-communion with the church of england are easy enough , but the only thing they stick at is the terms of ministerial communion . the only answer that ever i heard made to this , is in a book call'd , an answer to dr. stillingfleet 's sermon , by some non-conformists , pag. . they tell us , that they must not justifie themselves in their preaching , and leave the people in schism ; ( i must needs say , this was kindly done of them , for 't were very unfriendly in them to draw the poor silly people into schism , and when they have done , to slip their own necks out of the collar , and leave the people in the lurch ; ) and therefore they quickly find an answer to stop their mouths , whom they knew would never examine it : say they , we are ministers of christ , and have a commission to preach , and therefore the people may lawfully forsake the church to hear us , for we must not preach to the stone walls . but pray will this reason justifie the people in leaving their parish church , and their own lawful minister , to run after a stranger , for fear he should want a congregation to preach to ? if the king should give a gentleman a commission to raise a regiment , does this oblige men that have formerly listed themselves under other officers , to leave their service , and follow him ? no , sure . there are in the two universities many hundred young men that are qualified for the ministry , perhaps as well as most of the non-conformist ministers , and are not yet called to the office , nor provided with churches ; suppose all these now were admitted into orders , and scatter'd all over the kingdom , are the people obliged to run away from their lawful minister , orderly set over them ; and divide the parishes each perhaps into three or four , to furnish all these new made ministers with congregations to preach to ? an excellent contrivance this , of our reverend non-conformist ministers , to entail the church revenue upon them and their successors for ever , without being beholding to king , bishop , or patron ; and without any possibility of ever being cut off or forfeited ; all the lawyers in england could not have devised so good a security for them , as they have subtlely done here for themselves . they may preach what doctrine they please , for the government or against it ; they have a commission to preach , and the people are therefore bound , they say , to hear them . for preaching and hearing , they say , are relatives , and the one does necessarily suppose the other . 't is true indeed , actual preaching supposes hearing , so do actual governours necessarily suppose a people to be govern'd : but a commission to govern , does not necessarily suppose a people actually to be govern'd ; for there may be governours appointed and made , though there be then no people for them to govern ; as was resolved by all the judges of england , in the case of sutton's hospital , co. rep. . fol. . a. so their commission to preach does not necessarily draw with it people to be preached to , but only warrants their preaching where 't is really wanted , and when they can have people to preach to without injuring others , or disturbing the peace of a settled true christian church . but to say no more in a matter so clear , i have already shew'd , that there lies no obligation upon any non-conformist minister to preach in england , and consequently there can be no necessity for the people to hear them . the oaths and subscriptions are required only of the clergy , and is no more than what other reformed churches require of all theirs . by the constitution of the french church , every minister that will not subscribe to the orders among them , is to be declared a schismatick . and by the constitution of geneva , any minister that contemns the authority of their church , or by his obstinacy disturbs the order of it , shall be first summon'd before the magistrate , and if that will not do , he shall be excommunicated ; but no separation allow'd . and calvin says , ep. olevian . pag. , & ▪ let him that will not submit to the orders of a society be cast out . our dissenters themselves did oblige all to swear solemnly to their covenant , under pain of sequestration . but , say the dissenters , what if the church of england excommunicates us ; may we not then lawfully separate and set up meetings of our own ? i answer , 't is true , the laws of the church do say , that in some cases men are excommunicated ipso facto , yet this does not oblige any ▪ to separate from communion , till sentence be duly and judicially pronounced in a church . for by the civil law , notwithstanding excommunication ipso facto , a declaratory sentence of the judge is necessary before a man shall be deny'd the benefit of communion . and the saying a man is excommunicated , ipso facto , signifies no more , than that the judge may give sentence without any new judicial process . but though our dissenters were actually excommunicated for their disobedience , this would not excuse them from schism ; as dr. stillingfleet has proved at large , misch . of separ . p. . thus i have shew'd , that none of those pleas which are commonly used by the dissenters for their separation from us , are sufficient to justifie separation from a true church . now if i can prove , that the church of england is a true reform'd church , they must either renounce their principles of separation , or their reason . the only argument i shall here make use of to prove , that the church of england is a true reform'd church , is , that it is so acknowledged by all the reform'd churches in the world ; who do all own her as a sister ; and also , by the most eminent of our own dissenters themselves . all the reform'd churches beyond seas do own the church of england as a true reform'd church , and yet they know what her faults be in her assemblies , in her worship , in her ministry and government . and this appears by the harmony of confessions of the churches , collected and set forth by the churches of france and of the low-countries : they do receive and approve of the confession of the church of england , and call it one of the true reform'd churches . calvin has acknowledged the same , in his writings against the brownists ; and condemns them for schismaticks , for separating from it : see his instit . lib. . c. . and the famous causabon in his epistle to king james i. declares plainly , that none at this day comes nearer the form of the ancient church , than the church of england does . grotius ad boatslaer , ep. . acknowledges the same : to which i shall add the opinion of two of the most eminent reform'd divines at this day beyond seas . the one is monsieur l' moyn , professor of divinity at leyden , in his letter to the bishop of london , anno dom. . who wrote to him to know his judgment concerning our present divisions in england : l' moyn writes him a long letter , which you may see at large at the latter end of dr. stillingfleet 's mischief of separation : i shall only repeat some of it : where was it ever seen ( says he , after he had been highly condemning our dissenters for separation ) that the salvation of men was concern'd for articles of discipline , and things which regard but the out-side , and order of the church . truly these are never accounted in the number of essential truths : and as there is nothing but these that can save , so there is nothing but these that can exclude from salvation . for the episcopal government , what is there in it that is dangerous , and may reasonably alarm men's consciences ? and if this be capable of depriving men of eternal glory , and shutting the gates of heaven , who was there that entred there for the space of . years , since that , for all that time , all the churches of the world had no other kind of government ? if it were contrary to the truth , is it credible that god had so highly approved it and permitted his church to be tyrannized over by it for so many hundred years , &c. therefore since all the reformed churches do look upon the church of england , not only as a sister , but as an elder sister , how comes it to pass , that some english-men themselves have so ill an opinion of her at present , as to separate rashly from her ? for to speak the truth , i do not see their separate meetings are of any great use , or that one may be more comforted there , than in the episcopal churches . when i was at london , almost five years ago , i went to several of their meetings , to see what way they took for the instruction of their hearers ; but , i profess , i was not at all edified by it . i heard one of the most famous non-conformists , he preached in a place where there were about fourscore women , and a few men : he had chosen a text about the building up the ruines of jerusalem ; and for explication of it , he cited pliny and vitruvius , i believe an hundred times : and did not forget to mention a proverb in italian , duro con duro non fa muro , all this seem'd to me nothing to the purpose , and very improper for his auditory . to cantonize themselves , and make a schism , to have the liberty to vent such vanities seems very ill conduct : and the people seem very weak to quit their mutual assemblies for things that so little deserve their esteem and preference : i do not think that any one is obliged to suffer such irregularity , &c. the other authority i promised to cite , is monsieur claud , to whom the bishop of london wrote about the same time , desiring his opinion as aforesaid . monsieur claud returns him this answer , all reform'd churches do acknowledge the church of england , as a true church ; and i shall not be afraid to give that name to the holding of assemblies apart , and separating from the publick assemblies , and withdrawing themselves from under the government of the church : 't is real schism . we do not enter into a comparison of your order with that under which we live , all are subject to inconveniencies , ours have hers , as well as yours : it is enough for us to know , that the same divine providence , which by an indispensible necessity , and by conjuncture of affairs , did at the beginning of the reformation , put our churches under that of the presbytery , has put yours under that of the episcopacy ; and as we are assured , that you do not despise our simplicity , so neither ought we to oppose our selves against your preheminence . see both these letters , and a third from monsieur l' angle , to the same purpose , at large in the latter end of dr. stillingfleet 's misch . of separ . thus much for the foreign divines . now we will come nearer home , and see what our dissenters themselves have thought of the church of england , from which they separate . first then , several of the dissenters , to avoid the imputation of brownism , do sincerely profess , before god and all the world , that they hold the church of england , to be a true church of christ , with which they did , and would hold communion , notwithstanding any defilement or unwarranted power of church government exercised therein . see the apologetical narrative , p. , . again , they own that our parochial churches are true churches , and that they can find no fault with the doctrine of our church , and that 't is lawful and * sometimes a duty to communicate with us . baxter 's defence of his cure , p. . and . corbet of schism . p. . peace-offering in the name of the congreg . party ▪ anno dom. . p. . true way of conc. part . c. . sect . . and mr. baxter in his last answer to bagshaw , p. , . has these words , you little know what pernicious design the devil has upon you , in perswading you to desire and indeavour to pull down the interest of christ and religion , which is upheld in the parish churches of this land , and to think that 't is best to bring them as low in reality and reputation as you can , and contract the religious interest all into private meetings . and see also mr. baxter 's plea for peace , p. . to the same purpose . and lastly , dr. owen in his book of evangelical love , p. . acknowledges , that they look upon the church of england , measuring it by the doctrine received since the reformation , to be as sound and healthful a part of the catholick church , as any in the world. i have now prov'd that separation from a true church is sinful , and schismatical ; i have proved the church of england to be a true church ; and all this i have proved from their own writings . how will they now justify their separation , or clear themselves from the imputation of schism ? what will they say to this ? is schism not a sin ? or is their separation from us not schism ? if they say it is not schism : why , then our non-conformist ministers know better what is schism , than all the learned divines of the church of england , and the most eminent men of all the reformed churches beyond seas do . for i have shewed from their own words , that they do acknowledge the church of england to be as true and sound a part of the reform'd church , as any in the whole world , and condemn all those that separate from her as guilty of schism . doubtless these men are as competent judges of matters of religion as any of our dissenting ministers . and i am sure we have not the least reason to believe they would flatter us , for they are strangers who have no dependance upon us ; and men of more piety and honesty , than to indulge us in any thing that is sinful . but it may be they will say , that all these learned divines beyond seas , who have acknowledged the church of england to be a true church , are ignorant of the errors and corruptions in her : but let me tell them , they might have a little more civility , than to suppose that so many godly upright men , would rashly give their judgment of matters of so great moment as those are which relate to religion , before they were truly acquainted with the nature and circumstances of the thing : and besides , they ought not to judge of other men by themselves : because the most of their own divines are utter stangers to the practice and constitution of other churches , as appears sufficiently by their principles of separation , must they believe others to be so too ? no throughly accomplish'd divine can be supposed to be ignorant of the true state and condition of any reformed national church , much less of so great and considerable an one as the church of england . but to put this out of dispute , it appears before that several of the most eminent men before-mentioned , were in england for some years , and frequented both the churches and meetings , on purpose to acquaint themselves with both , in order to giving their judgment of them . since therefore the doctrine of the church of england is sound , and the worship true , and government and constitution of it as agreeable to that of the best and purest ages of the church , as any now in the world ; let us in the name of god , lay aside all those fears and jealousies that have possess'd the minds of too many of us , concerning it , and let us remember that not only the peace and prosperity of this church and nation , and of every particular member of it , depends upon our union , but of the protestant religion all over the world. tho' there may be some things amiss in the church of england , it is not the business of private men to reform the church , or dispute the fitness or unfitness of every little imposition . their duty is to conform , at least in the outward action , and submit the fitness of such things , to the wisdom of those to whom god almighty has intrusted the government of the church and nation , they may reasonably be thought more competent judges of what is convenient and fit to be done , or not to be done , than private men can be . and if any thing be amiss in the government of the church , or the manner of god's worship , they are to answer for it , not the people . god will call them to an account for imposing upon his people things not agreeable to his will : but will never condemn us for doing our duty in submitting to such governors as he has placed over us . 't is true , there are some things in religion which are essential to it , without which , men cannot be saved . now in case our governours command us to act contrary to these , we ought not to obey , for we must obey god rather than men : but 't is agreed on all sides , that the church of england enjoins no such things , and that they who live godly , sober lives according to the doctrine of this church , are in a safe and ready way to heaven . but 't is a difficult matter for men to forsake what they have been all their lives accustomed to ; they cannot believe that separation is so great a sin as we seem to make it : and that so many honest good people , and godly ministers did live and die in sin . if they are resolv'd ; they will not believe separation from a true church to be sinful , who can help that ? the great number that have liv'd and dy'd in that opinion , does not make the thing less sinful . the donatists in the african church , were more numerous that our english dissenters are , and had 't is likely , as many sober and learned divines among ' em . for at the conference at carthage , they had bishops , yet these were condemn'd for schismaticks by st. austin and all the catholick bishops . and the things that these donatists separated from the church for , were for the most part the very same , that our present dissenters make the cause of their separation from the church of england . they thought the bishopricks too large , and the power of the bishops too great . they refus'd to join in communion with the catholicks , because sinners were admitted there . they forsook the ministers , because they were not so agreeable to their humour as they would have them . * they would not suffer any to speak in the churches but the ministers , and stopt the mouths of all the people . they held that the civil magistrate had no power to reform the church . they made a shew of greater zeal for the purity of religion , than other people ; and by their stiff , rigorous severity which they shew'd , and the vehement out-crys which they made , that discipline was not duly executed ; many of the people , not well grounded in the truth , were terrified , and turned unto them , believing them to be the most zealous holy men , and the only true church in the world. finally they condemn'd all other churches as not true churches . see all this in gifford ( a non-conformist minister ) his book against the brownists . part . these are the very pretences that our present dissenters make for their separating from this church . our bishopricks are too large ; our churches not according to christ's institution ; our ministers unable , and ungodly ; our way of worship false ; our magistrates assume an unwarranted power in church matters . yea , and in their over pretending to purity and godliness , they are exact donatists , and by that very means do draw the more ignorant and zealous sort of people to them , as the brownists did . no people pretend so much to purity and religion , as they do : in all places where they have their publick meetings , they are sure to begin before the parish churches , and end after , be they as long as they will : but yet go in to one of their meetings , and you shall see as little signs of devotion and as many of the people asleep , as in any parish church in the kingdom for the number . so in their common discourse , many of them will scarce allow themselves so much liberty as to make them good company , for fear they should happen to tell a lye ; but yet in their dealings , they will over ▪ reach a customer in a bargain , and use as many equivocations to deceive him as any other people shall . but least you think i do them wrong , let us hear what the learned mr. baxter says of them , ( you won't believe that he would wrong them . ) in his poor man's family book . p. . speaking of such who run into parties by divisions , says he , those injudicious sort of christians having an over high esteem of their own vnder standings and godliness , and desiring to be made conspicuous for their godliness , in the world , separate from ordinary christians as below them , and unworthy of their communion ; these sects have ever been the nests of errors . and again , ib. p. . he bids us beware of joining our selves to separate meetings , who pretend to stricter discipline , and greater purity , who set themselves up factiously and contentiously against the concordant churches , on pretence of greater purity , whose meetings are imployed in reviling others , and condemning other churches , and puffing themselves up with pride , as if they were the only churches of christ . but our dissenters will say , this is a scandalous abuse to say , that they condemn all other reformed churches in the world. but i doubt they agree with the donatists even in this . for i suppose they will condemn all those that account them schismaticks . and this do all the reformed churches ; for they all hold , that separation from a true church is schism , and own the church of england for a true church , and consequently make them schismaticks , and so have expresly declared them as appears before . again , i suppose they will condemn all churches that communicate with an idolatrous anti-christian church , knowing her faults ; some of them declare the church of england to be such a church , and then they must condemn all the reformed churches which communicate with her . well , say the dissenters , you of the church of england have a great deal to say for your selves , and if all be true that you have told us , our separation from you is sinful and unreasonable : but what reason have we to believe you ; we have a great many able and godly ministers of our own , who tell us the quite contrary ; 't is certain they can't both be in the right , why may we not then believe your ministers may be deceived as well as ours ? i answer , 't is not so likely that all the divines of the church of england that have been since the reformation , should be deceived in a thing of this nature , as that those of the non-conformists should ; first , because they are much more numerous , and 't is not so likely that a great many good men should be deceived , as a few ; 't is a rule in logick , quod plures & sapentiores testantur credibile est esse verum . and secondly , because they have much better means to come to the knowledge of the truth , than those of the non-conformists can pretend to ; as will plainly appear by considering the method taken on both sides for the breeding up of divines . those who are design'd for the study of divinity in the church of england , are kept at the best schools that can conveniently be had , till they understand latin and greek very well , then they are admitted into one of the universities , where they are put under the care of a particular tutor , who is always one of the fellows of the college , and consequently , a man well approved of by the whole college for his learning and sobriety ; for by the statutes of every college , none but such are qualified for fellowships . this tutor has seldom above . students under his care at a time , and many of them not half that number ; every student comes twice a day to his tutor's chamber , to be instructed by him . and besides this , the college appoints other tutors , or publick lecturers , who are to teach and instruct them in the publick halls , some for philosophy , some for disputations , and other exercises . these publick tutors are changed every year , which is a great advantage to the students , by acquainting them with the several methods and opinions of such variety of learned men. thus they spend the first four years , and then after very strict examination by all the fellows of the college , to which they belong , in the publick hall for six days together ; if they be found qualified , they commence batchelors of arts , if not , they are laid aside till the next year . after they have taken their batchelors degree , they begin to apply themselves more particularly to the study of divinity , but are still obliged to publick lectures for hebrew , greek , and other parts of learning necessary for that study ; and to publick disputations . and thus they spend three years more , and then after a strict and publick examination as before , if they be found qualified , they commence masters of arts , or doctors of philosophy . and here observe , that no man can hope to take his degrees in any of the universities , unless he be throughly qualified for it : no such thing as favour in the case , because the examinations are publick before all the fellows and the president of the college : and besides that , every man that is to take any degree in any of the colleges , is obliged by the laws of the college , to ask the consent of every man , particularly , who has ever taken the degree of master of arts in that college , if they be at that time any where in or about the town , and any one of these if he can shew reason for it , as that he is a man of a scandalous life and conversation , or of not sufficient learning or such like , may stop him of his degree . after they have taken their master of arts degree , then is the time they usually enter into holy orders . some few there are , who are admitted into deacons orders , after they have commenced batchelors of arts , but these are few , and are look'd upon but as young raw fellows ; so that generally those who are admitted to the office of the ministry in the church of england , are men who have spent at least seven years in the study of university learning , in one of the two most famous universities in the world , with all the helps and advantages that are necessary for the perfecting of them in their studies : for besides those aforesaid , they have the constant conversation of so many learned , ingenious men ; the use of great and noble libraries , famous all over the world , ( besides the particular libraries belonging to each college : in which are to be found many pieces of antiquity and ancient manuscripts , &c. not to be met with any where else , and which give great light into antiquity . and in each university they have divinity professors , who are chosen out of the most eminent divines they have , whose business it is to hear divinity lectures read , and points of divinity disputed on in the publick divinity-schools , to which all those who design for that study , are after some few years obliged to attend . neither do these learned men trust only to their own knowledge , but they have carefully settled a correspondence with all the most eminent men beyond seas . these and many more are the advantages of education which the divines of the church of england have above those of the non-conformists , who are generally bred after this manner : a non-conformist minister perhaps , or some such person who lives obscurely in some remote part of the country , gets or boys together , and there he teaches them common school-learning , till they come to be towards years of age , and then instead of entring them into the university , he enters 'em in another chamber , perhaps or at a time , and there he teaches them university learning , as they call it ; for or years it may be without the help of any libraries , but the good man's closet , or any conversation more than with one another , and with the master , if he ▪ will honour them so far , and his assistant if he chance to have one . and so after or years study at this rate , they are qualified for the office of a minister among them , and are thought fit to be intrusted with the care of souls , and government of a church . i own there are some few among them , who have had better education than this is ; but these are the general methods taken for breeding up of divines on both sides , which is so well known , that none will have the confidence to deny it . and now let any man of reason judge , whether in matters that depend so much upon antiquity , and the practice and judgment of the primitive church ; as the controversies between us and the dissenters do ; whether i say are more likely to be mistaken , all the divines of the church of england , or those of the dissenters ? it is not so likely , says mr. baxter in his poor man's family book , p. . that god should reveal his mind to a few good men , and those of the rawer , injudicious sort , and such as are most infected with proud overvaluing their own wisdom and godliness , and such as have had least time and study , and means to come to great vnderstanding , and such who shew themselves the proudest censurers of others , and least tender of the church's peace , and such as are apt to break all to pieces among themselves ; i say , 't is not so likely that ▪ these are in the right , as the main body of agreeing , humble , godly , peaceable , studious ministers , who have had longer time , and better means to know the truth : and the body of christians , even the church , hath more promises from christ , than particular dividing persons have . see all this , and more to the same purpose in this book aforesaid , writ by mr. baxter himself . so that had we no other authority on our side , than that of the church of england , 't were much safer to rely upon their judgments in this matter , than on the judgment of the non-conformists ; but it appears before that we have the opinion of all the reformed churches in the world on our side ; and if that won't turn the scales , god almighty must work a miracle for their conversion , as he did for st. paul's . 't is so evident that the ministers of the church of england have much the advantage of those among the dissenters , as to learning and knowledge , that they have no way left to obviate this , but by down right disclaiming at the university learning , and calling them sophistical divines , who are bred up in vain and curious arts. * see brown in his preface to his book . and mr. baxter in his defence of his cure , p. . tells us of a church in new england , that separated from a church on the account of their preachers having human learning . but perhaps some of our dissenters will own that our divines of the church of england are generally more learned than those among them ; ( one of the most competent judges among them , mr. baxter , has own'd it fairly in his answer to a certain letter , p. . where he says , he has seldom heard any but very good and well studied sermons in our churches , and on the other side , complains publickly of the weakness and injudiciousness , and self-conceitedness of too many of the non-conformist preachers , in his sacral . desert . p. . ) yet they will tell us , they deceive the people , and keep them all in ignorance for their own interests , least they should lose their church preferments . this is a very severe censure , to say , that so many thousand godly ministers as have been of the church of england since the reformation , and who have many of them died martyrs for the sake of it , should be such villains as to deceive the people , and damn their own souls , for the sake of their church preferments . but how can self-interest oblige the clergy to defend the church of england as now establish'd , if they thought it not agreeable to the word of god ? it must be either pride or covetousness that must move them to it . if it were pride , doubtless the presbyterian or independant way would answer that end much better ; for whereas now the parsons , vicars and curates of all the parishes in england are subject to their respective bishops , &c. and can do nothing as to matters of discipline or government , &c. not even in their own parishes , without the consent of the diocesan bishop : were the constitution of the church changed to that of the presbyterian or independant way , every pastor would become an absolute bishop , and accountable to none for what he did . if it were covetousness that moved them to it , i suppose that were all the parsons of every parish in england made the pastor of that church or parish according to the presbyterian or independant notion of a pastor , and all the diocesan and metropolitan bishopricks , and their deans and chapters dissolved , and their revenue super-added to the present in-come of every parish minister or pastor , their church livings would be no less , but more valuable than now they are . why do they not then set about this change of church government as fast as they can , if they think in their consciences 'twere more agreeable to god's will so to do ? 't is plain , 't would better answer their covetousness and ambition , to pull down episcopacy , than to live in this poor subjection that now they do . here they will tell us , the reason is plain , because the bishops , who are the governours of the church will not let them ; they know the sweet of a fat bishoprick too well to part with it , i warrant them . but the thousandth part of the clergy of england are not bishops , nor perhaps never think to be so . every one of these have a vote in the convocation , and doubtless may carry it against so small a number of bishops as . were they not perswaded in their consciences , that the church of england as now establish'd , is as agreeable to the will of god , as any other whatsoever . therefore since the divines of the church of england are more numerous , and generally more learned , and can have no design upon the account of self-interest , to deceive the people , 't is safer sure in a doubtful case , to take their words , and trust to their judgments , than to those among the dissenters , whose interest it is to deceive the people , and make the breach between us as wide as they can , many of them being men of no fortune , and such as have no other way to get a living , and men who must needs be losers by an union between us , be the conformity of which side it will , whether they conform to us , or we to them , for be the government of the church of england , either episcopal or presbyterian , or independant ; 't is but reasonable that the ministers who are lawfully put into the cures , should continue therein still , as pastors of their own churches ; so that the greatest part of the non-conformist preachers must be laid aside ; for 't were not reasonable that others who are as deserving as they , and lawfully settled in their cures , should be turn'd out to make room for them , nor that parishes should be divided all over the kingdom , to furnish them with churches . 't is likely that some of the non-conformist ministers who are better qualified than ordinary , might be provided for , should it please god , that there were an union between us : but many of them i doubt , could not ; so that 't is evident their interest obliges the most of them to deceive the people , and keep open the breach as wide as they can . and that they really do so , is plain , by their making the differences between us seem greater than really they are , and than they themselves have own'd them to be in their writings , as i have all along shewed : and also by their pretending to quote authority for what they say , and either not mentioning the chapter or page where the words are to be found , or else altering the very words and sence of the author to serve their turn : if any one think i do them wrong , let them look into dr. maurice his defence of diocesan episc . p. . . . . . . . how mr. clarkson to prove episcopacy in the primitive church to be agreeable to the congregational or independant way , has misrepresented the very words and sence of his authors . you may find more instances of this kind in the preface to dr. comber's defence of liturgies , st . part . and see how falsly mr. baxter has translated theodoret's epistle to serve his hypothesis . dr. stillingfleet his mischiefs of separation , p. . and how he has misrepresented the doctor 's own words , ib. . and . many more instances of this kind may be given , were it necessary , but what has been said is sufficient to show that in matters of religion , where the case seems doubtful , and all the divines of the church of england agree on one side , and the non-conformists only on the other ; 't is much safer to take the opinion of those of the church of england , than of the others , because they are more numerous , and generally more learned , and seem to have less reason to deceive us . to all that has been said , i shall only add this , that i have taken all the pains that possibly i could , to inform my self truly of the matters in controversy between the church of england , and the dissenters ; and did really believe the things scrupled to be of much greater moment than i now find them to be . and tho' i for my own part , am satisfied in my conscience , that there is nothing at all injoin'd by the church of england , but what is agreeable to god's word , and the opinion of the wisest men of the church in all ages , and what the most tender consciences may satisfie themselves in , if they would but make use of the proper means ; yet i could heartily wish that many things were laid aside , if that would purchase an union between us . if things which are allow'd to be in themselves indifferent , as postures , and ceremonies , and such like , were neither impos'd nor abolish'd , but left to the discretion of every christian to use or not to use as he thinks best , and as the ceremony of bowing towards the altar is , and some other alterations made , such as you may see in the proposals offer'd to the parliament for the uniting of protestant dissenters by dr. s. dean of st. pauls ▪ there could then be no reasonable pretence left for separation . but if nothing else must purchase our peace , but the overthrowing the whole constitution of this church , 't is too dear a purchase , till we have found another to exchange for , more agreeable to god's word , and more consistent with the peace and tranquility of this nation ; but that we have not found yet , i am sure , as is sufficiently evident , by a plain experimental proof , which these nations lately had ; 't is very well known , that in the late unhappy times , when the church of england liturgy , &c. was taken away , the presbyterians , independants , and other parties , pray'd one against the other , and against establishing that way of government , which others of them pray'd for ; divers persons made their own passions , singular opinions , and errors great part of their prayers ; others rejected all confessions of sins , as no part of their devotions ; in many places of england , the sacrament of the lord's supper was laid aside for or years together , so was infant baptism ; some would pray for the king one way , some another , others not at all . and in that time that the church of england way of worship was laid aside , there were more errors , sects , heresies , and blasphemies broach'd and vented , than ever before or since : this is acknowledged by the dissenters themselves , see a book call'd gangrena , part st . p. . writ about the year , . where many of them do acknowledge , that we ( say they ) in these four last years ( for so long had presbytery been uppermost ) have overpassed the deeds of the prelates , in whose time never so great nor so many errors were heard of , much less such blasphemies , and confusions , we have worse things among us , more corrupt doctrines , and practices , than in . years before , &c. so that if nothing must purchase peace between us , but the parting with our religion , and overthrowing our whole constitution , to set up another , which experience has taught us , is neither so consistent with god's glory , nor the peace of these nations , they must excuse us . besides , let me tell them , their late carriage in scotland , has given us great reason to fear that the religion they so much boast of , and with so much zeal , endeavour to set up in this nation , in the place of that which by god's good providence is now establish'd , is not the true religion of christ ; for that never taught any to affront and revile his lawful ministers , and to burn the holy scriptures , as they have done now more than once . i pray god open their eyes , and soften their hearts , and give them grace to repent . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e * see dr. still●●●fleet's mischief of separation , pag. , , &c. * and if they must keep so precisely to the practice of those days , why does any of their ministers marry a second wife ? for st. paul says plainly , let bishops and deacons be the husbands of one wife , tim. . v. . & . * v. conc. eph. part . act. . * the church of england does not say absolutely that all those ministers who want episcopal ordination are no true ministers ; but only that none shall be accounted a lawful bishop , priest , or deacon , so as to execute their function in the church of england , unless they be once ordain'd by a bishop ; as appears by the preface to the ordination . * by national churches , are meant the whole churches of such nations as upon the decay of the roman empire resum'd their just right of government to themselves , both in church and state. all our ordinations must be done in the publick view of the people , who are demanded of the bishop , whether any of them can or will except against the persons to be admitted . see the form of ordination in the book of common prayer . * note when we refuse any thing injoin'd by authority , we must be certain that the thing injoin'd is unlawful ; for a doubting conscience will not excuse our disobedience . a doubting conscience , is when the conscience is in such a perfect aequilibrium or suspence , as that there appears no more reason on the one side of the question , than on the other ; in such case the command of authority turns the scales , and makes it necessary for us to obey , since for ought we know , the thing may be as well lawful as not . but for the farther satisfying of such well meaning persons as are scrupulous , 't were much to be wish'd that these oaths , subscriptions , &c. and the other things required by the act of uniformity were altered , and explained by act of parliament according to the bill drawn up by the dean of st. pauls , which the dissenters ( especially the presbyterians ) are willing to agree to , and have made the very same proposals themselves in their answer to dr. stillingfleet's sermon , at the latter end . vide. * if occasional communion be lawful , constant is a duty . see papers for accomm . p. , , . * optatus malevianus , lib. . p. . * his book of the life and manners of christians , note all the brownists say the same . so did the donatists in st. augustine's time , condemn human learning , but st. augustine condemns their folly herein , in his st . book against cresconius , ch . . a proclamation against the resetting of tenents or servants without testificats england and wales. sovereign ( - : charles ii) approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page image. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing c estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a proclamation against the resetting of tenents or servants without testificats england and wales. sovereign ( - : charles ii) charles ii, king of england, - . broadside. printed by the heir of andrew anderson, edinburgh : . reproduction of original in the huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng dissenters, religious -- law and legislation -- england. assembly, right of -- law and legislation -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - mona logarbo sampled and proofread - mona logarbo text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion c r honi soit qvi mal y pense royal blazon or coat of arms a proclamation , againsthe resetting of tenents , or servants without testificats . charles , by the grace of god , king of great britain , france , and ireland , defender of the faith ; to our lyon king at arms , his brethren heraulds , macers of council , pursevants , or messengers of arms , our sheriffs in that part , conjunctly and severally , specially constute , greetings forasmuch , as we have for the preservation of the protestant religion , as it is now established by the laws of thi● our ancient kingdom , taken care that all unlawfull meetings , upon pretence of religion , may be restrained , by which many of the commons of that our kingdom , have been for several years withdrawen from their paroch churches , and been thereby deprived of the appointed means for their establishment in the true fear of god , and the duty they ow to us , and our government , and have b●n seduced to keep seditious field-conventicles in a tumultuous way , and other disorderly meetings , where they may and do actually hear , declared t●●●●nours , intercommuned and vagrant preachers , and any who without licence or authority , do impiously asume the holy orders of the church , and ●ake it their business to diffuse amongst the unwarry and credulous multitude seditious and false doctrines , and pernicious principles , which are destructiv● to all order and constitution of societies , by which these who frequent those meetings , are observed to be corrupted and poysoned with an open and o●stinate contempt of all authority civil or ecclesiastick , and to be led into most irregular prastices , which are inconsistent with , all order and government , ●●d are not to be allowed in any protestant or christian church : for remeding of which growing evils , and vindicating our authority and laws fr●● such gross violations and affronts , we have commanded a band to be subscribed , whereby heretors , life●enters , and masters are obliged for their ●enents , servants , and others living upon their lands and they for themselves , for obeying such laws as may secure against schisme and separation ; and 〈…〉 the same be eluded , and the heretors , liferenters , and masters prejudged by the tenents , servants , and others foresaids , deserting such as t●ke the said band , nor least the saids tenents servants or others , may be encouraged not to take the same upon expectation that after they are removed by their masters , or run away from their masters , for not taking the band or for going to conventicles , withd●awing from publick ordinances , or upon any other account provided against by the masters band , they may or will be sheltered others : we therefore , with advice of the lords of our privy council , do hereby require and command , that no tenents , servants or other ●oresaids whatsoever within this kingdom , be resett upon another mans ground or in his service , without a testificate from the heretor , master , or from the ministere of the paroch where they live , that they have lived orderly , in manner foresaid , declaring hereby , that whatsoever heretors , lif 〈…〉 enters , or master , shall receive any such tenents , or servants , or others foresaids , without such a testificate , they shall be lyable to such fines as our privy councill shall think fit to inflict suitable to their guilt , both for repairing the dammage done to the heretor , liferenter , or master , and for unishing their conterant of this our proclamation : and to the effect , our pleasure in the premisses may he made known to all persons concerned : our will is herefore , and we charge you strictly and command , that incontenent these our letters seen , ye pass to the mercat cross of edinburgh and other places needfull , and thereat , in our name and authority , by open proclamation , with all solemnities requisite , make publication of the premisses , that none of our leiges may pretend ignorance thereof . and ordain these presents , and the band , and act of councill underwritten , to be printed , and subjoyned hereunto : the which to do , we committt to you conjunctly and severally . our full power by those our letters , delivering them by you duely execute and indorsed again tothe bearer . given under our signet at edinburgh , the eleventh day of february , . and of our reigne , the thirtieth year . per actum dominorum secreti concilli . al. gibsone cls. sti. concilii . god save the king . followeth the tenor of the band mentioned in the foresaid proclamation . i under subscribing , do faithfully bind and oblige me , that i , my wife , bairns , and servants , respectively shall no wayes be present at any conventicles , and disorderly meetings in time coming , but shall live orderly in obedience to the law , under the penalties contained in the acts of parliament made thereanent , as also i binde and oblige me , that my whole tenents and cottars respectively their wives , bairns , and servants , shal likewise refrain and abstain from the saids conventicles and other illegal meetings , not authorized by the law , and that they shall live orderly in obedience to the law ; and further , the i nor they shall not resett , supply , or commune with forfeited persons intercommuned ministers , or vagrant preachers , but shal do our outmost endeavour to aprehend their persons : and in case my saids tenents , cottars , and their foresaids shal contraveen , i shal take and apprehend any person or persons guilty thereof , and present them to the judge ordinar● , that they may be fined or imprisoned therefore , as is provided in the acts of parliament made thereanent ; otherwayes i shal remove them and their families from off my ground , and if i shal failȝie herein , i shal be lyable to such penalties as the saids delinquents have incurred by the law . consenting to the registration hereof in the books of his majesties privy councill , or books of any other judges competent . that letters and executorials may be direct hereupon in form as effeirs , and constitutes my procurators . edinburgh , the eleventh day of february , . the lords of his majesties privy councill do declare , that the heretors liserenters and masters , who have subscribed , or shall hereafter subscribe the band above written : obliging them for their tenents , and others therein specified , shall be onely lyable for the penalties by the delinquencies , of their tenents , and others foresaids , in case the tenets , and others for whom they are bound shall bepursued and convict within year and day after the committing of the delinquencies without prejudice to pursue the tenents , or others foresaids , themselves at any time thereafter as accords : extracted by me , al. gibsone , cls. sti , concilii . edinburgh , printed by the heir of andrew anderson , printer to the king 's most sacred majestie , . lestrange's narrative of the plot set forth for the edification of his majesties liege-people. l'estrange, roger, sir, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing l estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) lestrange's narrative of the plot set forth for the edification of his majesties liege-people. l'estrange, roger, sir, - . [ ], p. printed by j.b. for hen. brome ..., london : . first ed. cf. wing. reproduction of original in union theological seminary library, new york. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng popish plot, . church and state -- england. dissenters, religious -- england. great britain -- politics and government -- - . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - melanie sanders sampled and proofread - melanie sanders text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion lestrange's narrative of the plot . set forth for the edification of his majesties liege-people . london , printed by i. b. for hen. brome at the gun at the west-end of s. pauls , . l'estrange's narrative , &c. in this age of narratives , we should do with our books , methinks , as vittlers do with their ord'naries ; every authour hang up a table at 's door , and say , here you may have a very good narrative , for three-pence , a groat , or sixpence , or h●gher if you pl●ase ●or we have 'em of all sorts and sizes : the only danger is , the popping of catt and dogs flesh upon us , for cony , and venison . for take 'em one with another , at the common rate of narratives , there 's hardly one of five that will passe must●r . but what is a narrative ? you 'l say . a narrative is a relation of something that may be seen , felt , heard , or understood : or otherwise ; it is a relation of something that cannot be either seen , felt , heard , or understood : for we have our narratives of things visible and invisible ; possible and impossible ; true and false : our narratives of fact , an● our narratives of imagination . in one word : there was ne●er any thing said , done , or thought of , since the creation ; nor so much as the fansy of any thing , tho' it was never said , done , or thought of , but it will bear a narrative . so that the only point will be , out of this infinite diversity of narratives , which is the narrative here in q●●stion . now the narrative here in question , is the narrative of the plot ; but then there will arise another question ; of what plot ? for there are as many sorts of plots as there are of narratives . there are pl●ts of passion , and plots of interest ; plots genera●l and particu●ar ; publick and private ; forreign and domest●que ; ecclesiasticall and civill : there are plots to u●dermine governments , and plots to support them ; plots simple , and counter plots ; plots to make plots ; and plots to spoil plots ; plots to give credit to sham-plots ; and plots again to baffle , and discountenance reall ones : plots jesuiticall , and phanatique ; plots great and small ; high and low ; in short , there is not any thing under the sun , that may serve us either for pleasure , or convenience , but we have a plot upon 't : and the master-plot of all , is the plot how to get the money out of one pocket into another ; as is well observ'd by one of the antients . for what is it that sets all trades and professions a work , nay and all wickednesse too ; as murther , calumny , oppression , perjury , subornation , corruption , &c. but a plot upon mony ? now to come to my point . this discourse is not a wild and rambling narrative of some indefinite plot , that no body knows what to make of , or where to find it : but it is a narrative ( by way of excellence ) of the plot : that is to say , the capitall and hellish plot which is now in agitation , for the destruction of our prince , religion and government , to the horrour and amazement of all the reformed catholiques in christendom . i call them reformed catholiques , rather then protestants , because i take the catholique to be the antienter family of the two : the denomination being used in the primitive church ; and not only to denote a generality , or universality of profession : but also to distinguish orthodox , and obedient christians , from schismatiques , and heretiques . 't is cast in my dish i know , as a reproach , that i will not own my self to be a protestant . now so far as protestant is a catholique , or as the church of england is that which they call protestant , 't is all one to me , whether i passe for a reformed catholique , a church of england-man , or a protestant . but when heresie , and schism comes to shelter it self under the cover of protestantism , ( which is but too common a case ) i have no ambition to be accounted any of those protestants . so that my crime is only that i am a church-of-england-protestant . but to return to my theme . let the reader take notice , that as these papers are only a narrative of that plot which is notoriously known , and distinguished from all other plots , by the emphasis of the plot : so it is l'estrange's narrative of that plot ; from whom no more light can reasonably be expected then what arises out of matters within the compasse of his observation . he does not pretend , either directly , or indirectly , to have been entrusted by any of the priests , or jesuits ; or to have been present at any of their bloody and desperate consults ; or privy to any of their letters , messages , or commissions : so that we can say nothing at all to the particulars that have been given in by the kings witnesses : or if we could , the doing of it would signify no more then the holding of a candle to the sun : for whoever carefully peruses their writings and depositions , compares their testimonies ; and yet doubts of the plot , is litt●● better , certainly , then seal'd up under the spirit of blindness , and delusion . let no body therefore expect from these sheets , any repetition of what the kings evidenc●s have delivered , and deposed with so much solemnity allready ; but rather repair to the memorialls that they have committed to the publique , which are many , and copious , for a full , and finall satisfaction . and in the mean time i shall apply my self to the making out of the plot here in question , my own way , ( which , in strictnesse of speaking is not so properly a plot , as an intrigue . ) the difference betwixt a plot , and an intrigue , i take to be this ; a plot may be solitary , as when a man contrives or casts about with himself how to get a dinner , ( for the purpose ) an office , a pension , &c. he brings his ends about by his own wits , as by cogging , wheedling , hectoring , swearing , lying , or the like , as best makes for his purpose ; but an intrigue is alwa●s social , and menag'd by intelligence and confederacy ; so that it seems to be a kinde of a plot with complices , and yet it is not absolutely that neither . for the critiques will have a plot to import only a general resolution , or agreement upon some common end ; and an intrigue to signifie a certain artifice , or mystery in the manner of bringing it about . of intrigues , some are direct conspiracies ; as where a designe is govern'd by the contrivance , advice , and consent ; and emproved to the common advantage and behoof of all the parties therein concern'd . of this kinde , were the late intrigues of the fanatiques against the government ; where , as they all contributed to the ruine of the pub●ique , so did they all , in some measure , partake of the quarry . there are other intrigues which are not so much a ●●rmal confederacy as a blinde co-operation of sev●ral part es , toward the gaining of such or such an end , by wo●king upon the passions and weaknesses of one anothe● , without ever concerting the matter betwixt them ▪ and this is the quality of the plot whereof i am now about to treat . we have been told abundantly of the popish plot , the booksellers ware houses are cram'd , and there stalls charg'd with the memorials of it ; all our courts of justice , and journals of state bear witness to it . it has set all tongus and pens agoing ; and all christendom rings of it ; so that since nothing can be added to what is allready delivered upon this single subject , my business will be only to take up the story where the great evidences of the truth of it have been pleased to let it fall . after a nice and particu●ar deduction of the mayn plot , they do unanimously close upon this assertion ; that it was a jesuiticall influence that ruin'd the late king , and irritated the faction : and that it is a popish ferment still at this day , that puts all the sch●sms into motion . and for p●oof thereof , doct●r oates refers us to the instance of the four jesuits , and the dominican that mingled with the fifth m●narchy men , for the burnin● of london ; ( deposition ● . ) and to the care that ●as taken for tampering scotland into a rebellion as ap●●ars in everal other parts of his depositions . the dr. having made it out upon oath that the papists make use of the fanatiques to compass their own ends upon the government ; so soon as he has done this , he gives over the poynt . it must be my part now , to tack my own observations to the doctors ; and , by shewing , on the otherhand , what advantages the sch●smatiques make likewise of the papists , for the compassi●g of their ends , to lay open the effects of so dangerous a complication . this addition we must take for granted would have been supply'd by the dr. himself , both as a ●oyall subject to his prince , and as a true son of the establisht church , if matters of gr●ater moment had not taken him off at mid-way : so that in truth , this is rather a continuation of the drs. narrative , then a composition of my own . we are not to imagine that these interests are ty'd up by any instrument of compact , or covenant ; to joyn in a league offensive against the government ; but our mischief arises from a resemblance of their principles and not from any correspondence of understanding betwixt them . and yet while they seem to be blowing up and countermining one another , they do really destroy us ; and it is the church in the middle that suffers by the distemper of the two extremes . now though i cannot allow it upon any t●rms that they help one another by consent ; nothing can be plainer yet then that while they play , each of them their own game , the one still leads into the others hand . if popery influences sch●sm , that schism slides as naturally into popery , as motion from one place of rest tends to another . there 's the principle espoused allready , and the rest is only the changing of the name ; the very unfixing of a man is half the work done allready ; for he is so far advanc'd upon his way toward a new settlement . it is a thing worthy of note , the different manner of dealing with the church of rome , betwixt the episcopall clergy , and the non conformist ; the ●ormer proceed by dint of argument , the otoer only by opprobrious clamour , and reviling ; and ●or one fair blow at the pope , they make a hundred rude ones at the bishops ; and ( which is yet a fouler scandal ) the most eminent , and venerable champions that ever put pen to paper in the defence of the reformed communion , have been the persons which they have still singled out for the subject of their exemplary cruelty , and rigor . which shews that their ( pretended ) quarrell is to the name rather then to the opinion . i call it a pretended one : for if they quarrell in earnest with the name of popery , they fall foul upon the best friend they have in the world : for it is that single pretext that supports their cause . it is observable also on the other side ; that notwithstanding all their fierce and virulent exclamations against priests and jesuits , the church of rome does not vouchsafe them so much as one syllable in return ; and the reason is this ; the conventicles are doing the papists business to their hands ; and the enlarging of the schism is the readyest way imaginable for the bringing in of popery : so that it is but commuting a real service for a little dirty language . but is it true then , that the popish emissaryes are so busy , and bear so great a sway among our dissenters ? yes ( says dr. oates in his dedicatory to the king ) they were the first authours and contrivers of the late unnatural war ; and of his late majestyes unspeakable sufferings and barbarous usage . it was these ( says the dr. ) that brought him to his end , &c. and again , they were in most , if not all the councells that contriv'd his ruine . two jesuits ( simmons and compton ) were to pay the thousand pound promised to the discoverer of the king after the battle of worcester , and milton was a known frequenter of a popish club ; lambert a papist of above thirty years standing . what promises ( says the dr. again ) did they make to cromwell after his majestyes escape , to perswade the french king for our sovereigns banishment out of france ? and is not this now as clear an evidence as a body would wish , to prove the industry , the power , and the malice of that restlesse party ; and to shew how they were in at all destructive plots and councells ? was it not a strange zeal too , that when cromwell was master of the three kingdoms , and had so great an interest at stake ; the king might have scap'd yet for want of a price upon his head , if father simmons and compton had not engaged for the thousand pound reward that was promised to him that would deliver him up ? nay they were fain to quicken cromwell himself , to get the king banisht out of france . which shews first , that the papists trusted more to their power with cromwell , though a schismatique , then to their power with the french king , tho' a roman catholique . and secondly , that they thought the french king would do more for a schisme , then for the holy church it self : which implies a high degree of mutuall confidence betwixt their priests and our dissenters . it is a common objection in this case , that the dr. is too young to speak many of these things upon knowledge ; and that it would have been well , if he had produced some historicall authority in confirmation of the reports , that lambert was a papist , and milton a frequenter of a popish club : and so in other like cases . this is a doubt easily resolved , for the thing it self being a privacy in its own nature , it was only proper for the registries of the society , and not of a quality to be inserted into our publique annals . the dr. tells us further , pag. . ) that father moor and brown were sent into scotland , with instructions to carry themselves like non conformist ministers , and to preach to the disaffected scots , &c. he tells us likewise ( pag. . ) of seditious preachers , and catechists , set up , sent out , maintained , and directed what to preach in their own , or other private conventic●es , and field meetings , &c. now this , i am told , is no proof of the thing done ; but only of a proposition and design for the doing of it . but yet we find in the drs. reflexions upon the late times , that the thing was there really done ; and pag. . that blundel did actually teach treason in severall places of london . now if it be true , ( as who dares question what the d● . averrs ? ) that the papists managed the separatists in the late war ; and that all our miserie 's proceeded from the influence of their councells ; and that they are at this day , as active , and as powerfull as ever : it follows , that the d●nger is as great no● , as ever it was ; and that there is no security for ●his nation , so long as the agents for p●pery have this retreat . we should never have known that the papists had had so great a hand in our late broils ; and in the counsell , and execution of the murther of the late king ▪ if dr. oates had not discover'd it . for the late king himself knew nothing of it and all the memorialls we have of those times , even ●rom the most popular writers , are wholly silent in it , in such sort as we find it , here to be represented . there was a seditious clamo●r , i remember , against an army of papists , ( as they call'd them . ) that were on the kings side ; but not one word of a p●p●st that was to be found among the schismatiq●es , in their conventicles ▪ nor should i readily believe the story at large , as it is now reported , if any man but dr. oates had said it . i have run through the list of the re●ici●es i have had opportunities of knowing the princip●l men of the party and tracing all their committees ; and i cannot say that i found any one man upon that roll , wh●m i so much as suspected for a papist . so long as the work went smoothly on ▪ they call'd themselves ( i remember ) a covenanting , a fasting and a praying people : but so soon as ever the wind turn'd , the godly party was presently transform'd ; and those that i took before for dissenting protestants , are now made appear to have been , the greater part of them , priests , and jesuits . it seems to be somewhat unequally divided , that the schismatiques should have the benefit , and the papists support all the scandall of the rebellion ; would it not be better to let them fairly share the profit and the losse , betwixt them ? and that 's the drs. sense too ; for he does not deny but that the separatists acted their parts also : tho' only as men imposed upon , and outwitted , and under the guidance , and direction of the papists . i shall now appeal to any man : that has either seen , or diligently read the transactions of those times , whether or no he could ever have imagined that such a world of priests , and papists had worm'd themselves into the councells and congregations of that faction , as the dr. now assures us there did . and what was the business , but this ? the papists carry'd the matter so close , and lookt so like schismatiques , that it was morally impossible to discern the one from the other , now upon the admission of the same mixture , and danger , at present , and the same difficulty likewise of distinguishing a disguised papist from an outlying protestant ; we are lost unless we absolutely clear those kennells , since there is no pu●ging of them . and the means of doing it , is fair , honest , and obvious ; and i would sa● , ( if i durst open my mouth so wide ) of absolute necessity too . let but the laws be vigorously put in execution , and the great work is done . we shall not need to declaim upon the probable inconveniences that will arise from a longer sufferance of this license : but we shall in good time shew the approaches they have already made , toward the government ; and that the non-conformists make as good use of the papists , one way , as the papists do of the non-conformists , another . the encrease of the schism is the true measure of the churches detriment ; for the one looses just as much as the other gets . but the greatest mischief of all is the dissolution of order ; for it is not only the double losse and disadvantage of so many friends , degenerated into so many enemies ; but the loosening of the band makes all fly to pieces ; and turns that community into a multitude , which , ere while , was a government . and this dissolution does highly gratify our adversaryes , on both hands ; for once out of discipline , we are as bad as out of protection : and in the condition of a routed army , when twenty men in good order value a thousand fugitives ; for o●r strength , as well as our reputation leaves us with our union ; and the bulwark of the reformation is left naked , and without either honour , or defence . if this should come to be the case , what can we expect , but either to be at the mercy of a forreigner , or for want of a common enemy to become a prey to one another ? it is as natural , this , ( though we know it upon experiment too ) as it is for one grain of sand to fall from another , for want of a morter , or ciment to bind them together : or as it is for poynt blank contradictions to crosse one another . and when the day of controversy comes , what will all the fractions of dissenting protestants signify , more , then so many loos● atoms that will need a more miraculous concourse of accidents then ever the philosopher dreamt of ▪ to jumble them into a body . i will not deny but that they may so far unite as to make head against a common danger ; but they must live then like salamanders , allways in the fire ; as being by their very principles in a perpetual state of war ; impatient of one another , and consequently encapable of any political establishment . he that thinks otherwise needs only look behind him to be convinc'd ; where he will finde , that thorough all the late turns and changes of state , the prevailing party did still set up for it self , to the exclusion of all others : endeavouring to erect a new government , by order , and restraint , out of the ruines of the old one , which they had destroy'd by liberty , and confusion . how wretched now is the condition of those people who by dividing themselves , ( upon meer capricio's ) from regular societys , do in effect , cut themselves off from their claim to the ordinary comforts of providence , and nature ; turning peace it self into a curse , which to all men in their right wits is undoubtedly the greatest of blessings . after a long , and i hope not ( altogether ) an impertinent preface , i shall now draw neer to my text. the kings wittnesses have given evidence of a popish conspiracy ; and not only of a conspiracy carry'd on among themselves , but of a practice also upon the schismatiques , by casting of scruples into their heads ; by instilling dangerous positions : by preaching , in fine , & catechising among them in disguises ; to embroil the government . now let the world bear me witness that i have nothing at all to do with the original plot ; or the priests artifices of moulding , and cajolling the dissenters any further then in a resignation to truth and authority : my purpose being only to set forth the emprovements that have been made , under the cover of one plot , toward the advancing of another . i shall date this my narrative from the transmigration of the conspiracy ; and so carry it on through all the steps of its progression ; as the manner of representing matters , the probable intent , and effect of that way of proceeding ; the translating of a popular odium , from the papists , to the government , and so mounting by degrees from a zeal against popery , to a sedition against the state. it is no lessening of this execrable plot , to say that subjects ought dutyfully to acquiesce in the resolutions of their superiours : and that all clamorous appeals from the magistrate to the multitude are only so far pardonable , as the abundance of good will may help to excuse the want of moderation and discretion . so that a great part of those fierce and unmannerly transports that have been employ'd upon this unhappy occasion , and without any regard , either to quality or sex , or , in truth , to the very foundations of christian charity , might have been much better let alone ; since they serve only to enflame the vulgar , without any sort of avail to the cause in question . it is no better , then either a translating of the judicature from the king and his courts of justice to the rabble ; or else a complaint to the people brought in with a side-winde , against the government ; which are two dangerous points ; striking at his majesties sovereignty the one way , and at his reputation the other : and yet all this is tolerable , if it goes off so ; and without blowing up a passion into a designe . but we shall better understand the drift of it by the sequele . if it rests here , it is only a laudable zeal ill menag'd : for it is not the cutting strictures of a sharp tongue or a virulent pen , but the sober and impassionate sentence of law ; that by prisons , axes , and gibbets , determines these controversies . in one word , let them vent their indignation against the principles and practices of the church of rome , in what terms they please , and make popery as odious as they can , provided that they do not encourage tumults ; and that they contain their passions within the bounds of truth and justice . if they once passe those limits , knowingly , and by consent , 't is no longer zeal , but confederacy . this caution of keeping so strictly to the rules of truth , and justice , has a respect , first , to the manner of representing both persons , and things ; and secondly , to the matter of fact. now if to the intemperance of words there be added a malitious aggravation of circumstances , with fiction , and imposture over and above ; 't is to be fear'd that all is not right at the bottom . i shall be here encounter'd with a reproof , for being so tender , forsooth , of the reputation of the papists ; and yet any man that is not intoxicated with popular fumes , or led hood-winkt into a false conception of things , must necessarily see , that my great concernment is for the honour and dignity of christians ; it being our duty , to proceed according to the measures of good faith , and justice , even with the worst of infidels . but people you 'l say may be mistaken , and give credit to false reports , without either malice or designe . this is confest , and none of those errours shall be put to account . if you ask me , to what end ? or , what 's the benefit of imposing these flams upon the nation ? it is easily answer'd , first , that the plying of the multitude perpetually with allarms , and terrors , does in a manner turn their very brains , take away their judgements ; and render them fit instruments for the boldest , and most unwarrantable undertakings . so soon as they are once touch't in the crown with these conceipts : 't is but sadling their noses with a pair of state-spectacles , and you may perswade them upon new-market heath that they are tumbling down dover cliff. secondly , the very perso●s that so artificially make the people sick , are to reap the profit of the cure ; which is such an●ther kind of remedy as if a man should beat out his brains for fear of the headach . briefly , they do first make the people m●d , and then by the consent of the madmen they themselves ar● m●de governours of the bedlam . but without any m●●e des●anting upon the good or the evill the grounds or cons●quences of matters ; we shall now deliver some few instances to our present purpose . at the time when mr. powell the merchant was so long missing , what a rabble of formal relations went about then , of his being t●epann'd a shipboard , in what company ; what mony in his pocket ▪ what forebodings of his fate : and all terminating in a peremptory conclusion that he ●as murther'd by the papists ; and not so few as five and twenty or thirty pamphlets trumpetting these tidings all over the kingdom . and yet not one syllable of truth in 't at last . what a noyse was there about sir harry titchbourn's house : even to the very catalogue of the arms that were there taken : as . muskets , . case of pistols , . saddles , . daggers , . barrells of bullets , . bundles of match ; letters sent expresse to certify the truth of the story ; and copies of them dispersed presently at st. albans , and elsewhere , without any colour in the world for the report . and so for the herse full of arms that was intercepted at banbury , the hampers of fire balls that were found in the savoy , and somerset-house ; which were only certain rockets , serpents , and other artificiall fire-works which mr. choqueux had publiquely prepar'd for the entertainment os a solemn festival : and yet all these shams were blown up and down the kingdom , by news-letters and printed libells , with as much confidence as if they had been articles of faith ; and no doubt of it , but many thousands of his majesties good subjects believe them to this day , for want of being better enformed . what a bustle there was about mr. langhorns being bury'd in the temple , and what remarks upon the government for shewing that countenance to papists ? and upon the persons also that assisted at that funeral ; when all this while , there was no more in the case then only the body of a gentleman that dy'd in holburn , and was there interr'd , upon the night to the day of mr. langhorns execution . the history of bedingfields being privately convey'd out of the gate house , and a dead body left in his place , past so current , that sir william waller himself ( tho' he perhaps could smell a jesuit as far as another body ) took a long journy into the north upon 't , to catch the wrong bedingfield . the circumstances of that adventure would be too comicall for this place . we could tell you the conduct of the whole stratagem , and what names here at london went into the black book for not believing it . a man would really blesse himself to see the romances , the glosses , and the scurrilous buffoneries that were published by the ribald scriblers here about the town , upon this subject . but then , the landing of forty thousand french upon the i le of purbeck , shook the very foundations of the earth : the factions drew presently into cabals , upon the tidings of it , with horrible and contumelious reflections upon those in authority , as parties to the conspiracy . at coventry they brake up the market upon the news on 't ; and the common people immediately divided into knots , and consultations ; some of them coming very fayrly to this resolution , that there was no way but cutting the papists throats , to hinder them from joyning . but this advice was soon contradicted , and so the mischief went no farther : who knows what this invention might have produc'd , if the credit of it had continued but four and twenty hours longer ? the most formidable story of all , is the conspiracy of the prentices : and there was such work made with capt. tom , as if the grand seignior had been powring down highgate hill with a hundred and fifty thousand men at 's heels . there were so many thousands of them upon the list by tale and most of them papists too ; an account of what contributions to the charge , ( alas ! ) of a three-penny or groat-clubb ; whose throats were to be cut ; and through what constables teritoryes they were to take their march ; and this scandal upon the body of this loyal , and honourable city , exposed in ballads and libells by every rascally pamphletier . and what was all this mighty matter at last , but a parcell of good jolly ladds that had been busy at the burning of the pope , and prevail'd upon to set their hands to the petition that was then afoot ? these blades , finding that the petition had given offence , propounded the doing something on the other side too , that might shew they were neither fanatiques , nor papists ; and so they gave publique notice in thompsons intelligence of their intentions upon the anniversary of his majestys restauration to burn the rump . the first time perhaps that ever a conspiracy against the government was notified in a news-book . i shall now shew you in an instance or two , how bold they make with the kings wittnesses , as well as with the rest of his majestys subjects ; and what slurs they put upon the world ( the citizens of london especially ) under the countenance of the plot , and authority of the kings evidence . there' 's a pamphlet entitled , a narrative of unheard of popish cruelties toward protestants beyond seas : or a new account of the bloody spanish inquisition , published as a caveat to prot●stants , by mr. dugdale . printed for , &c. this new account ( as i am credibly inform'd ) is only an old thing reprinted ; the subject suited to the humour of the present season , and mr. dugdale upon the title-page exhibited as the authour of it , and ric. dugdale subscribed to the dedication . this was the second slur that past the presse under that name . the first impression went off clear with mr. richard dugdale in the title page , as the composition of mr. dugdale the witnesse ; but the booksellers finding the businesse to be smoakt , the wittnesses name being taken notice of to be stephen , and not richard , he very prudently left out the christen name in the second impression , and made it only mr. dugdale , and so it went for the witnesses again . his work being only to find out a witnesses namesake , by great good fortune he pitcht upon an alehouse-keeper in southwark of that name , to carry off his project ; and the man ( as i am told ) is a very honest man. now here are three abuses fobb'd upon us at once , first , an old book for a new one ; secondly , one that knows nothing of the matter in question , under the semblance of one of the kings wittnesses . and thirdly the counterfeit of a false authour . but the most remarkable piece of all is yet to come . it was my hap , some three or four months since , to cast my eye upon a book , entitled , a narrative and impartial discovery of the horrid popish plot : carry'd on for the burning and destroying of the cities of london and westminster , with their suburbs , &c. and dedicated to the surviving citizens of london ruin'd by fire , &c. i came to this pamphlet with expectation of some notable discovery ; especially finding a promise in the title page of depositions , and informations never before printed : but when upon the perusal , i found the narrative part of it to be taken , verbatim almost , out of two or three old seditious libells against the government , that were printed by stealth , some ten or a dozen years agoe , ( before mr. bedloes time of action ) and scatter'd up and down in most of the publique houses upon the great roads of england ▪ by half a score sometimes in a place , according to the ordinary method● of the faction in such cases ; i made a strict enquiry into the matter , and this was the business . there was a consult of three or four booksellers over a bottle of wine , what subject a man might venture upon at that time , for a selling copy : one of the company was of opinion that a book of the fires would make a smart touch ; and so they all agreed upon 't ; and propounded to get some of the kings wittnesses hands to 't ; naming first one , and then another , they came at length to a resolution ; and pitch't upon trap ad crucem , and the history of the fires ; as two books that would afford matter enough , if they could but get them put into a method , and have a certain persons hand to the owning of ●hem . hereupon they apply'd themselves to one to draw up the story ; and so it went to the press under his hand , all but what was printed copy ; and he made several alterations too in the epistle , out of his own head , after it was composed at the presse . so that here are a couple of old libells turn'd into a new narrative , and the kings magistrates , and officers defam'd afresh , and the menage of this scandal committed to the hand of a common calumniator . as to what concerns mr. bedloes evidence i have nothing to say ; nor to the papists burning the city ; nor to any one poynt in the pamphlet which mr. bedloe can pretend to speak to upon knowledge ; but this i shall say ; that there are several groundless and dangerous passages in it ; and that the most inslaming and seditious of them are only libels of ancient date , reprinted ; that it was a contrivance set afoot by booksellers for profit , drawn up according to their order and direction , and an abuse in the very original intendment : th● citizens and the kings wittnesses being only propounded as a property toward the gaining of it some reputation . it is sufficiently known , with what greediness these , and a thousand other impostures , and aggravations have been swallow'd by the common people ; and made use of as instances to illustrate and confirm the plot. but what ? you 'l say , there 's a mourneval of booksellers upon a tryal of skill in their own trade : one knave invents a story , and a thousand fools believe it . how does all this amount to the proof of a faction ? why truly ; tho' it looks very suspiciously , considering who they are that advance and encourage , and the interest that is promoted by these mistakes : considering also with what violence , and industry they are carry'd on , and that the cry too run all one way : i shall yet content my self with a probable surmise that there may be a factious-intent ; as if i should see a man riding post from barnet towards london , i would lay ten to one that this man is going for london ; and yet 't is not impossible neither but he may take up by the way : if i finde afterward that he went thorough , i should think it a hundred to one that his purpose was for london , when he first set out : this is the very case . these practices are the high way to sedition , and 't is ten to one that they 'l come up to 't at last : which if they do 't is a hundred to one that they design'd it , from the beginning . it is a very ill sign too , the fiercenesse of the abettors of these shamelesse , and ridiculous forgerys ag ainst any man that has not faith enough to believe that the moon is made of green cheese : and this they call a ridiculing of the plot ; and making sport with sentences of parliament , and judicial proceedings . i would fain see where either the king , the parliament , or any court of justice has verify'd any single poynt that i have reflected upon : and i defy the devil himself , in any of his servants , to say wherein i have not pay'd all due respects , as well to the persons of the kings witnesses , as to their evidence . what diminution is it to dr. oates his narrative , to say that the contrivances of the mercenary book-sellers , and scriblers herein mentioned are shams . what contradi ction or abatement in it to the truth , or credit of the popish plot , to shew that there is a schismatical plot afoot too ; and that one moves under the countenance of another : now to pretend a plot , where there is none , is next door to the denyal of it where it is. shall any man argue that the disparagement of a juggle , weakens a truth ? sr. edmondbury godfrey was never the less murther'd , because mr. powel escaped . shall any man infer that there were no black bills provided , because there were no arms found in sr henry titchburns house ? or because the prentices were but in jeast , that therefore the bloudy pilgrims were not in earnest : the justification of mr. choqueux's fireworks has no effect at all upon the teuxbury mustard-balls . what is my affirming that langhorn was not bury'd in the temple , to the business of valladolid , or salamanea ? the herse of arms was a flam. and what then ? must the evidence therefore of the pistol and the dagger be one too ? and i would fain know what relation bedingfields escape out of the gatehouse , ( after he was dead ) has to the consult at the white horse tavern in the strand . as to the popish plot that is sworn by the kings witnesses , i lay my faith at their feet , without any further enquiry , or dispute . but where i finde rank and palpable falshoods and contrivances imposed upon the world for certain truths , and nothing but passion and confidence to support them ; i reckon my self bound in duty ( so far as in me lyes ) to lay open the abuse . for this way of bruiting up a plot where there is none , is a design of a most dangerous consequence , and a snare to all honest men . it is a kinde of experiment upon the humour of the multitude , to try what they will bear , and whether they be yet mad enough or not , to swallow impostures without examining . if they finde the people in tune for their purpose , and charm'd into such an aw , that at the very name of a plot they shall dare like larks under the dread , even of a painted hobby ; there 's the foundation of a civill war , and an arbitrary power layd allready . they shall make what plots , and what plotters they please ; and every man that stands in their way , shall be a papist or a traytor , according as they think fit to represent him to the rabble . if this be the fruit of being given over to believe lyes , we have great reason sure to take all possible care that we be not deluded , and to distinguish betwixt the voyce of authority , and that of rumour . the common way of reply upon this topique is to break out into exclamations , and to hit a man in the teeth with the sham of the meale-tub , and twenty such fooleries ; as if there were no more in the bus'nesse then a malicious imagination ; and only a more colourable invention to discredit a real plot , under pretence of a counterfeit , and casting a mist before the peoples eyes , that they should not know one from t'other . my answer is short ; that we have the matter of fact in proof here before us : that the true plot and the counterfeit are in such manner separated , that the one is not at all in dispute , and the other is condemn'd . and we shall now shew you what use is made by a faction under the disguise of prosecuting papists , to defame , and to destroy several of his majestys loyall subjects and church of england protestants . for let a mans actions , his conversation , his religion be what they will , 't is but besmearing him with the scandal of being popishly-affected , and his work is done . there is a kinde of spell in the word popery . it transforms a man into a beast : and like the great medicine , it turns ●hatever it touches into plot. if a man will not believe it to be christmasse at midsumer , he 's in the plot ; if he loves his church , his prince , and his country , and stands for a burgesse or a common councell-man , 't is but saying that he 's popishly affected , and he becomes presently as an heathen or a publican . if he refuses to associate , or petition , he shall be markt ; and well too if he scape so ; for we have gotten a trick , when men will not do as we would have them , of laying them up for treason ; ( no matter for evidence ) and when we have put them out of reach of a habeas corpus , 't is but shewing them a payr payr of heels our selves , and leaving them to struggle with the law. as for example . on the th of april last , about . in the morning , major ovington and mr. thomas king were taken out of their beds and charged with high treason ; their boxes and papers rifled , and themselves examin'd apart ; but nothing of ill appeared against them . the magistrate began with the major ; and when he had try'd both by fair means and foul , to get him to sign such papers and informations as he himself had ready drawn ; finding that he would not be wrought upon , he left the major , and went to mr. king , telling him how sorry he was to see him drawn into such a horrid business : how that his majesty had the matter before him , and that there were . or . wittnesses that appear'd against him . mr. king , in great admiration , askt what this mighty businesse might be : but he went back to the major , without giving any reply : and after a little while return'd to mr. king. major ovington ( says he ) has dealt generously with me , and he shall fare the better for 't ; for i do not desire the destruction of any man : but still professing more kindnesse to mr. king , for his fathers sake , and looking upon him as a person only drawn in . so he prest mr. king to a confession , and told him , if he would but subscribe such a paper as he would draw up , and knew to be true , he would not commit him , and it should be the better for him . mr. king askt him what he would be at , and told him that if the major had charg'd him with any ill thing toward the king , or the government , he was an unworthy man. whereupon he went his way , and committed the major to the gate-house . the magistrate having left mr. king at his own house , came back to him immediatly , and told him , 't is well mr. king ( says he ) that you are faln into my hands ; for if i please , there 's but a step betwixt you and death ; i am loth to commit you , because i know it will be your ruine ; every thing being made out so clear against you ; mr. king still urging to know what all this meant , the magistrate went to the further end of the room , and fell to writing ; mr. king , being desirous to see what he wrote ; he held the paper in his hand and ask'd him if he did not know of a design to seize the tower , and rescue the lords ; and severall other lewd things . to which mr. king reply'd , that it was all villany . the magistrate gave mr. king a bottle of syder , and treated him with an appearance of much kindnesse . after a while , he took mr. king in his arms ; telling him he saw he was resolv'd upon his own ruine . mr. king desir'd that he might apply himself to the secretaries of state to be examined by them ; which the magistrate took ill , pretending that his majesty had left the bus'nesse to him. he was trying a long time to prevail upon mr. king to swear against major ovington ; but not succeeding , he threaten'd to lay him in irons ; and so committed him to the gate-house , with order to the keeper , that the gentlemen should not come together , nor receive any message , without having taken any examination upon oath , before his commitment ; neither after it , was there one word of treason sworn against him . he was committed betwixt twelve and one upon the th , and the deposition against him was taken the day after he was committed , at the rhenish-wine house in channell row , threatning also to lay the witnesse , in irons , if he would not depose what he the magistrate had drawn up . the coppy of the mittimus follows . whereas oath hath been made before me , that the person i herewith send in custody to you ( mr. thomas king ) hath treasonably contrived a rebellion , and falsly designed the accusing severall of his majesties loyal peers and subjects of the said treason . these are therefore to will and require you in his majesties name to receive and keep the body of the said thomas king in safe custody . untill he shall be discharged by due course of law. given under my hand and seal the th day of april . . these gentlemen being brought into the court by their habeas corpus the next term , the prosecution was lookt upon to be illegal , and ridiculous , to the highest degree ; there appearing no colour from the information , or examination , either for the matter charg'd upon them , or so much as the bare commitment ; only it was observ'd , that beside the injustice of a commitment without evidence , the crime was laid treason , on purpose that they might not be bail'd in the vacation . this i hope will not be deny'd to have been a sham-plot ; and promoted by a faction too : for it was the work of twenty libells to defend the proceeding : the persons accused are gentlemen of approved loyalty , fair and honourable conversation , and men zealously affected to the church of england . there was an attempt made by the same magistrate at the same time upon another gentleman in the same house , ( a cavalier of unquestionable loyalty and honour ) and upon a like pretence too ; but that trepan was let fall again . here' 's the fruit of taking up plots upon trust ; and running headlong from the fear , nay , from the very name of popery , into the thing it self . let any man shew me a more imperious tyranny , if he can , or a more implicite faith ; then for men to be worse then spirited away thus , contrary to the law , and without remedy ; and and run down for criminals by a popular consent , without understanding one syllable of the matter in question . these practices and excesses are the subject of my narrative ; and so far from misrepresenting the popish plot , that there is not any sort of correspondence , in this case , betwixt the one , and the other . and i defy any man to shew , whereever i let fall so much as one word of the popish plot , but with a modest and due respect to the government . neither , in effect , am i become the mark of every paultry libeller , for reflecting upon the reality of the one plot ; but for the exposing the juggle of the other . and it is time certainly for every man to look about him , when our lives , liberties , and fortunes lye all at mercy ; and every honest man expos'd to the animosities of faction , and revenge : for we are not judg'd by what we are in our selves , in our conversations , and opinions ; but by what we are said to be . what becomes of magna charta , at this rate , and the priviledges of an english mans birth right ? if men shall be hurry'd into jayls without evidence , because they will not subscribe either confessions , or accusations , touching matters which they know nothing of , and witnesses tamper'd afterward by menaces , for proofs ex post facto , to colour such illegal commitments ? we have had but too much of this allready ; and no body knows whose turn it may be next : since what was the case of these gentlemen , may be any mans . does it not behove us , now , to distinguish betwixt reason , and clamour ; betwixt truth , and calumny , betwixt the acts of authority , and the license of tumults ; betwixt the just and temperate deliberations and resolutions of government , and the violent heats and partialityes of the common-people ? how come the multitude to be judges of plots , and popery , more than of other crimes and misdemeanours ? for that 's the tribunal of the faction , where every man is to be made a traytor , or a papist , as they think meet . and it is not enough neither to be fairly acquitted upon a tryal before a court of justice ; for the bench and the jury are presently arraign'd upon 't by an appeal to the rabble . it is a great poynt gain'd , where a faction has gotten so much the command of the people , as to make them believe every thing that they say , and approve of every thing that they do . there is a plot no doubt on 't ; but that plot does not yet create another plot , where there is no plot at all . the popish plot has bounds , and limits ; the kings wittnesses tell us what it is , and where it lyes ; and we have had nothing new of that plot , now a good while . but this imaginary plot , is a plot upon a perpetual plot , and to keep the nation so long in awe of the popish plot , till the faction may execute another plot of their own. and what is that other plot of their own , but , first ▪ to break in upon the ministers and friends of the government ; and secondly , to undermine the very foundations of it . this is no more sayd , then what their practices make good ▪ and the series of the design hangs as naturally , one piece to another , as if they were but so many links of the same chain . as to what concerns the capital plot , in the proceedings upon the conspirators , and the subsequent severityes upon the papists ; all this is an act of the government . but the superfaetation of other plots , which neither the state , nor the witnesses take any notice of : plots that have no affinity or connexion with the principal ; nor , in truth , any existency in nature , other then in the forge of a phanatical , and republican brain . these plots are not so sacred , i hope , but a body may ask , whence they come , and whither they go , without any offence , either to authority or good manners . nay , what if a man should examine them , by what commission it is , that they change their stile , and render papists , in the original , into popishly affected , in the translation ? how it comes , of a down right popish-plot , to be a popishly-affected-plot ? this stretch puts the church-of-england men into a worse estate then the very papists . for there are certain known and political conditions , whereupon a papist may come off , by satisfying the law ; but popishly-affected is such a drag net , it sweeps all. in other cases , there must be probata , as well as allegata ; but here , the simple allegation does a mans bus'ness ; for how is it possible for any man to prove a negative , and a thought , which he must do , to discharge himself of being popishly-affected ? the common people take popishly affected i know , for one of the devlishest things that can be sayd of a man ; especially as it is drest up with plots , massacres , conflagrations , &c. to make it the more terrible . and therefore whensoever the faction has a minde to expose any man to the outrages of the rabble , they are pleas'd to give him the honour of this character ; which presently raises the country upon him , as if he were a woolf , or a common enemy . now this brand of popishly affected is not set upon a man for any correspondency of dangerous or erroneous principles that he has with the church of rome ; but they make use of it as a discriminating mark betwixt themselves and other men . he that will not believe all the fooleries they tell him , nor joyn in all the iniquityes that they propound to him : he that will not contribute , swear , petition , vote , associate , as they would have him , that man comes immediately to be popishly affected . he that ●peaks reverently of the dignity , or the persons of bishops ; the orthodox clergy , the ministers of state and justice ; the service-book , the rites and appointments of the church in opposition to the assemblyes-directory , with the practices of their slovenly and licentions conventioles ; that man 's popishly affected . to preach up obedience to civil magistrates ; to cry down schism ; to chuse a good fryday rather , or an ash-wednesday , for a fast , then a whitson-tuesday ; to lay more stresse upon the oaths of allegiance and supremacy , then the solemn league and covenant ; to advance the king above the two houses ; to deny the sovereignty of the people ; and to maintain that god is the god of order , and not of confusion , all this is to be popishly-affected . but let us now consider how this calumny comes to be taken up ; what 's the drift , and ( if this work goes on ) what will probably be the issue of it . it may be observed , that so long as we were upon the scent of priests and jesuits ; the plot in motion ; and that every day presented fresh game of papists , and conspiracyes : so long , i say the faction joyn'd with the government in a common care , for the peace and safety of the publique : only with this difference ; that whereas the magistrate proceeded to the necessary punishment of offenders , according to the gentle , and impartial methods of law and justice : and with humanity and compassion for their persons and errours , the faction , on the other hand , precipitated all things with violence , and clamour . not contenting themselves with the bare oblation of so much blood , for the satisfaction of publique justice , unlesse they turn'd the tragedy into a farce too , and made sport with the calamityes of the miserable . and what was all this vehemence and pudder , but to elevate the opinion of their zeal ( in proportion to the noyse they made ) above all others , and tacitly to reproach the government for their candour , and moderation . nor did they keep themselves within the bounds of inferences , and tacit implications , long neither ; but so soon as ever any man came off , whether through the insufficiency of proofs , or the incompetency of witnesses , they flew open-mouth'd in the face of the bench and jury : and in so bold a manner too , as if the tribunal were only to hear the cause , the jury to stand with their fingers in their mouths , and the pit to decide it ? what is become of the manhood , and generosity of the english nation ; that we are fal'n into this insatiate thirst of bloud ? where 's our respect to our superiours ; while we thus arraign authority ? where to our selves , in the seditious usurpation of a right that does not belong to us ; and in contradiction to the duties of allegeance , and common prudence ? where to our fellow-subjects ; in our needlesse , and unmannerly importunities , for more rigour then the very letter of the law will bear ? is this doing as we would be done by ? or is it doing either as we have been done by ? but i shall now come to the transition of the one plot into the other , and the turning of papists into popishly-affected ; wherein i must distinguish betwixt the words and intent of authority , and the unwarrantable application and construction of the faction . in all changes of state the pillars must first be remov'd , before the frame of the government can be dissolv'd . and therefore 't is discreetly done , for a faction to begin with persons , ere they broch their opinions ; for it would be a great over-sight to pick a quarrel with the administration , and at the same time to be laying of new foundations . it is also another point of skill , the running of people down ( as i find it in a coffee house authour ) without the assistance of the penal statutes , or the formality of trying men by their peers . and nothing does that exploit more effectually , then the device of popishly affected . it is a snare , that all the precaution in the world cannot avoid ; and a most insensible slip from religion , to sedition ; as we find in the progress of our present distempers . for the bus'ness of popery is now in a great measure laid aside ; and the dissenters and republicans at work as hard as they can drive ; the one to undermine the church , and the other the monarchy ; and joyntly engaged in a common endeavour and design for the ruine of both. so that the same plot , in effect , is carry'd on still , but in other names , and by other hands . the original quarrel was to the papists : this is to the popishly-affected . the church of rome was struck at in the one , and the church of england is struck at in the other : and what the jesuits began , the schismatiques are now to finish . let no man question the truth of this , unlesse he will first put out his eyes for his credit ; or bring a certificate from the colledge that he is non-compos , and does not know chalk from cheese . provided allways , that these people prove not at last to be dr. oates's jesuits in the shape of schismatiques ; as i have heard of some schismaticks too in the shape of ●esuits . i shall be told that this is only a blind to cover the popish plot ; whereas in truth that pretext is only a blind , to cover the other ; and all their shifts are but so much lime thrown in the people eyes , to blear , and confound them that they may not distinguish prelacy and popery , papists , and church-protestants , the one from the other . and another trick they have got ; which is , to run canting with their appeals to the king and parliament ; as if the very suggestion of this plot were a contradiction to the evidence of the other ; and consequently to the authority , justice , and resolution of his majesty and the three estates . are not our impost●rs come now to a prodigious degree of boldness , when they shall dare to father such shams as these upon the supreme authority of the nation . but what 's all this , to the old story of fathering murther , sacriledge , and rebellion upon god himself . 't is very true , that the king and parliament have agreed upon 't , and declar'd themselves fully fatisfy'd that there is a damnable popish plot , but not one word of a popishly-affected plot ; neither do i finde that our refiners , and improvers of mischief have any commission for the extending of the popish plot so far ; and themselves at last to be the judges of that popish affection : much lesse for the turning of that reproach upon the church of england , which was intended only against the opinions , and practices of the church of rome . it will be sayd that they do not blast the church of england , but here and there a rotten member of it , that carrys on the popish interest under that masque ? 't is very right , that , take them in the good humour , and they will yet allow two bishops of the twenty six to be protestants ; and four protestant divines in the city of london ; so that here 's no formal attaque made as yet upon the body of the church ; only dr. owen , mr. baxter , and two or three more of them ly pelting at the out-works , while the lay-brothers are employ'd , some in mining ; others in drawing here and there a principal stone , or timber out of the building ; and every man , in his place , and station ( according to the covenant ) contributing toward a total ruine : only the work is now carry'd on by other hands ; or at least under other appearances . the plot in substance seems to be much the same , saving only the exchange of popery for schisme . we shall now briefly touch upon the methods by which these ends are to be brought about . by this invention of popishly affected they can pick their men , and cast out all that are not for their turn ; the word being only made use of for a distinction betwixt the adherents to the church , and the protestant disenters . pray'e see ( says the author of englands great interest ) that you chuse sincere protestants , men that do not play the protestants in design ; and are indeed , disguised papists ; ready to pull off their masque when time serves . [ when the barefac'd papist cannot do it , ( says the instrument of association , pag. . ) the protestant in masquerade shall ; the stratagem of this very day : and above all to be watch'd against . ] and in an account from guild-hall , they are called protestants in masquerade , in good time to be taken notice of , and receive the reward due to their merits . [ to be marked ( says another ) as the worst of papists , and so dealt with in city and country . ] now for variety-sake they call them courtiers ; pensioners , and the like ; and the clergy are treated ( as upon the late election of knights of the shire at chelmsford in essex ( in the stile of jesuitical , dumb doggs ; dark lanthorns ; baals priests ; damned rogues ; jacks and villains ; the black guard ; the black regiment of hell , &c. and a general exception made ( by the writer of the seasonable warning ) to all men in office , preferment , salary , or court-employment . so that here 's in a manner the one half of the kingdom ( and the legal half too ) as much as in them lyes ) excluded from a share in the common interest of the nation ▪ with what a●m● and intent , let the world judge . the popish plot is sworn by all the witnesses to have been level'd at the life of his sacred majesty , the subversion of the government , and the destruction of the protestant religion . now whosoever well considers the manner of proceedings , together with the s●ile , and doctrine of the positions that are now afoot , ( though pretendedly upon another bottom ) will finde many passages that look untowardly the same way . first , as to the life of the king , and the direct subversion of the government , the faction is not advanc'd so far yet ; for that 's a villany that must be imposed upon the people , as a thing in such and such cases to be lawful , before there can be any thought of putting it in practice . and herein , our late reformers have out-done the jesuits themselves : for over and above the exposing of a prince , on the one side , for heresy , and , on the other side , for not submitting to christ on his throne ; and equally on both sides to the vtmost extremities ; we have got here the start of them , in erecting a principle that makes the s●vereign further accountable to the people , upon a point of state ; as we shall presently make appear by severall instances . now if it be once laid down for a maxim , that upon such or such conditions , the subjects may take away the life of their prince if they will ; 't is damnable odds that upon such a supposition , some reprobated wretch or other will do it if he can . i shall begin with the acute authour of the weighty considerations consider'd . i will hope ( says he ) pag. . there are very few in this nation so ill instructed , that do not think it in the power of the people to depose a prince who really undert●kes to alienate his kingdom , or to give it up into the hands of another sovereign power ; or that really acts the destruction , or the universal calamity of his people . the authour of the plea to the dukes answer says that when kings themselves be ill ones , god not only approves of their removal , but even himself does it . the political catechism places the government in the two houses of parliament . the late letter to a person of honour , &c. says , there may be a self-deposition of a prince actually regnant . and again , the weighty considerations consider'd , lodges the government in the major part. and almost every fresh libeller speaks to the same purpose . now do but once admit , that a king may forfeit his royal authority , and you shall never fail of those that will say , he has don 't ; so long as there are men in the world that had rather govern , then obey : and the stress does not lye upon the quality of the kings actions neither , but upon the construction that shall be made of them , by any reprobated band of conspirators , that shall presume to censure them . whatsoever the faction shall think fit to call mis-government , must be so interpreted , and reputed : and to them only must we repair , as to the oracles of law , and conscience . the safety of the king and government , our religion , laws , and freedoms , are only , according to this position , dependent upon the humour of the multitude : so that it is but their bare saying , that the king has forfeited his cronn , the church their priviledges , the nobility their session of peerage ; the commons their chara●ter of representation ; the merchants their liberty of trade ; the gentry ▪ and commonalty their lives , freedoms , and estates , and the work is done . this was the course of all our late violent changes of government ; and the positions which are now every day recommended to the nation toward the playing of the same game over again , were the groundwork of all our late miseries and confusions . now as to the church : are not the dissenting ministers at work again tooth and nayl against the act for uniformity ; and preaching up a schism , under the colour of formalizing upon scruples ? do they not first instigate the people ( in contempt of law , and order ) to a separation ; and then furnish them with the best pretences they can , for their disobedience ? what will become of the protestant religion , when the restraint of ecclesiasticall discipline and jurisdiction shall be taken away ; and men left to themselves to go their own ways , and chuse their own religions at pleasure ? if this be not an attempt upon putting the last ●ranch of the popish plot in execution by an extirpation of the protestant religion ; then the church of england , ( as it is legally establisht ) must be confest , in their opinions , not to be protestant : and consequently be call'd to an account for that supposed defect , as not being comprehended within the equity of their good will and ●rotection . i could multiply these instances without end ; but here 's enough said to give evidence of a pestilent design . but whether it be a design of a popish contrivance , tho' set a foot by the fanatiq●●s ; or purely a fanaticall design ; i shall not determine ; but leave the animadversion of it to the consideration of authority , and appeal to the most partial reader for the truth on 't ; concluding with this observation . that there is great malice as well as danger in the project : for thorough all this audacious license of libelling the king himself , the privy-councell , the judges , the jury ; &c. of tearing the church to pieces , and treasonably undermining the very foundations of the government , by the erecting of republican maxims wholly inconsistent with , and utterly destructive of this imperiall monarchy : i do not finde yet so much as one dissenters pen engag'd in the vindication of his majesty , or the support of the government , to expiate for the numberlesse pamphlets they have publish'd toward the scandal and destruction of both ; or in justification of themselves to the world , that they are as great enemies to the substance of the popish plot as they would be thought to be , and as great friends to the king and government . the end. a letter of several french ministers fled into germany upon the account of the persecution in france to such of their brethren in england as approved the kings declaration touching liberty of conscience : translated from the original in french. jurieu, pierre, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing l estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a letter of several french ministers fled into germany upon the account of the persecution in france to such of their brethren in england as approved the kings declaration touching liberty of conscience : translated from the original in french. jurieu, pierre, - . wake, william, - . p. s.n., [london : ] reproduction of original in union theological seminary library, new york. attributed to pierre jurieu. cf. nuc pre- . translation of work by william wake. cf. nuc pre- . caption title. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng dissenters, religious -- france. protestants -- france. freedom of religion -- france -- early works to . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - andrew kuster sampled and proofread - andrew kuster text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a letter of several french ministers fled into germany upon the account of the persecution in france , to such of their brethren in england as approved the kings declaration touching liberty of conscience . translated from the original in french. altho in our present dispersion , most dear and honoured brethren , it has pleased the providence of god to conduct us into places very distant from one another . yet that union which ought always to continue betwixt us , obliges us to declare our sense to one another with a christian and brotherly freedom upon all occasions , that may present themselves to us so to do . 't is this makes us hope that you will not take it amiss of us , if at this time we deliver our opinion to you touching the affairs of england in matters of religion , and with reference to that conduct which you have observed therein . we ought not to conceal it from you , that the greatest part of the protestants of europe have been extremely scandalized to understand , that certain among you , after the example of many of the dissenters , have addressed to the king of england , upon the account of his declaration , by which he has granted liberty of conscience to the non-conformists : and that some others who had already ranked themselves under the episcopal communion , nevertheless published the said declaration in their churches ; and this at a time when almost all the bishops themselves with so much firmness and courage refused to do it . if we may be permitted to tell you freely what our opinion is concerning the conduct of the bishops and of the dissenters in this conjuncture , we shall make no difficulty to pronounce in favour of the former . we look upon it that they have exceedingly well answered the duty of their charge , whilst despising their own private interest , they have so worthily supported that of the protestant religion : whereas the others , for want of considering these things as they ought to have done , have given up the interest of their religion to their own particular advantages . it is not out of any complement to the bishops , much less out of any enmity to the dissenters , that we make such different judgments concerning them . we know well enough how to commend or blame , what seems to us to deserve our praise or our censure both in the one and in the other . we do not at all approve the conduct of the bishops towards the dissenters under the last reign . and altho we do not any more approve that of the dissenters in separating from their communion , yet we do confess they had some reason in the bottom for it ; and that the ceremonies which they have refused to submit to are the remains of popery , which we could rather wish might have been entirely abolished . in this unhappy schism which has so long time rent the church of england ; we look upon it , that both parties have been equally defective in their charity . on the one side , the dissenters ought by no means to have separated themselves for the form of ecclesiastical government , nor for ceremonies which do not at all concern the fundamentals of religion . on the other side , the bishops should have had a greater condescension to the weakness of their brethren : and without doubt they would have acted in a manner more agreeable to the spirit of the gospel , if instead of treating them with so much rigor as they did , they had left them the liberty of serving god according to their conscience , till it should have pleased him to re-unite all under the same discipline . however the conformity of opinion between the dissenters and us , ought to have prejudiced us in their favour , had we been capable of partiality on this occasion . there is also another thing which might have disposed us to judge less favourably of the bishops than of them , and that is the yoke which they have imposed upon the french ministers , by obliging them to receive a second ordination before they could be permitted to exercise their ministry in the church of england , as if the ordination they had received in france had not been sufficient . but we must do justice to all the world , and bear witness to the truth . we have already said , and we must again repeat it , it seems to us that on this last occasion the bishops have discharged their duty , and are most worthy of praise , whereas the dissenters on the contrary are extreamly to be ●●●●ned . and we will presently offer our reasons wherefore we judge so of the one , and of the other . in the mean time , most dear brethren , give us leave freely to tell you , that if our brethren the dissenters of england , who have addressed to the king , are to be blamed , ( as we verily believe they are ) you certainly are much more to be condemned . the hardships under which they had lived for many years without churches , without pastors , without assemblies , made them think the liberty of conscience which was offered to them , a great ease . their spirits , soured and prejudiced by the ill treatments they had received from the church of england , had not freedom enough to let them see that the present which was made them was empoison'd . and therefore upon the sudden they received it with joy , and thought themselves obliged to testifie their acknowledgment of it . but for you who never had any part in the divisions of the church of england , and who by consequence were in a state to judge more soundly of things , how is it that you should not have perceived the poison that was hid under the liberty of conscience offered to them ? or if you did not perceive it of your selves , how is it that the generous refusal of the bishops , tho' at the peril of their liberty and estates , to publish the declaration in their diocesses , should not at least have open'd your eyes ? how have those venerable prelates now highly justified themselves from the reproach that was laid upon them of being popishly affected , and of persecuting the dissenters only , but of a secret hatred to the reformation ? how well have they made it appear that these were only calumnies invented by their enemies to render them odious to the protestants , and that their hearts were truly fix'd to the reformed religion , and animated with a zeal worthy primitive bishops ? could you see those faithful servants of god , disobey the order of their soveraign , expose themselves thereby to his disgrace , suffer imprisonment , and prepare themselves to suffer any thing , rather then betray their consciences and their religion , without admiring their constancy , and being touched with their examples ? but above all , could you resolve by your conduct to condemn that of those generous confessors ? is this the acknowledgment which you ought to have made to them for that charity , with which they had received and comforted you in your exile ? is this to answer the glorious quality of confessors , of which you so much vaunt your selves ? is this the act of faithful ministers of christ ? give us leave to tell you , most dear brethren , your proceedings in this affair appear so very strange to us , that we cannot imagine how you were capable of so doing . it seems to us to have even effaced all the glory you had attained by your sufferings , to reproach your ministry and to be unworthy of true and reformed christians . this is no rash judgment which we pass ; and to convince you that it is not , we beseech you only to examine these things with us without prejudice and interest . the declaration of which we speak is designed for two purposes : the one , the re-establishment of popery . the other , the extinction of the reformed religion in england . the former of these designs appears openly in it . the second is more concealed ; 't is a mystery of iniquity , covered over with a specious appearance ; and of which the trace must be concealed till the time of manifestation comes . we will say nothing of a third design , which is , of the oppression of the liberties of england for the establishment of an absolute authority , but shall leave it to the polititians to make their reflexions upon it . as for us , if we sometimes touch upon it , it shall be only with reference to religion : we will apply our selves chiefly to the two other designs which they proposed to themselves who made that declaration . it cannot be deny'd but that by this declaration , there is liberty of conscience granted indifferently to the papists and to the dissenters . it comprehends both the one and the other under the name of nonconformists . and we may with confidence affirm , that they were the papists especially whom the king had in his eye when he gave this declaration . and howsoever he may pretend to have been touched with the oppressions which the dissenters had suffered ; yet that his principal design was to re-establish popery . behold here already a very great evil , and such as all true protestants are obliged with their utmost power to oppose . what , shall we see popery , that abominable religion , that prodigious heap of filthiness and impurity , re-establish it self , with all its honours , in kingdoms from which the reformation had happily banished it ? and shall there be found in those kingdoms protestants who not only stand still without making any opposition to it , but e'en favour its re-establishment , and openly give it their approbation ? who could have thought that the dissenters of england , men who have always testified so great an aversion to the roman religion ; and who have no other pretence to separate from the bishops , than that they have in part retained in their government and ceremonies the exteriors of that religion , should now themselves joyn to bring it intirely in ? but above all , who could have believed that the french ministers , who after having experimented all the fury of popery in france , were at last banished , rather than that they would subscribe to its errors and abuses : and for this very cause fled into england , that they might there more freely profess the protestant religion , should now contribute to re-establish popery in their new country , where they had been received by their brethren with so singular a charity ? would you indeed , gentlemen , see england once more submitted to the tyranny of the pope , whose yoke it so happily threw off in the last age ? would you there see all those monstrous doctrins , all those superstitions , and that horrible idolatry which reigned there before the reformation , domineer once more in it ? would you that the people should again hear the pulpits and the churches sounding out the doctrins of purgatory , of indulgences , of the sacrifice of the mass , &c. and see the images and reliques of the saints carried solemnly in procession , with a god formed by the hand of men ? and that in fine , they should again publickly adore those vain idols ? we are confident there is not a good protestant in the world that would not startle but at the thought of it . but this is not yet all . the declaration of which we speak does not only re-establish popery with all its abominations , but does moreover tend to the ruine of the reformation in england . a man need not to have any great sagacity to be convinced of this . and that as much as it seems to establish for ever the protestant religion in that kingdom , it does on the contrary destroy the very foundations of it . the ground upon which the reformation is founded in england , are the laws which have been made at several times for the settlement of it , and to abolish either the tyranny of the pope , or the popish religion altogether . and as these laws have been made by the king and parliament together , so that the king has not the power to repeal them without a parliament , they secure the protestant religion against the enterprises of such kings as should ever think to destroy it . but now if this declaration be executed , we are no more to make any account of those solemn laws which have been passed in favour of the reformation , they become of no value , and the protestant religion is intirely left to the king's pleasure . this is what will clearly appear from what we are about to say . the king not having been able to obtain of the last parliament to consent to a repeal of the laws which had been made against the nonconformists , dissolved the parliament it self . not long after , without attending a new one , he did that alone by his declaration which the parliament would not do conjunctly with him . he granted a full liberty of conscience to the nonconformists ; he freed them from the penalties which had been appointed against them , and dispensed with the oaths to which the laws obliged all those who were admitted to any charges , whether in the soldiery , or in administration of justice , or of the government . in pursuance of these declarations he threw the protestants out of all places of any great importance to clap in papists in their room , and goes on without ceasing to the intire establishment of popery . who does not see , that if the protestants approve these declarations , and themselves authorise such enterprises , the king will not stop here , but that this will be only one step to carry him much further ? what can be said when he shall do the same thing with reference to those laws which exclude the papists out of the parliament , that he has done to those which shut them out of all charges and imploys , and forbad them the exercise of their religion ? does not the approbation of such declarations , as it overthrows these last , carry with it before hand the approbation of those which shall one day overthrow the former ? and if the king shall once give himself the authority to bring papists into the parliament , who shall hinder him from using solicitations , promises , threatnings , and a thousand other the like means to make up a popish parliament ? and who shall hinder him with the concurrence of that parliament to repeal all the antient laws that had been passed against popery , and make new ones against the protestants ? these are without doubt the natural consequences of what the king at this time aims at . these are the fruits which one ought to expect from it , if instead of approving as some have done his enterprises against the laws , they do not on the contrary with all imaginable vigor oppose them . reflect a little on what we have here said , and you will consess that we have reason to commend the conduct of the bishops who refused to publish the declaration ; and to condemn those dissenters who have made their addresses of thanks for it . it is true that the dissenters are to be pitied , and that they have been treated hardly enough , and we do not think it at all strange , that they so earnestly sigh after liberty of conscience . it is natural for men under oppression to seek for relief : and liberty of conscience considered only in it self , is it may be the thing of all the world the most precious and most desirable . would to god we were able to procure it for them by any lawful means , and without such ill consequences , tho' it were at the peril of our lives ! but we conjure them to consider how pernicious that liberty of conscience is which is offer'd to them , as we have just now shewn . on the one side , it is inseparably linked with the establishment of popery ; and on the other , it cannot be accepted without approving a terrible breach which his majesty thereby makes upon the laws , and which would be the ruine of the reformation in his kingdoms , were not some remedy brought to it . and where is the protestant who would buy liberty of conscience at so dear a rate , and not rather choose to continue deprived of it all his life ? should the private interest of our brethren the dissenters blind them in such a manner , that they have no regard to the general interest of the church ? should they for enjoying a liberty of conscience so ill assured , shut their eyes to all other considerations ? how much better would it be for them to re-unite themselves to the bishops , with whom they differ only in some points of discipline ; but especially at this time , when their conduct ought to have entirely defaced those unjust suspicions which they had conceived against them ? but if they could not so readily dispose themselves to such a re-union , would it not be better for them to resolve still to continue without liberty of conscience , and expect some more favourable time when they may by lawful means attain it , than to open themselves a gate to popery , and to concur with it to the ruine of the protestant religion ? you will , it may be , tell us , that it looks ill in us , who so much complain , that we have been deprived of liberty of conscience in france , to find fault with the king of england for granting it to his subjects : and that it is the least that can be allowed to a sovereign , to allow him the right to permit the exercise of his own religion in his own kingdoms , and to make use of the service of such of his subjects as himself shall think fit , by putting them into charges and employs . you will add , that his majesty does not go about neither to abrogate the antient laws , nor to make new ones . all he does being only to dispense with the observation of certain laws in such of his subjects as he thinks fit , and for as long time as he pleases ; and that the right of dispensing with , and suspending of laws , is a right inseparably ty'd to his person : that for the rest , the protestant religion does not run the least risque . there are laws to shut the papists out of parliament , and these laws can neither be dispensed with , nor suspended : so that the parliament partaking with the king in the legislative power , and continuing still protestant , there is no cause to fear , that any thing should be done contrary to the protestant religion . besides , what probability is there , that a king , who appears so great an enemy to oppression in matters of conscience and religion , should ever have a thought , tho he had the power himself , to oppress in this very matter the greatest part of his subjects , and take from them that liberty of conscience which he now grants to them , and which he promises so inviolably to observe for the time to come ? these are all the objections that can with any appearance of reason be made against what we have before said . they may all be reduced to five , which we shall examine in their order . and we doubt not but we shall easily make it appear , that they are all but meer illusions . . we do justly complain , that they have taken from us our liberty of conscience in france , because it was done contrary to the laws . and one may as justly complain , that the k of england does labour to re-establish popery in his country , because he cannot do it but contrary to the laws . our liberties in france were founded upon solemn laws , upon perpetual , irrevocable , and sacred edicts ; and which could not be recalled , without violating at once the public faith , the royal word , and the sacredness of an oath . and popery has been banished out of england by laws made by king and parliament , and which cannot be repealed but by the authority of king and parliament together ; so that therefore there is just cause to complain , that the king should go about to overthrow them himself alone by his declaration . . it is not true that a sovereign has always the right to permit the exercise of his own religion in his dominions , and to make use of the service of such of his subjects as he himself shall think fit , that is to say , by putting of them into charges and employs : and in particular , he has not this right , when the laws of his country are contrary thereunto , as they are in the case before us . every king is obliged to observe the fundamental laws of his kingdom . and the king of england , as well as his subjects , ought to observe the laws which have been established by king and parliament together . . for the third , the distinction between the abrogation of a law , and the dispensing with and suspending of it cannot here be of any use ; whether the king abrogates the laws which have been made against popery , or whether without saying expresly that he does abrogate them ; he overthrows them by his declarations , under pretence of dispensing with , or suspending of them ; it is still in effect the same thing . and to what purpose is it that the laws are not abrogated , if in the mean time all sorts of charges are given to papists , and popery it self be re-established contrary to the tenor of the laws ? the truth is , if the king has such a power as this , if this be a right necessarily tied to his person , 't is in vain that the parliament does partake with him in the legislature . this authority of the parliament is but a meer name , a shadow , a phantome , a chimera , and no more . the king is still the absolute master , because he can alone , and without his parliament , render useless by his declarations the laws which the parliament shall have the most solemnly established together with him . we confess the king has right of dispensing in certain cases , as if the concern be what belongs to his private interest , he may without doubt whenever he pleases depart from his own rights ; 't is a liberty which no body will pretend to contest with him . but he has not the power to dispense to the prejudice of the rights of the people , nor by consequence put the property , the liberty , and the lives of his protestant subjects into the hands of papists . . what we have now said in answer to the third objection , will be more clear from the answer we are to give to the fourth . they would perswade the protestants that their religion is in safety , because on the one side the king cannot make laws without the parliament ; and that on the other , there being laws which exclude papists out of the two houses , it must necessarily follow , that the parliament shall continue to be protestant . but if the king has the power to break throught the laws , under the pretence of dispensing with and suspending of them , what security shall the protestants have that he will not dispense with the papists , the observation of those laws which do exclude them out of the parliament , as well as he has dispensed with those that should have kept them out of charges and imployments ? what security shall they have that he will not at any time hereafter suspend the execution of the former , as he has already suspended the execution of the latter ? which being so , what should hinder us from seeing in a little time a popish parliament , who together with the king shall pass laws contrary to the protestant religion ? what difference can be shewn between the one and the other of these laws , that the one should be liable to be dispensed with and suspended , and the other not ? were they not both established by the king and parliament ? were not both the one and the other made for the security of the protestant religion , and of those who profess it ? are not the rights of the people concerned in the one , as well as in the other ? and whosoever suffers and approves the king in the violation of these rights in some things , does he not thereby authorise him to violate them in all ? if the king has power to put the liberty and property and lives of his protestant subjects at the mercy of the papists , by placing them in charges contrary to the law , why should he not have the power to raise the same papists to the authority of legislators by declaring them capable of sitting in parliament , seeing that is but contrary to law ? do not deceive your selves , the laws are the barrier which bound the authority of the king , and if his barrier be once broken , he will extend his authority as far as he pleases . and it will be impossible for you after that to set any bounds to it . . in fine , he must be very little acquainted with the spirit of popery , who imagines that it will be content to re-establish it self in england , without aiming to destroy the protestant religion . give it but time and opportunity to fortifie it self , and you may then expect to see what it is . in all places where it has got the power in its hands , it will not only rule , but rule alone , and not suffer any other religion besides it self ; and imploys the sword and fire to extirpate that which it calls heresie . were not this a truth confirmed by infinite examples both ancient and modern , which every one knows who has read any thing of history , it would be too much evidenced by the cruelties which it has so lately exercised against the churches of hungary , of france , and of the valleys of piemont . and men ought not to be lulled asleep by the pretence of an inclination which the king of england would be thought to have for liberty of conscience ; nor by the promises which he makes to preserve it to all his subjects without distinction . every one knows that perfidiousness and breach of faith are characters of popery no less essential to it than cruelty . can you doubt of this , gentlemen ? you who so lately came from making a sad experiment of it ? how often did our king promise us to preserve us in our priviledges ? how many declarations , how many edicts did he set out to that purpose ? how many oaths were taken to confirm those edicts ? did not this very king lewis xiv . himself solemnly promise by several edicts and declarations to maintain us in all the liberties which were granted to us by the edict of nantes ? and yet after all , what scruple was there made to violate so many laws , so many promises , and so many oaths ? the protestants of england have themselves also sometimes likewise experimented the same infidelity : and not to alledge here any other example , let us desire them to remember only the reign of queen mary , what promises she made at her coming to the crown , not to make any change of religion ; and yet what bloody laws she afterwards passed to extinguish the reformation as soon as she saw her self fast in the throne ? and with what inhumanity she spilt the blood of her most faithful subjects to accomplish that design ? after such an instance as this , a man must be very credulous indeed , and willing to deceive himself , that will put too much confidence in the promises of the king that now reigns . do we not know , that there are neither promises nor oaths which the pope does not pretend to have power to dispense with in those whom he employs for the extirpation of heresie ? and do we not also know , that it is one of the great maxims of popery , a maxim authorized both by the doctrin and practice of the council of constance , that they are not obliged to keep any faith with hereticks . we ought not to believe that king james ii. a prince who has so much zeal for popery , should be govern'd by any other maxims than those of his religion . and whosoever will take the pains to examine his conduct both before and since his coming to the crown , will find that he has more than once put 'em in practice . and this , gentlemen , we suppose may be sufficient to convince all reasonable persons , that there is nothing more pernicious than that declaration which you have approved ; whether by publishing it , as some of you have done , or by addressing to the king to thank him for it . when you shall have reflected upon these things , you will without doubt your selves confess , that you have suffered your selves to be amused with some imaginary advantages which you hope to make by this declaration . in the mean time , most dear brethren , you will pardon us , if we have chanced to have let any thing slip that is not agreeable to you . we had no design to give the least offence either to you , or to our brethren the dissenters of england . if we have spoken our thoughts freely of your conduct and of theirs , we have at least spoken with no less liberty of that of the bishops . and god is our witness , that we have said nothing of the one or the other , but in the sincerity of our heart , and out of a desire to contribute somewhat to his glory , and the good of his church . we are , most honoured brethren , your most humble , most obedient , and most affectionate brethren in jesus christ , n.n. a few plain words concerning conformity in matter of religion and worship and also concerning evidence and judgment in cases of conscience : published to all magistrates, juror's and people, within the nation of england. smith, william, d. . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing s estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a few plain words concerning conformity in matter of religion and worship and also concerning evidence and judgment in cases of conscience : published to all magistrates, juror's and people, within the nation of england. smith, william, d. . p. s.n., [london : ] caption title. attributed to william smith. cf. nuc pre- . pamphlet is signed "w.s." and dated "the of the moneth, ", p. . reproduction of original in duke university library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng society of friends -- doctrines. dissenters, religious -- england. conscience. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - judith siefring sampled and proofread - judith siefring text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a few plain words concerning conformity in matter of religion and worship : and also concerning evidence and judgment in cases of conscience . published to all magistrates , jurors , and people , within the nation of england . seing that the main thing now intended by the late act of parliament is to bring people into conformity unto the lyturgie of the church of england , as appears by the said act , in providing remedies against all other assemblies and meetings as seditious conventicles : now the main question will be this ; whether the lyturgie of the church of england be the true reformed religion and worship , according to the purity in primitive times ? and whether such as discent from it do yet remain in the apostasie ? this is the main question now to be considered ; for the lyturgie-worship , as now practised in the church of england , is generally taken to be the best reformed , and nearest to the apostolick order , and so is pressed and urged as the most refined religion and worship to be observed . now how far it is reformed , and how near it is brought unto the apostolick order , i shall not at this time compare or distinguish ; but if it were truly and rightly reformed into the primitive purity , and that the same spirit of truth had the ordering of it as the apostles were ordered by , then no persecution would rise out of it , for in the apostolick order there were never any ; therefore the reformation is yet a far off from that religion and worship which was in the primitive times , and so the dissenting from it , or not conforming to it , doth not conclude the dissenters to be in error , because something may lie nearer the truth of the apostolick worship then what the lyturgie of the church of england is reformed into . for if such as have received the spirit of god , and therein worship him , have found something nearer to the apostolick practice , than what is observed by the lyturgie of the church of england , then they are to be allowed the liberty in their worship without restraint or prohibition , for the true worship 〈◊〉 in the spirit , and they that worship god in the spirit , they are truly reformed into the apostolick order , and they cannot persecute any , but walk in love and meekness towards all , which is the clearest evidence of the best reformed religion , and that which lies nearest unto the apostolick order : for the word lyturgie signifies , the publick service of the church . now if the lyturgie of the church of england , do not agree with the lyturgie of the true church in primitive times , then it is not transgression to dissent from it , and there is nothing doth more infallibly demonstrate the disagreement , than persecution by it , and suffering under it ; for the publick service in the true church , is by the spirit of god , and none can order the church in things pertaining to god but by the spirit of god , and the spirit of god never persecuted any , nor such as worship god in the spirit cannot be of that mind , for that is not a good service in the church , neither do such as are guided by the spirit of god dissent from the lyturgie , but may be truly in the publick service of the church , though not in the publick service of the church of england . so then it remains to be enquired by such as yet know not what religion and worship is best reformed and most agreeable to the lyturgie , or publick worship of the church in primitive times ? and something may herein be said to answer any enquirer . . that is the best reformed religion and worship , which is reformed by the spirit of god , because that hath power to reform and change the heart , and so to order the heart in the fear of god , and in the publick service of the church . . that is the best reformed religion and worship which stands in the freedom of the spirit , in which there is no binding or limitation , but a free service in the church . . that is the best reformed religion and worship , which stands in love , peace , and good-will , in which there is no restriction nor persecution , but a serving one another in love , which is the publick service of the church . . that is the best reformed religion and worship , when every man doth to another as he would be done unto himself , in which there is no envy , hatred , or malice , but a peaceable and a holy life in all godliness and honesty , which is the publick service of the church . these few things being well considered , it will appear , that the people who are called quakers , do not dissent from the lyturgie , but are due observers of it ; for as they are guided by the spirit of god , so their service is a publick service of the church ; but the service of the church of england is a private service compared with the many religions and worships that are in the world : for nothing can be a publick service of the church , but that which is performed in the publick spirit of god ; because the spirit is an universal principle , and in every nation it guideth such as receives it and believes in it , into one way and service , and that is publick in every nation , and not tied or bound unto one nation only , for that which may be observed in one nation , is but a private thing compared with other nations in the world , that differ from them in matter of religion and worship : but the spirit and power of god reforms nations , and gathers them into unity and peace in which they are true members of the church , and set in the publick service of it ; and if the word lyturgie may be allowed to the quakers according to its proper signification , then they are in practice the best observers of it , for their service is a publick service in the church . now let all magistrates who are commissioned to give judgement touching offences , seriously consider , for the matter is of such weight and concernment , as worthy to be deliberated , and not hastily to fall upon it in any rash conclusion ; for it is only seditious conventicles which the late act provideth remedies against , and gives this reason ▪ because at their meetings they contrive insurrections , as late experience hath shewed : now the quakers are not any way guilty of offending in these cases ; and that it may be the better understood , i shall explain the signification of the words unto the capacities of all sorts of sensible people . sedition is discord , strife , and debate . conventicle is a small assembly commonly for ill things , or as the law expounds it , where many do impart with others to kill a man , or to take anothers part in ill things , lam. . insurrection is a rising of men in arms : now concerning all these things , which is the very ground of the said act , there cannot any thing justly be laid to the quakers charge ; for if experience in these cases be taken for good evidence , then the quakers meetings are wholly cleared by the said act , for no such things hath ever been experienced to rise from their meetings ; and therefore the said act not lying against them in the ground , no penalty or punishment is to be laid upon them by vertue of the same . and this is written unto you magistrates , who are commissiioned to give judgment in cases of offences ; for it is a plea generally used by magistrates , that they are bound to put the law in execution : well , if it be so , and that you are so careful to discharge your trust , yet you must find an offender before you can legally execute the law , and the offence must arise by good and sound evidence to be a transgressing of that law , and that according to the purpose of the law : so that you may be in a capacity to judge and determine causes equally , according to good evidence , in things pertaining to men ; but as to things pertaining to conscience , they are too high for you , for you can have no evidence to inform you concerning the offence , and so cannot judg or determine the matter equally in that case : and if in this case of meeting , there nothing doth appear of discord or strife , or any ill things , then there is not any thing for you to take knowledg of as an offence , or that can be charged as transgression upon such as so meet , though they meet in greater or lesser numbers ; for the act is not against peaceable meetings , nor against the true worship of god ; but where there is religion and worship pretended in meetings , and some ill thing intended by that meeting , and according to the intention break forth into a publick manifestation , then , upon good evidence , in that case you may proceed to penalties and punishment of the offendors , and so every apparent offence may have a witness ( without ) to give evidence to the fact , by which judgment may be given according to the offence . but if the conscience offend against god , that must be left to his witness within , and to his judgement alone , who both sees the offence , and knows how to punish it according to the nature of it ; and therefore all such cases as relate to to the conscience , is to be left to god alone , who seeth secrets , and judgeth secrets , and gives to every man according to his deeds , without respect of persons . and now a few words unto you that serve upon juries , seeing something in the said act may come within your enquiry ; for the third offence in order to transportation , is to be tryed by verdict : now where you come to be concerned in any such case , wherein the matter lies in point of conscience , be very careful what you do . and first , you that serve upon grand juries , the matter lyes of very great concernment unto you , forasmuch as you are the finders and accusers of offenders , and so prepares the way in order to conviction or judgement . now if there be not some evidence , that can make good proof that there was some appearance of discord or ill things at such a meeting , for which any party or parties may stand indicted , then you are not in a capacity to find the bill to be true , forasmuch as you cannot be informed whether such a meeting was pretended to worship , and some ill thing intended by it , or whether it was a meeting to worship god singly in spirit and in truth , which the act is not against ; and so if it lye as a case of conscience , without any appearance ; you can have no true evidence in it , and therefore you are not to find it , nor accuse any in that case as guilty of an offence worthy of punishment . object but some may say , we only enquire for the king , and therefore upon good evidence to the indictment , we are bound to find it , and let the party clear himself upon his tryal . answ . as you stand only to enquire for the king , so you are to enquire what wrong the king sustains by the fact , of which the party-stands indicted for if the evidence to the indictment prove not some wrong done to the king in matter of fact , then you cannot know the bill to be a true bill , and so is not to put the party upon his tryal : for if the indictment do not lye , as to some wrong done by the party indicted , either a● to life , estate , peace , or liberty of another , and that it be not so proved by your evidence then the king is not wronged , and you may clearly acquit the party on the kings behalf , and leave things that pertain to the conscience unto god alone , for none besides him knows what is in man. and you that are ordered upon juries for conviction , your places is of the greatest weight and concernment , forasmuch as you try the life , and may either save it , or destroy it : for though the grand jury do enquire and find the indictment , yet it is you that either casts or clears a man upon his tryal , for you are judges of the fact , and if you judge the party guilty of the fact , then you expose him to the judgement of the law , in that case . now forasmuch as there is a late act of parliament made , which doth refer the tryal of the third offence punishable by it , unto a verdict , if it so come to pass , that any such tryal be brought before you , consider well what evidence you have to prove it , for there lyes the main thing on your parts , who according to your evidence doth either find the party guilty , or clear , concerning the fact and if you find him clear as to the fact , then you free him 〈◊〉 the sentence of the law. now it may be in such cases , you may have some evidence that will prove a meeting above the number of five besides the family , but then consider whether such evidence be sufficient to prove any people offenders against the said act , except it be also proved , that there was discord and strife , or any ill things practised in such a meeting , which is the very signification of the words upon which the said act is grounded ; now if no such thing can be proved unto you , then there is not any meeting that doth amount to transgression against the said act , though there be a meeting to the number of five hundred or more ; for it is the thing done that makes the fact , but if no such thing as before-mentioned be done in the assemblies of people in the way wherein they worship , then the act is not transgressed , and if not transgressed , then such as meets together are not to be punished as offendors : therefore consider well your places , for your service stands in judging the fact according to your evidence ; but wherein any case of conscience is brought before you , there can no evidence prove the matter truly to you , and therefore you are to leave it unto god , and to his witness in the conscience , and by your verdict to acquit all people in things relating to their conscience , and let them account unto god before whom they must stand or fall . and now a few words unto all people , for seeing there is information and evidence to be given in the aforesaid cases , before there can be any proceedings as to conviction or judgement , it doth concern every one to be careful what they do , for the act doth not impose any penalty or punishment upon any for not informing , and therefore where any do set themselves to do it , they will but manifest a forward mind in the thing wherein they may keep themselves free , and if any do put themselves upon it , as to inform against any peaceable meeting of the people called quakers , they will manifest more envy and malice to their neighbours than love and good will : for the act is not against the quakers meetings , being their meetings are peacable , and no peacable meeting is a seditious conventicle , and how can any truly inform of unlawful meeting , when the law is not against it , for that makes a thing unlawful when the thing done is against the law in that case ; but the quakers meetings are not against the act in that case made , for it is made to prevent and suppress seditious conventicles , and pretenders of worship , and not peaceable meetings , and the true worship . and so to meet peaceable , as the quakers do , and all along have done on their parts , above the number of besides the family , is not an unlawful assembly or meeting , for the law is not against it , but to meet to the number of five besides the family ; under pretence of religion and worship , and at such meetings to enter into discord and strife , and do ill things , as to rise in armes , and be tumultuous to the disturbance of the nations peace , then it is a seditious conventicle , and an unlawful meeting , because the law is against it , and they that meet in that manner , 〈◊〉 the hazard of the penalties and punishment that the law in that case provideth against offendors , and it is onely such as are dangerous sectaries , who at their meetings contrive insurrections , or to raise up strife , and ill things , which makes a seditious conventicle , as is before explained : therefore let all people be careful how they inform and give evidence in this case , for the act doth not prohibit any peaceable meeting , where people meets together in the fear of god , and truly worships him in tendernesse of conscience , this is not only a pretended thing but a real true thing , which the act doth not prohibit . therefore all people be in love with your neighbours , and then no hasty information or evidence will be given against any for their obedience unto god , and for worshipping him in spirit and in truth , according to his mind ; for if there be no informers , there can be no proceedings , and therefore as information is the cause that gives motion to the wheel , so there ought to be great care and tenderness in it because one neighbour may thereby expose another unto great sufferings , and where any do so they do not love their neighbors as themselves , which is a sure mark of the true religion . and now if any should have it in their mindes to inform and give evidence in the case aforesaid , i ask you , what you will inform touching the quakers meetings , will you inform that there was a meeting of five besides the family ; and will you say that you will give evidence of it , you shall not need for we confesse it ; but will you inform that there was strife and discord amongst them , or any ill thing in action , or any apperance of rising in armes , and so a seditious conventicle , according to the act ? if you say nay , we cannot give such information in the truth , nor we dare not give evidence to any such thing ; it may be that some may be thus honest , and it may be some again , that will not fear to inform , and evidence the matter by the act intended , though they neither see not know that so it is amongst such against whom they inform ; and therefore , as to the first , that honestly confesseth the truth , there needs not any thing be said , being their own confession clears us ; but unto such as wilfully and obstinately resolve to do us harm , if it be in their power ; unto such we say , that your information and evidence is not to be regarded by sober magistrates or jurors ; for our practice is so generally known , that it will be apparently manifest to be envy and malice , where any such iuformation of evidence is given against us . and further , consider this one thing more in general , which i shall offer to you by way of question : was not the christian religion and worship in primitive times a true religion and worship ? and was there not both jewes and gentiles gathered in it ? and was there not many jewes and gentiles that differed from them in religion and worship ? and did the true christians endeavour to force the dissenters by an outward law to joyn with them ? you do not read in all the scripture , that the true christians did ever practice any such thing , either to inform or punish any in matter of conscience . therefore let not this nation of england give occasion unto other nations , to upbraid them with persecution , for it will be much to the dishonour of it , if not to the ruine of it , by the hand of the lord. oh surely it cannot but touch many tender hearts who are observers of the lyturgie of the church of england , to see such persecution rise out of it , and that against an innocent people ; for we that are called quakers are a people well known in our countries , and the witness of god doth bear a sure testimony for us , however men may witness against us , or however they may accuse judge and condemn us , yet doth the witness of god clear us from the guilt of any just offence against the present power , and the peace thereof ; and whatsoever may come to pass concerning us in this matter , yet there is no law against us , and being no law , there is no transgression , and so no fact worthy of condemnation much might be said in these things , but i shall leave all with the lord , and to his just and righteous witness in every conscience which will plead with all for us , when tongues and pens are still and silent ; and let not any think it strange that i have used such plainnesse of speech in this matter , for it is in the behalf of gods precious truth , and all that live in it . and being that our liberty , estates , and lives are herein concerned , the plainnesse of my speech may well be allowed , considering also , that it is no lesse than true love to all your souls who are or may be any way concerned in this matter ; for we that are called quakers do truly love the lamb , and follow him , and the lamb and the saints must have the victory ; and in the lambs love , meekness , and patience we have rest and peace . written the . of the . moneth , . w. s. the end . cabala, or, the mystery of conventicles unvail'd in an historical account of the principles and practices of the nonconformists, against church and state : from the first reformation under king edward the vi. anno . to this present year, : with an appendix of an cxx. plots against the present govenment, that have been defeated / by oliver foulis ... lloyd, david, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing l estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) cabala, or, the mystery of conventicles unvail'd in an historical account of the principles and practices of the nonconformists, against church and state : from the first reformation under king edward the vi. anno . to this present year, : with an appendix of an cxx. plots against the present govenment, that have been defeated / by oliver foulis ... lloyd, david, - . [ ], p. printed for thomas holmwood, london : . attributed to david lloyd. cf. bm. reproduction of original in national library of scotland (advocates'). created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng dissenters, religious -- england -- early works to . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - tcp staff (michigan) sampled and proofread - kirk davis text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion cabala : or , the mystery of conventicles unvaild : in an historical account of the principles and practices of the nonconformists , against church and state : from the first reformation under king edward the vi. anno . to this present year , . with an appendix of an cxx . plots against the present government , that have been defeated . by oliver foulis . london , printed for thomas-holmwood , anno . the mystery of conventicles unvail'd . orthodox . why how now scruple , what ailes you now with your friday face , and sabbath day lookes ? scruple . add not reproach to affliction , and thy sin to our suffering — i am glad to see thee . orth. right presbyters ! scripture at one end , and hypocrisie at the other ; reproach — affliction — sin — suffering — out of the concordance ; glad to see you , out of the bottom of your heart ; why ? thou hast not seen that that made thee glad these sixteen years ? — but why here at amsterdam ! scrup. here a man may be as holy as he will. orth. so you may any where else if you would be but as honest as you ought — but what is the matter ? is england unsetled , that you cannot live there ? scrup. yea , upon the lees. orth. something it was you made that vineger face ; what a gods name would you have ? scrup. only liberty of conscience . orth. what do you mean by that ? do you mean liberty to do what you will , or to do what you ought ? if liberty to do what you will , we know where about you would be ; if what you ought — who shall judge what ought to be ? you , or your superiours ? if you say your superiours , you know their mind ; if you say your selves they know yours : — but prithee tell me truly is the conventicle broke in england , and must it be made up in amsterdam ! — a man may pick a church here when it is lost in the world ; or are we for the commonwealth against tyranny ? or have you any more spoones , bodkins , thimbles for this warr ? or do i smell a rat , or rather a rat-catcher ; and is there a new act against your conventicles ! scrup. there are snares enough laid for tender consciences , but yet it doth not lie in their power to restrain us . orth. why ? i thought there was such a provision made of late as would roote up the schisme . scrup. some such thing was aimed at , but they cannot touch an hair of our head . orth. i know you have your starting holes — yet it were worth the while to know how you will escape that late statute ? scrup. many wayes ! as first — none can come to a house and see our meeting without a warrant from two justices of the peace . . no man hath any encouragement for so invidious a toile as to trot from one justice of peace to another for that warrant . . the militia cannot as formerly distarbe us without that warrant . . our meeting places may be contrived at distance enough from any justice of peace . . the justices must meet before they can proceed against us . . they may punish us for the three first offences we are convicted of as little as they please , and its odds but we can make friends to them ; and as we may meet often before we are convicted the first time , it will go very hard if we be convicted the fourth . . we may meet and confer , and yet nothing proved against us concerning the worship of god. . we may walk into the fields , and never come within the compass of the act. . our ministers may go from house to house , and visit , & so instruct too , & we may visit them . to all this i may add that many of the magistrates in the land are not so zealously affected to prosecute the people of god. orth. see now how safe you are , yet it is persecution , oppression of consciences ! scrup. yet still the act of uniformity is in force . orth. look now , that act takes away only the preferment of some few of you ( as what state can prefer those who have sworn to overthrow it and its constitutions , and will not renounce that oath , which is their case that come under the stroke of that act ) and not the conscience of any of your consciences , and your livings are not all one with you . capt. prithee what dost thou spend thy breath with that sniveling pretender ! there is no hope of him here where he may serve any god for twelve crowns . scrup. we might have had the same liberty in our native country . capt. you have deserved it indeed , so good use you made of the last kindness of that nature . scrup. why we are men fearing god , and loving righteousness . capt. and why not fearing god and honouring the king ; and medling not with them who are given to change ! but that text is not in the last edition of the geneva bible , nor in cannes alcoran . merchant . lord ! what good men are these blew cap saints , these scotch christians , these knockes protestants ? butter will not now melt in their mouths ; what is it to be poor ? now we must be religious ! but if god would trust them with the sword once more , what gallant thing would they do in the fear of god! scrup. no more then carry on the reformation . orth. reformation ! it's a dreadful word , and in thy mouth imports no less then ruine and desolation : these are the men that propagate religion by warrs , force consciences , nourish seditions , authorise conspiracies and rebellions ; that put the sword into the peoples hands ; that sanctifie tumults ; preach off the heads of kings , overthrow constitutions and governments , undermine lawes and settlement ; that resist for conscience sake , and teach others so to do for their salvation ; that make christ a raiser of sedition , and his religion a firebrand ; that give kings too much reason to stand up , and the princes to conspire together against christ and against his annointed ; — these are they that fear god , and speak evil of dignities , and despise dominion , & kill the devil for gods sake . scrup. verily our late miscarriages are to be bewailed ! but our principles are peaceable . orth. bewailed ! yes now they do not prosper ! with what face can you say your principles are so peaceable when your practice is so unquiet ; either never speak so well , or never live so ill : — why i 'le tell you , there have been two new sects broached within this . yeares , both the * same year , both to the same end , i mean the jesuits and the presbyterians , the one set up by john calvin , the other by ignatius loyola ; the one is confessed to be the boutfew of christendom , the other is known to be the incendiary of the protestant part of it ; many have discovered the mad pranks of the one — none indeed have yet laid open the sly insinuations of the other . merch. i have brought over as good an . historian as england ever bred , we will go to him and he will give you an exact account of this schisme in england from the very egge , beginning at the time of edward the sixth , and carrying it on to this very hour , throughout the several raigns of queen mary , queen elizabeth , king james , king charles first , king charles second . orth. a match ! let us go together and call a court , and with that gentlemans assistance try these grand pretenders by a jury of our english historians . capt. agreed ! and o my conscience you will find such a mystery of iniquity from time to time carried on was never managed on english ground ! a plot of an hundred years continuance ! a government within a government ; a design to blow us up with white powder : first you will find them scrupulous , next stubborn , and at last turbulent ; first they beseech , then expostulate , now they flatter , anon they threaten ; now they beg against a ceremony ; anon they petition against king and bishops ; to day you will find them creeping about the court , to morrow they are canting to the people , &c. orth. let us to work impartially and seriously , that we may see the bottom of these men . court. o yes , o yes . — o ye nonconformists , hold up your hands — you are indicted of several plots , conspiracies , disturbances , contrivance's and designes against the wholsome orders of this church , the welfare and government of this realm , eversince the reformation ; are you guilty or not guilty ? nonconf . we bless god for the reformation begun in this and other churches ; but ( because nothing was ever by men at one timebegun and perfected , much less so good a work as that was meeting with so great opposition from within and without ) we desire in compliance with the mercy of god discovering himself to us more and more every day , to go on to perfection ; not as if we bad already attained , or were already perfect — but this one thing we do , forgetting those things which are behind , and reaching forth unto those things which are before — &c. court. we must needs interrupt you , and desire you to answer directly in due forme of law , whether guilty or not guilty ; and what plea soever you have to offer in your own behalf shall be in due time , place and order received with favour , heard with patience , and debated with all equal impartiality . nonconf . in submission to that authority which ( whatever is thought of us , or suggested concerning us ) we obey for conscience sake , as ordained of god ; we plead in due form of law not guilty . court. by whom will you be tried ? nonconf . by the great god before whom we stand , whose eyes see , whose eye-lids try the children of men ; and by those faithful men who have reported the transactions of this last age impartially , concealing nothing out of fear , nor speaking any thing out of favour , not omitting anything through ignorance , nor neglecting any thing in forgetfulness , but delivering words of truth and soberness with good authority , not overswayed by partiality , or corrupt affection , nor byassed by love or hatred . g. l. b. l. when it pleased god ( who makes all things work for the best ) to make use of henry the eighth passions and private interest in order to a publick good , so far as that his bold attempts should make a way to the pions indeavours of those that came after him for that reformation the whole world wished ; as in other churches so in this there rose up some men speaking perverse things , and drawing away disciples after them , stirred up as it s feared by the church of rome which endeavoured to hinder that blessed work by an inward division and domestick confusion , which had in vain opposed by outward power and forreign interest : for as mr. baxter observes very well out of luther in his book against the anabaptists ; when the reformed ministers had spent some years in building the church , the romish adversaries raised up some strange-spirited persons who should destroy it in few moneths . nonconf . verily we do not remember that any of us made any opposition to the first reformation , in which many of us had the honour of being instruments in the lords hand , which we owned with the loss of all that was near and dear to us ; and many of us sealed it with our blood : although we must confess we did endeavour to carry the reformation so far as might be most agreeable with the word of god , most answerable to the primitive churches way , and neerest the pattern of other reformed churches , with whom we desire to hold communion in the great concernes of christianity . court. what you did , the world took notice of ; for these things were not done in a corner ; but that you may be proceeded with more clearly , distinctly and satisfactorily , those of you who lived in king edward the sixth dayes , and practised at the first reformation , may hear the evidence we have against them , and the rest may withdraw . — nonconf . we submit . court. mr. calvin — our evidence against you , is , that since you had prevailed in geneva for a government and order according to your own humour , fancy , and judgement , the necessity of that place and time , you were not contented to see any thing established in other churches without your consent and approbation ; and particularly that you went beyond your own line as an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or one busie in other mens matters about the affaires of england : first , when you sent letters to martin bucer to take heed of his old fault ; ( for a fault you thought it was to run a moderate course ) as we do here in reformation , neither keeping too neer , nor going too far from rome : when you offered your assistance to arch-bishop cranmer , and being refused by him , because of your rigidness , you tampered in a very long letter with the lord protect or sommerset , that most ceremonies should be altered , and that he should go on to reforme the church without regard to peace at home , or correspondence abroad , either in altering , adding , taking away , or moderating the liturgy , discipline and ceremonies : and besides you writ that the godly homilies should by no means be allowed for continuance , or be looked upon as a rule for the church , or constantly to serve for the instruction of the people , contrary to the judgement of martin bucer , to the scandal of the zuinglian gospellers , who ever since almost declaimed against them ; and when your agents and arguments had raised some disputes about the ceremonies of the church then by law established ; you writ for a peace , which you would have composed , not by bringing the nonconformists to a conformity , but by encourageing them in their nonconformity against our law , order and peace . mr. calvin . indeed as i had done at geneva , so i was willing others should in other gospel churches endeavour to bring things to the pattern in the mount ; and take care that nothing should be exacted , which is not warranted by the word of god ; there being nothing more distastful in the eyes of god then worldly wisdom , either in moderating or going backward , but meerly as we are directly by the word of god ; and accordingly i write my poor advice to most christian princes that looked towards reformation . mr. hooker . your advice we highly value , as esteemed by us the most learned and wise man , that ever the french church did enjoy since the hour it enjoyed you ; yet you must understand that it did not become you to obtrude upon the church of england a new way you had found out for the city of geneva , agreeable to the temper of that people and that time , so disagreeing with our temper and our time , especially since you could not bring that way to geneva it self without the consent of the people : two things of principal note there are which deservedly procure you honour throughout the christian world , . your exact institutions of christian religion . . your no less industrious exposition of scripture according to those institutions ; in which two things , whosoever bestowed their labour after you , you gained the advantage of prejudice against them if they gainsaid you , or of glory above them if they consented ; yea , that which you did in the establishment of , your way was harmless , as being necessary ; but what you have taught for the countenance of it established is blame-worthy , because out of love to your own prudent invention you endeavour to perswade the world that what you found out as yesterday was established by god since the beginning of christianity ; we take it not well that what you with much ado imposed upon your own people by your own , should be imposed upon us as from divine authority ; and that you should to that purpose disparage the antient rites of the church , as ineptiae , nugae , trifles , and i know not what : o mr. calvin , mr. calvin , there will come a time when three words uttered with charity and moderation , shall receive a far more blessed reward then three thousand vollumes written with disdainful sharpness of wit : we wonder that you who said , that you did highly approve a forme of prayer , doctrine , and established administration of sacraments , which it should not be lawful for the ministers themselves to neglect , that provision might be made for the ignorant and unskilful : . that the consent of the churches might be more apparent : . that order may be taken against the desultory levity of them who delight in innovations : we wonder that you should encourage some zelots at home and abroad , to procure so many alterations of and enemies to the common prayer in the year . and . of king edward the sixth ; in so much that reverend father latimer was faine to say in a sermon before king edward a little before his death , that the admiral was gone , i heard say he was a seditious man , a contemner of common prayer , i would there were no more in england ; well he is gone , i would he had left none behind him . bish. bancroft . mr. calvin was not the only man that disturbed the peace of our church by countenancing these innovations , and practising in court , city , country , and universities by his agents , till he had laid the first foundation of the zuinglian faction , who laboured nothing more then innovation in doctrine and discipline . court. we pray you ( sir ) what was the maine engine that mr. calvin used to bring his way into so much credit and esteeme among us ? bish. bancroft . by insinuating to some men well affected the practise of the poor reformed churches who not being able to set up the primitive , were over-ruled by his authority to comply with his way ; and gaining an improvident indulgence unto john a lasco , with a mixt multitude of poles and germans to have the priviledge of a church for him and his , distinct in government and worship from the church of england , by letters pattents in st. augustine neer broadstreet , to be hereafter called the church of the lord jesus ; whence we may observe , . of what consequence it is totolerate any people though never so inconsiderable , in a way of separation . mr. durel & dr. basile . whereas it was suggested by several that most reformed churches walked in the way of calvin ; and that the church of england must submit to that way to preserve its communion with other churches : we will make it appear that there is no rite , ceremony , or order of the church of england but is observed in some of the reformed churches , and some of them are observed in all . court. thus encouraged from abroad , and indulged at home , that party began to appear more publickly : and you mr. bucer and dr. peter martyr must needs seruple at some ceremonies , vestments , the one as kings professor at cambridge , the other as margaret professor , and cannon of christ-church in oxford , though with such moderation as that we have no more to say to you but that we are sorry the oversight of those times furnished the universities , and filled up the chaires with men of your principles , to lay up in those nurseries of religion and learning , the seed of a separation , dissent and chisme , that may continue as long as this church stands : we are sorry to hear that you doctor bucer refused some ceremonies at cambridge , especially that you would not use a square cap , because forsooth your head was round . we are sorry likewise that you dr. martyr should encourage the nonconformists in your letter july . . by saying that you thought it most expedient to the good of the church , that they , and all others of that kind should be taken away , when the next opportunity should present it self : for ( say you ( as we iudge ) unchariteably ) where such ceremonies are so stiftly contended for , as are not warranted and supported by the word of god , there commonly men are less sollicitous of the substance of religion , then they were of the cicumstances of it : and that you say in your letter of the . nov. . that you never used the surplice when you lived in oxford , though you were then a cannon of christ-church , and frequently present in the qaire . and for your part john a lasco , you might have been contented with the great indulgence of a gracious soveraign to set up a church with an express order to all the bishops of the realm not to disturbe you in the free exercise of your religion , and ecclesiastical government ; notwithstanding , that you differed from the government and formes of worship established in the church of england ; and not have abused his majesties goodness so far , as to appear in favour of the several factions which then began more openly to shew themselves against the established orders and laudable customes of the church ; and to write that scandalous book called forma & oratio totius ecclesiastici ministerij , much to their encouragement who impugned all order and discipline ; and you must countenance those that refuse to wear the cap and surplice , and to write to dr. bucer to declare against them ; for which you were severely reproved by that moderate and learned man. doctor martyr , doctor bucer , and john a lasco . truly we are very sensible of the great favours we have received from the church of england , and are very sorry that there fell from us any expressions , and that there was allowed by us any practice that occasioned the saddest difference that ever happened in the church of england , if we consider the time how long it continued , the eminent persous therein engaged , and the doleful effects thereby produced ; and we observe that there have been three degrees of nonconformists ; . those in our dayes in king edwards , who scrupled only at some vestures and gestures . . those in queen elizabeths time , who excepted against several things in the common prayer , cannons , and articles . . those since who have laid the axe to the root of the tree , and destroyed the government it self . — court. after these men had been a while among us , two opposite parties plainly appeared . i. the founders of conformity such as by politick compliance and cautious concealement of themselves in the dayes of king edward the sixth were possessed of the best preferments in the church , and retained many ceremonies decent and ancient ; the authority of cranmer , and the activity of ridley headed these parties , the former being the highest , the latter the hotest for conformity . ii. the founders of nonconformity , such exiles as living in states and cities of popular reformation , were well affected to the discipline of the places they lived in ; who returning late to england were at a loss for preferment , and renounced all ceremonies practised by the papists ; john rogers lecturer of pauls , and vicar of st. sepulchers , and john hooper afterwards bishop of gloucester , were the ringleaders of this party . and that these divisions grew to that heighth that the king with the advice of his counsel sets out a proclamation septem . . to this purpose , whereas of late by reason of certain controversies and seditious preachers , his majesty moved with the tender zeal and love he had to the quiet of his subjects , hath forbidden any to preach without licence from the lord protector , or the arch-bishop of canterbury , upon hope that they whom they licensed should preach and set forth only such things as should be to gods honour , and the benefit of the kings majesties subjects : yet seeing such preachers did still behave themselves irreverently , and contrary to good order in preaching against such good instructions as was given them , whereby much contention and disorder might rise and ensue in his majesties dominions ; wherefore his highness minding to see shortly one uniforme order throughout the realm , and to put an end to all controversies in religion , for which purpose he hath called together the learned men of the realm , doth inhibit all publick preaching , wishing all ministers in the mean time to pray for a blessing on the convocation ; and so to endeavour themselves that they may be ready to receive from the convocation a most godly , quiet , and uniforme order to be had throughout all his majesties realmes and dominions . l. a. b. c. i pray , who appeared first against the order of the church , and how did they behave themselves ? l. b. w. to feel the pulse of authority , one dr. glasier as soon as ever lent was over . ( and it was well he had the patience to stay so long ) affirmes publickly in a sermon at st. pauls cross , that lent was not ordained of god to be fasted on , nor the eating of flesh to be forborn , but that the same was a politick ordinance of men , and might therefore be broken by men at their pleasure . for which doctrine as the preacher was never questioned , the temper of the times giving encouragement enough to such extravagancies , so did it open such a gap to carnal liberty , as the king was faine to shut up by proclamation on the . of jan. and the protector by an army raised under pretence of a warr with scotland : he knowing very well that all great counsels tending to innovation in the publick government ( especially where religion is concerned ) are either to b 〈…〉 cked by armes , or otherwise prove destructive to the undertakers . l. b. l. who was the next who appeared against the kings orders and injunctions . l. b. g. encouraged by glasiers boldness and impunity , several persons began to run out to some excesses , which occasioned these words in a proclamation of the . march / . we wish all men with such obedience and conformity to receive our order , that we may be encouraged from time to time further to travel for the reformation , and setting forth of such godly orders as may be most to gods glory , the edifying of our subjects , and the advancement of true religion ; willing all our subjects in the mean time to stay and quiet themselves with this our direction , &c. as men contented to follow authority , and not rashly to run upon such courses as may hinder what they intend to promote : for now there arose persons by the name of gospellers that dispersed ( as bishop hooper observes in the preface to his commandments ) several blasphemies and heresies ; and some anabapists who lurking in the late kings time began to appear publickly , and were convicted at st. pauls before the arch-bishop of canterbury and others , where being convicted of their errors , some of them were dismissed with an admonition , some were sentenced to a recantation , and others were condemned to bear their faggots at st. pauls cross : these persons among the many wild opinions they vented , were notorious for this one , ( as campneyes writings , one of themselves , but coaverted , declared ) that they laid all they did upon the eternal predestination , making god who is of purer eyes then to behold any , the author of their iniquity . court. it 's true these wild persons and the women that were burnt for heresie , might disturbe us : but who kept up the old cause of nonconformity ? witnesses . one mr. john hooper a grave and learned man , who had lived a while in zuricke with bullinger , and returned after henry the s . death with very good affections for the way of the zuinglian and helvetian churches ; and by his frequent preaching and learned writings having got credit and esteem with the earle of warwicke and other great men , was preferred bishop of gloucester ; but when he came to be consecrated , he utterly refused the episcopal habits wherein he was to appear at his consecration by the rules of the church ; and the arch-bishop cranmer would not consecrate him without them . court. why do not you my lord , use these innocent and harmless weedes ? hooper . i put my self upon the trial of the searcher of hearts , that no obstinacy , but meer conscience makes me refuse these ornaments . court. these ornaments are indifferent of themselves , and of ancient use in the church . hooper . they are useless , being ridiculous and superstitious . court. nay , my lord , being enjoyned by lawful authority , they become necessary , not to salvation , but to church unity . hooper . being left indifferent by god , it is presumption in man to make them necessary . court. by a moderate use of these ceremonies we may gain papists into the church . hooper . while you hope to gain papists into the church , you will lose many protestants out of it . court. you discredit other bishops who have used this habit. hooper . i had rather discredit them then destroy mine own conscience . a. b. c. how think you being a private person , to be indulged with , to the disturbance of the publick uniformity of the church . hooper . if it please your grace but to read these letters , i hope you will be satisfied . a. b. c. these are to desire that in such reasonable things wherein my lord elect of gloucester craveth to be borne withall at your bands , you would vouchsafe to shew him your graces favour ; the principal cause is that you would not charge him with any thing burdenous to his conscience . j. warwick . we understand you do stay from consecrating our well beloved mr. john hooper , because he would have you omit , and let pass certain rites and ceremonies offensive to his conscience , whereby ye think you should fall in premunire of lawes ; we have thought good by advice aforesaid , to discharge you of all manner of dangers , penalties , and forseitures you should run into , by omitting any of the same , and these our letters shall be your sufficient warrant aud discharge . edward rex . my lord of london , what shall we do ? if we indulge him , we open a gap for licentiousness ; if we refuse him , we incur his majesties displeasure . ridley bp. lond. publick uniformity shall never be broken to satisfie a private humour ; i had rather displease his majesty , then break his lawes ; especially seeing i observe it is the design of the whole faction to feel the pulse of authority ; for mr. calvin hath written already to the lord protector to lend mr. hooper an helping hand , whereby we are to understand that the whole party is engaged . court. truly mr. hooper , though we honour your parts and piety , yet for your contempt and disobedience we can do no less then send you to prison . hooper . may it please your honours , having consulted with peter martyr and mr. bucer , and with some of his majesties most honourable privy counsel , i shall very willingly wear my episcopal robes at my consecration , and attendance upon his majesty , upon condition i may be dispensed withal from wearing it at ordinary times as my daily habit. court. much must be allowed his majesties most honourable privycounsel , much to your piety and worth , and much to peace ; but let no man presume upon the like indulgence for the future . bish. gardiner . who do i see there ? mr. tims , are you not a deacon ? what do you appear in a coat and stockings of divers colours ; is that a fit apparel for a deacon ? tims . this vesture doth not so much vary from that of a deacon as your lordships from that of an apostle . court. you forget your self — take him jaylour , this is the effect of indulgence . bish. ridley . mr. rogers , i pray do you come hither ; you are prebend , and lecturer of pauls , why do not i see you in your cap and tippet as the other prebends your brethren ? mr. rogers . i will never agree to that part of conformity , but on this condition , that if you require the cap and tippet ; &c. then it should be also decreed that all popish priests ( for a distinction between them and others ) should be constrained to wear upon their sleeves a chalice with an hoste upon it . court. nay , mr. rogers , do not you teach us how we shall govern the papist , but learn you how to obey yourself . bish. horne . i pray mr. prolocutor , why did mr. philpot leave the convocation house lately ? prolocutor . according to the laudable customes of this realm and church i put mr. philpot to his own choice , whether he would wear the cap , the tippet , and other ornaments which divines wear , ( to which he was then averse ) or depart the convocation house ? he fairly forsook the house . court. alas ! to what sad times are we reserved , when a few mens fancies and opinions shall controule the whole church ! — what will be the issue of these extravagancies ! did you hear how one sir steven of christ-church about a moneth ago preached down the names of churches , dayes and moneths ; that fish-dayes should be altered , and lent should be at any time , but between shrovetide and easter : did you hear how he went from the church to the elmes to preach , and from the high altar to the church door to read communion service ; what will be the end of these things ! principlis obsta : do you hear how many letters calvin hath sent to this realm , . to the king , exciting him to proceed to a through reformation according to his project . another to the counsel telling them how many things were amiss in the church and kingdome . and another to the arch-bishop of canterbury , certifying him that there was an whole mass of popery in the common prayer . chap. ii. queen maries reign . court . whilest mutual animosities were heightened between the opposers and asserters of the liturgy , providence put a period for a time to that controversie in england ; such who formerly would not , soon afterwards durst not use the common prayer , mass and popery being set up by queen mary in the room thereof : as when children fall out and fight about the candle , the parents coming in and taking it away , leave them to decide the differences in the dark : do you think this controversie died with the happy times of king edward ? no , the poor protestants carry it over with them to banishment , . to embden in east friezland ; . to weasel in the low-countries ; . to arrow in switzerland ; . to strasburg ; . to zurich ; . to francford on the meyne . mr. fuller , will you be pleased to acquaint the court with the opposition made against the church of england at francford ? fuller . if you take no more delight in hearing , then i in discoursing on so doleful a subject , you will shew little cheerfulness in your faces , and less joy in your hearts ; yet will i relate this sorrowful accident impartially , the rather because the pen-knives of that age are grown to swords in ours ; and their writings laid the foundations of the fightings now adayes . court. proceed ( sir ) to the history of these nonconformists when the protestants were banished in queen maries dayes . fuller . the english protestants came first to francford jun. . and on the . of july had a church allowed them by the special favour and mediation of mr. john glauberg , one of the chief senators of that state ; but upon condition that they should not dissent from the french in doctrine , or discipline , or ceremony , least thereby they should minister occasion of offence , — and in conformity to the french , . they concluded that the answering aloud after the minister should not be used . . the letany , surplice , and other ceremonies in service omitted as superfluous and superstitious . . that there should be another confession of more effect as they said , and framed according to the state and time . . that after a psalme a prayer for the assistance of gods spirit ; and the sermon with the articles of belief with another psalme , they should dismiss the people with a blessing . . that there should be a prayer for all the church after sermon . court. what strange alterations are these ! but were they contented to set up this new way among themselves ? fuller . no , but they require those of zurick to come thither and joyne with them in that new way , declaring the necessity of joyning themselves in one congregation , where they might serve god in purity of faith , and integrity of life , having both doctrine and discipline free from any mixture of superstition : but they of zurick excused themselves ; . because they saw no necessity that all the english should repair to one place , it being safer to adventure in several bottoms . . because they were peaceably seated , and courteously used at zurick ; and did not see how they might be all entertained at francford . . because they were resolved not to recede from the liturgy used in england under the reign of king edward the sixth . court. how began the trouble at francford ? fuller . mr. chambers and mr. grindal came from strasburgh with a motion to those of francford that they might have the substance and effect of the common prayer , though such ceremonies and things which the country would not bear might be omitted . whereupon mr. knox the pastor of francford and others drew up a platform of the english liturgy as used in england under edward . court. i pray what was mr. calvins judgement of it ? fuller . he in a letter of . jan. . saith , that in the english liturgie there was not that purity which was desired to be ; and although these things were at first tolerated , yet it behooved the learned , grave , and godly ministers of christ to enterprize further , and to set forth something more filed from rust and purer . court. what was the effect of this letter ? fuller . this struck such a stroke , especially in the congregation at francford , that some therein who formerly partly approved , did afterwards wholly dislike ; and more who formerly disliked , did now detest the english liturgy . court. o sad ! at first some garment : and vestures were disliked ; then some passages in the liturgy , and now the whole liturgy it self ! but we entreat you go on . fuller . the learned , and prudent , the pions and resolute dr. cox coming out of england and arriving at francford with several other men entred the congregation mar : . behaving themselves according to the customes , rites , ceremonies of the church of england ; which customes the pastor mr. knox preached against as superstitious , impure and imperfect , and withal prevailed with mr. glauberg so far that he publickly professed that if the reformed order of the congregation of francford were not therein observed , as he had opened the church door to them , so would he shut it again . a. a. a. court : who was active there against the church besides ? fuller . one will. wittingham , one ( though of less authority ) yet of as much affection to the cause as knox himself , who could not endime the great english book ; for so he called the liturgy . court. what did these say for themselves . fulier . they murmured that arch-bishop cranmer had composed a far more pure liturgy , but the corrupt clergy ( they said ) would not admit of it . court. who else opposed the church of england ? fuller . one ashley , who set up the people above the ministers ; and occasioned the drawing up of a new discipline , which occasioned new troubles , and the choice of new pastors ; untill by the mediation of dr. sandy's and others they were perswaded to some tolerable agreement . court. i pray let the persons concerned answer to their names . register . mr. williams , mr. knox , mr. wittingham , mr. fox , mr. gilby , mr. goodman , mr. cole , mr. wood , mr. keth , mr. kelk , mr. hilton , mr. south-bouse , mr. purfote , mr. escot , mr. grafton , mr. walton , mr. kent , mr. hellingham , mr. carier , &c. court. could neither the love of peace nor compassion of your suffering mother , nor the offence of the reformed churches , nor your own dangers keep you within compass , order & government ! nonconf . we aimed at pure reformation , an holy communion with other churches , and the peace of protestants . court. truly you have layed the foundation of the most dangerous schisme that ever was in the world ; and what the issue may be god only knoweth , and late posterity may suffer : o why cannot you agree seeing ye are distressed brethren ? o why cannot the great things wherein you agree unite you , rather then the small matters wherein you differ should divide you ? greatly doth concerne all of you in your places , and orders to put to all your powers , prayers , and interests , for preserving the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace , that in nothing you give offence to the church of god ; rather be willing to silence and smother your private judgements , and to relinquish your particular liberties and interests ; to question and mistrust your singular conceits and fancies , then to be in any such thing stiffe and peremptory against the quiet of gods church ; the weak to be humble and tractable ; the stronge to be meek and merciful ; you the pastours to instruct the ignorant , to reclaime the wandering , to restore the lapsed , to convince the froward with the spirit of meekness and compassion : and trouble not your superiours by ungrounded scruples , uncharitable prejudices , or unquiet , and in the end uncomfortable singularities : if any consolation in christ , if any comfort of love , if any fellowship of the spirit , if any bowells and mercies , be ye like minded ; take heed of strife , of vaine glory , of pride in your own conceits , of censure of your brethren , of private respects , lay aside your own reputation , have such humble judgements as that you may be willing to learn any though unwelcome truths , and to unlearn any though a darling errour ; have such humble lives and purposes , as that you may resolve to obey with duty , whatsoever you are not able with reason to gainsay , to the suppressing of those unhappy differences , wherewith by the cunning of satan the church of god is like to be too much disquieted . whosoever therefore by pride or faction , schism or ambition , or novel fancies , or arrogance , or ignorance , or sedition , or popularity , or vain glory , or envy , or discontent , or correspondence , or any other carnal reason shall cause divisions and offence : we shall not need load them with any other guilt then the apostle doth , that they are not the servants of christ , ro. . . you that are governours , rule with authority and meekness ; you that are teachers teach with wisdom and compassion , that you cut off occasion from those that seek occasion , and may open a way by peace and holiness to your native country . chap. iii. queen elizabeths reign . court . there is a restless party that will never suffer the church to be quiet ; who when they could not prevaile by force at francford , endeavour to carry on their design by policy from geneva : for when they heard that queen elizabeth was come to the crown , ( who they thought would favour the most moderate and prudent reformation ) that the world might believe that they were for peace , they write to the english at franeford by will. creth dec. . that all offences heretofore taken or given , might be forgotten , and that for the future they might no more fall out again for superfluous ceremonies . but however to make sure work , calvin writes that the queen cannot be head of the church , so that if she would , she cannot establish the liturgy , with the rites and ceremonies of the church of england . a. b. c. see how they are improved ; first they refuse some gestures and ornaments , next they mislike some passages in the liturgy ; and at last they throw away the liturgy it self : and now they deny the queens ecclesiastical authority whereby these things are established . so that now the axe is laid to the root of tree , — the very papists being taught by the centuriaters and calvin to deny the queens supremacy . court. what was the next appearance of this party ? h ch. one mr. gilpin a grave , pions , and reverend person , refuseth the bishoprick of carlisle , as that party thought , to the great disparagement of that order . court. mr. gilpin , did you refuse that bishoprick out of any disaffection to that office ? gilpin . no verily ; but because i had so many kindred about carlisle , at whom i must either connive at many things , not without hurt to my self , or else deny them , not without offence to them ; to avoid which difficulties i refused the bishoprick , o. o. o. o. court. what was the next attempt of this party ? h. h. having declared that the queen was not head of the church , they undertake to reforme it without her . court. how durst you medle with the church without order ? nonconf . idolatry is not to be permitted a minute ; all that have power , have right to destroy it for gods glory ; if soveraigns forget , it is fit subjects should remember their duties . court. do you know what you say ? though you may reforme private persons , and families , and refraine to communicate in any outward act contrary to gods word ; yet publick reformation belongeth to the magistrate ; and a good deed may by you be ill done , for want of a calling to do it . — non licet populo renuente magistratu reformationem moliri . court. what was the next practice of these men ? fuller . they procured that the th . article , viz. that the church hath power to decree rites and ceremonies , &c. was by the malicious cunning of that opposite faction left out of the printed articles . p. p. p. court. but let us have further evidence concerning these men and their way . fuller . when the reverend bishops urged subscription to the liturgy , the ceremonies , and discipline of the church , mr. fox appeared before arch-bishop parker to subscribe , the old man produced the new testament in greek ; to this ( saith he ) will i subscribe ; and when a subscription to the canons was required , he refused , saying , i have nothing in the church save a prebend of salisbury , and much good may it do you if you will take it away from me . dr. lawrence humphry refuseth subscription , saying , that they should never have his hand , who had not his heart . and one gilby , more furious , declamed against ceremonies , calling them the known liveries of antichrist , cursed patches of popery and idolatry , worse then lousy , &c. william wittingham , and christopher goodman would say that they did not fly from popery in queen maries daies to embrace it under queen elizabeth . the last is thomas sampson dean of christ church , who refused subscription . court. if any man teach otherwise , and consenteth not with heart and hand , to the wholsome forme of sound words , and to the doctrine which is according to godliness , he is puffed up and knoweth nothing , but languisheth about questions and strifes of words , whereof cometh envy , strife , rayling , evil surmizes , froward disputations of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth : q. q. q. but did they content themselves in not subscribing ? l. b. g. no ; for when the first race of peaceable nonconformists were almost all dead , then behold another more active and zealous succeedes them ; as coleman , button , benson , halingham , who inveighed against the established church discipline , accounting every thing from rome , which was not from geneva . court. did they stop here ? cambd. no ; for they began to defame the queen who established church discipline , endeavouring to bafle ecclesiastical authority by overthrowing the fountaine of it . for this year . three london nonconformists , viz. will. white , tho. rowland , rob. hawkins , being cited before grindal bishop of london , and asked this question , have we not a godly prince ? speak , is she evil ? they made their several answers in this manner . . white . what a question is that , the fruits do shew . . rowland . no , but the servants of god are persecuted under her . . hawkins . why this question the prophet answereth in the psalms , how can they have understanding that work iniquity , spoiling my people , and that extoll vanity ! court. i pray what followed ? cambd. they are imprisoned by her majesty untill they made a recantation . and in the year . an act of parliament requiring that subscription , which was before sparingly pressed , and daringly denyed ; that every minister should subscribe before decemb. . . the nonconformists kept private meetings in woods and fields , and private houses . court. what mr. cartwright , are you turned conventicler ? cartw. that name ( which agreeth to anabaptists ) is too light and contemptuous , to set forth such assemblies , where gods word and sacraments are administred , even by your own confession . camb. o mr. cartwright , it is you that sent an admonition to the parliament concerning grievances with a remedy , viz. the admiting of a platforme of discipline by you prescribed . court. what is that ! an admonition ? that is the lowest of ecclesiastical censures , and a preparative if neglected to suspension and excommunication ; what ? if the parliament comply not with your admonitions , they must be suspended and excommunicated ! you have brought things to a fair pass . we intreat you mr. cambden , give in some further evidences concerning these persons . cambd. when two admonitions made by mr. cartwright had been answered by dr. whitgift , and defended again by mr. cartwright , and at last unanswerably confuted by dr. whitgift ; mr. cartwright either scorning , or not able , or not daring to answer , attempts some other designes , and particularly at wandsworth in surrey , they presuming upon parliament favour , set up their discipline privately , which they could not establish publickly , with the assistance of mr. cartwright , mr. field lecturer there , living in london , wilcox , standen , jackson , bonham , smith of mieham , serretloe , cram of roe-hampton , edmonds , clark , travers , barber , gardiner , cheston , crooke , egerton ; r. r. r. r. under whose wings a congregation of dutch anabaptists assembled themselves without all-gate in london , who being discovered , eight of them were banished , and two not withstanding mr. fox and other nonconformists intercession for them , were burnt at smithfield , by the statute de heretico comburendo . fuller . yea , to countenance their way they pretended to dispossess several persons of devils untill a trick was put upon them by one rachel pindor aged . years , who deceived the ministers of london , from whom more prudence and less credulity might have been expected ; what prayer ! what fasting ! what preaching ! in a word these men grew so extravagant that mr. fox and others were deserted by them as lukewarme , and remiss in the cause . and among these rigid men , coleman , furton , hallingham , and benson , exceeded all of their own opinion . l. b. e. yea one of them deering by name , was so bold as to tell her majesty that in persecution under her sister mary , her motto was tanquam ovis , as a sheep , but now it might be tanquam indomita juvenea , as an untanred heifer . court. surely the queen still retained much of her ancient motto as a sheep , in that she patiently endured so publick ( and causless ) reproof , in inflicting no punishment upon him , save as they say she commanded him to forbear preaching at court. s. s. s. l. b. l. upon these mens perverseness , others were encouraged , particularly the family of love who appeared ao. . set up by one h. nicholas ao. . maintaining strange communion with god , and venting phantastical and allegorical interpretations of scripture , and allowing themselves to continue in sin , that grace may abound : which the privy counsel endeavoured to suppress by an abjuration . l. b. c. to what purpose are they abjured who teach in higher germany that god hath freed them from all oaths , vowes , promises , covenants , debts , and all carnal obligations ? a. b. l. what should be the reason of this looseness in this kingdome ? p. h. the turbulent party had under hand contrived that edmund grindal ( a person a little inclined to their way ) should be promoted to the see of canterbury , who encouraged private conventicles under the name of prophecyings , where all might speak one by one , that all may learn , and all may be comforted : which if permited to take place , would occasion such schisme and faction should prove the ruine of church and commonwealth . court. it is a strange thing to see how the vigilance and activity of these men infinuated their cause to the favour of the chief men in church and state : how with good words and fair speeches they deceived the hearts of the simple . l. b. b. and now they had gotten an arch-bishop that would wink at them ; the nonconformists were not idle , but appointed a meeting at cockefield ( mr. knewstubs care ) in suffolk , where threescore of norfolk , suffolk , and cambridge met together , to confer of the common-prayer-book , what might be tolerated , and what was necessary to be refused in every point of it , apparel , matter , forme , daies , fastings , injunctions . l. k. yes , and they say they had another in cambridge , finding so much favour as amounted to a connivance at their discipline . a. y. what was the reason of this liberty ? fuller . . the state was so intent upon the jesuits , that the nonconformists escaped : . my lord of leicester in the counsel , and my lord of canterbury in the church , were looked upon as patron generals to non-subscribers : for indeed my lord of leicester ( whether perswaded by the lord north , or his own policy i know not ) though publickly complying with other lords of the counsel , yet privately engaged all his power and interest for the nonconformists . l. c. t. wherein did my lord of leicester make use of his power for the nonconformists ? fuller . . he preferred the kentish ministers petition for liberty of conscience ( in reference to the liturgy , the articles , and the queens supremacy , to which they were called upon by my lord of canterbury to subscribe and for further reformation ; ) to the lords of the counsel ; he made mr. beale an able and eager clerk of the counsel their friend ; yea he procured a letter from the lords of the counsel , viz. burleigh , sbrewsbery , warwicke , nottingham , hatton , &c. to the arch-bishop to suspend his severity against nonconformists , and to restore those that were outed to their livings for nonconformity ; yea he prevailed so far with burleigh himself as to write to the arch-bishop , that as he would not have him so remiss , as to leave ministers to their own liberty , so neither would he have him so rigid as to press conformity to the height : omnia licent , ( saith he ) omnia non expediunt : he set walsingham upon writing to the arch-bishop for several nonconformists , intimating to him , that moderation must settle the church . court. what effect did these great intercessions produce ? p. h. they produced this effect , ( that notwithstanding my lord of canterburies resolution to stand to the rules of the church ) the nonconformists at several meetings above said , decreed a new platform , which they said consisted of things that might well stand with the peace of the church . where they resolve first , that schollars should not offer themselves , but stay untill they be called to the ministry in certain charge by the classis upon the recommendation of the brethren . . none ought to conforme any further then the classis alloweth him , and not at all to the liturgy and cannons now established . . church-wardens and overseers should be turned to elders and deacons , &c. . that there should be classical , provincial and national assemblies ; yea and comitial ones too . lem. what were they ? fuller . that is meetings at the commencements and acts in cambridge and oxford , conveniently shadowed by a confluence of ministers and people coming to those solemnities . court. to see how great a flame a little sparke kindleth ; to see a party who from an hand bredth is improved to a cloud that overshadoweth the heavens , the higher power of this nation ! but did they stop at this ? cambd. no ; for one brown of whom it was presaged at cambridge by dr. still and others , that he would disturbe the church , returning from zealand to warwick with one harrison a pedant , inveighed against all authority ; and set up the independent , or congregational way , propagated by several books untill coppen and thacker were hanged for it , the one on the . of june , the other on the . of june . at st. ed. burg. court. an wholesome severity that some should suffer , and all should fear ! but what became of brown himself ? t. f. by the cecils favour , who were his kinsmen and his own compliance , he lived at a church , a good living in northamptonshire , until the year . when he dyed for an assault and battery in prison at northampton . court. where was authority all this while ? t. f. it disputed at lambeth in two conferences . to no purpose , and then pressed the subscription of these three articles ; . that the queen had supream authority over all persons and causes . . that there was nothing in the common prayer contrary to gods word . . that the book of articles was agreeable to that word . court. were they convinced by argument , or did they submit to authority ? t. f. neither ; but ( a parliament being called . march . ) they set up underhand a national synod , who were better discovered by their moving then by their meeting , whose practices were more conspicuous then their places ; some agents for them were all day at the door of the parliament house , and some part of the night in the chambers of parliament men , effectually solliciting their business with them . court. how did this their diligence appear ? p. h. in the effects of it , this parliament was observed so extraordinarily busie in church affaires , about approbation of ministers , about ecclesiastical courts , bishops , &c. that the arch-bishop whitgift was faine to write to the queen to own her own lawes , orders , and authority ; which she did , consenting to no material alteration . court. when this way failed them , what course took they ? t. t. they piece the lions skin with the foxes tayle ; and what they could not do by interest against the arch-bishop , they attempt by compliance with him . l. b. d. how i pray i p. h. why mr. cartwright by leicesters mediation gets in with the arch-bishop , and is so civilly used by him , that leicester writes a letter of thanks to the arch-bishop , with a promise that cartwright shall be at his service . l. b. o. but doth the arch-bishop trust him ? t. h. the wary arch-bishop is not overfond of his friendship , but keepes him at distance , and writes to leicester , that he is at peace with him , but that he cannot without further tryal of him give him any license to preach . court. what doth travers do all this while ? p. h. he complaines to his patron the lord burleigh against the liturgy . l b. e. what answer doth that wise lord make him ? t. f. he demanded whether they desired the taking away thereof ? they answered no ; but only the amendment of what was offensive therein : then said he , do you make a better , such as you would have setled instead thereof . court. what did they ? f. f. they divided themselves into four classes ; the first whereof framed a new liturgy after the forme of geneva : the second altered it in . particulars : the third resolved on another model : the fourth dissented from the former : and so that wise statesman put them off for the present untill they should agree . court. then we may observe that it is not so much the liturgy and cannons that trouble them as that they have no hand in composing them ; now we may presume that they are quiet . f. f. no ; for now they endeavour to overthrow the high commission , and the oath ex officio ; the one they perswade the world is against the law of liberty , none is bound to betray himself ; the other against the law of the land , none ought to be disseized of his liberty or estate without a tryal by his peeres . court. this was very subtilly done to bring in as many of their party as either were molested in the high commission court , or troubled with the oath ex officio — who were the greatest part of the kingdome : although to avoid the odium of these things , arch-bishop whitgist brought the nonconformists to the star-chamber a court without dispute ; and as the high commission was her majesties highest court for ecclesiastical causes over which sue was head ; so the oath ex officio is usually tendred in chancery in matters not touching life or limb ; and there was no man there tyed to betray himself , but he that was first betrayed by a common fame , from which he was to cleer himself by his oath according to the scripture , deut. . . and the practice of geneva its self in camparel and baltasers case . would none of the nonconformists when they were indited for a fame of a conventicle or so , clear themselves by an oath ? f. f. . some of them would not take this oath at all , but would say , if our faults be unknown , why are we accused ? if they are known , produce your evidence . . some would take the oath , but with a protestation that they would not thereby accuse either themselves or their brethren . . others would take the oath to accuse those that were truely guilty to remove evil from the land , but not to accuse their brethren for those things which are not faulty . . others would take the oath where there were no witnesses to be had . jo. . . court. when the powers in being would not establish them , what paines they take to weaken those powers that they might not oppose them ! but when their arguments failed them against these courts , did they sit down ? cambd. no , but in the next parliament they had such an influence upon the commons choice that they at their first sitting offered the lords a petition of sixteen branches in favour of the nonconformists . . that they might be free from the cannonical oath . . that they might not be troubled for some things omitted in the common prayer . . that they might be called before lay officers . . that those that were suspended for non-subscribing , might be restored . . that they might not be troubled at the high commission but for high offences . . that they might have in every arch-deaconry common conferences among themselves . . that the high censure of excommunication might not be denounced for small matters , nor by lay-men . . non-residency may be removed out of the church . &c. and other things against insufficient ministers ; in the discussing of these particulars the house fell most fiercely against non-residence . court. truly non-residence may be allowed in way of recovering of health by changing of air , of study for a time in the university , of mortal enmity borne by some of the parish ; of prosecution of law , or of being employed in publick affaires . l. b. truly i could allow pluralities , as encouragements to learned men , so they be in one diocess . l. h. it is fit her majesty as head of the church should confer with the bishops about these matters . t. f. therefore the bishops very prudently petition her majesty to take the case to her own hand , to whom it properly belongeth , remonstrating the inconveniences ensuing to the state present , future , to cathedral churches , to universities , to her majesty , to religion , in case pluralities were taken away . court. who was it that promoted this cause so far ? t. f. the lord grey seemed the most jealous , who wished the bishops might be turned out of doores as in the case of premunire in h. ths . time , because they upheld abominable non-residence , and pluralities against their own consciences and the good of the people . court. if the lord had not been on my side , might the church now say , if the lord had not been on my side , they had swallowed me up quick : for these were but the pretences under which the adversaries threatned the whole church ; for take away encouragements , and you take away worth and parts ; take away parts , and you overthrow the church : when this most hopeful enterprize that ever the adversary undertook failed him , was he satisfied ? p. h. no , for having formerly ( as they said ) tried all serious and sober meanes to reclame the bishops , which hitherto proved ineffectual , they set up libelling in these pamphlets , . the epitome , . the demonstrance of discipline , . the supplication , . diotrephes , . the minerals , . have you any work for coopers ! . martin marre prelate , sen. and jun. . more work for coopers . a new way whereby whom they could not in earnest make odious , in jest they would make ridiculous for their garbs , gate , apparel , youth , defects and infirmities ; its strange how secretly these were printed , how speediy dispersed , how generally bought , how greedily read , yea and how firmly believed , especially among the common sort , to whom no better musick then to see theie betters abused . court. such bookes are altogether unbecoming a pious spirit , to print , or publish , or with pleasure to peruse , which supposed true in matter and measure , charity would rather conceal then discover ; the best of men being so conscious of their own badness , that they are more careful to wash their own faces , then busie to durty other mens : an archangel thought himself too good to bring , and satan not bad enough to have railing accusations brought against him : but what was the law asleep all this while ? c. n. the law fined two knights , knightly , and wigston for entertaining the press gentlemen , and discovering the press ( which was first set up at mously in surrey , and removed thence to faushey in northampton shire , then to laton , thence to coventry , thence to welstone in warwick shire , thence to manchester , and there found by h. e. of derby , in the printing of more work for the cooper . ) they found out udal , penry , greenwood and barrow , and condemned them ( penry for being the author of martin marre prelate , & udal for being the author of demonstration of discipline ) who were executed afterwards to the great terrour of evil doers , and peace of the kingdome . court. poena ad unum , terror ad omnes . l. b. c. l. o the sad condition of the church , which like rebeccab had twins of discipline strugling within her , the hierarchy , antient and established ; the presbytery newly founded by some clergy men , favoured by many of the gentry , and followed by more of the common sort , who being prompted with that natural principle , that the weakest must be the most watchful , what they wanted in strength , they supplied in activity . court. i pray wherein were they active when all these courses failed them ? l. b. c. l. a synod of presbyterians of the warwick shire classis was called at coventry the tenth day of the fourth moneth as they said , that is april , where they resolved . private baptisme unlawful ; . homilies useless ; . the sign of the cross dangerous ; . not to communicate with unlearned ministers , yet they may hear lay-men ; . bishops are unlawful ; . that they have no power of ordination or jurisdiction ; . that they will privately bring wise men to the approbation of the holy discipline , and afterwards teach it publickly to the people : these and other things necessary at all times were subscribed by all the classes in england , with humiliation for their former conformity , as mr. johnson witnessed against them when he revolted from them . court. what became of these men ? p. h. cartwright was cited to the high commission on the . of sept. . to answer to these articles against him , . that he had renounced his orders ; . that he was ordained beyond sea ; . and there had setled a presbyterian consistory , where he had presumed to ordain others that new way ; . that they had exercised their authority in admonition , suspension , &c. against the lawes of this realm ; . that though he had promised not to oppose the lawes , yet he did it in neglecting and opposing the orders of the church , and inveighing against the governours , in publick preaching and private conference ; . that when he should pray for bishops , he used these words , because that they who ought to be pillars in the church do bend themselves against christ , therefore o lord give us grace and power all as one man to set our selves against them : and by his perswasions others did the like ; . that he received the sacrament sometimes sitting , sometimes walking : . that since his suspension by the bishop of worcester he had presumed to appeal from him and preach publickly ; and by his own authority to own a servant of his guilty of fornication , a forme of penance in st. maries in warwick ; . that he presumed to ordaine fasts contrary to the church of england ; . that he had nourished dissentions between her majesties subjects , by distinguishing them into godly and profane ; . that he concealed the authors of some late libells , and said in their behalf , that they who would not amend by grave admonitions , should be further dealt with to their reproach and shame ; . that he had composed a book called disciplina ecclesiae sacrae verbo dei descripta ; allowed at several meetings in oxford , cambridge , warwick , &c. and practised in several places , where mr. cartwright was chief . court. what saith mr. cartwright to these articles ? cartw. i think i am not bound to answer to them by the lawes of god. bishop almer . you must then to the fleet. cartw. gods will be done . l. b. c. what were the discourses that were abroad of these proceedings ? t. f. i pray hear mr. vviggingtons words in a letter to mr. porter of lancaster . mr. cartwright is in the fleet for the refusal of the oath ( as i hear ) and mr. knewstubs is sent for , and sundry worthy ministers are disquieted ; so that we look for some bickering ere long , and then a battle which cannot long endure . court. and no wonder that they talked at this rate ; for they had now by their private agents procured a letter from king james to the queen , not to straiten men for setting forth the evangel in the simplicity of their consciences . but did they break out into any excesses and extravagancies ? p. h. yes ; for with these encouragements hacket , arthington , &c. were animated to kill the queen , the privy councel , and to speak and do such strange things that they were hanged , august the twelfth . court. what was that hacket ? a. b. he was so civil by nature that he bit and eat his mistress note when a school boy ; he was at first an informer against recusants , and then by his access to great men so busie , that he was the great patron of non-conformity , despising all ministers ; and though in their company , yet saying grace himself alwaies , and so in all ministerial duties : so angry he was with the queen that once he stabbed her picture , &c. court. enough of him : good lord to see what a schisme will come to in time ! nonconformity was now much improved , & many state businesses are by turbulent spirits shufled into that cause ; it were worth the while to have before us a series of their meeting and actions in general . mr. stone . to satisfie my own conscience , and for the peace of the kingdome , i shall informe your honours what i know in this matter . court. where did they meet ? mr. stone . . at london in travers , egertons , gardiners , and barbers house ; . in cambridge at st. johns ; . in northampton at mr. johnsons and snapes house ; . at kettering in mr. dammes and my house . court. when did they meet ? stone . . since the beginning of the last parliament , of which they had great hopes . court. who met ? stone . cartwright , travers , egerton , clark , gardiner , brown , barber , somerscales , chatterton , gyfford , allen , edmunds , gellibrand , culverwell , oxenbridge , barbon , flud , snap , johnson , sibthorpe , edwards , spicer , fleshwore , harrison , littleton , williamson , rushbrook baxter , king , proudtome , mastre , bradshaw , dammes , pallison , okes , atkinson , and my self , and several schollars of oxford and cambridge . court. this is ingenuously done of you mr. stone , and we look upon you as a man in whom there is no guile . stone . i can do nothing against , but for the truth ; let truth and justice take place , et ruet mundus . l. b. l. thus one linke being slipped out , the whole chaine was quickly broken and scattered , this one discovery marred all their meetings , there being none now that could trust , or be trusted . court. yet they were not quiet , but being disappointed one way , they attempted another ; for one travers ( ordained beyond sea , and of so great repute among that party , that with mr. cartwright he was invited to be a professor at st. andrews upon mr. melvins motion ) being setled at the temple a lecturer , endeavoured to gaine the great interest of the law on his side , and there opposed mr. hooker about predestination , the church of rome , &c. with a design ( as some think ) to make parties there for other purposes , untill he was silenced by the arch-bishop ; . because he was not lawfully ordained ; . because he preached without licence ; . because he had disturbed the peace , and that wholsome order of her majesties , that no opinions should be publickly refuted , but that notice should be given to the ordinary to hear and determine such cases to prevent publick disturbance . l. b. c. it was that he looked for , that he might ( as he did afterwards in a supplication to the councel ) set his patron cecil and others to revive the good old cause ; which if opposed by others , ( as he knew they would be ) would be patrons to that cause , if not for conscience , yet for their honour . court. he knew that if once great men be inveigled to appear , they will go through with it. what became of this master travers ? l. b. w. when he could not prevaile in england , he went to try whither he might reforme ireland , and to that purpose very cunningly got to be priest of trinity colledge neer dublin , where he might have the advantage to instill his principles into the youth of that nation , and so secure to himself and part , if not this , yet the next generation . court. now it may be presumed that the church of england had rest round about . p. h. not so ; for these men finding that people were weary of small diffences , about cap , surplice , &c. that they might have some just occasion to oppose the church , one dr. bound set up judaisme , in a book asserting that christians are bound to as strict an observation of the sabbath as the jewes , by a precise rest from all recreations , feasts , study , and whatsoever but praying , hearing , reading , and holy conference ; which doctrine was very taking for its own purity , and their piety that owned it . court. the cunning of these men , while the bishops are providing for ecclesiastical authority against their discipline , they leave that as not so considerable among the vulgar , and set up extraordinary directions for the lords day ; which while the church opposed , it was looked upon as ungodly and prophane ; and now it was that this party got the opinion of purity and holiness among the people , which was no small advantage to their cause ; — the piety of the persons being a fair way to perswade the world of the truth of their opinions ; but how were these men maintained when they were suspended ? p. h. mr. cartwright had a catalogue of sixteen hundred sixty three patrons , who allowed the least of them five pounds a year , towards the maintainance of that way ; and it is observed of him that he was very rich , and it s known that mr. travers left zion colledge an excellent library , with l. worth of plate . court. some of them gained more by their private conferences , then by their publick preaching they could otherwise have expected . chap. iv. king james reign . court . but now queen elizabeth was dead , these men thought they were sure of king james , who was alwaies bred under them , and frighted to their way in his mothers belly ; what was their carriage upon that alteration ? sand. one mr. pickering a northamptonshire gentleman , a favourer of that way , rid post with the newes of queen elizabeths death to king james ; and no doubt took his occasion to urge something in favour of the nonconformists , but how far , and with what answer he moved the king , is uncertain : but dr. tho. nevill dean of canterbury sent by whitgist , brought back a wellcome answer of his majesties purpose , to uphold and maintaine the government of the late queen as she left it setled . court. king james foresaw the dismal things the world was to look for from those men ; as appeares by his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : he knew that a presbytery as well agreeth with monarchy as god and the devil ; they are his own words ; he knew no bishop no king. l. b. c. yet mr. cartwright dedicates his comment on ecclesiastes to king james ; and the presbyterians prepared a petition before hand against the parliament sat , managed by mr. hildersham , mr. egerton , which though called the millenary petition , yet with seven hundred and fifty two preachers hands was it presented to the king and parliament . court. how did the king like this canvasing for hands ? l. b. e. his majesty foreseeing that they were likely to trouble him and the next parliament , granted them a conference at hampton court ; where dr. reynolds , sparkes , and mr. knewstubs , and chadderton appeared on the one hand ; bishops , bancrost , mathew , bilson , babington , rudd , watson , robinson and dove ; dr. andrews , overall , borlow and bridges , field and king appeared . court. what did they desire ? dr. r. . that the doctrine of the church of england should be kept pure : ( for now to make us more odious , they quarelled with our doctrine . ) . that good pastors might be planted in all churches to teach the same . . that church government might be sincerely ministred according to gods word . . that the book of common prayer might be fitted to more increase of piety . court. what would they have altered in the doctrine ? a. they would have predestination and perseverance more clearly held forth . court. by all meanes ; and the church must be now looked upon as unsound in doctrine , as it was afore corrupt in discipline ; yea the nine lambeth articles and all the controversies about them must be inserted in our confessions of faith : as king james sa'd of one craiges in scotland , i renounce and abhor , till his multiplied renunciations so amazed the people that they fell back to popery . they urged other things about ordination , priests intention , catechisme , &c. but that was only to colour over the maine design . court. what did they more besides ? a. . they moved a reformation of sabbath profanations . court. still they would be the only men that took care of purity and holiness . a. . they moved a new translation of the bible . court. good , good ! thereby they might perswade the people that they had not the true word of god. a. . they prayed the suppression of seditious bookes . court. better and better ! they had never writ any seditious bookes i 'le warrant you . what did they intend by good pastors ? a. such as would neither read prayers , nor homilies , but make religion nothing but preaching . court. what were their exceptions against common prayer ? a. they excepted against the harmeless surplice , the antient sign of the cross , a some words in the matrimony , against ecclesiastical censures by lay-chancellors . court. what did they desire in church government ? a. that there should be a meeting of ministers every three weekes in royal deaneries , who should reforme things in their deaneries . court. what was the issue of this conference ? a. that they should all conforme , or avoid the land ; whereupon the nonconformists there submitted . court. the king observed that their exceptions were frivilous and such as argued more peevishness then conscience , and that they did not so much dislike affairs as they disliked that they had not the ordering of them : were they now satisfied ? p. h. no , but they agreed thus , viz we whose names are under written are agreed to make our humble petition to the kings majesty , that the present state of the church may be reformed in all things needfull , according to the rule of gods holy word , and agreeable to the example of other reformed churches , &c. which petition they subscribed thus , your majesties most humble subjects , the ministers of the gospel , that desire not a disorderly innovation , but a due and godly reformation . court. what would they have in that petition ? a. they desired that cross , surplice , confirmation , church-musick , kneeling and bowing might be removed ; . that baptisme should not be administred by women ; . that the communion be administred not without examination and a sermon ; . that the service should not be so long ; . sunday to be strictly observed , and the holidayes not so ; . the word priest and absolution , &c. changed ; . canonical scripture only read ; . an uniformity of doctrine prescribed . . they desired that pluralities and nonresidence might be provided against ; and that ministers be not urged to subscribe but according to law ; and that all ministers should preach . . some reformation of ecclesiastical officers , their fees , &c. these things they urged , saying to king james , who knowes not , whether you are come to the kingdome for such a thing as this ? — court. this petition ( they say ) was favoured by some scotch grandees , who would be considerable by being the head of a faction . h. h. yes , it was so cried up that the family of love likewise presumed to petition for themselves , that they might have a toleration and liberty of conscience : and another party presented a petition to the house of commons assembled in parliament . h. w. yea , and the high commission proceeded against them ; they began to entereain several lawyers to dispute points of law in their behalf ; so that most part of the kings ministers , courtiers , lawyers , &c. were engaged in the promoting of that way . court. had they no design to carry on by the new translation of the bible ? a. yes , for they endeavoured to have the geneva notes inserted in the margin ; and so the bishops bible might have a presbyterian comment . court. what did these men more in king janes his reign ? a. they did endeavour by strictness and severity in their conversation in keeping sabbath , &c. to gaine the love of the people , when they could not gaine the countenance of the king ; and therefore they oppose the kings declaration for sports on the lords dayes ; one thrask especially appearing violent that way . s. h. yea , and as they were in great esteeme for their strictness , so they would be for their industry : they being the only men that opposed the kings declaration , . for catechising in the afternoon instead of preaching . court. what said they against this declaration ? a. they said first , christ sent ministers to preach , and they should not forbid them ; . soules should not be starved ; . they that were licensed to preach , might choose their text , and not be restrained to the lords prayer , the creed , the ten commandments , &c. . why should not men teach predestination which the scripture hath taught ? . why should lecturers be discouraged , whereas the power of godliness flourished most in those places where these lecturers were ? court. alas , alas ! these lecturers laid the strongest foundation for nonconformity : catechising in the afternoon edifyeth more in the principles of the doctrine of christ then both sermons : and for predestination it is a point too high for most people to hear , and for most preachers to teach : — but this king kept them under well enough . how came they to prevail in king charles time ? chap. v. king charles the firsts reign . a. in king charles his time they observed first a faction at court , and they found some men willing to head them , that they might ballance other persons who were head of the protestant party . . they observed the kings necessities which a parliament must supply , and they knew the parliament would be for their turn . . they observed a difference between the clergy and others about arminianisme , in opposition to which many joyned with them ; yea so considerable they were that it was observed that doctor preston rode with king charles and the duke of buckingham in a coach from theobalds to london , the coach being shutdown , the day king james died . court. how got they in with the parliament ? a. the gentry were so weary of the high commission and star-chamber , and other severe courts , that they would joine with any body that would help to pull them down ; besides that there were several persons of great parts discontented for want of preserment , as j. h. d. h. a. h. w. s. t. w. — whose busie spirits kept under by king james , were now more active in the indulgent time of king charles . court. do they set these men immediately upon establishing their way ? f. f. no ; they stir them up against arminianisme in mr. mountagues bookes and others ; knowing that mr. mountague would have friends in court , and that these would oppose the gentlemen in parliament , who enraged there with , would close with this party more firmely , and do any thing to spoile their enemies at court. court. was it for arminianisme that mr. mountagues book called appello caesarem was so much opposed ? a. no , it was for some smart truths concerning that party , which they were not willing to hear of . court. what did wisemen judge of that stir the commons kept with mr. mountagues book ? a. my lord of canterbury hath entred it in his diary thus , ' i seem to see a cloud arising , and threatning the church of england ; god for his mercy dissipate it . court. what was the danger ? a. it was this , that the nonconformists under pretence of suppressing arminianisme , were able to be revenged of master mountague for some tart expressions against them , notwithstanding his majesties protection of his own chaplain , so that the king was faine to leave him to himself , and to stand or fall ( as he told the duke of buckingham , who sounded him to that purpose ) according to the justice of his cause . c. how went they on ? p. h. as the great champions of truth forsooth they procure two conferences at yorkehouse before the duke of buckingham by the mediation of r. e. of vvarwick , between dr. buckridge , dr. vvhite , mr. mountague , on the one hand ; and bishop morton and dr. preston on the other ; where their design was to divide the nobility , clergy , and gentry , and get as many as they could on their side against arminianisme , until they had got such a party as might be able to carry all before them ; for they knew that those learned gentlemen , and ministers who were of their mind in some points , would , being provoked by their adversaries , be of their mind in all . — c. but do they stay here ? l. no ; but being intent upon their design , and knowing that the king was well setled and resolved against all innovations , they intend to weaken his power , and to that purpose they retrenched his prerogative by many laws and statutes ; and questioned dr. manwaring for preaching up his prerogative , being resolved to put all power in the parliaments hands , who were too well affected to their way . f. yea , they were so bold as to employ two persons , humphreys and jones to hinder bishop mountagues confirmation by alledging against him some frivolous exceptions , so much did they prevaile now they had joyned themselves to the discontented , the antiarminian , &c. s. but while the wisemen of this party were driving on their design covertly , and politickly , one leighton was to break the ice , and feel the pulse of the times , and to that purpose he sets out a book called zions plea , rayling against the queen as idolatrous , and exhorting men to kill the bishops , and to smite them under the fifth rib . c. was he suffered ? a. no ; when his party saw that he was not suffered , they let him shift for himself , and they go on in a more prudent method . court. how ! f. that they might engage the clergy to themselves , they set up a committee for buying in impropriations ; viz. dr. gouge , sibbs , mr. offspring , davenport , &c. who were to buy so many livings to be bestowed on the favourers of the new way ; whereby of nine thousand ministers , three thousand and nine hundred might be sure to their side , beside those presented by the many patrons that were devoted to their party . court. here they took care to prefer their friends ; how did they bring men up still in their way ; notwithstanding the discouragement of publick authority ? p. h. when they had preferment they were sure to have friends ; yet they had persons of their way in both universities , very vigilant for their interest , as appeared in oxford , where one thorne of baliol , and ford of magdalen hall broke out into bitter invectives in their sermons on this text , numb . . . let us make us a captain , and let us return into egypt . king. . . and be cried against the altar in the word of the lord ; and said , o altar , altar . court. it was a notable way to buy out impropriations to set up lecturers , knowing that they who hold the helm of the pulpit in england , alwaies steer peoples hearts whether they please , whereby they might have more chaplains depending upon them then either king or bishops ; but the great plot lay in securing the universities , where if young men were tainted with their way , they would not depart from it when they were old : but did any countenance these persons ? a. yes , the proctors and dr. prideaux , with dr. wilkinson , untill the king appeared against them at woodstock . court. now the king interposed his authority , we may presume this faction was quite dashed . e. g. by no meanes ; for the expelling of these preaches expelled not , but encreased the differences in oxford , which burnt the more for blazing the less . court. how came dr. prideaux to favour such persons ? a. h. his love to the predestinarian way which these men promoted in an high degree ; this was these mens policy to joyne with some eminent men in some opinions that they might have their favour and assistance in other things . court. what was their next project ? a. w. they set up the sbabatarian controversies again by one bradbourne , which if the church allowed of , she went against her own judgement ; if she disallowed , she was looked upon as an enemy of godliness , and a friend to all prophaneness , yea so high did they raise these controversies , that they made a difference between the judges and the bishops , the one allowing a liberty on the lords day , the other punishing it . and when the church declared her judgement moderately , they procured underhand many reproaches and hard speeches to be cast upon her , as if she intended to destroy that godliness which she taught , and to undermine that religion she professed . court. not a word all this while of their discipline ? a. no ; for they resolved upon other wayes of undermining the church of england , and upon her fall they would raise themselves ; — but some hot-headed persons , as bastwicke , burton , and others break out to some excesses , for which they are severely punished . court. what is the reason that they are so fierce now ? f. m. upon bishop abbots death who was over-indulgent to them , the arch-bishop pressed conformity very severely , whereupon they who hid themselves under other pretences , discovered themselves against altars , kneeling at the sacrament , holiness of churches , &c. l. c. m. let me tell you that there was one accident happened that helped this party very much . court. what was that ? l. c. m. the bishop of lincolnes discontent , who said that all flesh in england had corrupted their wayes , and maintained many private correspondencies dangerous to church and state. l. c. n. the design of these men growing now ripe , as they had by lectures and private conferences debauched many here , so they go abroad for aid to the brethren of scotland , who are at their devotion , and ready upon their call to disturbe the peace of england . court. how durst scotland stir ? j. c. the people in england having kept the king bare , put him upon some displeasing courses to furnish himself , and maintaine the peace of the kingdome ; who should oppose this his majesties course but the puritans , who thereby became the patrons of their country , and were sure to be chosen to the next parliament , where they might joyne with their brethren the scots , who if they made a war , were assured that the king should not be able to resist them ; for they being sure to be chosen in parliament , let them know that they would not assist the king against them . court. when they got at last to be the prevailing party in parliament , what did they ? a. they called to an acount all persons who had pressed strict conformity , and countenanced those that refused it ( witness dr. cozens , and smart , ) bastwicke and burton who came triumphantly to london , and were ordered reparations for their services , and sufferings . court. how did they proceed ? a. they setled a commitee for religion , who appointed a subcommittee to prepare matters for their cognizance ; where was , conformists . bishop williams , doctor hacket , bishop vsher , doctor holdsworth , bishop morton , bishop hall , doctor prideaux , doctor ward , doctor browning , doctor featly . nonconformists . doctor burgess , mr. white , mr. marshall , mr. caryl , mr. calamy , mr. hill , mr. newcomen , doctor twisse . c. but this meeting was only a pretence , while the house carried on higher designes against deans and chapters , root and branch , for whom doctor hacket made a speech in the behalf of the church ; against whom dr. burgesse made a speech in behalfe of the faction . l. c. n. yes ; and they began to pull down the bishops , step by step : first , from the lords house : . from all civil power : and then they pull down those courts that kept them in order all this while , viz. the star-chamber , and the high commission . n. o. i observed that the poor bishops went down first in their reputation and esteem , they not suffering them to be called right honourable , nor to have precedency . — n. m. and to make sure work , the rabble were stirred up against them , to the danger of their lives , and strange petitions procured , in so much that the poor men were in a streight ; to keep the house was dangerous ; to leave it at this time was unworthy . c. what did they do ? n. they were trepanned by bishop williams to a remonstrance , for which they were all committed to the tower , and impeached of high treason ; and now the bishops were safe in the tower , the bill against them passed the house , and they were for ever excluded the house . c. now the king could not help the church , the bishops were secured , the severe courts against the factions were down , how did the people appear ? n. q. their restraint being removed , they broke out to an excess of riot , in petitioning , preaching , rayling , a company of fanaticks in southwark crying that the law of uniformity was the law of bishops , and so to be repealed ; the citizens crying to your tents , o israel . court. having now almost destroyed the church government , discipline and worship , what do they not endeavour to set up their own way ? n. h. yes , by all meanes : but by degrees that the kingdome might not perceive it , but think they were easing it all this while . c. how did they contrive to set up their new government ? n. h. they called an assembly of that way , 〈…〉 . gouge , mr. calamy , mr. caryl , dr. spurslaw , tho. goodwyn , phil. nie , &c. who proposed to the parliament the new church government and directory ; who thereupon abolished the ancient church government , worship and discipline : and took a solemn oath as they of scotland had done before , every one in his place , to stand by this new way , which oath they imposed upon the kingdome . c. what , do they impose any thing ? k. c. o yes ! there are none more severe in imposing upon others , than those that would have liberty themselves . court. where was the king all this while ? l. b. n. being not able to reach the church but through him , they having made him as odious as they could to the people , by ripping up all the faults of government in a remonstrance , and having frighted him away with the fury of the incensed multitude that were in open war with him , that the world may see that there are no innovators in the church but such as are traytors to the state. court. it was very strange the whole house of commons should go along with them in these enormities ! n. h. the honest gentlemen could not help it , for they were overawed by the rude rabble , who came to the house in whole multitudes with petitions , remonstrances , grievances , about religion , liberties , and rights , to which was added all that prevailes with men of force , or flattery , of craft or terrour . court. now ireland was all in a rebellion ; scotland was up in armes ; and they in england practised : they after some treaties with the king , and disputations with his divines , alter church government , and settle that discipline which they had contended for these . years . l. b c. when it was established , did the people submit to it ? n. h. no , for they looked upon it as a yoake which neither they nor their fathers could bear . court. how did they propagate it ? h. j. they sequestred all the orthodox clergy , and setled in their places such men as were ready to advance their new project ; th 〈…〉 who complained so much when a dozen ministers were 〈…〉 , made nothing to silence five or six hundred at a time . l. h. yet for all this the new government was not owned ; for there arose other factions innumerable , who though they differed among themselves , yet agreed in this , viz. that they would have no government , but that every one according to his own conscience might do what was good in his own eyes ; as the presbyterians cryed formerly , so the independents cried now , that christians should have liberty of conscience to do according to the best light afforded them . court. it pleased god to let them set up what they so long looked for ; that the world might see what they are , and what is their way , and what is the dreadful consequence of that way when it doth prevaile ; their pretences before they had the government in their own hands , were such as rendred them very amiable , and made them the darling of the people ; their practices when they had it , made them the most odious of mankind . l. b. c. the people would never believe their mischeif untill they saw their practice ; and providence let them take a turn upon our stage , to see how they would behave themselves , untill they went off odium humani generis . l. h. when they had suppressed the orthodox clergy , alienated their maintenance , overcome their friends , and put him to death who they knew must otherwise avenge on them these abominations ; ( for these people had the face too before the world to lay violent hands upon the lords annointed ; ) they made an act wherein it was not lawful for an orthodox man by any meanes to exercise his ministry , being made uncapable either of performing the duty , or of enjoyning the maintenance of a minister , either as chaplain , tutor , schoolmaster , curate , vicar , or pastor . l. h. this cut off all the orthodox men that were already , root and branch ; but what care did they take of the next generation ? a. c they furnished the universities with active men that might instill their principles into all the youth ; yet lest some honest men as d. h. dr. s. dr. g. and others should take care for the succession of true ministers by encouraging some youth to embrace the antient catholique and apostolique way , they set up a company of triers , as manton , caryl , nie , &c. at church door as it were , who were to take care that every man should be true to their faction , before he were admitted to any place bestowed upon him . l. o. yea , and least any man that was approved by the triers , should afterwards embrace any of the antient rites and orders of the church of england , they set up in the several counties commitees of ejection , who upon the first discovery of an orthodox man had power to render him uncapable of any livelyhood in the church . l. w. and that they might be sure of the following age , they set up new ordinations , and new associations of ministers . l. i. yea , and rather then fail , if they had not the clergy to serve their turn , they were resolved to take away tythes , and all the setled maintenance of ministers , and to let into the church all persons whatsoever that were well affected to themselves and the good old cause ; in somuch that we were like to be all teachers and no hearers : yea in a word they intended to destroy all law , order , civility , learning , and pure religion before god , and undefiled ; they denyed the being of the church , and so began to set up a new church ; but that god who seteth in heaven laughed at their devices , and brought their counsel to nought . chap. vi. king charles the seconds reign . court . when a miracle restored the church , and a wonder defeated these prosperous parties to their own and the worlds amazement , we presume that they acquiesced in it , and thought , this is the lords doing , and it is marvelous in our sight ; stand off from these designes lest we be found fighters against god. r. l. especially when besides a providence that might awe these men , there came along with his majesty so much clemency , mercy , and goodness , as made him ready to condescend as far as reason , honour , ' or conscience would give him leave , and content to yield them all that seemed to advance true piety ; he onely desiring to continue what was necessary in point of order , maintenance , and authority to the church government , and what he was perswaded was agreeable to the true principles of government , raised to its full stature and perfection , as also to the primitive and apostolical pattern , and the practice of the universal church conforme thereto ; nor were the remaining differences so essential to the peoples happiness , or of such consequence as in the least to have hindred the subjects security or prosperity ; for the best enjoyed both many years before those demands were made . court. but the violence of these men was not so allayed . r. l. no , as soon as ever the king set foot on english ground , smectymnuus was re-printed , the covenant maintained , the kings engagement in scotland was urged , and many more pestilent papers , whose common business was by affronting the law , and slattering the rabble to cast all back into a confusion ; a multitude of persons are dissatisfied , to whom his majesty must either yield , or endanger himself and three kingdomes : whereby they extorted from his majesty an interim or a declaration concerning ecclesiastical assaires , which allowed them their own liberty , untill his majesty could with the advice of his divines take further order . court. where they herewith satisfied ? l. r. no , for i do not well remember , where ever that party was ever satisfied with less then all ; allow these people their askings in what concernes their discipline , will they rest quiet there , without further hankering after the legislative power , the milita , or some such thing . ? c. how did they proceed ? r. l. they endeavoured to settle that temporary indulgence for ever in parliament ; and when that would not do , they endeavour to confirme the people in what they had taught them formerly ; and urged his majesty to a conference , which he granted them at the savoy , between mr. baxter , dr. seaman , mr. calamy , bishop reynolds , dr. jacomb , dr. manton , dr. conant , dr. spurstow , and dr. gunning , dr. pearson , dr. peirce , &c. c. what was the success of that conference ? r. l. the same with all others of that nature , whence both parties go away as firme in their several opinions as they came ; it was not very likely that a day or two's conference should perswade them out of that way , out of which the last hundred years law , power , and reason could not force them . c. it 's strange to see a few people endeavouring to impose upon a whole nation ! it's strange that a novel and vulgar imagination should bear down an apostolical institution ; that a private opinion should consist with a publick and solemn sanction . r. l. yet what these men could not do by argument , they endeavour by policy ; using all meanes to secure to themselves the next parliament , by the most notorious canvasing that was seen this twenty years ; elections being carried with much partiality and popular heats in most places by the last endeavour of a gasping faction . c. it is well they kept themselves within the compass of private policy and design . r. l. not so ; for at first all the lesser factions were hid in presbytery , till time and military success discovering to every one his own advantage , invited them to part into several parties , as independents , anabaptists , quakers , fifth-monarchy men , who all before the king came drove on their several designes ; but were united since as against a common enemy . c. then these factions grew to the same excess with them in germany , who were at first an harmless people , but at last made havock of all order , law , peace , religion , &c. and whatsoever is sacred among mankind : but what did they attempt ? r. l. they contrived a design so comprehensive as might take in the whole stream and strength of discontent and faction in the nation , a design for liberty of conscience in religion , for ease of all payments , as taxes , tythes , &c. in estate , for recovery of king and bishops lands to the thousands that bought them ; of selling all in common to all the poor people that in quiet times could not live . c. o their cunning ! they knew that they were inconsiderable , untill discontents drave men into sidings ; as ill humours fall to the disaffected part , so all who affected any novelties , or complained of any grievances , adhere to that way as the most remarkable and specious note of difference in point of religion : but did they break out into any violence ? r. l. yes , they set up a desperate party to break the ice , as venner , &c. according to whose success the rest were ready to fall in and improve the design , to the ruine of church and state. c. when this failed , what course did they take ? r. l. they scribled as crofton ; they petitioned and engaged the grandees , &c. and left no stone unturned , untill the parliament closed up all disputes by several wholsome acts for the security of the kings person and government ; for suppressing of all pamphlets , and unlearned writings ; for prevention of all tumultuous petitions ; and for submission to the present government , requiring them to declare their covenant illegal and unjust ; their warr against the king-rebellious ; and that the discipline , ceremonies , worship which they had so long opposed , was according to the word of god. c. what did they after the enacting of these wholsome lawes ? r. l. many of them endeavoured by the mediation of potent friends to have the execution of them suspended , untill his majesty and councel satisfied them ; there was no suspending of lawes so much conducing to the peace and welfare of the nation . c. yet it was observed that they were so confident of success in this attempt , that they writ to several not to subscribe , for his majesty would allow an indulgence : what other wayes might they use ? l. . they offer his majesty l. ( a temptation to his necessities like that of the devils to our saviour when hungry , and taking of the stones of the church for bread ) to confirme the sale of bishops lands with the deanes and chapters for . years , reserving the old rents to the church ; which , the noble prince to his eternal memory be it recorded , refused with scorn and disdain , suitable to his fathers piety , who said he had rather live upon the almes of the church as some of his predecessors kings of england had done , then put the church to depend upon the charity of the people . c. alas ! who could be so bold as to offer his majesty a motion to sacriledge ! f. l. even dr. burgess who had written that sacriledge was no sin , in a book and case he writ for the sale of church lands , whereof the good man had to his own share no less then seven hundred pound a year . c. well! his sacred majesty did graciously appoint a way to satisfie all parties in point of interest ; but what do they do in point of conscience ? f. l. they make the best friends that could be made with words or money ; ever andanon you should have a lord drop into their church at aldermanbury , walbrook , &c. a great encouragement no doubt ; and you would meet half a douzen or half a score of the reverend pastours walking at court , as demurely as i have seen so many spirits walking before my lord maiors banqueting house , and to the same purpose of haunting too : here is first offered an advantage to be head of a party to any that is ambitious ; . here is money for any that is covetous ; . here is the good old cause to move the well affected . c. what is their success ? j. b. having very large promises they go home and republish the old principles to the number of . copies , to keep up the spirit of reformation ; they write for the necessity of it , they plead for the ministers that were in sequestrations ; they cry up directly or indirectly , the obligation of the covenant , some by writing as mr. crofton , and others by hinting ; scarce any sermon being preached without an use of perseverance to be stedfast and unmoveable , as mr. v. concluded with his beloved congregation . c. was there any more done ? i. b. yes , there was a book much applauded that was gathered out of the papers of a studious man that was formerly minister in bedfordshire , they say since his death , by a young man with others assistance , that litle understood the compass or merit of that controversie , to prove that there is no church government of divine right , the wary sirs being contented the cryed up divine right of presbytery should be waved a while , that the same right of episcopacy be suppressed altogether ; rather then the legal government should be established , they will wave the settlement of their own . c. he was a bold fellow that would publish any thing of his own , or of other mens , to dispute that which the church by bishop hall so clearly asserted , which its books so punctually pressed , which his late majesty so excellently disputed , and he with his eminent divines at the isle of wight so irrefragably proved : but what did he that writ , or he that set out that book mean ? did they resolve to make good what mr. hooker said that when we had disputed on both sides our selves a weary , a third party would come in , and with our mutual arguments against , and concessions to each other , overthrow us both , — or did they intend to remove all religion from its basis of divine right , and six it as mr. hobbes doth , upon humane constitution ? for although this book instanceth only in church government , yet the arguments ( to those that graspe and understand them , which i fear the publishers did not , ) would reach any point of religion whatsoever , and would make up the strangest piece of adiaphorisme that ever was in the world , since the interim of germany , — but they stick here . j. b. no , no , this was only to trouble the waters , and keep men irresolved as to the publick constitutions ; while they confirmed the brethren in their private opinions , — and are un bishoping timothy and titus , bidding men beware of diotrepheses , and those that lorded it over gods heritage , insinuating , they desired not rooos , a year , lordships , baronies , &c. but the liberty of their ministry ; and what was the issue of all this ? they extorted from the government an indulgence in order to a mutual coalition , good understanding and peace . c. what use did they make of that ? j. b. when it was expected they should have complied with his majesties incomparable design of charity , they go home and preach against the coming in of popery ; against covenant breaking ; against the prophaness that was breaking in upon us ; and they put out and discusse in print these queries about the interest of england : . whether the presbyterian party should in justice or reason be rejected and depressed , or protected and encouraged , since they forsooth brought the king in ? . whether the presbyterian party may be protected and encouraged , and the episcopal not deserted nor disobliged ? . whether the upholding of both parties by a just and equal accommodation be not in its self more desireable , and more agreeable to the state of england then the absolute exalting of the one party , or the total subversion of the other ? bold questions you will say , being indeed no other then thus much , viz. whether the particular and private humours of a discontented party is as considerable as the publick and general constitution of a well setled state . c. this is downright ; — but is this all ? j. b. not so neither ; for we have our slanting and back-strokes that are more effectual ; as to pass by many others , they preach and write for serious holiness as they call it , as if it were now leaving the land ; now or never they cry , a saint or a brute , in the preface or conclusions whereof they had their dogged insinuations , that the church was an enemy to holiness , and the professors of it , when it discourageth nothing but hypocrisie ; and when the men of the nose smell out that , out-comes a book of hypocrisie preached at the abbey at westminster , ( for the brethren have the thriving way of selling their sermons first from the pulpit , and then from the press , ) wherein the cavaliers who had been formerly the profane , were now the hypocrites ; but he that made all sure , is the man that writes the sighs and groans of the church , that party paleman , that speakes high fullam in the beginning of the book , and colemanstreet in the end of it ; this maus masters stabbed the king with his own power , and he ( a good proficient i 'le warrant him ) the church with her own weapons : but above all the legerdemaines of this party commend me to their sermons of persecution , and their preparation of people for it ; as if the common prayer had been as dreadful as a faggot ; to wear a surplice as to wear irons ; to exchange a benefice of an l. a year for a collection of l. had been a martyrdome ; and to visit the capon eaters , and the sop ladies , were a misery that should compleat mr. fox his volumn : — lord , what a work is here ! forsooth a few factious fellowes that had gone too far in the late rebellion , dare not recant , yea , rather then they will recant , they will leave their flockes , their dear flockes for which they would die , but cannot be honest for their sakes . c. but did not his majesty order a conference between both parties ? f. d. he did indeed between dr. reynolds , dr. conant , dr. spurstow , mr. calamy , mr. baxter , dr. manton , dr. jacomb , dr. bates , mr. newcomen , dr. seaman , &c. and dr. heylin , dr. gunning , dr. pearson , dr. pierce , dr. sparrow , &c. but what was the issue ? the sober party came off and would have acquiesced in his majesties gracious concessions upon those exceptions they made to the liturgy and ceremonies of the church : but a more fiery party ( for all the faction was then in town ) flew so high as to say , that an indifferent thing if commanded , was no more indifferent but unlawfull . c. sure such a position could not come out of their mouths ! f. d. indeed it is strange it should ; but it is attested by dr. gunning , and dr. pearson , who had the chief management of that affair . c. but would they do nothing towards a closure ? f. d. upon some parishes petition , particularly that of covent-garden , to my lord of london , some of them got readers ( as too many do still ) to say common prayer which they could not vouchsafe to do . c. but was there any further newes of the conference ? f. d. yes , when the concessions would not satisfie them , they disperse a thing called a petition for peace , to incense the people , to which they annexe an unauthorized forme of worship , composed , printed , published and dispersed by private persons , to affront publick authority . c. a petition for peace from them who fomented all our warrs , whose discipline was setled with conspiracy , and promoted by rebellion , conscience opposing authority ; men for their private conscience urging the king his own , — a petition for peace ; as if no peace without indulging the faction ; liberty of conscience now ; but what will it come to at last ? — lord , is there no peace to be had in the world unless these people are pleased ? f. d. no really ! for now they muster up the old objections against the common prayer ; and add new ones ; particularly mr. zachary crofton runs out into that excess , that we find him in the tower for a year together , and still abroad upon baile . c. but now all will not do , what shall we do then ? d. f. then we interrupt the proceedings of parliament by fly diversions ; we watch advantages , so that one session is over without any considerable effect towards a settlement , and in the interim of the adjournement we perswade the world they shall never meet , or if they do , shall speedily be dissolved ; and besides we have a plot managed by one philips , his brother that usurped , agmond shiam , gibbs and others to surprize whitehall , windsor castle , the magazine of london . c. how was that plot discovered ? d. f. even as the . plots that were managed against the government since the conquest by their own agents , who cannot be true to one another , since they have been false to the government . c. but when his majesty declared for an indulgence , did they acquiesce in that ? d. b. no! but they immediately petition for more , viz. that the tender consciences of young men in the university should be free , — which was as much as to say that we might have a young sett of presbyterians & elders , against the old one decayeth ; and over and above all this they sent to the forreign churches to keep correspondence with them . c. now i hope they have done . d. b. not so neither , but they are up with their old trade of prophecying of wonders , prodigies , star-gazing , conjunctions , and the judgements of god which they would say were the same now as in queen maries dayes , and in times of great alterations and changes . c. but were they true ? j. b. no , but upon the examination of particulars those were alive and well whom they writ dead , and they dead of a natural death whom they printed thunderstruck , — &c. after all this stir they joyned issue with the papists , even when they were most fiercely declaiming against them ; and by that combination the excellent act of uniformity was once thrown out of the lords house , and likely to have stuck there for ever : but when all these shifts fail , they prepared themselves for persecution as they called it ; and preached that the lights were extinguished , the dear pastors torne from their beloved flockes ; then they say , they preach their last , and that they are dying men , and that this may be the last opportunity ; now they give their rules , one . another . another . all may be reduced to these six , . that they should not forget their faithful pastors : . that when they cannot hear their words , they may read their workes : . that they should take heed whom they hear : . that they have nothing to do with idols : . that they persevere : . that they hold communion one with another . c. had they any more hope ? b. d. none at all , but that they thought the disbanded souldiers would be troublesome ; an expectation the prudence and wariness of our superiours defeated in that most eminent act of his majesties government , the disbanding of the army . c. what then ? d. b. no more , but that they encouraged their party to go on , and stand out against the act , that they might appear so considerable as to prevaile either with his majesty for an indulgence against , or with the parliament for a repeal of the said act ; to which end they sent their letters all over the kingdome to advise every man to stand to his principles , not doubting of a toleration upon his majesties promise at breda , with other arguments they could make use of ; and in order hereunto they oppose not the act in parliament , lest they should exasperate the noble patriots to severer courses , but they stand it out , that they might know their strength and power , not doubting but their considerable number and interest , which will appear by the publick and general dissent to the uniformity enjoyned , might gain them an indulgence , that will vacate and make void all former lawes ; and accordingly we find them with their bed-roll of those that were to be ejected , rather threatning then petitioning his majesty , ( after some tumults raised in dr. seamans and other churches , through which they would have his majesty see the inclination of the people ) as if they had said , may it please your most excellent majesty , whereas we are many , and our party very considerable for their interest with god and men , as you would enjoy peace and tranquillity in your kingdomes , or any quiet in your throne , we must intreat you to let us do what we please , and set no law or government over us , for we cannot in conscience endure any ; and upon condition we have what we desire , your petitioners shall pray for you . c. well , but his majesty is resolved , and the law indispensible . d. p. when they saw that , . they take an account of the ejected ministers through every county ; . they take the subscriptions of several well affected persons towards the maintenance of those persons , especially the elect ladies ; . they have country and city committees for that purpose , together with their treasurers in both places , by whose order the money is delivered to the respective ejected men according to their conditions , provided that they have good certificates of their sufferings and faithfulness . and then to keep the cause in heart and life , the farewell sermous are printed , first singly , and then in volums , as the dying words of the faithful pastors , whose heads are set before their sermons just as they looked from the pulpit , wrapped in their reverend white and black caps like the twelve apostles before the bible ; for though we worship not images , we adore imaginations . after this a seed plot of honest young men were to conforme as their fathers had done formerly , and so undermine the hierarchy once more as they did — who who were to be chosen lecturers ; ( for the lectures are their only hope ) for the faction would be quite over if the ministry depended for its maintenance only upon the church . c. how may these conforming nonconformists be discerned ? d. b. . by their habit ; for they wear neither girdle or cassock , but are all-a-mode and querpo divines . . by their double ordination . . by their setting poor readers to make the common prayer contemptible , and then praying an hour themselves , as if that prayer were inconsiderable . . by their preaching over the old ones notes , ah , precious are those elishaes that have the spirit of the eliah's upon them ! . by their canting notions of indwelling , enlightning , soul-saving , heart-supporting , and i know not what deluding notions that deceive the simple . . by their affectedly mortifyed countenances , or furious zeal , their bauble jingles , their long prayers , their indirect and wary mention of king and bishops , by ah lords and hughs ; by his bewailing the sins of the times , while he flattereth those of the faction ; by his hints of what is done abroad , but he is sorry for it ; by his sermons of inward sincerity against outward conformity , the sabbath against holidays , and a pure heart instead of the surplice . . by their attendance on the old patriarchs of the province , their correspondence with , and their certificates from them . . by their refreshing solifidian doctrines , their flowings of milk and honey , when others preach moral honesty , universal obedience , and good works . . by the great name of moderation . c. what do these men do to distinguish themselves from their brethren ? b. d. besides what i declared , . they groan under the burden of ceremonies ; . they shake their heads at the times ; . they bury , marry and christen by the directory ; . they visit and give the communion the same way , dispensing with kneeling even in publick . c. why are they suffered to do these things in other mens parishes ? b. d. why a piece of money is sent the poor parish priest to stop his mouth , as his fee for registring , yea so impudent are they that there are several men maintained about town to get into careless mens pulpits , who no sooner give them leave but the whole town knoweth it , and then what running ! what thronging ! what crouding ! but st. anthonies lecture the old seminary is the surest cord they have ; only now they have weaker preachers then they had formerly in that place , and indeed the sisters had need have candles next their hearts when they come to those raw morning discourses . c. they hear common prayer there ? b. d. they do hear common prayer indeed , but they think according to the directory till the poor reader hath done , and the formal bauble , the preacher forsooth comes up with his tedious gatherings out of wilkins his gift of prayer of an hour long , as if the church prayer had been nothing without his . c. but have they that have disserted their ministry , nothing to support them but voluntary contributions ? b. d. yes ; . the young sisters and widowes are bound to marry them , and so they as well as the apostles in time of persecution lead about their sisters their wives ; . they keep boarders , and under the pretence of a poor schollar , teach them to debauch all the youths of the kingdome , whereby the schisme is propagated and made perpetual ; . they print their own bookes and dedicate them to all the faithful ; . they turn sollicitors and tradesmen ; . they visit from house to house ; . they have their churches as entire now as ever they had , — having the conveniency of moorfields , islington , and hickney to entertaine them ; . they have concealed the table of tythes and duties from the orthodox ministers , and look what the people can cheat the one of , they bestow it on the other . c. is not the law open for the honest men to come by their dues ? b. d. it is , but the brethren will tire out an honest man with a common stock , or put him out of countenance with a common clamour . c. but how can they meet now the law is so severe ? d. b. why ? . they have private houses whereinto the entries are dark , and from which there are several passages into other houses ; . they meet at unusual houres , as at twelve at noon and about five at night ; . they are but few at a time ; . those that meet are invited to a feast , and if you surprize them , the table is laid and they go to dinner , only a chapter is read , and o what times do we live in , that a man cannot read a chapter without the danger of a premunire ! . the servants are all of the church . c. what do they do at their meetings ? d. b. they that have been there say ( how truly i know not ) that first they bewaile their apostacy from the old cause ; . they pray that the kings heart may be turned , and the councel of the wicked may be overthrown ; . they bewaile their neglect of the many opportunities put into their hands ; . they wish an union between all parties ; . they take in all intelligence , and likewise communicate all those scandals that lie upon the government ; . they teach perseverance ; . they take order about any new occurrences that happen ; as first if there be a new law , how to evade it ; . if any brother is taken in a snare , how to get him out by purse , interest , or importunity . c. how do the presbyterians keep the people in these courses from running into independency ? b. d. mr. crofton hath taken care of that by teaching that the people ought not to separate from the church as hearers , though the ministers do as preachers ; the presbyterian rabbies ( saith my author ) must leave the church , lest presbytery be swallowed up of episcopacy ; the people must not leave the church , lest presbytery should be brought to nothing by independency . c. really that was warily done ; but what hope have they to bear up in this way ? b. d. why first they watch the vacancies in this parliament ; and tugg hard in the new elections ; . they clap their hands at the little plots and the great quarels , and are observed to ride up and down incessantly at that time ; . they engross the stock , and stop the trade of the nation ; . they have active agents in ireland , where they are very troublesome — and unpeaceable ; . there is ( as it appears from the late plotters examination here at york ) a constant committee to manage all affaires yonder at london ; . forreign warrs ; . yea they promise themselves ( good christians the whilest ) great matters from the turk , and bless themselves when they consider what liberty they shall enjoy under that good man , calvino turcismus ; right ! . besides that many patrons reserve their livings for them . c. where can so many lurke as have forsaken their callings , rather then their rebellion ? d. b. they have a combination that every well affected noble or rich family shall no sooner want either a chaplain or a tutor , then a hopeful or an honest man , for so they talk , is recommended thither ; or if an honest man offer himself , the first question is , did you know mr. boules ? &c. c. it is well they are not suffered to print and preach however . d. b. they print as much as ever ! there is their bishops no preachers ; their vindiciae pietatis , as if none took any care of godliness but they , or as if there were no godliness in the world but their sniveling hypocrisie : dr. owen of liturgies , and his book against popery : i 'le warrant you if it had not been for these men , the silly people must think popery had been here before this time ; the latine apology for the nonconformists to their brethren abroad ; as if they would perswade us ( notwithstanding what mr. durell a forreigner hath written of the conformity of forreign reformed churches to our church ) that they agree with all protestants but we ; yea , they have engaged with some poor forreign divines to meddle with what concerns them not , yea with what they understand not ; not to mention that dreadful libell called meue tekel , and dispersed the very day of the kings death , and infinite more phanatick rhapsodies printed every day . c. how do these men escape the bishops courts ? d. b. . they keep in fee so many confiding lawyers , who are to find out all the wayes to escape and elude the lawes ; . they keep the officers in fee ; . they care not for an excommunication ; for a nonconformist in our parts durst come to church even before the judges , though he was excommunicated ; . they make the church wardens their own , therefore it is they busle so much at the election of them ; as at newbury where the faction was so unruly in easter week , that nothing but the train-bands could keep them in order ; they shift their dwellings and live in a corner that may be in two counties or diocesses , or at the worst they hide themselves in london where they are most secure , and most serviceable . c. it is a very strange thing that men should continue in a state of disobedience and uncharitable , considering how short their life is , and how sad their fame after death ! b. d. alas ! they are as famous as any men after their death ; for mr. clark he writes their lives , and the brethren erect their monuments , as any man , i am told , may see in the new church-yard , where mr. biddle hath a large square stone over his grave , and this inscription over it , hic jacet johannes bedellus artium magister oxoniensis , qui maxima dedit tam pictatis , quam eruditionis specimina . and another this , here lyeth one that feared god and honoured the truth : not one that feared god and honoured the king. c. an obstinate people ! d. b. if you knew all ! i have been told that either in london or westminster upon the of janu. last a silly fellow that could not speak sense , must needes bestow a sermon upon a congregation , and for the more solemnity give warning of it a week before hand ; but when he came , what did he pray , and prate against ? even three or four abominations , whereof one was the turning out of the ejected clegy ; another the corruption of gods worship ; and a third the patience and stupidness of the people under these abominations ; and not a word all this while of the kings death . c. was this man a conformist ? b. d. a very early one , they say . c. lord who encourage such men ! d. b. it was observed as i am informed , that one whose cozen was hanged here with us at york , was a maine stickler for this fellow . c. they are the most dangerous people that declare before god and men their acquiescence in the government , and yet thus act against it . d. b. i ; o if you did but hear how solemnly the graver sort of our bopeepes out of grotius , du plessis , amyrald , vives , &c. prove the truth of christianity , as if we were all heathens again since his majesties return , though just before it was the most glorious time for the light of the gospel that ever was in the world ; though i must needs say that their hypocrisie would make any man an atheist ; and that by their many religions we were in danger of enjoying none . c. but the ministers that fell off have been silent of late . b. d. so they may as long as there are so many that speak for them ; yet they are not so silent ; did you not hear their charge to archippus ? i mean did you not see a book called so , wherein they were stirred up by all the arguments in the world to invade their pulpits ; and the newes yonder , yonder at london was so stronge , that some of their reverences they say took coach very demurely to whiteball to wipe off forsooth that aspersion , although many of them creep up into some careless mens pulpits ; and you know how mr. calamy preached boldly at his own church , and how he made it a moot-point whether he had offended or no. c. was the late plot in the north a general one ? b. d. they would not a great while believe it was any ; yea , and that was the main plot to perswade others that it was none ; yet in the mean time how insolent ! how busie are they ! what riding ! what posting ! what writing ! we will be in chester the . of the sixth moneth , saith one ; tell brother owen we are . stronge of our own friends , &c. how sullen ! how dogged are they here , as well as some of our wel-wishers abroad , untill the design was broken , which in the breaking discovered a committee here in london that united all interests , and managed all affaires ! now the question will be whether the dissenting brethren ( considering their carriage and behaviour since the fancy began in king henry the eighths time , of which we have given an exact account to this hour ) are to complain if they are restrained by laws , and kept from meeting or acting by publick constitutions ? for answer to this , it is the observation of all men ; . that private men must be checked rather then the publick government violated . . that it is not safe or reasonable for any private opinion or fancy to controule or guide a publick authority . . that the king must either violate his own conscience , and so not have the liberty of it , which they insist on for themselves , or else check their pretences of theirs . . that they were never satisfied with any thing that was granted them ; he that allowed them a little , doth but give them a power to take more ; could all the late kings concessions keep them from his blood ? first its liberty , but at last it is a warr : they are a party not to be gained by obligations . . that neither scotland nor england had an houres peace or quiet since knox set footing in the one , or they who had conferred notes with him in the other ; but that blood , rapine , violence , malice , animosities , and plots have been the attendants of the good old cause since it was in the cradle . . that the law must not be ruled by a faction , and yet that the question is now whether they who overthrowed the law formerly may now controule , and they who raised a warr against it may be free from it in peace . . that the indulging of men because they are many , is rather an encouragement to villany , then a provision for tenderness . . that to ask liberty of conscience is to ask liberty to what they please , which they may call conscience ; for who shall judge what is really conscience , and what is really malice ? . that to grant these people what they desire , is to allow the reason of the reason of their requests , and so at once to reward one injury , and justifie another . . that the late warr begun with calling that christian liberty which the law calleth treason , that religion which the church calleth schisme . . that no oathes or vowes but one to rebell can tye these people . . that they would never trust others with the least indulgence . . that they are a people that rather then submit , expostolate ; whose addresses look like mutinies , and their petitions like threats . . that the whole business and bustle is but a contest between a law and a faction . and now considering these things , we must conclude that either the government must be again banished , or the faction ; that either the king for upholding the church according to law must be an exile , or they for supporting conventicles against the law must be proscribed ; and which is fittest , let the world judge . — the history of plots : or , all the plots against the government of england since the conquest , to this day , which are . in number unsuccessfull : — in a continued series of them , from year to year , to this present of february , . concluding with an exact narrative of the plot in york-shire . history is the knowledge of things past , whereby we may judge of things present , and guess at things to come . dionys. pet. pref. when i had taken up perswasions that interfered with the established religion of this nation ; & the publick laws laid hold upon me as well for my former engagements under the late revolutions , as for my present sentiments of the state of things that now prevailes ; those unruly lusts of pride , ambition , envy , covetousness and looseness that remain in the best , assisted with prejudice , discontent and sufferings ( and all improved by those vehement impulses of conscience , and a desire of liberty , that all men are sensible of ) transported my impatience , not only to murmuring , to speak evil of dignities , to despise dominions , to entertain evil thoughts of the rulers of my people , but ( so endlesse and boundlesse are the workings of a foule heart under fouler temptations ) to some dangerous considerations , how necessary , how lawfull , how easy , and how successfull an attempt more upon this government might be ; all the principles and grounds of our late engagements that are scattered in our remonstrances , apologies ; declarations , propositions , and states of the case , immediately offering themselves unto me , then prepared for such impressions ; yea the scripture it self , ( wherein i was much conversant in my solitudes , to my apprehension ) exactly answering my thoughts and inclinations , and with those glosses upon it thee lay before me there twenty years , looking like one great remonstrance for the good old cause ; so that my exceptions of things being before hand wrapped in scripture notions , i saw my own mind there so clearly , that i was resolved that an undertaking for the alteration of the present frame of things was not only my interest , but also my duty ; not only a kindness to my self and our common cause , but some service to my god : under these temptations a reverend and a most excellent person endeavoured to relieve me with three sorts of arguments . . the first whereof was from the concernment of private persons in the publick peace and welfare , and the great advantages men had from all governments in general , and every english mans interest under this government in particular ; which i easily evaded with the maximes of a commonwealth which possess more men then are publickly observed , and carry them to the affront , and weakening of all the rules , lawes and principles of monarchy that are now extant in the world . . the second was from the great obligations laid upon men to peace and obedience in great rules and examples , by christianity above all the religions in the world , it being not the least part of its glory & renown that it provides best for government and obedience , for the security of princes , and the peace of the people , of any perswasion under heaven , is the reverend person instanced in many of its theorems and principles , especially rom. . a pet. . to which i had my replies ready from the several discourses in justification of the late war , and the kings death , still extant , and still someting mens dangerous and discontented thoughts : especially the sermons before the parliament from . to . . the third , and so much the more cogent argument ( as fear is more prevailing then conscience ) and a care of our selves , of more force with us then a sense of our duty , was the dreadful event of all attempts against government , mentioned in holy scripture : which the good man urged with much earnestness and power . as , had zimri peace that flew his master ? can a man touch the lords annointed , and be guiltless ? my son fear thou the lord and the king , and meddle not with them who are given to change : for their calamity shall arise suddenly ; and who knoweth the ruine of them both ? whosoever loveth rebellion , a cruel messenger shall be sent unto him . curse not the king , no not in thy thought ; for a bird of the air shall carry the voice , and that which hath wings shall tell the matter . the terrour of which words was yet much allayed by the immunity and indulgence we already had , and might alwaies expect ; only one day considering with my self that the events and issues of things in the world were exactly correspondent with the prophecies and predictions in the scripture ; that heaven and earth might pass away , and the government of the creation be altered , and not one jot or title of the word of god should fall to the ground : i resumed the last argument , examined those sayings of scriptures aforementioned , comparing them with what happened upon that occasion in the world , and particularly recollected such memoires and observations of that nature as occurred in the english nation from the time of william the conquerer to our age ; out of which to my great astonishment i gathered this great conclusion ; ( which i think it the interest of this present age and posterity to take notice of , ) that as the scriptures have foretold some . years since , so we find it true in every age that government is so secured by the ordinance and providence of god , that all attempts against it have come to nought , and all open and secret conspiraties and plots have had only this remarkable issue , that they ended in the ●● ine of those that were engaged in them . § . . it is now near . since the government and monarchy of this kingdome was after the barbarousness of the brittains and romans , the confusion and unsettledness of the saxons , the incursions and intervalls of the danes , setled upon the foundation it now stands upon by william duke of normandy . in the year . edgar Æthelin king harolds son with his mother agatha and his two sisters margaret and christine , all of the blood royal retyred in discontent to scotland : our ancient and most desperate enemy followed by the great earles edwyn and morchor his uncles , the two arch-bishops stigand and aldred , and many other lords ; where first by alliance with the king of scots , who married margaret ; . by a correspondence with the danes they procured an invasion that made the north for . miles desolate ; . and by their agents in england raised insurrections in exceter , oxford , the isle of ely : the issue of which notwithstanding the dangerous combination , was first the ruine of the king of scots , who submitted to king william's mercy ; . the imprisoument of edgar and his lords during the kings pleasure ; and the settlement of the government by the curfeau bell , the law against the peoples armes , and the provision against the clergies temporal jurisdiction . § . . but restless discontent notwithstanding those dreadful examples foregoing of the ill success of rebellion , goeth ou ; for the year . waltheoff earle of northumberland with the earls of bologn , norfolk , and hereford , with the king of scotland , and the princes of wales , whom the kings of denmark and ireland asisted with . sail of ships , contrived a most dangerous plot to seize the kings castles and sea-towns , while the king was engaged in the siege of dole in france ; a conspiracy that threatned another change , when behold lanfrank to whom waltheoff had communicated the design , discovereth the whole to the king , who prevented their uniting , and engaging them one by one overcame them all , putting waltheoff to death , sequestring , imprisoning , banishing all the rest ; who are observed never after to prosper in any thing they undertook . § . . in the year . king william leaving his dukedome to his eldest son robert , and his kingdome to his youngest son william , robert making use of the bishop of bayeux , and many other lords grudges against his brothers government , especially his arch-bishop of canterbury , lanfranke , with their assistance surprizeth the north as furthest from loudon ; divides the kings councel , raiseth some disturbances in the south and west , thereby dist acting the king , so that he knew not where to begin , nor where to turn himself ; the king having the arch-bishop and the bishop of winchester of his side , and obliging his people by some acts of grace , defeated all the rebells , made his brother abjure the realm , and be contented with a pension , and ruined . families that were concerned in that conspiracy : and a while after hearing that mans in normandy was besieged , as he was at supper , the king asked which way it lay , and immediately commanded masons to make way for him thither through the wall ; and when his lords entreated him to stay untill his people were ready , he replied , that they who loved him would immediately follow him ; and a tempest arising when he was at sea , he commanded the master of the ship to go on notwithstanding ; for ( said nt ) never was king drowned : thus he came suddenly to mans , raised the siege , dispersed the rebells , undid . families that were of the confederacy , and left a fatal monument of conspirators success behind to late posterity . § . . anno . no sooner had henry the first succeeded his brother william , who died childless , and compounded with his brother robert of normandy , but robert de belesm earle of shrewrbery , and the earle of cornwall in discontent made a general insurrection about wales and the borders , surprize the castle of bridgenorth , stop trade gathered the people together , who no sooner heard that the king was drawing towards them , but they fled and left their traiterous . leaders at the mercy of an incensed soveraign , who seized their estates , banished their persons , and put a period to their names , honours and families in england . § . . although steven invaded the kingdome against the right of maud the empress , & the oath of allegiance which the people had taken to her , & was countenanced by very few at his coronation ; yet such is the futality of conspiring against a setled government , that divers lords having the empress of their side to justisie , and scotland ( without which no rebellion can prosper in england ) to assist them , several castles to secure them , a general discontent to second them ; all england in a combustion to advantage them , were yet strangely suppressed by the usurper , their castles dismantled , their children disinherited , their heads taken off , no less then . families undone in their cause , the empress maud is streightned at oxford , and the whole combination dispersed , king steven dying quietly in his bed. § . . upon stevens death king henry the second , the right heir , is established upon the throne , but troubled first with the welsh , who cunningly invited all the male-contents of england to their inaccessible mountaines , where his majesty no sooner sheweth his sword , but they desert their leaders , who are utterly ruined , and their country made tributary to england : and then by robert earle of leicester , who thought to have surprized the generals at their own houses , and his majesty at court , when poor man he was overthrown himself , and though afterward he was furnished by the french king ( who wai●ed all opportunities to invade england ) with an army , yet he perished and . men with him , as did biggot and ferris ( who tried the old way of scotland ) in the head of . scots , who with all their confederates threw themselves upon the kings mercy . § . . in the year . richard the first succeeding his father with the consent and applanse of all his people , had you some desperadoes who would teach the world what providence alwaies secures government , and what disasters and mischiefes attend rebellion ; for proud long shorope bishop of ely ( in the kings absence , who was now deep in the holy warr , ) made a faction in the kingdome , entertained all the discontented complaints of ill councellors ; promiseth liberty and 〈…〉 to the people , sets up for the pope and religion ; is opposed by the lord st. john , trepanned by two women , banished his native country , derided by the french , and comes to a miserable end . § . . anno . king john upon richards death usurped the crown , yet none durst contradict him ; dispossessed arthur , yet none durst say to him what dost thou ? peoples business being the performance of their own duties , rather then discourses of other mens titles : the english more troubled with his tyranny 〈…〉 his usurpation , suborne the welsh and irish to perplex him ; ( as the embroyling of ireland or scotland is the surest way to gain england ) the plot is discovered to him , he sends his own courtiers to ripen it , they discover to him all the methods , steps and proceedings of it , so that he surprized the welsh , putteth . of them to the sword , taketh . pledges of the best families among them for their good behaviour for the future ; with whom upon their second revolt he was so angry that the day he heard of it , he would not dine untill the . pledges were hanged before his face : but the barons forsooth stand for the liberty of the subjects , assert the ancient franchises of england , make a general party , debauch the whole nation , secure all the stronge holds , engross all the treasure , draw over the french king to their party ; yet the odious weak king john ( so sacred a thing is soveraignty in the meanest person ) recovereth their castles , excommunicates their persons , layeth wast their estates , undoeth their adherents , cutteth off their posterity , and makes them wander up and down poor and destitute exiles in the earth . § . . anno . king henry the thrid , though a child , had that success against rebells , that were not that sin a sin of witchcraft , no such thing as treason would ever shew its self in the world ; for although the child could not secure the government , to weak he was , yet the government protected the child ; so sacred that is . lewis the fair king of france indeed ( as it was his interest ) set up some lords against this child , viz. the bishops of winchester , salisbury , and chester ; the earles of salisbury , ferrers , and albemarle , who bore great sway in the kingdome , stopped trading , were favoured by the pope ; yet they and their french auxiliaries were cooped up in lincoln , before which city the kings forces doubling their ensignes appeared twice more then they were , awed the besieged , brought to an humble submission to the kings mercy , who at that time degraded . barons , . knights , ruined . families , who were sad instances of the miserable event and issue of rebelsion and treason . king henry disposeth of barhainstead castle which belonged to the duke of cornwall to a dutchman , whereupon the duke in revenge consults with the earle marshall , the earles of chester , glou ester , hereford , and warwicke , who declare for their liberties , the great charter , and the charter of the forrest with whom some great officers lately displaced , joyne themselves , they gain the whole kingdome , win over all the people , declare against evil counsellors ; yet the king ( providence still appearing in the behalf of that great ordinance of god ) sends for a few poutovins , summons a parliament at oxford , to which the lords refuse to come , and another at winchester , whither they will not come neither ; they are proclaimed out-lawes , their estates are seized ; the earle marshall is trepanned into ireland to save his own stake , and there circumvented and slain ; the other lords are won over by the bishops with money ; the earle of pembrook is dispossessed of his estate ; money is raised by force , the king put by the peevishness of his subjects upon rigour , tyranny , and strange levies , so that . families are undone . the great earle of leicester with other lords declare for the liberty of the subject ; indeed they prevaile a little against the king ; but at last the earles of gloucester and leicester fall out , the rebells are divided , the earle of leicester and . of his followers fall at a pitch battel near evesham ; his sons flee the kingdome , his estate is confiscated , all his complices undone , and most of the rebellious barons disinherited , and the whole kingdome desolate . § . . king henry is dead , his son edward is absent in the holy land ; leolin prince of wales disputes his homage ; but see how his dear lady is taken by the english , and he glad to submit for her sake upon any termes ; after her death he revolteth again , goeth on and prospereth untill the earle of pembroke slew him before his own house at bere castle , and a common souldier brought his head to the king , who crowned it with ivy and set it upon the tower of london : and not long after his brother david is taken in wales , and judged in england to that ignominious death that traytors usually come to ; and ( as alwaies subjects lose , and princes gain by rebellion ) all wales was brought upon that occasion under an english prince , who established the government thereof according to the lawes of england . § . . edward the second goeth on in his fathers exorbitant wayes , entertaineth evil councellors , viz. gaveston and spencer , to the great grievance of the lords and kingdome ; upon this the lords arme and rebell ; the pope writes to them ; they would not read his letters , saying , that they were men of the sword ; the bishops treat with them , but they would not hear : affronts are put upon the king by the lords , as that of the mad woman who brought him all his faults in writing ; and upon the lords by the king , as that of the duke of lancaster's wife , being challenged from him by an ugly fellow , who made it good he was married to her ; the lord baldesmers keeper is hanged , and his wife and children in prison for holding the castle of leedes against the king ; many of the barons fall off , and submit to his majesty , the whole kingdome is dissatisfied ; yet the king defeates lancaster , takes him and many of his followers prisoners , condemnes and beheads him , as he doth the lord clifford , the lord lisle , the lords tuchet , cheyney , mowbray , danell , teyes , aldenham , baddlesmore , the last of whom with many noble knights are hanged , drawn , and quartered , as thousands more upon that occasion came to a miserable end . and afterwards when the queen and the barones by a joynt interest prevailed so far as to depose the king , yet first , within three years after was she in parliament voted uncapable of her jointure , put to a pension of a l. a year , and kept a prisoner . years to her dying day ; . and her minion mortimer seized after this manner ; the king her son takes a torch light , and two or three to attend him , and steales privately under ground into the queens chamber about bed time , where the wanton undressing himself for her bed , they immediately carry him away , ( notwithstanding the queen shreeks , bel fils , bel fils , ayes pity du gentile mortimer , good son , good son , pitty gentle mortimer ; ) he is commited to the tower , and hanged , drawn , and quartered by tyburn , where his body remained two dayes , an opprobrious espectacle to all beholders : and in a word so remarkable were the disasters that befell those that contrived any thing against the government in this kings reign that we hear of no more treasons in the others , who lived fifty years in perfect peace , all men looking upon the former examples , seeing and fearing , and not daring to do any more presumptuously . § . . untill the beginning of richard the seconds reign , when by reason of some extravagances by the exactors of poll-money the common people at deptford , and indeed all over the kingdome rising as one man , upon this occasion a collector of pollmoney comes to one john tylers house , demands pollmoney of his wife for her daughter , and she saying that her daughter was not of age to pay , the rude fellow said he would see whether that were so or not , and thereupon forcibly turned up her cloaths , whereat the mother cryed out ; the father being at work hard by , upon that comes in , and with a lathingstaffe which he had in his hand knocked the fellow on the head ; upon tylers complaint among his neighbours , and one ball a priests seditious discourses of liberty , levelling , &c. whose saying was , when adam dug , and eve span , where was then the gentleman ? the commons of kent , essex , hertfordshire , sussex , suffolk , norfolk , cambridgeshire , are up . declaring for the king and the commons , and resolving to have no king john ; entered the city , besiege the duke of lancasters house at the savoy , abuse the kings mother in the tower , behead the lord chancellour and the lord treasurer , the lord chief justice ; they pull down lawyers houses , they compell many noblemen and gentlemen to ride with them ; their leaders keep the state of kings ; they resolve to destroy all knights and gentlemen ; but what was the issue ? . two and thirty of them are burnt in the duke of lancasters cellar ; . fear and trembling siezed on several of them , who deserted their brethren ; . their leader is stabbed to death by the lord mayor , sir w. walworth ; ( for whose sake the dagger is in the city armes to this day , ) . the rest of them laying down their armes upon sir rob. kuolles his approach to them , submitted to the kings mercy , who executed . of them in divers places ; in which exploit . families perished . not long after , the city of london that dares do any thing , for a riot against the lord treasurers servants in pretence , but indeed a plot against the kings government , had their liberties seized on , their charter taken from them , their lord may or removed , and a warden set over them , and a fine of / . set upon them . all this would not allay the discontents , and ambitions of men , for the duke of glocester , and other lords upon an abbots vision of the destruction of the kingdome by the misgovernment of king richard , ( and was there ever treason without a clergy man ? ) consult about seizing and deposing k. r. and executing the lords of the councel at arundel castle , where they received the sacrament , and took upon it an oath of secrecy by the hands of the a. b. canterbury ; now the earle marshall , deputy of callice discovered all the plot to the king , who thereupon by a stratagem devised by his counsel , took the duke of glocester a bed , who hearing of his coming , cast his cloak about his shoulders , and with all reverence bid him welcome ; the king courteously requesting him to make himself ready to ride with him a little way , within a mile of his house he was arrested by the hands of the earl marshall , and sent to callice , where he dyed a miserable death : the arch-bishop of canterbury is banished : the earle of arundel and the lord treasurer are beheaded , and . families of their brethren and adherents perished . § . . anno . henry the th . was in full parliament declared king of england , but having let fall an expression to this purpose , when he was earle of darby , viz. that princes had too little , and religious men too much ; the politick abbot of westminster laid hold of the words , and inviting to his house the discontented dukes of surrey , exeter , albemarle , — the earles of salisbury and glocester , with many more communicated their grievances to each other , and lay a plot to invite his majesty to asolemn just , at oxford , where he was to be murthered by an unknown hand in the heat of the pleasure and action , taking oaths of secrecy , and sealing indentures sextipartite for the performance of conditions on all sides ; the justs are proclaimed , the king is invited , and promiseth to come : secrecy on all hands kept most firmly to that very day ; but there is a god in heaven that revealeth secrets unto kings ; for it happened that as the duke of albemarle rid to oxford , he called upon his father the duke of york , and having in his bosome the indenture of consederacy , his father as they sat at dinner espyed it , and asked what it was , to whom his son answering , that it was nothing that concerned him ; by s. george ( saith his father ) but i will see it ; — and so snatched it from him , and reading the contents , called for his horse to ride to his majesty now at windsor , whether his son was before him asking pardon , when the old man knocked at door . the king not coming , the lords at oxford suspected themselves discovered , and so they stand upon their guards , set up a mock king richard ( one magdalen very like him ) who they pretended so escaped out of prison ; send to the king of france ( always ready to assist the rebels of the king of england ) they raise an army , pursue king henry now unprovided to london : what became of them think ye ? why , they are amazed and sometimes would do one thing , sometimes another , and at last nothing ; they march up and down they knew not whether , until at cirencester the very townsmen were able to overthrow them , so weak is guile and feare ; their counterfeit king is hanged ; the lords are beheaded , the whole army by a rumour is dispersed ; in which rebellion . lords and gentlemen perished , and . families brought to a morsel of bread ; the abbot of westminster upon the news fell suddainly between his monastery and his house into a dead palsey , and shortly after miserably ended his life ; and another who had contrived to lay an iron with three sharp pikes standing upright in the kings bed , that when he laid himself down , he might thrust himself through with them , came to this sad end ; a string was tyed about his neck and privy members , and so he was hanged up with a great stone upon his belly , that broke his back bone . yet men cannot be quiet ; for owen glendover upon a private grudge between himselfe and the lord grey of ruthen , and a publick ambition to be prince of wales , in the divided times of england , raised all wales , and the borders of england , and with the advantage of a scots invasion at the same time , and the french auxiliaries , prospered a while ; but that 's well , that ends well : owen is at last ( as all traytors ) abandoned by his followers , the people are altered in their resolutions ; owen himself was famished in the woods , and wales made desolate . — but at the same time treason had all the faire and promising circumstances imaginable ; for the unhappy king had not only france and scotland our old friends , and wales to deale with , but the percies of northumberland and worcester , and henry hotspur who upon some private discontents enter in a leagure offensive and desentive with glendover , and an indenture tripartite , wherein all wales were asligned to glendover , all england south and east of trent to the earle of march , and the rest to northumberland ; a formidable design , but comes to nothing ; henry hotspur is slain , their army is defeated , . of them left dead upon the place , the chief of them are executed ; and . families undone in this undertaking ; northumberland and others who had been pardoned , ingratefully engaging again upon yorks-wold downes against his soveraign , where he was surprized by the earle of westmerland in this manner ; the earle sends to know their grievances ; which when they sent him , he alloweth of , and promiseth to joyne with them , seemeth to pitty their souldiers , and his own , and perswadeth them to disband as he would do himself ; which they no sooner do , but he arresteth the chief of them , who were executed at york and durham ; where northumbarland after he had wandred up and down scotland , wales , france , about a year , was slain likewise ; and . families of the revolt were upon this sad occasion exterminated and rooted out of england . such dreadful consequence of rebellion as awed the lords and commons to peace and allegiance all king henry the fifths reign , and the first sixteen years of henry the sixths . § . . when the duke of york now aspiring to the crown , takes his opportunity to whisper and suggest to the people that the king was weak and easie , the queen was of a malignant spirit , the privy councel was ill inclined , wherewith the common people were possessed , when one mortimer the dukes agent promiseth them a reformation of all abuses , freedome from taxes , who styling himself captain mend-all , marcheth to blackheath , there exerciseth them ; sends their grievances to the parliament , complaining that the kings revenue is lavished away ; that he burdeneth the people ; that he takes their commodities from them by his purveyors ; and their estates by his courtiers ; that legal proceedings were stopped by letters from above ; that extraordinary fees were exacted ; that freedome of elections were denyed ; and parliament men chosen by court letters ; that the faithful counsellors , the dukes of york , exceter , buckingham , norfolk , were discountenanced by the undue practices of some corrupt courtiers and their favourites : the parliament countenanceth them , the privy counsel receiveth their petition ; and if any plot ever prospered , this was like to be one ; yet see how the king though never so generally hated ( so considerable a thing is royalty under the greatest disadvantages ) gathereth an army of . the rebells defeat him , come to london , command the city to provide them horse and armes , and other necessaries ; behead the lord say , and sir james cromer , carry all before them , when on a sudden some old souldiers from the tower surprize them , the rebells look about them , and consider their danger , are weary of their service , and upon the kings pardon submit , and leave jack cade to shift for himself , who fled away in a disguise , and ( proclamation being made that whosoever should bring him dead or alive , should have a thousand markes for his paines , ) a while after was attached by one eden , and making resistance in a garden at hothfield in sussex , was there slain ; his body was brought to london , beheaded & quartered , his head set upon london bridge , his quarters dispersed in divers places in kent , and his followers to the number of . arraigned , to the utter ruine of . families , who perished in this gain-saying of kore , as did the prentices and commons of london , of whom . died in a commotion the year following ; the duke of york flieth to ireland , owen teuther and divers welsh gentlemen are beheaded ; and the king who had usurped the throne , never prospered ; and the duke of york slain at wakefield , and his head put over the great hall of york . § . . edward the th . is crowned , but with cares and troubles ; for the kingdome was in a combustion ; king henry was at the head of . to try it with him for that crown , seconded both by the french and scots ; but see the fate of rebellion , the armies approach each other ; the lord fauconbridge gives the archers direction upon ( a signal given by him ) to shoot every man a flight arrow , ( for that purpose provided ) and then to fall back three strides and stand , the northern men in the mean time plyed their bowes till all their sheaves were empty , but their arrowes fell short of the enemy threescore yards , doing them little , and themselves a great deale of harm ; for their arrowes being spent , and coming to hand blowes , their own arrowes sticking in the ground , galled their shins , and pierced their feet ; ten houres the battle continued , wherein fell . rebels ; among whom were the earle of northumberland , the lords beaumont , gray , dacres , welts , &c. the earle of devonshire only surviving to an execution ; whom the earle of oxford , & the duke of sommerset followed ; his son and the earle of pembrooke living beyond sea in great misery , as little better then vagabonds ; their estates and lands with the possessions of . of their followers , who are now undone , being divided among king edwards followers . yet a while after all this is forgot , and the people are up in yorkeshire for the breach of a custome to give the people of st. leonards in york some quantitie of grain ; and the northamptonshire men for liberty ; the captain of the one party robert huldorne is beheaded ; and the other is boyled in an hot cauldron ; the lord wells , and sir tho. dymock are executed ; . rebells are slain , sir rob. vvells their leader is hanged , the earle of vvarwick flyeth for it ; and at last the usurper edward was glad to be a vagabond in france , and afterwards he and his rival henry both by turnes suffered the vengeance due to treason and rebellion ; the great earle of vvarwick is slain , with many more rebells to the number of . who are signal monitors to late posterity to study to be quiet , and to follow their own business ; for why should they meddle to their hurt ? queen margaret is taken prisoner , her son edward was murthered ; the duke of sommerset is beheaded , fauconbridge the pyrat ( after his dangerous tumult about london in the head of . ) and his captaines spicing and quintine that assailed algate and bishopsgate , were hanged drawn and quartered , and their heads placed on poles upon those gates ; and by a commission of oyer and terminer , many both in essex and kent were arraigned and condemned for this rebellion , and more fined ; the arch-bishop of york was kept close prisoner to his dying day , as were the earles of oxford , pembroke , and richmond , whose ladies begged their bread , while their estates were disposed to king edwards courtiers ; the duke of exeter being reduced to that penury that he run by the duke of burgundies coach begging his bread for gods sake , and was found dead upon the shore of dover : thus bloody and deceitful men lived not out half their dayes , they love mischief , and it happeneth unto them ; they hated peace , and it is far from them . § . . well! richard duke of glocester , after his brothers death aspires to the crown , to that purpose procures himself made protector , dismisseth his nephew edw. th . guard : removeth from him his faithfull friends and kinsmen , gets his brothers out of the sanctuary , contriveth it so that the young princes should be declared and preached bastards : that the lords of the counsel should petition him , considering the necessities of the kingdome by reason of the late misgovernment , to take upon him the administration of the soveraignty ; that the cities pulse should be felt by a long speech of the duke of buckingham ; and upon their sullenness and silence , some of richards servants in the croud should cry , king richard , king richard ; that himself should be married ; the relict of prince edward , henry the th . son , and with his queen crowned very solemnly ; murthereth the two princes , makes love to the lady elizabeth the rightfull heire of the crown , and flourisheth ; men seeing this oppression and violent perverting of judgment and justice in this province , marvelled at the matter ; but he that was higher then the highest regardeth , and there be higher then they ; for this prosperous usurper never had a quiet mind , but was troubled with fearfull dreames ; the king of france rejects his embassadours ; the duke of buckingham who set him up , plotteth with bishop morton of ely house to depose him ; the earle of richmond , afterward k. h. the th . is set up by the french and welch , landeth at milford haven ; the earles of pembrooke and shrewsbury joyne with him ; the lord stanley secretly favoureth him , as sir jo. savage , sir simon digby , and others did more openly ; at bosworth he meets king richard , where the earle of northumberland deserted him , the duke over-powers him , . of his followers dye upon the place , and himselfe left dead and naked in the field , untill a pursivant at armes brought him behind him ( like a calfe , his head and armes hanging down one side of the horse , and his legges on the other ) to the gray-frierschurch within the town of leicester , where he lay a miserable spectacle of the sad issue of treason and rebellion , untill for pitty the friers buried him ; his agents coming all to a like shamefull end , as sir james tyrrel who was executed , miles forrest rolled alive , james dighton lived and dyed unpittied , the great duke of buckingham who raised him , was beheaded by him ; and bannister who betrayed him to richard , was afterwards hanged , whose eldest son hanged himself , his youngest son was drowned , and his daughter smitten with a leprosy ; because sentence against evil doers is not executed speedily , therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil ; though sinners do evil an hundred times , and their days be prolonged , it shall not be well with the wicked , neither shall they prolong their dayes , which are as a shadow , because they feared not before god. — § . . anno . the usurper thus suppressed , treason and rebellion thus avenged , king henry by conquest , by marriage , by choice setled upon his throne with a strong guard about him , never known before in england ; some discontents appeared in the north , where the lord lovell was in the head of an army before the king was aware , but upon proclamation of pardon , the rebels disperse , and lovell with his complices flie for their lives , which they afterwards loose shamefully upon tower-hill , the place of execution . — not long after a priest named symond , sets up one lambert symnel for edward earle of vvarwicke , who was lately escaped out of prison , and pretends him king of england ; he is countenanced in ireland , encouraged by the lady margaret countess of burgoign , and assisted by an army under the earle of lincolne ; but what came of this plot ? why , the true earle of vvarwicke was shewed abroad ; the earle of lincolne , and many lords are slaine at stokes . . families are undone by this treason , and the king more firmly established . a subsidy is granted the king in the th year of his reign towards his french warres , and it was agreed that every man should pay the tenth penny of his goods ; the northern men refuse to pay it ; the earle of northumberland president of the north parts , collecteth it by force , but he is murthered ; an insurrection is made , and in defence of their liberties , the people would give the king battle : what followed ? liberty ? no , — the multitude is discomfited by the earle of surrey ; their leader with many of his accomplices hanged , drawn and quarted at yorke ; and . families turned upon this occasion out of doors , to the wide world. — this device failing , one worth two of it is thought upon by the countesse of burgundy , and that is that one perkin vvorbecke should counterfeit richard the younger son of edward the th . who was now dead , and could not be shewed to the people as the earle of vvarwicke was ; and being brother to the queen could not be prejudiced in his right by her ; this perkin is entertained by the king of france , flocked to by the english malecontents ; the people of england generally respect him , sir rob. clifford , and rob. barley are sent to attend him , the lord fitzwater , sir simon montford , sir tho. thwaits , doctor richford , doctor sutton , doctor vvorsky conspired with him , he gets an army ; marrieth the earl of huntleyes daughter , and engageth the king of scots in his quarrel ; he goeth to ireland , landeth in cornwall with very considerable forces : doth he prosper ? no , his confederates are discovered by king henryes espialls in flanders , and executed ; particularly sir vvilliam stanley , sir simon montford , &c. an hundred and sixty of his followers were hanged , drawn and quartered in london , and along the sea-coast ; — scotland is laid waste , his friends leave him , he submits to the kings mercy , and upon his attempt to escape out of the tower three times , was hanged , drawn and quartered at tyburn , and edward earle of vvarwicke for his sake is beheaded . — in these troublesome times the people refuse to pay their subsidies , and in cornwall they rise under one flammocke a lawyer , and joseph a smith , and draw a formidable company towards london upon black-heath : do they now ease themselves and their fellow subjects ? no ; they are invironed by the kings forces , three thousand of them perish upon the place ; my lord audley , flammocke , and joseph were hanged , drawn and quartered : their estates bestowed among the courtiers , and some hundreds of families bound to curse them to this day : — to which we may adde the dismal end of vvillford another pretender , set up by an augustin frier , who was hanged , drawn and quartered , and made an example to rash and inconsiderable traytors , for the following generations , as were sir james tyrrell , sir john windam , the earle of suffolke , and others in the following year , to the ruine of many families , who rued their treasons many years after . § . . in the th year of king henry the th . there happened in london an insurrection against strangers , especially artificers who exercised handicraft , and vented wares to the great dammage of the kings subjects ; the prentices and others assembled , cryed up privileges , privileges ; what was the end of it ? twelve of them were hanged , and four hundred more drawn in their shirts , with ropes and halters about their necks to westminster to submit to the kings mercy , as vveakely did ; many of all professions hearken to the enthusiasmes of the holy maid of kent , who would needs perswade men that king henry could not continue long , who lived to hang her , and to ruine five hundred of her complices . but religion is altered , and treason that hereto served the interest of men , is now hallowed and become the cause of god ; k. henry sets forth injunctions for translating the lords prayer , the creed , the ten commandments into the english tongue , and requiring all parsons and curates to teach them so translated to their parishioners ; this innovation was not to be endured ; twenty thousand assemble at lincolne , and forty thousand at york , taking armes , as they said , for the faith of christ , and deliverance of the holy church now oppressed ; sixty thousand in lancashire , . at hull , — indeed all the kingdome : here is a general plot , and this plot for conscience sake ; but doth god blesse it ? or doth the spreading nature of it prevaile ? nothing lesse ; for thirteen of the ringleaders at lincolne , . of the chief at york , and the northern parts , . of the principal at hull were hanged , drawn and quartered , and the rest undone by the lords , derby , shrewsbury , pembrooke , and others , to the number of . families , besides the lords darcey and husley both executed , sir rob. constable who was hanged in chaines at hull , and sir jo. bulmers laly who was burned in smith-field , henry marquesse of exeter , h. lord mountacute , sir nicolas carew , sir vvill. nevill , who came all to miserable ends upon the same score — § . . but the reformation of religion proceedeth in king edward the sixths dayes , and the people are more and more enraged ; for conscience sike the kings commissioners were stabbed , the multitude arme themselves and commit many outrages , they increase to the number of . a terrible number , they declare for religion against inclosures , lawyers courts , &c. besiege rich cities , as exeter , norwich , &c. but to what end ? they are defeated before those cities , most of them slain upon the place , . of them were executed at london , and as many with their ringleaders hanged up and down the country : but there was a prophecy that the time should come when there should be no king , when the nobility and gentry should be destroyed ; when the kingdome should be ruled by four governours elected by the commons , &c. and now sure was that time ; up must ombler a gentleman , and dale a parish clerk with . more to fulfill this prophecy ; but was this prophecy fulfilled ? no such matter ; they found to their sorrow a king , nobility , gentry , and a government that brought them to justice , executed sevenscore of them , and brought . families deeply engaged in the rebellion to a morsel of bread. the king , i mean edward the sixth , is a dying , and religion is like to die with him ; for the glory of god , the preservation of the gospel , the ladies mary and elizabeth , are put by their known right , and the lady jane grey set next his majesty in the royal succession : the king makes his will , the privy councel confirme it , the mayor and aldermen swear allegiance to the lady jane , who is proclaimed queen ; the privy councel refuse queen mary , they sent an army against her under the duke of northumberland ; but see the end of it , the privy councel notwithstanding their protestations to the duke of northumberland relent and proclaime queen mary ; the earle of huntington entrusted by the said duke with four thousand men deserts him ; the people all over the kingdome discountenance him , six ships ordered to intercept the lady mary , he revolts to her , yea the duke of northumberland himself is glad to proclaime her ; queen jane and the said duke are arraigned and executed . § . . queen mary altereth religion again ; the earle of suffolk , sir tho. wyat and others for conscience sake , and to remove ill councellors , raise . men , they come to london , terrifie all before them ; but mark the event , the city is shut against them ; the court is in armes behind them , they are most of them cut off ; the duke of suffolk , wyat , the lord grey , the lady jane grey are executed at towerhill ; as one fetherstone a miller who acted edward the th . was afterwards hanged at ty-burn ; and all the good they did was to ruine several families , and exasperate the queen to those severe courses against the reformed professors , which we read of in the acts and monuments of those times . § . . anno . queen elizabeth succedeth , who now the fourth time altereth the publick profession in this nation ; the pope excommunicateth her ; the queen of scots sets up her own title against her ; margaret countess of lenox and her husband , arthur pool , and anthony fortescue favour that queen ; the papists were underhand stirred up by ridolph a florentine , commissioned to that purpose by the pope ; the duke of norfolk consults with the bishop of roste about a marriage with the queen of scots ; the earles of northumberland and westmerland , and the lord dacres are up in armes , . that the religion of their fore-fathers might be restored : . that wicked councellours might be removed from the queen : to great purpose you may be sure ; for first the queen upon these practices was enforced to make those severe lawes , under which the catholikes groan to this day : . the queen of scots falls to very great troubles , and hath not where to lay her head but in the dominions of queen elizabeth ; the duke of norfolk comes to a miserable end ; the earles of northumberland , westmerland , and many other lords are proscribed , and many hundred families upon this account dispoyled of all they had in the world , no less then twelve score of them being hanged , drawn and quartered in london , york , durham , and the other seats of their rebellion ; felton that set up the popes bull upon the bishop of londons gate , was hanged , drawn and quartered ; and they who attempted and conspired to release the queen of scots out of prison , fasten her more irremediably'in , and brought themselves to sad ends , no less then . being at once executed upon that occasion ; campian and parsons are hanged , drawn and quartered ; throgmorton is racked and hanged ; but the papists go on , write books , and perswade the queens servants to kill her , as judith did holophernes ; but to what end ? to their own ruine ; for the authors and dispersers perish , and the government endureth . mendoza the spanish embassadour who procured the catholikes much favour , he was thrust hereupon out of england ; the papists would have married the queen of scots to an english catholike , but that hastened her death , and her friends ruine ; the earle of westmerland dieth miserably in exile ; dr. parry would kill the queen at a feast in his house , but he brings himself to a wretched end ; the male-contents contrive against the queen and the lords associate in her behalf ; particularly one savage was by dr. gifford encited to kill the excommunicated queen , when to make the queen and councel secure , there was a book written by the papists , exhorting their brethren to attempt nothing against their prince , & to use only the christian arms of fasting , prayers and teares ; ballord is joyned with savage , who having consulted with mendoza and others , comes over in a souldiers habit , and under another name , discovereth himself to babington , who drew into the plot many zealous catholikes , as tho. salisbury , edward vvindsor , &c. and one polly who discovered their progress of the plot to vvalsingham day by day , but gifford relented , and opened to the secretary the whole matter ; the secretary sent him to the queen of scots to keep on his correspondence with her , that he might betray her letters , which vvalsingham perused , sealed up again and sent to the respective persons to whom they were directed ; all their design was laid open , the persons apprehended , and fourteen of them executed , the queen of scots closets searched and boxes secured , and she her self after all her infortunate medling arraigned , condemned , and ( not withstanding the intercession of france , scotland , of the one whereof she was queen dowager , of the other queen mother , ) beheaded . to prevent the queen of scots death , about this time l' aubespine the french embassadour deales with one stafford ( a needy young gentleman whose mother was of the bed-chamber to queen elizabeth , ) trappes and moddy to dispatch the queen , while they are disputing whether it should be done by poyson in her meat and cloaths , or by gun-powder under her bed , or by a blunderbush as the prince of aurange was slain . stafford reveales all to the lords of the councel ; upon this the queen seals a warrant for that unfortunate ladies execution , and this was the fate of all these treasons , that they hastened those mischiefes which they were designed to prevent , as never taking any effect but in the downfall of the authors . the catholikes conspire again ; the king of spain invades us , the world gave england over for lost in . when beyond expectation the king of spains great navy comes to naught abroad ; the papists answer for their lives at home ; and a law is upon this occasion enacted , that none should entertain popish priests upon pain of the queens displeasure : yet the papists are at work still , to this purpose hire one lopez the queens physician to make the queen away by poyson , and one cullen an irish man to do it with a rapier , both which conspiracies are discovered by intercepted letters , and the persons are hanged , drawn and quartered at tyburn , as yorke and vvilliams were the year following for being bribed to kill the queen ; a traytor hitherto seldome escaping an extraordinary death . but treason is restlesse , and about this time one squire groom of the queens stable , poysons the earle of essex his chaire , and the queens saddle ; neither the one nor the other came to any effect , save that the traytor being discovered by vvallpoole his ghostly father , ( who upon the failure of his successe , doubted his fidelity ) is arraigned , and severely executed . — the papists did not contrive more designes to overthrow the reformation , than some well-meaning protestants did to promote it , even beyond the established laws ; they petition , they make cecill , leicester , and others friends at court ; they hold meetings at cambridge , london , oxford , northampton , and leicester , they draw up their discipline , they admonish the parliament , and make many friends in both houses ; they write against the queens marriage with papists , against the established government and worship of this church : but what came of it ? why , . stubs for writing against the queens marriage had his right hand cut off : . the authors , printers , and dispersers of martyn marre prelate , and sions plea , with other bookes , are executed : penry and barrow are hanged , mr. cartwright , mr. udall , and others are confined , suspended , silenced , and discountenanced ; severe injunctions are upon their intermedling made against them , and the queen at last so incensed , that she would not to her dying day , heare any in their behalfe . to mention no more conspiracies in her reign , the earle of essex , a popular and powerfull man , that had some pretence ( in that variety of claimes to the crown that were layed in the latter end of her reign ) to the throne , that was governour of ireland , and general of england , had a great army at his command , and a great interest to serve him ; for . lords favour him , and the people generally love him ; this upon some affronts in the declining age of the queen , sets up a plot to remove ill councellors , keepes open house for all comres , entertaines silenced ministers to preach to great throngs of people every day , engageth the lord mayor and aldermen , resolves to seize vvhitehall by water and by land under the pretence of a shew ; what success i pray ? why the city fail him , his complices disclose him , the queens councel surprizeth him with a summons and a message ; the nobility follow him to the city , proclaime him traytor , he flieth to his house , he is there besieged , taken and secured in the tower , whence he is brought forth to trial and execution , with . more of his complices ; in whose busi- . good families were utterly undone and ruined . § . . anno . king james is setled on the throne of his ancestors , by all the establishments that are as yet discovered to the world , when the lord cobbam , sir vvalter rawleigb , the lord grey of vvilton , and others , some protestants , some papists , some priests , some lay-men , some upon discontent , some for conscience , some noble-men , some knights , some gentlemen , and these backed by the popes bull , seconded by the kings of france and spaine , endeavoured to alter religion , and change the government ; but with what fortune ? why , their plot is discovered , they themselves are apprehended , arraigned and condemned ; vvatson , clarke , and brooke are executed , and the rest come to miserable ends within a while after . yet the discontented will take no warning ; for not long after catesby , percy , vvinter , sir everard digby , garnet , contrive to blow up the royall family , the clergy , nobility , and gentry of great brittain sitting in parliament ; they are encouraged by the pope , set on by their own ghostly fathers , assisted from spain , take an oath of secresie , hire a convenient room under the parliament house , furnish it with materials for the blow , as powder , faggots , iron ; the villain is ready , his candle and his match light ; but doth it succeed ? no , the parliament is twice adjourned , and the very night before they were to sit , a letter must be sent from one of the conspirators to the lord mounteagle to save himself ; yet the court understood not the letter , — but the king laying hold upon some odde expressions as this , there is no danger as soon as the letter is burned , &c. ordereth a more diligent search ; the store-house is found , . barrels of pouder are discovered , faux that should have fired them is apprehended ; the other catholiques that made the hunting match to surprize the lady elizabeth , are amazed at the discovery , and commit outrages , are pursued by the high sheriffes of warwick and worcestershire ; catesby and piercy are slain , the rest are hanged , drawn and quartered , several lords are fined ; the government is firmely setled , the oath of allegiance is devised ; two thirds of papists estates are forfeited to the king ; most severe lawes are made against the papists , who lye under the dismal consequences of this treason to this day . § . . anno . king james dieth , and leaves king charles an empty treasure , a warr abroad , an incensed parliament and people at home , envied and hated persons of his councel ; his necessities put him upon calling parliaments the kingdomes discontents debauched those parliaments ; they demurre his supplies , they draw up remonstrances , they clip the prerogative , they question his favourites and servants , they set the ministers of state one against another , as digby and buckingham ; — they raise some petit disturbances in lancashire , and thereabouts ; and occasion some ill resented proclamations upon those disorders ; some favourites are murthered ; parliaments are dissolved in discontents ; many great men are laid aside ; the king is necessitated to take some displeasing courses for money ; daring offendors provoke his majesty to severe courses , and those severe courses make more daring offendors ; a dark cloud hangs over the face of the nation ; scotland armes , ireland rebells , england could not remedy either without a parliament ; after twelve years discontinuance and grievances , all the ill humour of the nation meets in parliament as in the common-shore , where some would reforme religion , others would reforme grievances , all would embroyle the state ; the king parts with his most faithful councellours ; it becomes dangerous to serve him ; he gives away his prerogative , the tower , the militia of london , a power to the parliament to sit as long as they pleased , suffers the scots to rage and domineer ; leaves the city , — the whole kingdome is up against him for religion , law , liberty , and the removal of ill councellors ; the treasure , the magazines and militia is in his enemies hands , with whom yet he contested four or five years . when they prevailed , they seized on the whole kingdome , imprison the king , defeat all the attempts for his release , and at last put him to death , reduce his three kingdomes under their tyranny , banish all his family ; and notwithstanding all forreign assistance , all endeavours at home , all the resolutions of scotland and ireland , and holland , with thirty thousand men to restore his son at several times , as . . . . . . . they settle first a commonwealth , then a protectorship ; the first protector carryeth all before him , dieth a natural death , and succeeded by his son , credimus esse deos ? and now you will say treason prospereth , and rebellion thrives , — but alas ! nothing less ; the first party is divided into presbyterians and independents , they are first jealous of one another ; the presbyterian officers are displaced , as essex , &c. they plot against one another in the house ; the old officers fall off , the city of london and the old puritans revolt , close with the kings party for peace , — duke hamilton marcheth in order to that peace in the head of men . waller , brown , and massey , correspond with him ; the ministers preach against the present proceedings ; the scotch stand by the k. son ; the presbyterians are all discontent , neither are the independents unanimous , an evil spirit of division creepes into the army ; cromwell takes the government upon him , and so disobligeth the commonwealths men and the long parliament ; aimes at a succession , and displeaseth the great officers ; — they watch the opportunity of his death , and with the countenance of the people lay aside his son and interest ; they quarrel among themselves , call in general monk , who suppresseth them all , makes way for his most excellent majesty , — and puts a period to twenty years treason : what was the effect of all these treasons ? was it liberty , religion ? no , some three hundred thousand soules perish ; an hundred millions of treasure is spent ; — some five thousand families are undone , the principal men are brought to shameful ends ; — some eight thousand persons are ruined by publick faith , king and bishops lands ; vane glozeth , but dieth on a scaffold ; pym debaucheth the parliament , but ends his dayes miserably ; hampden takes armes , but falleth on that place where he first rebelled ; lenthal collogues , but dieth in much horrour and trouble of conscience ; cromwell , ireton , harrison , scot , carew , and others domineer , but are hanged , drawn and quartered , and set up , to assure the world that the punishment of treason may be slow , but is very sure , and that a rebell labours in vaine : the late purchasers lived nobly , and now begge their bread ; the approving , ejecting , and sequestring ministers , are now silenced themselves ; the church government is most firmly setled ; the tender-conscienced are more closely held in ; and the reformation it self become a by-word and an hissing among all nations ; argile and warreston had their time , and now in the place of traytors , scattered up and down in several places of their country . — § . . anno . but to mention no more of those thousands that were ruined by the late defection , his majesty is restored by a wonder , received with the applause and satifaction of all men : and yet one venner a fifth-monarchy man and many of his followers are perswaded that now was the time to set up the kingdome of jesus christ ; they first preach it up , then they draw such a declaration for it as might draw in all dissenters against the government whatsoever ; they agree upon such rules , maximes and principles as suited with most mens humours ; they pray'd and preached themselves to very great resolutions , and all this very closely ; upon sunday twelfnight . they continue at their exercise in coleman street till late at night , when they arme themselves to attacque a secure city in the dead of night , being assured that one man should chase an hundred , and ten men a thousand ; — but alas ! do they promote their cause , or advance the kingdome of jesus christ ? nothing less , they are discovered by the owner of the meeting house ; yet they march through the city without controule ; — but sir rich. brown then lord mayor drawes towards them ; the kings guard surroundeth them , the train-bands engage them ; of some thirty of them six die upon the place ; venner , hodskins , and the chief of them are hanged , drawn and quartered , their flesh rots , and their memories are rooted out from the earth , and all people ( even they of their own perswasions ) detest them , and in several remonstrances declare against them . anno . when some severe lawes were made against dissatisfied persons , and the government grew towards a settlement , tongue , philips , stubes , sallows , gibbs , baker , and others lay a plot to deliver themselves from those at whitehall ; they first set up a councel of forty for satisfying all interests , and reconciling all differences , and out of this councel they chose another of . which was not to sit twice in any one place , to consider of officers , ammunition , musters , and particular designes ; upon whose dissolution the plot was to begin , viz. to secure windsor castle by a gunner there , and the tower by a party following the lords mayors coach late at night ; to admit of ludlow for general , to engage some of the trained bands , to spread abroad a rumour of a popish massacre ; to buy up all the armes that could be met with ; to list their country friends under the old officers of the army that were then scattered up and down ; to set up a magazine in crutched friers , and seize the city magazine , to seize whitehall by the way of the privy-garden ; the general and sir rich. brown being beforehand dispatched , to set up the old parliament , and the kingdome of jesus christ : but is any of these things done ? or were not these men betrayed by their own brethren , hill and riggs ? hanged , drawn and quartered by the common hangman , and made a prey for the foules of the aire , rotting upon the face of the earth : are not their families undone ; and their parties under more severe lawes and confinements to this day , their liberty lost , their meetings dispersed , and all his majesties indulgence towards them forfeited ? — anno . yet some anabaptists taking advantage of some generall discontents , lay a plot in the bishoprick of durham in march. . to reconcile all their brethren of different perswasions . . upon an oath of secrecy to send agitators all over england with propositions most comprehensive of all interests ; who met at one ouldreds house , the devil of dewsbury as they call him , and afterwards at stankebouse in that county ; from whence marsden and palmer are sent agitators to london to the secret committee there , whence they bring a resolution to rise octob. . with assurance that the insurrection should be general . . to attempt white-hall , upon some shew-night ; to secure new-castle for a passage to scotland , and bolton in lincolnshire for correspondence with forreign parts for succour and ammunition . . to lay hold upon the gentry . . to oppose subsidies and chimney-money , to restore the long parliament , to establish a gospell magistracy and ministry , and to check the clergy , the gentry , and the lawyers . . they preached all over the nation , in order to the generall rising , calling it following the lamb , and inferring from that expression the lawfulnesse of the designe , so it were carried on for love of the cause , and for no by-ends . . they were to garrison nottingham , glocester , &c. and 〈…〉 . they drew a 〈…〉 the sectaries against the government . they were to begin in ireland . . to seize the lord fauconbridge and the lord fairfax his horses and armes , and indeed all the gentry and clergy thereabout . — but what was the issue of all this ? the parties are treacherous to one another , the design is discovered , and some thirty are gone into another world , to see whether god said , feare god , honour the king , and meddle not with them that are given to change : — for their calamity shall rise suddainly , and who knoweth the ruine of them both ? let every soule be subject unto the higher powers : for there is no power but of god : the powers that be are ordained of god ; whosoever therefore resisteth the povver , resisteth the ordinance of god , and they that resist shall receive unto themselves damnation . whether it be not certain as an article of faith , that by christ kings reign , and princes decree justice ; that power is given of the lord , and soveraignty from the highest ; — and therefore that mankind must be subject to every ordinance of man for the lords sake ; — and that we must needes be subject not only for wrath but for conscience sake , and as to christ , ( i. e. ) by the same necessity , for the same reason , to avoid the same punishment , to have the same rewards , and by the force of the same religion , and that they may not prevaricate the lawes of god , or do violence to their own conscience ; — that he who despiseth the supream magistrate despiseth god ; that we must not curse the king , no not in our thoughts , for a bird of the air may tell the matter : that the primitive christians were in the right when they said , though we cannot obey , we can die : that though in some cases it is lawful not to obey , yet in all cases it is necessary not to resist ; that antient christian was in the right when he expressed himself thus , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i have one and but one remedy against all my evils , one way to victory , and but one , i can die for christ. the poor soules that died at york and other places , if they were but allowed to forewarne their brethren , methinks they would say as the voice in the legends , lay down your armes , and lift up your hands in prayers for the governours and government of the world. finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e the conventicles shifts against the late act , forbiding conventicles . lord baceni * . a mystery of jesuitisme . specul . jesuit mirlare jesuit . owen of running register . hospin h. ft. ies. l. . rabad . vit . ig. ioyola . aula jesuit . smeitym . p. ordin . conc. the direct . neces reform . p. . baxter against tombes . hist. reform . p. . church history p. . calvins ep. ad bucer . calvin ad cranmer . ad protect . a . ed . . ad protect . ad protect . preface eccles policy . bancroft discipline p. . brom. wara . scotch discipl . court epist. p. . latimers sermon . p. . church hist. dang . posit . p. . hal. descrip . p : vien hovig nor of dutch cong . full. church history . alar . dam. eccles. rest. p. martyr opusc. angl. p. . opinions of divines beyond se . p. . church history p. . edw. . . . church hist. these are their own words . hoopers i etter . from the earle of warwick . king own letters . tims words . his own words . a. i. mar. church hist. trouble franc. vid. sand. de schis . ang. l. . p. . host. against rein. . bp. i auds speech in star-chamb . a with my body i thee worship . bishop williams , &c. notes for div a -e a man deter red from any attempts against the government by this one consideration , that . plots , viz. all the plots from w. the conque to this day were unsuccessful . plots against william the conquerour . w. malmsbury . florentin bravon . turgol . raradocus in gul. . hen. hunt. will. . r hoved. in will. . eadmer . in gul. . guliel pictav . raradocus . in gul. . holinshed in gul. . against will rufus . gul. parvus in no. m. r. g. wike in gul. . math. westm ibid. holinshed gul . speed. daniel . math. paris guliel . . stow ibid. dr. heywood will. martyn ibid. against king henry the first against step. will. newburgh in step. against k. h. . vid. gyrald cambren . in h. . et . hagulstad . against rich. . vid. telveriensem in r. . against king john , vid. ● ycronicon m. paris in . m. paris in ibid trivet ibid. against h . andrew du chesu hist. angl. scot. hib. against edw. . orafton in ed. . polid. virg. ibid. vid. stat . ed. . . against ed . dr. heyward , ibid. stow. iangford in edw. : et erugens tho. delamoer in life of ed. . against richard the d . fabian concordance of histories ibid. vid. alex. estebiensens in edw. . iohn froistard chron. gall. rerum anglican . dionys preav . anno . against henry th . sir robert cotton in his notes on his government , m. s. tho. rodbourn in hen. th . . trevis supplem . polichrom in hen. th . hall union . roses in henry th . against h. . polyd. virg. in hen. . martin . chro. hen. . stow. against edward the th . vid. guliel . abbington in his life . comin . against edw. the fifth . sir tho. moor in richard the third . against king henry the th . see my lord bacons life of henry the th . against king henry the th . see my lord herbert in big life of hen. . against edw. the th . and sir iohn heywood n his life . godw history of reform . and dr. heylia . 〈…〉 church 〈…〉 in ed . et hen. . et mac. against qu. mary . see church history of great britain . 〈…〉 acts & 〈…〉 . against qu. elizabeth . vid. cambdins eliz. against king iames , vid. sanderson in king james . cabala . against king charles the first . mr. l'estrange his excellent history . sanderson and dr. bates . dr. bates his excellent history . against king charl the second . some clear truths particularly demonstrated unto the king and council, and both houses of parliament with all judges, justices, merchants, and shipmasters, why the innocent and peaceable people, called quakers, ought not to be banished out of their native land, or any other way exposed to sufferings : also, the law described in its nature and end : with a postscript to all honest, sober, and impartial jurors / by w.s. smith, william, d. . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; 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(eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) some clear truths particularly demonstrated unto the king and council, and both houses of parliament with all judges, justices, merchants, and shipmasters, why the innocent and peaceable people, called quakers, ought not to be banished out of their native land, or any other way exposed to sufferings : also, the law described in its nature and end : with a postscript to all honest, sober, and impartial jurors / by w.s. smith, william, d. . , [ ] p. 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ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng society of friends -- england. dissenters, religious -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - jonathan blaney sampled and proofread - jonathan blaney text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion some clear truths particularly demonstrated unto the king and council , and both houses of parliament , with all judges , justices , merchants , and ship-masters , why the innocent and peaceable people , called quakers , ought not to be banished out of their native land , or any other way exposed to sufferings . also , the law described in its nature and end. with a postscript to all honest , sober , and impartial jurors . by w. s. printed at london , in the year , . some clear truths particularly demonstrated unto the king and council , and both houses of parliament , with all judges , justices , merchants and ship-masters , why the innocent and peaceable people , called quakers , ought not to be banished out of their native land , or any other way be exposed to sufferings . . because they are people that believe in the name of the lord jesus christ , and are regenerated into the nature of christianity , and their life answereth the same in all godliness and honesty . . because they worship the living god in spirit and truth , and are of a tender conscience towards god and all men . . because their principle and practice was never proved erronious by sound doctrine , neither doth the late act disallow it in the ground , for four may meet besides the family ; and the number is but a circumstance , and not the matter : and it is not a christian practice to banish men for being in error , that are really so , muchless such as cannot be proved erronious . . because nature abhorreth such unkindness , and is afflicted with such hard dealings ; for nature is outwardly friendly to her own generation . . because they have not at any time forfeited their just liberty as englishmen , by contriving any plots or insurrections against the present government , as experience all along hath shewed . . because they have a right in the kings word and promises , concerning liberty unto tender consciences , for they have lived peaceably , which was the only exception to make his word and promises void , and that they have kept and not broken . . because they are an harmless people , and give no just occasion of offence unto any , neither can any true proof be given against them concerning any evil committed or done by them . . because they are a serviceable people in their places , ready to do good upon all occasions , and unto all persons , and do not abuse the creation in vanity and excess . . because they are good examples in righteousness , and a sweet savour in their generation , by following that which is good . . because they do not transgress any just law , neither give any just occasion for any law to be made , or executed against them , neither can any law that is for the punishment of evil-doers justly take hold upon them . . because they never acted nor intended any such things , as in the late act is expressed , and against which it only provideth ; neither can any misdemeanor be justly laid to their charge . . because their outward dealings amongst men are just , and equal , and in all things free from variance and strife . . because they do not wrong any mans person or estate , and are free-born englishmen , which magna charta preserveth in their outward liberty . . because many families will be left outwardly distressed , and the nation distracted and disordered . . and chiefly , because the lord god of heaven and earth is grieved and vexed with it , and the prosecution of it will kindle his wrath in a high degree . now let these truths be well considered , and the heat of violence stayed , for there is no just cause given by us why it should be so done unto us ; and we are very clear in the sight of god , that we have not forfeited our just liberty in our native land , but have as good right to continue and abide therein as any people whatsoever , and there is not any thing can be truly said otherwise of us ; but things are wrested that are prosecuted against us , and our cause is presented after another manner than what it is in it self : and divers things are charged upon us from bare suppositions ( and many of you know it ) and thereby we are exposed to hard sentences by men , when we can appeal to god , with clear consciences , in those cases wherein men render us offenders : for we are not a willful , stuborn people , neither do we any way seek the subversion of the government , or the harm of any mans person upon the earth ; these are only suppositions by our judges and accusers ; and no supposition is a good ground to proceed against us in a matter of such high concernment : for our not submitting to the requirings of men in cases of conscience , is onely in obedience to the doctrine and command or christ jesus ; and our testimony is in meekness and fear , and not in willfulness and stubornness ; and we are wronged when such reproaches are cast upon us , though such as fit to be our judges , have their liberty to speak , and to interrupt our answers : and what would you have from us that you have not , to give you better assurance of our allegiance to the king ? can any thing more evidently demonstrate it than our peaceableness ? a thousand oaths imposed ( if we could swear at all ) would not be so binding unto our consciences , as the love of god in which we live , and by which we are constrained to live peaceably ; for it bindeth our consciences into peace , and maketh us subject unto christ as supream , and unto the king in his civil government : for what can more clearly manfest our subjection to his kingly power , than our willingness to render unto him our tax and tribute ? and having these things rendered by us , you may conclude , that it is enough , and as much as you are reasonably to expect from us , and it doth sufficiently clear us from all supposition concerning our seeking to subvert the government ; and herein we manifest our subjection to the king , in living peaceably , and giving him that which is his due : but the rule and government of our consciences we cannot give into his hand , nor into the hand of any man , for that is peculiar unto christ jesus , and he alone hath the preheminence in our consciences ; and no man ought to call his power in question , nor to punish us for obeying his doctrine and commands ; for by faith in his doctrine and commands , we live , and we dare not make shipwrack of it , but in his love are constrained to keep it , and his reward is our unspeakable joy. very much of this nature , hath been published in tenderness of heart for your good , and therefore i shall not at this time be large , for i know , that love , patience , and meekness must prevail : and the lord god hath abundantly furnished and adorned his children with the virtues of those heavenly graces , in which they stand as so many innocents , that think no ill ; and their behaviour and holy conversation , may even overcome you , to be pittiful and merciful towards them , and also , to be in love with them ; which you would assuredly be , if you had a right knowledge of them . oh it is a christian , and a manly-state , to be in love , for therein was man created : and though the fall hath separated , yet by christ jesus every true believer is again restored , and therein are we disposed towards the whole creation ; and what ever may come to pass concerning us outwardly , yet in love we shall remain inwardly , and in love lye down in peace , which no man hath power to give us , nor to take away from us . and so it is desired , that every one of you concerned , may seriously consider this short presentation of our innocent cause , and let the just witness of god in your consciences determine the matter , and then we shall not be deprived of our just liberties and birthrights , nor of the outward comfort of our near relations ; then we shall not be forced from our tender wives and children , and leave them mourning and weeping behind us ; not thereunto constrained for any evil done by us , but in the kindly affectionated nature of unfeigned love , in which we are bound together , and ought not by any man to be parted , or put asunder ; and it lieth contrary to the nature of love to part and separate outward relations after such a manner . and if you will but receive the counsel of gods witness , that principle which pleadeth in your consciences on our behalf , it will determine the matter equally , and then we shall not be found worthy to be deprived of our right , liberty , and outward comfort , but shall be found worthy to sit in peace with our families , and follow our honest callings , and so continue serviceable in our generation , within our native land. and that will free your consciences of much vexation and trouble which otherwise will come upon you ; for if you proceed to prosecute the matter unto the end , the cry of the widows and fatherless , will so eccho in the nation , as to be a continual terror unto you ; nay , thousands will make a doleful lamentation on the behalf of their honest neighbours and friends . [ oh let not such a lamentation be taken up in england , as to have a poor destitute wife , mourning and weeping for want of her husband , and poor young tender children mourning and weeping for want of their parents , and one neighbour and friend mourning and weeping for want of another ] and you the cause of it ; this will be a heavy burden upon you , and a terror in your consciences , if you do occasion it : for there are many tender hearts in england , though some be grown into hardness , and in hardness sit rejoycing , rather than pitying ; but the lord seeth and knoweth the secrets of all hearts , and the hardest of hearts he will break and fill with sorrow . o do not cause these things to come to pass by any of your means , lest you draw upon your selves a burden too heavy to be born ; but let pitty and mercy stop the violence of fury and cruelty , that instead of mourning there may be joy , and instead of heaviness there may be gladness , and that will give you ease in your own consciences , and peace in the latter end : which is desired , that ye all may walk worthy to know fulfilled ; for the power of the lord god will break all that stands against it , and that is his living word . by a true friend unto all native englishmen . the th day of the th month , . w. s. the law described in its nature and end. that which may be properly and truly called law , is that which standeth in mercy , justice and equity ; and by its power and force preserveth people in safety , as to their life , liberty and estate ; that where any wrong or injury is offered or done by one man unto another , there justice and right may be done in mercy and equity , for relief of the grieved : for every thing that is instituted in its proper place , hath also its proper object unto which it pointeth , as to the end for which it is instituted : and divers cases and sentences might be asserted out of the old law , which answereth this very end , which being law in its self , as being instituted for the preservation and well-being of all free-born english-men , and its power yet standing and continuing in force , and also being counted the foundation upon which all ensuing acts ought to stand , and so to be compleat and perfect in one body ; if any thing be enacted that cannot be settled upon this foundation , or united to this body , which is counted the body of the law , it cannot properly and truly be called law , but is rather holden for error ; so that the foundation , or body of the law , standeth as a rule unto all future and succeeding ages , that they may be directed in their acts and institutions , wherein they are concerned : for if it was not so , there could be no error ; but it appeareth that there may be an error , and so consequently a rule that is erred from , when an error is committed ; and the error must needs be this , when any thing is enacted or executed that cannot be united to the foundation , or body of the law : for if the body of the law stand in mercy , justice and equity , to the preservation and safety of life , liberty and estate ; and future ages do enact against such as do not wrong any man in life , liberty , or estate , such an act cannot be united to the foundation , or body of the law : and it appeareth that the body of the law is so intirely composed in mercy , justice and equity , that no future age could yet find it defective , but have allowed it to be good and right in its institution ; so that it standeth and remaineth in its power and force , and is generally accounted the rule to walk by , for the good government of all people : and as it remaineth in force , so there is nothing to be enacted and counted for law , but that which will clearly unite to its body , in mercy , justice and equity , whereby all people may have their outward rights and priviledges preserved unto them ; and that is also agreeable to the rational part in man , because it answereth that which would not be exposed unto danger : for it is a thing generally concluded , that reason is the mother of law ; forasmuch as no unreasonable act or deed should be done by one man against another ; and so the law is powerful to keep the unreasonable part in subjection , and when it is transgressed , to inflict equal punishment upon offenders ; and hereby it becomes a terrour to evil-doers , and a praise to them that do well ; because it sheweth mercy , justice and equity unto the wronged , by righting their wrongs , and therein is the terrour unto the one , and the praise unto the other . now if any act be instituted that doth not answer this end , then it is not reasonable in the ground , and consequently no law ; for it is improper to call that law which is unreasonable , being that reason is generally accounted the mother of law ; and whatsoever act doth erre from the foundation of law , it doth not unite with the body of the law : and it is very clear and plain , that if there be no wrong-doers , as the object of the law , that then the law in it self is silent , as having nothing to operate upon that offends it ; and if there be no matter for the law to operate upon , then no punishment to be inflicted . now as the lord god of heaven and earth created all things in good order , and every individual stood in its place and service without offence in that day , but through the fall is gone into disorder , which remaineth unto this day ; so the highest degree wherein men are concerned in the institution of any act , is but to reduce into that comely outward order again , that so no man may be grieved of offended by the wrong that another may do unto him , but that he may walk safely in his person , liberty and estate ; and this is the furthest end which the law serveth unto , and that which is enacted in such a service uniteth with the body of the law , and is in it self properly law , because it operateth upon a proper object , and reacheth with power and force to suppress it ; and by this rule he that doth wrong suffers for it , and he that is wrongnd comes to be righted ; and so good order is kept amongst men , by the power and force of the law ; and that is a reasonable thing , unto which the law only serveth ; and so the law is merciful , just and equitable in every point , forasmuch as the institution of it tendeth to the preservation and well-being of men ; for that which is ordained and instituted for the preservation of man , is merciful towards him , it standeth as an outward defence to his life , liberty and estate : for the law would not that any man should suffer wrong , and therefore it sheweth mercy to the grieved , by doing justice and right , and that is properly the nature of law ; forasmuch as it is unreasonable in such as do the wrong , and reasonable to right such as are wronged : and reason being the mother of law , it strengtheneth the law to operate upon all unreasonable things , as the proper object which it is to take notice of , and thereby the end of the law is answered in mercy , justice and equity , which is agreeable to its nature . and the case may be put thus for more clearness ; what would there be to punish according to law , if all men lived peaceably , soberly , and righteously ? if nothing ( as certainly there would not ) then is there any other end in the law , but only to punish such as live vainly , frowardly , and unrighteously ? if a man be a freeborn englishman , and pay his taxes and tribute as a subject , and neither plot , contrive , nor conspire against the person of the king , or subversion of the government , what law is there against him in that case ? the mother of the law , saith , none at all , forasmuch as he hath done no wrong to the king any way , but is a peaceable subject . again , if a man do not offer any violence to his neighbour , or any way do him wrong , what law is there against him in that case ? he is not an object which the law takes notice of for punishment , forasmuch as he hath not wronged his neighbour , but is a sober man. again , if a man be wholly disposed in righteousness , what law is there against him in that case ? righteousness is not an offence against the law , for the law is not destructive to the righteous ; and so in all other things , which are peaceable , sober and righteous , the power of the law doth not operate upon such for punishment , neither will any rational man affirm it , therefore the object of the law , must needs be the wrong doers ; and the power and force of it doth only extend to suppress them , because they are injurious to the well-being of peaceable , sober , and righteous people ; and the law in mercy , justice and equity protecteth them from injuries , and doth them right when they are wronged , and this is properly law , and the end of its institution . now these things being granted , which indeed are so really true , as not to be disputed or denied , then it must of necessity follow , that when any act is instituted , that maketh peaceable , sober , and righteous people the object of its power and force , that cannot properly be called law , forasmuch as it doth not unite with the foundation and body of the law ; for it is not a reasonable thing , that peaceable , sober and righteous people should be disinherited , or exiled , or any other way destroyed or punished , there is neither mercy , justice , or equity in it , which are the only qualifications that the law is setled upon : therefore it is fully concluded , that the peaceable , sober , and righteous people , called quakers , are under the protection of the law in every point , forasmuch as they neither wrong nor injure any man , which draws the mercy , justice and equity of the law over them ; and so whatsoever act is , or may be made against that people , or however it lieth as to titles and terms for preventing and suppressing their godly meetings , or any other matter or thing which pertains to their consciences , yet it cannot make them transgressors of the law , though they continue their meetings or other godly exercises , contrary unto such an act ; because their meetings and godly exercises are in tenderness of conscience towards god , and not to wrong or injure any man ; neither can any experiences demonstrate that the practice of those people have at any time , or in any place , been any way hurtful to the life , liberty or estate of any people ; therefore the mercy , justice and equity of the law is on their side , and standeth in it self for their protection , and not for their destruction ; and whatsoever is enacted against them cannot unite with the body of the law , because it doth evidently appear that they answer the law , when they meet together , as meeting peaceably , soberly and righteously , which wholly tendeth to the well-being of all people ; and therefore by the law they are to be defended from injury and wrong , and not to be disinherited , exiled , destroyed , or any other way punished , by any act whatsoever ; for as they give no just occasion for any act to be made against them , so none in power is to make any act to punish them , but to extend the mercy , justice and equity of the law towards them , who in all things answer the law in their holy and peaceable life , wherein they walk in all godliness and honesty , as becometh christianity . thus in obedience to the lord god of heaven and earth , i have given forth my testimony concerning these weighty matters , that none may endeavour to promote any thing against those dearly and welbeloved people of the most high god , who reproachfully , and scornefully , are called quakers , but in the power of god are truly christians , with whom i am united in the bond of peace , and therein rest , a true lover of all mankind . the th day of the th month , . w. s. a postscript to all honest , sober and impartial jurors . friends , i have much tenderness in my heart towards you , forasmuch as i believe , that many of you are of a grave and sollid disposition , and desire to perform your places of trust in honesty and sobriety as becometh men ; and you it is , that i desire may well consider the whole matter , and chiefly these particulars following . ( . ) whether the prisoner stands upon his tryal according to law , that is , whether it be properly and truly law , that he is tryed by . ( . ) whether the law and the witness agree together in every point , as to the matter in question . ( . ) whether the thing done , be really an offence against the law , and so a fact punishable by the law ; for there may be some acts that will not unite with the body of the law , as before is mentioned ; and also there may be several interpretations of the law , and the judges may wrest the law by such interpretations ; as for instance , there is an act to prevent and suppress seditious conventicles : now according to these express words , this act will unite with the body of the law , and in that sence may properly be called , law , because it is to prevent and suppress such actions and practices as tend to discord , strife , and ill things , and thereby tendeth to the preservation of peaceable people . now mark , if any be tryed by this act , because they onely meet together to worship god in his fear , and the evidence can prove nothing farther , than onely a meeting , and the judge tell you , that such proof is sufficient to make such guilty of an offence , that are taken at a meeting , though it be not apparently seditious ; such an interpretation makes the law to be no law , because it will not unite with the body of the law , according to the sence of the judges interpretation ; for the interpretation quite altereth the matter , and so maketh such to be the objects of their interpretation , that are not proper objects of the law ; and whosoever are found guilty , as offenders , from any such interpretation , they are wronged and injured according to the law : for where the institutors of laws do signify their minds in express words , if their minds and words will unite with the body of the law , then no interpretation is to wrest their minds and words from their proper sence and signification , for so the judges may interpret the law to answer the witness , and thereby make an innocent man to appear guilty of an offence , when the witness is to answer the law , by proving the fact to be an offence against the law it self , or otherwise the law in it self , doth not operate upon any man to condemnation . weigh and ballance these things in the just principle of god , in which is the pure wisdom that gives to discern the precious from the vile , and so put a difference between those that serve god , and those that serve him not ; and let each condition be answered with a just measure , and therein you will find your peace and happiness both present and to come : and the lord give you wisdome and understanding , that with boldness and courage you may stand in mercy , justice and equity over all the fear of men . w. s. the end . the minister's reasons for his not reading the kings declaration, friendly debated by a dissenter. dissenter. approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing m estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) the minister's reasons for his not reading the kings declaration, friendly debated by a dissenter. dissenter. p. printed by g. larkin ..., london : . caption title. "allowed to be published this st day of june, " imprint from colophon. reproduction of original in union theological seminary library, new york. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng dissenters, religious -- england. church and state -- england. great britain -- religion -- th century. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - taryn hakala sampled and proofread - taryn hakala text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the minister's reasons for his not reading the kings ' declaration , friendly debated . by a dissenter . allowed to be published this st day of june . sir , i am beholding to you for publishing the reasons you alledg for your refusal to read his majesties declaration in your church ; for by them i discern , that he who writ the first letter to a dissenter , wherein he told us you were convinc'd of your error , in being severe towards us , and that we had not now to do with those rigid prelates , who made it a matter of conscience to give us the least indulgence , writ this of his own head , without any authority from you ; but that he , or they who writ a treatise , which was published a little before the kings declaration , entituled , the vanity of all pretensions for toleration , ( wherein the question is put and answered , shall we give up the cause , and subscribe to a toleration ? nothing less , and that because in our circumstances , it is not only contrary to religion and civil prudence , but also to charity and compassion ) were guided in this matter by the same temper of mind , with that which is discovered in your reasonings , which are as like one to the other as face is to face in a glass ; for therein the author , who is your advocate , and without doubt had both your countenance and assistance , tells us , that the practice of punishing dissenters is contrary neither to the doctrine or practice of christ , and therefore he hopes , they that use it upon great occasion may be discharged of the odious imputation of antichrist ; and that experience hath taught us , that compulsion in matters of religion serves many times to render men more teachable , and willing to be instructed ; and besides all this , that a steady and discreet execution of the laws against dissenters , might happily have been a much more merciful conduct , even with respect to them , then that r●●nissness or connivance which tempted them to presumptuous sins . one touch he hath also at the kings prerogative , not like to your present reasoning , which calls it into question , but by way of allowance and commendation ; for he says , we owe it only to the wisdom and foresight of his late majesty , that some of the most considerable laws are now in being , i mean that of q. elizabeth , which he saved by his prerogative , as well as men , when it was condemned to be abolished , and if his clemency had saved many , who the laws had justly condemmed , why should it not save a law that had done him and his ancestors no small service , and was then doom'd to an undeserved fate . i intend not to enter upon examination of this your advocate treatise , which is sufficiently refelled and rebuked by his majesties royal declaration of indulgence ; but to shew you , until you give a better evidence to the contrary , then hitherto you have done , how the dissenters are to interpret your charity , your compassion , your mercy , your clemency , and your due tenderness towards them , when you have an opportunity of shewing your inclinations without danger : but i pass from this to what i intend , and that is to make a brief enquiry into the weight of your reasons , which i suppose , you therefore make publick , that they might be well consider'd & scann'd , in order thereto i have without partiallity , or injury to their proper sence , not literally transcribed but extracted the substance of them . that which hath principally induced me to this , is , because i think you either do not your self understand the substance of the kings declaration , or else by your not reading it , and mis-representing it , you seem unwilling that it should be understood by any others : for thus you begin . i. to take away the test and penal laws at this time is but one step from the introducing of popery , and therefore to read such a declaration in our churches , though it do not immediately bring popery in , yet it sets open our church doors for it , and then it will take its own time to enter . here is a far fetch'd inference ; how would you be understood ? suppose it granted for argument sake , that to take away the test and penal laws is but one step from the introducing of popery ; is your reading the declaration a nearer step to the introducing of popery then such a repeal ? if you should read it , will that open your church doors so wide that popery may enter without any more to do , though the penal laws and test should not be taken away ? i take the true and genuine sense of the kings declaration to be a setting open your church doors that papists and dissenters , who have no mind to be there , may not be compelled by temporal penalties to come in , and abide there , whether they will or no ; for you have hitherto opened your church doors , that you may drive them in , and in force of penal laws to keep them there in spiritual bondage against their wills ; and if they have at any time , for above these hundred years , adventured to start out of your churches to free themselves from this sort of bondage , you by your excommunication prosecuted them into corporal bondage without redemption : it s accounted an ill omen to stumble at the threshold , but this you have done by calling that an opening your doors to let popery in , which is intended only to let papists and dissenters out , and to leave you with all that are of the religion established by law in the full and peaceable possession of your churches , and to enjoy them with security to perpetuity . ii. you say , should we comply with this order all good protestants would despise and hate us , and then we may be easily crush'd , & may soon fall without any pity . in reasoning thus , you are either very censorious and uncharitable toward all dissenters , or else you greatly mistake their temper ; for your reasoning herein can conclude no less , then , either that there is not one good protestant among all the dissenters , or else , if there be any such , that they would dispise and hate you for doing of that which is their interest to do themselves , and to have done by all men , and by you in particular , that the justice , reason and clemency which the king has manifested in his gracious declaration may be known and acknowledged by all : if any other good protestants should despise and hate you for it , for which they have no cause , yet you do not suppose , that they are the men that would crush you ; and for the dissenters , though you mis-represent them in the close of your letter , yet herein i would do them this right , to rid you of your groundless fears ; you may be assured that for your reading & pursuing the intent of the kings declaration which tends both to your and their security in equity and law , they will not crush you , for thereby they will expose themselves to be crush'd together with you ; so that i see no cause for your fears , either of dishonour or downsal , unless you resolve to throw your selves down , and pu 〈…〉 down the dissenters also to verisie your subsequent prognostications . iii. you say , we fall a little sooner for not reading the declaration , if our gracious prince resent this as an act of an obstinate , peevish or factious disobedience ( as our enemies will be sure to represent it to him ) we shall as certainly fall , and not long after if we do read it , and then we shall fall vnpitied and despised , and it may be with the curses of the nation , whom we have ruined by our compliance , and this is the way never to rise more . i do not reckon my self to be among the number of your enemies , and therefore , though you are somewhat peevish , i would not that you should be represented to the king as obstinate : for my hopes are , that upon better consideration you will shew your selves obedient to his commands ; but if it should prove otherwise , as your enemies will not , so your friends cannot excuse you , as being altogether free from faction , but how comes it to pass that you being a minister of the gospel should fix your eye so steadity upon the dishonour being unpitied and despised , as inseparable concomitants of a certain fall not long after you have read the kings declaration , if you comply to read it ? a settled apprehension that you shall certainly fall , whether you read or not read , is sufficient to disturb your fancy , so as to interrupt the making of a solid judgment in reference to your duty , and discharge of a good conscience towards god : there is as little need , as there is just occasion for you to surmize , as you do , that your complyance will ruin the nation , and procure their curses ; for i cannot see any such moral certainty attending your reading as ruining the nation : those other incredients might have been p●●termitted , if you have no disposition , by discovering your seeming fears , to stir up a real fear in the minds of others . i think it more nearly concerns you , setting aside all thoughts of honour and dishonour , good report or bad report , to see to it that you have the law of god on your side , to excuse your disobedience to the king ; for otherwise the ill consequences of contending with soveraign power , and inticing others to do the like after your example will lye heavy upon you . for tho you mention onely your own fall , yet you intimate plainly enough , that you are not to fall alone , and never to rise more , but that this will be the fate of all the protestant chruches also , and therefore you proceed after that manner . iv. may i suffer all that can be suffer'd in this world , rather than to contribute to the final ruin of the best church in the world. so that it seemes if you fall , the best church in the world must fall also , and that not partially , or for a season , but totally and finally . do you not attribute too much to your self in this ? are you the only pillar upon which the best church in the world is built ? and are penal laws the onely strength by which you support the church ? if those you will have in this point to be accounted , your adversaries , should prevail ( as once you know they did do , for twenty years together ) to divest you of your coercive power , your experience may dictate to you ; that a protestant church here , as well as else where has subsisted , and may subsist through divine assistance , when that coercive power is taken out of your hands : however i acknowledg no man can justifie himself for contributing to the ruin of any true church ; but in this you are not singular , as you would make your selves to be ; the dissenter may claim equally with your selves a share in such a resolution as this , and say as you do ; may i suffer still , as i have suffered all that you have inflicted upon me , or what else the providence of god allots for my portion ; rather then that i should contribute to the ruin of the best , or any church of christ in the world. v. you say , i suppose no minister of the church of england , can give his consent to the declaration , and reading the declaration in our churches , will be with great reason interpreted a consent . you might have taken caution from your own postscript to your reasons , concerning henry care , not to have made your supposition , so universally comprehensive of every minister of the church of england ; in regard you say , reading is teaching , and signifies consent to the matter read ; and you instance in four or five which did read , and i think i may more probably suppose , that if any precise disquisition should happen to be made , many of your ministers who did not read , may chuse to excuse themselves , rather by their not receiving directions from their ordnary to read , then to alledge as you do , that ●hey did refuse to do it , because they could not consent to the matter of the declaration . vi. you say , by our law , all ministerial officers are accountable for their actions , which shews , that our law does not look upon the ministers of the church to be meer machines and tools , to be managed wholly by the will of superiours , without exercising any act of judgment or reason themselves . apply this to your usual practice of publishing all such declarations in your churches , as have been commended to you by your ordnary , or his official : tell me in what case you have charged your conscience , so much as to make a private judgment , which you ought always to have done whether all the sentences of excommunication , and ecclesiastical censures and orders which you have published ; censures of church-wardens , for refusing the oath prescribed by your cannons : censures for not paying your apparitors and officers the fees they demanded . excommunications purposely contrived and improved to prevent many of their votes at elections : interdicting any divine service , to be performed in a church for burying of persons excommunicated for non-conformity in consecrated ground , till the church-wardens caused the dead corp● to be dug up again , and removed : publishing whole sheets full of orders of s 〈…〉 on s , wherein such dissenters as conformed so far as to come to church , have been reproached , as doing i● to save their money ; and therefore giving a charge to mark all such 〈…〉 not kneel at their prayers , and stand up at the gloria patri : orders that none should be relieved that fell under poverty , if they came not to church and conformed to your ceremonies , if they were able of body so to do ; and many others of like nature : have all these in your private judgment been warranted by the law of god ? do you esteem it a light thing to cast , or publish any mans being cast out of all christian society , and delivered over to sathan for such matters as are no crimes against any divine law ? i take it ( for ought that ever i saw manifested to the contrary ) that a subjection to the command of your superiours , as being onely in such things ministerial offices , has been at least your tacite plea , for not stirring up or troubling your consciences , to make a dis●retive judgment ; whether the act of your superiour which you are commanded to publish , were lawful , or unlawful , by the law either of god , or of the land ; and to tell you the truth , i do not think you are in the eye of the law such criminals as on this particular occasion you would render your selves to be , in case you should read the kings declaration in obedience to his command , though you did not approve the matter of it in your private judgment ; it not being your province , positively to determine concerning it in point of law : you might with better pretence of conscience , ( if pressed to it in your own mind , as an act necessary to avoid a sin against god ) after the reading of the declaration , have taken your exceptions to it in your particular station , then to have followed the course you have taken , as it were by common consent , one in the name of all the rest , thus openly to declaim against it , for that had been an exercising of such an act of judgment , and reason , if the cause required it , as a minister of the gospel might have done in reference to god , whatever had been the consequence of it in respect to men : and the prospect you had of this ( as you afterwards manifest ) does not excuse but rather condemn you for seeing better things , and following the worse . vii . you say , our law supposes , that what we do in obedience to superiours , we make our own act by doing it : this is the onely reason i know , why we must not obey a prince against the laws of the land , or the laws of god ; because what we do , let the authority be what it will that commandt it , becomes our own act , and we are responsible for it . if you state this as a general case of every subject , i suppose you mistake the law , for i cannot conceive how a clerk in parliament , privy council , court of justice , or convocation who writes , and afterwards reads openly what his superiours have dictated , and commanded him to read should be supposed in the eye of the law , to be his own act : if you mean by your laws , you being ministers are responsible for what you do in any other manner , then the rest of the kings subjects , or ministerial officers are , you should have done well to have shewed it , for till that be done i know not how to distinguish of your case as different from other ministerial clerks . the onely reason you alledge , why you must not obey a prince against the law of the land or the laws of god , is both complicated , and equivocal ; for if you willingly walk after any command , which is contrary to the law of god , let the authority be as you say what it will , that commands it , whether of a prince singly , or a prince in conjunction with a parliament ; i grant , that it becomes your own act , for which you are responsible to god ; but it is not so in many cases , where a prince may command to do , or forbear , what a particular statute forbids or appoints , because he may therein exercise his prerogative according to the common law. besides , if you being a minister should obey the kings , and your lawful superiours order , and read his declaration , by which some penal laws are suspended , and this act of prerogative should afterwards come to be questioned in parliament to whom are you responsible ? surely not to the king , nor to your ordnary , whom you have obeyed ; you cannot mean tha● , not to any ordinary court of justice , for no information or indi●●ment will lye against you there at the kings suit ; you must be then arraign'd for it in parliament , or no where , and if you come to be responsible for it there , i think your rubrick established by law , and our ignorance of any other law will be a sufficient plea to excuse you , for it will be a president of the first impression ; i know not of any parish minister has ever heretofore been question'd and condemn'd in parliament for obeying an order in this kind of his prince or lawful superiour . viii . ministers are bound to take care that what they publish in their churches , be neither contrary to the laws of the land , nor the good of the church . ministers of religion are not look'd upon as common cryers , but what they read , they are supposed to recommend too , though they do no more then read it , for is not reading teaching ? it may be it were no fault to consent to the declaration , but if i consent to teach my people what i do not consent to my self , i am sure that is a great one . i take it for granted that you have sufficiently demonstrated to all men , that reading and not preaching off book , is teaching , for that has been your ordinary practice for many years , and it is true , by reading you teach your people to understand what you read , but when that is done , your people are at liberty to judge , and you also in this present case being ordered to read what the king hath declared , are at liberty to pen a sermon that may be a paraphrase upon what you read before , and read that in your pulpit afterwards , so as therein you do not transgress the law of god , or of the land , and by that your people may understand whether you consent to , or dissent from what you have read , and if your are commanded by law to read what you do not consent to in your own conscience , and for the discharge of a good conscience towards god , let your people know so much ; i think you therein discharge both the office of a minister to man , and duty of a teacher to god ; and in such a case , tho you should afterwards be judged by mans law , yet you may with a quiet mind , therein commend your cause to god , who judgeth righteously . be it so , that ministers are not look'd upon as common cryers , yet give me leave to say , you being ministers are look'd upon as publick preachers , or heralds to publish the orders of your superiors , and are no more accountable to any man for the matter which you so publish , then a herald who publishes the kings proclamation to his subjects ; con●●der the consequence , if the judgment of what i● agreeable or contrary to the laws of the land , the good or hurt of the church , be left to the private determination of every parish minister , what will become of the authority of their superiours ? of what us● is the rubrick to which they have subscribed , which directs them to read what the king or their ordnary enjoyns ? for in this case , 't is all one , as i said before , whether you are enjoyned to read by an ● of state or an act of parliament ; for i think you will grant me this , that the ● of an eternal 〈…〉 t 〈…〉 t of parliament then 〈…〉 : so that in 〈…〉 , 〈…〉 no 〈…〉 f●r in your s●tion to 〈…〉 it himself of evil a 〈…〉 the 〈…〉 of 〈…〉 , but by the method before prescribed , especially i● such a case as is before us ; wherein you say , it may be no fault to consent to the declaration , for if the matter be so doubtful in it self , as that it cannot be any otherwise determined to be either good or evil , then by every mans private judgment , by such a rule as what is not of faith is sin ; you have exceeded your bounds in prescribing a general rule concerning it , as a like obligatory upon all ministers . ix . you say , i take the declaration to be a contradiction of the doctrine of our church by law fstablished . o●r reading it in our churches , must serve instead of addresses of thanks , which our clergy generally resused , tho it was onely to thank the king for his gracious promises renewed to the church of england in his declaration , which was much more innocent then to publish the declaration it self in our churches . i think my self bound in conscience not to read it , because i am bound in conscience not to approve it . it s against the constitution of the church of england which is established by law , and to which i have subscribed , and am therefore bound in conscience to teach nothing contrary to it while this obligation lasts . your terms are so general , and the s●nse of your arguments are so ambiguous ▪ that tho i labour to pick out your true meaning , i am afraid of mistaking it , if i do so , pray r 〈…〉 i●ie me candidly , and friendly , because the manner of your express 〈…〉 your self , and not any wilful error in 〈◊〉 is the cause of it . you take the declaration to be a contradiction of the doctrine of your church by law established ; in what sence shall i take your say so ? is the whole , and every part of the declaration contrary to all , and every part of your doctrine by law established ? this cannot be your meaning , because you take notice of the kings gracious promises renewed to the church of england : i can find none of the thirty-nine articles contradicted , nor any of your religious constitutions invaded by any thing in the kings declaration ; but your doctrines , your service , your ceremonies remain all the same , as they were settled , and exhibited to the late king charles the second , by the presidents , bishops , and clergy of both provinces , with the same civil sanction for the use of them , that ever they had : and besides that , they are neither contradicted nor invaded , the royal promise you mention , is to protect , and maintain his arch-bishops , bishops , and clergy , and all other his subjects of england , in the free exertise of their religion , as by law established ; and therefore if you would free your self from all suspition of prevarication in this point , its incumbent on you first to shew , wherein the kings declaration contradicts it self , and then , wherein , in particular , 〈◊〉 coatradicts your doctrine , and invades your constitution ; for till then , your telling openly , that you take the declaration in general to be a contradicton , and against the constitution of the church of england in general , may be taken , as intended by you to amuse , and not to edify your reader : but what is it you mean , when you say , your reading must serve instead of addresses of thanks , which your clergy generally refused ? did his majesty require , you should thank him for his declaration , as he does , that you should read it ; & did you refuse to obey him in that , tho' as you say , it was more innocent than the other , as you do in this ? is this intended as a memorial of unmannerly disobedience at first , and undutiful carriage at last ? or what is that you signify , by your resusing to thank him , which must now be recompenced by reading ? do you think his command to publish his declaration , is of no more weight , in point of state , than your passing of a complement with his majesty , in giving him thanks , or that the thing he designed in his command , was principally to solve the want of your thankful addresses ? let me tell you , this is not only a streign of levity in interpreting the reason of the royal precept for your reading his declaration in your churches , unbecoming your gravity , but a surmize of a more dangerous consequence : the king commanded , that you should publish his declaration in your churches , that all his loving subjects might know the contents of it ; and you insinuate to them , that it is to serve instead of a thankful addressing , which before you refused . but you pass from this to matter of conscience , and herein you shew your self more subtle in your distinction , of conscience , then the learned bishop sanderson in all his praelections on this subject ; for you seem to have a politick conscience , not to do any thing , which by consequence may hurt ( your interest , or as you term it ) the church , and herein your conscience is guided by a frequent review , and must ' ring up the numbers on both sides ; how many may be for , and how many may be against your reading ; and finding by the computation you make , that the greatest number of your supposed friends will be disobliged by your reading , and that more may be against it than for it : this governs you to make as much conscience of reading the declaration , as of doing the most immoral action in nature . your second distinction is of a temporary conscience , which is to last as long as the obligation of your subscription , to that , you call the constitution of the church of england , lasts : by what means you will reckon your selves discharged of this temporary obligation of conscience , i cannot divine , unless you reckon , that perhaps you may be absolved from it by an act of convocation , or statute-law : but then here lies the difficulty with me . because your third distinction of the obligation of conscience seems to be of such a permanent nature , as no law of convocation or parliament , any more than the kings prerogative can absolve you from : for this i take to be the genuine sense of this sort of conscience you mention in contradistinction from the other ; that you are bound in conscience not to read the kings declaration , because you are bound in conscience not to approve it ; and if you make the invariable law , or revealed will of god , the rule of your consciencious approving , or not approving the matter of the kings declaration ; you cannot in my apprehension any more approve of it , or consent to the reading of it , if it should be established by a convocation , or statute-law ( the law of god , and the matter remaining the same , as now they are ) than you can do it at the command of the kings royal will. tenthly , possibly the people understand , that the matter of the declaration is against our principles ; but is this any excuse that we read , and by reading recommend that to them , which is against our censcience and judgments ? reading the declaration would be no fault at all , but our duty , when the king commands it , did we approve of the matter of it ; but to consent to teach our people such doctrines as we think contrary to the laws of god , or the laws of the land , does not lessen , but aggravate the fault . consenting to teach your people such doctrine , as you think contrary to the laws of god , is a fault ; may be a great fault : tho' the doctrine you teach , may , in it self , be true doctrine , because conscience , though erroneous , obliges not to act against it : but what it is that does not lessen , but aggravate the fault you mention , i cannot discern , for you grant , that reading the declaration , when the king commands it , if you approved the matter of it , would be no fault at all : you say , it is possible the people understand that the matter of the declaration is against your principles ; i answer , t is possible they understand neither the declaration nor your principles , for by the reports i hear frequently ●ut of the countrys , there may be thousands that never read themselves , nor heard the kings declaration read to them , but take the matter of it to be , as you represent it , which to be sure is bad enough ; and thus they are kept in ignorance , and affrighted with the conceit of it . most certainly , if the kings heart were not well assured of the justice and clemency towards all his subjects in what he has declared , it would be the most impolitick action imaginable for him to command , that it should be published , and communicated to all of them , in the most solemn manner , when they are discharged from all secular diversions , and have their minds most free , and intent upon the matter that is read to them : his majesty declares the reason why he would have it thus published , viz. that they may vnderstand and reap the benefit of that general good , which he designs for the whole kingdom ; that his chief aim has been , not to be the oppressor , but the father of his people , that they may lay aside all animosities , and groundless jealousies , and choose such members of parliament , as may do their part to finish what he has begun , for the advantage of the monarchy , over which almighty god hath placed him. now , if the matter of the declaration would not bear the most exact scrutiny , and recommend it self to the consciences and understanding of all his subjects : can any man rationally think , that this was a probable way for his majesty to effect the end he proposed therein ? but since you put me upon possibilities , i think it may possibly be , and very probably also , as i gather from your reasonings , that you do what lyes in you , to conceal from your people , the matter of the declaration , least your people would approve it , and consent to promote it . but though you are thus industrious to conceal the declaration , why do you not tell us what your principles are , for in this , you are as dark as in all the rest ? i must profess , if i had no other means of knowing what the declaration contains , nor what your principles are , than by what you have said in your discourse concerning them , you deal so much in generals , that i should never be able to understand either of them , nor wherein the one is against the other . but now let us come to the main point , for in comparison of that , all the rest is of little value . you say , for you to consent to teach your people such doctrines as you think contrary to the laws of god , or the laws of the land , does not lessen , but aggravate the fault . you have , in your letter , made mention of an old maxim , the king can do no wrong , and therefore if any wrong be done , the crime , and guilt is the ministers , who does it : nor is any minister , who does an illegal action , allowed to pretend the kings commission , and authority for it . you cannot forget who they were that before you insisted upon this sort of argument , nor how severely you of all men have in your pulpits and prints , handled them for it ; but now you think it may serve your turn , you revive it again . since therefore you make it no scruple of conscience in this case , to approve such things now , as you condemned heretofore ; why should you not do it in some other cases also ? the dissenters , as oft as they were summoned into your courts , or elsewhere , for their nonconformity to your modes of worship , or for assembling to worship in other manner , pleaded simply , they could not do the one , nor forbear the other ; because in doing the first , or forbearing the last , they should sin against their conscience , and transgress the law of their lord ; whatever your laws , or the laws of the land commanded , or prohibited : this plea was usually termed a meer pretence , and their assemblies censured by their secular judges , as riots , routs , seditious or vnlawful assemblies ; and by your judges they were condemned , as obstinate and contumacious ; and upon these scores they suffered the penalties inflicted : now , though you did publish , and cause to be executed , such sentences heretofore against the dissenters , who made use of this plea , as a pure matter of conscience , with respect to god's law ; this may be no bar , as appears by your former instance , but that you may take up the same simple honest plea at this time , if you are , as they were , sincere therein , and make it for your selves now , as they did then ; and by this way you may , without intangling your selves by determining positively doubtful points of law ( which is not your province ) come to a fair issue in that , which is the proper charge of your function as ministers ; for the dissenters agree with you in this principle , that for any man to consent to teach others such doctrines as he thinks contrary to the laws of god , is a great fault : let the matter of the declaration therefore be fairly discussed between you and us , with that modesty , which becomes subjests : many dissenters differ from you in their thoughts in this point ; they think the king's declaration is not contrary to the law of god ; and that therefore it may lawfully be read ; if any of them question any part of it , it is that wherein the king promises to protect and maintain the arch-bishops , and bishops , as lord bishops , of which they find no footsteps in the holy scriptures ; but if they will consider , that the dignity of barons is only an addition to that of a bishop , and does neither alter , enlarge , or abrogate the spiritual office ; but is an honour conferr'd upon them by the civil sovereign power : there is no reason for any dissenter , or any other of the king's subjects , to make this a scruple of conscience , in regard it proceeds from a civil constitution , and is a law of mans creation , to which , among others of like nature , every christian is to submit for the lord's sake : and that you and i may as well agree in our thoughts about the subject in hand , as in the principle i have mention'd : it s necessary that we consider , what it is that his majesty has declared ; i shall repeat that point , upon which many others depend , as a necessary consequence , as that to which i think you take the greatest exception : the king declares , that it hath been his constant sense and opinion , that conscience ought not to be constrained ; nor people forced in matters of meer religion . now its incumbent on you to shew wherein you think this point is contrary to the laws of god , and that you do it , is but a reasonable request , for else you perform not your function to your people , but will lye under the suspition of teaching for doctrines , the commands of men , which you know our lord sharply reproves in those that exercise the function of teachers . till you have done this , and made it plain , you have no reason to carp at any thing that is naturally subsequent , as the suspending such penalties , by which many of his subjects are co-erced to worship contrary to their consciences , or pardoning offences against such laws , for this is a natural exercise of his prerogative , as god's vicegerent in acts of goodness and clemency ; it can be no offence to god , that the execution of such laws be neglected by the king's ministers , or suspended by himself , till they can be repealed by parliament , which ought never to have been made , and could never be obeyed , without transgressing the law of god : the king 's lawful , proper , and necessary prerogative , is to provide for all exigents , wherein there is no provision made by a particular law , and to suspend such particular statutes , as were from the beginning , or in process of time , prove useless , or burthensom to a multitude of his subjects , and wherein no particular subject is injured , as to any right , or priviledge , which he can claim by law : so that till you have performed your task , and shewed that this doctrine , which the declaration teacheth , is against the law of god , and what branch of the divine law it is against , that the penalties whereby men are compelled to worship contrary to their consciences , should be suspended : no more need to be said to this , taking it singly , as it is a matter of pure conscience , supposed by you to be an offence against the law of god. but i consider how you state it with a double aspect , having an eye both to the laws of god , and to the laws of the land , and that not conjunctively , but disjunctively : it is an aggravated fault with you to consent to teach your people such doctrines as you think contrary to the laws of god , or the laws of the land , that so you may have a double string to your bow : if you cannot prove the doctrine of the kings declaration to be contrary to the laws of god , yet you cannot consent to teach it your people , because you think it is contrary to the laws of the land : nevertheless taking your reasoning to be consistent with it self , having before shewed , you did not approve of the matter of the declaration , i cannot suppose you made mention of the laws of god superfluously , or vainly , and therefore it remains as a charge upon you to declare plainly , whether you think it contrary to the laws of god , or not : and having repeated this , that you may take the more notice of it , i 'le pass to the next branch , and that is for you to shew , wherein it is contrary to the law of the land ; the reasons for this i shall give you in my remarks upon your next paragraph . eleventhly , say you , it is to teach an unlimited , and universal toleration , which the parliament in . declared illegal , and which has been condemned by the christian church in all ages . it is to teach my people , that they need never come to church more , but have my free leave , as they have the kings , to go to a conventicle , or to mass . it is to teach the dispensing power , which alters what has been formerly thought the whole constitution of this church , and kingdom , which we dare not do , till we have the authority of parliament for it . let us consider what part of the king's declaration may be supposed by you to do the things here alledged , and whether , what you are required to do , be as to the matter of it , of any other nature , than what has heretofore been approved by authority of parliament . his majesty , after the suspention of all penal laws in matters ecclesiastical , for not coming to church , or not receiving the sacrament , or for any other nonconformity to the religion established , or for , or by reason of the exercise of religion in any manner whatsoever , is pleased to declare upon what terms , and in what manner all his loving subjects have free leave to meet , and serve god after their own way , and manner . now i must pray you to interpret what you mean by an unlimited , and universal toleration , for you are still in generals , is it such an unlimited , and universal toleration , as gives all men liberty to meet in such manner , and to do , and say as they please : there seems to me many restrictions in the declaration , the meeting must be for the exercise of religion , and not irreligion , and though all may meet , and serve in their own way , yet it is to serve god , and not an idol . for my part , if i had no fear of god before me , yet i should very much fear severe corporal punishment from the hands of the civil power , if i should meet , and openly preach blasphemy , idolatry , or any other doctrine of immortality , against the light , and law of nature given to , and inscribed on the heart of every man ; for tho' the king is pleased to say , i shall not be compelled to perform any act of worship contrary to my conscience , i am nevertheless accomptable for all things that i openly and voluntarily , without any compulsion do , or say , which fall under the cognizance of the civil magistrate , as all things do , which are against the reason of mankind , and common light and law of nature ; and tho' there should be no statute law in the case , the comman law of the land is grounded upon the law of nature , and no way suspended by the king's declaration , and by this , open scandals against the light of nature are punishable by the civil judges . but you say , an unlimited , and universall toleration the parliament in declared illegall ; it may be so , but i doe not know it ; i have seen no copy of any law , or ordinance of parliament applicable to the point in hand : if you intend to prove the kings present declaration , was declared to be illegall by the parliament in , you must mend your common fault of dealing in general , for it is all one , and no more a proof of any thing being declared illegal in a parliament , to quote onely the year , without repeating the words of the law , and applying the matter of the declaration to it , then if you had said it of your own head , or mention'd for a proof of your assertion , a vote of the house of commons , which was published by order of their speaker , jan : . , wherein it was resolved to be the opinion of that house , that the prosecution of protestant dissenters upon the penal laws , was at that time grievous to the subject , a weakening of the protestant interest , an encouragement to popery , and dangerous to the peace of the kingdom . your next assertion is , that an unlimited and universal toleration has been condemned by the christian churches in all ages ; if you mean by this , that the christian churches in all ages did assume to themselves a power of judging , and jurisdiction over all men that were without the church , or that the church in all ages did by temporal penalties constrain men to come into the church , or when they were there , to worship contrary to their consciences , or to abide there , when they had no heart to do so , but would forsake their faith , their profession , or their christian doctrine , and conversation , and also their assemblys : i think you are very much mistaken in the christian doctrine and practise of the churches in the primitive ages : surely i may say in this , as in the rest , shew me an apostolical authority for such a practise ; and i have so much the more reason to insist upon this , because christs disciples in the primitive age , were all volunteers , suitable to the doctrine which our lord , and his apostles taught , repentance from dead works , and faith in the son of god , which are convictions , and operations upon the mind of man , and necessary qualifications to the being of a true christian , and the profession of them to the being of a visible christian , and the doctrine of self-denial to his continuance in his profession ; the doctrine is plain , whosoever will , let him take of the water of life freely , you will not come to me that you may have life ; and when many of those , who for some time professed to be our lords disciples went back , and walked no more with him , that which was the ground of the others perseverance was , that with him were the words of eternal life , and that they believed , and knew that he was the christ , the son of the living god , and that therefore there was none else to whom they could go ; the apostle foretels us , that in the latter times , some would depart from the faith , giving heed to seducing spirits , and doctrines of devils ; that there would be m●ckers walking after their own ungodly lusts ; that such they were , who being sensual , and having not the spirit , seperated themselves , and the apostle john says expressly , that in his day there were many antichrists , who went out from us ( that is from the apostles , and churches ) but they were not of us ; for if they had been of us , they would have remained with us , but they went out , that it might be made manifest , they were not all of us : and this the apostle makes as the characteristical note , by which he knew it was the last time . now as i cannot find the i east mention in any one word , doctrine , or precept , that any persons were , or should be compelled , by outward force to come or continue in the christian church in the first age , so neither can it be agreeable to the mind of our lord , that any persons should be compelled by temporal penalties so to do against their minds in after ages , unless you can shew us , that the doctrine of christ , and his apostles are not the same in after ages , that they were when they were first delivered . say you , it is to teach my people that they need never come to church more , but have my free leave , as they have the king 's , to go to a conventicle , or to mass . does any thing of this kind flow naturally from the king's declaration ? does that engage or incline you , or any man else to teach any doctrine contrary to his own sentiment ? i take it rather to be an encouragement to do , and say sincerely what they apprehend , and believe to be the will of god , relating to the worship of himself , and that your leave is neither asked nor granted in my going from your church , further than this , that if i be excommunicate by you for it , you cannot thereupon , by your certificate , obtain as formerly , the writ de excommunicato capiendo , to make me a perpetual prisoner , whilst the king is pleased to suspend the execution of that penalty . the declaration does not teach any of your hearers , that they need not come to church , and worship god any more there in that way and manner , if in their own consciences they are convinced they ought so to do ; it does not forbid your teaching or reading to your people any doctrines , or homilies approved of by the church of england , queen elizabeth's injunctions , ( which she enjoyned to be read in your churches four times in a year , ) or any thing else by which they may be instructed in the knowledge , or discharge of their duty to god in your churches . you greatly undervalue your ministry and doctrine , to suppose that there are no arguments to prevail with your people to come to your church , but only temporal scourges , for if you have the truth of god on your side , as no humane law can alter the nature of it , so you are at liberty , notwithstanding any thing in the declaration , to preach it to your people . the declaration is an incitement to all the king's subjects to worship god , and no enticement for any of them to forsake his worship , and that they may respectively serve god , ( as the christian religion teaches , in holiness and righteousness ) without fear : his majesty promises equal protection to all who do worship god in such way and manner , as each of them understand and believe , it is his will they should do ; and in the first place gives the royal countenance and protection to all of the church of england in their worshiping of god in their churches , as by law established : so that you make a wrong gloss upon the declaration , in insinuating that it teacheth your people , that they need never to come to church more , or that they have the king 's free leave , or yours , contrary to their own minds and consciences to forsake the church , or to go to a conventicle , or to mass . for there is nothing in the declaration that requires , gives leave or countenance to any man to forsake that religion , and way of worship to which his conscience obliges him , or to dissemble , and play the hypocrite , in forsaking of any one way , and ( in appearance ) to adhere to another , if he do it not in sincerity , but against his mind and conscience . but we are now come to another point , at which you seem to stick more than at all the rest . say you , it is to teach the dispensing power , which alters what has been formerly thought the whole constitution of this church and kingdom , which we dare not do , till we have the authority of parliament for it . let this matter then , as you say in your letter , be examined impartially , and take in here also that question i touched upon before ; whether the matter of the king's declaration herein be contrary to the laws of the land ? whole treatises have been written upon this subject , with great evidence to manifest the kings right of indulgence in spiritual matters , which you may do well ( in order to your satisfaction ) at your leisure to peruse : i shall here instance only in some few cases , wherein the kings of england , have for several ages past exercised such a dispensing power ; and in their grants , tolerated a dissent from the religion and ceremonies by law established , which have been , either not question'd at all in parliament , or there admitted to be legally done : queen elizabeth in her reign , granted many dispensations of this kind ; and as is credibly reported , to some lay-men to preach publickly . several grants have been made before , and in the reigns of the three last kings , both to foreigners here , and to their own subjects abroad , for the exercise of religion in their own way ; with a non obstance to the statute in force , for uniformity in religion . the act for uniformity in the th year of king charles the second , takes notice of those grants to foreigners ; and provides , that the penalties of that act , shall not extend to such churches as have been allowed , or shall be allowed by the king , his heirs or successors . the act for suppression of seditious conventicles , though it do not in express words grant a license for any number of persons , not exceeding four besides the family , to meet under pretence of exercising religious worship , otherwise than according to the lyturgy and practice of the church of england ; yet it doth not make it penal for any so to do , except they exceed that number : and the common interpretation given of it , by your selves and others , and encouragement taken thence has been , that it was tantamount to such a licence ; and this i think , fully reaches that , which you call the matter of the declaration that you cannot approve of : for if you admit , as you have done in all the arguments i have seen upon this point , that is was allowed ▪ that four dissenters besides the family might meet , and worship in other manner than is by law established , without incurring any temporal penalties thereby , the paucity or greatness of the number , cannot alter the religious nature of the matter ; what 's lawful for four , is lawful for four thousand , with respect to the matter of worship ; the restraining the number , is only the policy and prudence of the civil state , which may be limited or enlarged at pleasure : and by this act , it is provided , that nothing therein contained shall extend to invalidate , or avoid his majesties supremacy in ecclesiastical affairs , but that his majesty , his heirs and successors , may from time to time , and at all times hereafter , excercise and enjoy all powers and authorities in ecclesiastical affairs , as fully and as amply , as himself and his predecessors have or might have done the same , any thing in this act notwithstanding : and i think , the exercise of the king's power , is as naturally applicable to his dispensing with the limitation of numbers , in this case , as to any other clause in that act ; which without this especial provision , might have been construed , an abridgment of the king's supremacy . to make good this , that the king 's dispensing power in his declaration , alters what has been formerly thought the whole constitution of this church : it is incumbent on you , to shew wherein it does so , more th●n has been done in any case of the like nature heretofore , by any former royal dispensations , grants , or authority in parliament . and tell me ingeniously , if without any offence against the holy scriptures , the king may not , if he so please , grant a dispensation to his own subjects , as well as to strangers and their off spring , ( even after they are become denizens , and understand our language ) to worship god after their own way and manner ? and whether among all the jurisdictions annexed to the crown , which heretofore have been , or may lawfully be used for the reforformation or order of the ecclesiastical state , there be no manner of dispensing power contained ? . say you , no men in england will be pleased with our reading the declaration , but those who hope to make great advantage against us , and against our church and religion . this is a bare supposition , arising meerly from your own disturbed imagination , which is through prejudice so darkned , that you cannot discern between your friends and your enemies : i can tell you of many , who neither hope , nor seek to make any advantage against you , your church or religion , that are displeased at your refusing to read , because you thereby give an advantage to such as may be your adversaries , which they could never have gained by your compliance with the king's order . you afterwards suggest , that the dissenters , who are wise and considering , are sensible of the snare themselves , and though they desire ease and liberty , they are not willing to have it with such apparent hazzard of church and state. but if there be any dissenters who deserve the epithites you give them , you have by your severities kept them at such an uncharitable distance from you , that you are unacquainted with their temper ; and thence it is , that as on the one hand you misrepresent them , that you may render them equally obnoxious to the government with your selves , as giving countenance to your disobedience : so on the other hand , you suspect them without cause , to be seeking an advantage against you , your church and religion : you cannot but know , that the generality of dissenters ( who have rendred their solemn thanks to the king for his indulgence , and the establishment proposed in his declaration , ) are for the reading of it , that all the king's subjects may understand , and in their places , pursue the contents of it to effect : therefore ▪ upon what grounds you suggest , ( as if you spoke their language ) that they are not willing to have their liberty in the way which the king proposes , i cannot imagine . you term it with such apparent hazard of church and state ; they apprehend and express it , with apparent advantages of church and state , and that which has a direct tendency to settle both on such a righteous foundation , as may preserve them in a safe and prosperous state to perpetuity . but , is not this to ●●●tter such among the dissenters , as you can intice to hearken to your insinuations , that they may be thought wise and considering ? for you tell them , when there is an opportunity of shewing your inclinations without danger , they may find you are not such persecutions as you are represented : but while you speak of their being sensible of a snare , are not you laying a snare for them ? how long may they wait for such a season , wherein you may in your own apprehension without danger , manifest any incli●n●ions or kindness towards them ? immediately after the house of commons declared , that the prosecution of dissenters , was a weakning of the protestant interest , you promoted it with greater vehemence than ever before : if the king at any time dispense with penal laws , you cry out , the dispensation is illegal : as oft as any bill of comprehension has been brought into parliament to touch any thing of your constitution , so as to enlarge it beyond its present streightness , it hath met with opposition from your ordinaries : so that the dullest dissenters in england , have been sensibly taught by you , that there has been no opportunity , wherein you could without danger , shew them any kindness for twenty eight years past ; and if any dissenters should be so catch'd in the snare of your insinuations , that at some time or other hereafter , there may happen an opportunity , wherein you may be kind toward them , as to let go the present season , wherein his majesty proposes , a legal and perpetual establishment both of your church state and their freedom from temporal penalties for nonconformity to it ; i shall not take such dissenters to be in this case , either wise or considerate . . say you , reading the declaration , is to recommend to our people , the choice of such persons to sit in parliament , as shall take away the test and penal laws , which most of the nobility and gentry of the nation have declared their judgment against . our reading will discourage , provoke or misguide , all the friends the church of england has ; have we not reason to expect , that the nobility and gentry , who have already suffer'd in this cause , when they hear themselves condemned for it , in all the churches of england , will think it time to mend such a fault , and reconcile themselves to their prince ; and if our church fall this way , is there any reason to expect that it should ever rise again ? these consequences are almost as evident , as demonstrations ; and let it be what it will in it self , which i foresee , will destroy the church of england , and the protestant religion and intrest ; i think i ought to make as much conscience of doing it , as of doing the most immorall action in nature . if we must compare consequences , to dis-oblige all the nobility and gentry , by reading the declaration , is likely to be much more fatal then to anger the dissenters . by your mistaking , and misrepresenting the sentiments of the dissenters ; you have given me cause to suspect , you may be mistaken in some things which you have asserted concerning the nobility and gentry ; particularly in that you make no distinction , between the repeal of the penal laws , and that of tie fest ; which diverse of the nobility and gentry in their ordinary discourses on this subject have done ; and this seems to me the more remarkable , because you make it equally as necessary for the preserving your constitutions , to keep the penal laws on foot , as the test . secondly , you lay , in my opinion , too great a stress upon your reading ; do you suppose , none of your friends to have any better discerning , then to be misguided in their judgments by the bare reading the declaration ? no more resolution then to be discouraged by it ? no more charity , then to be provoked to be your enemies by it ? i cannot see any reason you have to expect , that your reading the declaration , should lay any of the nobility or gentry under any conviction of a fault , or that they would reckon themselves condemned ( if it had been or should be read in all the churches of england ) for any thing which they have done or suffer'd in that you call this cause . his majesty has been pleased to declare the reason of the changes he has made in civil and military officers ; not thinking any ought to be employed in his service , who will not contribute towards the establishing the peace and greatness of their countrey : if a question be put to any noble man , or gentleman ; whether he will give his consent to repeal the penal laws and tests ? where such a question meets an inward setled principle , that no man ought to be debarr'd of his civil rights or privilidge , for the sake of his religious opinions , and that , no man ought to be compelled by temporal penalties to perform an act of religious worship against his conscience , such a person is always prepared to give a ready answer ; l'ts fit that all such laws , as tend to do either of these , should be repealed ; because they tend to alter such fundamental maxims as should ever be preserved inviolable , the one in reference to civil rights the other in reference to the christian religion : but where the question meets not with any such setled principle ; but either the contrary opinion , or that present policies of state may govern in deciding it : in this latter case , honour and prudence both , may be pleaded against a pre-engagement , until they arrive to a satisfaction therein , by debates on this subject in parliament . who sees not , that there 's a vast difference between a previous obligation to a positive vote in parliament , and your refusal to perform such a ministerial act , in obedience to the king's order , which you have never scrupled to do in obedience to any order of your ordinary , or his officials , without any regard had to the matter published . but i perceive , you are now upon your politicks , and you would therefore have it , that these noblemen and gentlemen , are already engag●d in the same cause with your selves , or if they be not , you do your best that they may be so , and not be reconciled to their prince ; for then you suppose your church would fall , and not only so ; but that if it fall this way , you have no reason to expect it should ever-rise again . and these consequences you would have to pass for demonstrations , & from your foresight of the event , make as much conscience of reading the declaration , as of destroying the protestant religion and interest , together with the church of england : i will not give my self the liberty for your churches sake , to dilate upon the surmises ; i take them to be the effect only of a sudden vertigo , raised by an imagination , that you are upon the top of a precipice in imminent danger of a destructive fall ; when in truth , though you are in the ascent above any of your fellow subjects ; yet you have there a broad space to walk upon as long as you please and a safe descent into the plain , to others of your companions when you please , and are in no danger at all of falling down , from any other cause , but the swimming ▪ conceipt of your own head. if it were not so , you would never have taken the method you have done , to draw your conclusion from such comparison of consequences , as you have made ; to disoblige all the nobility and gentry , is likely to be much more fatal , then to anger the dissenters . would you have it conceited , that you have engaged the nobility and gentry by a positive promise , upon no terms to part with the penal laws , or give the dissenters any ease , till you signifie to them , by reading the declaration , that it is an opportunity , wherein they may do it without any danger ? have you no cause , as you are a minister of the gospel , to relent at the hard measure , which you , and others by your instigation have meted out to the dissenters of all sorts ? suppose , all the nobility and gentry were against the repealing of penal laws , yet i should think , if you set your thoughts upon the proper discharge of your function , that equal justice and clemency would govern your determinations more then all worldly policy . but you are for putting a question ironically , and answering it plainly and positively : cannot the king keep his promise to the church of england , if the test and penal laws be repeal'd ? your answer is , we cannot say , but this may be ; and yet the nation does not think fit to try it ; and if the question were put to us , we think we ought in conscience to deny them our selves , and we commend those great men that deny it . this looks as if your passions were in a high ferment , and yet there is some appearance of an artifice in it : it sounds with what follows , as if you had an assurance , that the gene ●a vogue of the nation , is under your management and direction , either to have or not to have a parliament , to repeal or not repeal the test and penal laws , as you please , — for say you , are there not as high probabilities , that our reading the declaration will promote the repeal of the test and penal laws , as that such a repeal will ruine our constitution and bring in popery ? herein you shew your selves , to be greater artists the doctrine of probabilities then any college of jesuits , whilst you persist in your disobedience to the kings order , and will not read it : the nation does not think fit to try ; but if you return to your obedience and read , you shall thereby induce them to try and promote the repeal . let me for once after your example ( tho i come one thousand degrees short of your skill in the doctrine ) conjecture at a few probable points . first , it seems to me that you are convinced in your conscience that there is such an innate vertue and power in the matter o● the king's declaration , as will command an assent in the minds of them that hear and consider it ; whence it may be , that you think in your conscience it is not safe for your interest to read it . secondly , if you were not under some such conviction , it 's probable you would make as little conscience to read it , as you did any of those censures or orders , which you cannot otherwise justifie , than as you therein only performed a ministerial / act , in obedience to your superiours . thirdly , it 's very probable , that it is also from hence , that in your reasonings , you run altogether upon the topicks of trusting to the king's promise , and upon a repeal of the test and penal laws , and speak not a word ; either of the king 's making no doubt of the concurrence of his two houses of parliament ( when he shall think sit to call them ) to this declaration of indulgence , ( which he mentions in the first paragraph of it ) or of his majesty's conjuring his subjects to lay aside all private animosities , as well as ground less jealousies , and to choose such members of parliament , as may do their part to finish what he has begun , ( in the close of it ) or of any of the clauses throughout the whole of it , or of his majesty's endeavours to establish liberty of conscience on such just and equal foundations , as will vender it unalterable , and secure to all people the free exercise of their religion for ever . now if this be plainly manifest , ( as it is in its self , and will appear to every man who is not scar'd by you from considering it ) that it is not any one single clause but the whole and every part of the declaration , that the king seeks to have established by a perpetual law ; and that he would have this speedily effected . why is it that you descant so much upon his royal promise , ( of the stedfastness whereof , we have had so general an experience ) as if that were all the security intended to perpetuity ; unless you have still a mind to monopolize the laws to your selves , and that none of his subjects should have the benefit of any law , but such as will ( though it be contrary to their conscience ) conform to a tittle to your measures and modes of worship ? lastly , it may be also probable , if a parliament be speedily called , as his majesty declares he intends it shall be , that they , when they are met , will wisely consider , how both to gratifie the king in what he desires , and secure the subject in all their properties , civil and religious : for the sum of all that is to be granted , de novo , is liberty of conscience , to worship god without incurring any temporal damage by it . what things are already setled by law , as to the religion of the church of england , and their possessions , are so to continue , and be confirmed to them . and if such a new law be contrived to this purpose , as may continue for ever , it will require such ingredients to be in it , as may by the provisions therein made , ( which the wisdom of parliament will readily suggest , ) render it stable and perpetual , and it may be in particular , such as may prevent your suggested jealousies of preists and jesuits ; and also , keep you as well as them , within the spheres of your proper function , that all of the clergy who expect the benefit of other laws , shall subscribe t before your eyes , that no royal promise , no setled laws , no common interest can dispel it , so as to give a discerning of the proper means to arrive at a secure establishment ? bear with my expostulations ; i am coming to a close . it is not desired you should part with any laws in ●●ing , but such only as are the causes of an vnjustifiable ●●pression , and consequently of an vnavoidable contention . if you can justifie the compelling of any man ●y temporal punishments , to worship god contrary to his vnderstanding and conscience , bring out your strong reasons for it , that all who are otherwise minded may be convinced ; but if you cannot do this , bring your mind to do , and permit right to be done to all men herein : even your enemies , that they may have no just quarrel against you , nor seek by any undue attempt , to wrest themselves from under your power : neither you nor any others ▪ have any reason to fear a downfall ; if you are willing to depart from the ways of opression . it is not desired , that any laws in being , should be removed by any other means , but by introducing such as are just , equal , and of much greater security in their stead : do not conceit your self safe ( and that you can be secured o●●● ) under the continuance of vnequal and oppressive laws ; such as 〈◊〉 iust humane nature , christian grace , and known maxims of the law of the land. i consider how you close your letter , that if you were never so desirous that the dissenters might have their liberty , yet you canno● consent they should have it this way , which they will find the dearest liberty that ever was granted : i am afraid from first to last , le●st i should mistake your meaning ; you have said before , you dare n●t ●each the dispensin● power ▪ till you have the authority of parliament for it ; you cannot read the declaration , because it is to recommend to your people , the choice of such persons to sit in parliament , as shall take away the test and penal laws : so that you suggest , as there is no authority , so you are not willing there ever should be any countenance given by authority , either to dispense with , or to repeal penal laws against dissenters ; where to do your desires that they should have liberty tend ? you cannot consent they should have it this way ; that is , by a dispensing power ; nor that way , that is ▪ by a repeal . in your next , i pray signifie what means you propose , that are effectual for the accomplishment of your desires ; and if upon the contemplations thereof , you cannot find any means in common use heretofore , so effectual for making way for removal of spiritual oppressions as the stirring up the hearts of princes : in the first place , to give the subjects ease , by discountenancing and suspending such laws , as are the occasion of their oppression . and in the next place , by the royal assent to the advice of their great council , to repeal such laws , and establish better , and more equal in their stead ; return to your obedience , and acknowledge it is just and equal that together with your own perpetual establishment by law , dissenters of all sorts , should by the same law be secured in that which is their right by the law of god and nature , in common with all mankind ; not to be compelled to worship contrary to their consciences , but to enjoy a just , and duly-stated liberty to worship god according to their consciences ; and that measure of understanding of the will of god , that he has , or shall please to reveal to them : and if you can remove your prejudice , and come to a right mind in these things , i doubt not , but they will incline you , not barely to read the kings declaration in your churches ; but also to recommend to your auditors , ( from the consideration of the reasonableness , righteousness , and clemency of it ) the choice of such members to serve in parliament , as may happily finish that , which his majesty has therein proposed , and mercifully begun . london : printed by g. larkin , at the two swans without bishopsgate . . the plea of the harmless oppressed, against the cruel oppressor approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing p estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) the plea of the harmless oppressed, against the cruel oppressor halifax, george savile, marquis of, - . a letter to a dissenter. p. s.n., [london : ] caption title. "replying to halifax's a letter to a dissenter"--nuc pre- imprints. "includes (p. - ) text of declaration against dissenters by devonshire court of quarter sessions ( )"--nuc pre- imprints. reproduction of original in the university of illinois (urbana-champaign campus). library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng freedom of religion -- england. dissenters, religious -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - emma (leeson) huber sampled and proofread - emma (leeson) huber text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the plea of the harmless oppressed , against the cruel oppressor . with allowance . this kingdom having suffered great miseries and calamities for several ages and generations past , and of late have been in a shaking unstable state and condition , by reason of the great animosities and divisions amongst the inhabitants ●hereof , and especially touching matters meerly concerning the worship of god , which alone belongs to the great god to appoint and order , whose prerogative alone it is to rule in the consciences of men ; for whatsoever is not of faith is sin , and the scriptures ●a●th , let every one be fully perswaded in his own mind : and now such is the dark depraved state of man-kind , that tho his understanding be so darkned , and his mind thus blinded by the prince of darkness , who rules in the hearts of the children of men , that he is always aspiring , and meddling with those matters that god hath reserved alone to himself , viz. to prescribe rules , and make orders for the worship of god ; tho the lord hath threatned , that because their fear to him is taught by mens precepts , he will proceed to do a marvellous work , and a wonder , for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish , &c. jer. . , . notwithstanding tho men generally in this kingdom profess scripture to be their rule , yet with what violence and cruelty hath the contrary been practised ? what laws have been made under severe penalties , to force people to this or that religion , whether they have faith in it or no ? or whether it be the true religion or no ? for tho some that have been violent in forcing , yet concludes there is no infallibility , and so as some have been thus wicked in forcing , others weak in conforming having been thus put on the rack either to suffer the loss of all that 's near and dear to them in this world , or make shipwrack of faith or a good conscience , and of everlasting life in the world ▪ to come ; but others have been so stedfast and resolved , so as not to wound or d●file their conscience , what sufferings both in prisons and spoyling of goods have such undergone , this present generation may afford pregnant and plentiful examples . and now on serious consideration of those violent practices , in forcing in matters of religion , and generally by men of no true religion , the forcing of many contrary to their consciences , to preserve their outward interest , and ruining , others , who chose rather to lose their outward concerns , to preserve their conscience ; whether this hath not been one of the greatest causes of those great revolutions , devastations ▪ and overturnings that have happened in these latter days , let the wise in heart judg . and then what can better tend to the stability , peace and union of the kingdom , then the removing the causes aforesaid ? viz. those laws by which many conscientious people have been destroyed , and others divided in their hearts one from another , and set one against another ; and indeed even the worse of men let loose to serve the devil ▪ & conscientious people prohibited to serve god in the way they were fully perswaded god required of them . and the lord having now put it into the heart of our king to relieve many under those great oppressions , and to propose a way for a future settlement , as by his princely d●claration is exprest , in which he hath exceeded all his ancestors that went before him ; of what w●ight is it for all his loyal subj●cts to joyn hea●t and hand with him in this blessed work , so much tending to the glory of almighty god , the honour of the king ▪ and the peace and tranquility of this kingdom ? and now there being a generation of men that appears greatly in opposition to this work , so happily begun , contrary to the expectations of many , which as the heart of the king is upright before the lord , the everlasting god will stand by him therein , and frustrate all the councels of those that oppose him , which generally are such whose interest is greatly concerned therein , who may greatly pretend worship , as sometimes demetrius the silver-smith did when his crast was in danger . and now there being several able pens that have writ on this subject , to assert the rights of liberty of conscience , and answer the great objection to the contrary , viz. tha● if these laws and tests be taken away , the great danger that may ensue thereby , even the flowing in of popery like a flood . which objection , tho it have been su●●iciently answered , yet it was before me to cast in my mite , and offer a few lines on this account , having taken notice of a certain pamphlet entit●led , a letter to a di●senter , and some passages therein ; it s not my purpose to answer particulars , it being sufficiently done by other hands : the drift of that paper seems to shew the da●ger of repealing the tests , as if there we●e no other way to keep out popery , whose principles and practice have been so dangerous and cruel , insinuating as if all the promises of free liberty in the kings declaration were but pretences to bring in a greater bondage , and that those address●s to him were ●irst drawn for that purpose ; and indeed , as if t●e king in his d●claration were not sincere but falacious ; also intimating how safe it may be for the church of england to be continued in power , & what indulgence she may give , saying , p. . if you had to do with thos● ridged prelates , who made it a matter of con●ience to give you the least indulgence , &c. but kept you at an uncharitable distance , and ev●n ●o your more reasonable scruples continued ●●iff and inexorable . for answer , what kept out popery before the test was made ? it being but about ●ifteen years old , and whether it may not be kept out for the future without the test as well as before ? it seems to me that ways sufficient have been proposed . and as for the kings sincerity in his declaration for liberty of conscience , what could he have done more then he hath done to assure his subjects of his reallity therein , and that they may confide in him accordingly ? but these fears seems to arise from groundless jealousies , rather the just cause , and evil suspition usually proceeding from an evil disposition , that would uphold its own interest more then the publick good , and would have a liberty to keep others in bondage . and as to what the church of england may do to give indulgence , and that if you had to do with those ridged prelates , &c. some of their former practices and resolves may sufficiently manifest , whereof some instances may be given ; i may give two , first the orders of the quarter sessions in the county of devon , three of them in print coming to my hand , the first , the tenth of ianuary . the second , the twenty fifth of april . and the third , the second of october . to all of them is annexed the great app●obation and commendation of the bishop of exon , with his order for all the clergy in his diocess to publish the same the ●ext sunday after tendred to them : i think it too large to expose them all in print , but i think it convenient to print the last of them , and i shall mention particulars of their resolves in the former , with some observations thereon , and then l●ave i● to the moderate to judg . but before i go on with this , it coming to my mind what the author of the letter saith , viz. it is not ●o long , since as to be forgott●n , that the maxim was , that it is impossible for a di●sen●er not to be a reb●l . i may give a few words in answer hereunto . it seems this to be the maxim of the church of england , i s●ppose none questions but that the bishop , justices and grand ●ury o● the county of devon , were church of england men. and in their pre●ace to the ●irst order , of the tenth of ianuary . they thus express themselves , viz. forasmuch as religion is the foundation of civil government , and while faction and schism is allowed and permitted in the church , we can never expect peace and quiet in the state ; and observing at this time ( as we have by sad experience heretofore ) that those that dissent from us , in our established religion , of what perswasion soever , tho at seeming variance and difference among themselves , yet they agree in their wicked attemps upon the government , and their traiterous plots and designs against the kings sacred person — and therefore do unanimously resolve effectually to put the laws in execution against all dissenters , whether papists or sectaries . and so by this its manifest that its their maxim ; and ●o you may see what quarter the dissenters are like to have from the church of england . and in their order of the second of october . they thus express themselves , we have been so abundantly convinc'd of the seditious and rebellious practises of the sectaries and phanaticks , who through the course of an hundred years , since we were first infected with 'em , have scarce afforded this unhappy kingdom any interval of rest from their horrid treasons , as that we must esteem 'em , not only the open enemies of our established government , but to all the common principles of society and humanity it self ; wherefore that we may prevent their horrid conspiracies for time to come , we resolve to put the severest of the laws ( which we find too easie and gentle , unless enlivened by a vigorous execution ) in force against ' em . now observe , o how horrible zealous and charitable are these church men of england ! it seems nothing but a vigorous execution of those laws will serve their turn , and what these laws are may be seen in a book , lately put forth , called draconica , which one whereof at least is death without conformity : are these the old friends that the author of the letter talks of ? we may well say , from such friends , good lord d●liver us ; far better venture to cast our selves on the new : may we not justly reason a● the fo●r leperous men did , that were without the gate of samaria , . kings . , . that if they staid there they must dye , and the like if they went into the city , and then resolved to fall into the hoste of the assyrians , &c. and what is our case better in relation to ●ur old friends ? for by these lawes , here is nothing but loss of all visible enjoyments , for the conventicle act will soon fetch all that away , and the thirty fifth of elizabeth takes life and all , a●d no ranso● to be accepted , but the shipwrack of a good conscience , and so everlasting life ; a dear purchase indeed . and as for the former wars in this land , may not the ground of them , in a great measure , be imputed to the violent persecution of church of england men against people for their consciences ; and as for the late rebellion , were none ingaged therein but such as these men call sectaries and phanaticks ? it s well known to the contrary ; was not monmouth a church of england man ? and the lord gray a church of england man ? and other eminent men who suffered , and the most part of those that were co●demned on that account were such as did frequent the fervice of the church of england ; so that the church of england men are ●ot the only men free of th●t which is charged upon dissenters . and in their order of the tenth of ianuary they say we order and agree that all church-wardens and overseers for the poor , that shall give and allow any relief to any that are able of body , and do not repair every sunday to their parish church , and there abide soberly and orderly during the whole time of divine service , no such contribution in the passing their act shall be allowed . what law there is for this i know not ; some wise church men of some eminency have declared their opinion otherwise , but it seems by this devenshire law , the poor must come to church or starve , and the bishop highly app●oves this order , and saith they that signed it ( which were twenty eight justices of the peace ) have approved themselves , good subjects to his majesty , true sons of the church of england , and good patri●ts of their country ; the lord will have mercy , and not sacrifice , but these men will have sacrifice without mercy . and in their order of the twenty fifth of april . they say t●at no person shall be permitted to keep ale-houses , but such as repair to church , and produce a certificate that they have at least twice in the year last past , received the sacrament of the lords supper , according to the usage of the church to england . observe , it seems right or wrong they must recei●e it , or not sell ale , tho they eat and drink their own damnation ; it s the usage of the church of england , but i find no such usage in the church of christ ; and now consider here is sacrifice required , but no mercy to body nor soul. and in the same order they say . and we would have all those schismatical factious people , who upbraid us with the countenancing debauchery & ludeness , to look back upon the late times , and they will find it was their schism and rebellion ( and which was prologued with such an entry as this too ) which at first weakened , and at last brake down the banks of government , and let in upon us a deluge of pro●ainness and irreligion : these men would seem greatly to be agains● profainness and irreligion , and zealous for worsh●ps and services ; have they forgot , that within the memory of some yet alive , how there was a book for recreation to be used on the sunday for dancing and other sports , was this to suppress or incourage profainness and irreligion , and by whom was that book set forth , and ordered to be read in all parish churches in the kingdom , and several ministers suspended for refusing to r●ad it ? and when the church of england ( after a time of interruption ) came again into her seat , what a flood of wickedness followed , so that the king was then pleased to give forth a declaration against it , expressing that h● was ashamed of their drinking of healths , and other looseness , or to that effect . and now these men would throw all the dirt they can upon dissenters , and wipe their mouthes , as if the church of england were the only spotless assembly ; there 's an eye open that sees them , and how consciencious sober men have suffered by them , many of the goals in this kingdom are witnesses thereof ; many others particulars may be taken notice of , in these orders worthy of observation , wherein that spirit is manifested , that under the profession of zeal for god , the honour of the king , and the preservation of the established religion ( as they say ) have persecuted and ruined many so●er co●scious , and industrious families and people ; and the bishop highly applauds these orders , and gives order for the reading of them by the clergy of his diocess , in their parish churches , and subscribes to it tho. exon. and because the author of the said letter to dissenters saith , if you had now to do with those ridged prelates , &c. i will give one instance more as before hinted , of a prelate now , or very lately in being . a certain prelate acting as a justice of the peace , with some other justices , convicted a meeting of dissenters , twelve miles from their homes , on the oathes of two credible witnesses , as they say ( one of which not long after was convicted for perjury , and stood in the pillory for the same ) seven of these dissenters coming before the said prelate , or bishop , and because it was so far from their homes , borrowed each of them a horse or mare to ride ; being fined three pounds a piece , they were all kept prisoners in the bishops palace , until about seven at night , it being in february , and in the mean time all their horses taken away ( tho not their own , nor either of the owners at the meeting ) and sold or conveyed them away ; the horses were worth thirty two pounds ten shillings , the owner of one of them redeemed his mare for seven pound ; and it being alledged that the seven horses were not sufficient to pay the fine , they ordered them to be had to an inn , and strip of their cloaths , it being dark , about seven at night : one of the dissenters , when they were come into the street , said , they would not go into an inn , but if they would strip them , they should do it in the street , and there made a stand ; and a concourse of people coming about them , and they declaring their unchristian dealing with them , the executioners were almost ashamed , and left the prisoners , the townsmen standing by them , and promised not one cloath should be taken from them , and so they returned with the loss of the seven horses . now what the author of the letter accounts ridgedness is a question , if these actions do not render these men ridged prelates , let men of moderation judg ; many other particulars of cruelty may be instanced , that men of civility and humanity would even blush to hear of , acted by force of those laws ( utterly contrary to christianity and humanity ) by church of england-men upon the dissenters , which these devonshire men in one of their orders do account the open enemies to all the common principles of society and humanity it self ; and now let the right●ous just god judge between us , if principles may be judged by a●tio●s , who are the greatest enemies to common principles of society and humanity ? and if these church men do intend what they say , what conscientious man can ●●joy a being amongst them , wi●hout conformit● to their o●ders ? they further say in thei● order of the twenty fifth of april . having found the good effects of the order and res●lutions agreed on last sessions , for the putting the laws in execution against diss●nters , it having wrought so great a reformation , and ( in those parts where it was observed ) reduced most of those wandering people into the bosom of their mother church , which they had undutifully forsaken , w● are incouraged and resolved chearfully to proceed in the method we have begun . but the everlasting almighty god hath beheld you , and heard the cry of many poor widows and fatherless , who have been crush'd by your oppressive laws , and cruel ex●●c●tioners , a●d put a stop to your carriere , and at present put a limit to your power for his name sake and elects sake . but now let me a little inquire into the good effect of your orders and resolutions , & the great reformation wro●ght ●h●re 〈◊〉 ; you sa● , you have reduced many wandering people in●o the bos●●●f their mother church , &c. your m●aning is , they co●e to 〈◊〉 , but are they converted conscientio●sl● to come there , 〈…〉 come only for fear of your ●ruel ●n●ent●ons to put th● 〈◊〉 excecu●ion upon them ? doubtless on the l●●ter acco●nt , 〈…〉 they are but proselites or hypocrite● , seems s●ch members 〈◊〉 wel with your church , but wha● bene●●● or ●ewa●d are ●ou l●ke to have from god or man , thus to make p●o●●lites or h●pocrites ? how many poor souls hav● you , by your cruel laws , an● excecutione●s , made to violate their consciences , and make shipwrack of faith ? i think the present thinness of your assem●li●s may by this time convince you that you made but hypocrites i●st●ad of converts ; consider seriously , was it ever the practice or order of christ or his apostles thus to force people to the wo●ship which he set up , and they practiced ? was it not thei● way to convince by a holy and humble life and conversation , and sound doctrine ? if you object , there were then no christian magistrates ; i answer , if christ iesus had seen need of them , for his work , he could have called and converted them , but his way was to intreat and perswade by love , and not to compel by force . and now , o that you had hearts , to understand , eyes to see , and ears to hear , for the violence and oppression done by you to many of the lords people , and repent of your doings , for god hath heard the cry of the oppressed , and is risen for their deliverance , and do not strive to uphold those laws which god will remove , and be still and quiet , least you be found fighters against god , and the lord break you to pieces . for what ever your imaginations are , that god , that hath the hearts of kings in his hand , hath put it into the heart of our king , to relieve many of the lords oppressed people , & break the yoak of the oppressor , and the lord will stand by him in this work , and overthrow the attempts , and confound the counsels of them that oppose him ; many hath been the eminent deliverances and preservations the lord hath afforded him , and who knows but that he hath reserved and brought him to the crown for this very purpose ; for the work is the lord● that he hath begun , & its very acceptable to him , and what peace and quietness ●ath his subjects enjoyed under his government ? only some that disturb themselves with their own fears , because such disappointments are come upon them , so that they are ready to fret & curse their god and their king , isa. . . and nothing will satisfie such , but ●uch lib●rty to themselves , by which they may keep others in bondage . i say unto such , take heed how you meddle with gods prerogative , his rule in the consciences of people , he ha●h long born with you on that account , and your time is now to r●pent of what you have done , and not strive ●o keep up that power which god will destroy ; and be content to enjoy equal liberty with your fellow su●je●ts , and let ●hose l●ws and te●ts , by which people hath be●n thus long e●slaved , be taken awa● , and that such a magna charta may be made , so that i● may never be i● the power of any person or persons whatsoever to tyranize or bear rule over the conscience of any , or ruin or oppress them in their persons or estates on that account ; but let every one walk in the way of his god , and worship him as god shall perswade him in his conscience , and then sit down quietly under his own vine , micah . . but it s the great artifice of that spirit , that would usurp authority over the conscience , to perswade people , that if the test be taken away , then popery will come in . the test is but about fifteen years old , and what hath kept it out before the test , as is said before , our god is a god of justice and mercy , and he requires it of men , and let it be done to all , and trust god with the event ; do not people thus reasoning manifest their forgetfulness of god ? as indeed they have in making and severely excecuting those laws , to the ruin of many conscientious people . and now i cannot well omit to observe the spirit and temper of the author of the lett●r to dissenters , what insinuations he uses ; sometimes as if the church of england were blamed for compliance , and accounted trimmers for enduring dissenters , and then how safe is it to keep to them , and many insinuations against the king , as his dispencing power , ( tho to save many of his subjects from ruin ) and as if all he did were to advance his own prerogative , with many insinuations tending to alienate the hearts of his subjects from him , and then with a spirit of high arrogancy speaks proudly , saying , what-ever may be told you at this very hour , and in the heat and glare of your present sun-shine , the church of england can in a moment bring clouds again , and turn the royal thunder upon your heads , blow you off the stage with a breath , if she would give but a smile , or a kind word , the least glimps of her compliance would throw you back into the state of sufferings , &c. now indeed , if we measure the church of england by this letter and the devonshire order , and resolves , we were of all people most miserable , however we are not affrighted at high words , psa. . . the lord shall cut off all flattering lips , and the tongue that speaks proud things , but he farther saith , the church of england , with all her faults , chuses rather to bear the weight of power thenly under the burthen of h●r being criminal : it seems she would be accounted innocent with all the voiolence , and cruelty , ruin and spoyl , she and her purjured informers , and envious priests hath done upon many honest consciencious men , but the just god will reckon with her for all ; and i cannot yet believe that she is so formidable , that the king or we have need of her smiles , or fear the want of them , what vertue they may be of to us we know not , the informers and such like have had them as yet , and indeed there must be a great change in her , or us if ever they fall to our lot ; however we have lived under her cruel frowns , and are yet alive , tho she f●owns at that too , when god shall fulfil that which he hath spoken by the mouth of the prophet , is● . . . then let such beware , and therefore its good for them not to be high minded , but fear : the author sâith , it cannot be said that she is unprovoked : books and letters comes out every day ; it seems it is but by books and letters , &c. it is not by goals , and spoyling of goods , and ruining of widdows and fatherless , as she hath provoked god , and many of his people , and will she now be offended that she can do so no longer . why should she not be contented to enjoy equal liberty with others . god forbid that any of us should do to her as she hath done to us , and that for our consciences towards god ; but if the lord will do it , who or what can hinder it , but her timely and unfained repentance . and now my dear country-men that are dissenters , by those papers before mentioned , you may see what is the minde of those church men , and therefore as the lord puts an oppertunity into your hands for future liberty , be diligent to inprove it , and use the best endeavors for the removing those laws and tests by which so many have cruelly suffered ; and trust god , who will bring to pass his great work , and if he have raised up and preserved the king for that purpass , and endued him with wisdom and courage for that end , le ts trust him also in his gracious declaration , and often repeated resolutions for that purpose , and pray unto god for the prosperity of this work in his hands , and not believe , the vain insinuations of such who profess much loyalty to him , while he is serving their ends , but in the disappointments thereof , becomes his secret enemies . and if any inquire who , and wha● i am , they may assure themselves that i am a dissente● from the church of england , and have so been m●r● then forty years ; and be assured also , that i am not a roman cath●lick , but o●e ●hat desires the good of all men , and that none may ●uffer for conscience sake , and do pray for the king and 〈◊〉 ha● are in authority under him , that we all may lead ou●●ives in a●l godliness ●nd honesty , and that as the lord hath begun this grea● work by him , so he may live to see the same pe●fected , and that he may have his reward from god accordingly , and we all a peaceable government under him , that god may have the glory of all for ever . i am of the pure religion , which is to visit fatherless and widdows in their affliction , and keep unspotted of the world. devon ss . ad general . quarterial session . pacis dom. regis tent . apud castr. exon. in & pro comitat. praed . secundo die octobris , anno regni dom. nostri caroli secundi dei gratia angliae , scotiae , franciae , & hiberniae regis , fidei defensor , &c. tricessimo quinto , annoque dom. . we have been so abundantly convinced of the seditious and rebellious practices of the sactaries and phanaticks , who through the course of above one hundred years since we were first infe●ted with 'em , have scarce afforded this unhappy kingdom any interval of rest from their horrid treasons , as that we must esteem 'em , not only the open enemies of our established government , but to all the common principles of society and humanity it self . wherefore , that we may prevent their horrid conspiracies for the time to come , and secure ( as much as in us lies ) our most gracious king and the government from the fury and malice of 'em , we resolve to put the severest of the lawes ( which we find too easie and gentle , unless enlivened by a vigorous execution ) inforce against ' em . . we agree and resolve , in every division of this country , to require sufficient sureties for the good abearing and peaceable behaviour of all such as we may justly suspect , or that we can receive any credible information against , that they have been at any conventicles & unlawful meetings , or at any factious or seditious clubs ; or that have by any discourses discovered themselves to be dis-affected to the present established government , either in church or state ; or that have been the authors or publishers of any seditious libels ; or that shall not in all things duely conform themselves to the present established government . . because we have a sort of false men , and more persidious than professed phanaticks , who either wanting courage to appear in their own shape , or the better to bring about their treasonable designs , privately associate with , and encourage the seditious clubs of the sectaries , and with them plot heartily against the government ; and yet , that they may pass unsuspected , sometime appear in the church with a false shew of conformity , only to save their money , and the better to serve their faction : that we may ( if possible ) distinguish and know all such dangerous enemies , we will strictly require all church-wardens and constables , at all our monthly meetings , to give us a full account of all such as do not every sunday resort to their own parish churches , and are not at the beginning of divine service , and do not behave themselves orderly and soberly there , observing all such desent ceremonies as the laws enjoyn : and that they likewise present unto us the names of all such as have not received the holy sacrament of the lords supper in their own parish churches thrice in the year . . being fully satisfied , as well by the clear evidence of the late horrid plot , as by our own long and sad experience , that the non-conformist preachers are the authors and fomenters of this pestilent faction , and the implacable enemies of the established government , and to whom the late execrable treasons , which have had such dismal effects in this kingdom , are principally to be imputed , and who by their present obstinate refusing to take and subscribe an oath and declaration , that they do not hold it lawful to take up arms against the king , and that they will not endeavour any alteration of government either in church or state ; do necessarily enforce us to conclude , that they are still ready to engage thems●lves , ( if not actually engaged ) in some rebellious conspiracy against the king , and to invade and subve●t his government : wherefore ●e resolve in every parish of this county , to leave strict warrants in the hands of all constabl●s , for the seizing of such persons . and as an encouragement to all officers and others , that shall be instrum●ntal in the apprehending of any of them , so as they may be brought to justice , we will give and allow forty shillings , as a reward , fo● every non-conformist preacher that shall be so secured . and we resolve to prosecute them , and all other such dangerous enemies of the gover●ment , and common a●senters from ●hurch , and frequenters of conventicles , according to the d●rections of a law made in the five and t●i●tie●h ●ear of the r●ign of queen elizabeth , entituled , an act for the keeping her majesties subjects in due obedience . lastly . that we may never fo●get the infinite mercies of almighty god , in the la●e w●nderful del●verance of our gracious king , and his dearest brother , and all his loyal subjects , ( who were designed for a massacre ) from the horrid conspiracy of the ●hanaticks , and their accomplices ; and that we may perpetuate as well our own thankfulness , as their infamy , that the generations to come may know their treachery , and avoid and never trust men of such principles more ; and also that we our selves may perform our publick duty to almighty god , before we enter upon the publick service of our country : we order , resolve , and agree , with advice an● oncurrence of the right reverend father in god our much honored and worthy lord bishop to give and bestow for the beautifying of the chappel in the castle of exon , and for the erecting of decent seats there , ten pounds : and we will likewise give and continue six pounds to be paid yearly to any one of the church of exon , whom the said lord bishop shall appoint , to read the divine service with the prayers lately appointed for the day of thanksgiving on the ninth of september last , and to preach a sermon exhorting to obedience , in the said chappel , on the first day of every general quarter-sessions of the peace held in the said ●astle , to ●egin precisely at eight of the clock in the morning . and may the mercies of heaven ( which are infinite ) always protect our religious and gracious king , his dearest brother , and every branch of that royal family ; and may all the treasonable conspiracies of those rebellious schismaticks be always thus happily prevented . hugo vaughan , cler. pacis com. proed . that the ●●ntinued care of his majesties iustices of the peace for the county of devon , for the safety of his majesties sa●r●d person , the preservation of the publick peace , and advancement of true religion , may be fuller known , and have a better effect ; i do hereby order and require all the clergy of my diocess within the county of devon , deliberately to publish this order , the next sunday after it shall be tendred to them . tho. exon. postscript . i intended brevity in this paper , for should i have set my self to answer all particulars in the said letter and devonshire orders , it might amount even to a volume , to set forth the secret treachery & false insinuations against the king in the letter , and cruel intentions and resolutions in the devonshire orders , before mentioned . however , i thought meet that the last of th●se orders may be with what is before expressed exposed to publick view , that all may see the nature of that spirit , which hath exercised such cruelty on innocent people , and what their resolutions further were , if the lord for his elect sake , had not raised up , and put it into the heart of the king to shorten the days of their power ; and against all the jealousies and fears suggested , that this present liberty and freedom is but to make way for further bondage and slavery , that so they may uphold those cruel laws and tests , for a future opertunity to exercise their former tyranny , and is it condemnable in the church of rome , and justifiable in the church of england . it s left to the serious consideration of all that loves true freedom rather then cruel bondage , whether it be not far better to accept and trust the king , for the liberty and freedom promise● in his princely declaration , and since often confirmed by expressing the reality and sincerity of his resolutions therein , the● labour to uphold those laws and tests that may inable those church of england men to prosecute their cruel intentions and resolutions in those orders express'd , which tho but the orders a●d resolutions of the bishop , justices and grand jury of one county , yet without much straining may be taken for the general resolutions of the church of england , whose practice hath spoken forth as much . yet one thing more coming to my view , i leave to be consider●d , the author of the letter saith , the church of rome doth not only dislike the allowing of liberty , but byits principles it cannot do it . i answer , is not the principles of the church of england , and some others not far different , tho dissenting fro● them , the same ? their practices have evin●ed it . however the king hath not only declared it to be his principle , that conscience ought not to be forc't , and that all men ought to enjey the liberty of their conscience ; but hath performed the same accordingly . and when the former king charles the second had give● out a declaration to that purpose , what opposition did the church of england make against it , pretending a dislike of the manner of it , but never offered to do in a way which they might account legal ; but rather crush'd it in the bud , plainly manifesting their principles to be such , that none should enjoy that liberty but themselves ; and now are greatly offended that the king that now is hath done it ; so that its evident , it should never be done if they could help it : and now whether it be not best for the dissenters to chuse the new friends before the old ; but they say , this will not hold , its good to hold it while we can , and if it be taken away we are but where we were before , some in goals till death set them at libe●ty , and others goods spoyled by the worst of men , being let loose for that purpose , and no guard for them , unless purchased with the loss of a good conscience . i further answer , suppose the principles of the church of rome be such , the church of england is the same ; but can nei●her of these be converted from such principles ? they are not likely while they account them just and good : now that the church of england do so account them their sentiments in the devonshire orders do manifest , and their resolves to prosecute them accordingly , and what else can be expected should hinder ●h●m , for they will have their sa●rifice , tho without mercy to the poor widdows and fatherless ; for if they will not come to church and stay their all the tim● of their divine service , they must have no relief by thei● devonshire law , and so here 's li●●le hope of the conversion of the church of e●gland from this p●inciple , and therefore its good that thos● laws may be taken away that gives th●m p●wer to put them in practice . and now wh●●her that the king , if his principles were such as these men su●ge●t , ( but himself otherwise affirms ) whether there be not a possibility that he may be converted ? was not paul while saul a persecutor , yet by the lor●s power converted ? king manasseth the like . and now whether there is not as much hope of this kings conversion as the church of england's , if not from his religion , yet from this principle , which yet he hath declared is not his principle , and by his practice hath put a limit to the same , and proposed a way to cut o●f its power forever , and settle f●eedom , & liberty of conscience , so that it shall not be in the power of after ages to alter it ; and so let 's try whether the king intends as he says , and let a parliament when called be ready to joyn with him therein ; and i doubt not but the everlasting ●lmighty god will add a blessing unto a work so acceptable to him . and therefore let me conclude with this , the lord bless and prosper the king in this work he hath begun , and discover all the secret conspiracies , councells and contrivings of all that design to oppose or hinder the same , and crown him with everlasting life in the world to come . page . line . for the read then . p. . l. . f. persecution , r. prosecutio● l. . f. act , r. accompt . p. . l. . f. to , r. of . a perswasive to moderation to church dissenters , in prudence and conscience humbly submitted to the king and his great councel . by one of the humblest and most dutiful of his dissenting subjects . remarks upon a pamphlet stiled , a letter to a dissenter , &c. in another letter to the same dissenter . vox cleri pro rege : or the rights of the imperial soveraignty of the crown of england vindicated . in reply to a late pamphlet pretending to answer a book , entituled the iudgment and doctrine of the clergy of the church of england concerning the king prerogative in dispencing with penal laws . in a letter to a friend . advice to freeholders and other electors of members to serve in parliament . in relation to the penal laws and tests . in a letter to a friend in the country . reasons for the repeal of the tests . in a letter to a friend in the country . old popery as good as new. or the unreasonableness of the church of england in some of her doctrines and practices , and the reasonableness of liberty of conscience . in a letter from a private gentleman in the country to his friend a clergy-man in the city . the great and popular objection against the repeal of the penal laws and tests , briefly stated and considered . pax redux , or the christian reconciler . in three parts . being a project for re-uniting all christians into one sole communion . done out of french into english , by philip ayres esq. three letters tending to demonstrate how the security of this nation against all future persecution for religion , lys in the abolishment of the present penal laws and tests , and in the establishment of a new law for universal liberty of conscience . a rational catechism : or , an instructive conference between a father and a son. by the author of the three letters all sold at the three keys , in nags-head-court , in grace-church-street , over-against the conduit . a serious exhortation, with some important advices, relating to the late cases about conformity recommended to the present dissenters from the church of england. cave, william, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; 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(eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a serious exhortation, with some important advices, relating to the late cases about conformity recommended to the present dissenters from the church of england. cave, william, - . [ ], p. printed by t. moore, & j. ashburne, for fincham gardiner ..., london : . attributed to william cave. cf. nuc pre- . this work is also found, at reel : , as the twelfth item in v. of: a collection of cases and other discourses / by some divines of the city of london. errata: p. . reproduction of original in the union theological seminary library, new york. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng dissenters, religious -- england -- early works to . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - robyn anspach sampled and proofread - robyn anspach text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a serious exhortation , with some important advices , relating to the late cases about conformity , recommended to the present dissenters from the church of england . london , printed by t. moore , & j. ashburne , for fincham gardiner , at the white-horse in ludgate-street , . a serious exhortation , with some important advices , &c. recommended to the dissenters from the church of england . the offering friendly advice and counsel , especially in great and important cases , is , tho often , a thankless , yet a very charitable office : a thing agreeable to the best inclinations of humane nature , and highly conducive to the necessities of men , and consequently needs no apology to introduce it . we live , 't is true , in an ill-natured and censorious age , wherein 't is rare to find any one , who will not take with the left-hand , what 's offered to them with the right . but i am not discouraged from this attempt , by the pievishness and frowardness of many that differ from us , remembering that all honest undertakings ( and such i am sure this is ) are under the more peculiar conduct and blessing of the divine providence , which can and will succeed and prosper them to an happy issue , if mens own obstinacy and perverseness do not put a bar in the way to hinder it . i do therefore beseech our dissenting-brethren , with all the earnestness that becomes a matter of so much importance , and with all the kindness and tenderness that becomes a christian , that they would suffer the word of exhortation , and duly weigh and consider the requests and advices that are here plainly laid before them , which i hope will be found such , as carry their own light and evidence along with them . i. and first , we beg of them to believe , that they may be mistaken about those matters , which are alledged as the causes of their separation . this , one would think , were as needless , as 't is a modest and reasonable request . for did ever any man , ( the bishop of rome excepted ) lay claim to infallibility ? do not the woful infirmities of humane nature , the weakness and short-sightedness of our understandings , the daily experience of our selves , and the lamentable failures we observe in others , sufficiently convince us , how prone we are to error and mistake ? but tho this be granted and owned on all hands , yet in practice , we frequently find men acting by other measures . for how many are there , that in the most controverted cases bear up themselves with as much confidence and assurance , censure others with as magisterial a boldness , condemn the things enjoined by our church , with as positive and peremptory a determination , as if they were infallibly sure , that they are in the right , and all others in the wrong that differ from them . the early prepossession of a contrary opinion , the powerful prejudices of education , an implicite and unexamined belief of what their guides and leaders teach them , have a strange force upon the minds of men , so that in effect , they no more doubt of the truth and goodness of the cause they are engaged in , then they question the articles of their creed . wherefore i do once and again intreat them , that laying aside all pride , partiality , and self-conceit , they would not think more highly of themselves , and of their own way , then they ought to think ; especially remembering , that the matters contended about are confessedly disputable , and that they cannot be ignorant , that the case seems otherwise to others , who may at least be allowed to be as wise men , and as competent judges as themselves . truth makes the easiest entrance into modest and humble minds ; the meek will he guide in judgment , the meek will he teach his way ; the spirit of god never rests upon a proud man. ii. secondly , we beg of them , that they would seriously and impartially weigh and consider , as well what is said on the one side , as on the other . this is a peice of justice , that every one ows to truth , and which indeed every man ows to himself , that is not willing to be deceived . to take up with prejudices , which education or long custom have instilled into him , or wherein any other arts or methods have engaged him , without strictly enquiring whether those prejudices stand upon a firm foundation , is to see only on one side : to bind up ones self in the judgment or opinion of any man , that is not divinely-inspired and infallible , or pertinaciously to adhere to any party of men ; how plausible and specious soever their pretences may be , without examining their grounds , and endeavoring to know what is said against them , is to choose a persuasion at a peradventure ; and 't is great odds , whether such a one be in the right . in all enquiries after truth , we ought to keep an ear open for one side of the controversie , as well as the other , and not to think we have done enough , till without favour or prejudice , and to the best of our understandings , we have heard , tryed , and judged , the reasons brought , as well for , as against it . and till this be done , i see not with what pretence of reason , men can talk so much of their scruples , or plead for favour on the account of their dissatisfactions . consciences truly tender , are willing and desirous to embrace all opportunities of resolution , & are ready to kiss the hand that would bring them better information , and are not wont to neglect , much less thrust from them the means that might ease them of their doubts and scruples . we justly blame it in them of the church of rome , that in a manner they resign up their underdstanings to their guids and confessors , and are not suffered to be truly acquainted with the protestant principles , and the grounds and reasons of the reformation ; nor to read any of the books , that are written for their conviction , without a special and peculiar licence . whether our brethren of the separation be under any such spiritual discipline , i know not ; sure i am it looks very odly , that so many of them are no more concerned to understand the true state of the church of england , and the nature and reasons of her constitutions , that so few of them care to confer with those that are able to instruct them , but cry out , they are satisfied already ; nay , some of them , to my knowledg , when desired to propose their scruples , in order to the giving them satisfaction , have plainly and absolutely refused to do it . little reason there is to believe , that such persons have ever read and examined what the church of england has to say for her self . are there not many , that not only scruple , but rail at the book of common-prayer , that yet never heard it , nor perhaps , ever read it , in all their lives ? and if this be not to speak evil of what they know not , i cannot tell what is . how many incomparable books have been heretofore written in defence of our church , her rights and usages , that yet generally lie by the walls , little known , and less read , by those that so much cry out against her . and at this time how many excellent discourses have been published , for the satisfaction of dissenters , written with the greatest temper and moderation ; with the utmost plainness and perspicuity , with all imaginable evidence and strength of reasoning ; so short , as not to require any considerable portion , either of time or cost , so suited to present circumstances , as to obviate every material objection , that is made against communion with us ; and yet there is just cause to fear , that the far greatest part of our dissenters are meer strangers to them , and are not so just to themselves , or us , as to give them the reading : and that those few that do look into them , do it rather out of a design to pick quarrels against them , and to expose them in scurrilous or cavilling pamphlets , then to receive satisfaction by them . i do heartily , and from my soul , wish an end of these contentions , and that there were no further occasion for them ; but if our dissenting brethren will still proceed in this way , we desire , ( and hope 't is but what is reasonable ) that the things in difference may be debated in the most quiet , peaceable , and amicable manner , that they may be gravely and substatially managed , and only the merits of the cause attended to , and that the controversie may not be turned off to mean and trifling persons , whose highest attainment perhaps it is , to write an idle and senceless pamphlet , and which can serve no other use , but only that the people may be born in hand , that such and such books are answered . which is so unmanly and disingenuous a way , and so like the shifting artifices of them of the church of rome , that i am apt to persuade my self , the wiser heads of the dissenting party cannot but be ashamed of it . if they be not , 't is plain to all the world they are willing to serve an ill design by the most unwarrantable means . but however that be , we think we have great reason to expect from them , that they should hear our church , before they condemn her , and consider what has been said for the removing of their doubts , before they tell us any more of scruples , tender-consciences ; and the hard measure that they meet withal . i confess , could i meet with a person , that had brought himself to some kind of unbyasdness and indifferency of temper , and that design'd nothing more then to seek and find the right way of serving god , without respect to the intrigues and interests of this or that particular party ; and in order thereunto , had with a sincere and honest mind read whatever might probably conduce to his satisfaction , fairly proposed his scruples , and modestly consulted with those that were most proper to advise him , and humbly begged the guidance and direction of the divine grace and blessing ; and yet after all , should still labour under his old dissatisfactions ; i should heartily pity and pray for such a man , and think my self obliged to improve all my interest for favour and forbearance towards him . but such persons as these , i am afraid , are but thin sowed , and , without breach of charity , it may be supposed , there is not one of a thousand . iii. thirdly , we desire , that before they go on to accuse our church with driving them into seperation , they would directly charge her with imposing sinful terms of communion . and unless they do this , and when they have done it , make it good , ( for barely to accuse , i hope , is not sufficient , ) i see not which way they can possibly justifie their separation from us . 't is upon this account that the whole protestant reformation defends their departure from the church of rome . they found the doctrine of that church infinitely corrupt in several of the main principles of religion , new articles of faith introduced , and bound upon the consciences of men under pain of damnation , its worship overgrown with very gross idolatry and superstition ; its rites and ceremonies not only over-numerous , but many of them advanced into proper and direct acts of worship , and the use of them made necessary to salvation ; and besides , it's members required to joyn and communicate in these corruptions and depravations , nay and all proposals and attempts toward a reformation obstinately rejected and thrown out ; in which case they did with great reason and justice depart from her : which we may be confident they would not have done , had no more been required of them , than instead of worshipping images , to use the sign of the cross in baptisme , or instead of the adoration of the host , to kneel at the receiving of the sacrament . a learned protestant divine of great name and note has expresly told us ; that had there been no other faults in the church of rome , besides their useless ceremonies in baptisme , and some other things that are beyong the measure and genius of the christian religion , they had still continued in the communion of that church . indeed did the church of england command any thing which christ has prohibited , or prohibite any thing which christ has commanded , then come ye out from among them , and be ye seperate , saith the lord , were good warrant and authority . but where do we meet with these prohibitions ? not in the word of god , not in the nature and reason of the things themselves ? nor indeed do we find our dissenting brethren of late very forward to fasten this charge , and much less to prove it ; whatever unwary sayings may fall from any of them in the heat and warmth of disputation , or be suggested by indirect consequences , and artificial insinuations . and if our church commands nothing that renders her communion sinful , then certainly seperation from her must be unlawful , because the peace and unity of the church , and obedience to the commands of lawful authority , are express and indispensable duties ; and a few private suspicions of the unlawfulness of the thing are not sufficient to sway against plain , publick , and necessary duties : nor can it be safe to reject communicating with those , with whom christ himself does not refuse communion . this i am sure was once thought good doctrine by the cheifest of our dissenters , who when time was , reasoned thus against those that subdivided from them ; if we be a church of christ , and christ hold communion with us , why do you seperate from us ? if we be the body of christ , do not they that seperate from the body , seperate from the head also ? we are loath to speak any thing that may offend you , yet we entreat you to consider , that if the apostle call those divisions of the church of corinth ▪ ( wherein christians did not separate into divers formed congregations in the sacrament of the lords supper , ) schisms , ( cor. . . ) may not your secession from us , and professing you cannot join with us as members , and setting up congregations of another communion , be more properly called schism ? — you gather churches out of our churches , and set up churches in an opposite way to our churches , and all this you do voluntarily and unwarrantably , not having any sufficient cause for it . and in the same book they tell us of a two-fold schism , negative and positive ; negative , when men do peaceably and quietly withdraw from communion with a church , not making a head against that church , from which they are departed : the other is , when persons so withdrawing do consociate and withdraw themselves into a distinct and opposite body , setting up a church against a church , which ( say they ) camero calls a schism by way of eminency ; and further tells us , there are four causes , that make a separation from a church lawful ; . when they that separate are grievously and intollerably persecuted ; . when the church they separate from is heretical ; . when it is idolatrous ; . when it is the seat of antichrist . and where none of these four are found , there the separation is insufficient , and schism . now we are fully assured , that none of these four causes can be justly charg'd upon our congregations ; therefore you must not be displeased with us , but with your selves , if we blame you as guilty of positive schism . all which is as true now , as it was then , and as applicable to us and them , as it was to them and their dissenters . admit then there were some things in our constitution , that might be contrived to better purposes , and that needed amendment and alteration ; yet i hope every defect , or supposed corruption in a church , is not a sufficient ground for separation , or warrant enough to rend and tear the church in peices . let mr. calvin judg between us in this matter , who says , that wherever the word of god is duly preached , and reverently attended to , and the true use of the sacraments kept up , there is the plain appearance of a true church , whose authority no man may safely despise , or reject its admonitions , or resist its counsels , or set at nought its discipline , much less separate from it , and violate its unity ; for that our lord has so great regard to the communion of his church , that he accounts him an apostate from his religion , who obstinately separates from any christian society , which keeps up the true ministry of the word and sacraments : that such a separation is a denial of god and christ , and that it is a dangerous and pernicious temptation , so much as to think of separating from such a church ; the communion whereof is never to be rejected , so long as it continues in the true use of the vvord and sacraments , though otherwise it be over-run with many blemishes and corruptions . vvhich is as plain and full a determination of the case , as if he had particularly designed it against the doctrine and practice of the modern dissenters from our church . iv. fourthly , we entreat them to consider , whether it be pure conscience , and meer zeal for the honour of religion , and not very often discontent , or trade and interest , that has the main stroke in keeping them from communion with our church . far be it from me to judg the secrets of mens hearts , or to fasten such a charge on the whole body of dissenters , yea , i accuse not any particular person ; but only desire , they would lay their hand upon their hearts , and deal impartially with themselves , and say , whether they stand clear before god in this matter . and there is the more reason to put men upon this enquiry , not only because secular ends are very apt to mix with , and shelter themselves under the shadow of religion ; but because this has been an old artifice , made use of to promote separation . thus the donatists in the primitive times upheld their separation from the catholick church , and kept their party fast together , by trading only within themselves , by imploying none to till their grounds , or be their stewards , but those that would be of their side ; nay , and sometimes hiring persons by large sums of mony to be baptiz'd into their party , as crispin did the people of mappalia . and how evident the same policy is among our modern quakers , is too notorious to need either proof or observation . time was , when it was made an argument to prove independency to be a faction , and not matter of conscience , because needy , broken decayed men , who knew not how to live , and hoped to get something , turned independents , and became sticklers for it ; that some who had businesses , causes , and matters depending , struck in with them , and pleaded for them , that so they might find friends , be sooner dispatched , and fare better in their causes ; that ambitious , proud , covetous men , who had a mind to offices , places of profit about the army , excise , &c. turned about to the independents , and were great zealots for them . thus it was then , and whether the same leaven do not still spread and ferment , and perhaps as much as ever , there is just cause to suspect ? vvhoever looks into the trading part of this city , and indeed of the whole nation , must needs be a very heedless and indiligent observer , if he do not take notice , how interests are formed , and by what methods parties and factions are kept up , how many thousands of the poorer sort of dissenters depend on this or that man for their vvork , and consequently for their livelihood and subsistence ; how many depend upon others for their trade and custom , whom accordingly these men can readily command , and do produce to give votes , and increase parties on all publick occasions ; and what little encouragement any man finds from them , that once deserts them , and comes over to the church of england . there is another thing that contributes not a little to this jealousie and suspicion , that many of the chifest , and most stiff and zealous of the dissenting party , are they , at least the immediate descendants of those , who in the late evil-times , by rapine and violence shared among themselves the revenues of the church , and the patrimony of the crown , and are said still privately to keep on foot their titles to them . and if so , what wonder if such men look on themselves , as obliged in point of interest , to widen breaches , foment differences , increase factions ; and all this to subvert and over-turn the church of england ; being well assured , they can never hope , but over the ruins of this church , to make way to their once sweet possessions ? let men therefore impartially examine themselves , and search , whether a worldly spirit be not at the bottom of their zeal and stiffness . these i confess are designs too base and sordid , to be owned above board : but be not deceived , god is not mocked ; man looks to the outward appearance , but god looks to the heart . v. fifthly , we desire them to-consider , whether it be not a just prejudice to their cause , and that which ought to prevail with men modest and peaceable , that in those things , wherein they differ from us , they are condemned by the practice of the whole catholick church for fifteen hundred years together . this , were i minded , might afford a large field for discourse , but i shall instance only , and that very briefly , in a few particulars , and first , we desire them to produce any settled part of the christian church , that ever was without episcopal covernment , till the time of calvin : it being then as hard to find any part of the christian world without a church , as to find a church without a bishop . this is so evident in the most early antiquities of the church , that i believe our dissenters begin to grow sick of the controversie . and if blondell , salmasius and daille , ( whose great parts , learning , and indefatigable industry , could , if any thing , have made out the contrary ) have been forced to grant , that episcopacy obtained in the church within a few years after the apostolick age ; we are sure we can carry it higher , even up to the apostles themselves . there are but two passages , that i know of , in all antiquity , of any note , and both of them not till the latter end of the fourth century , that may seem to question episcopal authority : the one , that famous and well known passage of st. jerom , which yet when improved to the utmost that it is capable of , only intimates episcopacy not to be of apostolical institution . and very clear it is to those that are acquainted with st. jeroms writings , that he often wrote in hast , and did not always weigh things at the beam , and forgot at one time , what he had said at another ; that many expressions fell from him in the heat of disputation , according to the warmth and the eagerness of his temper , & that he was particularly chafed into this assertion by the fierce opposition of the deacons at rome , who began to usurp upon , and over-top the presbyters , which tempted him to magnifie and extol their place and dignity , as anciently equal to the episcopal office , and as containing in it the common rights and privileges of priesthood . for at other times , when he wrote with cooler thoughts about him , he does plainly and frequently enough assert the authority of bishops over presbyters , and did himself constantly live in communion with , and subjection to bishops . the other passage is that of aerius , who held indeed that a bishop and a presbyter differed nothing in order , dignity , or power . but he was lead into this error meerly through envy and emulation , being vext to see that his companion eustathius had gotten the bishoprick of sebastia , which himself had aimed at . this made him start aside , and talk extravagantly ; but the church immediately branded him for an heretick , and drave him and his followers out of all churches , and from all cities and villages . and epiphanius , who was his contemporary , represents him as very little better then a madman ; and adds , that all heresies that ever were from the beginning of the world , had been hatched either by pride , or vain glory , or covetousness , or emulation , or some such evil inclination . but his heresie , it seems , was not long-liv'd , for we hear no more concerning this matter , till the reformation at geneva . secondly , we desire them to shew any christian church that did not constantly use liturgies , and forms of prayer , in their publick offices and administrations of divine worship : i take it for granted , that there were forms of publick prayer in the jewish church ; and i make no doubt , but that the use of such forms , was , together with many other synagogue-rites and usages , transferred into the practice of the christian church , and did actually obtain , in the most early ages in all churches , where there were not miraculous gifts : and every where as soon as those miraculous gifts ceased , it being very fit and proper , and agreeable to order and decency , that the peoples devotions should be thus conducted and governed in their publick ministrations . not to insist upon the carmen , or hymn , which even the proconsul pliny , says , the christians upon a set day were wont , one among another , to say to christ , as to their god ; apparent footsteps of some passages of their ancient liturgies , are yet extant in the writings of origen and st. cyprian : and when eusebius gives us an account , how religiously constantine the great ordered his court , that he was wont to take the holy bible into his hands , and carefully to meditate upon it , and afterwards to offer up set or composed prayers , together with his whole royal family ; he adds , he did this after the manner , or in imitation of the church of god. nazianzen tells us of st. basil , that he composed orders and forms of prayer , and appointed decent ornaments for the altar . and st. basil himself reciting the manner of the publick service , that was used in the monastical oratories of his institution , says , that nothing was done therein but what was consonant and agreeable to all the churches of god. and the council of laodicea , holden much about the year , expresly provides , that the same liturgy , or form of prayers , should be always used both morning and evening : that so it might not be lawful for every one that would , to compose prayers of his own head , and to repeat them in the publick assemblies ; as both zonaras and balsamon give the reason of that canon . further then this we need not go , the case being henceforward evident beyond all contradiction . thirdly , let them shew us any church , that did not always set a part and observe festival commemorations of the saints : besides the more solemn times for celebrating the great blessings of our redeemer , his birth day and epiphany , easter in memory of his resurrection , pentecost or vvitsuntide for the mission of the holy ghost , they had annual days for solemnizing the memories of the blessed apostles ; they had their memoriae and natalitia martyrum , whereon they assembled every year , to offer up to god their praises and common devotions , and by publick panegyricks to do honour to the memory of those saints and martyrs who had suffered for , or sealed religion with their bloud . not to mention their lent fast and their stationary fasts on vvednesdays and fridays , which epiphanius more then once expresly says , were a constitution of the apostles . but the less need be said on this head , because few that have any reverence for antiquity , will have the hardiness to oppose it . fourthly , we desire them to produce any church since the apostles times , that had not its rites and ceremonies , as many ( if not more ) in number , and as liable to exception , as those that are used in our church at this day ; nay , there are few things , if any at all , required by our constitution , which were not in use in the best ages of christianity . this , were it my design , i might demonstrate by an induction of particulars , but it is fully done by other hands . i shall therefore , only as a specimen , instance in one , and the rather , because 't is so much boggled at , ( viz. ) the sign of the cross in baptism , which we are sure was a common and customary rite in the time of tertullian and st. cyprian , the latter whereof says oft enough , that being regenerated , that is , baptized , they were signed with the sign of christ ; that they were signed on their foreheads , who were thought worthy to be admitted into the fellowship of our lords religion . and st. basil plainly puts it amongst those ancient customs of the church , which had been derived from the apostles : nay , tertullian assures us , that they used it in the most common actions of life ; that upon every motion , at their going out , and coming in , at their going to bath , or to bed , or to meals , or whatever their occasions called them to , they were wont to make the sign of the cross on their fore-heads ; and therefore 't is no wonder , that they should never omit it in the most solemn act of their being initiated into the christian faith. and now let our dissenting-brethren seriously reflect , whether the constant and uniform practice of the church in all times , be not a mighty testimony against their separating from us , upon the account of those things , which were used in the wisest , best and happiest ages of the gospel ; and when their separation upon this account , can in point of example , pretend not to much more then a hundred years countenance and authority to support and shelter it . and yet it has not that neither ; for i could easily shew , that most , if not all , the usages of our church , are either practised in foreign churches , or at least , allowed of by the most learned and eminent divines of the reformation , whose testimonies , to this purpose , are particularly enumerated , and ranked under their proper heads , by mr. sprint , in his * cassander anglicanus , which they that are curious may consult . vi. sixthly , we beg that those , who by their conformity have declared , that they can close with our communion , would still continue in the communion of our church . this is a request so reasonable , that i hope it cannot fairly be denied . whatever dissatisfactions others may alledg , to keep them at a distance from us , these men can have nothing to pretend , having actually shewed that they can do it . for i am not willing to think , that herein such men acted against their consciences , or did it meerly to secure a gainful office , or a place of trust , or to escape the lash and penalty of the law. these are ends so very vile and sordid , so horrible a prostitution of the holy sacrament , the most venerable mystery of our religion , so deliberate a way of sinning , even in the most solemn acts of worship , that i can hardly suspect any should be guilty of it , but men of profligate and atheistical minds , who have put off all sence of god , and banished all reverence of religion . i would fain believe , that when any of our brethren receive the sacrament with us , they are fully persuaded of the lawfulness of it , and that the principle that brings them thither , is the conscience of their duty . but then i know not how to answer it , why the same principle that brings them thither at one time , should not bring them also at another , and that we should never have their company at that solemn and sacred ordinance , but when the fear of some temporal punishment , or the prospect of some secular advantage prompts them to it . 't is commonly blamed in those of the romish church , that they can dispense with oaths , and receive sacraments to serve a turn , and to advance the interest of their cause : but god forbid , that so heavy a charge should ever lie at the doors of protestants , and especially those , who would be thought most to abhor popish practices , and who would take it ill to be accounted not to make as much , if not more , conscience of their ways then other men. now i beseech our dissenting , or rather inconstant brethren , to reason a little ; if our communion be sinful , why did they enter into it ? if it be lawful , why do they forsake it ? is it not that , which the commands of authority have tied upon us , and whose commands we are bound to submit to , not only for wrath , but for conscience sake ? are not the peace and unity of the church , things , that ought greatly to sway with all sober , humble , and considering christians ? does not the apostle say , that if it be possible , and as much as in us lies , we are to live peaceably with all men ? and shall peace be broken only in the church , where it ought to be kept most entire ? and that by those , who acknowledg it to be possible , and within their power ? are they satisfied in their consciences , to join in communion with us , and will they not do it for the sake of the church of god ? or will they refuse to do what is lawful , and as the case stands necessary , in order to peace , only because authority commands it , and has made it their duty ? oh sirs , i beseech you by all that 's dear and sacred , to assist and help us , and not strengthen the hands of those , who by a causeless and unjustifiable separation ▪ endeavour to rend and destroy the best church in thr whole christian world. vii . seventhly , we beg of them that they would consider , what sad and deplorable mischiefs have ensued , upon bearing down the constitution of the church of england . this is matter of fact , and whereof many yet alive were made sensible by woful experience . omitting what may seem of a little more remote consideration , the blood and treasure , the spoils and ravages of the late war , the enslaving and oppressing all ranks of men , and what is above all , the murder of an excellent and incomparable prince ; i shall instance in a few particulars , which were the more immediate effects of it , and first , no sooner was the church of england thrown down , but what monstrous swarms of errours and heresies broke in upon us , both for number , and impiety , beyond whatever had been heard of in the church of god : and here i need go no further , then the sad account , which mr. edwards has given us in the several parts of his gangraena . he was an eminent minister of the presbyterian party , one , who as he tells the parliament , had out of choice and judgment , from the very beginning , embarqued himself , with wife , children and estate , and all that was dear to him , in the same ship with them , to sink and perish , or to come safe to land with them , and that in the most doubtful and difficult times , not only in the beginning of the war and troubles , in a malignant place among courtiers , where he had pleaded their cause , justified their wars , and satisfied many that scrupled , but when their affairs were at lowest , had been most zealous for them , preaching , praying , stirring up the people to stand for them , and had both gone out in person , and lent mony to them : he held correspondence with considerable persons in all parts of the nation , and was careful to have the best intelligence from all quarters , and professes to lay down the opinions and errours which he mentions in terminis , and in their own words and phrases , syllabically , and as near as might be . now amongst infinite other things , he tells us 't was then commonly maintaind , that the scriptures cannot be said to be the word of god , and are no more to be credited , then the writings of men , being not a divine , but humane tradition ; that god has a hand in , and is the author of the sinfulness of his people , not of the actions alone , but of the very pravity which is in them ; that all lies come forth out of his mouth , that the prince of the air that rules in the children of disobedience is god ; that in the unity of the god-head there is not a trinity of persons , but that it is a popish tradition ; that the doctrine of repentance is a soul-destroying doctrine , and that children are not bound to obey their parents at all , if they be ungodly ; that the soul of man is mortal , as the soul of a beast ; that there is no resurrection at all of the bodies of men , nor heaven nor hell after this life . i instance only in these as a tast , not that they are all , or the hundred part , no nor the worst , there being other blasphemies and impieties , which my pen trembles to relate . secondly , the liturgy of our church being discharged and thrown out , and every one left to his own liberty , 't is scarce possible to believe , what wild and prodigious extravagancies were upon all occasions used in holy things , not in preaching only , but especially in prayer , the most immediate act of worship and address to god : it is an affront to the majesty of religious worship , that there should be any thing in it childish and trivial , absurd and frivosous , that its sacred mysteries should be exposed to contempt and scandal by that levity and distraction , that heat and boldness , those weaknesses and indiscretions , those loose , raw , and incongruous effusions , which in most congregations of those times , did too commonly attend it : but the things i intend to instance in , are of a far worse colour and complexion ; for whose ears would it not make to tingle , to hear men in the pulpit telling god , that if he did not finish the good work which he had begun in the reformation of the church , he would shew himself to be the god of confusion , and such a one , as by cunning stratagems had contrived the destruction of his own children ; that god would bless the king , and mollifie his hard heart , that delights in blood , for that he was fallen from faith in god , and become an enemy to his church ; let thine hand , we pray thee , o lord , our god , be upon him , and upon his fathers house , but not upon thy people , that they should be plagued : o god , o god , many are the hands lift up against us , but there is one god ; it is thou thy self , o father , who dost us more mischief , then they all : we know , o lord , that abraham made a covenant , moses and david made a covenant , and our saviour made a covenant , but thy parliaments covenant is the greatest of all covenants . i presume , the devout and serious reader desires no more of such intolerably profane and lewd stuff as this is ; they that are curious of more , may find it , besides others , in the short uiew of the late troubles in england , where times , places and persons , are particularly named . thirdly , the fences of order and discipline in the church of england being broken down , what a horrid inundation of all manner of vice and wickedness did immediately over-flow the land ? the assembly at westminster petitioned the parliament , that some severe course might be taken against fornication , adultery and incest , which , say they , do greatly abound , especially of late , by reason of impunity . and mr. edwards speaking of the whole tribe of sectaries , tells us , he was confident , that for this many hundred years , there had not been a party that hath pretended to so much holiness , strictness , power of godliness , tenderness of conscience , above all other men , as this party hath done , that hath been guilty of so great sins , horrible wickedness , provoking abominations , as they are ; with much more , both there and elsewhere , to the same purpose , and the charge very often made good by particular instances . so that indeed hell seemed to have broke loose , and to have invaded all quarters , in despite of their covenant , and all the little schemes of their so much magnified reformation : the covenant cries ( god grant not against you ) for reformation of the kingdom , the extirpation of heresies , schisms , profaneness , &c. and these impieties abound , as if we had taken a covenant to maintain them ; and since it was taken , these sins which we have covenanted against , have more abounded , then in the space of ten times so many years before , as mr. jenkin tells the lords in parliament . and that all that i have mentioned ( which yet is infinitely short of what might be said ) was the effect of the ruin of the church of england , and let in by the method they took for reformation , we have from their own confessions . we , says mr. edwards , in these four last years , have over-passed the deeds of the prelates , and justified the bishops , in whose time never so many , nor so great errours were heard of , much less such blasphemies or confusions ; we have worse things among us , then ever were in all the bishops days ; more corrupt doctrines and unheard of practices , then in eighty years before . — i am persuaded , if seven years ago , the bishops and their chaplains had but preached , printed , licensed , dispersed up and down in city and country openly , a quarter of these errours , heresies , blasphemies , which have been all these ways vented by the sectaries , the people would have risen up , and stoned them , and pulled down their houses , and forced them to forbear such doctrines : o how is the seene changed within these few years ! and not long after , he tells us , that these are risen , increased , reign and prevail , so far under a parliament sitting , not under the bishops , corrupt-clergy , court-party , but under a parliament . and in his epistle to the lords and commons , before the first part of his gangraena , he tells them , that the errours , heresies , blaspemies and practices , of the sectaries of this time , had been broached and acted within these four last years in england , and that in your quarters , and in the places under your government and power , for which i tremble to think , least the whole kingdom should be in gods black bill ; that together with their reformation , come in a deformation , and worse things were come upon them , then ever they had before : they had put down the book of common-prayer , but there were many amongst them , that had put down the scriptures , flighting , yea , blaspheming them : he tells them , they had cast out the bishops , and their officers , and they had many that had cast down to the ground all ministers in all the reformed churches ; they had cast out ceremonies in the sacraments , and they had many that had cast out the sacraments themselves ; with many more sad complaints which he there makes . to sum up all in the words of my author ; in this catalogue the reader may see great errors , and yet may turn himself again and behold greater , namely damnable heresies , and yet turn himself again and read horrid blasphemies ; and a third time , and read horrible disorders , confusions , strange and unheard of practices , not only against the light of scripture , but nature , as in women's preaching , in stealing away men's wives and children from husbands and parents , in baptizing women naked , in the presence and sight of men , &c. and thus we see by what means it was , that the nation came to be pestred with opinions and practices , impious beyond the example of former ages , and such as were not once named among the gentiles , to the infinite prejudice and dishonour both of our religion and our nation . it being the observation which an ingenious forreigner , who resided at london in those times , made upon this occasion ; one of the fruits , says he , of this blessed parliament , and of these two sectaries [ presbyterians and independents ] is , that they have made more jewes and atheists , then i think there is in all europe besides . i doubt not but that the greatest part of our dissenters do from their souls detest , the heresies , blasphemies , and wickednesses that have been mentioned ; but then the consideration ought to oblige them to double their diligence to prevent the like dismall effects for the time to come , and not to open the gap again , at which they must necessarily flow in upon us . by what has been done they may see , what a blessed reformation they may expect by the ruin of this church ; for the thing that hath been , is that which shall be ; the same causes set on foot by the same principles will eternally produce the same effects ; and though men at first may mean never so well , yet temptations will insensibly grow upon them , and accidents happen , which in the progress will carry them infinitely beyond the line of their first intentions , and engage them in courses , out of which , when they come to discern their errour , it may be too late for them to retire . in the beginning of the long parliament , i make no question , but the far greatest part of them met together with very honest and good intentions , and designed no more then to correct some little irregularities , which they apprehended to be in church or state : but wee see how these very persons were carried from one passage to another , and in time transported to those very things which at first they had so vehemently protested and declared against , till at length horrid enormities came to be acted by and under them , which no age can paralel : which ought to be a sufficient caution to all , how they shake the least stone , that belongs to the foundation , least by picking out one after another , the whole house tumble about their ears , when it is beyond their own power to support it . i shall shut up this head with a breif recapitulation of some of those inferences , which mr. edwards makes from the state of those loose and licentious times , we have been speaking of , and then leave the reader to judg , whether they be not as applicable to the present circumstances , under which we are : he infers thus , first , we may hence see how dangerous it is to despise and let alone a small party . secondly , that it is more then time fully and effectually to settle the government and discipline of the church ; thirdly , what the mischeif , evil , and danger of a toleration , and pretended liberty of conscience would be to this kingdom , and what it would prove and produce . fourthly , that it sufficiently justifies in the sight of the world , those ministers and people who are zealous for setling religion , and cry out for government , who preach , petition , speak often one to another of these things . fifthly , what a great evil and sin seperation is from the communion of the reformed churches , and how highly displeasing to god for men to make a rent and schism in the church of god. sixthly , that all such who have been deceived and drawn away , under pretence of greater purity , holiness , &c. and have any fear and awe of god and his word , be exhorted to leave and forsake them , and return to the publick assemblies and communion of this and other reformed churches . and god grant , we may hearken to this counsel , and may seriously lay these things to heart . viii . eighthly , we desire it may be considered , what plain and apparent advantages separation gives to the common enemy of the protestant religion in these nations : the church of england is notoriously known to have been the most strong and standing bulwark of protistancy , ever since the reformation ; for being founded on scripture-grounds , and the practice of true , genuine , primitive antiquity , and having been reformed , by the most wise , regular , and justifiable methods ; it stands like a rock impregnable against all the assaults , which the church of rome makes upon it . this has ingag'd them to plant all their batteries to beat it down , as being the only church considerable enough to stand in their way : and when not able to effect it by any other arts , they have betaken themselves to the old artifice of ruining us , by dividing us . in order hereunto they have upon all occasions strenuously promoted the separation , mixed themselves with our dissenters , put on every shape , that they might the better follow the common outcry against our church , as popish and antichristian , spurring on the people to call for a more pure and spiritual way of worship , and to clamour for liberty and toleration , as wherein they well knew they themselves were like to have the greatest share ; and that having subverted all order , and beaten people out of all sober principles , they foresaw they must be necessitated at last to center in the communion of the romish church . this was a trade they began betimes , almost in the very infancy of the reformation . witness the story of faithful commin , a dominican fryer , who passed under the notion of a zealous puritan , and was much admired and followed by the people for his seeming piety , spiritual gifts , and zeal against popery . but being apprehended anno. . and accused for an impostor , was examined at large before the queen and her council , and put under bail : when finding the climat was like to be too hot for him , and having by a cheat brought off his bail , and told his deluded followers , that he was acquitted by her majesty and the council , and warned of god to go beyond the seas , to instruct the protestants there , and that he would come again ; and having assured them that spiritual prayer was the chief testimony of a true protestant , and that the set form of prayer in england was but the mass translated , and having with abundance of extempore-prayers and tears squeezed out of them a collection of a hundred and thirty pounds for his journey , besides private gifts ; away he goes for rome , and acquaints pope pius quintus with what he had done , and by what methods , and how odious he had made the church of england to the puritans , and that it would be a stumbling-block to that church while it was a church . upon which the pope commended and rewarded him with two thousand ducates for his good service . all which particulars are more fully made out from secretary cecil's papers , whose memorials were lately brought to light . witness also that other passage concerning thomas heath a jesuite , who much about the same time was sent over into england to act the same part , which he did , not only by preaching , but by crying up spiritual prayers , and running down all set forms , as being without any warrant from scripture , by labouring to refine the protestants , as he called it , and to take off all smacks of ceremonies , that in the least tended to the romish faith. for all which he was mightily flocked after , and admired every day more and more . but anno. . he was discovered by a letter , that casually dropt out of his pocket as he was preaching in the pulpit at rochester , importing that the counsel of their fraternity had sent him collections , and instructions for carrying on the work , and that this way of dividing protestants was the only way for the recalling men back again to the mother church . hereupon he was examined by the bishop of rochester , and did not much deny the main of the charge , and upon the searching of his lodgings , there were found several books fitted for his purpose , as against infant baptism , &c. and in one of his books , a licence from the fraternity of the jesuits , and a bull of pius quintus , giving him leave to preach what doctrine that society pleased , for the dividing of the english protestants , or as he called them , hereticks ; the issue was , that heath was close imprisoned , set in the pillory at the high cross ; his ears cut off , his nose slit , his forehead branded , and he condemned to perpetual imprisonment , but soon after he dyed suddenly , being suspected to have poysoned himself : the whole account hereof being published from the authentick register of the church of rochester . the same course we need not doubt , the papists held on in the succeeding times , these being some of the main directions , which contzen the jesuit gives for the reducing popery into a country , that it be done under pretence of ease to tender consciences , and that liberty be granted to that end , and that as much use be made of the division of enemies , as of the agreement of friends . what a stroak they had in fomenting the differences and distractions , that brought on the late civil wars , and how active they were both in the counsels and proceedings of the parliament party , the world needs not to be told at this time of day ; great numbers of them , both comman dersand others , serving in their armies , great industry was used to corrupt the loyalty and affection of those of that religion , and private promises and undertakings were made to them , that if they would assist them against the king , all the laws made in their prejudice should be repealed ; as the late king of blessed memory tells the world in one of his publick declarations , after the victory at edghil ; adding , that tho some few of eminent abilities for command and conduct , and of moderate and unfactious dispositions were employed in his service ; yet , we are confident , that a far greater number of that religion , is in the army of the rebels , than in our own . and the king it seems had good reason to say so . for as de salmonet , a secular priest ; who wrote in french a history of our late civil wars , informs us , in that very fight at edghil , besides two companies of walloons , and other roman-catholicks that served there , that ( says he ) which did most surprize every body was , that several popish priests were found amongst the dead that were slain on the parliament side . so plain is it , that they served in their armies , were present at their councils , and upon all occasions mixt with their parties , that they might widen the breach beyond all recovery . thus it was then . and about the time of the king 's coming in , a letter of advice was written by seignior ballarini concerning the best way of managing the popish interest in england , upon his majesties restauration ; wherein it was advised , especially to obstruct the settlement of the fundamental constitutions of the kingdom , to set up the prosperous way of fears and jealousies of the king and bishops , to asperse the bishops and ministers of the church of england , and to represent its doctrine and worship as coming too near to the church of rome , to second the factious in promoting an indulgence , and to endeavour , that the trade and treasure of the nation might be engrossed between themselves , and other discontented parties . and mr. coleman himself owned it at his condemnation , that perhaps he thought , that popery might come in , if liberty of conscience had been granted . and this is that , which wise arch-bishop whitgift long ago foresaw would come to pass , when he told the dissenters of those days , i am persuaded that anti-christ worketh effectually at this day , by your stirs and contentions , whereby he hath , and will more prevail against this church of england , then by any other means whatsoever . and now upon the whole matter , i desire our dissenting brethren to consider , whether the orderly and truly primitive constitution of the church of england , or innovation , schism and separation , be the likelier way to keep out popery ; and do therefore conjure them , by all the kindness which they pretend for the protestant religion , heartily to join in communion with us , as which i believe , humanely speaking , to be , if not the only , at least the only safe and durable means of shutting popery for ever out of doors . ix . ninthly , we desire of them , that if neither these nor any other advices and considerations can prevail with them , they would at least cease to reproach the government , for reviving the execution of the laws , about these matters ? i know it is very natural to men to complain , when any thing pinches them , but then they ought to be so just , as to consider , whose fault it is that has brought it upon them . the laws in this case were framed with great advice , and upon dear bought experience , and every nation in the world thinks it self obliged , when no other ways will do it , by penalties to secure the publick peace , safety and tranquility of the state , though it may sometimes press hard in some particular cases , when men through fancy , humour , mistake or design , ( especially about little , and as themselves confess , indifferent matters , ) shall endanger the publick welfare , and by an ill example expose the reverence and majesty of the laws . and yet notwithstanding all this , and a great deal more that might be said , we find them at every turn charging the government , for using them cruelly , and with the hardest measure , censuring their superiors , and speaking evil of dignities ; and this not only the cry of the mean and common sort , but of their chiefest leaders , even to this hour ▪ it being no hard matter ( but that i love not to exasperate ) to instance in several things , that are no very good arguments of that obedient patience , which some of them so much pretend to . it is far from my temper to delight in cruelty , much more to plead for severity to be used towards dissenting brethren , and therefore should have said nothing in this argument , were it not necessary to vindicate the government , which upon these occasions , i have so often heard blamed and censured . i would these persons who complain so much , would consider a while , how their predecessors were dealt with in the times of the good queen elizabeth ; which will appear , either from the laws then made , or from the proceedings then had against them . the laws then made against them , were chiefly these ; in the first of the queen , an act for the vniformity of common-prayer , &c. wherein , among other clauses and penalties , it is provided , that if any person , shall in any plays , songs , rhimes , or by other open words , declare or speak any thing in the derogation , depraving , or despising the book of common-prayer , or any thing therein contained , being thereof lawfully convicted , he shall forfeit for the first offence an hundred , for the second four hundred marks , for the third , all his goods and chattels , and shall suffer imprisonment during life . a clause , which had it been kept up in its due life and power , our liturgy and divine offices , had been treated with much more respect and reverence , then i am sure they have met with , especially of late . in her fifth year , an act was passed for the due execution of the writ de excommunicato capiendo ; amongst others , particularly levelled against such as refuse to receive the holy communion , or to come to divine service , as now commonly used in the church of england , with severe penalties upon those , that shall not yield up themselves to the same writ . anno . passed an act of general pardon , but it was with an exception of all those , that had committed any offence against the act for the vniformity of common-prayer , or were publishers of seditious books , or disturbers of divine service . anno . by an act to retain the queen's majesty's subjects in their due obedience , it is provided , that every person above the age of sixteen years , which shall not repair to some church or usual place of common-prayer , but forbear the same by the space of a month , shall for every such month forfeit twenty pounde : which act was again confirmed and ratified by another in the th year of her reign , with many clauses and provisions for the better execution of it . and by the act of the th of her reign , if any person so forbearing , shall willingly join in , or be present at any assemblies , conventicles and meetings , under colour or pretence of any exercise of religion , contrary to the laws of the realm , such person being lawfully convicted , shall be imprisoned without bail or mainprize , until he conform , and if he do not that within three months , he shall be obliged to abjure the realm , and if refusing to abjure , or returning without licence , he shall be adjudged a fellon , and suffer as in case of fellony , without benefit of clergy . such were her laws , and such also were her proceedings , against those who faultered in their conformity , or began to innovate in the discipline of the church ; and these proceedings as quick and smart , as any can be said to be against the dissenters of this time . do they complain of their ministers being silenced now ? so they were then , being deprived of their benifices and church-preferments , for their inconformity . thus sampson was turned out of his deanry of christ-church , for refusing to conform to the orders and ceremonies of the church . cartwright , the very head of them , expelled the college , and deprived of the lady margarets lecture . travers , turned out from preaching at the temple ; with many more , suspended from the ministry by the queens authority , and the approbation of the bishops ; for not subscribing to some new rites and ceremonies imposed upon them , as appears from beza's letter to bishop grindal , anno . are any in prison ? so they were then , benson , button , hallingham , cartwright , knewstubbs , and many others ; some in the marshalsey , others in the white-lion ; some in the gatehouse , others in the counter , or in the clinke , or in bridewel , or in newgate : poor men miserably handled with revilings , deprivations , imprisonments , banishments ; if we may believe what themselves tell us , both in the first and second admonition . and what is yet far beyond any thing , which god be thanked , our dissenters can pretend to complain of , several of them lost their lives ; barrow and greenwood were executed for their scandalous and seditious writings ; penry and vdall indicted and arraigned , for defaming the queens government in a scandalous book , written against the supposed governours , as they called them , of the church of england ; for which they were both cast and condemned , to be executed as fellons , but arch-bishop whitgift interposing , they were reprieved , and vdall suffered to die , as he did soon after , in his bed. the truth is , the wise and wary queen beheld . schism growing on apace , and needed not to be told what ill influence it was like to have , both upon church , and state , and therefore resolved to carry a streight hand , as well over puritanism on the one side , as popery on the other ; and in order hereunto , she charged arch-bishop whitgift to be vigilant and careful , to reduce ministers by their subscription and conformity to the setled orders and government , adding , that she would have the discipline of the church of england formerly established , of all men duly to be observed , without alteration of the least ceremony . but nothing more fully discovers her judgment and resolution in this matter , then what she gave in command to the lord-keeper-puckering , to tell the parliament : part of his speech ( transcribed and published some years since , from the original copy , under his own hand writeing , by an eminent divine of this church , ) was as followeth , — and especially , you are commanded by her majesty to take heed , that no ear be given , or time afforded , to the wearisome sollicitations of those , that commonly be called puritanes , wherewithal the late parliaments have been exceedingly importuned . which sort of men , whilst in the giddiness of their spirits , they labour and strive to advance a new eldership , they do nothing else but disturb the good repose of the church and common-wealth : which is as well grounded for the body of religion it self , and as well guided for the discipline , as any realm that professeth the truth . and the same thing is already made good to the world , by many of the writings of learned and godly men , neither answered , nor answerable , by any of these new fangled refiners . and as the present case standeth , it may be doubted , whether they , or the jesuits , do offer more danger , or be more speedily to be repressed . for albeit the jesuits do impoison the hearts of her majesties subjects , under a pretext of conscience , to withdraw them from their obedience due to her majesty , yet do they the same , but closely , and only in privy corners , but these men do , both publish in their printed books , and , teach in all their conventicles sundry opinions , not only dangerous to the well-setled estate and policy of the realm , but also much derogatory to her sacred majesty , and her crown , as well by , &c. in all which things ( however in many other points , they pretend to be at war with the popish jesuits , yet ) by the separation of themselves from the unity of their fellow-subjects , and by abusing the sacred authority and majesty of their prince , they do both join and concur with the jesuits in opening the door , and preparing the way to the spanish invasion , that is threatned against the realm . thus far he , by her majesties most royal pleasure , and wise direction , as he there speaks . to which let me add , that the speech took such effect , that the parliament passed the act of th of eliz. the severest act against dissenters in the whole body of our laws . and indeed , so jealous was the queen of the least appearances of innovation , that arch-bishop grindall , only for giving too much encouragement to prophesyings ( which were beheld as likely to prove nurseries of schism and faction , as indeed they did ) fell under her displeasure , and was sequestred from his archiepiscopal jurisdiction , and though great intercession was made in his behalf , yet could he never be restored to his dying day . this was the state of things then , and yet these were the proceedings of those days , which our dissenters at another time , are wont so much to magnifie and extol ; nothing of late having been so much in their mouth , as the wisdom and prudence , the care and diligence , the zeal and piety of good queen elizabeth . i speak not this to cast any reflexion upon the memory of that incomparable princess , whom we have all the reason in the world to own to have been the glorious instrument of perfecting and setling the reformation in this kingdom ; and whose memory will be dear and pretious , as long as the protestant name has a being in england . but i only take notice , how extreamly partial people are , and how apt to be prejudiced against the present government under which they live , and to be always crying out , that the former days were better then these ? whereas supposing their circumstances were really harder then they are , and harder then those of the puritans in former times , yet they have no reason to accuse the government of rigor and severity towards them , if three things be farther taken into consideration , first , that the dissenters of old , especially the first race of them , were generally much more modest and peaceable then those of later times , more conformable to the laws , less turbulent and offensive to the government : when they could not conform as ministers , they yet did as private christians , and quietly acquiesced in their suspension , or deprivation , and as one truly says of them , when they could not be active without sinning , [ as they judged ] they could be passive without murmuring . they medled not with things without their line , nor mixt themselves with matters of state ; declared , that kings have power by the law of god , to make such ecclesiastical laws as tend to the good ordering of the churches in their dominions , that the churches ought not to be disobedient to any of their lavvs , that if any thing vvere commanded contrary to the vvord , they ought not to resist the king therein , but peaceably to forbear disobedience , and sue to him for grace and mercy , and vvhere that cannot be obtained , meekly to submit themselves to the punishment . they generally came to church , and did not run into separate congregations , nay , writ stoutly and smartly against those who began then to attempt a separation . but whether our modern dissenters have observed the same course , and be of this spirit and temper , let the world judg , yea , let themselves be judges in the case . secondly , sad experience of the evil consequences of schism and separation , have made it necessary for the government to take all just and lawful ways , for preventing the like for the time to come . men first began to be dissatisfied with the rites and orders of the church , then discontented that they were not presently gratified with an alteration , discontent brought on sedition , sedition rebellion , and rebellion the ruin of church and state. and what wonder , if the laws bear a little hard there , where there are the same appearances , and where there seem to be the same tendencies and inclinations to the same dismal state of things ? whoever considers by what ways the most flourishing kingdom in the world , and the best church that ever was since ▪ the primitive times , were miserably harrassed and destroyed , cannot think , that those who sit at the helm , should be content to have them ruined again by the same means ; especially , after the king , for several years together , has in vain tried , by all the methods of favour and indulgence , to win upon them . thirdly , let those who now complain so much , consider , how little favour themselves shewed to others when they were in power , how the loyal and episcopal party were plundered , sequestred , decimated , dungeoned , starved , and often stunk to death : what oaths and covenants were rigorously imposed upon them ; what restraints laid upon their liberties , both civil and ecclesiastical ; though all this while they had law and right standing for them . in the year , an ordinance of parliament was published , that if any person hereafter shall at any time use or cause to be used the book of common-prayer in any church or publick place of worship , or in any private place or family within the kingdom , every person so offending should for the first offence pay the sum of five , for the second ten pounds , and for the third , should suffer one whole years imprisonment , without bail or mainprize . this one would think was very hard , but there is something harder yet behind : for cromwell being got into the throne , published a declaration , at that time equivalent to a law , that no person who had been sequestred for delinquency , or had been in arms against the parliament , or adhered unto , or had aberted or assisted the forces raised against them , should keep in their houses or families , as chaplains or schoolmasters for the education of their children , any sequestred or ejected minister , fellow of a colledg or schoolmaster , nor permit any of their children to be taught by such , upon pain of being proceeded against as was directed , and that no person who had been sequestred or ejected for delinquency or scandal , shall hereafter keep any school , either publick or private , nor preach in any publick place , or at any private meeting of any other persons then those of his own family , nor administer baptism , or the lords supper , or marry any persons , or use the book of common-prayer or the forms of prayer therein contained , upon pain that every person so offending in any of the premisses , shall be proceeded against as by the said order is provided and directed . there needs no comment upon these proceedings , they do not only whisper , but speak aloud to the present generation of dissenters , to tell them how little reason they have to complain . x. lastly , we beg of them , that before they pull down any further trouble or suffering upon themselves , they would consider , whether the cause they engage in , be such , as will bear them out with comfort before god another day . 't is not suffering for refusing to comply with the external circumstances of our religion , that can be said to be a persecution for righteousness sake , it not being the suffering , but the cause that makes the martyr . then i suffer as a christian , when the honour of christ , or something that offers violence to my religion , and christianity is concerned in it , when i suffer for that which i cannot avoid , without disowning my self to be a christian , and making shipwrack of faith and a good conscience . but where the case is not evidently this , a man may draw miseries upon himself , and yet not suffer as a christian , because it may proceed from humour , or interest , or the conduct of a misinformed judgment , mistaking things for what they are not : men very often place religion in doing , or not doing , what is no part of it , and then think they may safely suffer upon that account , when there is more , it may be , of passion or prejudice , of fancy or opinion , of humour or mistake , then of the real concerns of piety or religion . i am very sure , neither the ancient christians , would have passed through the fiery-tryal every day , nor the holy martyrs in queen mary's days , have thought themselves obliged to forfeit their estates , much less their lives , had no more been required of them then there is of us , to come to church , or to kneel at the sacrament ; but would rather have blessed god , and thankfully owned the favour of the governours , under which they lived , might they have enjoyed both upon the same terms as we do . in cases that only concern indifferent things , and meer circumstances of worship , stiffly and obstinately to stand out , is , rather for a man to be a martyr to his own humour and opinion , then to the cause of christ . whether this be not the case of our dissenting-bretren , they themselves might quickly see , would they but lay aside the unreasonableness of their prejudices , and lay no more stress upon things , then they ought to bear . let us hear what mr. baxter , in a late book , says to this matter , i am one that have been first in all the storms that have befallen the ministry , these twenty years past , ( to look no farther back , ) and yet my conscience commandeth me to say , as i have oft done , that many through mistake , i am persuaded , now suffer as evil-doers for a cause , that is not good and justifiable . i shall leave with them the wise and excellent counsel , which was given by one in the time of the elder puritanes , follow true antiquity , and the general practice of the church of god in all ages , where they have not erred from the evident truth of god. if thou sufferest , let it be for known truth , and against known wickedness ; for which thou hast example in gods word , or of the holy martyrs in church-story . but beware of far-fetched consequences , or for suffering for new devices , and for things , formerly , unto all ages unknown , seem they never so holy and just unto man. all that now remains , is to call upon our dissenting-brethren , by all the considerations of love and kindness to themselves , of tenderness for the honour of religion , the edification of their brethren , and the peace , security and welfare , of the church and state wherein they live , that they would duely and impartially weigh and consider things , put a stop to the separation , wherein they are engaged , return to , and hold communion with us , and keep the vnity of the spirit in the bond of peace . let them bethink themselves what a mighty evil schism is , and will be so found before god at the last day , and whether any thing can be meet to be put in the ballance with the peace and unity of the church , and those vastly-important consequences , that depend upon it . let us consider a little , what a deep sence the best and most pious christians , that ever were , had of it : it 's better to suffer any thing , then that the church of god should be rent asunder ; it is every whit as glorious , and , in my opinion , a far greater martyrdom , to die for not dividing the church , then for refusing to sacrifice to idols , says dionysius , the good bishop of alexandria , in his letter to novation . and st. cyprian speaks very severe things to this purpose , that a person going from the church to schismaticks , though in that capacity he should die for christ , yet can he not receive the crown of martyrdom . and how oft elsewhere doth he tell us , that such a one has no part in the law of god , or the faith of christ , or in life and salvation , that without this unity and charity , a man cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven ; and that although he should deliver up himself to the flames , or cast his body to wild beasts , yet this would not be the crown of his faith , but the punishment of his falshood ; not the glorious exit of a religious courage , but the issue of despair ; such a one may be kill'd , but he cannot be crown'd . he rents the unity of the church , destroys the faith disturbs the peace , dissolves charity , and profanes the holy sacrament . and were it necessary , i could shew , that the ancient fathers generally say the same thing . and can we now be such degenerate christians , ( if we can be said to be christians at all ) as to make nothing at all of schism and separation ? are not the glory of god , the peace of the church , and the good of souls , things as considerable , as necessary and indispensable now , as they were of old ? i beseech you , brethren , return from whence you are fallen ; and let us all with one shoulder set our selves to support that church , with whose ruin we are all likely to sink and fall . let us lay aside envying and strife , confusion and every evil work , and let us follow after the things , which make for peace , and things wherewith one may edifie another . finis . errata . page . l. . for books r. boots . p. . l. . r. obedience . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e amyrald ▪ de secess . ab eccles . r●m . pag. . a vindication of the presbyterial government , &c. . p. . institut . lib. . sect. , , . fol. . vid. aug. epist . ● . ( ad crisp . ) . edward's further discovery , p. . idem presbyter , qui episcopus , & antequam diaboli instinctu studia in religione fierent , &c. hier. in epist . ad tit. c. . cont. aer . haeres . . de vit . constant . lib. . c. . in sanctum basilium orat. . bas . epist . . can. . conf . conc. milev . can . . conc. carth. . c. . serm. compend : de expos . fid . p. . adv . aer . haeres . . cypr. adv . demetr . p. . de vnit . eccl. p. . vid. de laps . p. . bas. de spir. s. c. . tert. de coron . mil. c. . see durels view of the government and publick worship of god , . * p. , , ctc. epist . dedicat . to gangraen . print . . catal. and discov . of errors . p. . &c. vid. d . part. p. . . , , : . fresh discov . p. . . & alibi passim . view of the late troubles in eng. cap. . p. , &c. see also edwards gang. d. part , a little before p. . july . . further discov . p. . d. part p. , &c. fast sermon , jan. . . p. . cat. and discov . p. . , . vbi supra , p. . a letter from a noble venetian to card. barbarino , translated and printed . p. . cat. and discov . part d. p. . . . . further discov . p. . . foxes and firebrands print . . p. . &c. polit. l. . c. . sect. . octob. . . vid. collect. of the kings works . part. . fol. . l'historie des troubles , &c. p. . see the short view of the late troubles in england , c. . p. . see dr. stillingfleets preface to the imreasonableness of separation . p. . &c. coleman tryal , p. . def. of his answ . to the admonit . p. . bez. epist . . sir g. paul life of a. b. whitgift , numb . . p. . dr. peirce new discov . against mr. baxt. . ch. . sect. . p. . see a book called , the protestation of the kings supremacy . . numb . , , . an ordinance for putting in execution the directory . august . . november , . obed. patience p. . r. bernards christian advert . & councels of peace . . ap. euseb . lib. . cap. . epist . . ( ad antonian . ) de vnit . eccles . fol. , , &c. the case of lay-communion with the church of england considered and the lawfulness of it shew'd from the testimony of above an hundred eminent non-conformists of several perswasions. williams, john, ?- . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing w estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) the case of lay-communion with the church of england considered and the lawfulness of it shew'd from the testimony of above an hundred eminent non-conformists of several perswasions. williams, john, ?- . [ ], p. printed for dorman newman ..., london : . reproduction of original in huntington library. written by john williams. cf. nuc pre- . fourth title in: a collection of cases and other discourses, v. . errata: p. . created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng lord's supper -- early works to . lord's supper -- church of england -- early works to . dissenters, religious -- england -- early works to . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - emma (leeson) huber sampled and proofread - emma (leeson) huber text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the case of lay-communion with the church of england considered ; and the lawfulness of it shew'd from the testimony of above an hundred eminent non-conformists of several perswasions . published for the satisfaction of the scrupulous , and to prevent the sufferings which such needlesly expose themselves to . london , printed for dorman newman at the kings arms in the poultry . . to the dissenters from the church of england . dear brethren , you being at this time called upon by authority to joyn in communion with the church , and the laws ordered to be put in execution against such as refuse it ; it s both your duty and interest to enquire into the grounds upon which you deny obedience to the laws , communion with a church of god , and thereby expose our religion to danger , and your selves to suffering . in which , unless the cause be good , the call clear , and the end right , it cannot bring peace to your selves , or be acceptable to god. not bring peace to your selves ; for we cannot suffer joyfully the spoiling of our goods , the confinement of our persons , the ruine of our families , unless conscience be able truly to say , i would have done any thing but sin against god , that i might have avoided these sufferings from men . not be acceptable to god , to whom all are accountable for what portion he hath instrusted them with of the things of this life , and are not to throw away without sufficient reason ; and who has made it our duty to do what we can without sin in obedience to that authority which he hath set over us , ( as you are told by some in the same condition with your selves . ) to assist persons in this enquiry , i have observed that of late several of the church of england have undertaken the most material points that you do question , and have handled them with that candor and calmness which becomes their profession , and the gravity of the arguments , and which may the better invite those that are willing to be satisfied , to peruse and consider them . but because truth and reason do too often suffer by the prejudices we have against particular persons ; to remove , as much as may be , that obstruction , i have in this treatise shewed that these authors are not alone , but have the concurrent testimony of the most eminent non-conformists for them , who do generally grant that there is nothing required in the parochial communion of the church of england , that can be a sufficient reason for separation from it . the sence of many of these i have here collected , and for one hundred i could easily have produced two , if the cause were to go by the pole ; so that if reason or authority will prevail , i hope that yet your satisfaction and recovery to the communion of the church is not to be despaired of : which god of his infinite mercy grant for your own and the churches sake . amen . the contents . the difference betwixt ministerial and lay-communion pag. the dissenters grant the church of england to be a true church p. that they are not totally to separate from it p. that they are to comply with it as far as lawfully they can p. that defects in worship , if not essential , are no just reason for separation p. that the expectation of better edification is no sufficient reason to with-hold communion p. the badness of ministers will not justifie separation p. the neglect or want of discipline no sufficient reason to separate p. the opinion which the nonconformists have of the several practices of those of the church of england , which its lay-members are concerned in p. that forms of prayer are lawful , and do not stint the spirit ibid. that publick prescribed forms may lawfully be joyned with p. that the liturgy , or common-prayer , is for its matter sound and good , and for its form tolerable , if not useful p. that kneeling at the sacrament is not idolatrous , nor unlawful , and no sufficient reason to separate from that ordinance p. , that standing up at the creed and gospel , is lawful p. the conclusion ibid. the non-conformists plea for lay-communion with the church of england . the christian world is divided into two ranks , ecclesiastical and civil , usually known by the names of clergy and laity , ministers and people . the clergy , besides the things essentially belonging to their office , are by the laws of all well-ordered churches in the world , strictly obliged by declarations or subscriptions , or both , to owne and maintain the doctrine , discipline and constitution of the church into which they are admitted . thus in the church of england they do subscribe to the truth of the doctrine more especially contained in the thirty nine articles , and declare that they will use the forms and rites contained in the liturgy , and promise to submit to the government in its orders . the design of all which is to preserve the peace of the church , and the unity of christians , which doth much depend upon that of its officers and teachers . but the laity are under no such obligations , there being no declarations or subscriptions required of them , nor any thing more than to attend upon , and joyn with the worship practised and allowed in the church . thus it is in the church of england , as it is acknowledged by a worthy person , to whom when it was objected that many errours in doctrine and life were imposed as conditions of communion , he replies , what is imposed on you as a condition to your communion in the doctrine and prayers of the parish-churches , but your actual communion it self ? in discoursing therefore about the lawfulness of communion with a church , the difference betwixt these two must be carefully observed , lest the things required only of one order of men should be thought to belong to all . it 's observed by one , that the original of all our mischiefs sprung from mens confounding the terms of ministerial conformity with those of lay-communion with the parochial assemblies ; there being much more required of ministers than of the people : private persons having much less to say for themselves in absenting from the publick worship of god , though performed by the liturgy , than the pastor hath for not taking oaths , &c. certainly , if this difference was but observed , and the case of lay-communion truly stated and understood , the people would not be far more averse to communion with the parish-churches than the non-conforming ministers are , as one complains ; and whatsoever they might think of the conformity of ministers , because of the previous terms required of them , they would judge what is required of the people to be lawful , as some of them do . and as the ministers by bringing their case to the peoples may see communion then to be lawful , and find themselves obliged to maintain it in a private capacity ; so the people by perceiving their case not to be that of the ministers , but widely different from it , would be induced to hold communion with the church , and to joyn with those of their ministers that think it their duty so to do ; and are therein of the opinion of the old non-conformists that did not act a , as if there was no middle between separation from the church and true worship thereof , and subscription unto , or practice or approbation of all the corruptions of the same . for b though they would not subscribe to the ceremonies , yet they were against separation from gods publick worship , as one of them in the name of the rest doth declare . so that as great a difference as there is betwixt presence and consent , betwixt bare communion and approbation , betwixt the office of the minister and the attendance of a private person , so much is there betwixt the case of ministerial and lay-communion : and therefore when we consider the case of lay-communion , we are only to respect what is required of the people , what part they are to have and exercise in communion with the church . now what they are concerned in , are either , the forms that are imposed , the gestures they are to use , and the times they are to observe , for the celebration of divine worship ; or , the ministration , which they may be remotely suppos'd also to be concerned in . the lawfulness of all which , and of all things required in lay-communion amongst us , i shall not undertake to prove and maintain by arguments taken from those that already are in full communion with the church of england , and so are obliged to justifie it ; but from those that in some things do dissent from it , who may therefore be supposed to be impartial and whose reasons may be the more heeded as coming from themselves , and from such that are as forward in other respects to owne the miscarriages of the church ; as those that wholly separate from it . for the better understanding of the case , and of their judgment in it , i shall consider , . what opinion the most eminent and sober non-conformists have had of the church of england . . what opinion they have had of communion with that church . . what opinion they he had of such practices and usages in that church , as lay-men are concerned in . . what opinion the most eminent and sober non-conformists have had of the church of england . and that will appear in these two things , first , that they owne her to be a true church ; secondly , to be a church in the main very valuable . first , they owne her to be a true church . thus an eminent person saith of the old non-conformists , they did always plead against the corruptions of the church of england , but never against the truth of her being , or the comfort of her communion , and as much is affirmed of the present , by a grave and sober person amongst them , the presbyterians generally hold the church of england to be a true church , though defective in its order and discipline . and thus it 's acknowledged in the name of the rest by one that undertakes their defence , and would defend them in their separation , we acknowledge the church of england to be a true church , and that we are members of the same visible church with them . and this they do not only barely assert , but do undertake to prove : this is done by the old non-conformists , in their confutation of the brownists , who thus begin , that the church of england is a true church of christ , and such an one , as from which whosoever wittingly and willingly separateth himself , cutteth himself off from christ , we doubt not but the indifferent reader may be perswaded by these reasons following : . we enjoy and joyn together in the use of those outward means , which god hath ordained in his word for the gathering of a visible church , and have been effectual to the unfeigned conversion of many , as may appear both by the other fruits of faith , and by the martyrdom which sundry have endured that were members of our church , &c. . our whole church maketh profession of the true faith. the confession of our church , together with the apology thereof , and those articles of religion which were agreed upon in the convocation-house , an. . ( whereunto every minister of the land is bound to subscribe ) so far forth as they contain the confession of faith and the doctrine of the sacraments , do prove this evidently , &c. so mr. ball : wheresoever we see the word of god truly taught and professed in points fundamental , and the sacraments for substance rightly administred , there is the true church of christ , though the health and soundness of it may be crazed by many errours in doctrine , corruptions in the worship of god , and evils in the life and manners of men . as much as this is also affirmed in the letters passed betwixt the ministers of old england and new england , it is simply necessary to the being of a church that it be laid upon christ the foundation , which being done , the remaining of what is forbidden , or the want of what is commanded cannot put the society from the title or right of a true church . and if we enquire into the judgment of the present non-conformists , we shall find them likewise arguing for it : thus the author of jerubbaal , the essentials constitutive of a true church , a re , . the head ; . the body ; . the union that is between them : which three concurring in the church of england , christ being the professed head , she being christ's professed body , and the catholick faith being the union-band whereby they are coupled together , she cannot in justice be denied a true ( though god knows far from a pure ) church . if we should proceed in this argument , and consider the particulars , i might fill a volume with testimonies of this kind . the doctrine of the church is universally held to be true and sound , even the brownists own'd it of old in their calm mood , who declare , we testifie to all men by these presents , that we have not forsaken any one point of the true , ancient , apostolick faith professed in our land , but hold the same grounds of christian religion with them . see more in bayly's disswasive , c. . p. . . and dr. stillingfleet's unreasonableness of separation , part . § . . p. . the presbyterians ( if i may so call them for distinction sake ) do owne it . so m r corbet , the doctrin of faith and sacraments by law established is heartily received by the non-conformists . so m r baxter , as for the doctrin of the church of england , the bishops and their followers from the first reformation begun by edward the vi , were found in doctrine , adhering to the augustan method express'd now in the articles and homilies , they differed not in any considerable point from those whom they called puritans . the like is affirmed by the independents , the confession of the church of england , declared in the articles of religion , and herein what is purely doctrinal , we fully embrace as to the worship , they owne it for the matter and substance to be good , and for edification . so the old non-conformists , as m r hildersham , there is nothing in our assemblies , but we may receive profit by it , &c. and again , there is nothing done in god's publick worship among us , but what is done by the institution , ordinance and commandment of the lord. so among the present , it is own'd by both presbyterians and independents ; by the former in the morning-exercise , why may it not be supposeable , that christians may be moved by reasonable considerations to attend the publick forms , the substantial parts of them being thought agreeable to a divine institution , though in some circumstantials too disagreeable . so it 's acknowledged , that in private meetings the same doctrine and worship is used as in the parish churches , only some circumstances and ceremonies omitted . by the latter , we know full well that we differ in nothing from the whole form of religion established in england , but only in some few things in outward worship . but i shall have further occasion to treat of this under the third general . as for the ministry of the church , . it is acknowledged to be true , and for substance the same which christ hath established . so m r bradshaw , i affirm , that the ministry of our church-assemblies ( howsoever it may in some particular parts of the execution happily be defective in some places ) is for the substance thereof that very same ministry which christ hath set in his church . this he speaks , as he saith , of those that do subscribe and conform according to the laws of the state. . that they have all things necessarily belonging to their office ; so the grave and modest confutation maintains , the preaching of the whole truth of god's word , and nothing but it ; the administration of the sacraments and of publick prayer , as they are all parts of the ministers office prescribed in the word , so they are all appointed to our ministers by the law. . they owne , that all the defects in it , whether in their call or administration , do not nullifie the office . thus much m r bradshaw doth contend for , so many of our ministers ( who in the book of ordination are called priests and deacons ) as in all points concerning the substance of their ministry , are qualified according to the intent of the laws , have their offices , callings , administration and maintenance , for the substance thereof ordained by christ. and yet i deny not , but there may be some accidental defects , or superfluities in or about them all ; yet such as do not , or cannot be proved to destroy the nature and substance of any of them . this is maintained at large in the letter of the ministers in old england , &c. p. , . and the like is also affirmed even by those of the congregational way , so the brethren in their apology , the unwarrantable power in church-governours did never work in any of us any other thought , much less opinion , but that the ministry thereof [ of the english churches ] was a true ministry . so m r cotton , the power whereby the ministers in england do administer the word and sacraments , is either spiritual and proper , essential to their calling , or adventitious and accidental . the former they have received from christ , &c. the latter from the patron who presents , or the bishop who ordains , &c. whoever has a mind to see their ordination defended may consult jus divinum ministerii evangelici , part . p. , , , , &c. jus divinum r●gim . eccles. p. , &c. cawdry's independency a great schism , p. . and his defence of it , p. , . thus far therefore we see how far it is agreed , that the church of england is a true church in its doctrine , worship and ministry . but when we come to consider what the church is they own thus to be true , there we shall find that they do differ . the presbyterians generally own a national church , and have writ much in the behalf of it , as may be seen in the books quoted in the margin * : others look upon it as a prudential thing , and what may lawfully be complyed with ; so mr. tombs ‖ it is no more against the gospel to term the believers of england the church of england , than it is to term believers throughout the world the cahtholick church ; nor is it more unfit for us , to term our selves members of the catholick church ; nor is there need to shew any institution of our lord , more for the one than the other . but those that will not own it to be a true church in respect of such a constitution , or that speak doubtfully of it , do yet assert as much of the parish churches . it s acknowledged by all , that the distribution into parishes is not of divine but humane institution ; but withal , its thought by some a agreeable to the reason of the thing , and somewhat favoured by scripture , and by experience has been found to be of such convenience , advantage , and security to religion , that a person of great eminence hath more than once said b ; i doubt not but he that will preserve religion here in its due advantages , must endeavour to preserve the soundness , concord and honour of the parish churches . and another very worthy person saith c , that the nullifying and treading down the parish churches is a popish design . but whatever opinion others may have of that form , yet all of one sort and another , agree that the churches so called , are or may be true churches . this was the general opinion of the old non-conformists . thus saith a late writer , who , though he is unwilling to grant that they did own the national church to be a true church , yet doth admit ( as he needs must at least ) that they did own the several parishes or congregations in england to be true churches , both in respect of their constitution , and also in respect of their doctrine and worship , and that there were in them no such intollerable corruptions , as that all christians should fly from them . and even those that were in other respects opposite enough to the church , did so declare ; it was , saith mr. baxter , the parish churches that had the liturgy , which mr. h. jacob the father of the congregational party wrote for communion with , against fr. johnson , and in respect to which be called them separatists against whom he wrote . the same i may say of mr. bradshaw , dr. ames , and other non-conformists , whom the congregational brethren think were favourable to their way . and if we will hearken to the abovesaid author , he saith again and again , that the general sence of the present non-conformists both ministers and people , is , that the parishes of england generally are true churches , both as to the matter of them , the people being christians ; and as to the form , their ministers being true ministers , such as for their doctrine and manners deserve not to be degraded . but left he should be thought to incline to one side , i shall produce the testimony of such as are of the congregational way . as for those of new-england , mr. baxter doth say , that their own expressions signify that they take the english parishes that have godly ministers for true churches though faulty . mr. cotton professeth that robinson's denial of the parishional churches to be true churches , was never received into any heart amongst them ; and otherwhere saith , we dare not deny to bless the womb that bare us , and the paps that gave us suck . the five dissenting brethren do declare , we have this sincere profession to make before god and the world , that all the conscience of the defilements in the church of england , &c. did never work in us any other thought , much less opinion , but that multitudes of the assemblies and parochial congregation thereof , were the true churches and body of christ. to come nearer , dr. t. goodwin doth condemn it as an error in those who hold particular churches ( those you call parish-churches ) to be no true churches of christ , and their ministers to be no true ministers , and upon that ground forbear all church-communion with them in hearing , or in any other ordinance , &c. and saith , i acquitted myself [ before ] from this , and my brethren in the ministry . but the church of england is not only thus acknowledged a true church , but hath been also looked upon as the most valuable in the world ; whether we consider the church it self , or those that minister in it . the church it self , of which the authors of the grave and modest confutation thus write ; all the known churches in the world acknowledge our church for their sister , and give unto us the right hand of fellowship , &c dr. goodwin saith , if we should not acknowledge these churches so stated [ i. e. parish-churches ] to be the true churches of christ , and their ministers true ministers , and their order such , and bold communion with them too in the sence spoken of , we must acknowledge no church in all the reformed churches , &c , for they are all as full of mixture as ours . and mr. j. goodwin saith , that there was more of the truth and power of religion in england , under the late prelatical government , than in all the reformed churches in the world besides . if we would have a character of the ministry of the church of england , as it was then , mr. bradshaw gives it , our churches are not inferiour for number of able men , yea and painful ministers , to any of the reformed churches of christ in foreign parts , &c. and certainly the number of such is much advanced since his time . but i cannot say more of this subject than i find in a page or two of an author i must frequently use , to which i refer the reader . before i proceed , i shall only make this inference from what hath been said , that if the church of england be a true church , the churches true churches , the ministry a true ministry , the doctrine found and orthodox , the worship in the main good and allowable , and the defects such as render not the ordinances unacceptable to god , and ineffectual to us ; i think there is much said toward the proving communion with that church lawful , and to justifie those that do join in it ? which brings to the second general , which is to consider , . what opinion the sober and eminent non-conformists have of communion with the church of england ? and they generally hold , . that they are not totally to separate from it ; this follows from the former , and must be own'd by all them that hold she is a true church ; for to own it to be such , and yet to separate totally from it would be to own and disown it at the same time : so say the members of the assembly of divines , thus to depart from true churches , is not to hold communion with them as such , but rather by departing to declare them not to be such . and saith mr. baxter , nothing will warrant us to separate from a church as no church [ which yet is the case in total separation ] but the want of something essential to a church : but if the church have all things essential to it , it is a true church , and not to be separated from . when the church of rome is called a true church , it s understood in a metaphysical or natural sence , as a thief is a true man , and the devil himself , though the father of lies , is a true spirit : but withal she is a false church ( as m r brinsly saith from bishop hall ) an heretical , apostatical , antichristian synagogue : and so to separate from her is a duty . but when the church of england is said to be a true church , or the parochial churches true churches , it s in a moral sense , as they are found churches , which may safely be communicated with . thus doth d r bryan make the opposition , the church of rome , is a part of the universal visible church of christians , so far as they profess christianity , and acknowledge christ their head ; but it is the visible society of traiterous usurpers , so far as they profess the pope to be their head , &c. from this church therefore which is spiritual babylon , god's people are bound to separate , &c. but not from churches which have made separation from rome , as the reformed protestant churches in france , and these of great britain have done , in whose congregations is found truth of doctrine , a lawfull ministry , and a people professing the true religion , submitting to , and joyning together in the true worship of god. such a separation would ( as has been said ) unchurch it . this would be deny christ holds communion with it , or to deny communion with a church with which christ holds communion , contrary to a principle that is , i think , universally maintained , the errour of these men saith mr. brightman * , is full of evil , who do in such a manner make a departure from this church [ by total separation ] as if christ were quite banished from hence , and that there could be no hope of salvation to those that abide there . let these men consider , that christ is here feasting with his members ; will they be ashamed to sit at meat there , where christ is not ashamed to sit ? further , this would be a notorious schism , so the old non-conformists conformists conclude a , because we have a true church , consisting of a lawful ministry , and a faithful people , therefore they cannot separate themselves from us , but they must needs incur the most shameful and odious reproach of manifest schism ; for what is that , saith another b , but a total separation from a true church ? this lastly , would not diminish , but much increase the fault of the separation , as another saith c ; for it is a greater sin to depart from a church , which i profess to be true , and whose ministry i acknowledge to be saving , than from a church which i conceive to be false , and whose ministers i take to have no calling from god , nor any blessing from his hand . this therefore is their avow'd principle , that total separation from the church is unlawful : and this the old non-conformists did generally hold and maintain against the brownists d ; and the dissenting brethren did declare on their part e , we have always professed , and that in those times when the churches of england were the most , either actually overspread with defilements , or in the greatest danger thereof , &c. that we both did and would hold communion with them as the church of christ. and among the present non-conformists , several have writ for communion with the church against those that separate from it , and have in print declared it to be their duty and their practice . so m r baxter f , i constantly joyn in my parish-church in liturgy and sacraments . it s said of m r joseph allen g , that he as frequently attended on the publick worship , as his opportunities and strength permitted h : of mr. brinsley , that he ordinarily attended on the publick worship . dr. collins saith as much of himself i . mr. lye in his farewell sermon doth advise his people to attend the publick worship of god , to hear the best they could , and not to separate , but to do as the old puritans did thirty years before . mr. cradacot in his farewel sermon professeth , that if that pulpit was his dying bed , he would earnestly perswade them to have a care of total separation from the publick worship of god. mr. hickman freely declares , i profess where-ever i come , i make it my business to reconcile people to the publick assemblies , my conscience would fly in my face if i should do otherwise . and mr. corbet as he did hold communion with the church of england k , so saith , that the presbyterians generally frequent the worship of god in the publick assemblies l . it s evident then that it is their principle , and we may charitably believe it is their practice in conformity to it . thus mr. corbet declares for himself , i own parish-churches , having a competent minister , and a number of credible professors of christianity , for true churches , and the worship therein performed , as well in common-prayer as in the preaching of the word , to be in the main sound , and good for the substance or matter thereof : and i may not disown the same in my practice by a total neglect thereof , for my judgment and practice ought to be concordant . and if these two , judgment and practice , be not concordant , it would be impossible to convince men that they are in earnest , or that they do believe themselves while they declare against separation and yet do keep it up . those good men therefore were aware of this , who met a little after the plague and fire to consider ( saith mr. baxter ) whether our actual forbearance to joyn with the parish-churches in the sacrament [ and much more if it was total ] might not tend to deceive men , and make them believe that we were for separation from them , and took their communion to be unlawful : and upon the reasons given in , they agreed such communion to be lawful and meet , when it would not do more harm than good ; that is , they agreed that it was lawful in it self . . they hold that they are not to separate further from such a true church , than the things that they separate for are unlawful , or are conceived so to be ; that is , that they ought to go as far as they can , and do what lawfully they may toward communion with it . for they declare m , that to joyn in nothing , because they cannot joyn in all things , is a dividing practice , and not to do what they can do in that case is schism , for then the separation is rash and unjust n . if therefore the ministerial communion be thought unlawful , and the lay-communion lawful , the unlawfulness of the former doth not bar a person from joyning in the latter . the denying of assent and consent to all and every thing contained in the book of common-prayer , doth not gainsay the lawfulness of partaking in that worship , it being found for the substance in the main , &c. as a judicious person hath observed . this was the case generally of the old non-conformists , who notwithstanding their exclusion from their publick ministry , held full communion with the church of england . we are told by a good hand , that as heretofore m r parker , m r knewstubs , m r vdal , &c. and the many scores suspended in queen elizabeth , and king james's reign ; so also of later times , m r dod , m r cleaver , &c. were utterly against even semi-separation ; i. e. against absenting themselves from the prayers and the lord's supper . so it s affirmed of them by m r ball , they have evermore condemned voluntary separation from the congregations and assemblies , or negligent frequenting of those publick prayers . and some of them earnestly press the people to prefer the publick service before the private , and to come to the beginning of the prayers , as an help to stir up gods graces , &c. and others did both receive the sacrament , and exhort others so to do , as i shall afterward shew . again , if in lay-communion any thing is thought to be unlawful , that is no reason against the things that are lawful ; this was the case of many of the godly and learned non-conformists in the last age , as we are told , that were perswaded in their consciences , that they could not hold communion with the church of england , in receiving the sacrament kneeling without sin ; yet did they not separate from her . indeed in that particular act they withdrew , but yet so , as they held communion with her in the rest . and thus much is owned by those of the present age , as one declares ; the church of england being a true church ( so that a total separation from her is unwarrantable ) therefore communion with her in all parts of real solemn worship , wherein i may joyn with her , without either let or sin , is a duty . so another saith of them ; they are ready and desirous to return to a full union with the parishes when ever the obstacles shall be removed . and again , they hold communion with the parishes , not only in faith and doctrine , but also in acts of worship , where they think they can lawfully do it . this those of the congregational way do also accord to , that they ought in all lawful things to communicate with the churches of england ; not only in obedience to the magistrate ( in which case they also acknowledge it to be their duty as well as others ) but also as they are true churches ; and therefore plead for the lawfulness of hearing the established ministry , and undertake to answer the objections brought against it , whether taken from the ministers ordination * or lives , or the church in which they are ministers , &c. as you may find them in mr. robinson's plea for it of old ; and mr. nye's of late , as they are printed together . upon the consideration of which the latter of these thus concludes , in most of the misperswasions of these latter times , by which men's minds have been corrupted , i find , in whatsoever they differ one from another , yet in this they agree , that it 's unlawful to hear in publick ; which i am perswaded is one constant design of satan in the variety of ways of religion he hath set on foot by jesuits amongst us . let us therefore be the more aware of whatsoever tends that way . of this opinion also is m r tombs ( though he continued an anabaptist ) who has writ a whole book to defend the hearing of the present ministers of england , and toward the close of the work hath given forty additional reasons for it , and in opposition to those he writes against doth affirm , sure , if the church be called mount sion from the preaching of the gospel , the assemblies of england may be called sion , christ's candlesticks and garden , as well as any christians in the world. i shall conclude this with what m r robinson saith in this case ; viz. for my self thus i believe with my heart before god , and profess with my tongue , and have before the world , that i have one and the same faith , spirit , baptism and lord , which i had in the church of england , and none other ; that i esteem so many in that church , of what state or order soever , as are truly partakers of that faith ( as i account thousands to be ) for my christian brethren , and my self a fellow-member with them , of that one mystical body of christ , scattered far and wide throughout the world : that i have always in spirit and affection , all christian fellowship and communion with them , and am most ready in all outward actions and exercises of religion , lawful and lawfully done , to express the same : and withal , that i am perswaded the hearing of the word of god there preached in the manner and upon the grounds formerly mentioned , both lawful , and upon occasion necessary for me and all true christians , withdrawing from that hierarchical order of church-government and ministry , and the uniting in the order and ordinances instituted by christ. thus far he. from what hath been said upon this head we may observe , that though these reverend persons do go upon different reasons , according to the principles they espouse , though they agree not in the constitution of churches , &c. yet they all agree that the parochial churches are or may be ( as i have observed before ) true churches of christ , that communion with such churches is lawful , and that we are to go as far as we can toward communion with them . though they differ about the notion of hearing , as whether it be an act of communion , and about the call of those they hear , yet they all agree in the lawfulness of it . and therefore to separate wholly in this ordinance , and from the parochial churches as no churches , are equally condemned by all . . they hold , that they are not to separate from a church for unlawful things , if the things accounted unlawful are not of so heinous a nature as to unchurch a church , and affect the vitals of religion ; or are not imposed as necessary terms of communion . . if the corruptions are such as do not unchurch a church , or affect the vital parts of religion . so saith m r tombs , not every , not many corruptions of some kind do un-church , there being many in faith , worship and conversation in the churches of corinth , and some of the seven churches of asia , who yet were golden candlesticks , amidst whom christ did walk . but such general , avowed , unrepented of errours in faith , as overthrow the foundation of christian faith , to wit , christ the only mediator betwixt god and man , and salvation by him , corruptions of worship by idolatry , in life by evil manners , as are utterly inconsistent with christianity , till which in whole or in part they are not unchurched . for till then the corruptions are tolerable , and so afford no just reason to dissolve the church , or to depart from it . so m r brinsley , suppose some just grievances may be found among us , yet are they tolerable ? if so , then is separation on this ground intolerable , unwarrantable : in as much as it ought not to be , but upon a very great and weighty cause , and that when there is no remedy . so m r noyes , private brethren may not separate from churches or church-ordinances , which are not fundamentally defective , neither in doctrine or manners , heresy or prophaness . to all which add the testimony of d r owen and m r cotton . the former asserts , that many errours in doctrine , disorders in sacred administrations , irregular walking in conversation , with neglect and abuse of discipline in rulers , may fall out in some churches , and yet not evacuate their church-state , or give sufficient warrant to leave their communion , and separate from them . the latter saith , vnless you find in the church blasphemy , or idolatry , or persecution [ that is , such as is intolerable ] there is no just ground of separation . this is universally own'd : but if any one should yet continue unconvinced , let him but peruse the catalogue of the faults of nine churches in scripture , collected by m r baxter , and i perswade my self he will think the conclusion inferr'd from it to be just and reasonable . observe , saith he , that no one member is in all these scriptures , or any other , commanded to come out and separate from any of all these churches , as if their communion in worship were unlawful . and therefore before you separate from any as judging communion with them unlawful , be sure that you bring greater reasons for it than any of these recited were . . they are not to separate , if the corruptions are not so made the conditions of communion , that they must necessarily and unavoidably communicate in them . m r vines speaks plainly to both of these , the church may be corrupted many ways , in doctrine , ordinances , worship , &c. and there are degrees of this corruption , the doctrine in some remote points , the worship in some rituals of mans invention or custom . how many churches do we find thus corrupted , and yet no separation of christ from the jewish church , nor any commandment to the godly of corinth , &c. to separate . i must in such a case avoid the corruption , hold the communion — but if corruptions invade the fundamentals , the foundation of doctrine is destroyed , the worship is become idolatrous ; and what is above all , if the church impose such laws of her communion as there is a necessity of doing or approving things unlawful , in that case , come out of babylon . the churches of protestants so separated from rome . but if the things be not of so heinous a nature , nor thus strictly required , then communion with a church under defects is lawful , and may be a duty . so saith m r corbet in the name of the present non-conformists , we hold not our selves obliged to forsake a true church as no church for the corruptions and disorders found therein , or to separate from its worship for the tolerable faults thereof , while our personal profession of some errour , or practice of some evil is not required as the terms of our communion . and m r burroughs himself doth grant as much and more ; for he saith , where these causes are not [ viz. the being constrained to profess , believe or practise contrary to the rule of faith , or being deprived of means altogether necessary , or most expedient to salvation ] but men may communicate without sin , professing the truth , and enjoy all ordinances , as the free-men of christ ; men must not separate from a church , though there be corruption in it , to gather into a new church , which may be more pure , and in some respects more comfortable . and as though such corruptions should be imposed as terms of communion , yet if not actually imposed upon us , our communicating in the true part of god's worship is never the worse for the said imposition , as long as we do not communicate in those corruptions , as m r bradshaw doth argue : so though they should be imposed and be unavoidable to all that are in communion , that is not a sufficient reason for a total separation , as it is also own'd ; for saith one , when the corruptions of a church are such as that one cannot communicate with her without sin unavoidably , that seems to me to be a just ground , though not of a positive yet of a negative , though not of a total yet of a partial separation ; it may be a just ground for the lesser , but is not so for the greater . supposing then the corruptions in a church not to be of an heinous nature , not respecting the fundamentals of religion ; supposing again they are not necessarily imposed and unavoidable , then separation for the sake of such is unwarrantable . but to make this the more uncontroulably evident , i shall consider the corruptions as they respect worship , or discipline . in worship , i shall consider the defects of it , in it self , in the ministration , the ministers and those that joyn with it , and shew that these do not disoblige from communion in it , and attendance upon it . . the defects of worship , if not essential , are § consistent with communion , and no just reason for withdrawing from it . this the brownists did acknowledge with some qualification , neither count we it lawful for any member to forsake the fellowship of the church , for blemishes and imperfections , which every one , according to his calling , should studiously seek to cure , &c. so m r cotton , suppose there were and are sundry abuses in the church , yet it was no safe ground of separation . when the sons of eli corrupted the sacrifices of god , their sin was great , yet it was the sin of the people to separate and abhor . thus a reverend person in his farewel sermon doth rightly instruct his auditors , a means to hold fast what you have received , is diligent attendance on the publick ordinances and worship of god , if and when you can enjoy them in any measure according to god's will , though not altogether in the manner you desire , and they should be administred in , &c. though i dare not advise you to join in any thing that is in it self , or in your judgment evil , till you be satisfied about it ; yet i must advise you to take heed of separation from the church , or from what is good , and god's own ordinance , &c. for the fuller proof of which , it may not be amiss to produce the several arguments used by them in confirmation of this truth . as , first , to break off communion , or to refuse it for such defects , would be to look after a greater perfection than this present state will admit of . so the brownists do declare , none is to separate from a church rightly gathered and established for faults and corruptions which may , and , so long as the church consisteth of mortal men , will fall out and arise among them . and m r jenkin argues upon this principle , must not he who will forbear communion with a church till it be altogether freed from mixtures , tarry till the day of judgment , till when we have no promise that christ will gather out of his church whatsoever doth offend ? this was it that amongst other reasons conquer'd the prejudices of that good man m r j. allen , and kept him from separation , of which we have this account , he knew of how great moment it was that the publick worship of god should be maintained , and that its assemblies should not be relinquished , though some of its administrations did not clearly approve themselves unto him ; because upon the account of some imperfections and pollutions in them , supposed or real , to withdraw communion , is evidently to suppose our selves join'd before our time to the heavenly assembly , or to have found such an one upon earth exempt from all mixtures and imperfections of worshippers and worship . the want of this prudent consideration makes many to expect more than can be expected , and to look upon every defect or corruption as intolerable ; to prevent which therefore m r baxter doth give this advice to his brethren , teach them to know that all men are imperfect and faulty , and so is all mens worship of god ; and that he that will not communicate with faulty worship must renounce communion with all the world , and all with him . secondly , they argue , our saviour and the apostles did not separate from defective churches and worship , but communicated in it notwithstanding the corruptions , and therefore it s not unlawful for others so to do . no doubt it was written for our instruction , saith a reverend person , our lord jesus christ ( who was as zealous for purity in god's worship , as much against corrupt mixtures of mens inventions therein as any can pretend to be ) used to attend on the publick worship in his time , notwithstanding the many corruptions brought into it . that he went into their assemblies not to joyn in any worship , but only to bear witness against their corruptions , is no where written ; but rather the contrary is held forth in scripture , when he acknowledgeth himself a member of the church of the jews , approves of and justifies their worship , as right for substance , that salvation might be attained therein , which he denies to be attainable in any other worship , john . . we know ( including himself amongst those that worshipped god aright ) what we worship , for salvation is of the jews . this is sufficiently proved by many a , that christ did communicate with the jewish church , and is granted as well by those of the congregational as b presbyterial way : and yet doctrine , discipline , and worship were much corrupted , of which m r hildersham doth give a specimen c , but especially d r bryan d ; there were many great corruptions in the church of the jews in christ's time , the priests and teachers were ignorant and wicked , and had a corrupt and unlawful entrance into their calling ; and the people were like to the priest , generally notoriously and obstinately ungodly ; and the worship used in that church was wofully corrupt , many superstitious ceremonies , the observation whereof were more strictly urged , than the commandments and ordinances of god , the temple made a den of thieves , the discipline and censures shamefully abused , the doctrine was corrupt in many points ; yet the word tells you , christ ( whose example it binds you to follow , and you profess your selves followers of him in all imitable things ) made no separation from this church , professed himself a member of it , was by circumcision incorporated a member , received baptism in a congregation of that people , was a hearer of their common service and their teachers , allowing and commanding his disciples to hear them , communicated in the passover with the people and the priest ; no more did his apostles make separation from this church after his ascension , till their day had its period , &c. by their example it appears , that till god hath forsaken a church , no man may forsake it , &c. so that we may conclude from hence with m r hildersham , those assemblies that enjoy the word and doctrine of salvation , though they have many corruptions remaining in them , are to be acknowledged as true churches of god , and such as none of the faithful may make separation from . we shall need no further proof of this doctrine than the example of our saviour himself , &c. for why should our saviour use it if it was unlawful ; or why should it be a sin in us , who have not such eyes to pierce into the impiety of mans traditions as he had , as m r bradshaw argues . the same measures were observed also by the apostles after the establishment of the christian church ; this is not to be gainsaid , and is therefore granted by one , in other things rigid more than enough ; i do not say that every corruption in a true church , is sufficient ground of separation from it : the unsoundness of many in the church of corinth , touching the doctrine of the resurrection , and in galatia touching the doctrine of circumcision , and the necessity of keeping the ceremonial law , were not sufficient ground of separation from them ; for the apostles held communion with them , notwithstanding these corruptions . now by parity of reason it will follow , that if separation was not to be allowed from those corrupted churches , then surely not from such as are not so corrupted as they ; so m r cawdrey pleads , corinth had ( we suppose ) greater disorders in it than are to be found ( blessed be god ) in many of our congregations ; why then do they fly and separate from us ? and if our saviour and his apostles did not separate from such churches , much less should we , who may without doubt safely follow the advice given by an author above-quoted ; when you are at a stand think how christ would have carried , what he would have done in the like case with yours , and we may thereby be concluded . thirdly , they further argue , that christ doth still hold communion with defective churches , and not reject the worship for tolerable corruptions in it , and so neither ought we . it is supposed by a worthy person , that there is no such society of christians in the world , whose assemblies , as to instituted worship , are so rejected by christ , as to have a bill of divorce given unto them , until they are utterly as it were extirpate by the providence of god , &c. for we do judge , that where-ever the name of jesus christ is called upon , there is salvation to be obtained ; however the ways of it may be obstructed unto the most by their own sins and errors . and if this may be said of churches , though fundamentally erroneous in worship , then , who shall dare , as another saith , to judge when christ hath forsaken a people who still profess his name , and keep up his worship for substance according to his word , though they do or are supposed to fail in circumstances or lesser parts of duty ? now , this granted , the other will follow , that then we are not to separate from such churches . thus m r hildersham concluded of old from the practice of christ , and observes , . so long as god continueth his word and the doctrine of salvation to a people , so long it is evident that god dwells among them , and hath not forsaken them , &c. and till god hath forsaken a church , no man may forsake it . . no separation may be made from those assemblies , where men may be assured to find and attain salvation , but men may be sure to find and attain salvation in such assemblies , where the ministry of his word , and the doctrine of salvation is contained . so m r vines e , the argument , saith he , of m r brightman is considerable , if god afford his communion with a church by his own ordinances , grace and spirit , it would be unnatural and peevish in a child to forsake his mother , while his father owns her for his wife . i might heap up authorities of this kind , but shall content my self with a considerable one from m r cotton f , who reasons after this manner ; the practice of the brownists is blame-worthy , because they separate where christ keeps fellowship , rev. . . and that he walks with us we argue , because he is still pleased to dispense to us the word of life , and edifies many souls thereby , and therefore surely christ hath fellowship with us ; and shall man be more pure than his maker ? where christ vouchsafes fellowship shall man renounce it ? upon this are grounded the wholesome exhortations of many eminent non-conformists , as that of m r calamy ; you must hold communion with all those churches with which christ holds communion ; you must separate from the sins of christians , but not from the ordinances of christ. of m r r. allein ; excommunicate not them from you , excommunicate not your selves from them with whom christ holds communion . judge not that christ withdraws from all those who are not in every thing of your mind and way . methinks , saith a reverend person in his farewel sermon , where a church as to the main , keeps the form of sound words , and the substantials of that worship which is christs , some adjudged defects in order cannot justifie separation . i dare not dismember my self from that church that holds the head . i think whilst doctrine is for the main sound , christ stays with a church ; and it is good staying where he stays : i would follow him and not lead him , or go before the lamb. to such we find a severe rebuke given very lately by a reverend person ; proud conceited christians are not contented to come out and separate from the unbelieving idolatrous world , but they will separate also from the true church of christ , and cast off all communion with them who hold communion with him . fourthly , they argue , that to separate for such defects and corruptions would destroy all communion . if this should be , saith m r bradshaw then no man can present himself with a good conscience , at any publick worship of god wheresoever ; because ( except it should be stinted and prescribed ) he can have no assurance , but that some errours in matter and form will be committed . so m r ball ; one man is of opinion , that a prescribed form is better than another ; another that a prescribed form is unlawful , &c. in these cases , if the least errour do stain the prayers to others , that they may not lawfully joyn together , with whom shall the faithful joyn at all ? is not this to fill the conscience with scruples , and the church with rents ? such as these must , if they will be true to their own principles , renounce communion with all the world , and be like those that m r baxter tell us he knows , that never communicate with any church , nor ever publickly hear , or pray , or worship god at all , because they think all your ways [ which he directs to m r bagshaw and other non-conformists ] of worship to be bad . with this there can be no continuance in any communion , so much m r burroughs doth maintain ; there would be no continuance in church-fellowship if this [ a separation from a church for corruptions in it ] were admitted ; for what church is so pure , and hath all things so comfortable , but within a while another church will be more pure , and some things will be more comfortable there ? upon the mischievous consequence of this did m r r. allein ground his last advice to his parishioners ; destroy not , saith he , all communion by seeking after a purer church , than in this imperfect estate we shall ever attain . according to this principle [ no communion at all , if not in all ] where shall we rest ? in all society something will offend . with this , lastly , there can be no order , union , or peace in the church ; so m r bains , a person of great experience ; this [ seeking the peace of sion ] reproveth such as make a seression or departure from the church of god , our visible assemblies , either upon dislike of some disorders in administration ecclesiastical , or disallowed forms , and manner of procuring things , which the communion of saints for full complement and perfection requireth . this is not , in my conceit , so much to reform as to deform , to massacre the body and divide the head , &c. and will end in the dissolution of all church-communion ( if it be followed ) as is notoriously evident in the case of m r r. williams of new england , that for the sake of greater purity separated so long , that he owned no church nor ordinances of god in the world ; and at his motion , the people that were in communion with him dissolved themselves , as we have the account from thence . this therefore is one of the doctrines we are to avoid , according to the prudent advice in a book above-cited ; doctrines crying up purity to the ruine of unity , reject ; for the gospel calls for unity as well as purity . fifthly . they argue , that to separate upon such an account is not at all warranted in scripture . thus m r cawdrey ; it is no duty of christs imposing , no priviledge of his purchasing ▪ either to deprive a mans self of his ordinances for other mens sins , or to set up a new church in opposition to a true church , as no church rightly constituted , for want of some reformation in lighter matters . saith mr. blake , we read not of separation in this way [ for the sake of abuses and corruptions ] approved , nor any presidents to go before us in it ; we read a heavy brand laid upon it , jude . these be they who separate themselves , sensual , not having the spirit . so the congregations in new-england declare ; the faithful in the church of corinth , wherein were many unworthy persons and practices , are never commanded to absent themselves from the sacrament because of the same ; therefore the godly in like causes are not presently to separate . it should rather have been infer'd , are not to separate , for so much must be concluded from the premises , if any thing at all . this is accordingly infer'd by mr. noyes ; for brethren to separate from churches and church-ordinances , which are not fundamentally defective , neither in doctrine or manners , in heresy or prophaneness is contrary to the doctrine and practice both of christ and his apostles . unto whom i shall add the testimony of mr. tombs ; separation from a church somewhat erroneous or corrupt in worship or conversation , &c. is utterly dissonant from any of the rules or examples , which either of old the prophets , or holy men , or christ and his apostles have prescribed , is for the most part the fault of pride or bitter zeal , and tends to strife and confusion and every evil work . sixthly , they argue , that there is no necessity for separation for the sake of such corruptions , because a person may communicate in the worship without partaking in those corruptions . it was the opinion of the presbyterian brethren at the savoy-conference , that not only the hearing , but the reading a defective liturgy was lawful to him , that by violence is necessitated to offer up that or none . and if there was a possibility of thus separating the substance from the circumstantial defects in the ministerial use of such worship , much more may this be supposed to be done by those that only attend upon it , and are not obliged by any act of their own to give an explicite consent to all and every thing used in it . . this separation of the good from the bad in divine worship they grant possible . so mr. ball , if some things humane be mixed with divine , a sound christian must separate the one from the other , and not cast away what is of god as a nullity , fruitless , unprofitable , defiled , because somewhat of men is annexed unto them . in the body we can distinguish betwixt the substance and the sickness which cleaveth unto it ; betwixt the substance of a part or member , and some bunch or swelling , which is a deformity , but destroyeth not the nature of that part or member , &c. so m r calamy ; it s one thing to keep our selves pure from pollution , another to gather churches out of churches . . they grant , that what is faulty and a sin in worship is no sin to us , when we do not consent to it : so m r corbet ; my partaking in any divine worship , which is holy and good for the matter , and allowable or passable in the mode for the main , doth not involve me in the blame of some sinful defects therein to which i consent not , and which i cannot redress . so another reverend person in his farewel sermon ; while all necessary fundamental truth is publickly professed and maintained in a church , is taught and held forth in publick assemblies , and the corruptions there ( though great yet ) are not such as make the worship cease to be gods worship , nor of necessity to be swallowed down , if one would communicate in that worship , while any christian ( that is watchful over his own heart and carriage , as all ought ever to be ) may partake in the one , without being active in or approving the other ; there god is yet present , there he may be spiritually worshipped , served acceptably , and really enjoyed . . they grant , that the being present at divine worship is no consent to the corruptions in it . thus m r robinson ; he that partakes with the church in the upholding any evil , hath his part in the evil also . but i deny , as a most vain imagination , that every one that partakes with a church in things lawful , joyns with it in upholding the things unlawful to be found in it . christ our lord joyned with the jewish church in things lawful , and yet upheld nothing unlawful in it . so m r nye ; approbation is an act of the mind , it is not shewed until it be expressed outwardly by my words and gestures . this m r baxter undertakes to prove by several arguments , as that no man can in reason and justice take that for my profession , which i never made by word or deed . that the profession made by church-communion is totally distinct from this . that this opinion would make it unlawful to joyn with any pastor or church on earth , since every one mixeth sin with their prayers . . they say , that corruptions , though foreknown , do not yet make those that are present guilty of them . thus the old non-conformists declare ; it is all one to the people , whether the fault be personal ( as some distinguish ) or otherwise known before-hand , or not known : for if simple presence defile , whether it was known before-hand or not , all presence is faulty . and if simple presence defile not , our presence is not condemned , by reason of the corruptions known , whereof we stand not guilty . if the error be such as may be tolerated , and i am called to be present , by such fault i am not defiled though known before . m r baxter replys to those of a contrary opinion after this manner ; take heed that thus [ by affirming that foreknowing faults in worship makes them ours ] you make not god the greatest sinner and the worst being in all the world. for god foreknoweth all mens sins , and is present when they commit them , and he hath communion with all the prayers of the faithful in the world ; what faults soever be in the words or forms , he doth not reject them for any such failings . will you say therefore that god approveth or consenteth to all these sins ? i know before-hand that every man will sin that prayeth ( by defect of desire , &c. ) but how doth all this make it mine , &c. and he otherwhere adds ; it is another mans fault or errour that you foreknow , and not your own . . it s granted that the fault of another in the ministration of divine worship is none of ours , nor a sufficient reason to absent from it , or to deprive our selves of it . thus m r baxter ; the wording of the publick prayers is the pastors work and none of mine , &c. and why should any hold me guilty of another mans fault , which i neither can help , nor belongeth to any office of mine to help any farther than to admonish him . and that the faults of him that ministers are no sufficient reason to debar our selves of communion in the worship . mr. nye affirms and proves by this argument ; if i may not omit a duty in respect to the evil mixed with it , which is my own , much less may i thus leave an ordinance for the evil that is another mans , no way mine , or to be charged upon me , this were to make another mans sins or infirmities more mine than my own . thus is the case resolved with respect to the cross in baptism ; i may not only , saith one , do that which i judge to be inconvenient , but suffer another to do that which i judge to be unlawful , rather than be deprived of a necessary ordinance , e. g. if either i must have my child baptized with the sign of the cross , or not baptized at all ; i may suffer it to be done in that way , though i judge it an unlawful addition , because the manner concerns him that doth it , not me ( at least not so much ) so long as there is all the essence . he must be responsible for every irregularity , not i. thus jacob took laban's oath though by his idols , &c. after the same manner doth mr. baxter resolve the case in his christian directory , p. . seventhly , they grant , that it is a duty to joyn with a defective and faulty worship where we can have no better . thus the presbyterian brethren at the savoy ; an inconvenient mode of worship is a sin in the imposer , and in the chuser and voluntary user , that may offer god better and will not : and yet it may not be only lawful , but a duty to him , that by violence is necessitated to offer up that or none . this is acknowledged by an author that is far from being favourable to communion with the church ; if the word of god could be no where heard , or communion in sacraments no where enjoyed , but only in such churches that were so corrupt as yours is conceived to be ; it might be lawful , yea and a duty to joyn with you so far as possibly christians could without sin . accordingly mr. baxter declares , that it is a duty to hold communion constantly with any of the parish churches amongst us , that have honest competent pastors when we can have no better , and professeth for his own part ; were i , saith he , in armenia , abassia , or among the greeks , i would joyn in a much more defective form than our liturgy rather than none . and he adds , that this is the judgment of many new england ministers ( to joyn with the english liturgy rather than have no church worship ) i have reason to conjecture from the defence of the synod , &c. now in what cases this is to be presumed , that we can have no better , he shews , . when it is so by a necessity arising from divine providence . . a necessity proceeding from humane laws which forbid it . . a necessity from the injury done to the publick . and . when it is to our own greater hinderance than help , as when we must use none or do worse . in these and the like cases it becomes a duty , and what is otherwise lawful , is thereby made necessary . and he that cannot joyn with a purer worship , than what is publickly established without the breach of humane laws , or the disturbance of the publick peace , or dividing the church of god , or the bringing danger upon himself , is as much , where any of these or the like reasons are , restrained from so doing , as if it did proceed from a natural or providential necessity , that is , the one he cannot do physically and naturally , the other he cannot do morally , honestly , and prudently . having thus far stated the case , and shew'd that its universally owned by those that dissent from the church of england , that communion in a worship not essentially defective and corrupted is lawful ; and that its a received opinion , that where better is not to be had , it s a duty ; and that better is not to be had , where it is not to be had lawfully . i might freely pass on , but because there is a common objection against what has been said , taken from malac. . . cursed be the deceiver , &c. that voweth and sacrificeth to the lord a corrupt thing ; i shall briefly return their answer to it and proceed . to this the old non-conformists reply ; . no argument can be brought from this place to the purpose , but by analogy , which is a kind of arguing of all other most ready at hand , but liable to most exceptions , and apt to draw aside , if care be not had ( which in this case we find not ) to take the proportion in every material point just and true . . the corrupt sacrifice is that which the deceiver bringeth voluntarily and out of neglect , having a male in his flock , but the faithful bringeth himself and his godly desires according to the will of god ; and as for corruptions whether respecting matter or form , they are none of his , they cleave not to his sacrifice to stain or pollute it , &c. . he offers not a corrupt thing who offers the best he hath . . it is to be considered , saith m r ball , that what is simply best , is not best in relation to this or that circumstance or end ; what is best in a time free is not best in a time not free . it is granted , saith m r baxter , that we must offer god the best that we can do , but not the best which we cannot do . and many things must concur ( and especially a respect to the publick good ) to know which is the best . so that before this text can be opposed to what has been said , it must be proved , . that the things in question are corruptions as much prohibited as the blind and lame under the law. . that they are such as a person doth chuse , and it is in his power to help , and offers it when he hath a male in his flock . . that such a corruption as affects not the substance of worship , doth yet alter the nature of it , and makes the whole to be a corrupt thing , and abominable to god. if these things are not , the objection reacheth not the case , and there is no ground from that place for this objection . i shall conclude this head with a remarkable saying of the ministers of new england ; to separate from a church for some evil only conceived , or indeed in the church , which might and should be tolerated and healed with a spirit of meekness , and of which the church is not yet convinced , though perhaps himself be , for this or the like reasons to withdraw from publick communion in word , seals , or censures , is unlawful and sinful . but supposing it may be unlawful to separate from a church for a defective and faulty worship ; yet it may be supposed , that it may be lawful when it is for better edification , and that we may chuse what is for our edification before what is not , and what is more for our edification before what is less . for the decision of which case i shall shew from them , . that as defects and faults in worship , so neither is the pretence of better edification a sufficient reason against communion with a church . sometimes they say it is no better than a mere pretence and imaginary , a seeming contentment of mind , as one calls it . this m r hildersham takes notice of ; some prefer others before their own pastor , only because they shew more zeal in their voice and gesture , and phrase of speech and manner of delivery , though happily the doctrine it self be nothing so wholesome or powerful , or fit to edify their consciences , as the doctrine of their own pastor is , of such he saith , we may wish them more knowledge and judgment . m r baxter observes the same , one thinks that this is the best way , and another that the other is best — and commonly appearance , and a taking tone and voice do more with them than solid evidence of truth . therefore its fit to have a right notion of edification , which , saith a reverend person , lies more in the informing of our judgments , and confirming our resolutions , than in the gusts and relishes of affection . these , as he saith , are indeed of great use to the other , but without them are far from making a person better , and leaving him truly edifyed . again , it may be , and 't is no better than a mere pretence , when the fault is in themselves that complain they do not edifie . m r hildersham charges it upon such ; thou mightest receive profit ( if the fault be not in thy self ) by the meanest of us that preach . and he thus freely again declares himself ; i am perswaded , there is never a minister that is of the most excellent gifts ( if he have a godly heart ) but he can truly say , he never heard any faithful minister in his life that was so mean , but he could discern some gift in him that was wanting in himself , and could receive some profit by him . and therefore they advise to cure the fault before they make use of this plea. so the pious person above-said argues ; how shouldest thou profit by his ministry , if thou come with prejudice , without any reverence or delight unto it , nor dost scarce acknowledge gods ordinance in it ? so m r jenkin directs ; labour for experimental benefit by the ordinances . men separate to those churches which they account better , because they never found those where they were before ( to them ) good — find the setting up christ in your hearts by the ministry , and then you will not dare to account it antichristian . thus a reverend person in his farewel sermon , speaking of supposed defects in the church , doth advise his auditors ; enlarge your care and pains in your preparations ; a right stomach makes good nourishment of an indifferent meal ; you may be warm ( though in a colder air and room than you have formerly been ) if you will put on more cloths before you come : watch your hearts more narrowly , and speak things to your hearts m●re than you have done , eccles. . if the iron be blunt , then must he put to more strength . but supposing it be really for edification , yet this they declare is no sufficient reason for separation . so m r burroughs ; if you be joyned to a pastor , so as you believe he is set over you by christ , to be a pastor to you ; though this man hath meaner gifts than others ; and it would be more comfortable for you to have another pastor , yet this is not enough to cause you to desert him whom christ hath set over you . and so the ministers in new england deliver their minds ; to separate from a church for greater enlargements , with just grief to the church , is unlawful and sinful . so when this question was put , are they not at all times obliged to use the means which are most edifying ? it s answered by a reverend person , they may say at all times , when they have nothing to outweigh their own edification . so that edification may be outweighed , and then it can be no standing and sufficient reason . so m r burroughs declares in this case ; men must consider not only what the thing is in its own nature , but what it is to them , how it stands in reference to their relations — it is not enough to say the thing is in it self better , but is it better in all the references i have and it hath ? is it better in regard of others , in regard of the publick , for the helping me in all my relations ? may it not help one way and hinder many ways ? of the same opinion is m r baxter ; many things , saith he , must concur ( and especially a respect to the publick good ) to know which is the best . so that edification is not to be judged of alone , our own improvement is not to determine us in our actions , and especially not with respect to church-communion , for then other reasons do give law to it and over-rule it . this we see those that dissent from the church in other things agree with her in : and they give several reasons and arguments for it . first , if we were sure we could not profit , yet we must come to do homage to god , and shew reverence to his ordinance . this is m r hildersham's opinion . secondly , the leaving a church for better edification , is built upon a false and dangerous principle , which is that we must always chuse the best . so m r burroughs ; to hold what in its self best must be chosen and done , not weighing circumstances or references is a dividing principle . and afterward he saith , a christian without comparing one thing with another , will hack and hew , and disturb himself and others in the ways of religion . i believe some of you have known those who , whatsoever they have conceived to be better than other , they have presently followed with all eagerness , never considering circumstances , references or consequences , but the thing is good , it must be done ; yet being wearied with this they have after grown loose , in as great an excess the other way . thirdly , this principle of better edification if followed , would bring in confusion . so m r hildersham ; this factious disposition of the hearers of gods word , hath in all ages been the cause of much confusion in the church of god , and greatly hindred the fruit of the gospel of christ. this , saith m r brinsley , the moderate author of the late irenicum [ m r burroughs ] will by no means allow , but condemns as the direct way to bring in all kind of disorder and confusion into the church ; and i think none who are judicious , but will therein subscribe to him . it will not be amiss to transcribe his own words ; it is in it self a better thing to enjoy a ministry of the most eminent gifts and graces than one of lower ; but if this should be made a rule , that a man who is under a pastor who is faithful , and in some good measure gifted , upon another mans coming into the country that is more eminent , he should forsake his pastor and join to the other ; and if after this , still a more eminent man comes , he should leave the former and join to him ; and by the same law a pastor who hath a good people , yet if others be more likely to receive more good , he may leave his own people and go to them , what confusion and disorder would there be continually in the church ; this is condemned also by the new england ministers . this m r cawdrey doth expose ; if a man may lawfully separate from a true church , &c. only with a good mind to serve god in church-institutions , true or conceited by his own light , all the secretaries and separists , donatists , brownists in the world may be justified . this , saith another , speaking of hearing for this reason , is a church-destroying principle ; sure if one member be not fixed , then not another , nor another , &c. and then not the pastor , nor teacher , and so farewel churches . fourthly , this will be endless : so m r burroughs ; men must not separate from a church , though there be corruptions in it , to gather into a new church which may be more pure , and in some respects more comfortable . first , because we never find the saints in scripture separating or raising churches in such a case . and secondly , there would be no continuance in church-fellowship if this were admitted ; for what church is so pure , and hath all things so comfortable , but within a while another church will be more pure , and some things will be more comfortable there ? and he concludes with this prudent maxim ; the general peace of the church should be more regarded than some comfortable accommodations to our selves . so m r baxter ; what if twenty ministers be one abler than another in their several degrees , doth it follow that only the ablest of all these may be joyned with , because that all the rest do worse ? and yet this must be , if edification be always to be consulted , and is to determine us in our choice of ministers , churches , and ordinances . fifthly , they say , edification doth not depend so much upon the external administration of worship , as gods blessing , and that we are not to break the order , peace ▪ and union of the church for the sake of it . the former is asserted by m r hildersham ; it s our sin and shame , and is just cause of humbling to us , if we cannot profit by the meanest minister god hath sent . the power of the ministry dependeth not on the excellency of the teachers gift , but gods blessing . the latter is maintained by m r vines ; it s said , order in an army kills no body , yet without it the army is but a rout , neither able to offend or defend : so haply order in the church converts no body , yet without it i see not how the church can attain her end , or preserve themselves in begetting or breeding up souls to god. therefore is the advice of mr. baxter ; do not think to prosper by breaking over the hedge , under pretence of any right of holiness [ so of edification ] whatsoever , following any party that would draw you to separation . the mischief of which is represented by dr. tuckney ; experience , saith he , hath taught us that the church of god hath been poorly edifyed by those who have daubed up their babel with untempered mortar , &c. when the church is rent by schisms and factions , and one congregation is turned into many conventicles , falsely now called churches , this doth diminish , weaken , and ruine . lastly , when they do grant that edification may serve to guide us , and that we may hear where we can most profit , it s with such limitations and cautions as these ; it must be seldom , in a great case , without offence and contempt . thus mr. hildersham ; i dare not condemn such christians , as having pastors in the places where they live of meaner gifts , do desire ( so they do it without open breach or contempt of the churches order ) to enjoy the ministry of such as have better gifts , &c. so they do it without contempt of their own pastors , and without scandal and offence to them and their people . so again ; you ought not to leave your own pastor at anytime with contempt of his ministry , as when you say or think , alas ! he is no body ; a good honest man , but he hath no gifts , i cannot profit by him . and as if he could not be too cautious in the case , he lays down this as the character of one that doth this innocently ; he only makes right use of the benefit of hearing such as have more excellent gifts than his own pastors , and learns thereby to like his own pastor the better , and to profit more by him . that this is to be but seldom , we have the concurrent testimony of the provincial assembly of london , who upon this question ; would you have a man keep constantly to the minister under whom he lives ? do answer , we are not so rigid as to tye up people from hearing other ministers occasionally , even upon the lords day . but yet we believe 't is most agreable to gospel order upon the grounds forementioned . thus it is resolved also by one of a more rigid way , who puts this question ; whether members of particular churches may hear indifferently elsewhere ? and returns this answer ; god will have mercy and not sacrifice , as distance of habitation , handling such a point . but most certainly members of churches ought mostly to be with their own churches — the imagined content in hearing others , is rather a temptation than motion of the spirit . from all which we may conclude , that the pretence of better edification is no sufficient reason for separation from a church , worship , or ministry , without there be other reasons that do accompany it ; and then it is not for this reason so much as those it is in conjunction with . but admitting this , yet it will hardly be granted to be a reason for separation from the church of england , if the testimony of many worthy persons be of any consideration . thus mr hildersham declares , when he is reproving such as make no conscience to come to the beginning of gods publick worship , and to stay to the end of it ; he thus proceeds , because i see many of them that have most knowledge , and are forwardest professors offend in this way , i will manifest the sin of these men . . they sin against themselves in the profit they might receive by the worship of god — there is no part of gods service , ( not the confession not the prayers , not the psalm , not the blessing ) but it concerns every one , and every one may receive edification by it . this he otherwhere repeats and saith , by the confession , and all other prayers used in the congregation , a man may receive more profit than by many other . of this opinion , as to the most of the prayers in our liturgy , were the old non-conformists ; we are perswaded , that not only some few select prayers , but many prayers and other exhortations may lawfully be used , with fruit and edification to gods people . as for the word preach'd amongst us , mr nye saith , that there is a summ of doctrinal truths , which in the enlargement and application , are sufficient both for conversion and edification , to which the preachers are to assent . and that the word of god interpreted and applyed by preaching in this way , is a choice mercy and gift wherewith god hath blessed this nation for many years , to the conversion and edification of many thousands . and he afterwards ascribes the want of edification to the prejudices of people . such reasonings , saith he , against hearing , though they convince not the unlawfulness of it , yet they leave such prejudices in the minds of them which are tender , as perplex and render hearing less profitable and edifying , even to those that are perswaed of its lawfulness . this m r tombs declares himself freely in ; if we look to experience of former times , there is now ground to expect a blessing from conforming preachers , as well , or rather more , than from preachers of the separated churches . sure the conversion , consolation , strengthening , establishing of souls in the truth , has been more in england from preachers , who were enemies to separation , whether non-conformist to ceremonies or conformists , presbyterial or episcopal , even from bishops themselves , than from the best of the separatists . i think all that are acquainted with the history of things in the last age , will acknowledge that more good hath been to the souls of men , by the preaching of vsher , potter , abbot , jewel , and some other bishops ; by preston , sibbs , taylor , whately , hildersham , ball , perkins , dod , stock , and many thousands , adversaries to the separated churches , than ever was done by ainsworth , johnson , robinson , rigid separatists , or cotton , tho. hooker , and others ( though men of precious memory ) promoters of the way of the churches congregational . and therefore if the bishops and conforming preachers now apply themselves ( as we hope when the heat of contention is more allayed , they will ) to the profitable way of preaching against popery and prophaneness , exciting auditors to the life of faith in christ , &c. there may be as good ground , if not better ( considering how much the spirits of separatists are for their party , and the speaking of the truth in love , and edifying in love , is necessary to the growth of the body , eph. . . ) to expect by them a blessing in promoting the power of godliness , than from the separatists . so that whether we consider the worship or doctrine , or the preaching of it , the church of england in their apprehension doth not want a sufficiency of means for the conversion and edification of souls : and consequently the argument taken from edification , in justification of forsaking the communion of it , is inconclusive and of no force . but this branch of it will be further confirm'd under the third general . but however , this will not be so easily quitted , for supposing the doctrine good , and those that teach it capable ( as far as learning and parts are requisite ) to improve it to the conversion and edification of others ; yet if they themselves are loose and scandalous , it may give just offence , and be thought a sufficient cause to separate from the worship in which such do officiate . . therefore i shall shew , that the badness of the ministers is of it self no sufficient reason to forsake the communion of a church , or to separate from the worship administred in it . what holy m r rogers saith is a great truth ; it is not to be denied , but that the example of ignorant and unreformed , especially notorious persons in the ministry , hath done and doth much harm ; and if either they cannot be convicted , or if their crimes be such as cannot remove them out of their places , there is just cause of grief that such should have any thing to do in gods matters , which are so weighty and to be dealt withal in high reverence . but yet before the objection is admitted , it is to be premised , . that if there be such in the church , it doth not proceed from their conformity to it . for good and pious men of this sort always were and still are in the church . what there were formerly may be read in mr baxter , who thus delivers himself ; when i think what learned , holy , incomparable men , abundance of the old conformists were , my heart riseth against the thoughts of separating from them ; such as m r bolton , m r whately , m r fenner , &c. and abundance other such ; yea such as bishop jewel , bishop grindal , bishop hall , &c. yea and the martyrs too , as cranmer , ridley , hooper himself , &c. what there are now in the church , he also tells us ; i believe there are many hundred godly ministers in the parish-churches of england . and of his own knowledge , saith , i profess to know those of them , whom i take to be much better than my self ; i will say a greater word , that i know those of them whom i think as godly and humble ministers , as most of the non-conformists whom i know . so saith d r bryan ; in some countries i am sure there are many sober , godly , orthodox , able preachers yet in possession of the publick places . . it is to be premised , that this argument , if of any , yet is of no farther force than against the congregations where such are , and so is of none against the church it self where are good as well as bad , nor against parochial communion where such are not . so m r baxter argues ; i doubt not but there are many hundred parish ministers , who preach holily , and live holily , though i could wish that they were more . and what reason have you to charge any other mens sins on them , &c. or to think it unlawful to joyn with the good for the sake of the bad ? this is to condemn the sound for the sake of the infected . having premised this , we shall re-assume the case . and consider how it is stated and resolved by them . . it s granted , that it is not unlawful to joyn with bad ministers in some cases where they may have better . so m r rogers ; as it is far from me to be a patron of such , or to justifie them ; so yet , while we may enjoy the ministry of better , i would not refuse to be partaker of the prayers which are offered by them . . it s granted , that its lawful and a duty to hear and joyn with such where a better cannot be had ; that it is lawful , so m r rogers ; who can blame him , who desireth to pray with better than they be ? and yet better to joyn with them sometime , than to leave the publick assemblies altogether . so m r baxter ; no people should chuse and prefer an ungodly minister before a better ; but they should rather submit to such than have none , when a better by them cannot be had . that its a duty , so the old non-conformists ; the scripture teacheth evidently , that the people must and ought to joyn with them [ unworthy ministers ] in the worship of god , and in separating from the ordinance they shall sin against god. for the worship is of god , and the ministry is of god ; the person unworthily executing his place , is neither set up by some few private christians , nor can by them be removed : and warrant to withdraw themselves from the worship of god , because such as ought not , are suffered to intermeddle with holy things , they have none from god. so m r ball ; to communicate with ministers no better than pharisees in the true worship of god , is to worship god aright , to reverence his ordinances , to relye upon his grace , to hearken unto his voice , and submit unto his good pleasure . this they maintain by several arguments . as , first , such were always in the church , and communion must never have been held with the church , if no communion was to be where such were . so the old non-conformists argue ; if the minister make it unlawful , then all communion in any part of gods worship with such ministers is unlawful , and so the church in all ages of the world , the prophets , our saviour christ , the apostles , and the faithful in the primitive churches sinned , in holding communion with such , when the priests were dumb dogs that could not bark , and greedy dogs that could never have enough ; when the prophets prophesied lyes , when the priests bought and sold doves in the temple , &c. when they were such and did such things , they were ungodly ministers ; but we never find that the prophets , our saviour , and the apostles , did either forbear themselves , or warn the faithful not to communicate with such in the ordinance of worship . so much m r nye doth grant ; more cannot be objected against our ministers that conform , than might against the scribes and pharisees in christs time ; either in respect of their doctrine ; which was loaden with traditions ; their standing , which was not according to law ; their lives , which were vicious ; yet christ not only permits , but requires us to attend the truths they deliver . secondly , they plead that our saviour himself did communicate where such did officiate . so d r bryan ; in some countries , i am sure there are many sober , godly , orthodox , able preachers , &c. and if you know any country where it is worse , consider if christ himself did not joyn with worse . this is attested by another reverend person ; our saviour christ used to attend on the publick worship in his time , notwithstanding such formalists and superstitious ones , as the scribes and pharisees did officiate in it . thirdly , they say that the sin of the minister is not theirs , nor doth bring any detriment to them , though they communicate with him . so m r baxter ; a ministers personal faults may damn himself , and must be matter of lamentation to the church , who ought to do their best to reform them , or get better by any lawful means ; but in case they cannot , his sin is none of theirs , nor doth it make his administration null or ineffectual , nor will it allow you to separate from the worship which he administreth . so the ministers sent to oxford do assert ; some evil men may and always have de facto been officers and ministers in the church , &c. and the wickedness of such men did not null or evacuate their ministerial acts , for our saviour would have the scribes and pharisees heard while they sate in moses chair , &c. and that the ministrations in such a case are not invalid , and that the people suffer not by it they further prove : . because they officiate not in their own name . so the old non-conformists ; it hath evermore been held for a truth in the church of god , that although sometimes the evil hath chief authority in the ministration of the word and sacraments ; yet forasmuch as they do not the same in their own name but in christs , and minister by his commission and authority , we may use their ministry both in hearing the word and receiving the sacraments ; neither is the effect of christs ordinance taken away by their wickedness . . the vertue of the ordinance doth not depend upon their goodness but gods promise . so m r rogers saith of prayer ; if this burden [ of bad ministers ] must be born , i ask , if among many sweet liberties we enjoy , we may not joyn in prayer with them , if we can pray in faith , seeing their unworthiness cannot withhold the fruit of gods promise from us which is to one kind of prayer as well as another . so saith m r cradacot of the word ; take heed , saith he , of being leavened with prejudice against the ministry of the word , because of the misdemeanors or miscarriage of the minister . it is the word of the lord which converts , not the person of the dispenser or speaker . hence it was that the ministry of the scribes and pharisees was not to be rejected but to be esteemed , so long as they failed not in the substance thereof , &c. i conceive its a rare thing for unconverted ministers to convert , and yet we must remember not to tye the efficacy of the word and sacraments to the goodness or badness of a ministers person . so when it s objected ; how can we expect a blessing upon the labours of such though they preach truth ? mr. nye replys . answ. . the mixtures in sermons are nearest , the irregularities of their calling next , the sins of their conversations furthest from their doctrine , and therefore have less efficacy at such a distance to prejudice it . answ. . it s gods word and not their own they preach , &c. . that if persons themselves do believe and are sincere , they are , notwithstanding such a ministry , accepted . the sacrifice of a faithful elkanah , saith one , was pleasing to god , even when hophni and phineas were priests . from all which we find some declaring , that notwithstanding this they would communicate . so a reverend person ; the peoples prejudices against the liturgy , are grounded for the most part upon the wicked lives of those that are the most constant readers and frequenters of it [ doubtless the author if he had considered this , would rather have said that they are grounded upon the wicked lives of some of those that read and frequent it . ] i shall never upon that account cease to joyn in prayers and to hear sermons . others we find exhorting their auditors to attend even upon such . so mr r. fairclough in his farewel sermons ; get all good from , shew all duty ▪ to him that follows — if he should be weak , or evil , yet while he preacheth truths , while he sits in moses chair , hear him seriously , and carry your selves towards him as becomes a people to their minister . i have thus far considered the case of scandalous ministers , because many make it an objection , as well those that are not concerned as those that are . otherwise it must be acknowledged , that england was never better provided with a learned and pious ministry than at present ; who have as good understanding , preach as good doctrine , do as much good by their preaching as any others , as a late writer doth confess . but though many congregations are well supplied with a pious , able , and industrious ministry , yet there are few or none but what have some , more or less amongst the laity , that are ( as it may be supposed ) not fit to be received into communion with a church , or to be communicated with . this brings me to the next thing in worship , which is , . the case of mixed communion . this is a plea , saith mr. vines , that is plausible to easie capacities , because it pretends to set up holiness of ordinances and people , but what the eminent dissenters do utterly disclaim ; mr. vines saith it is donatistical , and others , as mr. brinsley and mr. jenkin , that its the common plea or pretence which for the moct part hath been taken up by all schismaticks in defence of their separation from the church ; and therefore that it is necessary the people should be untaught it , as mr. baxter doth advise . and as they do disclaim it , so they declare that those that separate upon this account do it very unjustly a ; that the scandals of professors are ground of mourning , but not of separation b ; that there may be a sufficient cause to cast out obstinate sinners , and yet not sufficient cause for one to leave the church , though such be not cast ●ut c . that the suffering of prophane and scandalous livers to continue in the church , and partake in the sacrament , is doubtless a great sin ; yet the godly are not presently to separate from it . there is , saith m r burroughs , an error on both sides ; either those that think it concerns them not at all with whom they come to the sacrament , or those that if they do what they can to keep the scandalous away , and yet they should be suffered to come , that they themselves may not come to partake of it . this both the presbyterians and independents so far agree in ; and for this their opinion they urge several arguments . first , it s no where commanded , but is a vain pretending to holiness above rule and example , saith m r vines . it s no duty , as he elsewhere saith , because there is no command ; it s no duty , and therefore we read not this word , come forth , in any of the epistles written to the seven churches , against which christ saith he hath such and such things . they that lived in the impurer are not called forth into the purer , but there are promises made to them that keep themselves pure , and duties injoyned them toward the impurer part . for we may not make every disease the plague . shall the sons of god , the angels , forsake the lords presence , because satan came also amongst them , &c. the provincial assembly of london doth affirm ; in the church of corinth was such a profane mixture at the sacrament , as we believe few , if any of our congregations can be charged withal : and yet the apostle doth not perswade the godly party to separate , much less to gather a church out of a church . from which consideration mr. tombs concludes ; sure it can be no sin in any person to joyn in the true worship and service of god with any , if he have no command to withdraw himself from that service because of their presence , nor power to exclude them , and yet is bound to the duties there performed . nay , they do not only plead that it s not commanded , but that its forbidden and unlawful . so m r hooker ; to separate from a church because of the sin of some worshippers is unlawful . so the new england ministers do declare ; as separation from a church , wherein prophane and scandalous livers are tolerated , is not presently necessary : so for the members thereof , otherwise worthy , hereupon to abstain from communion with such a church , in the participation of the sacraments , is unlawful . secondly , they plead , that the communicating in gods service with open sinners , whom the godly in some of our assemblies are enforced to communicate with , is not sufficient to make such prophane , or to pollute to them the holy things of god : so the old non-conformists . so m r vines ; the presence of wicked men at gods ordinances , pollutes not them that are neither accessary to their sin , nor yet to their presence there . this m r burroughs disclaims ; you are not defiled by the meer presence of wicked men in the sacrament ( for that is a meer deceit and gull , that some would put upon men that differ from them ) but thus are you defiled if you do not your duty , and the uttermost you are able , to purge them out . but if this be done according to the power and capacity persons are in , it s universally granted that the innocent shall not suffer for the nocent . so mr. ball ; the precept of debarring scandalous offenders bindeth them to whom god hath given this power , and them only so far as god hath put it in their power . but god regularly doth not leave that power in the hand of one single steward , or some few private christians — and if the steward , or one or few private christians , cannot debar the unworthy from the lords table , it is manifest the ordinance of god is not defiled to them by the presence of the wicked , whom they desire to reform or expel , but cannot , because power is not in their hand to do it lawfully . this they confirm , . from the examples of the prophets and good men , who of old joyned with many that were notoriously stained with gross sins ; from the practice of our saviour that communicated with such in the publick service of god ; from the practice of christians in apostolical times , all which the old non-conformists do insist upon . this is also pleaded by those of new-england and others . this would make all the sins of the congregation to be ours . so m r baxter ; if you be wanting in your duty to reform it , it is your sin ; but if bare presence made their sin to be ours , it would also make all the sins of the assembly ours . from all which it appears that their sence is , that scandalous members are no sufficient reason for separation ; for that must be , either be cause it s commanded in scripture , or that those that do communicate with such , are in so doing corrupted also ; but if neither of these be , then we may safely communicate with such , or in a church where such are without sin . thirdly , to separate upon this ground , is to maintain a principle destructive to the communion of the church visible , which consists of good and bad . this m r cotton is peremptory in ; it is utterly untrue to say that christ admits not of any dead plants to be set in his vineyard , or that he takes not to himself a compounded body of living and dead members , or that the church of god is not a mixed company , &c. from the ill effects of which , m r cartwright used to call this separation , upon pretence of greater purity , the white devil . and because there are some scriptures that seem to look this way , and are made use of by those that make mixed communion an argument for separation ; therefore they have taken off the force of them . if a brother be a fornicator , &c. the apostle exhorteth not to eat with him . to this they answer , that if it be meant of excluding such an one from church-communion , it must be done by the church and not a private person . but you are not commanded to separate from the church , if they exclude him not ; so m r baxter , &c. that it concerns not religious but civil communion , and that not all civil society or commerce , but familiar only . for which they produce several reasons , . they argue from the notion of eating bread , which is a token of love and friendship in phrase of scripture , not to partake of or to be shut from the table , is a sign of familiarity broken off . so mr. ball , &c. . the eating which is here forbidden is allowed to be with an heathen , but it s the civil eating which is only allowed to be with an heathen ; therefore it s the civil eating which is forbidden to be with a brother . so mr jenkin , &c. . the eating here forbidden is for the punishment of the nocent not of the innocent . to these there are added others by the old non-conformists . as for other objections they are also undertaken by the same hands , and to which m r baxter's answer is sufficient ; if you m●●k all the texts in the gospel , you shall find that all the separation which is commanded in such cases ( besides our separation from the infidels and idolatrous world , or antichristian and heretical confederacies , and no-churches ) is but one of these two sorts , . either that the church cast out the impenitent by the power of the keys . or , . that private men avoid all private familiarity with them ; but that the private members should separate from the church , because such persons are not cast out of it , shew me one text to prove it if you can . this , saith m r vines , hath not a syllable of scripture to allow or countenance it . but supposing it be allowed that we ought not to separate from a church , where corrupt members are tolerated or connived at under some present circumstances ( as for want of due proof , or through particular favour ) yet it seems to be allowable where there is no discipline exercised , or taken care of . for then we are without an ordinance . to avoid this objection , i shall consider , . the case with respect to discipline , and shall § shew from them , . that the want of that or defects in it are no sufficient reason for separation . . what discipline is exercised or taken care of in the church of england . the former of these they do own and prove . first , as discipline is not necessary to the being of a church . this was of old maintained by m r cartwright , who thus argues ; that church assemblies are builded by faith only on christ the foundation , the which faith so being , whatsoever is wanting of that which is commanded , or remaining of that which is forbidden , is not able to put that assembly from the right and title of so being the church of christ — for though there be many things necessary for every assembly , yet they be necessary to the comely and stable being , and not simply to the being of the church . and afterward he gives an instance in the dutch assemblies ( or lutheran churches ) which , he saith , are maimed in discipline . so d r t. goodwin ; whereas now in some of the parishes of this kingdom , there are many godly men that do constantly give themselves up to the worship of god in publick , &c. these notwithstanding their mixture and want of discipline , i never thought for my part , but that they were true churches of christ , and sister churches , and so ought to be acknowledged . so that if discipline be not essential to a true church , and a true church is not to be separated from ( as has been proved above ) then the want of discipline is no sufficient reason for separation . secondly , this they further prove by an induction of particulars . this way mr. blake proceeds in ; discipline was neglected in the church of israel , yet none of the prophets or men of god ever made attempt of getting up purer select churches , or made separation from that which was in this sort faulty . all was not right in the exercise of discipline in the churches planted by the apostles , some are censured as foully faulty , &c. yet nothing heard by way of advice for any to make separation , nor any one instance of a separatist given . to come lower , we are told by a learned person , that the helvetian or switzerland churches claim to be churches , and have the notes , word , and sacraments , though the order of discipline be not settled among them , and i am not he that shall blot out their name . to come nearer home , it was so in the late times when this was wanting , as was acknowledged a , and of which mr. vines saith b , we know rather the name than the thing . and if we shall look into the several church-assemblies amongst the dissenters , we shall find , that there are many preachers without full pastoral charge , as it is acknowleded , and that have little authority over their flocks in this kind , that have not so much as the name of discipline amongst them . and so they have little reason to justifie themselves in a separation by such an argument , that will as well wound themselves as those they bend it against ; and they that do so are guilty of sin. so mr. baxter ; many that observe the pollution of the church by the great neglect of holy discipline , avoid this error by turning to a sinful separation . i shall conclude this with that grave advice of dr. owen ; when any church , whereof a man is by his own consent antecedently a member , doth fall in part or in whole from any of those truths which it hath professed , or when it is overtaken with a neglect of discipline or irregularities in its administration ; such a one is to consider , that he is placed in his present state by divine providence , that he may orderly therein endeavour to put a stop unto such defections , and to exercise his charity , love , and forbearance towards the persons of them whose miscarriages at present he cannot remedy . in such cases there is a large and spatious field for wisdom ▪ patience , love and prudent zeal to exercise themselves . and it is a most erverse imagination , that separation is the only cure for church disorders . if this advice be good in one case , it is so in another ; and if it were well understood , and faithfully followed , this argument would be of little or no force . . i shall shew how little this plea of the defective discipline reaches the case . it s granted that there is such a power and authority of ecclesiastical discipline resident in the church of england , that if open and scandalous persons are not cast out , the fault is in the governours , for the law takes order they shall be , as d r bryan saith a . and the power of suspension put thereby into the ministers hands is so evident , that after d r collins had proved it from the rubricks , canons , &c. he concludes b its plain that the judgment and practice of the church of england in all times , ever since it was a church , hath been to suspend some from the table of the lord. so that if there be defects , through some past and present obstructions in the exercise of discipline , yet cannot the church properly stand charged with them , as is acknowledged c ; or whatever may be charged upon the church , there can be no sufficient cause from a defect , remisness or corruption therein , for a separation from it . this was the constant judgment of the old non-conformists , which i shall transcribe from a grave author ; those , saith he , that for many years together , during the reign of the three last princes , denied to come up to a full conformity to this church , had a low opinion of the discipline then exercised ( of which they have left behind them large evidences ) yet how tender were they of the churches honour to keep christians in communion ? how zealous were they against separation ? as may appear in the labours of m r parker , m r paget , m r ball. m r brightman laid us low enough , when he did not only parallel us with luke-warm laodicea , but made that church the type and we the antitype , by reason of our discipline ; yet how zealous is he against separation from these assemblers , and breaks out in these words ; therefore their error is wicked and blasphemous , who so forsake the church , as if christ were altogether banished thence . having thus far considered what opinion the graver sort of the non-conformists have of communion with a church , and what rules they do lay down about it , and shew'd that according to those rules , separation from the church is unlawful . i shall close all with the last advice given by a reverend person to his parishioners in a farewel sermon in these words ; take heed of extreams . it is the ordinary temptation in a time of differences , to think we cannot run too far from them we differ from , and so whilst we decline one rock we split upon another . remember the old non-conformists were equal enemies to superstition and separation . maintain ( i beseech you ) sober principles , such as these are , that every defective ministry is not a false ministry ; that sinful super-additions do not nullifie divine institutions ; that sinful defects in ordinances do not hinder the saving effects of them . that there is a difference betwixt directing a worship , prescribing things simply evil and manifestly idolatrous , and directing about worship , things doubtfully good being injoyned , but the unquestionable substance of worship being maintained . this latter doth not justifie separation . and that the supposed corruptions in the church of england are of that nature , as do not affect the substance of it , nor are such but what may be safely communicated in , i shall now proceed to shew from them . . i shall consider what opinion the eminent non-conformists have had of the several practices in the church of england that are injoyned upon those that hold lay-communion with it , which respect forms , gestures , time , &c. in general they acknowledge that they are things tolerable , and what no church is without more or less d. . that they are not sufficient to hinder communion . . that they are but few e . first , forms , and so it s required of the members of the church that they joyn in the use of liturgy or common-prayer . for the better understanding their judgment in this matter , i shall shew what their opinion is of forms of prayer , of publick forms , of forms prescribed , and of that particular form of divine service used in this church . . the use of forms is declared by them to be a thing lawful in it self , and what god hath left us at liberty to use or not to use as we see occasion . so mr. ball ; the word of god doth not prescribe any particular form , stinted or not stinted , as necessary , but doth warrant both as allowable ; for where nothing is in particular commanded touching the external form of words and order , in which our petitions should be presented to the lord , there we are left at liberty . and to put religion in reading or uttering words in a stinted or conceived form , what is it less than superstition ? of the same mind is mr. baxter and others g . and even dr. owen , though he doth disallow the composing forms of prayer for our own private use , yet at the same time declares h , that he doth not argue against forms of prayer as unlawful to be used . and he adds a little after ; if they appear not contrary unto , or inconsistent with , or are not used in a way exclusive of that work of the holy spirit in prayer , which we have described from scripture , &c. i shall not contend with any about them . but they do not only assert , but they also undertake to prove the lawfulness of forms i , from the nature , use , and ends of prayer , and charge the contrary opinion with enthusiasm k , and novelty l . secondly , as to forms in publick , they declare , . that it is lawful to use them , and that this was the tenent of all our best and most judicious divines m this dr. owen is cautious of denying , who saith , supposing that those who make use of , and plead for forms of prayer , especially in publick , do in a due manner prepare themselves for it by holy meditation , &c. i do not judge that there is any such evil in them as that god will not communicate his spirit to any in the use of them . they do not only grant it lawful to use them , but that it 's expedient . so mr. egerton declares , as for the publick congregation , special care must be had that nothing be done in praying , preaching or administring the sacraments , but what is decent and orderly , because there many eyes do see us , and many ears hear us ; and upon this account , it is expedient for the most part to keep a constant form both of matter and words . mr. bradshaw pleads for it ( as mr. gataker informs us in his life ) for the avoiding hesitation , which in prayer is more offensive than in other discourse . and when in a late collection of sermons we find it complained of , that in our days some have such schismatical phrases , notions , and doctrines in preaching , praying , and praising , that a sober christian cannot say , amen ; it renders a form so much the more considerable . . they declare that publick forms were universally used . so mr. clark saith , that set forms of prayer are according to the practice of all churches , even the best reformed ; yea , and mr. smith himself saith , upon the lords prayer ( though as then he was warping , and afterwards wandred far in the ways of separation ) that it was the practice of the ancient church , and of all the reformed churches in christendom , of the churches immediately after the apostles ; nay ( saith he ) of the church in the time of the apostles , as may be probably gathered out of cor. . . this hath also been the practice of the best lights that ever were set up in the churches of christ. . accordingly this was the practice of the old non-conformists . so mr. clark ; it is very well known that the flower of our own divines went on in this way , when they might have done otherwise , if they had pleased , in their prayers before sermons . this we are told of mr. bradshaw and mr. cartwright a . and we find mr. hildersham's prayer before sermon printed b , and others . this was so universally and constantly practised , that mr. clark tells us c , that the first man who brought conceived prayer into use in those parts where he lived , was mr. sam. crook , who dyed but in the year . thirdly , as to prescribed forms and liturgies , of this mr. ball saith ; i have shewed the use of a stinted liturgy lawful and allowable by the word of god , of ancient use in the churches of christ , approved by all reformed churches , which is a very convenient method for the consideration of their judgment in the case . . they grant that they are lawful , its contrary to no precept or commandment directly or by lawful consequence , saith mr. ball. so mr. norton of new-england doth determine ; such things being observ'd as are to be observed , it may be lawful to use forms of prayers , &c. prescribed in the church ; neither are the churches which use them guilty of superstition , will-worship , and violating the second commandment . and dr. owen himself complys with it , who yields , that men or churches may agree upon a prescribed form by common consent , as judging and avowing it best for their own edification ; and only argues against prescribing such forms of prayer universally , in opposition , and unto the exclusion of free prayer . . they grant that they are not only lawful , but that there are footsteps of this way of worship both in the old and new testament , as mr. tombs and others have shewed , and mr. ainsworth himself ( that did otherwise argue against them ) doth confess d . . they grant that they are very ancient in the christian church : the christian churches of ancient times for the space of this years at least , if not from the apostles time have had their stinted liturgies , saith mr ball e : and they answer objections to the contrary f . they grant that in the best reformed , nay in all reformed churches , they are not only used and tolerated , but also useful and expedient . that those amongst us , to whom the use of the common-prayer hath been thought most burdensome , have from time to time professed their liking and approbation of a stinted liturgy , as mr. ball assures us . . that they thought it altogether unlawful to separate from a church for the sake of stinted forms and liturgies . this is not only frequently affirmed by mr. ball g , but little less even by mr. norton h , who saith , it is lawful to embrace communion with churches , where such forms in publick worship are in use ; neither doth it lye as a duty on a believer , that he disjoyn and separate himself from such a church : and they give this reason for it , that then they must separate from all churches . so m r baxter , &c. is it not a high degree of pride to conclude , that almost all christs churches in the world for these thirteen hundred years at least to this day , have offered such worship unto god , as that you are obliged to avoid it ; and that almost all the catholick church on earth this day is below your communion for using forms ; and that even calvin and the presbyterians , cartwright , hildersham , and the old non-conformists were unworthy your communion . i know there are several objections against forms of prayer , but i know also that these are answered by them . but since the most common is , that of quenching and stinting the spirit ; i shall briefly give their sence of it . they say , . to say that persons should use no set form , but pray as moved by the spirit , is a fond errour . . they say , that the spirit instructeth us what to ask , not in what phrase of speech . it stirreth up in us holy desires , but giveth not ability suddenly and without help to express and lay open our hearts in fit method and significant words — ability of speech is a common gift of the spirit , which the lord bestoweth upon good and bad , &c. . that the measure of the spirit standeth not in words and forms , but in fervent sighs and groans . . that there is nothing letteth , but that in such forms the hearers hearts may profitably go with the same both to humble , to quicken , and to comfort . and d r owen cannot deny but that they may be for edification , and that persons in the use of them may have communion with god. . they say that the scriptures insisted upon in this case are grounded upon mistakes , and are misapplyed , as m r tombs in particular hath clearly manifested . fourthly , i shall consider what their opinion is as to the english liturgy or common prayer , both as to the liturgy it self and communion in it . as to the liturgy it self , it s acknowledged , . that the matter for the most part is good , sound and divine , and that there is not any doctrinal passage in any of the prayers , that may not bear a good construction , and so amen may be said to it , as d r bryan with others do maintain . . that as no church for this years has been without its publick forms , so ours is the best . so the old non-conformists ; compare the doctrines , prayers , rites at those times [ throughout ] in use in the churches with ours , and in all these ( blessed be the name of the lord ) we are more pure than they and it s not much short that we find in m r baxter in the name of the present non-conformists . . that which is accounted faulty is tolerable , and hinders not but that its acceptable to god , and edifying to pious and well-disposed persons . tolerable . so m r corbet ; the worship contained in the liturgy may lawfully be partaked in , it being found for substance in the main , and the mode thereof being laudable in divers forms and orders , and passable in the most , though in some offensive , inconvenient , or less perfect . acceptable to god. so the old non-conformists ; in them that join with the prayers , according to christs command ( and liberty of absence from christ hath not been shewed ) notwithstanding the corruptions , we hold the prayers to be an holy acceptable sacrifice to god , &c. edifying to well-disposed persons . to this purpose m r hildersham , m r rogers , &c. and accordingly m r corbet professeth his own experience ; though i judge their form of worship to be in many respects less perfect than is desired , yet i have found my heart spiritually affected and raised towards god therein , and more especially in receiving the lords supper . i judge this form may be use formally by the formal , and spiritually by those that are spiritual . it is my part to make the best of it , being the established form. as to communion in the liturgy , it is granted , . that there is no cause to renounce it , or the communion of the church for it i , and that so to do is a sin k . . that all the reformed churches in christendom , do commonly profess to hold communion with the english churches in the liturgy , if they come among us where it is used l . . it s declared on the part of the old non-conformists , that they ordinarily and constantly used the communion-book in their publick ministrations m ; and that the people generally were in their days satisfied in it n . and for the present it s declared , we can lawfully not only hear common-prayer , but read it our selves o . i shall not trouble the reader with the several objections against the liturgy , and the answers return'd to them by the old and present non-conformists , but shall content my self with that , which it seems was much insisted upon in the days of m r ball , and their reply to it . the liturgy in the whole matter and form thereof is too like unto the mass-book . if the liturgy be antichristian , it is so either in respect of the matter or of the form. not of the matter ; for that which properly belonged to antichrist , the foul and gross errors , is purged out . not of the form ; for order and phrase of speech is not properly antichristian . . that the english liturgy is gathered according to the ancients , the purest of them , and is not a collection out of the mass-book , but a refining of that liturgy which heretofore had been stained with the mass , &c. and is not a translation of the mass , but a restitution of the ancient liturgy . thus saith that learned person and much more , to whom many others do likewise consent . and in this mr. tombs is so zealous , that he concludes ; i cannot but judge that either much ignorance , or much malice it is that makes any traduce the english common-prayer book , as if it were the popish mass-book , or as bad as it , and to deter men from joyning with those prayers and services therein , which are good , as if it were joyning with antichrist the pope , ( when they can hardly be ignorant that the martyrs in queen mary ' s days were burnt for it ) is impudent falsehood . having thus far considered the forms , i shall now § proceed to shew what their opinion is of the gestures required in lay-communion , such as kneeling at the sacrament , and standing up at the creed and gospels . as to kneeling , . it s granted that the posture in the sacrament is not determined . so mr. baxter ; i never yet heard anything to prove kneeling unlawful , there is no word of god for or against any gesture . . it is granted whatever the gesture of our saviour in it was , yet that doth not oblige . this m r tombs hath undertaken to shew , . because this gesture seems not to have been of choice used by christ. . because s t paul omits the gesture , which he would not have done , if it had been binding . . he mentions the night , and calls it the lords supper , and if the time be not necessary , much less the gesture . . if the gesture doth oblige , then christians must use the self same that christ used . . it is granted that the nature of the ordinance doth not forbid kneeling . so m r bains , kneeling is not unbeseeming a feaster , when our joy must be mingled with reverent trembling . so m r baxter , the nature of the ordinance is mixed . and if it be lawful to take a pardon from the king upon our knees , i know not what can make it unlawful to take a sealed pardon from christ by his ambassador upon our knee . hence m r bayley reckons it as an error of some independents , that they accounted sitting necessary as a rite significant of fellowship with christ , and a part of our imitation of him , and for both these reasons , declared it necessary to keep on their hats at the time of participation . . it is granted not to be idolatrous . so m r bains . kneeling is neither an occasion , nor by participation idolatry : kneeling never bred bread-worship . and our doctrine of the sacrament , known to all the world , doth free us from suspicion of adoration in it . to these m r tombs adds , . that the papists adore not the bread at putting into their mouths , but at the elevation . it being inconsistent with their principles to worship that which is not above them . . that the worship of god not directed to a creature , but before it , as an occasional object of adoration to god is not idolatry . . that yet in the church of england the elements are not occasionally so , but the benefits of christ in the lords supper ; and . kneeling is not to the bread , but as the signification of an humble and grateful mind , as he shews from the rubrick . thly , those that do account it inconvenient , yet account it not to be unlawful . thus m r cartwright , kneeling in receiving the sacrament , being incommodious in its own nature , and made far more incommodious by popish superstition , is not therefore so to be rejected , that we should abstain from the sacrament ( if we cannot otherwise be partakers of it ) because the thing is not in its own nature unlawful . so it s said of the old nonconformists , kneeling at the sacrament was disliked by all , but yet thought tolerable , and that it might be submitted to by some of the most learned . from all which we may conclude with mr. vines , that the posture being a circumstance of action , as well as the time and place , is not of the free-hold of the ordinance ; and with mr. baxter , that those that think they must not receive , kneeling , think erroneously . as for standing up at the creed , &c. mr. baxter saith , his judgement is for it , where it is required , and where not doing it would be divisive and scandalous . nay elsewhere he saith , that t is a convenient praising gesture , &c. thus i have considered the most material points , in which the lay-members of the church of england are concern'd , and shew'd that the lawfulness of the things injoyned upon such , is declared and justified by the suffrage and judgement of as eminent nonconformists as have lived in the several ages since that unhappy controversie was first set on foot amongst us . and now what remains , but that every one concerned set himself seriously and impartially to consider it ; and it becomes such so to do when they go against the stream of the most experienced writers of their own party , who might pretend to understand the case as well , if not better than any that were conversant in it . it becomes such , when they bury that under the condemnation of false worship , which the lord , the author of all truth , doth allow in his service . when they forsake the prayers of the congregation , and depart from the table of the lord , and break off society and communion with the churches of christ , &c. when they expose religion to contempt , and the truth of god to reproach , by the rents and divisions in the church , as m r ball doth represent it . it becomes them , when our division gratifieth the papists , and greatly hazardeth the protestant religion , and by it we may lose all which the several parties contend about , as mr. baxter hath proved . it becomes them when the church of england is the bulwark of the protestant religion amongst us at home , and that according to the noted saying of mr. egerton , the withdrawing totally from it , would more effectually introduce popery , than all the works of bellarmine . it becomes them when this is the bulwark of it abroad , and all the reformed churches in the world have a venture in this bottom , which if compar'd to a fleet , the church of england must be acknowledged to be the admiral . and if it go ill with this church so as that miscarry , there is none of the churches of christ this day under heaven , but are like to feel it ; as m r brinsley discourses . lastly , it becomes them when divisions and separations draw down the displeasure of god and lay us open to his judgements . therefore dr. bryan after he hath largely insisted upon the argument and the present case amongst us doth thus apply himself , o that i could prevail with you , to lay sadly to heart the greatness of the sin of divisions , and the grievousness of the punishment threatned against it , and hath been executed for it ; and that the leaders and encouragers of private christians to make this sinful separation , would read oft , and me ditate upon s t jude's epistle to v. . and that the multitudes that are willing to be led by them would follow the prescription of the means here to preserve or recover themselves from this seduction , v. , . and that both would leave off their reviling the government ecclesiastical , and the ministers that conform , and submissively behave themselves by the example of michael , &c. i shall conclude the whole with the peaceable and pious advice of mr. bains . let every man walk within the compass of his calling . whatsoever lyeth not in us to reform , it shall be our zeal and piety to tolerate , and with patience to forbear , especially in things of this nature , which concern not so much the outward communion with god or man essentially required in a visible state , as the due ordering of business in the said communion , wherein there be many superfluities and defects , silvâ tamen ecclesiâ ; yea and such a church notwithstanding , as wherein the best and truest members ( circumstances considered ) may have more cause to rejoyce than to grieve . errata . pag. . l. . r. soundness . p. . marg . l. . continuat . p. . marg . l. . lecture . p. . l. . schism . p. . l. . ( , ) p. . l. . because . l ●●●h are , without . p. . l. . that as there . l. . so that have . l. . pe●ve●se . p. . marg . l. . dele , tryal , p. . p. . marg . l. dele , plea , p. . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e mr. mede's farewel serm. on cor. . . mr. read 's case , p. . continuat . of morn . exer. ser. . p. . read , ibid. notes for div a -e mr. baxter's defence of the cure , part . p. . a book licensed by m r cranfo●d . baxter's cure , p. . continuat . morning exercise , serm . p. . a rathband's epistle to the reader , prefixed to the grave and modest confutation , &c. b nichol's plea for the puritans . bayly's disswasive , c. . p. . corbet's discourse of the religion of england , p. . non-conformists no schismaticks , p. . a grave and sober confut. p. . &c. p. . friendly tryal of the grounds of separat c. . p. . a letter of many ministers in old england to others in new england . p. . jerubbaal ; or , the pleader impleaded , p. . & . brownists apol . p , . an. . discourse , §. . p. . preface to . disp. p. . peace-offering , p. . see mr. baxter's defence of his cure , part . p. . & part . p. . & wadsworth in his separation , yet no schism , p. , . mr. troughton's apology for the non-conformists , c. . p. . letter . on john , p. . morning-exercise , serm . p. . t●●●ghton's apol . p. . peace-offering , p. . unreasonableness of the separation , p. . grave and modest confutat . p. . unreasonableness of separation , p. . . apologet. narration , p. . cotton's infant baptism , p. . * jus divinam minist . evang. p. . &c. brinsly's church remedy , p. , . cawdry independ . a great schism , p. , , ‖ theodu●ia , or just defence ▪ §. , . preface , &c. . §. . a croston's reformation not separation , p. . and bethshemesh clouded , p. . &c. cawdrey's independ ▪ a great schism , p. . &c. church-reformation , p. . b mr. baxter's plea for peace , epist. serm. on gal. . . p. . defence p. . part . p. . c mr. corbit's account of the principles , &c. of several non-conformists , p. . troughton's apol . p. . defence of his cure , part . p. . v. letter of ministers of old england to new , p. . apol. c. . p. . defence of his cure , part . p. . wav cleared , p. . his letter , p. . printed . v. hooker's survey , preface , & part . p. . on the ephes. p. , , . pag. . ibid. sion college visited . unreasonableness of the separation , p. . mr. baxter's cure of church divisions , dir. . p. . papers for accomodation , p. . reasons for the christian religion , p. . v. annotations on the apologet . narrat . p. . arraignment of schim , p. . dwelling with god , serm. . p. , . * on rev. c. . v. jenkin on jude , v. . allen vindiciae pietatis , second part p. . vindication of presbyterian government , p. . cotton on john , p. . a grave confut . p. . cawdrey's independency further proved , p. . b brinsly's arraignment , p. , , . c baily's disswasive , c. . p. . d ames's puritanismus angl. v. parker on the cross , part . c. . §. . bax. def. p. . e apologet nar. p. . f sac. il . desert . p. . g the life of mr. j. allen , p. . h the doctrine of schism , p. . i reasonable account , &c. bonasus vapulans , p. . k account of the principles of the non-conformists , p. . l discourse of the religion , &c. p. . v. mr. read's case , p. . non-conformists plea for lay-communion , p. . non-conformists plea for peace , §. . p. . m b●rroughs irenicum , p. . n vindication of presbyt . govern. brinsly arraignment , p. . . corbet's plea for lay-communion , &c. p. . irenicum , by discipulus de tempore , junior , aliàs m. newcomen , epist. to reader . friendly tryal , c. . p. . hildersham lect. on john. r. rogers's . treatises . tr. . c. . p. . vindicat. of the presbyt . gov. p. . jerubbaal p. . . troughton's apol . p. . mr. nye's case of great and present use , p. . and . mr. read's case , p. . * burrough's irenicum , p. . lawfulness hearing the publick ministers of the church of england . nye's case , p. , . theodulia ; or , a just defence of hearing , &c. c. . §. . p. . c. . §. . p. . treatise of the lawfulness of hearing , &c. p. ult . theodulia . answer to preface §. . p. , . vid. blake's vindiciae foed . c. . p. , &c. arraignment of schism , p. . temple measured , p. . evangelical love , p. . expos. on epist. john , p. . cure of church-divisions , dir. . p. . &c. on the sacrament , p. . account of the principles of n. c. p. . and discourse of religion , §. . p . irenicum , c. . p. , . the unreasonableness of the separation , p. . j●●●●baal , p. . apo ▪ p. . expos. on epi●t . joh. p. . england's remembrancer , serm. . p. . arg. . confession of faith , art. . comment on j●●● , ver . . his life , p. . sacrileg . desert . p. . arg. . englands remembrancer , serm. . p. , . a ball 's tryal , p. . b the platform of discipline in new england , c. . §. . c lect. . on john , p. , . d dwelling with god , p. . ibid. the unreasonableness of s●paration , p. . non-conformists no schismaticks , p. . independ . a great schism , p. . englands remembrancer , serm. . p. . arg. . dr. owen's discourse of evangel . love , c. . p. . troughton's apol . p. . lect. . on john , p. , . and lect. . p. . v. dr. bryan's dwelling with god , p. . e on the sacrament , p. . croston's hard way to heaven , p. . noye's temple measured , p. . jenkin on jude v. . davenport's apol . reply , p. . ball 's tryal , p. , &c. f com. on epist . john p. . godly mans ark , epist. ded. godly mans portion , p. . v. bains on the ephes. c. . . p. . englands remembrancer , serm. . p. . continuat . of morn . exer. serm. . p. . arg. . unreas . of the separat . p. . tryal of the grounds of separat . c. , ● ▪ sacrileg desert . p. . defence of his cure , part . p. . iren. c . p. . godly mans portion , p. . com. on ephes. c. . . p. . morton's memorial , p. . &c. mr. baxter's def. of cure , part . p. . englands remembrancer , ser. . p. . arg. . independ . a schism , p. . vindiciae soed . c. . p. . platform of discipline in new england , c. . §. . temple measured , p. . theodulia ans. to pres. §. . p. . arg. . confer . savoy , p. , . mr. baxters's defence of the cure , p. , . tryal of the grounds , &c. p. . door of truth opened , p. . non-conformists plea , &c. p. . englands remembrancer , serm. . p. , lawfulness of hearing , &c. p. , . case of great and present use , p. . . cure dir . . p. , &c. defence , p. . letter of ministers in old england to the brethren in new england , p. , , . cure , p. . christian direct . p. . cure , p. . v. jerubbaal justified , p. , &c. , . case of great and present use , p. . of scandal a discourse , p. . v. croston's reformat . no separat . p. . arg. . confer . at savoy , p. , , . separat . yet no schism , p. . def. of cure , part . p. . part . p. . and cure p. . q. . defence of synod . pref. p. , . def. of cure , part . p. . n. . p. . n. . letter of the minist . in old engl. to those in new engl. p. . ball 's tryal of the grounds , p. . tryal of the grounds , &c. c. . p. . def. of cure , p. . v. burrough's iren. c. . p. . platform of discipline , c. . §. . methermeneut . p. . on john . lect. . cure of divis. p. . continuat . of morn . exer. serm. . p. . lect. . p. . and lect. . com. on jude , v. . englands remembrancer , serm. . p. . iren. c. . p. . platform , c. . §. . continuat . of morn . exer. serm. . p. . iren. c. . p. , . defence , part . p. . arg. . lect. . p. , & . arg. . iren. c. . p. , . of this v. ball 's tryal , c. . p. , , . arg. . lect. . arraignment of schism , p. . iren. c. . p. . platform pref. p. . and c. . §. . independ . a schism . p. . methermeneut , p. , . arg. . iren. c. . p. . defence , part . p. . arg. . lect. . p. , & lect. . on the sacrament , p. . in his farewel sermon . serm. at pauls on acts . . lect. . p. ● . lect. . jus divi●●m minist . evangil . p. , . methermeneut , p. . lect. . p. . lect. . p. . letter of the minist . in old england to the brethren in new england , p. . case of great ●e , p. . pag. , theodulia , c. . §. . p. . seven treatises , tract . c. . p. . defence , part . p. . ibid. p. . ibid. p. . dwelling with god , serm. . p. . defence , part . p. . tract . . p. . cure dir. . p. . letter of the minist . in old england to the brethren in new england , p. . tryal of the grounds , c. p. . v. to●●● . 〈◊〉 , p. . arg. . letter of the minist . in old engl. &c. p . v. ball 's tryal , p. . case of great use , p. . arg. . dwelling with god , p. . englands remembrancer , serm. . p. . arg. . christian directory , p. . & cure , p. , . account given to the parliment , p. . letter of the ministers , p. . tract . p. . farewel sermons , vol. . p. , . case of great ▪ use , p. . englands remembrancer , serm. . p. . bonasus vap●lans , p. . 〈◊〉 legacy , p. . non-conformists plea for conformists , p. . & . on the sacrament , p. . brinsley's arraignment , p. , . jenk . on jude , v. . baily's disswasive , p. . sacril . desert . p. . a cawdrey's reformation promoted , p. . b manton on jude , p. . c vines on sacrament , p. . platform c. . §. . v. cotton's holiness of church-members , p. . gospel worship , serm. . p. . arg. . on sacrament , p. . p. . vindicat. of presbyt . govern . p. . brinsl●y's arraign . p. . firmin's separation examined , p. . cawdrey's church reformat p. . theodulia , p. . survey of discipline , pref. a. . platform , c. . §. . arg. . grave confut . part . p. . on the sacrament , p. . & p. , . gospel worship , serm. . p. , . tryal , c. . p. , . v. jeans discourse on the lords supper . rutherford right of presbyt . grave confut . part . p. . & . ball 's tryal , p. . platform , c. . §. . blake vindic. p. . christian directory , p. . v. non-conformists no schismaticks , p. . arg. . vines on the sacrament , p. . infant-baptism , p. . v. bains on the 〈◊〉 c. . v. . p . in proverb . edwards apol. object . . cor. . . ans. . defence , part . p. . cawdrey's church reformat . p. . ans. . ball 's tryal , p. . brinsley's arraignment , p. . jenk . on jude , v. . tombs's theodulia , p. . grave confut. part . p. . tomb's theodulia , p. . cawdrey's reformat . p. . cure dir. . p. . on the sacrament , p. . tomb's theod. p. . arg . t. c's . letter to harrison against separation in the defence of the admonit . p. , . p. . com. on the ephes. p. , . arg. . vindiciae c. . p. , . v. grave confut . part . p. . vines on sacrament , c. . p. . v. gillespie's ni ●il r●spondes , p. . a knutton's seven queries . brinsley's arraign . p. . b on sacram. p. . troughton's apol . p. . cure dir. . p. . evangel . love , c. . p. . v. grave confut . part . p. . a dwelling with god , serm. . p. . firmin separation examined , p. . b provocator provocatus , p. . & . v. vines on sacrament , c. . p. . brinsley's arraign . p. . c brinsley's arraign . p. . cawdrey's church reformat . p. . jenk . on jude v. . blake's vindiciae , c. . p. . englands remembrancer , serm. . p. . . genera l. letter of the minist . of old engl. p , . bryan's dwelling with god , p . t●●●'s theod. p. . tr●●ghton's apol c. ● p. . e owen's peace-offer . p. . mischief of impositions , epist . dedic . tryal , c. . p. . &c. . p. . cure of church divis. p. . tomb's theod. p. . g sacril . deser● . p. , . v. dissenting brethren in quests , p. . h discourse of the work of the spirit in prayer , p. , . i ball 's tryal , c. . r●gers tr. . bryan's dwelling with god , p . k grave confut . ep. to reader . continuat . of morn . exer. p. . l freion serm. on jo. . . m clark's lives of divines , p. . ball 's tryal , p. . owen's disc. of prayer , p. . pract. of christianity , c. . p . edit . life of mr. w. brad●haw , in mr clark's collection in fol. p. ● . continuat . of morn . exer. serm. . p. . collection of the lives of divines , p. . life of m. cap●l . ibid. a bradshaw's life publish'd by mr. clark in fol. p. . b his doctrine of fasting and prayer , an. . c collection of lives , o. p. . tryal , epist. to reader . tryal , c. . p. . c. . p. . answ. to apollonius , c. . discourse of prayer , p. . & . ba● . cure , p. . ball 's tryal , p. ● , . d tombs's t●eod●●ia , p. . grave confut. p. , . ainsworth's annot. on ex. . . e tryal , p. , , ● , . & p ● . f tomb's theodulia . p. . ball 's tryal , p. , &c. rogers's treatises , p. . tomb's theod. p. . ball 's tryal , p. , , . tryal , p. . g tryal , p. , , , . h resp. ad apoll . c. . sacril . desert . p. . defence , part . p. . ball 's tryal , p. . rogers's tr. p. . rogers's tr. tr. . c. . p. . ball 's tryal , c. . p. . ibid. p. . rogers , ibid. disc. of prayer , p. , , . theodulia , p. , . bryan's dwelling with god , serm. . p . baxt. def. part . p. , . croston's refor . no separ . p. . t.d. jeru●baal p. . letter of the minist . in old engl. p. . second plea for peace , p. . plea for lay-communion , p. . v. ball 's tryal , c. . p. . letter of ministers in old engl. p. . treat . . c. . p. . plea , p. . sacril desert . p. . i corbet's plea , p. . k gifford's plain declaration . ball 's tryal , c. . p. . l mr. baxter's def. of cure , p. . mr. hamphry's healing paper , p. . mr. baxter's disp. . of church gover. p . m ball 's tryal , p. . c. . p. . n letter of ministers of old engl. p. . mr. s. faircl●ugh's life , p. . o mr. read's case p. . tryal . c. . p. . object . answ. p. . v. letter of the minist . in old engl. p. . dr. bryan's dwelling with god , p. , . mr. baxter's cure p. . theodulia , p. . christ. direct . p. . v. faldo's dialogue 'twixt a minister and a quaker . noye's temple measured , p. . theod. p. . christian letters , let. . p. . direct . p. . disswasive , c. p. &c. p. , . v. johnson's christian plea , treat . . c . p. . lettters , ibid. v baxt. christ. direct . p. . theodulia , p. , &c. v. t. d. jerubbaal , p. . & mr. croston's answ. p. . v. ames's fresh sult , c. . § . p. . perkins's cases . evangel . harm . on luke . v. , &c. second reply , p. . troughton's apol . p. . on the sacrament , p. . sacril . desert . p. . christ. direct . p. . sacril . desert . p. . ball 's tryal , epist. to reader . defence . p. , . brinsley's healing of israels breaches , p. . dwelling with god , serm. . p. , . on the ephes. c. . p. , . a perfect guide for protestant dissenters in case of prosecution upon any of the penal statutes made against them together with the statutes of eliz. and car. at large : to which is added a post-script about ecclesiastical courts and prosecution in them. care, henry, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing c estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a perfect guide for protestant dissenters in case of prosecution upon any of the penal statutes made against them together with the statutes of eliz. and car. at large : to which is added a post-script about ecclesiastical courts and prosecution in them. care, henry, - . [ ], , p. printed for r. baldwin, london : . written by henry care. cf. bm. caption title: a guide for protestant dissenters. reproduction of original in huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng dissenters, religious -- legal status, laws, etc. -- england -- early works to . dissenters, religious -- legal status, laws, etc. -- early works to . dissenters, religious -- england -- early works to . dissenters, religious -- early works to . ecclesiastical law -- england -- early works to . ecclesiastical law -- early works to . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - ali jakobson sampled and proofread - ali jakobson text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a perfect guide for protestant dissenters , in case of prosecution upon any of the penal statutes made against them. together with . the statutes of eliz. and car. . at large . to which is added , a post-script about ecclesiastical courts , and prosecution in them. london , printed for r. baldwin . . the preface . 't is the common practice now adays , for base and mercenary pens to pass the worst censures upon the best intentions of men. the arguments that follow are all grounded either upon scripture and reason , or upon equal justice and prudent morality ; and those not enforced with heat and passion , but with all the mildness and submission imaginable ; which argues the fairness and honesty of the design , viz. to procure , if it may be done , a happy union between protestants and protestants ; whom it rather mainly concerns to joyn their forces against the common enemy of their profession , than to make themselves the scorn and triumph of popish cunning , by a needless separation ; which , if duly consider'd , would soon be found unhappily fomented and encreas'd by the encourag'd emissaries and scribling bravo's of rome . is it not apparent , how they already begin to undermine and blow up the truth of the late horrid plot , so miraculously discover'd ? to which purpose , is it not likewise apparent what daily affronts they put upon the king's evidence , to the end that by rendring their persons , and whatever they have said or sworn , ridiculous , they may be the better able to raise a mist before the eyes of the people , and then totally withdraw the plot from their belief ? is it not apparent how vigorously they assail the whole body of the dissenters , men of religious , serious , upright , and most loyal principles , under the scandalous names of fanaticks and whiggs ; and by throwing the failings and misdemeanours of some few upon all ( this earth not affording that happiness to the most holy society in the world , of being without some hypocrites and bad men ) to cast an odium upon above a third part of the most industrious and wealthy part of the nation , on purpose to enervate and impoverish the protestant interest , and make the softer and more easie way for popish intrusion ? enormities much more deserving the punishment of penal laws , than publick meetings for the worship of god. upon which considerations , it cannot be look'd upon certainly by persons of truly pious and cordial affection for the good of their country , as a design either dishonest or factious , to vindicate , so far as may stand with equity and good conscience , the protestant dissenters from the heavy imputations of schism , sedition , and disloyalty , every day cast upon them , though most undeservedly , by the pope's weekly drudges here in this city . to which end , the design of these few sheets is to more than to plead their cause , with all modesty and submission , before the tribunals of justice and divine charity ; to rectifie the iudgments of persons misguided by mercenary scriblers , by setting forth the nature and ends of these meetings , and the dangerous consequences of setting up a protestant persecution , to the encouragement of those pests of the kingdom , ignorant and greedy informers . and because a sight of the statutes themselves may be necessary to those that have them not , they are hereunto annex'd ; there being nothing more moral than the reason of self-preservation in a legal and orderly way ; which they that seek by no other means than by those of duty and allegiance , no other being here propounded , cannot be thought to deviate from the laws of god or nature . a guide for protestant dissenters , &c. there is nothing that seems a greater blemish to christianity , than that little differences about the exercise of divine worship , should cause such heats and animosities among men : and for them whose business it should be to preach unity , love , and charity , under the notion of church-government , to instigate and animate the civil magistrate to make rigid penal laws , to enforce the consciences of good people , seems in some measure contradictory to the easie yoke of christian obedience . it seems somewhat hard , when a poor man has by his industry and frugality got together a small subsistence for himself and his family , that because he is dissatisfied with some few indifferent circumstances , that are impos'd upon their consciences , he should be presently laid at the mercy of rapacious informers and officers ; that his goods should be at the disposal of persons many times fuller of heat and passion , than of true charity ; that he should be excommunicated , and consequently under the lash of a civil writ , because he will not come to the parochial church : as if the place were so material where god were worshipp'd , so in any place he be ador'd in spirit and truth . nor is this spoken in the least in reference to the civil government , but onely in point of divinity . it is apparent by the very prefaces of the acts themselves hereby intended , that the civil magistrate aims at nothing but what is right and just ; to prevent sedition , for the good and quiet of the kingdom . but 't is to be fear'd , that want of charity in others , and too much addictedness to opinionated severity , sways others to extend the lawful pretence of the civil power beyond the bounds and limits of the legislaters intention ; in regard that for the ministry to aggravate civil crimes upon their brethren , and incence the sword of justice , appears no where in scripture agreeable to christian doctrine . there are two statutes , that of the th of elizabeth , and the d . of his present majesty , that create the loud complaints that run through the whole nation : and yet the proems of neither of those acts seem to allow that rigour which is at this time meditated by some persons , and desended perhaps with too much heat in the pulpit . the preamble of eliz. runs thus : for the preventing of such great inconveniencies and perils as might happen and grow by the wicked and dangerous practises of seditiovs sectaries and disloyal persons . the preamble of the d . of his present majesty runs thus : for providing farther and more speedy remedies against the growing and dangerous practises of seditiovs sectaries , and other disloyal persons , who , under pretence of tender consciences , have or may at their meetings contrive insurrections , as late experience hath shewn . here are two statutes , by which most lawful and most necessary provision is made for the preservation of the peace and quiet of the government . now , if it should be asked , what the civil magistrate requires from hence ? it is to be answered , in general , obedience , passive and active ; tranquillity , publick and private : and particularly , that no disloyal persons , nor sectaries , shall meet , under pretence of tender consciences , to contrive insurrections . hence it is submissively presum'd , that if the subject live dutifully towards his prince , free from giving occasion of civil disturbance ; amicably toward his neighbour ; pay those duties and taxes which the law or custom imposes ; and actively , if he be always ready with his sword in his hand to defend his prince and country ; the prince does not regard the inward consciences of such subjects , nor their inconsiderable differences in matters of ceremony ; so that the religion which they profess be not contrary or opposite to the establish'd law and government of the kingdom . and it is plain , that the law extends it self no further than sectaries and disloyal persons , as being look'd upon by the law to be the most likely persons to contrive insurrections , and disturb the peace of the nation . leaving then the civil power to its self , the question is between the dissenters and their opposers , what a sectary is ? for it is suppos'd , that if the ecclesiastical wrath were appeas'd , the displeasure of the civil power might the more easily be atton'd . now then sectaries must either be heretics or schismatics . heretics the dissenters cannot be ; for they do not err in fundamentals ; for such a one is a heretic . the next question then will be , whether they be schismatics ? what is a schismatic ? a schismatick is one that holding firm the same foundation of faith , departs from some ceremony of the church , obstinately , and out of ambitious ends. thus it appears , that obstinacy and ambitious ends are the distinctions that make a schismatic . from whence it is apparent , that there may be some grounds and reasons why a man may dissent from some ceremony of the church , and yet be no schismatic . for example : obstinacy is the opposite to constancy ; ambitious ends , or self-interest , as being a contempt of conscience , the opposite to integrity . so then if a man dissents from any ceremony of the church out of integrity , which is a vertue by which we yield up our obedience to god , though imperfect , yet without hypocrisie ; or out of constancy , by which a man resolves to persist in the knowledge of god and his worship to the end , he can be no schismatic . for the di●senters and their opposers agree in the same knowledge of god , in the same sacraments , and the same worship ; onely the dissenters disallow some outward adiaphorous ceremonies of their church . again , to make them schismatics , that is , obstinate or ambitious dissenters , there must be conviction and contumacy : but in regard that neither the one nor the other appears against them , it follows , that they dissent out of integrity and constancy , and consequently are no way liable to the severity of the statute , especially if the preamble , as it is taken in law , be the key of the statute . seeing then that the dissenters , where there is no proof of petulancy or ambitious ends , cannot be said to be schismatics , and consequently not obnoxious to the law , it remains , that they must be brethren , professing the same fundamentals of doctrine and worship . and then it seems very hard , that the severity of persons who call themselves divines , and teachers of the doctrine of charity , should stretch and strain a law to encourage accusers of the brethren , and to lay violent hands upon those , to whom it never meant any disturbance . and 't is look'd upon as a strange and unhappy disagreement between the common lawyer and the divine , that the one should take it for a charitable maxim , that summum ius est summa injuria ; while men that pretend to be actuated by divinity , and the example of christ , pressing summum ius yet with so much inveteracy , advance summam injuriam , to the prejudice of brethren , for inconsiderable differences . blessed are the peace-makers , saith our most charitable saviour . which sacred truth of his , from his own lips , creates a just appeal to all rational men , how far dissonant from this doctrine of their head and grand instructer those persons are , who avoiding the healing doctrine of unity , make their pulpits ring with nothing but corrosive invectives and satyrs against friend and foe , brethren and schismatics , under the general notion of fanaticism ; forgetting the constant rule , that he onely teaches well , that well distinguishes . certainly it can never be thought that it should proceed from the dictates of reason and conscience , that they who ought to come with healing in their doctrine , should make it their business to exasperate and incence the civil power , meerly to establish an unlawful hierarchie over the consciences of their brethren . they that first shook off the roman toke , thought it expedient not to make a total and absolute change ; but guided by reasons of state , left several of the ceremonies , popish ceremonies , untouch'd , which remain among us to this day ; as , the surplice , and with some th● rail'd altar , second service there perform'd , tapers , with this difference , that the papists are lighted , and ours not ; and lastly , a particular reverence to the east , as if god were more individually present in the chancel , than in the belfry . but now that the state has no occasion for those fears , now that the people universally desire to be freed from these relicks of superstition , for some persons to insist upon it , and with so much obstinacy impose as a duty , what was onely retain'd for state-convenience , as to raise a persecution of tender consciences for the sake of pure ceremony , it is believed , that were those famous reformers now alive , they would not have been angry with those that so readily sought the accomplishment of what they left imperfect . the law was made to punish mutiny , rebellion , and insurrection , against the state and civil government ; not to harrase the liberties and properties of men for not conforming to the impositions of ecclesiastical ambition . what tho the civil magistrate have been so careful to make provision for the repose and quiet of the kingdom ? it may be thought a hard chapter , that the peevishness and choler of some men should turn the stream of that rigour , where no proof is made , upon pretence of breach and disobedience . how ill will it sound in the ears of posterity , when they shall hear of protestants being so severly dealt with for trifles of difference ? how much does it at present advance the mirth of popery , to see the protestants doing their business , and by some ●●ing disunion among themselves , opening a way for self-destruction , and the inroads of superstition , which otherwise the papists were never able to hope for . certainly the profession of divinity teaches men to be of another temper , and to have a chancery of charity always open in their hearts , to mitigate and compose , not to exasperate and provoke the civil magistrate , especially in concerns not of the government , but of their own interest . some people will not have their children sign'd with the cross ; others meet about five together in a place ; and therefore let them be fin'd , let their goods be seiz'd and embezel'd , and their persons imprison'd : for the law is of our side , and we will not remit a tittle of its utmost rigour . a severe way of proceeding , that can never be thought agreeable to the examples or doctrine either of christ or his apostles . if such persons did but consider how much more fragrant the memory of a cranmer smells in history , than that of a bonner , they would surely steer another course . nor can they be thought well to weigh with themselves that of vis unita est fortior , and the doctrine of the divided house , while by a fatal disagreement with their brethren about outward forms and unnecessary circumstances , they render themselves less able to withstand the impetuosity of daily - menacing popery . that is nothing , the decree is gone forth , and must be obey'd ; and though the preamble of the law may be avoided , the body of it , more explanatory of it self , admits , no evasion . for the law positively says , that if any person or persons , above the age of sixteen years , &c. shall be present at any assembly , conventicle , or meeting , under colour or pretence of any exercise of religion , in other manner than according to the liturgie and practise of the church of england , &c. where there shall be five or more persons assembled , over and above those of the houshold , &c. as to the first part of the words , whoever shall be present at any assembly or meeting , under pretence or colour of any exercise of religion , &c. some questions do arise upon the fair accompt of reason and policy . . whether the meaning of the words extend themselves to such an exercise of religion which is truly christian , and according to the direct interpretation of scripture ? . or whether onely such a religion as carries onely a pretence and colour , without any truth and sincerity ? as to the first , it is most certain , that the most pure and christian exercise of devotion carries with it a pretence and colour , as well as the false one , though it be onely that of serving and performing our duty to god. now then it can never be imagin'd , that the intention of this law was ever to prevent the exercise of devotion and true piety . let the place or the number be more or less , in a rational proportion . for , if so , the statute would be void in it self ; in regard that all unbyass'd casuists , lawyers , and divines agree , that all humane laws made against the law of god , are ipso facto annull'd as to any obligation upon the conscience . seeing therefore it cannot be thought , that this law intendeth the destruction of it self , there must be a looking backward to the reason and policy of the law , which from the preamble is apparent to be onely the prevention of disloyalty and insurrection , for the repose and tranquillity of the kingdom . now then let a meeting be suppos'd , though of more than five or ten ; yet if at this meeting there be nothing done that tends to disloyalty , insurrection , or disturbance of the publick peace , the law hath its end , and can take no farther notice , there being no breach of the law , and consequently no occasion of punishment . and this is collected from reason it self ; for , should any other construction be put upon the words , it would be contrary to the law of god , as intended to prevent the true and real worship of god , under pretence of innovation and disloyalty . a thought , an intention , which it were a crime to imagine such worthy and pious legislators ever dream'd of , however the meaning of the law may be strain'd in the absence of its makers . now that such a meaning of the act , as it is inforc'd , is contrary to the word of god , is apparent from the scripture it self : acts . and paul dwelt two years in his hired house , and received all that came to him , preaching the kingdom of god , no man forbidding him . tim. . i will therefore that men pray every where ; with several others . nor will it serve as an objection , to say , that the times are otherwise , now that there are such plenty of publick churches : for , if they be possess'd by such as will not admit their fellow-christians to come together , without prejudice to their consciences , 't is the same thing to them , as if those places were not at all . which being a clear confirmation , that god may be worshipped in spirit and truth in any place , or at any time ; 't is as clear , that the meaning of this law cannot reach the exercise of real piety . for , if the worship in it self be evil , it is not to be endur'd in four ; if consonant to the word of god , the number of fourscore cannot render it criminal . but here in regard there is so much insisting and stress put upon the word conventicle , it will be much to be clearing the meaning of the act , to enquire in to the nature of the word , and whether it be not taken too unwarily in an ill sense , by those that would extend the reason and meaning of this act beyond its limits ? a conventicle then in the general sense is a certain place appointed for the assembling and coming together of people to some purpose or other ; in the particular sense it signifies the assembly it self there met . if then the purpose be for the sake of divine worship , it will be fit next to enquire the difference between a church-assembly and a conventicle-assembly . that which constitutes a church , is an assembly or congregation of people called to the state of grace by prayer , by teaching and hearing the word , and the due administration of the sacraments . the efficient cause of this assembly is the holy trinity , in general , particularly christ . the form of this assembly consists in a double communion of the assembly with christ as the head , and of the particular members among themselves . the matter of this assembly are the persons or several members called to the covenant of grace . the end of this assembly is the glory of god , and their own salvation . the marks of the real christianity and legality of this assembly are the true preaching the word , and due administration of the sacrament ? if then the same substantial efficient cause , the same substantial matter , the same substantial form , the same substantial end , the same substantial marks of a truly christian assembly be found in a house or any other convenient place , though not adorned with steeples or stone arches , call them presbyterians or dissenters , or what you please they center the main fundamentals of faith and doctrine , differ only in some slight and outward ceremonies , and are therefore an essential body of the protestant religion . and if there be any external circumstances in dispute , they are to be argued and determined among themselves , not by the arbitrary power of a justice of the peace , who is an officer only of the peace , and not of the conscience . so that it can never be thought that the determination of christian prudence will ever grant it to be rational that this law was ever made for the prevention of such conventicles , which must prove the suppression of much true piety and devotion . this makes some people think that ecclesiastical jurisdiction is in a very weak condition and most deficient of it self , when it is so earnest and clamarous after the assistance of the civil magistrate . and indeed it is easily demonstrable in story , that there was nothing more advanced the beginnings of the reformation of england than the weakness which henry . perceived in the arguments which the papists brought against the reformers in all their disputes . and therefore a convocation dispute had been much more proper for this controversie than the destructive arguments of distresses and crown office writs . which , if it were put to the test , there are many that question , whether the law-provokers might not come by the worst . for as to those things which are called the rites and ceremonies of true worship , true religion has none but what god has prescribed in his word ; and they are looked upon , either as parts or helps to our devotion . as parts of devotion , they consist in promulgation of the word , the administration of the sacraments and prayer , which requires also decent composure of gesture and posture . as helps to devotion , they are divided into fasting and vows . and these are all the rites or ceremonies of true worship . ceremonies of form , are apt to wander into superstition if not plain idolatry . and therefore it is , that some unbyassed person , not without reason , fear , that the dissenters who have abandoned all , would have much more argument on their side , than they whoretain some . it being thus apparent , that the law was never intended to prevent such assemblies , whose only end of meeting is to worship and glorifie god , and that too according to the same fundamentals which the statute enforcers profess , it now remains to examin , whether the evidence offered be sufficient to make the dissenters guilty of the crimes assigned by the law , viz. disloyalty and insurrection . first then as for colour and pretence , they are only non-appearances lodg'd in the heart of man ; which are only disclosed to the omniscience of god himself . and therefore to judge of colour and pretence appertains only to god , and not to any law : from whence arose that common maxim , that de non apperentibus , the law takes no cognizance . much less is in the power of an informer to make oath of colour or pretence , until colour and pretence break forth into some overt and apparent act which may afford matter for testimony and proof . from whence it is plain , that unless there be due and sufficient proof made of false doctrine , seditious words , or contrivances tending to insurrection and disloyalty , which are the breaches of the law ; and law can never punish , where there is no breach committed . nor does the conscience of any magistrate oblige him to sine and levy upon the bare information of colour or pretence . as for the addition of those words , do or may contrive , it seems somewhat repugnant to reason , that plots and contrivances should ever be carried on in the publick assemblies of women and children ; so that the fear seems only to be of the teachers moving the people to sedition . but as for that , one would think it should be an argument rather for the permission of conventicles , it being a thing far more easie to discover a man that preaches open sedition , than one that goes from house to house , clandestinly insinuating the same doctrine . nor is this branch independant , but casts its influence into the whole crime described and intended by the act thus embody'd . if any person or persons shall be present at any conventicle , &c. under coulour or pretence of any exercise of religion , in other manner than according to the liturgy and practice of the church of england . perhaps some persons carry away with the present torment of unwary passion , may from hence assent that there is no other exercise of religion , that can be truly real and sincere , but only colourable and pretended , which is not performed in the very words of the liturgy , according to the common acceptation of the word in england . to which though there were no other answer to be given , yet the consequent words , and the practise of the church clearly contradict such an uncharitable paraphrase , for that in all parochial churches it is the general custom to pray both before and after sermon . but if the nature of the word liturgy be duly considered , that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or liturgy is not more than the office of prayer : the compilers themselves call the english liturgy , an order for morning and evening prayer , or a set form of prayer , whereby it becomes only a species of the grand genus prayer or oration , by which with a true and humble contrition of heart , we address our selves to god , concerning such things as are consentaneous to his holy will ; and this divided into two parts invocation , and thanksgiving . now suppose that the liturgy of england , now the most exact liturgy in the world , as most certainly it is not , it cannot be thought that the dissenters are obliged by this statute to use no other prayers than what are set down in the liturgy , for then the law enforcers may be presum'd to lie under the penalties of the statute themselves . who after the full performance of all the duties of prayer , which is ordered in the liturgy both for morning and evening service , if it may not be said , out of a contempt of the liturgy , yet somewhat to the discredit of the liturgy , are never satisfied till they have given it the supplement of their tedious and vainly ostentatious additions of super-excellent and super-fine : which after a full performance of all the duties of innovation and thanksgiving , seems in them a kind of tautology forbidden in scripture . however because the dissenters using the same form of prayer , though not in the same words , avoid that inconvenience , therefore they must be reduced into obedience to something not well considered what it is , by constabl●s and informers . but there is a more exquisite liturgy yet , the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or liturgy prescribed by our saviour himself ; which though out of veneration it be reduced into one prayer for general use ; yet is no other than a set form of prayer , teaching heedless mortals , who might else be extravagant in their petitions , the true matter of prayer ; that is , what we are to implore from god , and what we are to give thanks for , as enjoy'd . examin then the prayers of the dissenters , and if they differ either in the cause , the matter , the form , or end from the english liturgy of men , mentioned in the act , or the heavenly liturgy of christ , let them be delivered over to all deserved punishment ; but if their prayers be agreeable to the prescrib'd forms of both ; nay , if they be agreeable to the coelestial liturgy , though not according to the verbatim of the establish'd liturgy of england ; 't is a hard case that they should by any statute be adjudged not to exercise such a religion . if it be objected , that the notions of many are abortive , and through weakness may deserve reprehension , there is an easie way to remedy those errors by imposing a more equal injunction by the authority of church discipline , that no person should presume to ascend the pulpit with ex tempore raptures . for confirmation then that there is no need of using of form and order , so the matter be the same , there are many of the disciples prayers recorded in scripture , and there is no question to be made but that they were acceptable to god ; and yet we do not read they used the absolute form prescribed by our saviour , but expressed themselves in other words , though altogether agreeing for matter . upon the whole , suppose this question should be put , whether the apostles did use any other form than that which was taught them by christ ? there is , no doubt , but the answer will be , they did not . put then this question to the informer ; did the dissenters use any other prayers than what were agreeable to the church of england ? in the first place , 't is ten thousand to one , whether he be a competent judge . if he be not , he stakes his conscience at a dreadful hazard ; for it behoves him to swear positively in the affirmative , or else in justice his information , and all his hopes of gain , are lost . and thus by a rigid prosecution of uncharitable severity , a necessitous and greedy wretch is brought to this tempting dilemma , either to perjure himself , or lose his expectation . again , the liturgy it self is not always read altogether ; but on some days more , on some days less . the dissenters perhaps use least of all , yet they use some , for they read the reading psalms , a first and second lesson , and afterwards make use of singing psalms : so then it being apparent that the degree of comparison does not annihilate the subject of the comparison , it may be presumed that the dissenters are present at their conventicles , positively according to the liturgy of the church of england . which things not being considered , how uncharitably do they fall under the censure of lavish and inveterate pulpits ? in the last place , though it would be very unreasonable to disallow what has been already said ; yet should it be contradicted , the next words , or the practise of the church , will certainly give relief . for it is the practice of the church of england , to read and sing the psalms of david , to read the first and second lesson , and so do the dissenters ; many of them also militate under the same ordination : and if there be any that do not , 't is presumed they might soon be better advised , the refusal deserving reproof if they may be admitted , being certainly to be look'd upon as an obstinate piece of weakness . but which is more , as to the harmony of practice , they use the same sacraments , though perhaps with some small difference in the form and ceremony of administration , which one would think might be easily reconciled without all this combustion . there is one thing more to be considered upon the account of moral equity : that though the act of vniformity made in this his majesties raign , it is here expresly declared , that no other form or ceremony shall be used , but what is prescribed in that act , or in the book of common prayer : yet both by the act and the book it plainly appears , that the prosecutors of the dissenters make no scruple to dissent from what is there enacted , while they use several ceremonies that are not there , and omit much of what is there , as their going up and bowing to the altar , and reading second service there . their coming out of the pulpit , and reading part of the communion service in their desks , or at the altar again , and giving no blessing at all in pulpit : their setting the communion table altar-wise , richly adorned at the east end of the church , whereas it ought to be placed either in the body of the church , or in some convenient place , covered with a clean linnen-cloath . their turning their faces all of a sudden to the east , and bowing to the name of jesus , and not at the name of god or christ . these dispensations argue an apparent non-conformity , or over-conformity ; the same thing in strickness and partiality one among another : so that it seems a transgression not only against charity , but against common justice , to prosecute those that do no more than only non-conform to those very ceremonies which they themselves regard less of a publick statute , either neglect , or over act at their own will and pleasure . and for a further confirmation of the nonconformity of our most regular ( so pretending themselves ) conformists , point blank even against the very law of the land ; let them that please but consider , how many there are that dispence with non-residence , and pluralities , to the deteriment of many deserving persons that want , and positively against the statute of the of h. . and yet no question but they would think it hard measure to be prosecuted upon that law. so partial is a man to forgive those failings in himself , which he prosecutes in others . however , because all the meekness of perswasion and argument will not stop the career of some mens impetuosity in the prosecution of this act , it will not be from the purpose to cast an eye upon the executive part of the statute . in order to which the most considerable instructions are couched in the first and eleventh section . the instructions of the first section run thus . that it shall and may be lawful to and for any one or more iustices of the peace within the limits , &c. where such offence shall be committed , or for the chief magistrate of the place or corporation , and upon proof of such offence , either by the confession , or oath of two witnesses , or by notorious evidence and circumstance of the fact , to make a record under their hands and seals , which record shall to all intents , &c. be taken to be a full conviction , that thereupon , the said justices , &c. shall impose the sum of , &c. from which words it is clear , that by this clause no power is given to any magistrate to make out any general warrant upon this act till after conviction by two witnesses , or confession of the offender . neither has any constable to do with any such general warrant in reference to this act , unless the warrant grounded upon such a record as is mention'd in the act , upon confession or proof and conviction of the party by two witnesses be given into his hands . whence arises this question , whether any constable or head-borough that acts in relation to this statute , by vertue of a power not authorized by the literal words of the law , do not act at his own peril ? . whether he shall incur any penalty for not doing that which the law requires not at his hands ? for by this part of the law it is required only that the witnesses should be the informers . but by general warrants the constables , &c. are compelled to turn informers themselves , and to find themselves work to accuse their neighbours on purpose to find themselves yet more work to disturb and distrain upon their goods and persons : a duty which the literal sense of this paragraph does not in the least impose upon them . but the eleventh section is more particular in these words : and be it farther enacted , &c. that if any constable , &c. who shall know or be credibly informed of any such meetings held within his precinct , and shall not give information thereof , &c. according to his duty , and endeavour the conviction of the parties , but shall wilfully omit the performance of his duty in the execution of the act , and shall be convicted thereof , shall forfeit the sum of five pounds . by this paragraph it is very plain indeed , that if the constable do either know of himself , or be credibly informed , and do not do his duty he forfeiteth l. but still if he neither know nor be credibly informed , he is not bound to be so sedulous as to go upon the hunt. but suppose the constable , &c. should either know of himself , and be credibly informed , and should do his duty , that is , give information , and should receive a warrant to break open the house and enter : yet finding nothing of resistance , he is still but where he was , in regard that not having been there from the beginning to the end , he cannot be positive , whether the persons there assembled did exercise a religion according to the liturgy or practice of the church of england or not , which if they did , he has no power either to take their names , or apprehend their persons , unless they should be so imprudent as to make resistance , and give an occasion for their military power to be raised for their suppression , for then as mutineers and seditious persons , they break their own peace by disturbing the kings , and by making it appear they are the persons intended by this act , render themselves obnoxi us not only to the penalties of this but of much more severe laws . from which enjoyning of the military officers to be aiding and assisting to the constables with armed force , reason may not improperly collect the sense and meaning of the act to be no other than what has been already presum'd . for armed force and constabl●s , could never be intended by the law against passive submission and obedience . naked swords and constables staves could never be intended by christian legislators to compel the compliance of sincere and upright conscience , to things of small concernment in respect of those fundamentals wherein the prosecutors and the prosecuted both agree . and therefore while the civil magistrate has taken such extraordinary care for the publick safety and tranquility of the nation , it should not be the aim of others to carve out for them their care , the support and maintenance of any by interest whatever : an aim too apparent , by their publick dissatisfaction , and open exclaiming against that noble act of his majesties most royal goodness , his declaration for liberty of conscience ( too unhappily severe those counsels that removed the land-mark of his regal benignity . a presumption that they believe themselves more worthy or more able to manage that part of prerogative themselves , and grutch him the exercise of his right . whereas the legislators with more duty provide that nothing in their act shall extend to invalidate or avoid his majesties supermacy in ecclesiastical affairs . but the dissenting protestants acknowledge their soveraign to be both king and priest : a king as he is the supream head of the government ; a priest as the supream head of the church . to whom , as their lawful soveraign and head of the government , as they have been alwaies ready to yield the utmost of their obedience , so shall they never withdraw from him the utmost of their fidelity . and from whose priestly office they have yet hopes to feel the influences of his former grace and mercy , when their cause shall be better examined . for 't is not the exasperation of the pens of wicked men continually scribling division , nor the subornations of popery to fix imaginary plots , and load their innocence with the guilt and villanies of others , but the truth of their profession , and their upright walking before god and man , which they hope will at length turn the reproaches and calumnies of their enemies upon their own heads . 't is vnion which all true protestants desire , which they daily implore from god. there is nothing but vnion wanting in this rich and plentiful land. which as it is only obstructed by papists , or persons papistically affected , as it is apparent by their daily machinations and contrivances to unsetle and weaken the true protestant interest ; so there can be no greater argument for protestants to unite with protestants against the common enemy of their religion . from these and grounds of the same nature , there are some who have drawn this general conclusion , that it would be more conducing to the good of the kingdom , and the benefit of the protestant religion , that the penal laws against non-conformists , in reference to differences of religion , might not be put in execution , but forborn , till our most gracious soveraign , and his great council the parliament , should take the state of divided protestants into their wise consideration , and reduce things to a happier legal establishment . eor proof of which it may not be altogether improper to give a short recapitulation of the reasons brought in defence of the position . . that it cannot be good to execute the of eliz. which the whole parliament thought dangerous to the whole protestant interest in england , and did as far as in them lay disannul . . it cannot be proper to execute that law upon them who cannot properly be guilty of the crime at which the law aims . . it cannot be proper to execute any law upon dissenting protestants , which was promoted by men popishly inclined , and which since appeared to be papists , as was the five mile act. . because it seems somewhat preposterous to rid the land of dissenting protestants , persons professing true religion and loyalty , yet leave the papists the enemies of the king and church to stay behind . . because the penal laws are to be inflicted upon the proper objects , as seditious sectaries , disloyal persons , hypocrites , that make religion a cloak and pretence to install principles of schism and sedition , not upon meetings where there is no tendency to any such designs . . a sixth argument is drawn from the piety of the non-conformists principles , and the peaceableness of their behaviour , found so to be from the experience of many years . . because they are protestants ; and it seems not so well done to use protestants , the kingdoms friends , and strength worse than papists , the enemies of the kingdom and protestant religion . . because it is not good to execute the law with a heavy hand upon all and every offender , without making a difference between one man and another , between one offence and another . . because by their publick preaching their judgments and practises are best discovered , and being in the head of the younger dissenters , they are as directions and examples to them , to keep them from dangerous excursions . . because that when pious and good men have their publick liberty , and make use of that liberty only to instruct the people in their duty to god and the king , &c. one chief end of the magistrates care of the state is obtained , which is to maintain sound doctrine . . because thereby they will be better enabled and encouraged to perform other good offices to the king and state. . then in reference to the church , these reasons are added : . because agreeing in fundamentals with their prosecutors , they are a great addition of strength against the force and subtleties of rome . . because thereby schism will come to a greater closure , when the church shall be satisfied in their profitable doctrine and peaceable behaviour , which will create a greater desire of peace and union . . because by this publick preaching , multitudes of poor souls that will go no where else , are in the way of salvation and profession of the gospel , of which some divines of the church of england are so deeply sensible , that they treat the non-conformists as friends and fellow labourers . all which reasons are more at large discussed in the conformists plea for the non-conformists , to which the reader is referred . there remains now no more than only the humble proposal of some few queries , and so to conclude . first in reference to the church . . whether a dissenter may be lawfully prohibited from preaching the word of god in truth and sincerity , at any time , or in any place ? . whether by the blessings and rewards that are promised to those that propagate the doctrine of christ , they are not obliged to do it ? . whether the example of christ and his disciples does not admit of preaching in houses , streets and fields to more than five in a company ? . whether it be not something erroneons for the law of man to contradict the law — . whether the passive obedience of persons prohibited by a law from preaching the word of god , be not destructive to the propagation and maintenance of the gospel of christ ? . in reference to the law of the land. . whether the opinion of the commons of england , that the prosecution of protestant dissenters , upon the penal laws , is at this time grievous to the subject , a weakning of the protestant interest , and an encouragement to popery , and dangerous to the peace of the kingdom , ought not to be taken into a more serious consideration ? . whether the prosecution of dissenters does not seem a little strange , as to the present timing of it , when the papists lie under several convictions of seeking the ruin of the protestant religion in the kingdom , and when the kingdom is under such fears and jealousies of the predominancy of their abettors ? . whether it be not more proper to begin with popery before they go about to extirpate non-conformity ? . whether they who have with so much inveteracy rak'd into the forgotten and pardon'd miscarriages of the presbyterians , had not better have spar'd their pains , as nothing at all to the purpose , except to what is unbecoming either peaceable or wise men ? . fifthly , whether a law that creates arbitrary distresses and imprisonments , be not contrary to the fundamentals of magna charta . . in reference to the law of scripture and nature . . whether the proceedings of the law enforcers be not contrary to the doctrine of christ , whatever ye would that men should do unto you , do ye even the same unto them , for this is the law and the prophets ? . whether it be according to scripture ; for protestants acknowledging the same jesus , the same scripture , and agreeing in the fundamentals of religion , only for differences in human ceremonies to tear and devour one another ? . whether in point of appeal to make parties themselves judges , be a thing usual ? . whether in the prosecution of protestants by protestants , to make use of informers and promooters , which the lord cook calls , turbiolum hominum genus , instead of christian advice and solid arguments , be according to scripture ? . in point of policy . . whether it be not against the rules of policy , for english-men of the same religion , by cruelties and severities to destroy one another , which must of necessity weaken the force , and destroy the trade of the nation ? it being one of the lord cook 's maxims , that a king can never be poor when his subjects are rich ; and therefore , . whether it be not against the rules of policy to set up a law for the encouragement of vexatious informers , who under the reverend mantle of love and justice ( to use the lord cook 's own words ) instituted for the protection of the innocent , and the good of the common-wealth , vex and depauperize the subject for malice and private ends , never for love of justice ? . whether it be not contrary to the rules of prudence to make attempts in fruitless undertakings , since it is found by experience , that persecution rather encreases than appeases enmity , and the common maxim is , that sanguis martyrum est semen ecclesiae ? . whether forbearance and mildness would not absolutely remove the scandal given to the protestant churches abroad , and endear us to our forraign protestant alliances ? . whether it be prudence to afflict protestants at home , when we entertain afflicted protestants from abroad ? . whether by these unnatural divisions the necessary leagues and tyes of friendship and acquaintance , common trust and confidence among men , may not in time be broken , to the ruin of all society ? . whether the wicked distinctions of tory and whigg , &c. were not set on foot to encrease the dissentions between protestants , and whether the invention and the malicious continuance of them , do not deserve a punishment equal to the worst of felonies ? . in reference to the executive part . . whether the issuing out of general warrants by the justices of the peace not authorized by the statute , do not render them obnoxious to other laws . . whether it be not almost morally impossible to swear a dissenters meeting to be contrary to the liturgy or practice of the church of england , where there is no overt act of publick disturbance , or seditious doctrine ? . whether the prosecution of this law do not afford several advantages to the spiteful and revengeful to reck their spleen upon their neighbours upon every slight disgust or falling out ? . whither it do not afford great opportunitis of combination between some needy justice of the peace , and their more needy associate the informer , to prosecute unlawful gain ; it being the general complaint of treble distresses made without any return ? . whether the constable not being authorized to break open any door , or force and gate or hedge , if the informer be so fool-hardy as to do either , and the constable follow him , the constable and the informer are not liable to the law ? . whether there be any penalty above l. ( directed by this act ) to be laid upon a constable that shall be negligent in making distresses pursuant to his warrants , it being a try'd case at bury assizes in suffolk , . or . before the l. c. j. scroggs , where no more was recorded , although the warrants were for some hundreds of pounds ? . whether it be not positively against the statute for the observation of the lords day , by which it is expresly enacted , that no warrants shall be served upon that day , but in cases of treason , felony , or breach of the peace , to serve a warrant upon a religious meeting ? this being the state of the dissenters case , there nothing remains behind , but for that most sacred and heavenly vertue charity , to give up a true determination , accroding to the precepts of scripture , reason and morality , and the rules of christian government . although i cannot think but that most men are satisfied , that the act of the of eliz. is expired , yet i thought it might not be amiss to subjoin hereunto the said act at large , with all other statutes made since that act that have any reference to it ; there have been so many solid arguments given , by men understanding in the law , to prove the expiration of it , that i shall not adventure to say any thing after them . the most material act upon which dissenters , are likely to be prosecuted , is that of the of his present majesty , which hath been the subject of most of the preceding discourse , therefore i have also inserted that at laage . vestigia veritatis , &c. an act to retain the queens majesties subjects in their due obedience . for the preventing and avoiding of such great inconveniences and perils as might happen and grow by the wicked and dangerous practices of seditious sectaries and disloyal persons , be it enacted by the queens most excellent majesty and by the lords spiritual and temporal , and the commons in this present parliament assembled , and by the authority of the same , that if any person or persons above the age of years which shall obstinately refuse to repair to some church , chappel , or usual place of common-prayer , to hear divine service established by her majesties laws and statutes , in that behalf made , and shall forbear to do the same by the space of a month next after , without lawful cause , shall at any time after days next after the end of this session of parliament by printing , writing , or express words or speeches advisedly and purposely practise or go about to move , or persuade any of her majesties subjects or any other within her highness realms or dominions , to deny , withstand , and impugn her majesties power and authority in causes ecclesiastical united and annexed to the imperial crown of this realm , or to that end or purpose shall advisedly or maliciously move or persuade any other person whatsoever to forbear or abstain from coming to church to hear divine service or to receive the communion according to her majesties laws and statutes aforesaid , or to come to or to be present at any unlawful assemblies , conventicles , or meetings ; under colour or pretence of any exercise of religion , contrary to her majesties said laws and statutes , or if any person or persons which shall obstinately refuse to repair to some church , chappel , or usual place of common prayer , and shall forbear by the space of a month to hear divine service as is aforesaid , shall after the said forty days either of him or themselves or by the motion , persuasion , entertainment or allurement of any other , willingly joyn in or be present at any such assemblies , conventicles or meetings , under colour or pretence of any such exercise of religion contrary to the laws and statutes of this realm as is aforesaid ; that then every such person so offending as aforesaid , and being thereof lawfully convicted , shall be committed to prison , there to remain without bayl or mainprise , until they shall conform and yield themselves to come to some church , chappel or usual place of common prayer and hear divine service , according to her majesties laws and statutes aforesaid , and to make such open submission and declaration of their said conformity as hereafter in this act is declared and appointed . provided always and be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid , that if any such person or persons which shall offend against this act as aforesaid , shall not within three months next after they shall be convicted for their said offence , conform themselves to the obedience of the laws and statutes of this realm in coming to the church to hear divine service , and in making such publick confession and submission as hereafter in this act is appointed and expressed , being thereunto required by the bishop of the diocess or any justice of the peace of the county where the same person shall happen to be , or by the minister or curate of the parish , that in every such case every such offender being thereunto warned & required by any justice of the peace of the same county where such offenders shall then be , shall upon his and their corporal oath before the justices of the peace in the open quarter sessions of the same county , or at the assizes and gaol-delivery of the same county before the justices of the same assises and gaol delivery , abjure this realm of england and all other the queens majesties dominions for ever , unless her majesty shall licence the party to return ; and thereupon shall depart out of this realm , at such haven or port , and within such time as shall in that behalf be assigned and appointed by the said justices before whom such abjuration shall be made , unless the same offender be letted or stayed by such lawful and reasonable means or causes as by the common laws of this realm are permitted and allowed in cases of abjuration for felony . and in such cases of let or stay , then within such reasonable and convenient time after as the common law requireth in case of abjuration for felony as is aforesaid . and that the justices of peace before whom any such abjuration shall happen to be made as is aforesaid , shall cause the same presently to be entred of record before them , and shall certifie the same to the justices of assises and gaol delivery of the said county , at the next assises or gaol-delivery to be holden in the same county . and if any such offenders which by the tenour and intent of this act is to be abjured as is aforesaid , shall refuse to make such abjuration as is aforesaid , or after such abjuration made , shall not go to such haven and within such time as is before appointed , and from thence depart out of this realm according to this present , act , or after such his departure shall return or come again into any her majesties realms or dominions without her majesties special licence in that behalf first had and obtained : that then in every such case the person so offending shall be adjudged a felon , and shall suffer as in case of felony without benefit of clergy . and furthermore be it enacted by the authority of this present parliament . that if any person or persons that shall at any time hereafter , offend against this act , shall before he or they be so warned or required to make abjuration according to the tenour of this act , repair to some parish church on some sunday or other festival day , and then and there hear divine service , and at the service time before the sermon , or reading of the gospel , make publick and open submission and declaration of his and their conformity to her majesties laws and statutes as hereafter in this act is declared and appointed ; that then the same offender shall thereupon be clearly discharged of and from all and every the penalties and punishments inflicted or imposed by this act for any of the offences aforesaid . the same submission to be made as hereafter followeth , that is to say : i. a. b. do humbly confess and acknowledg , that i have greivously offended god in contemning her majesties godly and lawful government and authority , by absenting my self from church , and from hearing divine service , contrary to the godly laws and statutes of this realm , and in using and frequenting disordered and unlawful conventicles and assemblies , under pretence and colour of exercise of religion ; and i am heartily sorry for the same , and do acknowledg and testifie in my conscience that no other person hath or ought to have any power or authority over her majesty . and i do promise and protest without any dissimulation or any colour or means of any dispensation , that from henceforth i will from time to time obey and perform her majesties laws and statutes , in repairing to the church and hearing divine service , and do mine uttermost endeavour to maintain and defend the same . and that every minister or curate of every parish where such submission and declaration of conformity shall hereafter be so made by any such offender as aforesaid , shall presently enter the same into a book to be kept in every parish for that purpose , and within ten days next following , shall certifie the same in writing to the bishop of the said diocess . provided nevertheless , that if any such offender after such submission made as is aforesaid , shall afterwards fall into relapse , or eftsoons , obstinately refuse to repair to some church , chappel , or usual place of common prayer , to hear divine service , and shall forbear the same as aforesaid , or shall come and be present at any such assemblies , conventicles , and meetings , under colour or pretence of any exercise of religion , contrary to her majesties laws and statutes . that then every such offender shall lose all such benefit as he or she might otherwise by vertue of this act , have or enjoy by reason of their said submission , and shall thereupon stand and remain in such plight , condition and degree to all intents , as though such submission had never been made . and for that every person having house and family , is in duty bounden to have special regard of the good government and ordering of the same ; be it enacted by the authority aforesaid , that if any person or persons shall at any time hereafter , relieve , maintain , retain or keep in his or their house or otherwise , any person which shall obstinately refuse to come to some church , chappel , or usual place of common prayer to hear divine service , and shall forbear the same by the space of a month together , contrary to the laws and statutes of this realm , that then every person which shall so relieve , maintain , retain , or keep any such person offending as aforesaid , after notice thereof to him or them given by the ordinary of the diocess , or any justices of the assizes of the circuit , or any justice of peace of the county , or the minister , curate , or church-wardens of the parish where such person shall then be , or by any of them , shall forfeit to the queens majesty for every person so relieved , maintained , retained or kept after such notice as aforesaid , ten pounds for every month , that he or they shall so relieve , maintain , retain or keep any such person so offending . provided nevertheless , that this act shall not in any wise extend to punish or impeach any person or persons for relieving , maintaining , or keeping his or their wive , father , mother , child or children , wardes , brother or sister , or his wives father or mother , not having any certain place of habitation of their own , or the husbands or wives of any of them , or for relieving , maintaining , or keeping any such person as shall be committed by authority to the custody of any by whom they shall be so relieved , maintained or kept , any thing in this act contained to the contrary notwithstanding . and for the more speedy levying and recovering for and by the queens majesty of all and singular the pains , duties , forfeitures and payments , which at any time hereafter shall accrue , grow or be payable by vertue of this act , or of the statutes made in the th . year of her majesties reign concerning recusants : be it enacted by the authority aforesaid , that all and every the said pains , duties , forefeitures , and payments , shall and may be recovered and levied to her majesties use , by action of debt , bill , plaint , information , or otherwise in any of the courts commonly called kings bench , common pleas , or exchequer ; in such sort and in all respects as by the ordinary course of the common laws of this realm , any other debt due by any such person in any other case should or may be recovered or levied wherein no essoign , protection or wager of law shall be admitted or allowed . provided always that the third part of the penalties to be had or received by vertue of this act , shall be imployed and bestowed to such good and charitable uses , and in such manner and form as is limitted and appointed in the statute made in the th year of her majesties reign touching recusants . provided also that no popish recusant or feme-covert shall be compelled or bound to abjure by vertue of this act. provided also that every person that shall abjure by force of this act , or refuse to abjure being thereunto required as aforesaid , shall forfeit and lose to her majesty all his goods and chattels forever , and shall further lose all his lands tenements and hereditaments , for and during the life of such offender and no longer ; and that the wife of any offender by force of this act shall not lose her dower ; nor that any corruption of blood shall grow or be by reason of any offence mentioned in this act ; but that the heir of every such offender by force of this act shall and may after the death of every offender have and enjoy the lands , tenements and hereditaments of such offender , as if this act had not been made . and this act to continue no longer than the end of the next session of parliament . anno eliz. cap. . an act for the reviving , continuance , explanation , perfecting and repealing of divers statutes . and amongst others it is there thus expressed , viz. and wherein the parliament holden at westminster the . day of february in the th year of the queens majesties reign that now is , there was an act made , intituled , an act to retain the queens majesties subjects in their due obedience ; be it enacted by the authority of this present parliament that this act ( viz. of eliz. ) as well as the other there recited statutes and acts , shall be by authority of this present parliament revived , continued , and endure in force and effect until the end of the next parliament next ensuing . the next parliament was begun and holden at westminister the th day of october in the th of eliz. and there continued until the dissolution thereof , being the th of december next following , anno . and there in the th chapter , sect. . this eliz. is again continued by the statute intituled , an act for continuance of divers statutes , and for repeal of some others . as the . sect. of the said act does make to appear . the words are these , be it enacted by the authority of this present parliament that the same shall be continued and remain in force until the end of the first session of the next parliament . at the parliament begun and holden at westminster the th day of march , the first year of king james , and there continued until the th of july , anno and then prorogued until the th of february next following , which ended that session . in the th chapter intituled , an act for continuing and reviveing of divers statutes , and for repealing of some others , in sect. the th and the th this eliz. and among divers acts , is again continued in these words , viz. shall be continued and remain in force until the end of the first session of the next parliament . at the second session of parliament begun and holden by prorogation at westminster , the th day of november , in the third year of king james , and there continued until the th of may , and from thence prorogued till the th of november next following , there is no mention at all made of any continuance of this eliz. neither was there any mention made of this said eliz. at the next session of the said parliament , begun and holden at westminster , by prorogation the th day of november , in the th year of king james , which session ended the th of july , anno . and then was prorogued until the th day of november next following . nor during all the fourth session of the said parliament , begun and holden by prorogation at westmimster , the th day of february , in the th of king james , and there continued until the th day of july , ( and then prorogued until the th day of october next following . anno . ) was there any the least mention of a continuance of this said elizabeth . the vacation after hil. . jac. memorand . that on monday the th of february at serjeants-inn , upon the assembly of all the justices to take consideration upon the statute of eliz. c. . for the abjuration of sectaries ; the attorny general and serjeant crew being there , after the perusal of the statute , and the continuances thereof , it was first upon debate considered , whether this statute was in force or discontinued , and upon the perusal of the proviso in the statute of subsidy , and upon reasoning the matter , these points were resolved . . if a parliament be assembled , and divers orders made , and a writ of error brought , and a record delivered to the higher house , and divers bills agreed , but no bills signed ; that this is but a convention , and no parliament or session ; as it was anno jac. in which ( as it was affirmed by them which had seen the roll ) it is entred that it is not any session ; or parliament , because that no bill was signed , vide . h. . brook parliament . . every session in which the king signs bills is a parliament . . it was agreed , that if divers statutes be continued until the next parliament or next session , and there is a parliament or a session and nothing done therein as to continuance , all the said statutes are discontinued and gone . and then it was moved whether this statute was discontinued , and seriatim , jones , chamberlain , hutton , denham , haughton , dodderidge , winch and bromley declared their opinions , that this statute is discontinued , and that the statute of subsidy is a parliament , and that every parliament is a session , but not e converso , for one parliament may have divers sessions as the parliament jac. had four , and ended jac. vide . h. . bro. parl. . and that this proviso is not to any other purpose but to continue their proceedings in the same estate as if this act had not been made , and if this proviso had not been , then this statute had been discontinued by this act of subsidy , but when this ends and is determined , then is the session ended , then it is a session , scil . a parliament , which ought to be pleaded , at the parliament holden , &c. and all the commissions of subsidy are accordingly and the proviso call it a session ; then this being done , the lord chief baron did not deliver any opinion , for he said , that he had not considered the statute , and afterwards it was desired that the lords would deliver their opinions , and thereupon the lord hobart declared his opinion accordingly , that it seemed to him that it was a session , and that it was not safe to meddle with such law ; and that he would never refuse to declare his opinion with his brethren . after the lord chief justice ley made a long discourse concerning the purpose and intent of parliament , scilicet , that it was not their purpose to destroy so good laws , and therefore it was not any such session , as was within the intent of the preceding parliament , which was , that these should determine when it is a parliament or session , in which good laws are made . and doderidge said , that it was fit to see the commission , and that that which hath been said , was not to bind any one , but every one spoke what then he was advised of , and peradventure might change upon better consideration . and afterwards , upon tuesday on an assembly of the two chief justices , the chief baron , justice haughtom , baron denham , hutton , chamberlain , and jones the attorney general brought the commission de eliz. june . and that had these words ; pro eo quod nullus regalis assensus , nec responsio per nos praestat . fuit nullum parliamentum nec aliqua sessio parliamenti lata aut tent . fuit . they have power to adjourn this parliament thus begun , and the commission to dissolve this parliament feb. anno. jac. had the same words , saving that he recite that he had given his royal assent to an act of subsidy , by which was intended , that it should not be a session ; and upon view of the commission , the lord chief justice moved that the king was mistaken in this , that he had given power to dissolve this parliament , which had not any session , and if it be a session , then he had no power to dissolve it , and then it is as it were a recess , and a parliament cannot be discontinued or dissolved , but by matter of record , and that by the king alone ; and if the parliament yet continue , then this statute also continue during the parliament by the proviso ; but that would not serve : for first it is against the intent of the king , and against his proclamation : and also the case is truly put in the commission , as to the matter in fact ; and he is not misinformed , but mistaken in the law , and then the commission for the dissolving is good , semblable to the lord chandois case , and other cases , vide in cholmley's case ; but because that all the judges were not at this conference , therefore it was deferred until the next term ; and in the interim the grand secretary and the attorney general were to inform the king , that the statute is obscure , and had not been put in ure , and that we could not agree . si divers sessions sont in vn mesme parlement & le roy ne signe bille tanque al darren , la tout nest que un mesme jour , & tent avera relation al primer jour del primer session & le primer jour & le darren jour nest que un mesme parlement & un mesme jour in ley , nisi special mention soit fait in pact quant ceo prendra force ; mes chescun session in que le roy signe les billes est un jour a per lui , & un parlement a per luy & navera auter relation , mes a mesme le session : quod not a diversitatem ( . h. . ) bro. tit. parl. fol. . b. num . . that is in english , if there be divers sessions in one and the same parliament , and the king signeth no bill until the last day , there all is but one and the same day , and all shall have relation to the first day of the first session , and the first day and the last day is but one and the same parliament , and one and the same day in law , unless there be special mention made in the act when that shall take its force ; but every session wherein the king signeth any bills , is a day by it self , and a parliament by it self , and shall have no other relation but to the same session ; wherein note the diversity . h. . when a parliament is called and doth sit , and is dissolved without any act of parliament passed , or judgment given , it is no session of parliament , but a convention , coke . inst . fo . . vide also . bulstr . fo . . in hobart's rep. p. . it is st. john's case , there was an action brought on the statute . h. . for not returning one burgess , &c. and there it is said , the parliament was as none , because there was no act nor record of it . and in p. . hobart says , the jacobi ( which if you be judged by the journal , was a large , and well occupied parliament ) because no act passed , nor record is of it , was resolved by all the judges to be no parliament . and now we are come to the parliament begun and holden at westminster , the of february , in the year of king james , which was there continued until the day of may following , and then prorogued to the second day of november , anno . and there , in the chapter , is an act intituled , an act for continuing and reviving of divers statutes , and repeal of divers others . wherein are these words , viz. and so much of one act made in the year of the reign of the said late q. elizabeth , intituled , an act to retain the queens majesties subjects in their due obedience , as hath not been sithence repealed by any other statute ( and the other statutes which are there mentioned ) shall , by vertue of this act be judged ever since the session of parliament in the th . year of his majesties reign of england to have been of such force and effect as the same were the last day of that session , and from thenceforth until the end of the first session of the next parliament . well , in the next parliament begun and holden at westminster the day of june , anno . in the first year of king charlis the i. and there continued until the th . day of july following , and then adjourned until the first day of august following unto oxford , several acts passed and by a special bill then past , it was enacted as followeth , ( it is the th chapter in keeble ) viz. and all statutes and acts of parliament which are to have continuance unto the end of this present session shall be of full force after the said adjournment , until this present session be fully ended and determined , and if this session shall determine by dissolution of this present parliament , then all the acts aforesaid , shall be continued until the end of the first session of the next parliament . at the next parliament begun and holden at westminster the th day of march , anno . in the d year of king charles the i. there is an act in the fourth chapter , intituled , an act for repeal and continuance of divers statutes , among which in the section this eliz. is mentioned thus , viz. and so much of one act made in tho year of the reign of the late q. eliz. intituled an act to retain the queens majesties subjects in their due obedience , as hath not been since repealed by any other statute ; and in the d section it enacts , that this of eliz , by vertue of this act shall be and continue until the end of the first session of the next parliament , holden in the first year of the reign of our sovereign lord the king that now is . from that d year unto the there is no mention made ( * as the observer has truly remark'd ) of any thing relating to the . eliz. but in the ( at the parliament begun at westminster the d day of november , anno . c. . ) it is enacted as followeth , viz. and be it enacted by the authority aforesaid , that the passing of this present act , or of any other act or acts , or his majesties royal assent to them or any of them in this present session of parliament , shall not be any determination of the said session , and that all statutes and acts of parliament which have their continuance , or were by an act of parliament made in the d year of the reign of his majestie that now is , intituled , an act for the continuance and repeal of divers statutes continued until the end of the first session of the then next parliament , shall , by virtue of this act be adjudged ever since the session of parliament in the said third year to have been of such force and effect as the same were the last day of that session , and from thenceforth until some other act of parliament be made , touching the continuance or discontinuance of the said statutes and acts in the said act of the third year of his majesties reign continued , as aforesaid . and from this statute we find nothing of the eliz. cap. . till we come to the of his now majesty , and that act i have recited here at large , as followeth , viz. an act to suppress seditious conventicles . vvhereas an act made in the th . year of the reign of our late sovereign lady the queen elizabeth , entituled , an act to retain the queens majesties subjects in their due obedience , hath not been put in execution by reason of some doubt of late made whether the said act be still in force , although it be very clear and evident , and it is hereby declared , that the said act is still in force , and ought to be put in due execution . . for providing therefore of further and more speedy remedies against the growing and dangerous practices of seditious sectaries , and other disloyal persons , who under pretence of tender consciences do at their meetings contrive insurrections , as late experience hath shewed : . be it enacted by the kings most excellent majesty , by and with the advice and consent of the lords spiritual and temporal , and the commons in this present parliament assembled , and by authority of the same ; that if any person of the age of years or upwards , being a subject of this realm , at any time after the first day of july , which shall be in the year of our lord , shall be present at any assembly , conventicle , or meeting , under colour or pretence of any exercise of religion , in other manner than is allowed by the liturgy or practice of the church of england , in any place within the kingdom of england , dominion of wales , and town of berwick upon tweed ; at which conventicle , meeting , or assembly , there shall be five persons or more assembled together , over and above those of the same houshold ; then it shall and may be lawful to and for any two justices of the peace of the county , limit , division , or liberty , wherein the offence aforesaid shall be committed , or for the chief magistrate of the place where such offence aforesaid shall be committed , ( if it be within a corporation where there are not two justices of the peace ) and they are hereby required and enjoyned , upon proof to them or him respectively made of such offence , either by confession of the party , or oath of witness or notorious evidence of the fact , ( which oath the said justices of the peace and chief magistrate respectively , are hereby impowered and required to administer ) to make a record of every such offence and offences , under their hands and seals respectively ; which record so made as aforesaid , shall to all intents and purposes be in law taken and adjudged to be a full and perfect conviction of every such offender for such offence . and thereupon the said justices and chief magistrate respectively , shall commit every such offender so convicted as aforesaid , to the gaol or house of correction , there to remain without bail or mainprise , for any time not exceeding the space of three moneths , unless such offender shall pay down to the justices or chief magistrate such summ of money , not exceeding l. as the said justices or chief magistrate , ( who are hereby thereunto authorized and required ) shall fine the said offender at , for his or her said offence ; which money shall be paid to the churchwardens , for the relief of the poor of the parish where such offender did last inhabit . . and be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid , that if such offender so convicted as aforesaid , shall at any time again commit the like offence contrary to this act , and be thereof in manner aforesaid convicted , then such offender so convict of such second offence shall incurr the penalty of imprisonment in the gaol or house of correction , for any time not exceeding six moneths without bail or mainprise , unless such offender shall pay down to the said justices or chief magistrate , such summ of money , not exceeding l. as the said justices or chief magistrate ( who are thereunto authorized and required as aforesaid ) shall fine the said offender at , for his or her said second offence , the said fine to be disposed in manner aforesaid . . and be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid , that if any such offender so convict of a second offence , contrary to this act in manner aforesaid , shall at any time again commit the like offence contrary to this act , then any two justices of the peace , and chief magistrate as aforesaid respectively , shall commit every such offender to the gaol or house of correction , there to remain without bail or mainprise , untill the next general quarter sessions , assizes , gaol-delivery , great sessions , or sitting of any commission of oyer and terminer in the respective county , limit , division , or liberty which shall first happen , when and where every such offender shall be proceeded against by indictment for such offence , and shall forthwith be arraigned upon such indictment , and shall then plead the general issue of not guilty , and give any special matter in evidence , or confess the indictment . and if such offender proceeded against shall be lawfully convict of such offence , either by confession or verdict ; or if such offender shall refuse to plead the general issue , or to confess the indictment ; then the respective justices of the peace at their general quarter sessions , judges of assize and gaol-delivery , at the assizes and gaol-delivery , justices of the great sessions at the great sessions , and commissoners of oyer and terminer at their sitting , are hereby enabled and required to cause judgment to be entered against such offender , that such offender shall be transported beyond the seas to any of his majesty's forein plantations , ( virginia and new engl. only excepted ) there to remain seven years ; and shall forthwith under their hands and seals make out warrants to the sheriff or sheriffs of the same county where such conviction or refusal to plead or to confess as aforesaid shall be , safely to convey such offender to some port or haven nearest or most commodious to be appointed by them respectively , and from thence to embarque such offender , to be safely transported to any of his majesty's plantations beyond the seas , as shall be also by them respectively appointed , ( virginia and new england onely excepted . ) whereupon the said sheriff shall safely convey and embarque , or cause to be conveyed or embarqued , such offender to be transported as aforesaid , under pain of forfeiting for default of so transporting every such offender the summ of l. of lawful money , the one moiety thereof to the king , and the other moiety to him or them that shall sue for the same , in any of the kings courts of record , by bill , plaint , action of debt , or information ; in any of which no wager of law , essoin , or protection shall be admitted . and the said respective court shall then also make out warrants to the several constables , head-boroughs , or tythingmen of the respective places , where the estate real or personal of such offender to be transported shall happen to be , commanding them thereby to sequester into their hands the profits of the lands , and to distrain and sell the goods of the offender so to be transported , for the reimbursing of the said sheriff , and such reasonable charges as he shall be at , and shall be allowed him by the said respective court for such conveying and embarquing of such offender so to be transported , rendring to the party , or his or her assigns , the overplus of the same if any be , unless such offender , or some other on the behalf of such offender so to be transported , shall give the sheriff such sureties as he shall approve of for the paying all the said charges unto him . . and be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid , that in default of defraying such charges by the parties to be transported , or some other in their behalf , or in default of security given to the sheriff as aforesaid ; it shall and may be lawful for every such sheriff to contract with any master of a ship , merchant , or other person , for the transporting of such offender at the best rate he can ; and that in every such case it shall and may be lawful for such persons so contracting with any sheriff for transporting such offender as aforesaid , to detain and imploy every such offender so by them transported , as a labourer to them or their assigns , for the space of five years to all intents and purposes , as if he or she were bound by indentures to such person for that purpose . and that the respective sheriffs shall be allowed or paid from the king upon their respective accounts in the exchequer all such charges by them expended for conveying , embarquing , and transporting of such persons , which shall be allowed by the said respective courts , from whence they received their respective warrants , and which shall not have been by any of the ways aforementioned paid , secured , or reimbursed unto them as aforesaid . vii . provided always , and be it further enacted , that in case the offendor so indicted and convicted for the said third offence , shall pay into the hands of the register or cler of the coart or sessions where he shall be conuicted ( before the said court or sessions shall be ended ) the sum of l. that then the said offendor shall be discharged from transportation , and the judgment for the same . . and be it further enacted , that the like imprisonment , indictment , arraignment and proceedings , shall be against every such offender , as often as he shall again offerd , after such third offence , nevertheless is dischargeable and discharged by the payment of the like sum , as was paid by such offendor for his or her said offence next before committed together with the additional and increased sum of l. more upon every new offe●ce committed , the said respective sums to be paid as aforesaid : and to be disposed of as followeth ( viz. ) the one moiety for the repair of the parish-church , or churches , chappel , or chappels of such parish within which such conventicle , assembly , or meeting shall be held , and the other moiety to the repair of the high-ways of the said parish , or parishes ( if need require ) or otherwise for the amendment of such high ways as the justices of the peace at their respective quarter-sessions shall direct and appoint . and if any constable , head orough , or tythingman , shall neglect to execute any the said warrants made unto them for sequestring distraining and selling any of the goods and chattels of any offendor against this act , for the levying such sums of money as shall be imposed for the first or second offence , he shall forfeit for every such neglect the sum of l. of lawful money of england , the one moiety thereof to the king , and the other moiety to him that will sue for the same in any of the kings courts of record as aforesaid . and if any person be at any time su●d for putting in execution any of the powers contained in this act , such person shall and may plead the general issue and give the special matter in evidence . and if the plaintiff be non-suit . or a verdict pass for the defendant thereupon , or if the plaintiff discontinue his action , or if upon demurrer judgment be given for the defendant , every such defendant shall have his or their treble costs . . and be it further enacted , that if any person against whom judgment of transportation shall be given in manner aforesaid , shall make escape before transportation or being transported as aforesaid , shall return unto this realm of england dominion of wales , and town of barwick upon tweed , without the special licence of his majesty , his heirs , and successors , in that behalf first had and obtained . that the party so escaping , or returning , shall be adjudged a fellon , and shall suffer death , as in case of fellony without benefit of clergy , and shall forfeit and loose to his majesty , all his , or her goods and chattels for ever ; and shall further loose to his majesty all his , or her goods and chattels , lands , tenements and hereditaments , for and during the life of such offendor , and no longer . and that the wife of any such offendor by force of this act shall not lose her dower , nor shall any corruption of blood grow , or be , by reason of any such offence mentioned in this act , but that the heir of every such offendor by force of this act , shall and may after the death of such offendor have and enjoy the lands , tenements and hereditaments of such offendors as if this act had not been made . . and for better preventing of the mischiefs which may grow by such seditious and tumultuous meetings , under pretence of religious worship . be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid , that the lieutenants , or debuty-lieutenants , or any commissioned officers of the militia , or any other of his majesties forces , with such troops or companies of horse or foot , and also the sheriffs and justices of peace and other magistrates and ministers of justice , or any of them jointly , or severally , within any the counties or places within this kingdom of england , dominion of wales , or town of berwick upon tweed , with such other assistance as they shall think meet , or can get in readiness with the soonest , on certificate made to them respectively , under the hand and seal of any one justice of the peace , or chief magistrate as aforesaid ; of his particular information , or knowledg of such unlawful meetings , or conventicles , held or to be held in their respective counties or places , and that he ( with such assistance as he can get together , is not able to suppress or dissolve the same ) shall and may , and are hereby required to repair unto the place where they are so held , or to be held , and by the best means they can , to dissolve and dissipate or prevent all such unlawful meetings ; and take into their custody , such of those persons so unlawfully assembled , as they shall judg to be the leaders and seducers of the rest ; and such others , as they shall think fit to be proceeded against , according to law for such their offences . . and be it enacted by the authority aforesaid , that every person who shall wittingly and willingly suffer any such conveticle , unlawful assembly or meeting aforesaid , to be held in his or her house , out-house , barn or room , yard or backside , woods or grounds , shall incur the same penalties and forfeitures as any other offendor against this act ought to incur and be proceeded against in all points in such manner as any other offendor against this act ought to be proceeded agianst . . provided also , and be it enacted by the authhrity aforesaid , that if any keeper of any goal or house of correction , shall suffer any person committed to his custody for any ossence against this act , to go at large , contrary to the warrant of his commitments , according to this act , or shall permit any person who is at large , to joyn with any person committed to his custody , by vertue of this act in the exercise of religion disfering from the rites of the church of england . then every such keeper of a goal or house of correction , shall for every such offence , forfeit the sum of . l. to be levied , raised , and disposed by such persons and in such manner as the penalties for the first and second offences against this act are to be levied , raised and disposed . . provided always , that no person shall be punished for any offence against this act , unless such offendor be prosecuted for the same within three months after the offence committed ; and that no person who shall be punished for any offence by vertue of this act shall be punished for the same offence by vertue of any other act or law whatsoever . . provided also and be it enacted , that judgment of transportation shall not be given against any feme covert unless her husband be at the same time under the like judgment , and not discharged by the payment of money , as aforesaid ; but that instead thereof she shall by the respective court be committed to the goal or house of correction , there to remain without bail or mainprize , for any time not exceeding months , unless her husband shall pay down such sum not exceeding l. to redeem her from imprisonment , as shall be imposed by the said court , the said sum to be disposed by such persons , and in such manner , as the penalties for the first and second offence against this act are to be disposed . . provided also , and be it enacted by the authority aforesaid , that the justices of the peace , and chief magistrate respectively , impowered as aforesaid , to put this act in execution , shall and may with what aid , force and assistance they shall think fit for the better execution of this act , after refusal or denial , enter into any house or other place , where they shall be informed any such conventicle as aforesaid is or shall be held . . provided , that no dwelling-house of any peer of this realm , whilest he or his wife shall be there resident , shall be searched , by vertue of this act , but by immediate warrant from his majesty , under his sign manual , or in the prefence of the lieutenant , or one of the deputy-lieutenants , or two justices of the peace , whereof one to be of the quorum of the same county or riding , nor shall any other dwelling-house of any peer or other person whatsoever , be entered into with force by vertue of this act , but in the presence of one justice of the peace or chief magistrate respectively , except within the city of london , where it shall be lawful for any such other dwelling-house to be entred into as aforesaid , in the presence of one justice of the peace , alderman , deputy-alderman , or any one commissoner for the lieutenancy for the city of london . . provided also , and be it enacted by the authority aforesaid , that no person shall by vertue of this act , be committed to the house of correction , that shall satisfie the said justices of the peace , or chief magistrate respectively , that he or she ( and in case of a feme covert that her husband ) hath an estate of free-hold , or copy-hold , to the value of l. per annum , or personal estate to the value of l. any thing in this act to the contrary notwithstanding . . and in regard a certain sect called quakers , and other sectaries are found not only to offend in the matters provided against by this act , but also obstruct the proceedings of justice , by their obstinate refusal to take oaths lawfully tendered unto them , in the ordinary course of law , therefore be it further enacted , by the authority aforesaid , that if any person or persons , being duly and legally served with process or other summons , to appear in any court of record except court-leets , as a witness , or returned to serve of any jury , or ordered to be examined upon interrogatories , or being present in court , shall refuse to take any judicial oath legally tendered to him , by the judg or judges of the same court having no legal plea to justifie , or excuse the refusal of the same oath , or if any person or persons being duly served with process to answer any bill , exhibited against him or them in any court of equity , or any suit in any court ecclesiastical shall refuse to answer such bill or suit upon his or their corporal oath , in cases where the law requires such answer to be put in upon oath , or being summoned to be a witness in any such court , or ordered to be examined upon interrogatiories shall for any cause or reason not allowed by law , refuse to take such oath , as in such cases is required by law , that then and in such case the several and respective courts wherein such refusal shall be made , shall be and are hereby enabled to record , enter , or register such refusal ; which record or entry shall be and is hereby made a conviction of such offence , and all and every person and persons , so aforesaid offending , shall for every such offence , incur the judgment and punishment of transportation , in such manner as is appointed by this act for other offences . . provided always , that if any person or persons aforesaid , shall come into such court , and take his or their oath in these words . i do swear , that i do not hold the taking of an oath to be unlawful , nor refuse to take an oath on that account . . which oath , the respective court or courts aforesaid , are hereby authorized , and required , forthwith to tender , administer and register before the entry of the conviction aforesaid , or shall take such oath before some justice of the peace , who is hereby authorized and required to administer the same to be returned into such court , such oath so made shall acquit him or them from such punishment , any thing herein to the contrary notwithstanding . . provided always , that every person convicted as aforesaid , in courts aforesaid ( other then his majesties courts of kings-bench , or before the justices of assize , or general goal-delivery ) shall by warrant containing a certificate of such conviction , under the hand and seal of the respective judg or judges , before whom such conviction shall be had , be sent to some one of his majesties goals in the same county where such conviction was had , there to remain without bail or mainprize , untill the next assizes or general-goal-delivery , where , if such person so convicted , shall refuse to take the oath aforesaid , being tendered unto him by the ●ustice or justices of assize or goal-delivery , then such justice , or justices shall cause judgment of transportation to be executed in such manner as judgment of transportation by this act is to be executed ; but in case such person shall take the said oath , then he shall thereupon be discharged . . provided always , and be it enacted by the authority aforesaid , that if any peer of this realm , shall offend against this act , he shall pay l. for the first offence , and l. for the second offence , to be levied upon his goods and chattels by warrant from any two justices of the peace , or chief magistrate of the place , or division , where such peer shall dwell ; and that every peer for the third and every further offence against the tenour of this act , shall be tried by his peers and not otherwise . . provided also and be it further enacted by the authority aforsaid , that this act shall continue in force for three years after the end of this present session of parliament , and from thence forward to the end of the next session of parliament , after the said three years , and no longer . since this was finished , i found in the london gazette published thursday april . . this paragraph , viz. to undeceive the kings loyal subjects , who may be misled into error by a pamphlet called the history of the life and death of eliz. these are to inform them , that that act amongst others , was continued jac. until the end of the first session of the next parliament , there were four sessions in that parliament , the last whereof ended jac. but the act was to continue to the first session of the next parliament ; and though every session to some purposes be as a several parliament , yet it is no such parliament which can have a first session , and is never in acts of parliament stiled the next parliament . the next parliament summoned was jac. but because nothing was done therein , it was held no parliament . then a parliament was summoned jac. wherein passed only subsidies granted by the spiritualty and temporalty . hence a question arose jac. whether eliz. was not discontinued upon this ground , that jac. was a session by passing the subsidy act , which being referr'd to all the judges , nine of them were of opinion , eliz. with the other laws continued jac. were thereby discontinued . to prevent which mischief , the parliament jac. not only revives eliz. and those other laws in all . but enacts that they shall be ad udged ever since the session of parliament jac. to have been of such force and effect as the same were the last day of that session . and 't is undoubted they all were then in force , by virtue of jac. and the latter continuance run clear without the aid of the declaratory law of car. . and though this conventicle act of car. . be expired , yet there is another of greater force of the king yet in being . and having therein mentioned the act of the of his present majesty , i thought i could not justly acquit my self of what i had undertaken ( viz. impartially and fully to let down all that might any ways have relation to this . eliz. c. . ) without giving you that statute at large , whereby the judicious reader may fee how far it proves the eliz. still to be in force . an act to prevent and suppress seditious conventicles . for providing further and more speedy remedies against the growing and dangerous practises of seditious sectaries and other disloyal persons , who under pretence of tender consciences , have or may at their meetings contrive insurrections ( as late experience hath shown ) be it enacted by the kings most excellent majesty , by and with the advice and consent of the lords spiritual and temporal and commons in this present parliament assembled , and by authority of the same , that if any person of the age of years or upwards , being a subject of this realm , at any time after the tenth day of may next , shall be present at any assembly , conventicle or meeting , under colour or pretence of any exercise of religion in other manner then according to the liturgy and practise of the church of england , in any place within the kingdom of england , dominion of wales , or town of berwick upon tweed , at which conventicle , meeting or assembly , there shall be five persons or more assembled together , over and besides those of the same houshold ; if it be in a house where there is a family inhabiting , or if it be in a house , field ; or place where there is no family inhabiting : then where any five persons or more are so assembled as aforesaid , it shall and may be lawfull to and for any one or more justices of the peace of the county , limit , division , corporation or liberty , wherein the offence aforesaid shall be committed , or for the chief magistrate of the place where the offence aforesaid shall be committed . and he and they are hereby required and enjoyned , upon proof to him or them respectively made of such offence , either by confession of the party , or oath of two witnesses ( which oath , the said justice and justices of the peace and chief magistrate respectively are hereby impowred and required to administer ) or by notorious evidence and circumstance of the fact , to make a record of every such offence under his or their hands and seals respectively ; which record so made as aforesaid , shall to all intents and purposes be in law taken and adjudged to be a full and perfect conviction of every such offender for such offence ; and thereupon the said justice , justices , and chief magistrate respectively , shall impose on every such offender so convict as aforesaid , a fine of s. for such first offence , which record and conviction shall be certified by the said justice , justices , or chief magistrate , at the next quarter sessions of the peace for the county or place where the offence was committed . . and be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid , that if such offender so convicted as aforesaid , shall at any time again commit the like offence or offences contrary to this act , and be thereof in manner aforesaid convicted : then such offender so convict of such like offence or offences , shall for every such offence incur the penalty of s. which fine and fines for the first , and every other offence shall be levied by distress and sale of the offenders goods and chattels ; or in case of the poverty of such offender , upon the goods and chattels of any other person or persons who shall then be convicted in manner aforesaid of the like offence at the same conventicle , at the discretion of the said justice , justices or chief magistrate respectively , so as the sum to be levied , or any one person in case of the poverty of other offenders amount not in the whole to above the sum of l. upon occasion of any one meeting as aforesaid , and every constable , headborough , tythingman , church-wardens , and overseers of the poor , respectively , are hereby authorised and required to levy the same accordingly , having first received a warrant under the hands and seals of the said justice , justices , or chief magistrate , respectively so to do ; the said moneys so to be levied , to be forthwith delivered to the same justice , justices , or chief magistrate , and by him or them to be distributed . the one third part thereof to the use of the kings majesty , his heirs and succssors , to be paid to the high-sheriff of the county for the time being , in manner following , that is to say , the justice or justices of the peace , shall pay the same into the court of the respective quarter sessions , which said court shall deliver the same to the sheriff , and make a memorial on record of the payment , and delivery thereof , which said memorial shall be a fufficient and final discharge to the said justice and justices , and a charge to the sheriff , which said discharge and charge shall be certified into the exchequer together , and not one without tho other . and no justice shall or may be questioned or accomptable for the same in the exchequer or else where , then in quarter sessions . and other third part thereof to and for the use of the poor of the parish where such offence shall be committed . and the other third part thereof to the informer and informers , and to such person and persons as the said justice , justices , or chief magistrate respectively shall appoint , having regard to their diligence and industry in the discovery , dispersing , and punishing of the said conventicles . . and be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid , that every person who shall take upon him to preach or teach in any such meeting , assembly , or conventicle , and shall thereof be convicted as aforesaid , shall forfeit for every such first offence , the sum of l. to be levied in manner aforesaid , upon his goods and chattels . and if the said preacher or teacher so convicted be a stranger , and his name and habitation not known , or is fled and cannot be found , or in the judgment of the justice . justices , or chief magistrate before whom he shall be convicted , shall be thought unable to pay the same ; the said justice , justices , or chief magistrate respectively are hereby impowred and required to levy the same by warrant as aforesaid , upon the goods and chattels of any such persons who shall be present at the same conventicle ; any thing in this or any other . act law or statute to the contrary notwithstanding . and the money so levied , to be disposed of in manner aforesaid : and if such offendor so convicted as aforesaid , shall at any time again commit the like offence or offences , contrary to this act , and be thereof convicted in manner aforesaid , then such offendor convicted of such like offence or offences , shall for every such offence incurr the penalty of l. to be levied and disposed as aforesaid . . and be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid , that every person who shall wittingly and willingly suffer any such conventicle , meeting or unlawful assembly aforesaid , to be held in his or her house , outhouse , barn , yard or backside , and be convicted thereof in manner aforesaid , shall forseit the sum of l. to be levied in manner aforesaid upon his or her goods and chattels ; or in case of his or her povetry or inability as aforesaid upon the goods and chattels of such persous who shall be convicted in manner aforesaid of being present at the same conventicle , and the money so levied to be disposed of in manner aforesaid . . provided always , and be it enacted by the authority aforesaid , that no person shall by any clause of this act , be liable to pay above l. for any one meeting in regard of the poverty of any other person or persons . . provided also , and be it further enacted , that in all cases of this act where the penalty or sum charged upon any offender exceed the sum of s. and such offender shall find himself agrieved , it shall and may be lawfull for him within one week after the said penalty or money charged shall be paid or levied , to appeals in writing from the person or persons convicted to the judgment of the justices of the peace in their next quarter sessions , to whom the justice or justices of peace chief magistrate or alderman that first convicted such offendor , shall return the money levied upon the appellant , and shall certifie under his and their hands and seals , the evidence upon which the conviction past , with the whole record thereof and the said appeal ; whereupon such offendor may plead and make defence , and have his tryal by a jury thereupon . and in cafe such appellant shall not prosecute with effect ; or if upon such tryal he shall not be acquitted , or judgment pass not for him upon his said appeal , the said justices at the sessions shall give treble costs again such offendor for his unjust appeal ; and no other court whatsoever shall intermedle with any cause or causes of appeal upon this act , but they shall be finally determined in the quarter sessions only . . provided always , and be it further enacted , that upon the delivery of such appeal as aforesaid , the person or persons appellant shall enter before the person or persons convicting into a recognizance to present the said appeal with effect , which said recognizance the person or persons convicting is hereby impowred to take , and required to certifie the same to the next quarter sessions ; and in case no such recognizance be entred into , the said appeal to be null and void . . provided always , that every such appeal shall be left with the person or persons so convicting as aforesaid , at the time of the making thereof . . and be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid , that the justice , justices of the peace , and chief magistrate respectively , or the respective constables , head-boroughs , and tything men , by warrant from the said justice , justices , or chief magistrate respectively , shall and may with what aid , force and assistance they shall think fit , for the better execution of this act , after refusal or denyal to enter , break open and enter into any house , or other place , where they shall be informed any such conventicle as aforesaid , is or shall be held , as well within liberties as without , and take into their custody the persons there unlawfully assembled , to the intent they may be proceeded against according to this act. and that the lieutenants or deputy-licutenants or any commissionated officer of the militia , or other of his majesties forces with such troops or companies of horse and foot , and also the sheriffs and other magistrates and ministers of justice , or any of them , jointly or severally within any the counties or places within this kingdom of england , dominion of wales or town of barwick upon tweed , with such other assistance made to them respectively under the hand and seal of any one justice of peace , or chief magistrate of his particular information or knowledg of such unlawful meeting or conventicle held , or to be held in their respective counties or places , and that he with such assistance as he can get together , is not able to suppress and dissolve the same , shall and may and are hereby required and enjoyned to repair unto the place where they are so held , or to be held , and by the best means they can to dissolve , dissipate or prevent all such unlawful meetings , and take into their custody , such and so many of the said persons so unlawfully assembled as they shall think fit , to the intent they may be proceeded against according to this act. . provided always , that no dwelling house of any peer of this realm where he or his wife shall then be resident , shall be searched by virtue of this act , but by immediate warrant from his majessiy under his sign manual , or in the presence of the lieutenant , or one deputy-lieutenant or two justices of the peace , whereof one to be of the quorum of the same county or riding . . and be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid , that if any constable , headborough , tythingman , church-wardon , or overfeer of the poor , who shall know ●r be credibly informed of any such meetings or conventicles , held within his precincts , parishes or limits , and shall not give information thereof to some justice of the peace , or the chief magistrate , and endeavour the conviction of the parties , according to his duty , but such constable , headborough , tythingman , churchwarden , overseers of the poor or any person lawfully called in aid of the constable , headborough , or tything-man shall wilfully and wittingly omit the performance of his duty in the execution of this act , and be thereof convicted in manner aforesaid , he shall forfeit for every such offence the sum of l. to be levied upon his goods and chattels , and disposed in manner aforesaid . and that if any justice of the peace or chief magistrate shall wilfully and wittingly omit the performance of his duty in the execution of this act , he shall forfeit the sum of l. the one moiety to the use of the informer to be recovered by action , suit , bill , or plaint in any of his majesties courts at westminster , wherein no essoin , protection , or wager of law shall lie . , and be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid , that if any person be at any time sued for putting in execution any of the power contained in this act , otherwise than upon appeal allowed by this act , such person shall and may plead the general issue and give the special matter in evidence : and if the plaintiff be nonsuit , or a vordict pass for the defendant , or if the plaintiff discontinue his action , or if upon demur judgment be given for the desendant , every such desendant shall have his full treble costs . . and be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid , that this act and all clauses therein contained , shall be construed most largely and beneficially for the suppressing of conventicles , and for the justification and encouragement of all persons to be employed in the execution thereof : and that no record , warrant , or mittimus to be made by vertue of this act or any proceedings thereupon shall be reversed , avoided , or any way impeached by reason of any default in form . and in case any person offending against this act shall be an inhabitant in any other county or corporation , or flie into any other county or corporation after the offence committed , the justice of peace or chief magistrate before whom he shall be convicted , as aforesaid , shall certifie the same under his hand and seal to any justice of peace or chief magistrate of such county or corporation wherein the said person or persons are inhabitants , or are fled into ; which said justice or chief magistrate respectively is hereby authorized and required to levy the penalty or penalties in this act mentioned , upon the goods and chattels of such person or persons , as fully as the said other justice of peace might have done in case he or they had been inhabitants in the place wlfere the offence was committed . . provided also , that no person shall be punished for any offence against this act , unless such offender be profecuted for the same within three months after the offence committed ; and that no person who shall be punished for any offence by vertue of this act , shall be punished for the same offence by vertue of any other act or law whatsoever . . provided , and be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid , that every alderman of london , for the time being , within the city of london and the liberties thereof , shall have ( and they and every of them are hereby impowered and required to execute ) the fame power and authority within london and the liberties thereof for the examining , convicting , and punishing of all offences within this act , committed within london and the liberties thereof , which any justice of peace hath by this act in any county of england ; and shall be subject to the same penalties and punishments for not doing that which by this act is directed to be done by any justice of peace in any county of england . . provided , and be it enacted by the authority aforesaid , that if the person offending and convicted as aforesaid be a feme-covert cohabiting with her husband , the penalty of s. or s. so as aforesaid incurred , shall be levied by warrant as aforesaid , upon the goods and chattels of the husband of such feme-covert . . provided also . that no peer of this realm shall be attached or imprisoned by vertue or force of this act , any thing , matter , or clause therein to the contrary notwithstanding . . provided also , that neither this act nor any thing therein contained , shall extend to invalidate or avoid his majesties supremacy in ecclesiastical affairs ; but that his majesty and his heirs and successors , may from time to time , and at all times hereafter , exercise and enjoy all powers and authority in ecclesiastical affairs as fully and as amply as himself or any of his predecessors have or might have done the same , any thing in this act notwithstanding . finis . a postscript touching prosecutions in the ecclesiastical courts . having thus done with the temporal prosecutions , it may not be amiss to add a word concerning the spiritual persecutions now on foot , by citations and excommunications , not only to the great perplexity and trouble , but to the great expence of the people . in reference to which , men are to consider whether the present ecclesiastical severity be according to law or no : for what ever is done to disturb the quiet and repose of particular subjects , contrary to law , is down right oppression . that the exercise of the punishments of excommunication and an anathema is allowable against obdurate hereticks and schismaticks , is apparent from scripture ; and the same scriptute directs both by whom , how , and upon whom these sentences ought to be pronounced . on the other side , as there is no part of scripture that erects any ecclesiastical courts of judicature , or warrants the formal processes of citations , pleas and answers , or the extravagant fees of proctors , apparitors and promooters ; so it appears , that since the reformation , they have been abrogated by the law of the land , as being look'd upon meerly to be the effects of popish usurpation : for episcopal authority consists not so much in keeping courts , as in a true inspection and care over the flock of christ ; the weapons of their authory are only admonition and reprehension , and then excommunication comes of course , a more regular aud apostolick way , than by processes and citations as to all other jurisdiction comprehending force and compulsion , it is vested solely in the king , who is by all true protestants accounted the defender of the faith , and the supream head of the church . the law it self runs thus . and whereas the arch-bishops , and bishops , and other spiritual persons in this realm , do use to make and send out their summons , citations and other processes , in their own names , and in such form and manner as was used in the time of the usurped power of the bishop of rome , contrary to the form and order of the summons and process of the common law used in this realm ( seeing that all authority of jurisdiction , spiritual and temporal , is derived and deducted from the kings majesty as supreme head of these churches , and realms of england and ireland , so justly acknowledged by the clergy of the said realm , that all courts ecclesiastical within the said two realms ) be kept by no other power or authority , either forreign or within the realm , but by the authority of his most excellent majesty . be it therefore further enacted by the authority aforesaid , that all summons and citations , or other process ecclesiastical , in all suits and causes of instance betwixt party and party , and all causes of correction , and all causes of bastardy or bigamy , or enquiry , de jure patronatus , probates of testaments , and commissions of administartions of persons deceased , and all acquittances of , and upon account made by the executor , administrators , or collectors of goods of any dead person , be from the first day of july next following , made in the name , and with the style of the king , as it is in writs original or judicial at the common law : and that the test thereof be in the name of the arch-bishop or bishop , or other , having excclesiastical jurisdiction , who hath the commission and grant of the authority ecclesiastical immediately from the kings highness , and that his commissary , official or substitute , exercising jurisdiction under him , shall put his name in the citation or process , after the test . further be it enacted by the authority aforesaid , that all manner of person or persons , who have the exercise of ecclesiastical jurisdiction , shall have from the first day of july before expressed , in their seals of office , the kings highness arms decently set , with certain characters under the arms , for the knowledge of the diocess , and shall use no other seal of jurisdiction , but where his mejesties arms be ingraven , upon pain , that if any person shall use ecclesiastical jurisdiction ( after the day before expressed ) in this realm of england , wales , or other his dominions or territories , and not send or make out the citation of process in the kings name , or use any seal of jurisdiction other than before limited ; that every such offender shall incur , and run in the kings majesties displeasure and indignation , and suffer imprisonment at his higness will and pleasure . provided that no more , nor other fees be taken or paid for the seal and writing of any citations or other process than was heretofore accustomed . which being true , what power the bishops have to hold their spiritual courts , and send out process in their own names , and to make citations and executions of judgements under their own seals , is an enquiry not improper for them that believed themselves wronged . this act is said to have been repeal'd by the . and . of philip , and mary , c. . though no mention be made of it among the repeal'd acts of that time . however , though it were , it was again reviv'd by the . of eliz. c. . in these words , most humbly beseech your most excellent majesty , your faithful and obedient subjects , the lords spiritual and temporal , and the commons in this your present parliament assembled , that where in the time of the reign of your most dear father of worthy memory , king henry the th . divers good laws and statutes were made and established , as well for the utter extinguishment and putting away of all usurped and forreign powers and authorities out of this your realm , and other your highness dominions and countries , as also for the restoring and uniting to the imperial crown of this realm , the ancient jurisdictions , authorities , superiorities and preheminencies to the same of right belonging and appertaining , by reason whereof , we your most humble and obedient subjects , from the five and twentieth year of the reign of your said dear father , were continually kept in good order , and were disburdened of divers great and intollerable charges and exactions before that time unlawfully taken and exacted by such forreign power and authority as before that was usurped , until such time as all the said good laws and statutes , by one act of parliament made in the first and second years of the reigns of the late king philip , and queen mary your highness sister , intituled an act repealing all statues , articles and provisions made against the see apostolick of rome , since the twentieth year of king henry the eight ; and also for the establishment of all spiritual and ecclesiastical possessions and hereditaments conveyed to the laity , were all clearly repealed and made void , as by the same act of repeal more at large doth and may appear ; by reason of which act of repeal , your said humble subjects were eftsoons brought under an usurped forreign power and authority , and yet do remain in that bondage , to the intollerable charges of your loving subjects , if some redress ( by authority of this your high court of parliament , with the assent of your highness ) be not had and provided . may it therefore please your highness , for the repressing of the said usurped forreign power , and the restoring of the rites , jurisdictions and preheminencies appertaining to the imperial crown of this your realm , that it may be enacted by authority of this present parliament , that the said act. made in the first and second years of the reign of the said late king philip and queen mary , and all and every branches , clauses and articles therein contained ( other than such branches , clauses and sentences , as hereafter shall be excepted ) may from the last day of this session of parliament , by authority of this present parliament , be repealed , and shall from thenceforth be utterly void and of none effect . and to the intent that all usurped and forreign power and authority spiritual and temporal , may for ever be clearly extinguished , and never be used or obeyed within this realm , or any other your majesties dominions or countries , may it please your highness that it may be further enacted by the authority aforesaid , that no forreign prince , person , prelate , state or potentate , spiritual or temporal , shall at any time after the last day of this session of parliament , use , enjoy or exercise any manner of power , jurisdiction , superiority , authority , preheminence , or priviledg spiritual or ecclesiastical , within this realm , or within any other your majesties dominions or countries that now be , or hereafter shall be , but from thenceforth the same shall be clearly abolished out of this realm , and all other your highness dominions for ever ; any statute , ordinance , custom , constitutions , or any other matter or cause whatsoever to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding . and that also it may please your highness that it may be established and enacted by the authority aforesaid , that such jurisdictions , priviledges , superiorities and preheminencies spiritual and ecclesiastical , as by any spiritual or ecclesiastical power or authority hath heretofore been , or may lawfully be exercised or used for the visitation of the ecclesiastical state and persons , and for reformation , order and correction of the same and of all manner of errors , heresies , scismes , abuses , offences , contempts and enormities , shall for ever , by authority of this present parliament , be united and annexed to the imperial crown of this realm . and that your highness , your heirs and successors , kings or queens of this realm , shall have full power and authority by vertue of this act , by letters patents under the great seal of england , to assign , name and authorize , when , and as often as your highness , your heirs or successors shall think meet and convenient , and for such and so long time as shall please your highness , your heirs or successors , such person or persons being natural born subjects to your highness your heirs and successors , as your majesty , your heirs or successors shall think meet to exercise , use , occupy , and execute under your highness , your heirs and successors , all manner of jurisdictions , priviledges , and preheminencies in any wise touching or concerning any spiritual or ecclesiastical jurisdiction within these your realms of england and ireland , or any other your highness dominions and countries , and to visit , reform , redress , order , correct and amend all such errors , heresies , schismes , abuses , offences , contempts and enormities whatsoever , which by any manner of spiritual or ecclesiastical power , authority or jurisdiction , can , or may lawfully be reformed , ordered , redressed , corrected , restrained , or amended to the pleasure of almighty god , the increase of vertue , and the conservation of the peace and unity of this realm . and that such person or persons so to be named , assigned , authorised and appointed by your highness , your heirs or successors , after the said letters patents to him or them made and delivered , as is aforesaid , shall have full power and authority , by vertue of this act and of the said letters patents under your highness , your heirs and successors , to exercise , use and execute all the premises , according to the tenor and effect of the said letters patents ; any matter or cause to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding . by which branches of this statute , it seems to be most demonstrable , that all manner of jurisdiction in causes spiritual and ecclesiastical is invested in the crown , and that no spiritual courts may be holden , but by the kings commission . lastly , by the . car. primi , the very branch of the statute for granting commissions is also repealed , which left the ecclesiastical courts no power at all . seeing then that all power both temporal and ecclesiastical is vested in the king , it seems to be a high point of disobedience , for subjects to hold courts of judicature to disturb and punish the kings liege people , without any legal authority . from whence may arise these few short quaeries . qu. . whither it be not proper for the persons cited , to demand the sight and hearing of the commission , by which the judges claim their jurisdiction ? st . for their own safety ? dly , in point of loyalty to the king ? dly , as being obliged by the oath of supremacy to renounce ●●l forreign jurisdictions ? qu. . supposing the said judges produce no authority from the king , yet proceed to excommunication , whether the said excommunication be not void ? qu. . whether the said judges be not indictable upon a pramunire ? or liable to an action , as counsel shall direct ? for what remains , the parties concerned may take their measures as they find most necessary for self preservation , from mr. cary's true guide for all persons concern'd in ecclesiastick courts . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e rast . stat. vol. . c. . fo . . this parliament began the of february , in the th of the queen , and was dissolved the th of april following . abjure . the form of the submission . eliz. c. . . eliz. c. . sect. . sect. . king james began his reign anno march the th . . jacobi . ca. . sect. . and . sessio . . . jacob. . session . . jacobi . . session . jacobi . huttons rep. fol. . resolutions upon the statute of eliz. c. . concerning sectaries . what shall be said a session of parliament . this statute was anno jacobi , and printed , but is not in any of the statute books . saint-john versus saint-john . jac. c. statutes in this act revived and continued . car. . cap. . this session of parliament ( by reason of the increase of the sickness and other inconveniences of the season requiring a speedy adjournment nevertheless ) shall not determine by his majesties royal assent to this & some other acts. car. . cap. . sect. . sect. . * in his history of the life and death of the . eliz. c. . an. . car. . cap. . an. . car. . this . eliz. c. . was continued , but that act ( it seems ) is since expired . keeble st● . fo . . c. . . eliz. c. . declared to be in force . statutes are of two sorts . those that are introductory of a new , and those that are declaratory of an old law. further remedy against seditious sectaries . unlawful conventicles and meetings under pretence of exercise of religion forbidden . the punishment and manner of proceeding against them for the first offence . second offence . third offence . how seditious sectaries being convicted may be transported . how the offend●r 〈…〉 discharged ●p●n payment of ●f 〈◊〉 p●und punish 〈◊〉 of offend●rs 〈◊〉 the t●ird offence how the s●id penalty of 〈◊〉 po●●d shall be dispos●d . pers●n sued f●r exec●ting this act may plead the gene●●ral issue ▪ a●d recover ●reble c●sts . felony to esc●pe after convictim , or to ret●rn after transportation . seditious and tum●ltuous mettings and conve●ticles . the penalty of suffering conventieles in private houses . goalers may not let prisoners committed upon this act to go at large . the penalty . within what time offend●rs must be pr●s●cuted . married women how to be punished . how justices of the peace may enter into houses suspected for conventicles . the houses of peers . what persons may not be commited to the house of correction . persons served with process refusing to take au oath . . c. . ca. how such persons may be acquited . peers offending how to be proceeded against the continuance of this act keeble st. a. . car . c. . fol. . . the preamble car. . c. . conventicles ▪ &c. forbidden after the tenth of may . how the offendors must be convicted . the penalty for the first offence . the record and conviction to be returned to the next quarter sessions the penalty for the second offence the penalti●s how to be levied . constablet , & c. to levy the same and pay it to ●he justice immediately . how the penalties are to be devided . certificate into the exchequer the penalty of such as preach or teach in a conventicle how to be levied and disp●sed . the forfeit re of such as suffer conventicles i● their houses . prov●so . appe●●s way be and to whom and in wh●t cases . appellant to enter into a rec●gniza●ce . justices of peace c●●stab●es , &c 〈◊〉 refusal , may break upon do●rs . lieutenants , & deputy lieutenan●s , and 〈◊〉 officers ●f the mili●ia , ●ust . disperse conventicles either with horse or foot. proviso for peers of the realm . the penalty of all justices of peace , constables and oth●r officers civil a●d military , that omit their duty in p●rfor●i●g this act. all persons inde●pri●ied that put this act in execution . this act to be interpreted ●ost beneficially for the suppressing conventicles . offe●d●rs to be pr●secuted within three months after the offence . aldermen within london have the same power there , as justices of peace elsewhere . feme-covert . peers of the realm . proviso f●r the kings supremacy . notes for div a -e sect. . sect. . sect. . sect. . sect. . a proclamation of grace, for the inlargement of prisoners called quakers england and wales. sovereign ( - : charles ii) approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing c estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a proclamation of grace, for the inlargement of prisoners called quakers england and wales. sovereign ( - : charles ii) charles ii, king of england, - . leaves. printed by the assigns of john bill and christopher barker ..., london : . reproduction of original in the university of illinois (urbana-champaign campus). library. imprint from colophon. caption title. at head of title: by the king. at end of text: given at our court at whitehall, the eleventh day of may, in the thirteenth year of our reign, . created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng society of friends -- great britain. dissenters, religious -- great britain. proclamations - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - john latta sampled and proofread - john latta text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion by the king. a proclamation of grace , for the inlargement of prisoners called qvakers . charles r. whereas divers of his majesties subjects , commonly called quakers , are now prisoners in several gaols within his majesties dominions , for offences by them committed against the form of a statute made in a sessions of parliament , begun and held by prorogation at westminster , the fifth day of november , in the third year of the reign of king james , his majesties late grand-father , entituled , an act for the discovering and repressing of popish recusants ; or of one other statute made in a sessions of parliament , begun and held by prorogat on at westminster , the nineteenth day of february , in the seventh year of the reign of the said late king , entituled , an act who shall take the oath of obedience to the king , and by whom it shall be administred , and within what time . and whereas the kings most excellent majesty since the passing of the late act of general pardon , oblivion , and indempnity , and the issuing forth several charters of pardon , hath in reference to his royal coronation , by a late proclamation , signified and declared out of his farther abundant grace and clemency , that his charters of pardons should be extended in time unto the nine and twentieth day of december , now last past , being the day the late parliament did dissolve and determine . and his majesty being now graciously pleased , that his said subjects , called quakers , now in prison as aforesaid , should for this time , and on so happy and blessed an opportunity and season of his majesties royal coronation , participate of his majesties mercy and clemency , and be forthwith discharged from their imprisonment , without being put to the trouble and charges of suing out particular pardons . the kings most excellent majesty doth therefore by this his royal proclamation , publish and declare his will and pleasure to be , and accordingly doth hereby will and command all sheriffs , majors , bailiffs , gaolers , and other his officers and ministers within his majesties realm of england , dominion of wales , the isles of jersey and guernsey , and the town of berwick upon twede , and every of them ( whom the premisses shall or may concern ) that they and every of them , on the publication of this his royal proclamation , do set at liberty , enlarge , and discharge , all and every person and persons , called quakers , now in custody in any of his gaols or prisons in his said realm , or any the parts or places thereof aforesaid , for any offence or offences done , committed , or suffered against the form of the statutes aforesaid , or either of them , for not taking the oaths therein mentioned , or any other oaths heretofore tendered them , or for any meetings contrary to the late proclamation , or for any matter referring to their opinions , or scruples of conscience , or for not finding securities for appearances of , and from their and every of their imprisonments respectively , without demanding or taking any other fées or duties of them , or any of them , then for lodging , diet , and other necessaries : and also to set at liberty , such other persons as are now in custody onely for not taking the oaths enjoyned by the statutes above-mentioned , or either of them , or upon any prosecution for not taking the said oaths , expecting for the future their conformity and obedience to the laws of the kingdom ; and for so doing , this shall be to them , and every of them , sufficient warrant in this behalf . and his majesty doth further declare , that he shall expect returns of loyalty , and all due obedience , from all such persons whose liberty is obtained hereby , his majesty not intending them impunity , if they shall offend in the future : provided always , and his majesty doth hereby declare , that this proclamation , or any thing herein contained , shall not extend to discharge , or set at liberty , any person or persons , called quakers , now in custody for debt , or other civil cause commenced or depending against them , at the suit of any of his majesties loving subjects ; nor for any criminal matter or offence whatsoever , wherewith he or they are or shall be duly charged , other then is above-mentioned , any thing in this proclamation contained to the contrary thereof , in any wise notwithstanding . given at our court at whitehal , the eleventh day of may , in the thirteenth year of our reign , . god save the king . london , printed by iohn bill and christopher barker , printers to the king 's most excellent majesty . . at the king's printing-house in black-friers . a reply to the reverend dean of st. pauls's reflections on the rector of sutton, &c. wherein the principles and practices of the non-conformists are not only vindicated by scripture, but by dr. stillingsfleet's rational account, as well as his irenicum : as also by the writings of the lord faulkland, mr. hales, mr. chillingworth, &c. / by the same hand ; to which is added, st. paul's work promoted, or, proper materials drawn from the true and only way of concord, and, pleas for peace and other late writings of mr. richard baxter ... alsop, vincent, or - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing a estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : or : ) a reply to the reverend dean of st. pauls's reflections on the rector of sutton, &c. wherein the principles and practices of the non-conformists are not only vindicated by scripture, but by dr. stillingsfleet's rational account, as well as his irenicum : as also by the writings of the lord faulkland, mr. hales, mr. chillingworth, &c. / by the same hand ; to which is added, st. paul's work promoted, or, proper materials drawn from the true and only way of concord, and, pleas for peace and other late writings of mr. richard baxter ... alsop, vincent, or - . barret, john, - . [ ], [i.e. ] p. printed by j.d. to be sold by richard janeway ..., london : . attributed to vincent alsop. cf. halkett & laing ( nd ed.). signed on p. [i.e. ]: john barrett. errata: p. . item at reel : identified as wing b a (number cancelled). reproduction of original in harvard university library and henry e. huntington library and art gallery. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng dissenters, religious -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - rina kor sampled and proofread - rina kor text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion chillingworth's safe way , p. . vvhen we shall come tio the question of schism , i persuade my self , that i shall plainly shew , that the most vehement accusers , are the greatest offenders ; and that they are indeed at this time the greatest schismaticks , who make the way to salvation narrower , the yoke of christ heavier , the difference of faith greater , the conditions of ecclesiastical government harder and straiter , than they were made at the beginning by christ and his apostles : they who talk of unity , but aim at tyranny , and will have peace with none but with their slaves and vassals . dr. stillingfleet's iren. p. . let men turn and wind themselves which way they will , by the very same arguments that any will prove separation from the church of rome lawful , because she required unlawful things , as conditions of her communion , it will be proved lawful not to conform to any suspected or unlawful practice required by any church-governours upon the same terms , of the things so required be , after serious and sober enquiry , judged unwarrantable by a man 's own conscience . a reply to the reverend dean of st. pauls's reflections on the rector of sutton , &c. wherein the principles and practices of the non-conformists are not only vindicated by scripture , but by dr. stilling fleet 's rational account , as well as his irenicum ; as also by the writings of the lord faulkland , mr. hales , mr. chillingworth , &c. by the same hand . to which is added , st. paul's work promoted ; or , proper materials drawn from the true and only way of concord , and pleas for peace , and other late writings of mr. richard baxter , for uniting protestant dissenters , and repairing a divided church . london , printed by i. d. to be sold by richard ianeway , in queens-head alley in pater-noster-row , . a reply to the reverend dean of st. pauls's reflections on the rector of sutton , &c. now thanks ( sir ) for your token ; i would have said new-years-gift , had it come about a fortnight sooner . some told me lately an answer was coming forth to my notes upon the doctor 's sermon ; but i could not imagin how i should have a fair and just answer from him , without his putting forth another edition of his irenicum , ( and it must be another indeed , quite different from the former ; ) or else giving us an index expurgatorius to the former , that we may know what he would have expunged ; or ( which would have been most satisfactory , and not unreasonable ) his publishing a book of retractations , shewing in what particulars , and upon what grounds and reasons his mind is since changed . upon the perusal of this voluminous writing of his , which must pass for a confutation of his five answerers ; i can find so little or nothing said to me , that were it not for three conclusions he lays down in his preface , ( p. , . ) and three letters , which for my sake , upon account of what i had said ( as it seems preface pag. . ) he annexeth as an appendix , at the end of his book , i should not have thought my self concerned to make any reply . i cannot find , that ever he vouchsafes to take notice of so much as one of my twelve queries , which ( though i remember they were written in great haste , yet ) some of them ( i think ) are pinching . my first query ( to name no more ) wise , impartial men think it would have been an act of iustice and honesty , as well as of charity , ingenuity , self-denial , for him to have well considered , and to have given a serious and satisfactory answer unto . how knoweth he , but some , yea , many may have that to say to him , si error est quod credo , a te deceptus sum , if i be in an error , you have led me into it , or have helpt to conhrm me in it . i thought i had demonstrated to the doctor , that he was besides his text that the word , the scripture-rule is that same rule the apostle would have christians walk by ( phil . . ) and that the establisht rule , the doctor would have it applyed to , is such a rule , as he himself hath told the world the apostles and primo-primitive christians had not . and if they had no such rule , nor would ever have establisht such a rule , then it certainly follows , the apostle should not be supposed there to press chri●ians to walk by such a rule , ( which was no rule with him ) [ viz. rector of sutton , p. , , , f. . ] yet i observe , where he pretends to lear the text from all objections , ( pag. to . ) he says not one word to this material objection . and so he waves what mr. baxter says , ( answer pag. . ) what he replieth to others , i suppose they will consider . here ( i conceive ) he cannot well say , as pag. . i decline nothing that looks like argument . and pag. . i have not concealed the force and strength i saw in any of them . there i thought it sufficient to argue from the doctor 's former concessions , or rather his plain assertions , taking the matter to be so clear and evident , that no sober man , and much less he , would deny . but if he had put me to prove , that the apostles did not , neither would ever establish such a rule , nor could have established it , ( as apostles as commissionated by christ , as infallible guides and governours of the church ) i should have counted it an easie task , especially when he hath done it so well to my hand , from act. . , &c. this one hint may suffice at present , the apos●le peter was to be blamed for that by his example , only he would have drawn the gentile-believers at antioch to conformity to the jewish ceremonies , gal. . , . why compellest thou the gentiles to live as do the iews ? the apostle paul , who thus reproved him , yet says himself , cor. . . vnto the iews , i became as a iew. — and those ceremonies he conformed to among the jewes , ( as at ierusalem ) were in themselves as lawful and innocent , as the ceremonies imposed among us . but he would not have the gentiles compell'd to more than was necessary . he that was so moved , and offended , to see but an example leading that way , how much more would he have withstood any ( one , or more ) that were for establishing such a rule ? yet the doctor tells us , he is certain , he did not mistake the sence of his text , preface pag. . but let such things pass , as the doctor hath pleased to do . and if he had let all pass that hath been said , that the controversies he hath raised , might have been laid asleep , or had used other methods and measures than he hath taken , i should have been better satisfied , than i can be with his present answer . i am sorry we did not all put him in mind of that , praestat motos componere fluctus . however ( sir ) i must acknowledg your kindness , in sending me this [ impartial account , &c. ] ( as it is called ) and that you have since furnished me with his [ rational account ] also , wherein you have greatly pleasured me . many years since i looked into it , and doubted not , ( when i was writing those former papers ) but i could have made some use of it ; but i could not then meet with the book , for want of which i looked on those collections as incompleat . truly ( sir ) i was in hope the learned doctor had retained that same spirit of moderation towards his dissenting brethren , which those sober moderate principles he hath published , and commended unto others heretofore , spake him to have . how strange is it , that the reverend doctor , should ever forget the rector of sutton ? and is it not as strange , that he should be for silencing such a one ( as of scismatical principles ? ) or to speak more plainly , should be ashamed to own him in that worthy work , so full of learning and judgment , meriting praise , rather than censure : but it is too plain here , he hath deserted the rector of sutton , and that in a matter wherein he was in the right , and had the strongest reason on his side , and hath given up the cause to such an imposing party , as before e had condemned . and what is the matter that the reverend doctor is so highly offended at me , for desiring he would renew his old acquaintance with one so near him , and be friends again ? none in the world being nearer to him , if that be true , proximus sum egomet mihi ; unless he will say , and make that good ( in none of the best sence ) ego non sum ego . now i am heartily sorry , if we may see reason to change our opinion of him , as he says we may , of some persons , as well as things , in twenty years time , ( preface pag. . ) sure i am , it either does , or ought to grieve me at heart , to see his hand at such dividing work , who of all the dignified persons in england , i had thought , was specially engaged , and hoped also , was as well enclined , to promote union what in him lay ; but not to widen differences , by pressing and pleading so hard for dividing-terms . when certain bishops were met , that sought nothing more , than that poor athanasius . might be oppressed , doli● , c●lumniis , & malis artibus ; paphnutius seeing it , rose up , and took maximus ( who , as i remember , had been a confessor ) by the hand , saying , neque te decet unà inter istos sedere . so i thought it least became the reverend doctor to appear with the forwardest in condemning his dissenting brethren , whose cause he had so well pleaded in time past . he begins his preface with a story of the learned and excellent bishop iewell , ( which i leave to others to examine ) but here i call to mind the story of bishop lindsey , a scotish-bishop , who before he came to his dignity , had given this question at st. andrew's , whether things indifferent once abused , and for their abuse abolished ? &c. negatur . where he could bid defiance to those that were for retaining such ceremonies . yet afterwards he was a zealous contender for them , turning disce pati , into dissipate . and the great complaint of him was , that in dealing with his brethren , he remembred not what he was once himself , that he pittied not his former case ( as some of them said ) in their persons , as augustine did the manichees , greater hereticks than he took them to be , let them be fierce ( rigorous ) against you , who never were deceived with the like error , as they see you . but as for me , i can use no such rigor against you , with whom i ought to bear now , as i did at that time with my self , &c. thus i could wish the doctor would be as favourable as it becometh him to be , in his censures of his brethren , who are very much of the same mind , he was of once and therefore i shall once again apply my self to him . reverend sir ; i do not very well know , whether that title [ the rector of sutton committed with the dean of st. paul's ] makes you more angry , or merry . this i know , those papers of mine went out of my hands , without any title : who put that to it i know not . the title , you say , ( preface p. . ) was enough to make the common people imagine this was some busie iustice of peace , who had taken them both at a conventicle . and i confess the word [ committed ] might puzzle those that could not english bonos inter sese committere ( there p. . ) but sure you had no thought of my being a iustice of peace , any more than i should suspect the dean of st. paul's ( since i have heard of and seen what he hath both preached , and written against them ) would frequent conventicles . however you rub up my memory here , that i have one thing to put you in mind of , though perhaps you 'l call me a busie informer for it , in your next . and yet call me at your pleasure , so that it may incline you to more favourable thoughts of truly religious assemblies , such as you have condemned , as conventicles , and separate meetings . in the former times of england's distractions and confusions , i being unsatisfied of the lawfulness of keeping ( in publick ) either those days of thanksgiving for victories , or of fasting and prayer for a blessing on those counsels , and forces that then were , ( as appointed ) it happened that mr. s. preached in my place upon one of these fast-days ( i suppose at the request of some , but unknown to me ) the text in deut. for this is your wisdom &c. which some remember still , though it is about twenty years since , when i ( at the same time ) had a private meeting at st. lawrence's , as one called it . this i confess may look something like a personal reflection ; but my end here is , that you would be pleased to resolve me these queries , viz. whether ever you accounted this act schismatical , preaching without the consent of the rector of the parish ? or the assembly that joyned , at that time , schismaticks ? yet was here no breach of order . or were there no churches in england then , or till your establisht rule came in ? and yet , sir , i had never the less esteem of mr. s. at that time , or of others , who were satisfied to go farther than i durst . again , whether was our private meeting at that time a sinful conventicle , when the far greater part of the parish was with him at church ? i hope you will grant it was a lawful , because a loyal conventicle . but so much to your reflection on the title of my former papers . now sir , consider whether we have not more just exceptions against this of yours . ( . ) the unreasonableness of separation . ] here . consider whether you do not condemn that as separation , which is not . and is that reasonable ? all assemblies , distinct from yours , are not separate meetings , as the world is used in an evil sence ; no , though they differ in some unnecessary mode , or circumstances of worship , many that ordinarily joyn with you in the substantial parts of worship , and meet not in opposition ; yet i cannot discern , but their meetings fall under your censure , as much as others , because they keep not to your establish'd rule , when ( preface pag. . ) you speak of an unaccountable separation , without regard to the greatness or smalness of parishes , &c. doth not that imply , that there may be some account given for assembling to worship god , where there is a regard to this , to the abilities and piety of ministers , and to the peace and order of the church ? and therefore the thing is not so unreasonable as you would make it . ( . ) what if i prove ( in examining your three conclusions ) from the principles you lay down in your irenicum , and rational account too , that many are necessitated to separate from your communion ; is separation unreasonable , when necessary ? or will you allow others to say , that there you have pleaded for unreasonable separation ? ( . ) an impartial account , &c. you call it . here i might say , i was glad to see you promising impartiality in this work , having found so little of it in your sermon : but upon search quantâ de spe decidi ? the partiality you have discovered is so great , and in so many particulars , that if i should ransack every corner of your book ( as you speak ) to collect all such passages , i fear i should be very tedious and irksome to you and other readers . but . may not some of the common people , who have read either what mr. baxter says of it , or mr. newcomen ( in serm. on nov. . . ) take you to be partial in setting down the jesuit contzens directions for reducing popery ( preface pag. , . ) in that you take no notice of putting out of honours , dignities , and publick offices such as are most adverse to popery , or of the outing of ministers , as unpeaceable , proud , obstinate , disobedient to magistrates : and forbidding them privately , or publickly to assemble ? and take no notice of that , how easie is it ( as he says ) in england to bring the puritans into order , if they be forced to approve of bishops ? &c. here i think of your words , pag. . i do not say , such men are set on by iesuits , but i say , they do their work as effectually . — so it would be considered , whether such methods do not effectually promote the jesuits design of reducing popery . you may give us to understand ( preface pag. . ) that the declaration of indulgence ½ was of the papists procuring ; but we must not say , that the turning out of many zealous protestant justices , and ministers , was any way by their means . . are you impartial in the account you give of the reformation in king edward and q. elizabeth's raign ? did the reformation lie in those things wherein dissenters differ from you ? then you must say , that those churches which aimed at an exact conformity with the apostolick times , and ( as chillingworth says ) took their direction only from scripture , were yet so far unreformed , as they wanted our ceremonies . though it soundeth very harshly , to say that those churches who were more conformed to the scripture rule , were less reformed . but you spake more impartially , and more to the honour of our first reformers , irenic . pag. . which you was minded of , ( rector of sutton p. . ) certainly those holy men , who did seek by any means to draw in others , &c. and by that rubrick , which left it at the discretion of the minister , what , and how much to read , when there was a sermon , it is evident , others since have sought to bear up their authority by their names , who have been far from their moderation . i cannot but wonder at your harangue ( book pag. . ) is it credible , that men of so great integrity , such indefatigable industry , such profound iudgment , as cranmer and ridley , who were the heads of the reform●tion , should discern no sinfulness in these things . — could not latimer , or bradford , or such holy , mortified men as they , discern so much as a mote of vnlawlawfulness ? &c. it is granted , they were learned , pious , excellent men ; yet it need not seem strange , much less incredible , that such worthy men should in some things mistake . does not a. b. laud tell you , reformation is so difficult a work , and subject to so many pretentions , that 't is almost impossible but the reformers should step too far , or fall too short in some smaller things or other ? i suppose you may have bishop cranmer's manuscript still by you ; and are you of his iudgment in all things ? i do not find it so , comparing what you published , as his judgment in your irenicum , and what you have published in this book , as your own . and latimer , that zealous and faithful martyr , ( as i remember ) at the end of his sermons , used to ex●ite the hearers to prayer , and therein to remember such as were departed this life . now must we therefore conclude , there is not a mote of unlawfulness in praying for the dead , that otherwise such an holy man as latimer , would not have been for it ? most true it is , considering the times they lived in , and the temper of the persons they had to deal with , it was the great work of god to carry on reformation so far by them . but i cannot say , but their hearts were to have carried it on further , if the times would have born it . ( more shame it is to others , that have had fairer opportunities since , and yet have not minded the work. ) history of the troubles at franksford ( printed , reprinted ● . p. . ) telleth of one that said , bishop cranmer had drawn up a book of prayer , an hundred times more perfect , but the clergy and convocation with other enemies would not let it pass . and there followeth something further worth your noting ( pag. . ) that b●llinger told whittingham , mr. h. and mr. c. asked his judgment concerning certain points of that ( our ) book , as surplice , private baptism , churching women , the ring in marriage , with such like , which ( as he said ) he allowed not , and that he neither could if he would , neitherwould if he might use the same in his church , whatsoever had been reported . therefore ( say i ) such a man as bullinger would not have been for imposing the same on others . as to the reformation in queen elizabeth's time , it was not brought in , nor brought on with a rigorous imposition of those things in controversie ; as ball ▪ against can , part . p. . in the first ten years of q. elizabeth , there was sweet consent among brethren . — i think there was not a man that thought of separation . the pressing of subscription and conformity in the tenth year of q. elizabeth ' s raign , was that which brough● in all the 〈◊〉 and contentions following . iosias nichol's ( plea of the innocent , p. , , printed , ) thus : some five years together , before that unhappy time that subscription was so generally offered , ( which is now some years past ) there was such unity between the ministers , and they joyned in all places so lovingly , and diligently in labour ; that not only did the unpreaching minister and non-resident quake , and prepare themselves in measure to take pains in the church ; but also many thousands were converted from atheism and popery , &c. but when subscription came abroad , how did it shake the heavens , and darken the skies ? ( o lord my heart trembleth to think upon it ) how many godly , and worthy learned preachers were silenced , deprived , and greatly disgraced ! how were the holy ministers divided and distracted ! how were the christian subjects grieved and offended , and the papists and wicked men encouraged and emboldened ! what a damp brought it to all godliness and religion ? and since that time what horrible wickedness , whoredom , drunkenness , and all shameless filthiness , and what grievous plagues of god , one succeeding another , have followed , evey good christian subject must needs see and lament ? so he who was no separatist . and i hope sir , you and i are agreed , that these things last spoken of , were no part of england ' s reformation . and now sir , give me leave to tell you ( in some of your own words , preface p. . ) we were in a lamentable case as to the defence of the reformation , if we had no more to plead for it , ( than we have indeed to plead for such mischievous impositions . ) and this seems to have been the sence of the queen's council in that letter , which the modest enquiry ( p. , . ) lays before you . therefore sir , i beseech you , as you would not blast the credit , and honour of the reformation , place it not in such things , as rather brought a deformation on us . here i know not well how to reconcile you to your self . for , p. . you say , it was the great wisdom of our church not to make more things necessary ( as to practice ) than were made so at the settlement of our reformation ; but whether there be sufficient reason to alter those terms of communion which were then settled , for the sake of such whose scruples are groundless and endless , i do not take upon me here to determine . and preface p. although the arguments are very plausible one way , yet the objections are very strong another . the union of protestants , the ease of scrupulous consciences , the providing for so many poor families of ejected ministers ( but not a word of providing for so many poor congregations , and dark corners of the land , that have need of them ) are great motives on one side . but the weighty considerations on the other side , pag. . and double in number too , as you reckon . so here i see your mind , as you hold the scales , you might , and would determine that there is no sufficient reason to alter those terms of communion , which ( in the great wisdom of our church ) were setled , for the sake of such , whose scruples are groundless and endless . for certainly those arguments that are only plausible with you , would not weigh down such as are strong and cogent , nor a few motives weigh down more weighty consid●rations . but then , what did you think of , when you put that question , preface , p. . is there nothing to be done for dissenting protestants ? — do we value a few indifferent ceremonies , and some late declarations , and doubtful expressions , beyond the satisfaction of mens consciences , and the peace and stability of this church ? and how happy had england been , if such things had not been so over-valued ! as to this material question , you deliver your opinion ( you say ) freely and impartially . how sir ! what ? are you for altering what was setled in so great wisdom , by men of so great integrity , such indefatigable industry , such profound iudgment ? is this for the honour of our reformation ? is not this to blast the credit of the reformation ? i shall not take upon me , to animadvert upon the whole of your answer to this material question , presuming it will be scann'd by some of better judgment . only one or two things i cannot but take notice of . so i heartily thank you for that , p. . ( . ) notwithstanding , because the use of sacraments in a christian church ought to be the most free from all exceptions , and they ought to be so administred , as rather to invite than discourage scrupulous persons from joyning in them ; i do think , it would be a part of christian wisdom and condescension ( only here i would say , duty ) in the governours of our church , to remove those bars from a freedom in joyning in a full communion . now thanks for thus much : and hold to it , sir. tho i have two great and learned men of the church of england ( worthy of note with you ) just at hand , that grant as much of other parts of god's worship , as you do of sacraments ; scil . that they should be free from all exceptions . see hales of schism , ( in miscel. p. , , . ) and you were once of his mind , irenic . p. . and chillingworth , p. . if all men would believe the scripture , and freeing themselves from prejudice and passion , would sincerely endeavour to find the true sence of it , and live according to it , and require no more of others , but to do so ; nor denying their communion to any that do so , would so order their publick service of god , that all which do so , may without scruple , or hypocrisy , or protetestation against any part of it , joyn with them in it : who does not see that , &c. again , i cast my eye on that , p. . where you would have indulged persons to pay twelve pence a sunday for their absence from the parochial churches , which ( you say ) cannot be complained of as any heavy burthen . which such will not thank you for . you would have them indulged , and not indulged . and is twelve pence a week no burden to those , that with hard labour have much ado to maintain their families , can scarce clear twelve pence per week ? see what it is to be rich in this world , that makes some insensible of the low estate others live in . and would you have servants th● pol●●d too ? tho their wages may not amount to so much . but now at last i come to that , which i said , makes you hardly reconcileable to your 〈◊〉 . preface , p. . such a review made by wise and pe●●●able m●n , not given to wrath , and disputing , may be so far fro● being a dis●on●ur to this church , that it may add to the glory of it . and the lik● you 〈◊〉 say , of removing those bars to communion in sa●●●ments bec●●● it would be a pa●t of christian wisdom . now lay things together , dr. stilling ▪ says , preface , p. , . t●ere are strong objections and weighty considerati●●● against the alteration of the established laws , and p. . would not take upon him to determine , whether there be sufficient reason to 〈…〉 terms of communi●● settled . and yet dr. s●lling . says , preface , p , , . that an alteration would be a part of christian wisdom , and so far from being a 〈◊〉 to this church , that it would add to the glo●● of it . and 〈◊〉 on i put this query , whether man are justly charged , as bl●sting the honour of the reformation , for dissenting in such things , which it would be the churches glory to alter ? . are you imp●rtial in the account you give of the old-non-conformists , as if it was their general sence , that ministers were to forbear all preaching , when 〈◊〉 ? in the contents of your book , part. § . it is thus , [ the ●ld non - 〈◊〉 iudgment of the unlawfulness of mens preaching here , when forbidden by ●aws , full● cleared from some late objections . ] which you undertake , p. . &c. that their judgment and practice was to forbear ●rea●hing in their parish churches , while they were under suspension , i grant . and did not the present non-conformists follow them herein ? did they not generally quit the temp●es , as well as their tithes , and pr●●ts , from aug. . . yielding these to be at the magisnates dispose ? they would not that you , or others , should call their preaching ( as you do ) preaching i●●pposition to established laws , whereunto they yielded , as far as they could be satisfied it was lawful for them . but do you your self be●●●ve , that the old non-conformists thought it unlawful for them to preach at a● , when silenced ? then you cannot take them to have been very hone●● , upr●ght men , who did so ordinarily 〈◊〉 from their own principles . were not some of them glad of an opportunity of preaching in another diocess , when they might not be suffered to preach where they lived ? and were not many of them for the exercise of their ministry in private , when they were denied liberty in publick . fr. iohnson speaks of their suf●ering themselves to be deposed from their ( stated ) publick ministy , which you seem to overlook . and so i think bez● may well be understood of quitting their former publick employments ( with whose testimony you make so great a flourish , p. , . ) what! is beza for silencing , and stopping the mouths of such a number of faithful and able ministers ? — would beza , even beza , at such a time as that , be for silencing so many preachers ? — it appears that beza was not of the mind of our adversaries — that he expresseth no such terrible apprehensions at their quitting their places , as he doth at their preaching in opposition to the laws . to which i return , were not the non-conformists generally , both at that time , and since , for quitting their places , rather than holding on in publick , to the defiance of the laws ? they have desired , as far as they could , to avoid the exasperating of rulers . they were not for opposing sword to sword , as bradshaw has it ; they were not movers of sedition , nor have been to this day . and would mr. baxter , even mr. baxter , be for their silencing , yet he says , ( in his search for the english schismatick . p. . ) it is not their judgment ( speaking of the meer non-conformists ) that they are bound to preach , when by opposing violence , or the offending of rulers , it is likely to do more hurt than good , and once preaching to deprive them of all the usefulness of their lives , &c. but i doubt not , there are many christians yet alive , who can remember some of the old non-conformists , and their preaching in private houses , when suspended from preaching in churches . one writes me word , that mr. hildersam used to preach in his own house , when silenced ; and two or three families came to hear him . another special friend , helping me to a sight of some papers of mr. e. reyner ( formerly ) of lincoln , i meet with this considerable passage : for me to preach in this place , and at this time , is no way necessary , since others may do it , and i my self ( tho put by here ) may do it as well and freely elsewhere , as in new-england , ireland , scotland , holland ; yea , haply in some remote out-wing of the kingdom . and thus god ( in his ordinary providence ) doth order it , that his church gains much by this course of removing ministers , and transplanting the gospel to such places , as never heard the sound thereof before ; and in the mean while they may have time to do much good in private , &c. and i think this was the general sence of the non-conformists , that they did not look on the censure of suspension , ( if unjust ) as a sufficient discharge from the exercise of their ministry . had they thought themselves bound to cease preaching , whensoever they were prohibited by men , they were honester men , than to act so contrary to their judgment ; as they used frequently to preach , ( tho more privately , or in places where they were not known ) when suspended by the bishops . but these things were not to be publickly talkt of then , when the high commission-court was up , and there was such inquisition after their meetings . i have this account of mr. simeon ash , from one ( whose father 's house was as his home sometimes ) that when he was sought after by pursevants , coming to them , they had meetings in the night-time . another , ( a minister ) tells me he hath heard from ancient christians in ringly congregation , that mr. iohn angier , sometimes minister there , being silenced , and having his chappel suspended by the bishop of chester , used to preach to divers in his own house , till such times as he was removed to denton . i suppose , there are some in those parts ( yet alive ) that can testify so much ; mr. westowbye i well knew . his bible was his licence . the courts could not take him off , but he would be at his work , in one place or other . once after my preaching for him , ( when he was scarce able to get into the pulpit for age , and weakness accompanying it ) he entertained me with a discourse of much of his life past , the troubles and opposition he had met with in the world , and the great experience he had of the most encouraging success of his ministry under his greatest troubles , that in his travels he could write to his wife , ( as he said ) that god bad given him many children she knew not of . but to enquire after the practice of particular persons would be a tedious and endless work. you have the iudgment of the assembly , under that head of ordination , where they would have the person to be ordained , declare his sincere intentions and ends in entring into this calling : and his resolution to continue against all trouble and persecution . if that assembly were non-conformists , then you see there the iudgment of the non-conformists . but if they were generally conformists , then you see , wee have the judgment of a learned synod of conformists for us . . are you not too partial in allowing protestants to be occasionally present at some parts of worship in the roman church , and that frequently too , to hear sermons , &c. ( how far your et caetera may reach , others cannot tell , till you better inform them ) while you do not allow them to be present at the worship performed in the assemblies of dissenters ? the former you are for , pag. . to your question there , doth this make a man to have communion with the church of rome ? i answer , yea , so far as he joyns in their worship , so far he has communion with them . sure you will not deny a man to have any communion with you in hearing the word preached , who comes for that end , and that frequently too . so here you must be supposed to grant occasional communion with the roman church in hearing of sermons , &c , and that frequently too , to be lawful . now this is more than you allow to dissenters , pag. . no man denies , that more places for worship are desireable , and would be very useful , where they may be had , and the same way of worship , and order observed in them , as in our parochial churches ; where they may be under the same inspection , and ecclesiastical government . — but , is it possible that mr. b. should think the case alike , where the orders of our church are constantly neglected , the authority of the bishops is slighted and contemned ; and such meetings are kept up in affront to them , and the laws ? here you say in effect , that let parishes be never so large , and the necessities of souls never so urgent , the assemblies of dissenters are not desirable , nor to be encouraged , because not under you establish'd rule . but either you must grant , it may be lawful to joyn occasionally , and that frequently too , with the non-conformists , or you must judg them worse than popish teachers , and say that it was better for men to hear these , than such as mr. b. &c. i know not whether you might fear the least countenancing of occasional communion with non-conformists , lest any should thence argue from your own words , that constant communion with them is a duty . i am thinking however , that the papists may thank you for so much kindness to them , that you grant it lawful for protestants to be occasionally present in some parts of their worship . and let them alone to make their best of what you say , you are sure will follow , p. . and p. . as far as men judg communion lawful , it becomes a duty , and separation a sin ; under what denomination soever the persons pass . — because then separation appears most unreasonable , when occasional communion is confessed to be lawful . if they can get protestants to joyn with them ordinarily , though but in some parts of their worship at first , its possible , they would gain far more proselites by it , than non-conformists have drawn or would draw into separation . you seem to suppose great force and virtue in that salvo , p. . a man is not said to separate from every church , where he forbears or ceases to have communion ; but only from that church , with which he is obliged to hold communion . as if a christian was only obliged to communion with some one particular church . yet you will look upon your self , not only as a member of the church of england , but as a member of the catholick church . and as you are a member of the catholick church , it may possibly sometimes fall out , that you may be obliged to have communion occasionally with a dutch church , or a french church . and if non-conformists , with their assemblies may be proved as sound parts of the church catholick , as others you can freely have communion with , and while they differ from you in nothing , but if the same was removed , your churches might be every jot as sound and pure , i can see no sufficient reason why you might not as lawfully have occasional communion with them ; and then for ought i know , you may be obliged thereunto , it may be a duty . because you wholly overlook this , i thought fit to take notice of it . and further i would put you in mind of your own arguments , pag. . viz. . the general obligation upon christians to use all lawful means for preserving the peace and unity of the church . and here i ask , if there be not as great an obligation at least , upon christians to preserve peace , or promote it with all christians , as with all men : and they are bound to that , as far as possible , and as much as lies in them , rom. . . and if you supposed the present dissenters to be as bad as the donati●● , ( which you cannot in reason suppose ) yet your learned and excellent hales says , ( miscel. of schism , p. . ) why might it not be lawful to go to church with the donatists ? — if occasion so require , and ibid. p. . in all publick meetings pretending holiness , so there be nothing done but what true devotion and piety break , why may not i be present in them , and use communication with them ? the particular force of that text , phil. . . as far as you have already attained , walk by the same rule , &c. and one would think , such as have attained so much knowledg , as to see it lawful to joyn with the roman church in some parts of w●●ship , might know , it cannot but be as lawful at least to joyn in worship with non-conformi●ts . . are you not partial , when you lay this down , ( p. . ) as one of the provoking sins of the non-conformists , that they have been so backward in doing what they were convinced they might have done , with a good conscience , when they were earnestly pressed to it by those in authority , &c. ( yet you tell us not what things those are , neither the time when they were pressed thereunto , and refused the same . and i never heard of any motions or overtures for peace , that were reasonable , made to them , which they refused . ) but you never take notice of it , as any provoking sin , in those that would not hearken to their most just and earnest petition for peace . might not they with a good conscience have forborn those needless impositions , which they very well knew would be so grievous and burdensome to many ? and might not so much have been expected from them , as they would profess themselves to be for vnity and peace ? may i not here return your own words ; pag. . was ever schis●● made so light a matter of , and the peace and unity of christans valued at so low a rate ; that for the prevention of the one , and the preserevation of the other , a thing that is lawful may not be done ? ( or as i would say , that the imposing of things indifferent , and not necessary , in their own judgment , but things doubtful , or unlawful in the judgment of others , might not be forborn ? ) now , ( sir ) are you for palliating so great sin , as the causing of schism and dissention in the church , when you know , the obligation which lieth upon all christians , to preserve the peace and unity of the church , ( which you give us again , p. . ) and i find you citing these words of a. b. laud in your rational account , p , nor is he a christian that would not have unity , might he have it with truth . but i never said , nor thought , that the protestants made this rent ( dissenting protestants , say we ) the cause of the schism is yours ; for you thrust us from you , because we called for truth , and redress of abuses . and there at the end of pag. . you could not but judg it a very prudent expression of his lordship , that the church of england is not such a shre● to h●r children , as to deny her blessing , or denounce an anathema against them , if some peaceably dissent in some particulars remoter from the foundation , &c. where i observe you cannot well plead the cause of our separation from rome , without pleading something for dissenters . but to return to your impartial account , p. . you say , violation of the unity of the church , where there is no sufficient reason to justify it , is a sin , as much as murder is , and as plainly forbidden ( and in some respects aggravated beyond it , preface p. . ) all which returns upon your selves , if the ar●h-bishop's words may take place . and consider further seriously , whether there be any sufficient reason to justifie the pressing and imposing of those things , which might lawfully be forborn , when the imposing of them will certainly cause a violation of the churches unity and peac● . yet this is a thing , you take no notice of , unless it be to justify it . as p. . the church of england hath as much occasion to account those scruples unreasonable , as they do those of the ind●pendents , a●●baptists , and quakers . and pag. . so it is impossible for them to answer the anabaptists , who have as just a plea for separation from them , as they can have from the church of england . now lay these together , and what follows , but that as much is to be pleaded for the english ceremonies , and other things imposed , which the non-c●nformists stick at , as can be pleaded for the baptizing of infants , or against re-baptization ( and i may add , or against the way of the quakers . ) in the fifty queries concerning infants right to baptism , i set that down last , which ● desired they would specially observe , scil. whether the anabaptist's schism be not worse than their simple opinion ? and whether it be not desireable , and possible , that some way be found out , and terms laid down in which good and sober men on both sides might agree , and hold communion , ( as christians ? ) concerning which , something is proposed there ( from mr. b. ) to others consideration . this the author of the anti-queries took little notice of , which engaged me to mind him of it again , in my reply , p. , . and yet i have met with no other answer from him , but that he is loth at present to give an answer to it , intreating all his friends to take it into consideration , because it is a matter of moment , and common concern . ( t. g's controversy , &c. epitomised , p. . ) from whence i conclude , if such terms of moderation were offered , they would be hard put to it , scarce know what to say for a standing off , and denying to have communion with christians of a different perswasion ; but they would have enough to say against your terms : and that from your self , and not only in your irenicum , but in your rational account , p. . it is a very necessary enquiry , what the cause of ( the distance ) is , and where the main fault lies ; and it being acknowledge that there is a possibility , that corruptions may get into a christian church , and it being impossible to prove , that christianity obligeth men to communicate with a church , in all those ( they will say , in any ) corruptions , its communion may be tainted with ; it seems evident to reason , that the cause of the breach must lie there , where the corruptions are owned , and imposed , as conditions of communion , &c. i should have hoped , that at least you would have granted the conditions put upon ministers to be very hard ; yet i find nothing , but a deep silence here . tho mr. cheny says , i am satisfied that it is in it ●elf a great and `dreadful sin to silence the non-conformists . it seems here is a provoking sin , which you was willing to overlook , tho once in your sermon , p. . you were very near it . . do you speak impartially , p. , . when you tell us , you wonder , that none of us have taken any care to put any stop to separation , or to let you know , where you may fix and see an end of it ; what scruples are to be allowed , and what not ? i will say nothing for those , who are better able to speak for themselves : but for my self , i thought i had told you plainly , and sufficiently out of your irenicum ( if you will not be offended that i call it yours ) where i would have you fix . let christians stand upon the same terms now , as they did in the time of christ and his apostles . do not add other conditions of church-communion than christ hath done . ( as rector of sutton , p. , . see also p. . ) if you make no new terms , and yet others will separate from you still , the sin is theirs : but if indeed you add other terms , then beware , that you be not found the schismaticks . do not turn me off here , as you do mr. baxter's way of concord . you ●●●not justly say , we go on in impracticable notions here , or dividing principles . ( when you have that word , preface p. . as tho he had been christ's plenipotentiary upon earth , you forgot that others might as well apply it to the rector of sutton , for publishing his irenicum . ) and i hope you will not deny , but we are backt with great authority , when you consider , what king iames tells cardinal du perron , by the pen of isaac causabon , ( which mr. baxter takes notice of , direct . p. . ) his majesty thinketh , that for concord there is no nearer way , than diligently to separate things necessary from the unnecessary , and to bestow all our labour that we may agree in the things necessary , and that in things unnecessary , there may be place given for christian liberty . a golden sentence ! and there is nothing that can be proved necessary , but it must be either expresly taught , or commanded in the word of god , or deduced thence by necessary consequence . and that of the lord bacon ( essay . ) is considerable , who for the true placing the bonds of vnity , would have points fundamental , and of substance in religion , truly discerned and distinguished from points not meerly of faith , but of opinion , order , or good intention . and chillingworth is full of such impracticable notions , ( if they deserve to be so called , ) p. . — he that could assert christians to that liberty , which christ and his apostles left them , must needs to truth a most heroieal service . and seeing the over-valuing of the differences among christians , is one of the greatest maintainers of the schisme of christendom , &c. p. . certainly if protestants be faulty in this matter ( of playing the pope ) it is for doing it too much , and not too little . — take away these walls of separation , and all will quickly be one . take away this persecuting , burning , cursing , damning of men , for not subscribing to the words of men , as the words of god : require of christians only to believe christ , and to call no man master but him only ; let those leave claiming infallibility , that have no title to it ; and let them that in their words disclaim it , disclaim it likewise in their actions . in a word , take away tyranny , which is the devils instrument to support errors , and superstitions , and impieties . — i say , take away tyranny , and restore christians to their just and full liberty of captivating their vnderstanding to scripture only ; and as rivers when they have a free passage , run all to the ocean : so it may well be hoped , by god's blessing , that universal liberty thus moderated may quickly reduce christendom to truth and vnity . this citation being to long , i shall add but one more out of him , and that a shorter , p. . this is most certain , and i believe you will easily grant it , that to reduce christians to vnity of communion , there are but two ways that may be conceived probable . the one , by taking away diversity of opinions , touching matters of religion : the other , by shewing that the diversity of opinions , which is among the several sects of christians , ought to be no hinderance to their vnity in communion . last of all , i close with your rational account , p. . and therefore those lesser societies cannot in justice , make the necessary conditions of communion narrower , than those which belong to the catholick church : i. e. those things which declare men christians , ought to capacitate them for communion with christians . ( even an acknowledgment of the scriptures as the indispensible rule of faith and manners : which ( be pleased to note ) is something different from your late establish'd rule . ) now would you fix here , that those things which declare men christians , shall suffice to capacitate them for communion with you ; how many mens scruples would be removed ? and what better way can you think of , to put a stop to separation ? . are you impartial in charging all nonconformist's meetings with separation , tho very many of them ordinarily join with the parochial congregations , and do not deny them ●o be true churches , as the old separatists did ? p. . it is true , ( say you ) in that opinion they differ , but in separation they agree . as in your sermon p. . for do they not do the very same things , and in the same manner , that the others do ? how comes it then to be separation in some , and not in others ? which i answered ( rector of sutton , p. . ) thus : what they do is not done upon the separatists principles , and therefore not done in the same manner . yet you neither retract that saying of yours , nor refute my answer . and have not others as much reason to object against you , that when you receive the sacrament k●eeling , you do the same thing that the papists and lutherans do : ( i do not think it manifestly appears from the pope's manner of receiving , either sitting , or a little leaning upon his throne , as you say , p. . that the papists are allowed to follow him herein . ) how then comes that to be an act of worship in them , when with you it is no act of worship , but a ●eer indifferent ceremony ? . are you not very partial , in loading those that do not absolutely separate from you , but only secundum quid , as you do , p. , , . making their practice , that own you to be true churches , to be the more unjustifiable , more inexcusable , more unreasonable separation ? is it not a greater schism , to separate from you , as no true church , than to do it , only because you are faulty , in imposing such conditions , as they cannot lawfully submit to ? are they the greatest separatists , who hold communion with you , so far as they can ? i should think , they are the greatest separatists , whose separation is the most unjustifiable , inexcusable , and unreasonable . as i had thought , there was not so much reason to deny the being of the church of england , while she retaineth the true faith , and hath the true worship of god for substance ; as there may be to doubt of the lawfulness of ceremonies , and modes of worship , invented and imposed , without any clear scripture-warrant . and suppose one dares not receive the communion with you , because he holdeth kneeling in that act a participating with idolaters ; and another is kept off , because he suspects there may be some superstition in it ? will you say , the latter is the more unreasonable ? and do you not own those lutheran churches , that have exorcism with baptism , yet to be true churches ? and if you was placed there , must you therefore own and use exorcism , ( tho against your judgment ) or be guilty of a more inexcusable , unreasonable separation from them , than the papists , who deny them to be true churches ? . are you impartial , in allowing a different way of worship , to the members of forreign churches here in england , ( as p. , . ) while you are against allowing the like liberty to natives , which you deny not to strangers ? bishop davenant ( ad pacem eccl. adhort . p. . rat. . ) argues , that none ought to deal more hardly , with their christian brethren of other churches , than with their own . ( rom. . . ) nam fra●●rnit●s christiana quae intercedit inter membra christi non variatur pro locorum aut nationum varietate . you would have your own more hardly dealt with than those of forreign churches . now what equity is here ? either you have communion with those of forreign churches ( not withstanding their different way of worship ) or you have not . if you have no communion with them , then are you not schismaticks from those churches ? if you have communion with them , why may you not as lawfully have communion with nonconformists in their way of worship ? can you assign any just and sufficient cause ex natura rei , why such a way of worship should not be allowed ? . do you deal impartially , while you complain , p. . that no bounds are set to the peoples fancies of purer administrations ; ( concerning which i am quite mistaken , if i did not wish the rector of sutton had cautioned what he said ) and you on the other hand , set no bounds , but ( by your excepting against what mr. b. hath written of it ) would have people own , and commit the care of their souls to such ministers , as are in place , be they never so profane , insufficient , or unsound ? tho mr. cheyney ( full answer , &c. introduct . p. . ) grants , that where god doth make a difference , men may . now god doth make a difference ( says he ) between the ministry of the best and the worst , between the ministry of a john baptist and a pharisee , a living man and an image . p. . say you , and doth this kindness only belong to some of our parochial churches ? &c. where you suppose every parochial church in england to be a true church , and every parochial minister ( by consequence ) to be a true minister ; unless you would argue fallaciously there . tho i had thought it possible to have found out some few at least , whom you would have been ashamed to own . i cannot but wonder at that you urge again and again . p. . were they not baptized in this church , and received into communion with it as members of it ? p. . our business is with those , who being baptized in this church , &c. may not all those that were baptized in presbyterian , or independent congregations , as well plead their baptism , for their continuing in that way of worship , which was in the church , wherein they were baptized ? or would you have such re-baptized ? or can you prove , that unless men renounce their baptism , they must needs own diocesan churches , and the parish-minister ( howsoever unqualified ) whom the bishop sets over them ? you that could find out a mean betwixt tyranny over mens consciences , and endless separation , to wit , a prudent and due submission in lawful things , ( as pag. . ) me-thinks it is a little strange , you could think of no mean betwixt tying people to their parish minister ( though notoriously unfit for the ministry , ) and suffering them to run after quakers , or papists , p. . i suppose you approve of that saying of the bishops you cite , pag. . if he ( that was chosen ) were worthy , they would consecrate him , but not otherwise . so you would not have bishops obliged , or forced to consecrate the unworthy , neither surely should they ordain such , or grant institution and induction to such : yet i see not , but you would have people obliged to accept of them , if instituted and inducted , though it be never so apparent , and easie to prove , they are unworthy . it would seem , it is enough with you , that we have the same religion , ( publickly professed ) pag. . though some in place are never so great a scandal to religion , great enemies to it , whose ministry tends to do more harm , than good , p. . . are you impartial ? or rather , are you not uncharitable in your censure of all those , whom you condemn as separatists , and guilty of schism ? as you say to the romanist , rational account , pag. . ● . . you expresly grant a possibility of salvation , — in case of invincible ignorance ; and dare you deny it , where there is a preparation of mind to find out , and embrace the most certain way to heaven ; where all endeavours are used to that end , and where there is a consciencious obedience to the will of god , so far as it is discovered : so say i to you . but here , do not in effect charge them , with not using the best means for a right information ? otherwise you say their non-communion in the particulars scrupled , may be excused , ( p. . f. ) therefore say i , their non-communion with you ( who yet acknowledg you to be true churches ) cannot be the most inexcusable , unless you suppose them to be the most deficient in using the means for right information . do you not charge them with wilful error or mistake ? p. . there must be wilfulness in the error or mistake which doth not excuse . for i say expresly , if the error be wholly involuntary , it does excuse . so you suppose , pag. . that the terms of communion are only fancied to be sinful through prejudice , or wilful ignorance , or error of conscience . where we must understand , you would have [ wilful ] joyned to each of these , otherwise it would excuse . and you add , pag. . it is to be supposed , that where there is no plain prohibition , men may with ordinary care and judgment , satisfy themselves of the lawfulness of things required . therefore you suppose that all who are not so satisfied , 〈◊〉 men that want both ordinary care and judgment , who suffer themselves to be so easily deluded , p. . f. here i meet with a letter of some old suffering non-conformists , ( being an answer tò what a reverend conformable divine had written to them . ) some passages therein i shall transcribe , ( supposing it was never printed , that they may be new to you , though written many years since . ) — the second course you direct us to , of seeking information [ but with all humility , and prayer in the use of means ( but with all indifferency ) lest halting with god , as balaam did , we find his success ) we readily accept it , according to the measure of the truth and integrity of our hearts ; only we have cause to be humbled , and fear our own hearts ( for we speak of our selves , we judge not others ) lest any of us yield without such serious search after the truth , as you advise , and that for fear of losing what balaam gained . for ought we see , there is small hopes of gaining balaam 's ways by standing for the purity of gods ordinances , and therefore less fear of halting as balaam did , in seeking and following after that way , which exposeth us to the loss of all the chiefest comforts of this life , and which if it be not the way of truth , we are of all true-hearted english-men the most miserable . and further on , they say , — or suppose ( which god forbid ) that we were so void of christianity and humanity together , as to undo our selves ( inward and outward man , without all reason or conscience ; ) yet will you pass the same iudgment upon all those three hundred ministers , which in our memories have been deprived for that very cause , for which we suffer ? were not some of them such , as the christian world never yielded more eminent lights of sincerity and true holiness , since the apostles times ? and did misprision , or long vse make such a fell adoe in their hearts also , as to blind their consciences in this cause ? was all their patience in this cause for conscience sake , not a fruit of god's spirit in them , but a bastard of their own spirit ? ( and sir , you may be informed , how some of them suffered for preaching and keeping conventicles , as they were called , as well as for in-conformity . ) afterwards towards the conclusion , they have these words , consider whether you rightly take such things for indifferent , when they do not suffer you to carry an indifferent mind towards you poor brethren , which in them only , and in no weightier matters , do differ from you . and let me beg of you to consider it ; and once more to consider your own words , rational account , p. . but we have not so learned christ , we dare not deal so inhumanly with them in this world , much less judg so uncharitable as to another , of those who profess to fear god , and work righteousness , though they be not of the same opinion or communion with us . remember this , unless you will retract it . the last point of partiality i shall take notice of , toucheth me in particular , preface p. , . you say of that worthy person , ( whosoever he was ) who wrote the letter out of the country , he seems to write like a well-disposed gentleman , — he discourses gravely and piously , without bitterness and rancor , or any sharper reflections , &c. though he also reflects on your irenicum , yet there is no harm done . you have the same from him as it were by whole-sale , ( almost two pages together , letter , p. . ) which i return in small parcels ; yet do you not pay him off with such sharp inve●ives , as i have from you , preface p. . so now i come to consider what you say to me , preface p. . the whole design of that book doth not seem very agreeable to the christian-temper which the author pretends to . whether is it your meaning , that it is not wholly agreeable , or not at all agreeable ? whether , not agreeable in all things , or agreeable in nothing ? but is it not for moderation in such cases , wherein moderation ought to be shewn ? and is not that very agreeable to the christian-temper ? and what may others say now of your icenicum ? if what i transcribed thence , seem to you not agreeable to the christian temper , then , was you not under some great distemper , either at the writing of this latter , or that former book ? in the christian-temper i have occasion ( p. . ) to borrow something from bishop downam ; what he noteth to have always been the hypocrit guise , i there say is the genius of false zeal , s●il . to neglect the greater du●●es , and to affect the observation of the less ; to prefer circumstances before th●●obstance , and ceremonies before the works , either of piety or charity ; to place the heig●th of their religion , either in observing , or urging ceremonies , or controversies , in inveighing against them . and i say further , ( p. . ) you would not take him for a wise and careful builder , that laid the greatest weight on the weakest part of the wall. — and is that true zeal for god ? or rather is it not a selfish zeal , which is for ones own opinions ( or own party ) neglecting those things , which make most for the honour of god , and wherein the main interest of religion lieth . if i could see any thing there , or in that book , which chanceth to bear the name of the rector of sutton , that is not agreeable to the christian-temper , and to the truth , and doctrine of christ , i hope i should be ready to retract the same . ibid. for it is to pick up all the passages he could meet with ( in a book written twenty years sinc ) with great tenderness towards dissenters , before the laws were establish'd . and have you repented of that your former kindness and tenderness towards them , since the laws were against them ? but solomon tels us , a friend loveth at all times , and a brother is born for adversity . which i observed 〈◊〉 agreeable to the christian-temper , ( p. . ) and you cannot deny that which you told us twenty years since , of the magistrates power being bounded . he hath power of determining things ( undetermined by the word ) 〈◊〉 they be agreeable to the word — his laws must be regulated by the general rules of the divine law , ( rector of sutton , p. . ) that no laws of men can hinder , but what was truth , will be truth still , and what was duty , will be duty still . in what followeth , you more humbly ( as it would seem ) than truely confess ( in mr. cotton's words ) the weakness or unwariness of those expressions , which i have gathered out of your irenicum . that book was your first-born . and the first-born was the chief of their strength , psal. . . but it seems , you are for reading gen. . . principium doloris , rather than principium roboris . the beginning of your strength , is now become the beginning of your grief . thus you now let the world know indeed , that whereas you had written much , favouring the cause of dissenters , your thoughts at last are changed , as to those things and persons too . next you fall hotly on me , [ and , have you not very well required the author of that book , for the tenderness and pitty he had for you , and the concernment he then expressed , to have brought you upon easier terms , &c. ] reverend sir , i hope you will give me leave to speak , when i am thus spoken to . i suppose you expect my answer , when you put questions so close to me . first then , i thank you for your good pains taken in that book , and for your truly christian design in it , so agreeable to the christian-temper ; though it hath been unsuccesful . i doubt not yet , but that book will stand as a witness before god and the world against many , who can never answer that strength of reason in it , an evidence of truth , against unn●cessary , rigorous , mischievous impositions ; and yet were for pressing , and are still for continuing them upon us . but it is no ill requital of the author , that i have an esteem of his work. and if you can reconcile the scope of your sermon with what i cite out of your former writings , do your self that right . or if you can , refute those collections ; otherwise such as meet with them may be tempted to think you self-condemned when you say , you wrote in tenderness , &c. i hope , you did not only play the orator , make a flourish meerly with words ; or plead our cause against your own judgment ; nor acted the part of politician , as hoping to engage a party ; but wrote your judgment , as a sober ( and indeed well studied ) divine . will you say , you wrote partially then , as swayed with your pitty and tenderness towards dissenters ? how then shall we be satisfied , and assured , that you have not written partially of late , out of overmuch fondn●ss on conformity ? if you wrote impartially , your judgment , and reason deserves to be regarded , till you , or some other for you , bring greater str●●gth of reason to prove you was then in an error . you pleaded wel● for 〈◊〉 ●●ms , and what can you say now , what have you thought of since to justify mens imposing harder terms ? how can you answer your own interrogatories , [ what ground can there be , why christians should not stand upon the same terms now , which they did in the time of christ and his apost es ? and , whether do they consult the churches peace and vnity , who suspend it upon such things , ( as you know what ? ) how far doth the example of our saviour or his apostles warrant such rigorous impositions ? ] rector of sutton , pag. , . you express your having been concerned to have brought us in , — but were not many of us in , both in the church , and in the ministry , before we were put out by the late impositions● by this expression of yours , it would seem , your church is a new church , lately erected , standing upon new terms , ( which i shall have occasion again to take notice of . ) but were we not true ministers before ? had we not a valid ordination ? deny it if you can . and if we were true ministers before , then it is a great question , whether we are not so still , ( unless you can prove we were justly degraded . ) and consequently , whether we are not obliged to the exercise of our ministry , as we may have opportunity ? preface p. . and hath he now deserved this at your hands , to have them all thrown down in his ●ace , and to be thus upbraided with his former kindness ? is this your ingenuity , your gratitude , your christian-temper ? now are not these pretty sharp reflections ? if you can justly charge me with any bitterness and rancor , &c. i shall acknowledg such things not agreeable to the christian-temper , and would be ashamed of them . if you are ashamed to own your former principles , many will judg , it is without cause . it may prove you fallen from those sober principles , but it will not prove those principles false . when you speak of my throwing them in your face , my design was not to cast dirt upon so worthy a person . what i alledged , i took to be matter of argument , and with this advantage , ad hominem . i know no reason you have to be sorry for what you wrote formerly , tending to peace and vnion , as you may have cause to be sorry for what looks another way . i should have thought , the method i took ( minding you how much you had said against such an establisht rule , as you would now bring us under ) might have tended to moderate , rather than exasperate you . what if you have since changed your opinion ? yet me-thinks , you should not judge those former principles of yours so sinful and dangerous , that none are fit to be tolerated in the church who hold to them . how happy and glorious would the church of england be , had she no worse teachers , than dr. stilling fleet was , when he maintained those principles ? or if you do account them so sinful and dangerous , are you not the more obliged to disprove and refute them ? which you will find as hard a task , as it would have been to grotius , had he gone about the confutation of what he had written de satisfactione christi . you go on , are you afraid of having too many friends , that you thus use those , whom you once took to be such ? me-thinks herein you appear very self-denying . i am not careful to answer in this matter . but is it so , that we have quite lost you ? will you no more stand our friend ? where is then the kindness you spake of ? i remember , dr. borrel silenced me , when i had been silenced not two months before : but i could not have thought years ago , that when we were driven into corners , dr. st. would be for driving us out of our corners too , even he that could plead so well for us , that we might enjoy publick liberty . here i look back to that ( preface , p. . ) they would have had me preached for alterations and abatements , and taking away ceremonies and subscriptions , — and then i might have been thought to have preached a very seasonable sermon . this indeed would have shewed , that you was still our friend , and not our● only , but as good a friend to this poor church and kingdom . to plead for all abatements that ( with the honour of god , and safety of true religion ) might be granted to dissenters , for the uniting and strengthening of the protestant interest , in such danger to be trodden down by the common enemy , would certainly be more seasonable , than this work you are engaged in . i would know , whether that speech of the bishop of st. david's in the convocation-house , may , , was not seasonable ? can it ever be unseasonable , moving for the due liberty of grave , honest , sound , and conscientious men , such as the church hath need of at all times , and whose labours might be very profitable ? and then , whether pleading for abatements at this day be not as seasonable ? i put a great difference ( said he ) between quid liceat , and quid expediat , — and then speaking of those who were scrupulous only upon some ceremonies , and other circumstances , being otherwise learned , studious , grave and honest men , whose labours have been both painful in the church , and profitable to their several congregations , ( he says ) though i do not justify their doings , yet surely their service would be missed , at such time as need shall require them , and us to give the right hand of fellowship one to another , and to go arm in arm against the common adversary , that so there might be vis unita fortior . — if these our breth●en aforesaid should be deprived of their places for the matters premised , i think 〈…〉 cause to bend our wits to the uttermost extent of our skill to provide 〈◊〉 cure of souls for them , where they may exercise their talents . furthermore , if these men , being divers hundreds ( as it is 〈…〉 ) should forsake their charges ( as some do presuppose they will ) who i 〈◊〉 should succeed them . — besides this , for so much as in the life-time of the late arch-bishop of canterbury , these things were not so extreamly urged , but that many learned preachers enjoyed their liberty herein , conditionally that they did not by word or deed openly disgrace , or disturb the state established ; i would know a reason , why it should now be so generally and exceeding strictly called upon , especially seeing that those men are now the more necessary , by so much as we see greater increase of papists to be now of late , than were before . to conclude , i wish , that if by petition made to the king's majesty , there cannot be obtained a quite remove of the premises , which seem so grievous to divers , not yet a toleration for them , which be of the more staid , and temperate carriage ; yet at the least , there might be procured a mitigation of the penalty , if they cannot be drawn by other reasons to a conformity with us . thus the bishop of st. david's . and if all the bishops in england were of his mind , and would move for their ministerial liberty , whose service is needful , at such a time as this especially , whether would it not be very seasonable ? and if you had a kindness , and pity for dissenters , is there not the same reason for it still ? and is not this very iuncture of time as good an occasion , as ever you may have to shew it ? you say further to me , preface p. . but i cannot take you to be any of the wisest men upon earth . ] and i should wonder if you did . but you know what diogenes said to one that told him , many mocked him . but ( said he ) i am not mocked . i might well expect your contempt , when i see you contemning such , whose books i am not worthy to carry after them . yet it may be questioned here , whether you take not your self to be wiser , than the wisdome of the whole nation in parliament , comparing your preface p. , &c. with the declared sense of that great and honorable council ? pref. p. . you say , these are all the things which appear to me reasonable to be allowed in order to an union . so that if they were inclined to have gone further , therein they appeared to you not very considerate , or reasonable . when you think it reasonable , that upon longer time , and farther consideration , those divines of the assembly , who then opposed separation , should change their opinions : [ but where find you this in what i wrote ] will you not allow one single person ( but stupendae eruditionis theologum , as the latine apologist then called you , pag. . ) who happened to write about these matters when he was very young ; ( as you may say , mr. ioseph alleyn was very young , when he was very ripe ) in twenty years time of the most busie and thoughtful part of his life , to see reason to alter his judgment ? and yet you was as close a student in that former part of your life , and as free from other business , from diversions , and temptations , as can be supposed you have been since . but you should be allowed to alter your iudgment , and none can blame you , if it be for the better . only in this case , you should be so just , and charitable , as to let us know your reasons , that if they be sound , we may see cause to alter ours . i hope , you will not say , then was then , and now is now . and can you now assure us , that you shall not alter your present judgment once again within twenty years ? we read of bishops that have cried peccavimus again and again , and of councils doing and undoing again , and sometimes in less than twenty years . but after all this , wherein is it that he hath thus contradicted himself ? is it in the point of separation , which is the present business ? no , so far from it , that in that very book , he speaks as fully concerning the unlawfulness of separation , as in this sermon , which will appear by these particulars in it . if by separation , you mean a separation from any church upon any slight , trivial , unnecessary cause , as you define schism , irenic . p. . i am not for such a separation . but perhaps some may tell you , that if you separate from such assemblies as mr. b. &c. when you might have occasional communion with them , you do it upon far less cause , than many separate from those of yours , where they are required to joyn in practices more to be suspected . if by separation you mean any assembling for the worship of god , otherwise than according to your establisht rule ; and so condemn the assemblies of meer non-conformists , that are not of schismatical principles ; yea , even their occasional meetings , and those kept off from the times of publick worship in the parochial congregations , i doubt not but the lawfulness of such assemblies is , and shall be evidently proved from that book . preface p. , . which will appear by these particulars in it . ( . ) irenic . p. . that it is unlawful to set up new churches , because they cannot conform to such practices which they suspect to be unlawful . ( . ) those are new churches , when men erect distinct societies for worship , under distinct and peculiar officers , governing by laws , and church-rules , different from that form they separate from . ( . ) p. . as to things in the judgment of the primtive and reformed churches left undetermined by the laws of god , and in matters of meer order and decency , and wholly as to the form of government , every one , notwithstanding what his private judgment may be of them , is bound for the peace of the church of god , to sub mit to the determination of the church . allow but these three conclusions , and defend the present separation if you can . ad trianos ventum est , i hope now we shall come to something . methinks , we have been too long beating ab●ut the bush. and yet i am kept off a while seeing you taking up a good part of two pages to no purpose ; unless it be to perswade your readers , that i was unwilling to take notice of that , which you cannot but grant i do take notice of , viz. that you distinguish betwixt n●n-communion in unlawful , or suspected rites or practices in a church and entring into distinct societies for worship . and it were strange , if i had over-look'd , or was unwilling , the readers should see these conclusions of yours , when you cannot but say , i there cite the very pages , rector of sutton p. . a nd i can say , i gave them what i thought might seem material . th●y will ●ind but two conclusions in irenicum ; your second conclusion here is there but an explication of the first . and what i granted you , is all you can make of them , to your purpose here . and did i not acknowledg , again and again there , that the primitive and reformed churches were two of your iudges ? and what advantage you will get by that , or any of these conclusions , we shall now see . me-thinks , i have this advantage that you here own these three conclusions . when you would have me to allow them ; it is to be supposed , that you allow them your self . yea , you say of them , these are most p●rtinent and material . therefore i shall go over them again . conclusion . that it is unlawful to set up new churches , because they cannot conform to such practices , which they suspect to be unlawfull . here , . i urge you with what you say , ir●nic . p. . withdrawing communion from a church in unlawful or suspected things , doth not lay men under the guilt of schism . you say , men may lawfully deny communion with a church in such things . i say , men cannot lawfully have communion in such things . as king iames , ( on the lord's prayer , pag. . ) it is a good and sure rule in theology , in matters of god's worship , quod dubitas nè f●ceris . so hales ( miscel. of schism , p. . ) not only in reason , but in religion too , that maxim admits of no release , caut●shmi cujusque praeceptum , quod dubitas nè feceris . and mr. r. hooker , ( preface to his eceles . polit. ● . . ) not that i judg it a thing allowable for men to observe those laws , which in their hearts they are stedfastly p●rswaded to be against the law of god. what he says further there , of men being bound to suspend their perswasion in matters determined by governours , which they have not demonstrative reasons against , you very well take off . irenic . p. , . no true protestant can swear blind obedience to church-governours , &c. and certainly , it is neither in a mans power to suspend his own perswasion , or lay aside his doubts ad libitum , no● is he allowed to act against his own judgment and conscience ( though mis-informed . ) that man sinneth without doubt , who ventureth on practices he suspects to be sinful ( though in themselves the practices be lawful . ) what the apostle saith , rom . , , . puts the matter out of dispute . now to joyn in common-prayer is an unlawful , or suspected practice to some . they take it to be polluted with superstition . perhaps they take communion herein to be a sinful symbolizing with the papists , for what king edward , and king iames said of it . and if you should tell them our service-book is reformed ; it is possible , some may now reply , how can you say so ? will you blast the credit of , and cast a reproach upon our first reformers ? again , baptizing with the sign of the cross , and kneeling in the act of receiving the sacrament , ( as it were before the sacramental elements ) are suspected unlawful practices to many . and thus they are barred from communion with you in sacraments . and therefore you had no reason to slight others modest expressions here , as you do , pag. . [ they judg , they think , they esteem them unlawful , and they cannot be satisfied about them . ] though you are far short of answering all that hath been said to prove some things enjoyned unlawful ; yet suppose a man ignorant , erring and mistaken here ( not without fault ) notwithstanding he must suspend his own act till he be better informed , and satisfied about it . and here i would again mind you of those significant expressions , irenic . pag. . let men turn and wind themselves which way they will , by the very same arguments that any will prove separation from the church of rome lawful , because she required unlawful things , as conditions of her communion , it will be proved lawful not to conform to any suspected or unlawful practice required by any church-governours upon the same terms , ▪ if the thing so required , be after serious and sober enquiry , judged unwarrantable by a man 's own conscience . which ( with more you have in that page , and the page before it ) cuts off your third particular , preface p. . here now i have gained so much ground of you . such are necessitated to withdraw from your communion , who must otherwise joyn in some unlawful or suspected practice . as chillingworth , p. . to do ill that you may do well , is against the will of god , which to every good man is a high degree of necessity . and say you , rational account , p. . can any one imagine it should be a fault in any to keep off from communion , where they are so far from being obliged to it , that they have an obligation to the contrary , from the principles of their common christianity . here i assume , they are bound by the principles of common chrisianity to keep off from communion with you , that know they should certainly sin , if they held communion with you , because they should then joyn in suspected ●ractices , and things , which after enquiry , their consciences tell them are unlawful . ergo , you must say , it cannot be a fault in such to keep off from communion with you . though i would grant them faulty so far as any keep off through prejudice , error , ignorance ; yet so far as these are involuntary , they are more excusable , than to go directly cross to their own consciences here . so therefore such are necessitated to withdraw communion from you , who would certainly sin , if they held communion with you , judging such communion to be sinful . . if you say here , what is this to a positive separation , which is the present business ? you shall see , it is something towards it . you are come a fair step on the way . once grant that it is lawful for men ( or that men are necessitated ) to deny communion with you in unlawful , or ( but ) suspected practices , which are unlawful to them , and you come presently to the point . allowing them to withdraw from yours , you must allow them to joyn in some other christian assembly ; unless you would have them utterly deprived of the worship of god , and to live like heathens : as you say well , irenic . p. . every christian is under an obligation to joyn in church society with others ; because it is his duty to profess himself a christian , and to own his religion publickly , and to partake of the ordinances and sacraments of the gospel , which cannot be without society with some church or other . so then , christians that cannot enjoy sacraments with you , must joyn with some other society , where they may enjoy them . and further , take notice of that remarkable assertion , in your rational account , p. . and apply it here , as far as there is cause , our assertion therefore is , that the church and court of rome are guilty of this schism , — by forcing men ( n. b. ) if they would not damn their souls by sinning against their consciences , in approving the errors and corruptions of the roman church , to joyn together ( n. b. ) for the solemn worship of god , according to the rule of scripture , and practice of the primitive church , and suspending ( i suppose it should have been , and to suspend ) communion with that church till those abuses and corruptions be redressed . and i observe further , ibid. p. . you would not have men bound to communion with a particular church , but in subordination to god's honour , and the salvation of their souls . yea , you say , men are bound not to communicate in those lesser societies , where such things are imposed , as are directly repugnant to these ends. and where men should be forced to damn their souls by sinning against their consciences , would not this be directly repugnant ? and yet are not such bound to joyn together for the solemn worship of god , &c. you see now how far i have brought you , even on your own grounds : how you will get off , i know not . then might it not have been expected , that you would have been more favourable , and charitable towards the assemblies of those ministers and christians , that are kept off from you by unlawful terms , or at least such unnecessary terms as are to them unlawful ? you speak more temperately , rational account , pag. . here let me use some of your own words there , which something favour those assemblies , you now engage so zealously against , by their declaring the grounds of their separation to be such errors and corruptions , which are crept into the communion of your church , and imposed on them in order to it , they withal declare their readiness to joyn with you again , if those errors and corruptions be left out . ☞ and where there is this readiness of communion , there is no absolute separation from the church as such , but only suspending communion till such abuses be reformed . this they 'l say is very good . but now in your new impartial account , preface pag. . you speak in another dialect , would they have had me represented that as no sin , which i think to be so great a one ; or those as not guilty , whom in my conscience i thought to be guilty of it ? would they have had me suffered this sin to have lain upon them without reproving it ? &c. ( what ? that which is as plain a sin as murder , pag. . which is really as great and as dangerous a sin , as murder ; and in some respects aggravated beyond it , preface p. . ) and yet on the other hand , would you have them conform to you , though against their consciences ? would that be no sin ? would god be wel-pleased with such service , as was done but to please men , while their consciences ( in the mean while ) condemned them for it ? can you say bonâ fide , that it is better , more pleasing to god , that men conform to your modes and ceremonies , though they have real doubts of conscience , that they are unlawful ; or better , they should live without god's publick worship and ordinances , then to joyn with such as the non-conformists ? that this is as the sin of murder ! dare you go , or send to all the dissenters in your parish ( supposing you take them to belong to your charge ) and give 'm it under your hand , that though they are still unsatisfied , ( after all you have said and written ) though they believe , they should offend god , if they joyned with you upon such terms ; yet i say , durst you give it under your hand , that they would do better to joyn in your way of worship , than in that of the non-conformists ; though they have no more doubt of joyning with the latter , than you had heretofore ? if you are clear in the point , have you done this ? or why do you neglect your duty towards them ? why do you not endeavour to bring them in , or lay the sin at their door ? but i observe , you would have care taken , ( preface p. . ) that there be no pretence left for idle , loose , and profane persons , never going to any church at all ; whence i conclude , that you cannot but allow it , that such as are not satisfied to joyn with you , yet ought to joyn in god's worship elsewhere : and that in your serious thoughts you judg it better for persons to joyn with congregations , that hold communion in your way of worship unlawful ( for of such you are speaking in that place ) than to be of no christian society , than not to attend at all on god's worship . here , if you would not be offended , i shall tell you , what a plain christian , a neighbour of mine , said of you ; i can remember , i have seen him at the sacrament with some of you , ( abov● years ago ) and would he now have poor , hungry souls deprived of such ordinancees and means of grace , that cannot be satisfied to partake of them in his way ? if any were a cause of depriving so many thousands of their bodily food , as he would have deprived of food for their souls , what would the world say of such ? whereby he seemed to think your sin as great , as murder , and in some respects , aggravated beyond it . ( as he may likewise think , the sin of those that care not unnecessarily to offend others , or would cause them to offend , to be a kind of murder , in the apostles account , rom. . . — now walkest thou not charitably ? destroy not him with thy meat for whom christ died . ) such was the honest man's zeal , he would have written to you , to put it to your conscience , ( as he said ) but i thought this intimation from him sufficient . . i find you so kind , or just , you help such to ministers , those that cannot conform . irenic . p. , you say , it belongs to the magistrate , to see that ministers preach the true doctrine , though he cannot lawfully forbid the true doctrine to be taught ; and that they duly administer the sacraments , though he cannot command them to administer them otherwise than christ hath delivered them down to us . ( and that christ did not deliver the sign of the cross down to us with baptism , i suppose the highest conformists will grant . ) this gives some hopes , such may lawfully preach still , whom others cannot lawfully forbid preaching . and you tell us from another ( vnreasonableness of separation , pag. . ) that cranmer held himself for a arch-bishop still , and was by q. marry forcibly restrained from it . — latimer though he renounced his bishoprick , yet he kept his ministry , and never repented him of it . and ibid. p. . you say , the question is not , whether all publick worship be sinful , when forbidden ? ( which you never said , or thought , as you tell us in the same page ) — i abhor and detest such principles , as to set up man's laws above god's . this is good . and you seem to allow , that such publick worship , as hath no evil in it , antecedent to the prohibition , may not be forbidden . very good still . all the question here is , whether there be not schism in it ? for i hope , you shall never find idolatry or sedition in that worship , i would plead for . now as for the charge of schism , do but allow ministers equal favour with others , and you have said enough to clear them , iren. p. , , , . charge not them with schism upon account of their distinct meetings , who are driven into them by your over-rigorours impositions . you know well how great a matter this imposing unlawful conditions is with chillingworth , to warrant separation . how oft he is upon it , in chap. . where p. . ● . . he hath the confidence to tell his adversary , you mistake in thinking that protestants hold themseves obliged not to communicate with you only , or principally by reason of your errors and corruptions . for the true reason ( according to my third observation ) is not so much because you maintain errors and corruptions , as because you impose them , &c. ( like your pleading for non-conformists , irenic . p. . ) so ball of separation , pag. . the lord needeth not mans lie , neither doth he allow us to do evil that good may come thereof : and therefore i must not subscribe to an error against conscience , though never so innocent , nor profess approbation of that which in conscience i cannot allow , though never so small , &c. but thus are many ministers driven from you , who neither dare lay down their ministry , nor take the charge of parochial congregations on them , upon such hard , that is , sinful terms . for ( to borrow an expression of dr. potter's ) though in the issue the errors be not damnable to them , which believe as they profess , yet for us to profess , &c. what we believe not , were without question damnable . now may i come in with my conclusion : it is this . conclusion . it becomes unavoidable necessary for such ministers and christians as cannot in conscience submit to your terms , and conform to your way of worship , neither may lawfully lay aside their ministry , nor live without god's worship and ordinances , to be for other assemblies than yours , where the one may exercise their ministry , and the other ( with such ministers ) may partake of god's ordinances , and joyn in his worship , which you call setting up of new churches . after the drawing up of this , looking into corbet of church-unity and schism , i find something to this purpose , pag. , . though indeed i took my hints from you here . now because i would not leave this proposition so naked , as yours stands , i shall here offer something , . on the behalf of ministers . . on the behalf of private christians . on the behalf of such ministers . . you cannot deny , but the ministers , who are forced to stand off from you , were ( at least very many of them ) duly qualified for , and had a sufficient , valid call to the office of the ministry , that they were god's ministers , christ's ministers , before their ejection . you cannot deny , but the mediate call is from god , and christ , even as well as the immediate call was . those two texts , act. . . cor. . . ( to name no more ) fully prove it . . though it is not questioned by us , but the clergy is under the iurisdiction of the prince , ministers ( as well as others ) under the civil magistrate , and that they may ( where there is just cause ) by him be deprived of their publick liberty , and may be imprisoned , banished , put to death ; yet without just cause ( as male-administration , or matter of scandal , rendring them unfit , to use your own words ) no power on earth ( whether civil or ecclesiastical ) may turn those out of the ministry , whom god hath called to it . rulers , bishops may neither put in , nor put out of this office , as they list . men may neither admit into , nor put from the ministry , meerly at their their own pleasure , but only according to christ's will and appointment . for his officers and servants they are . and christ hath , by his apostles ( whose authority is certainly superior to that of the greatest bishops and councils that ever were ) described the office , and how persons are to be qualified for it . and when such have been called to the office , while they give no just cause for suspension and degradation , christ looks on them as his ministers still , and accordingly his will is that men own them as such . and they that despise them , may therein ● in a degree ) be guilty of despising christ. chemnitius ( loc. com . par . . p. . col . . ) speaks fully to the purpose , thus ; as god alone properly claims to himself the right of calling , even when the call is mediate ; so also properly it belongs to god ●o remove one from the ministry . therefore so long as god suffers in the ministry his servant teaching rightly , and living blamelesly , ecclesia non habet potestatem alienum servum amovendi , the church hath no power ( authority ) of putting away another's servant . but when be no further edifies either by his doctrine , or life , but destroys the church , then god himself removes him . . if what you have said formerly ( remark'd in rector of sutton , p. . ) hold true , ( and you have not hitherto disproved the same ) then you must yield , the present non-conformist ministers have not been suspended , and cast out for any just cause . and may i not also add , if clement say true , as you cite him here , ( vnreasonableness of separation , p. , . ) those therefore who were appointed by them , or other eminent men , the whole church being therewith wel-pleased , discharging their office with humility , quietness , readiness , and unblameableness , and being men of a long time of good report , we think such men cannot justly be cast out of their office. though in the heat of disputation , your opinion seems to be changed of persons , as well as things ; yet i hope in cool blood you would not deny , but such a character agrees to many non-conformists ; that you should think , they cannot justly be cast out of office. and i doubt not , but you are well acqainted with that old canon , that no bishop or priest should be taken into another's place , if the former were blameless . . if still they are in office , as ministers of christ , are they not obliged to serve him in that office , as they have a call and opportunity ? ( see again rector of sutton , pag. , , . ) they must not neglect the gift that is in them . sad was the doom of the vnprofitable servant , that buried his talent ! the teacher must wait on teaching . i suppose , all christ's ministers are concerned in that solemn charge , . tim. . , . and they are to take heed to the ministry , which they have received ; even though men forbid them . you abhor and detest such principles , as to set man's laws above god's laws . and though they be threatned with persecution for it ; when they are persecuted in one city , they may flee to another , mat. . . yet must they not run away from their work , but be carrying that on in other places , where they come , according to their ability and opportunity . prudence directed them , ioh. . . to meet privately there , at evening , keeping the door shut , for fear of the jews ; yet meet they would . if ministers be driven from their former flocks , yet are they men in office , and preach as such , not only as gifted men , in what other place soever god ( by his providence ) calls them to bestow their pains . they are teachers by office , to more than their proper charges , even to as many as they have a providential call , hic & nunc , to preach unto . so it appears , men cannot lawfully silence christ's ministers , without just cause ; or if they do , that such decree and sentence does not oblige conscience . i have it from mr. b. church history , p. , . the dominican inquisitor that reasoned the matter with the bohemians , would have silenced , excommunicated priests bound to cease preaching : but had the wit to add [ if silenced for a reasonable cause , ] and to confess , sententia injuste lata à suo judice , si errorem inducat , vel peccatum mortale afferet , nec timenda est , nec tenenda . the old bohemian reformers held , ( as ibid. p. . ) every priest and deacon is bound to preach god's word freely , or he sinneth mortally ; and after ordination he should not cease , no , not when excommunicated , because he must obey god rather than man. i see in carranza ( fol. . ) it was one of the articles , for which the council of constance sentenced i. wickliffe's bones to be digg'd up and burnt , ( art. . ) they that leave off to preach , or hear god's word for men's excommunication , are excommunicate : and you ( that have greater store of authors , and choice books , then such as i must ever hope to have the advantage of● you , i say ) i doubt not have , what others add ; they are excommunicate , and in the day of iudgment shall be judged traitors to christ. and these were among the articles , for which i. husse was condemned , carranza , ●ol . . art. , . a priest of christ living according to his law , and having the knowledg of the scripture , and a working to edify the people , ought to preach notwithstanding any pretended excommunication . and , every one that comes to the office of a pri●st , hath a command to preach , and ought to obey that command , notwithstanding excommunication . and these you know were before our oldest non-conformists . . but now ( sir ) that i may come home to you : if ministers were bound to cease preaching , to lay aside their ministry , when silenced unjustly , then at what a miserable loss might the church be left ? and if you could scarce satisfy your selves to see her at such a loss , we may very well hope , christ would not have her left at such a loss . his care of his church ( no doubt ) is greater than yours would be . because you seem not to take any notice of what i said , ( rect. of sutton , p. . ) give me leave here to mind you of it again . what a woful case the church was in , if she might be deprived of all , or the greatest and soundest part of her ministers at man's pleasure ? and further , pag. . i put a case , shewing that if what you would have , be admitted , it might fare a great deal the worse with the church under orthodox bishops , ( and governours ) than if they were grand hereticks . but to come to the point i aim at ; you know when almost two thousand ministers were cut off from their publick ministerial work ( as it were ) in one day , by a law of conformity . now let us suppose the minds of rulers to change ( which is not naturally impossible ) and put the case that your conformity should be made as great a crime , as non-conformity hath been , and yet , the true religion acknowledged , and the true doctrine of faith owned , ( as you say here , pag. . ● . . ) though i find mr. phil. nye , ( who is a very considerable person with you , preface , p. . ) in his beams of light , pag. . saying , let the same impositions and penalties be put into the other scale , against epis●pacy and ceremonies : if the law had said , it shall be the loss of a man's living to practise or preach for episcopacy , common-prayer-book , or ceremonies ; these things even in their own opinions would have been light as vanity , ( p. . ) yet for what you say , preface , p. . i am to suppose , he was under a mistake . for we must not think ( as you tell us there ) that the friends of the church of england will be either afraid , or ashamed to own her cause , — or that you will give up the cause of the church , — so as to condemn its constitution , or make the ceremonies unlawful , which have been hitherto observed and practised in it . now suppose ye were all outed of your livings , because ye could not , or would not declare your assent and consent to the utter abolishing of such things ; i besee●h you , tell us sincerely , what you would do in such a case , and would have others of your brethren to do ? do you judg it the duty of pastors to go on in passing a just censure ( though against the will of the magistrate , as i urged you with it , rector of sutton , p. . ) and yet would you wholly lay aside the office of the ministry , and preach the gospel no more , rather than c●oss his will ? would ye think your selves no more concerned to endeavour to keep up the exercise of true religion ( as you might ) when it was against the will of the magistrate ? if only such as the non-conformists were in place , you would be forced to confess , that , the true religion was yet maintained and preached in publick assemblies , ( as pag. . ) and that there was an agreement in all the substantials of religion , between you and them ; and therefore ( according to your arguing , pag. . ) you could not exercise ( though more privately ) when turn'd out of your livings , but such faults as sedition , or schism , &c. would be found in your meetings . make the case of dissenters your own , suppose your selves in the like circumstances , and i doubt not , you will see cause to judg more favourably of them . do but allow them to do , as you would do your selves in the like case , and i hope , this dispute will soon be at an end. here i shall take off all you say to that question i proposed , rector of sutton , p. . and may it not be a question , whether they can properly be said to erect new churches , or to proceed to the forming of separate congregations , who were true ministers , and had their congregations before others came into their places ? if they had done nothing ( n. b. ) worthy of ejection , or exclusion from their ministry , whether they have not still a right to exercise their function ? &c. you migh have done well to have joyned my tenth query ( pag. . ) with it , and to have considered both together . but what say you to this ? vnreasonableness of separation , p. . there is not one word in all this plea , but might have equally served the papists in the beginning of the reformation . how sir ! are you in good earnest ? not one word but might equally have served the papists ? why , certainly you wrote in haste , and forgot your self ; or else it is your judgment , that the popish bishops and priests had done nothing worthy of ejection , or exclusion from their offices , that they had still a right to exercise their functions . and yet you argue it , ( rational account , pag. . ) that they were justly deprived . how can these things stand together ? they had done nothing worthy of ejection , and yet were justly deprived . you seem to have a great conceit of this poor shift ; we had it but a page or two before , pag. . the papists then had the very same plea , that these men have now . so you must say , and argue thus , the ministers of antichrist ( and those such as were state-incendiaries too ) might justly be cast out by law ; ergo , so may true ministers of christ , ( though peaceable , and loyal . ) i grant the antecedent , but do you prove the consequent . but what have you further to say to me ? for indeed what you have yet said here , is worse than nothing . but in what follows , the reader may think , you had a good mind to pay me home . for the law signifies nothing with them in any case , where themselves are concerned . if ministers be ejected without or against law , they who come into their place are no usurpers ; and if they are cast out by law , they that succeed them are usurpers ; so that the law is always the least thing in their consideration . now i thank you for this . but is there here no sharp reflection ? do you not here bewray some undecent passion , which you so condemn others for ? are not these things invidiously spoken ? would you not here be raking into old sores , &c. contrary to what you say in your preface , p. , ? but did you think to pinch me here , who never was in a sequestred living , nor my predecessor before me ; but came in upon the choice of the people , none opposing ? you thought to give us a dry blow here , never considering that it would reach as many , if not more conformists ; though it could not once touch him , you seem especially to direct it to . 〈◊〉 thus far of ministers exercising , though silenced , if silenced for no 〈◊〉 . now , ii. to say something on the behalf of the people that hear them . . they are under an obligation to worship god in society with other christians , with respect to god's glory , and their own edification , and salvation . they are charged , not to forsake the assembling of themselves together . and commanded to be swift to hear . . the way is blockt up so , as many cannot come to your assemblies , unless ( to use your own phrase ) you would have them damn their souls by sinning against their consciences . and if you judge it better for such to want the ordinary means of salvation , than to enjoy them , by joyning with non-conformists , we must take you to be no more infallible herein , than that popish council , that decreed it righter to remain without visible communion , than to have it with those they call hereticks . . some ( though they could dispense with the liturgy and ceremonies , yet ) cannot satisfie themselves to take up under some parish-ministers , who are apparently no way qualified for the work they take upon them . i take the th canon of the council of nice , to be for nulling the ordination of such as are scandalous , or insufficient . you are not for the people's choosing their pastors ; but it is evident and undeniable , that they are to refuse some . beware of false prophets . beware of them , i. e. fly from their communion , and have nothing to do with them ( as you say , p. . ) they are to flee from corrupt teachers , as from wolves . as the people forsook photinus , of whom vincent lyrinen ( adv . haeres . c. . p. . ) saith , nam quem antea quasi arietem gregis sequebantur , eundem deinceps veluti lupum fugere caeperunt , ( which you have also noted , irenic . p. . ) some are blind guides . and may not people very well be startled with what christ saith concerning such ? if the blind lead the blind , both shall fall into the ditch . and have you forgotten , or have you retracted that , in answer to several treatises , p. . ( cited in rector of sutton p. . ) men may have reason to question , if not the skill , yet the sincerity of their guides , and though they must have some , may seek new ones . — the ignorant follow their guides only upon the opinion of their skill and integrity ▪ and when they see reason to question these , they know of no obligation to follow their conduct over rocks and precipices . and yet is it now a loose principle ? some the people are to mark and avoid , rom. . . some they must not bid god speed , joh. v. , . there are three cases , ( you say vnreas . of sep. p. . ) wherein the scripture allows of separation . the second , is ( p. . ) in case of false doctrine being imposed instead of true . — ☞ if any teachers offer to bring another gospel , or to corrupt the true one , st. paul denounces an anathema against them : and that implies , that they should have no communion with them , &c. now do you not here make the people iudges of such heretical teachers , whom ( i suppose ) by an ironie you call admirable iudges ? p. . yet for them to own and incourage such , is to partake of their evil deeds . if mr. b. saith , as you have it there , [ any one whose ministry is such as tendeth to destruction more than to edification , and to do more harm than good , is not to be owned ; ] i wonder what you have to say for such , when better may be had ? camero speaks to the same purpose , as mr. b. ( pag. . col . . ) si non faciant quod spondet tanti muneris professio deserendi sunt , nam parendum deo potius quàm hominibus ; ut siquis medicinam professus , &c. if any one having professed physick , should not cure , but exasperate the disease , truly he should be forsaken , and another is to be chosen in his room . and what peter martyr says , ( loc. com . p. . § . . ) may fitly be applied here , vexant praeterea nos , quod non publica sed privata discesserimus authoritate , neque , considerant , deum cuique , mandasse , ut propriam salutem curet . this you cannot deny , but god has commanded every one to have a care of his soul , and that men are not bound to lesser societies ( as to their own parishes , or parish-ministers , ) but so far as may stand with promoting the salvation of their own souls . who could speak more fully than you have done , rational account , p. . the main thing to be discussed , is , whether the communion of your church or ours , be rather to be chosen in order to salvation ? — the tendency to that ought to be the rule , by which we should embrace or continue in the society of any church . since the regard men ought to have of their eternal welfare doth oblige them to make choice of the best means ; — the bare remote possibility of salvation , ● ought to have no force in determining their choice in a matter of so great importance . . many have not the least doubt , or scruple , but those ministers which you would not have them to hear , are such as god hath owned , and still doth , blessing their ministry to their own , and others souls benefit . many are well assured , the lord hath not yet forsaken that ministry , you would have them forsake . yea , i have spoken with some on their death-bed , who have sadly bewailed it as a great sin of theirs , that lay as an heavy burthen on them , ( and we use to say , hora mortis est hora veritatis ) that they had despised , and neglected the ministry of such . but it seems , had they made their complaints to you , you could soon have satisfied them , telling them , it was no sin at all ; but they had done well , in refusing to hear such , as submitted not to the orders of the church . though perhaps they would have thought it very strange , that you could have allowed them to hear romish priests , and yet should suppose it unlawful for them to hear non-conformists . . these would also wonder , if you your self should at all question such ministers being true ministers of christ , and that worship ( wherein they joyn ) being true religious worship ; they are confident you could not but acknowledg the truth of both these , did but the law of man allow them . and then for ought they know , they are such in themselves , and in god's account . for no law of man could make that to be true , religious worship , which is not so , abstracted from the consideration of the law 's allowance . no law of man could make those to be true ministers of christ , who are not such , or would otherwise be none . . because i suppose , you will be ready to object here , how is it possible for order to be kept up , if people may run after what teachers they please ? i desire you to do me right ; i am only for their hearing such as they have reason to believe are allow'd of god , whom therefore men should allow to preach the word . and where the publickly allowed minister is not such a one , they are not bound ( for order-sake ) to neglect other faithful and sound teachers , and therein also to neglect their own souls . there is no order men can make in the church , that should be urged , or stood upon against the end of order , against the honour of god , against religion , and the true service and worship of god , and against the salvation of men , and the ordinary means thereof . and if the sabbath was made for man , ( as mar. . . ) and therefore was not to be turned to his destruction ; much less should any human , external order be strictly urged and pressed to men's destruction . bishop bilson ( christian subject , part p. . an. . ) speaking to that , [ we would have things done in order ] returns this smart - answer , call you that order , where christ shall stand without doors , till your clergy consent to bring him in ? though according to the order of nature , light bodies move upwards , and heavy bodies tend downwards in their ordinary course ; yet ( which camero applies to a like case , p. . col . . § . . ) this very order of nature is inverted , nè detur vacuum . here i call to mind what you say , ( pag. . ) is schism indeed become such an inconsiderable and petty inconvenience ? and me-thinks , that inconvenience , the breach of external order ( which with you is schism ) is a far less evil , if it be evil in this case , compared with the mischief of men's destroying their own souls , or neglecting the means of their salvation . there is an higher law , which ( to use the words of camero ) ordinem deserere jubet ut extremo malo & irreparabili jacturae occurratur , &c. and qui tam justâ & urgente occasione ordniem deserit , reipsâ non deserit , sed servat . and that instance he gives there is convincing , if a souldier knew his captain , his leader , was for opening the gates to the enemy , and yet followed such a leader , keeping rank and order so unseasonably , he would shew himself a traitor , rather than a faithful souldier . the disciples would seem to have been for order there ( as you are ) when they were hindring christ's service , mar. . . luk. . . master , we saw one casting out devils in thy name , — and we forbad him , because he followeth not us . now i heartily wish , even for your own sake , from that true and due respect i owe to you , that you would more impartially examine what you have been doing , and reflect upon your self ; consider seriously , whether you are not forbidding , and condemning some , as faithful followers of christ as your self , even in their serving christ , and serving their generation ? what are your thoughts of such , as iospeh and richard alleyn , with divers others that might be named , who kept to their ministerial work , and ( as you say of father latimer ) never repented them of it ? if now they have that well-come home , well done good and faithful servants , enter into the ioy of your lord. ] how far are they above all your censures ? and me-thinks , it deserves men's serious consideration , whether they pray as they ought [ thy kingdom come ] or whether indeed they act not against their own prayers , who indeavour to hinder the preaching of the gospel , ( a means of enlarging and building up god's kingdom ? ) and as you declare to the world , ( p. . ) you are one that believes a day of iudgment to come , ( which i would not once question ) i beseech you , sir , think well of what that well disposed gentleman ( as you call him ) says , ( i think gravely and piously ) letter out of the country , pag. , . ) let us bring the cause before our supream and final iudg. and bethink your self whether of these two things he will be most likely to have regard unto , the saving of souls , which he bought with his blood ; or the preserving inviolate certain humane institutions and rules , confessed by the devisers of them , not to be necessary , &c. and so much of your first conclusion , and mine . your second conclusion follows , preface , p. . . those are new churches , when men erect distinct societies for worship , under distinct and peculiar officers , governing by laws , and church-rules different from that form they separate from . here , . i cannot but look on you as very unfortunate , unhappy in this cause you have espoused . how oft do you greatly expose your self , that what you urge agianst your brethren may justly be retorted on you ? so here , how plain is it , that you look but on one side , ( which as i remember you suppose those that differ from you to be faulty in ? ) had you not one thought , that if you owned such a conclusion as this , i should be likely to tell you , you had spoiled your cause , nihil quod nimis , satis , that by proving too much , you would in effect prove nothing of that you aim at ? should you not have considered , what an argument you here put into the mouths of the dissenters against the national church of england , against diocesan churches , and against parochial churches too ? . will not many be ready to tell you , that it follows undeniably from this conclusion of yours , that you have made the national church of england , and the diocesan churches therein , new ( unlawful ) churches ; because under divers peculiar officer , governing by laws and church-rules different from the apostolical primitive church , ( as from other reformed churches . ) if those are new , unlawful schismatical churches with you , that are under distinct and peculiar officers , governing by laws , and church-rules different from the apostolical truly primitive churches , ( as i suppose it must come to that , primum in unoquoque genere est regula & mensura reliquorum ) what work have you made here ? what an heavy task , and hard province have you taken on you ? can you ever prove , that there are no officers , laws , rules and orders in your church , different from what were in the true primitive church ? can you ever find all these officers , arch-bishops ; lord-bishops , deans , chancellors , &c ▪ down to apparitors , in the primitive church ? will you undertake to find there all our ecclesiastical canons , even rules for kneeling in the act of receiving , for signing with the cross in baptism , for excluding the parents , and setting god-fathers and god-mothers in their stead , with a rule for peculiar , appropriate vestments , &c. to say here , that though you have peculiar officers , laws , and rules , different from the apostolical primitive church ; yet you do not own your selves to be a church , separate from that primitive church , will not bring you off . for , this many dissenters likewise say , they separate not from you , but hold communion with you in all that is necessary ; and further have more local , presential communion with you , than you can pretend to have with the primitive church . yet you will have their assemblies separate churches , while they worship god by any other rule than yours , though their worship be as agreeable to the scripture-rule . and yet can you , or any mortal man prove , that others may not be allowed to differ from you in such things , wherein you differ from the apostolical , primitive church ? again , it will as little help you to say , that you speak of particular congregations , or societies for worship . for , . do you not here make your parochial congregations also new churches ? if the primitive church had not your liturgy , were not bound to the use of your book of common-prayer , then you cannot deny , but you are under a somwhat different rule . and are there not some parishes , that have only deacons to officiate ? and may i not be bold to tell you , that you can never prove your deacons the same with those in the churches erected by the apostles ? according to p. paul sarpi ( of matters benefic . n. . ) deacons were ministers of temporal things . you your self say , p. . it was no properly church-power which they had ; but they were stewards of the common stock . then are not deacons , that are allowed to preach , and baptize , &c. different officers ? by this time i hope , you will be sensible , what a wound you have given to the cause , you take upon you to defend , by this conclusion , which is my first note upon it . ( . ) at the first view and reading of this your second conclusion , i was willing to hope , that then you would not condemn such assemblies as mr. b's . who leave the ruling work to you , and are glad if they be permitted to preach and hear god's word , and do not separate from you , but joyn with you , even in sacraments , as well as other parts of god's worship . but looking farther into your book , i see my mistake : for you say , pag. . ( as was cited before ) no man denies , that more places for worship are desirable , and would be very useful , where &c. but is it possible that mr. b. should think the case alike , where the orders of our church are constantly neglected , the authority of the bishops is slighted and contemned ? tac●o caetera . now i had thought , you might have granted more places for worship , not only desireable , and useful , but very necessary for such as cannot c●me to yours , as far as the apostle makes hearing of the word necessary , rom. . ● , . more necessary than unnecessary modes of worship , or such matters as you count but indifferent things . but by what is here last cited , it is too plain and manifest , that you condemn all religious assemblies in england , that follow not your church-rule , and own not the authority of the bishops . and thus it seems , where you are zealous in words for communion , yet subjection to the bishops authority , is the thing you drive at . and upon this account , though your discourse was calcul●ted chiefly for the city of london , yet it may ind●fferently serve for all other places and meetings in england , where you● church-rules and orders are not observed and obeyed . as to our grief , we in the country have found many of the conformable clergy , with others , improving your authority and arguments as far as they are able , even against such assemblies , as meet off from the times of the paro●hi●l congregations meeting , that they might not be censured to meet in opposition . these are s●parate meetings with you , as well as others ; because the orders of the church are neglected in them . but , ( . ) what will you say of those assemblies , where christ taught , and the disciples likewise whom he sent forth ? did they d● this , as und●r the inspection and government of the rulers that then were ? were they tyed up to the church-rules of the jews in what they did ? were they not distinct and peculiar officers ? certainly , you mince the matter , when you say , pag. . our saviour himself did only teach his disciples occasionally , and at c●rtain seasons . as if he taught but rarely , or seldom . and as if he was c●ntent with his disciples only to be his hearers . ( as you would have the silenced ministers think it enough , if they have three or four besides the family . ) whereas we read of christ's teaching the multitude , and of the multitude pressing upon him to hear . and when he sent forth the tw●lve , m●t. ● . preaching was a good part of their work. and the miracles they w●ought , were to seal and confirm their doctrine . so the seventy , ( luk. . ) were to t●●ch . so much is implied , ver . . he that heareth you , hearet● me ; and he that despiseth you , despiseth me , &c. now what will you make of them , and their hearers ? here were distinct and peculiar teachers , not under the government of the iewish church-rulers : then , were they new ( unlawful ) churches ? i know you will not say i● . but if you say h●re , though they differed in somethings from the form of the iewish church ; yet they did not separate . well , grant that ; yet consider , whether this example may not justi●y those , who ordinarily 〈◊〉 with their ●arochial congregations , in hearing non-conformists at 〈◊〉 times ? and m●y it not justify those non-conformist ministers , that 〈…〉 from the parochial congregations ? and how many more 〈…〉 but for the five miles act , which 〈…〉 distinguish betwixt such , and others ( that i can find , ) but all are alike to you . yea , so far are you from favouring these , that sometimes you would have the sin of those that own you for true churches , and have communion with you , as f●r as they can , to be aggravated , and more inexeusable , in having other d●stinct ( which you account s●parat● ) meetings . ball against can ( part . . p. . ) neither did our saviour , nor his disciples before his death , 〈◊〉 upon them to erect a new visible church , altogether distinct from the erring synagogue , but lived in th●t church , and frequented the ordinanc●s , neither as absolute members of the synagogue , nor y●t as the visible chur●h distinct from it : but as visi●le members of that primitive church , from which that synagogue had degenerated . i find you so hard , and u●yielding in this controvers● , i should be glad , if you would grant a little here , ( which i wonder how you can so stifly deny ) in hopes of more in time . ( . ) as you know our reformers pleaded , that ( in their departure from rome ) they forsook not the church , but approached nearer to the catholick , an● primitive ●hurch ( as p. martyr loc. com. p. . ) so those christian assemblies , you censure as new ( unlawful ) churches , because not under you● rule , suppose you have censured them rashly here , if in their worship they are nearer the scripture-rule . and truly ( sir ) you speak so home , and fully to the purpose ( rational acc●unt , p. , . ) as is quite beyond the power and r●a●h of my poor imagination to conceive ▪ how you can ever answer your self . there you say , supposing any church ( tho pretending to be never so catholick ) doth restrain her communion within such narrow and unjust bounds — ☞ whatever church takes upon her to limit and inclose the bounds of the catholick , becomes thereby divided from the communion of the catholick church : and all such who disown such an unjust inclosure , do not so much divide from the communion of that church so in●losing , ☞ as return to the communion of the primitive and universal church . how will dissenters thank you for this ? methinks , i have some hope that we shall in time be agreed , th●t we shall have you ( who do so clearly understand and apprehend what schism there is in any churches limiting and inclosing the bounds of the catholick church ; shall we not have you ) again pleading for catholick terms ? and you say further , ibid. p. . — the disowning of those things wherein your church is become schismatical , cannot certainly be any culpable separation . for , whatever is so , must be from a church so far as it is catholick ; but in our case it is from a church so far only as it is not catholick , &c. while such passages ( so greatly befriending dissenters , that would gladly close with you upon cath●●ick term● ) drop from you at unawares , wh●n you s●arce think of them , wh●t an excellent 〈◊〉 ●●ould they have of you , it indeed you was minded to undertake their cause ? yet how contrary hereunto are you , in your too partial account , p. . where your gentleman pinching you with this question , can it be proved that christ 〈…〉 the guides of this church — with a power to make laws and decrees , preseribing not only things necessary for common order and decency , but new fed●ral rites , and teaching signs and symbols , &c. i answer , ( say you ) that such a church hath power to appoint rules of order and decency not repugnant to the word ( which whether this be to the purpose of new fed●r●l rites , and teaching signs and symbols , will i suppose be further examined ) which on that account other are bound to submit to ; and to take such care of its 〈…〉 to admit none its priviledges , but such as do submit to them ; ( here you are 〈◊〉 off from your catholick terms again , and ●or limiting and inclosing the catholick church ) and if any disturb the peace of this church ( and here you do not 〈◊〉 the most peaceable dissenters , that only meet for the worship of god , and separate no farther from your church , than as it is not catholick : you go on ) the civil magistrate may justly inflict civil penalties upon them for it . is this your mind , that all that submit not t● those new federal rites ( as they are supposed ) and teaching signs and symbols ( spoken of ) should be both debarred of church-priviledges , and laid under civil penalties , as disturbers of th● churches p●ace ? then i cannot but wish that governours may have more moderation and clemency , or poor dissenters more faith and patience , than you shew christian charity herein . but if they are as near the primitive church , and as much in communion with the catholick church as you are ; yea , and in communion with you still , so sar as you are catholick , what great reason can you have so severely to condemn them ? i hope the doctrine of the non-conformists generally is sound , their worship agreeable to the word . the only question then remaining seems to be ; by what authority they do these things ? and who gave them authority ? now it is true , they cannot pretend authority from the bishops : but if they can prove , they have authority from christ , is not that sufficient ? if he hath called them to the work of the ministry , and commandeth them to be diligent and faithful in it ( according to their abilities and opportunities ) me th●nks men should not deny their authority . and whether may not such societies as you call n●w churches , return what you cite ( p. , . ) out of calvin ( instit. l. . c. . n . ) as proving them to be true churches , they having the word of god truly preached , and sacraments administred acc●rding to christ's institution ? now he saith ( as you have him ) where ever th●se marks are to be found in particular societies , those are true churches , howsoever they are distributed according to humane conveniences . and therefore if you did not look only on one side , you might probably see , that you are no more allowed wilfully to separate from them , than they are from you . and as that synod of the reformed churches in france , at charenton , a. d. . declared ( as you have it p. . ) that there was no idolatry , or superstition in the lutheran churches ; and therefore the members of their churches might be received into communion with them , without renouncing their own opinions or practices : so why might not the non-conformists , and their hearers be taken into , or acknowledged in communion with the church of england , without renouncing their opinions or practices , they being certainly as far from idolatry or superstition , as any of the lutheran churches . as the helvetian churches ( with you , p. ) declare ; that no separation ought to be made for different rites and ceremonies , where there is an agreement in doctrine : and the true concord of churches lies in the doctrine of christ , and the sacraments delivered by him : even so because the non-conformists consent with you in doctrine , do not break them off from your communion , for their difference about ceremonies . may not several churches differ in modes and forms of worship , and yet have communion with one another ? some difference you cannot but grant betwixt your cathedral service , and that in common country churches . p. , . you will not say , the churches in other nations , that have not the same rule with you , are schismaticks . no , not though such came over into england , and lived among you . and what if the old liturgy , and that new one ( which you cannot but remember the compiling of , and presenting to the bishops , at the savoy . ) had both passed , and been allowed , for ministers to use , as they judged most convenient , might not several ministers and congregations in this case have used different modes of worship , without breach of the churches peace , or counting each other schismaticks ? would you have called those , new separate churches , that made use of the new reformed liturgy ? and what if a dutch church was in your parish ? would you disclaim communion with them , because they had some rules and orders different from yours ? and what if divers of your parish , living near it , should joyn with that congregation , would you thence conclude , that they erected a new separate church ? and , as the canon . speaks of bowing towards the east or altar , that they which use this rite should not despise them which use it not , &c. if now our king and parliament ( like true catholick moderators ) should put forth an henoticum , make an healing law , enjoyning conformists and non-conformists , that agree in the same faith and worship for substance , to attend peacably on their ministery , and serve god and his church the best they can , whether they use the liturgy and ceremonies , or no , without uncharitable censures , and bitter reflections upon one another , either in word , or writing ; would you yet say , that the non-conformists assemblies ( not following your rules and orders ) were no other than new separate churches ? ( . ) i know no laws , nor ecclesiastical canons , that the present non-conformists have made . and non-entis nulla sunt praedicata . but if your meaning be , that it is enough to prove them new churches , that they come not up to your laws , and church-rules , and therefore are so 〈…〉 as they conform not to you , i would argue thus : either conformity in all things to your church-rules is necessary to communion with the church of england , and to cut off the charge of being of a new ●hurch , or not ▪ if conformity in all things be not necessary here , why may not sober dissenters , that own the church of england for a true church , and profess the same faith , and worship god in no other manner , than according to the liturgy and practice of the church of england , ( as you say , p. . mr. b. declared in writing , and as i told you a good lawyer pleadeth , rector of sutton , p. , & . ) i say , why may not such be owned as in communion with the church of england ? why do you charge them with erecting new separate churches , meerly because they differ from you in some alterable circumstances , and separable accidents , not necessary to churches concord and communion ? i see , you dare not say , that those things wherein they differ from you are any parts of worship ; so they are of the same faith , and agree with you in all parts of worship . and is not all this ( with their owning themselves to be be of the church of england , so far as it is catholick ) a bidding fair for your reception of them , and acknowledging them still in communion with you ? and then why have you so many words of such being no good christians , because members of no church ? ( as pag. , , . f. ) if conformity in all things to your church-rules be not necessary , pray tell us what is necessary , and what not : what things may be dispensed with , and what not . rector of sutton , p. . n. . you were put in mind of it to inquire , whether there be not some in publick place , ( not very well satisfied with what they have done ) who come not up to your church-rules ? as , some read not all the common-pr●yer they are enjoyned to read , and yet had declared their ass●nt and consent to the use ( at least ) as you would have it . some use not the surplice , some omit the cross in baptism ; some dare not put away from the sacrament any , meerly for not kneeling . and yet you charge not such with schism , ( pag. . n. . ) yet have they different rules , or at least , they differ from your rules , as well as non-conformists . and i know not whether you may not be understood to allow men to go from their parish church ( pag. . n. . ) provided they elsewhere joyn with your churches , as members of them . what then is the parting point from the communion of your church , or the trying point of conformity , without which a new church is erected ? here i offer this note upon what you say farther , pag. . n. . that many whom you condemn , though not satisfied with such and such orders of the church , yet continue in all acts of communion with your church , ( or in all that you will call parts of worship ) and draw not others from it , upon any meer pretence , no , not at all ; though they dare not but joyn at other times with non-conformists , in that which they are well assured is as truly god's worship , and if they say , in some respects more pure , you have not yet disproved it . and therefore you should make good your word there , and not charge such with schism . or if you should say , conformity in all things to your church-rules is necessary , that if men differ never so little from those rules , it is to erect new churches , what woful rending work would this make ? by a parity of reason , may not other foreign churches be denied to have communion with the church of england ? how many that could not submit to these laws and rules , without receding from their own publick confessions ? could the french , and belgick churches assent to the ius divinum of episcopacy ? could they own it , as evident to all men diligently reading the holy scriptures , to be of apostolical institution ? and would not any one that reads the declaration of the faith and ceremonies of the psaltzgraves churches , printed at london a. d. , take them to have been averse from such conformity , as the church of england stands upon ? you glory in the good opinion of the reformed churches , and protestant divines abroad , concerning the constitution and orders of our church : and their owning communion with our church , ( pag. , . ) and you make nothing of what hath been returned by way of answer to dr. d. bonasus vapulans is but a little creature ( i confess , to look on ) yet some that have read it , do not look on it as nothing . but if an owning of the divine , or apostolical right of episcopacy and re-ordination , &c. be made the terms of their communion with our church , how many protestant divines abroad , that would renonuce communion with us , rather than be pleased with it upon such terms ? and further , if conformity in all things to your church-rules be necessary , &c. how many parochial ministers and congregations ( as was noted before ) must be denied to be in communion with the church of england , whom for the same reason you must call new erected churches ? for as one says ( alluding to that ) they who themselves were circumcised , kept not the law. they who have assented and consented , observe not the orders and rules to which they have given their assent , &c. and yet ( as you have it from another ) the priests in the temple break the law , and are blameless . then must you not either acquit many dissenters here , or condemn many conformists ? you see how fain i would have protestant dissenters acknowledged still to have communion with the church of england , ( if it might be ) the difference being not in such things as belong to it , as a church . if you took away those things , which are as the wall of partition betwixt you and them , your churches would be as sound and entire without them . and if you make them s●hismaticks , for differing from you in such things , while they agree with you in all things necessary ; whether will you not make your selves , or other churches ( you would be ashamed to disown ) schismaticks , who differ from you in as great matters , as such dissenters do ? here let me press you a little further , keep to your own rule , preface p. . as far as the obligation to preserve the church's peace extends , so far doth the sin of schism reach . then it follows , if the obligation to preserve the church's peace extends so far as to the rulers and governours of the church , there may be as much schism in their setting up unnecessary rules , which others cannot submit to , as in mens varying from such rules . p. . you argue , from the obligation which lies upon all christians , to preserve the peace and unity of the church . and now ( say you ) i have brought the matter home to the consciences of men. had you put the matter home indifferently and impartially to the consciences of men on both sides ; that is , both of imposers , and dissenters , many could not but have thought in their consciences , you was to be commended for it . but then , had you not pleaded as much for dissenters , as here you plead against them ? i must grant , they ought ( for the peace and vnity of the church ) to yield as far as they can , without sinning against god , and their own souls : and should not imposers do the like ? were this one rule agreed on , what peace and unity would soon follow ? what chillingworth ( p. . § . ) says of protestants , that they grant their communion to all who hold with them , not all things , but things necessary , that is , such as are in scripture plainly delivered : ] make this good of the church of england , and by my consent , all we ( who have unwillingly appeared against you ) will readily and joyfully give you our publick thanks . what you say further , p. . may thus be handed back again to you : if there be no sufficient reason to justify such rules and orders , if they are a violation of the vnity of the church , you there make it a sin , as much as murder is , and as plainly forbidden . and therefore i do earnestly desire ( as you , p. . ) all parties concerned , as they love their own souls , and as they would avoid the guilt of so great a sin , impartially and without prejudice to consider that passage of irenaeus ( with you , p. . ) that christ will come to judg those who make schisms in the church , and rather regard their own advantage , than the church's vnity , &c. and if any indifferent men had the matter put to them to decide , who were more likely to regard their own advantage , whether some of you , or such as mr. b. one might soon guess , what their sentence , or verdict would be . if i seem here , and sometimes elsewhere to digress a little ; yet i think in reason you should overlook it . i would hope that in time you may be convinced of a greater digression in the scope of your late writings . ( . ) if you , and the church of england , will not be so favourable towards those distinct societies , that are not under your church-rules , as to acknowledg them in communion with you ; yet by what you , and chillingworth say , i see not but they may be still in communion with the catholick church , and members of it . knot talketh thus to our reproach , ( charity maint . part . c. . § . ) protestants cannot avoid the note of schism , at least by reason of their mutual separation from one another . for most certain it is , that there is very great difference — between the lutherans , the rigid calvinists , and the protestants of england . but it is observable , what chillingworth says , p. . eighthly ( to that ) that all the members of the catholick church , must of necessity be united in external communion . ] which tho it were much to be desired it were so , yet certainly cannot be perpetually true — divers times it hath happened , as in the case of chrysostome and epiphanius , that particular men , and particular churches , have upon an over-valued difference , either renounced communion mutually , or one of them separated from the other , and yet both have continu●d members of the catholick church . here let us suppose some unhappy difference to arise among your selves , as if some were for the publick condemning of your irenicum , some against it ; some offended at those ministers who appear not as zealous against dissenters , as you have shewed your self , and others offended as much at you , and them ; some taking offence at those that bow at the word iesus , or bow towards the altar , and others taking the like offence at those who scruple , or forbear such practice . suppose now the contention was carried so high , that the disagreeing parties refused communion with one another hereupon ; and if it came to that , i would know which of these should be the new church ? or whether both parties might not yet be in communion with the church of england ? and much more , may not the same catholick church hold conformists , and protestant dissenters ? and you give us this note , ratinal account , p. . he that s●parates only from particular churches as to such things which concern not their being , is only separated from the communion of those churches , and not the catholick . now will you say , those rules and orders , about which all the difference is betwixt you , and the non-conformists , concern the being of your church ? i doubt you will never be able to convince many , but the church of england might be every jot as well without them . but if it should happen , that any error , or corruption is to be found therein , then you have more to say for those you here oppose . ibid. and pag. . which is therefore more properly a separation from the errors , than the communion of such a church . wherefore if we suppose that there is no one visible church , whose communion is not tainted with some corruptions , though , if these corruptions be injoyned as conditions of communion , i cannot communicate with any of those churches ; yet it follows not that i am s●parated from the external communion of the catholick chuch , but that i only suspend communion with those particular churches , till i may safely joyn with them . which you illustrate there by a comparison , where you have these remarkable words , and if several other persons , be of the same mind with me , and we therefore joyn together ; do we therefore divide our selves from the whole world by only taking care of our own safety ? &c. so chillingworth speaks as like you as , if one had taken his hints from the other , pag. . he is for distiguishing , not confounding these two , departing from the church , and departing from some general opinions and practices , which did not constitute , but vitiate the church . more he hath to that purpose . but that which i would specially note out of him here ( to shew the harmony and consent betwixt you , which otherwise should have come in before ) pag. . a man may possibly leave some opinion , or practice of a church ( says he ) — and continue still a member of that church : provided that wh●t he forsakes be not one of those things wherein the essence of the church consists . whereas peradventure this practice may be so involved with the external communion of this church , that it may be simply impossible for him to leave this practice , and not to leave the churches external communion . i cite such passages as these , because i would have the world know , and take notice , what friends you are sometimes to poor non-conformists . that if any should now send an hue and cry after them , as after murderers , you are willing they should take sanctuary either in your church , or in the church catholick , the new church , your second conclusion speaks of , being not so safe . now my second conclusion is this . . that many of those societies which you condemn , do not separate from the church of england , many of them have ordinary external communion with you ; and though in their worship , they do not in all things follow your church-rules and orders , yet their worship cannot be proved contrary , but is agreeable to scripture-rule . and as for those , who are not satisfied to go so far , as to hold external communion with you , yet having communion with you in the same faith , it were a very desirable thing , that the bars to their full communion with you were removed ( if they be such things as are not necessary . ) and in the mean time ( possibly ) those new churches are better than no churches . and indeed it is matter of wonder to me , if you have no more charity for such , have no better thoughts of them , than of those idle , loose , profane persons , that wholly neglect and contemn the worship of god , that never go to any church at all . i would say more to this , did i not think enough is said already . now i come to your last conclusion . . as to things in the judgment of the primitive and reformed churches left undetermined by the law of god , and in matters of meer order and decency , and wholly as to form and government , every one , notwithstanding what his private judgment may be of them , is bound for the peace of the church of god , to submit to the determination of the lawful governours of the church . but would you not lead us here into a maze , a labyrinth , without any clew to guide us out ? let us now see how pertinent and material this is to your purpose . here first , i must suppose this question , viz. how far , or in what things is every man bound ( whatever his private iudgment be ) for the churches peace , to submit to the determination of the lawful governours of the church ? and your answer is , every one is bound to submit to the determination of such ( what ever his private judgment be . ) . as to things in the iudgment of the primitive and reformed churches left undetermin'd by the law of god. . and in matters of meer order and decency . . and wholly as to the form of government ; this i think , you cannot deny to be the true analysis of your third conclusion . how pertinent this your resolution is to the case of dissenters , and how material to give them satisfaction , will appear by examining the several parts . but first , it is worth nothing , that you speak only of the determination of the lawful governours of the church . implying , that men are not bound to submit to the determination of such as may be proved vsurpers , such as are not lawful governours of the church . then so far you and they may be agreed , that if the pope should set up a patriarch , &c. in england , men were not bound to submit to their determination , till such could be proved lawful governours of the church . and then whether you have fully answered your gentleman ( p. . ) and others , and proved that christ hath invested with power to make such decrees and determinations ( as lawful governours of the church ) those who neverwere chosen , or approved by the people , is another question ? but then where lawful governours of the church determine , you tell us ; ( . ) every one is bound to submit to their determination , as to things in the iudgment of the primitive and reformed churches left undetermin'd by the law of god. here . you should have told us , whether by the primitive churches you meant the primo-primitive churches , or only such ancient churches , as those of the fourth , or fifth age. one would guess that these latter are your primitive churches . now in my thoughts king iames was quite beyond the cardinal , and got the upper ground , ( in defence of the right of kings , p. . ) where the cardinal arguing , that a doctrine believed and practised in the church , in the continual current of the last eleven hundred years , was not to be condemned . ] his majesty replied ; in these vvords he maketh a secret confession , that in the first five hundred years , the same doctrine was neither apprehended by faith , nor approved by practice . vvherein to my understanding , the lord cardinal voluntarily giveth over the suit ; for the church in the time of the apostles , their disciples , — was no more ignorant what authority the church is to challenge , — than at any time since in any succeeding age , in which as pride hath still flowed to the heighth of a full sea , so purity of religion and manners hath kept for the most part at a low water-mark . you should have told us also what reformed churches you meant , whether all , or only some of them ? and if but some , whether those that only took the scripture , as their rule in reforming ; or those that took in the example and practice of some of those ancient churches , together with it ? . what are those things , that in the iudgment of the primitive and reformed churches are left undetermin'd by the law of god ; besides matters of meer order and decency , and what relates to form of government ? . can this be a safe and sure rule ? when you grant the church may err , and general councils may err ; may they not then judg some things left undetermin'd by the word , that are not s● left ? chillingworth grants , there may be just and nec●ssary cause to depart from some opinions and practices of the cath●lick church ( p. . ) and you say partly the same in your rational account ( pag. , . ) those errors in practice , in the judgment of the church , may be such things as are left undetermined by the word , when yet others are not bound to submit to them . you tell us , rational account , p. . the matter to be enquired here is , what liberty of prescription is allowed by vertue of the law of christ ; for since he hath made laws to govern his church by , it is most sensl●ss pleading prescription , till you have particularly examined , how far such prescription is allowed by him . so then it is not enough to say , in the judgment of the primitive and reformed churches such things are left undetermined by god's law , and the church hath power to determine them . but men are to examine whether such liberty be allowed by christ. and as you go on , p. . it may be you will tell me , that in this case , prescription interprets law , and that the churches possession argues it was the will of christ. but still the proof lies upon your side , since you run your self into new briars ; for you must prove that there is no way to interpret this law , but by the practice ( here i must say by the iudgment ) of the church , and which is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of all , that the church cannot come into the possession of any thing , but what was originally given her by the legislator . — he that undertakes to prove it impossible that the church should claim by an undue title ; must prove it impossible , that the church should ever be deceived . . is this a plain , or rather is it not an impossible rule ? if every one be bound to submit to the determination of those things , that in the iudgment of the primitive and reformed churches are left undetermined by the word ; then every one should be bound to know the judgment of the primitive , and reformed churches , as to those things . we should think it well , if men would be perswaded to search the scriptures , and to submit to what god hath revealed and made known there to be their duty ; but ( according to what you have here laid down ) this should not be sufficient : but every one is also bound to search the monuments of antiquity , to turn over the antient fathers and councils , and so likewise to get a view of the whole body of latter confessions , that may inform him of the judgment of the primitive and reformed churches . and is not this to bind heavy burthens upon men's shoulders , and to make more sins than are found to be so in god's law ? or will you say , that men are bound to an implicite faith here , that what you assert to have been the judgment of the primitive and reformed churches , they must believe without more adoe ? or if you will not say they are bound to such an implicite faith in your word , will you allow them to suspend the act of submission , to the determination of church-governours , till such time as they can be satisfied , that such determination is agreeable to the iudgment of the primitive , and reformed churches ? will you give them time , till they can find re-ordination in the like case , reading of apocrypha in the room of god's word , &c. to have been approved and practised in the primitive and reformed churches ? . is this a golden , rather is it not a leaden rule ? may it not be turned contrary ways ? was the primitive church for kneeling in the act of receiving ? were not the psaltzgraves churches to be reckoned among the reformed churches ? and were they for our english ceremonies ? do not the lutheran churches hold some things lawful , and indifferent , which in the judgment of the church of england are unwarrantable ? as things indifferent , and lawful in the judgment of the church of england , are not so in the judgment of some other reformed churches . i do profess plainly ( says chillingworth , p. . ) that i cannot find any rest for the sole of my foot , but upon this rock only ( the bible . ) i see plainly and with mine own eyes , that there are popes against popes , councils against councils , some fathers against others , the same fathers against themselves , a consent of fathers of one age against a consent of fathers of another age , the church of one age against the church of another age. . is this rule , of the iudgment of the primitive and reformed churches indeed applicable to your established rule ? do you find the one agreeable to the other ? were the primitive churches for imposing the same liturgy , the same rites and ceremonies , which they yet held undetermined by god's word ? was it their judgment , that each nation , or province should be tied up to a strict vniformity in such things ? do you find this within the first five hundred years ? can you gainsay those words of yours , ( cited , rector of sutton , p. . which i think are pertinent and material here ) we see the primitive christians did not make so much of any uniformity in rites and ceremonies ; nay i s●arce think any churches in the primitive times can be produced , that did exactly in all things observe the same customs : which might be an argument of moderation in all , as to these things , but especially in pretended admirers of the primitive church . and yet would you have every one bound to submit to the determination of church-governors in such matters , whatever his private iudgment be concerning them ? as eusebius notes from irenaeus ( l. . c. . english c. . ) the primitive christians could differ in such matters , and yet live in peace . and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so anicetas and polycarpus could differ in such matters , and yet communicate one with another . the primitive christians retained c●ntrary observations , and yet ( as irenaeus said ) held fast the bond of love and vnity . can you ever prove that the primitive church , or the best reformed churches , have assumed a power of suspending ministers from their office , and of debarring christians from communion for such matters ? here comes to my mind that which you say , vnreas . of separat . p. . that our reformers preceeded more out of r●verence to the ancient church , than meer opposition to popery . ( yet with king iames , defence of the right of kings , p. c . the christian religion reformed , is as to say , purged and cleansed of all popish dregs . ) and p. . altho they made the scripture the only rule of faith , and rejected all things repugnant thereto ; yet they designed not to make a transformation of a church , but a reformation of it ; by reducing it , as near as they could , to that state it was in under the first christian emperors , &c. ( agreeable to chillingworth , p. . ● . ) but whether you took not the hint of distinguishing the transformation of a church from the reformation of it , from arch-bishop whitgift , i cannot tell . however t. c. ( latter part of his second reply , p. . ) could not discern it to have any solidity , but called it a single solid argument : seeing transforming may be in part , as well as reforming . and you have not improved it at all . but what a strange assertion is that of yours , p. . that there are in effect no new terms of communion with this church , but the same wich our first reformers owned , and suffered martyrdom for in queen mary's days ? and will you stand to this , that they died m●rtyrs for ceremonies , and for such impositions , as have thrust out so many ministers , that are most ready to subscribe to the same truth , for which indeed they laid down their lives ? i had thought , that i. rogers ( the proto-martyr in that persecution ) had been a non-conformist . as there were other nonconformists also that suffered . and can you make the world believe , that they suffered for conformity ? and did not the martyrs in queen mary's days suffer in one and the same cause , whether conformists , or non-conformists ? indeed they agreed well in red ( in blood , and flames ) who before had differed in black and white . but as you will have it , p. . our church stands on the same grounds , &c. and p. . i would only know , if those terms of communion which were imposed by the martyrs , and other reformers , and which are only continued by us , &c. i say , you would persuade us , that you are upon the same grounds with our first reformers , who were for reforming according to the scripture , rejecting all things repugnant thereto , only they would have the church reduced , as near as they could , to that state it was in , under the first christian emperors , ( p. . ) now to make this good it lieth on you to prove from catholick written tradition , that the present established rule was the rule for admission of ministers into their function , and other church-members into communion , observed in those antient churches , or one as near as could be to it ; and further to make it good , that it is not at all repugnant to the scripture-rule : or if you cannot do this , you must then grant , that you are gone off from the rule of our first reformers , that is , the scripture , and those primitive churches , and that the terms of communion are not indeed the same . propter externos ritus disciplinae homines pios ferire , neque domini est voluntas , neque purioris ecclesiae m●s . . would not such a rule be point-blank contrary to scripture-rule ? if never so many councils , if all the churches upon earth determined , that they had such power , that they could cut off both ministers and members of the church for matters left undetermined by god's law , we could not submit to such determination , while we believe the scripture , which tells us so plainly , that they have no power for destruction , but for edification . i subscribe to that of panormitan , magis laico esse credendum , si ex scripturis loquatur , quam papae , si absque verbo dei agat . is not the scripture-rule plain here , pet. . . that the governours of the church must not lord it over god●s heritage ? and tho the laity , or common christian people are directly and properly intended there ; yet no doubt , by just and undeniable consequence it will as well follow , that they are not to lord it over the clergy . and when peter martyr sets down the just causes of separation from rome , he gives this for one good reason ; because they usurp more power than the ap●stle paul accounted belonging to him . cor . not as if we had dominion over your faith. quibus verbis testatur fidem n●mini subjectam esse , ●isi verbo dei. and then it would be seriously enquired , whether to require assent and consent to another book besides the bible , a book in folio , and to all things contained in it , be not to have dominion over mens faith ? many are in doubt here , whose doubts you have not ( so far as i can perceive ) yet resolved . you your self must grant , that the churches of god have , or should have no such custom , to tyrannize over the faith and consciences of men ( that is lording it indeed . ) as here vnreas . of separat . p. . you cite m. claude , allowing , or maintaining tyranny over mens consciences to be a justifiable reason of s●paration . and le blanc , p. . and the confession of strasburg , p. . that they look on no human traditions as condemned in scripture , but such as are repugnant to the law of god , and bind the consciences of men. and io● . crocius ( ib. ) ceremonies forbidden break the churches unity ; yet its communion is not to be forsaken for one or two of these , if there be no tyranny over the consciences of men. and bishop daven●nt , p. , . who grants that tyranny over mens faith and consciences would be a s●fficient reason to hinder communion . as he says ( sentent . d. dav. p. . ) if some one church will so have dominion over the faith of others , that she acknowledgeth none for brethren , or admits none into communion with her , nisi credend● ac loquendi legem ab eadem prius accipiant — the holy scripture forbids us thus to make our selves the slaves of any mortals whosoever they are : our one only master ( christ ) forbids — quae hâc lege in communionem alterius ecclesiae recipitur , non pacem inde acquirit , sed iniquissimae servitutis pactionem . here i set down a little more than you cite ; as indeed it was not for your purpose . to these you agree , p. . not but that i think there may be a separation without sin , from a society retaining the essentials of a church : but then i say , the reason of such separation is , some heinous error in doctrine , or some idolatrous practice in worship , or some tyranny over the consciences of men ; &c. this tyranny over conscience with you , is an imposing of unlawful things . which i infer from those words , p. . a prudent and due submission in lawful things lies between tyranny over mens consciences , and endless separation . with bishop davenant it is credendi ac loquendi legem dicere . now if this be the case of non-conformist ministers , that others would tyrannize over their consciences , will it not justify their separation , which is but a separation secundum quid ? and if you deny this to be their case , be pleased to give a sound and solid answer to those few pages of the second plea for peace , towards the end , p. , &c. qui tyrannidem in christianissimum vel usurpat , vel invehit , ille christum , quantum potest , ê solio dejicit , &c. amyrald . in thes. salmur , p. . § . . will you say , every man is bound ( for peace-sake ) to submit to the determination of church-governours , whatever his private iudgment may be ; when his judgment may be , that such a determination is against the word , tho never so many churches , and councils judg otherwise ? and when his judgment may be , that submission to such determination of men , would be real disobedience and acting contrary to the will of god ? if his conscience be rightly informed , then he opposeth the authority of scripture , and the iudgment of god to the iudgment of men ( as chillingworth says , p. . ) which is certainly allowable . if his conscience and judgment be erroneous , yet he must suspend the act of submission to such determination , till he can be better informed : or acting here against his iudgment and conscience ( tho erroneous ) he would greatly sin . as suppose the governours of the church to have determined , that we shall all declare our assent unto that in preface before the book of ordination , [ that it is evident unto all men , diligently reading holy scripture , and ancient authors , that from the apostles time , there have been these orders of ministers in christ's church , bishops , priests and deacons , as several officers . ] you could not have submitted to such determination , while your judgment was the same , as when you wrote your irenicum . this is evident from what i noted thence , rector of sutton , p. , . nothing can be more evident , than that it rose not from any divine institution , &c. could you have dissembled with god and man for peace-sake . ( but more of this afterwards . ) but i am thinking , you may possibly object , that you speak of things supposed to be left undetermin'd , whereas i instance here , in a matter that the word determines . yet i hope this may be more convincing . let us for this once suppose , that you could now prove from scripture , that the bishops office is distinct from that of presbyters ; yet i hope you will grant me , that you could not have submitted to such determination of the church , while you believed no such thing . and then i have what i would have . every man cannot lawfully submit to the churches determination , though it be according to the scripture ( that is , so long as his judgment , is the determination is without , and against scripture ) then must not the same be said , of such determination , as is besides the scripture ? i know you will not say , the churches word is above god's . so you see how this part of your rule falls short of what you aim at . one thing you have under this rule , irenic . p. . i should take a little notice of some-where , and let me do it here . there must be a difference made ( say you ) between the liberty and freedom of a man 's own judgment , and the authority of it . so by being under governours a man parts with the authority of his iudgment ; but you would not have him deprived of the liberty and freedom of his judgment ▪ otherwise to what purpose is this distinction brought ? now i would not be so uncharitable , as to think , that by the liberty of a man 's own iudgment you could mean a liberty of professing and declaring contrary to his own judgment , in submission to the determination of church-governours , for the churches peace . and therefore i say , your rule here is short , and reacheth not to our case . . you say , in this last conclusion , that in m●tters of meer order and decency ▪ every one for the churches peace is bound to submit to the determination of the lawful governours of the church . here , . this is readily granted , if by matters of meer order and decency , you understand matters of meer order and decency . as you seemed to understand no more , when you wrote your iren. for there you distinguish betwixt ceremonies and matters of meer decency and order for order-sake . and you further say that matters of order and decency are allowable and fitting ; but ceremonies , properly taken for actions significative , their lawfulness may with better ground be scrupled . ( noted , rector of sutton , pag. . ) and thus far ( if you please ) you and i are agreed , that rules of order ( not contrary to the end of order ) should be submitted unto ; and that not only for the churches peace , but also in obedience to god's command , let all things be done decently and in order . and to such orderly determinations , what camero says ( pag. . col . . ) may in some sort be applied , — admonitiones quidem sunt respectu ecclesiae , at leges respectu dei ; nempe hâc ratione quod commendavit ecclesia , deus imp●ravit . . but i observe , that in other writings since your mind is changed , and you have learned now to confound , what before you would have distinguished , that is , your rites and ceremonies , and matters of order and decency ( as was noted , rector of sutton , p. . ) so you say , in your new account , or vnreasonableness of separation , p. . we declare , that they are appointed only for order and decency . and thus now these become meer matters of order and decency with you . of which there hath been , and is so great dispute . here two or three questions come in for your solution . . whether such rites and ceremonies , are matters of meer order and decency ? . whether the governours of the church have power to appoint and determine the use of such matters ? . whether every one is bound to submit to them , upon such determination ? i intend not to say much upon these questions , supposing they may fall in others way . and but that you seem too resolved to hold your own conclusion , so much hath been written upon these points , that might excuse us from saying more , till what hath been published , be fairly answered . question . whether such rites and ceremonies are matters of meer order and decency ? . you say , and declare , they are appointed only for order and decency . but not as if the contrary implied a natural indecency ( as was noted , rector of sutton , p. . ) whereupon it follows , that you must hold them vainly appointed , or that the contrary might as well have been appointed ; and so teach , or tempt people to have hard thoughts of the governours of the church , for appointing and so rigorously imposing such ceremonies , whereby many are deprived of their ministers , and of some of god's ordinances ; which may seem very harsh , if they are only for order and decency , and that in so low a degree , that the worship of god might be as orderly and decently performed , without them . would you have the governours of the church deprive ministers of their liberty , and others of the sacraments for no other cause , than their meer wills ? . do you well accord here , with mr. r. hooker , who says , our lord himself did that which custom and long-usage had made fit ; we , that which fitness and great decency hath made usual ? you seemed , ( answer to several treatises , p. . ) unwilling that any should urge you with that , scil. then the apostle's way of worship , was not not in it self altogether so decent and fit● ▪ but if the ceremonies be in themselves of such an indifferent nature , that the contrary implieth no indecency , then you cannot say , that their great decency and fitness was the ground of appointing and using them . wherein you and mr. hooker , appear to be of different minds . and kneeling at communions with him ( l. . § . . p. . ) is a gesture of piety , which is something more than meer decency . . do you well accord here with the governours of the church ? you declare , our ceremonies are appointed only for order and decency . whereas they have declared them to be for the due reverence of christ's holy mysteries and sacraments . and that they are apt to stir up the dull mind of man to the remembrance of his duty to god , by some notable and special signification , whereby he might be edified . will you say such things , are only for order and decency , which are for the due reverence of christ's holy mysteries , and for stirring up the dull mind of man to the remembrance of his duty to god , and for his edification ? one would think , that such things should be good in themselves , and not as you say , of an indifferent nature in themselves . can you imagine things that are only for order and decency ( whose contrary are as decent ) to be the same , or as good as things for the due reverence of christ's holy mysteries ? &c. and if a ceremony be apt to stir up the dull mind of man to the remembrance of his duty , whereby he may be edified , then is it not made medium excitans , which you say ( vnreasonableness of separation , p. . ) our church utterly denies ? is here no spiritual effect attributed to ceremonies , which you can by no means allow , pag. . but this you are commonly driven to in disputation , to say , they are only matters of order and decency , and so would bring them under that rule or precept , let all things be done decently and in order , ] tho they are things of a quite different nature . matters of order and decency are there commanded in genere ; but it would be no transgression of that command , though not one of these ceremonies were appointed , or used in the worship of god , nor any others like them . quest. . whether the governours of the church have power to appoint and determine the use of such ceremonies ? here . you say , pag. . if men do assert so great a power in the church , as to appoint things for spiritual effects , — it is all one as to say , the church may make new parts of worship . and then the question is , whether these are no spiritual effects , if they be for the due reverence of christ's holy mysteries , and for men ' s edification ? and as dr. field says , they are adhibited , to exercise great fervour and devotion . and hooker , men are edified by ceremonies when either their vnderstandings are taught somewhat whereof in such actions it behooveth all men to consider , or when their minds are stirred up to that reverence , devotion , and due regard which in those cases seemeth requisite . if you mak● them unprofitable , idle indifferents , are not such things unworthy of the churches appointment ? and if others make them profitable , edifying ceremonies , have you not here denied that the church hath so great power of her self to appoint such ? . if church-governours have power , that is , lawful power , or authority from christ , to appoint and command the use of such ceremonies , then they can shew so much power granted them in their commission , or prove it from the written law of christ. here i remember what you say , rational account , p. . is it in that place , where he bids the apostles to teach all that he commanded them , that he gives power to the church to teach more than he commanded ? and a little before it , what hath he commanded her to do ? to add to his doctrine by making things necessary , which he never made to be so ? surely , you cannot think the church hath any such power . in all kind of grants , says gurney ( vind. of d com. . ) the want of an affirmative is negative sufficient . then may not men question , whether the governours of the church have such a power from christ , till they can prove it ? if [ teaching them to observe all things whatsoever i have commanded you ] doth not imply , that the governours of the church may teach and command more , than they have his word and warrant for ; i can think of no other text more likely for the purpose , than that , cor. . . let all things be done decently and in order ] upon which mr. f. maso● grounded [ the authority of the church in making canons and constitutions concerning things indifferent , printed . ] but here you will fall short too . for ( i suppose ) the jews were as well bound to perform the worship of god decently and in order ; yet that was no warrant or allowance for their bringing in other rites and ceremonies into god's worship , than what god himself had appointed . and what if church-governours forbad the use of such ceremonies ? would it be to sin against this rule ? cannot the worship of god be performed decently , and in ord●r without them ? antecedently to any determination of christ's governours men are bound to worship god decently and in order ; but none are so bound to use such ceremonies in god's worship , as was hinted before . and that these differ t●to genere from matters of order and decency , may appear , in that if we suppose them approved of god , they are matters of an higher nature , than things meerly decent , that is , they are pious and religious , not only finally , but formally , that a man would do amiss , that used them only as decent , neglecting the spiritual signification of them . and then will it not follow , that if they be not approved and allowed of god , it is worse for governours to appoint and command them , than if they commanded some simple indecent thing in god's worship ? as superstition , or false worship ( caeteris paribus ) is worse than a meer indecency . . it would seem , by what we reade , gal. . , . that the apostle peter had no authority to appoint the observation of such things . yet his power was as great , as any church-governours now can pretend to , with reason . . if church-governours have such a power ( as you say of men's separating upon account of their scruples , vnreason . of separation , pag. . which i answered before , pag. . ) where can you stop them from appointing new ceremonies ? and where will you fix , as to the use of them ? and what assurance can you give us , that we shall see an end of them , that they will never appoint more ? notwithstanding what you say , p. . by the same power that the church hath decreed these , she may decree more rites and ceremonies , as indifferent as these , and how many , who can tell ? and being once decreed , you must think you are bound to submit to such deter●ination , who are to be iudges , whether such or such ceremonies be rightly determined and appointed ? you well know what was said , commiss . account , p. . not inferiours , but superiours must judg what is convenient and decent . so , if the governours of the church once judg all those ancient rites of the christian church , we ever read of , with many new ones of the church of rome , ( as many as they could refine and purge from popish superstition ) to be all decent , and convenient , then must you not submit to them all ? though it would be a sign , that religion was far past the meridian in the church ( as t. fuller says ) where she can hardly be seen , for the length of her own shadow . as you plainly declare , from another p. . that separation is not warranted upon the account of bare ceremonies , although many more were enjoyned ; so you must say , that submission to them is a thing not to be denied , though many more were appointed . and therefore i say , suppose and grant , that the governours of the church have power to appoint such ceremonies , and you know not where they and you shall stop . and this power you grant in your subscribing to the articles . for art. . saith , the church hath power to decree rites or cer●monies ( without li●●iting any number . ) tho this clause was not extant in the articles of edw. , and q. elizabeth . here now i fall upon those two reasons you give ( vnre●s . of separation , p. , . ) for the appointing of these ceremonies . ▪ out of a due reverence to antiquity , — therefore they retained the●e few ceremonies as badges of the respect they bore to the ancient church . ( and yet you cannot deny , but other ceremonies more ancient than some of these are laid aside ; and the most ancient of these , is so in use with you , as it was not used at first ; and was so in use in the antient church as it is not in use with you . such is your respect and reverence here to the ancient church . ) . to manifest the justice and equity of the reformation , by letting their enemies ( the papists ) see they did not break communion with th●m for m●er indifferent things . ( as you have it before , p. . ) our bishops proceeded ( in our reformation ) more out of reverence to the ancient church , than meer opposition to popery . now i would be satisfied , whether it might not shew more respect and reverence to antiquity , if more ceremonies were retained , and the more ancient , rather than such as came up in latter times , ( as standing may be proved before the ceremony of kneeling ? ) and whether there are not many ceremonies in use among the papists , capable of having a good signification put upon them , and so as innocent and indifferent as these ; and therefore for the reason you have given , to be retained , or entertained amongst us , to shew our iustice and equity towards them , that we proceed not in meer opposition to popery , that we break not with them about meer indifferent things ? and will you be for that peaceable design , for going as near to rome as you can , without sin ? but thus upon your principles , the church might be reformed i will not call it , but transformed , ( borrowing the word from you ) and become as ceremonious as was the iewish church under the law. and they that highly applaud such ceremonies , as mighty helps to devotion , &c. may next tell the world that the iewish church was priviledged above the christian , as having more such helps ; ( unless they have a face to say , that the ceremonies of gods appointment were no such helps , as those of man's inventions . ) and consequently that latter churches ( which some take to have been less pure ) had some helps , which christ and his apostles were not mindful to supply the primitive church with . . it would seem , that if christ had approved of the appointing of such things , he would rather have appointed them himself , in his word , ( which would have gained them more repute and esteem , and might have ended the dispute about them . ) there is the same reason for all churches to observe and practise them , as for ours . 't is impossible for you to assign any reason for the cross in baptism , &c. à natura rei , now , but what would have been as pleadable even in the apostles times , and at all times since . then is it not most probable , that christ would have made an universal law for them , that should equally respect all churches , had it been his mind to have such things in his church ? indeed we find , christ hath instituted what religious rites and ceremonies , he would have observed , in the sacraments of the new testament . and where he hath determined the matter himself , what have men to do more , than to submit to his determination ? what can men do , that come after the king ? none are like to do his work better , or know his mind better , than himself . . if the exerting such a power be found contrary to many express commands in the word , how can we imagine such a power conveyed to church-governours in any general command there ? the scripture is no where contrary to it self . consult rom. . , , , , , , , , & v. , to the end of the chapter . and chap. . , . are there such plain commands in scripture for mutual forbearance , and against judging , and despising one another for such things as god hath not commanded , and against offending the weak , or casting a stumbling-block in others way , and for preserving the peace and unity of the church ; and can we think it probable , or a thing credible , that christ would have all such commands set aside , meerly for the sake of things called indifferent ceremonies ? or that the commands , or determinations of church-governours about such matters should be of force against the standing rules , and laws of christ , who is king of his church ? matters of order and decency are things of another nature , necessary in genere , as i have said before ; and yet men cannot oblige us to this or that particular order , when it is repugnant to that , whereunto it should be subservient . then much less is it the will of christ , that meer indifferent things ( if no worse ) should take place of great and necessary duties . such indifferent things must either be made necessary , or else you must say , ( it cannot be avoided ) that the churches peace may be broken , sound ministers , and christians ( that scruple the lawfulness of them ) may be ejected , and cast out of communion , or their consciences may be ens●●red unnecessarily . and yet one that ever read his bible might know so much , that the governours of the church have other work to do . and as the second book of homilies says ( p. . ) better it were , that the arts of painting , plaistering , carving , graving , and founding had never been found nor used , than one of them whose souls in the sight of god are so precious , should by occasion of image or picture perish and be lost : so indeed better it were , that no such ceremonies had ever been appointed by men , than one soul should be ensnared by them , ●r one minister or member of christ suffer . . i query , if christ had not appointed the sacraments of the new-testament , whether it had been in the power of church-governours to have appointed washing with water in token , and to put us in mind of our being washed and cleansed by the blood of christ , and by the sanctifying influence and operation of his spirit ; and so likewise to have appointed the eating and drinking of bread and wine , as signifying that our souls are to feed upon christ , whose body was broken , and whose blood was shed for us ? had not these been of the same nature , and as lawful as the significant ceremonies , which the church hath taken on her to appoint ? then let the people understand the power of the church , that if christ had never instituted baptism , and the lord's supper , she could yet have in part supplied that want with those significant ceremonies , that would have been something like them . . if church-governours have power to appoint such a ceremony , as the cross in baptism , ( for instance ) then they have power to add to the thing which god hath commanded , and to make new parts of worship . but deut. . . & . . forbids that . you grant p. . that for men to make new parts of divine worship is unlawful . for that is to suppose the scripture an imperfect rule of worship , and that superstition is no fault , &c. the cross in baptism is an addition . tho you seem to understand the prohibition of adding to the word , of things directly repugnant ; yet that is not so properly an addition , as an abolition . as one says , prohibetur hîc additio , non tantùm contrarii , ( quae non tam additio est quàm abolitio ) sed etiam diversi . ( v. m. poli. synops. crit. in deut. . . ) methinks , we may know what it is to add , if we understand what it is to diminish ; then as they might not diminish , or take away from god's worship one significant ceremony which the lord had instituted , by a parity of reason it would seem to follow , that they might not introduce or add one significant ceremony to the worship , god had instituted . the cross in baptism is made a new part of worship . for that which is used in god's worship in such a manner , and to such an end , that there needeth nothing but divine institution , or god's appointing it to be used in that manner , and to that end , to make it a part of the true worship of god , that is made a part of god's worship , tho falsly , for want of divine institution . had christ appointed the cross in baptism , as the church hath appointed it to be used , in token that we should not be ashamed , &c. had christ appointed it , by that badg to dedicate us to the service of him that died upon the cross ; no doubt it had thus become a part of god's true worship . here you speak short , p. . the canon says , it is an honourable badg , whereby the infant is dedicated to the service of , &c. and what is that , but a sign from men to god , to testify their subjection ? which by your own confession there is an act of worship ; and yet you will have it no such thing . p. . you say , if christ had instituted it with such promises — ( then no doubt , &c. and i say , if christ had instituted it only in token , that we ought not to be ashamed to confess him ( which is less , than that hereafter we shall not be ashamed ) had he appointed it only to signify our duty , it would yet no doubt , have been made a part of worship . and i hope upon second thoughts , you will say the same . some other passages , relating to this matter , i would have glanced at ▪ but it is time to hasten to an end of this conclusion i have been so long upon . yet methinks your slighty exposition of the second c●mmandment , p. . calls for one glance here . can you find no more in the affirmative part of it , than a command to worship god without an image ? what is there more ? and are not even mystical ri●s and ceremonies of god's institution within that command ? and does not bishop downham say , it forbiddeth all will-worship and superstition , whereby men worship god according to their own inventions ? there is no doubt , but that law forbiddeth other inventions of men , besides the worshipping of images , or of god by images . and whether the common nature of the inventions there forbidden will not be found agreeing to some of your ceremonies , i suppose will lye fair in others way to take notice of . and so you may have a fuller answer to that , pag. . what is neither forbidden , directly , nor by consequence , is lawful , and may be practised in the worship of god. and it may seem a little strange , that such learned men , as have written for the cross , and kneeling in the act of receiving , &c. should endeavour to prove them lawful by consequence from that text , let all things be done decently , &c. ( whence a more colourable argument might be drawn against them . as , if we suppose such ceremonies there included , it would imply , that the worship of the apostles , and primitive christians , was not so decent , wanting these ceremonies , as that of our church , who observe them ; ) strange it is , i say , that they could not rather see them forbidden by plainer consequence in the second commandment , and such other texts , as deut. . . & . 〈◊〉 ●xod . . , . lev. . , . num. . , . ezek. . . col. . 〈◊〉 , , . mar. . , , . quest. . whether every one is bound to submit to such ceremonies , being appointed and enjoyned by the governours of the church ? and here , . i cannot yet find , that you have taken off what you had said , irenic . p. . ( cited rector of sutton , p. . ) when the generality of those who use them , do not use them as indifferent , but as necessary things , it ought to be considered , whether in this case such an use be allowable ? now will you allow such ministers to forbear the use of the cross in baptizing , till they can find their people better informed , and brought off from any such superstitious conceit of that ceremony ? for certain it is , very many ( such as are ignorant , and most backward to be instructed ) do conceit the crossing of their children necessary , as if baptism could not be rightly administred without it . what if a minister be scrupulous , and in doubt , whether by the use of the ceremony he be not guilty of confirming them in their superstition ? will you consider such , to take off the scruples you may have occasioned by this passage ? . and what will you say to them , who cannot believe , but they are made necessary ? when they see them as strictly imposed and en●oyned , as if they were matters of the highest necessity ; this does 〈…〉 the least inform , or satisfy them , that you account them , ( for all that ) but indifferent things . would not that considerable person , you once speak of , philip nye , have said , quid verba audiam cum facta videam ? as he says , our church-governours questionless might have brought in one rite , or ceremony , with the same liberty to men's consciences , that they have done another , scil. the cross , and surplice , &c. with the same liberty , as bowing to the east or altar . as he also cites , a petition of the house of commons to king james , an. . wherein is as follows , ministers being removed from their ecclesiastical livings for not conforming in some points , it is a great grief to your majesties subjects , seeing the whole people that want instruction are by this means punished . here i remember what you say of the vow corban , ( p. . ) and how they thought their tradition to over-rule the law. then you can clear your ceremonies , as innocent , and free from any such crime . and yet it hath sometimes been known , when no surplice , no service . and conformity to the ceremonies is made so necessary , that people must have no ministers without it . by which means many souls are at great wants . that you should hold it a thing more pleasing to god , that the ceremonies be used and kept up , than that the souls of men in many places be relieved , and taken care for . and if the worship of god must rather be omitted , than the ceremonies , is not this , to set up men's traditions above god's law , and men's inventions above divine institutions ? many cannot be satisfied with that you tell them , p. . that these ceremonies are purged from popish superstition and error . and therefore all opinion of merit and spiritual efficacy is taken from them ; which do make them to be parts of divine worship . they know not that an opinion of merit is necessary to any part of divine worship . and if you would convince them , that you look on them as no more than naked , indifferent ceremonies , they could wish , that as you disclaim the opinion of their spiritual efficacy and necessity in word , so they might see that you do it in deed , that none may be deprived of the means , that god is wont to make effectual , and are ordinarily necessary to salvation , for the sake of such ceremonies , which you will not say are effectual , or necessary thereto . and to go on one step further with you here , to ( p. . ) either you must grant such ceremonies are to be altered , dispensed with in this case , or you must take them to be unalterable , and then ( by your own confession there ) you make them parts of divine worship . for ( as you say ) this supposes an equal necessity ( of them ) with that of divine institution . and if men must be without the word , and without sacraments , rather than without your ceremonies , as some have been , and still ordinarily are ) then do you not make them of equal necessity with divine institutions , if the preaching of the word , and administration of sacraments be such ? and thus have you proved ( for us ) your ceremonies to be made parts of worship . this ios●●s nichols complained of long since , ( plea , &c. p. . ) that the reverend fathers , accounting those things ( for which they contend ) but meer trifles , would yet prefer them before the ministry . and pag. . ( but mispaged ) — and for not yielding to their minds , suspended , deprived , and imprisoned their learned and godly brethren , and in the mean time preferred the trifling ceremonies before the weighty work of preaching . so that , as mr. calfill saith , the people of god be sometimes oppressed with traditions and ceremonies ; and for outward solemnities the inward true service of god is neglected . — and they could not see all this while any one thing ●miss , no , not so much as the unlearned ministry , or non-residency ; but defend all , and maintain all to the utmost . now if thus it appears , that the ceremonies are made necessary , in being preferred before the ministry of the word , if non-residency , and a non-preaching ministry be counted more tolerable than non-conformity ; and if ( as you say● by making the ceremonies of equal necessity with god's ordinances , they are made parts of divine worship ; you will excuse those that cannot submit to them , unl●ss they could be proved of divine institution . if they are things not 〈◊〉 by the word ( according to what you have , p. . they should not be 〈◊〉 , they are not bound to use them . no church-governours upon faith hav● su●h a power to bind men to things not 〈◊〉 by the word . if their 〈◊〉 enjoin what christ's laws forbid , ( as the making of any n●w part of worship ) they are ipso facto null and void . king iam●s 〈…〉 right of kings , p. . ) it is moreover granted , if a king s●all command any thing dir●ctly contrary to god's word , and tending to the 〈◊〉 of the church ; that cleries in this case ought not only to dispence with subjects for th●ir obedience , but also expresly to forbid their obedience . for it is alwayes better to obey god than man. and i hope you would not set up the power of any church-governour above the king 's here , and ab●ve christ●● . and what episcopius saith in defence of severed meetings sometimes against the will of the magistrate ( vol. . par. . p. . col . . ) may be appli●d h●re to non-submission ( in such case , as is spoken of , ) to the determination of church-governous . deirectatio autem illa obedien●iae , 〈◊〉 est in obedientia , nedum resi●tentia , sed tantum supremi iuris 〈◊〉 , qu●d magistratus sibi 〈◊〉 adrogat , out userpat , debita recognitio . it should not be called non-submission to our governours , but rather a due recogni●●●on of the soveraign right and authority of our highest lord. for haste i have here thrown things on heaps . a few words now to the third part of your last conclusion . . you say , wholly as to the form of government every one is bound to submit to such determination . here i offer to your consideration what follows . . whether they that could submit to episcopacy as to their practice , that is , live peaceably under it , and obey governours in ( licitis & honestis , ) so far as god's law allows , should be urged further , to submit their iudgment to the divine , or apostolical right of episcopacy , when determined by governours , whatever their private iudgment may be ? could bishop cranmer have declared his assent to such determination , whose judgment was , that the bishops and priests were not two things , but both one office in the beginning of christ's religion , ( as you cite his ms. irenic . p. . ) could such a man as dr. holland , ( and i need not tell you what he was ) who called dr laud a schismatick ▪ for asserting the divine right of episcopacy , saying , it was to make a division betwixt the english and other reformed churches ? or could lud. capellus have submitted to such determination , that it is evident to every one diligently reading holy scripture , &c. who in effect says the contrary , thes. salmur , p. . § . . neque , verò praescripto ullo divino desinitum esse putamus , &c. and if the like was determined of arch-bishops , as of bishops , i am in some doubt from what i meet with in your rational account , whether you could submit to such determination . for there pag. . you speak of it , as a known and received truth in the ancient church , — that the catholick church was a whole consisting of homogeneal parts , without any such subordination or dependance . — here i would be satisfied , how you would expound homogeneal parts , and so you seem to expound them , p. . since the care and government of the church by these words of cyprian ( episcopatus unus ) appears to be equally committed to all the bishops of the catholick church . ( but then should not all , that have the care and government of the church committed to them , be supposed to be bishops ; and no one bishop above another ; otherwise how is the care and government of the church equally committed to them ; how is there episcopatus unus ? and how doth the church consist of homogeneal parts ? ) and thus will it not follow , that no constitution higher than that of such bishops as have the care and government of the church committed to them , ( which you here suppose to be with a parity ) should be made the center of ecelesiastical communion and yet more fully , p. . when s. cyprian saith , episcopatus unus est , cujus à singulis in solidum pars tenetur , de vnit. eccles. p. . that every part belonging to each bishop was held in solidum , he therein imports that full right and power which every bishop hath over his charge ; and in this speech he compares the government of the church to an estate held by several free-holders , in which every one hath a full right to that share which belongs to him . whereas according to your principles the government of the church is like a man●or or lordship , in which the several inhabitants hold at the best but by copy from the lord. now it would be considered , whether in these words you have not given metropolitan churches a shake , if not diocesan churches too ? . whether you could submit , and declare your assent , if lawfull governours should determine that bishops were no superiour order of divine or apostolical institution , and should require your assent ? would you then disown , and discard such , whom you here maintain to be the apostles successours ? for what you say , ( vnreasonableness of separation , preface , p. . ) we may not think you would ever be afraid or ashamed to own them . for there you tell us , the friends of the church of england will not be either afraid , or ashamed to own her cause . — they must not think , that we will give up the cause of the church for it ( that is , for union , or the churches peace ) so as to condemn its constitution , &c. then you cannot say , that wholly as to the form of government , every one is bound , for the churches peace , to submit to the determination of governours , whatever his private judgment be . here i have put a case , wherein you could not submit . . what if the whole work of government , belonging to the pastor's office , was quite taken out of their hand , that they were made meer curats of the bishop , and such copy-holders , as must hold nothing but at the will of their lord ? would you have them bound to acquiesce in the publick decision , without doing any thing towards a reformation ? should they betrary the churches interest , for the churches peace ? may they not endeavour any alteration , not so much as by complaining to governours of such exorbitances of power , and by humble petition for redress ? . is every one bound to submit ( wholly as to the form of government ) to governours determination ? then what if our civil governours , and the ecclesiastical should differ in their iudgments , and determinations ? i make no question , but you have one time or other met with that of sir francis knolles to my lord treasurer sir william cecil ; moreover , whereas your lordship said unto me , that the bishops have forsaken their claim of superiority over their inferiour brethren ( lately ) to be by god's ordinance , and that now they do only claim superiority from her majesties supream government : if this be true , then it is requisite and necessary , that my lord of canterbury do recant and retract his saying in his book of the great volumn against cartwright , where he saith in plain words ( by the name of dr. whitgift ) that the superiority of bishops is of god's own institution ; which saying doth impugn her majesties supream government directly , and therefore it is to be retracted plainly and truly . and i find something like this , in that small tract , called ( english puritanism , c. . § . . ) they ●old , that all arch-bishops , bish●ps , deans , officials , &c. have their offices and functions only by will and pleasure of the king and civil states of this realm ; and they hold , that whosoever holdeth that the king may not , without sin , remove these offices out of the church , — or 〈◊〉 these offices are jure divino , and not only or meerly jure humano : that all such deny a principal part of the king's supremacy , which indeed you must hold , as to bishops , if you can prove them an apostolical institution . though i know the time when you was of another mind , rector of sutton , p. . will not all these things make it seem very improbable that it should be an apostolical institution ? and pag. . you believed , that upon the strictest enquiry it would be ●ound true , that ierome , austin , ambrose , sedulius , primasius , theodoret , theophylact , were all for the identity of both name and order of bishops and ●re●byters in the primitive church . now suppose the civil governours should determine the government by bishops , as superiour to the rest of the clergy , to be only jure humano , that they had power to alter , if they pleased ; and should require assent to this their determination : and the ecclesiasticks on the other hand should be of your mind , resolving not to give up the cause of the church , or disown its constitution , and should determine it to be iure divino , vel apostolico , and to be owned of men , as such : in such a case whether must the former , for the churches peace , think themselves bound to submit to the determinations of the latter ? or to which of their determinations must others submit ? for none , but such as the vicar of bray , could submit to both . thus i have gone over your three conclusions which you seem to make great account of . what great service they are like to do you , let the impartial reader judg . instead of my third conclusion , i would offer to consideration chap. of corbet's kingdom of god among men. [ of submission to things imposed by lawful authority , ] p. , &c. particularly , pag. . though the ruler be iudg of what rules he is to prescribe ; yet the conscience of every subject is to judg with a iudgment of discretion , whether those rules be agreeable to the word of god or not , and so whether his conformity thereto be lawful or unlawful . otherwise he must act upon blind obedience , &c. ( with what follows in that page ) and pag. . it is much easier for rulers to relax the strictness of many injunctions about matters of supposed convenience , than for subjects to be inlarged from the strictness of their iudgment . and blessed are they that consider conscience , and load it not with needless burdens , but seek to relieve it in its distresses . you go on with me , preface , p. but he urges another passage in the same place , viz. that if others cast them wholly out of communion , their separation is necessary . — that is no more than hath been always said by our divines in respect to the church of rome . but will not this equally hold against our church , if it excommunicates those who cannot conform ? now may not it be said here ( as rational account , p. . beginning ) they did not voluntarily forsake the communion of your church , and therefore are no schismaticks ; but your carriage and practices were 〈…〉 them to joyn together in a distinct communion from you ? and may not your own words ( ibid. p. ) be returned , scil. that by your own confession the present division and separation lies at your door , if it be not made evident , that there were most just and sufficient reasons for your casting them out of your communion . — and supposing any church ( though pretending to be never so catholick ) doth restrain her communion within such narrow and unjust bounds , that she declares such excommunicate , who do not approve all such errors in doctrine and corruptions in practice , which the communion of such a church may be liable to , the cause of that division which follows , falls upon that church which exacts those conditions , &c. here it is to be noted , that your own words ( irenic . p. , . ) objected against you , ( rector of sutton , pag. . ) are as follow , this ( scil. entring into a distinct society for worship ) i do not assert to be therefore lawful , because some things are required , which men's consciences are unsatisfied in ; unless others proceed to eject and cast them wholly out of communion on that account , in which case their separation is necessary . whence i inferred , that if ministers be wrongfully ejected , and wholly cast out of their publick ministry , for such things as their consciences are not satisfied in ( for not conforming in unlawful , or suspected practices ) it becomes necessary for them to have distinct assemblies in this case ( at least ) if there be need of their ministry . yet i cannot find that you have one word in answer to this . that one would think , either you knew not well what to say to the case of the ejected non-conformists , or that they were so very despicable in your eye , you thought them not worth taking notice of at all . now to your answers . ( . ) our church doth not cast any wholly out of communion for meer scrupulous non-conformity in some particular rites . yet whatever you say here , i doubt , a man ( though he hath his child lawfully baptized ) is not secured from the sentence of excommunication , if he bring it not to the church to be crossed . and though a man would joyn in the communion , yet if he be not satisfied to receive the sacrament kneeling , by the rules of the church he is to be debarred from the sacrament , and then liable to excommunication for not receiving . and being once excommunicated , i would know what parts of publick worship the church allows him to communicate in . thus there seems to be little more than a colour and pretence in this first answer , if the rules of the church be followed . but you further say , preface , p. , . ( . ) the case is vastly different , as to the necessity of our separation , upon being wholly cast out of communion by the church of rome ; and the necessity of others separating from us , supposing a general excommunication ipso facto , against those who publickly defame the orders of the church , — in the church of rome , we are cast out with an anathema . — now . if there be a necessity of our separation from the church of rome , upon account of that highest censure of excommunication with an anathema , and her pronouncing us uncapable of salvation , if we do not return to her communion , ( as you here suppose ) : why then do you allow a protestant to joyn in some parts of worship in the roman church , as in hearing sermons ? &c. ( as is plain you do , pag. . ) . i shall not oppose you in this , that the general excommunication ipso facto in the canons , lays no obligation , till it be duly executed . as you say , pag. , . general excommunications although they be latae sententiae , as the canonists speak , do not affect particular persons , until the evidence be notorious , &c. — and the question is , whether any person knowing himself to be under such qualifications which incur a sentence of excommunication , be bound to execute this sentence upon himself ? yet another question may come in here , viz. supposing such a sentence unjust , though that alone would not justify separation , whether yet it may not something extenuate it ? you are not for extenuating at all , i can bear you witness . . and may i not say , that this is answering but by halves ? it never reacheth the case of so many ministers , who have been wholly cast out of their publick ministry . it reacheth not the case of many private christians , who have been formally , and actually excommunicated for such causes , as can never be proved by scripture to deserve such a censure and sentence . you know that canon of the council held at agatha ( can. . carranza , fol. . ) that if bishops excommunicated any unjustly , they were to be admonished by other neighbouring bishops . and might not the admonishers have received such into their communion , whom the other had unjustly cast out ? as the council at wormes , ( carrenza , fol. . can. . cut short there , as i suppose . ) can. th is cited in mr. b's church history , p. . § . . saying , that if bishops shall excommunicate any wrongfully , or for light cause , and not restore them , the neighbour-bishops shall take such to their communion , till the next synod . and to my weak understanding you say nothing here to what you have iren. p. , . where you fairly clear non-conformists , but lay the imputation of schism upon those who require such conditions of communion , as they cannot conform unto for conscience-sake . the very requiring of such conditions , you would have there to be no less than an ejecting men out of communion . and therefore i should wonder , if by being wholly cast out of communion , you then meant only being excommunicated with an anathema . as i doubt not , but separation is as necessary , where one cannot have communion , with-out joyning in unlawful or suspected practices , as where one is formally excommunicated , yea , and if an anathema were annext to the sentence too . you add , ( . ) that author could not possibly mean , that there was an equal reason in these cases , when he expresly determines , that in the case of our church , men are bound in conscience to submit to the orders of it ; being only about matters of decency and order , and such things which in the judgment of the primitive and reformed churches are left undetermined by the law of god. here . be pleased to note , that as much as you seem taken with , and hug this conceit of yours , ( as you have it once and again here , and likewise in your conferences , p. . as if you thought it would do you knights service ) yet it remains wholly unproved , that the things imposed are only matters of decency and order . ( still i conceive , that if man only had ap●ointed such a use of bread and wine , to signify and put us in remembrance of christ's body broken , and his blood shed for us , it had been something more than a meer matter of decency and order , or something worse . and whether the same may not be said of the sign of the cross , i am in doubt ; for they seem to be parallel . ) and so it neither is , nor ever can be proved that such imposition of such things , in the iudgment both of the primitive , and of all reformed churches , is allowable by god's law ; and that men are bound to submit to them , whether they are satisfied about them , or not . . when you say , the author of irenicum could not possibly mean , that there was an equal reason in these cases ; i would fain know what those words mean , irenic . p. . ( cited rector of sutton , p. . ) let men turn and wind themselves which way they will , by the very same arguments that any will prove separation from the church of rome lawful , because she required unlawful things , as conditions of her communion , it will be proved lawful not to conform to any suspected or unlawful practice required by any church-governours upon the same terms , if the things so required be , after serious and sober enquiry , judged unwarrantable by a man 's own conscience . did you not here suppose some equality in these cases ? and which way did you wind and turn your self , to get off from those arguments ? . and let me say this further , how could you then possibly mean , that men should be bound in conscience to submit to significant ceremonies , as meer matters of order and decency , when you so plainly distinguished them , iren. pag. . and say of such ceremonies , that their lawfulness may with better ground be scrupled , p. . ( cited rect. of sutton , p. . ) could you then possibly mean , that such ceremonies , and matter of order and decency were all one ? certainly you could not , any further than you might possibly contradict your self . preface p. . and so much shall serve to clear the agreement between the rector of sutton , and the dean of st. paul's . but if this be all you have to say , they are not yet well agreed . and whether there be not the like disagreement betwixt your rational account , and this your impartial account , where i have compared them , let the indifferent and impartial reader judg . thus i have gone thorow so much of your preface , as i am concerned in . as you take little notice of me in your book , i have little more to say . i would not take others work out of their hands , who are ( by so great odds ) fitter for it . the first place where i find rector of sutton cited , is p. . there you take notice , how far i say , we agree with you ; but you over-look what follows upon it , that it seems very hard , that notwithstanding you break with us for things you count but trifles , yet would be sins to us . will you grant , that such as agree with you in all things necessary , may not , should not be debarred communion , by imposing things unnecessary ? or will you assert the contrary , and prove it ? again , pag. . you cite rector of sutton , p. . all the parish-ministers a●e not near sufficient for so populous a city . and can you say , they are sufficient ? is there no need of more ? why then do you say , this is but a colour , and pretence . the case is plain , that there is real need of more ministers , than are in place . and i desired to know , whether it was better that men shoul● be untaught , ( and so p●rish for lack of knowledg● than taught by such as the non-conformists ? whether the souls of men are of no more value , than our ceremonies ? but as yet i have no answer from you , that may satisfy . what you further say to me p. . i have fully answered before . again pag. . you cite a few words of mine , wich i know to be true of some , and pitty them . and though it is said , we would certainly give but bad quarter to others ; yet i hope if i had been all this time in plac● , for me , they should have had their liberty to hear those they were 〈◊〉 ●●tisfied with , and could profit more by . pag. , . you contradict not what i said rector of sutton , p. , . onl● 〈…〉 little use of it , as seem'd to serve your purpose there ; while yet 〈◊〉 ●●ands good against you . pag. . you do not fully set down my meaning ; though it was plain enough , rector of s●tton , p. . neither do you take any notice of what you had said your self , irenic . p. . though you there meet with it again . wherefore i wonder how you could overlook it . if that council at gangrae , had enjoyned the religious use of a peculiar habit , appropriate to the service of god , and others had refused to submit to it , i question then , whether the council would not have been the schismaticks ! ( as , whether any , without being guilty of making a schism , can exclude and silence ministers for wearing beards , or for not obeying such a trifling command as that was , mr. b , church-history , p. , . § . . ) but upon that matter of the council's condemning the followers of eust. sebastenus , i still query , whether you ought not to make a difference betwixt such as separated meerly upon pretence of purity , while they were indeed defiled with gross errors both in opinion and practice , ( as i there shewed ; ) and such as are necessitated to withdraw , and cannot otherwise keep their consciences pure ? this you should consider . as chillingworth says , p. . § . a murderer can cry , not guilty , as well as an innocent person , but not so truly , nor so justly ▪ and p. martyr ( loc. com. cl . . l. . p. . ) si quaedam partes ab eo ( toto ) se dividant , quod ●itiari & infici nolint , discessio erit laudabilis . the seventh and last place , where you take notice of me is , p. . and there i am brought in , as concluding with and for you , about your national church . but if we are agreed herein , why then do you call that which i say of it , ( rector of sutton , p. , . ) a weak assault , as you do implicitly , p. . § . assaulting ( tho never so weakly ) is not agreeing , but quite different , or rather contrary . but there i say , . that we will thank you , if you can prove the national church of england , as it is now established , to subsist by a divine law , and positive institution of christ. . i put it to the question , whether it be not schismatical , for any national church to make such terms of agreement and communoon , as are ●ot agreeable to that same rule , by which all christians ought to walk ? ( and that your terms are such , is easy to prove from your own words there recited ) and whether they that so far separate from such a dividing national church , tho they comply not with its established rule , may not yet be found walking by the same rule , in the true sence of your text ? yet these things you thought fit to pass by , and would notwithstanding persuade your readers ( that had rather take your word , than be at any pains to compare things together ) that we are agreed , and this point is thought fit to be given up . and yet i do not deny , but christians of whatsoever society , ( whether a less or greater ) should be for uniting so far as they can , to preserve and strengthen the society , and to promote true religion and christianity . so i agree with you in what you say , p. . the best way of the churches preservation is by an union of the members of it ; provided the union be such as doth not overthrow the ends of it . and doubtless this is a good and necessary proviso . for that which overthrows the ends of vnion , is a wicked conspiracy against christ and his church , rather than true christian vnity , or concord . but then it should be considered , if a national church sets down such terms of union , as have no tendency to promote the common cause of religion , and true interest of christianity , such terms as are sure to cause dissention , as evidently tend to divide , break and shatter the society , whether the churches preservation be therein truly consulted , or any way likely to be thereby secured ? and whether ( as mr. corbet says , kingdom of god. &c. p. . the constitution of the church should not be set as much as may be for the incomp●ssing of all true christians , which indeed makes for its most fixed and ample state ? and whether the taking of a narrower compass , be not a fundamental error in its policy , and will not always hinder its stability and increase ? thus i think i have spoken to all the passages in your book , wherein i am properly concerned . yet am i not at an end of my task . in your preface you direct me to three letters you have subjoined to your treatise . preface , p. . you say . there is one thing more which this author takes notice of — ( rector of sutton , p. . if we are condemned by oothers abroad , we may thank our friends at home , who have misrepresented us to the world , while we have not been allowed to plead for our selves . therefore , to give satisfaction , as to the judgment of some of the most eminent and learned protestant divines abroad , now living , i have subjoyned to the following treatise , some late letters of theirs , &c. now whether you have put these letters in print with the consent of those that wrote them , or by some law or priviledg peculiar to your self , i know not , nor shall i trouble my self to enquire . and whether they were procured on purpose , to grace and set off this book of yours , ( as by their date they appear to have come lately , as you say , the first written in september . ) the second in october . the third in november . ) this however is not very material . but it is likely some may think your five answerers confronted and confounded , with the authority of these three letters of some of the most eminent and learned protestant divines abroad now living . yet to tell you my thoughts , i could not but think thus with my self , that if we had no more cause to fear a french-army confuting us by club-law , than that any eminent french protestant divines would condemn us ( if they thorowly examined , and knew our cause ) we were so far safe enough . now as to these letters , it concerns not me to descant on the whole : but especially to enquire , and observe , whether it be not , as i said . or as calvin wrote to dr. cox and his brethren ( ep. . as you have it not far from the beginning of your book . p. . ) that the state of the case at frankford , had not been truly represented to him , which made him write with greater shar●●●ess than otherwise he would have done . i think , we shall see it plain , that either they had not the true state of our case laid before them , or if they had , then they wrote very much besides it . i suppose their letters here faithfully translated . the first letter is from monsieur le moyne . tho i find a letter of the same persons formerly published , wherein it is said , he thought himself abused , sundry passages in his letter , moderating and regulating the episcopal power , being left out ( b●●as . vapul . p. , . ) yet i must not suppose any such thing here , unless i could prove it . but from what is here published , p. . i could not have persuaded my self , that there had been so much as one , which had believed , that a man could not be of her communion , without hazarding his own salvation . — it is a very strange thing to see them come to that extream , as to believe that a man cannot be saved in the church of england . and p. . is it not horrible impudence , to excommunicate her without mercy , — for them to imagine that they are the only men in england — that hold the truths necessary to salvation , as they ought to be held ? ] from hence is it not plain now , that either he understood not the matter of difference betwixt the conformists , and non-conformists ; or else did here forget it ? had m. le moyne consulted and perused your sermon ( which possibly was the occasion of those writings that m. de l' angle seems to condemn unseen , p. , . ) had he only read what you say , p. . i will not make the difference wider than it is , — . they unanimously confess they find no fault with the doctrine of our church , and can freely subscribe to all the doctrinal articles . — well then , the case is vastly different as to their separation from us , and our separation from the church of rome — . they generally yield , that our parochial churches are true churches — they do not deny , that we have all the essentials of true churches , true doctrine , true sacraments . — . many of them declare , that they hold communion with our churches to be lawful . ] or had he seen what you write here , p. . how all your answerers agree with you in the doctrine of the church of england ; and as dr. owen says , we are firmly united with you in confession of the same faith ; had these things been in his eye , surely , he could not have written at this rate , as if we thought , we were the only men in england that held the truths necessary to salvation . so i leave you your self to judg , whether m. le moyne goes not upon a great mistake . sure i am , that either he , or you , have greatly misrepresented us , ( as every ordinary capacity , by comparing what i have here set down , may readily discern . ) if what he says of us here be true , what you say must needs be false . now i do the more willingly appeal to your iudgment here , touching these things , whereof we are accused , because i know you are expert in the questions that are amongst us . say then , whether ever any such controversie arose betwixt the conformists and non-conformists ? let me hear of one non-conformist , that ever asserted , that a man could not be saved in the communion of the church of england , or , that no conformist could be saved . yet this learned professor would have them all to be such . as is too plain from that very odious parallel , which he says ( p. . ) one might make , — betwixt them and the donatists . — betwixt them and those of the roman communion , who have so good an opinion of their own church , that out of her they do not imagine that any one can ever be saved . ( as for his comparing them with pop● victor , some will smile at it , as more fitly agreeing to others that are for excomunicating christians , for meer non-conformity in matters of ceremonies . and no better will the comparison hold betwixt them and the audeans ( or anthropomorphites ) as whosoever reads what antiquity says of them , may perceive . if they were against rich bishops , that is not to the point . if our bishops would be content with their riches , and quit their claim of divine right , ( till it can be proved ) or not require our acknowledgment of it , before we believe it , nor impose such things on us , as we are sure , and can prove from what they wrote , the apostles would never have imposed , whose successors they pretend to be ; then i doubt not we could accord with them . ( so that here also he shoots wide . ) and thus alas , by overdoing , he hath hitherto done just nothing for you . i know , sir , that you to whose iudgment i here appeal , must needs acquit us from that vncharitableness we are here charged with . or we are not the men he speaks of , we are not arrived to that horrible impudence to excommunicate all of your communion without mercy . we are not like the donatists , or those of the roman communion , not as here we are represented . and so , if dr. potter's word ●ay be taken , we are to be cleared and acquitted from the charge of schis●● . as he says ( answer to charity mistaken sect. . p. . printed at oxford . ) this clears us from the imputation of schism , whose property it is , ( witness the donatists and lucif●rians , ) to cut off from the body of christ , and the hope of salvation , the church from which it separates . can you find any such separatists amongst those , who y●t remain firmly united to you in the confession of the same faith ? we differ only ( as i said , rector of sutton , p. . ) as to certain ( external ) accidental forms , modes , and rites , which the church of england cannot say are necessary , and appear to us as things at least to be suspected ▪ and yet they are obtruded and imposed with as much rigor and strictness , as if they were most highly necessary . we doubt not yet , but there are sober and truly pious conformists , whose consciences do not scruple the lawfulness of these things . but here i would say , as dr. potter ( ibid p. . ) to him who in simplicity of heart believes ( them to be lawful ) and pracfiseth them , and withal feareth god and worketh righteousness , to him they shall prove venial . such a one shall by the mercy of god , either be delivered from them , or saved with them . but he that against faith and conscience , shall go along with the stream , to profess and practise them , because they are but little on●s ; his case is dangerous , and witout repentance desperate . so though the learned professor compares the present dissenters ( because he knows them not ) with the donatists , i may here borrow an expression of chillingworth's ( p. . § . . ) though they did the same action , yet doing it upon different grounds , it might in the one merit applause , ( or approbation ) and in the other condemnation . and what follows in this letter , pag. . still proves , that he knows not the men , or their principles , whom he here condemns . for my part ( says he ) as much inclined to toleration as i am , i cannot for all this perswade my self , that it ought to be allowed to those that have so little of it for other men ; and who ▪ if they were masters , would certainly give but bad quarter to those that depended upon them . to which i shall say but thi● , one would think , they that would have christ's army consist of volunt●●rs , and not of press'd men , ( as the lord of faulkla●d is for it , pag. . ) ●hey should not be for giving bad quarter ; otherwise it could not be expected , that the volunteers would come in very freely to them . one would think , christians could not expect better quarter from any , than from those , who would have all admitted upon catholick terms . other passages in this letter i am not so concerned in . otherwise his arguing from success and providence , pag. . might be questioned . and what is s●id of the confession and articles of faith , p. ▪ [ can there be any thing more 〈◊〉 , than to say , that an instrument which god hath hertofore ●●ployed for the instruction of so many people , for the consolation of so many good men , for the salvation of so many believers , is now become a destructive and pernicious thing ? ] may not the like be truly said of the ministry of many non-conformists , both heretofore , and to this present day ? hath not god made them instruments of the conversion and salvation of many souls ? how then is their ministry become a destructive and pernicious thing ? further , i am confident , you will not , you cannot say , as he does , p. . that for the space of years , all the churches in the world had no other government , than episcopal ; you have asserted the contrary , ( as i said , rector of sutton , p. . ) and i fear not your retracting here . but it is likely , what he says , pag. . will please you . for to speak the truth , i do not see that their meetings are of any great use , — when i was at london , — i went to several of their private assemblies , to see what way they took for the instruction 〈◊〉 the people , and the preaching of the word of god. but i profess i was not at all edified by it . and is this truth ? where was the fault then ? would be my next question , ( if i had opportunity to speak with him . ) by this passage , it would seem , their preaching is of no use , if one cannot be at all edified by it . and are such discourses , as those in the supplement to the morning exercise , of no use ? and the lectures in the morning exercise against popery , of no use ? were the labours of such worthy , learned , excellent men as ames , brightman , broughton , ball , bradshaw , cartwright , baynes , cotton , hooker , shepherd , norton , burroughs , hildersham , ( whose way of preaching , a worthy conformist lately said he wisht the present clergy would imitate ) hooker , dod , parker , dr. drake . dr. kendell , dr. burgess , &c. and of late , dr. tuckney , dr. spurstow , dr. wilkinson , dr. seaman , dr. manton , dr. goodwin , ( i speak of such as are dead , whose works follow them , and some of which i hope will remain ) dr. grew , dr. bryan , dr. staunton , dr. temple , dr. holmes , and of such as mr. calamy , corbet , bridges , rich. and ioseph alleyn , angier , wadsworth , wells , swinock , newcomen , caryl , greenhill , nalton , roe , reyner , ieans , truman , a. iackso● , thomas adams , ant. burgess , ralph robinson , iohn gibbons , gawton , charnock , theoph. gale , &c. ol. haywood , i. shaw , thomas vincent , and matthew pool , ( so well known by his learned and useful synopsis critic●● ) all of no use ? now they rest from their labours , yet do not many of their works praise them in the gates ? did he not consult the writings of many of the non-conformists yet living , viz dr. iacomb , dr. owen , dr. bates , dr. wilkinson , dr. collins , mr. ba●ter , mr. how , mr. woodbridge , mr. clarkson , mr. sam. cr●dock ? but how rare a preacher must we suppose him to be , who heard one of the most famous preachers of the non-conformists in london , and says of what he heard , that it seemed nothing to the purpose ? and yet some conformists have been known to transcribe , and preach some of their sermons almost verbatim . i hope , such thought them to be of some use . i say not this of all , or the most . not only such as the friendly debator would scorn it , but many others that could not satisfy themselves to serve god with that which cost them nothing . but if there are but two such in a county , two are some . and then will it not follow , that people should not hear them ? for it seems , the best sermons they are known to preach , are of no use . but a little before these blunt passages , p. . he speaks very right , if his words be rightly expounded , and applied . — they should do all for a good agreement ; and in the present conjuncture of affairs , they should understand that there is nothing but a good re-union , that can prevent the evils with which england is threatned . thus others at a distance can fore-see ruine coming upon us by ou● sad divisions ; and yet we that are so near to ruine , cannot , or will not see it . the good lord make those sensible of these things , who might do most to promote a good agreement , and happy union , and thereby prevent our ruine and confusion . but alas ! what can we do here in comparison of you ? id tantum possumus , quod jure possumus . we must not sin against consciences . certainly , that could not be a good agreement , which is made up by sin. would others condescend to our weakness ( if they will not have it called tenderness of conscience ) i say ▪ would they condescend , only so far as they might certainly without sin , where we could not submit without sinning ; then i doubt not , a good agreement would soon follow . and as the lord of faulkland , p. . i am confident , that all who receive the scripture for the only rule , and believe what is there plain to be only necessary , would ( if they truly believed what they profess , and were not led aside either by prejudice or private ends , or some popish relicks of holding what they have long been taught , or following the authority of some ( by them much esteemed ) persons either alive or dead ) soon agree in as much as is necessary , and in concluding no necessity of agreeing in more ; there being no doubt , but it would soon appear plainly what is plain . to my understanding , there is more in these few lines to shew the way to a good agreement , than in all your sermon , and this book , and letters taken in too . we readily agree with you in all that is necessary ; and if you ( for your parts ) would but conclude there is no necessity of agreeing in more , i cannot see what can hinder a mutual good agreement . pag. . and seeing the good of the ●tare and church depends absolutely upon the union of the people in the point of religion , one cannot there press an universal union too much . but it ought to be procured by good means . an vnion in religion may be without vniformity in ceremonies . you will not own it , that you place religion in these , that they are any parts of religion . but the pressing of such unnecessary doubtful things upon men , about which many are and ever will be dissatisfied , seems no good , nor probable means to procure an vniversal vnion . that prudence and charity ( which ▪ this professor afterwards commends , as necessary in this work ) would ( in my simple judgment ) direct to other means and methods . notes upon the second letter , from monsieur de l' angle . add p. . i have not met with such writings , said to be lately published , to make men believe that communion with the church of england is unlawful , and that the ministers cannot permit it to private persons without sinning . or if i have seen any such , they are quite out of my mind . as to the former of these , do but allow them to distinguish , as you do in your rational account , and they will say , they have communion with the church of england , so far as it is a church , and very many of them have ordinary communion in the self-same worship , so far as it is god's worship . and what is redundant , it is not necessary that they should have communion in . it is one thing to say , communion with the church of england is simply unlawful , unlawful in it self , and so unto all men ; and another , to say that communion in the liturgies , or ceremonies is unlawful to them , who cannot yet be satisfied that they are lawful . but we are further supposed to believe , that communion with the church of england is intolerable , in what follows , that the ministers cannot permit it to private persons without sinning . here let every one so far as they are called to it , speak for themselves . for my part , i have never made it any of my work ( god , and men are witnesses ) to warn others to take heed how they had communion with the church of england . i have never told any living soul , that i should sin , if i did not forbid their joyning with parochial congregations . rather it should be my prayer , i am sure it is my hearts desire , that sober conformists , and non-conformists might once come to joyn each with other , notwithstanding their lesser differences . but it seems , it is not permitted to you to have communion with such at dr. o. and mr. b. tho you may have communion with others , from whom you differ in greater matters ( both as to your judgments , and practices too ) while they do but conform . then is there not some strange secret virtue , or inchantment in this chain of conformity ? it can congregate the heterogeneous , while it separates those who are more homogeneous . but that this is not the doctrine of the non-conformists , that they cannot permit private persons to have communion with you , without sinning , i am very apt to conclude , because m. le moyne went to several of their private assemblies . while he was at london , and could never hear any such thing from any of them . otherwise sure , he that could remember the citing of pliny , and vitruvius a hundred times in one sermon , and tell us of it five years after , ( tho i doubt his being so ●●sy in casting up such accounts , might be the cause he wa● not at all edified by the sermon ) would not have failed to take notice of such a thing as that ▪ being more pertinent and material . and for the same reason ( with others ) i cannot believe what follows h●●e , p. . that the bugb●ar words of tyranny , oppression , limbs of antichrist , are continually beaten into the peoples ears . if so , m. le moyne had been as likely as any person to have catched at them ; and then had we heard of them again . but further , some of us have the very same to say , that this learned person says , ( p. , . ) that in frequenting your assemblies , and preaching too in ●ongregations that are under the jurisdiction of the church of england , ( when we could enjoy the priviledg , which indeed ●●th been very rarely ) we have thus also shewn , that we do not believe her 〈◊〉 to be unlawful . add p. . schism is the most formid●ble ●vil tha● can befal the church : and for the avoiding of this 〈◊〉 ●charity obliges all good men to bear with then breth●● 〈…〉 much less ●olerable than those of which the dispute is , 〈…〉 the eyes of those that have the most aversion fro● 〈◊〉 . i thought it would appear , that these ●minent , learned men did not rightly , and fully understand our case . so the former speaks , as if we did excommunicate the church of england without mercy ; wh●● alas ! we are rather under her excommunication . and this learne● person speaks , as if we had not so much christian charity as to bear with our brethren , in the use of a few ceremonies : but that is not the thing in question . many of us ( at least ) could , and do bear with you● conformity , and joyn with you notwithstanding . but will it not follow from his own words , that christian charity obliges you to bear with ou● non-conformity , yet you will not bear with us ? i hope you would be counted good men. now he says , christian charity obliges all good men to bear with their prethren in some things much less tolerable , than those of which the dis●●●● is . the apostle gives timothy a very solemn charge ( then are not bishops concerned in it , if timothy was a bishop ? ) tim. . . i charge thee before god , and the lord iesus christ , and the elect angels , that thou observe these things , without preferring one before another , doing nothing by partiality . and one of these things , he was to observe , we find , v. . let the elders that rule well , be counted worthy of double honour , especially they who labour in the word and doctrine . yet how many that have been ●alled to the work of the ministry , how many of your brethren , that would gladly labour in the work they have been called unto ; and you have been doing them what dishonour you can , loading them with the charge of schism and unreasonable separation , while you can bear with things much less tolerabl● in others ? is this your christian charity ? or doing nothing by partiality ? are there no non-conformists , that use to hear you , when they have opportunity ? i am apt to think there are . and thus they bear with you , as to matters in dispute , farther than you are seen to bear with them . but this must be noted , it is one thing for us to bear with your conformity , and another thing by word and deed to declare our approbation of conformity , or to conform meerly because you do so , and require us to do so , tho we suspect it to be sinful . as the lord faulkland ( i chuse oft to speak to you in others words ; because i suppose if i spake the same things in my own words , they would not be so much regarded ) reply p. . if they have any never so slight errors , and which appears so to me , which yet they will force me to subscribe to , ( and this you know is our case , which m. de l' angle seems to be ignorant of , or else forgot himself , and in these lines ( i am upon ) went quite besides it ) if i communicate with them , my assent would be damnable , or if they require the same subscription to some truths , which yet after my real endeavours in enquiry , appear errors to me , i doubt not but my refus●l is ●o way damnable . something more you have immediately before . this is home , and answers m. de l' angle's charging us with committing a very great sin. and where he cites calvin , and beza , p. . we may well be confident , that they could not have submitted to such terms , as are put upon us . and if he himself had submitted unto all that is required of us , when he was here in england , had he submitted to re-ordination , and owned bishops , a●a distinct order from presbyters , of apostolical institution , i very much question , whether it might not have drawn the displeasure of his brethren upon him , if not their censure at his return , as he speaks , p. . add p. . when i see what he says of the first authors of the separation , i cannot but wish he had known them . he condemns some writings , as unreasonable and passionate , possibly he may mean our answers to your sermon : but th●● fo● ought appearing in this letter , very probably he hath not seen them . yet ●fter all , he comes to plead for dissenters . — there is a very great number of good men , whose faith is pure , and whose piety is 〈◊〉 , ●this ●estimony i hope is true ) and who remain separate from you only because their simplicity is surprized , &c. and whether he should not have had the like charity for very many ministers , as he hath for very many of their hearers , may be a question ? i rank these with those weak ones , who said they were not of the body ; and of whom 〈…〉 said they were of the body for all that . so why may not they , who are of the same faith , and have the same worship for substance , be acknowledged as brethren , and still owned as in communion with the body ; tho they have not the same ceremonies , which are meer shadows ? but he speaks more fully to the purpose , p. . — and i am sure , ( i wish he could make us sure here ) that if there were nothing wanting to cure it , but the abstaining from some expressions , the quitting some ceremonies , and the changing the colour of some habits , you would resolve to do that , and something more difficult than that , with great pleasure . from hence , as from that earnest expression he hath in the page foregoing , [ in the name of god then , do all that possibly you can : ] on● would easily infer , that he was little acquainted with the case , he understood not where we have stuck , what hath thus long hindred our full communion with the church of england . otherwise , for ought i can perceive here , we might have had him pleading for us , that such matters of difference might be quite removed , or at least that they might not be urged , and imposed . and by what immediately followeth there , p. . it appears , he is a great stranger to the savoy-conference , never truly understood how matters were carried , or who have been the obstructors of union . had the non-conformists then , or at any time since , refused to hearken and submit to fair and just proposals , which would not have pinched at all on that part , which should be kept tender in every one ; then had they been extreamly to blame , and had stood very much in their own light. but god allows us not to break our peace with him and our own consciences , for peace with men ; neither can true piety , zeal , and charity ( three cardinal vertues which he commendeth in our bishops , and prayeth they may be increased more and more ) require so much of us , which is not in our power to grant and yield unto . but seeing ( as he says afterwards ) he should be past all comfort , if he should not see some new attempt at least made for the success of a work so holy , and of such consequence , in a time that seems so proper for it ; and thousands more may say the like , who truly prefer ierusalem's welfare before their chiefest ioy ; i cannot but pray that those , who are chiefly concerned ; may have all the qualities of the head and the heart , which are necessary to make them able and willing to contribute to this good work. upon the third letter from monsieur claude . add p. . tho he says , the distinction betwixt the bishop and priest is very antient ; yet had he been required to own this distinction , as grounded on the word of god , and to assert the right of episcopacy as of apostolical institution , i very much question , whether this would not have gravelled him . add p. . i believe , there are very few to be found amongst us , that question the ordination of all ordained by bishops . and many would be glad , if it was permitted , that some of you would sometimes help us in our meetings . where he speaks of christian unity and concord , to my poor understanding mr. corbet speaks more soundly , accurately , and distinctly . p. . he is expressly against tyranny over the soul , and mens forcing the conscience , by imposing a necessity to believe that which they believe , and to practise that which they practise ( where we must suppose the things themselves are not necessary . ) and according to what follows , in this case , the external communion ceases of right , and there is not any that is lawful to be had any more with such . was there not need of an index expurgatorius here ? this makes something for dissenters , and pinches some where else . and what follows that , [ we do not believe that a single difference of government or discipline , nor even a difference of ceremonies innocent in their own nature , is a sufficient occasion to break the sacred bond of communion ] is little to your purpose . i think , a single difference of ceremonies should not break communion , where there is an vnion in the same faith , and in things necessary . but there is more than a single difference of ceremonies , where no difference is allowed , but the same ceremonies are imposed on all , tho one part cannot look on them as innocent ceremonies . p. . speaking of the protestant churches in france , he says , we utterly disapprove and see with grief , certain extreams , whereinto some of the one side , and the other do cast themselves . the one looking upon episcopacy as an order so absolutely necessary , that without it there can be no ecclesiastical society , &c. then according to them , there may be true churches , true ministers , without bishops . and as they are ready to receive ministers episcopally ordained , ( p. . ) so they should think it an extream , if we will not own such for ministers , as have been ordained by a presbytery , ( and that when there were not bishops at hand to ordain . ) if we will force such to be re-ordained , or will not admit of them as ministers , this is an extream with them . add p. . let not men domineer over their ●●●th and consciences , ( a thing destructive to religion ) and i hope they would not be for rejecting the bridle of discipline , nor for shaking off the whole yoke of government , nor for depriving themselves of the succours which might be drawn out of a general vnion , for to strengthen them in the true faith and in true piety . but they cannot apprehend that the things imposed will ever contribute any thing to either of th●se . pag. . he seems to suppose , they are kept off , only from an apprehension of some unpleasant inco●●eniencies in the episcopal government : whereas generally it is not the government it self , but some particular matters imp●sed , which they cannot with a good conscience submit unto , which causes the distance . so , add p. . tho i have opportunity of conversing with very few , yet i cannot think there is a man , of all those that believe the presbyterian government is more agrable to scriptu●e-rule , than our prelatical , that stands off meerly because he cannot have what in his judgment he prefers , as the better government . so what he says towards the end of the same pag● [ the question here is not about the esse , ●r the bene esse , but only about the me●●us esse , tha● they dispute with you ] fully proves , ● as i said ) ●h●● indeed they know not the true state of our case , as we see plainly , he is quit● beside the point we stick at . now i look back a little again . add p. . — the bond of christian charity doth not only joyn us with some of our brethren , but with all our brethren , to receive from them , and to give them edification by living together in the same communion . then let the world judg ( by this rule ) who have most christian charity , you 〈◊〉 the non-con●ormisis . many of these hear and joyn with you , so 〈…〉 they can , and have opportunity ; whereas few or none of you will hear , ● joyn with them . and yet you are sometimes pleased to 〈…〉 b●thren . 〈…〉 follows , it still appears , h● understood not the case , or was beside 〈◊〉 . ●●w many that ●pp●●●● not of the government , yet could submit to it , did 〈…〉 require any thing but what they are satisfied is agreeable to the wor● ? and both parts agree , that god's word ought to be the rule of our 〈◊〉 . what ●●se is there considerable , i have more fully debared with you be●ore , add pag. to imagine that we cannot with a good conscience be present at assemblies , but only when we do fully and generally approve of all things in them , it is certainly not to know neither the use of charity , nor the laws of christian society . but what if a church requires ministers and christians to declare their approbation of things they cannot approve of , and to practise that in the worship of god , which ( in their judgment ) ought n●t to be practised ? is not this a different case ? would not this be contrary to true faith and piety ? and are not such so far cut off from the communion of that church , by what he says in the beginning of that page ? that is not allowable for such to do , which yet they look upon as tolerable in others , who are otherwise perswaded in their minds abut the same . add p. . i cannot believe that there is any one among them that looks upon your episcopacy , or your discipline , or certain ceremonies which you observe , as blots and capital errors , which hinder a man from obtaining salvation . — something was spoken to this , in the answer to the first letter . so i say still , they are not so well satisfied about these , as to give a true assent unto them , and then to declare their assent , would be foul dissimulation . they know not how easily others get to heaven by their conformity : but if they conformed against their consciences , they know not how they should ever come there without repentance . then pag. . he comes to put in a good word for us . i hope you will not be wanting in the duties of charity , and the spirit of peace , and that when the dispute shall be only of some temperaments , ( as if the dispute had not been of these all this while ) or of some ceremonies that are a stumbling-block ( and yet innocent things ) and which in themselves are nothing in comparison of an intire re-union of your church under your holy ministry , you will make it seen that you love the spouse of your master more than your selves ; and that it is not so much from your greatness and your ecclesiastical dignity that you desire to receive your glory and your joy , as from your pastoral vertues , and the ardent care 〈◊〉 take of your flocks . now i had thought , that all the dispute or difference betwixt you , and the non-conformists , had been only about some ceremonies , and the like things ; i mean , such as in themselves are nothing in comparison of an intire and happy vnion . were but such things removed , or no such things imposed , i should hope , you would be soon united and agreed . he that understands not , that it is the strict and rigorous imposing of such things , ( which the imposers might lawfully take off , and we cannot lawfully submit to ) which keeps up the difference amongst us ; i say , he that understands not this , and does not consider , and speak to it , he cannot be supposed rightly to consider our case . and yet how obvious is it , that this is quite over-looked here , not once seriously debated in any of these three letters ? and therefore , as i before appealed to you , as iudg , whether we were not misrepresented here , and you have judged the matter already ; so i shall expect , that in the next impression of this your impartial account , you will take care , these letters may be left out . you cannot but know , that they were no competent iudges betwixt us , who had only heard one part , and seem wholly ignorant what the other part hath to plead for themselves . here i remember what you say , preface , pag. . ( of one you speak of there ) but i must do the author that right , to declare , that before his death , he was very sensible of the injury he had done to some worthy divines , — and begged god and them pardon for it . so would i have you to do these worthy eminent , learned divines , and us also that write , to smother their letters , as soon as you can , if you do no more . otherwise though i may not live , or have liberty to call you partial , the world may account you so . and yet observing every one of them to have some touch for moderation , charity , some temperament , and the like , if a council of such as these were called , and once thorowly understood our cause , i should not doubt of their determining for us . ( i have respect to what you say , pref. p . ) and to come nearer to you yet , if a council could be called of all the protestant churches in christendom ( and let any one of these be set in the chair , ) that would indifferently hear what both parts have to say , ( i would only exclude such as you , for what you say , rat. acc. p. . and . what justice or reason is there , that the party accused , should sit judg in their own cause ? none of the parties accused seem fit to you , either to be iudg , or iury , and with this caution only ) i should not distruct our cause , if such a council had the hearing of it . one thing more i learn from these letters , viz. when i see that such eminent learned divines are so mistaken , and drawn to misrepresent so considerable a numb●r of their brethren , living in the same age with them , and not very far remote from them ; it satisfies me how much more easy it was for the romish party , being uppermo●● in the world , to cloud and obscure those , who at any time appeared against their err●rs and corruptions . as the lord faulkland ( answer to mr. montague p. ) if he consider the great industry of his church in extinguishing those whom they have called her●ticks , and also their books , so ●hat we know scarce any thing of them , but from themselves ( who are too partial to make good historians ) if he consid●r how carefully they stop men's mouths — . but here i shall stop my pen. so much to these letters . yet for a conclusion , i have a few words more particularly to you . now , reverend sir , be not offended at my plainness . i hope 't is for the interest of the true protestant religion , that i appear in this cause , ( how weak , and unworthy soever . ) my charity , ( i speak my heart ) is not confined to a party , no , not so set upon that , which you would call my own ; but where i have reason to believe others of a different perswasion are more holy , and live more like christians , i would esteem , love , and honour such more . i am not conscious to my self of wishing you the least harm , or enjoying your dignities , or estate . live or dye , sink or swim , however things go with me and mine , i hope , it is my hearts desire , it may go well with the church and people of god. i see the protestant interest in a lamentable , tottering state. methinks , all that are true friends to it should readily yield , it would stand firmer on ample ground , ( terms of communion of a due latitude ) than on such a narrow bottom , that admits not of a multitude of sound christians , who would be firm to it . yet the latter of these you plead zealously for , ( though it is plain , your dividing them from you , by unnecessary , uncatholick terms , must needs weaken both you , and them . ) this i cannot but be sensible of , and think it my duty to lament . unless the lord shall incline you to a more moderate course , than you have lately taken , in reference to dissenters , i know i may expect a fiercer assault from you . but i know as well what ground i stand on , and further am bold to say , you cannot hope for success in this cause , without first destroying a considerable part of your own works , ( not only pulling down your ireni●um , a good sconce , however now slighted ; but also sadly battering and shaking that goodly fabrick , your main fort , the rational account too . ) and if you causel●sly destroy , what you had so well built , and what is fortified and strengthened with so much reason , will you not make your self a transgressor ? and may not this add something to the grief of your wound ( as aejop has it of the eagle ) to be shot with your own feathers . yet reverend sir ) i would be more concerned far , on other accounts for you . refrain now from these men , and let them alone ; for if the work wherein they are employed be god's work ▪ then you cannot seek to overthrow it , but therein you will be found a fighter against god. oh! be well advised what you do further this way . you may be under a sore temptation , seeing your self so far engaged in this cause , possibly you may think , it would be a dishhonour now to retract . but if by this undertaking of yours , you seek to deprive very many souls of the ordinary means of salvation , ( forbidding us to preach to sinners that they might be saved ) ; if thus you set your self in some measure to obstruct the course of the gospel ; if you so far oppose the interest of christ , ( your great lord and master ) if you are against what may be truly called god's worship , and truly religious exercises , be assured , this shall not be for your honour in the end. for the lord has said , them that honour me , i will honour ; and they that despise me , shall ●e lightly esteemed . and you know further , our lord jesus christ hath denounced a sad wo unto such as take away the key of knowledg from m●n . and ought you not to think seriously of it , whether you may not be accounted to have a special hand , in procuring what further opposition and sufferings , your poor brethren may meet withal ? if ●en should be animated , and set on by your writings , to fine , impoverish , imprison , &c. them ( being falsly persw●●●d , that in persecuting them , they should do god and his church good service ) can you be found altogether clear in this matter ? and is it not a dangerous thing , not only to scand●lize and injure a prophet , or eminent saint and servant of god , but 〈…〉 offind the least and weakest believer ? mar. . . whosover shall offend one of these little ones that believe in me , &c. there we see , christ makes not a light matter of it . you may go on censuring such , as guilty of as great a sin as murder , when nothing but a fear of sinning kee●● them from d●ing as you would have them . but when you have said ●●ll you can against them , and tho you will not allow them to be members of any church upon earth ; yet with all your authority ( was it greater ) you cannot shut them out of heaven , you cannot separate them from christ ; as p. martyr , caeterum dic●nt quicquid velint , ●●●quam efficient qui● vivdentes & ●●●ertes ad praescrip●um verbi dei s●●● faelices . the best of it is , they may be happy , for all that you can ever say , or do . yea , though they were supposed under some misapprehensions , as suppose conformity lawful in ●●self ; yet their non-conformity , and non-compliance with you , through ▪ conscientious tenderness is better than a rash , precipita●● , or dissem●ling ▪ hypocritical conformity would ●e . and thus endeavouring ( as near as they can ) to keep to the rule of the holy scripture , avoiding what they cannot but suspect is not according to that rule they may be in a safer way , than if they were in external communion with you . and so much i have from my lord faulkland too , ( p. . ) by that rule , whosoever regulates his life and doctrine ( or belief ) i am confident , that though he may mistake error for truth in the way , he shall never mistake hell for heaven in the end. and yet further , should you not consider , whether it be not more agreeable to the revealed will and mind of christ , that you should suffer some ta●es to grow , rather than pluck up good corn with them ? reverend sir , it having so happened , that poor i have been called out ( among others an hundred times fitter ) to shew my opinion touching the matter you have started , i cannot but think , as i here declare ( so far as my judgment serves ) you might have employed your time , your learning and parts to much better purpose , than you have done in this late piece of work. surely my life would be but sad to me , if i could not find more pleasing work than this , that you have been an occasion of engaging me in . and yet i hope to have more comfort in it , at the great day of accounts , than i can conceive you to have of yours in that day . if you lay the vnity ●f christians upon conformity too , or vniformity in doubtful and suspected , if not unlawful practices , a general vnion can never be had , or hoped for . if you would make the way to heaven narower than christ has left it , many will be forced to leave you here . but now if you would henceforth propose and promote an vnion amongst christians u●on catholick ierms , we are for you , and would heartily joyn with you . and as that most learned and pious bishop vsher ( serm. of vnivers . of the church , and vnity of faith p. , . ) if at this d●y we should take a survey of the several professions of christianity , that have any large spread in any part of the world , — and should put by the points wher in they did differ one from another , and gather into one body the rest of the articles wherein they all did generally agree ; we should find that in th●se propositions , which without all controversy are universally received in the whole christian world , so much truth is contained as , being joyned with holy obedience , may be sufficient to bring a man unto everlasting salvation . neither have ●e cause to doubt ▪ but that as many as do walk according to this rule , — pe●●e shal● be upon them , and mercy , and upon the israel of god. now there●or● do , as he says , ( ibid. p. . ) we for our parts dare not abridg this gra●t , and limit this great lordship , as we conceive it may best fit our own turns ; but ●●ave it to his own latitude , and seek for the catholick church , neither in this part nor in that p●ece . but among all that in every place call upon the n●m● of jesus christ our lord , both theirs and ours . and if a zeal for such a general comprehension , and happy vnion of christians will ( to use the words of mr. de l' ang●e p. . ) bri●g down a thousand blessings of heaven and earth upon those that shall contribute the most unto it resolve now , and hence forward to put forth your self this ●ay ; put in for your share of blessings . i remember , i concluded my former writing with a collect borrowed from you . here i would say amen to that prayer , with which dr. potter shuts up his answer to charity mistaken , [ that it would please the father of mercies to take away out of his church all dissention and discord , all heresies and schisms , all abuses and false doctrines , all idolatry , superstition and tyranny ; and to unite all christians in one holy bond of truth and peace , faith and charity ; that so with one mind and one mouth , we may all joyn in his service , — ] i add no more , but that the father of lights would so direct your studies , and course , that you may do nothing against the truth , but for the truth ; which is the prayer of , reverend sir , your humble and faithful servant , iohn barrett . i more wish , than hope , that of these sad controversies here will be , the end . proper materials drawn from the true and only way of concord , &c. query . whether the apostle paul hath not clearly and fully decided the case , against censuring or despising one another for things indifferent ? rom. , & . and if men wi●● not understand , nor stand to that decision , whether it should be any wonder , if they will not understand , or be satisfied with our most cogent arguments ? [ second plea for peace . p. . § . ] whether they that say , the apostle doth not forbid such impositions there , can see day for light ? . doth he not forbid censuring , despising , and not receiving one another ; and command dissenters to receive one another ? and then must he not forbid such imposition as is inconsistent herewith ? . doth he not direct this command to all the church of rome , even to the authorized pastors and rulers of the church , as well as to the people ? . was he not a pastor and ruler of that church as fully authorized as any that should succeed ? . is not this scripture ( as others ) written for a standing rule , and so obligatory to rulers still ? [ ib. p. . § . ] did not the apostle speak here by divine authority ? are not his words recorded here , part of christ's law indited by the spirit ? and may we think , that any that come after him , or to whom he wrote , should have power to contradict or obliterate the same ? [ way of concord , p. . ] . do not his reasons touch the case of all churches in all ages , and not only some particular persons , and case ? as he argueth from the difference betwixt well-meaning christians as weak , and strong ▪ as doubting , and as assured , as mistaken , and as in the right , &c. if such weak , mistaken christians in such matters ever have been , and ever will be in the church upon earth , doth not the reason from their case and necessity still hold ? . how many great and pressing moral reasons ( that all christians are bound by ) are heaped up here ? does he not argue , . from christian love to brethren . . from human compassion to the weak . . from god's own example , who receiveth such , whom therefore we must not reject . . from god's prerogative to judg , and our having no such judging power in such cases . . from god's propriety in his own servants . . from god's love and mercy that will uphold such . . because what men do as to please god , must not be condemned without necessity , but an holy intention cherished , so it be not in forbidden things . . because men must not go against conscience in indifferent things . . from christ's dreadful judgment which is near , and which we our selves must undergo . . from the sin of laying stumbling-blocks , and occasions of offence . . from the danger of crossing the end of christ's death , destroying souls for whom he died . . because it will make our good to be ill spoken of . . because the kingdom of god , or constitution of christianity , and the church , lieth in no such matters , but in righteousness , and peace , and ioy in the holy ghost . . because christ is pleased in this without the other , and god accepteth such . . because such are approved of men , ( i. e. ) this righteousness , peace , and holy joy , without agreement in such ceremonies and by-matters , beareth its own testimony for approbation to the judgment of all impartial men ; humanity and christianity teach us to love and honour such . . from our common obligation to live in peace with all . . from our obligation to do all to the edifying of one another . . because god's work else is destroyed by us . . because our own lawful acts are turned into sin when they hurt another , and from the obligation that lieth on us to deny our own liberty in meat , &c. to avoid the hurting of another that is weak . . from the damnation of such as are driven or drawn to act doubtingly . . from the special duty and mercy of the strong that should bear the infirmities of the weak . . from the example of christ himself , that pleased not himself , and our great obligation to imitate christ. . from god's patience to us . . because indeed this is the true way to love and vnity , that with one mind and one mouth we may glorify god , while we lay not our concord on impossible terms . . because christ receiveth us , and it is to god's glory , &c. whether do all these moral arguments signify no more than this , receive and tolerate such only till you make laws against them ? [ ibid. p. , , . ] query , . whether men have any authority to make laws about god's worship , but what christ hath given them ? [ second plea for peace , p. . § . . ] and whether it be not against the mind and law of christ ( declared act. . . ) that unnecessary laws and burthens in religion should be made for , and laid upon the churches ? [ ibid. p. . § . . ] so whether that determination and decree of the holy ghost by the apostles be not obligatory to all rulers and churches upon earth , even to this day ? and whether all that think not themselves wiser , should not confess that at least it is safe to follow it ? [ ibid. p. . § . . ] if therefore the pastors shall contrary to that decree , impose unnecessary things on the church , not only under the obligation of duty , but as a necessary condition of church-communion , whether this be not a tyrannizing over god's heritage , and usurping a power never given them ? [ ibid. p. . § . . ] q. . whether what god hath left to human prudence to determine concerning churches and church-affairs , be not thus limited by his general laws , viz. that all things be done to edification ( the circumstances fitted to the end , the glory of god and the publick good , the promoting of truth and godliness , ) that all be done in love , to the promoting of love and unity ; and that all be done in order and decently ; and as may avoid offence or scandal to all , both those without , and those within ? [ first plea for peace , p. . ] then query , . whether they do well , that unnecessarily bring subjects into such a strait , by needless laws , for additions in religion , that the consciences of men fearing god must unavoidably be perplexed between a fear of treason and disobedience against christ , and of disobedience to their prince or pastors ? [ second plea , &c. p. . § . . ] . whether it be not more inexcusable to rack and divide the church by unnecessary additions in religion ? [ ibid. § . . ] . whether it be not against the will and law of christ , to use things otherwise indifferent , scandalously or temptingly , to the ensnaring and endangering of men's souls , and the dishonour of religion ? ( rom. , & . cor. . ) and whether men may make laws about religion , enjoyning such an evil use of such things ? [ ibid. p. . § . . ] . whether to invent and command new publick-worship-ordinances ( either in god's name or their own ) co-ordinate , or of the same kind with god's own worship-ordinances , which have no peculiar usefulness to one age or people more than to another , nor any new reason for them , but what was extant at the making of god's laws , ( whether this ) seemeth not to be an accusation of christ's laws of omission and defectiveness , and an usurpation of his legislative power ? [ ibid. § . . ] . whether to forbid baptism , or to alter it , or make a new sacrament of admission , or a new consecrating , or dedicating symbol for the solemnization of our covenant with god , and a new symbol of the christian church , or visible badge of christianity , seem not an usurpation , and accusation of god's law , as insufficient ? [ ibid. p. . § . . ] . whether to forbid preaching , or prayer or praise , ordaining homogeneal means of our own , seem not an usurpation , and unlawful ? [ ibid. p. . § . . ] . whether to add more doctrines , or articles of faith , which god hath not revealed in nature or scripture , and to require belief or pro●●●●● of belief of the same ▪ 〈…〉 religious end , seem not an usurpation , and unjust accusation of god's word , as insufficient ? [ ibid. p. . § . . ] . whether to alter the qualifications of church-members , either forbidding those that christ requires us to receive , or receiving such as christ forbiddeth us to receive , be not to contradict his laws by usurpation , whether magistrates , or pastors do it ? [ ibid. p. . § . . ] . whether to alter the qualifications of christ's ministers , or the nature of their office , and invent new co-ordinate officers , seemeth not usurpation ? [ ibid. p. . § . . ] . whether to overthrow , or prohibit christ's church-discipline , or to set up another ( that is not meerly subordinate to it , modally to promote it ) seem not an usurpation ? [ ibid. § . . ] . whether to forbid religious assemblies , or alter their ends and principal use , be not to usurp , and to contradict the laws of christ ? [ ibid. p. . § . . ] q. . whether rulers ought not to prefer christ's interest before their own , and account that their own lieth in preferring his ; and should not value conscionable upright men , though dissenters in tolerable cases , and not encourage their unconscionable enemies ? [ way of concord , d part , p. . ] and whether the chief work of rulers be not to promote the keeping of god's laws , and the everlasting good of men , and the temporal good in order thereunto ? [ second plea for peace , p. . col . . § . . ] and whether rulers may command any thing , which will notably do more harm than good ; or make an unnecessary thing a means or occasion of excluding the necessary worship of god , or preaching of his gospel [ judgment of non-conformists , in second plea , &c. p. . § . . ] and whether is it more to common good , and the interest of honesty and conscience , that all the persons in a nation be imprisoned , banished , or killed , that dare not swear , say and practise all that is imposed on them , than that unnecessary impositions be altered , or forborn [ way of concord , d part , p. , . ] q. . though magistrates may regulate us in the circumstances of those duties , which the law of nature or gospel doth command ; yet if on such pretence they violate , or contradict either the law of nature , or the gospel , and dedstroy the duty it self , or its end , whether we are bound in such cases to obey them ? or whether it be not enough that we patiently suffer ? [ first plea for p. p. . ] q. . whether the kings of israel had power to forbid the priests exercising their office according to god's law ? or , whether they could change or abrogate their office ? [ ibid. p. . ] of solomon's puting out abiathar , see ( p. . ) whether might they then have put out a lawful priest , that had not forfeited his life , or office ? or might they have put any one in his place , that had not right from god , or that was unqualified ? or might they have forbidden the priests the work appointed them by god ? [ ibid. p. . ] q. . whether such as christ's laws empower to ordain others to the work of the ministry , have power from christ to hinder the ordination of such as christ's laws admit into the ministry ? [ ibid. p. . ] q. . whether the magistrate ( besides the power of the temples and tithes , and publick maintenance and liberty also ) hath the power of ordination , or degradation , that no man may be a true minister without , or contrary to his consent ? [ sacrileg . desert . p. . ] whether were not many of the non-conformist's true pastors of their several flocks , before they were silenced , and cast out ? [ ibid. ] and whether did the ejecting them from the temples and tithes degrade them , or make them no pastors to their flocks ? ( though prudence may require minister and people to consent to a dissolution of such a relation , when they cannot hold it without greater hurt than benefit ▪ ) [ ibid. ] q. . though princes or patrons may . . offer meet pastors to the ordainers and consenters to be accepted , when there is just cause for their interposition . . and may hinder both ordainers and people from introducing intolerable men. . and when a peoples ignorance , wilfulness , faction , or division makes them refuse all that are truely fit for them , may urge them to accept the best , and may possess such of the temples , and publick maintenance , and make it consequently to become the peoples duty to consent ; yet whether christ and his apostles have not settled the right of ordination on the senior pastors or bishops , and the right of consenting in the people ? [ first plea for p. p. . ] and whether any man can be the pastor of a church de jure , or truly de facto , against the church , or peoples will , or without their consent ? [ ibid. p. . ] as the saying of cyprian is well known , that [ the people have the greatest power both to chuse a worthy priest , and to refuse , or forsake the unworthy , ibid. p. ] and when in england it belongeth , . to the patron to present . . to the bishop to ordain and institute , and therefore to approve and invest . . to the people iure divino , to be free consenters , . and to the magistrate to protect , and judg who shall be protected or tolerated under him ; if these four parties be for four ministers , or for three , or two several men , and cannot agree in one , whether the culpable dissenters will not be the causes of schism ? [ ibid. p. . ] q. . whether the churches and councils were in the right , or no , which for , yea years held that the calling of a bishop was null , that had not the clergies election , and the peoples election or consent ? and if usurpers should thrust out the bishops and conformists , and make themselves our pastors against our wills , what would the bishops think of such ? would they hold it unlawful to separate from such , agreeing with them in doctrine and worship . [ ans. to dr. stil . serm. p. . ] q. . if a lawful magistrate , or prince put in place of pastors , persons of untried and suspected parts of fidelity , whether will his imposition make such the true pastors of that church before and without the peoples consent ? [ fi●st plea for p. p. . ] if so , then whether might not one roman emperour have undone all the churches and souls in the empire in a great degree , by imposing on them insufficient , heretical , or malignant pastors ? [ ibid. p. . ] if people were as much under princes for chusing guides for their souls , as a daughter in her fathers house is under her father for the choice of an husband ( which yet we have not seen proved ) yet as he can be no husband to her , without her consent , ( though she culpably deny consent , query , whether it be not so here , that they can be no pastors to people , till they consent ? [ way of concord . p. . § . . ] but whether hath god authorized the magistrate to chuse what persons every man in his dominions shall entrust his soul to , as the pastor , whose conduct he is bound in conscience to obey ? ( ans. to dr. still . serm p. . ) whether shall the people have any judgment of discerning , or not ? if yea , must not the bounds of it be shewed , without denying the thing , ( as if that would bring in all confusion ? ) if usurpers claim the crown , must not subjects judg which is the true king , and defend his right ? will any say ▪ if the people be judges , they may set up usurpers , and put down the king ? when they are but discerners of that which is before their duty , and have no right to err , or alter the law and right , can any dreadful ▪ cons●●uence be proved to follow on it ? or if it be otherwise , must they not be ruled as brutes ? and so must not ●udg so much as whom they are to obey ? is there any christian that dare say , that bishops or princes are in all things to be obeyed , lest the people be made judges ? ( first plea for p. p. , . ) q. . whether the ministerial office be taken up upon tryal ▪ or for a time ; or during life ( with a capacity to perform the work ? ) if the latter be granted , then whether it be any less than , . horrid sacriledg , . perfidious covenant-breaking , . disobedience to god , . cruelty to souls , . and unthankfulness for great mercies , if any of us shall desert our undertaken office ( yea , tho a silencing diocesan should forbid us the exercise of it , unjustly ? sacriledg . desert . p. , . ] q. . if rulers may silence the faithful ministers of christ , who knoweth where to bound his obedience to such silencers ? if a or faithful ministers must cease preaching , when so forbidden , why not ? why not ? if half a kingdom ; can you satisfy the consciences of the other half , that they must not do so too ; and so all christian kingdoms conform to muscovy , when the prince commandeth it ? and if a or or parishes must chuse the apparent hazard of their souls , and refuse such helps as experience certifieth us they greatly need , in obedience to man , why must not the rest of the parishes do so also ? may i give away the needful helps to my salvation , because others have them ? should their salvation satisfy me instead of mine own ? [ first plea for peace , p. , . ] whether should men persuade the poor to famish , rather than against law to beg ; because if thousands of them dye of famine , yet other people are supplied ? [ ib. p. . ] q. . whether the antient christian pastors preached not against the will of princes for years ; and after that against the will of christian princes ( as constantius , valens , theodosius junior , valentinian , &c. ) and whether not only apostles said , that god was to be obeyed rather than men ; but such as timothy ( who was ordained by man ) were not strictly charged before god and the lord jesus christ , who will judg the living and dead at his appearing , and kingdom , to preach the gospel , and be instant in season , &c. [ ib. p. , . ] q. . whether any man hath authority to forbid a faithful minister of christ , who forfeiteth not his office-power , to perform the office to which he is ordained ? and whether such remain not under a divine obligation , which man's law cannot dissolve ? whether it be not right , as bishop bilson saith , [ if princes forbid us , we must go on with our work ? ] what if an interdict silence all the ministers in a kingdom ? must all obey ? what if it silence more than can be spared without the churches wrong ? and whose laws be they , that would so bind ? is it infidel princes or only christians ? is it papists , &c. or only the orthodox ? must god ask leave of rulers to be worshipped as god ? hath god made men judges whether the gospel shall be preached or not ; or whether people shall be saved , or left to perish in their ignorance and sin ? and how cometh the orthodox to be authorized to do mischief , or to forbid the needful preaching of the gospel , any more than an heretick ? or a christian more than an heathen ? is he not bound to do more good than they , rather than authorized to do more hurt ? [ answ. to dr. stil . serm. p. , . or , . ] see also p. . q. . where such sins are made the condition of ministration by men in power , as that all the whole ministry of a kingdom are bound in conscience to deny consent and conformity thereto , whether is it not the duty of all the ministry in primo instanti to forbear their ministerial office , or of none , ( the reason being the same to all ? ) now if all these must forbear or lay down their office , because forbidden by men to exercise it , then is it not in the power of a prince to cast out christianity when he pleaseth , and to deny god all publick worship ? and must we not then ask leave of rulers , that christ may be christ , and souls may be saved ; ( as if the keys of heaven and hell were theirs ? ) [ first plea for peace , p. , . ] but whether must not all agree , that to silence all the ministers of the nation , is a thing that god hath not given any man authority to do ; because of the necessity of their ministry : and consequently to silence any necessary ministry at all ? [ ib. p. . ] and if all must not lay down their ministry , why must a or do it rather than all the rest ? if it be said , the rest are a competent supply to the churches ; how shall we be sure that other mens sinning will absolve the innocent from their duty ? ( as if i were bound to be a minister only till other men will sin ▪ ) and where can the wit of man ever set bounds as to this matter ? will it not be granted , that if the most in france conform to popery , this will not disoblige all others from the exercise of their ministry ? and who then can say , what those untruths and sins are , which a weak and erring ministry may be guilty of , which shall serve to disoblige the rest ? and were not this an easy way to introduce any error , by forbidding any but the defenders of it to preach ? [ ib. p. , . ] q. . whether god hath authorized the magistrate to chuse and command in what words only every pastor shall publickly pray to god , and what books and words of men he shall profess assent and consent to , and what dedicating symbols of christianity he shall use as engaging in the christian covenant ; and to command ceremonies and modes for dissent wherein he shall deny baptism and church-communion to all dissenters , tho the things be taken to be indifferent by the magistrate , and great sins by the dissenters ? [ answ. to dr. stil . serm. p. . ] q. . whether pastors usurp not power over one another , when they command all about them to speak to men from god , or to god from men in no other words , but what they ( the usurpers ) shall write them down , making ministers but cryers to read their prescripts and proclamations ? [ second plea , &c. p. . ] q. . whether any but volunteers should be taken for true christians , or admitted to holy communion , to receive the seals of pardon and life ? [ way of concord , third part , p. . § . . ] and whether pastors of the churches should be constrained to administer sacraments to any against their consciences ? whether it be not their office to be judges , who is to be baptized , and to communicate ? [ ib. p. . ] q. . if any be urged to take a re-ordination against their judgments , whether morals must not be preferred before rituals , and rituals never set against them ? and whether they should not be of this mind , that deny the scriptures to have unchangeably fixed all rituals ; and yet confess that morals are fixedly determined ? [ ib. p. , . ] it is not contrary to the temper of the gospel , which ever subjecteth ceremonies , rites and external orders , to morals , and to man's good , and the great ends ? [ ib. third part , p. . ] q. . when the most learned , sober , judicious conformists , differ not at all from us about the matter it self , to which we deny conformity ; but confess it to be unlawful ( as to the hardest points of the imposed subscriptions , oaths , declarations , and covenants ) and only take the words in such a sence , in which we our selves could take them , were we persuaded that it was indeed the true meaning of them ; query hereupon , how it comes to pass that they , ( who are as much as we against that sence which we disown , and agree with us in the matter ) should deserve liberty , honour and preferment , for otherwise interpreting the words of the law , which the lawgivers themselves will not interpret ; when our supposition , that the law-makers mean properly as they speak , is taken to deserve scorn , silencing , &c. from them that will not expound their words to us ? [ iudgment of non-conformists in second plea , &c. p. , . ] and seeing ( as those worthy conformists must grant ) that if the words of the laws be properly to be understood , and not with their limitations , then the conformists are in the wrong , and the non-conformists in the right ; whether it be not justice to tell the world , and write it on our cross , that we are silenced , &c. because we dare not take oaths and covenants imposed in terms excluding limitations and exceptions , in a limited , excepting sence , without the explication of the law-makers ? [ ib. p. , . ] q. . suppose the sin were on the silenced ministers part , yet if their errour be in a small and difficult matter , not deserving silencing ( as theirs , rom. . about meats and days , &c. ) whether it may not be a far greater sin , and schism in the silencers , than in them ? [ first plea for peace , p. . ] tho the magistrate ought to silence all preachers , that after due admonition , so grosly misbehave themselves in doctrine , worship , or conversation , as to be the plagues of the churches , and to do apparently more hurt than good ; yet as to all worthy and able ministers , if they commit any fault , whether they should not be punished only as other subjects , with such penalties , as shall not by silencing or restraint , be a punishment to the peoples souls , nor hinder the preaching of the gospel of salvation ? even as if the common bakers , brewers , butchers , carpenters perform their work perniciously ( poysoning their bread , beer , meat , &c. ) they should be forbidden their trade : but should they for other faults be so punished , that the people be left without bread , beer , meat , and houses for their faults ? [ moral prognostication , p. . § . ] are there no fitter means than silencing , to correct such ministers ? is it not a sin to silence them , when their ministry is needful [ ans. to dr. stil . serm. p. , . ] had images been lawfully used in places , or exercises of god's worship ; yet whether was it not inhuman , and unchristian in those bishops and councils , who cursed from christ all that were of a contrary mind , and ejected , and silenced the dissenters ? [ way of ●oncord , p. . § . ] q. . whether do men take it to be a sin , to suffer us to preach the gospel , and a greater sin than to suffer the inundation of infidelity , popery and the rest , which they say is ready to break in upon us ? or whether do they judg our not subscribing , swearing , &c. so great a sin in us , that the punishment laid on swearers , drunkards , or fornicators , will not serve turn to avenge it on our selves , nor any other of our personal sufferings ; unless the souls of many 's , and the protestant religion , and our posterity also suffer for it ? [ sacril . desert . p. , . ] q. . whether magistrates , and pastors must not distinguish of errors and faults of subjects ? whether some are not tolerable , and therefore to be tolerated ; and some intolerable , and therefore not to be tolerated ? whether they that cry out , [ one and all , why not one as well as another ? ] will say , if a foot must be cut off for a gangreen , why not for a corn ? [ second plea for peace , p. . § . ] q. . whether he that knows himself to be a man , and a sinner , and is penitently conscious what abundance of greater sins he hath than the conscientious forbearance of a ceremony , or needless oath , or subscription , will not be very tender of his usage of others for such matters ? [ ib. p. ● . § ] q . whether a tender conscience be not the same with what god hath pro●i●d , even an heart of flesh , a conscience that hath spiritual life and feeling , and is sensible of the evil of the least sin ? [ ib. p. , . § . ] and whether the imposing of unnecessary subscriptions , professions or oaths , be not the way to fill the church with men that are not troubled with tender consciences , and that have no fear of god , or sin ? and whether he that believeth , that ever he shall be judged by the great pastor of the flock , should not be as much at least afraid of letting in such presbyters into the church , as of enduring holy faithful men , that fear a lie , or oath , or superstition ? [ ib. p. . § . ] q. . whether every man hath not sins of ignorance , and some degree of error ? and whether have not some faithful men more than others ? and do they not take some sins to be duties , or no sins ? [ way of concord , p. . ] and whether he that maketh a canon to silence , or excommunicate , or cast out men for a fault common to all preachers , christians and men , doth not make a canon to silence or cast out all preachers , pastors , and men ? and if we deserve to be cast out of the church and kingdom in the case of non-conformity to the present impositions , whether it be not either because we are weak , or ignorant ▪ or wicked ? and whether we may not here profess to the world our joyful consent to be silenced and banished , on condition that the diocesans will effectually provide , that none more weak , more ignorant , and more wicked , shall be tolerated in church and kingdom when we are gone , and that no detriment shall befal hi● majesties dominions by the diminution of his subjects ? [ second plea for peace , p. , . § , . ] q. . whether a diversity of circumstances and indifferent modes in divers churches or parishes , and sometimes in the same church , be such a dreadful mischief , as some frightful pastors would make themselves and others believe ? or whether it be to be compared with the consequents of unnecessary impositi●ns ? [ second plea for peace , p. . § . ] q. . whether was there no difference in their forms or modes of worship , between basil at caesarea , and the church at neocoeserea ; and between rome and millane ; and between almost all the catholick bishops for many hundred years ? and whether is there not so now , one parish-minister praying freely in the pulpit before and after sermon ; another by a form ; a third bi●ding prayer before , &c. [ sacril . desert . p. . ] and is not difference in many points of doctrine as great a difference , as using and not using some of the liturgick forms and ceremonies ? [ ans. to dr. stil . serm. p. , or . ] q. . whether the present full conformity required , will ever be the terms of the full desirable unity and concord of the christian protestants in his majesties dominions ? whether it be not morally impossible to bring all good christians judgments to hold all this conformity lawful ? and whether it be not as impossible to bring them all to conform to that which they judg unlawful ? [ second plea for peace , p. . § . ] whether there is a greater difference of visages , than of intellectual apprehensions ? [ way of concord , p. . ] and while there will be difference in judgment ( even among christians , and good and tolerable christians ) whether can other be expected , than that there will be also difference in professions , and in practice ? will not honest mens professions and practices agree in the main with their judgments ? whether then is it to be expected , that if some men think that long doctrinal confessions , formed in men's private words , or liturgies , or other humane forms have nothing in them untrue , or evil , or which all men may not consent to , therefore all others must think so too , and say as they ? who can think that in many thousand uncertain words , all men can and must be of the same mind , and approve them all alike ? or that honest men can lye , and say that they assent to what they do not ? ( ibid. p. . ) q. . if men in all these must be brought to uniformity and practising in the same mode , whether must it not be either by argument and perswasion , or by force ? and whether it be not certain , that the first will never do it ? besides a multitude of reasons , whether doth not many hundred years experience prove , that all christians will never be in all things of a mind about lawful and unlawful , duty and sin ? and whether it be not as certain , that force will never do it ? will a sound believer sell his soul to save his flesh , or hazard heaven by wilful sin to save his interest on earth ? ( ibid. p. , . ) q. . whether in regard of the diversity of mental capacities and apprehensions , the best will ever agree in any , but few , plain , and certain things ? ( way of concord , d part , p. . ) and , q. . whether universal concord may not take in most of the differing parties , though not as such , by receiving any of their errors ; yet as christians , who agree in the common essentials of faith and piety ? and whether we should not hold essential unity with all that hold the essentials of christianity ; though with those that hold integrals more purely , we are to have more full and nearer concord than the rest , that have more errors ? ( ib. p. . ) whether christians ought not to bear with one another ( without having their affections alienated from , and much more without persecuting one another ) in greater matters than most of the dissenting parties disagree in ? whether christians of as different principles may not , yea , and ought not yet to love each other , and live in peace ? ( sacril . desert . p. , . . ) whether the novatians for many ages were not tolerated by the wisest and godliest emperours and bishops ? ( ibid. p. . ) q. . whether the terms of church-communion must not be such as take in all that christ taketh in , and would have us take in , ( i. e. ) all that are fit for church-communion ? and whether they should not be such terms as all true christians ( fit for such church-communion ) if imposed , would have united in , in all ages and places of the church since the days of christ till now ? and whether those terms that would have divided the church , are fit means to unite it ? or can we think that the church should now unite upon such terms , as it never united before ? ( second plea for p. p. , . ) q. . whether christ himself hath not instituted the baptismal covenant ( mat. . . ) to be the title of visible members of the church , and the symbol by which they shall be notified ? and hath not commanded all the baptized , as christians , to love each other as themselves ; and though weak in faith , to receive one another , as christ receiveth us , but not to doubtful disputations , and so far as they have attained , to walk by the same rule ( of love and peace ) and not to despise or judg each other for tolerable differences ? and whether any mortal man hath power to abrogate these terms of church-union and concord which christ hath made ? ( first plea for p. p. . ) q. . whether christ , who made the baptismal covenant , the test and standing terms of entrance , did set up pastors over his churches , to make new and stricter terms and laws ; or to preserve concord on the terms that he had founded it , and to see that men lived in unity and piety according to the terms of the covenant , which they had entered ? ( second plea for p. p. . ) and when they have as ministers , not as lords , received men on christ's terms , whether they may excommunicate and turn them out again for want of more , or only for violating these ? ( ibid. p. . ) q. . whether it be not a strange contrariety of some to themselves , who judg that all infants of heathens , jews , turks , or wicked men , are without exception to be taken into the church , if any ignorant christian will but offer them , and say over a few words ; and the adult also , if they can but say over the creed by rote , and a few words more , ( that would fill the church with enemies of christ ; ) and yet when men are in , deny them communion , unless they will strictly come up to many humane unnecessary impositions ; as if far stricter obedience to men ( perhaps in usurpations ) was necessary , than to jesus christ ? ( way of concord , p. . § . . ) q. . whether the universal church had not unity long upon the terms of baptism and the creed and scriptures , without any other subscriptions , oaths , or other professions made necessary to communion ? and whether it ever had union upon such additional terms of new professions , subscriptions and oaths , as most churches now impose ▪ and require ? whether they departed not from unity and concord ( and so continue divided to this day ) when they departed from the antient simplicity , and the primitive terms ? ( ibid p. . § . . ) and whether those pastors who will make canons , that al● english protestants shall agree in subscriptions , professions , oaths , forms and ceremonies which they are not agreed in , nor ever will be ; do not in effect say , we will break them more in pieces , and set them farther from each other than before ? ( ibid. p. . § . . ) whether the hereticating and cursing men for doubtful words , or want of skill in aptness of expressions , yea , or for errors which consist with having faith in christ , be not so far from being a means of the churches good , that it hath been the grand engine of satan , to exercise tyranny , excite hatred and schism , &c. and therefore carefully to be avoided ? ( way of concord p. . § . . ) whether anath●matizing men for doubtful actions , or for such faults as consist with true christianity and continued subjection to jesus christ , be not a sinful church-dividing means ? ( ibid. p. , . ) q. . whether addition to christ's terms be not very perilous , as well as diminution ; as , when men will deny church-entrance , or communion to any that christ would have received , because they come not up to certain terms , which they , or such as they , devise ? and though they think , that christ giveth them power to do thus ; yet whether their error will make them guiltless ? or whether imputing their error to christ untruly , be not an aggravation of the sin ? ( ibid. p. . § . . ) whether it is a small fault to usurp a power proper to christ ? ( ibid. § . . ) whether it be not dangerous pride to think themselves great enough , wise enough , and good enough , to come after christ , and to amend his work ? ( ibid. § . . ) and whether this imply not an accusation against him , and his institutions ? ( ibid. § . . ) and whether the merciful lord and saviour of the church , that came to take off heavy burthens and intolerable yokes , will take it well to have men come after him , and as by his authority , to make his easy yoke more strait , and his light burthen heavy , and to cast or keep out th●se that he hath redeemed and doth receive , and to deal cruelly with those that he hath so dearly bought , and so tenderly loveth ? ( ibid. p. . § . . ) when christ says , mat. . . whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me , it were better for him that a milstone were hanged about his neck , &c. whether bishops may curse such from christ , and excommunicate them ? ( and whether it be safe for them to do so ? ) ( ibid. p. . ) and seeing that spiritual priviledges excell temporal , whether it be not an aggravated tyranny to deprive christ's servants of benefits so precious , and so dearly bought ? ( ibid. p. . § . . ) q. . whether christ be not the institutor of the church , and hath not himself made laws which are sufficient to be at least the bond of their unity ; yea , for more than essentials , even the integrals , and many accidents ? and hath not he given laws to regulate all men's laws that determine of needful undetermined accidents ? and whether any man should be cut off from the church , or taken as separated , that breaketh no law of god , necessary to church-unity and communion ? and whether the grand schismaticks of the world are not the engineers that fabricate needless , impossible , dividing terms and conditions of unity and communion ? ( answ. to dr. sill. serm. p. , or . ) q. . whether it be not enough , that we are united and agreed with those that differ from us , in more than circumstances : and that we will hold concord with all in faith , love , and communion ; ( if they will admit us without our sinning ) upon the terms set down by the holy ghost and the apostles , acts . ? and if no men must be of the same church or kingdom , that have any difference ; yea , as great as can reasonably be supposed in the meer non-conformists , whether any two men can be of the same church , or kingdom , except you will compose it of such as hold nothing unlawful , and consequently nothing morally good , which is no church ? [ iudgment of non-conformists in second plea for peace , p. , . ] q. . whether the long and sad experience of all the christian churches , which have been divided by unnecessary human impositions , and the voice of all wise peace-makers in all times , who have still called for [ vnity in things necessary , liberty in things unnecessary , and charity in both ] do not leave those that yet will not be perswaded to these terms , as inexcusable persons as almost any in the world ; worse than those physicians , that would use all those things as the only remedies , which have killed all that ever took them ? [ second plea for peace , p. . § . ] q. . whether they that confess , that for the communion of all the churches , there are no terms like these now mentioned , should be more cruel to their own at home , turning them out of their father's house for every ceremonial difference ? whether a pastor should not love his own flock , as well as the people of a forreign land ? [ ib. p. , . § . . ] and whether it be not a schismatical opinion , that tho churches of many kingdoms may charitably differ in ceremonies and indifferent things ; yet none in the same kingdom should be suffered so to differ ? whether the apostle paul gave not the pastors and people of the same church of rome those precepts of forbearing and receiving dissenters in things indifferent ? [ way of concord third part , p. . ] q. . whether uniformity in circumstantials , and in external polity , be any more than a carkass or image of unity , without uniting love ( which is its soul ? ) whether all union in evil , or in unnecessary circumstantials , which is managed to the diminution of christian love , are any more to the church , than as the glory of adorned cloathing , or monuments , or pictures to a carkass ? [ ib. p. . ] q. . whether love and unity ( which the most zealous for human impositions cannot but commend ) would teach men to tyrannize over inferiors , to contrive the treading down of others that they may rise , and to keep them down to secure their own domination ; to oppress the poor , weak , or innocent , to make s●ares for other mens consciences , or to lay stumbling-blocks before them , to occasion them to sin , or to drive them on to sin against conscience , and so to hell , to shew mens authority ( about things they call indifferent , or ) in a thing of nought ? [ way of concord , p. . ] would not true ●ove end our greatest differences , if men loved the● neighbours without dissembling , as themselves ; and did but as they would be done by ? [ s●cond plea for pe●● , p. . § . ] yea , if many of the children of the church were injudiciously scrupulous when fear of sin and hell was the cause , whether a tender pastor would not abate them a ceremony in such a case , when his abating it hath no such danger ? [ lb. § ● . ] q. . whether unmerciful pastors do not tempt the people to question , whether they be sent of god ? whether the people will not judg of pastors , as sol●mon of the true mother of the child ; that the merciful and loving is the true pastor , and the hartful is the usurper ? [ lb. p. , . § . ] q. . whether they that can bear with such as understand not the essentials of christianity , and with drunkards , swearers , fornicators , &c. in their constant congregations and communion ; and yet will not bear with an honest godly christian , that differeth from their way of worship in no greater matter than a ceremony , have not something more amiss within than a ceremony ? [ ib. p. . § . . ] and whether the souls of such , as some call humorous , peevish , or wilful , be not worth more than some of that they call their liberty ? worth more than a needless ceremony ? [ iudgment of non-conformists in second plea , p. . q. . ] q. . whether as every hypocrite would be very religious , so far as he can subject the true common religion to his own interest and lusts ; so every enemy of peace will not seem zealous for peace , so that his own peace be made the rule of the common peace , that all men be brought to center in his interests , and take their peace on his terms , from him ? [ second plea , &c. p. . ] q. . whether all the arguments for unity and peace , which are made use of against toleration by prelatists , and all the mischiefs of division which they aggravate , do not principally fall on themselves , if it proves that they are the greatest causes of division , and hinderers of church-concord ? [ ib. p. . § . . ] whether they do not condemn themselves , who cry down schism , while they unavoidably cause it ? and whether overdoing terms of church-union and concord be not the certainest engines of schism ? [ way of concord , p. . § . ] is it not a shameful thing to hear and read mens tragical out-crys against necessary toleration ( which christianity and humanity plead for ) while they are the causes of that which they exclaim against ? if diversity in religion be such an evil , whether should men cause it by their unnecessary laws and canons , and making engines to tear the church in pieces , which by the antient simplicity , and commanded mutual forbearance , would live in such a measure of love and peace , as may be here expected ? [ ib. p. . ] q. . tho it be a sin not to joyn with a less worthy minister , and a less orderly mode of worship , when we can have no better ; yet whether is it not also a sin to tye our selves ordinarily to such , when we may have better lawfully , that is , consideratis considerandis , upon terms whereon it will not do more hurt than good ? [ sacril . desert . p. . ] q. . tho it be granted , that such are justly condemned by god , that repent not , tho they had but a reader : and that they should be thankful for so much in such churches where they can have no better ; yet whether is it in the power of any man justly to forbid them better , when god provideth it ? and whether must they obey such a prohibition , as such ? ( tho prudence may discern forbearance to be a duty , when the hurt would be greater than the good . ) [ first plea for peace , p. . ] q. . whether parish-bounds of churches be of divine institution , and unchangeable , or only of human prudential constitution ? [ sacril . desert . p. . ] can any proof be produced , that ever god determined , the churches should necessarily be individuated by parish-bounds or limits of ground ; and that men in the same limits might not have divers bishops , and be of divers particular churches ? [ first plea , &c. p. . ] whether is such a distribution of parishes , a thing of absolute necessity to a church , or only as the general rules of order and edification do ordinarily in christian kingdoms require it ? and whether can we be bound to such humane distribution against any of christ's own laws and predeterminations ; or when any changes turn them against the good ends for which they are made ? whether can humane church-laws bind to obedience , when they are notoriously against the laws of christ , or against the common good , or are made by usurpation without authority thereto ? [ ibid. p. , . ] q. . whether are the bishops that dwell in london-parishes ( or others ) members of the parish-church where they dwell ? if not , whether dwelling in the parish makes a christian a member of the parish-church ? if not , what makes a member , and how are the pastors special flock truly known to him from others ? if the bishops be members , doth the canon that forbids men to go from their own parish-churches , extend to the bishop ? and to whom shall we present the bishop for not coming to church , or for his crimes ? what ? to himself ? [ defence of the plea for peace , p. , . ] q. . whether a ministry be not ordinarily necessary to the propagating of the gospel , and the saving of souls ? ( see rom. . , . ) [ sacril . desert . p. . ] if men can spare the ministry , why are they maintained ? if they are needful for the safety of mens souls , must so many thousands hazard their souls , for want of needful help ? [ answ. to dr. stil . serm. p. . or . ] and whether is there not need of a far greater number of assistants , than all the present non-conformists ? [ sacril . desert . p. . ] and what harm is there in the non-conformists preaching , where the tenth person cannot come to church , if they would ? [ sacril . desert . p. . ] and what may we think of such , as had rather persons stayed idly at home , or went to sports or drinking , in stepny-parish , or giles cripplegate , or sepulchers , or martins in the fields , &c. than that any non-conformists should preach to them ? ( see thess. . , . ) [ ib. p. . ] when in london it is conjectured that not above the th or th part of the inhabitants can come to hear in the outer parishes , and if the other or parts should seek for room in the emptier churches within the walls , it cannot be supposed that above one part of those or would find room : and so if all be set together , it may be supposed that there is place but for about the th or th part at most of all the people in all the parish-churches within and without the walls : and london is to be denominated rather from three , four , or five parts than from one of these : and the great parishes , where one of twenty cannot hear , are far off from the churches that have room , and those that have most need , have least desire of the means ; quaere , whether the famousest and happiest city for religion in the world should thus be left to turn infidels , pagans , atheis●s , or be kept from all publick worship of god ? [ first plea , &c. p. . ] and whether most great parishes ( especially in cities and great towns ) have not more souls which call for ministerial help , than conformists and non-conformists , if they lovingly joined , are well able to afford necessary help to ? [ ib. p. . ] q. . whether many in place are not grosly defective in the necessary qualifications for their office , ( and consequently in the discharge of the same ? ) [ sacriledg . desert . p. . ] and can any man prove , that if the parish-minister cannot , or will not baptize his children , he must not get another to do it , yea , a prohibited minister , rather than they should be unbaptized ; and yet that if the parish-church cannot receive him , or the pastor cannot ▪ or will not do the office of a pastor for him , he must be without preaching , worshipping god , and pastoral oversight ? [ first plea , &c. p. . ] and when the bishops hold it a duty to avoid a non-conformist that hath not their license ; is there not as much to be said for avoiding a wicked priest , who ( it is sure ) hath not christ's license , and is a non-conformist to his laws ? [ ib. p. . ] when pope nicholas and some of the popish councils forbad all men to hear mass from a fornicating priest , whether should not protestants be as strict ? and whether is it not as lawful to depart from the parish-priest for being a drunkard , a scorner at godliness , a persecutor , an insufficient guide of souls , as for being a fornicator ? and whether many councils do not forbid hearing hereticks ? [ way of concord , third part , p. . § . . ] q. . whether this argument be not good , our necessity requireth pastoral oversight , and christ commandeth us to use it , when we may have it : but from this publick minister we cannot have it : therefore we must seek it where we can ? [ first plea , &c. p. . ] and whether people are not deprived of pastoral oversight as from the allowed minister , . when publick pastors are at so great a distance from them , as that such pastors cannot come to them , nor they and their families go so far , without such cost and pains and loss of time as will deprive them of the benefit . . when parishes are so great that the allowed pastors cannot preach to half , or a fourth , or tenth part , and cannot visit half the sick , &c. . where the allowed pastors are so slothful or proud , that they will not condescend to such offices of personal help as the people have need of , especially to the poorer sort . . where they are young , raw , or ignorant , unable to counsel people , as their necessities require in order to their salvation . . where they are so profane and malignant , that if poor people come to them with cases of conscience , or for counsel what they must do to be saved , they will but deride them , and would make them believe that to be sollicitous about salvation , and afraid of sinning , and seriously godly , is but to be hypocrites , melancholly or mad. . where they are heretical , and not to be trusted in point of faith ? when in any of these cases the people , or part of them are deprived of that pastoral help , which their necessity requireth , and god commandeth , whether may they not seek it where they can best have it ? [ ib. p. , , . ] whether many souls are not like to be fed , or famished , and consequently to live or die , as non-conformists do their duty , or neglect it ? [ sacril . desert . p. . ] and whether if the poor were famishing about us , any law of mans can disoblige us from relieving them ? [ ib. p. . ] q. . if they that are vowed to the ministry , are bound to exercise the ministry ( and otherwise would be sacrilegious and cruel to souls ) can they preach without auditors ? and can those auditors be no congregation ? [ ib. p. . ] q. . where both the ejected and imposed minister are fit persons , whether may not the people take them both conjunctly for their pastors , each administring to the same church according to their various liberties and capacities ? [ ib. p. . ] q. . if conformists generally would set themselves to preach and pray in a sound and serious , holy manner , and encourage and promote piety in the people , and willingly accept of all the help they could get here ; if they endeavoured to do god and his church more service than those that went before them , whether they would not be more honoured , at least by the better sort ( and that deservedly ) than ever they must look to be for rigidness about ceremonies , &c. whether godliness be not that which godly people most care for ? [ ibid. p. . ] q. . whether would they have people taught , reformed , saved , or not ? if yea , would they not have necessary help to do it ? ( if not , are such fit to be ministers of christ ? ) and does that man truly know what it is to be a minister , or a christian , that perceives not a necessity of help , if he can have it ? ( ibid p. . ) and if things in england were once brought to that pass , that really our labour would be unnecessary in the judgment of those that are not infidels , ignorants or malignant enemies of an holy life , whether need any fear coming to loss , if they were bound for us , that we would presently gratify all , that desire our silence , or banishment , rather than trouble men with needless work ? [ ib. p. . ] q. . whether is it the paucity of ignorant and ungodly souls , or the great number , ability , zeal , and diligence of the conformists , that makes the labours of others needless ? or what are their thoughts of souls , of sin , of repentance ▪ of holiness , and of their own sufficiency and labours ? [ ib. p. . ] as of old every single church had usually many presbyters and deacons with the bishop ; so is it not undeniable , that many of our parishes have work enough for many ministers ? and whether the only thing pretended for our present paucity be not the want of maintenance ( with the want of worthy men ? ) [ first plea &c. p. . ] q. . whether then might it not have been expected of such as needed and desired the help of their brethren , that long ere this they should have petitioned rulers for the liberty of their ministry ( when all knew that there was no hope their own petitioning should have success ? ) whether might they not have humbly acquainted our rulers , that all our labours conjoyned are too little ; that they needed our help , and the ignorant our teaching ; that their judgment was , our ministry is more necessary than our personal conformity ? and whether should not ministers of all men have been most sensible of the churches breaches , loss and danger , and most compassionate over peoples souls ? [ sacril . desert . p. . ] and whether had they not healed all our breaches , if they had petioned , and prevailed but for these two things , viz. . that the door of entrance might not have been barred by any other subscriptions , professions or oaths , than what were used in the churches of christ , till the exaltation of the papacy ( for years ) besides the oaths of allegiance and supremacy , and the subscribing the doctrine of the church of england in the articles , according to the th of queen elizabeth . . that those ( so subscribing ) who dare not use the liturgy and ceremonies , might have leave to preach in the churches which use them , under laws which shall restrain them from all unpeaceable opposition to what they dare not use , or to the government of the church ? [ ibid. p. , . ] and what but a spirit of envy , or a carnal interest , cross to the interest of christ and mens salvation , should grudge at their preaching , while they are responsible for all they say , or do amiss ? [ first plea , &c. p. . ] q. . whether the accusers of the non-conformists , who feign strange things of them relating to doctrine and government ( which they do not own ) do not , . hereby render them contemptible and odious , as brain-sick persons , who keep up a dividing faction , in spight of the light and obligation of the common principles of humanity and society ? . and do they not hereby imprint the stamp of satan , viz. the hatred of their brethren on the minds of such hearers as will believe them , and receive the impress ? . and do they not hereby fill families , cities and countries with all that spawn of ugly sins , which are the genuine fruits of such hatred and contempt ; and keep men also from repentance for any thing that they have said or done ( how cruelly soever ) against such ministers and others , that are represented as so odious to them ? . and do they not hereby fortify the peoples souls against receiving converting , or edifying instruction by such accused ministers ? . and do they not thus furnish papists , infidels , and other adversaries with matter of accusation against one part of the ministers and servants of christ &c. [ iudgment of non-conformists in second plea for peace . p. , . ] and whether is it not diabolical , for any to be angry , if ( as we have opportunity ) we so f●r undeceive the people , as to acquaint them with our judgment , and the untruth of what they have believed of us ? [ ibid. p. . ] and whether we may not suppose , that satan is afraid of their ministry who hath stirred up so much opposition against it ? [ sacril . desert . p. . ] q. . whether popery will come in ever the more for non-conformist's preaching ? ( whether such will preach for , or against it ? ) or ever the ●ss , if they renounce their ministry ? [ ibid. p. . ] whether they that cry out of the danger of popery , infidelity , prophaness and heresies ; and yet had rather let them all in , then give us leave to exercise that ministry to which we were consecrated , in poverty and subjection ; and while they cry out of divisions , will not lay by the dividing engines ; should rather accuse us , or themselves , if the evils overwhelm us , which they seem to fear ? [ ibid. p. , . ] q. . when any are unjustly cast out of their parish-churches , whether all ministers are thereupon obliged , or allowed to desert , or neglect them ? [ ib. p. . ] q. . if a patient would not take a medicine from one mans hand , whether would not the physician consent that another should give it him ? whether would the father let the infant famish , if it would take food from none but its mother ? and whether would there be need of the best conformists , as ministers , if the people had no faults , or weaknesses ? [ ibid. p. , . ] what if they culpably would hear no other ? is it better to let them hear none at all , than that we preach to them ? [ answ. to dr. stil . serm. p. . or . ] q. . whether it be not one thing to deny total communion with a church , and another to separate but secundum quid , for some act , or part ? whether it be not one thing to separate locally by bodily absence , and another mentally by schismatical principles ? whether it be not one thing to depart wilfully , and another to be unwillingly cast out ? whether it be not one thing to depart rashly and in hast , and another to depart after due patience , when reformation appears hopeless [ first plea , &c. p. , . ] q. . when the publick good requires non-conformists to hold distinct assemblies , for assistance in doctrine , worship , and discipline , as near as they can according to the will of god , to further , not to disgrace or hinder the honest parish-ministers , whether are these separate churches , any more than chappels be ? or distinct churches , more than secundum quid , holding personal communion in a godly conversation with the rest of the christians in the parish , and also sometimes assembling with them ? [ sacril . desert . p. , . ] or whether those that do their best to keep up the reputation of the publick conformable ministry , to further love and concord , and the success of their labours with the people ; and profess to take their own assemblies but as chappels , and not as distinct , much less as separated churches ; yea , and those who do administer sacraments and do that which is like the separatist's way ; yet do it not on their principles , but pro tempore , till god shall give them opportunity to serve him in the established way ( it being reformed , or well-ordered parish-churches , under the government and countenance of the christian magistrates , which are most agreeable to their desires ) whether such ( i say ) are justly accounted separatists ? [ first plea &c. p. . ] q. . whether we may not set up other churches , when we are necessarily kept from those established by publick power ? [ ib. p. . ] q. . whether it be schism to preach , and gather churches , and elect and ordain pastors , and assemble for god's worship against the laws and will of heathen , mahometan , or infidel princes that forbid it ; as the christians did for years ? and if there be the same cause and need , whether it be any more schism to do it against the laws and will of a christian prince ? for , . are not christ's laws equally obligatory ? . are not souls equally precious ? . is not the gospel and god's worship equally necessary ? . and doth his christianity enable him to do more hurt than a pagan may do , or more good ? [ ibid. p. , . ] q. . if competent pastors be set over half the parishes in a kingdom , and the other half hath incompetent men ; or if nine parts of a kingdom were competently supplied , and but the tenth part had not such set over them , to whom the people may lawfully commit the pastoral care of their souls , whether is it schism , or whether is it not a duty for those that are destitute , to get the best supply they can ? and whether is it schism , or whether is it not a duty for faithful ministers , though forbidden by superiours , to perform their office to such people that desire it ? [ ibid. p. . ] if the magistrate appoint , or , or one half of a parish to be excluded for want of room , and teachers , is it not ill supposed that the gospel is truly and sufficiently preached to them , to whom it is not preached at all ? or doth it prove it not necessary to them , that it is preached to others ? [ ans. to dr. stil . serm. p. . ] and whether is not the general ordination of ministers with the peoples necessity and consent , added to god's general commands to all his ministers , to be faithful and diligent , a sufficient obliging call to such ministration , without the will of ( prohibiting ) superiours , yea , against it ? and otherwise doth it not follow , that it is at the will of a man , whether souls shall be saved or damned ? ( for how shall they believe , unless they hear ? and how shall they hear without a preacher ? ) and at the will of man , whether christ shall have a church , and god be publickly worshipped , or not ? [ first plea , &c. p. . ] and whether doth not the indispensible law of nature oblige every man according to his place and calling , his ability , and opportunities , to do his best to propagate christ's gospel , and to save mens souls , as much and more than to feed mens bodies and save their lives ? and whether are not ministers specially obliged to do it ( by their calling ) as ministers of christ , thereto devoted ? [ ibid. ] q. . there being so many sorts of churches in the world , ( as universal , national , patriarchal , provincial , or metropolitical , diocesan , classical , parochial , congregational ) whether must it not be hard to give a just decision of the question , [ from which of these , and when it is a sin to separate ? ] till it be first known , which of those is of divine , and which of humane institution ? and which humane churches are necessary , which lawful , and which sinful ? ( ibid. p. . ) how is it proved , and how cometh it to be any great matter to separate from a church-●orm which god never made ? [ answ. to dr. still . serm. p. . ] q. . whether they that say those species ( national , patriarchal , provincial , diocesan ) are of god , must not prove that god instituted them in scripture ; or else that he gave some men power to institute them since scripture-times ? and till the same be proved , whether are any bound to obey them , at least when they over-rule christ's own institutions ? ( way of concord , p. . § . . ) and whether to devise new species of churches without god's authority , and impose them on the world ( in his name ) and call all dissenters schismaticks , be not a far worse usurpation , than to make and impose new ceremonies , or liturgies ? ( ibid. § . . ) q. . whether a society of neighbour-christians associated with a pastor , or pastors , for personal communion in holy doctrine , discipline , and worship , be not a church form of divine institution ? ( first plea , &c. p. . ) and whether any proof hath ever been produced , that many churches of this first rank , must ( of duty ) make one fixed , greater , compound church by association , as diocesan , national , &c. and that god hath instituted any such form ? whether the greatest defenders of prelacy do not affirm such to be but humane institutions ? ( ib. p. , . ) whether ever any satisfactory proof hath been brought , that ever christ or his apostles did institute any particular church ( taken in a political sense , as organized , and not meerly for a community ) without a bishop , or pastor , who had the power of teaching them , ruling them by the word , and power of the church-keys , and leading them in publick worship ? ( ibid. p. . ) and whether hath it yet been proved that any one church of this first rank ( which was not an association of churches ) consisted in scripture-times of many ( much less of many scores or hundreds ) such fixed churches or congregations ? or that any one bishop of the first rank ( that was not an apostle , or bishop of bishops ) had more than one of such fixed societies , or churches under him ; or might have more stated members of his church than were capable of personal communion , and mutual assistance at due seasons , in holy doctrine , discipline , and worship ? as now there are many chappels in some parishes , whose proximity and relation to the parish-churches make them capable of personal communion in due seasons with the whole parish ( at least per vices ) in those churches , and in their conversation ; and as a single congregation may prudently , in persecution , or foul weather , meet oft-times in several houses ; so why might not the great church of ierusalem ( which yet cannot be proved a quarter so big as some of our parishes ) hold their publick meetings oft at the same time in divers houses , when they had no temples , and yet be capable of personal communion , as before described ? [ ibid. p. , . ] and when the learned dr. hammond on tim. . saith , the church of the living god , was every such regular assembly of christians under a bishop ( such as timothy was ) an oeconomus set over them by christ , &c. doth he not here suppose ( as he elsewhere sheweth ) that de facto , episcopal churches were in scripture-times but single congregations ? then whether is the new form of congregations jure divino , when they become but parts of a bishops church ? and may we not query the same of the new form of a diocesan church ? ( ibid. p. , . ) and doth not ignatius expresly make one altar , and one bishop with presbyters and deacons , to be the note of a churche's unity and individuation ? ( whence learned mr. ioseph mede doth argue it , as certain , that then a bishop's church was no other than such as usually communicated in one place ) ( ibid. p. . ) and see ( answ. to dr. still . serm. p. . or . ) q. . and seeing it cannot be proved , that god hath instituted any other than congregational , or parochial churches ( as for present communion ) whether must it not follow , that none of the rest instituted by man , have power to deprive such single churches of any of the priviledges granted them by christ ? and whereas christ hath made the terms of catholick communion himself , and hath commanded all such to worship him publickly in holy communion under faithful pastors , chosen , or at least consented to by themselves ( which was the judgment of the churches many hundred years ) whether can any humane order or power deprive them of any of this benefit , or disoblige them from any of this duty , by just authority ? ( way of concord , p. . § . . ) q. . then if any prince would turn his kingdom , or a whole province into one only church ; and thereby overthrow all the first order of churches of christ's institution , which are associated for personal present communion , allowing them no pastors that have the power of the keys , or all essential to their office ; though he should allow parochial oratories , or chappels , which should be no true churches , but parts of a church ; whether were it schism to gather churches within such a church , against the laws of such a prince ? ( first plea , &c. p. . ) or whether hath god made such proper judges , whether christ should have churches according to his laws , or whether god should be worshipped , and souls saved , or his own institution of churches be observed ? ( ibid. p. . ) q. . and if any persons shall pretend to have the power of governing the churches , and inferiour pastors , as their bishops , who are obtruded on those churches , without the election , or consent of the people , or inferiour pastors , and these bishops shall by laws , or mandates forbid such assembling , preaching , or worship as otherwise would be lawful and a duty ; whether is it schism to disobey such laws , or mandates , as such ? ( ibid. p. . ) bishop bilson ( of subject . p. . ) grants , [ the election of bishops in those days belonged to the people , and not to the prince ; and though valens by plain force placed lucius there ; yet might the people lawfully reject him , as no bishop , and cleave to peter their right pastor . ] ( ibid. p. . ) and however in some cases the advantages of some imposed persons may make it an act of prudence , and so a duty to consent ; yet whether are such truly the bishops of such churches , till they do consent ? ( ibid. p. . ) hath not this been taken for their right given them by god ? and doth not dr. blondel ( de jure plebis in reg. eccl. ) beyond exception prove it , with more ? ( ib. p. . ) therefore if bishops that have no foundation of such relative power , shall impose inferiour pastors on the parish-churches , and command the peoples acceptance and obedience ; whether are the people bound to accept and obey them by any authority that is in that command , as such ? or whether is it schism to disobey it ? ( ibid. p. . ) q. . whether doth it not follow from the principles of the diocesan , that holdeth a bishop is essential to a church , and consequently that we have no more churches than diocesses , that he who separateth from a parish-church , separates from no church ? ( sacril . desert . p. . ) q . whether we should not more justly deserve the term of schismaticks , if we renounced communion with all other churches , except parochial and conformists ? and whose conscience should sooner accuse him of schism ? whether ou●s , that resolve to hold communion seasonably with all true christian churches among us , that teach not heresy , nor preach down holiness , &c. and deny us not their communion , unless we will sin ? or a conformists , that will hold communion with none but his own party , but separates from all other churches in the land ? [ ib. p. . ] is he a greater separatist that confesseth them to be a true church , and their communion lawful ; but preferreth another as fitter for him : or he that denieth communion with true worshipping assemblies , as unlawful to be communicated with , when it is not so ? if the former , then will it not follow , that condemning them as no church , is a diminution , or no aggravation of separation , and the local presence of an infidel , or scorner , would be a less separate state , than the absence of their friends ? if the latter ( which is certain ) then will it not follow , that if we can prove the assemblies lawful which they condemn , they are the true separatists that condemn them , and deny communion with them , declaring it unlawful ? [ answ. to dr. stil . serm. p. , or . ] q. . and whether is not the separation of whole churches much worse than of single persons from one church , when it is upon unwarrantable cause , or reasons ? [ ib. p. . ] ( now , how many of the dissenters frequently communicate with them , while they generally refuse , shun , and condemn our assemblies ? ) are there no true churches to be found in the world , that have no bishops ( of a superior order over pastors ? ) and were there not true churches in england in that long interval of episcopal government ? and are not they as justly to be charged with schism , and separation from those true churches , which were before the re-establishment of episcopacy , as they that are commonly charged by those encroachers , and invaders of other mens rights ? [ vid. sacril . desert . p. . ] q. . seeing the universal church is certainly the highest species , whether have any authority , on pretence of narrower communion in lower churches ▪ to change christ's terms of catholick communion , or to deprive christians of the right of being loved and received by each other , or to disoblige them from the duty of loving and receiving each other ? whether can humane power made by their own contracts , change christ's laws , or the priviledges or forms of christ's own churches ? [ way of concord , p. . § . . ] q. . whether the greatest and commonest schism be not by dividing laws and canons , which causlessly silence ministers , scatter flocks , and decree the unjust excommunication of christians , and deny communion to those that yield not to sinful , or unnecessary , ill-made terms of communion ? [ ibid. third part , p. . § . . ] and if any proud , passionate , or erroneous person do , as diothrephes , cast out the brethren undeservedly , by unjust suspensions , silencings , or excommunications , whether this be not tyrannical schism ? [ first plea , &c , p. . ] and as we say of the papists , that they unjustly call those men schismaticks , whom they first cast out themselves by unjust excommunication ; may we not say so of any others ? especially if either for that which is a duty , or for some small mistake , which is not in the persons power to rectify , no greater than most good christians are guilty of , their church-law says , he shall be excommunicate ipso facto ? ( ibid. p. . ) see also [ answ. to dr. stil . serm. p. . or . § . . ] q. . whether making sinful terms of communion , imposing things forbidden by god on those that will have communion with them , and expelling those that will not so sin , whether this be not heinous schism ? [ first plea , &c. p. , . ] q. . whether all those would not be deeply guilty of such schism , who by talk , writing or preaching justify and cry it up , and draw others into the guilt , and reproach the innocent as schismaticks for not offending god ? [ ib. ] q. . if any will confine the power or exercise of the church-keys into so few hands , as shall make the exercise of christ's discipline impossible ; or shall make churches so great , or pastors so few , as that the most of the people must needs be without pastoral oversight , teaching and publick worship , and then will forbid those people to commit the care of their souls to any other , that would be pastors indeed , and so would compel them to live without christ's ordinances , true church-communion , and pastoral help , whether this would not be schismatical , and much worse ? [ ib. p. . ] q. . when able faithful pastors are lawfully s●t over the assemblies , by just election and ordination , if any will causlessly and without right silence them , and command the people to desert them , and to take to others ( for their pastors ) in their stead , o● whom they have no such knowledg , as may encourage them to such a change ; whether this can be defended from the charge of schism ? ( as cyprian in the case of novatian says , that he could be no bishop , because another was rightful bishop before . ) ● ib. p. , . ] q. . whether the way to heal us be not , . to approve the best , . to tolerate the tolerable , . to have sacraments free , and not forced , . to restrain the intolerable , . this to be the test of toleration , whether such tolerated worship do more good or hurt , in true impartial judgment , . magistrates keeping all in peace ? [ way of concord , third part , p. . ] q. . whether it be not a weakning of the king's interest , to divide his subjects , and build up unnecessary walls of partition between them , and to keep them in such divisions ; seeing a kingdom divided against it self cannot stand ? and whether it be not unsafe and uncomfortable to a prince to rule a divided mutinous people ; but sweet and safe to rule them that are united in mutual love ? whether they that would lay the peoples concord upon uncapable terms , would not bring the king's interest in his peoples love , and willing obedience , and ready defence of him into too narrow a bottom , making him the king of some causlessly divided and espoused party , which must be set up to the oppression of all the rest , who are as wise and just , and loyal as they ? [ second plea , &c. p. . § . . ] si in necessariis sit vnitas , in non-necessariis libertas , in u●risque charitas , optimo certe loco essent res nostrae . to make a rounder number i may add , from mr. m. godwyn his [ negro's and indians advocate ] pleading for the instructing of them , and so admitting them into the church ( a book lately printed , and dedicated to the arch bisho● of canterbury . ) q. . whether is the wilful neglecting and opposing of it , ( as he says in the title-page ) no less than a manifest apostacy from the christian faith ? can no christian ever justify his omitting any possible lawful means for the advancement of his religion ? ( as he says , p. . ) are all professed christians absolutely boun● in their places to endeavour the same , by their vow in baptism , and their very profession ? q. . then are they not bound in their places to endeavour the advancement of religion , as well at home , as abroad ? and do they not owe as much service herein ( for christ's sake ) towards their own country-men , as towards strangers ? should not english-men be as well concerned for english-men , as for indians ? and when the state of religion is so visibly declining in england ( atheism , ignorance , error , profaneness , popery and superstition encreasing and getting up so fast amongst us ) is he for any great advancement of religion , that would send away all non-conformists ( if there be thousands of them ) to his negro's and indians , for this wise reason , that there is no want of their labours at home ? finis . advertisement . the readers is desired to take notice that these papers were sent to london , by the author , on the latter end of february , or beginning of march last , but by reason of the multitude of pamphlets , they could not get through the press sooner . the ingenuous reader is ●●so desired to pass by the errata , the author being remote from the press , these few he hath observed in some of the sheets he hath seen , viz. errata . page . l. r. above . p. l. . r. do you not . p. . l. . r. wages . p. . l. . r. contrarywise . p. . l. . r. and. p. . l. . dele , down . p. . l. . r. triarios . p. . l. . r. single-soal'd . p. . l. . r. excite greater . p. . l. . r. church ▪ p. . l. . r. inobedientia . p. . l. , . r. betray . p. . l. . r. for . p. . l. ▪ r. did he at all . an answer to mr. george walkers vindication, or rather, fresh accusation wherein he chargeth mr. wotton, besides his former foul aspersions of heresie and blasphemy, with arianism, mr. gataker with socinianism, dr. gouge and mr. downham with a fase attestation, dr. baylie and mr. stock with self-condemnation, all the eight ministers employed in the busines between himself and mr. wotton with partiality and unjust judgement : upon occasion of a relation concerning that busines / written by the said thomas gataker and by him now again avowed, wherein the said m. walkers vindication is in many things shewed to be an untrue relation. gataker, thomas, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing g estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) an answer to mr. george walkers vindication, or rather, fresh accusation wherein he chargeth mr. wotton, besides his former foul aspersions of heresie and blasphemy, with arianism, mr. gataker with socinianism, dr. gouge and mr. downham with a fase attestation, dr. baylie and mr. stock with self-condemnation, all the eight ministers employed in the busines between himself and mr. wotton with partiality and unjust judgement : upon occasion of a relation concerning that busines / written by the said thomas gataker and by him now again avowed, wherein the said m. walkers vindication is in many things shewed to be an untrue relation. gataker, thomas, - . [ ], p. printed by e.g. for f. clifton ..., london : . reproduction of original in union theological seminary library, new york. "some few things to be supplied or amended": p. [ ] created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng walker, george, ?- . dissenters, religious -- england -- early works to . dissenters, religious -- early works to . arianism -- early works to . socinianism -- early works to . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - john latta sampled and proofread - john latta text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion an answer to mr. george walkers vindication , or rather fresh accusation : wherein he chargeth mr. wotton ( besides his former foul aspersions of heresie and blasphemy ) with arianism ; mr. gataker with socinianism ; dr. gouge , and mr. downham , with a false attestation ; dr. baylie , and mr. stock , with self-condemnation ; all the eight ministers employed in the busines between himself and mr. wotton , with partiality and unjust judgement . upon occasion of a relation concerning that busines , written by the said thomas gataker ; and by him now again avowed . wherein the said m. walkers vindication is in many things shewed to be an untrue relation . london , printed by e. g. for f. clifton , in new-fish-street . . some few things to be supplied or amended . pag. . after line . ad , for words spoken of a dead man , himself being . p. . l. . read , hath at any time ex . p. . l. . pressure . p. . l. . he then did , p. . l. . wrote . p. . l. . crave leave of . p. . l. . put in the margine against pointing . see cameron myrothec . p. . p. marg put out , * ibid. p. ● . l. . read have past . p . l. sift q. p . l. . post script . p. . l. . he deemes . had m. walker either dealt more fairely at first , with his christian brother and fellow-minister of christ , m. a. wotton ; or upon second thoughts ( a which are wont to be the wiser ) better considered of what before he had unadvisedly attempted ; he had therein peradventure in part at least , either saved or salved his owne credit : sure i am , he had eased me of some labour , that i had little lust unto . he traduced m. wotton in the pulpit as a vile hereticke , while he lived , what time he knew master wottons tongue , through the iniquity of the times , to be so b tied up , that he could not in publique plead his owne cause . long after his decease he reneweth his revilings of him , and brandeth him againe for the like in print ; when being hence translated , he cannot now either in publique or in private personally appeare for himselfe . a true relation of the carriage of the maine matter in controversie between them , in a meeting of m. walkers owne procuring , wherein m. wotton was acquitted , being hereupon published ; he proceedeth , after his wonted guise , in violent and virulent manner , not onely to charge him , as before , with heresie and blasphemy in the doctrine of justification , but ( yet further to expresse his extream malice and rancor against him ) c with the deniall of the eternall deity of christ ; how soundly , yea or seemingly , for any shew or shadow of reason , let any intelligent reader judge . and over and besides that , ( hoping thereby to help himselfe , where he sticketh fast in the mire ) he sticketh not to d cast foule aspersions upon all those that had any hand in that hearing , not sparing them therein whom himselfe had made choise of . his vindication ( as he tearmeth it ) he beginneth with a preamble , consisting of two parts . in the former whereof , he complaineth grievously of me , and e chargeth me with breach of piety and charity , and defect of humanity and common honesty , in labouring to set upon him foul brands of the like nature , being a minister yet living in gods church ; and in adding thereby affliction to him , who hath suffered persecution and bonds for the truths sake . which passage , when i read , minded me of the italian professor of the civill-law at oxford , who having in some things carried himselfe , neither so religiously , nor so respectively towards divers worthy divines , as had been to be wished ; and being therefore by doctor rainolds in a private letter freely told of it , and withall admonished f to have more regard of piety and modesty in his writings for time to come , then in some formerly he had shewed ; in way of answer to his letter , taketh on and stormeth not a little against that mirrour as well of modesty as of learning , as g having done him no small wrong , in taking upon him so to checke and controle him , who had left his own countrey for his conscience , and was for religion sake content to live as an exile : tho meane while , it may be , enjoying as plentifull an estate here , as ever he had , or might have attained , had he stayed still where before he was . but to come more directly to m. walkers exceptions against me , or prescriptions rather for himselfe , as a sacred person , or a sanctuary man ; and not therefore to be so dealt with , as i have herein dealt with him ; and to discusse them briefly apart . i suppose a little selfe-love , and selfe-respect proceeding from it , had h drawn a filme over m. walkers eyesight , or cast a mist at least before his eyes , when he entered these pleas ; that kept him from considering what the party was whom himselfe had so despightfully dealt with . for first , is m. walker a minister of gods word ? and was not m. wotton the same ? and that peradventure nothing inferiour to m. walker in ought ; however m. walker may please to esteem or deem of him . i at whose doom yet , well it is that he neither stands nor fals . secondly , as concerning survivorship , i have ever held it , and so still shall , having k votes therein with me , i am sure , not a few , untill m. walker shall be able to convince me of errour in it ; that it is a worse matter to traduce the dead , then the living . since that the one may , the other cannot now make apologie for himselfe . besides that it is generally held an argument of l no ingenuous disposition , to insult over , or deale● igorously with the deceased . and it may well be questioned whether an injury done to a saint in heaven , have not the greater guilt , in regard o● his present estate . sure i am , that against those of the romish party , m our writers use it as an argument , and n the apostle may well seeme to adde strength thereunto , that it is a greater wrong to offer any indignity to christs body now glorified in heaven , then it had been to do the like unto him then , when in the state of humiliation he conversed with men here on earth . nor see i ought , why it may not hold as well in the other limmes , as in the head ; that the greater sinne it is to offer any wrong or contumely to them , the more highly they are now honoured and advanced by god. and what greater wrong or contumely can be done to them , then to blast their reputations , to charge them with inexpiable crimes , to damn them to hell , that now reigne with god in heaven ? so o sacred hath the condition of the deceased been deemed , that it hath been accounted a point of p sacriledge , to disturbe their remaines , or to meddle with the monuments wherein their corps lie inclosed . but the godly deceased , q had they sense and understanding of what is here done , ( as they had wont to speake , and r we well may ) would without all doubt , account it , as well they might , a far greater wrong , to have their names tainted with foule aspersions , of this nature especially , even of the highest and most hainous guilt against the divine majesty , then to have their sepulchers defaced , their graves laid open , their bodies digged up , their bones burnt , and their ashes either dispersed into the ayer , or scattered upon the surface of the waters ; or whatsoever other indignity and insolency the vaine rage and fond outrage , not of humane , but of inhumane spite and malice hath exercised upon their remains . let not m. walker therefore deeme his offence in this regard the lesse hainous , because the man is dead , or s deceased rather , whom he thus dealeth with : wherein peradventure , as t he said sometime of sylla , he had dealt more wisely , had he been lesse eager . nor hath he any just cause to complaine , because he surviveth ; if in the necessary vindication of the deceased so wronged , his inconsiderate carriage therein be discovered . if any blemish accrew to himselfe or his ministery thereby , he may blame himselfe rather then any other , who by these violent and outragious courses much impeacheth and impaireth his owne estimation in the minds of all moderate men . for his third plea , in regard whereof he claimeth an immunity from being thus dealt with , to wit. u his persecution and bonds sustained for the truth . of m. walkers restraint for some time , i have heard . during which also i sometime visited him at his brothers house . and that he suffered for the truth , i hope also is true , though it be more then i know ; because i know not for what he suffered . of his bonds , i never heard till now . if he were ever in bonds , ( god be thanked ) he is now free . but however , he might do well to remember , that m. vvotton , upon occasion of a passage used in his prayer , when the setling of church-matters with us was in agitation , ( which as things now stand , i suppose would not be so hainously taken ) that his majesty who then was , might in that weighty businesse , not be swayed with prejudice of long or pretended antiquity , but proceed according to the rule and direction of gods vvord , had for some good space of time before been deprived of the exercise of his ministery , and of the means thence arising for the maintenance of him and his ; his charge then depending upon him being greater , then i suppose m. vvalkers either then was , when he so suffered as he saith , or now is . and that he lay still at that very same time under that heavy presure , ( which he was never wholly quit of to his dying day ) when m. walker pursued ( i may well say , x persecuted him ) with those hideous imputations of teaching y divellish heresie and z blasphemy , and a the most pestilent opinions that ever satan sowed among christians . now whether this his demeanure toward m. vvotton in such times , were to b adde affliction unto affliction , or no , i leave to any man , not of c brasse bowels , and iron entrals , to determine . this am i sure of , that if m. vvalkers troubles , past and overblown now , may aggravate ought here , the storm still continuing might much more aggravate there . but this is the common guise of humane weaknesse , that men are rather prone to tender d their own griefes , then the grievances of others ; and to deny that priviledge of e sanctuary to their adversaries , under which they require yet to finde shelter for themselves . howsoever , a fond thing it is for any man to imagine , that his sufferings for the truth , either should seale him a licence to rave against , and raile upon his christian brethren at pleasure , whether surviving yet , or deceased ; or should protect him against all apology upon such occasions , made either by themselves or by others for them , in their behalfe . for as for all that , which in the next place * he subjoyneth , in his declamatory way , concerning m. wottons assertions ; how sincerely they are extracted from m. vvottons writings , or how depraved with m. vvalkers own glosses and fillings ; as also how by m. vvotton himselfe in writing answered , where they might seem to sound somewhat harshly by collating place with place , and reducing them to the state of the point there in question ; and lastly , what was thereupon concluded , when these things were at large long since debated , in a way that m. vvalker himselfe pressed m. vvotton unto ; you have fully laid down in the relation before mentioned : which m. vvalker also here referreth himselfe unto ; and to transcribe againe therefore , would be but lost labour , both to me and to my reader . that which the rather also i here wave , because i shall be constrained , treading m. vvalkers wild maze ; as now i must do , to meet with them againe more then once or twice , where fitter occasion wil be to consider further of them . after this complaint commenced of me , m. walker proceeds e to lay down the occasion , by which he hath provoked me to proclaim so bitterly against him , and to brand him with breach of piety and charity , and defect of humanity and common honesty ; and to enquire what the cause of my so doing should be . where , first , how i have proclaimed ( as he speaks ) against him , or what bitternesse i have used , either in my preface or postscript , i am well content that others indifferently affected judge . howbeit i see none forwarder to complaine of bitternesse in others , then f those that are most troubled with the overflowing of the gall themselves , and who write ordinarily , as if their pennes were dipped and steeped in no other but that bitter liquor . secondly , i demand of m. walker , where i have thus branded him . true it is , that i do indeed directly and expresly charge him with g unequall dealing ; and h want of candor in his carriage toward m. wotton . and this he returnes never a word unto , nor will be able ever to wash off . with those other defaults here mentioned i doe not my selfe charge him . i affirm only that such carriage as i there describe , i hath been ever generally held a breach of piety and charity , and may well be deemed to argue no small defect of humanity , not to adde of common honesty . and what i therein say , no man , i suppose , will deny ; not m. walker himselfe . but whether m. walker in his late dealing with m. wotton have so carried himselfe , as to contract such guilt , or no , i pronounce not ; * i say nothing , but leave it to be deemed and determined by others , upon that which afterward is related , under the hands , either of m walker himselfe , or of those whom he himselfe chose , and by his own choise of them made competent judges in his cause . the proposition therefore there alone is mine ; which m. walker himselfe doth not , nor i assure my selfe , will deny . the assumption is , either his own or theirs . yea in effect all his own , because the verdict of those , whom he referred himselfe unto . and the conclusion consequently ( which i followeth ever the weaker side ) as it toucheth m. walker , not mine , but theirs ; yea , in very truth , his own . that he charged m. wotton with heresie and blasphemy , he denieth not : that he referred himselfe for the truth of his charge to the hearing of eight grave ministers , his own letter * relateth : that he failed in his proofes , * they testifie under their own hands , whom he referred himselfe unto : that notwithstanding that faile , he hath now so long after that , since m. wottons decease , in print renued that his charge , his booke evidently sheweth . the imputation therefore of such guilt , if all that hath been related do not proove m. walker faulty in such cariage , he remaineth free enough still from , for ought that i say . if it do evince him so to have caried himselfe ; it is not i , but his own cariage , and the verdict of his own judges , that fast●eth the imputation upon him . for , what he here addeth of i my misrep●rts , he hath not hitherto , nor shall ever be able to convince me of misrelation in ought . but come we to his enquiry . where first he moveth doubt , k whether therefore ●be so offended , because he calleth the errour , that he chargeth m. wotton to have been the publisher of , herefie . and if that be the matter he telleth me , that howsoever i and my fellow-subscribers ( that is the scornfull title that now he giveth us ) did not thinke fit ( for some causes , of which hereafter ) to call any thing in his exposition of his speeches by the name of heresie and blasphemy : yet some of them cited in the parallel , are by his own confession manifestly hereticall and blasphemous . and that he rather assented to beza , pareus , and lubbertus , who condemn some things in m. wottons expositions for heresie and blasphemy , then to me and my fellows ( d. bayly , m. balmford , m. randall , m. stock , m. downhum , m. gouge , and m. hickes ) who were pleased to think otherwise . and he hopeth that therein he giveth no offence ; especially having gods woudfor his warrant . where first , i wonder how the matter against m. wotton cometh so much to be aba●ed , that from so many pretended hereticall and blasphemous errours , whereof seven horrible heads at least were represented in the parallel , it should be brought down now to one single errour , to one heresie . m. walkers heart here , it may be , did misgive him ; suspecting that some of them might be generally by all votes acquired of heresie at least , if not of errour . and he thought it therefore the wisest and wariest course to pitch upon some one ; and yet not to tell us , which that one 〈◊〉 ●eant , was , that so he might be free to fasten where he should thinke fittest , if either his proofes concerning any of the other should faile ; or those , whom he calleth in for advocates in his own behalfe , and for witnesses to give evidence against m. wotton , as condemning his opinions for hereticall and blasphemous , should be found voting in some of them rather for him then against him . . whereas he telleth us , that there are somethings in m. wottons expositions ( of which tearme here more anon ) which beza , pareus and lubbertus condemn as hereticall and blasphemous ; neither yet doth he shew what those things are , nor where they so stile them . yea , if to avoyd the former exception , he shall say , that the errour he meant and called heresie is this , that l faith , and not christs righteousnesse is imputed for righteousnesse in the act of justification ; because he saith that his new adversary hath so stated the question ; ( with whom yet , or his stating the question , i have nothing here to do ) he must be minded , that in the proposition so conceived there are two positions included ; both which he condemneth as two pestilent and blasphemous heresies , and in m his parallel pointeth at either of them apart . . that faith is imputed for righteousnesse . . that christs righteousnesse is not so imputed . now for the former , to wit , that faith is imputed for righteousnesse ; besides the apostle n s. paul more then once averring it , ( whom neither these men nor m. walker , i hope will so charge ) two of them are expresse and peremptory for it . for so beza , writing on those words of the apostle , o abraham beleeved god , and it was imputed to him for righteousnesse . p here , saith he , is entreated of that which was imputed to him by god , to wit of his faith . and againe , q paul relating passively , what moyses spake actively , omitteth the affix , which he might have rendered , that thing , to wit , abrahams faith it selfe : but he afterward twice plainely expresseth it in the fifth and ninth verses . and pareus reconciling the greeke with the hebrew : r these two are all one , god imputed faith , and faith by god was imputed . as for the sense , this speech concerning abraham conteineth two things : first , his faith ; abraham beleeved god. then the fruit of his faith ; and ( faith ) was imputed to him for righteousnesse . and againe , s and ( faith ) was imputed to him for righteousnesse . the fruit of abrahams faith is hereby signified , even free justification . t that the verb should be rendered , not impersonally , but passively ; that , to wit , faith was imputed ; it is manifest , both by the hebrew text , and by the apostles declaration in the fifth and ninth verses . which to observe is of much moment for the right understanding of that scripture . and for the latter position , that christs righteousnes is not imputed in the act of justification ; if by christs righteousnesse be understood his habituall holinesse , or his actuall righteousnesse consisting in the perfect observation of the law morall : here also two of m. walkers authours must of necessity leave him , unlesse they will condemne themselves for blasphemous heretickes . for both pareus and lubbe●tus , going ursines and piscators way , hold justification to consist wholly in remission of sinnes . for so pareus expresly ( besides what out of him v elsewhere ) in his commentaries before mentioned ; u the apostle placeth justification in the remission of sinnes alone . nor doth * lubbertus herein depart from him . and both therefore also herein concurre ; that they ground our justification , not upon the righteousnesse of christ , so understood , as hath been said ; but on the merit of , and satisfaction made by his sufferings . that which , as for pareus , by a whole x treatise written of purpose by him about that argument , doth most evidently appeere ; so for lubbertus is also cleere enough , by divers y passages , even in those works which were written by him professedly against the errors of socinus . yea so far doth pareus proceed herein , that he sticketh not to avow that , z those that ascribe the merit of righteousnesse unto christs active obedience or his native holinesse , c do thereby derogate from the death of christ , and do undoubtedly make it vain , or superfluous . now i would gladly understand from m. walker what he thinketh of pareus , and whether he count not him a blasphemous heretike , as well as m. wotton . as for me & my fellows , as in scorn now he calleth them , ( tho peradventure as good men as m. walker himselfe ) i hold it no disgrace to me , to be yoaked with such ; and to have deemed rather as they , then as m. walker either then did , or now doth . mean while how little cause m. walker hath to crake so much of these authors , by what hath been said , may easily be deemed ; and muchlesse to affirm , what so confidently * elsewhere he doth , that he hath all learned divines agreeing with him in what he holds : and that “ the whole stream of learned orthodox divines hold the same doctrine with him concerning justification by christs righteousnesse imputed to beleevers . which in such sense and manner as he maintaines it , he cannot but know to be most untru● ; unlesse he will expunge pareus , piscator , and i know not how many more , generally so esteemed , on● of the list of learned and orthodox divines . . yea but m. wotton ▪ 〈◊〉 m. w●lker , is * proved a blasphemous 〈◊〉 by h●…●onf●ssion . i answer in a word . how m. 〈◊〉 ●…th the deniall of christs righteousnesse imp●… to be here●icall and blasphemous ; he plainely ex●resseth himselfe in his a defence ; whence m. walker produceth it . to which therefore , and m. bradshawes preface to his english treatise of justification , i referre the reader : yet so , that of the one , and out of the other , somewhat hereafter also shall be said . . how farre forth m. walker hath gods word for his warrant , in condemning m. wotton , not of errour ( for that neither was , nor is the question ) but of heresie and blasphemy ( for that was the point in controversie , when time was ) he hath not yet made to appeare , no more then he did . for what here fondly and ridiculously in that kind he presumeth , by the sentence of his owne delegates , he was not then able to make good . what else is b here ferced in , concerning the cariage of the businesse at that meeting , shall in its due place ( by gods assistance ) be discussed . the other doubt he moveth concerning the cause of my proclaiming so bitterly against him , and being so highly offended with him , is , c whether it be , because he calleth m. wotton by the name of anthony wotton . and if that be the cause , he telleth me , that d therein he did him a favour . for that under that obscure t●●le , his person might have been hid , and not made known to any but those , who are acquainted with all the passages between him and m. walker . but m. gataker is the man , that hath exposed his person to much shame , and stained his name and memory with the brand of heresie , &c. sure he must be some , not merry , but very sad person , not grave and sage onely , that can read this passage without laughing , or smiling at least . which to shew , let me entreat m. walker to make m. wottons case a while here his owne . m. walker , as by his parallell plainly appeares , e denieth faith to be a condition on mans part required unto the attaining of justification . now suppose that some one of his own spirit should thereby take occasion , in a treatise of his published many yeeres after m. walkers decease , to traduce him for the same , by the name of george walker , as the first publisher in this land of a most pestil●●t heresie ; and thereby charge him to have made himselfe f guilty of paganisme , ind●is● and mahumetanism . would it not be ridiculous , for the party having so dealt with him , to demand of one that should write in his defence , why he is so highly offended with him , and whether it be for this cause or no , because he calleth him george walker ? &c. for were it not all o●… , as if some rude fellow , having c●st a shovell of du●t or two upon a man , as he passeth in the street , should aske the party so misused , contesting with him about it , what he aileth to be so offended with him ; and whether it be , because he did not make him a legge , or give him , as we use to say , the time of the day . he might as well have moved question , whether i were not so offended , because he stileth him barely anthony wotton , and not mr. a. wotton : or whether because he calleth him anthony and not antonie , as he usually and rightly wrote his name , save that by the printers correction , or corruption rather , he found it so also in my relation . but that that followeth , is yet more ridiculous , that herein he did m. wotton a singular favour . for under that obscure title he had lien hid and unknown to any , but those alone that had been acquainted with all that had passed between m. walker and him . is the name of antonie wotton then so obscure a title ? or are there so many of note so named , that this our a wotton may lie hid in the heap , among the multitude of them , unlesse be be by some speciall notes and marks otherwise deciphered ? and yet any man , not utterly crackt-brained , would have thought , that g anthony wotton , one that some . yeeres agoe lived in london , and there in manuscript pamphlets and printed bookes dispersed his opinions concerning justification , and h by the fame and opinion , which men had of his great learning and no lesse piety , drew many zealous professours into the liking of his errors ; and afterward i ●rought a booke de reconciliati●…e , in latine , &c. any man would thinke , i say , unlesse he wanted his ●its that thus much were sufficient to discover , who the man were , that m. walker meant , though they that read him were not privy to all m. walkers either revilings of him in publique , or baitings of him in private . suppose m. walkers adversary before assigned him , had onely stiled him , george walker , one that so many yeeres agoe had in the city of london out of the pulpit inveighed and declamed oft against m. wottons writings and m. bradshaws works , as containing much heretical and blaspemous matter , &c. were it not enough to let men know who the man were that be meant ( notwithstanding i suppose there be and have been about the city more walkers then wottons ) unlesse they had been acquainted with all things , that either at the solemne meeting of ministers , or in private otherwise , had passed between him and m. wotton . but that , which herein exceedeth all the rest ; is , that i m. gataker by his relation of the businesse that passed between them , and thereby blasoning his armes , hath exposed him to sh●me , and stained his name with the brand of here●ie . i never knew that i had any skill in heraldry before ; nor have heard of staining with brands till now . two new trades m. walker hath here put upon me , both which i must needs professe my selfe utterly unskilfull in . but to let these things passe ; whether of the two , staine a mans name , and expose him to shame ; he that publikely chargeth him with heresie and blasphemy ; or he that publisheth his acquitall from such horrid imputations , by the verdict , and under the hands of those , whom the same party appellant himselfe had made therein his judges ; i am well content that any , not wholly in k orestes his mood , whatsoever else he be , determine . after this preamble thus premised , m. vvalker proceeds to his narration . l the former part whereof is spent in such stories , as m. walker is pleased to entertain his reader withall , of matters foregoing the meeting of the ministers before mentioned , concerning m himselfe and his reading and preaching , n m. richardson and his approbation of m. walkers censures passed upon m. wottons opinion ; o m. wottons dealing , and p the cariage of some of his followers . all which yet i suppose no man is bound to make any part of his creed . such of them especially as are grounded upon other mens reports ; as the frivolous and ridiculous tale , that q his clarke , he saith , told him , concerning some of m. wottons disciples and himselfe ; and may the rather be questioned , because in the ensuing discourse are found some very palpable untruths ; and such as were to be charged upon m. walker himselfe , were they not salved with a some say . and what he reporteth r of m. vvottons jugling repeated againe s in his epistle , and * elsewhere , is by m. vvotton very confidently and peremptorily denied , as shall hereafter be related . as for that he relateth of m. richardsons censure , both t here , and u hereafter , be it true or no ; i say only thus much to it : that if m. richardson shall condemne all those for blasphemous heretiks , who deny the imputation of christs righteousnesse consisting in the perfect observation of the law morall unto justification ; and hold justification to consist wholly in remission of sinnes : ( which i conceive to be m. vvottons principall error , and wherein i dissent both from him and them ) he shall together with m. wotton exclude from life eternall olevian , piscator , ursinus , pareus , scultetus , altingius , cameron , and many other worthies , who were as famons and bright lights in the church of god here , as ever m. richardson was , while he lived ; and ( if the prophet x daniel may be believed ) doe now shine as starres in the kingdome of heaven , and so shall doe for ever and ever ; whatsoever doom m. richardson , or m. walker shall passe on them . for my part i deem this their censure not unlike that other conceit , that i remember to have heard m. walker sometime maintain , and is fathered likewise upon the same party , ( concerning whom , i forbeare to speake my mind , lest i undergoe the lash of m. walkers tongue ) that , the fall of our first parents proceeded not from the mutability of their will : and that all that hold it to have thence proceeded , by so holding , make god the autour of sinne . by which censure all the divines in the world ( for ought i know , m. walker , and m. richardson , if he at least so also held , only excepted ) are condemned of extream impiety ; yea of atheisme , or worse , ( if y m. walkers manner of arguing by deduction may go for currant ) since that z it is much at one , to hold god to be wicked , and to hold him no god at all . but this former part of m. walkers narration , be it what it will , nothing at all concerneth me , who begin my relation at m. walkers letter , and the meeting that thereupon ensued . out of his letter , wherewith he beginneth the latter part of it , i a relate only m. walkers charge and his challenge . which that they are there found , among much other lavish and menacing language , in as many words as i relate them ; by m. walkers owne b transcript of it may evidently appeare . with the main substance whereof , ( being such as sufficiently discovereth by what spirit it was endited ) i shall not much meddle ; but shall only relate what i find written in the margent of a copie of it ( testified to be a true copy by the attestation of m. stephen egerton , and m william gouge thereunto annexed ) with m. wottons own hand . against those words , c if you had not refused to joyn with me in a christian conference , &c. i never had any such offer made me from you . against those words , d you in scorn sent me to one spencer , &c. the party will be deposed , that this is altogether false , against those words , e this your doing when i complained to you of face to face , you excused as done in ignorance of mine intent and desire . this is most false . against those words , f did i not then shew both patience , love , and all good affection ? how true the report of this conference is , they that were by can witnesse : and to them i appeale . upon g that passage , before h also mentioned , and yet before that at large related and pressed , in his epistle prefixed before his socinianisme discovered and confuted , concerning a place of luther , that m. wotton should alledge , covering with his fingers some part of it in the same page , that made against him , against those words , i if you deny this , god is my witnesse , and mine own conscience . god is my witnesse against you , that this is most falsely reported by you . against those words , k they and you were so far from amendement , that you made me amends with all railing and reviling language . if you speake of me , it is most untrue : for others i cannot answer . against those words , related as m. wottons , concerning the bishop of london , l you dare not co●…it your selfe to him , because he is a wicked iudge , and will respect persons in judgement : my friends are too potent with him . the lord let me find no mercy with him , if ever i said so , or thought so of the bishop of london . other notes i let passe , being lesse materiall , or concerning other men rather then m. wotton him selfe . but for the further and fuller clearing of this last clause , i shall subjoyne out of a letter of m. egertons written to m. wotton , dated may . under his own hand , the very words that m. wotton used concerning the bishop . * among some other passages , you had this speech in effect , that you thought that my lord of london would not willingly do any thing , that might impeach m walker , because ( as you had heard ) his brother of cheswick was very gracious with my lo●d . thus much in effect , and not a jot more , did i signifie to m. walker onely by way of demand , &c. how soundly and charitably m. walker collected hereupon , that you either said or intimated , that you durst not commit your selfe to the bishop of london , because he is a wicked man , &c. i leave it to others to determine . this i professe , that neither when i received it from you , nor when i told it to his eare , i did so much as conceive or imagine , that you had any such conceit of my lord of london . thus that reverend divine , now with the lord : by whose testimony may appeare , how prone m. walker is to tenter out mens words , beyond all , not charitable onely , but even reasonable , construction . from his letter , m. walker proceedeth to the meeting or conference therein required ; which he saith is n the subject of mine invective against him . in relating whereof yet i use no invective at all . i report onely what was done and exhibited on both parts : & what resolved by the parties on either side deputed to heare and decide . neither of which m. walker either doth or can deny . but m. walker must give me leave , to deale here a little more freely with him ; and to tell him in plainer tearmes , that many things delivered in this part of his narration , are either utterly untrue , or such as may justly be suspected of untruth . . he maketh his very entrance into it with a manifest untruth , tho a matter of no great moment . he saith , that o upon the receit and reading of that his letter , m. wotton sent him a letter of defiance , and therein professed his scorn and disdaine of his threatnings : but the next day he sent him another , wherein he promised to yeeld to his motion . which , tho not much materiall , whether so or no , yet is not true . for m. wotton sent him but one letter with a postscript of diverse date added thereunto : which must needs therefore come to m. walkers hands both at once ; and not the one this day , and the other the next , as m. walker here relates it . m. wotton had indeed begun and gone on a good way in a large answer to m. walkers whole letter ; which is yet to be seen ; and i could well have been content to afford it room here , save that i found it unfinished , and withall was loath to make this discourse overlong . but therein it seems he altered his mind , and sent him this shorter . which , if but to shew the difference of these two mens spirits , i have thought good here to insert . to mr. george walker , peace of conscience , by true zeale with sobriety and charity . sir , if you have any true d●sire of my good , especially testified by prayer to god for me , the lord requite your love , and uphold me in the continuance of the like duty for you now and ever . but i must plainly professe , that i can hardly be perswaded of the truth of your protestation : because i finde your present letters , being the first that ever i received from you , so full of bitternesse . yet could i have been contented to have made some answer to them , but that i see it would be to small or no purpose . for a great part of your vehement accusation concerns other men , and not me : who am not ( in any equity ) to be charged with their faults , ( if any have so faulted ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . the things , which touch my selfe , are all , either utterly untrue , or misreported by you . and to what purpose were it , for me to deny , and you to affirme ; and so as it were out-vy one anothers credit ? concerning the offer you make of putting the points in question , whether first you doe justly charge me with heresie and blasphemy ; and whether secondly , my writings do not shew me to be a socinian ; i could happily have yeelded thereunto , without excepting against any one whom you name , if you had not so violently sought it , by frighting me ( as you imagined ) with complaining , to my l. of canterbury his grace and the commission , of me , if i refused . good m walker do not think me so childish or foolish , that i can be scared with such terrours and menacings . i am so throughly resolved of the truth i hold , differing immane quantum from socinus blasphemy , and so well perswaded of my lords soundnesse in judgement , and the equall hearing i shall have in that court , that i am not afraid to put the matter there to triall . wherefore use your discretion , either in this , or in any other course , that shall best please you : i will alwaies be ready to maintaine the truth i know , and to acknowledge that , i yet know not , whensoever it shall be discovered to me by the word of god. to whose gracious blessing i commend the pardoning and reforming of this and all other wrongs you have done me , and rest , towerhill , may . . yours as it becomes a christian to be antony wotton . postscript . since the writing of this letter , i have been perswaded by them , by whom i am willing to be advised and ruled , to yeeld to your motion , which by this postscript i now signifie unto you ; conditionally , that all things , wherewith you charge me in your letter may also be heard , and the letter it selfe scanned , as they , that shall be and are chosen , shall thinke meet . the manner of this tryall , with the time and pl●ce , must ( in reason ) be left to their wisedomes and liking . whom i will choose , you shal understand from me , upon signification that you accept of this condition . the expectation of your former messenger , who said he would call for an answer , hath made me to put off the writing of this till now . may . thus have you m wottons letter of defiance , as m. walker is pleased to stile it , so full of scorn and disdain ; nothing sutable indeed to m. walkers invective , nor savouring at all of his furious spirit . and you have withall in the postscript the reason of the delay of m. wottons answer , returned thereunto not without the postscript because detained by him till then . that which also is testified by m. walkers own letter written in answer hereunto ; wherein he professeth himselfe to have been at the first sight of m. wottons letter much troubled , as in some other respects , so in regard of the refusall of his motion , and the defiance ( as there also he tearms it ) of his threatnings ; untill he found at last to his comfort , an acceptance of his motion , upon the advice of his friends . . that which next followeth , hath as little truth in it as the former , being a matter of more moment ; to wit , that p m. wotton , after that by letter to m. walker he had promised to yeeld to his motion about a conference , did by m. mason the bishops chaplen use meanes to make it known to the bishop , in hope that he would forbid the meeting . whereas m. wotton had not yet written to m. walker , that he would accept of that his offer , ( desirous rather of a publike hearing , then a private conference ) untill he had been with the bishop , q whom he importuned for an open and judiciary tryall ; and being pressed by him rather to condescend to the course by m. walker propounded , had thereupon consented and yeelded thereunto ; upon condition that the bishop would assigne one of his chaplens to be a party in the hearing ; who to satisfie m. wottons request therein , appointed m. mason then present , to m. wotton otherwise a meere stranger , to undertake that imployment . after which therefore m. wotton added the postscript above recited , to his letter , lying yet by him , because not yet called for by m. walkers messenger , according to m. wottons expectation and his promise . . it is not true , that r m. hicks and my selfe bare our selves at the meeting , towards m. walker as an adversary , or as advocates for m. wotton : unlesse to require the forbearance of railing and reviling terms , and endevouring to have the businesse fairely and calmly caried , without invectives and declamations , which m. walker , if let alone , would never have made an end of , may beare such an interpretation . and yet m. hicks ( a man whom to my knowledge i never saw before or since , nor know i how m. walker knows to be s of m. wottons mind in all points ) spake least in the businesse of the most there present , being the yongest among us , and a man of very modest and moderate cariage . but somewhat must be fastned on a man least known ; because of the better known it would not be so easily beleeved . it is not true that t d. westfield was the onely man there , with whom m. walker had then any great familiarity . for m. stock and he , as they were next neighbours in their charges , so were very familiar ; tho for his kindnesse he have been but ill rewarded by m. walker in some u passages here ensuing . for i leave it to m. walker to reconcile his owne relations ; wherein he telleth us , here , that x he was but a stranger of two yeeres residence in the city at the time of our meeting anno . and yet before in the very entrance , that y the controversie between m. wotton and himselfe began anno . he was belike very busie in the city , before he had any residence in the city . but this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being in his owne acts , himselfe , i hope , will some way assoll . . nor is it true , that the parties designed , were a all of them m. wottons old familiar friends . what any of the rest might be , i cannot certainly say ; tho of few of them , i suppose , m. walker is able to make it good . but for my selfe , i was then but lately grown into acquaintance with him by occasion of my removall from lincolns-inne to rederith . besides that there had much strangnesse grown before that time ( as b between the best and holiest sometime it falleth out ) betweene m. stock and m. wotton , a thing too well known to , and much lamented by , many interressed in either . . it is not true , that c i derided him , when he gave in his charge of socinian heresie & blasphemy against m. wotton . for i never so did . tho i confesse , i could not forbeare smiling at the reading of d the second point in his parallel condemned as a blasphemous socinian heresie . and i suppose that scarce any sound and judicious divine will be able to read it sine risu aut stomacho . . nor is it true , that e dr. baily came in amongst us , as by m. walker designed to succeed in the roome of d. westfield . for d. westfield was expected that very day , that d. baylie intruded himselfe into our company , tho very likely indeed ; not without m. walker● privity and procurement , to disturb our proceedings . yet not pretending to appeare in d. westfields roome , however afterward he supplied it , to make up the number ; but making bold forsooth to associate himselfe with us , f because we met in his church . the most of the rest misliking , and muttering at it among themselves , as desirous rather of his roome then his company . and that , as for some other reasons not so fit to be here related ; so the rather for that no sooner almost he was set down among us , but he began to quarrel with m. wotton about his ap parrell , because he went not in a ministeriall habit . . whereas it is added , that g d. westfield refused after our first meeting , to meet any more , ( which yet unto the rest of us he never once intimated ) because he perceived a generall inclination in us all to favour m. wotton , as foreseeing and fearing what followed . as therein m. walker taxeth not me alone , but the whole company of open partiality : so it may rather justly be surmised , that d. westfield being of a mild and moderate disposition , forbare further to present himselfe among us , being wearied out with m. walkers furious and intemperate cariage , sufficient to have tired us all : and this i suppose they will the more incline to , that know the mans temper . . it is not true , that h m. walker did at first desire of us , that having in writing paralleld m. wottons words with socinus his , we would give our hands to his parallel , and subscribe , that he had not charged m. wotton with any opinions or words but his owne ; or consuted under the name of socinianisme any words of his , wherein he con●urred not with socinus . for i neither was there at first any mention of a parallel ; nor came the motion of it , when it was afterward mentioned , from m. walker ; but was after some wast of time spent to no purpose in clamorous declamations and invectives , by my selfe propounded ; that we might thereby the better discerne , how the case stood concerning the matters controverted , and bring the businesse to some good issue : nor was any such subscription ever on m. walkers part required ; who as he now seoffeth us by the name of subscribers ; so could not after due hearing endure to heare of any subscribing ; well wotting by the verdict of the whole company , what the subscription was like to be . . he frameth k his narration , as if his parallels had been read alone without m. wottons answer : and that l upon the reading and examining of them , they appeared to some of them so cleere , and his cause so just , that the same day at dinner dr. baylie did protest , that m. walker had discovered m. wotton to be as damned an hereticke as ever did tread on english ground : and after againe , that m the said doctor upon the first reading of m. wottons speeches so paralleld , condemned m. wotton for an hereticke , and his errors for blasphemy . to wit , at a private table , as before he had related . now whether d. baylie spake thus or no , i will not call in question ; because m. walker saith he hath sufficient witnesses of it . but this i say : . that his parallel was not delivered in before or without m. wottons answer . for so n it was agreed . nor were all the parallels or points paralleld read over at once ; but severally related , considered of , and examined , together with m. wottons answer thereunto , and both withall debated , as they stood in order , and came to hand , some one day , and some an other . . for the doctors speech , ( howsoever his judgement , i suppose , so rashly given especially , will beare no great weight with those that throughly knew the man and his manner ) if it were such as m. walker saith ; and were delivered , as he implieth , upon the very first hearing of m. walkers charge onely read , before he had heard m. wottons defence : it may seem , he was of that mind , that o the stoike sometime was , who held it a ridiculous thing to heare any defendant or second party : tho most wise men have ever been p of a contrary judgement ; requiring q the one eare at least to be reserved for the defendant ; and condemning those of r unjust and unequall dealing , albeit the sentence they passe be agreeable to right , that condemne a man unheard . but , if the doctor then said , as m. vvalker saith he did ; and yet afterward did under his hand acquit m. vvotton of heresie and blasphemy , as it is acknowledged that he did ; one of the two must of necessity follow , either that he altred his judgement therein upon the hearing of m. wottons defence , considering better of the businesse then before he had done ; or that he gave sentence and subscribed directly contrary to his owne judgement , and so s in acquitting m. vvotton condemned himselfe . of either whereof let m. vvalker choose which he please , and make the best use of it for his owne advantage . . howbeit to afford the doctor a plaister , wherewith to salve his credit , herein somewhat impeached , m. vvalker bringeth in the party , at whose house they dined , demanding , t vvhy they did not then without more adoe justifie m. vvalker , and censure m. vvotton . m. vvalker might much better himselfe rather have askt the doctor , why he said not so much openly at the meeting ; or how it came to passe that he did not there utter any one syllable or title tending thereunto ; whenas at the table now ( whereby any man may deem of the doctors discretion , if all that m. vvalker tels of him be true ) he so freely and fully passed and published his censure . now to this question of his hoasts m. vvalker shapeth this answer , ( in whose person uncertaine ; for m. vvalker is nothing cleere in these his dramaticall discourses ) u they pretended , that they desired to convert , not to confound m. vvotton ; that they perceived him to be afraid of a storm like to fall on him : and that if i would yeeld to let him expound himselfe , he would by a wrested exposition gainsay and contradict his former words and opinions , and run from them : which being gotten from him under his own hand , they would either hold him to it , or shame him for ever , if he did fall back again . such a passage , as i know not , nor any man else , i thinke , what to make of . for first , who be the they , that he speaketh of ? was it the doctor alone , that told all this faire tale , and pretended all this ? how cometh he then to say , they ? or if m. downham be included , who is related to have dined at the same time with them ; how doth m. walker , in his ensuing discourse make him x a mute actor in this scene , one that y by silence only assented to , what the doctor then said ? again , where , think we , meaneth he , that all this was pretended ? was it pretended at the table ? or was it related only there ; but pretended before at the meeting among our selves ? but i shall leave it to any man of ordinary understanding to conceive , how likely it is ; either that m. wottons friends ( for such m. walker saith they were all ) should thus conspire to ensnare him ; or that such a consultation should be had among us in the presence of m. wotton himselfe . for we did nothing at our meetings but in the presence of m. wotton and m. vvalker ; who were neither of them ever excluded , or required to withdraw themselves upon any occasion , during the whole hearing . but m. walker it may well seem , was somewhat distracted in mind , when he writ this ; studying how to bring in handsomely what himselfe had invented , and uncertaine whom to father and fasten it upon . for marke , i pray you , what immediately follows . . a this course , saith he , being m. gatakers device , i refused to yeeld unto : because i had never opposed m. wotton , but onely in his opinions formerly published , and and not in future expositions : and because i had fully proved my charge , i desired their verdict and just judgement . but after much importunity i yeelded ; and so lost my cause , and was drawn into a new businesse ; that was , to contend with m. wotton , not about his former opinions , but about new expositions , which he would make in answer to my parallel . in which words are couched many grosse falshoods : nor was the former passage so intricate , but this is much more untrue . . he affirmed before , that they pretended this and that ; and thereupon plotted to get i know not what under m. wottons hand . now he telleth his reader , that this course was m. gattakers device . b where at length shall we have him ? . true it is indeed , i was the first mover , that m. walker might be requested to make such a parallel ; as c in my relation i acknowledge . but that i ever had any such pretence , as m. walker here talketh of , or ever made any motion for ought under m. wottons hand , is most untrue . m. vvotton onely himself moved , ( as i d elswhere relate ) that he might have the parallels sent him from m. walker a day or two before the next hearing , that he might subjoyn his answer and defence thereunto . . that m. walker refused to yeeld thereunto , and was by meere importunity drawn to admit it , is likewise most false . for it was presently deemed most equall on all sides : nor did m. walker in the least manner make any shew of dislike . . it is a like true , that upon the giving in of his parallel , he required our verdict ; that course being not as yet condescended unto , which he tearmeth my device . when as the course mentioned , and by m. vvotton himselfe motioned , was agreed upon before his parallel was composed , and much more then , before it was exhibited . so that by m. walkers relation a verdict should have been past by his judges , while the parallel , containing the evidence , was as yet , if as yet at least , in the actors brain only . but to take the businesse , and discusse it a while , as m. walker here relateth it . first , i referre it to any indifferent mans judgement to determine , whether it were agreeable to equity , for m walker to require a verdict of his iudges , ( as he termeth them ) or for them to give it in his behalfe , against m. wotton , upon a bare sight of some positions found as well in m. wotton , as in socinus , ( supposing it so to be ) before m. wottons defence were either exhibited or heard . and here let me crave leave to shew the unreasonablenesse of such a request , and it be but by one instance . m walker in his parallel chargeth this position upon m. wotton , as a point of socinianism , an hereticall and blasphemous assertion , that e faith is a condition appointed by god to be performed on our parts for obtaining of justification . now , it being granted , that the very same words were by m. walker exhibited , ( which yet precisely they are not ) as well out of socinus his works , as out of m. vvottons writings : had it not been , thinke we , a very discreet part of them whom the businesse was committed unto , to have without more adoe , so censured it , as m walker had charged it , and in so censuring it , to have condemned themselves , ( who openly to m. walkers face * professed , that they had oft taught it ) and not themselves alone , but all orthodox divines ( for ought i know ) in the whole world ; yea the apostle s. paul himselfe to boote too , if some of them may be beleeved ; for socinians and blasphemous heretiks ? for i would fain know of m walker , how this differeth that he so chargeth , from what pareus saith , and avoweth to be s. pauls , that f faith is the condition , under which christ is given us for a propitiation . or , not to looke out abroad , but to keep our selves at home ; i should desire to understand from him , what he thinketh of these passages in some writers of our own ; and those men of no mean note neither . first , that of m. fox , g the condition whereby we are properly justified is this , that we beleeve in christ. and againe , * the evangelicall promise requireth no other condition to the attaining of salvation , besides faith onely , whereby we beleeve on the sonne of god. secondly , that of m. perkins , in his reformed catholique ; h in the covenant of grace , two things must be considered : the substance thereof , and the condition . the substance of the covenant is , that righteousnes and life everlasting is given to gods church and people by christ. the condition is , that we for our parts are by faith to receive the foresaid benefits . and this condition is by grace as well as the substance . or if these men be not of that esteem with m. walker , but that he can be content to let them go for damned heretiks , to beare m. vvotton company in the same condemnation , i should crave to be informed , what he deemeth of m. pemble , i some of whose works he hath deigned to honour with a dedicatory epistle ; wherein he commendeth him , as k a righteous and faithfull servant of christ , excelling in grace and vertue , abounding in all wisdome , and in all knowledge , lively sense and utterance of heavenly and supernaturall mysteries , far above all that could be expected from , or is ordinarily found in one of his age and yeers . l nor doubteth therefore , nor is afraid to say of him , that he is ascended up into that supercelestiall glory , towards which he had ever bent all his studies and desires . this m. pemble then , whom m. walker thus extolleth , and not altogether undeservedly , in another of his works hath these words : m there are two covenants that god hath made with man : by one of which salvation is to be obtained . the one is the covenant of works , thè tenor whereof is , doe this , and thou shalt live . the other is the covenant of grace , the tenor whereof it , beleeve in the lord iesus , and thou shalt be saved . the condition of this covenant , n ( required in them that shall be justified ) is faith . the performance whereof differs from the performance of the condition of that other covenant . doe this and live , is a compact of pure justice ; wherein wages is given by debt ; so that he that doth the work obeying the law , may in strict justice for the work sake claim the wages , eternall life , upon just desert . beleeve this and live , is a compact of freest and purest mercy ; wherein the reward of eternall life is given us in favour for that , which beares not the least proportion of worth with it : so that he that performs the condition , cannot yet demand the wages , as due unto him in severity of justice , but onely by the grace of a free promise , the fulfilling of which he may humbly sue for . and againe , o altho the act of justification of a sinner be properly the onely work of god , for the onely merit of christ : yet is it rightly ascribed unto faith , and it alone ; for as much as faith is that main condition of the new covenant ; which , as we must performe , if we will be justified ; so by the performance whereof we are said to obtaine justification and life . thus m. pemble : in which passages ( tho i will not justifie all therein contained ) he fully and cleerely expresseth m. wottons meaning not as his owne judgment only , but p as the doctrine of the reformed churches by them so explained . now i demand of m. walker , whether for this damnable and detestable position , we shall doe well , without further search or triall , ( the rather since that the same , he saith , is found in socinus ) to condemne m. pemble of heresie , and require , if not his bones to be digged up againe and committed to the fire , yet his books at least containing such blasphemous stuffe , to be burnt . which if he shall deem fit , sure pauls epistles , unlesse pareus be much mistaken , must goe the same way . or if he shall be of another mind concerning these blessed men , whether it be not extreame partiality , to let that goe for sound doctrine in m. fox , perkins , pareus and pemble , that in m. wottons writings without further adoe , upon m. walkers bare relating of it , must be condemned for blasphemous heresie . secondly , i desire to have it considered , whether it were equall to censure a man for an heretike , upon bare positions or sayings extracted out of his writings , without any regard had to , or notice taken of , his own expositions of them ; or his reasons alledged to prove his dissent in them from the errors of those whom he is charged to concurre with ; confirmed by collation of place with place in his writings , and by consideration of the maine scope and drift of the dispute , course and tenor of the discourse , and the different sense and meaning of the words and terms used by either . for example , m. walker in his parallel alledgeth a saying of servetus , ( and that is all that he hath out of him throughout his whole parallel ) that q for one act of faith was abraham righteous . and presuming that m. wotton saith the very same , ( though he alledge not any one place at all out of m. wotton , where these words are found ) from hence concludeth , that m. wotton and servetus do in the doctrine of justification hold one and the same opinion in all points . now suppose wee that the very selfesame words were found in m. wottons wrirings : and againe , that that saying in servetus were condemned , yea and that justly , for hereticall : yet were it therefore agreeable to equity , without further disquisition , to passe sentence thereupon , that m. wotton & serv●tus do in all things hold the same opinion in the point of justification ? yea or , that in those very words they speake the same thing ? when it may easily be made evidently to appeare , that servetus speaketh of justification in one sense , and m. wotton intreateth of justification in another sense : and that neither the faith , nor the righteousnesse , nor the manner of imputation of righteousnesse , that they speak of in their writings are the same . that which any may soon see , that shall read r the summe of servetus his discourse , related out of calvin in my postscript . surely by the same reason might m. walker prove s. paul and servetus to be both of them in all things of one mind concerning the doctrine of justification ; because s servetus saith , that abrahams beleeving was imputed unto him for righteousnes : and s. paul expresly in so many t words saith the same . or that musculus agreeth with servetus in all things for the matter of justification ; because he saith in neerer terms to servetus , then any m. walker alledgeth out of m. wotton ; that u abraham for that faith of his was of god reputed just . yea take away all benefit of exposition , and who almost may not be condemned of heresie and blasphemy ? for example : he that shall mention gods x hands and y feet ; as concurring with the audians , z who held that god had the shape , limbs , and lineaments of a man : he that shall affirme , with the evangelist , or with christ himselfe rather , that a the father is greater then he ; as consenting to the arians ; b who maintained an inequality among the persons in the trinity . and here i shall crave of m. walker and my reader to tell a story or two : it is the humour of old men ( such as m. walker and my selfe ) to be now and then telling of tales . i remember , that , while i aboad at lincolns-inne , the night before legate the arian appeared in the bishops consistory at pauls , ( of whose being in trouble i then knew nothing ) there came to my chamber there , at a very unseasonable houre , a gentleman-like man ; who having knockt at the doore , ask'd to speake with me ; and entrance afforded him , reacht me a little scrole , wherein were these words written , whether was the godhead of christ begotten of the godhead of the father from all eternity ? and withall desired me to give mine opinion , whether that were not an error ? i required to know first what the meaning of the party was , that held or affirmed it . he answered me , according to that in the creed , c god of god , light of light . i told him , that these were not the words there used : and that to speake properly , the godhead was not said , either to beget , or to be begotten . if the parties meaning were , that christ being god was begotten of the father , who is likewise god from all eternity ; the sense were sound , but the speech improper . then belike , as it is there written , quoth he , it is an error . as the words sound , replied i , it is : yet it may be not , in his sense that spake it . he requested me to give him that under my hand . i craved his name . he told me , i must excuse him for that . i told him , he should likewise excuse me for this . and so we parted . but the next day , hearing legate in the consistory , as i past thorow pauls , i began to surmise , that this party might be some friend of his ; and that some divine or other , in conference with him having let some such speech slip from him , this party his friend might beate about to get under some other divines hands the censure of it as an error . whence i then gathered , that a man had need to be wary , how he condemne a man of error , of heresie much more , upon a bare relation of words , before he understand what his meaning is . againe , i remember , that a busie separatist being committed to newgate , and there arrogantly challenging to dispute with all commers , and scornfully playing upon and gibing at such as dealt with him ; m bradshaw ( whom we shall find m. walker anon grinning at ) was by some friends brought to him ; who perceiving the mans spirit , and having had some discourse with him , the issue whereof he caused to be set down in writing under both their hands , that he might not talke of this and that , after they were parted ; m. bradshaw a little to represse his insolency , told him , that for all his prating so much of the constitution of a church , ( the common subject of such mens disputes ) yet his skill peradventure might be but mean in the maine principles of religion . and being by him provoked to make triall , if he pleased ; he demanded of him , whether christs deity assumed the person of man or no. to which question the bold bayard without stop or stay returning an affirmative answer , that it did , m. bradshaw told him , it was grosse heresie . and so left him . and indeed , if the words alone be regarded , so it is ; even the heresie of nestorius , d who maintained two-persons in christ , not two natures in one person . and yet neither doe i , nor did m. bradshaw hold the silly fellow to be an heretik ; no more then e those that beare the name of nestorians in the eastern parts , are deemed so to be at this day . and indeed take mens words apa●t from their meaning , and how many shall be ranked , though in judgement never so sound and orthodox , among heretiks , as concurring with such , because the same words and sentences are found in either ? to cleere this a little , consider we an instance or two , salvian bishop of marseiles , a very pious and learned ancient writer , saith , that f our saviour christ is the greatest begger in the world. meaning it of the poverty , which he sustaineth g not in himselfe , but in his , in the severall members of his body mysticall , or spirituall rather , here upon earth . shall he be hold therefore to concurre in opinion with pope nicolas . and those other h who maintained , that our saviour christ was a very beggar indeed , and lived here in the very lowest degree of beggary that can be ; which pope iohn . i condemneth for an heresie ? againe luther , in his commentary upon the epistle to the galatians , saith , that k christ was the greatest sinner in the world ; meaning it , in regard of l the sinnes of all the faithfull , which he took upon himselfe , and were reckoned as his . and we read of one austen of rome , archbishop of nazareth , who maintained some assertions , not unlike that of luther , to wit , that m christ sinneth daily , and ever so did . understanding what he sp●ke , n of the body of the faithfull , who being o in christ , and p one with christ , have the name of christ sometimes given them q in scripture . the speeches , i confesse , are both overharsh ; and the archbishop was for his taxed in the r councel of basil. yet were it no lesse harsh or hard , to condemne either of them , as concurring in judgement with those blasphemous pharisees , that s said our saviour christ was a sinner ; tho the words were the same with either . yea to ad onely one instance more : s. iohn himselfe faith , that t no regene rate man doth sinne ; u nor can sinne . and yet who dares be so bold as to say , that s. iohn therefore concurreth either with the old x cathari , or with the late familists , who dreaming of an absolute perfection in this life , do y of their illuminate and regenerate ones say the same ? in regard hereof , a man may precisely relate an other mans words ; and yet be a slanderer , a false accuser , a false witnes . for example ; that i may refresh my reader a little with some matter of more abstruse learning , ( yet other mens , not mine own ; lest m. walkers tongue again lash me ) and a season therewith somewhat this not very savoury discourse . suppose we , that those persons , b that were deposed against our saviour , had given in his precise words , as he himself spake them , without addition , detraction or alteration of ought , dissolve this temple , and within three daies , i will reedifie it ; understanding and affirming it ( as it seems they did , and as d the jewes that heard him tooke it ) to have been spoken not as he meant and intended it ( pointing in likelihood , when he spake , to it ) f of the temple of his body , g wherein his deity dwelt ; but of the temple of lime and stone , built by herod , of which they spake when they said , h forty and six yeeres hath this temple been building , as the words may well be translated : and i so long by just computation it is by some deemed , that it had then been in building , and k the former . and indeed it may seeme by n was not yet fully finished : and of which l some understand , not without some good ground of probability , those words of the prophet , m silver is mine , and gold is mine ; or , of silver and gold i have store enough ; the glory of this latter house shall be greater than the glory of the relation of those that saw it , that the o second house , as the jewes tearme it , ( which tho demolished by herod , yet still bare that name , because there was no interruption or intermission by occasion thereof of p the daily solemne sacrifice ) was by that q magnificent king built up againe in more stately manner , then by salomon it was built at first . now suppose , i say , these men , that were suborned to accuse our saviour , had in their evidence to a syllable given in his owne words , and had agreed in their testimony , as r they did not ; had they been ever a whit the lesse false-witnesses therefore ? i trow , not . and here i cannot let passe , as notorious , and yet as grosse and palpable a calumny as ever i read or heard of , of that romish sycophant , that wrote against that acute and nimbleheaded defender of the safe way to salvation by protestants religion ; a worke , which for the main substance of it , as it opposeth popery , i looke not to see answered by that side in hast , however they nibble at some passages here and there in it , and snarle at the author . he renders you the authors words to an heire , not a word , not a syllable , not a letter , not a point , not a title , detracted , added , altered , or displaced . no man that reads the jesuite , having not m. chillingsworths booke by him , but would verily beleeve , he had uttered and meant , the thing spoken , of himselfe . for thus they runne in his relation , s this man ( to wit , m. g. c. ) speakes so irreligiously sometimes , that it may give just occasion for men to enquire what he beleeves concerning the divinity of our saviour christ ; as when he saith , t that the doctrine of transubstantiation may bring a great many others , as well as himselfe to averroes his resolution ; quandoquidem christiani adorant quod comedunt , sit anima mea cum philosophis ; seeing christians adore what they eate , my soule be with the philosophers . which having recited , he begins to debate the matter with the authour , as having said thus of himselfe . u is this matter of eating our saviour such a pill to your understanding , that rather then disgest it , you will turne turke or infidel ? if you beleeved indeed that our saviour christ is truely god , you would not be scondalized , that christians adore him who would and could be eaten , no more then him who stood in need of eating , and whom the iewes might have eaten , even in a capharnaiticall and savage manner if it had been his will to permit it : x perhaps for these reasons , having subjected faith to reason , you wish with averroes a prosessed enemy of christians , my soule be with the philosophers . whereas let any man but lightly cast his eye upon the authors owne discourse ; and the knavery will at the very first sight , without further enquiry , evidently discover it selfe . his words are these , y i should desire you to tell me ingenuously , whether it be not too probable , that your portentous doctrine of transubstantiation , joynd with your forementioned perswasion of , no papists , no christians , hath brought a great many others as well as himselfe to averroes his resolution , quandoquidem christiani adorant , quod comedunt , sit anima mea cum philosophis . you see the authours own words exactly retained , precisely reported ; and yet that resolution thence gathered , and therein fathered and fastned upon the author , then which he nothing lesse there either uttered or intended . which the rather i recite here , partly to shew the desperate shamelesnes of those of that faction , not regarding what lies and falshoods they report as out of our writers , tho the books repaired to may presently convince them of grosse untruth ; ( of which their practise examples not a few might be produced ) and partly to manifest how exactly for words men may cary themselves in this kind , and yet not escape the just censure of fals-witnesbearers , and unjust slanderers of their brethren . lastly , to come full home to our selves ; as he may be a false-witnes , who yet relateth a mans own words : so iury and iudge may both be unjust , tho upon a mans own words , the one cast him , and the other condemn him ; excluding his exposition , and either perverting or mistaking his meaning ; witnes ( to go no further , but content our selves therewith ) those * that cast and condemned our poore countreyman , a citizen and grocer of london , one of m. walkers name , in king edward the fourths time , as guilty of no lesse then high treason ( for which also he was executed ) for saying , he would make his child , if he plied his booke , heire to the crown : thereby meaning no other then his own dwelling house at the signe of the crown in cheapside , commonly known and called by that name . nor , i suppose , could we justly have escaped that censure ; should we , as m. walker here would have us , upon his bare reading of m. wottons words to us , without all further examination of them , or hearing of him , have proceeded to condemn him of heresie and blasphemy ; that is , no lesse , as i take it , then high treason against the highest majesty . but thus much may suffice , if not more then sufficient , to evince the iniquity and inequality of m. walkers here pretended request . which yet he was not so unreasonable then as to motion or mention ; much lesse to presse upon us , being then somewhat more reasonably minded , then ( it seemes ) he now is : and which , had he pressed upon us , as now he saith that he did , had been most unequall and unjust for us to have granted . . as far from truth as the former , are those things that in m. walkers narration next follow : to wit , that a at an other day m. wotton brought his expositions ; whereas in truth his answers which he cals his expositions ( the same word for word that by his sonne have since been published ) were delivered in at the same time together with m. walkers parallels , as at first was appointed , that b he desiring to argue with m. wotton face to face against them in strict syllogisms , he refused to answer him ; and their iudges refused to heare him , or to suffer him to have a copy of them , as m. wotton had of his parallels . all which is most untrue . for neither did m. vvotton ever refuse to answer m. walker , offering any orderly dispute : ( which how well m. walker is acquainted with , those that have had dealings with him in this kind , or have read his writings , may soon see ) nor did their iudges ( as he calleth them , but very partiall and unjust ones , it seems , all of them ; and it is well , that herein we suffer all alike from him ) refuse to heare him alledging ought , whereby he might make his charge good . nor was he by them ever denied a copy of m. vvottons answer ; which neither we had our selves , no more then his parallel , nor was at any time by him demanded of us . . yet what he addeth here , i confesse , is in part true ; that when he saw he could not have his owne will , nor deterre us from acknowledging under our hands , that we found neither heresie , nor blasphemy , in ought , that he had evinced m. wotton to hold ; c he went away in a rage ; yet , not threatning ( as here he reporteth ) to bring him and us before higher judges ; ( he came not as yet to so high tearms with us ; and is herein therefore not unlike some debauched persons , who to encrease their owne shame , will d vaunt many times of more evill then ever they did ) but not without intimation , that we did more then we could answer in taking upon us to determin heresie ; ( or to tell , belike , what we thought to be , or not to be such ) having forgotten , it seems , his own motion at first , and what himselfe had requested us to meet about : just as if a party appeaching his neighbour of wrong doing , and having pressed him to referre the matter betweene them to arbitrators joyntly agreed on ; should , when he perceived them enclining to acquit his neighbour of the pretended wrong , demand of them , whether they would take upon them to decide right and wrong : and yet why might not we do as much as walker himselfe had done ? for how did not he take upon him to determine what was heresie , when he charged m. wotton with it ? nor again , is it untrue , that afterward he endeavoured to have us called in question for our meeting , tho by himself procured . insomuch that the bishop of london , in regard of his importunate exclaiming against us , did at first pretend to doubt of , yea in a manner deny his giving way to it ; untill being minded of the e motion made for one of his chaplens to be a party in the businesse , and his condescending thereunto , he could not but agnize it . but that which followeth ; and , if m. walker in his narration observe any due order , should be done after his departure , and so in his absence ; to wit ; that f m. wotton should promise to make & publish a large declaration , wherein he would free himselfe from all socinian errors ; and in the mean space begged this favour , that they would subscribe to his expositions , that they found no heresie or blasphemy in them ; and that upon this promise and entreaty they did subscribe , as followeth , &c. to which is a little after added , that g m. wotton begged this beggerly subscription ; ( which sticketh shrewdly in his stomacke ; as well it may ) and that m. gataker procuredit . all this , i say , hath little or no truth in it . neither did m. wotton make any such promise . nor did he beg our censure to be given under our hands , as a favour ; but required it , as a thing just and equall . nor was it by me procured ; unlesse giving my vote among the rest for the grant of it , may be so construed . nor was it upon any such promise condescended unto , as is here pretended . and m. walker certainly had very long eares , if being absent at the doing of it , he could heare what was then and there said : or a quicker eare then the rest of the company , if being present , he heard that , that some , i am sure , and the rest , i verily beleeve , never heard , and yet might have heard as well as he , had it been spoken . howbeit i must here request the reader to take notice of one point of cunning conveyance , in the relation of the forme subscribed , whether committed by the doctor , from whom he saith he had it , ( tho he might have seen it , and had it from us , if he had pleased to stay our subscribing ) or by m walker himselfe , i know not ; and i would be loath to charge him further then i have good ground : he telleth his reader , that h m. wotton begged of us to subscribe to his expositions , and the subscription it selfe he thus layeth down i howsoever we whose names are underwritten , doe differ from m. wotton in some point of the former dectrine of justification conteined in these his expositions ; yet we hold not the difference to be so great and weighty , as they are to he justly condemned of heresie and blasphemy . and againe he subjoyneth , k the expositions thus subscribed . whereas it is testified l under the hands of two of his own delegates , that in the subscription given under our hands , it was not expositions but positions . howsoever positions come now to be turned into expositions ; by what or whose hand i wot not ; and this latter be now pressed , to give some sory colour to m m. walkers late devised shift before mentioned , and there sufficiently discussed , of dealing with m. wottons positions , and not his expositions . which , albeit it wil litle avail m. walker , unles he can shew , that his expositions are such , as either his words wil not beare , or are not consonant to the scope and tenor of his discourse ; yet what was then subscribed , the subscribers themselves witnes . and as for the copy , which n he saith , he hath yet to shew ; unles he can produce the originall , that their own hands are too ; i hope , this yet to be seen under the hands of some of them , and those of m. walkers own party , ( the like whereunto also can be produced under the hands of some of the other side ) wil with any man indifferently affected carry the more credit : especially considering , that m. walker would make men beleeve that they did very unwillingly , what therein they did ; and were afterward ashamed of what they had done : and had reason therefore to mince it all that possibly they might . . it is o the usuall manner of delinquents , ( for under that head may be comprehended , as wel those that unjustly appeal others , as those that by others are justly appealed ) when they fail and are found faulty , to complain of their iudges , and exclaim against them , for their iniquity and partiality in the cariage of the businesse ; by impairing their credit , seeking to salve up their own . the very same course doth m. walker take throughout this whole , not so much vindication of himself , as crimination of those , whom himselfe had referred his cause unto . he vilifies them in tearms of scorn and reproach , p m. gataker and his fellows , and his fellow subscribers . he accuseth them of iniquity , partiality , unjust and unequal carriage , against their own judgment , and consequently against their own conscience . or , if a man would speak in m. walkers wonted language , as q wicked iudges , that have respect of persons in judgement ; yea , worse then r the unjust judge in the gospel , that neither feared god , nor regarded man : for s he by the poore widows importunity was drawn to do her right ; whereas t they by m. wottons importunity were induced to do m. walker wrong , and to acquit him of heresie & blasphemy , whom m walker had justly accused of either ; and that against their own knowledge , yea their own acknowledgement , when they both knew and acknowledged him to be guilty of either . howbeit a little to wipe off these foule aspersions again , he saith , u they did it , out of their great love to m. wottons person : and x the better part of them , notwithstanding m. vvottons importunity , would never have yeelded thereunto , but upon his promise of reformation . concerning which i shall not need to repeat what i have formerly related . tho what reformation m. walker here speaketh of , i do not well understand . for , as for those points , wherein m. wotton and they differed , which they pronounce to be neither hereticall nor blasphemous ; neither did they require m. wotton to renounce and revoke his opinion therein ; nor did he promise so to doe . and what else it was , that he should promise to reform , i know not . this may wel therefore go among m. walkers owne fancies ; and so let it passe . onely , for what he saith of y their great love to m. wotton ; i will presume , they did all beare a christian affection , as well to m. wotton as to m. walker , and to m. walker as well as to him . nor is that any sufficient ground to induce any man to beleeve , that they should therefore encline rather to the one then to the other . howbeit m. walker must be remembred , that dr. baylie at the very first shewed little good will to m. wotton , by his quarelling with him about his habit , as before was shewed . and much lesse , by his rash and overhasty ●ensure and sentence passed ( if m. walker may be beleeved ) upon him yet unheard . as also that there had been a breach and interruption of friendly correspondence between m. wotton and m. stock , as was before intimated ; which grew upon occasion of some difference , that rose first between them at a meeting of divers london ministers and some others about the beginning of king james his raigne , and as yet continued ; nor indeed was ever wel peeced up again : whereas between m. walker and m. stock , it was then otherwise . nor have i heard of any great familiarity , that ever was between m. wotton and m. randall . which then also the rather might be the lesse : for that at the conference above-mentioned , that occasioned the breach between m. stock and m. wotton , m. wotton and m. randal were likewise divided . and little reason therefore there is to presume , that these men out of great love to m. wotton should be so partiall in his cause : much lesse , that they should therefore give a sentence in favour of him , directly against their own judgments , and that either privately or publikly professed to the contrary . . but this is the salve for those , whom m. walker would excuse . as for the rest , it is not to be mervelled , if they were partiall in the busines . for a m. balmford was m. wottons silenced brother . ( a fit squib to fall from the pen of him , that b erewhile complained so of his owne persecution ) c m hicks was one of m. wottons disciples ; one that would jurare in verba magistri ; that is in plain english , one that would sweare whatsoever m. wotton his master would say . ( a most uncharitable censure , sure enough , for the latter part ; whither true or no , for the former ) and d m. gataker did more angerly and peevishly speake against him , and snarl at him , then his adversary m. wotton himselfe . so that he was forced to challenge him as well as m. wotton , and to offer to dispute against them both : that which once e before also he vaunted of , calling in some to witnes it : ( whom yet because he doubted of , as well he might do , whether they would say with him somewhat more then was true ; he thought good by way of caution , to insert that exception , if their memories faile them not ; as belike in delivery of the attestation they did ) and withall adding , that we both ( daunted it seems , and dasht cleane out of countenance , as conscious of our owne weaknes and inability to encounter such a champion , either severally or joyntly ) did cowardly refuse it , not without shew of scornful disdain . it is true indeed , that m wotton ( whom m. walker is yet content in part to acquit , so be he may thereby the deeper wound me , whom his spite , it seems , is more eagerly bent at for the present ) demeaned himselfe very moderately , throughout the whole hearing ; with great patience enduring much reproachful and despiteful language , whereof m. walker was no whit sparing . and , i suppose , it was fit , that those whom that office was committed unto , should endeavour to represse such clamorous ballings and barkings , as neither beseemed him that used them ; nor did any way further , but hinder rather the issue of that for which we met . in which kind , not i alone , but the rest also , laboured with m. walker what they could ; tho to smal purpose . but that i snarled at him otherwise , is altogether untrue . it is likewise true , that m. walker challenged me once to dispute . ( for , as for dispute with m. wotton , so he would keep to the point , it was never denied him ) upon this occasion . some speech coming in the way , in discussion of the first pretended error , concerning the imputation of christs righteousnes consisting in obedience to the law ; and justification consisting wholly in remission of sinnes ; * m. walker in his heat told me , that it was reported ( for he buildeth much upon reports ) that i was wholly therein of piscators mind : and if i would maintain piscators opinion , he would dispute it out with me . whereunto i then answered , that whether it were so , or no , was nothing to him ; nor was it time for him and me then to dispute ; being met for an other end . and this is also all the scornful disdain then used , or made shew of . as for the report , i shall make bold now to tell m. walker , if he heard so , that he heard an untruth ; as e what i have published , may enform him . against which , if he shall think good to dispute , i hope i shall be as wel able to answer him , as i have done some others already . howbeit suppose we , that m. walker ( f another hercules , or one rather more valiaut then he , that durst not deale g with two at once ) could by dint of argument , wherein ( it seems ) he supposeth himselfe to excell ; though some deem him , ( as one sometime of another , whom m. walker would seem much to admire ) h a man more eager then argumentative , have been able to silence both m. wotton and my selfe ; and to have proved against us both , not those points alone that he charged m. wotton with , ( which yet if he had done , he must have confuted us all , and many more then us all ) but all the positions that ever he had produced , or could produce out of m. wottons writings , to be erroneous and not agreeable to truth : yet would not all this have been sufficient to make good his charge against m. wotton , and to prove him a blasphemous hereticke . how many mens writings may more then seven times seven errors be found in , whom it were yet most uncharitable therefore to censure for such ? . but that divers of the subscribers subscribed against their own judgements and consciences ; and all of them were ashamed of what they had done ; he endeavoureth further to shew : the former , by some relations that may justly be questioned ; the latter by avouchment of things altogether untrue . the former concernes others not me , whereof some are deceased ; some yet survive : and is to this effect : . that h d. baylie , the first of the subscribers did upon the very first reading of m. wottons speeches in m. walkers parallel , condemn him ( not at our meeting , but at a private table at dinner ) for an hereticke , and his errors for blaspemous . of which sufficient hath been spoken already ; and but for m. walkers repetition of it here , to descredit the subscription , or the subscriber himselfe rather , had for me no more been mentioned . . that l m. downham , who heard this his censure uttered at the table ; did by his silence assent thereunto . of which somewhat also before . . that k d. gouge hath publiquely confuted m. wottons opinions ; ( but which or what of them he talleth us not : * one of them at least , i am sure , he professed to have taught . ) and in the pulpit condemned them of socinianism . these two latter survive ; and i leave to answer , as they shal see good and thinke fit , for themselves ; the attestation for the subscription to the contrary being under their owne hands . . that l m. randal did argue very hotly against m. wottons opinions that same day that they subscribed , and told him before us all , that he had protested against them often in private , and had disswaded him from them ; and that he for his part abhorred them . all which men may , if they please , beleeve , upon the bare word of him , who hath told his reader so many untruths here before . for my part i beleeve no one tittle of it to be true , as it is by m. walker here related ; that is , affirmed to have been then and there by m. randal delivered ; but a meere fiction of m. walkers own invention , * spun like a spiders web out of the bowels of his own brain . besides , i desire to have it considered how probable it is , that m. wotton should make choice of one to be for him in this busines , who had in private formerly professed unto him , not a bare dissent from , or a simple distast , but so deep a dislike of his opiniōs . true it is , that there was that day a dispute among us about a nice question mentioned in my m relation , concerning the worke of redemption performed by christ , and the worke of our insition into christ and our union with him , whether of the twain hath the precedency in the order of nature . wherein some were with m. wotton on the one side for the precedency of the work of redemption ; some were on the other side ( among whom m. randal ) for the precedency of the insition of the faithful into christ and their union with him . but neither was the point argued with any heat at all on either side ; among our selves at least . nor did either m. randal , or any other of the company , no not d. baylie himself , ( tho forward enough , if m. walker may be believed , to censure m. wotton deep enough behind his backe , and over prone , as i have shewed , to pick a quarrell to him otherwise ) at any time , that ever i can remember , during our whole meeting , use any such distastful speeches unto m. wotton , as m. walker is here pleased to attribute to m. randal , being now gon , and not able to deny or avow , what he fastneth thus upon him . the figure n prosopopaeia , it is to be feared , is with m walker here too frequent . . that o m. stock did ever abhorre m. wottons opinions , as he oft told m. walker in private . that he did in divers things dissent from him , i doubt not ; that which i also professed in private to him concerning my selfe ; shewing wherein i dissented from m. wotton , as wel to him , as to m. wotton himselfe , having sometime required it of me in writing ; which to m. stock also i imparted . but such terms of abhorring them , i never heard from him ; tho being as intimate , i suppose , as ever m. walker was , with him . the phrase sure better suteth with m. walkers own spirit , then either with m. randals or m. stocks ; both whom he maketh here to speake in the same tone with himselfe . but p by a pretty stratagem ( for so he slileth it ) he brought m. stock before other witnesses to condemn m. wottons opinions for heresie and blasphemy . for at a supper time in a neighbours house , reading as out of some other paper containing new and strange opinions , that assertion of m. vvottons , that in this proposition , faith is counted for righteousnesse , the word faith is to be taken properly , not tropically ; and demaunding of m stock what he thought of it , m. stock acknowledged it to be heresie and blasphemy ; and that none but mad men would subscribe that it was neither . whereupon he shewed him his own hand to the subscription before mentioned . now whether m. stock was thus overtaken or no , to make his tongue and his hand jarre , i know not . if he were , it had been a more friendly part of m. walker , to have concealed his and my friends oversight . but q tros tyriusve , friend or foe ; advocate or adversary ; all is one with m. walker ; another aristides , one that hath no respect of persons , as his partiall judges had . how he disgraceth either any way to help himselfe , he little regardeth . as if the discrediting of them either would suffice , or might well serve to salve his own credit , when it lieth bleeding , and is in danger not to escape without some scar. howsoever , . i shall desire any indifferent reader to consider , whether ought rather to sway , a censure drawn from one by a wile , and suddenly shot out , before he were well aware , and well advised ; or a judiciary sentence ( for r iudges m. walker himselfe will have us ) considerately signed ; and that after serious debate , and advice taken with other s grave ministers ( as he is also pleased yet to stile us ) concurring with him therein . . i would demand not of m. stock , ( for he is gone ; nor is it certain to me , whether he ever passed that censure so directly contrary to his own subscription ) but of m. walker , what he thinks of these words , faith is that alone wherewith we are by it selfe and properly justified : whether they containe heresie and blasphemy or no ; and what difference he can find between m. wottons words , and these . yet are they m. bucers own t which he ascribeth also to saint paul ; as a principall part of his main argument , concerning the doctrine of justification . and if those other upon the bare recitall appeare to be manifestly hereticall and blasphemous ; then these surely no lesse : and so m. wotton yet shal have one other at least to goe along with him for an heretick , yea a blasphemous heretick : whom yet none i suppose , other then ranke papists ever condemned for such . howbeit m. walker should have done wel , to have delivered m. wottons exposition ( as he tearmeth it ) all out . and not to have hackt it off ( as he hath done ) by the hams . for his words are entire thus , a i never said , or thought , that faith doth justifie us by it selfe . ( and yet had he so said , he had said no more then bucer long before him had done ) this onely i say , that in this proposition , faith is counted for righteousnes , the word faith is to be taken properly , not tropically ; the question being in such propositions , not of the meritorious or formall cause of justification , but of the condition required on our part in stead of keeping the law. to which i may well ad out of his animadversions , which i have by me , on the dispute between lubbertus and bertius , these sayings of his to the same essect . b faith doth not justifie us , as a quality , habitually ; neither is it either the matter , or the forme of our righteousnes ; in that regard alone it is to justification available , as it relieth upon christ , to the obtaining of forgivenes of sins for his obedience . and againe , c faith surely doth not justifie , but onely by and for the obedience of christ. when it is said to be imputed unto righteousnes , it is thereby signified what we must perform , that we may be justified . and a little after , d by faith we are said to be justified , not in a tropicall , but in a proper manner of speaking ; whereby is signified , that faith is that , which god requireth of us to the obtaining of justification for the obedience and sacrifice of christ. for as for those words that m. walker putteth into his third error , that he chargeth upon m. wotton , e that faith doth not justifie us , as it apprehendeth christ and his righteousnes ; they appeare not in any passage at all by m. walker out of m. wottons writings alledged . so that m. walker maketh m. wotton speak , not what he doth , but what himselfe pleaseth ; and then pronounceth him an hereticke , not for what he saith , but for what himselfe would have him say . to make this evident to the meanest understanding . should a man say , the word hand in this proposition , my hand feeds my body ; or in this , this child is fed by hand , is taken properly not tropically ; would it by any reasonable consequence thence be inferred , that the party so saying should therefore affirm , that the hand doth not feed by putting meat into the mouth ? and what m calvins judgment is of that trope in the apostles words of faith , put for christ , may appeare by these words of his in confuting of osiander , the first man ( for ought i can find ) that broached that exposition of them , and brought in that strange trope : f i admit not this sophisters writhing or wrigling some figures , when he saith , that faith is christ. g whereby faith , which is the instrument onely of obtaining righteousnesse , is confounded with christ , who is the materiall cause , and both the autor and minister of so great a benefit . h thus is the knot also unknit , to wit , how the tearm of faith ought to be taken where the point of justification is handled . howbeit as it would justly be deemed unequall , to charge all that hold faith there put for christ , with osianders monstrous opinion , as calvin well tearmeth it , of i know not what essentiall righteousnes , by which christian men are justified : so no lesse unequall is it , to condemn all of socinian heresie and blasphemy , that hold faith to be taken for faith in those i passages of s paul. but of this and some other things concerning that argument , i may peradventure being by divers importuned thereunto , if god shall please to afford life , liberty , ability and leisure , entreat further more largely hereafter ; unlesse i shall find my selfe prevented by some fuller satisfaction given by others , whose labours either are abroad already , or may before that time come abroad . for then my paines will be superfluous . and whether by my weak helps , or the more able work of others , the truth of god either in this , or in any other point be cleered , to me it shall be all one . and thus much for the point , concerning which by m walkers own relation , m. stock upon the very reading of it , should in direct contradiction to his own subscription , passe such a censure . as for the l speech he frameth in the words following , for m. stock to excuse himselfe by : and his inference thence , m how dangerous a thing it is , even for godly men to be judges in a controversie between a familiar friend , as m. wotton was to these men , and a stranger , as himself was to the most of them . as the latter intimateth m. stock , & m. wotton to have been at that time familiar friends , and so d. baylie and the rest ; and on the other side m. stock ( for of him principally here the speech is ) with the most of the rest , and m. walker to have been meere strangers either to other : which is the one of them as true as the other : so it adds little credit to the excuse pretended to be made then by him ; which may well be questioned , considering m. walkers minting and dilating faculty n before shewed , whether much , if not all , of it , came not out of his own forge . and this shall suffice for the suggestions concerning some of m. walkers partiall and unjust judges as he deems them , to prove that they subscribed in favour of m. vvotton against their own consciences and judgements elsewhere , either in publike or in private , delivered directly to the contrary of that they then signed unto . which i might well have leaft to be answered by those whom they concerne ; save that some of them are now deceased : for me they touch not at all , nor my relation , who report only , what they subscribed to ; and that firmed with the attestation of such of them as survive . . but for that , which concerns them all , and my selfe among the rest , to prove , that o they durst not openly justifie their subscription ; ( which makes me the rather now to beleeve what i have formerly been informed , that m. walker oft in his table-talk should not stick to give out , that we were all of us ashamed of what we then did . ) he saith that p the expositions ( for so we will now call them , since that m. vvalker will have them so stiled ) thus subscribed , were committed to d. eaylie , with charge that he should keep them close , and not suffer m. vvalker or any other man to see or read them , untill m. vvotton had made a larger exposition , and fully purged himselfe from socinianism . a strict charge , you see , as m. vvalker delivers it , of men wondrous cautious , and as may seem , no lesse timorous of displeasing m. vvalker ; for what else the matter should be , i , for my part , am not able to conceive . and i merveil why he doth not adde , that we conjured one another , to tell no body what we had done . for that was as needfull to prevent our feares , as the keeping of our subscription from sight ; and he might as well have said or written the one as the other . for this also in truth is as farre from truth , as m. vvalker is from faire dealing in the whole carriage of this busines . and here i would crave leave to demand of m. vvalker , whether he were present at the very act of our subscribing or no. if he were present , he might easily heare , what that was , and in what manner it was conceived , that was agreed upon to be subscribed unto ; yea he might have seen our subscriptions to it . for it was not done in any concealed way , but in the view of all then present . and to what end then should such a charge be given to the doctor , that m. vvalker should by no means be admitted to the sight of it ? if he were absent , ( as it is likely enough that he was , wanting patience to endure any longer stay , after he perceived once what was resolved upon ) i would faine know of him , how or from whence he knowes , that it was with such caution committed to the doctors custody . true it is , that it was indeed in some sort committed to his custody ; or rather detained by him , having once gotten it into his hands , in favour of m. vvalker , for ought else could be discerned . the delivery of it or a copy of it to m. vvotton , according to his just request , being not at present resolved on , because it grew late ; but put off to another day . on which meeting again , ( but now without m. vvalker , who came no more at us ) after long expectation the doctor at length presented himselfe to us ; but could not be induced to deliver , either the subscription , or any copy of it to m. vvotton ; upon pretence that he held it not safe so to do ; for that having been lately at lambeth , at the high commission , some ( i know not who ) had cast out some words there to him concerning our meeting , and that we might peradventure be questioned for it , as a conventicle ; especially if our subscription should come abroad under our own hands , and use made of it as an evidence against us . that therefore for the present he durst not part with it : but yet withall promising , that after some time , the noise of the busines being once over-blown , it should be delivered to m. wotton , whensoever it should be demanded of him by two of the parties , one of either side , nominated in his behalfe . and this i do the more confidently avow , being holpen therein for some particulars , by a memoriall leaft in writing under m. balmfords hand and mine own , and made while the businesse was yet fresh in memory ; which i find in the same paper , in which the attestation formerly published is extant , being afterward ( but how long after , i know not ) underwritten . but return we to m. walker , who having thus rather poetically described , then q historically related our meeting and the manner of it , embelished with many meere fictions of his own invention ; ( all which yet never will be of might or weight enough either to take of , or beare down the truth of my relation concerning the issue of it , acknowledged in precise tearms by men of his owne choise ) he proceeds in the next place to tell us , that r upon this it was bruited abroad in the city by m. wotton and his disciples that m. walker could prove nothing against him ; ( and like enough ; of that he charged him with , to wit , heresie and blasphemy ) nor bring any thing out of his bookes or writings to convince him of socinianism : and that the eight learned ministers had justified him , and condemned m. walker for a false accuser . and might they not justly so report , when in effect the ministers under their hands had all joyntly so done ? for sure it is , that he that acquitteth any man of that wherewith he is charged , ( be he faulty otherwise , or no ) doth by necessary consequence condemn him as a false accuser , that so charged him . as for what s he addes , concerning m. wottons essays afterward written , wherein he saith , that m. wotton denies the true , reall , and spirituall union of the faithfull with christ , and christs meriting of justification and salvation for them , &c. ( which collections of m. walkers from m. wottons words may well be as sound as some other above recited ) and his owne antithesis wottonismi & christianismi ; ( a worke in likelihood well suiting with the spirit of the autor ) of m. nids neglecting to make report of it to the archbishop ; ( who , it may be , would have past the like censure upon him , that he did upon m. broad , at the tender of his book ) his own neglect of calling upon him : because t the tidings of it comming to m. wottons eare , strooke such a damp into him , that for feare of afterclaps he silenced both himself and his disciples . ( and yet to silence a man already silenced was no such great matter ) so that now all was husht , & the fire quencht , and no man durst open his mouth to defend m. wottons opinions , tho he ceased not in the pulpit stil to confute and condemn them . this all nothing concerns me , or any relation of mine . but howfarre forth therein he discovereth his own vanity , and his restles disposition , i leave it to the judgement and censure of others . as little concerns me that , that followeth , u concerning m. wottons booke de reconciliatione , written in latine ; wherein he saith , that m. wotton hath vented so much poyson , ( for all is such , that m. walker himself doth not relish ) that the professors at leiden , would not suffer it to be there printed ; ( which whence he hath , or how he knows , or is able to prove , i know not ) yea that at amsterdam also it could not get out ; ( which few will beleeve , that know how free the presse there is ) but was fain to be printed farther off , at the charge of some of his disciples . as also what he x addes of some others , who did privately oppose m. wotton ; as m. woodcock of chessam , who in writing consuted him , and admonished him to forsake his errors . i am not indeed ignorant , that between m. woodcock m. wottons ancient collegue , and m. wotton , disputes passed in writing , with objections and answers , replies and rejoynders , much whereof i have by me , in a faire friendly manner . as also the like did between d. brooks , then reader of divinity in gresham college , ( the place that m. wotton also sometimes held ) which i have seen sometime with a friend ; and gave occasion of writing the book in latine above mentioned : between m. bradsh●w and m wotton ; and in part also between m. wotton and my selfe . but none of these that ever i saw or heard , tho dissenting from him in opinion , did in any of their writings charge him with heresie or blasphemy , or damn him to hel ; as m. walker from m. richardson here doth , y unlesse there be any medium between heaven and hel. neither doth that fierce thunder-bolt , thrown out by m. richardson , any whit scare me ; wherein , as by a pop like anathema , o● a rabinical maranatha , he peremptorily pronounceth , upon his own certain knowledge , that whosoever lives and dies in the beleefe of m. wottons opinions shall never enter into the kingdom of heaven , for so m. walker , as a from m. barlows mouth , being m. richardsons messenger b here reports it . tho , whether m. richardson were in his sentence so peremptory , or no , may be doubted ; the rather becaus● m. walker in his relations of it agrees not all out with himselfe . for whereas here he telleth us , that m. richardson should in a more rigid manner ●ffirm , that he knew m. wottons opinions to be so pestilent and dangerous , that whosoever lives and dies in the beleefe of them shall never enter into the kingdom of heaven . in his second letter to m. wotton he relates it a remisser way , that he protested , that he thovght no man living and dying in his opinion should be saved . and you know , what is wont to be said and thought of those that are taken in two tales . but be m. richardsons doom never so precise and peremptory , it nowhit affrights me : since that neither i live , as i hope , in any such opinions of his , muchlesse looke to die in them , whatsoever else i may concur● with him in , nor do i conceive any whit the lesse hope of m. wottons being in heaven for this his horrid and hideous doom . onely if m. richardson did then passe such a censure , when he was now at point of death , as c m. walker saith he was , i could have wisht more charity , and lesse presumption concerning other mens estates , in a man so neere to the giving up of an account for himselfe . that m. wotton lived and died in some errors i doubt not . nor do i make account , but that i doe live , and looke to die , in many my selfe . if m. walker deem , or hope , otherwise of himselfe ; he presumeth of , and promiseth more to himselfe , then i suppose , ever befell any sonne of adam , our blessed saviour alone excepted . but that any opinion , which m. wotton held was so pestilent and pernitious , as to cut him wholy off from christ , and all interest in christ , who so shall affirme , had need looke to himselfe , lest he bring thereby a greater guilt upon his own soule , then m. wotton contracted by any error that he held . meanwhile , well it is , that the keyes of heaven are not , either in m. richardsons hands , or at m. walkers disposition . were they so , it might well be deemed , that many an one should have been excluded , who i doubt not but have found entrance ; many should be shut out , who i hope , yet shall get in , notwithstanding m. walkers peremptory sentence past upon them for hereticks , and that blasphemous ones too ; such as have no right in christ here , nor shall ever reign with him hereafter . howbeit this fiery thunderbolt did so enflame m. walker , as he telleth us , that d it encouraged him to go on the more boldly in laying open m. wottons abominations , without all feare or regard of his factious and furious disciples , persons belike of the same stamp and temper with himselfe ; if by his writings he may be judged of . from this he passeth to m godwins railing libell ; which he telleth his reader , that e some say , m. gataker counselled him to write against m walker ; which if m. walker will avovch as a truth , i must tell him , that he telleth a notorious untruth ; and such as he could not but know to be most untrue , unlesse i had wittingly in my postscript told a loud lie ; where i professed , f that till of late i had never to my knowledge heard or seen the man ; and then onely but once ; which was not onely much later then the birth of m. godwins worke , but even after m. walkers own booke was come abroad , at what time hearing him named , whom else i had not known , i told him indeed smilingly , that if he were such an one , he was an heretick in print ; alluding to m walkers discovery , which i had not long before lighted on . but whether m. godwins book be a rayling libell , or no ; for my part , i know not , having never read two lines of it , onely seen the title of it in the stationers shop . but let this goe among the bundle of untruths , which m walker hath sluft this his pamphlet with ; that m gataker counselled one , whom he had never seen to his knowledge , nor changed two words with , to write a rayling libel against m. walker . whereas any reasonable man would rather imagine , that m godwin wrote that , whatsoever it be that he wrote , provoked by m walkers own writing against him and railing upon him ; which , it seems , therein he returneth answer unto , and is printed and published by him together with it , and according to the truth , yea , or likelyhood of this report , i am very well content , that credit be given to his other relations ; those at least that g he builds upon the credit of other mensreports ; if not to more then a few , that must rely upon his own . with m. godwins libell he joyneth h m. gatakers invective . for so he is pleased to stile my relation , as i before , so here again . which being abroad , i leave to others to judge , whether it deserve that title , or no ; or , if m. walker so please , whether of the two , that my relation , or this his vindication , may lay better claime to such an inscription . but there is another invective , that he challengeth me for . and it shall not be amisse , by way of anticipation , hereto take it in , and consider of it , as being a branch of the same generall enditement , that in this kind m. walker commenceth against me . he telleth his reader therefore in his ensuing discours ; k that he , the said m. gattaker hath publiquely extolled and commended for orthodox the like treatise ( to those of m. wottons ; hereticall belike and blasphemous , as his ) of m. william bradshaw : and inveighed against some , meaning me , ( saith m. walker ) who had opposed some errors and contradictions , which are in that booke , in his funerall sermon preached at m. bradshaws buriall . wherein m. walker sheweth himselfe no changeling , but still like himselfe . nor am i sory , that m. walker hath thus mentioned m. bradshaw , and thereby given me occasion to speake somewhat of the man , and somewhat also of his worke : that i may thereby further vindicare him a little from m. walkers obloquies ; as i have already in part , from the slanderous calumnies of an other foul mouthed railer , a leader of separatists at amsterdam my rejoynder to whom in defence of m. bradshaw , and his answer to m. fr. iohnsons reasons for separation from the church-assemblies in england , although it came abroad without my consent ; having been advertised by some wel-wishing friends , of somethings in m. bradshawes discourse , that seemed to trench upon the government then established ; and desiring therefore , for better security , to print mine owne apart without it ; which might safely have been done here without more adoe : yet being by that railing and reviling replier required to tell whether it were mine , or not ; i returned him by the messenger who delivered me his letter , this answer , that i had sometime written a defence of m. bradshaw against him . which if it were published according to my copy , i would not refuse to owne . and indeed published it was ; but as without my privity , so exceeding corruptly , whole lines in some passages left out , and the sense in many places perverted and mar●ed ; as by a large list of errata , which i caused to be printed , and annexed to it , so soon as some copies of it came to my hand , may appeare . since which time i finde the rest of that scurrilous worke ( for i dealt onely with the last chapter , that concerned m bradshaw , ) very solidly and learnedly refuted by one m. john ball , a reverend and judicious divine ( who had formerly written in defence of set forms of prayer ) in l a treatise since his decease published by m. simon ash lecturer here in the city . but to returne to m. walker , and his charge here against me . true it is that i preached at m. bradshaws buriall . the worth of the man , though not so commonly known , in regard he lived in a mean and obscure estate , through the iniquity of the times , having his chiefe dependance , and main means of maintenance from a private family , and being naturally not prone to put himselfe forth ; yet highly valewed by those that throughly knew him , and inwardly conversed with him ; and the entire affection and streightest band of friendship , that held inviolably firm unto the very last between us ; deservedly challenging for him from me , not that onely , but much more then my weake ability was ever able to reach to . and i did what i then did , with as much griefe and regret of heart and mind , as ever i performed any office in that kind . the losse of so worthy , and so intimate a friend , ( besides the common losse of one so qualified and endowed , to gods church ) inwardly piercing with me more deeply , then everyone was aware of , or my selfe able easily or suddenly to shake off . but how in my sermon then made , i inveighed against m. vvalker or any other , i shal leave to the equall and indifferent consideration of others , when i shall have precisely related what then i delivered , and subjoyned the occasion , whereupon i spake it . in a short speech , that i had , before i entred upon my text , concerning the occasion of mine appearance at that time in that place ; and of the party deceased , to whose remains that office of christian sepulture was then to be performed ; having spoken somewhat , but very briefly , and over-scantly rather than otherwise , concerning his singular dexterity , as in resolving cases of conscience , so in clearing of controversed points in divinity ; ( in either of which kinds he did so excell , that i have seldome , if ever , known his match ) i added these words concerning the latter ; wherein his labours , tho uncharitably taxed and traduced by some , yet have been , as myselfe can testifie , not onely reverently esteemed by divers of good note in both the universities , professing some of them in my hearing to have profited much by them , and to have been thereby better informed in some particulars , which they conceived not so well before ; but even by some strangers of eminent place and profession beyond the seas , very highly extolled , as by some of their letters to him is yet to be seen . and this , 〈◊〉 protest , is all that i then said ; which m. vvalker here , ( a man it seems , of a very tender eare , tho of too tart a tongue ) terms inveighing against him . but , if it may not be over-troublesome , i shall request my readers patience a while , to receive from me some not overlong relation , concerning the occasion of that short clause , consisting but of foure words at most , that m. walker taketh so much offence at ; that he may thereby be the better enabled to judge aright whether i spake any more , then m. walker had given over-just occasion to speake . m. bradshaw had published , a succinct indeed , but very accurate , ( if sundry men of good parts may be beleeved ) treatise concerning the justification of a sinner before god. in the preface whereunto , having given intimation of some difference among our divines in some particulars concerning this head of divinity ; whence , saith he , many weake minds have been somewhat perplexed ; and some strong ones ( at least in their own conceits ) exceedingly distempered , as th● there were amongst us , which overturned foundations , teaching blasphemous heresies about this matter ; whereas all of us with one mouth professe this , that a sinner is justified not by any formall inherent righteousnesse in himself , but onely by the free and meere grace and mercy of god , through the meritorious satisfaction of our saviour christ , the onely mediator between god and a sinner . wherein we all give all the glory of our justification and salvation to god in christ iesus , and therein hold the main foundation . we differ onely in certain circumstances ; wherein nothing is derogated , either from the mercy of god , or merits of christ , or arrogated to our owne workes . now the former part of this speech m vvalker taking to himself ( as , tho not named , yet conscious to himselfe of his own guilt , he well might ) inveighed fiercely and furiously ( after his wonted guise ) in a serm●n preached in paul , church , against the whole ●…ffirming it to be a booke full of centradictions and heresies ; of the same nature as he had before averred m. wottons writings to be , m to which also he here likeneth it . and withall , by a stationer , whose shop i frequented , he sent me a challenge , that such a book be understood to be mine , ( as true as that n i set m. godwin on worke to write a railing libell against him ) tho it came out in another mans name , ( not unlike that of the amsterdam railer , that o he should father another mans worke written against iohnson ) and that , if i would undertake the defence of it , he would prove it to consist of contradictions and heresies . unto which i returned him this answer , that m. bradshaw was able enough to defend his own worke . that , if he had ought with me , he knew where mine aboad was ; if i ought with him , i knew ( i thought ) where he dwelt , but that i had no desire to have dealings with one of that spirit , of which i perceived him to be . herewith not content , he wrote a booke against m. bradshaw so vile and so virulent , that tendring it for allowance at london-house , he could not obtaine passage for it to the presse . howbeit a copy of it came to m. bradshaws hands , who had also answered some good part of it in a modest manner ; as among the remains of his imperfect writings is yet to be seen . but m. vvalkers pamphlet not comming abroad , it seems , he gave over . the title of m. walkers work was this : a woolfe in a sheeps cloathing . and to give you some small taste of his manner of dealing in it ; ( for p a few drops of sea-water tasted , will sufficiently shew , what relish the whole ocean hath ) he thus begins his onset upon the main body of the book . having before examined the preface word by word , and discovered plainly and largly the impudent calumnies , open lies , desperate errors , and grosse contradictions therein conteined ; i will now proceed to examine and censure the treatise it selfe : wherein he sheweth himself still one and the same man ; to w●t , one of a factious spirit , a desperate maintainer and justifier of our new upstart socinian hereticks , the blasphem●us disciples of servetus socinus & arminius , an horrible and prosane abuser of the word of god , citing it contrary to all sense ; one speaking like the old oracles of apollo , sometimes without any sense , sometimes so ambiguously , as that his words may beare divers & contrary senses , sometimes affirming boldly strange things , without rendring any reason ; as if he were a second peremptory pythagoras , or a new purified pope , whose words or sayings must be received against all reason , as if they were oracles of god ; and in a word , as in the preface , so in the treatise , he doth by his fruits , and his proofes contrary to his pretended titles in every chapter , discover himselfe to be a woolf in sheeps cloathing . and that he may end in no better manner then he began , he thus enters upon the last chapter : this chapter , tho it treat onely of things humane , such as we daily heare and see , and have experience of , yet it hath divers errors : as if the author had vowed to erre in all things ; and to infect heaven and earth , and all things sacred and profane , with his treatise . now whether such a censure as this might not wel beare out as much , if not much more , then i then spake , i am well content , that any man , not wholy forestalled with extream prejudice , be judge . yea but mr. bradshaws treatise , it may be , wel deserved such a censure . i wil not , for satisfaction herein , send you ( tho i wel might ) to the worke it selfe . it may not be at hand ; or you may suspect , if you have it , and shall be pleased to peruse it , that some ranke poison lieth so closely couched in it , that an ordinary sight is not able easily to descry it . and yet , as m. bradshaw well answereth him concerning the preface ; if the calumnies be impudent , the l●es open , the errors desperate , the contradictions grosse , they are such as sufficiently discover themselves ; and m. walkers discovery is therefore in vain , being as tho he should say , he hath discovered the sunne , when it shines out in his brightnesse in every mans face : so that either m. walker hath discovered no calumnies , lies , errors and contradictions at all ; or they are not open , grasse , desperate and impudent . in like manner may i say of the treatise it selfe ; if the errors in it be so p grosse , palpable , abominable , and contrary to all sense , that they doe not onely discover , but even judge and condemne themselves , as m. walker affirmeth of them ; surely any dim sight will suffi●● to discerne what the worke is . nor will i offer to obtrude upon you mine own conceit of it . i might peradventure be deemed partiall , both in regard of mine own opinion ; albeit i concurre not in all things with him ; and in regard of mine entire affection to my friend ; q which i grant may sometime also somewhat oversway . but i shall enforme you , as before i intimated , how it hath been censured by others , men no way engaged ; and that , far otherwise then m. walker hath been pleased to pronounce of it . and here i might entertaine you , with the judgement of r a great lawyer and councellor of state , one in his time reputed a man of some judgement : who in regard of some neere affinitie visiting the gentlewoman , whom m bradshaw made aboad with , in the time of his sicknesse , and lighting accidentally upon this short treatise , after he had runover some good part of it was very much taken with it ; and demanding who was the anthor of it , professed , that he had seldom read a thing more pithily and pregnantly written . but because it may be objected , that this was out of his element ; and yet let me tell you , that some s lawyers have in divinity dealt to good purpose ; and that the tearm of justification being t a law tearm , ( as our divines , with good warrant from u gods word , constantly maintain ) a discourse of that subject is to that profession no stranger . i shall leave him , and in roome of him present you with the judgement of a divine of special note m. lodowik , or lewis , cappel , one of the professors of divinity in the university of salmure in france ; a man among the learned wel knowne by his works . this m. cappel , having received this treatise of m. bradshaws , from m. aaron cappel his kinsman , one of the ministers of the french church here in london , returned backe to him many thanks for it ; requesting him withall to enquire after the autor , and either to deliver , or convey to him his letters inclosed : the superscription whereof was this ; doctissimo atque ornatissimo clarissimoque viro , domino guilielmo bradshaw . the subscription : tui , non studiosus modo sed cultor & admirator , ludovicus cappellus . i translate them not , because the english phrase in such forms , will not so wel fit them . the contents are word for word in part thus : missus est ad me londino à d. capello , ecclesiae gallicanae quae londini est pastore , mole quidem exiguus , sed doctrinâ atque ingenio & acumine grandis , de justificatione libellus , anglicè conscriptus , autore g. bradshaw . is quia perplacebat , & mihi cum d. gomaro exemplar illud erat commune , statim à me in privatum usum gall●cè est redditus . anglicanum exemplar d. gomaro reliqi . dicam ingenuè . nihil in humanis scr●ptis dogmati●is hactenus â me lectum est , quod tam vebementer mihi placuerit ita doctè , acutè , pressè , solidè , nervose , apertè s●…l & mirâ brevitate totum hoc argumentum plenissimè à te est comprehensum atque pertractatum . verba attem quibus illud dignè pro merito suo collaudem atque extollam , mihi non suppe●unt . saepius ille mihi lectus est ; nec unqam ejus satias me cepit . quin eo vehementius sui in me excitavit desiderium quo frequentius repetitus atque relectus : tantus in eo doctrinae , artis atque ingenii splendor & lumen refulget . but thus he , a meere stranger , to a man , whom he had never seen or heard of before ; judging of him onely by that vile , abominable , absurd , senselesse booke , that m. walker ( i hope i may now be somewhat the bolder to speak it ) doth so uncharitably tax and traduce . give me leave a little further to trespasse upon thy patience , good reader . to give m. cappel further satisfaction , and to save much writing at large to and fro ; m. bradshaw resolved to review the work , and having a little better cleered some things , to translate it into latine . that which also he did , and sent a copy of it to m. cappel . who in a second letter after the receipt of it , wrote back to him in these words : scripsi jam antehaec , vir clarissime , me accepisse libellum tuum de justificatione verè aureum , à te auctum latinumque factum , eumque à me extemplò , sed raptim , perlectum esse : ita vehemens me ejus ceperat desiderium , ex priùs lectâ anglicanâ ejus editione . inde à me non semel , sed saepius , & cum otio , perlectus est . quem quo saepiùs relego , eo magis mihi arridet probaturque . ita ad unguem à te exactus est . pacatis & moderatis ingeniis , ab utralibet sint parte , quique non nimio partium studio aguntur , spero probatum iri istum tui ingenii partum atque faetum : licet non omnia utrisque concedas , quae ipsi vellent . ita medius inter utramque incedis sententiam , ut neutris displicere debeas , si verè sint pacis & concordiae amantes . now how this agreeth with m. walkers censure of m. bradshaws book , that thereby he hath shewed himself to be one of a factious spirit , and a desperate maintainer and justifier of blasphemous hereticks , he may easily soon see , that either is not blind , or doth not wilfully winke . i might adde , that if m. walkers censure of m bradshaws booke be admitted , the like must be past upon the writings of some others , publikely allowed , and generally well esteemed of among us ; and by name on m pembles large treatise of justification before-mentioned , and m. torsels briefer discourse of the same subject : both which build mainly on brad●…●…ounds ●…ounds , the latter precisely treadeth in his thus much concerning my deservedly deere friend , who neither living , nor deceased , could scape the scourge of m. walkers tongue ; which a without feare or regard ( to use his own words of himselfe ) he lets flie both at living , and at dead ; and concerning that worke of his , by other pious , learned and judicious so praised and apprised ; which shall ( i doubt not ) survive with its due and deserved approbation from such ; when m. walkers railing pamphlet , wherein he so traduceth it , shall either lie buried in perpetuall oblivion ; or , if ever it come to see open light , shall stinke in the nostrils both of god and good men . but m. vvalker hath not so done with m. gataker . for , if it were not vain expence of precious time , b he could first of all produce socinianism out of his works ; and so make him a party . and so i presume he could also out of bucer , pareus , pemble , piseator , and i know not how many more , as well as out of m. gataker , if he would set himself to it . for m. walker hath a very singular dexterity herein ; as in part hath already been shewed . but i answer him briefly . that c generall charges are generally deemed deceitful ; and will not hold either in law or in conscience . and again , that d if to accuse be sufficient , no man is sure to goe guiltlesse , be his cause never so good . and yet , what were this , could he prove it by m gataker , to dr. gouges and m. downhams attestation , which directly avoweth , that m. walker could not prove it by m. wotton , when time was , and he had undertaken so to doe ? unles this be a good argument ; socinianism may be produced now out of m. gatakers works : and therefore dr. gouge and m. downham with the rest did not so determine , as that they did , under their own hands they doe witnesse . besides , e he could prove m gataker to be thomas of all sides sometimes holding that the elect and faithfull are cloathed with the garment of christs righteousnesse ; and again disputing against their communion and imputation of christs righteousnesse . whereunto i answer . . for that scurrilous tearm better beseeming some scoffing jester , then a grave and sage minister of christ. it thal never trouble me by m. walker so to by stiled ; nor by any other either so to be esteemed , if thereby be intimated , that i am such an one , as refuse not to imbrace all truth that i meet with on any side , be the side what it will : no more then i would forbeare , to take up a pearle , wheresoever i should find it , whether in the mother of pearls shell , or with esops cock , either f on the dunghil , or in the durt . or if he intend thereby to note me for such a one , as have in some particulars altered my judgement from what sometime formerly i held ; nor do i refuse in many things so to be deemed . i suppose , that holds not in me alone , but in many others , which g a divine , as well of good , as of great , note , is reported to have said in the councell of dort , when it was objected unto him , that something spoken by him differed from some clause in the catechism ; h we are taught many things when we are yong , that we make doubt of , when we are old . who is he , that is careful to make diligent enquiry into the truth of things , who doth not oft alter his former opinion ? for my part , i freely professe , with that worthy ancient , that i my desire and endeavonr is to be one of those , who write as they profit , and profit as they write . and i may peradventure , following * that pious pattern , if god please to grant me longer life , with strength and leisure , take some time and paines to review those weake works , that i have sormerly sent abroad , to satisfie other men more then my selfe ; and to amend what therein i deem my self to have been mistaken in ; to explain what i doubt may be mistaken by others . nor do i account it any k shame or staine to me , to alter in ought for the better . i hold it a point rather of l pride and solly ( shameful enough either of them ; both together much more ) for any man , to thinke his works blemished , by dashing out of ought in them , that he finds he was deceived in ; when as the standing of it still there is rather a blemish to his bookes . i am , and shal ever be , of that famous , tho heathen , emperours mind : m if any man , saith he , can in ought better inform me , and discover to me mine error , i shal readily yeeld to him . for i seek nothing but the truth , which never wrongs him that finds it . true it is , that in this point of justification , i went sometime another way then now i do ; the same that gomarus and some other still do , and before me did ; untill upon occasion of some lectures of dr. grey , who succeeded m. wotton at gresham-colledge , i fell into conference and disceptation with m. bradshaw about it ; and after many disputes , that passed to and fro in writing between us , wherein i strove stiffely to maintain what then i held ; being at length by force of argument beaten from my hold , i yeelded not so much to my friend , as to the truth ; ( as i was then , and am stil , certainly n perswaded ) which to be overborne by , i shall ever account the best valour , o to be overcome by the fairest victory . and yet thar phrase of being cloathed with the robe of christs righteousnesse , whether i used it before or since , is not materiall . for neither do i now reject it , nor doth it crosse ought , that either i or they , with whom i now concur , hold ; being found frequently in their writings , and p acknowledged by them : since that i maintaine still with them , as alwaies i did , q no other righteousnes , whereby we are justified , that is , discharged of the guilt of our sins in gods sight , but what accrueth unto us from christ , and the satisfaction made by him unto gods justice for them : according to that of the apostle , r him that knew no sin , did god make sin for us ; that we might become the righteousnesse of god in him . as for communion and imputation of christs righteousnes , how farre forth i either maintaine or deny either ; ( for m. walker runs on still in generalities , and after his blundering manner jumbles things together , as if communion and imputation were either the same , or of equall extent , and the not acknowledgment of the one therefore a deniall of the other ) my s works shew , that are extant : wherein if either m. walker , or any other , shal in friendly manner convince me of any mistake , t he shall do me no small pleasure ; as conceiving it u a greater benefit to my selfe , to have mine own errors by others discovered to me , then to be an instrument of discovering other mens ●rrots to them ; since that , ( as he said sometime of things amisse x between man and wise ) y by the one i may help to amend my brethren , but by the other i may be amended my self . mean while , so far am i from being thomas of all sides in some sense , that i professe and shall desire rather in some kind , to be thowas of no side . for i love not siding in gods church ; among christs ministers especially . i love not , i am for this man ; and i am for that man : i am for this side , and i am for that side . a the apostle himselfe liked it not . i love not holding the faith of christ with respect of persons . b an other apostle forbids it . i love not , that any be tied to follow any one man , or any number of men whatsoever , in all things . c the apostles themselves required it not , in matter of fact ; nor may any now living in matter of faith . hence proceed d schismes and factions , and uncharitable censures , many times of those as unsound , that are , it may be , more sincere , have at least as good a share in christ , as those that so censure them . and surely , if the words heresie and hereticke were rightly understood , or if they be so taken ( as i suppose them to be constantly used in scripture ; nor do i thinke that the contrary can be easily evinced ) the one for e faction , the other for f a factious person ; none , i feare , will be found more truly guilty of heresie , or better to deserve the title of hereticke , then those , who ( therein concurring with the papists , whom yet they professe most to abhorre ) are so prone to condemne all as hereticks and tainted with heresie in their sense , that is , as men cut off from christ , and having no interest in him , who do not in al matters of practise comply , or in all points of doctrine concur with thēselves . of their side , lord , let me never be : g let my soul never enter into their secret . neither is it , nor shall ever be my desire , either so to pin my faith upon the sleeve of any part or party , or to engage my judgment to any meere mans or mens opinion , ( the pen men of holy writ onely excepted ) as h to admit hand over head whatsoever he or they shall hold and maintaine : nor yet again ro refuse or reject any truth , which by the light that god shal be pleased to lend me , i shal be able to descry in the writings of any , tho otherwise never so erroneous or unsound . in the next passage yet m. walker is somewhat more charitable . for though he hold me an hereticke , yet he wil pray for me . he prayeth , that i god wil give me a more setled judgment in the truth ; and a more charitable heart to my laborious neighbours . and i willingly put mine amen to his prayer . for m●ne hearty desire and daily prayer to god is , to have mine heart daily more and more k established in the truth . nor do i lesse desire , to carry a charitable affection towards my christian brethren , either laborious , or other ; tho more especially towards those , whom l for their labours sake , i do deservedly the more love . wherein yet , as in other graces and offices , i doubt not but that i may many waies m faile and fall short , during this state of imperfection and humane frailty : and wherein had not m. walker much fayled toward a brother very laborious , while he had liberty to labour in publike ; and no loiterer then , as by n his writings appeares , when he was restrained from his ministeriall employments ; but then also labouring , tho not in publike , which was not permitted him , yet for the publike , what he might ; this expence of pretious time , ( which u he would elsewhere seem so dainty of ) of necessity now wasted in debating these matters , might very wel have been sp●red , and much more profitably been spent otherwise . howbeit m. walkers charity even in his prayer eould not keep it selfe from discovery of some inward rancor mixt with a little tang at least of vain-glory . for p his laborious neighbors , ( saith he , meaning himself ; for i know no other that complaine of any defect or default in me in this kind towards them ) who spend their time in better studies , then writing of treatises for unlawful gaming and carding , and bedaubing margents with many quotations to smal purpose , but onely for ostentation of much reading . to either of which imputations , i shal severally and respectively return some short answer . for the former , . i doubt much , whether m. walker spent his time b●…ter in this and the like railing and reviling invectives against his laborious brethren , then i did mine in writing of that treatise q which yet had i not published , had not the iniquity of some , therein not wholy unlike m. walker , enforced me thereunto . . the treatise is of the nature and use of lots in general : and the scope of it , to remove , as wel the superstitious practice of them in one kind , as the superstitious conceit of them in another . . if any game therein defended , as not simply evil in regard of a lot in it , yea or otherwise , be by m. walker deemed utterly unlawful , let him by evidence of argument evince the same so to be ; and he shal therein r doe more then by any other , that i know , hitherto hath been done . mean while , let m. walker give me leave to tell him , that i do not believe him , nor beleeve that he is able to make his word good . tho i am not ignorant , what he hath bragged of his abilities so to do . for the latter , to wit , my course of quotation : . i may wel , i presume , defend my selfe , by the examples of many , of much more worth and esteem , as wel for godlines as for judgement , then either my selfe , or m. walker ; that s living library of all good literature , dr. raynolds , among the rest : unlesse m. walker be able to prove the practise unlawful . but . i say onely , that howsoever for the use and end of it ; he be pleased to censure it ; i hope , there wil not want others , whose judgements may wel weigh a little more at least with me , that wil approve of it as useful ; and make a better and more charitable construction of it , ( if not thank me for it ) then he doth . and . it may be , if some quoted the authors they alleadge , and pointed to the places they relate to in them , their evil usage of those they deale with , would the more easily be discovered . howsoever , i shal choose rather to have my margent so bedaubed , then my text so stuft as m. walkers is , as wel in this as in some other his writings . lastly , i demand , what either this or the former is to the matter in hand , or the cariage of the businesse between m. walker and m. wotton : or what occasion m. walker had to be girding here at either ; unlesse it be that his fingers itch to be picking of new quarrels , tho they nothing concerne him or the present occasion . or that t being conscious to himself of the badnesse of the cause he here deales in , he is loath to keep close to it , and willing rather to run out into any other thing , tho it have no relation at all thereunto . howbeit , notwithstanding m. walkers laborious employments , he wil yet , it seems , filch a little time from them , to examine m. gataker upon a few interrogatories ; a which unles he can answer with credit , he must of necessity for ever hereafter hold his peace , and blush as of● as he thinks , how by his defence of m. wotton , he hath accused and defamed himself . but here m. walker much mistakes his marke , and shoots at randome . for my relation , which he pretends to refute , is not m. gatakers defence of m. wotton , but m. wottons defence of himself : nor did either i , or any of those that were joyned with me in the meeting related , undertake to defend m. wotton as one free from all error , but delivered onely , what we thought of m. wottons own defence of himself in regard of ought that m. walker had laid to his charge . nor doe i therefore conceive , either that i stand upon me credit engaged to answer to all m : walkers interrogatories ; or that m. vvalker hath any du power thus to bind me over to silence and shame , upon my refusal so to do . yet let us see what they are . the first is , b whether it be truth and honesty to say , that c all the eight ministers with unanimous consent generally resolved and pronounced , that there appeared not to them either heresie or blasphemy in ought that m. wotton was by m. walker convinced to have delivered or maintained : when their subscription shews that they medled onely with his expositions , and not with his hereticall and blasphomous speeches , in which he paralleld him with socinus the heretike , to all which i shall easily answer in a word , that if that which he here relateth as mine , be the same in effect with what is d testified under the hands of d. gouge and m. downham ( as it is evident that it is ) the untruth and dishonesty must be charged upon them : who , i hope , wil be better able to acquit themselves in this busines of either ; then he that so shamelesly chargeth them therewith . as for that , which he addeth , to disprove it , of expositions ; ( which word how it came into the subscription , i suppose , no man surviving , unles himself , now knows ; ) and of speeches heretical and blasphemous , ( words of course with m. walker ) wherein he paralleld m. wotton and socinus ; enough before hath been spoken to satisfie any reasonable reader ; tho not , it may be , m. walker . the second question is , d whether i think , that m. wotton renouncing the law of god and the righteousnes thereof performed by christ in our steed for our justification ; doth not in so doing deny christs ransome paid , and satisfaction made to gods just law , for our redemption and for remission of our sinnes . to which i answer as briefly , as to the former ; that it appeared not to the eight ministers by ought m. walker produced , that m. wotton held ought in this particular , that did necessarily infer , what m. walker thence concludeth . and let m. vvalker give me leave here , if i may be so bold to minister a crosse interrogatorie to him ; to wit , whether pareus , piscator , ursine , olevian , and the rest of them , who deny christs righteousnes in fulfilling the law morall to have been performed by him in our steed , for our justification , do therefore deny all ransome paid and satisfaction made to gods just law for our redemption and the ●emission of our sins , or no. and whether they be therefore all of them blasphemous hereticks . but more especially , what he thinks of that speech of pareus above mentioned , that e those that ascribe the merit of our righteousnes thereunto , ( that which directly crosseth what m. walker here avoweth ) do doubtlesly make christs sufferings of no use or effect . surely , if m. wotton speak no more then pareus , ( and he hardly speaks so much ) pareus must as wel , if not much rather then m. wotton , passe with m. walker for an heretike . and if those that hold as m. walker doth , make christs sufferings of no use or effect , they , one would thinke , should rather go for heretikes , then m. wotton , who , it seems , is of an other mind . the third question is , f whether mans perfect fulfilling of the law in his own person , under the covenant of works , was not formall inherent righteousnesse ; and would have made man worthy of life . and if so , how he can excuse m. wotton for making faith the formall inherent righteousnes of beleevers , in the covenant of grace , by which they are worthy of justification and eternal life . seeing he saith , that faith under the gospel serves to all purposes for obtaining eternal life , as mans perfect fulfilling of the law did in the covenant of works . let me give you but m. wottons own words , out of m. walkers own parallel ; and there shall need to this no further answer . g he that beleeveth , ( saith m. wotton ) is accounted by god to all purposes concerning eternal life , to have done according to the covenant of the gospel , as he should have been accounted to have done according to the covenant of the law , if he had perfectly fulfilled it . for not to stand upon strict terms concerning the word worthie : what doth m. wotton say more here , then that which he saith else-where ? objected also to him by m. walker , as an heretical and blasphemous speech ; h the act of faith , or beleeving brings justification and adoption , ( which what is it other then what the apostle saith , rom. . . & gal. . . ) onely and meerly by the place and office , which the lord of his mercy hath assigned it , to be the condition required on our parts for the atchieving of these favours and honours . thereby excluding all matter of worth in faith. which yet , whosoever is possessed of , beleeving in christ , that is relying upon him for justifycation and life eternall , may wel be said to be accounted by god to all purposes ( to wit on our parts required , and therefore to be necessarily by us performed ) to have done as much according to the covenant of the gospel , as he should have been accounted to have done according to the covenant of the law , had he perfectly fulfilled it . but of this also enough before out of our own writers ; and by name out of m. pemble ; whom m. walker having so highly commended , as one i by his writings most useful and powerful to confirm mens minds against the wolves af this age , the disciples of blasphemous servetus and socinus ; wil not now , i hope , condemn him for a socinian and blasphemous heretike ; and having k formerly made no doubt , but that he is ascended up into heaven , wil not ( i presume ) for m. wottons sake now damn him , and throw him down , to send him packing for company with m. wetton , to hell . the fourth question is in effect the same with the two next before going ; onely , to make some shew of variety , usherd in with a list of l true and orthodox te●ets , wherein he saith m. wotton professeth his dissent from socinus ; and wherein indeed m. walker manifesteth his extream partiality , and malignant disposition against m. wotton ; thereby shewing too apparently , that his pretended zeale is not so much against socinus and socinianism it self , as against m. wotton , and against the things taught by him , as coming from him . this he hath too too manifestly discovered in this interrogatory ; spite and malice so blinding him , that m he minded not what he did . for those tenets of socinus , though unsound and containing in them ranke venome , as he meaneth them , and manifesteth himselfe so to doe , wherein m. wotton professeth to dissent from him ; these m. walker , setting a faire glosse on them , contrary to socinus his own intendement in them , alloweth and avoweth them for orthodox and true . for example , the first of them is , n that faith is obedience to christs commandements ; who commandeth us to beleeve and repent . and it is true , that socinus , as o elsewhere i cite him , p maintaines as m. walker here saith that he doth . but what saith lubbertus to him for it ? a man whom m. walker would seem much to admire , and told us at our meeting , that he was by i know not whom stiled orthodoxorum ocellus . q whereas he ( to wit socinus ) saith ( saith lubbertus ) that faith is to do those things that christ hath enjoyned , it is false : r to affirme it to be so , is to be stark mad . so by lubbertus his censure , not socinus onely , but m. walker also should be no better . again , s he teacheth , that to beleeve christ and his words , is to obey him . we deny it . for obedience is an effect of faith . he erreth therefore , that holds faith and obedience to be all one . and yet again , t firm stands that , which beza writes , that faith cannot signifie obedience to the commandements . thus lubbertus , one of m walkers own oracles . and indeed what did socinus hereby intend , but to cut off all relying by faith on christ , as having paid a price to god for our sinnes , or satisfied for them by his death ? yet this is m. walker pleased to blanch over ; as if he conceived his meaning to be nothing else , but that in beleeving and repenting , we obey christs commandement , who u commandeth us to repent and beleeve . and so is content to let it passe for currant , as a true and orthodox tenet in socinus , because m. wotton dissented therein from socinus ; though condemned by lubbertus ( yea by whom not ? ) for a grosse error , and in his intendement very dangerous . the second point , wherein m. walker affirmes m. wotton to depart from socinus , and which he affirmes to be true and orthodox , is q that repentance , which comes not but by faith , is the means to obtain forgivenes of sinnes , which christ hath brought . but he deales here with socinus , to help him out , as he is wont to do with m. wotton , to procure prejudice to him . for he takes part out of one passage , and part out of an other , ( as m. wotton hath b cited him , not expressing how far forth in every particular he concurs with him , or dissents from him ; but onely shewing , how in general he speaks not that , that himself doth ) and so pieces up a proposition , which he would have deemed sound ; withall paring of , what might serve to discover socinus his grosse error , wherein m. wotton intended to imply his departure from him . for , c it is manifest , saith he , that god requireth nothing of us in the obtaining of salvation procured by christ , but repentance and amendment of life . and , d whereas faith is sometime added to repentance ; it is not because faith in christ is required to the obtaining of remission of sins , ( directly contrary to what the apostle e professeth ) as working somewhat more in us besides repentance it selfe , that doth hereunto appertain ; but because repentance comes not but by faith in christ. thus he clips socinus in favour to him ; as he doth m. wotton els-where to a contrary end . and yet further , because lubbertus , socinus his antagonist , in refuting him , beates every where upon this , that f conversion & repentance do not in order of nature go before , but follow remission of sin , and justification ; and g are not causes , but effects of either ; nor the cause of expiation , but a consequent of it : and supposing socinus his meaning to be , h that our repentance is the cause of the remission of our sins ; i this , saith he , we disallow , for , as hath a thousand times been shewed , remission of sins , that is justification , is in nature before repentance : and it is impossible therefore to be the cause of it . k for it is not repentance , but christs sacrifice , that is the true cause of the remission of our sins : l god indeed promiseth pardon to the repentant ; but we deny repentance to be the cause for which god doth pardon . here m. walker strikes in to help socinus at a dead lift , and telleth us , contrary to his text , sure without any warrant at all from it , m that by obtaining forgivenes of sins , socinus means getting the sense and assurance of forgivenesse . a glosse wel-beseeming him , that professeth such a detestation of the very least sent or shadow of socinianism in others . the third point is , n that faith is a beleeving of that which christ taught , and an assurance of obtaining that he promised upon our repentance and obedience . which whether it be a just definition of justifying faith ; ( for of that here the question is ) or do fitly expresse the office of it in the worke of justification , i leave to be discussed by others . m. wotton relateth it , o to shew how that in laying down the nature and office of justifying faith , he goes an other way then socinus doth ; and further then socinus either doth , or can , holding his own grounds , follow him . who indeed thus defines faith , to bring all home to repentance and obed●enee , as in the former point ; and to exclude christs merit , and ought done or endured by him , as satisfactory for mans sin : as appeares plainly by the whole context of his discourse in that chapter , out of which these words are alledged . and i would demand of m. walker , how he can free himself from socinianism , when he maintains such points as these for sound and orthodox in socinus : and what censure himself would hape past upon an other , that should have thus blancht and vernisht over such assertions of socinus . as also i would know of him , with what face he , that condemns in m. wotton as hereticall and blasphemous positions , these propositions , p to beleeve in christ , is to trust in christ , and to rest on him ; to have his heart setled , and to rely wholy and onely on him ; and , this trust is such a faith as makes us rest upon god for the performance of his promise ; doth now pronounce socinus his definition of faith , such as you have heard , to be true , orthodox and sound . but hereby any party , not extreamly partiall , may easily judge what spirit this man is caried with throughout this whole busines . for as for his twenty times sodden coleworts , so oft served in , of q m. wottons taking the word faith in the apostles words in a proper sense ; christs fulfilling the law for us in our steed ; faith being the condition of the gospel , &c. taking out m. walkers fillings and glosses set upon them , which concern m. wotton no more then himselfe ; enough before hath been said . and , if m. walker can prove them to be heretical opinions , many illustrious stars , besides m. wotton , will by a blast of m. vvalkers breath , as by r the dragons tail in the vision , be thrown out of heaven , and not struck down to the ground only , but even hurld into hel. his first question is , s whether m. wotton deny not the free covenant of grace , when he holds , that god covenants not to justifie and give life , but upon a condition performed on our part , equivalent for all purposes to mans fulfilling of the law in his own person in the covenant of works . to which briefly . . to covenant to give a thing upon some condition may nothing impeach the freenesse either of the covenant , or of the gift . as to covenant with one to give him a shilling , that you have let fall , lying on the ground , if he will but stoop and take it up . and here by the way to satisfie some , who cannot endure to heare of any condition in the promises of the gospel ; which yet are t every where so propounded : let it be considered , that a gift or a promise may be said to be free , or not free divers waies and in divers respects : . free in regard both of condition and of consideration . by consideration understanding some valuable consideration , as in common speech we use to speak . and so it is absolutely , every way free . as if i promise one to bestow a book upon him and to send it home to him , and so do . here being neither condition nor consideration interposed . . free in regard neither of condition , nor of confideration , as if i promise one to give him such a book of mine , if he will give me another of his in lieu of it . for here is both condition and consideration ; which both concurring destroy the freenes of it . . free in regard of consideration , tho not free in regard of condition . as if i promise to give one such a book gratis , if he wil but cal to me at mine house for it ; supposing that i dwell at next dore , or neer to him . nor doth it derogate ought from the freenes of a gift , if it have been promised upon such a condition ; and the promise made good upon the performance of it . no more then a princes pardon would be deemed lesse free , were it granted upon condition of taking it out , and that free also for any to do , that wil , of free cost , without fee. or his alms , were they propounded and published to all , that would but repaire to the court for them . nor doth m. wotton therefore necessarily denie the freenesse of gods gratious covenant , if he hold justification and life eternal not to be promised therein but upon condition . so m. fox answering those that might object that to him , that m. walker here to m. wotton . * if gods promise be restrained to certain conditions , how shall we maintain with paul the freenes of gods mercy , whereby he freely justifyeth a sinner ? u yes , saith he , i deem and determine goas mercy to be most free in christ. albeit this salvation by the merit of christ be not derived unto us but upon a certaine condition . and m. perkins before recited : w the condition of the covenant is by grace , as wel as the substance . whereunto ad m. pembles reason : that therefore * this covenant is a compact of freest mercy , because therein life eternal is given to that , that beares not the least proportion of worth with it . . that this condition is x faith , the performance whereof is as availeable for our good , as perfect obedience at first had been , if it be an heresie ; why doth not m. walker require m. pembles , if not bones , yet books to be burnt , as containing in them hereticall and blasphemous doctrine ? at least why doth he not arraign and condemn him for an heretick as wel as m. wotton ? for he hath , as hath been shewed , the same . as for the word equivalent here , it is not m. wottons , but m. walkers tearm . whose spite and rancor against m. wotton is such , that nothing of his can fairely passe through his fingers . to be equivalent , that is , equall in worth , and value , is one thing ; ( and yet i might tel m. walker that y chrysostome sticks not to affirm , yea stiffly maintains , that faith in christ is of it self a more excellent thing and of greater worth , then the keeping of gods commandements ; as i shew , but disallowing , elsewhere ; and yet is he not therefore deemed or condemned for an heretick : ) to be reckoned or counted by god unto man in the covenant of grace to all purposes , in regard of ought that god requires on his part to be performed , for attaining of life eternal , as if he had in the other covenant kept the whole law , is another thing . i suppose m. walker is not to learne a difference , and that a vast one too , between 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in greek . the sixt question is , a whether m. wotton affirming , that , if we be freely pardoned , then our sins were not punished in christ our head and surety , doth not deny christs satisfaction for sin . to this i answer . he must shew first , where m. wotton so saith . for these words out of m. wotton he never yet produced . read b the parallel error . & out of m. wotton what is there alledged ; and c m. wottons answer to what is there alledged by m. walker out of him : and you shal soon see how m. walker here deales with m. vvotton . his seventh question is , d whether m. vvotton be not guilty of heretical tergiversation and grosse contradiction in some passages . the man , you see , can not speak of m. vvotton , but he must needs spit fier and brimstone . every thing is either heretical or blasphemous in him . but am i , or is any man else bound to reconcile whatsoever contradictions are , if any be , or may be found in m. vvottons writings ? or is every one that is taken in grosse contradictions , of necessity thereupon to be condemned for an heretick ? but in this also m. walker may as wel be beleeved , as e where he pronounces the like of m. bradshaws book . were m. vvotton alive , he were best able to reconcile his own seeming differences . and indeed , for the most of them , if not all , he then did it himselfe . for the first , which f he citeth out of my defence , as he tearms it , though out of his own parallel , and m. vvottons own defence indeed . he might , if he had but put on his spectacles , have found it g in the very same place assoiled ; that his dispute being of the formall cause of justification , or that whereby we are made formally righteous , h he denieth any end or use of christs righteousnes imputed to that purpose . but i he denieth not the imputation of it , as the meritorious cause thereof . whereunto , tho sufficient to take away the seeming contradiction , i ad yet further what i touched upon out of k m. bradshaw before , and i find in him elswhere ; that tho he deny imputation of christs righteousnes taken in a stricter sense , as many in this argument would have it ; yet taken it in a larger sense , for that which is reckoned to a man for his benefit , so far forth as it may in that kind be useful unto him , so he denies not the imputation of christs righteousnesse to mans justification . for thus i find in certaine theses of his written in latine of this subject . . l if any man hold christs righteousnes to be by way of merit the efficient cause of justification , i am wholly of his mind . . m if any maintain not christs righteousnes to be our formal righteousnes , i have no controversie with him . . n the imputation of christs righteousnes to our benefit , i acknowledge and professe . . o it never came into my mind , not so much as in dream , to deny , that we are justified for the righteousnes of christ. as for what m. walker p addes out of m. vvottons essaies ; they were written after our meeting , as q himself acknowledgeth ; and therefore nothing concern either us or our censure ; nor for my part did i ever see them , nor know what is in them . and yet what is it , that m. walker thence here alledgeth ? that in scripture there is no mention of christs merit . which if he speak of the word merit , who wil , or can deny the truth of it ? yet it will not thence follow , that m. vvotton therefore denies the thing thereby signified , ( the rather since that he useth the tearm of meritorious cause applied unto christ and his righteousnes so frequently himself ) no more then , that calvin denied the doctrine of the t●init● , because r he acknowledgeth that tearm not to be found in gods vvord to the next s likewise he might have found the like solution , in the very place t whence he had it ; if he had been pleased to deal but half so kindly with m. vvotton , as he dealt with socinus . for , why may not faith , tho taken properly , be said to justifie , not per se , or of it self ; ( tho bucer , as i have shewed , u so also say ) albeit the word faith be there properly taken , where it is said to be imputed for righteousnes ? not for it self , as x m vvotton himself expoundeth himself , but for christ , on whom it relies ; as hath formerly been at large related . for , what y is added of imputation , is coincident to the former : but that m. walker with his z cole so o●t new dressed and dished in again , tires out h●s readers , and may wel overturn their stoi●ck● . the a third consists of the b second and c sixt queres ; ( for m. walker loves to turn round ) wherein nothing is truely alledged out of m. vvotton , that any way crosseth christs satisfaction made , or the price by him paid , for us : and shal thither therefore be returned again ; least by running round in a circle after m. walker , we grow turn-sick with him . the d fourth is not so much a contradiction found in m wottons writings to ought of his own , as to the words of the apostle , rom. . . which yet unles they be understood of formal and inherent righteousnes , ( however e m. walker tax m. bradshaw for confounding these terms ) m. vvottoh contradicteth not at all . and yet is it not sufficient to prove a man an heretick , because he contradicts somewhat conteined in gods word . since that every error whatsoever in any point of divinity must of necessity so do . and m. walker therefore , unlesse he dare professe himself free from all error , must by the same ground withall granted confesse himself to be an heretick . but from his contradictions return we to his questions again . his eighth question , wherein he thinks he hath me now on the hip , is f how m. gataker with a good conscience can justifie and proclaim m. vvotton free from heresie , when he wilfully and perversely denies the very form , essence , and being of justification , to wit , the imputation of christs righteousnes , first simply rejecting it , as being of no use ; and afterwards , as the formal cause of justification ; ( where you have the same colie served you in againe ) seeing he , the said m. gataker hath publikely extolled and commended for orthodox , the like treatife of m. vv. bradshaw in his funerall sermon at his buriall , wherein he makes the imputation of christs righteousnes the form of justification . in which words , as g he sometime said of the people of athens , m. walker blowes and blusters much , but does little . for first , i might demand of him , where i so extolled m. bradshaws book ? what i spake of it in a short speech before my sermon at that time , i have formerly word for word related . but in m. walkers hyperbolical language , every mole-hil is a mountain ; every rivelet or drilling ril , a flood or a faire river ; every but scanty or sleight commemoration or commendation , an extolling ; every light touch , an invective ; every error , at least an heresie . secondly , whether every one that commends a book in such manner as i there did , must of necessity approve it as wholly free from all error . i was by a * worthy knight sometime demanded mine opinion in a point concerning the seat of conscience , wherein two divines of special note , run two divers and cros waies , h the one denying it a place in any natural facultie of the soul , usually assigned ; the other affording it a room in each of them : and professing my self to dissent from either , it was objected to me , that i had by an epistle prefixed commended the worke of the one , wherein that opinion of his was found . to which i then answered that gentleman , and so shal now m. vvalker , that a book may warrantably for the main substance of it be cōmended as useful , yea as excellent ; albeit the party so commending it suppose the author of it to have been mistaken in some things therein contained . so did m. cappel with the same m. bradshaws book ; albeit in some things therein he dissented then from him , when so highly yet he indeed did extoll it , as you formerly have heard : and my selfe did somewhat the like sometime with m. eltons catechetical work to my cost ; though withall k professing , that in divers things contained in that part of it which i had read , i was my selfe of another judgement . thirdly , what if m. wotton and m. bradshaw do not herein at all differ , or crosse either other ? but may very well be reconciled ? may not m. gataker then at least with a good conscience commend m. bradshaws booke , and yet pronounce m. wotton free from heresie , when he saith herein nothing that contradicts that , which m. bradshaw is here said to affirm ? and that it is so indeed , and in m. bradshaws own judgement was so , may be easily made to appeare . for doth not m. bradshaw in his preface plainly shew , that the word of imputation is overstrictly taken by some divines , in which sense m. wotton seems to him to have denied it ; whereas the word might wel be understood in another , and a larger sense , professing himself so to use it ? so that the bare word rejected by the one , and admitted by the other , doth not necessarily imply any contradiction between them . no more then s. pauls words , that l a man is justified by faith without works , doth any way contradict what s. james saith , that m a man is justified by works , and not by faith onely . and here i shall again crave leave of my reader , to insert a short passage out of some writings enterchanged between these two christian brethren ; both , i hope , now with god , and agreeing in all things ; though in some particulars they dissented , while they lived here . m. wotton in his animadversions , which i have by me , on m. bradshaws book , thus excepts . the third opinion denying all imputation of christs righteousnes is said to be somewhat erroneous . yet the same opinion held onely in that strict sense of imputation , which the autor himselfe rejecteth , and that upon good ground , as he acknowledgeth , is therefore cleered from all erroneousnes . for how can that be erroneous , that is held on good ground ? to which m. bradshaw thus answereth : tho upon good ground , as to me seems , you deny imputation in that sense only ; yet your denial of all imputation may notwithstanding that be erroneous ; being grounded upon a supposal of that which i think is erroneous , that there is no other kind of imputation but that , which is answerable to that strict sense aforesaid . by which words it appeares , that the difference herein between them was rather in words , then in points : and that m. wottons error , as m bradshaw apprehended it , was only concerning the use of a word , not concerning any point of faith . fourthly , suppose the difference were not verball , but reall , not in words onely , but in sense and meaning too ; yet would it not therefore necessarily follow , that m. wotton denieth the very form , essence , and being of justification , because he denies that , which m. bradshaw affirms to be the formall cause of it ; or that m. gataker must therefore of necessity pronounce m. wotton an heretick ; unles first it be proved that that is indeed and truth the formal cause , of justification , which m. bradshaw hath assigned : ( which being found onely in a short summary annexed to his treatise , n m. walker himself deems to contradict what is averred in the book ; nor is it at all in the latine edition , ) and that m. gataker also is therein of the same mind with m. bradshaw , which for ought m. walker knowes , he may not be . fiftly , i should desire to know of m. walker , whether he hold not the imputation of christs active obedience to be the formall cause of our justification : and if he so do ; which , i suppose , he wil not deny ; whether he can with a good conscience pronounce pareus free from heresie ; notwithstanding that o he denies the imputation of it unto justification , as derogatory from the al-sufficiency of christs suffrings and his sacrifice ; and consequently ( by m. walkers inference ) takes away the very form , essence and being of justification . if he cannot , how comes it to pas , that he reckons him here so oft among his orthodox writers , that condemn m. wottons opinions as heretical and blasphemous ? if he can , i see not , why m. gataker may not do the like by m. wotton , forought here objected . the argument being as strong ( if not stronger ) against the one as against the other . sixtly , suppose it were an error , and a dangerous one to , that m. wotton maintains ; whence knows m. walker ? or how is he able to prove , that he holds it n wilfully , that is , against his own knowledge , ( for that seems to be intimated ) and perversly , that is , as i conceive him , obstinately ? to make him * a damned heretick . for i suppose , he wil not assume to himself any o extraordinary gift in discerning of spirits . and if he will pretend , that he discernes it by his deeds ; which is hard to do in a point of meer theorie ; let him take heed , what manner of spirit by his carriage in this busines , being matter of practise , he gives men ground , to suspect or conclude himself to be led by . lastly , suppose m. walker to be so sharpsighted , and that he can pierce and peere so narrowly into m. wottons conscience , as to discern that he doth wilfully and perversely maintain what he holds : yet unlesse that m. gataker be as quicksighted herein as m vvalker , and that he be able to descry in m. wotton that wilfulnes and perversnes that m. walker doth , he may still with a good conscience justifie m. wotton , and pronounce him ( for proclamations he makes none ) free from heresie ; as wel as the rest of his reverend brethren have done , notwithstanding all m. walkers evidence given in against him . since that * no man is bound to pronounce or deem of his christian brother , on the wors part especially , further then himself can see . his ninth question ( to cut it somewhat shorter , that the readers stomack may be the les troubled in taking it ) is this , p how the faithful united to christ , as their head , and made thereby partakers of his righteousnes and whole obedience to gods law , and thereby constituted righteous before god , can without hereticall pravity be denied to be formally righteous by that righteousnes . to which i answer : that first he presumes some things here that are to be proved ; and are ( as he wel knows , ) by divines not a few of the best note not acknowledged ; as , that christs righteousnes consisting in his active obedience is part of that whereby the faithfull are made righteous . besides , that many things have the faithful interest in by vertue of their union and communion with christ ; which yet are not imputed unto them for the justifying of them , or for the making of them to stand righteous in gods sight . the wife by vertue of her union and conjunction with her husband , hath a right to , and interest in , all that he hath , yea and in himself to . yet is it not necessary , that whatsoever she hath joint interest in with him , should therefore go to the payment of her debts formerly contracted : especially , if sufficient be found in any part of it . and that without hereticall-pravity therefore , that which m. vvotton is here charged with , may be held ; especially , unles we wil question the sufficiency of christs death for the discharge of our sins ; pareus q his words ( if he be at least of any credite with m. walker ) above-mentioned wil intimate ; yea the whole discourse , whence they are taken , wil evidently shew . for his tenth and last question , the contradiction is the very same concerning imputation , that was r formerly propounded , the first in the seventh question . for m. walker doth but roll s sisyphus his stone up and down here , until he tire , if not himself , yet his reader . the question it self is , t whether m. wotton be not possessed with the spirit of socinian blindnes and giddines , when he derides orthodox divines , for making every beleever justified by imputation of christs satisfactory obedience , a redeemer , saviour and satisfier for all the elect and faithful . what by socinian blindnes and giddines m. walker meanes , i wean not . we use to ask , who are blinder then they that wil not see ? and in this kind m. walker hath bewrayed too much blindnes in this book . as for giddines , i know not , who are more likely to be possessed of it , then such as run round , like an hors in a mil. but how , or where , doth m. vvotton thus deride our orthodox divines ? this crime thus fastned upon m. wotton , m. walker thus makes good . u for in one of his written papers thus he argues : if christs righteousnes and satisfaction be imputed to every beleever , then must every beleever be accounted a redeemer , justifier , and satisfier for all the elect. but this is absurd . ergò , the antecedent is fals . where first , i might demand of m. walker , whether a man must of necessity be deemed to deride him , whom he disputes with , if he shal affirm something to follow from that he holdeth , which he pronounces to be absurd , . whether this speech of m. wotton were given in to us at our meeting by m. walker , as part of his evidence , to make good his plea against m. vvotton . which unles it were , as it was not , which may appear by his paralel ; albeit it should contain rank heresie in it ; yet concerns it not us , nor our sentence in clee●ing m. vvotton . for x what iudge is bound to sentence any man upon evidence not produced ? . as for the matter it self , if m. vvotton doe not understand aright , what those orthodox divines mean ; as y m. walker affirms : sure the mistaking of another mans meaning , and thereupon supposing therefore , or pretending , that some absurdity follows from what he saith , doth not in my weak apprehension make a man guilty of heresie . or if it be pre●umed that it doth , i doubt much , whether m. walker himself may not be deemed one of the greatest hereticks under the sun. thus much for m. walkers questio●● . whereunto he saith a he could ad divers others . but if they be as little to the purpose as these ; ( which howsoever , one only excepted , concerning mine extolling of m. bradshaws book , do no more concern me to answer , then any other of the eight ) he may do wel to keep them where they are : unles he be desirous to acquaint the world further with his restles spirit ( which he hath sufficiently done here already ) albeit he have neither new matter to enquire of , nor any matter of moment , whereby to take of the truth of that , which under good hands and of oredit sufficient ; hath been related . and the rather may he be advised to conceal them , unles they be more savoury , then what here next ensueth , of b a stinking issue of running cankers in a most foul body , and rotten carcose , that m. gataker , like a sepulchres dog , hath scratched and raked out of the grave , in writing and publishing of his relation : ( in which passage also he shews himself turn-sick again : ) otherwise his readers ( to return his own words ) may wel be forewarned , to stop their noses , ere they offer to read them . hence he proceeds to charge me ; first , as c profuse and prodigal of my reputation , in subscribing to m. wottons positions , that they contain neither heresie nor blasphemy . wherein if my reputation●ly at the stake , theirs must lie together with mine , that subscribed together with me . and secondly , with d breach of piety and charity , virulency , defect of humanity and common honesty , in falsly fathering that on those dead saints , m. randol , and m. stock , and those living pious men , d. gouge and m. downham , a subscription to those errors , that they saw no heresie or blasphemy in them . all which foul imputations , which herein he would make me guilty of , light full upon those , whom he pretends to be wronged by me , rather then upon me , who relate but their testimony under their own hands . for if ought be falsly fathered upon the deceased , whither of the twain stand guilty of it , they that witnes the thing under their hands , or he that barely relates what they witnes ? besides i would fain know , what virulency is , or can be , in a precise relation of an other mans words , if there be no virulent matter or manner of speech in them : or if ought be in them of that nature , who ought to beare the burden of it , the relater , or the autor . as for his old cuckows song , e of his blaming our subscription , protesting against it offer to dispute , and mine interposing so , that he could not be heard , nor obtaine a copy of m. wottons answers , with such other idle repetitions ; they have been before heard and answered : and do here serve onely to raise the bulke of the book ; but do no whit help to prove , what m. walker here intends , that i have falsly fathered ought upon those saints deceased . yea they are of much weight to evince the truth of that , which m. walker here so eagerly opposeth . for what needed m. walker to have kept all this coil , and have made all this ado if no such thing had then been , or were about to ●e done ? as little to the same purpose , or to any purpose at all , is it , what he telleth f of a consutation of so much as he could remember of m. vvottons answers , which he shewed to d. gouge and m. downham . who i hope , wanted no baiting by him , for what they had done . and that afterward he obtained liberty by a friend to copy them out , labouring for nothing ever more earnestly then to have them published ; which they may beleeve him that list : for who or what hindered him from publishing of them , when he had them ? and that he desired so much the publishing of them , to free himself from those fals reports , that m. gataker would now lay & fasten upon him , p. . in which whole page there is nothing but a short sum of what was before delivered ; of m. walkers charge and chalenge , and his evidence given in , all under his own hand ; m. wottons answer , as himself penned it ; the verdict and sentence of the persons appealed to , testified under the survivours hands , and m. walkers renewing of his charge in print , which himself wil not deny ; and what fals reports of mine can there be in all this ? or if the publishing of m. vvottons answer wil free m. walker from fals reports , i have therein done m. vvalker , it seems , no smal pleasure , and fulfilled , if we may beleeve him , his earnest desire . so far , he saith , he was from pressing d. bayly to conceal them , as m. gataker would intimate , p. . where i say no such matter , but say onely of the subscription , that the doctor refused to deliver it , whether pressed by m. walker to detaine it or no , i wot not , m. vvalker himselfe best knoweth . and indeed what was it to any of us , whether m. walker had had m. wottons answers , or no ? this is therefore all but g smoak and dust , raised to dim or dasel mens eyes , that they may not see that , that m. walker would fain have concealed , and kept ( were it possible ) from their sight . which having thus made some way to , as he supposed , ( therein overflattering himself ; as h what men earnestly desire , they are easily induced to beleeve ) he falleth now again more directly upon it ; and i tels us upon what occasion , m. vvotton by a fals suggestion , drew d. gouge and m. downham some yeers after to give a fals attestation : ( for that is it , that he laboureth throughout this whole pamphlet , wel knowing how neerly it concerns him , to prove ) k which m. stock and d. bayly abhorred to do , repenting what favour they had shewed m. wotton at first . but here stil l aqua haeret , the water stayes , and doth not run cleerly away . nor is m. walker with all his shifts , able to wind himself out . for is the attestation by m. gataker related , and by m. sam. wotton published , truly related , or no ? if it be truely related , then m. gataker in relating it , hath delivered nothing but what is true ; to wit , that two such men have under their hands given such an attestation . again , is the attestation it selfe true , or no ? they that gave it , i hope , wil maintain it to be true . and then have i averred nothing concerning the issue of that meeting , but what is avowed by the testimony of two witnesses , beyond all just exception , and whom m. walker of all other m cannot with any reason reject , being men chosen to heare and sentence the cause by himself . who therefore , if he shall stil persist to affirm it to be fals ; i wil say no more , but as that noble roman sometime accused by a mean fellow of a very unlikely crime , n varius affirms it ; scaurus denies it . whether of the two do you credit ? so i here , m. walker the party interressed saies it ; d. gouge and m. downham two of his iudges ( for * so himself tearms them ) men indifferent and unpartial ( however m. walker is pleased to tax them ) deny it : you may choose whether of the two you wil be pleased to beleeve . thus at length m. walker hath dispatched himself , as concerning our meeting , by himself procured and the issue of it . wherein he hath so laboured to vindicate himself , by many falshoods inserted into his report of it ; and , not so much by recharging m. wotton , as by traducing his iudges , as men partiall and unconscionable , and such as in favour of m. wotton did what they were even then ashamed of when they did it , and by all means therefore contended to have it concealed and kept from the light and sight of others after they had done it ; and lastly by heaping on me a whole load of opprobrious terms , for having a hand in the publishing of it ; that in seeking thus to salve his credit , he may wel therein be deemed , to have done no more then to have o washt over a raw brick but , or to have p covered miry durt with reeking dung . howbeit , tho he have thus rid his hands of our meeting , yet his spite and malice against m. wotton and me is not yet at an end . for , as for my poscript , it is q so frivolous , that a short answer wil serve : r one short breath is sufficient to blow it away . and yet let m. vvalker who thus here vaunteth himself , like an other s pyr gopolinices , know , that with all his boisterous blusterings he hath not stirred it one jot , much les blown it away , as he brags ; having not so much as blown upon a good part of it ; because , it seems , he was loath to spend so much breath in vain , that might better be kept for some other use . my t main charge here against him , he saith , is iniquity ; and indeed so u it is , for yoaking m. wotton with peter abeilard , and with servetus and socinus , as agreeing with them in such damnable and detestable dotages , as they held and maintained , and for which they were condemned as blasphemous hereticks ; and that upon such slight grounds , as hath formerly been shewed . but w the iniquity , m. walker tels me , shal return upon mine own head . and why so ? first , for abeilard , x because s. bernard ( whose saintship yet i suppose , need be no part of our creed ; especially , if all be true that our walter mapes y reports of him ) saith he held , that our sins are not punished in christ , and that it had been injustice in god to punish one for another , and to impute the obedience of one to another . i demand not of m. walker , where abeilard saith ought of the imputing of the obedience of one to another , or where bernard charges him with the deniall of it , as a thing unjust . tho i suppose , he would not easily be able to shew either . but i aske , where m. wotton ever said , what abeilard is here reported to have held , that our sins are not punished in christ ; or , that it were injustice in god to punish one for another . if he cannot shew this ( as hitherto he hath not done ) he is ( and may be deservedly so censured ) a malicious slanderer of his brother . howbeit , if these words of m. vvotton , which m. walker could not be ignorant of , do not speake the direct contrary ; let some part yet of this imputatiou be taken of , if you so please . a christ , saith m ▪ vvotton , hath been punished for us ; we are pardoned for his punishment , esay . what can be spoken more plainly ? m walkers iniquity therefore herein , is not wiped of , much lesse returned upon me . besides i find in his latine theses before mentioned this assertion : b this i beleeve , that christs sufferings are imputed to us ; and we for them obtain from god , pardon of our fins , and freedom from the guilt of them . then which i maintain , that nothing can be spoken or conceived more true , or more apt for the unfolding of scripture . which how wel it sorts with what m. walker charges on abeilard , let any man judge . but against m. wotton c the worst comes last . for m. walker wil prove him to conspire with abeilard , servetus and socinus in a wors matter than all this ; and that is in the denial of christs deity . for , d if they denied in plain words the eternal deity of christ ; so also m. vvotton did in effect . for he held that christs obedience did serve only to justifie himself , and to bring him into high favour with god : so that god justifieth us by him as by a favourite , only upon condition of our trusting in him . now where is the infinite valour of his deity , if he needed justification and favour for himself . did ever man read a charge more malicious , or more slenderly backt ? for not to question again , whether abeilard , ( e which m. walker expresly by name affirms apart of him ) did ever deny , and that in plain tearms too , the eternal deity of christ ; or where bernard , or any other saith , that he so did . tho it be a sin ( we say ) even to bely the devil ; any man much more and so far is peter abeilard from denying it in plain terms , that in precise and ful words he affirms it ; ( f i beleeve , saith he , that the sonne is in all things coequal with the father ; to wit , in eternity , power , or autority , &c. g condemning withal and detesting arius ( whom bernard was pleased to say he had some h smach of ) as one i led by a perverse disposition , and led aside by a devilish spirit , for k making degrees in the trinity , and teaching the father to be greater than the son , and the son lesser than the father . that , which it is true indeed , that l bernard chargeth peter to have done ; ( and were it true , yet were not in plain tearms to deny the eternal deity of christ , ) but peter flatly denies to be found in any writings of his ; yea m professing to abhor it , not as heretical onely , but as devilish ; nor refusing to be pronounced , n not an heretick simply , but an arch-heretick , if it could out of any work of his be produced . but to let this passe , i say ; which little concerns us , howsoever it were with abeilard ; save that o the rule of iustice and equity requires to do every one right ; and p that we deale with others as we would be de●lt with our selves . first , suppose that a denial of christs deity might be necessarily deduced from some positions by m. wotton maintained . would it thence follow that m. vvotton denies the deity of christ ? it is no good consequence . for some thing may follow truly and necessarily from what a man holds ; and yet he not hold it , but deny it ; yea strongly and stifly not in dispute only , but even in judgement oppose it , because he deems the consequence , wherby it is thence deduced , unsound , for example : that which the lutherans hold concerning the corporall presence of christs body in the sacrament , together with the bread , doth by necessary consequence overthrow the truth of christs humanity . do any of our divines therefore charge them , ( tho q they walk along with m. walker in the way he here takes , in their writings against us ) with the deniall of christs humane nature ? or wil m. walker therefore dare to pronounce luther an heretick , as denying the truth of christs humanity ? albeit we know that every true , naturall , and humane body is confined to some one certain individuall place or other , and limited with such dimensions as all men we see are ; which of christs cannot be truely said , if that be admitted . yea to turn the edge of m. walkers argument the other way . by the same reason , from some consequences of m. richardsons , ( whose authority m. walker i am sure , wil not waive ) a man may prove , that turks , iews and pagans hold a trinity of persons in the deity , and the evangelical doctrine of christs incarnation . for what turke , iew , or pagan , of any but ordinary apprehension in intellectuals , if he acknowledge a god , doth not hold , that that god doth most perfectly understand himself ? now m. richardson in some essaies of his ; wherein ( directly contrary , as i take it , to what r the apostle averres ; and yet do i not therefore account him an hereticke , no more then that other noble s lord of great note , that hath laboured in the like argument ) he endeavours to prove , that men by the very light of nature and use of reason alone , may attaine to the knowledge of those two main mysteries of faith and grounds of the gospel ; and that they may thereby be demonstrated to those who never heard of or knew them before ; he doth from this position as generally granted and agreed on , by a continued chain of consequences , as so many links or rundels necessarily depending each on other , thus argu : god understandeth himself most perfectly , ergò he is understood of himself most perfectly : ergò there is a most perfect understander , and a most perfect understood ; and both these are one essence . again , a most perfect understander , and a most perfect understood : ergò a most perfect conceiver , and a most perfect conceived : ergò a most perfect begetter , and a most perfect begotten : ergò a production of that which is of the same kind : ergò of a most perfect sonne : ergò by a most perfect father : which are the father and the sonne . again , god understandeth himself most perfectly : ergò to be the most perfect being : ergò he willeth himself as the most perfect good : ergò from the understander and the understood proceeds a mutuall desire of their essence : ergò a spirit or anhelitus to the same : which is the holy ghost proceeding from both . again , what man is there turke , iew , or pagan , that hath any regard of conscience to god ward , but holds that he hath at some time or other offended god by doing unjustly in some one kind or other ? now hence doth the same autor by a stoical sorites , or heap of ergoes , deduce a necessity of our saviour christs incarnation , for that mans salvation , on this wise . mans conscience telleth him , that he hath done unjustly : ergò transgressed the rule of justice : ergò the eternall law : ergò the law of the eternal god : ergo he is obnoxious to the eternal justice of god : ergò to an infinite punishment : ergò he must be answerable to the same : ergò by suffering eternally , if he answer it in himself , or by any other finite : ergò , he must perish eternally , unles an infinite person undertake the same ; who being infinite can infinitely satisfie with finite sufferings : ergò he must perish eternally , or beleeve an infinite person satisfying for him , as an infinite person offended by him ; and that ( in conclusion ) is christ , god and man. for to avoyd prolixity , i wil cut off the residue of this train . thus from m. richardsons grounds , by m. walkers help , there is an incomparablo benefit befaln the whole world , for by this means great part of it , though they never heard of christ , are sodenly become christians . for they hold the main principles of the gospel as certainly , nay more certainly then m. wotton denies christs deity . since that the one follows , you see , necessarily ( unles m. richardson be much mistaken ) from what they hold ; whereas the other by m. walkers good leave , hath not as yet been shewed to follow so from ought by m. wotton maintained . and yet , i doubt much , that if trial be taken , we shal scarce find them sound in the christian faith for all this . in the next place therfore , let us see , what it is , that m. walker , here tels us , that m. vvotton maintained , whereby he hath brought upon himself so heavy a guilt as the denial of the eternal deity of the son of god. he held , saith he , that christs obedience did serve onely to justifie himself , and to bring him into high favour with god : so that god justifies us by him as by a favourite , onely upon condition of our trusting in him . where m. vvotton saith all this , m. walker tels us not : and he that twits m. gataker for his frequent quotations , might justly be taxed both here and elsewhere for a defect , if not default , herein ; and that such , as rendreth him , not without good cause , suspected of some jugling . for that christs obedience serves to justifie himself , i suppose , no man can deny . since that s our saviour himself doth thereby usually justifie himself against the false aspersions of his slanderous adversaries . howbeit to give m. walker herein the more satisfaction , we wil present him with two testimonies , the one a strangers , the other our own countreymans . thus then gomarus , one of the greatest and eagerest anti-arminian . t christ , had he not performed perfect obedience , had himself been a sinner , and to be punished for himself . and thus m. dearing in his lectures upon part of the epistle to the hebrews , u our saviour christ , being the eternall sonne of god , through the work of the holy ghost , was made man of the uirgin mary , and born without original sin ; and by the same spirit filled stil his manhood more and more with grace , til the fulnes of all righteousnes was within him , that so his manhood might inherit salvation , according to the promise , do this , and thou shalt live . but hitherto as he is righteous , so he is righteous for himself ; and only that man is blessed , who was conceived by the holy ghost , and born of the uirgin mary . what more pregnant ? again , that christ for this his obedience was in grace and favour with god , both the evangelist witnesseth , and himself professeth . * the father loves me , saith he , because i lay down my life ; as w my father hath willed me to do . and why not also , x because i do alwaies those things , that are pleasing to him ? and that christ 〈◊〉 a favourite , helps to bring us into grace with god , i hope no true christian , either doubts or denies . y god himself so oft implying and intimating the same , and the apostle so expresly telling us , that z god hath graciously accepted us in his beloved . for as for the condition of trusting in christ , enough hath formerly been said : and he must needs wilfully wink , that refuseth to take notice of that which so a frequently he must needs meet with in the gospel , if he but superficially turn over the books of the new testament . not to ad , that hence christian writers , as wel b ancient as c modern , confirm the deity of christ , because we are d willed , and e said to beleeve in him , and pronounced f happy for so doing ; the very * papists themselves , tho against themselves , applying the same also to this purpose . but that m. vvotton any where hath affirmed , that christs obedience serves for this end onely to justifie himself , ( which comes short of what socinus himself acknowledgeth ) or to bring him into favour with god ; ( as if he had not been in favour with him before ) is more , i beleeve then m. wotton ever writ or sayd : sure i am , more it is , then m. walker gave in in evidence against him , when he laid as mach in his charge as he was able to reach to , no les then heresie and blasphemy . and i am the rather enduced to beleeve that herein he wrongs m. wotton , because no such restrictive particle is found in that passage of m. wotton , out of which m. walker seemeth to have pickt this vile calumny . his words are in a latine discourse g cited thence by m. walker himself , these . all that good will , wherewith god imbraceth us , proceeds from that favour that christ is in with god. now in these things is that for the most part contained , that he is by nature the sonne of god ; that he is perfectly holy ; that he hath performed obedience every way perfect , both by fulfilling the law , and by perfect performance of all things belonging to the office of a mediator . whence it follows , that those that beleeve are gracious with god also for the righteousnes of christ. whereunto i ad , what follows in the same discourse a little after . now faith is , as a mean , a condition , and , if you please , an instrument of partaking this goodwil of god in christ. so the part ( or office ) of faith is no other , then by beleeving in christ and receiving of him , to perform that which god requires of us to the reconciling , that is , the justifying and adopting of us ; that we may be partakers of the redemption and life eternal procured for us by christ. and towards the end : although i grant , that the justification of a sinner , that is , the remission of his sins , is to be fetcht properly frō christs obedience in the suffering of death : yet by his righteousnes also in fulfilling the law , i suppose that we obtain fauour with god. which words of m wotton , how they sute and agree , with what m. walker would here fasten upon him , i leave to be deemed by any one , that hath not his eyes , either blood-shot , or gallshot , as it is to be feared m. walkers were , when he either read that , or wrote this . yea but , how doth m. walker , from what he either finds in m. wotton , or fathers on him , extract a denial of christs deity ? a man had need of a quick fight indeed to discern that , as himself hereafter delivereth himself of it . h now where , saith he , is the infinite valew of christs deity , if he have need of justification and favour for himself ? and is not such a question as this , think ye , enough to stop any mans mouth , or to open it rather , and enforce him to condemn m. wotton without more ado for an arian ? but let us put m. walkers argument into form and figure , that we may the better descry and see the force of it . thus then it must be . whosoever saith ; that christ hath need of justification and favour for himself , denies his eternal deity , for he denies the infinite valew of his deity . but m. wotton holds , that christ had need of justification and favour for himself . therefore he denies christs eternal deity . the proposition of this syllogism may very well be questioned . for doth not the word of god say expresly , that i christ was , and is justified ? doth not the same word say , that k he was in favour , yea that l he grew in favour , both with god and man ? or was not either of these for himself ? yea but , peradventure he had no need of either for himself . surely those things , without which christ as man , could not be , either accepted with god , or entirely happy ; those it cannot be denyed but that be had need of , and need of for himself . but christ as man , unlesse he had been in a justifiable estate , could not have been accepted with god ; nor could he have been entirely happy , had he not been in favour with god. and what wil hence follow , m. walker may easily conceive , if he be pleased so to do . which if to acknowledge be a denial of the infinite valew of christs d●ity , i know not how any sound divine , exactly herein treading in the track of gods word , can be acquitted of arianism . nor could m. walker do the arians or socinians a greater pleasure , then if he were able to prove and make good what herein he affirmeth . true it is indeed , that a man may be said to have need of a thing two waies : first , when a man wants somewhat , that is requisite for him to have , when he should have use of it . and so our saviour christ had need of meat when he was , m hungry ; and of drink , when he was n athirst . but so he never needed any spirituall grace , or favour with god. secondly , when a man can not wel be without somewhat , the continuance whereof with him is useful and requisite for him . and so christ , as man , may wel be said to have had need even for himself of such righteousnes as might justifie him ; ( else he must have been o guilty of some sin , and p such a sinner , as the pharisees unjustly charged him to be ; ) and of such favour with god , as should make him , and whatsoever he should do , acceptable unto god. but some question here may wel be made , what should move m. walker thus to shape his argument , when he comes to conclude it . for in his proposition here , wherein his conclusion lies couched , he qualifieth that , which in his charge against m. wotton that should make up his assumption , with a note of restriction there inserted , but here omitted , he had made to sound much more harshly and hainously , then as here he repeats it . for there it was that m. vvotton should hold , that christs obedience served onely to justifie himself : whereas here the word onely is wholy left out , as no part of his argument . was it , think we , because his conscience gave him some after-check , and told him that he had charged more upon m. vvotton then he was able to make good ? or was it because his own heart suggested unto him , that this was too gros and palpable a falshood to fasten upon him , who every where professeth his opinion to the contrary , affirming the merit and benefit of christs obedience to redound also unto us ? so in the very same place , as m. walker himself also q cites him , he saith , if question be concerning the formal cause of justification , i exclude from it either obedience of christ. ( to wit , both active and passive . ) if of the efficient by way of merit , i maintain it to depend upon both . and his false dealing therefore therein might by his own allegations be easily discovered . but whatsoever it was that made him thus to stagger , is not greatly materiall , onely it may not be unusefully observed , to disclose in m. walker that , wherewith r formerly he taxed m. wotton ; to wit , such agiddines , procured by his so oft turning round , that he forgetteth the medium of his argument , wherein the pith of it should consist , tho laid down but two or three lines before , when he comes to conclude it . as for the charge it self , to cleare m. wotton of arianism ( that which the divel himself , i suppose , would never have charged him with ; but s tho in words , saith m. walker he professe the contrary , yet in effect he maintains ; ) i shal not need to say much : his sermons extant , on the first of s. johns gospel wil superaboundantly plead for him , and shew it to be a most shameles slander : unles that m. walker , by his chymical faculty , by which he is able to extract every thing out of any thing , can pick arianism out of those * discourses , wherein the same is very eagerly opposed , and as substantially refuted . from this fresh charge , which had it been given in , when time was , and that so strongly backt , and cleerly demonstrated , we could not possibly have avoided it , but must of necessity have found m. wotton an heretick , socinian or arian , no great matter whether if not both : he proceeds to t the poornes of m. g●takers defence ; thinking to excuse m. vvotton , by naming other heresies of servetus and socinus , that m. wotton held not , nor did m. walker charge him with : and pleading , that , because they were condemned for other heresies , therefore this was no heresie : which yet m. walker knows to be heresie and blasphemy ; and other learned proclaim it so to be : yea m. wottons own conscience told him that his opinions were condemned for such ; which for fear of shame therefore he sometimes denied ; and frequently contradicted himself , saying and unsaying , as socinus his master often did . to all which punctually in few words . . it would deservedly have been expected , that m. walker having charged m. wotton , with t maintaining , teaching , and infecting divers , with the most pestilent and dangerous errors and opinions of all that ever the devil sowed among christian people , the heresies of servetus and socinus , those most damnable and cursed hereticks , the greatest monsters that ever were born within the borders of christs church ; i say , that having thus charged m. vvotton , he should have proved him to consent with them in those monstrous and most pestile●t errors of all , that ever were by them held and taught : otherwise his evidence falleth far short of his charge . and surely one of these two m. walker by vertue of that his charge stands bound to maintain and make good ; either that those prodigious ●●tages and detestable blasphemies of servetus related by calvin , ( to let pas socinus and his denial of christs deity ) yea not those of him alone , but the like of u the ophites , the cainites , the nicolaitans , the basilidians , the valentinians , the carpocratians , the marcionites , the manichees , and the whole rable of abominable old hereticks , whose positions and practises were so hideous and horrible , or so unclean and obscene , that they are not almost to be related ; yet are not so vile and pestilent as are those errors , that either m. wotton indeed held , or were by m. walker ( truly , or falsly , shal be all one ) objected unto him ; or els , that , tho these are not so vile and pestilent as those ; that those were none of them by the devill sown among christian people , but these were . otherwise , if he wil be but judged by his own words , he must acknowledge himself a most notorious sycophant ; that chargeth so deeply , and so poorly and slenderly makes his charge good . and this , unles he wil eat his own words , how he can avoid , i see not . . it is most fals , that i use any such plea , that therefore , what m. vvotton held , concurring ( as m walker pretended ) therein with them , was no heresie ; because they were condemned for other heresies . for which assertion , i here charge m. walker with a manifest and palpable untruth : which together with divers others herein avowed by him , until he disclaim and acknowledge , i shal not desire to have further dealing with one that regards no more what he saith . among other things indeed , which he glides by , i question x his candor , in charging m. vvotton to concur with servetus in all points concerning the doctrine of justification ; when he produceth y but one short saying of servetus concerning abrahams faith : wherein yet m. wotton , neither in expresse tearms , and in sense and meaning much les , ( as i have above shewed ) concurreth with him . and withal z i shew by an instance m. walkers iniquity and unequal dealing therein ; such as himself would by no means admit , or endure in his own case . that which m. vvalker being altogether unable to wipe of , he slily slips away , and a insteed thereof shifts in a supposititious absurdity , a brat of his own brain ; to delude his reader , and to make him beleeve , that m. gataker so argues as himself too oft doth . . whereas he saith , he knows this ( i know not what , of m. woitons ) to be heresie and blasphemy : what need i say more , but ( as he sometime ) that herein i beleeve him not ; no more then m. richardson , if ( as c before he told us ) he affirmed on his knowledge , that whosoever lived and died in it should be damned . what he knows , i know not . but what he was able to make proof of , when time was , i know ; and men of as good credit every inch ( what if i said , of as great knowledg to in matter of divinity ? ) as m. walker , do give testimony thereunto . . what he jangles , so much , and so d oft , of other autors , i leave him to try it out with e him , whom he affirms f to have renewed m. vvottons opinions , and to have filcht all out of his writings . onely making bold to tel m. walker , that , when he hath read over a few of pareus his works , one of the autors he so oft mentions , and by name that * of his concerning christs active and passive obedience , out of which i have presented him with one or two small snips ; i am half of the mind , that he wil pas the like censure on him also for an heretick , that he hath done upon m. vvotton . and it may not without good ground , of probability at least , be conjectured , that therefore he waived medling with the latter part of my postscript ; because i therein g evidently shew , that a man may hold not a few points held by socinus , and yet not be therefore a socinian heretick . and i would but request of m. vvalker , to tel his mind plainly , what he thinks of those , who stifly hold and maintain ; that justification consists wholly in remission of sins ; that christs righteousnes in fulfilling the morall law is not imputed unto us for justification ; and that god without breach of his justice might have pardoned mans sin , requiring no satisfaction at all for the same ; whether they be socinian hereticks , as wel as m. wotton , or no. to which demand if he shal return an affirmative answer , he may be pleased to take notice by h my postscript , if at least he list so to do , what a large list of new hereticks , never before taken among us for such , must upon his doom now be taken in and ranged in that rank . . for his peering so narrowly into m. vvottons conscience , as i before , so here ; i shal leave him to render an account unto him , who k challengeth unto himself that prerogative , to see into mens souls ; and whose l power therefore m. walker therein usurps . . for m. vvottons pretended contradictions , enough already hath been answered . tho neither is it my part to make them all good ; nor doth it either make him an heretick , albeit they be not all made good ; or prove him conscious to himself , of what m. walker would thence infer . howbeit if m. wottons feare of shame , as m. walker here saies , induced him unto them ; then had m. wotton that , which i feare m. walker too much wants ; since that otherwise he would have been afraid to expose himself so to shame , as by his cariage in this very pam●hlet , besides what elswhere he hath done . as for socinus m. wottons master , as he p●… here to call him : it is no new thing with 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 to enlarge socinus his schoole , and to assigns him schollers , whom he lists , more then a few , who yet abhor socinus , it may be , as much as m walker himself doth . for his close , wherein he tels me , thinking thereby to stop my mouth , that m if i wil break forth into a further defence of m wotton , he wil be as ready to resist me ; taxes m. wotton , n for professing himself in some things concerning the point of justification , to dissent from them all , whom he speaks of ; wherein he compares , him to peter abeilard , who in some things professed to dissent from all the divines that went before him ; and lastly professes , in some generall and ambiguous tearms , o what his faith is . for all this a short answer ( as himself p elswhere ) wil serve . . i never undertook , nor do undertake , any defence of m. wotton , as holding no error : whom in my former relation q i professed in somethings to dissent from , that which himself also wel knew ; and mine animadversions upon his book de reconciliatione in some marginal notes ( wherewith , after my wonted manner , in reading of autors , for mine own private use , i have ( to use m. walkers r words ) be daubed my margent , and so marred my book ) wil easily and evidently shew the same . all that i have said , and do stil say , is this ; having witnesses beyond exception to beare me out therein ; that m. walker was not able to convince m. wotton of heresie and blasphemy , much les ( as he had charged him ) of the most ●estilent here sies that ever were sowen by the devil , or had sprung up in gods church , in that meeting , which he himself had procured for that purpose . and this , let m. walker shuffle and shift what he can , * like a foul in a snare , or fish in a net , or a wild bull in a toil ; the more he stirres , and strives and struggles , the more he may mash and entangle himself , but he wil never be able to expedite or wind himself out of . for as for his golias like menacing to resist me ; i shal so s ulysses ▪ like shelter my self under their sheild , whose attestation i have delivered , that he must first beare them and their credit down before him , ( which i assure my self he wil never do ) ere he shal be able either to lay me on my back , or to maintain his own ground , and keep himself standing in this encounter . . for m. wottons professing to dissent from them all ; wherein he yoakes him with abeilard . who those all are , i wot not , for i have none of that writing , out of which m. walker relates this . nor do i find that of abeilard , that bernard in this kind charges him with , in any writing of his now extant . that work of his , wherein he had it , ( if at least he had it in any , for some books are by t bernard cited as his , u which he professes he never wrote ) may be lost . howsoever , i suppose it no such hainous matter , in something to depart from all writers known to us , that have gone before us . sure i am that iunius and tremellius , in translating and expounding some passages of scripture , departed from all known interpreters that had gone before them : as in that x place of malachy ; for which those of the weaker sex are beholden to them ; that in all , even the best , translations ever before ran ; if thou hate her , put her away . tho y some indeed of the jewish rabbines directed to that , which those famous and worthy men , never sufficiently commended , admitted , against all that had before them taken pains in that kind . and they might wel therefore have said , as bernard sayes that peter abeilard did ; all interpreters before us thus translated this place : but we cannot therein concur with them . yet is not their interpretation , that i know , therefore deemed the les sound yea i suppose , that if all m. walkers own , either sermons or assertions were sifted , the like , omnes alii sic ; ego verò non sic ; would be more then once found in them . he that to prove , the swedes to be the people designed by gods word for the destruction of the romish babylon , should affirm that that prophecy , wherein people are willed to a come from the utmost border , or end ( understanding it , of the world ; which yet is not necessary ) to destroy babel ; was never fulfilled in the destruction of the chaldean babylon ; should therein , i suppose , cros all interpreters of holy writ that are commonly in hands . which whither m. walker , as some report , have affirmed or no , is best known to himself . but sure i am , as i have formerly touched , concerning the ground of mans fall , i have heard him profes himself to dissent from all our divines ; laying withal a very foul aspersion upon all that therein dissented from him . howsoever since that in these latter times , it hath been by gods spirit foretold , that b knowledge should encrease ; yea reason it selfe , besides dayly experience telleth us the self-same : for , notwithstanding the diligentest searches of all foregoing ages . c truth much of it remaines stil undiscovered , and d it is an easier matter to ad to former discoveries , then to discover things at first : they may see most , that come last : and we find it in all other learning and knowledge , that those things have in these latter days been brought to light , which in former ages , for ought that can be discryed , were utrerly unknown ; i suppose , under correction , that it ought not to be deemed any just cause of aspersion , if a man shal , with modesty , rendring at least some reason of good probability for his so doing , profes himself compelled in some things to depart from all those , that to his knowledge have dealt in some argument before him : especially if he shall withall ( as the same peter in the very entrance to his introduction unto divinity doth ) profes himself g ready to give satisfaction in ought said amisse by him to any man ; who either by force of reason , or by authority of scripture , shal thereof convince him ; either by altering , or by expugning it . that so , saith he , tho i be not free h from the evil of ignor●ne ; yet i may not incur the crime of heresie . i for it is not a mans ignorance , but his proud obstinacy , that makes him an heretick . nor , may i wel ad , were the bare profession of dissent in some particulars from all other orthodox divines presumed in either , sufficient to make , either m. vvotton , or peter abeilard an heretick . lastly , as concerning m. walkers profession of k his faith , that l he purposes to live and die in , tho i know not what authority m. vvalker hath to compose a creed for every one to subscribe to : nor do i deem it necessary unto salvation , that every one should in all things be of his belief . yet this his form , ( like m a yragik buskin , that may be drawn on either leg ) is in such generall and ambiguous tearms conceived ; ( lest he should exclude from it some of those writers , whom he crakes so much of , as concurring with him in condemning m. wottons opinions for heretical and blasphemous ) that m. vvotton himself , i verily beleeve , were he alive , would not refuse to subscribe to it . and m. walker wel knows , that , were he put to explaine it , and to declare more distinctly , what he means by christs righteousnes , and the fulfilling of the whole law for him , one at least of those worthies , whom he hath so oft in his mouth , ( to say nothing of another of them , whom yet so highly he extols ) would not only refuse to subscribe to , but condemn some part of his faith o as a vain refuse and subtilty , not agreeable to scripture ; but such as taints the purity of orthodox doctrine , rends in pieces that righteousnes , whereby we stand just hefore god , p derogates from the death of christ , and q makes his cros and his satisfaction by death for our sins , wholy needles and superfluous . which speeches of his ( and pareus his they are ) if , to m. walkers eare they sound not as hereticol and blasphemous , i wonder how ought should in m. wottons writings . and so i shal take my leave of him ; leaving him to reconcile himself to pareus , since that m. wotton is now departed , who yet herein jumpeth not wholy with him ; and wishing him a little more sobriety and modesty toward his christian brethren , that have not so ill deserved , either of him , or of gods church , as to be thus scandalously taxed , traduced , railed upon , and reviled , as by him they are , both here and elswhere . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 theophylact. ep . . c vindica● . p. . d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . nicet . in andron . l. . c. . e vindic. p. . f ut in eis duarum rerum majorem babeas rationem , pietatis & modestiae . . rainold . ad alb. gentil . ep . . g quod me modestiae laesae facis tu reum , — non vides te cum eo fic agere imperiosè , qui papae imperium contemp●it , & exulare patriâ potuit & universo regno papali ? alb. gentilis al 〈◊〉 . rainold . ep . . h 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . plut. de amie . & adul . & de util . ex inimic . ex platone de leg . lib. . i rom. . . k 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . moschio . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . dionys. trag . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . archiloch . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 euripi● . antigon . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . idem phaeniss . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . sophocl . ajac. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gregor . stasim . in carm . schol. ad illud aristoph . paco . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . et suidas . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . hinc diverbia illa 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . aristoph . avib . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . soph. ajac. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . laert. menedēm . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . lucian . de sect . et vulgare illud , de mor●…is nil nisi bonum . quod 〈◊〉 solonis lege tractum est , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . plut. sol. è demosth. in leptin . et in baeot. et chilo sparta . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , laert. l 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . p ato politic . l. ael●aao sopb●stae , qui in lmp●ratorem defu●ctum stylum strinxe ▪ rat , phil●stratus , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . hinc antholog . l. , c. . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . audet vel lepus exanimi ●●sultare lconi . hectorique jacenti insultat danaûm ignavissimus quisque iliad . 〈◊〉 . et quamlibet ignavi praecipitata premunt . naso trist . lib. . eleg . . nec plancus illepidè , eum diceretur asini●s pollio orationes in eum parare , quae post mortem p ▪ anci ederentur , ne respondere posset , cum mortuis non nisi larvas luctari : quo apud eruditos nihil impudentius judicatur . plin. praefat . hist. nat . itaque maro aen . l. . nullum cum victis certamen & aethere cassis . deest , esse oportet . serv. m see pet. moulins of the eucharist . chap. . n hebr. . . o terra novissimè complex● gremio , tum maximè ut mater operiens , nullo magis sacramento , quam quod nos quoque sacros facit . pl●… . hist. nat. l. . c. . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . pl●t . de ●olon . leg . p uhi corpus homi●is demortui co●aas , sacer esto . numae lex . sep●●chrorum sanctitas in ipso solo est , quod nul â vi mov●ri nequ● dele●i potest . c●c . philip . ebustis defurctorum lapidem movere , terram evertere , cespitem evellere●proximum sa●rilegio majore , nostri semper habu●runt . iulian. cod. l. . tit . . leg . . ●nde emen●andus cod●x . theodos l . tit . . l . defunctorum cineribus violentiam inferre , sacrilega praesum●●● . valent. novel , tit . . ne sepu●●hra quidem dirip●r● & ca●avera ●poliare illicitum ducebant ●a●rilegae v●…pilatorum manus . eu●eb . hist. lat. vers . l. . c. . sacrilegae bus●is abstinuere manus . senec. epigr. . q 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . homer . il. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . plato menex . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . isocr● euag. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . polyb ▪ l . siquis est sensus in morte . cic. phil. . siquis inferis sensus est sen ad po●yb . . . siquis vit● digressis est dolor . ammian . l. . r sic enim & nostri . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . greg. in iul. . idem in cae●ar . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . idem in pasc● . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . s abiit , non obiit . ambr. theodos. t 〈◊〉 reliquias dissipari ▪ jussit , acerbiore odio , quam si tam sapiens fuisset , quam v●●emens fuit . cio . de leg● l. . u pag. . x galat. . . with gen. . y letter to m. wotton vindic. p. . z ibid. p. . a ibid. p. . & relat. p. . . b psal. . . c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . homer . o●ys . 〈◊〉 . & il. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 odys ▪ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . pindar . n●m . . gr●gor . stasim . in iul. . & greg. pr●●b . in vit . stas . e res est sacr● , miscr . sen. c. epigr. . * pag. . e pag. . f 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . apud suidam n. q. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . sext. empir . pyrrhon . l. . c. . alex. aphrod probi . l. . q . alarcus lmper . co●mert . l. . § . greg. stas . desed ▪ constant . g relat. p●st●c● . p. . h ●…d . p. . i relat p. . . * relat. p. . i conclusio partem sequior●m sequitu● . * relat. p. . & vindic. p. . * relat. p. . i pag. . k pag. . l socsnianisme discovered , p. . . m parall . error . . & relat. p. . . n rom. . , , , , , . o rom. . . p agitur hîc de eo , quod ipsi d de● imputatum est , nempe de lpsius side . beza in rom. . . q paulus activam locutionem passivè convertens , praetermittit affixum hebraeum , quod vertere potuit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ipsam videlicet s●…m abrahami . sed hoc ipsum p●stea disertè bis expri●it . nempe versu & . ibid. r idem valent , deus imputavit fidem , & sides a deo est imputata . quantum ad sensum duo continet hoc eloquium ; primò fidem abrahae ; credidit a. deo. deinde , fidei fructum , & imputata est ei ( fides ) ad justitiam . par. in rom. . . s et imputata est ei ( fides ) pro justitiâ . fructus fidei abr. significatur , gratuita justificatio . ibid. t 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , non impersonaliter reddi debere , imputatum est , sed passive , imputata est , nempe fides , ex hebrae● textu , & apostoli declaratione . vers. . & . manifestum est . quod ad sensum scripturae recte intelligendu●… refert observare . ibid. v relat. postscript . p. . u apostolus justificationem in solâ remissione peccatorum constituit . p●ran rom. . . dub. . * manifestum est , non imputar● peccatum , poni pro justificare , lub . ad socin . l. . c. . p. . col . . saepe ostendimus justificationem contineri gratuitâ peccatorum remissione . ibid. l. . c. . p. . col . . x de justitiâ christi activâ , & passiva epist. ad com. lud. witgen . y in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est justitia duplex , divina & humana . humana est inhaerens , & acquisita , illam vocant habitualem ; hanc meritoriam . de illa loquitur apus . heb. . . & pet. . . de hac rom. . . per unam satisfactionem . v. . lubb. c●ntr . socin . l. . c. . sanguine , srve obedientiâ christi justificamur formalite● ; fide instrumentaliter . ibid. c. . p. . duo ad justificationem reqiruntur ; unum , ut christus pro peccatis nostris mortuus sit , atque ita pro eis satisfaciat : alterum , ut nos hanc christi solutionem five satisfactionem vera fide recipiamus . ibid. l. . c. p. . haec justitia , s●ve obedientia , iive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 christi , sive denique sacrificium , sive sanguis christi , sive solutio pretii redemptionis nostrae à christo sacta , absolvit nos 〈◊〉 reatu , constituit nos justos , justificat nos , &c. ibid. c. . p. , ● . christi enim obedientia , quam patri in morte pro nobis praestitit , est vera illa justitia , quâ patri reconciliamur . ibid. c. . p . z qui obedientiae activae , aut sanctitati nativae , meritum justitiae ascribunt , mortem christi sine dubio inanem reddunt . par. de justit . christi activ . & pass . pofit . . p. . c m●rti christi justificationem contra scripturas derogant . ibid. p . * letter to m. wotton . p. . “ pag. , . * pag. , . a answer to error . relat. p. . b pag. . c ibid. d sic scil . beare solet ami●os . e relat. paral. error . p. . f see relat. p . g m. walkers socinianism discovered and confuted . p. . h ibid. epist. p. . i socin . disc . p. . i pag. . k nec saui esse ●…is non●…nus jaret orestes pers. sat . l pag. . m pag. , . n pag. . o pag. , . p pag. . q pag. , . r pag. . s pag. . * epist. before his discovery p. . t pag. . u pag. , . x dan. . . y see vindicat. p. . . z quid interest deos neges , an infames ? senec. ●p . . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 plut. de . supers●it . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . porphyr . de abstin . l. . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . epiphani aneor . §. . a relat. p. . . b vindic. p. . . c vindic. p. . d pag. . e pag. . f pag. . g pag. . h pag. . i pag. . k pag. . l pag. . * m. eg●rtons letter to m. wotton . n vindic. p. . o pag. . p vindic. p. . q see relat. p. . r vindic. p. . s ibid. t ibid. u pag. , . x pag. . y pag. . a pag. . b see of pavl and barnabas , acts . . chryso●●ome & ep●…mus , s●crates hist. eccl. 〈◊〉 . c. . hierome and aug●stine in then ep●stles to either hierome & ruffine , in hieromes epistles and invectives . c pag. 〈◊〉 . d relat p. . e vindic. p. . f see relat. p , . g pag . h pag. . . i see relat. p. . k pag. , . l pag. . m pag. . n see relat. p. . o zeno phocylidis dictum illud notabat , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . plut. de stoic . contradict . §. . p john . . act. . . neminem praedamnare incognità causa licet . lactant l. . c. . q 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . plut. alex. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , anton. m●… . 〈◊〉 . c. . r qui statuit aliquid . parte i●auditâ aliera ; aequum licet fiatu●rit , ●aud aequs fuit . sence . med. . . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . menand . s iudex damnatur , cum nocens absolvitur . p. syrus . t pag. . u ibid. x 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . muta persona . y pag. . a pag. . b quo teneam vultus mutantem protea nodo ? c relat. p. . d relat. p. , . e prallel . er●or . . relat. p. . * relat. p. . f fidem inserit , ut d●ccat pidem esse conditi●…m , sub qua christus nobis datus est propitiatorium . pareus in rom. . . g conditio , qua propriè justificamur , ea est , ut in christum credamus . fox de christ. grat . justif . p. . * promissio evangelica nullā exigit conditionem aliam , praeter fidem duntaxat , qua credimus in filium dei. ibid p. . h reform . cathol . point . . of justificat . the manner , differ . . reason . i m. wil. pe●bles uindiciae . or , plea for grace , that especially of faith . k m. g. walker epist. to the christian reader . l ibid. m m. w. pemble , vindiciae fidei , or , of justification by faith , sect. . chap. . p. . n ibid. p. . o ibid. p. . p the reformed churches thus explaine themselves . ibid. p. . q parall . error . . r relat. postsc● . p. . s relat. postscr . p . t rom. . . u ubi promittenti deo f●…miter credidit , est illi ejusmodi si●●s loco justitiae imputata ; hoc est , ob ca●a fidem justu● est a deo reputatus . muscal . in gen. . . x psal. . . . y psal. . . z epiphan . haer . . §. . aug. de haeres . c . a john . . b epiph. haer . . §. . aug. de haeres . c. . c creed of constantinople , commonly called the nicene creed . d isidar . origin . l. . c. . socrat. bistor . l. . c. . euagr. l. . c. . e onuphr in vita ius . pp. dr. field of the church , l. . c. . & l. . c. . breerwood of relig. & langrug c. . p. . f aio . christian non solum egere cam caeteru sed multo plus egere quam caeteros . sunt enim quibus et si desiat multa , non desunt omnia . chris●us tantummodò solus est , cui nihil est , quod in emni humano g●n●re non desit . salvi an . ad eccl. cathol . l. . g non eget mi●●riâ , sed eget misericorata ; noo eget ●eitate prose , sed eget pietate pro suis. ibid. h sext decretal . de verb. si●g 〈◊〉 . exi● t. i extr. de ve● sign . c. ad condi &c. quia quorard●… . k christus summus & maximus peccator . luth. in gal. . . p. . quo nullus major in mun . do . ib. p. . l omnium hominum peccata omnia in se suscep● . lbid . p. . & . p●rsonam 〈◊〉 ●●ndam gerendam ●…pit ; ●…que reus factus est peccaterum totius mu●di . 〈◊〉 . p. ● . m christus quatid●● peccat : & ex quo fuit christus , quotid●… p●… it . aug. d. rom. de sacram . christ. & eccles. l. . n nod , ●e capite , sed de membris , que cum christo capite , sunt unus christus . idem . o rom. . . & . . p cor. . . omnes sancti & fideles cum homine christo sunt unus christus . aug. de pecc . mer. & rem . l. . c. . caput enim & corpus unus est christus . idem de trmit . l. . c. . & in ps. . & de verb. dom. . & . bed. in ioan , . bern. ●p . . christus cum totâ suâ ecclesia , una persona est . greg. in ps. paen . q gal. . . cor. . . r conc. basil. sess . . s john . . t joh. . . u joh. . x epipban . her . . § . y h. n. terri pacis c. . & . i. r. of family of love , d. , . a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ex platone plut. symp●s . l. . c. . & . & de esu carn . l. . & greg. stas . de ma●tyr . & ad iul. exact . b math. . . marke . . d john . . f john . . g john . . col. . . john . . h john . . i uideantar ios. scaliger de emendat . temp. l. . p. , . phil. lansberg . chronol . sacr . l. . c. . tho. lydiat . emend . temp. a. m. , & . k 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ioseph . antiq . l. c. . gr. . lat. ad albinum abitu●…ntem , circiter quadriennium ante excidium . n math. . . marke . , . ios●ph . antiq . l. . c. . & belli . l. . c. , . gr. lat. . vide ri●…n . . &c. l hieron . in hagg. . chrysost. in cor. orat . . fr. ribera in hagg. 〈◊〉 . n. - . m hagg. . , . o 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . p 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dan. . , 〈◊〉 ▪ q ios. ant . l. . c. . r marke . . s i. h. christianity maintained chap. . § . p. . t preface n. . u i h. ibid. p. x ibid. p. . y g. c. p●eface to the author of charity maintained , num . . * io. speed in ed●… . . § . a vindicat. p. , . b pag. . c pag. ● . d fingunt , que vera negarent , dum credi , quod non contigit esse , volunt . e relat. p. . f v●… . p. . g pag. . h pag. . i ibid. k ibid. l see relat. p. . m vindic. p. . n pag. . o damna●i ubi jam jure sese sense●…t sontes , iniquos conqueruntur judices . sons nemo sese jure damn●tum volet . p vindic. p. . q g. w. letter to a. w. vind. p. . r luke . . s luke . . t pag. . u pag. . x pag. . y pag. . a pag. . b pag. . c pag. . d ibid. e pag. . * ibid. e in elench● disput . fr. gomari : & disceptatione cum lud. lucio . f 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . aristot. ethic. e●…dem . l. . c. . pausan. phocic . plut. thes. laert. cleanth aelian . hist. var. l. . c. . hephaest . nov . hist. l. . apud phot. cod . . ephipp . pelt . apud athen. l. . zenob . adag . . varro . satyr . g 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . ne hercules quidem adversus duos . zenob . adag . . suid. . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . plat. phaed. & euthyd . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . idem . leg . . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . aristid de ●betor , . eccles. . . h guil. tilen . de si●r . lub . h pag. . l ibid. k ibid. * paralel . point . or error . relat. p. . . l ibid. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . plut. de isid. & osir. m relat. p. , . n fictio personae . o pag. . p pag. , . q maro ae● . l. . r pag. . s pag. . t illo per se ac propriè justificamur , quod dum adest nobis , & deus & homines nos justos pronunciant , dum abest , injustos . fides illud unum est , quo si polleamus , deus & homines n●s inter justos numerant ; sin minus , inter injustos . ergo , &c. bucer . praefat . enarrat . epist. paul. c. . § . syllog . . a ans. to err. . relat. p. , b fides , tanquam qualitas , habitualiter non justificat ; ncque m●teria est justificatīonis nostrae , neque forms : e● solâ ratione ad justificationem valet , quod in christum recumbat , ad veniam delictorū propter ipsius obedientiam adipiscendam ad dissert . . § . c fides certè non justificat , nisi tantum per & propter christi obedientiam . cum dicitur ad justitiam imputari , quid nos praestare oporteat , ut per christum justificemur , significatur . ibid. d fide justificari dicimur , non tropicâ , sed propriâ l●cutione : qu● significatur , fidem illud esse , quod deus à nobis flagitat , ad justificationem conseqendam propter christi ●bedientiam & sacrificium . ibid. e parall , error . . rela● p. : f neque tamen interea tortuosas bujus sophis●● figurat admitto , quum dicit eidem esse christum . calvin , iastitut . l. . c. . § . g inscitè sidem , que instrumentum est duntaxat p●rcipiendae justitiae , dic● misceri cum christo ; qui materiaris causa , tantique beneficii autor simul est & minister . ibid. h iam expeditus est nodus quomodo intelligi debeat vocabulum fide i , uhi de justificatione agitur . ibid. i rom. . . & . . & . . , 〈…〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . ma●c . imp. l. . § . l vindic. p. . m ibid. p. , n see m. egertons letter before produced : and his peicing up of m. wottons assertions . o vindic. p. . p ibid. q 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . tim●us . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . polyh . l. . r vindic. p. . s ibid. t ibid. p. , . u pag. . x ibid. y nul'us reli●tus est ●edius locus , nisi sit vita aeterna , extra r●gnum caelorum ; qui●q●i● ad regnum dei non pertinet , ad damnationem sine dubio pertinet . aug. de verb. ap. . credite mihi fratres . duo sunt loca ; & tertius non est ullus . idem . de temp . . tertium penitas ignoramus : nec in scripturis sanctis inveniemus . idem hypognost . l. . a pag. . b pag. . c on his death-bed , pag. . a dying man. p. . d pag. . e ibid. f relat. postsc . p. . g pag . h pag. . i pag. . k pag. : l answer to two treatises of m io. can. m pag. . n pag. . o io. can of necessity of separation from non-conformists principles . p. . of which see preface to rejoinder , p. . p ex pauculis guttis dignoscitur maris 〈…〉 non ebibatur . 〈◊〉 . l. a. c. . p chap. . & chap. . q 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . psal. ●●irac . c●●ib . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . greg. naz. ep . & . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . ide● . apolog . fallit enim affectus . pli●… . l. . ep . . & amantium caeca sunt judicia . hieron . ad ioan. hierosol . r sir edward cook then lord chief justice . s see m. prinnes p●eface to his treatise of the perp●tuity of faith. t ●orense vocabulum . calviu . iustitut . l. . c. . § . chemnit . exam . conc. trid. part . . de vocab . justif . pet. mart. in rom. . . bucer . praefat . in epist. paul. c. . par. in rom. . . & resp . ad dub . . chamier . pa●strat . tom . . l. . c . § . bellarm. de justif . l. . c. . except . . & . u deut. . . psal. . . prov. . . esay . & . . that is in english. there hath been sent me from london by m. cappel pastor of the french church there , a little book of justification , small in bulke , but in learning , wit and acutenesse very great , written in english by william bradshaw . this because it much pleased me , and gomarus and i had but one copy between us ; i translated out of hand for mine own use into french , and left the english copy to gomarus . i will speake ingenuously . i never hitherto read ought in any humane writing of dogmaticall divinity , that so exceedingly liked me . so learnedly , acutely , closely , solidly , pithily , both plainly , and yet with ●dmirable brevity , is this whole argument most fully comprased , and thoroughly handled by you . i want words , wherewith to commend and extoll it according to its desert . i have oft read it over ; and yet never had enough of it , but the oftner i repeate it and reade it over againe , the more eagerly is mine appetite stirred up unto it so great splendor and light of learning , of art and wit shineth forth in it . and so forth . for the rest is a discours concerning some particulars , wherein he desired further satisfaction , treading wholy then in piscators steps . that is in english : right worthy sir , i wrote before to you , that i had received your truely golden little book of justification , enlarged by you , and turned into latine ; and that presently , but hostily , i read it over , so eager an appetite had i to it , by reading the other edition of it in english before . since that i have read it over againe , not once but often , and taking leisure thereunto . which the oftner i reade over againe , the more it pleaseth me , and is approved of by me : so accurately and exactly is it composed by you . i hope this birth and issue of your mind will find approbation with peaceable and moderate dispositions , on whether side so ever they are ; albeit you condescend not to them in all things that they require . you pace so in the middest between either opinion , that you ought not to displease either of them , if they truly love peace and concord . a pag. . b pag. , . c dolosus vers●tur in universalibus . reg. iur. d ecquis innocens esse pote●j●● si acousasse sufficiet ? iulian. apud ammian . l. . e pag. . f sicnt ex ennii stercore aurum v●rgilius . g math. m●…inius . h multa discimus p●eri , de quibus dubitamus senes . i fat●or me ex corum rum●ro esse co●ari . qui s●ribendo pr●fi eiunt & pro●fiendo scr●…t . aug ●p . . * opuscula me● retractanda suscepi , ut nee meipsum in o●…ibus me secutum demonstrem . aug. de persever . c. . k nullus mihi pudor est , ad meliora transire . ambr. ep. . turpe est n●…tare are sententiam ; sed veram & rectā . nam stultam noxia●ve & laudabile & salubre est . aug. ep . . optimi enim est propositi , laudandique consilii , facilè ad veriora traduci . victor apud aug. de orig . anim . l. . c. . l non est levita● ab errore jam cognitodiscedere . h●ec verò superbae stultitiae persevera●tia est , quod semel dixi , fixumratum sit . semel placita semper maneant , nec ulla in libris meis litura fit . sen. de benef . l. . c. . & de beat . c. . m 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . m. anton. l. . n 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . epictet . stob. c. . n est virtus summa veritati cedere . o 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . phi●onid . a jure vinci praecluis victoria est . grot. a veritate vinoi res pulcherrima . a veritate ●in . ●i , lau● est , baud probrum . p see pareus de ast. & pass . chr. ohed . pofit . . p. . q see before m. bradshaws prefac . r cor. . . s elenchus disput . fr. gomari : & disceptatio cum lud. lucio . t debere me multum profitebor , amicè decteque potior a suggerenti . lud. vr●es praefat . in aug. de civ . dei. in aere me ejus futurum profiteor , qui candidè caftigarit . zinzerlin . promiss . erit . u 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . de●…crit . & isocrat . stob. c. . & anton. 〈◊〉 . l. . ● . x vitium ●xoris aut tollendum , aut f●rendum est . qni tollit vitium , uxorem commodioreet praestat . qui fert , sese meliorem facit . varro . gel. l. n. c. . y 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . plato gorg. method . apud epithan . haeres . . § . gregor . naz. apud max. c. . a cor. . . rom. . . b jam. . . c cor. . . d cor. . . & . , . e act. . . & . . & . , . & . . & , . cor. . ; . gal. . . f tit. . . g gen. . . h 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . plato gorg. nullius addictus jurare in verba magist●i . flac. epist. . i pag. : k pet. . . l thes. . . m charitas , quandiu hîc vivitur , augeri p●test . quamdiu autem augeri potest , profectò iilud quod minus est quam d●bet , ex vitio est . ex quo vitio non est , qui non p●●cet . aug de perfect . just . c . n see a list of them relat. posts● . p. . u pag. . p pag. . q see the preface prefixed to the reader . r legatur antidiatribe ame●●o voeti●que r●po●●ta : & responsio balmfordo reddit● . s 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . âe dionys. longino ennap . in p●rphyr . oui & in aedes . socrates . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . t 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . arifla . thet . l. . c. . a pag. . b pag. . c relat. p. . d relat. p. . d pag. . e de act. & pasio . chr. obed. possit . . p. . f pag. , ● g error . ● relat. p. . h error . . relat. p. . i epist. prefixed to m. pembles plea for grace . k ibid. l pag. . m 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . democrit . sto● . c : . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 de cyro xenoph . instit . l. . quâ noceat , ira videt ; quâ caveat , non videt . sen. de irâ . l. . c. . n pag. . o relat. poscr . p. . p de christ. servat l. . c. . q quod dicit , fidem esse ea sacere , quae christus praecepit , falsum est . lubb. ad l. . c. p. . col . . r dicere , fidem esse ea facere , quae christus praecepit , est idem quod , iasanire . ibid. s docet , christo ejusque verbis credere idem esse quod christo obedire : negamus . obedientia enim est effectum sidei . errat igitur , qui contendit fidem & obedientiam idem esse . ibid. p. . col . . t firmum est , quod beza soribit , fidem non posse mandatorum obedientiam significare . ib. p. . col . . u mark. . . q pag. . b answer to error . . § . relat. p . & to error p. . c manifestum est , in salute per christum partâ , deum nihil aliud à nobis requisivisse quam paenitentiam & vitae correctionem . d poenitentiae addita alicubi est fides , non quia praeter ipsam poenitentiam fides in christū , tanquam aliquid amplius , quod huc pertineat in nobis efficiens , ad peccatorum remissionem consequendam requiratur , sed quia non nisi per fidem in christum ista poenitentia contingit . socin . l. . c. . p. . col . . e rom. . . f peccatorum veniam conversio naturae ordine sequitur , non praecedit . lubb. ad l. . c. . p. . c. . naturae ordine justificatio est prior . ib p. . c. . g resipiscentia justificationis effectum est . ib. p. . c. . h paenitentia non est causa expiationis , sed ejus consequens . ib. ad l. . c. . p. . c. . i reprobamus hanc sententiam , nam , ut jam millies osten sum est , remissio p●ccatorum , hoc est justificatio nostri , est naturâ prior poenitentiâ . quam obrem hanc ejus causam esse est simpliciter impossibile . ib. p. . c. . & l. . c. . p. . c. . & p. . c. , . k non nostra resipiscentia , sed ipsius sacrificium est vera causa remissionis pee●aterum . ib. l. . c. . p. . c. . l deum promittere veniam resespiscenti non negamus : tantum negamus resipiscentiam nostram esse causam , quare deus nobis peccatorum veniam largiatur . ib. l. . c. . p. . c. . m pag. . n ibid. o answer to error . . § . relat. p. , . p parall . error● . relat. p. . q pag. . r apoc. . . s pag. ● . t marke . . john . , , . . acts . . rom. . . * si ad certas conditiones restring●… dei promissio , quomodò gratuitam dei miseri●ordiam cum paul● constituemus , quâ gratis per gratiam justificat impium ? de christ. grat . iustif. p. . u imò verò quam maximè gratuitam dei misericordiam in christo & censeo & statuo . cum tamen salus haec per christi meritum , non nisi sub certa quadam conditione ad nos derivetur . ibid. w reform . cathol . point . . of means of justif . differ . . reas. . * plea for grace sect. . chap. . p. . x mark. . . acts . . y videatur in disceptatione cum lud. lucio part . . sect . . luc. script . n. . p. , . & t. g. animadv . n. . p. . luke . . & . . thes. . , which places the papists abuse to build merit and worth of works upon . bellarm , de justific . l. . c. . and remists notes . a pag. , . b relat. p. . c ibid. p. . d pag. . e in his woolf in sheeps clothing . f pag. : g relat. p. , . h ib. p. . n. . i ib. p. . n. . k preface to treat . of justif . l si justificationis efficientem dicat quis justitiam christi per modum meriti , ego planè cum eo sentio . m si qui● christi justitiā nostram formalem esse justitiam non contendat , nulla mihi cum illo de imputatione est controversia . n iustitiae christi ad beneficium imputationem ego agnosco & prae me fero . o non mihi unquam in mentem ne per somnium quidem , venit neg tre , nos propter christi justitiam justificari . p pag. . q pag. . r calvin . instit. lib. . c. . § . s pag. . t answer to error . . propos. . relat. p . u prae sat . comment . in ep st . paulin. x ad di cept . lub . cum bert. y pag. . z occ●… miseros crambe● epe●…●●acc . art . a ibid. b pag. . c pag. . d pag. . e woolf in sheeps cloathing . chap. . § . f pag. . g ●…ibus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . democrates apud stob. c. . s●●e , ut plut in m●nit . polit . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * sir maurice bartlet . h m. rob. harris in s. pauls exercise . m sam ward , in balm from gilead . k in that preface prefixed . l rom. . . m iam. . . n woolf. chap. . error . . on chap. . n. . the form is the pleading of the said righteousnes or innocency , &c. o de activ . & pass ▪ chr. obed. p. . n pag. . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . titus . . o cor. . ▪ * rom. . . cor. . . & . . . p pag. . q ex de act. & pass . chr. obed. p. . r pag. . s ●ingens quod sisyphus versat saxum , sudans nitendo , neque p●●ficit hilum . ex epico aliquo ●ic . tuscul. l. . t pag. . u ibid. x iudex procedere debet secundum allegata & probata . reg. iur. y ibid. a pag. . b pag. . c pag. ● d ibid. e i●g . . f 〈…〉 . g 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . chrysost. ad olympiad ●p . . h 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dem●…h . olyath . . i pag. . k pag. . l dicit ille multa quidem multis locis : sed aqua ●eret , ut aiunt . cic. offic. l. . et ad q. fratr . l. . ep . . quod dictum fuerat actum iri , non vst actum : in hac causd mihi aqua heret . quod erasm. adag . . malè cepit & accepit ; cum in aqua haerere dictum voluit . quem nec h. steph. expedivit . est graecorum , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . suid m adversus propri● nulla est exceptio . chamier . pa●sirat . tom . . l. . c. . § . n varius sucro●e●sis aemylium scaurum regiâ m●rcede corruptum imperium papuli roma●i prodi●isse ●i● : ae●ylius scauru● huic se affinem esse culpae negat . ●iri creditis ? val. max. l. . c. . ex . . fab. instit . l. . c. . 〈◊〉 . in ci● . pro scaur . * pag. , . o 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . zenob . ad . . diog. . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . theocr. idyl . . quod erasm. ad . . nigrum silicem , malè vertit , cum luteum laterem debuisset . ter. pborm . . . purgemme ? laterem lavem . hier. ad . pelag. l. . nugaris , nec meministi illius proverbii , in eo . lem luto volutaris , imò laterem lavas . crudum scil . qui lavando fit lutulentior . p quod est plus , quam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ut philostr . epist. lutum lut ▪ purgare . q pag. . r pag. . s qui legiones difftat spiritu , ut ventus fo●… , au● panniculam tectoriam . plaut . milit. . . t pag. . u relat. p. . w pag. . x ibid. y in epistolis nondum editis . a answer to error . . r●lat . p . b iilud 〈◊〉 , & christi p●rp●●siones no●is imp●t●● , & not p●opt●r illas ●●nia●u peccator●m & absolution●m 〈◊〉 reat d deo ●…sequi . quo uno 〈◊〉 ●…us , ni●il ad script●r as explicandas accommodatius , aut di●i , aut c●g tariposse conteu . 〈◊〉 th●s . . c furore pestis p●…ma in ●…simo . prad●nt . in rom. d pag. , . e pag. . f credo filium per omni● patri esse coaequalem ; scil . aeternitate , potestate , &c. petr. abeilard . conses . sid . ●d hel. g nec audis arium . ibid. h sapit arium . bern. ep . . i perverso ingenio actus , imò daemoniaco seductus spiritu . abeilard . ubi supr . k gradus facit in trmitate : patrem majorem , fi●ium d●gmatizans min●rem . idem ibid. l ponit in trinitate gradus , constituit deum patrem esse plen●m p●…tiam : i i●●um , quandam p●…tiam : sp. sa●ctum , n●ll●m potentiam . b. 〈◊〉 . ●p . . m hec verba per ma●tiam 〈…〉 , 〈◊〉 tam ●…tica quam di●…ca , d●t●stor , 〈◊〉 : eaque cum autore suo p●rit●r 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 in ap●l●g . n ●…riat criptis , nen solu●… hereticum , verum etiam heresiarcham 〈…〉 . o ibid. iustitiae est , 〈…〉 cuiqu● trib●ere cicer●… iuvent . l. cornif . ad heren . l. . p ma●h . 〈◊〉 . . qu●…ri non vis , alterine ●…is . alex. se●●r . hicron . ad algas . bern. de 〈…〉 . l. . q legantur alb. g●…eri abs●r●●rum absurdissima , absurda calvinistica . aliaque ejusmodi istorum scripta . r cor. . . s phil. mornaeus dom. de p●essis lib. de verit . re●●g . christian. s john . . & . . . & . . t nifi perfecta ad fuisset obedientia , ipsemet peccator esset , & pro se puniendus . fr. gomar . disput● elenct . de justif . mat . & form . thes . . u m. edw. dearing on hebr. le●● . . p. . in . * john . . w iohn . . . & . . x john . . y math. . . & . . z 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . epes . . . a john . . & . , , , . & . , , . & . , . & . , . & . , . & . . acts . . & . . & . . rom. . , . & . . & . , &c. b origen . in io●● . hom . . gregor . naz. ●rat . : athanas. cont . arian . orat . . cyril . de trindial . . c vrsin . catech. explic . quaest . . § . rat . stegman . disput . . quaest . . d john . . & . . e rom. . . tim. . . f psalm . . * bellarm. de christ. l. . c. . loc . et catechism . trident. pii . . jussu editus . p. . g parallel . error . . n. . relat. p. . h pag. 〈◊〉 . i math. . . luke . , . ▪ tim. . . k math. . . l luke . . m math . . n john . , . & . . 〈◊〉 o john . . p joh. . , . q parall . error . n. . relat. p. . r pag. . s pag. . * sermons , , . t pag. . t epist. to m. wotton , relat. p . & vindic. p. . u of all which epiphanius and augustine , with others may be seen . x relat. poscr . p. . y paral. error . . n. . relat. p. . z relat. posc . p. . a tuus est iste syllogismus , non m●us . fingis enim me diccre , quod non dico : concludere , quod non concludo . aug ad . iulian. l. . c. . alteri●s adversus ipsum convicia rescrenti , tudicas , me illi non credere . c pag. . d pag. , , . e the socinian iohn . socinianism discovered , p. . f ibid. epist. p. . answ. to pref. p. . & vindic. p. . * epistola ad d. lodovicum witgensteinium . oper. tom. . & in opuscul . catechet . v●sini explic. cat●ch . subjunctis . g relat. poser , p. , . h pag. , . i pag. . k sam. . : jerem. . . apoc. . . l kings . . acts . . & . . rom. . , . cor. . . m pag. . n ibid. o pag. . p pag. . q relat. p. . r pag. . * ut●●e suum 〈◊〉 is , quos call●…us 〈◊〉 auc . ps , crus ubi co●… 〈◊〉 volucris , sensitque t●…ri , plangitur , tc tr●pi●la●s assring it vincula motu , externata fagam frustra dum tentai . n●… fabul . l. ● . s cui ●jax 〈◊〉 nasonem fab . l. . opposui molem clypei , texi 〈◊〉 et mox . post clyp●umque late , & mecum contende sub illo . quod & de teucro arist●les in pana●hen . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . ex homero , qui. il. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . et mox . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . t haec capitula partim in libro theologiae magistri petri partim in libro sententiarum ejusdem reperta sunt . bern. ep . . u nun● quā liberaliquis , qui senteniiarum dicatur , à me scriptus reperitur . petr. abeil in apolog. x mala. . . y ita enim abraham esdr●… silius in hunc vatis locum . a jerem. . . b da● . . . c ve●itas ( 〈◊〉 nondum est occupata : multuus ex illa futuris relictum est . sencc ep . . d crescit indies . & inventuris inventa non obstant . idem . ep . e vltimi conditio est optima . ibid. f videatur guido pancirola de novis repertis . g paratus semper ad satisfactionem de malè dictis vel corrigendis vel delendis , cum quis me fidelium vel virtute rationis , vel autoritate scripturae correxerit . h vt si nondum ignorantiae vitio caream , haeresis tamen crimen non incurram . i non enim ignor antia haereticum facit , sed magis superbiae obstinatio . k pag. , . l pag. . m 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ●●tharunus . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . calceamentum pedi utrique aptum . tam virisi quam & muliebri sexui usurpatum . svid . n sib. lubber●us : de quo sup . p. . o hanc distractionem justitiae nostrae coram deo , quod ea vec sacris literis esset consentanea ●adcò odit , ut saepenumerò commotior diceret , mera haec esse inanium subtilitatum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , quae puritatem doctrinae orthodoxae imm●ne quant●… msiccrent . phil. par●us in vità dav parei patris sui . p morti chris●i d●rogat . dav. pareus de ●ct . & pass . ●hr . 〈◊〉 . pr p. . q . a proclamation prorogating the acts of parliament against conventicles, and separation from the publick meetings of divine worship. scotland. privy council. approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page image. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). b wing s a estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. b ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a proclamation prorogating the acts of parliament against conventicles, and separation from the publick meetings of divine worship. scotland. privy council. scotland. sovereign ( - : charles ii) sheet ([ ] p.) printed by andrew anderson, printer to the king's most excellent majesty, edinburgh : anno . caption title. royal arms at head of text; initial letter. intentional blank spaces in text. dated at end: given under our signet at edinburgh, the sixth day of august, one thousand six hundred seventy and five years and of our reigne, the twenty seventh year. signed: th. hay, cl. sti concilii. reproduction of the original in the national library of scotland. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng dissenters, religious -- legal status, laws, etc. -- scotland -- early works to . church and state -- scotland -- early works to . broadsides -- scotland -- th century. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - pip willcox sampled and proofread - spi global rekeyed and resubmitted - john pas sampled and proofread - john pas text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a proclamation prorogating the acts of parliament against conventicles . and separation from the publick meetings of divine worship . charles , by the grace of god , king of great brittain , france , and ireland , defender of the faith , to our lovits _____ macers , or messengers at arms , our sheriffs in that part conjunctly and severally , specially constitute , greeting ; forasmuch as , the fifth act of the second session of our second parliament , intituled , act against conventicles , and the seventh act of that same session of parliament , intituled , act against separation and withdrawing from the publick meetings of divine vvorship , were appointed to endure only for the space of three years , unless vve should think fit to continue them longer . and having considered a posterior act of parliament , past upon the fourth day of september , one thousand six hundred seventy and two years , whereby the saids two acts of parliament were appointed to endure for the space of other three years after the expiring of the first three , and longer as vve should be pleased to appoint . and finding it now necessary for our service , that the saids acts be continued for three years further ; and that the same remain in force ay and while vve declare our further pleasure thereanent ; therefore vve , with advice of the lords of our privy councill , do prorogate and continue the saids acts of parliament for other three years and further , during our pleasure ; and do ordain the same to continue in full force ay and while we declare our further pleasure ; thereanent . our will is herefore , and vve charge you , that incontinently thir our letters seen ye pass , to the mercat cross of edinburgh , and other places needfull ; and thereat in our name and authority make open publication of our royal pleasure in the premisses that none may pretend ignorance thereof . the which to do vve commit to you conjunctly and severally , our full power by these our letters , delivering them by you duely execute and indorsed again to the bearer . given under our signet at edinburgh , the sixth day of august one thousand six hundred seventy and five years , and of our reigne , the twenty seventh year . th. hay , cl. s ti concilii . god save the king. edinburgh , printed by andrew anderson , printer to the king 's most excellent majesty . anno . the judgment of non-conformists about the difference between grace and morality baxter, richard, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing b _variant estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : b) the judgment of non-conformists about the difference between grace and morality baxter, richard, - . p. s.n.], [london : . statement of responsibility appears on t.p. of the second part of the non-conformists plea for peace. "the judgment of non-conformists of things indifferent commanded by authority," "the judgment of non-conformists of things sinful by accident, and of scandal," and "what meer non-conformity is not" each has special title page. printed and suppressed in and is here issued in the original sheets. place of publication from wing. reproduction of original in university of chicago library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng dissenters, religious -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - robert cosgrove sampled and proofread - robert cosgrove text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the judgment of non-conformists about the difference between grace and morality . printed in the year , . the judgment of non-conformists , &c. what advantage the enemy of god and man hath got against truth , holiness , and love , by the divisions of christians , and especially by the contentions of their teachers , experience hath been long telling the christian world , by smart and sorrow : where envy and strife hath begun , confusion and every evil work hath followed : little breaches tend to greater : the cause which first made them , will make them wider , by calling in more causes to its help and service . distinct parties have their distinct interests , as to commodity and reputation : and , alas ! what work will selfishness and fleshly interest make ? what moralities , what untruths , injustice , and unmercifulness is it pregnant with ? what evil so great , that it will not first venture on , and then palliate , and next justifie , and lastly propagate , if god do not mortifie , or restrain it ? the foresight of this danger to the land of our nativity , moved some of us to strive for the prevention of it , while we thought there was place for our endeavours : but as our labour did but exasperate the disease , 〈◊〉 our doleful and dear-bought experience , of the prog ●●ss and calamitous fruits of discord , in the space of more than two apprentiships , hath wrought no ( perceived ) cure on mens minds , nor deliverance to the church . the discord , which began about worship and discipline , is by some now pretended to be also in doctrinals , and about the principles of civil government , and humane society and peace . and whither increasing discord , by the power of interest and envy , may yet carry the charge , or how much wider yet dividers may perswade the ignorant that the difference is , we cannot foretel : but because we are sure that all tendeth to the ruine of brotherly love , and that he that hateth his brother is a murderer , and hath not eternal life abiding in him , to save as many on both sides as we can from such a damning sin , we take it to be our duty to detect the errours of contentious dividers , and to hinder their farther widening of the breach . which we shall here attempt about this question , much agitated of late . quest . whether the parties called conformists and non-conformists do really differ , about the nature and sufficiency of morality compared with the grace of christ ? neg. as to the explication of our terms , . what we mean by conformists and non-conformists , we have lately shewed on another question : we mean not that if a papist , or socinian , or quaker should join either with the conformists or non-conformists , they would not herein differ from others : but that they that are now called conformists and non-conformists herein differ not : . formally , qua tales ; . no nor materially , qui tales , being meerly such . . we speak only of the parties : for as to some individual persons , it cannot be expected that any parties in the world should be wholly made up of men so wise , as that none among them have ignorance enough to wrangle in the dark . . the terms [ grace ] and [ morality ] must be anon explained in our proof . which proof ( as in our last case ) we fetch , i. from our common consent to the sacred scriptures , the ancient creeds , and the doctrinal articles and homilies of the church of england ; which surely contain all that is needful to be held about the difference of grace and morality . nor hath either party declared their dissent by any contradiction of any of the aforesaid articles or doctrines . ii. our second proof is , by a sufficient explication , and enumeration of the points in which we are agreed . i. the word grace is taken , . efficiently , . objectively , . subjectively . i. efficiently , grace is taken , . for the efficient principle : . for the efficient action of the first cause : . for the efficient means and its operation . . grace taken for the efficient principle , signifieth god's efficient favour , love , mercy , or will to do good freely to the unworthy . . grace taken for god's efficient action , signifieth the same good-will of god ex parte sui , but as connoting the effect in fieri vel facto esse . the former is considered as decreeing or meerly willing ; but this as effecting . . grace taken for the efficient means , is an effect of god's free love , and a second cause of man's sanctification , and hath many parts ; of which christ as mediator is the head or chief , and his gospel , ministers , sacraments , and providences are inferior subservient parts : all which are the efficient grace of god. ii. objectively , grace is all god's free-given mercy as it is offered and proposed to man's actual belief , acceptance , and improvement , ( or use . ) even as the word fides signifieth , . the fidelity or trustiness of god the promiser or revealer : . the fidelity or trustiness of the word promising or asserting : . the belief or trust of the believer ; ( fidem promittentis , fidem promissi , & fidem credentis . ) so the word grace hath the like three significations : . the grace of the giver . . the grace of the extrinsick gift . . the intrinsick grace of the receiver . this objective grace , or free-gift , is , . god himself , as offered us relatively through christ to be our reconciled god and father , with his love , and our relation to him as his children . . christ himself , to be our head and saviour , and our relation to him , as his justified , saved members . . the holy ghost to be our sanctifier , our relation to him and his grace as offered : this is the grace offered and given us in baptism by covenant , on gods part . under these are the objective means ( the gospel as it is to be believed , the sanctified mercies of this present life , the ordinances as to be used , &c. ) and ultimately , heaven as the end of all : glory freely given being the perfection of subjective grace , and as proposed and offered being the perfection of objective grace . iii. subjectively , grace , is , . gracious dispositions and habits ; . gracious acts ; viz. . of the intellect , . the will , . the executive power in practise . the word grace hath in the use of divines all these significations , besides several sub-divisions which the schoolmen ordinarily make . and in scripture , i. for efficient grace , see exod. . . and . . num. . . neh. . . . joh ▪ . . psal . . . and . . and . . isa . . , . joel . . jon. . . pet. . . heb. . . and . . eph. . , . and . . , . and . . cor. . . rom. . , . and . . and . . and . . acts . . heb. . ii. for objective grace , see gal. . . and . . and . . jud. . pet. . . and . . . joh. . . acts . . . and . . rom. . , . tit. . . heb. . . pet. . . and . . iii. for subjective grace , see pet. . . pet. . . jam. . . heb. . . and . . col. . . and . . eph. . . . and . . gal. . . cor. . , . and . . joh. . . &c. ii. the words [ morality ] and [ moral ] have also divers significations . i. in the first most comprehensive and most famous sense , morality , as distinguished from meer naturality or physicks , doth signifie the relation of the manners or acts of an intelligent free agent to the governing will and law of god : and so actus morales and actus humani are used in the same sense ; and all morality is distinguished into moral good and moral evil , virtue and vice. ii. some have used morality in a narrower sense , unfitly , for so much of man's duty as is revealed by the meer law of nature , and as is of common obligation to lapsed mankind : and so it comprehendeth the relicts of the law of innocent nature ( to love god and obey him , &c. ) and the additional law of lapsed nature , ( to repent , and use all possible means for our recovery , and thankfully improve the mercies which we receive . ) and thus it is distinguished from duty known by supernatural revelation , and especially the mysteries of redemption by jesus christ . iii. some use the word ( improperly also ) for all that duty which is of perpetual obligation , whether by natural or supernatural revelation : and so it is distinguished from temporary duties : and thus the lords-day , baptism , the lords-supper , a gospel ministry , scripture ( to be used ) discipline , are said to be moral-positives , distinct from meer natural duties , and from temporaries . iv. lastly , some , yet more unaptly , confine the sense to the duties of our common conversation towards man , as distinct from holiness or our duty to god : and so they distinguish a meer moral honest man , from a godly or religious man. though we wish that the needless use of words improperly were not the common fuel of vain contendings , yet we being not the masters of language , must take words as we find them used , and leave all men arbitrarily to use them as they please , so be it they will but tell us what they mean by them , before they lay any stress on them in disputing . in reference to these various senses of these words , we suppose that we are all agreed as followeth . i as to morality in the first and most famous signification , we are agreed , . that all proper humane acts are moral , that is , morally good or evil : and all duty and sin , virtue and vice , in habit and act , positive and privative vice , are parts of morality ; moral good directly , and moral evil reductively and consequently . . holiness to the lord , or the love of god as god , is the chief part of morality ; and what duty soever is evangelical and spiritual is also moral . . nothing is morally laudable or rewardable , but moral good ; and nothing is punishable , but moral evil. . all morality is seated primarily in the will , but is secondarily ( as flowing thence ) in the imperate acts of the intellect , and inferior faculties . . all truly moral good in lapsed man , is , . from god's efficient grace . . and exercised on some objective grace . and , . is it self subjective grace , either special or common . . the good called moral in infidels , and all other ungodly unsanctified men , is such but secundum quid , and not simpliciter , nor in the full or properest sense : because bonum est ex omnibus causis essentialibus : and a good principle , rule , end , and right object , especially the formal object , are all essential to a truly good moral act : but every ungodly man in every action doth want at least some one of these . and an act is denominated in morality from that which is prevalent in it , and not from every conquered deprest ingredient : we say not that he that killeth his father or prince , with the reluctancy of better thoughts and inclinations , doth therein do a good work , though that reluctancy was good : so he that hath some love to god and goodness , but more hatred ; and more love to sinful pleasure ; doth not a work properly good , which proceedeth from such a mixed cause . but the evil principle and end is predominant in all ungodly men . . but materially , and secundum quid , bad men may do works that are morally good , and physically very good to others ; as governing and protecting common-wealths and churches , building cities and temples , and hospitals , relieving the poor , preaching the gospel , expounding scripture , defending truth , promoting learning ▪ and in good nature , patience , meekness , temperance , chastity , wit , and industry , they may be commendable and exemplary , and their precepts and practice may conduce much to the good of others . . whatever good is found in heathens or infidels , or ungodly men , is to be acknowledged and praised proportionably according to its real worth ; it being all from god , who must not be robbed of his praise . . a man that hath but common grace is better than he would be if he had none , and it is the usual preparatory for special saving grace . though many civil temperate persons , by overvaluing common good , are hindred from seeking special grace , that is not caused by the good , but by their abuse of it objectively . and though god take occasion from some mens great sins , to affright their consciences to repentance and reformation , that is not caused by the sin , but by gods mercy : sin as remembred is not sin in the act of remembring , nor sin as repented of in repenting ; but before in the committing . god may convert paul in the act of persecuting : but persecuting is not the way or means of conversion . special grace must be sought in the use of common grace , and not in a way of negligence , contempt , or wilful sin . ii. of morality in the second sense ( as taken for natural duties , which all mankind is obliged to by natural revelation of god's will ) we are agreed , as followeth . . the sum of this natural morality or duty , is to love god as god for himself , and all things else for him , even as being of him , and through him , and to him ; to obey god , and make it our chief care to please him , and therein to place and seek our happiness , even in everlasting mutual love : to love others as our selves , and do all the good we can to all for soul and body , especially to the most publick societies ; to do justly , and as we would be done by ; to use our bodies as the servants of our souls , and soul and body as the servants of god : and to hate and avoid all that is contrary to these . this natural evidence will prove to be the common duty of mankind . . this love to god and man before described is true holiness ; that is , the soul's separation and devotedness to god. . all the evidence which nature affordeth us herein , is not seen by all men that are of natural wit or industry , no more than all that is revealed by the scripture is known to all that read the scripture , or that believe it . . holiness is the end of medicinal grace , as used by christ on us , and as used by us towards christ as the mediator : faith in christ is to kindle in us the holy love of god , and obedience to him : love therefore as the final and everlasting grace , is preferred by the apostle , cor. . last v. and . throughout . . even our faith in christ , and our obedience to the gospel ( in preaching , sacraments , and such like ) are neither only of natural , nor only of supernatural obligation , but mixt : christ and his ordinances are supernaturally revealed ; but being once revealed , with the evidence of divine authority , natural revelation then telleth us that it is our duty to believe and obey . . that which is of natural revelation and obligation , must be performed by supernatural grace . though nature prove that all men should love god as god , it is grace that must dispose and enable them to do it . . we call grace supernatural , not only because it is not essential to nature ( no not to adam in innocency ) but because in our lapsed state it is not conveyed to us by natural generation , but nature in the state of pravity is deprived of it ; and because god worketh it by the free gift of his spirit , in a manner beyond the search of man , and by it , as an effect of his love , doth make us lovely , ( in our union and relation to christ who sanctifieth and justifieth us ) it being his image on the soul , which no meer natural causes , without this operation of god's love and spirit , can effect . but yet , . we all agree that holiness is nature's health or rectitude , and therefore sutable to it as its perfection , as health is to the body . . and that the spirit of god doth ordinarily make use of his appointed means , and especially his word , for our sanctification . and these being second causes , which have their proper natures , may so far be called natural causes : and that thus far grace may be said to be natural . . this holy love being the final act , on god the final object , and so being man's felicity it self , it followeth , that all men have so much happiness constitutively , as they have holy love to god and goodness ; and that no man can be damned that hath the said predominant holy love , while such : and that such have no cause to fear damnation , any farther than they should fear lest by forfeiting gods grace they should lose that love . . the mediation of christ , and our faith in him , who is the glass , the messenger , and the great gift of the fathers love , are the means appointed by god to sanctifie us , by the effecting of this love , with all its concomitants and fruits . . therefore as god is called [ all in all ] so christ is called [ all in all , ] col. . . to believers , as being the way , the truth , and the life . . therefore they that would bring men to the holy and felicitating love of god , must preach jesus christ and his grace to them , as the means , and bring them to believe in him , and to take it for their wisdom to know christ crucified , and glorified , and to learn of him , and obey him , and trust in him , and daily to use him as their mediator for access to god , acceptance with him , and communication from him . . to preach up the blessedness of saints and excellency of holiness , without teaching men how to attain it by christ , is but to commend health to the sick , without directing them to the physician and the remedies : and to hear of a sanctity and felicity not attainable , is to be tormented by despair : and to think to obtain it by our works or endeavours , without a mediator and his grace ( or by any other mediator than christ , ) is the way to lose it by false presumption , and neglect of the necessary means : it being christ that is made of god to us , wisdom , righteousness , sanctification , and redemption . . as christ on earth did purchase us this salvation by his meritorious righteousness and sacrifice ; and is now in heaven our head and intercessor , and the treasury of grace and life to believers , so he sanctifieth us by his word and spirit ; and herein differeth from all other teachers that ever were in the world , . that his gospel ( doctrine , precepts , and covenant-promises ) are singularly suited to this sanctifying work . . that he sendeth forth his spirit with it , to work the souls of men to that which he teacheth and commandeth , that so they may be effectually taught of god : without the spirit of jesus no word or means will sanctifie and renew a soul. . therefore all preachers must jointly preach god and holy love , ( trust , obedience , and delight in him ) as the end , and christ and faith in him , and learning of him , and obeying him in the use of his healing remedies , as the means : this being life eternal , to know the only true god , and jesus christ whom he hath sent , joh. . . . and though the end must be preached as more excellent than the means , yet the means must be preached as more mysterious , and above meer natural revelation . experience telleth us , that all men quickly learn to confess that they should repent of sin , and love god as god ; but they are hardly taught to understand the mystery of redemption , the person , incarnation , works , office , and grace of the redeemer ; and therefore have here need of longer teaching : the grace of our lord jesus christ , the love of god the father , and the communion of the holy spirit , must be the preachers subject , as it is the christians benediction and felicity . . there are things in aristotle's ethicks , and in the ethicks of the stoicks and and some other philosophers , of great worth and use to christians , to shew us what by natural evidence may be discerned : but they are all poor , defective , spirit-less doctrines and precepts , in comparison of the gospel of christ , though to carnal wit they seem to excel it in method , language , and several curiosities : and the writings of christians , who do but expound and apply christ's doctrine , do far excel all the heathens ethicks . . we have no reason to think that any of the heathens understood all that nature it self by way of proving-evidence revealeth : yea , or that any christians perfectly understand it ; because natural evidences are exceeding numerous , and none can say that he seeth them all ; and they are of various degrees , some plain , and some obscure ; and even natural verities , as they arise from the great branches , into innumerable partitions as smaller sprigs , are not perfectly discernable by a mortals eye . . therefore no knowledge of man , much less any heathens writings , are the certain measure of natural verities , in morality , by which the number and certainty of the obscurer particles may be known . . though heathens know and teach , that we must love god and goodness above all : and all that sincerely love god and goodness shall certainly be saved : yet this confession will but more condemn them , that have not , and practice not what they teach ; but , when they profess to know god , by their works deny him , and are void of true sanctifying grace . . therefore it is intolerable in those that are stiled the ministers of christ , and preachers of the gospel , to preach little more than what heathens teach ; and when they speak of christianity and faith , and should open the mysteries of the gospel , to do it as drily , scantly , and heartlesly , as if it were done but on the bye , and for custom or fashion sake , rather than as a matter of the necessity and importance before described . in all this we are agreed . iii. as to morality in the third sense ( as it signifieth naturals and positives of perpetual obligation ) we are agreed , . that all to whom they are promulgate are obliged to the practice of them . . and that for that practice we need the fore-described helps of grace ; even efficient , objective , and subjective grace : for saving practice special grace , and for common practice common grace . iv. and as to the fourth sense of morality ( as signifying only our duty to man , as distinct from holiness to god ) we are agreed , . that as the love of our neighbour as our selves is the second great commandment like to the first , so the practice of this in our duty towards man , proceeding from love and obedience to god , is the second part of our duty , and to be preached and practised accordingly . . and it is that part , about a near discernable object , by which our love to god must be expressed and made known ; and by which it shall , by christ himself , be judged of at the last day . . and it is that matter in which god will have our obedience to him to be carefully and constantly exercised : because god needeth us not himself , but as his government of man is his ordering us to our own good and felicity , so he obligeth us to do good to our selves , and one another . . but as man without god is nothing , and no man ; so duty and love to man , not depending on duty and love to god , is no duty , no morality at all : and as to love , honour , or obey man above god , as the best or greatest , is damnable idolatry , or rebellion against god ; so to preach up love , honour , and obedience to man , as separated from , or not dependent on our love , honour , and obedience to god ( much more as above him , or against him ) were but to preach up idolatry , or rebellion . no man can love man for gods sake , that loveth not god more ; and no man can honour or obey man for gods sake , who doth not more honour and obey god. he that will serve man more than god , doth as it were make man his god , and from man must expect his protection , provision , and reward . . profession of piety to god without true justice and charity to man , is but hypocrisie . while we have time we must do good ( as we are able ) to all men , for with such sacrifice god is well pleased , gal. . heb. . christ was our great pattern in doing good , even to the unworthy , and he purifieth to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works , tit. . . for we are his workmanship , created unto good works in christ jesus , which god hath ordained that we should walk in them , eph. . . to be rich in good works is to be rich to god , luke . . and to lay up a good foundation for the time to come , to lay hold on eternal life , to lay up our treasure in heaven , and to make us friends of ( that which to worldlings is ) the unrighteous mammon ; and blessed are the merciful , for they shall obtain mercy ; and receiving a prophet in the name of a prophet , or a righteous man in the name of a righteous man , is the way to have a prophets , or a righteous mans reward , when christ will say , in as much as ye did it to one of the least of these my brethren , ye did it unto me . pure religion and undefiled , is to visit the fatherless and widdows in their adversity , and to keep our selves unspotted of the world. as we verily believe that not only the parties called conformists , and non-conformists ( alas ! that we must call them parties ) but most true protestants are agreed in all this , so we take it to be our duty to profess our dissent from the practice of such as would hinder love and concord by perswading men that we are really disagreed when it is not so . and as we are the believing disciples of the prince of peace , that blessed reconciler , who took down the partition-wall between jews and gentiles , and made them one , so we would serve him with all our power and interest , in building up the wall of defence , and taking down every partition-wall , which unjustly divideth the church of christ ; and dayly pray that god would humble , convert , and reform those men who have built them up , and will not yet be intreated to give peace to the churches , and in special to this self-distracting land. finis . the judgment of non-conformists of things indifferent commanded by authority , as far as the subscribers are acquainted with it . written to save the ignorant from the temptations of diabolism , ( described tim. . . and joh. . . . . joh. . . ) blessed are the peace-makers , for they shall be called the children of god. matth. . . printed in the year , . the judgment of non-conformists of things indifferent commanded by authority . quest . whether things antecedently lawful do therefore become unlawful , because commanded by lawful authority ? neg. we take the question as we hear it stated by some accusers of the non-conformists , who feign them to affirm it : and some seem serious in the fiction , as if they did indeed believe themselves ; by which they dispatch these several works of no small moment ; viz. . they hereby render the non-conformists contemptible and odious , as brain-sick persons , who keep up a dividing faction in spight of the light and obligation of the common principles of humanity and society . . they hereby imprint the stamp of satan , viz. the hatred of their brethren , upon the minds of such hearers as will believe them , and receive the impress . . they hereby fill families , cities , and countries , with all that spawn of ugly sins , which are the genuine fruits of such hatred and contempt , and keep men also from repentance for any thing that they have said or done ( how cruelly soever ) against such ministers , and others , as are represented as so odious to them . . they hereby fortifie the peoples souls against receiving converting , or edifying instruction , by such accused ministers . . they furnish papists , insidels , and other adversaries , with matter of accusation against one part of the ministers and servants of christ : they are able now to say , that such and such protestant clergy-men themselves reported it . . they tempt the worser and weaker sort of the accused , to return the like measure to them again , and to judge as they are judged : satan hereby gets matter for a temptation , to call the accusers fools in revenge , to bring them to the danger mentioned , mat. . . and to hate their brethren for hating them , that they may be as murderers , that have not eternal life abiding in them , joh. . . . and lastly , they hereby perhaps quiet their own consciences , and deceive themselves ; or at least for a while , with some , preserve their reputations , by making it believed , that their conformity , or difference from the non-conformists , consisteth but in the rejection of such wild opinions , as the affirmers hold ; and in being the wise spectators of such as are beside themselves . but the sun will arise after the longest , and the darkest night : in the mean time this candle may serve the formerly deceived reader , to save his soul from the mortal sin , of hating his brethren wrongfully , which false accusers would tempt him to be guilty of . the terms need little explication : . we call things here [ lawful and unlawful ] in respect to the laws of god : for as to the laws of men the affirmation of the question , were but a mad contradiction . . we speak of that which is antecedently lawful as cloathed with all its accidents , save this subsequent one ( being commanded by authority ) and that the question is , whether the command of authority be an accident that rendereth it unlawful . . we take [ lawful authority ] to be a tautologie ; ( for all authority is lawful , being in the sense in the question nothing else , but a jus r 〈◊〉 gendi ; and [ jus justum , or a lawful right ] is a tautologie : if it be not lawful , or a jus , it is but equivocally called authority : ) yet because the equivocal use of the word , may to some need such an expository epithete , it may here be born . and we suppose that the word signisieth [ authority over the persons , and in general , over the affairs in question ; so that you may see first here what is not the question , and thereby the more easily perceive what it is . . the question is not of a thing before lawful meerly as an act in genere , vel specie , but unlawful by some other accident , e. g. it is lawfal to kill , and to kill a man , ( else none could be put to death for capital crimes ; ) but it is unlawful to kill a just man : and if rulers command it , it is still unlawful ; but not because it is commanded by them , but because it is forbidden of god. it is lawful to forbear preaching , ( else women might not forbear ; ) but not for a true minister of christ to forbear it , when mens souls notoriously need his preaching , and he is able consideratis consideran 〈◊〉 is to perform it : if then rulers forbid it him , it is still unlawful to forbear ; but not because they forbid him , but because god commandeth him in season , and out of season , instantly to preach , tim. . , . . the question is not of the command of usurpers , civil , or ecclesiastical : for their command sometimes may make a thing antecedently lawful to become vnlawful , by accident , at that time , and to that person . as it is lawful in it self to meet an usurper , and to put off the hat to him , and to give him money ; but if he by pretended authority command the kings subjects to appear before him as their king , or to put off the hat in token of subjection to him , or to pay him tribute as his subjects , it is an unlawful owning of him , so far to obey him . it is in it self lawful to go to rome , but not in obedience to the pope , who is an usurper , if he command it us . it is in it self lawful to take an oath , yea an oath of obedience ( viz. to the king : ) but if the pope , or one of his prelates would command the kings subjects to take an oath of obedience to him ; yea , or to perform obedience as such , it may become unlawful so to own his usurpation . it is lawful , and a duty , to be justly obedient to a true pastor , or bishop of the church : but if arrians be obtruded on antioch , a 〈◊〉 exandria , cesarea , and other eastern churches , even by the emperour valens , the churches will resolutely refuse to obey , or hear them : or if sede vacante one intrude without a true call , and will tyranically make himself a pastor , or is obtruded by the pope , or other foreign power , without the consent of the church ( either the clergie , or the flocks ) or any one that hath true power to chuse him to that place or office , it may be a sin to own such an usurper , though by 〈…〉 in it self . . the question is not of men that have lawful 〈…〉 , and not over the person in question : the king of france may have lawful authority there , and yet no authority to command us in england . . nor is the question of a ruler that hath authority in other matters , but not in the matters now in question . for as rich. hooker saith , though a man be a lawful governour , yet if he extend his commands beyond his authority , and command that which he hath no true power to command , it is not disobeying authority , therein to disobey him : e. g. if the judge of the common-pleas command that which is proper to the judges of the kings-bench , extra proprium forum , they have no authority . if a bishop would command husband-men when to plow and sow , and with what seed ; and what cloaths to wear , and what meat to eat in particular ; or all physitians what physick to give each patient ; these commands are usurpations , and make no duty : nay unless greater accidents preponderate to make the thing needful on some other accounts , it may do somewhat towards the making of an act otherwise lawful to become unlawful , when the doing it will encourage and strengthen such usurpers , and be a scandalous seeming to own their usurpation . so if a justice would presume to arrogate the power of a judge , or a constable of a justice , or a church-warden of a constable , or a magistrate of the pastors of the church , &c. but because it seemeth doubtful , whether the question be of one that hath authority to command the lawful thing in question ; or only of one that hath authority in general , whether his authority extend to the point in question : and if not , whether his command make the act unlawful to be done : we shall include what we assert in these propositions , which will shew what it is that we deny . pr. . to question whether it be lawful , yea or a duty , to obey them whom we suppose to have authority to command the very thing questioned , is but to question the same thing which we first affirm ; and to deny it , is to deny what we first affirm . for to have authority to command an action , is nothing else but to have authority to oblige me to do that action by command . and is it a wise mans question , whether he that hath authority to oblige me by his command to do an action , doth not , by making it my duty , make it become unlawful ? that is , whether duty be sin , whether life be death , and light be darkness ? why should men be feigned so mad , as to argue at this rate ? pr. . if the question be , whether any ruler have power to command a thing which would be no duty , but indifferent , if he did not command it ? it is to question that which all sober persons must assert , in the disjunctive use of things , or actions , as to each other . that is , . nothing is to be done or commanded , that is not good before , or made good and useful by the command : idle laws are not good , if idle words be bad . . the end and benefit of an action may be necessary , and the commanding of an action or circumstance before indifferent , ( comparatively as to others , ) may be disjunctively necessary , ( either this or that ; ) and the indifferency taken away , and the thing made both naturally and morally good , by the determination of the command . for instance : it is necessary that the army keep together , and march in unity and order : it is therefore necessary that they all meet , or rendezvous at one determinate certain place ; and it is necessary that they meet at one determinate certain time , or day : it is therefore necessary that one certain place and time be determined : by consent it will not be : it is therefore necessary that it be done by command . none of this is indifferent : but the place , and day , may be antecedently so indifferent , that no man can see a reason , why one , rather than the other should be chosen ; no more than why of two equal eggs i should chuse this , rather than the other . in this case it is not properly chusing , but taking : i do not chuse this rather than the other , there being no preserence of esteem ; but only i take this , and not the other ; because i must take one , and i must take but one . and when the indifferent place and time is determined of , it then , and thereby , is made profitable to the end , which is unity and order . thus far things necessary in genere ( this or that disjunctively ) and unnecessary antecedently in particular ( this no more necessary than that , ) may be commanded by authority , and are thereby made naturally useful , and morally the subjects duty . pr. . if the question be only in matters of god's worship or religion , whether the same hold there ; we affirm that it there holdeth also . which we thus explain . . no ruler hath authority to forbid what god commandeth , or to command what god forbiddeth , as to action , or any circumstance of an action . . no man can command by pretence of an authority co-ordinate with god's , but only derived , and subordinate . . no man can do any thing which god hath appropriated to himself as his own proper work ; as to make universal laws for the whole world , or church ; to make another gospel , divine covenant , or sacraments of gods covenant ; to add to , or diminish , or alter the word of god ; to alter the ministry , church-state , or laws which he hath made , or to make the like ; or to change his institutions . . no man can command any thing , but what god giveth him authority to command ; for there is no power but of god. . but god giveth men authority to command things before indifferent in his worship , such as we before described about civil or military things : that is , it is necessary that the worship of god be orderly performed in sacred assemblies ; and that unity and concord be there kept : it is therefore necessary that many meet in the same place , and the same time , and use the same translation of scripture at that time , and the same metre and tune of psalms , and hear the same preacher on the same text , and the same sermon ; and that the preacher at that time use the same words and method of prayer and sermon to them all , whether by notes , or without , &c. but whether it be this place or that , this day and hour or that ; this translation , metre , tune , or that ; this chapter , text , method , words , or that , may be indifferent before , and needful and a duty to the people after the determination of the ruler , to whom it doth belong . pr. . if a ruler do not act quite out of the matter or circuit of his own jurisdiction , about a thing which belongeth not to him , nor by his determination of circumstances subvert the thing circumstantiated , and the very end or work it self ; though he miss it in a work which belongeth to his office , and do it not the best way , but be culpable in his command , the subject yet may be bound to do what is so commanded , and is not excused by the faultiness of the rulers determining commands . which we thus explain . . it belongeth not to a king to govern a mans thoughts . therefore if he make laws for our thoughts , it is doubted by many , whether they oblige ; unless as he is the official promulgator of god's laws , or exhort men to obey them : yet knowing that he is god's minister for our good , if he should ministerially command us not to think ill of god , or well of wickedness , &c. we will not concur with those that affirm , that no secondary obligation ariseth from his command ; as long as we all hold , that if a church-pastor ministerially as christ's officer , forbid blasphemous , malicious , filthy thoughts , and command holy meditation , and mental prayer and thanksgiving , his ministerial command hath an answerable obligation . it sufficeth us therefore to say , that kings cannot punish men , or reward them for their thoughts ; which is from their natural incapacity of knowing them : for could they know a thoughtful plot of treason , or a wise and honest contrivance or design for publick good , we cannot say that they might not answerably punish and reward them . but to go to clearer instances : it belongeth to the king to give general regulating laws to physicians , to mariners , to parents , to nurses , to farriers , to brewers , bakers , cooks , &c. he may forbid physicians the use of some dangerous drugs ; and mariners some times , and places , that are unsafe ; and parents , and nurses , to give their children some pernicious food , or wicked counsel or education ; and brewers , bakers , and cooks , to poison men , or deceive them in the matter of their trades . but if he make such laws as take these mens callings out of their hands ; if he will chuse a physician for every patient , and the medicines that every physician shall use , with dose , time , and other circumstances ; and what food every parent shall give his children , with the measure , time , &c. and so of the rest ; this is to go beyond his calling , and so beyond his true authority , and such laws oblige not . so if a king will give such laws to christ's true ministers , as turn them out of their callings , and take them all upon himself ; it is an acting beyond , and without authority , and doth not oblige . it is the office of a pastor of the church , to have and use the keys of the church , to be the immediate ministerial judge of individuals , who is to be taken in by baptisme , and entertained in holy communion , and in sin called to repentance ; and for impenitency shut out by excommunication ; and upon repentance restored by absolution . for the right performance of all these the king may give general regulating laws , subservient to christ's laws , to secure and promote their execution ; and he may forbid and punish gross abuses of the ministry , as well as of physicians , and other callings . but if he will usurp the ministry in the parts aforesaid , or take those parts out of the ministers hand , and as uzziah burn incense : if he will chuse for the minister what text still to preach on , and what words in preaching and prayer still to say ; and bid him instruct , reprove , comfort , direct , baptise , absolve no man but such as are named to him by the king , nor in any words but such as he prescribeth ; this being , . a destroying of an office of christ's institution . . and an usurping of it without christ's consent ; such laws oblige not , but are null as to conscience , for want of true authority in the makers : as the sentence of a judge in foro alieno , or in a circuit , city , or corporation , where the power is appropriated to others . . and if a prince , or inferiour ruler , who hath power to determine circumstantials about the callings of his subjects , shall so determine them as shall overthrow the very end and work it self , in a calling which god by nature , or scripture , hath made necessary ; this determination bindeth not , it being an act without authority : for it is as true of magistracy , as of paul ' s apostleship , we have this power for edification , and not for destruction , cor. . . & . . eph. . . . cor. . . cor. . . . . it is the pernicious errour of some papists , to dream that their pope and church hath a power of obligatory judging in matters of faith and practice , in partem utramlibet ; and in this wicked supposition they cant over and over to the ignorant , who shall be judge . to which we say , that publick judgment belongeth to publick persons ; that is , to the magistrate [ who shall have civil communion ] ( even on religious accounts , ) and to the pastors [ who shall have church-communion ; ] and private judgment ( discerning each mans duty ) belongs to every rational man. but all men are subjects of god , and their judging power is limited by his laws . if the question be , whether there be a god , a christ , a scripture , a heaven , an immortality of souls , &c. kings , and pastors , and councils may , and must judge that there is ; but none of them may judge that there is not ; if they do , it 's worse than null : and in practicals , if the question be , whether we may , or must pray for the hallowing of god's name , the coming of his kingdom , the doing of his will on earth as it is done in heaven ; or whether we must love and worship god , and hear him , and meditate on his word ; and whether true ministers of christ may , or must preach in season and out of season ; and seek to instruct and save mens souls ; whether we must honour our parents , relieve the poor , and save mens lives , in danger , from murderers , &c. they have authority to judge affirmatively , but none at all to judge negatively ; which if they do , it 's worse than null . so kings and pastors have power to judge that we may not take god's name in vain , nor be perjured , nor prophane his separated day , nor forsake the assembling of our selves for his publick worship , nor murder , nor commit adultery , nor steal , nor lye , or bear false witness , nor persecute , nor hurt any man injuriously ; but they have no power to judge that we may do any one of these : and if they so judge , or command , it is a nulli 〈◊〉 y to the subject , and worse to themselves . god hath made no men absolute judges , but given them a regulating and limiting law to judge by . even so those rulers who have power to judge and command some circumstances of divine worship , they have it but as a means of promoting that worship , and its ends , by the means of edifying-order ; and they have no power to destroy the worship , or its ends. for instance , whoever hath power to determine of the place of publick worship , hath that power for the worship , and worshippers sake ; and is to be obeyed when he doth it accordingly . but if he command a thousand persons to meet no where but in a room that will not hold two hundred , or three hundred ; or fifty thousand persons to meet no where but in one temple , where above three thousand cannot hear ; this is , on pretense of ordering and placing god's worship , to forbid it to all the rest ; for which god never gave him power : so also it is , if he command them to meet no where but forty , or thirty , or twenty miles off from their habitation , or where they cannot go without destroying the work and end. so whoever hath power to chuse the day , or the hours of god's publick worship , hath this power for the work sake , and the peoples edification ; and is to be obeyed when his commands are answerable . but if he should command men to worship god only once a year , or once a month ; or to do it only at mid-night , and so destroy the work by ill-timing it ; this is a nullity , as being an act without authority , and worse , as against the laws of god. so whoever it be that hath power to appoint pastors and teachers to the churches or publick assemblies , if they should , as constantius and valens , send arrians to be bishops , or any other intollerable persons , who through utter insufficiency , heresie , or malignity are uncapable , and will do more hurt than good ; or if they would limit the churches , or countries , to an utterly incompetent number , and say , no other shall preach , but such uncapable persons ; or no more than one to fifty thousand souls , or where ten or twenty are necessary ; this is to forbid preaching , or corrupt it , and destroy mens souls on pretense of order : and it is a nullity , and worse . so if the same rulers should say , that , you shall preach only in country villages , but not within many miles of cities , or corporations , which truly and notoriously want your preaching ; this were but to forbid such cities , and corporations , to hear the necessary preaching of the gospel , and the ministers to preach it ; and is a nullity and worse , as being both without any authority from god , and against his laws . . but if true rightful governours , who have power to determine circumstantials , civil , or religious , shall mis-determine them ; yet so as not to destroy the work , or end , nor put subjects on the breaking of any law of god ; here their fault will not disoblige us from the duty of obeying . though it be a sinful mistake of theirs , we may be yet obliged to do what they command us . for instance , the ruler chuseth a place less convenient , that hath no seats , or an ill access , yet capable of the assembly ; he chuseth a less convenient hour of the day ; he placeth the pulpit in a les 〈◊〉 convenient place ; he appointeth a tollerable , but not the best translation of the scripture , and metre of the psalms , or tunes , to be used ; he appointeth a bible of a worser print ; and ( supposing him authorized to chuse the preacher ) he appointeth not the best , or fittest preacher which might be had : and whether it be the present pastor , or any other ( we now dispute not that ) who hath authority to chuse chapters , and texts , and word the sermons and prayers , if he chuse a less convenient chapter , text , or subject , and less convenient method and words in preaching and prayer ; all this is his infirmity and fault , but yet the people must not refuse the thing so commanded : not that we must obey it sub ratione ma●● , as ill chosen and inconvenient , but [ though it be such ; ] not qua but quod inconveniens . and the reasons are , . an inconvenient ill-chosen place , time , text , translation , metre , tune , &c. may be good as a means of union and concord in the worship , which without that would not be had ; and that union and concord is a duty : therefore so is the necessary means , though it be not the best that could be chosen . if the people will not join with that translation , metre , tune , subject , place , time , which the minister useth , or chuseth , they cannot join with him in the worship . were there no interposition of authority , but mens consent , if a thousand of the people are for a less convenient means , ( time , place , &c. ) and a small part for a more convenient , they cannot concur but in some agreement : and if the mistaken part will not yield to the other , when unity is necessary , for that unity sake the rest must yield to them . . the less convenient way may accidentally become a means to avoid persecution , and the loss of all their liberty and publick advantages ; and they that refuse that may be deprived of all the rest . and it 's better worship god , e. g. at an inconvenient time , place , &c. than not at all . . the general obligation to obey our governours , is not nullified by every mistake in the law or determination : for all mankind being imperfect , it is supposed that all government by man is imperfect : if we should forbear praying till we can pray without all sin , we should never pray ; and if we should forbear obeying till rulers commands be perfect , or blameless , we should never obey : there is some fault in every translation of the bible , every version of the psalms , every sermon and prayer , that we hear , or make ; and in every book that we write , and read. if no parent , teacher , master , prince , oblige us , but only by such laws and mandates as have no 〈◊〉 ault , all government and obedience is null , or at an end. obj. no man is bound to that which is evil . answ . . it may be evil in the commander , and good in the obeyer : not that the same thing is good to one , and ill to the other ( though in other instances that often fall out ; ) for it is not the same thing : to command an inconnveient time , place , translation , tune , &c. is one action , and to obey that command is another . . we obey it not as evil , but as good : the inconvenient time , place , &c. is not good as inconvenient , but as a means of order and concord , and so we use it . and the general nature of obedience is good ; and if we must do no good , which we cannot do without some adherent evil , we must never pray , preach , eat , drink , or trade more . pr. . if a ruler go beyond ( and so without ) his authority , yet in several cases we may be bound to do what he commandeth , as such . for instance , in case the thing be in it self good , or at least indifferent and lawful ; and the honour of the ruler , or the peace of the society dependeth on our material obeying him : it is our duty to honour the king , and our parents and pastors , and to avoid all things that will dishonour them ; or that will encourage others in disobedience , or disorder the society . if therefore it were granted to be the pastors duty , and not the kings , toword our prayers and sermons , and chuse translations , chapters , metres , tunes , &c. yet if the king do it , though beyond his calling ; that is , if he appoint us what chapter to read every day in publick , and command some prayers to be read , and some homilies , or printed sermons to be sometime read , which are all good and lawful in themselves , not destroying the office of the ministry ; and if by him , or the people , it be taken for contempt , and a dishonouring him , to disobey him , the general command of honouring the king , will here oblige us to the commanded action . and if the question be , whether this be formal obedience , or only material ? we answer , . it is but material and not formal obedience , de specie , properly as it is to a command that is without authority to that thing . but , . it partaketh of formal obedience as to the genu , in as much as we do it for the honour of a ruler , and because it is his command who hath authority to govern us , though not to do it by this mistaken action . pr. . if a rightful ruler should go quite beyond the bounds of his authority , so far as that his command did not at all bind us , yet would it not make an indifferent thing become unlawful , meerly because he doth command it ; what ever any other accident may do . proved , . because there is no force in the inference , [ it is commanded , ergo , it is unlawful . ] . though his act be culpable and without true power , yet he is no usurper whom we are obliged to disown ; and all true governours have their faults . . the thing may be good , and so a duty on other accidental reasons , viz. . as a means of concord : . of pleasing others to their edification : . of honouring superiours : . of obtaining liberty , and avoiding mischief ; and as such , though not as an act of obedience , may be a duty . . else it would be in the power of ill-minded rulers , to make all indifferent lawful things to be sin or unlawful to us , by commanding them ; and so to deprive us craftily of all our liberty , and make us slaves . if rulers forbidding them , make not all things indifferent sinful ( which many say ) much less their commanding them ; else they might command instead of forbidding , and do the same thing . we do believe that there may be found some persons in the world of such weak understandings , and unruly spirits , as to think that it is a sinful betraying of their liberty , to do a thing antecedently indifferent , when it is commanded them . were we acquainted with such a one , we might ask him , . at what age he would have mankind begin the practice of this principle ? infants cannot learn it . if before they can feed themselves , they should refuse meat at the hour when it is offered them by the mother , because that hour was antecedently indifferent ; yea , if children or servants refuse their set meals on that account , it were just if hunger teach them more wit and obedience . if children will think they betray their liberties , if they learn that catechism , or words of prayer which the parents teach them , ( even set forms , ) or if they will not read , hear , or learn , or pray at the hour appointed by their parents , because it was antecedently indifferent ; or if they will not go to the church at the hour set them by the minister , because it was before a time indifferent , how should they be brought up in the nurture and admonition of the lord ? . we would ask such a one , whether this be an obeying of that command , col. . . . [ children obey your parents in all things , for this is well-pleasing to the lord : servants obey in all things your masters according to the flesh ? are things lawful none of the [ all things ? ] . if obedience must be only to things antecedently necessary , may not the child in such expect obedience from the father , in some sort , as well as the father from the child ? we mean material obedience , that the thing be done . . we hope they will not say the same to god , that they will obey him in nothing antecedently indifferent : and that is , because the very nature of obedience is contrary . and if so , is it no subordinate obedience that is due to parents and other superiors ? government , as such , can make that a duty which antecedently was none , ( or else all children and servants live in constant sin : ) therefore obedience , as such , consisteth in obeying such government . for though the chief work of all rulers , is to urge the observation of gods own laws , yet their secondary work is ( as corporations have by-laws about particulars , under the universal laws of the kingdom , so ) to determine of subservient particulars . and if their principle practised in families and schools , would overthrow all family and school order and obedience , and utterly subvert the education of mankind ; let them consider why it should be brought into kingdoms , cities , or churches . . and we would ask them , whether they live not themselves in the practice of the contrary ? do not all sects , even quakers , meet at the place and time which their leaders do appoint them ? do they not hear the words which the leader chuseth for their ears ? do they not command their own servants and children things or circumstances antecedently indifferent ? did we hold such principles , we should have less reason to lament the sin of those who have of late written accusations against us , as subverters of government , order , and obedience : and if any one can find any word of such importance , in any one called a meer non-conformist ( which we know not of , ) we have no more to do with it , than the church of england hath with words of untruth , cal 〈◊〉 mny , errour , or non-sense , which we read in the books , or hear in the words of any conformists : ( of which we are not willing to imitate such as gather catalogues or dunghills of them : ) and the rather because , . we licensed not such books : . nor ordained such to the sacred ministry : . nor have the government of them ; and therefore are not responsible for them . as for those men that have perswaded the ignorant in print , that we hold the things , to which we deny conformity , to be indifferent or lawful , and avoid them only as inconvenient or offensive to the weak ; and that some of us were forced at the savoy to assert , that , nothing may be commanded by authority which may by accident become unlawful to the subject , ( or become his sin by abuse ▪ ) it is a subject of which we shall here say no more , but that , we will not here do so great a dishonour to the authors , as some of them have done to themselves , that is , to tell the world their names ; the rest that concealed them , had more tenderness it seems of their reputation than of their consciences : what sort of men believe them , it is easie to conjecture : it is no fault of the earth to bear them , nor of the sun to shine upon the writers or the believers ; and we hope it is none in us to hear and bear the calumny , nor ( in our circumstances ) that we have not farther provoked them , by answering for our selves . we must lament the temptations and dangers of the age , and the sinful alienation of minds , divisions and distractions , which incendiaries have caused , and still cause . but for our selves , we do with peace read and remember , luke . . nothing is secret that shall not be made manifest , neither any thing hid , that shall not be known and come abroad . jam. . , . be patient , brethren , to the coming of the lord — stablish your hearts , for the coming of the lord draweth nigh . matth. . , . blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you , and shall say all manner of evil against you falsly , or my sa 〈◊〉 e : rejoice and be exceeding glad , &c. psal . . . the lord shall laugh at him ; for he seeth that his day is coming . psal . . . his breath goeth forth , he returneth to his earth : in that very day his thoughts perish . luke . . father forgive them , for they know not what they do . finis . the judgment of non-conformists of things sinful by accident , and of scandal . published to save mens souls from the guilt of believing those men who tell them , that the non-conformists asserted , that , [ whatever may be the occasion of sin to any must be taken away ; or that , nothing may be imposed which men may take scandal at , or by accident turn to sin. ] and to help those to repentance , who have polluted their souls with falshood and uncharitableness by believing them , and seconding their reports . printed in the year , . the judgment of non-conformists of things sinful by accident , and of scandal . could we but have prevailed with men of confused conceptions , and consounding pra●●●s , to have been reconciled to distinctness and 〈◊〉 engruity of speech ; or at least , with men of has 〈◊〉 e , temer 〈◊〉 ty , and 〈◊〉 assion , to have endured it , and patiently heard us distinctly tell them what we hold , we might have spared this trouble to the reader and our selves . those that cannot bear d 〈◊〉 stinct explication , but in the dungeon of confusion still deride or r 〈◊〉 ge at the light , which rendering things intelligible , doth open the unloveliness of ignorance , and the errour and sin which are its progeny , are not the reader 〈◊〉 for whom this is published ; but such as have retained so much of humane nature , as to love the light , and be willing to know the truth , and to be patient of a little sober consideration that they may know it . that we may make the matter in question intelligible , we must open the nature of morality , and so of moral evil ( or sin , ) and what it is to be evil by accident ; and what accidents make a thing unlawful to be commanded , and what not ; and what scandal is , and how far to be avoided ; which we shall do in these propositions following . prop. . morality is either regulans , or regulata , ( mensurans , or mensurata : ) the first is radically in god's own mind and will , and is called by many lex aeterna ; and it is signally , and expressively in gods laws ; and subord 〈◊〉 nately in man's laws , as they are a rule to subjects : of these we are not now to speak ; that is , not of the holiness of god or his laws , nor of man's , as they are truly a rule to subjects . morality as regulated is subjected in the minds and actions of the creature ; specially in the will , and in our actions , as voluntary ; and so even the laws of men , as those men are god's subjects , and their laws are actions good or evil , as regulated by god's superiour laws , are the subjects of the morality now in question . prop. . this morality in man's will and actions is nothing else , formally , but their relation of conformity or disconformity to god's law , as their rule ; ( and subordinately to subordinate rules ; ) and materially to the end and o 〈◊〉 jects . prop. . how far this moral relation is immediately founded in a physical relation , which is before it in order of nature , viz. in the said relation of the will and action to the end and object as such , antecedently to the relation to the commanding or forbidding law , we would willingly open , were it not lest we seem , with men that love not much distinction , to justifie or excuse them that censure us as guilty of excess herein ; and we may do what is now necessary to be done without it . prop. . no being as such , no substance as such , no habit as a habit , no act as an act , is morally good or evil : for so they are but quid naturale ; and god doth not command and forbid natural beings as such . prop. . all moral good and evil is subjected in natural beings , or privations , but not immediately as such ; but as modified , circumstantiated , and related . prop. . good and evil make up all morality ; there is no third species : there are many things that are indifferent as to morality ; that is , neither morally good , nor morally evil ; but there is nothing moral-indifferent : meer natural beings and acts are indifferent as to morality ; that is , they are not moral : but whatever is moral , is morally good or evil , and not indifferent . prop. . the subject and quid absolutum fundamentale , of all moral good , is , quid positivum , or a real being ; but the form of moral evil is ever found indeed in a real subject , but not always in a real fundamentum . for it is ( oft at least ) in total omissions and privations of the act , and in privations of some modal or accidental qualification , or rectitude . prop. . yet the formal relations of moral good and evil , are both tru 〈◊〉 relations ; even dis-conformity as well as conformity , ( as curv 〈◊〉 tude and dis-similitude are , as well as rectitude and similitude : ) and a meer negative is neither good nor evil , e. g. negative non-conformity , which is not privative dis-conformity , is no sin ; because there being not the debitum inessendi , the non-inesse is inculpable . it seemeth indeed to some learned men , that non agere may be moral good ; e. g. non odisse deum , au 〈◊〉 proximum , non ment 〈◊〉 ri , not to murder , steal , &c. and it 's true , that the 〈◊〉 is the thing remotely commanded , or , loco materie 〈◊〉 ; but the thing imm●●●ately commanded , is the 〈◊〉 agere : the will by all these commands is bound posit●●ely to nill the forbidden act , e. g. murder , adultery , lying , &c. to nill them is the prime duty or moral good ( that we say not with ockam , the only ) and not-to-d 〈◊〉 - them is the secondary , but that is as they are acts restrained , or forborn , by a commanding will : for a man in infancy , or the womb , or in an apoplexie , or when he is wholly taken up with some other sin , not then to steal , lye , murder , or commit adultery , is not at all a moral good. but a meer incogit●●●y , non agere , non velle , may be a true moral evil : the reason is , because when a right volition is commanded , ( as to love god or man , ) or ●●ight action , ( to do good 〈◊〉 ) not to do it is a breach of the command : and not to will and not to do when we ought is the commonest kind of sinning . prop. . right ordered actions , dispositions , and habits then as in , or of the will , directly , and remotely some non agency , are the only things commanded , called morally good ; ( save that eorum gratia the soul and whole man ( or person ) is well and truly called morall 〈◊〉 good : ) and the p 〈◊〉 ivation and i 〈◊〉 ordination of voluntary actions , dispositions , and habits , are the only moral evil ; ( save that the person is also called such eorum gratia . ) prop. . an action may be indifferent , or of no morality , as to election , or performance ; and yet to deliberate about that act may be morally good . e. g. i may doubt of two ways which are equal to my end ( as far as can be known by me , ) whether they be so or not ; or which is the better : i may be obliged to deliberate whether they are equal or not , to guide my progress , and end my doubt : and when i have found them equal , i have found that comparatively neither of them is matter of election , as by reason to be preferred to the other : but yet because i must chuse to g 〈◊〉 on , therefore i must take one way and not the other , because i cannot go both : but this is only a chusing to go , and a taking that way , but not a chusing it , which signifieth a rational preferring it . here my deliberation is a moral act , and so is my chusing to go ; but my chusing this way , rather than the other , is none : for upon deliberating i found that neither was eligible , and choice no duty . prop. . as the smallness of the least physical being , though undiscernable , proveth it not to be nothing ; so the smallness of any moral good or evil , ( duty or sin ) proveth not that it is no duty , or sin at all . prop. . moral good and evil is it self only an accident ; for habits , dispositions , actions , and relations , are accidents ; and privations are either reductively accidents ( as some call them ) or less than accidents , even meer nothings , ( though from a nullity or privation a moral relation truly result on the person . ) prop. . therefore when we say that a thing is good or evil by accident , we mean somewhat more than that the good or evil is an accident it self , ( for there is no other : ) we mean that it is something acciding ( or added ) to the former accident or state that maketh it now good or evil. prop. . in an action there is considerable , . the action as such , or as specified only by the faculty , ( intellection , volition , imagination &c. ) . the action as farther specified by the terminating object ; . in the first respect , the gradus actus is accidens accident 〈◊〉 : and an act may become good or evil , by such intenseness or remissness as is ordinate or inordinate . and the timing it may do the like : ( as to be thinking when i should sleep . ) . in the second respect , an accident supervening or added to the object , is said to make that action good or evil by accident ; that is , by an alteration of the specifying object by some accident . and this is the commonest case , and the sense in which this controversie in hand is most concerned ; which therefore we desire to be most observed . prop. . any man therefore that knoweth what true knowledge is , may easily perceive that he that will dispute about bonum vel malum per se & per accidens , if he would not lose his labour , or deceive must use more diligence in explaining these terms , than they do that toss them about unexplained , as if they were sufficiently intelligible of themselves , to such as some use to make the receivers of their cholerick and splenetick evacuations . even bonum & malum per se , is not such ver se qua substantiam , nor per se qua actum , nor per se qua intellectionem , volitionem aut praxin execu ivam ; but per se ut accidens substantiae ( scilicet actum ) circa objectum ( quod est accidens plerumque ) sine altero accidente superaddito . so that the same which now is bonum vel malum per accidens , is called bonum vel malum per se , in respect to a supervenient accident : and excluding all accidents , or all good or evil by accident ; so nothing in the world is bonum or malum morale per se ( except what is anon excepted . e. g. to love is an act ; that act ( as is the habit also ) is an accident : to love a man as godly or wise , or as my king or teacher , is to love him for accidents ; that is , godliness , wisdom , authority , &c. this is bonum per accidens , and yet bonum per se , stating the object thus , without farther accidents . to love him as an enemy , and persecutor , and silencer of godly ministers of christ , is malum per accidens , and yet malum per se , in respect to farther accidents . to love the man is not evil , but to love him for his evil. the exception here is , when we are bound to love the simple essence , as such , abstracting from all accidents : the principal instance is of our love to god , ( of which more anon ; ) because god hath no accidents , and therefore is loved meerly as in his essence : and no doubt but god is to be loved as in his essential perfection . but yet we are nono of those that against pet. hurtado mendez , and other nominals , will undertake to prove , that relations to the creatures ( which are accidents ) do not truly belong to god ; such as that of creator , owner , ruler , benefactor , &c. we leave that task to the thomists ; and to other mens judgements how well they perform it . the next instance is ( our love to man as man , ) and so to other created essences ; which we deny not , but add , . that man's relation to god , as he sheweth his maker's perfections is a relation , and that 's it that is to be loved morally in man , at least principally , and never left out : the same we say of other essences . . and the wisdom , goodness , and so the moral amiableness of man ( at least the principal ) is it self an accident . the word of god , and the worship of god , are accidents . but yet we say , that the properest notion of bonum per se , is , when we love a thing ( but specially god himself ) as in the simple essence , 〈◊〉 a supervening obliging accident : and of malum per 〈◊〉 , when god's very essence is hated , or not loved : but that any morally hate the very substantial essence of a creature , we leave others to prove . prop. . this holdeth about the very negative laws of the decalogue , e. g. to kill a man is in it self no moral evil ; else it were sin to execute malefactors ; and kings , judges , and souldiers were the most criminal sinners : to kill a man authoritatively , that is , a traytor , or murderer , is good ; that is , an act with its due mode and object , which are accidents that make it good . and to kill the innocent , or without authority , is sin by this accident , of an undue mode and object . to take another mans goods or money is not malum per se ; for it may be done as a mulct , or by law on just cause , or for the publick defence by authority , or by his consent : but to take it without consent , right , or authority , is sin by this accident . so also of the seventh commandment . the law forbids the act as clothed with its undue accidents . the names of injustice , coveting , murder , adultery , theft , false-witness , &c. all signifie the acts with the undue prohibited accidents . one of our casuists excepteth only lying , as simply per se evil : but he that lyeth , sinneth not because he speaketh those same words , but because he speaketh words that , in relation to his own mind , and to the matter , and to the hearers understanding , are false and deceitful : and that relative incongruity of the words is the accident that maketh them sinful . prop. . man passeth his life among such a multitude of accidents and circumstances , that it is not one , but very many , that every one of our actions is clothed with , or concerned in , which tend to make it good or evil. prop. . a chief distinction here to be observed , is between immutable duties , ( supposing our own continued faculties ) and mutable ones ; and those things are principally or eminently called good or evil per se , which are so immutably , and no supervenient accident can ever make them otherwise : and in the most notable sense those things are called good or evil per accidens , which by supervening accidents may be changed from what they were before . pr. . that which is thus immutably good per se , is mans duty to god himself immediately , as he is our owner , ruler , benefactor , and end : considering this duty not in this or that time , but in kind , in its season ; and supposing our faculties and con-causes . for if a man should be exercising even love to god when he is bound to sleep for the support of nature , or if a man should love god with so passionate an affection as would distract him , this , as so used , is not good ; but we never knew any in much danger of so over-doing : nor is it a duty for a man in infancy , or an apoplexy , or deep sleep , &c. actually to love , fear , or trust god ; and in other such cases of impossibility . but when possible , or in its season , it is immutably a duty : not so rarely as the jansenist chargeth the jesuite casuists to hold , once in many weeks , or months , or years ; but love constraining us to its holy fruits , must be the very new nature as it were of our souls , and the business of our lives . prop. . that which makes this to be bonum per se immutabile , which no accident can alter , is , . because the foundations of our obligations are immutable , while our faculties and powers endure ( else they would cease , ) for the de 〈◊〉 itum is a relation resulting from the meer being or position of the humane nature , as related to god : and god will never change : therefore unless man cease to be man , or to be able to act as man , the obligation can by no accident be changed . . because it is a duty to the supreme ruler and absolute infinite good ; and therefore the very performance of it is exclusive of all changing accidents : for he that loveth god as a means to his fleshly pleasure and prosperity only , and as less good to him than the world , loveth him not as god : and he that loveth him as god , loveth him as the absolute power , wisdom , and goodness , and therefore exclusively as to all competitors , unless as this love is sinfully defective ; but that accident of defectiveness maketh not our love to god to be a sin , but the defe 〈◊〉 t of it as to degree or frequency of exercise is the sin . . and also because that god is the final object , and love the final act ; which together make up the ultimate end of man ( including the vision that kindleth love , and the praise joy , and obedience which express it : ) but though mean 〈◊〉 may be oft changed , and may be too much loved , yet the ultimate end is unchangeable , and cannot be too much loved ( by true mental love , distinct from distracting passions ; ) therefore our obligations to it are according . so that love to god is the most immutable moral good. and the same in their place and time must be said of holy fear , trust , and obedience to god , from which no accident can disoblige us ; no command or prohibition of man ; no suffering of body , or danger of life it self ; much less the allurements of sensual delights . pr. . accordingly to hate god , to distrust his known promise , to disobey his known law , to oppose or persecute his known interest in the world , in his word and worship , church and servants , are immutably evil per se ; which no accident can make good or lawful : for the reasons before given . pr. . but where the object is mutable , and the circumstances of things which the obligation presupposeth , there the duty or sinfulness is by supervening accidents mutable : even incest , which is a hainous sin , was a duty to adams children , because of accidental difference of the case . the killing of an innocent son , was well consented to by abraham , when the lord of life and of all the world had commanded it ; and that consent was an act of eminent goodness , and accordingly rewarded . the borrowing of the egyptians goods without intent to restore them , and the robbing of them by taking them away , was well done , when the absolute owner of the world had by his precept altered the propriety . thus the altering of the case may alter obligations . pr. . but besides the immutable obligations to god himself , there are many instances of our actions towards men , and worldy things , which are ordinarily unchanged ; and only some rare or supernatural declaration of the will of god doth change them : for as god the author and orderer of nature , sheweth us by experience , that he delighteth much in the ordinary constancy of his operations , and rarely changeth the course of nature ; so there is an answerable constancy in the ordinary state and order of things ; and consequently of obligations or duty . and these are the matter of gods common universal laws , which ordinarily oblige all mankind ; these are the matter of the second table of the decalogue ; and are seconds in point of immutable obligation to the first ( mentioned ) sort ( our natural duty to god : ) for though man be mutable , and god immutable , yet god preserveth so much constancy in humane affairs , as is just matter of constant universal laws , ( though they are lyable rarely to dispensations or exceptions . ) and as not murdering , not committing adultery , not stealing , not lying , or false witness bearing are such , so also are the meer positives of the first table , such as are the acts of instituted worship , and the holy observation of the lords day . prop. . the cases of mans life , which are more mutable , are the matter of mutable duty and sin , which are most usually called good or evil per accidens , because that mutable accidents , added to the more constant accidents , make them such by change . and so it is greatly to be noted , that the act which is a duty to one man , in one place , at one time , &c. may be a sin to another man , or at another time , place , &c. and that new accidents may again come in , and make that action , that was a sin , to become again a duty : and more new accidents may make it a sin again ; and so over and over : even as when you are weighing in the ballance , one grain may turn the scales the other way , and two more in the other end may turn them back again ; and three more in the other end may yet return them , and so on many times over and over . for instance , suppose an honest man cannot pray without some unseemly faults in utterance ; in secret it is his duty to pray vocally if that most profit and affect his heart ; if an exceptious person be known to over-hear him , it may be a sin to do it audibly : if his family be capable of bearing it , it is his duty to do it as he can : if strangers come in that would by scorn make it do more hurt than good , he may be bound to forbear till they are gone : when they are gone it is his duty again : a fire breaketh out , or one falleth into a swound , and it is his duty to forbear : when that is over , it may be his duty again , &c. pr. . two sorts therefore sin against god , that would tye men to do the very same things , of such a mutable nature , without excepting the mutation of accidents : . those that will tye them to it by peremptory laws : . those that will censoriously reproach or condemn them as sinners , that do not do just as they do , when the circumstances alter the case : many are so guilty who complain of other mens impositions . pr. . hence it is evident , that prudence , discerning how the alteration of accidents alter our obligations , is a very needful thing to christians , for the same guidance of their hearts and lives : and as men picture justice as holding the ballance , so should christian prudence be thought on , even as judging of good and evil with the ballance in our hand , and putting every grain of considerable accidents into each end : and much errour , censoriousness , disorder , and other sin is in the world , by ignorant mens judging of things by some mistaken word of scripture , without prudent weighing of circumstances , and discerning which preponderateth : there were circumstances in which paul would shave his head , and circumcise timothy , and become a jew to the jews ; and there were circumstances in which he saith , if ye be circumcised christ shall profit you nothing : stand fast in the liberty with which christ hath made you free . pr. . hence the common people , who cannot be expected to have a sufficient measure of such ponderating prudence , do need spiritual guides ; who should be good casuists , and endowed with so much accurateness of sapience , and prudence , as to be able to examine all the circumstances of actions , ( as physicians must do about their patients case ) and to see when one grain or accident doth indeed determine them to be good or evil . pr. . and the laws of just governours being made by men that must be presumed to be wiser than the ordinary subjects , in the matters which belong to their own office ; as also the decision of a spiritual casuist and pastor ; if either of them be put into a ballance that before stood equal , are an additional accident which must turn the s 〈◊〉 ales : supposing that the former equality , or suspense , was not from the persons sinful ignorance , or negligence . prop. . but in such variety of cases and intricate difficulties , god doth not lay our safety , peace , and comfort , upon such degrees of accurateness and prudence as we cannot attain , though truly willing and faithfully endeavouring it by sincere diligence : nor is god pleased that men be over scrupulous , or over solicitous , about lesser doubtful circumstances ; that is , that we neglect the duty it self , or too much delay it , or live in self-distracting uncomfortable despondencies ; making god's service burdensome and grievous to us , either by an over troublesome and tedious care of some less accident , or because we can do the work no more exactly : like a servant that instead of his days work and journey , would sit down and spend half the day in crying because he can do no better , or in curious enquiries about lesser circumstances : but god would have us upon our sincere willingness , and a proportionable fidelity in enquiry , to do his service chearfully as well as we can ; and to go on as believing that we have a merciful god , a sufficient and a pardoning covenant , and expect with joy his acceptance of our sincerity . pr. . he that would tell rulers that they may lawfully command every thing which is not evil in the physical action , considered without its accidents ; or that is not evil in the first accidents or circumstances that cloth it , will teach them to cast off religion and common honesty and justice , and to own more iniquity than ever mahomet , or any false prophet to our knowledge , hath defended , and such as satan himself hath confessed to be evil . pr. . no man may command others any action , which is by accident unlawful to be commanded : for it is sin , if sin by accident . ) but rulers may command many things , which the subject may by accident make sinful for himself to do , ( as shall be shewed . ) pr. . for there are some accidents rendring the act sinful , which a ruler may and ought to make provision against , or prevent : and there are some which he neither can prevent , nor is bound therefore to forbear or change his law. for instance , pr. . no man is bound to forbear a law or practice , which is commanded of god , or is necessary to a greater good , ( as gods glory , the publick safety , the salvation of many , or himself , &c. ) lest some man should turn it to his own sin and ruine : gods laws must not be broken , nor the publick welfare hazarded , to save a particular person from himself , and from his sinful inclinations to ill doing . pr. . as to a circumstance that is indifferent antecedently to further accidents , and if it be determined one way will do accidentally a great deal of good and a little hurt ; and if the other way , it will do a little good and a great deal of hurt ; the ruler , if he foresee it , must determine it the first way , notwithstanding the accidental hurt ( whether sin or suffering ) which will follow . because a greater hurt is more carefully to be avoided than a less , and a greater good more carefully to be endeavoured than a less : e. g. if the army be appointed to meet at such a day and place , some few souldiers ( one of a thousand ) will mutiny and not appear : if at another time and place , most of them will mutiny . or if a congregation be appointed to meet at such an hour and place for 〈◊〉 ods worship , and join with such a worthy teacher , one of an hundred will schismatically separate : if in another place , at another hour , with another worthy teacher , an hundred to one will separate . here the ruler must first avoid the greater evil that by accident will follow . if one pe 〈◊〉 vish hearer will sinfully separate if the preacher use sermon notes , or if he use such a translation , such a metre , such tunes of psalms , if he pray freely without a form , or if he use the same words often as a form ; and it an hundred to one are for the contrary , and would separate if he did otherwise , the greater evil by accident must be avoided before the less . pr. . so much are wicked men inclined to turn all things into sin , that it is not possible to command any thing so good , which bad men may not make a sinful use of : sin taketh occasion of god's own commandments , ro. . . pr. . no ruler is bound to suspect and prevent such unusual dangers of mens sin , or ruine , as fall out beyond all rational fore-sight or expectation , of whose probable event , or possible at least , there was no just evidence . pr. . caeteris paribus , an equal certain hurt must rather be avoided , than an equal uncertain hurt , much more an improbable one . pr. . the equal danger of a more publick worthy person is to be avoided more than the danger of a private , or less worthy person . and so in other instances : rulers must weigh all discernable accidents , and prudently pr 〈◊〉 fer the greatest good , and most avoid the greatest evil. pr. . seeing it is accidents that make most actions good or evil , it is the office , skill , and honour of rulers to avoid as many ill accidents , and prevent as many sins by accident , as is possible : and as the multitude of his patients funerals is the physicians dishonour , and the multitude of cures is his honour ; so is it to the ruler ( allowing necessary disparities ) as to mens sins by accidents . pr. . if good as good be amiable , then the greatest good as such is most amiable , and to be preferrd before the less : and when the difference is known , or such as rulers are obliged to know , the less cannot be preferred without sin ; and such as is against the very nature of goodness , and of man's will. it is not therefore a thing indifferent , nor the matter of god's counsel , which is no law. pr. . but to know of several goods which is most eligible , or the greatest , is a matter of great difficulty in many instances , in which consisteth no small part of the christian wisdom , work , and life . the rules of such discerning are elsewhere laid down , by such as have written on that subject ; see christian direct . p. . &c. pr. . a good that in it self is lesser may be the matter of a greater duty , pro hic & nunc , because the greater may have another season when the lesser cannot : e. g. to save a soul , or to build a church may be a better work than to quench the fire in an house : and yet for that time the quenching of the fire may be the greater duty , because it can be done no other time , when the other may ; and so both done in their several seasons are better than one alone . pr. . a greater good may be no duty to him that is not called to do it ; as preaching to a woman , or unable lay-man : to rule well as a king is a greater good than private business ; and yet private men must not usurp it , but let it alone as no work of theirs . the subject must not take up the rulers work , nor the child the fathers , nor the wife the husbands , nor the scholar the teachers , because it is better . pr. . a rulers command will not justifie all scandal given by the act commanded , nor make that act lawful : nor will all scandal , that we foreknow will thence be taken , excuse us from obeying the rulers command in the offending act. it is therefore a matter of great difficulty and prudence sometimes to discern , whether the rulers command , or the scandalousness , or accidental hurtfulness of the act , put into the counterballance , do weigh down the other . pr. . if governours determine circumstances antecedently indifferent , ( as the place and hour of assemblies , &c. ) that way which some will be scandalized at , and turn to their sin and hurt , when they might have avoided this occasion of their sin , by another way , without any , or so great a hurt ; this is the governours sin so to mis-do : but it may , notwithstanding , be a duty in the subject to obey that determination ; because , . it is a command of a ruler in his place : . the thing is supposed not only lawful , but such as doth more good for concord , as it is a determination of authority , than it doth hurt by mens mistake : ( of which we have spoken in another paper . ) as , e. g. some are so offended at the old metre of our singing psalms , that they will separate from the worship on that account : suppose that the magistrate , and pastors , will use them and no other : if they sin in chusing no better , and if my using them be offensive to them that separate , yet is it my duty and the rest of the peoples to obey the magistrate and pastor , and joyn with the church in using them , rather than separate as others do ( for many reasons . ) pr. . of the nature , kinds , causes , and cure of scandal given and taken , one of us hath written so much ( christian directory , tom. . p. . &c. ) as may excuse the omission of the same in this writing . but we must still desire the reader to note , that the word [ scandal ] is among us variously used : . sometime by the vulgar for meer displeasing or grieving another , especially in matters of religion : . sometime for [ a seeming sinfulness : ] so a scandal is said to be raised of a man when he is ( truly or falsly ) accused of sin , especially a disgraceful sin : and a man is called scandalous , and scandalized , when others ( justly or unjustly ) report him to be a disgraceful sinner ; and he is called a scandal in the place where he liveth for that infamy : . the use of the word in the gospel is , for any thing that is a snare or trap or stumbling-block to others , to keep or hinder them by temptation , from faith , repentance , holiness , or salvation . pr. . love kindled by faith , and faith kindling love , and love working in the order of obedience , is the sum of all our duty , or religion . to love our neighbours as our selves , and exercise love in doing good to all as we are able , is indispensible duty : ( we speak of natural and moral-legal power conjunct : illu 〈◊〉 possumus quod & animae corporisque viribus , & jure possumus : ) seeing then that love is the fulfilling of god's law , no rulers law can disoblige us from it ; no , not to our very enemies : nor are they disobliged themselves . pr. . he breaketh the sixth command [ thou shalt not murder ] who doth not do his best to save his neighbours life in danger : much more if he voluntarily and unnecessarily do that , which he knew , or ought to know , would be the occasion and means abused to effect it . he that oweth maintenance to another , and denyeth it him , is guilty of his suffering though he take nothing from him : e. g. he that provideth not food for the life of his child , and famisheth him by such omission : he that suffereth his neighbour to famish when he might relieve him : yea , or his enemy , except when in wars , or a course of justice , he may take away his life . he that seeth his neighbour in fire , or water , or among thieves , and could save him by lawful means , and doth not , is guilty of his blood. so is he that seeth his neighbour in drunkenness , folly , or passion , making away himself , and doth not save him from himself , if he can . much more is be guilty of murder , who wilfully selleth poyson to him , who he knoweth doth intend to kill his neighbour , or himself ; much more his prince with it : and if we have any casuists more loose than the jesuites accused by montaltus , who will justifie this , because that selling arsenick , &c. is lawful per se , and unlawful only per accidens , ye we suppose that the judges would be stricter casuists , in judging him to punishment that sinned thus per accidens : and as gods laws reaching the conscience are stricter in such things than mans , so should the expositors of them be than the judges . and we hope that our casuists will never see a law so made , that shall command ( or tolerate ) all apothecaries to sell poyson to those that they know mean to use it to treason , or murder ; and shall say , you are not bound to neglect your trade , your right , or liberty , to prevent another mans sin , and abusing it to his own , or others hurt : our law-makers will never say , we may command this , because it is sin but per accidens : when interest is against their errour , who by interest were led into it , it will then be easie to see the evil of such commanding ( yea , or conniving at ) sin per accidens . till then it is hard curing them , whom mistaken interest blindeth , of the most inhumane errour . pr. . we therefore who are called non-con 〈◊〉 ormists , ( and puritans , by men whose interest dictateth reproaches ) do now confess , that , whereas we once hoped that we had differed but in lesser things from our accusers , we do find our selves so far mistaken , as that some of them , who have thought it worth their labour to write vehemently for our reproach and increased sufferings , do differ from us in the vitals of our religion , even of our belief , our love , and practice . we mean such as hold [ that all the obligations of scandal proceed purely from that extraordinary height of charity , and tenderness of good nature , that is so signally recommended in the gospel : — but if it proceed from humour , or pride , or wilfulness , or any other vitious principle , then is the man to be treated as a peevish and stubborn person ; and no man is bound to part with his own freedom , because his neighbour is froward and humorous : and if he be resolved to fall , there is no reason i should forego the use of my liberty , because he is resolved to make that his stumbling-block . ecclesiast . polit. page . ] because this is contrary to that very religion in which only we hope for salvation , we take the boldness to put these few questions to them who thus judge . q. . is not love the fulfilling of the law , and the end of the gospel , and faith working by love , the sum of christian religion ? doth not the law of nature oblige us to love our neighbour as our selves ? q. . doth not god beneficently love his enemies ; even the sinful , the humorous , the proud , and the peevish ? did not christ come to seek and save them ? is there not joy in heaven for their repentance ? doth not god welcome such prodigals when they return , luke . and call , invite , and intreat them to return ? q. . are we not commanded to be merciful as our heavenly father is merciful ; and to love even our enemies , and pray for persecutors , that we may be like him ? and is not this a natural common duty ? q. . hath not god sent out his ministers to preach home such sinners ; and commanded them to do it instantly , in season and out of season , reproving and exhorting , and with meekness , to instruct opposers , if god peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth ? and must we not labour hard , and suffer much , for to win such souls ? q. . should not every thing be valued according to its worth ? and are not the souls of such as you call humorous , peevish , or wilful , worth more than some of that which you call your liberty ? are they not worth more than a pipe of tobacco , or a cup of sack , or a stage-play , or a needless ceremony ; which you account part of your liberty ? would you deny none of these to save many souls ? q. . would you not deny your liberty in a cup of drink , or a pipe of tobacco , to save the life of one that in humour would destroy himself ? or his house , who would set it on fire ? q. . if not , doth this religion of yours much commend it self to the nature of mankind ? or is he that writeth this fit to report us of the other mind , unfit for subjection , or humane society ? can christians be of your religion ? q. . are not souls more worth than bodies ? and should not the soul of a sinner be as compassionately saved by us as his body , as far as we are able , and at as dear a rate ? q ▪ . is that man like to profit his hearers , or be taken for a faithful pastor , or an honour to the church of england , who would tell them , [ i would not forsake a pipe of tobacco , or a lawful sport or jeast , to save any of your souls , who are vitious , humourous , or peevish ? ] q. . doth not this doleful doctrine tell men consequently , that they should seek to save the soul of no sinner in the world ? for if you , . except all that have humour , pride , wilfulness , or any other vitious principle ; . and that but so far prevalent as to be resolved to make a stumbling-block of some liberty of anothers : what sinner almost is not here excluded from your charity ? who is it that hath not as great sin as some humorous , or peevish stumbling at some lawful thing ? or who is it that hath no pride , no peevishness , no humorousness , or at least that hath no vitious principle at all ? is not that man perfectly holy ? . and if to save such an one you would not so much as deny any of your liberty for him , what would you do for him at all ? who can expect that you should bestow any great labour or c 〈◊〉 st to do good , or save a sinner , that would not lose a cup of sack to save him ? q. . do you not thus reproach christ , that set a higher price on souls , when you value them not at the price of a cup of drink ? would you have it believed that they are purchased by his blood ? q ▪ . would you have god care no more for your soul , and value it at no higher a rate ? doth he believe the immortality of souls who will say so ? q. . should god give such a law to all his creatures , for their acting towards your self and one another ; q. 〈◊〉 . [ d 〈◊〉 ny not so much as a lawful jeast , or sport , or ceremony , to win and save any one in the world , that out of any vitous principle will stumble at your liberty ; ] what family , or common-wealth , could subsist under such an inhumane privation of love ? q. . if you loved your neighbour as your self , and did as you would have others do to you , would you deny no lawful thing to save his soul , though he had some vitious principle ? q. . what will people say of such men as you , if you shall ever preach for love and good works , and would make people believe that its you that are for them , and we against them ; when they compare this doctrine with your words ? q. . why do such men call us puritans , as if we succeeded the old catharists ( or perfectionists ) and the novatians , when we are so far from so vilifying sinners that have a vitious principle , and sin against some lawful thing , by taking it for unlawful , that we know none in the world that hath no vitious principle , and is not to be helped at a dearer rate ? and seeing we find such real difference in our very religion it self , from such as this , we cannot wonder if men of such principles use us and the nation no better than they do : but we crave their solid resolving of these doubts , if they will lose so much of their ease and liberty , for the convincing of persons judged so unworthy . pr. . for our parts we must profess , that we take it to be our duty not only to deny a lawful thing , or our liberty therein , for the saving of souls that have vitious principles and humours , but to bestow our labours , and endure poverty , reproach , persecution , imprisonment , and , when god calls us to it , death it self , to serve christ in the saving of such souls . pr. . we suppose that christ and his apostles were of the same mind , when christ would have a right hand or a right eye rather lost , than the soul should be hazarded by the scandal or temptation of it . and when he would pay caesar tribute when he was free , rather than o●●end men . and when he so dreadfully speaketh of them that offend or scandalize one of the little ones , even weak believers , as that it were better for them that a milstone were hanged on their necks , and they were cast into the sea : mat. . and . . mar. . , . mat. . . and . . rom. . , , &c. this was s. paul ' s judgment , [ let us not judge one another any more , but judge this rather , that no man put a stumbling block , or an occasion to fall , in his brothers way . i know , and am perswaded by the lord jesus , that there is nothing unclean of it self ; but to him that esteemeth any thing unclean , to him it is unclean . but if thy brother be grieved with thy meat , now walkest thou not charitably : destroy not him with thy meat for whom christ dyed : let not your good be evil spoken of : for the kingdom of god is not meat and drink , but righteousness and peace and joy in the holy ghost : for he that in these things serveth christ , is acceptable to god , and approved of men : let us therefore follow after the things that make for peace , and things wherewith one may edifie another . for meat destroy not the work of god : all things indeed are pure ; but it is evil for that man who eateth with offence . it is good neither to eat flesh , nor drink wine , nor that whereby thy brother stumbleth , or is offended , or made weak . hast thou faith ? have it to thy self before god : happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth : and he that doubteth is damned if he eat , because it s not of faith : for whatsoever is not of faith is sin . this was paul ' s doctrine then , even to all the church of rome . so on , rom. . , &c. we then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak , and not to please our selves . let every one of us please his neighbour for his good , to edification : for even christ pleased not himself . — now the god of patience and consolation , grant you to be like minded one towards another , according to christ jesus . so cor. . . but take 〈◊〉 eed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumbling-block to them that are weak . — . wherefore if meat make my brother to offend , i will eat no flesh while the world standeth , lest i make my brother to o●●end . ] remember that he that spake this had as great church-authority as any bishop , and spake this as an apostlers and not as a meer private man. pr. . the same author saith , ( eccl. polit. p. . ) that this school-distinction ( of scandalum datum & acceptum ) is apparently false and impertinent , and the main thing that hath perplexed all discourses of this article . ] but we see no reason to think , that the generality of both protestants & papists are herein mistaken , & this writer is in the right , or that the school doctors need go to school to him to reform such errors : it is a moral subject , & given and taken are morally meant ; that is , there is scandal culpably given , and there is scandal culpably taken only , and not so given . the distinction is of the parties culpable . all which is culpably taken is not culpably given : a man that either purposely or negligently speaketh injurious provoking words , doth give the temptation of wrath to the hearer : but he that speaketh words which in themselves have no tendency to provoke , nor was obliged to foresee that they would provoke , doth give no scandal ; ( no nor he that justly and aptly reproveth : ) but a peevish or impatient sinner may yet take scandal from them . he that leaveth arsenick where he should know that another is like to take it to his death , whether he do it purposely or negligently ( that is by the wills commission or omission ) is the reputed giver , or moral cause , of that man's death . but he that leaveth it where he could not know , and was not obliged to fear , that another would so take and use it , may say , it was taken by him , and not given by me . an alluring habit , actions , and gestures , which have a natural tendency to provoke others to sinful lusts , have ever been condemned by all sober divines as scandal given ; which yet chaste persons may re 〈◊〉 use to take : but if the soberest and modestest habit prove a snare , it is a scandal taken , and not culpably given : ( as a thief , if he steal my knife and cut his own throat with it , cannot say that i gave it him . ) he that speaketh words which are apt to tempt the hearer to treason or rebellion , doth give the scandal : but if by the reading of any chapter in the bible , any will be incited to rebellion or disloyalty ; or if by the innocent , necessary , and sober defence of a just cause , any will be tempted to think unworthily of his governours or judges , he taketh scandal that is not culpably given him . pr. . if a man were bound to forbear all that others will turn into an occasion of sin , he should not only lose all his liberty , but omit all his duty : and to think that we are bound to deny no liberty , or nothing indifferent to prevent or cure the sin of others , is to deny the common principles of humanity ; and on pretense of justice to renounce common charity , and to become an adversary to the great precepts of christ and his apostles . therefore the difficulty is to resolve how far , and in what cases , our liberty must be denyed , to save other men from sin ; and consequently from damnation ; which must be determined by the great general canons : [ thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self : whatsoever you would that men should do to you , so do to them : let all be done to edification : prefer a greater good before a less ; and most avoid the greatest evil : caeteris paribus , the most publick good ( of many ) is the greatest : sin is a greater evil , than bodily wants and sufferings . ] no ruler may command any thing which is contrary ( though but by accident ) to the law of god , in nature and scripture expressed : charity and justice are commanded by the law of nature and scripture : when accidentally the man that fell among thieves was wounded , and naked , charity obliged the priest and levite to have relieved him . if by accident fire consume mens habitations , charity requireth others to relieve them . especially where the obligation is great and special , as for parents to feed their children : if rulers forbid them , and so would have them murder them by famine , the command is sinful , and the obligation null ; because they cannot dissolve the obligation of god's natural laws . and the exercise of charity to believers , that are the members of christ , is a duty that none may countermand ; and the commands of none can disoblige us from : for mat. . christ tells us that he will judge men , according to their exercised charity to his servants , to everlasting life , or everlasting punishment . yet christ foreknew , and foretold men , that much of this charity must be exercised against the wills of many of the rulers of the world. much less may rulers prohibit the due exercise of charity to mens souls , or can oblige men by such prohibitions : as to instruct an unbeliever , exhort a blasphemer , idolater , adulterer , a thief , a murderer , &c. to repent . and much less yet may rulers forbid the means of mens salvation , to be used by the faithful ministers of christ , who by covenant in their ordination are specially thereto obliged . and least of all may any rulers command , or can oblige men , to kill men unjustly , or to draw men to sin , or to deceive them by false teaching , or any thing else , that directly , or by accident , is like to procure their damnation , except in the cases hereafter excepted . pr. . though rulers cannot destroy charity , they may regulate it in due subordination to god's laws : e. g. they may make laws that the poor shall be kept in their own parishes , and not beg abroad ; and forbid relieving them that so beg . they may forbid parents to cram their children to excess . they may forbid ministers the unnecessary , and irregular , intruding into other mens pulpits , or assemblies , or families ; and such like . pr. . and they may forbid men doing hurt on pretenses of charity : e. g. physicians to give men pernicious drugs ; or preachers or others , to seduce men to idolatry , or blaspheme christ , or draw men to mahume 〈◊〉 anisme , socinianisme , &c. or to preach rebellion , or seek to bring the subjects into subjection to a forreign prince , or ecclesiastical usurper ; or uncalled and unfit men , to make themselves unnecessarily publick teachers , to the disgrace of the sacred doctrine which they abuse , and hindrance of mens salvation , and of the publick peace and safety . pr. . in a word , rulers may forbid all things not commanded by god , though seemingly charitable , or good by accident , when contrary accidents notoriously preponderate , and it is certain , or most probable , to men of true judgement , to whose cognizance it belongeth , that the thing will do more hurt than good , and tendeth more to destruction , than to edification ▪ pr. . the time , place , and other circumstances of a duty may be at the governours determination , when the duty it self is not : and they may forbid the duty it self , as to that time , and place , &c. when a greater good , at that time , requireth it . e. g. they may forbid resting on the lords-day , in time of a fire , inundation , or a siege , when defence is necessary : they may forbid some publick assemblies in time of a great pestilence , to prevent infection : they may command men out of the church to quench a fire , &c. pr. . it is certain that rulers have not power from god to destroy the duties commanded by god , on any pretenses of regulating , or duly circumstantiating , or ordering them ; or of being the judges : ( as is elsewhere shewed . ) for they have their power to edification , and not destruction ; and are the ministers of god for good. e. g. if on pretense of forbidding hurtful preachers and seducers , they forbid sound doctrine , or necessary preaching of it . constantius and valens might not set up arrians , and cast out and forbid the orthodox , on pretense that they were the judges . so if on pretense of restraining unnecessary supernumeraries , they forbid , or silence , one half the necessary number : or if on pretense of keeping order , they commit the charge of fifty thousand or one hundred thousand souls to one , or two men , who cannot possibly supply the real necessities of five thousand of them ; and forbid all others to help the rest , as intruders into another mans charge : ( on which pretense they might keep almost all the people from the gospel , by committing a kingdom or county only to one man : ) so also if on pretense of any cross interest of their own , they would prohibit christ's gospel : or if they will forbid men to preach , because they will not make a covenant against some law of god , or will not lye , or be perjured , or prophane god's ordinances , or own false doctrine , or disown the very law of nature , calling this non-conformity , disobedience , or schisme . yea , if they forbid necessary helps to mens salvation , because the teachers be not all of one opininion about some unnecessary controversie , or ceremony : as if all the lutherans would silence all called calvenists , or they the lutherans , or arminians : much more unlawful is it for rulers themselves to be the makers of such snares and occasions of dissent , and then to impose them by such penalties , that none shall preach the gospel of christ , that will not consent to them , how great soever the necessity be . as , e. g. god hath not forbidden wearing a pair of horns : if rulers should make laws that none shall preach the gospel that will not wear horns in preaching , in token that the word of god shall push down the powers of sin and satan , this is an unlawful command . so if on pretense of ordering the place of worship , men be commanded to such a distance , or confined to so small a room , as destroyeth the end of the work it self , and depriveth most of all possibility of the benefit . pr. . rulers ought not to command any thing which will notably do more harm than good , nor make an unnecessary thing a means or occasion of excluding the necessary worship of god , or preaching of his gospel . nor will their saying that necessary teaching is not necessary , or that they are the judges of necessity , or that hereticks are orthodox , or the orthodox are hereticks , or that usurpers only are duly called , and others are schismaticks , or that ignorant insufficient preachers are sufficient , or that more in number are not necessary , when indeed they are ; none of this will excuse their sin , nor disoblige christs servants from the obedience of his laws . pr. . if still ignorant or fraudulent men should ask us , ad rancedinem usque , who shall be judge of order and necessity , we again and again repeat our undenyable answer ; . that the esse rei is before the scire : either the thing is really true and good which they judge true and good , or it is false and bad ; and no mans false judging will change the thing : ( e. g. our preaching is sound and necessary , or it is not . ) . the magistrate is the publick judge who shall be protected or punished by the sword. the pastors are the publick judges who is fit for church-communion , and who not . and all the subjects are the rational private discerning judges of their duty : this no man can with a face of reason deny . but all these are subjects to god , and limited by him in their judging power , and not enabled to judge falsly , that evil is good and good is evil : what good is such by nature or accident , they cannot make evil , and forbid what god commandeth on pretense of judging . they have power to judge that all the articles of our faith are true , but not that any of them are false : they are judges that the commands of god must be all kept , but have no power to judge the contrary . in what cases we may be bound to obey them when they erre , we have opened in another paper , and may partly be discerned from what is here said . pr. . the bishops or pastors of the church are above others obliged , to exercise paternal tender love to all the peoples souls . if they are peevish , and humorous , and quarrelsome , and proud , and have other vitious principles , it is their office and work under christ to cure them , and to use all that gentleness and forbearance which is needful to their cure ; and to become all things ( lawful ) to all men , to win and edifie them : ( not doing greater hurt by injuring others , or the publick good , for the sake of those that are few or less considerable . ) if therefore they should either scandalize them and hinder their salvation by things unnecessary , or whose good will not countervail the hurt ; or if they should say , we are not bound to forsake our own liberty ( no not in a trifle ) for the sake of such as are inclined to offence by their vitious principles , they seem to us much to forget or renounce their proper callings , as well as humane charity to souls ; as if a physician should say , i am not bound to medicate any that are sick , but only those that are in health . and if all that have vitious principles be so far from under the ministers 〈◊〉 are , we see no reason why the kingdom should maintain so needless a ministry , at so dear a rate ; nor why they should be had in so much honour , and why we should not all be silenced at once . pr. . the sin of tyrannical abuse of power is so contrary to the nature of all good rulers , and so contrary to their own true interest , peace , and comfort , and final justification before god , and so contrary to the welfare of all mankind , and doth at this day so much mischief in the world , by serving satan , maintaining idolatry , mahometanism , popery , and prophaneness , and keeping out the gospel from the most of the whole world , that the flatterers that would for their own ends and carnal interests promote it , and make all odious to rulers that dislike it , will one day be known to be the great enemies of princes and people , of church and state , of jesus christ and god the soveraign lord of all . pr. . and confusion , anarchy , popular rage , faction and sedition , dishonouring our rulers , and all rebellions and schisms , must be odious to all men of interest , wisdom , and true religion , as being ultimately against the god of order , and the glory of his wisdom and soveraignty in government , who is to be honoured and obeyed in kings , in pastors , and parents , and all that are under him authorized to govern us . pr. . perjury , justifying thousands in perjury , deliberate lying , covenanting against great and known duty , corrupting gods worship and church government , cruel denying christendom and salvation to the infants of thousands of godly christians , and casting out godly christians from the churches communion causelesly for a gesture , pronouncing all atheists , infidels , adulterers , and other wicked persons saved , so be it they be not unbaptized , excommunicate , or make away themselves ; none of these , nor any such other , in our judgment will ever be made lawful by any command or accident , nor will ever be lawfully commanded ; nor shall we ever number them with things indifferent , nor revile or persecute any as humorous , obstinate , disobedient , schismaticks , or seditious , for refusing them . finis . what meer non-conformity is not : the profession of several whom these times have made and called non-conformists . printed in the year , . what meer non-conformity is not . that we may not , after near fourteen years suffering and silence , yet tell the world what our non-conformity is , without offending our superiours , and incurring all the censures and farther sufferings which we have reason to expect , is more grievous to some of us , than all the corporal pressures by ejections , deprivation of maintenance , prosecutions , fines and imprisonment which we have undergone ; when we consider not only that the little remnant of our opportunities for ministerial work , ( the preservation whereof hath done much to restrain us ) is by the odium cast upon us made less profitable to mens souls ; but especially , how many thousands do defile their hearts with false uncharitable conceptions of their brethren , and their tongues with false reproaches , if not their hands with cruel prosecutions , because they are falsly informed of our cause : when we think how satan is served by this ; how odious sins are multiplied through the land ; how christian love is killed ; and divisions made among all ranks of men , and in all places : when we think how god is hereby provoked , the land dishonoured and endangered ; and how fast the guilty post one after another into another world , where such work will cost them dear ; with many a heart-tearing groan some of us have long said , must we be silent and see all this ? in a christian state , must we be condemned , imprisoned , driven about as rogues and seditious persons , and our ministry vilified , and that by clergy-men , who think that it is their right to be believed , and not have leave once to speak for our selves , so far as to tell men , what it is that we take for sin ? and why must we see so many thousands going in such guilt into another world , and distracting a kingdom that hath been too long distracted , and weakening both the protestant and the christian interest , and by building and keeping up a wall of separation , serving the great enemy of both ? and must we not in compassion speak for peace , but only say as christ , father forgive them , for they know not what they do ? if god forgive men he turneth their hearts , and giveth them repentance . and we are commanded to pray , forgive our enemies , persecutors , and slanderers , and turn their hearts : and must we pray , and not endeavour ? at least , now at last , we shall endeavor to stop them by this short profession , from believing those tongues or pens which tell them , that we make a schisme for things which our selves confess indifferent , and that our non-conformity consisteth in what it doth not : if we must not tell them what it is that we think men command and god forbids , we may tell them what it is not : for this may be some service to themselves . but we must premise , that if any that are called by other names , denoting other opinions besides meer non-conformity , or any persons else whosoever , do hold any thing unlawful which we here allow , it is none of our meaning to declare their judgements , which they are fittest to declare themselves : we profess but our own , and such as by familiarity we have had opportunity to understand . three sorts we must here justifie our selves against , who we know are likely to accuse us upon unjustifiable accounts : i. those that will be angry that we so far undeceive the people , as to acquaint them with our judgement , and the untruth of what they have believed of us : how many soever may be guilty of this , it is so diabolical that we suppose few will own it , and therefore we need not any farther dispute it , than to tell them that worldly interest , and wicked means will serve mens turns but a little while . ii. those that will say that we are not all of a mind ; one thinks more unlawful , and another less ; and therefore we are not to be united or agreed with , nor can it be known what will satisfie us all . if the churches peace & concord depend upon such heads , and hearts , and principles , as this objection doth imply , no wonder if it have no peace or concord : we are united and agreed with those that differ from us in more than circumstances : we will hold concord with all in faith and love and communion ( if they will admit us without our sinning ) upon the terms set down by the holy ghost and the apostles , act. . . who would have nothing but necessary things imposed , ( or such things whoso determination one way or other is necessary , though compared each with other they are indifferent ; ) at least not made necessary to life , liberty , ministry , or communion ; we have long learnt from rom. . . and from that spirit which indited it , not to judge nor to despise each other for things of tolerable difference , but to receive each other as christ receiveth us . one man is not a church , nor a kingdom : and if no men must be of the same church or kingdom that have any difference , yea as great as the objection can reasonably suppose in the meer non-conformists , we are sure that no two men in the world can be of the same church or kingdom , except you will compose it of such as hold nothing at all unlawful , and consequently nothing morally good , which is no church . we profess that we love them as our selves , and shall not be guilty of imprisoning , undoing , silencing , or excommunicating them , who wear not the same cloaths , and use not the same gesture in singing , hearing , or reading , as we do ; who differ from us in the sense of many a text of scripture , who take many things for duty or sin which we do not ; who will not be tyed to use no publick prayers to god , but what we or others write them down ; so they hold one body , one spirit , one hope , one lord , one faith , one baptisme , one god and father of all , and will endeavour to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace , eph. . , , , . we are not for cutting off every member that is of different size or shape , cor. . god keep us from their mind and guilt and judgment , who will hold love and communion with none but those , in things unnecessary , of their own opinion or way , or that would ruine and persecute all the rest . iii. and some non-conformists that are more than so , or differ from us , will say that we should not have declared thus our judgment , lest by differing from them we seem divided , and expose them to the greater odium and persecution , because they cannot go so far as we . but , . we protest against the persecution of sober godly christians , on the account of such differences ; and are we then guilty of what we deprecate ? . did not mr. eaton , when he wrote that the oath of allegiance and the covenant bind not , know that most of us were against his judgement ? to say nothing of many more that wrote against episcopacy , presbytery , infant baptisme , parish churches , &c ▪ who yet forbore not on any such accounts : did not mr. nye and mr. tombes , when they wrote very well for the oath of supremacy , know that in scotland many refuse it as unlawful ? and did they forbear for fear of bringing persecution on dissenters ? did not mr. nye write to prove it lawful to hear the parish ministers ? and mr. tombes write to prove it lawful both to hear and to communicate with them ? and did the fear of bringing persecution on others hinder them ? . hath not this reason ( to keep others from persecution ) prevailed with us far enough and long enough ? . would they have us either by speech or silence draw men to believe , that we are of all mens minds whom we would save from persecution ? must we tempt men to think that we are seekers , quakers , separatists , anabaptists , lest we expose them to persecution ? is not this such carnal policy , as if not repented of , will perish with the masters of it ? even to do evil , and to tempt others to evil , and to draw all our hearers into sin by our example , by making them think that we hold that to be good or evil which we do not ? and all this on pretense of good ? yea to cherish the sin of many , lest some should suffer ? . the thing is unreasonable , and the pretense is apparently vain : for it is known by our superiors that we differ already ; and yet they who make this objection have suffered never the more , but live a quieter life than we have done . . if the objection implyeth , as it seems to do , that we are of their mind that will bear , or live in communion , with none but those that differ not from them , as far as the objectors now suppose , we disclaim their dividing principles , and are not of their mind : if they are not for loving christians as christians , and using them accordingly , let them not expect that we should not seem to differ from them . and that we do not this that we do without reason , we must thus shew : i. it is sinful when we can help it , to let clergy-men uncontradicted deceive mens souls , and draw and keep both high and low , even many thousands in sin , by perswading them that we are so schismatical and hateful a people , that our sufferings are no persecutions , because we divide the church for things indifferent , and stick at nothing but liturgie , or forms of prayer , and ceremonies , and that we hold rebellious and seditious principles ; or at best , have such humours , foolish scruples and singularities , as render us fitter for the common goal , than the church . shall our silence contribute still to their deceit , and to the quieting of mens consciences in all that is done against us , as if it were good service to god and the king ? shall we have no pity on mens guilty souls ? ii. on the other side , we have long by sad experience seen , that the misunderstanding of the case , and perhaps partly of some of our judgments , hath led many of the people who are against conformity , to over-run moderation , and the truth , and to run into unsound opinions and singularities , and to lay heavier charges on the liturgy , and the parish churches , than there is cause for : and having once over-run us , they expect that we should follow them , and be ruled by them ; and if we do not , are ready to censure us as guilty of sinful compliance and conformity : it greatly concerneth us therefore , to keep some from such mistakes , to rectifie others , to vindicate our selves , and clear our consciences , that we tell men what our non-conformity is not , if we may not tell them what it is ? i. our non-conformity is not in holding that the scriptures are a particular rule or determination of all the circumstances of church-government and worship , ( as time , place , utensils , words , methods , metres , tunes , division of the text into chapters and verses , translations , helps by notes , written or printed , gestures , habits , &c. ) but nature and scripture give us sufficient general rules or laws for all such ; as that they be done in unity , charity , to edification , decently and orderly , &c. which must be observed . ii. we hold , that when 〈◊〉 un 〈◊〉 etermined circumstances are lawfully determined 〈◊〉 authority , yea were it but by the consent and 〈◊〉 of the churches of christ , or the present conduct of their pastors , the assembly should yield conformable obedience , and avoid unnecessary singularities . iii. we hold , that if those , to whom such determinations belong , should mistake , and not do it in the best and profitablest manner ; yet ordinarily it is the peoples duty to obey and hold communion with that church , so be it that nothing sinful 〈◊〉 e commanded them to do , and the errour of the determination be not such as overthroweth the worship or end it self : of which we have elsewhere fullier opened our sense ( in our judgment of things indifferent . ) iv. we are against no bishops or church-government of gods appointment : we all are for an episcopus gregis ; and where there are many chappels and curates in a parish , we are far from perswading them to deny such submission to the chief pastor , as the law requireth , and as god himself alloweth : were ignatius his episcopacy among us , who tells us this , as the note of the churches unity , that [ to every church there is one altar , and one bishop with his fellow presbyters and deacons ] we should be far from perswading any to separate from it : yea were it cyprian's measure of episcopacy . yea , there are some among us who have long professed themselves uncertain , whether such a large episcopacy , as is but the same with the ordinary part of the church-power of the apostles and evangelists , be not jure divino , such as should be still continued ; because , . when christ hath once setled a form or order of government , a change must not be charged on him rashly , and without proof ; especially as made so suddenly : if the affirmer prove the settlement , the denyer must prove the change and revocation . . because christ promised to be with them to the end of the world , mat. . . when he appointed them this universal , or indefinite work. . because many others , as well as apostles , had larger circuits than particular churches for their work , ( as silas , silvanus , apollo , titus , and many more : ) and at their reformation the scots visitors seemed such . that men of extraordinary worth and gravity may plant many churches , and take the care of many , directing , exhorting , and admonishing the pastors , or particular bishops , not depriving those pastors and churches of the power and priviledges granted them in scripture , some of us do not deny . government by the word is an ordinary continuing ordinance of god : but the apostles extraordinary work and office ( to be eye-witnesses and embassad●●rs immediately sent , and endued with the extraordinary measures of the spirit ) these we believe they have no successors in , because they were but for a time . and those of us that cannot grant so much , as is aforesaid , and all of us as to an episcopacy which we think contrary to god's word , can yet submit to much which we dare not approve of ; and as we take our selves bound to obey all by what names or titles soever distinguished or dignified , who , circa sacra , as officers of the king , do exercise any part of that power of the sword , by his commission , which we acknowledge in the oath of supremacy ; so if any usurp more power of the keys than christ alloweth them , we are not thereby disobliged from living peaceably in our places , nor allowed to raise sedition , or use any unlawful means to re 〈◊〉 orm it ; though we cannot make a vow and covenant never to do any lawful thing , to alter and amend it . much less is it true which m 〈◊〉 n of hard faces have sometimes said , that we are against bishops , because we cannot be bishops our selves . and they that tell men that every presbyter would be a parish pope , do sure think they speak to men so silly as to be mockt by an undiscerned contradiction : a pope is the universal monarch of the christian world , ( or all : ) is a parish all the world ? a diocesan is the sole bishop with us of a multitude of churches . is a parish a multitude of such churches ? if a man be against one schoolmaster only over a thousand schools , shall he be reproached because he is willing to teach one ? is a king in each kingdom as unreasonable a thing as a papal monarch , or a king of kings , and of all the earth ? if it be to the gain of souls that we are deprived of this parochial episcopacy , we can easily bear it ; professing that we hold it far easier to be governed , than to govern. v. we judge not all officers , circa sacra , unlawful which are made by man : as some circumstances are not particularly determined in scripture , but left to men , so are many of the officers that must execute them . if the king appoint church-magistrates to keep peace and order , to call synods , and take such cognisance of causes as belongs to him , or do any part of his work , as is afore said , we will obey them : and so of church-wardens , door-keepers , sextons , and such others , as some churches of old made use of , so be it they usurp not any part of the office which christ hath appropriated to the pastors of the churches . vi. we are not for lay-mens claim or exercise of the power of the keys , whether they be lay-chancellors , or magistrates or lay-officers , or people : but we hold that the keys of christs church , that is , the power of receiving in by baptism , and of guiding the people by holy doctrine , and in holy worship , and of excommunicating and absolving , are by christ committed to the pastors of the churches . though there is also an admonishing power in magistrates , and divers sorts of penalties , for sins against god , which they may inflict . and the voluntary execution of the pastors judgment , by holding or not holding communion with others , is the peoples part ; in which , as reasonable , they have a discerning judgment . vii . as to the case of elders , we all hold that none should be proper church governours , by the said keys , which are meerly lay-men , and not church officers : and many of us hold that neither christ nor his apostles over appointed any elders to rule the church , by the power of the keys ( distinct from the magistrates government by the sword , ) but only ordained ministers of christ , who have also authority to preach and administer both the sacraments . however , we know that when many of these belonged to one congregation , one that was the chief speaker ( usually the bishop ) was w 〈◊〉 nt to preach , and the rest to be his assistants , especially in private care of souls ; and those of us that think otherwise , that christ or his apostles made such a church office as ruling elders not-ordained , or that have no power of preaching or administring sacraments , do not hold such essential to the church , nor refuse to live in love and peace and communion with the churches that have no such elders . and we all think that so small a difference should make no greater a breach among us . viii . we are against the excommunicating of kings , and of other magistrates , on whose honour the well-governing and peace of the kingdom doth depend , ( and are sorry to find some of our sharp accusers of another mind : ) our reasons are , because the dishonouring of them is forbidden in the fifth commandment : and positive institutions , caeteris paribus , must give place to moral natural laws : rituals and matters of order are no duties , when they make against those grand duties which are their ends , or those that are of fundamental or greater use . and this christ hath often taught us , by sending the contrary minded to learn what this meaneth [ i will have mercy and not sacrifice , ] and bidding the unreconciled leave their gift at the altar , &c. the end is to be preferred before the means , which indeed are no means when against the end. and church-order is not to be pretended for disordering and confounding kingdoms , or against the publick good and safety . we judge that bishop bilson , bishop andrews , and such others , have truly heretofore determined , that some wicked impenitent princes may be denyed the sacrament , but not defamed or dishonoured by a sentence of excommunication : much less by any foreign usurper , or any minister at home , that the prince himself doth not by consent make the guid of his soul ; for no other but he that is called to give him the sacrament if qualified , is the denyer of it if he be unqualified ; unless as he is to do what he doth , by the advice and consent of fellow pastors . but the very use of excommunication is to punish and reform men by dishonouring and shaming them ; therefore it is not to be used , where we owe such honour by the fifth commandment , to our prince . obj. . we are bid also to honour father and mother ; . yea to honour all men . answ . . we dare not justifie any pastors publick disgraceful excommunicating his own father or mother , unless where a publick obligation for publick good requireth it . . but to both instances , we say that a greater end and more publick good is to be preferred to a le 〈◊〉 s : and when a private mans honour is forfeited , we cannot give him that which he hath cast away , and god will penally take away till he repent . but when the publick order and welfare ( which is above all personal good ) obligeth us to honour magistrates , a subordinat 〈◊〉 law will not suspend it . publick excommunication is an act of government , to be exercised on the governed for the ends of government . but for a prelate or priest , or any other , to do this on his governours ( though of another rank ) crosseth the ends of government : nor are subjects so to be tempted to contemn their rulers , lest they come to think , as bellarmine and such papists , that infidels are not to govern christians , nor to be tolerated in their government ; or as their very religion teacheth them , concil . later . c. . sub innoc. . that when princes are excommunicated , they may be deposed by the pope ; or as their learnedest doctors say , that they are no kings , and to kill them is not to kill the king : see the testimonies of this cited at large , and expresly , by h. fowlis in his book of popish treasons . if ever any protestants episcopal , presbyterian , or independents , were or be of another mind , ( for the excommunicating of kings or chief rulers ) that 's nothing to us , who shall neither live nor dye by the faith or opinion of others : but we should so much the rather here disown it . ix . it is none of our judgment , that when men are excommunicated ( by pope , prelates , presbyters , or people , who are the four pretenders to that power ) the magistrate must be their lictor or executioner , or must further punish men by the sword , meerly , eo nomine , because they are excommunicate , or because they reconcile not themselves to the church , by penitence and obedience ; or because the pope , or prelate , or priests , deliver up the excommunicate to him to be punished , or threaten him if he will not do it . the civil ruler may punish the same men for the same crimes , but upon their own exploration and judgment of the cause , and not as meer hangmen that must needs execute the judgment of other judges . their own conscience must be satisfied , and they must know what they do , and why ; else to how many base and bloody offices the factious worldly clergy may oblige them , the papal kingdom hath long given men too sad a proof . and we must profess , that we are fully perswaded , that we have good reason to conclude , that so near a prosecution by the civil power , as is the imprisoning and undoing of persons excommunicate , meerly because they stand excommunicate , and are not absolved as penitents , hath not a few nor small incommodities ecclesiastical . . so great a dominion in the clergy hath done much to corrupt the sacred office , and make men ( naturally proud ) unmeet for the humble services of the gospel . . and it breedeth in the people a distast and hatred of the clergy , as if they were the grievous wolves that devour the flock in sheeps cloathing , and bear not grapes and figs , but wear thorns and thistles to p 〈◊〉 ick and hurt them ; and causeth their exhortations to be the more unsuccessful . . it seemeth to dishonour the discipline instituted by christ , as if the keys of his church ●●re of no more signification , than the crown of thorn● 〈◊〉 reed with which he was derided , and could do nothing without the princes sword. . it contradicteth the experience of above years , when church discipline was exercised more effectually than it is now , and that not only without the sword of the magistrate , but also against his will and opposition : yea , it was many a hundred years more , after emperours were christian , before the keys were ever thus seconded by the sword ; and had not the donatists , by inhumane assaulting the orthodox , provoked the churches and magistrates , it had been like to have been long before the sword had been drawn against hereticks at all . . and that which much moveth us is , that it greatly frustrateth the use of the keys ▪ or church discipline , by obscuring the use and efficacy of them : for who can tell whether they do any thing or nothing to that mans seeming repentance , who must lye in goal and be undone , unless he will say that he repeneth ? though the church must take up with outward professions , as not knowing the heart , yet must they be voluntary and credible professions . . and thus how unavoidably must the church be corrupted , when its communicants are such as chuse rather to be in the church than in the goal , and all those are thought worthy of its priviledges , who had rather say [ we repent ] than be made beggars : whenas in the ancient churches none had its communion that did not desire it , and beg for it , though it cost them dear in the world . . and thus christs great and precious gifts seem exposed to contempt , while they are forced upon the refusers by ways of violence . if the church be made a prison , and men be driven into it and lockt up , the place will hardly prove them christians . . and we fear it will misrepresent christs laws and covenant-terms to the world , while christ saith , that none can be his disciples that do not ( by consent and resolution ) take up the cross , and forsake all , and follow him , in hope of a reward in heaven , ( luke . . , . , . ) and this course seemeth to tell men , that if they had but rather be in the church , than among rogues and beggars in the goal , they shall have christ , pardon , and life eternal , given and sealed up to them particularly in the holy sacrament . as if christ were the cross-maker , and the cross to be born by his enemies only , and not christ but sin were served by forsaking temporal felicity . . and we fear lest it tend to deceive mens souls , by giving them all the sealed grant of forgiveness and salvation , who can but rather endure to take the sacrament , and say i repent , than be undone . we doubt not but there is a time for just punishment of sinners : but we read not , that christ sent men to preach repentance by any such motives , nor to offer his blood and mercy on terms so low , nor to any but desirous volunteers : and with what confidence or comfort can a minister deliver the sacrament to such ? all which considered , we are so far from desiring to subdue kings and rulers to be the executioners of the clergy , and the servants of their worldly interest , pride , or passions , that we heartily wish that church discipline might be left to operate alone , & valeat quantum val 〈◊〉 re potest , and that church priviledges might be given to none but desirers , and voluntary accepters , and none might be cram'd or drencht with the body and blood of christ , but all earnestly invited , and by loving importunity compelled to come in : and that magistrates may judge and punish vice , in their proper court , and proper way . x. we hold it not unlawful to take oaths , and make covenants , subscriptions , or declarations of things lawful , when authority commandeth us ; yea , we hold oaths of fidelity to the soveraign to be needful ; and are the loather to swear allegiance to any inferior officers , or to swear never to endeavour any alteration of them , lest we seem to make them equally necessary and fixed as the king ; and to give them any of his prerogatives , when they are his officers , whom he hath power to alter . xi . we readily subscribe the doctrine of faith and sacraments contained in the articles , and differ not therein from the church of england , that we know of . though our religion is only ( objectively ) gods word , ( as to the essentials , the sacramental covenant , expounded in the creed , the lords prayer and decalogue , and integrally the sacred scriptures , ) and therefore if there be any fault in the articles , it is no fault in our religion , ( which is confessed to be all true by papists themselves ; ) yet as our writings , and sermons , and speeches , are the expressions of our subjective religion , so the confessions of churches are eminently such ; being useful to satisfie other churches of our sincerity , and to regulate or limit the teachers , that by weakness or errour are apt to deliver their mistakes , or to oppose the truth . and though there be some expressions in the articles , the liturgy , yea in the creed called athanasius's , which we think not accurate , but lyable to an ill interpretation , yet when our consciences tell us that it was truth which was intended , and words are not natural , immutable , but arbitrary signs of the speakers mind , we are far from affecting to be peevishly or unreasonably quarrelsome or scrupulous , but are willing to overlook infirmity and unfitness of expression , when we see that we are not to own untruths . xii . we much approve of the method of the church catechism , as it first openeth the essentials of christianity in the baptismal covenant , and then the exposition of it in the creed , decalogue , and lords prayer , and then the use of the confirming sacrament the lords supper : though we are perswaded , that it needeth more explication and some correction . xiii . we are taught by christ and his apostles using of the septuagint , that it is lawful , when the peoples usage and acquaintance with it doth render it most edifying to them , to use a defective faulty translation of gods own word , and to call this gods word , as long as it sufficently expresseth the doctrine , which is the matter and main sense . and that we may hold communion with churches that publickly and privately use such translations , and that have many other faults in their doctrine , discipline , and worship ; though we cannot justifie the least of them , by our professed assent and consent , nor make a covenant that we will never endeavour to alter or amend them . we are apt enough to let sin alone , and not to amend any thing amiss in our selves and others , so far as sin remaineth in us ( it being a self-de 〈◊〉 ending evil , ) and therefore are unwilling to adde to our badness , nor do we need a law to bind us never to repent or amend , or never to help others in such a case to do it . xiv . we have in a peculiar explication of our judgment , not only disclaimed , but sufficiently depressed , that unruly opinion falsly charged on us by some , viz. [ that things lawful or indifferent become unlawful when commanded by lawful authority . ] though we hold it unlawful to encourage and strengthen traytors and usurpers against christ or the king , by voluntary swearing or performing such obedience to them , even in licitis & honestis , as seemeth to own their usurpation . xv. how far we think the magistrates laws bind us to things scandalous , or evil and hurtful by accident , yea by the weakness of others , we are prepared to open in a distinct profession by it self . xvi . we are far from condemning all forms of prayer , and publick liturgies , as unlawful , ( of which we have his majesties testimony , in his declaration about ecclesiastical affairs ; ) much more are we far from condemning all the ancient and present churches of christ that have used such , or yet use them , throughout the christian world : and yet farther are we from separating from them on that account , ( for using liturgies , ) and from encouraging such a separation . yea we commonly use a stinted liturgie our selves , at least the psalms read and sung ; and we hold it lawful to use such as are invented by men , that are no prophets ; seeing we are commanded to use psalms , and hymns , and spiritual songs , ( which confineth us not only to scripture words ; ) and all men have not the skill to make hymns ex tempore ; much less would all the assembly , ex tempore , break forth into the same words : therefore those that are used by all , must be invented by some : and ministers with us do ordinarily impose their own invented words on all the congregation , who must follow them ; as our metres and tunes of psalms are imposed . xvii . we think it not unlawful to use as much of the english liturgy , as we consented to use , when by his majesties commission some of us treated about the reformation , or alteration of it ; viz. in such assemblies where the peoples incapacity maketh not such use of it more hurtful than helpful to their edification , and the comly concordant worshipping of god : much less do we think it unlawful for our selves , or the people , in this case to join in the reverent and serious use of it with others . we find that even the old non-conformists ( such as cartwright , hildersham , knewstube , dr. jo. reignolds , bradshaw , paget , ball , &c. ) petitioned for a reformation , but not an abolition of it , and wrote and preached against separating from it , or for it , from the churches that used it ; and many of them not only used much or most of it themselves , but also perswaded to the use of it , and answered largely the separatists arguments against such use . and we join with mr. ball , and other of them , in thanking god that england hath a more reformed liturgy , than most of the churches in the world ; and we would not seem to use it when we do not , but do it ( as aforesaid ) in the serious devotion and fervour of our souls : nor would we peevishly make any thing in it worse than it is , but would put the best construction on each part of it , that true reason will justifie or allow . xviii . we are far from judging the parish ministers to be no true ministers of christ , or the parish churches no true churches , or judging it unlawful to hold communion with them : but if there be any called ministers or priests , of these following sorts , we take them for no true ministers of christ , ziz . . if by insufficiency they are uncapable of teaching the necessary parts of christianity , and guiding the church accordingly in the publick worship of god. . if they are hereticks , denying any of these essential parts . . if they are malignant opposers of the practice of them : and in a word , if they are such , through incapacity , as are like to do more harm than good . xix . in several customs ( freely , not by constraint , ) used in many ancient churches , and in several practices of several churches of these times , we find that which we would not by oaths , or subscriptions , or covenants , approve , but with they were reformed , and that they had never been used ; when yet we do not for such things dishonour and reproach such churches , nor inveigh against them in our preaching to diminish their due esteem ; much less disclaim them as no churches of christ ; but love , and honour them ; and live peaceably under many faults which we cannot reform in the places where we live : so be it no sin be put upon our selves , we can hold communion with those that have divers sins , or faults , in their ministrations ; not as with their sin , but with their church in worship , notwithstanding the sin , so it corrupt not god's worship so far as that he himself rejecteth it : for no man is sinless in his best performance . xx. though the pastors hold any tolerable errors personally , and though such are usually uttered in their ministration , and though they be inserted in their liturgies , so that we may expect to hear them ; yea , uttered as in that churches name ; we hold not all this sufficient cause to warrant our separation from that church : for all churches consist of men , and all men are faulty and imperfect ; and such as the men are , such we may expect their works should be , notwithstanding the divine assistance : and to separare from all faulty churches and worship , is to separate from all the world ; and allow all the world to separate from us . xxi . if 〈◊〉 true church deny us communion , unless we will commit some sin , or omit some necessary duty ; though we cannot be locally present in such cases , nor approve what they so do , yet we shall not therefore renounce them as no churches ; but lamenting their sin , and their denying us their communion on just terms , we shall continue the union and communion of faith and love , and be present in spirit , though corporally absent , desiring a part in their prayers , and owning all that god disowneth not . xxii . we hold that no christians must be disjoyned , or separated in any of the seven points of union required by the holy ghost , eph. . , , , . . one body , ( the catholick church headed by christ : ) . one spirit , ( the holy ghost : ) . one hope of our calling , ( remission , adoption , and the heavenly glory : ) . one lord ( jesus christ : ) . one faith , ( the essentials of christianity believed : ) . one baptisme , ( or baptismal covenant with god the father , son , and holy ghost : ) . one god and father of all , who is above all , and through all , and in us all ; of whom , and to whom , and through whom are all things . xxiii . though we are not satisfied of the lawfulness of using the transient image of the cross , as a dedicating sign and symbol of christianity , so much sacramental ( much less to refuse from baptism and christendom all christians infants , unless they will have them so crossed , no more than if a crucifix were so imposed and used : ) yet do we not condemn all use of either cross , or crucifix : nor do we presume censoriously to reproach and dishonour the ancient christians , who , living among pagans that derided christ crucified , did shew them , by oft using this sign , that they were not ashamed of the cross : and though we find that they used more rites and significant devised signs and ceremonies , than we think they should have done , yet we judge it our duty to love and honour their memorial : nor do we take all rites to be sinful that are significant . xxiv . we hold not all the use of images , even the images of holy persons , to be unlawful : historical and memorative use we commonly allow , as the english geneva bible sheweth by many pictures : we condemn not them that have scripture persons and history painted on their walls , or on the very bricks that adorn their chimnies ; nor that use a skelleton or deaths-head ; or that by these are minded of mortality or the life to come , and so make a holy use of them , ( as good men should do of all lawful things ; which therefore are pure and sanctified to them . ) xxv . we hold not a gown , or other meer distinctive garment for ministers , to be unlawful , in which , saith the canon , no holiness is placed ; any more than to judges , lawyers , or phylosophers . and some of us hold a surplice rather to be used , than the ministry forsaken : and those that think otherwise , think not the matter of so much weight , as to alienate them from love or communion with those that use it : for we pretend not to so much perfection , as to be all just of a mind and measure of knowledge in all things , of no greater importance than this : nor would we silence faithful ministers for a surplice . xxvi . though we greatly dislike the common use of god-fathers , as they undertake that , as sole-promisers for the child , which they never signifie credibly the least purpose to perform , and the parents are excluded from entering their own children into covenant with god , and must not speak one covenanting or promising word ; no , nor be urged to be present , &c. yet we refuse not the use of such sureties or sponsors in baptisme , as are but seconds to the parents and only attest the parents credibility , and undertake to take care of the childrens education , in case the parents either apostatize or dye ; nor yet such as are adopters of the children , and take them to them as their own , and so have the right of disposing of them , and covenanting in their names and stead . though yet we conform not to the denying of christendom to the children of all godly parents , that either cannot get such god-fathers , or will not , but offer to enter their own children into that covenant . xxvii . many of us hold it lawful to communicate kneeling , in the reception of the sacramental body and blood of christ : and those of us that think so , and those of us that think otherwise , take it not for such a matter as should hinder christian love , concord , unity , and peace ; or allow men to despise , condemn , or excommunicate one another : but all detest that cruelty that dare cast out the worthy members of christ and his church from communion , for their difference in that gesture . xxviii . we all hold that god must be orderly and decently worshipped with the body , as well as spiritually with the mind : and that reverent gestures and behaviour are fit , not only to express mental reverence to god , but also to excite it in our selves and others . and that such slovenly , rude , and undecent behaviour , as seemeth to signifie prophaneness and contempt , or to tempt others thereto , is no small sin , whatever men intend by it . xxix . we all hold that preaching , prayer , or sacraments , should not be made ridiculous or contemptible , by the ministers incongruous , light , or otherwise unmeet and uncomly words ; nor by tautologies , and such an unmeet stile as tendeth to disaffect the hearers : ( though that curiosity , which consisteth in pedantick , light , and frothy speech , unsuitable to the hearers edification , we dislike . ) and o that god would raise up enow such for his service , in the church and world , as are able to express true wisdom , holiness , and zeal , in words beseeming the most holy majesty , and the holy things of which they speak . but yet we judge that various auditories should have various stiles , though none but clear , and spiritual , and serious : as a labouring poor man will chuse a great piece of brown bread , before a little piece of manchet , when idle tender persons will chuse otherwise . xxx . we are so far from holding it unlawful to use the creed , and commandments , and lords prayer , as some accuse us , that we take them to be the summaries of the christian religion , as to matter of belief , desire , and worship ; which the church should use and profess accordingly , and should never be forgtoten . xxxi . we are so far from being against catechizing , as some have accused us , as that we take it to be a most needful thing , and no small part of that work which both ministers and parents should perform . xxxii . we are far from opposing that sort of confirmation , which consisteth in the solemn transition of persons out of the state of infant communion into that of the adult , by their solemn intelligent owning that covenant with god , which they entred into by others in their infancy . the reasons of which more than one of us have long ago publickly given to the world , ( mr. hanmer , mr. baxter . ) and the want of which we conceive is a great cause of the pollution of the church , and of the increase of anabaptists , who are scandalized at the omission of it , and the turning it into a ceremony or formality . xxxiii . we hold it a duty for all ministers in their administrations of baptism , the lords supper , absolution , and in their speeches of the dead at burials , to go as far in charitable hopeful expressions , as reason will allow ; and to speak and judge of men according to their own intelligent professions , not rendred incredible by proved contrary expressions , or notorious contrariety of practice ; as being no searchers of mens hearts our selves : and where discipline is truly exercised , such words are meet , as otherwise are not tolerable . so that if we conform not to the liturgy in our administration of any of these ordinances of christ , and if we dare not pronounce of all the open atheists , infidels , hereticks , schismaticks , rebels , perjured , murderers , thieves , adulterers , drunkards , &c. who made not away themselves , and were not unbaptized or excommunicate , that [ god of his great mercy hath taken to himself the souls of these dear brethren , ] nor give thanks for [ delivering them out of the miseries of this sinful world , ] nor pray to rest in christ [ ●is our hope is this our brother doth , ] &c. it is not because we deny any of this before granted , but because we dare not renounce the gospel , that saith , [ he that believeth not shall be damned , ] and [ without holiness none shall see god , ] and [ except ye repent ye shall all perish ; ] and because we are loath to preach to men all our lives , that which we shall contradict at mens burial , and tempt the ungodly to presumption and damnation . xxxiv . many of us hold it lawful to keep anniversary days of thanksgiving , in commemoration of the great mercies of god to his church , by the holy doctrine , labour , miracles , lives , and sufferings of the apostles , and most famous promoters of the faith ; so that superstition and prohibited creature-worship be sufficiently avoided . and those of us that scruple such days of mans institution , yet take not this for any other than a tolerable difference among us . xxxv . we are not against such sort of reading the sound parts of the apocrypha , as we may do by other good books , sufficiently distinguished from other scriptures , and used in due time and place ; though we conform not so far as to declare our assent and consent to the use of the calendar , prescript , or directory , which requireth them to be read in the mornings , from septemb. . and . till novemb. . even bell and the dragon , susanna , tobit , when as the vulgar understand not the word apocrypha sufficiently , to distinguish them from the sacred scriptures , when they are equally called the lessons , and read in the same order . and we are confirmed in this part of our non-conformity by the articles of religion , which discard the apocrypha , and by the learned treatise of the late bishop cousins , who hath fully proved that the ancient churches received not those books into the canon , and by many doctors of the church of england that charge them with untruths : some of us have seen the writing ( as on good reason is supposed ) of a present learned worthy bishop , who sheweth that the words of the angel in tobit are a lye , who said that [ he was the son of ananie of the tribe of naphtali : ] and that so is his saying , [ that the smoke of a fishes heart will drive away all devils , that they shall never return ; when christ tells us of some that go not out but by prayer and fasting . ] xxxvi . we are far from designing any abasement of the clergy , nor do we deny , or draw others to deny , any due reverence and obedience to them . and though we know that the bare title and office will never preserve sufficient respect , for the honour of the clergy , and the success of their work , without competent qualifications and labours of the persons ; yet would we rather hide than open or reproach the faults of such as are tolerable in that sacred office , and would do our best for their work sake , to promote the esteem even of those that differ from us , and of some that persecute us . we know that the people are exhorted , to know those that labour among them , and are over them in the lord , and to esteem them highly in love , for their work sake , thess . . , . and to obey them that have the rule ( or guidance ) of them , and to submit themselves , heb. . . . and that the elders that rule well are worthy of double honour , especially they that labour in the word and doctrine , tim. . . we that take it for our duty to honour all men , and submit our selves to one another , would not deny any due honour to any of the clergie that have any preeminence , either in age , grace , gifts , or by the magistrates appointment , as his officers ( as aforesaid , ) or any way given them by christ : we take it not for a priviledge to be from under government . xxxvii . our non-conformity consisteth not in denying a national , provincial , or other church form of mans invention and institution : on these suppositions : . so it be presupposed that there is somewhat of divine institution predetermined by christ and his spirit in the apostles , ( that is , . that there be such doctrine , worship , and discipline as he hath commanded : . that there be such pastors to exercise them , whose office he hath described : . that there be such stated congregations or societies in which they shall be used , even neighbour christians associated for personal communion therein . . that all these churches enjoy the priviledges granted them by christ , and live in love , peace , and concord , and hold such just correspondence as is necessary thereto , and to the common end and good : all this is of divine appointment . ) . so that these divine institutions be not violated by humane , or by the power of man. . so that humane churches be not made equal and co-ordinate to the divine , much less superior , and superordinate ; as if they were to christs instituted churches , what a kingdom is to a city , or a regiment to a troop , and christs churches were but similar parts of the humane churches , that must rule them . but as the king is episcopus exterior , or the governour of the churches so far as the sword is to be used ; so , circa sacra , we have before said , that he may make his own officers , and consequently provinces for them , and orders of their exercise : and the churches in his dominions may be so called one national church , as he is the exterior civil governour of them all by the sword , which indeed is but to be a religious or christian kingdom ; as also , ab accidente , as these many churches are under one christian ( yea were he an infidel ) king ; and as hereby they have the advantage of fraternal association and correspondency for concord . but proper denominations are from the essential form. xxxviii . it is no part of our non-conformity to be against the due use or authority of councils , or synods of the clergy . we hold , that when one is cast out of one church for a cause belonging to the cognisance of many , many may have occasion to take cognisance of it : and the edification of each other , the satisfactory debate of difficulties , the preservation of mutual love , peace , and concord , may make synods to be useful . but yet we hold that the major vote of bishops in a council are not thereby the proper governours of the minor dissenting part , nor of the absent bishops ; but that councils are for counsel and concord , and not for direct regiment of each other , ( though together and asunder the pastors are all governours of the flock . ) and some of us have long ago publickly proved , that councils were called general at first , but with respect to the dominions or empire of one prince , and not as if they were universal as to all the christian world ; and that absolutely universal councils never were , or ought , or can , or ever will be called ; and that to pretend that a papal or imperial general council is the universal law-giver of the world , and that they have a promise of infallibility in what ever they determine , and that we receive our faith in christ upon their infallibility given by him , ( and so we must know that christ maketh them infallible before we can believe that he is christ . ) these and such other nonsense cheats which some are now agitating , are fit to delude none but the grosly ignorant , that are prepared for deceit . xxxix . yet we deny not , but that god having first bound us to unity and concord as far as we can ●ttain , ( with loving forbearance in the rest , ) when a lawful synod or council hath determined of a way of concord , on lawful terms , in matters under their power , there is an obligation on all the particular members , to forbear breaking that union , and violating those lawful terms of concord : for where there is not a governing law , there may be an obliging contract , or consent . and whereas even the papists now usually teach that even a councils decrees bind not the churches , at least those that had no delegates , till by actual reception they consent , be it known to the world , that on these terms the non-conformists in london seem to have some excuse , if it had been only indifferent things that the late convocation had imposed on them : for when the clergy met to chuse clarks for the convocation for london , ( at sion-colledge , ) the major vote chose mr. calamy and mr. baxter , ( whom the bishop of london , according to his power , did reject ; ) so that the city of london neither hath , nor ever had one clark of their own chusing in this convocation which altered the liturgy ; but the dignitaries , and the two clarks chosen by the exterior parts of the country , were the only persons hence accepted ( that ever we heard of , or could learn : ) and surely our after-consent will hardly be alledged . and london is no inconsiderable part of england . xl. we refuse not the renunciation of the solemn vow and covenant , as if we thought it bound us unto any disloyalty , sedition , or other sin : for we are ready to profess , that it so obligeth no man : it cannot make a sin to be a duty or no sin , nor a duty to our superiours to be no duty ; nor disoblige us from any part of our due obedience to the king. nay , we judge that we must not make our selves a religion or law by our own vows , or bind our selves to any thing but what we are bound to antecedently by god ; and so our vows must be but secondary obligations : and these being our own thoughts , we must needs hold accordingly , that this solemn vow doth bind as to nothing , but what god doth bind us to antecedently himself ; and what would be our duty had we never taken it : and therefore should we renounce this vow , we should still take our selves bound by god himself to do all the good that in it was vowed . whether the vow of a thing indifferent bind or not , we are not determining ; but as we hold that no such thing should be vowed , so we declare that it is none of our present case , as is aforesaid . xli . we are so far from refusing the oxford oath , or the subscription , upon any disloyal or rebellious principles , that we shall hereafter adjoin such a profession of this subject , as shall suffice with all men of common humanity , and impartiality , to justifie our principles of loyalty , against malice it self . and if yet malice will go on to keep open our divisions , and keep us under odium and unjust suspensions , and provoke men to forbid us to preach christ's gospel , by talking of the late wars , and charging all on the non-conformists , we shall now only crave their just answer to these few questions following . q. . are they willing that so many of the english non-conformists shall have leave to preach christ's gospel freely , as never had any hand in the wars ? if they will procure us this , we are confident that the rest that medled with the wars are so few , and so self-denying , that they will thankfully accept of this liberty for their brethren , though they be silenced , or banished themselves . q. . was it for matter of war that near two thousand ministers were ejected , or silenced , ? or for something else ? was this the cause that mr. martin of weeden , that lost an arm in the king's army and war , could not have a day abated him in the common goal at warwick , when he preached as a non-conformist ? and many other instances we may give . q. . did ever any of us that now address our selves to you , go farther in our principles than bishop bilson did , even in his excellent book of christian subjection ? we detested all that went beyond him in his doctrine of resistance : or did any of us ever go near so far as your famous r. hooker in his first and his eighth book of eccles . politie , ( published long ago , and again by bishop gauden , and dedicated to the king , ) whose over popular principles one of us , long ago , at large confuted : and were they silenced for this ? q. . we humbly crave them that remember , and knew the persons , to bethink them , whether , . most of of the parliament , when the war began : . most of the westminster assembly , when they met : . most of the earl of essex's collonels , and chief officers : . most of the lord lieutenants of the militia : . most of the parliaments major generals , in the earl of essex's time : . most of the sea captains , in the earl of warwick's time : we say , whether most of these ( we think ten to one , and in some instances twenty to one ) were not conformists ? as sure as archbishop abbots was , and all the bishops , save six , in his days ; on whom doctor heyling layeth the cause of our divisions . q. . and is it just , that all the conformists be therefore made odious , and all the conformable ministers silenced for these conformists sakes , even such as never had a hand in the business ? q. . if the war had been raised only by non-conformists , yet why should a thousand or ministers now , that were never proved guilty of any wars , be silenced and ruined for other mens actions ; any more than the conformists for the archbishop of york's , who was a commander for the parliament ? q. . why should no other penalty serve in this case , but silencing us ? to the loss or hazard of the innocent people . is silencing us our suffering most , or the peoples ? if half the bakers , brewers , and country farmers had been in those wars , is there no way to punish them , but to put down their trade , and forbidding them to bring provision to the markets ? would not punishing the innocent , as drunkards or whoremongers are punished , satisfie you ? nor any thing but keeping them from preaching the doctrine of salvation ? and that when the fire consumed the churches , and when in many parishes the tenth part of the people have no church to go to ? q. . do you think that the devil and the papists had rather we were silenced , or not ? are they pleased with well-doing , and with that which promoteth the protestant interest , and mans salvation ? and hath the protestant religion been secured and advantaged by our usage ? q. . if it be that we preach worse than others , or preach sedition , or unsound doctrine , why are not we accused of it , and judged upon proof ? and why are we not suffered rather to preach publickly , where witness may be had , than driven into corners , where sedition or heresie may be hid by those that preach it ? q. . if you say that our preaching is needless , is not your own then as needless , if you preach the same gospel ? and must you have lordships , great maintenance , reverence , honour , and obedience , for needless preaching ? and when some parishes have ten thousand , some twenty thousand , some thirty thousand , some it is thought fourscore thousand souls , when three thousand cannot come to hear in the church , why is preaching any more needful to those three thousand than to all the rest ? or to four persons in a village , than to thousands in cities ? when our preaching and other ministration ceaseth to be notoriously needful , we profess our selves joyfully willing to cease : our flesh had rather have ease , and a gainfuller trade of life , than spending-labour , with poverty , reviling , scorn , and imprisonments . xlii . to conclude , as far as we are able to understand the most learned , sober , judicious conformists , by their own words to us , and their writings , they differ not at all from us about the matter it self , which we deny conformity to , but confess it to be unlawful , ( as to the hardest points of the imposed subscriptions , oaths , and declarations , and covenants ; ) but they only take the words in such a sense , in which we our selves could take them , were we perswaded that it were indeed the true meaning of them . and do they that are as much as we against that sense which we disown , and agree with us in the matter , deserve liberty , honour , and preferment , for otherwise interpreting the words of the law , which the law-givers themselves will not interpret ? and doth our supposition that the law-makers mean properly as they speak , deserve scorn , silencing , and goals , from them that will not expound them to us ? the righteous god will be judge between us . for instance , . by [ assent ] in the declaration required , we understand [ believing it to be true . ] but the conformists that we speak of , understand only [ a belief that i may use it . ] . by [ all and every thing contained in the book ] we suppose is meant [ all and every thing indeed : ] but they say , only the forms to be used are meant , and many other things in the book not meant . we find after named [ unfeigned assent and consent unto , and approbation of the said book , and to the use of all the prayers , rites , and ceremonies , forms and orders therein contained and prescribed , ] we think here approbation and assent are more than consent to use ; and we think that the use of all the orders is more than the use of the forms : we think that no word in the book was intended to be useless , and that the doctrines , calendars , ( even that untrue one to find out easter-day ) rubricks , and directories , have each their proper use . we suppose that the foregoing words of the use , are the end , and the form of the declaration is the means to secure that use as the end , and that the means hath more in than the end. . some of them suppose , that denying christendom to christians children , for want of crossing , or godfathers , and denying communion to true christians that receive not kneeling , are none of the orders to be used : but we think otherwise . . some of them think , that [ admitting none to the holy communion , till they be confirmed , or desirous to be confirmed , ] though it be the very words , is none of the orders which they consent to use ; ( and we never knew any use it by any tryal of mens desires : ) but we think that nothing in the book is intelligible , if such plain passages are not . . some of them by the words at burial [ that thank god for taking to himself the soul of this our dear brother , out of the miseries , &c. ) understand not his salvation , but his going out of this world : but we think otherwise . . when only [ the unbaptized , self murderers , and excommunicate ] are there excepted , some say , all others are meant that ought to be excommunicate ; and so every priest is made the judge who should be excommunicate : but we think , that exceptio particularis firmat regulam in non exceptis . . they think that the words in the canon [ that nothing in the three books is contrary to the word of god , ] are meant with exceptions as to [ nothing ] or to [ contrariety : ] but we take [ nothing ] for [ nothing , ] and [ contrary ] for [ contrary . ] . some of them say , that the church being the maker of these impositions , we are to take them in the churches sense , which the bishops may signifie . but we think , that we must take them in the sense of the king and parliament , as the law-makers ; and that no church or bishops can alter our religion , or articles , or subscriptions , by an expository power . . some of them think , that the words [ on any pretense whatsoever ] in the subscription , have exceptions : but we know not how any words can be more exclusive of exceptions . . some of them think , that [ by any commissioned ] is meant only [ lawfully commissioned , ] and so subjects are left to judge of the lawfulness : we find there no such limitation or exposition . . some of them say , that by [ the government of the church , not to be altered ] is not meant the lay-chancellors use of the keys : but we think , that their actual government is the government actually . . some of them say , that by [ no change or alteration ] is meant only of the essence of episcopacy : we take [ no alteration ] for [ no alteration . ] . some of them say , that by [ not endeavouring ] is meant only [ not seditiously , or by ill means : ] we think , that ubi dex non distinguit , non est distinguendum . . some of them think that no law or words imposed must be expounded contrary to gods law , or any former law , or to the king 's or peoples rights . but , . that is to suppose that men cannot contradict themselves or god , or do unjustly . . and then whatever oaths men put on us we may take them , were the words never so false or impious , because the meaning must still be judged good . . some say that we must put the best sense on imposed oaths , and covenants , and subscriptions , that the words can be subdued to : we think that they must be taken in the sense of the law-makers , which is to be judged of by the usual meaning of their words , unless themselves do otherwise expound them . and so in many other instances , the conformists say that they would not conform themselves , if they understood the words as we do . seeing then that all these worthy conformists before mentioned do confess , that if the words of the laws be properly to be understood , and not with their limitations , then the conformists are in the wrong , and the non-conformists in the right ; we conclude with these few questions . q. . whether we owe not that honour to our law-makers , as to suppose that they are able , and willing , to speak intelligibly ? q. . whether they would have men left as to the oath of allegiance , and all other oaths and laws , to subdue the law-makers words to any sense that the subject thinks lawful ; and to make themselves judges of the sense , by departing from the common use of the words , without proof that the law-makers meant otherwise ? q. . whether there be need of much learning , conscience , or honesty , to stretch the words from their ordinary sense , more than to do otherwise ? and whether so to do would deserve honour and preferment , and to do otherwise be a crime that deserveth silencing , and ruine ? q. . whether their way of exposition , or ours , tend more to promote perjury and equivocation ; and which more secureth truth and honesty ? q. . if once the conscience of oaths and covenants be relaxed , by stretching words to the takers interest , are not the lives of princes left in danger , and the bonds of common converse loosened ? q. . if this must be the cause of our sufferings , and silence ; is it not justice so to tell the world , and write it on our cross , that we are silenced and laid in goals , because we dare not take oaths and covenants , imposed in terms excluding limitations and exceptions , in a limited excepting sense , without the explication of the law-makers ? q. . and if we must be so used , whether any in the whole world be more unfit to silence , imprison , fine , reproach , and ruine us , for mis-understanding the words which we are to subscribe or promise or covenant in , ( viz. for taking [ none ] to mean [ none , ] [ nothing ] to mean [ nothing , ] [ not any ] to mean [ not any , ] contrary ] to mean [ contrary , ] [ all ] to mean [ all , ] than those that while they are set to ruine us , will by no intreaties , after our almost fourteen years sufferings and expectations , be prevailed with to procure us an exposition of the sense of any of these so much controverted words ? we are more confident that the law-makers can more certainly , and infallibly expound their own words , than the pope or council can expound theological difficulties : and if our accusers will not once endeavour to procure them so to do , nor be intreated to consent it , when conformists and non-conformists are chiefly disagreed about the interpretation of them ; and when our preaching or silence , honour or reproach , maintenance or poverty , liberty or imprisonment , yea , and much duty or sin in the body of the nation , lyeth upon the resolution of this controversie , ( what is the law-makers meaning , ) we will still refer all to him that judgeth righteously , who will shortly finally end the controversie ; praying to god , though men will not hear us , to open our lips , that our mouths may sh●w forth his praise ; that he will make speed to save us , and make has●e to help us ; that he , whose service is perfect freedom , will defend us his humbled servants in all assaults of our enemies , that we surely trusting in his defence , may not fear the power of any adversaries ; and that these evils which the craft and subtilty of the devil or man worketh against us be brought to nought , and by the providence of his goodness they may be dispersed , that we his servants being hurt by no persecution , may evermore give him thanks in his holy church ; that in all our troubles we may put our whole trust and confidence in his mercy , and evermore serve him in holiness and pureness of living ; that he will forgive our enemies , persecutors , and slanderers , and turn their hearts ; especially that he will save our posterity from their curse , who say , the blood be on us , and on our children . for we are not against such a liturgy as this . postscript . reader , it was intended that a short account of the nonconformists judgement , about the power of kings , and the obedience of subjects , should have been added ; but by reason of some mens aptness to be offended at all such publications , and because of the present dispersion of the collectors , it is pretermitted , with this profession , that they shall at all times be ready to give such account of their judgements , when authority shall call them , or allow it , as shall satisfie all impartial men , that they are haters of disloyalty , sedition , rebellion , and schisme . finis . the case of the accommodation lately proposed by the bishop of dumblane to the non-conforming ministers examined wherein also the antient prostasia, or, episcopus præses is considered, and the solemne league and covenant occasionally vindicat : together with a copy of the two letters herein reviewed : vvhereunto also is subjoined an appendix in ansvver to a narrative of the issue of the treaty anent accommodation. mcward, robert, ?- . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; 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(eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) the case of the accommodation lately proposed by the bishop of dumblane to the non-conforming ministers examined wherein also the antient prostasia, or, episcopus præses is considered, and the solemne league and covenant occasionally vindicat : together with a copy of the two letters herein reviewed : vvhereunto also is subjoined an appendix in ansvver to a narrative of the issue of the treaty anent accommodation. mcward, robert, ?- . [ ], p. s.n.], [s.l. : . an attack on bishop leighton's attempt at reconciliation between episcopal and presbyterian forms of church government in scotland. attributed to robert macward. cf. nuc pre- . reproduction of original in union theological seminary library, new york. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng leighton, robert, - . solemn league and covenant ( ) dissenters, religious -- scotland. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - tcp staff (michigan) sampled and proofread - tcp staff (michigan) text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the case of the accommodation lately proposed by the bishop of dumblane , to the non-conforming ministers examined . wherein also the antient prostasia , or episcopus praeses , is considered ; and the solemne league and covenant occasionally vindicat . together with a copy of the two letters herein reviewed . vvhereunto also is subjoined an appendix in ansvver to a narrative of the issue of the treaty anent accommodation . ii. cor. xiii . v. viii . for we can do nothing against the truth , but for the truth . printed in the 〈◊〉 〈…〉 the preface . although there be nothing more assured , both in the acknowledgement and experience of all , then that the most important events of this worlds concernes , do much depend upon , and are frequently turned by , the observation or neglect of certain midses and expedients only , yea greatly , recommended by this their subservient aptitude and influence ; yet , on the other hand , it is no lesse evident , that in the matters of god , and of our souls everlasting wellbeing , even the ordinances of life , by him thereto appointed , are , for the most part , slighted by an abstracting undervalue : but , as it is beyond all controversie that the full perswasion and just estimation of these high and glorious ends , whereunto they are designed , would quickly intend our care about all things and circumstances thereunto ordered in an agreeable proportion , and also extend our commanded circumspection to a fidelity even in the things that are least ; so it is only unseriousness and insincerity in the main , together with the diversion of other temptations , that occasioneth all the indifferencie , contempt and mockery , wherewith we finde the simplicity & meanness of gospel-institutions commonly entertained ; and hence it is , that not only they are despised , and perverted by the vain pretenders to liberty , gallantrie , decencie , civil obedience or the like ; but also they are all contending for them , under the specious affectations of more calme , sublime and serene contemplations , and the saucy reproaches of hote disputations and bitter wranglings is endeavoured to be eluded , and the things vilified into empty formalities , and thereby an inlet made , in the righteous judgement of god , to the delusions of mens inventions . how much of these truths may be remarked in the ensuing discourse , i shall not here anticipat by an unnecessary reflection ; the point i aime at is to exhort every one , desirous to be faithful to god in the midst of this evill generation , wherein the strange variety and opposition of events that vve have seen do suggest such strong temptations , and interest hath not more seduced mens mindes unto an irreligious lukvvarmness , then their spirits are most perniciously debauched by vvanton and vvild cavillation , to studie , in the first place , to have the minde enlightned vvith the true knovvledge of the most high soveraignity , and most pure holiness of god , the most vvonderful love and marvellous condescendence of our lord iesus christ , and the great perfection of the holy law , and excellencie of all gospel o●di●●●●ces ; and next to have the heart established through the grace of god , by suitable faith and fear cleaving unto god with the whole soul and strength , and hating every vain and false way : surely he that is thus qualified shall never be moved ; but as he will be of a good , sound , and quick understanding in all things , so in these so much tossed debates , vvhereby the most part of this backsliden and light generation , at best only seeking therein the gratifications of their own curiosity , are many times sadly stumbled unto greater irreligion , he will easily discerne and lay hold upon the will and way of the lord , being convinced that the meanest of his matters are not of a lower appearance , then of a high and in estimable tendencie . to such therefore it is that i recommend and submit the ensuing disquisition ; ( if the unconcerned world do laugh , if the foolish mock , & the wicked rage , yet , i hope , my work is with my god , & its fruit shall be to all the lovers of our lord iesus christ in sincerity ) being moved by the excessive silence of the one , & the immoderate boasting of the other of the two parties ingaged in this affaire , to interpose for truth thus unequally treated , that by this poor essay it may be , in some measure , vindicat , and a check given to the pride and swelling words of the adversaries , is all my aime . as for these of our opposites who may finde themselves more nearly touched in the few sheets subjoyned , if they think me therein transported to any excesse i do assure them , that it is from the ungrateful violence of their provocation , and not at all the choise of my own inclination : i acknowledge also , that there are other papers emitted by them , then the two that i do particularly review and annexe , specially a long letter supposed to be . g. b's . and written by way of amplification of the former : but seing i do fully discusse his text , & after trial discover that his excellent & noble friend's gold , as he speaks , is but drosse , i hope he will easily pardone my not prosecuting a further fruitless search into what he calls his own ore . and thus i dismiss my reader unto the perusal of vvhat follovves . reader , before thou read be pleased to correct with a pen these errata . pag. , lin. . read , probabilities . p. . l. . r. it s . p. . l. . r. rule . p. . l. . r. an . p. . l. . r. preach . p. . l. . r. ordination . p. . l. . r. the p. . l. . what . r. with . p. . l. . with . r. which . p. . l. . r. revolutions . p. . l. . this , r. his . p. . l. . r. cussed . p. . l. . expressed , r. expelled . p. . l. . was , r. were . p. . l. . r. wisdome . p. . l. . preserve . r● preferre . p. l. . he . r. the. ibid. l. . masters r. majestie . p. . l. . your , r. their . p. . l. . r. change . ibid. l. . r. enjoyed . p. . l. . r. piece . p. . l. . pretended , r. perpended . p. . l. . r. distinct . the case of the accommodation , lately proposed by the bishop of dumblane to the non-conforming ministers , examined . vvherein also the ancient prostasia , or episcopus praeses is considered , and the solemn league and covenant occasionally vindicat . such have been the high and stiff oppositions , and no less contrary and important consequences of prelacie and presbyterie within this church , that as their accommodation may be very desireable to all our temporizing pursuers of peace ; so certainly it doth no less challenge the sincere and strict search of all the followers of truth . upon which consideration , having been induced to a more particular notice of the rise , procedure and issue of this affair , i am resolved , for the impartial vindication of the lords ordinance of government in his house , and our engadgements thereto ; and in the conscience of that known precept , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to exhibit my observations upon it , with the calmeness and candor suitable to such an inquirie . and therfore , omitting to preface any thing upon the first proposal of this treatie , and the methods of its prosecution that have since been practised , i shall take its termes from their most assured warrant , viz. the articles lately given in at paseley , to the mimisters there conveening , under the title , and of the tenor following , articles proposed by the bishop of glasgow to the dissenting brethren . . that if the dissenting brethr●n will come to presbyteries and synods , they shall not only not be oblidged to renounce their own private opinion anent church-government , and swear or subscribe any thing thereto ; but shall have libertie , at their entrie to the said meeting , to declare and enter it in what form they please . . that all church affairs shall be managed , in presbyteries or synods , by the free vote of presbyters , or the major part of them . . if any difference fall out , in the diocesian synods , betwixt any of the members thereof , it shall be lawfull to appeal to a provincial synod , or their committy . . that intrants being lawfully presented by the patron , and duely tryed by the presbyterie ; there shall be a day agreed on by the bishop and presbytrie , for their meeting together for thei● solemn ordination and admission : at which there shall be one appointed to preach ; and that it shall be at the parish church , where he is to be admitted ; except in the case of impossibility , or extream inconvenience : and if any difference fall in , touching that affair , it shall be referable to the provincial synods , or their committy : as any other matter . . it is not to be doubted , but my l. commissioner his grace will make good what he offered , anent the establishment of presbyteries and synods : and we trust his grace will procure such security to these brethren for declaring their judgement , that they may do it without any hazard , in contraveening any law : and that the bishop shall humbly and earnestly recommend this to his grace . . that no intrant shall be engadged to any canonical oath or subscription to the bishop ; and that his opinion , anent that government , shall not prejudge him in this : but that it shall be free for him to declare . these being the conditions offered , in order to the intended accommodation , it is evident , that for a due understanding of their import , we ought first to know what is the nature of these meetings called presbyteries , synods , and provincial assemblies , to which the brethren are invited : and for that end , we must not only transpose the fifth article to the first place , and supplie it with such other probabilities as may be had ; but also arise a little higher , to remember the changes that we have lately seen ; and from what , and to what they have carried us : for , seing our joyning in the present presbyteries and synods , with , or under bishops , as they are offered to be reduced , is that which is principally demanded of us , it is so little possible , without this previous examination , rightly and fairly to define the case in contratraversie , that i can hardly acquit the preposterousness and deficiencie in the articles , of a greater error then a common mistake . the thing then which comes first to be noted in point of fact , and which i shall represent with that truth and impartiality , that i hope none shall deny it , is , that this church , having in the year . abrogat and abjured the government of the kirk by bishops , and set up presbyterian government in its purest simplicity and paritie , we together with the renewing of the national covenant , solemnly engadged , constantly to adhere unto , and defend the true religion then established , in doctrine , worship and government , contrary to all the novations and corruptions from which it was at that time reformed ; and to labour by all means , for the purity and liberty of the gospel , as it was established and professed before these novations . after which time the church , in our acknowledgement , did enjoy a ministrie and government truely ecclesiastick , committed to them by , and depending upon our lord iesus christ alone , as king in zion , and head of his church . thereafter , by an act rescissorie , it was declared and statute , by both king and parliament , in the year . and . agreeably to the oath formerly taken , that the sole and only power and jurisdiction within this kirk , did stand in the kirk of god as it was then reformed ; and in the general , provincial and ptesbyterial assemblies , with the kirk sessions established by act. p. . & in like manner , by the solemn league and covenant , entred into in the year . the whole kingdome doth again swear to the preservation of the reformed religion of the church of scotland , in doctrine , worship , discipline and government ; and to extirpate popery , prelacie , schism , superstition , profannesse , and whatsoever shall be found contrary to sound doctrine , and the power of godliness : which engagement , we are bound all the dayes of our life zealously aud constantly to continow in , against all opposition ; and to promove the same , according to our power . thus matters stood , both in obligation and general observance , until the year . at which time , the parliament then sitting , having prepared their way by exalting of the prerogative , in opposition to , and for the overthrow of the practices of bygone times , specially that of entering into leagues and bonds ; they at one blow rescinde all parliaments after the year . and the government of the church , being thereby wholly deprived of the civill sanction , and its continowance , by another act , permitted and declared to be only precarious , during the kings pleasure : afterward , all ecclesiastick meetings in synods , presbytries and sessions , are , by proclamation the ianuary . discharged , untill they should be authorized and ordered by the archbishops and bishops then nominat by his maiestie , upon their entering into the government of their respective sees . by which means , the former government being overturned and razed unto the very foundation , at least as much as the wit and power of man could effectuat , the next thing that offers , is the new structure and frame that is raised in its place : and in the year . the parliament again meeting , by their first act for re-establishing of the government of the church by bishops , laying it for the ground , that the disposal of the external government of the church doth properly belong unto his majestie , as an inherent right of the crown , by vertew of his supremacie , they do thereby redintegrat the estate of bishops , not only to their places in parliament , and their accustomed dignities and priviledges ; but also to their episcopal function , presidency in the church , and power of ordination , censures and all church-discipline to be performed by them , with the advice of such of the clergie as they should find to be of known loyalty and prudence . and , for removing of all scruples , the parliament doth furder rescinde all former acts , by which the sole and only power and jurisdiction within this church , doth stand in the church , and its assemblies ; and all other acts whatsomever , giving any church-power , iurisdiction or government to its office-bearers or meetings , other then that which acknowledgeth a dependance upon , and subordination unto the soveraigne power of the king as supreme ; and which is to be regulated and authorized , in the exercise thereof , by the bishops and archbishops , who are to be accountable to his majesty for ther administration : and moreover , by the same act , the act . ( whereby presbyterian government was anciently confirmed , and which , by vertew of the above mentioned act rescissory , did now in so far , by the act . stand rescinded ) in respect that it doth also limite the kings prerogative to be without prejudice or derogation to the priviledge that god hath given to the spiritual office-bearers in the kirk , concerning heads of religion , heresie , excommunication , collation , or deprivation of ministers , or any such like censure , specially grounded in the word of god. this act , i say , . is now for this reason totally annulled , in all the heads , articles and clauses thereof : from which act of restitution , although the nature of our present church-constitution may be very obviously gathered ; yet there are two other also , to the same purpose , of which i cannot but take notice . the one is that concerning a national synod , wherein his majesty , by vertew of his supremacy , doth more absolutely appoint and determine upon the manner and members thereof , then if it were a meer civill court , unquestionably dependent upon his royal authority ; reserving to himselfe , aswell the proposal , as the final approbation of all matters to be therein treated . the other is the late act . asserting the supremacie , whereby the supreme authority over all persons , & in all causes ecclesiastick , is so fully declared to appertaine to the king , and that by vertew thereof , he may dispose upon the government and persons ecclesiastick ; and enact concerning the churches meetings and matters therein to be proposed , as he shall think fit , that a more absolute power in any thing can hardly be devised in his favours . these acts lying so well together , i could not but lay them forth to a joint consideration . and from them , i suppose , it will be very evident , that the work of the last revolution , was not only an invasion made upon the churches government , by the setting up of bishops , and their usurpation over presbyteries and synods , as hapened in their former introduction , preceeding the year : but that the alteration made , is plainly fundamental : and that , by his majesties assuming all church-power to himself , as the proper right and prerogative of the crown , without so much as pretending , with the pope , a commission from iesus christ for this effect ; and conveying the same by these communications alone , which he is pleased to dispense ; and to such persons and meetings as he thinketh good to appoint , and maketh to himself accountable ; there is not so much as that genus of ecclesiastick government recognosced by presbytery , as only fountained in , and derived from our lord as head of the church ; let be its specification from our classical form , at present to be found in being in this church . but it may be said , that i seem to make a difference betwixt the former and the latter erection of episcopal government in this church ; and yet when bishops were brought in , in the year . the kings prerogative was , by the then parliament , first enacted , and by the next act , their restitution is thereon also founded ; and in like manner , by the act . presbyteries and synods are turned to exercises of the brethren , and diocesian visitations ; and the power of ordination , deposition , and excommunication is given to the bishop : and to compleat all , by the same act , the act . was also rescinded : so that it appeares , that betwixt the former practices , and the late establishment , there is no great disparitie . 't is answered , the apparent resemblance of the things objected , is nevertheless accompanied by such reall and materiall differences , that it doth only the more notablie evince the strangeness of the methods , and nature of the present establishment , beyond all that the same designes in former times could suggest . king iames was indeed bent for prelacie , as all do acknowledge ; but by seeking thereby to qualifie and oversway the government of the church , in effect to subvert all government , given by our lord unto his church , is an absurditie which his better understanding did prudently forbear ; and nothing , save either the mysterie of this growing iniquity , or the precipitancie of our times could have produced . now that this is the true state of the difference betwixt our , and the former times , the particulars following will easiely evince . and first , it is true , the parliament . doth , by their first act , declare the kings prerogative , but only upon the narrative of the accession of the crowns of england and ireland , and in general , over all estates , persons , and causes , without the least derogation to the explication made in favours of the church by the parl. . whereas , in our dayes , this supremacy hath been asserted , declared and exercised , in order to ecclesiastick persons , meetings and matters , not only far beyond any thing pretended to in civils ; but above all that ever was arrogate , either by pope , or temporal potentate . next , by the second act of the fore-mentioned parliament . the estate of bishops is indeed restored ; and that upon the ground of the kings prerogative : but to what ? to ecclesiastick power , presidencie , jurisdiction , &c. fye ! not at all ; but only to their former honours , dignities , prerogatives , priviledges , livings , lands , teinds , rents , &c. and chiefly and especially against the act of annexation . . these , though unjustly bestowed , were yet proper subjects for a king and parliament : as for other things , purely ecclesiastick , they rightly judged them to be without their line : whereas , by the late act. . the king , with consent of the estates , restores the bishops , both to the same things , and also to the exercise of their episcopal function , presidency , power of ordination , and others above rehearsed : declaring himselfe to be the proper and supreme head , whence all church-pover doth flow , and to whom the bishops ought to be accountable : an attempt so impertinent to secular powers , and subversive of the very subject matter of ecclesiastick government ; that the former times , not from any greater tenderness in these things , but meerly from a clearer knowledge of their inconsistencie , did not once dream of : and therefore , in the third place , king iames , who knew well eneugh , that neither did his prerogative extend to the proper power and jurisdiction of the church , nor could this be thereupon founded ; and that for him to assume the disposal and dispensing thereof , was in effect to destroy it ; although by vertew of his supremacy , he restored the bishops to their honours , temporalities and possessions ; yet , as to the power ecclesiastick by them acclaimed , he applyed himself to compass the same only by the suffrage & determination of church-assemblies : and accordingly we see the act , parliament , . giving unto bishops their church-power and jurisdiction , not to be founded in , nor flow from the supremacy ; but to proceed simply , by way of ratification of an act of a general assembly , made two years preceeding ; and by the same act. . the act . establishing aswel the protestant religion , as presbiterian government , and also limiting the prerogative , as i have said , is only rescinded , in so far as the same is derogatorie to the articles then concluded : whereas , the king , with consent of parliament , by the act . laying down the supremacy for the basis , and ascrybing to himself the origen of ecclesiastick power , restores the bishops , in the same manner , as if they were his own commissioners and delegates . and to the effect the supremacy may transcend all , the act . is totally rescinded , without so much as a reserve for the protestant religion ; as is above declared . fourthly , in former times , whatever were the errors and wrongs , either of church , or state , or both , in the bringing in of bishops ; yet this is very certain and important , that the church-assemblies , at first , conveened by warrand of the churches intrinsick power , and after , confirmed by the parliament . were not upon the change discontinued ; but honest men did therein maintain both their right and possession , except in so far as the same were invaded , and they hindered by the bishops their prevalencie : whereas of late , not only were the former presbytries and synods raised & dissolved , but the new meetings , now conveened in their place , were appointed to sit down , as they sould be authorized & ordered by the bishops and archbishops ; who thereafter , are , by act of parliament , restored and impowered by the king , as supreme , over persons and causes ecclesiastick , and declared arbiter by right of his crown in these matters : so that it is evident , that they both are called in his name , and do sit and act , by vertew of a power , acknowledging a subordination unto , and dependence upon his soveraignity ; by reason whereof , they are also to him made accountable . i grant , that for better concealing the mysterie of this supremacie & prelacie , the present meetings were set up , for the most part , in the same bounds , & much under the same forme and name with the old presbyteries and synods : but seeing their precarious dependence on bishops , with the bishops their proper & absolute subordination to the king , as supreme over the church , is undeniable from the above cited act. . that therefore the present church-government , as it is freqently called in the late acts of parliament , so de facto , is his majesties government , and not that of our lord iesus , who hath not invested him therewith , either by deputation or surrender , is evident above exception . neither are these things so , only in the law and appointment , as is by some alledged ; no , the frequent examples of bishops , their deposing and suspending in synods , after having asked , meerly pro forma , the advice of a few next to them , without the vote of the whole ; their renversing the deeds of presbyteries , & controlling whole synods by themselves alone , with his majesties granting of the high commission , impowering seculars to appoint ministers to be censured by deposition and suspension , as well as ecclesiasticks to punish by fining , consining & imprisoning ; his removing and placing bishops at his pleasure ; and his late granting a commission of oversight or episcopacie , for the diocesse of glasgow , to him who mostly scrupled at a patent of the bishoprick , because of its temporalitie : these examples , i say , do clearly bring up our practice the full length of all enacted . having thus explained the condition of our present ecclesiastick constitution , in its authority , principles and practices , wholly different from any model that ever was seen in this church , i think , were it not for the clearness of method , i might leave the description of the present prebyteries and synods , to the readers own ingenuous collection : but tò render my discourse the more easie , i say , that the presbiteries and synods , which are now so termed amongst us , are meetings for church-matters , conveened by his majesties call , acting by his authority , in a precarious dependence upon the bishops , and absolute subordination to the supremacie : and this definition , is so manefestly the result of what is premised and composed as it were of the act of restitution , and supremacy , and proclamation so often mentioned , that none can deny it . neither is it the present question , whether we may simply joyne in these meetings or not ? for seeing , that not only this conjunction would be an acknowledgement of the supremacie , nothing different from , yea rather worse then the sitting in the high commission , and an active submission to , and owning of prelacie in its highest usurpation ; but even the articles of accommodation , by offering a mitigation , do evidently suppose it to be inconsistent with presbyterian principles : it is clear , that a simple unqualified union , with and in these meetings , is not the case of the present debate . the point therefore that comes next to be examined , is , whether or not the articles do indeed contain such condescensions and conditions , as may fully releive us of our just exceptions ? which leads me to take notice of the fifth article ( as i said before ) in the first place , as that which appears to be most direct to this purpose : and the contents of it are ; 't is not to be doubted , that my l , commissioner his grace will make good what he offered , ane●● the establishment of presbyteries and synods ; and we trust , his grace will procure such security to these brethren for declaring their judgement , that they may do it without any hazard in contraveening any law● and that the bishops shall humbly and earnestly commend this to his grace . these are the termes of the article , and for all that i have yet heard , i am not so doubtful of the comissioner's performance , as i am still uncertain of what was offered : the brethren , who conferred in the abbey , told us , that presbyteries were offered to be set up , as before the year . and that the bishop should passe from his negative voice , and so forth : but what may be the import of the first part of this offer , or how far it may conduce to the clearing of our consciences , i confess i am still in the dark . that which the dissenting brethren do , and every true minister of iesus christ ought to seek after , is a court , meeting in the name , and acting by the authority and rules of our lord and master : any other court called by the king , and acting by an authority derived from the supremacie , if in matters properly ecclesiastick , is but a complexed usurpation against christ , whose the government is , both in the constituent and actors : if in civils , then it is wholly without the ministers sphaere , and not to be medled in by them . now that before the . the presbyteries and synods then sitting , were , for the most part , our lords courts , in so far as they were by succession the same with these , which at first , by warrand of power by him given to his church , did set up in his name , and were not depraved from his institution by the bishops their usurpation , and the subsequent corruptions , is not doubted . but these being lately discharged and discontinued , & i am sure , not intended to be again set down , either according to the first warrant and rule , or as they were purged after the . but plainly by vertew of the supremacie , and in resemblance to that conjunction of prelacie and presbyterie , that was by law established before the . and consequently , both upon a wrong founda , tion , and in their most corrupt condition , i can not so much as● apprehend , what ease to scrupling consciences can be herein designed . i have indeed heard it sometimes alledged , for the reason of our present withdrawing , and in that di●●ering from the practice of our predecessours under the last bishops , that the then presbyteries and synods did meet by warrant of law , which now they want : but this reason , is in its termes so extrinsick to that which a true minister of iesus christ ought mainly to regard , and in truth so groundless , the act . confirming the proper right of these meetings , being by the act . ( though not totally , yet in so far as it was derogatorie to the articles therein set down , ) rescinded and made void , that i cannot but judge both scruple & solution offered , impertinent . if therefore there be true dealing intended , and any real respect to conscience in this matter , it is evident , that it is neither by the re-authorizing of abrogat and abjured corruptions , nor yet by any new devised frame , by vertew of , and depending upon the supremacie , that we can be cleared : but the only proposal to any good purpose that can be made in this behalfe , should be of synods and presbyteries , founded upon our lords warrand , and his churches priviledge ; and consequently to restore them , either as they were first allowed by the act . or which is all one , in the condition wherein they were dissolved in the year . with an abolition of all inconsistent acts and practices . but it may be said , if we be reponed to the same estate wherein our predecessours were , how can we prove disconforme in our practice ? 't is answered , the dissolution and discontinuance of true presbyteries with this new erection , first appointed to be authorized by the archbishops and bishops , and then setled upon the foot of the supremacie , do so evidently difference the cases , according to what is already more fully declared , that this objection is of no moment . and if it be urged , that as a restitution repones against a discontinuance ; so , if presbyteries and synods be really set up , it is but a peevish nicety to stick upon the formalitie how the same is done : the returne is easie , viz. that it is not questioned , but a full and fair restitution doth indeed repone ; and therefore , if it would please his majestie to restore the church , to its meetings and priviledges which it enjoyed in the year ● the pretense of the supremacie● for accomplishing the thing● if not really made the foundation of the churches power , contrary to the very nature and being of the right restored , would prove no long demurre . but as for the restitution offered , seeing it is not adjusted to our distresse , but expresly referreth to a juncture , which was in it self very corrupt , and needed reformation ; and whereunto , if bottomed upon the supremacy , and not continuing on the old foundation , the faithful men of these dayes , had doubtless never joyned ; it is but ane emptie conceit , no wayes reaching the question in hand . from which ground , it is also evident , that as we have good reason to declare , that we might have continued in these judicatories , had they not been once raised and setled again upon a new basis ; and that though a bishop had come and obtruded himself upon us , we might have sit still , after a free protest given against his usurpation ; so , g. b● endeavour , in a letter , supposed to be from him , perswading to this accommodation , to represent this as a methaphysical nicety , of no more value , then the emptie difference of sitting still , though a bishop come in , and of sitting down again when a bishop is alreadie there ; and yet acknowledging , in the same passage , the case to be different , if the court & constitution of the iudicatorie be not the same , doth manifestly bewray the doctors grosse inadvertencie ; & that the more to be regrated , that he is not affrayed to obtest us , as before god , to answere for our sticking at such a punctilio , when yet he himself , in a short but untrue supposition of the samness of the former and present episcopal courts , insinuateth a very obvious reason , rendering the difference very material and important . to be plain therefore , seeing the supremacy , as at present established , hath clearly everted and swallowed up all true ecclesiastick-government ; and the presbyteries and synods now bearing that name , are only its unwarrantable conventicles ; unless that these prevailing floods of this prerogative be abated , and the true establishments of the government of the lords house discovered ; i do not see where the disire of any to be innocent can rest , or how the lords faithful servants can be satisfied , and comply with this part of the overture . i might here adde , that seeing there may be in some cases just reason for withdrawing , aswel because of the quality of the members , as the nature of the constitution , the rectification of the latter can as little in our case as in any be respected as a full ground of satisfaction : but the defectivenesse of thir articles will more properly afterward come to be considered . and therefore i shall novv go to the first , to see vvhat is thereby further offered : and here vve find it proposed , that , if the dissenting brethren will come to presbyteries and synods , they shall not only not be obliged to renounce their own private opinion , anent church-government , and swear and subscrive any thing thereto ; but shall have libertie , at there entrie to the said meeting , to declare & enter it in what form they please . if i were enclined to use sharpness , i might on just ground say , that this article , certainly to be understood of entering to sit & act , & not only to protest & testifie , doth contain no better salvo for our exceptions , then what , if admitted , will equally allow the same accesse to the pope's conclave , or any other the most unwarrantable and corrupt meeting upon earth ; is as evident , as that a iesuitick reservation of opinion , and declaration without any effect , or a protestation contrarie to fact , is thereby judged a sufficient exoneration . but to come to the purpose closely , i affirme that the synods and presbiteries , here invited to , are not truely such , but meerly nominal and pretended : being in effect courts authorized by bishops , and subordinat to his majestie in matters purely ecclesiastick , over and about which he himself hath no such power . and for the former part of the assertion , the acts & other things by me premised do abundantly clear it . as for the latter , that the king hath no such power in and over the church ; it being uncontroverted in the presbyterian perswasion , and the supremacy , made the ground of the abovementioned act of restitution , being to them a greater cause of offence , then any of these difficulties in this matter of conjunction with presbyteries & synods intended by the accommodation ; it was the part of the accommodators , either by conviction or condescendence , to have removed it . however i may not digresse ; only i am assured , if these three things be considered , which i am readie to demonstrat against whatsoever opponent ; ( . ) that this ecclesiastick power is the sole prerogative of iesus christ , whereof the administration was committed by our lord to his church , when no magistrat was a member thereof ; and that upon the magistrats becoming christian , there is no ground adduceable whereupon it could accrease to him : ( . ) that all the power of the magistrat is , under god , from the people , and in such things over and about which the original power was to them competent , to which this church-power can in no sort be reckoned . ( . ) that all the extraordinarie interpositions of good kings and emperours , in matters of religion , did no wayes flow from any inherent right or prerogative they had conversant in these matters ; but were the pure product of necessitie , sustained by the righteousness of the work , & deficiency of the more proper means . these things , i say , being duely considered , i am very confident , that all the pretensions of the supremacy , will very quickly evanish : and therefore it inevitably followes , that , seeing the kings supremacy is a high usurpation against our lord & master , all courts depending thereon , and acknowledging the same , & partaking therein , what ever opinion a man do reserve , or whatever declaration be made anent it , must also be rejected . but here there ariseth a great noise and clamor , what ! are the present presbyteries and synods no presbyteries and synods ? then are the present ministers no presbyters ? but their is no such haste ; neither have these things any further connexion , then that the present ministers are not presbyters , in so far as the same denotes a power of ruling committed by iesus christ , which truly i think in ingenuitie they can not deny ; specially seing , that although they hold themselves to be ministers by mission from christ ; yet they do nevertheless acknowledge their power of ecclesiastick government and iurisdiction to be from the king , on whom they grant that the ministerie , as to other things , doth not in such a manner depend : whereupon it evidently followeth ; that if the power of government , do as well and in the same manner flow from iesus christ , as the power of order ( as the schools speak ) doth ; and that thereby true presbyteries and synods do only subsist ; then , these meetings , which recognosce his majesty as supreme for and in the exercise of the power which they acclaime , can no more be truly such , then he who , by vertew of his soveraign's mission , would pretend himself to be a minister . but what need of more words ; if the present conform ministers , and there meetings , have disclained iesus christ for their immediat head , in matrer of government , and owne no power thereof , but what acknowledgeth a dependence upon , and subordination to his majesty as supreme ; wherewith nevertheless he himself is not at all vested ; and if on the other hand , we do disallow all church-government , and medlings and meetings thereof , which do not hold their commission and warrant from christ alone , as the head of the body ; what concurrence can we make , in on and the same assembly ? or by what salvo may my sitting and acting be justified in a meeting , in the power whereof i hold it unlawful to partake ? for my part , since , in the matter of ecclesiastick government , they do not hold the true head , but have betaken themselves to another , to whom they do referr , & are accountable for all their power ; if we , who in conscience do both detest this usurpation , and disclaime all share in any power , save what our lord hath committed unto us , desire to be excused from these assemblies ; i think , until they first convince us of our mistake in these things , they cannot rationally blame us for separation . and therefore , what ever may be the effect of an entrie , qualified either by declaration or protestation , in order to the freeing of the partie from an apparent constructive accession , to certain accidental corruptions that may be in a meeting , to which he is otherwise obliged to joine ; yet sure i am , in this case , where the very constitution it self is so unwarrantable and corrupt , that non can actively partake therein , without sin ; this remedie here offered is altogether insignificant . the next thing that here occurres , is , that although this reservation of opinion and declaration permitted , could be a salvo , as to the evills of the constitution ; yet , without doubt , there is a consideration to be had , in such conjunctions , of the persons also with whom it is to be made . there may be an assembly , nay a presbyterie or synod of evill doers , which we are bound to hate ; and even the assembly of the wicked who inclosed him , and pearced his hands and his feet , wanted not a specious name , yea it was the house of his friends : sure no man will think that a simple protestation may warrant constant presence in these cases ; but rather encline , with ieremiah , to leave and to draw from an assembly of treacherous men . what for assemblies the present church-meetings are , i can be no more tender , then it is superflous to utter : only this i will say , that if it be once granted , that such may be the condition of a meeting , by reason of the quality of its members , that no declaration can warrant any fellowship therein ; i am certain that the subsumption , viz. that such are the courts to which we are invited , may be , to the satisfaction of all unbyassed men , upon these sufficient grounds of notorious perjury , intrusion , profanitie and insufficiencie , unquestionably made out . but i proceed to the next article , bearing , that all church-affaires shall be managed , in presbyteries and synods , by the free vote of presbyters , or the major part of them . this is indeed the main & principal condescendence : and it is to this place , that , aswel for the satisfaction of such brethren as possibly will not so easily , at first , admit of the foregoing reasons , as for a full answere to all that can be said for this accommodation , i have reserved to discourse upon it at more length , and on all fair and probable suppositions . in supplement therefore of this article , and to take it in the most advantageous sense that the proposers can desire , i adde , that consistently therewith , it seems the bishop is to be reduced to a constant moderator : whence in prosecution of my declared purpose , waving any further exceptions against the nullity of the present presbyteries and synods , i clearly state the question thus . whether a constant moderator , or fixed proeslos , for terme of life , in church-meetings , be a thing in it self lawful ? and how far it is by us admissible ? and what complyance we may have ●or it ? and because there are some papers gone abroad from the bishop of glasgow , as is supposed , upon this subject , and that the current of the speeches at pasely wereof the same strain ; i conceive , for rendering of the debate more certain , it will not be amisse , that i bring them to a particular and exact review . and in the beginning of these papers , we find it asserted , that episcopal government , managed in conjunction with presbyters in presbyteries and synods , is not contrary either to the rule of scripture , or the example of the primitive church ; but agreeable to both . that this position doth hold forth no more then the lawfulness of an episcopus praeses , & that upon negative grounds , giving the asserter the easier part of defence , is obvious to the first observation . to have affirmed an obligation to this model , though the author's choise had not been convenient : the thing which hath been , it is that which shall be , and an agreeablenesse to scripture and antiquitie , is for the time a very colourable pretension , and all that the author dare adventure to affirme : but that as much may be said for a presbyterian paritie , exclusive of this presidencie ; i think our adversaries themselves will not deny : and it is very evident , that it is the thing they have no inclination to redargue . which advantage , lying equally and fairly on our side , and being confirmed by possession strengthned by an oath , and to the present conviction of all ( mostly arising from the contrary effects of episcopacie ) sealed with the seal of good gospel fruits , one of the great evidences produced by paul for his apostelship ; how much it doth impugne the late change , and justifie the aversion and non-compliance of all good men therewith ; all rational men may discerne . but , seeing our cause is not as theirs , leaning only to negative probalities , and the power wherewith it is supported , to deal clearly in this matter , though we do not pretend to a positive , expresse , and particular scripture-precept , as well against the presidencie , as for the parity pleaded ; yet , that we have an equivalent divine warrant , more pregnant then what in other particulars is acknowledged for such , even by our opposites : the following heads do plainly evince . and first , that iesus christ king in zion , sitting and ruling upon his throne , to whom all power is given , and who is the head of the body , when he ascended on high , sent forth his apostles to gather , feed , and rule his church , promising to be with them to the end of the world ; and thereby hath appointed a government in his house , suitable to these holy ends for which it is designed , is not more evidently founded upon the scripture-grounds insinuat , then firme in its connexion and inference . . as the apostles and their successors were the only perpetual pastors ordained by our lord ; ( for as for the mission of the seventy , what ever allusions after ages , according to their then model , did draw from it , without all peradventure , accòrding to is own tenour , it did expire before our lords suffering ) so they were by him constitute in an exact paritie , as brethren : and because of this equality , and the nature of their ministrie , our lord forbids among them all distinction of authoritative superioritie , the very name of rabbi and master then abused , and all ambition & affectation of these or any other elating dignities and titles ; but they are only commanded to outstripe and exceed on another , in that diligence and humilitie recommended to them in that common service , whereunto they were destined . . according to this command given , so they conversed and behaved in the church of god , without the least vestige of imparity , either in power or presidencie : nay on the contrary , with a manifest equality , except it be in some notes of apparent preheminence in these , by men esteemed inferior , expresly , as it seems recorded , to counter-ballance the vanity of ambition of after ages , who in favour of others , might imagine a superiority . and such are the principal resort made to iames , his moderating rather then peters in the meeting at ierusalem , pauls resistance to peter , and the right hand of fellowship given to him by iames , cephas and iohn , and the like . . the pastors appointed by the appostles being their successors , both in their ordinarie power and blessing , whatever might be the inequalitie betwixt them and the appostles , either from the immediacy and extent of the apostles their mission , their infallible assistance and greater eminency of gifts , or by reason that the apostles were the lords chosen witnesses , and authors of conversion to most of them whom they ordained ; yet , as to the perpetual and ordinary power given to , and transmitted by them in the church , it is evident from scripture , that , in that , they neither claimed nor exercised either superiority or presidencie over other ministers . hence it is , that as they call and account them their brethren , partners , fellow-labourers , and themselves fellow-elders with them ; so we finde , that what in on place paul ascribes to the laying on of his own hands , in another he attributes to the laying on of the hands of the presbyterie : and the same paul , who was not a whit behind the very chiefest appostles , receiving a solemn mission from a presbyterie , not consisting of fellow-apostles , but of other prophets and teachers . gifts there fore were indeed diverse and unequal , and imploiments also were various in the dayes of the apostles , according to the then exigence of a growing spreading church : but that either among the apostles themselves , or them and the pastors by them ordained , or among the pastors themselves there was the least imparity , in respect of that ordinarie and standing power continued in the church , as the passages mentioned do plainly confirme the negative ; so there can no instance be adduced from scripture in the contrary . we know timothie , titus , & the angels of the churches , are much talked of , as the first superior bishops : and to this it is as easily reponed . . that there is nothing enjoyned or recommended in pauls epistles to timothie , which is not proper for every pastor , unlesse what is evidently referable to his office of an evangelist there expressed . . the command given to titus to ordain elders , was by way of expresse commission , and not in the least exclusive of the concurrence of other elders where they might be found in the place . that it is in these very epistles , more then any where els in scripture , that both the names of bishops and elders are promiscuously used , and the thing and office thereby signified held forth to be the same . and lastly , that the known use & elegancie of the singular number for the plural , with the figurative speech and tenor of the seven epistles in the revelation , do no more allow the angels , representing the pastors , then the stars signifying the same thing , nay or the candlesticks the churches , to be taken for single persons . but for further clearing of all these and like objections , i referr the reader to the many authors , by whom these things are more fully handled . these grounds then being all undoubtedl● scriptural , with what confidence can it be demanded , where doth the scripture hold out a paritie among ministers ? or how can it be affirmed , that the episcopus praeses contended for , specially with his necessary presence in ordination , as we will afterwards hear , is not contrary , but agreeable to the word of god ? by all which it appears , that as our presbyterian paritie is plainly warranted , both by general gospel-rules , and very expresse instances contained in scripture ; so the apparent lawfulness of any other form of mans devising , can be no justification thereof . but it is objected , if this ground be rejected , how will we maintain , or where will we finde an expresse command or rule for our own model of kirk-sessions , presbyteries , syonds provincial and national , with a commission of the kirk , in their several dependencies and subordinations , and the changing of the moderator in these meetings , excepting that only of the kirk-sessions , wherein the minister doth constantly moderat ; for without this expresse kule , a bishop or fixed president may very well consist with that frame , which we conten● for : and it is really and actually so at this present in this church ? in answering this objection , i must begin with its latter part , which is so directly contradicted by the present constitution , both in its legal establishment , and known exercise , as i have already proven , that i marvel how it could escape any person of ordinary understanding . as for the main thing objected , having from the scripture asserted the warrant of our parity , its difficulty is easily satisfied : for seeing that by divine institution the church is erected into one society , and officers in an equal parity for its oversight and government thereto appointed ; and seeing that in every concession , the things natural and proper to what is conceded must be understood to be therein imported ; the libertie and power of common counsel , together with the subordination of the parts to the whole , do thence necessarily result . the premisses of which argument , being so consistently composed of scripture and reason thereon dependent , i need not here enlarge in any explication . sure i am , he who duely perpendeth these uncontrovertible scripture-truths ; that the church is gathered into one body ; that the apostles together , the pastors and elders together are incharged with its oversight and rule ; that the spirit of the prophets is subject unto the prophets ; and that where two or three are gathered together in the lords name , there he is in the midst of them ; it is impossible he should remain doubtful of the divine warrant and authority of our meetings . conforme to which truths and principles , we not only finde , in the acts of the apostles , the church governed by common counsel , but the same meetings and councels inspired and directed by that humilitie , love and harmonie , that no more then a chair man for the time , & no sixed moderator can therein be discerned . if these grounds were not both solidly and evidently conclusive of all necessarie for me to prove , i might easily , without either worming or straining ( as our moderatists phrase it ) adduce and make out from scripture precedents more exactly correspondent to our formes : but seeing the right and priviledge of common counsel for government , in order both to the whole and certain of the parts● is by scripture-practi●e obviously held forth ; its extension to all the parts , and their ●ubordination to the whole , doth so naturally and necessarily ●ollow , tha● i judge it superfluous to engadge my self further into our adversaries scrupulous quiblings . now , as for the commission of the kirk , whereof scripture warrant is also required , seeing we do not hold it to be an ordinarie church-judicatorie ; but do only regard it as a delegation from the preceeding national-assembly elicit by extraordinary exigences , and precisely accountable to the next ensuing , it s right is so certainly parallel to that of every committee , appointed by any meeting for dispatch , that unlesse it were alledged , that this power of commissionating is by scripture inhibite ; it must of necessity be understood to be founded in the same warrant with the assemblies , from which it doth flow & receive its con●irmation . i contend not , but our observance in practice might have had its own failings in this point : but seeing the excesse in this matter , if any was , did probably flow from the mistake of a suppo●sed expediencie ; the evidence of its warrant and right use , by such and error in fact , cannot at all be impugned . but the ministers their being constantly moderators in kirk-sessions , among the elders joyned with them for discipline , is that wich our adversaries do urge , as a great advantage for proving the lawfulness of the fixed moderator in presbyteries and synods , and our inconsequence in denying the same . in the fond conceit of which argument , it hath been , and is so frequently by them inculcat , that here is a presbyter , having a fixed presidencie among presbyters , that i am sure it may ●ustly nauseat or move to laughter any indifferent observer . to begin therefore with this childish emphasis , taken from the terme presbyter , and the calling of the minister and parochial-elders , both of them presbyters ; such indeed they are : but seeing the scripture doth warrant the office of our ruling elder , & also attributeth several other names to ministers , agreeable to the main labour , and to these parochial elders , only that of presbyters or elders ; and yet on the other hand , the classical assemblies , principally consisting of ministers , are commonly called presbyteries : if use , for distinction , hath appropriat to these parochial-elders the name of elders , rather then that of presbyters , what folly is it to think , that a contrary usurpation of names can be of any import ; or wherefore do not our adversaries , if they have such a complaisance for these conceits , tell us further what a qstrange thing it is to see a presbyterie ( for so a kirck-session may well be termed ) consisting only of one minister and all the rest laiks , as they speak , and withal reflect upon these more pungent retorsions nearer home , viz. that in their way , a bishop pretends to a-superiority or presidencie over many bishops , and a single presbyter must have the preheminence over his fellow-presbyters . but leaving these fopperies , and taking words according to the determination of custome in such cases , in answer to what is material in the objection , i say ( . ) that where there are two ministers in a parish , they moderat in the session by turnes . ( ) where the session doth consist of one minister , both a preaing and a ruling elder , and the other elders of the congregation , who are but his helpers in discipline , his different quality , with the double honour allowed to him by the apostle , doth abundantly determine the moderatorship in his favours . ( . ) if a minister , who is the pastor and teacher of the whole flock , do preside amongst the elders of a secondarie order , joined to him for his assistance ; will it therefore follow , that one minister should fixedly preside over many , in the same order with himself , and equally concerned in all the affaires of the meeting ? what logick can knit together such inferences ? having thus demonstrat from scripture-pr●cepts and practices , and firme rational conclusions thence deducted , the command of our parity , with the warrantableness of our courts and all their gradations , i am very confident , that we do thereby fully satisfie all the obligation to bring a clear command for these judicatories and their subordinations , which our affirming them to be of unquestionable divine right , & institutions undoubtedly flowing ●rom the kingdom of iesus christ in his church , and the only lawful government thereof , do lay upon us . as for what the author alledgeth against us , that we do affirme them to be the very kingdom of christ upon earth , and the abso●utely necessary , aswel as only lawful government of the christian church : what ever tumor may appear in such expressions , over and above the account i have given of the matter , it is his own devising , on purpose contrived , that he may represent us as high talkers , above the asserters of other forms ; and yet we not only know that the commenders of episcopacie , as the only true ancient apostolick government of the church , do speak at as high a rate , to say no more ; but that their acting in its behalfe doth indeed surpass all other measures , i am certain will easily be by all acknowledged , who consider how presbyterie is the only butt against which their malice & persecution is levelled , and that into this malice , all the zeal they ought to have against poperie , profanity , atheisme and irreligion seems to be converted ; which stirring activity may also in this same author , who , being in his ministrie rather a recluse monastick , is for its sake become a very busie prelate , most obviously be instanced . now , as by the grounds which i have adduced for our presbyterian paritie , the contrary repugnancy to scripture rules of a fixed presidencie is sufficiently held out ; so i would gladly know , from what shadow of probabilitie the scripture agreeablenesse thereof is by our author asserted . for my part , unlesse it be in the instance of a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 diotriphes , i know not where the least vestige of it is to be found . and therefore i say in the next place , in opposition to the second point affirmed , viz● the non-contrariety and agreeablenesse of this episcopus praeses to the example of the primitive church , that though , in the second and third centuries of the church , this prostasia could be more evidently discovered ; yet , seeing the better pattern of the more pure and ancient times do hold out no such thing , but an equal paritie among the elders or overseers ( bishops ) of the church of god , levelled by humilitie , and ordered by love and concord ; and that this presidencie did , in its tendencie and progresse , become the rise not only of aspiring prelacie , but of the monstrous papacy , it is evident that it is a meer humane invention , equally unwarrantable and dangerous . and here i might show how little light we have , even in the acknowledgment of some of our adversaries , from history , or any other pure and credible record of the churches constitution in the centuries mentioned ; and that the more near to the dayes of the apostles , and more uncorrupted any such testimony is found , as that of clemens and ireneus , ( for as for ignatius epistles , even these of them that are of the best repute , i am sure no impartial reader , who considers either the worth of the person , or the simplicitie of the times , or the stile suitable to both , will judge them to be from such an author ) the more they homologat with scripture in the synonomie of bishop and presbyter , and the samenesse of the office thereby signified : and i might also make it appear , how that ●or all the alteration and advance made towards prelacie in the succeeding centuries ; yet the fathers in these times , chiefly ierom , did affirme the same truth of the apostolick times , and the age immediatly succeeding : but as i am too well perswaded , that pride was the first and most subtile and active corruption that did invade the church ; so i can very easily grant that a protocathedria was thereby very early either occasioned , or usurped : and therefore omitting to insist , how that partly by designe of the ambitious , partly by mistake against the factious it seemeth to have been introduced , i shall rather endeavour , by a few observes , so to discover the evill of its rise , and its worse tendencies , that in this above all , all men may perceive the perinciousness of humane inventions , how specious soever , when superadded to gospel truth and simplicitie . and first i say , that the alledgeance made for this prostasia , as conducing much to order and the cure of divisio●s , in so far as it respects its fixednesse is a vaine & emptie pretense : for , seeing this fixednesse as such importeth no more then the suspending of the more certain change of an annual or other termly election , unto that more uncer●ain one of term of life , and that sometimes this lat●er may notwiths●anding happen to be more frequent then the fo●mer , it is obvious to any mans calme and serious reflection , that it is meerly to the presidencie , and not at all to this controverted qualitie in itself considered , that the advantages commended can be ascribed : and therefore as it is certain , that , the concerne of order being once duely provided for by a sutable moderation , the more obnoxious the person moderating is to the suffrage of the society , the lesse hazard of an ensuing abuse or usurpation ; so it is very evident , that this superfluous fixedness , importing a certain degree of exemption , could only in the end prove a foment of pride and gratification of ambition , as the event it self to plainly verifies : of which if any man do yet doubt , let him consider romes papacy , that under this pretense , fortified by ierom's testimony , cuncti ( nempe apostoli ) claves regni caelorum accipiunt , tamen inter duodecem unus eligitur , ut capite consti●uto schismatis tollatur occasio , did not only arrogat to it self the primacie , but to this day doth thereby vail its tyrrannie . i grant that power is a soveraign antidot against contentions and divisions : but if we measure it out by our own wisdom , with a regard only to this exigence , neither respecting the lords warrant , nor the sufficiencie of gifts and countenance of his blessing , it is very manifest that this rule may quickly lead us to surmount the papacie and its implicite faith ; and never suffer us to cease , until , by an absolute subjection , both truth & conscience be swallowed up of ignorance and stupidity . let us therefore above all things in the matters of god study his own way : if we neglect this sure and excellent ordinance of a self-denyed and lowly gospel ministrie , with these prescriptions of truth , humilitie and love● given to us as the remedies against all disorder , schisme and heresie , and indulge to our own devices , where wil we subsist ? i need not represent the subtilty and presumption of mens delusions , specially for promoting that mysterie of iniquitie that worketh in ecclesiastick aspirings : if our blind probabilities were sufficient to authorize the means of peace and order ; there is no question , carnal reason would again insinuat , according to the pretensions that raised the papacie , and the frequent suggestions of our times in behalfe of the magistrat , that the proper and assured way to a firme establishment were to resolve either mans beleife , or his obedience into the uncontrollable determinations either of the pope , or of the prince● but as the disposi●ions of the soveraign and only wise god are not to be fathomed , let be regulat by our narrow and weak capacities ; so ought we alwayes to revere these peremtorie and seuere restraints , where with he hath bounded the darrings of vain reason , not so much as to think in these things above what is written ; specially in the case in hand , when not only manifest disappointments , as to the ends pretended , but the worst of consequences have by a very visible progresse openly discovered both the folly and prejudice of this presidencie under question . for evincing whereof i observe . . that as it is not unto this fixed presidencie as such , but unto the more abounding grace of god , under these frequent and grievous persecutions wherewith the church was then exercised , that the singular order , unity and charity of the primitive times is to be ascribed ; so the gradual advance of this prostasia , together with the joint and perpetual declines of true knowledge & piety , & concurring increase of pride , contention , irreligion & superstition , are very pregnant evidences of its vanity . i need not note that the first times to which this presidencie can lay any claime were the purest ; its first setting up , as most acknowledge , was in the second centurie , in a simple protocathedria to the senior presbyter : shortly thereafter it turned to a prostasia given by election ; and then stil ascending , even under the discountenance and persecution of the heathenish powers and people , it did notwithstanding , what by wresting the election in many places from the presbyters , and what by usurping the power of ordinantion and censures , advance to a very high degree of prelacie : as is aboundantly confirmed by what may be gathered from the records of these times , and especially by good cyprian his words to his presbyters epist. . a primordio episcopatus mei , statui nihil sine consilio vestro privata sententia gerere : whereby as it were in opposition to the then corrupt custome of other bishops , he plainly insinuateth his contrary resolution . now what , under this progresse of the prostasia , still pretending to be a remedy , was the growth of the evils both of contentions , schismes and heresies ( specially in the intervals of the churches sufferings , wherewith these several degrees were manifestly attended , needeth not to be enforced by many instances . that of victor as to superstition , contention and schisme , who for a different observation of pasch ( a weighty point forsooth ) did excommunicat the better halfe of the christian world , may stand for a thousand : and as for heresies , their catalogues are almost endlesse : but though its rise under so great pressures , doth very convincingly argue the strong and subtile spirit working in its elevation ; yet it was from the time of constantin's empire , and the rising of the sun of prosperitie upon the church , that it did yet more evidently begin to discover itself in its proper collours : and from this period indeed it was , that , more and more exalting and explicating its powers , it ceased not , until through proud and fervid contentions of the prelats amongst themselves for precedencie ( more dangerous by far then al the pettie contests that could arise among presbyters ) and these still varnished with he pretexts of unity , peace , and apostolick example , but really animat by pride and ambition , and accompanied with covetousness , luxurie , neglect of truth , abounding of errors , superstition and irreligion , it at length arrived at the papacie ; which , by its tyrannous infallibility and implicit faith , did in the end indeed bring forth , in the destroying of true knowledge and conscience , an apparent peace and unity , most like to that indifferencie in the matters of religion , and surrender and abjection of conscience , which the abettors of our supremacie do , under the same plausible names and pretenses , so much endeavour to introduce . this being then the growth , progresse and product of this prostasia & its lying pretense of remedying & preventing schism ( in effect nothing els then the sutable revelation of that mysterie which at first did more latently begin to work under its lesse discernable appearances ) what judgment is to be made of it , i leave to every mans ingenuity . if it be objected , that although the ensuing of prelacie and papacie , and all their evils upon the ancient episcopacy may give a colour to the premised discourse ; yet it is easie in such matters to strain observations ; and these consequences may be only its accidental and not its proper effects . 't is answered , not to insist upon the natural and gradual connexion of the things represented , more easie to be discerned by impartial reflection , then perswaded by superfluous arguing , it is very observable , first , that the great , if not the sole reason , that from the beginning hath been or can be alledged for the ●ixed presidencie , viz. the eare of divisions , and prevention of schisme , was that which in the righteous judgment of god , according to the deceivablenesse of unrighteousness , was still made use of for carrying on the mysterie of iniquitie , until that at length it appeared in its own colours , and discovered its effects , infinitly more pernicious then the evils which it pretended to obviat . , that in matters religious , the want of divine institution , and consequently of our lords promise and blessing , together with the actual following of bad fruits & effects , are a sufficient demonstration , that the thing questioned is thereof properly productive . i need not observe , that it is upon this ground that the popes primacie and headship is very justly charged with all romes superstitions and abominations : if of old , i sent them not , therefore they shall not profit this people , was by the spirit of the lord made a sure and firme conclusion , shall not then the visible accomplishment , i appointed it not , and it hath not profited , but been attended with many grievous mischiefs , prove an evidence equally convincing ? but it is said , admitting that this was indeed the course of its exaltation in these times yet the proposal of it being now made with a manifestly contrary designe , and in effect to low and reduce prelacie ; the preceeding representation is of no moment . 't is answered , i grant that this reduction is indeed given out to be the design of the alteration offered : but seeing it is in the supremacie , more then in the papacie in itself considered , that the strength and complement of all corruption in ecclesiastick government , and the very end and design of prelacie itself doth lye ; and that the present offer of this presidencie , is only a politique draught , ●ending by the engadging of these who justly reclaim to sit & act in its courts , to the more compendious and sure establishment of the same supremacie , and rendering of its influences more effectual ; it is evident that its project may possibly appear a more covert , but is in truth ra●her a more dangerous part of the same mysterie . if then this fixed praeses , at first set up in the church , be a thing unwarrantable and anti-scriptural ; that the episcopus praeses offered to us must be much more such , cannot be controverted ; in as much as there are several material differences betwixt the one and the other all aggravating against the present proposal , as this short comparison of the two doth abundantly hold out . the episcopus praeses in ancient times was at least in the beginning chosen by the presbyterie over which he presided , and consequently was by them censurable ; as also he did only preside over one , and that oftentimes a very small classis , the taking of the election from the presbyters , the exempting the then episcopus praeses from their controll , and the superinduction of metropolitans and arch-bishops being all posterior inventions . whereas the praeses poposed to us is to be nominat and appointed by his majesty ; and for any thing we know by him only deposable or removable : as also the least of them is to be over many presbyteries or classes , whereof any one is by far too large for a conscientious gospel oversight , and two of them over several synods , not to mention their extrinsick and absurd secularities , clearly incompatible both with the nature and work of their office . which differences to be both certain and material , it were easie for me to make out : but since our rejecting of this prostasia , doth proceed upon far more solid and comprehensive grounds , i shall not urge them : only , that i may a little recreat my reader , the returne made at pasely by a worthie doctor , to that disparitie of the present praeses his being nominat by the king , is very observable ; and after he had meenly declared the manners of old elections , and how the people sometime aswel as the presbyters had an interest therein , and having made his answer , that the church did then appoint and choose this praeses , for want of a christian magistrat , with no better consequence then i● one should alledge , that for the same reason the church did then , and the magistrat might now , ordain ministers , he proceeded to prove the lawfulnesse of his majesties appointment and nomination , partly from the prerogative of universal patron , competent to him jure coronae , and by act of parliament , and partly because that an inferior patron by presenting a minister to the kirk of his presentation , doth thereby make him a proestos over the parochial elders . was not this grave and judicious reasoning ? but seeing the right of patronage is in it self a civil right ( though indeed a sad incumberance to the church ) only respecting the benefice , by vertue whereof the patron conferreth no ecclesiastick power , or any thing pertaining to the office , but , in that regard , referres the person presented intirely to the tyral of the church , which alone admitts him to the function , and conveys to him any ecclesiastick power thereto competent , i only wish the doctor that reflection and sobrietie as may hereafter prevent such flegmatick mistakes . the next argument against this fixed presidencie , and why we can not consent unto it , i take from the oath of god that is upon us ; not that i account these covenants to be the main , if not the only , ground of scrupling , as the bishop alledgeth to be by many of us pretended : no , i am more perswaded , that there is nothing sworne to , or renounced by us , in these ingagements , which is not antecedently either duety or sin , then to be in love with their arguments , who , from the determination that may arise from an oath in things within our power , do thence conclude against episcopacie as in it self a thing indifferent , and by our oath only abjured . but seing covenant-breakers do now turne covenant-interpreters , and it is the authors own undertaking to prove that a fixed presidencie is not contrary to this our oath , and seing that the same oath doth indeed superadde a special obligation , as we shall afterwards hear , i shall first shew , that this episcopus preses is by us abjured , and then review the authors observations in the contrary . and as to the first , it is not from the solemn league and covenant that we do only or yet principally conclude in this matter● no he who remembereth what i said in the beginning concerning our reformation in the year . , and our renewing of the national covenant , with the explication thereto subjoined , whereby , having found pre●byterian government with an equal paritie , to be the government appointed by the lord in his house ; and that the same was formerly established by oath in this land ; and having then restored it , we bind our selves constantly to defend and adhere to the true religion , as then reformed from the novations and corruptions that had been introduced ; whereof the government of the church by bishops , and their constant moderatorship were reputed to be a part ; and to labour by all lawful means to recover the purity and liberty of the gospel as it was professed before the forsaid novations : he , i say , who remembereth these things , will easily grant , that it is upon this oath , that our chief obligation depends , and it is to it that we are to referre our ingagements by the league and covenant , whereby we are bound to preserve the reformed religion in the church of scotland , in doctrine , discipline , worship and government : so that the second article of the league , binding to the extirpation of popery , prelacie , &c. and whatsoever shall be found contrary to ●ound doctrine and the power of godlinesse , ( whatever respect it may have to england and ireland for the future yet ) as to scotland , it must more forcibly inferre an abjuration of all these things already found to be such ; whereupon it most evidently followeth● that presbyterian government with its exact paritie , being then the thing sworn by us to be preserved ; and episcopacie in all its degrees abjured , as novations contrary to truth and godlinesse : this fixed presidencie offered , and our consenting thereto , is directly contrary to these oaths and ingagements . but now , let us consider what the papers say unto this point . and first we are told , that notwithstanding the many irregularities and violent wayes of pressing and prosecuting o● it , yet to them who remain under the conscience of its obligation , and in that , seem invincibly perswaded● it is very pertinent , if true to declare the consistencie of the present government even with that obligation . 't is answered , these insinuations of irregularity and violence being only general , without so much as a condescendencie , let be any verification , i might very justly neglect them ; but , being made by a person , who , after being eye witnes to the courses which he reproacheth , did both take the covenant himself , and administrat it to others ; and now notwithstanding that all the cavillations and objections of adversaries have been answered without reply , hath under his hand renounced it , i can not pas●e them without ●ome admiration of such inconscionable insolence , of which ● do hereby defye the author to acquit himself by any rational and probable instance● we ●ave indeed heard the proud calumnies of prevailing adversaries but seing these are certain truths viz. ● that this landbeing in the beginning lawfully ingaged in the national covenant , did upon the occasion of the ensuing and growing defections and novations , very justly both renew and explaine their ingagements , and also censure such , who , by refusing their assent , did evidently declare their apostasie . . that not only the communion of saints , but the very force of that obligement of constant defence and adherence , contained in the national , did so constrain us to make the league and covenant , as the visibly neces●ary mean for that end , and without which conjunction the prelatick partie in england , which had twice from thence perfidiously attac●qued us , prevailing there , had in all probabilitie overwhelmed us , that the refusal of this second covenant , by any who had taken the first , could not but be construed a breach thereof ; and expose them to condigne punishment , . that the countenance and confirmation of authority being demanded , and unjustly refused , to that , for preservation and maintenance , whereof government it self was set up , can not in reason make the deed so done , for want thereof unlawful . and . that the sufferings of recusants in our former times were , either for the merit or number of the delinquents , very small and inconsiderable , and have been by the renversings and persecution● of these la●e times so many degrees exceeded , that it is ashame for any person of ingenuity , by accusing the past and owning the present , to shew such partialitie . these i say , being certain truths and so fully held out by several writings on our side , it is impossible but , the same being duely perpended , all the vapour of this smoak must instantly evanish . but in the next place comes the authors kindnesse and charitie to relieve such , who labour under an apprehended inconsistencie of these their oaths with this fixed presidencie , & in prosecution hereof , he sayeth , that if men would have the patience to inquire , this our episcopacie will be found not to be the same with that abjured ; for , that is the government of bishops absolutly by themselves and their delegates , chancellours , archdeacons , &c. as it is expressed in the article , & was on purpose expressed ●o difference that frame from other forms of episcopacie , & particularly from that which is exercised by bishops joyntly with presbyters in presbyteries and synods , which is now used in this church . and here i might again take notice of the grossness of this mistake , supposing our present church-government , because forsooth it is not exercised by chancellours , archdeacons and the rest expressed in the second article of the covenant ; therefore not to be that which was abjured , but a distinct from managed by bishops joyntly with presbyters● whereas it is evident as the sun-light , that our parliament did not only in preparation to the late change make void the obligation of our covenants , and all the acts and authority of former parliaments , whereby episcopacie had been abrogate : but also restore and redintegrat the estate of bishops , to a more full injoyment of church - power and prerogatives then formerly was granted unto them , yea unto the sole possession and exercise thereof under his majesty , above all that their predecessors did ever acclaim : as both from the act of restitution , and the consequent practices of our bishops i have already plainly evinced ; that so it is beyond all controversie , that the same episcopacy abjured , what ever it was , was by our late parliament again restored . but secondly admi●ting , that our present frame were in esse such as it is represented , or at least by the proposal of accommodation offered : as the mistake or rather wilfull error of this passage , doth borrow its colour and pre●ext from the second article of the covenant , obliging us to the extirpation of poperie and prelacie , that is to say , &c. according to the description there set down ; so , the thing obvious to be observed for clearing thereof is that in order to our case in scotland it is not the obligation of this second article to extirpate , that we are principally and in the first place to regard ; but it is the positive ingagement of the first , binding , as to scotland , to preserve , and , as to england and ireland , to reforme , that is in a manner the key of the whole , in as much as by the church of scotland , and to endeavour the se●lement of the church of england , the second article is manifestly subjoined by way of execution , viz. that for attaining the ends of the first we should endeavour the extirpation of all things therein , either generally or specially enumerat , which two articles , the one to preserve the then constitution of our church , with so great contendings lately reformed from this corruption , amongst others , of the bishops their constant moderatiship , and the othe● , to extirpate every thing found to be contrary to sound doctrine , and the power of godlinesse , as episcopacy in all its degrees had been by our church declared to be , doth certainly make up an obligation most directly opposite to , and inconsistent with this presidencie re-obtruded . thirdly , if thir luk-warm conciliators were as mindful to pay their vows to the most high , as they are bold to devour that which is holy , and after vows to make inquiry , in place of this impertinent wresting and misapplication of these obligements in the league and covenant , which do more properly concerne the at-that-time-unsetled estate of england and ireland , then the established condition of the church of scotland , as we shall immediatly hear , they would rather consider their own and our obligations by the national covenant , and how in that day of our distresse , and wrestlings from under the yoke of prelacie , we swore unto the lord to defend that reformation whereunto we attained ; and constantly to reject and labour against all these novations and corruptions , from which we were then delivered : under which head of novations and corruptions , i am assured that every considerat person will so easily perceive this presidencie and moderatorship o● bishops to have been abjured , that he will almost as much wonder at the heedlesse expositions of our adversaries , put upon these covenants , as pity the sin of their perjurious declaring against them . it is therefore certain , that as , since the reformation , we had not in scotland that species of prelacie particularly described in the second article of the solemn league , but the same was therein insert , mainly in order to our neighbour churches ; so the episcopal government , at this day restored in scotland , is the same , and worse then what we had before , and the presidencie now proposed was one of these very corruptions against which we are bound for ever to preserve this church at that time therefra reformed . but the author sayes , that the presbyterians in england do generally take notice of this distinction , viz. that by the covenant the prelacy only therein described , and not moderat episcopacie , that is , a form of synodical government conjunst with a fixed presidencie is abjured . and for proving this assertion , he cites the two papers of proposalls to his majesty by the presbyterian brethen , anno . master baxter in his treatise of church-government , and theophilus thimorcus , in his vindication of the covenant not to be against all manner of episcopacy , but that prelacie only therein specified . it is answered ; to measure our main obligation by the covenant , in order to the church of sco●land by that part of it which was principally intended for the churches of england and ireland , is so grosse and dull an inadvertencie , that , i am sure , nothing , lesse then a judicial delusion could have made a man of the authors knowledge and sobriety to lapse into it . nay , seing that he himself doth note , that when that covenant was framed , there was no episcopacie at all in being in scotland but in england only . is it not a wonder , that thence concluding that the extirpation of that frame only could then be meant & intended , his logick should so pitifully fail him as not to adde , and from that church alone where it was seated , which would have so clearly restricted the subject of that article , that i am certain● at on glance , he had discovered all his applications of it unto scotland as its primarie object to be impertinent . but where there hath appeared no conscience in keeping ; why do we expect much sense in interpreting ? and we all know , what kinde of person it is of whom solomon saith , that his eyes are in the ends of the earth . to bring him back therefore to the purpose , it is the obligation of the church of scotland & members thereof in order to its self , anent which we do now inquire , & for clearing thereof it is granted , that by the solemn league the church of scotland being then established , the preservation of that establishment , with the duty of extirpation in so far as is necessary thereunto , is only covenanted , which , though it do sufficiently exclude this fixed presidencie , as contrary to that establishment , and also unto sound doctrine & the power of godlinesse ; yet it is by the national covenant & its subjoined explication whereby not only the episcopal government which then was amongst us , & is now restored & advanced , but the bishops their constant moderatorship , as a novation and corruption in this church , is plainly abjured . by all which it is evident , that as the league and covenant , being referred to the national , by which the establishment in the former sworne to be preserved was first setled , doth mani●estly exclude this episcopus praeses ; so the obligement in the league to extirpat the prelacie therein described , only applicable to the churches where it then was , is most improperly made use of for explaining our ingagement in order to our selves in the case controverted , now as to the citations of the english authors adduced , it is certain as to the present question we are not therein much concerned ; they speak of the obligation of the covenant in order to england , and how that article of extirpation for that church principally provided is to be understood , the thing that pertaineth to us is to consider , how far , either by the league and covenant or any other ingagement lying upon us , we are bound against all corruptions to the preservation of the setlement we then enjoyed , which are subjects quite distinct ; and thereby this heap of citations gathered by the author is by one blast dissipated . but lest it may appear hard that we should be bound to such a precise form in scotland , and england in that same covenant left to such a latitude , it is answered , not to reflect upon what might have been the secret designs of some unsound men in this matter which we neither were bound nor could distinctly know , this one thing is evident , that for us in scotland , who could not expect that england , groaning to be delivered from prelacie , should instantly upon our grant of assistance embrace presbytery in all its forms , of which they had not full and exact knowledge and no experience ; and withall , seing we did hold presbyterian government to be according to the word of god , and knew the common estimation then made in england of the c●urches of scotland , geneva , the netherlands , and france as the best reformed ; the obligation provided in the covenant to endeavour englands reformation according to the word of god and the example of the best reformed churches , with the article of extirpation subjoined in its full extent , was certainly at that time all the assurance we could desire , and upon which we did very rationally relye● neither is the same in the least impugned by that which is alledged out of the authors cited ; viz. that many grave men of the assembly of divines desired that the word prelacie might be explained , because it was not all episcopacy they were against ; and therefore the particular des●●iption was subjoined : as also some members of parliament scrupling the meaning of prelacy , it was resolved with the consent of the br●thren in ●cotland , that the oath was only intended against prelacy , as then in being in england ? and mr coleman administrating it unto the house of lords di● so explaine it : because as it was indeed very consistent , that in so far as england had then attained , we should ●ave closed with them in a particular oath for extirpating the evil discovered : and yet for a further advance rest upon the more general obligements , so surely and safely cautioned , until god should give further light ; so the common acknowledgment of both parties , that the then prelacie was only expresly abjured , and not all episcopacie , seeing no species of episcopacie was on the other hand either by them reserved , or by us consented to , doth nothing contradict why both the rejecting of all episcopacie , & setting up of presbytery might not still be covenanted unto under the general provisions : and therefore , seeing it is very agreeable both to truth and righteousnesse , that a church convinced of evils , but not so enlightned as to the remedies ; may covenante against the evils in particular , and also to endeavour a full reformation according to the word of god ; and , by vertue of this general obligement , become bound to make a more exact search , anent the lawfulnesse or unlawfulnesse of things , anent which in the time of the covenanting they were more hesitant , and after discoverie to reject even that which formerly they thought more probable , it is very evident that all the doubting in england anent moderat episcopacy , at the time of these ingagements , do nothing impede , why both they and we , in our respective stations , are not still obliged to reform that church from all episcopacie , and to extirpate it as contrary to the doctrine , which is according to godlinesse . so that englands latitude , as to this point , is rather apparent then real , and our obligations in order to both kindomes are in effect objectivè the same . i grant the authors cited do understand the thing otherwise : but not to tell yow that the proposals mentioned were neither made nor approven by all , nor belike by the soundest presbyterians in england ; that mr baxter is not singular in this only subject , and that timorcus who hath done very well in his main subject , might have done better in this particular : one thing i am confident to affirme , that the ground which all of them lay down , viz. that all manner of episcopacy was not by the covenant particularly abjured , is most fallacious , in asmuch as , if it may be demonstrat from the word of god and experience , that all manner of episcopacy is repugnant thereto and to the power of godlinesse , ( as i am sure it may , and it hath been by me essayed ) its non-abjuration in special doth nothing militat against the import of the other general article . as for the other grounds contained in the author's citations , viz. the agreeablenesse of this presidencie to the scripture & primitive times , and the custome of our kirk-sessions ; they are already answered : & what mr baxter addeth anent the superintendents & visitors , which we had in scotland in the begining of the reformation , it is as easily removed by the then infancy of our church , and extreme penurie of pastors , as his other argument from the temporary moderators , chosen by synods for the occasion and to them accountable , is concludent as to the fixed presidents now under question . to these authorities the author subjoines that , though we have the names of dean , chapter and commissarie , yet that none of these under that name exerce any part of the discipline , nor is this done by any other having delegation from the bishops with a total exclusion of the communitie of presbyters , which is a great part of the difference betwixt that model of prelacie to be extirpat and this with us . who would not pity such folly ? who knows not that englands prelacie was ever different from any episcopacie that we had in this church since the reformation , ( although by the way i must reminde my reader how much by the late restitution it is advanced ) but if by the particular obligation to extirpate , contained in the second article of the league , we be only bound to extirpat englands prelacie , doth it therefore follow , that notwitstanding of the obligement to preserve presbyterie then setled in scotland , and in general to extirpate every thing contrary to sound doctrine and the power of godlinesse , and especially by vertue of the abjuration , made by us of our former episcopacy in the national covenant , that yet we are not bound to dissent from & oppose the late restitution , whereby presbyterian govern. being overturned , the same , yea a worse bond of episcopacie then what we abjured , is restored . really these insinuations are so raw , that i am ashamed to medle with them ; & yet the authors fancie ( which all that know him , know to be in him a very over●ruling faculty ) being once lesed with this mistake anent the article for extirpation , he goes on and tells us , that he will not deny , that the generalitie of the people , yea even of ministers in scotland , might have understood that article as against all episcopacy . but if he will credit truth , he may be better informed , viz. that though the generalitie might very well , by the whole complexed tenor of that article , understand all episcopacie to be sworne against , yet it is most certain , that they still understood their principal binding ingagement against it to flow from their abjuration in the year . and their oath , in both the national , and league and covenant , to preserve and adhere to presbyterian paritie then estabished : and therefore the new discovery here pretended , as if the covenant did admit in our church a moderat episcopacie , notwithstanding our obligement to extirpate prelacy , with all the ridiculous ●atle ensuing , concerning the genuine consistencie of the words of the article for extirpation , with such a qualified and distinctive sense , and also the meaning of many of the composers and imposers , for a moderate ●piscopacy different from that prelacie , is but the continuance of the same delusion . but now i hope to awaken this dreamer , who addes , that unlesse we make it appeare● that the episcopacie now in question with us in scotland is either contrary to the word , or to the mi●igated sense of their own oath , it would seem more suitable to chris●ian cha●itie to yeeld to it , as tollerable at least , then to continue so inflexibly fast to their fi●st mistakes , &c. and with ●his i heartily close : and therefore seing ( not to repeate in this place w●at i have already proved , viz , that the episcopacy now among us is not so much as christs , or true ecclesiastick-government● but meerly his majesties usurpation over the hou●e of god , which all men ought to abhorre ) i say , tha● seing i have in some measure proven , that the episcopacy in debate is contrary to the word , and ( whatever may be the impertinent mitigation offered of the article to exti●pat no wayes proper to our purpose ) that yet it is diametrally opposit to the ●ational covenant , and our abjuration t●erein contained , and ●he first article of the league , as above declared ; i hope our adversaries will cease to accuse us of want of charity & of inflexibilitie , but rat●er yeeld themselves to the conviction of the truth , specially to the obligation of our national covenant , which our author hath hitherto very fatally and foolishly forgotten : and thus i suppose the bishop , receiving better information of our grounds , will at least cease from his presumptuous confidence , untill ●e find out for us a more colourable solution . as to what is added in the papers of the aversion of some in england against the covenant , as being against all episcopacy , it is evidently a strain of the former ravery ; and therefore , mis-regarding both the objection and solution , i come to the next passage , wherein the author , casting off all fear of god , reverence to the most learned and pious assemblies that ever sat in britain , respect due to as wise and honourable parliaments as ever these nations beheld , the good opinion and charity he ought to have for men and christians truly such , and regard to his own credit , being once far engaged in these wayes , proceeds without the least verification to give a character of the covenant and its courses , made up of such reproaches of simplicity or cheatry against all ingaged in it , perplexity and vexation of all that faithfully adhere to it , and insolent mocking at the overthrow of gods work and desolation of his sanctuary , that malice it self could have uttered nothing more false and virulent . the truth is ( saith he ) that besides many other evils , the iniquity and unhappinesse of such oaths and covenants lyes much in this , that being commonly formed by persons , that even amongst th●mselves are not fully of one minde , but have their different opinions and interests to serve , ( and it was so even in this ) they are commonly patched up of so many several articles and clauses , and these of so versatile and ambiguous termes , that they prove most wretched snares and thickets of briars and thorns to the consciences of these that are ingadged in them , and matter of endl●sse contentions about their true s●nse , &c. especially in some such alterations , as alwayes may , and often do , even within a few years , follow after them ; for the mo●els and productions of such devices are not usually long-lived thus he , and for justifying the censure which seriousl● i have without prejudice premised ; i first inquire , why is there here such an insinuation prefaced of many other evils , whereof there is not one enumerat ? must we believe the covenant to eb worse then can be expressed , because the accuser can prove nothing ? and why is this accusation pretended to be in general of all such covenants , when yet it is expressely intended against the league and covenant ? is it because the author would have us to reckon it amongst the worst of combinations ? or because he hath the same regard and faith for all covenants , or at least t●at by such a general he may the better cover the pointednesse of his calumnie only levelled at this . but taking all to be spoken of our covenant , it is said , that it was framed by persons amongst themselves not fully of one minde , but serving their different opinions and interests . but , . whatever might have been the unsincerity and byasse of a few persons , as there is nothing perfect ; yet that the bodies of both the parliaments , assemblies , and people of these nations , were acted in the matter of this league with such unanimity , straightnesse and zeal for religion and liberty , as can not readily be instanced in any age or nation , and could only be the effect of a divine presence and assistance , is unto this day no lesse the comfort of its faithful adherers , then the confusion of all its adversaries . . as the matter it felf was thus carried , so i can appeal to the remembrances of thousands , that the taking & renewing of our covenants , both in this & our neighbour land was attended with more sincere mournings , serious repentances , and solid conversions , then almost ●ath been in any dispensation of the gospel since the da●es of the apostles . . admitting that the persons and motives influencing this covenant had been such as is represented , yet , i am perswaded that , such is the truth , righteousnesse , plainnesse , and consistencie of all its articles , that considering their brevity , the mighty parties ingaging , and how circumstantiat , with their universal and most important concerne , that which is offered to make its reproach , is the most visible argument of the lords over-ruling providence , and evidence of the covenants glory . but it is further alledged , that it is patched up of so many several articles and clauses , and these too of so versatile and ambiguous termes , that it proves a most wretched snare . certainly , in fair , yea in charitable , dealing , if the author had intended either the information of the ignorant , or the conviction of the obstinat , or had but tendered his own repute , so broad and foul a challenge should at least have been qualified by a condescendence . it were easie for me to oppose one general to another ; nor do i fear any losse from the inequalitie of our credit . but i am so perswaded , both from conscience , reason , and the common sense of all impartial men , of the falshood of this calumnie , that i am angrie that , by this disappointment , he should robe me and our cause of so probable an advantage . i shall not resume the quiblings of the oxfoord doctors and others : i freely refer my reader both to their writings and the answers they have received , yea to the covenant it self for the best solution . if i may here guesse at the authors meaning by such circumstances as occurre , the versatile ambiguitie , he would objecte , is mostly in the certainty of the obligation of reformation in order to england , ( for as to the variety and generalitie of the many articles and clauses that he mentions , within a little , we shall finde him more particular ) and as to this uncertainty , i have so fully evinced the lawfulnesse of the league in the matter of the extirpation covenanted , wherein both parties did clearly agree , and the warrantablenesse of t●e general clause of reformation being referred to such a certain rule as the word of god , and conformable example , that i am confident ( whatever might be mens fraud or failing in the prosecution yet ) the covenant in this part cannot be accused either of uncertainty or ambiguity , without wounding thorow its sides the scriptures of truth with the same darts . in the next place he tells us , that by reason of this variety and ambiguity , the covenant becomes a most wretched snare , a thicket o● briars and thorns to consciences , and a matter of endless● contention , &c. good sir , why so severe ? sure , whatever ground of complaint others may have in this regard● yow , who have found a way through these briars and thorns , and are come out of this thicket with your coat rougher then at your entrie , have none at all : and , no doubt , had all ingaged in this covenant been of a conscience such as yours , it had been easie for them , by its serpentine subtiltie , and irreligious indifferencie , to have extricat themselves from greater difficulties . but the truth is , the author hath wickedly broken the covenant , and to disguise it , he would have the world believe , that all who remain faithful are caught in the briars , and detained against their wills . i shall not ask what these snares● thickets and contentions are , whereof he accuseth this ingagement : it is below his dignitie to be so put to it . we know that many● part openly part more covertly , have dealt very treacherously in this matter ; & if thereafter , to palliat their perjury , they have moved debates anent it , is the covenant therewith to be charged ? one thing only i must say , that as many of these disputs have taken their various pretensions not from the covenant it self , but from the word of god to which it referres , and which i wish the author do not account liable to the same exceptions ; so , of all the objections moved by such , who , in the succeeding alterations of providence , have thereby endeavoured to excuse their unstedfastnesse , the author , of all the greatest changeling , hath here given the poorest and meanest account , scarce sufficient to give a colour to his reproach : and this leads me to notice the great pretense of this complaint , viz , that in the revolutions we have seen the covenant hath proven so uneasie . i shall not say that , in this , the very scriptures of truth may also be construed an hundered fold more uneasie : but of this i am most assured , that he , who , for himself and others , pleads for a compliant liberty for all these so contrary changes that are gone over us , must not only slack the bonds of the covenant and the command of god ; but of all honesty and ingenuity among men : it remains therefore , that he that would be faithful , aswel as he that would live godly , must resolve to suffer persecution ; the contradiction of sinners , and the crosse of christ have alwayes been the great offence of a foolish world : but who , through uprightnesse and patience for this trouble , do attain unto the promised peace shall never be moved . as for the authors observe , that the models & productions of such devices are not usually long-lived ; we judge not by such appearances : our establishment is , that god liveth and reigneth , & our lord is risen again & alive for evermore this was the primitive consolation : and who knoweth but he may also make this triumphing , as he hath made many the like● to be but for a moment . but now , when my author hath run his first carreer against the league and covenant , poor man , what is all this to scotlands principal obligation against all manner of episcopacie , viz. the bond of the national covenant , entered into with so great unanimity , explained in such evident and certain termes , confirmed both by treaties and pacifications● and at last by the full authority both of king , parliament and general assembly ? certainly this is that which never entered into his thought , his indignation against the league doth so transport him , that there is nothing else which he seemeth to regard : and therefore he goes on , and first he insinuats an excuse for some who he sayes , in yeeldance to the power that pressed it , and in conformity to the general opinion of this church , did take the● covenant in the most moderat and least schismatick sense ; sure , this is so suited to the authors mistakes , that it must only be his own apologie ; his head still runs upon the article for extirpation . and no doubt his sense thereof , aswel for popery as prelacie , is as moderate and little schismatick as may be ; sor all know him to be large as catholick ( in the common exception ) as christian. but as for the obligement to preserve the reformed religion of the church of scotland , which this debate mainly respects , i believe he is the first that ever thought it capable of two senses , let be to make choise of the more moderat . but next , he sayes , he cannot clear them of a great sin , that not only framed such an ingine , but violently imposed it upon all ranks of men , not ministers and other publick persons only , but the whole body and communitie o● the people , th●reby ingaging such droves of poor ignorant persons to they know not what , and , to speak freely to such a hodge podge of various concernments , religious and ●i●ill , as church discipline and government , the privileges of parliament , the liberties of the subject , and condigne punishment of malignants ; things hard enough for the wisest and learnedest to draw the just lines of : and therefore certainly , as far from the reach of poor conntrey peoples understanding , as from the true interest of their souls , and yet to tye them , by a religious and sacred oath , either to know all these , or to con●end for them blindfold without knowing them , can there be instanced a grea●er oppression and tyrannie over consciences then this ? thus he . a weighty accusation indeed if well founded . but though the simple reflection who the framers of the covenant were , viz. the greatest , wisest , and most religious courts of the two nations , not led by the nose by a prelatick influence , which their sottish clergie may not contradict ; but using all liberty both of reason and suffrage , may make every one so advertent as to discover the absurdity of this exception : yet , because it appears to be the authors last reserve , i shall review it particularly ; and , not to stand upon the deceitful phrase of framing ingines which he useth , his first challenge is , that the covenant was violently imposed upon all ranks , not only ministers and publick persons , but upon the whole body and communitie of ●he land. cer●ainly to take thir words according to their obvious import , a man would think , it was by a few violent and monstruous tyrants , who , rising up and prevailing against these nations , did cudgel all ranks in them to the taking of this covenant , whereas the known truth , that not only the nations did by ●heir representatives unanimously , but by themselves , for the far greater part , cheerfully ingage therein , doth render the calumny very palpable . 't is true there were a few that did refuse it , but supposing ●his to have been their single deserving ( as for the most part it was not ) yet their suffering was so just and notwithstanding moderat , and their number so small as i have above observed , that it cannot give any countenance to the exception . the next thing objected is , that droves of ignorant persons were ingaged to they knew not what ; and , to speak freely , to such a hodge podge of various concernements religious and civil , &c : who would forbear a ●ree and round reply to such a confident assertion ? he cometh for●h in a simulat pitie of poor ignorants , and a great resentment of their being by others abused , and yet i am bold to affirm , that he himself bewrayes as crasse ignorance , in this passage , as is to be found in any among the droves he mentions , and ( according to the same proportion ) an imposing upon the beliefe of others superlatively presumptuous : and for proving of this , i only ask him , is not every soul bound by the law of god to maintain his king , his countrey , and his neighbours rights , prerogatives , and privileges ? who can deny it ? but is he therefore bound to know them all , or to contend for them ? who seeth not the ridiculous vanity , if not blasphemy , of such an emptie dilemma . to be clear therefore and distinct in this matter ; to the conviction of the very stiffest opponent , i say . . that an oath , binding simply to particulars of meer fact , doth no doubt require , to the effect it may be sworne in truth , righteousnesse , and iudgement , that the taker both know the things sworne to , and be perswaded that they are true and righteous : thus he who ingageth by oath to certain specifick privileges agreed unto , is , no doubt , in conscience first obliged to know both their nature and qualitie , else can not satisfie the forementioned command . . on the other hand , if an oath do bind not to matters of meer fact , but to a certain duty , either generally or specially expressed , and in such a manner as clearly intimateth the antecedent rule , whereby it is determined , then this oath being thus safely cautioned , and in effect only an accessory ingagement , exciting and intending former obligations , but no wayes extending them beyond their limits , the very notion of the duty in general is sufficient , without any further knowledge , to fit the person to bind his soul by such an oath : for example , he who knoweth no more then the general notion of righteousnesse may no doubt lawfully sweare to perform all righteousnesse , although for the time he do not so much as know its common astract precepts , let be the particular concret deeds that may thereon depend : and the reason is , because , in effect , such an oath doth , in the first place , bind to endeavo●r more distinct and full knowledge , and so can not rationally be thought to suppose it . . that in oaths assertorie , which are o● a mixed nature , as condescending indeed on cer●ain particulars , but yet only binding to their observance , under the notion , and in the supposition that they are righteous , although because of the condescendence it doth no doubt prerequire knowledge ; yet righteousnesse being its determining and regulating object , it alloweth upon a better discoverie , not only a rectification of the same particulars without perjury , but also an extension of the oath to such things , which , being for the time unknown , do afterward fall within its rule and line : thus , if , upon a particular occasion , i swear to my neighbour to maintain his rights , as it doth indeed bind , in the first place , to the definite defence of these which occasioned the oath , yet so as to admit of an alteration in any thing that shall be afterward found not to be righteous , and consequently no right ; so no doubt , as to all his supervenient rights , though afterward only coming to my knowledge , the same oath doth very justly extend its obligation . . as the foregoing rules do abundantly explain the matter of this oath , with what measure of knowledge it both supposeth and importeth ; so the limitation and restriction , to the ingagers place and calling , doth make it in such sort accessory to the former duties incumbent to him , that , in effect both as to the knowledge and performance whereto it binds , it rather intends then ampliats their predetermined obligation . i might have added , in this place , that every affirmative oath , whether particular or general , doth undoubtedly , in the first place and most obviously , bind nega●ivè ; that is , that the person swearing shall do nothing contrary to , nor obstruct that whereunto he is positively bound . but this is a thing in it self so evident , that though it may be of use in the explication in hand ; yet i conceive it sufficient to have observed its omission . and furder , both for illustration and application , i shall adduce no other examples then the things objected . and first , passing the mention here made of things religious and civill , which , no doubt , may be very consistently both commanded and ingaged unto together , the swearing of the people to church - discipline and government is instanced . but if christ hath in his church appointed both , and if all christians be bound to maintain them , as they are thereto called , i am very certain , that to oblige them in their place and calling thereto by oath cannot be disproven . but it may be said , that by the covenant the people became obliged to a particular species of government , of which , in probability , they could not know all the parts , let be to know their warrant . 't is answered , the corruptions of episcopacie having had such an universally grievous influence upon all ranks , and these , with the opposite true form of presbytery , having been so expresly and plainly laid open and abjured , in the year . . ● . and . as the people ought in duty to have had a competent knowledge in these matters ; so it is very assured , that their knowledge therein was abundantly clear and distinct , as the very considerable remains of it to this day do evince . the second instance is made of the privileges of parliament , liberties of the subject , and condign punishment of malignants . but seing the kings authority , to the defence whereof the covenant doth also bind ' , doth undoubtedly include all the righteous prerogatives of the crown , which ar as far , if not more , removed from the knowledge of the common people , then the other heads mentioned , wherefore were they omitted in the condescendence ? is it not because the duty of allegeance binding unto the same things , and whereunto certainly all may lawfully swear , is in effect , liable to the same exception ? . although this oath , in order to privileges and liberties , be not meerly indefinit , binding to righteous privileges and liberties in general , to which no doubt every on may lawfully swear ; but also assertory of such privileges and liberties , as were at that time by the arbitrarie course of adversaries more especially drawn in question ; yet were these privileges then not only upon the same occasion generally known , as concerning , in effect , the very being of parliaments , and just freedom of men ; but in such manner ingaged unto , under the notion of righteous , & what the limitation of the ingagers place and calling , that it is most manifest , that this article of the covenant hath both righteousnesse , for its formall & regulating object , and also that it neither supposeth nor obligeth any man to more knowledge , then either de facto he had before , or is obliged to have by the antecedent duty of his particular vocation : so that the import of this part of the covenant being plainly the same , with that either of our allegeance to the king , or of every citizen to the corporation whereof he is a member , viz , that we all maintain and preserve the prerogatives & rights , which in our station we know or ought to know to be such , and to be righteously such , the absurdity here endeavoured to be fastned upon the covenant , as tying either to know simply , or to contend blindfold , is but an empty pitiful vanity . . as to that of the condign punishment of malignants , it is aboundantly explicable by the same rule : for the men so termed , having , by their mischief , made themselves but too well known , and we being tyed to the discoverie , only as righteous , & in our place & calling , it is as little possible to taxe this or any other the like obligement in the covenant of excesse for its generality , as an oath to performe all righteousnesse , wherein , no doubt , all these things are included , & which , wi●hout question , all men may lawfully make , albeit they are neither bound to know nor perform any other deeds , then such as their place and calling do require of them . which grounds adduced , with what might be further her alledged from the mutual covenants both of men & nations , wherein they lawfully ingage both offensively & defensively to maintain others rights , without so much as the necessity of a particular inquirie thereinto for the time , do , without all peradventure , most convincingly redargue these weak quiblings bo●h of grosse ignorance and calumnie . what shall we then say to t●e folly and bitternesse of these reproaches , w●ereby this author , upon no better reason then what doth equally militat against all our general obligations either to god or man , is pleased to asperse the covenant , as an hodge podge of various concernments religious and civil ? what ? can not these thing lye easily enough together in an oath , which yet are all comprehended in the law of god ? are the churches true government , the righteous privileges of parliaments and liberties of the subject , and the duty of endeavouring in our place and calling that evill do●rs may be punished , and the rebels purged out of the land ( upon whom , by the law of god , the hand of all the people is commanded to be ) the great concernes both of religion and righteousnesse , things either impertinent to any , or in themselves incompatible ? or is it because that our author hath , by confounding and trampling upon all these things , and betraying at this time the churches government unto the supremacie , as formerly under the usurpers , he little regarded either the subjects liberty● or his prince his authority , and is known to have alwayes his pretended charity as contracted towards zealous godly protestants , as dilated unto irreligious papists and prelatists , polluted his own conscience , and rendered it unclean , that therefore even this sacred oath is become unclean and nauseating unto him ; what can he reply to these things ? or can he assigne us a better reason for his assertion . he sayes , it is hard enough for the wisest and learnedest to draw the just lines of these things , and to give plain definitions of them . but will it therefore follow , that none but such have any concernment in , or obligation to them : no , this were in effect an inference no lesse , nay more absurd , then to alledge that none are bound , or may swear to maintain his majesties authority , but such as can draw the just lines of all his prerogatives ; or rather that none are obliged to defend his person , but such as can draw his picture to the life . it is therefore certain , that , as all men have undoubtedly an interest more or lesse remote in these matters● so they either really have , or ought to have , a knowledge proportionable to their ingagement thereto , to which an oath for confirmation is most properly accessory . the author add's that these things are as far from the reach of poor country peoples understan●ing , as from the true interest of their souls . and o how desirable is it , that this , the one thing necessary , were indeed the speciall and main care of all men ; but to offer to confine poor peoples knowledge and obligations to their souls interest alone , with an aime so palpable to have all other things abandoned to lust and tyranny , according to the great design of these adversaries , against which this covenant was ingaged in , savours more of hypocrisie then true spirituality : and therefore i say . . that the true discipline and government of gods house are in themselves , and have been experimented to be , of such important influence , as to the promoving the great work and ends of the gospel , the great concern of gods glory , and wherein no doubt the interest of all souls is involved , that whatever may be in this pretense of abstraction and self - confinement ; yet he must needs be of a very gallio - temper that careth for none of these things . . although privileges and liberties , and the punishment of malignants have no such direct tendencie ; yet i am not only assured that , in the then juncture of affaires , their defence was of notable subservience to the preservation and reformation of religion principally covenanted ; but that of themselves , and as to the main of their import , they are so much within the reach of the sense , let be the knowledge , of the meanest of men , that to take them off from their concernment therein , and ingagement thereto , by the insinuation of their souls true interest , will be judged by all ingenuous persons a very cunning and deceitful impertinencie . now from the premises that we have heard , the author concludes in these terms , so that to ty them viz. the common people ) by a religious & sacred oath , either to know all these , or to contend for them blindfold without knowing them , can there be instanced a greater oppression & tyranny over conscience then this ? &c. but seeing it is most certain , that the oath doth neither tye to know all these , nor yet to contend for them blindfold ; but , being entered into from the universal feeling of all ranks of the invasions made and threatned both against religion and libertie , did , according to the nature of all such assertory and accessory covenants , only bind every on in his place and calling , and sutably to that measure of knowledge , which he either had , or ought to have , of such general and important concerns to stand to their defence against the common enemie ; the ignorance and insolence of this inference doth in deep astonishment only prompt me to say , the lord rebuke the o adversarie , the lord , who hath chosen this poor church , rebuke thee ; is not the small remnant of the faithful as a brand pluckt out of t●e fire ? but behold how he wipes his mouth ; certainly ( sayes he ) they who now govern in this church cannot be charged with any thing near or like unto it . no ? all pious , holy , tender souls . but seing i have removed the calumny , the subject of the comparison i will not recriminat ; yet we must hear a little of the mens praise , viz. that whatever they require of intrants , they neither require subscriptions nor oaths of ministe●s already entered , far lesse of the whole people . but . seing there can be no solid distinguishing reason given for this practice , we must conclude policy to be the only motive of this pretended moderation . . the oath , with the act . prescribed to be taken of intrants , is so plainly and truely chargeable with a laxe dubious and insnaring generality , that , i am certain , all the light and knowledge , to be found in the most of these who conform to it , will not prevent the authors being confounded with his own argument . i shall not tell you that therein they sweare to the supremacy , an infinite mysterie of iniquitie ; but the point wherein this oath is really peccant , in all the foul reproaches , wherewith the covenant is falsly loaded , is , that thereby they are bound to defend all iurisdictions , privileges , preheminencies , and authorities granted and belonging to his highnesse , or united to his royal crown : whereby it is clear that they are not only obl●ged positivè to whatsoever priviledges and prerogatives granted and belonging to the king , without the destinction of righteous or unrighteous ; but also without any restriction to their place & callings . now ( not to retort the authours impertinencies , as if this oath did tye all intrants either to know all these things , or to contend for them , blindfold without knowing them ) whe●her this be lawful & righteous , & whether the common people be more knowing in their own liberties and their representatives privileges , or conforming ministers in his majesties sublime prerogatives and extensive iurisdictions , i leave it to every impartial discerner . but . what strange hodge podge indeed do we find in this ingagement ! all things spiritual , ecclesiastick , and temporal confounded in the supremacie , is not enough ; but the poor intrant must further abjure all forreign powers and ●urisdictions , swear to defend all his majesties authorities and privileges , acknowledge upon oath , that he holds the church and his possession of it ( if of the king's presentation ) under god , of his majestie , doing homage unto the king ( and not unto god ) for the same ( if at the presentation of another ) under god , by the king , of the patron thereof : and lastly swear obedience to his ordinarie in all lawful things , even his majesties authority , though just now so fully recognosced , not excepted . is not this an odde medly to be hudled up in a sacred oath ? whereof whether every article therein be more impertinent for an intrant minister of the gospel , or in it self more obscure and indistinct , really i can not define ? but the author goes on and tells us that it were ingenuously done to take some notice of any point of moderation , or any thing else commendable even in our enemies , and not to take any partie in the world for the absolute standart and unfailing rule of truth and righteousnesse in all things . and so it were indeed ; but i freely appeal to all ingenuous men , if ever they heard ingenuitie exhorted to , by two such disingenuous insinuations . as first , to recommend the moderation of a partie , who , after that they themselves had perjuriously broken their covenant both to god and their brethren , did in such manner instigat the powers to rigours , exclusions , and persecutions , against all who in conscience did only refuse to owne and countenance their wicked apostasy , as had almost ruined a great part of the kingdom and did at length wearie the very actors . and next to give out as if we were so implicitly wedded to our partie , whereof the least argument or vestige hath not been made appeare , no nor is so much as alledged , but but as al men do sufficiently know these restraints of want of power in the clergie● and of better considerations in our rulers , that have produced the apparent quiet , which is here pretended for moderation ; so , we hope that , by a full manifestation of the truth and righteousnesse of our way , we have in such sort commended our selves to every mans conscience in the sig●t of god , as there to leave this accuser of the brethren convicted and confounded bo●h ●or his open perjury and craft● calumny . but the author , as it seems , fearing such a reply● provided a retr●at , concluding but oh ! who would not long for the shadows of the evening , and ●o b● at rest from all these poor , childish , trifling contest● ? i shall not say , that since he walks so much in darknesse , it is little wonder that he longe for shaddes : but of this i am very certain , that if he had laboured as seriously upon his masters m●ssion , to reconcile souls unto god , as he seemeth to have travelled upon his majesties commission ● to patch up a sinful accommodation , his hope of rest had been both more sweet and more assured ; and , in place of the shadows of ●he evening , he might have promised to himselfe the l●ght inaccessible , for his everlasting refreshment . but seing these very poor , childish● trifling contests , whereby he would cuningly decry all the just oppositions of the faithful to his evil course , are in effect his own devices against the ●ingdome of our lord iesus , the day wherein every man shall receive his own reward , according to his own labour , shall make his work manifest , when the fire shall try it : and i heartily wish that the burning thereof may be all his losse . after the body of one of these letters , we have a postscript that is to say ( for all the longings for rest we just now heard of ) another whife : as we know who once charac●ered the lords servants , when with much travel la●ouring in his work ; and herein the author , complementing wi●h an apology ot●er churches ( joining rome with england as is most supposible ) wh●rein episcopal-government is otherwi●e exercised , wishes that ●he a●gument ad hominem ( as he calls it ) by him used , may be brought to the knowledge of such as know least of it , and need it most . and one part of his wish , i am sure , i have served by a very candid representation ; if the event misgive he must blame himself , his design is to allay mens extreme fervor by the consideration that this very form , which to us is hateful , is to english presbyterians desireable ; and that upon inquiry , the reformed churches abroad will be found ●o be much of the same opinion . but seeing i have already demonstrat our present form , as established and exercised , to be not only meer prelacy , but the very absurd usurpation of t●e supremacy ; and have also at large excepted against ●he fixed presidency of late proposed , and shewed both what the soundest presbyterians in england do think , and all of them ought to think anent it ; why doth our author , by such weak repe●itions , pretend , under the name of ex●reme fervor , to condemn an ave●sion , which alas is in all to remisse ? one thing , i shall only adde , that whatever may be the thoughts of presbyterians in england ● yet , sure i am that , their ingagements in order to scotland are the same with ours ; and what these do import is already sufficiently declared . as for the reformed ch●rches , i neither decline nor use their testimonies : we are fixed on surer foundations ; yet of this i am most perswaded , that as abstracted general questions , are but lame and blind discussions of cases of this nature ; so , whereever our case shall be fully and clearly represented , we shall report the assent of all the lovers of our lord iesus ch●ist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in incorruptness . but we are told , that per●aps it were not only lawful , but expedient that these , who now govern in ●his church , should in some ins●ances use a little mo●e authori●ie then they do , provided they applied their power ●o advance what is good , and not at all agains● the tru●h , but alwayes for it : and that all things being so far out of course , the present condition of our church ( b● reason of the irreligion and profanitie that are gone forth from its prophets unto the whole land ) doth require an extraordinary remedy i wish the author were as sensible of ●he cause , as he seems to be of the symptomes of the malady ; but to think that the present church-governours , in the conviction of all sober observers , the main , if not the only , authors of this mischief , should be intrusted with the cure ; what more hopelesse , or what more ridiculous ? i grant the cautions subjoined . viz , that they applied their power , alwayes for , and not against the truth , if made effectual , would indeed secure the event : but seing they only promise by supposing it , and consequently are equally doubtful with it , and really such as may recommend the most unwarrantable and improper mean that can be devised , it is evident that this empty probability concludeth nothing : let the pope , or some thing worse , be set up , in the supposition that he do not apply his power to obstruct , but to advance what is good , and not against , but for the truth , no question there would thence arise a consequential expedience and advan●age : but thence to argue for the lawful●esse of such an appointment , were plainly to ranverse all reason and righteousness . as it is therefore from our lords own warrant and blessing , that we are principally to attend the successe of his ordinances ; so , where these cannot be made appear , as in the case of our present church-government , and on the other hand , the ensuing of atheism and profanity cannot be denied , the conclusion , t●at ●hey are to be imputed to the nature of the present establishment , is beyond contradiction . but our author sayes , that ●hese bad fruits ar ra●her to be imputed to the schisme made by withdrawing f●om the government : for there is not a greater enemie in ●he wo●ld to the power of religion , then the wranglings and bitter contentions that are raised about the external forms of it . 't is answered , divisions being in themselves alwayes mutual , yea and separation , in some cases , commanded and necessary , to conclude against the thing in common , that which is only peculiar to a particular species , were grossely to confound the commanded out-coming of the people of god from babylon , with t●e most sinful departing of the worst of hereticks : it is not the●efore separation or withdrawing , in the abstract , but in its complexe causes , conditions & tendency , that we are to regard : he who , in t●e fear of god , out of a desire to keep himself pure , and for a testimony against evil-doers , withdraweth from such as walk disorderly , & from men of corrupt minds destitute of the truth , supposing that gain is godlinesse● doth no lesse obey the will of god , then he who through proud and bitter contention flowing from some carnal principle and design , breaking the unity of the spirit and bond of peace doth wickedly contemn our lord's new commandment of love . now , whether the present prelats & their dependents , who , for perfidious breach of covenant with god & man , invading● and usurping over gods house , and ejecting & persecuting their ●aithful ●rethren , are justly disowned and discountenanced of all good men , or such , who , having no encouragement from either the call , promise , or presence of god , do , in a tender fear not to partake of other mens sins , abstain from the assemblies of these evil doers , be from the former grounds more to be blamed for the present withdrawing let all men judge . but as it is not possession● attained by falshood and violence , that makes a right , and the injurious expeller , and n●t ●he expelled , is , certainly , the sinful and scismatick divider ; so , that the strange perfidy● pride , cruelty , avarice & profanity of the prelats , and their abettors and dependers , professing to be the guids of , yea and having their livelihood and weal●h by religion , and yet for the most part not studying so much as to vail their lewdnesse with a mask of h●pocrisy , have rendred religion it self contemptible , except with a few , who stand at a distance with this horrible thing , is undeniable in its own evidence . as for the enmity of contentions anent external forms to the power of religion , if there be really a worth and singular benefite in such forms & ordinances that our lord hath appointed for subservient means to the great end of the gospel , and as visible & certain a prejudice and evil influence in mens corrupt novations , all-contendings about these matters cannot be implicity censured as bitter wranglings and enmity to the power of religion , without the just accusation of a luke warm indifferency in the high concerns of the gospel : he who judgeth not the purity and liberty of gospel ordinances worthy to be contended for● will hardl● perswade a rational man that ever he will strive for the faith of the gospel . but . we heartily renounce and disown all wranglings and bitter contention , it is by the blood of the lamb , and by the word of his patience , & of our testimony , that we hope to overc●me ; if these be accounted contentious , it is but a small share of the lords sufferings , compared to these reproaches of rebellion and sedition , wherewith he● and his followers have been slandered . it is rather my regrete , that , in a time of such backsl●ding● we have not moe saying , from the same reason , with ieremiah , wo is us men of strife , and men of contention to the whole earth but the peevish policy of such , who after that , by perjury , contention and violence , they have imposed and pressed their own forms and inventions , and , by the same practices , seated themselves in the possession of what they designed , do in effect retain the same peremptory rigor , and do only decry contention , that they may mock men from an● just opposition to their courses , doth not merite any further notice : he who calmely , and impartially considers this whole matter wil easily perceive , that it is neither contention , separation , nor division , things in themselves reciprocal● of a middle signification , that are simply to be condemned : but it is from pride , perversnesse , and other evil mixtures and designes , that both their evil and scandal do proceed : and on which side these are to be found● a small reflection may satisfy every inquirer . but now , after all the vehemence we have heard , the author● on purpose to amuse where he cannot prevail , falls a wondering to see wise and good men make so great reckoning of certain metaph●sical exceptions against some li●tle modes and formali●ies of difference in the government , and se● so lit●le value upon so great a thing as is the peace of the church ● ' ●is answered , the redargution , implied in the bosome of this exclamation● doth so palpably occurre , that i cannot dissemble the apos●les obse●vation thereby so obviously suggested , viz. that evil men and seducers waxe worse and worse , deceiving and being deceived ; sor while in their deceivings they tell us , that not only our reasonings are bare metaphysical exceptions , but that even the things contended for are meer words and formalities ; how do they themselves appear to be deceived , who presse the●e very ●ord● & formalities● more then the weightiest affaires in religion ? it being without controversy , that if the argument were equally ballanced , it wou●d begin at home , & by surceassing the pursuit of such vain tris●es , thereby most effectually frustrat the contrary defences : but the truth is , whatever the appearances are , neither are we , nor the author , mistaken upon the matter : a constant fixed praeses on his part , were certainly as little worth all the stir and vexation made about him , as the bishops their insignificant dignities and ceremonies were a cause inferior to the late wars , which they did mostly occasion : and it were a folly insufferable for wise men● so desirous of ease , to set so little value upon so great a thing , as is the peace of both church and state , disturbed by the present episcopacy and this presidencie offered : but seeing it is evident , that the thing designed by this proposal● is a compliance with the present establishment , not only to the relaxing of conscience and the bonds of former ingagements , but to the suppression and extirpation of the true government of gods house , the acknowledging of , and submitting unto the supremacy , more absurdl● contrary to the power and liberty of the gospel , then its instrument prelacy , which we have expresly and particularly abjured , can the author reasonably find fault , if he rencounter in us an opposition commensurat both to the value of the prize , and the measure of his own instance ? if men , for poor perishing interests , do endeavour at so high a rate to introduce their modes and inventions , for no other end imaginable● then that by the contrivance and influence thereof , they may have the gospel ministry and kingdom of our lord still in subjection unto their lusts and pleasures , should not the lovers of gods glory and of their own salvation , the proper and great ends of all christs institutions , more vigourously resist all these their intended corruptions ? i ma● not here stand to discusse the specious and flattering pretensions held out by our adversaries , as if meer subtilties were by us opposed to the solid good of the churches peace : certainly he , who remembereth how , in the ancient times of the church , satan was very cunning to set the mystery of iniquity on foot , from the smallest and least suspicious beginnings , & yet thence , by more sub●ile and metaphysical methods then these which our author undervalued , to carry it on to the very revelation of the man of sin , and withal considereth in our own late experience the meen entrie , as kirk-commissioners and constant moderators , with the suddain elevation and corruption , of king iames his prelats , unlesse he do very supinely misregard the intimation of all present circumstances , specially that of an al-swaying supremacie already regnant , can neither be ignorant of , nor catched by such devices . but the peace of the church is of great value ; thus they , who have troubled and overturned the righteous peace of a wel setled church , are not ashamed to make their possession , attained by wrong and violence , a plea for their security in their evil way ; and after that , by breaking their oath and covenant , & ranversing the lords work and ministry , they have got what the● desired , and used force and compulsion against consciencious nonconformists , until they are wearied , now they come forth to practise by flatteries a few syrens , with charmes of peace , canting in nazianzen's words , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to try if these enticings may be more succesful , and by a strangely comprehensive spirituality both of truth and error , telling us , that when one saith he is for bishops , another i am for presbytery , that we are carnal ; as if the apostles censure of a divisive respect of persons were equally against the discrimination of things which the lord himself hath certainly distinguished : but as , in the competition of peace , the heathens saying , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , might have admonished the author , and seing that that peace is only precious , which is founded in , & designed for truth ; so when it is meerly pretended for procuring a sinful compliance with an evil course , it is but an empty delusion . we know whose practice it was to heal the hurt of the lords people slightly , saying peace , peace , when there was no peace : to pretend for , nay to pursue seriously after peace , without regard to truth , righteousnesse , and reconciliation with god , is only a precipitant error , and lying vision : but he who stands in the counsel of the lord , and causeth his people to hear his words , should turne them from their evil way , and from the evil of their doings : and when the loud and harsh noises of our debates shall be turned into the sweetersound of united mourning and lamenting after the lord , then , and not before , may we looke that the lord will return and cause his face to shine on us , and restore unto us his favour , the fountain and blessing of all other blessings : this is the only way , to shew our selves real supplicants for peace ; & indeed to remove all the obs●ructions that may disappoint its firm enjoyment : nay , this is the mean whereby the sincere seekers of the ●ord , do , even in the midst of tribulation , attain to that superexcelling peace of god , which surely establisheth , and that joy , which no man takes from them . but the author still longing for and hastening to outward peace , not that which the lord left and gave to his followers , exhorteth unto a temper recep●ive of it , and that is , great meeknesse and charity ; and , no doubt , in their right application● these are most beautiful graces : but as they seem here to be proposed , for the preposterous courting of this worlds peace● i feare that they are not only unseasonably recommended , in exclusion of the love of truth and zeal of god , incompatible with the authors evil courses , but , with an extension of charity to rejoyce in iniquity , and meeknesse towards wickednesse beyond their known and just measures . it is true whatsoever party or opinion we follow in this matter , the ba●ge , by which we must be known to be ●ollowers of iesus christ , is ●his , that we love on another ; yet ● must take the l●berty to say , first , that in this point to confound persons and things , on purpose to transfer that love and charitie we owe the former to t●e latter , though never so detestable , is but a silly sophisme . he who rightly estimateth christian love will readily acknowledge , that oftentimes the wounds of a friend may be faithful , when his kisses would prove deceitful next , that though the author would alleviat our present differences , as amounting to no more then opin●ons and humours ; yet i do reall● conceive some of them to be o that import● as to judge a perverse and stated enemy , asserting t●e supremacie to the manifest denyal of christ's kingdom and government in his house , not to merite the privelege of one of his disciples ; nay , that in order to such , david's profession , do not i hate them , o lord , that hate thee ? and , am not i grieved , o lord , with them that rise up against thee ? i hate them with perfect hatred ; i count them mine enemies , may rather become our duty . and thence it is , that although this law of love be in●eed of divine right , & therefore would not be broken by bitter passion and revilings & rooted ha●reds , fo● things in dispute betwixt us ; yet , sure i am , it doth as certainly admit of the foregoing exceptions , as the things questioned are to us without doubt , and only drawn in debate by the perverse disputings of corrupt men : not that i think that , even in matters most certain , bit●er passion , revilings , and rooted hatreds or malice are allowable ; nay , this is rather my authors supposition , and his insinuation , as if we were indeed guilty of these things , is aboundantly obvious . but as i am truly perswaded , that all ●hese are in every case unworthy either of truth or a christian temper ; so i am assured , an impartial discerner will find no lesse of vain contempt & saucy undervaluiug couched in the author 's affected smoothness , then there doth appear of passion in the most impotent railing ; and therefore , if for the rod of pride found in his mouth , i have sometime used a rod for his back ; i hope both its justice and expedience will cleare me of any injury . but he goeth on , however , are we christians ? then doubtlesse the things wherein we agree , are incomparably greater then these wherein we disagree , and therefore , in all reason , should be more powerful to unite us then the other to divide us . thus i have heard that the bishop of glasgow , in answer to a person expressing his fears of the return of popery , told him , what then ? we shall still be christians ; a notable use of christian charity upon the pretext and possession of the name , to give way and countenance to corruptions manifestly tending to the subversion of the thing . but as a real agreement in t●e greater things of christianity would certainly prove an infallible mean of reconciliation to most of our differences , and where it cannot reach the full cure , should neverthelesse still treat and handle with all tendernesse ; so it is without controversy , that , on the otherhand , even the same reality , let be its simulat profession , is so far from perswading to aforbearance or compliance in case of sin , ingredient in incident contests , that it both admitteth dissent , and frequently requireth a contrary testimony and necessary withdrawing as more suteable thereto . but wherefore should i urge such deceitful generals ? must we , of necessity , sinne with all christians , or else divide from them ; or if we unite with them , must we therefore sinne and comply with all their errors and defections ? and now , for a just retortion the aut●or , i hope , by his question , doth imply that we are also christians : nay , 't is like , he denieth not but some of us are christs ministers ; why then are we so hardly dealt with ? why ●jected , banished , imprisoned , and confined ●or disagreeing in things far inferior to t●ese , wherein we agree ; yea in his own acceptation , but modes and formalities ? how will he excuse this inconsequence and inequality ? or doth he think , that ●he vain pretense of authority abused against us● doth preponderat to this his great consid●ration , or that it will be an apology for his so active concurrence . but , after the manner of the conference at pasly , he is not for debate● when it cometh to a reply ; and therefore here restraineth himself with this advice , that if we love either our own or the churches peace , we should most carefully avoid two things , the bestowing of too great zeal upon small things , and too much confidence of opinion upon doubtfull ●hings . but if his own practice may have any more credit then his words , it is easy , according to his acceptation of peace , both to redargue this his advice of falshood , and also to exhibite a more true account of his method : for , as in the small and doub●ful things by him acknowledged , for such , it is most certain , that , on his side , he hath of late shown a greater zeal and confidence , then ever he did heretofore in all the●e strange revelutions , and important occasions of testimony , both against error and profanity , that have hapened in the space of his ministry ; and yet no man doubteth but that he is for his own and the churches peace ; so it is evident that his want of zeal ●or god , together with his compliance with the uppermost power for the time , have been his only advantages . but why trifle i with such a person ? if we love either our own or the churches true peace , let us first love our lord iesus christ ; for he is our peace ; his righteousnesse , ministry and ordinances for these are the means of it : accounting nothing small or doubtful which he hath appointed in order thereunto , and wherein the great ends of the glory of god , and salvation of souls , are visibly concerned . whether the things in controversy be such or not , i need not again affirm it is indeed a mad thing to rush on hard and bol●ly in the da●k , and such a pertinent reflection , in t●e close of the example , which the author hath given us of it , attended with so little application , is an evidence beyond all other confirmation . but he that followeth the lord shall not walk in darknesse . and now the author , for a conclusion of this paper , tells us , and we all know what kind of person it is , of whom solomon sayeth , that he rageth and is confident . and really if i had but the halfe of the authors confidence , i think i could point out the very man. 't is true a weak monastick spirit long habituat to an affected abstraction & stoicisme , may render a man lesse capable of stronger passions , and consequently , for a time , exempt him from these ruder eruptions of rage ; but whether he rage or laugh there is no rest : and if appearances hold according to the influences , which his last promotion seems to have had upon his dormant corruption , 't is like , we may very shortly have a prelatick experiment of both . it is enough for us , that the lord is our light and our strength , and none that love his righteous cause shall ever be assamed . now followes the second paper , or letter , almost of the same strain , and therefore i shall content my self to review it more succinctly . after the author hath excused his not adducing of a positive divine warrant for his moderat episcopacy , by demanding of us the like for our church-assemblies and their subordinations , which i have already fully answered , he bringeth us in , objecting , that we are not against a fixed president or bishop● or whatever else he be called , our question is about their power . and to this he answereth , intreating the question may he so stated● for he trusteth that the bishops shall not be found desirous , to usurp any undue power , but ready rather to aba●e of that powe● which is reasonable , and conform even to primitive episcopacy , then that a schisme should therefore be continued in this church . it is answered , the author is mistaken , in the very entry , in as-much as we do not only question the power , but are directly against the preheminence of a fixed praeses : for seing the thing is in it self unwarrantable , and hath proven in the church , a meer fomentation of pride , and , in its tendency , been inductive of the highest usurpations , as i have shewed , and is therefore by us expresly abjured , how can we in conscience again admit of it ? . ( not to examine subtilly and strictly the import of the word power ) seing its fixednesse and its concomitant dignity , that in a great part doth advance this moderatorship , which otherwise would be only an office , unto a superority , and thereto adde an influence of power , is rather a begging of the question ; and therefore though in civils this fixednesse , with its many other prerogatives and powers , be , by reason of the subject matter and expediency of humane affaires , very lawful and allowable ; yet in ecclesiasticks , the very same reason of the different nature of the things , with the constitution of a gospel-ministry , and the contradistinction , which our lord himself hath founded betwixt it and the manner of civil governments , do clearly render this fixed presidency an undue gravam●n , impinging upon the brotherly parity , and just liberty of his ministers . and certainly , if the necessary privileges of the naked office , viz. that of proposing , directing the consultation● stating the question , asking of opinions and votes , and the casting vote , in case of equality , be of such noment in the conduct of affa●res , that all the liberty of the assembly , and unfixedness and accountablenesse of the chairman , are scarce sufficient to secure them from abuse ; to enforce them by a fixation , contrary to the lords appointment of a ministerial parity , is not more unwarrantable then inconvenient . but . as these reasons do militat against the controverted presidency in its greatest simplicity ; so the presidency now offered unto us , for all the abatements pretended , being still that of a bishop absolutely at this majesties nomination , not accountable to these over whom he presides , vested with great temporalities● and , lastly● wholly dependent upon the beck of the supremacy , is , without all question , a thing most anti-scriptural , unreasonable , & disconform to all pure antiquity . now , that thus it is● both as to the reality of the thing offered● & the censure i have passed upon it . i here openly challenge the author and all his partakers , if they dare adventure to contradict me : what other construction can therefore be made of the alledged condescendences , then that in such a mixture they are only empty foolish pretensions ? and what other judgment can be given upon the authors offer to abate of his reasonable power , warranted by primitive example , then that the obligation of reason and pure antiquity are no lesse false then the offer made is simulat and elusory . but seing the aut●or , for all the warrants pretended● doth at least acknowledge himself not to be thereby astricted , but that he can come & go in thir matters at his pleasure ; if he do indeed sincerely hate schisme , as he professeth , let h●m also confesse the violence done both to our consciences and persons in such free & arbitrary things , nay , in his dialect , trifles , and repent of his late inconsiderat accession . passing therefore his deluded beliefe of the bishops their not being desirous to usurp any undue power , but rather to abate contrary to their continual practice , & the churches experience , now for the space of years & upwards ; and evidently repugnant to the manifest conviction of all the circumstances of our case , i go on to his next supposition , viz. that though bishops do stretch their power some what beyond their line , yet , let all the world judge , whether ministers are for that ingaged to leave their stations , and withdraw from these meetings for discipline which themselves approve . and to this the answer is obvious , that neither the sinful thrusting in of bishops , nor yet their excessive stretchin●s are the principal causes of our leaving and withdrawing : when in former times . k. iames intro●uced prelats into this church , and they from time to time extended their usurpations , many of the ●ords faithful servants in these dayes did neit●er desert nor withdraw ; but continuing with much stedfastness , did constantly resist and testify against all the corruptions , then invading the true church-government , whereof they were possessed . but , as the author doth here fallaciously joyn our leaving of our stations ( which is false , we having been thence violently expelled ) and our withdrawing from their meetings , groundlesly alledged to be by us approven ; ( which we hold to be a necessary duty ) so , whoever considereth the manner of the late overturning by summary ejecting of many of us , dissolving all our church assembl●es , establishing a new government , not in , but over , the church by the king and his prelats , wherein we never had any place , will easily be convinced● that we are not more calumniously accused by these , who would have their own crime to be our sin of leaving our stations , then clearly justifiable for withdrawing from these their courts , which are wholly dependent on the supremacy , and very corrupt assemblies , which we never approved ; but have expressly abjured . it is not therefore ( as g. b. apprehends it ) only by reason of the bishops undue assuming of the presidency in these meetings ; nor yet because we are by them restrained in , and debarred from , the exercise of our power in ordination and excommunication ( although these be very material grievances ) that we do abstain from their courts : no ; but the plain truth is , that , over and above the foregoing cause , we hold the very constitution to be so much altered from that of a true eccleasiastick iudicatory , called in our lords name , and acting by his authority , unto meetings appointed meerly by the king , and recognoscing his supremacy , that we judge our not conveening therein ought not to be so much as termed a privative withdrawing ; but that it is in effect a negative disowning of them as of assemblies , wherein we never had either part or place : which being a ground by himself acknowledged , as i ●ave above observed , the doctor 's argument , that the minist●y is a complexe power , and that as some of us have accepted a liberty to preach , administer the sacraments , and exercise discipline congregationally , wi●hout liberty to meet in presbyteries and ordain ; so they may come to ●resbyte●ies , notwithstanding they should be excluded f●om the full ex●ercise of all their power ; is , by reason of the non-existence of the subject , viz. true presbyteries , utterly cut off : besides , that it also labours of a manifest inconsequence ; in asmuch as a minister's doing , in the first case , all that he is permitted , and only forbearing where a vis major doth impede , is no just ground to inferre that therefore , in the second case , he may come to a meeting● and there by surceasing the exercise of his function , and making himself a c●pher , for strengthning & encreasing of the bishops usurpation , in effect , tacitely surrender the power that he is bound to maintain : vvhich tacite surrender i do really iudge to be more strongly implied , a●d of a more sinistruous consequence , then can be purged by a naked protestation , espe●ially the same being precontrived & capitulat ; whereby , without doubt , the significancy of this remedy , mostly commended by the necessity● and as it were the surprisal of the exigent not admitting of any other , is greatly diminished & impaired notwithstanding of all which , this man , whose manner is to multiply assertions without reason , tells ●s , in this place , that , when he hath streached his subtilty on the ●enter-●ooks , he can not devise , why we may not joyn in these meetings under the abovementioned restraint : and againe concludes , that if after all that he hath said , we do still scruple , either we must be darkened , or he must have owls eyes to see clearly where there is no light . but it were endlesse to take notice of all his tatle , and therefore i returne to my author , who proceeds in his charge against many of us for separating from the publict worship and whole communion of of the church , because of some degree of wrong done them , as they think , in that point of power ● it is answered , although to render a solid reason of mens practices , specially when the same are only negative forbearances , whereunto even the forbearers scrupling and doubting doth in a manner and ●or the time oblige , be not my undertaking ; yet , that the accusation here impl●ed is very unjust , both in the extent and cause of the separation objected , is no hard matter to make out . and , first , it is certain that the allegeance , that many of us separate from the publick worship and whole communion of the church , hath no better ground , then that some of us , because of a just detestation of the perjury , intrusion , profanity , and insufficiency of the curats , do withdraw from their ministrie , specially , our true ministers still remaining , though removed to corners , and our attendance on the curats their ministrie being expresly required as a due acknowledgement of , and compliance with , his majesties government eccleastick ( o strange ! ) and civil : now , whether this reason will infer the conclusion made against us , or on the contrary , doth not rather warrant the abstinence , reproached as sinful separation , to be duty , let the impartial judge . i shall not tell you , that ●the assuming of the name of the church , and accusing discountenancers of separation , have been the common artifices , by which every prevailing sect or party have endeavoured to render their opposites odious : but of this i am very assured , that untill the author do prove , that the possession of gods house , which the curats have taken to themselves , and the concurrence of authority , wherewith they are supported , doth make them and their meetings , the only church , his objection of separation is lame and inconcludent . and therefore , seeing that the broken ministry , scattered flocks , and secret meetings of the lords faithful people in this land , are still his true church , both suffering and witnessing against the defection and intrusion of transgressors ; and seing that the forbearance , excepted against , is only the effect of a just and hesitant aversation against the pretended ministery , wi●hout either disproving the substance of the worship , or rejecting and dividing from others that find a greater liberty , his charge of separation is , in this its extent , palpably iniquous . as for the cause assigned for ●ur alledged withdrawing , not from their ecclesiastick courts ( for this point is already discus●ed ) but from the publick worship & church-communion . viz. that it is because of some degree of wrong done us , as we think , in the point of power ; ●oth the known truth of the matter , and what i have already said , do plainly disprove it : the perjury , intrusion , profanity and insufficiency mentioned , can not be in this manner palliate . and i heartly wish , that the author , who labours so much by his extenuation to cloak the apostasy , whereby he and others have rebelled against god , broken the covenant and changed the ordinances , would yet seriously consider , that god will not thus be mocked . i grant there may be cases , wherein we may sufficiently acquit ourselves by a free declaring of our opinion , and a modest desiring and waiting for a redresse , and so continuing in the performance of our own duty , though others do , or seem to transgresse theirs . but as it were ridiculous , to make this a salvo for all cases , and , in effect , it doth only hold , where our silence at another's transgression by breaking that command , thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy brother and not suffer sin upon him , may strengthen the sinners hand , and scandalize others ; so , i have already proven , the insinuation here made of our deserting of our duty , to be such an absurd calumny , and the compliance required of us such a manifest partaking in other mens sins , that i wonder at the author's disingenuity and weaknesse , in attacquing us by such generals . what can be then said to what he subjoines , viz. otherwise if we think our selves obliged for every thing that is , or that we judge , faulty in other persons , or the frame of things in the church , to relinquish either our communion with , or our station in it , what will there be but endlesse swarms of separation and division in any church under the sun . surely this , as to us , must be a very pertinent and convincing reflection ; seing● in the undervaluing sense of any papist , it would as easily redargue all the protestant churches of their separation from rome . but if in certain clear exigences , either of testifying against , or not partaking of , other mens sins , there may be a necessity of a proportional withdrawing , are therefore all measures broken , and must we be held for relinquishers on every occasion ? or because we are violently expressed , must we therefore be repute wil●ul deserters ? who would not pity such dissolute folly ? and yet it is all the concludency of the authors argument , whereb● he would represente us as patronizers of endlesse divisions : but if he minde to deal seriously in this matter , all we desire is , that he would first lay down his rules , that we may know the latitude of his comprehension , and then fairly s●bsume against us , and if i do not unanswerably prove either his excesse in the former , or calumny in the latter then let him glory over us . in the next place , he again essayes to remove the great stick , as he termes it , the covenant , and here waving , forsooth , its irregularities , whereof , notwithstanding their insinuat weight , number and influence , upon such wise and good men as himself , he neither doth adduce , nor can he make out one . and supposing the oath still to be binding , and that the present episcopacy in the church is the same that was abjured , he tells us , that the article against it doth only oblige every man , in his calling and station , to extirpate it ; but not to extirpate themselves out o● their calling and station , if such an episcopacy shall be introduced and continued against their will. 't is answered , not to repete what i have so often declared , anent the present constitution , quite different in its establishment● and many degrees worse then the former , and our obligation by the covenant against it , the whole of this objection is very readily granted : but seing it is notour● that the far greater part of us were at once , by proclamation cast out both of our places , pulpits , and parishes , and that our former church-assemblies , being all at once in the same manner suppressed , we never had any station in these present meetings pretending to the succession , this pitiful quibling , as if we had extirpate our selves , when we was in effect expulsed , i● but a poor and weak mint at wit● altogether insufficient to colour its obvious impertinency . as to what doth here ensue for proving , that the pre●ent episcopal-government is not the same with that which by the covenant we abjured , and concerning the acceptation that it would find in england , i am sure i have considered it at that length , and discussed it upon such evident and certain grounds , as neither the authors reason nor his prejudice , his impartiality nor partiality , with all the patience he wished us , and impatience which he himself often sheweth , will be able satisfyingly to remove● whether then the things mentioned in this place by the author , be indeed truths , as he alledgeth , or grosse errors and mistakes , as i have evinced , and his discerning in them● though the best he hath● sound , or on the contrary a palpable delusion● i willingly leave it to the readers ingenuity . he saith , if they be truths ● he is sure , they are pertinent truths , towards the healing of our sad divisions . ●ut when he shall make as much serious search after the cause , as he seemeth to be sensible of the effects , then i am sure he shall acknowledge them to be not only untruths , but most impertinent . however , if any list to be contentions , he wisheth he could say of this church● we have no such custome . and this wish i confesse , is very consequent to both the authors opinion and design : for , as we have heard him undervalue the ordinance and oath of god , though most convincingly sealed amongst us by the lords power and presence , unto modes and trifles , to the effect he may gain to a compliance , where he can not prevail by his simulat condescendencies ; so , at present , supposing them to be as little material , as the length or shortnesse of the excrementitious hair , he endeavours to enervat all the just opposition of the faithful with the reproach of strange contention . but seing the things that we contend for do really merite that immovable stedfastnesse and constant perseverance , so much commended by our lords command , and the example of all his followers , we hope the custome of perfidious time-serving , which the prelats have so much practised in this distracted church , shall never be able to counterballance it : and therefore as these men have by their vain , carnal and violent contentions , at best for their formalities , but● in effect , for fulfilling their sin●ul lusts and affections , not only dis-edified● but destroyed and subverted the church of god in this land , and disobeyed and disgraced the prince of peace , whom they pretend to follow ; so let us , as the fearers of the god of truth , and true lovers of our lord iesus , who is the truth and also our peace , considering his example , so much the more endure contradiction , despise shame and reproach , fight ●he good fight , keep the faith , and hold fast our integrity , that we may attain unto that crown of righteousnesse , which the lord the righteous iudge shall give at that day unto all that love his appearing . and now remaineth the authors one word , which , he is sure is undeniable , and he thinks very considerable , and it is , that he that cannot joyn with the present frame of this church ( and if yow please to bring the matter nearer , with the termes of the present accommodation ) could not have lived in the communion of the christian church in the time of the first most famous general assembly of it , the conncil of nice ; yea , to go no higher , though safely i might , ( sayes he ) he must as certainly have separated from the whole catholick church in the dayes of the holy bishop and martyr cyprian , upon this very scruple of the government , as novatus did upon another occasion . whence the author doth draw his assurance , and whereon it is that he would have us to bestow our consideration , i wish he had been more explicite : that in the times to which he referres there was an episcopacy well advanced in the church , and consequently a corruption contracted in its government , and yet by all quietly comported with , i do not deny ; and to this , if it should be replied● that there is a hudge disparity betwixt a corruption contracted in lawful government , still holding the head and substance , by our lords authority given to his church , the worst that can be supposed of these primitive times , and a government fundamentally corrupt , deriving all its power from him to whom it doth not belong , and founded in an antichristian ●upremacy , the certain character of the present constitution ; i am confident , the author would not be able to make any satisfying re●urn : but , the true account of the matter is , that in these ancient times , this prostasia having crept in , and from small beginings , and under very specious pretenses , grown up insensibly in the church , and the mystery therein secretly working not having openly disclosed it self , it is little wonder that , though by the more discerning the evill might be feared , yet never the lesse , no remedy offering , it was not directly opposed ; whereas , in our dayes , this latent corruption , with its most pernicious tendency and bitterfruits , being fully discovered , and thereupon by us solemnly ejected and abjured , and now on●● re-obtruded , under the guilding of some apparent condescendencies , the better to suppresse the true government of gods house , which we are bound to preserve , and for establishing the sup●emacy , the very consummation of this iniquity . certainly these things do import a most manifest difference . i shall not here stand to cleare , how that an oath , though taken upon a matter antecedently binding , doth neverthelesse in such manner superinduce a ●urther obligation , as doth not only more strictly bind to vigilance and circumspection , but also to a measure of zeal against defection , beyond the opposition to that same material transgression formerly required : nor need i to put any in minde , how that the sacrificing to the lord in the high places , permitted without reproof to samuel , david , and solomon , before the building of the temple , did afterward make an exception from the integrity of succeeding princes . certainly , to judge that the continuance of an evill , and a relapse into it are of the same nature , and that at this time we may have the same compliance with this episcopal presidency , which once it found in the church , under quite different circumstances , were grossly to confound times , despise warnings , trample upon deliverances , and violate the oath of god , nay further , to contradict even the principles of these times mentioned , and that to that hight , that i am assured , were the same ancient christians , boasted of , on li●e , to see the sad effects that have ensued upon their well-meaning practices , and the patrociny which is thence taken , for the backsliding and overt●rning of our dayes● their godly sorrow would work in them a carefulnesse , a clearing of themselves , an in●ignation , a fear , a vehement desire , a zeal , yea , and a revenge above all the detestation that our author and his followers do commonly calumniat as fury amongst us . and cyprian in place of his particular above cited con●titut● &c. opposed to the then aspiring prela●y , would become a presbyterian of the strictest form : and therefore , though i do not owne these accusations of schism & total breach of communion with the church , wherein the authour is pleased to state and phrase the difference of present practice , from that of the ancient church ; but on the contrary , i have often and plainly declared , that the sin attending the compliance urged is the plain cause and measure of our withdrawing : yet that our abstaining from the present church-meetings , so widely differing from these of the ancient church , and invironed with circumstances no lesse variant , doth not give ground to so much as that seeming opposition in practice , which the author objects ; but on the contrary , is the very same , which all the faithful therein would have chosen , upon the like exigence , i am confident , all true and serious observers will very readily acknowledge ; and consequently that this the authors one and last word , notwithstanding of the enforcing epithets of undeniable and very considerable , wherewith he seconds it , is neverthelesse nothing singular from all the rest premised . having thus largely digressed in the review of these papers , and therein discussed most of the arguments used for this accommodation ; it remains that i follow forth the second article , where i left : and though , for the better reaching of the outmost of our adversaries pretensions , i have supposed prelacy to be thereby reduced to a simple presidency , and , in this sense , argued against it ; yet since it is certain , that the nomination and election of the episcopus praeses , who when present is to preside , and when absent , doth , at best , only permit a precarious suffection , is not to be committed to the presbyteries suffrage , but absolutely reserved to his majesty ; and , next , that the general of , all church-affaires , and what may be meant by management , whether the decision only , when proposed to the assembly , or both the proposing and deciding , do seem to require a further explication . i think the article is further liable to these exceptions . i shall not here repeat , what i have said against the unwarrantablenesse and inevitable prejudice of the abridgement of t●e churches just liberty , in the choise of its moderators , in its several assemblies , and his majesties usurpation in this point ; the thing which i at present note as defective , and which was also much desiderat , is a clear explanation , whether the power and liberty of proposing be aswel offered in this article to the free vote of the meetings , as the power of deciding seems thereby to be conceded ; or whether , according to the scheme of our national synod , as now setled by authority of parliament , the power of proposing is not still to be the privilege of the constant moderator● or rather his majesties prerogative to be exercised by the meer intervention of the fixed praeses as his instrument . i shall not criticize , nor ask how the proposal came to be set down in these terms , that all church-affaires shall he managed in presbyteries & synods by their free vote , rather then thus , that they shall be managed by presbyteries & synods & their free vote . onely this i may affirme , that the second member of my doubt is no lesse probable , & consonant to the tenor and prescript of the act mentioned , then evidently elusory of all the other liberties proposed . but wherefore do i hesitat in these smaller matters● the thing here principally to be observed is , that as , by the present establishment , annexing church power and jurisdiction , to the kings crown and prerogative , and thereby subverting all true church-government , and making the pretended presbyteries and synods only the ●ing and the prelats their pitiful . conventicles , the first article inviting to presbyteries & synods is rendered vain and void , & all its cautions impertinent ; so the supremacy , now more then ever prevalent● is with this second article , and all the offer of liberty therein held out , plainly inconsistent : for proof whereof , i only desire that the two may be impartially compared . the article sayes , that all church-affaires shall be managed in presbyteries or synods by their free vote . and the act of supremacy statutes that his magesty may enact , concerning all meetings and matters ecclesiastick , what in his royal misdome he shall think fit . how then can these two consist ? or in what manner can they be reconciled ? if these meetings and the power of the supremacy were both of the same kinde , and did stand in the same line , i know the subordination of synods and presbyteries to general assemblies might easily explain the difficulty , but seing a subordination of this ●ort betwixt these courts and this high prerogative , would , in effect , distroy their true being and essence ; and , on the other hand , to imagine that by this accommodation , there is any derogation of the supremacy intended so much as to be connived at , were foolish and presumtuous . it is clear that the supremacy , and the liberty here pretended cannot rationally be composed ; if therefore the accommodators would deal uprightly in this affair , let them first shew us where these presbyteries and synods are , to which they would have us to come , and next cause us to understand the tru●h and reality of the just liberty they seem to offer , and then boast of their condescendencies . but while they suppose things for uncontroverted grounds , which are warrantably and plainly by us denied , and then would ingage us by a form of specious concessions , wanting al real foundation , they only discover their own palpable weaknesse or more unpardonnable disingenuity . the third article bears , if any difference fall out in the diocesian synods betwixt any of the members thereof it shall be lawful to appeal to a provincial or their committy . that this provincial is founded upon , and overswayed by the supremacy ; and ther●by manifestly disprovable , as neither a true ecclesiastick-court , nor enjoying any competent measure of power & liberty , is abundantly confirmed by the arguments above adduced against the preceeding articles . the singularites that here occurre are , that the constitution of a provincial assem●ly , being a court not in use amongst us , should have been expresly declared . . that if we may guesse at this by vshers reduction , and according to the present establishment , it must consist of members viz. the bishops and deans or constant moderators of the province , both more unwarran●able as to their office , and corrupt in their practices then the ordinary constituents of inferior meetings . . that this provincial is to have a committie which being yet very unlawfully established for a perpetual court , can only conduce to the greater strengthening of the archbishop's primacy , and the oversway of the subjected assemblies : but seing the bishop , in his last conference , hath passed from this article , i shall not pursue it any further ; only the gradation here traced of presbyteries , synods , and provincial assemblies moveth me to enquire , wherefore no mention of national assemblies , a court not only the supreme in that scale , but so distinctly defined by a particular act , viz. act . . in its members , methods of procedor , and extent of power , that i cannot judge its omission accidental and undesigned ; nay in effect it is a reserve which doth so unquestionably secure the whole interests and designs of prelacy , and so evidently redargue all the proposals made of a trepanning mockery , that as i seriously marvel , how the accommodators , knowing of this ultimate resort , so strongly complicated of all the strength of the supremacy and prelacy , did not extend their other concessions to all things else that could be demurred ; so i am no lesse to seek , wherefore the brethren , who treated , did except so little against it . i need not here exhibite any long description of this court , which i have several times above mentioned : the act is full and plain to the meanest capacity : the king , in the very entry , assumes to himself not the indiction only ( which was all that , after long contendings , the more consistent usurpation of former times did by the act . ascribe unto him ) but the constitution of this national synod , whereby having named and appointed the members and the archbishop of s. andrews for president , with an expresse limitation of the time and place of their meeting to his majesties order , and of the matters to be treated and determined , concerning doctrine , worship , discipline and government , to his royal p●easure , to be signified in write to the president above named . the ●ing , with the advice of the estates , confirmeth the same , as the lawful constitution of our church-assemblies , provided that the king or his commissioner be alwayes present , and that no act or o●der be owned as such , but that which shall be agreed upon by the president and major part of the members , and not contrary to the kings prerogative , or law of the kingdom . and lastly , that no act , matter or cause be debated , consulted , and concluded , but what shall be allowed and confirmed by his majesty or his commissioner for the time . now , i say , this act and constitution still standing & remaining , let any ingenuous person declare singly , what he thinketh all the proposals so long tinckled upon can signify , or what liberty have the dissenting presbyterian brethren , which may not hereby be restrained and rendered ineffectual ? and what abatement is there condescended unto of the exorbitant powers of prelacy , which is not here either formally or virtually repaired ? and , in a word , what good can we expect by any accommodation , which may not by this frame be certainly frustrat and made void . i have not , in this place , noted the strange and palpable usurpations of the supremacie against the lord , and over his church , which this device and project containe● ; because , as , in all the parts and passages of our present establishment , the vestiges of that wickednesse are very conspicuous ; so , it is in this act that they are visible in their highest exaltation . from all which it may very easily be gathered that the bishop's policy , in his silence on this point , was no lesse necessary for the carrying on of his intention , then the reservation of the thing the very colluvies of all corruption of church-government● deriving its influence and perversions unto all inferior and subordinat assemblies , doth render all the other overtures of agreement elufory and insignificant . the fourth article is , that intrants being lawfully presented by the patron and ●●ly tryed by the presbytery , there shall be a day agreed upon by the bishop and presbytery , for their meeting together for their solemn ordination and admission , at which there shall be one appointed to preach , and that it shall be at the parish church where he is to be admitted , except in the case of impossibility , or extreme inconveniency ; and if any difference fall in touching that affair , it shal be referable to the provincial synod , or the committee , as any other matter . this is the article , but there is nothing sound , the very entrie offends ; not that i judge that for the single cause of patronages being restored , and presentations made requisite for intituling to a ●tipend or benefice , intrants ( all other things being plain ) should stand off and may not lawfully enter that way ; no , though patronages be indeed in themselves a heavy grievance , and in their exercise , for the most part , partial and sinful , and upon these grounds , by an expresse act in the year . abolished ; yet to intrants otherwise innocent they are certainly only the greatest injurie . but the thing i except , is , . that according to this proposal it seems ministers formerly lawfully called and ordained , and now wrongfully outed , shall have no regresse to the exercise of their ministry , save by this method , which certainly in these circumstances can not but render the pressure far more uneasy . . what shall become of patronages pertaining to bishops , and of other churches which are of their patrimony ? certainly this is a point not so far without our line , but at least in a conjunction with the many other things that justly grieve us it may make a part of our regrete . but i proceed to take notice of the manner of ordination here discribed , and passing the trial previously appointed , it is proposed that there shall be a day agreed upon by the bishop and p●esbytery for their meeting together , for the solemn ordination of intrants : by which it is evident , that it is not the vote of the plurality , that in this matter , can make a determination ; no , the bishop and presbytery must both agree to this appointment , the whole presbytery cannot overrule him in it . and here i cannot but observe the cunning slieness of this draught . the bishop in all his discourses and treaties hath still , in this point of ordination , kept himself in the clouds ; to assume to himself the sole power of ordination or a negative voice and part in it is more then all his musty alledgeances , from obscure antiquity , and declining purity , for his fixed presidency , will amount unto ; and to descend to posterior ages of the church , would be of a consequence no lesse dangerous , as to the many corruptions that then were crept in , then the ascending to the prior times of scripture light would prove contrary to this prelatick arrogance . on the other hand , seing both the humor and design of episcopacy ingage him to be principal in the action of ordination , therein to be subject to the determination of the susfrage of the presbytery , is nothing agreeable , and can not be digested . and what variety in his discourses this halting ambiguity hath produced , i leave it to such as have had the opportunity to observe : but now that we have him in write , it is worth our pains to consider the contrivance . we have heard , in the second article , that he is willing that chnrch-matters be managed in presbyteries and synods by the vote of the plurality , a fair insinuation that the matter of ordination shall be in the same manner transacted : and in this article he leaves the trial to the presbytery , consents that , if possible , the ordination be at the parish church , where one shall be appointed to preach , and , lastly , is content differences falling in be referred to the superior courts ; all fair generals . but wherefore no mention who shall be the actual ordainers , whether the bishop and whole presbytery , or the bishop alone in behalfe and as mederator of the presbytery , or the bishop alone as indeed something greater ( whether as in a superior order , or only in a higher degree is but a school nicety ) then either a presbyter , or the presbytery , & to whose office this part doth properly belong ? and , as to these things , though we be left in the dark , yet many palpable indications lead us to feel this last to be the thing designed , against which , if i might now stand to debate , i could show this not only to be contrary to evangelick parity and simplicity and apostolick practice , and destitute even of these pretended testimonies of the next ages for a fixed prostasia ; but that it hath been one of the main impostures of the prelatick spirit , first injuriously to usurpe , and then mysteriously to involve the matter of ordination , that the bishops might have the dignity to be its proper dispensators and the mystery of iniquity be the more thereby advanced . but the point here most remakable is , that apprehending his condescendencies might render him , as being obnoxious to the plurality of voices , of lesse power and influence in this affair , behold how craftily he goeth about to salve his negative , which he may not , for fear of a discovery , plainly owne , and that is , by making the appointment of the day for ordaining to depend on his and the presbyteries joynt agreement , wherein if he please to be a dissenter , it is certain that his not assenting to this circumstance will be of no lesse consequence for his purpose , then if he had reserved unto himself an inhibiting veto , upon the substance of the whole businesse . now , that this power , in what sort soever by him couched and covered , is not to be allowed , his want of any sufficient warrant for it doth aboundantly evince● and further what the scripture and apostolick rule in this affair is , these few considerations may in this place satisfie . . that the power of ordinantion is certainly annexed to , & dependent upon , the pastoral charge ; for , seing that the cure committed to the apostles , and by them to succeeding pastors , could not be perpetuat without a succession , the evident reason of the thing it self , with the import of that command , the things that thou hast heard of me , the same commit thou to faithful men , who shall be able to teach others also , do plainly perswade the assertion . . as we find in scripture the apostles and others upon occasion by themselves alone ordaining , so whereever a concurrence did offer , we may observe the act to be alwayes joyntly done and administrat ; so we find the twelve joyntly ordaining and laying their hands upon the seven deacons , without any prerogative acclaimed by peter , who yet , if falshoods may be compared , hath more apparent grounds in scripture for his primacy , then can be shewed for the presidency of any bishop . next we have the fraternity of prophets and teachers at antioch sending forth and imposing hands upou barnabas and saul , by a like equall conjunction . . it is said of paul and barnabas that they ( in a plural union ) did ordain elders in every church and . it is manifest that paul , by reason of his concurrence with other presbyters in the ordination of timothie , doth attribut the same act indifferently to his own hands and , to the hands of the presbytery . which scripture-grounds being joyned to the want of any probable reason for this singularity , and the manifestly woful and sad consequences of this episcopal imparity with the present unquestionable design of bearing down the just liberty and authority of the lord's ministers , in a convenient subserviency to mens lusts and wickednesse , by the stiff and inflexible retaining of this privilege , do , i am confident , make out the eccentrick preheminence acclaimed to be not only in it self unlawfull , but by our solemn oaths to maintain presbytery , and extirpat every thing that shall be found to be contrary to sound doctrine and the power of godlinesse perpetually abjured . seing therefore that this article doth certainly imply this corruption , as i have above declared , that it can have no better acceptance from us , then the preceeding , needeth no further reasoning . as for the other trifling circumstances , whereby the principal thing in it , is endeavoured to be palliat , they do not merite any more speciall inquiry . the fift article is , it is not to be ●oub●ed but the lord commissioner will make good what he offered anent the establishment of presbyteries and synods ; and we trust his grace will procu●e such security to the brethren for declaring their judgment , that they may do it without any hazard in counterveening any law , and that the bishop shall humbly and earnestly recommend this to his grace . this article made up of uncertain assurances , ridiculous trusts , and the bishop's conformable undertaking , is already by me sufficient●y examined , in the very entry of this discourse ; and there told , that what the commissioner did undertake anent the establishment of presbyteries , i did not exactly know ; but if it was that which is reported , viz , that they should be set up as preceeding the . i thought it could contribute not●ing to the removal of our just exceptions . i shall not here offend the reader by a vain repetition ; but seing the grounds formerly laid down are very material , and yet by the most part little adverted to , it will not be amisse that , after the full and plain account i have given of these matters , i again run over them ; and . that according to the principles of truth , presbyteries are not founded in any humane establishment , but in the right and authority which our lord hath given unto his church , is our constant perswasion : so that , though the accessory confirmation and countenance of the powers may be of great use to , and no lesse acceptance with the church , yet it is no part of their original right . . before the . and even until the year . presbyteries were founded and did continue in this church , not by vertue of any act of ●arliament , whereby they were properly authorized ; but upon the basis of that intrinseck right , which i have already mentioned . thus having conveened and settled themselves shortly after the reformation , they continued their possession uninterrupted until the year . it is true , they obtained the confirmation of king and parliament in the year . as also in the year . many corruptions introduced , and invasions made by the prelats upon the rights and privileges of these assemblies , were b● the same authority , ratified and approven : but as by the latter act their being was not totally dissolved ; so it is not unto the former that they do owe their fundamental establishment . . all that can be probably gathered from what is promised , is , that possibly to some such apparent mixture of episcopacy and presbytery , now to be formed , as did result from t●e intrusion of prelats upon presbyteries , before the . the civil s●nction may be interposed : but since now the case is vastly altered , and that in effect , at present , there is not so much as any kinde of true ecclesiastick-government or meeting to be found among the prelats and their dependents ; nay , that all we are to expect is some hodge podge device of supremacy accommodat to its desires , and directly and absolutely subjected to its pretended omnipotency , it is clear and certain , that this mistaken project can aff●rd us no clearing : if any man judge me uncharitable , how glad would i be to be found really in ●he wrong ? but seing it is evident , that the supremacy is rather more and more ascendent , and that there is not the least probability either of its mitigation , or of the rescission of the act for restitution , &c. anno . and yet far lesse the retreating of the proclamation ianuary . dissolving presbyteries , and of their , and their true members reestablishment , all requisite to give the lord commissioner's offer ( if any such was made ) a genuine and satisfactory meaning , why should we preserve an illusive charity to plain and solid ingenuity . but if any man will still contend , the comparing together of the first and second part of this article , i am certain , will prove sufficient to convince the most inflexible opiniaster . in the first part , it is not doubted , but the king's commissioner will make good his offer , viz. to set up presbyteries as before in the second , it is hoped , that he will procure due security to the brethren in the free declaration of their judgment . but if true presbyteries be rightly restored this security is clearly superfluous ; and if they shall not be restored in that integrity , but by vertue of the supremacy , on which they depend , reduced to the figure of the then model , by authorizing the above mentioned mixture , it is evident , that in place of resolution , we have only an arbitrary politick alteration , a compliance wherewith no declaration & protestation can in any wise purge , as i have already fully proven : and this is indeed one of the reasons , why i termed the bishops trust ridiculous . but yet i confesse there are other causes that do more provoke me to this character , the one is , that it should be imagined , that governours will give an antecedent licence to transgresse lawes , which neverthelesse in all probability they have not the least intention to repeal ; the other is , that the bishop should suppose that a testimony , requisite upon the account of duty , may be either forborn or suspended , for want of an assured immunity ; whereas it is most certain , that whereever faithfulnesse to god doth require our appearance , though in the things that are least , the fear of man , that bringeth a snare , is not to be regarded , much lesse to be therewith ballanced . i acknowledge indeed , that the faint and pusillanimous dealing of some of the brethren , who conferred , in making this their scruple , seems to have drawn from the bishop this insinuat sollution , and i should verily have taken it for a scornful indulgence , if he had not to his hope adjoyned the promise of his humble and earnest intercession . but seing it is to be by all regreted , & we hope shall be by the decliners themselves bitterly mourned for , that being in so just and so good a cause not only called , but in effect openly provoked and bafled to give an answere whith reasons , to the demand made unto them , they did not so sanctify the lord god in their hearts , and with their tongues , as to shew a readinesse thereto with meeknesse and fear , let be to give a testimony for god in such an important exigence , it is evident that this pitiful caveat with the promise annexed are at best but the effects of a carnal condescendence unto a sinful fear . if the lord call for our confession , who ever heard that that , which is its special grace , even the obvious apprehension of hazard , should be its hinderance ? nay , who is man in that case of whom we should be afraid ? but and if the lord require it not , this is certainly a foolish antidote to a vain solicitude . and thus we are arrived at the sixth & last article , that no intrant shall be ingaged to any canonical oath , or subscription unto the bishop ; and that his opinion anent tha● government shall not prejudge him in this , but it shall be free for him to declare . and this is truly the only fair condescendence that of them all hath any thing of a just ease ; but seing it is very inadequat to the main difficulty , and for an apparent liberty of opinion doth certainly tend , according to the late morality of these times , to involve us in many sinful and inconsistent practices , i shall not further urge it . and now having finished the examination of these six articles , & therein , amongst many other empty pretensions , and inextricable ambiguities , rencountered a most cunning & viperous invective against the league and covenant , consisting of the like number , as if it were a meer politick complication of doubts and snares , for the more clear redargution of the authors presumption and malice , i cannot but desire my reader , impartially to consider both , and what , and with what successe boht of us have objected , and , i am confident , that though an al most infinite over proportion of matter for importance , aswel as variety , the greatest diversity of humors , interests , opinions , nay and almost of nations , that ever concurred in one treaty , with the no lesse disproportion of parts and abilities in us , the two antagonists , do every way increase and accumulat the disadvantages on my part ; yet it will appeare , that such is the power and vertue of a righteous cause that where in the attacquing the covenant the authour hath carried back nothing but his own shame and our scorne , the truth , not i , hath , on the other side , dissipated and routed his articles with an entire victory , which if he or any man account vain , or a preposterous triumph , it is only truths confidence , and i do hereby confirm it with a no lesse resolute defiance . hitherto i have examined this overture of accommodation , according to its terms contained in the above-written articles . as for the exceptions that may be made against it from its contrivance , tendency , and circumstances , the inconveniencies that would ensue upon it , and other more remote arguments , they are so easily deduceable from the preceeding grounds , that it were superfluous to prosecute them by any more distinct proposal . that we may therefore , once for all , review and summe up the manifold and manifest evils of this device , not more conceited and boasted of by its contrivers , the servants of men , then deservedly rejected by all the true ministers of our lord iesus christ : notwithstanding of all the specious pretexts and fair smoothings that have been adhibite for triming up this accommodation to an alluring and taking condescendence ; yet , i am perswaded , that who ever seriously ponders what hath been said upon it , will be quickly convinced that the difficulties following do still remain as invincible impediments to all conscientious men . first , that a conjunction with and in the present church meetings , is a certain acknowledgment of , and participation with the present ecclesiastick-government , which in effect is not truly such , but a meer politick constitution wholly dependent upon , and resolving in the supremacy , wherein no faithful minister can take part , secon●ly , that this conjunction doth evidently infer a consent and submission to this supremacy , as arrant an usurpation upon the kingdom of iesus christ in and over his church , as ever did dare the king of ●ings , and lord of lords in any age . thirdly , that though this consent could not be objected , yet such is the present elevation of this all-swaying prerogative , not intended to be depressed , that all other conc●ssions , though in themselves satisfying , would thereby be deprived of any consistent assurance ; and rendered wholly elusory . and really , when i reflect upon these particulars , i cannot forbear to ask , with what conscience can ministers rather partake in church-meetings framed by , and under the power of the supremacy , then if the bishops were therein still to domineer after the rate of the highest prelacy ? or what delusion can be more ridiculous , then that men excepting against meetings , because of the bishops usurpation therein , should upon the vacating and reassuming of this power by the king as supreme , be thereby entised unto a compliance . but , fourthly , as these meetings are founded upon , and absolutely subjected unto the supremacy ; so the often cited proclamation , and act of res●itution tell us , that they are authorized and ordered by the archbishop and bishop ; and consequently do in such manner derive their authority from them , that the members do only act therein as the bishops their delegates , or rather as the subdelegates of his majesties delegates , a strange accumulation of absurdities , which , i am certain , this constitution standing , cannot be salved by any overture whatsomever . fifthly , the meetings , whereunto we are invited , do consist of ●uch members for their perjurious intrusion , and canonical servitude ( to say nothing of their more extrinseck delinquencies of profanity , insufficiency , and irreligion ) as may not only warrant a non-conjunction , but a positive separation . and certainly if the lower degree of these crimes , in the time of the former bi●hops , did even , under that different constitution , offend some of the lords faithful servants to an abhorrent with drawing , how much more should their brimful measures in our dayes , with the duty of a testimony , which our covenant , and mens unparalleled backslidings , do now require , justify our detestation ? it is true g. b. tells us that under this there may be a fear in us , that we shall not carry things as we would , which he thinks , is very little suitable to the patience we p●ead for : but really , so long as our will is moved and directed by the rules , and in order to the ends , which our lord hath appointed to these courts , i see not how this fear can be condemned , as either ambitious , or disagreeable to our principles . sixtly , notwithstanding of any thing conceded by the articles , and over and above all that hath been said against an ep●scopus praeses , even in the most moderate acceptation , the ●i●hop as offered to be reduced , is repugnant both to scripture , purer antiquity , and our solemn oaths and ingagements , inconsistent with he principles of presbytery , and in effect very little lowed from any of these powers and hights which he acclaimes , in asmuch as he is still at the king's nomination and not subject to either the censure or control of the meetings , over which he doth preside . . he retaineth all his vain and absurd temporalities . . as constant moderator the power of proposing and the method of handling and voting any matter controverted , with the care and direction of the execution of any sentence pronounced , pertaineth to him solely . . for any thing as yet declared , the bishop must have at least a more eminent power and suffrage , in the matter of ordination and excommunication : and , in this point , not only the articles are most suspitio●sly reserved and obscure , but if we take notice of the accomodators their other discourses and writings , we have little reason to doubt that the power of both is to abide with him , as it was established by the act . and observed before . so that , in my opinion , all the ease offered by the accomodation may be very quickly calculat ; and in a word amounts to this only , that where now these meetings , do by a precarious tolerance consult and determine in lesser matters , and in things more weighty , do rather prepare and ripen to the bishop's decision , who also ordaines and censures with very little ceremony , by this treatie and its articles , over and above the wretched salvo of a pactioned and contrariant protestation , this tolerance is to be changed into a more assured liberty , as to the bishop , but every whit as dependent upon the king as supreme ; and the acts of ordination and excommunication are to be passed and performed , more publickly and with greater solemnity . which observation , i must confesse , is to me so obvious , that it hath been alwayes attended with no lesse perswasion , that if the bishop did not judge our consciences as peevish and fickle , as he asteemeth the matters in difference frivolous and empty trifles , he would not have this risced his own reputation , in all the business and stir he hath made about such a nothing of condescendence . of which i am the more confirmed , that though the papers which i have discus●ed were by the bishop acknowledged to have been written some years ago , and do all along conclude a conformity to the present establishment ; yet the bishop very justly , though imprudently , supposing the case to be still the same , hath made much use of them of late without the least alteration to ingage us unto the terms of his new agreement . seventhly , this accommodation utterly disowns & cuts off the ruling elder , an officer not only clearly warranted from scripture and the nature of the churches constitution , and singularly commended by his usefulness ; but in some respect countenanced even by the mixtures we see in his masters ecclesiastick commission . eightly , the terms offered being proposed with this expresse condition , ( episcopacy being alwayes preserved ) and in effect so fully retaining the substance of all the corruptions and grievances of that model and frame , by us very solemnly and often abjured both by the national and the solemn league and covenant , to close and comply therewith were , at least , to desert the lords cause , by casting away the word of his patience in this hour of temptation● and to give our selves to that detestable indifferency and neutrality , which we have by oath so enixly renounced . ninthly , the embracing of this pretended coalition , but real suppression of presbyterian government● would not only be a total surrender of that interest unto the will of its adversaries ; but ingage us into snares contests , offences , and temptations , that may be better foreseen then they can be numbred , let be prevented . the authors propone peace , as the scope of their overture , and yet they know , nay do expresly provide a liberty for the differences and protestations , that must necessarily ensue : what a strange method have we here of composing strife , neither by removing the grounds , nor separating the parties ; but plainly , by joyning them in their declared opposition and sworne contrary endeavours , of the one to mantain , and the other to extirpat , to exasperate the feuds ? and is not this one reflection sufficient to redargue the insincerity of this whole project , and to informe all men , that it is not union , but the very extinction of presbytery that is thereby designed ? i shall not here note , that the brethren , being once brought in to these meetings , where there will be infallibly , no less discord then inequality , it is not to be doubted , but the hatred , envie and jealousies of the stronger against the weaker would in this juncture , so fertile of occasions , soon procure the latter to be deposed and ejected . and that by a power , which they could not so well disowne . but this , i am sure , would in that event fall out so acceptablie to the patient , that i shall not , at present● reckon it as an inconvenience . the evills more to be considered are , that as no conscientious man can rationally hold out the smallest benefite or use of edification , that can arise to the church of christ by this so heterogenious , distracted , and unequal association ; so , what can be thence expected , except either the temptation of continual heats , sorrowes and offences , or rather , according to the present too visible decay , the cooling of zeal , the declining to luke warmness , the ensnaring of consciences , con●iving at corrupt acts and practices , the partaking of other mens sins , and the evill example , stumbling and grief , that will thereon redound to all the fearers of god and lovers of his righteous cause . i do not here make mention of the offence of the people , as some do , who use it as an argument , yea their main one , that this accommodation being displeasing by provoking them to withdraw from such as close with it would defeat its own design . no , if the thing be righteous and otherwise expedient , to indulge to humors is indeed a vain popularitie : and i am heartily sorry , that good men , in so good a cause , should have bewrayed so great weakness , as by insinuating a false charge of humor against the people , to have not only discovered their own pusillanimitie , but furnished the adversarie with so faire and plausible an advantage . but leaving them , in this point , to . g. b' s correction , and him also to his vain illusion , as if herein he had overcome a great part of our strength , the offence , that i fear , & prognostick from a compliance with this accommodation , is quite of another nature , viz. that now , in this baksliding time , such a bad and influencing example may be of dangerous consequence to remove them from their stedfastness . and how tender of the soul concernment of the brethren , and fearful of that wo , which even he who is the blessing of all nations hath denounced against them , by whom offences come , every sincere christ an ought in this point , to be , i hope all interested will seriou●ly consider . but now it is full time to conclude . and therefore i say , that ●eeing the termes of this accommodation are ambiguous , defective and sin●ul , its designe and tendency most pernicious to the true government of gods house , and the kingdom of iesus christ , and its whole fabrick and frame , to the conviction of all discerning men , only forged out by necessity and policy , and smoothed by delusion and hypocrisy , on purpose to catch a small remnant of the lords faithful ministers , witnesses against the present backslidings & thereby , if possible , for ever to suppresse the restoring of the work of god in the land , i judge it ought to be rejected as a vain ensnaring invention : so that , although the hatchers should be thereby wrathfully irritat , & this cockatrice egg should break out into a viper ; yet better it be crushed for our suffering , then sinfully eaten to our death & destruction . the reproches of ungovernable and unpeacable may indeed be bitter unto ingenuous spirits , let be sincere lovers of the prince of peace , and the persecution of men may possibly proceed to afflict and vexe : but seing that , through sathan and the world their known enmity against the lord and all his followers , these things are , in place of the opprobry , become rather the badge of truth , only let our conversation be as becometh the gospel , and let us stand fast in one spirit with one minde striving together for the pure ordinances of gods house once given unto us , nothing terrefied by our adversaries , which is to them an evident token of perdition , but to us of salvation and that of god : for unto the fai●hful it is given in the behalfe of christ , not only to believe on him , but also to suffer for his sake . there is , i confesse , one temptation , which doth more speciously insinuate , and that is , the losse of the liberty of the gospel , which men may possibly , in their displeasure , abridge or totally take from us : but as this solicitude is not more praise worthy , when devolved on our lord and master , then subtilly deceitful , when its application is , spare thy self , so let none of these things move us , neither let us reckon our lives dear unto our selves , so that we may finish our course with joy , and the ministry , which we have received of the lord iesus . let therefore truth , simplicity and godly sincerity be our main study , and faith & entire submission our only establishment , knowing , and on this resting , that not only his peace here shall be our portion and the end everlasting life : but that god can as easily of our ashes raise up ministers to himselfe , as of stones children to abraham . and that he who hath glorified his name , will glorifie it again . amen . finis . the copy of two letters , commonly repute to have been written by the bishop of dumblane , at least by him communicat to several friends . the first letter . sir , in the late conference i had with your friend , the sum of what i said was this . . that episcopal-government , managed in conjunction with presbyters in presbyteries and synods , is not contrary either to the rule of scripture , or the example of the primitive church , but most agreeable to both . . yea , it is not contrary to that very covenant , which is pretended by so many as the maine , if not the only reason of their scrupling : and for their sakes it is necessary to adde this . for notwithstanding the many irregularities both in the matter and forme of that covenant , and the illegal and violent wayes of pressing and prosecuting of it , yet to them who remain under the conscience of its full force and obligation , and in that seem invincibly perswaded , it is certainly most pertinent , if it be true , to declare the consistence of the present government even with that obligation . and as both these assertions , i believe upon the exactest ( if impartial and impassionat ) inquirie , will be found to be in themselves true ; so they are owned by the generality of the presbyterians in england ; as themselves have published their opinion in print under this title , two papers of proposals humblie presented to his majestie by the reverend ministers of the presbyterian perswasion , printed at london anno . besides other passages in these papers to the same purpose , page , and . are these words , and as these are our general ends and motives , so we are induced to insist upon the form of a synodical government , conjunct with a fixed presidency or episcopacy , for these reasons . . we have reason to believe that no other termes will be so generally agreed on , &c. . it being agreeable to the scripture & primitive government , is likeliest to be the way of a more universal concord , if ever the churches on earth arrive to such a blessing ; however it will be most acceptable to god , and well informed consciences . . . it will promote the practice of discipline & godliness without disorder , and promote order without hindering discipline and godliness . . and it is not to be silenced ( though in some respect we are loath to menton it ) that it will save the nation from the violation of their solemn vow and covenant , without wronging the church at all , or breaking any other oath , &c. and a little after they add , that the prelacie disclaimed in that covenant , was the ingrossing o● the sole power of ordination and iurisdiction , & exercising of the whole discipline absolutly by bishops themselves and there delegates , chancellors , surrogates , and officials , &c. excluding wholly the pastors of particular churches from all share in it . and there is one of prime note amongst them , who , in a large treatise of church-government , doth clearly evince , that this was the minde both of the parliament of england , and of the assemblie of divines at vvestminster , as they themselves did expresly declare it , in the admitting of the covenant , that they understand it not to be against all episcopacy , but only against the particular frame , as it is worded in the article it selfe : for our principal model in england , and the way of managing of it , whatsoever is amisse ( and it can be no wrong to make that supposition concerning any church on earth ) or whatsoever they apprehend to be amisse , though it may be upon mistake , the brethren that are dissatisfied , had possiblely better acquitted their dutie by free admonitions and significations of their own sense in all things , then by leaving of their station , which is the one thing that hath made the breach ( i fear ) very hard to cure , and in humane appearance near to incureable : but there is much charity due to them , as following the dictat of their own conscience ; and they owe , and , i hope , pay the same back again to these that do the same in another way ; & whatsoever may be the readiest & happiest way of reuniting those that are mutually so minded , the lord reveal it to them in due time . this one word i shall add , that this difference should arise to so great a hight , may seem somewhat strange to a●y man that calmely considers , that there is in this church no change at all , neither in the doctrine nor worship , no nor in the substance of the discipline it selfe : but when it falls on matters easily inflamable , how little a spark , how great a fire will it kindle ? because every on hath not the book i have transcribed here mr baxter's own words . baxt. of church - government . . p. c. . p. . an episcopacy desireable for the ref●rmation and peace of the churches . a fixt president durante vitâ , p. . p. . but some will say , vve are ingaged against all prelacie by covenant , and therefore cannot yeeld to so much as you do without perjurie . ans. that this is utterly untrue , i thus demonstrate . . vvhen that covenant was presented to the assemblie with the bare name of prelacy joyned to poperie , many grave and reverend divines desired that the word prelacie might be explained , because it was not all episcopacie they were against , and thereupon the following concatenation in the parenthesis was given by way of explication in these words . that is church - government by arch - bishops , bishops , there chancellors and commissaries , deans and chapters , arch - deans , and all the other ecclesiastical officers depending on that hyerarchie . by which it appears , that it was only the english hierarchie , or frame that vvas covenanted against , and that which vvas then existent , that vvas taken dovvn . . vvhen the house of lords took the covenant , mr thomas coleman , that gave it them , did so explain it , and professe that it vvas not their intent to covenant against all episcopacy , and upon this explication it vvas taken ; and certainly the parliament vvas most capable of giving the due sense of it , because it vvas they that did impose it . . and it could not be all episcopacy that vvas excluded , because , a parochial episcopacy vvas at the same time used and approved commonly here in england . . and in scotland they had used the help of visiters for the reformation of their churches , committing the care of a countrey , or circuit to some one man , vvhich vvas as high a sort of episcopacy , at least as any i am pleading for . besides that they had moderators in all their synods , vvhich vvere temporarie bishops . . also the chief divines o● the late assemblie at westminster , that recommended that covenant to the nations , have professed there ovvn judgements for such a moderat episcopacy as i am here defending , and therefore never intended the exclusion of this by covenant . after he adds , as vve have prelacie to bevvar of , so vve have the contrarie extream to avoid , and the churches peace ( if it may be ) to procure ; and as we must not take down the ministry , least it prepare men for episcopacie ; so neither must we be against any profitable exercise of the ministrie , or desireable order amongst them for fear of introducing prelacy . thus far baxter's own words . there is another that hath write a treatis● on purpose , & that zealous & strict enough , touching the obligation of the league and covenant under the name of theophilus timorcus . and yet therein it is expresly asserted , that however , at first , it might appear , that the parliament had renounced all episcopacy , yet upon exacter inquirie , is was evident to the author , that , that very scruple was made by some members in parliament , and resolved ( with the consent of their brethren in scotland ) that the covenant was only intended against prelacie , as then it was in being in england , leaving a latitude for episcopacy , &c. it would be noted , that when that covenant was framed , there was no episcopacie at all in being in scotland , but in england only ; so that the extirpation of that frame only could then be meant and intended . likewise it would be considered , that though there is in scotland at present the name of dean , and chapter , and commissaries , yet that none of t●ose at all do exerce any part of the discipline under that name , neither any other as chancellor or surrogat &c. by delegation from bishops , with a total exclusion of the community of presbyters from all power and share in it , which is the great point of difference betwixt that model and this with us , and imports so much as to the main of discipline . i do not deny , that the generalitie of the people , yea even of ministers in scotland , when they took the covenant might likewise understand that article , as against all episcopacy whatsoever , even the most moderat , especially if it should be restored under the expresse name of bishops and archbishops , never considering how different the nature , and model , and way o● exercising it may be , though under the same names , and that the due regulating of the thing is much more to be regarded , then either the retaining or altering of the name . but though they did not then consider any such thing , yet certainly it concernes them now to consider it , when it is represented to them , that not only the words of the oath it selfe do very genuinly consist with such a qualified & distinctive sense , but that the very composers or impo●ers of it , or a considerable part of them , did so understand and intend it . and unless they make it appear , that the episcopacy novv in question vvith us in scotland is either contrarie to the vvord , or to that mitigated sense of their ovvn oath , it vvould seem more suitable to christian charitie & moderation , rather to yeeld to it as tolerable , at least , then to continue so inflexibly fast to their first mistakes and excessive zeal , as for love of it to divide from their church , and break the bond of peace . it may likevvise be granted , that some learned men in england , vvho refused to take the covenant , did possiblie except against that article of it , as signifying the total renounciation and abolition of all episcopacie ; and seeing that vvas the real event and consequent of it , aud they having many other strong and vveightie reasons for refusing it , it is no vvonder that they vvere little curious to enquire vvhat past amongst the contrivers of it , and vvhat distinction or different senses either the vvords of that article might admit , or those contrivers might intend by them . and the truth is , that besides many other evils , the iniquitie and unhappiness of such oaths and covenants lies much in this , that , being commonly framed by persons that , even amongst themselves , are not ●ully of one minde , but have there different opinions and interests to serve ( and it vvas so even in this ) they are commonly patched up of so many several articles & clauses , & those too o● so versatile & ambiguous termes , that they prove most vvretched snares , thickets of briars & thornes to the consciences of those that are ingaged in them , & matter of endless contentions & disputs amongst them about the true sense and intendment , & the tye & obligements of those doubtful clauses , especially in some such alterations & revolutions of affaires as alvvayes may , & often do , even vvithin fevv years follovv after them ; for the models and productions of such devices are not usually long liv'd . and vvhatsoever may be said for their excuse in whole or in part , who , in yeeldance to the power that press'd it , and the general opinion of this church at that time , did take that covenant in the most moderate & least schismatical sense that the termes can admit ; yet i know not what can be said to clear them of a very great sin , that not only framed such an engine , but violently imposed it upon all rankes of men , not ministers & other publick persons only , but the whole bodie & community of the people , thereby ingaging such droves of poor ignorant persons , to they know not what , & , to speak freely , to such a hodge podge of various concernments , religious and civil , as church-discipline and government , the priviledges of parliament and liberties of subjects , & condigne punishment of malignants , things hard enough for the wisest and learnedest to draw the just lines of , and to give plain definitions and decisions of them , & therefore certainly as far off from the reach of poor countrey peoples understanding , as from the true interest of their souls ; & yet to tye them by a religious and sacred oath either to know all these , or to contend for them blindfold without knowing them , can there be instanced a greater oppression and tyrannie over consciences then this ? certainly they that now governe in this church cannot be charged with any thing near or like unto it ; for whatsoever they require of intrants to the ministrie , they require neither subscriptions nor oaths of ministers alreadie entered , and far less of the whole bodie of the people ; and it were ingenuously done to take some notice of any point of moderation , or whatsoever els is really commendable even in those we account our greatest enemies , & not to take any part in the world for the absolute standard and unfailing rule of truth and righteousness in all things . but oh who would not long for the shadowes of the evening , and to be at rest from all these poor childish triffling contests . post-script . whatsoever was the occasion of copying out the passages cited in this paper , & of adding these few thoughts that then occurred touching that subject , i would have neither of them understode as intended any way to reflect upon or judge other churches where this government is otherwise exercised ; but what is here said is only argumentum ad hominem , & particularly adapted to the persons , and notions , and scruples we have to do withal in this church . and though this is de figned to come to very few hands , yet i wish that what is here represented were by some better way brought to the notice of such as know least of it and need it most● that if it be posfible , their extream fervor might be somewhat allayed by this consideration , that this very form of government , which is so hateful to them , is by the presbyterians of the neighbour kingdome accounted a thing , not only tolerable , but desireable : and i might add , that , upon due enquiry , the reformed churches abroad will be found in a great part much of the same opinion ; yea , i am not affrayed to say yet further , that i think there is good reason to believe , that it were not only lawfull for these that now governe in this church but , if prejudice hindered not , might prove expedient and useful for the good of the church it self , that they did use in some instances a little more authoritie nor they do , and yet might still be very far off from proud and tyrannical domination , never applying their power to obstruct what is good , but to advance it , and not at all against the truth , but alwayes for it , and while they do so , the atheisme and profanness that abounds cannot reasonablie be imputed to the nature of the government , as too commonly it is by some , but rather to the schisme that is made by withdrawing and dividing from it : for there is not a greater enemie in the world to the power of religion then the wranglings and bitter contentions that are caused about the external formes of it . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as nazianzen pathetically begins one of his orations for peace . i confess i have sometime wondered to see some wise and good men , after all that can be said to them , make so great reckoning of certain metaphysical exceptions against fome little words & formalities of difference in the government , and set so little a value upon so great a thing as is the peace of the church . oh when shall the loud and harsh noises of our debates be turned to the sweeter sound of united prayers for this blessed peace , that we might cry with one heart and voice to the god of peace , who alone can give it , pacem te poscimus omnes : and if we be real supplicants for it , we would bewar of being the disappointers of our own desires , and of obstructing the blessing we pray for , and therefore would mainly study a temper receptive of it , and that is great meekness and charitie , and certainly whatsoever partie or opinion we follow in this matter , the badge by which we must be known to be followers of iesus christ is this , that we love one another , and that law unquestionably is of divine right , and therefore would not be broken by bitter passion and revilings , and rooted hatreds one against another for things about which the right is in dispute betwixt us ; and however that be , are we christians ? then doubtless the things wherein we agree are incomparablely greater then these wherein we disagree , and therefore in all reason should he more powerful to unite us , then the other to divide us . but to restrain my selfe , and stop here , if we love both our own and the churches peace , there be two things i conceive we should most carefully avoide , the bestowing of too great zeal upon small things , and too much fidence of opinion upon doubtful things : it is a mad thing to rush on hard and boldly in the darke , and we all know what kind of person it is of whom solomon sayes , that he rages and is confident . the second letter . sir , the question betwixt us , is not concerning bishops governing absolutely by themselves and their delegates , but concerning bishops governing in conjunction with presbyters in presbyteries and synods of which vve affirme . that it is neither contrary to the scriptures , nor the example of the primitive church , but must agreeable to both : if any think othervvayes , let them produce their evidences of scripture and antiquity . if they say , it is not enough to make such a forme lavvful , that it is not contrary to scripture , but there ought to be an expresse command or rule in scripture to vvarrand it , they vvill sure be so just , as to be subject to the same lavv themselves . let them then produce such an express command or rule for their ovvn model of kirk-sessions , presbyteries , synods provincial & national , and a commission of the kirk in their several dependences and subordinations for the ordinary and constant gov●rnm●nt and exercise of discipline in the church , and the neces●ary changing of the moderators in these meetings , excepting only that of the ki●k-session , vvherein the minister is constanly to moderat ; for vvithout such an express rule as this , a bishop or fixed pr●sident may very vvel consist vvith that vvhole from they contend for ; and it is really and actually so at this present in this church , and they stand so much the rather obliged to bring a clear command for these iudicatories , and their subordinations , because they affirme them to be of unquestionable divine right , and the very kingdome of christ upon earth , and the only lavv●ul and absolutely necessary government of the christian church , vvh●reas the asserters of other forms do not usu●lly speak so big . if they shall say , they are not against a fixed pr●sident or bishop , or call him vvhat you vvill ( for to contest about names , ●specially in so grave a matter , is trivial and childish ) but that the question is about their povv●r , then vve beg that it may be so . let that be all the question betvvixt us , and then vve hope the controversie vvill be quickly ended ; for vve trust vve shall be found not at all desireous to usurpe or effect any undue povver , but rather to abate of that povver vvhich is reasonable and conforme even to primitive episcopacie , then that a schisme should continue in this church upon that score . but be it supposed , that bisbops do stretch their power somewhat beyond their line , let all the world judge , whether ministers are for that ingaged to leave their station and vvithdravv from those meetings of the church , vvhich themselves approve of , for the exercise of discipline , yea and ( as many of them have done ) to separate from the publick worship , and vvhole communion of the church , because of some degree of vvrong done them ( as they think ) in that point of povver , or vvether they had not sufficiently acquitted themselves , and discharged there consciences by free declaring of their opinion concerning that matter , & modestly desiring the redress of it ; & patiently waiting for it , though it be not presently redress'd , & continuing in the performance of their own duty to their power , though others above them , or about them , do transgress theirs , or seem at least to them to do so ; otherwise if we think our selves obliged for every thing that is , or that vve judge faulty in other persons , or in the frame of things , to relinquish either the communion of it , or our station in it , vvhat vvill there be but endless svvarmes of separations and divisions in any church under the sun. but there is one thing in this business of ours that stickes after all the rest . the covenant . as to that , waving all the irregularities of it , though so many and so great , that in the judgement of diverse , both wise and good men , they seem to annul the obligation of it , suppose it still to bind all that took it , and suppose likewise , that the present episcopacy in this church is that same that was abjured in that covenant ; yet the article relating thereto obliges each one only to this , to endeavour whithin there calling and station , if such an episcopacy shall be introduced and continued against their will. but the truth is , if men would have the patience to enquire into it , and consider the thing without p●ejudice and partialitie , this our episcopacy will be found , not to be the same with that abjured in that covenant : for that is the government of bishops and archbishops absolutely by themselves and their delegates , chancellors , archdeacons , officials , &c. as it is exprest in the very words of the article , and was on purpose so exprest , to difference that frame from other formes of episcopacy● and particularlie from that which is exercised by bishops jointly with presbyters in presbyteries and synods , and that is it which is now used in this church . and that the presbyterians in england do generally take notice of this difference , and to that degree , as to account the one model contrary to the covenant , and the other , not contrary to it , b●t very well agreeing with it , is a thing that none can deny , nor any that uses diligence to enquire can be ignorant of , for it is clear in diverse treatises extant in print . these things , to my best discerning , are truths ; and if they be indeed so , i am sure are pertinent truths , toward the healing of our sad divisions ; but if any like to be contentious , i wish i could say of this church , we have no such custome : but this certainly may be said , that there is no custom doth more disedifie the churches of god , and less become the followers of the prince of peace . i shall only add on word which i am sure is undenyable , and i think is ve●y considerable , that he that cannot joyne with the present frame of this chu●ch , could not have lived in the communion of the christian church in ●he time of the first most famous general assembly of it , the councel of nice , yea ( to go no higher up , ●ho●gh safely i might ) he must as certainly have separated from the whole catholick chur●h in the dayes of the holy bishop and martyr cyprian upon this ve●y scruple of the government , as novatus did upon another occasion . an appendix in answer to a narrative of the issue of the treaty anent accommodation . since the finishing of these sheets , i have seen a narrative of the last passage a●d issue of this treatie for accommodation , which again ingageth me to take my pen. and in this discourse , the author ( and 't is like one of the two , whom i have already rencountered ) premising the articles that we have heard , exhibiteth the words , and manner of the brethrens refusal to close therewith , and then resumeth the accommodators their arguments , concluding with a short additional reflecction , upon both our covenants . and as for the first part , touching the brethrens refusal and their declining to give in their reasons , or to debate the matter without an express command , i do neither contradict nor apologize . only of this i am assured , that whatever influence , the manifold transgressions and mightie sins of the present times , the intractableness of adversaries , or the hopeless self-conceit of the party with whom they dealt , might have had upon their prudence to keep silence ; yet neither can a cause , so righteous and evident , be there throw justly prejudged , nor will the duty of a testimony , for god and his truth in so cleare on exigent , be thereby satisfied . the arguments by the author resumed , are little or nothing different from these , that i have already discussed , and when i come to re-examine them , i shall take them rather as they shall fall in then as they lye . but seeing that both the strain of this paper , and certain other grounds of conjecture , do probably in●inuat , that the accommodators , rather then to fail of a designe so advantageous , may possibly abate their termes , to the most taking condescendence , and make all the stress of the controversie , to fall upon the lawfulness or unlawfulness of a fixed praeses , it will not be amisse , that for the better defeating of this contrivance , we resume the question ; & supposing this president to be both eligible & deposible by the very meetings over which he presides , and vvaving all o●her singularities , inquire a little more accuratly into the nature of his office , and vvherein its differences from an ambulatory moderator do precisely consist . and first vve may observe in general , that although there be nothing more frequent in the mouths of our opposits , then in the pursuance of their present purpose , to undervalue the difference inquired into , unto the almost nothing of a formaliti● , depending meerly upon the diversity of the periods of the two moderators their duration ; yet in other cases of the like nature , wherein they , or any persons els , do conceive themselves to be concerned , what co●tra●ie contendings and reasonings doth a little inte●●st elicit ? i need not alledge parti●ular ins●ances , he who seriouslie considereth , how that there is no court , society , or incorporation so meen , whereof the members , upon the alteration of their priviledge , either by usurpation among themselves , or by extrins●ck imposing of others , from a chair-man freelie elected during pleasure , unto a praeses fixed ad vitam , would not complain of a great and material innovation , will in the matter of courts institute by god and not by man , and that in order to things of an everlasting consequence , be easily satisfied , either of the delusion , or more hurtful designe of the former pretense ; so that a man may well conclude that it is because , that neither the great autho● , nor the principal ends of these meetings , are duely regarded , that therefo●e the ordinances themselves , are accordingly slighted . . i observe , that the origen and warrant of a moderator in church-meetings , is not from any particular positive scripture-precept or rule given anent●● ; but being a thing by clear evidence , necessary for the concerne of order , and the right expeding of affaires , its immedi●t rise , comes to be referred to the common providence of reason , and is only reductivè , and in s● far of divine institution , as the courts whereunto the office belongeth , are founded upon that authoritie , and do require this moderation , as an expedie●● needful to the right management of your business ; which ground being in it self manifest , and such as may be examplified in many other instances● and also fortified by apostolick practice , doth abundantly make out my assertion , and yet confirme the institution , with a sufficient impress of gods appointment . only it may be remembered , that whereever this rational necessity taketh place in divine ordinances , as its exigence is the precise measure and warrant of any thing thereby introduced ; so if this limi● be once ●lighted and transgressed , we not only tacitly impeach the holy and wise cou●sel of god , in ordering his own matters , but in effect cast open a door , to all that the weakness and wantonness of human invention , and ca●nal reason , shall please therein to devise : and how displea●ing this is in gods sight , and of what dangerous consequence , no serious christian needeth to be advertised . . i observe , that as there is a vast difference , betwixt the entrusting of a person with an employment , by a revocable mandat , and the vesting of him with a ri●ht and power , to exprese the same for terme of life ; so it is in this , that ●he diversity of the fixed praeses , and ambulatory moderator , doth mainly stand . for clearing of which position , it may be considered , that seeing the distinction of right and dominion , from a precarious use , doth mostlie arise from , and it is valued by the certain continuance of the former , consequent to the nature of the thing , which in the later , subject to anothers arbitrarie interruption , is not to be found ; how in the case of this presidencie , fixedness , doth superinduce a kind of proprietie , to which the changeable moderator can lay no claime , is very easy to be apprehended . he who by a permissive benevolence doth only enjoy for an uncertain season , may nevertheless have a very full and plenary use ; but that this enjoyment is obnoxious to anothers pleasure , whereas that of right , the subject remaining , can only be terminat by the owners consent or deed , is the great disparitie , whereby not only these titles are in themselves distinguished , but from which , the power of a free disposal , peculiar to right , doth undoubtedlie flow . whence it may be further collected , that as the free civil abuse ( so to speak ) as well as the use , is founded in , and warranted by the nature of right , and the independencie from the will of any other , which it imports ; so the fixedness of any power or office , doth certainlie in so far , notably capacitat the person therein stated , to a more free and incontrollable exercise . what difference lawyers do make , inter cum qui jure suo , & illum qui beneficio tantum alieno jurisdictionem habet , and what a latitude of power , is by them assigned ●o the former , which unto the second , for this very cause , they make incompetent , is not for one to dip further into , then may conduce for the illustration of common reason . only , as he vvho is elected to an ordinary office of fixed presidencie ad vitam , may well and truly be said , to be jure suo praeses , whereas the other , who is thereto chosen by a commission , as it w●re , during pleasure , and no longer , doth by the same rule alieno tantum beneficio praesidere ; so , that this fixedness , imported by the jus suum , arising from the investiture of the office , doth considerably advance the episcopus praeses , and discriminat him from a moderator , nominat only during pleasure , and absolutly depending upon the beneplacitum of his constituents , n●edeth no further explication . i have hitherto for avoiding confusion , opposed to the fixed praeses a moderator appointed simplie during pleasure , if any man think that this doth not so exactlie quadrat to our custome , where by our moderators were chosen , f●r a definit space , & that by this certain designation he appeareth not to be much different from him that is ordained for time of life . it is answered , it is not the simple omission , or adjection of a certain space , that is to be regarded in this matter , a person may be commissionat , not only ind●finitlie , but also with the expression of a prefixed time , and yet in both cases meerlie during pleasure , just as in a precarious concession , which though it may be qualified with the convention of a certain terme , yet lawy●rs say , it is of no force to restrain the granters revocation ; but the true point of the difference , doth plainly stand in this , that the office of presidency once being declared to be fixed , and so made a right of its own nature , not oth●rwise terminable , then with the praeses his life , as his continuance therein , is from the nature of his right , and cannot be understood to flow meerly from the electors their free pleasure , like to the case of a trust committed by simple mandat ; so he is no more obnoxious to their revocation , then any other person , having a grant from a community of an ordinary superior office during his life , can be turned out of it , at the granters arbitrement ; whereas , on the other hand , there being no such constant office established , the person called simply to officiat , whether indefinitly or for a set time , attaineth to no right , but the same remaineth entirely with the meeting electing , and he is absolutly subjected to their determination . by which also it further appears , and may conduce for the better uptaking of this distinction , that as in this second case , the right abides with the presbyterie , and the naked exercise of moderation , is intrusted to the person thereto appointed ; so in the former , the erecting of this presidency , unto an ordinary fixed office , is without question a manifest derogation from , and abridgment of , the presbyteries antecedent priviledge , so that in summe , it may be certainly and evidently concluded , that as the erecting of a superior office , by a perpetual constitution , and thereby retrinching the constituents their original power , and making to the person therewith invested , a proper right , notwithstanding that the actual nomination and election of persons to that office , may still remain with them , doth clearly and exceedingly diff●r , from a commission given by way of mandat ( though for the exercise of the same employment , ) whether indefinitly , or for a certain space , neither diminishing the mandators their inherent power , nor granting to the person commissionat , any certain right ; so the offices of the constant pro●stos , and the presbyterian moderator , are by the same methods and rules , as remotely distinguished . if it be further objected , that i seeme to forget , that even the fixed , praeses , is not accountable , but may be removed upon his delinquency , and that ad vitam , which doth much impare the difference here assigned , i shall not , in answering , divert my reader to the doubt , whether this praeses may be removed from his presidency upon peculiar and lesser faults , not inferring a remove from his ministry , or whether , according to the perpetual custome in this case , these deprivations are not to be divided , which certainly contributeth much to the praeses his establishment . but seeing the common & notore dis●inction of an appointment ad vitam or culpam , or only , durante beneplacito , doth sufficiently insinuat the solution , it is obvious , that though an ordinary office given ad vitam , may according to the evident rules of right and reason ( which do in no case permit the same to be absolute , or exempt it from all control ) be takan away , upon a just ground of forfeiture , duely , tryed and proven ; yet the disparity of a commission , given meerly ad beneplacitum , and revocable at pleasure , without so much as the necessity of alledging a reason , is abundantly manifest , and plainly establisheth the di●tinction now in agitation ; and in a word , to be removeable from a trust ad libitum , and deposible from a right only , pro culpa , are so sensibly different , that the objection doth not deserve any further answer . only , that the influence thereof upon practice , or upon the right or wrong management of affaires , may be the better apprehended , it would be considered , that almost in every trust and employment , let be in this which we treat of , there are , below that excess of malversation , which can be charged and proven to be a fault to conclude a removel , a great many inferior degrees of mal-administration , which though by reason of their quality , they do not amount to a just cause of rejection , yet may nevertheless be of singular pr●judice , and just as a free election doth deliberat upon proper and improper , so may these smaller transgressions , very rationally require a charge , without meriting deposition . whence it easily follows , that beside the diminution of the presbyteries power and priviledge , this fixed proestos , doth also impose upon them , an inconvenient restriction of their just liberty of change , which in many cases may prove singularly prejudicial . . i observe , that as the fixed praeses is constitute , not by an arbitrary mandat , but by a proper right , resulting from the erection of the office , in the manner that i have described ; so the office it self , consisting in a priority of direction and conduct , it certainly thereunto addeth a peculiar dignity . i say the office consisting in a priority of direction ; for that there are subservient offices , such as that of a clark or recorder , which may be fixed , and enjoyned by a proper right , and have also the general esteem of praise worthy employments , and yet do not intitle to any eminency , is sufficiently explained , and its difficultie removed out of my way , by the simple proposal . but the thing here rema●ked , and wherein the difference of the proestos and presbyerian moderator is further apparent , is , that the former hath by vertue of his right of presidencie a concomitant special honour above his brethren , which cannot be denied to him , without a gross s●lecisme in prelatick h●rauldrie . the temporary moderator is indeed attended by an agreable respect ; but as he is vested with no proper right to the place , wherein he simplie officiats , by the assemblies free nomination , and as its instrument and mouth , which during pleasure , it chooseth for the more orderlie management of its affaires ; so the estimation and honor that accompanieth the employment , is of no higher degree , and equally transient ; whereas the fixed praeses , being rather set up to be a head for governing the assembly and its actions , must of necessitie on this account , be adorned with a more high and permanent dignitie . but it may be objected , that it is an easie matter to represent the controverted praeses in as diminishing characters , and by saying , that he simplie officiats , at least enters unto the office by the free vote of the meeting , and as its mouth , and not its head , by them thereto elected for time of life , to resolve all the difference of the two , and this eminencie of respect appropriat to the fixed , unto the bare specialitie of the distinct period set to his continuance , and no doubt words are easily turned ; but as it must be acknowledged , that these things , viz. for one to be set , though by a free suffrage , in a place formed and erected in an ordinarie office , with its known special powers and priviledges , and to pos●ess by the right thence resulting ; and to be intrusted with the same employment , but only by the way of a free and revocable mandat and commmission , absolutly depending at the constituents pleasure , are widely distant ; so , particular distinguishing qualities of the proestos , in his proper right and power , his exemption from an arbitrary removal , and his more advanced dignity , are thereby notablie declared . and therefore , seeing he doth injoy his place jure suo , ( as lawyers speak ) and doth not precariouslie hang ●or the continuance of its exercise , upon the presbyteries free and simple goodwil , as our changeable moderators do , he cannot in this respect be said to be only an instrument for order , dignified with no higher esteem , but is in ●ffect by vertue of his right , and the power thereto pertaining , rendered the chief and head , and accompanied with a peculiar honor inseparable from such a superiority . if it be further alledged , that even in our own custome , the moderator once elected did alwayes continue out his cou●se , and that it is not so easie to give one instance of this arbitrary putting off , here so much spoken of ; i shall not answer , that his time b●ing short , and not ad vitam , there could scarce be any necessitie for making of such changes : but the truth is , the not making thereof is so far ●rom impugning , that it much commends the differences by me explained ; for if the quality of the office , as by us used , the certain time thereto appointed , and the presbyteries reserve of an absolute control , have been of that efficacie , as even to prevent the occasions of exercising this la●t p●iviledge , no doubt it is more concludent in our behalf , then if the pres●yteries had made many removes . it is not therefore , as i said before , the electing a●d desig●i●g for a c●rtain space , and a not altering observance , that do signifie any thing in this affaire ; no , but as the presbyteries retaining of the absolut power over their moderator , is both their priviledge by the lords appointment ; and also the great check of all abuses , incident through his weakness or malice ; so it is the setting up of a praeses over them , with a power appertaining to him , as his proper right during life , and not committed to him by a revocable mandat , that not only elevats the episcopus praeses to his distinguishing superiority and dignity , but in effect , contains the seminal cause of most of the evils that have thereon ensued . now from these things thus explained , the differences of the fixed praeses ●rom our moderator , appeare mani●estly to be . . that the former imports an ordinary setled office , including a proper right , and power to the person thereto appointed ; whereas the later doth only imply a bare exercise , wholly dependent upon the presbyteries pleasure . . that the setting up of the first , doth derogat from the presbyteries right , by transferring it upon him ; whereas after the nomination of the second , the presbyteries right remaineth still entire , and neither is , nor can be impaired by the intrusting of a particular member with its meer actual exercise . . the fixed praeses deprives the presbytery of a great measure of their libertie , he being exempted from their arbitrarie control and power of changing ; whereas our moderator is altogether obnoxious to their determination . . the fixed praeses is created by a deed convoying a right ; whereas our moderator is made by simple mandat , imparting nothing , save a precarious trust . . i● an allusion may adde light , the praeses is set up as it were to be head ; whereas the moderator is in a manner only appointed to be the mouth of the meeting . . the praeses his right and power and superioritie , do necessarilie attribute unto him a special eminency of dignity ; whereas our moderator , his naked ministerial exercise , cannot pretend to any higher respect . and . the praeses from the nature of his right , continueth ad vitam or ad culpam ; whereas the moderator , having no right , hath no other as●urance or lace , then the presbyteries beneplacitum . these differences then ( though among themselves rather formally then really di●tinct ) holding out the proper characteris●icks of the proestos contended for , as indeed they are , and must necessarily be admitted by all , before i fall to disprove him by further reasoning , it will not be amiss , that for the better clearing of what singular moment these his signal advantages , above our moderator , may be in the matters wherein they are conversant , i shortly note the several parts of the office . and . it is the moderators part , to propose matters to be considered . . to direct consultations . . to moderate debates . . to interrogat opinions . . to ask the votes . . to determine in the case of equality , by his casting suffrage . . to appoint extraordinarie dyets : which being all certain beyond controve●sie , i only wish that the true value of their influence , may be as gravely pondered in the present question for guarding against any exorbitant power , whereby in these spiritual courts and matters , they have often , been and may be still very dangerously abused and depraved , as we see men in their worldly concerns seriouslie attent to the things not only of the like , but of a far inferior consequence . havin● thus delineat the proprieties of this episcopus praeses , as i suppose with a satisfying perspicuity , what clearing it may give to the main inquirie , concerning the lawfulness or unlawfulness of this place and office , falls next under consideration . and in answer thereto , i distinctly affirme , that the place and office of a fixed praeses , or constant moderator , is unwarrantable , and positivelie unlawful . which assertion , seeing it importeth the plain contradiction of my author's first consideration , viz. that there is no command in scripture , for changing of moderators in meetings of presbyteries , nor no precept , nor rule of scripture , contrary to the office of a bishop , as a fixed president in synods , the confut●tion thereof , will be the best confirmation of my position . only i must premise , that seeing the author proposeth the two members of his consideration , as if in eff●ct coincident , and that , if there be a precept in scripture , contrarie to the office of a bishop as a fixed praeses , the necessitie of a change of mederators , doth from the acknowledged exigence of order neces●arily ensue , his insinuat demand of a precept in scripture for changing of moderators , aswel as of a rule , contrarie to the office of a fixed president , is captiously superfluous . holding me therefore to that part , that there are precepts and ●ules in sc●ipture , contrarie to the office of a bishop , as a fixed president , the grounds that in my former discourse i have thence adduced , to prove the absolute and lowly paritie , commanded by our lord to his apostles , and all ●ucceeding ministers , if they do stand firme , do undoubtedlie evince it : for s●eing that our author doth in his third consideration , use it as a main argument , that there is no particular command for an absolute parity of presbyters , adding , if it be , let it be produced , and it will end the controversie , it is as evident from his concession , as from the unquestionable opposition of an exact paritie , and the majority of this office of presidencie , that by the establishing of the first , the second is subverted . now that our lord hath commanded an absolute paritie of presbyters , if i make it appeare from the original precepts , given to the apostles , without controversie not only the antecessors of all succeeding presbyters , in their ordinarie ministrie , but the persons to whom , as representing the perpetual ministrie , ordained by christ in his church , the rules and directions thereto proper were delivered , i hope the transfer●ing of the command , from the apostles to succeeding presbyters , will be of no difficulty . let us then in this search after the lords will in this matter , humbly and meekly consider what he himself hath therein delivered . and as , for my own part , i am very far removed from the temptations of interest , that commonly do svvay and oversway in it ; so i am confident , that all men equally removed from the passions and prejudices thence arising , will in this divine light , find a most assured determination . our lord then having upon several occasions , particularly that reasoning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which of them should be greatest , and the suite of a proedria , or a prerogative-seat presented by zebedees two sons , and their mother , dehorted the twelve from all affectation of more emi●ent authoritie or dignitie among themselves , not only by reducing them to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and innocent simplicity of children , and proponing to them the example of his own lovvliness and humilitie , both in his personal deportment , a●d in the manner of his administration , but also by removing the very subject it self , and warning them , that they ought to be so ●ar from looking a●ter any superioritie of rule or authoritie , one over another , that the greatness of the greatest , was to be servant of all , and industrie and humilitie , their praise and exaltation . he telleth them further , that as he alone was their master , so all they were bre●hren ; and accordingly we find them all equally commissionat to the work of the mini●●rie , math. ● . . alike vested with the power of discipline , iohn . . . and in this paritie acting , officiating and associating others to themselves , in several undenaible instances . these things being evident in the gospel records , verily when i reflect upon them , i cannot but marvel , what it is , that can here be desiderat . the disciples contend who shall be greatest , and our lords answer is , if any man desire to be first , the same shall be last of all : and that the least among them , the same should be great : by which , as it is clearly intimat , that the greatness which they aspired unto , was none other then a primacy or presidency of one above his fellows ; so it is manifest , that our lord doth not in his return so much condemn their ambition , as by a total remove of all greatness , the subject of the competition , and converting their contest for grandeur , into an emulation of lowliness and diligence , fairly confute it . i grant , that according to their more rude & carnal apprehension of our lords kingdome , the time of this debate , it is very likely , that it was incited & managed by agreeable passions and phansies ; but yet seeing he doth not plai●ly direct his return , to undeceive them of that delusion , but rather carrieth his command further , to informe their judgments , and forme there mind , by an instruction suted to the true work & station wherein he was to leave them ; that , even in that they were to look after no stated primacy or majority , but consequently to re● but here our author reclaimeth , and in his fourth consideration saith , that this parity cannot be concluded from our saviour's command , it shall not be so with you , nor any other of his holy injunctions of moderation , humility meekness ; for that would destroy all church-government , and all superiority of pastors , over other elders and deacons , and over their people ; if all imparitie of rule in ecclesiastick persons , were inconsistent with these great laws of our holy profession , the apostles themselves , would have been the first most signal transgressors . it is answered ; if from the text , it shall not be so with you , i were contending for an absolute paritie , in all respects , among all church-officers and members , in as much as thereby all their distinction , with the whole oversight of pastors , should be taken away , without doubt the objection would be unanswerably concludent ; but seeing the divisions of church-officers in extraordinarie and ordinarie , and of the ordinarie , in pastors , elders and deacons , with the imparity thence resulting , is not so much as by us questioned , the laxeness of such arguing doth merite a more severe censure , then at prese●t i am inclined to use . it is therefore to be considered , that as the several powers , offices and gifts , by our lord institute in , and given unto his church , with their beautiful order and subordination , are by us very chearfully acknovvledged , and no constructive imparitie , that may be thence in●inferred , in the least doubted ; so neither is the same a proper imparity , a thing only incident to officers of the same kind ; nor ( if it vvere ) is it the imparitie at present under debate , vvhich being an imparitie of place , or other the like priviledge , attribute to one , exclusive of others of the same order , is the only subject of the controversie : which standing thus in plain termes , vvhether or not our lord , by appointing his apostles , and their successors the ministers of the gospel , in the same equalitie of power , as brethren , and quelling all there competitions about the majority and pre●erence , by reducing them to the lowe degree of servants , without any distinction , except what may arise from a greater measure of humility and diligence , hath thereby discharged all imparitie of power and presidencie among them : i am confident , that not only the simple proposal doth conclude the affirmative , but render the absurditie here objected against it widely impe●t●n●nt . i say then , for a distinct answer . . that the paritie by us pleaded , is not indeed to be concluded from any of our lords holy injunctions of moderation , humilitie and meekness ; to insinuat the tontrarie to be our assertion , is not only a plain calumnie , seeing all men know , that the highest as vvell as the lovvest of men , constitute in lavvful degrees , are liable to these sacred inst●uctions , but also a desingenuous artifice , to make it be thought , that we take the command , it shall not be so among you , for a meer precept of that kind , and thereby surrender one of our main arguments ; in as much , as it is rather from the intimation it contains of the apostles their future condition , then from any precept of humilitie that may be thence inferred , that it strongly concludeth my position . . although the command , it shall not be so among you , doth not prohibit the different orders and degrees of church-officers , whether extraordinarie or ordinarie of our lords appointment , which both manifest reason , and the genuine import of the antithesis do plainly evince ; yet that all that superior eminencie and coactive authoritie , whereby the princes , and great ones of the earth , are properlie from others distinguished , is here removed from church administrations , and lordlie prelacie , with all its priviledges and dignities , thereby discharged , is obvious to the meanest capacity . . as these words , it shall not be so among you , do in the first place clear the nature and manner of ecclesiastick , in opposition to secular rule ; so it is from the ensuring ampliation , but whosoever will be great among you , let him be your minister &c. that consistentlie with the former declaration , the paritie by us pleaded , of of●icers in the same order , & all imparitie whatsoever among church-officers , resulting meerly from a greater eminencie of place and dignity , is utterly excluded . i say , resulting meerly from a greater eminencie &c. for that apostles & evangelists , in respect of their extraordinarie qualities and employments , and pastors and ruling elders , in respect of their different charges , are stated in a kind of imparitie , is not at all controverted ; but the question being plainly concerning the lawfulness of an imparitie not from any special power , trust or gift given by our lord , but from an higher place and dignitie , having no other foundation , then a greater measure , and larger interest in the government con●erred by man , upon the person therewith vested , i affirme , that not only among officers of the same kind and order , but among all church-officers whatsoever , this is an imparitie of rule , in ecclesiastick persons , as litle countenanced by the superioritie of pastors over ●ther elders and deacons , and the whole s●ock , or by the apostles their practice , as our lords discourse and command to the twelve , upon the sute of the brothers , doth certainly condemne that proedrie whereunto they pretended . as for our authors anticipation , viz. that to say the apostles were extraordinarie persons , would upon the supposition of their imparity in the point of rule , say nothing , but that they were extraordinarie transgressors , it is like many other his mistakes , wherein th● glances of an i●consi●erat phansie , do very visiliet preoccupy his judgment ; for seeing the imparitie which our lord doth condemne and we do disown , is an i●paritie consi●●ing in the inequalitie of place and dignity , in one and the same order , and not that imparitie , which ariseth from an extraordinarie office , power or gift of our lords ordaining , it is evident that the imparitie of the apostles , extraordinarie officers . compared with ordinarie presbyters , doth not in the least contradict ; and that the author , by imagining the answer , of their being extraordinarie persons , to import no more then that they were extraordinarie transgressors , doth only shew his extraordinarie inadvertence . and really when i consider , that notwithstanding the different orders of offices , which christ hath ordained in the church , he hath nevertheless most expresly stated his apostles , and in their persons all succeeding pastors , in an exact equalitie , and clearly discharged all pretensions , to any sort of majoritie , or preference among them , and that even our adversaries themselves , do not maintai● their episcopus praeses , by any claim of succession to these superior officers , at first by our lord institute , i do not only wonder , to find my author in this objection so foolishly and rawly confounding the imparitie of place and preheminence , in one and the same order , by us from gods word rejected , with the imparitie of orders by the lord established , but am fully of the opinion , that the more eminent degree of a fixed president is yet more unreasonable , then the distin & order of superior prelats , although in the seeming acknowledgment of our very adversaries , destitute of all satisfying pretenses . for asmuch then as our lord , had very clearly and positively commanded the paritie of his apostles , and in them , of all his ministers , by declaring them to be brethren , in direct opposition to that pharisaick pride , which might have tempted them to the like affectation , and further , doth adduce his own bles●ed example , that by the consideration of his ministerial lowliness , in the manner both of his administration and conversation , compared with the infinit excellency of his person , power and dignitie , he might the more effectually obviat all imaginable temptations , & utterly ruine the very thoughts of any inequality of a stated superioritie amongst them ; let us with all fear , and reverence , acknowledge his holy wisdom and appointment , and constantly disown and rej●ct the vanitie of all contrary inventions , specially , seeing it is mo●t certain , that however men may endeavour by specious pretex●s to obscure the prohibition , and to palliat this corruption , yet its wicked , pernicious and abominable effects and consequences , have rendered it , to all the sincere lovers of our lord iesus , palpably odious . that which doth next occurre , is two objections in the authors second and seventh consideration . the one , that the fixed presidency of bishops in synods , hath as much warrand as the fixed moderating of a presbyter , in a kirk-session of ruling elders ; the other , that it can as little be quarreled , for want of an express command in scripture , as kirk-sessions , presbyteries , synods and national assemblies , and their commissions , which with their severall subordination , are nevertheless by us pretended to be of divine institution . but having in the former treatise , by shewing the scriptural , and most rational disparitie of the first case , and the undeniable grounds of divine right and institution for the second , fully answered all that is here excepted , i will not now detain my reader , by any superfluous repetition or addition . the fi●t thing asserted by the author , is , that if the thing it self be lawful , the appropriating of the name of bishop , to the superior presbyter , cannot make it unlawful , though these two names be indifferently used in the scripture , thus the author loves to quible . we say , that not only these two names , are indifferentlie used in scripture , but that they are used as signifying one and the same thing , without the least insinuation of a more proper application , either of the one or the other , to any thing distinct ; & thence do strongly inferre , that after-times did verie unwarrantably and contrarie to scripture-grounds , divide both the things and names : and this our author , doth very lightly turn over , as if all the question anent a divine warrant for the identity or distinction of bishops and presbyter were only a plea of words ; and whether the names of bishop and presbyter , in scripture commonlie and promiscouslie used , might lawfully afterwards be severally appropriat , without the least notice taken , that in sc●ipture the use of the words is no more common , then the thing the same ; and that therefore the separation afterwards made , was a meer human invention . but he adds for a reason , that the names are in the same manner used in some primitive writers , who in other passages do clearly owne the different degree of bishops over presbyters , and vvere themselves of that degree . what then ? a man may indeed hence conclude , that in the times succeeding the purest , with the distinction introduced of a superior bishop over a presbyter , the names , beside th●ir common use , became to be usurped to peculiar significations ; but seeing this manner of writing , observed in these primitive writters , doth no wayes hold in sacred write , whence we ought to search for our warrant , and wherein there is no passage which doth in the least favour the diff●rent degree of bishops over presbyters , what can be gathered from thes● indig●sted reflectious , save this , that the primitive times soon varied from th● primitive simplicitie , and consequently swerved from the primitive purity . seeing then , that all the weakness of this argument , is from the author his own mistake , to take notice of his attempt , to bafle the reasoni●g from this topick , as too vveak and unvvorthy of any serious persons insisti●g upon it , were in effect , to be ridiculously serious in his follies . but he proceeds to tell us in his sixt assertion , that it is yet more strange to be offended , vvith the solemne vvay of blessing , or consecrating bishops , to that presidency vvith the imposition of hands ; as if a grave and solemn admission , to a high and holy employment , vvere apt to unhallovv it , and being in appearance so proper an instrument , of making it the better , should yet effectually make it the vvorse . how the author com●s to terme it strange , yea more strange , that we should be offended with a practice , wich yet , for all his suprisal , by reason of our offence , he himself dar not distinctly avow , might be to us really so , were it not that our experience of his methods , doth abundantly satisfie us , that all the arts of insinuation are familiar unto him . the thing he here points at , is without doubt to justifie the peculiar ordination of his bishop , or episcopus praeses , knowing , that a distinct ordination , doth certainly require and inferre , things altogether incononsistent with his discription o● his episcopus praeses , he therefore endeavours to smooth it over , as if all considerable in the case , vvere only a more solemn vvay of blessing , or consecrating of bishops to their presidencie . but not to stand vvith him upon the matter of words , the things that we are indeed offended at , are . . that vvhere in his episcopal consecration , both the vvords , manner and whole forme of a special ordination are most exactlie used , yet he would have us to believe , that all transacted by this performance , is only a more solemn benediction ; if any man inquire the difference ; that more solemne lawful action , if capable of a solem benediction , is known and obvious ; whereas , although ordination be accompanied with benediction , yet both the notation of the word , and reason it self do plainly intimat , that it is not formally a benediction , but that its principal act , as it is performed by men , is a ministerial conserring in the name , person● and authority of iesus christ , of a special church-office , and consequently , that it supposeth aswel the office it self , as the manner of its conveyance , to depend upon our lords institution , and warrant : whereby it is evident , that either this place of presidencie , being only a humane contrivance , upon the pretence of order of a superior eminencie , for the better conduct of common administ●ation , cannot at all bear or admit of it , or that under the proposal of this presidencie , it is in effect , not only a higher degree , but a higher order o● church-officers , that is intended to be introduced : which how pernicious it hath proven , and may yet again prove to the ghurch of christ , both the proud usurpations of prelacie , & the hights of papacie , do sufficiently testifie . but the second thing that offends us is , that admitting the thing were really performed by way of a solemn blessing , in the manner represe●ted ; yet seeing this presidency , being repugnant to our lords command , is not an holy , but an unhallowed employment , any form of benediction , that can be thereto used , is not only de●●itute of any promise , but a profanation of the holiness of god , which he jealously loveth . we do not therefore condemn this conservation , as if vve judged , that a grave and solemn admission , to a high and holy employment , were apt to unhallow it ; no , this alledgeance doth too groslie and caloumniouslie beg the question . but seeing it is certain , that the author will as soon prove gain to be godliness , as he will rationally perswade that this high employment is holy , it is evident , that his grave and solemn admission , is as little apt to hallow it , or to be a proper instrument of making it better , as the consecration of the high places was of old , when they were commanded to be destroyed , in it self allovvable , or unto the lord acceptable . the next thing we meet with is , that the degree or power of bishops , beyond other presbyters , is certainly , not to be so fitly measured by any other rule , as by the receaved practice of the primitive church , and canons of the most ancient councels . very right ; why should not their origen and warrant , and the measure and rule of their power go together ? but seeing we have found this primitive practice , to be dislonant from , and contrarie to the truth and simplicitie of the gospel , the first and chief rule , the author must pardon us , in this matter , to disown both his rule and measures , and to hold us to this only unerring canon ; yet seeing he hath been pleased in his deep ingenuity to acquaint us with that , wherein we account our selves but little concerned , it will not be amiss , that for our warning we take particular notice of the discoverie : he adds then , that by the forementioned practice and canons , it will undoubtedly be found that they had not only some such particular power ( as what , i know not ) but exortem & eminen●em potestatem , as hierom speaks : a man might hitherto have thought , that if not all , yet the main thing acclaimed by the author to his episcopus praeses , was a power of constant moderation in church meetings : but here , lest ( as i apprehend ) he should frustrat his solemn conse●ration , or rather the special ordination , which he hath just now asserted , he deals a great deal more plainly , and tels us , not only in general of such a measure of power , as may be gathered from primitive practice , and ancient canons , which certainlie may be as large , as the most favourable conjecture , from any probable pretence of either of these within the first three or four centuries of the declination of the primeve puritie , pleaseth to form it ; but that by these same rules , beside a certain particular povver , vvhich he doth not specifie , they should have potestatem exortem & eminentem , and this no doubt , in a congruous enough construction of the frequent hyperbolies used by the fathers on this subject , may arise as high as either ambition or interest shall please to to scrue it . this being then the ambiguous and laxe comprehension of the author's measures , vvhat hath been the sinceritie of this treatie , or vvhat might have been the issue of an assenting close to it , i suppose it may be obvious to everie mans reason . for my ovvn part , as i look upon this superior episcopacie , from the very fi●st deg●ee of its ascending , to have been in all the steps of its progress , the continual decline o● pure ch●istianitie , and advance of the antichristian papacie ; and as i am convinced from clear scripture light , and undeniable experie●ce , that all the pret●nces made ●or it , and its power and priviledges , either from the practices , graces , vertues or sufferings of those centuries , wherein it had its first rise and grouth , are only the involutions of that strange misterie , whereby it most secretly and subtillie proceeded to its most prodigious ma●ifestation , in the revelation of the man of sin ; so i am perswaded in the same evidence , that the accommodating of faithful men with it , under whatsomever pretext whithin this land , shall quicklie , either prove the readvancing of its pride , domination and wickedness , or els the greater establishment of the supremacie , to the as in●allible prejudice and ruine of the power and puritie of religion , the devils grand designe in all these unwarranted contrivances . but the author addes for a salvo to these just feares , that the foregoing passage may suggest , that if the spirit of our meek and lowly master , did more possess the minds both of bishops and presbyters , there would certainly be little or no dispute , but the sweet contest of striving who should yeeld most , and give most honor the one to the other . thus we find him alwayes a high pretender to gospel rules , when they seem to make for his advantage : if he once attain to the possession of what either his phansie or interest do recommend to him , then , according to the strain of the former letters , how full is he of the high elogies of peace , & of earnest longings after it ; how hateful & odious is contention & hatred , nay , it is the main antichristian character ; and in the same manner now that he is for episcopacie & its eminencie , how sweetly would he seem to commend the spirit of our meek & lowly master . but seeing it is without all controversy , that if this spirit were indeed prevalent , not only our disputs & contests about thir matters would cease , but the very subject o● them , being at best a vain invention pretending to order , vvould be totally removed , my hearty vvish and desire is , that the author would rather endeavour to vvitness his sinceritie , by a through and absolute conformitie , then by such partial applications . the and last consideration , which the author offers , is anent the great and known moderation of all the late reformers , the present reformed churches , and of the presbyterian breth●en in england concerning the episcopacy now in question . but having before answered this abundantly , i am not so much swayed with such alledgeances as here to make repetitions . only he sayes , it is wonderful , that we should affect so exorbitant an hight of zeal , and fervor in this point , so far beyond what can be found in any of these we have named , or any other society or party of men in the whole christian world , either of our own former times . 't is answered , the zeal of god is so rare a thing , in this evill and hipocritical generation , and it and the worlds wonder do so often trist , that i am only sorry , that we have not provocked the author and all men to more of it ; and that our reproch for christ , and consequently the matter of our rejoicing , should amount to no more in midst of such backslidings and perver●ness , then to the just and slender charge of a singular aff●cted f●rvor . but yet the author saith , that this is an excess not to be found in the vvhole christian vvorld beside . and if he cannot condescend on any instance , clothed with our circum●●ances , and exactly parallel to our case , is it not as manifest , that the generality of this boast , is a meer empty inconcludent flourish . if he love to plead with such arguments , let him produce me any one of all these churches , societies or parties which he musters up , that after having experimented the evill and bitter fruits of episcopacy , and searched after its origen and warrant , unto a clear conviction of its want of divine institution , and full discovery of the delusion of its rise , and the wickedness of its tendencie , did in a manner unanimouslly , both by law , canon and oath abrogat and reforme from it : and when by the politick influence of court designes and state projects , and the practices of the devil and his instruments , the same episcopacy was restored seven times worse then of before , and so with a most plenary confirmation of all these grievances , formerly objected against it , did in the most pure and conspicuous zeal of god , that ever acted in any nation , reject this corrupt plant , and bind themselves to maintain the true ordinance of god , introduced in its place , and extirpat every thing thereto opposit , by a most solemn covenant ; and in consequence thereof , enjoy the gospel in very observable povver and plenty , untill that by as gross perjury and violence , as ever the sun beheld , this covenant is again condemned , the lords work and ordinance subsubverted , and this old episcopacy , not only with a sevenfold , but with a seventie and sevenfold encrease of all its corruptions and wickednesses re-esstablished ; and lastly the supremacie , the complement of all ecclesiastical usurpations , with an explication broader then all the pretensions of the papacy , is superadded . for the better securing of all which abominations , after full proof made of all that abused authority and power could do against a faithful non-conforming remnant , policy at length doth instruct to propose an accommodation , upon termes , seemingly indeed condescending , but really corroborative of the present establishment , and most visibly suppressive of any reliques of dissent , or opposition , which possibly might revive against it . now let the author , i say , produce us an instance of any church or society , thus circumstantiat , & if not only , the faithful remnant therein , but the generality of all the serious fearers of god , and true lovers of our lord iesus , shall not give their suffrage on our side , nay the case being thus proposed , as in truth it stands , if even these , to whom he appeals , do not clearly declare for us , then let us beare the scorn of singularitie , and what worse he shall please to cast upon us forever . but lest the author imagine , that vvhat i have here represented , vvith an especial regard to the strengthening of the lords people in this land , to vvhom none of these things are hidden or unknovvn , doth rather proceed from an apprehension of a cross verdict upon the simple question of the fixed presidencie , from the persons and churches to vvhom he referres , i grant , that amongst the reformers , and in those churches mentioned , there may be found good men , vvho , not being led by the concernment of their own condition unto a more near and strict examination of the thing , and rather comparing its appearing moderation with the exorbitancies of prelacy , then reducing matters to their first institution , have written of it more indulgently and respectfully : but as it hath not been the experimented and trying ca●e of any christian church , as it hath been of ours , and as the authors that seeme to favour it , do all of them agree , that it is not of divine institution , but do unanimously recomend it upon that account ; so i am confident , that if the examples of the same reformers and churches , in occurrences of less importance , may found a probable conjecture , it may very fairly thence be concluded , that if they had been , or were now stated in the same circumstances with us , they would as far exceed us in this faint and languishing zeal , whereof we are accused , as by the author we are now construed to exceed them . with what truth , reason or civility then the author is pleased , according to the dull affectations of his oraculous wit , to tell the world , that there is no reason can be given of this our zeal , unless that word of the roman philosopher , superstitio est error insanus , it is no hard matter to judge : but if he account it superstition for us , a●ter our most convincing experiences of the woful evills of his episcopacie , and no inferior perswasion , that the way of presbyterie is of divine appointment , in this matter to adhere constantly to scripture rules , and covenant ingagements , vve freely confess vvith the apostle paul , that after the vvay , vvhich he calleth supestition , so vve feare the god of our fathers , and love our lord iesus christ ; beleeving all things that are vvritten , and having hope also tovvards god , vvho in the midst of the years can , and may revive his vvork . in vvhich profession , though the author do judge us to be beside our selves , yet vve are ascertained , that not only all the faithful , that have any conscience in these things , but also all ingenuous men , will answer for us , that sir , we are not mad , but speak forth the words of truth and soberness . it remains , that i consider the author's additional reflection upon our two covenants . and as to what he prefaces , of his having sufficiently cleared , that the article of the league touching prelacie , as it is there specified , doth not at all concern the episcopacy in que●●ion , i b●leeve i have as ●ufficien●ly cl●ared , both the authors impertinency in this restriction , and also the unquestionable concern of both our covenants , from other heads , in the episcopacy controverted . but here he insinuats , that of late he is informed , that we now flie to the other article of the covenant , ingaging us to maintain the discipline and government of the church of scotland , as it was then in being , and hereupon he wishes , that we would impartially consider , wether the present episcopacy be inconsistent with that discipline & government , or if it will not rather be found to be corrobora●●ve and perfective of it , as apt to keep it in more union , & so to make it stronger , and more lasting then it formerly proved , or likely would be , if it were again restored . it is answered . it is not here objected , that by swearing to maintain the then established discipline and government , we did not virtually renounce , and abjure the present controverted episcopacie ; no , both the reformation that had then so recently preceeded , and the reformation that hath since so directly overturned it , do make this point too evident to be denied by the author , or any pret●nding to common sense . but the summe of what is here proposed is , that we were not well advised in that our oath , as having thereby excluded a special mean for the preservation of that which we mostly intended . in return whereunto , i need not say , that every inconsideration is not an just exception to make void an oath ; the authors own inconsideration in this very allegeance is too manifest , to reduce us to that strait . he saith in effect , that the present episcopacy is not inconsistent with presbyterian government . and is it not a lamentable thing , that thir churches and nations should have been so long in so fatal a distraction , meerly for want of such a happie discoverie ; nay that the very vexed bishops , should not for their own peace , have been so wise , as still to bear with and maintain a thing nothing repugnant to their pretensions ? but to be a little more serious , i say true presbyterian-government doth not admit , amongst the lords ministers , of any stated imparity , either in power , prerogative or presidency , one , or all of which is the very form of the controver●ed episcopacie ; therefore they are ( what all men hitherto constantly deemed them to be ) utterly inconsistent . but the author sayes , that episcopacy by preserving union , is perfective of presbyterie . and i grant that any lawful mean preserving union , is indeed perfective of this , as of all other government : but seeing that episcopacie is not only not at all a mean subservient to presbyterie or its union , what ever it may be to government , or its union in general , but is also in it self unwarrantable and unlawful , and in effect as to union , never found to be otherwise more conducible then presbyterie , but either by the destroying , or tyrannous suppressing of truth and the love thereof , by which the right side of all contentions are maintained , i can scarce refrain from censuring the authors fore going observe , as pitifully groundless . it is true , our presbyterie did not retain union as it was desired ; but what then ? if our corruptions and sins do either frustrat the efficacy , or avert the blessing of the best of meanes , is therefore the mean it self to be condemned ? or if where the lord hath left no choise , a mean shall be devised by man more promising in appearance , as to that wherein the mean ordained hath not , through our fault , been so succesful , and withall , if this invention shall be in●allibly attended with far m●re pernicious consequences , ought we either in conscience , or prudence , to shufle out the former , to make place for the later ? certainlie as these things do exactly quadrat to the case of our accidental differences here objected , so the changing of the lords ordinance for a humane device , upon such a pretence , is liker to ieroboam's policie , who for the establishment and quiet of his kingdome , set up his calves in liew of the lords sanctuarie , then that paritie and straightness of heavenlie wisdome , which the lord requires . i might here adde , that the want of the lords blessing , and the parties their greater power , and , for the most part , insolent pride , being duely cousidered , the oligarchik model of the author's episcopoacie , seemes to be far more obnoxious to the objected divisions , then the lowly and equall presbyterie , that our lord hath institute : and that de facto , there is nothing in that state whereunto we can referre their prevention , except unto the over-awe either o● the papal tirannie , or of a more absurd supremacie , which we see every where to be the ultimat progress of these vain delusions : but having formerly met with almost the same alledgeancee , i proceed . the authour ads , and again they would consider , that if the substance be salved in the present model , their obligation is abundantly preserved . 't is ans. seeing the thing to be principally attended , both in the interpretation and observation of an oath , is that which was chiefly intended in the ●raming and taking of it , and which is indeed the substance of the oath , although of its subject abstractly considered it may be only a circumstance , the ●istinction as here applied appeares to be more captious then pertinent . novv that the thing chieflie intended in that article , to preserve the discipline and government of the church of scotland , as then in being , was to preserve presbyterie from the reinvasion of all these corruptious , from which it had been before so latelie vindicat and reformed ; and that of these corruptious , the controverted presidencie or constant moderatorship was one , and that the very first , is so certain and notour , that i cannot but marvel at the authors so perverse disputings in the contrarie . but he sayes , if no chip nor circumstance of the then presbyterian government might be altered even to the better , then is the next part of the article anent uniformity , according to the word of god , and the example of the best reformed churches , illusorie , and a perfect cheat , in as much as though the same rule should in order to uniformity call for an alteration , yet there could be no receeding from the then frame of the church of scotland . thus the author according to his accustomed deceit , when he would perswade to an alteration , notwithstanding that he and his associats , do manifestly intend and prosecut it with all the might and craft that they can adhibit , yet for to delude us to a compliance , s●icketh not , by insinuating the things in controversie to be but chips and circumstances , flatly to contradict and condemne the violence of their own practices . but , seeing that i have alreadie proven from cleare scripture & undeniable reason , that this constant presidency , in steed of being a chip or circumstance , is in effect repugnant to that paritie which our lorth hath commanded , and wherein true presbyterie is essentially founded , and therefore was by us ejected , and the discipline and government , sworn to be preserved in the covenant , established in its place , 't is evident that all here excepted by the author is but a meer cavillation . in answer whereunto , it may well be affirmed , that it ●aires vvith the covenant as with the truth it self ; no such redargution of all calumnies objected as by its own evidence . the article questioned , binds in the first place to the preservation of the reformed religion in the church of scotland , in doctrine , vvorship , discipline and government against the common enemy ; wherein , it is certain , that as the truth in all the heads discovered by divine light , and after much wrastling recovered from mens corruptions , was directly and plainly ingaged unto ; so such extrinseck and lesser circumstances , as are in their own nature variable , and only determinable by a prudence regulat by the general scripture-rules of order and edification , and vvere not at that time either questioned or reformed , are not in this obliton of our oath o●hervvise comprehended , or thereby rendred unalterable . in the next place , the article obli●ges to the endeavour of reformation in the kingdomes of england and ireland in the same points , according to the word of god , and the example of the best reformed churches : which qualification adjected , al●hough through the deceitfulness of men , it hath given the principal occasion both to perversions and calumnies , yet i am assured , that as in it self it is most sound and rational ; so it may testifie on our part a most fair and ingenuous candor : in asmuch , as although the englishes did first seek to us , and willingly & freely ingaged with us , to the maintainance of the reformation whereunto we had then attained ; y●t in the confidence of the truth wherein it was bottomed , and that it might appeare to the world , how little we were either addicted to any thing as our own , or inclined to abuse and impose upon their distress , we agreed to covenant to the endeavours of their reformation , not precisely according to our example , though vve vere fully persvvaded of its divine vvarrant , but according to the unerring rule of the word of god : ( to which we vvere alwayes , and are still ready to submit all our ingagments and persvvasions ) and the example of the best reformed churches , the best arbiter of all exterior indifferences . now after this cause , follows the obligation to uniformity in these term●s , and shall endeavour to bring the churches of god in the three kingdomes , to the nearest conjunction and uniformity , &c. which being the part of our oath , whereon our author doth at present trifle , i shall not trouble my reader to rectifie his misrepresentation , as if it were the common work of uniformity , and not englands particular reformation , that were referred to the word of god : but seeing by the obvious tenor of the whole article , the preservation of the reformed religion in scotland , and the reformation of england and ireland , according to the word of god , are premised as midses conducing , and tendencies certainly concentring in this conjunction wished for , i am confident , every ingenuous man must acknowledge both the consistency of our oath , and the vanitie of our adversaries sophistrie . and therefore it is answered . . that suppose , the intended uniformity and conjunction did require an alteration ; yet seeing the disconformity of either part , maketh place for it , & even perfection it self & imperfection , by reason of their disconformity , are capable of such a designe , the necessity of an alteration to be made on both parts cannot be thence inferred . so that the author's conclusion , from the unalterableness of scotlands frame , that the article of uniformity is illusorie , and in plain terms a perfect cheat , is pitifully claudicant , and unworthy of both his judgment and gravity . . although that the things covenanted to be preserved in scotland , as being very acuratly tried and convincingly found to be agreable to the word of god , are in effect both from their vvarrant , and our oath unalterable ; yet , seeing that by reason of our sublunary state , there are several external circumstances attending the worship , aswell as the discipline and government of the church , neither positively determined by the vvord of god , nor comprehended in this our oath for preservation ; that in these , there is a latitude on all parts left to the improvement of providence , and gratification of charitie , for the more easie and happie obtaining of the uniformitie covenanted , is in itself evident , and the very subject and intendment of this last clause , as to any thing which may be thereby imported over & above what the preceeding parts of the article do contain . but , . the palpabl● fallacie of the author's objection , is , that he falsely supposeth , not only that the word of god may in order to uniformitie call for an alteration in scotlands frame covenanted to be preserved , but that even the swearers of this oath did thereto referre , as not being fully ascertained and ultimatly determined as to the congruitie of that very establishment which in the same article they sweare to mantain : whereas , it is manifest from the tenor of the article and all other circumstances , that as we in scotland were assuredly perswaded , that the things whereunto we had attained , and which we sweare to preserve , were according to the word of god , and england also by concurring with us in the same ingagement did thereunto assent ; so it was in the same common perswasion , that we engadged to endeavour englands reformation according to the same rule , and did , in the holding and not altering of these obligations with a just accommodation of undetermined circumstances , jointly vow and hope for the above mentioned uniformitie . . as the certain conformitie of scotlands then reformation to the word of god , doth directly contradict the authors supposition , and the alterableness of the then constitution of government in so far as we are sworn to preserve it , is very consistent with the vowed uniformitie whereby the authors argument is utterly ruined ; so we do constantly acknowledge the same word of god to be the supreme and unerring rule , whereunto we heartily submit ; and therefore , if the author can shew that this rule , either upon the account of uniformity or any other , doth require an alteration of that government whereunto we are bound , it is in vain to redargue us from pretended inconsistencies in the words and contexture of our oath , seeing this is a direct and plain method by vvhich vve are most vvilling to be tryed . the author addes , that if no hoofe or hair of the scottish modell can be altered , though both scripture , the example of the best reformed churches , and the vowed uniformity should require it , then ought it in stead of according to the vvord of god , &c. to be rather according to the present forme of the church of scotland . but . waving the fraud and scorn of the author's hoofes and haires , vvhereof it is certain , that his fixed presidency , unless so far as it is an excrementitious superfluity , can be called none , vvhy doth the author cavil ? if the scripture and the example of the best reformed churches , do require an alteration of our modell , let him shevv it , and there is an end . . i have already given a cleare account , vvherefore the ingagment in the covenant to reformation in england did referre to the word of god &c. rather then to any particular example . . if upon the matter , englands covenanted reformation in discipline & government according to the word of god , &c. do in effect resolve in an exact conformity to our then constitution , doth it therefore follow , that this part of our oath is either a cheat or an abuse ? god forbid ; the rule is too sacred to give ground to such a consequence : and certainly the author's second thoughts will correct his rashness . but the author subjoines , that how this understanding of the rule of englands reformation according to the vvord of god , as certainly introductive of the then scottish model , would have past with our english brethren , and particularly with these present at the framing of that covenant , may easily be imagined . it is answered . the question here mainly agitat , is , neither how the englishes understood the ingagment of the covenant in order to their own reformation , nor yet what may be its real import , but plainly what we stand bound to by vertue of that article , obliging us to preserve the reformed religion in the church of scotland in doctrine , worship , discipline and government ; and that thereby we are obliged to disown and reject the authors episcopacy and fixed presidency , from which our government was at that time expresly reformed , is that which i am perswaded he himself dare not seriously deny . . whatever meaning interest , passion or prejudice may possibly devise , yet that the words , according to the vvord of god , &c. are in themselves most plain , safe and sound cannot be controverted . but . that under this very form of words both england did give , and scotland did obtain a sufficient as●urance for the setting up of presbyterian government in england as it was at that time established in scotland , is no hard matter to explain ; in as much , as not only the word of god , the declared rule , doth thereto strictlie and antecedentlie tye , as hath been made out ; but whoever herevvith considered the knovvledge the englishes had of our then constitution , the affectionat sympathie they had testified , both in our labour and victorie vvhereby it vvas attained , their frequent and significant insinuations in publict , in privat , in print and in speeches to this purpose , their express ingaging to the preservation of our frame , their brotherlie covenanting and concurring vvith us for the cause of god , and many other circumstances , vvill vvithout hesitation conclude , that we had as pregnant grounds of persvvasion of there being like minded with us in this matter , as could be demanded or expected by ingenuous men , from a nation at that time so unsetled and discomposed . and therefore , seeing there was nothing for several years preceeding , more clearlie and distinctlie held forth by us , then that we judged the form of government then in being among us , to be the only church government agreeable to the word of god , i think we may well take the author's suggestion , as if the englishes would never have passed this sense and meaning of the words , according to the word of god , to be only a cunning hint , to collour a confidence which can●ot be avowed . it is true , that in process of time , the love of truth and zeal of god did much abate , & error abound in that nation ; whence to many who desired a sutable licence , the just severitie of presbyterie became uneasie and odious : but as that doth nothing convel the former arguments by me adduced , so it is no less true , that the sounder and better part of england , not carried away by the present defection , do still own presbyterian government as by us asserted , to be the only government that our lord has appointed in his church . but our author tells us , yea , it is not unknovvn hovv careful one of the english commissioners vvas to have that clause inserted , according to the vvord of god , and hovv secure he thought himself and his countrey by that expression from the inroade of scottish presbyterie upon them notvvithstanding that former article premised in favours of it . well , admit this to be a truth , what then ? ● if one of them was a deceaver , & deceaved & yet manifestly taken in his own craftiness , what is either the work or the covenant the worse ? if confident errors or treacheries be sufficient to consute the truth the author needed not have called this witness to his assistance ; but seeing it is most certain that whoever that person was , and whatever might have been his peculiar opinion , and communication or correspondence with the author in it , neither was there any such thing openly declared or treated , nor hath it the least foundation in the words under debate ; but on the contrary is by them as manifestly confured , as the author now is , to what he formerly professed most repugnant : the thing is scarce worthy this my reflection ; and yet behold the conclusion , that the author drawes from it . thus , saith he , were the contrivers of that covenant bussied in patching it up , to outwit one another by words and clauses , hovv inco●herent and discordant soever , to salve their different interests and opinions , and to make it strong in odium tertii , hovv vveake soever it might prove to discerning men , by disagreeing and jarring vvith it self , and a very babel , by the divided and confused language of its architects . and thus our author having abandoned all conscience of the oath of god , doth also cast off all shame , and in his envy standeth not openly to contradict and blaspheme . if he had premised any thing to give so much as a collour to this incoherence , discordance and confusion objected ; somewhat in excuse of such conclusion might be indulged to his passion and interest : but when nothing hath been alledged , except a blind conjecture of some persons their different apprehensions of the soundest and plainest form of words , contrarie to the undeniable evidence of the truth it sel● , and from which inconvenience the most pure light of divine revelation hath not been exempted , upon thir grounds to inferre an accusation against the holy covenant in the termes vve have heard , can only be the effect of a most wicked indignation and apostatick malice . lord bow downe thine eare and heare , open lord thine eyes , and see , and hear the words of this man , who hath set himself to reproach thy truth and wo●k , which thou hast manifestly owned ; and save i beseech thee thy people out of the hands of these evill men , that all the churches may know , that thou art the holy lo●d god of truth , vvho searcheth the reines and heart . and therefore in return to this contempt and scorn , i shall only here briefly adde to what i have in the former discourse observed to this purpose . . that all the forged ambiguities and inconsistencies , that either the deceit of hypocrites , or perversness of open adversaries , have hith●●to laboured to fix upon the words and frame of this oath , are not only the fate of truth , but according to its proper vertue , by the serious consideration thereof in its own light , most readily and satisfyingly salved . . as the covenant was attended by a most signal power , and presence from on high ; so it s sincere prosecution , was constantly blessed with a very beautiful concord ; and whoever divided from its genuine meaning and purpose , did quickly also abandon the reverence and regard thereof , which he once professed . . that not only the forsakers of the covenant do relinquish it without repentance , and for the most part , by the irritation of their own guilt and shame , are exasperate to irrational railing and rage : but if the revilings and persecutions of the ungodly world , be the badge of truth , the covenant hath from the beginning been thereby very notably confirmed ; and all its true followers may herein rejoice and be exceeding glade , as being by the lord pronounced blessed . . that as the beautie and glorie of the work of god , were very visibly promoted both by the covenant and its contrivers , and confusion formerly , and calamity and wasting consumption now , the certain and manifest effects of mens svverving and backsliding from it : and as in that furious storme that broke off and destroyed the branches , the root of the kingdome was by this bond made sure , until the time of our restitution wherein it made the first and most airly appearance ; so the remembrance of these things , may yet be ground of hope , that the lord will arise aud have mercy upon zion , and in place of the babel-confusions wherewith these masters of confusion and rebuilders of babilon do upbraid us , cause his work appeare unto his servants and his glory unto their children . in the last place , the author saith , he heareth that some take the romish hierarchie in the national covenant , for the same with our present episcopacy ; and that by vertue of the gloss of glasgow which yet , he saith , doth grosly corrupt the text : for the romish hierarchie is the romish hierarchie , and no other ; nor hath any man , or assembly of men , even such as have most of the spirit in them , power to bind a sense upon the words , so different from , and opposite to their clear and genuine signification . i cannot here in the close insist on all the impertinencies hudled up in these few lines , though by the romish hierarchie abjured in the national covenant , there is no doubt meaned , not only romes proper hierarchie , usurping and pretending to a domination over us : but also , all such like corruption in ecclesiastick government , whether in its rise , growth or consummation , under which it is manifest , that the controverted episcopacy as being the first workings of that mystery , must necessarily be comprehended . yet it was not by this clause alone of this covenant , that this episcopacy was conceived to be abjured amongst us ; in as much , as the argument that may be gathered from it for this abjuration , is both cumulative and concludent above exception , viz. that albeit , that it doth principally relate to heads of doctrine , and the maintainance of the truth therein contrary to the errors of poperie , yet it doth also extend itself against all manner of superstition & corruption : and therefore doth not only reject the popes worldly monarchy and wicked hierarchie , whereby , without question , all the degrees , occasions & tendencies , either of worldly domination , or undue elation of christs ministers over his flock , or among themselves are disclaimed ; but thereby we do expressly joine our selves to the church of scotland as then reformed in doctrine , faith , religion and discipline , promising and swearing by the great name of the lord our god , that we shall continue in the obedience of the doctrine and discipline of this kirk , and shall defend the same according to our vocation and power all the dayes of our lives . under vvhich heads , especially that of discipline , according to the usual phrase of these times , as it is vvithout controversy , that the government then in being vvas contained ; so if vve consider , that the taking and subscribing of this covenant in the year . and . was designedly enjoined by the general assembly for the confirmation of presbiterian government then completly perfected , and unanimously agreed to in the year . and universally setled and established in the year : it is not possible , that in this matter any shadovv of scruple should remain . i might here adde for a further evidence , that when within a few years thereafrer , king iames and his court-faction took upon them to innovat that forme , by the introduction of kirk-commissioners , and constant moderators or fixed presidents ; the faith●ul who opposed these courses did , as it appeares by their writings and publick protestations yet extant , very freely testify against them , as perjurious defections and breaches of the oath of god : which is an undeniable proof of the sense wherein it was taken . but the plain and obvious account of this oath , which i have already exhibit , is more then sufficient , to vindicat the consonancy and soundness of that interpretation made by the forementioned assembly , against the author's identick and ridiculous reasoning , to wit , that therefore the romish hierarchy in that oath cannot contain the present episcopacy , because forsooth , the romish hierarchy is the romish hierarchy , and no less ignorant and lascivient confidence , whereby he goeth about , not only impudently to decry a most certain and cleare explication as gross and shameful , but impertinently to defie or mock the spirit of the lord , and all thereby conducted . i might in this place moreover subjoine , that admitting , for the author 's more ful redargution , that the assembly had lap●ed in their exposition ; yet seeing it was materially agreeable to truth , & we are thereunto bound by our sacred oath , not so much assertorie of the justness of the explanation , as positivè , renouncing the thing therein contained ; this error in the manner , could not by any rule dissolve the force of our oath , but the certainty and lawfulness of our abjuration by this oath , both of prelacy and episcopacy , and all their aspyring degrees , hath been already by me so largely and evidently declared , that any addition were altogether superfluous . as for what the author tells us in the last place , that the presbyterian brethren in former times did not think themselves by that cove●ant oblidged to separate from the synods wherein bishops presided , as their practices do evidence . i am persvvaded i have so abundantly cleared the difference of their case from ours , and thereby reconciled their and our practices in a most agreeable consistency , that the very simple noticing of this reflection may almost be accounted an excess . i might here adde that if presbyterian government were offered to be truly restored upon its own proper● foundation , and no thing imposed beside this constant president , both eligible & deposible by the courts , wherein he moderats ; the practice of vvithdravving would be liable to more probable exceptions but seeing the very lovvest condescendence that probably can be conjectured , is immensly distant from this hypothesis ; and the exigence of a te●timony flovving from our present unrepented backslidings , vvith the far more probable ensuing of evill then good , upon a conjunction vvith the persons , and in the other circumstances obvious in our present condition , doe according to these grounds and rules declared in my first discourse , still persvvade to a humble , tender , prudent and vvitnessing separation , i do here put a period to these debates . finis . prudential reasons for repealing the penal laws against all recusants and for a general toleration penn'd by a protestant person of quality. burthogge, richard, ?-ca. . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing b estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) prudential reasons for repealing the penal laws against all recusants and for a general toleration penn'd by a protestant person of quality. burthogge, richard, ?-ca. . [ ], p. printed for matthew turner ..., london : . written by richard burthogge. cf. dnb. 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ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng dissenters, religious -- legal status, laws, etc. -- england -- early works to . catholics -- england -- early works to . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - jonathan blaney sampled and proofread - jonathan blaney text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion prudential reasons for repealing the penal laws against all recusants , and for a general toleration , penn'd by a protestant person of quality . published by authority . london , printed for matthew turner at the lamb in high holborn . . reader , you will admire perhaps at first the confidence of this person , who never was of the council , be sure , nor is of the parliament , that he should make so bold as to endeavour to shew the interests of all parties , and ev'n those of the king and of the country . but you will have cause to cease your admiration , if you consider , that the interests of the parties do not lie so deep under ground as is thought ; and that if men do not see them , it is not because they cannot , but because they will not ; not because the object is hid , but because their eyes ( with which they must see it ) are mop't in passions and prejudices . the author pretends to see no more , than every body else may , provided , that he will wipe his eyes , and be as impartial and as unprejudic'd as he. as for the king , whom god long preserve ; thanks be to god , he has a clearer prospect of his own and of his kingdoms interest , in the matters debated , than any his royal predecessors had ; and he pursues it too with that conduct and that vigor which corresponds with the miracles that preserv'd the crown for him , and also him , both for the crown , and for a glory greater than that of wearing crowns , to wit , to be the restorer of religion to liberty and freedom of exercise . prudential reasons for repealing the penal laws against all recusants , and for a general toleration . . christian religion and civil government are things so different , as in their originals , so in their natures ; and ordain'd for ends so different , ( the former being divine and spiritual , and ordain'd to be a means to mens eternal felicity ; the latter , human and secular , and appointed for their temporal welfare ) that in themselves , and absolutely taken , they are nothing a kin , and of no relation one to another . wherefore civil government ( as such ) cannot be oblig'd to concern it self in the business of religion , or to incorporate any , any further than as politic and secular respects do ingage it , that is , any further than as a concernment of religion may become a matter of state , and be for the quiet , safety , strength and support , and so do's make for the ends and the interest of the government . now it is for the interest , quiet , strength and safety of every government to give as much contentment , and to make it self as easie as is possible unto all its subjects , but especially in matters of conscience ; which , as they have the greatest ascendent over the minds of men , so the gratifications and displeasures that have reference to these , of all others do most deeply affect them . and therefore it is against the interest , the quiet , the strength and the safety of government to espouse religion ( in any mode thereof ) so as to establish it by law any further , or in any other manner than as may consist with the general liking , and give content unto all in reason ; for reason at last will rule , and over-rule both passions and prejudices . statebigottry ( in any religion ) cannot be for the interest of government . . but to circumscribe my self within a nearer compass . all the sanguinary and burthensome laws relating to religion , that from time to time have been enacted by our english parliaments , against either popish or other recusants ; they were all made in a passion of state , and only to humour the times , as might be prov'd by induction of all the particulars . and therefore as things of that production always have , so even these have something in them of violent , inequitable and extravagant , and of unfit and inconvenient at least for times of peace and tranquility : so that to repeal them , must needs be an act of moderation , clemency and justice , and of politic prudence and wisdom . . besides , the penal laws did never answer the ends and designs for which they were intended ; but instead of securing good order , quiet , peace and tranquility to the government , they too often prov'd a matter of embroylment and disturbance unto it ; and have been the handles which upon all occasions , ambitious , factious , discontented men have taken hold of , and have used to wind about the people , and make a property of them to serve their ill designs and intentions . . the penal laws never answered or effected their ends. queen elizabeth on several occasions , in several parliaments , gave life and birth to laws of extream severity , not only against the roman catholic , but also the puritan recusant ; but against both to little effect ; for notwithstanding all that severity , popery was not extirpated , and nonconformity grew and spread ; it is true , the less observedly , but not the less dangerously for that it grew in secret , and that it was not observed . king james succeeding queen elizabeth would needs be her successor as to her methods of prudence as well as to her crown , and in the same method was met with the same success : papists were more sharpned , and puritans spred more ; the severities of the law increasing only the number of enemies , without establishing the quiet , repose and peace of the government . when laws are enemies to any men , to be sure , say they what they will , and swear what they will , those men will be enemies to the laws . ay! the very being of the penal laws without a perpetual execution of them do's make enemies . for men will always hate what they always fear ; and the laws ( if in being ) are always feared , because if they do not strike always , yet they may strike , and no body knows how soon they will : which minds me of the second point . . that the penal laws have often ministred matter of disturbance and imbroylment to the government ; to evidence which we need not to go back to far remote and distant times , but may keep within our own horizon and ken , and yet have examples enough , and plain enough . when king charles the first , for certain reasons of state , had remitted the execution of the severity of the laws against roman catholics , and for other reasons permitted some severities to be used by the clergy for the suppressing of puritans ; occasion is taken hence for making complaints upon both hands ; to wit , of the non-execution of the laws against the roman-catholics , and of a too severe execution against puritans . popery ( the cry is ) is favored , and true-protestant religion , under pretence of puritanism and non-conformity , ( is ) discouraged and even undermin'd : at last out comes the popish royal favorite , and on comes war and confusion . . to come nearer yet ; when charles the second after a long experience of the unfitness and inefficacy of forcible courses for setling the repose of state , ( the which he had wisely observed ) found cause to emit his gracious declaration of liberty and indulgence , to quiet the minds of his subjects , that he might have peace at home , while he was making war abroad : presently the alarm is sounded , the church is in danger , an inundation of fanatics worse than that of the gothes and vandals , is like to run over all , and currat lex is the word , and this too , by men that would be thought to valew themselves on the doctrin of non-resistance . again , when by intercession of parliament and from other considerations , he was induc'd to revoke his declaration ( from which moment he might have dated the beginning of all the stirs , and all the imbroylments that followed ) in a little time , the fanatics being sufficiently mortify'd , up goes another cry ( god wot ) of the growth of popery , in which ( without doubt ) the fanatics did heartily joyn , both out of a sense of revenge , and from that of their interest . after this came plots upon plots , and difficulty upon difficulty , to the certain danger , and almost as certain ruin and destruction of the government . of such advantage are the penal laws to the safety , quiet , and repose of the state ! indeed while these are in being , there can never want pretexts , upon one hand or the other , quiet a movendi , to make complaints of ; as , either of too much severity , if they are executed , or else of too much remisness , if they are not . away then with these two-handed tools of contention and faction . . i may add , that severities , especially in matters of religion , are so contrary to the complexion and temper of our nation , which both by nature and by the frame of our government , in the fundamental constitutions of it , are much more mild and gentle than most others , that the very authors and promoters of the sanguinary and burthensom laws , in a little time , and when the heat was over , grew weary and remiss themselves in executing of them . fuller tells us , in his ecclesiastical history , cent . . that when these statutes ( he speaks particularly of that in the twenty third of elizabeth , against jesuits , &c. ) were first in the state and magisteriality thereof , they were severely put in practise on such offenders as they first lighted on . but some years after , the queen and her judges grew remiss in the execution thereof ; witness the only confining of many of ' them to wisbich castle . and in king james's days , this dormant law against jesuits only awaked some once in four or five years ( to shew the world that it was not dead ) and then fairly fell asleep again , being very sparingly put in execution , against some notorious offenders . thus he . . and if we consider this subject in a larger circle , and speculate upon it exactly , the prudentialness of what i have propos'd , and have hitherto argued , will appear the brighter . opinions then , and practices in matters of religion are either plausible and popular , or of a nature not so apt to take with the people . if opinions and practices are not plausible and popular , but of a nature unapt to take with the people , in that case there is no need of laws to suppress them , because no danger of them , they will expire of themselves ; laws against them , will but give them credit and reputation , and perpetuate their memory ; to despise and neglect is to extinguish and stifle them . it is true , when opinions and practices are plausible and popular , are well nick'd , and are apt to infect , and take with the people , but yet have not as yet infected them and spread among them , all things being as yet still and quiet , in that case the quickest and severest remedies seem the best , because they eradicate . and thus while the reformation was circumscribed in the breast of one only luther , if friar hogostrate's counsel ( indeed an achitophel's ) of applying chains , and fire , and flame , as the only proper remedy , had been follow'd , that course ( 't is very probable ) would have for ever prevented it . but god had better things in reserve . and this method even queen elizabeth follow'd as to the dutch anabaptists that came over hither : she burnt two , and banish'd all the rest that would not recant : which proceeding , according to the rules of policy , was certainly good ; but how equitable it was , and how christian , i leave to others to judge . but after that opinions and practices have gotten roots in the minds of men , that they have spread among the people , and are entertain'd with applause , so that there are some persons who think it to be a concern of salvation to them to propagate , and others that think it no less a concern of theirs to receive them ; in this case ( and this is ours ) the severity of laws , if executed , ( and laws without execution are scare-crows , seen and despised ) do's only hinder the open profession , but not the belief and secret practice : may repel the humors , and make them eager and virulent , and consequently encrease the danger ; but do's not expel or alter them . thus the body politic becomes replenish'd with malignities , and then any jogging and stirring of state endangers it ; whereof one day our neighbour kingdom of france may have a dangerous experience . and certainly even at this time some of our own church , who lately proceeded to so great extremities against dissenters , and thought by that proceeding to have got an absolute victory , begin to fear it ; and should his majesty please to grant his indulgence by proclamation , and under the seal , i believe they would find it a great truth , that severity and persecution may make conformists , but not converts : however the observation is not new . the burning of men and women like torches in queen mary's days , tho' it had this effect , that it produc'd an universal external conformity to the roman-catholic rites , yet seeing those fires did only heat the humors of the men , they did not burn without illuminating their minds ; no sooner was occasion presented , as , by the descent of the crown on queen elizabeth , it was not long after , but the ineffectualness , folly , and weakness of that proceeding appeared ; for the people , no more than the clergy ( generally speaking ) were now no longer what they seem'd before . again , the condemnation of udal , and execution of barrow and others , ( who were hang'd as felons ) for non-conformity in queen elizabeth's time , had no better effect , as the consequence shew'd ; for notwithstanding that severity , puritanism grew in her time as protestantism did in queen mary's , and possibly the faster for that severity . of this king james the first was fully convinc'd ( at last ) by the burning of legate and weightman ( for the writ de haeretico comburendo has done jobs for others , more than once , as well as for roman-catholics ) he finding by that experiment of fire ordeal , the truth of this observation , that severe executions in matters of religion , even when the opinions are but speculative and not apt to take , do ordinarily more hurt than good . the observation fuller has made of the success of those executions in king james's time , deserves that we should put our finger upon it . god may seem ( says he in his ecclesiast . history cent. . sect. . ) well pleas'd with this seasonable severity , for the fire thus kindled , quickly went out for want of fewel , i mean , there was none ever after that avowed these heretical doctrines , only a spanish arian , who condemn'd to die , was notwithstanding suffered to linger out his life in newgate , where he ended the same . indeed such burning of heretics much startled common people , pitying all in pain , and prone to asperse iustice it self with cruelty , because of the novelty and hideousness of the punishment . and the purblind eyes of vulgar judgments looked only on what was next to them ( the suffering it self ) which they beheld with compassion , not minding the demerit of the guilt which deserved the same . besides such being unable to distinguish betwixt constancy and obstinacy , were ready to entertain good thoughts even of the opinions of those heretics , who sealed them so manfully with their blood. wherefore king james politicly preferr'd , that heretics hereafter , tho' condemn'd , should silently and privately waste themselves away in the prison , rather than to grace them and amuse others with the solemnity of a public execution , which in popular judgment usurped the honor of a persecution . thus he . but to return . the only proper method then , in case religious perswasions have taken root , and are so largely diffus'd among the people that they cannot be eradicated but by barbarous cruelty , and with extream scandal , as by massacres and assassinates ; i say , the only proper method in this case is that which is lenitive , the method of toleration and indulgence , but with due regulations . for in this method , altho' recusants are permitted to continue such still as to the church , yet they cannot but become entirely the friends of the state , which by giving them such reasonable satisfaction , do's as well deprive them of just occasions of complaint , as take away from the multitude all occasions of compassion and pity . and in this state of things should any recusants be still contriving and intriguing it will be manifest ( to all ) that it is not conscience , but a lust of power and rule that acts them , the very suspition of which will lose them the people ; so that they may be punish'd by the hand of justice , not only without murmur , but even with general applause . tho' many will hear them that say , we preach our selves your servants for christs sake , but few will indure such as shall say ( but in effect ) we preach our selves your lords , and you our servants , for our own sakes . it may be added , that restraint doth whet the appetite , and therefore that indulgence and liberty will abate it : men will not care so much to hear recusants , when they are not restrain'd from hearing them . prudential reasons for repealing the penal laws against the roman-catholics particularly . . first , that his majesty having profess'd himself of the roman-catholic perswasion , it is but a just expectation , not only in those of his own profession , but in all the world , that he should procure a legal freedom of exercise for that religion ; which should he be unable to effect with the consent of his people in parliament , it would much obscure and eclipse the glory of his character abroad , it being impossible that he should appear as a king of great figure to the world abroad , if he shall appear to make ( as then he will ) but a little one at home : whereas it is for the interest and safety , as well as for the honor of the kingdom , that the king should make as great , and as illustrious a figure abroad as is possible , seeing the strength and power of the kingdom ( the reputation of which is its safety ) appears not to the world but in the greatness of the king , and in his power with his people . . a continuation of the penal laws against roman-catholics , when the king professes himself to be one , must needs have a particular ill reflection upon him even in other respects . for who can think or say of catholics , that they are so criminal and ill a sort of men , and of principles so very bad , that the utmost severity against them is but little enough ; but withal he must abate of regard and veneration for the king , who acknowledges himself a roman-catholic ? which how it can consist with that proportion of duty , love , and allegiance that we owe unto him as our sovereign lord , is too hard a point for me to conceive . . i am very confident , that many examples ( if any ) can't be given in all history , of governments in which the prince was of a religion , the exercise whereof himself did punish in his subjects , by his laws and judges ; and indeed it cannot be but a solecism in state to admit it . for , that a king should punish in others , what yet he publicly avows and owns and approves in himself , is very odd , and a self-condemnation . i know the case of sigismond the third , king of poland and king of sweden ; but i suppose it will not be urg'd as an instance against me . prudential reasons for tolerating other recusants , as well as , and together with , the roman-catholics . . not to give a toleration and indulgence unto protestant recusants , when it is given to roman-catholics ( if at any time it shall be given ) , would make the toleration of these , how just soever , to become invidious , and a subject of clamor and general scandal , and so a matter of disquiet and trouble to the government . . ay! and the roman-catholics cannot hope to hold and enjoy a toleration that should be giv'n them by act of parliament , if other recusants be not also joyn'd with them therein , longer than they may be sure of a toleration without such an act , only by the royal prerogative and clemency : whereas if the toleration is general , and all recusants , as well the protestant as roman-catholic , equally comprehended in the grant thereof , in one act , and upon one bottom , a consideration of the quality , the number , and the interests of the parties so joyn'd together in the liberty , will secure the possession of it in future : for , then , it will not be wisdom to go about to disturb it . . trade is the interest of england , and liberty of conscience the interest of trade ; it being beyond dispute to all considering men , that the body of the industrious trading part of the nation are either themselves dissenters , or favourers of those that are ( such . ) and it is as evident , that trade , which , before , lay ev'n gasping for life , since his majesties gracious intentions are known to lean towards liberty of conscience , and that he has extended his dispensations from the penal laws in matters of religion , is recover'd to a wonder , and grown brisk and quick , and that too so much to general satisfaction , that we hear no more now , as before , the idle stories of prophecies , prodigies , complaints , and murmurs , ( those certain symptoms of a diseas'd and crazy state ) but all is quiet and still . . it is for the interest of those that do profess themselves the true sons of the church of england as by law establish'd , if really they are lovers of the reformation , more than of their passions and humors , that all recusants , as well the protestant as the roman-catholic , should be equal sharers in the grant of liberty , if any is made . for seeing it is impossible that these two should agree but in things in which their interest joyns them , and as impossible that it should be the interest of either one of these ( any more than it can be the kingdoms ) to suffer the other to get uppermost , one of them will always ballance the other , and consequently both must be contented with liberty , without aspiring to power and rule . and thus the church will always remain undisturbed as well as the state. . but if the church of england will have security in the possession of the establishment they have , or may have , by law , upon their own bottom , without the assistance of ballancing and policy to support it , they must resolve to enlarge that bottom , ( which indeed is their true interest ) by parting with things to them indifferent , but not indifferent to others . for if some men resolve to be always stiff and inflexible , and not to condescend in the least to any abatements , for the love of peace and of unity , one may adventure to foretel , without pretending to prophecy , that sooner or later , they will find themselves in his folly , who rather than cast the worst of the loading over-board to save the ship , will sink with it . . to conclude , it is certainly for the interest of the royal family , as well as for the kingdoms interest , that such a settlement should be well deliberated , and be surely establish'd , as to the business of religion ; that whether the crown hereafter shall descend on the head of a roman-catholic , or of a protestant , ( for it may again ( as has already ) sometimes descend upon the one , and sometimes upon the other ) that that descent should make no change and alteration in the law , or the state of things in the government . preventive wisdom is the best wisdom ; and such a settlement will prevent convulsions and difficulties , which ( else ) on every demise of the crown , the state will be subject unto . but such a settlement , i doubt , can never be effected without resolving that the religion already establish'd , shall be the religion of the state ; and that those who dissent from it , shall yet have toleration and indulgence , but under due regulations and qualifications . for my own part , i admire the world is so fond of uniformity in the externals of religion , that in most things else prefers convenience before it. the world it self is elemented of contraries , diversly proportion'd , and the variety in it , is , of the being , and for the beauty and the ornament of it . finis . a modest and free conference betwixt a conformist and a non-conformist about the present distempers of scotland now in seven dialogues / by a lover of peace. burnet, gilbert, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; 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ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng dissenters, religious -- england. scotland -- church history -- th century. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - emma (leeson) huber sampled and proofread - emma (leeson) huber text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a modest and free conference betwixt a conformist and a non-conformist , about the present distempers of scotland . the second edition . now in seven dialogues . by a lover of peace . gal. . . but if ye bite and devour one another , take heed ye be not consumed one of another . published by order . printed anno dom. . the stationer to the reader . reader , all the account i can give of this book , or the author , is in the following letter which came to my hands a few dayes after i received these sheets , and is prefixed to them in stead of a preface . for the stationer . though these dialogues were brought to you by another hand than my own , yet since it is upon my motion that they came to be published , contrary to the authors design , and truly without his order : i think my self oblidged to say somewhat of the author and the book , and the rather that the author , not being forward to the publishing of it , will say nothing of preface himself ; but withall , i am resolved you shall be as ignorant of the writter of this , as of the author of the book . the author is a person of extraordinary moderation and peaceablness : he can allow any difference of opinion , but such as is incompatible with the peace and quiet of the church . and though there be some expressions in these dialogues that would appear tart ; yet it is meerly occasioned by the zeal he hath against that uncharitable spirit , which can allow of nothing that is not exactly of their own way . the occasion of writting in this way , was , that a book of the same title and nature , printed in england , came to the author's hands ; and he , being pleased with that familiar way of writting , thought presently of composing dialogues suitable to our differences here , as that was to the differences of that nation : if there be any thing in this coincident with that book , it is in such things as the humours of that unquiet spirit in both nations are the same . and the author designs not vanity by these few sheets , written , to my knowledge , in as few houres as they could hardly be transcribed ; but wisheth every one to see the weakness of those grounds upon which such specious structurs are built ; which when they come to be examined , prove but painted sepulchres . the great design of the author in this small book , is , to let some well-meaning people , who have a love to godlinesse , see that religion is not at all concerned in things wherein they do concern themselves very much , and that in contending for the shell we are like to loose the kernell of religion . the language and manner of writting , is accommodated to these meaner capacities , who are most apt to be abused , by such as care not , nay , which is very sad , but too true , wish not religion nor godliness to prosper in the hands of those who differ from them in opinion about externall things , vvhich are not of great moment : as may appear from their persvvading poor souls to take for a mark of zeal that which in al christian nations is lookt on as a very great mark of impiety , to wit , not going to church : by which people do shew , in the most signal manner they can , their not owning the worship and adoration of god. the author meaned no prejudice to any person in vvritting of it , nor is it published upon any such design , but in hopes that it may inform sincere people . and whoever reads it without prejudice , will i hope judge so of it . farewel . a modest and free conference betwixt a conformist and a non-conformist , about the present distempers of scotland . in six dialogues . dialogue i. con. you are welcome from the west . how are all things there ? non. never worse ; the glory is departed from that people : and the power of godlinesse is gone there . god pity that poor place , which was once so glorious . c. i perceive by your manner of speaking , that you are much concerned in these matters : but i pray you tell me wherein things are turned so much to the worse among you ? n. alas ! are you such a stranger in israel , as not to know these things ? are not our gracious ministers taken from us ? so that the work of god is much born down : the brave dayes of communions , preachings , prayers , are away ; and in stead of the fire was once there , there remain but a few sparks in some secret corners : for , the precious ordinances are gone . c. what you say upon the matter , i know well enough : but do not apprehend it to be of such importance , as you seem to do . n. what! do not you think it sad , that christ is not preached ? c. god forbid but he be ? i do not know how it is in your country , but i am sure with us christ is preached very faithfully , but i fear you consider not well what it is to preach christ ; do you think to tell us only of his death , is to preach him ? n. no , no , but oh how doth my heart melt within me , when i remember how sweetly i have heard the ministers there , clear up my interest in christ ? c. may be it was more sweetly then sincerly ; for to tell you of an interest in him , while you are strangers to his laws and gospel , is to deceive you : since you can have no interest in the blood of christ , till you have his spirit dwelling in you . n. blessed be god , i know no name to be saved by , but the name of christ : and i renounce mine own righteousnesse , and accept of his righteousnesse . c. it is very true , that we are saved by the blood of christ : but it is as true , that we must be purified by his spirit , else we are none of his . if by renouncing your own righteousnesse ; you mean , what you naturally can perform without grace , you are in the right , but if you lean so to christs righteousnesse , as to neglect to be righteous your self , you with iudas , kiss your master , while you betray him . and i fear your ministers studied more to convince you of the need of christs righteousnesse , then of having any of your own : for indeed it is a cheap religion , to lean so intirely to christ , that we do nothing our selves . n. we are far from thinking there is no need of good works : we only exclude them from justification , which is by faith only . c. truly your practices tell , you think there is as little need of them to salvation , as to justification , remember the gospel is plain and simple , and came not to teach men sophistry or logick : therefore i shall not contend with you about words or phrases : for as i believe , that christ came to lay down his life a ransome for our sins ; so if you believe , that without holinesse we shall never see the face of god , we are agreed in this matter . but i wish we all studied to live better , and then our differences would quickly end . n. yes , i hear some of you are still talking of holiness and peace , but you forget truth : which is so necessary , that without it holiness is but hypocrisie . c. i acknowledge that , if you speak of the fundamental articles of our faith. but all truths are not of equal certainty , nor of equal importance : now it is a certain and important truth , that there should be an unity in the catholick church ; which is not to be broken , but upon a matter of greater certainty and weight . n. one precious truth is worth all the world : therefore i will not quite one truth for the love of all men . not a hoof , said moses . c. if you were required to condemn or deny any thing you judged truth , i confesse you ought to obey god rather than man. but it is another case to quite the communion of the church ; because they are not , as you think , in the truth : unlesse that truth be of greater importance than is the article of your faith , the catholick church , and the communion of saints . and when you are as sure of your call to contend for these truths , as moses was of the will of god , you may use his words . let me then examine you a little , how do you know your opinions are truths ? n. who can doubt of it ? are they not the cause and interest of christ , his kingdom and crown , his glorious work , to which we are all bound by the oath of god taken in the covenant , whereinto even the children unborn are oblidged . c. if big words prove truths , you are full of them : but remember of whom the apostle gives this character , they speak swelling words of vanity . and there is no party but have the same language in their mouth : these are fine contrivances to lead away silly women captive , who would be ready to judge your blustering confidence , an evidence of truth , when a modester way of speaking is suspect of diffidence : whereas in right scales , the one looks like arrogant pride , and the other like the modest spirit of jesus christ. n. how can you deny , that what is now cried down , was the work of god ? c. i confesse it was so the work of god , as the prophet said , is there any evil in the city , and the lord hath not done it : but in the sense you take it , it was as far from it , as darknesse is from light . n. how can you speak so , was not sin strangely born down in our dayes ? c. i confesse you studied to represse some sins : so did the pharisees . but remember the apostle divides filthinesse , in that of the flesh , and of the spirit : and indeed , the latter proves a much subtiller and stronger opposition to the gospel , than the former . it is true , some of these were repressed by you ; though i must add , in a way , scarce suitable to the gospel : but for other sins , you were very gentle to them , nay , were guilty of them your selves : for they mingled in all you did . n. now you begin to rail , and i cannot endure to hear those glorious dayes so spoken of . is this the moderation you so much pro●esse ? c. i love moderation as much as any can , and declare to you once for all , that i have no quarrel at any , for their opinions in these matters : nor shall i labour to disgrace the leaders of your party , by searching into their private escapes ; a practice much used by you against us , your mouthes being ever full of bitter reproaches against some of our way : but it is directly contrary to the spirit of christ and his gospel , wherein we are put in mind to speak evil of no man. i shall therefore from your publick and avowed actions , and printed papers , shew how far you are out of the way of god. and first , what think you of your rebellion ? this was the soul of your whole work , and your covenant was a bond to cement you in this . n. call you fighting for god and his cause , rebellion ? c. it is yet under debate , whether it be the cause of god : suppose it were , shew me one place in either testaments , that warrands subjects fighting for religion ? you know i can bring many against it ; yea , though the old dispensation was a more carnal and fiery one , than the new one is ; yet , when the kings of iudah and israel made apostacy from the living god , into ●eathenish idolatry , some of the kings of iudah polluting the temple of ierusalem , as did ahaz and mannasseh , so that god could not be worshipped there , without idolatry , yet where do we find the people resisting them , or falling to popular reformations ? neither do the prophets that were sent by god , ever provoke them to any such courses . and you know the whole strain of the new testament runs upon suffering . n. the law of nature teacheth us to defend our selves , and so there is no need of scripture for it ? c. this is marvelous dealing , in other things you alwayes flee from reason , as a carnal principle , to scripture ; but here you quite scripture and appeal to it : but it seems you are yet a stranger to the very design of religion , which is to tame and mortifie nature : and is not a natural thing , but supernatural . therefore the rules of defending and advancing it , must not be borrowed from nature , but grace : the scriptures are also strangely contrived , since they ever tell us of suffering under persecution : without giving your exception , that we resist when we are in a capacity . and i appeal to your conscience , whether it be a likelier way to advance religion , fighting or suffering ? since a carnal man can do the one , but not the other . n. how can we neglect the interests of christ , and let them ruine , when we are in a capacity to defend them ? c. if there were not a god who governs the world , your reasoning might have force : but do you think that god cannot maintain his own right , but the wrath of man must work his righteousnesse ? nay , we see the contrary , for from the beginning , till this day , god hath made the sufferings of his people , the chief mean of propagating religion ; whereas fighting hath been ever fatal to it . and christ did begin the gospel with his suffering , though he could have commanded legions of angels for his defence . n. christ knew it was the fathers will that he must suffer . c. this shews how little you understand when you speak so : are not christs injunctions our rule . since then he forbade his disciples to draw a sword for him , with so severe a threatning , as whosoever will draw the sword , shall perish by the sword , this must binde us , and what he sayes to pilate on this ●ead , my kingdom is not of this world , &c. is so plain language , that i wonder how it doth not convince all . i know there are some pitifull answers made to those places : but they are so irrational , that they deserve not a serious reply , and i am not of an humour to laugh at them : only take notice of this , that if an ingenuous man speak plainly , much more must the god of truth : judge then whether these unworthy glosses , make christ likeer a nibling logician , then the true and faithfull witnesse . n. then you condemn our first reformation carried on by fighting . c. since you go to examples , rather begin with the ages that immediatly followed christ , in which for three hundred years the gospel was preached and propagated by sufferings , but never by fighting , though their number enabled them to it , and they were irritated by the cruellest provocations and persecutions : and it is to be supposed , that they who saw and conversed with the apostles , understood their meaning better than these who lived at so great a distance from them : i acknowledge there was force used in our reformation ; but so much the worse for that : and you know the enemy sowes his tares , even in that field , wherein the wheat is sowen . but never alledge to me the president of men , against the expresse word of god. n. what say you then to these who died sealing their opinion , fighting for religion , with their blood ? c. you put me to a hard lock , to rake amongst the ashes of the dead : as for those who died , i had that compassion for some of them , that i could willingly have redeemed their lives at the rate of mine own : and i doubt not but many sincerely followed their conscience in it . but i am far from thinking the better of the cause , because some died handsomly for it , otherwise i should be reconciled to atheism , and all heresies , who want not their pretended martyrs . but i need go no further then england , at his majesties restauration , where the murderers of the late king , died gallantly , ow●ing what they did as the cause of god. so the seal of a martyr's blood , is not alwayes the seal of god. n. well , but why do you remember bygones ? we are now all good subjects , and do bless god for his majesties restauration , and do pray for him more then you do . c. may be so , that he may be of your way ; but , if that be not , i doubt your love to him is very cool . i do not remember bygones to bring an odium upon you , but to shew that a course which was managed by a spirit of rebellion , was none of gods. as for your rejoycing at his majesties restauration , i scarce believe it , since you will not keep a day of thanksgiving for it . n. it is not that we scruple the thing , but because you make it a holy day . c. this is very nice , for by holy day we mean ●ot that the twenty ninth of may is a more sacred time , then other dayes : but that the day shall be devoted to holy exercise . n. this should not be enjoyned by the magistrate , but by the church , who ought only to order the worship of god. c. i shall not against this alledge the commands of david and solomon , since you may alledge they were extraordinary persons ; but you cannot say that esther and mordecai were such , who enjoyned the observation of purim , and call that feast a good day ; and the odds betwixt holy and good is not very great . and although there be no divine order for the feast of dedication , yet our saviour was at the feast , and in the temple : though you will not come to church on the twenty ninth of may. n. well then , all you can charge upon us is a little disloyalty , but for all that , our way may be the cause of god : for even the saints have their infirmities . c. truly this is so great a one , that i dare pronounce none a saint , who hath been guilty of it , till he repent of it : but i am far from being at the end of your faults , having but begun with this . the next thing perswades me of your evil way , is , your cruelty and rigour : did you not force all to take the covenant , severely punishing such as would not ? and did you not cruelly persecute all those who opposed you ? truly this hath so confirmed my aversion from your way , that i hope never to be reconciled to this part of it . n. that was a fault too , and many of us are very sensible of it . c. let not my soul enter into the secrets of bloody men : your very leaders , who if they had known any thing of the meek spirit , should have opposed these severities ; not only countenanced , but drave them on , and rejoyced in them . and if they think it a fault , how comes it that none of them offers to disclaim it ? yea , some of you in your confessions of sins , and causes of wrath , rather tax your courses of too great lenity . n. whoever may object that , you may be silent ; for what severity have we felt ? how many ministers are turned out , and people oppressed for not owning you ? c. i must in so far justify the rigour you have met with , as to show it is far short of yours . people are required to do nothing , but live peaceably , and joyn in worship ; whereas you made them swear to you : and the ministers are not made swear to maintain the present establishment , and to root out the contrary , as you did ; they are only required to concur in discipline , and to promise submission to episcopacy . n. do you not wonder at my patience , who hear you inveigh so bitterly against us ? but i let you see , a presbyterian can be calm : i hope you have done . c. not yet indeed ; i am not trying your calmness , but your conscience , and what i speak , is not to irritat , but to convince you . i shall next take notice of the great insolence and height was among you : i speak not of personal pride , though i coul● say enough on that head : i only tax your public actings . what insolence was it , to assume bi● names , of the godly party , and the people of god ●nd to call your way , the cause and kingdom o● christ ? whether looks this like the pharisees an● hypocrites , or not ? and in this you were punished with your own weapons : for the protester● wrung that from the rest of you , and the independants assumed it from you both . n. i am sure we were the godly party , compared to those we had to do with . c. this bewrayes your arrogance : though it were so , you ought not to bear witness to your selves , nor assume such titles . remember the pharisee , who said , i thank the lord that i am not like this publican . you know the loudest pretenders have not alwayes the justest title . n. i hope now you have done with your scolding . c. this is like all guilty persons , who take every modest representing of their faults to them , as scolding and bitterness ; so did the jews use st. paul. it shews the sore or disease is desperate , when the patient cannot be touched . i have not yet begun to scold , but i have not done with admonishing . next , how did your leaders complain of bishops their medling in matters of state : and yet when the scene turned , how absolutely did they govern ? church-men grew the advisers of all businesses , juntoes held in their houses . and how impudently did the church countermand the state , anno . even in civil matters ? as were the levying of armies , and the paying of taxes . and after the tragical catastrophe of the unlawfully called unlawful engagement , they barred the nobility from their priviledges as peers , till they must be satisfied . n. all that was done in order to religion , which is in the churches care . c. this is the very plea of the pope : and indeed in politicks , the pope and the presbyterians agree in moe things than you think on . by this maxime all civil matters must come under ecclesiastical cognizance ; since every action can be reduced to one of the tables of the law. but particularly to medle with war , and matters of blood , hath been ever judged directly contrary to the pastoral duty , which obligeth to feed , and not to kill . but i shall add one thing more , which was your superstition . n. i had resolved to have objected that to you , and i am sure we cannot be guilty of it , since there is nothing we hate more ? c. you know not the true notion of it , and so are guiltier then you are aware of . superstition is an over-rating of things , as if god were more pleased with them , than indeed he is : and therefore to lay too great weight upon any thing , is superstition . he then that judgeth a thing of it self indifferent , to be necessary : and he that condemns it as unlawful , are equally superstitious . it were a long and tedious story , to let you see how great weight you laid upon many small matters , both in doing and forbearing . but i will leave particulars to your conscience ; and i protest in all i hav● said , i have no other design , but to teach you no● to have mens persons or wayes too much in admiration . n. you have now run out in a long and furiou● career against us : hear me next , reckon the excellent things were amongst us , and i doubt not yo● shall confesse our good did far preponderat ou● evil . c. i shall hear you with all my heart , but in th● mean time let us take a little refreshment an● respite . n. be it so . dialogue ii. ● . now let us again resume our discourse , and tell me what great goodnesse was it , which ●o commended your party ; for i love what is good , ●e where it will : and therefore though i be none ●f your party , yet i shall heartily rejoyce to hear ●ood of them . n. i fear you are either so carnal , as not to re●ish things that are spiritual , or so byassed , as not ●o set the due value upon us : but who can doubt we were the people of god , who remember how we bore down sin and wickednesse ? how much good preaching there was amongst us ? what fer●our was on peoples mindes , when they heard sermons ? what heavenly prayers we poured out to god ? but when i remember our fasts , and dayes of communion , my very heart breaks to think these sweet dayes are now gone : then what delight in scripture had we , that all our vulgar were acquainted with it ? how well was the sabbath observed amongst us ? and what order was there in families , morning and evening ? all this is now gone . alas for poor scotland ! that had once the light of the gospel so brightly shining in it ! but now , ah , ah , for the darknesse that hath overspread it ! had you but seen what i saw , your very heart would have been ravished with it . c. truly , i expected to have heard some great matter from you , of the self-denial , contempt of the world , resignation , humility , meeknesse , patience , obedience , charity , abstraction of minde , and the other great heights of christian religion ; but you tell me only of their external devotion , which how good soever it be , yet is far from being the character of a christian ; since the very pharisees were eminent in those things . n. i told you , you were carnal , and savoured not the things of god ; you look after morality , as the great matter : but we look after true christianity . c. if by morality , you mean the affecting a vertuous behaviour , without a dependance on god and christ , i have as low an account of it as any can have ; but if by morality , you mean a pure and holy conversation , i doubt it is the greatest and best part of religion : without which , the other parts are but hypocrisie and formality . but i shall examine all these things which seem to knit your hearts so much to that way : and shall begin with their diligence in repressing sin . i confesse they had a kind of discipline : but it was wholly different from the rules of the gospel , and far short of the ancient bishops discipline . n. i see you undervalue every thing we did , but i am sure you have no reason for it . c. first then , were not your church-sessions like birla-courts , where every one came and complained of wrongs , which belonged to the magistrate : for the church should only meddle with sins , as they are scandals , and not as they are injuries . next , dilations , according to our lords rule , should not be received , till the person be first privately admonished by the party offended ; next , by two or three ; and if he be obstinat , the church should be told : but you observed no such rule . next you imposed and exacted fines , which was the magistrate's work , whereas the church should take no money , but what is offered in charity . you also forced people to stoop to your discipline , for if they refused , you threatned them with the temporal sword : which by the unhappinesse of the times , was too much at your dispose . and this sheweth , that you did not carry on the gospel , by a gospel-spirit , though that was ever in your mouthes , but by secular wayes : for , offenders should come and offer themselves to discipline , and not be driven to it . the time wherein your pennance lasted , was also short : the ancient bishops did separate offenders , as many years , as you did weeks . it is also clear , you used discipline to put a temporal shame upon offenders : for you set them in a high place to be gazed upon , whereas they should have been rather set without the doors of the church . and to conclude , how wretchedly did you abuse this ? subjecting people to censure , for your triffling matters , when you knew they were acting a mock-penitence : and were more zealous to preach against oppositions to your courses , than against the oppositions to the everlasting gospel . n. now you tax us for what we were very free of : was ever sin so boldly reproved , as in our pulpits ? our ministers sparing no rank nor quality . c. i confesse some things , i say not sins , you reproved boldly enough : not sparing the lords anointed , whose pretended faults , you , like so many unnatural hams , were ready enough to publish , when your so doing , could have no other effect , but to irritate his subjects against him . how often was that sacred prince charged with popery , tyranny , and the massacre of ireland ? and that royal family termed , the bloody-house ? yea , after his accursed enemies had murdered him , when common humanity should have oblidged you to let the dead alone , and christianity should have taught you to have had more reverent thoughts of one who died so piously and devoutly ; yet you ceased not to persecute and tear his memorie , which in spite of your malice , will be glorious to all posterity : and that with the height of insolence and barbarity , in the very hearing and presence of his son , who now reigneth . this was your bold reproving of faults . but how little were you in secret reproving faults ? when you got to the pulpit , there indeed you triumphed , because you knew none were to oppose you . now it is certain , reproofs should be begun in private , and not brought to publick ; but upon the obstinate rejecting of private admonitions . and for what end were you often so bitter to absents ? this , and such other things could be upon no other design , but either maliciously to disgrace them , or to get a following among your party , and the name of faithfull , free , and zealous preachers . n. you speak with very great heat and passion , against better men then your self , and better preachers than ever any of your way will be . c. may be so , i wish both they and their gifts had been seven-fold better than they were : but if i shall judge of them , either by their printed sermons , or those i have heard , they are no extraordinary things . and first , the half of their sermons were upon publick matters : and what did these concern the souls of the poor people ? was not this for bread , to give them a stone ? next , for the solid practises of a christian life , i scarce ever heard them named , except overly . whom heard you preach against the love of the world , seeking of esteem , quarrelling , seeking of revenge , anxiety and passion ? vertue was little preached , and far lesse practised . n. i am sure we heard much spiritual doctrine from them ; for , these are common matters . c. read our saviours sermons , particularly , his longest upon the mount , and you shall finde these to be the great subjects of his discourse : i confesse they are common , but remember the commonest things are often most usefull . as for your spiritual doctrine , the true heights of spirituality were as little preached , as the living much in abstraction , silence and solitude , the being often in the still contemplations of god and christ , the becoming dead to all things else , spending dayes and nights in secret fastings and prayers , how seldom were these things spoken of ? n. what then make you of them , since you d● not allow them to be spiritual doctrine ? c. i shall not deny but they were spiritual , bu● i add , they were of a very low size and degree , an● such as could never carry on the auditors to an● great perfection , and most of them were practise● by the pharisees . you know they read the scrip● ture , and knew it so exactly , as no christians do their bibles : they observed the sabbath severly ▪ they prayed many and long prayers . so that these external things , are but the fringes of true religion . n. we heard christ and him crucified preached much . c. it was well if ye did , but let me tell you , i● christ was so preached , as to cry up a bare relying on him , without obedience to his gospel , as i fear too many did , this was a very antichristian● way of preaching christ. next , you got amongst you a world of nice subtilties , which you called cases of conscience , and these were handled with so metaphysical curiosities , that i know not what● to make of them : and the people that should ▪ have been driven out of these , into the great practices of a christian life , were too much flattered and humoured in them . i am sure our saviour , and the penmen of scripture had no such stuff . n. this still discovers your carnal heart : god help you who understand not the wayes of the spirit . c. never tell me of other wayes of the spirit , but holinesse , charity , and humility , &c. i do not deny but some devout people will be under doubtings and fears , but this is a weaknesse which ought not to be fed and humoured in them , and such scruples are to be satisfied in private . but to hear people , who lead but common lives , talk of such things , is unsufferable . i shall not here take notice of their strange methods , which they so much admired in preaching : though i could tell you how our saviour and the apostles used none of these : but i shall be sparing in this , it not being of so great , or necessary concernment . n. o but what powerfull sermons were theirs ! they made my very heart shake . c. i am glad it was so , but see that by power you do not mean a tone in the voice , a grimace in the face , or a gesture and action , or some strange phrases , these indeed affect the vulgar much : but considering people see through them , and value them little . the voice of god was a still voice , and christ was not heard in the streets . n. but there were many converted by the preachings , and then there was a great love to the word , people running far to hear it . c. truly i am so far from envy , that i wish from my soul , where one was converted by you , a thousand had been . but see that by conversion you do not mean only , a change in opinion , or outward behaviour , which might be done upon interest : and remember that there was a kind of proselytes , even to the service of god , who thereby became more the children of the devil , than they were . and see that you do not mistake every hea● in the fancie for a conversion ; one thing i mu● challenge you of , that you call alwayes you● preachings , the word of god , for to term them so and yet to confesse , you may be mistaken in them is a contradiction , since gods word is infallible ▪ your texts indeed are the word of god , but you● glosses on them , are but the words of fallibl● men : now this was a great art to conciliat ● hudge veneration and authority to your preachings ; for you called them the words of the lord and applied all the places of scripture that belonged to the inspired and infallible preachers , unto your selves , that so you might be rabbies in deed . n. i , but their lives was preaching , and the● looked like the gospel indeed . c. i am far from denying that there were ver● good men among you , and there are some of the● whom i know to have the fear of god before thei● eyes : but i must say , they seem to be little advanced above babes in christ. for your grea● men , how strangely did they involve themselve● in all businesses ? and truly a medling temper , look not like a devout one : but , what great spirituality appeared amongst most of them ? leaders o● churches and parties should be alwayes commending god and religion to people , and truly hear there is little of this in their mouthes ; shrewd presumption that there is not too much o● it in their hearts . n. alas ! you know us not , we seldom meet but , we expound scripture , and have spiritual exercise amongst us . c. i confesse you have enough that way , but that looks more artificial and formal , but in your discourse , how few of your words are seasoned with salt , ministring grace to the bearers ? which is a more genuine and native , and so a more convincing way of commending godlinesse to people . but what great things of devotion , or holinesse , appear amongst you ? who of you despise the world ? give away your goods to the poor ? who bear injuries without resentments and revenge ? who are willing to be set at nought ? who are mortifying themselves even in the lawfull pleasures of sense ? who bear crosses without murmurings ? and for the devotional part , who of you seem to live only to god , and consecrat your time and strength to divine exercises ? truly these things are as little among you as any party ● know : nay , one thing i cannot passe by , that you generally seem so desirous of being noticed i● your religion ; this is far from our saviour practice . n. this is all your prejudicat opinion again● us , but had you been ever with us at our communions , you would have been forced to confes● that god was amongst us . c. i never denied it , for i am far from being ● hidebound , as to affix god to a party , as you to confidentlie do . but for your communions , i a● not like to be much convinced by them , i cann● like your running so many miles to them , this ●umultaurie and disorderlie ; for if it be the sacrament it self you value , you may have it neare● hand : but this shews , you idolize men too much ● next , at your communions , all your businesse i● to hear and talk , whereas the truest preparation for that work , is , an inward stillnesse and recollection of mind ; and certainly much talk at that time particularly in the very action it self , doth bu● draw out , and disturb the mind : and by reason o● your crouds , you cannot have occasion of such retirement as is necessary at so solemn a time . and to speak plainly , i cannot think persons very devout , who love rather to hear one talk , were it never so good purposes , than to retire inwardly and commune with their own hearts , and with god. some of you will be many hours in publick worship , and perhaps not a quarter of an hour in secret devotions . it would look like● christ , to be many hours secret in prayer , and very short in publick . n. i see nothing among us pleaseth you , but we are never the worse for all that . c. truly i cannot admire what i judge but simple and mean. but another fault about your communions , was , that you had them so seldom , against the expresse practice of the apostles , who continued daily breaking bread : and the whole church in all ages and places , were frequent in this , which you brought to once a year . and who taught you to separate it from the rest of the solemn worship , and not have it every lords day ? n. that was , that by the unfrequency of it , it ●ight be the more solemn . c. then at length you confesse , you use your ●wn devices , to make the worship of god more ●lemn . but it had been much liker the apostles , ●o have celebrate frequently , but withall to have ●oticed well such as did receive . n. did you never observe the great devotion ● our worship ? c. truly i am sorry , i saw so little of it : what ●rreverence is it , that when prayer is in the ●hurch , most of you ●it on your breeches ? is this ●o approach unto god with the reverence be●omes dust and ashes ? notwithstanding of the ex●resse command of scripture , o come let us wor●hip , and bow down , and kneel down before the lord ●ur maker , and you cannot say this was one of moses rites . n. god looks not to the outward man , it is ●he inward bowing and kneeling of the soul he regards ; and it is your superstition to stand much ●t these outward things . c. but we are commanded to glorifie god , as ●ell with our bodies , as with our spirits . and ●ow unhandsome is it , that we will not testifie that reverence to god , we would shew to a man , were ●he but a few degrees above us ? beside , you who alwayes call for scripture , ought quickly to be convinced here ? most scripture-prayers being ●aid , either to be in that posture , or in that which comes next in reverence to it , to wit , standing . our saviour kneeled when he prayed to the father . st. paul , both at miletus and tyre knee● ed down , and prayed with the people : though ● tyre , it was upon the shore , a pretty inconvenie● place for kneeling . you know how much scri● ture i can bring , for kneeling or standing . n. but it is written , david sate before th● lord , and prayed . c. but is not this strange ; that you will brin● one practice , and follow that rather than the co● stant and universal practice registrated in scripture● beside , the word there doth not import that h● sate , but rather that he sifted himself before th● lord. and then you do not consider that praye● was private , and it is undoubted , more solemnit● is necessary in publick , than in the private worship . why then do you not kneel or stand in churches● since you do so in secret , and in your family-wor● ship ? and why not as well , if not rather in the one nor in the other ? truly this bewrayes both grea● weaknesse , and great irreverence . and beside th● irreverence of that wretched posture of ●itting it is so convenient for your ease , that we see mo● sold themselves to sleep in the prayers : and suc● as do not so , seem to listen to the prayer , as the● do to the sermon , without thinking they are t● joyn in it . and indeed to fit , is so grosse an abus● in prayer , unlesse some bodily infirmity impos● it , that i rather not see you come to our church● es , than come to them thus to give a bad example . n. but since you named family-worship , take but notice what order was amongst our families they looking like little churches : our masters of families praying , praising , and expounding scripture , with their families ; what , was not this a heavenly thing ? c. i do approve of a part of it , and think it a pious and a christian custome , to have families worshipping god together , providing the way of it be grave and regular : of which i shall speak afterwards . but for masters of families , their expounding scripture , it is intollerable , unlesse they be very intelligent persons . how patent a way otherwise may this prove , for venting and broaching errours , and heresies ? but i would not have you value this too much : otherwise i shall send you to the religious houses in the church of rome , where they have worship seven hours a day , in a word , those external things make not men good of themselves . n. but i hope you will not condemn private meetings , especially when a minister is with us for spiritual conference . c. truly the thing in it self looks fair and well , but since these secret assemblings have been much scandalized , since also they may be a cloak for hatching mischievous practices , and for debauching peoples minds into schism and faction , and to a contempt of the publick worship , they are not to be used . let people meet as oft as they will in church for worship : and what is not fit to be said in a church , is not fit to be said in a chamber full of people . such persons as desire resolution for their scruples , ought to ask it in private , and not in these thronged conventicles . since in su● matters the more private one be , the more li● he is to the lowly spirit : and the more talking be , he looks liker one that affects a name , and be thought somewhat . the gospel is a humbl● simple thing , whereas formal affected stuff , loo● like the spirit of pride , and pharisaical vanity , a● least it gratifies it too much . n. i see you will not allow us the praise w● truly deserve , but it is no matter , our record i● on high . the men in the world alwayes set a● naught the children of god , but at least you can● not deny us this glory , that were long in grea● unity . c. i love not the spirit of detraction , but i con● sess i wonder to see a party cryed up to the hea● vens for nothing ; since i can speak it with grea●● sincerity , i could never see any thing amongst you that could raise in me any great veneration so● you . and i am sure , what ever do it , your unity will never do it . it is true , as long as you had to● do with these , whom you most unchristianly , and malicióusly called the malignants , you were one , as simeon and levi were : but when ever that was done , you quickly broke amongst your selves and to let see how keen you were upon your contention , even though the ground of your first breach was soon taken out of the way ; yet you kept up your differences , with as much heat , as if they had been the great matters of christian religion . how fierce were you one against another , in your papers , sermons , and prayers ? ●ou had so inured the pulpit to scolding , that in ●any places it was the vulgar dialect of that place ; ●nd this you did publickly in the sight of the sun. ●ea , so hot were you on both sides , that you ●ould listen to no accommodation , nor to any ●lew ( they were very few ) who would have brought ●hings to a temper . n. this was our fault , but you exaggerat the ●natter too much . c. i do it but with truth , and to shew that the spirit moved among you , was so contentious , that when you had no bodie to contend with , you fought amongst your selves . yea , upon the happie revolution ; how hot was the partie among you which prevailed against the other , and was beginning snaply to depose them , till you were allarm'd that the bishops were coming in , and so left it to them ? n. now you are malicious , to inveigh so against us , you know i can repay you in your own coin . i will then go to , and examine your way next . c. i never doubt , but you can scold well , but we have had a sharp bout of it , we will therefore draw breath a little . dialogue iii. n. by all you have hitherto said , one shou● expect there were some extraordina● sublime thing among you ; but he that looks o● must consess , that all these defects you charge● us , are far more amongst you ; besides , you con● short of us , in what you acknowledge was go● amongst us . so that you have all our evil , a● none of our good : and you dare not deny , but our dayes scotland looked liker a christian churc● than it doth at this day . c. do not mistake me , as if i were so ingage● to any interest , or party , as blindly to defend i● which most of you commit . i am so far episc●● pal , as to love the order , and to live in peac● and submission under it . but i never swore sea● ty to any sect. my hearty wish , and daily earne● prayer to god , is , that all these distinguishin● names were buried , and out of head , that ● with united force we may all joyn to advance th● true and everlasting designs of the gospel . as fo● the sins many among us are guilty of , i abhor th● thought of patronizing them ; and , may be , som● of us , though we love not in publick to be eve● speaking of the times , whereby peoples mind are easily bribed to a contempt of the gover● nours ; a sin little noticed by you : yet in secre● mourn for these things as bitterly as any of you ●o . but remember you your selves are guiltier ● the present loosness , than perhaps you think . n. how can that be , since for as bitter as you ●re against us , you dare not charge us with coun●enancing of vice . c. but you make religion such a cloak to so ●any state-designs , that this makes too many ●mpiously to suspect religion to be but a design ●f it self . beside , you drove people to an out●ard compliance with you , in many of your forms , against their hearts , which hath made them nauseat ●t all religion : not being able to judge betwixt religion and these mistakes . but that which is of greatest weight , is , that our saviour knits the abounding of iniquity , with the waxing cold in love ; now , how faulty you are in this , i shall easily demonstrate . n. no peace , saith my god , to the wicked ; you ever charge our hating of sin , as uncharitableness : whereas this is but zeal for god and his truth . c. these are the false glosses you put on things , but take notice of the humour of your people , you are apt to judge us in these matters which are doubtful disputations , and think a man no good christian except he be of your party . next , you are ever listening to , and spreading a great many tattles of us , which are the great subjects of your discourse ; and what can be more uncharitable than this is ? you also carry sourly , and unkindly to us , as if we were of another religion , and shun all converse or friendship with us : you likewise cast very odious aspersions upon us , as apostates , changlings , time-servers , and th● like . and some of you rail at us , most petulantly : now whereas you alwayes talk of persecutio● truly it is more on our side than yours : for , t● an ingenuous spirit , if he be not much above a● these things , such usage chiefly when it is universal , is a far greater trial , than to suffer a little i● the world . n. truly i do not deny , but too much of tha● you speak is true , and i wish there were more charity on all sides . but , are not most of you apostates , changlings , and time-servers ? c. what invidious work is it for you to faste● that brand , which the christian church only stained those with , who fell off from christianity to heathenism , upon the leaving of a party ? looks not this like the spirit of the devil ? just as if one should apply all the places in the epistles against the horrid heresies and crimes of the gnosticks , to every little errour , which you are ready enough to do . and as for changing , except you make it a reproach for a man to grow wiser , it can be none for a man to see he was once mistaken . this generation was engaged by you , ere they could well consider things , to your way , and your oaths , and then you strive to keep them alwayes in a non-age , by telling them they must be stedfast , and that it is a snare after vowes to make enquiry . and what strange doctrine is it , to tax an obedience to the laws of the kingdom ( when in our consciences we can so do ) as time-serving ? nay , perhaps as i hinted before , you are the greater time-servers . n. well , though i owe charity to your per●ons , yet i owe none to your wayes , and i call what ●s black , black , therefore i can never be reconci●ed to your episcopacy . c. this head falls asunder in two things ; the one is , a general consideration of that government ; the other is , supposing it were as you think it , how far you ought to separate from what is ●misse . now , tell me what are your quarrels at episcopacy ? n. i cannot think that church-men should be called lords , and be great persons . c. this belongs not to the thing it self , but is an addition of the christian magistrates ; and , sir , ●or lord , and gentleman , and nobleman differ but in degree : since then a minister , were he never so meanly born , gets the temporal honour of a gentleman put upon him , why may not the temporal honour of a lord , be as well put upon a bishop ? surely this must not be considered by you . n. but they should not lord over gods heritage : therefore away with your lord bishop . c. if you understand all scriptures as you do this , you may write excellent commentaries : for , by lording , is meant a tyrannical domination , as the word clearly imports , and not a title . next , gods heritage , which you apply to the clergy , is not in the text. all in the greek , is ▪ not tyrannizing over your lots or divisions : and with whatever reason you put down bishops from being as noblemen , that same will prove , you ministers ought not to be gentlemen , excep● they be born such ; and i sear your leaders wi● have no minde to this . n. but this is not all : my chief quarrel again● bishops is , that they are a function of mans de● vising , and no where instituted by god. c. truly you may speak soberly here , for be● fore i meddle with this , i will shew in a few things that however you talked bigly of jus divinum yet you minded it as little as any could . you● lay-elders , though i deny them not to be a good institution , are founded on no scripture , as no● the most judicious of your party own : for whe● you urge , that because the apostle gives rules on● ly for bishops and deacons , that the other orde● of diocesan bishops must be shuffled out ; how a● that same time did you not see , that ruling elder● were not there ? and the places you alledge fo● them , are so abused , that it appears you fir● resolve to maintain them , and next to seek scrip● ture-proof for them . the brethren in the council of the apostles , proves too much , that the● are judges of doctrine ; which yet you will no● own . beside , it is absurd to think that was ● church judicature , as shall soon appear . tha● of ruling with diligence , is fond ; for there , is mad● an emuneration of christian duties , and if you mak● an office for all there , we shall i have more ranks o● church-men , then they of rome have . and it i● palpable , that by helps and governments , are meant● some extraordinary gifts . who would not pity men who build upon such sandy foundations ? n. but what say you to the elders that rule well ? c. truly this is far from instituting an office ; for , this speaks of an office then in being ; so , by some other place , you must prove their institution . there are five or six several glosses put on these words , but i protest , i think any of them appears more genuine then yours . that which i conceive the true sense of the words , is , let such among you as are fixt to rule particular charges , be doubly honoured : but especially those evangelists , who have no medling with rule , but labour in word and doctrine . thus you see how ●ill grounded your elders are . next , how want you deacons ? n. it seems you know our discipline ill , that know not we had deacons . c. i know very well you had somewhat called deacons , but this was only a name to deceive the people , who otherwise might have been startled , to have found deacons in their bibles , and not in your churches ; but i tell you , your deacons are ●o scripture-deacons , who were not as yours are , lay-persons , but ecclesiastick , and separate by the ●mposition of hands for that function , and so were ●o continue . beside , where was it ever heard of , ●hat a church-office was taken from any , without ● fault ? whereas you yearly altered your elders ●nd deacons . next , why wanted you diaconesses , ●nce the scripture is so particular about them , telling of their order , of their being received to it , of their qualifications , of their age , and of their imployment ? n. truly i have heard many of our ministers say , the want of them was a fault . c. next , why wanted you evangelists , since there are still men who have peculiar eminencies in preaching ? why should they be confined to one charge , and not to be made to preach over a countrey , as they shall be called ? n. that was an extraordinary thing , which was in the dayes of the apostles . c. this is well asserted : any thing in scripture that makes for you , call it ordinary , and what doth not please you , is extraordinary . but truly , since it is impossible to get a whole church served with such a ministery , as were to be desired , it seems to be necessary , even in those dayes , to have an office of evangelists . but further , in what place of scripture read you your classical subordination of sessions to presbyteries , & c ? this i acknowledge is rational and orderly , but founded upon no divine right . n. how did they of antioch send up to these at ierusalem ? and are not the spirits of the prophets subject to the prophets ? c. by the last place , it is clear , he is speaking of parochial churches , which subjection none deny ; but for the former , it is ridiculous to urge it , since it is certain they of antioch sent not up to ierusalem , either as to a church superior to it , or as to an oecumenick council , but to men there , who were immediatly inspired by god : as the iews consulted the high priest his u●im and thummim ; and if that was a council , then all councils may speak in their stile , which none but a papist can say . for to preface our acts , with , it seems good to the holy ghost , and yet to say , we are subject to error , is a contradiction . and thus the subordination of your courts was a meer humane device ; so that if the jus divinum be the rule , the independants had the better of you . but as for your discipline , what warrand of scripture have you for it ? n. the excommunicating the incestuous person , and the noting those that walk disorderly , &c. c. i do not deny , but there are clear grounds for separating scandalous persons from our worship ; but , why so many dayes ? and why in a place of repentance ? and why the use of sack-cloath sometimes ? is not this the device of men ? bring scripture for it ? n. sure the church hath power to do in these things , as shall tend most to order : and the dayes , place , and habit , are but external things . c. now i have you at a great advantage , though you understand it not . why may the church impose such dayes of penitence , and not as well order all for the sins of the year to be in penitence all the time of lent ? and why is one place made a part for penitents to be in , and may not another with as good and better reason be made the proper place for communicating ? and why may not a church-man officiat in a surplice , as well as a penitent put on sack-cloath ? since the one is a ceremony expressive o● repentance , as well as the other is of innocence : and both were equally practised under the law. n. i confesse , i did not think on these things , but i believe our ministers have answers to them . c. you may well believe , for you shall never see it , for there is no imaginable difference betwixt them : one thing i confesse , that a man once resolved not to believe a thing , if he have any subtiltie of spirit , will make a shift to say somewhat upon any thing . but i have not done with shewing your difformity with the scripture-pattern ; since then we were just now speaking of the council at ierusalem , why do you not observe that law ? n. because that was only to bury the synagogue with honour , and as for the meats offered to idols , st. paul takes that away . c. this is like you , still to devise fancies against expresse scripture ; where sayes the scripture , that was done to please the jews ? as for st. paul , consider that he wrote his epistle before he went to ierusalem , and yet st. iames tels him these things were still observed there ; which shews , that a thing may be obligatory in one place , and not in another : and so , that in these externals , commands are not intended for lasting obligations . next , why use you not washing of feet , since there is no sacrament set down more punctually in scripture ? the element is , water , the action , washing the feet , the institution , as i have done , so do ye , and ye ought to wash one anothers feet , and the spiritual use of it , is humility . why do you not therefore use this rite ? n. why do not you use it , since you cannot refuse the scripture more than we ? c. for all such matters , i have a clear answer , that in these externals , god intended no perpetual obligation ; and therefore in them i follow the practice of the catholick church . next , in your worship , why do you not kisse one another with a holy kisse ? why do you not anoint the sick with oyl , as st. iames commandeth ? n. it is clear , that was extraordinary , for he promises recovery upon the anointing . c. no such matter , it is upon the prayer of faith , that he promises recovery , he also promiseth forgivenesse , and since you pray by all , and do not say that it is more then a mean for their being raised up and forgiven ; why do you not as well anoint , since the scripture commands it ? but all this shews , that however , with women , and simple people , you talk much of your sticking to the word , and by your grave nods , and big words would perswade them , that it is so ; yet you are as far from it as any . i shall end all this with an instance of great importance , who taught you the change of the sabbath ? i am far from speaking against the church that did so , but you will read the bible long ere you finde it there ; that of their meeting on the first day of the week , sayeth not , that they antiquated the saturnday ; that of the lords day , saith yet lesse for it . n. well , what make you of all this ? it may well prove , our church was not perfect ; it never justifies you . or , do you mean to lay aside the scriptures ? c. it once checks your insolence , who pretend so big , upon so light grounds ; and it is certainly a directer opposition to scripture , to neglect what is expresly enjoyned , as you do , than to add in some lesser matters . all i say upon the whole matter , is , that the scriptures were designed by god , for the purifying the hearts and conversations of men ; and therefore it was not necessarie they should contain direct rules ; for the church-policy , which being a half civil matter , needs not divine warrands ; and therefore the common rules are in scripture , that there should be church officers , that those should be separate for that function , that they should be obeyed , that things should be done to order , edification , and peace . these are everlasting obligations , because the reasons of them are perpetual : but the other rules were accommodat to the then state of things ; which altering , they alter likewise . and this is so rational , that i can see nothing to be excepted against it , with any shew or colour of reason . nay , this looks like the christian liberty , for , whereas the old dispensation was bound up , and limited to the smallest matters , christ hath delivered us from that law of ordinances , and hath made us free . n. this is to take the crown off christs head , and to pull him off his throne , and to deny him king , which was the good confession he witnessed before pilate , and for which he came into the world ; this also makes him unfaithful , and inferiour to moses . c. these are fine devices to terrifie simple people , and with such talk you triumph among women , and in your conventicles . but , how little reason will suffice to let a man see through that canting ? i say then , christs crown , his throne , and kingdom , is an inward and spiritual one , and not of the world , nor as the kingdoms of the world : and a great part of his kingdom , is , the liberty whereto he hath called us , freeing us from the yoke of the former slavery and pedagogy . and since no allegory holds , it is ridiculous to argue , because offices in a kingdom are named by the king , therefore it must be so in the church ; since you may as well say , there must be coin stamped by christ. beside , what king will think his prerogative lessened , by constituting a corporation , to whom he shall leave a liberty to cast themselves into what mould they please , providing they obey the general lawes , and hold that liberty as a thing depending upon him ? christs faithfulnesse consisted in his discharging the commission given him by the father ; of which , whosoever doubts , let him be anathemae maranathae . but , who told you , it was in the fathers commission ? if you argue from moses , it will say more than you will grant , that all particulars must be determined : since then , as moses determines the dayes of separation for a legal uncleannesse , why doth not the gospel determine the separation ●o● spiritual uncleannesse ? nay further , consider moses instituted no church-government , in the way we use it ; for that of the tribe of levi , and house of aaron , was only typical , and to wait on the temple , and the worship to be performed there . beside which , they had synagogues all the land over , and wherever they had colonies in the world , and in these they had their rabbies , their scribes , and their rulers , and their chief ruler of their synagogues , which read their law , performed such worship as was not tyed to the temple at ierusalem , and they inflicted discipline upon offenders : and these might have been of any tribe , not only of that of levi ; and yet our saviour never challengeth this , but went in to the rulers of their synagogues ; the like you finde done by his apostles , and they never declame against it , as an humane invention . whence it must follow , that you must grant , either what they did , was founded on divine tradition ( which no christian will grant ) or that a form of government was devised by men , and yet no unlawful thing . and if the jews had such liberty , certainly the christian church is at least more free , as to these externals . and after all , since christ is the head of the world , as well as of the church , why did not he determine the order of the one , as well as of the other ? n. the odds is very great , for his church is dearer to him than all the world . c. why then doth he not determine how his church should be governed , as to the civil matter , since justice is a part of his law , as well as devotion ? and the civil peace , i hope , you will grant , is more necessary to the very being of the church , than is order in discipline ; and so it was determined in the old law , but yet it is left at liberty in the new . and though i should grant , the church , as church , is dearer to christ , then as they are men , a foolish and childish nicety : yet a king , though he looks most to what is dearest to him , he will have his authority acknowledged in all his dominions : whence it will , with the same parity of reason follow , that since christ is the king of the earth , there should be no offices in it , but of his appointment . n. i never loved this carnal reason , it is an enemy to religion : our ministers bring us to the bible for every thing they say , but you come on with your reason . c. truly you have good cause to be against reason , for it and you cannot both prevail . if by carnal reason , you mean a sober examining things , by the dictates of nature ; see that you condemn not that , which is indeed the voice of god in us , and therefor is to be received . and if you make this contrary to religion , you bring as great a stain upon religion , as an atheist could devise : but if by reason , you mean little pittiful nibling with some ill understood , and worse applied distinctions , out of aristotle and ramus , as is very frequent among you , that is justly called vain philosophy . and for scripture , do not think they build surest upon it , who are ever quoting it fastest ; the devil did that , and so do all sects . and thus if you can rightly weigh things , i have said enough to convince you , that in matters of government , the church is at liberty : but if you will still go to scripture , i can positively say , though in it nothing amounts to a demonstration ; there are fairer likelihoods for bishops , from that of the angels of the churches , than ever you shall find in it for presbytery : but i will not say more of this . next , let me tell you how soon this government was in the church . n. i will not deny , tares sprung very early in gods husbandry , but that will never convince me . to the law , and to the testimony ; for from the beginning it was not so . c. you do well to possess your self with a prejudice against these churches ; but think soberly , whether is it likelier , that those who lived so nigh the sacred time , understood the mind of the apostles better then we do , at the fagg end of an thousand and six hundred years ? as also , whether is it liker , that the church then , alwayes in the fire of persecution , was purer then she is now ? god bless me from the pride of comparing my self with these worthies , who were honoured to convert the world , and to die for the truth ? n. but bishops were not in the two first centuries , as our ministers say . c. they are grossly ignorant , or disingenuous , who say so , all history being against them : ignatius epistles are plain language . the apostolical canons ( a work of very venerable antiquity , at least the first of them , though none of theirs perhaps ) all over , shew the difference was then betwixt bishops and presbyters , particularly the . can. the presbyters and deacons shall finish nothing without the bishop's sentence : for , he is intrusted with the people of god , and shall be required to give account of their souls . and the same thing was also enjoyn'd , syn. azel . can. . and in cyprian's time it is undenied , that their power was then well regulate and settled . for though that great saint and martyr tells , lib. . epist. . that he had decreed in the beginning of his bishoprick to do nothing without the advice of his presbyters , yet , ep. . of that book to rogatian a bishop , who had asked his advice concerning an affront he had received from a deacon , he sayes , that by his episcopal vigour and authority of his chair , he had power presently to punish him : and towards the end of that ep. he sayes , these are the beginnings of hereticks , and the rise and designs of shismaticks , to please themselves and contemn their bishop with insolent pride . and it is clear , presbyters at that time , even in the vacancy of a see , did not judge themselves sufficiently impowred for ecclesiastical administration , by what the presbyters and deacons of rome write to cypr. lib. . ep. . saying , that since a bishop was not at that time chosen , in place of the deceased fabian , there was none to moderate all things amongst them , who might with authority and advice take account of matters : sure they thought little of presbyters , being equal in power to their bishop , who write so of a church wherein the episcopal power might seem devolved on them . but , i believe , few of you know these writings . in the council of nice , speaking of the power of metropolitans , which was an additional thing to that of bishops over presbyters : the canon sayes , let the ancient customs be in force . now , how this excressing power should have crept into the whole church , and no mention when it came in , no temporal princes , nor universal councils to introduce it , and that at a time of persecution , when the church was least to be suspected of pride , no secular consideration being to flatter this power ; nay , on the contrary , they alwayes bore the first brunt of the persecution ; and how none opposed it , if this was not introduced by apostles , or apostolical men , passeth my divination . neither can any thing be alledged against this , but some few or disjoynted places of some authors , which at most prove , that they judged not the origine of bishops to be divine ▪ but none except aerius ( branded upon that account with heresie , both by augustine and epiphanius ) ●id ever speak against the difference was betwixt bishops and presbyters . and for the few places they alledge , should i reckon up all that from these same authors may be brought for it , i should grow too tedious . ierom is he for whom they triumph , but upon very small ground : for , beside that he being but a presbyter , might have exalted his own dignity to the height , and his fervent ( i had almost said fiery ) spirit , drives him along in every thing to an excesse ; as may appear from , not only his ingadgements with iovin . vigilan . and ruffin . but even with the incomparable st. austine : all can be drawen from his words , is , that the difference betwixt bishop and presbyter , was only of degree and not of office , and that the difference was not of divine , but ecclesiastical authority : but even he expresly confesseth , that presbyters did not ordain , and that the origine of the exercising power was in the dayes of the apostles , to prevent schisms ; for , he sayes , that from the dayes of st. mark , till denis and heraclas , there were constantly bishops in alexandria ; and he compares the bishop , presbyters and deacons in the church to aaron the high-priest , his sons the priests and the levites in the temple , and sayes that it was decreed through the whole world , that one presbyter should be set over the rest ; and to root out the seeds of difference , the whole care was laid upon one : for all this , see ier. ad euag. and upon titus : and from this you may see how little shew of ground there is from him or any other church-writter to reject the episcopal authority . n. but these bishops were not such as ours are . c. i confess they were better men , than either bishops , or presbyters alive are : but he knows little church-story , who knows not , that the presbyters did nothing without them , and that particularly , presbyters could never ordain without a bishop . n. well then , as it was good then , so it may be ill now , and there is our present case . c. i say still , it is a rational , just , and a most necessary thing , that the senior , and most approven church-men , be peculiarly incharged , as well with the trial of intrants , as with the inspection of the clergy : since no order of men needs so much to be regulated , as that of church-men . and therefore unless they be all equal in gifts , and parts , they ought not to be equal in power and authority . if the power of bishops be at any time abused , it is but that to which all humane things are lyable : nor can presbytery be freed of that , but let the common maxime in such cases be applyed to this , remove the abuse , but retain the use . dialogue iv. n you have said , i confess , a great many things , that i cannot well answer ; yet my conscience still tells me , that episcopacy is no good government ; and i cannot act against my conscience . c. you must remember , this is the plea of all hereticks , who still pretend conscience . i confess there is nothing in the world , wherein i desire to be more tender , than in offering the least violence to conscience , there not being a wider step to atheism , than to do any thing against the conviction of conscience . but see it be not humour , and wilfulness , that you scorn to change your opinion , or love to your party : whom you dare not displease : or vanity , that you may be noticed ; or faction ; or simple and blind following of your leaders , without clear convictions in your own mind ; all which , for most part , are the true reasons of schisms , though conscience be ever pretended . and remember , that god will not hold them guiltless , that take his name in vain , so you shall not pass unpunished , if you pretend conscience , and be not acted by it . n. how then must i examine any perswasion , to know if it be conscience , or not ? c. if you find in your heart a serious desire to please god in all things , together with a desire of obeying the laws of the kingdom , and of complying with the church , in what you judge lawfull , but out of grounds which appear to you founded upon the will of god , you are led to a perswasion , this is conscience : provided there be joined with it , a modest distrust of your self , with a charitable opinion of those that differ from you . and such as are of this temper , were their judgements never so bemisted , i reverence , and love : weigh the matter therefore in just scales , and i doubt you shall see , that at best , you are led by a blind and implicite obedience , for i will not uncharitably censure you as guilty of worse . n. you are so proudly blown up , with an opinion of your self , that you think all who are not of your mind , are ●lind and ignorant at best : whether is not this arrogance in you ? c. consider my grounds , ere you give a judgement against me . i say then , private persons have nothing to do with matters of government ; your business is , to submit in these things , and not to judge : for , whether think you , god in the great day , will call you to answer at his tribunal , if you were episcopal , or presbyterian ? as also , since the great design of the gospel is , to purify the heart ; these things which have no tendency to the purifying ▪ or blotting of the soul , are not matters of conscience : and these are two easie rules , whereby private persons might well examine their consciences . n. but if we think you are wrong , can we joyn with you ? c. first , i say , you can have no rational ground to think us wrong , in matters of religion : and since it is not a matter of religion , and salvation , you cannot without being schismatical , separate from us . but further , even every errour in religion , ought not to unty the bond of the unity of the catholick church , unless the errour be of greater importance , than the communion of saints is : a consideration which you never seem to weigh . how did the apostle st. paul become a iew to the iews ? though he tells us to do these things , out of an opinion of necessity in them , was to antiquat the crosse of christ. and let all men judge , whether to circumcise , and purify in the temple , were not greater compliances , in matters more justly to be scrupled , than what we contend about . nay , the free spirit of christianity , made st. paul see well that these externals were of themselves nothing ; so that either doing , or forbearing in them , might be acceptable to god ; as he clearly sheweth in his fourteenth chapter to the romans . yea , he carrieth this liberty further , even to an instance , which i confess , i should never have yeelded to , had not he determined in it ; that is , the eating in the idols temples , of their feasts , and eating meat offered to idols . now , if st. paul did this freely , both to jew and gentile , are not you bound to more obedience , when not only charity , but duty to the laws exact it ? this sheweth how far you are , both from the free and charitable spirit of st. paul. n. it is true , he complied in these things , but it was freely , and not when it was exacted , as you do of us . next , he avoided to do these things , when they occasioned scandal , which is our case . c. you in this bewray great simplicity ; for st. paul did not refuse compliance , because they were commanded by authority , which you do : but because certain false brethren came to spy out his liberty , to whom he gave place by subjection , no not for an hour . if therefore any require your compliance , as if it were necessary of it self , you have reason to stand fast in the liberty wherewith christ hath made you free . but it is unsufferable peevishness , to say , if the magistrate enjoyn a thing , declaring that it is still free in it self , and only necessary , because it is commanded , upon that score , to refuse obedience . and may not offenders as well refuse to undergo the discipline you enjoyn them , and say , though the thing be lawful , yet it is but indifferent , and therefore they cannot obey you , because you command things indifferent , which , as you reason , makes them necessary . as for the point of scandal , do not mistake it , as if the displeasing your party , were a giving of scandal , as many of you weakly think ; to give scandal then , is , to stretch your liberty , when that freedom of yours , may draw others to follow your practice , though they have not the same clearness in their mind . and hence it appears , that to avoid scandal , is only an abridging your liberty , for the good of your brother . if therefore you be not at liberty , but already restrained in it by the lawful command of authority , you ought not in that case to be disobedient , upon a pretence of avoiding scandal . but i shall yet examine the matter of conformity , more closly . and , first , why do not your ministers join with our courts for church-discipline ? n. they cannot do it , because they are no legal courts , the law that established them being taken away , so that now they are but the bishops deputies . c. i have before studied to convince you , that all that is divine in discipline , is , that scandalous persons be noted , and separated from worship ; but how this shall be administered , can be no matter of religion ; since , wherein are souls concerned , whether a court , acting in a parity , or with one over them , do this ; providing it be done ? but waving this , whether judge you the presbyters power for discipline is founded upon a divine law , or upon the act of parliament ? no doubt , you will say , the first : well then , can the abolishing that act of parliament take away your power ? if not , you ought to sit in these courts , and still do your duty . n. but this is to sit in a bishops court , which acknowledgeth his authority . c. i pray you , suppose the case , that the king should abrogate all laws for the worship of god , and declare , that all that assemble to worship god , shall be understood to worship mahomet , and thereupon oblidge all to meet ; though you meet not upon that command , yet i hope you will still meet to worship god ; let them interpret that as they please . so , i say , since a power of jurisdiction , is that to which presbyters lay claim , by a divine right , they ought to meet in these courts , let the law call it what it will. n. but the bishop is over them , and over-ruleth them as he pleaseth . c. but , suppose this were true , and that episcopacy is a tyranny in the church ; why ought you not to submit to them , as well as you did to the late tyrants in the state ? and why , as your ministers say , they will be content to take churches , and preach , but let discipline alone ; which is a quiting of some of their rights , that they may retain the greater ? may they not as well exercise discipline , though they cannot do it with all the liberty they desire ? sure , there is nothing but peevishness in this . n. do you think our ministers would quite their churches , and liberty of preaching the gospel , which is dearer to them than all the world , for any thing but conscience ? c. i am not so severe as to doubt , but in most of them it is conscience ; but i must adde , it is ill informed conscience . but what can you pretend , for your peoples withdrawing from our churches ? since our religion , in doctrine , worship and discipline , is the same : only a small alteration in the point of government is made . n. i am not for separating from you , as my practice tells , but much may be said for it ; therefore i will judge none that do it . c. truly i desire to be as sparing in passing judgements on people , as any can be : but since separation must be either a necessary duty , or a very great sin , being a forsaking the unity of the church : it can be no light matter to tear the body of christ , when there is scarce a colour of pretence for it . now , the schismatical humour among you , appears palpably in this , that you come sometimes to church , but seldom ; this seems indeed to be time-serving , that you may both evite the punishment of the law , and also retain your interest with your party ; for , if you come once in three moneths , you may come every lords day ; and if you may come , you ought to come ; otherwise you forsake the assemblings of the saints , and contemn what you call the ordinances . others of you also joyn with some of us , but not with others . now as to our publick transgressions ( if they be such ) we are all equally guilty , why then make you a difference ? others of you come to churches in the countrey , but do not so in the city : what doth this look like , but that you have freedom for the thing , but will not do it , for fear of being noticed ? which is to prefer the pleasing of men , to the pleasing of god. and finally , some of you joyn with us in the ordinary worship , but will not communicat with us , which bewrayes great solly ; for if you may pray and praise with us , which is the spiritual communicating : why do you not joyn in the eucharist , which is but solemn praise ? n. how can we acknowledg them our pastors , who are intruders , and are in the places of our faithful shepherds , whom you have torn from us ? c. supposing it were as you assert , yet that will never warrand your separating from them : since , although by the law of moses , the eldest of the house of aaron was high priest ; and the romanes by force driving them from their right , exposed this most sacred function to sale , so that the high priests not only invaded the right of others , but also obtained their office by the most horrid simony imaginable ; yet caiaphas , as high priest , prophesied ; our saviour also answered at his bar , and gave confession , when he authoritatively adjured him , in the name of the living god. st. paul also acknowledged annanias . and though the pharisees were wretched teachers , guilty both of greater crimes and heresies , than you dare charge on us ; yet our saviour saith , hear them , for they sit in moses chair . this is so convincing , that nothing in reason can be alledged against it : yea , it was the doctrine of your own teachers . finally , what cruelty is it , if a minister be put from his place , be it justly or unjustly , that the people should be starved ? it shews your ministers can have no love to their flocks , if they desire it should be so . n. but your curats are naughty men and weak preachers . c. this is an excellent piece of religion in you , to take up , and use reproachful names of your pastors . for though the name curat , be a designation , no minister ought to be ashamed of ; it signifying one that hath the care of souls ; yet ye use it as a term of contempt : and this is your obedience to st. pauls rule , honour them that are over you in the lord : which , as he addes , is for their works sake , and not for their persons sake , as you do . as for their persons and gifts , where is christian charity , that should make you slow to take up a bad impression upon slight grounds ? but if your grounds be good , where is your charity to the church ? since you do not make it known , that they may be cast out . beside , it will open a very wide door to separation , if you say , that upon the personal failings , much more weaknesse of a preacher , you may separate . this is to ty the good of church worship to him that mannageth it . and further , it seems , you think to hear sermon , all you go to church for : but the chief reason of our meeting , is solemnly to acknowledge god , and that we are members of his church : which we can do , be the minister what he will ; and hear good scriptures read , and sing good psalms . besides , let me tell you , you are not so zealous for good preachings , as you would make the world believe . for , are there not many of your preachers , who , while they were in place , were of no esteem , nor following ; and are undoubtedly men of weak gifts , yet now are crouded to by you ? and the church sermons are deserted , and their conventicles frequented . all the reason for this is , because they rail against the church and state ; which is the only way to make a man popular amongst you . n. you have pretended to answer a great many things , but one thing remains , wherein our chief strength lieth , and that you shall never be able to unbind ; which is , the covenant : wherein the whole nation , and the generations to come in their loins are engaged ; and , can such sacred and solemn vowes be broken , without shameful perjury ? c. this you alwayes bring out as your goliah , to defy the armies of the living god. but as sampson's strength lay in his hair , without which he was as other men ; so upon a full survey , it appears that the covenants strength consisted in the armies that fought for it , and not in any inward or innate vigour . and , first , what a ridiculous fancy is it , to say , children can be bound by their fathers oath ? is not this to make us the servants of men , and to give them authority over our consciences ; which is gods peculiar power ? alas , what kind of souls have you , that can be led into such conceits ! n. doth not the fathers debt oblidge the son ? why not also his oath ? c. a mans debt affects his estate , which if the son get , he is bound to pay the debt . but if the son get no estate by his father , then i hope you will not say he is bound to pay his fathers debt . and this shews that the fathers promises binde nothing upon the sons conscience . n. but are not we bound to duty to the king , because of the allegeance our fathers swore , even though we never swear it our selves ? c. not at all , because they swore allegeance , but because the right of the crown is in the kings person , and therefore we are born his subjects . n. but how was adam oblidged for his posterity , if parents cannot binde their children ? c. this is strange dealing , to apply a mysterie of our faith , which we cannot well comprehend , to your triffling matters . but take notice , that adam did not binde his children , by his undertaking for them , but by a secret transaction of gods ; who covenanted with him , as with the common head of mankind . and if parents can bind duties upon their children , they may as well bind sins upon them . and this is new doctrine unheard-of in the church , which never acknowledged any original sin , but that derived from adam . n. how then do parents vow for their children in baptism ? and are not they bound by the baptismal vow , taken by the father , in their name ? c. the parent binds for the childe , as a tutor in legal matters for his pupil : that is , they bind for their interest . the childe is indeed tyed by his baptism , not as it was his fathers vow , but because by the command of god , he was baptized into the likenesse of christ. n. how then is saul charged , and his children punished for killing the gibeonites ? c. it was not because he had falsified the oath , the princes swore : which is no where said but these gibeonites , by that oath , got a right to their lives ; and so were excepted , when god ratified it , from the general command of cutting off the canaanites : therefore , to kill them , wa● cruelty , and not perfidy . and saul is not taxe● of perjury , but of blood . for although the second of samuel make mention of the oath swor● to them , that is , only to reminde the reader o● the history set down in joshuah : but doth not at all say , the oath was still binding , as appears from the words . thus i have taken more pains tha● was needful , to shew the ridiculous fondnesse o● this absurd notion : and have met with all ca● be said for it . n. well , for all this , ye cannot deny but th● covenant binds these who took it . c. i will , ere i come to that , let you see ho● little noise you made in the breaking it in som● things . when then the tyrant had murdere● the king , enslaved this nation , antiquated th● covenant , discharged general assemblies , inhibited praying any more for the king , who the● stood up for the covenant ; or clamoured , a● you now do , of apostacy , tyranny , and perjury i know , a few spoke somewhat , but it was so se●dom , so faintly , and so disguisedly , that it was fa● from the thundering that was in some of you● pulpits before you were silenced , and as at thi● day is in your conventicles . the true reason was ye knew the tyrant would made no bones of ma●king heads fly , or sending you in shipfuls to barbadoes : but you presume upon the king's clemency . and you know what a trip some made , when upon a threatning of taking their stipends ●rom them , they passed from what , in a printed paper , they had owned as their duty , both from scripture and their covenant . n. it is uncharitably done of you , to rake into these things : but if we were faulty in some particulars , that is ill corrected , by becoming so gross , as to renounce all . c. i medle with none of your private escapes , but such as were publick : and do it not , as i have often said , to reflect upon you ; but to let you see , you are but as other men , and not such wonders , as you would have the world believe . i shall next tell you , what monstruous faults you committed in exacting the oath , not returning upon what was hinted , dial. . that it was a bond of rebellion , against the lords anointed . as for your national covenant , what a cruel imposing upon consciences was it , to make a nation swear an oath , which they could not understand ? for you made them therein renounce all the articles of popery ; amongst the rest , opus operatum , a latine word , and abstruse conceit ; with many other niceties , which you could not but know , your women and simple people did not understand . and was it not a contradiction , to make them swear against worship in an unknown tongue ; and yet in that very oath so to use it ? for swearing is an act of worship . yea , you made them preface all this with a gre● lye , that it was after full and mature considerat●on of all particulars ; when you knew they we● not capable of considering them . and wha● strange tyranny over consciences was it , t● make people swear in these matters , some wher● of might be disputable ; so that a man could no● be of your communion , except he were in you● opinion in all things ? a rigour never befor● practised but in trent . then , what a tr●pane was it , to make the nation swear the cov●nant , and by an after-game to declare that epi●copacy was abjured in it ? next , what violen● used you to oblidge all to bow to this idol● church-men were not only deposed , who refuse it ; but both church-men and lay-men were ex●communicated , if they did not submit to you● tyranny . what man of common sense can thin● this was the cause of god , which had such mo●struous errours in its first conception ? n. all you can say upon this head , may we● prove , there were some faults in imposing it but it still doth bind , since he shall dwell in go● holy hill , who swears to his own hurt , and chan●eth not . c. i confess , oaths , when the matter is lawfull , do oblidge : but if the nature of thing● change , so the matter grow unlawful , you th● cannot say the oath binds . in a word , a man , or society can only bind themselves , in things tha● are left to their power , and are in their own 〈◊〉 : but if the matter be not in their power , ●hen their oath cannot bind them . n. that is not our case , since you acknow●edge the thing to be of it self indifferent . c. i confess , if you take the thing abstractly in ●t self , it is indifferent : but as the case now ●tands , it is not so : for , by the command of god , we are oblidged to obey the magistrate in all things lawful : so that all just laws oblidge our consciences : and this is a tye before all oaths . and as by no act of ours , we can be bound to break the commands of god ; so , no more can we oblidge our selves to do any thing in prejudice of anothers right ; such as is the soveraign's authority . therefore , no covenant can bind us to deny obedience to the king's laws , because they are in a measure , the laws of god ; ●nd it is his right to command us , from which , ●o act of ours can exclude him . therefore , since the king and parliament have annulled the covenant , and required us to submit to episcopacy , it can no more bind us . n. this is good doctrine , to teach that we should obey man , rather than god. c. this is gross ignorance in you , it is , that we should obey god rather than our selves : for , the just laws , are the mediate commands of god ; whereas our oaths were a voluntary deed of our own , to which we were not bound by any command of god. now , if you comprehend not this clear demonstration , it is because you are a stranger to common sense . n. wherein could episcopacy have been mor● for the good of scotland ? or what could th● kings reason be , for preferring it to presbytery at least for judging it fitter for us ? c. this is like all mutinous subjects , to b● judging and censuring the actions of their princes , unlesse they be on all their secrets , and kno● what all their reasons , and designs are . go● hath given kings the authority to command● and hath left us the glory of obedience ; whic● we ought to do without further inquiry : provided what they enjoyn be against no comman● of god. but we need not seek to rifle the ca●binets of the king , and his councellors , ther● being many apparent cogent reasons , to have en●forced the change . you know what work you● leaders occasioned , both to his royal grandfather , and father , and to himself . you had in●volved the nations in blood ; and not satisfie● with this , after you got all the security yo● could demand , you engaged with his enemie● in england , against him ; you opposed the de●sign of delivering his father , anno . in word , what jealousies had you justly raised in th● hearts of princes , of your government ? an● your tyranny ( . ) against the nobility , ha● justly irritated them against you . next , you ha● divided shamefully amongst your selves , on● great party amongst you , being such , that you● selves sound it necessary to turn them out ; the● maxims being inconsistent with all order and government . and of these that are outed , i● ●s clear , that more than three parts of four , are of that party . why then are ye so blind as to ●sk a reason for the change was made , as if at ●oon one should ask where were the sun ? n. sure you are an enemy to godlinesse , who ●ave an heart so to rail at us . c. i am such a lover of true piety , that for ●ll this drosse that is amongst you , such of you , ●s live well , and walk conscientiously , i still love ●nd value ; and the searcher of hearts knoweth , ●hat i daily pray he may finde a way to re-unite ●s all again ; and to bring such of your leaders , ●s are sensible of their errours , in these great ●scapes , to a capacity of serving him in the church . but it is strange you should take such ● liberty , both in discourses , conventicles , and ●rinted writings , or rather libells , to inveigh ●gainst us ; and then , if we but say a little for ●ustifying the king , the lawes , and our consci●nces , and for undeceiving the people of these ●ists you would cast over their eyes , then you ●●ry out , that we are uncharitable , bitter and malicious . sure you who are so much for de●enfive arms , may , at least , allow us to defend the truth , the law , and our selves , with our tongues and pens . dialogue v. n. i confesse you have much shaken me in the matter of the bishops , though i never find in my heart to love them . but one thing stil● sticks , they are great friends to the common ▪ prayer-book , which i cannot think upon in patience ; and therefore i cannot joyn with them . c. truly if that be your chief quarrel agains● them , it is as well grounded as the rest . n. how ! do not you think it a great matter , to take from us the pure and spiritual worship of god , and in stead thereof , set up a dea● and formal liturgy ? c. i perceive you are still abused after on● manner , your leaders put big words in you● mouthes to make you stick stiffl●y by them ; you● government , they taught you to account the interest and kingdom of christ ; they also woul● make you believe your worship to be the onl● spiritual one , and all others but carnal . now , ● will let you see the great fallacy of this prayin● by the spirit , as you understand it . to pra● by the spirit , is , when out of a deep sense of ou● misery and need , and firm confidence in god , w● draw near to him , to offer up our prayers , an● praises to him , through jesus christ. our heart● being moulded in this frame , we pray by th● spirit ; use we words , or not , the same , or di●ferent expressions . nay , it will appear , w● are carnal , when we need to have our devotion tickled , and provoked with new words . n. now , i clearly see the rottennesse of your heart , and your superstitious cold formality . c. this is great arrogance for you thus to judge of things ye understand not . consider then , the will is the supream power of the soul , and the fancy is a lower faculty ; the true and spiritual devotion therefore , must be that which lies in the will , and not in the fancy : now , the varying of one thing into several shapes , is only a gratifying of fancy : and all the devotion can be raised by such chimes , is only sensible , whereas one of a deep and stedfast spirit , is equally affected with a thing , though still in the same dress . since then , for instance , our petition for pardon of sin , is fully comprized in this , have mercy upon me , o god , doth it not shew , that the thing , and not the words , affect him , who with the newnesse of affection , can make that prayer , though an hundred times repeated , at every return , new ? whereas he must have a lower minde , who needs a new phrase to renew his servour . and thus you see , it expresseth a more spiritual temper , to be able to worship god in simple and constant forms . n. i never thought to have heard the liturgy-worship called spiritual , and the conceived one , carnal . you that are schollers make any thing of any thing with your logick , but you will never make me think but our ministers prayed by the spirit . c. it needs but a very little knowledge of our selves , and none of logick , to make you comprehend this : for , do you think , the heating of the fancy cannot make wicked men pray without the spirit , as to appearance very spiritually ? finally , words , and all the heat begot by words , gesture , voice , or phrases , or the like , are but a false fire in the natural powers of the soul , which may well heat the brain , draw forth tears , seem to wring the heart ; and all this , is but a sensible fervour , which ( as the temper raised by musick ) amounts to nothing , but to a present tickling ; whereas the true devotion of the heart , is , an inward , still , humbling and melting thing , and so equable , that it is above these frisking fits of the fancy . and it is certain , to pray by the spirit , must be the immediat work of the spirit of grace : since then we see , that the praying in words depends most upon memory , fancy , eloquence , confidence and custome ; he that abounds in these , is like to excel in it ; whereas one , defective in all these , so that he cannot pray in a variety of words , yet may understand interior prayer and spiritual converse with god , better than any other . n. this is new doctrine to me . and i cannot understand nor believe it . c. consider then , that the sublimest way of prayer , is in the simplest acts : such as these ; thou art my god , and i am thine . and in such breathings , a devout minde will persist long , with great sweetnesse : and in this , god hath strangely shapt religion , so that the highest strain of it , is , what the simplest minde can most easily reach . nay , perhaps multiplicity doth lead out the minde from pure and still devotion . and thus extemporary prayer , cannot be called praying by the spirit , except by spirit you understand the animal or natural spirits : for , if it be by the spirit , it must be infallible , since all that is dictated by the spirit of god is so : yet your people do not assert their prayers as such . further , let one with a short-hand , follow that mans prayer , who you say prayes by the spirit ; then , may not that prayer be read and used over again ? or , is the spirit in the prayer so volatile , that it evaporats in the saying , and the prayer becomes carnal when it is repeated ? finally , if praying by the spirit , be a praying in new words , then only he that conceives the prayer , prayes by the spirit : since they who hear and joyn with him , are tyed to his words . n. the words were dictated by the spirit to him that conceives them . c. then to the people it is not necessary , the words be new : since to them it is all one , if it were once dictated by the spirit . but why do you not believe the prayer composed by the church , to be of the spirits dictating , as well as that of your ministers ? and , since the people can joyn and pray by the spirit , though the words be not of their framing ; why may not the minister pray in the spirit , though he use words framed by others ? all this shows how weak and ill grounded a notion , that of praying by the spirit , in the sense you understand it , is . and it clearly appears , that the dresse of the prayer in words , and the life begot by them , is but sensible and low . n. but doth not the spirit help our infirmities , and teach us to pray ? c. if you consider the words aright , they speak out a thing very far different from what you would draw from them . the spirit teacheth us to pray , for what we ought , that is the matter of our prayers ; and as we ought , that is the manner , to wit , the temper of our hearts . for , that words are not meant , appears from what follows , and maketh intercession for us with groannings that cannot be uttered : or literally , which cannot be worded . n. but though the renewing of words were a lower way of devotion ; yet , we in this inbodied state , need to have our souls stirred up by the commotion of our fancies . c. then at least , this must convince you , that such a way of praying , is not so sublime , and therefore ought not to be called praying by the spirit . and you must acknowledge , such as can worship god devoutly in a set form , to be of a higher size : as being above these gratifications of nature and fancy . i will next convince you of the evil of extemporary forms . in such then , i must long exercise my attention to consider what he who prayes , intends ; that i may judge , whether i can joyn with him or not : now this strangely draweth out the minde from devotion : for , two powers of the soul cannot be vigourously acted at one time . the attention therefore must put great stops to the progresse of the devotion : and the mind being so prone to wander in worship ; this opens a wide door to it . but he who knoweth already what the prayer is , runs along in his devotion , without anxiety , or wavering . hence i have heard devout men say , they were ever much troubled , while they joyned in extemporary worship , to keep their minde from distraction ; which they found wholly remedied , when they were where god was worshipped in set forms . n. what sort of devout men could these be ? sure they knew not what devotion meant . c. this is like all weak people , to censure what is above them , and they do not understand . but judge whether it be fit , i blindly join with one in the worship of god , when i know not how he is to mannage it : and you cannot deny , some may pray things you dare not join in . shall i not trust a man in any matter , without understanding how he will discharge it ? only in my devotions to god i will blindly trust so great a concernment , to one who saith he doth not know how he will mannage it himself . it is not enough to say , you join not in these things to which you cannot say amen ; for , at least to others you seem so to do . and this will keep you still in some anxiety , when in your heart you may say amen , and when not : and indeed this way of praying , was the best could have been devised , for spreading of errour , or sedition : for ministers prayed over their sermons ; so that what in the discouse seemed the words of man , in the prayer was called the dictate of the spirit . and this was an excellent device , to make all go down , had it been of the worst stuff . n. all things may be abused , but by your own rule , this should not strike against their use . c. things of themselves good , falling into abuse , ought not for that to be taken away ; except the abuse be greater than the goodness of the thing : but , if a thing , not of it self good , be grossly abused , then there is ground to change the use of it . now , since we speak of abuses , i might run out in a long career , and tell of the redious length , the scurrilous expressions , the involved periods , the petulant and wanton affectations , and other great abuses in extemporary prayer : with which , no doubt , you your self hath been often much troubled ; but i bear that tender respect to every thing that hath any relation to god's service , that i love not so to scoff at any thing looks that way : but you know these are sad truths . whether then , is it not necessary to redress these abuses by a regular form ? n. you know we had a directory of the things we should pray for . c. and why may not you have a directory for words , as well as things ? since the spirit rather helps in things than in words . but it was clear you brought up that directory meerly to cozen the world ; which otherwise might have been startled , to have seen you without all form , or rule for worship : for , even your leaders quickly wearied of it , and regarded it not . and one thing clearly followed , that the preaching was the great matter of the worship : all the prayers and psalms relating to it . but the constant acts , wherein the church should adore god , were thought too homely . to conclude , the least evil of extemporary forms , is , that a minister is ready to pour out his soul to god , in such devotions as are then most in his own spirit : suppose he be mourning for sin , under affliction , rejoicing in god , or the like ; he is apt to pray in these strains . but these being his private exercises , are not fit for publick worship , which , as it ought to be grave and solemn ; so , it should be general and comprehensive . n. i see you are for set-forms : but what reason have you for them ? sure the apostles used them not . c. you are not so sure as you imagine , for i cannot doubt but they used our saviours prayer , he taught them ; for whereas , at first , in his sermon on the mount , he had given it as a pattern of prayer , they afterwards , as is clear by the series of the gospel , came and asked a form of him , as st. iohn had given his disciples : and then he doth not say , as he formerly said , after this manner pray , but when you pray , which clearly sheweth , he intended it as a practice , as well as a pattern . nay further , the jews at that time had a liturgy , and their hours of prayer , which our saviour never reproves , as a formal thing : but , on the contrary , he takes his prayer , word for word , out of it , as may be seen , if you will read their liturgy . and this shews how foolish that exception against the liturgy of england is , that some of its prayers are translated out of the roman missall or breviary . but though the apostles and persons immediatly inspired , might pour out extemporary prayers , thence it will not follow , that every one may assume the same liberty . beside , you see by the worship of the corinthians , they used hymnes of their composing , as well as prayers : now i could never comprehend why you will allow the spirit to be restrained in praising , as to words , and not in praying , since both are duties equally spiritual ; nay , perhaps praising , is the most sublime of the two . n. because the plalms are a collection of praises dictated by the spirit of god for worship . c. this is all you can say upon the matter , but never were more absurdities crouded in less bounds . and first , it is clear , we may worship in the spirit , and yet be restrained as to words ; since you acknowledge god hath done it in praising . next , the psalms are full of acts that are prayers , as well as thanksgivings ; why may we not use these for constant prayers , as well as the other for constant praises ? nay , since we use to sing these prayers , why may we not for instance use the . psalm , in plain words , with a plain voice , as prayer , as well as in hobling ryme , with a tune ? sure you will find no difference in this , since you cannot say we are bound to use the psalms in meeter , or with tunes : for nothing proves we ought to use them with vocal tunes , but will conclude as strongly for all davids instruments . besides , who told you that all david's psalms were to be constantly used in worship ? it is clear , most of them was not intended for constant use : they relating to particulars of david's history and victories , which belongs not to us . and it is hard to say , we ought to sing his imprecatory psalms : as also , many things are in the psalms which we cannot sing , because we do not understand them : and it is clear , we ought to praise god with our understandings ; and not above twenty of the psalms were used by the jews in worship . to conclude , why may not the christian church compose new hymns , as they of corinth did ? for which they are approven by st. paul. and this is the more necessary , because from david's psalms , we are not furnished with such full and clear hymns , upon the great mysteries of the christian belief , as were needful . and what kind of reasons can you have , who plead so much for a liberty in prayer , and yet allow none in making of hymns ? why then do not ye use the glory to the father ? n. because it is not in the scripture , and is but a device of men . c. who would not be sick with such pitiful folly ? show me a reason why you may make prayers , and not praises ? beside , are not your meeter psalms a device of men ? and they recede from the text , as i can trace it in an hundred places , as much as the doxology doth from scripture words . and you understand musick little , if you do not know that the psalms in prose may be sung as well , and as musically , as they can be in ryme . besides , since the mystery of the s.s. trinity , is not so clearly in the old testament , nor in any psalm , why may not the church use an acknowledgement of it , in the end of their singing , as well as in the end of prayer , is ordinarily said , to the father , son , and holy ghost , be glory for ever and ever ? such childish weakness makes me sometimes doubt whether your rational faculties be not troubled : since what difference can you pretend betwixt singing and saying ? but i will return to prayer . consider next , how hosea the prophet prescribes a form , when he saith , take with you words , and say , &c. our saviour also prayed thrice , and though the third time was more fervently , yet it was in the same words : which shows , that fervour consisteth not in a varying of the phrase next , it is clear , that in the church they used forms very early ; since in the council of laodicea , it was decreed , that the same liturgy of prayer should be used morning and evening . it● is true , there was not an universal liturgy then agreed to , but bishops had their several liturgies : so we have the liturgies of st. basile ▪ st. chrysostome , and st. ambrose ; not to mention those of st. iames , and st. mark. but never were extemporary heats used in the church : and all the reformed churches have their liturgies ; so we had ours at our first reformation . n. but we are a purer church than any of them : and therefore we are not to learn of them . c. i know you were made believe , that all the world were wondring at you , but this was a cheat upon you , like that of your alledged prophetess ; for , i can assure you , there was no such thing true . one thing is strangely inconsequential amongst you , you will not pray in a liturgy , and yet you alwayes bless the people in a set form . do you think prayer for a blessing , is not a prayer ? or do you think , the spirit is not stinted when the form is short , but only when it is long ? sure these things shew you are not governed by reason . n. what then conclude you from all this ; is it that the english liturgy be brought in ? c. it is , that you consider better how you ought to worship god. as for the english liturgy , i do not say any thing is absolutely perfect , but god ; yet till i see a better liturgy compiled , which i never hitherto did , pardon me to think it an excellent rule for worship , although your deep , but groundless prejudices against it , have rendred you so uncapable of receiving good by it , that such is your soveraign's princely tenderness , and your superiours discreet prudence , that they do not obtrude on you while you are but babes this stronger food , but are willing to let you be doing with your milk . n. this is easie way for men to read their prayers off their books ; god keep us long from it . c. truly , if by easiness , you mean what is pleasant to a man , it is far from it ; for certainly the natural man would be much better pleased , to be running out with his own conceptions , and to have all the worship depending upon his lips this is indeed to be rabbi . but to use the form of the church is a more simple , and a more humble way of worship . n. i begin to think you can have no piety , who are so in love with that dead and dull worship . c. would to god you and i had more of it than we have : but it is perhaps your stupidity , that makes you dead and dull in it . and i know godly people , who protest , they never in their lives worshipped god with more pure and simple devotion , than when they joined in the english liturgy-worship : therefore in such matters speak more modestly . n. but what vain repetitions are in the liturgy ? how often redouble they , lord have mercy upon us ? c. i have not yet asserted , that it is in all things perfect ; but truly , i can think that no fault , except you will also quarrel with the psalms , particularly with the . in which is repeated . times , for his mercy endureth for ever , it being in every verse . but in the true sense of vain repetitions , i fear there is ground to say , many of ●our prayers may be censured for them . n. but what a confusion is it , that all say some of the prayers together , and use amen ? c. it seems you have read the scripture well , else you would have found , acts . how a whole company there , lifted up their voice to god with one accord , and said , &c. and st. paul plainly intimates that there was a custome of saying amen , at the giving of thanks . why then do you not in this follow the express scripture-rule ? and what imaginable ground is there that the people shall all with their voice join in the psalms , and not also in the prayers ? n. well , i see you are zealous for that service-book , but should you speak till to morrow , you should never perswade me to join in it : but are you as keen for the ceremonies ? c. i verily believe , your prejudice against it , though ill grounded , yet is so deep , that no reason will overthrow it : but perhaps , if you saw that worship gravely managed , you should be more reconciled to it . as for the ceremonies , i will medle with none , but such as were commanded here , well known by the name of the five articles of perth . and for these , if you can hear ●nd understand reason , i doubt not to convince ●ou , they were both lawful , and most of them ●oth useful and necessary . i begin with confirmation . n. well , is not this a popish sacrament which you would bring into the church ? c. i confess , if it had been introduced as a sacrament , you had reason to except against it but you know no such thing was ascribed to it , and it was only designed for a solemn renovation of the baptismal vow . now since children are baptized , and so in baptism do not ingage fo● themselves ; can any thing be more rational , than that when they come to the years of discretion , they do it themselves ? and this rite wa● very ancient in the church , and with great show of reason , the laying on of hands mentioned wit● baptisms , heb. . was expounded of it : and yo● know most reformers were for it . n. but why must it be done only by a bishop ▪ as if it were beyond baptism ? c. that was only to conciliat the more veneration for it , by making it the more solemn and therefore it hath been generally appropriated to the bishop . yet i shall not contend about that , since st. ambrose , or rather hilary saith that in egypt , the presbyters in the bishop's absence did confirm . and st. ierom saith , that ● bishop did nothing , except the ordination , whic● a presbyter did not likewise . the next articl● was private baptism . n. this was another piece of popery , to mak● the sacraments necessary to salvation . c. it is rather gross superstition , to confir● the sacramental actions to the walls of a church for it is the assembly of the faithful that makes ● church . our saviour said , where two or three are gathered together in my name , i will be in the midst of them . as for the necessity of the sacraments , none calls them simply necessary to salvation ; but since they were commanded , they ought to be used , unless some more cogent reason stop the use of them , than is the want of a dedicated house . and who should expect , that they who are so much against reverence to sacred houses , should likewise be against private sacraments ? as for baptism , what a cruel thing is it , to oblidge children ; especially when they are tender , to be brought , perhaps in the coldest season , many miles , rather than go and baptize at their houses ? this looks liker heathenish barbarity , than the christian tenderness . and for communion , why should not sick persons receive on death-bed , when all the reasons of receiving are most strong ? their faith and love needs then to be most quickened ; never is the death of christ more to be remembred , than when they are to pass through the valley and shadow of death ; and never is it more fit , that they declare their communion with the church , and their love to the brethren , than when they are entering upon their last pangs : and it is well known how early a practice this was in the church of god. iustin martyr tells , that they sent of the eucharist to them that were absent : and by the famous story of serapion , about the . year , it is apparent how necessary the christians then thought it was to be guarded with this holy viaticum . private sacraments then are not proposed as necessary , but as highly expedient : which i think i have made appear they are . n. but what can you say for kneeling in receiving ? sure this looks like superstition and idolatry . c. i confess this is the article of them all , i have the least fondness on : but it is great uncharitableness to call it idolatry , when such as do so , declare they neither believe christ to be corporally present , nor do they intend any worship to the bread and wine , but direct their worship to god and christ , for that death which is therein shewed forth . n. but why do not you sit ? since our saviour did institute this rite in the table-gesture ? c. since you do not exactly follow christ , you ought not to stand at this : none therefore should alledge this , but such as communicat leaning , and after supper , and in an upper room . and though the passover was ordained to be eaten by the jews standing with their loins girt , and their shooes on their feet , yet without any written warrand , they changed that posture into the ordinary eating posture , and did eat the passover leaning , in which our saviour conformed to them . and if the jews , against an expresse● precept , without any countermand , may chang● the posture ; sure the christians who are lesse restrained as to outwards , may change the gesture● especially there being no command for it : and but a lame example , since our saviour did not sit , but lean . and perhaps more veneration is due to that action , now that our saviour is exalted , than he could have allowed of in his humiliation . n. what can you say for holy dayes ? can any man make dayes holy ? c. if by holy dayes you mean , portions of time so sacred , that in these dayes , our services are more acceptable to god than on other dayes ; or that of their own nature they are holy , so that of it self it is a sin not to be particularly devout on these dayes , you have reason to say , none can make a day holy . and this was never asserted . but it is another thing to keep peculiar dayes of thanksgiving , for the great and signal mercies of the gospel-dispensation . i confesse i am so dull , as not to be able to apprehend what evil can be in such customs . and it is undoubted , that in all ages and places of the church , christians have had a peculiar veneration for these dayes . st. paul saith of the legall holy dayes , he that regardeth a day , to the lord he doth regard it ; and , if moses his feasts might have been kept holy to the lord , much more may these be which the church hath instituted . beside , you know the observation of easter and pentecost , are according to clear history derived from apostolical practices . and it appears , st. paul hasted to be at ierusalem to keep the feast of pentecost there . and , from all this i may assume , that your dislike of these festivals and the other articles of perth , is ill grounded . dialogue vi. n. i see we have no reason to hope for any good from you , who are so fierce against u● ▪ ●u● god be thanked , an ill-willed cow hath fro●●●orns . c. if by fiercenesse you mean a desire to see you ●uined and destroyed , you mistake me quite ; since there is none living , mo●● a verse from fierce and violent ●ourses than my self . i love all christians , who live according to the rules of the gospel ▪ and i pity such as i judge mistaken , knowing how subject i am to errour my self . i quarrel with no man for his opinion in these matters ▪ which are , as the 〈◊〉 incomp●rable king in his divine work call● them , but the ski●● and suburbs of religion . and as all the thoughts of that divine book bew●ay an augustnesse , which spe●ks the author a king indeed ▪ so his mode●a●ion in these matters looks like the paternal clemency which becomes the father of a countrey ; he then adviseth his son , our gracious sovereign , thus , beware of exasperating any factio●s , by the crossnesse and asperity of some men● passions , humours , or private opinions , imployed by you , grounded only upon the differences in lesse● matters , which are but the ski●s and suburb● of religion : wherein a charitable connivance● and christian-●oller●tion often dissipa●● their strength , wh●●●ougher opposition fortifies ; and puts the despised and oppressed party into such combinations , as may most enable them to get a full revenge on those they count their persecutors , who are commonly assisted by that vulgar commiseration which attends all that are said to suffer under the notion of religion . and a little after , take heed , that outward circumstances and formalities of religion , devour not all , or the best incouragements of learning , industry , and piety . thus that great and glorious prince . n. by this it seems you are a latitudinarian , and i have heard much ill of these new sort of people . c. truly i own no name , but that of jesus christ , in which i was baptized ; and these are invidious arts , to coyn names of parties , and to affix them on such as disown them ; i am , and desire to be a sincere christian , but of no party nor sect. but if by latitude , you mean charity , truly i must tell you , i glory in it , which is no newer way , than the new commandment which our saviour gave to his disciples , to love one another , as he loved them . n. i confesse they say you live very good lives , but you have dangerous and loose principles . c. are you not strange people , who fasten such characters on men whose conversations you cannot disprove ; for , what can you call an atheist , but a man of dangerous and loose principles ? these are uncharitable aspersions , as if not to be so hidebound and starcht on every trifle as you are , were to be loose and dangerous men . n. some say you are strong witted people , and so they suspect you of atheism . c. it seems they are weak witted people who talk so ; since though some foolish pretenders to wit , are atheists , yet no sort of men discover their folly , as well as wickednesse , so much as these do . and that cursed pest is hated by none more than us , who perhaps can give better and more convincing accounts of these principles of religion , that there is a god , a life to come , and that the scriptures are the word of god , than these who so charge us . but what unchristian work is it , thus to disgrace us ? n. many of you are suspect of socinianism , for you all magnifie reason , and are often telling how rational a thing christian religion is , which they also do . c. indeed if to call religion a rational worship , or reasonable service make a socinian , w● are such , and so was st. paul : but as for the horrid errours of socinus his school , touching th● trinity , christs satisfaction , gods prescience , & ● ▪ these we condemn and anathematize : and w● judge it most suitable to reason , that in these sublime mysteries , divine revelations should b● our rule . but notwithstanding of this , we wi●● be very loath to deny that christian religio● both in its articles of belief , and precepts ● practice , is highly congruous to the dictates ● right reason : and we judge to propose them s● shall be a convincing way to commend them all clear-witted men . and certainly , god having created man rational , the highest accomplishment of his nature , which is religion , must not be contrary , but suitable to his supreme faculty . n. it seems you are sound here , but i fear you latitudinarians are papists , at least cassandrians . c. you are resolved to charge us with one heinous thing or another , and when one fails you , you catch hold on another . we are far from that height of uncharitablenesse which some of you own , of damning all papists ; since they hold the foundation jesus christ , though they build upon it wood , hay and stubble : neither will we stifly say , that all things controverted betwixt the reformed churches and them , are matters of salvation ; yet in the greater controversies with them , we condemn them : such as are the popes supremacy , the churches infallibility , the corporal presence , the worshipping images , saints , angels , purgatory , prayer for the dead , withholding the chalice , worshipping in an unknown tongue ; these with many moe we disprove and dislike as much , and perhaps on clearer grounds than you do . yet we are such lovers of the unity of the catholick church , that we much honour and esteem all who have studied to bring things to a temper , though they have not come up to the desired length . n. but how comes it , that amongst all the articles of popery , you never reckon the merits of good works , nor justification by them ; since these are their chiefest errours ? c. i have not given a full enumeration of all that is wrong in that church ; but , for good works , though many of them , particularly the j●suits , have written very harshly in that matters ; and before the reformation , generally all the preachers did intollerably extol , not so much morally good works , as the superstitious and tyrannical injunctions of the stepdame of rome ; yet now it is clear , the more sober of them expound merits , in a sense which no protestant can disown , to wit , that they are actions so acceptable to god , that he who is faithfull in his promises , will certainly reward them . though i have no fondnesse on the term merit , which way soever expounded , it still sounds somewhat too high for a creature in reference to his creator , much more heartily do i reject the term condign . n. what ●ay you of justification by faith only ? sure this is a fundamental matter . c. there is nothing in scripture more clearly set down than the doctrine of justification ; but as it is generally explained , there is nothing more nice or subtill : justification and condemnation are two opposite legal terms , relating to the judgment shall be given out at the last day ; for though we are said to be now justified , as the unbelieving are said to be condemned already , this is only that we are now in the state of such as shall be solemnly justified or condemned . now at ●he great day we must give 〈◊〉 ●●ount of our actions , and we must be judged accordingly ▪ but since all must be condemned , if god enter in judgement with them , therefore god gave his son to the death for us , that thereby we might obtain ▪ salvation ; and all iudgement is by the ●●ther committed to the son : and jesus christ hath proposed ●ife through his death to as many 〈◊〉 receive his gospel , and live according ▪ ●o it . and as that which gives us ●●title to the ●●vour of god , is the blood of christ , so that which gives us an interest in his death , is faith , with ● life conform to the rules of his gospel , and the ●oo● of this new life , is a fai●h , which worke●h by love , purifyeth the heart , and ! overcom●●● the world ; and therefore justification is ascribed ●o● it in scripture . now , judge but a little what 〈◊〉 is to have a righ● apprehension of things ▪ si●●e ● have in a few plain words told you ●hat which with much nice●y swells amongst you to volume● ▪ and as this ascribes all to christ , through● whom it is that our sins are pardoned , our services ●●cepted , and grace and glory conveyed to us● ▪ so also the necessity of a holy life is clearly declared ▪ as being that whereupon we shall be solemnity judged , justified and absolved at the last day . n. i think this is very clear , but why do not you use the terms of the protestant● church ? this looks like a humour of singularity amongst you , that you will not speak like other men . c. whether do you think it fitter in the mysteries of ●aith to keep close to ●●rms of scripture or not ? since these , as they are the truest , so are the fittest and most expressive : but if we will speak in the language of men , i think the stile of the catholick church is to be chosen , rather than modern and scholastical expressions , which are too too horridly abused , as well by antinomians , as by carnal christians , who love well to hear of salvation by the death of christ , provided they be bound to do nothing themselves , that they may be saved . n. you have sufficiently vindicated your self of popery , but are you not arminians ? c. truly i believe both you and i may be good christians , and not understand a word of these controversies . and certainly the great itch of multiplying and canvassing subtile questions in matters of religion , hath proven one of the chief pests of the church ; it is good to be sober-minded . as for gods soveraignty in all things , but more especially in the conversion of souls , and the gracious influence of his spirit , i do firmly believe it : i as firmly believe , that god is infinitly good and holy , and think i may well take his own oath for it , that he takes no pleasure in the death of sinners : but how to reconcile these his attributes , i confesse is beyond my capacity . god is an unfathomable abysse , and imperscrutable to any but himself : therefore as i do not doubt there are three persons in one god , though i cannot reconcile that to aristotles logick ; so i believe , god is soveraign and absolute , as well as holy and just , though i cannot answer all objections . in a word , let this whole matter be thus transacted , and no article of faith is violated ; let none of our good be ascribed to our selves , and none of our evil be imputed to god. n. i see if you have any errours , you have so much legerdemain , that you are not easily discovered . but , our ministers are more jealous of some of this new way of the latitude , than of any body ; for , often in our conventicles they bid us beware of wolves in sheeps cloathing : and this is meant of you . c. iudge of the tree by its fruits , said our saviour ; do not therefore upon jealousies and misrepresentations passe judgments ; for , who art thou that judgest another mans servant ? but i am now weary with wrangling , it being a thing much against my genius ; i will therefore leave these dry and arid matters , and talk a little with you on better subjects . n. i will hear you in these with all my heart ; for though you have said many things that do much displease me , yet as uncharitable as you think me , i am full of kindness for you ; and i love to hear good spoken by any body : therefore we will dispute no more . c. ah , how strangely is the world mistaken in matters of religion ! some placing it wholly in debates , others in external forms ; others in some private devotions , and others in a regulation of the outward man ; but true religion is power and life , and far above all these shadows . the kingdom of god is not meat and drink , but righteousness and peace , and joy in the holy ghost ; it doth not level at externals only , but secretly insinuats it self into the soul ; whereas a divine seed it propagates , diffusing its vertue through the whole man : in a word , religion was given of god to transform a man into the divine likeness , and to a real participation of the divine nature . n. what then is the great scope and design of christian religion ? c. god's method in clearing up this day of salvation was indeed wonderful : many ages after the creation , the world was overspread with darkness , and wrapped up in blind idolatry , only as the 〈◊〉 reflection of the moon , with the twinklings of a few stars , do give some radiance in the furthest absence of the sun , so these darkest ages had still some of the remains of natures light ; and the holy patriarchs were burning and ●hi●ing lights : but darkness still covered the face of the earth . at length there was a dawning ●p●●ed by moses , whose greatest splendor was c●ast upon it , by the approaching sun , the messia●s : indeed the old dispensation was a great ●idd● for all was managed then with great ●errour , po●p and state : their call out of egypt , and the pro●ulging of the law were dreadfu● , their temple , worship and ceremonies were majesti●k and solemn ; but by none of these the doer could be made perfect : at length came the sun of righteousness , as a light to lighten the gentiles , and the glory of his people israel , and brought to light life and mortality through his gospel ; the great designs whereof are , to beget in a man such apprehensions of the divine majesty as might both possess him with the holy reveren●● becomes his great name , and inspire him with a love and delight in him , that so man might be brought to a more free converse with god , and might be swallowed up in divine contemplations . the next thing in the gospel , is to propose to us that stupendious contrivance of the redemption of the world through jesus christ , that we may adore him as the author and finisher of our faith . beside , the gospel came to mould us into such a lively conformity to jesus christ , that we may imitate him in all things , chiefly in his holiness , meekness , and humility : and further , the gospel was designed as a cement and bond of perfection , to unite us all more clossly , even beyond the natural tyes , with those of brotherly-kindness and charity . n. what then are the methods to be used by one that would lead a spiritual life ? c. this ought to be the great design of our lives ; for , wherein shall it avail us , if we shall gain the whole world , and lose our own souls ? the way then to purify our souls , is , not barely to affect a little vertue , or morality , but to apply our minds to god , that by frequent and deep contemplations of his glory , his excellent perfections may be derived into our souls . be therefore much in stillness and abstraction of mind , that you may become of a thinking temper : give up with passions , designs , and humours , and use much inward recollection ; this at first will prove ●inful to you , but when once you have brought your mind into a serene and not easily agitated temper , you shall after that enjoy great quiet in divine converse . n. what mean you by this converse with god ? c. you shall feel such a belief and sense of the divine perfections in your soul , as shall make the thoughts of god familiar and easie to you : your converse with him shall not only consist in prayers , and acts of worship , but you shall be often admiring him in his attributes of power , wisdom , and goodness , and chiefly his love to you in christ ; which sense of god shall be as a fountain of living waters , ever jetting up divine thoughts into your mind : and these will not be crabbed , curious , or subtill speculations , but humble adorations , and divine imbraces , in such acts , as , thou art my god , my good god , i am thine , i will love thee above all things , and none but thee ; thou art my joy and only delight . thus the more you converse with god , your acts will grow the simpler and the purer : it will not only be at some returns , morning or evening , or in publick worship , that such thoughts will stir in you ; but your heart will be full of them , and swiming in them , and they will rise natively in you . hence will gush in upon your soul much inward sweetness of mind ; you will be ever well pleased , because you will see god in all things , and you will see all he doth is good ; you will therefore not only practise submission , but complacency and delight in all his wayes ; you will also rejoyce in the divine attributes , and glory in your interest in heaven . oh , how sweet will your hours then grow to you ! but debates and opinions and every thing that leads out the mind from that inward stillness , will become sapless to you . n. wherein consists that sweetness you say is to be found in divine converse ? c. in the stillness wherewith the mind is overflowed , the clearness in the judgement , the stedfastness of the will , and calmness of the passions ; and then indeed a man lives in the perfection of his nature . but , beside these , there are some divine touches , wherein the soul is carried , as it were , out of her self , into most sublime heights , which cannot be uttered . but as for the affections of the sensible part , these may be very high in an impure mind ; for the natural devotion , especially if the person be melancholick , a woman , or histerical , will mount very high , but this devotion doth not humble nor purify the minde . now , persons so divinly acted , are nothing in their own eyes , and willing to be nothing in the account of all the world , and all the world is nothing to them , their god is their all : they resign all to him , and are willing he dispose of them , and every thing else , as seems good in his eyes ; so they are not sollicitous , nor disturbed , however squares go in the world . finally , by the elevation of this spiritual life , they are made to think not only placidly and serenly of death , but to long for it , accounting that the worst office death can do them , is to free them of a vile body , and to give them enterance into their heavenly kingdom , this is the union of the soul to god. n. but how must we enter into that state of divine union ? c. truly the gate is low , and the passage strait , we must be dispossessed of self-love , and of all intense affections to created objects ; we must ●now and abhor our bygone escapes , we must by the humble applications of our souls to jesus christ , presse in by violence into this heavenly state ▪ to which the passage is so narrow , that we must be stript of all the bulksome farthingales and trains of vanity ere we can enter : but when we shall be divested of these , the path of life will prove easie . oh! how shall these pangs be recompensed , when we have broke thorow , and got into the blessed shades of the garden of god ? and , how infinitely more shall they be swallowed up , when getting beyond the dark regions of mortality , we shall arrive at the uncreated light , which without a cloud or vail , shines above ? then our glorified bodies , with our no lesse purified souls , being made like unto angels , yea , unto a greater than angels , shall be incessantly imployed in exercises , services and adorations , so far elevated beyond , and disproportioned to our highest a●chievements and enjoyments here , that in this imperfect state we cannot so much as frame suitable apprehensions of that unconceived glory ! now we who have the possession of so great a joy , and the hope of a greater blesse●nesse proposed to us , have we not all reason vigorously to set about the duties of a christian life , not intangling our selves with thorny and harsh debates , which will but retard our progresse to sublimer states , and higher and undisturbed regions ? n. is this all then that is required to accomplish a christian ? c. this is but the basis and roo● of a christian life , which is never barren nor unfruitfull : he then whose heart is thus fixed on god , his life and actions quickly declare that he hath not only the form but the power of godlinesse in him : he lives above the world , in such a contempt of it , as discovers he hath greater riches and treasures in his design , than these a●e ; he hates the base and impure pollutions that abound in the world through lust , and underva●●●eth even the lawfull pleasures and enjoyments off sense : he sets no value on things in themselves , riches and poverty , shame and contemp●a●e equally welcome to him , the one doth not sink him , nor can the other swell him : his actions and discourses have that candor , ingenuity and goodness in them , as convince all , that the fear of god is before his eyes . finally , he li●es in the world , as out of the world , and above the world ▪ his humility also testifieth , that in no●hing the doth , he seeks or regards himself ; he doth not hang out his piety nor good actions to publick view , but wraps them up in unaffected self-denial . he courts not applause , nor is he fretted with contempt , but is willing that none but god , for whom he doth all , know his actions , and with a virginal modesty shuns and rejects the praises which are undesired , as well as undeserved : he flyes the crouds and publick scenes , that in corners he may find that which by venting in a throng , is often evaporat and lost . and as he doth not cowardly stoop to mean things , so he doth not stubbornly refuse the poorest office god calls him to : he peaceably obeyeth the publick father of his countrey , and the ghostly fathers of his soul : he undervalueth none but himself , neither are his ears pained with applauses given to others , nor itching for them to himself . his charity also appeareth in his readiness to do good to all men , looking on that as one of the greatest conformities to the divine nature : he relieveth the poor with his goods , the perplexed with his advice , the oppressed with his assistance , the disconsolat with his sympathy ; and all with his prayers . he judgeth rashly of none , he doth not easily believe , but quickly pardoneth an injury : he is not soon irritated , but readily pacified : he confineth not his charity to a party , but extendeth it to all christians . this is a rude character , containing some of the fairer lines of a christian-life ; by which you may see wherein christian religion consists , and how far even those who pretend most loudly to it , recede from it . n. what say you of his devotions , both private and publick ? c. in his secret retirements he often revieweth and examineth his actions , that discovering what hath been defective and amiss in him , he may be humbled for it , and quickened to new vigour and alacrity in divine services : he begs the divine love through jesus christ , by whom he makes all his addresses to the throne of grace ; he offers up himself to god by pure and free resignations , that he may dispose of him as pleaseth him ; he imploreth the divine grace , and assistance for mortifying all sins , overcoming all temptations , and advancing in every thing that is acceptable and well-pleasing to god : he also offers up his praises to god for all his mercies , chiefly for that unvaluable one of the redemption of the world through jesus christ : he prayeth also for the catholick church , his king , countrey , and friends . this he performs not as an homage or vassalage which he must do , but out of pure delight in god and divine exercises : neither doth he rest on these , as all he owes god ; but besides , he orders all he doth for his glory , and is often bending his minde to an application to god in all his wayes : and this is his secret and inward devotion . he worships god in publick , that he may avowedly own his dependance on him , and his union with his church : he goeth to the holy place , not out of custome or formality , but that he may jointly with others , acknowledge and adore his maker and his redeemer ; and gives no● only an external concurrence with the worship in voice , gesture , or presence , but his hear● saith amen to his lips and profession . n. i confesse i finde it much more pleasing and edifying to talk on these heads , than on ou● doubtful disputations ; and therefore i will bi● an endlesse farewell to them . c. i was to have desired that of you : fo● though my affection to you hath at presen● drawn from me a great deal of contentious discourse ; yet i finde no pleasure in it ; and therefore as i seldom in my thoughts remind● these matters , so here i put a point , and wil● never resume them again . let us therefore provoke one another to charity and good works ● we have a better exercise for our tongues , wit● them we are to blesse god even the father ; le● us not therefore utter any thing with them that may seem to curse man , that was made after the similitude of god. n. yet your pains are not wholly lost : fo● though i am not altogether changed as to 〈◊〉 principles ; yet you have brought me to a grea● temper in things wherein i must confesse i wa● unmeasuredly furious : but i will henceforth study to draw in my minde from every distraction , and more vigorously pursue the great en● of my being . c. if this be your temper , you and i cannot disagree , did our thoughts , as to other things , differ never so widly : and i pray god keep you and me both in this temper long , but now we must part for a while , it is like we may shortly meet again , if not on earth , at least in heaven : so i bid you heartily adiew . postscript . these dialogues were the hasty product of some idle hours , wherein the author thought fit to gather in a few words , the matters which now creat us so much trouble , and to represent the arguments of both parties candidly ; which he hopes he hath done . he protests he hath no design to wrong either party or person , but meerly to propose these matters to others , in the same light wherein they appear to himself : had his design been to disgrace persons or wayes , he would have done it at another rate ; but he abhorreth such a thought . if these papers grow publick , and be of use to any , he desires no thanks as he expects no rewards : and for the censures of persons concerned , he will shroud himself from these with the vail of one unconcerned . finis . a pindarick ode upon contentions in matters of religion , by a friend of the authors , and a zealous promoter of all designs for peace and love. i. shall that which was design'd to end our toils , increase our flames , and raise new broils ; and must we triumph in our brethrens spoils ? women are said by contraries to walk , so now religion which heaven intends to quiet minds , all hearts to quarrel bends ; and to contentious talk . and as the feuds of brethren hottest are , ( where concords ought to be , there harshest proves the jarr ) so nations christned into unity , and twisted in fraternal tyes , yet do these sacred bonds despise : and the endearing names of brethren all bely . ii. great were disorders which at babel sprang , each did his mothers tongue forget ; brother to brother spake a stranger dialect , and new coin'd words only the ear did wound . in vain it was to speak , and all grew mutes , and man seem'd to descend to rank of bruits . the gospel came to heal this breach , and canaans hallowed stile mankind did teach : at first all seem'd made of a piece ; one heart and soul them did inspire , free was the peaceful company from warlike ire , when charity was all their fire . the heavenly dew still moistened the fleece . while they sought only how to propagate their kind , ' midst all their hymns no discord could one find . but when the wretched arts of humane policy , mingled with primitive integrity , they by unhallowed tools began to build their fabriques , and by laws of state religion did adulterate . then did incensed heavens 'gainst them rage , and put an early period to the golden age : all in disorder ravel'd out , the church grew a tumultuous rout . and all with cloven tongues did speak : fierce wrath prevail'd , and gospel force grew weak ▪ and all its harmony died in a groan : oh strange ! even paradise becomes a to●ride zone . iii. iesus blest names were not their only stiles , they left his standart , and were rang'd in files , vnder the banners of dividing names , and quench't in angry heats were divine flames , some quarel'd only about doubtful words , but to decide the matter , used swords : others 'bout logick niceties did contend , yet such poor stuff put to their love an end : and while some plea'd the practice of small forms , did their unformal pleas occasion storms . wondrous metamorphose ! st. james counts lust the source of warre , but now religion proves the cause of jarre . inverted chymistry ! which turns the gold to base allay . must rome be damn'd as antichrist , because it to unerring chair pretends ; and forth as oracles its dictates sends ? while each 'mong us to that height raise their creast , and do expect that all to them submit , conceiting that to errour proof's their wit. but once a woman did usurp that chair , that stain wipe off could never any care : yet now 'gainst us that sex conspires , and to our crown with insolence aspires . each dame a sybill grows , and doth refuse to stoop to wisest sort , and our just yoke abuse . the names of factions are infus'd in harmless infancy , which early thus abus'd , retains the venome it from breast derives , all roads are block't by which the truth arrives , fond prejudice doth so bemist , trepaning custome doth so twist their minds to errour , that it vain and bootless labour proves them to regain . iv. disputing is as oyl to raging flame ; they glory in their sufferings pompous name , and by resisting do increase their fame . all gentleness they think a cheat , and dread the enemy most when he doth treat . god bless me , what disease is this , whose cure all medicines do miss ! they 'r wanton if we cordials use , sure , goodness they abuse ; or if to abate the feverish heat , some noisome blood we would let out ; then grows the madness of the frantick rout . if fines as medicines their bowels drain , then they aloud of grinding do complain . this strange distemper doth all skill defy ▪ physicians hopes still falsify . but as a joynt which gangrene doth corrupt , must be cut off from the sound lump● better the body grow a stump , than by such members bankerrupt . yet often doth this hydra multiply when cropt , one head to seven will fructify . or as a tree which with new force doth spring , when lopt by pruner is its over spreading wing ; so doth this poysonous weed still further spread , and as the camomine , grow the more it's tread . the cockle still with wheat will blend , till winnowing flames to mixture put an end . good grains with tares may chance to be pull'd up , delay their doom till brimfull be their cup. then chaffed justice shall the chaff devour , and angel-reapers bring the just to heavens floor . finis . a continuation of the former conference . dialogue vii . c. i am heartily glad of this opportunity of meeting with you again , and will be more glad to find our last conference producing the effect design'd by it ; which was to beget in you a true sense of religion , that you may walk worthy of your high and holy calling ; for , i can have no greater joy than to see you walking in the truth . n. i thank you for being so concerned in the welfare of my soul : and , by the grace of god , i shall make it my daily work to be perfecting holinesse in his fear : but , i must be on my guard when i converse with you ; since you publish our private discourses , which i do not take kindly ; for , you take advantage from my weakness , and , by running me down , make the whole party suffer . c. the true reason why i consented to the publishing of our conference ( for i candidly assure you , i did no more but give my consent to him , who , being pleased with the written account of it , desired to make it publick ) was , since i thought i had allayed a great deal of the heat i met with in you upon these matters , i presumed it might produce the like good effect in others . if in any thing i seem to take too great advantage against you , it is with reason : neither is it an humour of drolling or insulting , that makes me sometimes a little pleasant ; since in all dialogues you will find the transitions sweetned with somewhat of that , even when the gravest matters are treated of . n. some charge you with socinianism , others with popery , others with arminianism , and others with quakerism . i confesse their grounds seem'd to me , very slender , but they say it is very clear , and tell their followers to shun you as a pest . c. god forgive their malice , i pray god it be not laid to their charge at the last day , that they so falsly and injuriously reproach me . i know the arts of some well , they will tell their people that we are unsound and heterodox , and back their hard words with grave nods and wry faces ; and the poor people , too inured to implicit faith , give an undoubted credit to what they say : but do they understand things , who charge a man with socinianism , who believeth that christ is the eternal son of god , and hopes for salvation only through his blood ? and they are as well versed in popery , who charge me with it ; for , can he be heretical in justification , who ascribes all we receive in this life and in that to come , to the love and grace of god through jesus christ ? and you know all that calvin and his followers aim at in the matter of arminius his points , is , that all ou● good be ascribed to god : how then can he be erroneous in this matter , who asserts that ? but as for quakerism , the grounds on which they tax me of that , are so ridiculous , that i am ashamed to name them ; and , i assure you i am so far from inclining to quakers , that i look on that sect , as one of the subtillest devices yet broached for the overthrow of christian religion . but , if that spirit be not the womb , from whence all these sects and errours have sprung amongst us , let all that look on , judge ; none falling to them in this country but such as were formerly most violent in their way . and though i am sure , they are far enough from being quakers , yet their principles have a natural tendency that way : whence , think you , have they suckt their rejecting of all forms and order ( under ● pretence that the spirit is not to be prelimited ) but from your notions against liturgies and for extemporany heats ? next , the liberty you take to medle in matters too high for you , and judge of every thing , without thinking you are bound to reverence either the present or antient church , ( i plead not for implicit faith ) opens a wide door for their pretensions to a liberty of the spirit ; which at once renounceth all modesty and humility . next , your humour of separation , begets that giddiness in people , that , no wonder , they , being shaken from the unity of the church , also stagger through unbeleef . as also , many of you cherish in your followers a dejection of mind too much , as if religion , which gives a man a right to the purest joyes , should become a life of doubting , and this introduceth a spirit of melancholy , which clearly makes way to that pretended enthusiasm . and thus you may see who are to be blamed for the progresse that way makes amongst us , you having prepared the people so to it . but still i assure you , though i cannot but see the faults , too many amongst you are guilty of , i am far from hating or despising you , god knowes i pity and love you with all my heart . n. but every one doth not judge so favourably of you ; in a word , you are called ● petulant profane and malicious person , and ● scoffer at true piety ; under a pretence of it labouring to defame the cause and work o● god , which shall have a sweet savour to al● posterity , when your memory will rot : yo● pretend to moderation , but art the most immoderat of any : this is the vulgar sense 〈◊〉 that book , and of its concealed author , who , they adde , doth well to conceal his name from such a work of darknesse . c. i hope you know my temper better , than to think these things will much move me : i will learn to live through good report and ill report , and am so far from being angry with those who thus traduce me , that if i knew how to do them a good office i would infallibly do it . yea , if my heart deceive me not , i could die to do them service . i have no anger , god knoweth , at their persons nor their wayes , further than i think they are destructive of the unity of that body , whereof christ is the head : and consequently obstruct the advancement of religion . i alwayes classe them in two divisions , the one is , of such as are indeed differing from us in their opinion , but withall are sober and modest , not rash in their censures , nor bitter in their passions : and such i honour and love , and doubt not but there are grave and pious persons of that persuasion , whom i also honour the more , because of their first founder calvin ( take not this as a jeer ; for , i assure you , the first being ever presbytry had , was in calvius brain . ) but others , besides their opinion in the matter of church-government , are of foure tempers , condemning such as differ from them , judging all who are not as violent as themselves , placing salvation in these matters , and thus confining their charity within the narrow circle of their own opinion : as for such , they get but their true name , when they are called fanaticks , and though i will be loath to judge them as to the state of their souls ; yet , whatever good christians they might prove in a cell , or in a desart , i assure you , they are not shap't for societies ; their maximes being inconsistent with peace , order and unity : and they are as unfit to govern , as uncapable of being governed ; and , for these do not quarrel me , if i speak severly of them : but remember what one of your own deservedly esteemed preachers sayeth ( it is like occasioned by the differences then , when they were forced to represse the insolence of the protesting party ) on iob . verse . doct. . albeit godlinesse teach men modesty and sobriety , and to be tender of the reputation of others ; yet that doth not hinder them to tell men , what they are , when they are called to it in the defence of truth : and that they may give a check to their proud conceit of themselves : these words are so clear and comprehensive that they need no further explication , and serve as a compleat apology for any sharpnesse i might have used . i should indeed be very injurious to the presbyterian party , did i charge them with all the humours and follies that are among you : the english presbyterians are far beyond you in their moderation , as is notour to all that know them , and may appear from mr. baxter's disputations on church-government : yea , in the late treaty , all they desired , was , to be conjoined with the bishops in the exercise of discipline , which you refuse , though it be offered and pressed upon you . next , before the late disorders , all the presbyterians in scotland , did fit in the courts for church-discipline , and why may you not as well do the like ? n. the odds is very great ; for , then presbyteries stood by the legal establishment ; the act for them being still in force , which was rescinded at the restoration of bishops , anno : so that the old foundation being razed , they are no more presbyteries . c. you may remember what i said to you at our fourth meeting upon this head : but one thing i must adde , which will surprize you , it is truly very strange how matters of fact are so confidently asserted , and so tamely believed , without consideration : you give it out to every body , that the law for presbyteries , was in force till the year . and this is in all your mouthes , and i confesse , i never doubted the matter of fact to be true , till of ●ate i was undeceived by a person of great honour , who shew me the act parliament . iacob . ch . . where it is expresly said , annulling and rescinding the act of his majesties parliament , holden anno . and that is the act which setled presbytery ; and now , what can i think ? god forbid i suspect this of disingenuous forgery ; and yet perhaps , if you catched us in such a trip , it would be told us on our deafest ear ; but it cannot be denyed to be intolerable ignorance and supinnesse , to take such a matter upon ●rust ; and since you make this the chief ground why you differ from your predecessors in this matter , how can you answer to god who have made a schisme from the church , without examining the grounds upon which you did it ? but i hope now that you see upon what sandy and slender foundations you have been building , you will consider your way better hereafter , and return into union with us : for i am still desirous and willing to hope well of you . n. truly you are in the wrong to many of them , for few of them are so bitter against you as you seem to be against them : and i assure you they pray often for you , though you i doubt seldom pray for them . c. i tell you again and again , i have no quarrel with such of them as are calm and modest , only i regrate they are too few . as for the others love to us , wo should it be to you and me , if the love of god to us ( which ought to be our measure of love to the brethren ) did appear in such effects as theirs doth . if they pray for us , it is in the most invidious strain imaginable , that god would bring us down and destroy such of us as are incorrigible , and shew the rest of us the evil of our apostacy and defection : this you know is the universal strain of their prayers concerning us . but , how would they take it , if we should pray that god would destroy their party , and shew them the evil of their cruelty , rebellion and other wicked courses ? now this is the true character of an insolent , who takes a liberty with all the world , but cannot be touched himself . and you know , we alwayes pray , that god would unite this poor church , and heal our breaches ; which shews the healing and peaceable spirit is on our side : our prayers being such , that none can refuse to say amen to them : and upon all occasions , we declare we are not only ready to unite with them , but are extreamly desirous of it . and if you will believe me , i assure you , i daily pray for them in this strain most cordially : whereas there is nothing they fear more than an accommodation ; nay , in their books they directly own , that all that can be done , ought to be done for keeping life in our differences : and who could ever have expected to have heard this doctrine in the school of christ ? and let all men judge , if there be not a bitternesse in the preface to mr. rhetorfort's letters , the apologetical narration , and naphtali , which is unsampled in any satire , not to say grave and christian writing . and what cursed doctrine is it naphthali broacheth concerning private persons their punishing of crimes in case of the supinnesse of the magistrate ? for , ransack all the provincial letters , escobar or the other profane casuists of that wicked school , you shall not find a more impious and detestable opinion among them ; and what cursed effects this produced , all the nation saw : when in the sight of the sun a vilain with a pistol invaded the persons of two of the fathers of the church , and that in the chief street of our royal city . and though the providence of god shielded the one totally from his fury , and preserved the life of the other , though with the losse of his arm , all shattered with the wound ; yet his malice was not to be blamed , for that asassinations were only wanting to compleet the parallel betwixt that spirit and the iesuits , which is indeed the same spirit moving in different characters . i do not charge the fact on that party , but acknowledge , i never spoke with one who did not express their abhorrency of it ; but , without all uncharitableness , i may charge it on the author of naphthali . n. but one thing ever sticks with me : i confesse at our last discourse , you gave me good rules in order to a christian life , but still you design to make me regardlesse of the state of the church , which is , that i be only self-concerned , and neglect the interests of christ , whereas , what ought to be dearer to me then the glory of god ? and surely when that suffers , all that love him will be tenderly affected , so was david and ieremiah , for the desolations of their times ; and it is a strange piece of religion to be unconcerned in gods glory , which is to be like gallio , to care for none of these things . c. all things have two sides ; so this doctrine of resignation , if you look to it on the wrong one , seems like unconcerned stupidity ; yet , rightly considered , it is one of the highest pieces of christianity : for , if you believe ( which you must believe , else you are no good christian ) that christ governes his church , you must also believe that he doth all things well : since he hath all power in heaven and earth committed to him ; and in him are all treasures of wisdom and of knowledge ; and he loved his church so , that he died for it . now since his power enables him to do what he pleaseth , and his goodness inclines him to please what is best , and his wisdom cannot erre in the choice , where is there rowm for any miscarriage in the government of the world ? why then are we to vex our selves with any anxiety ? doth not that tacitly accuse god , as if he did not mind his church as he ought ? or doth it not imply if we were of his council , we could adjust things better ? therefore , as in all our personal concernments , we ought to go about our duty with diligence , leaving events wholly to gods care ; so , in the publick conce●nments of his church , we are to commit the management of them to him , on whose shoulders the government was laid by the father ; and rest securely in this perswasion , that all things cooperat in promoting the grand designs of eternal wisdom and goodness : but still we are to concern our selves in the good of the church above all things , next to the salvation of our own souls : but this is to be expressed , as in our most servent solliciting of god in behalf of his church ( to which we are oblidged as well as to pray for our selves , we thereby expressing to god our zeal for his glory , and our servent charity to the brethren ) so also we are to let no opportunity slip , that god puts in our hands of doing good : but , as we are called , we are to do good as far as our station reacheth , and that upon all hazards ; yet , even in that , we are with david , not to meddle in matters too high for us , and with st. paul , not to stretch our selves beyond our own measure and line ; but withall , we are to let no inward dejecting melancholy possess our souls , which is contrary to the end of religion , wherein we are called to rejoyce evermore ; it being contrived of god to beget in us joyes , which cannot be taken from us ; and nothing marrs the souls inward joy in god more than such sorrowes . n. but all this is still contrary to the holy men of god : what sad complaints are in the psalms and prophets , and chiefly in the lamentations ? and certainly , we , in the new dispensation , enjoying a clearer manifestation of the love of god , ought to be so much the more zealous for his glory . c. it seems you consider little the difference of the two dispensations : for , that of moses was carnal , chiefly made up of temporal promises of an external prosperity ; so these outward desolations were then signes of gods displeasure against them , and therefore they did lament because of them : but now the scene is wholly altered , and these outward afflictions and persecutions , are so far from being curses , as they were of old , that our saviour hath pronounced them blessings ; yea , he hath made these trials the badges of our conformity to our head , who was made perfect through sufferings . and therefore we are to glory and rejoyce in our sufferings , as did the apostles ; and in the primitive church , though they were made havock of , in the most cruel manner , some torn by lyons , and other wilde beasts , some killed by the sword , some burnt in the fire , some roasted on gridirons , some thrown in boy●ing caldrons , some had their flesh torn off by pincers , some were starved to death by hunger and cold ; in a word , all the crueltie that diabolical malice could devise , was exercised upon them ; yet not only the martyrs themselves bore all , singing in the midst of their tortures , but the churches also rejoyced in it : and the dayes of their death , were festivals , called naetalitiae martyrum , they counting their martyrdom their most glorious birth . and by the epistles eusebius inserts in his history , we see they were far from complaining because of their sufferings . but you ( because the lawes are altered , and the magistrate hath denied you further encouragement , and punished you , not for your conscience , of which you cannot brag much , since none hath suffered because he was for presbytery , or against episcopacy , but for your unruly humours and practices ) make such complaints to god as if heaven and earth were mixed , and adapt all the lamentations of ieremiah to your sorrie matters , as if the overthrow of presbytery were to be compared to the babylonish captivity ; and see if the conclusion of the apology , and all your other writtings run not in this stile . now were your way what you imagine it to be , you should rejoyce , that you are called to suffer for it , and not to make such tragical complaints . and i am sure , your bitterness against those whom you call your enemies , looks nothing like the mildnesse of christ or the primitive sufferers , who carried with all gentlenesse towards their persecutors , in meeknesse instructing those that opposed them ; and this doth too palpably declare , you are strangers to the serene and dove-like spirit of the gospel . n. you alwayes run to the primitive christians ; but far fowles have fair feathers , and if you examine the practice of the reformers , they universally resisted the magistrate , and carried on the reformation by arms ; and how then dare you charge the doctrine of resistance with rebellion , since you thereby stain that glorious work ? c. i assure you , i have a great veneration for the reformers , and look on them as persons sent of god , to rescue his church from the grosse superstition and idolatry had overspred it ; but for all that , you must pardon me still to prefer the primitive christians to them : as for casting reproaches on them , it shall quickly appear whither of us be the more guilty in it . i will therefore from undeniable evidence of history convince you of the falshood of that vulgar errour , that the reformation was carried on by restistance ; and shall begin with the waldenses , who resisted not the king of france , as is clear in the history , notwithstanding of their unparallelled persecutions , when they were destroyed by thousands : belle forrest tells , that were killed in one town of beziers ; spond . ad an . . tells of seven thousand , being murdered at once in one church . it is true there were wars betwixt the count of monfort and the count of tholouse ; but the count of tholouse was a peer of france ; and the peers , by the constitution of hugo capit , were rather vassals then subjects to the king : besides , he only sought against monfort . so petrus vallisarnensis , hist. albig . and in the counc . of monpellier , the dominions of tholouse were given to simon monfort , but not by the king , neither was the legate well pleased , that the kings son came and took the crosse , lest he might thereby pretend some right in these dominions , which the pope pretended were his : simon monfort therefore was a bloody emissary of the popes , and not authorized by philip august . then king of france , who gave no other concurrence to the war , save that he permitted his subjects to arm in it : so , here was no resistance of subjects against their soveraign . n. but did not the bohemians , under zisca , fight and resist when the challice was denied them ? c. in the general , consider that the crown of bohem , is elective : in which case , certainly the states of a kingdom share more largely of the soveraign power : besides , he from whom we have the best account of the bohemian churches , comenius ( in ordine unitatis bohemicae ) gives but a slender character of zisca and his bussinesse , extolling him chiefly as a good souldier . besides , the justifiers of the late bohemian wars , never run upon this strain of subjects resisting their soveraign , upon the account of religion , but upon the lawes and liberties of that elective kingdome . neither were the protestants too well satisfied with the last bohemian-bussinesse ; yea , king iames , notwithstanding of his interest in the elected king , was no way cordial for it : these two i have joined together , because the scene was the same , though the interval was great . n. but you know there was fighting in germany upon the account of religion . c. this showes how overly you read history , when you bring this as a president . when luther rose , the duke of saxe , being moved of god , did receive the reformation peaceably into his principalities , without any force ; and his example was followed by other princes and free cities : but , in the year . and . there arose a war in germany , fomented by some troublesome preachers , as saith the historian , who pretended the liberty of the gospel for their chief quarrell ; and this was called the war of the rusticks . and they appealing to luther's judgement , he wrote again and again to them , condemning what they did , as an execrable and cursed rebellion . he saith indeed , it was a great wickednesse in their princes to force their consciences , but that did not at all excuse them ; and tells how far he himself had been ever from such courses : and he calles those that somented the rebellion , vilains ; and not content with this , he stirred up the protestant princes against them , who fought them and broke them . and in this i desire you will not consider the tatles of some ignorant persons , but read the history it self , and those excellent papers of luther : for which i refer you to sleidan , lib. . and he will give you full satisfaction . afterwards the duke of brunsuick , and some other princes of germany , did invade their neighbour protestant princes , and combined in a league for the destruction of lutheranisme : whereupon the duke of saxe , the langrave of hessen , and other princes and free cities , met at smalcald , to unite among themselves : but luther was dissatisfied with this , till their lawyers shewed him how by the bulla aurea , and other constitutions of the german empire , it was lawfull for them to defend themselves : whereupon he consenting , they entered into that famous league . and every one who knowes any thing of that empire , knowes well that the princes are soveraigns within themselves , and that the emperour is only the head of the union . as for the war that afterwards followed betwixt charles the th , and the duke of saxe , besides , that the duke of saxe , was free to defend himself , as i have told , charles the th , declared it was not for religion he fought , whatever his design was : neither did all the princes of the religion join against him . the electors of cullen and pallatine , both protestants , lay neuters ; and the elector of brandenburg , and maurice , afterwards elector of saxe , armed for the emperour : so you may see , what pitifull historians they are , who alledge the precedent of germany . in sweden , king gustavus , anno , . with the states of that kingdom , peaceably received the reformation ; neither were their any broils about it , till about seventy years after , that sigismond , king of polland ( whom notwithstanding of his being papist , they received for their king , he being the son of the former king of sweden , and peaceably obeyed him ) was by force entring the kingdom , resolving to root out the protestant religion : whereupon ( vide decret . in comitiis lincop . anno , . ) they deposed him , and choosed his uncle charles king ; no strange thing in the swedenish history , that being an elective crown , before the year , . that the states received gustavus then reigning for their hereditary king ; but still the states retained the supream authority , as may appear by all their writs . nor was it any wonder , if they , who had but a while before , crept out of an elective kingdom into an hereditary , could not brook sigismond his tyrannical invasion . and if this serve not to vindicat the swedes ; at least , the reformation was not introduced by wars among them , neither were ever the actions of that state , lookt upon as a precedent to others . in denmark , frederick the first , with the states of that kingdom , received the reformation peaceably , nor was there any violence used . n. but you cannot deny , there was force used in helvetia and geneve . c. this shews what a superficial reader of history you are . in switzerland , the reformation was peaceablie received by zurich ( the first and chief canton of that state ) and other towns. but other cantons maligning them for this , at the instigation of the pope and his instruments , injured them ; so that at length it broke out into a civil war : wherein they of zurich , as they were surprized by them , so continued to be purely defenders , vide sleid. lib. . but you know helvetia ill , if you know not that the cantons , are no way subject to one another , and are free states , only united in a league , as are the seven provinces : so that in their treaties with france and other princes , they often treat sever'dly , vide siml . de rep. helv. as for geneve , the bishop fled from it , out of a pannick fear , when the reformation was received : but no force was used to drive him out . sleid. lib. . and beside , geneve was a free town , neither subject to the bishop nor the duke of savoy ; vide siml . de rep. helv. lib. . de geneve . n. what say you to the war in the netherlands ? c. i say still , it was not for religion they sought , papists and protestants jointly concurring ; and c. egmond and c. horn who were beheaded by the duke of alve , as the chief instruments in it , died both papists ; yea , the state by a placart , declared it scandalous to say they fought for religion ; the true ground of the quarrel ( as you may read in all the histories ) was , that their prince was not an absolute soveraign , but limited in his power , and that by expresse compact , they might use force if he transgressed his limits : which he did most notoriously and tirandically : and for all this , i refer you to grotius , de antiquitate bataviae & in lib. ann. who yet is one of the strongest pleaders for subjection to magistracy . n. but nothing of this can be alledged to palliat the french civil wars ? c. the first civil wars were mannaged by the princes of the blood , who by the laws of that crown , are not ordinarie subjects . besides , the wars were begun in the minority of the king ; in which case the powers of the princes is greater : i do not for all this deny their following wars , were direct rebellion ; but consider the fierce spirit of that nation ( ready to fight for any thing ) and you must confesse , it was not religion , but their temper that was to be blamed ; but now many of the eminent men of that church are fully convinced of the evil of these courses : and do ingenuouslie condemn them . yea , in the wars of the last king , one of the glories of our nation , cameron , at mountowban directly preached against their courses , and taxed them of rebellion . n. but if that was rebellion , how did the late king of britain give assistance to the rochellers in the last wars ? c. there was a particular reason in that , as appears from the account the illustrious duke of rohan gives of it : for the king of britain had interposed in the former pacification , and had given surety to the protestants , that the french king should religiously observe the agreement : but the king of france violating this , the king of britain thereby receiving so publick an injurie and affront , was oblidged in honour to assist them : which for his part was most just , whatever the subjects of france their part in it might be . and thus i have cleared the churches abroad of that injurious stain you brand them with : and by this let all men judge whether you or i do them the best office . but to come to our own britain , you know it is the glory of the english reformation , that it was stained with no blood , save that of martyrs , which was its chief ornament : yea , though a popish and persecuting queen interveened betwixt the first reformation of king edward , and the second of queen elizabeth ; yet , none rebelled : for that of wyat , was not upon the account of religion ; but in opposition to the matching with king philip of spain . it is true scotland hath not that glory : but as we were long allyed to france ; so we have too much of their temper : so that it passeth as a common saying , of scots-men , praefervida scotorum ingenia . and all that travelled the world , can witnesse that we were not approven in our late rebellion abroad . i shall not instance what diodati , spanhem , rivet , salmasius , blondel , amerald , de moulin , and many of the greatest and most famed forreign divines , have publickly expressed against it . some in print , others in publick discourses and sermons . one thing i will not passe by , that in the consistory of charrenton , they made an act , that no man should be barred the communion for the scots excommunication , except it were for a crime ; and so told the late bishop of orkney then of galloway , that the pretended excommunication of scotland , should no way hinder their receiving him to their communion ; and this was a loud declaration of their disowning and condemning the scots practices . n. but tell me ingenuously , are there no precedents in history for subjects fighting upon the account of religion ; and have none of the writters of the church asserted it ? c. yes , there have , and i will deal ingenously with you upon this head . the first i know is pope gregory the seventh , who armed the subjects of germany against henry the fourth emperour , upon the account of religion ; because the emperour laid claime to the investitures of bishops , they being then secular princes . and this prospering so well in the hands of hildebrand , other popes made no bones , upon any displeasure they conceived , either against king or emperour , to take his kingdom from him , and free his subjects from their obedience to him ; alwayes pretending some matter of religion , as you may read particularly in the history of frederick the first , frederick the second , lewis of baviere , emperours , philip le bell and lewis the th of france , henry the second , and iohn of england , conradine of naples , and charles of navarre . these are the eldest precedents i meet with in history , for your bussinesse ; and the latest is the holy league of france , from which our whole matter seems transcribed . the authors who plead for this , are only courtiers , cannonists and iesuits . now how are you not ashamed in a matter of such importance to symbolize with the worst gang of the roman church , ( for the soberer of them condemn it ) yet fill heaven and earth with your clamours if in some innocenter things the church of england seem to symbolize with them ? n. no , you still retain the papacy , you only change the person from the pope to the king , whom you make head of the church , and swear to him in these termes . c. this is so impudent a calumny , that none but such as have a minde to reproach would use it : which i shall clear by giving an account of the whole matter . in england , you know the pope , beside his general tyranny , exercised a particular authority , after king iohn had basely resigned the crown to him , vide matth. paris . ad an. . when therefore the reformation was introduced in england , and the papal yoke shaken off , the oath of supremacy was brought in to exclude all forreign jurisdiction , and to reinstate the king in his civil authority over all persons and in all causes , as well ecclesiastical as civil . i confesse henry the eight , did directly set up a civil papacy , but you know the reformation of england was never dated from his breach with the bishop of rome : but the oath of supremacy was never designed to take away the churches intrinsick power , or to make that the power of ordination , giving sacraments , or discipline , flowed from the king , to which he only gives his civil sanction and confirmation . however , because the words being general , might suggest some scrouples , they are clearly explained in an act of parliament of queen elizabeth ; and in one of the articles , and more fully by the incomparable and blessed bishop vsher , to whom , for his pains , king iames gave thanks in a letter . now this oath being brought from england to scotland , none ought to pretend scrouples , since both the words in themselves are sufficiently plain , and the meaning affixed to them in england , is yet plainer : and we having it from them , must be understood to have it in their sense . n. but this clearly makes way for erastianism . c. this is one of your mutinous arts , to find out long and hard names , and affix them to any thing that displeaseth you . in the old testament , you find the kings of iudah frequently medling in divine matters ; and the sannedrim , which was a civil court , determined in all matters of religion ; and you are very ignorant in history if you know not , that the christian emperours still medled in matters of religion . the first general councils , were called by them , as appears by their synodical acts and epistles . and by the accounts all the historians give , they also preceeded in the councils ; so constantine at nice , theodose at constantinople , earl candidianus in name of theodose the second at ephesus , and martian at chalcedon . it s true in preceeding , they only ordered matters , but did not decide in them , as particularly appears from the commission given to earle candidianus , inserted in the acts of the ephesin council . they also judged in matters of schisme ; so constantine in the donatist bussinesse , even after it had been judged , both by miltiades and marcus , bishops of rome and millan , by the synod of arles , and by the council of nice ; yea , the code and basilicks , and the capitolers of charles the great , shew , they never thought it without their sphere , to make lawes in ecclesiastick matters . the bishops also were named by them , or , at least , their elections were to be approven by them , not excepting the roman bishop , though he was the proudest pretender of all , who after the overthrow of the western empire , was to send to constantinople or ravenna , to get his election ratified : and when the western empire was reasumed by charles the great at rome , it was expresly provided , that the emperour should choose the roman bishop . so kings medling in ecclesiastical affaires , was never contraverted till the roman church swelled to the height of tyranny , and since the reformation , it hath been still stated as one of the differences betwixt us and them . n. well then , i hope you who are so much for the kings supremacy , will not quarrel at this indulgence , which is now granted to us . c. we are better subjects then to criticize upon , much lesse condemn our soveraigns pleasure in such things , neither do we as you did , carry all these matters to the pulpit . but , i pray , how would you ( anno . ) have received such a proposition from the king in favours of the doctors of aberdeen , or other worthy persons , whom you drove away by tumults , not by lawes : i doubt , all your pulpits should have rung with it . and we may guesse at this by the opposition many of you made to the receiving of suspected persons into the army , for the necessary defence of the countrey , then almost overrun by the enemy : so that you have now got a favour which you were never in a capacity to have granted to us when you governed : and yet you see with what cheerfull obedience we receive his majesties pleasure , even in an instance , which may seem most contrary to all our interests : or , if any have their jealousies , they stiffle them so within their breast , that none whisper against authority . n. this sayes it is against your will , and therefore your compliance to it is forced , not voluntary . c. so much the greater is our vertue , when we obey and submit to things against our inclinations , which you never dream of : but we are so inclined to peace , that if you abuse not this liberty you have got , we shall never complain of it ; nay , if it produce the effects which we desire , and for which we are assured it is designed , we shall rejoyce for it : which are to bring you to a more peaceable temper , to make you value and love more one of the noblest and most generous princes that ever ruled , and to dispose you to a brotherly accommodation with us , which the fathers of the church , are ready to offer to you on as fair terms as could be demanded by any rational person ; whereby , if you listen not to them , it will appear to the world , that you are truly schismatical : and to encline you more to union , i intend , at our next meeting , to give you a full prospect of the state of the antient church , both in their government , worship , and discipline ; whereby i doubt not to convince you , that their frame was far better suited for promoting all the ends of religion , then ever presbytery could be . but though i have made considerable observations in this , besides what is in various collectors ; yet , i cannot at present give you so particular a plann as i design ; but shall reserve it till another meeting . mean-while do not abuse our soveraigns royal goodness , nor the tenderness of these he sets over you . but let us all jointly pray , that god , in whose hands all our hearts are , may incline us all to peace , love and charity : i shall therefore sum up all in the words of scripture , which if they weigh not with you , there is no hope man shall prevail on you ; if there be therefore any consolation in christ , if any comfort of love , if any fellowship of the spirit , if any bowels and mercies : fulfill ye my joy , that ye be like minded , having the same love , being of one accord , of one mind . let nothing be done through strife , or vain glory , but in lowlinesse of mind , let each esteem others better then themselves . who is a wise man , and endued with knowledge among you ? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meeknesse of wisdom ▪ but if you have bitter zeal ( for that is the word in the original ) and strife in your hearts , glory not , and lie not against the truth : this wisdom descendeth not from above , but is earthly , sensual and divelish : for where zeal ( the word is still the same ) and strife is , there is confusion and every evil work . but the wisdom that is from above , is first pure , then peaceable , gentle , and easy to be intreated , full of mercy , and good fruits , without partiality , and without hypocrisy ; and the fruit of righteousness is sowen in peace , of them that make peace . put on therefore ( as the elect of god , holy and beloved ) bowels of mercies , kindnesse , humblenesse of mind , meeknesse , long-suffering , forbearing one another , and forgiving one another , if any man have a quarrel against any : even as christ forgave the church , so also do ye : but above all these things , put on charity , which is the bond of perfectness ; and let the peace of god rule in your minds , to the which also you are called in one body : and be ye thankfull . let the word of christ dwell in you richly , in all wisdom , ●eaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns , and spiritual songs , singing with grace in your hearts to the lord. n. in all this i agree with you , and heartily wish these words were more deeply infixed in our minds : for , i confess , i am weary of the janglings of divines , and long for peace as much as any can ; and indeed there is nothing makes converse grow more wearisome to me , then that i meet with very few who love peace ; but , generally , the minds of all are so fretted , that i often remind and repeat davids groan , oh! that i had wings like a dove , for then would i flee away and be at rest ; i would hasten my escape from the windy storm and tempest . and indeed the farther i see into the great businesse of religion , i am the more convinced of the necessity of a serene and placide temper , which so qualifies the soul for divine converse . c. oh! how have these words you dropt last united my heart to you ? my soul hath too long dwelt amongst them that hate peace ; and the thick foggs and mists of contention , have rendered the air of this valley of tears the more noisome : but my releef is in divine contemplation , whether , as to the mountain of god , i flee for sanctuary , that being above this atmosphere of contentions and passions , i may take that rest in god , which is denied me here below : whether whoso arrive , finde that placide tranquillity and joy unspeakable , that they must needs heartily compassionat all such who are strangers to this peace of god which passeth understanding : for , i assure you , there are no joyes comparable to these purer solaces . this is the secret of gods presence , where you may be hid from the pride of man , and kept , as in a pavilion , from the strife of tongues . let us therefore flee from this evil world , and flee into the blessed and refreshful shades of the almighty , avoiding foolish and unlearned questions , knowing that they do gender ●●rife ; for , the servant of the lord must not strive . i shall therefore leave you with these thoughts , hoping they shall be daily more deeply infixedin your mind . farewel . finis . going naked a signe simpson, william, ?- . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page image. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing s estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) going naked a signe simpson, william, ?- . sheet ([ ] p.). printed for robert wilson, at the black-spread-eagle, in martins near aldersgate, london : . caption title. signed: william simpson. imprint from colophon. reproduction of original in: british library, london, england. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng church of england -- controversial literature. dissenters, religious -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - emma (leeson) huber sampled and proofread - emma (leeson) huber text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion going naked , a signe . oh church of england ! this is unto thee , who livest in oppression and cruelty , pride and covetousnesse , a day of misery is coming upon thee , thy nakednesse and shame is coming upon thee as an armed man , from which no man can hide thee , neither hills nor mountaines shall be able to hide thee in this the day of the lord , neither shall the clefts of the rocks preserve thee from the day of the lords controversy with thee ; thy nakednesse and thy shame is near to come upon thee , from it thou shalt not fly : oppression and cruelty hath been as a staff for thee , but the lord is risen to break thy staff of oppression , and thou shalt be left naked though thou hast seemed to be the glory of the nations with thy deceitful covers , but now thou shalt be left naked , and nations shall be ashamed of thee : howl and weep ye teachers , for the lord is gathering his people from you , and ye shall devour his flock no more ; the day is coming upon you that none shall buy your wares any more , ye merchants of babylon : all your scarlet colours the lord our god is coming to take off : then your nakednesse shall appear to many nations , and you shall sit as a widdow , and there shall be none to comfort you ; distresse and anguish shall take hold upon you , and pain as a woman in travel , and is not able to bring forth , so shall your misery come upon you : the decree of the lord is gone out against all unrighteousness , he will surely reward every one according to their works ; for as a troop of robbers lye in wait for a man , so a company of priests by consent lye in wait to murther the innocent lambs of god , and for their sakes the lord is risen in his mighty power to break the bonds of wickednesse , and to set the oppressed free , for the lord hath heard the groaning of his seed , and he is risen to deliver to bring it out of captivity , and from under the taskmasters , where his seed hath been long oppressed by unreasonable men : but the lord will spare no longer , but he will reward the oppressors double into their bosoms , and his seed he will deliver . oh howl and weep , your day is far spent , night is coming upon you that you shall not have a vision , and nothing shall be left to cover you : as naked shall you be spiritually , as my body hath been temporally naked in many places in england , as a signe of the nakednesse and shame that is coming upon the church of england , who liveth in oppression and cruelty , and all who lift up a weapon for her shall fall in the shame with her , which will surely come to passe , so all sober people consider your wayes , and turn to the light which comes from jesus , that with it you may be gathered unto the lord from the false teachers to the teaching of the lord , from the false worships to the worship of the lord in spirit and in truth ; for a necessity was laid upon me from the lord god of life to be a signe : but before i was given up to the thing it was as death unto me , and i had rather , if it had been the lords will , have dyed then gone on in this service ; but when the word of the lord came unto me , saying , go on and prosper , it was sweet unto me , as the honey and the honey comb. and blessed saith christ are those that heares my word and keeps it . william simpson . london , printed for robert wilson , at the black-spread-eagle , in martins near aldersgate , . some considerations about the case of scandal, or, giving offence to weak brethren calamy, benjamin, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing c estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) some considerations about the case of scandal, or, giving offence to weak brethren calamy, benjamin, - . [ ], p. printed by h. hills jun. for t. basset ..., b. tooke ..., and f. gardiner ..., london : . written by benjamin calamy. cf. dnb. a copy at reel : is eleventh item in v. of a collection of cases and other discourses / by some divines of the city of london. reproduction of original in huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng sin -- early works to . dissenters, religious -- england -- early works to . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - ali jakobson sampled and proofread - ali jakobson text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion some considerations about the case of scandal , or giving offence to weak brethren . london : printed by h. hills jun. for t. basset , at the george in fleetstreet ; b. tooke , at the ship in st. paul's church-yard ; and f. gardiner , at the white horse in ludgate-street . . of giving offence to weak brethren . it hath been often observed concerning our dissenting brethren , that when they are urged to mention any one thing required of the people in the publick worship of god in our parish churches , judged by them absolutely sinful , on the account of which their separation from us is necessary , and consequently justifiable , they either put us off with some inconveniencies , inexpediences or corruptions , ( as they call them ) some things appointed and used , which in their opinion render our service less pure and spiritual ; ( the chief of which exceptions have been considered in several discourses , lately written with great temper and judgment for the satisfaction of all honest and teachable minds : ) or else some of them tell us , that they are indeed themselves sufficiently perswaded of the lawfulness of all that is enjoyned , they do not see but a good christian may serve god acceptably and devoutly our way , and may go to heaven living and dying in our communion ; but then there are many other godly , but weaker christians of another perswasion , with whom they have been long joyned : and should they now , at least totally , forsake them , and conform , they should thereby give great offence to all those tender consciences , which are not thus convinced of the lawfulness of holding such communion with our church , in prayers and sacraments , as is by law required . which is a sin so heinous and of such dreadful consequence , that our saviour tells us , st. matt. . . whosoever shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me , it were better for him that a milstone were hanged about his neck , and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea ; and in st. pauls account it is no less than spiritual murther , a destroying of him for whom christ dyed , rom . . now this case of giving offence to weak brethren , i have undertaken briefly to consider , where i once for all suppose ( as all those must do who make this the ground of their refusing to communicate with our church ) that nothing is amongst us imposed as a condition of communion , but what may be done without sin ; for were any thing in it self sinful required by our church , there could be no room for this plea of scandal : that alone would be sufficient reason for separation from us . i discourse therefore at this present only with such , who for their own particular could well enough joyn with us , but dare not do it for fear of offending those , who yet scruple and are dissatisfied at the use of our prayers and ceremonies . nor do i design exactly to handle the whole doctrine of scandal , or elaborately explain all the places of scripture concerning it , or state the cases there treated of ; nor shall i now meddle with the duty of governours and superiours , how far they ought to condescend to the weakness , ignorance , prejudices , and mistakes of those under their care and charge ; but i shall confine my self to this one question . whether there doth lye any obligation upon any private christian ( as the case now stands amongst us ) to absent from his parish church , or to forbear the use of the forms of prayer and ceremonies by law appointed , for fear of offending or scandalizing his weak brethren ? here i shall first of all inquire , what is the true notion of a weak brother . secondly , what it is to offend such an one . thirdly , how far and in what instances we are bound to consider the weakness of our brother . first , for the resolution of this question it is necessary to know , what is the true notion of a weak brother . now a weak brother or weak in faith in scripture denotes one newly converted to christianity ; and so neither thorowly instructed in the principles , nor well setled in the practice of it , the same whom our saviour calls a little one , and the apostle a babe in christ . cor. . . conversion to christianity is often called our new birth , and consequently at mens first entrance into the christian church , they were for a while reckoned as in an infant state ; and accordingly were to be most tenderly handled and nursed , and gently used , with all favour and indulgence , not driven faster than they were able to go ; till by degrees , by the improvement of their knowledge they came to be of full age , as the apostle expresseth it , heb. . . they were at first to be fed with milk , to be taught the easiest and plainest doctrines , against which least exceptions could be made ; ( as our blessed saviour himself would not at first tell his disciples of the shame and sufferings he was to undergo , and when he did speak of them it was covertly and obscurely , so that they did not perfectly understand him , lest they should by it have been presently discouraged and tempted to have forsaken him ; ) no unnecessary burdens were to be laid upon them , which might render their new profession grievous to them ; every stumbling-block and prejudice was to be removed out of their way , that might occasion their falling ; the grown christians and proficients were charitably to condescend to the capacity of these novices , and make allowances , and for a time bear with their ignorance and many mistakes and childish humours , and deny themselves their own liberty , and become even as children with them , as if themselves were of the same mind and understood no better , than these raw beginners . now these fresh disciples , little ones or babes are the same with those st. paul rom. . calls weak brethren , weak for want of age or growth , or as the original word rather signifies , sickly and feeble ; like a man beginning to recover from a wasting disease , his distemper , tho cured , yet hangs a long time upon him , the dregs of it still remain : he must for a while be carefully attended and watched , since every little thing discomposes him , and hazards a relapse . so was it with these first converts . as soon as ever they were brought to acknowledg jesus to be the son of god , and were willing to become his disciples , they were immediately baptized , tho as yet they understood but little of the nature or design of the gospel . the apostles and first preachers of our religion were in hast to make more proselytes , and therefore presently baptized all that were willing to it without that previous instruction and preparation , which afterwards , when churches were setled , was made necessary before heathens or jews could be admitted by baptism . thus the same day the apostles preached christ to the jews , acts . they baptized about three thousand of them , and philip without any delay baptized the eunuch , as soon as he professed to believe that jesus was the son of god : and the jaylor and his household were baptized the same hour at midnight , at which paul and silas spake unto them the word of the lord. after their baptism they were to be tutor'd and train'd up in their new religion , where great care was to be taken , great prudence and caution used towards them , lest they should suddenly flie back and repent of their change ; for having been bred up , and so long lived jews or gentiles , and then of a sudden turn'd christians , they retain'd still a great love and kindness for many of their old customs and opinions , they had mighty and inveterate prejudices to overcome , the old man was by degrees to be put off , and therefore they were at first treated with all the tenderness and condescension imaginable , the stronger and wiser christians would not stand rigidly on any little matters , would for the present tolerate many things , which were necessary afterwards to be done away , hoping that in time they might be better taught , and be brought off those mistakes they now labour'd under . had the apostles in the beginning plainly told all the jews of the ceasing of their laws , the abrogation of their ceremonies and worship , the no necessity of circumcision , the taking in of the gentiles , they would never have born such doctrines , they would never have become christians upon such terms , nor ever endured those teachers , who seem'd to make so little account of moses and their temple . now to gain these st. paul became weak himself , tied up himself while amongst these jewish converts to such observances , which he was really free from , as if he had the same doubts and were of the same opinion with those weak christians , and advises all others who did understand their liberty , yet to oblige their brethren by the same inoffensive carriage . this then was the difference between the strong and the weak , the strong were the well-grounded understanding christians , that knew it was lawful for them to eat all kind of meats , that christ had set them free from the burdensome yoke of the jewish ceremonies , the weak , tho brethren , that is , believers in christ , yet abstained from some meats , judging them unlawful or unclean , and observed days , and zealously retained the mosaical rites , not being yet sufficiently instructed in that liberty our saviour had purchased for them , or in the nature of his kingdom , which consisted not in meat or drink , but in righteousness and peace , and joy in the holy ghost . hence i observe , . that the rules which are laid down in scripture concerning weak brethren principally respect those times when our religion made its first appearance in the world , and were temporary provisions for the easier proselyting men to the faith of christ , or the better securing and fixing those that were already come into the church . they are not standing laws equally obliging all christians in all ages , but were suited to the infant state of the church , or rather to its condition whilst it was but an embryo , till churches were formed and setled , and our christianity had got firm footing and possession in the world. thus st. paul tells us , cor. . . for tho i be free from all men , yet have i made my self servant unto all , that i might gain the more . and unto the jews i became as a jew , that i might gain the jews ; to them that are under the law , as under the law , that i might gain them that are under the law. to them that are without law , as without law ( being not without law to god , but under the law to christ ) that i might gain them that are without law. to the weak became i as weak , that i might gain the weak : i am made all things to all men , that i might by all means save some . and this i do for the gospels sake , that i might be partaker thereof with you . this was the apostles design in all these compliances and civilities to win many to the faith of christ , by these wise arts to insinuate himself and his doctrine into them : but when he had once made his way , he then taught them another lesson , and behaved himself after a far different manner . now to do as st. paul did , would always be the duty and wisdom of one in his circumstances , who had his office and was to propagate any religion amongst heathens and infidels ; like a master that dealeth not so sharply with his scholar at his first entrance into the school , as he thinketh fit to do afterwards . but the directions st. paul gave , and according to which himself practis'd at the first planting of christianity , do no more agree with our times , wherein christianity is become the national religion , countenanced by the civil laws and authority , and so generally professed by every one amongst us , that we hardly know of any other religion , than the same cloaths we did wear in our infancy would serve us now when we are of full age. we ought indeed to be very careful of children , and lead them by strings , and remove every straw and rub out of their way , lest they stumble and fall , but it is ridiculous to use the same care towards grown men . none of us labour under those prejudices the first christians did , who forsook a religion in which they had been bred , and long lived ; and as to the jews had left a way of worship commanded them by god himself , confirmed to them by many miracles and wonders , delivered to them from their fathers by a constant succession of prophets sent from god. there is not now amongst us any such competition between two religions , but every one learneth christianity as he doth his mothers tongue . the apostles therefore and governours of the church carried themselves towards these new converts , as god almighty did towards the children of israel , when he brought them first out of aegypt . he for a while led them by a pillar of fire and of a cloud , gave them water out of the rock , and rain'd down bread and flesh from heaven . this he did for them whilest in their passage , thus extraordinarily provide for them , and in some cases even humour that people , lest upon every little pretence they should return back to the garlick and onyons of aegypt ; but after they were setled in the land of canaan , he then left them in their own hands , by ordinary common means to take care of and provide for themselves , he did not shew the same indulgence to them , as he did whilst they were in the wilderness . st. paul would not take that reward that was due to him for preaching the gospel , but himself laboured hard night and day , because he would not be chargeable to his converts , . thess . . . and this he did for the furtherance of the gospel , that all might see he did not serve his own belly . but surely our dissenting brethren do not think themselves obliged by this example , in places where publick maintenance is setled on ministers by law , to refuse to take it , and earn their own bread by some manual occupation , tho thereby they avoid giving offence to quakers , and those who call them hirelings , and say they prophesie only for filthy lucre . thus it is usually observed , that st. paul writes quite after a different manner to the romans and to the galatians , tho upon the same subject . in his epistle to the romans amongst whom he had never yet been , he pitieth and pleadeth for the weak christians , chargeth that they should not be despised or cast off , that no cause of offence should be given them , but to the galatians a people that had been fully instructed in the nature of their christian liberty , amongst whom himself had planted the gospel , and had been present in person , and so knew that they understood better ; when some of them fell into the same error , thinking circumcision and the observation of the mosaical law necessary to christians , he chides them sharply and rebukes them more severely ; who hath bewitched you o foolish galatians , &c. he who would condescend to the ignorant novices amongst the romans , would not in the least comply with the galatians , that had or ought to have had more knowledge and light : and afterwards when the reason of such forbearance ceased , when the nation of the jews had rejected christ , and the gentile world was come into the church , the observation of the mosaical law , and the distinction of meats contained therein , was so far from being tolerated in those , whether jews or gentiles , who through mistake thought themselves obliged to it , that it was condemned by the rules and canons of the church . the sum of all this is , that whatever argument may be drawn from st. paul's discourses about weak brethren by way of analogy , or similitude , or parity of reason , yet there are no such weak persons now amongst us , as those were for whom the apostle provideth , or as those little ones were for whom our saviour was so much concerned . ly , i would desire our dissenting brethren to consider by what pretence they can challenge any priviledge belonging to them under the notion of weak christians , when according to their own opinion and conceit of themselves , they are of all men furthest off from being such in any sense . this is as if a man worth a thousand pound per annum , should sue in formâ pauperis . they who take upon themselves to be teachers of others , wiser and better than their neighbours , the only sober and godly party , and are too apt to despise all other christians as ignorant or prophane , with what colour of reason can they plead for any favour to be shewn , or regard to be had to them in complyance with their weakness ? tho they love to argue against us from the example of st. pauls condescension to the uninstructed jews or gentiles , yet it is apparent that they do not in other cases willingly liken themselves to those weak believers , or babes in christ . they have really better thoughts of themselves , and would be leaders and masters in israel , and prescribe to their governours and give laws to all others , and do prefer their own private opinion ( which they call their conscience ) before the judgment of the wisest men , or the determinations of their lawful superiours . and if in all instances we should deal with them as weak persons , turn them back to their primmer , advise them to learn their catechism , they would think themselves highly wrong'd and injured . if the several dissenters amongst us did in good earnest look upon themselves as weak , that is , ignorant , wavering , half christians , did they think their dislike of the constitutions of our church to be the effect of such weakness , they would be either more careful to hide it , or would more diligently seek out for remedy ; they would be more modest and humble , not so forward to judge and condemn what they do not understand ; they would not encourage one another to hold out and persist in this their weakness , nor breed up their children in it , nor so zealously endeavour to instil the same prejudices and mistakes into all with whom they converse . but the truth is , they ordinarily look upon their opposition to the orders of our church as the effect of an higher illumination , greater knowledg than other men have attained unto , they rather count us the weak christians , if some of them will allow us so much ; for otherwise if they do not take us for the weaker and worse christians ; why do they separate from us ? why do they associate and combine together into distinct congregations , as being purer , more select christians than others ? now tho such persons as these may be in truth very weak , of little judgment or goodness , notwithstanding this conceit of themselves and their party , yet these are not by any means to plead for indulgence under that character , nor to expect we should forgo our just liberty to please and humour them . and that this is nothing but the plain truth is sufficiently evident from this one observation , that many amongst them will grant our reformation to have been very excellent and laudable for those days of darkness and ignorance wherein it was first made : but we now , say they , see by a clearer light , have greater knowledge , and have arrived to higher perfection , and so discover and cannot bear those faults and defects , which before were tolerable . now who doth not see that these two pleas are utterly inconsistent and destructive of one another ? to desire abatement of the ceremonies , and abolition or alteration of the liturgy in complyance with their weakness , and to demand the same because of the greater knowledg and light they now enjoy , above that age wherein this present constitution of our church was established . this shews they will be either weak or strong according as it best sutes with the argument they are managing against us ; they are contented to be reckoned as weak , only that on it they may ground a plausible objection against us those who are really weak , that is , ignorant and injudicious , are to be born withal only for a time , till they have received better instruction . we cannot be always babes in christ , without our own gross fault and neglect ; he is something worse than a weak man who is fond of , and resolutely against all means of conviction persists in his ignorance and mistake . the case of young beginners and novices is very pittiable , who have not been taught their lesson , but the same condescension is not due to those , who are ever learning and yet are never able to come to the knowledg of the truth , not for want of capacity to understand , but for want of humility and willingness to be instructed . such who are peevish and stubborn , whose ignorance and error is voluntary and affected , who will not yield to the clearest reason , if it be against their interest or their party , can upon no account claim the priviledges of weak persons . it is a great piece of inhumanity and cruelty to put a stumbling-block in the way of a blind man , but he walks at his own peril , who hath eyes and will not be persuaded to open them , that he might see and choose his way . thus our saviour answered his disciples when they told him that the pharisees were offended at his doctrine , let them alone , they be blind leaders of the blind . and if the blind lead the blind , both shall fall into the ditch , st. matt. . . they were resolved not to be satisfied with any thing our saviour said or did , they watched for an advantage and sought occasion against him . it was their malice , not their ignorance , that made them so apt to be offended . of these therefore our saviour had no regard , who were so unreasonable and obstinate in their opposition . not that i would be so uncharitable as to condemn all , or the generality of our nonconforming brethren for malicious and wilful in their dissent from us . god forbid that i should pass such an unmerciful sentence on so many ( as i believe ) well meaning , tho miserably abused persons , to their own master they stand or fall . but however , . i would out of charity to them beg earnestly of them , that they would thorowly examine whether they have conscientiously used all due means in their power for information of their judgments concerning those things they doubt of ; whether they have sincerely endeavoured to satisfie themselves , and have devoutly pray'd to god to free their minds from all prejudices and corrupt affections , and have patiently considered the grounds and reasons of their separation from us ; for unless it be thus really with them , their weakness is no more to be pitied , than that mans sickness , who might be cured by an easie remedy if he would but vouchsafe to apply it , or would submit to good counsel . . i must say that old and inveterate mistakes , that have been a thousand times answered and protested against , are not much to be heeded by us . if people will by no means be prevailed upon , having sufficient light and time allowed them , to lay aside their childish apprehensions and suspicions , they can hardly be thought to deserve that compassion and tenderness st. paul prescribes towards weak brethren . i shall give one plain instance . let us suppose that at the first reformation of religion amongst us some very weak ( and such they must be if honest ) were offended at the church's requiring kneeling at the receiving the sacrament of the lords supper , as seeming to them to imply the adoration of the bread and wine , and as likely to harden some ignorant people in that monstrous conceit of transubstantiation : but now after so many publick declarations made by our church , wherein she avows that no such thing is intended , after the constant profession of so many , that have used that decent ceremony , that they abhor the doctrine of christs bodily presence , nay after the couragious sufferings , even death it self , of those that first established this reformation , rather than they would worship the host ; if after all this , people shall still clamour against this gesture as popish , and be offended with those that use it , as if thereby they gave divine honour to the elements , all that i shall say is this , it is a great sign that it is not infirmity only , to which condescension is due , but something worse that raiseth and maintaineth such exceptions and offences . this i suppose holds true even in things where the offence ariseth from their doubtful or suspicious nature , that are capable of being misunderstood and abused , and may be apt through mistake to provoke or tempt others to evil . yet if there be no moral evil in them , and the doing of them is of some considerable consequence or advantage to me , i am bound to forbear them no longer , than till i have taken due care to inform others rightly of the matter , and warn them of the danger , till i have endeavoured to rectifie their judgments concerning the innocency of my action and intention , and given them notice of the evil that might possibly by my action happen to them . if i dig a pit , or lay a block in the way , whereby others not knowing any thing of it are hurt and wounded , here i stand chargeable with it , and am guilty in causing them to fall ; but if they are plainly and often told of it , and being forewarned yet will run into the danger , they are then only to thank themselves , and it is purely their own fault . now if it be thus in cases that are liable to suspicion and misinterpretation , it holds much more in our ceremonies and the orders of our church , where the offence that is taken at them ariseth not so much from the nature of the injunctions , as from mens gross ignorance , misconceit or perverseness . thus men are no longer weak in scripture sense , than they are inculpably ignorant , or which is all one , the plea of weakness is gone , after that sufficient instruction hath been given or offered to them , and other allowances made according to mens different capacities of understanding . this shall suffice for the first thing propounded , to shew what is the true notion of a weak brother . i proceed to give you an account what it is to offend such an one . because i write for the use of the common people only , i shall not trouble them with the several significations of the greek word which is translated scandal or offence , nor distinctly consider the several places of scripture where it is used , only so far as plainly to shew , first , that people are generally mistaken in the sense they have of it . secondly , what it is truly to offend or give offence . . that people are generally mistaken about the sense of offending or giving offence . for by it they commonly understand displeasing or grieving another , and making him angry with them , and so consequently they think themselves in conscience bound to forbear all those things , which godly persons do not like or approve of , or is contrary to their fancy and judgment . it is notorious , that most of the ordinary sort of dissenters , who assign this as the reason of their not conforming to the established laws of the church , because by doing so they shall offend their brethren , mean nothing else by it , but that they shall fall into disgrace with , incur the displeasure and provoke the anger of those , with whom they have held communion for a long time in religious exercises . they , good men , will be mightily troubled and vexed to see or hear such a sad thing , and this is taken by many amongst them for an heinous crime , even the same which st. paul calls scandalizing a weak brother , to do any thing which may chance to put any of their godly brethren out of humour . the occasion of this false apprehension is in all likelyhood the ambiguity of our english word offend , which is used in the translation of our bibles . in our language it signifies to displease , or to do something which another dislikes ; but the greek word , which is so rendered , signifies to lay a stumbling block in the way of another , which causes him to fall , or to ensnare and deceive him into something that is evil , as i shall shew more largely presently . we must not therefore interpret the places of scripture , where offend or offence are found , by the common importance of the words amongst us , but by the undoubted signification of the original word , which all learned men agree to have quite another sense . it must not be concealed that there is one place in the famous fourteenth chapter of the romans that seems to favour this popular conceit v. . if thy brother be grieved with thy meat , now walkest thou not charitably , and it is the only one i know of that sounds this way , but surely it is more reasonable , that this one verse should be interpreted by all the other places of scripture about this matter , than all the rest explained agreeably to this single verse . nay it sufficiently appears that by grieving our brother , is not meant displeasing him , or making him sorry or sad , but wounding or hurting him , and so it is used to denote , that which causes grief or sorrow . for in the very next words it follows , destroy not him with thy meat for whom christ died ; and what is here expressed by grieving is v. . called , putting a stumbling-block or an occasion to fall , and v. . it is good neither to eat flesh , nor drink wine , nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth , or is offended , or is made weak ; all which signifie the same with being grieved . to be offended or grieved is not to be troubled at what another hath done out of pity and concern for his soul , but to receive hurt our selves from it , being by it drawn or deceived into some sin , and our own fall occasioned by what our brother hath done , is that which creates the grief and trouble . but because this mistake doth so generally prevail amongst many , as i hope , well disposed people , who think that they must not do any thing , at which good men are displeased or grieved , i shall offer these few things to their consideration . . that thus to censure and condemn the actions , and to be displeased and angry with the persons of those that differ from them , or refuse any longer to joyn with them in their separate congregations , is a great instance of peevishness and uncharitableness , and is that very sin which st. paul often warns his weak believers against , viz. that they should not rashly judge those who knew their duty , and understood their christian liberty better than themselves . this seems to be the same with that argument the papists use to perswade men into , or to keep them in their communion , as the safest way to heaven ; since they so confidently damn all men , whom , tho never so unjustly , they thrust out of their church . because some of our dissenting brethren are so froward and unmerciful in their censures , and so fond of their own way , as to brand all that return to the church with the infamous names of apostates , time-servers , men that have made shipwrack of faith and a good conscience , and have forsaken christ for fear of persecution , and the like , therefore all those , who are convinced of the lawfulness of conformity , yet ought still to continue with them in their separation , left they provoke and irritate their anger and displeasure against them ; and thus any company of men , that shall joyn together and resolve to quarrel with all that do not as they do , or that shall leave their society , must oblige all for ever to remain with them , for fear of giving them offence . if what i do is not evil in it self , it cannot become such , because another man is causelesly angry with me for doing of it . let but those , who separate from us , mortifie all pride and overweening opinion of themselves , and their own way , let them lay aside all zeal of parties and little singularities , and learn to judge righteously and soberly of themselves and others , and then the cause of all this offence will be soon removed . . they that pretend that this fear of offending , that is , displeasing their weak brethren hinders their complyance with the church , ought seriously to examine themselves , whether it is not really only the care of their credit , and reputation with their party , that keeps them from conformity . they are loth to lose that share they have in the affections of so many , or to sink in that estimation they have obtained of great sanctity , by joyning with the strictest and purest christians . for undoubtedly mens reputation amongst a party is a very great temptation to detain them in error , and is a mighty prejudice to their understanding and receiving the truth , or the doing of their duty , when it will expose them to reproach and opprobrious nicknames . thus our saviour said of the jews , john . . how can ye believe , who receive honour one of another , and seek not the honour that cometh from god ? when therefore men tell us , it will be a scandalous thing for them now to conform , they often mean nothing else by it , but that it will be unhandsom , and a disgraceful thing for them to change their mind , and confess their mistake , and retract what they have so long , and so zealously defended . or else let them look well , that it is not some paltry secular interest , that lies at the bottom , they dare not offend their weak brethren , that is ; they are afraid they shall lose their trade , they shall disoblige many of their good customers , they get their livelyhood by such a congregation , and therefore they must continue of it . but this is truly to become the servants of men , such as these are the most rank men-pleasers , and therefore it is good advice of mr. baxter in his cure of church divisions , p. . please men in al things lawful for their good and edification ; and become all things to all men in a lawful way : but depart not from the principles or practice of christian vnion , communion , charity or sobriety , to please a dividing hot brain'd party , nor to escape their sharpest censures . . if to displease our weak brother were the sinful offending him , condemned by st. paul , it would prove an intolerable yoke upon mens consciences , would beget endless perplexities and difficulties , so that we should not be able to do any thing , tho never so indifferent , with a quiet and well assured mind , since as the world now is , some one or other will in this sense be scandalized at it . by doing we shall anger some , by forbearing we shall provoke others ; and since those , who call themselves weak , are divided and shatter'd into several sects and factions , each condemning all the other , it is impossible for us to comply with any one of them , but we shall thereby displease all the rest . he therefore , that would with a good conscience perform his duty , in whatever place he lives , or relation he stands in , must displease both good and bad men , as things now are amongst us . it is a very small thing , as st. paul tells us , to be judged of men , when they pass their unwarrantable censures upon us , and our actions ; and they , who govern themselves by the opinions and fancies of others , can never tell whither they shall be led by this principle . they are slaves to the party they espouse , and must run with them into all the folly and extravagance they can be guilty of ; or if at last they are forced to leave them , they shall in the end be more hated and despised by them , than if they had never humoured them at all . . i add only , that according to this rule , that we must not do any thing which may displease or grieve our weak brethren , we do in effect submit our judgments and consciences to the conduct of the most ignorant and injudicious christians , and yield to them that power and authority over us , which we deny to the magistrate and our lawful superiours ; and it cannot but seem a very hard case , that they who are so tender of their christian liberty , and think it so highly infringed and violated by the determinations of their superiours about indifferent matters , should yet suffer themselves to be thus straitly tied up by the wills and passions of their weak brethren . if this were so , saith mr. baxter , p. of the forenamed book , the most childish and womanish sort of christians , who have the weakest judgments , and the strongest wills and passions must rule all the world ; for these are hardliest pleased , and no man must displease them . whatever condescension therefore may be due to the weak and ignorant , yet it was never intended that they should govern the wiser , and better instructed christians in all their actions ; and who can govern more absolutely , than they whose wills must never be crossed , and whom none must displease ? from all this i conclude , that this cannot be the sense of scandalizing or giving offence , viz. doing of something , which another takes ill , or is angry with us for it . . i am now in the second place to shew , what is the true meaning of offending or scandalizing in scripture . the greek word which we translate scandal or offence signifies either a trap and snare , or else more commonly something laid in the way of another , which occasions his stumbling or falling , by which he is bruised and hurt , and so consequently , whatever it was that hindred men from becoming christs disciples , or discouraged them in their new profession , or tempted them to forsake that faith they had lately embraced , is called a scandal or offence . it is sometimes rendred an occasion to fall as rom. . . occasion of stumbling , as joh. . . a stumbling-block , revel . . . or a thing that doth offend , as st. matt. . . in all which places there is the same original word . hence to offend or scandalize any one , as it is commonly used in the new testament , is to do something , which tends to estrange or fright men from the christian profession , to beget in them hard and unworthy thoughts of it , or is apt , when they are converted , to turn them from it , and make them repent of their change . of this i shall give some few instances out of the discourses of our saviour and his apostles . thus our blessed lord , st. matth. . . is said to have paid tribute , lest he should offend or scandalize the jews . this was more than he was bound to ; for he tells us , the children are free . but he did it , that he might not give any occasion to his enemies to represent him to the people , as a contemner of their law , or an enemy to caesar , ( according as you understand that tribute to be paid either to the romans or the temple ) and so prejudice them against his person and doctrine . thus our saviours own country-men , who were acquainted with his father , and mother , and kindred , who knew the meanness of his birth and education , mark . . were offended or scandalized at him . they were astonished at the great things he did , and the greater things he spoke , and would in all probability have believed on him , had they not known his mean original and employment . is not this the carpenter , the son of mary , &c. after the same manner , when our lord , st. john . . had discoursed of eating the flesh of the son of man , they that heard him , taking it in a gross carnal sense , were offended or scandalized at him . they began to doubt of his being a true prophet , or the messiah , who would teach his disciples to turn cannibals . thus again our saviour , before the night in which he was betrayed told his disciples , st. matt. . . all of ye shall be offended or scandalized , because of me this night ; that is , shall fly away and shamefully forsake me , when you behold my hard usage , and dismal sufferings . so christ crucified , cor. . . to the jews was a scandal or stumbling-block ; that is , they had set their minds and hearts on a temporal earthly king , and expected to be freed from the roman yoke , and to be restored to their former dominions and greatness , as the effect of the coming of their messiah , and therefore could not be persuaded to own him for their prince , and saviour , and the son of god , who was put to such a cursed and ignominious death . in the same sense they who heard the word of god , mark . . and received it with gladness , but having no root in themselves , when affliction or persecution arose for the words sake , were presently offended or scandalized ; that is , were ready to leave and renounce that profession , that was likely to cost them so dear . after the publishing of the gospel by the apostles , that which most stumbled the jewish converts , was the danger moses's law and their temple worship , and the singular preeminences of the seed of abraham , seemed to be in of being undermined by christianity . they were strangely wedded to their legal observances , fond of circumcision and those peculiarities , which distinguished their nation from the rest of mankind , they were jealous of any doctrine , that encroached upon their priviledges , or tended to bring them down to the same level with the uncircumcised world. this mightily offended them , and hardned them against christianity ; whereas on the other side , the gentile converts with as much reason , were afraid of putting their necks under so heavy a yoke , or being brought into subjection to the jewish law , and there was no such effectual way to scare them from christianity , as when it came attended with the burden of the mosaical ceremonies ; which were an offence to them ; that is , did discourage them from believing in christ , or continuing in his faith. now to prevent the mischiefs , that might arise from these different apprehensions amongst the christian proselites , was the occasion of the meeting of that first council at jerusalem ; mentioned acts . and of those directions which st. paul gives rom. . concerning our behaviour towards weak brethren . another case there was concerning eating of things offered to idols , of which st. paul discourseth in his first epistle to the corinthians , chap. . and . the sum of which seems to be this , that the stronger and wiser christians ought to abstain from eating what had been offered to idols , tho as ordinary meat , in the presence of any one , who with conscience of the idol , did eat it as a thing offered to an idol . for such there were in the church of corinth so weak , as not yet to have quite left off their idolatrous worship , and a christians eating what had been offered in sacrifice before such an one might serve to harden , and confirm him in his error , whose conscience being weak is defiled . of whose soul st. paul professed himself to have so great regard , that he would eat no such meat as long as the world lasted , rather than lay such a stumbling-block before , or wound their weak consciences . in all these places and many more that might be named ( for the fuller explication of which i refer you to interpreters , and those that have written largely on this subject ) no less than apostacy from the christian faith was the sin , into which these weak christians were so apt to fall , and by an undue use of our liberty to give occasion to anothers forsaking the christian religion , whereby our saviour loseth a disciple , and the soul of our brother perisheth , is the proper sin of offending , or giving scandal . i shall mention but one place more , which is revel . . . where balaam is said to have taught balac , to cast a stumbling-block or scandal before the children of israel which relates of his inticing them by the daughters of moab to fornication and idolatry , and by that means provoking god against them . so that in the most general sense to scandalize or offend any one , is , to give occasion to his sin , and consequently his ruin and undoing ; and this i suppose will be granted by all , that do not receive their opinions from the meer sound of words . hence i shall conclude these few things . . the better men are , the harder it is to scandalize them : those are not such godly persons , as they would be thought , who are so ready at all turns to be offended ; for how can they be reckon'd to excel others in knowledg or goodness , who are so easily upon every occasion drawn or tempted to sin ? thus mr. baxter himself tells the separatists in his cure of church divisions . vsually , saith he , men talk most against scandalizing those , whom they account to be the best , and the best are least in danger of sinning ; and so they accuse them to be the worst , or else they know not what they say ; for suppose a separatist should say , if you hold communion with any parish minister or church in england , it will be a scandal to many good people : i would ask such an one , why call you those good people that are easily drawn to sin against god ? nay , that will sin because i do my duty : therefore if you know what you say , you make the separatists almost the worst of men , that will sin against god , because another will not sin . the great thing our nonconformists pretend unto above other men is tenderness of conscience , by which they must mean , if they mean any vertue by it , a great fear of doing any thing that is evil ; and this , where it is in truth , is the best security that can be devised against being scandalized or offended , by what other men do ; that is , against being drawn into sin by it . so that they do really disparage and severely reflect upon the dissenters , who are thus afraid of giving them offence , as i have explained it . . no man can with sense say of himself , that he shall be scandalized at what another man does ; for it is as much as to say , that by such a person and action , he shall be led into sin ignorantly , and his saying this confutes his ignorance : if he knows it to be a sin , he is not betrayed into it , nor doth he fall into it through ignorance and mistake ( which is the case of those that are scandalized ) but wilfully commits it . this a great bishop compares with the peevishness of a little child , who when he is commanded to pronounce the word he hath no mind to , tells you he cannot pronounce that word , at the same time naming the word he pretends he cannot speak . such nonsense it is for a man to forbid me doing any thing upon pretence it will be a scandal to him , or make him through mistake fall into some sin , when by this it is plain , that he knows of it beforehand , and so may , and ought to avoid the stumbling-block that is laid before him , and the danger that he is exposed unto . surely saith solomon , prov. . . in vain is the net spread in the sight of any bird. if to offend or scandalize , any one is to tempt and draw him into some sin , whereby his conscience is wounded , there then can be no fear of giving offence by our conformity to the orders and usages of our church , because there is nothing appointed by or used in it , but what may be complyed withal without sin : for this , as i before observed , is supposed in the question i at first propounded to discourse of ; that he , who absented from his parish church for fear of offending his weak brethren , was convinced in his own mind of the lawfulness of all that is enjoyn'd ; and therefore by his own conformity , he can only engage others to do as he hath done , which as long as he is perswaded to be lawful , i do not see how he can be afraid of scandalizing others by it , or making them to sin by his example , unless he will imagine his brethren , not so weak , but so wicked , as to worship the host , because he kneels at receiving of the sacrament , and to adore the cross because he bows at the name of jesus , or that they will renounce all religion because he hath forsaken their ways of separation : this cannot but prove a vain excuse for me to forbear doing that , in which there is really no evil , lest by the authority of my example i make others sin in doing the same innocent action ; which in this case is so far from being to be feared , that if by my example i prevail with others to return into the communion of our church , they are not thereby at all scandalized , but i have done them a most signal kindness and benefit . if it be said , that tho what i do is in it self lawful , yet it may minister occasion or provocation to others to do something else that is unlawful , and so i become truly guilty of giving offence ; i answer , that we are accountable only for the natural tendencies , or probable effects of our actions , which may be easily foreseen and prevented . remote probabilities and contingencies and bare possibilities come not into reckoning , nor are they at all to be weighed . if in every action i am bound to consider what advantage a wicked sensual man , or a weak silly man might take , and what arguments he might possibly thence draw to encourage himself in sin and folly , or excuse himself from the care of his soul and religion , this would open the door to infinite scrupulosity and trouble , and i should hardly be able to do or speak any thing without the incurring the guilt of giving scandal . now this being supposed , i dare boldly challenge any man to name any one sin either against god , our neighbour , or our selves , that our conformity doth give any real probable occasion unto ; and it is very uncharitable to conceit , that our nonconforming brethren will out of meer perverseness , or spite and revenge run into sin , on purpose to make our leaving them criminal and vicious ; which if any should be so wicked as to do , yet they would lose the design of their malice , and prove the only guilty persons themselves . the only thing i imagine can be further said in this case is , that tho i am well satisfied my self , yet by my conformity i may tempt and provoke others that are not satisfied concerning the lawfulness of it , nay those who judge it absolutely sinful , yet rather than stand out , or being moved by the opinion they have of my goodness and wisdom , to follow my example with a doubting or gainsaying conscience . suppose a master of family that used to frequent the private meetings , and his wife and children and servants used to follow him thither ; but afterwards , by reading of such good books as have been lately written , is himself satisfied concerning the lawfulness of going to church , and at last thinks it his duty so to do , only he is afraid that the rest of his family to please and humour him , will be apt also to forsake the private meetings , and go along with him to church , tho it be altogether against their judgment and conscience : or suppose him a man of eminency amongst his neighbours , on whose favour many do depend , of great interest and reputation , by whose example many are sway'd and led . tho himself doth conform upon good reasons and principles , yet his example may invite many others to it , tho they have received no satisfaction concerning the lawfulness of it . now here i desire these three things may be considered . . it is certain that it is as unlawful to go to the separate meetings against ones conscience , as it is to go to the publick church against ones conscience . why then ought not this man to be as afraid , when he leaves his parish-church and frequents the private congregation , lest he should draw some to follow him thither with a doubting conscience ; as well as he fears , if he leaves the meetings and resorts to his parish-church , some not satisfied concerning the lawfulness of it , should come after him thither ? the influence of his example , interest , reputation , is the same in both instances ; the danger of giving this scandal is equal ; that therefore which ought to determine his practice must be his own judgment and persuasion . . such an one , who hath been a separatist , but is now himself satisfied of the lawfulness of conformity ; ought to take great care and pains in endeavouring to satisfie others also , especially those , whom he hath any cause to think to have been led into the ways of separation by his example : he must not be ashamed to own his former mistake , to set before them the reasons on which his change is grounded , and must do this publickly and frequently , persuading others to use the same helps and means , which were so effectual for his own conviction . and thus he doth all that lieth in his power to prevent this ill effect , and shall not be further answerable for the consequences of what he doth . . it is truly observed by some , that considering the known temper of the nonconformists , it is not very likely any such mischief should ensue , viz. that by the example of one or more leaving their separate assemblies , others should be moved to follow them against their own judgment and conscience . it is abundantly notorious how they have used to treat those that have deserted them ; with what irreconcileable enmity they have prosecuted them , looking upon them as their worst enemies , passing more grievous censures upon them than upon those who have all their lives long continued in our communion . . i proceed in the last place to observe from what i have discoursed concerning giving offence , that if to offend any one , be to lead him into sin , then we may scandalize and give offence to others , as soon by pleasing them and complying with them , as by dipleasing them and going contrary to their mind and humour . st. paul , who circumcised timothy , acts . . in favour of the weak jews that he might insinuate and ingratiate himself into them , refused to circumcise titus , galat. . . tho he made the jews angry by it , yet he would not give place by subjection , or submission and condescension to them , no not for an hour : he considered the different states and conditions of the persons he had to deal withal . he complyed to circumcise timothy , lest all the jews with him should have forsaken the christian faith , and for the same reason he denied to circumcise titus , lest those of jerusalem should think he was of opinion , that the jewish law held still in force , and so the cross of christ should become of no effect to them . he pleased indeed the former for fear of driving them from christianity , and for the same reason he displeased the latter , lest he should give them occasion to think the observation of moses's law always necessary . he had truly scandalized them , if he had done as they would have had him : he had offended them in the true scripture sense , if he had pleased and humoured them ; and this is the most ordinary way of scandalizing christians amongst us , by not plainly telling men of their faults and mistakes , by not speaking freely and roundly to them , nor acting couragiously , whereby they become hardned and confirmed in their folly and ignorance . to this purpose i cannot but repeat the words of mr. baxter in the book i have so often cited ; many a time , saith he , i have the rather gone to the common-prayers of the publick assemblies for fear of being a scandal to those same men that called the going to them a scandal : that is , for fear of hardning them in a sinful separation and error ; because i knew that was not scandal which they called scandal ; that is , displeasing them , and crossing their opinions ; but hardning them in an error or other sin , is true scandalizing . vnderstand this , or you will displease god under pretence of avoiding scandal , p. . thus by complying with our dissenting brethren we really do them that mischief which we would avoid , and fall into the sin of giving scandal , whilest we are running from it ; we countenance and encourage their sinful separation and division ; we confirm them in their dangerous errors and mistakes ; we by our practice condemn those things , which yet in our consciences we allow and approve of , and by our authority and influence harden others in their unreasonable prejudices and opposition against the lawful commands of their superiours . they think us of the same mind with themselves , whilst we do the same things , and that we judge as ill of the church of england , as long as we refuse to communicate with it , as themselves do ; and thus we give occasion to their sin , and those infinite mischiefs which have happened both to church and state , upon the account of our religious disputes and divisions ; which surely ought to be well thought of and considered by a sort of men amongst us , who shall go to church in the morning , and to a conventicle in the afternoon ; who halt between both , and would fain displease neither side , but indeed give real offence to both . from all this i think it is very plain , that he , who is satisfied in his own mind of the lawfulness of conformity , but is afraid of giving offence by it , if he be true to this principle , ought to hasten the faster to his parish-church , that he might not offend those very dissenters of whom he would seem to be so tender ; and thus i have done with the second thing i propounded to shew , what is meant by offending or scandalizing , . it remaineth in the third and last place to enquire ; how far , and in what instances we are bound to consider the ignorance or weakness of our brother ? in answer to this , that i may proceed with all the clearness i can , i shall now suppose notwithstanding all i have already said , that our dissenting , brethren are truly weak persons , and that there may be some danger of their being through their own fault offended by our conformity ; yet taking this for granted , i shall plainly shew that he , who is in his own mind convinced of the lawfulness of coming to his parish-church , and using the forms of prayer and ceremonies by law appointed , ought not to forbear doing the same for fear of giving such offence to his weak brethren . there are many other things to be considered in this case , besides this matter of private scandal ; and if there be greater evil in , and greater mischief to others , and a more publick scandal doth follow our forbearing communion with the church and withdrawing into private assemblies , than can happen by our leaving them and returning to the church , and complying with its orders , we ought then to conform notwithstanding the offence that is imagined may be taken at it . for these two things , as i suppose are agreed on all hands ; one is , that nothing which is sinful may be done to avoid scandalizing others ; the other is , that to avoid a less scandal being taken by a few , we must not give a greater scandal and of vastly more pernicious consequence to a much bigger number of persons ; and by these two rules i shall now judge of the case at first propounded . . nothing that is sinful may be done to avoid others being scandalized , which is directly the apostles doctrine , rom. . . that we must not do evil , that good may came ; nor is any necessary duty to be omitted out of prudence or charity to others , lest they through error or ignorance be hurt by it : we must not to prevent the greatest sin in another , commit the least sin our selves , nor disobey gods law , and so run the hazard of our own damnation , tho it be to save the soul of our brother . thus calvin tells us , instit . lib. . c. . quae necessaria sunt factu , nullius offendiculi timore omittenda sunt . whatever is necessary to be done by vertue of gods command is not to be omitted for fear of offence ; and again in the same place , hic charitatis rationem haberi decet , sed usque ad aras . our charity to our brother ought to be limited by this , that we do not for his sake displease god. the very best things and actions may be perverted by men of ill-disposed or weak minds , false consequences and unjust inferences may be strained from them ; as we know the grace of god in the gospel was abused into an argument for licentiousness , and christ himself is said to be set for the fall of many , st. luke . . but still this doth not cancel our obligations to universal obedience to gods law , nor can it alter the nature of good and evil , duty and sin ; which are no such uncertain contingent things , as to depend upon the constructions others shall make of our actions , or the conclusions they shall draw from them . god almighty in the making of his laws hath a perfect comprehension of all the accidental events , that may happen either through the weakness or wickedness of men ; and we must not think our selves to be wiser than god , taking upon our selves to dispense with his commands without any allowance from him , as if himself had not foreseen those inconveniences which may arise from our doing our duty : it can therefore never be , that obedience to god should give any real scandal ; and whatever offence may be taken at my doing of my duty , it is a contradiction to imagine it imputable to me , as a sin or fault , ( for it is to suppose one to disobey god , in obeying him ) but they alone are chargeable who are offended by it . now by the express command of god , we are obliged to obey the lawful injunctions of our superiours , whether civil or ecclesiastical ; and if any are so hardy as to deny this , they must seek for another bible out of which to judge of gods will ; for there is hardly any one duty of religion more plainly commanded , more frequently and earnestly pressed in the new testament , than quiet and peaceable subjection to authority , both in church and state , in all things lawful , and that not only to avoid punishment , but for conscience sake ; and to refuse obedience in such things , is a sin against the fifth commandment . that the conformity required by our church , contains not any thing in it unlawful , must be granted , as i have already observed , by all those who make use of this plea of scandal , from all which the necessary conclusion is , since we may not redeem a scandal by disobedience to god , since god hath plainly required our submission to those whom he hath set over us in all things , lawful ; since it is acknowledged by those i now discourse with , that conformity to the church is enjoyned by a competent authority , and is lawful ; i say the necessary conclusion is , that no man can with a good conscience refuse to conform only for fear of scandal . our dissenting brethren , when they are urged with this argument neither do nor can deny any of the premises , they must confess that no sin may be committed upon any account whatsoever , and that a man is not bound to provide for his brothers safety by wounding his own soul ; they cannot deny but that god hath commanded us to be subject to lawful authority in all things lawful , but then to evade the force of this reasoning , they have endeavoured to load the conclusion with some seeming difficulties and absurdities , which they pretend follow from this principle , that we are bound to obey , notwithstanding the scandal that may ensue upon it . the chief of these i shall mention , and briefly return an answer to them . . it is pleaded that those precepts , which contain only rituals , are to give place to those , which do concern the welfare of mens bodies , and much more to those , which do respect the welfare of our brothers soul ; so that , when both together cannot be observed , we must neglect or violate the former , to observe the latter : that this is true even of some commands given by god himself ; to which purpose our saviour doth produce that saying of the prophet hosea , i will have mercy and not sacrifice . now if sacrifices prescribed by god himself , which were so considerable a part of the divine worship under moses 's law , yet were to give place to acts of mercy , how much more are the positive injunctions of men , that concern only the externals and circumstantials of religion , to yield to the royal and indispensable law of charity , of which this duty of not giving offence to others , is such an eminent part . thus saith mr. jeans in his second part of scholastical divinity , what laws of any earthly wight whatsoever concerning ceremonies can be more obligatory , than the commands of god touching the externals of his worship and service ; and yet it is his will and pleasure , that these externals of his worship should be laid aside for the performance of outward works of mercy : if therefore the sacred ordinances of god are to give way unto works of mercy unto the bodies of men , surely then much more is the trash of human inventions to yield unto a work of mercy to the souls of men. in answer to this , it is readily acknowledged that when there doth happen any such interfering between two commands of god , the one positive , the other moral , the positive ought always to give place to the moral ; and by the same reason the positive commands of our superiours ought certainly to give way to the moral commands of god , which are of eternal and immutable obligation . they cease to bind us either in case of absolute necessity , or when they plainly hinder our performance of any moral duty to god or our neighbour ; and the church is presumed to dispense with its orders , as god almighty doth allow the neglect of his own positive institutions in such circumstances . but then this is only , where the necessity is urgent and extream , the sin we must otherwise commit evident and certain ; and at last our obedience is dispensed withal only for that one time . thus in a case of necessity , our saviour st. matth. . . acquits david and his followers of all blame , who being ready to perish for hunger , did eat of the shewbread , which otherwise , was not lawful for them to eat ; but had they taken a particular fancy to that bread , and refused to have eaten of any other , because that best agreed with their stomacks and was most pleasing to their palate ; can we think our saviour would have so easily excused them ? or which is nearer to our case ; because god did prefer acts of mercy before sacrifices where both could not be done , yet this would not have justified any mans wholly leaving off sacrificing , or refusing to do it at jerusalem , inventing another way of worship , as more expedient than sacrificing , or choosing another place to sacrifice in , which might be more convenient for all the jews than that city was . we may leave our prayers , forsake the church to save the life of our neighbour , or to quench the firing of his house , but still this would be but a pityful pretence for our wholly absenting our selves from chruch , and constant neglect of our prayers , because in the mean time our neighbours life may be invaded , or his house fired by ill men , of which there is great store in the world , and so he may stand in need of our help , which is a more acceptable service to god than any acts of devotion . so that however this argument may serve to excuse the omission of some things commanded by lawful authority , by those who otherwise are perfectly conformable , in extraordinary cases which very rarely happen , and for which no provision could be made by law ; yet to be sure this will not at all help those , who bid open defiance to the laws , stand out in manifest opposition against them , live in plain disobedience and contradiction to them as it they were altogether free from them , nay set up a distinct way and form of worship of their own , and all this because they are loth to offend those , who are not satisfied of the wisdom and goodness of what is appointed . thus our dissenting brethren can gain but little by this plea if granted to them ; for upon this account of exercising mercy and charity towards their neighbours , they can be excused from obedience to their superiours in such cases only , in which they may be excused also from the observation of the sabbath , from prayer publick or private , from worshipping of god either in the church or in a conventicle , nay from obedience to god himself ; had he pleased in the scriptures positively to have required whatever is at present enjoyned by our church ; and let them well consider , whether if god had plainly in his word prescribed all that our church doth command , they would have thought it safe to have refused compliance with such divine impositions , because they were unreasonably offensive to some godly people : if our dissenters will but acknowledge themselves bound to submit to the determinations of their superiours about the things in controversie between us , so far , as the jews were bound to obey the ordinances of god concerning his external worship delivered by moses ; and that they are freed from such obligation to obey the laws of their governours only in such cases , as the jews were excused from offering their accustomed sacrifices , or as they think themselves at liberty to break the sabbath , to omit gods publick worship , i suppose this dispute would soon be at an end , for they dare not own , that the scandal others may take at such things , which yet are to give place to moral duties , is sufficient to void their obligation to the doing of them . mr. jeans ( whose objections i shall the rather consider because of his eminency amongst the presbyterians , tho i find my self somewhat prevented by a late writer , who hath taken particular notice of them ) thus putteth the question , suppose , saith he , the greatest monarch upon the face of the earth should command the meanest and lowest of his slaves , upon some important affair to ride post through such a city , without any of the least stay or diversion , and then it should happen that a company of little children should be playing in the streets , can this slave think that he is obliged to ride over them ? no surely , he ought to use all means , and take all care possible to execute his commission without doing any hurt , or damage to any person whatever ; but if he would have stated the case right , it should have been done thus ; suppose this slave should utterly refuse to do as he was commanded , and for his justification should plead , that he must be forced to ride through many towns are cities , where are many little children , who are often playing at the doors or in the streets ; he knows not but that some of them may be in his way , or chance to run between his horses legs , and therefore to avoid the doing of this mischief , which might possibly happen , he resolves not to stir one foot from his own home . is this pretence sufficient to excuse his disobedience ? no more can our nonconformity to the rules given us by our superiours be innocent , because some may be scandalized at our obedience . . it is further said that scandal is in the nature of it spiritual murder , and if where authority hath determined our choice , we must hold to their determination , any scandal to the contrary notwithstanding , it seemeth then in case the magistrate command it , we may lawfully murther the soul of our brother , wound his weak conscience , and destroy with our meats , our ceremonies , the work of god , and him for whom christ died . it is good , saith st. paul , rom. . . neither to eat flesh , nor to drink wine , nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth , or is offended , or is made weak . but our prelatists , saith mr. jeans , determine quite otherwise . if authority enjoyn it , it is good , say they , to eat bread , drink wine , wear a surplice , use the sign of the cross in baptism , tho thereby never so many brethren stumble , or are offended , or made weak . but all this is meer bugbear , fitted only to fright children and such weak persons , as we are now treating of ; for it can never be shewen , how wearing a surplice , or kneeling at receiving of the sacrament , or crossing the infants forehead , hath any tendency towards the scaring men from christianity , or making them to deny christ , and forsake and grow weary of his religion , which i have sufficiently proved to be the only proper scandalizing of our brother , which st. paul so highly aggravateth , and chargeth with the guilt of destroying and murthering his soul ; none of these things do directly and immediately lead or tempt any man to any sin : whatever scandal may follow is wholly accidental , and the fault and mistake of those only , who are offended , and to provide always against such scandals is an impossible undertaking ; for they may follow the most innocent actions , nay the most necessary duties , and this argument concludes as strongly against obedience to any other command of god , if by it my brother may stumble , or be offended , or be made weak , as it doth against submission to our superiours in things lawful . they that make these objections do not sufficiently consider , that by gods law we are bound to obey the lawful commands of our superiours ; and it is not only the law or ordinance of man , of which they seem to make so little account , but it is the law of god also , that is violated by our disobedience to our governours in things lawful : the comparison therefore ought not to be only , as they make it , between an human authority determining some indifferent things , and the divine law of charity to the soul of our brother , but between the divine command of obedience to our superiours , and the avoiding of scandal : here we affirm , that we cannot be bound to transgress a plain law of god , or which is all one in this question , a lawful command of our superiours for fear of some evil that may by chance happen to some others through their own fault ; and we prove it by this reason , which our dissenting brethren must own for true and good , because every one is bound to have a greater care of his own than others salvation , and consequently rather to avoid sin in himself , than to prevent it in his brethren . if it be here asked , as it is by some , whether any human authority can make that action cease to be scandalous , which if done without any such command had been criminal upon the account of the scandal that followed it , i answer , that no authority , whether divine or human , can secure that others shall not be offended by what i do out of obedience to their commands , but then it doth free me from all guilt and blame , by making that to become my duty to do , which if i had done needlesly without any great reason , and my brother had been hurt and his conscience wounded by it , might have been justly charged with uncharitableness , greater or less according as the scandal was more or less probable to follow . this must be granted , that the laws of god or man , otherwise obligatory , do not lose their binding force because of some scandal , that may possibly happen from our complyance with them , or else all authority is utterly void and insignificant , and every man is at liberty to do all things as himself pleaseth ; for , to borrow the words of the excellent bishop sanderson , to allow men under pretence that some offence may be taken thereat , to disobey laws and constitutions made by those that are in authority over us , is the next way to cut the sinews of all authority , and to bring both magistrates and laws into contempt ; for what law ever was made , or can be made so just and reasonable , but some man or other either did or might take offence thereat . whether such a constitution or command of our superiours be scandalous or no , every one must judge for himself ; and so according to his own private opinion of the goodness or hurtfulness of what is required , he is free to obey it or not , which is directly to dissolve all government , and to bring in certain disorder and everlasting confusion , every one doing what is good in his own eyes . . it is said , that avoiding of scandal is a main duty of charity ; may superiours therefore at their pleasure appoint , how far i shall shew my charity towards my brothers soul ? then surely an inferiour earthly court may cross the determinations of the high court of heaven : this mr. jeans urgeth also out of amesius ; but it is easily replyed , that here is no crossing the determinations of god , since it is his express will , that in all lawful things we should obey our governours , and he who hath made this our duty , will not lay to our charge the mischiefs , that may sometimes without our fault through the folly and peevishness of men follow from it , and certainly it is as equal and reasonable , that our superiours should appoint how far i shall exercise my charity towards my brethren , as it is , that the mistake and prejudice of any private christians should set bounds to their power and authority , cancel the publick laws , or that every ignorant and froward brother should determin , how far we shall be obedient to those , whom god hath set over us either in church or state. but to give a more full answer to this we must know , that , tho charity be the great duty , especially of the christian religion , yet duties of justice ( as they are commonly called ) are of stricter obligation than duties of charity , and we are bound to pay our debts , before we give an alms . now obedience to superiours is a debt we owe to them , which they have right to exact of us , so that they may accuse us of injury , if we perform it not . but a great care to hinder sin in others , or not to scandalize them is a duty of charity , which indeed we are obliged unto as far as we can , but not till after we have given to every one what is his due and right . it is therefore no more lawful for me , saith the forenamed most judicious bishop sanderson , to disobey the lawful command of a superiour , to prevent thereby the offence of one or a few brethren , then it is lawful for me to do one man wrong to do another man a courtesie withal ; or than it is lawful for me to rob the exchequer to relieve an hospital . according to that known saying of st. austin , quis est qui dicat , ut habeamus quod demus pauperibus , faciamus furta divitibus ? who is it , that siath it is lawful to steal from the rich , what we may bestow on the poor ? or to refuse to pay taxes , on pretence that you know those who have more need of your money ? to this mr. jeans replies , suppose , saith he , the care of not giving offence be in respect of our brother but a debt of charity , yet in regard of god it is a legal debt , since he may and doth challenge it as due , and we do him wrong if we disobey him : here i grant indeed , that both are required by god at our hands , that we should be obedient to our superiours , and that we should be always ready to shew charity to our brethren ; but then i say , this is not the charity which god requires , when i give to those in want , what is none of mine own . this is not an instance or expression of that love and kindness , which by the law of god we owe to our brother , to do him good by wronging our superiours . god hath obliged servants to be merciful to the poor to their power , as well as to be true and faithful to their masters ; but that is no part of the mercy which god requires from them ; to give away their masters goods without his leave ; tho it were to those who stand in great need of relief . god hath commanded all christians to have a great care of being any occasion of their brothers sin or fall ; but then this must necessarily be understood only of things subject to our own ordering and management . in all cases , wherein we are at our own disposal , we are bound charitably to regard our brother . but in instances , where our practice is determined by authority , our superiours only are to consider the danger of scandal ; we must consider the duty we owe to them , this being a matter wherein we cannot shew our charity without violating the right of our superiours ; it remains then , in the words of another great bishop , in what case soever we are bound to obey god or man , in that case and in that conjunction of circumstances we have nothing permitted to our choice , ( and consequently there is no place for any act of charity ) and have no authority to remit of the right of god or our superiour ; and to comply with our neighbour in such questions , besides that it cannot serve any purposes of piety , if it declines from duty in any instance , it is like giving alms out of the portion of orphans , or building hospitals with the money and spoils of sacrilege . . it is further said by mr. jeans out of amesius ; if determination by superiours is sufficient to take away the sin of scandal , then they do very ill , that they do not , so far as is possible , determine all things indifferent , that so no danger may be left of giving offence by the use of them . then the church of rome is to be praised in that she hath determined so many indifferent things . then st. paul might have spared all his directions about forbearance out of respect to weak brethren , and fully determined the matters in debate , and so put an end to all fear of scandal . this truly seemeth a very odd way of arguing , and all that i shall say to it is , that it supposeth nothing else worthy to be considered in the making of laws , or in the determinations of superiours about indifferent things , but only this one matter of scandal ; and the project it self , should it take , would prove very vain and unsuccessful . for tho we truly say , that we are bound to comply with the orders and ceremonies of the church of england , they being but few and innocent and so giving no real ground of offence ; yet we do not say the same upon supposition our church had determined all circumstances in gods worship she possibly could , which would perhaps have been a yoke greater , than that of the ceremonial law to the jews ; nor if she had prescribed as many ceremonies as the church of rome hath done , which manifestly tend to the disgrace and scandal of our christian religion ; and as for the course st. paul took , it is plain that some things upon good reasons were determined by the apostles , as that the gentile converts should abstain from blood , and things strangled , and offered to idols , which decree , i presume , they might not transgress out of charity to any of their brethren , who might take offence at such abstinence , and other things for great reason were for a time left at liberty , which reason was taken from the present circumstances of those the apostles had to deal withal ; tho afterwards , as i observed before , when that reason ceased , determinations were made about those things which st. paul had left at liberty , and if st. paul had determined the dispute about meats and days one way , they , who had followed so great an authority , whatever had happened , had surely been free from the sin of scandal ; but still the scandal had not been prevented , but all the contrary part had been in danger to have been utterly estranged from christianity ; and that was reason sufficient why st. paul did not make any determinations in that case . for governours are not only to take care to free those that obey them from the sin of scandal , but also to provide , that as little occasion , as is possible , may be given to any to be scandalized . there are other objections offered by mr. jeans , out of amesius and rutherford , against this doctrine of our obligation to obedience to superiours in things lawful , notwithstanding the scandal that may follow ; but they either may be answered from what i have already said , or else they chiefly concern the case of governours , and are brought to prove that they act uncharitably , and give great offence contrary to st. pauls rules , who take upon them determinately to impose unnecessary rites by which they know many good men will be scandalized , but this is not my present business to discourse of , tho i cannot forbear saying these two things , which i think very easie to make out . . that our church of england hath taken all reasonable care not to give any just offence to any sort of persons , and the offences that have been since taken at some things in our constitution could not possibly have been foreseen by those who made our first reformation from popery , and so they could not be any reason against the first establishment : nor , . are they now a sufficient reason for the alteration of it ; unless we can imagine it reasonable to alter publick laws made with great wisdom and deliberation as often , as they are disliked by , or prove offensive to private persons . if this be admitted , there then can never be any setled government and order in the church ; because there never can be any establishment , that will not be lyable to give such offence . they who now take offence at what the church of england enjoyns , on the same or a like account will take offence at whatever can be enjoyned , and the same pretences of scandal will be good against any establishment they themselves shall make ; for tho they will not use these reasons against their own establishment , yet in a short time others will take up their weapons to fight against them , and what served to destroy the present church will be as effectual to overthrow that , which shall be set up in its room : so that whatever alteration is made , if this be allowed for a sufficient ground of it , viz. to avoid the offence that some men take at the present constitution , yet still we shall be but where we were , and new offences will arise , and so there must be continual changing and altering , to gratifie the unreasonable humours and fancies of men ; and should any one party of dissenters amongst us get their form of government and worship established by law , i doubt not but they would preach to us the very same doctrine , we do now to them . they would tell us that private persons must bend and conform to the laws , and not the laws to private persons ; that it was our own fault that we were offended ; that our weakness proceeded from our unwillingness to receive instruction ; that the weak were to be governed , not to prescribe to their governours ; that we must not expect that what was with good reason appointed and ordered should be presently abrogated or changed out of complyance with mens foolish prejudices and mistakes . it is sufficiently known how strict and rigorous both the presbyterians and independents are and have been where they have had any advantage , and what little consideration or regard they have had of their dissenting brethren , tho they would have us so tender of them . thus much i think sufficient to shew that the precept of obedience to superiours in things lawful is more obligatory , than the precept of avoiding scandal ; whence it follows that it is our duty to obey in such instances , tho offence may be taken at it , because no sin is to be committed for the avoiding scandal . i might from this head further argue , that if we must not commit any sin to avoid giving offence , then it is not lawful to separate from our parish-churches upon that account ; because all voluntary separation from a church , in which nothing that is unlawful is required as a condition of communion , is the sin of schism , and that is a sin of the blackest dye and greatest guilt , noted the in scriptures for an act of carnality , a work of the flesh and of the devil ; for the necessity of our coming to church , and worshipping god in the same publick place with our neighbours , and submitting to the government , discipline and customs of that particular church we live in , doth not depend only upon the statutes of the realm which enforce it , and the command of the civil magistrate who requires it ; but by the law of our religion all needless separation or division amongst christians , breaking into little parties and factions , from whence comes strife , envying , confusion and every evil work , is to be most carefully avoided , as the very bane of christianity , the rending of christs body , and as utterly destructive not only of the peace , but of the being of a church . so that should all the laws about conformity and against conventicles be rescinded and voided , should the magistrate indulge or connive at the separate assemblies , yet still this would not make our joyning with them not to be sinful . since to preserve the unity of christians and one communion , is the necessary duty of every member of the church , and it can never be thought a justifiable thing , to cut off our selves from the communion of the church or the body of christ , out of complyance with any erring or ignorant brethren . but the sinfulness of withdrawing from the communion of our church , either totally or in part , hath been so evidently shewn in some late discourses written on that subject , that i do despair of convincing those of the danger of it , who can withstand the force of all that hath been already offered to them : i only conclude thus much , that there is far more of the sin of uncharitableness in such separation and division , than there can be in all the offence that is imagined to be given by our conformity . from what i have already at large discoursed it plainly follows , that they are things meerly indifferent , not only in their own nature , but also in respect to us , in the use of which we are obliged to consider the weakness of our brethren . what is our duty must be done , tho scandal follow it : what is evil and sinful ought to be left undone upon the score of a greater obligation , than that of scandal ; but now in matters , wherein our practise is not determined by any command , we ought so to exercise our liberty , as if possible to avoid giving any offence to our brethren . this is an undoubted part of that charity , which one christian ought always to be ready to shew to another , by admonition , instruction , good example , and by the forbearance of things lawful , at which he foreseeth his neighbour out of weakness will be apt to be scandalized , to endeavour to prevent his falling into any sin or mischief ; and this we teach and press upon our people as much as dissenters themselves can , in obedience to st. paul's rules about meats and days , things neither in themselves good or evil , nor determined by any authority , and therefore they were every way a proper instance , wherein christians might exercise their charity and compassion one to the other ; and in such cases st. paul declares , that he would rather wholly forego his liberty , than by these indifferences endanger the soul of his brother ; as in that famous place cor. . . if meat make my brother to offend , i will eat no flesh while the world standeth , lest i make my brother to offend ; where by flesh and meat is to be understood such as had been offered unto idols , which tho lawful for a christian to eat at common meals , yet the apostle would wholly abstain from , rather than wound the weak conscience of a brother . if i by the law of charity ( as the reverend bishop taylour saith , great exemp . p. ) must rather quit my own goods than suffer my brother to perish , much rather must i quit my priviledg . and , we should ill die for our brother , who will not lose a meal to prevent his sin , or change a dish to save his soul ; and if the thing be indifferent to us , yet it ought not to be indifferent to us whether our brother live or die . after this manner do we profess our selves ready to do or forbear any thing in our own power , to win and gain our dissenting brethren to the church . we grant that those , who conform , are obliged by this law of charity not needlesly to vex and exasperate our dissenters , nor to do any thing which they are not bound to do , that may estrange them more from the church ; but to restrain themselves in the use of that liberty god and the laws have left them , for the sake of peace and out of condescension to their brethren . we dare not indeed omit any duty we owe to god , or our superiours either in church or state , nor can we think it fit and reasonable , that our apostolical government , excellent liturgy , orderly worship of god used in our church , should all be presently condemned and laid aside , as soon as some weak men take offence at them ; but in all other things , subject to our own ordering and disposal , we acknowledge our selves bound to please our brother for his good unto edification . i only add here , that this very rule of yielding to our brother in things indifferent and undetermined ought to have some restrictions and limitations , several of which are mentioned by mr. jeans , whom i have so often named ; as first , that we are not to forbear these indifferent things , where there is only a possibility of scandal , but where the scandal consequent is probable ; for otherwise we should be at an utter loss and uncertainty in all our actions , and never know what to do . secondly , our weak brethren must have some probable ground for their imagination that what we do is evil and sinful , or else we must wear no ribbands , nor put off our hats , but come all to thou and thee ; and for this exception he gives this substantial reason , that if we are to abstain from all indifferent things , in which another without probable ground imagineth that there is sin , the servitude of christians under the gospel would be far greater and more intolerable , than that of the jews under the mosaical administration . thirdly , this must be understood of indifferent things that are of no very great importance ; for if it be a matter of some weight and moment , as yielding me some great profit , i must only for a while forbear it , untill my brother is better informed . lastly , we must not wholly betray our christian liberty to please peevish and froward people , or to humour our neighbour in an erroneous and superstitious opinion ; for which he quotes mr. calvin , who in his comment upon cor. . . tells of some foolish interpreters , that leave to christians almost no use at all of things indifferent , upon pretence to avoid the offence of superstitious persons . now tho all this is generally true , yet i think there are no certain unalterable rules to be laid down to direct our practise in this affair . for it being an exercise of charity , must be determined by the measures of prudence according to circumstances , and we may as well go about to give certain rules for mens charity in other cases , and fix the proportion , which every man ought to give of his estate towards the relief of the poor , as positively to tell how far a man must deny himself in the use of indifferent things , and forego his own liberty for the sake of his brother , and so i end this head with those words of the learned dr. hammond in his little treatise of scandal : this whole matter is to be referred to the christians pious discretion or prudence , it being free to him either to abstain , or not to abstain , from any indifferent action ( remaining such ) according as that piety , and that prudence shall represent it to be most charitable and beneficial to other mens souls . thus i have done with the first proposition , that nothing sinful is to be committed to avoid scandalizing others . . i proceed now to the second , that to avoid a less scandal being taken by a few we must not give a greater offence , and of vastly more pernicious consequence to a much bigger number of persons : not that such a case can ever happen , wherein we must necessarily give just offence to one side or other , and so are uncharitable , whether we do or forbear to do the same action ; for then we should be under a necessity of sinning , which implies a contradiction , but yet it may and often doth happen , that some weak persons may take offence at my doing , and others be more offended at my forbearing to do the same thing , and thus whether i do it , or not , i shall give offence , tho not justly , nor through my own fault , to some one or other . in such circumstances therefore we are to consider , which way is given the greater and more dangerous offence , and it can never be either prudence or charity to abstain from that , which may scandalize our brother , when by forbearance a greater and more publick scandal is ministred to others ; for in this case we have greater reason on the account of scandal it self to do , than to forbear that action , as all that write on this subject do and must acknowledge , and for which they usually quote that saying of bernard , prudenter advertendum est scandalum scandalo non emendari , &c. we are prudently to mark that one scandal is not mended by another ; which kind of emendation we should practise , if to take off offence from one party , we give offence unto another . this was the occasion of that famous contest between the two great apostles mentioned in the second chapter of the epistle to the galatians , st. peter had freely conversed with the gentile christians , and had eat with them all kind of meats ; but afterwards when certain believing jews from jerusalem , who were still to the dissatisfaction and offence of all the other dissenters , who have as good a right to this plea of weakness as themselves . . hereby great offence is given to all those who do conform ; for this separation from the church is a publick condemning of the government , orders , discipline or doctrine of our church , and is apt to breed scruples and perplexities in well meaning , but less knowing members of it , and by degrees produces a distast or dislike of our worship , and plainly hinders the efficacy of the ordinances of christ as administred in our church , whilest it creates prejudices in people against them as impure and corrupt ; and why there should not be a due regard had to those many , who are offended at our dissenters conventicle worship , as well as of those , who are said to be scandalized by our church service , i cannot at all guess . i shall only say here , that irreverent sitting at the receiving the sacrament of the lords supper , mens unmannerly wearing their hats in time of divine worship , and oftentimes putting them off but half way at their prayers , their indecent postures and antick gestures at their devotions , the extravagancies and follies ( not to say worse ) some of them are guilty of in their extemporary effusions , the strange uncouth metaphors and phrases they use in their preaching ; in a word , the slovenly performance of divine worship amongst the dissenters is much more scandalous , then all the ceremonies of our church can ever be . . consider the scandal that is hereby given to magistrates and our superiours , by bringing their laws and authority into contempt ; concerning which the forenamed mr. jeans in his first edition of his discourse about abstinence from all appearance of evil , hath these words , if , saith he , it were better to be thrown into the bottom of the sea with a millstone about ones neck , than to offend a little one , a poor and illiterate artizan , what expression shall we then find answerable to the heinousness of a scandal given to a pious magistrate , to a religious prince , to a parliament , and convocation , to an whole church and commonwealth ? . by this separation from the church , great scandal is given to the papists ; not that they are displeased at it ; they are not indeed offended in that sense , but this serves wonderfully to harden them in their false and idolatrous worship ; it increaseth their confidence , that their church is the only true church of christ , because amongst them only is found peace and unity ; and this is a mighty temptation to many wavering christians to turn papists : insomuch that mr. baxter hath told us , that thousands have been drawn to popery , or confirmed in it by this argument already , and he saith of himself , that he is persuaded , that all the arguments else in bellarmin , and all other books that ever were written , have not done so much to make papists in england , as the multitude of sects among our selves . this indeed is a great scandal to our protestant religion , and is that which the papists are on all occasions so forward to object against us , and hit us in the teeth with ; and by our hearty uniting with the church of england , we may certainly wrest out of their hands the most dangerous weapon they use against the reformation . . this tends to the scandal of religion in general . it prejudiceth men against it as an uncertain thing , a matter of endless dispute and debate ; it makes some men utterly reject it as consisting mostly in little trifles and niceties about which they observe the greatest noise and contention to be made or as destructive of the publick peace of societies , when they see what dangerous feuds and quarrels commence from our religious differences , and all the disorder and confusion that they have caused here in england , shall by some be charged upon christianity it self . thus our causeless separations and divisions open a wide door to atheisme , and all kind of prophaneness and irreligion : after this manner it was of old , and always will be , where there are parties in religion , and one contends that their separation is lawful , and the other that it is unlawful , the common people soon become doubtful and ready to forsake all religion . i might add here , that such separations necessarily occasion breach of charity ; they beget implacable enmities and animosities : hence cometh strife , emulation , envying , one party continually endeavouring to overtop the other , watching for one anothers halting , rejoycing in one anothers sins and misfortunes , constant undermining one another , to the disturbance of the publick government , and endangering the civil peace ; of all which and much more than i can now mention the present distracted condition of our nation is so great and undenyable an evidence , that there need no more words to shew the mischiefs that attend such divisions ; and now let any one judge , whether the peace and unity of the church , the maintaining of charity amongst brethren , the keeping out popery , and atheism , the preservation of the authority of the magistrate , and quiet of the society we are members of , the honour and credit of our religion . lastly , whether giving offence to all both conformists and nonconformists , those only excepted of our own particular sect and division , nay scandalizing them also in the true and proper sense of scandal , be not of far greater and more weighty consideration , than the fear of displeasing or grieving some few weak dissatisfied brethren ; wo to those , by whom offences come . but these things i have very lightly touched , because they have been the subject of many sermons and discourses lately published . to sum up all i have said , since they , who dissent from the church of england , are not such weak persons as st. paul all along describes and provides for ; since we cannot by our conformity really scandalize or offend them in that sense , in which the scriptures use those words ; since tho we did give offence to them by our conformity , yet that would not excuse us from doing our duty , and by refusing to conform we should do both them and others greater hurt and mischief ; i think i may safely conclude , that there cannot lie any obligation upon any private christian ( as the case now stands amongst us ) to absent himself from his parish-church , or to forbear the use of the forms of prayer or ceremonies by law appointed , for fear of offending his weak brethren . i end all with one word of advice . first , to those who are not convinced of the lawfulness of conformity . secondly , to those who are satisfied that it is lawful . . to those who are not convinced of the lawfulness of conformity , and therefore urge so hard that they ought not to be offended by us . i would beseech them that they would take some care and make some conscience to avoid giving any needless offence to those of the church of england , and this cannot but be thought a reasonable request , since they require all others to be so tender of them . they ought not therefore to meet in such numbers , nor at the same time at which we assemble to worship god in our publick churches . let them not affront our service and common-prayers , nor revile our bishops and ministers , nor put on their hats when at any time they chance to be present at our service in our churches , nor talk nor read in books , nor make sour faces at our devotions , and when they observe these and other the like rules , they may then with a better grace ( tho with little reason ) find fault with our conformity as offensive to them . i would be loth to say any thing , that should exasperate or provoke any of the dissenters whose satisfaction i design : i very well know their weakness , that they cannot endure to be told of their faults . however i must tell them , that there are no sort of persons in the christian world professing religion and godliness , that have done such scandalous things , as some of those who call themselves protestant dissenters . i forbear to name particulars . . as for those who are satisfied concerning the lawfulness of conformity , i would desire them so to order their return to the church , as not to give any just offence to those whom they forsake ; that is to say , that they would do it heartily and sincerely , that all may see they conformed with a willing mind , being persuaded that it is their duty so to do , and not meerly to satisfie the law , or to save their purses , or to get into an office , or to capacitate them to vote or the like . for such a kind of conformity , as some practise , and call occasional communion , which is coming to church and sacrament to serve a turn , is truly scandalous to all good men of what persuasion soever . finis . a fannaticks addresse humbly presented to the king and his peers, and also to his people in their representative, the commons house of parliament ... discovering to them, the innocency of his actings in the midst of the late revolutions of governments in this nation ... / by henry adis ... adis, henry. approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing a estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a fannaticks addresse humbly presented to the king and his peers, and also to his people in their representative, the commons house of parliament ... discovering to them, the innocency of his actings in the midst of the late revolutions of governments in this nation ... / by henry adis ... adis, henry. p. printed for the author ..., london : . reproduction of original in union theological seminary library, new york. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng dissenters, religious -- england. religion and politics -- england. freedom of religion -- england -- history -- th century. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - melanie sanders sampled and proofread - melanie sanders text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a fannaticks addresse humbly presented to the king and his peers , and also to his people in their representative , the commons house of parliament , assembled and sitting at westminster : discovering to them , the innocency of his actings in the midst of the late revolutions of governments in this nation ; with the resolves of them that walk with him , and the qualifications of those they intend to have communion withal . by henry adis , a baptized believer , undergoing the name of a free-willer ; and also most ignomineously by the tongue of infamy , called a fannatick , or a mad man. phil. . . let your moderation be known to all men , the lord is at hand . london , printed for the author , an upholdster , living in princes-street , near covent-garden , . a fannaticks addresse humbly presented to the king and his peers , and also to his people in their representative , the commons house of parliament , assembled and sitting at westminster , &c. for as much , as several that lately took upon them the places of trust , government and authority in these nations , under a pretence of making such a reformation in church and state , as was agreeable both to the law of god , and the best reformed churches ; and yet their ends in all this , the event did clearly evidence , was nothing either more or less , but to advance and set up self , and self-interests ; the which that they might the better , and with the more self-security effect , they proclaimed liberty of conscience , that so they might gain a party to stand for and by them , if necessity required ; in which time of freedome , a small party . ( the searcher of all hear●s right well knoweth ) enjoyed our liberties under them , with an utter detestation both to their acts of violence , oppression , and self-servings , with our continual bearing our testimony against them , in those actions , as it fell in our way , both in discourses and teachings ; but more publickly in my books , printed and published in the year , . called , the symptomes of ruin , or , the sword and famine , the attendants of oppr●ssion ; as also in that book , intituled , a cup for the city and her adherents ; and in that poem , called , a spie for justice , sent out of the tower chamber of the fleet ; in all which it will evidently appear , that for mine own part i could not own , nor in the least allow of their violence nor oppression : and the better to clear to the whole nation , our innocency and the cleanness of our hands , as to all manner of acts of violence , and oppression , i caused . declarations to be printed and published , the th . day of the th . month , vulgarly called january , in the year . which is also joyned to the latter end of my fannaticks mite , cast into the kings treasurie ; in which i declared my judgement , and the judgement of that small company that were in society with me , both concerning fighting , swearing , and government , and our obedience to magistracy , and magistrates , and our present disrelish to them then in being , as in the , and . lines of the said declaration , ( if recourse thereunto had ) is evident : and yet notwithstanding , my self with two more of the said declarers , in this late imprisonment , about the late insurrection , and also upon refusing to ingage to the king by an oath , we have been cruelly imprisoned , in the gate-house dungeon , and two of us also most abusively ( with others ) were printed as traytors , although the thought of those , and such like acts of violence , and bloodshed , are even an abhorring to our souls . and seeing we have the word of the king passed to us , for our protection under him , in our liberties in our meetings , to discharge our duty to our god , and each to other , in that way that god hath manifested himself unto us in his revealed will , the holy scriptures of truth , so long as we on our parts without acts of violence , hostility , plottings , contrivings , or underminings , shall behave our selves peaceably and quietly under him . and seeing we on our parts , have never in the least forfeited our priviledges , by any thing that we have either acted , or in the least intended , and yet our peaceable and quiet meetings , have been beset with rude and debauched souldiers , rending and swearing , attended with the rude rabble ; and that since our late inlargement by the kings coronation favour ; and all this for speaking in the name of jesus of nazareth , a man approved of god , acts . . he that is pretendedly owned of you all , and contended for by you all ; and yet such is the inveteracy of the spirits of some , that they are eagerly fighting against those that in the singleness of their souls serve this jesus in the footsteps of the flock of god gone before ; of whom , because the king , the nobility , and the generality of the commonnalty of this land of our nativity , are misinformed of some of us , and that we with some , are of the judgement , that killing is no murther ; intend to lay a punishment upon us ; for the guilt and opinions of some , whom we as little own , as they that are ready to inflict the punishment ; i have therefore thought good once more to set pen to paper , and in plainness of speech , to give the king and his people , and you their representative , a fresh discovery of the intents of our hearts , and the bent of our spirits , in the singleness of our souls , in the sight and presence of him , who is the searcher of all hearts , that sin ▪ revenging god who is of a more purer eye , then to approve off , or to behold iniquity with approbation thereunto . i shall therefore declare our judgements as to the present governour , and government , and our opinion touching government simply so considered ; and then i hope daniel like , neither the king , his people , nor you their representative , shall find any just cause against us , save in the matters of our god ; in which ( the lord assisting us ) we shall resolve in gods way to go on in , and if therein we perish , we perish . and therefore first of all , i shall let you know , that we do own government , and that we both do and shall resolve to be obedient to governours , because they be ordained of god , according to rom. . , . and therefore on our parts we dare not resist them , but shall according to vers . . render unto them tribute , custom , fear and honour : and for as much as we have seen the hand of him who changeth the times and seasons , who removeth kings and setteth up kings , dan. . , . dan. , , . sam. . , . sam. . . to be great in this change in setting up charles the second ; we do therefore own him to be the lawful king of these three nations of england , scotland and ireland ; and to whom we shall willingly submit in all civil things , that we do find to be agreeable to the mind of god , revealed in that directory , his holy scriptures of truth ; and if at anytime he shall require from us any thing that we cannot in conscience actually obey him in , we shall not in the least resist him violently , nor by force of arms oppose him , but shall patiently suffer under him the penalties for our not obeying him ; and as we own him , so we shall receive , own and obey actively or passively , all others his civil magistrates , set up and sent by him , for the punishment of evil doers , and the praise of them that do well , according to pet. . , . and this we shall do in the singleness of our souls , without evasions , equivocations , or mental reservations . secondly , as we do own magistracy to be of god ; so we cannot look upon our selves to be concerned in the affairs of this , or any other nation , so as to have to do with government , as to our own particulars , although we were indowed with such qualications and estates , as might render us capable thereof ; because we look upon our selves to be a people chosen out of the world , and such as shall be hated of the world , joh. . . and for the sake and name of christ shall be haled before kings , rulers , governonrs , magistrates , and councils of this world , as he himself hath foretold us , mat. . , . mark . . for all that will live godly in christ jesus shall suffer persecution , tim. . . and therefore we look upon it to be our duties , to behave our selves as pilgrimes and strangers on earth , as the flock of god gone before us did , and were , heb. . . pet. . . and to sit loose to the things of this world , and to use the world as if we used it not , and as not abusing it , cor. . , . but that our moderation therein and in all things , may be known to all men ; because the lord is at hand , phil. . . and not martha-like to be too much cumbred with the things of this world , but with mary , to look after that one thing necessary , and to choose that good part which shall not be taken from us , luke . , . and as we are risen with christ , so to seek those things which are above , where christ sitteth at the right ha●d of the father , col. . . and so to lay up for our selves treasures in heaven , where neither rust nor moth do corrupt , and where thieves cannot break thorow , nor steal , mat. . . thirdly , we shall and do own the parliament of england , convened and gathered together by the kings writs , to be the lawful and onely lawful assembly of the nation , for the confirming , establishing , making and repealing of laws and statutes , for the better well-being of the nation in civil things ; but we cannot find from the word of god , any warrant for the greatest of men or councils , either civil or ecclesiastical , to alter or abrogate any of the laws of god made by that great council of heaven ; or to prescribe any other kind or manner of worship , then what the great jehovah in his magna charta , the holy scriptures of truth , hath established , rratified and confirmed , by miracles , signs , and wonders , and divers gifts of the holy ghost , according to his own will , heb. . . and in which the flock of god gone before us acted , who continued stedfastly in the apostles doctrine and fellowship , and in breaking of bread and prayer , acts . . to which directory onely , we both do must and shall conform to and none other . and if by the hands of the rude multitude , by your continued tolleration , or otherwise by your appointments , we shall therein or therefore perish , we perish . yet i cannot but by the way let you know , that for some time past i have observed and taken special notice , that when parliaments have gone about that work , of setling and ordering of matters concerning the worship and service of god , their designes have suddenly been blasted , their councils confounded , and their enemies forreign or domestick , increased ; by which means they have been forced to leave that work , or else by the hands of those that called them , or by the armies force they have been violently dispersed . and now i shall really inform you of our resolutions herein , and shall declare , that if this great assembly shall go on to intermedle with the regulating of our consciences , as to the worship and service of our god , or give it into the hands of the church-men of england so to do , we shall not by force of armes , nor the least violence oppose them , nor comply with any that shall oppose them ; neither shall we resolve to conform to them in the least , in what is inconsistent with the laws of our god , left us in scripture record : but under our penalties , for our refusals , we shall with israel of old , groan under such egyptian bondage ; and we question not , but that the captain of our salvation , in his own due time , by a mighty hand , and a stretched out arm , will release and relieve us , to the comfort of his poor oppressed suffering ones , and to the confusion of his , and his peoples enemies ; and with israel of old , we shall resolve to stand still and behold the salvation of our god , which he will work for us , let our sufferings be under ( you , or them ) what they will , for our not actually obeying mans traditions . fourthly , we look upon it to be our bounden duty notwithstanding , though we suffer for it by the hands of men , yet to follow the direction of king jesus the captain of our salvation , who himself was made perfect through sufferings , heb. . . who , that his own flock might the better avoid that great danger of forswearing , either by ignorance , forgetfulness , mistakings , or by reason of fear , favour or affection , he perswadeth them not to swear at all , mat. . . who also telleth us , mat. . . t●● except our righteousness , shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and pharisees , we shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven ; and therefore , in vers. . he requireth , that our yea should be yea , and our nay nay ; and he addeth this as a reason , for saith he , whatsoever is more then this cometh of evil , or of that evil one : as much as if he should have said , when you either assert or deny a thing , you shall do it with such singleness of heart , and such sincerity of soul , being in me , or in my way order or worship , as that you shall not cause the name of god , nor his gospel to be blasphemed or evil spoken off , by reason of your deceitful denyals or affirmings , but that you speak the truth in me , who a● made of my father unto you , both wisdom , righteousness , sanctification , and redemption ; and so am become to you the lord your righteousness , iere. . . who as i judge , doth not tye us distinctly to the circumstance of the termes , yea and nay , but to the substance of the verity or truth of the thing asserted , although the termes may differ , as do his own , who saith , verily verily , i say unto you , john . . who also useth the same expression above twenty times in that gospel by saint john , the which verily , verily , had it been an evil , or if it had come of that evil one , and he himself speaking it had been his evil , to have tied us from it , as an evil , and yet acted it himself ; and so he would have layed himself under a guilt , the which to say , i really believe is no less then blasphemy : so that he tieth us , as i judge , not to the circumstance of the words , but to the substance of the matter , and that without swearing , in saying , swear not at all : so that though we cannot swear to king charles , yet we can and shall be freely willing to promise to king charles , what we can safely and upon a scripture account promise . and as we are not our selves free to plot , contrive , nor by force of armes to undermine him , nor his government ; so to prevent the shedding of blood , and the breach of the peace of the three nations , we shall and will be ready and willing to discover all plots , conspiracies , or any thing that by force of arms we shall know of against him , to some justices of the peace , or other his ministers , within . hours after the knowledge of such plot or force intended ; and shall resolve ( the lord assisting us ) to be as true and faithful in our yeas and nays , whether promisary or testimonial , to king charles and his subjects , of what rank or quality soever they be , as our brethren of holland are to their states , and to their fellow citizens and townsmen ; and we hope our performances therein will be found far more real , then the multitudes either are or have been , who have been ready to swear for his to day , and against it to morrow , whose own interests generally cause their mouthes to open , in such swearings and forswearings , more then conscience ; the which we dare not do , lest we be found transgressing the law of our saviour , and his faithful servant , who say , swear not , and swear not at all , mat. . . jam. . . fifthly , we look upon it to be our duties , to be a peaceable , a quiet , a harmless , and an innocent people , and to keep our selves from all manner of acts of war , uiolence , and hostility ; because to kill , inslave , bring under , ruine , or destroy our friends , were most inhumane ; and to do so to our enemies , we dare not , because our law-giver by his faithful servant , rom. . . &c. requireth us to recompence to no man evil for evil ; but that we provide things honest in the fight of all men ; and that if possible , as much as in us lyeth , we should live peaceably with all men ; who requireth us not to avenge our selves but rather to give place unto wrath ; because it is written , vengeance is mine , and i will repay it , saith the lord : therefore saith he , if thine enemy hunger , feed him , if he thirst , give him drink ; for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head ; and be not overcome with evil , but overcome evil with good : yea , and so saith our saviour himself , mat. . . but i say unto you , love your enemies , blesse them that curse you , do good to them that hate you , and pray for them that despitefully use you ; that you may be ( or that you may evidence your selves to be ) the children of your father , which is in heaven ; for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil , and on the good , and his rain to fall on the just , and on the unjust : for if you love them which love you , what reward have ye ? do not even the publicans the same ? and if ye salute your brethren onely , what do ye more then others ? do not even the publicans the same ? be ye therefore perfect , even as your father which is in heaven is perfect . and we look upon it to be our duties to follow our lord and master , who left himself a pattern for us to follow , who saith , mat. . . learn of me , for i am lowly and meek , and ye shall find rest for your souls ; who , saith the apostle , pet. . . . when he was reviled , reviled not again , when he suffered , he threatned not ; but committed himself to him who judgeth righteously . much more might be said to their particular , the which for brevity sake i shall omit ; and shall thus affirm , that for this cause , and such requirements as these are , we dare not have to do with weapons of war , nor that the acts of violence in any case be found in our hands , no not for the best things , and to advance or promote either the gospel or kingdom of christ by any such way or means , we dare not in the least have so much as a thought , but look upon it to be our duties patiently to wait and earnestly , according to that other requirement of christ , to pray , that his kingdom may come , that so his will may be done on earth as it is in heaven , mat. . . and as we have declared in the said declaration , in . that we could not hold society with , nor own those that were in the same faith and order with us , and from whom we then stood at a distance , that acted with the carnal weapon , weapons of war , and acts of hostility then ; so still , we look upon it to be our bounden duty so to do , because it is so frequently forbidden in scripture , and also because it bringeth such an odium upon the truth , and also upon the peaceable pe●ple of god that are in gospel order , and walk close to the appointments of christ in all his ordinances , and in church-fellowship , as it is at this day : and therefore we cannot have to do with any such as do so act , or that look upon it to be their liberties , or priviledges so to act ; and shall have as little to do with them now as then , or with any one that hath so acted , unless they shall freely relinquish the same , and shall acknowledge their failing and evil in their so acting , whether it be either against , or for king charles the first , or king charles the second ; it being so cleerly made out to us , and also to several of them that formerly so acted from the holy scriptures , to be contrary to the qualifications of a gospel disciple , to have to do with the weapons of war , or the sword of slaughter , whose weapon onely ought to be the sword of the spirit , which is the word of god , to cut down , kill and slay , wound and bring under every imagination , and every high thought , that exalteth it self against the knowledge of jesus christ ; and to bring every soul to the obedience of christ , in all his lawes , statutes , ordinances , and appointments : in order whereunto , sixthly , we look upon it to be agreeble to the pure will and mind of god , th●t there be a free toleration for men and women to worship god , without either constraint or restraint ; and that no acts of violence be used against them therein , to force the conscience of any , no not of the meanest of the sons and daughters of men , of what perswasion or judgement soever they be of ; because jesus christ out of that exceeding love of the father , was sent to lay down his life for the sins of the world , john . . and to be a redemption for that first transgression , heb. . . under the guilt of which all the whole bulk of mankinde that ever were , are , or ever shall be , by imputation , do lie under ; and from the punishment of which by jesus christ they shall all be released , and restored , rom. . . and not onely so , but they are also by jesus christ , that second adam , brought into a capacity to have that salvation that is in christ jesus , with eternal glory , tim. . . whose work was to come to seek and to save that which was lost , as he himself saith , luke , . and therefore he gave out his universal commission , the benefit whereof extendeth to all ; and therefore to be preached to all , mat. . . mark . . and we having this universal gospel to preach , to wit , that god was in christ reconciling the world unto himself by jesus christ , not imputing their trespasses unto them , and hath committed unto us the ministry of reconciliation ; now then we are ambassadours for christ , as though god did beseech you by us ; we pray you ( yea ) ( you great tall cedars of england ) [ we pray ] you in christ stead be ye reconciled unto god , cor. . , . and have a care i beseech you in the fear of the great jehovah , that ye neither slight our message , as you tender the good of your own souls to eternity ; neither be ye , i pray you , as those pharisees , and hypocrites , against whom a wo was pronounced by our master king jesus , mat. . . who shut up the kingdom of heaven against men , who neither desired to go in themselves , nor suffered those that were entring to go in : o i beseech you have a care of this , for men are backward enough of themselves , and should you but seem to hinder them , haply their disobedience may be put upon your score ; and he that is found forwards now to hinder , will be found most guilty at that day , when christ shall dispence to every man according as his work shall be , cor. . . o i beseech you once again , yea and again i intreat you , have a care every one of you , as you tender your own good to eternity , that you hinder none , though never so rich , nor never so poor ; for god is no respecter of persons , but in every nation , he that feareth him and worketh righteousness , is accepted of him , acts . . hinder none , be they never so young , nor never so old ; for our housholder the master of our family , jesus christ who is a son over his own house , comes to some early in the morning , mat. . , &c. even whilst they are tender & young , even so soon as they come to reason and understanding , god by the incomings of his holy spirits , comes to hire them into his vineyard ; to some he comes at the third hour , in their youth , to others at the sixth hour in their manhood , to others at the ninth hour in their declining age ; and to some again at the th . hour , even in their old age : o then i say again , i beseech you have a care , that none be hindred of their entrance into the vineyard of christ , of no age or sex whatsoever ; for he may be loytring in the market place of the world this day , that may be hired into the vineyard of jesus christ to morrow ; for christ of a persecuting saul , may suddenly make a preaching paul , one voice from heaven can do it ; through mercy i know it by good experience , and therefore i am the boulder to assert it ; and that provoketh me the more earnestly , to beg again and again , that no violence be used , because the housholder , mat. . . is said to hire , not to frighten , nor beat , force , or constrain , but to hire labourers , to go into his vineyard , telling them what they shall have for their pains , if they will labour when they are there ; and as i told the king in my fannaticks mite , in page the ninth of the last impression , that a gospel minister was not as a general in an army , to frighten , beat , or fight men into faith ; but as an embassadour , to perswade and invite , and gently treat with , and to intreat into the way of god ; the one being gospel or evangelical , but the way of force being diabolical and of the devil , and proceedeth from the fruits of the flesh ; a part whereof i told the mayor of london , in christian love to his soul , the danger thereof , in my alarm given to him in his quarters , in page . in which some of them are clearly laid down , and how they will exclude a soul from heavens glory . again , it is required , that all things be tryed , and that which is good be held fast ; but how shall there be a trying of all things , if there be a constraint onely to one ? for how can there be a choice , where the tryi●g any but one is restrained ? the which restraint confounds the choice . again , if those of the episcopal government , do look upon toleration or libertie of conscience , simply so considered , to be a sin , then i query if it be not an evil to tolerate any ? and whether that evil is not then more aggravated , if they shall tolerate that opinion or religion that they would have us swear against , because they say it is idolatrous and sinful ? and whether there is not a farther aggravation , if the worser be allowed , and the better be suppressed ? and whether they will not evidence themselves to be such , as judge not as god judgeth , if they shall tolerate the great , the rich and mighty , and suppresse the mean , the poor and the low ? when god respecteth not persons , but in every nation , he that feareth him , and worketh righteousness , is accepted of him . and therefore i would earnestly beg every one , ( the bent of whose spirit carryeth him that way ) according to the requirement of the apostle , to try their spirits whether they are of god or not , joh. . . and to examine their wisdom in this case of persecution , whether it be that wisdom that is from above , which is first pure , then peaceable , gentle , and easie to be intreated , full of mercy and good fruits , without partiality , without hypocrisie , jam , . . whether it be without partiality ? whether they would be willing to be served so themselves ? whether if they have at any time undergone persecution for conscience sake , and have not cryed out against it as abominable , as the roman catholicks and episcopals have done , in that grand usurper oliver cromwels dayes , and the general baptists , confident i am , should have done , had he longer continued ; even as they with others now do , and as that people of the presbyterian perswasion suddenly ( unless my judgement greatly fail me ) will do , if this horrid rome-bred persecu●ing spirit , still be predominant in england ; which is contrary to the true spirit of god , whose fruit is love , joy , peace , long suffering , gentleness , goodness , meekhess , and temperance ; against which there is no law : no law of god , although there be now some lawes of man intended to be made against them : o that this were taking upon your spirits , that now sit at the stern ! was not your loyalty to king charles the first , and king charles the second , a great cause of your hardships , most of you ? how fared it with you , you that were continually in england ? was not those that bo●e sway in england your continual tormentors , your fear and dayly dread ? and those that were away , did not they feel the smart of it ? did you not all both abroad and at home , cry out of oppression , cruelty and tyranny ? did you cry out of them , and think you that others , will not cry out of you , if you be found such actors to others ? was it evil in them to use you so , for your loyalty to king charles ? and can you be so cruel to those that are loyal to king jesus , and never acted any thing against king charles the first , nor king charles the second , or against the meanest of you , nor ever took part with them that did ? did the hand of god follow them for their cruel and unjust actings to you and the king , as most of you do say it did ? and can you be the same to others for their loyalty to him who hath righted you of them , and brought you : your own again ; and that against some of them too , that never got the worth of one ●ar●●ing by all their pillagings , plunderings , or sales , neither of goods nor lands ? can you be contented to enjoy your own ? and are you not willing that those that never harmed you , should enjoy theirs ? are you glad that you are brought into the land of your nativity again ? and would you now most cruelly justle others out ? are you now setting up that worship , that you judge to be agreeable to the mind of god ? and will you now force others to forsake what they are perswaded to ? oh! t●at you would but consider , what your own oppressions were , and who you are now about to oppress ; let not your fury , nor revenge fall heavy upon the innocent ; why should iniquity and injustice be found in your hands ? oh! consider with your selves apart , and discourse it each with other seriously ▪ what such a judgment , as i in the singleness of my soul have laid before you , can , or ever did do you harm ; who never did any acts of violence for , nor against you or the king ; nor ever shall resolve to do ; who have not gone with a defensive weapon so much as to defend my self with , above this fifteen years ; and am of the same judgment with our brethren of holland , whose innocent and harmless behaviour , confident i am , many of you in that time of your absence from this land of your nativity , are well acquainted with ; the which i am confident the strictest of you have no just exception against , either for endeavouring to undermine government , or to pull down governours , or by fraud or force , to have to do with any mans possession , goods , or estate ; who am willing to do by another , as i would have another do by me , and am as willing another should live as my self ; whose indeavour in all my teachings , have been to perswade persons to forsake and avoid all acts of violence and oppression , and to cleave to god with purpose of heart , and to perswade those that have owned god in his own way , to continue stedfast in the same , and to prove faithful to him , whose lawes teach the best loyalty to our earthly princes , and purest love to all , yea to our very enemies ; who with single-heartedness to all , and without either fawning or flattery , have and shall still resolve to tell every one , with whom i have to do , the worst of their condition , and shew them the danger they are in , by reason of their misactings ; with an earnest desire that in order to their eternal well-being , they would refuse the evil and choose the good. and so i have at this time done with you , the great council of the nation , and if for my plainness of speech either as to the matter or manner of it , you shall become mine enemy , because i deal so plainly with you , i shall let you know , that notwithstanding , i shall in the singleness of my soul pray for you , and for your convertion , not in the least indeavouring , or plotting your confusion . and now i shall earnestly desire both the king , his people , and you their representative , to judge with equity our innocent cause , that so when you shall your selves be summoned at that great session , before that great tribunal and righteous judge , who shall give to every man according as his work shall be , that then you be found innocent and without blame , as to your actings against the peaceable ones of christs flock , whose sentence , of either , come , ye blessed , inherit the kingdom ; or , go ye cursed into everlasting fire , will be of an eternal extent , and that upon the account of mens actings to his people , either for doing them good , or for refusing to do them that good they might have done them ; who looketh upon what is either neglected or done to them , to be done unto himself : and hence it is , that he uttered that from heaven , saying , saul , saul , why persecutest thou me ? i am jesus whom thou persecutest , acts . , . and after the same manner will be his sentence at that great day of account , even , go ye cursed into everlasting fire , prepared for the devil and his angels ; for when i was hungry ye fed me not , and naked , ye clothed me not , sick and in prison , and ye visited me not ; for inasmuch as ye did it not to one of these little ones , ye did it not unto me . o then i beseech thee , whoever thou be , that art of a persecuting spirit ; i say again i would beg thee seriously to consider , o persecuting spirit , that if the lord christ , will thus severely punish the neglecting the doing good to his people , when hungry , naked , sick , and imprisoned ; what then will be the portion of those that cause them to come into such difficulties and straits , as imprisonments , hungrings , nakedness , and sickness ; and cause them to be thrown as it were on heapes , one upon another , as some of the baptists lately have been in one room some . foot broad , and . foot long in new gate ? and much after the same way in several other gaols and prisons in the nation ; enough to breed infections and diseases , had not the god whom we serve appeared mightily in our behalfes . and seeing the eternal sentence , will be so severe against such violent actors , in love to their souls i cannot choose but give them a timely caution , and in their behalfes with that servant of the lord , deut. . . cry out and say , o that they were wise , that they would understand this , that they would consider their latter end. and now let not the king , his peers , nor his people , be angry , and i will speak but this once more in the behalf of my self , and all that are of the separation , of what judgement soever , that so if possible i may be instrumental , that the peace of the nation be preserved , and kept ; and this i shall humbly beg , that if you are not willing that we should serve our god , in that way which we have received , but that we shall be taken into custody for our so doing ; that then you would commissionate some peace officers for that work to have to do with us ; and that we be not left to the mercy of the rude multitude , nor the violent laws of the mercenary souldiers , whose actings towards the peaceable , have been very rude and inhumane , in london and westminster ; where at one meeting , they wounded one man so dangerously on his — arm , that it is greatly feared , he will lose the use of one of his hands . at another meeting-place ▪ they rudely came and drank up the wine that was provided by that congregation , to celebrate that holy ordinance of communicating at the table of the lord. at another meeting-place , the congregation being generally dispersed before they came , in revenge whereof the souldiery set on the rude multitude , to break in pieces the table that they used to make use of to celebrate the lords supper upon . at another meeting-place , they rudely behaved themselves , violen●●y casting some of them head-long down the stairs , but the stairs being winding , and some people upon them , the force of the falls ( through mercy ) being thereby broken , there was not much harm done as to the people , the greatest harm that was done , was by one of the souldiers to himself ; for he set that up then upon his own score , the which ( unrepented off ) will exclude him heavens glory , if the saying of our apostle be true , in cor. . . who would not have men to be deceived , for saith he , neither fornicators , nor idolaters , nor adulterers , nor effeminate , nor abusers of themselves with man-kinde , nor thieves , nor covetous , &c. shall inherit the kingdom of god : and such was one of them , as i am informed , by one who saith , that at the very interim of time charged him with it , in the face of the congregation ; and if such acts of deceit should be winked at and allowed , we should be in as bad a condition , as when our houses were searched , upon the late insurrection , when , who would , came and forced into houses , and took and bore away what they pleased , to the great hinderance of some , as can be clearly evidenced : and when our pockets were searched in the main guard , and our knives and other things taken from us , and never restored to us again : and if such acts of violence be not restrained , our peaceable and well governed land , in a short time may ( it is to be feared ) become acheldama . and therefore in the behalf of my self , and all others , whose light it is to walk in a separated way , if by your appointments , we shall be taken into custody for our peaceable meeting together , in the service of our god ; i shall humbly beg , that we may have the priviledges of free-born englishmen , and that which the worst of offenders enjoy ; who though the lawes both of god and man , will condemn to the shamefullest death , yet they are apprehended by peace-officers , and peaceably preserved from the hands of violence and cruelty , till they be legally charged , adjudged and condemned ; the which security , if this great assembly shall vouchsafe us , and that the nation be forbidden to make any tumultuous insurrections , contrary to the peace of the nation , and that they forbear to commit any acts of violence upon us , either in our peaceable assemblings together , or apart at our habitations , or elsewhere , till further order from the assembly ; the which if this national assembly shall vouchsafe us the privilede of , we shall in all humility and thankfulness acknowledge it : but if not , yet it shall be our great care in our meetings , to perform our duties in obedience to our god , and to follow that christian advice of his servant , in tim. . . to make prayers , supplications , intercessions , and giving of thanks for all men , for kings , and all that are in authority ; that under them we may lead a peaceable and quiet life in all godliness and honesty ; because it is good and acceptable in the sight of god our saviour : and this shall be the resolution of him , whose onely end and aim is the glory of god , the good of the king , the well-being of his people , and the eternal benefit of all your souls ; who in the singleness of heart , in the sight of the all-seeing god , shall subscribe himself , a friend to your souls , in order to your eternal well-being , in the behalf of himself , and those he hath communion withal . henry adis. the end . an answer to a letter to a dissenter upon occasion of his majesties late gracious declaration of indulgence / by sir roger l'estrange. l'estrange, roger, sir, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing l estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) an answer to a letter to a dissenter upon occasion of his majesties late gracious declaration of indulgence / by sir roger l'estrange. l'estrange, roger, sir, - . p. printed for r. sare, london : . reproduction of original in the university of illinois (urbana-champaign campus). library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng halifax, george savile, -- marquis of, - . -- letter to a dissenter. dissenters, religious -- england. great britain -- history -- james ii, - . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - andrew kuster sampled and proofread - andrew kuster text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion an answer to a letter to a dissenter , upon occasion of his majesties late gracious declaration of indulgence . by sir roger l' estrange , knight . london , printed for r. sare at grays-inn-gate in holborn , . an answer to a letter to a dissenter , &c. after many a thought upon a late paper , entitled [ a letter to a dissenter , &c. ] i am come to this resolution within my self : first , that it both requires , and deserves a thorough-answer . ly . that no man can so properly speak to 't , as a true son of the church of england ; for i take it to be his province , and duty , in so peculiar a manner , that such a person , if competently qualify'd for that office , can hardly expect his mothers blessing , without saying somewhat upon this subject , in her vindication . by a thorough-answer , i mean , the taking of the letter paragraph by paragraph , and speaking to the whole , and to every part of it , all under one . my course , i know , lyes betwixt two rocks ; where 't is odds , that a man either dashes vpon one of them , or is crush'd to pieces betwixt them . but he that is in his duty , is never out of his way . so that being fully satisfy'd already in the main , my next care must be , not to transgress in the manner of my proceeding : wherein i propose to deliver my thoughts , plainly , and without disguise ; and not to depart , in the least scruple , from the rules of charity , moderation , truth , and candor ; nor ( so far as my understanding will serve me ) from the dignity and character of my profession . i will not go behind the door neither , to conceal my name ; for i have liv'd open and barefac'd a long time , and , by the grace of god , i will not dye in a disguise . briefly , i shall take the freedom to speak what i think , without either vanity , or insolence ; and make as modest an use of a common liberty , ( with leave for the comparison ) as any other of his majesties subjects whatsoever . and when i shall have done with the publique part of this discourse , i shall bestow a few pages upon a postscript for my self . the letter it self is address'd to a dissenter ; and why may not my answer be address'd to a dissenter too ? for there 's a parity of reason , indifferently , in both cases , where the two parties respectively concerned , are not both of a mind . beside , that by this means , i have an introduction , ready to my hand here over and above : for the first paragraph will serve the answerers purpose , as well as it did the authors ; and since i cannot greet him in better words , i shall do it so far in his own. a letter to a dissenter , &c. sir , since addresses are in fashion , give me leave to make one to you . this is neither the effect of fear , interest , or resentment ; therefore you may be sure it is sincere : and for that reason it may expect to be kindly received . whether it will have power enough to convince , dependeth upon the reasons , of which you are to judge ; and upon your preparation of mind , to be perswaded by truth , whenever it appeareth to you . it ought not to be the less welcom , for coming from a friendly hand , one whose kindness to you is not lessened by difference of opinion , and who will not let his thoughts for the publick be so tyed or confined to this or that sub-division of protestants , as to stifle the charity , which besides all other arguments , is at this time become necessary to preserve us . i can with a very good conscience put my hand to this preface ; for i have really all those peaceable and compassionate dispositions about me , at this instant , that the very author of the letter would be thought to have ; so that we may proceed , i think , without any more ceremony . i am neither surprized nor provoked , to see that in the condition you were put into by the laws , and the ill circumstances you lay under , by having the exclusion and rebellion laid to your charge , you were desirous to make your selves less uneasie and obnoxious to authority . men who are sore , run to the nearest remedy with too much haste , to consider all the consequences : grains of allowance are to be given , where nature giveth such strong influences . when to men under sufferings it offereth ease , the present pain will hardly allow time to examine the remedies ; and the strongest reason can hardly gain a fair audience from our mind , whilst so possessed , till the smart is a little allayed . there 's a plain , and a short proverb , that may serve for a paraphrase upon this clause . [ out of the frying-pan into the fire . ] the dissenters , it seems , were vneasie under the penal laws ; vnsafe under certain criminal imputations ; and , in this distress , like drowning men , they laid hold of any thing that came next to hand ; mistook their way and their measures , for want of time to look before they leapt . the author of the letter fancies them in a streight ; and then to deliver them from a calamity of his own creating , charitably puts in , and pities them ; supposes some very dangerous miscarriage ; assigns the reason of it , and at the same time furnishes the excuse . the innuendo of the whole is briefly this , that matters are in an evil state , and that the severities of the government have been the cause on 't ; which are two dangerous points to be injected into peoples heads at this time of the day : but , this is only an artificial preparatory to make way for somewhat more considerable that is to follow . he speaks of the dissenters running to the nearest remedy ; which , under favour , is a mistake , if he means the king's declaration of indulgence ; for that remedy came to them. and so in his following allegory . if it holds in state , as it does in physick , the patient is not to examine the remedy , but to observe the prescription . and now to the next paragraph . i do not know whether the warmth that naturally belongeth to new friendships may not make it a harder task for me to perswade you . it is like telling lovers , in the beginning of their joys , that they will in a little time have an end. such an unwelcome style doth not easily find credit : but i will suppose you are not so far gone in your new passion , but that you will hear still ; and therefore i am under the less discouragement , when i offer to your consideration two things . the first is , the cause you have to suspect your new friends . the second , the duty incumbent upon you , in christianity and prudence , not to hazard the publick safety , neither by desire of ease , nor of revenge . we are here past insensibly , and in the course of six lines from the present compliances of the dissenters , purely for the sake of ease and security , to the warmth of a new friendship , and of a new passion ; which is such a kind of leap , as if a cripple , for being delivered from the lash , should fall in love with the beadle . i must needs take notice now , in this place , by anticipation , of a passage in the next clause , where the gentleman tells the dissenters , that [ these new friends did not make them their choice but their refuge ; ] which implies , that the roman catholiques have not half the kindness for the dissenters , that the dissenters have for the roman catholiques : for at the rate of [ the warmth of this new friendship ] and this [ new passion , ] the dissenters must be understood to make the roman catholiques rather their choice , than their refuge . so that according to this proportion of reasoning , the dissenters must relinquish , both their interest and inclination , or there 's no good to be done upon them . but however , if they be not either too sturdy , or too stately , to hearken to reason , here are two proposals laid before them : the one , of caution , founded upon [ the cause they have to suspect their new friends : ] the other , of duty , both in christianity and prudence , not to sacrifice the publick peace , either to their ease , or revenge . here is , in these two propositions , not only subject-matter for the kindling of jealousies , and for the irritating of fears , and apprehensions in the consequences of things ; but misunderstandings dictated , and inculcated in express terms , which cannot possibly fail of moving vnquiet thoughts , and of dissolving the common tyes of faith , friendship , and allegeance , by making parties and factions ; and stirring animosities among the kings good subjects . to speak one word now to the duty of consulting the publique safety , the question will be shortly this , whether the blessed end of peace , with a respect to civil matters , ( for here 's no talk of religion ) be not more likely to be compass'd and preserv'd , by vniting his majesties liege people , than by dividing them ? it is time now to go forward to the animadversions , and reasonings that the ingenious author shall be pleased to pass upon his two last heads . to the first : consider , that notwithstanding the smooth language which is now put on to engage you , these new friends did not make you their choice , but their refuge : they have ever made their first courtships to the church of england ; and when they were rejected there , they made their application to you in the second place . the instances of this might be given in all times . i do not repeat them , because whatsoever is vnnecessary , must be tedious ; the truth of this assertion being so plain , as not to admit a dispute . you cannot therefore reasonably flatter your selves , that there is any inclination to you. they never pretended to allow you any quarter , but to vsher in liberty for themselves , under that shelter . i refer you to mr. coleman's letters , and the journals of parliament , where you may be convinced , if you can be so mistaken , as to doubt . nay , at this very hour , they can hardly forbear , in the height of their courtship , to let fall hard words of you . so little is nature to be restrained : it will start out some times , disdaining to submit to the vsurpation of art and interest . we are left mightily in the dark here , how to understand his [ smooth language ] and his [ new friends ; ] where we are to look for the one , and how we are to distinguish the other . if his meaning be , that the roman catholiques are making fair weather with the dissenters , and withal , that the dissenters are to blame to close with them , he should do well to have a care of his characters ; for a man can very hardly reflect a scandal upon the whole party , without wounding their head and master . i would fain know , if the king himself does not fall within the compass of one of those new friends ; or rather how it is possible it should be otherwise , without a particular saving and exception out of that number . he speaks of those new friends that have ever made their first courtships to the church of england . i would he had but told us where , when , and how ; or what commission they had for the making of these overtures from one community to another : but whether they did , or whether they did not , comes all to a case , tho for the sake of truth and justice , i must needs say that [ ever ] goes a little too far : for in that great revolution of the long rebellion , the members of the church of england joyned in a common act of prudence , interest , and conscience , to meet them half way : or if there were any priority of respect in the matter , it was on the church of england's side . i speak of the old rebellion , when the members of both churches fell by the sides one of another in the common defence of their prince , and their country ; their honour and their allegeance . but when the roman catholiques were rejected there , they made their application to the dissenters in the second place , he says ; and made them not their choice , but their refuge , without any inclination for them at all . well! and whether the church of england-men reject the roman catholiques , or the roman catholiques reject the church of england-men , 't is just as broad as it is long ; for whethersoever of the two stands in need of a third interest ; 't is not the orthodoxy of the perswasion , but the strength of the allye that he considers : and what matters it for an inclination of kindness , where necessity creates an inclination that does the office of an inclination by nature ? what 's more ordinary , than for two mortal enemies to joyn in a common defence , for the mutual preservation one of another ? and i never met with any man yet since i was born , that made it a casuistical moot-point , whether a man might lawfully submit , to have his life , liberty , and fortune , preserved by a man of another opinion . this gentleman tells the dissenters that the papists have no kindness for them , and that they are not their choice , but their refuge . now if this be our author 's own case , ( as by the ayre of his paper it appears to be ) the argument that he has advanc'd against the new friends , as he calls them , holds every jot as good against himself : and the dissenters , with whom he has to do , have all-out as good reason to suspect the one , as the other . he is pleased to appeal to coleman's letters , and the parliament journals , though the one makes not at all for him , and the other seems in some respects to be point-blank against him . coleman's business was a common liberty , without meditating any act of violence or subversion . and then if the journals be set one against another , and a design of vniting protestants in a general license , opposed to the vniting of protestants , in a strict conformity to the rubriek and canons , they will do the cause that this gentleman has a-foot , at least as much hurt as good. what signifies the following objection , that [ the papists can hardly forbear in the height of their courtships to let fall hard words of the dissenters , ] if this gentleman , even in the height of his courtship , finds himself apt to speak , or to think hardly of them too ? he says extremely well at last , in contemplation of the difficulty of restraining nature , [ she disdains ( he says ) to submit to the vsurpation of art and interest . ] this he says , and this he proves , in the same breath , and paper ; for in despight of all the art , and interest of this discourse , his inclination shews it self , and his nature breaks through the disguise . this allyance between liberty and infallibility , is bringing together the two most contrary things that are in the world. the church of rome doth not only dislike the allowing liberty , but by its principles it cannot do it . wine is not more expresly forbidden to the mahometans , than giving hereticks , liberty , is to papists : they are no more able to make good their vows to you , than men married before , and their wife alive , can confirm their contract with another . the continuance of their kindness would be a habit of sin , of which they are to repent , and their absolution is to be had upon no other terms , than their promise to destroy you . you are therefore to be hugged now , only that you may be the better squeezed at another time . there must be something extraordinary , when the church of rome setteth up bills , and offereth plaisters , for tender consciences : by all that hath hitherto appeared , her skill in chirurgery lyeth chiefly in a quick hand , to cut off limbs ; but she is the worst at healing , of any that ever pretended to it . here 's a splendid , and a fallacious amusement , in the first line ; and it is plausibly enough pursued too ; but inevitably attended with the fate of all things that are built upon a false bottom . supposing [ liberty , ] and [ infallibility , ] as the matter is here set forth , and assum'd , to be the present point before us , upon a question of competition , or consistence . upon this supposal , i say , all the following cost , and figure , for the dazling of weak eyes , and the transporting of impotent affections , is very well bestowed upon it : but if liberty and infallibility shall fall out in this case , to be nothing a-kin ; the one , to be a civil point ; the other , a religious ; and the one , in short , to differ as much from the other , as doctrine does from practice , or the exercise of a secular power , from a theological perswasion ; why then this liberty , and infallibility , truly vnderstood , and rightly distinguished , may very well stand together , and the holding of the one opinion , does not at all clash with permitting the exercise of the other . this specious sparkling way of reasoning will have little more in 't at last , than what we see every day in the skill and address of bird-catching , where the twinkling of the glass brings the lark dancing down into the net. a man that would put his thoughts , and his wits upon the stretch , might enlarge till doomsday , upon the text of liberty and infallibility . but i am for speaking plain , home , and in few words , to the stress of the subject in hand , rather than squandring away more time and paper than needs , in talking it out at length . the roman-catholique-infallibility , and the dissenters liberty are the two hinges of the controversie here in debate . put them on , right , and the door opens , or shuts , with all the ease in the world ; but if this gentleman will needs set them on a-cross , and then exclayme against them as [ the most contrary things in the world ] when it is the fault of the workman , not of the hinges , that the one hinders the other , from doing its proper office. what help for 't ! this is an error in the speculation of the thing , that we see dayly disprov'd , and contradicted , in fact ; and it must be a very gross partiality , that shall take upon it self to support fancy against experiment . now if the liberty , and infallibility here represented , intended , and designed , be quite another thing than the liberty , and infallibility that lies naturally within the compass of this question , all the flowers that are here employed for the recommending , and the garnishing of this topique , how artificially soever , must not be allowed to come up yet to the least colour of a conclusion , or an argument , for any thing that hitherto appears . the first query toward the discussing of this question , will , in one word , be this. what does this gentleman mean by [ liberty ? ] why does he not give some standard of it ? is it a determinate , or an vnlimited liberty ? why is it not ascertain'd , that a body may see thorough it ? for how shall any man take upon him to make a reasonable discourse , upon an vnknown meaning ? if he means liberty of conscience , with a respect to the present circumstances of the dissenters ; his majesties gracious declaration of april the th . last past , will most explicity adjust that point , in these following words : we have thought fit , by vertue of our royal prerogative , to issue forth this our declaration of indulgence . so that it is a liberty , granted by vertue , and in the right of his majesties royal rrerogative : a civil liberty to meet for a religious worship ; or in the words of the declaration it self , for [ the free exercise of their religion . ] the plain english of the case is this ; the dissenters find themselves aggriev'd for want of liberty of conscience : and why ? but because they cannot meet to worship god in their assemblies , as they say , they reckon themselves bound to do . this restraint makes them vneasie ; the law lies heavy upon them ; and they have no means of relief but by the kings suspending the execution of the penalties in that case provided , and exerting his sovereign authority in their favour . now every body knows it for a principle that is rooted in the very foundations of government it self , that all publique assemblies ; that is to say , the indicting , the inhibiting , the adjourning , proroguing , continuing , or dissolving of them , are entirely , and incommunicably , at the will , and pleasure of the supreme magistrate . the king , in the right of this power , allows his people to meet , to the end that they may worship . the dispensation respects the freedom of assembling , not the articles of every particular congregation's faith , or creed . his majesty grants so much , as by his prerogative he may , and not one jot more ; for all humane acts whatsoever , are , to all purposes void , when they come to break in once upon the laws of god , and nature : so that here 's neither ground , place , nor pretence , for an immoral , or an vnrighteous liberty : and if the gentleman , in this paragraph , speaks of a boundles , and of an indefinite licence , it neither is , neither can it be , neither can it be svpposed to be , the case that is here in agitation . it involves a nullity , to imagine it so ; and it imports a tacit censure of authority , even so much as to insinuate that it was ever intended so : for no power upon earth can either discharge , or so much as suspend , the over-ruling dictates , and sentences , of equity , and of right reason now 't is no wonder , if the church of rome will never endure a liberty of this latitude ; for neither will any christian church that ever was upon the face of the earth , endure it ; for it would be all one with the over-ruling both of law , and gospel ; and the destroying of religion it self , as well as christianity at a blow . now if a liberty , in this extent cannot so much as be imagin'd , without a most vncharitable , and a dangerous scandal ; it must , in common honesty , be taken for granted , that the author of this letter speaks only of a liberty , within a reasonable , and a christian compass : so that to acquit him of the calumny , i find my self obliged to mind him of a seeming contradiction . there is a liberty , that is evil in it self , with a respect to the matter that it is conversant about : and there is a liberty , that is evil , because it is prohibited . the former is indispensable ; and all the powers under the sun can never make it warrantable . the latter was left indifferent , till authority restrained it ; and the same authority may set it at liberty again . so that the liberty here spoken of , is an allowable liberty ; that is to say , a liberty totally depending upon the political judgment of the sovereign magistrate ; whether to grant it or not ; how far ; in what cases ; to what parties ; under what limitations of time , or conditions : but whether allowable , or not allowable ; protestants , it seems , may set up their rest upon 't , that hereticks are to expect no quarter ; no liberty , from papists : nay our author is of opinion , that they esteem themselves under a most conscientious obligation to destroy vs. the late havock that has been made among the protestants in france , concludes nothing against the judgment of the church of rome , concerning the liberties and privileges that they enjoyed there in former times . to say nothing of the freedom they are allowed in divers other places , where they live intermixt . there will be no great difficulty , i hope , to bring the gentleman to yield , that the fact is clearly against him ; but if upon the penning , and the couching of this clause , he had not so totally indulg'd his inclination , as not to look forward into the tendency of his discourse : if , i say , he had not so eagerly press'd and pursued the point he had in his eye , without considering whither he was a-going , or the precipices that he had before him , he might have seen more hazards than one , that were likely to ensue upon his taking of this biass . and god grant , that the author of this paper , may not be found to have been one of the number that has formerly fall'n upon mee , without mercy , for a doctrine , injuriously laid to my charge , and which he himself does manifestly enforce , and suggest , in this very paragraph . it made a heavy noise for one while , since the coming of his sacred majesty to the crown , that i should hold forth in an observator , that [ all subjects were bound to be of their princes religion ] which i never wrote , said , or thought , since i was born : but i have been , and am still , and i doubt not but that i shall ever be , fully perswaded , that the conscience of obedience is the same upon all subjects , let the religion of their lawful sovereign be what it will : and i say further , that there is a religion of allegeance , as well as of faith. but to what i was about to say . here is a point agitated betwixt the church of rome , and the dissenters , with an eye to the liberty that the latter , at this time pretend to , and enjoy . now this liberty is an act of state ; and the church of rome can have nothing to do with it , any further , than by the influence , which our author possibly supposes they may have upon his majesty : so that there can be no vnfair dealing in the matter ; but in such a manner , that , some way or other , our master must be made a party to 't . the dissenters have a common right to the equity of his majesties gracious promises , and assurances , exhibited in the aforesaid declaration : so that they are all as safe , as the word of a king in a royal act of grace , sign'd , seal'd , and deliver'd in the presence of god , angels , and men , can make 'em . if this be the very state of the bus'ness , how vain , how vngrateful , and how vnprofitable , is it , for any subject but to grumble , as if he doubted the performance ! nay , and how foolish , over and above ; for one medling protestant , to provoke the ruine , and the inconvenience of all the rest ! i will hope after all , that a good part of this matter dropt from the author in his sleep : for if that which he delivers in this place , for the conscientious doctrine of the church of rome , he , in truth , so as he affirms it to be , the inference undenyable that results from it , is this ; that his majesty thinks himself bound in conscience , to destroy all religions but his own ; which would be certainly one of the most pernicious impressions , if it should once take root among the common people , that was ever thrown into the mouths of the multitude ; and the most destructive of all communities . but we have ( god be praised for it ) for our infallible security , not only the solemnity of assurances , and declarations , but the immoveable character of a great , a just , and a wise prince , whose internal honour , generosity , and prudence are ten thousand guards upon him : beside , a merciful , a powerful , and a protecting providence above , to watch over , both king , and people . there lay a great stress upon this section ; and i had rather be tedious , than speak to 't by halves . as for hugging and squeezing , 't is no more than a common trick of policy , and state : a man helps his friend up the ladder ; and has his teeth dash'd out for his pains . [ there must be something extraordinary ( he says ) when the church of rome setteth up bills , and offereth plaisters for tender consciences . ] and truly i am content to agree with the metaphorical author , that there is something in 't , that is very extraordinary ; and i 'le speak freely to 't , when i come to 't : but a word by the way ; if this gentleman be a true son of the church of england ( as by the ayre and humour of his discourse he would appear to be ) there is something extraordinary in the church-of-england-man's-case , as well as in the papists ; and it is no ordinary thing for him , to be billing of it neither : beside that it is not fair , for one man to find fault with what another does , and yet do the same thing himself . as to the church of rome's skill , or no skill , either in cutting or in healing , i can say little more , than that some of our good people have shewed themselves master-operators , within the memory of man , in the very way of amputation too ; whereever they learnt the trade : though the pretended murder of a ivstice , by the papists , has put the actval murder of a prince , quite out of countenance . what shall i do now ? for this chapter hangs yet upon my fingers ; and i cannot get off , without another touch upon the subject of liberty ; by which liberty , i mean toleration . no man perhaps , has spoil'd more paper upon this argument , than my self ; no man has been more for the upholding of the rubrick , and canons ; no man more for the keeping of people up to the stated articles , and conditions of our communion ; and i am the same man in my principles at this day , that ever i was ; though upon a change of circumstances , i have likewise vary'd my judgment , with a respect to hic , & nunc , as to that particular : for i take it to be mightily another case , under a prince of the communion of the church of rome , from what it was under a prince of the english communion . my religion is in every point the same ; but that which was the interest of that religion , in former times , is in some innocent respects , no longer so . the strictness , and rigour , that was laudable , and meritorious , in the one case , would be vnmannerly , and provoking , in the other . if i had had my option , upon the late mighty change , the church-of-england-men , as an acknowledgment , as a respect , and for twenty reasons beside , should have presented his majesty with all honourable assurances of freedom for his own people , even without so much as capitulating for themselves . first , as an act of necessary prudence ; for authority had the better end of the staff ; and there was nothing to be gotten , by contesting and strugling ; but much to be lost by 't . ly . as a testimonial of reverence , and of thankfulness ; for it would have been no more than what was due , from a subject to a prince , upon the matter of deference , and resignation . there would have been no point of religion yielded ; not the least scruple of any nicety of conscience departed from ; but it would have made the king , and the king's friends of the same communion , easie , and happy . it would also have been a retribution of gratitude ; and a verification of the kings opinion of the church of england , by their practice . the words ought , not only to be recorded in the journals , both of the parliament , and of the council ; but likewise in the hearts of all his majesties subjects . i know the principles of the church of england are for monarchy ; and the members of it have shewed themselves good , and loyal subjects ; therefore i shall always take care to defend and support it . these were his present majesties words at his first sitting in the privy council , after the death of the late blessed king : and these words are to be made good , in honour , duty , and acknowledgment , without deliberating , or starting , by every man that professes himself a member of that church . ly we could not better have consulted our own peace , freedom , and security ; for it is the natural reason , and condition of the thing , to allow , as we would be allowed ; and not to do any thing to others , that we should be unwilling to see turn'd upon our selves . there is likewise a fourth reason , over and above all those before mentioned , to oblige us as christians , and as men of tenderness , humanity , and common justice . it is now a long time since , that we have found the pretended popish conspiracy to be an imposture , and a subornation ; and i would put it to the conscience of every man , that has either by the press , the barr , the pulpit , ( or i could go higher if i pleased ) contributed to the credit of the villany , whether he be not bound to make his repentance , and his retractation , as publique , as ever his seduction was ? if he has caused many people to believe a lye ; a sanguinary lye ; a lye that has drawn innocent bloud after it ; he is no true church-of-england-man , if he does not openly confess it ; declare it ; and make all the publique satisfaction for it that the matter will bear ; if he does not endeavour the setting of as many people right again , as his example , authority and doctrine had led out of the way ; he 's no true penitent ; no right honest man ; and i might add to 't , that he 's no true-christian ; an hypocrite of bloud is the worst of hypocrites ; and the guilt of it sticks to his conscience , as well as the gore of it to his chops , 'till he has wash'd his mouth . and it is not enough neither , where men have been falsly sworn out of their lives , for the believers of those perjuries , and consequently the promoters of the credit of them ; and consequently yet once again , the accessoryes ( with leave of the lawyers ) to the murders that ensu'd ; ( for murders they were , to the false witnesses . ) it is not enough , i say , for a man under these circumstances , barely to clap his hand upon his breast , and say the lord forgive me ; for i have innocent bloud to answer for . no , not if he should make proclamation of it in gath , and tell it in the streets of askalon ; without doing a right to all persons concern'd , in some proportion , to the injury ; in fine , without atoning , in some degree , for past indignities , by future kindnesses , and respects : as who should say , [ gentlemen , we have been impos'd upon by perjur'd villains , to the loss of many of your lives and liberties , and the ruine of your reputations , families , and estates : we have made you , and we have vs'd ye like traytors ; for the love of god let us live hereafter , like loyal subjects , friends and christians . ] in a word , after one so criminal , and so mortal a mistake allready , men should be very wary , how they hazzard the following of it with another of the same kind . prepossessions and jealousies can never warrant us in the violation of christian charity : and so at the long last , i 'le go a step further now . to come so quick from another extream , is such an unnatural motion , that you ought to be upon your guard ; the other day you were sons of belial , now , you are angels of light. this is a violent change , and it will be fit for you to pause upon it , before you believe it : if your features are not altered , neither is their opinion of you , whatever may be pretended . do you believe less than you did , that there is idolatry in the church of rome ? sure you do not . see then , how they treat both in words and writing , those who entertain that opinion . conclude from hence , how inconsistent their favour is with this single article , except they give you a dispensation for this too , and by a non obstante , secure you that they will not think the worse of you , p. . vvhere there is reason for a change for the better ; where there is manifest interest to induce that change ; a profession , that such a change is wrought ; and a charitable place left to hope the best of things ; where 's the crime , or the folly of inclining to the belief of such a conversion ? if it be the dissenters interest , 't is a great weakness , in that respect , not to come about . if they declare , and promise more then they intend to perform , they cut their own throats , by playing the knaves , to their ruine ; and by acting against common honesty , as well as against common sense . their interest it is , most undenyably ; for they get remission , ease and favour by 't . if the papists think better of the dissenters then they deserve , 't is an error on the right hand : but the dissenters , it seems , that but t'other day were sons of belial , are now , all of a sudden , in the opinion of the papists , become angels of light. and is it not just the very same thing , ( at least if the author of this letter judges aright ) from the dissenters to the papists , that it is from the papists to the dissenters ? and where 's the hurt on 't , if they are both agreed to think better one of another , then they were used to do ? or , according to our author's opinion , then effectually they have cause to do ? well! but he gives to understand , that though the papists have changed their style , they have not yet changed their thoughts of them : and then , in comes a philosophical caution , not to give credit to vnnatural motions that pass from one extreme to another at a stride . if he had look'd both ways , he would have found as great a leap of state , on the one side , as he does of inclination on the other : for let a man's thoughts , and purposes , be never so sound , and reasonable , 't is no vnreasonable thing yet , to change those thoughts , and purposes upon change of accidents , and occasion . he says that the dissenters features are not altered ; but i shall take leave to say , that the very cause it self is alter'd ; and that during his majesties suspension of the penal laws , they are , in a fair equity of construction , no longer dissenters . but whether this gentleman hits the papists thoughts , or not , is the teast part of the care of this paragraph : for the author seems much more sollicitous , for fear the papists , and the dissenters should agree upon 't to think well of one another , then for fear that the crafty , jugling papists should put a trick upon the poor innocent lambs on the other side . and i would , in one word more , now put it to the authors conscience , whether the papists , and his own , with a respect to the dissenters , be not the very same case , and the very same trick . he would have them stand upon their guard , he says ; but against what ? and what to do ? as if good discretion , and good nature could not stand together : as if people could not be prudent , without being inhumane . it was such hints , and touches as these , that turn'd the hearts , and the brains of the common people into wax , to stamp forgeries upon : but god forbid , that the same scene should open once again , and that the epilogue to one sham , should prove the prologue to another . it is worthy of observation , that in all officious discourses of this quality , there are certain words of common-place , interspers'd up and down , that when the pen grows dull , are made use of , as a butcher does of his steel when his knife is blunted , to give it a new edge : as here 's [ idolatry ] brought in , p. . of the sheet-and-half-edition . and then p. . he he is pleased to give it another whet , upon the word [ transvbstantiation . ] now i do previously declare my self to be perfectly a church of england man , upon these two points : and yet , saving all possible veneration to my mother , and reverence to my profession , i cannot imagine any other end , or reason , for the very mention of [ idolatry ] in this place , then to stir the bloud of the protestant reader , and to brand the romanists , with a mark of odium , and reproche . here 's a civil question started ; not so much betwixt roman catholiques , and dissenters , with regard to their differing perswasions in religion , as with a respect to the interest of the common peace , and safety , in the agreement , or disagreement of these two bodies of his majesties subjects . and what 's this to the polemicks betwixt the two churches ? the roman catholiques believe as they did ; and the dissenters believe as they did ; so that [ the papists favour , he says , is inconsistent with this single article : ] and is not the dissenters favour , on the other side , as inconsistent with the same article ? so that there 's no more hope of favour on the one side , then there is on the other . now if they are resolv'd , on both sides , not to yield , what are all these elaborate disswasives , but only so many fine words thrown into the air ? think a little , how dangerous it is to build upon a foundation of paradoxes . popery now is the only friend to liberty , and the known enemy to persecution : the men of taunton and tiverton , are above all other eminent for loyalty . the quakers from being declared by the papists not to be christians , are now made favourites , and taken into their particular protection ; they are on a sudden grown the most accomplished men of the kingdom in good breeding , and give thanks with the best grace , in double refined language . so that i should not wonder , though a man of that perswasion , in spight of his hat , should be master of the ceremonies . not to say harsher words , these are such very new things , that it is impossible not to suspend our belief , till by a little more experience we may be informed whether they are realities , or apparitions : we have been under shameful mistakes , if these opinions are true ; but for the present we are apt to be incredulous ; except we should be convinced , that the priests words in this case too , are able to make such a sudden and effectual change ; and that their power is not limited to the sacrament , but that it extendeth to alter the nature of all other things , as often as they are so disposed , p. . it would be good advice to the author , as well as to the dissenter , to consider the danger of building upon paradoxes : for it is to my thinking , extremely paradoxal , to draw arguments of inclination from results of necessity ; and to make it an act of friendship , for two bodies , or divisions of men , that have need , one of another , to shake hands upon certain terms and articles of composition . the papists would be at liberty ; and so would the dissenters ; and i think they should deserve to be chronicled for idiots , and mad-men , not to unite in any common medium , with justice , honour , and a good conscience , toward their joint-ease , and relief . and what 's the papists friendship now , to liberty ; but that they would fain be out of their shackles , themselves ? and what 's their enmity to persecution , but a desire to stand upon even ground , with the rest of the kings subjects ? especially , as they are entitled to it by the kings late indulgence . god forbid , that any honest english man should envy any of his fellow subjects the benefit of the kings mercy ; because ( in effect ) a man can hardly do it , without some sort of reflexion upon his sacred wisdom and goodness . to proceed now from the irony upon popery , to the men of taunton , and tiverton ; and so to the quakers . it is not good to discourage men that do but so much as look towards loyalty ; and though every body cannot come up to the good breeding that this gentleman is pleased to make himself so merry withal ; we might yet methinks arrive at such a degree of moral civility , as to give his majesty leave to dispose of his own , without calling him to account for 't . the quakers , ( he says ) are the papists favourites . and are not the dissenters , ( at least as this letter would have it thought to be ) the favourites of the author ? and so he goes on still , sporting himself with these people , as [ the men that give thanks with the best grace . ] well! and when his hand was in , why did he not take notice , of those too , that with a very ill grace , give no thanks at all ? he cautions the dissenters , to suspend their belief till they know whether the papists are in jest , or earnest : and why not suspend , as well , 'till they can have the same security for the good faith of the author too ? [ we have been under shameful mistakes ( he says ) if these opinions are true. ] and i say , that we have seen , felt , heard , and vnderstood mistakes much more shameful then any of these . nay , and we have had true-protestant oaths for them too , in the same case , and about the same people ; and all yet found to be a cheat at last . to go thorough with him , he calls in the sacrament once again to his aid , at the end of this clause . i wish the period had been handled with a little more solemnity ; for i never lov'd the hocus-pocussing of hoc est corpus meum . let me now speak of the instruments of your friendship , and then leave you to judge , whether they do not afford matter of suspicion . no sharpness is to be mingled where healing only is intended ; so nothing will be said to expose particular men , how strong soever the temptation may be , or how clear the proofs to make it out . a word or two in general , for your better caution , shall suffice : suppose then , for argument's sake , that the mediators of this new alliance , should be such as have been formerly imployed in treaties of the same kind , and there detected to have acted by order , and to have been impowered to give encouragements and rewards . would not this be an argument to suspect them ? p. . we have had suspicious friendships ; suspicious covrtships ; suspicious bills , and plaisters ; suspicious changes ; suspicious paradoxes ; ( with caution upon caution over and above ) and we are now a coming to suspicious instrvments : but [ where healing is only intended , there must be no sharpness ] he says ; and so he goes forward supposing and supposing , in general , without exposing particular men. i am sorry with all my heart that this healing humour ; or at least this healing intention did not take our author sooner ; for so far hitherto , as the publique has been the question , we have had sharpness beyond measure : but he is resolv'd , from henceforward , to illustrate , by john-a-nokes , and john-a-styles ; and so to proceed putting of cases and cases allmost to the end of the chapter . suppose ( says he ) that the present mediators , &c. should be found to have been factors of old , and commission'd to give encouragements , and rewards , in treaties of the same kind . i answer , first , that supposing is not proving . ly . that the supposed case on the one-side , till it be made out , is as suspicious as the supposed practice on the other . for the supposition of such a practice may be a fiction ; or it may be enflam'd , and render'd bigger then the truth . ly . the supposition , thus represented , works equally , whether it be true or false , without farther evidence . ly . what if it were true , so long as it is not the character of the instrument , but the reason of the proposition , that is to govern ? ly . 't is the authority that must bear out the instrument ; and not a prejudice to the instrument , that shall disparage the authority : and if we cannot pay a respect to the man , it is yet due to his commission . ly . if the suspecting of any man , shall extend to the taking away , or to the lessening of his credit . 't is in the power of any one man , to suspect any other , and no man can be safe in his innocence : beside that , the stress of this insinuation will put all men out of capacity for publique trust , if it shall but be prov'd , nay , or so much as suggested , that ever they made a false step , in their lives . the next , and last point , expounds the letters soft way of proceeding , to have had more in it of prudential caution , then of tenderness for particular persons : for they must be detected , to have acted by order ; and [ order ] runs up stairs the lord knows whither . if they should plainly be under engagements to one side , their arguments to the other , ought to be received accordingly ; their fair pretences are to be looked upon as part of their commission , which may not improbably give them a dispensation in the case of truth , when it may bring a prejudice upon the service of those by whom they are imployed . p. . the short of this supposition , is , that their arguments are to be judg'd by their dependences ; and that they are commission'd to lye , and juggle for the service of their masters . these [ if 's ] are deliver'd with the ayre of a patriote , and with the spirit of a free-born-english-man ; like a censor morum in fine . if the gentleman has an ambition to be a devote , for the saving , or the redeeming of his country , he will vnriddle the mystery ; lay open the confederacy ; and bring all these monsters out of their holes , into open day-light : without which , we are so far from being the better ; that in truth , we are much the worse for his suppositions : and without this , the whole pretended end of his letter to a dissenter , is entirely disappointed . if there should be men who having formerly , had means and authority to perswade by secular arguments , have in pursuance of that power , sprinkled money amongst the dissenting ministers ; and if those very men should now have the same authority , practice the same methods , and disburse , where they cannot otherwise perswade : it seemeth to me , to be rather an evidence then a presumption of the deceit . p. . if there should be ministers amongst you , who by having fallen under temptations of this kind , are in some sort engaged to continue their frailty , by the awe they are in lest it should be exposed : the perswasions of these unfortunate men must sure have the less force , and their arguments , though never so specious , are to be suspected , when they come from men who have mortgaged themselves to severe creditors that expect a rigorous observation of the contract , let it be never so unwarrantable . p. . if these , or any others , should at this time preach up anger and vengeance against the church of england ; may it not without injustice be suspected , that a thing so plainly out of season , springeth rather from corruption than mistake ; and that those who act this cholerick part , do not believe themselves , but only pursue higher directions , and endeavour to make good that part of their contract which obligeth them , upon a forfeiture , to make use of their inflaming eloquence ? they might apprehend their wages would be retrenched if they should be moderate : and therefore whilst violence is their interest , those who have not the same arguments , have no reason to follow such a partial example . p. . here 's supposition upon supposition , more , and more sill . what if there should be mony in the case , among the dissenting ministers , as there has been formerly ? and what if the agents of former times should be now at their old trade again ? why truly , for my part , it shall be either so , or not so , as the author pleases ; and e'en let him take his choice . if there has been no mony given , the author is out in his history ; and if there has been mony given , the single question is , whether the thing was honest , or dishonest ; warrantable , or vnwarrantable ; that was to be done for that mony. i do not find that there were any bravo's , or church-robbers employ'd in this most important commission . i do not hear of any murder or sacrilege , in the question : but when it shall be prov'd , that a wicked thing was order'd , and a wicked thing done , then , ( and not till then ) will be the time for this supposition to take place . now if it was a lawfull , or a righteous bus'ness , i have very good authority for 't , that the labourer is worthy of his hire ; and it is the wisdom , and the justice of all well-ordered states , to reward publique services , without suffering good subjects to be call'd mercenaries , for touching the king's mony ; and likewise for the credit , and the vindication of the honour of the government , not to suffer the bountyes of the prince to be scandalously represented to the people , under the odious names of corruption , bribery , or subornation : insomuch , that the presumption of fraud , seems to lye much stronger on the supposers side , then it does on the other . the letter is [ iffing ] of it now again too ; with a [ what if the mercenary ministers before supposed , should be kept in awe , for fear of telling of tales ? ] they are gotten into hucksters hands , and there 's no coming off without a scratch'd face . now am i , the very same indifferent man , to this supposition , that i was to the former ; and believe it , upon the whole matter , to be a fiction : but i do not yet , either pretend to know , or to pronounce upon 't ; and whether it be a truth , or a figment , 't is to mee all of a price : so that for quietness sake , i am content to reason with the gentleman upon his own askings ; his own presumptions ; nay , and i care not if i say , upon his own affirmations too ; for this way of casing a matter , has the force of asserting it . if , in good earnest , such a thing has been ; and that they dare not come off for fear of being layd open ; 't is the case ( that i have had somewhere before ) of a gentleman that lay given over by his physician , in a desperate fit of sickness . a friend and companion of his , made him a visit ; layd his condition before him , and advis'd him , by all means , while he had life yet , to call upon god , and repent . why ay , ( says he ) if i were sure to dye , i 'de repent with all my heart ; but then , if i should happen to live , the rogues would so laugh at me . here 's the perfect image of the author's thoughts , upon the supposed dissenter in the second period , body and soul. he 's affraid to repent , for fear the rogues should laugh at him . i do not know how far this bashfull argument may work upon the world ; but i am persuaded that the plea will hardly be admitted at the day of judgment . and then he lays the stress of the case , upon a point that 's never to be clear'd ; 'till we have all of us windows in our breasts , and eyes , to see and read the thoughts of one another in our very hearts . and where 's the result at last , but that we are to draw conclusions from the bare possibility of things , to the infallibility of a demonstration ! let this be granted , and the supposition stands firm ; but nothing less then this , will be ever able to support it . and the case-putting-humour goes on still too ; though the author succeeds no beeter in his third supposition , then he did in the two former . by [ these , or any others preaching up anger , and vengeance against the church of england ] he can mean nothing in the world , but popish priests , or dissenters ; unless he should imagine , that the church-of-england ministers will lay violent hands upon themselves . such preaching , he says , is [ plainly out of season ] with a regard , he means , to the timing of it : which seems to imply , that at some other time , it might do well enough . now if it be an ill thing to do at any time , it will be allways out of season ; for 't is not with sermons , as 't is with mackrel , to be in , and ovt : but if such preaching may be now out of season ; why may not some ways of writing be out of season too ? and why may it not be a thing of as dangerous consequence , to set the dissenters and the papists , as to set the dissenters , and the church-of-england-men together by the ears ? not but that this way of conduct , wounds the true , and the genuine church of england under the bare denomination of a church-of-england-cause , more then it does either of the other two parties , as i shall shew when it comes before me . but the corruption goes on still . the cholerick part ( he says ) is but acted ; higher directions msut be pursu'd , or the contract is void . nay , the dissenters are in pay too , and they have wages . the design is to work violence , and there he pins the basket. if the cholerick part be ( as he says ) but acted , the dissenters and the church-of-england-men understand one another , before hand it seems , and the whole story of the letter is but a banter : that same expression of [ higher directions ] is a bugg word or two ; and from higher to higher , there will be no resting place found for this oraculous innuendo , till we come to the highest of all . now i am not lawyer enough , to know , what such a charge of contract , cheat , and violence , in such a train of connexion may amount to . this is [ a partial example ] he says ; and truly mythinks , this letter has a very partial way of proceeding ; for it makes war , and peace , in the same breath ; rips up old wounds under the colour of healing them : and i appeal to the indifferent world , whether a cholerick writer may not be as dangerous , as a cholerick preacher ; and if the one example be not as much to be avoided as the other . wherefore i think it would not do amiss , if the dissenter should counter-advise his remembrancer upon two or three of these last points : for the letter deals altogether by secular arguments too ; and there may be mony walking on the one side , as well as on the other . and then again , the disuniting of the kings subjects , of what religion soever they are , is a point as suspicious , as any that we have yet before us : and it is a thing , every jot as much out of season certainly , to endeavour the making the romanists odious ( as romanists ) under a prince of that communion , as it is to endeavour the conciliation of a friendship betwixt the roman catholiques , and any other sort whatsoever of the kings liege people . 't is a rash , an irreverent , a false , and a seditious insinuation , to possess subjects with an opinion , that there is no faith , truth , honour , or justice , to be expected from the religion of that church , whereof their sovereign is a member . and so to the next supposal . if there should be men , who by the load of their crimes , against the government , have been bowed down to comply with it against their conscience ; who by incurring the want of a pardon , have drawn upon themselves the necessity of an intire resignation : such men are to be lamented , but not to be believed : nay , they themselves , when they have discharged their vnwelcom task , will be inwardly glad that their forced endeavours do not succeed ; and are pleased when men resist their insinuations ; which are far from being voluntary or sincere , but are squeezed out of them by the weight of their being so obnoxious . p. . before i speak to the case , i cannot but do a gentleman 's right to the author , and say ; that [ if troy could have been defended , this was the hand to have done it . ] in one word more , it is cleanly , and artificial ; but still it makes his own saying good , at last ; that [ it is a dangerous thing to build upon a foundation of paradoxes . ] what credit ( says he ) is to be given to criminals , that are forced to compound for their necks , against their consciences ? nay , they 'l be inwardly glad , not to be able to succeed in their endeavours ; for 't is all force without the least pulse , or stroke , of nature , or inclination . if these men will act against their consciences , for a pardon , will they not much more act according to their consciences for the continuance of that security ? that is to say , upon conviction that they were in an error : but if the dutiful conscience of preserving the publique peace , works one way ; and if the letter will suppose a conscientious obligation ( either so in truth , or so vnderstood ) for the destroying of a lawful government , on the other , it is a kind of a scandal upon the very rebellion , to call it a crime ; in opposition to the text here that implies it to be a matter of conscience . here 's the present case , in short , stated , and read upon ; and so we 'le proceed . if in the height of this great dearness by comparing things , it should happen , that at this instant , there is much a surer friendship , with those who are so far from allowing liberty , that they allow no living , to a protestant under them . let the scene lie in what part of the world it will , the argument will come home , and sure it will afford sufficient ground to suspect . apparent contradictions must strike us : neither nature nor reason can digest them : self-flattery , and the desire to deceive our selves , to gratifie a present appetite , with all their power , which is great , cannot get the better of such broad conviction , as some things carry along with them . will you call these vain and empty suspicions ? have you been at all times so void of fears and jealousies as to justifie your being so unreasonably valiant in having none upon this occasion ? such an extraordinary courage at this unseasonable time , to say no more , is too dangerous a virtue to be commended . p. . there may be time , place , and occasion , for the private entertaining , and the secret apprehending of fears and jealousies ; and there may be just ground , powerful inducements , and necessary prudence , so to do : but for the propagating , the publishing , the spreading , and the irritating of those jealousies , where the honour of the prince , the dignity of the government , and the peace of the state , are all wrapt up in the consequences of moving that distemper , there can be no time , place , or occasion , to warrant such a practice . i could wish , that this letter had been kept clearer of the very word [ svspect ; ] or , that where the author has thought sit to make vse of it , the suspicion had not been carried further , then i am willing to understand it was intended . for jealousie , naturally runs into the most implacable hatred ; and to tell protestants that there 's no living , under papists ; is to tell them at the same time , that there 's no suffering of papists to live under them ; and so to set all the believers of this doctrine immediately upon the cutting of one anothers throats . he puts the case , of a possibility of a surer friendship , at this instant ; but then cloggs it with such after-claps , that nothing but future damnation for a present disobedience , can be more dreadful , then the course of the impendent calamities that he has set before us . apparent contradictions must strike us , ( he says : ) and is it not an apparent contradiction , to vest subjects with the authority of governours ? to invert the order of reason and nature ? and to take the office of rule , out of the grown , and cry hail king to the multitude ? neither nature , nor reason , can digest the turning of the ordinance of power , topsy-turvy : and the case is not appetite , ( as he says ) but duty . let convictions be never so broad , the proper judge of 'em is the person that god has appointed to judge of 'em ; and the slandering of gods annointed , on the one hand , is worse then the very supposed male-administration , on the other . the people are happy where a prince governs well : but still in case , even of a mis-government , there 's no remedy , but what 's worse then the disease . toward the close of this paragraph , he draws an inference from the dissenters behaviour under past fears and jealousies , to their behaviour under fears and jealousies , at present . now if he had taken into this calculation , an account of the artifices that rais'd those fears and jealousies ; an account of the design ; and the application of them ; the misery and desolation , that they brought upon the king , and three kingdoms ; he would not have advised them , i hope , to the saying of the same lesson , and to the doing of the same things over again . and whereas he calls courage , a dangerous virtue , at this vnseasonable time ; it is the most daring , and the most dangerous of all courages , that he himself now practices ; that is to say ; the courage of reading such a lecture to the common people , as , if they were not thoroughly possessed with a confidence , and assurance of their own safety , in the hands where the mercy and providence of god hath placed them , might endanger the springing of a mine , that would , most infallibly , bury the engineer himself in the common ruine . if then for these , and a thousand other reasons , there is cause to suspect , sure your new friends are not to dictate to you , or advise you . for instance , &c. p. . the author is so intent upon the matter of his discourse , that i am affraid he has almost forgotten the title of it . he calls it [ a letter to a dissenter , &c. ] and he himself personates a church-of-england-man , in the manage of it : now if there be ( according to his own reck'ning ) a thousand reasons and odd , for the dissenters suspecting their new friends ; and against the entertaining of these new friends , for dictators , and advisers ; never any mortal had a clearer cause on 't ; and these new friends are not , upon any terms , to take upon them to dictate , and to advise . upon this joynt-concession , i have a civil question or two to put to the magisterial , and fore-casting author of this letter . first ; is he , in very very deed , a true church-of-england-man , according to the standard of that communion ? if not , why does he tell the dissenters that he is one ? nay , and i 'll abate him somewhat of the heights , and pontificalibus'es too , into the bargain . secondly : admitting him to be the man that he professes to be , we shall see presently what comes on 't that way too : and so let him e'en stick to which of the two he pleases , either the church , or the separation . if he be a dissenter , himself , he should have call'd his papers a letter from a dissenter to a dissenter : and in that case , 't is ten to one , he has some part to play ; or some such order , i warrant ye , as ( he was a saying ) the dissenting ministers have ; how to tread the stage , how to govern themselves ; and who knows but he may have [ higher directions too ] as well as some others of his brethren ? warrants , commissions , and instructions for the composing of his words , countenances , and designs : nay , and dispensations too , for dissembling , and equivocating , according to the supposed case again , of his fellow brethren ? if , ( as he suggests ) all these things have been done , and acted , in mans memory , and may be likewise supposed to be done , and acted over again ; 't is the world to a nut-shell , if he be one of that party , that he is likewise one of those managers , himself ; and 't is not fair , to garry two faces under one hood : for , at this rate , the whole bus'ness is nothing but person , and disguise . however , for the author's reputation , i would rather find a failing in his argument , then in his integrity ; for if he should chance to be found a dissenter , or as a body may say , but a dissenters fellow , it would be enough to bring the credit of his very history , matter , cause , and design , in question , to be taken halting under a borron'd character . but allowing him now to be aliqualiter , ( with leave of the criticks ) a man of the church of england , ( though not so consummated , and canonical , as a body would wish ) he is manifestly hamper'd in his own net. for the church-of-england-men are to the dissenters , upon the strictness of a civil point , to all purposes , as new friends , as the papists are : that is to say , according to the authors notion , and intent of this new friendship . i speak this ad hominem . he professes a good will , and a friendship to the dissenters ; the papists do the li●● ▪ and their friendships bear much the same date . now ( says he ) your new friends are to be suspected ; he himself is in the same classis , and as lyable to be suspected , in the quality of a new friend , as the other . nay , and a man might yet lay a little more weight upon 't ; it is a separation in discipline that makes our dissenter , and it is the dissent , so distinguish'd and restrain'd , that is here the question : so that the papist has no quarrel to the dissenter , but as a member of the reformation ; for in the matter of country , and allegeance , they do both fall under the common case of all the king's subjects . the addresses that fly abroad every week , and murder us with another to the same ; the first draughts are made by those who are not very proper to be secretaries to the protestant religion ; and it is your part only to write them out fairer again . strange ! that you who have been formerly so much against set forms , should now be content the priests should indite for you . p. . the murdering addresses that are here complain'd of , in a much more murdering letter ; are a certain sort of murder , that the law neither of god , nor of man , takes any notice of ; and a murder , that perhaps was never heard of , 'till it came to be set up for a figure , in this rhetorical paper . they fly abroad , 't is true ; we read them in the gazettes ; and the letter takes upon it self , to set forth by mysterious hints , and intimations , from what hands they come too . now this is matter of fact ; and where there 's no evidence offer'd , there 's no place for a disproof . he gives to understand , as a thing of practice , and reproche , that the addressers only write after the dictates , and copies of other people ; and pleasantly reproves them for admitting set forms in these addresses , ( and set-forms drawn by priests too ; ) though they will have none in their publique devotions . now here 's not one syllable of the fact in sight ; and the stress of all , he says , comes to no more then this ; the people do not draw up their own addresses ; to which i answer ; that there was never any body of addressers , upon the face of the earth , that did not stand lyable to the same exception , in having their addresses drawn up for them : neither is it so properly the form of words ; but the assent , and the subscription , that makes the address : and it is enough for the people to o●…n , and sign the matter of the address ; without any pretence to a hand in the wording of it . i do insist a little the more upon the privelege of a commoner of england , to have him excused from writing his own addresses , because it may so fall out , that very honest man's skill in letters , may go no further , perhaps , then the bare writing of his name , or the making of his mark : beside , that a body does not know the danger of such a president , if our author should carry this point : for the very same exception will hold against him upon a suit in chancery , because , forsooth , his bill , or answer , was not of his own drawing . the nature of thanks is an unavoidable consequence of being pleased or obliged ; they grow in the heart , and from thence shew themselves either in looks , speech , writing , or action : no man wa●●ever thankful because he was bid to be so , but because he had , or thought he had some reason for it . if then there is cause in this case to pay such extravagant acknowledgments , they will flow naturally , without taking such pains to procure them ; and it is unkindly done , to tire all the post-horses with carrying circular letters to sollicit that which would be done without any trouble or constraint : if it is really in it self such a favour , what needeth so much pressing men to be thankful , and with such eager circumstances , that where perswasions cannot delude , threatnings are employed to fright them into a compliance ? thanks must be voluntary , not only unconstrained , but unsollicited , else they are either trifles or snares , they either signifie nothing , or a great deal more then is intended by those that give them . p. . the author comes now to enlarge himself upon the text of thanksgiving ; but he forgets , i fear , that there are thanks of good-manners , and respect , as well as of passion ; thanks for protection in the enjoyment , and possession of benefits , as well as for actual bounties in the collation of them . many stand in need to be taught to be thankful , which he calls [ bidding ] to be so , and they had never thought on 't perhaps , if they had not been admonished so to be . as to the [ such extravagant acknowledgments ] which he speaks of ; i do neither vnderstand , the [ such ] nor the [ extravagant ; ] unless he means , that in the testimonials of the peoples loyalty and affections to his majesty , as they are set forth in so many addresses , [ the play is not worth the candle . ] his conceit of tiring post-horses , is an allegation , without any proof , or so much as probability to back it : but i hope , if it were true , he would have the charity to allow the government ( for that 's the innuendo of it ) a liberty to do the same thing which he practices himself . for ( to his honour be it spoken ) never any man , perhaps , made more work for post-horses , with two or three sheets of paper , then the author has done with this letter ; and never any letter perhaps , was more vniversally circular , then this has been . and to what end , but to sollicite , to perswade , to threaten , to fright people ( these are his own words ) into a complyance with his dictates . he is against pressing men to be thankful . nhw gratitude is a duty , both toward god , and our neighbour : and certainly , a duty , that may be pressed , and inculcated in the moral offices of a civil life , as well as in the chair , or the pulpit . to make an end of this clause , either he is gone off from his text of thankful addresses , or else he does a worse thing in making either trifles , or snares of those applications ; which , in common justice , and modesty ought to receive a fairer construction . if an inference should be made , that whosoever thanketh the king for his declaration , is by that engaged to justifie it in point of law ; it is a greater stride than , i presume , all those care to make who are perswaded to address , &c. p. . it must not be forgotten , that though the author of the letter has chang'd his battery , from invention to rhetorique , from rhetorique to calumny ; and , now at last , from calumny to law ; that he is still constant to his first design , and to the two main topiques , viz. of the king's declaration of indulgence , and of the addresses that have follow'd upon it : but whether for decency , affection , or good company , it matters not to our present bus'ness . he enters upon his subject , with a kind of an exposition , ex post facto , of the addressers meaning ; after the addresses were presented ; and without much regard to what they thought , either before , or upon the spot , at the very presenting of them . this is much after the president of the protestation of forty . first they made the people take it ; and when they had once gotten it down , the imposers publish'd a comment upon the meaning of it . the first step that he advances toward his law-point , comes within a hair's breadth of pronouncing the king's declaration to be a nullity . but he brings it in , with an [ if , ] and an [ i presume ] and what does he presume ? but that all the addressers , are either fools or knaves , in either taking , or in addressing thanks , for that which they think in their consciences , the king has no power to give . if he can sink the reputation of the king's power , and prerogative , the whole work is done at a stroke . but he is resolved , to have , at least , two strings to his bow , and to try what 's to be done upon the passions of the people , if he cannot captivate their vnderstandings . and so he sets himself to the driving of another naile . if it shall be supposed , that all the thankers will be repealers of the test , whenever a parliament shall meet ; such an expectation is better prevented before , then disappointed afterwards ; and the surest way to avoid the lying under such a scandal , is , not to do any thing that may give a colour to the mistake . p. . his first attempt is to invalidate the kings declaration it self ; and if he cannot carry the law-point , he is now a trying what he can do upon the poll , toward the frustrating and poysoning of it in the operation and effect , upon the meeting of another parliament . if it shall be supposed ( says he ) that all the thankers will be repealers , &c. 't is better prevented , then disappointed : as who should say , let the next choice be made according to our authors measures , and the members must be neither church-of-england-men , nor papists , nor dissenters , but a sort of amphibious republicans , according to this letter-model , and the government will be , then , most blessedly brought to bed of a representative wisdom . these bespoken thanks are little less improper then love-letters that were sollicited by the lady to whom they are to be directed : so that besides the little ground there is to give them , the manner of getting them , doth extremely lessen their valne . p. . he will not allow [ bespoken thanks ] in this case , or in this manner , to have either ground or value . if there be such a fatality in the matter , that there is no keeping the author of the letter out of harms-way , i had much rather that he should fall upon his own weapon , then by any malicious practice , or address of mine : so that for a dish of coffee , these thanks shall be bespoken , or not bespoken , whether of the two he pleases : for they are never the more , or the less due , for being , or not being , either the one , or the other : and if they be due , with a respect to the person , to the occasion , to the prudence , good manners , or to twenty other circumstances that enter into offices of this quality , 't is enough , to give them both ground and value . the king speaks to all his people , in this declaration , and are they too stout to make him a leg for 't ? he speaks kindly to them too ; and shall that gracious goodness not receive so much as an acknowledgment ? he does it at a time too , when peoples hearts , and heads , are tamper'd with jealousies , for fear of popery , and arbitrary power ; when the very season elevates the character of the mercy ; and is all this to pass for nothing now , in our authors opinion ? [ set your souls at rest , every man , and every sort of you ; for your freedoms , your lives , and your religions are , and shall be secure , vnder my government , and protection . ] if his majesty had done any particular person , apart , the honour to single him out for such an instance , or declaration of his tenderness , and bounty , what a brutality would it have been accounted , to have failed of a return of submission , and acknowledgment , suitable to the dignity of the descension . and are not all the kings subjects under the same tye of gratitude , when his majesty speaks to them all together , as every man of them would have been , severally , and one by one ? neither is it , in truth , only the [ bespoken thanks , ] at last , that lyes so hard in our author's stomach ; for this letter of his will not brook any thanks at all ; and his aversion lyes to the very duty of thanksgiving : but however , our late tumults , insurrections , and rebellions , well weighed , and considered , are , themselves , a sufficient ground for bespoken thanks ; not only in wisdom , and in justice , but in mercy too : 't is worth the experiment to try an obstinate , and a preverse age , whether liberty will quiet it or no : how far it will be sensible of a royal clemency . a prince that is wholly made up of generosity , and goodness ; let him have never so great a mind to exercise it , cannot , in some instances , find an honourable place for 't : and in those cases , 't is no departure from the glory of his sacred function , not only to bespeak , but to sollicit thanks , and dutiful applications ; which sounds no more , upon a candid interpretation , then if he should have made interest , and friends , to prevail upon his own subjects , that they would but qualifie themselves as fit objects of their princes care and protection , and put their sovereign into a capacity of making them happy . and so forth . it might be wished that you would have suppressed your impatience , and have been content for the sake of religion to enjoy it within your selves , without the liberty of a publick exercise , 'till a parliament had allowed it ; but since that could not be , and that the artifices of some amongst you have made use of the well-meant-zeal of the generality to draw them into this mistake ; i am so far from blaming you with that sharpness , which , perhaps , the matter in strictness would bear , that i am ready to err on the side of the more gentle construction . p. . vve have been upon the subject of mercy , and in the turning of a hand , our author has here , of his own proper motion , issued out a general act of indemnity to the dissenters . they have been fool'd , he says , [ by the artifices of some amongst them ] but for [ well-meant zeal ] sake he is content to pass it over . he seems a little troubled at their acceptance of liberty , upon the terms of the kings declaration ; for they might have kept on their conventicles [ within themselves ] he says , till the parliament should have eas'd ' em . from whence , i gather this doctrine ; that the gentleman is heart and hand for the dissenters breaking of the laws , though he is against the kings dispensing with them . there is a great difference between enjoying quietly the advantages of an act , irregularly done by others , and the going about to support it against the laws in being : the law is so sacred , that no trespass against it is to be defended : yet frailties may in some measure be excused when they cannot be justified . p. . here is an admirable title set a-foot , to the lawful enjoyment of crown , and church-lands , under oliver . but if he speaks of the declaration of test ; the laws in being would be of no force at all , if that law of test should prove repugnant to the law of god. i do not say that it is so ; but if it should be found to bee so , our author 's positive judgment for the obligation of the laws in being , would be one of those general rules that in tract of time , practice , and experiment , would meet with a thousand exceptions . the law of the land is sacred , and so is the law of the prerogative , which is the law of the land as well as the other , and nothing ought to be call'd a trespass against a humane law , that is authoriz'd by the indispensable equity of a law divine . there are several snatches in this paper , that are either founded , or pretend to be founded upon the resolution , and obligation of laws . i shall spend my thoughts too much upon fractions , to take them one by one , as they fall in my way ; but i shall ee'n do as a country gentleman did at an ordinary . the company was set round the table , wayting for dinner ; and in the interim , some particular acquaintances entertain'd the time with toying , and throwing crumbs of bread one at another : my country gentleman , that knew not so much as one face at the table , pick'd his man , and fell to the same sport too : the other took it up still , and threw it over his shoulder : but at last very civilly told him , sir , ( says he ) i beseech you , will you keep your account , and when it comes to a loaf , you shall have it all together . i must now desire my author to give me credit too , 'till it comes to a loaf , and i shall then give him what i have to say upon this subject all at once . the desire of enjoying a liberty from which men have been so long restrained , may be a temptation that their reason is not at all times able to resist . if in such a case some objections are leap't over , indifferent men will be more inclin'd to lament the occasion , then to fall too hard upon the fault , whilst it is cover'd with the apology of a good intention . but , &c. p. . here is a very friendly apology for an allmost-irresistible temptation . the author is of counsel for the defendent ; and makes a case of equity on 't , to set the fault against the occasion . the desire of liberty might have been a plea for the forbidden fruit too . and now for leaping over objections , our author has shew'd himself as good at it as any dissenter of 'em all ; for he has been pleased to exercise a liberty in these sheets , not only without any visible temptation , but against any visible reason for so doing : but he is his own confessor , and absolves himself upon this vnaccountable doctrine , that [ the apology of a good intention covers the fault ; ] which makes every man a judge in his own cause . where , to rescue your selves from the severity of one law , you give a blow to all the laws , by which your religion and liberty are to be protected , and instead of silently receiving the benefit of this indulgence , you set up for advocates to support it . you become voluntary aggressors , and look like counsel retained by the prerogative against your old friend magna charta , who hath done nothing to deserve her falling thus under your displeasure . p. . if the supporting of this indulgence be the setting of the prerogative , and magna charta together by the ears ; and that his majesty has , in this act , vsurpt upon the laws of the land , and the liberties of the people ; what court of judicature will the author of this calumny fly to with his appeal ? or what is this suggestion less then an arrow shot at the heart of the supreme magistrate ; how speciously soever drawn by the arm of a pretended patriot ? 't is well enough , ad populum , to talk of the dissenters giving a blow to all the laws that protect them , by endeavouring a rescue from one law that offends them : but in substance , and effect , there 's no more in 't then the cadence of a well-turn'd period . to take the matter aright ; 't is not the law that protects us ( for laws have neither hands , nor feet ) but an over-ruling power that manages , protects , and actuates that law. the law is a rule , 't is true , to such or such a form , or frame , of this or that government : but it is yet no further a rule , then as it squares with the divine , and fundamental rules of government it self ; of which rules and measures , tho supreme magistrate is the only moderator , and judge . if the case then should be that the price expected from you for this liberty , is giving up your right in the laws , sure you will think twice before you go any further in such a losing bargain . p. . it will not be denyed that the subject has a right in the benefit of the laws ; but he has none at all undoubtedly in the interpretation , or the administration of them : so that our authors case , in this expostulation is ( right or wrong ) an vsurpation upon the province of his superiors ; for there 's no longer any order , or reason , in the works and offices of providence , and nature , when authority and subjection shall come to be inverted , or confounded . he seems extremely tender on the behalf of the dissenters , for fear they should give up their birth-rights in a composition for their liberty . this is it which he calls [ their right in the laws ; ] but he hopes they will be better advis'd first . here is an imperial prerogative over-ruled by a pamphlet ; a cause given against the king by john-a-styles ; and first or last , a whole systeme of republican consequences , built upon it ; and it is upon a point too , that perhaps was never controverted till now , in any setled state , and upon this bottom . it is a right of the crown common to all governments in the world , and so essential to the maintaining of a civil polity , in peace and security , that no state can subsist without it : and consequently , no act of state can take it away . in one word , i speak of the power of calling , forbidding , continuing , or dissolving publique assemblies . and the exercise of that power is the point in question upon this declaration : and without this power he can neither defend himself , nor protect his people ; neither punish the guilty , not secure the innocent ; nor finally , discharge the most necessary duties of state and justice . after giving thanks for the breach of one law , you lose the right of complaining of the breach of all the rest ; you will not very well know how to defend your selves when pressed ; and having given up the question when it was for your advantage , you cannot recall it when it shall be to your prejudice . p. . he takes the case all the way for granted , and so proceeds upon the presupposal of an imaginary breach , and right . he makes a mighty bus'ness of the peoples giving up that which they never had , and of their losing certain priviledges in the future , that they have no pretence to : and , after all , not one colour of a reason offered , why sentence should not be given against him . if it be clear , that the people have not this right , truly , to my thinking , he ventures his person , and his reputation upon a dangerous position : or what if a man , for arguments sake , should yield , that the people have such a right , the authors hand is yet in the wrong box , to commence a suit against his majesty in no bodies name ; in a circular letter thus , and no day , or place set for a hearing . briefly , if there were no more in 't , the very manner of the proceeding would be enough to turn justice it self , thus communicated , into a libel . to come now to the merits of the question : there 's first , a claim set a-foot without any foundation . ly . a right supposed , and the cause utterly spoil'd by ill management : but what if a body should give him his vttermost demands now ; and take the matter de bone esse , as he himself has set it forth : that is to say , suppose his challenge to be good ; the proceeding , regular , and modest ; and the subjects right ; in strictness of law , as clear , and as vndubitable as he affirms it to be ; he will find himself in a worse condition perchance this way , then he was before : for if subjects will be standing upon their terms ; and by vying privileges against privileges with their sovereign , provoke him to return strictnesses for strictnesses upon them , by way of reprizal ; our author , i fear , is not aware of the certain consequences of such a contest ; if the king shall come to take all advantages against the subject , on the other hand , that the rigour , and the letter of the law will allow him . if you will set up at one time a power to help you , which at another time by parity of reason shall be made use of to destroy you , you will neither be pitied , nor relieved against a mischief you draw upon your selves , by being so unreasonably thankful . it is like calling in auxiliaries to help , who are strong enough to subdue you : in such a case your complaints will come too late to be heard , and your sufferings will raise mirth instead of compassion . p. . here 's the supposition of a power set up , to help the dissenters , that shall be made use of to their destruction : now say i on the other hand , that the power here pretended to be set up , is a power over and over recogniz'd allready ; a power inherent in the crown , and a power inseparable from it : the english of his caution , that they should not set it up , imports , the bidding of them to disown it ; and more then insinuates the antimonarchical doctrine of making the king's power to be radically in the people : but here 's a bugbear started , and all long of themselves , it seems , for being so [ unreasonably thank full . ] the king grants them an indulgence ; they thank him for 't ; and that vnreasonable thankfullness ( says our author ) will be their ruine . i hope he does not mean the king , by that destroying power , though i do not see any way in the world to keep his majesty clear of that innuendo : and briefly ; the edge strikes the same way thorough the whole course of the paper . if you think , for your excuse , to expound your thanks so as to restrain them to this particular case , others , for their ends , will extend them further ; and in these differing interpretations , that which is back'd by authority will be the most likely to prevail ; especially when by the advantage you have given them , they have in truth the better of the argument ; and that the inferences from your own concessions are very strong , and express against you . this is so far from being a groundless supposition , that there was a late instance of it , in the last session of parliament , in the house of lords , where the first thanks , though things of course , were interpreted to be the approbation of the king 's whole speech , and a restraint from the further examination of any part of it , though never so much disliked ; and it was with difficulty obtained , not to be excluded from the liberty of objecting to this mighty prerogative of dispensing , meerly by this innocent and usual piece of good manners , by which no such thing could possibly be intended . p. . i find little more in this paragraph , ( or in this page , i might have said ) then a rhetorical reading upon the virtue of ingratitude ; ] and how mortal a sin it is , under the highest obligations to a prince , for subjects to be thankfull . the great danger , and inconvenience , that appears in this section , is the hazzard of misconstruction , for fear a man that gives thanks for chalk , should be thought to give thanks for cheese . now it was my opinion , that a man might be as explicit in his thanks , as upon any other subject ; and if this banter passes , i am absolutely for keeping my hands in my pocket , and my tongue betwixt my teeth , in my own defence : for if a body either speaks , or writes , and authority should make treason on 't , it might be as much as a man's life's worth. his instance of a case last session of parliament , in the house of lords , is a point too hot for mee to meddle with . but i may venture yet without the risque , i hope , of a scandalum magnatum , to take notice , of the author's saying that the king's speech was dislik'd ; a term , that i presume , he had no commission for : and then for his irony upon the [ mighty prerogative of dispensing ] 't is a flower not to be pass'd over without an emphasis . in one word more ; it is a wonderful thing , that our author's head should run so much upon the differing interpretations that would be pass'd upon his unreasonable thankfullness , in such a case as this ; and never so much as dream of the constructions that would be made on the other hand , ●or ( certainly ) a more vnreasonable vnthankfullness . this sheweth , that some bounds are to be put to your good breeding , and that the constitution of england is too valuable a thing to be ventured upon a complement . now that for some time you have enjoyed the benefit of the end , it is time for you to look into the danger of the means : the same reason that made you desirous to get liberty , must make you solicitous to preserve it : so that the next thought will naturally be , not to engage your self beyond retreat , and to agree so far with the principles of all religions , as not to rely upon a death bed repentance . p. . this paragraph , does in some measure make good the suggestion of the next before , concerning the danger of [ differing interpretations ; ] for i cannot fully make out the secret of the author 's meaning about [ the principles of all religions , ] and [ a death-bed repentance ; ] unless he intends by it , so comprehensional a charity , that all christians , in what latitude soever , may go to heaven , hand in hand , in the way of a holy common-wealth . he would not have the constitution of england ( according to his popular vnderstanding of it ) complemented away , out of good breeding ; neither would i have that constitution , according to the legal , and monarchical frame of it , coursly dealt withall , calumniated , and disparag'd , out of ill-breeding . he gives advice about the benefit of the end , and the danger of the means ; and so conveys a title over to the people , of entring into a kind of joynt commission with his majesty , for the managing of publique affairs , and for obviating the political consequences of things . take him , in short , quite thorough , and he shews himself directly an advocate for a popular liberty , without so much as one salvo for the rights of the crown . there are certain periods of time , which being once past , make all cautions ineffectual , and all remedies desperate . our vnderstandings are apt to be hurried on by the first heats ; which if not restrained in time , do not give us leave to look back , till it is too late . consider this in the case of your anger against the church of england , and take warning by their mistake in the same kind , when after the late king's restoration , they preserved so long the bitter taste of your rough usage to them in other times , that it made them forget their interest , and sacrifice it to their revenge . p. . & . here 's a kind of a predestinarian foundation , with certain philosophical , political , and historical meditations , and reflexions upon it . the time presses , and when 't is too late , 't is too late ; which is a pithy way of speaking a great deal in a little. his councell to the dissenters , of moderation toward the church of england , is good and seasonable ; but least the church of england should grow proud of being so much in our author 's good graces , he gives her a box o' th' ear at the very next word , that makes her stagger again ; and in the same period , makes as arrant a jilt of his beloved clyent , as ever he did of the whore of babylon . take warning , says he , by the church-of-england's mistake ; and what was that mistake ( in his opinion , at last ) but an impotent folly , and a diabolical revenge ? so that , to the scandal of our author's profession ; he has set up two churches of england ; the one of them a desperate , hair-brain'd , vindictive wretch , as he would represent her ; the other , a good , peace-making gentlewoman ; whereof he himself takes upon him to be a son , and a member . and now to shew that he is all of a piece ; and as faithful an historian , as a canonical church-of-england-man ; nothing can ever so effectually terminate this dispute , as the issue of the conference at the savoy , ( soon after his majesties late return ) toward a general accommodation . i forget names ; but they brake , upon this point : because the king's commissioners would not agree [ that the enjoying of things lawful , by lawful authority , if they may by accident , be the occasion of sin , is sinful . ] his majesty , for the purpose , bids the asserter of that doctrine , light him a candle : no ; ( says he ) if it should happen to be blown out , and give offence , some bodies throat may come to be cut upon 't . this is it now , that our author calls the church of england's sacrificing their interest , to their revenge ; because they would not agree to a principle , absolutely destructive of human society . either you will blame this proceeding in them , and for that reason not follow it ; or if you allow it , you have no reason to be offended with them : so that you must either dismiss your anger , or lose your excuse , except you should argue more partially , then will be supposed of men of your morality , and vnderstanding . p. . this method of reasoning is just as if a man should raise a building upon a foundation of blown bladders ; where there 's nothing but wind , and blast , to support the fabrick . he runs away with the fact , for granted ; dilemma's upon it , and so leaves the matter in the hands of men of morality , and vnderstanding . if you had now to do with those rigid prelates , who made it a matter of conscience to give you the least indulgence , and even to your more reasonable scruples continued stiff and inexorable , the argument might be fairer on your side ; but since the common danger hath so land open that mistake , that all the former haughtiness towards you is for ever extinguished ; and that it hath turned the spirit of persecution , into a spirit of peace , charity , and condescension ; shall this happy change only affect the church of england ? and are you so in love with separation , as not to be moved by this example ? it ought to be followed , were there no other reason then that it is a virtue ; but when besides that , it is become necessary to your preservation , it is impossible to fail the having its effect upon you . this party-per-pale-humour , runs to the tune of the old song : [ and no body else shall plunder but i ; ] for the quarrel does not lye to the dissenters so much for any animosity of theirs toward the church of england , but for breaking in upon our author's patent of sole privilege for the abusing of them himself . there was a time , 't is true , when prelates , ( says he ) were rigid , vncharitable , vnreasonable , stiff , and inexorable , haughty , and under the power of the spirit of persecution , &c. but all is turn'd now it seems [ into a spirit of peace , charity , and condescension ] ( quere if it should not have been , comprehension ) as witness the pacifick genius , and tenderness of the author here , and his paper . is the church of england so reform'd , ( the letter's church of england , that is ) and will none of you , my masters , come in , to take your parts in the blessing ? are you so in love with separation , that when wee come down to you , you 'l be running away from vs ? ( for that 's the meaning on 't . ) 't is your interest as well as your virtue , to associate : and what 's all this now , but the down-right project of uniting into a republique ? if it should be said , that the church of england is never humble , but when she is out of power , and therefore loseth the right of being believed when she pretendeth to it : the answer is , first , it would be an vncharitable objection , and very much miss-timed : an vnseasonable triumph , not only vngenerous , but vnsafe : so that in these respects , it cannot be vrged without scandal , even though it could be said with truth . secondly , this is not so in fact , and the argument must fall , being built upon a false foundation ; for whatever may be told you , at this very hour , and in the heat , and glare of your present sunshine , the church of england can in a moment bring clouds again , and turn the royal thunder upon your heads ; blow you off the stage with a breath , if she would give but a smile , or a kind word ; the least glimpse of her compliance , would throw you back into the state of suffering , and draw upon you all the arrears of severity , which have accrued during the time of this kindness to you ; and yet the church of england , with all her faults , will not allow her self to be rescued by such unjustifiable means , but chooseth to bear the weight of power , rather then lye under the burden of being criminal . p. , . vve have here as lewd a charactor given ( betwixt hawk and buzzard ) of the true church of england from the pen of a pretended church-of-england-man , as the concurring wit , and spite of the greatest enemy she has upon the face of the earth , could put together . her humility is made the effect of her impotence ; and therefore there 's no believing of her , ( says the comment . ) but then ( says the author handy dandy ) that 's a little vncharitable , and miss-timed ; and it is neither generous , nor safe : so that at this season it could hardly be said without scandal , tho among friends , no more perhaps then truth ; but then he rubs up the dissenters again , with a politick flint , that the church of england ( meaning ●his church of england still ) is not so low , yet neither , as people imagine ; and that she could in the next moment , command clouds and thunder ; turn heaven and earth topsy-turvj with [ but a smile , or a kind word : ] but our author's church of england scorns to be rescued by such vnjustifiable means ; ( as giving the king thanks ; ) and will rather beare the weight of power , then the burthen of being criminal ; which is all one , as to say , let the king do what he will , he shall never make us crouch , either to his authority , or his power ; like a company of sneaking , sniveling , loyal , thankful rogues . but have his church-of-england-men a power to do all this ? ( as he says ) why then they have the power to make the king break his word , and to stop the sun in his course . in fine , his majesties faith , honour , and government , at the rate of these hussing challenges , lye all at mercy . it cannot be said that she is vnprovoked ; books and letters come out every day to call for answers , yet she will not be stirred . from the supposed authors and the style , one would swear they were vndertakers , and had made a contract to fall at with the church of england . there are ●●…shes in every address ; challenges to 〈◊〉 the pen , in every pamphlet : in short , the fairest occasions in the w●●ld 〈…〉 quarrel ; but she wisely distinguisheth between the body of dissenters , 〈…〉 will suppose to act , as they do , with no ill intent ; and these small 〈…〉 and sent out to picqueer , and to begin a fray amongst the protestants for the entortainment as well as the advantage of the church of rome . p. . that there are provoking books , and letters , that call for , and that answer ▪ is a point readilly agreed upon on my part ; and our author will , i hope , upon second thoughts admit this letter of his to be one of the number : nay , and the writers , and the managers of some of those pamphlets look like 〈◊〉 , or sharpers , that make it their trade to start quarrels , and then scoure away with a hat , or a cloak in the interim . i have seen several addresses too , that seem to extend liberty of worship to liberty of reproche ; and that think they cann●● bless god sufficiently on the one hand , without treading upon their neighbours 〈◊〉 , on the other , there 's no denying of this ▪ and what 's the issue at last , but that the true church of england suffers for the faults of our authors church of england , falsly so called ? this conduct is so good , that it will be scandalous not to applaud it . it is not equal dealing , to blame our adversaries for doing ill , and not commend them when they do well . p. . svbmission , patience , and resignation , are virtues , undoubtedly , that deserve applause , and the impartial distribution of reward or punishment , for well , or evil-doing , is but writing after the copy of the divine justice : but then we must not call evil , good ; nor good , evil. let us have no stealing of crowns in canorica habits ; no doing of ill things under false names ; no writing of letters to disturb government ; to dishonour a nation , as well as to reproche any religions profession ; and after all these contradictions to the doctrine and practices of the apostolical church of england , let 's have no casting a canonical role over the shoulders of an impostor , and leave the taylor to answer for the character . to hate them because they persecuted , and not to be reconciled to them when they are ready to suffer , rather then receive all the advantages that can be gained by a criminal compliance , is a principle no sort of christians can own , since it would give an objection to them not to be answered . p. . the author sets up here for a sufferer ▪ what would the world think of him now , if his name should come to be found among the persecutors ! not among the persecutors of the dissenters ; which he ( most vn son-like ) reflects upon in this clause ; but among the persecutors , even of those pretended persecutors themselves ! i charge him with nothing ; for i do not know him ; but he takes a kind of a wrigling biass in this letter , as if he were creeping into his mother's bells again . the criminal compliance , is only the conscientious duty of acknowledging his majesties authority ; which is a characteristical diserimination , betwixt the ligitimate , and the illegitimate sons of the church of england . think a little , who they were that promoted your former perseuetions , and then consider how it will look to be angry with the instruments , and at the same time to make a league with the authors of your sufferings . to put this into english now ; the papists were the promoters , and the protestants the instruments of the dissenters former persecutions : and will you now make a league , says he , with the authors of your sufferings ? this is only a paraphrase upon otes's epistle before his narrative ; and a story , so quite out of date , that a man would as soon put pen to paper , in answer to a canterbury tale. . have you enough considered what will be expected from you ? are you ready to stand in every borough by vertue of a conge d'essire , and instead of election , be satisfy'd , if you are returned ? p. . . will you in parliament , justifie the dispensing power , with all its consequences , and repeal the test , by which you will make way for the repeal of all the laws that were made to perserve your religion , and to enact others that shall destroy it ? . are you disposed to change the liberty of debate , into the merit of obedience , and to be made instruments to repeal or enact laws , when the roman consistory are lords of the articles ? . are you so linked with your new friends , as to reject any indulgence a parliament shall offer you , if it shall not be so comprehensive as to include the papists in it ? p. . to take these four heads as they lye : the first implies a direct practice , and confederacy , both in , and with the sheriffs . the second anticipates the question , and precludes the freedom of a parliamentary debate : it makes the common people , judges of state-consequences , and subjects the wisdom , and justice of the government to the censure of the multitude : neither is the test , so sacred , as not to be lyable to the common conditions , and limitations , that are annexed to all other laws . ly . what is this contemptuous insinuation , but an enflaming bitterness , mockery , and scorn , to the highest degree ; while the kings declaration is made the ground of the calumny , and the incentive to 't ? ly . this is , as who should say , [ leave it to the parliament to set you at liberty , but be sure you have nothing to do with the kings declaration ; nor with any indulgence , that shall include the papists for company . ] consider that the implyed conditions of your new treaty are no less , then that you are to do every thing you are desired , without examining , and that for this pretended liberty of conscience , your real freedom is to be sacrificed : your former faults hang like chains still about you , you are let loose only upon bayl ; the first act of non compliance , sendeth you to jayl again . p. , . here 's an extravagance of figure , and hyperbole , without the force of any image of reason , or truth ; but the author bethinks himself what would be the most provoking thing in nature , to be said , or done , under our circumstances , and then throws it out to the mobile , as the resolution and design , of the king and his ministers . you may see that the papists themselves , do not rely upon the legality of this power , which you are to justifie , since they being so very earnest to get it established by a law , and the doing such very hard things in order , as they think to obtain it , is a clear evidence , that they do not think , that the single power of the crown is in this case a good foundation ; especially when this is done under a prince , so very tender of all the rights of sovereignty , that he would think it a diminution to his prerogative , where he conceiveth it strong enough to go alone , to call in the legislative help to strengthen and support it . this section is a piece of art , that only differs from the former strokes of the same pen , in that it lashes the government with somewhat a better grace . the pretext is popular , but bring it to the touch , and it vanishes like a mist before the sun. the king suspends , by his prerogative ; but a total repeal , must be the work of his majesty in parliament ; which does not yet hinder the temporary virtue of a temporary suspension : but to give the author his due , he has some sort of justice , as well as wit in his anger : for after the crippling of the prerogative , he furnishes a crutch ; and calls in the legislative help to support it ; and so drops the government into a kind of partnership betwixt king , lords , and commons . you have formerly blamed the church of england , and not without reason , for going so far as they did in their compliance ; and yet as soon as they stopped , you see they are not only deserted , but prosecuted : conclude then from this example , that you must either break off your friendship , or resolve to have no bounds in it . if they do not succeed in their design , they will leave you first ; if they do , you must either leave them , when it will be too late for your safety , or else after the squeaziness of starting at a surplice , you must be forced to swallow transubstantiation . p. . either this is the fiction of a case , to serve a present turn , or it is true in matter of fact ; but it is clear , that the dissenters mean one church of england , and that our author speaks of another . but be it as it will , here 's no light of evidence that i can see ; nor any stress of argument . the charge that was flat popery formerly , is now dwindled down into a bare complyance : but how is this church deserted all this while ? how prosecuted ? in the declaration that 's made the foundation of the controversie , it is expresly provided for , and secur'd ; and the liberty that is given to the one side , is not taken from the other . but the author's church is teachy , and froward ; and the answerer's church is to bear the blame on 't ▪ i am at a loss too , at the supposed stop here ; how far did we go ? what was it we stuck at ? a body would take it to be some article of faith , at least , by the weight that 's layd upon 't ; and that we were half-way to smithfield allready , to burn at stake for 't . and what 's the whole bus'ness at last ; but live , and let live : give my people the exercise of their religion , ( says the king ) and do you enjoy your own : which , in our case , is certainly a very charitable , and a reasonable medium . the rest runs alltogether upon state-calculations ; which is the worst way of tampering peoples minds , and spiriting away their hearts from their sovereign , under the countenance of political judgments . these fore-boders , are undoubtedly the most pernicious of wizzards , and fortune-tellers . remember that the other day those of the church of england were trimmers for enduring you , and now by a sudden turn you are become the favourites : do not deceive your selves , it is not the nature of lasting plants thus to shoot up in a night : you may look gay and green for a little time , but you want a root to give you a continuance . it is not so long since , as to be forgotten , that the maxim was , it is impossible for a dissenter not to be a rebel . p. . there 's a nest of boxes in this clause : the author's church of england , has a comprehension in the belly of it , and that comprehension is big again , with a commonwealth . he makes trimmer here , to be a name of reproche , cast upon the church of england , for enduring the dissenters ; whereas , the temporizing neutrality-men took up this name to themselves , upon a point of vanity ; as who should say ; we are the men that keep the beat ( or the government ) even : and , in this very place , with the scandal of a trimmer in his mouth , he does the office of a trimmer . the man seems to be dreadfully affraid of the papists ; and yet not half so much , nor in half so good earnest , as i am affraid of the commonwealths-men ; and there is no way for the doing of that jobb , like the binding up of a hundred several religions in one comprehension . there may be good faith , conscience , and moral honesty , ( and i doubt not , but that in a considerable measure , there is so too ) in the exercise of every several perswasion , apart ; but the vniting of things inconciliable , in one and the same mass , can be nothing else then a club of confederacy , to do mischief : beside , that the gathering of bodies , and societies together , after this manner , is one of the peculiars of sovereign power . 't is a strange thing , how much a greater priviledge this vnknown person assumes to himself here upon this matter , then he will allow the king : and that it should be so much a greater crime , to make the papists and the dissenters friends , then to reconcile the comprehension-men , and the dissenters : nay , with the exclusion of a third party of his majesties subjects , out of all terms of agreement . he 's a little dark in this paragraph ; but the change of one word will make him as clear as chrystal . instead of [ tou want a root to give you a continuance ] read it , [ you want a head to give you a continuance : ] and that 's the natural exposition of this text. consider at this time in france , even the new converts are so far from being employed , that they are disarmed : their sudden change maketh them still to be distrusted , notwithstanding that they are reconciled : what are you to expect then from your dear friends , to whom , whenever they shall think fit to throw you off again , you have in other times given such arguments for their excuse ? p. . the sense of this period would have run every jot as well in these words . you see how the protestants , nay , and the very converts too are used in france , and you must e'en expect to be serv'd with the same sauce here . what colour can be pretended now for this calumny , after so many declarations , professions , and instances , every day fresh and fresh , to the contrary ? but this is the fruit of a restless , and an insatiable comprehension-principle , that never in this world thought any thing enough , short of all. besides all this , you act very unskilfully against your visible interest , if you throw away the advantages , of which you can hardly fail in the next probable revolution . things tend naturally to what you would have , if you would let them alone , and not by an unr●asonable activity lose the influences of your good star which promiseth you every thing that is prosperous . p. , . why this is directly a calculating of the kings nativity , and an allmost-vnheard of way of raising a use of consolation , to the people , from the king's mortality , if not the very hope of his majesties death . the church of england , convinced of its error in being severe to you ; the parliament , whenever it meeteth , sure to be gentle to you ; the next heir bred in the country which you have so often quoted for a pattern of indulgence ; a general agreement of all thinking men , that we must no more cut our selves off from the protestants abroad , but rather enlarge the foundations upon which we are to build our defences against the common enemy ; so that in truth , all things seem to conspire to give you ease and satisfaction , if by too much hast , to anticipate your good fortune , you do not destroy it . p. . if the poor king ( god bless us all ) should take absolute will and pleasure upon him , at the rate of the vnacountable author of this letter ; and talk of parliaments , as if he had their necks under his girdle , there would be no living , for popular appeals and letters to dissenters . why 't is made little less then treason against the majesty of the multitude for an imperial prince , only to recommend the easing of his subjects of his own communion , from the legal scandal , and imputation of being made criminals by the statute ; and to exempt them from the civil snares of tests , and penalities , before any immoral crime is committed . mythinks his majesty might be allowed one short word , for the defendent , as well as any private letter-writer a thousand against him ; and to feel the pulse of a parliament before hand , what they intend to do , as well as the other , to direct pronounce , and appoint before-hand , what they are , and ought to do : but who , o● what can be innocent , when it shall be a crime to be thankful ? and for a sovereign prince , even in a protestant cause , to grant liberty to a protestant party ? but to take him together now , here 's the church , crying peccavi ; security given for the good behaviour of the next parliament : and so away for holland ; [ that pattern of indulgence ; ] ( witness their taxes and oppressions innumerable , as well as intolerable : ) and what 's his bus'ness at last , but treating of allyances , ( b● what authority i know not ) and enlarging the protestant foundations , upon which ( he says ) we are to build our defences against the common enemy . ] his majesty ( god preserve him ) being one of the number , against whom , these defences are to be built . his conclusion is ( in truth ) pithy , and pathetical ; [ not too fast , my masters , and your work will do it self . ] the protestants have but one article of humane strength , to oppose the power which is now against them , and that is , not to lose the advantage of their numbers , by being so unwary as to let themselves be divided . he is all , poltiques here , up to the hilts : he has erected a scheme ; found out a propitious star ; ensur'd upon a parliament ; propos'd an allyance ; enlarg'd foundations , and he is now come to muster up his troops . he finds , upon his books , that the protestants have the advantage of numbers : well! and what are those numbers to do ? they are to oppose the power which is now against them : so ! and what is the power that is against them ? why the power of the papists , every mother's son of ' em . one and all is the word ; that is to say , you must not suffer your selves to be divided . we all agree in our duty to our prince ; our objections to his belief , do not hinder us from seeing his virtues ; and our not complying with his religion , hath no effect upon our allegiance ; we are not to be laug'ed out of our passive obedience , and the doctrine of non resistance , though even those who perhaps owe the best part of their security to that principle are apt to make a jest of it . p. . this is one of the trimmest periods we have had yet : men may agree in their duty to their prince , and yet mistake that duty ; and neither judge of it , nor practice it aright . if by this duty , he means a duty so qualified , as that is which runs thorough this paper , the lord deliver his majesty from his subjects agreement in a duty of that complexion . a man may see his princes virtue , without loving him ever the better for 't . and what is it to say , that the kings religion does not operate upon my allegeance , when my allegeance may be rotten , as well without it , as with it . a man may be debauched , and corrupted out of his passive obedience , without being laugh'd out of it ; and the practice of non-resistance is deaf to the doctrine of it . so that this is all , fast , or loose , as he pleases himself . so that if we give no advantage by the fatal mistake of mis-applying our anger , by the natural course of things , this danger will pass away like a showre of hail ; fair weather will succeed , as lowring as the sky now looketh , and all by this plain and easie receipt ; let us be still , quiet , and undivided , firm at the same time to our religion , our loyalty , and our laws ; and so long as we continue this method , it is next to impossible , that the odds of two hundred to one should lose the bett ; except the church of rome which hath been so long barren of miracles , should now in her declining age , be brought to bed of one that ●●ould out do the best she can brag of in her legend . p. . if he had but preach'd this doctrine by his example , and practic'd the counsel that he gives , he should never have hamper'd himself in the difficulties , and non-sequiturs of this discourse . arger misapply'd , is a fatal mistake , he says , and he has given us a long letter here , in proof on 't : but why does he bid us be [ still ] and lye wrangling himself ? why does he advise [ quiet ] and create disquiet ? how comes he to press vnity , and at the same time to raise [ divisions ? ] religion , loyalty , and laws , are gay words ; but they have been apply'd , we know , to the license of the most atheistical , rebellious , and dissolute times . if his counsel be general , the advice of this clause overthrows the drift , and contradicts the design of all that went before ; for the papists are excepted out of the conditions . if he restrains it only to the protestants , what colour of right can any one part of his majesties subjects pretend to , for the excluding of any other ? he closes the section with an allegory upon midwifry , which i have no skill in . to conclude , the short question will be , whether you will joyn with those who must in the end run the same fate with you . if protestants of all sorts , in their behaviour to one another , have been to blame , they are upon the more equal terms , and for that very reason it is fitter for them now to be reconciled . our dis-union is not only a reproche , but a danger to us ; those who believe in modern miracles , have more right , or at least more excuse , to neglect all secular cautions ; but for us , it is as justifiable to have no religion , as wilfully to throw away the human means of preserving it . p. . here is indeed , as short , and as wild a question , as a body would wish , without any qualification , either express'd , or imply'd , for the putting of a man in the way toward a reasonable solution . if he had but confin'd the general expression of the [ same fate , ] to matter of religion , life , limb , liberty , or estate ; or to any other determinate point , that a body might have known what to speak to , one might have made a bolt or a shaft on 't ; but to talk of the [ same fate ] at large : why who knows , but he may carry it to election , reprobation , or what not ? and , under favour , it was a great oversight in him , to lay the stress of the persuasive upon the train of the company , that goes the same way , rather then upon the reason of the thing : especially considering , that the same argument holds stronger for the broad way , then it does for the narrow . 't is true , he proposes an vnion here , which is neither better , nor worse , then an association . there remains yet one very extraordinary point behind , that is not , upon any terms , to be pass'd over without some animadversion . that is to say , a resolution upon the case , betwixt the comprehensional-church-of-england-men , and the dissenters , as it is determin'd by the author of this letter . resolved , that it is as justifiable to have no religion , as willfully to throw away the humane means of preserving it . in the first place , what is that man's religion , that is of a hundred and fifty religions , according to the case here in hand ? or has that man any religion , or no , that compounds all these into one ? ly . had not a man better be careless , or improvident , then atheistical ? and better be guilty of a failing in his duty toward god , in this or that particular , then of a blasphemous defyance of him in the habit of an impious life ? ly . what does the author intend by [ humane means ? ] for conspiracies , force of arms , seditious practices , and all the methods of overturning governments , fall properly enough under the classis of [ humane means . ] now if a man may take the liberty with this paper , that the fathers of the church do with the holy bible , i. e. of expounding one text by another : here is anti-monarchical doctrine in 't ; project of confederacy ; force of numbers , and dint of calumny ; which do all fall naturally under the topique of [ humane means . ] the word [ willfully ] ( even if the other law words , advisedly , and maliciously , had been added to 't , ) amounts to no more then what is necessarily involv'd , and imply'd in the rest. now to conclude ; humane means for preserving a religion , can operate no further then in cases where religion may be taken away ; and i never heard of a religion yet , that was taken away by actual violence . i have now done with the letter it self ; and the authors last words , shall be the answerers too . i am , dear sir , your most affectionate humble servant . in the course of this letter and answer i have dealt faithfully in every particular both of text and comment ; but i have somewhat yet more to add upon the whole matter , touching the judgment , candor , and design of the author , together with the conduct , and argument of the paper it self . the author writes himself a church-of-england-man , but it must be by a second venter then ; for he gives his orthodox mother most bloudy hard words , even in his pretended zeale for the interest of that communion . a papist is his aversion : and then he is no dissenter neither ; for 't is the main drift of his discourse , to cluck the dissenters over to him , and gather them under his wing : only by shewing what he is not , he gives in some measure to understand what he is. if one may judge of his perswasion , by his letter , it is an hundred and fifty diversities , of opinion , kneaded together according to the amsterdam dispensatory , into one sovereign composition , under the nick name of [ protestant : ] so that a body may say of the religion of this pamphlet , as the wench in the comedy said of her bastard , 't is the trovp's religion , 't is the trovp's child ; and there went a great many people to the making of it . in one word ; it is a coalition of so many nominal religions into one state-faction ; for though there may be conscience in the particular opinions , severally , and apart ; it is yet impossible for the agreement to be any thing but a confederacy , in the conjunction ; tha being the only medium wherein they can vnite . as to the candor of the writer , and his design ; it is as clear as day , that he has taken up a false pretence , as well as a false person ; and that he neither is a genuine son of the church of england , nor a true friend to 't ; for light and darkness are not more contrary one to another , then his practice is to his profession : insomuch , that his own words and works are a thousand witnesses against him . the church of england , he says , upon the late kings restauration , sacrificed their interest to their revenge . rigid prelates that kept people at an uncharitable distance : stiff and inexorable to reasonable scruples : haughty , and govern'd by the spirit of persecution . letter to a dissenter , p. . is not this a gracious church-of-england-child now , to talk at this rate of his own mother ? and then to shew that he has every jot as little reverence for his civil parent , as he has for his ecclesiastical ; take his papers from end to end , and he has not so much as one line in 'em that looks kindly upon the government ; for what 's the drift of them , but to debauch the dissenters from their duty ; to possess the multitude with desperate positions against the king's power ; calumnies against his administration , and down-right slanders upon his honour and justice ! to hair them out of their wits , with croking , and ill-boding presages ; fill their heads with enflaming , and implacable jealousies , alarm them with visionary dangers ; stir them up to outrages , by an ostentation of their numbers ; flatter them into a false opinion of their right and privileges ! and who but the mobile , all this while , for the judges of the controversie ! what 's the whole discourse , in fine , but a lecture of civil power betwixt king and people , upon the text of protestant and papist ! and in one word ; a paradox of conscience dodg'd into a popular scheme of government ! but all , under the pretext still , of a church of england letter too ; though bloud was as much a church of england doctor , when he stole the crown ; and i would the resemblance of this pamphlet did not look like the same character assum'd again , for the same end. this letter , they say , has made some proselytes . ( as they call them : ) but secret friends , and abetters it has , in abundance , though , most infallibly , whoever is a friend to the intent , and matter of it , is an enemy to the true church of england , as well as to that of rome : to the honour of his majesty , and to the peace of his dominions : and therefore people should do well to consider the doctrine and the biass of this letter , before they take upon them to judge of the merits of it . i reckon it my duty however , not to let the scandal of so vndutiful a practice rest at the door of the church of england , if i know how to remove it . i have one word more to say yet , upon a fancy , that has taken people in the head upon this occasion : first , that no church of england man will answer this letter . ly . l'estrange , of all others , that has ever been so bitter , and so violent against liberty of conscience , is the unfittest man in nature , to take upon him to defend it : in contradiction to his toleration discuss'd , his observators , and twenty pamphlets more upon this subject . generals prove nothing ; beside that they are commonly the refuge of shufflers , and cheats . but i am content however , to put the matter to this issue : let but any man that charges mee with such contradictions , submit to pass for a fool , if he does not particularly prove them ; and let me wear the reputation of a knave , if ( in a fair and reasonable equity of construction ) he makes his accusation good. i have now but one point more to speak to ; and that 's the subject of the king's power ; 't is no more then what the letter requires , and what i have promised to do ; and in conclusion , a right that i owe , both to the cause , and to my word . the author of the letter to a dissenter has several dangerous doctrines and passages , p , , , a. upon the argument of the king's prerogative , and the duty of a subject . he questions the kings late declaration , in point of law , p. . and lays down for a maxim , that no trespass against the laws in being , is to be defended : though vniversal practice , and opinion are agreed upon 't , that the obligation of all humane laws , is in some sort , conditional . he makes addressing of thanks , upon that declaration , to be the giving up of a right in the law , p. . he supposes the king himself , doubtful of his own power , p. . he reasons all he can against the dispensing power , and repealing the test , p. . and he calls submission to that declaration , the setting up of a power to help the people , that will destroy them , p. . these positions are communicated ; in at least twenty thousand copies perhaps , to his majesties subjects , in all quarters of the kingdom ; and the doctrine , for t'd with the most artificial colours that the matter will bear . upon the whole business , there 's nothing to be done in such a case as this , but by encountring industry with industry and opposing truth to error . there will be no need of a distinct , and a particular answer to this and that clause , or period , but rather to speak to the whole question , at once , in a clear , and an effectual reply . to begin at the root of the controversie ; the king puts out a declaration of indulgence : the author of the letter to a dissenter , denyes his dispensing power ; makes the very acceptance of it criminal in the subject ; and a giving up of their rights ; and positively pronounces the law to be so sacred , that no trespass against it is to be defended . it rests now to prove , that this doctrine , and practice is not only erroneous , and pernicious , with a respect to our present case , and constitution , but utterly destructive of humane society , and of the very foundations of government it self . to say nothing how artificially the writer of that letter has shamm'd upon the people his maiesties act of grace in favour of the dissenters , for a matter concerted betwixt them , and the papists , without which pretence , the incidians part of the pamphlet falls to the ground . now for the clearing of this question , he that would take the just measures of the prerogatives of power , should properly look back into the original of government ; and from thence trace the wisdom , and the providence of almighty god , through the means to the end ; and through the causes to their effects ; there are , 't is true , certain prerogatives peculiar to this , or that frame of state and differing in one place , from what they are in another : but these are of a humane make , and may be laid down , as they were taken up , at pleasure . they are local , temporary , personal , conditional , occasional privileges perhaps , and not of the number of those sacred , vnchangeable , and incommunicable essentials , that we are here speking of . it was the work of an omnipotent power , to make the world out of nothing ; as order was the work of the divine wisdom , and government consequently , of a divine institution ▪ and appointment . this government was ordained for the regulation of men in society ; and that ordinance would have been utterly vain , and of no effect , without a competency of powers , and faculties , for securing of all the ends of it . now if government it self was immediately from god those eminences of privilege and authority without which that primary power cannot work , must needs be of divine right too ; and kings are so less answerable to their principal , for the maintenance of the power , with which they are entrusted , then they are for the exercise of it : so that if rulers cannot depart from these fundamentals of government without breach of faith ; if humane laws shall be found insufficient to answer all the emergencies , and variations of humane affairs ; and if the reserve of a power to dispense with those humane laws , in case of such and such exigencies , shall be likewise found of absolute necessity for the support of government ; the sum of the question will be brought into a narrow compass ; and no more then this : shall a prince , in favour of an imperfect , humane law , dispense with an vndispensable duty to a law divine ? and in so doing , dispense with god's law , rather then dispense with his own ? it is a thing past dispute , that many laws have been nullities in the very creation of them : and it is impossible to make any positive law of man so extensive , as to answer all circumstances of time , place . condition , change , or occasion : the force and the frequency of over-ruling necessities , is granted on all hands , and that where-ever the government is , there is the judgment . if the people may judge , they may censure ; if censure , punish , if punish , they govern : and the yielding of one point to a popular vsurpation , does in effect , tacitly entitle them to the rest. neither is there any other limit set to this power , then the honour , the conscience , and the justice of the governer ; for the bare admittance , of a check , or controll , implies a superiour power : men are corrupt , frail , short-sighted , and their works , imperfect . bills may be carry'd by passion , interest , power ; and there may be likewise inadvertency , or sinister consideration in the passing of them ; but the laws of nature , and of equity , are sacred , and certain ; for that which nature does , god does . this is chiefly intended of laws that were well enough , or perhaps , excellent provisions , at the first making of them ; but in tract of time , upon some vnexpected revolution ; or in such or such a case perchance , may be found inconvenient . these , i say , may be suspended ; but then there are laws of another sort , that are void , ab initio , and upon no terms to be either defended , or executed ; as i have instanced formerly somewhat to this purpose in the case of the proceedings , under charles the first against the papists . that excellent prince according to all reasonable , and humane presumption , lost his crown , and his life , in complement to a void act of his own , in pretending to bar himself the vse , and service of his subjects : as if an act of state could supersede a fundamental of god and nature . i have the authority of great man ( bishop sanderson ) to back me in the casuistical stress of this instance : [ god ( says he ) hath given to his vicegerents here on earth , a right in , and a power over the persons of all their subjects , within their several respective dominions , even to the spending of their lives in their countries service ; whensoever they shall be by their authority called thereunto . five cases , p. . ] now if they have these privileges of right , and power , from god ; and extending to all , and whensoever , without exception , either to time , number , or distinction of persons : what earthly power shall dare to controll this commission ? and i have one word more to offer now ( that i have formerly spoken to ) which comes a little closer yet to the point . the precept of [ honour thy father and thy mother ] is undoubtedly of divine authority ; and a command , of an immutable , and indispensable obligation : and it has catholique assent to 't , that it extends , as well to our civil , and political , as to our natural parents . by this law , all subjects are bound in conscience to attend the call , and the service of their prince ; for the precept is positive ; without any qualification , limitation , or condition whatsoever . the question will be shortly this now ; whether any king , can by any act of civil authority , divest himself of this right , over the persons of his subjects ? i do not say but he may chuse whether he will command them , or not ; but he cannot discharge his people of their duty of obedience , in case he requires their service ; that is to say ; in any case , which is not contrary to the will , and word of god. no humane law can absolve them from that office of allegeance : so that in the conclusion , either those subjects are clear before god , that serve their prince , when by him thereunto required , notwithstanding any law of man to the contrary ; or the ten commandments may be turn'd to waste paper ; if the law of the land shall forbid upon a penalty , that which the law of god , commands upon a penalty . this is enough for my present purpose ; and if it be not so for common satisfaction , my third volume of observators , has fifty times as much upon this subject . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e letter . answer . letter . answer . letter . answer . letter . answer . letter . answer . letter . answer . letter . answer . letter . answer . letter . answer . letter . answer . letter . answer . letter . answer . letter . answer . letter . answer . letter . answer . letter . answer . letter . answer . letter . answer . letter . answer . letter . answer . letter . answer . letter . answer . letter . letter . answer . letter . answer . letter . answer . letter . answer . letter . answer . letter . answer . letter . answer . letter . answer . letter . answer . letter answer . letter . answer . letter . answer . letter . answer . letter . answer . letter . answer . letter . answer . letter . answer . letter . answer . letter . answer . letter . answer . letter . answer . letter . answer . letter . answer . letter . answer . an account given of the principles & practices of several nonconformists wherein it appears that their religion is no other than what is profest in the church of england in vindication of themselves and others of their perswasion, against the misrepresentation made of them, and in hearty desire of unity in the church, and of peace and concord among all true protestants, for the strengthening of their common interest, in this time of their common danger / written by mr. john corbet ... corbet, john, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing c estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : b) an account given of the principles & practices of several nonconformists wherein it appears that their religion is no other than what is profest in the church of england in vindication of themselves and others of their perswasion, against the misrepresentation made of them, and in hearty desire of unity in the church, and of peace and concord among all true protestants, for the strengthening of their common interest, in this time of their common danger / written by mr. john corbet ... corbet, john, - . [ ], p. printed for tho. parkhurst ..., london : . advertisement: prelim.p. [ ]. reproduction of original in huntington library. with: the remains of the reverend and learned mr. john corbet, late of chichester. london : printed for thomas parkhurst ..., -- the nonconformist's plea for lay-communion with the church of england / by mr. john corbet ... london : printed for thomas parkhurst ..., . created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually 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proofread - emma (leeson) huber text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion an account given of the principles & practises of several nonconformists . wherein it appears that their religion is no other than what is profest in the church of england . in vindication of themselves and others of their perswasion , against the misrepresentation made of them . and in hearty desire of unity in the church , and of peace and concord among all true protestants , for the strengthening of their common interest , in this time of their common danger . written by mr. john corbet , late of chichester , and approved by many other nonconformists . london . printed for tho. parkhurst , at the bible and crowns near mercers chappel , at the lower end of cheapside . . to the reader . readers , least you should think that the agreement of all here written ( in sense and very much in words ) with what i have published , doth signifie that it is not wholly the authors work , but any of it mine , i do truly acquaint you that he never so much as acquainted me with his writing it ; nor did i read it all before i gave it to the printer ; nor did i alter , adde or diminish one word in all the book . but as we were of one mind and heart , our agreement is no wonder : and his widow ( the daughter of the famous dr. twisse ) assureth me that several eminent nonconforming divines saw it and approved it ; as i doubt not but most others will do when they have seriously perused it . but , alas , i that have known these twenty years , what other designes have been in some mens heads , inconsistent with all such indeavours for our concord , and how powerful those men have been who profess , [ that there is no way of concord , and avoiding schisme , but by obeying the governing universal church , which hath the power of universal legislation and judgement , which is a forreign jurisdiction ; ] i say , i that know this must needs know , how little more than the satisfying of our consciences , such pacificatory endeavours as these do signifie . but as my dear brother dyed in the comfort of christs judgment [ blessed are the peacemakers ] the rest of us wait in hope so to dye . richard baxter feb. . . several tracts not yet printed , prepared for the press , and left under mr. john corbett's own handting , intended shortly to be published , are as follows ; . the true state of the ancient episcopacy . . the present ecclesiastical government , compared with the ancient episcopacy . . a consideration of the present state of conformity in the church of england . . a discourse of the church and of the ministry thereof . . a tract of certainty and infallibility . . of divine worship , in three parts ; . of the nature , kinds , parts and adjuncts of divine worship . . of idolatry . . of superstition less than idolatry . . his humble representation of his case , touching the exercise of his ministry . . discourses , between dr. gunning , late bishop of chichester , and himself ; wherein are several humble defences made both as to his principles and practice . . an humble endeavour of some plain and brief explication of the decrees and operations of god about the free actions of men. more especially of the operations of divine grace . . matrimonial purity . an account given by some deprived ministers , of their judgement and practice , &c. the manifold reproaches heaped upon the nonconformists , among whom it is our lot to be numbred , have filled the whole nation . our religion hath been represented as a mixture of folly and villany ; our principles and tempers as turbulent , seditious , and utterly inconsistent with the peace of church or state ; and our pretences as frivolous and often baffled . our governours have been admonished to beware of us as their worst and most dangerous enemies , and excited to use the utmost severities against us . hereupon it behoves us to humble our selves in the sight of the lord , and to implore his mercy , and to bear his just rebukes in the unjust reproaches cast upon us by men ; also to suffer these indignities with christian patience , and to shew our selves reconcilable to those , who have been so adverse to us , and to endeavour peace and concord with them , if it be possible , many of whom we suppose to have been acted in this matter with an undissembled zeal , though not regulated by sound knowledge or due charity , but hurried with unreasonable prejudice and passion . we hold it also our duty not to neglect our own necessary vindication , but in honest simplicity to make known to all , what principals and practices we own and stand to . though we are taught and encouraged to labour and suffer reproach , and to reckon it a very small thing , to be judged by man's judgment , yet we are bound to vindicate our innocence for the truths sake , and out of charity towards all men to provide , what in us lies , that none may take an occasion of stumbling in us . and here it shall suffice us only to make a true representation of our selves , having this confidence , that the bare stating of our case will be our sufficient defence . . in the first place we declare , that with us the kingdom of god is not conformity or nonconformity as such , but christianity or real godliness , which is most summarily comprized in the baptismal covenant of grace , and more explicitely yet briefly in the creed , lords prayer and decaloge , and at large and most perfectly in the holy bible . a religiousness made up of little opinions , and modes , and phrases , and sidings with this or the other party , is none of ours , though we are injuriously personated in some late writings , to act such a part . faith , hope and love is the essence of our religion , and with us differences in things not essential , do not make different religions . vve disdain our being of a party as such ; and though the godly be a peculiar people , we confine not godliness to any peculiar way narrower than mere christianity . we make no humane additions in sacred things , nor any mutable circumstances to be the terms of christian fellowship . . accordingly we seek not the advancement of any sect or party , to the injury or neglect of the universal church , or christian cause , or the common good . and as we are no faction , we know that factiousness is not our interest , but turns to our greatest loss . our aims being christian and catholick , we seek the increase of the visible catholick church , or the whole society of men professing true christianity , in order to the increase of the church invisible , or the society of regenerate christians . and to these ends we desire and most approve the primitive simplicity in doctrine , worship , and discipline . and herein we boast not , as if we were the only men of the primitive christian spirit , but we answer them , who have trampled upon us as an impertinent trifling sect. . we heartily own the protestant reformation in doctrine , and particularly that of the church of england , contained in the nine and thirty articles , except those two or three that relate only to some of our present differences , and not at all to the doctrine of faith and sacraments . and we greatly esteem the soundness of the doctrine contained in the homilies . we unfeignedly assent to the sense of his majesties declaration concerning ecclesiastical affairs in that passage , wherein he justly rebukes those that had the hardyness to publish , that the doctrine of the church ( against which no man with whom he had conferred , had excepted ) ought to be reformed as well as the discipline . be it here observed , that some conformists tell us , that they heartily subscribe to the nine and thirty articles , taking the liberty of interpretation , that is allowed by the church her self , though it be most reasonable to presume that she requires subscription to them , as to an instrument of peace only ; and for this , the testimony of an eminent bishop is cited , saying , the church of england doth not define any of these questions as necessary to be believed necessitate medii , or praecepti which is much less , but only to bind her sons , for peace sake , not to oppose them . but for our parts we believe the very truth of the doctrine contained in them , according to the genuine sense of the words . . we are not ashamed constantly to affirm , that the word of god is the perfect rule of divine faith and vvorship ; and we apprehend that it is not lawfull for the church , or any power upon earth , to make new worship of the same common nature and reason , with those universal and perpetual ordinances , which the word hath already made . nevertheless particular modes and accidents , and mere circumstances of worship , which are common to it , with all humane actions , are left to the determination of humane prudence ; according to the general rules of scripture . and we take such determination in those matters to be no addition to god's word , and no argument of the defectiveness of his laws , but merely an application of the general law in particular cases , as the law it self doth warrant . a firm agreement of the non-conformists with the church of england , in the substantial parts of god's worship , hath been long since manifested in their papers presented to his majesty . we still acknowledge the lawfulness of a set form of liturgy for matter agreable to god's word , and suited to the nature of the several ordinances , and to the necessities of the church : yet the minister should not be so confined to it , as not to make use of his own gifts of prayer and exhortation . vve still profess that we are obliged to do all things decently and in order : but we are not satisfied in the lawfulness of such ceremonies , as in their designed end seem to draw to near to the significancy and moral efficacy of sacraments , and which have been rejected by many of the reformed churches abroad . and we believe that god's worship is best managed for the exterior form thereof , when it hath least of humane mixtures in things unnecessary adjoyned and appropriated thereunto . . we intirely own that ministry , that god hath set in the church , whether extraordinary and temporary as that of the apostles , or ordinary and perpetual , as that of bishops or pastors , and teachers . vve believe that it is christs high prerogative , transcending all humane authority to institute spiritual offices ; ( how be it there may be offices circa sacra of man's appointment ) that spiritual officers receive their authority from christ as the immediate donor thereof by his charter ( though their designation to their office it not ordinarily immediate without man's interposing ) and consequently they are christ's immediate stewards , commissioned by him and accountable to him , each one for himself in particular ; that the power of the keys for binding and losing , for retaining and remitting of sins is essential to a presbyter or bishop ; that ministerial power is delivered by ordination , as by way of solemn investiture ; and that each particular church ought to have their proper bishop or pastor , ( one or more ) residing among them for all ministerial duties , who hath no coercive power upon the bodies or estates of men , and may rule them by no other instrument , than the sword of the spirit , which is the word of god , working upon their consciences , and their outward standing in the church . . the church being the lord's heritage and portion ought not to lye common , but must be fenced with christ's spiritual discipline , that it be not laid wast and lost in a vvorld of ungodliness breaking in upon it . this charge is committed to the pastors , who are accountable for the same to the chief shepherd . by the order of the church of england all presbyters were charged , till very lately , in the form of ordaining ministers , to administer the doctrine , sacraments and discipline , as the lord hath ordained , and as this realm hath received the same . and that they might the better understand what the lord hath commanded , the exhortation of st. paul to the elders of the church of ephesus was appointed to be read to them at the time of their ordination . take heed to your selves and to all the flock , over which the holy ghost hath made you over-seers to rule the congregation of god , which he hath purchased with his own blood . admission into the church by baptism is one act of pastoral government , and includes the judging of the title of the party to be so admitted . that which we require in the adult for their visible church-membership , is their intelligent owning of the baptismal covenant by a serious profession , there being no notoriety or proof of an invalidating contradiction . other parts of discipline are the publick admonition of scandalous offenders , and injoyning of penitence , the excommunication of the obstinate , and the absolution of the penitent . this spiritual government is not to be managed with external force and terror , like the secular power , but by reproof , exhortation and doctrine , that the offender may be convinced and judged in his own conscience . and we take it for a great reproach to christ's discipline to tell the vvorld , that it is a powerless thing of it self , and insufficient to obtain its end , unless the temporal sword inforce it . yet we would not have the church destitute of the magistrate's due assistance and encouragement . . as touching the form of church government , the scripture-bishop or evangelical pastor we do and ever did acknowledge . likewise we neither do nor ever did renounce the episcopacy or presidency , which was of an ancient ecclesiastical custom , as in the time of ignatius , yea or of cyprian . bishop ushers model of government by bishops and arch-bishops with their presbyters , was by some of us presented to his majesty , as a ground-work of accommodation . king charles the first in his discourse touching the differences between himself and the two houses in point of church government , declares his judgment in these words , that he is not against the managing of the episcopal presidency in one man , by the joynt counsell and consent of many presbyters , but that he had offered to restore it as a fit means to avoid those errors , and corruptions , and partialities , which are incident to any one man , also to avoid tyranny which becomes no christian , least of all church men ; besides it will be a means to take away that odium and burden of affairs , that may lye too heavy on one mans shoulders , as he thought it did formerly on the bishops here . vve judge the episcopal or pastoral office to be a personal trust , not to be discharged by delegation to others , and especially that it cannot be deputed to them that are not bishops or pastors , and that secular persons cannot administer that power , which intrinsecally belongs to spiritual officers . and we cannot justifie any ecclesiastical government in a stated bereaving of the pastors of particular churches of that power , that is essential to their office , and in a stated hindering of the effectual exercise of church discipline . . we detest all manner of sacriledge , and we think we are as willing as any others , that it should be noted and reproved , and that one kind thereof , the unjust alienation of lands and goods , devoted to the church's use for the support of gods service , we utterly condemn . but there are those that think they can never enough inveigh against this kind , yet fear not to commit the same sin in other instances , which are not less abominable , as the sacriledge of pluralists , non-residents , and all negligent and insufficient ministers , who devour that which is holy , taking the ministerial benefice , and not performing the service . and to alienate persons and gifts , that have beensolemnly consecrated to god , we take to be real sacriledge . . we are as willing as any others to take notice of the heinous sin of schism . but we earnestly desire many that cry out against schismaticks , more impartially to consider the nature of this sin , and to hate it in its full extent . we know the necessity and excellency of christian unity and concord , and the deformity and misery of division , and earnestly pray that christian charity might be so conspicuous , that all may know that we are christ's disciples by our loving one another . we are for building the church's unity upon its only adequate foundation , which is jesus christ , the same yesterday , and to day , and for ever ; and in vain do any hope to build it upon a narrower foundation . we are against the devising of new articles of faith , and new parts of religion , and the inforcing of oaths and subscriptions to the same . we require subscription or ingagement to no more than the holy bible , and if any swerve from the truth in wicked error or practice , let them be tryed and judged by that unalterable law , which themselves have assented to ▪ and we think this the surest way to preserve the christian church in soundness of doctrine , integrity of life , and holy peace . but if the setting forth of a publick confession of faith or articles of religion be insisted on , we allow it as a rule to preachers , who may be punishable , if they preach contrary doctrine , though they be not inforced to subscribe to every tittle . moreover we hold not our selves obliged to forsake a true ▪ church as no church , for the corruptions and disorders found therein , or to separate from its worship for the tolerable faults thereof , while our personal profession of some error , or practice of some evil is not required as the terms of our communion . how be it we are not so indifferent in this matter as to make no difference between churches and pastors . the more pure and powerfull administration of god's ordinances is to be preferred before that which is more faulty and less effectual . and here again we acknowledge , that in this preferrence due caution must be used . vve must not respect our own particular benefit before publick peace and order , and the general good . . vve believe that the power of civil magistrates is god's ordinance , necessary for the government of the world ; that their whole authority is derived from him , and subordinate to him , the only universal and unlimited sovereign lord ; that god's glory and the eternal salvation of men , are higher and nobler ends of their authority than temporal prosperity and peace , that all their decrees and executions should chiefly refer to these ends . and that in their way they are charged with the souls of men under their jurisdiction . vve acknowledge that supreme magistrates have a civil supremacy in all ecclesiastical matters , and a political episcopacy over the pastors of the church , in their sacred administrations , and may compell them to the performance of their duty , and punish them for their negligence or mal-administration , that they may call synods , and make canons , and warrantably thus reform the church , when it stands in need of reformation . accordingly we acknowledge the kings supremacy in all causes , and over all persons , civil and ecclesiastical , in these his majesties realms and dominions . moreover we believe that the higher powers are not to be mere executioners of the judgments of ecclesiasticks , but that they may and must be judges thereof themselves , in order to their own execution ; that their great and proper work about religion is to incourage and inforce obedience to the divine laws , and in subserviency thereunto , to determine such things circa sacra as are requisite in general , but in the particulars are left undetermined of god ; likewise that by moderate penalties they may restrain persons of impious principles , as atheists , infidels , hereticks from venting their wicked errors , and from any open impious practice ; and that they may constrain men to use such means as god hath made universally necessary to bring the ignorant to knowledge ; but not to profess either in word or deed what they believe not , or to take that which god hath made the special priviledge of believers . lastly , their imperial government in religion should be mixed with a paternal clemency and tenderness , according to the meekness of christ , whose servants they are , not only as christians but as magistrates . . it is our principle , that humane laws bind the conscience , or ( to speak more properly ) the subjects in point of conscience , not by a primary obligation as the laws of god do , but by a secundary and subordinate , as from a power derived from god. as it is an evident and important truth , that inferiors ought to obey their superiors for conscience sake , so it is as evident and important , that when mens commands contradict the commands of god , it is god and not man that must have the preeminence in our obedience . vvith us it is no controversie , whether the king or conscience be the supreme governour . it is the magistrate only that enacts publike laws , and hath the publike decisive judgment whether according to his laws we are justifiable or condemnable . as for conscience it is no governour at all , but only a discerner of our duty , and an internal witness for us , or against us , according to our practice ; and consequently it is concerned to know the will of god , and whether the commands of men be consentaneous or contrary thereunto , which men call the judgment of discretion . if the magistrates command be just , the subjects pretending against its lawfulness cannot justifie his disobedience ; and if the command be sinfull , his judging it to be lawfull cannot excuse his doing of it from being sin . it is the subject's duty in these cases first to lay by his error , and then to act according to truth and right , and for that end to use the best means for his own true information . whereas some teach , that when we doubt of the lawfulness of the thing enjoyned , and ▪ are certain that obedience to authority is a duty , we must do the thing ; vve conceive that we cannot be certain of our obligation , to obey in a case wherein we are not sure of the lawfulness of the thing commanded , because we are sure we must not obey the magistrates command in things unlawfull , and our ignorance or error cannot alter our obligation to gods law. here is therefore an uncertainty on either side , and perhaps the danger may be greater on the side of obeying than refusing . for possibly the injunction of a heinous sin may be the matter of the uncertainty , and in this streight we apprehend it more unsafe and less excusable , to choose the greater before the lesser sin , though indeed it be lawfull to choose neither . vve hold not that an indifferent thing becomes unlawfull by being commanded , but on the contrary , that a thing indifferent before the magistrate's command , doth after the command become a duty , it being such as he hath authority to command . indeed we cannot receive the dictates of some men , who have written too daringly about conscience , in reference to humane powers . vve boast not of such principles as make men of ductile consciences , obsequious to all designs and interests , but we embrace such as will keep the church and vvorld in order . . vvhen the higher powers command what god forbids , though we are bound not to perform it , yet we must be subject , and not resist , but patiently submit to suffering . the cause of religion doth not warrant subjects to take arms against their lawfull prince , nor may they , by armed violence against authority , attempt the publique reformation thereof . we hold that it is unlawfull by the constitution and laws of this kingdom , for any subjects to take arms against the king , his office , authority or person , or by force of arms to resist any magistrate or officer ; legally commissionated or authorized by him , yea subjects are bound not only not to resist but to assist and defend their sovereign with their estates and lives , and the preachers of the gospel ought to teach the people obedience and loyalty , and to indeavour to root out all principles of sedition , rebellion and disobedience . vve believe that we are under no bond or obligation to act any thing contrary to these our avowed principles . and we further make known our detestation of all the indignity and violence offered to the person of our late sovereign , and especially that most horrid execrable fact of taking away his life , as also the usurpations and violent change of the government that did accompany the same , against which crimes , while they were carryed on , the brethren of our perswasion openly protested even to the faces of the actors . touching government and obedience we know no controversie between us and the conforming clergy , that is purely moral or theological . indeed there hath been political and law controversies , respecting the different constitutions of states and kingdoms . now some men to serve their own designs have made these to be taken for differences in religion , when as they are agitated among states-men and lawyers , without respect to any difference in religion , and with much variety and uncertainty of opinion . and as for us we publiquely profess to ascribe as much to princes and sovereign powers , as is ascribed to them by the ancient christian church in any general councell , or by any protestant church in any synod or publike confession thereof . and in the political questions about royal prerogatives , and the priviledges of parliaments , and the peoples immunities , we interpose not at all , for they are out of our sphere , but in reference thereunto we acquiesce in the determinations of the laws of this kingdom . . vve doubt not but this free and open dealing will be our defence against those licentious tongues and pens , that have proclaimed the religion of the non-conformists to be a foolish religion , when indeed it is no other than the religion professed by the church of england ; and that our principles of government have a palpable inconsistence with the wellfare of governours , when we offer an appeal concerning it to the whole christian church , both of the present and former ages . as for our state of nonconformity , it is our grievance and distress , and it is not in the power of our own wills to help us . vve affect not singularity , disunity or dissent from others , and so far as we are constrained to it , we take it for our infelicity . we grudg not at the liberty of others , but are so far glad on the behalf of able and faithfull men , as they are in a capacity of more publike service for god and his church ; and though we are dissatisfied in the way wherein they have gained it , yet we retain charity and peace towards them , and are willing to concurr with them in the common interest of true religion . . they are much mistaken in our case , who think it is the mere inexpedience of the things injoyned that we stick at . vve question the truth of some assertions , and the lawfullness of some ordinances of worship , and fear the dangerous tendency of some forms and rules of ministration , of which and of other matters in difference we are ready to render a particular account , when authority shall require it . vve acknowledge that some parts of the matter of our dissent are comparatively small things , and in no wise to be valued more than unity and peace . vve lay the main stress on the main truths and duties of christianity , and for these lesser things , we would bear with others in the belief and practice of them , but others will not bear with us in forbearing to own or use them , while we think them erroneous and forbidden , or at least do rationally doubt of their truth and lawfullness . now this presseth upon us , that we may not do lesser evils that greater good may come , and therefore we cannot do these comparatively little things . for it is not a little thing to sin deliberately in the least matter , and the willfull breach of the least of god's commandments is a contempt of his authority in the whole law. and whereas we are commonly said to strain at gnats and swallow camels , if we be indeed convicted of such partiality , let us bear this brand of hypocrites . in the mean while let our accusers know and dread the guilt of rash judgment . moreover if some of the things themselves be small , yet it is not a small thing , that is required of us about them , namely a declaration and subscription of our unfeigned assent and consent to all and every thing contained in large humane volumes , imposed by our superiors , who acknowledge they are not infallible . vve have not so much as our internal judgment and choice left to us about a multitude of humane ordinances and determinations . our peaceable bearing and holding communion with them , that practice these things , yea our quiet submission to the use thereof as tolerable sufficeth not , ( as we apprehend it ) but there must be also an hearty and intire approbation thereof as laudable . had we sufficient authoritative warrant to believe , that these recognitions import no more than our peaceable behaviour toward the church , as some have intimated , we would as readily subscribe the same as they . but we do not think it safe to proceed upon the presumption of such a meaning as hath no better warrant , and we dread to profess the approbation of the things we disallow . furthermore , though in some regard we are more concerned about the controverted opinions , forms and ceremonies , to wit as they are bound upon all conformists to be personally owned and used by them , ( to which we may add the inforcing of reordination , which is a bar set to many of our number ) yet there are other things wherein the state of religion is as much or more concerned . it is hard for us so to bind our selves under all the present orders and customs in the ecclesiastical polity , and its management , as to ingage against all necessary reformation . vve are sensible how much the good of the church , that is , the increase of true godliness , lyes in the due exercise of discipline , and we are very tender of setting any bar against it , by our own act . . but least by this intimation we may be thought to intend what indeed we do not , we declare that we will not indeavour any alteration of the government in church or state , as it is in the king , whose civil and ecclesiastical supremacy we have before acknowledged ; nor the alteration of the true episcopal office which christ hath setled in his church ; nor will we indeavour any alteration in the church , by any seditious or unlawfull means , but only by prayer to god , by humbly petitioning our superiors , or obeying the king if he command it , or such like lawfull means , as belong to us in our places and callings . . we affect not church-domination , ( howsoever we have been reported to grasp at power in our own way , as much as others do in theirs ) we only desire a liberty of discharging our duty to the congregations , to which we are sent . vve would exercise discipline toward such only , as voluntarily submit thereunto . vve would have no coercive power annexed unto it , nor temporal penalties immediately consequent to any spiritual sentence . vve utterly disclaim this opinion , that when the clergy hath excommunicated any man , the magistrate is bound in conscience to confiscate , banish , or otherwise punish meerly upon their sentence , without hearing or trying the cause by his laws at his own bar . we look upon church tyranny as the great calamity of christendom , and would by no means have a hand in its advancement , under any form of government whatsoever . having read in history by what steps the roman clergy overtop'd princes and emperors , we can in no wise promote the twisting of clergy domination by oaths and other publique ingagements into the frames of secular kingdoms , and that in precedency to the civil power . . all the reasons of our non-conformity cannot be here expected by any that know upon what terms we stand . we make it our humble and earnest supplication to our superiors , that by their favourable permission we might have leave to write and publish more largely and particularly , both touching our dissents , and in answer to the accusations made against us . for such a defence , as we now ask leave to make , hath hitherto been for born , to avoid the displeasure of our governors . . it is easie for that side which is uppermost to speak for their own way , that as much hath been written as may satisfie any that have a mind to be satisfied . but they should remember the common infirmity of mankind , and what strange disparity there is in mens understandings , and what diversity of apprehensions , especially in matters of doubtfull disputation . vve profess in his sight who knows our hearts , that we have a mind to be satisfied , if we knew how . and there is rational evidence for the truth of what we speak , for that our dissatisfaction must needs be against our interest , if it were remediable . any conscientious principles narrower than the truth , entangle those that are governed by them ; and our principles of non-conformity , if erroneous , are a great snare unto us , and keep us under such confinement , as is no way desireable by us , and therefore if we might be free , we would use it rather , and willingly retract that error , that puts us to so much trouble . and surely they judge too hardly of us , that think the supposed shame of a retractation , would keep us from embracing our own liberty and safety , and promoting the churches peace and unity . if our consciences were well secured , we would trust god with our reputation . to those that speak of our baffled cause , and charge us with invincible obstinacy after shamefull overthrows , we shall not now mention such books of special note , and not tediously voluminous , as were written on our side in former times by men of reputation , that were never answered ; we shall only mind them to consider , what answer hath been made to some later published writings on our part , as the petition for peace , with the reformation of the liturgy , and the last reply made to the bishops by the divines , commissioned together with them for the review of the common prayer , though the matter and season earnestly called for it . for they were presented to the bishops before the act of uniformity came forth , while the things for which we suffer were under publike consultation . . our dissents can be no just provocation to any . our equals that differ from us are upon this account no more reproached in us , than we in them , and we can no more be thought to reflect an imputation of evil on them , than they on us . towards our superiors our dissent carryes in it no more indignity , than a supposition that they may err . and we agree with them in so much , as the wisdom of god hath made necessary to christian concord . . his majesty expressed his resolution to become the effectual moderator of our differences , and graciously accepted the proposals made by some of us with acknowledgment of their moderation . this he hath largely made known in his declaration concerning ecclesiastical affairs , wherein he gives this testimony to the ministers of the presbyterian perswasion , that attended on him in holland . to our great satisfaction and comfort we found them persons full of affection to us , and of zeal to the peace of church and state , and neither enemies , as they had been given out to be to episcopacy or liturgy ; but modestly to desire such alterations in either as without shaking foundations , might best allay the present distempers . and he expressed himself in reference to those things wherein the learned men of either persuasion were agreed as followeth , if upon these excellent foundations in submission to which there is such a harmony of affections , any superstructure should be raised to the shaking of those foundations , and to the contracting or lessening of the blessed gift of charity , which is a vital part of christian religion , we shall think our self very unfortunate , and even suspect that we are defective in that administration of government , with which god hath intrusted us . and he saith farther , that he doth not think his reverence to the church of england , as it is established by law , in the least degree diminished by condescentions , not peremptorily to insist on some particulars of ceremony , which howsoever introduced by the piety and devotion and order of former times , may not be so agreable to the present , but may lessen that piety and devotion for the improvement whereof they might happily be introduced , and consequently may well be dispensed with . this gracious healing declaration was received with the thanks of the house of commons , and with the applause of the people , and it was to our special joy . had the moderation therein specified stood in force , we have no cause to doubt but that tranquillity and concord in the church would have ensued . but the frustration thereof lay not on our parts . it is our comfort that we have earnestly sought peace and unity , though we have not so far prevailed , as to gain so much as the abatement of one ceremony , but our bonds have been made stronger , and the terms of our ministerial liberty much harder to us , than they were in the former times of prelacy . . some indeed say that to indulge us any abatement of injunctions , even in things indifferent and mutable , would cherish us in our ungovernable perswasions , and the church would yield up her authority to those principles , that would be an everlasting hinderance of her settlement . these men speak as if our exclusion , not our conformity were desired . but against their uncharitable and unsober assertion , we offer our principles already here testified to the tryal and judgment of all impartial and unprejudiced minds , and challenge our adversaries to gain say them , or to prove that we falsly pretend unto them . . the extravagant pens of some writers have made ridiculous and odious descriptions of us , to expose us to the common scorn and hatred . they would make the world believe that instead of the precepts of the gospell intelligibly set forth , we make a religion of metaphors and allegories , and new phrases , of thin airy notions , frivolous and senseless nicities , and fanatick whimsies . this they fix promiscuously upon the non-conformists from passages collected out of some writers , that go under that name . but suppose those passages as erroneous and frivolous as they would make them , would any party in the vvorld or they themselves be so dealt with ? should a collection of errors , absurdities , incongruities , injudicious expressions , and such like weaknesses be pick'd here and there out of the writings of this and the other conformists , and then be intituled the religion of the conforming clergy . let the divinity of the non-conformists , that is extant defend it self , we are not carefull about this matter . indeed we cannot boast that none among us are injudicious , yea , or that any one among us doth never write or speak an incongruous word . if our adversaries so boast of themselves and theirs , let them take the glory of it , we are not called to this boasting , or to compare our selves with others . it is too well known how great a part of the clergy throughout christendom ( as indeed of all other sorts of men ) are defective and imprudent in their expressions . but by insisting on this kind of exceptions , our adversaries have done us this right as in effect to tell the vvorld that the non-conformists are not deprived and silenced for treason , rebellion , drunkenness , swearing , incontinences , rayling , insufficiency , idleness , seldom preaching , pluralities , non-residence , and such like immoralities . let not the progress of our just and necessary defence be taken for self exalting . for we do not exclude others , but only include our selves in that sobriety , from which some would exclude us , and we do this to shew that others ought to receive us , seeing we accord in the greater things , notwithstanding our lesser differences . . we earnestly disavow , and teach the people to beware of the conduct of pretended inspirations ; and we own god's publick laws written in scripture and nature for our perpetual rule . the world knows that the rational evidence of christian religion , and of the divine authority of the scriptures , hath been as much owned among us , and as largely asserted by some of ours , as by any of them , that so speak , as if they were the only propugnators and preachers thereof . we take the spirit 's grand testimony to the truth of the gospel , not to stand in some inward unaccountable suggestion and perswasion , but in an objective evidence propounded to the reason of mankind ; though we likewise hold the spirits internal teaching , and the gift of illumination to be necessary to saving faith. we do not hunt after mysteries in words and phrases , yet we would not make void or lessen the great mystery of godliness , and make no more of it than a scheme of moral philosophy . we approve not affected language , yet we would not have the things of the spirit of god spoken in scripture language called canting . we make it our business to understand the things we affirm , and to speak sense to our hearers in the plainest words , and in preaching to avoid vain janglings , and impertinent curiosities , useless speculations , novelties , and vain ostentation of wit and fancy , and to insist on things essential or of great importance to christian piety , and whereinsoever we have done weakly , we desire to do better , and refuse not to learn even from our adversaries . . in man's conversion to god we urge not the necessity of any thing that is unnecessary . we stand not on certain modes , methods and circumstances , in which it may be brought about , wherein the wisdom of god proceeds variously towards several persons , according to the different circumstances of their condition . as for instance , we assert not a general necessity of this or that measure of humiliation ▪ much less of a dismal despairing horror ( as some have said of us ) we press conviction and humiliation no farther than to make a sinner restless till he come to christ , and find rest to his soul in him . and we take not conversion to be ( as some have slandered us ) an imbracing of our opinions , or an adhering to our party ; but an internal principle of faith , hope and love expressed in a sober , righteous and godly life . if this be it , which some mean , when they speak so highly of morality and virtue , we will not differ with them about the name . for morality or immorality taken not vulgarly but theologically , is no other than the conformity or inconformity of our minds and actions to god and his laws . and that to preach morality in this sense is to preach christ , we acknowledge as freely as any others . but we know the vulgar notion thereof respects the civil righteousness of the natural man , and for the sake of common hearers , who understand words , as they are commonly used among themselves , we think it necessary to distinguish between saving grace and moral virtue . furthermore we say not , nor are we acquainted with them that do say , that the morally righteous man is at a greater distance from grace , than the prophane , and better be lewd and debauched than to lead an honest and virtuous life . we hear no such words out of the mouths of non-conformists , though some have suggested it against us , to make us odious . and it seems strange , that any should insinuate a charge of antinomianism against us , by making the personated non-conformist to call the doctrine of good works legal preaching , when it is so well known , that some of ours have done as much as any in confuting the antinomian dotages . we teach none to call themselves godly , meerly because they hear sermons , frequent lectures , and meet together for prayer and other religious exercises : yet our aim is that men should make religion their business , and we incourage their diligence in attending on god's ordinances , and redeeming the time , and helping each other forward in the way to heaven . . though we are accused to be of that spirit that saith , stand by thy self , come not near to me , i am holyer than thou ; yet we place not holyness in any peculiar garb of profession , or in standing at a greater distance from others , than god would have us , we receive all men as much as either brotherly kindness or common charity will allow . vve affect no greater singularity than the uncontroverted non-conformity to the vvorld makes necessary . differences of perswasion in the matters controverted , we make not to be marks of distinction between good and bad men . vve judge not any as ungodly upon the meer account of their conformity , yea we have incomparably more value for a godly conformist , than for a meerly opinionative non-conformist . vve renounce not communion in the publique worship of the parish churches , though for its outward form and order in some respects it be not that which is most desireable by us . it is our hearts desire and prayer to god , that the vvord , prayer and sacraments therein dispensed , may be blest to the great increase of true godliness in those that attend thereon . yea we wish so well to the ability and godliness of our opposites in these controversies , that it would be our great rejoycing , that every parish church in england were filled with an able godly minister though conformable . vve own the catholick communion of saints , and desire a part in the prayers of all faithfull christians , whether they pray by a set form or without it . . vvhereas we are charged with immodesty and boldness in our inquiries and conclusions ▪ we profess that in the doctrines of predestination , redemption , divine grace , free will , original sin , justification , perseverance , and assurance of salvation , we differ not from the established doctrine of the church of england , and we approve her moderation used in those articles , which we take in the same sense with the english episcopal divines in general , that lived in queen elizabeth's and king james his times . and for our parts we judge that the controversies about these points might be lessened , and would gladly do our endeavours to the lessening of them . . our doctrine tends to unquietness and confusion no more than the common doctrine of protestants , and of the church of england it self , for it is the same as we have shewed . and we protest against such citations to the contrary , as men bring out of writers reputed of our party , and renounce whatsoever is written or spoken contradictory to our here avowed principles . and we think it not fair dealing in our adversaries to repeat and aggravate all intemperate passages vented in those times , when impetuous actings hurried men into extremities , and states-men and sword-men heightened the differences between divines , and especially to do this after our professed moderation hath been acknowledged by our governours . besides , the generality or at least the far greater number of the silenced ministers now living were not ingaged in the late wars . and if these were allowed to preach the gospel , we should be thankfull for the favour , though the rest remain excluded . . we acknowledge the importance of a publique settlement , and how necessary it is that both people and teachers be under the regulation and influence of authority . and that the willfull and indiscreet might be held in their due limits , we would not have things left at random , but under stated rules . we seek not to be received upon lawless terms , but are willing to submit to tryal , not only upon accusation of lewd scandall or insufficiency , or negligence in our calling , but of venting any error contrary to the received doctrine , or of doing any thing contrary to peace and order . but it is unreasonable for any to urge this concession for the rigorous imposing of doubtfull and needless things , which tend to trouble and not to settle the church . it seemed good to the holy ghost , and to the apostles and elders , and brethren assembled at jerusalem , to lay upon the churches no other burden than things necessary . and here we take notice of their impertinency , who think it enough to confute all our plea for moderation , by publishing quotations out of our writers , which were written against an intolerable toleration , to wit of heresies , blasphemies and open impieties , and not the indulgence which we have pleaded for . if they can see no medium between tolerating all things and tolerating nothing , others can . besides it is an accommodation and union , that we have sought by a sufficient comprehensiveness in the publique constitution , and then there withall an indulgence towards remaining dissenters , but such as for the subject of it hath nothing that is intolerable . we have a true regard to our brethren that are more streigthened in their judgments than we are , and would not have them the worse for our liberty , if we could obtain it . . though we have not the same latitude of judgment with conformists in some points , yet we have the same catholick spirit to promote the common interest of religion , and more especially the protestant reformation , and to dread the weakening or shattering of it by needless schisms . we mind the way of unity and consistence , and retain healing principles , we hold it not our duty to publish all truths , when the unseasonableness thereof might cause disturbance ; nor to defend lesser truths with the disadvantage of greater . we would not widen breaches nor make other mens opinions worse than they are , to commend our own . it is none of our perswasion that men are bound under pain of damnation to labour to establish god's publique worship in the greatest perfection by hazarding the church's peace , and unsetling a good establishment , though less perfect . if by scruple of conscience we cannot joyn in one church communion , yet we ought to keep the unity of faith and love. so far are we from assenting to that which some affirm , that where men part communion , it is of necessity that they esteem one another impious , although we grant there is a fault on one side or both . . vve solemnly protest that we have thus declared for moderation not only or chiefly because we have need of it , but because the church of god hath need of it , and because we think it the only way of peace and the common interest of religion in these kingdoms ; and if we stood where others now stand , we would give what we plead and pray for . it may be remembred , that those of our perswasion did seasonably declare their desires of unity , even during his majesty's exile , and the episcopal party then protested for moderation , and the first appearance of the hopefullness of an accommodation between the parties , was of no little avail to promote his majesty's restauration , whom god preserve to reign long over us . if we or any of us have heretofore been more rigidly addicted to our own opinions , then stands with our now professed charity , we make a willing retractation thereof . . vve have here set forth our principles that all may take notice , how we are mis-represented by those that make other representations of us . and we are ready to clear our selves against those that accuse us of contradicting them in our practice . . the exercise of our ministry , which we continue in our present state of inconformity , is no way inconsistent with the professions here made . vve assent and submit to the king 's ecclesiastical authority , as we have amply shewed before , and we think we come not short of the conformable clergy , in owning the authority of the higher powers in sacred things . yet we believe that no humane power can nullifie our ministerial office , or disoblige us from our charge of fullfilling it according to our ability and opportunity , and as the necessity of souls requireth of us . if we lived where our ministry were not necessary , we were bound to forbear upon the magistrates prohibition , and to remove to a country where it is necessary , and a way open for us . but whatsoever others apprehend , to us it is most evident , that multitudes of souls in the places where we live cry aloud for our help also . this apprehension of ours reflects no dishonour upon the conscientious conformable ministers , ( for whose ability and industry we bless god , ) but we heartily wish that the number of them were so proportionable to the people of this land , that there were no need of us in this service . as for those that make slight work of the cure of souls we pass not to be despised or judged by them for this carefullness towards the church of god , which he hath purchased with his own blood . a minister that is intolerable by being utterly insufficient , heretical , or otherwise destructive to the ends of the ministry , we are not obliged to honour , but to disown . it is our part to make the most of a tolerable though weaker ministry , and to do what we may to countenance god's publick service in all places . if we live where the publick authority hath set up worthy ministers , our duty is to promote their reputation with the people , and to farther the success of their labours , and to attend on their ministry when we are not necessarily hindred . and our labours in concurrence with them can be no grievance to any , to whom it is not a grievance , that their lords service , and the success of their own indeavours , should be farthered by their fellow-servants . vvhere the publick churches cannot contain the multitude of inhabitants , that should resort unto them ( which is unquestionably the case of london ) it is no affront or injury to the most worthy ministers , and no unwarrantable division , at the same time to hold other religious meetings , as the number of the people shall make needfull . though our ministry be alike necessary in general ; yet at vvhat time , in vvhat place , to vvhat numbers of people , and in vvhat other circumstantial measures it is necessary to be exercised , the case may be very different vvith several persons , as they are placed in different circumstances . in vvhich diversity it is the vvork of prudence to discern vvhat is duty by that general rule , let all things be done to edification . it is the end that of right alvvays limits the means , and it is our part so to manage our calling that vve may best serve our generation , according to the vvill of god. according to this rule vve indeavour to steer our course . . we do what in us lyes to avoid the provoking of our governours , and all appearance of contempt to their authority . we invade no mans right , we resist not the civil power , nor break the peace , nor cause tumults , nor give occasion thereof . we abhorre seditious conventicles , insurrections were never contrived in our meetings , nor in any , whereof we are conscious . experience hath witnessed our peaceableness , and disloyalty or sedition is not found amongst us by the most inquisitive of our adversaries . . vve have not forsaken the parochial assemblies , but have joyned in the service of god there performed , and some of us do it in our ordinary course , and others of us have not declined it of set purpose , but as our absence is caused by that necessary work of the ministry , whereunto we are called . some of us have communicated with the said assemblies in the sacrament of the lords supper ; yet we would not have our charity and peaceableness mistaken for an indifferency unto communion with all parochial churches and ministers whatsoever , or for a full satisfaction or acquiescence in the whole , and all particulars of the liturgy , so as to be able to declare our unseigned assent and consent to all and every thing therein contained . our proceeding is as even and regular , as the straits and difficulties into which we are cast , will suffer it to be . vve would that they who charge us with irregularity and disorder in our actings , would with charity and candor consider the circumstances of our condition , and help us out of those distresses that force us at sometimes to be more severed from them , than otherwise we would or might be . vve desire the clergy of england to take notice , that we have no mind to promote the popish design of nullifying and treading down the parish churches and ministers . vve are well aware how papists make a harvest of the divisions of protestants , and hope to do their work by the dissentions between conformists and non-conformists . as the precious interest of protestantism ingageth us , we do what we may to preserve a worthy esteem of the religion of the church of england , and we humbly supplicate them , who have cast us out , to consider how they may receive us again upon the account of this common interest , which ( god is our witness ) we value more than our own particular inlargement . . a great part of the invectives written against us , is made up of the pretended weaknesses and mis-behaviours imputed to those that go under the name of non-conformists . to this we say first , that it is a palpable injury to burden us with the various parties with whom we are now herded by our ejection in the general state of dissenters , and to make us responsible for them all . nor are we justly chargeable with all the absurdities and miscarriages of such as are of our own perswasion . but let it here be minded , what the scripture saith , in many things we off end all , and that none of ours pretend to be more than men in their imperfect state ; as also that besides the huge multitudes of common hypocrites , who by open intemperance , unrighteousness and ungodliness , notoriously discover the falshood of their profession , ( by which sort in general none are more hated than we are , ) there be many specious hypocrites , who are the servants of sin , under the shew of greater zeal for god , and these will be the blemish of all religious societies , into which they are admitted . now we would not that any detected hypocrisie should be palliated , nor that the real faults of the sincere should be unreproved . but promiscuously to asperse a whole ●●rt of men known to be strict and serious in their profession , and to describe their way in general as a course of hypocrisie or folly , is like to do no good but much mischief , especially in exposing seriousness in religion on all sides , to the scorn of the irreligious . vvhen we look through the big and swelling words of crimination into the matter it self , we find little more in it than their meer inconformity , blazond with ugly tearms , and the names of horrid sins put upon it . for the accusers call them proud , froward , false , fierce , sullen , traytorous , seditious , clamourous ▪ and an unruly generation upon no better proof , than that they have said it . the farrago of the late cunningly contrived defamations , if well examined , will be found really to produce against them little more than such weaknesses and swervings , as are common to any , even the most moralized sort of men . indeed we find this against us , if it be material , that our religion hath not made our plough-men courtiers , nor our trades-men philosophers . vve never took it for any part of the work of true grace to make men of rustick wits , and breeding to become gentile , or to raise our plain people to the accomplishments of the learned . yea such as excell in grace may be very mean and low in the gifts of nature , and speak so incongruously as to make themselves ridiculous to proud wits ▪ but should ministers make a scorn of them for defects in this kind , and have more value for an ungodly sort , that are of finer wits and better breeding ? if so , there is not the same mind in them that was in christ , who said with rejoycing , i thank thee o ▪ father lord of heaven and earth ▪ that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent , and hast revealed them to babes . nevertheless for ought we find , the people of our perswasion , according to their rank and quality in the vvorld , are not inferior to others in point of discretion , civility , good neighbourhood , and acceptable conversation among men ; in all which their religion is a furtherance , and no disadvantage to them . vve vvill not justif●● our favourers in vvhat they are reproveable ; but then let every one bear his ovvn guilt , and let not the innocent be burdened vvithout cause . vve as well as the accusers take notice of divers things in some of ours which are not justifiable , and yet not remediable by us in our present state . the weaker sort of true christians are liable to errors and failings , that occasion trouble to themselves and others : and there be many that have no troublesome differences in religion , because they have no religion . shall those irreligious persons because they are not troublesome , be more esteemed and thought better christians , than serious , zealous and conscientious persons , because peradventure they give us some trouble through their mistakes ? the pastors should not value people by the interest of the flesh , but of christ. to what end have they received their pastoral office , which is to help the weak , and to heal that which is lame , that it be not turned out of the way , if they cannot bear with such , nor restore them in the spirit of meekness ? besides , let the breaches , offences and exasperations of these times be considered , and it cannot seem strange , that the weaker sort of sufferers should be more averse , than they ought to be , from those by whom they suffer , especially when in many places their more able teachers are driven from among them by the five mile act , and they are left to such as will heighten their aversation . we would our reprovers would help us for their parts to make our people better . whereas some have charged us with cherishing their naughty humours for unworthy ends , we thought all might understand , that if we basely sought our own profits , we might make a better trade of conformity , than of seeking a sorry maintenance , by serving the sins of our adherents in this poor condition of outcasts . vve desire not to hold the people as appropriated to our selves , but teach them highly to esteem all faithfull ministers for their works sake , and we are glad of their profiting by others as by our selves . vve are not conscious of willfull connivence at their faults . vve humour none in their injurious thoughts of governors , or speaking evil of dignities . vve teach men to fear god and honour the king , yea to honour all men and love the brotherhood , to bridle their tongues , to be meek and lowly , no busie bodies , but to do their own work with quietness . vve exhort all to unity with the whole catholick church , and to be at peace among themselves . the truth is , there is too much wrath and bitterness , railing and intemperate language on all sides , and we condemn it as much in those that are among us as in others , and are more offended at it in them than in others . and we think our accusers have little reason so to accuse and judg us and ours , as if they took themselves and theirs to be sinless in this kind . the lord forgive and heal us all , and increase the number of the sons of peace , and true peace-makers . . vvhereas a remarkable writer hath published these words , we should be reconciled if the presbyterian ministers would perswade their people to do , what they can do themselves , we declare to the world , that we heartily embrace these tearms of reconciliation . and as we have done already , we will not cease to do our uttermost to perswade them , upon whom we have any influence , and we would gladly come to the tryal to see which party should outvy the other in forwardness in allaying the present distempers , and lessening the differences , and drawing on towards peace and union . . we have here done our part to remove the offences taken at us by testifying to all men , that conscientious dissatisfaction , and not carnal interest , or a spirit of opposition , is the ground of our non-conformity : and to bring such as differ from us to be more in charity with us , than to judge that we are utterly unworthy or uncapable of the publick ministry , or that such persons as for ignorance and lewdness are scandalous and contemptible among their neighbours , are more tolerable in that sacred office than we are , or that gross insufficiency , non-residence , and other hainous negligence should be made less criminal , than our dissent about the ceremonies , subscriptions , renunciations , and such like injunctions . vve submit what we have done to the wisdom , piety and clemency of our governours . vve acquiesce in gods wise and holy determinations concerning us . and we resolve through his grace to abide stedfast and unmoveable in our subjection and loyalty to our sovereign , in our due obedience to those that are put in authority under him , in our earnest indeavours of holiness , unity and peace in the church , in brotherly love to all saithfull christians , in charity to all men , and in the faith and patience of the disciples and servants of jesus christ. vve are moved at this time to publish this account of our pacifick principles and inclinations , that we might promote ( what in us lies ) the true bond of union among sincere protestants . these though of different perswasions in points of lesser moment have one joynt stock , the protestant religion , for which they are all jealous , and at this time allarm'd by the imminent danger from an irreconcileable and restless adversary , that would destroy them all . all true protestants have their interest not a part from , but in strict conjunction with the whole body of that profession , they have no possible way of securing themselves but in the general good of the state of england ; they cannot fly to the refuge of any forreign prince or state , they acknowledge no forreign jurisdiction , all their stake lyes at home . vvhereupon one would think that the common safety should incline all the several parties to strengthen their common interest by a good and firm accord , upon just and reasonable terms ; and whosoever remain averse from it seem to value a partial interest , and their own peculiar state more than the protestant religion it self . a just latitude of church-state in the established order , for the comprehending of all those whose more moderate principles render them capable of being conjoyned in one setled national government , and for others , who by reason of their narrower principles cannot enter into such conjunction , a sufficient yet duly limited indulgence are the things , which we humbly propose and earnestly desire . we seek not the destroying of foundations , but some necessary reformations , relaxations and forbearances . for us to set forth the propounded latitude in the particular limits thereof , would be presumptuous both in reference to superiors , and to the parties concerned in it . we humbly leave it to the prudent and pious consideration of our governours . this grand affair is acknowledged to be full of difficulty , caused by the passions , prejudices and interests of the several parties : nevertheless we hope that the prudence and patience of those who sit at the helm of government , is able to master it . next under the power , wisdom and goodness of god standing on our side , our help stands in the wisdom and piety of our sovereign and his parliament . his most excellent majesty in his declaration concerning ecclesiastical affairs hath mentioned particular concessions on both sides , and a harmony of affection therein , which he calls excellent foundations to build upon . the moderation specified in that gracious declaration would do much to the present healing of our breaches in great part , and would set us in the surest way for as perfect healing thereof , as may ordinarily be hoped for in the imperfect state of things in this world. finis an end of doctrinal controversies which have lately troubled the churches by reconciling explication without much disputing. written by richard baxter. baxter, richard, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing b aa estc r 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(eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : or : ) an end of doctrinal controversies which have lately troubled the churches by reconciling explication without much disputing. written by richard baxter. baxter, richard, - . [ ], xxxiv, p. printed for john salusbury at the rising sun in cornhil, london, : m.dc.xci. 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ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng theology, doctrinal -- th century. dissenters, religious -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - judith siefring sampled and proofread - judith siefring text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion an end of doctrinal controversies which have lately troubled the churches by reconciling explication , without much disputing . written by richard baxter , psal. . , . my soul hath long dwelt with him that hateth peace : i am for peace ; but when i speak , they are for war. luke . , , , , . there arose a reasoning among them , which of them should be greatest , &c. london , printed for iohn salusbury at the rising sun in cornhil , m. dc . xci . the preface . wars are most dreaded and hated by the country where they are ; but not so much by the souldiers , who by them seek their prey and glory , as by the suffering inhabitants that lose thereby their prosperity and peace , who yet are forced , or drawn to be siders , lest they suffer for neutrality . religious ( irreligious ) wars are of no less dismal consequence , being about god himself , his will , and word , and that which more nearly toucheth our souls and everlasting state , than our houses and worldly welfare does : and yet because men are more sensible of their corporal than their spiritual concerns , these dogmatical wars are far less feared , and too commonly made the study , and delight , not only of the military clergy , but also of the seduced and sequacious laity : though those that have the wisdom from above , which is pure and peaceable , condole the church's calamity hereby ; knowing that envy and strife , the earthly sensual and devilish wisdom , causeth confusion , and every evil work : and it is a heinous aggravation , that the militants , being men consecrated to love and peace , profanely father their mischiefs upon god , and do all as for religion and church . having these four and forty years at least , been deeply sensible of this sin , danger , and misery of christians , i have preach'd much , and written more against it : to confute those extreams which cause divisions , and to reconcile those that think they differ where they do not ; sometime also using importunate petitions and pleas for peace , to those that have power to give it , or promote it , and that use either word or sword against it . and with the sons of peace it hath not been in vain : but with those that are engaged in faction and malicious strife , i am proclaimed to be the militant enemy of concord , for perswading them to concord , and writing many books for peace and love , is taken for writing them against these . controversies i have written of , but only to end them , and not to make them : and who can reconcile them that never mentioneth them ? or arbitrate in a cause unheard and not opened ? but , readers , i must tell you , that my title an end of doctrinal controversies ] is ●ot intended as prognostick , but as ded●ctical ●nd directive . i am far from expecting an end ●f controversies , while consecrated ignorance is ●y worldly interest , faction , and malice , mix●d with pride sublimated to an envious zeael ( jam. . , . ) and hath set up a trade of slandering all those that are true peace-ma 〈…〉 ers , and concur not with them to destroy it , on ●retence of defending it , by their impossible per●icious terms . he that will now be taken for a peace-maker , must be content to be so called by a few , even by the sect that he chuseth to please , and be contrarily judged of by all the rest . and this satisfieth some , because their faction seemeth better than others , be they never so few ; and others , because their faction is great , or rich , or uppermost , how noxious and unpeaceable soever : for vespae habent favos , saith tertullian , & marcionitae ecclesias : we could wish the bees seldom used their stings , for it is their death ; but those of wasps and hornets , that make no honey , are less sufferable . it is partly for unprejudiced students that i write , and partly for the times to come , when the fruits of malignant faction and wars , have disgraced them , and made the world a weary of them . i am blamed by dissenters , as coming too near by conciliatory explications , to some things which they call dangerous points of popery , arminianism and prelacy ; but whether it be by truth or by error , i leave to trial : sure our english universities and canonists are not like to receive any hurt by it , who will not read a book that they see my name to , though the doctrine would never so much gratifie them . and others ( at home and foreigners ) are satisfied by knowledge and prepossession against such seeming danger . the great blemish of this , and other of my writings is , that i say oft the same thing which i have said before . much of this book is in my catholick theology , and my meth. theol. and my treatise of iustifying righteousness . but , . forgetfulness in old men that have written so much , is no wonder . . but it sheweth that i have not forgotten the matter , nor take it up suddenly and superficially , which i so oft repeat . . and there may be great use for such repetitions , when it is for clearer method , or for epitomizing larger writings , which many cannot , or will not read ; but those that can , may have the benefit of more explicatory copiousness . if it profit the reader , i am not sollicitous for the reputation of the writer . you will find here one chapter answering exceptions about futurity ; concerning which you must know , that my catholick theology was so bold and large an attempt to reconcile the calvinist , and lutheran or arminian , and the dominican and jesuit , &c. that i lookt to have been sharply assaulted for it by many : but after many years expectation i have heard of nothing written or spoken against it , save one ms. paper of objections about the cause of futurity , and physical predetermination to sin , by mr. polhill a councellor , a man of extraordinary knowledge , and godliness , ( now enjoying the fruit of it with christ ; o blessed england , if its rulers , senators and lawyers , yea , or bishops and teachers , were all such men ) having many years past sent him my answer , ( and having no reply ) as to the question , i refused to answer the second , having said so much to it in my methodus theol. and lest the quality of the subject should make my reply seem sharp to so good a man : and i thought it meet to publish this , because it is an unusual dispute ; and as no one else hath called me to it , so i know not where the reader that differeth from me , will find so much for him ; nor whither to refer him for an answer . i publish not mr. polhill's paper , because i recite so much of it as may tell the reader what it was ; and i must not swell the book too much . the glorious light will soon end all our controversies , and reconcile those that by unfeigned faith and love are united in the prince of peace , our head , by love dwelling in god , and god in them : but falsehearted , malignant , carnal worldlings that live in the fire of wrath and strife , will find ( so dying ) the woful maturity of their enmity to holy unity , love , and peace ; and the causeless shutting the true servants of christ out of their churches , which should be the porch of heaven , is the way to be shut out themselves of the heavenly jerusalem . if those that have long reproached me as unfit to be in their church ( and said , ex uno disce omnes , with their leader ) find any unsound or unprofitable doctrine here , i shall take it for a great favour to be confuted , even for the good of others excluded with me , when i am dead . jan. . . richard baxter . the contents . chap. . how to conceive of god. pag. i. chap. . how to conceive of the trinity in unity . p. vii . chap. . how to conceive of the hypostatical union and incarnation . p. xxiii . chap. . how to conceive of the diversity of god's transient operations . p. xxx . chap. . whether any point of faith be above 〈◊〉 contrary to reason . p. xxxii . chap. i. prefatory . who must be the iudge of controversies . the true causes of the divisions of christians about religion . p. ● chap. . the doctrines enumerated about which they chiefly disagree . p. chap. iii. of god's will and decrees in general . th. terms and several cases opened . p. ● chap. iv. of god's knowledge , and the differenc● about it . p. ● chap. v. of election ; and the order of intentio● and execution . p. ● chap. vi. of reprobation , or the decree of damnation ; the objects and their order . p. ● an answer to mr. polhill of futurition . p. ● chap. vii . of god's providence and predetermining premotion : of durandus's way . p. ● chap. viii . of the cause of sin : what god doth and doth not about it . p. chap. ix . of natural power and free-will . p. chap. x. of original sin ; as from adam and nearer parents . p. chap. xi . of our redemption by christ , what it doth ; how necessary . p. chap. xii . of the several laws and covenants of god. p. sect. . of the law or covenant of innocency made to adam : divers cases . p. sect. . of the law of mediation or covenant with christ : when and what it was . p. sect. . of the law or covenant of grace in the first edition : what it was . p. sect. . of the same law with abraham's covenant of peculiarity , and the mosaical iewish law of works . p. sect. . of the law or covenant of grace in the last edition ; the gospel : divers cases about it opened . p. chap. xiii . of the universality and sufficiency of grace . what grace is : how far universal and sufficient . p. chap. xiv . of man's power and free-will since the fall. adrian's saying , that an unjustified man may love or chuse god's being before his own . what to ascribe to grace , and what to free-will in good . p. chap. xv. of effectual grace ; and how god giveth it . doubts resolved . p. chap. xvi . of the state of heathens , and such others as have not the gospel : what law the heathen world is under , and to be judged by : whether any of them are justified or saved : the heathens were the corrupters of the old religion , and the jews of the reformed church , mal. . , . and sodom's case , &c. considered . p. chap. xvii . of the necessity of holiness and of moral virtue . p. chap. xviii . of the necessity of faith in christ , where the gospel is made known . p. chap. xix . of the state of infants as to salvation and church-membership . p. chap. xx. of the nature of saving-faith ; its description and causes . p. chap. xxi . of justifying righteousness , iustification and pardon . the several sences of the words , and several sorts of them : our common agreement about them . p. chap. xxii . of the imputation of righteousness . christ's righteousness , in what sence ours and imputed ; and in what sence not . p. chap. xxiii . how faith justifieth , and how it is imputed for righteousness . several questions about it ; repentance , &c. resolved . p. chap. xxiv . of assurance of our iustification , and of hope . what assurance is desirable : what attainable : what assurance we actually have : who have it : the nature and grounds of it : whether it be divine faith. p. chap. xxv . of good works and merit : and whether we may trust to any thing of our own . . what are good works : . whether they are necessary to our iustification or salvation : . whether they are rewardable or meritorious : . what is their place , use and necessity : . whether to be trusted to . p. chap. xxvi . of confirmation , perseverance , and danger of falling away . . whether all grace given by christ be such as is never lost . . whether that degree be ever lost which ( to infants or adult ) giveth but the posse credere . . whether any lose actual justifying faith. . or the habit of divine love and holiness . . whether some degree of this may be lost . . if holiness be not actually lost , is the loss possible ? . whether there be a state of confirmation above the lowest holiness , which secureth perseverance . . or doth perseverance depend only on election and god's will. . whether all , most or many christians are themselves certain of their perseverance . . i● such certainty fit for all the justified ? . is it unfit for all , and doubting a more safe condition ? . doth the comfort of most christians rest upon the doctrine of certainty to persevere ? . doth the doctrine of eventual apostasie inferr mutability in god ? . why god hath left the point so dark . . what was the iudgment of the ancient churches herein . . is it of such weight as to be necessary to our church-communion ▪ love and concord . p. chap. xxvii . of repentance ; late repentance ; the time of grace , and the unpardonable sin . p. books printed for and sold by iohn salusbury at the rising sun in cornhil . a rational defence of nonconformity , wherein the practice of nonconformists is vindicated from promoting popery , and ruining the church , imputed to them by dr. stillingfleet bishop of worcester , in his unreasonableness of separation . also his arguments from the principles and way of the reformers and first dissenters are answered : and the case of the present separation truly stated ; and the blame of it laid where it ought to be ; and the way to union among protestants is pointed at . by gilbert rule , d. d. the christian laver : being two sermons on john . . opening the nature of participation with , and demonstrating the necessity of purification by christ. by t. cruso . six sermons on various occasions . by t. cruso , in ● . the conformists sayings ; or , the opinion and arguments of kings , bishops , and several divines , assembled in convocation . a new survey of the book of common-prayer . an end of doctrinal controversies , &c. chap. . how we may and must conceive of god. § . . a true knowledge of god is necessary to the being of religion , and to holiness and glory . no man can love , obey , trust , or hope beyond his knowledge : nothing is so certainly known as god , and yet nothing so defectively known : like our knowledge of the sun , of which no man doubteth , whether it be a glorious igneous substance , endowed with the power of motion , light and heats : and yet what is less comprehended ? and no man hath an adequate knowledge of it , or of the least part of it . § . . there are three things that must concurr to our conceivings of god : . our general conceptions . . our metaphorical conceptions by way of similitude . . our negative conceptions ; what god is not . § . . i have opened this as distinctly as i am able in my methodus theologiae , cap. . in the table called ontologia , the beginning to which i must referr the reader that would be accurate and clear . i. we must conceive of god as a substance , lest we think him to be nothing : and as a spiritual transcendent substance , not univocally the same with created substance , nor such as man can reach to any sensible , or immediate or formal conception of : but by the similitude of created substance our conceptions may get some help . this we call the fundamental conception ; but it is but a conception partial and inadequate ; yet necessary , fetcht from the similitude of the creature , whose matter or substance is the first constitutive conception . § . . ii. we must conceive of god as the prime essential life : and though god be not compounded of substance and form , yet from similitude of creatures , we must as inadequate conceptions , think of his being life , as the form of his substance , not divisible or compounding , but as a distinguishing conception . and formadat esse & noment . § . . iii. though in god's essence there be no parts , degrees or accidents , yet to answer the similitude of parts , degrees or accidents in man , we must put in general transcendent perfection : and this includeth abundance of his perfective attributes ; as that he is one , infinite , eternal , necessary , independent , uncompounded , unchangeable , and all the rest that are contained in absolute perfection . § . . iv. when we say , that god is the prime essential life , we mean a life of eminency above all that is created : but yet such as must be known by creature-similitude : and therefore from the similitude of man , we must think of the formal divine life by a threefold conception , . as vital power in act , . as eminent intellect and will , called omnipotency in act , wisdom and goodness , or love. whether these be the father , son and holy ghost , is after to be opened : but as father , son and holy ghost , the scripture teacheth us to conceive of god ; as three in one god , and one god and substance in these three . § . . v. god is to be conceived of in relation to the creation in general , as of him , and through him , and to him are all things : as he is the divine efficient , the more than constitutive , and the final cause of all . § . . vi. he is especially to be conceived of in his relations to the reasonable creatures , as their absolute owner , supreme ruler and chief benefactor and amiable attractive good and end. § . . vii . he is especially to be conceived of ●s related to man ; as our creator and conserver , as the god of nature . . as our redeemer by christ and the god of grace . . and as our perfecter by his spirit , and the god of glory : and as related to his kingdom of nature , grace and glory . § . . viii . he being without passivity a pure act , must be conceived of , as , . in virtute seu potentia activa . . in his acts objectively immanent , . self-living , . self-knowing , . self-loving . . in his transient acts or works , considered both ex parte agentis , and as the effects . § . . ix . he is negatively to be known , by the d●nial of all that noteth imperfection . § . . x. when i say , that god is to be known by similitudes , i mean , that though nothing be fully like to god , yet somewhat in which he may be partly known , appeareth on the whole frame of nature ; but especially on the soul of man , which is his image . therefore he that would know how to conceive of god , must first know himself , and what his own soul is : the true conceptions of your souls must be the prime helps to conceive of god by similitude . and here you first find intellective , volitive , and executive acts. . and by these you know that you have the power so to act ; for no one doth that which he cannot do . . and hereby you know that your souls are substance : for all power is the power of some substance : nothing can do nothing . . and by this you know that an intellectual spirit is a substance so impowered : and that others are such as well as you : and knowing what a spirit is , you know what god the father is transcendently and eminently . and though all god's works notifie him , you have thus the most intelligible similitude within you . § . . therefore i know not how you can better conceive of god , than as more than a soul to all the world , but especially to saints . i say , more than a soul : for a soul is but a part and c●●●●i●utive ; but god can be no part , and is more than constitutive : the world is finite , but god is infinite , therefore he is more than a soul of the world : ●ass●ndus calleth the world indefinite , but seemeth to mean infinite , and so to make god but the soul of the world : but that cannot be proved : not but that there be created souls under god : but while god is more than a soul to all those souls , he is more than a soul to all the world. § . . it is lawful and useful to think of god , by such similitudes as he hath used of himself in his word , how low soever . even by his particular works . three names he assumeth ; life , light , and love : he is the living god ; he is light , and with him is no darkness : god is love ; saith the beloved apostle . god is said to cloath himself with light as with a garment : and a man will say , i have seen the king to day , who saw him but in his garments : and if he saw the skin of his face , how little of the king did he see ? in scripture , they that have seen angels are said to have seen god , and heard his voice by them . when we see the glory of the sun , that diffuseth its beams to all the surface of the earth , and uniteth it self with every eye , even of the smallest worms , and quickeneth every thing that liveth ; this giveth us by similitude some low resemblance of the divine life and light and glory . when he is called our father , and he is said to love us as a father his children , this is some help to our conceptions of him : when we read of all those visions which iohn had in the revelations , of christ's glorious appearance ( as before on the mount ) and of god on the throne , with the four beasts and seven spirits , and the thousand thousands of glorious attendants , and of the metaphorical description of the heavenly ierusalem : it is not unlawful nor unuseful to us to make use of such spectacles of similitudes in our thoughts of god , while we exclude all the imperfections of such similitudes . § . . but after all , till the love of god be shed abroad on our hearts by the holy ghost , and god as love look on us with his attracting and exhilarating aspect or communication , all these notions will be dull and barren , and will leave the soul under fears and despondency : it is love by vital influence warming the affections , that must give us a sweet taste of what we know , and overcome the fear of death and wrath , and give us comfortable boldness and courage in all the dangers that we must go through . and seeing christ telleth philip , if thou hast seen or known me , thou hast known the father ; we must by faith see the father in the son incarnate , who came into our nature , to be a mediator of our thoughts and conceptions of god , and especially as he is life and light and love : and i think in his glory will in heaven be the mediator of our life , intuition and fruition . come lord jesus , amen . chap. . of trinity in unity . § . . when i wrote the foregoing treatise , i found the generality of christians ( protestants and papists ) agreed about the trinity ; but heresie and debauchery encreasing together , the case seemeth partly altered ; and the ambitious , rich and worldly sort being from their childhood bred up in fleshly pleasure , and in ignorance and contempt of serious christianity , having really no true religion , but a name and image of it , at last by their tongues declare what is in their hearts ; and living in a land where atheists and sadducees are in splendid dwellings , whilst fear of sinning maketh confiscations , jails and ruine the lot of multitudes who are zealous protestants , they take the advantage , decrying what they never had : but before they disown all true religion , and declare themselves sadducees or brutes , they begin as disputers , at the points where they think difficulty will excuse them ; and especially at the trinity , and the godhead of christ , and socinian errors . § . . i have perhaps over-tediously and prolixly handled the doctrine of the sacred trinity in my latin methodus theologiae , opening the various opinions about it , reciting the words of the fathers , school-doctors , and protestants who handle it : and through the whole book i have shewed , that the image of trinity in unity is imprinted by god , on the whole known frame of nature and government , or morality ▪ and that doctrine of the trinity , which to the ignorant is a stumbling-block , greatly helpeth to confirm my belief of the truth of the gospel and christianity , while i find it so congruous , to the foresaid impress , and attested so much by all god's works ; especially on man. § . . it is a truth unquestionable , that without some knowledge of god there can be no true religion , no love to god , no trust , no hope , no obedience , no true worship of him , prayer or praise . § . . and it is as certain that no man can have an adequate knowledge of god ; that is adequate which comprehendeth the whole object , knowing it perfectly , and leaving nothing of it unknown . and with such an adequate knowledge we know nothing , not a pile of grass , nor a worm or a hair : much less god : with such a proper knowledge nihil scitur is true , and yet aliquid rerum is known of all . § . . yea , it is certain , that of god , who is incomprehensible , we have here no partial conception that reacheth so high as to be strictly formal , but only such as are called analogical , aequivocal , metaphorical , or by similitude . neither substantia , vita , perfectio , potentia , actus , intellectus , voluntas , love , truth , goodness , mercy , &c. are formally and univocally the same in god and in the creature : scotus excepteth only ens . which is true , as ens is only a logical term , signifying no more than est or quoddity , and not quid est , or quiddity . § . . yet this knowledge by similitude is not ●ull or vain ; but the greatest advancement of man's understanding : all that which is formally excellent in the creature , is eminently and transcendently in god. though he have not that which we call knowledge , will , love , &c. he hath that which is infinitely more excellent , which these in man have some likeness to , whereby we know him . § . . man's knowledge beginneth at our selves and not at god : we do not first know god : but first we perceive our own souls acts , and thereby we know our power , and our substance , and thereby we know what all is that is such as we ; and so what a spirit is , and so what god is . as by seeing , hearing , feeling we perceive that we see , hear , feel , &c. every sense having essentially a self-perception : so by thinking , knowing , willing , ●illing , loving , joying , we perceive that we do it essentially ; yet though the famosius significatum be our own act as to formality and priority , it is god's as to eminency and perfection . § . . it is certain , that as all god's works bear some notifying impress of his own perfection , so man is especially made in his image ; and therefore our knowledge of god must there begin seeing we have no immediate and formal knowledge of him . § . . as god is the god of nature , grace , and glory , so he hath made on man the image of these three : . the natural faculties of his soul , are his natural image on man as man : for which it is said , gen. . that blood shall be punished with blood , because man is made in the image of god. . his moral gracious image is holiness , of intellect , will and executive power . . the image of his majesty , glory and greatness , is , . in all men the dominion over the lower creatures : . and in governours a power over subjects or inferiours . § . . to begin where our perception beginneth , . it is certain , that the mental nature in man hath three distinct faculties in one undivided substance ; that is , . vital active power , intellect and will : ( the vital power being considerable , first as exciting intellection and will , and after as executive ) . the same essence or substance is this vital activity , intellect and will : but the active power is not the intellect , nor the intellect the will , nor the will the intellect , &c. and as melanchton told his hearers , ( to the admiration of george prince of anhalt , and the duke of saxony ) that the concrete and abstract were here differently to be used , we may say , that the intellect may be said to be willing , but not to be the will , the will to be intellectual , but not to be the intellect , &c. § . . i have fully proved in methodo theol. parte . in a peculiar disputation , that these three faculties are not accidents of the soul , but its essential form in a triple , inadequate conception , and fully confuted all that zubarel saith to the contrary , who epitomizeth all the thomists arguments , and vindicated scotus , and added many arguments of my own , and therefore must thither referr the doubtful . § . . not that man's soul is there by three forms ; for all are but one form : but man's narrow mind cannot conceive of them but by three conceptions ; which yet are not fictions , but as scotus calis them , formalitates , and as campanella , primalities or essentialities ; or as the nominals extrinseck denominations , and relative by connotation of the objects and effects : he that hath a wit subtile enough to conceive of scotus his formalities , as noting only a fundamentum objectivum distinguendi , will not wonder that a soul made in god's image , should be of difficult conception . § . . ii. the same soul of man hath three more general faculties , that is , mental , sensitive , and vegetative ( or igneous ) : these are distinct , but not divided , yet are not three souls , but one ; though the inferiour operations ( at least ) may be alterable according to organs and objects ; and some uses of senses and vegetation cease . § . . iii. the sensitive soul in brutes hatk the faculties , vitally active , . sensibly apprehensive , . sensibly appetitive ; one of these faculties is not the other , yet all are but one sensitive soul. § . . iv. the igneous nature in plants called vegetative , hath three faculties , motive , discretive ( differencing its proper nutriment from other things ) and attractive ( which is assimilative ) yet all are but one substance . § . . v. the sun and all igneous substances , have their formal powers , that is , motive , illuminative , and calefactive : the motion ( in power or act ) is not formally the light , nor is the light the heat , nor is the heat the light or motion : nor are these three suns or substances , but one substance is in all three , whose form we necessarily conceive of by this triple inadequate conception . and thus it is in all the creatures of active nature , which the receptivity of the passive also answer ; and as i have proved elsewhere through all morality also . melancthon , loc. com. per maulium , p. , . mentioneth many such instances in the sun , in astronomy , in musick , in geometry , in grammar , in arithmetick ; to which logick and politicks might be added , all effects have only three causes , which in the general of causality are one ; that is , the cause efficient , constitutive , and final . for matter , receptive-disposition ( called privation ) and form , are but the three parts of the constitutive cause . my m●th . theol. instanceth in many more . § . . it is certain that the three grand attributes , principles , primalities , essentialities , or formalities ( as men diversly call them ) of which the three faculties of the soul are an image , are in god , not univocally the same as in man , but eminently and transcendently . and his other attributes ( of truth , mercy , justice , &c. ) are these variously exercised and related ; that is , vital-act , intellect , and will , called as perfect , omnipotent activity , omniscience ( or wisdom ) and goodness or love. and i have proved ( ubi supra ) that these are not accidents in god , but his essence , in a threefold formal conception , truly distinguishable ; some say ratione rationata ; some say formaliter , and some , ex connotatione & relatione ad objecta , and perhaps all little differ in sence . § . . all theologue ▪ agree , that god must be said to be essential life , self-knowledge and self-love , to be essentially sui-vita , se-scire , & se-amare ; and that these are best exprest by substantives abstractly , and not only in the concrete by adjectives or verbs , sui-vita , sui-scientia , sui-amor . thus far ●●ere is no doubtfulness . § . . as in man we must conceive inadequate●● of the three prime faculties distinctly ( not ●●paratingly ) . as in virtute vel potentia . . as 〈◊〉 actu immanente ad se. . in actu trans●unte ad 〈…〉 ia , so must we inadequately conceive of them as 〈…〉 inently in god. § . . it is undeniable , that god is creator , redeemer and sanctifier ; the god of nature , grace , and glory : vitae , medicinae , salu 〈…〉 s. and though father , son and holy ghost are all these , yet usually in scripture , creation is said to be the work of the father ( by the son and spi●it , and redemption the work of the son ( sent by the father ) and perfection or sanctification the work of the holy ghost ( as sent by the father and the son. ) therefore baptism , which is our christening , bindeth us in covenant to god , as in these three relations ( which i hope may be easilier understood , than all the schoolmens disputes of the trinity . ) and no doubt , but our baptism is a practical covenant . thus the trinity of principles in unity , is considerable ( as is aforesaid ) . radically in virtute essentiae . . in the immanent acts of self-living , self-knowing and self-loving . . and exeunter transiently in creation , redemption and sanctification , considered not as effects , but ex parte agentis , as acting them . § . . the word person , by the custom of the church , having been so commonly used , is not to be disused while it is well expounded , lest we seem by changing the word to change the doctrine . but the church had the same faith before that word was applied to the trinity ; and it was long before the use of it was agreed on ; some being for hypostasis , and some for persona , and some excepting against both , but not knowing what word to substitute . and is it any wonder that humane language wanteth proper words to signifie that of god , which is so far above our comprehension ? so that it is not because they are wiser than he , that some except against the judicious dr. wallis for being no more zealous for this name , nor peremptory for any substitute , but because they understand not so well how unfit man is to make names for god , which he hath not made himself , and taught us . § . . the bare use of the name [ person ] by one that knoweth not what that word signifieth , doth prove no man orthodox , but only that he useth orthodox words ; it will save no man to use a word which he understands not . and the dislike of that word ( or the word hypostafis , as hierome did ) will condemn no man who believeth the thing , whi●h those that understandingly use the word , do believe : the scripture hath all necessary names of the trinity . § . . doubtless the word person of the trinity , is of very different signification from the same word applied to man. and what constituteth a person in the trinity , none have so curiously searched and disputed , as the schoolmen ; yet he that shall read but what i have recited out of them ( in method . theol. ) will find it past the capacity of an ordinary student to know what they mean , and impossible to reconcile them with each other . certainly their sence of the word person was never made necessary to the christian faith. § . . many protestant doctors take up with the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; whenas the usual sence both of that word , and of persona , is but a relative person , ( not aquinas and such others relation , which is a substance , but ) properly the same person natural , as related diversly : and if this were all , no man that owneth one god , would question a plurality of persons ; so one man may have the relative person of a king , a husband , a father , a captain , general , a physician , an astronomer , &c. and though i hold not this relative personality is all that we are to acknowledge in the trinity , yet i see no reason but in the second place it is included ; that is , . the relations which the divine vitality , intellect and will have to the substantiality , and to each other . . and the relation which they have ad extra to effects . and whereas it may be objected , that so god hath thousands of relations to thousands of his works ; i answer , but he hath three grand relations , which comprehend all the rest , as he is the god of nature , grace , and clory , creator , redeemer , and perfecter : as he hath the three grand attributes , which comprehend the rest . but undoubtedly this trinity of essential attributes which are said to be related to the substantiality , and to each other , is here in the prime conceptus . § . . he that placeth personality in the trinity in self-consciousness , leaveth us to enquire of him : q. . whether it be by him presupposed or not , that there are the three foresaid attributes called essentialities or formalities in one divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which we commonly call substance or spirit ? q. . whether conscire being scire , is not the proper act of an intellect , and not of a will , or executive power , as such ? q. . self-perception indeed is a first and essential act of every sensible agent : but doth not that among men only prove sensible life , which is in many ▪ faculties , and is as numerous as the acts , and not prove many persons , seeing he must be first a person who shall thus act ? by seeing , i perceive that i see , and by hearing , that i hear , and by tasting , smelling , touching , that i taste , smell , and touch : i know these by intellection , but i perceive them first by essential sensation ; and so by understanding , i immediately perceive that i understand and think : and by willing i immediately ( not know , but ) by a sort of eminent sensation perceive that i will : and by vital action i perceive that i act . yet these are not distinct persons , but the acts of one person . perception is essential to vitality or sense , but not constitutive of personality . q. . is it knowing ones self , or knowing another , or another's knowing me , that constituteth personality ? i know not my self to be what i am in pri●● 〈◊〉 ; i first perceive my acts , and by the acts i know that i have an active power , and by that i know that i am a substance , &c. which of these maketh me a person ? . god knoweth the acts of every creature better than each knoweth his own ; yet that is not god's personality , as distinct from his life : and that the creature doth not equally know god , can be no privation of personality to god , whatever it be to the creature : and god's personality was before there was any creature . q. . to say , that they are three minds , or spirits , or substances that do invicem conscire , is to say , that they are three gods : and because every mental substance hath its own active power , intellect and will , it supposeth three trinities instead of one . q. though god be said to be purus actus , it is actus entit●tivus including potentiam se● virtutem agendi ; and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or substantiality , is a necessary prior fundamental conception ; for it doth superare captum humanum to conceive of an act that is not alicujus actus . he that causeth all substantiality and existence , is eminently existent substance . many have made it a dispute , whether the creature have any entity , or be a shadow ; but none whether god be so . obj. to be self-conscious , proveth personality ; and to be conscious of the act of another , proveth one the same person with the other . ans. to be self-perceptive , is a good proof of a vital act ; and to be self-conscious , is a proof of an intellect : indeed in god the substance and act , and so the personality and self-perception are not two things , but the same : but yet inadequate conceptions must be orderly , and so the act conceived as the act of a power and of a person : and as is said , every act or faculty that hath self-perception , is not a person . . and god's consciousness of the acts of iudas , herod , nero , proveth him not to be the same person with each of them ( though he be infinitely more . ) § . . god being essential life in ●ure act , without any passive power , meant by the word person by the orthodox , may be better spoken of his essential acts ( the active virtue included ) than of mans. if it be the essence , why may not the proved trinity of objective conceptions , as formal , be called persons or hypostases ? ( though many wise men wish that a name less liable to mistake , had been used . ) § . . but though i am past doubt , that in god is this trinity of essential , formal , inadequate conceptions or primalities , and that the impress of them is on the soul of man , which is his image , and on the whole frame of nature and grace ; yet far be it from me to say , that nothing else is meant by the trinity of persons ; thus much we are sure of : there may be more to constitute that personality , than is to us comprehensible ; and i doubt not but there is more , because thus much is so intelligible ; seeing the divine nature is so infinitely far above the comprehension of us poor worms : but what we know not , we cannot describe , or notifie to others . § . . there are of late some of great wit and learning , who have adventured upon another sort of description of the trinity ; men whose parts i greatly value : ( peter sterry , dr. h. more , mr. john turner of st. thomas hospital ; and before them some in germany went some such way ▪ ) they say , that from the prime being emaneth , say some , or is created , say others ; the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the second hypostasis or person , and matter which is the third ; and this caused life and matter ( the son and holy ghost ) are one indivisible , ( though distinguishable ) being , there being no spirit ( saith dr. m. ) save god , that is not a soul to some body . some of them tell us not whether this first produced life and matter , be the universal matter of the world , animated by an universal soul ; or whether they mean only some prime soul and matter , that was made or caused before the rest : but others let us know , that it is the universal that they mean : and if so , they must needs hold the world , as to all its spirit and matter , to be eternal , ( though in particles alterable ) and to be god himself : the prime entity , the life and the matter , being the father , son and spirit : but they that hold not this universal life and matter , do think that god by a most eminent life and spirit that was eternal , did create all the rest , as inferiour to them . dr. more 's book of transubstantiation ( and mr. tho. beverley's ) drew me to write some animadversions on this doctrine , as moderating between extreams ; but on further consideration , i am very ioth to be so venturous in a case of such tremendous mystery , as to meddle for or against them , left etiam vera dicere de deo si incerta , sit periculosum . though i doubt not but their exposition of ioh. . is unsound , while they make the flesh and blood of christ , which is transubstantiated , and eaten and drunk , to be the eternal flesh and blood of christ , a man from eternity . § . . the difficulty of the controversie which this leadeth to , whether the world be an eternal effect of an eternal cause , or god from all eternity , till the forming of this lower world and adam , had no being but himself ? doth deterr me from meddling with it , lest i be blinded by presuming too nearly to gaze on the light that should guide me ; and god , that is love , should for my boldness be to me a consuming fire : things revealed only as for our search . § . . but the conclusion which all this prepareth for , is this ; that whatever else besides the trinity of primalities before described , doth constitute the trinity of persons , it is rendred altogether credible to an implicit faith , by the full evidence and certainty of the aforesaid trinity of faculties or primalities , which are god's image on man's soul , and the like imprinted on the whole creation ; which certainly is not done in vain . § . . i pass by the rest , because i have so largely handled it in method . theolog. and among the numerous authors there cited , i desire the reader especially to peruse the words of guitmundus ( a. b. ) aversanus , edmund . cantuariensis , richardi ad bernard , pothonis prumensis , with whose words i will conclude ( cited pag. . ) there are three invisibles of god , power , wisdom and benignity , of which all things proceed , in which all things subsist , by which all things are ruled . the father is power , the son is wisdom , the holy ghost is benignity . power createth , wisdom governeth , benignity conserveth . power by benignity wisely createth , wisdom by power benignly governeth . benignity by wisdom powerfully conserveth ; as the image is seen in the glass , so in the state of the soul by humane nature , &c. to this similitude of god against man approacheth nearly , to whom god's power giveth power to good , and his wisdom to know , and his benignity ●iveth to will. this is the threefold force of the rational soul , posse , scire , velle , to be able , to know , to will ; which co-operate to faith , hope , and love ( or charity ) . § . . among all the attempts that are published for our conceptions of the deity and trinity , i know of none that give us their notions with greater confidence and pretence of revelation , than i. p. m. d. [ dr. pordage ] and his leader iacob behmen . many other of the german prophets , going near the same way ; as c. beckman describeth them . i. p. his mystica theologia pretendeth to far greater discovery of the deity and trinity , and the world , than ever christ , prophets or apostles gave us . first , in his globe of eternity , or the divine essential world pictured by , . an eye ( the father ) , . a heart ( the son ) ; . and the effluvia or breathed beams ( the holy ghost ) with the innumerable progeny of such eyes flowing from that pregnant essence , differing from it only as lesser from greater , each an individual , yet making no composition ( but unity ) in the deity . secondly , in his abyssal nothing , or world of potentialities . thirdly , in his eternal nature , and the septenary included worlds , &c. but , . i consess there are many things in him ( and in peter sterry ) which reason left to its conjectures , would think plausible ; but short of aristotle and plato . . and he is so high in his description and defence of trine-unity , that even where i consent not , i dare not call him therein unsound . . but many passages in his description of eternal nature are apparently the effects of ignorance , and erroneous . . and he goeth further in his making this nature eternal , and a world , that is the body of god , than i dare do . . and though i would not be too forward , to contemn men that pretend to know such mysteries by vision and revelation , yet i resolve to take christ for my sufficient and infallible teacher ; and to pretend to know no more of the deity and unseen world , than he hath thought meet to reveal : for no man hath seen the father at any time , but the only begotten son ; nor doth any else know him but he , and those to whom he revealeth him : and what christ hath not revealed of god , i think it is because it is fittest for us to be yet ignorant of it , as a necessary difference between our present and our future state . to search for more will but confound and lose us , and resting practically in what christ hath revealed , and for the rest , trusting our selves fully in his knowing for us , his love to us , and his promise for us , may safely and sufficiently quiet the mind that can be well quieted no other way . chap. . of the incarnation and hypostatical union . § . . no wonder that it seemeth hard to man , to understand how the divine nature assumeth the humane into union , when it is so far beyond our reach to conceive how god is near to all his works , and how he operateth on every man. christ hath told us , that we know not how a man is born of the spirit , no more than we know whence the wind cometh and whither it goeth : and can we easilier know how god became man ? § . . it is certain , that god being infinite , is as near to us as is possible ; our souls can be no nearer to our bodies , nor perhaps to themselves . and though philosophers dispute , whether spirits be in loco , and whether god be in us , or we in him , and whether he be quasi locus & spatium to the world ; yet it is past question , that he is omnipresent , and intimately proximus to all things . § . . it is not therefore his meer presence or proximity of being that is this hypostatical union ; else it would extend to all the world. it is harder therefore to prove , that god is not as nearly united to all , than to prove , that he is not so united to the humane nature of christ. which caused peter sterry and such others , to hold , that christ hath three natures ; that is , that the divine nature first produced the prime , superangelical , emanant nature , ( by which he seemeth to mean an universal soul to the matter of the world ▪ ) and that this superangelical nature did unite it self to all , but eminently to the humane nature of christ , which he calleth one top-branch in the tree of beings . some say the superangelical nature being christ's only soul assuming but a body ; others , that it assumed a body and soul. § . . the grand difficulty about god's unity with the world , and the world with god , is how to solve the difficulty that hath stalled the school-doctors ; that if the creature have no entity distinct from god's , it is either part of god , or nothing : but it is not nothing , or no substance ( though some call it a shadow . ) and it is not a part of god ; for to be pars , is to be imperfect , and so to be no god. and if it have a real entity distinct from god's entity , then there would be more entity in god and the creature , than god alone : for two is numerally more than one ; and two entia have more entity than one , how small soever the lesser be . and then god should be put part of universal entity , which is imperfection . to say that the creature hath part of created entity , but not of divine entity , seemeth to yield , that god is but part of universal entity . to avoid which , many philosophers take up the opinion , that the whole being of all worlds is god , the material part being his body , and the eternal spirit the soul. what shall we say to this ? to silence it will not silence the objectors . and sure we must not grant them , that the world is god ; or that it is part of god ; or that god is but a part of real substance or entity ; or that to be so is no imperfection . is there no other sounder way ? though divines say , that dei non sunt accidentiae , and it 's true , that god is all essence and per essentiam operatur , yet i dread to assert , but humbly ask , whether rather than fall into any of the former opinions , it be not less dangerous to say , that as god hath made his works in his likeness , and no substance is without all accidents , so the world be not quasi accidens dei. and if so , it is no part of him , essential or integral : and as its substance is not univocally such as god's , so such as it is , it is so totally caused by and dependent on god's continual creatingwill and emanation , that its substance and being is more god's ( though not god ) than its own , and so is no addition of being to god's being , but contained in him , and flowing from him : a man's actual thought , words or sensation is no addition to a man's substance as such ; and yet they are not nothing . a man's hair and nails that have no life , but vegetative , are substantial accidents , and yet no part of the man : and yet are so wholly his own , caused by his soul , as heat and moisture , that we use not to call them any addition to the man's being . § . . q. but wherein then lieth the hypostatical union , if god be equally near to all things ? ans. he doth not equally operate on all : as the god of nature , he sustaineth and operateth on all his creatures : as the god of grace , he worketh holiness on believers souls : as the god of glory , he is present demonstratively and gloriously to the blessed : but he worketh on none as he did on the humane nature of christ : these three differences i conceive make this proper sort of union . . some works god doth , though by essential proximity , yet not without the use and operation of second causes : but christ's assuming the humane nature by the divine , was by conception by the holy ghost , as the immediate efficient , without the causality of man or angel , the mother affording matter and aliment to the foetus . . divine operations being various , the divine nature did that on the humane nature of christ , which it did not on any other creature : he having such work to do , as no other creature was to do , the divine nature fitted the humane for its part . no angel was to be mediator between god and man , and to work miracles as he did , and in our nature to fulfill all righteousness , and be a sacrifice for sin , and to rise from the dead , and to send down the spirit , and ascend to glory , and there to reign and to judge the world : therefore he was qualified for all this work . . and so there is also a relative difference , in that the divine nature , by a fixed decree and will , united it self for this work , to this one humane nature , even for all futurity . it may be some that are wiser can better tell wherein the hypostatical union consisteth . § . . as to the question , whether the divine and humane nature be two or one , it is to ask , whether the nature of god and his creatures be two or one ? they may be called one as we are one with christ , as conjunct , related and consenting : but not one and the same essential nature . § . . but the great difficulty is , whether the two natures constitute one person , or two . nestorius is accused ( derodon saith falsly , citing his own plain words ) to have held , that christ was two persons , divine and humane . but what is to be held , the school-doctors make a difficult question ; that is , whether the humane nature be either a person , or any part of the person of christ. . they say , that christ was a divine person from eternity , and therefore began not to be such at his incarnation . . that the divine nature cannot be pars personae , for that would be to be imperfect and not divine : therefore that the humane nature is no part , but an adjunct to the person of christ. ( and if the humane nature be an accident to the divine in christ , why must we deny creatures to be accidents of god ? ) but most plain christians would be star●l●d to hear a preacher say , that the humanity is no part of the person of christ. § . . i have no answer to the difficulty , unless i may distinguish of the sence of the word person , and say , that in the sence as it signifieth a person in the essence of god , the humane nature is no part of it . but as to a relative personality , ( as a king , a priest , a prophet , &c. as a husband , a father , &c. are persons ) so there is one mediator between god and man , the man christ jesus : and the humane is not here excluded . but is the divine a part of the person of a mediator ? i handle such things with fear ; the lord pardon our weakness : but we are called to handle them by men's presumptions . . as god is not a part of the world , or universal substance , and yet is eminenter more than a part , what if it be so answered here ? . but if , as great doctors now maintain , relations may be ascribed to god , without any composition , because they have no proper reality , but a meer objective comparability , why may not the divine nature have a relative part in the relation of mediator , as assuming and advancing the humane , and operating in it , without composition ? and as according to this ambiguity , christ may have two persons ( not univocally ) divine and mediatorial , so the divine and humane may make one mediator : and in the one person of a mediator are contained many relative persons of christ , as king , priest , prophet , son of mary , &c. the lord pardon what is amiss in these conceptions , and rectifie my judgment , and give me that practical faith and knowledge of him , which constituteth christianity , according to the baptismal covenant , and which is it that he calleth eternal life . amen . chap. . how to conceive of the diversity of god's operations , seeing he is immutable , and intimately near to every patient . § . . it is certain , that no change wrought by god , signifieth any change in god ; and that no diversity of effects signifieth any real multiplicity or diversity in god : but all diversity ●loweth from unity , and change from immut●bil●ty . § . . it is certain , that god is intimately present in essence with every creature , and every effect , and so all his effects are immediatione proxim●tatis immediately from god , he being as near the effect , when he useth second causes , and having as much causality in producing what is done , as when he useth none . § . . yet it is certain , that god useth second causes , and therefore that all effects are not so ●mmediately from him , as to be sine med●is : and the highest usually work on the lower . § . . therefore it seemeth plain , that energy , ●r utmost transient operations go not as far as his essential presence ; nor are equal to his omnipotency : he doth not all that in primo instan●● he can do ; but suspendeth freely such acts. § . . therefore god may so far suspend some operations on inferior patients , as to confine them to the capacity or aptitude of the superior created causes , as he doth in the ordinary course of nature : he shineth not by the moon so much as by the sun ; nor in a cloudy day so much as in a clear ; nor in the night as in the day ; and nourisheth us not by every sort of food alike , nor cureth alike by all medicines . § . . as god doth thus in naturals , so may he do in morals , or spiritual changes : as he is the god of kingdoms and people , he may use its mercies and judgments by kings and magistrates , and according to their good or bad dispositions , as he did in the death of christ. he doth not use to govern nations as happily by wicked , tyrannical , in●i●el rulers , as by the good and faithful : pagan rome was more unhappy under nero , domitian , commodus , he●iogabulus , &c. than under n●rva , trajan , adrian , antonine , alexander severus : and the empire was delivered by the fall of seven tyrants , by a constantine . § . . so god usually prospereth or afflicteth churches and particular souls , working his grace according to the qualifications of the pastors and teachers ; and fitting them to be meet instruments of the intended good , though he do not always so confine his operations . this is evide 〈…〉 in the different successes of ministers that are skilful or unskilful , wise or ignorant , good or bad ▪ concordant , or schismatical : and it is notoriou● in the success of the education of youth , in schools universities , and families . § . . according to this method , we may judge also of god's working according to variety of company-helps , temptations , and hinderances , and how much of god's work of grace is thus sapientially and mediately exercised ; though as to the internal manner of the agency of his spirit , we are told by christ , that every one that is born of the spirit , is as the wind bloweth where it listeth , and we hear the sound , but know not whence it cometh , and whither it goeth . it is much herein to know a little . § . . it greatly darkeneth us in judging of god's providences on earth , as to the welfare or misery of nations and souls , believers and insidels , peace and war , &c. that we know not how much god doth here by spirits good and bad ; and how far such spirits are left to their free-will , as adam was , in their ministration and executions here below . god gave satan power over iob , and power on the sabeans that robbed him , and power on the fire that fell from heaven on his estate . christ said , this is their day , and of the power of darkness . what laws the superiour worlds are under , as to us , and one another , is much unknown to us ; yea , what power for our sins satan may have against ( not only the wicked , but ) even those that fear god , both on their bodies by diseases , and on their minds by troubling and seducing temptations sad experience ●elleth us , that yielding to former temptations , giveth him advantage for easier access to our imaginations , and to more dangerous fresh assaults . § . . but yet we may be sure , that all god's promises shall be fulfilled , and that he will never give satan power to break them , nor suspend his operations so much on any second causes , as to violate any word of safety , and hope that he hath given us to trust to ; which assurance may serve to keep us in faith , and hope ; and comfort . chap. . is any point of faith above reason , or contrary to it ? § . . i have answered this at large in method . theol. it is a confused and ill-worded question . distinguish , . between faith taken objectively , and faith subjectively as an act , or quality . . between that which is required of all men to be believed , and that which is required but of some . . between reason in faculty , and reason in act and habit. . between reason advanced by improvement , and reason unimproved and buried in ignorance . . between reason that hath only the revelation of common nature , and reason that hath supernatural revelation . § . . i. it being only objective faith that is meant in the question ; that is no object of faith which for want of revelation , a man is not bound to believe . there are millions of things above our reason , which are no objects of our faith. and more may be the object of one man's faith , than of anothers that had it no way revealed to him . § . . ii. almost all the matter of faith is above the reason of ignorant sots that never improved their reason , or studied the evidences of truth : it is above their reason , as dispositive and active , though not above the possibility of their faculties being better cultivated and disposed hereafter . § . . iii. the doctrine of faith is not only above , but centrary to the false reasoning of ignorant deceived fools ; for so is the very being of god , and such are many that boast of reason . § . . iv. the gospel of christ , and many points of faith are above his reason that hath only such natural light as the creation can give him , without any gospel supernatural revelation . who can know in india that never heard of christ , that he was incarnate , and rose from the dead , and ascended , & c. ? § . . v. nothing that god commandeth us to believe , is either contrary to , or above reason ( that is the reasoning intellect ) informed by evangelical revelation or notice , and honestly and soundly qualified to judge otherwise , as law , physick , astronomy , so divinity is above the reason of the unqualified . § . . this is apparent , . because we have ●o faith in us , but what is an act of reason and ●●tional will ; and therefore that cannot be said 〈…〉 be above reason , which is it self essentially ●n act of reason . by what faculty do we be●●eve , but by the rational intellect and will ? ●nd this intellect hath but two sorts of acts , ● . immediate self-perceptions , which some call in 〈…〉 uitions , and some , eminent internal sensation . ● . abstrative knowledge by reasoning . and ●he first way we perceive nothing but our own ●cts : therefore it must be the latter , or not at all . § . . . we have reason to know that god ●annot lye ; and reason to know by certain proof ●hat scripture is his word ; and reason to know ●hat that word expresseth . therefore we have ●eason to believe that it is true , and consequently ●o trust it . § . . . if we tell infidels that we have no reason our selves for our faith , nor any reason ●o give them why they should believe christ more ●han mahomet , and the scripture more than the alcor●n , this preaching is not the way to con●ince the world , nor did such preaching gather ●he churches . § . . when the apostles added miracles to ●heir testimony of christ's resurrection , what was it for , but to convince mens reason , that what god so attesteth by unimitable vvorks , must needs be true : it is by reason ( abused ) that men talk against reason . § . . those knowing divines that tell the socinians , that the matters of faith are above reason , can reasonably mean no more , but that meer reason by natural light , could not have known them without gospel supernatural revelation . § . . this reason is unanswerable . that is certainly true which god obligeth a 〈…〉 men of reason , to whom it is revealed , to believe . but god obligeth all men of reason , to who● it is revealed , to believe the life to come , and that christ is the son of god , and his vvor● true . therefore it is true . the major is proved by the very being an● perfection of god ; to say that god bindeth the world to believe a lye , and so is the great lyer and deceiver , is to describe him like satan , and to deny him to be god. the minor is proved ; god bindeth us to believe that which being of greatest everlasting consequence , is attested by the former prophecies , the essential impressions of god , the multitude of uncontrolled miracles , and the continued success of sanctifying souls , and making the greatest amendment of the world , when we have no disproof of it ; and to trust our souls and hopes on this , when we have such sealed promises , and no other sufficient hopes . but such is the gospel of christ , and the life to come — ergo we are sound as reasonable , by god to believe it . in this belief and hope i am writing this , under the sentence of death , in expectation of my approaching change. chap. i. prefatory . who shall be iudge of controversies , and of the sence of scripture ; whether all the people , or who else . sect. i. experience assuring all men , that we are born without actual knowledg , and yet with faculties made to know , obliged to learn , desi●ing knowledg , needing it , and delighting in it , ●o wonder if men be inquisitive after the surest ●nd easiest way to attain it ; and if they be unwil●ing to be deceived , no wonder they love truth as truth , and hate lyes as lyes ; though , being de●eived , they hate that which is truth , and love that which is a lye. § . . therefore the first apprehensions of the mind do greatly tend to the introduction of those that follow , to make them such as shall agree with these : and here , . sense , and . education have the great advantage . . we exercise sense before reason , and therefore , at first , without the government of our own reason , and this necessarily , strongly , and constantly , as the bruites do . . and being therefore governed by the reason of our parents , we learn knowledg of them , and from sensible objects , ●ut drop by drop , by slow degrees ; and sense being strong , inclineth children strongly to desire that sort of knowledg , which will most serve the pleasure of sence and fleshly appetite : and so they easily learn how to sport , and after how to seek pro●●ssion ( by labour and trades , and fla●tery ▪ 〈…〉 . ) t● s●tisfi the desires of the flesh. but the 〈…〉 dg of things spiritual and everlastin● which are beyond the reach of sight and all the se ses , cometh not in so soon ▪ nor till parents o● other teachers tell them of such , or reason grow up to m●turity , by experience and serious exercise , and withal , the grace of god to bless such help● , and overcome the contrary fleshly inclinations , which original pravity and customary sensuality , raise up against the desires of , endeavours for , and obedience to a spiritual and more excellent knowledg . where god giveth , . a body moderately temperated as to sensuality and ingenuity ; . and parents , or first-teachers , wise and faithful , to teach children that spiritual knowledg which they have learn● themselves ; and , . by his grace exciteth childrens minds to love , learn , and obey the truth , there enter the beginnings of truest wisdom : but where these are wanting , they grow up , instead of saving wisdom , to the craftiness of a fo● , to get , keep , and devour his prey , and to the valour and felicity of the mastisse , to be master of the little dogs ; and at last , to the subtilty of devils , to oppose and destroy as a hated thing the holy wisdom and practice that should have saved them . § . . as knowledg cometh in by slow degree● ▪ so there are as many degrees or differences of it , in the world , as there are men ; it being not probeble that any two men on earth have just the same apprehensions and degrees of knowledg ; but that all mens mental complexions differ far more than their vis●ges do . so that if the same degree were ●he measure of necessary church-concord , and ●alvation , there should but one in the world be ●●e church or be saved . the question then is not , what measure is desireable , but what is necessary to church-unity and communion , and to salvation . and what god will do with those that have not the gospel , and are not of the christian church , but only believe that god is , and that he is the re●●rder of them that 〈…〉 tly seek him , and that in every nation do fear god , and work righteousness ] belongeth not to our present question ; but only what is necessary to the christian state and hope . § . . and here it is first to be decided , whether god hath by ●y fixed law or revelation determined so ●f the measure of christian knowledg and faith , as ●hat thereby men may know who are to be taken as christians and of the church ? to which i say , . we ●ust distinguish of faith as objective and as active , ●r as to the matter believed , and as to the act of ●elieting or knowing . . between the inward sincerity and the outward profession : and remember ●hat though god judge of men according . to inward sincerity , and . expect that degree of knowe●●g and faith in act and habit suitable to means ●njoyed , without which the man and his faith are ●ot indeed sincere ; yet the church ( and all men ) ●an judge of others , but . by outward profession , ● . extended to that degree of objective faith , which god hath made commonly necessary to christianity or to the acceptance of the church it is therefore here a deceiving consusion , to ●onfound the two cases , what is necessary to god's acceptance into heaven , and what is necessary to a man's acceptance into the church . and thence some conclude that no man can tell just what is necessary to individuals . § . . that christ hath stated the essentials of christianity , taken objectively should be so far past question , as our christianity it self is , at least . for if he have not , then he is not the author and finisher of our faith : and if he be not who is ▪ the apostles delivered it as received from him . if it were not then made and determined by christ , then there was then no christianity , and so no christians . and if it was made since then , who wa● the maker of objective christianity ? no man o● company of men dare or do pretend to it . if they should , whence had they that power ? and did ●● die with them ? or may others after them make also a new christianity ? paul pronounceth angel or man accursed that should bring another gospel than that which he had received and preached gal. . , . cor. . , . &c. . and if the essentials of christianity and church-relation and communion were not determined of by christ , and notified in the holy scriptures , then there could be then no christian church , for want of church-essentials . and then when began that church , and who made it . . but the gospel hath put the matter out of doubt , telling us that christ hath actually declared and determined the essentials of objective christianity and the church : even in his institution o● baptism , which is our christening , which in his preaching he expounded , and so did his apostles . . and as his baptized disciples were called christians , so he commanded them to love one another and live in concord and communion a● christians : and could any obey this command , of christianity was then either unmade or a thing that could not be known ? § . . and if it was then made by christ , it was sur●ly anchangeable : else men might be still making a new christianity , from age to age , and when should we have an end ? and who hath power or skill to make a better than christ made 〈…〉 that attempted it , thereby is an accursed antichrist ? § . . and now we come next to enquire , i. what are the church-controversies to be decided . ii. and who are the dissenters that differ herein . iii. and then we shall easily find who it is that must be the judge of them . § . . and . it is supposed that it is no one essential part o● objective christianity that is in controversie . . and that it is not among christians that any such point is controverted . for he that denyeth any essential part , denyeth christianity and the church ; and therefore is no christian ( whatever he may be called by himself or others . ) and though confounders make a great controversie of it , whether a heretick be a christian and a part of the church , it 's easily resolved ; if we dally not with an ambiguous word : if by a heretick be meant one that professeth not , or deny●d any essential part of christianity or the church , he is no christian nor part of that church which he denyed : but if by a heretick be meant one that professeth not , or denyeth only something that is of the melius esse of christianity and the church , he is a member though a faulty one . § . . but it will be said , that more than the essentials of christianity is necessary to church-communion : else we must receive drunkards , fornicators , extortioners , railers , with whom , saith st. paul , we must net eat . ans. i would those that will not endure tolerable men for a different opinion or circumstance , could as little endure drunkards , fornicators , extortioners , and railers , and covetous , &c. but the objectors must understand , that as i said , the baptismal covenanting profession of christianity is our church-title to its communion . and that christianity is more than a bare opinion or notional assent : it is a solemn giving up our selves by vow and covenant to god the father , son and holy ghost , as our god and saviour and sanctifier , to be taught and ruled by christ , as well as pardoned , adopted , and glorified ; which essentially containeth repentance and the renunciation of the dominion of the flesh , the world , and the devil , which are contrary to the government of christ. and it must be remembred that a verbal profession proved counterfeit and false by inconsistent contradiction in word or deed , is indeed not valid , and is no profession . and he that would say , i will be ruled by christ , but i will be a drunkard , a fornicator , an extortioner , &c. would thus nullifie his profession by a gross contradiction : and to live impenitently in these sins , is as sure a proof of falshood of a man's profession , as contrary words would be . and if a man once and again commit such sins till he repent of them , he chooseth them and liveth in them : and while he chooseth and liveth in them , he repenteth not indeed , whatever he say : for repentance is a change of mind and life . therefore we here distinguish of mens right to church-communion as . unquestioned , . as lost or null , . as doubtful and under tryal . . a baptismal profession of all the essence of christianity , and not disproved , is a title not to be questioned . . apostasie , or the denyal by word or deed ●f any essential part of christianity , justly proved , nullifieth christianity and church right . . but if a man speak or hold some bad opinion by a remote u●see● . consequence , contrary to somewhat essential to christianity , or if he commit some sin that is inconsistent if he repent not , here the church must try whether the said error be indeed so held , as that the contradicted truth is really not held , or only be held on a mistake of consisten●● , the person professing to renounce it , if inconsistent : and whether the said sinner live impenitently in that sin , as that which he chooseth and will not forsake : and while the man is under this doubtful tryal , his title is doubtful , and to be suspended as to actual exercise . and therefore the church hath ever used suspension as a thing different from a full or proper excommunication . suspension and some disciplinary restraints , have been called excommunicatio minor , which doth not cut off a man from the church : when the proper excommunication called major , is but an authoritative declaring that a man hath cut off himself , by apostasie at least from some essential part of christian faith or duty : without which self-abs●ision , other mens hath no place , and is but a slander of the innocent . god hath not given others power to unchristen , cut off or damn the guiltless . § . . it 's one thing to be cut off from the church or christ , . and another to be under tryal and suspense o● actual communion , till repentance prove mens right . . and it 's another to be at present only denyed communion ( not with the church wholly , but ) in some comfortable ordinances , till the removing of a scandal have made the person capable , by satisfying the scandalized . . and it s another thing to be cast down from a higher to a lower station , and denyed dignities , preferments , and special honour . confound not these . § . . and by this time you may see how to answer the ill-stated question , who is the iudge of controversies in religion : and of the sence of the scripture : and whether every ignorant man or woman , or child must be iudges of it for themselves ? and first you must understand the foresaid distinctions necessary to the solution ; ambiguities and generalities are the instruments of deceit . and secondly i shall apply them to the case . § . . . we must distinguish controverted essentials of christianity , from controverted integrals , and accidents . . distinguish controversies between christians and no-christians , from controversies among christians . . distinguish material objective christianity ( faith and duty ) from internal subjective . . distinguish external valid profession of actual faith not disproved , from internal sincerity . . distinguish between what is necessary to god's accepting a man to justification and salvation ; and what 's necessary to the church's accepting a man to communion . . distinguish what is necessary to that stated union and communion which is our real church-membership and christianity , from that which is necessary to the present actual exercise of such right in some local priviledges and acts ; and from that which only sitteth men for dignity or office. . distinguish between the case de esse , or real truth , and the case de scire , or judging of it . . distinguish between judging what others shall believe about things controverted , and governing their practice , how they shall behave themselves . . distinguish a private judgment , discerning what is or is not our own duty , and a publick iudgment in government of others . . distinguish the judgment of several governours according to their divers offices , and ends. . distinguish a limitted power to judge only one way from a power of judging obligatively in partem utram libet , this way or that . . distinguish the real incomplexe matter or objects of faith , from the literal complexe words which signifie them . and so these conclusions will be clear past doubt . concl. . all christians are agreed in the essentials of christianity : therefore these are no church-controversies for any to be the judges of ▪ it's only insidels and men without our church that differ from us in these . and insidels are not to be converted by the authority of a humane judge ( nor ever were ) but by teachers shewing the evidences of truth . c. ii. all christians , as such being bound by christ to love one another , and live in communion as members of one body , notwithstanding lesser differences , it followeth that christian unity , love , and communion depend not on the question , who shall be iudge of controversies ; as being presupposed to it . c. iii. but the baptizing pastors of the churches are by office the judges , whether it be indeed the essentials of christianity which are profest by the baptized . c. iv. and therein it is the real incomplexe objects that are propterse essential ( god , christ , grace , &c. ) and the ●●gnal words are only necessary to notifie to the church what men believe : and no singular words only are necessary : else only men of one language could be christians : but any words will serve which signifie the same matter : few will serve for some : and others must use more . the words of baptism suffice where they are understood : but the creed , lord's prayer , and decalogue , as the sum of the credenda , petenda , agenda , have by the church been judged a sufficient explication , for the baptized : and in these we all agree . c. v. though real sincerity of active faith and consent be necessary to salvation , god judging the heart ; yet profession not disproved , must satisfie the church : who therefore are not put to judge whether mens knowledg reach the degree of their helps ? c. vi. the baptizing one into the union of the church-universal , obligeth him to exercise christ's instituted worship in particular churches ; and therefore to know what that is : which is the pastor's teaching the flock christ's gospel ; officiating in the administration of the lord's supper , prayer and praise , and disciplinary government by the use of the church-keys : of mens fitness for these , the pastors are the judges , and the flock must obey . c. vii . christ hath in scripture instituted all that is of necessity to this communion . c. viii . every governour hath a governing judgment ( called publick ) suitable to his office. the pastours are judges who is capable of baptism and church-communion , as far as must be executed by the keys . the magistrate is judge who is by him to be countenanced , tolerated , or punished by force . the parents are judges in cases about their wives and children , proper to family-government but every reasonable creature being a governour of himself , is necessarily the discerner of his own duty . and god being the highest ruler , and there being no power but of him , and none against him , no man must obey any against him : and all must use their reason to judge whether mens laws be against god or not : if this were not so , . men were governed as meer bruites : . and must curse god or christ , or murder , or do any evil that rulers bid them . . and then god should for this punish none but soveraigns . . and then all nations must be of the king's religion . . and then men must not judge whether it be the just prince or the usurper that they must obey . in short , this overthroweth all religion and humanity . c. ix . no men have power to judge in partem utramlibet , or against any article of faith or divine obedience ; the thing is true or false before they judge of it : and if they judge against truth , their judgment is void : god binds as not to believe their lie : they have no power to judge that there is no god , no christ , no holy ghost , that the gospel is false , that men may commit idolatry , perjury , murder , adultery , &c. the contrary all may and must judge ; but some as rulers , and some as subjects . but in cases before indifferent , ( where man's authority may make duty ▪ or not , there they may judge it duty or not accordingly . c. x. in doubtful cases no mens bare judgment can bind or make others to believe things divine with a divine faith : man is not god. but . teachers that are credible must be believed with a human faith according to the degree of their credibility , which is preparatory to divine faith. . and rulers may govern subjects in the manner of expressing and using their controverted opinions , and restrain them from doing hurt . c. xi . while true union and love are secured by common concord in things essential and necessary , a judge of other controversies is not needful to these ends before secured : christians must live in love that understand not many hundred texts or controversies . c. xii . it is worse than madness to think that all controversies will on earth be ended , or that any men can do it . but they that say it do most deeply damn such pretended judges , that so many volumes being written of controversies , and contrary textual expositions among themselves , will not decide them to this day . who shall decide all the controversies between general councils , and all the present patriarchs and churches in the world. thus much to answer the question , who shall be iudge of controversies and scripture sence ? § . . if men did but difference points necessary to salvation and christianity , from those that are only needful to a higher stature in the church , and from those that are utterly uncertain and unnecessary ; and , . if they did but know their own ignorance and liableness to error ; and , . if they considered how utterly impossible it is to make the multitude of ignorant people , yea or ministers , to be all of a mind , in the numerous hard controversies , opinions , and dubious or indifferent things , that are striven about in the world ; certainly instead of damning , or despising , or destroying , or hateing each other for such things , they would magni●ie the wisdom and mercy of christ , who hath laid the love , unity and peace of his church on a few plain , sure and needful things , [ even the covenant of christianity , with the creed , lord's prayer and decalogue , and so much of christ's own precepts , as the universal church hath ever bin agreed in . ] and they would rather honour and obey st. paul , rom. . cor. . ephes. . , to . than count his dictrin to be unpracticable or loose . § . . if god will take all into heaven that practically believe the creed , and obey what is plainly written in the scripture , why may not such live in love and peace on earth , and the key-bearers of the church ( which is the seminary of heaven ) receive such , as christ receiveth us to the glory of god the father , rom. . . what if men confess that they know no more ( when millions called christians know not so much ) will they destroy them for not knowing more than they can know ? or is it any virtue or duty to lye , and say that they know or believe what they are utterly ignorant of ? what if those that with ierome misliked the word hypostasis , and those that preferred it before persona , had forborn censuring one another ? what if the questions , whether mary should be called the mother of god , or rather of him who is god ? or whether christ's will and operations should be said to be one or two ? had been managed with mutual forbearance , without zeno's henoticon , or anastasius's forcible amursty ? what if such forbearance had spared all the rage and bloodshed at antioch , alexandria and other parts ? what if chrysostom and others had bin permitted to silence their thoughts of origine ? what if men had not bin put to declare whether the tria capitula of theodoret , i●as and theodore mopsuest , were sound or unsound , and said , what is it to us ? might not the church have lived with such in peace ? what if when the world was in a flame about images , they had left them only to those that desired them ? might not they yet have lived in love , that agreed in all the essentials of christianity ? what if yet one man say that christ's body is locally present in the eucharist ; and another say that , because he knoweth not how far his spiritual glorified body is invisible , therefore he no more knoweth whether it be there than whether an angel be there , but believeth that the sacrament is truly his crucified body representative ; why might not both these live in peace ? what if one think that venial sin must be punished with purgatory fire , or as an english dr. that some men must pass a new life of trial , in their aireal vehicle , before they are capable of an aethere●l vehicle , why may not such bear with one that saith he knoweth no such thing ? what ●f one man think that he may pray to his angel guardian and another saith only that he oweth angels love , reverence and gratitude , and would pray to them if he knew when they heard him , and knew it were god's will , what hurt will it do to the other man to bear with this ? if we agree of all points that put men into that state in which christ commanded to love one another as his disciples ; if others differ from me about the meaning of five hundred texts of scripture , why may notlbe contented with my knowledg and opinion , and leave them to theirs ? why might not nazianzene and the council of constantinople , hierome and russinus , chrysostom and theophilus and epiphanius , prosper and cassianus and vincentius , ( to pass by augustine and celestine and iulianus , and hierome and vigilantius and iovinian ) have composed their differences with less noise and strife , and lived in love and peace together . ( to pass by also the doleful contentions about the councils of ephesus and calcedon , and const. , & . and nice . and between ignatius and photius , and many more worse stri●es since then ) why might not the jesuites and jansenists have differed without troubling the popes and the church , by mutual forbearance and gentle disputes , as many of the schoolmen did before them ? i quarrel not with erasmus , faber , and abundance such , for chiding the schoolmen as causers of contention , by raising so many frivolous questions for dispute : but verily , as they were in my opinion the best philosophers that ever the world had , ( and no wonder when they studied little else ) so they managed their disputes with more scholar-like candour and peaceable moderation than most that went before them , or that have followed them . how many huge volumes of subtile disputes do they write , with very few railing words : patiently bearing each others copious confutations and contradictions , as a thing to be expected , and no whit wondring at the differences of judgment among the worthiest men ? how many volumes , or loads of volumes are there written , of the different opinions of the thomists , scotists , nominals , durandists ; and yet till the late times put virulency into the writings of iesuites , dominicans and iansenists , &c. there was little reviling to be found in all these long disputes . and why might not luther and caerolostadius , zuinglius and oecolampadius ; and many lutherans and calvinists have lived in as much love and peace as melan●thon and erasmus and such others , if they had but had their forbearing charity and candour ? how sweet are the pacificatory writings , yea and how judicious , of iunius , ludov. crotius , matth. martinius , georg. calixtus , conrad . bergius , iohannes bergius , paraeus , amyraeedus , hottonus , testardus , camero , lud. capellus , plac●us , and ( above all ) vinc. le blank : yea and of moderate papists , espencaeus , ferus , gerson , cassander , and especially erasmus : and how harsh to the lovers of love and peace , are such writings as spit fire and brimstone , reproach and bitter censures , against those that be not just of their opinions ? it puts the wisest divines hard to it , how far they may pronounce damnation on all those heathens , that live in sincerity ( though not in perfection ) according to that measure of the notification of god's will which they are under , that come to god in the belief that god is , and that he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him , and that in every nation they that fear god and work righteousness , and are no worse than such righteous men , as abraham thought even wicked sodom had had fifty of , are accepted of him . and shall christians damn , curse and kill all that understand not a thousand controversies , which perhaps the destroyers as little understand ; and that know not an hundred things to be indifferent or lawful , which the destroyers do but say are such ? § . . it hath oft grieved me to read in dr. heylin's life of archbishop laud how great a hand the controversies then called arminian , or of the five articles , had in the divisions of the church of england , between those that he maketh archbishop abbot in england and archbishop usher in ireland to head on one part ; and the few that at first ( and many after ) that followed archbishop laud in england , and archbishop bramhall in ireland on the other part . and to find what a stress the many parliaments that feared popery did lay on the thing that they called arminianism : and being carried down by the stream of many good mens opinions and fears , i was my self some years confident that arminianism was a character of an enemy to the soundness and safety of the church . but when i had set my self throughly and impartially to study it , i found that which so amazed me , that i durst scarce believe what i could not deny ; even that from the beginning of the quarrel between augustine and pelugius , all the voluminous contentions of the thomists or dominicans , and the iesuites , and franciscans , and between the lutherans , and zuinglians ( herein ) and the synodists and arminians , have been mostly about either unsearchable things , which neither side understood , or about ambiguous words , which one party taketh in one sence , and the other in another ; or about the meer methodizing and ordering of the notions which both sides are agreed in ; and that indeed the most reach not the very point of the difficulty and controversie , but talk before they understand as their leaders have taught them : and that when the matter is distinctly opened , it is found that multitudes that write , rail and plot against one another , are really of one opinion de rebus , and did not know it : and that the few remaining controversies that are real , and not only verbal , are but of such small or dubious things , as should break no love nor communion among christians , but all should with forbearance love each other in that liberty of judging which they cannot remedy . the man that could cure all mens errours ( and his own ) and will not , is much to blame : and he that would but cannot , is little better , if he will kill all that he cannot cure ; and no doubt hath greater than any of theirs uncured in himself . and what ! do i in all this take part with ignorance , error , heresie or any sin ? no! he that can cure it , let him : but is he a fit person to cure it , that hath the errours of ungodliness , malice , lying , and bloodthirstiness in himself ? or will killing men cure them ? the charity of these men saith , [ burn , hang or kill them le●t they infect others : ] ergo , say others , kill these that far so , because their errours are the most pernicious , lest they infect others with the asps and dragons killing poyson . nature teacheth man to hate and kill wolves , kites , adders , and all that live on the blood of harmless creatures , and to protect sheep , doves , and such other creatures as cannot protect themselves . my nature grudgeth to live on the flesh of these harmless creatures , though god hath given them to us , but i little pity a toad , a snake , a spider , or a devouring fox : but regnante dia●olo , where the devil ruleth , he will have his butchers and shambles ; and as brutes are killed for men , honest men shall be killed by these as for god : and because god himself will not allow the murder of the innocent and just and pious , it is but calling them , rogues and knaves , and as christ , an enemy to caesar , and as to paul , a ring-leader of a sect , and mover of sedition among the people , ( real crimes where there is real guilt ) and then they may say of them and do to them what they will , and by cheating history represent saints as villains to ignorant posterity . but o blessed be the final , just , deciding judge ; who is as at the door . the leech's religion , that cannot live without blood , is against the reliques of humanity in mankind , so much , that even they that for worldly interests comply with it , do secretly suspect it to be indeed diabolism . § . . but satan told christ that the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them is delivered to him , and their power is his gift which he giveth to whomsoever he will ; and that shall be to those that obey and worship him , luk. . , . though he be a lyer , too much of this is proved by the effects . and doubtless where he reigns , his work doth denote his power and government ; that is , . blind ignorance , error , lying and deceit . . malignant hatred of good things and persons . . bloodthirsty and destructive wolvish ways . and when he transformeth himself into an angel of light , and his ministers as into ministers of righteousness , all this is done most successfully as for god , and as by ( pretended ) commission from christ , to kill the most conscionable and faithful christians , as odious villains , and that as for the church and christ , and for unity , order and holy ends ; yea to kill them in meer charity , ( though they love not such charity to themselves . ) such is the cainites and cannibal religion , that will dye if it be not fed with blood. and yet is so impatient of its own name , and to hear the recital of its own exercise which hath maintained it a thousand years , that it is a mortal crime to tell men that they do that which they openly do & glory in . wonderful ! that it should be a necessary virtue to do it , and a capital crime to say they do it : to know what such do , goeth for worse than doing it . inscius acteon , &c. § . . the effects of these controversies have been and still are so dismal , among papists and protestants , that sure no man should be angry with a reconciler that is not in love with hatred and destruction . i confess they are very learned men of the church of rome that have managed them against each other . and so are some of the church of england , and of foreign protestants : but i must testifie that the most that i hear or read inveighing reproachfully against others about them , are men that tell me they talk after their leaders , of things that they never understood . i am ashamed to hear of 't in the pulpits : one party rendring the doctrine of predestination as odious blasphemy , and another party crying down universal redemption and free-will and arminianism , as an enemy to god's grace ; and neither of them know what they speak against . one davenant , or camero , or le blank , sheweth more insight into the controversies which they reconcile , than forty of these zealous railers do . § . . i meddle not in this book with the controversies about church-government or worship : a settled worldly interest and the various mental dispositions of the contenders , convince me , that i can there do little for reconciliation : god must do it , if he have not forsaken this world . but meer doctrinal controversies ( though of great moment ) methinks should not be so linked to a worldly interest , but that men should be willing to know the truth or to endure others to know it . that which i have attempted is , by meer and clear explication , without much argumentation , to end such controversies : and to make men understand one another , and the things which they dispute about ; and by abbreviating my catholick theology , to make the conciliation fitter for all students : and the success of that book giveth me great encouragement , which hath been unanswered to this day , when i looked that it should have brought the contentious of both sides about my ears . and i rejoice in the success of le blank 's theses which i publish'd ( he sent them to me to publish , and i gave them to my bookseller to print , and he sold his copy to another . ) for all the dismal effects that the history of the low countries , and dr. heylin in archbishop laud's life mention of these controversies , i rejoice that these many years last past , they have made in england less noise than ever , and are talked of with more peace and moderation . and that i have a special share in the comfort of this effect . and what names soever peace-haters and man-haters and saint-haters call men by , christ saith , blessed are the peace-makers , for they shall be called the children of god. chap. ii. the doctrines about which they chiefly disagree , enumerated . § . . the forementioned causes of divisions in general , do operate among christians , . about church-government ; . about god's worship , and . about christian doctrine in particular : all which are turned into the matters of our discord . the two first i intend not to meddle with in this discourse : and as to the third , the controversies about doctrine which most trouble the churches , are , . about god's decrees and his will in general . . about his foreknowledge . . about election in particular . . about reprobation . . about his providence and predetermination of all actions in general . . about his causing or not causing sin. . about natural power and freewill , . about original sin. . about redemption by christ. . about the laws and covenants of innocency , works and grace . . about universality and sufficiency of grace . . about man's power and free-will since the fall , to obey the gospel . . about effectual grace , and how god giveth it . . about the state of heathens that have not the gospel . . about the necessity of holiness , and the state of moral virtue . . about the necessity of faith in christ where the gospel is made known . . about the state of infants as to salvation . . about the nature of saving faith. . about the nature of pardon and justification . . about the imputation of christ's righteousness to believers . . about the manner how faith justifieth us , and how faith is imputed to us for righteousness . . of assurance of justification and salvation , and of hope . . of good works and merits , and how far we may trust to any thing in our selves . . of confirmation , perseverance , and of danger and falling away . . of repentance , late repentance and the day of grace , and the unpardonable sin. . of our communion with christ's glorified humanity , and with angels and glorified souls . . of the state of separated souls . . of the resurrection and everlasting life . of each of these i shall shew the pacifick truth which must unite us , and shew how far all the reformed churches are therein agreed ; and whether the papists are or will be agreed with us , i shall referr to their own consideration . chap. iii. of god's will and decrees in general . § . . the will of god ] signifieth either , i. his own essence , and that , . under the notion of a power or virtue analogically to the faculty in man ; or . under the notion of an act , as it is considered only ex parte agentis without the effect . ii. or the said essence as related to the effects or objects , and thence denominated . iii. or the extrinsick objects and effects themselves , called his will , because willed by him . § . . these later are , i. his works of eminent power ( with wisdom and goodness ) viz. creation , preservation and natural motion , by god as sons naturae . ii. his works of eminent wisdom ( with power and goodness ) viz. order , and specially moral government ; the parts of which are , . legislation , antecedent to man's actions ; . retribution , by judgment and execution , consequent to them : especially by the redeemer in the way of grace . iii. his works of eminent love or goodness ( with power and wisdom ) especially glory begun and perfected . § . . by [ god 's decrees ] is meant his volitions of what shall be ; which are but his will considered as in such acts : now concerning all these sences of god's will. § . . i. god's will in it self considered is his essence , and not any accident in god. § . . ii. yet esse & velle are not conceptions of the same sence or importance ; but are distinct inadequate conceptions of the same god : and so is also intelligere . § . . iii. as posse & agere are not really two things in god , so his will as a power , faculty or virtue , and his will as an act or volition in himself , are not two things ; but two inadequate conceptions of that which is simple unity in god ; for man's narrow mind can no otherwise know him . § . . iv. god doth operate or effect immediately by his essence ; and not by any action of his , which is between his essence and the effect : whether you call it his agere , intelligere or velle , or all conjunct by which he effecteth , it is nothing besides his essence which is so called : for there is nothing in rerum natura , but god and the creature , and the creature 's actions : and a●r●ol●s , that stiffly argueth that god's creating action is neither god nor the creature , but a middle thing , doth satisfie no mans understanding , and is commonly rejected : and he can mean with sence nothing but god as agent , vel in hoc modo ; as a creature in motion differeth modally from the same qui●sant : but god hath no modus which is not himself , though not an adequate conception of himself . you must not conceive of god as of a creature , which first by self-motion altereth it self ( or is moved by another ) and then moveth another thing : but god diversifieth things without diversity , and changeth things being himself unchanged . § . . v. as to the controversie , whether god make and move things only volendo ( as brad●ardine and many others say ) or also executive agend● , by excited power ? quoad re●● both are true ; because power and will in god are really the same : but as to our conception and expression , it is a fuller expression to say that he doth it by will and power , because our conception of m●er volition is as of quid immanens which doth not efficiently go forth of it self , but command in man the executive faculties ; and so conceiving of god after the manner of men , volition is not an adequate conception of his causing efflux , without active power : but they that conceive of volition as transient and potently efficient , do mean the same thing , and really differ not from others . § . . vi. god's will as it is his essence hath really no parts , no division , no change , no priority or posteriority , but perfect simplicity and eternity . § . . vii . god's will as it is himself hath no cause but is the cause of every creature : and to ask a cause of the first cause is absurd . § . . viii . all the effects of god's will ad extra , have their divers natures , orders and seasons , priority , posteriority or simultaneity , which we may sobe●ly enquire after . § . . ix . god's will , though but one , as related to the objects and effects , may by us be diversly denominated : and so we distinguish of his creating will , and his redeeming will , his will to save , and his will to damn , his will to save peter , and his will to save iohn , and so of all the rest of the objects . in all which we mean not a diversity of essences or faculties in god , or acts ex parte agentis , really differing ; but only one and the same will diversly conceived of and denominated by reason of the diversity of objects or effects to which it is related , and so by connotation the will it self is thus distinguished . § . . x. this distinction and denomination of god's will hath extrinsick reasons , which some call causes , from the various termini ; as the same light shining into several rooms ; the diversity being real only ex parte recipientis . and so god's will may be said in this sence to begin and to end , to have diversity , priority and posteriority of acts ; which are all to be judged of by the order of the objects . § . . xi . the great question which the schoolwits trouble themselves with , and vasquez , with abundance more , pronounce unsearchable and past our reach , is , what is the cause that god's will is terminated thus or thus , on this object rather than on that ? to which i take the boldness to answer for the ending of that dispute . by [ the reason of termination ] you must mean either , . the reason of the being of that object or terminus rather than another : or . the reason of the relation of god's will to that terminus rather than another , and so of the denomination : or . the reason of the being of that act of god so terminated . . for the first , the cause of all the effects of god's will , is his will it self : and so of all the diversities effected . . the reason of the relation of god's will to those effects , and so of the connotation and denomination , is the will and the effect as from which the relation doth result . . and the being or act of the will thus terminated , is god's essence , which hath no cause . and what would you have more ? § . . but this satisfieth not men that still think of god as of themselves , but they go on still and ask , what is the cause that god's will 〈…〉 to make this world or creature rather than another ? or to give the first grace rather to one than to another ? that his will is terminated rather on peter than judas in election ? &c. but i must but call you back to consider again distinctly of what was answered before . . the cause of all the effects of creation , &c. is god's will : . the cause why his will is related to that effect à posteriore is the position of the effect with god's will. . the cause why god hath such a will is not to be asked , for god's will hath no cause . and if you add , but what is the cause that , à priore , his will is thus related and denominated as decreeing this or that ? i say , a priore , there is nothing in god's will but it self , which hath no cause : we dream of priorities and posteriorities and varieties in him , when we think of the following effects ; but when there was nothing but god really to terminate his will , there was no ground for any real relation and relative difference ; and to talk of relationes rationis in god himself as to non-existent creatures , and ask the cause of them , is ●ash presumption ; while we know that there was nothing in god but god , who hath no cause . and the question respecting nothing but what was eternally in god himself , whatever you will call his essential will fore-related to the future creature , you must needs say , that it had no cause . § . . but if the question go further , why god willeth not other creatures , or other effects , and so his will is not effectively terminated on such ; it is after to be fullier answered ; and now it is enough to say , that nothing hath no cause . § . . and when we say , that god's will may be denominated as divers , prior and posterior , and changeable as related to objects that are such , this is to be understood only of those acts which are to be denominated by connotation of what is divers and mutable , ex parte termini , still remembring that ex parte dei there is really no diversity or mutation . and therefore such denominations are given of god's will chiefly as related to existent objects , which are his acts called love and hatred , or complacency and displacency : e. g. we may say that [ god is displeased with paul or manasseth unconverted ] and [ he is pleased with them when converted ] the change being only in them . yet the same denomination may be used also of god's purposing will. as , e. g. we may say , that [ before christ's incarnation , god had this decree ; i will send my son to be incarnate , and die for man's redemption . ] but now it is not fit to say that god hath yet such a decree , when the thing decreed is past : nor a decree that he will create adam and the rest of the world , which is created . § . . but whoever liketh or disliketh any of these modes of speech , must still remember that controversies about them are not about any real change in god , ( which all deny ) but only about the connotative and respective denomination of his will from the changeable creature . and while that is confessed , sober men will not be forward to fall out about it . § . . suffer not the quaerist to confound the three forementioned sences of [ the will of god , ] and you may resolve almost all the ordinary questions about it , as is before intimated , without any more ado . as , e. g. qu. is god's will resistible ? ans. . god's will , as it is his essence , cannot come into the question , as not being passive , and so not properly resistible . . as god's will is taken for the objects and effects of his will , many of them are resistible : as his commands when they are violated are resisted morally ; so one effect of god's will , or one creature moved by him naturally , may resist another . . if the question be only whether the respective termination of god's will , and the denomination of it as thus or thus terminated , can be resisted ? i answer , . not by any resistance upon the essential will of god so terminated . . not by making god to be willing and not willing of the same thing in the same respect at the same time ; for that is a contradiction ; and were to make the same object to be and not to be at the same time , contra necessitatem existentiae . . not by preventing or destroying any object or effect which god's will so produceth , as that no creature hath power to hinder . . but when he will cause one sort of motion , and himself cause a greater contrary motion , or enable a free agent so to do , this contrary motion resisting the other motion , which was the effect of god's will , his will is denominated as resisted respectively . the same may be said of passive resistance . § . . so if the question be [ whether god gave any conditional will ? ] ans. . there is no place for the question about god's essential will in it self . . many objects of god's will and effects are antecedently conditional . . quoad ●ormam , as his conditional promises . . quoad ●ventum , as when he suspendeth any right , or benefit on a condition to be done by a free agent ; as , e. g. [ adam shall live if he sin not , and die , if he sin . ] but here conditionality implieth no uncertainty as to god's knowledge . . therefore if the question be only , whether ●b objecto any will of god may be relatively or connotatively called conditional , . remember that the question is but de nomine . . the same will of god may be called conditional , as quid conditionale is the object of it ; and also certain and absolute , as the same thing is to him certainly future , which yet was in the order of causing , conditionally future . but this supposeth the certo futurum , to be quid volitum ; and not sin , which is certo futurum and non volitum . chap. iv. of god's knowledge . § . . as we must not think of god's will as having various and mutable internal acts as man's hath ; but as one essential act , only variously denominated from the relation of extrinsick objects ; even so must we think also of his knowledg . § . . god knoweth not by reception of any light or species or idea from the object without him , but as beseemeth the perfection of the infinite intellect and first cause ; even partly by a productive act of intellection , and partly by termination on the objects known . ( n. b. ) i am fai● all along to use the name of [ extrinsick objects ] to signifie that the creature is not god : though it is improper to say that any thing is extra denm : but we want better words . § . . many of the church-troubling disputes about god's knowledg , are raised from that prophane supposition , that god knoweth cogitand● , by many distinct cogitations , as man doth , and by idea's or received species of the creatures . and on the false supposition that man can comprehend god's way of knowing , or at least hath formal conceptions of it , and must speak accordingly . from whence there are such rash disputes which act is first , and which cometh after . § . . most of these controversies are ended by the right applying the foresaid distinctions to god's understanding , which i before applied to his will. as , e. g. qu. hath gods knowledg any cause ? ans. . not as it is his essence . . the objects of it have their causes . . the denomination of his knowledg as such , from the objects respectively , hath its cause , such as a terminus may be called . and as in man the object is really the quasi materiale and constitutive cause of the act , not as an act , but as this act in specie vel individuo thus terminated ; so as to the meer connotation and relation and denomination , though not as to ●ny real reception , we may speak of god. § . . so if the question be , whether god's knowledge ●ave many acts ? and whether one be before or after ●thers ? ans. . god's essential knowledge is simply one . . the objects of it are many . . therefore as denominated ab extra , from respect to the objects , we may distinguish his simple knowledge , and mention priority and posteriority , but such only ●s resulteth from the order of objects : and these being but conceptions and denominations necessitated by our weakness , without any real diversity ●n god , we must fear and abhorr presumptuous boldness , and contentiousness hereabout . § . . so if the question be , whether god's knowledge be mutable ? ans. . his knowledge essential it self is not . . the objects are . . and therefore the denominations of his knowledge ab extrae oft are : as we may say , that god knew from eternity that the world would be created , and christ incarnate , as future . but now he knoweth that they were so , ut praeterita . god doth not now know , that christ will be born , that christ just now is crucified , that paul is preaching on earth : but once he knew all these . yet here all the change is in the object , and none in god's knowledge , as there is on mans . § . . if the question be , how god knoweth future contingents ? ans. . god's essence is knowledge , and is infinite , and therefore extendeth to all that is intelligible : and if they be not objects intelligible , it belongeth not to a perfect intellect to know them . but if they are , it is rashness to ask any other reason of god's knowing them , besides his perfection and their intelligibility : but all contingents that are future , are certainties to god as well as contingencies , in several respects , and accordingly known : but the shallow brain of worms doth little know what futurity signifieth in eternity to god. . but we know what future contingents are to us . . and thence we know that god's intellect may be denominated by imperfect man , as in its perfection comprehending our futurities and contingencies , and human measures , tho' not as measures to god. § . . if the question be , whether god know things as future , because he willeth them to be future ; or because they are future from the free agent 's will ▪ ans. . god's knowledge , ex parte sui , is his essence , and hath no cause , for it is no effect . god's understanding , will and power are essentially one , but as various , inadequate conceptions , they only make up ▪ perfect unity , and are not causes and effects to one another ; much less caused by any creature . . but futurity is caused by that which causeth the thing future : and therefore the futurity of sin is caused by man that causeth sin , so far as it is capable of a cause ; of which more in due place : but as futurity is not existence , so it needeth not an existent , but sometimes only a future cause . . and god's intellect is terminated on things as intelligible , and that is as they are : and so on things that are future by his own will , as such ; and on things future by man's will , as such ; as far as futurity is an object of an eternal mind . § . . the many disputes de scientia simplicis intelligentiae , purae visionis & mediae , i think best abbreviated according to the forementioned principles . god's essential understanding is but one : things intelligible are many ; god's simple intellect may be variously denominated as related to and terminated on various intelligible objects , and so according to their order : but this signifieth no real diversity at all in god , but in the things known : nor must we dream , that scientia simplicis intelligentiae , is like man's , a knowledge of certain logical notions or propositions by way of thinking , as to know that [ this is possible , and the other is possible , and that is convenient , ] as if god needed such second notions to know by ; but it is infinitely above man's mode of knowing : his knowledge is first effective and then intuitive , and this without diversity or change in god. § . . it is a great aggravation of the presumption and prophaneness of many voluminous school-disputes , about the unsearchable nature of divine intellection , that the certain knowledge of our own great ignorance ( even about every silly creature ) and of god's incomprehensibleness and infinite distance , do not prevail to repress such audaciousness , and bring men to more modesty and reverence of god : and how much more learned●y and wisely doth he answer abundance of their questions , who saith [ i know not ] than they that by presumptuous conclusions take on them to know what they do not , nor ever will do , in this world ? chap. v. of election . § . . election in scripture sometimes signifieth god's actual choosing or taking one man or people from among others to himself , either for his special complacency and service by sanctification or conversion ; or to some special office , as david was chosen from among his brethren . and sometimes it signifieth god's eternal will or decree so to choose , call or sanctifie and save men at a determinate time : as in eph. . and elsewhere . § . . god will convert , justifie , adopt and save some men , by his grace . § . . therefore it is certain that god from eternity did will or decree so to do : for the event in time , maketh it fit so to denominate god's etern● will : though there was nothing before the creation really but god ; and so real existent man was not the object of his will ; and man in esse cognito , was nothing but god himself , there being nothing else from eternity ( except as eternity comprehendeth time. ) § . . in the same manner as god bringeth men to grace and glory , he willeth or decreeth to do it : for his decree to do it , is no real act of god distinct from his essence ; but it is his simple essential will denominated from the effect related to it . therefore the controversies about election ●re resolved into those about the giving of grace ●nd salvation ; and there will be clearlier ope●ed . § . . glorification , perseverance , adoption , ●ustification , sanctification , faith and repentance ● or vocation ) preparatory common grace , and ●he gospel , and other means of conversion , are ●everal gifts of god's grace through christ : therefore god's decrees to give them may be ●liversly denominated from relation to the effect . the decree to glorifie may be distinguished from the decree to convert , to justifie , ●c . and yet where all these are really conjoined , and are but ( as the parts of one engine ) the several gifts which make up one salvation , as the object ●or effect is in that sence one , so may god's decree be called one , as related to it . so that they that say god's decrees about our salvation are many , and they that say they are one , do both speak truth , and disagree not . § . . they that will denominate god's volitions or decrees according to the order of intention , must not mean that ex parte volentis , god hath really many thoughts , volitions or decrees , and that the first is de fine , and the next de mediis . but only that in the order of real causation , one of god's gifts or effects is made to be a cause or means to the production or attainment of another ; and so the latter is to be man's end intended in the use of the former ; and so man is first to intend the end before he useth the means : but no gift , work or creature is to be called god's end , except when we speak vulgarly after the manner of men , that which we will not defend as proper speech . § . . yet god may be said to will and n●● one thing to produce or cause another ; whic● importeth only that it is a second efficient caus● of that other , and the other an intended effect ; and also that the other is to man to have ration●● finis , and so may be called finis operis , & operan●●● secundarii . § . . god is not an efficient cause of himself , or any thing in himself , and therefore not properly an end to himself , because there is nothing in him caused . but if any will speak otherwise , as if there were in god himself eternal causatio● efficient and final , and eternal effects , and thereby explain the doctrine of the trinity , let them remember that they venture on singular expressions , and such as favor of imperfection ; but we hope that they differ from the commoner way , but in a logical notion , rather than in a real conception . § . . if we may not say that god is his ow● end ( for every end hath a means , and there is no means to god's beings or perfections ) then he is not properly said to have any end. for nothing but himself can properly be his end. § . . yet when by an end we mean but improperly the ultimate effect , and not any thing which to god is causa agendi ; and so declare that we take the words end and intention equivocally as to god and man , the phrase may be used : and in that sence we must say that god's will as efficient being the beginning of all things , god's will as fulfilled and pleased is the end of all ; which yet signifieth not any diversity or change in god ; for his will is always fulfilled , though not always by the same means : and the fulfilling of his will must ●e our ultimate proper end. § . . and because that the excellency of god's works is his own image or glory shining in them , and the perfection of the whole universe most ful●y containeth that glory , therefore we may say that god's glory is his end , and that as it is found in the perfection of the universe , of which the glorified church is an eminent part . § . . therefore they that call the glorifying of god's mercy in saving , and of his iustice in damning men , his end , and all that tendeth hereto the means , do name a means , ( and that not the highest ) as the end : for the glory of mercy and justice is but part of god's created or caused glory , and especially as it is on this or that individual : but the perfection of christ , angels , saints , heaven , earth , and all things , is that glory which may be called materially god's end , as being his perfectest effect ; as the complacency or fulfilling of his will , herein is the most formal notion of it . but god's glory appeareth in every creature and every providential change , in its proportion ; and if any will call that god's end , we must not make a strife of words if we mean the same thing . § . . according to this explained sence of intention , the distributing of god's decrees juxta ordinem intentionis , will make no considerable controversie ; but in the distribution of them juxta ordinem executionis , we more commonly and easily agree : and it being but the divers denominations of god's simple will from the effects ▪ it is from the effects ●ure that they are fitlyest distinguished . § ▪ . as to the controversies about the o●jects of god's decrees , meaning the personal o● subjective object as distinct from the effects of the volition ( or the presupposed state of him that god decreeth the gift to . ) if we will distribute god's decrees or volitions as the parts or gifts decreed are distributed , then the question is all one , as , what state a man is supposed to be in when god gives him such or such a gift ; which is a thing that we are not much disagreed about . § . . e. g. the recipient of the gift of glory is a persevering faithful saint . the receiver of the gift of perseverance is a true believing saint : the gift of iustification , adoption , and the spirit of further sanctification , is given to a penitent believer : faith and repentance are given usually to persons prepared by a more common grace , having the means of grace , and for ought we know sometimes suddenly without such preparation . and so on to the beginning . chap. vi. of reprobation , or the decree of damnation . § . . though 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in scripture signifieth one whose existent pravity rendereth him disapproved , loathed and rejected of god , yet we here continue the word reprobation as ordinarily used , for the decree of rejecting men for ever , that we may be understood ; not refusing any ●itter name . § . . god's essential will as such is not called reprobation nor a decree of damnation , as distinct from other volitions : therefore the distinguishing denomination must be fetcht from the effects or objects which it hath relation to . § . . therefore where there is no effect or object of god's will , there is no such will to be named and asserted : but so much as god effecteth in or towards mans damnation , so much he must be said to will. § . . god effecteth no mans sin , and therefore he willed not or decreed not to effect it . § . . he effecteth it not either for it self , or as a means to something better : therefore he decreed not to do either . § . . god effecteth much without which sin could not be , ( as the life and power of the sinners , his abused mercies , objects , &c. ) therefore all this he decreed to do , even as his own works , which sinners make the occasions of their sin. § . . if it be said that god permitteth sin ; therefore he decreed to permit it : these things must be answered . . permission is an ambiguous word : strictly it signifieth in physicks nothing at all but a m●er negation , which is non impedire , not to hinder : but in politicks it oft signifieth a positive licence or voluntary concession of leave for a man to do or possess something : and many divines by permission mean not bare non-impedition , but also some action that tendeth to the procuring of the event . in the first and proper sence ▪ it ▪ followeth not that god decreed to permit sin , because he ●●rmitteth it : for permitting here is but a bare verb , and signifieth nothing : not-to-hinder is meerly nothing : and nothing is no terminus to denominate gods decree or will. but as permitting signifieth any positive act , which men make an occasion of sin , it is improperly called permission , and it was spoken of before : and though god's general influx be presupposed , that is not permission , nor part of permission . and as permission signifieth leave to sin , god permitteth none ; for it is not sin if so permitted . . and if it would hold that god decreeth his permission of sin , it followeth not that he decreeth the sin permitted ; for that is not a capable object of his volition . § . . god effecteth punishment , even in hell ( at least , part of it , of which in due place ) therefore he decreeth or willeth so to effect it . § . . god damneth none but sinners : therefore he decreed to damn none but sinners : therefore a man only as a sinner is the object of the decree of damnation or punishment , seeing the decree is denominated from the effect . § . . it is not a sinner meerly as a sinner that god will damn : else all sinners should be damned . but it is only a certain sort of sinners , who prevalently and finally reject remedying means and mercy . therefore it is only such that are the objects of the particular decree of damnation . § . . in the first instant we are men , in the second innocent , in the third guilty of sin against the meer law of innocency ; in the fourth we are brought under the law of grace upon the promise of a redeemer , and in the fifth we have the common mercies of that law and redemption given us , as means to our performance of the duty which that law requireth and obtaining further mercy . in none of these instants is a man the object of the decree of damnation : god damneth not any man meerly as a man , or as innocent , or as a sinner against the meer law of innocency , nor as redeemed and under the law of grace , nor as receiving the common means and mercies of that covenant ; nay , nor as in the sixth instant he is guilty of sinning against such mercies ; ( for else all that do so should perish . ) but only as in the seventh instant he is found a prevalent , final rejecter of the special grace , and abuser of the common mercies of that covenant . and therefore the decree is to be accordingly denominated ; though god's essential will have no cause , nor dependance upon any creature . § . . but there are other acts of god's justice which are comprized in reprobation or rejection as the word is commonly understood : as , ▪ cutting off a sinner untimely in his impenitency . . denying him some inward helps of grace which once he had , or was fair for ( so far as that is quid positivum ) and depriving him positively of some means of grace ; for his sinful refusal or abuse , or for abuse of other means and mercies . and all these punishments god so far decreeth as he executeth ; which is upon none but such as by sin against the law of grace deserve them . § . . but where negations are no punishments nor privations , they fall not under the notion of positive effects or objects , and so are not fit to denominate a positive decree or will. therefore when it is not a punishment , ( not to give faith , repentance , preaching , &c. ) is no act of reprobation : as not to give that faith , repentance and pardon which he needed not to adam in innocency ; not to give them in act to infants , &c. § . . yea , when a penal privation is only the consequent of god's not acting , and not of any positive act , there the ratio poenae is of god , and is quid positivum , and god causeth it by that law which did make the debitum poenae : but yet the negation or privation in which it consisteth is nothing , or nothing of god's causing , and therefore not fit to denominate a distinct decree : e. g. not to give special grace , pardon , iustification , glory , to iudas , is nothing , and so as nothing not the object of a positive decree : but both the positive acts by which any mercy is withdrawn , and also the relation of punishment which is in these nothings or privations is caused by god , and therefore decreed by him . as if god say , this shall be his punishment that will not eat , that he shall die of famine : here not eating is nothing , but the penal reason which is in famine , which is but the privation of meats , resulteth from the law of nature and will of god. § . . by all this it appeareth that election and reprobation go not pari passu , or are not equally ascribed to god. for in election god is the cause of the means of salvation by his grace , and of all that truly tendeth to procure it : but on the other side , god is no cause of any sin which is the means and merit of damnation ; nor the cause of damnation , but on the supposition of man's sin : so that sin is foreseen in the person decr●e'd to damnation , ( but not caused ) seeing the decree must be denominated from the effect and object : but in election god decreeth to give us his grace , and be the chief cause of all our holiness , and doth not elect us to salvation on foresight , that we will do his will or be sancti●ied by our selves without him . therefore augustin , prosper and fulgentius , still make this difference , that the decree of damnation goeth on foresight of sin , but the decree of salvation containeth a decree to give that grace that shall certainly save us . an answer to mr. polehill's exceptions about futurition . sir , iam much chidden already for writing many books , and answering so many that object , and am told , that if the case well stated will not satisfie men , no answer will do it , b●eause it is for want of their receptive capacity , which long and right studies must help them to , and not a meer answer to their objections . i very highly value the worthy gentleman whose papers you sent me , hearing of few , if any , among us more commended for knowledge and piety . the question is but whether it be he or i that by half confused conceptions of the matters in question speaketh in the dark , or which of us hath the more ripe digested and ordered thoughts hereof . and must others be troubled with such cases ? it is those that he pleadeth for that have made the edge of the razor so thin that they or i do cut our fingers with it , and have spun such subtile notions , which if their wits when they have done be not subtile enough to manage , they will oft slip through or be as spiders webs . as to the first controversie of futurity or possibility , this gentleman's method will do me no good , being no whit fitted to that which i expect . i should expect from him that he had taken notice of my distinctions and explications ●f futurity , and that he had directly pleaded only for that sort or sence which i deny , and had answer'd the reasons which both in the first and second part i bring against it . but it is not so : and to dispute at such rates is but to try who shall live longest to have the last word , ( it being easie at this rate to talk against one another as long as we live ) which i cannot expect , and therefore shall give any man herein the best . all that he hath said against me is materially answered in the book already , and if he perceive it not , how can i help that ? more books are not like to do it , nor have i leisure for such tasks : yet briefly i return , i. as to my sence of the words ( future ) and ( possible ) ; . as they are predicated of the thing future or possible , they are termini diminuentes quod realitatem existentem , and futurity as it is rei ipsius futuritio is nothing . . whether time be any thing distinct à re durante or nothing , is a controversie , which i conjecture mr. p — 's pen and mine are never like to decide . it is enough for me now to say , that i take it for nothing distinct . . yet shallow man that seeth not uno intuitu the universe , as god doth , nor hath his essential eternity , is in motion , where there is mensura motus , and must think of things by partial conceptions , and must make past , present , and future his differing notions in duration . . the internal concept●● in man of a thing as future ( that it will be ) is quid reale ; for it is an act of the mind and a ver●um mentis ; and an act d● ni●il● : a mental negation is a real act : to think and say in the mind ( the world was not from eternity : darkness , death , &c. are nothing ) are real thoughts . . the ver●●● prolatum ore vel scripto ( sin will be , &c. the su● will rise , &c. ) is quid reale : it is a word , a proposition . . the fundamentum or premises , from which such a conclusion may be fetch'd , i● quid reale : e. g. god's will or knowledge , or any necessitating cause . . god that knoweth man , knoweth all his mental conceptions and his propositions de futuro , without imperfection knowing our imperfection ; and so knoweth whether they are true or false . . god's willing and knowing that things were , are or will be , are all one ex parte dei , being nothing but his simple , perfect essence thus knowing and willing : but ex parte rei cognitae aut volitae , there is difference ; and thence by relation , connotation , or extrinsick denomination , god's internal acts are variously named , as de praeterito , de praesenti , de futuro . . god's will and knowledge from eternity , that there shall be time , successions , man , propositions , and that things shall be in such an order , are a foundation of the verity of such a verbum mentis vel oris ( these will be ) if there had been any such eternal words or propositions . . though formaliter there was no such thing in god ( & forma denominat ) ; yet eminenter that perfect intuition of god , which is the knowledge of all intelligibles , comprehendeth all of man's knowledge , which is any part of perfection : and we must bear with the naming of god's perfect acts by the same names that signifie our imperfect acts ; so be it we have due care not to ascribe to him the imperfection ; nor from names which connote imperfection in ●ersu primo , to infer false doctrinal conclusions of god. . an ipsum nihilum may receive in ●an's partial conception , a name , and accordingly many and divers names fetch'd from some ●easons of his conceptions . . accordingly we ●all a thing that is really nothing , but as in the cogitation to be possible , or future , or past , as if these were rerum reales affectiones , or somewhat ●ow real : whereas the epithets are but the modes of our own notions or thoughts , and raised from our knowledge of other things . and the proper language is but this , ( god can do this : god will do this ) which suppose it not done . as ( god can make the world ) would have been a true word from eternity , had there been any such word to be true . and thence we say ( the world was possible . ) and god's perfect knowledge being eminenter somewhat infinitely more perfect than such thoughts , words , and propositions , after the manner of weak man , we speak of god and of nothings as related to his will that they shall be , or to his knowledge , and so call them possible and future . ii. now i expect the confutation of the reasons , which i gave ( as that there was nothing eternal but god , therefore eternal possibility and futurition can be nothing but conception of god himself ; and so of the rest . ) iii. his exceptions have all their strength from the meer ambiguity of the word ( futurity ) , continuing the confusion after all my explication . i have not time to transcribe all his words , and therefore must suppose you to have his writing by you , which i shall briefly answer in order . ad . as nothing they differ not , but 〈◊〉 various conceptions of them differ , as do 〈◊〉 reasons of those conceptions and denominations : sun and moon , angels and men , were equally nothing from eternity : and yet god's simpl● ▪ will to make all these , might have had various relative or extrinsick denominations , had there been then a created intellect so to name it , and these nothings called future , angels , men , &c. accordingly . ad . nothing as nothing hath no parts or distinctions , but nothing may be variously named ; or to speak more aptly , before things are any-things a purposing and fore-seeing agent may make names and notions for them before ▪ the things . greg. ariminea copiously disputeth that ( that which is not , may be related to that which is , and that which is , to that which is not , or nothing ) : his reasons are subtile . relation is rerum referebilitas or comparibilitas . if an angel existed before the light or sun , and knew that god would make the light or sun , why might not the angels intellect refer god's will to the light or sun , which he would make , while it was nothing ? which is no more than to know ( that god will make such a thing which is yet nothing . ) but i say these nothing's relate not to god , but god's power , knowledge and will , may by an intelligent creature be considered ( while they are not ) as that which will make them , doth foresee them , &c. which is to be referred to them . it 's true that nothing is no effect , and will be nothing without god ( which is that i said ) . it 's true that the divine power doth not make meer possibility to be any thing , for it is nothing : but it being true that god can make ●hat which he yet hath not made , for this proper speech ( god can make it ) man's broken thoughts ●ut a name or epithete on that which is not , ●nd call it possible for discourse sake , and for the ordering of our thoughts about nothings , or things that yet are not ( yea never will be ) : for we say that millions of millions of non futura are possible . and is possibility then any thing extra m●ntem di●inam & humanam ? why he spake of things being possible without the divine power i know not . ● take possibility as real to be but part of that ens rationis or mental conception which by reasoning we take up of non-existents , because god can make them that yet are not made . the same ● say of his words ( if futures be futures without the divine will , what horrible fate must be upon god ? ) futures are nothing , and no good will ever be but by god's will. and because he willeth it , we have the just ground of a conclusion that it will be ( if we know it ) . and this thought or word is therefore true , and had we been from eternity , and had such a thought , it would have been true . and while there was no sun or earth , we should have said , they are futures , that is , they will be ; that is , god will make them : and must futurity therefore be a thing or being ? whence then came the supposition of fate , imposing on the summum ens , or what meaneth it ? ad . nothing indeed hath no verity : futures are not true ; but conceptus or propositions , that such things will be , are true . how god's perfect knowledge is extrinsecally denominated the knowledge that such things will be ( which we call futurition ) i opened in the book at larg 〈…〉 you know , i suppose , how commonly it is ●a 〈…〉 that nothings and impossibles and non-futurities a 〈…〉 all known to god : must therefore nothing , i 〈…〉 possibility , and non-futurity be beings , lest god cannot know them ? god cannot know things to be future you say , unless they are such : the word 〈…〉 ( are such ) sound to the ignorant , as if they signified entity . god cannot know nothings to be nothing , impossibilities , non-futurities , unless they are such ; that is , unless it be true that they are such : and it is true . but what is it that 's true ▪ the verbum mentis vel oris , that they are nothing , &c. must they therefore needs be something ▪ and so god be mistaken ? but he saith ( if there be no eternal futures , what becometh of divine prescience ? ) good mens thoughts may wrong god , while they think they honour him . augustine tell 〈…〉 you , that prescience differeth not in god from science of present things . you may say also , if there be no eternal nothings , non-futures , how can god know them ? but must futurity , or non-futurity , or nothing , be therefore any thing ? god's knowing that it will be and yet is not , proveth that the thing future is nothing ; and therefore futurity , no modus rei , but a name put by us on nothing from god's will to make it . ( supposing it be not sin , which god will not make , but hath another cause . ) i had thought you had known , how commonly the school-men prove , that things that are not may be certainly known by god ; yea , how the nominals prove his knowledge of future contingents from his meer perfection ; so that socinus is not unanswered in those things , and ye● futures and futurity are no beings . at least , you may see answer enough in strangius and le blank 〈…〉 two authors well worth your reading . ) those 〈…〉 hings are certo futura , which god will certainly make , or certainly knoweth will be done ; and 〈…〉 et futurity be nihil reale . i would you had told me , whether you take the reality of futurity to be 〈…〉 n esse rei extrinsecae , or in esse objectivo intrinseco ? the former you are not able ( considerately ) to believe ; ( that nothing can have any real mode , accident , or affection ; ) if none of these , what is 〈…〉 t then ? you must needs hold to the latter ; and then in man , the futurity of things is nothing real , ●ut the mode of his cogitation or conception ; as i have afore said , we may have real thoughts , that here is not such or such a thing , but will be ; in which we frame a real idea of that which will be ( and is not ) in our minds ( from the helps of similitudes or words ) and so say , such a thing ( thought on and named , but not in being ) will be . but in god there is nothing but god ; the creature is of him , and is in him dependently as their cause and comprehender , but not as constituent of his immanent acts . why you add ( suppose nothing to have some verity ) is above my reach : i think nothing hath no verity : but , . god's knowledge that it will be , hath verity . . the proposition ( this will be ) may have verity . . but the thing future hath not veritas rei . futurity as in re hath no more entity than possibility : but to will or know that quid nominatum can be , and that it will be , are two real acts in man , and two extrinseck denominations of the divine will and intellect . when you have answered what i said of dr. twisse , i may review it . ad . you say ( future is nothing ; ergo , ●●thing is future . ) i am glad that the creed a 〈…〉 bible are not thus worded : future in your fir 〈…〉 proposition signifieth the affection or somewh 〈…〉 real of the thing future , and so it is nothing ; 〈…〉 you take future so in the second , it is fu●ile 〈…〉 true , being but a gross expression of ( nothing hath real futurity , which is aliquid rei . ) but according to common use , your second propositio 〈…〉 will be taken for a denial of the saying ( somewhat will be ) and this is a real truth . you say th 〈…〉 proposition is identical , as ( nothing is nothing . ) we speak not of the being or truth of propositions or conceptions , but of futurity it self as incomplexum . you after confess i told you so may you not equally say ( negations , non-existents , non-futurity are nothing ; ergo nothing is a negation , non-existent , non-future ? ) answer one and you answer the other . negations in mente are thoughts , and in the mouth they are words , but in re negata they are nothing : so i say of non-futurity and non-existence . frail man dreameth that the mundus naturalis is the same with the mundus fantasticus & notionalis in his brain ; and oh! how commonly do words and thoughts go in disputes for extrinseck realities ? ad . because god decreeth to do any thing , you and i , when we know it , may truly say ( this will be ; ) and ( will be ) is no being , but gods will and our knowledg and our words are . alas , that so much skill is necessary not to be deceived by ambiguity of words . god's knowledg and your knowledge and your words , may be all true ; and yet futurity ex parte rei futurae , hath no proper verity , metaphysical , physical or moral , being no subject capable of any such . you say [ did not the futurity of the world result from a decree ? ] it 's 〈…〉 earisome at every sentence to repeat distinction and open confusion . the futurity of the world is nothing , extra mentem divinam & humanam , & extra propositionem de futuritione . why talk you of our designing another origin , when we are proving , that it 's nothing , and needs no cause ? and why answer you not what i wrote against dr. twisse , before you call for an answer to him ? or at least , why answer you not strangius , but impertinently talk of the serpent socinus ? if socinus had no more wit than to take the futurity of sin for a being , ( substance , accident or mode ) no wonder if he knew not how to deny that god is the cause of it . and why do you not attempt to answer me , who tell you , that if you take it to be a real being and eternal , you must take it to be god himself ; for nothing else is eternal . but i pray you say not ( like your former arguing about nothing ) [ the eternal futurity of sin is god himself ; ergo , god is the eternal futurity of sin. ] the subject and predicate are not so convertible as you seem to make them . you say , if we say , futurity is nothing , then it is a wonder , an independent on god and his will , self-originated and unpreventable , &c. you write no wonders to me , this rate of discourse being common in the world , and hath been in most ages . is nothing a wonder ? is it a wonder for nothing to be independent ? but yet that which hath no dependent being , may so far as a nothing be at god's will , that he continue nothing or make something ( the first non agendo , the second agendo ) as he pleases , that is , by willing or not willing . and it were a wonder indeed for nothing to be self-originated , or that nothing should spring from any thing as an efficient cause : but reductively some nothings may be ascribed to god's non-agency , as beings good are to his action . as god is improperly called the cause of darkness , because he there maketh not light , so improperly he may be said to be the cause of nothings , because he made not the contrary something 's . you say ( then there is fatum stoicissimum on god ) and all his works , and this futurity binds the almighty , that he cannot do as he pleaseth in heaven and earth . this is a wonder indeed that nothing should be stronger than god , and rule him and the world. if dr. twisse hold sin to be nothing , doth it follow , that it binds god , because it 's nothing ? doth death bind god , because it is but the privation of life ; or vacuity ( si detur vacuum ) because it is nothing ? or when there was nothing but god , did nothingness bind god ? is that god bound or conquer'd that can turn nothing into something at his pleasure ? non-futurity is nothing : therefore it hath no cause . is this nothing the ruler of god and all things , because he causeth not that which is not causable ? alas , that good men should keep up dividing controversies at this rate of reasoning : you say , if it have no cause , it can have no impediment , and so there is fatum stoicissimum . we all talk at the rate that we understand . the world was nothing before it was made , and so had then no cause in the esse causae , as being no effect ( relations in esse being simultaneous ) : doth it follow that god was subject to fate ? there was no impediment indeed to nothingness ; it is not necessary that nothing be hindred , lest it become something . god can make somewhat where there is nothing , at his pleasure , and can make a future nothing to become an existent something . and what should be the medium i wonder that tempted you to think otherwise : did the nothingness of angels before their creation hinder god from making them ? or can nothing have a ruling power ? ad . again you stick not at the repeating of the contradiction of a self-originated future ( or nothing ) and think god's decrees endangered by nothing , because it hath no cause . what a dreadful thing is this nothing ! to be self-originated is to be something of it self . and if futurity be nothing , then it is something of it self . and you offer not a syllable to prove these contradictions . you add ( to what purpose shall decrees be ? ) ans. to produce the thing decreed in its proper time and place , and not to make them something before they are any thing , nor to make an ens rationis to be a real extrinseck entity . you strangely say ( to decree such a futurity is a nullity , for it can never come to pass . ) what can never come to pass ? futurity ? say also ( to decree non-futurity , or that there shall be to us but one sun , but one saviour , is a nullity , because nothing can never come to pass . ) what is it for nothing to come to pass ? it is come to pass without a cause that there is but one sun to us , but one saviour , and other nothings . the decree or will of what shall come to pass is no nullity : for it shall all come to pass ; and yet the decree made not the word ( shall be ) to signifie a real entity , distinct form or model of the thing that shall be . the decree that there shall be a world , was fulfilled , and yet ( shall be ) was not a being before t 〈…〉 world , unless it was god's essence . you phrase importeth as if futurity must come to pass as a thing decreed , and question whether there was a futurity of that futurity , and so in infinitum . for the word ( coming to pass ) importeth futurity of futurity , and not eternity . you say [ to decree in compliance with it , is below god over all — for it will come to pass whether god decree it or no. ] alas , that speaking should be so hard an art ! what i● it to decree in compliance with nothing ? hath it any sence ? how is it that nothing will come to pass ? it 's true , that nothing will be nothing without a cause , and therefore without a decree . and therefore let the reverence of god make you consider , whether it be meet for us in the dark to ascribe to god such decrees of nothing ▪ and to number nothings , and make as many decrees . such a dance and game of notions we may more boldly use about our selves than about god , till we know him better . you add ( god in decreeing doth not decree the thing into being in the instant of decreeing , but he decreeth the futurity of it , and if that be nothing , he decreeth nothing . ) ans. wrong thoughts will have wrong words . all that you should have inferred , is , [ that his decree effecteth nothing till the time come ] which is true : for he decreed only to effect it at such a time : but doth it follow , that god decreeth nothing but futurity , because the thing decreed is not presently done ? thus you must say , that god decreed not the world , nor christ , nor salvation , but futurity only . the decree or will of god was , that the world , christ , resurrection , &c. shall be at such a time : ( shall be ) is no being ; and yet it is a being when existent , which god decreed , but his decree maketh it not a being till it exist . dr. twisse will over and over tell you , that god's immanent acts do nihil ponere in objecto . and i have oft told you truly , that you or i little know what we say when we divide god's eternity into parts , and assign him his praeteritum & futurum . and it would put you hard to it to tell me clearly and surely what god's eternal decree is before the effect exist ! our present common-received school-divinity will call us blasphemers , if we say , that before the creation there was any thing but god , and any thing in god but god , and that god had any real accidents : and therefore it saith , that he doth operari per essentiam , and not per accidentia . and therefore that god's decree before the effect was nothing but his essence . but it is his essence denominated ( not as such , but ) as related to the things decreed , though yet they be not . if you will forsake this common theology , and place acts in god , which ex parte agentis , are but accidents and not his essence , and say , this is consistent with his simplicity and perfection , you will let in a body of new divinity , and we shall not know when we have all god's accidents , no● how to order them . his freest acts are his essential will freely acting ; but those free acts themselves before the effect are nothing but god himself . we must not place in god a number of thoughts , images , notions , accidents , as we do in man. but your phrase savoureth of other thoughts . ad . here you are for yea and nay : you will suppose no propositions in god , and yet you argue that then , what will remain of a decree . i said , but that god knoweth not by propositions , b●● yet that he knoweth propositions . if you hold , that god knoweth by propositions and argumentations , say so , that i may know what to speak to . if you hold , that he hath no decrees , what is it that you plead for ? but to answer your question , god's decree is not a forming of propositions in his mind , or any change in himself , or addition to his being : but it is his simple will that such and such things shall be , emanative , communicative , productive of them in their season . there are some that think , that as time-divisions are the measures of imperfect creatures , and god's eternity hath none such ; so that it is an ascribing imperfection to god , to say , that he hath decrees de futuris distinct from a productive volition , which in the most proper sence should be denominated from the produced existent as such . but in this i interess not my self , as knowing that we must speak improperly of god or not at all . you say that ( it shall be , is a futurity . ) ans. what 's that ? a ( shall be ) is ( a futurity ) , and ( a futurity ) is a ( shall be . ) ergo a shall be and a futurity is a being . would i knew what . but to hope for that from you is too great presumption . you add ( a futurity , a nothing , and to decree nothing is not to decree . ) ans. say you so ? i am glad you say no worse : then if those be in the right ( as most ) that think sin is nothing ( no more than death or darkness ) you will grant that god decreed it not . and if i prove that futurity ex parte rei , is nothing , you will grant that it needeth no decree as such . but seeing you are so much on my side , i crave your help to confute those , that otherwise you defend , who make innumerable nothings the objects of god's decrees . but yet i would not follow you too far : ( not to give grace to an infidel ) is nothing . ( not to give the gospel , not to end the world till the time , not to take away grace , gospel , life , &c. ) you say here ( in your general ) that none of these can be decreed . but then prepare an answer to your friends that will take this ill of you . i have fully opened my sence of it elsewhere . you say ( abstract futurity from the decree and it will be nothing . ) ans. if you abstract not futurity as a real entity from the decree , you will abuse god by presumptuous false conceits : but if you abstract the word shall be ) from the humane conceptus of it , it will not differ from a conceptus de praesente . and though i more reverence you , i may say of some other objecters that quibble with arbitrary notions , that if you except fatuity and futility , from what they say for the entity of futurity , it is all nothing . you add ( that if in time only the thing actually exist by virtue of the decree , the decree is something in time , but eternally it was nothing . that is ( god's will to effect any thing is nothing till it do effect it . ) yes , 't is god's will so to do , and is that nothing ? it is nothing but god's essential will denominated from the res efficienda ; but that is not nothing : if god be nothing , there is nothing : there is nothing indeed but god from eternity . if you think otherwise , tell us what it is . aureolus indeed pleadeth , that actus dei creantis is neither creator nor creatura , but quid medium , but few second him , and many confute him . it seems you think of futurity as our epicureans , and our new infidels do of matter , that it is an eternal effect of god as an eternal cause . i will give you many thanks if you will peruse and answer raymundus lullius's arguments against t●● eternity of any creature , where he argueth , that whatsoever hath the perfection of eternity , must needs have other suitable perfections , and so be god. is futurity a more excellent being tha● spirit , matter and motion , to be capable of this divine attribute ? i pray what is the verity that you say resulteth eternally ? can you forgive me for not loving confusion ? is it , . the verit● rei futurae ? . or the veritas conceptus divini de rerum futuritione ? . or the verity of a proposition ? are these all one with you ? the first being a metaphysical verity , is affectio entis , a● unum and bonum are : and quod non est , non est unum , verum aut bonum . . as to the third , is it a divine proposition , or a humane ? if a divine , prove that god had either concept as vel prolatas , eternal propositions ; if he had and you prove it , i never denied the truth of such propositions . if humane , when there was no man , there was no humane propositions . all that you can say is but what i oft said , that god's volitions were a ground that would have made such propositions ( these things will be ) certainly true , if there had been any such eternal propositions . and as to the second , it is not denied as before explained . god's will and knowledge were certain , but they were but himself , who gave no being to eternal futurition out of himself . you ask ( how are the promises , being propositions , true signs of the divine will , where there are none ? ) ans. how is the world and signa naturalia the signs of god's will , and how are writings and voices signs of it , if there be no world , writings o● voices in god ? god willeth that which is not 〈…〉 himself eternally : god willeth creatures and god willeth propositions . and these are the ●roducts of his veracity , when he sendeth them ●y revelation : and true , because they come from ●im . when his will is to give the world an 〈…〉 carnate saviour , may not the promise of this ●ruly signifie his will , though he have no proposition in his mind , but only a will to give him , ●nd an intuitive knowledge ? but i say again , ●f you can prove , that god thinketh , reasoneth , ●r talketh eternally , and knoweth by terminos sim●lices , propositions and syllogisms , i will easily confess that all these are true , and yet not grant that ex parte rei , futurition or non-futurition , possibility or impossibility are any beings . ad . you meet with a distinction of [ futurity as nothing , and a proposition de futuro as something ] with an [ how so ? it signifieth only futurity , and that is just nothing . ] ans. you should pardon a man in my condition , if he be ●oth to write new books to answer all objecters that know not that a proposition de nihilo is something . if atheists say , there is no god , they shall know that they say something : if i say that there are no other true gods , i say something . they that say datur vacuum say something . you say ( but was it not true before : ) what is your ( it ) ? the proposition was not true before it was a proposition , concepta vel prolat● : futurity had not the metaphysical or physical verity of an entity ; for it was nothing . the res futura had no such truth ; for it was not res dum futura tantum . what mean you then by ( it ? ) i say still if you can prove that there was an eternal proposition de future in god , it was true and was god's essence ; which is nothing to our question . you add [ not true before , nor knowable as true . ] ans. you seem by thi● to intimate that god cannot know what will be by his production , without making mental or oral propositions , and knowing them to be true must god's prescience be deplorate , if he know not by your me●ns and measures ? you may ne●● say , it must be by sense , fantasie and species ▪ as our souls work in these muddy brains . god ▪ s knowledge receiveth not a constitutive object from without , as ours doth . it first concurreth with his will and power in making all things what they are ( all flowing from it , and it receiving from none : ) and in s●cundo instanti ; it discerneth all things to be what they are . and whe● he hath made propositions , he discerneth the● to be true . you keep your way and say [ whe● god declares things to come , he declareth something ▪ because there is a proposition : but when he foreknoweth them , he fore knoweth nothing ; which is 〈…〉 to fore-know . ] ans. . when god declareth by propo●●tions things to come , the propositio●● are the declaration it self and are something ; but the things declared are nothing , till they are why would you confound these ? and when he foreknoweth what will be , he knoweth that it is not : ergo it is not . . how prove you , that to fore-know from eternity that there would be no world till the creation , or no deluge , resurrection , &c. till the time , is no fore-knowledge ? i do not dispute it with you , but crave your proof , having said somewhat my self elsewhere upon that question . you talk of [ a thing 's beginning to be future before it 's put into a proposition , &c. ] as if you still begg'd the question , and took futurity extra mentem & signa , to be something ex parte rei . that which is not , is not true . a negatione est secundi adjecti ad negationem est ●ertii valet consequentia , saith dr. twisse often . you ask [ is it true because formed into a proposition ? then all propositions are true . ] ans. is what true ? that there is a futurum ? is not that a proposition ? what is it antecedent to the proposition that you call true ? is it the res futura ? that 's false . is it the realitas futuritionis ex parte ●ei ? that is it i deny . futurum , saith dr. twisse , & possibile , are termini diminuentes , signifying that the thing is not . is it the conceptus divinus ? if that be by a mental proposition , it is not antecedent to it self ; if not , doubtless god's knowledge is true ( efficiently , it will make the thing true ) and true perfectively and denominatively , knowing things but as they are , and therefore not knowing futurity rei to be a being . if it ●e human conceptions , they are mental propositions , not eternal nor antecedent to themselves . all propositions that god maketh are true : because true propositions are true , must all be true ? because it is a word or proposition or syllogism , which is the subject of logical truth , doth it follow that all words , propositions or syllogisms are true ? ad . possible is a notion relative from god's power ; futurity from his will , or any certain cause . neither is a real entity in re . in the conclusion i was about to wish that you would have done somewhat that tended to my edification , and when you had all this while talk'd for the entity of futurity that you would have deigned to tell me what it is ; if it be anything , why would you not say , what ? is it a substance or an accident ? what accident ( or mode ) or of what substance ? could you forget that this would be expected from you ? and whether futurity be annihilated or turned into somewhat else when the thing existeth . but i find that you have made a kind of attempt , saying [ things have an esse intentionale in god's will , though not an esse reale in themselves . ] and is this all that we shall have instead of the definition , that should have gone before , and instead of regarding and answering what i had said of the point ? . here then you intimate that futurity hath no esse reale in it self ; and it is the esse reale that i denied ▪ why lost you so much labour . . can you english to any man that takes words for means of understanding things , what it is for [ things to have an esse intentionale in god ? ] . sure the commmon doctrine of esse intentionale in man , needs an oedipus . . but alas how shall i know what esse intentionale is in god ? . much less how millions of millions of nothings have their esse intentionale in god. qu. . is that esse intentionale any thing real besides god himself ? . are such esse's as many in god as the things will be in themselves ? hath god accidents , and so many millions of millions of accidents , and yet most simple and immutable ? . what are all these things in god from eternity in proper language ? are they his volitions or intellections ? and are these so numerous ? or are they creatures in esse intentionali ? do not you confess that that esse is non-esse as to any creature ? if you mean pl●●●onick idea's , are not idea's and species , as they are called , in man , the notes of his imperfection , while his soul knoweth , ut forma , in a body , as distinct from perfect intuition ? i refer you to what i have said of divine idea's , and pray you to seign nothing in god without proof . but if you do prove such , forget not the next time , that i denied not the truth of any divine idea or knowledge . your concluding line i pardon , and it needs no more . all that is said in this paper on this point is materially fully answered in my book ; and i even now asked a friend what i should say to all that object against a book which containeth sufficient matter of answer to their objections : and he answered , not write for every man a new one , but wish them to read the former better . pardon my oft repeating to you my sence of futurity , with which i conclude . to man , time in various instants , and the narrowness of our understandings , that must have various conceptions and organical notions , make it needful to us to use names , even for things that are not ( or nothings ) . when god ( or any certain cause ) tells what will be hereafter , we frame an image of that thing that is not by the help of words and the similitude of things that are or have been . then we put a name on that imagined thing , as if it were : then we make use in our discourses of that name , and turning a verb into a noun , as [ it will be ] into [ future ] , and then an adjective or participle into a substantive , [ future ] into [ futurity ] our poor fancies run on with it , as if we had by the name made or mentioned some substance or real being . when all is nothing but a relative notion or ens rationis . the knowledge that a thing will be may be a real knowledge : and instead of denominating the act we denominate the object , ( which is internally an image ; externally nothing real ) and call it future , and thence name futurition : as futurition signifieth improperly the relation of the mental act to the thing fore-known , it is a real mental act 's relation : as the subject is the thing future , so it is nothing real but a feigned organical notion , by which we discourse instead of verbs . the relatio conceptus vel nominis , is the relation of a real act . but the relation of the thing future as future is secundum dici , but feigned instead of a verb. and of god's knowledge , i shall here say no more . in a word , if you take futuritio rei to be the name of any immanent eternal act of god , whatever we think of the aptitude of your phrase , i suppose we differ not about the thing intended , as long as you hold no eternal accidents or composition in god , and that nothing is eternal but himself ; which i must think you do in charity . if you take futuritio rei for the modus or relation of a humane conception or assertion de futuris , i suppose we shall not differ de re , nor will you say that it is eternal . . if you speak but suppositively , that if there had been such a conceptus or assertion from eternity , it would have been true , we differ not . . if you take futurition extra mentem , to be any thing ( substance , mode , accident or any reality or aliquid rei ) and that from eternity , i deny it , and say , that they that make an universal spirit , and they that make matter and motion to be eternal with god , are more excusable , than they that make a thing called futurity distinct ▪ from god ; yea , the futurity of sin to be eternal , and god the eternal cause of that eternal effect . i purposed at the first glance to have answered the second paper also about god's decreeing sin ; but when i had read it i was unwilling , . because it is but too largely answered materially in my book already , and more fully in old papers that lie by me , which i cannot transcribe . . because i hear so much good of the worthy author , that i am not willing to be drawn to dispute a case , which cannot be handled justly , without opening so much evil in that which i must oppose , as will sound harsh towards one that i so much honour . men are so apt to feel that as touching themselves which is spoken to their cause . if hobbes ( who wrote the treatise of necessity against bishop bramhall ) had sent me that paper , i should readily have answer'd it : but here i fear it . only i tell the author , that i have been as strongly tempted that way as most others ; and do acknowledge that it is the greatest difficulty in all these controversies , to conceive , how free will can act otherwise than god doth predetermine it : but i am satisfied in the solution ; and fully satisfied , that the predeterminant opinion which i oppose doth certainly inferr the religion of hobbes , the denial of christianity , and leaves us no religion ; but that good and evil , happiness and misery are differences all made by god himself , as light and darkness , angels and serpents are made to differ by him : and i am not willing to let go christianity 〈…〉 such objections as these : and it had been m 〈…〉 that he had answered what i have said to alvar● mr. sterry , &c. on this subject , and taken notice of my answers to the most of his . his talk of casualty is his sum ; by which if he mean that which had not a predetermined cause , sin is casual , till the sinner determine his own will. but if he mean , that which is unknown to god , it is not casual : and the assertion , that such things are not knowable to god , i have confuted at large , which he here taketh no notice of . if i shall find that necessity make it my duty to give any such paper a particular answer , if i have time , i may do it . but i think enough is said of that already , and my leisure from better work is small . ri. baxter . chap. vii . of god's providence , and predetermining premotion and miracles . § . . the word ( providence ) is variously used by writers : sometimes as comprehending god's fore-knowledge and decrees themselves : sometimes as comprehending all his works : sometimes as comprehending all his works which follow the creation : and sometimes as signifying only his effective disposal of persons and things in motions , and alterations , as dictinct from legislation , which only maketh duty and right . § . . in creation god glorified his three essential principles or attributes : his omnipotency eminently in giving being to all things . . his wisdom eminently in the order and composure of all ▪ . his love or goodness eminently , in the goodness and wellfare of all : for he made them good , and then rested : yet so as that all these attributes were glorified in each part of the effect . § . . from hence a posteriore he is in the one relation of creator related triply to the world , and specially to the rational part : that is , . as the maker of things , ( which is creator in the narrow sence ) . . as ordinator . . as benefactor . and thus he is the author of nature . § . . from this fundamental relation of creator , and the nature of the creature made ( and continued by conservation , which is a continued creation or efficiency ) there resulteth a threefold right and further relation to god. . a ius dominii , or right of propriety , and so he is our owner , and may do with all things what he will , and must be the disposer of events . . his ius imperii ( including doctrine ) or right of government ; which to things meerly natural is natural government , and to moral agents it is moral government , by doctrine , laws and executions : and so he is our king or ruler . . his ius amoris ut finis ; or right to be the end of all , and by the rati●nal creature to be chiefly loved , and absolutely for himself , as the best and most amiable , and so he is our ultimate end : where love is considered not only as an act of obedience to a rector as all other duties are ; but eminently as it is the final perfective act of man , closing with the final object , and so above the common nature of meer obedience . § . . all god's after - works and all our duties to him must be observed as respecting all these relations of god to us , and our answerable relations to him : for therein is the nature , order , and harmony of them discerned to be glorious : and unskillful confounding them is a spoiling and prophaning or dishonouring of them . and thus the various acts of providence must be set each in its proper place . § . . god being the fons naturae , and having settled the frame of nature ( or created beings and second causes ) in a fixed state and order , in which one thing is united to another , and adapted to its proper work in concurrence with the whole , we must not expect that god do ordinarily violate this his established course : for his works shall shew somewhat of his constancy , and experience telleth us , that really thus he doth . § . . but we must not dream that god is involuntarily tied to his own work , or hindered by second causes , or the course of nature , from doing what he would ; but his free-will delighteth it self in this constancy and ordered course of nature , and use of second causes , which have still all their being , force and order continued by him. § . . and the number and operations of second causes are so unknown to us , that when things seem miracles to us , it is hard for us to say , that god useth no second cause in effecting them . but it is enough to the use of miracles to know that their extraordinary production hath an answerable extraordinary use and signification of god's will. § . . and no doubt but nature and all its parts are absolutely in the power and government of god's will : and he can and doth turn things up and down as he pleaseth , without making any breach in his established order : if the husbandman can turn the course of rivers to water his grounds , by meer impediments and receptivities , without any alteration of the natural motion of the water ; how much more must we ascribe to god , in using nature without overthrowing it ? § . . it is atheistical or absurd to set god and nature in opposition , competition or separation ; and to say as some philosophers , [ this or that natural causes can do without calling in god as the determiner . ] whereas natural causes are nothing , and do nothing but by god : and there is no less of god in the effects of nature , than if he did the same himself alone : in him we live and move , and are. § . . and it is no better in them that say , that god doth not operate proximately and immediately where nature or second causes work , but only remotely . as [ immediately ] signifieth [ without any medium or second cause ] so god doth not then work immediately : but as it signifieth proximately , he doth : for an infinite being cannot be essentially distant from any creature or effect : nor is it possible that the second cause can be nearer to the effect than god ; who is as near as if he used no such cause . § . . and the dispute , whether god do proximately effect immediatione suppositi , or only virtutis , seemeth to have a false supposition , vi● . that god's virtue is not his suppositum , and that the virtus divina may be where the suppositum is no● if by suppositum they mean god's essence as essence existing , and by virtus they mean his essence under the formal notion of power , wisdom and love , then they are but two inadequate conceptions of the same simple being , and therefore god thus ever operateth immediatione essentiae & virtutis essentialis . but if they mean , that god hath ● virtus which is neither his essence nor a creature , we believe them not . § . . the controversie between durandus and his followers , and the jesuites and dominicans , about the necessity of a moving concourse , besides the support of nature , seemeth to me thus reconcileable . . god as he is fons naturae , is the living god , the prime active principle , who by constant vital activity is the spring of all the action in the world ; and is not to be dreamt of as one that had made the world , and then left it to it self , and withdrew his hand and is fallen asleep . . but the living god moveth not all things alike , but every thing according to its nature and place ; for his influx is received ad modum racipientium . . the nature of some creatures is essentially active , and so inclined to act that they will act if their nature be not by others , or want of concurrent necessaries , hindered . such is every soul or living principle , and fire . and other creatures are naturally passive only ex se ( or at least principally ) . so that for god to continue fire or souls or any naturally-active principle , is to continue a nature essentially inclined to move or act . . it is supposed that these natures are not solitary , but parts of the universe , and are continued with all necessary circumstant beings and objects ; and that the whole frame of nature and cooperating causes are continued : e. g. that the sun doth not stand still , while the life of a plant or brute is continued . . all this being supposed by durandus , aureolus , a dola , and all sober men , the question debated is , whether there be further necessary another immediate divine motion or concourse to every motion of a creature natural or free , besides all this aforesaid ? and , . let it be consider'd , that god's essence being but one , his act , which ex parte agentis , is his essence , is not distinguishable , saving ex connotatione effectus : and if this be all that is meant , that as ipse motus distinguitur a causis , so god's will , power and agency may be distinctly denominated , . as from the second causes ; and . also from the motion it self , as more than the causes ; this none can deny , nor is it a controversie . but if the question be of the necessity of another distinct way of divine causation of the motus , besides that by second causes before mentioned , they can prove no such necessity . for is it mediate or immediate causation or efficiency which they mean ? ( we speak not of immediate as it signifieth proximate , which is granted , but as signifying sine causis secundis . ) if it be mediate by second causes that god must further concurr , those are natural causes or some other : if natural , it 's a contradiction to say , that besides god's moving by natural causes ( which is granted ) he must also move by natural causes ; as if ide● were not idem : unless they will say it must be by some other natural causes , which they do not , nor can assign ; nor yet any other that are not natural . but if they mean , that to every motion there must be an immediate operation of god to it witho●● that which he doth by second causes , even by god alone without any second cause , i then ask , doth god move any thing in the world by any second cause or not ? if not , then not by the sun ; not the coach by the horses , the arrow by the bow , the stone by the hand , the pen by the writer , &c. if yea , then is it the whole or part only of that motion which is made by second causes and god by them ? if the whole , habetur quaesitum : if part , how prove you that god cannot make the whole motion himself by second causes , as well as part , but must needs leave the other part of the same motion to be done without second causes . and it would follow that no second cause , no not the noblest in the world ( as the sun ) and god as acting by it , hath and exerciseth à vis adequata to the smallest motion even of a leaf : whereas god in nature maketh natural power , with his own , as he is fons naturae , adequate to its actions . and let unbyassed reason judge , whether if a rock should be held up in the air , if god con●inue the natural gravity of it , with all the rest of the frame of nature , could not that rock fall , without another motion of god which is without any second cause , to thrust it down ? if he continue the nature of fire , was it not a greater miracle , that it burnt not the three witnesses , dan. . than to have burnt them , or than its ordinary action ? why else should there need ten thousand fold more natural power to hold up the said rock , or to quench a city on fire , or to stop a river , or the winds ; than to move them supposing natural causes , if there need an infinite power moreover to the act , and none to the cessation ? and by this rule it would follow , that all motion in the world is supernatural : for if god cause it ut sons naturae , he causeth it in the natural course : if he do not , it 's all supernatural and miraculous . moreover , if all this satisfie not disputes , if it be worth the cost , they may try the case thus : supposing that god hath told no man his secrets , when he will immediately move any thing without second causes , and that no second causes , nor his own operation by them can move any thing without another immediate motion , let them cut down the pillars , or undermine their houses , and say that by meer natural causes the house cannot fall : let them set fire on their houses , and say that by meer natural causes they cannot be burnt : let them drink poison , and say , by meer natural causes it cannot hurt us : or let them cut their flesh , &c. for god never told them , that he will immediately concurr , and then there is no danger . perhaps they will say , that experience telleth us that god doth usually concurr with them : i answer , and is not that because he worketh by them ? what experience or reason have you , that god should still work immediately with ▪ them , and yet not by them ? we can prove that he worketh as the first cause . but if you will prove that he doth it not as the first cause moving the second causes , but by immediate concomitancy , let us hear your proofs . lastly , let it be noted , that when they that affirm all motion to be by immediate concomitant concourse or predetermination , do pretend that they do it lest god's causality should be denied or extenuated , it is a meer deceit : for all are agreed , that there is no less of god in the operations done by second causes or nature , than in immediate operations without second causes ( such as god exerciseth on the first created motor , and how else he please ) god is as much in one as in the other . § . . for the understanding of the nature and use of miraculous acts of providence , it must be considered , . that god that made the world of natural agents , and things passive , moved by the active , is not to be feigned without good proofs , to alter any of the works which he hath made , which we see he continueth in the course that he made them without any mutation of their natures . § . . god can change , and cross , and use as he pleaseth the actions of natural agents without changing their natures and inclinations . one natural agent or moved passive , may be resi●ed and turned back or overcome by another ; ●nd yet there may be nothing but natural moti●n in them all : a stronger stream may drive ●ack a weaker . a canon may cross the ordi●ary motion of the air : as a great dog may ●aster a little one , or a woolf devour a lamb , ●nd a bird a worm or fly ; and yet there be ●one but natural and sensitive motion . so god ●an dry up or stop the red sea or iordan ; and ●y winds carry caterpillars to and from aegypt , and such like , and by one natural ●otion overcoming another . it 's hard for us ●n most miracles to say that god doth more than this . § . . but it is certain that god hath a rank of free agents that act arbitrarily , and that these have a great measure of power over natural and necessary motions : as man is a free agent and driveth his sheep to what pasture he pleaseth , and guideth his horses and oxen in their way and furrow to do his will by their natural and sensitive necessitated motion , and as a miller can make the natural course of the wood and water and mill-stones , and horse , all to serve his intention , without changing the nature of any one of them , so much more can god and free agents under god , attain their freely chosen ends , by ordering and not changing natural and sensitive movers . § . . we so little know what arbitrary free agents that are invisible spirits god hath set over this passive world , and what power he hath given them to use natural agents as they themselves freely will , that it greatly disableth us to resolve all the difficulties of the cause of sin and misery , and about the nature of miracles . but it is a clear truth that it is by such free arbitrary agents primarily that natural agency is crost and overcome in miracles , the one natural agent be employed to resist another , ( as to quench the heat of fire , to stop the course of winds and water , &c. ) yet it is some voluntary free agent that thus useth natural agents against each other . scripture tells us , that god useth angels as rulers and protectors of lower agents : and that there is a kind of a war between these and devils : and how far the prevalent wills of good and bad angels or voluntary agents may be the cause of evil , or be the actors of miracles , by setting one moved agent against another , and yet all but natural motion that is caused by these free agents , mortals do not know ; and therefore should not be peremptory in judging . § . . but though we know not that in miracles god useth not second causes , some natural and some free in waies unsearchable to us , yet may we be assured by miracles of his will and attestation : when we find that things are done quite out of the way of his ordinary providence in the uncontrouled confirmation of some prophetical revelation : for god is the governour of the rational world ; and his moral government must be by the intelligible signification of his will de debito , what shall be due from us , and to us : and if miracles be used to deceive us , they cannot be done without him , whatever second cause there be : and if he should use them ( tho' by second causes ) to deceive us , we are utterly remediless , and therefore guiltless . and god that 〈…〉 at h neither impotency , ignorance nor badness , cannot need a lye to govern man , when he hath 〈…〉 de it part of his image , on man , and needful to mens justice to each other to hate lying . § . . a miracle controuled by contrary evidence , is no notification of god's attestation : it may be permitted for several good ends : for god by controuling it giveth us sufficient remedy against deceit . and there are two waies by which a miracle may be controuled : first , by greater conquering miracles used for some contrary doctrine or cause ; so the aegyptian magician's miracles were controuled by moses . secondly , when it is some unquestionable truth or duty or word , that is already better proved , which that miracle pretendeth to contradict . as if a miracle were done by a deceiver , to prove that there is no god , no life-to-come , or against mercy or justice , or to disprove christianity ; the greater miracles which have confirmed the gospel , and the evident light of nature , which proveth the deity and life-to-come , and the duty of love and justice , do controul such deceiving miracles . ( therefore a servant of christ may most comfortably suffer martyrdome for his testimony to the deity , christianity , the life-to-come , or charity and justice against malice and persecution and cruelty , which even a miracle would not justifie ; more than for a disputable opinion . ) § . . it 's a great question , how a true prophet might be known antecedently , before his prophecy was fulfilled . and it 's of great moment to consider , the difference between a legislative prophet , and a meer particular message . moses and christ , the legislators , confirmed their laws and word by multitudes of uncontrouled miracles : for life and death lay upon mens obedience or disobedience to them : and if a prophet did reprove any sin against that law , the miracles that confirmed the law did justifie them . but if it were but a prophecy about some other temporal event ( as ieremy's of the captivity ) it needed no miracle ; for it was but a temporal suffering that followed the not believing them . the law of god , which should here be handled , i shall speak of afterward . chap. viii . of god's causing or not causing sin. § . . how certainly the doctrine of the necessity of immediate , efficient , physical , predetermining premotion , doth make god the principal cause of all sin , i have so oft shewed , and so fully proved , that i shall here be very short upon that subject . § . . to say , that god is the principal determining cause of every sinful act with all its objects and circumstances ( called the materiale peccati ) and also the cause of the law that forbiddeth it , and the person that committeth it , is to make him the chief cause of sin , as far as it is capable of a cause , even of the formal cause . § . . to say , that such a cause is the cause only of the act , but not of the obliquity , is absurd ; because the obliquity is a relation necessarily resulting from the law and act with all its modes and circumstances : and the obliquity can have no other cause . § . . to say , that god willeth and loveth and causeth sin , not as sin , but for good ends and uses , is , to say no more for god than may be said for wicked men , if not for devils ; save only that god's ends are better than theirs . § . . to say , that god willeth not sin , but the existence and futurity of sin , is but as aforesaid , to say , that he wills not sin as sin , or sub ratione ●ali , but that it exist for better ends ; or else it is a contradiction : for to will or cause sin is nothing else but to will and cause the existence of sin. § . . they that say , that god willeth the existence of sin , as it is summe conducibile , to the glory of his justice and mercy , ( yea , and that per se , and not only per accidens ) do wrong the glory of god's holiness and wisdom . a physician can love his own skill , and compassion , and the honour that cometh to him by curing a disease , without loving or willing the disease it self , but only supposing it as an evil which he can turn to good. § . . they that say , that god is the cause indeed of our sin , but is no sinner himself , because he is under no law , say nothing in the latter but what all grant , and nothing in the former but what god's church doth commonly abhorr , excepting some few singular presumers . § . . they that hold , that god doth by immediate physical efficient predetermining premotion principally and unresistibly cause every sinful act , with all its modes and circumstances , do certainly deny all certainty of faith , and so subvert all christianity : for the formal object of all divine faith , is god's veracity , ( that god cannot lye ) if god could lye , our belief could have no certainty : now god speaketh to us , but by inspired men , and not by an essential voice of his own : and if god cause , as aforesaid , all the lyes that ever were spoken by men or devils in the world , then no man can be sure that he doth not so by prophets and apostles , or that ever they say true : and god's veracity then is gone . § . . they that think ●o evade this evidence by the difference of predetermination and inspiration , and say god inspireth no lyes though he predetermine all by physical premotion , do labour in vain : for , . no man can ever prove that any inspiration doth interest god more in the act or lye , than physical predetermination doth : for how can god be more the author of any act than by effectual premoving the creature to act it , and that by immediate physical predetermination ? what doth inspiration do , but so move the mind , will and tongue of a prophet ? no man can name more that man is capable of . . but if there were a difference , we are not capable of understanding that difference so well , as to prove that god can cause all the lyes in the world by predetermining premotion , and yet can cause none by inspiration ; shall none believe him that know not this difference ? . and were it intelligible , it would be only to inspired men themselves . so that i am past doubt that we must part with all certainty of christianity , and of all divine belief , if we receive this doctrine of predetermination , because the objectum formals fidei is then gone . § . . they that say , that if we make not god the predeterminer to every act in specie morali , and in every comparative respect and mode , we shall make man a god , by making him a causa prima , do thereby as much conclude god to be the first and principal predetermining efficient cause of every wicked habit ( as of malignity , or hatred of god , &c. ) because a habit hath as much entity as an act : therefore if it deifie man , to make him the first cause , e. g. of a lye or murder , in specie , then so it will do to make him the first cause of the habit. § . . if it be as impossible for man to do any thing but what he doth , or not to do all that he doth without god's foresaid predetermining premotion , as it is to be gods , or to overcome god , or make a world , then if men are counted sinners , and condemned , it is for not doing such impossibilities , for not doing what god alone can do , or for not overcoming almighty premoving power . § . . ●t cannot rationally be expected , that they that believe that god is the chief cause and willer of all sin , should think it very bad , or themselves bad for it ; or that when god hath unresistibly made all men to sin , he yet hateth it , and sent his son into the world to testifie his hatred by dying for it ; and that he is serious in all that he saith against it in his word : nor that such men should hate it , and rather die than sin . § . . therefore as the church of god hath ever abhorred to make god the cause of sin , and kept up the sence of the evil of sin , ( for our hatred of it , and departing from it , and our humiliation ) as a necessary part of our religion , so must we resolutely do still ; or else we shall be worse than the light of nature teacheth heathens themselves to be . § . . god hath many waies to cause the effects of sin , without causing the sin it self ; as by impediments to other waies , by altering recipients , objects , concauses , and many others , which i have elsewhere enumerated : he can will and procure , that christ shall die by the sinful malice and action of the iews , without willing or causing their malice , will or action as bad : as he can procure a man to be in the way where a murderer cometh with a disposition to murder , and can direct the bullet , &c. § . . when one and the same word doth signifie both the sin and the effect of the sin , it occasioneth the error of men that cannot distinguish : and so if the scripture should say , that god is the cause of it , they think it includeth the sin with the effect . so murder signifieth both the will and action of the murderer , and the death of the man murdered as the effect : absolom's constuprations signifieth both his sinful will and action , and the effect of both : the revolt of the israelites from ieroboam ; the giving up of kingdoms to the beast , and many such-like , in scripture are ascribed to god as the cause , not as the words signifie the sinful will and action of the malefactor , but only the produced effect of both ( saving when god's permission only is understood . ) § . . they that deride it as absurd , that god should decree , will and cause the effect , and not the wills forbidden act , are too bold with god , in measuring his counsels and actions by the rule of their vain imaginations : yet many give us , instead of scripture and reason , but such a confident derision , and say , [ how absurd is it to say that god willed , decreed and caused that christ should be murdered , and yet willed , decreed or caused not that any should murder him ? that god should will and cause david's concubines to be defiled , and not will or cause that absolom should defile them ? that he should will and cause the kingdom to be rent from rehoboam , and yet not cause any one to will or do it ? &c. ] but is all false that is not agreeable to their imagination ? or is this a convincing way of reasoning ? it is not from imperfection but perfection that god doth not will or cause mens sin : but it is from his perfection that he causeth the effect , as being the lord and ruler of the world. sin is not a capable object of god's volition , or an effect which he can cause : but the effect is , god cannot love or cause iuda●'s will or act ( in specie ) of betraying christ , nor the iews will or act in murdering him : but god can will and cause , that christ shall be betrayed and killed , by such individual persons as he foreknew were by their wickedness disposed thereunto . § . . all good men have so deep a hatred of sin , and zeal for god's holiness , and confess , that sin is of the devil , and it is his special character to be the author of it , that when zeal against an adversary in disputation can yet make many put that character on god ( yea , as the prime efficient , which is more than a tempter ) and this as a part of the honour of his providence , and think they serve god and his truth , by bitter reviling the contrary-minded , it is a dreadful instance how far faction and contentious zeal may carry men . and yet when we see how carefully many avoid sin when they have thus honoured it as god's work , it is a notable instance how far good men may err in notions , and yet practically hold the contrary truth , and what great notional errors must be pardoned to each other , as they are pardoned of god. § . . god punisheth sin with sin , without causing that sin at all ; that is , . he justly demeth his grace to the rejecters of it , and their sin is the consequent of that privation , as a drunken man's wandering is to ones denying to lead him : . god maketh it a punishment when man hath first made it a sin. [ q. d. if thou wilt commit such a sin , it shall have this penal nature and effect . ] as if in the law of nature god decreed , that excess of drink or meat should breed sickness , that taking a sweet poison should torment you , that venery should bring the pox , that prodigality shall impoverish men , &c. here man first maketh it a sin , and then god maketh it a punishment : and sin it self being the deformity and misery of the soul , hath two relations at once ( in time ) ; the first in order of nature is the sinfulness , caused by man ; and the second the penal relation caused by god ; whose act indeed was antecedent in his law ( of nature ) , making nature such , that it should so suffer if it will so do ) ; and yet the effect is consequent to mans act. chap. ix . of natural power and free-will . § . . the glory of god on his works is their expression of his perfections , by the impression of them which he hath made . and he hath communicated being and substantiality as the substratum , and therein the virtues of vital power , wisdom and goodness ( or love ) : and these are his image upon man. § . . the more power therefore a creature hath , the more he glorifieth the power of god : and the most powerful creatures ( as the sun ) do more shew forth his greatness than the most impotant . therefore to deny or extenuate any power given of god , is to dishonour him in his works : so absurd is it to think that the power ascribed to man , is dishonourable to god ; as if you took from the workman all the praise that you give to his works . § . . all man's power is passive from god and superiour causes , but it is naturally active as to things inferiour , and in it self . § . . god endued man at first with a threefold power , . natural , . moral , . political , which is a ruling power over inferiours . § . . man's power was partly essential or inseparable , and partly accidental or separable . . to have the three powers or faculties of vital activity , intellection and will , is essential , and man cannot be a man without them : but to have these in promptitude and strength , is but as health or strength to the body ; a separable thing . . to have some moral power to know and desire and practise some moral good , it seemeth is inseparable from man in via ; for all men naturally have some notitiae communes , and differencing sense of moral good and evil : else men should be as bad as devils : but to be truly holy was separable ( as health ) and so was lost . . to have some superiority over brutes , and parents over their children , it seems is inseparable , or is not separated ; for it continueth in nature : but the true majesty of this superiority was lost by sin. § . . no creature hath any power but what is totally derived from god and dependent on him , and still upheld by him and used under him . § . . though some would have more power ascribed to nature , and others appropriate more to grace , yet in this it is no controversie , how much is to be ascribed to god : for both nature and grace , and the powers of both are totally from god : but all the question is , which way god giveth it to man. § . . in general we should be most cautious , . that we disparage not any power or endowment which is god's own work , whether natural or gracious . . that we give not too much to any work that is proper to man. § . . natural power , of vital action , intellection and volition , is supposed by god as lawgiver in his subjects ; that is , that we are men. § . . every act of knowledge , faith , repentance , love and obedience is done by our natural powers or faculties , and none without them . § . . the word [ moral power ] signifieth , . sometimes a power to moral actions , ( and so natural power in man is also moral in some degree . ) . sometimes a holy disposition , especially in the will , to such holy moral actions ; which is the rectitude of our natural powers , or the health of them in a saving degree or sort , and is the gift of grace , since sin departed . . most frequently i use the words for such a degree of god's helping or healing influx or grace , as is short of a habit for promptitude and facility , but yet puts the soul in such a disposition , by which man can do the act , ( and it may come to pass without more grace whether it do or not ) which the dominicans call sufficient grace , and i rather call necessary grace . . sometimes it is meant ( as causa moralis ) for that which is power reputatively . § . . power hath several degrees : some can act easily , yea , is hardly restrained : some can act with difficulty , yet constantly : some difficultly and very rarely : some can act , but the impediments are so great , and its weakness such , as that it never will do what it can : and these we call a moral impotency ; as being reputative impotency , in these three last degrees . § . . sin hath debilituted man's very natural vivacity and activity to things spiritual , and also darkened and undisposed his understanding to them ; but especially dis●ffected him , and perverted his will , with an indisposition , averseness and enmity to god. and none of these are cured , but by the grace of christ ; quickening ( or strengthening and awakening ) illuminating and converting the soul. ( of which more after in due place . ) § . . adam had power to have stood when he fell : god took no power from him , nor let out such a temptation as he could not resist : but sin entered at his will , and corrupted it before he lost his power . § . . there is therefore in 〈…〉 , such a thing as a true power , to do more good and less evil than we do . § . . and there was such a power in adam's will , by which he could have willed what he did not ●ill , and by which he could have rejected the temptation : and this without any other grace , than that which he then had , and used not . § . . otherwise all the sin of adam and the world would be resolved into the necessitating will and work of god , and so all faith would be subverted . § . . therefore man's will was such a faculty as could be a causa prima , of the moral modification or specification of its own acts : ( not a causa prima simpliciter , but thus , secundum quid . ) for else god must be the causa prima of sin , which is the ill modification of that act. § . . i know that to nature the reasonings of our late infidels , to prove , that every act of the will is as truly necessitated as the motions of a clock , do seem plansible and hard ●o answer ; because it seemeth strange , that in any mode of action man should be a first cause of it , and that a creatures act should have no superiour cause in any mode : but on the other side the evidence is cogent , . that god is able to make a self-determining power , that can thus do : for it is no contradiction . . that it is congruous , that below the happy race of confirmed spirits , there should be a race of such undetermined free agents , left much to their own self-determining power . . and experience perswadeth us de facto , that so it is . . and they that deny it , must unavoidably make god the prime cause of all sin , in a higher degree than it is or can be ascribed to satan : and is all this with the rejection of christianity more eligible , than the concession that god can and doth make a creature with such self-determining free-will , as can , as a first cause of its modified act , sin without god's predetermination ? and by his help could forbear sin when he doth not . the contest is , whether god or man shall be counted the causa prima of sin ; we say , man is the first cause , and god is none at all : some say , god must be the causa prima of all that can have a cause in it : and rather than deny him the honour which is given to satan , they will deny christianity , and deny him to be holy and to be god. § . . god made this natural free-will that man might be a governable creature , fit to be morally ruled by laws and rational motives , and as part of god's image on man. chap. x. of original sin. § . . by one man sin entred into the world , and death by sin , and so death passed upon all in that all have sinned . § . . we were not in adam distinct persons really ; for our persons then existed not ; and therefore did not inexist . § . . god doth not repute us to have been what we were not ; for he judgeth truly , and is not mistaken : therefore he judged not peter and iohn to have been those persons in adam then , nor adam's person the same with theirs . § . . therefore we were not then when he sinned persons guilty in adam ; for non existentis non sunt accidentia . § . . we were seminally or virtually in adam when he sinned : which is but that he had that virtus generativa from which we naturally sprang in time ; but to be virtually in him , is not to be personally in him , but potentially , it being as to existence terminus diminuens . § . . as soon as we were persons , we were persons derived by generation from adam : therefore with our persons we derived guilt and pravity : for he could beget no better than himself . § . . when adam sinned his whole person was guilty and no part innocent : therefore his very semen prolificum had its part in the guilt according to its capacity ; and though it was not a guilty person , it was a part of a guilty person ; and a part that was the semen personae ; so that when that semen became a p●rson ( cain ) it became a guilty person , the guilt following the subject according to its capacity : and so downward by propagation to this day . § . . god doth not impute adam's sin to us because he will do it , without any real participation of ours ; no nor beyond our true natural participation , but according to it : otherwise god should have made us sinners , meerly because he ●ould do so , and not adam . § . . we receive our original guilt and pravity immediately from our next parents , and but remotely from adam : it could never have come to us but through them from whom we receive our nature , from them we receive the guilt and pravity of our nature . § . . therefore thus far at least our next parents communicate guilt and pravity to us , and not adam only : in which we see that god's imputation goeth along with real natural participation . § . . it seemeth to me a strange oversight in too many divines who deny ( or observe not ) our guilt of all the rest of our parents * sins , while we were in their loins , as well as of adam's ; seeing . there is that same reason of both , save what the change of the covenant maketh ( of which after . ) and , . scripture is so full and express about it . § . . st , if i have a guilty and deprayed soul from my parents , it is because i was once in them , virtually or seminally as truly and naturally as i was in adam : and had not the guilt been theirs it had never been mi●e : and if it be mine because it was theirs , why not one part of theirs as well as another ? § . . it will be said , because god so covenanted with adam that he should stand or fall for himself and his posterity : i answer , that there was any such covenant that if he stood his posterity should all stand , or be confirmed and saved , is more than ever i found in scripture or can prove , or do believe : but that it would have been to the benefit of his posterity i doubt not . and that his fall was to the guilt and corruption of his posterity i doubt not ; but ( as i said ) not without and beyond their natural interest in him , and derivation from him as the reason of it : and we were as much naturally in our next parents : and the covenant of innocency and the covenant of grace do not so far differ as to exempt us from the guilt of our next parents sins : for the difference lieth not in this , that the first only made death the due reward of all sin , nor that the first did interest children in the guilt of their parents sin : but in this , that the first made us guilty without a remedy ; but the second giveth us a remedy presently for pardon and recovery , and so our guilt is not so full , because it is but a half obligation having the pardon annexed . the first law said , [ if thou sin thou shalt be filius mortis , and so shall those that are propagated of thee . ] the second covenant saith , [ for thy original and actual sin death is thy due , but i give thee a pardon and remedying grace procured by the righteousness of christ. ] but note , that this covenant pardoneth our original sin as from adam ; and yet it followeth not that we had none because it is pardoned : even so it pardoneth our guilt of our next parents sins , and therefore we had it to be pardoned : both are pardonable to us ; therefore we had both . § . . . and the scripture is more copious , and as plain in making punishment due to children for their next parents sins , as for adam's , though adam's only was the original of all sin and misery . i have elsewhere proved it at large : the case of cain's posterity , and cham's , and ishmael's , and esau's , and achan's family , and ahab's , and many more do fully prove it : and more fully the second commandment , and god's declaration of his name to moses , exod. . and many a threatning to the seed of the wicked , and christ's express words in matth. . . so that scripture puts us out of doubt . § . . the common objection is , that their [ guilt would be greater on us towards the end of the world , than on them at the beginning , because all our ancestours guilt would be ours : but i answer , . if it were so , it would be but many obligations to the same punishment , when it amounteth to that which god seeth our nature capable of : for a finite worm is not capable of more suffering than is proportioned to his nature . . and this objection vainly supposeth , that none of our ancestours sins were pardoned : whereas all are pardoned to the faithful and their seed , and much temporal punishment is pardoned to many of the unsanctified : and god himself by limiting it to the third and fourth generation , seemeth to set bounds to his own justice . . and the guilt of our parents sins being of a more diminute nature than that of our own actual sin ( coeteris paribus ) it falleth not so fully on us , as it did on the committers themselves , nor as our own do . . and god offereth us the full pardon of our own and all together : and as long as the law which tells us of our desert of punishment , doth also give us a free pardon , we have no cause to complain . § . . that we have all original sin is proved , in that else infants should be saved without a pardoning saviour , or a cleansing sanctifier ; which cannot be . § . . he that seeth the universal inclination of mankind to evil even in their childhood , and their backwardness to good , even that evil and that good which nature it self assureth us are such , must needs believe original pravity , or else think hardly of god's work. § . . he that seeth still that drunkenness , gluttony , lust , &c. do vitiate both the soul and bodily temperament of the sinner , and how frequently a diseased , distempered body , inclining men to particular vices , and an extraordinarily vitiated soul , is in their children the plain fruit of the parents sin , may the easilier believe that we drew down pravity from adam also , when we derive so much from nearest parents . § . . and they that consider , that mans soul being made holy , for god , this unholiness is not only a negation but a privation , not of sensitive and natural only , but of moral rectitude , will not deny but that the name of sin or moral pravity belongeth to it . § . . and they that consider , that parents cause not children as an artificer maketh an engine , but by generation , which is a communication of their own essence , and what natural interest parents and children have in each other , and that it is real sin that is in both , and that the moral privation in its nature , containeth much of mans misery , will easily grant that it is both a sin and punishment , and a moral cause of further punishment , properly enough so called . § . . they that lay that reason of their denying original sin , upon the difficulty of understanding whether souls are new created or derived from parents , do too little suspect their frail understandings ▪ and their own ●deductions , and too ▪ easily suspect the word of god. and i think that i have elsewhere proved that generative traduction of souls , and yet god's present , yea , immediate causation of their essence ( which may be called creation ) are here consistent ▪ which here i must not now repeat : vid. meth. theol. and reasons of christian religion . chap. xi . of our redemption by christ. § . . sin having made man guilty and depraved , unfit for duty and felicity , odious to the most holy righteous god , and lyable to his justice , the eternal wisdom and word of god did interpose , and by mercy did save man from the deserved rigour of justice , promising actual redemption in the fulness of time , and on that supposition giving fallen man a pardoning and saving law ( or covenant of grace ) with answerable help of his spirit and means , and outward mercies fitted to his recovery and salvation . § . . but god would not have this recovery and salvation to be perfect at the first ; but gave man a certain proportion of common deliverance and mercy , binding him to a course of duty , in the performance of which he should receive more by degrees till he were perfected . ( as phisicians cure their patients . ) § . . therefore god did enter into judgment with fallen man , and did sentence him absolutely to some degree of punishment , even to labour , pain , the penalty of the cursed earth , and finally to death ; which temporal punishment god would not remit , nor give him a saviour to procure the pardon of it ; but only to the faithful , to turn all this unto their benefit , and to deliver them from the greater everlasting sufferings . § . . and their own sinful pravity and privation of holiness , and communion with god , which also was their greatest punishment by consequence , god would not at once , nor in this life perfectly save them from ; and therefore accordingly pardoned them their punishment , but by the forementioned degrees . for he is not perfectly pardoned or saved , who is yet left under so much penalty . § . . some thinking it hard , that for years the world should have no existent mediator , and that an existent faith in the future mediator , should be more necessary than an existent mediator and his work , and thinking withal that it would solve many textual difficulties objected by the arians , and explain the appearances of christ to the patriarchs , have conceived that christ hath a threefold nature , viz. the divine nature , a created super-angelical nature to which the divine nature was united before the incarnation , and the humane nature assumed at the incarnation ; and that so we had an existent mediator from the time of the fall. but whatever conveniences this opinion may seem to have , i find no satisfactory proof of it in scripture , nor that the christian church did ever hold it . and it is overmuch boldness to take up so great a doctrine as a third nature in christ , which the church of christ was never acquainted with . and the texts that seem to be for it , are capable of the common exposition . § . . if any think that this was the judgment of abundance , yea , the most of the antient writers , before the days of arius , because they have such unhappy expressions of christ , which the reader may find truly collected to his hand by petavius de trinitate , and that it is fitter to expound them as speaking only of christ's second nature , than to account them all arians , or to honour the arians by making them on their side , i answer , i leave every man to his own judgment upon perusal of the fathers words , allowing all charity that hath sufficient ground : but i cannot perceive , that these writers talk of any more natures in christ than two , and pious ends must be served by no fictions and untruths : i think that we must rather gather with petavius there that the votes in the nicene council tell us , that then the greater part of the church were against arius , and therefore they were so before , because they held ( in so great a point ) the faith which they had received from their fathers : and that the greater part of writers , might differ from the greater part of the church . and withal , these writers having more than other men to do with the heathen philosophers and orators , who were prejudiced against the doctrine of the trinity , did shun their offence by too much stretching their speeches to that which they thought they could easilier digest , which gave arius his advantages . the conclusions either way are harsh and sad ; but i leave others better to avoid them . § . . the deity it self may not unfitly be called our redeemer before the incarnation , though not so fitly a mediator , and though redemption by christ's death and merits in the flesh was not then wrought : because the word redeeming is oft taken for a merciful delivering , though without a price ; and also because the price was promised from the beginning . but thus the word redeemer is equivocal , signifying either the deity as a promising , undertaking saviour , or the mediator who was promised , and who performed the undertaken means . § . . the mediator himself being purely the gift of the divine love and mercy , it was no inconvenience , that god then had all the glory , and that faith then acknowledged no other existent saviour , but god himself the infinite good. § . . it troubleth men much to open , how christ was any true cause of our pardon and salvation as a mediator , before his incarnation ? and what his merits , sacrifice and intercession could do , before they did exist ? and the common answer is , that moral ( though not physical ) causes may cause before they exist , and so operate as foreseen , foredecreed or willed . but these logical notions must not be used to put off the question , instead of satisfactorily answering it . this tells us not whether by a moral cause they mean a true cause of some moral being , or something morally called a cause which indeed is not so , but quasi causa : nor yet whether they mean a cause efficient , final or constitutive : nor yet whether they mean a cause of any thing in god , or only of some following effect . § . . it must be concluded that christ's merits , sacrifice and intercession make no real change in god , his understanding or will , and therefore have no such causality . § . . but god's promise first , and christ's merits and sacrifice next make a change in the state of things , laying that ground-work or necessary antecedent and condition , upon which it becometh meet , right and just for god to give the rest of his mercy which this is the condition of , and the true meritorious cause : and so the change was neither on god , nor immediately on man , but for man on the state of things which god and man were both concerned in : it is a causa ordinis , while that is done first , which is prerequisite to what is to follow : and it is a causa rei ( benefici● ) while it not only removeth moral impediments of our pardon and salvation , but also setteth matters in such a state , in which it becometh congruous , meet , right and just for god to pardon and save us ; which is a remote disposing the fall'n sinner to be a due recipient of god's following promised grace . and thus it is in both senses a moral cause , as it is a cause of our right , and of congruity , and as it is , though not indeed , yet morally , reputatively , or quasi causa physica realis , of our pardon , grace and salvation , by making them become just , right and due . and being thus far a cause of the effects ad extra , per extrinsecam denominationem ex connotatione & relatione ad objectum , it may be called ( with cautelous sobriety ) a cause of god's own intellections and volitions : for though in themselves they are god's essence , yet for god [ to know us to be redeemed and to will our present pardon and salvation as redeemed ones , ] are words that speak more than god's essence as in it self , and include the termination of his acts on these objects as such ; and so denominate god's essence distinctly from the objects , which else would never be distinguished , nor have but one name ; being really but one . § . . yet all these diversifying , distinguishing , denominating causes of god's intellections , volitions and operations , must not ( even denominatively or relatively ) be counted or called efficient causes of god's acts , nor strictly final but objective . and therefore here it must be considered what cause an object is , which philosophers are not well agreed in . but i think i may safely say , that as to moral acts , the object is to be reduced to such a cause materialis or constitutiva as they are capable of , not of the act as an act , but as this act , in specie , denominated from the receptive terminating matter or object . and though to man , to know this or that , and to will this or that ad extra , seem somewhat really different ( or modally at least ) from knowing and willing our selves or some other object , yet in god it is not to be called ex parte sui , a real or modal difference at all . § . . yet i assert not that the ratio prima of all these diversities of the divine acts is ex terminis seu recipientibus : for the first reason is in and of god himself : for it is god that maketh all diversities of effects and changes ; and so it is from those divers effects of his own will , that his will is relatively ex connotatione termini diversly denominated . but that in god which is the ratio prima diversitatis , is not divers , but his one simple essential will ; so that it is the diversity of objects which is the immediate reason of distinguishing god's acts , ( of which before ) . § . . these things premised , i come nearer to the question , if that which existeth not do truly cause , it must be either efficiently , constitutively , or finally . the two first are denied by the common reason of mankind . that which is not , cannot effect : nothing can do nothing . and to say it is not , is to say , it constituteth not . and as it is certain , that causa finalis non efficit , yea , is but causa metaphorice operans , so it is certain , that no creature causeth any thing in god , no not finally . § . . those that say , that christ and his death and merits did not cause before existence , in esse existenti , but in esse cognito , as constituting the divine idea's , . must remember that the esse cognitum , as they call it , is no esse rei cognita at all ; therefore if only the esse cognitum do cause , then it was not christ and his merits that caused . . in man for an esse cognitum , to cause his further acts , is but for one thought to cause another thought , or a volition or nolition . and these thoughts and volitions are really divers , and constituted by reception of intromitted objects : but god is no recipient , nor knoweth any object as we do by intromission ; nor hath he any such thoughts or idea's of creatures as are really divers ex parte dei , but only by extrinsick denomination . § . . if it be said , that then god should know nothing till it is , because a denomination must be from something , and nothing can be no object or terminus ; and so of his will. i ans. . god doth not know any thing as existent now , which doth not exist now . but our now is in his eternity , and his eternity without partition comprehendeth all our times ; prae and post , ab and ad are prepositions of no signification in and of eternity ; but only [ in ] . and therefore as augustine saith , his prescience is but his science so denominated from the order of objects , but noteth not any difference in him , who hath neither prae nor post . how this is to be understood without making the creature eternally exist , i have elsewhere fully opened . § . . that plain truth therefore which must here satisfie us is , that god , who is the first efficient and ultimate final cause of all things , and caused by none , did of his free abundant mercy undertake the saving of sinful man , and notwithstanding his threatning and man's defect , resolving to make advantage of our sin and misery , for the glory of his wisdom , love , mercy and justice , he promised that the eternal word should in due time assume man's nature , and therein do and suffer that which should glorifie him more than man's perdition would have done , and which should make it just and meet for him to save the guilty , both inceptively at the present under the promise ( for years ) and afterward more fully at christ's incarnation , and finally to perfect all in glory . so that the work of our salvation is one entire frame , composed by divine wisdom and love ; where one part is the reason of another , though none be the cause of any thing in god : and christ's mediation , though coming after years , yet was then to do that which should make it meet and right and just for god to pardon sin before : even as in a building the several parts may be the reason of each other , because they must be all compaginated and fitted to their relative places and uses : and though the foundation make not the superstructure , it upholdeth ●it● and as aquinas briefly faith , deus non propter hoc vult hoc , sed vult hoc esse propter hoc ; nothing is the cause of god's will , but it is god's will that one thing shall be for another : and when all his work must be one frame , the part last made may be a reason of the former . and so christ's merits and sacrifice , though after years , perform that for which it became just and meet before for god to pardon sinners . for though it was not then existent , yet ( besides the decree ) the promise , prediction and publication made it useful to its ends , in respect to god and man. § . . so then , though the cause be not truly a cause till it exist , and though all the pardon and salvation given for years , was before the existence of the merits and sacrifice of christ , yet the promise and notification of the mediator and his merits and sacrifice , as the reason of this pardon , did then exist , and was the cause of that pardon , which christ was afterward to merit . § . . it is therefore no absurdity , that the existence of man's faith and repentance should be necessary , when the mediator's existence and his merits was not necessary : for it was not then an existent mediator ( and sacrifice , &c. ) that was the object of faith , but only a promised mediator . § . . and whereas it is a doubt , seeing the head is essential to the church , and the divine nature only was head of the church before the incarnation , and the divine and humane united was afterward the head , whether it follow not the church before the incarnation and after ( and so faith and religion ) were divers in specie , and not the same ? i answer , that while we agree all de re , that so much difference there is , it is not worth our trouble to strive about the name or logical notion of [ sameness of species . ] § . . when god hath chosen to save man by way of a mediator , and by his sacrifice and merits , as that way in which his wisdom , love , holiness , mercy and justice are eminently glorified , it seemeth to me too bold presumption to dispute , whether he could not have saved us otherwise , and pardoned sin without a saviour ? as it would be to dispute , whether he could not illuminate the earth without the sun ? he wanteth not power to do whatsoever is meet for god to do ; but all the question is , whether it be meet , supposing man's nature and sin to be what they are ? § . . god did illuminate the world without the sun , till the sun was made : but it was the imperfect world , and before the perfecting of his work : and so god did save man without an existent mediator , ( unless god may be called a mediator between himself and us , which is a harsh phrase ) . but it was before the work of our salvation was brought to maturity ; for the cure of man is perfectest at last . § . . we must take great heed , that in considering of the parts of our redemption by christ , we look not all at one and over-look the rest , nor set not those works of christ in opposition which must be taken in conjunction : but his incarnation , obedience , contempt of the world , victory over satan , suffering , resurrection , ascension , glory , intercession , reign , raising the dead , judgment , glorifying his church , must be all conjoined , though not confounded . § . the benefits of redemption , or recovering mercies , are not all given in the same way : we must carefully distinguish of those that god giveth absolutely and antecedently ; that is , before any condition or duty on man's part , and those that he giveth consequently upon man's duty performed as the means of reception . § . . antecedent mercies are some common to all men , and some proper to some countries , ages and persons , as the free benefactor pleaseth . § . . of the former sort is the sustentation of nature , reprival from deserved miseries , the law of grace , as to the tenor , and some degree of promulgation , with all the common mercies , means , duties which tend to recovery . of the later sort are the greater degrees of such mercies and means , which god freely giveth to some more than others . § . . therefore we must not say that infidels or wicked men have no mercies , or no right to what they do possess as from god , as being no consenters to the covenant or performers of it : because there are antecedent mercies given before such consent or performance ; not as to covenanters but as to miserable men , invited to enter covenant with god in christ. though these are so forfeited by their refusal , that they have no assurance of their continuance , but god may soon take them all away . § . . the consequent mercies are pardon , iustification , adoption , the spirit , a secured filia● right to all outward mercies that are good and suitable to us , and final glory , and whatever god hath promised on conditions by us to be performed . § . . the question of universal redemption , and special , i shall pretermit till i speak of universal grace . § . . seeing life , health , food , hope , and all that is truly good , were forfeited by sin , and none of them can be due to us by the law of innocency , it followeth , that wherever they are given , it is upon other terms , which can be no other than those of the law of grace , as fruits of our redeemer's mercy ( antecedently or consequently . ) and where the fruits are apparent , we may know the cause . § . . the fruits of redemption are one entire frame consisting of various and unequal parts , to divers persons ( yet mutually related : ) and therefore it will not follow , that nothing but what certainly inferreth the person's salvation is any such effect of man's redemption . chap. xii . of the several laws or covenants of god. § . . though the order of the matter require , that i should have spoken of the law of innocency before i had spoken of sin and redemption , yet thinking that the sort of readers for whom i now especially write , will best understand things , if i treat of all god's laws together , i will at this time fetch my method from their intended benefit . § . . the nature of a law in general , and of god's laws in special , i have elsewhere so oft and largely spoken of ( pretending somewhat to clear up that doctrine from several mistakes ) that i must here pretermit it . § . . though the word [ law ] do principally signifie the regulating imposition of our duty , and the word covenant doth principally signifie a mutual contract ; yet it is the same divine instrument , which is meant oft and usually in scripture , by both these names : ( of which see grotius at large in his preface to his annotations in nov. testamentum . ) it is called a law in one respect , and a covenant in another , but the thing is the same . as a law , the parts of it are , . the precept ( and prohibition ) constituting our duty . . the retribution , premiant and penal constituting the dueness of rewards and punishments , as the duty is performed or neglected . as it is a covenant it containeth , . the benefit ( which is the reward ) freely given , yet on condition of a due and suitable reception and use of prescribed means : . the condition described , and means prescribed , in the said preceptive part . . and the threatning in case of ingratitude , refusal and disobedience . which are the same things as in the law of grace , considering the covenant but as instituted and offered : for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth usually but the resolved declared terms of life and death , or the divine ordination by which he will rule and judge us . and so it is oft called a covenant before consent by man , which maketh it to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a mutual contract . and even a law as received by a voluntary subject is consented to , and becometh a contract . if any think that i give not the true difference of god's laws and covenants , let him tell me more , and i suppose we shall agree de re , though not de ratione nominis : and let it now suffice to tell you how i would be understood my self : though the word law be some time taken more narrowly , and the word covenant oft for mutual contract ( which is but a law consented to ) yet being to speak of each term as signifying that regulating frame by which god ruleth us and will judge us , and by which he giveth us his gifts and rewards , i mean the same thing , in several respects called by the several names ; the absolute antecedent gifts of our great benefactor being supposed inclusively in both . sect . i. of the law or covenant of innocency made to adam . § . . i shall in this order treat briefly of the divine laws . i. of the law of innocency to adam . ii. of the law of mediation to christ. iii. of the law of grace to fallen man. and there , . as in the first edition to adam and noah : . as in the same edition joined with the jewish law of peculiarily to abraham , and of works by moses to abraham's seed . . of the law of graces as in the second edition by christ : § . . . the law of innocency contained a precept and prohibition , and a retributive part to which adam was bound to be a voluntary subject , and therefore to consent ( which will allow it the name of a covenant . ) but here the brief narrative in the scripture calleth to us to distinguish of things certain , and things uncertain ( whoever assert them . ) § . . . the preceptive part was revealed by nature , or supernaturally ( by voice , or inspiration , or vision , &c. ) the former being lex natura integrae , the law of intire nature , though the chief is least spoken of in gen. because it is supposed legible in nature it self . § . . the law of nature , properly so called , is in esse objectivo , that signification of god's will concerning man's duty , which was discernible in the universa rerum natura in all god's works ; but principally in mans own nature , as related to god and all persons , and things about him . § . . but improperly or metonymically so called , the law of nature is in esse subjectivo the communes notitiae , which man had and was to have from the said objective law of nature . but properly this is rather the knowledge of the law , than the law it self , being not perfect in adam himself at first , but was to be perfected as he came to know more and more of the works of god , and varying much now in several persons . yet may it well be called god's law written in the heart , when we have the knowledge and love of his primary proper law. § . . this law of nature bound adam to perfect devotedness to god as his owner , and perfect gratitude to god as his antecedent benefactor , and to perfect obedience to god as his ruler , and to perfect love to god as his ultimate most amiable end. and this perfect obedience was to be perpetual . § . . it was adam personally that the law bound to this perfect perpetual obedience , and not another for him , or that he should obey by a representative , or a delegate , a servant , or by any other . § . . nature , even in its depraved state , now telleth us , that all sin against god deserveth punishment ; therefore the law of nature had a penal part . § . . it is a great doubt with many divines whether the law of nature had any premiant part or promise , and so was a covenant ; because , say they , duty obligeth not god to reward us . but it seemeth to me as far past doubt as the penal part . for the question is not , what our duty performed obligheth god to , much less in point of commutative iustice , where no creature can merit of god , iob . , , . if thou be righteous , what givest thou him , &c. but it is presupposed that god first became man's benefactor and his ruler , and his law is the instrument of his government ; and his promise is but the signification of his will , what he will give , and on what terms : and god in nature signified his will to bless the obedient , and love those that love him ; for as a ruler he is iust ; and if he differenced not the righteous from the sinner , what were his justice ? were there no other reward , but the continuance of the paradise-blessing freely given him ( which sin would forfeit ) it would have been a great reward : and if god equally take away his gifts from good and bad , it is not governing iustice , though as the act of a proprietor it be neither iust nor unjust , so that the very essence of undertaken government , containeth a discovery of god's rewarding will ; which is the promissory or premiant part of the law of nature . § . . the degree and kind of the natural reward , must be gathered , . from the state that man was in . . from the nature of his duty . . from the state of perfection which his nature was made inclined to desire and seek . § . . . man being freely placed in the state of innocency and god's favour in the earthly pleasures of eden , as a sanctified state of communion with god , seeing sin was to be punished with the privation of these , we may gather , that the innocent should not have been deprived of them . § . . . man's great duty being to love god perfectly ( according to his present ability ) and to please him , and delight herein , we may gather , that the innocent should have the felicity which is herein contained , even in the delights of loving and pleasing god. § . . . man's nature being not made in its utmost perfection , but in via , with a desire of knowing god , loving him , pleasing him , and delighting in him yet more , according to his capacity , we may gather , that obedient man should have attained that perfection : for god maketh not the capacities , dispositions and desires of nature in vain . § . . but whether all this should have been given on earth or in heaven , is not so clear in nature or scripture : but , . the translation of henoch and elias maketh it probable , that so man should have been translated . . and so doth the glory purchased by the redeemer . . and the matter is the less , because where-ever the place be , the same state of enjoyment would make it a heaven to such a person . § . . neither doth nature now tell us , how long man must have obeyed before he had merited the full reward of his perfection . but only that he must conquer all the temptations that god would try him with , and must persevere till god should please to translate him , not appointing him any determinate time . nature and scripture favour this . § . . there are some who considently conclude ( without either natural or scripture-proof ) that had adam performed but one act of obedience to god , before his sin , he had been confirmed is the angels , as his reward : and what a sinner do they make adam before he sinned , if he performed not one act of love and obedience to his maker ▪ this fancy i dismiss . § . . others say , that if he had overcome one temptation he should have been confirmed ; but i find no promise or proof of it in nature , nor in scripture ; and i suppose they feign not a secret conditional will of god. § . . though it be agreed on by most protestants , that adam had been an heir of death and hell if he committed the least sin , even an idle thought or word , though he had not eaten the forbidden fruit , and so that the law of nature made hell the due punishment of the least sin , and doth so still if it be not pardoned , yet the law of nature in our lapsed state is herein somewhat dark , and the scripture not so clear for it as some imagine : but thus much methinks nature it self still speaketh . § . . . that the least sin deserveth some degree of punishment . . that god hath various degrees of punishment , suited to the degrees of sin. . that the least sin hath a tendency to more , and that still to more , till man be utterly miserable . and that both in its own nature , and in the forfeiture of some measure of god's grace or help . . that if you suppose that vain thought or word to consist still with true love to god , god could not immediately hate and damn that soul that so loved him . but if that person perish , it must be by that idle thought or word producing worse , till it had turned his love from god to the creature . . that antecedently to gods undertaking to be the ruler of man , no doubt but as an absolute owner , he might have taken away all that he gave him , even his life and being , without any fault in man : for he may do as he list with his own : and therefore he might have done the same for the smallest fault , which he might have done without it . and therefore he might have inflicted any pain , which to man is not worse than annihilation , for ever . but whether his three forementioned acts ; . antecedently placing man as he did . . making him such duty as he made him . . and such inclination to better , do not imply that god would not punish him unless he sinned , and then but according to the degree of his sin , i leave to consideration . § . . but whether god must , and whether he might , punish the least sin with hell , are different questions : whether by the law of nature he must do it or be unjust , and so a vain thought was not pardonable by or under that law , and so adam was an heir of hell when his thought first failed , before he did eat or consent to eat the forbidden fruit , are questions which i cannot resolve from nature , and are to me more difficult in scripture than to wiser men . § . . the supernatural part of the law is known to us only by scripture , but perhaps the fathers before the flood might know more of it by tradition , than god hath thought meet to write for our times . § . . the preceptive part was the not eating the forbidden fruit , and consequently the overcoming all temptations thereto : the law of matrimony and the sabbath also , are partly supernatural ( called positive . ) § . . the penalty is called death , which signifieth undoing and misery : but whether it was only temporal death or also hell , divines are not agreed . they that are for the former , seem chiefly drawn to it , by comparing the law with the iudgment and execution , thinking it indecent to say , that god fulfilled not his threatning , but dispensed with it : and therefore seeing temporal death only is in the sentence and execution , they think that no more was meant : and consequently that christ did not by redemption , prevent the sentence and execution of that death , but only when it was fulfilled , deliver us from continuance under it by a resurrection . § . . but i would have such remember , . that the soul was made naturally immortal , that is , not tending to annihilation , unless god should against nature or settled course annihilate it . and if it were not annihilated , it must be in some state , good or bad . if it was to be penally annihilated , christ prevented that : and such an annihilation is as little desirable as a tolerable degree of pain . . and that god's law determining directly but de debito poenae , what should be man's due , and not absolutely and peremptorily then de eventu , god reserved to himself a pardoning power , so it were done upon valuable considerations , more fully glorifying him and his government and law , than man's destraction would have done . and thus to dispense with his law is no dishonour to god. § . . it is the wrath to come that christ delivereth us from , and hell and the power of satan that he redeemed us from : therefore it seemeth that it was no less that our sin deserved . and spiritual death is contained in sin and apostacy it self . § . . what the reward was to be , besides what i said before from nature , it is not easie to gather out of scripture , nor to find there any plainer a promise of life ; but in both i think it is certainly implied . § . . it is ordinary to say , that the condition of adam's confirmation was , that he should have eaten first of the tree of life : but to find that among the commands , much less the condition with a promise of confirmation , requireth more discerning than i have ; notwithstanding the words [ lest he eat and live , &c. ] from which they gather it . § . . how far this law is yet in force , is also difficultly disputed . in brief , . the general command of perfect love and obedience for the future , and the commands of the unalterable duties of nature , are still so far in force as to oblige us . . but whether sub poena mortis is the doubt ? punishment is due either absolutely and statedly , and so it maketh it due only to the impenitent and unbelievers . or only in primo instanti , inceptively , with an annexed remedy : and so every sin maketh punishment so far due to the faithful , as that they have need of the grace of christ , and the new covenant to pardon it . . but the premiant part of the law of innocency , from whence it is named a covenant , is now truly null . which maketh our divines say , that the law of nature ( which they call moral ) bindeth as a rule of duty , but the covenant ceaseth . § . . this was not done by god but man , who ceased to be a capable subject of that covenant , promise or reward : and so the condition ( innocency or perfect obedience ) being become naturally impossible , we must not feign god to say to sinners [ on condition you be no sinners you shall live ] . but cessante capacitate subditi cessat promissio conditionalis , & transit in sententiam . but of the cessation of the law and covenant of innocency , see more after sect. , § . , &c. § . . they pervert this covenant by their unproved fictions , who say , that the sence of it was [ thou , or one for thee , shall obey , and if thou sin , thou or christ shall suffer . ] and so that we are justified by this same covenant which condemneth us , as having been innocent and perfectly righteous ( habitually and actually ) in and by christ. sect . ii. of the law of mediation or covenant with christ . § . . as the mediator in person and office , differed from all other creatures , so he was under a law and covenant , proper to himself . § . . this law and covenant was made to and with christ incarnate : for so he was a subject under law. it is too bold , improper and offensive a phrase to call god's eternal decree of redemption by the name of a law , yea , or a covenant of god with himself , that is , of the father with the son. § . . therefore all the descriptions of it in the old testament , are but prophecies and promises containing the terms of the future covenant ; ( as we call a form of prayer , a prayer , though it be but matter fitted to be a prayer when it hath the formal act . ) but christ had truly a law and promises . § . . the preceptive or imposed part was , in general , that he do the office of a mediator : particularly , . that habitually and actually he perfectly fulfill all the law of nature , which he was capable of . . that he fulfill also the law of moses . . that he also do those things proper to the mediator , in his miracles , sacrifice , resurrection , intercession , tea●hing , government , &c. which he undertook . § . . christ took the nature of man , but not strictly the real or reputative person of any man , but himself , much less of every man or every believer : i mean , that his person was not the natural person of any other , nor esteemed of god so to be ; nor yet was he the full and proper representative or civil person of any man , much less of all men ; that is , one that the law allowed us to do and suffer by , so that in law-sence his doing and suffering should be reputed ours ; as a man payeth a debt by his servant or substitute ; which is morally or reputatively his act and deed , or accepted in the same sort and to all the same effects and purposes , as if he had paid it with his own hands . the person of the mediator was not in law-sence , nor god's account , nor christ's undertaking the person of the sinner himself . § . . else christ should have been in god's account a sinner , and the greatest sinner in the world , and hated as such by god above any other sinner ; which whoever shall affirm , shall speak presumptuously and blasphemously . § ▪ . yea , else christ should have been many millions of persons in law-sence , and many millions of sinners ; which is not agreeable to god's word . § . . christ neither was a sinner , nor reputed a sinner by god : and his being made sin for us , signifieth , . that he was made a sacrifice for sin , and was taken and used by god as one that undertook to suffer for our sins , in our stead , though not in our person . . and that he was really accounted a sinner by those that crucified him , and used as such . § . . first , christ did not fulfill the law of innocency in our several persons ; he did not all those things materially that adam was obliged to do ; nor which most of us are obliged to do . we did not reputatively fulfill that law by him , so as that his perfection is taken as ours , in habit and in act. § . . secondly , christ did not fulfill the law of moses in the person of all them that were never bound themselves to fulfill it ; so as that they are reputed fulfillers of it in and by christ : for since his ascension it is abrogated even to the iews themselves , and now bindeth none in the world ( as mosaical . ) § . . thirdly , christ did not work miracles , rise , ascend , intercede , reign , teach , give laws , and ministers , and grace , in the person of every or any other , but only in his own person as the great mediator and saviour of man. § . . if any will use the word [ person ] in a private , narrow and improper sence , and say , that [ he who undertook in the person of a mediator to obey and merit for our iustification , and to suffer in our stead to save us from deserved suffering , may therefore be called the person of every one that he merited and suffered for , though i will not so presume to thrust phrases on the church which scripture never used , when their obvious sence is pernicious , yet if that man will by explication of the word person ( or representative ) notifie to the world , that he taketh it in a sound sence , i will not quarrel about an unfit word , while religion is safe . § . . * christ undertook not only to merit and suffer for man , but also to draw all men to him , and to send forth his spirit and ministry , and to gather together the elect of god that are scattered through the world , and to intercede for them , and to give them eternal life , having raised them up at the last day . § . . the premiant part of the law of mediation , or the promise of god in this covenant to christ , was , that all power should be given him in † heaven and earth , and he should be lord both of the dead and of the living , and head over all things to the church , and that he should be glorified at god's right hand , and have a name above every name , at which every knee should bow , and that principalities and powers should be subject to him . that he be authorized to give laws to the world , ( all iudgment being committed to him ) and to make with men a covenant of grace and life , and send forth ministers to proclaim it , and the spirit to effect the gathering of his church ; that his intercession for them shall be accepted , and that he shall iudge all the world , and justifie and glorifie his chosen according to the tenor of his covenant of grace : which is all accordingly performed . § . . though if christ as a creature had sinned , he had deserved punishment , yet the supposition being of a thing impossible , by reason of the union of the divine nature , it is improper to talk of any penal part of the law that was given him : for penal laws are for those that have need by fear to be restrained from sin , or constrained to duty ; which christ needed not . § . . christ's entire righteousness ( as before his exaltation ) habitual , active , passive , elevated by union with the divine perfection , was his performance of the condition of his covenant with the father : and his performance of that condition was his meritorious title to god's promised effects : and that as it was one entire righteousness or condition performed : and our justification and salvation are part of those promised effects : therefore it is abusive subtilty to divide christ's performance into little parcels , and then say , this parcel is imputed to me for this use , and that for that use , and by one he merited this , and by the other that , when ( though each part of his condition or duty had its proper reason , yet ) it was only the entire performance that was the condition of the benefits , and so of our iustification and salvation . § . . but i say , [ before his exaltation ] because the benefits being of several sorts , some of them were given upon christ's merit presently , and some upon man's believing , and some not till long after by application : but to all these , what christ did only as under the law of mediation , was properly his merit , by which they were procured : but his [ undertaking ] what he after did , ( in gathering his church and interceding and ruling ) may be numbered with the parts of his foresaid merit ; and still , as a creature , he is under his creator's law , even the law of perfect uniting love , and so doth eminently merit . § . . it was neither the covenant nor will of the father and son , that we should either have full possession , deliverance , or right thereto , immediately upon christ's merit and sacrifice ( as we should if we had done all by him as our person ) : but that we and all things being delivered to christ's power and will , he should convey the benefits of his death and merits , upon terms , and in an order suitable to the interest of his wisdom , love , mercy , and justice , even by a law of grace , and a ministry and means adapted to the end , and in the time and degrees which his wisdom should make choice of : which accordingly is done . this covenant which giveth right and reward to christ , is not it that giveth any right or reward to us . sect . iii. of the law or covenant of grace in the first edition . § . . as god delivered the law of innocency partly by natural and real , and partly by supernatural and verbal significations of his will , so hath he done the law of grace ; which is the signification of his will concerning pardon and life granted to guilty sinners , and the terms thereof . § . . the promise , gen. . . the seed of the woman shall break the serpents head , &c. was a breviate of the supernatural signification ; but it is not unlikely , that god did more fully acquaint them with his law of grace and redemption , than those words alone could make us understand : because we find in their sacrificing , some such intimation ; ( and in other signs . ) § . . god's actual continuance of forfeited life , liberty , health , and other comforts , and his actual collation of many great mercies by the course of nature , to such as by sin have deserved present damnation , is a degree of signification of his pardoning will and mercy by these natural signs : ( which they were not before sin and forfeiture . ) § . . man being after guilt of death , thus reprieved and enriched with manifold mercies , and his life and faculties continued with many instructing providential helps and means , the very law of nature now obligeth him to love and thankfulness to god that sheweth him so great kindness . § . . and the same law of nature obligeth him to take that god still for a god of love and mercy , and to believe , that what mercy he hath already shewed the world and us , is on terms which he knoweth to be very well consistent with his holiness , truth and justice : and it obligeth us therefore to seek to him for mercy , and to use all possible means for further hope and pardon and recovery , and not to sit down in despair . § . . the common sence of all mankind from adam to this day , acquainteth us by that experience , that these hopes and duties are found in the law of lapsed nature : for all the world that never heard the gospel , do yet take god to be a merciful , forgiving god , and take themselves to be under some duty for the obtaining of further mercy , recovery and felicity . § . . though want of the sense of sin , and its desert , and man's misery may be thought by some to be the only cause of this , and so that it is but sinful presumption , and no part of nature's obligation ; yet this upon trial will prove false . ( though what they alledge be one part of the cause ) . for , . these men do acknowledge themselves sinners , and to deserve punishment from god. . they find some misery and fear more . . it is not presumption to judge god to be merciful , when they and all the world do find him so . . it is not presumption to judge , that he can and will pardon sin , when full experience assureth us , that he hath already pardoned much . to remit the sin , is ( as we now speak of it ) to remit the deserved punishment . and he that giveth man forfeited life , health , time , and all the abundant mercies which the world is full of , doth thereby so far actually forgive sin : saith christ , whether is it easier to say thy sins be forgiven thee , or to say arise , take up thy bed and walk , that is , executively to forgive them , which is the full forgiveness , by taking away the punishment . . it is no presumption to believe such duty to be incumbent on us , as the remaining law of nature doth oblige us to . . nor yet to take god's own encouragements to seek our own recovery and felicity . § . . the light and law of lapsed nature doth convince men of the duty of repenting and returning to god , and oblige them to it . so that as perfect obedience was the duty of entire nature , so repentance is the duty of laepsed nature : and i think few will say that all men are not hereby obliged to repent , and that in hope of mercy . § . . hence it is that it is found among the communes notitiae , and all the world as well as christians acknowledge it and plead for it . § . . they that by god's patience and mercy are invited to repentance , which is a return from sin to god , and are by nature obliged to it , ought to believe that it is not made their duty in vain , nor shall they lose by it if they perform it ; for that were to accuse god of making mans duty in vain , or to his loss , which is not to be suspected . § . . therefore they are bound not to despair of pa●don and salvation ; for an obligation to use means as tending to recovery , is inconsistent with an obligation to despair . therefore hope of mercy and use of some means mankind is obliged to by the law of lapsed nature . § . . this is not the obligation of the law or covenant of innocency ; for that law bound us only as innocent to keep our innocency and perfectly therein obey : but it giveth no pardon , nor appointeth man any duty in order to pardon and recovery : whatever doth this , is a law of grace . § . . the sum of that duty which the law of nature now obligeth man to , is , to consider of all the mercies which god vouchsafeth sinners , and thankfully to improve them ; to repent of sin , and turn to this god , who sheweth himself a merciful ●ae●doni●g god ; to resign themselves to him as their owner , to obey him as their ruler , and to love and seek him as their ultimate end ; and to believe that his mercy will not let us be losers in so doing , nor to do it in vain . § . . but the supernatural revelation telleth us much more than all this , of the promised seed , the means of our salvation , and of our duty in believing them , and of the certainty and nature of the pardon , deliverance , and blessedness which we shall attain . § . . the ●receptive part at first was not to believe as much of christ , as is necessary since his ascension ; but to believe what god promised and revealed of him to the church at that time . § . . even under the old testament , god increased his revelation of the messiah gradually : the prophets spake plainlier of him , than any thing written before . therefore a more extensive and distinct belief , was needful in one age than in a former . § . . yet , even the apostles were in a state of salvation , before they understood and believed , that christ must d●● for sin , rise again , ascend and intercede in heaven for his elect. § . . yet all this was partly revealed before by the prophets , and plainly foretold them by christ himself : therefore it was not of absolute necessity to salvation then , to believe all of christ which had been before revealed , though it was a duty to them that knew it . § . . therefore under the covenant of grace , the condition of our right , is narrower than the duty which we are commanded to perform . § . ●● . the promised benefits ( presupposing the common antecedent mercies ) were summarily , christ and life in him : that is , that for the sake of christ's future merits we should have pardon , justification , reconciliation with god , adoption , sanctification and glory , and all necessary helps and means thereunto . § . . the penalty was , . the p●ivation of recovery ; . and a far sorer punishment for ingratitude and contempt of christ and mercy . § . . this law or covenant in this first edition was made with adam as the father of all mankind , and so with all mankind in him , as truly and as much as the covenant of innocency was : for , . god's word maketh no difference . . adam was as much after the common father of mankind , and all we as much in him , as before the fall. and he that will say that god arbitrarily judgeth otherwise of us , must prove it if he can . . the express word of god in many places proveth it , joyning children with their parents in such blessings , and therefore including the children of adam . § . . the same covenant with some positive additions , it pleased god to renew to and with noah , because he was as a second head and father to the generality of all mankind , all coming from his loins as they did from adam's . § . . as all mankind was made the subjects of god under this law of grace , so by it they were all to be governed and judged , allowing a diversity of degrees , in the promulgation , mercies and penalties thereof . sect . iv. of the same law with abraham's covenant of peculiarity , and the mosaical iewish law of works . § . . abraham being a subject to this same law of grace , did so faithfully believe and obey it , that it pleased god to reward him extraordinarily , by , . renewing the covenant by special application to him , and by the promises of peculiar privileges to him and his seed . § . . not that his infant seed was the first that was taken into covenant . for the covenant of grace had from the beginning been made with the faithful and their seed , as well as the covenant of innocency was . § . . the peculiarities of this covenant were initially promulgate to abraham , isaac and iacob ; and more fully to the iews as a politick body , by moses in the law ; with some particular sub-additions by david and the prophets . § . . st . the promise to abraham was , besides the common covenant of grace , renewed . . a promise of peculiar favour to his seed increased to a political society in canaan , and differenced by special mercies from all the people of the earth . . a promise that the messiah should be of his seed . § . . this covenant did not discovenant the rest that the world , nor put them into any worse condition than they were before . § . . the peculiar precept of that covenant was , that by circumcision as a seal and symbol , and by peculiar gratitude and obedience , and relinquishing the sins of the degenerate world about them , they should difference themselves from others , as god's peculiar people . § . . as the covenant of peculiarity was not a separated state , but an additional privilege and reward to abraham as faithful to the common covenant of grace ; so circumcision was the symbol neither of abraham as under the law of grace alone , nor as under the covenant of peculiarity alone ( for that was never alone ) but as of one under both , even under the latter as a reward for his special fidelity in the former . and so it was ● seal of the righteousness of the faith in the common covenant of grace , which he had being yet uncircumcised , though a symbol also of his after peculiarities , rom. . , , &c. § . . infants interest in the very covenant of peculiarity , and iewish church-state , was not infeparable from circumcision . as infants were ever members in the common church and covenant of grace with their parents before circumcision , so they were also without it members of the iewish church , when as all the females were members , and all the males in the wilderness , who for forty years were uncircumcised : yet is it called , the church in the wilderness , when except very few at last it was an uncircumcised church , acts . . § . . much less did god lay such a necessity on the outward sacramental act , as to deny salvation to the uncircumcised aforesaid , as some would have us think that even under the gospel he doth by sacraments . the covenant was still necessary as consented to by the adult for themselves and their infant seed , but not alway the outward sacrament or symbole . § . . the gathering of israel into a policy by moses , as a theocracy , and their receiving a law from god himself as a political body , was but the full establishment of the covenant of peculiarity , in performance of what god had promised to abraham , and in circumcision had begun . § . . this law of moses therefore must be considered as an affix or appendix to the common law of grace , and so either as related to it , or as considered simply and distinctly in it self without that relation . and as it was a divine political law , for the government of a republick as such . § . . the common covenant of grace was the soul as it were of this political jewish law ; and therefore was really expressed in it , in the decalogue and other parts : as it was the soul of their state of peculiarity , which was the reward of abraham's faithfulness in the common covenant : and their peculiar promise to abraham's seed as the nations blessing , with their types and prophecies all led them to christ more plainly than he was revealed to others . § . . the law as such an appendix , contained preceptively the decalegue as the summary and stamina , and the particular determinations under it , as belonging to the first and second table ; for all those ( not accurately distinguished as moral , political and ceremonial , ) are but the particular determinations of the things only generally expressed in the decalogue , according to which they are fitlier distributed . § . . it pleased god to make the particular precepts ( about worship and political converse ) so many , and the sacrifices so costly , and the penalties so severe , as that it became a very operous employment to do the external acts of it ; which the people made a snare of to themselves : for , . thereby they were so taken up with the outward work , that they neglected the inward spiritual exercises of the soul , without which all the rest are dead and carnal things . . and they hereby grew into so high a conceit with the letter of the law it self , and these external duties , as that they thought the very doing of them was enough to make them just and acceptable to god , and forgot the true doctrine of the promised messiah , and righteousness by him . . and hereby they grew proud as if they had for these externals , been so much better than all other people , that all the world was abominable save they . . and they were so intent on the present political punishments to be escaped or suffered , and rewards to be won or lost , that they much overlook'd the everlasting punishments and rewards : and this corruption increased till christ came to cure it ; who found the s●ducees not believing a life to come , and the pharise●s deceived by their external legal works and righteousness , and most of the people too , ignorant of the true spiritual righteousness required by the law it self . § . . it may seem to some a difficult question whether god by such a law made them happier or worse than the rest of the world ? and whether christ's abrogation of it was not a returning them to the common , easier and better condition of mankind ? ans. . you must know , that though god made a common covenant of grace with mankind , the rest of the nations about them were fall'n into ignorance and idolatry ; and the jewish law much tended to cure both , and to make them better know god and the meaning of the covenant of grace , and to return to him from idols , and worship him aright . so that the jews were happier than other nations . . the abuse of their law was through their fault and folly , and the law by the faithful among them was better understood and used . . christ , after setting up a better covenant in its stead , did bring the church into a better state than the jews were : but the unbelievers and idolatrous world , that had not christ's better covenant , were still left in a worse state than the jews were before christ's incarnation . § . . and god by this operous law would humble the jews , that by their peculiarity were apt to be puffed up with pride ▪ and as all his works grow to perfection by degrees , even the works of grace in particular souls , so did his means of grace , and the welfare of his church ; which was to begin at their rudiments , and grow up to better means and knowledge : yet so that all were to be judged according to the law that they were under . § . . it is this operous law of moses which paul meaneth usually by the [ law of works , and the old or former covenant ] and neither the law or covenant of innocency made to adam , nor yet as if this law of moses were of the same tenor or conditions , and so called a covenant of works , as making innocency its condition : but this law which was an appendix to the law of grace , and was a peculiar law of grace it self , is called , the law of works , because of the great and burdensome and costly externals before mentioned , and because as a political law it so much insisteth comparatively on those externals , and the doctrine of grace is comparatively more obscure in it than in the gospel ; and because the jews had by their abusive interpretation overvalued the externals and operous ceremonies and sacrifices of it . § . . the mistake of paul's meaning in this phrase [ the law of works , or old covenant ] hath led some men to a new frame of theology in a great part , and engaged others in errors , and fruitless contentions . § . . by the words [ he that doth these things shall live by them ] as distinguished from believing , paul meant not that the condition of the jewish covenant of peculiarity or law , was the same perfect innocency as was required in the first law of adam ; for when man was actually guilty , it was impossible that he should ever become one that had not sinned : and we must not put such a scorn on the infinitely wise and righteous governour of the world , as to suppose him to have such a law or covenant as this [ if you that are sinners are not sinners you shall be saved ] , much less to make this a covenant of peculiar favour . § . . nor doth paul mean , that the laws condition was [ if you will never sin more , i will pardon all that 's past ] . for god never made such a law with man ; not to sin being morally impossible to them , and pardon never offered on such terms . § . . to put all out of doubt , . god before hand proclaimed the name of that god from whom they received their law , exod. . , . the lord , the lord god , merciful and gracious , long suffering and abundant in goodness and truth , keeping mercy for thousands , forgiving iniquity , transgr●ssion and sin , though he will by no means clear the guilty . ( that is , he will not judge a sinner to be no sinner , nor the wicked to be godly , nor pardon and save any contrary to the established terms of his covenant . ) . and the law it self hath many express means of forgiveness of sin appointed , as sacrificing , confessing , &c. which sheweth that it was a law of grace . § . . by the law , paul usually meaneth the written law of moses , as contained in the very words now in our bibles : as by the word of god we usually mean the scripture . therefore though it contain much of the law of nature , yet as a written law , and part of a law of peculiarity and policy of that nation , even the decalogue may be said to be done away , though as the law of nature and of christ it still remain . § . . by the works of the law then , which paul mostly disputeth of , and by [ he that doth these things shall live in them ] is meant , that this law , besides the sweet and easie precepts of faith and love , did as part of the matter of the jews obedience , require abundance of burdensome externals , and he that would not do all those must die ( for obedience even to those commanded tasks was then made necessary by god ) : and as to temporal death , it was not by that law to be escaped , but on the strict terms thereby required : so that doing these things , was necessary to life temporal , ( and to eternal in sincerity ) : and the driving on the people by temporal punishments to these externals , was that body of the law which the mistaking jews had separated from the soul of it . § . . and he saith , none could be justified by the works of the law , because this written political law and its externals , were in this dispute put in opposition to christ , and the law taken for the meer body of moses's law , separated from the law of grace , which was its soul ; and no doubt , . it is faith in the redeemer and covenant of grace , which is the condition of constituting men iust , ( which they must have before any obedience to their particular laws could be sincere and acceptable : ) and the faithful keeping of the law of grace , which is made the condition of salvation . . and to dream that legal strictness , ceremonies , sacrifices , or other legal works , would justifie them without christ and faith in him , or any otherwise than as acts of obedience to their redeemer , by which their fidelity to the covenant of grace was to be expressed while that law was in force , was contrary to the true meaning of their law it self . § . . the rest of the world were not in the covenant , nor under the law of peculiarity or jewish policy . and as such ( as is said ) it is now all abrogated , even the decalogue it self , though its matter be still in force , as aforesaid . sect . v. of the law or covenant of grace in the last edition , or the gospel . § . . vvhether the covenant of grace in the first edition to adam , and this of the second edition by christ , shall be called one or two , the same or dive●s , and the old church and the gospel-church the same or not the same in specie , are but needless questions about the bare name of oneness , as long as we agree wherein they differ , and wherein they differ not . in some respects they may be called the same , and in some not the same . § . . the parties in the first covenant of grace were really but two : god and man ( unless you could prove that christ had then such a superangelical nature in which he mediated , as some before mentioned hold ) . but the parties in the new covenant of grace are really three , viz. god as the absolutely supreme , who gave us a mediator ; and christ the mediator , as the supreme subadministrator to whom all power is given , and man the subject to both . § . . the benefits of the first edition , respected a future saviour and his future righteousness , sacrifice , and m●rits : but the benefits of the second edition respect an existent mediator and his merits and sacrifice already performed , and accepted of god. § . . the revelation of life eternal and man's spiritual felicity and duty , is far clearer in the second edition than in the first . § . . as there is more done for us , so there are more full and excellent means provided for man's information , conversion , sanctification and salvation , in apostles , scriptures , miracles , spiritual ordinances , than under the first . § . . as the means excel , so the spirit is given in a greater measure , answerable to the greater revelation and means : and is specially christ's witness and agent in the world , and the mark of his peculiar ones . § . . and as more is done for us , so more is now to be believed by us : many necessary articles are added to our faith : that this iesus is the messiah , that he was conceived by the holy ghost , born of the virgin mary , suffered under p. pilate , was crucified , dead and buried , descended to hades , rose again the third day , ascended to heaven , is there glorified in our nature , head of all , &c. are all new articles of our faith , which before were not required , because not revealed , or the matter extant . § . . this second edition is both the covenant of grace , and a covenant of peculiarity , far excelling the iewish covenant of peculiarity : believers are a holy nation , a royal priesthood , a peculiar people , &c. § . . this covenant supposeth the antecedent gifts of a saviour to be incarnate , and do his meritorious and sacrificing part , and all such preparatories , and of life , gospel and opportunities given to the sinner . § . . the parts of the covenant are , . the conditional gifts or benefits . . the condition or terms of right . . the rule of duty . . the penalty for violation or neglect of the covenant . § . . . the gifts are , god the father , son and holy ghost in their cov●n●n●-relation to us , and the love of the father , the grace of the son , and the communion of the holy spirit . or as it is briefly expressed in ioh. . , . christ and life in him , that is , pardon , iustification , the spirit , adoption and glory , at first in right , and after in possession ; and all means and mercies which god seeth meet to bring us to it . § . . . the condition of our first right is , . that of natural necessity , viz. repentance and return to god ; . of natural and instituted necessity , belief and confidence in christ , and covenant-consent . § . . the condition of our continued and consummate right and full possession , is the former faith and consent continued , repentance renewed when we knowingly sin , and sincere obedience and perseverance . § . . . seeing sincere obedience supposeth a law , we must know that more is in the precept than in the condition : therefore we distinguish of necessitas praecep●i & medii . the precept requireth perfect obedience as due : but sincerity is the condition , and will save without perfection . § . the precepts or law of christ now contain , . the law of nature ( for all things and iudgment are given up to him . ) . the new peculiar laws of grace , containing our special faith in christ , and his special institutions of church-order , ministery , worship , &c. § . . the penaelty of the law of grace in this edition , is as in the first . . a privation of its benefits to nonconsenters or insidels , with a greater d●gree of punishment for ingratitude . . and withdrawings of the spirits help for our quenching and resisting it , and abusing mercy . . and temporal castigatory punishments to believers for their saults . § . . the sum of all essential to this covenant , is in baptism , and the lords supper , which are therefore sacraments and symbols of it ; and baptism was appointed by christ himself to be the solemn initiation , badge , and character of his disciples and church-members . § . . the history of christ's life and sufferings , and of his apostles life and preaching , and all the ●est of holy scripture , is god's word , and his doctrine belonging to the gospel-covenant . but it is the covenant it self , or law of grace , which all that are under it , must be ruled and judged by , and constituteth the essentials of christianity . § . . this covenant did constitute christianity many years ( suppos●d eight ) before any part of the new testament was written , as now extant , and near seventy years before it was all written . § . . as man hath an intellect , a will , and an executive power , and the gospel is to work on all , so the creed is the summary of our belief , the lords prayer , of our desire ; and the christian decalogue and institutions , of our practice , as expounding what baptism generally expresseth . § . . though to the iews that were bred up under the use of the old testament , and that expected the messiah , the apostles staid not long instructing them , before they baptized them , when they professed repentance and faith in christ ; yet it cannot be conceived , but that with the ignorant gentile christians , all teachers took pains to make them understand , first what they were to profess and promise ; for ignorant doing they know not what , pleaseth not god. and therefore that the faith contained in the three baptismal articles , was certainly explained in more words and accordingly professed ; which must be in substance that called the apostles creed , which the churches preservation and use , with the custom of long instructing catecumens , giveth us notice of , as well as the reason of the thing . § . . when we find christ commanding his apostles to disciple the nations , and baptize them in the name of the father , son , and holy ghost , and teach them all his commandments ; and when we daily see , after people have learned to say , they believe in the father , son , and holy ghost , how long it is ere they understand the meaning of those three articles ; and when we know that it is not bare words , without the sence , that constituteth the christian faith ; no sober man will doubt , whether the persons to be baptized were taught the sence as well as the words ; which must be done by more words . and it is certain that those words were not to alter christ's baptismal covenant , nor the nature and terms of christianity , but to expound them . and it is certain , that multitudes were so weak , that had those words been very long and many , they would rather have burdened them , than become their own profession , as understood and remembred . and it is certain , that the changing of words doth easily turn to a change of the sense ; and that even then heresies quickly multiplied ; which made it necessary to the church to be careful to preserve sound doctrine . from all which it clearly followeth , that a creed ( that is , a summary profession of belief explaining the baptismal articles ) was in common use in all the churches many years before the writing of the new testament . and it is not likely that in the apostles days the churches did receive it from any but themselves . § . . yet it is not probable that they composed exactly such a form of words as might not at all be altered , and used still the very same terms ; for the creeds recited by irenaeus , tertullian , marcellus in epiphanius , and others , do all differ in some words from one another , and some articles have been added since the rest ( of which see usher and vossius de symbolis . ) but ( except those few additions ) they all agree in sence ; which may perswade us that the ancient churches kept still to words which signified the same matter of the articles of our common creed , and admitted no variation of the words , but such as was small , and endangered not the doctrine . § . . though baptism explained by the symbol of faith , lords prayer , and decalogue , contain at least the constitutive essentials of christianity , yet the integrals are much larger , and all that christ commanded was to be taught the church . and though this was done by voice many years by the apostles before they wrote any part of the new testament , yet the memory of men from generation to generation , would have been a very unsafe and treacherous preserver of so many things , had they been committed to memory alone ▪ therefore it pleased the wisdom and love of god , to inspire the apostles prophetically and infallibly to commit the sum of the history of christ's life , sufferings , and death , &c. with all the integrals of his word , to those durable and sacred records which we call the holy scriptures , for the easier and fuller propagation and preservation of the christian faith , and all its integrals , especially his example and sacred precepts ; yea , and the necessary accidentals , or appurtenances . § . . because the scriptures contain both in words and sence , much more than the essentials of christianity , and so more than is of absolute necessity to salvation ; many a million may be saved , that understand not all that is in the scriptures ; nay , no man on earth understandeth it perfectly : and he that understandeth and receiveth the essentials , shall be saved , though he were ignorant of a thousand particular texts . § . . therefore it is that the church hath ever selected the great and most necessary truths , and taught children and catechised persons these before the rest , by way of catechism ; of which the foresaid creed , lords prayer , and decalogue are the sum , and the sacramental covenant is that sum yet more contracted . and it hath not been the churches way to teach children or converts the bible over in order indifferently , without selecting first the marrow out of the whole , which the ignorant cannot do for themselves . § . . besides the method or order of the scripture books , there is specially to be studied by those that will be more perfect than the rude● for t , the true method of the body of doctrine , contained in all the scriptures : for all the parts of that doctrine have that place , order , and respect each to other , as maketh up the beauty and harmony which is in the whole . and even in the covenants , the creed , lords prayer , and decalogue , there is a most excellent order and method , above all that is found in aristotle , or any humane writers , though , alas ! too few perceive it . § . . therefore they that gather true systems of theology , do not add to the scripture , nor feign it to have a method which it hath not ( no more than catechisms do ) but only gather out that doctrine which is there , and deliver it in the true scripture-method ; not as it lieth in the order of words , but in the order of relation that one truth hath to another . and to despise this real method , because every dull and slothful wit doth not see it in the scriptures , is indeed to despise the matter and design of the scripture , and to despise all true and clear knowledge of things divine : for to see truths placed in their proper order , doth differ from a knowing of some confused parcels , as knowing the parts of a man , a picture , a clock , a house , a ship , &c. duly compaginated , and seeing all the parts cast confusedly on a heap . but to draw up a true method is the work of a skilful hand ; and mistaken ones so seduce , that one error in the order leads to many . § . . yet even catechumens and young christians should learn what they learn in method : and that is first the said baptismal covenant , and our relation to the trinity thereby ; and all that is added to their knowledge daily ( be it never so little ) should be methodically added : for a weak head may perceive the true method of the few essentials ( being great and plain ) , though the strongest cannot follow the due distribution of innumerable integrals and consequent truths : as the first partitions of the tree into its greater boughs , are easily perceived , though not the innumerable sprigs thence arising . § . . accordingly a wise teacher will proceed with infidels in proving the christian religion , ( yea , and with himself ) ; and will first prove the truth of the essentials ( which are delivered us both in scripture , and other infallible tradition ) before he undertake to prove all the scriptures to be the word of god : for he that will begin here , . must shew the book which he will so prove ; and when he cannot vindicate it from variety of lections , and the errors of scribes and printers ( to say nothing of the greater of translators ) it will stop him in his designs . . and when he hath so many thousand words to prove to be divine , and so many integrals and accidentals to make good , he maketh his work difficult , by allowing his scholar to doubt as much of the essentials of religion , as he shall doubt of the truth of any particular book or text , history , genealogy , &c. in the whole scripture . a blind zeal for scripture hath led some to this dangerous way ; but the ancient churches did otherwise , and so will all that well understand what they do . and really on supposition it could be proved ( as it cannot ) that any penman of the scripture erred in a ci●ation , a genealogy , the circumstance of a bye-history , &c. it would not follow , that we must be therefore uncertain of all our religion , even the essentials ; and they ignorantly betray their faith , that say , it would so follow . § . . so far is it from being true , that the scripture is too narrow , as to the matter of divine faith and duty , without the additional matter of tradition , that indeed , as the compleat body of a man hath more than his essentials , yea , or inte●rals , even hair and nails , as accidents , so hath the holy scripture , as to the matter of divine faith and duty . there is more than is absolutely necessary to salvation , but not less . § . . they that in peevish opposition to others , tell us , that christ made no law , and that the gospel is not a law , if they strive not about equivocal words , but mean that christ is not a legislator , nor hath a law and covenant by which he will govern and judge the world , do deny all our christianity at once : for christ is not christ , if he be not the king of the church ; nor is he king , if he be not a lawgiver ; nor doth he rule and iudge , if he have no law ; which is so far from truth , that there is now no law of god that we are under , but what is truly the law of christ : for he is lord of all , and head over all things to his church ; and all power in heaven and earth is given to him ; and the father ( alone , or meerly as creator , by the law of innocency ) judgeth no man , but hath committed all iudgment to the son , as redeemer and universal administrator . the lapsed world , and the law which they are under , as rational creatures , are now delivered up to the redeemer , whose law ( as is aforesaid ) hath two parts ; . the law of lapsed nature , ( commonly called the moral law. ) . the remedying law of faith ; of which before . § . . but it is not to be supposed , that the very preceptive part of the law of innocency is now in force to us , as it was to adam : for it bound him to be perfectly innocent in act and dispositions . but to a man that hath lost his innocency , and is already in act and habit sinful , it is not to be supposed , that the law saith , thou shalt be innocent : for that were to command not only a moral , but a physical absolute impossibility , as saying , thou shalt not have sinned . § . . obj. god changeth not his law when man changeth his capacity : therefore the law may be the same as in innocency , both as to the precept , threatning , and promise : god may still say , . sin not , or be innocent : . and if thou be perfect , thou shalt live : . else thou shalt die . and if man will make himself uncapable , it 's his own change . § . . answ. i spake to this before , and now further add ; god's law is not to be taken for a meer script of words considered as standing in a book not obliterated , or as written on stone , and not broken , or cast away : the signum materially may stand , and the law be changed , and the signification cease : as a repealed statute may be still in the books and records : god's law is signum voluntatis divinae , debitum constituentis : therefore if it signifie not god's will as constituting what shall be due from us , and to us , it is no law. and that it may so signifie his will , and constitute dueness ( debitum or ius ) ( or as they use to say , oblige and give ) the subject must be in a natural capacity : for where there is no subject to be obliged , there is no law. and where natural capacity ceaseth ( as in a dead corps ) there is no subject to be governed : and the law is instrumentum regiminis . so that if you do not only say , this was god's law , but this is god's law , you must mean , thus he n●w obligeth man , and this he threatneth now , and this he conditionally giveth him . so that if it be an unchanged law to us , just as it was in innocency , you must make this the sence of precept , threat , and promise . . [ preserve thine innocency , and sin not in act or habit , but be thou a pe●fect obeyer of my laws ; ] and this to one that hath sinned already , and is habitually inclined to more : q. d. [ let not that be which is , or quod factum est infectum fiat . . if thou sin , thou shalt be an heir of death . ] when we are sinners , and heirs of death already : . [ if thou be , and continue sinless and perfect , thou shalt not die but live . ] when we are sinners and dead before . in which case , all law and reason saith , that the law doth transire in sententiam , vel rem judicatam . § . . so that , as was before-said , the covenant of works is ceased ; yea , the law or precept bindeth not now , as it is a law of innocency made to innocent nature for its preservation , for nature is not innocent : but the law of nature is now the law of lapsed redeemed nature , and not of innocent nature . and it obligeth us for the future to as much perfection of duty , as we are naturally capable of performing at that time , though viciously indisposed , it being only natural disability , and not moral vicious unwillingness that hindereth obligation : but though ( not to do all that we can ) be peccare , yet it is not to sin unto death or damnation , if he perform so much as is made by christ the condition of life . in short ; . before mans sin , he was under the proper law and covenant of innocency , which made perfect personal innocency the condition of life . . immediately after sinning , before the promise , man was not under any promise of life on condition of innocency , nor yet under the command of being innocent , nor of seeking and hoping for life on that condition : for upon the impossibility these ceased , without a repeal , cessante capacitate subditi : but man was then under no covenant or premiant law : but under , . the command of perfect obedience for the future . . the obligation to punishment , not peremptory , but due for every sin , unless it should be pardoned on due satisfaction : these two obligations man was under between the fall and the promise . . but next , sinful condemned man , with his said obligation , was delivered into the hands of the redeemer , who now continueth the said law of lapsed nature ( making perfect obedience de futuro due , or death for sin in primo instanti ; ) but adding the remedying law of grace , giving christ , pardon and life to penitent believers . § . . the question , what punishment is due to venial sin , must be resolved from the sence of the law that obligeth us : and the question is not what punishment would have been due to the smallest sin , if the covenant of innocency had continued ; but what is due to it by the law of redeemed nature and of grace , which is in force . § . . there is a three-fold dueness ( or desert ) here considerable ( without distinguishing of which , many such questions cannot be answered . ) . a dueness of natural congruity , without any remedy which the law gave , or took notice of : so death was due for every sin by the law of innocency ( as i think ) . . a dueness of natural congruity with an affixed remedy , which hindereth the guilt from being compleat and fixed . and such is the dueness of punishment to the least real sin , by the law of redeemed nature , to which the law of grace is annexed , giving a conditional pardon to all the world for the merits of the redeemer . as if god said , [ thy sin in strict iustice is worthy of death , but i will forgive thee , if thou repent and believe in christ. ] here is so much dueness as needeth pardon ; but it is virtually , conditionally pardoned as soon as committed ; and so it is not a plenary obligation to punishment . . a remediless dueness ( or guilt ) by natural congruity and peremptory determination of the law-giver : and such was the guilt of temporal death for sin against the law of innocency , ( at least the eating of the forbidden fruit ) ( for so far it is not forgiven ) ; and the guilt of perpetual misery to impenitent unbelievers and ungodly ones , that so die . § . . by this it appeareth , that sins of meer infirmity , consistent with sincere faith , repentance , and holiness , in the second sence deserve punishment ( not all alike , but ) according to the degree of the offence : but not in the first sence , or the last . § . . accordingly a great question must be determined , whether the sins of the faithful deserve any more than a temporal chastisement ? and whether they may pray for pardon of perpetual punishment , or need any such pardon ? ans. the sins of the godly deserve everlasting punishment in the second sence , or degree of desert or dueness ; which is so far as to need a saviour and pardon , and so as they must pray for , and receive that pardon : but not in the first or third sence . § . . it is the law of christ , or of grace , which is norma officit & judicii , and by which we must be judged at the last day . § . . it is of great importance in the controversies of justification , to know whether , or how far we shall be judged by the law of innocency , or whether only by the law of grace . he that is judged by the law of innocency , must be justified by personal , perfect , perpetual obedience ( not by anothers ) or be condemned : but he that is judged by the law of grace , must be justified by christ's merits and sacrifice ( or righteousness ) as purchasing his grant of a pardon and life , or right to impunity and glory , given by the covenant of grace conditionally , with his own performance of that condition . chap. xiii . of the universality and sufficiency of grace . § . . it was not only the nature of the elect , but of all mankind , that christ assumed in his incarnation . § . . it was not to adam only , as the father of the elect , but as the common father of mankind ( lapsed ) that god made the promise , or conditional law , or covenant of grace , gen. . . and so renewed it with noah . § . . it was not the sin of the elect only , but of all mankind that were the occasion of christ's sufferings , ( called by some , an assumed meritorious cause , because by his consent they were loco causae meritoriae . ) § . . it is not to the elect only , but for all the world ( as to the tenor of it ) that christ hath purchased , and given a conditional pardon of sin , and a conditional donation of life eternal in the covenant of grace , both of the first and second edition : that is , the conditional grant is universal ; whoever believeth shall be saved : though the promulgation of it may have many stops . § . . it is not to the elect only , but to all , that christ hath commanded his ministers to proclaim this law or covenant , and offer the benefits , and require their consent , as far as the said ministers are able . § . . it is not only to the elect , but to all mankind , that many mercies procured by pardoning and reconciling grace are actually given , which were forfeited ( or not due ) by reason of sin against the law of innocency . § . . these mercies given to all mankind after sin , and contrary to desert , are not given by gods mercy alone , without respect to the blood and merits of christ : but his blood and merits are the cause of them , as truly as of the greater mercies of the elect. and they that say , that god doth give all these mercies without a saviour's merits , as the cause , prepare the way for infidels to inferr , that then he might have done so by the mercies of the elect. § . . all these actual mercies given to mankind , contrary to merit , are a degree of promulgation of the law of grace , telling all the world , that god doth not now rule and judge them meerly by the law of innocency , but upon terms of mercy ( as is aforesaid ) § . . hereby it is signified to all the world , that god is as he proclaimed his name to moses , exod. . , , . the lord , the lord god , merciful and gracious , long-suffering , and abundant in goodness and truth , keeping mercy for thousands , forgiving iniquity , and transgression , and sin , and that will by no means clear the guilty ( by false judging : ) and that the world have no cause to despair of forgiveness , as if they were * under the remediless ( or unremedied ) sentence of damnation . § . . there are no people on earth that are not obliged to the use of some means appointed them to be used for their full pardon and salvation , else despair would be their duty , and they should not be judged sinners for neglecting any such means . and were they not bound to do any thing for their own salvation , their sin and misery that neglect so to do , would be far less than it is . § . . therefore all people have some such means , that have a tendency to recovery and salvation afforded them by god. § . . they that say , that all the mercies of the non-elect , are no mercies , because through mens sin , they end in their misery , do perversely extenuate gods mercies and man's sin , and teach sinners falsely to plead in judgment , that they never abused , or sinned against mercy , which god and their own consciences will easily confute . § . . in the controversie , whether christ died for the elect only , or for all mankind , it seemeth to me , that we little differ about the matter , but only strive about ambiguous words ; even about one syllable [ for . ] if to die [ for ] signifie [ for their sins , ] under the reason of a cause of christ's death , so ( as paraeus doth ) we must all grant , that christ died [ for ] all . . if ( for ) signifie [ eorum loco ] in their stead , so the phrase hath yet great ambiguity , and will require a great deal of distinguishing for its due explication : the various kinds and degrees of benefits to which the intention is limitted , do leave the word liable to various sences . christ died so far in the stead of all mankind , as to suffer death ( by his voluntary sponsion ) as a punishment deserved to themselves by sin , to free them all from it , on condition of their suitable acceptance of his grace . but if by [ for ] be meant ( in the civil person of all men , as representing them ) the word is still among lawyers and all writers , ambiguous . in a large sence he may be said to ( persenate or represent ) another who doth it but secundum quid , and not simpliciter , in parte aliqua , vel in tantum & ad hoc , and not in omni , vel ad omne . and if any will so far stretch the phrase , and because christ suffered in the common nature of man , will say that he suffered in every man's person ; or because he had a special purpose of saving his elect , will thence say , he died in the person of peter , iohn , and every elect sinner ; i will not strive against mens phrases , if they will explain them soundly : but in strict sence , as representing a man , or doing it in his person , signifieth , that christ so died ( and merited ) in several mens persons , as that the law or lawgiver doth take it to have been in sensu civili , their own suffering , and doing , and meriting , or to all intents , purposes , and uses , all one to them , as if they had so died and merited themselves : ] thus christ neither died , nor obeyed for any man ( as shall be hereafter proved . ) but if by [ for ] is meant [ for mens benefit or good ] so it is yet ambiguous , and liable to a threefold sence , viz. . intentionally , . aptitudinally , . eventually , for their good . and , . intentionally , the controversie either speaketh of christ's divine nature and will , or of the humane : concerning the former , the question is the same with that about election , or gods decrees , which is before spoken to , viz. how far god decreed good to all men by christ's death . as to christ's humane nature and will , it will prove but an arrogant unprofitable question , whether christ as man , kn●w the names of every individual person in the world , or of every one of the elect , and had a distinct intent to save every one of those by name that are saved : it 's better let such questions alone . . and [ aptitudinally , ] there is no question but there is that in christ's sufferings and obedience , sacrifice and merit , which is in its moral nature adapted to the good and salvation of all , and hath that sufficiency thereto , which would accomplish it , if it were duly accepted and improved . . and as to the event , we are agreed , viz. that some , and not all are saved by christ's death and merits ; but that all have great mercies , which are the fruits of these , though many wilfully turn them to their sin and misery . § . . by all this it appeareth , that it is a most unfavoury thing for men called divines to dispute hotly , that christ did or did not die and merit for all , and bitterly revile their adversaries in the controversie , without ever explaining that one ambiguous syllable [ for ] , or telling men what they mean. and when it is well explained , we scarce know how to differ . § . . for few will deny but that christ suffered , not immediately because man sinned ( as if suffering were due to him meerly because we sinned ) but because he undertook so to do , and was obliged so to do by the law of mediation : but remotely he suffered , not only because the elect had sinned , but because all mankind had sinned . that is , the conditional pardon and mercies given to all mankind , are such as christ's sacrifice and merits must be congruously the causes of , as well as the actual pardon of believers . § . . but if the stress of the controversie be laid on christ's personating or representing this man or that , by that time this ( humane , invented , ambiguous , unscriptural ) phrase is explained , either we shall be ●ound to be all of a mind , or else some will run into an intolerable errour about [ christ's dying and meriting in our civil person , and our dying and meriting by his natural person ] ; or else they will dispute themselves into a wood of uncertainties , and be lost about the sence of a word that cannot be sufficiently explained . § . . and they that will lay the stress of the controversie on the aptitude or the event , must be men of some singular conceits , and not of the common judgment of the reformed churches , the lutherans , the iesuites , or the dominicans , if they will disagree ; for here we are commonly agreed . § . . but as far as i can discern , most contenders lay the controversie upon the point of divine intention , purpose or decree : viz. whether christ as god did purpose to justifie and save all men by his death ? or else , whether he purposed to do good to all men by his death ? which purpose is nothing but god's eternal will or decree . and why then do they make two controversies of election and redemption , when they mean the same in both ? and here methinks there cannot easily be a difference . for ( in a few plain words ) whatever good christ giveth to any , that he from eternity decreed to give them : but we are agreed that he giveth not salvation to all men , and yet that he doth give many and great mercies to all men , and especially , that he hath given to the world ( and not only to the elect ) an express conditional pardon of sin , and conditional iustification , reconciliation ▪ adoption and right to glory : and sober divines had rather say that this universal conditional deed of gift , is the effect of christ's sacrifice and sufferings , than that god giveth it to one part of men for christ's death , and to the other part not for his death , but as without it . and we are agreed , that christ doth give to some such special grace , as shall and doth infallibly prevail with them to repent and believe , and also actual pardon , justification , adoption and salvation . § . . therefore in this sence christ died for all , but not for all alike or equally ; that is , he intended good to all , but not an equal good with an equal intention . whatever christ giveth men in time as the fruit of his death , that he decreed from eternity to give them . and whatever he never giveth them , he never decreed to give them . what he giveth them absolutely , he decreed to give them absolutely . and what he giveth them but conditionally , he decreed to give them but conditionally . therefore being agreed of the fact and event , we must be agreed of the intention or decree , and what needs there more ? and by this time you may answer their objection that say , why not a common and conditional election , as well as a common and conditional redemption ? ans. neither of them are conditional as to the act of god and christ : there is no act of ours the condition of god's decreeing ex parte dei , but only of the thing decreed ; nor of christ's death or intent , but only of the benefit : that a conditional act of grace , or deed of gift of christ and life to all mankind in common ( in the tenor of it ) should be made , was both decreed by god and purchased by christ. but , . this is not the whole of god's decree or christ's purchase and intent . . and this is not to be called election , as it signifieth a choosing of some from among the rest : common redemption and the decree of common grace , both antecede that which is properly called election , in order of nature in esse objectivo ; that is , god decreeth to give faith and salvation effectively to some of them that had common grace . § . . the old solution which schoolmen and protestants have acquiesced in , is , that christ died for all , as to the sufficiency of his death , but not as to the efficiency of their salvation : which is true , but must be thus explained : christ's death and obedience were not only sufficient but effectual as to their first effects ; that is , they effected that which is commonly called , satisfaction and merit ; and hence and from the covenant of god they were also effectual to procure the covenant of grace as of universal tenor , and therein a free pardon of sin and gift of right to life-eternal to all , on condition of due acceptance : this conditional gift of christ and life is effected : and this efficacy of the antecedent mercies , must either be called part of the sufficiency of redemption , as to the consequent mercies ( viz. actual pardon and salvation ) or else an efficiency beyond the sufficiency , antecedent to the said special efficiency . that christ's death hath effectually procured the act of oblivion or conditional gift of life to all mankind ; but it doth not effect the actual salvation of all : to the universal grace it is both sufficient and efficient ; but to the special grace and actual salvation it is sufficient to all ( as after shall be opened ) but not efficient , ( which is by the refuser's fault and forfeiture . ) § . . when we say , that either christ's death or grace is sufficient to more than it effecteth , the meaning is , that it hath all things on its part which is absolutely necessary to the effect , but that somewhat else is supposed necessary to it , which is wanting . § . . as there is a common grace actually extended to mankind , ( that is , common mercies contrary to their merit ) so there is such a thing as sufficient grace in su● genere , which is not effectual . so that though it be disputable in what cases this is found , and what not , yet that there is such a thing is past dispute . § . . by sufficient grace here i mean such without which man's will cannot , and with which it can perform the commanded act toward which it is moved , when yet it doth not perform it ; and this without any other degree of help than that which procureth not the act . so that it is not all that is useful to the effect , nor all that is necessary to easie or prompt performance , or to the infallible ascertaining of the act , nor to the melius esse only that we speak of ; but so much as is necessary ad esse , and efficient of the true posse : when you can properly say that a man can do this , you say that he hath all that is of necessity to the doing of it . § . . iansenius himself is so far from denying this grace called sufficient , that he asserteth that by this , improved by free-will , ( without such special grace , as of it self , giveth the act as well as the power ) the good angels stood when the bad ones fell , and adam stood till the time of his fall : and so that such a thing there hath been . § . . and seeing god is still the same , and man's will the same in its natural faculties , and god seemeth to us to delight in constancy , it is very improbably imagined , that god did for so short a time rule angels and men by such a grace , as he would never after make use of in the world ; and that man's free-will did for so short a time do its duty by that sufficient grace , and never after do any one act by the like grace , in any one to the world's end . § . . it 's true , that such grace will not serve our turn to do that now in our lapsed state , which adam could have done in innocency ( no , nor will all our effectual grace yet reach it ) that is , to have continued sinless : but it is incredible , that no common grace of god now is as sufficient to the performance of the least good act ( which is good but secundum quid ) as adam's was to the fulfilling of all god's law ; and that the best unregenerate man is not able to do any better than he doth , or forbear some evil that he doth , as well as adam to have forborn all . § . . at least , to the regenerate such a grace must be acknowledged : for though of the rest iansenius will say , they do no good , because they love not god and goodness ( and on the like reasons others will say , that the regenerate do no good , because all hath sinful mixture or imperfection ) ; yet he will not say so of the godly : and must we believe that no godly man can do any more good than he doth ? and so , that he hath no meerlysufficient grace to any one act in all his life ? § . . the controversie about sufficient grace is the same in the true meaning of it with that of the power of mans free-will . for when by sufficient grace we mean nothing but the enabling a man to the act , or giving him power to do it , the stress of the question is , whether man hath truly any power to do more than he doth ? for if he have such a power , grace hath given it him , if it be for a work that grace is needful to . so that indeed were it not for custom and expectation , this question should be handled under that of the power and liberty of man's will. § . . no man hath at the present grace sufficient for his salvation , if he have longer time to live : because the grace or help of the present hour is not sufficient for the next , but there must be continual supplies from god ; supposing that we distinguish of grace by the distinct numerical acts and hours for and in which we need it : but if you distinguish of grace by the species of acts for which it is needful , and not by the numerical acts , then it may be truly said , that the same grace ( in specie ) which a believer hath to day , may be sufficient to his salvation , or to his life's end . § . . but if you speak de gradu , that grace may be sufficient to one thing , which is not sufficient to another : and so , . an infidel may have grace sufficient to forbear some sin , or avoid some temptation , or use some means that tendeth to faith and repentance , who hath not grace sufficient to believe and repent unto salvation . . a man may have grace sufficient to enable him to believe and repent unto justification , and yet not have at that instant grace sufficient to enable him to love god above all as god , with a fixed habitual love , and to live an holy life ( for the spirit and sanctification are promised on condition of faith and repentance ) . . a sanctified man that is yet but weak , may have grace sufficient to live to god a holy life at present , and yet not have grace sufficient for greater trials of duty and temptation : and therefore augustine and all his followers still say , that the grace of perseverance is a gift over and above the grace of meer sanctification in the weakest degree . § . . by all this it is evident , that he that disputeth of the sufficiency of grace , must first distinctly tell us , . whether he mean extrinseck grace , or intrinseck . . if extrinseck , whether he mean it comprehensively of all extrinseck grace together , or only of some particular part of sort . . if the latter , whether he speak of the sufficiency of christ's death and righteousness , sacrifice , merit , intercession , &c. or of the sufficiency of the gospel-covenant or promise ; or of the sufficiency of preaching , praying , and other means ; or of the scripture-records , &c. . if he speak of intrinseck grace , whether the question be of sufficiency ex parte dei agentis , ( which none must question ) ; or ex parte effecti . . if the latter , what is the effect whose sufficiency he questioneth ? . is it a grace or power to do some more common good , use some means , forbear some evil , as the unregenerate may do ? . or is it a power truly to repent and believe ? . or to love god habitually , and live holily ? . or to overcome greater temptations , and persevere ? . and he must tell you whether he speak , . de specie , whether the grace or power sufficient to this sort of acts or duty be sufficient to another , or to all . . or de gradu , whether this degree be sufficient against a greater degree or sort of temptation . . or as men use to distinguish grace and help by numerical acts and hours , whether the grace of this hour and act be sufficient for the next , or for all ? the sence of all these questions is distinct . . but his last and greatest difficulty will be , to tell you truly and plainly what is that grace which is the subject of his question , of its sufficiency in the general nature of it , and as related to the thing which it is called sufficient to . § . . for , by grace he meaneth , . either somewhat ex parte dei agentis , . or ex parte effecti , or , . quid medium ; . grace , as it is in god the agent ; . or as it is in man the recipient ; . or as it is somewhat between both . § . . i. grace , as it is in god , is nothing but his essence , not as essence , but as an essential power , intellect and will denominated by connotation from the effect : this is commonly agreed on : god doth operate per essentiam , and not by accidents . § . . ii. if they mean any mediate thing between god and the effect , either they speak of the first effect or a second , and so on : if they speak but of secondary effects , and the meaning be only whether one effect be a sufficient cause for another , they mean either an outward or an inward grace or effect . if an outward , then the sence of the question is , whether some other work of god be sufficient to move the will of man ? and then it must be told what other work you mean : whether an angel , or the planets , or the word or preacher , or an outward mercy or affliction , or what it is ? but if you speak of the very first effect , then the fancy is almost proper to aureolus among the schoolmen , to think that there is something from god antecedent to the creature and motion , which may be called action or energy , or efflux , which is neither the creator nor a creature , neither cause substantial nor effect , but causation : as if some beam of virtue or force went from god to produce every creature and motion , which is neither god , nor the creature , or motion . but this is commonly and justly rejected , as feigning a third sort of entity between god and the creature , which it passeth the wit of man to conceive of what it should be . ☞ and if god do immediately per essentiam , cause that middle entity , or action , or force , which he saith is no creature , why may he not as well immediately per essentiam , cause the creature and motion it self ? this therefore cannot be the thing meant by grace in this question . to question the sufficiency of god's essence is intolerable : to question the sufficiency of a mediate divine efflux or action , which is between god and the creature and effect , is to dispute in your dream of a chimera , an unproved , and a disproved , and commonly-denied entity . to dispute of the sufficiency of angels , scripture , sermons , &c. to work grace , is not the thing commonly intended in this controversie of grace : each several sort of means may be sufficient in its own kind and to its own use ; but no one of them is sufficient to the effect . but if you will put the question as of all together , it must be so explained . § . . iii. the grace therefore meant in this question can be no other than either some effect on the soul , as tending to a further effect , or the aforesaid comprehension of necessary extrinseck means . if the former be meant ( as it is by almost all schoolmen and disputers of this case ) then , . it must be enquired , whether such a thing be ? and , . what it is if it be ? § . . . bradwardine , and some that go his way , do deny the being of any such thing as we now dispute of ; and say , that god's essential will , as a will , is the immediate efficient , and the act of man is the effect , ( e. g. faith , ) and because god willeth that act , it doth immediately exist , as the world did , by his creating will : and so here is no place for the dispute of sufficient grace : for god's will is certainly sufficient to cause what he will cause : and man's act either is existent or not : and there is no grace antecedent to it , to be called insufficient , unless you will vainly say , that gods essential will is sufficient to nothing but what he preduceth , which is a dispute unfit for sober men . § . . . but because the contrary opinion is far more common , that there is an inward grace ( e. g. to believe or consent ) antecedent to our act , whose sufficiency is questioned , it poseth the wits of all the schoolmen ( much more is it above many contenders that never so much as studied it ) to say , what it is . the notions of alvarez ( who calls it motus ) and of vasquez , and others i have elsewhere considered , and here pass by : and i have shewed , that i take it to be so far past man's reach , as to be unfit for hot contention . but so far as we may conceive of it , it must be in this twofold notion : . as it is some divine impress on the soul , which is analogus to the vis impressa received from the mover in the patient in corporal motion . . that this impression received , doth in primo instant● , put the faculty into such an immediate ability to the act , or such a state of disposedness to the act , as may be called a moral power ( the natural faculty being supposed ) and puts the will in such a state as to the act of consent , as that it can do it , but is not necessitated to it , nor actually determined , but can forbear . and this is called sufficient grace . . and in the next instant when the will doth consent , god and man are both causes or agents , and the grace is effectual by both causes , god the first , and man the second . § . . . the pelagians and some others seem to think that god doth not operate immediately on mans soul , as to proximity of causation , but immediately on superiour causes and means ( as angels , word , objects , &c. ) and that when all means are duly ordered , man may be said to be able in his meer natural powers for the act , because those means are now grace sufficient to excute it . and that when one means of an hundred is wanting , it is insufficient grace . § . . we all confess , that god worketh by means , and we cannot name an act on us , which he always or ordinarily doth without any means , or second cause . and we acknowledge that there are gracious means , and that ordinarily these must have a sufficiency in their kind : but withal we must say , that god worketh immediately as to proximity of causation , when he worketh not so immediately as without second causes : and that whether by means , or without means ( as he pleaseth ) there must be such a disposition communicated to a depraved , undisposed soul , as shall be a moral power , and put it into an immediate capacity to consent ( or act ) : and to dispute the sufficiency of the means , is one thing , and to dispute the sufficiency of this inward disposition or power , is another . and this must be the question . § . . the common disputed question is , whether all men have grace sufficient to believe ? which must be negatively answered ; they have not . those that never heard the gospel , have not . § . . but , . have all that hear the gospel sufficient grace to believe ? ans. no : many of them are hardened by former sinning , so as to be set at a greater distance and enmity , than many heathens . § . . but , ly . all the world hath grace ( or merciful help ) sufficient to enable them to do less evil , and more good than they do , and to use some means better than they do , which tend to further grace . and they that do not this , are justly denied further help . § . . . but the sticking difficulty is , whether any men in the world have grace sufficient to repent and believe savingly , who do not ? to which i answer , . the question is of less moment than it 's commonly made to be ; seeing those are unexcusable who use not that grace which was sufficient to their foresaid use of means , and less resistance to god's grace : . but certainly to answer the question negatively or affirmatively , i cannot ; as not knowing any more of gods working on mens souls , than he himself hath told us of . . but if we may conjecture upon probabilities , it seemeth to me most likely , that there is such a sufficient grace or power to repent and believe savingly in some that use it not , but perish . for , . if angels had , and used such a sort of grace : . and if alam had such a sort of grace , and used it a while : . and if unregenerate men have such a grace for lower acts , which tend to faith : . and if the faithful have such a grace to do more good , and less evil than they do : . it seemeth very improbable , that only to the fifth instance ( to repent and believe ) none in the world should have such a sufficient grace . § . . and though iansenius seem very singular in denying that there is now any such sufficient grace of christ in the world , which is not effectual either to believe , or to do any other good ; that is , that christ's grace enableth no man to do any more good than he doth ; yet indeed it is most in two ambiguous words , that iansenius differeth from others , ( though many unskilful disputants suppose it to be much more material a difference ) viz. . in one syllable [ good . ] for he will call nothing good in man's actions , but holy love and its effects ; and so saith , that no unsanctified man doth good , and therefore hath not grace sufficient to do it . but moral [ good ] is taken in three sences ( or degrees ) . good , secundum quid , in a degree not predominant : and so infidels and ungodly christians have some good . . good , secundum quid , vel imperfectum , but in a degree predominant . and so the godly do good , though mixt with evil . . good in perfection and unmixt with evil : and so none do good till they are perfected in glory . ( to say nothing of [ essential simple good per se , and independant ; ] for so none is good but god only . ) and all this is the effect of grace . § . . . but , saith ian senius , there is some grace which is not grati● christi , the grace of christ ; and such is all that cometh from meer fear without love , which is a kind of providential preparatory grace , but not the grace of christ. ans. it is not that eminent and special grace of christ : but to think that it befalleth men without christ's procurement , and is not a commoner sort of christ's grace , when all power in heaven and earth is put into his hand , and he is made head over all things to the church , is below a christian divine to imagine ▪ and too injurious to christ. but by all this it appeareth , that even iansenius differeth from others more about the names of [ good ] and [ christ's graces ] than about the matter . chap. xiv . of mans power and free-will since the fall. § . . so much is said , chap. . of mans natural power and free-will , and so much now , chap. . of grace , and the power given by it , as may allow me to be short in what is here to be added . § . . all that natural power and liberty which was essential to the will , remaineth in it since the fall : for man is of ▪ the same species . § . . the will is still a self-determining principle , supposing , . god's necessary influx , as he is the first cause of nature , . and the being and convenient position of objects , . and the perception of the intellect , . and the concourse of necessary concomitant second causes . § . . the three faculties of mans soul are all vitiated by sin . . the vital active power is so far dead to god and holiness , as to need the cure of quickening , and strengthening , and exciting grace . . the intellect is so far blinded , as to need the cure of illuminating grace . . and the will is so far turned by enmity from god , to the inordinate love of carnal self-interest and creatures , as to need the cure of converting , sanctifying grace . § . . grace healeth the will of this enmity and vitious perverseness , so far as it prevaileth ; which is , . common grace enableth it to common good , and prepareth it for better . . special grace causeth it actually and habitually to will and love special good ; that is , god as god , and the creature for god , and holiness as his image . . perfecter grace bringeth up the will to perfecter holy acts and habits . § . . nature it self is not in lapsed man , divested of all moral or divine principles , abilities , and inclinations : in the intellect there are commen notices of a deity ; that is , that there is one god who is infinitely powerful , wise , and good : and in the will there are some inclinations still to good as good , and therefore to god as far as he is truly conceived of as good ; and so far as that conception is not conquered by a cross conception of some enmity : and so of other good. § . . nature and common grace may cause a man to go as far in love and religion , as those whom we call the highest hypocrites , or almost-christians may do ( which our practical preachers do frequently tell the people at large in books and sermons . § . . such may have a common sort of faith in christ ( even formerly to the working of miracles ) , and of repentance , and reformation , and of good desires , and love to goodness and good men ; yea , to god himself . § . . for men are not so corrupt by nature ( much less under the effects of common grace ) as to hate all goodness , or to hate all that is in god : they may love god as he is the almighty creator , preserver , and natural-orderer of the world , and the cause of its being , motion , beauty , harmony , and all natural good : and they may love him as he is the giver of life ▪ and all natural blessings to themselves , and as he is the preserver of them , and their only security and help in danger , and not only as his blessings gratifie their senses , but as all their hope of everlasting happiness is in his power and love : they may love him as he doth this good to others also , and is the common benefactor to the world , without whom it could not subsist a moment . and they may love him as he maketh such laws as preserve their lives , and properties , and rights , from fraud and violence , and by making other men conscionable just , and charitable to all , do both gratifie themselves , and tend to the common order , peace , and welfare of societies , and of mankind . § . . i am not able to confute or deny what adrian ( afterwards pope ) hath written ( in his quodlibets ) that an unsanctified man ( not in a state of salvation ) may so far love god , even above himself , as to consent rather to die , and be annihilated , than ( were it possible ) god should be annihilated , or not be god. for a heathen might consent to die for his country : and he is a b●ast and no man , that would not rather be annihilated , than all the world , yea , or all the kingdom , or all the city should be annihilated , or than the sun should cease to be , or to shine . and he that knoweth that if there were no god , there could be no world , no being , motion , knowledge , goodness , or felicity in the world ; besides , that which is worse , the cessation of the infinite good himself ; must be yet more unmanly , if he would not rather be annihilated alone ( if per impossible , you suppose he could live alone ) than all this greater evil should come to pass . he that tells men , that they shall be saved , if they would rather be annihilated , than that there should be no god , doth make them a promise which god hath not made . § . . but ( as the same author observeth ) that which the unholy cannot do , is , to love god as god , as the ultimate object , and most amiable good to be known , and by love and holiness enjoyed , and pleased by a holy soul ; and this above all sensual terrene delights , and to love him as the holy ruler of the world , who forbiddeth all sinful sensuality , and all mens inordinate conceits , desires , delights , and practices , and requireth holiness and purity of mind , and life , and sobriety , and temperance , and self-denial in all that will be saved . and as he is a just judge who will execute all these laws , and condemn the ungodly to endlers misery . they love not god , as he is the holy go●●●●our , and righteous iudge of men , that would restrain them from their sinful wills and pleasures , and damn them if they will not be holy . and consequently they love not his laws , and other means by which this is to be done : because loving the pleasure of their lusts , and being averse to things spiritual , high and holy , they love not that holiness and rectitude in themselves , which god commandeth , rom. . , , , , &c. § . . though god , as the fountain of nature , continue the natural power and liberty of the will , yet its moral impotency , pravity , or ill disposition , by which it is averse to holiness , and prone to sensuality , must be cured by grace ; where common grace and special , cause common and special effects in the cure. § . . the moral power given by grace , consisting in the right disposition of the will , is not of the same kind with the natural power or faculty : and the words [ can ] and [ cannot ] used of both sorts , have not the same signification , but are equivocal ; otherwise sin and grace should change mans species . those disputants therefore that confound them for the sounds sake , deceive the auditors . § . . we must say then , that quoad vires , vel potentiam naturalem , every man can believe , who hath the use of reason , objects revealed , and extrinseck necessary causes ; that is , he wanteth not the natural faculty or power , nor needeth another natural faculty , but only the excitation , illumination , and right disposition of that which he hath : but as to the said right disposition , or moral power , no one can truly repent and believe without that grace which must so dispose him : common grace must dispose him to a common faith , and special grace to a saving faith. § . . it is more proper to say , that an unbeliever , and unholy sinner will not repent and believe , than that he cannot ; though that also may be truly said , if well explained . but the meaning is not , that he cannot , though he sincerely would : nor yet that he cannot be willing , for want of the natural power of willing : but , . that he hath a logical , and , . a moral impotency ; that is , an indisposition ; he wanteth both disposition , habit , and act , but not the faculty . § . . it is an abusive miscarriage of those disputants , who in the words [ can ] and [ cannot ] use to confound not only , as aforesaid , natural and moral power , but even logical also , which is neither , and signifieth no more but that in ordine probandi ; such premises being put , the conclusion can or cannot follow : for so it may be truly said , that no man can do , speak , or think any other than he doth ; and nothing can ever come to pass , but what doth come to pass ; even from gods fore-knowledge this will follow : for seeing nothing ever will be otherwise than god foreknoweth it will be , a disputant will say , it can be no otherwise ; but he must only mean that posita praescientia divina , the conclusion cannot be true , that the event will be otherwise : when yet as to the nature of causation , we must say , sensu physico & morali , that it can be otherwise oft-times , though it will not be otherwise . § . . these things considered , it appeareth that we are commonly agreed as followeth : . that all men have natural powers and free-will to good , even spiritual good ; that is , whenever such good is chosen or willed , it is done by the natural power or faculty ; and when it is not willed , it is not for want of a natural faculty , but its due disposition . § . . ly . that as to civil or law-power and liberty , all men have much more than liberty granted them by god to repent and believe . for helps and a command are more than leave or liberty : but liberty from the penalty for sin , belongeth only to the pardoned . § . . ly . that as to ethical power and liberty , which lieth in a right disposition of mans faculties , every man hath it so far as grace hath prevailed , and wrought it in him , and none any further . § . . or as liberty is denominated from the evil which we are free from , . all mens wills are free from being constrained to sin , by natural inclination of the faculties themselves ; . or by the senses ; . or by objects ; . or by men ; . or by devils ; . or by god : because the rest cannot and god will not ; no , not physically premove and predetermine it thereto . § . . . the wills of all men are free from any commands to sin : that is , god cannot command it ( for else it were no sin ) and if men command it , their commands are null , and lay no obligation on the will to obey them . § . . . we are free from sinful dispositions so far as grace freeth us , and no further : therefore by common grace men have common liberty , and by special grace saving liberty ; but none perfect liberty here ; and no unsanctified man hath saving liberty of will : that is , such by which he is duly disposed to such acts as have a flat promise of salvation : and where now doth our difference remain ? § . . obj. the difference is , whether a bad man can change his own will ? ans. your [ can ] meaneth the natural power , or the due disposition : as to the first , he can , that is , he hath those faculties which want not natural power to act better : but as to the latter , he cannot without grace , that is , through indisposition he will not . § . . q. but is not grace the only cause of the change ? ans. grace only causeth the first impress on the soul , which moveth it to act ; but the soul ( or will ) it self is a cause of the act , else it were not man but god that doth repent , believe , obey , &c. § . . q. but is it grace or free-will that is the chief cause ? ans. grace no doubt : which is commonly acknowledged by the several parties . § . . the very marrow then of all the question about the power and liberty of the will , is that so often before mention'd , whether man's will be made of god such a self-determining power , as can truly do any more good than it doth , or forbear more evil , without any more grace from god , than that which it hath while it doth no more : and whether ever the will can and do make a various use of the same degree of divine assistance : and this as is said , is confessed of the angel's case and adam's : for if adam had not power to have stood when he fell , by the same grace that was given him , but fell because god withdrew or with-held such necessary grace without which he could do no other than he did , we may then lay by these controversies , and think how to answer infidels . § . . those persons that make others odious by their revilings , for holding free-will , or denying free-will , without telling men what freedom it is that they mean ( natural , ethical , legal or logical , freedom from coaction , necessitating premotion , natural inclination , or vi●ious disposition , &c. ) should be rebuked by the lovers of truth and peace , as the peace-breakers of the church and world , that presume in their proud ignorance to reproach others for that which they understand not . § . . they that say , that the liberty of the will as natural is not violated , but by coaction , and that coaction , is nothing but making a man will against his will in the same respect and act , and so that to will and to will freely is all one , and that to will by coaction is a contradiction , viz. to will and nil the same , and that god predetermineth all mens wills to all sinful habits and acts in specie as circumstantiated , by immediate , necessitating or unresistible premotion , and yet taketh not away their liberty , because he maketh them will and not nil the sin . these do but play with the name of free-will , and are confuted as aforesaid from the instance of adam , and from the scope of scripture , and do subvert the foundations of christianity . to will is the proper act of my will ; and if he that moveth me by prime physical efficiency to will the circumstantiated act of sin , deprive me not of my liberty , because it is willing that he maketh me do , then if men or devils had power to make me will sin , as i cause my pen to write , or the fire to burn this or that , it would be no loss of liberty . but of this more largely elsewhere . chap. xv. of effectual grace , and how god giveth it . § . . as i said before about sufficient grace , so here about effectual ; the first thing to be done by disputers , is , to agree what that is which they here call [ grace ] as the subject of the question . and as i there shewed , . it cannot or must not be god's essential will or power , for that is simple and immutable , and not in it self ( save relatively ) distinguishable into sufficient and effectual . . an efflux or vis , which is neither god nor the effect , there is none , or none proveable . . it is not faith it self that is meant here by grace , for it is the grace that effecteth faith ; and it were absurd to ask what faith is effectual to make or cause it self : this is true both of the act and habit. the meaning is not , what habit of faith is effectual to the act , nor what act to the habit or it self , but what grace of god is effectual to cause both act and habit. . therefore there is nothing left to be meant by grace , but the two things before mentioned , viz. . the gracious means or second causes appointed by god to cause our faith. . the first moving impress on the soul , as it is antecedent to act and habit , ( supposing that such there is , * though some deny that there is any such thing . ) § . . and for the first , all means will be uneffectual without god's inward operation by his spirit : he must work on the speaker and on the hearer , to make means effectual , as is agreed on . but whether as god worketh in naturals according to the aptitude of natural second causes , so he work faith and other graces by a settled proportion of concourse , agreeable to the aptitude of gracious second causes ( or means of grace ) is a question too hard to be boldly and peremptorily determined by us that are in so much darkness . § . . but it seemeth to us , that god would not have made it so great a part of his government to establish a course of means , if he did not intend to work ordinarily by them , and according to their fitness . christ is the chief means , and instituteth the rest ; scripture , ministers , example , good company , merciful providences , afflictions , meditation , books , prayer , sacraments , &c. are all appointed for such effects : and if god would ordinarily work immediately without means , what need all these ? this teacheth infidels to say , that he may do it without christ. the spirit first indited the word ( as we cut a seal to be the instrument of impression ) and then by that word doth work on souls . § . . but if god did tie himself not only ordinarily , but alwaies to apt means , no mortal could say what means is sufficient , and what is insufficient , and what is more than sufficient , even necessarily efficacious : for the means , . are very many and more than we can take notice of ; and if one be wanting , it may render the rest insufficient or uneffectual , how excellent soever in themselves . . and that means is fitted to one hearer that is not fitted to another : all have not the same temptations , hindrances , prejudices , objections , weaknesses , nor obstinacy : and god only knoweth when means are adequately fitted to the desired effect upon mens souls . § . . and though many of the means operate ex parte sui , necessarily , yet so do not all : for preachers and instructers are free agents , and so it must be other effectual means that must first move them to do their duty for a sinner's good : which who can judge of ? § . . but god is the arbitrary absolute lord of all means , and therefore he can change and dispose of them as he pleases , and yet work by them . so that the effect is nevertheless from god's free or arbitrary volition , though he never went beyond the aptitude of means : when even a silly man can turn the natural course of water and wind to move his mill or sails at his pleasure , without any alteration of their natures : a fisher can use his bait as may serve his end ; and a physician can vary his medicines to cure the disease without changing their nature , or curing without them . § . . but there is no question but god can work without means , and intellectual souls being so near to the first cause , it is utterly uncertain to us , whether in works of grace god have not a double operation on the soul , one by his appointed means , and another by immediate influx * ; and if it be so , how these concurr to one and the same effect , and also how god doth immediately move souls , are all past man's reach , and should be acknowledged above our disputes . § . . ii. god hath more inward operations on man's soul than one or two ( whether with means or without ) to bring us to faith and repentance : the mind must be enlightened , the dull faculties must be excited , especially conscience and will , and the will must be touched with the gust of divine love to breed a holy complacency in good , and many impediments must be removed , some by outward acts of providence , and some by inward grace . and where impediments are not removed , no doubt but there needeth more of the other acts of grace , to bring such a soul to faith and repentance , than in one where there is less resistance . § . . and seeing that recipitur ad modum recipientis , and the disposition of the recipient hath so great a hand as common experience telleth us in almost all the changes in the world , ( what wonderful variety of effects doth the same action of the sun produce throughout the world , by the diversity of receptive dispositions ) ? therefore no mortal man can say when the efficacy or success of divine grace is more to be ascribed to the preparatory disposition of the recipient by a former act of grace , and when more to the present moving influx ? nor what proportion these alwaies bear as comparable . and what man dare say that he can search out the waies of god ? § . . when we know so little of the secret energies of natural principles , nor how god produceth animals in the womb , nor how he causeth our food to nourish us , nor how any of our senses do their office , nor how our souls do use the corporeal spirits , &c. and when christ hath told us , that the wind bloweth where it listeth , and we hear the sound of it , but know not whence it cometh , and whither it goeth ; and so is he that is born of the spirit , ioh. . . should not this , with the experience and consciousness of our ignorance , suffice to keep us from bitter contendings about that which is certainly beyond our reach , and from presumptuous boldness with the unsearchable things of god ? § . . whether you will with bradwardine and many others say , that it is god's meer volition that effecteth all things ad extra ; or whether you will say with the most , that it is not his will alone , but his will as operating by his executive power , the meaning seemeth to be the same , and the difference to be but notional , as is aforesaid : for they that speak in the first manner , mean , that it is not god's will as in it self immanently considered , but his will as going forth to produce an effect ; which emanation or exertion is , from the effect , called by those that speak in the second manner , god's executive power . § . . the prime reason of the effect , is god's wisdom , will , and power as the cause : and so the prime reason why means and grace become effectual whenever they are effectual , must be from god the prime cause . § . . the first impress on the soul moving it toward the act ( e. g. faith ) is the first grace internal ( sub ratione effecti ) : and this god himself worketh on man as on a meer patient ; tho' not antecedently to all former acts of man , or all preparative dispositions , ( usually ) yet antecedent to that act of man to which it moveth : so that as to this , . man is passive , . and the divine operation ( or the powerful will of god ) is not only sufficient but effectual ; for that impress or motus is effected . § . . though god being a spirit moveth not by such contact as bodies do on each other , yet must we conceive of his motion , and the motion of all spirits on bodies , as analogous to corporeal contact , and as a motion by efflux and eminent contact of virtue and essence , according to the more excellent nature and operation of spirits ; or else we cannot conceive positively of them . § . . it is already proved , that god useth various degrees of impress or motion on souls ; of which some do by their proper power or degree so ascertain the effect , that the argument is alwaies good as a causa , [ where-ever god doth so move , there the effect ( that is the act , e. g. faith or consent ) followeth : and this grace is effectual ex propria vi vel virtute : but that god sometime operateth by a less impress or motion , which doth not from its own force inferr the effect , but so far disposeth the mind or will to the act , that the man can do it without any more grace ; which is it that is called sufficient grace , as aforesaid . § . . it is a thing not to be believed , that this latter degree of divine motion is never eventually effectual to the act : seeing , . it is granted , that there is such a power in man's will as c●n act in some cases by that degree of grace called sufficient : and frustra fit potentia quae nunquam reducitur in actum . . and it 's granted , that the angels and adam did act by such help . therefore as to acts preparatory before special faith , few do affirm that they are all done by such grace as is necessarily effectual ex propria vi alone , but that sufficient grace leaveth them often to man's will. § . . therefore all that remaineth , is to resolve what is the reason of the certain effect when we believe ? to which i say , . it is ever an effect of two causes ( at least ) god's motion and man's faculty , and so both must be said to be the cause of the effect . . but man's will is no cause ( save a recipient cause ) of god's part or impress . . god sometimes , at least , maketh so powerful an impress , as doth necessarily determine man's will , by a necessity consistent with his liberty . . it cannot be proved by any man , that no man believeth by that sufficient motion , which doth not necessarily determine his will ; seeing many preparatory acts are done by such a motion . and it 's probable that it is oft so . . but the certainty of this , or when and how oft it is so , no man can know . § . . but by which degree of grace soever the effect be produced , still god's will is the chief cause of it ; which can procure the effect infallibly , when it doth not necessitate : yea , and his premotion or impress called sufficient , is incomparably more the cause than man's concourse is ; though god leave some part of the causation to man's free-will . § . . but when the effect doth not follow , that is , when men believe not , it is man's will by omission and resistance , that is the chief cause , and culpable , and not god's omission or non-determination . § . . the same degree of divine impress or motion , which prevaileth with a soul predisposed by common grace , is not enough to prevail with some others that are ill or indisposed : though god's absolute will and answerable operation would prevail with any , how bad soever . chap. xvi . of the state of heathens and others , that have not the gospel . § . . the opening of the several laws or covenants of god before , hath taken up most that is necessary to be said about this point : the question , whether any but christians are saved , is agitated on both sides by so much the sharper censures , by how much the nearer it seemeth to concern the fundamentals of religion . § . . on one side some say , that nothing is more fundamental than god's nature , and government , and beneficence , and the attributes which belong to him in respect to each : and they say , that for god to be the ruler and benefactor of the world , and to be also gracious and merciful and love it self , and a rewarder of them that diligently seek him , are our fundamentals ; which are not consistent with this , that all the world since adam , except a few believers or jews and christians , that were born from adam , under as absolute a necessity of being remedilesly damned , as of dying . § . . here they use first to consider of the number , viz. . that it is not past the sixth part of the world that are called christians . . that the far greatest part of these ( perhaps twenty to one ) have not competent means to understand what that christianity is which giveth them their name , and which , as to the name , they profess . the circassians , mengrelians , and other georgians , the armenians , the muscovites , the cossacks , the most of the greeks and abassines , yea , and papists , besides the copties , syrians , nestorians , iacob●tes , maronites , christians of st. thomus , &c. and too many protestants are bred up in so great ignorance , that multitudes of them never are sufficiently taught to understand the essentials of the christian religion which they ( nominally ) profess ; and therefore are really much in the case of common heathens . § . . . they consider their impossibility of being saved : for it is not only morally ( by vice ) but naturally impossible to believe that which was never heard , read or understood : so that their damnation seemeth unavoidable , especially to such as live in the vast countries of america , and much of africa and asia , that are quite out of the reach of any instructions for the christian faith. § . . . and lastly , they consider the goodness and mercifulness of god , declared in his word , and in his great and manifold mercies to all the world , and that he would have a righteous man to be merciful even to his beast , much more to the bodies of men , and most of all to their souls , and that our rule and motive is , be merciful as your heavenly father is merciful . § . . and they think that the contrary-minded , by over-doing , are the greatest hinderers of the christian faith , and promoters of infidelity , while they make it seem so contrary to god's own attributes , and to humane interest , and to be a doctrine not of glad but of saddest tydings to mankind , viz. that none shall be saved that hear not the gospel , when it is few comparatively that ever heard it or can hear it . § . . on the other side it is thought a dangerous undermining of christianity , to say that it is not absolutely necessary to salvation , and that any besides christians may be saved : and it seemeth to them to be contrary to christ's words , that he that believeth not , shall be damned ; and that he is the way , the truth , and the life , and no man cometh to the father , but by him . and how shall they call on him on whom they have not believed , & c. ? no man knoweth the father , but the son , and he to whom the son will reveal him , &c. and it seemeth to confound the church and the world , to say , that any are saved out of the church . § . . in this great controversie , that which must satisfie us , is to agree in so much as is certain , and to leave that which is uncertain and unknown , undetermined : for we shall know it never the more for a confident pretending that we know it , when we do not . § . . and here the first thing to be enquired after , is , what law of god the world that heareth not of christ , is now under , as the rule of duty and of judgment . and then , . to enquire , whether they so keep that law , as to be saved by it ? we can say nothing to the second , without the first . § . . and we have here nothing to doubt of , but , . whether they are under any law or none ? . if any , whether it be the law of innocency as made to adam , or the law of grace ? . and if the law of grace , whether of the first or second edition ? it must be one of these . § . . and , st . it is certain , that they are under a law ( and not only under a physical government , as a ship at sea , or brutes are ) : for else god were not their ruler , and they his subjects , so much as by right and obligation ; and then they were bound to no duty , nor in hope of any reward , nor in danger of any punishment for disobedience : for where there is no law , there is no transgression . § . . it is certain , that they are not under the rule of the covenant of innocency made to adam , or the law of innocency , as containing the precept , premiant and penal parts , which is the same with the covenant as offered . this i proved before : ( though i was long ignorant how far that covenant was repealed , till mr. lawson's papers ( which i laboured to confute ) did begin to enlighten me . ) god now saith to no man [ i give thee life on condition thou be personally innocent , and perfectly obedient : ] nor doth he say [ i command thee to be perfectly innocent , sinless , and obedient , that thou ma●st live : ] for no man is a subject capable of such a command or promise , being already a sinner . § . . if any should think that they are under the bare preceptive part of the law of innocency , with the penal part , without any promise , or premiant part , or hope of life , this is certainly a mistake . because , . god hath no such law , nor never had , which hath no promise , or premiant part ; and is not in a covenant-form , what he doth by the devils , belongeth not to our question ; but as to men , they must be under a covenant of works , or of grace . and it were a hard conceit to think , that the far greatest part of mankind had never any means to use for their salvation , nor any thing to do for it , but were under a meer sentence of despair and damnation , as the devils are , without any offer of help or hope ; and consequently that none of them all are guilty of refusing any such mercy , or neglecting any such means and duty . . the very nature of law and government tell us , that if god command any duty , it is that the subject may be the better for it ; and he never saith to any [ obey me perfectly , and thou shalt be never the better for it . ] § . . besides , the very precept is not in force in that sence as it stood in the law of innocency ; for so it bound only innocent man to keep his innocency : but god saith not , keep that which thou hast lost . § . . obj. god is not bound to change his law , if man sin . ans. i answered this before , that god is not the changer : but the law will not continue to be a law , but by continuing to signifie god's governing will : and it cannot so signifie his governing will , when there is no subject to be a capable terminus : so that it ceased , cessante capacitate subditi , vel cessante termino . to say , that the law still signifieth what god would have had man do while he was capable , is true ; but that saith no more but that [ it was once a law , and now is none : ] for so it may do by the dead , yea , were they annihilated , even tell others what god would have had them do , but this is not a ruling act ; but lex transit in sententiam . and to say , that at least the law bindeth a sinner to perfect obedience for the time to come , is to say , that it binds not as the law of innocency , but as some other law , of which we are enquiring . § . . and it is a clear truth ( before proved ) that god brought all mankind in adam under a law and covenant of grace , founded in the promise of the victory of the woman's seed : and his dealing with all men ever since , doth fully confirm it . and this law made to mankind in adam and noah , was never repealed to the world , but perfected by a perfecter edition to those that have the gospel . therefore we have two questions here to consider . . what law the world was under before christ's incarnation : and , . whether christ repealed it to them ? § . . st . and it is proved , that on god's part the said law of grace continued : and man's disobedience could not here nullifie the law , as it did that of innocency : because it was a law that allowed repentance till the time of death : so that when they sinned never so much , they were still obliged by it to repent , that they might be saved . their rebellion deprived them of the benefit , but did not end the law , nor rendered them uncapable of its obligation . god made adam , and after him the heads of families his priests : he had then publick worship natural , and instituted sacrificing , and the distinction of clean and unclean beasts , sabbath and marriage , as well as calling on the name of the lord , are expressed : as the covenant to noah was the same with that to adam , with some small addition , so no doubt were the precepts of noah . as the canaani●es sacrificed , so their marrying in the prohibited degrees , is called one of their abominations : it 's very probable , that not only the decalogue in sence ; but also all , or most of the particular mosaical precepts , which are but the instances , explications , and applications of those generals , were given before the flood ; and some more , which even the nations traditions kept some remembrance of , though not named particularly in the text. § . . and it was not god's covenant of peculiarity with abraham and the iews , that ended it to the rest of the world ( as i before proved . ) § . . so that though there be difficulty in opening the terms of the law of grace , as it stood to all mankind besides the iews , there is no difficulty to prove , that it did indeed so continue . § . . and that christ hath not repealed or nullified that law of grace to the world that never have the gospel , which they were under before his coming , is evident . . because he came for the benefit , and not the destruction of the world , to make their condition better , and not worse : but had he nullified that law of grace to all the world , and given them no better in its stead , save to a few , he had come directly by himself to take away their mercies , and make them miserable . for it is certain , that though the apostles commission was to preach the gospel to all nations , and every creature , yet it is comparatively but a small part of the world that ever heard it , or had the means to know and believe in christ. and all the rest were under a law of grace before , and therefore are so still . . and ●● christ repealed that law , by which act did he do it ? not by making a better edition , for that could not have any such effect to them that never did , or could know of that edition : and there is no other repeal to be found in scripture . . and if the law of grace be nullified to all the world that hear not the gospel , are they since under any law of god , or none ; if none , they are either no men or damned men ; for they are no governed subjects : if they are under any , what is it ? the law of innocency i have proved it is not : and the gospel ( or second edition of the law of grace ) it is not : for that cannot oblige where it never is promulgate : it being a supernatural revelation , can extend to none to whom it is not ( directly or indirectly ) sent : therefore it is evident , that christ leaveth such under that law which he found them under . § . . what this law to the world containeth , having before opened , chap. . § . . i shall not repeat it , but only here add , . it is certain , that though this law make perfect obedience for the future to be a duty ( to them and us ) yet not to be the condition of salvation ; but that it doth hereto accept sincerity . . that it maketh not the particular articles of our present creed about christ's person , birth , life , death , resurrection , heavenly intercession in our nature , necessary to their salvation : for before christ's coming , no jewish believers could believe , that this iesus , in his demonstrable person , is the christ , but that christ should come : and after he had long taught them , and pronounced them blessed , the disciples knew not that he must die , rise , ascend , interced● in heaven , come again , &c. . it is certain , that all that the prophets had any way foretold of christ to the iews , was not of absolute necessity to salvation to the iews themselves to be understood , much less to the world that never heard it : for christ proved out of the prophets , that he was to die , and rise , and so to be glorified ; when yet the apostles had not understood it till that time . and the jewish believers had very dark ( if not erroneous ) notions of the person of the messiah to come . and to believe that he should be of abraham's s●ed , as it was part of abraham's covenant of peculiarity , so it seemeth to be necessary only to such as were under , or knew that covenant , and not to all . § . . and it is certain , that when the messiah was come , they were not bound to believe that he was yet to come ( though they knew not of his coming ) because it was then an untruth . § . . the proclaimed name of god , exod. . with psal. . prov. . act. . and . and . rom. . and . heb. . . do seem to be the expositions of the true sence and tenour of that law of grace , gen. . . which the world before christ's coming , was under , and yet is , where the gospel cannot be had . § . . the texts that say , he that believeth not shall be damned , plainly refer to such as hear the word to be believed , and speak of the unbelief of what is revealed , and not of what is unrevealed . § . . rom. . saith no more , but that no man can believe in christ without the revelation of him by preaching or declaring ; and that no man that heareth , can be saved without believing in him , nor no man saved at all without that faith , which the law that he is under , maketh necessary to salvation . but if all were damned that believed not that this iesus is personally the christ , all before his incarnation must be damned : but if not all before , then the same thing was never made necessary after to all that could not possibly hear of it . § . . the same i say of ioh. . . no man cometh to the father , but by me . . no man is reconciled to god , and pardoned , and hath right to life ( in all ages of the world ) but for the sake of the meritorious sacrifice and righteousness of christ , as promised , gen. . . before , and performed after : but this was the part of god and our redeemer , which he promised in his part of the covenant , and performed : for god was in christ reconciling the world to himself , not imputing to them their sins , ( so far forgiving them , as to make an act of grace and pardon , which he committed to his ministers to proclaim , ) cor. . . but , . on mans part it is not the knowledge and belief of this iesus incarnate personally , that was made necessary to all before his coming , and therefore not to all after . no man ever came to the father , but by the son's merit and spirit ; nor without a consenting belief and affiance in god's redeeming or recovering , pardoning , saving mercy , and true repentance , and a sanctified soul , which is in love with god and goodness : and whatever was absolutely necessary in the terms of the first edition of the covenant of grace , even to all the world before christ's incarnation . but christ never meant , that no man before his incarnation ( or since , that heard not of him ) did come to the father without believing that which the apostles themselves long believed not , after they followed christ. § . . the rest of the world were not bound to know so much of the messiah as the iews , as having not the same revelation . § . . . having proved that it is a law of grace that all the world is to be ruled and judged by , it remaineth to be enquired , whether any of them that have not the gospel , do keep the conditions of this law , and so are justified by it , and saved ? to which i answer , . that being a matter of fact , it is not of so great importance for us to be certain of it , as some imagine : and who can be certain of the affirmative , unless the scripture affirm it ; when if we knew all the world , one man cannot be certain of anothers sincerity ? and much less can any be certain of the negative , without scripture negation , seeing no man can know every man in the world , and every heart . § . . . but it is exceeding probable , at least , that god would never govern many hundred parts of the world ( compared to the iews ) before christ's incarnation , and five sixth parts since his incarnation , by a law of grace , which yet no person should ever have effectual grace to keep as far as was necessary to his salvation . every law of god is a means , and appointeth the subjects the use of much means for their own salvation : these means they are bound to use , and shall be condemned , if they use them not ; and that none should ever use them savingly , is an assertion so unlikely , that he that hath the boldness to affirm it , should bring certain proof of it , which the scripture ; i think , doth not afford him . § . . but what numbers do perform the condition and are saved , no mortal man can tell : but in general we know , that god usually worketh in congruity to his appointed means , and consequently that far fewer are saved where less means is vouchsafed , than among christians who have herein the unvaluable pre-eminence above others . § . . for as the jews had both the common covenant of grace , and also the covenant of peculiarity , setting them above all others ; so the christian church hath both the common covenant of grace , and by the second edition of it a covenant of peculiarity ; both sealed by baptism and the lord's supper , as the jews covenant was by circumcision and the passover : yea , our covenant . privileges set us above the world , incomparably higher than the j●ws were . § . . yet should we take warning by the example of the jews pride , who were so confident that none were saved or beloved but themselves , that they despised the rest of the world , and provoked god to cut them off , and call the gentiles into higher privileges : so some christians so trust to their gospel-peculiarities , ( as the jews did to their law ) that they despise all the world besides themselves , and can easilier believe that god will damn a thousand millions that never heard the gospel than one of them , who have no more real holiness , than many of those whom they despise . but it is our duty to be thankful both for our excellent peculiarities , and also for the commoner mercies unto others . and i wish the impartial reader to study , mal. . , . whether even this be not the sence , [ nor will i accept an offering at your hand , for from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same , my name is great among the gentiles , and in every place incense offered to my name , and a pure offering : for my name is great among the heathen , saith the lord of hosts ; but ye have polluted it . ] our translators have , as expositors , thrice ( at the least ) added the future tense [ shall be ] . but all the old translations , syriack , calde● paraph. greek , latin , &c. put it in the present tense [ is great , is offered . ] i do but desire the reader to study it . it 's strange , that all the ancient churches should misunderstand it . it seems more probable by the context that the hebrew text understood the present tense ( none being expressed . ) § . . if we might imitate our father abraham ( who yet saw christ's day and rejoiced ) we should suppose the number of the saved through the world , to be very considerable : for as i said elsewhere , though god had told him , that sodom was so much worse than the rest of the world , that god would destroy it , yet abraham thought there might be fifty righteous persons there . it 's like he thought not worse of the rest of the world. § . . obj. you seem to make the rest of the world happier than the iews ; for they had a law that would justifie them , and so had not the iews . ans. the second assertion is false : the jews were under the law of grace , which paul calleth the promise , and might be justified by it , and had greater helps to know and keep it than the rest of the world had . but when they foolishly separated their mosaical law from the promise or common law of grace , paul tells them , by the deeds of that law no flesh could be justified . § . . obj. do you not thus confound the world and the church ? ans. no : i ask you , did he confound them before christ's incarnation , who thought that more than the jews were saved ? certainly no : no more do i now . § . . the word [ church ] is sometime taken so properly and strictly , as to signifie only those that are under the covenant of peculiarity : and so the jews before christ's birth , and christians since , make up the church , ( and some few perhaps before the iews covenant . ) but sometimes it is taken more largely , for the kingdom of god : for all that are in a state of salvation , under the several editions of the law of grace . and so iob and his friends , and melchizedeck and many others , before , and all now that love god and holiness sincerely , are of the church . accordingly by the [ world ] is meant , either , . all men as under the redeemer's law of grace , antecedently to their consent ; and so all the world belong to god's kingdom , as subditi obligati . . rebels that refuse consent : and so they are of the kingdom by obligation , but condemnable for rebellion : and these are the [ world ] in the worst sence . . consenting subjects under the common law of grace , who yet were not iews , nor are not in the covenant of peculiarity : and such are in a state of salvation , though not in the church of the peculiar ( as the subjects of melchizedeck , sem , &c. ) and so are both in the church and in the world , in several sences . § . . having delivered that in this great question which seemeth to me agreeable to god's word , i advise those that use to assault such things with reproach , which they find reproached by their party , to remember , that god is love , and christ is the saviour of the world , and the pharisaical appropriators of mercy and salvation , do seldom know what spirit they are of . chap. xvii . of the necessity of holiness , and of moral uirtue . § . . holiness is our dedication , separation , or devotedness to god , and alienation from all that stands in competition or contrariety to god. § . . it is our separation to god as the creator of our nature , and our redeemer , and the author of grace , and our felicity , and the cause of glory : as the first efficient , supreme dirigent , and ultimately final cause . § . . it is our separation to god as our owner by resignation , as our ruler by obedience , and as our benefactor and ultimate end by thankfulness and love , in the acknowledgment of his infinite power , wisdom and goodness , as essential to himself , and related to his works . § . . holiness is our dispositive , actual , and relative separation to god ; . when our souls are habitually inclined to god and to his will. . when we actually give up our selves to god and to his will ; by consent first , and obedience and love after . . it signifieth the relation of the person as thus habitually and actually separated . ( a holy priesthood , pet. . , , . ) § . . holiness is the habit and act of all the three faculties of the rational soul ; viz. . of the vitael active power by quickening and strength . . of the intellect by illumination . . of the will by conversion , love or complacency . § . . the soul as sensitive , and the body it self , are said to be sanctified , so far as they are dispositively and actually subject and subservient to a holy soul in holiness , and related accordingly as separate to god. § . . our holiness is no alienation from the creature as a creature , in its due place and subordination to the creator , but contrarily containeth our honour of , and love to , all god's creatures for his sake and impress , and a devoting of all that is ours to his use : but it containeth a renunciation of that which is against his honour and government and love , as such . § . . as god communicateth holiness really and relatively to man , so holy persons communicate such holiness to creatures below them , as consisteth in the use and relation of things separated to god , by a due separation of them by their dedication and holy use : and that in various degrees . § . . true holiness is the health , the rectitude , the honesty , the justice of man's soul ; and therefore necessary , as his duty by god's law , even of nature , and to his happiness both in the very nature of the thing , and by the determination of god's law. it is a contradiction to be happy and unholy , rev. . . § . . holiness is the end or perfection of our nature , and god's chief interest in man , and is begun by grace and perfected in glory . § . . the fear of god and his iudgments , and a care of our own souls , and a sorrow for sin , and a desire of happiness , may be not only preparatives , but lower parts of holiness ; but the true formal specifying nature of it consisteth in a love of god's infinite goodness , and a will addicted to obey his will , or a pleasedness in pleasing him * : this is holiness . § . . because a man is denominated according to the predominant bent of his will ( or soul ) he is not to be called holy who hath some slight inclination to please god , and more to please his own carnal appetite and will ; or greater love to the creature than to god. § . . christ himself came into the world to recover sinful man by holiness † to god , and disdained not to be a means of man's sanctification , and to make this the notable operation of his holy spirit on us . § . . whatsoever law men are under , before christ or since , jew or gentile , works or grace , no man can be saved and happy without holiness ; that is , unless they be devoted in obedience and love to god and goodness . § . . no man can be damned that is holy , while such ; nor can god hate and make miserable those that truly love him and his governing will. § . . yet a person that is holy may deserve damnation , by deserving to be denied that help of the holy spirit by which his holiness must be continued : and as to be saved is to be perfectly sanctified , so to deserve hell , is to deserve to be forsaken , to the ●o●al loss of holiness . and so though it be hard for us to know whether adam's first loss of innocency was a total loss of holiness , yet if it were not , it was a forfeiture of divine help , and so a mediate loss of it . and so a man that loveth god sincerely , may by great sin deserve to be deprived of the spirit , and therefore we must pray for the pardon of such desert for the sake of christ , though we cannot be damned or miserable while holy . § . . obj. but how doth god love a holy soul if he forsake him , and with-hold his spirit ? and if he be not loved of god , he is miserable ? if he be loved , he will not be forsaken . ans. answer this your self as to the case of the angels and adam . god loved them , and yet not so as to secure them from the loss of grace : but he so far loved them efficiently , as to give them that grace by which they could persevere ; but not that by which they necessarily should persevere ; and he loved them complacentially , according to the goodness which was in them , and yet they lost it . § . . obj. that is because they were left to their free will , and had but sufficient grace , and not efficacious determining grace : but it is now otherwise with all true believers . ans. true believers have not determining efficacious grace , to prevent all sin , nor all such sin as noah , lot , david , peter did commit : and that sin deserveth an answerable desertion of god , it being a deserting him first so far : and though god pardon it , yet the desert is presupposed to the pardon ; for it is desert of punishment that is pardoned . § . . quest. if a man were holy , ( that is , an obedient lover of god and goodness ) without faith in christ , would that save him ? answ. . the covenants of grace requireth various degrees of faith , according to its several editions and promulgations : it is not the same degree of faith , as to the objects extensively , which was required of jewish believers before christ's incarnation , as is now of us , nor the same degree that was required of all the rest of the world as of the jews . . but such a faith in god our redeemer as that law which men are under maketh necessary to salvation , is necessary to holiness : and to ask what god will do with a man that is holy without faith , is to talk of a non-existent subject : there is no such man ; for without faith it is impossible to please god : for he that cometh to god must believe that god is , and that he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him , notwithstanding original and actual sin , and the law of innocency condemning us ; and therefore that he is under a pardoning and rewarding law of grace , heb. . . no man can be sanctified without the merit , doctrine and spirit of christ , nor without that degree of faith which the covenant which he is under requireth . § . . quest. what if a man that was sanctified by believing , should retain his holiness , or love and obedience , and lose his faith in christ ? answ. it is a thing that never was nor will be ; and not to be disputed of . § . . moral virtue in the proper sence of the word , is the same thing as holiness taken comprehensively , as containing our love and duty to god , and to man for god's sake : but as holiness is taken narrowly for our love and duty to god , as distinct from our love and duty to man , so moral virtue is the genus , and holiness the chief species of it . and thus we take moral virtue and moral action , and so all morality , as contradistinct from physicks or things meerly natural , not falling under the genus moris : and so virtue and vice ( or sin ) are all that is moral , that is , moral good and moral evil : and this is the first and most notable sence of the word . but some of late have used moral as contradistinct from holiness or grace , or from infused habits , or from faith and christianity ; and some tell us confidently but falsly , that this is the most fit and famous sence , and the word so to be taken when not otherwise explained . it 's the sad case of mankind , that we have no words but what are liable to ambiguity : and it 's the unhappiness of the church that hath so many teachers that will dispute , write , and wrangle about words unexplained , and in the end shew , that under divers terms they mean the same matter in which they are agreed and know not their agreement . § . . as holiness is sometimes taken so largely , as to comprehend all that god commandeth , and sometimes for the natural part of our duty ( love and obedience ) as distinct from faith in christ , which is the mediate grace , and of supernatural revelation ; so is morality or moral virtue distinguished . § . . they that take moral virtue so narrowly and improperly , as to mean no other moral virtue than heathens had , or than is taught in aristotle's ethicks , should first tell us , that this is their sence ; and then they may boldly declaim against those preachers that take this for sufficient ; or that preach no other : for scripture and christianity were to little purpose if they taught us no more than the writings of philosophers do . § . . and no doubt but it is a pitiful sign and an odious crime in a minister of christ , to say little to the people of the mysteries of man's redemption , the person , and offices , and works of christ , the covenant of grace , and the special blessings given by it , our union with christ , justification , adoption , and the special works of the spirit on mens souls , and all the duties and pleasures of a heavenly conversation , in the love of the father , the grace of the son , and the communion of the holy spirit , and all this under pretence of magnitying and preaching up the love of our brethren , and charity to the poor , and iustice , and temperance ; as if man were our god , and to wrong man were the only sin , and to wrong god were none , or god could be no otherwaies wronged . § . . but covetousness and pride contradicteth their own doctrine : for among their good works those of piety are first extolled ; and those are the enriching of the church , and that is themselves ; and why them more than the poorer people about us ? because they are sacred persons , and belong to god , and serve at his altars ? very good . and is piety to a sacred person ( and such as they ) so great a duty , and yet our piety as immediately to god himself , an indifferent thing , in comparison of our duty to man ? yea , some usually make that part of their piety which consisteth in the observance of their own traditions and unnecessary injunctions , to seem of great weight , while the holy observance of god's own laws is perhaps accused as too much preciseness or hypocris●s ; when indeed the hypocrite is he , that instead of the life and serious practice of true christian-holiness , sets up and resteth in the image of holiness , and certain formalities , that are lifeless , to deceive himself and others . § . . where there is no faith and love to god , nor duty done in obedience to god , there is no true moral virtue , but somewhat equivocally so called , whatever good such may do to the common-wealth or to their neighbors ; for it wanteth the principle , end and object that should inform it . § . . an hypocrite may be said to have moral virtue , as he may be said to have holiness , that is , only secundum quid , yea , but analogically ; yea , but equivocally , in that he hath no other sort of faith and love and obedience . § . . an infidel's moral virtue , and all unsanctified heathens or other persons , is of the same sort only with this described of the hypocrite : and they err not that say , they have no true moral virtue , but analogical . § . . yet nature and common grace do give men that which is truly good ( and not only minus malum ) and may do much good to others , and some to themselves , and is truly laudable and amiable , considered without the mixture simply in it self : but because the contrary evil is still the predominant part in all the unsanctified , it will not properly denominate them good men , nor the whole action a good action , save equivocally , analogically or secundum quid ; because the form denominateth , which is here wanting . § . . but if any one think otherwise , that the name of moral virtue , yea , or holiness , is due to the best actions or habits of heathens , hypocrites , or any unsanctified men , it is but a controversie de nomine , and no otherwise to be regarded , while we agree of the things signified by that name . § . . it is certain , that now there is no moral good , in any man on earth , that is not the effect of some grace of god , common or special ; for even nature now as reprieved , and maintained is an effect of common grace ; much more further gifts : but it is perverseness in some school-men , who make common grace and special ( at least as to faith ) to be differenced only in the causation , one being not infused and the other infused , but the same in act , and so that no man can know whether he have infused or acquired faith ( which some call but a moral virtue . ) chap. xviii . of the necessity of faith in christ , where the gospel is made known . § . . infidels take scandal from christ's making faith in himself to be so necessary to our salvation , as if it tended only to his honour , and were in its own nature of no necessity to our happiness , but arbitrarily made so . § . . and their reason also against this necessity , is , because believing is an act of the intellect ; and intellection is not free , and in its self is no moral act. a man cannot know or believe what he would , no , though he most earnestly desired it : and will god condemn men for that which they fain would do , and cannot ? especially when mens intellectual capacities do so greatly differ , that some seem to differ but little from the brutes . § . . this scandal ariseth from their not well understanding the nature and reasons of our faith in christ. . they falsely suppose it to be only an act of the intellect ( where many divines have given them the scandal . ) . they falsely suppose , that the intellect herein is necessitated to unbelief . . and they consider not the ends and uses of our faith. § . . . the true nature of our faith , is our trusting in christ , as our saviour , who hath reconciled us to god , by his sacrifice and merit , that he may bring us to god , by iustification , adoption , sanctification , and glory . it containeth assent , consent , and affiance , though through penury of words , we are fain to call it by some one of these names oft-times , as the occasion requireth : but indeed the very sence of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , fides , and trust , includeth all . and when the act of the intellect only is named , it is as including , or informing both the other . § . . . though the intellect be not free of it self , it is free by participation , being quoad exercitum , under the empire of the will that is free . and the will by commanding it to act , search , think , of the evidences of verity , may do so much towards the specifying of the act , as that the meer weakness of understanding without the fault of a vicious will , shall keep no man in damnable unbelief . § . . for christ hath many ways provided against meer weakness of our understanding : . by the fewness and plainness of necessary articles of faith : . by the fulness of evidence of credibility : . by great means and helps for our faith , which he appointeth : . and by the powerful helps of his spirit , which is ready to illuminate us by these means . § . . no man was ever yet known , that could say [ i have done my best to have obtained faith , and did not obtain it . ] though many can say , i earnestly desired to believe , and could not : because those may desire it , that yet use not the means aright and faithfully , and that indulge their own prejudices , or carnal lusts , which hinder it . § . . : in the saving of sinners , there is considerable : . the great benefits already given in the purchase , merits and covenant : . the greater benefits offered , and to be received hereafter : . the means to be used on our part for obtaining them . . the danger and loss , if we miss of them . . the ultimate end of him that giveth them . § . . and , . will not any reasonable infidel confess , that thankfulness is naturally due for great and inestimable benefits ? and how can a man be thankful for that which he believeth not was ever done for him , or given him ? or can he be thankful to he knoweth not whom ? § . . . do not great benefits freely offered , require acceptance ? and how can a man accept of that which he believeth not was ever purchased , procured , or offered him ? will you accept a shadow ? § . . . christ never meant to carry sluggards asleep to heaven , but to save them in the use of his appointed means . . they must learn and obey his doctrine ; and can they obey it that believe it not ? . they must take heaven procured by a redeemer for their hope and portion , and love , desire , and seek it above all : and who will do this , that believeth it not , and the word that promiseth it ? . they must take christ for their guide , and mediator , and intercessor , to bring them thither ; and they must forsake all here that stands in competition , that they may obtain it : and can you do this , and not believe and trust him that must save you ? will you venture your life in the hands of a physician , and take his medicines , if you believe not that he hath skill and will to cure you ? will you leave your country , and follow one over seas , that promiseth you a kingdom , if you trust him not ? § . . . and who will avoid sin , temptations , and hell , that believeth not him that tells them of the evil , and of the danger that is before him ? § . . . and god can have no lower end ultimately than himself , and the glory of our redeemer is more excellent than mine or yours . and therefore if we have the salvation , it is meet and necessary that god and our redeemer have the love and thanks , the praise and glory of it . § . . yet hath not god arbitrarily made faith more necessary than it is in the true reason and aptitude of it to its ends. he hath not made to all a faith so necessary of christ , and his intercession ; and therefore though infants and ideots cannot actually believe , they may be saved by christ : and though those before christ believed not all that we must now believe , nor the gentiles before , so much as the iews , yet neither of them were thereby excluded from salvation . § . . quest. hath not christ made the case of christians harder than it was before his incarnation , to believers , by making so many more articles of our faith , and those of necessity to our salvation ? ans. no , no more than it is our misery to accept of more mercies and benefits than were offered to others . our belief is not of numerous unnecessary difficulties , but it is of such things as we must receive , and be partakers of ; it is the means of our use and fruition : who would take it for a misery to believe that the king will give him a lordship , or that a rich man will give him so much money , if he will come and thankfully accept it ? every act of belief is but a means to some benefit to be received . § . . as christ is the way to the father , and the mediator is to bring us unto god , so faith in christ is the mediate , or healing grace to help us to holiness , or the love of god , which being its end , is as much more noble than faith in christ : and faith kindling love to god , and goodness , and men ; and love kindled by faith , is the sum of the christian religion . and it is no disparagement to christ and faith in him , to be taken for a means ; or to trust him , as one that will save to the uttermost all that come to god by him . chap. xix . of the state of infants as to salvation . § . . i have said so much of this in two books against the anabaptists , and in my christian directory , that i shall therefore here be brief . what measure of glory , and holy intellectual operations infants shall have after death , we know not ; but we have reason to judge , that they shall not be like brutes , nor so unintelligent as in the body , nor sleep in an unactive potentiality ; but be , intellectual agents . § . . the conceits of a middle state of those unbaptized , as having poenam damni , and not p●nam sensus , we know not what to make of , unless they suppose them to be not actually , but only potentially intelligent : for one that is deprived of true felicity , must by knowing it , have the sense of his privation . nor do we find in scripture any proof of their middle state , however reason may think it congruous . § . . they that think all infants saved , go on these different grounds : . some think that they have no sin : but if pelagians could prove that , it would be no proof that they shall have heaven or happiness . . others think that christ hath pardoned them all that sin which was derived from adam : but either they mean , that his sacrifice and merit immediately pardoned it ; or that he hath pardoned them all by the covenant , or law of grace . but , . christ's sacrifice and merits are given to god for man , and pardon no man immediately , but only merit a pardoning covenant . . and that covenant doth indeed in tantum , pardon all men as far as common mercy amounteth to ( for the remitting any part of the punishment , is so far to remit the sin . ) but the saving-pardon in question , it giveth to no man actually before the condition be performed ; for it is but a conditional pardon : therefore as no one at age , so no infant hath any pardon given him by that covenant , that i can find , but only conditionally . § . . all grant , that the covenant pardoneth the adult only conditionally ; and if it should pardon all infants absolutely , their condition would be so much more happy than that of the adult , as is not consistent with what scripture , reason , and experience speaketh . and there is no such thing said of them in the word of god , and therefore not to be believed . § . . those that think not all infants ( so dying ) to be saved and glorified , are also of several minds . . some think that none are glorified , as being uncapable subjects ( whom i will not bestow the labour to confute , nor to open the ill consequents of it . ) . some think , that some are glorified , but none are positively punished with the poena sensus . these seem to me less rational than the former : for either infants will have actual intellection , and answerable joys and sorrows , or not : if not , the former , who reduce them all to meer potentiality , or the state of brutes , are in the right ( of whom some will have them to be viat●res after death in vehiculo a●reo , and some are for their transmigration , and return to earth . ) if yea , then as one part will have rational joys , the other must have rational sorrows , unless some return to earth , or some middle state , be better proved than i have yet seen . § . . . some think , that all that are baptized , are saved , and no other , ( though the rest have no pain . ) but , . this is not suitable to the nature of god , as a spirit , and as most wise and merciful ; nor yet to the tenor of his word , to lay mens salvation and rejection upon a meer outward ●eremony , or act of baptizing . the seed of believers may want it in many cases of impedition ; and the children of cannibals and infidels , might by souldiers be taken away by thousands and baptized against the parents wills , and then turned to them again to be educated : and who can believe that barbarous souldiers that must themselves ●e damned , can thus save thousands at 〈◊〉 pleasures ? there are many infants that have no right to baptism ; and why then should it save them ▪ § . . . some think , that all that are baptized by the parents con●int , are saved ▪ but what if a hea●hen , or infidel , or athent say , i believe not in god or christ my self , but for worldly ends , i desire my child may be baptized ( whether he say , i will , or i will not educate him u●to christianity . ) there is no shew of reason , much less of scripture , that this should save the children that are no better offered to god. § . . . some say , that all that any christian ( sinner or hypocrite ) offereth to god , and is so baptized , shall be saved ; that is , that hath christian godfather or godmother . but if so , then what if christians take heathens children against their wills , and baptize them , and then turn them home again ? are they saved by the ceremony , or by consent to the covenant ? not by the meer geremony , as is , and shall be shewed : not by consent of any such christian that hath no right to them , nor power to represent them ; else all the children on earth should be saved : for christians would sit at home and consent for them , and dedicate them to god unseen : and sure god would not refuse to save them , because of distance , nor because unseen ( for the godfather may be blind ) ; nor because unbaptized ; when it cannot be had , and the child hindereth it not . § . . . some say , that it is the churches faith , and dedicating them to god in baptism that is the condition of their salvation : but this is not intelligible . if by the church they mean all the christian world , or all a national church , or all a diocesan church , yea , or all a parish-church , they use not to be all godfathers , nor to offer other folks children to be baptized ; nor did i ever know one that had so common a ●ote , or was so offered : if they mean that the churches faith ●erveth whoever be the covenanter or offerer , then all the pagan world may have their children saved by the churches faith , or all that can be catcht up and baptized ( and so the ceremony doth it . ) but if they mean by that church the bishops or presbyters , whether it must be all the bishops of the world , or of the nation , or one bishop , or the presbyter that baptizeth , every one may speak according to his own invention and fancy , but with no proof from the word of god or reason ( as the aforesaid disproofs do manifest . ) § . . . some say , that any one baptized by a godfather's offer , who undertaketh for his christian education , shall be saved , and no other . but , . the godfather may have no propriety in the child , but steal him , shall that save him ? . the godfather may be an hypocrite , and mean nothing that he promiseth ; and shall the child be saved by his lye that damneth the lyer himself ? . why should a promise of future education save a child that must die to morrow , or ere long ? . but if it be the meer opus operatum of baptizing that must save , that may be a profanation when unduly applied ; and the priest's sin that damneth himself , cannot save others . § . . . some lay the hope upon ancest●rs faith , and say , that if the great grandfathers , or others before them were faithful , the infants shall be saved : but then are all men saved for noah's faith ? or how far must our confidence ascend ? § . . . most of the anabaptists with us , hold , that there is no promise , nor assurance of the saving of any particular infants in the world , either christians or heathens ; but only that god electeth some , whom he will sanctifie and save , and reprobateth others , whom he will damn ; without any notice given to the world who they be , or how many , or how few . so that we cannot say , that he will save ten , or that he will damn ten of all the world ; nor have the faithful any more promise than heathens of the salvation of their infants , and so are not to baptize them . § . . . the commonest opinion among the english calvinists , is , that god hath made no certain promise of the salvation of any particular infant , but by his general promise of mercy to the seed of the faithful , hath given us cause to hope that more of them than of others , shall be saved ; and therefore that they are by baptism to be entred into the visible church , as we baptize the adult , while we are not certain but they may be hypocrites . § . . but i think this would not warrant their baptism , nor give us any certain hope of any ones salvation . god hath but one covenant of grace , which giveth us christ and life ; and god hath ordained no baptism , but what is for the remission of sin , and making us members of christ , if we have the conditions of right to baptism . the adult profess faith and repentance ; if they have them in sincerity , and consent with the heart as well as the tongue , they are certainly pardoned : if they are hypocrites , and consent only with the lips , they have notoriously the qualification which the church must require , and so are received to outward communion , but not that which god requireth to remission and salvation . but if an infant be the child of a true believer , he hath all that god and the church require : and therefore if he be to be baptized , he is certainly put into a state of life , because no condition is wanting on his part . § . . . others say , that the children of all christians ( sinners , or hypocri●es ) if baptized , are in a state of pardon and salvation ; and that god will not punish the child for the hypocrite or prophane parents sin. but by that rule heathens children should be in as safe a case , because god will not punish them for their parents sin . either something on the parents part is a condition of the child 's right , or nothing . if nothing , heathens and christians children are equal : if something , it must be true faith ( as to god's acceptance ) : for whatever the church must do , ( that knoweth not the heart ) it is incredible that god should have such a covenant [ thy child shall be saved if thou wilt , ( though lyingly ) offer him to me , tho ▪ thou shalt be damned for that lye. ] § . . . that which i acquiesce in is this : that god who visited adam's sin on all his posterity , hath in the covenant of grace also so joined infants to the parents , that till they have a will to chuse for themselves , their parents may chuse for them , and dispose of them for their good , and god taketh them as members of the parents so far : and so he hath made many express promises of mercy to the faithful and their seed , ( and threatnings to the wicked and their seed ) : and that this mercy cannot be consistent with their damnation ; for it is to be their god , and to love and bless them , which cannot stand with damning them . and god having but one covenant , seeing they are in the same covenant with their parents , and not another , if it give pardon to the parents , it doth so also to the child , of whom no condition is required , but that he be offered by a believing parent to god ; whose acceptance is salvation . § . . therefore i think that the synod of dort truly conclude , act. . . that faithful parents need not doubt of the election and salvation of their children dying in infancy : the covenant certainly pardoneth and saveth them . § . . but this is not only because they are born of their bodies , nor yet is their faith the efficient cause of it ; but there are two things go to qualifie the receiver as the dispositive condition , that is , . that he be the child of a faithful parent , who devote●h himself sincerely to god. . and that he be by the parent devoted to god , by consent , that he be in the mutual covenant : which virtually all the faithful do that have infants , because they devote themselves and theirs to god to the utmost of their capacity . and the recipient subject being thus qualified , god ▪ , covenant pardoneth him , as the efficient instrument , by signifying god's will. § . . though the promise here be not so plain , i deny not , that all true propriet●rs , whose own the child is , here be as parents . § . . god having not made the case of infants so plain to us as our own , that are adult , there are difficult objections against this way ; but as it seems to me , much more against all the rest . § . . the grand objection is , that then some infants lose a state of salvation when they come to age . ans ▪ this will follow ; but far ha●der things from all the rest : but , . this was thought no absurdity for a thousand years after the apostles , when i cannot prove , that any one man thought that none of the adult themselves fall away from true sanctification and right to life : when even augustine the famous defender of election and grace against pelagius , thought that all the elect only persevered , and that more were justified and sanctified than were elect , and that the rest all fell away . . davenant answereth this , that infant-grace may be lost , and yet not the grace of the adult : because it is but a relative regeneration , and an extrinseck remission of sin , that giveth them right to impunity and life , or if they are said to have the spirit , it is not in a fixed habit of grace . if you say , they cannot be saved without real holiness , i answer ; § . . . distinguish of holiness , and of the season of it . . infants have not actual faith , nor necessarily a proper habit , which is a disposition to facile acting that same act : but a semen , a seed , ( as amesius rather calleth it than a habit at first even in the adult : ) and calvin saith , that some men , semen fidei qualecunque perdunt . adam had such a holiness as might be lost : and why may we not say , that infants first ▪ grace is of such a sort or degree ? . and yet that none are saved without more ; but that upon this first degree they have a right to salvation , and that their further holiness shall be given them whom god will , as part of their salvation , to which they have right : at furthest , at death , in the same time and manner as perfect holiness and mortification of sin is given to believers that are till death imperfect . a loseable degree of holiness like adam's , may be the way to more in all that so die . § . . divines use to mention three degrees of grace in order to faith it self . . so much grace as maketh a man able to believe , ( which they call sufficient grace . ) . so much more as efficiently determineth him to the act of believing : this they call effectual special grace , and protestants call it our vocation effectual . . so much more as giveth him a fixed habit of faith , love , and all holiness together . this papists call iustification , and protestants sanctification . vid. amesii medull . de voc . & sanct . rolloc . de vocat . bishop downame against pemble append. to his treatise of perseverance , &c. § . . now some hold all these loseable : some hold only the last not loseable ; and almost all hold the first loseable . now , . what if we think that infant 's first holiness , besides relative ( pardon , and jus ad impunitatem & regnum ) is but of the first degree ? though a meer moral power to believe be not enough to the adult , because the act is necessary to them , yet say protestants , the habit is not necessary to their first covenant-right , but is given by the spirit in sanctification as a covenant-benefit . and why may not infants be in a pardoned state , that at first have but that grace which giveth a moral power to believe when they come to age ? consider of the matter . § . . i have so fully elsewhere proved , that infants church-membership was instituted both in the covenant of innocency , in the first edition of the covenant of grace ; in the covenant of peculiarity with abraham , and in the last edition of the covenant of grace by christ ; and also that god never had a church on earth , of which infants were not members , if the adult members had infants , that i will now supersede that work. chap. xx. of the nature of saving-faith . § . . so much of this came in before on the by , as will excuse my brevity here . i have before shewed , that the faith now in question is not meerly our general belief and trust in god , as a part of our holiness , but the mediate belief and trust in god our redeemer and our saviour , which is made the condition of the covenant , & the means of our sanctification : and also that as the editions of the covenant vary , and promulgation of it , so it is not the same degree or acts of faith , as to the particular credenda or articles to be believed , that was and is necessary to all persons in all times . § . . though the word [ belief ] in english , and assent in latin , signifie strictly only the act of the understanding , and saving faith is oft named from one act , yet really that faith which in scripture is made the condition of pardon and salvation , doth essentially contain the acts of every faculty , even assent , consent , and affiance ; and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and fides do properly signifie trust , even a consenting or voluntary trust upon believing ; as is afore said . § . . we do very aptly call both the act and object by the same name fides in latin , ( and faith in english , oft-times ) : for faith is a trusting on another's faith , fidelity or trustiness ; and so the fides asserentis seu promittentis , & fides credentis , are related . § . . the faith that hath the promise of our justification , is not to be called one only physical act in specie ( much less in numero ) : ( that were but prophanely to jest with holy things ) ; but it is a moral act or work of the soul , containing many physical acts . otherwise we should be all confounded , not knowing how to distinguish of all our physical acts of faith secundum speciem , and then to know which of them is the right : and it would be but some very little of the true objects of faith , that justifying faith must be constituted by : in a word , the absurdities are so numerous that would follow , that i will not be so tedious as to name them . § . . saving faith is such a moral work as we use to express by the names , believing , trusting , consenting , taking , accepting , receiving , in contracts personal with men . if we say [ you shall trust such a physician , or take such a man for your physician ] all men understand us , and none is so logically mad , as to think that by taking or trusting we mean only some one physical act of the smallest distribution . if we say [ i take this man for my king , my master , my commander or captain , or this woman to be my wife , &c. ] every one knoweth here what taking meaneth : viz. our consent to that relation , according to the nature and ends of it . § . . therefore though we use divers names for this faith , and also on several occasions , give several half-descriptions of it , we mean still the same thing , and suppose what we omit to make the description entire . § . . when we call faith [ a believing ] or [ assent ] we mean such an assent as prevaileth with the will , to accept christ with his grace as offered in the gospel , and consent to the baptismal covenant ; and this indeed as a fruit of the assenting act , but as essential to justifying faith. § . . when we call it [ consent ] or acceptance , or [ receiving christ ] we mean , that as man's soul hath an intellect and will , and a true actus humanus vel moralis , is the act of both , but of the intellect as directive , and of the will as more perfective , or as the faculty , primarily moral ; so the same faith which is initially in the intellect's assent , is perfectlier in the will's consent : and it is the receiving of a saviour believed , or the consent to a believed covenant : we suppose assent when we name it consent . § . . and when we name it affiance or trust , we include both the former , and mean a resolved practical trust , and dedition of our selves accordingly to one that covenanteth to bring us from sin and misery to god and glory ; where belief and consent to that covenant are supposed . § . . and the terminus a quo , and the renunciation of competitors and opposites , is connoted , if not essentially included in saving faith : and therefore christ doth so often tell us , of forsaking all , if we will be his disciples . § . . i use to express it by this similitude : a prince redeemeth a slave , and also promiseth him great possessions and honours in a kingdom in the east indies , or at the antipodes , if he will leave his servitude and his country , and all that he hath there , and go with him in his ship , and patiently endure the sea-trials till he come thither . here he must , . believe that the prince hath paid his ransome : . that he is a wise man , and knoweth what he promised , and skilful to conduct him safely through all the perils of the seas : . that he is an honest man , and intendeth not to deceive him : . that he is sufficient or able to perform his word : . and if upon this belief he trust him , he will let go all and venture in his ship , and follow him . and here one tells him that the ship is unsound ; another tells him that the prince is a deceiver , unable to perform his word , or unskilful , or dishonest , and some way untrusty ; and another tells him that small matters in his own country , are better than greater with so much hazard ; and sets out the dangers and terribleness of the seas : now if the man be ask'd [ do you believe , or will you trust me , or will you not ? ] here every one by believing and trusting knoweth , that a practical trust is meant , which lieth in such a confidence as forsaketh all , and taketh the promised kingdom for all his hope . such is our saving faith. § . . as many acts and many objects go to constitute saving faith , so if you will logically anatomize it , all these following must be taken in . § . . . the principal efficient cause is god , the father , son , and holy ghost respectively , according to their several operations . § . . . the instrumental cause is the word of god , and the preaching and preachers of it , or parents , friends , or some that reveal the word unto us . § . . . subordinate auxiliary means are providential alterations , by some awaking judgments , or inviting mercies , or convincing examples , &c. § . . . the soul of man in all its three faculties , vital-active , intellective , and volitive , is , . the recipient of the divine influx , and then , . the immediate efficient or agent of the acts of faith. § . . . preparatory grace and duty is ordinarily man's disposition , as he is the recipient of god's grace , and the agent of believing . but god is free , and can work on the unprepared ; but it is not to be taken for his ordinary way . § . . . the formal object of the assenting act of faith , is veracit as dei revelantis , the veracity or truth of god revealing his will. § . . . the formal object of the accepting and receiving act , is the goodness of the benefits offered us by the covenant , as offered . § . . . the formal object of our trust or affiance is god's fides , fidelity , because of his aforesaid veracity in promising , and his power , wisdom and benevolence as a performer ; and this full act comprehendeth all the rest : it is god's trustiness . § . . . the material objects of the assenting act in genere , are all god's assertions or revelations : more especially the gospel , or the christian faith objective ; according to the edition of the covenant which we are under . § . . the essentials of our objective christian faith constitute the essence of our active saving faith ; and the integrals of it constitute the integrity . § . . and it is of great importance to distinguish here ( as to the word and objects ) between . the signa or words , . the signification or sence , . the things , matter or incomplex objects , as distinct from words and sence , viz. god , christ , grace , heaven , goodness , iustice , men , &c. and to hold , . that the words are not necessary for themselves , but for the sence ; and therefore translations , or any words which give us the same sence , may serve to the being of saving faith. . that the sence it self is not necessary for it self ultimately , as if holiness lay in notions , but for the things which that sence revealeth , viz. god to be loved and obeyed , christ to be received , the holy ghost to be received and obeyed , holiness and all grace to be received , loved , used , encreased ; our brethren to be loved , heaven to be desired , &c. all sence will not bring us to the reception of the things ; for all is not apt ; but any that doth this ( which must be divine and apt ) will constitute us true believers . § . . . the material objects of our acceptance and consent , are the word of god commanding , offering , and promising , and the good of duty and benefit commanded , offered and promised ; that is , all that is given us in the baptismal covenant , god the father and his love , the son and his grace , and the holy ghost and his communion : the father as reconciled and adopting us , the son as having redeemed us , to teach , rule , justifie and save us ; the holy spirit to sanctifie , comfort , and perfect us . § . . . the material object of our trust or affiance is god himself , the prime truth , power and good , and christ as his messenger and our saviour , and the holy ghost as the author of the word , and the word as being the word of god : you must pardon us as necessitated to call god a material object , analogically , for want of words . § . . . the ultimate or final objects of saving faith are , . god himself , the ultimate ultimum ; that is , the perfect complacency of his will in his glory eternally shining forth in our glory and the glory of christ with all the church triumphant . . next to that , this glory it self ( which is a created thing ) and the perfection of the universe , and of christ's church and our selves ▪ in which it consisteth . and therein our own perfection , and our perfect sight , love and praise of our glorious god , and our redeemer . . and next under that , the first fruits of all this in this world , in the foresaid love of the father and grace of the son , and communion of the holy spirit and the church . § . . if therefore we were put to give a full description of saving faith , we must be as large as this following , or such-like in sence , viz. [ the faith which the adult must profess in baptism , as having the promise of justification and salvation , is a sincere fiducial practical assent to divine revelations , and especially to the gospel , revealing and offering us god himself to be our god and reconciled father , christ to be our saviour , viz. by his incarnation , meritorious righteousness and sacrifice , resurrection , doctrine , example , government , intercession and final judgment ; and the holy ghost to quicken , illuminate and sanctifie us , that so we may live in the love of the father , the grace of the son , and the communion of the holy spirit , and of the christian church , being saved from our enemies , sin and misery initially in this life , and perfectly in eternal perfect glory : with a fiducial acceptance of the gifts of the covenant according to their nature , and a sincere federal consent ; and with a sincere devoting and giving up our selves to god the father , son and holy ghost ; and renouncing of all that is inconsistent with this covenant : which assent , consent and trust are the effects of the gospel and spirit of christ , and are founded on god's fidelity , that is , on the veracity , love and sufficiency of god almighty , most wise and good , and on christ the father's great apostle , and on christ's sub-apostles ; and on the gospel and especially the covenant of grace , as on god's revealing and donative instrument ; and on the manifold obsignant operations of the holy ghost ( miraculous and sanctifying ) as god's infallible attestation to the gospel-verity . ] § . . historical tradition of the words , books , and matters of fact , are subordinate necessary means of transmitting the objects to our sense of hearing , who live at such a distance from the time , place and facts . § . . but though all these things aforesaid are in true faith , yet a distinct perception or description of them all is not necessary in him that hath them . but a more general conception of it , which will but consist with the true reception of the things signified by the words ( god , christ , grace &c. ) may be certainly saving to a plain and simple-hearted christian ; when one that can describe it accurately , may be graceless : for it is believing , and not defining faith , which god hath made necessary to salvation . § . . therefore we do ordinarily well use shorter descriptions to the people , and sometime we say , that faith in christ , is our christianity ; that is , our assent and consent to the baptismal covenant , and our self-dedition to god therein . for in scripture it is all one to be a believer , a disciple of christ , and a christian. § . . sometimes we say , that saving faith is a fiducial-practical assent to the truth of the gospel , and consent to the covenant of grace ; or an accepting of all the benefits of the covenant , as they are , and on the terms offered ; or an accepting of christ and life in , and with him there offered us . § . . sometimes we say , it is a practical affiance , or trusting on christ as our only saviour for salvation , or to bring us to god and glory : and in all these and the like we speak truly , and mean the same thing ; some terms being used on occasion , while the rest are implyed , and to be understood . § . . those that will needs call no act by the name of faith , but assent , and confine it to the intellect , do yet seem to differ with us but de nomine , about a word , and not the matter : for they confess , if there concur not a consent of the will , it is not saving , but as some call it ●ides informis ; and so that assent and consent make up our necessary condition , or means of our union with christ , or interest in the covenant-rights or gifts . and then seeing we are agreed so far of the matter , it 's not worth much striving , whether one only , or both acts shall be called faith. § . . when the first reformers had to do with men that commended uncertainty of our sincerity and salvation , and kept people under a spirit of bondage , and tempted them ( contrary to the nature of faith ) to love this world better than the next , and to be afraid of dying , by being doubtful whether they should be saved ; in the heat of opposition , some of them called faith , assurance , or certain or full persuasion of our own personal election , pardon , and salvation . but those that came after them , and those that conversed practically with men of troubled consciences , and observed the state of the greatest part of good christians , followed not this example , but spake more cautelously and soundly , and described faith as i before have told you . for they found that not one of a multitude of godly christians could say they were certain of their election , sincerity , or salvation : and some that were forwardest to say so , were none of the best , and had not what they said they had . § . . but whatever the transmarine divines say , i can witness , that except ignorant antinomians , or such sectaries , rejected by the orthodox , i remember not that i have met these forty years with one divine that taketh saving-faith to be such assurance of our personal election , justification or salvation , especially the first act , which is not to believe that we are justified , but that we may be justified . § . . indeed you would think those few must hold this , who say , that justification is an immanent eternal act of god. but , . this is but a difference about the word [ iustification ] : all confess , that god's essential volition of our justification is eternal , as being himself ; but some think that his will may be denominated an eternal iustification ; and others better say , not : but all confess that the law of grace doth justifie no man till he believe , much less the sentence of christ as judge . and though some call our perswasion that we are justified , by the name of faith , yet they deny not another act of faith antecedent to this , that maketh us true christians . § . and indeed , besides mr. pemble and dr. twisse ( both excellent men ) it 's rare to meet with any english divine that talks for eternal iustification : and mr. pemble , who let fall some such things in his vindiciae gratiae , did set all right again in his treatise of iustification ( being very young when he wrote even the last : ) and dr. twisse , who in his vindic. gratiae , hath some such words , speaketh elsewhere soundly , as mr. iessop his scholar hath shewed in a treatise purposely written to prove it , when i had taken exceptions against his words . § . . it is therefore shameless calumny of those who perswade their followers , that the reformed churches take faith for such an assurance or belief , that we are justified or elected , and shall be saved ; only because they find some such word in some former disputing doctors of ours ; when as all , or near all have so long renounced that opinion , that he would be a wonder among us in england , scotland , or ireland ( and i think abroad ) that should hold it . § . . yet we still say , that saving faith is not only a believing that god's word is true , but a believing it with personal application to my self . § . . but that application is such as followeth . . i believe that christ hath died for my sins as well as for the rest of the world. . i believe that the gospel offereth pardon and salvation to me as well as to others . . i believe that god will have mercy on me , and christ and life shall ●e mine , if i shall truly believe and repent ; and glory , if i persevere . . hereupon i accept the offer and consent to the covenant of grace , which giveth me right to these benefits , if i consent . . and so far as i can say that i am sincere in my repenting and believing , so far my faith helpeth me to conclude that i am justified . § . . but this last is a mixt act , and a rational conclusion helped by grace , whereof the major only is de fide [ he that believeth is justified ] but not the minor [ i believe . ] therefore we usually call it a fruit of faith. § . . some incautelous divines in the heat of dispute do indeed say , that it is de fide divina , or a divine word , that [ i am a true believer . ] and chamier too unhappily goeth about to prove it by saying , that it is the word of the spirit in us , which is the [ word of god : ] as if the spirit spake in us new articles of faith , or a new word to be believed , whose work in those that are not inspired prophets , is but , . to cause us to believe that word already given : . to be a witnessing evidence that we are god's children , by making us holy as he is holy , as similitude witnesseth a child to be his fathers . . and to help us to discern that holiness or evidence , and to exercise it , and to gather comfort from such discerning it , and exercise . § . . we now commonly disown all such assertions ; i meet with no sober divine that owneth them , because we grant , that conclusio semper sequitur partem debiliorem : but yet we find that those few that call it de fide , do most of them mean no more , but that it 's partly de fide , because the major proposition is so ; and so they differ but about a logical notion . § . . some have said indeed ( beyond-sea ) that a man cannot believe , and not know it ; but we know thousands may believe , and yet doubt whether it be a sincere and saving sort of faith. but i have written so many books of these matters , that i here add no more . chap. xxi . of the nature of righteousness , iustification , and pardon . § . . the controversies about justification have made a great noise ; but i think that those de re are few , in comparison of those de nomine , even among all sorts of christians ; and the confounding them by unskilful heads , who have made the ignorant believe , that those which are but de nomine , are de re , hath kindled foolish wrath , and quenched christian love , and taken up poor souls with a deceitful zeal , who have thought that they were contending for great and necessary truths , when it was but for logical notions , names , and modes of expression , over-commended to them by their several teachers . § . . the words iustice ( righteousness ) and iustification , are very ambiguous used in many sences in the scriptures , and in the writings of divines , and in the common use of men , which i have opened in so many books , and so largely , as shall here excuse my brevi●y : the sences which we are now most concerned to take notice of , are these following . § . . righteousness is considered materially , or formally : materially it is , . immediately ; . a righteous action : . a righteous disposition or habit ; . and thence a righteous person . § . . righteousness materially is , . in some or other particular action , : . or , in the main bent of heart and life : . or , in perfection . the first denominateth the person righteous in hoc , or secundum quid : the second denominateth him a sincerely righteous man : the third , a perfectly righteous man. § . . in the notion of the material cause , is included also the comparative or relative state and proportion of actions : when the action is duly qualified and modified in its physical nature and circumstances , it is materially just . § . . the form enquired of , is quid morale ? and it is the relation of the action , and habit , and person , as congruous to the justitia mensurans , or the rule of righteousness . the rule or law first maketh jus vel debitum , and saith , this shall be your duty , and your neighbour's due ( and declareth god's due : ) and the jus being constituted by the law ( natural or positive ) that which agreeth to it , is j●stum . so that righteousness formally is a moral relation resulting from the physical mode and relation of actions and habits , as compared with the law or rule . a moral relation founded in a physical congruity . § . . righteousness is both materially and formally distinguishable as towards god or man : materially , as it is god or man that we deal ●ustly or injuriously by : formally , as it is god himself , or men ruling under him , who give us laws , and make the debitum vel jus , or dispose of propriety . § . . righteousness towards god being relative to his laws , is to be distinguished according to the several laws that men are under , and according to the several parts of the law , which give the word divers sences . § . . . righteousness as related to the precept as such , is nothing but obedience , whether partial , sincere , or perfect : he that doth righteousness is righteous . § . . . righteousness related to a meer condition ( of pardon or salvation , &c. ) is the performance of that condition , which may be the causa judicanda . § . . . righteousness , as related to the premiant or donative part of the law or promise , is our jus ad praemium , our right to that reward or gift . § . . . righteousness , as relative to the penal part , is our jus ad impunitatem , or when punishment is not due to us according to that law. § . . . righteousness , as related to the precept of the law of innocency , is materially perfect , personal , continued obedience to our creator . § . . . righteousness , as related to the condition of that law , is the same ; because nothing but the said perfect obedience is there made the condition of life . § . . . righteousness related to the rewarding part of that law is right to that life which is there promised ; that is , to god's love and felicity . § . . . righteousness related to the penalty of that law , is a right to impunity , as to the death which it threatneth to sinners . § . . . righteousness , as related to the meer preceptive part of the law of grace , is also perfect obedience for the future ( not innocency , as to the time past ) for even christ maketh perfect obedience our duty , though he pardon sin . § . . . righteousness , as related to the condition of the law of grace , is sincere faith and repentance , as the condition of our first right to the present ▪ gifts of the covenant , and also sincere love and obedience to the end , as the condition of our final iustification and glory . § . . . righteousness , as related to the reward of the law of grace , is our right to our relation to the father , son , and holy ghost , and all the gifts of the covenant , christ , grace , and glory . § . . . righteousness , as related to the penal part of the law of grace , is our right to impunity , as to the punishment threatned specially by that law. § . . the meritorious cause of both these last ( our right to impunity , and to life ) is the righteousness of christ ; for the sake of which the condonation and donations of the covenant of grace are given us . § . . this righteousness of christ is his fulfilling the conditions of his own proper law or covenant of mediation : which is materially , . his habitual , . and actual perfection in resignation , obedience and love ; . and therein his humiliation and offering himself a sacrifice for sin : . and all this exalted to acceptable dignity by the conjunction of the divine perfection . § . . the donative covenant of grace to man being but a meer instrument of donation and condonation , that which procured it , is the procuring cause of pardon and life ; that is , christ's meritorious righteousness . § . . though this covenant pardon and justifie no man till he perform the condition , and be a capable subject by that moral disposition , yet when that condition is performed , its performance maketh us but meet recipients , and it is still the meritorious righteousness of christ , for which we have the free gift of pardon and life ; for the performance of the condition doth but remove the receptive incapacity of the patient , and the suspension of the donation . § . . iustification signifieth , . making us righteous and judicially justifiable . . iudicial justification ( . by plea , . by evidence and witness , . by sentence . ) . using us as righteous by execution : or , . constitutive , . iudicial , and . executive iustification . § . . no man of common understanding will deny the real difference of these three : and if the name only be questioned , no man will reasonably deny , that in humane use the name is accordingly applicable to each : and that use of it is easily proved also in the scripture ; cor. . . tit. . . rev. . . &c. and the word righteous and righteousness , is so frequently used in scripture for that called inherent , or self-performed righteousness ( incomparably oster than in any other sence ) as will help to inform us what constitutive iustification is : and if any dislike the name ; let them call it [ making us righteous ] if that will please them better than the word justifying . § . . constitutive iustification is ever first : god never judged a man righteous , that was not righteous . § . . no man on earth is righteous by the condition , or by the rewarding part of the law of innocency . not by the condition as performed , for that condition is perfect , perpetual , personal innocency , which no man hath ; nor is any righteous in conformity to the precept , unless secundum quid , as a damnable sinner's less unrighteousness may be called righteousness : nor is any one justified by the retributive or promissory part of that law , because perfect innocency is its condition . § . . though that law perfectly justifie christ , who perfectly fulfilled it , we are not therefore righteous in the sence of that law , or justified by it , because christ fulfilled it ( of which more anon : ) because the sence of the law was not [ thou shalt obey , or another for th●e . ] ( it never mentioned a vicarious obedience : ) but [ thou thy self shalt perfectly obey . ] § . . we are justified from , or against the curse of that first law , by deliverance or grace ; but it is by a redeemer , and not by that law. § . . the causes of our whole iustification ( whose parts were before-mentioned ) are these : . the constitutive causes ( called material and formal ) are before opened , being divers in their divers parts : in brief , our righteousness now is [ our interest in the meritorious righteousness of christ , and our own performing of the conditions of that interest , or of the new covenant by his grace , and thereupon our right to impunity and life ( or to salvation from destructive punishment , and to glory . ) . the efficient causes are , . principal , god : . mediatory and meritorious , christ and his righteousness : . instrumental ( as to our jus ad impunitatem & gloriam ) the condonative and donative covenant . . the material dispositio receptiva of this right , is our faith and repentance , or performance of the covenant's condition hereof . . the principal cause of this faith or disposition , is the holy ghost . . the instrumental , is the word . . the mediate agent is man. § . . that justification which consisteth in our jus impunitatis quoad poenam damni & sensus , our right to impunity ( as to loss and sense ) is the same thing with pardon of sin , whether you take both actively or passively . § . . obj. if the law of innocency as a covenant ceased upon adam's fall , no man but he and eve was ever under it : and if so , they deserved not damnation for any sin but final unbelief and impenitency , according to the law of grace : and if so , no such desert is forgiven them by christ. § . . ans. the law of grace taketh in the law of nature ( naturae lapsae ) , though not on the terms of the first covenant , as it was naturae integrae , for preservation of innocency : and still all that god commandeth is our duty , and all that he forbiddeth , is sin ; and every sin deserveth death in the nature of it ( for it cannot be sin and not deserve punishment ) : but the difference is , that under the law of innocency it was desert unremedied ; but now it is desert with present remedy , or an affixed pardon to every penitent believer . so much of the law of nature remaineth as maketh punishment due in primo instanti naturae , conjunct with a pardon which maketh impunity due in secundo instanti : as if the king should grant a future pardon by a law to every man that will list himself in his wars under his son , lest in primo instanti , their faults deserve punishment , while they are daily pardoned . § . . ii. publick judicial iustification ( for private i pass by ) is virtually in the law , or constitutive justification before described : for when a man is righteous , the law justifieth him virtually : and this is the sence that we are said to be justified by faith in , primarily in scripture : a believer is made just indeed , and so is justifiable in iudgment , that is , justified virtually by the law : as we use to say , the law doth justifie such a man. ) § . . . but actual judicial iustification is principally by our iudge and subordinately by christ as our advocate , by plea ; and by evidence and witness ; which is chiefly by the righteousness of the cause laid open to all the world. § . . it is by the law of grace ( the edition which men lived under ) that christ will judge the world : therefore we must accordingly judge of his justification . § . . seeing the thing to be judged of is the meritum causae , the merits of a man's cause ; therefore the same may be the meritorious cause and the material of this judicial justification ; and they err that take this for an absurdity . § . . though the great end of god's judgment of man will be to glorifie his own iustice , mercy and wisdom , and to glorifie christ's righteousness , yet the cause of the day , which is to be decided , is not whether christ be righteous , but we : nor whether he fulfilled his mediatorial law ; which is presupposed . § . . iustification being related to ( real or possible ) accusation , so many things as the accusation may extend to , the justification must extend to if perfect . § . . but no man is perfectly and absolutely just or justifiable : for instance , . if we be accused to have sinned , we cannot be justified directly against this accusation , but must plead guilty by confession . for factum non potest fieri infectum , and that fact will for ever be culpable : [ adam did sin ] will for ever be a true assertion . the guilt of fact or fault is never done away in it self ; [ that it was really a fault ] and [ that we really did it , ] . will be an everlasting truth : of which more afterward . § . . . if the accusation be , that [ in adam we deserved death , ] it must be confessed : yea , temporal death and correcting punishments are not only deserved but inflicted , and not pardoned , nor we justifiable herein . § . . . if the accusation be , that we deserved to have abatements of grace , with-holdings of the spirit , and abatement of what glory we might else have had , all this must be confessed . § . . . yea , if it be said , that our sin primo instanti deserved hell , it must be confessed , and against all this there is no direct justification . § . . but against these accusations we must be justified : . if it be said , that we are of right to be damned , or have no right to heaven but to hell , this must be denied : and we must be justified by these several causes : . because god's iustice and the ends of the violated law are satisfied by christ , and by his righteousness , a free gift of pardon and life are merited for us : . and this free donation is the law that we are to be judged by , which giveth us christ to be our head , and pardon and life with him . § . . . if it be said , that we are unbelievers , impenitent or unholy , and did not fulfill the conditions of the covenant of grace , we must deny it , and be justified against this by our faith , repentance and holiness it self ; or else we must be condemned and perish ; for nothing else will do it . § . . and seeing it will be the work of the day , to judge men as performers or non-performers of the said conditions of the law of grace , therefore it is that the scripture speaketh so much of inherent or performed righteousness , and of christ's judging men according to their works , that is , their works which are the performance of that condition . § . . to be judged according to our works , is to be justified or condemned according to our works : for to be judged is the genus , and to be justified or condemned are the species . iudging is justifying or condemning . § . . while all are agreed , that all men shall be justified or condemned according to their works , it is unreasonable to quarrel at that height that many do , about the syllable [ by ] ( whether men be justified and condemned by their works ) as if [ according to them ] and [ by them ] had a different sence ; when as to judicial justification the sence is the very same , though as to the making of men just , the sence may differ . § . . we are commonly agreed , that no man is justified by works in any of these following sences . . no man is justified either constitutively or judiciarily by his works done according to the law of innocency , that is , by perfect personal obedience and love , ( because we have it not . ) . no man is justified constitutively or judiciarily , by his works done according to the mosaical iewish law as such . . much less by any works of his own or other mens invention , which he accounteth good and are not so . . no man is justified by any works set in opposition to or competition or co-ordination with christ , but only in subordination to him and his righteousness by which we are redeemed , and for which we are all first conditionally pardoned and justified by the law of grace . . no man could be justified by his gospel-obedience , or his faith , if he were to be judged by the law of innocency , as not redeemed . . no man's faith or obedience will justifie him in judgment against this accusation , [ thou art a sinner ] or this [ thy sin deserved death . ] nor as one that hath fulfilled all the preceptive part of the law of christ. . no works do justifie us , as meriting life of god in proper commutative justice . . no man is justified by tasks of working , as contradistinct from believing and trusting on free grace : or by external works , without christ's spirit and spiritual evangelical duties . . no good work or act of man was a condition of god's giving us a redeemer , or giving us a conditional justifying law of grace . . man's true faith and repentance is not before the grace which worketh it , and therefore is no condition of that grace . . man's antecedent common works , while he is impenitent , merit not properly the special grace which causeth faith and repentance . . we have no works that are acceptable to god , but what are the fruits of his spirit and grace . § . . and on the other side we are agreed , . that we are justified by the works of christ , as the meritorious cause of our justification . . that the justification purchased and given us by christ , is given us by a law or covenant of grace , which giveth ( as god's instrument ) right to impunity and to life to all true penitent believers : and therefore he that is justified according to this law of grace , from the charge of impenitence and unbelief , must be justified by his repentance and faith materially , as being the righteousness in question , as is aforesaid . . that without holiness none shall see god : and if any be accused as unholy ( and on that account no member of christ or child of god , or heir of heaven ) his holiness must be the matter of his justification . . that though our faith , repentance and holiness be no universal absolute righteousness , yet they are that on which the judiciary scrutiny must pass , and which will be the question of the great day , on which our life or death will depend as on the condition or moral qualification of the receiver . . that in this sence all men shall be judged , by justification or condemnation according to their works , or what they have done ; that is , as they have performed or not performed the conditions of that law of grace which they were under ( as aforesaid . ) . that therefore they that will be justified at last , must trust in christ that redeemed them , and be careful to perform the conditions of his law of grace , and both must concurr . . that that which is the righteousness which must justifie us in judgment , is the same that must now constitute us just . . that when our right to salvation is the thing in question to be judged , that which justifieth our right to salvation , justifieth the person as to that right ; and so far the same thing is the condition of our right to salvation and to our justification . . and if any with augustine will mean by [ iustification ] god 's making us such as the iudge will justifie by sentence and execution , then our conversion is part of that justification . . that scripture sometimes taketh justification in that sence , and most frequently by [ righteousness ] meaneth that which consisteth in our acts and habits : in all this there is no place for controversie or disagreement . § . . they that say , that we must have inherent and performed righteousness , but that no man is at all justified by it , must take justifying in some particular limitted sence , ( which therefore they should explain by distinction ) or else they speak gross contradiction : for it is no righteousness if it constitute not the owner righteous , so far , or in that point ; nor yet if the owner may not be justified by it in iudgment , against the accusation of being in that point or so far unrighteous . if he that doth righteousness is righteous , that righteousness will materially justifie him against the false accusation of the contrary . § . . yea , while they make faith , repentance and holiness but signs and evidences of our right to life-eternal , they thereby allow it some place in justification : for evidence hath its place in judgment : and they are moral evidences , and not physical only . § . . if men understood how atheological and perilous it is to conceit , that either faith or any thing of ours , ( no though we were innocent , ) is any proper efficient cause of god's own internal acts in our justification , and would understand that all can be no more than dispositio receptiva , which dr. twisse calls causa dispositiva , a meer receptive aptitude , which is but the qualification causae materialis , that is , of the subject to be justified , it would presently lead them out of their vain contention about faith and gospel-obedience herein , and shew them how each in several respects and instances qualifie man for the beginning or continuance of justification , or for right to glory . § . . it seemeth strange to some , to find the whole old testament , and all christ's sermons , and all the other apostles , inculcating inherent and performed righteousness , as that which men must be judged about , to life or death , and yet to find paul so oft pleading against justification by works . but if we will take the scripture together , and not by incoherent scraps , the reconciliation is evident . man is now sinful , and condemned by the first law , and is now under a law of grace , that freely giveth pardon and life through a redeemer , to those that believingly accept the gift according to its nature , and consent by repentance to turn to god , and live a holy life in sincerity : now god doth through all the scripture tell us , that no one shall pass with god for a just man , or be saved , that will not do this , but shall be condemned further for refusing it : and thus he that doth righteousness is righteous , and all shall be judged according to their works , thus required by the law of grace . to deny this , is to deny the scope of the whole scripture , and the government of god. but paul disputed against those that taught that the gentiles must be proselyted , and keep the law of moses , or else they could not be accounted just men , nor be saved : and he proveth , that the gentiles being under the law of grace , may pass with god for just men and be saved , if they [ believingly accept the gift of grace according to its nature , and consent by repentance to turn to god , and live a holy life in sincerity ] though they keep not the jewish law : yea , further , that though the jewish fathers were obliged to keep that law , it was as it belonged to the covenant of grace and of faith , and that before that law was given abraham and others , were just and saved by faith , according to the universal law of grace ; and that the task of works , according to the mosaical law , will of it self make no man just or savable , and consequently no other task of works , which would make the reward to be not of grace but of debt , and is opposed to , or separated from redemption and the free condonation and donation of the covenant of grace . ] this is the plain drift of paul. § . . works of evangelical gratitude , love , and obedience , according to the law of grace , subordinate to , and supposing redemption and the free gift of pardon and life to penitent believing accepters , are those that christ and iames and all the scripture make necessary to salvation ; and our consent and covenant so to obey is necessary to our first or initial iustification ; and our actual obedience to the continuance and confirmation of it . but a task of works either of moses's law or any other set against redemption and free grace , or not as aforesaid , duly subordinate to them , is disclaimed by paul and all christians , as that which can constitute no man just in god's account , nor such a one as hath right to salvation . § . . i verily think , that were their verbal and notional differences discussed , and men understood themselves and one another , it will prove , that this aforesaid is the true meaning of almost all christians , and that they agree in this sence , while they mischievously contend about ill or unexplained words . § . . what i have said of justification , is mostly true of pardon of sin : pardon is threefold , . constitutive , which is god's giving us a right to impunity : this is god's act by the pardoning covenant or law of grace . . by sentence , judging us so pardoned . . executive , taking off , or not inflicting punishment deserved . § . . god's non punire , and nolle punire , not-punishing and his will not to punish , are true pardon when the sinner , and sin and guilt are pre-existent : but they are no pardon before ; because not capable of such a relation and denomination for want of a real terminus . therefore god's eternal will to pardon , or his not punishing man from eternity before man was man , or sinful , must have no such name ; which afterward it may have without any change in god , but in man only . § . . some worthy men say , that pardon is not justification , nor to be pardoned is to be righteous ; and that righteousness is never taken in scripture for pardon , but many score or hundred times for our performance of our duty according to the law of grace : therefore they would have righteousness and pardon still distinguished . § . . but i have plainly before proved , that righteousness hath many parts , and the word many sences , and though pardon be not that righteousness which consisteth in a conformity to the precept , ( and so is not our universal righteousness ) yet pardon is ( passive ) that righteousness which consisteth in our right to impunity both as to the punishment of loss and sence : and pardon with adoption or the gift of life , is that righteousness which consisteth in our right to life eternal . § . . . all mens sins are pardoned potentially and conditionally in the law of grace . . no mens sins are pardoned actually ( as to a right of impunity ) till they are penitent believers , or consent to the covenant of grace ( if at age . ) . these penitent believers sins are pardoned virtually before they are committed , supposing them but sins of insirmity , but this is properly no pardon , nor so to be called , because it is but the position of those things which will cause pardon hereafter . to be only virtual , is not to exist , but to be in causis . but it is too grosly inferred hence by some , that it is not god then that actually justifieth , but man that performeth the condition ; as if the condition which is but a suspension of the donation , ( and the performance a removal of the suspending cause ) were the donative efficient ; and so the receiver were the giver . as if he that opened the window were the sun or efficient cause of the light ; or he that lets off a crossbow by removing the stop , were the spring that effecteth the motion of the arrow . § . . neither pardon nor justification are perfect before death : for there are some correcting punishments to be yet born , some sins not fully destroyed , some grace yet wanting , more sins to be forgiven , more conditions thereof to be performed . the final and executive pardon and justification are only perfect . chap. xxii . of the imputation of righteousness . § . . the great contentions that have been about this point , tell us how needfull it is to distinguish between real and verbal controversies : the opening of the doctrine of redemption before , chap. xi . hath done most that is needful to the solution of this case , we are commonly agreed in these following points . § . . . that no man hath a righteousness of his own performance , by which he could be justified , were he to be judged by the law of innocency ; that is , all are sinners , and deserve everlasting death . § . . . that jesus the mediator undertook to fulfil all the law which god the father gave him , even the law of nature , the law of moses , and that which was proper to himself , that thereby god's wisdom , goodness , truth , justice , and mercy , might be glorified , and the ends of god's government be better attained , than by the destruction of the sinful world ; and all this he performed in our nature , and suffered for us in our stead ; and was the second adam , or root to believers . § . . . that for this , as the meritorious cause , god hath given him power over all flesh , that he might give eternal life to as many as are drawn to him by the father , and given him , joh. . . he is lord of all , and all power in heaven and earth is given him , matth. . . and he is made head over all things to the church , eph. . , . rom. . : and for these his merits , a covenant , or law of grace is made to sinful man , by which all his sins are freely pardoned , and right to impunity and life is freely given him , if he will accept it , and penitently turn to god. § . . . whenever a man is pardoned and justified ( or hath right to life ) this law of grace doth it , as god's donative instrument : and whoever is so pardoned and justified , it is for and by these merits of christ's righteousness . § . . . but christ doth initially pardon and justifie none by this covenant but penitent believers , and therefore hath made it our duty to repent and believe , that we may be forgiven , and have right to life ; as the condition , without which his donative and condonative act shall be suspended . § . . . god never judgeth falsely , but knoweth all things to be what they are : and therefore he reputeth christ's meritorious righteousness and sacrifice , to be the meritorious cause of all mens justification , who are justified ( and of the conditional pardon of all the world , cor. . , , . ) and as sufficient and effectual to the assigned ends , as our own personal righteousness or suffering would have been , and more ( though it be not so ours , as that of our own performance would have been , nor so immediately give us our right to impunity and life , but mediately by the covenant . ) § . . . and as god reputeth christ's righteousness to be the prime meritorious cause for which we are justified by the law of grace , as afore-said , so he truly reputeth our own faith and repentance ( or covenant-consent ) to be our moral qualification for the gift , and our holiness and perseverance to be our moral qualification for final iustification and glory ; which qualification being the matter of the command of the law of grace , and the condition of its promise , is so far our righteousness indeed , and oft so called in the scripture , as is aforesaid . § . . . therefore god may in this sence be truly said , both to impute righteousness to us , and to impute christ's righteousness to us , and to impute our faith for righteousness to us in several respects . § . . thus much being commonly agreed on , should quiet the minds of divines that are not wise and righteous overmuch ; and it beseemeth us not to make our arbitrary words and notions about the doctrine of our peace with god , to be engines to break the church's peace , seeing angels preached to us this great truth ; that christ came into the world for glory to god in the highest , and for peace on earth , and for good-will or love from god to man ( or mutual compla●ency ; ) and his servants should not turn his gospel into matter of strife . § . . that which we are yet disagreed about , is the names and notions following : as , . what is meant by the phrase of [ imputing ] in several texts of scripture ; as rom. . . [ that righteousness might be imputed ( or reckoned ) to them also . ] ans. the words seem to me to have no difficulty , but what men by wrangling put into them . to have righteousness impu●ed to them , is to be reputed , judged , or accounted as righteous men , and so used ( the cause being not in the phras● it self , but fore-described . ) § . . so what is meant , rom. . . by imputing righteousness without works ? ans. plainly , reputing , or judging a man righteous without the works which paul there meaneth . § . . so what is meant by not imputing sin , psal. . . cor. . . rom. . . lev. . . sam. . . sam. . . rom. . ? ans. not-judging a man as a sinner guilty of punishment , not charging his sin upon him in judgment ; which is as sam. . . &c. because he is not truly guilty ; or as rom. . . &c. because he is forgiven . § . . . what is meant by [ imputing our faith to us for righteousness ? ] but of that more purposely anon . § . . . whether imputing christ's righteousness to us , be a scripture-phrase ? ans. not that i can find . § . . . whether it be a fit or lawful phrase , and whether in so great matters , departing from scripture-phrase , and pretending it necessary so to do , be not adding to god's word , or the cause of corruptions and divisions in the church , and an intimation that we can speak better than the holy ghost ? ans. god hath not tied us to use only scripture-words or phrases ; and use may make them convenient and needful for some times and places , which else are less significant or congruous . and in this case i see not , but that the phrase is lawful well explained . but if any will pretend their own phrases to be more necessary than they are , and will calumniate those as not orthodox , who will not use them , or subscribe to them , i cannot justifie such from the guilt of presumption , and injury to the church , the truth and christ , and the love of brethren . § . . . whether they that affirm , that christ's righteousness is imputed to us , or those that deny it are to be accounted orthodox ? ans. perhaps both , if they both hold the same sound doctrine under various phrases : and perhaps neither , if by their various phrases , each mean something that is unsound . § . . they heinously err , who deny christ's righteousness to be so far imputed to us , as to be reputed the meritorious cause of our pardon and right to life ( or our justification ) performed by our mediator , as the sponsor of the new covenant , ( for our sakes , and his sufferings in our stead ) as is afore-expressed . § . . and they heinously err , and subvert the gospel , who say , that christ's righteousness is so imputed to us , as that god reputeth , or judgeth christ to have been perfectly holy and righteous ( or obedient ) and to have suffered , though not in the natural , yet in the legal or civil person of the sinner or believer , as their strict and proper representer ; and reputeth us to have been perfectly holy , righteous , or obedient in christ , as our representer , and so to have our selves fulfilled all righteousness in and by him , and in him to have satisfied justice , and meri●ed eternal life , and christ's righteousness to be ours in the same sence of propriety , as it was his own : for his divine righteousness is the essence of god , and his humane his habits , acts , and relations , which are the accidents of his own person only as the subject , and cannot be in another ( as is after shewed . ) § . . though most of us now leave this doctrine to the antinomians or libertines , yet so many protestants formerly have seemed to own it by their unmeet phrases , in extreme opposition to the papists , or at least to come too near it , as hath greatly scandalized and hardened their adversaries , and injured the reformed churches . § . . the person of our mediator was neither in the sence of the law , or in god's account , properly the person of the sinner ; christ and we are distinct persons . § . . had we been perfectly holy , innocent , and obedient in christ , it would follow , . that we are justified by the law of innocency , as having perfectly done all that it commanded us , which is not true : it is by the pardoning law of grace that we are justified . § . . . that we have no need of pardon , nor of christ's sufferings for our pardon , nor of prayer for pardon , nor any means for it ; for he needeth no pardon that is perfectly innocent . § . . . therefore they assert contradictions when they say , that we both perfectly obeyed by , and in christ , and yet suffered or satisfied in , or by him for our disobedience . § . . . it would follow , that all penalties ( even corrective ) laid on us by god , are injuries , or no penalties , because we are innocent . § . . . and that god's denying us any helps of his spirit , and permitting the remnant of our sin yet unhealed , and the weakness of our graces , are an injurious denying us our right . § . . . it would follow , that we have present right to the present possession of the whole reward , both grace and glory , and that our delay is our wrong ; because he that is supposed to have done all that the law maketh his duty from his birth till his death , hath right to the reward by the law or covenant . § . . . and it would follow , that no duty could be required of us as a condition of any benefit purchased by christ , nor any sin charged on us so far as to be indeed our sin , because we are reputed perfectly holy and innocent . § . . many other such consequents i pass by , and other arguments against this opinion , and the confutation of the contrary , because i have done it all elsewhere , especially in a peculiar discourse on this * subject , and in my disputations of justification . § . . christ's own righteousness habitual or actual , is not ours , as it is his , in strict sence in it self , as if we were the proprietors , the subjects of his habits , or the agents of his acts : for it is impossible that the accidents of several subjects should be the same . § . . and the form of christ's righteousness is therefore no more ours , than the matter : for righteousness in christ , and righteousness in each believer , are distinct righteousnesses . § . . many divines have pleaded , that christ's righteousness is the form of ours ; and others , that it is the matter ; and others , that it is the meritorious cause ; and have too much troubled the church with logical notions . the meritorious cause it is undoubtedly ; and they that say , that it cannot then be the material cause , must consider , that we mean , that it is the matter of the meritorious cause : and had we been innocent our selves , would not our innocency have been both the matter of our righteousness ( or merit ) and the meritorious cause of our right to life . § . . but this supposeth that the matter of the gospel subordinate righteousness which consisteth in that repentance , faith , and holiness , which is required in us to our right to life , is to be found in our selves , and not in christ for us . § . . but the form of christ's righteousness cannot be the form of ours , as is aforesaid ; but it is the form of that which is the meritorious cause of ours : but what need have we of th●se disputes ? § . . the not imputing of sin , is called also by some , the form of iustification ; and by others , that , and the imputation of righteousness conjunct ; and by others , that , and god's accepting us as righteous ; others call these the matter of iustification ; and thus mens logick , ill-managed , troubleth the hearers , which i would not mention , had it not been necessary to disintangle them . § . . they that will dispute what is the form of iustification , must first confess the ambiguity of the word , and tell us in which sence they take it : there are so many things that are truly the form of iustification taken in many sences , that without such distinguishing to dispute of the form of iustification , is worse than to say nothing : iustification taken actively , as the act of the iustifyer ▪ hath one form : iustification passively taken for the state of the justified , hath another form : and ●●ch of these are subdivided into many acts , and many effects , which have each their form . the act of pardoning sin , is one thing , and therefore hath one form : the act of making us inherently righteous , or performers of the condition of the covenant of grace hath another form : the act of esteeming us righteous , hath another : the act of our advocate defending our righteousness , another . the act of justifying-evidence and witness , another : the act of sentencing us righteous , another : and the act of executive justification , or rewarding and saving us , as righteous , another . and accordingly iustification passively taken , hath as many forms as it signifieth various effects . to be in a state of conditional iustification , to be performers of the condition of the law of grace , to have jus impunitatis , right to impunity ( that is , to be pardoned ) and to have jus doni & praemii regni coelestis , a right to glory , as a gift , and as a reward ( in several respects ) are all effects of god's foresaid acts , and every one hath its proper being and form : and all this as given us ; for the merits of christ's righteousness , concur to make up our whole iustification as constitutive and virtual in law ; and each part hath its proper form : and then apologetick , judiciary ( or sentential ) and executive justification , are also various species , which have their forms . § . . obj. unius rei unica est forma : justification is one thing , and therefore hath but one form . ans. . one iustification is but one thing ; but there are divers things so called , even in scripture . when christ saith , by thy words thou shalt be justified , mat. . and paul saith , that we are justified by the ●pirit of god , cor. . . and iohn saith , he that is just , let him ▪ be justified still , rev. . they have not all the same sence . . one thing may have one form , and yet it s many parts have many forms : our righteousness taken for the whole of it , is one whole , whose form is signified by that general name of our total righteousness ; and yet its parts are all those before-mentioned , which yet each severally are commonly called righteousness . but of these things before . § . . either then let us meddle as little as may be , with arbitrary logical notions in theology , or let us handle them exactly , or else unskilful using them in weighty matters , becomes a vain entangling of poor souls , and a childish way of troubling the church of god. the truth is , the forms of such acts are best known by their bare names , if they be rightly named ; and by the name many understand what they are , where neither they nor their teachers can find other words by which to give you a fair definition of them , which maketh me think of some of our over-wise , and over-righteous catechizers of the ignorant , who use to turn plain , honest persons from the sacrament of communion , if they cannot tell them what god is , what holiness is , what faith , repentance , sanctification , iustification , adoption is , by some congruous description , when yet a wise examination might shew , that by the name they understand the matter it self , though not by distinct notions ; and when the catechizer too often would be found shamefully to seek , if he were put to answer his own questions by a true definition ( as i have tried . ) § . . to conclude , there are many sharp volumes written of late , which reproach imputed righteousness , to which they seem induced by some mens misexplication of it ; and by such unwarrantable words as some independents use of it , in their savoy-confession : and they dream that we deny all necessity of personal fulfilling the conditions of the law of grace , as a means of our justification and salvation : but they utterly wrong the generality of divines of my acquaintance and notice : and i must tell them , for the independents , that they did not subscribe or vote that confession , as some present assure me , but only a very few men brought it in and read it , and none spake against it : and some worthy persons of that assembly , upon conference , assure me , that how ill soever it be worded , they themselves did mean it as i and other protestants do , and did disclaim the obvious ill sence . and i add , had these contenders but taken up with the distinction of imputation which mr. bradshaw giveth in the preface to his reconciling tractate of iustification , it might have quieted them ; by informing them , in what sence christ's righteousness is imputed to us , and in what not : and they would have seen that which is not ours , as proprietaries of the thing it self in se , may be called ours , because the effects are ours , and it was given to god , for the meriting of those effects for us . chap. xxiii . how faith justifieth ; and how it is imputed to us for righteousness . § . . about this also there are many needless notional controversies among men that are agreed in the matter it self : as whether faith justifie as it receiveth christ in all his mediatorial office , as prophet , priest and king ? or only as in his priestly office ? and whether , as it receiveth him in all the parts of that office , or which ? or as it receiveth his righteousness only ? whether faith justifie us as an instrument only ? or as a condition ? or as meritorious ? whether it justifie us by being it self imputed to us for righteousness , or it be christ's righteousness only that is so imputed ? whether faith alone justifie us , or also repentance , desire , hope , or any other acts of the soul towards christ ? whether only faith in christ justifie , and not faith in god the father , or belief of the promise , or of heaven ? &c. of all which briefly . § . . i. the word [ receiving ] ( christ , grace , &c. ) hath two different sences necessarily to be distinguished : . physical receiving is the strict sence , as pati and recipere are all one : which is , . to receive the meer act of the agent terminatively ; or , . to receive a further effect of that act. . moral receiving is nothing but accepting of an offered thing by consent of will : and so to receive supposeth an offer , and is nothing but consent to it . § . . to receive grace in the strict physical sence , is to be made gracious , or to be the patients of the operation of grace if it be real : but to receive relative grace physically , is nothing but to be made so related : so to receive sanctification is to be sanctified , and to receive justification or pardon , is nothing but to be justified or pardoned . § . . but how is christ himself physically received ? that were easily known , if you knew how he is physically given . but for a gift of christ's person by physical attingency , we can say nothing of it by scripture-warrant , that i know of : it is no matter for our disputes . but in two sences christ is said to be given to us : . in relation , as a king to his subjects , or a husband to his wife : and so we physically receive those relations , as aforesaid : that is , we are made related to him . . in the real communication of the spirit of christ to us : and so we physically receive the spirit in its operations ; that is , he worketh them on us : this is the first sence of receiving . § . . but morally to receive grace , or christ , is but to consent that grace and christ be ours : as a subject , a servant , a wife , consent to their relation ; and this is our faith , and not the former . § . . where note , that moral receiving ( or consent ) is but a means of physical receiving ( or having ) and a means which maketh not the thing ours ▪ any otherwise , than as the will of the giver doth appoint , and give it its power thereunto . this moral receiving or accepting is but dispositio recipientis , as to having or physical reception ; as there must be in all things dispositio materiae ad formam recipiendam : he that will not accept the gift , is accounted by the giver morally unfit for it . § . . but this is not spoken of every gift ; but of such as are offered by the giver on the condition of thankful acceptance . for god giveth many things absolutely ; as christ was given to be man's redeemer , and christ gave his covenant , gospel , and apostles , and sendeth the word to many that before have it not , and giveth the first grace , which causeth mens acceptance of the other , and all this not on the condition of their acceptance : but the gifts bestowed by the baptismal covenant of grace , are all given on condition of our moral receiving or acceptance . § . . this necessary distinction of receiving being premised , i answer the question as followeth : . to be justified , is to be the physical receiver of goa's justifying act , and nothing else in proper sence . § . . . no man physically receiveth christ's person ( as far as we can prove or understand ) nor christ's own righteousness in it self ; but we physically receive our relation to christ , and the spirits operations , and our right to impunity and life . § . . . we at once sensu physico , receive our relation to christ as our head , that is , our redeeming owner , ruler and saviour , or prophet , as priest and king ; and not to one first , and to another after . § . . . in the same instant of time that we receive our relation to christ , as aforesaid , we receive with him , as his grace , by the same donative act of the covenant , our right to impunity and life , even to the complacential special love of the father , and the communion of the holy ghost , and so are justified . § . . . our moral receiving of christ himself as our saviour , is the antecedent condition of our foresaid physical reception or participation , being appointed by god to that use or office . § . . . this moral receiving is that faith which i before at large described , and is sometime called believing , and sometime trusting , because it is in whole a believing fiducial consent . § . . . this belief and consent or acceptance , hath essentially for its object all that is essential to christ , as our saviour ; his natures , person , his humiliation , obedience , his sacrifice and resurrection , his intercession , dominion , judgment , together with his doctrine , promises , and grace ; besides god himself and the heavenly glory : and it is not true faith that hath not all this , at least confusedly and in some degree . § . . . they that say , faith justifyeth as it receiveth christ's righteousness , and not as it receiveth christ himself in relation , or at least not as teacher , lord , intercessor , &c. do draw men into deceit by a phrase which intimateth a false supposition , or two , viz. . it is false that faith justifieth us , if they mean efficiently ; as shall be shewed anon . but it is true , ( though some deny it ) that faith justifyeth constitutively , so far as it is it self our personal inherent righteousness , ( of which after ) : but this they mean not : nor is faith in christ's righteousness any more our inherent righteousness than faith in his promises , his intercession or his government , or in god the father . . it is false , that faith as faith doth justifie ; either as it is faith in this or that or the other part of the office of christ ; for then we should be justified , as they call it , by that ●o credere ; and then if god had not made faith the condition of justification , yet qua talis it would have justified . § . . . but the case is very plain : there is considerable in faith , . it s nature , and that is only its material aptitude to its office : . the office it self , and that is to be the condition appointed by god the donor , of our interest in his gifts ( and so of justification ) . now it justifieth not efficiently at all ( unless you take justification for making us holy ) . but it is the condition of justification , and so we are said to be justified by it as by a condition ; but it is not a condition , qua fides , or as it receiveth christ's righteousness , but as it is made by god a condition in his covenant . but faith , as faith in christ , is the matter of this condition : or its aptitude to its office is in faith qua talis : and no other had been so fit : but then it is not only our belief or acceptance of christ's righteousness that is this aptitude : nothing but entire faith in its essentials is this matter and aptitude , and the formal reason of its place or office about our justification , is its being the condition appointed thereto in the instrument of donation . § . . . were the question about physical receiving , it were true , that a man is justified quatenus , as he receiveth justification , and adopted as he receiveth adoption , and sanctified as he receiveth sanctification , and glorified as he receiveth glorification , and not something else ; as he is rich as he receiveth riches , and honourable as he receiveth honour , &c. but moral acceptance of one thing is oft made the condition of our having another thing ; and here our acceptance of whole christ is our undivided condition-title to him and his gifts . we are no more justified for or by consenting to be justified , than for or by consenting to be sanctified , and to learn of christ , and obey him . § . . yea more ; men use to put that into the condition of something which the person fain would have , which he is more backward to , and would not else do or have . a physician useth not to say , thou shalt be cured if thou consent to be cured ; but if thou consent to take my medicines and follow my prescript . a father will not say to the child , i will give thee this apple if thou wilt have it ; but if thou wilt thank me for it , and do thy duty : so if we might make a difference in the reason of the thing , we should say , that god saith not only , thou shalt have christ's righteousness , or justification by it , if thou wilt have it ; no more than [ thou shalt be saved from hell if thou wilt ] ( and who would not be forgiven ? ) but [ thou shalt have christ and life , pardon , grace and glory , if thou wilt thankfully take them together as they are , or wilt be taught and ruled by christ , and renounce the world , the flesh , and the devil , and take god and glory for thy all . ] § . . christ's own righteousness being not essentially given to us in it self , but given for us ; and to us in the effects , to say , that the receiving of that which is not given , is the only justifying act of faith , is to say , that we are not justified by faith at all . but if they mean the effects of christ's righteousness , then it is but to say , we are justified by no act of faith , but by consenting to be justified by christ's merits : which is not true . § . . they contradict themselves that make christ's priestly office the only object of justifying faith , and yet make his whole righteousness and merit that object : for who knoweth not , that all christ's righteousness was not performed by him only as priest. § . . and christ's priesthood hath many other actions belonging to it , besides his merits offered for us : even his present intercession : which must be excluded , if christ's righteousness here , as under the law , were the only object of this faith. § . . ii. the second question i had never troubled the world about so much as i have done , had i not found too many protestants scandalize the papists , by laying too much on the nation of instrumentality , ill explained . but the judicious are here all in sence of the same mind . § . . for by an instrument they mean not , . an instrumental efficient cause of justification : . nor of making christ's righteousness ours : for we give it not to our selves . . but they take the word instrument mechanically or less accurately , and tell us , that they mean a receiving instrument , as a boy * catcheth a ball in his hat : but so as that it is a moral instrument , that is , both materially a moral act , and the instrument of a moral not physical reception . § . . but when they have all done , they do but entangle and trouble themselves and others with an unapt logical notion : for ( as it is so easie to confute the gross conceit , that faith is an instrumental efficient cause ( either god's or man's ) of our justification ; ( which i have done so oft , that i will here pretermit it , so ) this notion of a passive instrument is unapt , because , . the act of assent is essential to this justifying faith , as well as acceptance ; and so is trust , which yet are no more instrumental in reception , than many other acts , even love , desire , hope . . because our consent to other things , as well as to be justified , and our faith in god the father , are as truly the condition of our iustification , as our consent to be justified . . and because this metaphorical use of the word instrument , leadeth people to dream of proper instrumentality , and misleadeth them from the apter notions : the covenant-donation is the justifying instrument . § . . i conclude therefore summarily , . faith , as faith in the father , son , and holy ghost , in the sence of the baptismal covenant , is the apt matter to be the condition of our justification by the gift of that covenant . . if justification be taken for making us just performers of the conditions of the covenant of grace ; so faith justifieth us , . constitutively initially , as it is the beginning of that righteousness it self . . and by a moral efficiency , as it is a cause of love and obedience . . if justification be taken for the gift , or right to impunity and life in and with christ , so faith is the condition of it , and no otherwise justifieth . . but if any will call this by the name of a submerit , with the ancients , meaning but that it meriteth justification , as a child meriteth a piece of gold from his father , by putting off his hat , and saying , i thank you , and humbly taking it , instead of scornful or neglectful refusing it , i will not quarrel with any such . § . . but remember , that as wise men seldom make any thing a condition of a gift , which hath no worth in it to please them ; so god saw , and put such a worth or aptitude in faith , or else he had not so much as commanded it . § . . but yet a condition simply as such , signifieth neither merit nor causality at all ; but only the terms on which the gift shall be suspended , till they be performed : and so the performance of a condition as such , is no efficien 〈…〉 of the gift , but a removing of the suspending impediment . § . . therefore dr. twisse oft calleth faith causam dispositivam justificationis , which belongeth not to the efficient , but material or recipient cause ; and the true legal notion of its next interest in our justification , is its being [ conditio praestita ] and the true logical notion is to be [ dispositio moralis materiae , sive subjecti recipientis ] call it causam vel conditionem dispositivam , as you please : and i think this question needs no more . § . . iii. as to the third question , the truth is obvious , that christ's righteousness is imputed , and yet faith is imputed to us for righteousness in several sences ; that is , each is reputed to be to us what indeed it is . two things make up the sence of faith's being imputed to us for righteousness : . faith is really the condition of the covenant of grace , which whoso performeth , he is righteous against the charge of non-performance of that condition ; and it is reputed our subordinate , evangelical personal , righteousness : . and supposing christ's merits and our redemption by him , this gospel-righteousness is all that is required of us on our parts , instead of all that perfect obedience which the law of innocency required . so that our faith ( taken in the scripture-sence ) is our real righteousness related to the condition of the new covenant , and instead of a more perfect righteousness of innocency ; forasmuch as after christ's redemption , is required to be performed by our selves . § . . this , no christians that are sober , can deny , as to the thing : and as to the name , it is plain to the impartial that will see that paul , rom. . , , . and iam. . . by faith means faith it self indeed , and not only christ the object of faith , as some affirm , with too great scandal : read over the texts , and try what sence it will be , if you put [ christ ] instead of [ faith. ] ▪ § . . obj. but it is not faith in , and of it self that 's meant , but as connoting the object . ans. the latter clause is true : it is faith , as connoting the object , christ : but the former is a contradiction . for faith it self essentially connoteth the object : if you speak not of faith in genere ( for it is not any kind of faith that is our righteousness ) but of the christian , or new covenant faith in specie , who knoweth not that the object specifieth it ? and therefore if it be christian faith , as connoting the object , it is christian faith as christian faith . § . . but will any sober christian deny , that 〈…〉 ur righteousness in one sence , and faith 〈…〉 inate 〈…〉 in another , and that both are accord 〈…〉 ed to us ? how fain would some men differ , if they could , or seem to do it , when they do not ? § . . iv. as to the fourth question , i answer , . we are all agreed , that god will not pardon , justifie , or save any , without both faith and repentance , and desire , as necessary moral qualifications of the receiver : and this shall serve turn , if any like not the term [ condition ] and be willing to be quiet . § . . . faith in a narrow sence , as signifying meer assent , is distinct from repentance ; but faith in that sence as is meant in baptism , and hath the promise of justification and life , is more the same with repentance than many perceive . for repentance is the change of the mind from evil to good ? and the good necessary to our salvation , is a fiducial practical consent to the covenant of grace , or a practical faith in god the father , son , and holy ghost : and to turn to this , is to repent and be converted ; even to turn from the contrary acts and objects to this fiducial consenting belief in god the father , son , and spirit ; and what else is repenting , but this change ? § . . . it was never paul's meaning , under the name of works , to exclude repentance , and all acts of faith , save one , and thankfulness , and desire , and hope , and prayer , &c. while they keep their place in subordination to christ : they do but confound sacred doctrines and mens minds , that so imagine . § . . and the same spirit that saith , he that believeth , shall be saved , saith also , he that calleth on the name of the lord , shall be saved , rom. . . and we are saved by hope , rom. . . and we are saved by the washing of regeneration , and renewing of the holy ghost , tit. . , . and by believing the articles of the creed , cor. . . and blessed are they that kee● his commandments , that they may have right to the tree of life ( that right is our righteousness ) and may enter in , &c. rev. . . by taking heed to himself and to doctrine , timothy was to save himself and his hearers , tim. . . many such texts i have elsewhere cited , which are all true . § . . v. as to the fifth question , it is answered before in the description of faith : as the father , son , and holy spirit , are one god , so faith in them is , one faith ; and no man can truly believe in christ , that believeth not in the father ; our belief in god , as god , and love to him , is that salvation to which christ is to bring us : and the consent to use the remedy , includeth the consent to have health or to be saved : and our belief in god , as our redeemer , even christ , is the chief part of our mediate faith : in a word ; all that belief which is necessary to the baptized , is necessary to our iustification : but that is our belief in father , son , and holy ghost ( in the measure that they are revealed . ) chap. xxiv . of assurance of our justification , and of hope . § . . assurance of perseverance and salvation , is not here to be spoken of , but only of our present iustification : and they are distinct questions . . what assurance is desirable . . what assurance is attainable . . what assurance we actually have , and who have it . . what is the nature and grounds of this assurance . § . . i. some pleaded so much for the usefulness of uncertainty and doubting , as if it were the safest condition to keep us humble and watchful , as excited luther and other reformers to take them for utter enemies to christian comfort . and certainly assurance is a most desirable thing ; it kindleth in us the love of god ; it maketh duty sweet ; it maketh sufferings easie , and death less terrible , and heaven more desired , and consequently cureth an earthly mind , and leadeth man to a heavenly conversation , and putteth life into all his endeavours : whereas a man that is still utterly in doubt of his state of salvation , and right to life , will be loath to die , and therefore love this present world , and have less thankful and loving thoughts of god and his redeemer , and so all sin will have advantage , and holiness a great impediment . an infidel will confess , that such assurance is exceeding desirable . § . . ii. and no doubt but a comfortable degree of assurance is attainable , or else god would never have so fully differenced the righteous and the wicked , and commanded all to examine and try themselves , and to make sure : but this i have often elsewhere proved . § . . iii. but all true believers have not assurance of their justification , because they are not certain that their faith is such as hath the promise of justification : he that believeth perceiveth that he believeth , but yet may be uncertain that his faith is so sincere , as no unjustified man can have . § . . their justification is real , or true , or certain in it self ; but the evidence of it may be dark , and their perception of the evidence defective ; from whence it is to them uncertain ; that is , not known with that full satisfaction of mind , which we call assurance . § . . yea , experience telleth us , that it is but a small part of the most religious christians , who will say themselves ▪ that they are certain of their iustification ; and of those few that are forwardest to say so , all have it not . § . . therefore justifying faith is not assurance that we are justified ; otherwise all should have assurance that have faith ; and justifying faith in order of nature , goeth before iustification , but assurance that we are justified , followeth it ; we cannot be assured that we are justified , but by being assured that we believe : but it 's absurd to say , [ i am assured i am justified , because i am assured that i am justified . ] but this is only against the antinomians . § . . no man hath perfect assurance , that is the highest degree in this life : for if all our graces be imperfect , our assurance must needs be imperfect . § . . iv. this assurance then is not properly divine faith , or a belief of god's word ; but it is a clear and satisfying perception of our own justification , because we are clearly satisfied , that god's promises are true , and that we are true believers . § . . this certainty is not by an immediate word or revelation of the spirit in us ; but yet the spirit is all these ways the cause of it in the faithful . . the spirit working us to god's image and will , is our assuring-evidence , or the minor in that argument , whose conclusion we are assured of ( as the spirit in the word is the major . ) . the spirit in believers helpeth them to perceive his own works in them , and know their evidence : . and also to rejoyce in that perception . this is the witness of the spirit which we mean , and not immediate revelation . § . . though hope be sometimes about things certain , yet it is often also about that which we are not certain of : and more have true hopes of salvation , than have assurance of it , or of their title to it : for hope may be exercised upon probabilities , and most usually it is so . § . . strong probability , with little reason of doubting , may cause such strong hopes as may cause us to live and die with comfort : if doubting be small , and hope be great , the peace and ioy will be greater than the fear and trouble . § . . bellarmin's moral certainty is more than most christians attain to , and his , and other mens concession thereof tell us , that in this point our difference is less than those have thought , who have said it was sufficient cause of our separation from rome . § . . while we are certain that this world is fading vanity , and that there is no hope of felicity on earth , and that therefore godliness can cost us the loss of nothing but vanity , a faith short of certainty , and mixt with doubting , about the very truth of the promise it self , and life eternal , may engage a man savingly in a holy life , and the forsaking of all for the hopes of glory : and such doubting , even of the life to come , or of the gospel , as keepeth not men from trusting to it for their felicity , and seeking it above all , and forsaking all for it , will keep no man from salvation , though it be his sin , and the cause of other sins . much more may this be done when men doubt not of god's word , or the state of glory , but only of their own sincerity , justification and salvation . chap. xxv . of good works and merit , and trusting to any thing of our own . § . . here are several controversies that trouble our peace , but few of them that are so great as they are commonly imagined : as , . what are good works ( which indeed is of great weight , and the chief in which we really differ about works . ) . whether they are necessary to justification or salvation . . whether they are meritorious or rewardable . . what place they have , and what is their use and necessity . . whether we may trust to them . § . . i. it is one of the devil 's chief policies in the world , to cast out christ's interest by its counterfeits : to expugn true wisdom by counterfeit wisdom , and true faith by counterfeit faith , and true zeal and piety by counterfeit zeal and piety , and true unity , and concord , and peace , by their counterfeits , and true worship , ministry , discipline , by their counterfeits ; and true comfort by counterfeit comfort ; and so also it is by counterfeit good works , that good works are oft cast off . § . . the measure of all created goodness , is the will of the creator , who is the prime , essential good ; and no work of man is morally good , but what is made so by the will of god ; that is , . efficiently , by his operative will : . directively , by his commanding will : and , . finally and objectively , by his pleased , or fulfilled will. man's wit , will , or interest cannot serve to make any action morally good . § . . he that intendeth god's honour , and the pleasing of his will , and the good of his own or others souls , or the safety of religion , or the church , or state , and useth means hereto , not commanded , or any way appointed him of god ( much more if directly forbidden ) doth not a work that is truly good , but only secundum quid . § . . could we be sure that such a work would save souls , or save church , or state , or our neighbours lives , it would not make it morally a good work ; but only make the effect to be physically good to others that are benefited by it . § . . therefore to build churches , or hospitals , to feed and cloath the poor , to save mens lives , to preach the gospel , are all such as finally do a physical good , and they are the matter of moral good ; but forma denominat : those actions are not morally good , unless , . done in obedience to god's commanding , or ruling will : . and finally to please his will. § . . those priests therefore that set carnal , ungodly sinners ( fornicators , murderers , gluttons , drunkards , lyers , perjured , &c. ) on expiating their sins by good works , without teaching and perswading them to that internal repentance , and conversion of their wills , and holy devotedness to god , by which their works must have a right principle , end , and form , do but delude men , and cheat them by flattery into perdition . § . . much more pernicious is it , to take sin , folly , and superstition , for good works , and look to be saved by that which deserveth damnation , and to expiate sin by sin ; such are the works of persecuters that think they serve god by unjust killing , or imprisoning his servants , or causeless silencing his faithful ministers ; such were the wars of the cro●sad●'s against the waldenses and albigenses ; and such are the works of the inquisition , and their persecuting executioners ; such are rebellions that have fair pretences , as were those against the german emperors , fredericks , henry , &c. and of many of such agents oft against the kings of england ; such hath been the zealous killing of kings , and burning of honest desirable dissenters ; and such is the alienating mens estates from better uses , to maintain a supernumerous sinful , vicious , idle monastery , or their prelatical needless pomp and pride ; or to buy pardons or masses for departed souls ; or to build useless structures to the honour of some saint or angel ; or to set up useless formalities and shadows , as candles by day-light , and abundance such : and such are long pilgrimages to the shrines of such as the pope hath canonized , and to visit relicks , and the carrying about of relicks , with an ungrounded carnal considence in them ; with many such like . § . . so wosully hath the papal party , and not they only , but in too great a measure , the greeks , moscovites , armenians , syrians , coptics , abassines , and most of the churches corrupted the christian religion by their useless or seducing fopperies called good works , that they have among them defiled its purity , rejected its primitive simplicity , obscured and dishonoured its glory , and made it seem contemptible to mahometans and heathens ; and made it less fit to destroy sin , and frustrate satan , and to please god , and to sanctifie and save mens souls . § . . ii. were all sects and parties of christians , well agreed what works are truly good , it would be a shame to us , should we not agree in the main how far they are necessary , when the case is so plain throughout the scripture : i think we are commonly agreed as followeth . § . . . perfect obedience is not of absolute necessity to salvation , because we are under a covenant that hath easier terms . § . . . the works of the mosaical jewish law , are neither necessary necessitate praecepti vel medii , that law not binding us as such . § . . . obedience to man's laws is not necessary , when the matter is forbidden us by god's laws , or when they are laws without power ; that is , such as men have no authority to make . § . . . no works of special grace are antecedently necessary to our reception of that grace , o● of its necessary means . § . . . no external acts of sincere obedience , distinct from internal faith , and repentance , and consent , are necessary before to our first justification ; that is , to our right to impunity and life in christ. § . . . even internal obedience to christ as christ , distinct from our obedience to god as god , and our subjection to christ ( or consent to be his subjects , and obey him ) is not before necessary to our part in christ , or our union , or justification , as in its first state or beginning . § . . . therefore if we should suppose that a man should die immediately upon his first internal faith and consent to the covenant , before he had time to do one act internal or external of formal obedience to christ , as christ , that man would be saved . but the supposition is so utterly improbable , that it is not to be put as a matter of dispute : the thief on the cross performed some obedience . § . . . no works of man's are necessary to profit god , or can add to his perfection or felicity : he needeth not us nor any of our doings . § . . . no works of ours are necessary to make up any defects in the merits of christ , or to any use which is proper to christ or his merits or efficacious grace . § . . . no preparatory works of man's ( i think ) are absolutely before necessary to god's effectual converting of him , ( unless you will call the acts of nature , by which he is fit to hear and think , preparatory works unfitly ) : for god can give his grace to unprepared souls . § . . on the affirmative also we are agreed , . that all mankind are under god's government by some law , and owe him obedience to that law. § . . . that it is only disobedience that god punisheth according to the penal part of that law which men live under . § . . . that it is only obedience which god rewardeth , according to the rewarding or promissory part of the law that men are under . § . . . that the law of grace ( and not only that of innocency ) hath its commands of obedience , and promises of reward . § . . . that men must believe that there is a god before they can believe that christ is the anointed of god and the mediator between god and man ; and therefore must first believe god's soveraign government . § . . . god commandeth men to believe in christ , ( and so maketh it their duty ) and to take him for their lord and saviour by faith. § . . . men ought thus to believe in christ and accept him , in obedience to this command of god , believing that it is his will. § . . . therefore there is some sort of relief in god , and obedience to god , which is in order before our faith in christ : and faith in christ as it is voluntary and free , is an act of such obedience to god. § . . . yet is it the antecedent teaching of christ ( by nature , by the word , or spirit , or all ) by which we now come to know god to be god , and that he is to be believed and obeyed . therefore christ is mens teacher , and thereby bringeth them to believe first in god , before he is known to be their teacher , and believed on himself . as the sun-beams before its rising give some light to the earth . § . . . god hath commanded men that hear not of christ , the use of some means , which mercy hath ( through christ ) afforded them , which have a tendency to their salvation , and should be used to that end . and his bare command to use such means ( much more as seconded with abundance of mercies ) tell us , that he bids not men use them in vain , or without any hope of good success ( of which before ) . § . . . he that heareth of christ and believeth not , or believeth uneffectually , and is not a converted sound believer , is under god's command to use certain means allowed him , to procure faith and true conversion , and that not without all hope of good success . § . . . it is god's ordinary way to give his first special converting grace , to predisposed subjects , prepared by his commoner grace ; in which preparation some acts of man have their part : and the unprepared and undisposed cannot equally expect it . § . . . faith and repentance are acts of man , and pre-requisite to justification : therefore as acts and works are words of the same sence , so works , even works of special grace are pre-requisite to justification . obj. but not as acts , but for the object ? answ. that 's a contradiction . christ is christ whether we believe in him or not ; and it 's one thing to say christ is necessary , and another thing to say , believing in him is necessary : it is not necessary meerly as an act in genere , but as this act in specie ; and it is specified ( as is aforesaid ) by its object . not only christ believed in , but believing in christ is pre-requisite as a moral disposition to justification : and in that sence a work or act of man. § . . . it is before shewed , that this faith is a moral work , containing ( not one only , but ) many physical acts : he that believeth in christ , believeth in him as sent of god , to reconcile us to god , to bring us to glory , to save us from iustice , sin , and enemies , to sanctifie us by his word and spirit , with many such acts that make up the essence of saving-faith : this is the work of god , that ye believe on him whom the father hath sent , joh. . , . § . . . the faith that hath the promise of justification , is essentially a subjecting our selves to christ ; that is , a taking him for our lord and saviour by consent : which is a consent to obey him for the future . § . . . though this actual obedience to christ ( besides subjection ) be not pre-requisite to our first being justified , it is requisite to the continuance of our justification : for we consented to obey , that we might indeed obey , and are per●idious if we do not . § . . . the world and conscience will judge us much according to our works . § . . . the same law of grace being the rule of duty and of iudgment , god will judge all men according to their works , required by that law , by justifying or condemning them . § . . . final justification and glorification are the rewards of evangelical obedience ; and the reason rendered of christ's justifying sentence , matth. . ( & passim ) is from such acts of man , as qualifying them for the free gift of god. § . . . there is a moral goodness in these works of man , by which through christ , they are pleasing to god , which is their aptitude to this acceptance and reward . in all this i think all sober christians must needs confess that they agree . § . . iii. and as to the case of merit , a few words with understanding men may dispatch it . we are agreed on the negative ; . that no man or angel can merit of god in proper commutative justice , giving him somewhat for his benefits that shall profit him , or to which he had not absolute right . . no man can merit any thing of god , upon the terms of the law of innocency , ( but punishment ) . no man can merit any thing of god , unless it be supposed first to be a free gift and merited by christ. § . . and affirmatively we are ( i think ) agreed ; . that god governeth us by a law of grace , which hath a promise or premiant part , which giveth ( not the antecedent , but many consequent benefits ) by way of reward : to deny the rewarding act , is to deny god's law , and the manner of his government . § . . . that god calleth it his iustice to reward men according to his law , and give them what it gave them right to . insomuch , that it is made the second article of our faith , heb. . . to believe that god is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him . and he giveth it as a righteous iudge , tim. . . § . . . that this supposeth that such works of man have a moral aptitude for that reward ; which consisteth in these things : . that they are efficiently from god's spirit . . they are in their measure agreeable to god's governing will. . they are done in love , to his glory , and to please him . . they are done by a member of christ. . they are profitable to men , our selves and others . . the habits and acts are god's own image . . they have the promise of his reward . . they are washed in the blood of christ , that is , their faultiness is pardoned through his merits . . they are presented to god by christ's intercession . . and lastly , they are man's aptitude for the reward in their very nature ; yea , part of it themselves as they are of god ; holiness being the beginning of happiness , or of that love of god which in its perfection is heaven it self : such an aptitude , as that a holy person cannot be miserable , nor can god hate and damn a holy soul that truly loveth and obeyeth him . § . . . this moral aptitude for the reward is amiable and pleasing to god ; and therefore he calleth the reward in the gospel usually 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which properly signifieth wages , which men give by commutative iustice : but that is only metaphorically , because god that cannot be profited by man , is yet pleased in that which profiteth our selves and one another , and glorifieth him by declaring his perfections : and as if this were profiting him , he calleth it wages , for some similitude , but not in proper sence . § . . . this moral aptitude , for the reward is called oft in scripture worthiness , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which is of the same signification with merit : to be worthy and to deserve , are here all one : so that so far merit ( worthiness ) is a scripture phrase . § . . . this worthiness or merit is only in point of paternal governing-iustice , according to the law of grace , ordering that which in it self is a free gift merited by christ. § . . for no man or angel can have any thing of god , but by free gift : what have we which we receive not , when our being is of god ? therefore it must be of governing ordering iustice only : the thing is a gift ; but god will give this gift to his children so wisely as to the order of it , as shall be fittest to attain his ends . therefore it is not by governing justice after the law of innocency or works , but according to the law of grace . so that the sum of the solution is , that . the good received in its value , as good is of god as a benefactor and a free gift . . but in order of collation , it is of god as a wise and righteous governour , even a governing father , and so only it is a reward , and so it is merited . § . . this is easily understood by parens , who intend to give their children freely , out of meer love , their inheritance , and what else they want : and yet they will give them gold or clothes or food , in so wise a manner , as shall engage them to their duty , and will say , put off your hat and thank me , or do this or that ( which is for their own good ) and i will give you this . here it is a gift as to the goodness , and a reward as to the order of giving it . § . . . the ancient christians ( as the writings of all the ancients commonly shew ) did use the word merit without any scruple ; and i remember not that any christians did ever gainsay it or take the use of it for a fault : yet did they contradict mens carnal erroneous conceits of man's merit , as well as we : yet now our opposition to popery hath brought the word into so great distate with many good protestants , as that they take it to signifie some dangerous self-arrogating doctrine : so great is the power of prejudice and contest . § . . it is true , that when hereticks have put an ill sence upon a good word , we must use it more cantelously than at other times and places : but if thence we absolutely reject and ●ccuse it , we shall harden our adversaries , and strengthen the error which we oppose , by running into the contrary extream , which will soon disgrace it self . § . . it is a great advantage to the papists , that many protestants wholly disclaim the word , and simply deny the merit of gospel-obedience : for hereupon the teachers shew their scholars , that all the fathers speak for merit , and so tell them , that the protestants doctrine is new and heretical , as being contrary to all the ancient doctors : and when their scholars see it with their eyes , no wonder if they believe it , to our dishonour . § . . all orthodox christians hold the fore-described doctrine of merit in sence , though not in words : for they that deny merit , confess the [ rewardableness ] of our obedience , and confess that the scripture useth the term [ worthy ] and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be translated meriting and merit , as well as worthy and worthiness ; and we think it fitter to expound such scripture-words than to accuse and reject them : and they all confess , that man's duty hath god's promise of reward , and that holiness in its nature is suitable to the end or reward , as disposing us to enjoy it , and is pleasing unto god and glorifieth him : and this is all the same thing in other words , which the ancient christians meant by merit . and to hear many godly persons at the same time , most earnestly extol holiness , and desire that preachers should convince the people that the righteous is more excellent than his neighbour , and yet denying all merit , and reviling all that assert it ; this doth but shew , that they understand not the word ; and think others also misunderstand it : and so we are reproaching one another , where we are agreed and know it not : like the woman that turned away her servant upon the controversie , whether the house should be swept with a bro●m or with a besom ; or the physicians that let the patient die , because they could not agree whether he should take a potion or a draught , a bit or a morsel , or take ambar , or electrum or succinum or car●be . § . . and the partial teachers are the cause of all this , while instead of opening the doctrine truly to the people , in what sence we have or have not any worthiness or merit , they without distinction cry down merit , and reproach those that do otherwise : and if they do but say , [ such a man or such a book speaketh for merit and free-will ] they have sufficiently rendered him odious or much suspected with their followers ; when yet all sober christians in all ages have been for merit and free-will in a sound sence : and is not this to be incendiaries and adversaries to truth , and love , and peace ? § . . i have formerly thought , that though we agree in the thing , it is best omit the name , because the papists have abused it : and i think so still , as in such companies and cases where the use of it not understood will scandalize men , and do more harm than good : ( for why should i use words against mens edification ? ) but in other cases i now think it better to keep the word , . lest we seem to the ignorant to be of another religion than all the ancient churches were . . lest we harden papists , greeks and others , by denying sound doctrine in terms , which they will think we deny in sence . . because our ●enury of words is such as for my part i remember no other word so fit to substitute instead of [ merit ] or [ desert ] or [ worthiness . ] the word [ rewardable ] is long and oft harsh : and what other have we ? and it is nothing else that we mean. § . . some papists are against the very word [ merit ] also . some own the word , but differ not from the protestants about the doctrine ▪ some of them ignorantly drive the poor people by ill preaching into carnal conceits of their own works , and to trust an hundred fopperies for salvation : but he that readeth most of their school-doctors , must either confess , that they differ from us about the meritoriousness of true gospel-obedience , rather in words than in deed ; and that we really mean the same thing , or else he must see with better or worser eyes than i do ( i speak not this of them all . ) § . . and romaeus , who prateth of merit in point of commutative iustice , disclaimed by the rest ( and some such other ignorant scriblers ) are not to be taken for the index of their doctrine , nor yet their superstitious , abusive application ; no more than our deniers of all merit are the index of ours ; nor the prophane ones abuse of it , who are ready , when we perswade them to a holy life , to tell us , that god saveth not men for their holiness or works , and that ours deserve no more than theirs , but he will have mercy on whom he will have mercy ; and it is not of him that willeth or runneth . § . . not only waldensis , contarenus , ariminensis , and many others expresly say as much against merits as we : but medina , and many of the th●mists say the same in sence , and the scotists and many others say , that merit ●riseth but ex pacto , from god's promise ; and to be meritorious , is no more than to be a work which god hath promised a reward to : and do any of us deny this ? § . . object . but others say , that merit is ex dignitate operum , from the worthiness of our works . ans. is it the name [ worthiness ] or the meaning that displeaseth you ? if the name , read luke . . and . . acts . . thess. . , . r●v . . . matth. . , , , , . and . . cor. . , . eph. . . col. . . thess. . . and see whether god use not the same phrase . and as to the sence , one writer understands what he saith better , and another worse , and several men may have several sences ; but they mostly seem to mean , that holy obedience is in the very nature of it so pleasing to the most holy god , as rendereth it apt to be the matter of that condition on which his covenant promiseth to reward us , the imperfection being pardoned , and we and our works accepted , upon the redemption wrought by the merits of christ , and upon his intercession , and presenting them to god. and is this to be denied by any christian ? doubtless there is something in the very nature of divine faith , love , and obedience , which maketh it fitter to be accepted and rewarded , than infidelity , hatred of god , and sin , or rebellion . speak christians , is it not so ? and yet it is from god's promise and meer bounty only , that our right to the reward resulteth , though the material aptitude be in the qualification to which that promise is made : all this is plain and sure . § . . obj. but some talk of a proportion between the work and the reward . ans. we commonly hold degrees of glory according to the degrees of holiness ; and if any abusive doctor mean any more , that 's nothing to the rest . and it 's pity that men that are agreed , should hate or revile each other as differing . § . . vasquez the jesuit is one that is supposed to say most for merit , who saith so much against it , as i dare not say : for he tells us , that god doth not reward us at all as an act of justice , either commutative , or distributive : commutative iustice he easily disapproveth , and in that we all agree : but the generality of christians , papists , protestants , greeks , &c. hold , that god rewardeth us in governing-paternal-distributive iustice , as a father giveth benefits to a thankful child that humbly taketh them , and not to the contemptuous or rebellious that spit in his face . but vasquez saith , that god hath not so much as distributive justice in our rewards . and yet , i think , he differeth but in words , and really meaneth as we all do . and he that dare for words , revile consenters , is bolder than i would have any good man be : and yet i doubt not but i and this writing shall be so reviled by many that differ not from me , when they think they do , ( through faction and prejudice ) when i am dead , even for these words . § . . iv. the fourth point is so far dispatched in the second , that i need here but to say ; . that our obedience to god is a duty resulting from our very natural being , and cannot but be so while we are men : . as it is god's due . . as it is part of the right order of the universe , and co●ducible to common good. . as it is our own order , rectitude and health . . that christ is the saviour and physician to give us this health , which is the end of his medicinal grace . . that the soul cannot be complacentially amiable to god , nor fit for communion with him here or in heaven without it . resignation to god our owner , obedience to god our ruler , and love and praise to god our father , and the infinite good , make up that holiness which is our salvation it self , and the image and glory of god upon us . § . . v. about the next question i may yet be shorter , how far any works of ours may be trusted in ? i think all agree , . that nothing of ours ( or any creature ) should be trusted to for any thing proper to god , or proper to christ , or any thing that belongeth not truly to it self . he that ascribeth any thing to our faith , love , or obedience , which is proper to christ's merits , or god's mercy , and so trusteth them , doth greatly sin , and he that trusteth them for more than god hath assigned to them to do . § . . . that we must take heed of scandaous language , and therefore must not talk of trusting on any act of our own , when it is like to be understood , as put in competition with god or with christ's merits ; as if the question were , whether we must trust god , or our selves , christ's righteousness or our own ? for our own is not in the least measure to be trusted for that which belongeth only to christ's righteousness to be , or do . § . . . that yet it is a great duty to trust every means of salvation appointed by god , in its own place , and for its own part alone , even to preaching , sacraments , afflictions , &c. and accordingly to trust our own faith , love , prayer , obedience , so far as they are means , and have god's promise , and no further ; which is no more than to trust in god , that he will bless such means . he that trusteth his sword , doth not trust it to fight of it self , without his hand . when god hath promised mercy upon prayer , and to the obedient or penitent , for a man to think that god will yet do no more for us , if we repent , pray , and obey , than if we do not , is to be unbelievers , and say rebelliously , it is in vain to serve the lord. he is so far to trust to faith , repentance , praying , hearing , meditating , diligence , as to trust that god will bless them , and reward them , and look for more from him when we use means , than when we do not . chap. xxvi . of confirmation , perseverance , and danger of falling away . § . . i shall reduce all that needs to be said on this point to these following controverted questions : . whether all grace procured and given by christ , be such as is never lost ? . whether that degree of grace be ever lost , which giveth the posse credere without the act of faith ( commonly called sufficient grace ) in adult or infants ? . whether any lose actual true justifying faith ? . whether any lose true holiness , or love of god in the habit ? . whether any degree of this be ever lost ? or all special grace have such confirmation as the angels have ? . whether , if holiness be never lost , it be possible to lose it , and be in danger ? . whether there be a state of confirmed persons besides the meerly sanctified , that from the degree or kind of their grace , never fall away ? . or whether perseverance depend on meer election and god's will , which secureth only some of the justified ? . whether all , or most , or many christians are themselves sure to persevere ? . whether certainty of perseverance be fit for all the justified ? . whether it be unfit for all , and a more unsafe condition than doubting ? . whether the comfort of most christians lie upon the doctrine of such certainty ? . whether the doctrine of eventual apostacy infer any mutability in god ? . why god hath left this point so dark ? . what was the judgment of the ancient churches after the apostles ? . whether it be an article of such evidence and weight , as to be put into our church-confessions , and we should force men to subscribe to it , or make it necessary to ministration , communion , or christian love and concord ? § . . q. i. whether all christ's grace given us , be such as is never lost ? ans. no : except iansenius and his followers , i know of no christians that ever affirm it ; and he doth it on this false supposition , that the common grace which worketh only preparatorily by fear , is not the grace of christ , but a grace of other providence , and only love is the grace of christ. but it is injurious to christ , who is the lord , and light , and saviour of the world , and god's administrator-general , into whose hands all things and power is given , to say , that since the fall there is any grace in the world that is not his grace ; and that our preparatory grace , and all that 's common , is aliunde , some other way . he that readeth ioh. . matth. . heb. , and . may see the contrary . § . . q ii. whether sufficient grace to believe , which giveth the meer power of believing to infants or adult , be ever lost ? ans. these questions suppose that there are these several sorts of graces disputed of by divines : . common grace : . power to believe and repent : . actual faith and repentance given by that called special vocation : . the habit of love and all grace , called sanctification : ( to pass by relative grace , as justification , &c. ) . confirmation of these habits . and we now speak only of the second : and the very being of that grace is controverted , whether god ever give ( besides the natural power ) a moral power to believe , to any that never do believe ? and , . it is certain by adam's instance , that he gave him a power to have perfectly obeyed , when he did not : . and therefore no man can prove , that now he giveth no man a moral power to believe , that doth not . . but it seemeth most probable that he doth , because his government and man's nature are not , tota specie , changed . . and it is certain that still all men have power to do more good than they do . . and even the dominicans grant this sufficiency of grace . . but yet for my part , i am not certain of it . § . . but if there be such a power given , which never acteth faith ( which i think most probable ) it is either in the adult or infants : if in the adult , no doubt it 's lost ; for they that will not believe ( to the last ) retain not still the moral power in their rebellion . § . . but in the case of infants , i think those of them that die before the use of reason , lose it not , nor any of the elect that live to full age : but as to others , after long doubt , how far infant-grace is loseable , this seemeth now the most probable solution to me . § . . viz. there is a grace that reacheth but to a moral power to repent and believe , before men have the act or proper habit : such grace to persevere , did put adam in a present state of life , or acceptation with god , this grace adam lost : accordingly such grace that containeth but this m●●al power in an infant 's disposition ( with relative grace of pardon ) is sufficient to prov● his right to salvation , if he so die ; because he is not bound to the act , nor capable of it ; and even the adult upon the act , have right to acceptance and to the spirit to cause the habit , in order of nature , before they have the habit : therefore infants may be in a state of such right and life before the habit , though they shall not possess glory without it : and yet the adult are not in a state of such right by the meer power , before the act , because the act it self is made necessary to their justification , but so is it not to infants : so that infants and adult may receive a meer power to repent and believe , and lose it after ( at age ) by actual sin , though this be a loss of a state of iustification to the one sort ( their fins of nature being pardoned ) , but not to the other ( who are not pardoned without the act : ) and yet it followeth not hence , that the grace of habitual sanctification is lost in any . § . . if this solution please not , let them that can , give us one that is less inconvenient , and we shall thankfully accept it ; but it must be none that yet i have heard of ; not the anabaptists , nor those of their adversaries , who leave us no certainty of the salvation of any particular infants , but only say , god will save them that are elect , but no one knoweth who they are , nor how few or many , nor can tell us of any promise made to any upon any antecedent character or condition , nor give believers any more assurance of their own childrens salvation , than of any heathens . nor theirs that say , baptized infants are saved by relative grace alone , without any internal real grace . nor theirs that say , they have the spirit , but tell us not in what operation ; or say , it is only right to the spirit hereafter . nor theirs that say , that all baptized infants ( at least of godly parents ) have habitual holiness ( faith , love , &c. ) such as the adult in sanctification have , and that some at age do lose it : i think this less inconvenient than any one of these . § . . q. iii. whether any lose true actual faith and iustification ? ans. that a common uneffectual faith may be lost , is no doubt : but concerning the other , there are three opinions . . some say , no ; it cannot be lost , because that faith hath the promise of the sanctification of the spirit , as well as of pardon and right to life . therefore seeing habitual holiness is not lost , that which hath the promise of it , is not lost . . others say , that actual faith at first is like adam's loseable grace ; and that it giveth us actual pardon and right to life , if we so die , and right to the spirit ( in relation ) to sanctifie us in time , and by degrees : but that every one that hath the spirit , hath not the habits of love and holiness , but he sometimes is causing many acts before he produce a habit ( ad modum acquisitorum . ) . others say , that both faith and habitual holiness are oft lost . i delay the solution till the rest be considered . § . . q. iv. whether habitual love , or holiness ( or the spirit ) be ever lost ? ans. that there is a confirmed state or degree of holiness that is never lost , i do hold ; and that this is attainable , and in that state men may be certain of salvation : but whether the least degrees of habitual grace be utterly loseable , which prove a present right to life , till they are lost , i must plainly profess i do not know ; much may be said on both sides : and if my ignorance offend any , it offendeth me more : but how shall i help it , i think it is not for want of study , nor of impartial willingness to know the truth : and ignorance of the two is safer than error , by which we trouble and seduce those about us . and in this case so many great and excellent men have erred ( either augustine , with the generality of the ancient churches , or calvin , zanchy , and most of the reformed ) that my ignorance is pardonable where their error it self is pardoned . but let those that are wiser rejoyce in the greater measure of their wisdom : but yet think not , that taking up either opinion upon the trust of their party , is such . § . . q. v. to the next , some have said , that had adam done but one act of love or obedience , he had been confirmed as the angels in a state of impeccability : and that so are all that once truly believe in christ. but experience utterly confuteth that : for all men sin after believing . § . . others say only , that men may sin , and may lose acquired grace , but no degree of that which is infused : but we have small reason to think that our encreased degrees are not as much infused as the first degree was : and yet experience proveth , that such added degrees may be lost . § . . others say , all added degrees may be lost , but none of that which was first infused : indeed could we prove , that god alwaies at first infuseth only the least degree consistent with salvation , then this must be held by all that deny that any fall from justification : but for ought we know god may the first minute give one man more grace than to another in long time , and that first degree may be lessened by his sin . § . . q. vi. whether it be possible to lose that holiness which never will be lost ? ans. the word [ possible ] respecteth either a consequence in arguing , and is a logical possibility ; or it respecteth the natural power of causes , and is called , physical possibility . in the first sence it is impossible that any thing should come to pass that doth not ; because god knoweth it will not : and it is a good consequence , god knoweth that this will not come to pass ; therefore it will not : and it is impossible that this consequence should be false . but as to the natural possibility , no doubt but of our ▪ selves we can sin ; nay , it is not an act o● power , but of impotency , or from a defect of power : and the habit given us is not a sufficient power to ascertain our perseverance of it self . but if you speak with respect to the power of god , by which we are preserved , we must thus answer : that it is impossible for us or any creature to overcome god's power or will : and if it be first proved , that god will cause us to persevere by the way of physical irresistible determination by power , then it must be called impossible to fall away , or commit any sin which he so saveth us from . but if he keep any as a free agent by the sapiential disposal of his free-will , and so procure the event of a contingent action , then it must be said , that this and many things are possible which never come to pass , that god only decreeth , that we shall not fall away , and not , that it shall be impossible : thus dr. twisse and the dominicans themselves use to speak : but for my part i ●ake god's manner of working on and for us , to be so unsearchable , and this notion of possibility or impossibility , of so little moment when we are agreed what will be the event , that i think the controverfie not worth the handling , but made among other snares of satan , to trouble the church , and draw us to vain janglings about words that edifie not , from the simplicity that is in christ. § . . q. vii . wheth●r there be a state of confirmation here ? ans. . undoubtedly there are some christians that are strong , rooted , settled , established ; and some that are weak , and like children toss'd up and down , rom. . . & . . heb. . , . ioh. . . cor. . . eph. . . tim. . . cor. . . pet. . . col. . . eph. . , . col. . . there is a need of strengthening grace , pet. . . luk. . . rev. . . act. . . col. . . tim. . . psal. . . phil. . . § . . . it is agreeable to scripture , reason and experience to judge , that strengthened christians stand faster than the weak , and that it is in it self more unlikely that they should be seduced and forsake christ. § . . seeing it is so doubtful , whether any that are sincere fall away ; we have great reason to think that it will hardlier be proved of the confirmed : i know that strength hath several degrees , and it 's hard to determine just what this confirmation is , but i am perswaded , that abundance of confirmed christians there are , who have taken hold of christ by faith and love , and have clear light and great experience , and so much grace , as that from that confirmation it may be inferred , that they never fall away and perish : and consequently that certainty of salvation , and not only of present justification , is attainable in this life . and some of the papists themselves are of this mind , though others of them say , that even a state of confirmation may be lost . § . . q. viii . whether perseverance depend on meer election ? ans. it was augustine's judgment ( and his followers ) that election is the ascertaining cause of perseverance , giving the special grace of perseverance ; but what that grace was besides divine volition and preservation ( whether any special confirming degree or kind ) it is not easie to gather out of him : and i think it past doubt , that god doth elect some to perseverance , and all persevere whom he so electeth , and because he electeth them and no other : but whether many also are truly sanctified and justified that are not elect , and so do not persevere , as austin held , i said before , i do not know . § . . q. ix . are all or most christians certain that they shall persevere ? ans. no : for , . most christians in the world hold , that perseverance is uncertain to the godly ; and how can they be certain of it to themselves ? . most that hold otherwise , hold it but as uncertain , and are not themselves certain that it is true , though they call it certain : i am uncertain : and i find not by other signs that the most have more knowledge than my self : and he that is not certain of the premises , is not by them certain of the conclusion . . most christians are uncertain that they are sincere and justified : and such cannot be certain to persevere in that which they are not certain that they have . § . . q. x. certainty of their present state of iustification is not fit for those that sin as much , and are as bad as ever will stand with sincerity ( till they repent : ) therefore certainty of perseverance must needs be unfit for them . and therefore god never giveth it to such . § . . q. xi . certainty of grace , iustification and perseverance and salvation , is a most excellent desirable thing , above all the treasures of the world , and to be earnestly sought by all : and tendeth not of it self to carnal security , but to fill the soul with holy love and thankfulness and joy , and make our lives likest to heaven on earth : o blessed are they that do attain it : and woe to them that dispraise it and perswade men to causeless doubting . it is the height of our attainment here in it self , and the improvement , and maketh us live a heavenly life , and long to be with christ : but we cannot therefore say that those have it that have it not : but all should promote and seek it . § . . q. xii . they that are certain that all true believers persevere ▪ have one great help towards their own consolation : but if they be uncertain , that they themselves are true believers , this will not comfort them . as they that are perswaded only that all confirmed christians persevere , must know that they are confirmed before this can give them the comfort of assurance . § . . but i have elsewhere fully proved , . that most christians have not the comfort of their own certain perseverance , for want of the certainty of their sincerity , if not of the doctrine it self . . and that thousands and millions of christians live and die in peace and comfort , that have not a proper certainty of salvation . . much more may such live in joy that are sure of their present state of grace , though not of their perseverance . § . . for experience telleth us , that though most of the christian world are against the doctrine of certain perseverance of all true believers , yet many of them live and die in comfort . § . . and church-history and the ancients writings tell us , that though for many hundred years the christian doctors commonly held , that some lose true justifying faith , and perish , ye● multitudes lived and died in joy , and went with boldness through the fla●es . § . . and we see in all things that men are affected according to what is predominant ; and he that hath far more hope than fear and doubting , will have more joy than sorrow , though he be not certain , but some doubting do remain . § . . it is certain in it self , that god's promises in the gospel are all true : but every one that truly believeth it , is not properly certain of it , past all doubt : and he that hath the least doubt of the truth of the gospel , must needs doubt as much of that salvation which is expected on the gospel-promise : and yet such believers may have peace and joy according to the measure of their faith and hope . § . . we see among men no wife is certain one day or night that her husband will not forsake or murder her ; no child is certain that his father will not kill him ; nor any one of his dearest friend : and yet we can have love , peace and comfort in our relations , without such certainty : for it 's melancholy folly to live in fears of things utterly unlikely , and to cast away the comforts of great probability . § . . yea , no godly man is certain that he shall not fall into such hainous sin as noah , lot , david , peter did ; or that he shall not kill his dearest friend , or himself : and yet when a man is conscious that his nature , his reason , his experience , and his resolution , do all make him hate such a wicked act , and that there is no probable cause to move him to it , and when we know god is ready with his grace to help us , how few lose the comfort of their lives , by fear of such improbable things ? certainty therefore is very desirable , but a hope of great probability may give us joyful thankful hearts , or else few christians would have such . § . . and the doctrine of perseverance hath its difficulties too as to mens comfort : for he that holdeth , that no man falleth from a state of grace , and seeth many , that to all possible humane judgment , were once excellent persons , fall quite away , can himself have no assurance that he is so much as justified at the present , unless he be sure that he is better than the best of all those persons ever were , which doubt the other side are not cast upon . § . . q. xiii . whether the doctrine of apostacy infer any mutability in god ? ans. no : there 's no shew of it , unless you hold , that his absolutely elect fall away . it was no change in god when he gave us grace , and justified us ; and it would be no more if he cease , than it was to begin . it was no change in god when i was born , and it will be no more when i die : the change is only in man , and his receptive disposition . even the law of the land , without any diversity or change , doth virtually condemn a thousand malefactors , and justifie the just ; and will cease to justifie them , and begin to condemn them , if they cease to be just , and begin to be offenders . the changes that god himself maketh in all the world , are made without any change in him : therefore what man doth , or undoth , cannot change him . § . . q. xiv . why did god ledve this case so dark ? ans. it is not fit for us to call for any reason of his doing , but what he hath given us : but while he hath made it sure to us , that he will cause all his elect to persevere , and will deny his grace to none that faithfully seek it , and will save all that do not wilfully and finally reject it , and giveth us no cause to distrust his mercy , his holy ends are by this attained in his peoples uprightness and peace : and he seemeth by leaving the rest so obscure , to tell us , that it is not a matter of so great use to us , as some imagine , and that it is not a point fit for to be the measure of our communion or peace . § . . xv. what was the judgment of the ancient churches of this point ? ans. vossius in his pelagian history , hath truly told you , and copiously proved it in the main . before augustine's time it was taken commonly as granted , that men might fall away from a state of grace , and that many did ; but the case was not curiously discussed : but some thought that confirmed christians never fell : but upon pelagius his disputes , augustine defending the honour of grace , laid all upon election , and maintained , that though the non-elect did fall away from the love of god and justification , and a state in which they had been saved , had they died ; yet none of the elect did fall so as to perish , but that the preservation of grace in perseverance , was the fruit of election . thus prosper , and fulgentius after him ; and some passages in him and macarius , and some others , intimate that they thought there was a confirmed degree of grace , which was never lost ; but they all took it for granted , that some fell from a state of iustification and perished : and i remember not o●● writer that i have read and noted , to be of the contrary mind for a thousand years after the writing of the scriptures , nor any mention of any christian that was so ; unless hierome be to be believed of ievinian , who saith , that he held , that the godly could not sin ; which report is much to be suspected on many accounts . § . . what use is to be made of this , i leave to others ; but it beseemeth no good man to deprave or deny the truth of such history : and some great divines are to be blamed for reproaching vossius for a true historical report , when they neither can confute him , nor attempt it . two or three sentences out of austin are cited by some , but meerly mistaken , as if they spake that of all the justified , which he speaketh only of the elect. § . . q. xvi . by all that is said , it is past denial , that certainty of perseverance should be most earnestly sought , and that state of confirmation which is likest to obtain it ; but that few have it , e●en of the truly godly , and that it is not the common ground of christians peace and comfort , but hopes upon great probability , do sustain the most ; and that the difficulty of the point is such , as that it should in all churches be left free , and neither side made necessary to our christian love , peace , con●ord , communion , or ministery . chap. xxvii . of repentance ; late repentance ; the time of grace , and of the unpardonable sin. § . . repentance , as a pain , and involuntary , is part of the punishment of sin by the law of works ; but repentance as a returning to god , and a recovery of the soul , is a grace and duty proper to the subjects of the redeemer under the law of grace . § . . yea , it is a great and excellent part of the law of grace to give repentance unto life , and to admit of repentance after sin , which the law of innocency did not admit of . § . . therefore iohn and christ himself did preach the gospel or law of grace , when they preached repentance ; which was a great part , even of christ's own preaching . § . . therefore the antinomian libertines know not what they talk of , when they call it legal preaching , and set repentance as in opposition to faith , as if faith were all that the gospel did command , or repentance did not belong to faith. § . . yet it must be confessed , that of late times many have laid more upon the sorrowing , weeping , and fearing part of repentance , than was meet , and said too little of the turning of the soul from worldly and fleshly sinful pleasures , to the delightful love and praises of god , and willing obedience and conformity to his will , which is the principal part of true repentance . and , i think god permitted the antinomians to rise up , and cry up free-grace , and call the ministers legallists , to rebuke our error in this point , and to call us to preach up his grace more plentifully , and to consider better that gospel-obedience doth chiefly consist in thankfulness , love and ioy , and in the words of praise , and works of love. i am sure this use we should make of their abuses . § . . repentance is either general , or particular ; general ( or universal ) repentance is a turning of the understanding , will , and practice ( with repenting sorrow ) from the inordinate estimation , love , and seeking of temporal things for the pleasure and prosperity of the flesh ( or sensual powers ) to god , his will , and service , and the hopes of everlasting glory , through faith. § . . this repentance is the same thing with conversion , and as i said before , faith it self includeth repentance in its essence , as denominated from the terminus a quo , it being a turning from unbelief to god by believing in him as god , and to christ by believing in him , as our saviour , and to the holy ghost by believing in him , as the agent and witness of christ and our sanctifier . § . . particular repentance is our turning with sorrow from a particular sin , to our contrary obedience to god. § . . without that universal repentance or conversion , which turneth the mind , will , and life to god , from created vanity and this world , no man can be saved ; because he continueth an idolater and rebel , and doth not indeed take god for his god , nor christ for his saviour , nor the holy spirit for his sanctifier ; but is an ungodly man , and a forsaker of god and his own felicity . § . . repentance , as towards god , is sometime distinguished from faith in christ : and then repentance is our turning to god , as god , by faith ( trust ) love , and obedience , resigning our selves to him as our owner , subjecting our selves to him as our ruler , and loving him as our benefactor , and chiefly as the infinite good in himself , our ultimate objective end. and this is the greater duty respecting god , as our end , even the same with love to god , for the procuring of which christ came into the world , and faith is given us : and then faith in christ is the mediate grace and duty by which we are brought to this repentance . § . . not that any man can truly take christ for his saviour , before he taketh god for his god , ( for the love and intention of the end , is before our choice and use of the means : ) but christ being our teacher first bringeth us to assent to the truth of god's perfections and relations to us , and then to the truth of his own gospel , and by this assent bringeth us ( first to a common , and then ) to a special consent at once , that god be our god , and christ our saviour ; but so that we desire god as our end , and christ as mediator , as the means . § . . universal repentance ( or conversion ) doth virtually contain all particular future repentance , but not actually . therefore where this is , that soul may be saved without actual repentance for some particular sins ( or sorts of sin ) : as , e. g. if we are ignorant that such or such a thing is sin , for want of necessary instruction , or if in a crowd of business some sinful thought , passion , or word pass unobserved , or if we do our faithful endeavour to find out a sin , and cannot , remember it ( as who can remember at conversion one of many that he has committed in unregeneracy , and after many are forgotten : ) and every man dieth in some sin , which he hath no time here to repent of ; viz. in some sinful imperfection of all grace and duty , and omission of due degrees of love , and other acts : for all which virtual repentance will be accepted . § . . but great and heinous sins must needs have actual repentance , because it will not consist with the truth of holiness to be so indifferent or eas●e towards them , as not to observe them , and remember them : and if they be known and remembred , they will be repented of , when the soul hath opportunity to consider what it hath done . for habitual repentance is necessary to salvation ; and habits will act when they are not extraordinarily hindred , having notable objects and opportunity . § . . yet some sins that are great materially in their nature , may be lessened much to some persons by unavoidable ignorance , and so may not have an actual repentance : as , e. g. in times of war , to kill men in a wrong cause , is one of the greatest ●ins in the world ; and yet when by the darkness of state-cases , the question who is in the right , is so difficult , that very few can decide it ; and after their utmost search , each party thinks that god bindeth them to fight for their king or country , such persons cannot have a particular repentance , while they are not able to see that they were deceived . § . . it is therefore a case of exceeding difficulty , what sins may stand with iustification , not particularly repented of , and what not ; or as some speak , which are mortal , and which venial sins , or sins of infirmity . § . . but he that hath a care of his salvation , must hate all sin in the general as sin , and keep up his watch , and be willing to know all the worst in himself , and diligently use the means to know it , and resolve to forsake it to his power , when he knoweth it , that so he may not be wilfully impenitent . and he that will sin as far as he thinks will stand with grace , either hath no true grace , or shall not know that he hath it . § . . the time of repentance or mercy , may be said in two sences to be past ; . when a man shall not be accepted and pardoned , though he should repent : and so the day of grace is never past in this life ( and the damned do not truly repent in our present sence ; ) so that for a penitent person to fear that the day of grace is past , or his repentance too late ( if true ) is to contradict the scope of the gospel , which giveth pardon to every one that truly repenteth . . when a man that before had some motions and helps to repent , and obstinately resisted them , shall be given up to his obstinacy , and never have such motions more . thus the day of grace may be past with many : and such persons turn from god to wickedness , and are hardened in the love of sin , and usually blinded to defend it , and hate a holy life : but those that do repent , or fain would repent , or yet feel god moving them to repent , have no cause to think that god hath thus forsaken them . for it is only obstinate and continued forsaking god , that is the sign of one forsaken by him . § . . and this also is no proof to us , that such a person is finally forsaken . for many that have rejected grace many years , are afterward converted by that grace : so that all that we can say , is , that such as god hath forsaken , do continue to the end to reject his mercy , and prefer their lusts ; but that he will so continue to the end , no man himself can tell before the end . § . . about the unpardonable sin there are two co●●oversies : . what it is . . whether it be abs●●●●ely unpardonable . that final impenitency is unpardonable , is undoubted : but the sin in question is called , the blasphemy against the holy ghost ; of which having written a special tractate , i now only say , that it is the sin of such as believing not christ to be the son of god , but a deceiver , and yet being convinced of his , and his disciples miracles , do in their judgments think , and blasphemously say and maintain , that they were done by the power of the devil to deceive men . these men rejecting the last convincing means of faith , are left by themselves remediless . § . . but , . the papists and many ancients say , that by [ not forgiven ] is meant only [ very hardly and rarely ; ] but most protestants expound the words absolutely , as they run ; which the reader will think most probable , i leave to his consideration . § . . some think that the novatians denied all pardon to such as committed any great sin after baptism ; but alb●spinaeus , petavius , and others have truly proved that it was not so , but only that they denied power in the church to pardon such backsliders ; which yet , no doubt , was their error , seeing as god on his part pardoneth men as oft as they truly repent ; so the church must pardon as far as belongs to them , such as seem truly to repent : but frequent gross sinning doth so much disprove mens verbal repenting , that such mens credit being forfeit , their words are not to be taken till they amend their lives . the end ▪ notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e vid. vit. georg. anhalt . & buchaltrin in m●lc . adam . notes for div a -e such a noise do the histories of church-faction make about nestorians , eurychians , monothelites , &c. that will not permit ●s to pass by these points . notes for div a -e ☞ these five preceding chapters were , on emergent occasions , written about twenty years after the rest of the ●ook ( save one chapter , chap. ) notes for div a -e pardon the disorder of not handling the law before sin : it is for young readers sake , who would have all god's laws opened together , ●● give light to each other . notes for div a -e of the divers sorts of freedom of will , and the fuller opening them , see my methodus theologiae , and cath. theol. notes for div a -e dr. twisse frequently well openeth this . * of this i have published a disputation which proveth it . mr. w. fenner put his opinion for the traduction of souls , into his catechismes : but the publisher left that out . notes for div a -e and where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is taken for a testament , the parts and acts are the same with the relation of it to the death of the testator , who as his last will , giveth such gifts on such terms . and christ did put his commands unto his testament , john , & , & . * john . . john . . & . , , , , . joh. . , , , . joh. . , , , , , , , , . & . , &c. heb. . . joh. . , , , , , , . & . , . & . . & . . & . , . & . . rom. . , , , . & . , , . col. . , . tim. . . tit. . . pet. . . joh. . . & . , . tit. . , . joh. . . & . . & . , , , . tim. . . joh. . . gal. . . † mat. . . joh. . , , . rom. . , . eph. . , . phil. . , . joh. . . col. . joh. . , . mat. . . eph. . , , &c. rom. . . tim. . . rom. . , ●o , . heb. . . rom. . , . john . , . matth. . . heb. . , & . . acts . . gal. . . & rom. . & . , . gal. . & . & . heb. . & . rom. . & . & . mat. . john. . . & . . matt. . . rom. . . john . . eph. . . notes for div a -e * though this be said before , a new case here causeth me to repeat it . of sufficient grace . see of this my discourse of saving faith. notes for div a -e * some say , that god's meer will causeth man's act , as willing it , without any other influx or impress on man's will , save our act it self effected : but though it be only god's essential will , which is the first cause , yet the thing received by us from god seemeth to be a certain impress , impulse , or vis , or disposition to act in order of nature , before the act it self , which impress sometime is made uneffectual by a prevalent indisposition or resistance of the will. * though before i shewed that this seemed not necessary to all acts of man , & will not overthrow durand . notes for div a -e exod. . , , . heb. . . act. . . mark. . . joh. . . joh. . . ro. . . &c. mat. . . luk. . . mat. . . rom. . , . cor. . , &c. cor. . . rom. . , , . luk. . . luke . notes for div a -e zech. . , . tim. . . heb. . . pet. . , . & . , . pet. . . exod. . . deut. . . & . . & . . isa. . . rom. . . thes. . . eph. . , . act. . . cor. . . & . , . luk. , , , , . heb. . . col. . . eph. . . & . . pe● . . . eph. . . & . , &c. * col. . . thess. . . iohn . . heb. . . col. . . heb. . . † luk. . . eph. . . thess. . . heb. . . rom. . , . phil. . . pet. . , . pro. . . . & . . notes for div a -e see the full proof in my two disput. of original sin. ☜ in two treatises for infants church-membership ; and in my review of infant-baptism . notes for div a -e ☜ notes for div a -e gen. . . hos. . . heb. . ▪ . & . . luke . . & . . & . . & . , matth. . . pet. . . tim. . . rom. . . mat. ▪ . jo. . . pet. . . & . . heb. . . mat. . . & . . . rom. . , . & . . . & . , , , . & . , . rom. . . act. . . luk. . . mat. . , . notes for div a -e * against dr. tully's accusations . notes for div a -e * dr. kendal . act. . . notes for div a -e of this more before . how far infants grace is loseable . ☜ notes for div a -e see mr. hales of the sin against the h. ghost ; and paraphrase on matth. . lately published . a vindication of a discourse concerning the unreasonableness of a new separation on account of the oaths from the exceptions made against it in a tract called, a brief answer to a late discourse, &c. williams, john, ?- . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing w estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a vindication of a discourse concerning the unreasonableness of a new separation on account of the oaths from the exceptions made against it in a tract called, a brief answer to a late discourse, &c. williams, john, ?- . [ ], p. printed for ri. chiswell ..., london : . reproduction of original in huntington library. attributed to john williams. cf. nuc pre- . created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng stillingfleet, edward, - . -- discourse concerning the unreasonableness of a new separation. grascome, samuel, - ? -- brief answer to a late discourse. dissenters, religious -- great britain. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - emma (leeson) huber sampled and proofread - emma (leeson) huber text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a vindication of a discourse concerning the unreasonableness of a new separation , on account of the oaths , from the exceptions made against it in a tract called , a brief answer to a late discourse , &c. london : printed for ric. chiswell , at the rose and crown in st. paul's church-yard . mdcxci . to the reader the last year there was publish'd a discourse concerning the unreasonableness of a new separation on account of the present oaths ; in which the learned author endeavoured to prevent that schism which we were then threatned with , and hath since broke out amongst us ; begun by some few that were dissatisfied about the oaths , and upon that account quitted their preferments ; but improved by others ( tho thanks be to god , with little success ) who are disaffected to the present government , and take all ways to render it uneasie . to the foresaid book at last two answers have been given ; the one called , a brief answer ; the other , an enquiry into the remarkable instances of history , used by the author of the unreasonableness , &c. the former with much virulence , and more heat than judgment , directly vindicates the new separation ; in the examination of which i have concerned my self ; and no further with the second , than the reasons there insinuated and touched upon , fall in with the former . as for what concerns the enquiry into the instances , and their vindication against the cavils of that pretender to english history ( for so i call him , because i find him to be a downright plagiary from dr. brady's writings ) , i shall leave it to the author , who himself in a short time will give the world an account of that matter . a vindication of a discourse concerning the vnreasonableness of a new separation , &c. the author of the brief answer , toward the close of his paper , thus professeth of himself : for many reasons , i am unwilling to judge severely of my brethren , who have sworn ; nor hath any man been more forbearing . if this champion of the cause he appears in , had entred the lists , and begun his pamphlet with such a declaration , there might have been some favourable construction put upon it ; tho' in the process of his discourse he had been transported beyond his first intention , by a zeal for his own cause on one hand , and the force of his adversary's arguments on the other : but to conclude with an i am unwilling to judge severely , after he had spared neither the order he professeth himself to be of ; nor his adversary , whose character , dignity , and learning , he sometimes is pleased to acknowledge , is a sort of refining , not subtil enough to take with the present age , and a practice too gross to put upon an impartial and considerate reader . for , as for those he once in an over-flowing sit of charity calls brethren , they are in his dialect a pack of jolly swearers , pag. . such as betray their consciences for large preferments , p. . and he might have added , when his hand was in , that damn their souls by the perjury he charges them with , p. . as for his adversary , he is one , according to the character this author frames for him , that is old-excellent at mustering up the ill presidents , p. . that hath despised all sorts of persons , as ignorant and silly in respect of himself , p. . a man who lays aside all his divinity , for a little bad law , and worse history , p. . and , to clinch the whole , thus sets him off ; a learned doctor , nay ( god be merciful to us ! ) a bishop , so stiled , of our church . this , in his language , is no severe judgment ; and after all ( if you will believe him ) no man hath been more forbearing than himself . so much shall serve for a proof of his candour and sincerity : let us now try how this huffing philistine , who thus struts over his adversary , behaves himself in close fighting . the whole of what he saith , may be reduced to these three heads . i. church communion and schism . ii. publick good. iii. obedience to authority . §. . of church-communion and schism . the author of the discourse concerning the vnreasonableness , &c. professeth , that he was not a little surprized , . that these new separatists , that express'd so great a sense of schism in others , should be so ready to fall into it themselves . . that they do it upon the account of scruples , when the difference is only about the resolution of a case of conscience , wherein wise and good men may easily differ . to the first , the author of the brief answer replies , they do , not fall , but are forced into it : which i shall consider in its due place , when he undertakes to prove it . to the second , he gives a spiteful return : but is then a case of conscience really so trivial a thing ? and after he hath gravely prov'd the contrary for a column together , concludes with a special piece of admonition to his adversary ; therefore , whatsoever our author may think , i shall desire him henceforward to speak more reverendly of a case of conscience , &c. but here this author has over-run the point ; for the word only , is not ( as he perversly will have it ) as if a case of conscience was not a matter of consequence ; but that the taking or not taking the oaths , is only a case of conscience , not matter of doctrine . for the dispute is not , whether an oath be lawful or not ? but , whether this present oath be so ? which being a matter of a civil nature , must depend upon the knowledge of the constitution and laws of this realm for its resolution ; which wise and good men may easily differ in , as the author of the discourse observes : and so there can be no reason for those that scruple the oath , to separate from the communion of those that take it . this premised , that learned author seasonably prevents and removes the pleas that may be made for such a separation . as , . when any thing unlawful is made a condition of communion . . that it 's unlawful to join with those that have taken the oaths ; and so have done , and continue to do and defend what they , that refuse communion , account unlawful . as to the first , the discourse shews , that the terms of our communion are not altered ; and that taking the oaths is made no condition of communion with us . as to the second , it observes , that this is the scruple about mix'd communion , which hath been so long exploded among us . upon the first , our author coldly replies , i could have told him forty things which they are not ; and if he should be out in that one he mentions , it would be very unlucky ; and that he is so , i shall endeavour in its proper place to prove . but in the mean time , if amongst the forty things the oaths are not , they shall not be found to be the condition of communion , they can be no reason for breaking off from that communion . and i grant , he may sooner tell of forty things the oaths are not , than prove that they are made the conditions of communion ; or that they may separate from the church for such things as are not made conditions of communion with it . as to the second , the case of mix'd communion , our author is very careful to pass it over in silence : and instead of that , borrows a sorry invective from some of his friends of the church of rome , i could tell him of a man , &c. and in the answer to their books , he will find the reply . but he then takes a step back to make a reflection upon what he thinks may better suit his purpose : for his adversary having put a case , suppose those who take the oaths to blame ; if they act according to their consciences therein , what ground is there for a separation from them for so doing , unless it be lawful to separate from all such who follow the dictates of an erroneous conscience ? and so there will be no end of separation , &c. our author smartly returns upon him ; at this rate ; there will be no end of tristing and sophistry ; for if i am bound to separate from some erroneous conscience , why must it needs be lawful to separate from all ? &c. and here , according to his wont when he has none to oppose him , he states and argues the point out and out . but this is another of his blunders . the plain case is this : his adversary having just before shew'd the taking of the oaths to be no condition of communion , adds , and if they are not , what colour can there be for breaking communion on the account of the oaths ? and then follows , suppose they are to blame , &c. that is , if the oaths are not made a condition of communion , what imaginable cause can there be assign'd for a separation , unless it be because they are to blame , by acting according to an erroneous conscience ? and then this will be endless . these general reflections past , the author of the vnreasonableness , &c. takes the main point into consideration ; viz. whether there be any reason for those scruples about the oaths ? for if there be not , it will be granted , that there can be no obligation for a separation on the account of them . but it seems that author was under a great mistake in his taking it for granted ; for our author stands up in opposition to it , and saith , he hath not fairly and truly stated the case : for the question is not nakedly and simply , whether the oaths may or may not be lawfully taken ? but , whether oaths imposed under such unjust and merciless penalties , and attended with such fatal consequences , will not warrant the non-swearers in a separation from such as do ? but this is another of his mistakes ; for nothing can be more plain than that , if there be no reason for the scruples about the oaths , there can be no reason for their sake to separate from those that take them : and therefore that author took the most proper course that could be , to prove the unlawfulness of the present separation , from the lawfulness of taking them . for if the oaths are lawful , the penalties , how unjust and rigorous soever , cannot make them unlawful : and the consequences cannot be fatal , if those that are now non-swearers , are convinc'd of the lawfulness of the oaths , and so take them . this brings me to consider his arguments in justification of the present separation ; and what he hath said confusedly , i think may be commodiously rank'd under these three heads . . that the penalties to be inflicted upon them , want nothing of being a condition of communion to them , quatenus ministers , p. , . . that their authority is from christ , and so no secular power can vnbishop and vnpriest , or disable them , p. , . . that they are bound to obey their bishops and metropolitan , p. , . arg. . the oaths being imposed under such unjust and merciless penalties , and attended with such fatal consequences , will warrant separation ; and want nothing of being made a condition of communion , &c. now to speak in his way , there may be forty things we know , which may have the same fatal consequence ; for so it would be if the clergy should not subscribe to the service-book and articles ; if they should not declare their assent and consent to all and every thing contained in the book of common-prayer . and so it would have been in former kings reigns , if the oaths of allegiance and supremacy had not been taken . so that there always was upon this author's argument , a sufficient warrant for non swearers and non-conformers , to separate from those that did swear and did conform . for papist and dissenter will join with him in the clamour , and each for themselves , as he for his own , will complain of unjust and merciless penalties . penalties there are , and they are great , but they are neither unjust or merciless , if the government is not otherwise to be secured . but it doth not seem that they are unjust and merciless , by his way of representing them ; for as if he did not believe it himself , he is fain to dress them up with all the sanbenito's of an inquisition , and the most extravagant aggravations ; for thus he opens the case : — after six months warning , and frequent rabling , if we take not the oaths , we are silenced for six months more ; so then ( mark the consequence ) if the oaths be not taken , all the churches in england must be shut up . i know not any considerable difference betwixt this and a popish interdict ; neither matters it much , whether we lie at the mercy of the pope or a parliament , whether god shall be worshipped in the land , or not , &c. so that it seems by their not taking the oaths , and their deprivation upon it , we have neither god nor religion among us , ( in the phrase of their new liturgy ; ) or in the phrase used upon the like occasion by others , the ark of god is removed , and the glory departed from our israel . but though we pity other mens miseries , and could wish that our brethren were as we are ; yet webless god , that whereas by the pope's interdict every church was required to be shut in the land , ( as it was for above six years in the reign of king john ) all ours are open : and though the few that refuse the oaths , and now remain deprived , are too many , yet that these neither bear the proportion of the to the of the clergy that were outed in q. mary's time , ( as m. parker computes it ) nor of the to the , as it 's said was in the reign of king charlet ii. but to return to the point , what , saith he , doth this want of being make a condition of communion to us , quatenus ministers ? to this i answer , . suppose it to want nothing of being made a condition of communion to them , as ministers , yet what is this to the people , of whom , as church-members , that is not required ? this is a tender point , and what he durst not touch upon : for grant that they had cause to separate , yet what would they do without a people ? and how would the people justifie their separation with the ministers , upon whom no such obligations were laid , as on the ministers ? so that tho the non-swearing clergy might lawfully separate without sin from our communion , yet they must separate alone ; while none of the people could join with them in their separation , without being guilty of a notorious schism . for what reason would there have been for the ministers separation , if the oaths had not been required of them ? and what reason can there be then for the peoples non communion , who ( as church members ) stand as free from such obligations , as if no such revolution as the present had hapned , and no such oaths had been at all imposed . . though there be this obligation laid upon ministers , yet what is this political security required of them , to their communion with the church ? may persons when grieved by the secular power , and deprived of their livelihoods by an act of parliament , revenge it upon the church ? and will they interdict themselves its communion , and break it in pieces , because they are thus injured , as they suppose ? . if they are not suffered to officiate as ministers , yet they may still join in the same communion as lay-men . to this he answers , if no lay-power can make or unmake a bishop , priest , or deacon , then the charge of our ministry will still lye upon us , notwithstanding this depriving act , and necessity will lye upon us to discharge it at our peril . this leads me to his second argument ; but before i proceed to it , let him understand , that he proceeds upon a gross mistake , by confounding deprivation with degradation . for what act is there that doth ( in his phrase , p. . ) vn bishop and vn-priest men ? all that the civil power here pretends to , is to secure it felf against the practices of dissatisfied persons , and to try who are such , it requires an oath of allegiance to be taken to their majesties , by all in office , ecclesiastical , civil or military : and in case of refusal , by deprivation to disable such , as far as they can , from endangering the publick safety . but if the clergy so deprived think fit to take the oaths , they are in statu quo , without any new consecration or re-ordination . having cleared the argument of this mistake , i shall now consider it . arg. . a clergy man's authority is from god ; and notwithstanding any civil act to the contrary , he is bound to take care of his office , though the most bitter persecutions attend him for so doing . and therefore if they will warrant a civil act to disable us from doing our duties , they must excuse us , if we have these dreadful apprehensions of the account we have to give ; that we endeavour to do it as we can at our hazard , when we are not suffered to do it in communion with them , p. . the sum of his argument is , that being they receive their authority from god , no civil power can disable them from the exercise of their duty : and if it doth , they are bound to quit the communion of the church , where so disabled . the force of which may be resolved into these three questions . q. . whether a bishop duly consecrated , or a minister duly ordain'd , may not be lawfully suspended and deprived from the execution of his office , by the secular power , where there is sufficient reason for it ? . whether a refusal to give security to the secular power for a peaceable behaviour , and obedience , by oath , may not be a sufficient reason ? . whether if so deprived , he is notwithstanding bound as a private member to join in communion with that church whereof he was a minister before ; if nothing unlawful be required of him in that communion ; and not to separate from it ? q. . as to the first , whether a bishop duly consecrated , &c. our author is not very clear ; but if he is to be understood , he takes away all such power from the secular authority . so p. . our metropolitan , and several other bishops , are now actually by a secular act deprived . but are they deprived by any canons , or canonical censures of the church ? and he makes a sutable distinction betwixt what he allows to the one , and not to the other : viz. i shall easily grant , that the secular power hath often seized estates , and imprisoned and banished their persons : but still they were accounted bishops of those churches , and ceased not to discharge their duty , &c. and p. . our author will think to tell us tales , how emperours have put our bishops , &c. but it is one thing to act in pursuance of the canons of the church , and another thing to act against them , &c. now , in answer to all this ramble , i shall transcribe what the judicious mason reply'd to two or three objections of this kind . [ de minist . angl. l. . c. . ] object . is not the deposition of a bishop a spiritual censure ? how therefore can it be ascribed to secular powers ? answ. the secular powers depose a bishop , not by way of degradation , but exclusion . they exclude him , not from his orders , as if he had them not ; but from the gift , that he may not exercise it . and not from that neither absolutely , but after a sort ; that he should not exercise his office , as to their subjects , nor in their dominions . which the holiest princes in the best and primitive times have often exercised . object . can a prince take away what he cannot give ? answ. he cannot give , and so cannot take away the intrinsick power of the word and sacraments , proceeding from the keys of ordination : but the extrinsical power and license of exercising the ministerial office , received by ordination , he can in his dominions confer , and again take away , if the case so requires . i leave the rest about an act of parliament to this author's perusal , at his leisure . q. . whether it may not be lawful for the secular power to deprive persons in orders , for crimes committed against the state , and particularly , upon refusal to give security to the government for their peaceable behaviour , and allegiance by oath ? the general , our author expresly denies ; and the particular case he will not allow , because it 's the reason why the general was maintained . so he saith , p. . neither the clergy nor people [ in the primitive times ] renounced their bishops , unless they were guilty of such crimes for which the censures of the church did depose them , or the canons ipso facto deprive them . but where 's the heresie ? where are any of all these crimes , for which these our bishops merit deposition ; or what just censure of the church hath pass'd upon them ? now i answer with mason , where was the act of the church , in the deposition of abiathar ? and where was the ecclesiastical crime he was charg'd with ? and as to the oaths , i shall answer again in the words of the same celebrated author : not without cause was there a law made , that all magistrates , whether sacerdotal or civil , should take an oath , that the queen [ eliz. ] was supreme governour , and under the pain of deposition : which oath since the popish bishops refused , they were deprived of their honours and churches : nor undeservedly , because they were presumed to be for the pope's supremacy . and the same parity of reason may hold for administring and taking the oath of allegiance to king william and queen mary , since they that refuse to take that , may be presumed to think their allegiance due to another . and that author adds further , when the said oath was tendred to those bishops by illustrious persons deputed thereunto , and they would not be perswaded to take it , episcopatibus suis tandem aliquando juxta legem parliamentariam sunt abdicati ; which i leave to our author to english. i think this case is at an end . q. . whether if a person be lawfully deprived of the exercise of his ministry , he is notwithstanding bound , as a private member , to communicate in that church , &c. this our author denies , for he would have it , that they are bound to continue in the exercise of their office , to do it as they can , when not suffered to do it in communion with them . not suffered , he means without taking the oaths . the sum is , that if they are not permitted to exercise their ministerial function , they think themselves obliged to set up conventicles , and maintain a separate communion . now this may make two questions . whether ordination obliges such an one to the actual exercise of his office , when forbid by the magistrate ? and then whether for the exercise of his ministry , he may and is obliged to set up and maintain a separate communion ? . whether ordination obliges such an one , &c. to this i answer : if a magistrate may lawfully deprive , ( as i have shewed he may ) then the clerk may be lawfully deprived . and if lawfully deprived , he is bound to submit to such deprivation . and that in obedience to the magistrate , whom we are taught ( as he knows ) not to resist . but to officiate notwithstanding such a prohibition , is in our way to take up arms against him ; and in a lower to do what the pope doth in a higher station , and to controul his jurisdiction . our author undertakes to tell us what was done in the primitive times : but if he had consulted them , he would have found , that when by the imperial power eustathius was put out of antioch , athanasius out of alexandria , and paulus out of constantinople , though the orthodox complained of the injustice of it , as done upon the malicious suggestion of the arians , yet they never questioned the emperour's power . but supposing that he is not bound in this case ; and that he may as lawfully , and is as much obliged to exercise his office as ever : yet what is this to a separation ? for is he so obliged , that rather than not officiate , he may and ought to break off from communion with the church ? it 's agreed to by all , that we are to continue in the communion of the church we are of as long as we can ; and that a separation from it is like a divorce ; which is the last extremity , and which nothing can justify but when the terms of communion are unlawful . but one deprived of his ministry may hold communion with the church if he will , since there is no change in the terms , and the church is as much the same when he is not a minister in it as when he is : and his officiating as a minister , being not a term of communion , the communion with it is the same when he is not a minister as when he is . this was true doctrine against the dissenters when time was ; he was a schismatick who gave this as a reason for his separation . and if they now proceed on the same principles with the dissenters , and take up their arguments , there is as much reason to charge them with schism , as they had to charge the dissenters . arg. . he argues from the subjection the people and clergy owe to the bishops , and the bishops owe to their metropolitan : so that if bishops or metropolitan be deprived , and others substituted in their room , it will unavoidably necessitate a schism . our author that undertakes to give us an account of the sense , judgment , and practice of the primitive times , would have done well to have given us a touch or two of his skill that way , by some credible authorities ; and particularly of such a subjection of the bishop to the metropolitan , to the confutation of some of st. cyprian's epistles : and that bishops after the proceedings against them by imperial authority , were still accounted bishops of those churches they before were bishops of , — and neither clergy nor people renounced them , unless they were guilty of such crimes , for which the censures of the church did depose them , or the canons ipso facto deprive them , as heresie : or that there is no way to free us from the subjection and obedience we owe to them , but either death , deprivation , or their own renuntiation ; which last , he saith , was never accounted commendable in a bishop . for the christian world has hitherto been persuaded , that in sitting cases both bishops might be deprived , and both clergy and people discharged of any obedience owing to them , by a secular authority : ( as has been shewed ) but if what this author suggests , be a just enumeration of all the cases for which bishops may be deprived ; then there is no case in reserve for the secular power to forbid or deprive ; and if by the impetuosity of that power ( as his words are ) a bishop was set over a church or diocess , in opposition to one there canonically placed already , it would always in course produce a schism . this he saith was , and this is the case , for our metropolitan and several other bishops are now actually by a secular act deprived , and because by a secular act deprived , and for no crimes for which the censures of the church depose them ; they are bishops still , and they are bound to take care of their churches , and their churches to live in subjection to them . this subject cannot be thorowly handled without passing some limits i desire not to transgress , though the way that he has handled it in , and the small deference he gives to , nay the contempt he casts upon the secular power , concerning it self and interposing in the case , deserves a severe rebuke ; and which is so far from doing any real service to the right reverend persons he takes upon him to defend , that it would be to their disadvantage , had not the impertinency of the person plainly discovered , there are none of them in his counsel . but to return to our author , suppose the case be as he represents it , how comes this to necessitate a schism with us ? is it because these venerable persons stand deprived ? then it is not because of any thing unlawful in the church , but because of the bishops that suffer by the state , a schism may warrantably be made by the clergy and people . is it not for that reason alone , but because others are to be substituted in their room ; then why is there a separation before it ; and his argument proceeds upon this , that they are bound to join and go along with the bishops . why must this necessitate a schism to all ? for are those diocesses and clergy , who have their bishops , equally involved in the same case with those that are deprived of theirs ? or why must it necessitate a schism , when the metropolitan and bishops deprived , declare their aversion to any such separation ? this argument will serve either way ; for if the clergy and people are obliged to submit to and obey their bishops , and the bishops their metropolitans ; then those that are of the province and diocesses , where their metropolitan and bishops have taken the oaths , are obliged to adhere to their metropolitan and bishops , and may as warrantably and as much ought to separate from these that set themselves against authority , and refuse to swear allegiance to it , as they on the other side think they may and ought to separate from those that do comply with it . again if they are obliged thus to go with their metropolitan and bishops ; then if the metropolitan and bishops , notwithstanding their deprivation , continue in the communion of the church , then they are obliged also to continue ; and if they separate when those don't separate , they must by his argument become schismaticks . lastly , if they separate because they proceed ( as he saith ) according to the sense , judgment , and practice of the ancient church : i would fain understand , when the christians ever refused communion with a church , because of matters of state ; or divided from others , because those they divide from thought it lawful and their duty to swear allegiance to the sovereign power ? in fine , a schism it must be , and a schism they are resolved to make , let there be a reason or none for it : and ( as truth will out ) so he hath at last revealed the mystery , and after all the pretences they make , that it 's for not deserting god his church and their duty ; there seems to be something else at the bottom , and whether it be so or no , i leave the reader to judg by what he tells us we must expect , and why : viz. though they may go clothed in purple and fine linen ( as some others would have done , or thought to have done , had the happy days of the last reign continued ) and fare sumptuously every day , whilst care is taken that we may be starved ; yet they must expect to be pelted , and then men will speak and write their minds freely . for in vain do you imagine , that when men have nothing to lose , they have any thing to fear . no sirs , if nothing else will do it , we will humble you , and throw such a fioe into your church by the schism we will make ; that you may be sensible you have provoked men of spirit , and that if we cannot have purple and fine linnen , and sumptuous fare with you , will make you as miserable as our selves . look you to it , for betwixt dissenter and dissenter , we will grind you to death , and make you rue that ever we left your church ; or that the government hath made us thus uneasy under it . this i take to be but a just comment on this bold text of his : but let him and those of his mind cherish this malignant humour . i am confident no wise or good man but will think those that are of this kidney had better be out of the church than in it : they are such as there was no great reason to oblige , when in our communion , nor to fear ( threaten as they will ) when out of it . but as for those whom by their frantick zeal and fair pretences they delude , we ought to pity and to pray for them , and with meekness to shew them their error . whether our author hath stated the case righly , i shall , with him , leave to indifferent persons to judg : but if he hath not ( as i think has been sufficiently proved ) then , to use his words , they may wash their hands with pilate , but they cannot wipe of the crime of schism , they are by this new separation justly charged with . §. ii. of the publick good. but now he opens a new scene . before he considered the case with respect to the church , but now he comes to consider it with respect to the state. his design before was to vindicate themselves , if he could , from a schism , and to charge it upon us : but now his design is to expose the arguments for the oaths , and to make those that take them guilty of perjury . in order to which , he thus states the case for his adversary ; the whole stress of his discourse , saith he , is founded on this single point . that the consideration of the publick good , doth dissolve the obligation of an oath to a sovereign prince , rightfully claiming . for this he must mean , if he will speak to the purpose . in opposition to this , he saith , that no pretence of publick good whatsoever can warrant us to destroy a lawful king , or take off the obligations of an oath , whereby we have bound our selves in all things lawful and honest to obey him . and he immediately adds , the contrary our r. author undertakes to prove ; which i cannot reflect upon without grief ; because it seems to me a task , which would much better become a committee-man , or sequestrator , than a divine of the church of england . and certainly so it would , if the author of the discourse had undertaken to prove what he here charges him with , viz. that the publick good will warrant us to destroy a lawful king , &c. but all the while this man cannot believe himself , and therefore he returns to the consideration of the proposition concerning the dissolving of an oath for the sake of the publick good : or as the discourse words it , p. . the publick good is the true and just measure of the obligation in publick oaths . against which he saith , if we should grant that he had proved it in thesi , yet he has no where so much as offered to prove it in hypothesi , and apply it to our particular case . surely our author never read the book he pretends to answer , or if he did , he must have a bad memory , or a very bad conscience : for the discourse thus proceeds upon it , p. . i shall enquire into two things . . the nature and measure and obligation of political oaths in general . . the difficulties which relate to our oaths in particular ; upon the last of which he spends two thirds of the book . and now let us see what our author has to offer in confutation of what is rightly called the single point , in the discourse , about the obligation of political oaths , and the influence the consideration of the publick good has in them . i shall try , in his phrase , to bring his rambling arguments into some order ; and what he has to say is , . that the publick good is impracticable and liable to be abused . . who shall be the judg ? . what is the publick good ? i hope he will give me leave to begin with the last , if not for the sake of reason and true order , yet for the quaint expression of his friend , that publick or common good is a common notion , and signifies nothing unless it be stated and explained , inquiry , p. . . what is this publick good ? our author enters upon this point in a fit of quixotism ; i desire to know of our author where this divine beauty dwells , whom all our knights errants run mad for , and fill the world with blood and slaughter ? and he answers for him in a very metaphysical strain ; she is generally made a delicate fine thing in the abstract , a separate invisible being , distinguish'd from all personal interest and benefit . now with his good leave , i desire to know of him , where these platonick gentlemen live , that doat thus upon ideas and abstracts , and run mad for such a separate and invisible being , which they call publick good ; that is , in his phrase , good for no body . for i am apt to fancy no body will be found to be for that any more than himself . but let 's see whether he that keeps out of this mad crew , ( as he calls it ) and that is willing to put in for a share in it , comes off with any better success ; and whether after all the knowledg he pretends to have of this divine beauty , he can better describe it ? publick good , saith he , is a personal good , and that which makes for the welfare of every one in the community ; and which every man hath or ought to have a share in . or if you would have it in the same quixotian strain , she is a most sweet-natur'd creature , that doth good to all , &c. to do him right , as to the notion he is not alone ; for the same way goes the inquirer , p. . now i very much question this their notion of publick good. i grant that every particular person hath his share and right in the publick . but , . that is not as a particular person , but as a member of the publick . and he actually shares in it , when his particular good and the good of the whole , or the general good , meet together : but if they are separated , and become inconsistent , it then becomes a personal and private good. . publick good is so far from comprehending in it the good of every individual , or of every party of men , that the particular good of persons , parties and corporations is often destroyed for the good of the publick ; and they are often undone for the preservation and benefit of the community : for as the inquiry ( though in contradiction to himself in the sentence just before ) saith , if it be such a good ( or rather such an evil ) as is only for the benefit of a party , and , in respect of the whole , of the least or a small number , [ and much more of a particular person ] 't is impossible it should be a publick good. so that if personal good and publick good may be and often are inconsistent , the publick good is not a personal good. . publick good , that makes for the welfare of every one in the community , is a divine beauty indeed , but it 's a delicate fine thing in the abstract , an invisible being , not to be met with in this lower world. and when we speak of it as it is , it 's in the discourser's . language , a general good only . and therefore after all , i shall make bold to conclude in that author's words , [ discourse p. . ] the right of a person is not to be taken as distinct from the publick good. for if it be inconsistent with it , there is no ground to set up a personal interest against a publick good. . he argues against publick good 's being the measure of the obligation of publick oaths ; because it 's impracticable and very liable to be abused . thus our author ; how specious soever any proposition may seem in the theory ; yet , it ought not to be esteemed right or found , if it be impracticable , without filling the world with perpetual troubles and confusions , p. . and so he runs on for several columns together in a rant against the mischiefs this pretence has ushered into the world , p. . the sum of all which is , that publick good doth not take off the obligation of publick oaths , or make it lawful to take new , because this doctrine is impracticable ; and it 's impracticable , because it 's very liable to be abused . now besides the inconsequence of this , this is a way of arguing that may serve against any thing ; and if we put publick justice , or laws , or religion , or reformation , into the place of publick good , it will hold in any of them as well as the other . as for example , the doctrine of reforming the church [ how corrupt soever ] is very liable to be abused ; for the greatest part of mankind being wicked and credulous against their governours , under this pretence a sort of knaves , with active fools , may at any time cry up a reformation , and overturn any establishment , &c. but he may say , it 's not the publick good that doth this mischief , and makes it impracticable , but the pretence of it . but how shall we know when it really is so , and when so in pretence ? our author is silent in the case , but the inquirer has an answer ready ; nothing can be a publick good to any nation , where the exercise and practice of it is not warranted by the law , custom , and constitution of that nation , p. , & . and with him agrees the author of the discourse , p. . ( excepting in the nothing can ) the laws , rights and customs , are the standard of the publick good of a country . but then these two differ about the constitution , and that is not a controversy here to be entred into . the use i make of it is , that the publick good is still the measure of the obligation of political oaths , as is at last acknowledged even by the inquirer . but yet , if after all i should deny the inquirer's proposition , that nothing can be a publick good , but &c. and should say , that the publick good is above all law and custom , i conceive i should not mistake . for what made custom , law and constitution , but the publick good ? and if a case should happen , which never happened before , in which the publick good is so far concerned , that without some extraordinary course be presently taken , the nation and government will be destroyed , i do not question , but this case will as much require the care of the nation , as any case now doth require the making of a law , for which there was no law before : or as it 's requisite , that there should be a chancery to adjust those matters , to which the letter of the law doth not reach . for there are such things as necessity , equity , and reason of state , which are law all over the world ; and that are as much the standard by which all laws and customs , in extraordinary cases and events , are to be adjusted ; as law and custom are the standard by which all ordinary cases are to be determined , and which are the settled measures of the obedience we owe to governours . such a case was that in poland , when henry of valois in haste and with secrecy left the throne vacant . a case extraordinary , and which they had no law to govern them in , but they had that which is a law to law ; necessity and the preservation of the nation , that soon taught them what was to be done . this brings me to consider . . who shall be the judg ? that is , either who shall judg when the publick good is invaded , and when the laws , customs and constitutions , are violated ? or , who shall judg what 's fit to de done in such a case , by way of remedy ? as to the former , the case before us is supposed to be notorious , and what has an evident tendency to the destruction of the government : of which some things are of that nature , as they are destructive of government where-ever they are , as the desertion of a kingdom ; or the natural incapacity of the governour by lunacy , &c. other things there are which are destructive of the national constitution , and such amongst us has been thought to be an absolute and universal power of dispensing with the laws . now , when the cases are notorious , this author might as well have asked , who shall be the judg , whether the banks are broken down in an inundation ; or whether there is a breach in the walls when they see the enemy press through it ; or the city in the power of the enemy , when they see the fortifications of it dismantled ? but who shall be the judg , that is again , by way of remedy ? here our author thus puts the case , either that must be the supream governour , or some other man or body of men , or the mobile . the former he chuses for himself ; the second he argues out of the way ; and the third he gives to his adversary : for thus he concludes ; after all the matter comes to the mobile , and every man must judg for himself : — and have not we extreamly mended the matter , by putting it into the power of every subject to depose his king ; or at least to endeavour it to his utmost , in case he apprehends it will be for the publick good ? p. . as to the first of these the supreme governour , the case we are upon immediately concerns himself ; and then either there must be no judg , or he cannot be the judg. for suppose the controversy be about the succession and title ; suppose about an incapacity , a desertion and vacancy ; suppose it be about the violation and destruction of the government and constitution designed by him ; or the nature and obligation of the oaths to him . this is not only to make him a personal judg in his own case , ( which the law permits net in suits of law betwixt prince and subject ) but to set him above himself , and in our author's phrase , to set a supream above a supream . and then the question should be put , not who is the judg , but whether there is any judg ? but i readily grant that the supream governour has no supream , and whatever has been done in a case extraordinary , doth no more make a convention or parliament judges , ( properly so called ) than that the parliament is equal to the king , because he can make no laws without them . as for the case of the people , our author writes as if he had never read his adversary , who after he had resolved the point into the common good , saith , i do not hereby go about to set up the power of the people over kings , which is in effect to overthrow monarchy ; for then the whole soveraignty would lie in the people , and kings would be but their servants , p. . and therefore there is the third case remaining , which is that of a body of m●n ; and thus the question is put in the discourse : whether the law of our nation doth not bind us to allegiance to a king and queen in actual possession of the throne , by consent of the three estates of the realm : and whether such an oath may not lawfully be taken , notwithstanding any former oath , p. . this he undertakes to prove , p. . as that 's no other than the consent of the people , whose true representatives they are , as he shews . to this our author has nothing to say ; but the inquirer , that he may seem to say somewhat , took what served his turn , and left out the rest : ( to use his own words ) for this adversary having said , p. . if there be a rule , the general consent of the people joyned with the common good seems to have been that , which our ancestors pretended to : he presently runs out upon this in a vehement expostulation ; where or how can all the people meet ? as if the author he opposes thought of no less than the numbring of the people from dan to beersheba : or as if there was no way of taking the general consent but by an vniversal assembling . he that quoted what was just before and after , could not miss the explication there given ; the consent of the people that is the three estates of the realm , &c. p. . and elsewhere . i might think here of closing the discourse upon publick good , when he himself grows weary of it ; but to give an answer to what remains , it 's fit with him to return to it . the author of the discourse towards the beginning , treating of the nature and measure of the obligation of political oaths , shew'd . . that the obligation was not barely from the oath , but from somewhat antecedent to it , p. . . that the publick good is that antecedent , the main end chiefly concerned in the obligation ; and the obligation to magistrates is to be in subordination to that end . p. . . that an antecedent and superiour obligation voids that which is subsequent and inferiour , when they contradict each other . so that if an oath to the person is truly inconsistent with the welfare of the people , the obligation cannot continue . that this is so in other cases , he shews ; there being no relation of mankind one to another , but there is some good antecedent , which is the just measure of that obligation they stand in to each other . thus he describes it to be between parents and children . ( . ) on the childrens part to parents : insomuch that if a vow to god ( which is as solemn a thing as an oath ) hinders that good which children are bound to do to parents , it ceaseth to oblige , as our saviour declares . to this our author replies : his comparison of a vow and an oath is nothing to the purpose ; for whoever thought that either an oath or a vow bound a man contrary to his real duty ? the sin in such a case is in making them , not in breaking them , p. . i answer ; the instance is to the purpose ; for if the procuring and preserving the publick good be a duty ; and what a person hath vowed or sworn , be destructive of it ; then the oath cannot oblige , no more than a vow not to feed or maintain a parent , and the jurant is discharged of the obligation . and whereas he saith , the sin is in making them , &c. that is true where the matter is unlawful in it self ( as when the jews bound themselves to kill st. paul ) but the case may happen so , that it may be not only lawful , but a duty to break that vow or oath , which was lawful in its own nature ; or rather the obligation comes to cease ; because by change of circumstances or of the original reason of that oath , that which was lawful may become unlawful . thus it was in things sacred and dedicated to the service of god , and which could not be alienated from it without sacriledg , and yet it was lawful to apply them otherwise in case of necessity , as our saviour's case of the shew-bread proves . and so it may happen in the case before us , when that which was before for the publick good , and which it was lawful to swear to maintain , may afterwards come to be plainly destructive of it ; and so the same reason that there was for swearing to maintain it , may be for the setting it aside . the want of this consideration led this author into a mistake , when he saith , let our author speak out , and tell me , that taking an oath of allegiance to a lawful prince is contrary to my duty , and then , &c. for it might be lawful and his duty to take an oath to a lawful prince ; but it follows not that no case could ever happen , in which the obligation of such an oath ceases . it was lawful for jaddus the high-priest and the rest of the jews to swear allegiance to darius as long as he lived : and yet when alexander came with a powerful army against them , and darius was in no capacity of defending them , it was lawful , and , as they thought , their duty , for the preservation of their country and themselves , to go out to meet him , and to transfer their allegiance to him ; and certainly they thought themselves discharged from their former oath to the one , when they took it to the other . so true is that which the author of the discourse observes ; that the resolution of conscience in this case doth not depend upon the will and pleasure of the person to whom the former oath was made , but upon the grounds on which it was made , and from which it had its force to oblige : and if those cease , the obligation of the oath ceases together with them , p. . ( . ) it is so on the parents part to children , as the same author shews ; so that if parents , instead of regarding the good of their children , do openly design their ruin , none will say but that they are bound to take care of their own welfare , &c. to this our author replies : . i know not what a madman may do , but none will suppose that a parent in his right wits will do thus ; as it is both unnatural and unreasonable to think , that a king should contrive the destruction of his subjects , without whom he hath none to reign over or assist him . this i grant is unnatural , and unreasonable in it self , but not unreasonable to think ; for the world too often finds that the passions , and lusts , and interests of men make them do things unreasonable and unnatural . and our saviour tells us , how far the hatred persons have to the true religion may transport them , when the fathers shall betray and deliver their children to death . and if it is so on the part of a natural , it may be as well supposed on the part of a political parent . that he saith is unreasonable to suppose , because a king by the destruction of his subjects , leaves himself none to reign over , or assist him . but whoever was so mad as to mean this , when he puts the case of a prince's destroying his nation ; for then he must come to do it with his own hand , and his nation must in caligula's way have little more than one neck to serve his barbarity . but they thereby mean his design to destroy the government , and to destroy those that will not comply with , or oppose such a design : he choosing rather to have no subjects than what shall not be his slaves ; or in the modish way of a neighbouring prince , that will not be of the same religion with himself . . he saith , the author should have told us , that the children , in such a case , might have taken away all the father's subsistence , and done their utmost endeavour to starve him , or cut his throat ; and no doubt but this had been an excellent comment on the fifth commandment . but why should that author be obliged thus to have told us ? for suppose the father would alienate the estate from his children , which is entail'd upon them ; and designs to adopt a stranger into that relation , and substitute him in their place : suppose again , that a father has several tenants that hold of him by ancient tenures , and by which tenures , and performing the conditions belonging to them , their lands are as much their propriety , as the land of inheritance is their lord's ; and that he notwithstanding seeks to destroy their tenures , because they oppose him in his designs against his children , or in that absolute power over them which he aims at : suppose again , that rather than not compass his designs , he seeks the destruction of his children , and of the tenants that adhere to them for their own mutual preservation and security : is there no mean to be found , but either to let the father out , and starve his children , or that the children must take away all the father 's subsistance , and do their utmost to starve him ? no mean , but to let the father cut the throat of his children , or that the children must cut the throat of their father ? and may not a son withdraw from his parents immediate care , ( as the discourse saith ) and forsake his house , when he cannot stay there but upon the hard terms of being destroyed , or of resigning up the title of his inheritance to a supposititious heir ? or , may not the son take possession of his father's house , and the estate of inheritance , which the father abandoned , rather than he would oblige himself to continue the estate in his family , and suffer the tenants to hold their lands by any other tenure than that of during pleasure ? may he not , i say , then enter upon the estate , rather than suffer the house to fall , and the lands to be wasted , and the tenants undone for want of a supervisor and possessor ? and may he not keep the possession against his parent in his own , his families , and tenants right , when he comes with an armed force of rapperies to enslave his children and tenants , and exercise an absolute power over them , or else destroy them ? and may not all this be done , and the fifth commandment stand in its full force ? if not , we must burn our law-books , and take new measures from these gentlemen that despise and reproaeh the common good , as an engine fitted ( in his phrase ) to overturn any government ; and that whilst they pretend to plead for law , set up a meer arbitrary power . the third instance in the discourse of the relation of mankind one to another , is that of masters and servants , victors and captives ; in which the author proves there is a regard had to the benefit of those who are in subjection . here our author interposes ; i know not , saith he , to what purpose he so labours to prove that a natural equity or common right is due to subjects , yea even to slaves : for whoever thought , that being under government , metamorphos'd us into beasts , or worse . it 's the first time ( though there was reason enough for it before ) that this author confesses his ignorance ; and it 's pity he should be sent away uninformed . . it was necessary , because though being under government ( rightly so called ) doth not metamorphose us into beasts ; yet mere absolute power comes very near it . . it was to the purpose , because the author of the discourse had undertaken to prove , that there is no relation of mankind one to another , but there is some good antecedent , which is the just measure of that obligation they stand in to each other . thus it is , saith he , between parents and children , masters and servants . oh , but , saith our author , he should have proved , that because the subject has a common right , therefore he can receive no wrong ; that is , he should have proved non-sence and inconsistencies . or ( as he goes on ) if be do [ receive wrong ] or apprehend he shall , then he may cry out , the publick good , and raise rebellion , and overturn any government : that is , because he has received a private injury ( in which the publick is not concerned ) he may cry out the publick good : it 's well he before told us the publick good is a personal good , or else i should have fil'd this up for a new blunder . the th relation mentioned in the discourse is that between princes and their subjects : where the author proved , that the good of the whole is the just measure of the obligation they stand in to each other . . from what the strictest casuists have allowed under a state of vsurpation . . from the nature of political oaths , which are reciprocal . as to the first of these . . in the foregoing paragraph our author will needs have his adversary to have borrowed the worst of mr. hobbs ' s principles to patch up his discourse , though he confutes him . and here he will have him displeased with the casuists , though they agree with him in the main point , about publick good , as he there recites their opinion . it is not denied , saith he , by the strictest casuists in these matters , but that under a state of vsurpation , notwithstanding their oaths to a rightful prince , men are bound to do those things which tend to the publick safety , as well as their own . now what 's this but to prove ( as far as that author intended it for ) that the publick good is the measure of the obligation , because the strictest casuists in those matters do not deny , &c. but however our author will have it so that they have displeased him ; and he gives a very surprizing reason for it , for thus he goes on : in another paragraph he ( the author of the discourse ) discovers the reason of his displeasure to be this , that they have not allowed them to do every thing in a state of vsurpation , which they might do under their lawful sovereigns . if i had never read more than two pages of the discourse , i durst have adventured as much as our author would have laid , sometime since , that king william would never pass the boyn , that there is no such paragraph , and no such reason in the whole book : and i dare now vouch after i have read it , that there is no more any such paragraph , than that king william is still on the other side of the boyn ; or died of the wound he received there . but since the casuists will not be of his mind , that author will it seems be even with them ; for ( if our author be to be credited ) he roundly condems them all , for founding it on the presumptive consent of the absent prince : but it is his own mistake , for quite contrary , they found the presumptive consent of the absent prince upon the publick good. after all it seems by his own confession , that the casuists and his adversary agree , that under a state of vsurpation men are bound to do those things , which tend to the publick safety : but they disagree about the reason it 's founded upon : for saith the discourse , the casuists found it ( that is , the obligation men are under in that state , to do what 's for the publick safety ) upon a presumptive consent of the absent prince . but that 's his own mistabe , saith our author ; for quite contrary , they found the presumptive consent of the absent prince upon the publick good. what a penance have i to undergo , that must teach a man his a b c ; and that puts c for a , and b for c ; ( for it 's no better with him here ) . we are now not enquiring , upon what the consent of the absent prince is founded ; but upon what the casuists found their opinion of the obligation that lies on mankind to do what tends to the publick good under a usurpation . the former indeed the casuists found upon the publick good , but the latter they found upon the presumptive consent of the prince , as is evident from what he himself quotes out of bishop sanderson . the case then is that those casuists found their opinion of doing what tends to the publick safety under an usurpation , immediately on the absent prince's consent ; and remotely by him , and for his sake , on the publick good. but now the author of the discourse thinks this to be a mistake ; for , saith he , the true reason is , that men are in the first place bound to promote the publick good , and consequentially and with respect to it , to regard the will of their princes , who are appointed by god and nature for that end . and if such be rendred uncapable of doing it , yet the obligation on others remains . . the discourse proves , that the publick good is the true and just measure of the obligation of political oaths ; in that the oaths are reciprocal . whereas if only the good of the persons , to whom the oaths of allegiance are made , were to be our rule , there would be no mutual oaths . this that author proves from the word allegiance ( which originally signifies a contract ) and from glanvil and bracton , &c. now this was a noble subject for our author to have tried his skill upon , but as if he had the spirit of clinias upon him , he shuts his eyes , and runs backward from the naked . weapon as far as he can : at last he is to be found three pages behind , calling upon no less than two of the holy apostles to defend him , p. . for thus he saith , to secure the law on his side , he cites glanvil and bracton , but forgets what st. peter and st. paul said . let him take his share with the lawyers , i will venture my soul with the apostles . a good thought ! if the lawyers go one way and the apostles another . but i never read that st. paul and st. peter differed in this matter from glanvil and bracton ; and that those holy apostles ever determined against them , that political oaths were not reciprocal ; or that the publick good is not the true and just measure of the obligation of such oaths . however by this conceit , he has got rid of a troublesom task ; i need not , saith he , now answer the citation : but how his as and his so come to be a reason for it , i don't well understand . however i dare pass my word for his adversary ( who , he saith , has changed his divinity for a little bad law ) that he has so much divinity and law yet left , as ( no less , than our author ) never to be persuaded , that it was lawful upon any pretence whatsoever to rebel , or to countenance rebellion against a sovereign prince ; and i am as sure that it is still , as he is , that not long since it was both the doctrine of the church of england , and the law of the land : which brings me to the last point . §. iii. of obedience to authority . after our author had wearied himself ( as he professeth ) with discoursing of the publick good , and ruined the main point , that he might yet render it , as jerusalem , so uncapable of recovery , that not one stone should be left upon another that should not be thrown down ; he resolves to give a brief answer . ( to make good the title of his book ) to such other things in the discourse that may require it . some of which , as belonging to the subject of publick good , i have already considered . amongst these , he selects the answer that is returned in the discourse to the history of passiv obedience . and here i thought , if any where , i should have found him bold and forward to support the credit of that main pillar of their cause ; but as if he was sensible of his own weakness , he crys out abominably of the answer to it , shifts it off with a silly comparison ; and as if he had raised a spirit he could not conjure down ; runs back as far as he can , without running out of the book , to the case of vows ( which is before considered ) and then as one confounded , bounces forward again , and concludes , i do not remember any thing more in his discourse material , except a numerous heap of instances , and in the van comes the unfortunate vortigern ; which with a little wipe he sends , as that prince was , out of the way ; and then as if he had been inspired at montsorrel , takes a leap from p. , to p. . of the discourse : and there he meets with somewhat which was not material enough to be remembred : but it seems his adversary being so elevated about the determination of our saviour , of paying tribute to tiberius , that he in zeal cannot forbear to call the non-swearers perjured and apostates ; our author conceives he may without any reflection upon his own memory call him to an account for it ; if it were only for a notable remark he makes upon it , viz. some men surely are not only priviledged , but admired for speaking contradictions . i was thinking for some time , where this contradiction might be , and dunce as i was , began to look backward and forward for it , whereas i perceived at length it was that the discourse charged the non-swearers with perjury . but bating the contradiction , we know who has been sufficiently quit with him for it , in the like charge upon the jolly swearers . after i had found out this conceit , i was at a loss again to find out the paragraph where this contradiction was : and at length discovered it , but found withal our author true to himself ; who for ought i see , may ( in his own words ) be priviledged , but i doubt not admired , for his many blundering mistakes : of which this is one , for he might as well have said , and with as much credit to his own understanding , that his adversary called the non-swearers jews , as perjured and apostates . for indeed what is said in the discourse of perjured and apostates , is applied to that people , and only to them . the words are these : as to the dreadful charge of perjury and apostacy which some have made use of against those who hold it lawful to take the oaths — it would have had more appearance of reason , if the pharisees had urged it against our saviour's resolution of the case about tribute-money . after this manner : for , had not god by his own law setled the government amongst them ? &c. what can it be then less than perjury and apostacy to give any countenance to such an open violation of this law ? who would not pity this writer of controversy that cannot see into the connexion of an argument for ten lines backward or forward ? for what reason i will not determine . but now comes on a flourish of learning ; for by an unhappy parenthesis the discourse has of velleius paterculus about the senate , he understood there was , i will not say such an author in the world , but such a passage in that author ( for he was sensible he might trust his adversary in that matter ) and here he bears up to him , fights him with his own weapon . to be short , saith he , i think the testimony of velleius to be better than our author's , tho he so scornfully reject him ; as if his adversary had set his own say-so against that of velleius , whereas he had proved the c●ntrary , from suetonius , dio and tacitus ; and therefore might well say , whatever velleius paterculus pretends . we are at last drawing to a close , and therefore he resolves to give his adversary a parting blow or two . he boasts , saith he , what he had gained upon the account of the jews paying tribute , but it will impose upon none but fools and partizans , and i will give it no particular answer . merciful man ! because he misrepresents the case both of the jews and tiberius . but it would have been some satisfaction in this suspicious age to have given an instance or two ; or else there are a sort of troublesom inquirers , that will be apt to believe that the best , reason he had why he would not give a particular answer was , because he could not . as now it will be asked , wherein doth the discourse misrepresent the case of the jews ? was it that darius was any other than a de factó king over them ? or that they did not swear allegiance to him as long as he lived ? or , did they notwithstanding , not submit to alexander , and enter into his service , and transfer their allegiance to him ? where again doth the discourse misrepresent the case of tiberius ? had he any right to the empire ? or had he at first any other title than from the pretorian band and legions ? or , did not the senate and people swear to him at last , though he was in the throne before , and a notorious usurper of it ? but though our author lets his adversary go for once with his misrepresentations scot-free ; yet by the vertue of some few particulars he has in reserve , he questions not but to put him to the rout ; and then let him ( sorry man as he is , that when girding on his harness , boasts himself as he that putteth it off ) reckon his gains ; and they are these four . . that none should rule over the jews but one of their own brethren , was designed as a blessing , and their being given up to a foreign power , was a judgment , &c. what then ? therefore they might not lawfully transfer their allegiance from their own blood to a foreigner . if that be the consequence , what becomes of nehemiah who served as governour under artaxerxes ? what of jaddus and the jews of his time with their oath of fidelity to darius ? &c. if they did well , the question is , ( as it 's in the discourse ) on what right that oath is founded ? . he pleads , they were under a state of conquest . what follows , but that therefore their allegiance to their royal stem was so far at an end ; or they might lawfully transfer their allegiance to a foreigner ? what now becomes of succession ? . he urges , that the question to our saviour , was not concerning oaths but tribute , which he grants all casuists do allow , may be paid even to an vsurper . but he knows , what use and what gain too his adversary made of this ; the question is ( saith the discourse ) whether any act of subjection be lawful or not ? if it be lawful to testify it one way , why not another ! if in paying tribute , why not in solemn promising to pay it ? if in promising , why not in swearing , i.e. in calling god to witness that i do it ? thus far then we may go , we may swear to pay tribute ; but on what account ? is it not as a token of allegiance , i.e. as a duty owing on the account of protection ? &c. if this way of arguing will impose upon none but fools and partizans ; why doth not our author who is to be sure no partizan , shew that he is no fool by answering it , and preventing fools from being imposed upon by such a shew of reasoning as here seems to be ? . he saith , that at that time no man had jus potius , nor had there been any prior oaths taken in bar against tiberius ; so that though he calls him an vsurper , i know not where he will find one with a better title . . he saith no man had jus potius , a better right . surely the author turn'd over the page before , where he will find that agrippa posthumus was then living , one much nearer to augustus , and that seemed designed by him to succeed him . surely again there was a jus potius in the senate , from whom even augustus was willing to receive it ; and upon those rights , the whole was an invasion ; and which was as much as if it had been the right of a particular person . . no prior oaths . what thinks he of the oath of jaddus to darius , when yet he went over to alexander ? what thinks he of the obligation to the senate , as to the present case ? . he saith , i know not where he will find a better title : that is , than one who intruded himself into the throne without any pretence in the world , without the leave of senate or people . so that in all respects there was hardly a worse title in the universe . but for once i will adventure to set a better title before him , and that is of one , that when wrong'd by a neighbouring prince and relative , and by one resolved against giving him any satisfaction , to the securing that right which he had to the throne after his decease , and a quiet possession of it , took up arms to right himself ; upon whose approach the other left his throne and kingdom , which the injur'd person with the consent of the estates of the kingdom entered upon . now if allegiance was lawfully sworn to a tiberius , a man of as little right to the empire , as of little vertue : what is not then lawful and due to one that has such a right and title to it ? to conclude : if our b. saviour did allow tribute to be paid to tiberius , and there is so little difference between tribute and an oath ( as the discourse hath shewn ) our author might have saved his impudent slander against his adversary , ( which i will not repeat ) who , as if he was run mad with the sectaries he speaks of in solomon's phrase , casteth firebrands , arrows and death . toward the beginning our author saith of himself , i have taken a safer course in this matter to appear before the tribunal of heaven , than the jolly swearers , p. . but when i reflect upon his disingenuity and hard censures , &c. i thought surely he was then in earnest ( which his scornful title he gives his brethren there , seems not reconcileable to ) he forgot himself for ever afterward ; and litttle thought of the tribunal 〈◊〉 another world ; or that there were any amongst mankind to inmind ( 〈◊〉 knows the word ) or to call him to an account here for such gross prevarications . finis . a letter of religion to the protestant-dissenters from the church of england, of what denomination soever in the county of kent wherein is reported the ground of their dissent, their worship, way of instruction, and behaviour towards laws and government : to which is added a perswasive to conformity, at least an acquiescence in the religion established / by a curate of the same county. curate of the same county. approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing l estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a letter of religion to the protestant-dissenters from the church of england, of what denomination soever in the county of kent wherein is reported the ground of their dissent, their worship, way of instruction, and behaviour towards laws and government : to which is added a perswasive to conformity, at least an acquiescence in the religion established / by a curate of the same county. curate of the same county. p. printed by f. leach for chr. wilkinson ..., london : . reproduction of original in huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng dissenters, religious -- england -- kent. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - john latta sampled and proofread - john latta text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a letter of religion to the protest ant-dissenters from the church of england , of what denomination soever in the county of kent ; wherein is reported the ground of their dissent , their worship , way of instruction , and behaviour towards laws and government . to which is added a perswasive to conformity , at least an acquiescence in the religion established : by a curate of the same county . london : printed by f. leach , for chr. wilkinson over against st. dunstans church , in fleetstreet . . a letter , &c. if i thought it would any thing contribute to the success of this paper to set down particular motives , by which i became perswaded to write to you , i would not have forgone the pains , though it had cost me a long , and distinct paragraph . i hope it may be enough to say , that i am one of the meanest clergy-men in the church of england , in whom there should be always a conscience of its condition , and a zeal to do any office , that is but probable for its peace and establishment ; and moreover , that i think there is something in the present guise of affairs , that may call you at this time to heed any man , or any thing , that means no worse , than to awaken you after many , to another consideration . i have assigned my paper to you of kent , because dwelling in the same county , i have been more capable to observe you in such particulars , as are here considered , and not knowing but the dissenters of other connties may not be such , as you , in all the articles and practises of your dissent from the church of england , i therefore shall leave them to others who have greater abilities , and better opportunities to deal with them . and though in london for an hundred good reasons , the heads of all dissenters may be presum'd to reside ( for that is the mount , from whence a long time you have had your various patterns ) yet considering my own insufficiencie to manage any matter , and withal , that there are many in the same city of strength , and warmth enough to take knowledge of , and reprove too , any thing contrary , or prejudicial to the estabilihed religion in their ablest adversaries , i betake my self to the weaker country , and leave them to convince and perswade , at least to mind those head-men of the city , in what opinions and practises they will continue to live . the beginning of my attempt on you shall be thus fair ; as first to lay together those grounds of dissent , which either in print or discourse i have found owned by such among you , who think they can give reasons for their dissent . yet , before i do this , it is perhaps but very needful to interpose thus much , and to tell you ( especially those among you who boast of number ) that there are many practical dissenters from us , and appear mostly at your assemblies ; who cannot be suspected to have any grounds , and indeed have none , or no other , but what are so apparently weak , that themselves are ashamed to confess them , notwithstanding they are wholly managed by them ; and , when they are contested with , are forc'd to say them ( in another dress ) or nothing . for there are many conducted to your societies , and fill your meeting-houses , on no better score than curiosity , discontent , designe , dependance , and obedience . in which enumeration , because there is one good word or two ( which you are wont to take presently for good arguments ) give me leave to call them over again , and annex unto them a small paraphrase . . curiosity . i know not , whether old descriptions of virtues or vices will serve those of the present age , for 't is conceited our virtues are greater , but known ( i am sure ) that our vices are not less , and even in this particular of curiosity , which school-divinity hath reckoned for a vice : for , though more knowledge be the pretence , yet the appetite may be inordinate , perverse , and vitious , even after knowledge . and such surely is that , which shall engage men to leave their immediate places , and duties to pursue an idle inspection and acquaintance with the practises and opinions of others ; and for love of this satisfaction only , shall address themselves to every meeting-house and place of conventicle , intending to make no more gain thereby , either to themselves or others , than to be able to become pleasant , and talkative about divers manners , matters , and persons , over their meat , wine , and coffee ; of this sort there are not a few among you , and of whom you are not all ignorant ; for it needs no proof , they are not careful to conceal themselves , nor apprehensive of any injury done to them , when they are censured , as curious : not that i think you have all the curious ones among you ; or that this sort of curiosity is all that is to be found among the professors of religion ; for indeed there is more , as is evident by such questions , as are very familiar with us ; which , though fashion and custome do now save from being condemn'd commonly , yet nothing but curiosity is in their birth and original . for not to go further , who can give any better account of this , or the like quest . how doth mr. a. b. preach , or was it a good sermon ? supposing there was nothing preached but the common and invariable truths of the gospel , as is for the most part supposed by such inquirers : for the questions , and the designe of them that so ask rarely refer to truth or falshood , which are questions only material in instructing men to salvation , and therefore these questions are made to know , with what voice , face , gesture , or perhaps method 't is preach'd , which are all idle curiosities in so weighty an affair , as the doctrine of eternal life . but to say truth , you above all others do invite the curious and do not often suffer them to lose their labour in such a miserable quest . for you are not contented with the general and plain doctrines of christianity , either in preaching or hearing , but betake your selves to odd and uncouth subjects , which do not concern the substance of a christian's faith , or life ; but are devised , and framed to the hypothesis of your peculiar saintship . and when a text containing wholesom and necessary doctrine falls into your hand , it is so shattered into niceties , or smothered by your phrases , that though the curious be gratified , the plain man is little edified . the curious come not to you for truth , or pertinacie , but for that ( whatever it be ) they think they have not yet had any where else , and as long , as so much of your study is laid out to provide for them ( as you have been often told ) they will be your customers . and as a man presented with a fresh nosegay , at first will handle it gently , and often scent it , though he is sure 't will quickly grow flat , and wither ; so do the curious with your phrases , till their very thinking on them makes them sink in their esteem , and so would desert you as well as them , but that their experiences make them hope , you will next time provide them more . how many soever they be , you procure to your selves by this trifling , and how bad soever they are in themselves , yet they are not so distress'd as to want a piece of scripture to help them , when by discourse they are reduced to that modesty as to be asham'd of a naked and profane curiosity ; for then ( as you have taught them ) their curiosity is scriptural and holy ; and the text is thes . . . prove all things , &c. as if a man was thereby obliged to peep into every corner , and forsaking his own station to hunt after new matters to try his skill about , and not to stay till they are offered to him , as matters concerning , and weighty ( for every matter offered to us is not worth searching into ) and by those too , that we have some reason to think are affected with care and conscience for the good of our souls . . discontent is another thing that hath added to the number of dissenters , which i might call ( without taking extraordinary licence to my self ) spite and peevishness . for some , in whose thoughts it never entred to alter their principles , or so much as to question the usages of the church of england , have yet made too open shew of deserting the church , by a bold frequenting your meetings ; when the only reason of so doing was some occasional heat , they have lately had with their lawful ministers . for , if a minister , either prest by a conscience of his duty , or by the necessity of his condition , do venture to take a measuring-cast of the tythes due to him from his neighbours farm , and would thereby adjust some mistakes and ill customs to do himself justice , if there be no arts left for the owner to continue the fraud , he shall be sure to find this woful revenge ready for him , viz. that his angry neighbour will hear him no more . and to carry on this hasty and unwarrantable resolution , he for a while perhaps keeps at home , afterwards hovers about some neighbour parishes , and at last settles upon a conventicle , where , whatever his motives were for so doing , he is sure to be welcome . and if you had leisure , or did dare to ask such a one his reasons of departure from us , and joyning with you ( which were but fair in such a change ) you would find the account very shameful . for it is not his love and liking of you , but his despite , and revenge to his minister , and he commends your exercises on no other reason , but to disgrace his sermons . i know some of you have ways not only to salve the man's conscience , but even to sanctifie the very occasion of leaving us ; but the great topick , from whence your methods are derived , is interest not integrity . . designe hath helpt you much in this matter : there being some who have such desires and projects in their heads , ( distinct enough from religion ) which can never be accomplished , but by your success and prosperity . you well remember ( i suppose ) , when his majesty was restor'd to the throne of his ancestors , there were many with him returned to their own estates , that had long been under the hands , and embezelments of men , that knew how to make a good market of an unnatural war. these men enjoy'd what they had thus basely gotten , long enough to make them in love with what they possessed , and such love they have thereto still , that they will not be out of the designe for another embrace . for there are many pleasant meadows , large woods , and goodly houses which yet hang in their eyes , though they do not stick in their fingers , but these can never be compassed again by them without making a new bead-roll of delinquents , repairing to haberdashers-hall , and extirpating episcopacie , that is , by bringing all things again into war and confusion . or , if it be done peaceably , yet cannot be done without laying bishops aside , and distributing their lands . now , how can any labouring with this designe of a re-investiture to such lands , more properly bestow himself and his ways , than in a diligent attendence on your conventicles , wherein bishops have been so often declar'd your utter enemies , and the rooting them out both your aims and prayers ? there is little in such designers consciences , to byass them more to you than to rome ; but dreading that church is not their friend in this particular , they continue with others , but on worse principles , to cry out against her . it may perhaps be objected , that all of you are not for alienation of church-land , but some are against it , and are ready ( as some of your brethren at first did ) to declare against it . if this be true ( of which there is some suspicion ) you may please to make it known at your next meeting , which will be well for us , but i doubt not for your selves . . dependance hath given you some advantage , which because it is various , i will only instance in such common connexions , as are every where observable to have a power to increase the bodies of any sort of men that shall think fit to separate themselves for a distinct society . the dependances which i mean , are those which have a strong relation to food and raiment , such as the shop-keeper hath on the good customer , and the tenant on the hopeful landlord , which though they are not intrinsecally evil , nor the arts of obliging one and the other to be condemned , as universally dishonest ; yet , if on such considerations men shall sort themselves to a sect , and distinguish out to themselves a meet religion , or religious party , they are wicked and unreasonable . neither will it help you to say , that there are the same presumptions of such among us , and though it were true ( as in this 't is probable ) what you say . for whatever mens secret motives are in abiding with the church of england , they are besides under a known law for obedience and conformity to it , by which all men under the same government are equally obliged , the seller as well as the buyer , the tenant as well as the landlord , which is a motive more extrinsecally honest than the other can pretend unto . but to see men take a fair place in your meetings , not to see and hear best , but to be seen and noted best , to remove from thence timely to the door , and there to abide the train of the company in their departure , and all this time to distribute glances , smiles , and cringes according to the hopefulness of the person going out ; and lastly , to acknowledge to their private friends , that their trades and livelihoods engage them so to do , whatever profit it brings to them , can be no great comfort to you , unless you are wonderfully pleased with gang and multitude . i will acknowledge that 't is not to be believed that you can easily discriminate those from others ; or if you could , that you would exclude them ; but yet i know this to be a truth , and is to be told only those of you , who glory in your number and sincerity . my intent is to speak to such that understand and own the best appearing grounds of dissent and separation ; and that i might so do , i thought it best first to set aside those persons that have none . . obedience hath done you no hurt in your plot of separation , though a little more obedience in you or them ( that have on this score separated ) would have done the church of england much good . they that are drawn and held to you by this argument are children and servants , who certainly are the most defensible of all the families that belong to these tribes ; considering they do in some sense assert hereby what their parents and masters do deny to the king , and the church , viz. obedience . there are many considerations of great efficacie to binde these persons to the very sentiments , as well as commandments of their domestic superiours . 't is sufficient , if there were only in the case a quiet life , trade and portion to be forfeited by their reluctancie , and this there is too often ; to say nothing of those fearful curses some are afraid to incur being pronounced on them by their dying friends , on condition of returning to the obedience to the english antichristian and idolatrous church . i think the servants are under the hardest terms , who for the most part have had other kind of education , and come to their masters with catechisms , principles and practises according to the church of england ; and therefore must unlearn somethings , and disuse more in the practice of their religion before they can comply with yours . you know a little skill in case-divinity will help these young people to some ease , and the very doctrine you often needlesly press of an indispensable and prime subjection to god , will do them real good , and you know the subjection we owe to the church , and the king for gods-sake , supercedes the obedience we owe to parents and masters , if they once draw up to a competition . and ' truly 't is pity , but these should be relieved , not only in respect of the church and the good of their souls , but also of their bodies , especially when they are galli'd often a whole day to hunger , to strange prayers , and strange propositions , whereof many of your underling conventicles are very full , and is not unknown to your chief rabbies and masters . let me then dismiss these as not bringing much credit to any society , and least of all to yours , whose pretended formality and essence is to outgo others in purity of heart and life . the ground of your dissent is next to be lookt into , which after the most diligent search that i could make , seems finally resolved into this principle , viz. that nothing may be lawfully done , or used in the church of christ without command or example for it in scripture . for i suppose your chief dislike of our church is , because in its usages there are somethings inscriptural , and so i may boldly say , will be while the world stands . but this is such a principle , that if you resolve to stand by it , and are content to abide by the just consequences of the same , it will as well serve you against any church , as ours , not only that of rome , but geneva ; not only against the late magnified platform of scotland , but new england also . but to be short , either you approve of this principle , or you do not ; if you do , why do you not observe it , and govern your selves within your selves by it ? if you do not , why would you obtrude it on the church of england , and desert her too for want of an impossible conformity to it ? for examine the next most evangelical assembling , and tell me , whether there be not some circumstances in the time , place , gesture , manner of preaching and praying , for which the best textuary of you all can bring forth no plain , positive , and particular commands and examples from the holy scripture : and these circumstances of yours ye are over-rul'd in , and suffer your selves to be obedient to on a vassalage to some private man , and it may be , he no great apostle ; yet continuing to blame those , that in as innocent , and much more decent ceremonies and circumstances are observant of authority , and were derived from those men that were not ashamed to live , nor afraid to die for the gospel . moreover , this being the great postulatum of the science of non-conformity , and novel puritanism , may i be so bold as to ask you , whence you had it ? not from the scriptures i am sure , neither in word , nor sense ; not from examples of jewish or christian church in the scripture registred , for they both used ceremonies and circumstances in worship , again took them up , and laid them down without the interposition of a particular divine command , and yet are guiltless . all that i can find of scriptures that you are wont to alledge for this . opinion , are some conceptions of your own on those texts that mention god's holiness and jealousie , that thou shalt not add nor diminish , &c. which have been an hundred times answered to you ; and had you been ingenuous , the answers had long before removed the dotage . you will not say sure , that this is a principle enforced on you by spiritual wisdom , and prudential debates in the understanding of every man that is possessed with a due fear of god ; for this were to make your selves the only true christians , or to be found ( if you venture to talk of prudence ) in the same oven wherein you seek to finde , or to put your adversaries . but the church of england must be cautious in contending against this principle ; for scarce any of her members do , but they are readily accused for disparaging the fulness of scripture , for speaking un-protestantlike of the perfection of that sacred volume ; and lastly , that christ , as moses was not faithful in his house . which accusations were they true would signifie , but they are not true ; inasmuch as the members of the church of england have always willingly asserted , and learnedly justified the perfection of holy scriptures , as having in them a sufficient and full revelation of supernatural truths , and the substantials of god's worship ; and the advancing moral and civil duties to a more sublime and spiritual height , by directing them to a more noble end , and exacting performance of them in a holy manner . bishop sanderson , pref. to serm. but then 't is added by that renowned bishop , that this the protestants do assert without any purpose thereby to exclude belief of what is otherwise reasonable , or the practise of what is prudential . idem ibid . but the truth is , that bishop might say what he pleased ; my meaning is , that his exercitations on the cause of the church of england , as it stands in controversie with you are above your refuting : else though mr. hookes's be a longsome book , why are not the right reverend sanderson's few sermons , and two prefaces taken into consideration ? for doth he not enervate your principle , and establish our ceremonies with that freeness , as if he craved favour from no man's reason or learning ? therefore let it be thought no unreasonable request of mine to you who are engaged in this county to the way of dissention from us , if i desire you to peruse that author , and to proceed moderately ( if you can ) in your inconformity , till you or yours have answered him . neither can i think the denying of this your principle will argue an opinion in those that oppose it , that christ was less faithful than moses : for , if he hath made known unto us all things that he hath heard of his father , john . . as to that errand about which his father sent him , as moses did in respect of the promulgation of the laws he received from god for the instruction and government of the israelites , and yet left some circumstances unmentionned , he is not unfaithful , nor his dispensation uncomplete ; nor fail'd any more than st. paul , to declare the whole counsel of god , though he hath said nothing of the antipodes , motion of the earth , or world in the moon ; no , nor so much of god's decrees , as some others have , and continue to do . what ceremonies and circumstances are recorded in the new testament , as the issues of the will of the great captain of our salvation to be constantly and universally practised in his church , let him be anathematized that renounceth to them either in opinion or practice ; and let the church of england stand charged of partiallity and falsehood , if any children of her family will not say , amen . but if many acts of religion and piety are commanded in their substance only in scripture , and men cannot perform them without circumstance , what should be the reason ( not the pretence ) why lawful authority ( which is judge of decencie , and always aims at a blessed uniformity , and in pursuance thereof injoyns nothing contrary to the least iota of the will of our saviour ) should not determine them ? when de facto some circumstances will ( though variously ) be used and determined by every private person . but should this very obnoxious principle be allowed you , yet i make a question , whether you have not exceeded ( in your modern cavil ) the fairest extension of it : for under pretence of precisely standing to scripture , and therein often to words , sounds , and syllables , you have rejected somethings that are scriptural in sense and signification , at least in the judgment of those that are as pious and learned as your selves , and infinitely beyond you in number , and antiquity , yet still within the acknowledged church of christ . for what a daring rudeness was it in you to damn episcopacie ( supposing such , as obtains in england ) as unscriptural , if the jus divinum thereof ( which is equivalent to the obligation of scripture ) be so fairly pleadable by men , that are ever ready to go down with you into the sand to defend it at any weapon in the spiritual armory , and are no near at a loss , or short of you in piety than learning . for not to remember your former rage against this government on the account of the former principle , or none : i ask , whether ever any society of men were unchurcht for being govern'd by bishops , but by you ? for to reckon our episcopacie antichristian , is as much as to unchurch us . and though the long-parliament-sermons call'd it prelacie , yet thereby they meant nothing else but our episcopacie both in sense and execution . but the people must have the new word prelacie ( as then used by you ) having something yet left in them of the antient reverence to episcopacie . but if the divine right of episcopacie be not demonstrable ( as i believe it is ) yet hath it not as fair pretence thereto , as any of those hebrew , or scotch roots from whence your different associations are derived ? for let it be shewn wherein it comes behind in evidence to your forming and predominant theses , viz. the doctrine of lay-elders , and purity of ministers , the doctrine of the church-covenant , and independent-pastors . or again , that the gospel hath so restrained the subject of baptism , as to exclude infants ; and , that men may now expect the same degree of conduct and assistance from the holy ghost to guide them into all truth , and even to prevent study and meditation , as the apostles had , &c. and as it is in government , so i go on to demand of you in the point of worship , who ever besides your selves ran away from an explicite communion with a church for having a form of prayer , for kneeling at the lords-supper , for the use of the cross after baptism , and for the surplise ? when they were declared not essential to religion , nor substantial in worship , but recommended , and enjoyned out of reverence to antiquity , and zeal for uniformity by those who had authority over us , yet never asserted any other authority in such matters , but for edification : concerning which ceremonies there is no man among you ( who seems to have retained discretion , or a faculty of judging ) but only hovers and makes slight reflections , but never prove them to be directly sinful , unless by the former weak , and every where ( even among your selves ) contradicted principle . the doctrines of the church of england contained in the articles have of late obtained to some better respect among you , and on a sudden grow into favour with many dissenters , which one would think were a good pledge of their farther conformity , there being nothing ( as i know ) in our government and worship that is contradictory or abhorrent from those articles . but what the reason should be of your approbation , or whether you be not real in it , i know not ; but if you are then proceed to examine other matters , and your selves by them . i doubt , if you were urged to subscribe to them , you would again , as heretofore have your exceptions , and only acknowledge for truth in them those which be the great commandments . however it were but fair , if you do own our articles , to let the rest of your societies know from your own mouths , that there are some good things among us , that they may become more modest in their revilings , who seldome rate us below the idolatrous , the superstitious , and antichristian , not only in one , but in all matters that pertain to us , as a church . perhaps you lay hold on our articles now as an argument ad hominem , and to beat us ( as you think ) with our own weapon ; for there are great cries among you , as if many that live in conformity to the church of england are departed in their opinion from the catholick soundness of the articles , by espousing socinianism , of which there is much suspition , and dread express'd in some late writers ; but then they charge such persons therewith , that are so clearly not guilty of it , as that they approve and use that lyturgy , wherein there is a particular creed against the farce of socinianism , and are willing ( for ought i hear ) to give other assurance of their detestation of it , notwithstanding those passages in some late papers that they have with great confidence accused and condemned . but if the doctrine of socinus and his followers hath gotten any credit among us ( which god forbid ) who may we blame for it but your selves , and your fore-runners , who could never endure that body of canons , wherein was one in title and doctrine against socinianism ? it is the fourth canon agreed on by the several synods of london and york . wherein socinianism is called a damnable and cursed heresie , a complication of many antient heresies condemn'd by the four first general councils ; and lastly , contrariant to the articles of religion now established in the church of england . i know on what canon or canons the burden of your clamour was laid , and that the lawyers helpt you to find out an irregularity in their making ( though the composers had the king's commission to impower them , and the canons the king's declaration before them ) yet this canon underwent the same fate as others , though not so audibly complain'd against ; which i cannot think for all that , but was as well as the rest secretly design'd against by the first authors of our confusions in religion : for soon after the ministers that exercised before the lords and commons at their monthly fasts complain'd against infinite errors and heresies , and this ( by name ) of socinianism , and that the persons who were guilty of it were not the adherents to episcopacie , but such as were hearded among the dissenters , and joyn'd for a pretended reformation . the matter therefore well considered , though you dislike socinianism ( as well you may ) yet you may see whether directly , or by accident , i enquire not , who unhappily ministred to its growth , if not to its first introduction . concerning the discipline of the church of england , i have found nothing so boldly talkt against , as the particular of excommunications , as if they were irregularly decreed , and on light and unmeet occasions . but these exceptions are so idle and vain , that they argue either ignorance or unrighteousness in those who first made them . for had they observ'd how , and by whom men are ecclesiastically censured , they would not think the keys usurp'd by lay-men . 't is no news to hear courts and their proceedings first misunderstood , and then misrepresented by those who are obnoxious , or have an itch to rule , and are impatient of government . now government it self being sacred and necessary , they that quarrel at it must begin with the suspected corruptions of it ( of which they are neither capable to judge or amend ) and so proceed to confusion ; but still keeping up to a noise of corruption , till themselves are possess'd of it , and then become abominable . and as for the causes and occasions of excommunications , that are insisted on by you to be light and trivial , it is manifest that those who so accuse are very heedless , or very illiterate . for let them but read the ordinary form of that instrument , and they will find the cause is renouncing to government , and contempt of the court ; that is , when men do not acknowledge the jurisdiction , or will not submit and acquiesce in its determinations and censures , having thus mentioned your principle of dissent , and some applications that you make thereof for your own pitiful defence against the church of england , let me further add something of the ways and manners you observe , or at least are in use among your selves . i have sometime considered your worshipping of god , and finde , that though you have long handled that text [ that god is a spirit , and they that worship him , must worship him in spirit and in truth ] to serve you against those you oppose ; yet there is little assurance that there is more spirit or truth in your worship than in your slighted neighbour's . for , if to worship god in spirit be to joyn the soul with external performances in god's worship , what can you say for your selves more , than those from whom you separate , who acknowledg the doctrine , and profess the practise of the same beyond your disproof , knowing herein they are to be tried by god ( and not you ) who searcheth the heart , and trieth the reins . but yet have not the sons of the church of england greater appearances , that their souls are joyn'd to the material parts of gods worship than you ? when they readily use such acts and indications of reverence , as you make conscience to deny , and a piece of religion to contemn ; nay sometime become distinctly character'd from us by an obstinate and insolent refusal to use them . the congregations that worship god according to the canons and rubricks yf the church of england do in prayer and communions kneel , in hearing they are uncovered , and in any other constant or contingent office are decent & orderly ; of which they are so far observant , that to prevent any opportunity for confusion , it is their principle to submit and conform to a stated rule given them by their superiours , which is the only guard against indecencie and distraction . but your assemblies ( those of our county ) are otherwise managed . many profess to come with no other designe than to hear only , and think themselves discharg'd to god and their own wish , if they come time enough to hear a mystical text pronounc'd , as the warning to a sermon . this they believe to be the worship of god , or else have knowledge of none . and when they come , there is no difference between them in the market , and in the meeting-house , and to say truth , there needs none , that their carriage may bear proportion to the nature of such unlawful assemblies . they have been taught , that preaching and hearing are the principal duties of minister and people , and for the one to preach plain doctrine , and the other to be uncovered are both superstitious ; and moreover , that superstition is so dangerous , that rudeness is much safer with such-like whimsies , that whenever they are reproved for it in our assemblies , especially in this point of the hat , they think they are abridged of their christian priviledges . neither is your worship better for truth than spirit , if to worship god in truth be to worship him after the manner , that christ hath revealed him , who is the true god. for , concerning god , nothing is more emphatical in the revelation of him by christ , than , then that he spared not his own son , but delivered him up for us all , rom. . . which doctrine , that it might be preserved fresh in the memories of christians , then was an holy rite instituted by our saviour , that carried with it the most easie and familiar signification of the same , viz. the sacrament of the lords-supper , which is to be celebrated with such words that do import the very doctrine , whereby is shewn not only our saviour's care and faithfulness to continue an assertion of the point ; but over and above , that this is the most properly differing character of the christian society . but , alas ! of what little use is this among you ? your former setting up spiritual rails by strange and unchristian niceties hath made a desolation of this table , not yet to be repaired by the soundest doctrines and vehementest exhortations to those that otherwise are governable people . and as for your own societies ( i speak of kent ) there is a very little obedience to it , or such obedience as little comports with the merit of the doctrine it relates to , or the solemnity wherewith it was instituted . and to my experience , there are some who frequent your assemblies with good affection , having yet a veneration of that sacrament do constantly communicate with us , not our of compulsion , or more than ordinary perswasion ; but because not in practice in such meetings of yours , to which they usually betake themselves . i pray then consider how intire & integral your worship is , especialiy where there is nothing but an extemporary prayer and attempts on a theological discourse . if in any place the holy scriptures are read , i do not hear of any great care or order had for reading the same , in the most material parts thereof ; but in many places there is no more use of them than in such quotatations that are brought in to attend the sermon ; and in the rest , the method or confusion of reading is left to the discretion of the gifted brother , pastor , or minister , be he young or old , stranger or home-born . and therefore it is , that the skill your auditors have in the scriptures is very narrow , referring only to those texts which are most in fashion for your sermons : they observe little connexion or discrimination between old and n. testament , nor particularly understand those scriptures that essentially concern christianity but are under rote and government of such glosses , as you have fixt on those places that appear fairest ( at least in sound ) for dissent and difference from the church of england . this consideration makes me reflect on your way of instruction , supposing instruction of men , not worship of god to be the chief end of your assembling : for if it were not , you could not reasonably lay such stress on sermons as you do ; and you cannot deny , but god may be publikely worshipped without them , and that acceptably too , especially in those places where the gospel hath been long received , and in such a church , where there are ways of another name constantly used to instruct the members thereof . but if you should assemble without sermons for worship , what will become of you ? for you have so long preach'd a woe upon the neglect and very omission of preaching , that the people ( you know ) will curse you , if you should but attempt to call them together in any publike meeting without it . but yet to let this pass , when you are conven'd , your way of instructing one would think might be better advised . i meddle not now with the unaptness of your subjects to beget principles of christianity in your hearers ; and if they were principles which you teach , how unduly they are proportion'd to their capacities being inveloped with such phrases , that it were hard for the very apostles to know their own doctrines again , or the primitive christians to resume their faith and practice of them , if they were to judge and live by your discourses . but , say your way of preaching is mended ( for indeed the writings of dissenters in other cities and countries are , being more congruous to sense , and beginning to be more orthodox as to doctrine ) what reasons can there be in order to better edification ( as you pretend ) to neglect the use of the ten commandments , publike catechisms , the antient creeds , and the lords prayer , which deliver the elements of religion in such plain words , and tractable periods as the meanest judgment and memory may receive and manage them ? and if the memory only be first obliged in those wise and blessed accomodations of divine truths , they are the nearer to the understanding , and may at last rule in the affections and conversation . yet with these you instruct not , but make them all subside to your own private senses and illustrations of scripture . if this be told abroad to those who are of the reformed churches , it will become to their judgment equally wicked and incredible . that men should pretend to instruction ( and the best way too ) without a catechism , or the use of it without the decalogue , creeds , or lords prayer . for to say you touch on all these in your pulpit-declamations is but to tell us of a wild-goose-chase , wherein the learner though he may come to hear some good , shall never have a form of sound words . this is the stranger for that these things are omitted , not only on choice , but in opposition to laws , that enjoyn them : but what speak i of laws , when as there is no church or kingdom on the face of the whole earth that hath better and more wholesome laws than ours ; and yet none so slighted and baffled ; not by the banditi , or men that live without any conduct of law and conscience , but by those that pretend to have the greatest apprehension of religion and liveliest sense of the fear of god ? for what authority hath consulted with greater wisdom and compassion towards those it governs , hath waited with more patience and desire of conformity and obedience , or inflicted more gently and tenderly on transgressours than ours ? yet what government hath been more complain'd and libell'd against ? that stand reproach'd and foil'd in its wisest decrees , and most christian sanctions to the wonder and astonishment , as well as to the evil example of all the nations round about us . should other men take your licence to except against . laws that they do not like and abate openly in their obedience to them as you do , no law would be regarded , but the constitution of the kingdom must dissolve . yet for this you have taught them principles , and given them patterns , which they may know how to use in matters of body and estate , as you in your pretended concerns of soul , and religion . for , if you may deny conformity to law on the account of conscience towards god in a matter that is not intrinsecally evil , or by any word of god absolutely sinful ( as you cannot prove any thing in our usages is ) then may others also be set onto violate other laws , which they judge inexpedient , or otherwise ; for i know not what reason , do not please them . i believe many of you intend no such evil to your nation and country , but then why will you hold and love that principle , that may be so naturally improv'd to infinite mischiefs ? the time past surely may suffice you to have wrought your own will , the consequences whereof cannot without horrour be contemplated by any that have affection to the church or commonwealth . remember , i pray , your endeavours and oppositions were and are against such a church , that you cannot accuse of any defect in necessaries to salvation , or hath any thing in use or injunction , that may otherwise hazard any mans happiness ( but set it forforward ) that shall unite unto it : and yet your opposition to it visibly contradicts such a doctrine ( for ought yet hath been proved ) whose infringement brings damnation , viz. obedience to authority . nor are your followers any way better prepared to discharge themselves of being involved in this guilt , but by the precarious argument of an implicite belief , that your leaders are good men , and will not go against the scriptures ; which scriptures if you would be intreated to look into without party or passion , and so far yield to as you are convinc'd , you would quickly both leader and follower , leave your tents and camps , and find more comfort ( though perhaps not success ) in obedience than obstinacie . here is nothing ( i believe ) in this paper , but some of you may have heard , but , i doubt , few of you consider'd , and therefore my design hereby is only to give in familiarly another memorial , and to renew the instance for peace and conformity ; which i do offer to you from the bottom of my heart , without sense of any particular wrong or provocation from you , save what is to every member of the church of england by your recessions from it , or batteries against it . i need not tell you , that you with us are of one common nature and country , but religion too , for you are wont to defend your selves in all aggresses upon you by the name and pretence to the cause of english protestants ; but sure you were never acknowledged abroad , as you stand in your disagreements from the church of england to be in respect of forein churches either mother , sister , or daughter , yet will you not cease to multiply distinctions from us , and enmities against us . consider how much the right spirit of christianity is seen in meekness and peaceableness , which ; if they are to be exercised towards all , then doubtless not to be denied to a righteous and innocent authority . we ask you not to part with any christian vertue or doctrine , as necessary to a compliance with us , but rather to become more practical in the most eminent points thereof , and that you would leave off to mingle , and prefer your own things before the things of jesus christ , his gospel , and his church . there was a time when the ordinances of a small piece of a parliament were cried up for laws by you , and not only obedience press'd to them on pain of delinquencie and damnation , but neutrality cursed , though the very matter of those laws was either to begin , or justifie rebellion or schisme : and shall an integral and full authority betrampled under your feet in laws that are for right religion , peace , and ? unity ? finis . whereas in expectation of conformity to the laws of the land, concerning uniformity of common-prayer and service in the church and the administration of the sacraments ... by the lords justices and council, mau. eustace canc., orrery. ireland. lords justices and council. approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page image. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing i estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) whereas in expectation of conformity to the laws of the land, concerning uniformity of common-prayer and service in the church and the administration of the sacraments ... by the lords justices and council, mau. eustace canc., orrery. ireland. lords justices and council. eustace, maurice, sir, ca. - . orrery, roger boyle, earl of, - . broadside. printed by john crook ... and are to be sold by samuel dancer ..., dublin : . title from first lines of text. statement of responsibility transposed from head of title. "given at the council-chamber in dublin, the . day of april, ." reproduction of original in the society of antiquaries library, london. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng dissenters, religious -- ireland. ireland -- history -- - . ireland -- politics and government -- th century. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - judith siefring sampled and proofread - judith siefring text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion by the lords justices and council . mav . evstace canc. orrery . whereas in expectation of conformity to the laws of the land , concerning uniformity of common-prayer and service in the church and the administration of the sacraments , indulgence to , and forbearance of dissenting and non-conforming persons of several perswasions hath been long time used ; and whereas there were no proceedings against them for several months ; and when the iudges in their several circuits found it fit to question those that would not make good use of that clemencie , and yet upon new hopes all proceedings thereupon were stopped and suspended ; and yet the event hath not answered to our expectation , but recusants , non-conformists , and sectaries have grown worse by clemencie : we therefore have thought fit to declare , that we still hoping that gentle courses , & this further extension of his majesties gracious clemencie may work upon those who were misguided , that for the time past all offenses committed against his majesties said law of uniformity of common-prayer , and service in the church , and the administration of the sacraments , shall be no further proceeded against . whereof all persons concerned are to take notice . and we do further declare , that no person or persons are for the time to come to expect the like indulgence ; and that all iudges of assize , iustices of peace , and all others concerned , are to see the said law duly put in execution . and this declaration we make , that none may be surprized , or pretend ignorance , or any other excuse for their disobedience to the said law. given at the council-chamber in dublin , the . day of april , . god save the king . ja. dublin . donegall . drogheda . conway and kilulta . hen. midensis . jerem. dunensis . r. coote . hen. tichborne . jo. bysse . paul davys . robert forth . rob. meredith . arthur hill. dvblin , printed by iohn crook , printer to the kings most excellent majesty : and are to be sold by samuel dancer bookseller in castle-street , anno dom. . an ingenious contention, by way of letter, between mr. wanly, a son of the church; & dr. wild, a nonconformist. wanley, nathaniel, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page image. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). b wing w interim tract supplement guide c. .f. [ ] interim tract supplement guide .a. .[ ] ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. b ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books; tract supplement ; a : [ ]; a : [ ]) an ingenious contention, by way of letter, between mr. wanly, a son of the church; & dr. wild, a nonconformist. wanley, nathaniel, - . wild, robert, - . sheet ([ ] p.). [s.n.], london, : printed in the year, . verse: "so the bright taper useless burns"; preceded by "mr. nathan wanley to dr. wild, was laid aside for nonconformity ..." reproduction of original in the british library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng letters -- early works to . dissenters, religious -- poetry -- early works to . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - mona logarbo sampled and proofread - mona logarbo text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion ●n ingenious contention , by way of letter , between mr. wanly , a son of the church ; & dr. wild , a nonconformist . ●●dr . nathan wanley to dr. wild , who was laid aside for nonconformity . so the bright taper useless burns to private and recluded urns. so pearls themselves to shels confine , and gems in the seas bottom shine , thou my vvild while thou dost lye ●uddled up in thy privacy , ●nd only now and then dost send 〈◊〉 letter to thy private friend ; ●ake once again thy lyre , and so ●et thy selected numbers flow , as when thy solemn muse did prove to sing the funeral of love ; or , as when with the trump of fame thou didst sound forth great george's name , in such a strain , as might it be , did speak thy self as great as he . for while great cowley seeks the shade , and denham's noble wit 's mislaid ; when davnant's weary quill lies by , and yeelds no more of lombardy ; while the sweet virgin muses be by wild led in t ' a nunnerie ; while thus apollo's priests retire , the females do begin t' aspire , pretending they have found a flaw in great apollo's salique law ; these grasp at lawrel , only due to such as i have nam'd , and you . dr. wild to the ingenious mr. wanley . what jolly shepherds voice is this would tempt me from my private bliss after his pipe to dance , while thunder threatens to rend that oak in sunder , under whose boughs in fairer dayes we sate secure , and sang the praise of ●ur great pan , whose care did keep the pleasant shepherds and their sheep ? is this a time with wanton strains to whistle forth the nymps and swains to sport and dance , while wolf and fox lye lurking to devour our flocks , and romes sheep-stealers ready stand to give them their red letters brand ? dost thou not know , my sanguine son , what th' plague and fire have lately done ▪ london hath sent up such a smoke , as may the angels voices choak , and make tears big enough , to vent tears in a deluge , to lament the raging fury of that flame , but more of those that made the same . and when st. paul has lost his quire , 't were sacriledge to touch my lyre . none but a monster nero may over a burning city play . nor would i sing , were i a jew , to please a babylonish crew . now since the time for sorrow cryes , in this i freely temporize . so the bright starrs draw in their light , when clouds club for an ugly night . so all the birds of musick sleep on stormy dayes , and silence keep , so frost-nipt roses droop and fall , perfuming their own funerall . so you have seen a well-tun'd lyre swelling it self with grief and ire . in gloomy air , each heart-broke string it s own last passing-bell doth ring . so when bellona's trumpet sounds , our softer muses musick drownds . sir , by my many soes you know my poetry is but so so . but why dost thou disdain or fear , that female brows should lawrel wear ? hast thou forgot that noble tree ●●self was made out of a shee ? the muses and the graces all we of the female gender call , and so if you have not more care , you 'l find they furies likewise are . 〈◊〉 would i have you wonder why 〈…〉 s all amort do lye , when claret and canary cease , the wits will quickly hold their peace . vintners and poets fall together , if once the ivy-garland wither . sweet cowly thought ( as well he might ) he should have shin'd in phoebus sight ; but clouds appear'd , and he that made account of juno , found a shade ; and though on davids harp he plaid , the evil spirit can't be laid : therefore the groves and shades he loves , and his own secretary proves . your next mans temples lawrel scorns , since greater pride his brow● ado●ns . he to pernass . bears no g●●d will , because it proves a horned hill . the very thoughts whereof i dread will ne're be got out of his head . gondebert's silent , i suppose , because his muse sings through the nose , one syllable of which poor he did lose by an apocope . wild sayes , kind wanley you'r to blame , amongst these swans his goose to name , yea though his lucky gagling yaul once helpt to save one capital ; his love to love then made him fear his neck , not brow , a wreath should wear . next he did on a loyal string his georgicks and his carols sing . but now because he cannot toot to organ tunes , he 's made a mute ; and though alive , condemn'd to death : therefore , dear sir , in vain your breath , although perfum'd and hot does come , to blow wind in a dead mans bumb ; yet , as a grateful legacy , he leaves to thee his nunnery , not doubting but if need require thou 'lt prove an able loving fryar . . mr. wanley to dr. wild. what sullen wary shepherds voice is this , that won't be tempted from his private bliss , but arbor'd up in eglantine , while thunder threatens to rend & rive that oak in sunder , under whose boughs himself in fairer dayes did sit secure with us , and sang the praise of that great pan , whose watchful care did keep at once the pleasant shepherd & his sheep ? is this a time for shepherds to retreat , and seek out coverts from the scorching heat ? is this a time for an inglorious sloth to hug it self , not daring to peep forth into the open field , while th' crafty fox lurks in the bushes to devour our flocks , and wolves of romulus are grown so bold , to fright the silly sheep ev'n in their fold ? dost thou not know what crops the plague has made and , sampson-like , heaps upon heaps has laid ? that if heavens wrathful anger thus proceed , there will no flocks be left for thee to feed . london has sent up such a darkning smoak , and shall it too the angels voices choak ? shall it make clouds so thick and dark , that we shall never more thy publick censers see ? 't is sacriledge to rob the church ; and thence since you have stole your self , what 's your offence ? when the white harvest for more reapers cryes , how canst thou freely sit and temporize ? so stars reserve themselves for pitchy night , when phoebus pouders all his locks with light . so feral birds delight to sit alone , till the dayes glories are packt up and gone . so roses fall in june when frosts are past , and on dull earth lye blushing out their last so the musician smothers his sol fa , when he 's entreated or to sing or play . so when the fierce bellona's drums do beat , who has no mind to fight , seeks his retreat . and so i 've seen a long miswonted lyre sigh its own dirge with its own broken wire , and seems to shiv'r at th' downfal of pauls quire . say we not well , a gues will have their course ? yes , yes , they must remember with remorse the ivy garland's withering , dearth of liquer . that would make caput mortuum the quicker . but why shouldst thou , kind soul , be in such fear , that plump lycëus should grow lean this year ? hast thou forgot how fatal the grape-stone did whilom prove to poor anacreon ? which of the muses , or the graces all , did ere for claret or canary call ? is it not sung by the venetian swain how the brisk wine gives horns to the poor man ? and if you have not greater care , no doubt you 'l find the claret will revive your gout , and then we shall hear thy goose-gagling yaul cry out for help to save thy pedestall ; then we shall see thee , standing on one foot , practise worse tunes than organs ever root . this is a vain presage , thou say'st ; the dead have out-liv'd this and have no gout to dread . but art thou dead indeed ? though dead thou art , heark how the dead mans bum does let a fart . when as my bashful muse did to thee come , 't was not so kindly done to turn thy bum ; to vote her of the babylonish crew ; and set the furies on her with ha-loo . this 't is to gad abroad , 't is just upon her ; had dina kept at home , shee 'd sav'd her honour . but i 'm thy son , and must corrected be ; but why then dost thou turn thy bum to me ? dost think thy son so sanguine & insano , to probe thee with a fistula in ano. this i should leave to any of the crew , you may believe me though i were a jew . and may my breath be still perfum'd , why not ? since dead corps smell when they begin to rot . and he whose muse such wondrous heights did fly , that it did seem to top the very sky ; and though he may have reason to be proud , instead of juno did imbrace a cloud ; may he resume king davids harp and play the tarantul ' of discontent away . if denham has so fouly been betray'd , and his inclosure ' gainst his will survey'd : may he recover all his wits and more , and with such keen iambicks brand the whore , that all may dread it worse than loss of life , to turn a poet frantick for his wife . poor davenant's nose it seems is grown so sore , it scarcely will abide one smart jest more . well may the bridge be down , when time doth meet to press it with his satyr cloven-feet . and thou with thy apocopes art wont to scatter balls of thy wild-fire upon 't . but shall i not , kind wild , remember thee , who hast bequeath'd me such a legacie ? 't is thine for life , we know thy subtile head ; wills have no force till the testator's dead ; and that none can have ought by thy bequest till thou art better dead than in a jest : nor would i that in tenderness to me thou shouldst suspect thine own sufficiencie ; enjoy it freely , since thou hast it wed : 't is incest to ascend the fathers bed . what though thou ownst me for thy sanguine child , yet i have not so much my sire of wild. and thus far is thy fry'r able to see his covent's better than thy nunnerie . he 's loving too , 't is true , he nothing gives , as thou , at his decease , but while he lives all these good wishes , such as he can spare , and if thou hast them , will help mend thy fare . may every knight about us , that 's inclind , be unto thee , as sir john baber , kind . ten silver crowns let each of them send thee , and be so paid for all in verse as he . may the poor scholar ne're want sundays pudding , when he 's not like to preach for 't on the sudden . may thy afflicted toe ne're feel the gout ; or if it must , let the dutch have a rout ; that thou maist yet ( at least ) once more protest that recipe wants no probatum est . maist thou next send me what is worth thy pen ; may i have brains to answer it agen . may all that are of such good wishes sullen , live till their good friends bury them in woollen . dr. wild to mr. wanley . honestly done however , though the stuff you sent be course , the measures large enough . the first cup thou beganst i could not pass , the wine was brisk , and in a little glass . but now to pledge thee i am not enclin'd , you sons o' th church are for large draughts i find . prithee leave off , for thou hast been so free in sending such a brimmer unto me , that sunday last , long of that frolick bout , thy parish bad but half a glass i doubt . besides the drink is small , you 've chang'd your gill , i wish you'd kept it in your hogs-head still . yet , upon better thoughts , small drink is fit to cool the stomack , though not help the wit ; and that might be thy case : for certainly those salt bits i had sent thee made thee dry , or sick , which made thee drink small drink , and strain to cast them undigested up again . twelve lines return'd the very same , that i must call the hickup , rather than reply ; or , by rebounding of my words , i dread there is some eccho in thine empty head : or rather thou my cockril art , and so the young one learneth of the old to crow . nay , my brave bird , thou darest spur and peck , i wish that shrovetide hazard not thy neck . now prithee chick beware , for though i find that thou art right and of the fighting kind , yet thou art not my match , and soon wilt feel my gout lies in my toe , not in my heel . take this advice before you mean to fight , get your comb cut , and leave your treading quite . thy barber , or his wife , if he should fail , has skill to clip thy wings , and trim thy tayl ; and thereby hangs another tayl , i find thy subtile nose hath got my breech i' th' wind . if thou canst catch poor farts that prison break , a notable bumbayliff thou wilt make . hark , hark , saist thou , he let a fart ! what though ? it breaths forth no sedition , sir , i trow ; nor is there any statute of our nation that sayes , in five miles of a corporation if any outed-man a fart should vent , that you should apprehend the innocent . if you so soon could smell the pouder-plot , what had you said if i had bullets shot ? fye man ! our mouths were stopped long ago . and would you have us silent too below ? but i displaid my bum before thine eyes unkindly thou saist , i say otherwise ; for there thou mightst have thy resemblance took , dead mens blind cheeks do very wanley look . and for the crack it gave , that did but mind thee to strive to leave a good report behind thee . as for the gall which in your ink appears , that in our sufferings we are volunteers ; i 'le not say much , i have more wit than so , ' t is scurvy jesting with edg-tools i know : but sir , 't is cruelty in you , to whip your brothers back which you did help to strip : yet thus your grandsire levi did before , who kild those , whom his cov'nant had made sore . and you know who they were that gave the blow , and then cry'd , prophesie who smote thee so ? we durst not keep our livings for our lives , but they must needs go whom the devil drives . yea , but we left our harvest , left our sheep , and , would not work , in one , nor th' other keep . i answer . no great harvest yet appears , i 'm sure your churches hang but thin with ears . and though the foxes breed , what need you care , when-as your shepherds such fox-catchers are . for pardon , sir , my serious soul now cryes , your knocking me did make this froth to rise . once for my age , profession and degree , to fool thus is enough , and twice for thee . thus great estates b'imprudent owners may , when stak'd at ticktack , soon be plaid away . let 's wind this folly up in this last sheet , and friendly part , as we did friendly meet . yet , to requite thy legacy to me , accept this litany i send to thee . may thy rich parts with saving grace be joyn'd , as diamonds in rings of gold enshrin'd ; may he that made thy stars , create a sphear of heavenly frame of life , and fix them there ; may that blest life credit conformitie , and make e'ven puritans to honour thee . maist thou to christ such store of converts brings , that he whose place thou fill'st , for joy may sing . may god love you , and you love god again ; and may these prayers of mine not be in vain . london , printed in the year , . a second discourse of the religion of england further asserting, that reformed christianity, setled [sic] in its due latitude, is the stability and advancement of this kingdom : wherein is included, an answer to a late book, entitled, a discourse of toleration. corbet, john, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing c estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a second discourse of the religion of england further asserting, that reformed christianity, setled [sic] in its due latitude, is the stability and advancement of this kingdom : wherein is included, an answer to a late book, entitled, a discourse of toleration. corbet, john, - . [ ], , [ ] p. [s.n.], london : . reproduction of original in huntington library. attributed to john corbet. cf. bm. table of contents: p. 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texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng perrinchief, richard, ?- . -- discourse of toleration. church of england -- customs and practices. dissenters, religious -- great britain. church and state -- great britain. reformation -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - judith siefring sampled and proofread - judith siefring text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a second discourse of the religion of england : further asserting , that reformed christianity , setled in its due latitude , is the stability and advancement of this kingdom . wherein is included , an answer to a late book , entitvled , a discourse of toleration . london , printed in the year . a second discourse of the religion of england . sect . i. of the foundation of our peace already laid in the religion of the nation , and the structure thereof , to be perfected by the vnity of that profession . concerning religion in this kingdom , there have been , and still are great thoughts of heart , and the troubled state thereof hath much disturbed the minds of men , and the whole course of human affairs . doubtless , religion it self is not in fault , which in its right and sound state , being an institution holy , just and good , must needs be of great efficacy to compose and quiet our minds , and to heal and settle the nations . but that which in it self is excellent , is by the errors and corruptions of men , made subject to much vanity . and the adversary of mankind being not able to raze out the deep impressions thereof that are in our nature , hath made it his master-piece so to corrupt or discompose it , as to disorder the passions of men , and the affairs of the world about it . concerning the cure of these distempers , and the redress of the evils thence arising , there is no cause of despair or despondency , if men cease from their high provocations , and god from his righteous indignation . the most effectual means of reconciliation between the disagreeing parties , is , for all of them to be reconciled to god. then would that spirit of perversness , which by the divine displeasure hath been mingled in the midst of us , be controled and vanquished ; and offences and prejudices being removed , we might discern the way of peace . god forbid that sentence should pass upon this generation , destruction and misery is in their paths , and the way of peace they have not known . next , under the divine favour and blessing , our help standeth in the wisdom and piety of our sovereign and his parliament . but this grand affair is acknowledged to be full of difficulties , caused by the passions , prejudices and interests of the several parties . nevertheless , the prudence and patience of those that sit at the helm of government , is able to master it : for , the ground-work of peace is laid to their hands , in the religion of the nation ; and the impartial may descry the opportunity of such a settlement as may accommodate all those parties in which the nation 's peace is bound up . the true interest of soveraignty , is the self-same with that of the universality , or whole body of the kingdom ; and this is founded in such a common-good , as belongs to all sorts of men , by whom the publike weal consists . and where there are , and inevitably will be different perswasions among them , the wisdom of the government is to contract and lessen their differences , as much as it is possible ; but , howsoever , to prevent or heal divisions , and to hold them united among themselves , in the common benefit , and all of them necessarily dependant upon the state. this is a firm basis of the perpetual stability of empire , as also of the subjects tranquility and prosperity ; and the present discourse rests upon this principle as its sure foundation . now in this realm , the joint stock of those several parties , for matter of religion , is reformed christianity , for which they are all jealous , even unto discomposure , upon any encroachments of the popish party . wherefore , it is the wisdom of this government , to remove or lessen the differences , and to cure the divisions which now disturb and divide the protestants , and to hold them united among themselves , and all of them in firm dependance upon this state , and consequently , to give them all their due encouragement , not indeed in loose and irregular wayes , but in a ruled order , consistent with stable polity , and agreeable to the government of this kingdom . the ground-work being already laid in the protestant religion , which is the general and grand interest of this nation , the structure and fabrick of the unity and peace of this realm , is more or less perfected , as the unity of this profession , and the peace and concord of its professors , is more or less acquired . and now this great question lyes before us , whether the vnity of religion be obtained by requiring a conformity of judgment and practice in matters of perpetual difference from the beginning of the reformation unto this very day ; or , by permitting a latitude of opinion and practice in those points ; and that not infinite and inordinate , but limited by the publike rule . sect . ii. the good of the several parties is best secured by common equity , and the good of the vniversality . how happy might the disposition of human affairs be , if that were acknowledged in mens practice , which is most clear and obvious to human understanding , that things of common equity and regard to all sorts , who are necessarily included in the publike state , be preferred by each particular party , before great advantages to themselves apart , with disregard of all others . for , all particular interests which are uncorrupt , and will hold firm , are imbarked in the interest of the universality , and must sink or swim therewith : whereupon , not onely the commonwealth , but the more appropriate concernments of men , are better secured for continuance , by this moderation and common equity . there lye before us the protestant religion , ( which is the true primitive christianity ) and the ancient , equal and happy constitution of the government of this kingdom . the conservation and advancement of both these , are infinitely more valuable than the prevalence of parties , by all true protestants , and true english men . a publike spirit is that which is truly pious and generous . but , over and above this noble and christian consideration , this also should be very prevalent , that those two great things before named , in which all do share , and by which all subsist , are the basis even of the more private and contracted benefits of the several parties ; and by disturbing these , they weaken their own hold , and disturb their own safety . those that hate moderation , and follow extremes on either hand , consider not the true state of england . it is an unhappy error when divided parties , who when all is done , in their divided state , can be but parties , and not the whole , shall so act in their turns , as if they took themselves to be the whole body of the nation , or equivalent thereunto . and it is a calamitous aversness , when such as must live together either as friends or enemies , shall refuse lawful and safe terms of mutual agreement . as for conscience , and its high concernments , if it be guided by that wisdom which is from above , which is first pure , then peaceable , it puts in no caution against the healing of this breach : for , order and peace may be obtained upon terms not repugnant to the principles of either party . his majesty's wisdom hath rightly comprehended this matter , in his declaration concerning ecclesiastical affairs , where he saith , we are the rather induced to take this upon vs , ( that is , to give some determination to the matters in difference ) by finding upon a full conference that we have had with the learned men of several perswasions , that the mischiefs under which both church and state do at present suffer , do not result from any formed doctrine or conclusion which either party maintains or avows ; but from the passion , appetite , and interest of particular persons , which contract greater prejudice to each other by those affections , than would naturally arise from their opinions . it is apparent , that the avowed doctrines on either side , could not set the parties at this distance , if their spirits and interests were reconciled . sect . iii. what may be esteemed a good constitution of the state ecclesiastical . as concerning the publike order , it imports exceedingly to discern and make a difference between things desirable , but morally impossible , or extreamly improbable , and things necessary and attainable . perfect unanimity about matters of religion , and a harmony of opinion in all theological truths , is very desirable ; but it was never yet found in any age of the world , among those that owned the same religion , and consequently it cannot be necessary in all those that ought to be comprehended in the same church , or religious communion . for which cause , a precise uniformity in matters of meer opinion , will hardly ever pass with general satisfaction : neither is it of that importance , that some make it to be , for peace and edification . there is another thing not onely desirable , but the indispensable duty of all particular persons , which is brotherly love among all that receive the common faith once given to the saints . this is of far greater consequence than the former , and more largely attainable , because it is a catholick disposition , and the right spirit of true christianity ; and indeed , the failing hereof is lamentable and reproachful . howbeit , this excellent christian vertue is commonly much interrupted and impaired in many , by prejudicate opinions , and depraved affections ; and it must not be expected , but that animosities and jealousies may remain between men of different perswasions , by reason of the corruption of man's nature , and the infirmities of the best of men . aud therefore the foundation of a solid national settlement , must not , and need not be laid in mens good dispositions and inclinations : for , although the distemper of many minds continue , yet publike order , and steddy government , is in no wise impossible . things are necessary , either as the end , or the means . the things here considered , that are necessary as the end , are , the advancement of the protestant religion , and the kingdom of england , the tranquility of church and state , and the security of all sound protestants , and good subjects . that which is necessary as the means , is the publike rule and standard by which these blessed ends may be obtained ; that , notwithstanding the remainder of mens perversness , the common high concerns of reformed religion , and of this kingdom , be not disturbed , impaired , or cast back by the altercations that may chance to arise between men of different private opinions , and different partial interests . the high importance and necessity of a stated rule of such force and efficacy , evinceth the possibility thereof : for , so noble and necessary ends , cannot be destitute of all possible means leading thereunto . evil dispositions and manners are the rise of good laws : and law-makers , that are subject to like passions with other men , have the wisdom to limit themselves and others , for the universal good , wherein the good of every individual is secured . the publike rule being to be framed to the proportion of the people that are to be setled under it , the chief regard must be had to their fixed and unmovable perswasions and inclinations , lest they should break the rule , or the rule break them . in a nation whose active part is zealous of religion , and able to discern , and addicted to discourse the grounds thereof , the order of things ought , in the first place , to be directed to the satisfying of the just and reasonable demands of conscience , which being troubled , is a restless thing ; and then to the outward incouragements of piety and learning , and withall , to the bridling of ambition , avarice , faction , and all depraved appetite . it must be expected , that divers obliquities and deficiencies may remain , and troubles will arise : but if that which is wholesom and good , be so predominant as to master the evils , though not to extinguish them , it is to be esteemed a good constitution . sect . iv. the comprehensiveness of the establishment , and the allowance of a just latitude of dissents , is the best remedy against dissentions . there was lately published a discourse for a due latitude in religion , by comprehension , toleration and connivence , directed to this end , that the occasions of those discords which divide the members , and distract the whole body of the protestant profession , might cease ; and that the common concernments , wherein the disagreeing parties have a large joint stock in things of greatest moment , might be pursued . this is encountred with an adverse discourse , which is here to be examined , and the state and reason of the aforesaid latitude , is to be further cleared . toleration being commonly understood of the permission of different ways of religion , without the line of the approved way , a discourse of toleration doth not hit the discourse of the religion of england , in the main thereof , whose chief design is the extension of the established order , and the moderation therein required ; and then toleration is treated of analogically , with respect not only to common charity , but to the safety of the setled polity . it is no less besides the mark , to argue from the mischiefs of a boundless and licentious toleration , against that which is limited and well managed , and hath for the subject thereof , nothing that is intolerable . but , if under this name be comprehended also the permission of diversity of opinion in the same established order , let it be considered , whether any ample polity can consist without such permission . for , it is a thing utterly unknown , and seems morally impossible , for any numerous society of inquiring men , to be of the same judgment in all points of religion . and though the sons of the church , as they are called , agree in those points wherein they all differ from the nonconformists , yet they differ among themselves in far weightier matters , and such as have caused great schisms , and have been the subjects of the debates and determinations of some synods in the reformed churches . now if charity among themselves , and their appropriate interest , dispose them to this mutual forbearance , a more extensive charity , and the common interest of reformed christianity , should incline them to a forbearance in those other matters . there is yet a greater error committed about the subject of toleration , which the answerer , by mistake , will have to be dissentions in religion , but is nothing so in the design of that discourse to which he pretends an answer . and this hath brought forth a large impertinency , which takes up more than a third part of his book : for , those whose liberty he seeks to withstand , are not touched with that which he writes at large of the nature of dissentions , with their causes and consequences , and the magistrates duty concerning them , whether it be right or wrong , setting aside the injurious application thereof . and all that labour had been spared , if he had put a difference between dissention and dissent , words that are near in sound , and perhaps , sometimes , promiscuously used ; but in their strict and proper sense , far distant : for , dissention is no sooner presented to the mind , but it is apprehended as something either culpable and offensive , or calamitous and unhappy : but dissent is of a better notion , and is not necessarily on both sides , either a fault or a grievance . but if this author means by dissentions , no more then dissents or differences of opinion , with what truth and justice can he charge them all ( as he doth ) with such execrable causes and effects . dissentions have been , and may be remedied , and their fuel being taken away , those flames will be extinguished : but diversity of opinion seems in this state of human nature , to be irremediable . it is therefore hoped , that the state of this church and kingdom is not so deplorable , as to want a settlement while these dissents remain . moreover , there are private dissents between particular men , within the latitude of the publike rule ; and there are dissents that may be called publike , as being from the publike rule , or some parts thereof . now the broader and more comprehensive the rule is , the fewer will be the dissenters from it . and the permission of private diversities of opinion , in a just latitude within the rule , is the means to lessen publike dissents , and consequently , dissentions much more . and this was the main scope of the first discourse . the great importance of vnity in the church of christ , is acknowledged and contended for as much on this side , as on the other : howbeit , we do not believe that christ our head hath laid the conservation and unity of his church , upon unwritten and unnecessary doctrines , and little opinions , and sacred rites and ceremonies of meer human tradition and institution . but he hath set out the rule and measure of unity in such sort , as that upon dissents in those things , the members of this society might not break into schisms , to a mutual condemnation and abhorrency . the imposing of such things ( except in those ages whose blindness and barbarism disposed them to stupidity and gross security in their religion ) hath been ever found to break unity , and to destroy , or much impair charity , goodness , meekness and patience , which are vital parts , and chief excellencies of christianity . sect . v. whether the present dissentions are but so many factions in the state. one grand objection is , that the dissentions among us , are but so many several factions in the state. but , meer dissents in religion , are no state-factions at all , but proceed from a more lasting cause , than particular designs , or any temporary occasions , even from the incurable infirmity of our nature . and if it were granted , that the dissentions were state-factions ; yet , they are not so originally and radically , but by accident . some may take advantage to raise and keep up factions by them . for this cause , take out of the way the stumbling-block of needless rigors , and then dissentions will cease or languish , and consequently , the state factions ( if there be any such that are kept up by them ) will come to nothing . it is so evident , that toleration , which came not in till after the breach between the late king and parliament , did not open the avenues to our miseries , that one may wonder any should say it did . but , meet indulgence to all sound protestants , is the likeliest means of stopping such avenues . and , if it be for the interest of england to have no factions , the best way is to remove those burdens , which , like a partition-wall , hath kept asunder the professors of the same religion : then the masters of our troubles ( whosoever they be ) cannot have that advantage by their eminency in their parties , to drive on their designs in the state. factious spirits are disappointed , when honest minds are satisfied and secured . this author relates the aims of several parties on this manner : the papists are for the supremacy of the bishop of rome ; some of the other sects are for a commonwealth ; others are for the fift monarchy . but , if the true state of the nonconformists be well considered , it will be found , that in them , as well as any others , the king and kingdom is concerned , and the good of both promoted . it is not with them , as with the popish party , who have such a severed interest to themselves , that the state is little concerned in it , save onely to beware of its incroachments . but the protestant dissenters , are such as do much of the business of the nation , and have not their interest apart , but in strict conjunction with the whole body-politick . yea , they have no possible means of ensuring their interest , but by legal-security obtained from the higher power , and by comporting with the general tranquility both of the church and state of england . they cannot flye to the refuge of any foreign prince or state , ( as the papists have done frequently ) they acknowledg no foreign jurisdiction , ( which is a principle of the popish faith ) but all their stake lies at home , and they can have no sure hold that is aliene from the happiness of the king and kingdom . an impartial observer cannot but discern this . if it be lawful to name a thing so much to be abhorred , as a change of the ancient laws and government , they could not be happy , nor do their work by such an unhappy change. experience witnesseth , that their interest is not for hasty and unstable victory , or unfixed liberty ; but , for a state of firm consistence and security ; and that they cannot hold their own , but by the common safety both of prince and people . the summ of this matter is , that a party not onely comporting with the good estate of this realm , but even subsisting by it , and therefore firmly linked unto it , should not be cast off . sect . vi. whether the nonconformists principles tend to sects and schisms . some reasons were offered to shew , that indulgence towards dissenting protestants , did much concern the peace and happiness of this realm . and the prudent will judg arguments of that sort to be of the greatest weight in the affairs of government . there is no need to reinforce the cogency of those reasons : the adversary hath wrested them to an odious meaning , contrary to their manifest true intent ; but whether he hath indeed evinced them to be of little or no moment ; or , whether they stand in full force , let judicious men consider . the whole reasoning in that particular , rests upon this maxime , that it is the sovereign's true interest , to make his divided people to be one among themselves , and to keep them all in dependance upon himself , as the procurer of their common safety . the prejudices that have been conceived , and the calumnies that have been raised against the nonconformists , gave occasion of resolving this question , whether they be of a judgment and temper that makes them capable of being brought under the magistrates paternal care and conduct , to such a stated order as will comport with this church and kingdom ? this , by the answerer , is termed a dialect of canting , and is wilfully wrested into a question of another nature . whether he had occasion given him to speak so scornfully , let any judg that understand sober language . but , that they might appear uncapable of a comprehension , he sticks not to affirm , that the principles of presbyterian perswasion , do not admit of any stability , but may be drawn out to patronize the wildest sects that are or have been . and his main proof is taken from the bare word of two of their eminent adversaries . he might have remembred , that the same reproach is cast upon the principles of protestantism , by romish writers . one may well ask , where is the truth and candor of those men that write after this manner ? consider the french , dutch , helvetian churches , how intire they keep themselves in orthodox unity , from the gangrene of sects and schisms . the church of scotland , whilst it was presbyterian , was inferior to none in the unity of doctrine and church-communion . did prelacy ever effect the like unity in the church of england ? and shall the sects that now are , or lately were in this nation , be charged upon presbytery , that was never setled among us ; and against which the sectaries had the greatest indignation ? though that way never obtained in england , nor was favoured with the magistrates vigorous aid , yet it is very untrue , that the first admirers and friends thereof , grew sick of it , and hissed for the other sects to affront , reproach and baffle it . it is well known , that it received those disgraces from another sort of men . the asserting of this government , is far from the design of this or the former treatise ; yet it may be lawful to vindicate it from unjust aspersions . the answerer is pleased to stile it , no other but a sect. i hope he doth not intend to make the foreign reformed churches , but so many combinations of sectaries . if his meaning be , that is no better than a sect in england , because another government is established by law , let him tell us , whether episcopacy would be a sect , if it should appear in those countries where presbytery is the legal government ? no less will follow , if the notion of sect be extended so far , as to fetch in whatsoever dissents from the order by law established . sect . vii . of their principles touching obedience and government . another great prejudice taken up against the nonconformists , is , that they are inconsistent with any regular government : and this author reports , that it is a common maxime among the dissenters , that an indifferent thing becomes vnlawful by being commanded . but let the world hear them speak for themselves out of their account to his majesty concerning the review and alteration of the liturgy . we humbly beseech your majesty to believe , that we own no principles of faction or disobedience , nor patronize the errors or obstinacy of any . it is granted us by all , that nothing should be commanded us by man , which is contrary to the word of god : that , if it be , and we know it , we are bound not to perform it , god being the absolute universal sovereign : that we must use all just means to discern the will of god , and whether the commands of men be contrary to it : that , if the command be sinful , and any through neglect of sufficient search , should judg it lawful , his culpable error excuseth not his doing it , from being sin : and therefore as a reasonable creature must needs have a judgment of discerning , that he may rationally obey it ; so is he with the greatest care and diligence , to exercise it in the greatest things , even the obeying of god , and the saving of his soul : and that where a strong probability of a great sin and danger lieth before us , we must not rashly run on without search : and that to go on against conscience where it is mistaken , is sin and danger to him that erreth . and on the other side , we are remembred , that in things no way against the law of god , the commands of our governors must be obeyed ; but if they command what god forbids , we must patiently submit to suffering , and every soul must be subject to the higher powers for conscience sake , and not resist : the publike judgment , civil or ecclesiastical , belongeth only to publike persons , and not to any private man : that no man must be be causlesly or pragmatically inquisitive into the reasons of his superiors commands ; nor by pride and self-conceitedness , exalt his own understanding above its worth and office ; but all to be modestly and humbly self-suspicious : that none must erroneously pretend to god's law , against the just command of his superiors , nor pretend the doing of his duty to be a sin : that he who suspecteth his superiors commands to be against gods laws , must use all means for full information , before he settle in a course of disobeying them : and that he who indeed discovereth any thing commanded , to be a sin ; though he must not do it , must manage his opinion with very great care and tenderness of the publike peace , and the honour of his governors . these are our principles : if we are otherwise represented to your majesty , we are mis-represented : if we are accused of contradicting them , we humbly crave that we may not be condemned before we be heard . this is sound speech that cannot be reproved . wherefore if the clemency of their superiors shall remit those injunctions that may wellbe dispensed with , and unto which they cannot yeeld conformity for fear lest they sin against god ; their principles will dispose them with an humble and thankful acquiescence , to receive so great a benefit . sect . viii . of placing them in the same rank for crime and guilt , with the papists . the answerer hath not feared to set the papists , and the protestant dissenters , upon the same level , in the guilt of rebellion , cruelty and turbulency . for a high charge having been made good against popery , that it disposeth subjects to rebellion : that it persecutes all other religions within its reach : that wheresoever it finds encouragement , it is restless , till it bear down all , or hath put all in disorder : he comes and tells the world , that the nonconformists are no more innocent of the same crimes . can men of sound minds and temperate spirits , believe this ? and what greater advantage can be given the popish party , then that a protestant writer should declare and publish , that so great a part of protestants are equally involved with them in those heinous crimes with which the protestants have always charged them ? and that such a one should tell them , that it will seem unequal to deny a toleration to them , and grant it unto others that are here pleaded for ; which is in effect to say , they have as good reason to expect an indulgence from this state , as others that maintain the doctrine of the church of england , yea , such as communicate in her publike worship . is there no better way of exalting prelacy , and disgracing its supposed adversaries , then by this reproach and damage done to the whole protestant profession ? yea , he so far extenuates the guilt of papists , and brings it down so low , as to make it common to all other sects . in which one would think he should have been more wary , who in one place stretcheth the notion of sect so far , as to make its reason to lye in being different from the established form of church government . now for matter of practice , he imputes the same guilt to all other sects ; and if the papists ( saith he ) have any doctrines which countenance those practises , that is to be accounted as the issue of their insolency in their own greatness . and he implies , that it is onely the want of strength , that other sects are not so bad as they for such kind of doctrine , as well as practice . such passages falling from a protestants pen , may do the papists better service than their late apology . but why doth he say , if the papists have any such doctrines ? doth he not know they have ? the church of england was assured of it , when concerning the adherents of rome , she used this expression in a publike form of prayer , whose religion is rebellion , and whose faith is faction . we wish their eyes were open , who cannot see more permanent and effectual causes of the aforesaid crimes peculiar to that religion , and rooted in the principles thereof . the evidence hereof given in the former discourse , is not needful to be rehersed in this place . this author ( as others that oppose the wayes of amity and peace ) loves to grate upon a string that sounds harsh , to renew the remembrance of the late warr. those distracted times , are the great storehouse and armory , out of which such men do fetch their weapons of offence ; and the great strong-hold , unto which they always retreat when they are vanquished by the force of reason , and then they think they are safe , though therein they contradict the true intent of the act of oblivion . some of those that now so importunately urge the injury and tyranny of those times , did then suf●iciently comply with usurpers ; and left episcopacy to sink or swim ; and did partake of the chiefest favours and preferments that were then conferred . and on the other hand , such as they upbraid , and are now sufferers , did as little comply with those that subverted the government , and did as zealously appear for the rescue of our late sovereign , and for the restitution of his present majesty , as any sort of men in the realm . but to intermeddle in the differences of those times , and to repeat odious matters , and to use recriminations that will disturb the minds of men , and tend to a perpetual mischief , is aliene from , and opposite unto my pacifick endeavours . as for his charging the nonconformists with certain doctrines and positions by him there mentioned ( which i know none that maintains ) and other accusations and reports relating to the time of the warr ; the truth or falshood , the equity or iniquity , the candor or disingenuity of his testimony in those things , is left to the judgment of the righteous god , and of impartial men. sect . ix . whether their inconformity be conscientious or wilful . another part of the proceeding is very unrighteous and presumptuous . the dissenting ministers appeal to god , that they dare not conform for conscience sake . this author hence inferrs , the force of the argument is , there is a necessity of toleration , because they will not conform . is a cannot for conscience sake , of no more force than a bare will not ? but who best knows their hearts , themselves or their adversaries ? he would make the world believe , that not conscience , but obstinacy and faction , is the cause of their holding out , and that the greatest part were trapann'd into nonconformity . that trifling story of their being trapann'd , is not worthy of serious discourse . it is so evident , as not to be denied , that about the time the act of uniformity was to be put in practice , there were motions and overtures of indulgence from the king and some of the great officers of state , who were known to have high affection and esteem for the church of england , yet did approve and promote those overtures as the best expedient for the setling of this church and kingdom . but to let that pass , can men of understanding and candor think , that so many serious persons , who as well as others , may be thought to love themselves , their families and relations , should continue such egregiously obstinate fools , as to refuse the comforts of their temporal being , for a humor , and remain in a state of deprivation , into which they had been meerly trapann'd ? as for the objected unprofitableness of their returning , how doth it appear ? what hinders their capacity of gaining benefices , yea and dignities , if they could conform ? why should they not find as good acceptation as others , in their preaching and conversation ? it may be they would enter too fast , for the good liking of some , into those preferments , who therefore would set such barrs against them , as they should not be able to break thorough . sect . x. of their peaceable inclinations , and readiness to be satisfied . in the late times of usurpation , there were apparent predispositions in this sort of men to peace and concord . the longing desire and expectation that was in them , as much as in any others , of a national settlement , and general composure , did accelerate his majesty's peaceable restauration . surely they were not so stupid as to imagine that great turn of affairs , without the thoughts of their own yeilding , and such as they hoped would be effectual with those of the other perswasion . their early and ready overtures of reconciliation , which are publikely made known , will testifie their moderation , to the present and future ages . their offers of acquiescing in episcopacy regulated , and the liturgy reformed , was on their part , a good advance towards union . his majesty hath given this testimony of them in his declaration : when we were in holland , we were attended by many grave and learned ministers from hence , who were looked upon as the most able and principal assertors of the presbyterian opinions , with whom we had as much conference as the multitude of affairs which were then upon vs , would permit vs to have ; and to our great satisfaction and comfort , found them persons full of affection to vs , of zeal for the peace of the church and state , and neither enemies ( as they had been given out to he ) to episcopacy or liturgy , but modestly to desire such alterations as without shaking foundations , might best allay the present distempers which the indisposition of the time , and the tenderness of some mens consciences had contracted . i wonder at the confidence of that assertion in the answer , that it is sufficiently known , that none of the present nonconformists did in the least measure agree in the use of those little things ; and though desired by the king to read so much of the liturgy as themselves had not exception against , and so could have no pretence from conscience . for it is well known , that some of them did in compliance with the kings desire , read part of the liturgy in their churches . as for others that did not , perhaps for the prevention of scandal they might use their liberty of forbearance till some reformation were obtained . the truth is , the concessions on this side have been abused , to the reproach and disadvantage of the depressed party ; and from their readiness to yeild so far as they can , for the common peace sake , a perverse inference is made , that they might yeild throughout , if humor and faction did not rule them . is there any justice or charity in such dealing ? may not men of upright consciences , and peaceable inclinations , forbear the insisting upon some things to them very desirable , and give place to some things not approved by them as the best in that kind , if so be they might obtain their peace and liberty , by indulgence granted them in other things , wherein conscience binds them up that they cannot yeild ? moreover , some concessions made by particular men of very catholick spirits , in the earnest pursuit of peace , have been wrack'd and wrested to a sense beyond their true import ; and then they that so handle them , triumph in their own conceit , over them , as if they had given up the whole cause . certasnly they are ill employed , who from their brethrens yeelding offers , raise opposition against them , and endeavour to set them further off . sect . xi . the propounded latitude leaves out nothing necessary to secure the church's peace . to set forth the propounded latitude in the particular limits thereof , is not agreeable to a discourse of this nature : for it were presumptuous both in reference to superiors , and to the party concerned in it . and it is unnecessary ; for prejudices being removed , and the conveniency of a greater latitude being acknowledged , the particular boundaries thereof will easily be descried : and indeed , the generals that are expressed , are a sufficient indication thereunto . his majesty's declaration concerning ecclesiastical affairs , hath mentioned particular concessions on both sides , and that harmony of affections therein , he calls excellent foundations to build upon . the moderation and indulgence there specified , would do the work ; i mean not so as if all dissenters would instantly be thereby brought in ; but that our wide breach would presently be healed in great part , and be in the surest way for a total and absolute healing ; and so much would be gained at present , as might be able to conquer the remaining difficulties . the former discourse had this position , that the ends of church-discipline do not require a constitution of narrower bounds , then things necessary to faith and life , and godly order in the church . the answerer saith , that this establishment is not enough for a settlement , because it doth not secure the peace . and to shew the insufficiency thereof , he giveth two instances of discord between the parties ; first , about the persons to whose care the great things of christianity should be intrusted to see them conveyed unto posterity , whether they shall be a single person , or a consistory , or each single congregation . secondly , about the means of conveying those things , the worship of god , and the circumstances thereof . from hence he draws this conclusion , therefore to preserve peace among her members , the church had need to determine more then the great things of christianity ; and to injoyn more then what is barely necessary to faith and order . verily , it may much amuse one to think what that thing should be in the ecclesiastical polity , which is not necessary to christian faith and life , and godly order in the church , and yet necessary to secure the church's peace . and if the aforesaid instances of discord between the church of england and the dissenters are not necessary to faith or order , what reason can be rendred of the inexorable imposition thereof , upon dissenting or doubting consciences ? can it be necessary to the church's peace , to exclude or deprive men for such differences in which neither faith nor order are concerned ? or is this the answerer's meaning , that the church's peace consists in the exclusion of the nonconformists ; and that the necessary use of some injunctions , stands in keeping them out ; so that not their conformity , but their exclusion is the thing therby intended ? the comprehension doth not suppose ( as it is mis-reported ) that presbytery should be permitted or encouraged . all intermedling with the form of church-government , was declined ; only the prescribed uniformity was considered . besides , for the exact presbyterial form to be comprehended in episcopacy , is contradictory ; yet that something of presbytery should be included in it , is not repugnant . and such a comprehension is approved in his majesty's aforesaid declaration . likewise king charles the first , in his discourse touching the differences between himself and the two houses , in this point , declares that he is not against the managing of the episcopal presidency in one man , by the joint counsel and consent of many presbyters ; but that he had offered to restore it as a fit means to avoid those errors , and corruptions and partialities which are incident to any one man ; also to avoid tyranny , which becomes no christians , least of all church-men . but neither this nor the former treatise , interposeth in this matter , but leaves it to the wisdom of our superiors . the desired latitude leaves not the concernments of church or state to the ingenuity of men , nor casts out any injunctions that are means of peace and unity ; yea , or of that necessary decency which the apostle requires ; only of rites and opinions long disputed , it would take in no more then needs must ; and not meerly because they have been long disputed , but because they are also of little value , ( and here confessed not to be necessary to faith and order ) yet are matters of endless controversie in this church , and occasions of great separation from it . it being asserted , that the indisputable truths of faith , and the indispensable duties of life , are the main object of church-discipline , the answerer demands , what are those indisputable truths , since there is scarce any truth of faith that hath not been disputed against ? what manner of arguing is this ? because all truths have been disputed , doth it follow , that there are no indisputable truths ? that is called indisputable , that cannot reasonably or justly be disputed , though men of corrupt minds , and reprobate concerning the faith , will call the greatest truths in question , and resist the clearest evidence . when the apostle mentions matters of doubtful disputations , he implies there be matters that are indubitable . sect . xii . of acquiescence in the commands of superiors , and the proper matter of their injunctions . in the former treatise this argument was used . the church doth not claim an infallibility , therefore the cannot settle the conscience by her sole warrant , but still leaves room for doubting . the answerer makes this to be either a piece of ignorance , or of portentous malice , and an assertion that would disturb all government both in families and in the state , that would confound all society , and extirpate faith and justice from among the sons of men . but this his strange inference rather is portentous . that the church cannot settle the conscience by her sole warrant , is it not a principle maintained by all protestants in opposition to the popish implicit faith , and blind obedience ? but is this person consistent with himself ? for after he hath a while expatiated in his imaginary hideous consequences , he comes himself to deny that the church bindeth the conscience by her own authority . and yet it is a lesser thing to bind the conscience , than to settle it , and leave no room for doubting . for conscience may be obliged , when it is not setled . and if the church cannot oblige , doubtless she cannot settle the conscience by her sole authority . how then could a man of reason draw such hideous inferences from that position ? if i may give way to conjectures , i suspect that he might take check at the word infallibility , by which i intend no more then infallible direction ; and i fear not to own this assertion , that whosoever have not infallible direction , or the certain assistance of an infallible guide , so as to be exempted from all error in what they propound for belief or practice , cannot settle the conscience by their sole warrant . i still aver , that in prescribed forms and rites of religion , the conscience that doth its office , will interpose and concern it self . and it is matter of astonishment that a learned protestant should say , this position must needs be false . for conscience guided by the fear of god , will use all just means to discern his will , and cannot resign it self to the dictates of men in the points of divine worship . if the judgment of discerning , which makes men differ from brutes , be to be exercised in any case , it is chiefly requisite in these matters wherein the glory of god , and the saving of the soul is so much concerned . it is granted , that to maintain peace and unity in the church , and to be obedient to the higher powers in those things which are proper matter for their commands , are most strictly injoined duties . but the injunctions here considered ( though to the imposers they are but things indifferent , that is , neither commanded nor forbidden of god ) in the consciences of dissenters , are unlawful . to instance in some controverted ceremonies , they think that god hath determined against them , though not in particular , yet in the general prohibition of all uncommanded worship . and they reply , whether it be right in the sight of god to hearken unto men more then unto god , judg ye . to restrain that of the apostle , he that doubts is damned if he eat , only to things wherein the church hath not interposed her authority , is a false gloss , and a begging of the question . what human authority can warrant any one to put in practice an unlawful or suspected action , or to make profession of a known or suspected falshood ? as concerning the rights of superiors , it is the church's duty and honour to teach and command her children to do whatsoever christ hath commanded . and it is the chiefest glory , and most proper work of the magistrate , who is gods minister and vicegerent , to be custos & vindex utriusque tabulae , to incourage and inforce obedience to the divine laws , whether written in the bible , or imprinted in our nature ; and in subserviency thereunto , to have power to determine such things as are requisite in the general , but in the particulars are left undetermined of god , and are to be ordered by human prudence , according to the light of nature , and the general rules of gods word . but things indifferent in their nature , and either offensive in their use , or needless and superfluous , are not worthy to be made the proper matter of his commands . it is a grave and weighty saying of a learned man ( of whatsoever perswasion he were ) if the special guides and pastors of the church , would be a little sparing of incumbring churches with superfluities , or not over-rigid , either in reviving obsolete customs , or imposing new , there would be far less cause of schism and superstition ; and all the inconvenience that were likely to ensue , would be but this , that in so doing they should yeeld a little to the imbecillity of their inferiors ; a thing which st. paul would never have refused to do . sect . xiii . of the alledged reasons of the ecclesiastical injunctions in the beginning of the reformation . the answerer relates at large the proceeding of this church in the beginning of the reformation . the sum of the relation is , that there being two sorts of men , one that thought it a great matter of conscience to depart from the least ceremony , they were so addicted to their old customs ; the other so new-fangled , that they would innovate all things , and nothing would satisfie them but that which was new ; it was necessary for the church to interpose for peace sake , and casting off neither party , to please each to their edification ; and also to injoyn some things to the common observance of all , and therefore she took away the excessive multitude of ceremonies , as those that were dark , and abused to superstition and covetousness , but retained those few that were for decency , discipline , and apt to stir up the dull mind of man to the remembrance of his duty to god. we have good warrant to call in question the truth of his narration in things of the greatest weight . first , it is not true that the party that were for ceremonies , comprehended all those who staid at home , and did not flye in the time of queen mary's persecution . for such as dissented from the ceremonies in the time of that persecution , had their assemblies for the worship of god in this land , and indured among others , in the fiery trial. and we can find but little zeal in the martyrs of those days for this kind of conformity . likewise it is not true that the party that were against ceremonies , were but small , as being but some few of those that fled beyond sea : there is clear evidence to the contrary . an historian zealous for conformity , even unto bitterness , reports in his ecclesia restaurata , that in the beginning of queen elizabeth's reign , many that were disaffected to episcopacy and ceremonies , were raised to great preferments . besides , those that were in ecclesiastical dignities , he observes , that the queens professor at oxford , and the margaret professor in cambridg , were among the nonconformists . for the multitude of dissenters in those dayes , there is a notable testimony of a friend of prelacy , in his letter to mr. richard hooker , about the writing of his ecclesiastical polity , in these words : it may be remembred , that at the first the greatest part of the learned in the land , were either eagerly affected , or favourably inclined to that way ; the books then written , savoured for the most part , of the disciplinary stile ; it sounded every where in the pulpits , and in the common phrase of mens speech ; and the contrary part began to fear they had taken a wrong course . there is as little truth and justice in that report , that the party that were against ceremonies , caused the troubles at frankford , and brought a dishonor to the reformation , and infamy upon our nation . the english congregation at frankford , was setled after the discipline of the foreign reformed churches , and enjoyed much peace , till certain eminent men , zealous of the english forms and rites , came among them , and by a high hand brought in the liturgy , and brake them to pieces , and forced away the ministers , and those members that were in the first forming and setling of that church . afterward , they that remained and received the liturgy , continued not long in unity , but in a short time an incurable and scandalous schism brake out between the pastor , and almost the whole congregation . lastly , there is a great mistake in the main business of the narrative , in representing things as setled by the church of england in the beginning of the queen's reign , to please each party in the abolishing of some , and the retaining of other ceremonies : whereas at the reviving the reformation at that time , the ceremonies then abolished were offensive to all protestants , and nothing appears to be done in favour of the anticeremonial party , about the points in difference . but things were carried to a greater height against their way , than in king edward's time , whose reformation was thought to incline more to that which was afterwards called puritanism . for which cause the historian before mentioned , hath written , that that king being ill principled , his death was no infelicity to the church of england . the truth of the matter is , that in the first times of the queen , whose reign was to be sounded in the protestant religion , the wisdom of the state intended chiefly the bringing over of the whole body of the people , and to settle them in that profession ; and therefore thought fit to make no more alteration from their old forms , then was necessary to be made . care was taken , that no part of the liturgy might be offensive to the papists , and they accordingly resorted to our divine service for the first ten years . also the retaining of the ceremonies , was a matter of condescention to the popish party , the state thereby testifying how far they would stoop to gain them , by yeelding as far as they might in their own way . now long experience hath shewed , that what was done with respect to the peace of former times , and reconciling of papists to protestants , is become an occasion of dividing protestants from one another , without hope of converting papists . sect . xiv . the alledged reasons , why the ceremonies are not to be taken away , examined . divers reasons are alledged to prove a continued necessity for these ceremonies , as , because they that are for the church , are unwilling to have them taken away : to revoke them , is to comply with those that will never be satisfied : imputations have been laid upon the things injoyned , as antichristian , idolatrous , superstitious : a warr was undertook to remove them : and it is a reproach to the church , whose foundation is upon the truth , to be various . hereunto we make answer : whosoever delight in the use of the ceremonies , may enjoy their liberty ; but let it suffice them to use it , without laying a stumbling-block before others , or intangling their consciences , or hindring all of a contrary perswasion from the ministry , from teaching school , yea , and from taking any academical degree . with what soberness can it be said , the dissenters will never be satisfied , when hitherto they were never tryed with any relaxation or indulgence , although they have given evident proofs of their unfeigned desires of accommodation ? they do indeed esteem the ceremonies an excess in the worship of god ; but suppose that some have been immoderate in disparaging those rituals ; on the other hand , shall their value be so inhansed , as to be thought more worth then the church's unity , and the exercise of mutual charity among its members ? may not the church salve her honour , by declaring , that in remitting these injunctions , she meerly yeelds to the infirmity of weak consciences ? as st. paul declared concerning abstaining from meats , who had as much power to make a canon , as any sort or number of ecclesiastical persons can now pretend unto . as concerning the late warr , it is easier said then proved , that it was undertaken to remove the ceremonies ; and it was not so declared by those that managed it . but if it were so indeed , as it is here suggested , let this argument be well weighed , a dreadful warr that had a dismal issue , was undertaken to remove certain ceremonies that at the best are but indifferent , therefore let them never be removed , but still inforced to the uttermost upon consciences that disallow them . as for the reproach of the church by the appearance of being various , we conceive the controverted ceremonies are no foundation of the church of england , nor any substantial part of her religion , and do therefore hope , that some indulgence therein will not fix upon her any brand of inconstancy . it is objected , that the popish priests would hereby take advantage . it seems then , that greater care must be taken that the papists , who are implacable adversaries , be not offended , then that many thousand honestly minded protestants should be relieved . but the strangest reason comes up last . dissentions about things indifferent , have necessitated the church to make these injunctions : that is , say the things are but indifferent , yet great dissentions have risen about them , and are like to continue without end ; therefore the church hath been necessitated to impose them with great severity upon multitudes who esteem them unlawful , and all for this end , that dissentions may be removed . we are astonished at this argument from the pen of a learned man. the truth is , these alledged reasons have more of animosity in them , then of equity ; charity , or good advice . indeed the apostle saith , mark those that cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine that ye have received ; but he doth not so brand those that scruple unwritten traditions , and needless ceremonies , but adhere to the intire doctrine of christ , and all divine institutions . sect . xv. of the diversity of opinion and practice already permitted in the church of england . the moderation of the church of england in the articles of predestination , divine grace , and free-will , being urged against the rigorous imposition of the controverted orders and ceremonies , this answer is made , that the case is not the same , for that those points are so full of difficulty , that they , and questions of that nature , have been matter of dispute in all ages , and in all religions ; but about the orders and ceremonies , this is the only thing to be resolved , whether the church hath power to injoin an indifferent ceremony ? but there is no such difference in the case . the question of things indifferent , hath been mistaken for the grand case of the nonconformists ; for those points which are the main reason and matter of their inconformity , are by them accounted not indifferent , but unlawful , and therefore not to be admitted in their practice , till their consciences be better satisfied . and it is not irrational to think , that serious doubtings may arise in sober minds about some parts of the injoyned uniformity , and particularly , about those ceremonies which seem to draw near to the significancy and moral efficacy of sacraments , and thereupon may appear to some not as meer circumstances , but as parts of divine worship , and their consciences may be struck with terror by the sense of god's jealousie about any instituted worship which himself hath not prescribed . moreover , these orders and ceremonies have been matters of dispute in all times since the beginning of protestant reformation . but under the degenerate state of the christian churches , by the great apostacy of the later times , there could be no occasion of disputing these things , when will-worship was generally exalted , and the grossest idolatries had prevailed . i question the truth of that assertion , that the dissenters cannot name one church besides ours , in which there was a schism made for a ceremony . for a great rent was made in the christian church throughout the world , about a ceremony , or as small a matter , to wit , the time of celebrating the feast of easter . but whensoever a schism is made , let them that cause it , look to it , and lay it to heart . wo to the world because of offences , and wo to that man by whom the offence cometh ▪ but we still insist upon this argument , that these rites being at the best but indifferent in the opinion of the imposers , the observation of them cannot in reason be esteemed of such importance to the substance of religion , as the different opinions about the articles aforesaid are . and who knows not with what animosity and vehemence the parties that are called arminian and antiarminian , have fought against one another ; and what dreadful and destructive consequences they pretend to draw from each others opinions ? now put case the more prevalent party in the church of england should go about to determine those controversies on the one side , or the other , ( and truly they were sometimes determined by a synod in his majesty's dominions , namely by that of dublin in the year , also by the greatest prelates , and most eminent doctors in england , in the lambeth-articles ; and what hath been , may again come to pass ) would not that side against whom the decision passeth , be ready to cry out of oppression ? yea , how great a rent would be made by it through the whole fabrick of this church ? furthermore , in ceremonies publikely used , and matters of open practice , the church of england hath thought good to indulge dissents , as in that of bowing toward the altar , or the east , unless it be required by the local statutes of particular societies . and in this the sons of the church do bear with one another , according to the direction of the canons made in the year . unto which may be added , that the mode of worship in cathedrals , is much different from that in parochial churches . likewise some ministers before their sermon use a prayer of their own conceiving ; others onely ( as the phrase is ) bid prayer . if these and other varieties , be no reproach to our church , will it reproach her to suffer one to officiate with a surpliss , and another without it ? sect . xvi . men differently perswaded in the present controversies , may live together in peace . it is no vain speculation , to think we may have peace , if men perswaded in their consciences that the controverted ceremonies are superstitious , or at the best but trifles , and that the liturgy and ecclesiastical polity , need some reformation , should be joined with men far otherwise perswaded . and the preserving of peace in that case , doth not suppose or require that all these differently perswaded men , will be wise on both sides to content themselves with their own opinions : but it supposeth the state , and the chief guides of the church , to be wise , ( as it is always requisite they should be ) and that many of reputation and eminency on both sides , will be prudent and temperate , and examples of moderation to others , ( and not to suppose this is to disparage and debase our present age ) but above all , it supposeth the publike constitution so well stated and setled , as to be able to curb the imprudent and unsober , and to encourage the modest and well-advised . surely all dissenters upon conscience , will not be prevailed with by the same conscience , to endeavour the propagation of their own way in these differences , to the depression of others . if some offer to disturb the peace , can no rule of government restrain them ? it is a deplorable case indeed , if there be no remedy but for those that are favoured by the higher powers , utterly to exclude and reject those that want the like favour and countenance . at this day the church of england by her present latitude , or at least connivence , keeps peace among her sons of such different perswasions , as formerly stirred up great dissentions in this church . who is ignorant of the contentions raised about the arminian controversies in the several reigns of queen elizabeth , king james , and king charles the first ? but in the present times , the mutual forbearance on both sides , but chiefly the church's prudence , hath lay'd asleep those controversies ; whereas if one side presuming upon its power and prevalency , should go about ( as formerly ) to decry and depress the other , and to advance and magnifie themselves , and ingross the preferments , doubtless the like flames would break out again . for there is a great dislike and abhorrency setled at the heart-root of both these parties against each others opinions ; and a sutable occasion would soon draw it out to an open contestation . now if the church's peace and unity be already maintained in such seemingly dangerous diversity of opinion among her members and officers , and those not of the meanest rank , why should her prudence and polity he suspected as insufficient to maintain unity and peace in the indulging of the differently perswaded in the now disputed rites and opinions ? sect . xvii . of dissenters of narrower principles , and of toleration . the latitude discoursed in the former treatise , is unjustly impeached , as providing onely for the presbyterians , and relinquishing all other dissenters ; for it comprehends within the establishment , those of all sorts that are of principles congruous to stated order in the church ; so that no sort is excluded , whose principles make them capable . and was this capacity any where restrained to the presbyterians ? some nonconformists are for moderated episcopacy , after the form of the ancient churches ; and divers others , as to particular forms of government , are latitudinarians ; and others there are besides these , who would live peaceably under the present hierarchy , might they be spared from the personal profession or practice of some things which they think unlawful or doubtful . moreover , beyond the established order , the latitude includes a toleration for those that are of sound faith , and good life , but have taken up some principles of church-government less congruous to national settlement . i cannot yeeld to that position , that only necessity can give colour to toleration , for that it is by the confession of all , one of those things that are not good in their nature . i suppose that christians bearing with one another in tolerable differences , is a branch of brotherly love ; and therefore charity , as well as necessity , may plead for this way of indulgence . but it is objected , that we want an instance of the safety of toleration , in any nation where the supreme governour had not a standing army to circumscribe and confine the heats of dissenters in religion , to their own breasts , and keep off the destructive effects of schism . let me reply , that this maxime , that no toleration of dissenters , howsoever regulated , can be safely granted by the supreme governour that hath not a standing army , makes little for the safety and liberty of true religion . the protestants that live under the princes of the roman faith , are little beholding to one that publisheth to the world , that those princes can with safety tolerate them no longer then they keep up a standing army to keep off the destructive effects of that which they call schism . one may see by this and other instances , what bias the judgment hath , by the zeal of a party , and how it is brought to assert such things as may expose the true religion to the danger of suppression or extirpation in many countries . but hath the french king less assurance of the loyalty of his protestant subjects , then of the roman-catholicks ? would a necessity be laid upon him to maintain constant forces to keep the protestants in obedience , when he could rule the rest of his people without such terror ? or is toleration the reason of a standing army in the united provinces of the netherlands ? in this latitude no other toleration is pleaded for , then what can be made safe and secure by the ordinary ways of legal government . both duty and interest obligeth all sorts to proceed as far as it is possible in complying with their superiors ; and if the uncontrolable power of conscience inforce them to lye without the pale of the established order , they should deem that exclusion their great unhappiness . but so it is , that prudent and pious men may be of exceeding narrow principles about church-order and fellowship . christian charity pleadeth for indulgence towards them ; and we hope political prudence doth not gainsay it . for although their way may fall far short of setling a nation , yet they may have spirits and principles very consistent with publike tranquility . and their indulgence may be obtained by a good understanding and confidence between them and the higher powers , the clemency of the one shewing favour in that extent which the publike order may safely tolerate ; and the humility and discretion of the other , causing them to prise the favour , and to use it rightly . that such condescention and clemency should be used on the one side , and such humility and modesty on the other , why should it seem impossible ? for the one may see , that by granting some limited liberty , the protection of christs flock , and the satisfaction of well-minded subjects may become more universal : and the other may likewise see , that a smaller party , and those of narrow principles , are of themselves in no wise proportionable to the state of this nation ; and therefore that they cannot well subsist , but in conjunction with , and subordination unto an establishment more commensurate to the whole body of the people . this necessary subordination , may beget a mutual confidence and security . if it be said , the tolerated party may become dangerous or suspected , it is always supposed that they stand by their good behaviour , and the rulers favour . but they are not like to prove dangerous , if the establishment be large enough . for the narrowness thereof makes the dissenters numerous , and still encreaseth their number . sect . xviii . it is the interest of the nonconformists to prefer comprehension before toleration , where conscience doth not gainsay . if it can be made evident , that the nonconformists should embrace a comprehension as the surest means of their particular good , it will conduce exceedingly to evince , that the favour of rulers will not be in vain towards them ; and that their petitions , discourses , and other instances for moderation , were not feigned , because grounded on their true interest that cannot lye . were they united among themselves , and did the times highly favour them , even then it were their wisdom not to insist too far upon their own perswasions , but to comply with such moderate order as is most passable in the nation , ( their consciences not gainsaying ) much more doth it now behove them , by moderation and submission to dispose themselves for the favour of their superiors . they should chuse rather ( if it be possible for them ) to be comprehended in the approved , then to be tolerated in a severed way . for there is not so much lost thereby in point of liberty , but as much or more is gained in point of safety . it is a happiness to be secured from dangerous wanderings , perplexities , breaches , and manifold inconveniences , into which they may be led that are wholly left without the line of the established order . those persons that by their wisdom and learning can the better defend themselves from the aforesaid evils in a severed state , cannot be ignorant how precipitate and unadvisable many of their number may be , and not so easily to be governed by their more prudent guides . men of discerning and stable judgments , would do their uttermost to preserve the more inconsiderate people from falling into a full and absolute separation from all christian societies that are not of their perswasion . for they may easily apprehend into how great and dangerous errors that vortex may carry about those that fall into it . they that are best able to govern themselves , do see most need of a publike government , and how necessary it is , that both people and teachers be under the regulation and influence of authority , for the avoiding of many and great inconveniencies . and there are many and great benefits , by being comprehended in the approved order , not otherwise to be obtained . their peace is better insured , their influence is more diffusive , their instances and motions for the common good , will be more regarded . they have a larger scope for imploying their masters talent in the publike service of the gospel , and they may speak with more authority , and better success among all ranks and sorts of men , who will look upon them as theirs , when they hold their publike stations . unto all this may be added , that the ancient nonconformists earnestly opposed the separation of the brownists , and held communion with the church of england in its publike worship . and doubtless it is the ministers interest , not to have their subsistence by the arbitrary benevolence of the people , and so to live in continual dependance upon their mutable dispositions for a maintenance that is poor and low in comparison of the publike encouragements . hereby one may partly judg , whether learned and prudent men be nonconformists by the pleasure of their own will , or the constraining-force of conscience . now their consciences may be relieved , if they be not made personally to profess or practice any thing against the dictates thereof . and retaining their own private judgments , they may well hold to this catholick principle , that in a church acknowledged to be sound in doctrine , and in the substance or main parts of divine worship , and not defective in any vital part of christian religion , they are bound to bear with much which they take to be amiss in others practice , in which they do not personally bear a part themselves ▪ as concerning a form of church-government , and rule of discipline , men that understand their own interest , cannot for self-ends ( as they have been upbraided ) couet the power of such a discipline as inevitably procures envy and ill-will , without any temporal profit or dignity . and if the higher powers will not admit such a form , ( i deliver my own private judgment , without prejudice to other mens ) this may tend to satisfie the subjects conscience . that ecclesiastical government is necessarily more directed and ordered in the exercise thereof , by the determinations of the civil magistrate , in places where the true religion is maintained , then where it is persecuted or disregarded . and they that have received the power , must answer to god for it : they that are discharged from it , shall never account for that whereof they have been bereaved . sect . xix . it behoves both the comprehended and the tolerated , to prefer the common interest of religion , and the setling of the nation , before their own particular perswasions . as those dissenters , whose consciences will permit , will best comply with their own good , by entring into the establishment , if a door be open for their access : so they of narrower principles , that cannot enter into it , will be safest within the limits of such indulgence as authority would vouchsafe to grant them , with respect to the common good. men of all perswasions should rather chuse to be limited by publike rules , with mutual confidence between their governors and themselves , then to be left to the liberty of their own affections , upon terms uncertain and unsecure . besides the concernment of their own peace , there is this great perswasive , that this advice is a compliance with that state of things which will best satisfie and settle the nation , and maintain reformed religion against popery , and christianity against atheism and infidelity . true englishmen , and lovers of their dear countrey , which is impaired and reproached by these breaches , should yeeld as much to its wealth and honour , as their consciences can allow . loyal subjects and good patriots should consider what the kingdom will bear , and prefer such bounded liberty of comprehension and indulgence , as tends to union , before a loose , though larger liberty , that will keep the breaches open , and the minds of people unquiet and unsetled . and it is not of little moment to mind this , that the high concerns of conscience cannot be better secured then in the peace and safety of the excellent constitution of this kingdom . for the amplitude of reformed religion , all true protestants should promote an ample establishme●t thereof , both for the incompassing of all that be sound in that profession , as also for the more capacious reception of those that may become converts thereunto . and not onely the encrease and glory thereof , but its stability in these dominions , is promoted by such an ample establishment . witness our great defence against popery , by the common zeal of all protestants of the several perswasions , for protestancy in general . by this concurrent zeal , the insolencies of the papists have been repressed , and their confidences defeated . could the protestant conformists or nonconformists , either of them upon their own single account , if one should exterminate , or utterly disable the other , be so well secured against popery , as now they are by their common interest ? and to imagine by rigor to compel the depressed party to incorporate with the party advanced , so that one should acquire the strength of both , would in the issue be found a great error . by such proceeding ▪ indeed , a party may be wounded and broken , and rendred unserviceable to the common good , but shall never be gained as an addition of strength to those who have so handled them . but an accommodation would make both to be as one . and seeing in their present divided state , the concurrent zeal of both hath been so formidable , as to dash the hopes of the popish party , how much more in a state of union , might their strength increase against their common adversaries ! wherefore , the one should open the way , and the other should readily come in upon just terms . this should be the rather minded on both sides , because the considerate nonconformists will never promote their own liberty by such ways and means as would bring in a toleration of popery ; yea , they would rather help to bear up the present ecclesiastical state , then that popery should break in by anarchy , or the dissolution of all church-government . moreover , an ample , fixed state ecclesiastical , is necessary to uphold and encrease true religion , as well against infidelity , as against popery . the loose part of the world would turn to a weariness and contempt of divine institutions , and christianity it self would be much endangered in a state of ataxy and unfixedness . by what ordinary means hath the doctrine and institution of christ been propagated and perpetuated in large kingdoms and nations , and in the universe , but by incompassing under its external rule and order , great multitudes that may fall short of the life and power thereof . and it doth not root and spread in any sort considerable , in a region , where the external order is set by the rigid and narrow principles of a small party , and the general multitude lyes open as wast ground , for any to invade or occupy . let considerate men judg how much the ample state of a meer orthodox profession , is to be preferred before infidelity , or popery , or any other sect of the christian name , that is idolatrous or heretical . there be few converts to the power of godliness , from infidelity or popery , or any heresie , but they are generally made out of the mass of people of an orthodox profession . if it be the will of god that one must suffer for the cause of religion , it is more for the honour of christianity to suffer from infidels , then from papists ; likewise it is more for the honour of reformed religion , to suffer from papists , then from protestants . and if it were at ones own choice , one should much rather ( caeteris paribus ) suffer in defence of the main truths of christianity , then for refusing a ceremony , or for any other part of inconformity . for this cause a union is so desirable , that these bitternesses , reproaches and scandals , might cease from among us . lastly , whatsoever enlargement we have granted by the favour of our lawful superiors , we have it in the best way , and a blessing is in it . sect . xx. episcopacy will gain more by moderation , then by severity in these differences . the answerer enumerates many reasons why a form of church-government should meet with many difficulties in its return after a proscription of twenty years ; and concludes it must be a generation or two , not seven years , that can wear out all those difficulties . on the other side he saith , presbytery languished almost as soon as it had a being , &c. i perceive presbytery is a great eye-sore . peradventure i may be reckoned a presbyterian ; and to say the truth , i am not ashamed of their company that are commonly called by that name ; yet i have no pleasure in such names of distinction . i am of a perswasion , but not of a party ; and whatsoever my perswasion be , it is moderate , catholick and pacifick . neither my design nor my principles engage me to maintain the presbyterial government . nevertheless i cannot but take notice with how little reason the intrinsick strength of prelacy , or weakness of presbytery , is argued from the duration of the one and the other in this kingdom . had presbytery the strength of the civil power ? or was it ever formed in england ? was it not crush'd while it was an embryo , by the prevailing potency of its adversaries ? look into those states where it hath been established , if you would judg aright concerning it . on the other hand , hath not prelacy had all the strength of law and power engaged in its defence , by the encouragements of worldly grandure for its favourers , and by severities inflicted on its impugners for above fourscore years ? in which space of time , none could appear against it without the hazard of utter undoing , or great suffering . and though it were thus born up , not for seven years , but almost a century , yet we do not find that it had worn out the difficulties of those times , which were not so many and great as this author reports its present difficulties to be , in its return after a proscription of twenty years . but there is a more excellent and surer way , which , it is hoped , may attain to a happier end in less time then a generation or two . if the distemper of minds were healed , and unchristian enmities laid aside , then moderation being sincerely begun , would hold on , and make the disagreeing parties to be still more yeelding , and mutually obliging ; those provocations and prejudices would then cease , by which they have been mutually alienated , and hurried into such hostilities , and they would not be tempted in their own defence ( as they think ) to strengthen themselves by evil advantages . if episcopacy yeeld to a moderate course , why should any prudent dissenters go about to molest it ? for in so doing they would but perpetuate their own trouble and unquiet state , seeing that diversities of opinions , and occasions of discord are like to continue about forms of church-government , until forms shall be no more . on the other side , why should the episcopal clergy dread that moderation that would render episcopacy more generally inoffensive and acceptable , and put some end to the hitherto uncessant struglings against it ? are they jealous that the structure of their government may be weakned , and at length dissolved ? they might rather apprehend it might gain assistance and reputation from many that now either by constraint and necessity , or by provocation and prejudice are made its adversaries . who so searcheth to the root of the matter , shall find , that not so much the species of government , nor the forms that are used as weightier matters , have been the chief stumbling-block , and the occasions of the greatest disgust and aversation . neither the episcopal office nor habit , doth affright this sort of people from hearing a bishop preach to their edification . the right and sure way to establish episcopacy in a land where reformed christianity is established , is not to urge precise conformity in opinions and orders , and doubtful things of meer human determination ; but to encourage soundness in the faith , ability and industry in the proper work of the ministry , and a conversation becoming the gospel ; and to discourage pluralities , nonresidencies , licentiousness and idleness in all sorts , who serve not christ , but themselves , in their sacred functions , and whose end is onely to live in pomp , wealth and pleasure . will the church-governors say ( as it hath been answered ) they are bound up by the laws ; and if patrons present unworthy persons which have the qualifications the law requires , the bishops must not reject them ; nor can they turn them out at their pleasure , but must give an account to the laws . to this i reply , if the admission and permission of unworthy ministers , comes to pass not by the bishops administration , but by the defectiveness of the laws , why hath not their zeal excited them in the space of so many years , and several princes reigns , to endeavour the obtaining of laws effectual on that behalf , as it hath to procure and make , from time to time , stricter and stricter injunctions about conformity and ceremonies ? for we know no reason why as full and vigorous laws may not be made against ignorant , negligent and scandalous ministers , as against nonconformists . conscience , honour and safety , obligeth the episcopal clergy to turn the edg of their discipline the right way , and to shew its energy and vigor , not about ceremonies , but the great and weighty matters of christian religion . and i believe that many worthy ministers of the church of england , are so perswaded . wherefore , in the former discourse i cast no evil reflection upon the latitudinarians , or any moderate persons ; nor represented them as conforming not sincerely , and as becomes the ministers of christ. they may sincerely , according to their principles , submit to these impositions , and yet not like the imposing . the expression of their lukewarmness in conformity , signified no more but this , that they set a rate upon these matters according to the value , and that they bear but an indifferent respect to things that at the best are but indifferent . it is objected against me , that having provided a place of rest for my self and my party , in the stated order , i am little sollicitous for others . i do here solemnly profess , that i am chiefly sollicitous for the tranquility and rest of a troubled nation . as for my own concernment , my deprivation is an affliction to me ; and i would do any thing that were not sin to me , to recover the liberty of my publike service in the church : but if it cannot be , i submit to his good pleasure , by whose determinate counsel all things are brought to pass , and am contented to remain a silenced sufferer for conscience towards god. yea , i should much rejoice in such enlargement of the publike rule , as might give a safe entrance to others , though i my self by some invincible strictness of apprehension , should remain excluded ; for i have no faction to uphold , and by others gain i am nothing lessened . and in my opinion , it will be no dividing of the nonconsormists , or weakning of their interest , if a part of them might close with the approved order of the nation , enlarged to the latitude of their judgments , when others of streighter judgments are left without . indeed , if they were a faction , they might lose or lessen themselves hereby : but reformed christianity is their grand interest , and their main cause lyes not in any avowed difference of doctrines between them and the episcopal protestants , nor in any secular advantages to hold to themselves in a divided state , but in the advancement of gods kingdom by the encrease of true christian faith and piety . the answerer hath used many hard speeches against me , and charged me with malice in divers passages , which i answer not in particular , because the innocence and inoffensiveness of my words will clear it self ; and because i would not make this discourse tedious , by replying to things impertinent to the main scope . it shall suffice me to add , that i have written these things , as knowing that the judg standeth before the dore. finis . the contents . sect . of the foundation of our peace already laid in the religion of the nation , and the structure thereof , to be perfected by the vnity of that profession . . the good of the several parties is best secured by common equity , and the good of the vniversality . . what may be esteemed a good constitution of the state ecclesiastical . . the comprehensiveness of the establishment , and the allowance of a just latitude of dissents , is the best remedy against dissentions . . whether the present dissentions are but so many factions in the state. . whether the nonconformists principles tend to sects and schisms . . of their principles touching obedience and government . . of placing them in the same rank for crime and guilt , with the papists . . whether their inconformity be conscientious or wilful . . of their peaceable inclinations , and readiness to be satisfied . . the propounded latitude leaves out nothing necessary to secure the churches peace . . of acquiescence in the commands of superiors , and the proper matter of their injunctions . . of the alledged reasons of the ecclesiastical injunctions in the beginning of the reformation . . the alledged reasons why the ceremonies are not to be taken away , examined . ▪ of the diversity of opinion and practice already permitted in the church of england . . men differently perswaded in the present controversies , may live together in peace . . of dissenters of narrower principles and of toleration . . it is the interest of the nonconformists to prefer comprehension before toleration , where conscience doth not gainsay . . it behoves both the comprehended and the tolerated to prefer the common interest of religion , and the setling of the nation , before their own particular perswasions . . episcopacy will gain more by moderation , then by severity in these differences . anti-quakerism, or, a character of the quakers spirit, from its original and first cause. / written by a pious gentleman that hath been thirteen years amongst the separatists to make observations, and is now returned home with a full intent to lay open the whole mystery of iniquity, in unvailing the whore, that men may no longer drink of the wine of her fornications; he hath vowed a single life, and given himself up wholly to the exercises of the mind. and here he hath described the spirit of quakerism. . being a precise puritan. . an anabaptist. . a seeker. . a ranter. . a quaker, and indeed what not, all things, and nothing. by which character every man may in some measure see the deceitfulness of his own imagination and be careful, and watch himself accordinly [sic]. younge, richard. this text is an enriched version of the tcp digital transcription a of text r in the english short title catalog (thomason .f. [ ]). textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. the text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with morphadorner. the annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. this text has not been fully proofread approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page image. earlyprint project evanston,il, notre dame, in, st. louis, mo a wing a thomason .f. [ ] estc r this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (thomason tracts ; : f [ ]) anti-quakerism, or, a character of the quakers spirit, from its original and first cause. / written by a pious gentleman that hath been thirteen years amongst the separatists to make observations, and is now returned home with a full intent to lay open the whole mystery of iniquity, in unvailing the whore, that men may no longer drink of the wine of her fornications; he hath vowed a single life, and given himself up wholly to the exercises of the mind. and here he hath described the spirit of quakerism. . being a precise puritan. . an anabaptist. . a seeker. . a ranter. . a quaker, and indeed what not, all things, and nothing. by which character every man may in some measure see the deceitfulness of his own imagination and be careful, and watch himself accordinly [sic]. younge, richard. sheet ([ ] p.) printed for the author, london : anno dom. . [i.e., ] "a pious gentleman" = richard younge. cf. wing and foot of page which reads: the author hath written a book, which is a tract of his thirteen years experience: entituled, a leaf from the tree of life. and are to be sold by daniel white, at the seven stars in pauls church-yard, and by some that sell this paper. partly in verse - "i have been in the valley of siddim". annotation on thomason copy: "jan. ." reproduction of the original in the british library. eng society of friends -- early works to . puritans -- early works to . anabaptists -- early works to . dissenters, religious -- england -- early works to . a r (thomason .f. [ ]). civilwar no anti-quakerism, or, a character of the quakers spirit, from its original and first cause. written by a pious gentleman that hath been thirte younge, richard d the rate of defects per , words puts this text in the d category of texts with between and defects per , words. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - megan marion sampled and proofread - megan marion text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion anti-quakerism , or , a character of the quakers spirit , from its original and first cause . written by a pious gentleman that hath been thirteen years amongst the separatists to make observations , and is now returned home with a full intent to lay open the whole mystery of iniquity , in unvailing the whore , that men may no longer drink of the wine of her fornications ; he hath vowed a single life , and given himself up wholly to the exercises of the mind . and here he hath described the spirit of quakerism . . being a precise puritan . . an anabaptist . . a seeker . . a ranter . . a quaker , and indeed what not , all things , and nothing . by which character every man may in some measure see the deceitfulness of his own imagination and be careful , and watch himself accordinly . i have been in the valley of siddim there i met with a ranter , a seeker , a quaker , a puritan , and he told me from the light within all things that ever i did was sinne . he said also by the same light , god dwelled with him by his spirit , from these two premises i resume these are the spirits that do presume . and now since they presumptious be , i 'l take the same authority ; for reason wills that i defend my life and soul , being my own friend . and this without all fear i say , they lyers are , that every way , there is nothing that they say is true , as i will demonstrate to you . and first i 'le them anatomize , in divers shapes of their own guize ; then to their conscience i will go , to see if this be true or no . and first he was a puritan , wareing short hair and little band ; then i thy conscience did extol , till thou wouldst ware no band at all . then thou foundst fault with singing psalms , and said they were as black as charms ; but now in singing you delight ; songs of your own made by the spirit thy custome was to fast and pray , honour thou didst the sabbath day ; but now thou hast got a better light opening thy shop that day for spite . sermons at length thou wouldst not hear , because the minister would sware ; but now you sware and curse down-right is this the effects of your spirit . at length you had a call come out , i will be your father without doubt ; then could not you no longer stay , but left the church without delay . then he turned anabaptist . then you together took in hand , to build christ house upon the sand , and still you want the corner stone , i mean jesus that is christ alone . his word you know you did promise , and there you found the word baptize , you said the meaning of 't must be needs meant of water , baptisme . then did you muse and cast your care all for an administraetor , but here in england none was seen , that used ought but sprinkling . at length you heard men say , that there was saints in silesia , who ever since the apostles time had kept this ordinance pure , divine . thither alass you sent in haste , and thus you did some treasure w●ste , but wh●n your mess●ngers came there , they were deceiv'd as we are here . but this they told you in good deed , that they of baptism stood in need , and for a present remedy , with prayers they to heaven did cry . then did they with a joynt consent do that o● which you now repent , authorize one them to bap●iz● , thus this fine cheat they did devise . the original of the anabaptists . they said that you should thus do , and god would own it they did know , and you their councel simply took , because baptize was writ in book . he turned seeker and ranter . and thus at length you your selves baptiz'd , tell you ano●her sect devis'd ; you will say now ord na●ces are low , god doth not own them you do know . then you assemblies quite forsook , having learn'd your lessons without book , and fo● a time you ●orment were , till you discern'd the morning star . he turned quaker , and nothing . which as a light in you did shine , which light you said w●s christ divine , and now you say he dwells in you , whatsoever you say i know is true . thus have you trac'd and run division , in your confused mad religion ; a great deal more i could you shew , but this is en●ugh for once to know . and now you see our trade is gone , is it long of god , or long of man , if caus'd by m●n'tis thee and i , let us repent then speedily . and do thou do what i have done , if future evils , thou wilt shun , return to church again , i say , there thou maist learn to sing and pray . return to church again with speed , lest obstinacy doth thy torment breed , for if-that faction have his head , blood in our streets must needs be shed . it is good reasoning , inter argumenta hominum , amongst the arguments of men , to draw conclusions from such premises which the respondant or adversaries that are to answer do own . the puritan spirit was the spirit of quakerism , in the first degree , which thing wise men knew full well , which made them so much i●de●vour the suppressing of them , though howbeit they took not the right way , or else the spirit was too strong , and had gotten too much hold both in the magistrates and vulgar , by reason whereof it brake into these extreames , the men of those times were too precise , critical , and exact , which is an infallible sign of relig●ous dotage , or melancholly : see burton on religious melancholly , they took offence without cause ; and i think now the devil , is in them , for they will not be pleased with amends , though they have got all , for their desires are as deep and as large as hell . they sing spiritual songs and hymns of their own devising , and force their brethren to sing with them , under penalty of their censure , which in their opinion is little less then damnation . they bitterly curse and banne all that any way differ from their opinion , and say , they have authority from god to open their shops on the lords day , even that day of which they had once so high an esteem . they applie that text worthy of all consideration , which is by saint paul meant of universal sinne unto themselves , with opposition to others , cor. . . and make as if they onely were the alone people of god . the word jesus , signifies a saviour , christ , a king , so that christ jesus is such a king that doth save ; but their christ within leads all into destruction , and hurries them upon impossibilities contrary to law and reason , witness their new catalogue of martyrs , printed in red letters like blood , because by the simple they would forsooth be understood as martyrs . the word baptism is an ambiguous term , take heed how you understand it , or make any particular application thereof . they sent up and down the world for a man to baptize them , but they found none , but such as had baptized themselves . in england there was some in the practise of sprinckling , but those the d●ppers , to my knowledge , did reject from communion with them on this very ground . they forsook assemblies , and lay dormant , and so imagined a new gospel , and a new christ within them , the devil take him for me , for i am too much under his power ; then they went to work afresh to get disciples , and i think they have hit it ; for i know , country-men , what i say , that three parts of you that are religiously affected at this day , are possessed with that humour which will make you quakers , if you take not great heed . the quakers did preach , that it was a sinne to wear bands or band-strings . and now my christian friends , and country-men , for the lords sake take heed to your selves , be wise and warned by my harms ; for faction , i thank god , hath undone me , as to my outward estate , in my outward man ; but i have seen the bottom of their bottomless pit ; and beseech you take unto you the whole armour of god , put on fortitude and faith , clothe your selves with zeal , as with a cloak , but for the lord sake let your feet be shod with the preparations of the gospel of peace . follow my directions , and under heaven i will fell these spirits , and then will war and tumults cease , and keep alwayes in memory the words of our lord , matthew . . mark . . the author hath written a book , which is as a tract of his thirteen years experience : entituled , a leaf from the tree of life . and are to be sold by daniel white , at the seven stars in pauls church-yard , and by some that sell this paper . london , printed for the author , anno dom . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a e- hos. . . an ordinance made and agreed by the lords and commons of parliament the th day of august for the speedie disarming of popish recusants, and other dangerous persons. england and wales. this text is an enriched version of the tcp digital transcription a of text r in the english short title catalog (wing e ). textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. the text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with morphadorner. the annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. this text has not been fully proofread approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. earlyprint project evanston,il, notre dame, in, st. louis, mo a wing e estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; :e , no ) an ordinance made and agreed by the lords and commons of parliament the th day of august for the speedie disarming of popish recusants, and other dangerous persons. england and wales. [ ], p. printed by robert barker ..., and by the assignes of john bill, london : . reproduction of original in thomason collection, british library. eng dissenters, religious -- england -- early works to . a r (wing e ). civilwar no an ordinance made and agreed by the lords and commons of parliament the th day of august . for the speedie disarming of popish recusan england and wales. parliament f the rate of defects per , words puts this text in the f category of texts with or more defects per , words. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - olivia bottum sampled and proofread - olivia bottum text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion an ordinance made and agreed by the lords and commons of parliament the th day of august . for the speedie disarming of popish recusants , and other dangerous persons . london : printed by robert barker , printer to the kings most excellent majestie : and by the assignes of john bill . mdcxli . ¶ an ordinance made and agreed by the lords and commons of parliament the th day of august . for the speedie disarming of popish recusans , and other dangerous persons . for the citie and countie of the citie of york , the lord major for the time being , sir thomas widrington , and sir william allinson . for the countie of sussex , sir thomas pelham , master shelley , master william hay . for the ports in sussex , william hay , herbert morley esquires . for the countie of buck. sir william andrewes barr. sir alexander denton knight , sir john parsons . for the countie of berk sir george stonehouse , master john parker , sir john backhouse , roger knight . for the countie of cornewall , sir richard carey barronet , alexander carey , esquires , sir richard buller knight . for the countie of cumberland , richard barwise esquire , and william penington of seaton esquire . for the countie of cambridge , sir dudley north , sir john cutts , thomas chicesley , thomas symonds , thomas wendy esquires . for the countie of devon , sir samuel rolle , sir john bampfield barronet . for the citie of exceter , the major for the time being . for the countie of dorsett , sir walter erle , sir thomas trenchard knights . for the countie of essex , sir harbottle grimston , sir richard everard , sir thomas bendish , sir robert kemp . for the countie of gloucester , henry brett esquire , sir robert cooke , edward stevens , thomas hodges esquires . for the citie and countie of the citie of gloucester , the major of the citie of gloucester , and the two ancient aldermen . for the countie of huntington , sir sydney mountague , aunslow winch esquire , torrell joslin esquire , henry cromwell esquire . for the countie of hartford , edward chester , edward wingate esquires , john butler . for the countie of hereford , walter kirle esquire , sir william crofts knight , john scudamore of kenchurch , james kirle , edward broughton esquires . for the countie of kent , sir edward boyes , sir thomas walsingham , sir edward partridge knights , richard lee esquire . and for the citie and countie of the citie of canterburie , sir edward masters knight . and for the ports in kent , and their members , sir edward boyes knight . for the county of leicester , sir arthur haslrigge , thomas lord gray . for the county of middlesex , sir john davers , sir william roberts , sir henry roe , sir gilbert gerrard , sir john francklin . for the city of westminster , sir robert pye , william wheeler esquire , john glyn esquire . for the city of london , the lord major , thomas soame , isaac penington aldermen , samuel vassall , and captain john ven merchants , members of the house of commons . for the county of northhampton , edward mountague esquire , sir john draydon , sir christopher yelverton , zouch tate esquire . for the county of norfolk , sir john pots , sir tho woodhouse , sir edmund moundford . for the city of norwich , and county of the same , the major for the time being . for the county of northumberland , sir john fennick , henry ogle , thomas middleton , william shafto of babington esquires . for the town of newcastle , the major for the time being , master ledyard . for the town of barwick , sir robert jackson , master john sleigh gentleman , william fenwick gentleman . for the county of oxon , james fynes , , sir william cobb , sir thomas penniston , john doyly esquire . for the county of rutland , sir guy palmes , sir edward harrington , robert horseman junior esquire . for the county of surrey , sir john evelin , sir ambrose brown barronet . for the county of salop , sir richard newport , master rich. moore , charles baldwin esquires . for the county of southhampton , richard whitehead esquire , sir william lewis . for the town of southhampton , the major for the time being . for the county of suffolk , sir roger north , sir robert crane , robert reynolds esquire , sir william platers , william cage esquire . for somersetshire , sir john horner , sir john paulet knights , john pyne esquire . for the city of bristoll , the major for the time being , john guning , john tomlinson . for the county of westmerland , sir philip musgrave knight and barronet , sir henry bellingham , gawin braithwait esquire . for the county of wilts , sir nevill poole , anthony hungerford esquire . for the county of worcester , humphrey salloway esquire , edward dingley , edward pitt , thomas rowse esquires . for the city of worcester , the major for the time being . for the county of warwick , sir richard skeffington , william coombes esquire , john hales , richard shugborough esquires . for the city and county of coventry , the major for the time being , alderman million , john barker . for the city of litchfield , the bailifses for the time being . for the county of anglesey , thomas buckley esquire , owen wood esquire . for the county of brecnock , henry williams , thomas groyn , william morgan esquires . for the county of carnarvon , thomas glynn of nautley , william thomas , owen wynn , thomas madrin esquires . for the county of denbigh , thomas middleton , john lloyd , william wynn esquires . for the county of flint , sir thomas mostin , humphrey dymocke , john eaton , john salisbury junior , esquires . for the county of glamorgan , william herbert , sir thomas lyne , miles button esquires . for the county of merioneth , william salisbury esquire , sir james price knight . for the county of pembroke , sir richard phillips barronet , sir hugh owin knight and barronet . for the county of mountgomery , arthur price esquire , richard griffith , edward vaughan esquires . for radnor , thomas lewes , robert williams , richard jones esquires . for the county palatine of durham , sir lyonell maddison , sir alexander hall , george lilburne , clement fulthrop . for the county of cardigan , walter lloyd , james lewes esquires . for the county of carmarthen , richard erle of carbury , francis lloyd esquires . for the county of monmouth , sir william morgan , thomas morgan , william herbert of colbrooke , william baker of aburgany , sir robert cooke , sir charles williams , james kirke esquires : which said persons , so appointed and nominated , or any one , or more of them , together with the iustices of the peace of every shire , county , or riding respectively , or any one , or more of them , or the major , bailiffes , iustice of the peace , iurats , or other head officers within any city , or town corporate , or other priviledged place , or any one , or more of them respectively , shall have power , and are hereby authorized , and required to do and perform all and every such thing , and things , as shall be necessary for the due execution of this present ordinance , according to the instructions herewith annexed : which said instructions are hereby ordered , and commanded to be duely observed , and executed , by all and every person , and persons whom it shall , or may appertain , as they will answer the contrary at their perills . this ordinance to continue no longer then till the end of this present session of parliament . instructions appointed by ordinance of parliament to the persons thereby authorized for the disarming of popish recusants , and other dangerous persons . . such members of the house of commons , and other persons as in and by the said ordinances are particularly named and appointed , or any one or more of them , and the iustices of the peace of each severall countie , shire , or riding within england or wales , as also the majors , bayliffes , iustices of the peace , iurates , or other head officers , of , or within any citie , town-corporate , or priviledged place respectively , or any one or more of them together , with some , or one of the persons nominated in the said ordinance , are to see the same forthwith put in execution , and shall have power to call the high sheriffe of each county , and his ministers , all constables , and tything-men , and other officers , or any of them , when and as oft as they shall think fit , to be aiding and assisting to them from time to time within their severall limits and iurisdictions , in the due performance of this service , and to do , and execute all , and every such thing or things as shall be requisite and necessary in that behalf , and the said members of the said house of commons are especially required to see the said ordinance forthwith put in execution . . the said persons authorized are to inform themselves by all convenient wayes and means , of all such arms , gun-powder , and munition , of what kinde soever , as any popish recusant convict , or person whatsoever , either of the nobility , or other , which is or shall be indicted for popish recusants , and such indictments , either removed by certiorari , or being not removed , shall not by appearance and traverse , or otherwise be legally discharged , or which shall not have reparied to church more then once in every moneth , or shall not have received the holy communion , according to the rites of the church of england , within one whole yeer next before the making of the said ordinance , or which shall refuse to take the oaths of supremacy or allegiance upon lawful tender thereof made , or whose children , or grand-children , or any of them , being at their dispose , or in house with them , are bred up in the popish religion , or have not repaired to the church within one whole yeer next before the making of the said ordinance , according to the lawes and statutes of the realm , or whose houshold servants , or any number of them are of the popish religion , hath , or have in his or her house or houses , or elsewhere , or in the hands or possession of any other to his or her use , or at his or her disposition ; and are to search all such places where any such arms , gun-powder , or munition of any such popish recusant , or other person , whose arms by the said ordinance is to be taken away , is placed or deposited , or supposed to be placed or deposited . . they are to take and seize all such armes , gun-powder , and munition , as aforesaid , in whose hands or custody , or in what place soever the same shall be ( other then such weapons as shall be by the said persons so authorized , thought fit to remain , and be allowed to the said recusants , or other popish persons , as aforesaid , for the defence of his or her person or houses ; and shall cause the same to be placed in some citie , or town-corporate , or other convenient town of the same countie , and there safely kept , at the costs and charges of the owner thereof , and the armourer to be admitted to dresse and amend the same so oft as need shall require . . and if any such popish recusant , or other person as aforesaid , or any other person or persons , which have , or hath , or shall have any such armes , gunpowder , or munition in his or their hands or possession , to the use of such recusant or other person , as aforesaid , or by his , her , or their appointment , shal conceal the said arms , gunpowder , and munition , or any part thereof , or shall refuse to discover the same to the said persons authorized , or otherwise wilfully oppose , hinder , or disobey the said persons authorized , or any of them in the execution of the said ordinance , that then every such popish recusant , and other person so offending , shall be held a contemptuous person , and be liable to such further punishment as by the parliament , upon certificate thereof made , shall be thought fit , and the persons authorized are to certifie their names accordingly : they are to make certificate to the parliament of all such armes , gunpowder , and munition as they shall take or seize by force , or vertue of the said ordinance ; as also of the person and persons whose the same were , and from whom they are so taken , and in what place or places the same are found or taken , and where and in what city , town or place , and in whose custody the same shall be left or deposited , and what order they shall take concerning the same , and shall likewise certifie what armes or munition they shall leave to such recusants or persons as aforesaid , for the defence of his or her person or house . . they are to enquire what popish recusants have lately had any armes or munition taken away , by whom and by what means , and where or in whose hands the same remains , and to take care that the same may be safely placed , and kept in such manner as aforesaid , and to make certificate thereof to the parliament . . to take care that the said arms and munition so to be seized and taken away by force of the said ordinance , may so be placed and disposed of , as there may not be too great a quantity thereof at the same time in one and the same city , town or place , but that it may be distributed and placed in severall towns and places , in such manner and proportion as shall be most convenient for the use and safety of the kingdom . finis . london , printed by robert barker printer to the kings most excellent majestie : and by the assignes of john bill . . the lord bishop of london's fourth letter to the clergy of his diocess. church of england. diocese of london. bishop ( - : compton) approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page image. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing c a estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) the lord bishop of london's fourth letter to the clergy of his diocess. church of england. diocese of london. bishop ( - : compton) compton, henry, - . sheet ([ ] p.). printed for w. abington., london, : [ ] signed at end: fullham, april . . ... h. london. reproduction of original in: christ church (university of oxford). library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng church of england -- pastoral letters and charges. dissenters, religious -- england -- early works to . broadsides -- england -- london -- th century. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - olivia bottum sampled and proofread - olivia bottum text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the lord bishop of london 's fourth letter to the clergy of his diocess . good brother , i do acknowledge that i am bound to lay my self out in any thing that may conduce to your assistance , for carrying on that great work , which lyes upon you of the cure of souls . but when i reflect upon the cheerful concurrence i met with in those endeavours i have hitherto used for the promoting that unanimity , which is the life and strength of your performance , and cements and embodies your whole proceeding to a lasting strength : i cannot , but with a most thankful heart to god , rejoyce in that just disposition , with which , by his grace , he has fill'd your honest mind . that therefore i may never be wanting , and that this repetition of what you were my councellour in the last year , may the more quicken you to do your duty in those things , which you did then so readily consent and advise to : take your own and my sense , so near as i can recollect it , concerning the subject of our last conference . upon canon . the title and substance of this canon is , the licenses of preachers refusing conformity , to be void . and to compleat the expectation of the church in matters of this nature : we must look to canon . which ordains , that obstinate revolters after subscription , are to be depos'd from the ministry . the reason of these severities proceeds from the absolute necessity of keeping up discipline in the church of god. for nature , the constitution of the world , experience in the subsistence and success of things , teach us , that the maker of all things is a god of order , and hates confusion . therefore is the church of christ likened to a building , which consists in an orderly disposing of different materials into one structure . i will build my church , says our saviour , mat. . . you also are built together , &c. eph. . . st. paul writing to the schismatical separatists of corinth , as a wise master builder , i have laid the foundation , cor. . . ye are gods building , cor. . . in whom all the building fitly fram'd , eph. . . and so in many other places . it is also express'd as a body , see cor. . how the apostle adapts the constitution and frame of the natural body to that of the church , and concludes vers . . ye are the body of christ . — for the edifying the body of christ , eph. . , and vers . . the whole body fitly joyn'd together , &c. maketh increase of the body . from which the body by joynts and bands , col. . . for his body's sake , which is the church , col. . . there are many more expressions of this kind ; but i mention these especially , to shew after what manner we are embody'd , and to what end . sometimes it is called a kingdom , which is a body politick under one head. the gospel of the kingdom , mat. . . i appoint you a kingdom , luke . . and so in divers other portions of scripture . but to let us understand how necessarily the utmost rigour of disciplin is to be observ'd in a christian , we are most truly represented to be in a state of war , continually encountring the flesh , the world and the devil , at the peril of an everlasting death . and therefore he says , put on the armour of light , rom. . . put on the whole armour of god , eph. . . now we know under what severe penalties almost the least fault is forbid by martial law , and how strictly it is executed , not from the roughness of the profession , but the nicety of the case ; where every little disorder , or disobedience to command , always gives advantage to a watchful enemy , and many times endangers a total overthrow . we are therefore to consider what is expected from us , for the fitting our selves to this posture , that we may be able to stand in the day of tryal . . the first thing we are to do , is so well to dispose our selves , by an humble and peaceable mind , that in the church where it has pleas'd god to place us , in what state soever , therewith to be content : to study to be quiet and mind our own business : and to yield a hearty , willing and thorough conformity to the rules we are under . for if nothing be ordain'd contrary to the express will of god : every ordinance of man is to be submitted to for the lords sake , pet. . . to this end , the two acts of uniformity ought to be strictly read , and observed by us . as also the constitutions and canons ecclesiastical , anno . with the rubricks to the several offices in the liturgy ; taking great heed at the same time to our doctrin , by having a special regard to the . articles , as expounded in the books of homilies . that neither in word nor deed we may hurt , or offend the church we serve in . what less can we think our selves obliged to ; when we consider in what manner st. paul conjures the corinthians ? ch. . . now i beseech you , brethren , by the name of our lord jesus christ , that ye all speak the same thing , and that there be no divisions ( or schisms ) among you : but that you be perfectly joyn'd together in the same mind , and in the same judgment . and , let us walk by the same rule , let us mind the same thing , phil. . . let all things be done decently and in order , cor. . . surely after this we may safely conclude , that whosoever transgresses the rule upon a less account , then obedience to the express will of god , or shall teach men so ; he shall be call'd the least in the kingdom of heaven . we are not here to understand every breach of the rule , to lye under this guilt , but such as are committed wilfully , or out of supine negligence . neither need we think it a neglect of duty in those things , which by an universal omission , the silence of our superiours giving way to it , lye under a tacite consent of abrogation , or suspension at least . nor are we to think it a small matter , the leaving these things undone ; because it is of greater immediate duty to observe the weightier matters of the law. i say immediate , inasmuch as the consequence in the omission of lesser matters , may occasionally and too frequently does prove more fatal to the peace of the church , and mens consciences than the other . . in the next place , we are to consider our selves in the state of church-discipline , as watchmen and shepherds to guard and secure our flocks . we must for this reason , not only see that we our selves , but be careful that others do not offend those that in a special manner belong to us . we must drive away all erroneous doctrines , and avoid disorderly walkers . we must drive away the bold wolves , the little foxes , and all beasts of prey , as we will otherwise answer for the care committed unto us . if any come upon us , or go out from among us , and discover the savageness of their natures , by not being content to forsake and renounce order themselves , but teach and encourage men so to do ; these are beasts of prey . and it is one of the great advantages god has bestowed upon us , in that promise to his church , isa . . . kings shall be thy nursing fathers , and queens thy nursing mothers . that all offensive and disorderly walkers may by their protection and coercive power , either be reduc'd , or secur'd from harming of us . for there is no pretence of persecution in this , no more than if a man should so call a just conviction for an action of battery : because he is self-condemned , tit. . . and is not punished for his opinion , but for his disorderly acting upon that opinion . such was diotrephes , who loved to have the preheminence , joh. . . and if you should pass over the deeds which such men do ; you would be the betrayers and murderers of your flocks . like the hireling , who fleeth , or sitteth still , when he sees the wolf coming , joh. . . there is another sort of disorderly walkers who still keep amongst us , of whom i may say in the apostles words , i have told you before , and now tell you even weeping , that by a base compliance and a servile aw of the most blameworthy of their flock , they discover so cowardly a temper , and unsutable to that christian courage , which should place them above the fear of men ; that they become the enemies of the cross of christ . such men should not be suffered to herd with us , but ought to be avoided as infectious creatures . mark them which cause divisions and offences , contrary to the doctrine which ye learnt , and avoid them , rom. . . such wretches lye under a complication of diseases , being disobedient through omission of their duty , traitors in not faithfully discharging the trust committed to them ; disorderly in not walking according to the rule , perjur'd in breaking their oath of canonical obedience , and that of supremacy , injurious to their brethren and the whole church , by cherishing the unruly expectations of the people , and are so many ways unfaithful , that had they any sence of religion , the consequent words of st. paul must needs make them asham'd , and confounded . for they that are such , serve not the lord jesus christ but their own belly . . or as it is in another place , whose end is destruction , whose god is their belly , and whose glory is in their shame , who mind earthly things , phil. . . in short do but mark the careful admonition against all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or disorder in the church . warn them that are unruly , thes . . . now we command you brethren , in the name of our lord jesus christ , that ye withdraw your selves from every brother that walks disorderly . thes . . . and then observe with what pleasure that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or good order is mentioned , for i though absent in the flesh , yet am with you in the spirit , joying and beholding 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 your order , col. . . this word should be written in the forehead as well as heart of every christian , but especially of the clergy , as pilate's inscription upon the cross , in hebrew , greek and latin , that from east to west , and throughout the world , the glory of our christian consent might be understood . you may remember upon the recommending a hearty and serious pronunciation of the divine service , it was thought very adviseable and reasonable to forbear long and expatiating prayers before sermon : lest either we should be thought our selves to esteem the publick offices deficient , or give occasion to others to be of that opinion . upon which occasion was mention'd mr. seymours little treatise of publick set forms of prayer . then likewise were recommended for your people to read , mr. allens little books viz : a perswasive to peace and vnity . a serious and friendly address to the nonconformists . the danger of enthusiasm . and i shall now add his book call'd catholicism . as also mr. lamb's two books , viz : a stop to the course of separation : and a fresh suit against independency . and this i did , not only for their brevity , but because they are written by laymen . and such whose expressions are so fair and their integrity and manner of living so well known in the city : that it were impossible to propose more unexceptionable either as to the style or authors . i then wished you , as i still do , to read the canons to your congregation once a year , as it is ordered in the kings confirmation of them : and that such acts or proclamations as have been appointed to be read upon the thirtyeth of january , the nine and twentyeth of may , and fifth of november , might be for the future observed . the urging necessity of persecution forceth men into order . but in times of prosperity , there is great danger of falling asleep : especially in ours , where the corruption of the age makes unruliness pass for a virtue . and yet the censorious humour which it produces , is a strong motive on the other hand , where any sparks of wisdom or common prudence remain , to observe a very strict and close order in our own defence . take away then the glory of ordaining rules , by that which is of infinitely more value , the observation of them . and let not the great and painful care of the fathers of the primitive church , both by private endeavors , and in councils , rise up in judgment against us , for destroying that discipline by disorder and neglect , which at the peril of their lives many times , they upheld for the preservation of christs body , which is the church . i pray god strengthen your heart with a courage suitable for the times we live in , and every way enable you to answer the just expectations of , fullham , april . . your affectionate friend and brother . h. london . london , printed for w. abington . love one another: a tub lecture, preached at watford in hartfordshire at a conventicle on the . of december last, being christmas day, by john alexander, a joyner. his text was taken out of the epistle of saint iohn, and himselfe was taken by captaine bird, lieutenant rock, and other officers, from whom he received such usage as his doctrine did deserve; for which the said officers were commended by the parliament. taylor, john, - . this text is an enriched version of the tcp digital transcription a of text r in the english short title catalog (wing t ). textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. the text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with morphadorner. the annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. this text has not been fully proofread approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. earlyprint project evanston,il, notre dame, in, st. louis, mo a wing t estc r this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (thomason tracts ; :e [ ]) love one another: a tub lecture, preached at watford in hartfordshire at a conventicle on the . of december last, being christmas day, by john alexander, a joyner. his text was taken out of the epistle of saint iohn, and himselfe was taken by captaine bird, lieutenant rock, and other officers, from whom he received such usage as his doctrine did deserve; for which the said officers were commended by the parliament. taylor, john, - . [ ], p. s.n.], [london : printed in the yeare of private instructing. [ ] john alexander = john taylor. illustrated t.p. place and date of publication from wing. annotation on thomason copy: "jan: ". reproduction of the original in the british library. eng love -- religious aspects -- early works to . dissenters, religious -- england -- early works to . a r (wing t ). civilwar no love one another: a tub lecture, preached at watford in hartfordshire at a conventicle on the . of december last, being christmas day, by taylor, john c the rate of defects per , words puts this text in the c category of texts with between and defects per , words. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - tcp staff (michigan) sampled and proofread - tcp staff (michigan) text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion love one another : a tvb lectvre , preached at watford in hartfordshire at a conventicle on the . of december last , being christmas day , by john alexander , a joyner . his text was taken out of the epistle of saint iohn , and himselfe was taken by captaine bird , lieutenant rock , and other officers , from whom he received such usage as his doctrine did deserve ; for which the said officers were commended by the parliament . printed in the yeare of private instructing . love one another . beloved , you are well met in this solemn synagogue to hear from me those words of truth , and wholesome doctrine which this day you shall receive from me your teacher . and you are to understand , that although i have had but six shillings at a collection for my other sermons , which like good seed i have sowed among you , and the fruite whereof in a plentifull increase to your great advantage you have reaped , yet for this sermon i shall well deserve twelve shillings , both for the solmnesse of the day , and the sweetnesse of the doctrine that floweth from my text , and the gravity , and authority of me your teacher , i will dispense a little ( with your christian patience ) with the two first reasons , or inducements , and begin first with the last , which is the sufficiency of your teacher . and what man indeed more fitting to direct your understanding in this point , then i , who am your known , your deare , your persecuted alexander ? whose life you have seen , whose doctrine you have heard , & whose zeal in the holy cause you have admired . this is not the first time you have heard of my prayses , nor shall it be the last . to whom is it more sutable to discourse upon this text of love , then unto me , who by profession am a joyner a man ordained to joyne and settle things in order ? and if the husband of the virgin mary ( as the text saith ) was but a carpenter , i believe a joyner is not to be despised . a carpenter beloved doth raise seats or formes in the house of god , but it is the office of a joyner to make the pulpit , but when the joyner doth not onely make the pulpit , but is the preacher that is in the pulpit , who joyneth truth to falshood , ignorance unto knowledge , and misdevotion unto zeal , what a joyner , nay what a conjoiner must that be ? and this beloved , is the happinesse which you all behold , and injoy in me this day : and so much briefly for my self , who am your teacher , i will now return unto my first particular which is the solemnesse of the day . and in the first place not to conceive of me to be so superstitious , as to make any conscience of the solemnity of this day , because the church hath ordained or doth enjoyn , no god forbid i should be so prophane , it is a detestation of their blindnesse , that have brought me hither this day , to enlighten your eyes , and to informe your eares , how much they are abused , and doe abuse the ignorant , and a consciousnesse withall of my present wants , which crave a supply from your christian charities to relieve them : and in the first place , i give you to understand , that the very name of christmas is idolatrous and prophane , and so verily , are the whole twelve dayes wherein the wicked make many daily , and nightly sacrifices to riot , and sensuality . the papists christmas ( pardon me , beloved that i am forced to repeat the word ) doth begin in holland ten dayes before it doth in england , for so i have been informed by a godly brother from amsterdam , wherein they make more haste the good speed , and in their doing so , three things offer themselves to our observation . there are three sorts of men that make haste . the first that make more haste then good speed . the second those that make haste with good speed . the third those that make neither haste , nor good speed , of these in their order , and first of the first . they that make more haste then good speed , those i say , are the popish and the idolatrous churches that in their superstitious rites , and ceremonies follow them , and this indeed is the way of all sinners , and reprobates whatsoever ; thus in the gunpowder-treason they made more haste then good speed . thus guido faux that limb of the devill with his dark lanthorn which was another limb of the devill , for every work of darknesse is a limb of the devill , made more haste then good speed . thus the earle of newcastle at this present with his papisticall army , makes more haste then good speed , to overthrow our ierusalem , and to ●oot out the true reformed religion from amongst us , but god i hope will put a bridle in his mouth , and send him back the way he came , or send ●im to those whose battells he fights , whither yet he never came . the second sort of those that make haste , are they that make haste with ●ood speed , and those beloved , ( with teares of joy i speak it ) are your ●elves , who are met all together to heare me this day : thus the prodigall makes hast with good speed to discharge the usurer before the use of his money doth eate into his acres , and leaves him , and his posterity desolate . the third sort of those that make haste , are they who neither make haste nor good speed , and these beloved , ( let it not trouble your patience , for i must needs speak the truth ) are our carelesse servants at home i am afraid now , who while our pots are boyling over , make no haste , ●ill all the fat is fallen into the fire . thus the foolish virgins would put no oyle into their lampes , untill overtaken by the bridegroome , they were refused as unserviceable . and thus the slothfull in the proverbs , deferreth his travell from day untill at the last he is inforced to goe in the rain , and not able in it either to make haste or good speed , is sowsed to the skinne . and thus i have done with my three observations occasioned on my meitation of my first inducement which was the solemnes of the day , i now come unto the second , which is the sweetnesse of the doctrine that is flowing from my text . my text you heare is love , a very necessary text in these contentious times , whenever we our selves are troubled , are persecuted , and routed in in our synagogues , when we cannot have those expositions , and preachings with that priviledge and security as becometh us , when the reprobate and prophane intrude themselves into our assembly , and catch at our words to make us or odious , or ridiculous . when our feastings are made the admiration of the gluttons , and our graces thought longer then the prayers of the liturgy-mongers , when our honest desires of competency in wealth is accounted coveteousnesse , and the closenesse , and wisdome of our carriages passeth for hypocrisie . brethren , and sisters , these are the last dayes , into which we are fallen , and it behoveth us , ( mark what i say ) to be as wife as serpents , and because we are pursued , derided and traduced , ( though if all things succeed according to our prayers ) there will a speedy and happy period be put unto our sufferings and revilings , and we shall live to revile the reviler , and to spit in the faces of those that have opposed us let us ( i say ) joyne all together in one close desire , and doe as the text enjoynes us , love one another . the words you heare are few , yet very remarkable , if you consider in them the drift of the apostle , it is an exhortation to love , wherein you shall find the object , the subject , and the abject . the object is love , the subject which is also the abject is one another ; i call the subject the abject , because we should think our selves as abjects in this world , and not mind it nor any thing that doth belong unto it , no more then needs must , but settle our affections altogether , on the holy assembly of our selves , defying any sociation with the wicked and prophane : from this ariseth those two doctrines , first , that we must hate all those that be against us . secondly , that the best way to love one another , is to love our selves first . first we must hate all those that be against us , for how can we love our selves , unlesse we hate our enemies ? how can peace be setle● in a kingdome , unlesse all that seek to destroy it be utterly consumed ? how can the pure light of the gospell shine , as long as the thick night of superstition and those monstrous rags of rome , the rites , and idolatrous ceremonies of our church , which the proud prelates doe put on , and practise : they are the hay , chaffe , and the stubble of antichrist , which the breath of reformation shall blow away , and scatter in the desarts , where there shall be none to seek it out . we must beare a perfect hate to those men and to their arts : if we will love one another . we must hate the bishops as hell , and the prelates as the flaming smoke of brimstone that proceedeth from it . it is no matter in what they have transgressed , for they are enemies to us , and to the musick of our assemblies , and we are bound to hate them . they hate our love , and we doe love their hate : what though we are not learned as the clergy , what though we are not so great scholars as they , let us love one another , and make our selves not onely one church , but one family , and be as it were one family of love . away with all learning , away with all immodesty , and the trumpry of the arts : the very grammar is prophane , and instructs our children in the obscenenesse of conjunctions copulative , and what a smell thinke you are they like to have when they come to tullies offices : verily brethren , were that mystery of iniquity laid open to us in our mother tongue , i doe believe that the vilest jakes about this towne would not be so unsweet in the nostrills of good men , as that booke of offices : much more may be aleadged , but i hasten to my second use . which serves for terrour and astonishment of heart , to all those who stile themselves by that reprobate ti●le of cavaliers , whether horsemen , or footmen , or of what degree or sex soever , these be they , who tooth and naile labour to pluck up reformation by the root , who will have their dinners , as long as ours , and their haire longer , men of no piety , nor grace at all , who oursweare the french , out drink the dutch , out paramour the turk . bold sonnes of beliall , begotten on the daughters of anak . o that they were within my reach , now beloved , with this hand , would i hurle seas of water to overwelm them , and with this hand balls of wildfire to consume them , with this would i throw fearfullnesse , and trembling , and with this utter ruine and desolation on them , mark what i say , and mark well what i doe . here would i mayme them and there would i braine them : here would i quash them , and there would i thrash them : here would i thrum them , and there would i burn them , & quite overcome them : here would i wound them , & there would i — o my brethren my zeal is enlarged , and me thinks i am all on a fire , which certainly at this instant would exhale me , did not your christian patience assist me , which leads me to the third sort of men , on which we must exercise our hate , and in the first place i beseech you , looke not my beloved so amased and distractedly on one another , for i will speake unto you in a softer tone , and in the voice of gentlenesse . there be a third sort of men , i say , who live amongst us yet are not of us , nay they are rather directly against us , and they are they who inveigh against our assemblies , deride the purity of our doctrine , and scorne our instructions , of these we ought to be more wary , the more slily they carry themselves amongst us , and the neerer they are unto us they will prove more dangerous . as he was preaching this , captaine bird and one eeles his quartermaster were with some others at the outside of the house where this congregation was assembled , and overheard this doctrine , and with some impatience attended the end of this sermon . beloved , wee have more ill birds i am afraid then wren , and some fish too that are even as bad as fish the proctor . beloved , there are fish known to most of this assembly by the name of eeles : these eeles as the gravest writers doe affirme delight in the most nethersome part of the water , or in the mudde from whence they doe proceed : besides , they are of a slimy and slippery nature , slimy by reason of their propensnes unto the act of generation , and slippery by reason of their craft and ficklenes ; this fish beloved ( if we may beleeve antiquity ) hath a head and body resembling the old serpent from whence it doth derive its subtilty , and instead of speaking , it hisseth . i pray god ( my brethren ) we have not some such fish neere us , and who sometime like the serpent in paradice come creeping in , even into this congregation of the saints . beloved , we ought i say with all care and circumspection to looke about us , and to prosecute them with the extremest hate ; wherefore if any such shall attempt to circumvent us , and beare ill will unto our assemblies , let one of them be as anathema , and the other as maranatha . i will speake now but a word or two by the way of motive to exhort you to love one another , and so i will conclude . doe you labour to love one another ? doe you instantly and earnestly desire it ? then you must love mee who am your teacher , who takes paines to informe and direct you in the right way , who do distill into your eares the doctrine of sincerity , and keepe more close unto my text then the aged man unto his chimney , or the lame man to his stilt , or the hungry man to his food : but some may here object , how may we expresse our love unto you : my brethren and sisters i will answer it briefly by enlarging your stipends and contributions to me , doe it beloved cherefully , cherefully , a cherefull giver is most excepted . you know when my sonne iqnathan was borne what trouble i endured , what charges i was put to because i refused to have him buried according to the superstition of the english church , and when my daughter abigall was borne , you know againe what persecutions ensued on me , because out of the tendernesse and purenes of my conscience ( which i hope you all have ) i would not have him baptized at any prophane font , which hath bin corrupted with the superstitious lyturgy of the church of england , and made odious to all good christians by the often figuring of the idolatrous signe of the crosse . these troubles beloved have befalen me , and you know not how soone they may come upon your selves , wherefore deale bountifully with me who am ordained to be your example , and if you will ever love one another learne to love me in the first place , so shall the text and i and you come together in the end , and agree in this great and happy point of loving one another . finis . esoptron tes antimachias, or, a looking-glasse for rebellion being a sermon preached upon sunday the of iune , in saint maries oxford, before the members of the two houses of parliament / by nath. bernard. bernard, nath. (nathaniel) this text is an enriched version of the tcp digital transcription a of text r in the english short title catalog (wing b ). textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. the text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with morphadorner. the annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. this text has not been fully proofread approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. earlyprint project evanston,il, notre dame, in, st. louis, mo a wing b estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) esoptron tes antimachias, or, a looking-glasse for rebellion being a sermon preached upon sunday the of iune , in saint maries oxford, before the members of the two houses of parliament / by nath. bernard. bernard, nath. (nathaniel) [ ], p. printed by leonard lichfield ..., oxford : . first three words of title in greek characters. "published by the allowance of authority." reproduction of original in the huntington library. eng dissenters, religious -- england. sermons, english -- th century. a r (wing b ). civilwar no esoptron tēs antimachias, or a looking-glasse for rebellion; being a sermon preached upon sunday the . of iune . in saint maries oxfo bernard, nath d the rate of defects per , words puts this text in the d category of texts with between and defects per , words. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - jonathan blaney sampled and proofread - apex covantage rekeyed and resubmitted - robyn anspach sampled and proofread - robyn anspach text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion ΕΣΟΠΤΡΟΝ thΣ antimaxiaΣ , or a looking-glasse for rebellion ; being a sermon preached upon sunday the . of iune . in saint maries oxford , before the members of the two houses of parliament . by nath. bernard . published by the allowance of authority . proverb . . , . lay not waite , o wicked man , against the dwelling of the righteous ▪ spoyle not his resting place . for a iust man falleth seven times , and riseth up againe ; but the wicked falleth into mischiefe . galat. . . am i therefore become your enemie , because i tell you the truth ? oxford , printed by leonard lichfield , printer to the vniversity . . to all my friends in the east parts of this kingdom : especially to them , that are of mine acquaintance , in essex , and london : preachers and people . greeting . the time is onward to two years , since i have been , by severall committees at westminster , sequestred from my calling , and charge in essex , banished from my dwelling , and the society of my deare wife , and children : they turned out of those doores , which no body else hath , that i can heare , employed since . my selfe by barbarous rebells , threatned to be cut into a thousand pieces , pistolls discharged at me upon the high way : with severall other abuses , which to recount would savour of malice , to which christianity commands me to be a stranger . some , i confesse , shewed me some favours ; which i shall never be so ingratefull , as to forget . among others , some enquiring of those that were ; or would seem to be , my most intelligent witnesses : ( which was the title , the committee chaire-man was pleased to bestow on my informers , ) what course they thought , i should take to live ? were answered : that i was an able bodied man , and might goe worke . i understood their preferment , they intended me : ( and they were such as pretended my advancement ) and i resolved , to follow their advice . but being never bred to , nor practised in manuall arts : i think they would allow me time to chuse , and to fit my selfe , to a calling . and now you have , my first handy-worke , a looking-glasse of rebellion : which i dedicate to your uses . and when you shall therein , throughly , and truly , see your selves , either innocent , or penitent , i shall look for thankes , at least , from you . for those that like decay'd gentlewomen , perceive , or but conceit , their faces by no art to be repaired : i believe , they will not sticke to breake , and marre my glasse : not because it is , but because themselves are too faulty . men are usually not apt to believe their own faces foule , without a reflection . neither can they see , to conviction , or reformation without this kind of helpe : because the faces as their own , are not within their own view , directly . the reason why nathan came to david , with a glasse or parable was no other , but the same with mine . i conceive men that way interested are now blind , to the evill of rebellion : because it is their own iniquity . i hope they will perceive better , how the case stand ; with witches , in poynt of religion , and reformation , and apply it . my glasse cannot deceive them : it is ( i dare say ) clear and true . and the cover is a little ( i confesse ) too costly for them ; but too mean , for the place , where it was first opened , from whence , i was enjoyned by authority , to convey it abroad , by the presse , to publique view . my engagements to turne my face and glasse eastward , are great , and many : and yet truely , my brethren , i doe it without any idolatry . but where is he , that will confesse himselfe a rebell ? and where are they , that will confesse themselves witches ? the sermon , though it pretend not to it , will yet with a little help of your consciences : shew you not only what you are like ; but what you are . i have had the happinesse , while i lived amongst you , to be an instrument of conveing good to some , as i am able to prove by evidence , by some of your own acknowledgements . it is my desire to be blessed that way still : for this end , i send this unto you , which , if it thrive not , retract your sentences ; and confesse you did ill , to turne me to worke for my living . though indeed , that is not my aime in this worke , but to procure a blessed change in them that are guilty ; and a turning from such a sinne , as will poyson all their graces , were they ten thousand times more then they are : disgrace all their religion , were it really answerable to the noyse , the empty sound , makes in their dwellings : and like the colloquintida , bring death into the pot , although the broth therein , were in a wholsome bargaine , worth a birthright . and a confirmation in those blessed martyrs of allegiance , and constancy , whose sufferings , quiet , and lamb . like though they are , yet cry loud in the eares of god almighty : who will , ere long , crowne their afflictions , with victory : and grant them to see , their desire upon their enimies . which is ( i dare say for them ) that they may repent , and live . and this is the hearts desire and prayer , of your yet , unfained lover , and friend in christ iesus nath. bernard . oxford , iune . . . sam. . . for rebellion is as the sinne of witch-craft . and the poets , call her , laborantem lunam ; the sick moone . livie , and the philosophers say , shee doth deficere , faile ; and tacitus that shee doth languescere , faint , languish , or swoone away . all which phrases are borrowed , from that generall beleife which the heathens had of the moones being at such times bewitch'd . crediderunt ( saith plinie ) lunam excantationibus pati defectum ; nec nisi dissono aeris strepitu , ad pristinum , posse revocari splendorem . that is , they beleived that the moone , through inchantments , suffer'd defect : and that shee should not be restored to her former brightnesse , but by a confused noyse of sounding brasse . tum frustra resonant aera auxiliaria lunae . which opinion , how ridiculously sottish , and absurd soever , it appeared to the wiser philosophers , and after times : yet since it took , and had credit with very many learned men : plurimi praestantes doctrina viri &c. saith plinie , since it was as ancient , as pindarus and stesichorus : since it grew so catholique and universall , that almost all nations , the greeks , and romanes ( to be sure ) beleived it . lastly , since it was so durable , and lasting , that notwithstanding the gospell had been spread through all the world : yet , and among christians , was this received : in the times of s. ambrose and s. august : as appeares by the first his . ser : the other , tract at : derectitudine conversationis cathol : i begin to think ; that as one way there is much errour in it : so another way , there is nothing more then truth therein , that is , if we withdraw it from the naturall , and apply it to the mysticall moone , the church . for as in scripture , the church is often compared to the moone , cant. . . math. . . luk. , . &c. so are the churches persecutions , troubles , and oppressions ( upon the matter ) made eclipses too . is . . . now to secure us against the errour , s. paul assures us : that even churches may be bewitch'd ; in his epistle to the galatians , whose {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} , and inscription being , to the churches of galatia : the third chapter begins , with o foolish galatians , who hath bewitched you : where you shall finde : . the effect of that witch-craft , which was privatio lucis ▪ they had forgone the light of truth . . the medium or charm , which was non obediendo by not obeying , that you should not obey the truth : ( that is ) they were as t is in iob , rebelles lumini , rebels against the light . and , rebellion ( saith my text ) is , as the sin of witch-craft . the case is so plainly ours , that every body may perceive , this story a parable , and our age , our church , the present state of things : the interpretation of it . for in our age , we have liv'd to see ; our church , this church of england faire as the moone , so fairely shining , that her late splendour , had strong influence upon the forraigne parts of christendome : insomuch , that an italian protestant , for religions sake flying his native habitation , and enquiring where he might best settle himselfe , and family , was , by agrave and learned divine in germany , advised hither , with this recommendation , that if god had on earth , e're a church triumphant , it was the church of england . an expression so high , that very modesty bids mee say , that even then , it had it's spots like moone too : and so had the primitive , and apostolicall church : iud. . this our moone , so faire , and but few yeares since , almost at full , nothing neare a change , though malicious slanderers gave , her out so , in a cleare heaven , for no cloud ; no not so much as eliahs cloud of a hands breadth , was perceived to arise , from any parts beyond the sea , though traiterous jealousies pretended so , was suddenly surprised , by an eclips , now grown so totall , that shee is not discernable , but by her owne bloody colour . for which shee is stared and wonder'd at , as a dismall prodigie by all the world ; and by some few pitied as bewitched . tacitus's description of an eclipse in tiberius's time , summes our misery , luna claro repente coelo , visa est languescere . but with different successe , for that eclipse caused the laying downe of a rebellion ( viz. ) that of percennius & vitubenus in pannon̄ia . this is the effect , and product of a rebellion . for as the astrologers observe ; that dark shadow which alwaies followes the opacous body of the earth , falls not upon the moone , except at full she enter upon the constellation , called the dragon . so the globe of sinnes , which followes all nations ; and we are not so impudent , nor impenitent , as not to confesse in our kingdome of so great a demerit . that by it , and for it , we may justly , with the divells , be shut up under everlasting chaines of darknesse , reserved unto the iudgement of the last day . yet had not fallen upon the church , without a dragon : not the red dragon of tyrants persecution : but the dragon nahash which in the hebrew , signifies a serpent , and witchcraft both . and so the time's iniquity gives just occasion to me , of handling these words , for rebellion is , as the sin of witch-craft . the nature of which words enforce me to the use of two arts : ( for i must like nehemia build up the walls of my following discourse , with a sword in one hand , and a trewell in the other , ) . logicke . physickes or naturall philosophie . the logicke of my text , stands in the word [ for : ] which being a causall particle , sheweth that my text is , in the nature of an argument . and as an introduction to it ; give me leave to reveiw the precedent story , and the context . saul , israels king , and gods vice-gerent , being yet scarce warme in his throne , had twice greivously transgressed the law of his god . . by prophanation of the holy orders of preist-hood , and thrusting himselfe into that sacred office , so far , as to sacrifice unto god , and offer a burnt offering . . sam. . . which , though as himselfe pleades , was performed with reluctancy , yet introduced a mortality to his crowne : whereby , he together with vzzah , stands as examples , ( especially to the comfort of us in this age : ) that their power , nor life , ( let them looke to it as well as they can , ) is not immortall , who thrust themselves unsent , unwelcome , ( i. ) unordained into holy orders . . by neglect of his regall office , and bearing that sword in vaine : which god had put into his hand , for the punishment of evill doers . and particularly at this time , by sparing the amalekites : whose destruction was his expresse commission in this chapter ; and the failer of it , the matter of which he standes here indited : unto which inditement , he pleades not guilty , in poynt of fact : verse , . blessed be thou of the lord : i have performed the commandment of the lord . but as evidence against him , sufficient to carry a verdict , comes in ; the bleating of the sheep , and the lowing of the oxen , into samuels eares . verse , . being therefore cast , in matter of fact , and convict that way : he traverses the enditement , in poynt of law , in the , , and . verses . the summe of his plea is : that although literally , he had not performed the words : yet , vertually he had done the matter , and gone the way of gods commandment : for all the reserve , was for religion , and religious purposes : to sacrifice unto god . ( for as for his pretence , that it was the sense of the kingdome : and as it were the petitions of the people , of the severall counties , or tribes in israel , it was but a meere pretence , and not worth the taking notice of by samuel , or by me at present . ) unto this the prophet ( who in the cause was as gods atturney generall ) replies in two convincing arguments . the one ostensivum . verse , . hath the lord as great delight in burnt-offerings , and sacrifices , as in obeying the voyce of the lord ? behold to obey , is better then sacrifice : and to hearken , then the fat of rams . the other , ducens ad impossibile , in the words of my text , whose syllogisticall sense runs thus , impossible it is , that religious intentions , or sacrifice should please god , comming by that , which is as the sinne of witch-craft . but rebellion is , as the sinn of witch-craft . therefore no sacrificing , nor intentions of religion , can excuse rebellion or make it pleasing to god . thus pleads samuel : and thus stands my text , in the order of the context . for rebellion , &c. the argument being thus made evident , by the coherence and scope of the place , i must crave further leave , to consider logically . first , what this argument concludes : and secondly , how it concludes . for the first , it concludes two things ; one by way of definition . namely , that disobedience , when it is countenanced by religion , amounts to rebellion . for to say , that all disobedience , even to god , is rebellion against god , is neither universally true , nor logically inferred from this text . not every way true , for david , then whom no man is more free , in confession of his sin : yet denies , that at any time , he was a rebell . psal. . . and the schoolemen tell us out of s. aug. and boëtius , that , caetera peccata fugiunt a deo : sola superbia deo resistit . all other sins flie from god : onely pride makes head against , and resists god . s. bernard makes rebellion , decimum superbiae gradum , the tenth degree of pride . indeed i confesse , that every sin , is a rebell in habitu : but not in h●mine . in the habite , rom. . . not in the man , ibid : v. . if he be , but humble . nor logically deduced from this text : for saul , till he come to defend his omission by religion , is not called a rebell . his omission was a defection from god , but his defence of it by sacrifice , made it galeatum peccatum , a sin in armes , and a rebellion . and so the word [ patzar ] following , englished stubbornesse , makes manifest . for it signifies , to constraine , offer violence to , and is the same in sense , with s. peters {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} : to wrest gods word , . pet. . . secondly , it inferres and concludes , by way of an elenchus , that no pretences of sacrifices , or religion , can reconcile god to rebellion . which is simpliciter malum : being , as the sin of witchcraft . for as it is most absurd , for a man to say , or think , i will turne witch , or consult witches , that i may serve god better , and advance the purity of his worship : so is it equally sottish , i will rebell ( i. ) rise up in armes against my ruler : that i may serve god the more freely , or the better . for rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft . and thus , have i shewne the first generall propounded , in this argument , namely , what it concludes : i proceed to the second : to wit how it concludes in this for . for rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft . the manner , how this argument concludes , is considerable two wayes ; ad rem , and ad hominem . first to the matter in hand , and secondly to the man . for the matter , it concludes necessarily : and therefore the affirmative premises must be universall : for as necessarium is , at least , or in the lowest degree , de omni , so no necessary conclusion , can be inferred out of particular premises , for syllogizari non est ex particulari . hence i inferre , against all the rebells in the world , that this word , rebellion , is terminus communis , a common name : and intends not any particular , or proper thing . it is not this particular businesse , onely of saul , who was a king to israel , but a subject in relation to god ; nor sins as they are immediatly , onely against god himselfe . but all rebellion whatsoever , whether immediately against god , or mediately , the rebellion also of a subject or subjects against the king , children against their parents , servants against their masters , &c. of all which this predication is true . that rebellion is , as the sinne of witchcraft . if any object , that this proposition is not formally universall : nor so proposed , i answer . that it is an easie rule , and obvious to every puiny in sophistry : that an indefinite proposition in a necessary matter , or truth , is equivalent to an universall : and such is this . and therefore , according to s. paul , written {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} , for our learning ; whatsoever they think of it , who at this time ( i may say , ) are better fed then taught . for the man : which is saul , it is observable , out of . sam. . . that saul had shewed himselfe a very severe man , against wizards , and witchcrafts : and that , long before samuels death ; and therefore probably before this time . now the prophet argues against him ( after saint pauls manner , rom. . , . thou that abhorrest idolls , committest thou sacriledge ? ) from a thing which himselfe abominates . in this manner . o saul what hast thou enterprized ? is all thy zeale , against witchcraft , come to this ? hast thou thought them intolerable , fit to be taken away , root and branch ; to be extirpated out of the land ? and doest thou , now doe that , which is as bad ? doest thou commit rebellion : which is as the sin of witchcraft ? the time will come : that thou wilt goe after witches too ▪ namely when i am dead . thus stands the argument against the man . let my text be supplied , but with the following words : and the argument will hold , against the rebells , of this generation , [ and stubbornesse is as iniquity and idolatry ] in the same manner . o all you that are so zealous against popery and idolatry ; that you are for head and taile , branch and rush in one day , whether are you going ● what doe you undertake ? is this your way , to suppresse idolatry , and popery ? namely to doe that , which is as both : the time will come , when you will runne , to that which you now most abhorre : nay , you are gone in the way already , by your rebellion . but i am to represent it to you , in the glasse of witchcraft , and not of idolatry , at this time . which brings me from the log . to the philosophy : leaving out the word , for , rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft . which absolute proposition , i intend not to handle materialiter : that is , not the subject , nor praedicate distinctly , i will not reade a state-lecture of rebellion , in the politickes ; nor a daemonologicall-lecture , concerning witchcraft . but the formale that couples both these together ; i meane to make the subject , of the remainder of this discourse ; and that 's , the sicut of my text . rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft . which sicut , cornelius a lapide will have , to be a sicut similitudinis , non paritatis ; qualitatis , non quantitatis , aut aequalitatis : of likenesse , not parity ; of quality not of quantity , or equality . but he is a iesuite , and i dare not trust his judgement , in a case of rebellion . peter martyr , therefore interprets this sicut : out of two of the rabbines : rabbi shelomo , and rabbi david kimchi : the one sayes , it is a sicut culpae of sin : the other a sicut poenae of punishment . they both together , speak a full truth : though each of them apart , but the one halfe of it . and so as the one helpes us with the same quality : which the iesuite grants ; so the other furnishes us , with the quantity or parity , which he was pleased to deny . i shall illustrate both of them , in the order , they are proposed in : and then adde , two other sicut's of mine owne : a sicut medicinae , of remedy and cure : and a sicut of application wherewith i would conclude . for the sicut culpae , i find in generall . first of all , that rebellion is a sinne , for the quality , much as , or like to witchcraft . for the schoolemen , concerning witchcraft say : maleficium due in se continet peccata ; societatem daemonis , & nocumentum hominis . that it containes two sins : first , society with the divell , and second , mischieving of men . and in both these , rebellions sicut holds to it . for first , even that hath society with the devill , ioh : . . and the first practitioners of rebellion , our first parents ; did it not , nay i dare say , had not done it without his society , gen. . and so , as witchcraft , so rebellion hath societatem daemonis . secondly the sicut holds between them , in the mischieving of men . for as estius learnedly , and judiciously proves ; there can be no beneficium in witchcraft , to any : but it alwaies hurts men , either outwardly in their temporalls , or inwardly in their soules : so rebellion is ever hurtfull , and mischievous ( to the soules of rebells how , we shall see anon ) to the outward estate , and visible prosperity of all men , is so evident , that i submit it to your judgements , that heare me this day : and to the experience of the kingdom : except to such as are like marius , that did frui diis irat is : thrive best , when god is most angry : those i would not have of the iury . but because these sinnes are of a scarlet and crimson tincture : rebellion . for it 's compared with witchcraft : witchcraft . for 't is made the rule of the comparison , and nemo repente fit turpissimus . i will more particularly examine their principia , media , effectus , exitus , and signa . and shall find a sicut in both : through all these . first , there is in both , a sicut principiorum , or beginnings . and these are , either of the sinne , or of the sinner . of the sinne , plinie in the beginning of his th booke , observes : that of so grosse , and base an art as witchcraft is : it is a wonderfull thing to see , that it hath prevail'd in all ages , and all nations : to have some to be in love with it . and endeavouring a reason for it : saith , it is ars omnium fraudulentissima , the cheatingst art , in the world . and it doth pretend , to three the most commanding arts of humane sense : for first , natam è medicina , specie salutari irrepsisse , quis non videt ? it seemes the daughter of physick , and pretends to doe cures . secondly , addidisse vires religionis ; it borroweth strength from religion ; and exacts faith , from all that come neare it . thirdly , miscuisse artes mathematicas ; it mingles the mathematicks : by casting of figures , and drawing of schemes . iust so ; a man would wonder , how so declamed a sinne , as rebellion is , could have so many engaged in it ? especially with us , who have not so learned christ . and the reason is , as in absolom's , so in our time , hath it been brought in , by a cheat . for first , as witchcraft : so rebellion hath pretended to physick : and to work wonderfull state-cures : and salus populi , hath been mightily cried up . whereas , god knowes , nullam sperare salutem , had been farre more wholsome for the common-wealth : for it could not then have fared so ill . secondly : even rebellion too , addidit vires religionis , pretends a religion , for although ajoynt declaration of both houses of feb. . . tell all the world : that the defence of the kingdom , from forraigne invasion , the protection of the present parliament , from violence , and the bringing of delinquents to iustice , are the onely causes for which their present forces were raised : yet within halfe a yeare after : they set forth a sacred vow and covenant , wherein they enjoyne every man to sweare , that he does believe , the same forces , were also raised for the just defence of the true protestant religion : not only but also . thirdly ; they mingle the mathematiques : not only of observations : but uncouth figures , cast for the conjuring of all authority into their own hands : and all mens states into their disposing . and thus holds the sicut in the beginning of both sinnes . now to the sinners , or men . iacobus sprengerus in his malle : mallef . or hammer of witches : saies , they are miserae personae , quas tenet impatientia : miserable persons , possessed by impatience . quibus taedio damni tristibus , vel odio ex injuria illata accensis , & modum vindicandi quarentibus ; vel paupertate nimiâ laborantibus , &c. se daemon insinuas ; to whom when they are sad for losses : mad for received injuries , and desirous of revenge : or sick of their poverty , and beggerly conditions : the divell in pleasing shape insinuates himselfe , aggravates the causes of their sufferings , increases their passion , and hatred , promiseth them help ; neither discovering himselfe , nor doing any thing for them ; but soothing them , untill he have brought them within the compasse of his covenant . but here the sicut is so evident in our rebellion that i will not light the sunne , with a rush candle : but surely sprengerus was a malignant , and ill affected : though the word of god , stand by him , and say , rebellion is as the sinne of witchcraft . i have done with the principia ; i come to the media : and we shall find a sicut of instruments , likewise , which in witchrafts , according to sprengerus and ioh. niderus , are . profanations of the lords dayes ; of the day of christs passion , or good-friday . . of churches & consecrated places . . shooting of guns or arrowes , at the image of christ . . abusing and distorting of mangled parcells of holy writ . . an unbaptized child ; and these , among others , are main instruments , used by witches , to doe mischiefe with . for of these , the third saith sprengerus , hath this efficacy : that , as often as a witch by any weapon , doth pierce or violate the image of our saviour ; so many men , hath she power to bewitch to death . and now , if we consider how the rebells have made profane advantages of gods own day , what sacriledge upon churches and consecrated places , how often wrested gods word , how made much of anabaptists ; lastly , how violated the images of christ , which though i abhorre , the thought of worshipping them , yet i doubt not , have by their impious hands , been so violenced : that the effects of the shedding of so much blood , shew , that the sicut holds true , in the media also . rebellion is as the sinne of witchcraft . the third sicut in the sinnes , is that of effects : for as in witchcraft , they that suffer by it , first , suffer not according to the ordinary course of nature , but are strangely taken : so that physitians can give no regular account of the causes , symptoms , and prognosticks , of their griefes : so in rebellion , they that rue it : are not dealt with , according to any regular , legall , and judiciary processe : but the lawyers and iudges , ( who are politicall physitians ) know no reasons why , nor how , men are punished ; nor are able to say , what issue , these things will come to . secondly , they that suffer by witches : have commonly , first losses without doores : they loose a cow , or a horse , or a hog : and of these , first one , then more , till they loose all : like iob. cap. . then their houses and lands . lastly , their bodies , and if god restraine not : their lives , and soules also . thus they dwindle and pine away . so where rebellion prevailes , are men : honest men by these degrees ruined . first , their horses seised on , their cattle distrained , their goods plundered , or excised , their houses and lands sequestred , their bodies for security sake ( forsooth ) imprisoned , their lives murthered , and their precious soules and consciences made either a prey or a snare . thus the kingdome , where both these are , is by a pining way , ruin'd , and as it is in the prophet nahum , nations and families are sold by the witch craft of rebellion : and thus also rebellion is as the sinne of witch-craft . the fourth sicut , in the sinnes , is of event : for as in witch-craft , so in rebellion : both have their time , wherein they do many seeming wonders : from which they receive , seeming benefits , especially in the way of revenge , and plaguing of such , as ( perhaps causelessely ) they hate : having great power both by sea , and land . yet at last , the divell will leave acting , the servants part any longer : and that when once , they are brought under the power of justice . vnto which , i wish the rebells all may be brought as iacobus sprengerus saies , witches ought to be with their backs towards the iudge : god cause them to turne their backs in the day of battaile . for rebellion is as the sinne of witch-craft . the fift and last of sicut's , in the way of sinne , is that of signes : which according to my forementioned authors are three . first , obduratenesse , for witches never shed teares , in the midst of their owne , or others torments . so are the rebells of our time hard hearted for who but witches or tygers could see their deare native country , fainting like the saviour of it ; under such a bloudy sweat as now it lies in : finde the stock decaying , of the grounds of all the counties of the kingdome : almost all kinde of beastes like baalams asse reprooving the madnesse of the english : bleating , and lowing , and groaning , while they are harrassed too and fro , by the rugged souldiers : as if they cryed to god for better maisters , then the english or scots ; when we like egypt , have throughout the land , lost the first-borne of every house almost , and are now in expectation of the red sea of bloud , to ore'whelme all : and yet abominate all thoughts of peace : will not endure to hear of it . secondly , it is a signe of witches , when if any matters be handled by a iusticiary , in a distant roome from them and against them : yet they come to know it , and to be acquainted with it . which must ( saith tholosanus ) be daemonis ope . so the rebells of our land , ( having no elisha i am sure among them , ) come yet to know what is here done , here in the kings councells . i am unwilling to suspect that any , whose face and profession sheweth he came hither to serve the king , would betray him : yet so it is , there is some divell in it ; they know all , and we are bewitched . the third signe , appeared even to me , sufficiently ridiculous and untrue : yet my author is very confident , having it from iudges that certainly affirme , they had seen it tryed , namely , that take a witch , and tye her hands and leggs together , & cast her into the water , yet will she never be drowned . and for our rebells , if the lawes of our land were but suffer'd to speak , they would assure us , that they were never borne to such a fortune — which brings me from the sicut culpae : of sinne ; to the sicut poenae , of punishment . and therein also we shall see , that rebellion is as the sin of witch-craft . the punishment of witch-craft is apparent in lawes , or in examples : and the sicut holds good in each . for first , the law of god , the law of nations , and the law of the land make both , capitall crimes . thou shalt not suffer a witch to live , exod. . . is paralled , with an whosoever he be that doth rebell against thy commandment — shall be put to death , iosh. . . thus the secular law , which i call , that which reaches the life of the offendours . the civill law punishes all those that entertaine witches into their houses , to make use of them in any sort : so doth our law any that comply with rebels , with extream punishment ; which are the words of leo's . novell . constitution . in the end of it . the canons of the councells , censures a witch , that hath taken away the life of any , with the greatest sentence of excomunication ; ( sc. ) to death ; those that make use of witches , with five yeares excomunication . the first of these you have in the sixt canon , of the elibertine councel , anno. . the other in the twenty third canon , of the ancyrane councell , held anno . and how just these were for rebells no man but sees . in short . by the canon law , all witches are infamous , and their testimony invalid against any ; but such as are of their owne sinne . the equity whereof is grounded upon the malice , which occasioned the sinne . and for my part , i beleive this law to be , ( in equity ) in force against our rebells : for their malice will heap up whole centuries of accusations against such , as are not of their way . but with all wisemen they should be infamous , and their testimonies , not trusted : marry if they accuse one another , i shall be apt to beleive them . and thus much for the lawes concerning both . for examples , instead of many that might be produc'de i will onely instance in two ; ahaziah , consulting with baalzebub the god of eckron , concerning his sicknesse , had this punishment : never to rise off his bed , but to dye of that , disease , that yeare , and he did so , . king. . , . read but ier. . . and you shall finde the like punishment betide hananiah for rebellion : the text saith to him , thus saith the lord ; behold i will cast thee from off the face of the earth : this year thou shalt dye , because thou hast taught rebellion , against the lord . and of him in the next verse . so hananiah the prophet died the same yeare , in the seventh moneth . which parallel , i cannot chuse but close with the words of cushi , the enemies of my lord the king , and all that rise up against him , to doe him hurt , be as these men were ; that another yeare may never see them : if it must see them , rebells . the other parallel , is in saul : that consulted the witch of endor ; and shemaiah the nehelamite , that taught the people to rebell . both unprosperous men ; both punished by god alike , both they and their posterity ; the one for medling with witch-craft , the other with rebellion : as you may see if you consult and compare at your leisure the . chron. . verses , , . with ier. . . nay rebells owne experience , will make them easily confesse , that witches doe not in the end , enjoy good successe : although they promise it to themselves . but a witch will cry quittance with them : and say , had zimri peace that slew his maister ? i'ts the speech of iezabel ▪ and so there 's a sicut in experiences . thus farre have i illustrated the rabbines comment : shewing how both for the quality of the sinne , and the quantity of the punishment , rebellion is as the sinne of witch-craft . i now adde , in the third place ; a sicvt medicinae , of remedy and cure . wherein to let passe a thousand charms against witch-craft , rekon'd up by gregory tholosanus , in his syntagma . i shall mention onely those , which himselfe approves of , and will stand with religion ; and they are these . the first is , fidem integram servare , and according to the externall , and internall acts of it : verbo & mente christi passionem ruminare . that is to preserve our faith entire and to ruminate both by confession , and meditation , on the passion of christ : which faith as it must be soveraigne against witch-craft ; ( for neither could iannes and iambres the magicians , resist or stand against moses , nor simon magus against s. peter , nor elymas the sorcerer , against s. paul : ) so must it be good against rebellion likewise : for faith is a grace , that will conquer the world , saith s. iohn ; subdue kingdomes , saith s. paul , and bring into subjection , every thing that exalteth it selfe : which is the true and unseparable property of rebellion . so that to the cure of rebellion , i may say , as our saviour saith , in the case of other diseases . if we beleive it is very possible : for the nature of the sin lies in the breach of faith , and the repaire , in the redintegration of it . to which the thought and confession of christ , is most necessary . the second is ; nos orationibus munire : for as the simple heathen , thought the physick that would ease the inchanted moone , was hideous noyses , and strong shouts . and at this day , in some parts of italy and dalmatia the people ring all their bells : shoot off all their guns : and lift up all their voyces : when but a black thunder storme , or cloud comes over their heads , to break it . so , to remove from us , the enchantments of this rebellion : we must lift up our voyces , or as ieremiah , our heart with our hands unto god in the heavens . for as in iobs case , who suffered so much , by the divells power : eliphaz saith , sure thou restrainest prayer before god . so more truly in ours , lies the charge heavy : sure we restraine prayer from before god , else these men could not so long subsist . the third is , servare mandata dei , seu puras , & pias , & castas vitas agere . to keep gods commandements ; or to lead holy , godly , and chast lives ; the want whereof , as it exposeth men , to the power of the divell ; and consequently of his instruments , witches , and the like : so doth this want in us foment and protract the rebellion , now on foot . whereas , if we were , in the rest of our conversation , as we are in our loyalty ; the rebells would be ashamed , to speak evill of us : much more ashamed , and afraid , they would be , to doe us hurt : and to think they did god service , when they kill us . the poets tell us what strange vertue , there is in verses , to subdue the force of witchcraft . virgil . carminibus , coelo possis deducere lunam : carminibus , circes socios mutavit vlyssis . frigidus in pratis , cantando , rumpitur anguis . verses can doe miracles : and particularly , kill serpents , and vipers , if they stop not their eares . to which alludes that place of david . where the scripture speakes of the deafe adder : and the charmer . now for the vipers of our kingdome : we may have charmes against them : even the poem of an holy life . s. paul calls true , godly christians : by the very word , {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} , for we are his poeme , created in christ iesus , to good workes . for as in a poem , or an epigram : so in a good mans life there is an exact {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} measure of feet , and syllables , for quantity , quality , and harmony : together with an high , and ravishing sense : wherewith god , and man are delighted . and thus , if we would ( as it were ) with poeticall exactnesse , and care : compose our lives , as men doe verses , we should , quickly charme our enemies , or god would soon subdue them : according to his promise , psal. . . the fourth remedy against witchcraft , is ritus & caeremonias ecclesiae colere . that is to esteeme and observe the rites and ceremonies of the church . for as it is observed by tholosanus out of irenaeus , and epiphanius : that most of your primitive schismatiques , and heresiarchs , were malefici wizards , or witches . so must i observe : that this rebellion , how often soever , attempted heretofore by papists ; how long soever , plotted by the present agents : could never thrive ; did never break forth : while the church stood . but the sinewes , and the pillars , of the government thereof , being cut , and turned out of doores . then rebellion extended it selfe , like the divell with a woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea . to confirme us , in that maxime , imperare nescit qui parere non didicit . the fifth is , publicam justitiam bene exsequi , a faithfull execution , of publique iustice . not onely that , which is to be between man and man . wherein s. augustine hath handsomely , pack'd up our duty , in foure words . fac quod vis pati : doe , what thou'lt be willing to suffer . but putting the lawes of the land in execution ; which seizing upon any witches once , is a sole sufficient charme , to conjure away the devill from them . so , i cannot but wonder , since a legall proceeding , against rebellion , hath in one county of this kingdom , lay'd the witchcraft of it , there ever since ; we in other parts , and places , having as much need as they : doe yet see iustice if not fallen in the streets ? yet walking therein , like a dutchman with its hands in it's pockets . resigning that , to be done by the sword of warre : which should belong to the halter . which brings me to the sixth , and last remedy , of both . and that is . verberentur trunco vitis , vel fune palmitum colloinjecto . that is . beat them with a cudgell of a vinestock , or strangle them with a witth of vine-branches . for ( saith my author ) witches can have charms , against the strokes of a sword or halberd , or the shots of muskets , or bowes . but there is no charme , against weapons made of vines . so rebells , there is no subduing , by humane forces : but the vine christ iesus . him and his wayes , must we observe , and then , we shall prosper against them , which bids you , but reflect to the forenamed five remedies , and so we shall cure , rebellion — as the sin of witchcraft . which brings me , to my last sicut of application : wherewith i will conclude . the first is of reprehension . for as , although the law of god prescribe against witches : the sacred story makes faith concerning them : though the lawes of the land , provide against witches , and our frequent experiences of severall hurts done by them assure us of them . notwithstanding there are some , who stick not , to maintaine ; that , there are no witches in the world . so , are there such monsters in opinion : that although gods word tell us : we must submit to the king , as to the supreame : and not resist the higher power ; and though it threaten damnation to rebells ; though the law of the land , tell us ; and the oath by statute , confirme us : that the king is supreme ; that it's treason to rise up in armes against him ; yet will hold , the king may be resisted ; though to the danger of his life ; his lands ; crowne lands seized on , to maintaine a warre against him , &c. and yet , after all this , they that doe such things , to be no rebells : nor the acts , acts of rebellion . let these men know , that even the rebells , would have these very things , themselves goe on with , to be treasons and rebellion , with the highest aggravations , should they have been done by a parliament of papists . and although , it were malignancy in us , to consider of the causes ; and not of the persons . yet let 'em be assur'd , these things , will one day be iudged , by one , that is no {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} , no accepter of persons that will iudge them by their workes ; not their workes by them : and where then will be their priviledge of parliament ? or brotherly assistance of the scots ? secondly , of exhortation , wherein i would be earnest : for whereas the scripture , all lawes , divine , secular , and canon forbid us , for any cause , or pretence whatsoever , to have to do with witch-craft : not for the saving of a kingdom : which was saul's case ; nor for the saving of ones life : which is ahaziah's case , much lesse for ones health's recovery : much lesse for our liberty ; ( which witches at sea somewhere seem to be masters of ) much lesse yet for our lands or goods : least of all for our religion must we go for the living , to the dead . so say i , let us take heed of rebellion , which is , as the sinne of witch-craft , and so conjoyned , gal. . . and settle our selves never to yeild to , nor comply with rebells in their rebellion . for it is unlawfull to do it , though to save our lives , or our health , or our liberty , or our goods and fortune , most of all unlawfull to do it for our religion . for ( what religion the rebels are of , i think themselves know not , nor are yet agreed : but ) we by our religion are taught to shew all meeknes to all men , to hurt no man but to do as we would be done by . and to resist no higher power , but to suffer patiently though we be beaten for well doing . neither hath our religion any quirk to alter the case : no equivocation to vary the sense , no exception , of advantages to it selfe , for it's own defence . banish for this purpose , all cowardly thoughts of complying and yeilding against so many lawes , so great reason , and thine owne conscience : and know that as witches have least power upon them , that first feare them not ▪ ly . nor give them , nor lend them any thing . so rebells have no power against the strong and resolute to hurt them . and therefore god where he doomes a rebell to death , bids us , be strong and of a good courage , iosh. . . and the prophet isaiah after he had girded the associators with an assurance they should be broken in peices , isa. . . in , and . verses instructs us , not to walke in the way of the association : nor , to say , a confederacy to whom they say a confederaey ; neither to fear their feare , nor to be afraid &c. and he tells us the end of the associators , v. . they shall be hardly bestead , and hungry ; and it shall come to passe , that they shall fret themselves , and curse their king and their god , and looke upwards ; and their end shall be , to be driven into darknesse . let not our feares , upon any evill tidings , contribute to their strength . for they like witches doe agere ex concessis . and had not men , by their diffidence of the kings successe ; the king by being good himselfe and well-meaning , too much contributed , by way of trust , and almost all others through feare , they never had risen to these advantages , of hurting the kingdome , the king , and his loyall subjects ; their owne fame , to forraigne nations , and posterity : and most of all , god's , and religion's honour , and their owne soules , against the day of christ iesus . the third , is of information , to shew us . that as it was a manifest signe , that god was departed from saul when he made use of , and fled to the witch-craft , of the witch of endor , . sam. . . so is it an assurance to me , and to all the world : what ever familiarity they pretend to god's spirit and acquaintance with christ iesus , yet as sure as by sampsons short haire we may conclude god is departed from them : by their betaking themselves to this base shift , for religion , unworthy to be named the same day , with it — rebellion . it may be were i amongst them , some zedekiah would whirrit me on the eare with a which way went the spirit of the lord from us ? but i answer as elijah to the messengers of ahaziah , is it not because there is not a god in england , that you betake your selves to these murthers , these thefts , these sacriledges ? &c. sure you beleive your selves like saul , god is gone from you : or at least that he will not be with you , to punish these things : for i do not beleive you , so blasphemous , as to impute these sinnes to god also . and so leo in his . const. nov. censures them that make use of witch-craft as apostataes . apostataes from god are they , that are rebells against his anoynted : and therefore ' adrian his counsell , will be seasonable . in ruentem parietem ne inclina , doe not leane to a falling wall : come out of them my people that ye be not pertakers &c. for they are falling , god is departed from them . and woe unto them when i depart from them , hos. . . saith god . i seeke not the fall of any man , his person or state , no not among them that have ruined mine , but their sinne he that endeavours to under prop , i can wish no worse to ; then the fruit of his , and their doings . the last is of direction ; that as for the removall of witchcraft , no indirect course may be taken . for estius tells us , it is unlawfull to break a magick spell , with intention , by breaking it , to disenchant what is bewitch'd thereby ; because even therein , we have society with the divell : who is excommunicated to all mankind , saith gerson : gods enemy , saith estius . and therefore no way to be dealt with , but by resisting till we conquer him . as s. hieron : * in the life of hillarion . so we must use no indirect meane , to stave off this rebellion , as it were by charmes , ( other then such as i before mentioned ) but goe on to resist it ; till we conquer it : as the sin , and the divell , that now bewitches , and torments , the whole land . to the subduing whereof , as gods helpe must be implored , and gods word must be followed . so to the use of all good meanes , ( without complying with the sinne ) will i conclude , as the bible doth : with , even so , come lord iesus , come quickly . amen . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a e- . sam. . initio . , king. . . psal. . . rom. . . notes for div a e- when the moone is eclipsed , senecalib . . c. . iuven. satyr . ovid . met. lib. . statius in theb. liv. lib. . tacit. annal. . plin. lib. . c. . ovid . . met. plini . ubi supra● plut. in aemilio . ambros. ser. de defect lunae . iob. . . this i heard from a minister of the dutch church in london ▪ his name is m. calendrine . we should have been all papists by this time was a frequent word in essex and london , when i was there . . king. . . which was pretended for the necessity , of putting the kingdome into a posture of war , and defence . annal. ▪ c. . rev. . . {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} pagnine . rom. ● . ● . tho : aq. sec . se●undae . q. . art . . in concl . bernard . pagninus . {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} vid. cracanthorp . log . isa. . . mal. . . . sam. . . isa , . . corn . a lap. in locum . p. m. in locum . estius in sent. lib dist. . sect. . estius ubi suprà . iuren . sat. . isai . ● . sicut principiorum pli. lib. . in princ . tret imperi●sissima● humani sensut artes ad se redigit . ibid. ephes. . . . sam. . . &c. virgil . fides publica . parkers or sombodys . a new broad-scale . a state-committee , &c. part. . q. . ● . . sicut mediorum . malleus malef . formicar . the instances to these would fill a volume . sicut effectus . is . . . prov. . . nahum , . . sicut . exitus . m●●● . m●lef . ● . . q. . psal. . . sicut . signorum . i. christ luke ● . ● . . pet. . . exod. . . exod. . ▪ greg. thol de repub. . king. . . it was said concerning iudas the traitour , that he was a divell , iohn , . culpae ▪ poenae . . sam. . . . king. . . and . sicut . medicinae . . tim. . , . acts . . acts. . , . . iohn . . . heb. . . . cor. . . mark . . . lam. . . iob. . . ephes. . . . pet. . . ioh. . . psal. . . ephes. . . pulcherrimus dei hymnus , est homoqui in justitiá aedificatur . clem. alex. tholos . syntag. l. . c. . n. . iren. l. . c. . & . epipha : haeres . . & . rev. , . livi. lib. . de doct. christ . cornewall's order of sessions , . isa. . . . per. . rom. vers. . act. . ●n . . . ●ag . . . ●n nor●hey sell ●es . ● . ovid . ● . . notabile ●um wil ●e dam● of ● . . or ●oize it . ● . apolog. ● . . ● . , . ● . . possunt 〈…〉 non 〈…〉 . a●● . ●● . . isai. , . iudg. . , . . chron. . . . king. . . . rev. . . * 't is a story , and it 's this . the devill declared to hillar . ( who was praying for one bewitch'd ) that he was charmed and necessitated to doe what was done , but if he pleased to send to such a place , and remove such spells , all then would succeed without force . hillarion would not cast out the devill by beelzebub , but prayed on till he obtained it that way . and so should we . the dissenter's sayings, in requital for l'estrange's sayings published in their own words for the information of the people / by roger l'estrange. l'estrange, roger, sir, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing l estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) the dissenter's sayings, in requital for l'estrange's sayings published in their own words for the information of the people / by roger l'estrange. l'estrange, roger, sir, - . [ ], p. printed for henry brome ..., london : . reproduction of original in huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng dissenters, religious -- england. great britain -- politics and government -- - . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - andrew kuster sampled and proofread - andrew kuster text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the dissenter's sayings , in requital for l'estrange's sayings . published in their own words , for the information of the people . by roger l'estrange . london , printed for henry brome , at the gun , in st. paul's-church-iard , . to the reader . among the curiosities of this latter age , the invention of transmitting unto after-times the apothegms , and sayings of men famous in their generations , with a [ he being dead yet speaketh ] for the motto ; is , in my opinion , not the least considerable . this is the sweet oyntment that has perfum'd the memory of the late kings judges , the sufferers of the kirk militant , and the whole band of covenanted martyrs , that have finished their testimony , on the wrong side of the pale . what a comfort is it for a man , in the contemplation of his future state , to say with the reverend mr. baxter , ( saints everlasting rest , pag. . ) then shall ye be with pym , and white , &c. your names shall be chanted with their names , your sayings recorded with their sayings , &c. this din may do well enough when a man's bones are laid , and his head past aking : but to see my self embalm'd before my time , and serenaded , with mr. roger l' estrange's sayings , with brief notes to prevent mis-apprehensions , &c. it looks methinks like the inviting a man to his own funeral : and in few words , i was not so very hasty , but i could have waited , till the complement might have come on in due season . this is precisely the seven and thirty'th civility of this kind , that i have received , within less than two months , from the true protestant dissenters : which truly i look upon but as so many empty casks thrown out to divert me from sinking the rotten barque they are engag'd in . these learned pieces , i know very well , are compos'd , and publish'd at the charge , and for the service of our ignatian society : so that i cannot pitch upon a more suitable way of acknowledgment , than to oppose sayings to sayings ; the dissenters sayings to l'estrange's sayings , fairly and impartially reported ; and in such manner digested , and dispos'd , that the reader shall find every article of the subject in question , unanswerably refuted by their own lips and pens : conscience fighting against conscience , text against text , practice against pretense ; and the whole meddling party , from one end of the controversy to the other , laying violent hands upon themselves . so that there shall need no other plea for the government , than the very arguments of those that contend so eagerly against it ; every party still as it was uppermost , serving it self of the same scriptures , and weapons , against the opposition of the under-schismaticks , which the lawful magistrate does employ for his own support against the whole body of the schism . in this extract , or collection , the reader may phansy himself to be gotten into the phanaticks tyring-room ; where he sees all their dresses , and disguises ; their shifts of masques , and habits ; their change of scenes ; their artificial thunders , and false fires : nay , the very buggs , and devils , that they fright fools and children with , at a distance , to be no more , near hand , than paint , and canvass . you have here laid open to you , the mystery of the work ; to the very springs , and wheels , that make the motion play ; their deeds of darkness brought to light , their very souls expos'd ; their pleas and consciences still varying with their fortunes . or , in one word , you have here the dissenters picture to the life , of their own drawing . upon that fruitless conference at the savoy , where his majesty did all that was possible for him to do , to gratify the importunities of an ungrateful , and insatiable party , without laying the church , and the crown at their feet : ( and the treaty brake off ( in effect ) because the king would not part with the rest ) what did they do ; but , instead of submitting to some accommodable alterations in the service-book , ( as was propounded ) wholly abolish the liturgy of the church , and publish a directory of their own ; with miserable complaints , and appeals to the people , that they could not prevail , so much as to be heard . how much are they beholden to me then , for bringing them to the fairest hearing here that ever men had ; for they shall have their own choyce , ( the multitude ) for their judges , and they themselves shall be allow'd to be their own advocates . and , in truth , there will need no more ; when every man of them is both plaintiff , and defendent within himself , and his own right hand a witness against his left. post-script . just as i was hurrying away this sheet to the press , out comes the protestant mercury , ( if he had called it the protestant cheat , or cuckold , a body might have guess'd at the authors of it , by their names . ) on april . ( say they ) mr. l'estrange thought fit to take the sacrament , at his parish-church ; ( st. giles in the fields ) and was observed to whisper the minister some time before he did receive . but he would do well in his next pamphlet , to tell those that still suspect him ; how oft , and where , and when , he came to that holy table , in sixteen years time before the discovery of the popish plot ; and before he was publickly question'd for being a papist . it is true that i received the blessed sacrament , as above ; and whisper'd also to the minister ; ( the learned , and reverend dr. sharp ) and the very words i whispered were these . [ so let god deal with me , as i am clear , not only of popery , but of all the things that have been sworn against me , that look towards it . ] now , for the further satisfaction of knaves , and fools , ( for no other , that know me , and my circumstances , can pretend to suspect me ) let them ask mr. gatford , minister of st. dionis backchurch , & a worthy divine , if i have not several times received the holy sacraments from his hand , and in my parish-church too ; long , and late before the discovery of the popish plot. to say nothing of hundreds of other witnesses that i could produce in my justification , if the triple league of mercenary libellers were worthy of it . authorities cited in this work . bastwick , burton . jenkins , junius brutus . baxter , buchaman . case , mene tekel . knox , burroughs . marshall , poor mans's cup. strickland , jus populi . calamy , goodwyn . bond , brooks . manton , saltmarsh . love , del. herle , nonsuch charles . cartwright , fenner . caryl , faircloth . owen , gilby . goodman , cockaine . bridges , simpson . ward , vdal . crosse , newcomen . spurstoe , salwey . martin junior ▪ snape . holms , edwards . young , gillespy . evans , robinson . cosens , penry . king , kid. mitchel , guthery . crab , ( a felt-maker . ) hobson , ( a taylor . ) mellish , ( a cobler - ) debman , ( a cooper . ) heath , ( a coller-maker . ) potter , ( a smith . ) durance , ( a wash-ball-man . ) green , ( a felt-maker . ) spencer ( a coach-man . ) rice , ( a tinker . ) field , ( a bodies-maker . ) crew , ( a taylor , ) &c. dissenters sayings , &c. §. . of toleration . ( a ) a toleration is against the nature of reformation ; a reformation and a toleration are diametrically opposite . the apologists in petitioning for a toleration , have not only broken the covenant themselves , but they endeavour by all their wit and art to bring the parliament and kingdom into so great a guilt as the breach of this solemn covenant . edwards antapalogia , pag. . a toleration of men in their errours , this pretended liberty of conscience , is against the judgement of the greatest lights in the church , both ancient and modern , pag. . ( b ) doth it indeed belong to you only to look to the civil peace , and to let religion , and truth , and the worship of god stand or fall , to their own master ? fight god , fight devil ; fight christ , fight anti-christ ; catch that catch can ; you have nothing to do but to stand by , and look on . say so then ; speak , out , publish it in your declarations to the world , and let the people of england know , that it is the right and liberty to which the subjects of england are born ; that every man hold what he please , and publish and preach what he holds : that it is the birth-right ( as some would have it ) of the free-born-people of england , every man to worship god according to his own conscience ; and to be of what religion his own conscience shall dictate : do so , and see ( fathers and brethren ) how long your civil peace will secure you , when religion is destroy'd ; how long it will be ere your civil peace be turned into civil war ! for no doubt , if this be once granted them , but they may in good time come to know also , ( there be them that are instructing them even in these principles too ) that it is their birth-right to be freed from the power of parliaments , and from the power of kings ; and to take up arms against both , when they shall not vote and act according to their humours . liberty of conscience falsly so call'd may in good time emprove it self into liberty of estates , and liberty of houses , and liberty of wives ; and in a word , liberty of perdition , of souls , and bodies . i hold it a truer point in divinity , that errans conscientia liganda , then ligat ; but certainly the devil in the conscience may be , nay , must be bound . lightfoot serm. to com. aug. . . pag. . ye servants of christ , take heed of yielding to the pretenses of conscience ; the devil , not christ , has his throne there . hugh's serm. to the com. may . . pag. . ( c ) what ? when we have so much appear'd against popery and superstition , shall we now begin to think of indifferency and toleration ? certainly it is but a sorry exchange of a bad religion for none . horton serm. to the lords , dec. . . pa. . ( d ) would these men that so highly defend toleration , grant that toleration ( if they had power in their hands ) to others , which they desire for themselves ? i doubt it . the arrians did sometimes seem as earnest enemies to persecution , as these men ; yet when they had authority on their side , they raised a persecution against the orthodox , more terrible then the heathen emperours against the christians . cranfords serm. before the lord mayor , feb. . . pa. . ( e ) o let the ministers therefore oppose toleration ( as being that by which the devil would at once lay a foundation of his kingdom to all generations ) witnesse against it in all places ; possesse the magistrate of the evil of it ; yea , and the people too ; shewing them how , if a toleration were granted , they should never have peace in their families more ; or ever after , have command of wives , children , servants , &c. let 's therefore fill all presses , cause all pulpits to ring , and so possess parliament , city , and the whole kingdom against the sects , and of the evil of schism and toleration ; that we may no more hear of a toleration , nor of separated churches , being hateful names in the church of god. amen , amen , ibid. edwards gangraena , part. . pag. . ( f ) we are bold to hint unto you these ensuing reasons against the toleration of independency in this church . first , no such toleration hath hitherto been established ( so far as we know ) in any christian state , by the civil magistrate . secondly , because some of them have solemnly profess'd , that they cannot suffer presbytery : and answerable hereunto is their practice in those places where independency prevails . ( g ) thirdly , to grant to them , and not to other sectaries , who are free-born as well as they , and have done as good service as they to the publique ( as they use to pleade ) will be counted injustice , and great partiality : but to grant it unto all , will scarce be cleared from great impiety . ( h ) fourthly , independency is a schism , &c. now we judge , that no schism is to be tolerated in the church . cor. . . cor. . . rom. . . with cor. . . gal. . . presbyt . minist . letter from sion college , to the assembly of divines , dec. . . ( i ) many mischiefs will inevitably follow upon this toleration , and that both to church and common-wealth . first , to the church : as . causlesse and unjust revolts from our ministry , and congregations . . our peoples mindes will be troubled , and in danger to be subverted , as acts . . . bitter heart-burning among brethren will be fomented and perpetuated to posterity . . the godly , painful , orthodox ministers will be discouraged , and despised . . the life and power of godliness will be eaten out by frivolous disputes , and vain janglings . . the whole course of religion in private families will be interrupted and undermined . . reciprocal duties between persons of nearest and dearest relation will be extremely violated . . all other sects and heresies in the kingdom will be encourag'd to endeavour the like toleration , and shelter themselves under the wings of independency . . and the whole church of england , in short time , will be swallow'd up with destruction and confusion . ( k ) secondly , to the common-wealth ; for it is much to be doubted lest the power of the magistrate should not only be weaken'd , but even utterly overthrown , considering the principles and practises of independents , together with their compliance with other sectaries sufficiently known to be anti-magistratical , ibid. ( l ) it would lay the foundation of strife and division in the kingdom , to have two ways of church-government . epistolary discourse , p. . printed by order , . the cities humble remonstrance and petition of may . . presses to have some speedy course taken for the suppressing of all private and separated congregations . notes upon §. . a toleration ( a ) is a breach of covenant ; and against the judgment of the church . ( b ) destructive of government , and ( c ) religion . ( d ) they that ask it will never grant it . ( e ) the devils engine to confound states , families , and souls . separated churches are not to be endured , ( f ) without president ; and ( g ) never to be pleas'd : ( h ) intolerable ; ( i ) ruinous both to church and ( k ) common-wealth ; and ( l ) the very bone of contention . so that to desire a toleration , is to ask a thing which it were impious to allow , and which they have sworn to hinder , all they can : a thing that sets up the kingdom of hell ; without either president , or profit : to the certain ruine both of church and state : and this , by their own confession , and avow'd by their own authority . this , as to the thing it self : we shall now see it in the effects . §. . the fruits of a toleration . ( a ) this is that diabolical liberty ( says beza . confess . fid. eccl. l. . de sect . . ) which hath filled polonia , and transilvania with so many plagues of opinions . reader , that thou mayst discern the mischief of ecclesiastical anarchy , the monstrousness of the much-affected toleration , and be warned to be wise to sobriety , and fear , and suspect the pretended new lights ; i approve that this treatise , discovering the gangrene of so many strange opinions , should be imprinted . james cranfords license to the first part of edward's gangrena . ( b ) you have , most noble senators , done worthily against papists , prelates and scandalous ministers ; in casting down images , altars , crucifixes ; throwing out ceremonies , &c. but what have you done against other kindes of growing evils ; heresie , schism , disorder ; against seekers , anabaptists , antinomians , brownists , libertines , and other sects ? you have destroy'd baal and his priests ; but have you been zealous against golden calves , and the priests of the lowest of the people ? — you have put down the book of common-prayer , and there are many among us that put down the scriptures ; slighting , yea , blaspheming them . you have broken down images of the trinity ; christ ; virgin mary , apostles ; and we have those who overthrow the doctrine of the trinity : oppose the divinity of christ , speak evil of the virgin mary , slight the apostles . you have cast out the bishops , and their officers ; and we have many that cast down to the ground all ministers in all the reformed churches . you have cast out ceremonies in the sacraments , as the crosse , kneeling at the lords supper ; and we have many cast out the sacraments , baptisme and the lords supper . — the sects have been growing upon us ever since the first year of your sitting , and have every year encreased more and more ; things have been bad a great while , but this last year they are grown intolerable . and if schism , heresie &c. be let alone , and rise proportionably for one year longer , we shall need no cavaliers , nor enemies , from without , to destroy us . ib. epist. ded. to the lords and commons . ( c ) the independent churches , like africa , do breed and bring forth the monsters of anabaptism , antinomianism , familism , nay that huge monster , and old flying serpent of the mortality of the soul , antapologia . p. . ( d ) as john baptist wore a leathern girdle , so the doctrine that he preach'd was leathern doctrine . saltmarsh's serm. at the bath . ( e ) the saints are those that are now stiled anabaptists , familists antinonians , independents , sectaries , &c. — the first party that rose against you , namely the prophane ones of the land , are fallen under you ; and now there is another party , formalists , and carnal gospellers rising up against you , &c. del's serm. to the general and officers june . . ( f ) shall the presbyterians , orthodox , godly ministers be so cold , as to let anabaptism , brownism , antinomianism , libertinism , independency , come in upon us , and sleep in a whole skin ? gangren . par. . . ( g ) when cartwright , hildersham , travers , and many other gracious divines , by the blessing of god upon their great diligence , had undermined and well near overthrown the episcopal sees , and all the cathedral ceremonies ; incontinent the generation of the separatists did start up &c. [ bayly's disswasive pag. . ] ( h ) the famous city of london is become an amsterdam ; separation from our churches is countenanc'd ; toleration is cry'd up ; authority lyeth asleep , &c. calamy's serm. to the lord mayor , jan. . . pag. . divisions , whether they be ecclesiastical or political , in kingdoms , cityes or familyes are infallible causes of ruine to kingdoms , cities and families . serm. to the lords , dec. . . ( i ) diversity of religion , disjoynts and distracts the minds of men , and is the seminary of perpetual hatreds , jealousies , seditions , wars , if any thing in the world be ; and in a little time , either a schism in the state begets a schism in the church , or a schism in the church begets a schism in the state. &c. once for all , it is the preservation and reservation of religion which you have covenanted to endeavour ; and not a liberty of opinion , which will consist with neither . newcomen . serm. to parl. sept. . . ( k ) independents the most pharisaical , proud , envious , and malicious sect that ever sprung up : ( bastwicks independency not gods ordinance ) wild-geese , old-geese , sticklers against parliaments , and presbytery ; fighters against god ; violaters of all the laws of god and nature ; a company of rats among joyn'd-stools ; not worthy to give guts to a bear ; moon-calves , &c. id. postscr . pa. . , , . &c. ( l ) the errours and innovations under which we so much groan'd of latter years , were but tolerabiles ineptiae , tolerable trifles , childrens-play , compar'd with these damnable doctrines , doctrines of devils , as the apostle calls them : polygamy , arbitrary divorce , mortality of the soul , no ministry ; no churches ; no ordinances : no scripture . yea the very divinity of christ , and the holy ghost question'd by some ; denyed by others ; and the very foundation of all these layd in such a schism of boundless liberty of conscience , &c. serm. before the commons , aug. . . pag. . ( m ) the scriptures deny'd to be the word of god — only of human authority — insufficient , and uncertain . edward's gangrena . pag. . — god has a hand in , and is the authour of the sinfulness of his people . p. . — the soul dies with the body . — in the unity of god there is not a trinity of persons . — nor three distinct persons in the divine essence ; but only three offices . pag. . — that christs human nature is de●led with original sin. — that no man shall perish or go to hell , for any sin but unbelief only . pag. . — that men may be saved without christ. — that there is no original sin in us ; only adams first sin was original sin. pag. . — that the doctrine of repentance is a soul-destroying doctrine . pag. . &c. ( n ) a minister in hertfordshire bringing a place of scripture against an anabaptist which he could not answer ; said , it was the weakness of the apostle , and there he wanted the spirit , pag. . part. . — some of the sectaryes plead miracles , revelations , visions , as christs appearing to an anabaptist , and forbidding her to baptize her child , pag. . and their dressing up a cat , like a childe , ibid. ( o ) one cozens of rochester in kent , sayd , that jesus christ was a bastard ; and that if he were upon the earth again , he would be asham'd of many things he then did . ibid. pag. . oh lord ! thine honour is now at stake ; for now , o lord , antichrist hath drawn his sword against thy christ ; and if our enemies prevail , thou wilt lose thine honour . strickland at southampton , jun. . . if thou dost not finish the good work which thou hast begun , in the reformation of the church , thou wilt shew thy self to be the god of confusion : and such a one , as by cunning stratagem hast contrived the destruction of thine own children . [ crosse at st. mildreds in the counter , july . ] o god , o god! many are the hands lift up against us ; but there is one god : it is thou thy self , o father , who doest us more mischief then them all . [ robinson at southhampt . aug. . ] o lord ! when wilt thou take a chair , and sit amongst the house of peers ? when , o god ; when ( i say ) wilt thou vote amongst the honourable commons ? thine own commons , who are so zealous for thine honour ? [ evans of st. clemens . ] i say , this is gods cause ; and if our god hath any cause , this is it. and if this be not gods cause , then god is no god for me ; but the devil is got up into heaven . [ bond , at the savoy . ] as i am a faithfull sinner , neighbours , this is my mornings draught . here 's to you all . [ isaack massy at vppingham in rutl. giving the communion on easter-day , . drinking off the whole cup. ] see a short view of the late troubles in england , chap . painfull and laborious preachers . ( p ) samuel fulcher an egg-man re-baptiz'd by crabb a felt-maker : gangrene part. . pag. . ( q ) paul hobson a preaching-taylor : gangrene part. . p. . green the felt-maker . pag. . part . spencer a coachman . . potter a smith , pag. . john durance a washbal-maker , ibid. andrew debman an anabaptist-cooper . pag. . ( all preachers : ) and four famous preachers more in hertfordshire , viz. heath the coller-maker of watton , rice the tinker of aston , field the bodyes-maker of hertford . crew the taylor of stevenage . a shoo-maker-preacher , &c. part. . p. . notes upon §. . toleration was ( a ) the destruction of poland , and transilvania : ( b. c. d. e. f. g. h. i. k. l. m. ) and the mother and nurse of all heresies ( n ) and ( o &c. ) prophanenesse , blasphemy , and imposture . ( p.q. ) introducing mechaniques into the work of the ministry . take ( in one word now ) the steps of the whole proceeding . the first effort upon the government was made in the name of the dissenters in general ; for liberty of conscience . so soon as the presbyterians had gotten the power into their hands , they presently set up for an uniformity : opposing a toleration , with all their might ( as in the first section ) foreseeing , and predicting the monstrous opinions and confusions which it would infallibly produce . they shew us in the second section ( upon experiment ) that they were true prophets ; and that all the evils they foretold us , came accordingly to passe : so that ( in short ) under pretence of tender consciences they dissolved the established government ; and by the help of that pretext got themselves into the saddle . no sooner was the presbyterian mounted , but he , without any more to do , bent all his force immediately to the erecting of an inexorable and rigorous uniformity : wisely considering , that the same trick that they had put upon episcopacy , would most infallibly ( if not prevented ) be the ruine of the presbytery too ; or of any government upon the face of the earth . now take notice , good people , that in asking a toleration , they ask what they judge unsafe , and unlawful to allow . they ask , what they know , and declare , will be our undoing : with what equity , reason , conscience or designe , be you the judges . §. . the dissenters harmony among themselves . pres. the sectaries agree with julian the apostate , [ gangr . p. . ] the sectaries are libertines and atheists , [ p. . ] vnclean , incestuous , [ pa. . ] drunkards , [ p. . ] sabbath-breakers , deceivers , [ pa. . ] guilty of gross lying , slandering , juggling , falsifying their words and promises ; guilty of excessive pride and bousting , [ pa. . of insufferable insolences , horrible affronts to authority ; and of strange outrages , [ pa. . ] there never was a more hypocritical , false , dissembling generation in england , then many of the grandees of our sectaries . they encourage , protect , and cry up for saints , sons of belial , and the vilest of men . [ p. . gang. . pa. . ] ind. presbytery is babylon , aegypt , a limb of antichrist , a tyrannical lordly government ; a worse bondage then that under the bishops [ martin eccho ] [ and burtons conformity deformity ] worse then either aegypt , or babylon . the spirit ( . ) of that ten-horned beast is now making war with the lamb — whose word is reformation , and this under a fair colour of a covenant , &c. the mystery of iniquity , the mother of all mischief , the cause of all our present calamities , &c. epist. ded. to the lord-mayor of london . pre. the northamptonshire addressers to richard cromwell desire he would shew tendernesse toward the name of god , against the bold blasphemers of his magistracy , defamers of his sacred ordinances , seducers from truth , corrupters of his worship ; and then , that he would exercise just severity against despisers of dignityes , and revilers of authority ; whose vnhallow'd tongues set on fire from hell , spare not to flash out their insolent reproaches , and impious execrations against his fathers sepulcher , and his own throne . ind. the lord liveth , who hath brought us from the romish papacy , which is spiritually , aegypt , by a mighty deliverance , and manifold preservations &c. out of the scotch tyranny , and scotch presbytery , which came like a tempest from the north , &c. from this bloudy design of the aegyptian papacy ; from the black plots , and bloudy powers of the northern presbytery . sterry serm. before the parliament . nov. . . pag. . pr. o how like is john lilburn to john a leyden ; as if he had been spit out of his mouth ! dell to tho. muncer . — o how like are our sectaryes to the old anabaptists in germany ! gangraen . part. . pag. . ind. the covenant's impossible to be kept , and the makers of it have run into wilfull perjury . this makebate , persecuting , soul-destroying , england-dividing , and vndoing covenant . [ lillburns england's birth-right ] — to violate an abominable and accursed oath out of conscience unto god ; ( says i. goodwyn cautions p. . speaking of the covenant ) is a holy , and a blessed perjury . pr. a putredinous vermin of bold schismaticks and frantick sectaryes , &c. forsaking our assemblyes as babylonish , antichristian . burgesse serm. to the commons . nov. . . pag. . ind. the three-formed presbytery consisting of three kinds , pastors , teachers , and elders , is not gods ordinance ; but antichristian . smiths differences , pag. . pr. these detestable sectaryes ! the plague of heresies among us ; and we have no power to keep the sick from the whole . the wolves that were wont to ly in the woods are come into our sheep-folds , and roar in the holy congregations . paget's heresiography , p. . printed . ind. the assembly is antichristian , romish , bloudy , the plagues and pests of the kingdom , baals priests , diviners , southsayers , with two horns like a lamb , but a mouth like a dragon . [ gangraena . part pag. . ] — insatiable hirelings , gehazi's cheaters , pulpited divines , distributers of sundays doles , simonious , decimating clergy , common incendiaryes . [ lond. minist . seas . exhort . p. . . ] pres. since the suspension of our church-government every one that listeth turneth preacher . as shoomakers , coblers , button-makers , hostlers , &c. [ paget heres . epist. ded. ] ind. the national covenant is a double fac'd covenant , the greatest makebate , and snare that ever the devil , and the clergy his agents , cast in amongst honest men in england , in our age. [ londons liberty in chains . p. . pr. was there ever in our times , a generation of greater self-seekers , boasters , proud blasphemers , covenant-breakers , vnthankfull , make-bates , heady , despisers of those who are good , mockers and scoffers , walking after their own ungodly lusts , despisers of dominions , and speakers evil of dignityes , having a form of godlynesse , but denying the power thereof , ( and so in the rest ) then our sectaryes ? gangrena . part. . . ind. the seed of god in this nation has had two capital enemies , the romish papacy , and the scottish presbytery . [ sterry's england's deliverance , pag. . ] the black-bird divines , the assembly swinherds [ a ballad called , the prophesie of the swinherds destruction , to the tune of the merry soldier , or , the jovial tinker . notes upon §. . those consciencious and well-meaning people that measure other mens hearts by their own , and are consequently the more liable to be impos'd upon , under forms and pretensions of zeal , and religion : those people ( i say ) should do well to consult the reasons of things , as well as their appearances ; which in many doubtfull and dangerous cases , would either guide them to a right resolution , or to the avoidance of an inconvenience , upon judgement , and consideration . the uniting of protestant dissenters has a face of great piety , and goodnesse ; and it is undoubtedly p●r●i●eted by many godly people , out of a very charitable , and christian intention . and whether it be safe , expedient , practicable , or not ; the very inclination to the doing of the thing , is a virtue . but a man would be think himself yet , in common prudence ; first , what the parties are that pretend to this union : secondly , their temper : and thirdly , whether it be possible to unite them , or not. if these be reasonable enquiries , nothing can be fairer then to resolve them out of their own mouths . . the two predominant parties ( you see ) are presbyterians and independents ; all the other sects , being only independency in fractions . . observe their temper , and try if you can reconcile their revisings , with their scruples ; their implacable aversion , one to the other , with their conjunct importunities for indulgence to both. . how is it possible to unite those people under a bond of conscience , that upon the very score of conscience declare themselves to be mortal , and inconciliable enemies . §. . the dissenters behaviour toward the government , and first , the clergy . archbishops and bishops , are unlawful , unnatural , false , and bastardly governours of the church , and the ordinances of the devil , petty popes , petty anti-christs ; like incarnate devils , cogging couzening knaves ; they will lye like dogs . proud , popish , presumptuous , prophane , paultry , pestilent , pernicious prelates and ursurpers ; impudent shameless , wain scor-fac'd ; butchers , horse-leeches , robbers , wolves , simoniacks , persecutors , sowers of sedition ; their antichristian courts are the synagogue of satan . the beelzebub of canterbury , the canterbury caiaphas , esau , a monstrous antichristian pope , &c. most of the ministers are popish priests , monks , fryars , alehouse-haunters , drunkards & dolts , hogs , dogs , wolves , foxes , simoniachs , usurers , proctors of antichrists inventions ; popish chapmen , halting neutrals , desperate and forlorn athiests ; a cursed , uncircumcised , and murthering generation ; a troop of bloudy soul-murtherers , and sacrilegious church robbers . antichrists rags shall make him a priest , be he never such a dolt , or a villain . see bancrofts dangerous positions , lib. . cap. . & . with the authorities . the kings clergy were croaking frogs that came out of the mouth of the dragon , out of the mouth of the beast , and the false prophet : the spirits of devils which go forth unto the kings of the earth , to gather them to battle . wilsons serm. to parl. sept. . printed by order . the cathedrals are a nest and cage of all unclean birds , a harbour of dumb dogs , a crew of ale-swilling singing-men , offering daily near the holy table the blinde whelps of an ignorant devotion , &c. — the prelatical hog-sty . bridges . idol , idle shepherds , dumb dogs , that cannot bark ( unless it were at the flock of christ ; ) and so they learned of their masters both to bark and bite too . greedy dogs that could never have enough ; that did tear out the loyns and bowels of their own people for gain . swearing , drunken , unclean priests , that taught nothing but rebellion in israel , and caused people to abhor the sacrifice of the lord : arminian , popish , idolatrius , vile wretches ; such , as had job been alive , he would not have set with the dogs of his flock who i say brought in these ? did not prolacy ? a generation of men they were that never had a vote for jesus christ. yea , what hath poyson'd and adulterated religion in all these branches ; and hath let in popery , and prophaneness upon the kingdom like a floud , for the raising of their own pomp and greatness , but prelacy ? look into their families , and they were for the most part the vilese in the diocese ; a very nest of vnclean birds . in their courts and consistories , you would have thought you had been in caiaphas-hall , where no other trade was driven , but the crucifying of christ in his members . cases serm. at milk-street , sept. . . pag. , , . how the presence of the preaching of christ did soorch and blast th●se cathedral priests , that unhallow'd generation of scribes and pharisees ; and perfected their rebellion into that unpardonable sin against the holy ghost . [ case on ezra . , . p. . the plastering or palliating of these rotten members [ bishops ] will be a greater dishonour to the nation and church , then their cutting off ; and the personal acts of these sons of belial , being conniv'd at , become national sins . [ smectymnuus red. . p. . these ecclesiastical officers , ceremonies , and discipline , are set up by the pope , and are an appendix or tayl of antichrist . [ dr. holms serm. . . p. . ] this prelacy in the article ; this many-headed monster of arch-bishops , bishops , chancellors , commissaries , deans , deans and chapters , arch-deacons and all other ecclesiastical officers depending on that hierarchy ; this is the beast wherewith we fight in this covenant , — thy mother papacy shall be made childeless among harlots , your diocesses bishopless , and your sees lordless , and your places shall know you no more , case ubi supra . pa. . . prelacy ( that whelp ) hath learned this policy of its mother papacy ( that lioness ) &c. ibid. p. . we lack a right government of the church ; instead of the ordinance of god in the government of his church , the merchandize of shameless babylon is maintain'd . the government now used by archbishops , bishops , &c. is both antichristian and devilish . rome is come home to her gates ; antichrist reigneth amongst us . the established government of the church is traiterous against the majesty of jesus christ. it confirmeth the popes supremacy ; it is accursed ; it is an unlawful , a false , a bastardly government . they must needs be not only traitors to god and his word , but also enemies unto her majesty and the land , that defend the establish'd government of the church to be lawful . [ dangerous pos. lib. . cap. . see the references . christ's religion is fondly patcht with the popes ; the communion-book is an imperfect book , cull'd and pick'd out of that popish dunghil the portuyse and mass-book . the sacraments are wickedly mangled and profan'd . they eat not the lords supper , but play a pageant of their own , to blind the people . their pomps , rites , laws and traditions , are antichristian , carnal , beggarly , popish fooleries ; romish reliques , and rags of antichrist , dregs and remnants of transform'd popery . pharisaical outward faces and vizzards , remnants of romish antichrist , known liveries of antichrist ; a cursed leaven of a cursed , blasphemous priesthood ; cursed patches of popery and idolatry ; they are worse then lousy , &c. [ dan. pos. l. . cap. . ] the dagon of the bishops service-book brake its neck before this ark of the covenant , [ ibid. p. . ] notes on § . let the reader lay his hand upin his heart here , and ask himself . is this pretended tenderness of christianity the stile of the gospel , or no ? is it the language of the disciples of jesus christ ? can these people really have an evangelical compassion for their brethren , and at the same time fly thus in the face of dignities , and treat their superiors at this outrageous rate ? have we so learn'd christ , as to make scurrility and railing the badge of our profession ? they would be thought to supplicate all this while for gentleness and compassion : and is this the way to obtain it , by a practice , that is almost sufficient to turn mercy it self into indignation ? but alas ! their business is not to procure favour from the government , but to expose it to reproach . and all this clutter about the clergy is only to render them odious and contemptible to the people . pray'e take notice once again . the stress of their charge upon the church is only to move the multitude against it , as a frame of constitution that is antichristian and popish : and yet , pray mark it , they do in the same breath ; offer proposals of being vnited into that ecclesiastical popish state ; which brings the matter unavoidably to this issue ; either that they do , against their consciences , cast that scandal upon the church for the advancement of some other designe ; or else , by desiring this vnion , they do acknowledge themselves willing to be incorporate into a popish constitution . but this bustle about the church , you shall fee , has a furthlr prospect : for these people have the faculty of handling religious matters , in order to political as well as of hooking in temporal matters , in order to spirituals . §. . the dissenters behaviour towards the civil government . ( a ) the king , the nobles , and the prelates , are sure the murtherers of christ — o people , i will be silent ! speak people , and tell me what good the king has done since his home coming . [ m. welsh at sanchil in carrit at a conventicle . ] and at another conventicle , thus . i am confident , that god will yet assert the cause of pentland-hills , in spite of the curates , and their masters , the prelates ; and in spite of the prelates , and their master the king ; and in spite of the king , and his master the devil . [ ravillac redivivus , pa. . ( b ) her majesty and state do maim and deform the body of christ , and so bid god to battel against them , &c. by the same authority that the queen appoints the apparel noe appointed to the ministers , she may command any piece of popery , so she name it policy , &c. — the servants of god are persecuted under her — that excommunication should not be exercis'd against princes , i utterly dislike . [ danger . pos. l. . c. . cartwrights reply , par. . ( c ) the state sheweth it self not upright , alledge the parliament what it will — it shall be easier for sodom and gomorrah in the day of judgment , then for such a court. — there shall not be a man of their seed that shall prosper , be a parliament-man , or bear rule in england any more — none ever defended this hierarchy of bishops to be lawful , but papists , and such as were infected with popish errors — all the newgates and oldgates , yea , and all the tyburns in england are too little for such rash and presumptuous heads , that will not give god leave to rule , but will take the sceptre out of his hands . — i do fear that many of the forwardest enemies of reformation are not the backwardest friends that the king of spain has in england at this day . [ dan. pos. l. . c . ] ( d ) as long as you maintain these cursed acts of the tyranny of bishops , &c. you are a persecutor . [ dan. pos. l . cap. . ] ( e ) the magistracy and ministry walk hand in hand , in the contempt of true religion — the laws maintaining the archbishops are no more to be accounted of then the laws maintaining the stews — impiety is suffer'd to bear sway against the majesty of god , and that by law and authority . — as great indignities offer'd to jesus christ in committing his church unto the government of the common law , as can be by mean hirelings unto a king. [ ibid. l. . cap. . ] come hither , ye malignant athiests , come hither ; gnash your teeth , and let their eyes rot in their holes . [ bond to the commons , oct. . pa. . ( f ) the kings of the earth have given their power to antichrist : how have they earn'd their titles ; eldest son of the church ; the catholique , and most christian king ; defender of the faith — do not the kings of all these nations stand up in the room of their progenitors , with the same implacable enmity to the power of the gospel ? [ dr. owen fast serm. apr. . . pa. . there was corruption both in church and common-wealth . idols were set up in dan and bethel , i.e. in the places of judgment , and in the house of god , [ burroughs on isa. . v. . pa. . the greatest blow that ever was given to antichristian government , is that which now it hath had . babylon is so fallen , as it shall never rise again . [ burroughs on isa. . . pa. . g. o worm ! darst thou be so impudent to put thy self in gods stead ; to meddle with mens consciences , and lord it in religious concerns ? [ gods loud call , pag. . . ] h. what hope that the reformed religion will be protected and maintained by the son , which was so irreligiously betray'd by the father ? [ plain english , . pag. . ] i. c. s. the son of that murtherer , is proclaimed king of england ; whose throne of iniquity is built on the blood of pretious saints and martyrs . [ door of hope , pag. . . ] — the murtherers of our saviour were less guilty than that prince . [ case of king charles , . ] k. let justice and reason blush , and traytors and murtherers , parricides and patricides , put on white garments , and rejoyce as innocent ones , if this man ( the late king ) should escape the hands of justice and punishment . [ english translation of the scottish declaration , pag. . . ] l. charles the second , the son of a bloody father ; heir to an entail'd curse , more certain than to his kingdom ; train'd up in blood ; and one that never suck'd in any other principles but prerogative , and tyranny . [ ibid. pag. . ] m. charles the first rather chose to submit to the justice of an ax in a hangman's hand , than to sway a scepter with equity . [ none-such charles , pag. . ] notes on sect. . you have here ( a ) the strain and spirit of a true covenanting-brother . and they all sing the same note : for they do not only abjure the government , but they abjure repentance too ; swearing never to make defection to the contrary part ; but all the days of their lives , zealously and constantly continue therein against all opposition ; and promote the same accordingly to their power , against all lets and impediments whatsoever . in ( b ) you find the petitioner for indulgence excommunicating his sovereign . the paraphrase of ( c ) is according to the stile of this age , only crying , no tory , no courtier , at an election ; the branding of honest men with being popishly affected ; and he that will not run riot with the rabble is made a pensioner of france . [ d. and e. ] complaining of persecution . in ( f. ) you see what work the doctor makes with the defender of the faith. [ g h. i.k.l. ] are as so many daggers in the heart of sovereignty it self . but it is according to the principles of the true protestants of munster , that still begin with religion , and end with treason . pray say if it be not a thousand pities now , after all these complements upon his sacred majesty , and his blessed father , that these high-flown dissenters should not be taken into the government ? when these people set up for pillars of the church , it were a kind of injustice not to allow the kings judges to put in too for ministers of state. sect. . the presbyterians opinion of the covenant . . be astonished , o heavens ! and tremble , o earth ! let the sun it self be cloath'd in blackness at this so horrid an impiety ! what! abjure such a covenant ? a covenant so solemnly taken ! a covenant , for the matter of it , so religious ! so holy ! &c. — and must this covenant be abjur'd now ? this covenant ! is not god's own word , and god himself too after a sort abjured in that act , whoever are guilty of it ? &c. — the highest of all crimes imaginable , a crime that murthers conscience , that murthers souls , that murthers religion it self ; a crime against the first table ! most immediately against the sovereign god ; and the greatest of that nature that men can be guilty of . [ speeches of the three regicides , pag. . and . the cause ( says bark stead ) lies in the bosom of christ , and as sure as christ rose , the cause will rise again . [ ibid. pag. . ] i die cleaving to all those oaths , vows , and protestations that were imposed by the two houses of parliament ; as owning them , and dying with my judgment for them . [ love 's tryal , printed aug. . ] the convincing demonstration , that [ there lies no obligation on me , or any other person , from the oath commonly call'd the solemn league and covenant ] is a knot cut by the sword of authority , while it cannot be loosed by religious reason . [ short survey of the grand case , pag. . . ] o the burning of the covenant in england , and the causes of wrath in scotland , shall certainly be follow'd with such a fine , and fierceness of indignation , as shall make authors , actors , abetters , and rejoycers thereat , know what it is to give such an open defiance to the almighty . a covenant burnt ; and burnt by authority ; in the sight of heaven , with such hell-black solemnities , where the great god is altera pars contrabens , for reformation of religion according to his word ; and righteousness in walking before him ; is such a sin , as may make every soul to tremble at the fore-thoughts of what god will do ; for vindicating his glory from that contempt thereby cast upon him . — i wish that the burning of that city into ashes where that covenant was burnt , together with that none-such plague and war , may make them take warning ere it be too late , who did this wickedness . — o england , england ; i fear , i fear thy woe hasteneth ; the wrath of god is upon the wing against thee , both for breach of covenant , and wiping thy mouth as if thou hadst done nothing amiss ! thou hast stood , and seen thy brothers day ; alas , for thy day , when others shall stand aloof from thee , for fear of sharing in thy judgments ! [ poor mans cup , &c. pag. . ] we shall not , nor cannot enter upon the particular declaration of that grace , constancy and courage , by which the lords faithful witnesses were sustein'd , and did bear testimony to the word of his truth , the holy covenant , and the cause and work of god. [ napthali , pag. . ] i bear my witness unto the national covenant of scotland , and solemn league and covenant betwixt the three kingdoms of scotland , england , and ireland . these sacred , solemn , publique oaths of god , i believe , can be loosed nor dispensed with by no person or power upon earth . [ napthali , pag. . ] i bear my witness and testimony to the doctrine , worship , discipline and government of the church of scotland , by kirk-sessions , presbyteries , synods , and general assemblies . popery and prelacy , and all the trumpery of service and ceremonies that wait upon them , i do abhor . i do bear my witness unto the national covenant of scotland , and solemn league and covenant , &c. [ the testimony of james guthrie , minister , at his death at edinbourgh , june . . — and so of every man of the party that dy'd for the rebellion in scotland . notes on sect. . by this covenant was designed the subversion of the government ; and by the force of this covenant it was accomplish'd . they do all of them assert the obligation of it to the very death ; and by virtue of this covenant it is , that they have confederated afresh , in scotland , to murther the king and all that serve under him. now if this be their principle , let any man consider the consequence of admitting any unrenouncing covenanter , by an act of special grace , into the government ; after so full a proof and exposition of the meaning of that covenant ; and so frank a declaration of their resolution to make it good . sect. . dissenters liberty of conscience . the scots did not only resolve to take the covenant themselves , but enjoyn'd it throughout the whole kingdom . sir henry vane's speech at a common hall , octob. . . page . ] — they enjoyned it upon the penalties , that those that should not take it , or should defer it , should be esteem'd enemies to religion , to his majesties honor , and to the good of the two kingdoms ; that they should have all their rents and profits confiscate : that they should brook nor enjoy any office , or benefit in that kingdom ; that they should be cited to the next parliament , to answer the not taking of it ; and to be proceeded with there as enemies to the state , and to religion ; and to receive such farther punishment , as by the king and parliament should be put upon them [ ibid. page . ] — and that particular account shall be taken by the several presbyteryes , of all who shall refuse , or shift to swear , and subscribe ; and that they be proceeded against with the censures of the church , as enemies to the preservation and propagation of religion . [ s. marshall , ib. page . ] we give now publick warning to all neuters , to rest no longer upon their neutrality , but that they address themselves speedily to take the covenant , and joyn with all their power in the defence of this cause against the common enemy , &c. otherwise we do declare them to be publick enemies , to their religion and country ; and that they are to be censur'd and punish'd as professed adversaries , and malignants . [ declaration of england and scotland , jan. . . ] if any person or persons whatsoever shall at any time or times hereafter , use or cause the aforesaid book of common prayer , to be used in any church , chappel , or publick place of worship , or in any private place or family within the kingdom of england , or the dominion of wales , or port and town of berwick ; every such person so offending therein shall , for the first offence , pay the sum of five pounds of lawful english mony. for the second offence ten pounds ; and for the third shall suffer one whole years imprisonment , without bail or mainprize . [ ordinance of parliament , aug. . . for putting the directory in execution . ] resolved upon the question , by the commons assembled in parliament , that all persons that have , or shall come and reside in the parliaments quarters , shall take the national league and covenant , and the negative oath , notwithstanding any articles that have been or shall be made by the souldiery . [ june . . ] what person soever , having taken the solemn league and covenant , shall go into the enemies quarters without drum , trumpet , or pass , shall dye without mercy . [ an article of war. ] notes on sect. . let any man that has but eyes in his head , compare cases now . here 's a rebellious oath of conspiracy , opposed to an authoritative oath of canonical obedience , and allegiance : here 's a pretended scruple of perjury , in breaking a treasonous oath ; and no bones made of the perjurious violation of a legal one : here 's a nullity against an act of state ; and this is not the worst on 't neither . those very men that forced a rebellious oath upon all people without exception , to the utmost extremity of tyranny and rigour , contrary to law ; are now complaining of persecution , under the common rule of a legal provision : declaring at the same time , that they are still determin'd to persue the ends of their aforesaid covenant , which were manifestly the subversion of the government . you see likewise , how unmercifully they dealt with people , in the case of the common prayer : and yet who but these men to mutiny for liberty , in the very point , wherein most injuriously they made all their fellow-subjects , slaves ? sect. . the power of the kirk . ( a. ) the assembly is independent , either from king or parliament , in matters ecclesiastical . ( b. ) it is lawful for subjects to make a covenant , and combination , without the king , and to enter into a bond of mutual defence against the king , and all persons whatsoever . ( c. ) subjects may appeal from the king and council to the next general assembly , and parliament ; and in the mean time , before their appeals are heard and discussed , they may disobey the king and council . ( d. ) an assembly may abrogate acts of parliament ; and discharge subjects of their obedience to them , if they any way reflect on the business of the church . ( e. ) the protestation of subjects against laws establish'd , whether it be made coram judice , or non judice ( before the judges , or the people ) doth voyd all obedience to those laws , and dischargeth the protesters from any obligation to live under them . ( f. ) a number of men , being the greater part of the kingdom , may do anything which they themselves conceive conducing to the glory of god , and the good of the church , notwithstanding any laws standing in force to the contrary . [ kings large declaration , fol. . & deincep . ] ( g. ) the rights and priviledges of parliaments , and the liberties of the kingdom , are the suburbs of the gospel ; and an inheritance bequeathed by god to nations and kingdoms , and under that notion , holy — these be the outworks of religion , the lines of communication ( as i may so say ) for the defence of this city . [ case's covenant renew'd , . p. . ] ( h. ) such a height of opposition to the lords anointed , as never since man was upon the earth was there such a supremacy framed into a law ; whereby name and thing of all kingly power is plainly and explicitly taken from , and extorted out of the hand of our blessed lord jesus christ ; and given unto and setled upon the king : ( o dangerous , and unsetling settlement ! ) now the incommunicable prerogative of him , who is king in sion , and whose right it is to give laws to rule his own church , and house , is alienate and appendent to the imperial crown of the nation ; — the most manifest , unmasked , high , and horrid usurpation of the throne of christ , that ever the world saw — but its impossible he can sit long , who sets himself upon the mediators throne . for the arm of jehovah shall snatch and hurry him thence . be wise now therefore o ye kings , &c. is a necessary caution here . [ poor mans cup , page . ] ( h. ) the presbytery may forbid unjust suits of law , and so doth the scripture , as scandalous to christians — our general assembly is no other then christs court ( acts . ) made up of pastors , doctors , and brethren , or elders — they hold ( i believe with warrant of gods word ) if the king refuse to reform religion , the inferior judges , and godly pastors , and other church officers may reform ; if the king will not kiss the sun , and do his duty , in purging the house of the lord , may not eliah and the people do their duty , and cast out baals priests ? — they may swear , or covenant , without the king , if he refuse , and build the lords house themselves ; [ chron. . . ] and relieve , and defend one another when they are oppressed — they depos'd the queen for her tyranny , but crown'd her son. all this is vindicated in the following treatise . — this assembly is to judge what doctrine is treasonable . — it is true , glasgow assembly ( . ) voted down the high commission , because it was not consented to by the church ; and yet was a church-judicature , which took upon them to judge of the doctrine of ministers , and deprive them , and did encroach upon the establish'd lawful church-judicatures . [ rutherfords preface to lex rex . ] notes on sect. . do these people talk of the lordlyness of prelates ; when his holyness himself never claim'd so much , bare-fac'd , as these papal protestants do both challenge and practice ? and it is not the slavery , but the masters , that we ought to be most asham'd of . nor will the impatient , and imperious humour wait for the season of their power ; but while they are yet in shackles themselves , they are imposing upon their sovereign . and methinks it is very vnequal for men , that give no quarter to loyal subjects , to stand expostulating for privileges to revolters . here 's king and parliament gone at first dash ( a ) a confederacy authoriz'd at next ; ( b ) a papal dispensation from obedience ( c ) the king and three estates swallowed up in the assembly . ( d ) subjects set above the law. ( e ) the sovereignty vested in the multitude . ( f ) parliaments subordinated to the kirk . ( g ) the king himself arraign'd , and judgments denounced against him . ( h ) the judges degraded ; courts of justice silenc'd ; the rabble passing sentence on the supreme magistrate . deposing of princes justify'd ( i. ) this is all plain enough , without exposition ; but we are now about to be yet a little plainer . sect. . principles and positions . ( a ) the two houses have legal power to levy monys , arms , horse , ammunition , upon the subjects , even without , or against the kings consent ; and to put into safe hands such forts , ports , magazines , ships , and power of the militia , as are intended , or likely to be intended , to introduce a tyranny ; not only when arms are actually raised against them , but when they discern , and accordingly declare a preparation made towards it . political catechism . page . . ( b ) a king abusing his power , to the overthrow of religion , laws , and liberties , may be controll'd and oppos'd : and if he set himself to overthrow all these by arms , then they who have power , as the estates of a land , may and ought to resist by arms ; because he doth by that opposition break the very bonds , and overthrow all the essentials of this contract and covenant . this may serve to justifie the proceedings of this kingdom against the late king , who in a hostile way set himself to overthrow religion , parliaments , laws , and liberties . douglase's coronation serm. page . . ( c ) the lords and commons are as the master of the house . [ calamy's sermon , decemb. . . page . ] — the parliament whom the people chuse are the great and only conservators of the peoples liberties . ibid . ( d ) the parliament of the commonwealth of england without the king , . were the supreme authority of this nation , jenkins's petition . octob. . . ( e ) the sovereignty here among us is in king , lords and commons . ( baxter's holy commonwealths , page . . ) ( f ) the government of england is a mixt monarchy , and govern'd by the major part of the three estates assembled in parliament . [ parliament physick for a sin-sick nation . page . ( g ) the houses are not only requisite to the acting of the power of making laws ; but co-ordinate with his majesty in the very power of acting . ahabs fall. page . ) ( h ) resolved , that in case of extream danger , and of his majesties refusal , the ordinance agreed on by both houses for the militia , doth oblige the people , and ought to be obeyed by the fundamental laws of this kingdom . ( vote of both houses , march . ● . ex. col. . ) ( i ) resolved , that when the lords and commons in parliament ( which is the supreme court of judicature in the kingdom ) shall declare what the law of the land is ; to have this not only question'd and controverted , but contradicted , and a command that it should not be obey'd , is a high breach of the priviledge of parliament . ( ex. col. . march . . ) ( k ) the lords and commons in parliament do declare , that it is against the laws and liberties of the kingdom , that any of the subjects thereof should be commanded by the king to attend him at his pleasure ; but such as are bound thereto by special service . ( ex. col. . may . ) ( l ) the towns , forts , treasure , magazine , offices , and the people of the kingdom , and the whole kingdom it self is entrusted unto the king , for the good and safety , and best advantage thereof ; and as this trust is for the use of the kingdom , so ought it to be menag'd by the advice of the houses of parliament , whom the kingdom hath trusted for that purpose . ( third remonstrance , may . . ex. col. . ) ( m ) a parliament may dispose of any thing wherein his majesty or his subjects hath a right , in such a way as that the kingdom may not be expos'd to hazard or danger thereby . ( ibid. ) ( n ) the votes of the lords and commons in parliament being the great council of the kingdom , are the reason of the king , and of the kingdom . ( ibid. . ) ( o ) supreme head and governour over all persons in all causes , as it is meant of singular persons rather than of courts , or of the collective body of the whole kingdom , &c. and to speak properly , it is only in his high court of parliament , wherein and wherewith his majesty hath absolutely the supreme power , and consequently is absolutely supreme head and governour , from whence there is no appeal . ( remonstrance , may . . ex. col. . ) ( p ) the kings of this realm ought to be very tender in denying both houses of parliament any thing that concerns the publick government , and good of the kingdom ; and they ought to deny themselves and their own understandings very far , before they deny them ; and that upon this ground , because they lie under the obligation of an oath to pass such laws , if they be just and good , for the kingdom . and it must then be a tender point for a prince to judge otherwise of those laws that are represented unto him as such , by the representative body of the whole kingdom . ( ibid. pag. . ) no presidents can be bounds to the proceedings of the parliament . ( ibid. pag. ) ( q ) a parliament may dispose of any thing wherein the king , or any subject hath a right , in such a way that the kingdom may not be endanger'd thereby . and if the king , being humbly sought unto by his parliament , shall refuse to joyn with them ; in such cases , the representative body of the kingdom is not to sit still , and see the kingdom perish before their eyes ; and of this danger they are judges , and judges superiour to all others that legally have any power of judicature in this kingdom . ( ibid. ) no member of either house ought to be medled withal for treason , felony , or any other crime ; without the cause first brought before them , that they may judge of the fact , and their leave obteined to proceed . ( ibid. ) the sovereign power doth reside in the king and both houses of parliament : and his majesties negative voice doth not import a liberty for his majesty to deny any thing as he pleaseth , though never so requisite and necessary for the kingdom . ( ibid. . ) ( r ) when there is certain appearance , or grounded suspicion that the letter of the law shall be improv'd against the equity of it ; ( that is , the publique good , whether of the body real , or representative ) then the commander going against its equity , gives liberty to the commanded , to refuse obedience to the letter . ( ex. col. . pag. . ) ( s ) the clause wherein we swear the preservation and defence of the kings person , and authority , doth lye under some restreint , by that limitation [ in the preservation and defence of the true religion and liberties of the kingdom . ] to which we reply , it maintains him as far as he is a king : he may be a man , but sure no king , without the lists and verge of religion and laws ; it being religion and laws that make him a king. case's covenant renew'd , page . ( t ) princes for just causes may be depos'd . if they be tyrants against god and his truth , their subjects are freed from their oaths of obedience — the people have the same power over the king , that the king hath over any one man. — the making of laws doth belong to the people ; and kings are but as masters of the rolls . — [ dan. pos. lib. . cap. . ( u ) he that resisteth the king commanding in the lord , resisteth the ordinance of god ; but he who resisteth the king commanding that which is against god , resisteth no ordinance of god , but an ordinance of sin and satan . ( lex rex , pag. . . ) ( w ) convention of the subjects in a tumultuary way for a seditious end , to make war without warrant of law , is forbidden ; but not when religion , laws , liberties , invasion of foreign enemies necessitate the subjects to convene ; tho' the king and ordinary judicatures going a corrupt way to pervert judgment shall refuse to consent to their conventions . ( rutherford's lex rex , pag. . ) ( x ) our fundamentals were not made by our representatives , but by the people themselves ; and our representatives themselves limited by them ; which it were good that parliaments as well as people would observe , and be faithful to : for no derivative power can nul what their primitive power has established . the englishman , page . . ( y ) the priviledges and lawful prerogatives of the sovereign , must veil , in cases of necessity , unto this high and supreme law , the safety of the people . then no less must the priviledges of a parliament yield unto this. ( lex rex , pag. . ) if we be sworn to maintain the kings person and authority , in the defence of the liberties of the subject , then whoever prefers the liberties of the subject to his person or authority , are not traytors , or rebels . ( ibid. pag. . ) ( z ) noblemen ought to reform religion , if the king will not . the commonalty concurring with the nobility , may compel the bishops to cease from their tyranny ; and by their power bridle the cruel beasts . — they may lawfully require of their king to have true preachers ; and if he be negligent , they justly may themselves provide them , maintain them , defend them against all that do persecute them , and may retein the profits of the church livings from the other sort — the nobility and commonalty ought to reform religion ; and may remove from honors , and punish whom god hath condemned . [ deut. . ] of what estate or condition soever . — the punishment of such crimes as touch the majesty of god doth not appertain to kings and chief rulers only , but also to the whole body of the people ; and to every member of the same ; as occasion , vocation , or ability shall serve , to revenge the injury done against god. [ dan. pos. lib. . cap. . if the magistrates shall refuse to put mass-mongers and false preachers to death ; the people ( in seeing it perform'd ) do shew that zeal of god which was commended in phineas , destroying the adulterers ; and in the israelites against the benjamites . — dan. pos. lib. . cap. . ( a ) judges ought by the law of god to summon princes before them for their crimes : and to proceed against them as against all other offenders — evil princes ought by the law of god to be depos'd ; and inferior magistrates ought chiefly to do it . — when magistrates do cease to do their duties , the people are as it were without officers . and then god giveth the sword into their hands , and he himself is become immediately their head : for to the multitude a portion of the sword of justice is committed : from the which no person , king , queen , or emperor , being an idolater , is excepted ; they must dye the death , &c. — god will send to the people which are willing to do their duty , but are not able , some moses , or othoniel . if they know any jonathan , they must go unto him to be their captain , and he ought not to refuse them . by the word of god a private man , by some special inward motive , may kill a tyrant ; as moses did the aegyptian : as phineas did the lecherous ; and ebud did king eglon , &c. — it is lawful to kill wicked kings and tyrants ; and both by gods law , and mans law , queen mary ought to have been put to death as being a tyrant , a monster , a cruel death , &c. the subjects did kill the queen's highness athalia ; jebu killed the queen's majesty jezebel ; elias , being no magistrate , killed the queen's majesties chaplains , baal's priests . these examples are left for our instruction . where this justice is not executed , the state is most corrupt . [ dan. pos. lib. . cap. . ( b ) whensoever a king , or other superior authority creates an inferior , they invest it with a legitimacy of magistratical power , to punish themselves also , in case they prove evil doers . ( right and might well met , page . . princes derive their power and prerogative from the people ; and have their investitures meerly for the peoples benefit . ( jus populi , page . . ) if the prince fail in his promise , the people are exempt from their obedience ; the contract is made void , and the right of obligation is of no force . it is therefore permitted to the officers of a kingdom , either all , or some good number of them , to suppress a tyrant . ( vindiciae contra tyrannos , pag. , , . ) it is lawful for any who have the power to call to account a tyrant or wicked king , and after due conviction to depose and put him to death , if the ordinary magistrate hath neglected , or deny'd to do it . ( the tenure of kings and magistrates , . ) notes on sect. . the first clause ( a ) has been of great vse to the protestant mercuries , and intelligences , for the shaping of their addresses . ( b ) a dispensation again . ( c. d. e. f. g. ) the king is depos'd by the dissenters . ( h ) the two houses above the king. ( i ) calls the king to an account for not submitting to the two houses . ( k ) allows him to be master only of his own domestiques . ( l ) the two houses are the kings guardians ; and ( m ) may dispose of kings and subjects rights at pleasure . ( n ) the votes of the two houses are the reason of king and kingdom . ( o ) singulis major , universis minor. ( p ) the king bound to pass whatever bills the two houses offer him , tho' against his judgment . ( q ) no member of either house to be touch'd for treason without leave . ( r ) the equity of the law set up against the letter of it . ( s ) the king distinguish'd from the person . ( t ) princes deposable by the people . ( u ) obedience and resistance conditional . ( w ) people may convene against authority . ( x ) the fundamentals of government are from the people . ( y ) and so is sovereignty , to which both kings and parliaments must vail . ( z. and a. ) popular violence and reformation justifi'd . deposing and killing of kings . ( b ) gives the constable a commission to lay the king by the heels . let the reader take notice , that these are not the wild speculations of sick-brain'd phanatiques , but positions rooted in the very foundations of the separation ; subversive of the very ordinance of government ; and not only asserted by votes , and arguments , but put in practice upon the lives and liberties both of prince and people . sect. . tumults encourag'd ; and chiefly , by the [ able , holy , faithful , laborious , and truly peaceable preachers of the gospel . ] ( petition for peace , pag. . ) ( a ) the land is sore troubled ; there 's no place , nor being for a faithful minister of the word . our blood cryeth for vengeance against the bishops . — if this persecution be not provided for , 't is the case of many a thousand in england ; great troubles will come of it . [ dan. pos. l. . cap. . ] it astonishes us to foresee what doleful effects our divisions would produce . [ proposals , pag. . . ] ( b ) the act for suppressing conventicles is a law dishonourable to god , destructive to the gospel , and pernicious to most of the sober people of the nation . [ quaeries upon the proclamation for enforcing the laws against conventicles , &c. pag. . ] qu. whether the saints ought not to continue the assemblies of their worship of god , without or against the consent of their magistrates , they being commanded so to do ? [ matth. . , , . heb. . . &c. pag. . ] ( c ) when the ark of god is taken , the ministers of christ are driven into corners ; the souls of our wives and children are in danger to miscarry . [ calamy's serm. dec. . . pag. ] where are our moseses , our eliah's ? where are those that lay to heart the danger of the ark of god ? [ pag. . ] — it is not your wicked ministers that can settle the ark ; it is not your prophane , drunken ministers ; no , it must be your godly , sober , pious , and religious ministers . [ pag. , . ] ( d ) that truth for owning of which you are put to suffer the loss of all things , is that very truth for which christ himself suffer'd as a martyr : viz. that he was a king. — yea he is a king , and will be a king when you are gone ; and will prove himself higher than the kings of the earth , by rescinding of your supremacy , that idol of his indignation , and object of his revenge . — of a truth , lord , against thy holy child jesus whom thou hast annointed , are all these gathered together ; and it is for our owning of him as . thy annointed , and refusing to be on that conspiracy , that we are thus used . [ the poor mans cup of cold water minister'd to the saints and sufferers for christ , in scotland , pag. . . ] ( e ) we saw the blood of these blessed saints and martyrs ( the scotch rebels ) of jesus shed : we saw the frame of our government dissolv'd , and overturn'd : we saw an act. recissory , the wickedness whereof reached heaven : we saw abominable and abjured episcopacy , re-establish'd by law , and the faithful ministers of christ driven from their flocks : thus we saw jericho rebuilt ; and so the nation became a curse ; being so deeply , and so deliberately involved into the guilt of open , owned , avouched , and by law established perjury : now what did we in the mean time ? alas , we had not the spirit of the day in its day , &c. [ poor mans cup , pag. . ] ( f ) beloved brethren , albeit god hath put and ordained distinction betwixt king and subjects ; yet in hope of the life to come he hath made all equal : and therefore i say that it doth no less appertain to you to be assured that your faith and religion be grounded , and established upon the true and undoubted word of god , than to your princes or rulers . — and to you it doth no less appertain , than to your king or princes , to provide that christ jesus be truly preach'd amongst you . [ jus populi , pag. . ] ( g ) they deifie a creature , and renounce their homage to the king of kings ; and so provoke him to destroy both them and their king by their apostacy , and wicked defection ; and that openly before men and angels , as david hanged up the sons of saul before the sun : and then they need not fear either dag or dagger , pistol or poyson'd ponyard . [ ibid. pag. . ] ( h ) come , my brethren , i say , and fear not to take this agag ( prelacy i mean , not the prelates ; ) and hew it to pieces before the lord. [ case's covenant renew'd , pag. . ] ( i ) down with baal's altars , down with baal's priests , &c. [ salwey's sermon to the commons , octob. . . pag. . ] ( k ) i may truly say as the martyr did , that if i had as many lives as hairs on my head , i would be willing to sacrifice all those lives in this cause . [ mr. calamy's speech at guildhal , octob. . . ] ( l ) let no law hinder you ; si jus violandum , &c. and if law be to be broken , it is for a crown , and therefore for religion . [ simpson on prov. . . . pag. . ] — you are set over kingdoms , to root out , pull down , destroy , and throw down ; do it quickly , do it throughly . [ ibid. pag. . ] ( m ) who were they but the poorer and meaner sort of people that at the first joyn'd with the ministers to raise the building of reformation ? [ marshal's serm. june . . pag. . ] ( n ) here is an extraordinary appearance of so many ministers to encourage you in this cause , that you may see how real the godly ministry in england is unto this cause . [ calamy's speech at guild-hall , octob. . . ] ( o ) to you of the honourable house , up , for the matter belongs to you ; we , even all the godly ministers of the country , will be with you. [ faircloth to the commons on josh. . . pag. . ] let not the pretence of peace and unity cool your fervour , or make you spare to oppose your selves unto those idle and idolized ceremonies against which we dispute . ( dispute against english-popish ceremonies , pag. . ) ( p ) a word to the people : are magistrates your servants ? then learn to be wise , and know your priviledges for time to come ; and be not frighted out of your right and reason at once , by those traytors and rebels who would make you believe that it is treason and rebellion to call them to account for the treason and rebellion they are guilty of . ( mene tekel , pag. . ) parliaments are the peoples servants . — the king , judges , justices , mayors , constables , and all other magistrates or officers , are our servants , to protect us , and secure us from violence and oppression ; if they break their trust , and oppress us , the law of god and nature allows us to call our servants to account , punish them according to their deserts , and turn them out of our service . ( ibid. ) alas , poor england ! thy shepherds are become robbers ; thy princes within thee are roaring lions ; thy judges are ravening wolves , &c. ( pag. . ) — what authority had a parliament to give away our birth-rights ? to enslave the corporations and counties that sent them up to assert their freedoms ; and to expose us to the lusts of wicked oppressors ; to give away the militia of the land to the king ? &c. ( pag. . ) — the parliaments giving away our birth-rights to the king , is just of as much force as if the convocation of prelates , or council of bishops should give our souls to the devil : they have as much power to do the latter , as the parliament have to do the former . ( pag. . ) ( q ) some persons may be stirr'd up to do some things that are not in themselves so justifiable , or seemingly warrantable , ( at least in all circumstances ) which yet the over-ruling hand of god may be in ; as in moses killing the egyptian ; phineas slaying zimri and cosbi , numb . . , . ( sufferers catechism , pag. . . ) ( r ) it is remarkable that this single act of phineas in killing two persons is so much rewarded , and taken notice of by the lord ; yea , more than the many who were killed by the judges . ( jus populi , p. . ) — now sure i am this fact of phineas was according to the law , and to the express mind of god ; and why then might it not be imitated in the like case ? what warrant , command , or commission had phineas , which we cannot now expect ? ( ibid. pag. . ) notes on sect. . here 's a complaint of a persecution ( a ) by the greatest of persecutors , and the most mercyless of men ; as you have it out of their own mouths . the law vilify'd , ( b ) and authority affronted , in the very instant while they pretend to supplicate for relief . what can be more inflaming , scandalous and pharisaical then the clause , ( c ? ) or more seditious then ( d. e. f. and g ? ) more incentive to the people then ( h. i. k. and l. ) and who were the eminent incendiaries ( m. n. and o. ) but the very principals of the dissenting ministers ? what horrible affronts upon the king , parliament and government in ( p ? ) what instigations are there to any execrable practice upon the sacred person of his majesty in ( q. and r ? ) view their principles ; compare my citations with their writings ; turn your eye from thence to their practices ; and if you find i have done them any wrong in the report , let me bear the burthen of the scandal . but if the matter be truly represented , let the reader judge of the rest. sect. . the war against the king justify'd . ( a ) our war has been proved over and over to unbyass'd consciences , to be just. ( caryl to the commons , april . . page . ( b ) the scots were necessitated to take up arms for their just defence ; and against antichrist , and the popish priests , ward , before the lords , on deut. . . page . ( c ) if i had taken up arms against the parliament in that wa● , my conscience tells me i had been a traytor , and guilty of resisting the highest powers . [ baxters holy common-wealth , pag. . — and i cannot see that i was mistaken in the mayn cause ; nor dare i repent of it , nor forbear the same , if it were to do again in the same state of things . [ ibid , page . ] ( d ) some say the terms are dubious , if not false ; it being indefinitely asserted , it is not lawful to take arms against the king , on any pretense whatsoever . although our king is , and we hope ever will be so qualify'd , that in reference to him , it may be true ; yet it is not impossible for a king , regis personam exuere ; in a natural or moral madness , or phrensy , to turn tyrant , yea beast , &c. — in this case , men think nature doth dictate it , and scripture doth justifie a man se defendendo vim vi repellere , &c. [ a short survey of the grand case , page . . ] ( e ) their rising ( the rebels at pentland-hills ) was supposed against lawful authority ; whereas it was rather a rising for lawful authority ; while against persons abusing their authority , and not walking in the right line of subordination unto the supreme magistrate and governor of heaven and earth ; but rebelling against him , in making laws contrary to his laws , and executing them contrary to his will and command . . that their rising was in rebellion ; whereas it was rather in loyalty to god , and the country , against such as had erected a standard of rebellion against the high and mighty prince jesus christ our lord , and supreme governor , and in loyalty to that supreme law , the safety of the people : defending themselves against manifest , and intolerable tyranny . [ jus populi , . preface . ] — we may safely say , that these valiant worthies were basely and barbarously murther'd , and that there was no just cause to take their lives . [ ib. preface . ( f ) when strong and inevitable necessity urgeth , in order to necessary and just ends ; people may have their own convocations , even against authority , and de jure , be guilty of the breach of no standing law against the same ; seeing all know that salus populi est suprema lex ; and that no law , or act , when the strict observation thereof tendeth to the detriment of the republick ( for the good of which all laws are made ) is of force . [ jus populi , page . ] — resistance may be us'd against the person of , or the man who is , the magistrate ; without the least contempt , or wrong done unto the holy ordinance of god — the peoples safety is such a royal thing , that the king himself , and all his prerogatives , yea and municipal laws too ; must vail the cap unto it , themselves being judges . [ ibid. pag. . ] — the late war carryed on by the parliament of scotland against the king , was lawful , both in point of law and conscience ; and if that was lawful ( as it was , and shall be found to be ) when he and all his complices have done their utmost , with all their lying cavils , false calumnies , reproaches , and what not , that hell can hatch to disprove , and condemn the same ) a war raised by the subjects in their own sinless self-defence , without the conduct of their representative , cannot in every case be condemned , particularly not in our case now. jus populi , page . ( g ) the generation of the prelatical , and malignant faction , did not cease to chant after the determinations of the cruel , and bloody council ; and cry out upon those noble and worthy patriots ( whose memory shall be in everlasting remembrance ) as traytors and rebells , justly condemned and executed . notes on sect. . we have the war here against the late king justify'd ( a. b. c. ) by three divines of note , in the first place . ( d. ) minces it a little , but comes to the same point at last . ( e. f. and g. ) justify not only the ground of that rebellion , and the fact it self ; but canonize the very rebels of pentland-hills for martyrs . now can it be imagin'd , that any man will take upon him to defend the late sedition , that does not stand as well-affected to another ? it is a strange partiality for them to think it more reasonable for separatists to overturn the government against law , then for the magistrate , by keeping close to the rule of the law , to do his endeavour to support it . if they call it a persecution , the magistrates not dissolving of the law in favour of dissenters ; why may not we be allow'd to call it a rebellion , for the dissenters to dissolve the government in despite of the magistrate ? sect. . reformation by blood. ( a ) you cannot preach , nor pray them down directly and immediately ; — well! that which the word cannot do , the sword shall . ( reyner to the commons , aug. . . pag. . ( b ) episcopacy must not only be pull'd up , but the bishops must be hang'd up before the lord ; and the bloodiest and sharpest war to be endur'd , rather then the least error in doctrine , or in discipline . ( a scottish sermon , kings large scotch declaration , fol. . ( c ) those mine enemies that would not have me reign over them , bring them hither , and slay them before me . those men that rise up in cursed practises to change religion , to bring in idolatry , and false worship ; to depose christ from his throne , and set up anti-christ in his place : — noble sirs ; in your execution of judgment upon delinquents , imitate god , and be merciful to none that have sinn'd of malicious wickedness : let not your eye pity any who in this bloody quarrel have laid the foundation of their rebellion and massacres in irreconcileable hatred to religion and the government of jesus christ. case's sermon to the court martial , aug. . . ( d ) as josiah put to death those that follow'd baal , so may the parliament those that will not return , and leave antichristianism . marshalls serm. march . . — that anti-christianism that was sworn in the covenant to be rooted out . pag. . ( e ) i will confidently affirm , that our days now are better then they were seven years ago , because it is better to see the lord executing judgment , then to see men working wickedness ; and to behold a people lye wallowing in their blood , rathen apostatizing from god , and embracing idolatry and superstition , and banishing the lord jesus from amongst them . ( s. marshall to both houses , &c. jan. . . pag. ) — carry on the work still ; leave not a rag that belongs to popery ; lay not a bit of the lords building with any thing that belongs to anti-christ ; but away with it , root and branch , head and tayl ; till you can say , now is christ set upon his throne . ( ibid. page . ( f ) the cause you manage is the cause of god ; the glory of god is embarkt in the same ship in which this cause is . ( e. calamy's , sermon to the peers ; june . . page . — he that dyes fighting the lords battle , dyes a martyr . ibid. page . ) ( g ) cursed be he that withholdeth his sword from blood ; that spares , when god saith strike ; that suffers those to escape , whom god has appointed to destruction . ( case on dan. . . page . . to the commons . ( h ) the execution of judgment is the lords work ; and they shall be cursed , that do it negligently : and cursed shall they be , that keep back their sword from blood , in this cause . ( strickland , nov. . . page . ( i ) the lord is pursuing you if you execute not vengeance on them betimes . ( faircloth on josh. . . page . why should life be further granted to them , whose very life brings death to all about them ! ibid. ( k ) though as little ones they call for pitty , yet as babylonish they call for justice , even to blood. ( bridges on rev. . . page . . ( l ) let us not out of any worldly respects of estate , wives , children , honour , good nature , justice , compassion , care of trade , of laws , grow slack and lazy in our undertakings ; upon the success of which the eyes of christendom are fix'd : — but let us proceed to shed the blood of the vngodly . ( l — dec. . . ( m ) it is commendable to fight for peace and reformation , against the kings command . ( calamy's sermon , decem. . . pag. . ( n ) do justice to the greatest : saul's sons are not spar'd , no nor may agag , nor benhadad , though themselves kings . zimri and cosbi , though princes of the people , must be persn'd into their tents . this is the way to consecrate your selves to god. ( herle sermon to the commons , nov. . . pag. — in vain are the high praises of god in your mouths , without a two-edged sword in your hands . ibid. jan. . . page . ( o ) if you would have a peace with popery , a peace with slavery ; if you would have a judas peace , or a joab's peace ; ( you know the story , he kiss'd amasa , and then kill'd him ) if you would have a peace that will bring a massacre with it ; a french peace : it may be had easily . but if you would have a peace that may continue the gospel among you , and bring in a reformation , &c. such a peace cannot be had without contribution toward the bringing in of the scots . ( calamy's speech at guild-hall , octob. . . notes on sect . you have here fourteen paragraphs , so sanguinary , and salvage ; that if they had not christian names to them , a body would take the authors of them for saracens : and to go a little farther with you yet , thirteen of the fourteen are the work of dissenting divines ; not of mr. calamy's wicked , profane , drunken ministers ; ( as he was pleas'd to baptize the english clergy ) but of the godly , sober , pious , and religious ministers ( as he thought fit to distinguish those of his own party . ) let the reader judge n●w if these be not fit workmen to be employ'd in the repairing of our breaches ? one more now , and i have done . sect. . the murther of the late king encouraged , and justify'd . ( a ) we propound that that capital , and grand author of our troubles , the person of the king may be speedily brought to justice , for the treason , blood , and mischief he is guilty of . ( armyes remonstrance , nov. . p. . ( b ) have you not sins enow of your own , but will you wrap your selves up in the treachery , murther , blood , cruelty and tyranny of others ? ( tho. brooks sermon before the commons , decemb. . . pag. . ) ( prep●ration to the kings murther ) — set some of those grand malefactors a mourning , ( that have caused the kingdom to mourn so many years , in garments rolled in blood ) by the execution of ivstice , &c. ( ibid. pag. . ) ( c ) the king of syria came against israel , and by the mighty power of god , he and his army were overthrown , and the king was taken prisoner . now the mind of g●● was ( which he then discover'd only by that present providence ) that justice should have been executed upon him ; but it was not . whereupon , the prophet comes with ashes upon his face , and waited for the king of israel , in the way where he should return , ( kings . . ) and as the king passed by , he cry'd unto him , thus saith the lord , because thou hast let go a man whom i appointed for destruction , therefore thy life shall go for his life . now see how the king of syria , after this , answers ahab's love : about three years after , israel and syria engaged in a new war : benhadad's life was once in ahab's hand , and he ventur'd gods displeasure to let him go . but see how benhadad rewards him for it : fight neither against small nor great , but against the king of israel . honourable and worthy , if god do not lead you to do justice upon those that have been the great actors in shedding innocent blood , never think to gain their favour by sparing of them , &c. ( g. cockaine's sermon to the commons , novemb. . . ) ( d ) when kings command unrighteous things , and people suit them with willing complyance , none doubts but the destruction of them both is just and righteous . ( dr. owen , a fast-sermon , jan. . . pag. . ) — a great , mighty potentate , that had caused terrour in the land of the living , and laid his sword under his head , brought to punishment for blood. ( ibid. a thanksgiving-sermon , octob. . . page . ) ( e ) praised be god who hath delivered us from the imposition of prelatical innovations , altar-genu-flexions and cringings ; with crossings , and all that popish trash and trumpery . and truly i speak no more than what i have often thought and said , [ the removal of those insupportable burthens countervails for the blood and treasure shed and spent in these late distractions , &c. ] w. jenkins before the parliament , ( as they call'd it ) sept. . . pag. . ( f ) corbet says , that he was now fully satisfi'd in his own mind of the lawfulness of the fact , as well as of the power by which it was done ; and that it was his duty no longer to stand out , but to joyn with his brethren , as an actor in it ; or else he might become guilty of unfaithfulness to the cause of god , and his country , &c. ( three regicides speeches . pag. . ) — and as for that necessary and publique act of justice , he did never repent at all , that he had a hand in it ; nor , after all the searchings of heart about it , did see cause so to do , when at any time he had the most serious , and calm reflections upon it . ( pag . ) ( g ) the parliament having wisely chang'd the government to a commonwealth , and cut off that hereditary usurpation of monarchy , which was never either justly begun , or continu'd . ( the false brother , pag. . . ) notes on sect. . in ( a ) we have only men of blood , pressing for blood ; and nothing less than the blood of a tender , a religious , a protestant , and their native prince , will content them . the war is now transferr'd from popery to tyranny : the masque is taken off ; and it is downright treason , and blood that is charged upon him by the army . and what was it , but the dissenting pulpits that put these diabolical thoughts into their hearts ; these bloody words into their mouths ; and the very swords into their hands ? who but the godly , peaceable ministers , the zealous protestants , ( as they make bold to call themselves ) and just such protestants , as ministers , to a scruple . murther , blood , cruelty , tyranny , says brooks , ( b ) and see then how this parricidal evangelist bellows for the execution of justice ; which was , in english , the king's murther . in ( c ) you have another of the stamp , pressing the same point , and upon the same foundation too ; ( for shedding innocent blood ) with an insinuation of no less than the mind of god for their warrant . in ( d ) you have one of our re-reformers bestriding two kings at a step. and in ( e ) another of the same tribe , with the rights of the church in one scale , the blood and treasure of his sacred majesty , and so many thousands of his loyal subjects , in the other , and all too little to weigh against a cross , and an altar . ( f ) is only a defence of the execution , by a regicide : and in ( g ) the change of government approved by a republican . to wind up all now in a word . the presbyterians ( you see ) hold toleration to be the source of all heresies ; utterly unlawful , insufferable , impious , and destructive , both of church and state. the independent qualifies it , with some restrictions , to their own advantage ; but episcopacy and presbytery find no quarter . they are at war among themselves , upon an inconsistency of principles ; and openly profess their reciprocal animosities to be matter of conscience . the civ●l government passes with them for tyrannical , and the ecclesiastical for antichristian . they stick to their covenant to the death ; and the roman papacy it self , even in their own accounts of it , is not more bloodily rigorous in impositions upon conscience , than the papal presbytery , according to the testimony of their words and actions . the imperial authority of the crown is wholly swallow'd up in the transcendent usurpations of the kirk . their positions are not only ruinous to the peace of this government , but to the very being also of government it self . their very assembly of divines , did not only animate the sedition , and encourage the bringing of the late king to the block ; but several eminent members of it pass'd an approbation of that vnspeakable villany , after the fact was committed ; and frighted the people , in their pulpits , out of their christianity and allegiance , into an enthusiastick rage , after confusion and blood. sum up all this now ; and try if you can reconcile these people , in their practices and opinions , even to their very selves . the end . the nonconformist's plea for lay-communion with the church of england together with a modest defence of ministerial nonconformity, and the exercise of their ministry / by mr. john corbet ... corbet, john, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing c estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : c) the nonconformist's plea for lay-communion with the church of england together with a modest defence of ministerial nonconformity, and the exercise of their ministry / by mr. john corbet ... corbet, john, - . , [ ] p. printed for thomas parkhurst ..., london : . advertisement: p. [ ] at end. reproduction of original in huntington library. with: the remains of the reverend and learned mr. john corbet, late of chichester. london : printed for thomas parkhurst ..., -- an account given of the principles & practices of several nonconformists / written by mr. john corbet ... london : printed for thomas parkhurst ..., . created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng dissenters, religious -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - melanie sanders sampled and proofread - melanie sanders text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the nonconformist's plea for lay-communion with the church of england . together with a modest defence of ministerial nonconformity , and the exercise of their ministry . by mr. john corbet , late of chichester . london : printed for thomas parkhurst , at the bible and three crowns in cheapside near mercers chappel . . an advertisement to the reader . here thou hast some remains of the reverend and learned mr. corbet late of chichester ; those that knew him say , that he was a man endued with the wisdom that is from above , that is first pure , and then peaceable , gentle , ( meek , moderate , ) and easie to be intreated , full of mercy and good fruits , without partiality , without hypocrisie ; therefore it is conceived that any thing which he had designed for publick use , may be well accepted of , by all those that desire to follow after peace with all men , so far as is consistent with purity : whether the design of these remains of his be not to vindicate the truth , and to promote purity first , and then peace , is left to thee to judg after thou hast impartially perused and considered them in the fear of god ; and if in any measure they conduce to so good an end , it is hoped thou wilt be thankful to god for the benefit which the church of christ , and therein thy felf , mayst receive by the use of them . thou hast them just as they were left under his own hand ; if himself had lived to publish them , thou mightest possibly have had them in some better method : but it is not thought sit that any other person should take upon him to alter any thing in them . the nonconformists plea for lay-communion with the church of england , &c. notwithstanding my nonconformity , and the exercise of my ministry in that state , i am inclined upon the following considerarions to have communion with parish-churches in the worship of god , at those times in which our own congregations do not require my presence therein . . i own parish-churches , having a competent minister , and number of credible professors of christianity , for true churches , and the worship there performed , as well in the liturgy or common prayer , as in the preaching of the word , and prayer before and after sermon , to be in the main sound and good for the substance or matter thereof . and i may not disown the same in my practice by a total neglect thereof , for my judgment and practice ought to be concordant . . tho i judg their form of worship to be in many respects less perfect than is to be desired ; yet i have found my heart spiritually affected and raised towards god therein , and more especially in the receiving of the lords supper . i judg that this form may be used formally by the formal , and spiritually by those that are spiritual . it is my part to make the the best of it , being the established form. . i am desirous of joining , as far as i may , with all congregations worshipping god in christ , out of my high regard to all christian worship , and out of my love to the communion of saints universally , and a desire to testifie that i am a truly catholick christian. . tho i am constrained by force of conscience to be among those that dissent from the enjoined conformity ; yet my design and business is not to advance a severed party as such , but true christianity or godliness among all that profess the christian faith , and what in me lies to keep up a reverend esteem of gods ordinances celebrated among them all . . tho i have reason to have a very tender regard to those that own and accept my ministry , for their edification and satisfaction , yet by ways of love and concord i am to seek the edification of others also , while i lay no stumbling-block before the one or the other sort . against the putting of this intention in practice , i meet with these objections . obj. . i may seem a contradiction to my self , and to justifie what i disallow , having refused to give my assent and consent to all and every thing contained in the book of common-prayer . ans. . the denying of assent and consent to all and every thing contained in that book , doth not gainsay the lawfulness of partaking in that worship , it being sound for the substance in the main , and the mode thereof being laudable in divers forms and orders , and passable in the most , though in some offensive , inconvenient , or less perfect . . the chief matters for which i refuse to declare an assent as is enjoined , lye not in rhe ordinary morning and evening prayer , but in other parts , as the order of baptism , confirmation , burial of the dead , &c. and in certain rubricks or rules to which i cannot subscribe . obj. . it is to countenance a more defective and inconvenient way of worship , and it tends to the rooting of others in their formality , and to the encreasing of their number . ans. . my partaking in any divine worship which is holy and good for the matter , and allowable or passable for the mode in the main , doth not involve me in the blame of some sinful defects therein , to which i consent not , and which i cannot redress . . i do not acquiesce in this form of worship only , nor do i by my example induce others so to do , seeing in other congregations i both dispence and attend upon the word and prayer in another ●●rm , and judg it necessary for me so to do . . it is to me indubitable that this form is so far profitable and edifying , as that meerly for the defects found therein , there is no cause of renouncing it , or the communion of the churches for its sake , especially while other prayer and the preaching of the word is not there by excluded . object . . it is against our engagements for reformation . an. . i am engaged to indeavour reformation only according to my power and calling , and this practise doth not gainsay my indeavours of the same within those limits . . my engagement to indeavours of reformation , doth not necessitate me to unwarrantable separation . . my engagement to indeavours of reformation , doth also ingage me against schism . object . . it will offend ( that is to say , displease ) many of my own side . an. . they have no reason to be more offended with me for practising according to my principle , than i am offended with them for practising according to theirs . . it is a trouble to me to do any thing in religion , displeasing to those that are seriously religious , and more especially to those that own my ministry , and suffer under the same impositions under which i do ; but i may not sin for their sakes by a renouncing of true churches , or by a perpetual neglect of communion with them . object . . it may prove an occasion of raising a greater enmity against those that cannot be satisfied to partake in this worsh●p , yea , it may stir up a greater severity against them . an. this objection ( if that which is suggested in it be true ) is of great mdment , for i must have a tender regard to conscientious brethren and must not use my liberty to be an occasion of their suffering . but to this i say , . the moderate judgment and practise of some ( who in the mean time have maintained their plea for reformation , and exercised their ministry according to their capacities and opportunities ) hath been advantagious to the general interest of nonconformists . . if so bad a consequence should indeed follow , as is objected , i would for that season forbear the said use of my liberty , and p●●take with my brethren in their sufferings . object . . it may weaken my own party , and make many of them more indifferent towards reformation . an. . i disclaim being of a party as such : i confine not godliness to any peculiar way narrower than mere christianity . if any among us place their religion in being of a party , they deceive their own souls , and it behoves me being a teacher among them to let them understand so much . . while i use my liberty , and shew my moderation and charity towards all true churches , i do not shew an indifferency towards all opinions , and forms , and constitutions , but by word and deed i manifest a desire and indeavour of the best constitution , that hath the greatest tendency to make the best christians , and to advance holiness and peace in the churches object . . it may raise suspiti on s that i may proceed further in conformity , and that i am but a lukewarm nonconformist . an. . the kingdom of god stands not either in conformity or nonconformity as such . . i desire that my zeal in the matter of nonconformity may be proportionable , that is neither more nor less than the thing it self requires . . i am not willing to stand at a greater distance from others than i needs must . . how ready soever i am to pursue peace and concord , i am not like to conform , till the grounds of my nonconformity , which are with me of great weight , be removed . object . . hereby i may lose or lessen my reputation and interest among those of my own side . an. . my reputation and interest among men , must give place to the pleasing of god , and the keeping of a good conscience . . to me the most valuable benefit of reputation is an advantage thereby gained of being acceptable and successful towards men in the work of the ministry ; and that which is most advantagious hereunto , is the reputation of integrity , and to do all things advisedly , honestly , peaceably , without partiality , hypocrisie and felfishness , is the best means of such reputation . object . . it will not please those of the other side , unless i absolutely conform ; and it may be some of them will despise and hate me the more . an. . my design is not man pleasing , and i think it looks not like such ; i were very ill advised indeed , if while i venture the displeasing of my own , i should aim at the pleasing of a different party . . in reference to the other side , my design is not to please them , but to convince them , that what in me lies , i follow after church-peace and concord , and that the cause of the divisions that are , lies not on my part . . tho on the conforming side there may be some , who hate those most that come nearest to conformity , if they are not thorow therein ; yet there be others , who are more valuable , that are of a better spirit , with whom my moderation may have good effects . ob : . it may hazard a breach in our own congregation , and the dissolution thereof , as things now stand with us , and consequently hinder the good of souls , that is now gained by the word and prayer . an. . indeed such an evil is carefully to be avoided in this time of our difficulty and danger ; but i rationally hope that it will not so fall out : our friends are not ignorant of the latitude of my principle , and the practise here propounded will ' be no great surprisal to them , it being no more than what i declared that i did before i came to my present station among them . . i shall keep a watchful eye upon this concern ; if i see any distemper that threatens a breach arising upon this occasion , i will for a while suspend my liberty , and i wil proceed herein no otherwise than they can bear , i will be calm and gentle towards them , and not carry it peremptorily in any wise . and this i shall do not for my own private ends ( the searcher of hearts knows ) but sincerely for their good . . i will by degrees insinuate into them the equity of their bearing with me in my perswasions , as i bear with them in theirs , and of allowing me the liberty of my own acts in things that concern my self alone , when in such acts as concern the society , i do nothing without their consent . . if it should come to pass that they will impose upon me what is not fit for me to comply with ; in that case , i will not violently break from , nor stay to make breaches among them , but quickly withdraw my self . the sum of the matter . i consult not my private interest in the case , but am sincerely solicitous to know and do herein what is my duty to do . i would do what i can , to justifie my catholick principle and spirit , and i would abstain from the appearance of unwarrantable separation . i would give no occasion to any of disowning or reproaching a form of divine worship which is found in the substance thereof , and accepted of god from the sincere , tho it be less perfect in divers material points , and less convenient for the mode . i would in all things be a faithful guide to the people to whom i preach the gospel , i would lead them in the way of peace and concord , and be free from giving them an occasion of withdrawing from the established worship more than is necessary . i would shew my self a freeman governing my own acts according to my conscience , and not subject to the opinions and affections of others , or the imagined interests of a party . if i cannot mollfie them that seek to suppress me , i would render them more inexcusable . i would testifie , what in me lies , that nonconformists are capable of an accommodation , and silence them that gainsay it . a defence of my endeavours for the work of the ministry . that i might not be wanting to my just vindication in this cause , i hold my self obliged to present the aforesaid defence to the consideration of all impartial readers : it takes its rise from the several heads of the bishops charge against me , all which were owned by himself before many witnesses , and are here set down . . that forasmuch as i did not exercise the ministry in subordination to the bishop , and as regulated by him , i transgressed against the nature of my office , as not being the office of a pastor mentioned eph. . . . that i violate my oaths and promises which i made at my ordination , to obey the bishop or ordinary . . that i trespass against the right of the bishop , upon the account of exercising the ministry where he is the pastor . . that i make a schism in the church . . that i violate the authority of the civil magistrate . to these particulars , the several heads of my defence following , are a direct answer . . that i have received from christ the office of a pastor mentioned eph. . . and that i am bound in my present state to fulfil it . . that i am not obliged either by the nature of my office , or by any oath or promise , or by being under the regulation of authority , to exercise my ministry no otherwise than as in subordination to , and as authorised and regulated by the bishop of the diocess . . that i invade not the right of the diocesan bishop in exercising the ministry where he claims the right of being the pastor . . that i do not violate any true bonds of church-unity , nor in any respect cause divisions and offences . . that i do not violate the authority of the civil magistrate . § . that i have received from christ , the office of a pastor , mentioned , eph. . . and that i am bound in my present state to fulfil it . the ministry that i have received , is the sacred office of presbyterate , to which i am ordained according to the form of ordination that was established in the church of england . that this office is of divine right , i take for granted ; and that according to the scripture it is the office of a pastor , mentioned eph. . . i thus prove . . wheresoever this office is set forth in the scripture , it is set forth as the office of a spiritual pastor or bishop , which is to feed the flock of god by teaching and ruling it : and a presbyter who is a sacred officer of the christian church , but not a bishop or pastor , is no where mentioned in scripture . if it be said , that this office is otherwise set forth in scripture , or that a presbyter , who is a sacred officer of the christian church , yet no bishop , is there mentioned , let the assertor shew the place or places . if it be said , that this order of presbyterate may be of divine inst●tution , yet not defined or expressed in scripture , i desire satisfactory proof from some other authority ; both of its being of divine institution , and what its nature is . . to have the power of the keys of binding and loosing , of remitting and retaining sins in christs name , as his commissioned officer , is to have episcopal or pastoral power , and this power belongs to the said office of presbyterate . forasmuch as some distinguish the power of the keys into that which is in in foro interiore , or the court of conscience within , and that which is in foro exteriore , in the exterior court , to wit , that of the church ; the former of which is said to belong to the bishop and the presbyter , and the latter to the bishop only . i further inforce my argument ; . the scripture makes no such distinction ; and where the law distinguisheth not , we may not distinguish . . the distinction in this case is vain , for all power that belongs to the pastors of the church , purely respects the conscience , and it respects the conscience as having the conduct of the outward man , and that in reference to church communion , as well as other matters . . if presbyters may in the name of christ , bind the impenitent , and loose the penitent as to the conscience , which is the greater and primary binding and loosing , then by parity of reason , and that with advantage , they may bind and loose as to church-communion , which is the lesser secondary and subsequent binding and loosing . . that officer is a pastor or bishop , that hath a power of authoritative declaring or judging in christs name , that this or that wicked person in particular is unworthy of fellowship with christ and his church , and of charging the congregation in christs name , not to keep company with him , as being no fit member of a christian society ; & also a power of authoritative declaring or judging in christs name , that the same person repenting of his wickednes , and giving evidence thereof , is meet for fellowship with christ and his church , and of requiring the congregation in christs name again to receive him into their christian fellowship ; for these powers are no other than the powers of excommunication and ecclesiastical absolution : now the presbyter hath apparently the said powers , as he can undoubtedly declare , and judg , and charge as aforesaid , touching this or that person or particular ; all particulars being included in the general , he hath undoubtedly a power of applying the word in christs name as well personally as generally . . for the further clearing of what is already argued , let it be considered , that an authoritative teacher in the church commissioned by christ , is also a pastor ; for the government of a pastor is only by the spiritual sword , which is the word of god ; and the discipline which he exercises , is no more than the personal application of the same word to judg the impenitent , and to absolve the penitent in christs name ; and he that authoritatively teaches in christs name ( as the presbyter doth ) can do so much in the personal application of the word . . the pastoral authority of presbyterate is further cleared by many passages in the publick forms of the church of england touching that order . in the very form of my ordination according to the ancient use of this church , i received the office of a pastor and successor of the apostles ; i mean not in their apostolick but pastoral office : the form was this , receive the holy ghost ; whose sins thou remittest , they are remitted ; and whose sins thou retainest , they are retained ; and be thou a faithful dispenser of the word of god , and his holy sacraments , in the name of the father , and of the son , and of the holy ghost , amen . now the former part hereof is intirely and compleatly the form of words used by our saviour , joh. . , . towards the apostles , expressing their pastoral authority ; and the latter part , be tbou a faithful dispenser , &c. is no derogation or diminution from the power granted in the former part . if the presbyters are not the apostles successors in the pastoral authority , how could they have right to that form of ordination ? in the form of ordering priests or presbyters in one of the prayers after the mentioning of christs sending abroad into the world , his apostles , prophets , evangelists doctors , & pastors , there follows thanksgiving to god for calling those that were then to be ordered priests , to the same office and ministry of salvation of mankind . whence it appears , that this office is the same with some of the forementioned kinds . and what can it be but that of doctors and pastors ? this church did before the last alteration made anno . in solemn form of words require the presbyters , when they were ordained , to exercise the discipline of christ as the lord hath commanded ; and this realm received the same according to the commandments of god. and that they might the better understand what the lord hath commanded therein , this church did appoint also , that at the ordering of priests there be read for the epistle that portion of , acts . which relates st. paul's sending to ephesus , and calling for the elders of the congregation , with his exhortation to them to take heed to themselves , and to all the flock , among whom the holy ghost hath made them overseers , to rule the congregation of god. or else tim. , which sets forth the office and due qualifications of a bishop . these portions of scripture this church appointed to be read to the presbyters , as belonging to their office , and to instruct them in the nature of it . and afterwards the bishop speaks to them that are to receive the office of priesthood in this form of words . you have heard , brethren , as well in your private examination , as in the exhortation and the holy lessons taken out of the gospel , and the writings of the apostles , of what dignity , and of how great importance this office is whereunto ye are called — that is to say , the messengers , the watchmen , the pastors and stewards of the lord , to teach , to premonish , to seed , to provide for the lords family . i acknowledg that the passages here alledged are taken out of the old book of ordination , that was established in this church till the late alterations made anno . if those alterations signifie another meaning about the several holy orders than what was signified in the old book , then the sense of the church of england in these times differs from the sense of the same church in all times preceding the said alterations ; but if they signifie no other meaning than what was signified in the old book , my citations are of force to shew what is the sense of this church , as well of the present as of the former times about this matter . here i must take notice , that in opposition to part of what hath been alledged , it was asserted , that that part of tim. . which contains the office and qualification of a bishop , was read at the ordination of presbyters , not because it belonged to their office , but because it was joyned with that which follows touching the office of a deacon , then likewise read as properly concerning the office of a presbyter , pretended to be no other than the deacon there mentioned . to this i answer , if the presbyter in the church of england be indeed no other than the deacon spoken of , tim. . it see●● strange that this church , yea and the universal church , should so miscall an officer , as to give him a name , viz. presbyter , which the scripture always appropriates to another officer ( as is pretended ) and to neglect the scripture name of this office , viz. deacon . it is strange that an officer said to be no other than the deacon there spoken of , should have the power of the keys , the same form of ordination which christ used towards his apostles . if it were so , it is likewise strange that the qualifications of the said deacon should be appointed to be read at the ordination of a presbyter , as properly belonging to him ; and also at the ordination of a deacon inferior to a presbyter , as properly belonging to him , the former part of the chapter touching a bishop , being omitted . besides all this , the new book of ordination puts the matter out of doubt , and evidently refutes the aforesaid evasion . for in it the latter part of tim. . beginning at verse . touching the office of deacon , is appointed to be read at the ordering of deacons ; and the same is not appointed to be read at the ordering of priests , but another portion of scripture , viz. eph . , &c. furthermore , if the deacon mentioned in timothy be no other than the subject presbyter , i would know in what place of scripture the deacon of the church of england , inferior to a presbyter , is set forth . and be it noted , that the deacon of this church is not so much the deacon of tables , as of the word ; and therefore a presbyter must needs be degraded in being made no more than a deacon of the word . hitherto i have insisted on the nature of my office , and have proved it to be the office of a pastor . now i proceed to prove , that in my present state i am bound to fulfil it . being dedicated to this ministry , i stand under a perpetual obligation to fulfil it , according to my ability and opportunity , and as the necessity of souls requireth of me . and whatsoever some think , the thing is most evident , that the souls of men cry aloud for all the help that can possibly be given them by those whom christ hath qualified and called to the work of the ministry , wheth●r conformists or nonconformists . this apprehension reflects no dishonour upon conscientious conforming ministers , for whose ability and industry i bless god. but the number of them is not so proportionable to the people of this land , as to make the labours of those that are cast out , to be needless . the harvest is great , and the labourers are too few . as for this city , in which are six parishes within the gates , besides two in the suburbs , i leave it to the consideration of those that know the state thereof , whether there be sufficient care taken for the preaching of the gospel ; when as there is no setled preaching on the lords days , or week days , in any of the parish churches . the parish in which i dwell , hath for many years had no minister at all , and the two parishes without the gates for many years have had neither ministers nor churches , in one of which is the house that was licensed by his majesty for our meeting . the only setled preaching is at the cathedral , performed sometimes by the superior clergy , but mostly by a greater number of others in their courses , who generally living at a distance , cannot be so well known to the people as their appointed teachers ought to be ; and let them that know the place of preaching consider and judg , whether it can contain the inhabitants , if all should repair thither . i pass not to be despised or judged by them , who make slight work of the cure of souls , for whom christ hath given himself a ransom : certainly they are more precious than to be exposed to perish for lack of sufficient instruction and exhortation , rather than preachers authorized by christ , if silenced by men , when not disobedient to any ordinance prescribed by his word , should speak to them that they might be saved . the necessary means of saving souls , such as is the due publick preaching of the gospel , together with personal instruction , is incomparably more valuable than the maintaining of uniformity in little opinions , and ceremonies , and other accidental forms and orders . § . that i am not obliged either by the nature of my office , or by any oath or promise , or by being under the regulation of authority , to exercise my ministry no otherwise than as in subordination to , and as authorized and regulated by the bishop of the diocess . this head hath three distinct branches to be distinctly proved , whereof the first is , that i am not obliged by the nature of my office to exercise my ministry no otherwise than in subordination to , and as authorized and regulated by the bishop of the diocess . . the nature of this office doth not require it either in reason , or from the declared will of christ : first not in reason , for there is evidently no reason in the nature of the office , beng the office of a bishop or pastor , that it cannot be exercised but in subordination to a diocesan bishop : if any say that there is , let him shew it . . christ who is the author and only proper giver of all spiritual authority in the church , hath not either by himself , or by the mediation of the apostles , so defined or limited the aforesaid office of presbytetate , as that it can be exercised no otherwise , than in the aforesaid subordination . if any one affirm that christ hath so defined or limited it , it rests upon him to make proof of it . if it be urged , that i have no power but what i received by the ordainers , and that is a power of administring only in the aforesaid subordination . i answer , . i have already proved that by the very form of my ordination i received the office of a pastor and successor of the apostles in their pastoral office . . tho christ give the ordinary spiritual power , and particularly that of presbyters in some respect by the mediation of men , yet he gives it not by them as giving the power , but as instruments either of designing the person to whom he gives it , or of the solemn investiture of that person , as the king is the immediate giver of the power of a mayor in a town corporate , when he gives it by the mediation of the electors , not as giving the power , but designing the person to be invested with it , or by the mediation of some officers as instruments of the solemn investiture ly , for asmuch as the ordainer or ordainers that designed me to this office of christs donation , could not by any act of theirs inlarge or lesson it as to its nature or essential state , or define it otherwise , than it is stated by christ in his word ; in case such words were pronounced out of the book of ordination ( i say not that they were , but in case they were ) as import a lessening of the office in its essential state , they are void and null . if a minister , that joyns a man and woman in marriage according to the true intent of that ordinance , shall add other words that forbid the husband the government of his wife , that addition is a nullity . . i am not obliged by any oath or promise , to exercise my ministry no otherwise than as in subordination to the bishop of the diocess . i acknowledg that when i was ordain'd , i made those promissory answers to the bishops interrogatories , which are contained in the book of ordination that then was . but , . let it be considered , that if the said interrogatories and answers , or any of them , superinduced any limitation upon the office , that takes away any thing essential to it , ( i say not that they did , but in case they did ) they were nullities . . the promise then made to obey my ordinary , and other chief ministers to whom the government and charge over me is committed , concerns me only as a presbyter standing in relation to the bishop , as one of the clergy of the diocess , which i now am not , being cast out of that relation , and made uncapable of it ; and consequently the said capacity ceasing , the obligation c●aeth . . the said promise must be understood either unlimitedly , or with limitation ; if unlimitedly , it was a sinful promise in the matter thereof , and therefore void ; if with limitation , as in things lawful and honest , then i have not broken it ; for it is not lawful nor honest for me to desist from fulfilling the ministry that i have received , if the ordinary so require . . nor am i obliged as aforesaid by being under the regulation of authority . i treely acknowledg , that in the exercise of my ministry i am not exempt from the regulation of any just superior authority in the church ( as for the civil authority , it is after wards to be spoken of ) whether it be by way of government , or of agreement . and i had much rather live under a regulation , than not . but it cannot be supposed , that any superior authority can limit me to the prejudice of christs authority and interest , and the obligation that he hath laid upon me to discharge the office with which he hath intrusted me . my office is a trust received from christ , to be accounted for to him . i am his , and not the bishops minister . let it be supposed , tho not granted , that the bishop of the diocess were my rightful superior to repulate me in my office ; yet for him to ●o●bid me to discharge my office , and for me thereupon to desi 〈…〉 to the prejudice of christs authority , who would have me now to discharge it . christ chargeth me , among the rest of his ministers , in those words of st. paul , col. . . take heed to the ministry that thou hast received in the lord , that thou fulfil it . if any shall say , that christ hath now forbidden me to exercise the ministry , or discharged me from it , it behoves them to prove it , and i am ready to receive and consider any proof of it . § . that i invade not the right of the diocesan bishop in exercising the ministry , where he claims the right of being the pastor . here lest my sense of episcopacy be mistaken , i judg it necessary to premise , . that i fully own the scripture-bishop , or evangelical pastor . . that i do not disown the episcopacy that was of ancient ecclesiastical custom in the time of ignatius , yea or of cyprian . . that bishop ushers model of church-government by arch-bishops and bishops , with their presbyters , was offered to his majesty by the divines of the presbyterian persuasion ( as they were called ) for a ground-work of accommodation between the bishops and them . and i assent to the offer which they made . . after the same manner i assent to the state of episcopacy as described by k charls the first in his discourse touching the differences between himself and the two houses in the point of church-government , in these words : that he is not against the managing of the episcopal presidency in one man , by the counsel and consent of many presbyters ; but that he had offered to restore it , as a fit means to avoid those errors , and corruptions , and partialities , which are incident to any one man ; also to avoid tyranny , which becomes no christian , least of all church-men ; besides , it will be a means to take away that odium and burden of affairs which may lye too heavy on one mans shoulders , as he thought it did formerly on the bishops here . but i do not as yet discern the divine right of episcopacy in the state and priviledges thereof here following , wherein i desire information , and would gladly receive satisfaction , if there be such divine rights indeed . none can be justly offended with me for examining in my own defence that right which i am accused to have invaded . do not discern that a bishop infimi gradus , i mean one that hath none under him but parish-ministers , who are pretended to have no episcopal governing-power , i say i discern not that such a bishop can by divine right challenge to himself alone the episcopal authority over hundreds of particular churches . for every particular church should have its proper pastor or bishop . and particular churches with their proper pastors , are so evidently of divine right , that some eminently learned men in the church of england have declared their judgment , that no form of church-government besides the meer pastoral office and church-assemblies , is prescribed in the word of god , but may be various , according to the various condition and occasion of several churches . neither do i discern , how it is possible for one man to do the work of a bishop towards hundreds of churches , i mean the work of a bishop infimi gradus , under whom there are no subordinate bishops or pastors . for the work of such a bishop is to oversee all the flock , to preach to them all , to baptize and confirm all that are to be baptized and confirmed , to administer the lords supper to all , to bless the congregation , publickly and privataly to admonish all as their need requires ; to excommunicate the impenitent , to absolve the penitent , and that upon knowledg of their particular estate . if such a diocesan bishop saith , it sufficeth that he perform all this to the flock by others , namely by the parish-ministers as his curates , and by other officers his substitutes ; it is answered , . that the pastoral authority is a personal trust . . it is desired that he shew his commission from christ the prince of pastors , to do his work by others ; for i am now inquiring what is of divine , and not of humane right . . none but a bishop can do the proper work of a bishop . but if it be said , that the parochial congregations are not churches , but only parts of the diocess , which is the lowest particular church : i desire proof from scripture , that such congregations as our parishes , having their proper presbyter or presbyters invested with the power of the keys , are not particular churches properly so called . the reason of my desire of this proof is , because the scripture is a perfect rule for the essential constitution of churches , tho accidents there unto belonging may be regulated by humane prudence . . it is most evident in scripture , that a particular congregation of christians , having their proper pastor or pastors , presbyter or presbyters , are churches properly so called : and a parochial minister i conceive to be a pastor or elder according to the scripture . moreover if a diocess containing a hundred , two hundred , five hundred , or a thousand parishes ( as somewhere it doth ) do constitute but one particular church , and those particular parishes be not properly to be accounted churches , but only so many parts of that one diocesan church , why may not ten thousand , yea ten times ten thousand parishes be likewise accounted but one particular church , and brought under one man as sole bishop or pastor thereof ? in all this i have not argued against the right of an arch-bishop , or overseer of other bishops , such as titus must needs be , if he were bishop of cr●te , where bishops or elders were to be ordained in every city . if either scripture , or prudence guided by scripture , be for such an office , i oppose it not , and nothing here spoken makes against it . if our diocesan bishops be in very deed arch-bishops or ooverseers of inferior bishops , to wit , parish-ministers , i do not here argue against it , but only say , that in their , archiepiscopal diocess or province they cannot exercise their authority any otherwise than according to the rules of gods word for the edification and peace of the church , and that they cannot discharge the inferior bishops from their obligation to christ , whose immediate ministers and stewards they are , and to whom they are immediately accountable . moreover i do not discern that any bishop can by divine right so challenge or claim such a circuit of ground for his diocess ( as for example the county of sussex ) as that thereupon he can by the said right prohibit all other pastors whatsoever to do the work of the ministry in any case without his licence within such a circuit of ground , or that such a measure of ground is related to his episcopal office as a propriety for government ecclesiastical , like as certain territories , and dominions are as a propriety in reference to civil government , related to the temporal soveraingty of a prince . the partition of one church from another by local bounds , is not of divine institution , but of humane prudence from the convenience of the thing ; i say convenience , not absolute necessity ; and the state of things may be such as to compel to vary from it in some particulars . it is supposed by learned men , that in the apostles times there were several churches at rome under their several bishops or pastors in the same local bounds , as one of the circumcision , and another of the uncircumcision . and if it were not so de facto , i think few will deny but that it lawfully might have been so . if upon the aforesaid diversity of condition in the persons , namely , as being of different nations and languages , there may be several churches under several bishops or pastors within the same local bounds , why not also upon other diversity of condition , which may render them as uncapable of being of the same particular church , as if they were of divers nations ? one instance may be an unmovable diversity of persuasions about points of religion . as for example , why may not lutherans and calvinists of the same nation , town or village , have their several churches under their several pastors , and live in peace ? nothing could hinder the said peace , but want of christian humility and charity . and consequently , why among us may not christians that have invincible diversity of persuasions in matters of church government live peaceably within the same precincts in their several churches ? besides all this , if the local bounds assigned for one mans immediate pastoral charge be so vast , and the multitude of souls therein be so great as to render it impossible for any one man to fulfil that charge towards them , can it be judged an usurpation against dwine right , if another pastor without license from him should perform ministerial service within those bounds ? likewise let it be 〈…〉 ered what may or may not be done , in any circuit of gro 〈…〉 ●here the inhabitants are destitute of competent provision for their souls , and lie neglected by such as claim the pastoral ch●●ge over them . is it an intrusion or usurpation , if in that case one that is dedicated to the work of the ministry shall endeavour without licence from the said neglecters , by preaching and other ministerial service to save souls that are so exposed ? furthermore , let it be considered how any clergy-man can be the proper pastor of a people , that doth not the work of a pastor towards them , which work i have before set forth . lastly , i cast in this consideration also , how any clergy-man can be the proper pastor to a people against their wills . i doubt not but a people may sin , yea , greatly sin in not receiving a pastor duly offered to them , and so they may as greatly sin by receiving such a pastor as may be imposed on them . but how any one can actually bear the pastor al relation to a people , that never consented to that relation , i would be better informed . thus it hath been examined , whether i am culpable by trespassing against the divine right or rights of a diocesan bishop in exercising the ministry where he claims the right of being pastor . and it hath been examined in that form , which the matter being a tender point is capable of . as for his humane rights , they are his preeminence and jurisdiction under the king as supreme , and to which he is intituled by the law of the land. now i am no usurper against this ; for i claim no such preeminence , i exercise no such jurisdiction . as for my obededience to his jurisdiction as an officer subordinate to the king , it shall be spoken of in its own place . § . that i do not violate any true bonds of church-unity , nor in any respect cause divisions and offences . the case of schism now in controversie is not to be hudled up , but well stated , whereunto many considerations are prerequisite . those that are set down , i take to be of moment : but the express application of them , i forbear , and doubt not but the considering and impartial reader will excuse me therein ; and judg that he himself can easily do that part with more convenience than i can in this writing . church-unity is not to be built upon the doctrines and ordinances of men , but upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets , jesus christ being the chief corner stone ; and none are to be shut out from the communlon of the church , or the work of the ministry , whom christ hath not excluded , but qualified and called thereunto according to the scriptures which are the rule of admission and exclusion from the said priviledges . . the unity of the spirit , which we are charged to keep in the bond of peace , is not concord in external forms and orders without participation of the same new nature , and walking in the same holy way . it is said eph. . one body , and one spirit , and one hope , one lord , one faith , one baptism , one god and father of all ; but not one ceremony , one posture of body , one garb of church-ornaments , one habit of vestments , one ritual and unity of assent to all opinions and formalities : an holy fellowship in the spirit of grace , and in the life of faith and love , is far more excellent than the greatest complyance in ceremonies and unnecessary doctrines of doubtful disputations , and consequently , is far more regardable in that estimation and reception of persons either for church-communion , or the holy ministry . touching schism , let this be noted : it is not secular power and interest , that of it self can constitute a true church or pastor , no● can it excuse those that are born up by it from schism when they act schismatically , and do all that they can to continue the snares of division ; neither are all they without more a do to be accounted schismaticks who are destitute of secular power , and who cannot in all points observe the commandments of men , or neglect to give their necessary help in christs service , when they are forbidden of men . schism is the causing of divisions in or from the church , as the apostle sets it forth rom. . . mark them that cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine that ye have learned : and let them be marked indeed whosoever they are . the guilt of it lies as much upon those that make unwarrantable separations ; and they are most culpable that are the chief causes of the division ; and such are they , who impose unlawful terms of church-communion and m●nisterial liberty , and they also that rigorously impose such terms thereof , as christ and his apostles never warranted them to impose , either expresly or by consequence . let the case of such as are cast and kept out of a church by wrong sentence , or by imposition of unlawful terms of communion , or unnecessary terms , that are unlawful to them by unremovable doubts of conscience , be considered , for such a case may be : what shall they do ? must the unrighteousness of others be a perpetual bar to them against the injoyment of those priviledges , to which they have a right before god ? why may they not lawfully injoy gods ordinances in distinct assemblies , if they hold them peaceably and charitably ? let the case of such ministers as are cast and kept out of the ministry by the imposition of unlawful terms , or unnecessary terms that are unlawful to them by unremoveable doubts of conscience , be considered , for this case also may be : what shall they do when they are under an obligation to christ to fulfil their ministry ; and when the necessities of fouls make theirs , as well as others ministry to be necessary , and when all the help that can possibly be given both by them and by those that dissent from them , is little enough ? every pastor tho he be under the publick judgment of superiors , hath a judgment of discretion also ( that is to say , a right of discerning ) about his own call a●d obligation to this service . let it be here also considered , whether the necessary means of saving souls , such as is the due preaching of the gospel , be not incomparably more precious than uniformity in matters of opinion and ceremony , and accidental order . there is a great difference between inimical segregation , like sedition in a commonwealth ; and a going severally upon weighty reasons , and without breach of charity : and among other weighty reasons this may be one , that all christians of sound faith and good life , that are dissatisfied about some humane injunctions and orders in a church , may not for lack of tender regard towards them , be utterly abandoned and exposed to be led aside into the errôrs of the wicked , as to heresie , apostacy or a course of irreligion . it is in the power of rulers to grant this indulgence to such dissenters , when it is not in the power of dissenters to change their judgments . and this is not to set up church against church , or according to an ancient manner of speaking , altar against altar , but only either occasional and temporary assemblies , or at the most but divers churches distinguished by their several places of assembling , as one parish-church from another ; and by diversity of external order , as the allowed congregations of foreigners in london from the parish churches . the same true religion for the substance thereof , is exercised ; and the same holy ends are pursued in the one and the other . and there will be no opposition between them , but what an unchristian enmity proceeding from worldly lusts and interests will produce . if any object the inconveniencies that may follow the permitting of church-assemblies besides those of the established order , i have this to reply : . our rulers may so provide , if the clergy would ●ot gainsay , that few may stand in need of that permission , in comparison of those that now do ; and the way is to fix the terms of church-communion and ministerial liberty , so as to comprehend all sober protestants ; and this is done by requiring no more as necessary to the one or the other , than what christ hath made necessary thereunto . . after such comprehension setled , the toleration of all tolerable dissenters within such limits as will secure publick peace and safety , is more agreeable to the wisdom and clemency of rulers , and the charity of christians , than the rigorous constraining of the said dissenters to what they cannot bear , and the restraining of them from the liberty of serving god according to their eonsciences . . but if the present state of things must continue , the inconveniences that may follow the present practise of the protestant nonconformists , are far less than what will follow the deserting of their ministry , and the neglect of fouls in so great a need of their help . the considerations aforegoing i submit to the judgment of impartial readers , in reference to the case of protestant nonconformists , of whom i am . moreover , i judg it necessary to give some account of my own principles and practice . i have not wilfully forsaken my ministerial station in the established order , but am driven from it . i am ready to make oath before any that have power to administer it to me , that my conscience is not satisfied , that it is lawful to observe all the terms that are imposed . let it be noted , that i do not affirm the unlawfulness of the terms ; but that they are unlawful to me in regard of my conscience , and i am ready to render reasons of my dissatisfaction . it hath been alledged . that so much hath been written for conformity , as may satisfie any that have a mind to be satisfied : but i profess in his sight , who knows my heart , that i have a mind to be satisfied if i knew how . i set up no faction or severed party against the common interest of religion ; but according to my mean ability i seek the edification , peace and concord of all christians of all persuasions , and the encrease of true godliness among them all . i renounce not parochial churches as no true churches ; i have not forsaken the communion of such churches , nor encouraged others to forsake them ; but have communicated with them in the worship of god , and so shall do : and this my principle and practice i am not sparing to declare to my friends that are of another mind in this particular . nevertheless where a parish minister is utterly unmeet for the charge of souls , i cannot encourage any to commit the charge of their souls to him . but as for all conscientious and faithful conformists , i highly prize them for their works sake , and seek to promote their reputation , and the success of their labours . i will thankfully accept the liberty of ministeral imployment in the said churches , when it shall be granted me . and for the obtaining of my liberty , i am ready to submit not only to whatsoever is in specie or particularly injoined in gods word , but to whatsoever is necessary in genere , and left in specie to humane determination , if it be determined according to the general rules of gods word . i have given an account of my self according to the latitude of my own principles ; but i have not done it to the prejudice of others that are of sound faith and good life , but of narrower principles touching church-government ; for by the considerations here propounded , their due liberty is provided for . § . that i do not violate the authority of the civil magistrate . i am licensed by the king to be a teacher , and to teach in any place licensed and allowed by him . his majesty hath declared the same to be grounded on his supremacy in ecclesiastical affairs . in the last law against conventicles it is provided , that neither that act , nor any thing contained therein , shall extend to invalidate or avoid his majesty's supremacy in ecclesiastical affairs . of my license granted by his majesty , there hath been no revocation that i know of . if upon reasons of state it hath seemed good to hi● majesty to grant no more licenses since such a time , i do not see that it follows thereupon that he hath made void the licenses that he hath granted . his majesty hath graciously declared , that he had seen better effects of one years indulgence , than of many years severity before that time . tho the parliament were dissatisfied in the way of the kings granting the indulgence ; yet they approved the thing it self , and accordingly passed a bill for the grant of it ; tho by occasion of their speedy recess it passed not into a law. it appears that the parliament hath the matter of indulgence , or liberty to dissenters , still under consideration , by the bill of comprehension , which at their last meeting was voted in the house of lords , with the concurrence of divers bishops ; but their prorogation hindered the compleating thereof . now when this is the sense both of king and parliament about this matter , i humbly hope that our superiors will take it into their prudent consideration , and be favourable to honest and peaceable people under their jurisdiction . but supposing , tho not granting , that my license is not in force ; i proceed to some other considerations . i acknowledg the kings supremacy in all causes , and over all persons civil and ecclesiastical . as the power given to spiritual pastors , is declared in scripture to be given for edification , and not for destruction ; so the power given to the civil magistrate in matters ecclesiastical , is given to the same intent . as in naturals , the inferior subordinate causes have no power of acting against the efficacy of the superior ; so in morals the inferior ruler hath no authority against the superior . therefore if magistrates , being all of them subordinate to god , shall command any thing contrary to his law , such their command cannot beget an obligation on the subj●ct to fulfil it , tho the subject must not resist their power . the civil magistrate , notwithstanding his authority in ectlesi●sticks , cannot discharge any minister of the gospel from the exercise of his ministry in those circumstances wherein christ commands him to exercise it . the civil magistrate is to judg what laws are fit for him to enact and execute about ecclesiastical matters , and the ministers of the gospel have a right of discerning , which is called a judgment of discretion , about their own pastoral acts , what they ought , and what they ought not to do , according to gods word , otherwise they must be held obliged to a blind , popish , brutish obedience . but whatsoever the ministers discern to be their duty to do , they ought to do the same only in such ways as are consistent with their loyalty to god and the king. the bishop hath no external jurisdiction in his publick courts , but what is derived from the king as supream ; and the ecclesiastical laws , by which the bishop is to proceed , are the kings ecclesiastical laws . consequently no minister , that lives under any bishops jurisdiction which is but derived , can be obliged to obey the bishop proceeding in his court , any further than he is obliged to obey the king , who hath the supreme jurisdiction under god and christ , and that is no further than is consistent with obedience to god. i presented this clear and open defence with desire and expectation of his lordships answer in writing according to his promise , ( as i apprehended ) but he refused to receive it . i trust through the grace of god , that i am ready to renounce any error , whereof i shall be convicted , and to receive any truth that shall be made manifest to me . and i give this account before men in the sense of that great account which i must give to the chief shepherd and bishop of souls , who searcheth the hearts and reins , and will give unto every one according to his works . finis several tracts not yet printed , prepared for the press , and left under mr. john corbet's own hand-writing , intended shortly to be published , are as follows . . the true state of the ancient episcopacy . . the present ecclesiastical government , compared with the ancient episcopacy . . a consideration of the present state of conformity in the church of england . . a discourse of the church , and of the ministry thereof . . a tract of certainty and infallibility . . of divine worship , in three parts ; . of the nature , kinds , parts , and adjuncts of divine worship . . of idolatry . . of superstition less than idolatry . . matrimonial purity . those already lately printed of mr. john corbet's , are , . kingdom of god among men , with a a discourse of church-unity and schism . . . self-imployment in secret . . an account given of the principles and practises of several nonconformists . . an humble endeavour of some plain and brief explication of the decrees and operations of god about the free actions of men. more especially of the operations of divine grace . the judgment of m. cartwright and m. baxter concerning separation and the ceremonies cartwright, thomas, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing c estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) the judgment of m. cartwright and m. baxter concerning separation and the ceremonies cartwright, thomas, - . baxter, richard, - . [ ], p. [s.n.], london : . includes bibliographical references. reproduction of original in huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng church of england -- customs and practices. dissenters, religious -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - elspeth healey sampled and proofread - elspeth healey text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the judgment of m. cartwright and m. baxter concerning separation and the ceremonies . london , printed in the year , . to the reader . upon this following letter of t. c. there will need no other observation than what archbishop bancroft long since made , in these words : but it most of all pleaseth me to see , how master cartwright draweth homeward . for as the anabaptists by their madness kept master calvin within some good compass , and as master beza hath been compelled in some sort , to retire himself from his former eagerness : so assuredly the phrenetical giddiness of these our new unbrideled schismaticks , who for pretended purity are many degrees beyond all the savoyan disciplinarians , hath wrought a miracle ( to my understanding ) upon m. cartwright . for hear him , how for fear of falling into flat donatism , he was fain to plead against one ( that had been his scholar ) in the behalf of the church of england , so bitterly before by himself impugned . the ordinary assemblies ( saith he ) of those which profess the gospel in england , are the churches of christ : which he proveth in this sort ; those assemblies which have christ for there head , and the same also for their foundation , are gods churches : such are the assemblies of england , therefore , &c. again , they that have performed unto them the special covenant which the lord hath made with his churches , of pouring his spirit upon them , and putting his word into their mouths , are the churches of god : but such are the assemblies in england , therefore , &c. hereunto may be added ( saith he further ) the judgment of all the churches of christ in europe , all which give the right hand of society in the house of god , unto the assemblies which are in england . again , to prove that the church of england is the church of god , notwithstanding it want the pretended discipline ; he useth this distinction ; that at it is in mans body , so is it in this matter ; there are certain-parts essential , and such as without the which a man cannot stand , and some serving either to his comelyness or to his continuance . and of this latter sort he maketh the discipline . and lastly , he write , thus ; to say that the church of england is not the church of god , because it hath not received this discipline , methinks is all one with this , as if a man would say , it is no city , because it hath no wall : or , that it is no vineyard , because it hath neither hedge nor ditch . thus far master cartwright . in which his manner of speech you find a very great alteration , from his anoient stile . and as concerning the necessity whereof i intreat , the wind you see is turned . there is no more necessity in england of the geneva platform , than that every city in this realm should be walled about . and besides , the pretended discipline is become not to be any longer of the essence of the church , but as appertaining to the comelyness of it . and a little after , and this i will add unto it , that if master cartwright would but confer with some that haves kill in fortification , to know of him whether an old thick wall of lime and stone , made many hundred years since , or a new slight wall slubbered over , and wrought with untempered mortar some few years ago , whether ( i say ) of these two walls are of better defense for any city : i should be in good hope , that he would in short time , leave the disciplinary walls of geneva , and content himself with the ancient fortifications of the church of england ; and the rather , because he seeth what a giddy and itching humour his novelties have bred , in the unstayed sort of many fantastical people . now to what m. cartwright hath said in general to shew that there is no such necessity of separation from the church of england , as some of his followers now pretend : may be added the judgment of a later writer ( concerning those particulars which are so much scrupled by them , who under pretense of greater purity will needs cast out all decency and good order from the house of god : ) in a book , intituled five disputations of church government and worship . printed at london , . a letter of t. c. to richard harrison concerning separation . grace and peace , &c. for so much as i left you the choice for the first conference , whether you would have it in writing , or by speech of mouth ; i attended some daies for answer of that matter : which , because it was not returned , i esteemed that you held you still to the request of your letters ; which was , to receive something from me by writing . for answer therefore ; so it is , that your letters affected me diversly : for where your first page had raised me up unto some hope , of re-uniting your self with the rest of your company unto us , from whom you have thought good to sunder your selves ; the second page , which layeth forth the condition of our peace , did cast me , and as were , beat me from it again . howbeit , the mercy of god upholding me in some good hope of profiting you , or receiving profit from you , i thought to cut out this time of my weightiest and most necessary business , wherein i might give that contentment , which the lord hath enabled mine hand unto . unto you , not unwilling to come to us , the passage ( as it seemeth ) is stopped in divers respects : the short whereof is ; the receiving without publick repentance , of those which come from the churches of england : where because in the outward profession , that the laws of the land do justifie the dumb ministry , there appear unto you no lawful assemblies of the church of christ ; your fear is , least in uniting your selves with such , you should be unequally yoaked , and made fellow members of some other than of that whereof christ jesus is the head. first therefore , if it be shewed , that the ordinary assemblies of those that profess the gospel in england be the churches of christ , it seemerh that the way will be paved and planed for mutual entercourse between us . thus therefore it seemeth to be performed . those assemblies which have christ for their head , and the same also for their foundation are gods church . but such are the assemblies of england . ergo , they are gods church . the assumption is evident , in that , by believing that christ is our righteousness , we are members of his body , and thereby are lively stones laid upon him as upon a foundation , and grow into one spiritual house with him . now that they have like precious faith with us , is convinced , not onely by their own profession , but by the testimony of the spirit of god , who by manifold graces poured upon them , doth bear them witness that they be members of the body of christ , who as the head hath partaked unto them his holy spirit , even to an apparent sanctification of numbers of them . they which have performed unto them the special covenant which the lord hath made with his churches , by pouring his spirit upon them , and his word in their mouths , are the churches of god. but such are the assemblies in england ; therefore , they are the churches of god. as touching the spirit of god , it hath been said before : whereupon it also followeth , that he likewise put his word in their mouths , considering that the spirit of god is not given but by his word . and seeing that the lord in mercy hath set up divers burning lamps in those assemblies , whereby light is conveyed more or less into all the parts of the land ; it seemeth that the church of england should receive injury if it should not be counted among the golden candlesticks , which serve to keep out darkness and night from the lords house , until such time as the day-spring , and lucifer arise in our hearts . if you say , all do not believe the gospel truly , which profess ; the same exception lyeth against all other churches , how reformed soever . if there be fewer faithful in our churches , than in others ; the truth of the church standeth not in number : for it there were in every church one truly undissemblingly faithful , all the rest holding the faith of our lord jesus christ in words onely , yet should all those churches be to us the churches of god. and if you say , that all those assemblies , as it were all the branches and arms of the candlestick , have not light set upon them ( the greater part of them being damped by a dumb ministry ) notwithstanding by the way you confess , that those assemblies upon whom the lord hath set up the lamp of a preaching ministery , are the churches of god : which seemeth to cast down that hill which standeth in the way against our rejoyning , whereby you cannot afford us the name of gods churches , because we have not the discipline by him appointed . now for that other , whether they have some glaunce of knowledge by that dumb ministery or not , may afterward in another place be considered : for the present , i answer , that even those congregations , for so much as they both have by some former ministery or means which the lord hath used towards them , received faith ; standing thereby in our saviour christ , as in the shaft of the candlestick , and being members of the same body , they may well receive some supply of their wants , from the light that shineth in the next branch unto them ; for if every assembly being without a lamp of the ministery , should by and by be holden to be broken from the shaft of the church-candlestick , then at every vacation of the ministery , and whensoever by death the lord should put out one of his lights , it should follow , that that assembly by the fall of their minister into the grave , should from the highest heaven fall into the grave of hell. but you will say peradventure , that an assembly that hath a dumb minister , is in worse case than that which bath none at all : if that be granted , it followeth not therefore , that the assembly which yesterday , being without a dumb minister , was the church of god , should to day , having such a one set over them , be the synagogue of satan . and here , methink , when you go about to make nothing of the dumb ministery , you ascribe more force unto it than it hath : for you make him not so much a guide , as an head of the church , as that those which before in all equal judgment were to be deemed members of christ , by having of them should suddenly become members of antichrist . i do not therefore yield unto you in that you say , they are the chief alway in the synagogue ; our saviour christ , in whom those companies do believe , being the chief ; with whom through faith they grow to be one body , rather than with satan by * hearing the dumb minister , to be one with him . say therefore , that it is a fault in them to hear such a minister , thrust upon them ; yet that it is an apostacy from god , and an utter falling away from the gospel , i se not with what great appearance of truth it can be spoken . moses , when divers of the people clave unto coreh , dathan , and abiram , forsaking willingly the lawful and ordinary ministery of the aaronites , did not therefore cast them forth from the lords host : and should the churches of god , for hearing a dumb minister , which is thrust upon them , forthwith be reputed for runagates from the lord ? again : the lord is in covenant with the people , to whom he gives the seals of his covenant . this he doth to our assemblies in england . therefore , they are the lords confederates . if you say , that the seals set to by the dumb ministery are no seals , ( which afterward cometh to be examined ) yet you thereby confess , that those which are ministered by sufficient ministers , are true and uncounterfeit sacraments of the church : whereby it falleth out again , that you seem to hold , that the churches of england are not the true churches of christ , because they have not his commanded discipline . hereto may be added all the churches in europe , all which give the right hand of society in the house of god unto the assemblies which are in england . which argument of churches authority , although it be not so strong as it will enforce , yet ought it to stay all sudden judgment unto the contrary : and so long to cause silence , until the cause being ripely on both sides debated , the contrary of it which the churches should do , through the lightsomness of the truth thereof break forth . and if it be meet to proceed softly , and as it were with a leaden foot , unto the excommunication of one onely member of the church of god ; there ought verily to have been great consultation taken , or ever the churches of two whole islands should have been cast out : especially , when they be holden in by voices , not onely of divers persons , but of all the churches to whom knowledge of their estate hath come . and if there were but one man worthy to be excommunicate , yet if the greater part of your assembly would not yield consent thereunto , i hold it , that the order of the discipliae requireth that the rest are to bear the person whom they cannot remove : and therefore , though the assemblies of england had deserved , through want of discipline , and of a preaching ministery , to be cast out from the accompt of the churches of god ; yet being holden in by the voices of the churches themselves , ought to have been so far born with , as the communicating should not make them guilty of a falling away from the lord. now i come to those two reasons whereby you think you may justly hold the assemblies in england for no churches of god : and first of all to the reason of the discipline , for the want whereof you gave them all without exception the black stone of condemnation from being the churches of god : where it is to be understood , that as in a man there are certain parts essential , and such as without which the man cannot stand ; and other some serving to his comelyness , or to his long continuance : so it is in this matter ; there is the foundation , christ , whereupon it is necessary that by faith the assemblies be laid , which groweth unto the lords building , without the which it cannot be his church ; which thing being , whatsoever is wanting of that which is commanded , or remaining of that which is forbidden , is not able to put that assembly , which by faith is laid upon christ , from the right and title of being the church of christ : for faith can admit no such thing , which giveth an utter overthrow and turning upside down of the truth . by this title of the faithful , the apostle in his epistles noteth out the churches of god , it being all one with him to say , to the faithful , or to the saints , as to the church of such a place . whatsoever wanteth unto this , or is more than enough , that wanteth or aboundeth to the disgrace or uncomelyness , or to the hazard of continuance , and not to the present overthrow of the church . hereupon the people of israel , which neglected for the space of forty years the holy sacrament of circumcision , and the passeover also as it seemeth ( one onely time excepted ) ceased not therefore to be the churches of god , and to have the sanctuary among them . and in this respect the dutch assemblies , whereof the greatest part in high germany ( which , beside the main of discipline , which is common to our churches , are groslly deceived in the matter of the supper ) are notwithstanding holden in the roul of the churches of god. in this respect also , certain assemblies of our profession , which having the use of the discipline permitted unto them , are not suffered to have the use of the lords supper , are not therefore ( when the lords churches are mustered , and their names written and enrouled up ) cast out as unfit to be in any accompt of the lords hosts . without any part of that order or discipline which the lord hath appointed , i grant there can be no church of christ ; or , that without some part of it , there can be no faith in jesus christ : it is a part of the discipline of our saviour christ , that there should be certain which should be chosen out of the rest to preach the gospel , by preaching whereof the churches are gathered together : where therefore there is no ministery of the word , there it is plain , that there are no visible and apparent churches . it is another piece of the discipline of the lord , that the rest of the body of the church should obey those that are set over them in the lord : wheresoever therefore there is no obedience of the people to the ministers , that in the lords name preach unto them , there can be no true church of christ . but where these two be , although other points want , yea although there be some defect in these , that neither the ministers do in all points preach as they ought , nor the assemblies in all points obey unto the wholesome doctrine of their teachers ; yet do they ( for the reason above-said ) retein the right of the churches of god. this is made plain by a similitude from the body of a man , whereinto we are already entred : for if a man should have both his hands and his arms cut off , his eyes put out , &c. yet as long as the head standeth , and other vital parts , he is to be accompted a man , although a maimed man : even so it is in the assembly ; as long as it holdeth the head , how defective soever it is otherwise , it hath the due and right of the church of god. and although a man should have six fingers in one hand , and but three in another , and albeit they should stand where the mouth doth ; yet all this deformity should not hinder him from being truely holden to be a man , although it should be a great deformity in him . on the other part , if he had no head at all , or that there were no natural conjunction of the parts one with another , but a whole and through displacing of every part from his proper seat ; then verily would he be denyed to have either the proportion of a man , or his life . so likewise if an assembly should not hold the head , which is jesus christ , or be nothing elss but a confused multitude , without part of the order which the son of god hath appointed , the same is justly crossed out of the accompt of gods church . was not jerusalem , after the return from babylon , the city of the great king , until such time as nehemiah came and builded the walls of the city ? to say therefore , it is none of the church of god , because it hath not received the discipline , metthinks it is all one with this , as if a man should say , it is no city because it hath no wall , or that it is no vineyard because it hath neither ditch nor hedge . it is not , i grant , so sightly a city , or vineyard , nor yet so safe against the invasion of their several enemies which lye in wait for them ; yet are they truely both cities and vineyards . there remaineth that other point , which is against those assemblies onely which have a dumb minister : wherein the part of your conclusion , that that assembly where they be , is none of the church of god , is before answered . therein resteth that part of your conclusion , whereby you infer , that the sacraments ministred by them are none of gods sacraments , and therefore that a man may not receive any part of them at their hands . here first i agree with you , that their ministery is unlawful , and to themselves , without repentance , a certain matter of destruction ; especially in those to whom knowledge of corruption is come : to the churches where they be , presently hurtful , and in the end without remedy , deadly : but that they are no ministers of god , so far as to receive the good they offer unto us , that ( i suppose ) i may not yield unto : the ground whereof i take from the former part of my answer ; that for so much as they are allowed by the churches of god , they ought , until remedy may be found of so great disorder , to be heard and retained so far as they can give us any thing that is of christ : and for this cause our saviour commanded , that the scribes should be heard , for that they taught truely ; which honour our saviour would never have given unto them , unless the church-calling had moved him thereunto : neither had it been lawful for the people otherwise to have heard them ; for it is evident that their unfitness and unlawfulness in the ministery ( although another way ) was as great as it is in our reading ministers . they were altogether deceived in the messias ; for neither knew they that jesus was christ ; nor yet that christ , whom they looked for , should be the son of god , but held him for a bare and naked man. it appeareth also that they taught the justification by the law of works , not onely in the . of luke , but even in the same very place , where our saviour christ commandeth this audience : for speaking of the works of the moral law , which they would not touch with one of their fingers , he saith , that they laid them upon the peoples backs as burthens which cannot be born : whereby our saviour ( beside their pharisaical pride and lordlyness in teaching ) signifieth that they taught them to justification ; seeing that if they had onely taught them as testimonies and fruits or faith , they had not been intolerable , bur , as our saviour christ saith , an easie yoke , and as s. john saith , not grievous nor heavy . now the dumb ministery is not farther off from the justification of a lawful ministery , than to teach untruely in the chief grounds , of religion ; neither is the edifying of the church respected in making laws for the ministery , less hindred by an unpreaching ministery . and according to this saying of our saviour christ , we may see what the practice of the prophets had been before ; who although they had oftentimes to do with false teachers and priests that were dumb dogs and not able to bark , yet ( giving the people warning of their corruptions and insufficiencies , threatning also the casting of them from their ministery , in that good time when the lord shall take pity on his church ) they are never found to have forbidden the people to have come unto their sacrifices commanded by the law unto them . yea our saviour christ that lived in the corruptest times of the church , and when things were most confused , and fewest steps of any lawful calling to be seen , yet commanded he the man whom he purged from leprosie , to shew himself to the priests generally , without willing him to make choice of a priest better instructed or affected to the truth than the rest . the high priest , although he entred by simony and reward to the romans , yet notwihstanding we see our saviour christ bore him reverence for his office sake , and ( as before his judge in spiritual causes ) gave an accompt of his doctrine . we have another example of reverence given to such rulers , even in things that were done by them wrongfully . for jeremy being for a time suspended from coming into the temple , being at liberty would not ( least , as it seemeth , he should make a tumult ) enter the temple ; and therefore ( having written that which he had to say ) sent baruch to read his sermon in the temple . moreover , when a magistrate is not able to do some part of his office , as for example , being able to do the duties which are to be performed in peace , is insufficient for martial affaire , yet no man refuseth that which he is able to give , because he is not able to do all that is required : even so , endeavouring to our uttermost a sufficient ministery , i would think in the mean season , that the good things they are able to give us , may be taken at their hands . and if any man say , that it is of the substance of a , church-minister , to be able to teach ; and therefore that he is no minister , that hath not that ability : it may be answered , that it is of the substance of a good and lawful minister of god , but not simply of a minister ; whereunto it is sufficient to have the churches calling : as it is of the substance , rather of a lawful magistrate , to be able to judge between his subjects , than simply of a magistrate , whom the election of the people , or of other to whom his choice belongeth , maketh a magistrate of the lord , although he be no lawful nor sufficient magistrate . as therefore we call him a magistrate , who for the ignorance of his charge may be called an idol magistrate ; even so it seemeth that he may be holden for a minister , which hath his churches calling , although he be not able to do the principal charge of the ministery . neither doth the place of the prophet hosee , which saith , because they have refused knowledge , they shall be no priests unto the lord , stand against this : the prophet rather giving a rule to follow in the election or disposition of them , shewing how far they may be used . finally , to that which is objected of communicating with their impiety , in any taking any thing at their hands : i answer , the same might have been laid to the peoples charge under the law ; which is never done by the prophets . secondly , if by communicating with him , we should make him minister , i grant that a piece of his guilt would stick to our fingers : but when that is not , i see not how , by receiving the sacrament of him , we partake more of his wickedness , than the son is partaker of his fathers murther , because he receiveth of his fathers gift some part of his lands or moveables : and so much the less there than here , as the father giveth his own things , whereas the dumb minister doth onely dispense the gifts of the lord. wherefore it may be rather feared , lest in refusing the sacraments offered by him , we put the lord away from us , whose they be ; than in taking of the sacraments at his hands , be partakers of impiety , which is the mans , and can take no hold of the sacraments in any sort . for even as i , not able to avoid him , may communicate with a minister , that is an adulterer , without being partaker of his adultery ; so also may i communicate with a dumb minister and yet nevertheless be free from his impiety . thus you have mine answer , written not without the fear and trembling your selves make mention of ; whereby it will not be hard for you to understand , how both our desires of being united together may be performed : and although i write in good assurance , especially in the former part as touching the rightful title of the churches of christ to be due to the assemblies of england ; yet remembring ( beside the common frailties of our whole race ) special breaches and decaies in my self , i willingly hearken to any , much more to you ( whom the lord hath bestowed good graces upon ) shewing better things : for which cause if further conference be needful , i must through business be forced to refer to conference by mouth some time after diner . and thus with most humble prayers to the lord our god for his holy spirit , where-through we may be able to discern the things that differ , to our inoffensive walking in the sight of all men , even to the day of the lord , i bid you farewel . yours thomas cartwright . the judgment of mr. baxter concerning ceremonies and conformity . those modes or circumstances of worship which are necessary in genere , but left undetermined by god in specie , are left by god to humane prudential determination : ( else an impossibility should be necessary . ) but many such there are , that are necessary in genere , but left undetermined of god in specie ; therefore many such are left to humane prudential determination . § . . yet it is in the power of a man to determine of such modes and circumstances as are necessary to the performance of that worship which god hath instituted in his word ; and therefore lawful governors may in such cases bind us by their commands . . it is left to humane determination , what place the publick assemblies shall be held in . . it is left to man to determine of the time of holy duties , except only where god hath determined of it already . . it is left to the determination of humane prudence , what vtensils to employ about the publick worship of god. here therefore we must thus conclude , . that every misordering of such great affairs , is the sin of them that do it . . but yet that the subject is not exempted from obedience by every such mistake of the governor : but by some he is . § . . if the mischoosing of such circumstances , by church governors , be but an inconvenience , and do not destroy the ordinance it self , or frustrate the ends of it , we are to obey : . for he is the judge of his own work , and not we : . the thing is not sinful , though inconvenient : . obedience is commanded to our lawful governors . we must obey in all things lawful . and when we do obey in a case of miscommanding , it is not a doing evil , that good may come of it , as some do misconceive : but it is only a submitting to that which is ill commanded , but not evil in him that doth submit . it is the determiner that is the cause of the inconvenience , and not the obeyer . nor is it inconvenient for me to obey , though it be worse perhaps to him that commandeth . while he sinneth in commanding , he may make it my duty to obey . § . . dist . . we must distinguish between ceremonies imposed by a lawful magistrate , or church-governors ; and such as are imposed by vsurpers , or men without authority . § . . prop. . it may be very sinful to command some ceremonies , which may lawfully , yea , must in duty be used by the subject when they are commanded . § . . prop. . yet certain things that are commonly called ceremonies , may lawfully be used in the church upon humane imposition ; and when it is not against the law of god , no person should disobey the commands of their lawful governors in such things . of set-forms , and the book of common-prayer . prop. . a stinted liturgy is in it self lawful . . a stinted liturgy in some parts of publick service , is ordinarily necessary . . in the parts where it is not of necessity , it may not onely be submitted to , but desired , when the peace of the church requireth it . . the safest way of composing such a publick form , is , to take it all , for matter and words , out of the holy scriptures . . yet is not this of such necessity , but that we may joyn in it , or use it , if the form of words be not from scripture . prop. . a stinted liturgy is in it self lawful this is thus proved : argument . that which is not directly , or consequentially forbidden by god , remaineth lawful : a stinted liturgy is not directly , or consequentially forbidden by god ; therefore it remaineth lawful . the major is undoubted's because nothing but a prohibition can make a thing unlawful . sin is a transgression of a law : where there is no law , there is no trangression : and yet i have heard very reverend men answer this , that it is enough that it is not commanded , though not forbidden . which is plainly to deny both scripture and civil principles . now for the minor , that a stinted liturgy is not forbidden , we need no other proof , than that no prohibition can be produced . argument . if it be lawful for the people to use a stinted form of words in publick prayer , then is it in it self lawful for the pastors : but it is lawful for the people : for the pastors prayer ( which they must pray over with him , and not onely hear it ) is a stinted form to them , even as much as if he had learnt it out of a book . they are to follow him in his method and words , as if it were a book-prayer . argument . it is lawful to use a form in preaching : therefore a stinted liturgy is lawful . . because preaching is a part of that liturgy . . because the reason is the same for prayer , as for that , in the main . argument . that which hath been the practice of the church in scripture-times , and down to this day , and is yet the practice of almost all the churches of christ on earth , is not like to be unlawful : but such is the use of some stinted forms of publick service : therefore , &c. that it was so in the jews church , and approved by christ , i have shewed . that it hath been of ancient use in the church since christ , and is at this day in use in africk , asia , europe , even among the reformed churches in france , holland , geneva , &c. is so well known , that i think i need not stand to prove it : yea , those few that seem to disuse it , do yet use it , in psalms , and other parts of worship . as for the common-prayer it self , i never rejected it because it was a form , nor thought it simply unlawful because it was such a form ; but have made use of it , and would do again in the like case . of ceremonies . the ceremonies controverted among us , were especially , the surplice , the gesture of kneeling in receiving the lords supper , the ring in marriage , laying the hand on the book in taking an oath , the organs and church-musick , holy-dayes , altars , rails , and the cross in baptisme . of the surplice . some decent habit is necessary ; either the magistrate , or the minister himfelf , or the associatcd pastors must determine what . i think neither magistrate nor synod should do any more than hinder undecency : but yet if they do more , and tye all to one habit ( add suppose it were an undecent habit ) yet this is but an imprudent use of power . it is a thing within the magistrates reach ; he doth not an aliene work , but his own work amiss : and therefore the thing in it self being lawful ; i would obey him , and use that garment , if i could not be dispensed with . yea , though secondarily the whiteness be to signifie purity , and so it be made a teaching sign , yet would i obey . of kneeling at the sacrament . but yet , as sinfully as this gesture was imposed , for my part i did obey the imposers , and would do , if it were to do again , rather than disturb the peace of the church , or be deprived of its communion . for god having made some gesture necessary , and confined me to none , but left it to humane determination , i shall submit to magistrates in their proper work , even when they miss it in the manner . i am not sure that christ intended the example of himself and his apostles , as obligatory to us that shall succeed . i am sure it proves sitting lawful ; but i am not sure that it proves it necessary : ( though very convenient . ) but i am sure , he hath commanded me obedience and peace . of the ring in marriage . and for the ring in marriage , i see no reason to scruple the lawfulness of it : for though the papists make a sacrament of marriage , yet we have no reason to take it for any ordinance of divine worship ; any more than the solemnizing of a contract between a prince and people . all things are sanctified and pure to the pure . of organs and church musick . and for organs , or other instruments of musick in gods worship , they being a help partly natural , and partly artificial , to the exhilerating of the spirits , for the praise of god , i know no argument to prove them simply unlawful , but what would prove a cup of wine unlawful , or the tune and meeter , and melody of singing unlawful . of holy-dayes . nor for my part do i make any scruple * to keep a day in remembrance of any eminent servant of christ , or martyr , to praise god for their doctrine or example , and honour their memorial . but the hardest part of the question is , whether it be lawful to keep dayes , in celebrating the memorial of christs nativity , circumcision , fasting ; transfiguration , ascension , and such like ? and yet for all this i am resolved , if i live where such holy-days as these are observed , to censure no man for observing them ; nor would i deny them liberty to follow their judgments , if i had the power of their liberties ; provided they use not reproach and violence to others ; and seek not to deprive them of their liberties . yea more , i would not onely give men their liberty in this , but if i lived under a government that peremptorily commanded it , i would observe the outward rest of such a holy-day , and i would preach on it , and joyn with the assemblies in gods worship on it . yea , i would thus observe the day , rather than offend a weak brother , or hinder any mans salvation , much more rather than i would make any division in the church . of altars , and rails . and for the next ceremony , the name and form of an altar ; no doubt it is a thing indifferent , whether the table stand this way , or that way : and the primitive churches used commonly the names of sacrifice , and altar , and priest , and i think , lawfully : for my part i shall not be he that shall condemn them . i conceive that the dislike of these things in england ( the form and name of an altar , and the rails about it ) was not as if they were simply evil . whether we shall receive the lords supper at a table , or in our seats ; and whether the table shall be of wood or stone ? whether it shall be round , or long , or square ? whether it shall stand in the east or west-end of the temple , or in the middle ? whether it shall have rails , or no rails ? all these are lest to humane prudence . of the cross in baptism . but of all our ceremonies , there is none that i have more suspected to be simply unlawful , than the cross in baptism . yet i dare not peremptorily say , that it is unlawful : nor will i condemn either ancients or moderns that use it : nor will i make any disturbance in the church about it , more than my own forbearance will make . i presume not to censure them that judge it lawful ; but onely give the reasons that make me doubt , and rather think it to be unlawful , though still with a suspicion of my own understanding . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e surv. of pretend . discipl . c. . p. . th. cartw. to harrisen . notes for div a -e . reason . . reason . * having . . reason . of assemblies of dumb ministers . mat. . . joh. . . mat. . . mat. . joh. . isa . . mat. . jer. . . hos . . . notes for div a -e disp . . p. . disp . . p. . ibid. p. . ibid. p. . p. . p. . p. . disp . . p. . p. . p. . p. . p. . p. . p. . p. . p. . p. . * in point of lawfulness ; for conveniency is according to several accidents . p. , . p. . p. . ibid. p. . p. , . p. . p. . the charge of schism continued being a justification of the author of christian blessedness for his charging the separatists with schism, not withstanding the toleration : in a letter to a city-friend. norris, john, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing n estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) the charge of schism continued being a justification of the author of christian blessedness for his charging the separatists with schism, not withstanding the toleration : in a letter to a city-friend. norris, john, - . [ ], , [ ] p. printed for samuel manship ..., london : . attributed to john norris by wing. "licens'd, decemb. . ." includes advertisement: p. [ ]-[ ] at end. reproduction of original in the bodleian library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng church of england -- history -- th century. dissenters, religious -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - john latta sampled and proofread - john latta text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the charge of schism continued : being a justification of the author of christian blessedness for his charging the separatists with schism , notwithstanding the toleration . in a letter to a city-friend . licens'd , decemb. . . london , printed for samuel manship at the black bull over-against the royal exchange in cornhil , . sir , the information you give me concerning the great clamour that is made by some in the city against our friend the author of christian blessedness , for continuing the charge of schism at this time against the separatists from the church of england , i am the more ready to believe , because i find he meets with a great deal of the like treatment in the country , as far as the sphere of my acquaintance or intelligence reaches . i can hardly put my head into any company , but where i hear him either passionately rail'd at by popular uneducated tongues , or gravely condemn'd by those of more sober and improved understandings ; who , though no enemies to his person , have yet but little charity for his cause . nay , several who know nothing at all of the book , and so cannot directly and expresly condemn it , do yet shew how ready they would be upon occasion to do so , by declaring their judgments against the proposition maintain'd in it . for i find 't is a thing generally taken for granted , that the dissenters are now no longer under the guilt of schism , however they might be charged with it before . for , say they , the tables are now turn'd . they have now an authentick patent for their separation , and may divide from you by authority . and therefore let your indictment run never so high , and be otherwise never so well proved , their liberty will be their immediate discharge . for , sir , you must know that the toleration is generally supposed to lay all in common , to put the church and the conventicle upon a square , and to acquit those that separate not only from the penalty , but from the fault of non-conformity . this notion , i perceive , has found entertainment , not only in vulgar heads , ( who seldom think distinctly about any thing , but confound all things , whose difference is not to be felt and handled , ) but also among those of good natural sense , and who have taken a turn or two of scholastick education , and understand something of the measures of reason and consequence . particularly i find this conceit passes very current among ladies and gentlemen , who , for want either of leisure , or ability , or attention , seldom examine things to the bottom , but judge according to outside and appearance . but this i do not so much wonder at , when i observe that men of profess'd study and considerable learning are carried away with the same fancy , which i find gets ground every day ; and let me tell you , sir , among some others , besides those whose interest is concern'd to have it true . i find some of these begin to talk very odly and untowardly in this matter , and not according to their usual clearness , and accuracy of judgment , which they still retain in their other discourses . but as for the interested parties , they catch at this popular plea of the toleration with all the greediness imaginable , and insist upon it mightily , ( an argument , by the way , that they distrust their other defences , ) and are become downright impatient of the charge of schism , and think themselves not only highly affronted , but greatly wrong'd and injured whenever they are tax'd with it , and as you know , sir , are very angry with our author for continuing the charge . what ? charge us with schism at this time of day , now we are in favour , now the government smiles upon us , now we have the law on our side ? &c. how far they have the law of their side , will be better understood from what is to follow . in the mean time i with that some of those who are so incens'd against our author , and so free in their censures upon that part of his book , would have took the courage to appear against him in publick , which would have been a much fairer and more manly way than either to rail at him in corners , ( which , by the way , are as little sought for by charity as by truth , ) or to pester him with scurrilous and abusive letters without names . this argues their fear to be as great as their malice , and that they diffide either to their cause , or to their skill in managing it . the truth is , they ought for their own credit , as well as in justice to the author , either to have suppress'd their resentments , or to have vented them in publick . which if they had done , i dare undertake they should not have been disappointed of an adversary . but it seems they have thought fit to make use of another method , which though not equally declarative of their sense , yet with the help of a little spelling and collating things together may serve to pick out enough of their meaning . for as far as i can gather from what i observe , and from what i hear , the sum of all that they say against our author ( bating impertinent cavils and foul-mouth'd reflections ) may be reduced to these three heads : . the falsness of his charge . . the uncharitableness of it . . the unseasonableness of it . which treble censure is grounded upon one common argument , because , say they , the dissenters are now , by vertue of their toleration , upon equal terms with the church . but , sir , in the first place , how can that be , when one is establish'd , and the other only tolerated ? is not establishment more than liberty ? if by liberty here were understood allowance or warrant to act ( which is the highest sense of the word that the persons concern'd stand for ) it would yet fall much short of establishment , which does not only allow or permit , but enjoyn and require . much more then if liberty here be found ( as i believe it will ) to ●ignifie only a capacity of acting without punishment . liberty of allowance is much short of establishment , much more liberty of impunity . and how then are the church and the dissenters upon equal terms ? some therefore , who better understand what they say , chuse to express themselves thus , that the dissenters have as much authority for their liberty , as the church has for her establishment . which implies not absolute equality , but only equality of proportion . now this i readily admit . but what then ? therefore they are not guilty of schism in causelesly dividing from her communion . i interpose the term ( causelefly ) not without reason . for if they say they have sufficient cause for dividing from us , then they no longer stand to their plea of toleration , but put their cause upon another issue , which i think has been already sufficiently examin'd and exposed . but that which they stand for now by the nature of their appeal , seems to be this , that they are not guilty of schism , because of the liberty they have by the toleration , which must therefore be supposed to excuse them from schism , though they causelesly divide from us . for if they had just cause for their separation , then they would be excused from schism without a toleration , which then need not be pleaded . but this is the plea that is now generally insisted upon for their discharge from schism , which must therefore be understood with this supposal , though they do causelesly divide from the communion of the church . this therefore is the true and explicite state of their plea. the dissenters have now as much authority for their liberty as the church has for her establishment ; and therefore they are not guilty of schism in causelesly separating from her . now this consequence i utterly deny , and affirm that such separatists are as much guilty of schism now , after the toleration , as they were before . to make this clear , we must , in the first place , distinguish between the law it self , and the sanction of the law. by the law it self here i understand the bare simple proposition , wherein either the doing or the not doing such a thing is enacted . by the sanction of the law i understand those external motives which are proposed and solemnly annex'd by the law-giver to his law as an ingagement to obedience , that is , rewards and punishments . these sanctions , though they are sometimes made a part of the law , as when we say the penal part by way of contradistinction to the preceptive ; yet properly speaking , they are no part of the law at all , but only accessories or appendixes prudentially added to it , as expedients for the better inforcement of obedience . the law if self is wholly compleated in the proposition , from which the sanction is as much distinct as the hedge is from the inclosure , or the ground which it incloses . this distinction naturally leads us into another , as being dependent upon it . for if the sanction be a distinct thing from the law , then we must also , dly , distinguish between the abolishing of the sanction and the abolishing of the law , and between the suspension of the sanction and the suspension of the law , and much more yet between the suspension of the sanction and the abolishment of the law. if the law and the sanction were one and the same thing , yet the suspension of the sanction could not be an abolishment of the law , because suspension is not abolishment . much less then can the suspension of the sanction be an abolishment of the law upon the supposition of their difference . these things therefore ought carefully to be distinguisht . from the distinctions premised , this conclusion will necessarily arise , that the directive or preceptive part of the law may still remain in force , though the penal part ( i speak according to common use ) be removed , whether it be by abolishment or by suspension . for since the preceptive and the penal part are supposed to be wholly distinct , 't is impossible that a change made in the one should at all affect the other , unless you could suppose some connexion or other to intercede between them . as for instance , the soul and body being supposed to be substances really distinct , 't is impossible that a change in the one should at all affect the other , unless there were such a law of connexion between them , that certain thoughts in the soul should raise certain motions in the body , and that certain motions in the body should occasion certain thoughts in the soul , which is what we call the vital union between soul and body . in like manner say i concerning the preceptive and the penal part of the law , that upon supposition of their real distinction 't is impossible that a change in the one should at all affect the other , unless there should happen to be such a declared connexion between them by the will of the legislative , that upon the ceasing of the one , the other also should cease ; or unless the nature of the thing infer the necessity of it . neither of which may be pretended in the present case , as i shall have occasion to shew in the process of this argument . at present i suppose it , and do therefore say that the preceptive part of the law may , and will still remain in force , though the penal part ( which is distinct from it ) be remov'd . whence it will further follow , that the preceptive part of the law does at present actually remain in full force . for all that a toleration does or can do , is only to remove the penalty , where there is an establisht national church . it is not there a liberty of allowance , but only a liberty of impunity . i say where there is an establisht national church . for indeed where there is no legal establishment for the publick exercise of religion , a toleration would be a liberty of allowance , ( i mean as far as the state or civil law can give an allowance in this matter ; ) but where there is such an establishment , there it can only be a liberty of impunity . there it only suspends or takes away for a time the penal part , which will not excuse from transgressing against the preceptive , which , where-ever there is a national establishment , still lives , breathes , speaks , commands , and obliges too under sin , though not under civil penalty . every one knows , that has either read or thought any thing about the nature of laws , that a toleration is very much short of a dispensation . but now a dispensation does not abolish the precept of the law , much less then may a toleration be supposed able to do it . indeed a dispensation does some way affect the preceptive part of the law , and that is it whereby it exceeds a toleration . it is indeed a present suspension of it , not an absolute thorough suspension , but a suspension with relation to such a particular person or action , in respect of which , the present course of the law is interrupted . but now a toleration does not so much as affect the preceptive part of the law , it has no manner of effect upon it , much less can it abolish it , or null the the obliging force of it . all therefore that it can do is only to remove the penalty . and this is the true difference , and perhaps the only one that can be assigned between a dispensation and a toleration . a dispensation does , for the present , and to some intents and purposes , bind up or suspend the preceptive part of the law , and interrupts the authoritative and obliging power of it , and thereby makes it not only consistent with impunity , but with innocency to act against it . for it makes the law as no law with respect to the person or persons dispens'd with , and for the time while they are dispens'd with . but now a toleration does not pass any such effect ( indeed not any at all ) upon the preceptive part of the law. it neither strikes it , nor is levell'd at it . all the execution that it does , or is design'd to do , is upon the penal part , which indeed for the time is wholly remov'd by it . so that a dispensation does as much exceed a toleration , as an abrogation does a dispensation . in that a dispensation does do no more than suspend the preceptive part , it falls short of an abrogation , which absolutely and universally removes it . and in that it does so much , it exceeds a toleration , which only takes off the penalty , without so much as touching either the substance or the vertue of the law. and though this be clear and plain enough by the evidence of its own light ; yet , i confess , 't is some satisfaction to me , and it may be more so to others who set a greater value upon authorities than i do , to find so great and so well-approv'd a judge of the abstract and general reason of law as the celebrated suarez to be of the same judgment with me in this matter . for , says he , in his book de legibus , speaking of the effects of a dispensation of a humane law , dispensation plus est quam permissio , & permissio proprie sumpta & secundum communem usum , non est dispensatio . aliquando enim permittere non aliud significat quam voluntarie non impedire , quod non est dispensare . nam deus permittit peccatum , in quo non dispensat . aliter vero permittere significat idem quod sinere impune operari malum , ut in republica dicuntur aliqua peccata permitti ; et quando id fit ex decreto legis , dicitur permissio esse legis effectus . illa vero non relaxat legem , quandoquidem non excusat culpam , quam propria dispensatio tollit . et ideo neque illa dicetur dispensatio . a dispensation is more than a permission or toleration ( for 't is all one , both as to the import of the word , and suarez's constant way of using it ) and a permission properly taken , and according to common use is not a dispensation . for sometimes to permit signifies no other than voluntarily not to hinder , which is not to dispense . for god does permit sin in which he does not dispense . sometimes again to permit signifies the same as to suffer the doing of an evil with impunity , as some sins are said to be permitted in a common-wealth . and when this is done by vertue of a legal decree , then such a permission is said to be the effect of the law. but this does not relax the law , in as much as it does not excuse the fault , which a proper dispensation takes away . and therefore neither may this be said to be a dispensation . suarez here distinguishes of a twofold sufferance or toleration ; the suffering an evil to be done , or the bare not hindering the doing of it , and the suffering it to be done with impunity . and both these he sets below a dispensation . the former kind of toleration is the least that can be imagin'd , and indeed is so little as to be consistent with the strictest kind or state of government that is . all governours do tolerate at this rate , even god himself , who , as he says , does permit or not hinder the committing of sin. the latter kind of toleration is a degree above the former , as adding to it the doing with impunity . and this indeed is too much to consist with the strictness of government , and therefore is not used in every kind or state of it . neither god nor man do always tolerate after this manner . for indeed it is a relaxation of the government , not as to the legislative , but only as to the executive part of it . but though it be so much greater than the former sort of toleration , yet it is also at the same time as much less than a dispensation , in that a dispensation does , in some respects , wholly suspend even the very obligation of the law , which a toleration does not so much as relax , or any way affect , but only suspends the penalty annex'd to the transgression of it . so that though it be some mitigation of the government , and thereby exceeds a bare simple permission , yet it is no abatement of the law , and therein falls short of a dispensation . the short of this matter is , all permission may be consider'd either as of right , or of fact. permission of right is the same with a dispensation , which disarms the law of its present authority and obligation , and makes it no fault to do otherwise than is commanded . permission of fact is twofold , either the bare suffering or not hindering the doing of an evil , which may be call'd a simple permission . or the suffering it to be done without punishment , which is a toleration . this latter permission , though it be greater than the immediately preceding , yet 't is as much less than the first , as reaching no higher than the sanction , whereas that puts a present restraint upon the very power of the law. this i take to be a true and distinct idea of a toleration , both as it is in its own proper nature , and as it stands in relation to other changes that concern the administration of the law. from whose authority and obligation it does not in the least diminish , but only lays a restraint upon the execution of it . it does not devest the law of any part of her sovereignty , but only sheaths up her sword of discipline ; it does not silence her voice , but only stays her hand . in short , there is nothing more nor less in it , than a suspension of the penal part of the law. this is all that it can do , and perhaps more than it ought . for i believe there ought to be no such thing as a toleration , and that 't is more than either the church or the state can rightfully grant . for not to insist upon that trust which seems to be repos'd in them , to defend and secure both unity of faith and unity of worship ; if there ought to be a toleration , then there ought to be no establishment , ( for to what purpose is an establishment , whose order must never be executed ? ) but 't is a strange thing if human laws may not be allow'd to oblige to the same thing to which the divine law is acknowledg'd to oblige , that is , to ecclesiastick unity . which because required by the divine law , ought also to be required by human laws , and consequently there ought to be no such thing as a toleration . and besides , those that say there ought , seem to me to be guilty of a contradictory , self-inconsistent proposal , and not rightly to understand what they would have . for if they will have liberty of conscience granted to any , then certainly the supreme authority of the nation must be allow'd this liberty . and then let us suppose ( as well we may ) that he thinks himself obliged in duty and conscience to use the power that is in his hands to suppress all religions but the true one , that is , all but that which he himself conceives to be true . and what then will become of the toleration ? nor ought the magistrate to be blamed for so doing . for having once allow'd in general that every man ought to have liberty of conscience , you ought not to think it hard that the magistrate assumes this liberty of acting according to his conscience , though by doing so he restrains and hinders yours , as he certainly will in case he make use of the same liberty . so that absolute and universal liberty of conscience is a down-right , contradictory , inconsistent supposition ; which one consideration , by the way , is sufficient to overthrow all that a late author has pleaded in its behalf . but i shall pursue this no further , as being only a digression from my present concern . what i stand for now , is this , that a toleration , when it is granted , implies no more than only a removal of such penalties as the law would otherwise inflict upon those who disobey it . that it does not either abrogate , or suspend , or dispense with the law , but only bridles and reins up the execution of it . all which is to be understood with the fore-mention'd condition , where there is an establish'd national church . and this ( notwithstanding the toleration ) is the present case in england , where there is a church establisht by the law of the land , and invested with several temporal as well as ecclesiastick rights and priviledges , where the publick liturgy stands authorized by several acts of parliament , where articles of religion and constitutions and canons ecclesiastical are also confirm'd by the same authority , where the acts of uniformity remain unrepeal'd as before , and where even the dissenters themselves are all required to pay tithes to the publick and legallyappointed ministry . which is also a plain and certain argument that they are required to attend upon it , and conform to it . for is it imaginable that the laws should oblige them to contribute their part to the support and maintenance of that worship , to which they do not enjoyn them to conform ? this would be against the very supposition of an establishment , and would place the church and the conventicle upon an equal ground indeed , that is , it would make neither of them establisht , but both only tolerated . but they confess the church to be establisht , and so indeed she is as much as ever ; and therefore the only change made by the toleration is , that the penal part of the law is , for the present , laid aside . as for the preceptive , that stands where it did , and obliges under sin , though not under civil penalty . and if so , then those who now divide from this church establisht by law , which law does also require their communion with it , are true and proper transgressors against the law ; and if they do it causelesly , are also guilty of the breach of church-unity , that is of schism , notwithstanding any publick order for the not inflicting the punishment otherwise due to them for so transgressing . this cannot excuse them either from disobedience to the state , or from schism in the church , with whose establishment they are still obliged to conform as far as lawfully they may , though not accountable to the law for their non-conformity . thus the jews were justly taxable with disobedience to their law in the matter of arbitrary divorce , though for some prudential reasons tolerated in the practice of it by moses their chief magistrate . the effect of which toleration ( as our saviour himself expounds it ) was not innocency , but only impunity . against what has been hitherto discours'd , i know but of one objection that a man would not be ashamed to urge , or impertinent to answer , or that deserves the expence of ink and paper . but there is another which i must first take in my way , because 't is thrown upon me , and is very loud and importunate for satisfaction , which must therefore , i think , be given it for quietness sake . in the first place then it is pleaded , that this is no ordinary toleration . that it is not a bare supine neglect to animadvert , a kind of drowise fit , or nodding of the government , no , nor a design'd and deliberate connivance only , nor yet a private act of indulgence declared by the will and in the name of the prince alone ; but that 't is an indulgence granted and setled by an act of the whole legislative , by the joint concurrence of king and parliament , that 't is a toleration by law , by the same law upon which the church it self is erected , and by which it stands . this is the common popular objection , and there is not a woman , or a shop-keeper , but what is big with it . now i grant the dissenters that they have a toleration setled by law , and that therefore this is no ordinary toleration , and i know they are not a little puffed up with it . and by the way , sir , 't would make even a very grave man smile to see how those men who have been hitherto such despisers and vilifiers of a national establishment , are now lifted up with the conceit of a national liberty . of what advantage this may prove either to themselves , or to the nation , or to the general interest of religion , i leave to wiser heads to conjecture , and to time to shew ; but in the mean while i fancy this their plea , from the extraordinariness of the toleration , will do 'em but little service . for 't is the unhappiness of this objection that it proceeds upon a wrong state of the question . the question is not concerning either the kind or the degree of the authority , but concerning the nature and the extent of the grant ; not by what they are authorized , but to what , whether to act allowedly and with innocence , or only unrestrainedly and with impunity ? and to what purpose then do they insist upon the greatness of the authority ? if it be said , that this is no mistaking the state of the question , but an inferring the thing denied , viz. liberty of allowance , from the greatness of that authority whereby this solemn toleration is granted : i answer , that then the inference is grosly false and illogical . 't is certainly a very pleasant way of arguing , to infer the greater extent of the grant from the greatness of the authority whereby it is made , as if a lesser grant might not be the effect of a greater authority . suppose that instead of moses , god himself had been the author of the toleration concerning arbitrary divorce among the jews . this toleration was indeed given by moses without any divine commission for it , as far as appears . but suppose it had been given by god himself . it will be readily granted that such a toleration as this would have been of much greater authority than the other , indeed of the greatest in the world. but would it therefore have been to any higher purpose or greater effect ? no , that does not follow . moses his toleration reacht as far as impunity , and a divine one would have reacht no further . it would not have produc'd any other effect , though perhaps it might have been a further security and establishment of the same . though the authority it self be greater , yet the thing granted by that authority may be the same that is otherwise granted by a lesser ; and if there be nothing else in the business but only a greater degree of authority , it must and will be so . and thus 't is in the case before us . though a toleration by act of parliament be of greater authority than a toleration by the sole will and pleasure of the prince , yet it is not to a greater effect . and though the diffenters have now as much authority for their liberty , as the church has for her establishment , yet 't is only for liberty , that is , ( as appears by what has been said ) impunity . when therefore 't is pleaded that this is no ordinary toleration , 't is plain that there is a double meaning in the proposition . it may be understood either as to the authority of it , or as to the effect of it . if as to the authority , that indeed is true , but nothing at all to the purpose , as being beside the state of the question . if as to the effect , that i affirm and have shewn to be false . the effect of this toleration reaches not an inch further than that of a less solemn one would have done ; perhaps , considering some particular restrictions whereby it is qualify'd , not so far . but to be sure it cán extend no further , the greatest effect of both being only exemption from punishment . so that you see this objection is quite disarm'd , and indeed is too weak and empty to abide any longer trial. the truth is , i should not have kept it so long under examination , were it not for the popularity of it , and that great noise that is made about it . 't is not its moment , but its importunity that has procured it so full a hearing . for indeed in it self it is weak and silly enough . though yet i think it is the best by much that is used , or that the men i am dealing with have invention enough to urge . but i will be so kind to them , for once , as to put a better objection into their hands ; and if they think i do not propose it enough to their advantage , let them take it and manage it themselves . you may please to remember , sir , that a little further backward , speaking of the distinction that is between the sanction of the law , and the law it self ; i said 't was impossible that a change in the one should at all affect the other , unless there were a connexion between them , arising either from the declared will of the legislative , or from the nature of the thing it self . now in this i may seem to have laid a foundation for a very strong objection . for it may be pleaded that there is such a connexion , not from the will of the legislative declaring such a dependence between the law and the sanction , that upon the ceasing of one , the other also shall cease : this , i suppose , will not be pretended , nor do i see any room for such a pretence . but from the very nature of the thing it self so requiring . for it may be said , that although the sanction of the law be , as we have shewn , a distinct thing from the law it self , that is , the penal part from the preceptive , yet it is essential and necessary to the obligation of it . and therefore that which removes the sanction , does also by consequence remove the obligation of the law ; and consequently since a toleration ( as is acknowledg'd ) removes the sanction of the law , it does also by vertue of that remove the obligation of it , the latter not being able to stand without the former , any more than the body is to live without the soul. i confess if the sanction of the law were necessary to the obligation of it , then notwithstanding all the real difference that is between them , that which takes away the sanction , would also unhinge the obligation , as that which takes away the soul destroys also the life of the body ; and consequently the toleration , by taking away the sanction , must of necessity be allow'd to take away the obligation too . in this there can be no great difficulty , or dispute . all the question will be concerning the leading proposition , whether the sanction of the law be necessary to the life and obligation of it . here will be the last pinch of the difficulty , as will be better discern'd , if we analyze the argument , by casting it into a logical form and order ; wherein it will appear thus : if the toleration takes away the sanction of the law , it also takes away the obligation of it . but according to you it takes away the sanction of the law ; therefore it takes away the obligation . the consequence is denied , and thus proved ; that which takes away the sanction , takes away the obligation : therefore if the toleration takes away the sanction , it also takes away the obligation . the antecedent is denied , and thus proved : if the sanction of the law be necessary to the obligation of it , then that which takes away the sanction , takes away the obligation . but the sanction is necessary , &c. here the consequence is granted , but the minor is denied ; which was the head and knot of the objection , and whose truth comes now to be examin'd . it is a common question among moralists , civilians , and casuistical divines , vtrum sanctio paenalis sit de essentia sive de ratione legis ? whether a penal sanction be of the essence or reason of the law ? by which , i suppose , they do not mean , as the terms seem to import , whether it be of the inward form and constitution of the law , ( for 't is plain that it is not ; ) but whether it be a necessary condition to the obligation of it , the same thing that is now under consideration . i do not remember that suarez takes any notice of this matter , which i cannot but wonder at in a person that undertakes a just and adequate account of the nature of laws , and who often descends to the discussion of points of much lesser moment . though what his judgment was in the case , may be sufficiently collected from what he discourses concerning the several ways whereby laws may suffer a change. among which i do not find that he has any mention of the removal of the penalty , which he could not have omitted , if he had thought that the sanction of the law was necessary to its obligation . for then the removal of it would have caus'd either an abrogation or a suspension in the law , as is urg'd in the objection . but the question is not so overlookt by others ; and they generally answer in the negative , that the sanction is not necessary to the obligation of the law. i say generally . for i know there are some few that say that it is necessary , and that the law is but a mere dead letter , a body without a soul , if it have no sanction . nay there are some that advance one step higher , and say that the sanction is not only necessary to the obligation of a law , but that it derives its whole obligation from the sanction . that the latter of these assertions is not true , is , i think , as certain as i would desire any thing to be . for i consider , that if the law derived its whole obligation from the sanction , then these grand absurdities ( not to mention any other ) would unavoidably follow . first , that any law would oblige , let the matter of it be never so wicked and unjust , or the authority whereby 't is made never so incompetent , provided it were arm'd with a sufficient sanction . for the sanction being supposed to be the only fountain of obligation , that being present , and in such measure as is requisite , the obligation must needs follow , as every effect does upon the being of its intire and adequate cause . secondly , it would also follow , that no law could oblige constantly , unless it were backt with the greatest penalty that is absolutely possible . for since the law is supposed to have all its obligation from the penalty , then where there is the greater penalty , there will be the greater obligation ; and consequently if the case should so happen , that a man should threaten me if i do not transgress the law , with a greater punishment than the law does in case i do , i am then discharged from the obligation of the law , ( as being under a greater obligation ) and may innocently transgress it , though it were the law even of god himself . which at one blow would strike off the constant obligation of the whole jewish law. for the law of the jews being ratify'd and confirm'd to them only by temporal penalties , and those not always the greatest , even of the same kind and order ; if a jew should happen to be tempted to transgress the law ( as he easily might ) by a greater punishment than the law would inflict upon him for transgressing it , upon this supposition , that the law receives its obligation from the penalty , it would follow , that he would be released from the obligation of his law , which i think is absurd enough . but to this i further add : thirdly , if the law be to receive its obligation from the sanction , then we must suppose it therefore to oblige , because it makes it reasonable or eligible for a man to do so or so that he may avoid such a punishment , for that is all the engagement to action that the sanction can be supposed to add . but if this be all , this is not to oblige in duty , but only in point of prudence , which indeed is not properly to oblige at all , since otherwise all rational inducements would be laws . indeed the proposal of a penalty may be a good ground of perswasion why a man should do so as the law directs . but it can be no more , it cannot lay an obligation upon the conscience , or make it sin to do otherwise . it may move , determine , and in some cases secure the choice , but it cannot oblige the will. to say therefore that the law obliges by and from the sanction , is in effect to say that it does not oblige at all , since then it could oblige only by way of persuasion and rational inducement , which indeed is not strictly and properly to oblige . the truth is , upon this supposition the most excellent law of the most sacred authority in the world would oblige no otherwise than the demand of a thief upon the high-way . the thief bids me deliver , or he 'll pistol me . the law bids me do thus , or i shall be punish'd . i yield up my money to the thief , to avoid being pistol'd ; and i yield my obedience to the law , to avoid being punish'd . 't is possible here that the motive of action in both cases may be the same , viz. the avoiding of evil. but i hope no-body will be so gross as to say , that the obligation in both cases is alike too ; that the law obliges no otherwise than the command of a thief when he comes to rob me . and yet this must be said , if it be true , that the law has its obligation from the sanction ; for then 't is plain , that all its obligation comes to this , that it makes it reasonable and eligible for me to do such an action to avoid such an evil , and so does the thief . fourthly , if the law obliges purely in vertue of the sanction , then 't will follow , that the law will oblige no further , than the sanction reaches ; consequently it will not oblige the supreme magistrate , who is acknowledged not to be subject to the sanction of the law. but this is more than the greatest sticklers for prerogative will allow , and indeed is against the general sense of the greatest masters of law , whether common or civil , who generally yield the supreme magistrate to be under the directive , though not under the coercive power of the law. and if so , then the preceptive does not oblige by vertue of the coercive , since 't is allow'd to oblige where the coercive does not reach . fifthly , this hypothesis of the law 's receiving its obligation from the sanction , will , in the consequence of it , make all laws purely penal , that is , such as do not oblige absolutely , to the fact , but only conditionally , either to the fact or to the penalty ; and which therefore are equally satisfy'd either by doing what is express'd , or by suffering what is intail'd upon the omission of it . for if the law be supposed to oblige by vertue of the penalty which it proposes , then its obligation comes to this , that i must do such a thing , because otherwise i must suffer such a punishment ; which is as much as to say , that if i do not such a thing , i must suffer such a punishment ; which will again at last be resolv'd into this , that either i must do so , or suffer so ; which though it obliges me disjunctively , leaves me at full liberty as to the determination of my choice . which expresses the true form and nature of a pure penal law. but i suppose it will not be said that all laws are purely penal . for then there would be no sin but only where the penalty is declined or resisted ; the consequence of which again would be , that all the sin that is in the world would only be against human laws ; and that there would be no such thing as sinning against god , because the divine justice can neither be evaded nor resisted . which is a consequence that would make strange alterations , and introduce as strange confusions in the system of the moral and intellectual world. sixthly and lastly , if the obligation of the law proceeded from the sanction , then 't would follow , that i am therefore obliged to do , because i must suffer for not doing : but this is so far from being true , that the reverse of it is so . for i must therefore suffer for not doing , because i was obliged to do . for i must suffer , because i sinn'd , otherwise my suffering would be unjust . and i could not sin if i were not under an obligation ; which being thus pre-supposed and antecedent to the necessity of undergoing the penalty , ( which is what i call the sanction , ) cannot possibly be founded upon it , or proceed from it . this last argument proves not only that the law does not derive its whole obligation from the sanction , but also that no part or degree of it is thence derived . for if the whole obligation be ( as is supposed ) antecedent to the penalty , then 't is plain that no part of it is or can be derived from it . to which i further add , that the end of the sanction is to move and engage men to pay that obedience to the law which they owe. 't is indeed one of the forcible and violent ways of recovering a debt , a debt which men owe to the law , and which , if they did not owe it , could not be justly exacted from them under a penalty . here then is duty and obligation supposed ( in order of nature at least ) as antecedent to the sanction , and to which the sanction is to serve as a means to the end. and therefore 't is most certain ( if there be any thing so in the measures of reasoning ) that the law does not derive its obligation , nor any part or degree of it from the sanction . and this i take to be vertually at least contain'd in those well-known words of the apostle , wherefore ye must needs be subject , not only for wrath , but also for conscience sake . there is , i know , some dispute concerning the meaning , and concerning the extent of the former clause ; but whatever be meant by subjection here , and how far soever it is to extend , this in the mean time is certain , that this subjection , whatever it be , is by the apostle press'd from a double principle , wrath and conscience , which he plainly distinguishes one from another , as two different grounds and inducements to subjection . ye must needs be subject not only for wrath , but also for conscience ; that is , not only to avoid punishment , but also out of a sense of duty and obligation . which being here made not only a distinct , but a further degree of argument for subjection , 't is plain that in the judgment of the apostle the obligation of the law is not from the sanction ; because if so , he need only have said , ye must be subject for wrath , which would have been sufficient as including the other . but whereas he makes a contradistinction between them , 't is evident that he that is subject only for wrath , is not subject for conscience ; and consequently that obligation in conscience does not proceed from wrath , but from some other principle . if it be then demanded , whence does the law receive its obligation ? i answer first , that 't is enough for my present purpose to have shewn that it does not receive it from the sanction . but if a more positive answer must be given , i say that the law has its obligation from the authority of the law-giver , who by vertue of his authority has a right to be obey'd , and to exact obedience by punishments in all his just commands . and this they will at length be driven to acknowledge , who derive the obligation of the law from the sanction . for when they say that the law obliges by and from the sanction , they must be understood to mean if their sense be drawn out more at length , that the law obliges me to do so , because it obliges me to suffer for not doing so : but pray how comes the law to oblige me to the latter , to suffer for not doing so ? is this by vertue of any other sanction ? but so we might run on to infinity . it must be therefore by something else . and what should that be but the authority of the law-giver ? and if this be thought sufficient to authorize the sanction , why should it not also authorize the law ? if it be further askt , whence has the law-giver his authority ? i answer , if he be a creature , he has it from god , whom i suppose to be the sole fountain of all power . but if the law-giver be god , he has it originally and independently in himself . but whether it be by the more super-eminency of his nature , as some say , or by the benefit of creation , as others , let them dispute that abound with more leisure than i do , and want better employment . but though the sanction does not give the law its obligation , or any part of it , may it not however be necessary to it ? yes , if made so by the will of the legislator ( as i said before ) establishing such a connexion between them , that upon the ceasing of the one , the other also shall cease . but not in any wise from the nature of the thing . for if it be of it self necessary , it must either be as a cause , or as a condition . that it is not necessary as a cause , we have sufficiently proved already , by shewing that it has no part in effecting or producing the obligation of the law. if therefore it be necessary , it must be necessary as a condition . but that it is not , i will now briefly shew . by a condition i understand that , which though it has no causal influence upon the effect , yet it so determines the efficient cause to act , as that without it it will not act . as for instance , the opening of a window , though it be not the cause of inlightning the room , ( for it does not efficiently inlighten it , ) yet 't is the condition of it , as being that without which the sun will not inlighten it . or to come somewhat nearer home , the promulgation of a law , though it be not the efficient cause of its obligation , yet it is the condition of it , as being that without which the law will not oblige . now the question is , whether the sanction of the law be in this sense necessary to the obligation of it ? to which i answer , by no means for since the obligation of the law is supposed to owe its birth not to the sanction of it , but to other causes ( which has been proved already ) there can be no manner of reason pretended why the sanction would be a condition necessary to the actual obliging of it , but only as it may be esteemed a sign that such a proposition is the will of the legislator . for the law having its whole and full authority within its self independently on the sanction , needs only a publick sign that 't is indeed the will of such a power to make it actually obliging . if therefore the sanction be necessary , it must be necessary as a sign . but that end being already sufficiently answer'd and satisfied by the promulgation of the law , it cannot pretend to any such necessity , and therefore to none at all . and accordingly we see , that even a solemn promulgation it self , when it ceases to be necessary as a sign , ceases absolutely to be necessary , as appears in the instance of the law of nature ; which because it may be and is otherwise known , than by a solemn publication of it , renders that circumstance wholly unnecessary . the sum is , if the sanction be necessary , it is necessary as a publick sign , that being the only thing supposed to be further wanting , where the law is otherwise sufficiently authentick . but it is not necessary on that account , because of the promulgation , which fully and directly serves to that end. and therefore it is not at all necessary . but may not the sanction be necessary as a sign , where the law is not promulgated ? to this i answer , first , that the fate of the present cause is not concern'd in the issue of this question , our laws being sufficiently promulgated . but suppose it were concern'd , it need fear no danger from it . for the question proceeds upon a contradictory supposition . it supposes the law to be promulgated and not promulgated at the same time . for if the sanction be necessary as a sign , then it must make the first discovery of the law , which till then must not be supposed to be known . and yet it must too , and that before the sanction can pretend to be a sign . for the sanction cannot pretend to that office till 't is known ; and it cannot be known till after the law is known . for to know the sanction , is to know that such a penalty is by the law annexed to such an action , which presupposes the law to be known . and how then can the sanction be necessary as a sign , where the law is not promulgated ? the very supposition implies a contradiction . whence i further conclude , that 't is impossible that a sanction should ever be necessary as a sign to the obligation of the law ; which as it receiv'd not its obligation from it , so it may and will oblige without it , since from what has been discours'd , it clearly appears that it is no way necessary to the obligation of the law , either as a cause , or as a condition . i say , to the obligation of it . for i do not deny but that a sanction is very necessary to the inforcement , and better success of the law ; and that therefore 't is very expedient that all laws should have their sanctions ; partly that by them the greatness of the obligation may be rated and estimated ( it being the general prudence of law-givers to annex greater penalties to more concerning and important precepts ) and partly that by them men might be the more easily and securely contain'd within the limits of their duty ; which without some penal restraint every little appearance of interest would tempt them to transgress . and yet even this is only an accidental necessity , introduc'd by the badness of the world. for were men as they shou'd be , wise and good ( which till the millennium i despair to see ) they would discern and be satisfy'd of the reason and equity of the law ; and that alone would be a sufficient motive to order and obedience . but when they are either so stupid as not to see the good end of the law , or so profligate as not to regard it , then comes in this expedient of the sanction , arming the laws with penalties whereby they may be inabled to revenge themselves upon those unconsidering disingenuous persons that do them violence . and indeed , considering the great and general bruitishness and degeneracy of men , how very alienated they are not only from the life of god , but even from that of natural reason too , 't is very fit it should always be thus ; and that all laws , as well as those of mount sinai , should have their thundrings and lightnings to awake and alarm the passions of such men , who having lost their reasons , have now nothing else to be taken hold by . but this , i say , only proves a sanction necessary to the better inforcement , and not to the obligation of the law. to which if any one shall yet think it necessary , i shall only further press him with one sensible absurdity , which perhaps may signifie more with some apprehensions , than an abstracter way of reasoning . it is this , that upon this supposition it would follow , that if god himself shou'd impose any command upon a creature , without annexing a penalty in case of disobedience , he would not be able with all his authority and divine supremacy , to oblige that creature . and will any man , can any man have the impudence or impiety to say so ? suppose that when god gave that command to adam , concerning the not eating of the tree of knowledge , he had not added that other clause ( which was the sanction of the law ) in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die . will any man presume to say that adam would not have been obliged by that divine command , but might have tasted of the forbidden fruit without sin ? he must have but very little reverence for the majesty of god , and as little sense of the sacredness of his authority who would adventure to say so . and yet thus he must say if it be true ( what is contended for by some ) that the sanction is necessary to the obligation of the law. for whatever is necessary to the law as such , is necessary to every law , whether human or divine . he therefore that holds the necessity of the sanction to the obligation of the law , must say ( if he will be consistent with himself ) that the command of the great god would not have obliged adam in case there had not been a penalty annex'd to it . if he does not say so , i should smile at his inconsistency ; and if he does , i should tremble for his impudence and irreverence . but from a supposition to descend to a matter of fact , what will such a one say to the tenth commandment , to which ( as the author of the christian blessedness has rightly observ'd ) there was no sanction annex'd . will he say , that this precept stood as a cypher in the decalogue , without passing any obligation upon the jews ? this indeed wou'd make much to the honour of the divine wisdom ; and represent god as a very notable law-giver , to usher in a law with so great solemnity , and afterwards write it with his own fingers upon tables of stone , when it could signifie nothing but only the filling up of a number . and yet this , as absurd as it is , he must say , that will make the sanction necessary to the obligation of the law. if this be true , then the tenth commandment did not oblige . but it seems the great apostle was of another judgment , when he said , i had not known sin but by the law : for i had not known lust , except the law had said , thou shalt not covet . it seems then that lust was a sin , and that by vertue of the tenth commandment , which is here alledged by the apostle to prove it so , which therefore did oblige , since without obligation , as well as where there is no law , there can be no transgression . if it be said , that although the tenth commandment had no temporal sanction or civil penalty annex'd to it , like the other nine , yet it had an eternal sanction , namely the rewards and punishments of a future life , and that 't was by vertue of that sanction that it became obligatory . i answer , that this could not be any sanction to the jews , to whom it was not plainly reveal'd , though , it be now to us christians who have a full and express revelation of it . a sanction not publish'd is no sanction , as much as a law not published is no law ; that is , to any real effect or purpose of government . indeed of the two , publication seems more necessary to the sanction than to the law. for oftentimes the natural and inward reasonableness of the thing may in a great measure supply the place of an express law , as it did for a long time before there was any express law given ; but now punishment is a more arbitrary thing , and that depends more upon the will of the governor ; and therefore unless there be an express declaration of it , as there will be no certain ground of expecting it , so there will be little or no influence derived upon men from it . which makes it absolutely necessary that the sanction should be expressly declared and published , otherwise it will neither have the nature nor the effect of a sanction . it may indeed be the secret intent and purpose of the law-giver to inflict such a punishment for such an offence ; and perhaps in some cases this may be justly done without declaring before-hand that he will do so ; and this may be said to be the sanction of the law-giver ; but unless this be openly and plainly declared , it can be no sanction of the law , nor can it be a sanction to those that are to be govern'd by it . if god in his first solemn intercourse with adam , after the precept given him , had reserv'd that other clause to himself , in the day that thou eatest thou shalt die ; or had communicated this his will and purpose to an angel , or to any other being , but not to adam himself , could this have been said to have been in any respect a sanction to adam ? no certainly , because not manifested to him whose concern it was . nor for the same reason could the other be said to be a sanction to the jews . it must therefore either be said that the tenth commandment did not oblige the jews ( which i think would be an intolerable assertion , and withal expressly against the sense of the apostle , declaring lust to have been a sin by virtue of that commandment ) or that it obliged them without any sanction , and consequently that the sanction is not necessary to the obligation of the law : which is the thing that i plead for . if it be said , that though the sanction be not necessary to the obligation of the law in general , nor consequently to the obligation of all laws ; yet it must be necessary to the obligation of human laws , because human laws do not oblige under sin , and therefore must oblige only under penalty , and that therefore such laws without a sanction will not oblige . i answer , first , that this objection proves a great deal too much ; for upon this supposition the law would not oblige to action even with a sanction , for it would not so oblige at all . but we suppose here the law to have such an obligation , and say that the sanction is not necessary to it , and consequently that the removal of the sanction does not remove the obligation . our present argument therefore is not concerned in this objection . we are here enquiring what alteration the toleration has made in the state of things , by removing the sanction of the law , whether it has thereby removed the obligation too ? we say it has not , but that if the law had any obligation before , it has so still , because the sanction is not necessary to it . but whether it had or no , belongs not to our present consideration ( which is only concerning the effects of the toleration ) but to the absolute merits of the cause . but however , since it happens to come in my way , this i say further , that it is not at all necessary that human laws should be purely penal , because they are human , and consequently that 't is not necessary that all human laws should be so . for when-ever they are purely penal , 't is acknowledged that they oblige to punishment , otherwise they would oblige to nothing ; which is the same as not to oblige at all , and consequently would be no laws . but how come they to oblige to punishment , but only by the will and intention of the law-giver invested with competent authority ? and if by that he could oblige to punishment , then by the same , had he so pleased , he might have obliged to action . for this is a most unquestionable rule , that he who can oblige to punishment , can also , if he pleases , oblige to action ; nay much rather , it being a much greater thing to oblige to suffer , than to oblige to do. human laws therefore are not necessarily to be supposed purely penal as they are human , nor consequently ought all human laws to be so esteem'd . 't is not from the different authority of the law , but from the different intention of the law-giver , that any law becomes purely penal . 't is therefore by meer accident that human laws are any of them purely penal , and not from the specifick nature of the laws themselves , which for any thing that is in their proper natures may oblige in conscience , as well as any other laws . and that they do so oblige ( unless where t is otherwise express'd or insinuated in the form of the law ) is most certain , the law of god requiring us to obey the laws of men , where they are not contrary to the law of god. but i need prosecute this no further , since the excellent bishop sanderson has given the world sufficient satisfaction in this point , in those judicious discourses of his , de legum humanarum obligatione in conscientia . if it be further urg'd ( which i think is the last reserve of this objection ) that the removal of the law does involve the removal of the sanction ; and why then will it not hold as much the other way , that the removal of the sanction should remove the law ? to this i answer , that there is a great disparity in the case : the sanction is made purely for the sake of the law , whom it is to guard and defend , and so serves to it as the means does to the end ; and consequently if the law be abolish'd or suspended , &c. the sanction must needs fall in proportion with it . but now the law is not made for the sake of the sanction , but for the good of those who are to be govern'd by it . and therefore though the removal of the law removes the sanction , yet it does not therefore follow that the removal of the sanction should in like manner carry with it the removal of the law. to which , after all i might add , that 't is impossible that the whole sanction of human laws should ever be removed . for since the law of god requires obedience to the laws of men where-ever it may be lawfully paid , and threatens those with the punishments of another life , who are disobedient to publick order and government in this , though the human sanction should be taken away , yet the divine sanction would still remain ; and as long as that does remain , the whole sanction cannot be said to be removed . this i might say for a reserve , and i do not see what answer can be made to it ; but i think my cause is otherwise so well grounded , that i need not insist upon this plea. from the whole course of this argument ( which i believe has receiv'd no damage by the management ) it fully and clearly appears , that the sanction of the law is not only a thing really distinct from it , but also no way necessary to its obligation ; and therefore that the removing of the sanction does not imply or involve the removal of the law , and consequently that the toleration by removing the sanction does not remove , no nor so much as interrupt the obligation of the law , to which the sanction has been shewn to be not at all necessary . which i think breaks the neck of the objection , and he had need be a very skilful artist that shall set it agen . well , but suppose ( which you see is not the case ) that the law which enjoyns conformity to the religion and church establisht , were by the toleration perfectly remov'd , and the preceptive part of it taken away as well as the penal ; yet neither upon this supposition ( which is indeed a very great concession and abatement ) would a toleration excuse those from schism who would be guilty of it without it . for sir , these men are to consider , if they have not already consider'd it , that we do not derive the grounds of obligation to ecclesiastick communion only from the authority of the civil law ( though that must be allow'd to add a considerable weight to the obligation ) but also and chiefly from that of the divine law ; which i conceive to be as positive and as express in requiring unity and conformity of worship , as in requiring any religious worship at all . the necessity of this is by s. paul press'd upon the ephesians , from the unity of that body whereof they were members , from the unity of that spirit which was to them the common principle of life and action , from the unity of that hope to which they were call'd , from the unity of that lord to whose service they were all devoted , from the unity of that faith which they all profess'd , from the unity of that baptism whereby they were grafted into the church of christ ; and lastly , from the unity of that god who was the father of them all , who was above all , and in them all . every one of which heads of argument might justly deserve the consideration of a particular discourse , but that i am willing to suppose my reader so apprehensive , as not to want to have things laid out to him more at large . accordingly the christian church is always represented by figures that express the greatest unity , not only between that and christ , but also between fellow-christians . this is said to be that one body into which we are all baptized by one spirit , and which is said to be fitly joyn'd together and compacted . this is that spiritual house built upon the foundation of the prophets and apostles , jesus christ himself being the chief corner-stone , in whom all the building , fitly framed together , grows into an holy temple in the lord. 't is represented also as one flock , under one shepherd jesus christ , whose last and most solemn prayer was for the unity of the church ; which must therefore be supposed to be highly agreeable to the mind and will of god , otherwise our saviour would not have pray'd for it so earnestly and with such solemnity . though i question very much whether this solemn prayer of christ will be fully heard and answer'd till the glorious state of his millennial reign upon earth . however , in the mean time 't is most certain that 't is the great duty of us all to endeavour after that state of unity which our saviour pray'd might be among his disciples . hence it is that schism is condemn'd as a work of the flesh , and those that separate are said to be sensual , not having the spirit ; and christians are admonish'd to mark and shun them that cause divisions , and are withall commanded to mind or think one and the same thing , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to stand fast in one spirit with one mind , to walk by the same rule , to be joyn'd together in the same mind , and in the same judgment , and with one mind and mouth to glorifie god the father , with a world of precepts and exhortations to the same purpose , which every one may find that does but open the bible . now what can all this signifie ? nothing certainly less than this , that the unity of the church is so sacred a thing , that it ought to be preserv'd by all lawful means , and that no separation ought to be made in it without absolute and evident necessity . in one word ; that where 't is lawful to communicate , there 't is sinful to separate . which is more expresly deliver'd in that apostolical canon taken notice of by the author of christian blessedness ; if it be possible , as much as lies in you , live peaceably with all men. this takes in the whole latitude and capacity of society , the state as well as the church ; in both which , by vertue of this precept , peace and unity is to be maintain'd as far as is possible , and therefore without question on as far as is lawful . and if the peace of the state is to be preserv'd as far as is possible , then certainly much more the peace of the church . since then the scripture is both so frequent and so express , i might say also so earnest and passionate in inculcating the necessity of preserving the unity of the church , and in condemning all unnecessary disturbances of it ; it is most certain that the divine law , without the confirmation of the civil , is a sufficient obligation to church-unity , where-ever it may lawfully be held . every christian church that proposes lawful terms of communication has , by the law of god ( though the civil law be silent in the case ) an undoubted right to the conformity of all that are within the pale of her establishment , who cannot with-hold it from her without incurring the guilt of schism , which , according to the general sense of the christian world , is nothing else but an unnecessary separation ; and then is separation unnecessary , when communion is lawful . the argument in form is , whoever separates unnecessarily , is guilty of schism : but whoever separates where he may lawfully communicate , separates unnecessarily ; therefore whoever separates where he may lawfully communicate , is guilty of schism . the minor proposition is plain by its omn light , since there can no moral necessity be pretended for not doing what may lawfully be done . and the major proposition is clear by the light of scripture , which presses and injoyns the peace and unity of the church to the very utmost degree of strictness , even as far as is possible . whence the conclusion necessarily follows , that whoever separates where he may lawfully communicate , is guilty of schism . this is so clear and evident , that the most moderately affected in point of church-unity and conformity could never shut their eyes against the light of it , though they endeavour'd to wink never so hard . particularly mr. hales , a very free , and for the most part , judicious writer , and one very remarkable for his moderation , especially as to all church-matters , and who writes of schism with all the tenderness imaginable , handling it as if he were feeling the edge of a razor : and yet after all his endeavours to reduce it into as narrow a compass as he could , by making as few guilty of it as might be , he could find nothing to justifie separation but only sinfulness of communion . as may appear from several passages that occur in his tract of schism . for , says he , page . for the further opening the nature of schism , something must be added by way of difference to distinguish it from necessary separation ; and that is , that the causes upon which division is attempted , proceed not from passion , or distemper , or ambition , or avarice , or such other ends as human folly is apt to pursue , but from well-weigh'd and necessary reasons ; and that , when all other means having been tried , nothing will serve to save us from guilt of conscience , but open separation . so that schism , if we would define it , is nothing else but an unnecessary separation of christians from that part of the visible church of which they were once members . again , says he , page . unadvisedly and upon fancy to break the knot of union between man and man , especially among christians , upon whom , above all other kind of men , the tye of love and communion does most especially rest , is a crime hardly pardonable ; and that nothing absolves a man from the guilt of it , but true and unpretended conscience . again , says he , page . what if those to whose care the execution of the publick service is committed do something unlawful , &c. yet for all this we may not separate , except we be constrain'd personally to bear a part our selves . the priests under eli had so ill demean'd themselves about the daily sacrifice , that the scriptures tell us , they made it stink ; yet the people refused not to come to the tabernacle , nor to bring their sacrifice to the priest. for in these schisms which concern fact , nothing can be a just cause of refusal of communion , but only to require the execution of some unlawful or suspected act. again , says he , page . why may i not go , if occasion require , to an arian church , so there be no arianism exprest in their liturgy ? and again , lastly , page . speaking of conventicles , says he , it evidently appears that all meetings upon unnecessary occasions of separation are to be so stiled ; so that , in this sense , a conventicle is nothing else but a congregation of schismaticks . from these and other like passages any one may be satisfy'd that mr. hales , with all his moderation , could not but see , that where separation is not necessary , there communion is ; and that to depart from the communion of a visible establisht church , with whom you may lawfully communicate , is to be guilty of schism . and so much seems to be granted even by the author of the letter of toleration , who defines schism to be an ill grounded separation in ecclesiastical communion , made about things not necessary . 't is true indeed , by things not necessary , this author means ( as he afterwards explains himself ) things not expresly contain'd in the rule , making him a schismatick that separates from a church , because that church does not require what the scripture does not . but this will come to one and the same thing . for why is he a schismatick that makes a separation from a church for not requiring more than is expresly contain'd in scripture , but only because he might communicate with that church notwithstanding this her frugality and reservedness , and consequently his separation was unnecessary ? this is the thing into which the schism of such a separatist must be at last resolv'd . and then for the same reason , why is not he as much a schismatick that separates from a church , that does require more than the scripture expresly contains , provided it be not contrary to the rule of scripture , since with this church he may also lawfully communicate , and therefore has no necessity for his separation ? 't is the unnecessity of the separation that in both cases makes the schism . so that this notion of our author , though at first sight it seems to offer somewhat new , resolves it self , at long run , into the old common notion of schism , which has all along obtain'd in the christian world. where-ever therefore there is no necessity of separating , there the church has a right to communion , which to with-hold from her is schism , or else there is no such thing as schism in the world. this right the church of rome had before her falling into her gross corruptions , and this right the church of england and all other churches have that are reform'd from them . and this right every lawfully constituted church has by vertue of the divine law , which is her original charta , and which of it self lays upon all christians a sufficient obligation to church-unity , though there should be no civil authority to back and inforce it . for indeed , unless it were so , how could there be such a thing as the sign of schism in the apostles times , and in the more primitive ages of the church ? there was then no civil law to oblige christians to church-communion ; so far from this , that the edge and point of the civil sword was turn'd directly against it . the state and the church then not only moved in two different , but in two opposite spheres . and yet we find that in those early times the sin of schism was as much condemn'd , and schismatical persons as deeply branded as in any of the after ages . nay more indeed , because of the singularity and strangeness of the crime . punish'd indeed they could not so well be , for want of the concurrence of the civil sword ; which was not then in a christian hand , but they were censured and condemn'd , and according to the apostle's admonition , those were mark'd and avoided that caused divisions . and therefore though we should allow the present toleration to silence the civil law , whereby conformity is injoyn'd , ( which yet from the premises appears to be far otherwise , ) yet since the divine law requiring all possible unity , stands uncancell'd , ( for sure the toleration won't be pretended to reach that ; ) those that make caufeless and unnecessary divisions , will still be guilty of schism , notwithstanding the favour of the toleration , which i am afraid will prove but an indifferent plea for separation at the last day to those that have no better . what then , you 'll say , is the effect of a toleration ? or what can be supposed to be the just and reasonable intent of it ? i answer ; as to the effect , it cannot release at all from any preceding obligation . it does not release so much as from the obligation of the civil law , whose penalty it only suspends , much less does it release from obligation to the divine law , with which it has nothing to do , and upon which it has no manner of effect . it does not therefore discharge any from obligation to conformity , who would not be discharged without it . all indeed are actually eased by it ; that 's an universal and indifferent effect , but none are discharged or unobliged . then as to the intent of it , all that it can be reasonably intended for is to ease those few from penalties , ( for i doubt they are not many , ) who are so unhappy as really and sincerely to be persuaded in their consciences that 't is not lawful for them to joyn in communion with the church of england . though the toleration does actually ease all indifferently , yet 't is for the ease of such only that a toleration can be justly or reasonably intended , whose condition indeed would be as pitiable , as i am afraid it is rare . but even here the toleration has no other effect than barely to ease them . if they are withall releas'd from any obligation , 't is not by vertue of the toleration , but by reason of something else , namely their unhappy judgment and persuasion in thinking our communion unlawful ; which however in it self false and erroneous , must be allow'd to bind in conscience while 't is their misfortune to be under it . this is the thing that releases from obligation , whenever there is any releasement ; the toleration only eases them from suffering the penalty of non-conformity . and 't is for their ease only that it can be reasonably intended . but as for those who are satisfy'd of the lawfulness of communicating with the establisht church , ( who i fear make the greatest part of those that separate from it , ) they are still obliged under pain of sin , though not of civil chastisement , to communicate with it . and if they do not , 't is not a toleration , or act of indulgence , though granted by the highest power upon earth , that can excuse them from the sin of schism , at least before god. nor do such men deserve the favour of a toleration . and now , sir , from the measures laid down , it plainly appears , that if the separatists from the church of england were guilty of schism before the toleration , ( which , whether they were or no , depends upon other grounds , and is not now to be disputed over again , ) they are as much guilty of it now , there being no change made by the toleration as to the preceptive , but only as to the penal part of the law. which may suffice to clear the author of christian blessedness of the first imputation laid against him , that of a false charge . the two others will be more easily , and more briefly dispatch'd . the next thing therefore for which our author is blamed is the uncharitableness of his charge . this indeed is a heavy censure , and ought to be well-grounded , or else it will recoil upon those that make it . but i think there has been that said upon the former objection , that will scarce allow any room for this . for if the author's charge was uncharitable , it must be either because of the matter of it , or because of the end and design of it . not certainly upon the account of its matter , because that appears to be true ; for the proof of which , i appeal to the reason and argument of the preceding discourse . and if they fix the uncharitableness of it upon its end and design , they themselves will bring their own charity in question by judging so severely of the intentions of the author , which they cannot be supposed to be privy to . for how can they pretend to know the author's thoughts and designs ? did he ever communicate his intentions to them ? or will they judge by inspiration , and pretend to the gift of divining and conjecturing , as well as of praying by the spirit ? i that am intimately acquainted with the author , and know more of his principles and sentiments , thoughts and intentions , than any of those that take the liberty of censuring and condemning them , do verily believe that in his continuing the charge of schism upon the separatists , he intended nothing against charity , but rather the greatest charity and good-will . i know 't is his most deliberate and well-assured sense , that if ever there was or can be such a sin as schism in the church of christ , they of the present separation are truly and deeply guilty of it . and since it came fairly in his way , he thought himself obliged in charity to reprehend them from it , not knowing what good effect a candid and rational admonition might have upon those ( for he had charity enough to hope there might be some such ) who were not quite over-run with the humour of opposition , nor arm'd cap-a-pee with prejudice . and being withal in the mean time assured of the duty of fraternal correption ; and how much that concerns every christian ( as being the duty even of a jew ) in any-wise to rebuke his brother , and not to suffer sin to lie upon him . and if i may have leave to divert a little from the defence of my friend to my own justification , i think i may safely say that i am now in prosecution of the very same charitable design . for though i acknowledge my self to have had some regard to the reputation of my friend , which i think has suffer'd without cause ; and which to assert and vindicate , i take to be a very innocent design ; yet i can say ( as far as i know the inward springs of my own actions ) that the principal end and aim of this undertaking was to further that great and dear interest of christianity , for which our departing saviour so earnestly and so solemnly pray'd to his father , the interest of ecclesiastick unity . to further this , i say , is my main design , both by awakening the consciences of those who by the favour of the government striking in with their own natural humour of contradiction , may be tempted against the inward sense and light of their minds to transgress against the great christian obligation to publick order and unity of worship , and by undeceiving and disabusing others , who by the impunity of the present toleration may be so far imposed upon as to fancy themselves releas'd from any such obligation . both which , i think , are very good , very charitable , and very christian designs . but to return : i think , sir , there appears now to be as little reason for taxing our author with uncharity as with error . for his own part , i believe he is conscious to himself of neither . but if he is guilty , i dare say he would be glad to be convinc'd , that so he might rectifie the one , and repent of the other . for the present he thinks there is so little occasion for either , that if he had not only charg'd our separatists with schism , but with the most unjust and unreasonable schism that ever was made in the christian church , he thinks it would have been no slander . and he has commission'd me to say that he is ready against any opposer to make it good . but though the author's charge was neither false , nor uncharitable , yet was it not something unseasonable ? so indeed some say , who say neither of the other . nor is this an inconsiderable exception , if true . for as every thing is beautiful in its season , so is season the beauty of every thing , and there is nothing beautiful out of it . actions materially good , and wherein we mean well , are oftentimes utterly spoil'd merely by being mis-timed . but why , i pray , was this charge so unseasonable ? what , because the separation was grown very wide , and by reason of the relaxation of the government growing still every day wider ; because some were invited to it ( as they are to other sins ) by impunity , and others began to make that a plea for its lawfulness ; because it began to set up for one of the court-fashions , and was growing to be not only a priviledge of the saint , but the accomplishment of the gentleman ; because some used their liberty as a cloak for their maliciousness , and almost all as an opportunity to serve the interest of their cause ; because , lastly , that church and state which were so lately rescued from the jaws of popery , were now in as critical a point of danger from the incroachments of the separation ; was it therefore out of season to charge the separatists with schism ? now i always thought that the most proper season to admonish men of their faults was when they were most rife and epidemical , and when they had most temptations and opportunities of committing them ; and when the commission of them would threaten the greatest danger and mischief . this has been generally thought the most proper season of admonition by all wise men in all other matters , and why not in this ? 't is the necessity of admonition that at any time makes it seasonable ; and then there is most need of it , when the manners and ways of men are most disorderly and irregular . the more corrupt therefore and degenerate the age , the more seasonable is the reproof , and indeed , if the general prevalency and fashionableness of vice be enough to make admonition unseasonable , 't is now high time , considering the moral state of the world , that not only all writing , but all preaching too were laid aside . but this i suppose is a consequence which those that blame our author's charge as unseasonable will not admit ; whence it follows ( whatever in partiality to their own concern they may be induced to say ) that even by their own measure it was not really unseasonable . but 't is further said , that this was a treatment altogether unexpected and unlook'd for . they expected now as much favour from the pulpit and the press , as they found from the government ; and that there should now be no other discourses about them , but such as were healing , complying , and tending to moderation , and not to have the old business of schism reviv'd again . this was as much contrary to expectation , as to inclination and humour ; and was it not enough to vex any body to be so disappointed ? that it was enough , the event shews ; but whether it ought to be , may admit more question . but i 'll tell you a story . while thcodora poffess'd the empire of constantinople with her son , who was yet in minority , one named methodius , an excellent painter , an italian by nation , and religious by profession , went to the court of the bulgarian king , named bogoris , where he was entertain'd with much favour . this prince way yet a pagan , and though tryal had been made to convert him to the faith , it succeeded not , because his mind was so set upon pleasures , that reason could find but little access . he was excessively pleas'd with hunting ; and as some delight in pictures to behold what they love , so he appointed methodius to paint him a piece of hunting in a palace which he had newly built . the painter , seeing he had a fair occasion to take his opportunity for the conversion of this infidel , instead of painting an hunting piece for him , made an exquisite table of the day of judgment . wherein he represented that great solemnity with all its circumstances of terror . in the end , the day assign'd being come , he drew aside the curtain , and shew'd his work. 't is said , the king at first stood some while pensive , not being able to wonder enough at the strange sight . then turning towards methodius , what is this ? said he . the religious man took occasion thereupon to tell him of the judgments of god , of punishments and rewards in the other life ; wherewith he was so moved , that in a short time he yielded himself to god by a happy conversion . now whether this device of the painter was unseasonable or no , or whether the advantage of the design and of the event would excuse the disappointment , i leave to the reader to judge . and thus , sir , having fully clear'd my friend from the treble indictment laid in against him , by shewing his charge of schism to have been neither false , nor uncharitable , nor unseasonable , i shall now , for a conclusion of all , address my self to the dissenters in a word or two , concerning their behaviour under the present toleration . not what it is , or has been ( for that is well enough known ) but what it ought to be . some , it may be , who are not all over argument-proof , moved with the reason of the fore-going considerations , may be ready to ask of me , what would you then have us to do , or how shall we behave our selves under the present state of things ? it seems indeed to be as you say , that the relaxation of the government makes no change in the obligations to conformity ; but if we should lay down the separation , and come over to the church , what are we the better for the toleration ? and is it reasonable that there should be a toleration , and we not the better for it ? what , was the toleration granted , not to be enjoyed ? is it like the tree of paradice , good for food , and pleasant to the eye , and withall planted within our reach , and yet not to be medled with ? shall we be so unkind to our selves , as not to embrace an opportunity of ease and liberty ? or so ungrateful to the government , as not to make use of that privilege of indulgence which the kindness of our superiors has vouchsafed us ? what would you have us do ? i answer in one word , do now as you ought to do before . for since the toleration ( as has been proved ) makes not any the least alteration in those obligations to church-unity that are derived either from the law of the state , or from the law of god , but all things as to that stand now in the same posture as they did , 't is plain that your behaviour also ought to be the very same now that it ought to have been before the toleration . if the points of the compass stand now as they did then , without any declension or variation , 't is plain that you ought to steer the same course now , as you ought then . if you ask what that is ? i answer , first , lay aside as much as possibly you can all manner of prejudice that may arise either from natural temper and complexion , or from education , or from long custom to a contrary way ; or from blind regard to the authority of some men , for whom , perhaps , you have had a more early than just veneration ; or from humour , or from passion , or from interest , or from whatever else may bride and corrupt the genuine native sense of our minds . for unless the scale hang even , 't is to no purpose to weigh any thing in it . secondly , when you have thus truly devested your selves of all prejudice , and reduced your judgments to an even poise , then apply your selves seriously and deliberately , impartially and sincerely , soberly and in the fear of god to consider and examin the state and constitution of our church , and the terms of her communion , whether they are lawful or no. but be sure you do not this by advising only with books of your own way , or by consulting only with guides of your own party and persuasion ( for this would be to fall back into your old prejudice again ) but by a free and indifferent recourse to the writers and leaders of both sides , by considering and weighing what is offered by the learned and excellent defenders of the church , as well as what is said by the advocates for the separation , and by trying and judging all according to the infallible rule of scripture , and the eternal truth of god shining forth in your own souls . and if , thirdly , after your most impartial and sincere endeavours rightly to inform your selves according to the best use of your faculties and opportunities , it be still your unhappiness verily to be persuaded in your consciences , that the communion of the church of england is unlawful ( which though i cannot deny to be absolutely possible , seems yet as hard to me for a considerate man really to believe , as to believe transubstantiation ) yet i say , if you should be invincibly determin'd to such a persuasion , in the name of god abide where you are , and make use of the toleration , and enjoy the benefit of it with peace and satisfaction of mind . i would not for a world persuade you to communicate with the church of england ( as excellent as she is ) against the real sense and persuasion of your consciences . for the following of which you can never be accountable , provided it be not your fault that you are of that persuasion . but if , fourthly and lastly , you are convinced of the lawfulness of holding communion with the church ; ( and to be free with you , i cannot but think that most of you are , if you would confess the truth ; ) then i pray consider seriously with your selves what tolerable account you will be able to render either to god or man for continuing a separation in that church where even according to your own judgment and confession you might lawfully communicate . or how you can be said to preserve the unity of the catholick church , or that communion of saints which you profess to believe , if you separate from the communion of a visible , establisht , national church , of whose lawfulness you are satisfy'd , and from whom therefore you need not separate . consider whether this be not a causeless dividing , dis-uniting , and dismembring of the body of christ , a high violation of that publick order and decency which he has required in his church , and as great a breach of the christian peace , as you can possibly be guilty of in the peace of the state : in one word , consider whether this be not all that which both scripture and the best antiquity represent , and so severely condemn under that one emphatical word , schism . and do not think to salve all at last , by taking sanctuary in the toleration . this , you see , stands neuter , leaves the state of the question as it found it ; and does not at all interpose for your relief , but leaves you to stand or fall by the absolute merits of your cause . these therefore alone you ought to consider and enquire into , viz. whether you can honestly and safely communicate with us or no ? and if you find you can , then 't is most certain that you ought . the law of god and the law of man ( for the toleration you see evacuates neither ) do still oblige you to it ; and if you do not , though the government excuses you from the penalty , yet neither that nor any thing else will excuse you from the sin of schism . the short is , that which will justifie such a separation as this , will justifie any , and then there will be no such thing as an obligation to church-unity , and consequently no such thing as schism in the world. and i desire never to reduce an adversary to a greater extremity than when he is forced to deny the very being and possibility of the sin of schism , that he may prove himself to be no schismatick . this , sir , is all i think necessary to say upon this occasion ; and i think i have said nothing but what i have well thought and consider'd , and what is my real judgment , and what will stand the test , whether of charity or of truth . i have view'd and review'd what i have written ; and i must needs declare , that i cannot discern the least flaw in the argument of this discourse , nor do i fear the severity of the most critical eye or hand . however , if any one of the learned among the diffenting party thinks the argument of this discourse may be answer'd , and withall thinks himself sufficiently qualify'd for the undertaking , ( for i declare before-hand that i shall not think my self concern'd to take notice of every impertinent scribler , ) i fairly and freely invite him to it ; and withall do promise him , for his better encouragement , that he shall find me either able to defend what i have written , or willing to submit . farewell . postscript concerning moderation . i think it very proper and seasonable , in a word or two , to rectifie another very popular mistake , wherewith i find most common persons , and some others are imposed upon . it is concerning moderation , whose notion i perceive to be generally as much abused as that of toleration , and to as ill a purpose . moderation , without question if rightly understood , is a most excellent thing , as signifying , i. in general , such a temper of soul , and such a government of all a man's thoughts and desires , words and actions , as may steer the course of life in the middle way between the extremes of defect and excess , so as to be always affected in proportion to the greatness or goodness of the end , and to the necessity or usefulness of the means . or as signifying more particularly with relation to the body , such a due and well-proportion'd conduct of it , and regard to it , as becomes a creature that is neither a meer animal , nor a pure spirit , but partakes of both natures , and therefore ought not so to be addicted to the interest of the body , as to neglect the spiritual life ; nor yet so devoted to the life of the spirit , as to forget he is in the body . this way being as much too high , as the other is too low , and the way of man lying in the middle . thus understood , without all doubt moderation is a most excellent thing , and will have an universal and uncontested approbation . and thus it is generally understood in all other cases , but only when it relates to church-conformity . and then by moderation is usually meant either an indifferency of doing what the church prescribes , or a doing it by halves , or a total omission of it . and accordingly he is accounted a moderate man , who either is indifferently affected to the constitutions of the church , and is little concern'd whether he conforms to them or no , and accordingly stands ready and disposed with or without reasonable occasion to admit of alterations , or who conforms by halves , or who does not conform at all . all these in their several orders and degrees , go commonly for men of moderation ; and i believe many for the procurement of that specious title , are tempted to appear so disposed , designing nothing at all worse by it , than only the reputation of moderate men. but let such as run away with this notion , take this consideration along with them , if they are not in too much haste , that 't is not all manner of moderation that is justly to be commended , nor this of theirs in particular . for the right estimation of which matter , i desire the following measures may be consider'd . if the object of our moderation be not already either by nature or constitution fix'd and stated in a due measure , but is to receive its measure from our moderation , then moderation , as it signifies an indifferency of mind , may have both place and commendation . as suppose in the instance of pleasure , which because an indeterminate object , and of indefinite latitude , capable either of excess or defect , leaves room for the exercise of moderation in us , which is then a good and laudable thing . but if the object be already either by nature , or by positive constitution fix'd and stated in a due measure , and is not to receive that measure from our moderation , then our moderation has neither place nor commendation : as in the instance suppose of vertue ; which being already supposed to be in the mean , leaves no room for moderation in us , nor would moderation then be a good or laudable thing . nor was it ever thought a commendation of the love of vertue to say it was moderate or indifferent . now to apply this to the present case . if the order of the church of england were not already constituted in a state and temper of moderation , then indeed moderation in conformity might pretend to some excellency and commendation ; but if it be already in such a state and temper , then there is neither room for it , nor excellency in it . but rather on the contrary , to be moderately affected to conformity , will then be as great a commendation as to be a moderate lover of order and reason , and all that 's good . and they that like this commendation , 't is fit they should have it . before therefore moderation in conformity be made a commendable character , and before men of this character be so much cry'd up and sought after as the fittest persons to be employed both in state and in church-concerns , it ought to be made appear , that the constitution of the church is in it self immoderate . this indeed is slily and indirectly insinuated by all those that raise such clamours about moderation . but they ought , if they would deal fairly , directly to prove it ; and indeed wholly to insist upon it , and not impose upon the prejudice and the ignorance of the people by the specious and plausible name of moderation . for unless it be first proved , that the church in her constitution is immoderate ; 't is plain , that moderation on our parts has no room ; and that all the noise and stir that is made about it , is but meer sophistry with ill design . but now whether the constitution of the church be really immoderate , i refer those that desire to be satisfied to what has been from time to time written in her defence and justification , particularly to an excellent book very honestly , and , as i think , very learnedly written by doctor puller , call'd , the moderation of the church of england . finis . books printed for s. manship , book-seller , at the black bull in cornhil , over-against the royal exchange . the christian monitor : containing an earnest exhortation to an holy life , with some directions in order thereto . written in a plain and easie stile , for all sorts of people : the thirteenth edition . price d. thirty thousand having been already sold off . a treatise of sacramental covenanting with christ : shewing the ungodly their contempt of christ , in their contempt of the sacramental covenant , and calling them ( not to a prophanation of this holy ordinance , but ) to an understanding , serious , entire dedication of themselves to god in the sacramental covenant , and a believing commemoration of the death of christ , in octavo : by j. rawlet , b. d. the fourth edition . price bound s. d. an explication of the creed , the ten commandments and the lord's-prayer ; with the addition of some forms of prayer , in twelves : the third edition : with some prayers added : by j. rawlet . price s. d. a dialogue betwixt two protestants , in answer to a popish catechism , called , a short catechism against all sectaries : plainly shewing , that the members of the church of england are no sectaries , but true catholicks ; and that our church is a sound part of christ's holy catholick church , in whose communion therefore the people of this nation are more strictly bound in conscience to remain : in two parts : by j. r. b. d. the fourth edition corrected . price bound s. d. poetick miscellanies of mr. j. rawlet , b.d. and late lecturer of s. nicholas church in the town and county of newcastle upon tine , in octavo . price s. d. odes , satyrs and epistles of horace , done into english : the second edition , in octavo . price s. lives of the most famous english poets , or the honour of parnassus , in a brief essay of the works and writings of above two hundred of them , from the time of king william the conqueror , to the reign of the late king james the second . price s. d. cap of grey hairs for a green head , or the father's counsel to his son , an apprentice in london : containing wholsome instructions for the management of a man's whole life . the fourth edition , in twelves . price s. the gallant hermophrodite : an amorous novel . price s. injured lovers , or the ambitious father ; a tragedy : acted by their majesties servants at the theatre-royal : by william mounfort , com. comical revenge , or love in a tub , as 't is now acted at their majesties theatre : by sir g. etherege . books written by the reverend mr. j. norris , m. a. a collection of miscellanies ; consisting of poems , essays , discourses and letters , in octavo , large : price s. theory and regulation of love ; a moral essay , in two parts : to which are added , letters philosophical and moral , between the author and more , in octavo . price s. reason and religion , or the grounds and measures of devotion considered , from the nature of god and the nature of man , in several contemplations ; with exercise of devotion applyed to every contemplation , in octavo . price s. reflections upon the conduct of human life , with reference to the study of learning and knowledge : in a letter to the excellent lady , the lady masham : to which is annex'd a visitation-sermon , by the same author . price s. d. christian blessedness , or discourses upon the beatitudes of our lord and saviour jesus christ : written by jo. norris , m. a. and late fellow of all-souls colledge in oxford : to which are added , reflections upon a late essay concerning human understanding : by the same author , in octavo . price s. artificial versifying : or , a new way to make latin verses ; whereby any one of ordinary capacity , that only knows the a , b , c , and can count nine ( though he understands not one word of latin , or what a verse means ) may be plainly taught ( in as little time as this is reading over ) how to make thousands of hexameter and pentameter verses , which shall be true latin , true verse , and good sense ; the third edition , wherein the old structure of hexameters is quite taken down , and in its place a more compact one raised . to which is adjoyn'd a new model of pentameters , never before published , by the same hand of jo. peter . price d . a discourse of courage ; wherein it is made known , according to truth , and the real nature thereof . in to price d . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e lib. . cap. . p. . lib. . c. . p. . rom. . rom. . . ephes. . , , , . page . lev. . . causin's holy court , part . pag. . by the king, a proclamation for inforcing the laws against conventicles and for preservation of the publick peace against unlawful assemblies of papists and non-conformists england and wales. sovereign ( - : charles ii) approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page image. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; 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(eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) by the king, a proclamation for inforcing the laws against conventicles and for preservation of the publick peace against unlawful assemblies of papists and non-conformists england and wales. sovereign ( - : charles ii) charles ii, king of england, - . broadside. printed by the assigns of john bill and christopher barker ..., in the savoy [i.e. london] : / [i.e. ] "given at our court at whitehall the tenth day of march in the twentieth year of our reign, / ." reproduction of original in the huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng dissenters, religious -- england. anti-catholicism -- england. great britain -- history -- charles ii, - . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - mona logarbo sampled and proofread - mona logarbo text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion c r diev et mon droit honi soit qvi mal y pense royal blazon or coat of arms by the king. a proclamation for inforcing the laws against conventicles , and for preservation of the publick peace , against unlawful assemblies of papists and non-conformists . charles r. whereas our loyal subjects the commons in this present parliament assembled , have lately been humble petitioners to vs to issue forth our proclamation for inforcing the laws against conventicles , and that care might be taken for preservation of the peace of the kingdom against unlawful assemblies of papists and non-conformists ; having seriously considered and weighed the said humble suit of our said commons , and upon information that divers persons in several parts of this realm , abusing the clemency which hath been used towards persons not conforming to the worship and government established in the church of england ( even whilst it was under consideration , to find out a way for the better vnion of our protestant subjects ) have of late frequently and openly , in great numbers , and to the great disturbance of our peace , held unlawful assemblies and conventicles ; we have thought good to declare , that we will by no means permit such notorious contempts of vs and our laws , to go unpunished . and therefore we do by this our royal proclamation ( with the advice of our privy council ) require , charge and command all lords lieutenants , deputy-lieutenants , iustices of oyer & terminer , iustices of assize and goal-delivery , iustices of peace , mayors , bayliffs , and all other our officers whatsoever , that they be circumspect and vigilant , each of them in their several charges and iurisdictions , to inforce , and put in execution , all the laws now in force against unlawful conventicles . and further , our will and pleasure is , and we do hereby strictly charge and command our said magistrates and officers , that they and every of them in their several places , do take care for the preservation of the peace of this kingdom , against unlawful assemblies of papists and non-conformists . given at our court at whitehall the tenth day of march , in the twentieth year of our reign . / . god save the king . in the savoy , printed by the assigns of john bill and christopher barker , printers to the kings most excellent majesty . / . some remarkable passages out of the excellent letter of mijn heer fagal, in the name of their highnesses the prince and princess of orange fagel, gaspar, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page image. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing f a estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) some remarkable passages out of the excellent letter of mijn heer fagal, in the name of their highnesses the prince and princess of orange fagel, gaspar, - . broadside s.n., [london? : ] caption title. imprint suggested by wing. dated at end: nov. , . reproduction of original in the huntington library created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng dissenters, religious -- legal status, laws, etc. -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - mona logarbo sampled and proofread - mona logarbo text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion some remarkable passages out of the excellent letter of mijn heer fagal , in the name of their highnesses the prince and princess of orange . i must then first of all assure you very positively , that their highnesses have often declared , as they did it more particularly to the marquiss abbev●lle , his majesties envoy extraordinary to the states , that it is their opinion , that no christian ought to be persecuted for his conscience , or be ill used , because he differs from the publick and establishe● religion : and therefore they can consent that the papists in en●land , scotland , and ireland . ●●●e suffered to continue in their religion , with as much liberty as is allowed them by the states in these ●rovinces . and their highnesses are very ready , in case his majesty shall think fit to desire it , to declare their willingness to concur in the settling and confirming this liberty , and as far as it lies in them , they will protect and defend it , and according to the language of treaties , they wi●l confirm it with their guaranty , of which you made mention in yours . and if his majesty shall think fit further to desire their concurrence in the repealing of the penal laws , they are ready to give it ; provided alwayes that those laws remain still in their full vigor , by which the r. catholicks are shut out of both houses of parliament , and out of all publick employments , ecclesiastical , civil , and military . you writ , that the roman catholicks in these provinces are not shut out from employments and places of trust ; but in this you are much mistaken , for our laws are express , excluding them by name from all share in the government , and from all employments either of the policy or justice of our countrey . it is true , i do not know of any express law , that shuts them out of military employments , that had indeed been hard , since in the first formation of our state , they joyned with us in defending our publick liberty , and did as eminent service during the wars ; therefore they were not shut out from those military employments ; for the publick safety was no way endangered by this , both because their numbers that served in our troops were not great , and because the states could easily prevent any inconveniency that might arise out of that ; which could not have been done so easily , if the r catholicks had been admitted to a share in the government , and in the policy or justice of our state. i am very certain of this , of which i could give very good proof , that there is nothing that their highnesses desire so much , as that his majesty may reign happily , and in an intire confidence with his subjects ; and that his subjects being perswaded of his majesties fatherly affection to them , may be ready to make him all the returns of duty that are in their power . their highnesses have ever paid a most profound duty to his majesty , which they will alwayes continue to do ; for they consider themselves bound to it , both by the laws of god and of nature . i do not think it necessary to demonstrate to you how much their highnesses are devoted to his majesty , of which they have given such real evidences as are beyond all verbal ones ; and they are resolved still to continue in the same duty and affection : or rather to increase it , if that is possible . nov. . . sir , yours , &c. memorandum , that these singular expressions of affection and duty to the king their father , were sent after those irregular and offensive measures of quo warranting charters , the dispensing power , clossetting , the ecclesiastical commission , and magdalen colledge , were practised ; and comparing this with several expressions in his highness his declaration , and both with his majesties reasons why he withdrew himself from rochester , may it not become us as members of the church of england , and subjects of the king of england , to desire him to return to us upon the terms of the ancient constitution of our government ; and if those be too large , upon such terms , as will make us safe ; and may not our neglecting to do it , upon a supposition of a demise , because he with-drew himself , which he charges upon a constraint , become a lasting reproach upon these kingdoms , and through our means , a like dishonour to the prince and princess . an enquiry into the power of dispensing with penal statutes together with some animadversions upon a book writ by sir edw. herbert ... entituled, a short account of the authorities in law, upon which judgment was given in sir edward hales's case / by sir robert atkyns ... atkyns, robert, sir, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing a estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) an enquiry into the power of dispensing with penal statutes together with some animadversions upon a book writ by sir edw. herbert ... entituled, a short account of the authorities in law, upon which judgment was given in sir edward hales's case / by sir robert atkyns ... atkyns, robert, sir, - . [ ], p. printed for timothy goodwin ..., london : . reproduction of original in cambridge university library. advertisement precedes title. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng herbert of cherbury, edward herbert, -- baron, - . -- short account of the authorites in law, upon which judgment was given in sir edward hale's case. hales, edward, -- sir, d. . dissenters, religious -- legal status, laws, etc. -- great britain. dissenters, religious -- great britain. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - rachel losh sampled and proofread - rachel losh text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion an enquiry into the power of dispensing with penal statutes . together with some animadversions upon a book writ by sir edw. herbert , lord chief justice of the court of common pleas , entituled , a short account of the authorities in law , upon which judgment was given in sir edward hales 's case . by sir robert atkyns , knight of the honourable order of the bath , and late one of the judges of the common pleas. digna vox est majestate regnantis , legibus alligatum se esse principem profiteri . london : printed for timothy goodwin , at the maiden-head against st. dunstan's-church in fleet-street . . advertisement . january the st , . to morrow will be published by tim. goodwin , at the maiden-head against st. dunstan 's church in fleet-street , the power , jurisdiction , and priviledge of parliament : and the antiquity of the house of commons asserted : occasioned by an information in the king's-bench , by the attorney general , against the speaker of the house of commons . as also a discourse concerning the ecclesiastical jurisdiction in the realm of england ; occasioned by the late commission in ecclesiastical causes . by sir robert atkyns , knight of the honourable order of the bath , and late one of the judges of the court of common-pleas . an enquiry into the power of dispensing with penal statutes . car. ii. cap. . an act for preventing dangers which may happen from popish recusants . for preventing dangers which may happen from popish recusants , and quieting the minds of his majesties good subjects , be it enacted , &c. that every person that shall bear any office , civil or military , &c. or shall have command or place of trust from or under his majesty , &c. within the realm of england , &c. shall personally appear in the court of chancery , or of the kings-bench , or at the court of quarter-sessions in that county where he shall reside within three months next after his admittance into any of the said offices , and there in open court , take the several oaths of supremacy and allegiance , and shall also receive the sacrament of the lord's supper , according to the usage of the church of england , in some parish-church , upon some lord's-day , immediately after divine service . and every the person aforesaid , that doth or shall neglect or refuse to take the said oaths and the sacrament in the said courts , and at the respective times aforesaid , shall be ipso facto adjudged uncapable , and disabled in law to all intents and purposes whatsoever , to have , occupy , or enjoy , the said office or employment , and every such office and place shall be void , and is hereby adjudged void . and every person that shall neglect or refuse to take the said oaths or the sacrament as aforesaid , and yet after such neglect or refusal , shall execute any of the said offices , after the said times expired , wherein he ought to have taken the same , and being thereupon lawfully convicted upon any information , &c. in any of the king's courts at westminster , or at the assizes , every such person shall forfeit l. to be recovered by him that shall sue for the same . and at the same time when the persons concerned in this act shall take the said oaths , they shall likewise subscribe the declaration against the belief of transubstantiation under the same penalties as by this act is appointed . paschae jac. ii. in the king's-bench . arthur godden plaintiff , in an action of debt of l. grounded upon the act of car. . for preventing dangers from popish recusants . sir edward hales , bar t , defendant . the plaintiff declares , that the defendant after the first day of easter - term , . sc. nov. jac. . at hackington in kent , was admitted to the office of a colonel of a foot-regiment . that being a military office , and a place of trust under the king , and by authority from the king. and the defendant held that office by the space of three months next after the nov. jac. . and from thence , till the time of this action begun , he was and still is an inhabitant and resident of the parish of hackington . and the plaintiff taking it by protestation , that the defendant within three months next after his admission into the said office of colonel , did not receive the sacrament in manner as the act directs , but neglected to receive it . avers , that the defendant did neglect to take the oaths of supremacy and allegiance , either in the chancery , or in the kings bench , or at any quarter-sessions in kent , or in the place where he was resident , either the next term after his admission to his said office , or within three months after . and that the defendant after such neglect , sc. mar. jac. . at hackington in kent , did exercise the said office , and still doth , contrary to the statute of car. . for preventing dangers from popish recusants . whereupon the defendant at rochester , at the assizes held mar. jac. . was duly indicted for such his neglect , and for executing the said office contrary to the said statute . and thereupon duly convict , as by the record thereof appears , whereupon the plaintiff became entituled to this l. as forfeited by the defendant . the defendant pleads , that the king within the three months , in the declaration mentioned , and before the next term or quarter-sessions , after his admittance to the said office , and before his suit began , sc. jan. jac. . by his letters patents under the great seal , and here produced in court , did dispence with , pardon , remit , and discharge ( among others ) the defendant from taking the said oaths , and from receiving the sacrament , and from subscribing the declaration against transubstantiation or tests in the act of car. . for preventing dangers from popish recufants , or in any other act , and from all crimes , convictions , penalties , forfeitures , damages , disabilities , by him incurred by his exercising the office of colonel . or by the act intituled , an act for the preserving of the king's person and government , by disabling papists from sitting in either house of parliament . or by the acts made in the first or third years of king james the first , or the acts made eliz. or , or , or eliz. and the king , by his letters patents , granted , that the defendant should be enabled to hold that office in any place in england , or wales , or berwick , or in the fleet , or in jersey , or guernsey , and to receive his pay or wages . any clause in the said acts , or in any other act notwithstanding & non obstante , that the defendant was or should be a recusant convict . as by the said letters patents doth appear . whereupon the defendant prays the judgment of the court , whether the plaintiff ought to maintain this action . the plaintiff demurr'd generally to this plea. the defendant joyned in demurrer . judgment is given for the defendant . the order i shall observe in speaking to this case , as to the point upon the dispensation , shall be this : first , i shall open this act of car. . and shew the great occasion and necessity for the making of it ; the scope and design of it ; the excellent remedy it does prescribe ; and the great benefit and security that might arise to the nation from it , were it duly observ'd . secondly , i shall then discourse briefly of the nature of law in general , as far only as may be useful and pertinent to our present case , and of the great force and authority that a law ought to have , and of the great veneration that should be paid to it , especially if the true religion , and the honour of almighty god , the safety of the government , and the publick good and peace of the nation depend upon it , as they all do upon this act of car. . thirdly , in the next place , i shall give an account of the true nature ( as near as i can ) and of the original and growth of the notion or invention call'd a dispensation , and who were the first authors of it , and about what time it began , i shall endeavour to shew the right use of it , ( if there be any ) and where the just power of granting dispensations does reside , as also the abuse of it , and how that according to the late practice , these dispensations are contrary and repugnant to the nature and properties of law , tho' they pretend themselves to be law , they have a different original and foundation , and do indeed subvert law. first , for the occasion and necessity for making of this act of parliament , and the scope and design of it , and the ends aimed at , they all appear in the preamble . the preamble distinguishes the king's subjects into two sorts : . some from whom there are great dangers . . those who are the persons subject to those dangers . the dangers are from popish recusants ; those who are threatned by those dangers , the act terms them his majesty's good subjects . it would be needless to tell what those dangers are , and whence they arise . all the times since the reformation , have abundantly discover'd what the dangers are . there have been a multitude of acts of parliament made that have still been fencing against those dangers , which do sufficiently point them out : so do the frequent and incessant addresses from every parliament for many years , setting forth the dangers ; and all our histories and publick writings , and especially those written and published by his now majesty's royal grandfather , king james the first , and a multitude more , but above all , the sad event of things , and what we all see is come to pass ; these disclose to all the world , what the dangers were , and the great need of a further remedy . their destructive principles , and their desperate designs and practices , do abundantly testifie the danger from the one sort , and the just fears of the other sort of subjects . the scope therefore , and the great end that our act of parliament had , is to prevent the dangers from the one , and to quiet the minds of the other ; many former acts of parliament which had the same end and purpose proving ineffectual . the remedy provided is very suitable , and the likeliest and most effectual that either the wisdom or supreme authority of the king and parliament could devise , and the very remedy points out the danger . the danger would be at the heighth of it , if the dangerous principles and practices should but arrive at the power and authority , and gain that into their hands , ( and it was growing apace towards it ) . the wise and proper remedy therefore provided by the king and parliament , is first to discover who are popish recusants ; to offer a trial and test to all that should be in any publick trust and authority , for it was suspected that there were many papists under the disguise of protestants . and in the next place , so to fence and guard the power and authority and all publick trusts in the nation , that they might by no means come into the hands of the papists . persons entrusted with the power and authority over the nation , had need give a signal testimony of their loyalty and fidelity to the king and government , and of their true zeal for the religion establish'd by law. the test , as to their loyalty , are the two oaths of supremacy and allegiance , ( and neither of these are new tests ) . the test , as to religion , and the true worship of god , are likewise two , the receiving of the blessed sacrament , and the subscribing a declaration against the doctrine of transubstantiation . the temper and moderation shewn by his late majesty and both houses , in this act of parliament , deserves to be observ'd : it is not like the leges draconis , written in blood ; this is no sanguinary law. it does not proceed against them with fire and faggot . it does not disturb them in their estates and possessions ; it does not deprive them of the liberty of their persons . nay , it does not hinder them from the exercise of their own religion ( if it may be so called ) ( i speak as to our present act of car. . only ) . it lets them live quietly in their habitations , without so much as putting any oath or test upon them , so long as they live private men . it only requires , that if they will be entrusted with power and authority they should give some just and reasonable security and assurance , that they will be true to the religion and the government establish'd . if they will be medling with the power , without giving such security , then at their peril be it : the law pronounces them uncapable , and disabled , and inflicts penalties upon such as shall presume to violate this law. and it is worth the noting , how sollicitous and intent the makers of this law were , that this test and tryal might be taken and performed with great solemnity , and that the law might not be eluded with any arts and tricks , that no cheat might be put upon it . all this shews , that the law-makers had great expectation from this law. the oaths are to be taken in one of the two highest courts of westminster-hall ; the very hours of the day are limited when they must be taken , that is when the courts are usually fullest ; during the taking of them , all pleas and proceedings are to cease . there is the like care taken concerning the receiving of the sacrament , and of the certifying of it , and plentiful proof to be made of it , and then the recording of it . and the like for subscribing the declaration against the doctrine of transubstantiation . it were great pity , that after all these pains , they should signifie just nothing , and that so high an authority should be made ridiculous . but after all this securing against the danger from popish recusants , how shall we do to secure against the danger of dispensations ? suppose this act had contain'd a clause in it , declaring , that all dispensations and grants , with non obstante's to the contrary of this law , should have been ipso facto void , and had inflicted penalties upon such persons as should have procur'd them , would this have made it stronger ? no : several acts of parliament have been made in divers cases , with express clauses incerted in those acts , to make void all non obstante's to the contrary of those laws , ( which one would have thought would have been strong enough ) and yet they all came to nothing : for the judges heretofore have resolv'd , that if the king grant a dispensation from such laws , with a special non obstante to any such special law , mentioning the very law , that presently the force of that law vanishes . therefore , beside the disabilities and incapacities put upon them , further to obviate this mischief also , and to frustrate all contrary judgments , and to prevent the allowance of any such grants and dispensations with this act , by the opinion of the judges , or future resolution of any court in westminster-hall to the contrary , ( as if the law-makers had foreseen this danger too ) and to give a rule to judges in such cases , when any should happen to come before them , there is this further provision made by this law , that the granting or conferring of any such office and place is by express words adjudged void . the words are , and is hereby adjudged void . it does not leave the courts below to judge it , but this law before-hand gives the very judgment . it directs the way of trying the matter of fact by indictment , &c. and then declares the judgment upon it , and leaves it only to the judges to apply that judgment to the particular case . may the judgment of any inferiour court controul the judgment of the supreme courts . here is more then a threefold cord to tie it . an oath , a sacrament , a declaration subscrib'd . i look upon the two oaths as one cord. and these two oaths are so much alike , and to the same effect , that cardinal bellarmine , purposing to refute the oath of allegiance , by a gross mistake , bent all his forces against the oath of supremacy , not minding the difference . as king james the first , in his answer to the cardinal , hath observ'd in the collection of his majesty's works , fol. . the next cord is the sacrament . the third subscribing a declaration , to remain on record to all posterity . and at last , a judgment in the very point by the king and parliament , ( the supremest court of the nation ) which must not be contradicted by any other court , nor by all the courts of the nation put together ; this supreme court exercises its legislative and judicial power both at once , and shall it all at last be lost labour ? secondly , having given an account of this particular law , upon which the present case does arise , i shall in the next place briefly speak concerning law in general , of what force and authority it ought to be , which will make way for those arguments that i shall raise from it . for when we know the true nature of a law , the nature and use of a dispensation will be better understood . the name does oftentimes denote the nature of a thing . the truest derivation is that of lex à ligando , from its binding quality and the obligation it puts upon us ; and this is most pertinent to the matter in hand . the laws of england ( as all just and righteous laws ) are grounded originally upon the divine law , as their foundation or fountain . the supreme and soveraign god among the heathen is suppos'd to have the name of jupiter quasi juris pater : but more immediately humane laws have their force and authority from the consent and agreement of men. all publick regimen , ( says learned hooker in his ecclesiastical polity ) of what kind soever , seemeth evidently to have arisen from deliberate advice , consultation and composition between men. to live , says he , by one man's will becomes the cause of all mens misery ; this constrained men to come to laws . a people whom providence hath cast together into one island or country , are in effect one great body politick , consisting of head and members , in imitation of the body natural , as is excellently set forth in the statute of appeals , made h. . c. . which stiles the king the supreme head , and the people a body politick , ( these are the very words ) compact of all sorts and degrees of men , divided into spiritualty and temporalty . and this body never dies . we our selves of the present age , chose our common law , and consented to the most ancient acts of parliament , for we lived in our ancestors a years ago , and those ancestors are still living in us . the law is the very soul that animates this body politick , as learned hooker describes it , the parts of which body are set to work in such actions as common good requires . the laws are the very ligaments and sinews , that bind together the head and members , without which this body is but a rope of sand , or like the feet of nebuchadnezzar's image , iron mixed with clay , that can never cleave one to another , nor cement . and so properly laws have their name , à ligando , in this respect too , viz. from knitting together , for as they bind by their authority , so they unite in affection and strengthen . and these laws are made by publick agreement , not impos'd upon men against their wills , but chosen by the prince and people : they are ( that i may express it in our familiar and ordinary terms ) the articles of agreement , chosen and consented to by prince and people , to be the rule by which all are to square their actions . hence the law is term'd , the act and deed of the whole body politick . the rule by which the prince governs and the subject obeys . from whomsoever the designation of the royal person is that governs , whether from heaven or of men , be it the one or the other , * the consent and agreement of the whole body politick , both head and members , is the rule of the government . david was made king by god's immediate appointment , yet he himself call'd all israel together to hebron , and there they made a covenant with him : † this is that i am now speaking of , ( the law of the nation ) made by general consent ; or a scheme for the government , as a late lord chancelor terms it in his survey of the leviathan . every just king in a setled kingdom is bound to observe the paction made to his people by his laws . but nothing can more lively describe it then the preamble of the statute of hen. . c. . where the lords and commons addressing themselves in their speech to the king , thus deliver themselves : namely , where this your grace's realm recognising no superior under god , but only your grace , hath been and is free from subjection to any man's laws , but only to such as have been devised , made and obtained within this realm , for the wealth of the same , or to such other , as by sufferance of your grace , and your progenitors , the people of this your realm , have taken at their free liberty , by their own consent , to be used amongst them , and have bound themselves by long use and custom to the observance of the same , not as to the observance of the laws of any foreign prince , potentate , or prelate : but as to the customed and ancient laws of this realm originally establish'd , as laws of the same , by the said sufferance , consents and customs , and none otherwise . upon the same ground it is that learned hooker says , that the lawful power of making laws to command whole politick societies of men , belongs so properly unto the same entire ‖ societies , that for any prince or potentate of what kind soever upon earth ( i use his very words too ) to exercise the same of himself , and not either by express commission immediately and personally receiv'd from god , or else by authority derived at first from their consent , upon whose persons they impose laws , it is no better than meer ( tyranny * ) . king james the first , in his before-mentioned speech , speaks much the same words . laws therefore ( says hooker ) they are not , which publick approbation hath not made so . approbation may be declar'd ( says he ) either by a personal assent , or by others , by a right deriv'd from them , as in parliaments . this hath the more authority , being the judgment in a point of religion , not of an historian or lawyer , but of a reverend divine , and such an one as hath been so great a champion for authority and government , and for exact conformity to ecclesiastical laws . some of our late writers and preachers have discours'd quite in another strain . the noble author i just now cited , calls the laws , condescentions and voluntary abatements of the king 's original power , ( supposing his power at first was absolute ) . now that preamble of that statute which i just now read , is directly contrary in the very word ( original . ) another , ( a certain lawyer , a knight ) in a small , but bold , treatise of his , will by no means allow of any limitation of power , and holds it absurd , to say a government can be mixed or limited . a certain divine and geographer , in his history of the life of a late archbishop , declares himself much of the same mind with both these , and many others have trod since in their steps . i therefore thought it very proper and seasonable , to shew the judgment in these matters of an eminent divine too , a person in all respects without exception , and his judgment is concurring with all the ancient authors in our profession of the common law , who being so learned and so ancient , are therefore the most competent witnesses of our english constitution . that ancient author of ours , whose book is stiled fleta quia in cartere fletae de jure anglicano conscripsit , in the time of king edward the first , ( as learned mr. selden has noted in his dissertatio ad fletam , c. . sect . , . this author , l. . c. . tells us , superiorem non habet rex in regno nisi deum & legem . per legem factus est rex temperent reges potentiam suam per legem . non quod principi placet legis habet potestatem . non quicquid de voluntate regis sed quod magnatum suorum consilio regia authoritate prestante & habita super hoc deliberatione & tractatu recte fuerit diffinitum . bracton , who was a judge in the time of king henry the third , but wrote his book in the time of king henry the second , stiles the laws of england , the ancient judgments of the just. and briton , bishop of hereford , who publish'd his book edw. . by the command of that king , and as written in the king's name . and sir gilbert de thornton , who was a chief justice in edward the first 's time , and reduced the book of bracton into a compendium . and sir john fortescu , another chief justice , and afterwards chancelor in the time of henry the sixth , writ all to the same effect , and almost totidem verbis . these authors discourse altogether of the imperia legum , as livy calls it . and laws thus made by an universal consent , must needs be most equal , and have a far greater veneration paid them by all sorts of men . the best men are but men , and are sometimes transported with passion . the laws alone are they that always speak with all persons , high or low , in one and the same impartial voice . the law knows no favourites . hence it is , that aristotle most significantly and elegantly says , that the law is a mind without affection ; that is , it binds all alike , and dispences with none , the greatest flies are no more able to break through these cobwebs than the smaller . imperatoria majestas legibus armata est , says the introduction to the imperial law , these are the surest arms and guard about a prince . baldus , the great lawyer , says , digna vox est majestate regnantis legibus alligatum principem se profiteri . sir edward cook , in his inst. fol. . observes , that the nobility of england have ever had the laws of england in great reverence , as their best birth-right , and so ( says he ) have the kings of england , as their principal royalty belonging to their crown . he there mentions our king henry the first , ( the son of him that is stiled conqueror . ) he wrote to pope paschal in this manner : notum habeat sanctitas vestra quod me vivente ( auxiliante deo ) dignitates & usus regni nostri angliae non imminuentur . et si ego ( quod absit ) in tanta me dejectione ponerem , optimates mei & totus angliae populus id nullo modo pateretur . and fol. . there is mention of the letters which all the nobility of england , by assent of the commonalty , in the time of edward the first , wrote to pope boniface , viz. ad observationem & defensionem consuetudinum & legum paternarum ex debito prestiti sacramenti astringimur quae manutenebimus toto posse totisque viribus ( cum dei auxilio ) defendemus . nec etiam permittimus aut aliquatenus permittemus tam insolita indebita prejudicialia & alias in audita dominum nostrum regem ( etiam si vellet ) facere seu quomodo libet attemptare : sealed with the several seals of arms of earls and barons . and the noble king edward the first took no offence at the stout and resolute penning of this letter : but wrote himself to the pope to the same effect . and yet it contains in it a kind of a non obstante to what the king should do by way of submission and compliance with the pope . nor is a just law any restraint to a just liberty , it rather frees us from a captivity and servitude , viz. to that of our wills and passions . it is true , this obligation and binding of the law is very uneasie to such men as will be slaves to their lusts and appetites . they cry out , let us break these bonds asunder , and cast away these cords from us ; but to such as are virtuous and just and pious , the laws are a direction and protection . the orator truly says , legum id circo omnes servi sumus ut liberi esse possimus . the true english of which is , that such service is perfect freedom . hence our english laws in magna charta are called liberties . concessimus omnibus hominibus regni nostri has libertates subscriptas , ( says king henry the third , in the first chapter of magna charta ) which sir edward cook expounds to be meant of the laws of england ; quia liberos faciunt , ( says he ) . and tho' this statute of magna charta run in the stile of a grant from the king , in the word concessimus , for the honour of the king ; yet as he says , they were the common laws and rights of the people before , and it was made by the king , lords and commons , as is recited by the statute of ed. . c. . thus it appears what the true nature and properties of a just law are ; of how great force and authority a law ought to be ; how dear and precious laws have been heretofore to prince and people , and whence they have their birth and original . thirdly , i come now to that notion or invention of a dispensation , the power of relaxing or dispensing with a law , and enquire into the original and nature of it , and the great mischief that hath arisen from it . the pretence for the use or need of a power of dispensing is this , viz. there is no providence or wisdom of man , nor of any council of men , that can foresee and provide for all events and variety of cases , that will or may arise upon the making of a new law. but a new law may sit heavy upon some particular persons , or in some extraordinary case that may happen , let what care can be taken in the penning of it . it is enough to commend a law , if it be beneficial to the greater number , and be for the publick good ; laws are fitted ad ea quae frequentius accidunt , and not for rare and extraordinary events and accidents , as the romans had no law against parricide . and the law says , better is a mischief than an inconvenience . by a mischief is meant , when one man or some few men suffer by the hardship of a law , which law is yet useful for the publick . but an inconvenience is to have a publick law disobey'd or broken , or an offence to go unpunished . now from this suppos'd and imaginary defect of law , or some particular mischief or hardship sometimes ( tho' very rarely ) happening to some men , which hardship was not foreseen by the makers of the law , ( altho' this is oftner pretended and feigned then hapning in truth ) occasion hath been taken to assert a power in the prince or chief ruler , to dispence with the law in extraordinary cases , and to give ease or relaxation to the person that was too hard bound or tied to a law ; for , as i observ'd before , the law is of a binding and restraining nature and quality , it hath the same specious pretence as a law made h. . c. . had , which was of most desperate and dangerous consequence , had it not speedily been repealed by the statute of e. . c. . the title of that mischievous act of h. . is this : an act that proclamations made by the king's highness , with the advice of the honourable council , ( meant of the privy council ) shall be obey'd and kept as tho' they were made by act of parliament . the preamble recites the king , by advice of his council , had thentofore set forth sundry proclamations concerning articles of religion , and for an unity and concord to be had among his subjects , which nevertheless many froward , wilful and obstinate persons , have wilfully contemned and broken , not considering what a king by his royal power may do : and for lack of a direct statute and law to coherce offenders to obey those proclamations , which being still suffered , should encourage offenders to the disobedience of the laws of god , and sound too much to the great dishonour of the king 's most royal majesty , ( who may full ill bear it . ) considering also , that sudden occasions fortune many times which do require speedy remedies , and that by abiding for a parliament , in the mean time might happen great prejudice to ensue to the realm : and weighing that his majesty ( which by the regal power given him by god , may do many things in such cases ) should not be driven to extend the supremacy of his regal power , by wilfulness of froward subjects : it is therefore thought necessary , that the king's highness of this realm for the time being , with the advice of his council , should make proclamations for the good order and governance of this realm of england , wales , and other his dominions , from time to time , for the defence of his regal dignity , as the cases of necessity shall require . therefore it is enacted , that always the king , for the time being , with the advice of his council , whose names thereafter follow , ( and all the great officers of state are mentioned by the titles of their offices only ) for the time being , or the greater number of them , may set forth at all times , by authority of this act , his proclamations , under such penalties , and of such sort as to his highness and his council , or the more part of them shall seem requisite . and that the same shall be obey'd , as tho' they were made by act of parliament , unless the king's highness dispence with them under his great seal . here , at one blow , is the whole legislative power put into the king's hands , and there was like to be no further use of parliaments had this continued . then there follows a clause , that would seem to qualifie and moderate this excess of power , but it is altogether repugnant and contradictory in it self . and the conviction for any offence against any such proclamation , is directed not to be by a jury , but by confession or lawful witness and proofs . and if any offender against any such proclamation , after the offence committed , to avoid the penalty , wilfully depart the realm , he is adjudged a traytor . and the justices of peace are to put these proclamations into execution in every county . and by another act of , and h. . c. . nine of the great offices are made a quorum , &c. for they could not get half the number to act under it . the act of e. . c. . ( which repeals the terrible law ) begins with a mild and merciful preamble , and mentions that act of king h. . which as this act of e. . does prudently observe , might seem to men of foreign realms , and to many of the king's subjects , very strict , sore , extream and terrible ; this act of king e. . does therefore , by express mention of that terrible act , wholly repeal it . and so that law ( to use the lord bacon's phrase ) was honourably laid in its grave . and god grant it may never rise again . it is very probable , that this terrible law was drawn by king henry the eighth's own hand , by that expression in it , that the king may full ill bear the disobeying of his proclamations , and the dishonour done to him by it ; and by several other clauses . the history of the reformation , fol. . mentions the draught of a bill intended for an act of parliament , concerning giving the king power of erecting many new bishopricks , by his letters patents ; upon which the author of that history says , that the preamble , and material parts of it , were drawn by king h. . himself , and the first draught of it , under his hand , is still extant ; and this passed the lords , and was sent down to the commons : and this is the very same parliament of h. . when this terrible law passed . sir edw. cook , in his first inst. fol. . defines a dispensation thus : dispensatio est mali prohibiti provida relaxatio utilitate seu necessitate pensata . so that great utility , or necessity , are at least pretended for the granting of them ; now publick utility and necessity are the true grounds and foundation of all laws , ( which i have already shewn , bind all men alike , without respect of person ) but a dispensation does untie that knot , or slackens and lets loose that obligation , as to some particular persons , and in some cases , and for some limited time , at the will and pleasure of the prince that exercises that power . it looks like a dispensation which naaman the syrian obtained from the prophet elisha . in this thing ( that is in one particular ) the lord pardon thy servant to bow down himself in the house of rimmon , when his master the king did so . he calls it a pardon , but it rather was an indulgence or dispensation that he crav'd . a pardon is properly of an offence already committed . see dr. field , dean of gloucester , in his treatise of the church , printed at oxford , . fol. . what a dispensation is , viz. it is in respect of certain persons , times , places , and conditions of men and things . so that a dispensation , permitting the law to retain her wonted authority , only freeth some particular person or persons , at some times in some places , and in some condition of things from the necessity of doing or leaving undone that which ( unless it be in consideration of such particular circumstances ) ought to be done . a dispensation is of a thing future , to allow of a thing to be done , that it may not be accompted for a crime , and makes the thing prohibited lawful to be done . and thereupon the chief justice vaughan , in his argument of the case of thomas and sorrel , seems to take it in its right notion , when he says a dispensation obtain'd , does jus dare tho' he quarrels with sir cook 's definition of it , and says , it is ignotum per ignotius . but , under his favour , if he dislik'd that , he should have given us a better . carpere vel noli nostra , &c. . i know very well , that there are some of late , that do ground this power upon the soveraignty of the prince , as if to be soveraign , and to be absolute , and solutus à legibus , were one and the same thing . as if it were inconsistent for a soveraign prince to be bound to law. a prince may be a soveraign , i. e. no subordinate or subject prince . rex est qui regem maxime not habeat , and yet not absolute and unlimitted in power . it is a frequent argument , and often disputed in our books , what law the king is bound to , and where he is not included in the law. . it hath been argued , that because the laws are the king's laws , that therefore the king may dispence with the laws : this argument is of a vast extent in the consequence , as that of the soveraignty is . but it is not the king alone that makes the laws , and tho' they are indeed his laws per eminentiam , and denominatio sumitur à majore , yet others have an hand in the making our laws , and a propriety and interest in them when once they are made . we shall be best instructed in the use and nature of a dispensation , if we give some instances of particular cases , wherein dispensations have been allowed good by our judges , against the penalties of some particular acts of parliament . for example , by a certain statute , gascoign wines and other foreign goods were prohibited to be imported into this kingdom , but in english ships , under the penalty of forfeiting the goods , and it was a profitable law for the encrease of our navy and employment of our own mariners , wherein the strength and safety of the kingdom is concerned . this importing of foreign goods in foreign ships was the malum , but it was only malum prohibitum ; that is , it was no offence till the law made it so . it was not malum in se. it was therefore resolv'd by all the judges , r. . fol. . that the king might dispence with this law , cum clausula non obstante , and might give license to some particular persons to import such foreign goods in foreign ships . that which before this act of parliament was a common liberty and trade , by occasion of this law , applying the prerogative of dispensing to it , was now engross'd into some few hands , from whence a revenue it 's likely was rais'd ; so that it might be said , sin took occasion by the law. by the statute of r. . c. . no aulnager or weigher of wool shall have any lease for life or years of his office , and if any charter or letters patents be made to the contrary , ( the statute says ) they shall be null and void : so that the makers of this law did not allow of any dispensing power , but provided against it , which shews what opinion a parliament hath of dispensations . yet it was resolv'd , dyer . that the king , by a non obstante , might dispence with this law. the judges indeed were of that judgment , but the parliament , who are the supreamest judges , plainly appear to be of a contrary judgment . by a statute made h. . he that petitions to the king for lands , &c. in his petition is to mention the value of the thing , &c. or else the king's letters patents , &c. shall be of no effect : and yet letters patents to the contrary , are good with a non obstante . by the statute of h. . c. . for avoiding partiality and favour in administring justice , no man is to exercise the office of a judge of assize in the county where he was born or dwells , under l. penalty ; and divers former acts had been made to the same purpose , as r. . c. , &c. yet this we know is frequently dispenc'd with by a special non obstante ; so that these statutes are seldom or never observ'd , and are of little use . so likewise is the statute of ed. . c. . for retailing of wine , according to the resolution in the case of thomas and sorrel . these may suffice to shew what is meant by the term dispensation , and what the nature of a non obstante is . it is an indulging of a priviledge to some particular person , or to a corporation , allowing him or them to do a thing that is prohibited by some act of parliament , ( under a penalty ) without incurring the penalty . the doing whereof was lawful to all , till that particular law did make it an offence to do it . the chief justice vaughan , who argued in his turn the last but one of all the twelve judges , in the late great case of thomas and sorrel , ( and there was hardly a case in all the books under that title , but what had been cited by one or other , and all the rules and distinctions were there remembred ) yet that chief justice , after all , says , that not one steady rule had been given either by the books , or any of the judges , ( that argued before him . ) and for that trite distinction , so generally used of malum in se & malum prohibitum , the chief justice vaughan professes , that rule hath more confounded mens judgments than rectified them : yet he himself gives us no other . which shews , that the notion of dispensation is not very ancient with us in our law , and is but rare , and as yet unform'd , not licked into a perfect shape , ( i mean still dispensations with some acts of parliament , such as this of car. . not the granting non obstante's as to mis-recitals or non-recitals in grants of lands , &c. ) it having yet no steady rule , and yet being frequently used , it is the more fit for the supreme court to give some certain rule in it , that may regulate and guide the judgment of inferiour courts : and this is the proper work of the king and parliament . and because we find it a growing mischief , and getting ground upon the law , and every day brings forth new precedents , it is high time that a stop were put to it . so much for the nature of a dispensation . i shall in the next place endeavour to trace out the original of this invention of a dispensation , when it first began , and who was the author of it , and shew , that it was look'd upon as a monster , and exclaim'd against by kings and states and all good men , and yet the precedent was followed , and the abuse of it spread and increas'd , and hath been ever since growing . i am not the first that have undertaken to make this discovery : in the argument of the case of comendam , in sir davy's reports , fol. . b. it is said , that the non obstante was invented and first used in the court of rome , and they bring an * author that denounc'd a woe against that court , for introducing so ill a precedent , mischievous to all common-wealths in christendom ; for the temporal princes perceiving the pope to dispence with his canons , in imitation of him , have used it as a prerogative to dispence with their penal laws and statutes , where before they caused their laws to be religiously observ'd , as the laws of the medes and persians , which might not be changed . thus says that report : here we see from whence 't was borrow'd . the late chief justice vaughan , in his report of the case of thomas and sorrel , fol. . does acknowledge , that the use of dispensations was principally derived to us from the pope . now , to make some conjecture about what time it began , that we may discover how old it is , and which of the popes was the author of it . the history of the reformation , fol. . says , this power of dispensing with the laws of the church by the popes , was brought in , in the latter ages . popes zozimus ; damasus , leo , ‖ and hilarius , do freely acknowledge they could not change the decrees of the church . it is suppos'd , it was first invented by pope innocent the third , about the beginning of the thirteenth century , and about the times of our king john , and his son king henry the third ; and it is observable , that in this pope's time the doctrine of transubstantiation was first decreed to be an article of the faith , and this at the council of † lateran : that doctrine , which by this very act of ours , is to be declar'd against , and is now dispens'd with . this is that pope that excommunicated otho the emperour , and our king john , and forced him at last to resign his crown , and to take it back from him again to hold it of him at the rent of marks : what good issue can we expect from such a father ? after the time of this pope , dispensations began more frequently to be practised by the successors of innocent the third , by honorius , and by pope gregory the ninth , and innocent the fourth , but they were exclaimed against by all kings and princes , and by all the good and learned writers of that age , which shews , that they had not been ancient , and that the kings and princes themselves had not then followed the ill example in dispensing with their laws ; for had they done so , they could not with any confidence have condemn'd the pope for using them . and we may see how odious these dispensations were , by the vile epithites the learned and good men of that age gave them . we have a full relation of it from one of their own order , a monk , but an historian of very good esteem , that is , matth. paris ; he tells us , that our king henry the third sent earl bigod and other nobles to the council at lyons , and amongst others , one william de powic , one of his procurators and a clergy-man , who made an elegant oration , ripping up the horrible oppressions used by the pope upon england , and then deliver'd in an epistle , directed to pope innocent the fourth , by the magnates & universitas regni angliae , to the same effect . after this had been openly read in the council , and a mighty silence followed , and the pope gave no answer to it . the king's proctors , prioribus addebant querimoniam gravem & seriam videlicet de violenta oppressione , intolerabili gravamine , & impudenti exactione , & injuria , quae per hanc invisam adjectionem papalibus literis frequenter insertam ( non obstante ) &c. exercetur per quam jus pro nihilo habetur & authentica scripta enervantur , says that historian . the same author says , that the reformation of many things was obtained from pope innocent : sed omnia haec & alia , per hoc repagulum ( non obstante ) infirmantur ubi vero fides ! ubi jura , quae scriptis solebant solidari ? our king henry the third conven'd his parliament , and spread before them the articles of the grievances which he had so sent to rome , and amongst others one in these words : ( viz. ) gravatur regnum angliae ex multiplici adventu illius infamis nuncii ( non obstante ) per quem juramenti religio , consuetudines antiquae , scripturarum vigor , concessionum autoritas , jura & privilegia debilitantur & evanescunt . we find it frequently termed ( detestabilis adieclio non obstante ) and we find the form of his dispensation running in these words : viz. indulgentia quâcunque vel privilegio quolibet , aut constitutione in generali concilio edita , non obstante . the pope afterwards required a third part of the goods of all beneficed clerks , and ( says that historian ) multis adjectis durissimus conditionibus ; and ( amongst other ) per illud verbum & adjectionem detestabilem ( non obstante ) quae omnem extinguit justiciam . * in another bull he requires the payment of a sum of mony from the english clergy , quocunque privilegio seu indulgentia non obstante , licet presentes expressam de ipsis non faciant menconem . this very phrase is grown most familiar in letters-patents with us , and we see from whence it hath been borrowed . that temporal princes at that time did not practise the like , does evidently appear , not only by their frequent complaint of them ; but the historian tells us , it was then grievously feared , that the kings and great men would in time be infected with the ill example of the pope : his words are , quod multi formidabant vehementer . ne principes laici & seculares exemplo papae edocti non obstante talis , vel talis chartae tenore : would revoke their concessions too . therefore as yet it was not in practice by temporal princes , no not in letters-patents , much less in laws . i shall give one instance , wherein we shall find the pope teaching this very lesson to the king of england , ( k. h. the d ) and instructing him as his schollar , to write after his copy . king h. the third had made several grants to his subjects ( bishops , noblemen , and others ) and had oblig'd himself by oath never to revoke them . pope gregory the ninth , by his bull , ( which mr. prin ( who had the keeping of the records in the tower ) says he found in the white tower , under seal ) the pope commands the king to revoke these grants , juramento & instrument is predictis nequaquam obstantibus . king henry the third was easily taught this lesson , and did soon put it in practice ; and being reprov'd by some about him , for using of non obstante's , the king justified himself by the example the pope had given him : nonne papa ( says he ) facit similiter , subjungens in literis suis manifeste non obstante aliquo privilegio vel indulgentia . but as yet it was not exercised as to acts of parliament , till a long time after . what sad apprehensions it rais'd in good men , may appear by an example or two : when one of these patents with a non obstante in it , was produc'd in the courts of westminster , one roger de thurkeby , ( who was a judge of the court of common pleas , in the time of king henry the third ) upon the hearing of it ( says the historian ) ab alto ducens suspiria ( he fetcht a deep sigh ) and , de predictae adjectionis appositione : that is concerning this clause or addition of non obstante . dixit heu ! heu ! hos ut quid dies expectavimus ecce jam civilis curia exemplo ecclesiasticae coinquinatur & a sulphureo fonte rivulus intoxicatur . this plainly shews the time when the use of them was first introduced into england in civil and temporal cases , they were not used before the time of king henry the third , which is not ancient enough to make a prescription by the rules of our law , and we see from whence they learnt it . i shall now cite the judgment of a famous and learned bishop of those times , concerning these non obstante's : that of robert grostest , or great-head , who per excellentiam , was generally stil'd no more , but ( lincolniensis ) in the book of his that is entituled , de cessatione legalium , publish'd by the late dean of windsor ( dr. reeves ) : there are some testimonies given of the bishop , out of authors in the beginning of that book : among others , it is remembred of him that he sent a smart epistle to the then pope , wherein he does cry out upon the pope , for that the pope's bulls did superaccumulate ( as he terms it ) the words ( non obstante ) which words , says that good bishop of lincoln , did , christianae religionis puritatem & hominum tranquillitatem perturbare : and he does thereupon affirm the pope to be antichrist : nonne ( says he ) antichristus merito dicendus est ? and to prove him to be antichrist , he further charges him : privilegia sanctorum pontificum romanorum praedecessorum suorum papa impudentur annullare , per hoc repagulum ( non obstante ) non erubescit , sic diruit , & reprobat , quod tanti & tot sancti aedificarunt . when innocent the fourth read this bishop's letter , he fell a swearing by peter and paul , that he would confound him : in tantam confusionem praecipitaret ut totius mundi fabula foret , stupor & prodigium : and that he would command the king of england , ( whom he there insolently term'd , noster vasallus , ( a tenant , or vavasor ) : et ut plus dicam mancipium ( his property ) illum nutu nostro in carcerare . but the cardinals then about the pope , advised him to consider better of it ; for ( said they ) ut vera fateamur vera sunt quae dicit , catholicus est , imo & sanctissimus . of this bishop ( says mr. camden in his britannia ) he was , terrificus papae & regis redargutor manifestissimus , & veritatis amator . henry de knighton adds this of him : ad innocentium papam misit epistolam satis tonantem , ( a thundring epistle ) qua de re ad curiam vocatus & excommunicatus appellavit a curia innocentii ad tribunal christi . and this usurped power , tho' used with more modesty at first , yet in a short time it grew to that heighth , that it prov'd intolerable and insolent . the bull of pope pius the fourth , publishes decrees , non obstantibus constitutionibus & ordinationibus apostolicis . another dispensation of the same pope's runs in these words , viz. licet christus post coenam instituerit sub utraque specie panis & vini venerabile sacramentum ; tamen hoc non obstante , &c. the pope takes upon him to dispense with that sacred institution : a conficientibus ( for so he prophanely expresses it ) sub utraque & a laicis tantum modo sub specie panis suscipiatur . in the * oath of a bishop to the pope ( extant in the roman pontifical , set out by pope clement the eighth ) the bishop upon his oath doth acknowledge amongst other regalia petri , that the pope can make void promises , vows , oaths , and obligations to laws , by his dispensations . dr. marta de jurisdictione affirms , that papa de plenitudine potestatis potest dispensare contra jus divinum , & contra apostolum , est super omnia concilia , quae interpretatur , tollit & corrigit . the glossator upon the canon law ( avowed by the rota of rome ( as the history of the council of trent does quote him ) holds the pope can dispense against the old testament , and the four evangelists , and against the law of god. bishop jewel , in his defence of the apology of the church of england , against harding , brings in one of their canonists that holds , that the pope , privilegium dare potest contra jus divinum , papa dispensare potest de omnibus preceptis veteris & novi testamenti . it is part of the description given of antichrist , by the prophet daniel , chap. . he shall think that he may change times , and laws , and they shall be given into his hands . bishop jewel's exposition upon the epistle to the thessalonians , fol. . antichrist ( says the bishop ) is there called o. anomos , a man without order or law , that man of sin ; which is one of the peculiar notes of antichrist . he shall seek to be free and go at liberty , he shall be tied to no law neither of god nor man. hence it is said of the pope , that he is solutus omni lege humana . in iis que vult , est ei pro ratione voluntas nec est qui dicat illi , domine cur ita facis ? ille potest supra jus , dispensare & de injustitia facere justiciam corrigendo jura & mutando . pope martin the fifth dispens'd with a man that married his own sister . in this last instance the pope did directly write after the copy of an heathen king. the story of cambyses is the same case in the very point with this last of pope martin . sir walter raleigh mentions it in his history of the world. cambyses inquir'd of his judges whether there were any law among the persians , that did permit the brother to marry his own sister . it was the intent of cambyses to marry his own sister too . the judges ( who as sir walter raleigh observes ) had either laws or distinctions in store to satisfie kings and times , they make a subtil answer , that there was not any thing written allowing any such marriage : but they notwithstanding found it in their customs , that it was always left to the will of the persian kings to do what best pleas'd themselves . this was a non obstante with a witness . this surely , and the popes practice together , gave the occasion to mr. chillingworth's observation . he that would usurp ( says he ) an absolute lordship over any people , need not put himself to the trouble of abrogating or disannulling the laws made to maintain the common liberty , for he may frustrate their intent , and compass his design as well if he can get the power and authority to interpret them as he pleases , and to have his interpretations stand for laws . if he can rule his people by his laws , and his laws by his lawyers ; therefore ( says he ) there is a necessity of a frequent resort to be had to the law-makers , not only to resolve difficulties of judgments , but to keep the power of interpretation within its due bounds ; which is excellent advice . i shall give but one instance more , and that is of the most impious sort of dispensations that could possibly be devised ; i find it in the history of the church of scotland , written by archbishop spotswood . he tells us , that in anno . dispensations were sent from rome into scotland , whereby the catholicks were permitted to promise , swear , subscribe and do what else should be requir'd of them , so as in mind they continued firm , and did use their diligence in secret to advance the roman faith. thus we see the monstrous abuses brought in by dispensations : i have been something long upon this subject , but it was necessary to shew how that it is in the very nature of it , to be stretching and growing , and at last to be altogether unlimitted , and will totally subvert the law. having thus laid my foundation , i shall now proceed from thence to raise my arguments against dispensations in general , to prove , that they are not law , but indeed contrary to law and destructive of it . i hold there is no just nor lawful power of dispensing with any act of parliament , in any other hands than in those that are the law-makers , that is , in the king and parliament in conjunction : ( i confine my self to dispensations with acts of parliament . ) . my first argument shall be from the nature of a law , ( whereof an act of parliament is the highest and of greatest authority . ) a law hath its name ( as i said before ) from its nature , lex à ligando , it binds and compels to obedience , and it binds together and cements , it knits and unites a multitude of people , and makes them all as it were but one body . now a dispensation is of a quite contrary nature , and is destructive of law : as the law does ligare , a dispensation does relaxare . it is defin'd to be , relaxacio juris : it does unbind and set loose the obligation of the law , and by consequence tends to the dissolving of the body politick . whatsoever is destructive of the law cannot it self be law ; for then the law would be felo de se , lex quae leges evertit ipsa lex esse non potest , a thing divided against it self , and therefore will not stand . ubi non est pudor , nec cura juris , instabile regnum est , ( says seneca . ) law is made by an universal consent and agreement of prince and people . i have already shewn , how that the common law ( which is as ancient as the nation it self ) is that covenant which was agreed upon by prince and people at the first framing and institution of the government . the statute-law hath its force and authority from the like consent , and nothing is law without that consent , as appears by the preamble of h. . c. . concerning the very point of dispensations ; sir john fortescue says , rex leges sine subditorum assensu mutare non potest ; potestas regia lege cohibetur , in his book de laudibus legum , &c. now for the prince alone , without the like consent , to depart from that agreement , and at his will and pleasure to break any article of it , is in effect to put the sole power of the law into the hands of one person , which receiv'd its force and vigour from the consent of all , which is irrational . * bracton , who , as sir edward coke says , in his preface to the ninth report , was a famous judge of the common pleas , in the time of king henry the third , is of this judgment , leges ( says he ) cum fuerint approbatae consensu utentium & sacramento regum confirmatae , mutari non possunt nec destrui sine communi consensu & concilio eor ' quor ' concilio , & consensu fuerint promulgatae . . the laws of england ( both common and statute law ) have ( as i have already shewn ) a different original from that of the power of dispensation ( as it is exercis'd now among us ) they have not the same father . the king , ( who is pater patriae ) with the consent of the people , is the father of our laws , he is juris pater : but he that is called the holy father , and from thence hath his name of pope , is the father and first inventer of dispensations : so that there is no kindred nor affinity between the law and dispensation . . the laws amongst us and this faculty of dispensations , as they have a different original , so they have no resemblance one of another : facies non omnibus una est , they have contrary qualities and dispositions . the law is equal and impartial , and hath no respect of persons , and ( as before i observ'd from aristotle ) is a mind without affection . now the nature of a dispensation is to favour some , to set some at liberty from the obligation of the law , and is a kind of praeterition of others , leaving them still under the tye and obligation , and obnoxious to the penalty if they transgress . whereas , in a well govern'd kingdom there ought to be unum pondus , and una mensura in distributive , as well as commutative justice . it was part of the oath that was taken by king william the first , ( who is commonly stiled the conquerour ) that he would , aequo jure anglos & francos tractare : which oath favours nothing of a conquest , nor does it run in the stile of a conquerour . and it is the oath of a judge at this day , that he shall truly serve the king and his people , &c. that he shall do right to every person , notwithstanding the king's letters , that is , notwithstanding any ( non obstante ) . it is a maxim in law , quo modo aliquid ligatur , eo modo dissolvitur . now a law being made by consent of all , should not be dissolv'd again , but by the like consent ; that is , by authority of the king and parliament , who have the legislature . dr. willet in his synopsis papismi , makes a difference between a toleration , and a dispensation : that of moses , in case of divorces was a tolleration . a dispensation ( says he ) must be of as high a nature as the institution : none but the law-maker , can dispence with the law , not he that hath but a share in the legislature . and from hence i shall take occasion to assert , and shall endeavour to make good my assertion by law , that the lawful power of dispensing with an act of parliament , that concerns the publick , is only in the hands of those that have the legislative power . i confine my self to such acts only as concern the publick ( as the present act we have now to do with , does in a very high degree ) . and therefore i hold that none can dispence with such a law , but the king and parliament , and such as they entrust with it . i shall begin to prove this by an act of parliament , which is the highest resolve and authority in our law : it is in the preamble of the act of hen. . c. . ( the statute of dispensations ) and the preamble of a statute is law , as well as the enacting part , or body of the law. it is in effect a declaration of what was law before , at least it shews the opinion and judgment of the law-makers ; which is of high authority . it first utterly disowns and renounces the pope's long usurped claim and pretence of dispensing with any person within this realm , even in matters spiritual , tho' by him practis'd for many years . i desire to observe upon this , that long usage by an usurpation , gives no lawful right : but i would further observe too , that where it hath been long admitted and used , it is in such case reasonable for none but the supream court to undertake it , and declare against it . in the next place , this act of parliament does affirm , that this realm of england is subject to no laws , but such as have been made and taken by sufferance of the king and his progenitors , and the people of this realm , at their free liberty , by their own consent to be used amongst them , and have bound themselves by long use and custom , to the observance of them , as to the customed and ancient laws of this realm originally establish'd , as laws of the same , by the said sufferance , consents , and customs , and none otherwise . this shews the original of our common law. this likewise clearly proves , that whatever is imposed upon the people without their consent , hath not the authority of a law : and it cannot be shewn that ever the people did consent to this power or practice of granting dispensations . but it plainly appears that our acts of parliament are so far from approving or countenancing of it , that they have often fenced against it , altho' in vain hitherto . and tho' the usage have been very ancient ( as i have shewn ) yet that gives it no lawful authority ; for this preamble declares , those only are laws binding to the people , that have been originally establish'd as laws . the word ( originally ) refers no doubt to our very primitive institution , which is common law , or at least to a time so ancient , as that the original cannot be traced out , nor shewn , and then it shall be presum'd to be the common law. now i have ( i hope ) clearly evinced that the very first invention and practice of dispensations by the bishop of rome , is not time out of mind , nor can the usage of it here by imitation of the pope , reach up to a prescription , in the judgment of our law , nor by the rules of it : for sir edward cook in his first instit. fol. . treating of a prescription , and the nature of it , says , that if there be any sufficient proof of record or writing to the contrary , albeit it exceed the memory of any man living , yet it is within the memory of man , in a legal sence , it had its original since the beginning of the reign of our king richard the first , ( that is in the time of king john , and king henry the third ) . but that which makes it much the stronger is , that this declaration of the king and parliament against such dispensations and laws introduc'd without the king and peoples consent , does conclude with negative words , viz. ( and not otherwise ) and is exclusive of all other , that is , that nothing is law without their consent . and this statute of dispensations proceeds further to shew , where the true and lawful power of granting dispensations is vested , in these words , viz. it stands with natural equity , and good reason , that in all laws humane within this realm , the king and both houses representing the whole state of the realm , have full power to dispense , and to authorize some person to dispense with those , and all other humane laws of this realm , and the same laws to abrogate , annull , amplifie , and diminish as it shall be seen unto the king , the nobles , and the commons of the realm present in parliament , meet and convenient for the wealth of the realm , and then it does dispose of the power of dispensation in matters ecclesiastical to the archbishop of canterbury ; some whereof are to be confirm'd by the king , and others that may be good without the king 's confirming . and altho' the body or enacting part of this statute , extend only to causes ecclesiastical , yet the preamble does reach expresly to all humane laws . this statute of th of henry the eighth , was made in the time of such a king , as we all know , by reading our histories , stood highly upon his prerogative , and would never have consented to such a declaration , concerning the power of dispensing , if it had been a special prerogative in the crown ; and had there been such a power in the crown , the king would never have suffered himself to have been depriv'd of it , and to have it dispos'd of into other hands , by the parliament , and there would have been no need of passing such a law , the king himself alone could easily have transacted all this matter provided for by this act of parliament , had he had the sole power . it is true that the lord hobart , in his reports , fol. . mentioning this act of dispensations , and taking notice that by the express words of the act , all dispensations , &c. shall be granted in manner and form as is prescribed by that act , and not otherwise ; yet he holds that the king is not thereby restrained , but that his power remains full and perfect as before , and that he may still grant dispensations as king : for ( says he ) all acts of justice and grace flow from him . this and such like statutes ( says the lord hobart ) were made to put things into ordinary form , and to ease the king of labour , not to deprive him of power . this opinion of his is grounded upon a presumption , that the power of dispensing with laws , was always from the beginning a prerogative inherent in the crown , not examining who was the first author , and the time when it first began , and whence we borrowed the use , and how there was a time within evident proof of credible and authentick writers , when dispensations were not in use , and so they are within the time of memory in a legal construction , and cannot be by prescription . and it is plain every legal prerogative must be so by prescription , that is , used time out of memory of man , and whereof there is no sufficient writing to the contrary . but i may appeal to any unbiass'd and equal judgment , upon the reading of this act ( especially the preamble of it ) whether this act meerly intended to put things into an ordinary form , and to case the king of labour , or whether it was not to put an absolute stop to the former practice , and does not directly declare and determine where the true power of dispensing ever was , and therein uses those exclusive words ( and not otherwise ) for those words are in the preamble , as well as in the body of the act. so that this construction of the lord hobart's , that still the king may dispense alone by himself , and that he might have done so by his prerogative , before the making of this statute , and may do so still , notwithstanding this 〈◊〉 is directly against the very words of the statute , that says it shall not be otherwise then as the statute directs , and being in the negative are the stronger . and the three instances , or cases cited by the lord hobart all out of dyer , do not come home to the case of the king 's granting dispensations in other manner than the statute of h. . c. . hath directed , which expresly enacts that they shall not be granted otherwise . . his first instance is out of dyer , , the statute of h. . c. . appoints , that the commissioners for tryal of piracy , shall be named by the lord chancellor ; now it happened there was no lord chancellor , but a lord keeper , and it was held that he might name the commissioners , by the meaning of this statute , as well as the lord chancellor . this is , under favour , but a weak proof of the king's power or prerogative , of varying from the directions of an act of parliament , or dispensing with the rules prescrib'd by it ; for it is a meer imaginary variation , the lord keeper ever having the same power as the lord chancellor ; and it is not meerly so enacted , but declar'd by the act of eliz. c. . which proves it was law before . and yet some judges held the commissioners were not well named , but that the commission was void . . the second instance or authority that the lord hobart uses to prove his assertion , that the words ( and not otherwise ) in the statute of dispensations , doe not restrain the king's power , but that he may do otherwise , is out of dyer , . that queen elizabeth might make sheriffs without the judges , notwithstanding the stat. of e. . this i shall have occasion to examine and speak to more fully hereafter , and therefore shall reserve it till then , and doubt not to shew , it is a mistake : and it was done by the queen in a case of necessity , it being in the time of the plague , when the great officers could not safely meet in the exchequer , ( as the statutes require for the chusing of sheriffs ) and the term was held at hertford ; and the report says , no sheriff was named by the queen , for the most part , but out of those names that remained in the bill for the former year . and the book only says , it was held , the queen might do it by her prerogative . . the last instance that the lord hobart gives is out of dyer , . b. that the king may grant the aulnagers office without a bill sealed by the treasurer , tho' the statute of h. . c. . says the grant of that office shall be void , without a bill seal'd by the treasurer . the resolution of that point is very obscurely reported , but however take it at the strongest , this is in a matter that concern'd the king's revenue , and where it may more reasonably be said by the king. may i not do what i will with my own ? and this statute may easily be understood to be to put the granting of this office into an ordinary form , and to ease the king of labour , and not to restrain his power . if that may be said in any case against the express words of a statute , it may be in a case that concerns meerly his revenue , as this of the aulneage was . in the next place i shall shew , that the stream of dispensations did anciently run in this channel , till afterwards it found out another course , and that dispensations with laws , were only in the same hands as had the legislature , that is , in the king and parliament , in former times , and this answers that example that hath been used , that almighty god dispens'd with his own law of the sixth commandment , when he commanded abraham to sacrifice isaac : god was the great and only legislator . now the king is not the sole legislator . i shall present you with a very full precedent and proof of the power of dispensing with acts of parliament to be no where else but where the very legislative power is . and that the kings have sometimes accepted it from them in some particular cases , and for some limitted time , and with divers restrictions , which is a full acknowment that it belongs only to the legislative power to dispence with laws . the commons , for the great affiance which they repose in the king , granted , that he , by advice of his lords , might make such toleration touching the statute of provisions , as to him shall seem good , until the next parliament , so as the statute be repealed in no part thereof . so also as the commons may disagree thereunto at the next parliament , with this protestation too , that this their assent being indeed a novelty , ( these are the very words ) be taken for no example . this is granted with abundance of caution and jealousie , and proves it is not ancient . the commons do agree to the power granted to the king , for the moderation of the statutes touching provisors in the last parliament , beseeching the king , that the same may not license any cardinal or stranger to enjoy any benefice within the realm . it was enacted by the lords and commons , that tydeman , late abbot of beaulew , and elect of landaf , by the pope's provision , should enjoy the same bishoprick , notwithstanding any act , so always as this be taken for no example . that the sale of tin may be at lostwithiel in cornwal , and shall not continue at calais . notwithstanding the council may grant license to merchants , to carry the same tin to what parts they will , as to them shall seem good . here the power of dispensing is delegated to the council . upon the request of the commons , the king promiseth , that he will not from thenceforth dispence with the statute of provisions to benefices . this implies , that the king had practis'd it , and we know who began the practice , and who taught it to others , and this record shews it was without consent , and was a cause of complaint , and the king promises to reform it for the future . but what signifies a promise , where a law and an oath is too weak to secure it ? this promise doth not confer a new right , but is to reform an unjust practice . i shall use one argument more against this exercise of the power of dispensing with acts of parliament , as it hath of late been practis'd , and that argument shall be rais'd from the great inconvenience and mischief that will ensue upon it to the kingdom ; it may occasion the infrequency of parliaments , by taking much of their power out of their hands . laws are many times made but probationers and temporary , to the end , that if upon experience of them they be found to be too severe or strict and to sit hard upon any persons , that the parliament at their next meeting may moderate or relax the severity or inconvenience that may arise by them . but if there be another way allowed for the doing of this work , there will be the less need of a parliament , and so other work , that requires also their meeting , may remain unremedied . if we consider how frequently the parliament ought to meet , and and how often they did anciently meet , we shall easily be convinc'd , that the relaxing of a law , or giving remedy , ( where the law was upon experience found inconvenient ) was a work properly belonging unto them , and there was no need of resorting to any other help : for who should cure or reform a law , if any thing were amiss in it , but the law-makers ? see the statute of h. . c. . the book of statutes at large concerning bristol . our saxon king alfred and his wise men ( that is , the great council of the kingdom ) ordained , that a parliament twice a year , and oftner in time of peace , should meet in london . thus says that ancient book , stiled , the mirrour of justices , c. . sect . . pag. . by e. . c. . it is accorded that a parliament shall be holden every year once or more often if need be ; this does not abrogate not alter king alfred's law. by e. . c. . many laws had passed in that parliament of e. . which are there called articles , ( as anciently our statutes were drawn into certain articles , and so passed , as being articles of agreement betwixt the king and his subjects ( as i had occasion to observe in the beginning of my discourse ) and this statute of e. . provides , that for maintenance of the said articles and statutes and redress of divers mischiefs and grievances , which daily happen , a parliament shall be holden every year , as another time was ordained by a statute ) referring to the statute of the fourth of this king. the act of car. . c. . for repeal of the triennial act made car. . in the last paragraph recites , that by the ancient laws and statutes of this realm , made in the reign of king edward the third , parliaments are to be held very often ; and this act of car. . makes a new provision , to the end ( as the words are ) there may be a frequent calling , assembling and holding of parliaments once in three years at the least . now let us enquire what the proper work of a parliament is , which the said statute of e. . mentions in part , viz. for maintenance of the articles and statutes and redress of mischiefs and grievances that daily happen ( as that statute recites ) . sir tho. smith , ( who was principal secretary of state ) in his treatise de republica & administratione anglorum , l. . c. . fol. , . says this of the parliament . in comitiis parliamentariis posita est omnis augustae absolutaeque potestat is vis veteres leges jubent esse irritas , novas inducunt , praesentibus modum constituunt . ( there is the true dispensing power ) incerti juris controversias dirimunt . bracton writes of this high court , habet rex curiam suam in concilio suo in parliamentis suis ubi terminatoe sunt dubitationes judiciorum & novis injuriis emersis , nova constituuntur remedia . the mirrour of justices , c. . pag. . says , that parliaments were instituted to hear and determine the complaints of the wrongful acts of those against whom the subject otherwise could not have common justice , that is , against great and powerful delinquents . nihil prodest ( says bracton ) jura concedere nisi sit qui jura tueatur . so that there is need of a frequent resort to be had to the law-mamakers , not only to resolve difficulties of judgments , but to keep the power of interpretation within its due bounds , and the law hath taken care for frequency of parliaments . sir francis bacon , in his advancement of learning , gives this excellent advice to law-makers , and to those to whom it belongs to defend the laws . let not ( says he ) praetorian courts ( speaking of courts of equity ) have power to decree against express statutes , under pretence of equity ; for ( says he ) if this should be permitted , a law interpreter ( that is a judge ) would become a law-maker , and all matters should depend upon arbitrament , ( that is ) upon an arbitrary power . and arbitrament would encroach upon , and at last swallow up law. the power of extending or supplying or moderating laws , little differs ( says he ) from the power of making them . courts of equity sometimes , under the pretence of mitigating the rigor of the laws , ( and such is the power of dispensing ) relax the strength and sinews of laws , by drawing all to arbitraments : he was well able to judge of this , having been lord chancelor . and it is his th aphorism . that is the best law which gives the least liberty to the judge ; he is the best judge , that takes least liberty to himself . therefore where any new law sits uneasie and too hard and heavy in some particular cases , it were much safer to suffer the mischief for a time , ( if any such happen ) and let it wait till those that gave the wound come to cure it . una eademque manus vulnus opemque feret . the overhasty cure , arising from the impatience of enduring pain , makes the case the worse : frequency of parliaments is a proper cure . other ways of cure are apt to cause infrequency of parliaments . and in matters of great difficulty which come before the judges in the courts of westminster , or if there be no great difficulty , yet if it be of mighty concernment and not clearly concurring with the * intent and words of law-makers , but the law in the scope of it , is like to be frustrated by an hasty determination , it is , under favour , the duty of the judges in such cases of † dubitaciones judicior ' to rest till the parliament meet , and then to propose it to the parliament for their resolution . thus it is expresly provided in the statute of treasons , e. . to defer doubtful cases till the parliament resolve them , being in a matter of so high concernment as that of treason . and in cases of much lesser consequences , especially upon a new law , ( as that is that we have before us ) in several cases cited in blackamore's case , the judges have sought to the parliament for a resolution in smaller matters . rep. . in doubts arising before the judges in their courts , upon the construction of acts of parliament , the judges resorted to the council , ( which is there said to be meant of the great council , ( the parliament ) that made the act in the case there cited . the question * did arise upon the statute of e. . c. . which gives power to courts to amend misprisions of clerks in process , in writing a letter or syllable too much or too little : but whether these words in the act , gave power to amend where there was a whole word too much or too little , was the question , and the lords declared , e. . . that their meaning was , that in such cases the process should be amended : this shews the tenderness of the judges in those times , in construction of new acts of parliament , and the frequency of parliaments and the resort still had to them in case of doubts . and this was in the time of e. . the most flourishing time of the law ; and a case that the then archbishop said had no great difficulty in it . but i presume it will be said against me , that this is a clear case in law which is now before us , and that there was no doubt nor difficulty in it , but that the king by his prerogative could dispence with this act of car. . and that all the twelve judges ( but one or two ) was of that opinion , and that the point hath formerly been resolv'd in the case of continuing a sheriff in his office longer than one year , notwithstanding the several acts of parliament to the contrary , and that was so resolv'd by all the justices in the exchequer chamber , h. . and by the opinion of sir edward coke , rep. . and repeated in calvin's case , rep. . which are the only authorities that come home to the case , and none of them ancient . before i speak to these authorities in the case of dispensing with a sheriff to continue longer than a year , i shall make it appear , that the case now in question , or the point in law of this case , was very much doubted , if not clearly held on the contrary , that the king could not dispence with this act of car. . and that by no mean judgments . if the king could have dispens'd with it by his prerogative , and it had been so clear , what need was there of his majesty's proposing it to the two houses , at the opening of a session , to allow him a power of dispensing with this law ? or that they themselves would dispence with it ? why would the two houses , after long debate about it , excuse themselves from consenting to that which the king could do without them ? were there no judges that did scruple the doing of it ? if it were a prerogative in the king , how came it to be so long before the king 's learned council could start it ? we heard nothing of this till all other ways were tryed . let me add to this what was spoken by the late king 's own command and direction in the house of lords , before the king and both houses , and all the judges present , by a late lord chancelor , who as he was an excellent orator , so he was a very learned lawyer , and my honourable friend . it was in his speech made to both houses the twenty third of may , . ( about five years after the making of this act of car. . ) and it was spoken in reference to this very act of parliament . hath not the late act ( says he ) made it impossible , absolutely impossible for the most concealed papist that is , to get into any kind of employment ? and did ever any law since the reformation give us so great a security as this ? hereupon , in the same speech , that noble lord does declare it now a stale project to undermine the government , by accusing it of endeavouring to introduce popery , that a man would wonder to see it taken up again . this law had so abundantly secured us against the danger of it . and yet , after all this , do we hear the judges openly and judicially declaring , that it appear'd to them to be a very plain case , that the king alone could dispence with this act of parliament by his prerogative : and tho' it was acknowledged to be a case of great consequence , ( as the truth is ) yet it was pronounc'd withal to be of as little difficulty as ever any case was , that raised so great an expectation . these are strong arguments to prove the doubtfulness of it : after all these refusals or hesitations , it might very well be accounted a doubt or difficulty , worthy to be referr'd to the judgment of the parliament , if the parliament had not already in effect given their judgment to the contrary . as i remember , it was in february . that the two houses made an address to the last king , for revoking a declaration , whereby his late majesty had granted a toleration and indulgence to some protestant dissenters , as being against law , and such a toleration was declared illegal by the parliament in . these are two resolutions in the point by the supream judicature . if this prerogative of dispensing with acts of parliament were in the crown by prescription , ( as it ought to be if it were a legal * prerogative ) it ought then to be confin'd and limitted to such cases only wherein it had been anciently and frequently excercised : and there ought to be no extension of cases where they are depending upon a prescription , nor is there any arguing a paritate rationis in such cases and which have their force meerly from ancient and constant usage . it is a rule at common law , ubi eadem est ratio ibi idem jus : but this rule doth not hold in customs and prescriptions . in the case of bayly and stevens in croke , jac. . fol. , it was held per curiam , that where lands in borough english descend to the youngest son , and he dies without issue , that the land in such case shall not go to the younger brother without a particular custom ; but the elder brother shall have it , for the usage had been in the one , but not in the other case ; yet these two cases are very near of kin . now this prerogative of dispensing with acts of parliament , in the original use and exercise of it , was but in very few cases , and those which more directly concern'd the king himself immediately , in his revenue , or the like , which were cases of no great consequence , and such wherein the law-makers , in making their laws , might be easily understood not to intend to abridge the king of his power , but to ease him rather of labour , and to put things into an ordinary course , which yet the king might depart from , if he were so minded , and if he did accordingly signifie his pleasure , by granting an express ( non obstante ) the act of parliament to the contrary ) and making particular mention of the act : unusquisque renunciare potest juri pro se introducto . or in cases where there is no disability impos'd upon a person by the act , but only a pecuniary penalty given to the king , and forfeited by the subject , transgressing the act , where the king is creditor poenoe ; it seems more reasonable that the king may dispense with the penalty that will be due to himself . and these , and such like , are the only instances given in that great case of h. . but to dispense with an act of parliament , made in a case of the highest * concernment to the publick that can be , wherein religion , and the government are so deeply concern'd , and where the king himself , and the parliament , have thought fit to disable any person to do to the contrary , and so pronounc'd it , and have put an incapacity upon persons , and adjudged the thing done to the contrary void ; this hath been of latter times , and but of late found out and practis'd , and is not warranted by any prescription . i shall cite some resolutions to this purpose , that the king cannot dispense with disabilities and incapacities imposed upon any person by act of parliament . the lord hobart's reports , fol. . in the case of the king against the bishop of norwich , res. that if an incumbent were guilty of symony in obtaining a benefice , he was made incapable of that benefice for ever , by the words of the statute of eliz. c. . paragr . . and the case of sir arthur ingram was cited , who bought the office of cofferer ; he was holden by egerton lord chancellor , and coke chief justice , uncapable of that office , by force of the statute of e. . c. . tho' he had a non obstante ; and the reason there given is in these words : for the person being disabled by the statute , could not be enabled by the king : and yet the office of cofferer is a special service about the king's person , and his treasure . the lord chief justice vaughan , in his reports of the case of thomas and sorrel , fol. , . gives this for the reason why the king cannot dispense with a man to buy an office contrary to the statute of e. . nor with one simoniacally presented , to hold that living , or to be at any time after presented to it ; nor with any of the house of commons not to take the oath of allegiance , according to the statute of jac. . c. . because ( says he ) the persons were made incapable to hold such office or living , and a person incapable is a dead person , and no person at all , to that wherein he is incapable . and a member of the house of commons is by jac. persona inhabilis . . inst. fol. . in the case of the simonist , sir e. c. says , the act so binds the king , as that he cannot present him that the law hath disabled , for ever after , to be presented to that church . the words of the act be : he shall be from thenceforth adjudged a disabled person in law , to have or enjoy the same benefice . and the party being disabled by the act ( says sir e. c. ) cannot be dispens'd withal by any grant by a non obstante , as it may be where any thing is prohibited sub modo , as upon a penalty given to the king. the case of sir john bennet does not at all contradict these authorities . it is croke , car. . sir john bennet by sentence in the star-chamber , was made incapable of any office of judicature for bribery , res. by all the judges , and barons , that by the king's pardon , all inabilities are discharg'd , because the sentence could not take the office from him being freehold , over which the court had no power . so that after so often declaring by several acts of parliament , grants , and patents made contrary to their acts to be void , and all dispensations , and non obstante's , to the contrary of the laws made by them , to be void , and inflicting penalties upon such as should obtain those grants , and non obstante's , or make use of them as appears by a multitude of acts ; and all these too weak , and all in vain by the judges allowance of these non obstante's , the parliament had no other sence against these non obstante's , but to fix a disability in the persons , and to make them uncapable of taking the benefit of such grants ; and this hath held good till now , but now they break through this too . and as i observ'd in the pope's exercise of his power of dispensing , that it was used with some moderation at first , in cases that seem'd to be of great necessity only , but at last , by degrees , it grew to be intolerable and unlimited : so the like may be observ'd in the use of this prerogative . . instit. fol. , in the chapter of pardons , by divers acts of parliament , the king's power of granting charters of pardon hath been restrained , as by e. . c. . e. . c. . e. . c. . r. stat. . c. . these are ancient statutes . it hath been conceiv'd ( says sir e. c. ) which we will not question ( says he ) that the king may dispense with these laws by a non obstante . yet sir e. c. there declares , that he found not any such clauses of non o●stante , to dispense with any of these statutes , but of late times . this shews that it is a growing mischief and had not been anciently used , as it ought to have been to make it a good prescription and prerogative . i shall now examine the authorities and cases that are cited in defence of this prerogative and power of dispensing with a disability impos'd by act of parliament ; for i do not purposely dispute it in any other case , but as they are coincident with this . the first that we meet with , is that of h. . fol. . and it was by all the justices in the exchequer-chamber . the case thus : king edward the fourth granted the office of sheriff of a county to the earl of northumberland , for the life of the earl , and the justices held the patent good , there being a non obstante in it to the statutes . let us look into * the statutes that forbid a sheriff to continue in his office longer then one year : there had been several † ancient statutes made to that purpose , but they all prov'd to be of little effect , for patents were still granted to hold the office of a sheriff , for a longer time than one year . at length came the stat. . h. . c. . which recites the former statutes forbidding any persons continuance in the office of sheriff , above one year ; and observing the great oppressions and abuses to the people , that did arise from it , and how that yet they were granted contrary to those statutes . this statute therefore of hen. . ordains that those statutes shall be duly observ'd . and further ordains , that if any occupy that office contrary to those statutes , or to the effect or intent of any of them , he shall forfeit two hundred pound yearly , as long as he occupieth contrary to any of those statutes , and that every pardon granted of that forfeiture shall be void , and that all patents made of the office of sheriff , for years , or any longer time , shall be void , any clause , or word of non obstante in any wise put , or to be put in such patents notwithstanding ; and every such person is thereby disabled to bear that office. nothing could be penn'd stronger than this statute , and it is a law made by the supream legislative power of the nation , and it expresses the former granting of non obstante's to be a great abuse , and to be contrary to law. yet contrary to the express words , and clear intent and meaning of this statute , did all the judges resolve in h. . that by a non obstante , a patent for a longer time than a year should be good , of the sheriffs office. the king , and both houses were of opinion , that they could make a non obstante in such case void . the judges are of a contrary opinion , that a non obstante shall make void the statute . here is an inferiour court over-ruling and controuling the judgment of a superiour court. the judges who are but jura dicere , contradict those who have the power jura dare , as well as jura dicere , and of correcting the errors of the highest court in westminster , and controuling their judgments . the statute was a meer idle nugatory thing , if it were not to restrain the granting of a non obstante : if it did not that , it did nothing . the king himself alone , ( if he had pleas'd ) could without any act of parliament , have reform'd the abuse , by refusing to pass any such patents for a sheriffs continuing in his office longer than a year . but the king was sensible of the abuses , and therefore willing to be restrained from passing any more such patents , and to avoid any importunity that might be used for the obtaining any such patents , and therefore consented that a law should pass to make such patents void . and after all , shall the king ( if he pleases ) still make the like grants ? why then the act was of no manner of use , and operates nothing ; and the resolve of the judges has made the act a meer idle vain thing . but the twelve judges in h. . have so resolv'd , and the only use they would allow to all these acts of parliament is no more than this , that if the king grant a patent to one of the sheriffs office for more than one year , and there be no non obstante in the patent , that then , for want of a non obstante , the patent should be void by those acts of parliament which otherwise would have been good , had not those acts made them void . but how easie would it be for one that obtains such a patent , to get the non obstante to be inserted ? and who would accept such a patent without a non obstante ? and to whom would the non obstante be denied to whom such a patent is granted ? the lord hobart , in the case of needler against the bishop of winchester , fol. . says it is denied to none , and that it is in the power of the attorney-general . the reasons given by the judges in h. . for that resolution , are , because the king had always used such a prerogative of dispensing with the acts of parliament that required the * true value of the lands , and the certainty of the lands to be mentioned in his grants of lands , and with the acts concerning the † shipping of wool , and pardoning of murder ( without express mentioning of the murder . ) these cases are nothing alike , but of a trifling consideration in respect of the act we have in hand of car. . and in these cases the penalty and * forfeitures are given to the king , and they concern the king's profit only to dispence with them : but in our case the safety of the government , & salus populi , and the maintaining of the true religion establish'd by law , are all concern'd , and so the case is not alike . and to compare this with those cases , is parvis componere magna . this opinion and resolution of the judges in h. . has been the foundation of all the like opinions that have since that time been given of the king's power of dispensing with disabilities and incapacities impos'd by acts of parliament . upon what ground the justices held the patent of the sheriff's office , good to the earl of northumberland for life , does not appear , whether because it had formerly been an office of inheritance , and so within the exception in the statute of h. . or whether by virtue of a non obstante to the statutes , as ratclif only argues , for the rest say nothing of the non obstante . some resolutions have been to the contrary of that of h. . as in the case that i cited of the king against the bishop of norwich , in the lord hobart's reports , and the case of sir arthur ingram , where it was adjudged , that the king could not dispence with a disability . and the book of r. . fol. & . concerning waterford in ireland , is of the king's power to dispence with an act of parliament where the forfeiture is given only to the king : so it comes not home to our case . this resolution of the judges in h. . was the precedent and leading case to all the subsequent opinions , and was the foundation of them , and they all must stand and fall by it . now it will be very evident , that the king had no such power or prerogative of continuing sheriffs in their offices longer than a year . for , under favour , the making of sheriffs , doth not , nor never did , belong to the king , neither at the common law , nor by any act of parliament ; so that all these opinions and resolutions are built upon a sandy foundation , and have but debile fundamentum , and they take that for granted , which is not a truth . the election of sheriffs , at the common law , even from the very first constitution of the kingdom , and by the original institution of the government , was in the freeholders in the several counties , ever since there was any such office as a sheriff , and ever since the kingdom hath been divided into shires , that is , in the time of the saxons , ( from whom we derive most of our common law ) and long after their time , in the time of the normans , till being neglected by the freeholders , it came at length , by an act of parliament , made within the legal time of memory , to be taken from the freeholders , and the power of naming and chusing sheriffs every year lodged in the hands of certain great officers of state , and so it continues to this day ; but neither is , nor never was in the king. mr. lambard , in his book de priscis anglorum legibus in his lemma de heretochiis , fol. . says , that those heretochii were ductores exercitus . ( here , signifying an army in the saxon tongue . the same as in the dialect of this present age may be called lord-lieutenants or deputy-lieutenants . the law of king edward ( which i take to be the confessor ) speaks of these heretochii , in these words : isti vero viri eligebantur per commune concilium pro communi utilitate regni per provincias & patrias universas & per singulos comitatus in pleno folkmote sicut & vice-comites provinciarum & comitatuum eligi debent . this law mentions this election , as an use and custom . if the king did not make the sheriff , he could not continue him sheriff ; if he could not make him for a year , he could not grant him the office for longer than a year : the sheriff had his authority and office from the election , not by commission or patent , and that but for a year . sir edward coke , in his second institutes , in his exposition of the statute of westminster . cap. . concerning the election of the coroners by the freeholders , ( which ever was so , and so still continues ) says , there is the same reason for election of sheriffs , and so ( says he ) it anciently was by writ directed to the coroners . in like manner were the conservators of the peace chosen , in whose place the justices of the peace now succeed , and so the verderors of the forrest are to this day . these were great and high liberties , and did belong to the freeholders from all antiquity , and are strong arguments to confute those late authors , that will by no means allow of a limitted government , but leave us under an absolute and arbitrary power , and who call our laws and liberties , but the concessions and condescensions from the regal and absolute power . sir edward coke discourses largely of these elections , in his exposition of the statute of articuli super chartas , in his second institutes , or magna charta , fol. . by this statute ( it is said ) the king hath granted to his people , that they have the election of their sheriff in every county where the sheriff is not of fee , if they will. sir edward coke says , by this act , that ancient right the people ( that is , the freeholders ) had , was restor'd to them ; and the words ( if they will ) import , that they formerly had it , but neglected it . by a statute made in the next king's reign , viz. e. . styled , the statute of sheriffs , upon pretence , that insufficient persons were commonly chosen for sheriffs : by that act it is ordained , that from thenceforth the sheriffs shall be assigned by the * chancellor , treasurer , barons of the exchequar , and by the justices . and by the statute of e. . c. . some change is made of the persons that are to have the election , and the day and place of such assigning of sheriffs is prefix'd , viz. yearly in the morrow of all-souls , and in the exchequer . by the statute of r. . c. . the assigning of the sheriff is put into the hands of more great officers , who are to be sworn to execute this trust faithfully , but it is not vested in the king all this while , nor never was . it is true , that out of reverence to the king , these great officers , who had the assigning of sheriffs , did afterwards use to name three persons , out of which number they left it to the king to chuse one for every shire . but this was more out of deference to the king , than out of any strict obligation so to do , and the election made by the king , was in law to be accounted an assignment by these great officers . nor could the king chuse any other for sheriff than one of those three so assigned by those great officers , tho' it is sometimes otherwise practis'd . and this hath been a resolution of all the judges of england , and is mentioned in sir coke's second institutes , fol. . it was in the th year of henry the sixth , and it is in these words . viz. that the king did an error , when he made another person sheriff of lincolnshire then was chosen and presented to him by those great officers , after the effect of the statute . so that the right of electing sheriffs by those great officers , we see , continued so lately as the latter end of king henry the sixth , and i know of no law since , that hath alter'd it : therefore we may conclude , it is no prerogative in the king. and we may further observe , what plain language all the judges used in those days , as to tell the king and the lords of the council , that the king had erred in what he had done . i observe this the rather , that it may be some excuse to me for the plain language i am forced to use in the arguing upon this subject . the lawyers are not always courtiers , nor will the subject-matter bear complements and courtship . ornari res ipsa negat , contenta doceri . i cannot reconcile this resolution of the twelve judges , given in the time of king henry ths sixth , with that opinion that is deliver'd in the lord dyer's reports , fol. . b. and it is but an opinion . & of queen elizabeth . in the time of the plague , the sheriffs were named and made without assembling the judges ad crastinum animarum at the exchequer , according to the common usage , but for the most part none was made but one of the two that remain'd in the bill the last year . tho' it was held , ( says the report ) that the queen , by her prerogative , might make a sheriff , without such election , by a non obstante aliquo statuto in contrarium , which crosses the resolution i now mentioned . it is but an opinion against a solemn resolution of all the twelve judges . i find , that some who had transgress'd that act of h. . and had continued above one year in that office of sheriff , soon after the making of that act , did not think themselves secure against the penalty of that act by any non obstante from the king , but procur'd an act of parliament to indempnifie them for what they had done ; for , by another act made the th of the same king henry the sixth , it is ordain'd , that the sheriffs for the year then last past , should be quit and discharged against the king and his people , of the penalties of the l. which they incurr'd by the statute of h. . by exercising the office of sheriff longer than a year , from the day next after the day of all all-souls , on which day , by the statute , a new election was to have been made . i have one great authority more , and that is of an act of parliament too , which , in my judgment , clearly proves , ( against this resolution of the twelve judges in the time of h. . ) that the king had no such prerogative to dispence with the sheriff's continuing in his office longer then a year . but that the only dispensing power was in the king and parliament , as i have affirm'd , and in the king , when any special act of parliament shall for a time limitted enable him so to dispence . and it is an act in the time of a wise and powerful king , who would not lose his prerogative , where he had right to it . it is the statute of h. . c. . in the statutes at large , this statute recites the statute of e. . whereby it was ordain'd , that no sheriff should continue in his office above a year . and it recites further , that whereas at the making of that statute , there were divers valiant and sufficient persons , ( i suppose it is ill translated ( valiant ) and it should have been ( men of value ) in every county of england , to exercise the said office well , towards the king and his people : but by reason of divers pestilences within the realm , and wars without the realm , there was not now such sufficiency of such persons . it is therefore ordained , that the king , by authority of this parliament of h. . may make the sheriffs through the realm , at his will , until the end of four years , notwithstanding the said statute made e. . or any other statute or ordinance made to the contrary . here the king is entrusted with the power , and that but for a short time in the very case of continuing sheriffs in their offices longer than a year , and that in a case of great and absolute necessity , and this by a special act of parliament , which plainly shews , he could not do it by any prerogative he had of dispensing , for then he would never have taken it under an act of parliament . what ground therefore the judges had in the second year of henry the seventh , to adjudge it to be a prerogative in that king , i cannot see : and that resolution is the leading case to all the opinions that have been delivered in the point , since that time , and the opinions still justifie themselves by that one first resolve , and cite that for their great authority : that opinion seems to be delivered upon a sudden question , put to the judges by the king's council , not argued nor deliberated on , nor upon any case that came judicially before them , and the judges there take notice only of two ancient statutes , viz. e. . c. . e. . c. . both which barely forbid the sheriffs to continue longer than a year in their office , but no penalty is imposed ; and the earl of northumberland's case had a non obstante in it only to these two statutes , as appears by the abridgement of that case by patent's case , . so that they did but , ad pauca respicere & de facili pronunciare . but they do not take the least notice of the statute of h. . c. . which makes the disability , nor do the judges in that case , give that reason for their judgment , as sir e. c. hath since found out to justifie it , viz. his prerogative inseparable , &c. something may be observed from the time when that strange resolution pass'd : judicis officium est ut res ita tempora rerum querere . it was in henry the seventh , in the beginning of the reign of that king , who stood high upon his title and power ( if we may believe a late historian . ) ( mr. buck. ) in his history of the life and reign of richard the third , who in his second book , fol. . discourses likewise of king henry the seventh , and his title to the crown , says of him , that he seemed to wave all other titles , and stuck to that of his sword and conquest , and at his coronation he caused proclamation to be made with these titles , henricus rex anglioe jure divino , jure humano , & june belli , &c. which yet the barons could not agree to , tho' the king peremptorily avowed he might justly assume it , having as a conquerour , entred the land , fought for the crown , and won it . the barons answered ( says the historian ) as peremptorily , that he was beholding to them both for his landing and victory . but the more they opposed it , the more he insisted upon it . now that king that made his title by conquest , might carve out to himself what prerogatives he pleased ; and who durst dispute it with him ? and this probably might have some influence upon that resolution of the judges , being so early after his claim , viz. h. . but i find sir e coke , a chief justice of great learning , and of as great integrity , taking up the same opinion : it is in the reports that go by the name of sir coke's , rep. fol. . no act , says he , can bind the king from any prerogative which is sole and inseparable to his person , but that he may dispense with it by a non obstante , as a soveraign power to command any of his subjects to serve him for the publick-weal ; and he instances in that of a sheriff , and quotes the resolution of the judges of h. . and urges that of judges of assize , that they may go judges of assize in the counties where they were born , or did inhabit , if the king dispense with it by a special non obstante . but he gives another instance , which i presume none in these days will subscribe to ; and if he mistook himself in this instance , he may be supposed to mistake and err in all the rest : purveyance ( says he ) for the king and his houshold is incident solely , and inseparably to the person of the king : and for this cause the act of parliament of henry the third , de tallagio non concedendo , which barrs the king wholly of purveyance , is ( says he ) void . if this be law , what a case are the subjects in , that have given a recompence by a revenue of inheritance ( in part of the excise ) to the king , in lieu of purveyances . it is sober advice given by learned grotius , in his book de jure belli & pacis , . let us not ( says he ) approve of all things , tho' delivered by authors of greatest name , for they often serve the times , or their affections , and bend the rules as occasion requires . this resolution of all the judges , in the second of henry the seventh , is again cited in calvin's case , in sir coke's seventh report , and there a reason is given to justifie that resolution , which is not so much as touch'd upon in the report itself , of h. . but it has been studied and found out since that resolution , viz. that an act cannot barr the king of such service of his subject , which the law of nature did give him . and this is the main reason insisted on in the late judgment given in sir hales's case ( as i am informed ) ; which is the only case , that i find , which came to be argued upon the very point , yet it was but lightly spoken to , for that of h. . which is the first of the kind , was not upon a case that came judicially before the judges , but was upon a consultation only with the judges , and without argument . nor in any other authorities that i have cited , grounded upon that resolution of h. . did the point directly come in question judicially . and calvin's case is the first that i find , which offers this special reason , viz. that no act of parliament can restrain the king from commanding the service of his subject , but it is an inseparable prerogative in the king ; and as sir e. c. speaks in his rep. tho' an act makes the king's patent void , and tho' the king be restrained to grant a non obstante , by the express words of the act , and tho' the grantee is disabled by the act to take the office , yet the king ( says sir edward coke ) may by his royal soveraign power of commanding , command a man by his patent , to serve him and the weal-publick , in the office of sheriff for years , or for life : and this the king may do for such causes as he in his wisdom shall think meet and profitable for himself , and the common-weal , of which he himself is solely judge , says sir e. c. so tho' the king and parliament have adjudged and declared by a law , such a person , or such a sort of persons to be altogether unfit for such a service or office. as for example : they have adjudged papists ( who own a forreign authority and jurisdiction , and who hold doctrines destructive and contrary to the religion established in this kingdom ) to be very unfit and uncapable of being entrusted with the maintaining of the government , and the religion established by law , in this kingdom . yet according to late opinions and resolutions , tho' the king himself , by the advice of his great council , have so adjudged and declared , yet he may do otherwise , and he may employ a papist to defend the protestant religion ; and he is the sole judge of the fitness of persons for his service . this is the discourse , this is the argument and reason used . will this reason be allowed of , shall the king be the sole judge of the persons fit to serve him in all cases , and is it an inseparable power and prerogative in the person of the king ? i shall put a case wherein the judges depart from this opinion , and appear to be of another mind . in the lord anderson's reports , the d part , . it is there said , if an office in the king's-bench or common-pleas be void , and the placing of the officer belongs to the king , if the king grant it to a person not able to execute it , the * grant is void ; as 't is there held by many of the justices . and there a case is cited out of e. . rot . . where one tho. wynter was placed by the king in the office of clerk of the crown in the king's-bench . the judges , before the king himself , did declare him to be inhabilem ad officium illud pro commodo regis & populi sui exercendum , and he was laid by , and one roger west ( at the commendation of the judges ) was put in . will any man presume to say the person is unfit , when the king , who is the sole judge of the fitness of persons to serve him , hath adjudg'd him fit ? yes , the judges , in a case that concerns the courts where they sit , ( it seems ) will controul the king 's own judgment , and judge the person inhabilis , and hold the grant void in such case . to compare our present case with this : the king and parliament by a law have adjudged the papists unfit to be entrusted with the government , and with the preserving of the reform'd religion : but ( says the judges ) if the king , without the parliament , judge otherwise , his judgment shall prevail : why not as well in the case of an office in the courts at westminster , which does belong to the king to dispose of , as in an office that immediately concerns the safety of the king and kingdom and the great concernment of religion ? so here is one command of the kings set up in opposition to another command of the king. a command of the king upon private advice , or ( it may be possible ) gained from him by surprize , by an importunity or an undue solicitation , against a serious solemn deliberate command of the king , upon advice with his great council , and with the consent of the whole kingdom : this is the very case before us . this is against all reason , and against the examples of the greatest , wisest and most absolute of kings and princes , who commanded their judges to have no regard to any commands of theirs , that were contrary to law. vinius the civilian , in his commentary on the imperial institutes , fol. . gives this rule , rescripta principum contra jus vel utilitatem publicam , elicita à judicibus improbari etiam ipsorum imperatorum constitutionibus jubentur . princeps non creditur ( says he ) aliquid velle contra utilitatem publicam concedere , h. . c. . sect . , , . dispensations for pluralities , contrary to act , are declared to be void , hob. , , , . the king is never by law supposed ill affected , but abused and deceived , for eadem praesumitur mens regis quae est juris . grotius de jure belli & pacis , , . amongst the persians , the king was supreme , yet he took an oath at his entrance , and it was not lawful for him to change certain laws made after a particular form . if the king establish the decree , and sign the writing , it may not be changed , according to the law of the medes and persians , which altereth not , as we read in the book of daniel , dan. . , . by the act of e. . c. . it is accorded and established , that it shall not be commanded by the great seal , nor the little seal , to disturb or delay common right , and tho' such commandments do come , the justices shall not therefore leave to do right in any point . grotius ubi supra , . antiochus the third , sent a rescript to the magistrates , that they should not obey him , in case he should command any thing against law. and constantine published the like , that orphans and widows be not constrained to come to court for justice , no , not if the emperor's rescript be shewed . in the story of daniel , we read , that king darius signed the writing , and the decree , which indeed was but a snare laid for daniel , and daniel had fallen into the snare : the king was his friend , but could neither dispence with him , nor pardon him , tho' he were sore displeased with himself for signing the decree , and the king set his heart on daniel to deliver him , and he laboured ( says the history ) an whole day , till the going down of the sun to deliver him : he wanted such judges as cambyses had , to find out an evasion ; but the king himself sealed the stone that was laid upon the mouth of the den with his own signet , and with the signet of the lords , that the purpose might not be changed concerning daniel . nihil opus est ( says a learned author , writing of the government of england ) licentiam dominandi in rege coerceri , quoniam quicquid in administranda rerum summa vel contra patriae leges vel minus ex populi commodo gestum fuerit id omne ministris luendum rejicitur adeo ut non ab adulatione sed ab aequitate summa fluxerit notum axioma apud nostrates rex nunquam potest errare aut cuiquam injuriam facere quippe in administros & conciliarios quorum est admonere principem iniqua volenti , denegare operam , aut officio renunciare , potiusquam contra leges quicquam jubenti parere tam culpa omnis quam paena derivari solet & debet . and we have seen examples of such in our times , many that have left good places , rather than act against their judgments . there is a rare example of this in the french history . lewis the eleventh , king of france , at the pope's importunity , had signed a concordate for setting aside the pragmatical sanction which was made in defence of the liberties of the gallican church , and the king had undertaken to the pope , that his parliaments should approve of what he had done , and the king sent a command to the parliaments accordingly , and required them to give a punctual obedience to his order . the king's advocate , johannes romanus , argued stoutly against it , and being threatned to be turned out of his place for his pains , he said , the king had freely bestowed that office on him , and he would discharge it faithfully , as long as the king thought fit to continue him in it , and should be ready to lay it down , whenever it pleased the king : but he would suffer all things , rather then do any thing against his conscience or the king's honour and the good of the kingdom : and out he went. it will be admitted by those that argue for the prerogative of dispensing , that tho' the king , without the parliament , cannot dissolve nor repeal , no nor so much as suspend the law totally , tho' but for a time , but he may dispence with it , as to some particular persons , and for some limited time , and so the law will still remain in force against all others . those that will argue thus , do yet hold , that the king is the sole judge who are to be dispensed with , so that he is not limited to any number , nor to any time , so that tho' he may not in the gross dispence with the law , yet he does the same thing by retail , which comes all to one , or it is in his royal will and pleasure to do so : we are nothing beholding to the judges if the king uses his prerogative with moderation . according to that sort of argument that is called inductio : which is a particularibus ad universalia progressus . he that can dispence with a , b , c , and so with the letters , one by one , does in truth dispence with the whole alphabet ; but he must not do it uno ictu . and we find it by experience . what signifie those several acts of parliament that forbid a judge of assize to execute that office in the county where he was born or dwells , they are easily and daily dispens'd with ? how many acts have been made against pardoning of murder , and to make void such pardons , and what fruit have they had ? let us hear a learned judge plainly speaking his experience and his mind in it : stamford , in his pleas of the crown , fol. . says , that tho' there are words to null and make void these charters of pardon , yet by putting into the charters of pardon these words , viz. non obstante aliquo statuto in contrarium edito , the force of these statutes is taken away , and not only of these , ( says he ) but also of all others , in which this clause of non obstante is put , and it is put ( says he ) in every letters patents . and fol. . ( he says ) that the statute of r. . stat. . c. . and the rest of the statutes to the same effect , have always been destroy'd by that clause of non obstante ; and so false suggestions have continued ( says he ) to this day without redress , and abound from one day to another , to the great detriment of the publick weal , and do not cease till princes have more regard what charters they pass ; and he might have added , till the king's attorney and council at law shall have more fidelity and courage . i hear , that in justification of such a dispensation as this , it was said in the argument of the case of sir edward hales , in the court of king's-bench , that there is no law whatever , but may be dispensed with by the supreme law-giver , as the laws of god may be dispensed with by god himself , as appears by god's command to abraham , to sacrifice his son isaac . so likewise may the laws of man be dispens'd with by the supreme legislator . i fully agree to this , and have already argued upon this ground , that the legislators ( and no other ) can dispence with their own laws , and i have given several instances and examples wherein it was so practised ; that is , by king and parliament . but does this justifie the present dispensation now in dispute ? i agree the king hath a great and most eminent part in the legislature , and in the passing of laws , it is he that quickens the embrio , and first gives it life , but under favour , and with all due reverence to the king , i may affirm it , that the king hath not the sole legislature , such as almighty god hath over his creatures , but the whole kingdom hath a share in that power , as i have fully proved , as well as the king. i would cite one case , not so much to prove what i have said herein , but rather to illustrate it : it was a case in hill. jac. b. r. dominus rex , and allen against tooly , in the second part of bulstrode's reports , , to . in an information brought upon the statute of eliz. for using the trade of an upholsterer , in which he had not served as an apprentice seven years . the defendant pleaded , that he was a freeman of london , and that by the custom of london , a freeman might use any trade ; and he alledged that the custom was confirmed per regem in parliamento . it was holden first , that there can be no good act of parliament , without the three consents , viz. of the king , lords , and commons . . that tho' divers acts of parliament do not specifie these three assents , but only mention the king as dominus rex statuit ; and as it is in the prince's case , dominus rex de communi concilio statuit ( and the like ) : yet when the party will plead , he ought to plead it according to law , and to set forth all the assents , that is , of the king , lords , and commons : and this was the opinion of the whole court. now pleading is an exact setting forth of the truth . we are not to raise arguments from forms of speaking , but rather from exact pleading , and the resolutions of judges : and tho' magna charta in the stile , seems to be spoken by k. h. . as by the word ( concessimus ) ; yet the act of e. . c. . recites that it was made a law by the king , lords , and commons , and that what is said to be granted , was but their former right . lambert's archion , , &c. i hear , that in speaking to the case of sir edward hales , it was observed that by this act of car. . there is no incapacity , or disability at the first , and upon the admission to the office put upon any person from taking of an office , but that he is well admitted to it , and the grant is good , and that time is given to take the tests , and if by the times given he fail to take them , then he is to be disabled , and the grants are to become void , but not before : like a condition subsequent that defeats the estate , which yet was well vested ; and then before the grant is defeated , and the party become disabled , the king's dispensation steps in and prevents the penalty and disability : and herein ( it was said ) it differs from the case of symony , and buying of offices , where the interest never vested , but the person was first disabled . there is indeed a difference , but none that is material , for it is all one whether the party be disabled to take , or whether having well taken , and been well admitted , he is afterward disabled to hold , and retain , by not performing the condition : for when he is first admitted , it is sub modo , and under a condition , that if he fail to perform what the law requires , his office shall be void . another argument ( as i hear it reported ) was rais'd from the king 's being a soveraign prince , and from thence it was inferred , that he might dispense with laws that are poenal upon necessity , whereof he is the sole judge . the ground of this argument , namely , that the king is a soveraign prince ; if it serve for the point in question , it may also extend a great way further then to this question we have before us , it is hard to limit the extent of it , it seems to speak that we must obey without reserve . the word ( soveraign ) is french , and in latin is supremus , id est qui in alios potestatem habet : the correlate whereof is , subditus , or a subject , and is attributed frequently to some sorts of subjects , especially to the heads or superiours of religious orders . but among us , tho' now frequently used in our humble addresses to the king , or in our reverend mention of him , yet we find it very rarely , if ever , used in our ancient acts of parliament , or in our law books . i find no mention of the very word among the many attributes and titles ascribed to kings and princes , in mr. selden's titles of honour : he hath that which is synonimous , as supream monarch , as it signifies in opposition , or in distinction to princes that are subordinate and feudatory , such as tacitus speaks of , that the romans ( when their government was popular ) had instrumenta servitutis , reges . but properly , he is a king that is a soveraign , and hath no superiour upon earth : according to martial , rex est qui regem ( maxime ) non habeat . and such we freely and cheerfully acknowledge the king to be , and the best and most of his subjects do swear that he is the only supream governour of this realm , and of all other his dominions , as well in all spiritual , or ecclesiastical , as temporal causes , and that no foreign prince hath any power within this realm . and i wish that all the rest of his subjects would heartily take this oath : but this among others , is that which sir hales's dispensation extends to . yet how from hence it can be argued that the king can dispense with his laws , i do not see . i mean laws of the same nature as that we have now before us . therefore those that used this argument surely meant the word of ( soveraign ) in another sence . viz. absolute & solutus a legibus . it they mean by ( soveraign ) a prince that is absolute , and solutus a legibus ( and they must understand it so , or else i do not see how it is pertinent to the present argument ) this is of a mighty consequence , and ought to have been well considered before it had been used . i find the word in this sence ( as i take it ) propounded in an addition or saving to the petition of right , car. . viz. not to infringe soveraign power : but it was not liked , and upon reasons given at a conserence , those that did propound it , were satisfied to lay it aside . it may be read in the memorials of the english affairs , fol. . if the word ( soveraign ) be meant in this sence , it is oppos'd by all our ancient authors , judges , and others , by plain and express language , whose very writings i have before cited , and i will but only touch upon them again . fleta says , superiorem non habet rex in regno nisi deum & legem per legem factus est rex : this fully expounds the word sovereign . both fleta and bract. and sir gilbert thornton ( who was chief justice in edw. the first 's time ) take notice of that : jus caesareum , or lex regia , as it is called by the civilians , nec obstat quod dicitur quod principi placet legis habet vigorem : for it never was received in england , but in a restrained sence . and with this agrees the ancient coronation oath , that the king shall hold the laws and customs of the realm , which the people have chosen . but king h. . with his own hand , corrected the old oath , to the effect following , viz. that he shall hold the laws and customs of the realm , not prejudicial to his crown or imperial jurisdiction : the original of this correction is in sir cotton's library † see the history of the reformation : sir john fortescu , sometime chief justice , and afterwards lord chancellor , in his book de laudibus legum angliae : the civil law ( says he ) runs thus , quod principi placuit legis vigorem habet , sed longe aliter potest , rex politice imperans quia nec leges sine subditorum assensu mutari poterit : potestas regia lege politica cohibetur . sir edward coke , in his rep. fol. , , and . ( says ) it was greatly marvell'd that the archbishop bancroft durst inform k. james ‖ that such absolute power and authority ( as is there mentioned ) belong'd to the king , by the word of god , and there sir e. c. cites the sayings of these ancient authors in our law : but he says that the king was greatly offended with him . a learned civilian gives some restraint even to the lex regia in this point : vinius in his comment upon the instit. fol. , populus romanus jura majestatis omnia abdicative in principem transtulit , hinc principes romani legibus soluti fuerant . but he utterly opposes that opinion of the school-men : principem legibus solutum esse quoad vim coactivam sed etiam quoad vim directivam . rot. parl. . r. . the king and parliament declare , that the realm of england never was , nor was it intended by the king and lords , that ever it should be governed by the civil law. in the deciding of the great and royal controversie , in the time of k. e. . concerning right of succession in the crown of scotland ; it was debated by the commissioners , according to what law that case should be determined ; whether by the law of england , or of scotland , by the civil law , as being the jus gentium , before the king of england , as being the superior lord : they all at last concluded , that the civil law by no means should be admitted : ne inde majestatis anglicanae juri fieret detrimentum . seld. dissertatio ad fletam , . mr. selden , mentioning john of salisbury , who said , that in his time there were those that did prefer the civil law before all other laws , especially , that de absoluta principis potestate quae in lege habetur regia ; he says , it was meant of none but de assentatoribus illius saeculi exgenere hieratico , non de gente anglicana aut de aliis qui judiciis tunc praefuere , it would have been far from any of the english nation , especially from any of the judges , to have maintained any such opinion . but let it be understood ( sano sensu ) and in a proper and literal sence too , and it is very true and agreeable to our law , quod regi placuit legis vigorem habet ; without the king 's placet , and his royal consent , nothing is law amongst us . the laws already in force , have had the consent of his predecessors , and no new law can pass without the royal assent ; nay , they are his royal words , le roy le veut , that first gives life to any new law. and the judges oath in the time of h. . was , that they should judge secundum legem & consuetudinem regni ; which words ( as mr. selden there says ) seem designedly to exclude the jus caesareum then lately brought in : whereof , as he says , some were fond in those times ; and he tells us of what order they were , but they were not common lawyers nor judges , but the hierarchy . but should judges give countenance to any such law in the latitude of it , they should be put in mind of what was done by king edward the confessor , which we are taught by sir roger twisden , in his preface to the laws of william the first , annexed to mr. lambert's treatise , de priscis anglor ' legibus , fol. . omnes ( says he ) qui leges iniquas adinvenerant & injusta judicia judicaverant multaque concilia contra anglos dederant , exlegavit : such enemies to the laws of england should be put out of the protection of the laws of england . rode caper vitem , &c. it is said amongst the laws of king henry the first , c. . ( and it is in the very body of that law ) lambert , ibid. . gravius lacerantur pauperes , à pravis judicibus , quam à cruentis hostibus . the lords of parliament , when any attempt is made to introduce the caesarean law , ( as once in the time of our k. h. . there was an endeavour to bring in part of the pontifician law ) and it was by the bishops , i make no doubt but they will answer una voce , as their ancestors then did nolumus leges angliae mutare quae hucusque usitatae sunt & approbatae . the statute of merton , c. . instit. fol. . the act of car. . one of the principal ends and aims of it is , to keep out that foreign power , that would pretend to a soveraignty or supremacy over our soveraign , but the dispensing with this law ( which is maintained to be a right incident to the soveraign prince ) seems to be the likeliest way of setting up again that pretence and claim of a foreign bishop , which was so long usurp'd , and against which pretence so many acts of parliament have been made , and which our ancient kings did of old utterly renounce and disclaim , and we know the same foreign bishop hath made another pretence to england , besides , that ecclesiastical power , by colour of a resignation , made by king john. but king hen. . son and next successor to king john , in the general council at lyons , anno . by his embassador and advocate , made a special protestation against that pretended resignation made to pandolphus , the pope's legate , ( innocent the third ) as a meer nullity , in quod nunquam consensit regni universitas , and afterwards upon the pope's issuing out of process against k. e. . and the whole kingdom , for the homage and the arrears of the marks rent due to him . the parliament declared , that king john , nor no other , could put himself or his realm into such a subjection , without their consent . and that it was against the oath king john had taken at his coronation . this record expounds the word ( sovereignty ) in the true sence of it , namely , that our sovereign is no way subject to the bishop of rome , or to any foreign power . but it doth no way import , that the king can dispose of his people ut placuit regi , or alter the government , without the peoples consent , nor dispence with his coronation-oath , but proves the quite contrary . a short argument upon the pleadings of the aforementioned case of sir edw. hales . the first point argued by the plaintiff's councel was , that it appears by the declaration , and it is now confess'd by the defendant's joyning demurrer , that the defendant hath been indicted for this offence , in exercising the office of a colonel , without having taken the tests . and upon the indictment he either did plead this dispensation , or might have pleaded it . and he is now convict , according to the direction of the act of car. . so that he now comes too late to plead it to this action : for he cannot falsifie the conviction , nor averr any thing against the record of it , and bring the fact to be tryed over again in this action ; but is concluded and estopp'd in law to say any thing to the contrary of that record , by which he is found guilty of the offence against this act of parliament . the defendant either did plead this dispensation or pardon to the indictment , in discharge of the indictment , and it hath been over-ruled by the judges at the assizes , ( as by law it ought to be , being no good plea : ) or he might have pleaded it , if he had been advis'd it had been a good plea. and not having done it , he hath elaps'd his time , and now comes too late to plead it , being convict of the crime . to this it was objected , ( as i hear ) that the plaintiff , if he will take the advantage of an estoppel , ought to have set it forth by way of replication to the defendants plea , and to have relied upon it . for the rule is , that he that pleads an estoppel , must rely upon it as an estoppel . it is true , if a man will plead an estoppel , he must rely upon it . but in this case the plaintiff does not plead the estoppel , but the estoppel appears by the declaration , and the defendant's own plea together : so that there was no need for the plaintiff to set that forth by way of replication ; which doth sufficiently appear by the defendant's own plea , viz. that he did not take the tests within the time limitted by the act , and the conviction is confess'd by his plea , and joyning in demurrer . if a man recover a debt upon a bond , and before execution dies , if his executor sue a scire facias upon that judgment , the defendant cannot plead any plea that he might have pleaded before , as non est factum , or by dures , or the like : for he is concluded by the judgment . in jason and ketes case , in siderfen's reports , fol. . by bridgman , chief justice , a man shall never help himself by audita querela , ( tho' that is an equitable suit at law ) for any matter that he might have pleaded before . there is no estoppel in this case : for the conviction is upon an indictment , which is the king's suit ; and this is the suit of another , viz. the now plaintiffs , and so they are two distinct suits . the conviction upon the indictment , is an estoppel against the defendant himself ; of which any man may take the advantage , and he himself shall never be admitted to averr against it . as in maynyes case , in leonard's first part , fol. . an attainder for treason is an universal estoppel , of which any stranger may take the advantage , not only against the party attainted , but against his wife too , if she sue for dower . and it does not run in privity . by manw. ch. bar. where a man is attainted by his own confession of a felony , a stranger is not estopp'd , to say he was not guilty . but if a. commit felony , and after enfeoff i. s. of his land , and after a. is attaint of this felony by verdict , there i. s. is estopp'd , and may not averr that a. was not guilty , because he claims under him ; much less shall a. himself averr against the verdict , that he is not guilty . if a man be acquitted of felony , all the world , says grevil in kellow . rep. . b. is estoop'd to say the contrary . so vice versâ , if he be convict , by the same reason . as to that which is objected , that the conviction is upon an indictment ( which is the king's suit ) but this is another suit ; and therefore the verdict shall not conclude the defendant in this suit. this is not another suit , but in effect an execution upon the conviction , and grounded upon that record ; and therefore not meerly a new suit , but a dependant action ; as a writ of error , or an audita quaerela , or a scire facias upon a record , are dependant suits , or an action of debt upon a judgment . the act of car. . c. . hath made it criminal in any person , after his neglect of taking the two oaths , or of the sacrament , by the times limited , to execute any such office or place of trust : and for such offence hath made him indictable at the assizes ; and upon a conviction the offender incurs ( among other penalties ) the forfeiture of l. and gives it to any one that will sue for it in an action of debt . so the statute hath directed the method of trying the offence , and of convicting the offender , by indictment at the assizes . and if he that sues for the forfeiture shall be driven to prove the offence over again , then the conviction at the assizes serves for nothing , but was all in vain . and such construction defeats the intention of the law-makers , for they intended this for the only tryal , and not to have several tryals ; for suppose it should be tryed again in this action , and a verdict pass for the defendant , here shall be tryal against tryal , and verdict against verdict . and such construction ought to be made of acts of parliament , as may not elude , but agree with the intent of the law-makers ; and so , as that no words , clause , or sentence , shall be altogether idle and insignificant . and this conviction upon the indictment , is the very ground of the action of debt brought by the now plaintiff : for the words of the act are , and being thereupon lawfully convicted upon any indictment , every such person shall from thence-forth forfeit l. so that till there be such a conviction , there is no forfeiture incurr'd of l. nor no action can be brought for the l. the offence must be prov'd and determin'd , before any action can be brought ; and therefore the proof of the offence whereof the defendant is convict , must not be made in this action over again : if it must , what serves the conviction for ? suppose the plaintiff here had brought his action , after the neglect of the defendant of taking the oaths , and of receiving the sacrament , and his acting in his office after such neglects , and before any conviction upon indictment , and had only averr'd , that the defendant had so neglected , and yet acted ; would this action have been well brought ? or , suppose there had been a conviction , but the plaintiff had not set it forth in his declaration , but had only averr'd the offence committed ; would this have been a good declaration ? surely it would not . this proves , that the record of the conviction is the very ground and foundation of this action , and the action would not lie without such conviction : so that it is not a meer new action , but a dependant action . and the usual difference is where the action is a dependant action , depending upon a record , and grounded upon it ; and where it is a collateral suit , not depending upon that record . an action against the sheriff for an escape of one taken in execution , this is a dependant action , and is grounded upon the record of the judgment given against the party that escap'd . the sheriff cannot aver any thing against that record , and examine it over again ; nor can he take any advantage of error or erroneous proceeding , in obtaining that judgment . * saunders rep. part . . so in an action of debt , grounded upon a judgment , or in an audita quaerela to be reliev'd upon a judgment . and so in our case , this action of debt for the l. is grounded upon the conviction , which must stand for truth , as long as it remains in force not avoided by error or attaint . a writ of error to reverse a judgment , is a dependant action : in error , the plaintiff may not averr any thing against the record . mullens versus weldy . siderfin's st part . error was sued in the kings-bench to reverse a judgment given in the palace-court . and the plaintiff in error assign'd for error , that the duke of ormond ( who is principal judge of that court by patent ) was not there . it was agreed by the court , that it might not be assign'd for error , for it was contrary to the record . but per cur. in an action of trespass , or false imprisonment , which ( says that report ) are collateral actions , he may falsifie and assign that , if he be taken upon such judgment . so if a man be indicted and convict of an assault and battery , and afterwards the person so assaulted brings his action for the battery , this hath no dependance upon the indictment or conviction , for it may be sued , though there were no indictment , but is a distinct and collateral suit. the indictment and verdict is no estoppel , nor can so much as be given in evidence , as is held by the whole court in the case of sampson versus yardley , and tothill , car. . b. r. kebles's part , . the like in an appeal of murder . kebele's part , . another penalty upon the offender against this statute of car. . is , that he shall be disabled to sue in any action . now suppose a person convict at the assizes sues an action , may not the defendant in that action take the advantage of that disability . and plead the conviction ? as in case of an outlawry pleaded in disability , there need not be set forth all the proceedings in that suit wherein the plaintiff was outlawed , but he may plead the record of the outlawry , and rely upon it , and it shall not be examin'd whether there was any just cause to sue him to the outlawry , or not . the indictment , the defendant's plea to it , and the verdict upon it , have determin'd the matter of fact , that the defendant is guilty of the offence against this act of parliament . the act it self hath pronounc'd the judgment , which consists of many particulars ; one whereof is , that the defendant shall forfest l. to him that will sue for it . and the action of debt for the l. brought by the plaintiff , grounded upon all these , is in the nature of an execution . and all these put together , are not several and distinct suits , but in effect all but one suit , and process , one depending upon the other . the second point is , whether the dispensation pleaded by the defendant , be a good bar to the action of debt ? and this is properly called , the matter in law , and the great point of the case ? for which i refer the reader to my argument at large . postscript : being some animadversions upon a book writ by sir edw. herbert , lord chief justice of the common pleas , entituled , a short account of the authorities in law , upon which judgment was given in sir hales's case . since the finishing of my argument about the power of dispensing with paenal statutes , a book came to my hands touching the same subject , entituled , a short account of the authorities in law , upon which judgment was given in sir edward hales his case ; written by sir edward herbert , chief justice of the common pleas , in vindication of himself . and although i am of opinion , that the substance of all the arguments contained in the said book , are fully answered in my aforesaid discourse , yet i hold it necessary to make some animadversions upon the said book , and to point out readily to the reader the several pages of my discourse , wherein the arguments of the chief justice are more directly and particularly treated of , and answered . and there being great reverence justly due to a person that bears so high a character , as also to a judgment given in that superiour court of the king's bench , and by advice of all but two of the rest of the judges , as i now hear , some short apology had need be used for that freedom i have taken to animadvert upon it , being ( as i am ) but in a private station . in short therefore , i have not undertaken it out of any vain conceit of my own abilities , but out of a sincere desire to inform such as in the approaching parliament are like to have this great case in judgment before them ; and some may possibly not be at leisure ( as i have been ) to study the case , the matter being of a mighty importance . nor have i entred the lists upon any contentious humour , or taking any advantage of the late happy change of publick affairs . i am ( i thank god ) more inclin'd to commiserate the distress that may befal any persons by the change of the times ( it having been my own case so lately ) although they differ from me in judgment or interest . i am very far from insulting over any , whatever hard usage i my self have met with . nemo confidat nimiûm secundis , nemo desperet meliora , lapsus . my apology is this : . i was engaged in the argument before the coming forth of this book , and it happening into my hands before my publishing of my discourse , i could not decline the observing something upon it , without being suspected to have given up the cause . . the lord chief justice himself hath by his book given fresh occasion fairly to discuss the point again , by declaring that he expects ( as we all do ) that it will receive a disquisition in parliament . . and as the chief justice hath endeavour'd ( with as much as can be said ) to give the world satisfaction in the justice and right of the case to maintain the judgment given ; so he is well known to be of that ingenuity and good temper and candour , as willing to receive a satisfaction , if any further argument to the contrary may be so happy as to convince him . the chief justice herbert , pag. . gives us the definition of a dispensation out of sir coke's th report , fol. . viz. dispensatio mali prohibiti est de jure domino regi concessa , propter impossibilitatem praevidendi de omnibus particularibus . and again , dispensatio est mali prohibiti provida relaxacio utilitate ceu necessitate pensata . upon the word ( concessa ) i would gladly be satisfy'd when or by whom that power was ever granted to the king ; where shall we find that grant ? it is clear , that whoever hath the entire power of making a law , may justly dispense with that law. and therefore almighty god being the sole and supream law-giver , might dispense even with the moral law ; as he did with the sixth commandment , when he commanded abraham to sacrifice his son isaac ; and with the eighth commandment , when he commanded the israelites to borrow the jewels of the aegyptians , and to go away without restoring of them . but it stands not with reason , that he who hath but a share with others in the making of a law , ( as the king hath no more ) should have the power by himself alone to dispense with the law , unless that power were expresly intrusted with him by the rest of the law-makers ( as sometimes hath been done . ) sir edward coke in his seventh report , in the case of paenal statates , fol. . towards the lower end , does affirm , that this dispensing power is committed to the king by all his subiects : so that it is not claimed jure divino , but by grant from the people . but where to find any such grant , we know not . i have ( as i conceive ) made it appear in my larger argument , p. . that the first invention of dispensations with laws , began by the pope , about the time of innocent the third , and by our king henry the third , in imitation and by encouragement from the pope ; so that it was not by the grant of the people , but ever exclaimed against by all good men , and generally by all the people , and ever fenced against by a multitude of acts of parliament . it is true , the dispensing with laws hath ever since been practised ; and they began at first here in england to be used only in cases where the king alone was concern'd , in statutes made for his own profit , wherein he might have done what he pleas'd . but it is but of latter times that they have been stretched to cases that concern the whole realm . see my argument , fol. . hence it evidently appears , it cannot be a legal prerogative in the king ; for that must ever be by prescription , and restrain'd to those cases that have been used time immemorial , and must not be extended to new cases . now there hath been no such usage as will warrant the dispensing with such an act of parliament as is now before us : that of car. . c. . the chief justice herbert , from the definition before recited , and those two authorities of sir edward coke in his case of monopolies , and that other of penal statutes , frames an argument to prove , that the dispensation granted to sir edward hales , was good in law. because a dispensation is properly and only in case of a malum prohibitum , he thence insers , that the king can dispense in all cases of mala prohibita . which is a wrong inference , and that which logicians call , fallacia à dicto secundum quid ad dictum simpliciter . because he can dispense with some , that therefore he can dispense with all , is no good consequence . it appears by the late chief justice vaughan's reports , in the case of thomas and sorrel , ( so often cited by the chief justice vaughan's rep. fol. . the fourth paragraph , that his opinion is , that the king cannot dispense with every malum prohibitum ; and he gives many instances of such mala prohibita that are not dispensable , fol. , and . parag . . therefore the lord chief justice herbert should ( as i conceive ) regularly first have given us the distinction of mala prohibita , into such as are dispensable , and such as are not dispensable ; and then have shewn , that the dispensation granted to sir edward hales , fell under the first part : but that learned reporter , ( the chief justice vaughan ) ( so often cited by our now lord chief justice ) in the aforesaid case of thomas and sorrell , fol. . the last paragraph save one , quarrels with the very distinction of malum prohibitum , and malum in se , and says it is confounding . from whence i would observe , and from the whole report in thomas and and sorrell's case , that the notion of dispensation is as yet but crude and undigested , and not fully shaped and formed by the judges . the pope was the inventer of it . our kings have borrowed it from them . and the judges , from time to time , have nursed and dressed it up , and given it countenance . and it is still upon the growth and encroaching , till it hath almost subverted all law , and made the regal power absolute , if not dissolute . i must agree , that our books of late have run much upon a distinction , viz. where the breach of a penal statute is to the particular damage of any person , for which such person may have his action against the breaker of that law , there tho' it be but malum prohibitum , yet the king cannot dispense with that penal law ; according to the rule in bracton : rex non potest gratiam facere cum injuriâ & damno alterius . as for instance : there are several statutes that prohibit . one man from maintaining another's suit , though in a just cause . see poulton de pace regis & regni , in his chapt. of maintenance , fol. . now it is held , that the king cannot dispense with those laws , because it would be to the prejudice and damage of that particular person , against whom the suit is so maintain'd by another : for there can be no maintenance , but it is to the wrong of a particular person . so of carrying a distress out of the hundred . but there are many other penal laws , where by the transgressing of them , no subject can have any particular damage , and therefore no particular action for the breach of them . as upon the statute that prohibits the transportation of wool , under a penalty . by the breach of this law , that is , by the exportation of wool , no one particular man hath any damage , more than every other man hath ; but it is only against the publick good. and the breach of such a penal law is punishable only at the king's suit , by indictment or presentment . and the like , where such a penal statute gives an action popular , to him that will sue for the penalty , who hath no right to it , more than any other , till his suit be commenced . in these cases ( it is commonly held ) that the king may dispense with such penal statutes , as to some particular persons , and for some limitted time , ( whereof they make the king the sole judge ) because , as the reason is given in the chief justice vaughan's reports , fol. . parag . . such offence wrongs none but the king. this is now the common receiv'd opinion and distinction . and the breach of such kind of penal statutes , are said to be only the king's damage in his publick capacity , as supream governour , and wronging none but himself . lord vaugh. rep. . parag . . but if we will narrowly search into this distinction , and weigh the reasons so given , we shall find it is without any just ground . the damage done to the particular person in the cases past , in the first part of this distinction , are meerly his own proper and peculiar damage ; and he is intituled to his particular action for it , in his own proper personal right : and therefore , if he discharge and dispense with them , it is no wrong to any other man. he may do what he will with his own . but the cases in the second part of this distinction , are where the king hath a right to the suit , and the offence and damage are said to be to him only . but are they so ( as the former ) in his own personal right , as his lands and other revenues are ? or are they to him but as a trustee for the publick , for which reason he is called creditor poenae ? and may he therefore upon the like reason , dispense with them , or dispose of them , as a subject may do with his own particular interests ? again , shall a publick damage and injury to the whole nation , be more dispensable by the king , than the loss of one private man ? — fuit haec sapientia quondam publica privatis secernere — and therefore in my apprehension the king cannot in such cases of dispensations , be truly said to wrong none but himself ; and it is not agreeable to the definition before given , utilitate compensata , for the king wrongs the whole realm by it . where if he grants a dispensation with a penal law of the first sort of this distinction , he only wrongs some particular persons . the cases and authorities for dispensations in our books that were granted in ancient times , will generally be found to be only where the penal statutes were made for the king 's own proper interest and benefit : as his dispensing with the statute of mortmain . for in such cases it was to the king 's own loss only , in cases where the king might by law have given away his lands or services . so the king may in his patent of grant of lands , dispense with the statutes that require there shall be mention of the true values of them . and by a non-obstante to those statutes ( which is now generally used ) the king does in effect declare , that it is his pleasure to grant those lands , whatever the value of them be more or less : and the statute does by express words save a liberty to the king in that case . the king is not a trustee for others in such cases , nor can these dispensations be said to be directly to the damage of the publick . and such penal laws as meerly concern the king 's own revenue or profit , may justly be thought to be intended to be made only to put the king's matters into an ordinary method and course , and so save the king a labour , as the lord hobart says ; and so prevent the king 's being surpriz'd or mis-inform'd , when patents are gained from him , and not design'd to tye the king's hands , or to restrain his power : as out of all doubt was done and intended by the law-makers in our act of car. . but in all the late cases and authorities which we meet with in our books concerning non-obstante's , and dispensations , as in the time of king henry the seventh , and so downward to this day , we shall find them practising upon such penal statutes as meerly concern the publick good and benefit , and the laws of such a nature , by the breach of which the whole nation suffers : while some particular persons , it may be , by giving a large fine , or a yearly sum , obtain the favour to be dispens'd with and exempt from a penal law , while all others continue to be bound by it . as for example : where a statute forbids the exportation of wool , or of cloth undyed or undress'd , under a penalty ; such a law is greatly for the publick good , and it takes care that our own people shall have employment and maintenance . yet this is such a law , as according to the receiv'd distinction , the king may dispense with , there being no particular damage to one man more than to another , by breach of such a law , although it be a mighty damage to the whole nation : for by such a dispensation , the person so dispens'd with to export such white cloth undyed , will have the sole trade , which before the making of that penal statute , was equal and common to all . i wish the house of commons would enquire what vast riches have been heretofore gotten by such as have obtain'd the dispensations with this penal statute , besides the sums they paid to the crown for them . these are meer monopolies . in such a case it may rightly be applied , that sin taketh occasion by the law. it had been better for the nation , that such laws were never made , being no better observ'd : for here again the dispensation is neither utilitate , nor necessitate pensata . look into the case of thomas and sorrell , and you will find few or no cases of dispensations cited out of our books , but of the time of king henry the seventh , and much more of very late times : so that the ill practice is still improving and stretching . the lord chief justice herbert , in the next place , pag. . proceeds to mention the great case of hen. . a resolution of all the judges in the exchequer-chamber , upon the king 's dispensing with the statute of h. . cap. . that no man should be a sheriff above one year . this is the great leading case and authority , upon which the main stress is laid to justifie the judgment given in sir edward hales his case . i would avoid repeating what i have already so largely said to this authority , to which i must refer my reader , by which i hope it is most evidently made out , that the king neither hath , nor never had any just right or power to elect sheriffs : but the right of electing was anciently and originally belonging to the freeholders of the several counties ; and since it was unjustly taken from them ( as they have ever been on the losing hand ) it hath been lodged in the great officers of the realm , as the lord chancellor , lord treasurer , lord privy-seal , and the judges , &c. as appears by the several statutes . and they are to make such choice every year in the exchequer , on a day appointed by the statute for that purpose . so that the sheriffs are by those statutes to continue in their offices for one year only . and the king cannot hinder such election . only by his patent or commission to the sheriff , hath he used to signifie to the sheriff himself that is so chosen , and to publish to all others , who the person is that is so chosen . this is all the use of the patent ; but it is the proper election of those great officers that truly vests them in their office . and it does as clearly appear , that when former kings have dispens'd with a sheriffs continuing in his office for longer than one year , contrary to the several statutes so forbidding it , the king hath so done it by virtue ( not of his prerogative ) but by a special act of parliament enabling him to do it , for some extraordinary occasions , and for some limitted time only . see for this the statute of hen. . cap. . in the statutes at large , and my larger argument , fol. . the truth is , the power of dispensing is originally in the legislators . he only can dispense with a law , that can make a law. the power is equal ; and the legislators can confer the same power upon the king or any others , for some convenient time , &c. as appears by the last instance of the sheriff , and divers other like cases , mentioned in my foregoing argument , where i have also observ'd many other things upon that resolution of h. . concerning sheriffs . the chief justice herbert supposes the mischiefs recited in the preamble of that statute of hen. . cap. . concerning sheriffs continuing in their offices longer than one year , to be equal , if not greater ( as he judges ) than the mischiefs recited in the statute of car. . by papists being in offices . and from thence , i presume , would infer , that the case of sir edward hales is not so fatal in the consequence , as the case of a sheriff . i may appeal to any ordinary judgment , and to the sad experience and tryal we have so lately had , and to the desperate danger we were so lately in ( from which almighty god , by no less than a miracle hath in great mercy deliver'd the nation ) whether the mischiefs that could any way possibly arise from the dispensing with the former , ( i mean , th● statute concerning sheriffs ) be comparable to the infinite mischiefs arising from putting papists into office , and intrusting them with our religion , and all our civil rights . the chief justice , upon those words of the statute concerning sheriffs , viz. that no non-obstante shall make them good , infers , that those words do shew , that the parliament which made that act concerning sheriffs , was of opinion , that had it not been for that clause , the king could otherwise have dispens'd with that act by a non-obstante . answ. this to me seems a strained inference , and that it is very far from shewing any such opinion in that parliament . it rather signifies , that had not the parliament inserted that clause into the act , the king might have done again as he had frequently practis'd before , viz. granted dispensations upon that statute : which ill practice they endeavour'd to prevent for the future , not approving the practice , nor owning the power of doing it . ex malis moribus bonae oriuntur leges . a good law rather condemns a contrary practice before used . i heartily desire my reader ( as i have done in my foregoing larger argument ) carefully to observe and examine of what sort and nature those several cases are , which the resolution of the case of hen. . urges to warrant that resolution . as those cases concerning the true value of lands , which the king grants ; and that concerning the shipping of wool to a certain staple , &c. and let the reader judge how vast a difference there is between those statutes in the nature , and import , and reason of them , and this weighty important statute now before us ; and how little that resolution of h. . can be warranted by the cases there cited , being of so inferiour and minute a consideration , in comparison of the principal case . it is true , sir edward coke ( if the twelfth report , which goes by his name , be truly his ) hath since that resolution given in hen. . found out new and different reasons and arguments , which are not urged , and therefore i presume never so much as thought on , at that time , by the twelve judges who gave the resolution in that case of hen. . thus says sir e. saundys , in his relation of the religion used in the west parts of the world : those of the roman religion made their greatness , wealth , and honour , to be the very rule by which to square out the canons of their faith ; and then did set clerks on work to devise arguments to maintain them . sir edward coke seems to justifie that resolution concerning sheriffs , from this ground , viz. that the king hath a soveraign power to command any of his subjects to serve him for the publick weal . and this is ( says he ) solely and inseparably annexed to his person , and that this royal power cannot be restrain'd by any act of parliament . rep. fol. . that it is not solely annex'd to the king's person , appears by the several acts of parliament which i have cited to this purpose in my larger argument , fol. . where the power of dispensing with some particular acts , was given to the king by the parliament , and by him accepted for some short time . and the whole parliament have in divers cases themselves exercis'd this very power . judge of the weight of the reasons said to be given there by sir edward coke , by that one instance of his in the case he puts of purveyance , rep. fol. . which ( he says ) cannot be taken from the king , no not by act of parliament . yet we have lived to see it lately taken away by act of parliament ; which in the judgment of a parliament ( which is of the highest authority in law ) may therefore be taken from the king. and is the king in truth restrain'd from commanding his subjects to serve him for the publick weal , either by those statutes that disable sheriffs to continue in their offices longer than one year , or by our statute of car. . that disables popish recusants to bear publick offices : because some very unfit , uncapable , and dangerous persons are disabled to bear offices of trust and power , ( and this by the king 's own consent to the act , and by the advice of the great council the parliament ) and indeed of the whole realm ? does the king by this ( which the judges mis-call a restraint ) want for choice of fit persons to serve in offices ? doth the publick weal suffer by this restraint ? is it not rather preserv'd by it ? hath not the king protestant subjects enow to bear offices ? and are popish recusants ( who account protestants hereticks , and to be rooted out and destroy'd , and with whom they hold no faith is to be kept , and against whom they have been continually plotting mischief ) are these the fittest to be intrusted with the defence of the protestant religion , and with our lives and estates , which are all concern'd , more or less , in every publick office and trust ? and are those persons ( the papists ) that have a dependance upon the see of rome , and a forreign power , fit to be intrusted with the power of the nation , with the militia , and the sea-ports ? is not this to commit the lamb to the custody of the wolf ? this act that disables papists to bear offices , cannot be justly said to be a restraint upon the king ; that expression sounds ill , and takes the matter by the wrong handle . it rather imports the king's declaration and resolution , by advice of his great council , to employ none in offices and places of trust , but such as are most capable and fit , and will most faithfully answer the great ends for which they are so intrusted , that is , the preservation of the protestant religion , which is the true english interest . and this agrees with the rules of the common law , that if an office be granted to one that is inidoneus , the grant is void , though granted by the king himself . of this i have treated more largely , in my argument , fol. . the lord chief justice herbert , pag. . asks the question , whether so many solemn resolutions of all the judges of england in the exchequer-chamber , are not to be rely'd upon for law ? and i answer , that if they were ten times as many more , yet they are not to be rely'd on against many express positive acts of parliament directly to the contrary . for what words could the parliament use more emphatical and express , and more to the purpose , than by saying , that a non-obstante , or a dispensation , or a grant of such a thing , ( prohibited by that law ) shall be absolutely void , and ipso facto adjudged void , and the person made uncapable to take ? and is not a judgment in parliament , and by act of parliament , of the highest authority ? but ( says the chief justice , fol. . ) the constant practice hath been to dispense with the statute of sheriffs . i answer , it hath also been a very frequent practice too for the king , to make such persons sheriffs , as were none of the number nominated or chosen , as aforesaid , by the chancellor , treasurer , judges , and other great officers ; and it passes for currant that he may so do , though it be a vulgar errour : for it hath been resolv'd by all the twelve judges , to be an errour in the king. see sir coke's instit. or magna charta , fol. . and yet it is practis'd to this very day . the chief justice , pag. . seems to excuse popish recusants , for not qualifying themselves for offices , by taking the oaths and the test , &c. for that no man ( says he ) hath it in his power to change his opinion in religion as he pleaseth , and therefore it is not their fault . it is an errour of the mind , &c. answ. here is no occasion taken to find fault with them for their opinion ; let them keep their religion still , if they like it so well , who hinders them ? this act of car. . imposes no penalty upon them for their opinion . but is there any necessity of their being in offices ? must they needs be guardians of the protestant religion ? the penalty upon them by this act , is not for their opinion , but for their presuming to undertake offices and trusts , for which they are by king and parliament adjudg'd and declar'd unfit . page , & . the chief justice vaughan is brought in , arguing for the kings power of dispensing with ( nominal ) nusances , ( as he is pleas'd to call and distinguish nusances ) . the word ( nominal ) ( as there understood ) imports , that though a parliament declares any thing to be a nusance , ( as sometimes they do in acts of parliament , to render them indispensable ) which yet in its proper nature would not otherwise be so conceiv'd to be ; that such a nominal nusance ( as he holds ) may however be dispens'd with by the king , though regularly by law the king may not dispense with any nusance . answ. shall any single or particular person , though a chief justice , presume to call that a meer nominal nusance , which a parliament by a solemn act and law have adjudg'd and declar'd to be a real nusance ? are we not all concluded by what a law says ? this arrogance is the mischief now complain'd of . the chief justice herbert , pag. . at the lower end , says , that from the abuse of a thing , an argument cannot be drawn against the thing it self . i agree this is regularly true ; yet we have an instance to the contrary in the scripture , in that point of the brazen serpent . but in our case the abuse doth arise from the very nature of the thing it self , from the constitution of it . for the king practises no more in dispensing , than what these resolutions of the judges allow him to do by this pretended prerogative . the errour is in the foundation . they have made his power to be unlimitted , either as to number of persons , or as to the time how long the dispensation shall continue . sir edward coke says , and so the other books , that the king is the sole judge of these . nec metas rerum , nec tempora ponunt . the chief justice herbert , fol. . cites two clear concessions ( as he is pleas'd to call them ) of all the commons of england in parliament , which he esteems much greater authorities than the several resolutions of all the twelve judges . but how far these are from concessions , will easily appear to an indifferent reader . they are no more than prudent and patient avoiding of disputes with the several kings . and there are multitudes of the like in the old parliament-rolls . it is but an humble clearing of themselves from any purpose in general , to abridge the king of any of his prerogatives , ( which have always been touchy and tender things ; ) but it is no clear nor direct allowance of that dispensing there mention'd , to be any such prerogative in him . however , i am glad to see an house of commons to be in so great request with the judges . it will be so at some times , more than at others . yet i do not remember , that in any argument i have hitherto met with a vote● or order , or opinion of the house of commons , hath been cited for an authority in law , before now . will the house of peers allow of this authority for law ? it will be said , that this is but the acknowledgment of parties concern'd in interest ; which is allowed for a good testimony and strongest against themselves . answ. i do not like to have the king and his people to have divided interests . prerogative and the peoples liberties , should not be look'd upon as opposites . the prerogative is given by law to the king , the better to enable him to protect and preserve the subjects rights . therefore it truly concerns the people to maintain prerogative . i could cite several parliament-records wherein the poor house of commons have been forced to submit themselves , and humbly beg pardon of the king , for doing no more than their duty , meerly to avert his displeasure . see the case of sir thomas haxey , whom the king adjudg'd a traytor , for exhibiting a bill to the commons for the avoiding of the outrageous expences of the king's house r. . num . , , , , and . and the commons were driven to discover his name to the king , and the whole house in a mournful manner craving pardon for their entertaining of that bill . no doubt , as good an authority against the commons for so sawcily medling in a matter so sacred , and so far above them . yet afterwards , hen. . num . . that judgment against sir thomas haxey was revers'd . as for the distinction , pag. . of a disability actually incuri'd before the medling in an office , and where the disability is prevented by the coming of a dispensation ; i answer , that its being so prevented , is but peticio principii , and a begging of the question . and to this distinction i have ( i think ) fully spoken in the foregoing argument , fol. . the late parliament , in making this act of car. . had , no doubt , a prospect that probably the crown would discend upon a popish successor ; and they levelled this act against the dangers that might then befal our religion and liberties , and they thought it a good security : but it is all vanished and come to nothing , by occasion of this judgment in the case of sir edward hales . and that must be justified by a ( fiat justitia . ) as to the objection that the chief justice fancies might have been made against him , or advice given him that he should rather have parted with his place , than to have given a judgment so prejudicial to the religion he professes , pag. . this , i say , that for my part i should never have advis'd him to have parted with his place , much less to have given a judgment against his own opinion . but let his opinion be what it was , yet seeing the clear intention of the makers of the law , contrary to that his opinion , and knowing the desperate effects and consequences that would follow upon dispensing with that act , ( for we were upon the brink of destruction by it ) and taking notice ( as this chief justice and the rest of the judges needs must ) that the king had first endeavour'd to have gain'd a dispensing power in thismatter from both houses ( which was the fair and legal course ) and that yet that very parliament which out of too great a compliance with those times , had over-look'd so many grievances , and conniv'd at the king 's taking and collecting of the customs , ( though in truth the collectors , and all that had any hand in the receiving of them , incurr'd a praemunire by it ) not to mention the ill artifice used in gaining the excise , yet that parliament of the king 's , boggled at the dispensing with the act of car . knowing the mighty importance of it . and though they could not but take notice that so many judges at once had been remov'd , because they could not swallow this bitter pill , and others brought into their places , as might be justly suspected to serve a turn , and the king 's learned councel could not at first find out this prerogative to do his work with , till so many ways had been attempted , and all proved ineffectual ; sure in such circumstances it had been prudence , nay the duty of the judges , to have referr'd the determination of it to a parliament ; and the rather , because it was to expound a law newly made , and the consequences so dreadful , and the intent of the law-makers so evident . and this hath been frequently practis'd by judges , in cases of far less difficulty and concernment . this i have also enlarged upon in my argument , page . object . but it might have been a long time before any parliament had been called . answ. we ought to have parliaments once a year , and oftner if need be ; and eadem praesumitur esse mens regis , quae legis ; and we then stood in great need of a parliament even for the sake of this very case . and these hasty judgments are one ill cause why parliaments meet no oftner ; the work of parliaments is taking out of their hands , by the judges . and it is the interest of some great officers , that parliaments should not be called , or else be hastily prorogu'd or adjourn'd . as to the point of the feigned action , which the lord chief justice seems to justifie , i conceive he mistakes the force of the objection . feigned actions may be useful ; but this action against sir edward hales , is suspected not only to have been feigned and brought by covin between him and his servant and friend , but it was feignedly and faintly prosecuted , and not heartily and stoutly defended . like the practice of common fencers , who play for a prize , they seem to be in good earnest , and look very fierce , but agree before-hand not to hurt one another . qui cum ita pugnabat tanquam se vincere nollet aegre , est devictus , proditione suâ . this solemn resolution was given upon a few short arguments at the bar , and without any at the bench , and upon other reasons ( as i have heard ) which were then made use of , are now given by the chief justice ; but the times will not now bear them . after all , i intend not by this to do the office of an accuser , nor to charge it as a crime . but as i think my self bound in duty , on the behalf of the whole nation , of my self , ( though a small part and member of it ) and of my friends , i humbly propose , that the judgment given in sir edward hales his case may , after a due examination , ( if there be found cause ) be legally revers'd by the house of lords , and that reversal approv'd of and confirm'd by a special act of parliament . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e declaration . plea. ( order . ) the act of car. . of the law in general . of a dispensation . of this particular act of car. . dangers from papists to the protestants . the test. judgment given by parliament . the pishop of winchester's collections . of law in general . laws made by consent of the people . * grotius de jure bell. & pacis , f. . † king james the firstin his speech to the lords and commons at white-hall , . f. . h. . c. . ‖ leges nulla alia causa nos tenent quam quod judicio populi receptae sunt . ulpian de lege , . tum demum leges humanae habent vim suam cum fuerint non modo institutae sed etiam firmatae approbatione communitatis . sir wal. ral. in his hist. of the world , . * fol. . mr. hooker . fol. . non eget mauri jaculis nec arcu . the original of dispensation . instances of dispensation . the definition of a dispensation . the original of dispensation . * marsilius patavinus , in the cent. ( of padua ) in his defensor . pacis . it s antiquity . ‖ dr. barrow of the pope's supremacy , . see there the unreasonableness of dispensations . † anno . pag. , . mat. paris , p. . * sir cotton's abridgment of the records of the tower , amongst the petitions of the commons , e. . numb . . dispensations from rome , are said to be the chief grief . prinn's second tome . fol. . ibidem , . innocent th . * dr. barrotti in the pope's supremacy . . l. . c. . sect . . fol. . * sir ed. coke inst. . no law or custom of england can be annul'd but by act of parliament . selden's dissertatio ad fletam , . fol. . the king and parlialiament have the power of dispensing . the statute of dispensation . the preamble . no prescription . the time of limitation in a writ of right , is limited to the time of r. i. where the true power of dispensing resides . r. . nu . . h. . nu . . r. . nu . r. . . h. . nu . . * hob. . at the lower end . it is the office of judges to advance laws made for religion , according to their end , tho' the words be short and imperfect . † sir ro. cott. abridg. r. . nu . . . inst. . * e. . . e. . . objection . * h. . . plowden , & . * sir moor's reports , . warram's case : a prerogative that tends to the great prejudice of the subject , is not allowable . croke , jac. . the same case . * e. . c. . that by their trusting to tarry in their office by procurement they are encouraged to do many oppressions to the people . e. . c. . e. . c. . r. . c. † sir cotton's abr. e. . nu . . objection . answer . * h. . c. . † e. . c. . h. . . by daver 's letter b. answer . * see h. . . by daver's letter b. election of sheriffs by the county . fol. , . e. . c. . & chap. . see the reports of e. . in t ' memoranda scac ' fo . . * sir rob. cot. abr. e. . nu . . see the stat. of h. . c. . in the statutes at large , concerning the under-sheriff of bristol . h. , c. . * palmer's rep. . dr. burnet's hist. of the rights of princes , . k. james in his promonition to all christian monarchs , . objection . answer . objection . answer . r. . answer . argument . answer . or tributary . l. . c. . † k. james . in his speech to both houses , , in his works , fol. , says the king with his parliament , are absolute in making or forming of any sort of laws . sir rawleigh's hist. of the world , fol. . ‖ archbishop laud too did the like . seld. dissert . . seld. dissertat . ad fletam . fol. . pryn's second tome , fol. , , . & , . e. . rot. parl. nu . . . notes for div a -e object . estoppel . answ. object . . here is no estoppel . answ. a stranger may take the advantage of this estopp . e. . . br. estoppel . knoil & heymor's third kebk . . by chief justice hale . that a stranger cannot falsifie a verdict . rol. abr. first part , . dr. and stud. . à ad fin . & b. object . . answ. a dependant action . an action dependant or collateral . * jaques versus caesar. and dr. drury's ca. r. . and mackaelly's ca. r. . notes for div a -e h. . c. . pag. . an apology for the nonconformists ministry containing i. the reasons of their preaching, ii. an answer to the accusations urged as reasons for the silencing of about by bishop morley ..., iii. reasons proving it the duty and interest of the bishops and conformists to endeavour earnestly their restoration : with a postscript upon oral debates with mr. h. dodwell, against his reasons for their silence ... : written in and , for the most of it, and now published as an addition to the defence against dr. stillingfleet, and as an account to the silencers of the reasons of our practice / by richard baxter. baxter, richard, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing b estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) an apology for the nonconformists ministry containing i. the reasons of their preaching, ii. an answer to the accusations urged as reasons for the silencing of about by bishop morley ..., iii. reasons proving it the duty and interest of the bishops and conformists to endeavour earnestly their restoration : with a postscript upon oral debates with mr. h. dodwell, against his reasons for their silence ... : written in and , for the most of it, and now published as an addition to the defence against dr. stillingfleet, and as an account to the silencers of the reasons of our practice / by richard baxter. baxter, richard, - . [ ], , [ ] p. printed for t. parkhurst and d. newman ..., london : . reproduction of original in union theological seminary library, new york. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng morley, george, - . dodwell, henry, - . stillingfleet, edward, - . dissenters, religious -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - john latta sampled and proofread - john latta text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion an apology for the nonconformists ministry : containing i. the reasons of their preaching . ii. an answer to the accusations urged as reasons for the silencing of about , by bishop morley , bishop gunings chaplain , dr. saywell , mr. durel , the nameless ecclesiastical politician and debate-maker , the counterminer , h. fowlis , dr. good , and many others . iii. reasons proving it the duty and interest of the bishops and conformists to endeavour earnestly their restoration . with a postscript upon oral debates with mr. h. dodwell , against his reasons for their silence . and a scheme of interests . written in , and , for the most of it , and now published as an addition to the defence against dr. stillingfleet , and as an account to the silencers of the reasons of our practice . by richard baxter . tim. . , . i charge thee before god and the lord jesus christ , who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing , and his kingdom , preach the word : be instant , in season , out of season ; reprove , rebuke , exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine . london , printed for t. parkhurst and d. newman ; at the bible and three crowns in cheapside , and at the kings arms in the poultry . . to the right reverend dr. compton , lord bishop of london , dr. barlow , lord bishop of lincoln , dr. crofts , lord bishop of hereford , dr. rainbow , lord bishop of carlisle , dr. thomas , lord bishop of st. davids , dr. lloyd , lord bishop of peterborough , and as many more as are of their moderation , and love of our common peace and concord . right reverend fathers , and honourable lords ! you are not the men that resisted and frustrated our earnest endeavours and hopes of concord at his majesties return , and , nor made the act of uniformity , or the rest by which we suffer ; nor have you been the makers of any engines to wrack and tear in pieces the church and kingdom , at such a time , when they groan'd , and beg'd , and hoped for healing . i therefore direct this apology to you , and all others of your moderation , in some hope , though evil men and deceivers grow worse and worse . you are reputed among us nonconformists , not only true to the protestant cause , but lovers of good men , and no lovers of cruel silencings , violence or blood : though i know but few of you , i have reason to believe this fame ; and some of you have publickly declared your moderation to the world . if then the ancient christians might present their apologies in hope , to heathen emperors , may i not do so much more to christian bishops , to moderate bishops , and lovers of peace ? if yow are wiser and better than we , you are as much more merciful and peaceable than we ; and as much more against all hindering the gospel , and weakening or dividing the churches of christ , by unjust silencing , restraining , or persecuting any faithful ministers or christians ; and you are more sensible than we , with what deep sense men will shortly hear [ in as much as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren , you did it to me ] . you have then more of the wisdom from above , which is first pure , then peaceable , gentle , &c. jam. . . and you have a deeper impress of that holy love by which all christs disciples must be known . interest is supposed to rule the world : and the grand design of satan is to set up some fleshly , sinful interest in rulers , and teachers , and people , which is contrary to the laws and interest of christ ; and then he hath made a virtual war ! carnal interest will not yield , and christ will not yield , nor change his laws ! carnal interest will expound them for it self , and so secretly and powerfully byas the judgment , that even learned men , when they warp and err , shall not perceive it , but verily think that it 's all for god. we are commonly supposed to be against your interest , and that this will make us continue unreconciled , to the gratifying of them that have no low game to play by the contrived means of our divisions . if your chosen interest be the furthering of holiness , and everlasting happiness , by sound and serious preaching of christs gospel , worshipping god that is a spirit in spirit and truth , and yet with all reverent decency and order , and living according to the laws ▪ of our universal head , in soberness , righteousness , godliness , and in love and peace with one another , god forbid that we should be against your interest . and this is your interest indeed : he that is most for it , we account the best and wisest man. and if your dignity , wealth and honour be your interest , subordinate to the greater ( as it is highest in the ungodly ) , i beseech you think not we are more even against that , than we are indeed : i had rather be ruled , than rule ( but god must be first obeyed ) : god knows i envy not your dignity or wealth ! i have proved in the end of this book , that our restoration is greatly for your interest ; and that none have done more against you than those of your own tribe that have had the greatest hand in our silencing and suffering . give me but a sober understanding man to deal with , and i undertake to shew him , that by a meer reforming of the parish-churches , so far as your selves confess to be desirable and just ( with such a limited toleration of peaceable sound christians , as christian reason must acknowledge necessary ) , we may be brought yet to an happy concord , and a better reformation than england yet ever saw , without doing the least wrong or hurt to the diocesans . it is usually said that england had more respect to the principles of augustine in doctrine , and of melancthon and bucer in the points of reformation , than of calvin , luther , or any other : and as to cranmer , ridley , cox , and the other reforming bishops , i verily believe it . i know no divines whose judgment i more consent to than bucers and melancthons : o that all our clergy would read and weigh what bucer saith copiously and vehemently for parish-discipline , and pure communion , de regno dei , de animarum cura , in censura liturg. specially de confirmatione ; and what he saith of pastoral government , ordination and order , and of imposing such ceremonies as ours ( it was written in england , and for england ) : and that they would read what melancthon saith in his epistles of the pestilent design of the papists , that would lay the validity of our ministry and sacraments on an uninterrupted succession of canonical , episcopal ordination , that they may make the judgment of their councils more effectual than of christ and his spirit in the scriptures ; and what he saith against these cheats . and verily we have little worldly interest to draw us to be enemies to yours ! and i still profess , that in all my experience , those called nonconformists , did heartily love , honour , praise and hear a bishop or conformist that preached and lived seriously , spiritually , and in christian love , such as through gods mercy we have had many ; yea if he preached and lived better than nonconformists , they loved and honoured him more ( though with some weak partial persons it was otherwise ) . if then we have any interest opposite to yours , it is not riches , it is not power ; we wisht no more than to be pastors to the volunteers of a parish-church ; and what more do the independents wish , than that persons have the same liberty to chuse to whom the pastoral care of their souls shall be entrusted , as they have to chuse physicians or schoolmasters , and tutors for their children , and wives or servants , husbands or masters in the family , living under laws of sobriety and peace ? and if you think that our cross interest is the praise of a few that follow us in a reproached , suffering state , you think we have a very low mind and game ? why then do we so much desire to be out of this state , and to take up with reformed parish-interest ? and why doth not a far stronger worldly interest more prevail with us ? but such accusations are answered in this book . as for that party of men among us , archbishops , bishops and doctors , that have made it their office and interest to set up as for christ , . a catholick church , formed by a vicarious universal government , viz. a general council , or a feigned universal colledge of bishops ; . and the patriarchal power , which was in the roman empire ; . and the pope as the president , or principium unitatis catholicae ; . and the same pope as our western-patriarch ; and the six or eight first general councels as the laws or rule of government ; and so would bring us under a foreign jurisdiction , and turn the orders of a catholiok empire into those of the catholick church through the world. . and that pretend that the papists churches have an uninterrupted valid succession , and therefore are true churches ; and that the protestant churches , that have no uninterrupted , canonical , episcopal succession , are no true churches , nor have valid sacraments , or any ordinary title to salvation ; i say , as for this party of men ( whose writings and names i need not tell you of ) , we profess that we have no hope that ever they will be reconciled to us ; because it will not stand with their desired reconciliation ( described by themselves ) with a more powerful and numerous party which they prefer before us : and though as much as in us lyeth , we must live peaceably with all men , we can never receive their unpeaceable principles and terms . and it much more alienateth us against the church of rome , to find , that the nearer any are to them , the more they are for uncharitableness and cruelty , and trust not to the church-keys , but to the sword , as if blood , banishment , or destroying conscionable christians that are not of their minds , were the strength of their religion and church ; and still cry , strike home , and execute the laws : abate nothing : tolerate none of them : let them make their task , and have no straw : away with them , as pestilent fellows and movers of seditions , just contrary to the christian nature , and interest , and law : and if he that dwells in love , dwells in god , and god in him , who dwells in them that dwell in wrath , and imitate cain , and bear thorns and thistles , and devour the flocks which they should gather and feed , and shew that they love their brethren by destroying them . right reverend fathers and lords ! we have far better thoughts and hopes of you , and though i have beg'd in vain these twenty years for peace and concord of others of your order , i address my self to you , beseeching you patiently to read this apology ; and pardon the earnestness of it , for it is for a weighty cause : it was most written , or , before most of you were bishops : dr. stillingfleet hath newly told us , that [ if we will but allow that by virtue of the rule , phil. . men are bound to do all things lawful for preserving the peace of the church , we have no further difference about this matter ] , pag. . we have still allowed it ; we have solemnly protested it : were it lawful to us to conform and cease our ministry which we were vowed to , we would do it . i beg of you as on my knees , for your own sakes , for englands , for the churches , for christs , that you will agree with us on these terms : i ask nothing of you for my self : i need nothing that you can give me : my time of service is near an end : but england will be england , and souls and the churches peace will be precious , and the cause will be the same , when all the present nonconformists are dead : and bishops must dye as well as we : our lord delayeth not his coming to encourage any to smite their fellow-servants . if it be not a lawful thing for the peace of the church to forbear the dividing impositions and prosecutions ( i need not name them ) , then let us all suffer still : but if it be , do not only privately wish , but zealously , as lovers of the church endeavour , and that with speed , and all your might , for peace to abate what may lawfully be abated : it is not in our power to procure union : for sin and self-condemning will not do it . how much is in yours , the lord cause you to know and practice . i rest , your servant , r. b. an apology for the silenced ministers , especially for their not ceasing to preach christs gospel . being the third part of their plea for peace . humbly directed to those of the lord bishops , and to the rest of the conformable clergy , of their mind , who have procured our silence and sufferings , or the continuance thereof . most reverend , and right reverend lords and fathers , and reverend brethren , having once tryed in vain ( though by the favour of his majesties gracious encouragement and commission ) what speaking might do ; and since that tryed , as much in vain , what silence in this kind will do ; i have resolved once more , before the expiring of my gasping hopes , to resist despair , and to try whether so many years experience hath opened your ears and hearts , to the reasons and humble requests of those , who not so much for their sufferings , as for the souls of men , do daily eat the bread of sorrow ; at least , before i resign this skeleton to the dust , to leave one more testimony of my zeal for unity and peace , and make one more attempt for the gospel and the church of christ , that i may not appear before my judg , in the guilt of negligence , cowardize or unprofitableness : not to be your accuser , nor a justifier of any of the weaknesses or miscarriages of the present nonconformists , nor yet of those of former times ; but humbly to re-mind you of the things that concern the interest of christ , the people , and your selves . when it pleased the most gracious soveraign of the world , to restore his majesty , by the concurrence of the desires of his subjects , and the wonderful dissolution of that army and government which resisted his returns ; as we knew that our divisions had been our sin and ruine , and our enemies strength , and that our concord now would be our duty and our hope , and our enemies terrour ; so we thought that the season had happily favoured our just desires . we had all one undoubted soveraign to unite in : we had all seen and felt the folly and calamity of dissentions : we had found that principles and practises of jealousie , violence and division had let out our blood , and made havock of our wealth , and separated us from our king , and one another , and brought us all into confusions : we had newly found , that our sudden unanimity and concord had restored the king ▪ and those that suffered for and with him : we knew that almost all the people of the land were so weary of contention and its effects , that they were melted into an aptness for the mould of unity , and never were more inclined to concord , even upon any tolerable terms . we knew also that we had a king , who was newly restored by the very first recovery of his peoples unity ; and who was even then famous for a loving and a gracious nature , enclined to moderation , quietness and peace : and we had newly seen the many published declarations of the nobility and gentry of the land , who had suffered most in his majesties cause , protesting against all future animosities and revenge . the attempts which we made for the churches healing upon these encouragements , did quickly meet with gracious acceptance , and yet greater encouragement from the king : and we had no reason to think , that among all the rest , the clergy should be averse to such a work , or yet should spoil it at such a season for want of skill ; because we had on both sides been deep in those experiences that should instruct us , and many not the least and last , either in the former sin , or present interest ; and our calling and understanding in such things , were supposed such , as should make us leaders to all the people , in any just attempts for concord . when we had humbly craved of his majesty , that such persons of both sides as he should appoint , might bring in proposals , containing such approaches , and abatements , and accommodations , as each part could yield unto , without sin against god , and against their consciences ; and his majesty had more than granted our requests , even expressing his gracious resolution to draw you on to such concessions ; we did accordingly give notice to the london-ministers , that our concord might be the more extensive , to meet at sion-colledge , and give in their sense of the necessary means to so good an end . bishop reynolds and bishop worth , and some others that conform , concurred with us in our proposals : we never spake a word against a liturgy , nor set-forms of prayer , nor against the festival commemorations of the saints , nor many other things , which many had formerly excepted against ; but only desired some emendations of the liturgy , and that some other forms of prayer might be added to the several offices , with a liberty of using this or that . and for the government of the church ( which was accounted the matter of greatest difference ) , we never made one offer for presbytery ( that is , the government of the church by classes and presbyteries constituted of lay and clergy-elders ) , nor did we ever speak a word for lay-elders : not that we presumed to censure those churches that used them : but as many , or most of our selves were never for them ; so we knew that no forms in which the churches were known so much to differ , could be the proper terms of concord : we never made any proposals against episcopacy , no not against the lordships of the bishops , nor against the greatness of their revenues , nor their places in parliament ; nor made we any offer of any other way of discipline , but the frame which by archbishop usher had been presented to the late king , called , the reduction of episcopacy , &c. in which he thought that he had hit upon the ancient primitive government , by bishops , with their clergy-presbyters as their colledge . not that we approved all the forementioned things which we passed by , but that we knew we must yield for the churches peace , as far as we could do without committing sin our selves . when we presented to his majesty these our proposals and requests , and expected to meet with the like concessions and approaches of our brethren ( not yet made bishops ) , we met with his majesties gracious acceptance , but our expectations failed of all the rest ; having never received any such thing from that day unto this . but we shortly after received a sharp answer to our proposals ; to which when a reply was drawn up , we purposely cast it by , lest turning the work of pacification into a dispute , should frustrate it by exasperating altercations . but when we that should have been the forwardest to peace , could do no more to an agreement among our selves , his majesty was pleased to do more , and published his gracious declaration concerning ecclesiastical affairs ; in which , though he granted us not archbishop ushers model of episcopacy , nor all that we desired , yet granted he so much as made us thankfully rejoyce , in hope to have seen the churches unity and peace : because we thought the terms were such , as to which we could without any guilt of sin , or check of conscience , have laid out our selves , in perswading all our brethren to conform . and accordingly the london-ministers did presently draw a thanksgiving to his majesty ( yea , the commons house of parliament themselves did thank him ) . there was nothing now remaining for the confirmation of our hopes , but the intended alterations of the liturgy , and the confirmation of his majesties gracious concessions . when we had a commission from his majesty to attempt the first , we hoped to do it by mutual compliances in gentle and amicable conference : but it was resolved to us , that we being the plaintiffs , must bring in a draught of all the alterations of the liturgy which we desired , and also of those additional forms which we had proposed as an expedient for concord . upon this some of our brethren would have insisted on a refusal , believing that it would but spin out time , and end in nothing which would attain that concord which was our end : but others perswading them rather to do as was imposed on us , than to go no further ; because at the worst , our case would in writing be less lyable to mis-reports , than if we had only spoken for our selves , perhaps under checks , in temptations and restraints ( for we had heard many wish , that the conference at hampton-court , in king james his time , had been by writing ) . hereupon we ventured on the imposed task : we brought in writing some exceptions against some passages in the liturgy . to this we afterward received an answer . to which we offered to you a reply , and with it the additions to the liturgy which we desired . and foreseeing the danger of the confusions and sins , which since have followed our divisions , we did so far supererogate , as to present to you a long and earnest petition for unity and peace : and we agreed with you ( as foreseeing the inconveniences of mens uncertain and venturous reports ) that nothing should be charged on either part as their assertions , which was not by them given in in writing . after this we received not one line of answer from you , either to our reply , or to our additions ; wondering above all , that ( when it had been said so usually by others , that we could agree to find fault with the old , but could never agree of any other in its stead ) we should never hear ( from men , supposed not unwilling ) one charge against the matter , phrase or method , to this day ! our last three days being spent in hopeless disputation , i have nothing to say to ( because of our forementioned agreement ) but this ; that when it had fallen to my lot to speak much , and consequently to displease much , i was since charged in print with the unsoundness of some what there delivered , about commanding things evil by accident ; which i never publickly answered to this day , lest i should seem to blow the fire , which all good men desire should be quenched : but the very words of the dispute it self were printed , ( being not half a sheet of paper ) than which i thought there needed no more , to satisfie any living man of the truth , that would but use sound eyes and reason . and since that case is opened in a discourse of scandal in the second plea for peace . i have recited this much principally to mind you of these few things : . that we were not the last in seeking reconciliation , unity and peace . . that we are the more excusable if we are not changed in our judgment , because you never answered our three last writings given in . ( we have since indeed seen two volumes , which are against two particular passages : the one by a nameless author , who would have no prayers in the pulpit , but the liturgy , or imposed forms : but most of the conformists practise the contrary to this day , and therefore we need not write to confute him . the other , to prove that lent should be kept , not only on a civil , but religious account , and the antiquity thereof ; of which dr. more in his mystery of iniquity , bishop taylor , and other conformists , have spoken so well , that we need to say nothing , especially in a case which we take to be of no great moment to us , while each man hath the liberty of his secret thoughts , and may observe it on what account he please . but had it been of moment , we had told the author that he lost his labour in proving the antiquity of one , or three , or few days fast , when the question was only of the antiquity of the forty days ( of which daille hath given a full account . ) . that our displeasing-importunity to have prevented the silencing of so many ministers , was not without cause ; and that we spake not falsly when we so ost foretold you , on how many of the clergy and laity the storm would fall , and that it would not asswage , but much increase the divisions which all good men lamented . . that we never yet had opportunity to give you or the world our reasons against the new conformity , it being only the old before the new was made , which we were then allowed to debate . so that as the presbyterians on one side , may say that their cause was never yet publickly pleaded ( by us ) ; so may those on the other side , who could have yielded to the old conformity , but cannot to the new . since that time instead of abatements and approaches for accommodation and concord , conformity is made very much more difficult to us than it was before ; which we speak not to accuse you , much less the makers of the law ; but to lament the unhappiness of this distracted and distressed land , and partly to excuse our selves . several men have several interests and apprehensions of things ; and the judgments which god will have executed upon a sinful people must come to pass , though he will not be the author of any of the sin of them that execute them . the conformity of the laity is made an hundred-fold more difficult by the corporation ▪ oath and declaration , and by the vestry act , &c. ( yet have we lately read the writings with pity and admiration , who blush not to tell the world that the laity or people are not put upon the renouncing of the covenant . but thus it will be where love and unity are oppugned and destroyed by those that praise them . the conformity of the clergy is made much more difficult than before : . by the new subscription . . by the new declaration . . by reordination . . by the new additions to the liturgy , especially the doctrine of the salvation of baptized infants , without distinguishing of them that are baptized , jure vel injuria , with right or without . and the old conformity is yet too hard for us , in the subscription , and in the oath of obedience to the diocesans , and in other points . all which again we speak not to reflect on our superiors , whose honour we desire to maintain ; but to make known our case , and the reasons of our practice . now these seventeen years we have patiently waited on gods providence , in silence as to the pleading of our cause ; so that i know not that ever there was so much as one petition either for us , or by us , offered to the parliament . and when a multitude of books have been written against us , of such a nature and tendency as i will not denominate or describe ( it is the policy of some to do things so bad , that no sufferer or dissenter can so much as name them without the imputation of railing or reviling , by the use of such abominable words . but the day is near that will set all strait ) it hath moved me many time to pity , to read such books as i have seen written for conformity , to think how easie it was to answer them , and pro captu lectoris , what lamentable reasonings go for current with some men ? we have been silent whilest volume after volume hath been published against us ; some disputing , and some reproaching : and if any impatient nonconformists have been moved to dispute the cause , it hath been mostly such of the weaker sort , who have done it without their brethrens knowledg , and have done the cause more wrong than right . ( and who can expect that so many hundreds should be so many years silenced , accused , and writ against in such a manner , and that none of them should be so weak and impatient as to speak for himself according to his ability ; and they that at such a time had not wisdom enough to hold their tongues , could not be expected to have wisdom enough to speak . ) for my own part i must profess , that the principal reason that caused my silence , as to such disputes was the fear of injuring the church . for as i have heard that old mr. dod was wont to thank god that no more conformed for the sake of truth ; and to thank god that so many conformed for the sake of the gospel which they preached : so it was my judgment , that it was not my duty without a special call , to perswade any man to nonconformity , when it was but in the issue to perswade him to be silenced , and to deprive the church of his publick labours . therefore did i never ( to my remembrance ) endeavour to make any one man a nonconformist that did not come or send to me for resolution in the case . and some such also i put off , as far as conscionably i could . though i may never perswade a man to that which i judg to be sin , yet i am not always bound to disswade him from it . if i saw a man about to tell a lye , or take a false oath , to save the life of the king from an enemy or traytor , i do not think that it is my duty to hinder him . affirmatives bind not ad semper . i thank god , not that so many laudable ministers conform , but that they preach the gospel , and keep up so much of the interest of the church and religion in the land. i have met with some women and hot-brain'd lads , of another mind , that said , let them put upon us the veriest ignorant sots and drunkards , we shall be the more easily justified for not going to their churches . but i ever reproved this , as the language of the serpent , who insinuating into the injudicious , would increase the sin and misery of the world . for my own part i heard all ministers where i lived , who were but tollerable in the sacred office. i came to the beginning of the churches prayers , when i could , and staid to the end . i took not my self for a constrained unwilling hearer of them ; but the more any external imperfection made my devotion difficult , the more i thought it my duty to labour , to stir up my affections , lest i should as the hypocrite , draw near to god with my lips without my heart . i remember what was said of old mr. fenne , the famous coventry ▪ nonconformist , that he would say , amen , loudly to every one of the common-prayers , except that for the bishops , by which he thought he sufficiently expressed his dissent . i know how unable the old separatists were to answer the many arguments of the famous arthur hildersham , john paget , william bradshaw , brightman , john ball , and other old nonconformists , for the lawfulness of communicating with our parish-churches in the sacraments , and the liturgy . i was exceedingly moved against separation ( truly so called ) by considering , . how contrary it is to the principle of christian love . . and how directly and certainly pernicious to the interest and cause of christ , and of his church , and of the souls of men , and how powerful a means it is to kill that little love that is left in the world . . and how plainly it proceedeth from the same spirit that persecution doth . for though their expressions be various , their minds and principles are much the same ; which is to vilifie our brethren , and represent them as odious and intollerable , and overlook that of christ which is amiable in them . in which when they have agreed , as children of the same father , they differ in their way of serving him . one saith , he is such and such , therefore away with him , silence him , imprison him , banish him : the other saith , he is such and such a one , therefore away with him , have no communion with him . he that eateth not , rom. . will say , away with him because he eateth : and he that eateth will say , away with him because he eateth not . both agree in murdering love , and accounting their brother unlovely and intollerable . . and i was greatly moved in thinking of the state of most of the churches in the world ; if i travelled in abassia , armenia , russia , or among the greek churches , i durst not deny to hold communion with them . when i go to god in prayer , i dare not go in a separate capacity , but as a member of the universal church , nor would i part with my share in the common-prayers of all the churches , for all the world ; but am joined with them in spirit , while i am corporally absent , owning all their holy prayers , though none of their faults or failings in them , ( having many in all my own prayers to god , which i must be further from justifying than other mens . ) and having perused all the foreign and ancient liturgies extant in the bibliotheva patrum , i doubt not but our own is incomparably better than any that is there . but i will not conceal it from you , that i am not such a separatist neither , as to communicate with parish-churches only . if only the law have turned any pastors out of the parishes , and the people and they still hold their relation and communion ( not to say now whether they do well or ill ) , i will no more separate from them than from you . i communicate with you in liturgy and sacrament , but neither as with a sect or faction , nor as the whole church ; but only as a part of the church universal , and so are they . i will hear you , and i will hear them when i have a just occasion . i will communicate with you , and i will communicate with them , as i perceive a call . if each side run away from the other , i will run from neither , though i will sin with neither , and must go from them that drive me away . but i tell all that ask my mind , that i am not so indifferent as to the ministers whom i must join with , as i am to the forms and modes of worship : not that i call their actions nullities , or say that the sacraments are invalid which they administer . ( for their usurpation cannot rob the innocent of their right . ) but yet i will not be guilty of countenancing and encouraging any soul-murderer in so great a sin . three sorts of teachers i renounce communion with ( as ministers . ) . those that through intollerable ignorance and insufficiency , do want those abilities which are necessary to the essence of the ministry . . those hereticks who preach against any essential article of religion . . those wicked ones who openly bend their application ( not against different sects and adversaries , for that is common to all the factious and peevish , but ) against the serious practise of godliness , temperance , love or justice ; and that labour to make these odious to their hearers , though their doctrine be sound , from which they raise these malignant applications . these are the men that i will not communicate with . i confess when i read in sulpitius severus the history of st. martins resolved separation from ithacius , idacius , and the synods of bishops of those times , and the confirmation of him by visions , and the antiquity and credibility of that history ( if of almost any ancient church history in the main ) , and the stupendious miracles which he is said to work , it a little stagger'd me , till i considered , . that scripture only is our rule : and , . that it was not from the episcopal order that he separated ( for he was one himself ) nor from any particular bishops that were innocent , nor yet from the churches of the people in their communion and worship ; but only from a prevailing company and synod of the bishops that were guilty of cruelty , and of bringing reproach upon the serious practisers of godliness in those times . and as for the many volumes which have been written against my self , i thought it not necessary to confute them , nor seasonable to stand upon a personal vindication , when i knew it would exasperate the accusers ( to be accounted injurious and false ) and would increase the breach . yea , when it was judged against me , that my presence would be injurious to the people that i had long preached to , and that my absence would more conduce to their conformity , and that they were none of my charge , i so far denied my self and them , as that i never since came near them ; nor , unless very rarely , sent them one line : though i thought if i had been allowed so much , it might have better answered the ends of those that were most for my removal . yet did i not take this for any perfidious forsaking them , when upon many accounts i believed it to be for their good , and i sent them all the books which i wrote . if any think that i should not say so much of my self , in an apology for others , i answer , . it is because that men will needs have it so whether i will or not . i say not a word to them ; and yet what a multitude of volumes have these seven years and more been tossing my name as a football of reproach about the land ? and when the cause is pleaded , they presently let fly at the persons , and say what you can , it 's there that they will stick ; and till they are answered there , they think they are unanswered . . and because i am best acquainted with my self , and can speak with more certainty of my own case and reasons , than of any others . but chiefly because as our late tilenus hath stiled me , purus putus puritanus , so the late episcopal indignation published me the antesignanus of the presbyterians . i deserve not so much honour . but hence the world and posterity may know , that whereas but a few years ago , a puritan was one that was against bishops and ceremonies , and liturgy , and a presbyterian was one that was for lay-elders , and the power of classes composed partly of such , not only for concord , but as governours of all the particular churches ; now in england , a puritan is one that is no more against , and as much for archbishops , bishops , liturgy and ceremonies , as in my books i have long published my self to be . and a puritan as a puritan is no worse a person than i am , ( whose life and writings have had the happiness to have some share in their commendations ▪ ) and a presbyterian now is one that is against lay-elders , and in his judgment against the regimental power of classes and synods as over the pastors of the particular churches , and only for their consultation and their use to concord ; and one that is , as aforesaid , for archbishops , bishops , &c. as far as in my dispute for church-government i have declared my self to be . it is of some use to know the mutability of the world , and what a purus putus puritanus , and a presbyterian now is . but having thus far related the history of our true endeavours for peace ; it must be my next task to apologize for our supposed unpeaceableness . and i cannot better know what is the matter of offence , than by knowing what is charged on my self . he that was one of the first restrained from preaching , and hath been laid in the goal as i have been , will be supposed to be one of the most guilty . and therefore i may hope that they that have escaped better , have deserved less ; and that my own defence will be also theirs . and i owe the offended an account of the practise by which i have so much offended them . when the act of uniformity was not yet made or talkt of , i went to the now archbishop of canterbury , then bishop of london , ( even whilest the kings declaration gave us liberty ) , and i desired his license to preach in his diocess , which he was pleased to grant me , upon my voluntary subscription to the doctrine of the church , and those terms of peaceableness which he accepted . when the said act of uniformity was in fieri , i ceased that seeming lecture which i had , before st of may . when that act came out , it forbad all to hold any benefice , cure , lecture , &c. who had possession of any ecclesiastical ▪ promotion the st of may , and did not subscribe and declare as required of them in that act , and also forbad the reception of any into such promotion or cure for the future ▪ that should not so subscribe and declare . neither of these being my case , ( for i was out of all before may st , and i sought no new cure or benefice ) , the law did no more require me to subscribe and declare , than it did the bishops , or any conformable man that for so long had cure , promotion , or stated employment . so that i was no nonconformist in the sense of the law , because i conformed as far as the act required me to conform . and that act not forbidding occasional sermons to any but those that were not licensed , my license enabled me to preach occasionally ( as many that had no places did ) , yet because i knew that the bishop might revoke my license at his pleasure , and that if i so far used it , being reputed a nonconformist , it would give offence to my superiors , i never since made use of it to this day , nor ever preached a publick sermon . and though the act forbad ▪ me not publick catechising , or the administration of the sacraments , i never did either , to avoid offence . and when about three years after , the oxford act came forth for the restraining nonconformists from coming within five miles of a corporation , or of any place where they had been teachers , or kept a conventicle , i found that i was not concerned in that act , because by law i was no nonconformist , to whom the act by the very title and matter was limited . so that being neither a nonconformist by law , nor my license to preach occasionally ever nulled , nor yet concerned in this oxford act , which imposeth the new oath , i supposed my peace not endangered by the law ▪ ( which the lawyers whom i consulted also did conclude ) yet did i forbear to come within five miles of a corporation , except on the rode , to avoid offence . all this while i lived in a place where sew desired me to preach ; they being poor and worldly people , that minded most their labours and necessities . so that i contented my self to instruct my family , with three or four more that sometimes desired to be present . but the chief reason why i did no more was , because ( as none called me to it , so ) i was engaged in certain writings , ( a body of practical divinity , the reasons of the christian religion , and others ) , which i thought of greater use to the church than preaching to any there would be , and therefore would do nothing which might hinder or interrupt them . but when first the lamentable plague had awakened those that were left alive to look more seriously towards eternity , and then the lamentable fire had consumed so much of the wealth and glory of the land ( of which we were the sad spectators ) ; and when these awakenings , and the consequent necessities of the city , had caused many ministers to resolve to preach the gospel to the survivers , what ever they underwent ; the poor people of the parish ( of acton ) where i lived , came crowding into my house while i taught my family ; and since once they began , they would not cease . and verily i had neither a heart to shut the doors against them , nor wit enough to justifie it , if i had done it . i never invited one ; and when they came i knew no reason to forbid them . they were not sectaries , nor seditious , but poor people that needed to be taught the principles of religion . there was not two or three in all the parish that i knew of that did separate from the publick assembly , yea or the liturgy . they went with me into the church , which was before my door . i preached not at the time of publick exercise . i thought this course did tend to union , and not to division . i freely taught them the evil of separation and sedition . and whereas the multitude of hearers was an offence , i was glad that such a multitude did relish , or could bear such doctrine . the last sermon i preached to them was on mat. . blessed are the meek , &c. whence ( after dr. hammond ) i shewed them how much meekness and patience conduceth even to peace on earth , and what sedition , rebellion , passion and intemperance doth against it . they say , there were some witnesses present that after did accuse me , that i know not ; but that week by a warrant i was brought before two of his majesties justices of the peace , and offered the oxford oath , and sent to the goal , as by the mittimus was expressed , for preaching in my house , which they called a conventicle , and for not taking the oath . the persons , manner , circumstances , nor my deliverance by the honourable and righteous judges ( the glory of his majesties government , subordinate to himself ) , i have no mind nor cause now to meddle with ; having said as much as is needful to open the true nature of our supposed crimes . and now you see that it is preaching that is so much of our offence , ( and coming within five miles of a corporation , &c. ) i shall here fix , and tell you , . what is really our judgment in the case , whether such prohibited ministers may preach . . what are our reasons . . what reasons you have to be for our preaching rather than against it . . how vain the common arguments against it are . and , . i shall venture to shut up the premises , with an humble petition to you , once more for the church and the souls of men , and for the interest of unity , love and peace . . we do hold that the sacred office of the ministry consisteth in an obligation to do the work , and authority to warrant us therein . and that both these are essential to the office . . that god doth not call men now immediately as the prophets and apostles were ; but giving them necessary qualifications , doth commit it to the ministry of men , first to discern and judg of those qualifications , and then by a solemn investiture to put them in possession of the office ; which is called ordination , and is ordinarily necessary for order sake . . that yet the office it self is of gods own institution ; and from that institution the authority and obligation resulteth directly to the persons lawfully ordained . so that god only giveth the office or power , though not without the act of man to fit the person to receive it , and then ministerially by investiture to deliver possession . it is not without man , but it is not of or from man , as the possessor of the power given , but only as a servant to give possession in the name of christ. even as men first chose ( by the preparation and direction of gods providence ) the line or family that should reign : but god only giveth the king his power . or as the members of a corporation may chuse their mayor , and the steward or recorder may solemnly give him possession ; but his power it self is immediately from the charter of the king. . that though we be not called as the apostles , yet when we are called , we are bound to fidelity as well as they were . . that it is not an office to be taken ▪ up on trial , and for a limited time , ( as servants are bound to their masters by the year ) ; but as marriage , it is for life ( unless god shall disable us ) , and as we say for better and for worse ; and not to be laid by at pleasure . and therefore those schoolmen that interpret the indelible character of the relation ▪ seem not to differ from us at all . . that though ordination be not , as the two sacraments of the covenant of grace , and necessary to salvation , nor generally to all the people ; yet may it not unfitly be called , the sacrament of orders , or of our ministerial covenant with christ , as a soldiers oath and engagement was sacramentum militare . . that kings and other magistrates are not by ordination to give this office , nor by degradation to take it away . . but that ministers are under the government of the king , as well as physicians , or any other subjects . and that he may use the sword to force them to the due performance of their office , and to hinder them from abusing it , to the mischief of the church . . that this power is for the ends of the ministry , which is for edification and the publick good . and therefore that the end it self is not put into the power of man ( whether the church shall be edified and happy , or not ) nor yet the office of the ministry it self ( whether there shall be a ministry or not ) nor the necessary work of that office , ( whether the ministry when necessary shall be exercised or not . ) . we believe that those that ordain a minister , cannot degrade him at their pleasure . as he that may baptize a child cannot unbaptize him again at pleasure ; nor he that marrieth persons unmarry them . . much less can every bishop degrade at pleasure those whom other men ordained . else every minister might be degraded while there are so many disagreeing and angry bishops in the world . . if the magistrate forbid us to preach the gospel , either our preaching is necessary or unnecessary , and this is either notorious or doubtful . if our preaching be notoriously unnecessary , we will obey him and forbear . if it be a doubtful case to us , we will use all the means which god hath appointed us to know the certain truth . and if yet it be doubtful , and our minds in suspence , we will stand to the judgment of the magistrate and forbear . but if our ministry be notoriously and undoubtedly necessary to the just ends , which is the edification of mens souls , we will obey god in preaching as far as we are able , and humbly and patiently bear what is laid upon us by our rulers . . but in this case we will not intrude into the publick temple , much less lay any claim to the tythes or publick maintenance , for these are all at the kings disposal . . nor do we take our selves bound by christ to one place , or one time or manner of teaching , or to speak always to a great assembly . but all these are circumstances which we must fit to the end and success of our work . and must take that course , and with that variation which tendeth to the churches good . christ , that bid his apostles when they were persecuted in one city , fly to another , alloweth us to be where we may serve him best . if forbearing all preaching for some days or weeks , would tend to the churches good , ( as by procuring us liberty afterward , &c. ) it is lawful to forbear . if preaching often to a few be more for the churches good than to preach but once or twice to many , we may then lawfully chuse the smaller number . so that in such circumstances , that may be one mans duty which is anothers sin . . we take it to be our duty in all such preaching to take heed of any thing that tendeth to the division of the peoples minds , or to the hinderance of the lawful publick ministry , or to their just discouragement . but contrarily to concur and live with such ministers ( if possible , and as much as in us lieth , rom. . . ) in peace and mutual love ; and to do all that we can to promote their reputation with the people ; and to work all unjust prejudice and partiality out of their minds . and not only to draw them to a due attendance in the publick assemblies , but also as far as reason will allow us , to prefer still the publick ministers labours , honour , and interest in the people , before our own ; and to reprove all censorious whispers and obloquy which we shall hear against them behind their backs . . and as for maintenance , we expect not any ; unless any minister be so poor , as for food and raiment , and the necessities of life , to live upon the alms of others , ( which is the case of very many . ) in which case we hold it our duty not at all to be chargeable to censorious murmuring dissenters , but only to the willing ; and that if god shall humble us to the begging of our bread , we should not be so proud as to disdain it , or to murmur at his providence , nor yet so selfish as to forsake and change our calling , because we have no better maintenance . but rather be thankful that we are kept from the temptations of grandure and fulness , by which we see so many ruined , and so great a part of the clergy throughout the christian world to be blinded and drowned in those ways of idleness , sensuality , cruelty and contention , which prove the division , the defilement and the dishonour of the church . for as we believe a life to come , and that the preferring of the pleasures of this world before it , is the thing that keepeth men from heaven , and is the common cause of mens damnation ; so we believe that no condition doth so much tempt men into this damning love of the world , as that wherein the world is made most pleasing and most lovely to them . and he that aboundeth in it with wealth and honour is liker of the two to overlove it , than he that meeteth with labour , poverty and reproach . yet will we not as begging friers , renounce propriety , nor cast away any talent which our master giveth us to improve ; nor yet be so impudent as to be unnecessarily burdensome , or lose our liberty by making our selves beholding and dependent ; but we take it to be our part to labour faithfully in our work , and leave it to god what provisions he will allow us . and those of us that want not , but have to spare , to contribute to the relief of them that want . and we may be the more patient while we remember in how much purity the primitive churches were kept in their poverty and low estate ; as also the churches of the poor waldenses , and those in piedmont to this day ; and the [ hodie venenum , &c. ] the corruptions , divisions and calamities that have followed the worldly exaltation of the clergy both in east and west . therefore we humbly submit to his gracious providence , that thus saveth us from the love of the world , so inconsistent with the love of god , joh. . . we take it also to be our duty , the greater our restraints and sufferings are , the more to take heed lest any dishonour or murmuring at our rulers , should thence arise and be cherished in our hearers minds ; which though it be not absolutely in our power to cure , we must do our best . it is a humane thing to pity the sufferers . and if our doctrine and our lives do make the people think well of us , they are so much the readier to think ill of those by whom we suffer . which those well perceive who have the sight that their interest made it necessary to make us odious by voluminous reproaches . but that is not the way with any but strangers . for when those that know us , know that we are slandered , it doth but increase their dislike of the reproachers . and they can read our lives as easily as the revilers books . the only way to change their opinion of us were , for us to change our doctrine and our lives , and to preach ill , and live ill . but that is a way that we must not take , to gratifie any that would build their ends and honour on our contempt . but yet the honour of our rulers must be more precious to us than our own . for it is more necessary to the common good . and therefore we take it for our duty , not to blazon and aggravate our sufferings too much in the hearing of the people ; much less to accuse our rulers of them ; but to take to our selves the blame of all , as far as is true ; and to confess ( which is the truth ) that it is for our own and the peoples sins ; we should have laboured harder while it was day , as foreseeing the night when none can work , joh. . and the people should not have forfeited their food by fulness and neglect . and alas ! how many sins of theirs and ours have had a hand in this calamity ? we take it to be our duty , if we hear any speak a dishonouring word against the powers which god hath set over us , to reprove them , and better instruct them in their duty , and to warn them that they make not any of their love or pity to us , an occasion of their sin . and to remember them how much the common good and all our peace is beholden to magistracy , notwithstanding the sufferings of particular men . . and we take it also for our duty , to pray for the king , and all in authority , not with dishonouring intimations , but in such a manner as beseemeth us to speak even to god ( in the hearing of men ) of his own officers ; and not that their favour may make us rich and great , but only that we may live a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty , tim. . . and this not seldom nor formally , but daily and earnestly . and we take it for our duty to preach against schism , sedition and rebellion , and all principles which tend to breed or feed them ; and to use our opportunities and interest in the people , to promote their loyalty and the publick peace . . also we judg it our duty to preach those plain and necessary things which the salvation of men doth most depend on , and the people generally have most need to hear ; that is , the opening to them their baptismal covenant , and the articles of the creed , the lords-prayer , the decalogue and the gospel-precepts ; or more briefly the doctrine of faith in christ , and repentance towards god , and of the love of god and man ; to live soberly , righteously , and godly in this world , as looking and hoping for a better , tit. . . and not to fill the peoples heads with needless controversies , or vain jangling , or contending about words which edifie not , but subvert the hearers ; much less to perplex them with talking of the unrevealed counsels of god ; nor yet to corrupt their minds by talking against our superiors , or against dissenters behind their backs , or by aggravating the faults of other mens manner of worshipping god , or breeding in them distaste of the publick worship ; or talking against bishops , or ceremonies , or liturgy ; nor by representing any sort of christians who differ from us in points not fundamental , as odious to the hearers ; whether lutherans , caelvinists , arminians , episcopal , presbyterian , independent , yea or anabaptists ; no , nor to injure the papists themselves , by making our differences seem greater than indeed they are . our office is to preach up love , and not to preach it down and mortifie it , which all those do , whatever they pretend , that attempt to represent their brethren as odious , and to hide or deny , or extenuate that in them which is good and amiable . . lastly , we must profess therefore , that though we take not our selves bound to prefer our preaching before other mens , nor to tye our selves just to numbers and circumstances of time and place , nor to draw a party from the lawful publick ministers to our selves , nor to preach at all where there is not a real and notorious need ; yet do we take our selves bound on pain of gods displeasure , and of damnation , to exercise our ministerial office as we are able in a pious , peaceable and loyal manner , as poor assistants to those faithful ministers that have publick allowance and encouragement , notwithstanding any present prohibitions or unwillingness of those that are against it . and if this profession shall teach any to conclude that therefore bonds , imprisonment or banishment must restrain us , the will of the lord be done ; we are ready not only to be bound but to die , for preaching the gospel of him that died for us , and seeking to save men from a sorer death . and we ought not to account our lives as dear to us , so that we may finish our course with joy , and the ministry committed to us by the lord , act. . . but we ought to suffer without resisting or reviling ; which we may the easier do , while we suffer not as evil doers , but for preaching the gospel of salvation , and teaching men to seek the happiness to come , and to forsake their lusts , and to love and obey their god and saviour . as we are the more unwilling that the church should be burdened with unnecessary ceremonies , because if they be used with understanding , the people must be taught their sense and use ; which we scarce have leisure for , or pleasure in , while they are ignorant of so many greater things , and are so very dull of hearing ; so it is not a little of our peace , that if we suffer , we be not found preaching about ceremonies or shadows , but preaching that gospel , which at our ordination we solemnly promised to preach . and now having told you truly our principles , i shall next tell you the reasons why we cannot forbear our ministerial work , till bonds or disability constrain us to forbear it . ii. and here we shall not form syllogisms in such an apology , as if we were speaking to captious men ; but nakedly open our reasons as to those that are as much concern'd in the matter as we ; and should be as willing to know the truth . . we take it to be sacriledg , and that of the highest nature , except apostacy it self , to alienate our selves from the work to which we are consecrated and devoted . by how much the nearer any consecrated person or thing is to god , and by how much the more useful to his ends ( his glory in the good of souls ) by so much the greater sacriledg it is to alienate that which is so consecrated . ( with you we know that we need not dispute either the name of a sacrament of orders ( for we stick not upon names ) nor the obligation . ) you know the usual exposition of the answer in the church-catechism , to the question , [ how many sacraments , &c ] ▪ a. two only , as generally necessary to salvation . we differ not from you in our sense of this . your canons enquire after all such as alienate themselves from the ministry to which they were ordained , and turn to any other calling . we dislike not that canon . but we wish our observance of it might be thought but a pardonable fault . it hath possessed me oft with admiration to see the blinding power of partiality in some men , that can see the evil of sacriledg in them that alienate church lands , and goods , and houses , and utensils , and can see no evil in the alienation of consecrated persons ? what are the cups , and fonts , and tables for , ( do they praise the glorious mystery of redemption ? ) are they not his utensils who is set apart to attend the altar , and to commemorate the sacrifice of the lamb of god , who taketh away the sins of the world ? what are the houses for , but for the convenient habitation of the pastors ? what are the lands and tythes for , but for their maintenance while they do the work of god ? what are the temples for , but to be the convenient places of their and the peoples worshipping of god ? is it a crime to steal the feathers , and none to steal the goose ? is it a crime to rent your clothes , and is it none to rend your flesh ? or to steal a tile , or pick a lock , and not to burn the house ? is he saulty that robs your child of his hat , or book , or victuals ? and is he innocent that killeth him , or that robs you of your child ? we must be speak all cainuites here , who like leeches thirst for blood , that they distort not these words , as speaking all this of the law makers , or any of our rulers . we meddle with no mens duties and faults here but our own . we leave all others to look to themselves , as they must shortly answer for themselves . we only say , that if we should alienate our selves from that sacred office to which we are consecrated and devoted , it would be odious and accursed sacriledg in us . and if really it prove to be our own doing , that we are thus alienated , it will be no light or little fault . and if god have forced the world to observe that even impropriators , much more gross sacrilegious persons are usually ruined before the fourth generation , what might we expect if we should do much worse . i have read and heard their words of late , who would make the late westminster assembly favourers of sacriledg , forsooth because the annotations ( not put out by the assembly ) speak not against sacriledg ( which they do expresly speak against ) ; especially on those texts in the new testaments , on which dr. featly an episcopal divine it s said was the author of them . o the candor and impartiality of this age ? for my part , i was none of the assembly ( being then too young and too unworthy ) : but mr. vines's judgment and mine against the alienation of church lands in those times as sacrilegious , i published in our letters in the end of my confession , how displeasing soever it was to them that then bore sway . but all 's one for that . it is for the interest of some men to say what they have said , and as they have said it . o that they better understood their own interest ! if it be said , that while we refuse conformity , we alienate our selves , whilest we would avoid it , in that we give rulers cause to do it ; that is to be spoken to by it self anon . and if it be said that our forbearing the work of our ministry is not sacriledg , when we do it in obedience to our rulers , that also is to be answered afterward . if there be no law extant which can disoblige us from our undertaken office and work , then if we forbear we are sacrilegious villains , and lyable to the curse and doom of the unprofitable servant that hid his talent , mat. . forgive us if we had rather venture on the clamor of many volumes and tongues , and on your sharpest censures , and on a prison , than venture on that dreadful doom . . we cannot be ignorant of the necessities of the people ; which answereth all that is said against us . i say we cannot be ignorant of them , if we would . we can talk with those learned men that are ignorant of it ; with some that think the groslyest ignorant , and senseless , and mindless of the life to come , to be better than we , if they will but be for bishops , liturgy and ceremonies ; and that think little more religion than to hurt no body , belongeth to the laity or common people . and with some that have been bred up only at the university , and never knew the ignorance of the vulgar . and with some that have lived among them , and know them not , because they never conversed with them otherwise , than in the pulpit , or at a feast , or a common meeting . but their ignorance will not make us ignorant . the intellect is oft informed necessarily per modum naturae . though i thank god that our information hath been voluntary . it was our practise while we were suffered to do our office , to catechise all the families of our parishes ( that did not refuse it ) , family by family , and to try the knowledg of them all , and to discern what they thought of the essentials of christianity , and of the things that christ hath made necessary to salvation . by which we found that multitudes that come all their life-time to church , and bear up the reputation of discreet intelligent persons , are utterly ignorant of many articles of the faith , while they speak the words ; so ignorant , that it 's hard for scholars to believe it , that have not tried it . and we have found that multitudes of them will be brought to learn over all the words of the catechism that never consider or understand the sense , much less the power and practice of what their tongues recite ; but like parrots rest in the utterance of the words . either this much will bring them to salvation , or it will not . if it will christianity , must be a needless thing , or else consist but in a spell or charm of empty words ; and the papists latin ▪ devotions are as good . if it will not , then our parishes have a necessity of further teaching . if you say , that [ this is not true ] , it may serve your turn , but it will not serve ours ; no more than if you told us that most of our parishes speak not english. it is not in our power to deny belief to our senses , and the experience of our daily conversation , if we were never so much reviled for our judgment . but if you say , that the parish ministers are sufficient to remedy this calamity , as far as it can be remedied : i answer you , the necessity of our labours is notoriously evident in all these following respects . . in respect of the multitude that need our help . . in regard of the obstinacy of their ignorance , unbelief and sensuality . . in regard of the paucity of the publick ministers . . in regard of the real insufficiency , weakness and badness of too great a number of them . and , . in regard of abundance of peoples prejudice against them . . how many thousands are in some parishes in london , in stepney , in cripplegate , in sepulchres , in st. martins , st. clement danes , giles in the fields , andrews holborn , and many others , is ordinarily observed . abundance of corporations ( from whence the ministers are excluded ) have very many thousands in a parish . and if there be four thousand ( to say nothing of them that have above forty thousand ) it is an excellent people if three parts in four be not grosly ignorant of some essentials of the christian religion , and multitudes grosly vicious and ungodly in their lives . when i came first to kiderminster , the town was ready to stone me as i went along the streets , for preaching the church-doctrine of original sin in infants , whom they called innocents ; till i asked them publickly , whether they thought their children were saved without christ , and why they were baptized ? which they could not answer . when i came to catechize and confer with them personally , after many years preaching , many that constantly attended on teaching , thought that christ was man on earth , and is god in heaven , but made a god only for his goodness upon earth , and not god from eternity , nor man now he is in heaven . and the whole mystery of redemption is little known to the most among us . . and their sensuality is as hardly cured as their ignorance . how common are the sins of sodom throughout all the land ? ezek. . . pride and fulness of bread , and abundance of idleness , and not considering the poor ! your selves believe , that schism , sedition and disloyalty are too common ; swearers and cursers , and railers , and drunkards , accuse themselves in the open streets , and to all that talk with them in daily converse . to say nothing of athiests , infidels , hereticks , schismaticks , which sure need help , what a multitude are they that never set their hearts on heaven , nor seek first gods kingdom and its righteousness nor labour for the meat which never perisheth , col. . . mat. , , . joh. . . but their god is their belly , they glory in their shame , and mind earthly things , phil. . . how many mind not the things of the spirit , but of the flesh , and live and walk according to the flesh , and do but complement with god , and make religion a ceremony or a matter on the by , and take heaven but for a lesser evil than hell , and for a reserve , when they can keep this world no longer . either you know that the evidences are notorious that there are thousands among us in this sad condition , or you do not . if you do , you grant what we now assert . if you do not , you are such strangers in england , that you are neither fit to condemn us , nor to be judges at all of the peoples case . and oh how hard a matter is it to cure one of all these miserable souls ! as for the ignorant , many of them are unwilling to learn , if you take them not at the best advantages ; and those few that are willing , must have long and laborious teaching before they will come to any competent knowledg . if you have but tried the ignorant servants of your own families , how hard and long a task it is to bring them to know the needful things , you may easily judg how hard it is for a minister to teach them , that hath them not in his house , and scarce knoweth how to meet them any where but in the church , where they have learnt to hear as if they heard not . and when they have a little dark confused knowledg , alas what is this to the light that christ hath sent into the world , in which the children of light should walk , and which is needful to the work of light which they must do . what is this to that abounding in wisdom and knowledg , to which the scripture doth exhort men , and by which they must resist temptations discharge their duties , and honour christ and piety in the world ? is it not christs charge , mat. . . that when men are made disciples , they must be taught all things else that he hath commanded . and is it not smattering ignorant half-wited christians which your selves much complain of , and which make most of the trouble in the world ? and did you ever consider what a work it is to bring many thousands or hundreds of those in a parish , unto solid understanding ? and when men have knowledg , how hard is it still to make a due impression on their hearts , and bring them really ( which every tongue must confess is necessary ) to love god above all , and our neighbours as our selves ! o! words soon spoken ! o difficult work , above the skill and strength of the wisest minister to accomplish ! how hard to cure a drunkard , a fornicator , a swearer , a railer , of his most beastly or unprofitable sin ! much more to cure the infidel , the ambitious , the proud , the worldling ! but o how hard to get up mens hearts to a heavenly frame , and to bring them daily to live after the spirit , and to live by faith and not by sight ; and to set their affections on the things above ; and in hope and love to long and wait for the coming of the lord ! sirs , either you take these things for necessary , or you do not ; if you do not , you deny christianity ; and our controversie lyeth lower ; first , whether there be a life to come , and the gospel be true , ( and how quiet and happy would england be , if we were but all heartily agreed in that much ! ) but if you do , then there remaineth no more controversie , whether our ministerial helps be needful ? . and what is one minister in a parish for the doing of all this work ? yea , or his poor curate , if he have one ( as few have ) for his help ? by that time he hath read all the common-service twice a day , and preached twice ( or once if you had rather ) , and hath baptized all the children , and visited all the sick , and buried all the dead , and married all that are to be married , and performed the common civilities necessary to friends and neighbours , and taken care for food and raiment , and all the necessaries of his house or life , and instructed and governed aright his family ; and if he have children , taken sufficient care of their education ; what time , what strength , what spirits are left , for most of all the work forementioned ? it irketh me to think that i should have need to repeat these things , and to tell seeing men with so many words , that there is a sun in the firmament ; or feeling men , that it is cold , when frost and snow do cover the earth ! . and we must say that which we are most unwilling to say , even when you constrain us ; alas how many parishes are there in his majesties three kingdoms , where the youth , the ignorance , the rawness , the dulness , the carelesness , the idleness , the want of ministerial utterance in the teachers , doth perswade all the hearers that they have need of more and better help ? the hearers , i say , that should best know their own necessities , do commonly believe it , if you deny it . the sons of the church do groan out often in my hearing , [ alas what dry and pitiful work is this ! we are afraid all the people will be driven into conventicles . ] ichabod , or the five groans of the church hath long since told you somewhat of this ; but the most of england , especially wales and ireland , need no syllogisms to prove it . for my own part , i hear and encourage any that is tollerable ; and i speak the best , and conceal the rest , when i speak to the auditors . but truth is truth , and our modesty will not satisfie the hungry , nor save the miserable souls of men . is it enough to the instructing of the grosly ignorant , and the changing of an earthly mind to a heavenly , and to pull down the strong holds of sin , for a young raw man to read or say a few good words ( perhaps least pertinent to the peoples needs ) in a tone like a school-boy saying his lesson ? or to talk against presbyterians to the poor people , that never knew what presbytery was , and know not what faith , repentance , justification , or sanctification are ? to deny these things , is but to deceive them that are already deceived ; but england will no more believe the denial , than him that would deny that the snow is white . and to talk , as one in latin lately , what learned pastors the church of england hath , is an impertinency to fill up paper . if there be some such ( which none deny ) and if most of the parishes in and near london have men so tolerable that we much rejoice in it , doth it follow that it is an error or schism to be acquainted with the rest of the kingdoms , or to believe our ears , and the sad experience of too great a number in the land ? it is a fine world when it is become a controversie , whether that which so many thousands in three kingdoms hear and see be true ? we write none of this to reproach the ministry ; we would hide their nakedness if we could . we like not the glocester-coblers writings , nor the centuries . we only shew you that the reasons are invalid which are fetcht from the sufficiency of the present ministry , to prove it our duty not to preach . . and if it were but the peoples prejudice against them , it proveth their necessity . i will purposely say nothing , whether the common charge of scandal be true or false , because i will not meddle with that cause . but be it as it will , if the people once think hardly of them , or of their preaching , it is not like to do them much good . i know the common answer is , [ who is that long of , but of themselves and you ? ] to which i say , . suppose it be long of themselves , must their souls be therefore cruelly forsaken ? i have wondered to hear and read such reasoning so often from some pastors of the church , that should be the fathers of the flock ! it is long of themselves , say they ! and what then ! it is long of our selves that we are all sinners ! and must we therefore have no saviour , no sanctifier , no ministry , no remedy ! all the sins that you preach against are long of the sinners themselves ! will you therefore think you are discharged from preaching ? but you 'l say , that it is their wilfulness . ans. if there were no will , there were no sin . there is too much wilfulness in all the sin that you commit your selves ; must you therefore be forsaken ! but o how much better would it beseem an humble tender conscienced ministry to suspect themselves , and say , is there no cause of this distaste in us ! if it were partial hereticks only that disliked us for opinion sake , it were no wonder ; but when the common people of our parishes , think our preaching cold and dry , and our sermons like a boys oration , and our lives too little heavenly and holy , what cause have we to fear lest it be too true ! or so much at least as will make us guilty of their distaste ! surely it more nearly concerneth you all to see that you be clear your selves , and to judg your selves before god judg you , than to fall so heavily on the people . when you have been as angry as you will , men will be men , and ears will be ears ; and as words will not satisfie a hungry stomack , so chiding the poor people , and telling them that the fault is theirs , will not illuminate , quicken , humble and comfort them , nor either do that for them which they want , or make them that are indeed alive to believe that it is done when it is not . suppose your own children surfeit by their own fault , and lose their appetite ; will you deny them one sort of food which they can eat , because it is long of themselves , that they have lost their appetite to another . will you say , eat this or famish , it is long of your selves ? shall the physician deny his patient that physick which his stomack can take , because it was long of himself that he can take no other ? is this a method fit for parents , nurses , or physicians , to think that it is not their duty to help those that are made diseased or necessitous by themselves ? i beseech you think what else your ministry is for , and why have you your honour and your maintenance , but to serve under christ , for the saving of those that would destroy themselves ? what enemy have you so much need your selves to resist , and to be saved from , as from your selves ? oh that you better knew it ! and from whom else would you save the people ? men and devils cannot hurt them , if they be but saved from themselves . when i hear a cold and sleepy preacher , or hear gods work done so ignorantly and slovenly , as i would not have my boy to say his lesson , i yet confess , [ it is long of my self if this sermon raise not my heart to heaven . for his very text , or one of the scripture-sentences which he cited , should have been enough to do it ; because it mentioneth god and eternity , the least thought of which should raise my soul. ] but alas my heart is cold , and dull , and drowsie . this is my disease , or else what need i come to church for cure ? i knew i was faulty ; but i hear you , in hope that my faults should be cured . and if you do that which is unsuitable to your hearers faults and maladies , you are faulty physicians , for no better curing faulty patients . to tell a man in a fever , or a dropsie , if bread and drink will not cure you , it is long of your own disease , is the answer of such physicians as are like them in whose hands many thousand souls in the world lye gasping at this day . if you shall say , that god doth not tye his grace to the ability of the pastor : i answer , such words are fitter to make ones head and heart to ake , than to put the answerer to any difficulty . use such arguments about plowing and sowing , about eating and drinking ; and when you are to chuse a tutor or schoolmaster for your children ; or when you are sick and seek to a physician : say , god doth not tye his help and blessing to a wise tutor any more than to an ignorant one ; nor to an able physician any more than to a foolish emperick . or if you will fly to the distinction of spiritual gifts and common , remember that god is no more tyed to means for the one than for the other ; and quoad media habitus infusi se habent ad modum acquisitorum . at least , set not your greatest scholars nor sharpest wits to convince a sectary , or a papist ; for illumination is a spiritual grace , and god can work on a papist or schismatick , as well by an ignorant reader . but sure the opinions of these times are not so much for miraculous operations of omnipotency , nor so much for the vanity of moral suasion and instruction , that we should need to say much in this case , if you could but turn it to a doctrinal-controversie , where their interest is not against it . god can work convictions and conversion by the unlikeliest means . but he usually worketh according to the aptitude of the means he useth . and sure i am , that it is our duty ( both teachers and hearers ) to chuse the best ; and to study and preach even as we would do , if all lay on our skill and diligence ; but to know that when paul hath planted , and apollo watered , it is god still that must give the increase . but he will not give so much to judas as to paul and apollo . but the second charge is , that it is long of us that any of the present ministers are distasted . ans. and is this true ? . is it because we hear them . . or is it because we perswade the people to hear them ( if they are but tollerable men ? ) . or is it because we sometime repeat their sermons , and speak honourably of them . . or is it because we rebuke those that vilifie them ? . or is it because that we so preach and live as that the people perceive a difference . there you must pardon us ; we cannot cure that opinion as some would have us . we dare not preach worse , or live worse , ( as i said before ) for fear of making others worse thought of . . but why is it not as much long of your selves as of us ? why do the people make such a difference between conformable preachers as they do ? why do they honour and crowd after one , and slight another ? is this long of us too ? if men were not blinded by partiality , they might quickly see the cause . while nature teacheth men to love themselves , and use their reason for their souls , and men can discern ( as they say ) chalk from cheese , it is not reviling the people as giddy and humoursome , for perceiving what doth most edifie their souls , that will serve the turn to make them value an ignorant , idle , empty fellow , equal to a convincing , laborious , holy pastor ( whether he conform or not . ) and verily i would have none plead too eagerly for the reputation of the ignorant , dull or negligent , that would not be taken for such a one himself , lest the hearers suspect , ne caudâ vulves iste careat , that they vilifie but what they want . licinius that was so much against learning , was utterly void of learning himself . and if once men could bring it to this ( as they never will ) to perswade the people to overlook all mens personal worth and parts , and arguings and perswasions , and only to have an equal respect to all , as all are ministers , it were the certain way to bring them to contemn you all , and to have a respect for none . for though we confess that the office must be reverenced as well as the gifts ; yet when once you trust only to the reverence of your bare office , without your gifts , you will be served as the giftless ignorant priests were by luther , melancthon , and others that overtopt them , and made them all the common scorn . mark , ( if experience signifie any thing at all with you ) whether the gospel hath not risen and fallen in its successes in all ages and countrys , as the wisdom , skill , and utterance and holiness of the preachers of it did rise or fall . my lord verulam hath truly minded us ( in his considerations ) that our calling is not like a kings , which consisteth more in authority than abilities , but a function to be exercised by personal abilities , though not without divine authority , like a licensed physicians or lawyers . and would you devise a more effectual way to make , all physicians the scorn of the world , than if you could deprive them of their skill , and make them all empty ignorant men ; or to make all lawyers the common scorn , than to set up only such as can scarce speak sense or reason , for the people to laugh at , or the stages to make plays on . again i tell you , that men will be men , and reason will be reason , when those that would set up an image instead of humanity and reason , have done their worst . in a word , when it is possible for us to believe that neither england or vvales , neither populous cities , nor ignorant countrys , do need any more help than the present parish ministers either do or can afford them , we promise to give over preaching the gospel in this land. but one great objection i had almost forgotten : obj. this may be something for your conference with them family by family ; but what is it for your preaching unto congregations ? if the publick ministers preaching will not do it , why should yours ? answ. . it is our judgment that where no more publick preaching is wanting , it is the best way for the noconformists to attend the publick ministry , and themselves only to go from house to house , to catechise , exhort and help them , as they are able and have opportunity . but it is but seldom that the peorer sort of people have any leisure except on the lords day , and holy-days , ( so urgent are their necessities and labours ) and it is but one or two houses in a week that one man can go to in such a manner ; and so the most may be dead and out of hearing before we have such opportunities to speak to them . . and they that may not come into cities and corporations , nor within five miles of any place where ever they preached , shall leave the populous places where publick ministers have most need of private help , without any such assistance at all . . and is not both better than one ? to speak to many when they can have time to hear , and to speak also to single persons when we can ? . it is not one of very many that can come to church in many parishes in london if they would . the churches will not hold the tenth person in the parish ; and how few churches near * are standing ? and must all the rest be quite forsaken . . and we say that is good that doth good . two may do more than one . he may profit by one that will not by another . . do you believe that any ( alas , must i say any ) conformists are weak , raw , dull and slothful preachers , very unlike to work much on mens souls , or do you not ? if you do not , we despair of giving you convincing evidence of any thing in the world . but if you do , why is there not need of the help of such as have more skill for such a work ? and whom the people think do most profit them , their practise will yet further shew you if you will but leave them to themselves . iii. our next reason is fetcht from the very plain expressions of the scriptures ; which i shall first recite , and then shew you their strength for us , and answer the common evasions of them that would disoblige us , and gratifie our sloth . and , . take notice of those that describe the office , and its duration , mat. . , , , . ye are the salt of the earth , &c. ye are the light of the world . a city that is set on an hill cannot be hid . neither do men light a candle , and put it under a bushel , but on a candlestick , and it giveth light to all that are in the house . let your light so shine , &c. that this is spoken of ministers , see dr. hammond and others commonly on the text. and ordinary ministers are lights of christs setting up , as well as extraordinary . therefore his promise extendeth further than to apostles , and therefore so doth his commission , mat. . , . go and teach all nations , baptizing them , &c. teaching them to observe all things whatsoever i have commanded you ; and lo i am with you always to the end of the world . and , eph. . , , , , , , . it is ordinary pastors as well as extraordinary , that are the gift of christ , for that work which is to be done unto the end , for the perfecting of the saints , for the work of the ministry , for the edifying of the body of christ , till we all come in the unity of the faith , and of the knowledg of the son of god unto a perfect man , unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of christ , &c. it is true we be not called as apostles were ; but several modes of vocation , make not several originals of power . we are under the same master , and have our office from christ , and hold it under him as well as they , and have his command as well as his gifts to exercise it to the end . therefore if apostles must obey him by constancy , so must we . as apostles are separated to the gospel of god , so are we by our consecration , rom. . . and therefore are commanded to give up our selves wholly to this work , and to continue in doctrine , that we may save our selves and them that hear us , tim. . , . it is not only apostles ( who yet call themselves fellow presbyters , pet. . . ) that are stewards of the mysteries of god , and must be so accounted of , and therefore must be faithful to the trust that christ their master placeth in them , cor. . , . for ordinary pastors are so called , tit. . . and surely it is not only apostles that are meant , mat. . , , . vvho then is a faithful and wise servant , whom his lord hath made ruler over his houshold to give them meat in due season . blessed is that servant whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing . verily i say unto you , that he shall make him ruler over all his goods . but if that evil servant shall say in his heart , my lord delayeth his coming , and shall begin to smite his fellow servants , and to eat and drink with the drunken , &c. here observe , . that those have a charge and law immediately from christs mouth , who are his ministers or stewards to feed his flock , and not apostles only . . that they are the rulers of his house , and judges of the season of feeding his houshold . . that they must be found so doing at the coming of christ , ( who liveth till then . ) . that this is that coming , when he will make the faithful rulers over all his goods . . that smiting fellow-servants , and glutting the flesh with fulness , are the marks of wicked ministers that christ will damn . . those texts also must be considered , that plainly plead for the necessity of preaching when forbidden by magistrates , act. . . & . . whether it be better to obey god or men , judg ye . ordinary as well as extraordinary ministers are intrusted with the word and sacraments , and commanded by christ himself in his law , to constancy and faithfulness . and ordinary ministers as well as apostles must obey god rather than men . the sanhedrin had not the face to deny it , as dr. hammond noteth , and therefore the apostles lest it to their consciences to judg . cor. . , . necessity is laid upon me , yea wo is unto me if i preach not the gospel . to talk now of impertinent disparities , is but the shift of those that have very gross wits to work upon , that will be abused by any thing . paul spake this of himself ; but was it of himself only as extraordinarily called ? if you so put off all that is spoken to and of apostles , you will lose your strongest argument for episcopacy , which is fetcht from the apostles power . and you will cast by most texts that all ministers and christians are obliged by , to a great part of their duty . is there a necessity laid on ordinary pastors also , or not ? if you say not , speak out that you may be understood . if yea , then wo be to them also if they preach not the gospel , though rulers be against it , as they were against the preaching of paul. necessity was laid on paul by a voice from heaven , and necessity is laid on us by the word of god in scripture , when ordination hath consecrated us to the office ; and wo to them that feel not the obligation of necessity . act. . . and now , lord , behold their threatnings , and grant to thy servants that with all boldness they may speak thy word . mens threatnings will not dispense with us as to the duty of preaching boldly . obj. men did not give the apostles their power , and therefore men could not take it away . ans. . men give not any pastors their office or power , but only : . design the person that shall receive it from christ ( as is aforesaid . ) . and ministerially invest them with it , as a servant delivereth possession by a key , or twig , or turf , who yet is none of the giver of the right as from himself . . and magistrates give liberty of exercise ; and so they might do to the apostles . . men gave the office to other ministers in those times in the same improper sense as they may be said to give it now . almost all the princes and rulers in the world where the gospel came , were against the preaching of it ; and many of them forbad the preachers . and yet the universal consent of all the churches , and chief martyrs hath still been , that their prohibitions would not warrant the pastors to give over preaching . and hear the holy ghost also in this case , tim. . , . i charge thee before god , and the lord jesus christ , who shall judg the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom , ( o dreadful charge ! ) preach the word ; be instant in season , out of season , reprove , rebuke , exhort , with all long-suffering and doctrine . sure the spirit of god foresaw what would be said against preaching in our times ; was not timothy ordained by man ? did he not preach against the rulers will ? and yet must he do it , in season and out of season , on so severe a charge ! o lord forgive all our omissions , and negligence , which hath been occasioned by the will of man , against the will and interest of christ ! so , tim. . , . i give thee charge in the sight of god , who quickeneth all things ▪ and before christ jesus , who before pontius pilate witnessed a good confession , that thou keep this commandment without spot , unrebukeable , until the appearing of our lord jesus christ , &c. what commandment ? why the laws for the ministry before laid down . but what if the rulers be against it ? that was undoubtedly expected ; and yet you see the terrible charge , till the appearing of christ. therefore as one that was to be judged as an offender for his ministry at the bar of man , he exhorteth him , tim. . . be not thou ashamed of the testimony of our lord , and of me his prisoner , but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel ▪ ver. , , . whereunto i am appointed a preacher , and an apostle , and a teacher of the gentiles ▪ for the which cause i also suffer these things : nevertheless i am not ashamed , for i know whom i have believed , &c. hold fast the form of sound words which thou hast heard of me , &c. that good thing which was committed to thee , keep , &c. how keep ? not secretly only as a christian , but openly as a preacher , though thou suffer for it as i do . so must titus , chap. . . these things speak and exhort , and rebuke with all authority . and such another charge have the elders or bishops from the apostle peter , pet. . , , . qu. but is this also the case of those that succeeded them ? ans. yes , they ordained others into the same office , under the same law of constancy and fidelity , tim. . . the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses , the same commit thou to faithful men , who shall be able to teach others also . though still the rulers were against it . and tim. . , . the servant of the lord must be apt to teach . and what an example of preaching publickly and from house to house , night and day , doth paul give to all the ephesian elders , act. . even when rulers were against it ? and again , i say , the practise and martyrdom of many , and the writings of others do assure us that this was the judgment of clemens romanus , ignatius , polycarp , cyprian , irenaeus , clemens alexandrinus , origen , and generally of all the ancient church , who were called as we are by men , and yet preached to the death against the will of the magistrate . and as paul himself desireth prayers for him , that utterance may be given him , that he might open his mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel , for which he was an ambassador in bonds , that therein he might speak boldly as he ought to speak , eph. . , . so he oft commendeth his fellow-labourers that accordingly served with him in the gospel , though they were no apostles , phil. . . & . . rom. , &c. and as he spake not as a man-pleaser , thes. . . gal. . , . and as christ would have his word preacht as on the house top , mat. . , . so this is done as a duty of fidelity in ministers as such ; and therefore christ adjoineth with this charge such words as these that shew the rulers prohibition , vers. , , &c. . behold i send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves , be ye therefore wise as serpents , and harmless as doves : but beware of men , for they will deliver you up to the councils , and they will scourge you in their synagogues ; and ye shall be brought before governours and kings for my sake , for a testimony against them and the gentiles , &c. and ye shall be hated of all men for my name sake , &c. but when they persecute you in this city , flee ye into another . the disciple is not above his master , &c. fear them not therefore , &c. fear them not which kill the body , but are not able to kill the soul , but rather fear him , &c. these are the next words to the command , vvhat i tell you in darkness , that speak ye in the light : and what ye hear in the ear , that preach ye on the house-top . luk. . . no man having put his hand to the plow , and looking back , is fit for the kingdom of god. both christians as such , and ministers as such , must absolutely give up themselves to christ , and not look back for fear of man , whatever it cost them to proceed . . mat. . . luk. . . christ commandeth , pray the lord of the harvest to send forth labourers into his harvest ; viz. because the harvest is great , and the labourers few . and this is every christians daily prayer , when we say , thy kingdom come , thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven . if it be our duty daily to pray god to proportion the number of labourers to the greatness and necessity of the work ; and that his kingdom , and the obedience of his will , may be by his appointed means promoted on earth , then it is our duty to do as we pray , and not play the hypocrites with god , as st. james his reproved hypocrites did as to the relieving of the poor ; that said , go and be clothed and warmed , but gave them neither clothes nor food . for a called minister to pray , lord send out more preachers , and such as will promote thy kingdom , and perswade the world to do thy will ; while he forbeareth to preach himself , because that man forbiddeth him unwarrantably , this is as very a mocking of god , as it would be by the rich and covetous to pray , lord send some to relieve the poor , when he giveth them nothing of his abundance . . the reasons of all these commands for constant preaching , are moral and perpetual ; for the work of the ministry is to open mens eyes , and turn them from darkness to light , and from the power of satan unto god , that they may receive remission of sins , and inheritance among the sanctified , &c. act. . , . but this work for these ends belongs to us to this day ; and therefore these reasons intimate that the like constancy is our duty as was theirs . but before i proceed to our further reasons , it will here be expected that i say somewhat more to the grand objection , viz. these that you talk of were infidel or heathen rulers ; and will you compare our with them ? or doth it follow that christian rulers may not silence ministers , because they might not ? answ. . no , far be it from me to compare our governours with such : we thankfully acknowledg it to be the glory of england , that it hath a king and magistracy that owneth christianity ; yea more , that when the whole world hath but three protestant kings ( that i know of ) we have not only one of the three , but the chiefest ; who keepeth religion in greater purity than the rest . but that which i have all this while been proving is but this , that where and when the gospel is necessary to be preached , true ministers of christ may not lawfully forbear , because the rulers do forbid them , though they be not apostles , but called by the way of man. . a christian magistrate doth no more ordain and degrade than other rulers ; but he is the governour of the ministers , to keep them from neglecting or abusing their callings ; and he may drive those out of his dominions that will not otherwise be kept from subverting faith or godliness , or that are proved truly to do more hurt than good in the land. and therefore if the king restrain or banish those that are truly the plagues and destroyers of the land , or of religion , or loyalty , he shall never be blamed for it by us . or if ever it be the question only , vvhether this man or that man be fittest to have his countenance and maintenance , and to be by him allowed to preach , when only one of the two is needful , we shall never speak against him for chusing according to his judgment , as long as meer hereticks , impious , or intollerably unable ones are not chosen . but if many hundred worthy ministers shall be forbidden to preach at a time and in a land where many hundred thousand souls do wofully cry out for help , as lying in damnable ignorance and sensuality , and ungodliness , in this case we say , that no rulers may forbid such preaching . . the objectors seem to intimate dangerous doctrine , that if a king should not be a christian , or of the right religion , he lost his power over the church , which is false , however maintained by the papists . the heathen and infidel rulers had the government of all their subjects , christians and apostles as well as others . they wanted aptitude to do it well , and therefore some of them persecuted ; but they wanted not authority ; a king loseth not his authority , when ever he loseth his aptitude to use it rightly . christian kings only can rule the church well , but others also are its authorized rulers ; and there is no external coactive power at all but in the kings or magistrates , be they christian or infidel . . christ himself did not set up a kingdom of this world , or worldly , nor exempt himself from the government of the rulers . nor did his apostles exempt themselves or the church . paul , rom. , &c. and peter , call on all christians to honour the king , and to be subject to the higher powers for conscience sake . mark then in this how little our case doth differ from the apostles , when they were forbidden to preach , not by usurpers only , but by lawful rulers , to whom they professed conscientious subjection ; and yet must obey god rather than those very rulers . . christian rulers are the churches nursing fathers ; and have more obligation than others to build it up , but no more power to pull it down . they have all their power as paul had his , for edification and not for destruction . it was never referred to them to judg ( as i have before said ) whether there shall be a church , or a christ , or a ministry , or whether souls ▪ shall be saved or damned ; or the gospel preached where it is necessary to salvation , or not ? but only by whom , and in what order , which best furthereth mens salvation , it shall be preached . if a magistrate as a magistrate may not forbid necessary preaching , much less may a christian magistrate as christian , who is more obliged to promote it . this therefore altereth not the case . . the sanhedrin , and herod , and other jewish rulers , had such real authority as christ did not disown ; of the same nature with jehoshaphats and hezekiahs . if therefore these were not to be obeyed when they forbad necessary preaching , then lawful rulers in that case are not to be obeyed . . the arrian emperours had lawful power of coactive government over the church ; and yet the orthodox bishops never thought it their duty to cease preaching in conscience of obeying their commands . ( though they were forced oft to quit their present stations . ) let not any cainite here say that i compare our rulers to arrians . for i only argue , that if an arrian emperour had true authority , and yet when he thus abused it , was not to be obeyed by forbearing to preach ; the same must be said of others that have authority , in case of the like prohibitions . . christ setled pastors over his churches years before there were any christian princes or states . by which he shewed , that though princes are the true rulers of pastors , yet pastors are more necessary to the being of the church , and to salvation of the people , than princes are ; and that pastors hold not their office from princes , nor at their will , ( unless you think they had no true power till constantines reign . ) . magistrates may not hinder a sufficient number from entering into the ministry , ( else the meaning of christ must be , pray the lord of the harvest to perswade kings and rulers to give leave to men to become labourers . ) therefore they may not hinder a sufficient number from labouring when they are entered . . magistrates cannot dispense with absolute lawful vows to god ( at least about necessary duty . ) this all protestant divines maintain in their writings against the papists , who plead for the popes power to dispense with vows . ) but our enterance into the ministry had the nature of an absolute lawful vow , ( and was done by the magistrates encouragement . ) for in it we did solemnly devote our selves to the sacred office and work . . magistrates are christs officers and servants , and have no power but from him , and for him , ( as the justice and constable are under the king. ) therefore they have no power against him ▪ therefore they have no power to forbid the necessary preaching of the gospel , ( and where it is not necessary , we confess their power . ) . if the magistrate might degrade ministers , or absolutely forbid their work , then it would follow , that one prince hath the government of all other princes dominions , or else that all princes on earth must agree to the degrading of a minister . for it is fully proved by divines of all parties , except some of the independents , that ministers at their ordination are ( as christians at their baptism ) entered into a relation to the universal church , and not only to one particular church . and therefore he that is removed from one church or kingdom , is not removed from the ministerial office , which continueth as towards an indefinite object . yea , we are first in order of nature related to the unconverted world , as we have capacity : go teach all nations , baptizing them , will be christs law to the end of the world and if they cannot degrade , they cannot take away the power of exercising the office statedly ; but only suspend it for a time , or limit the exercise , or regulate it by their governing power , on just occasions ; and governing an office is not nullifying or destroying it . obj but if the magistrate may suspend them , and deny them liberty in his dominions , then it is he , and not every minister ▪ that is to judg who deserveth such restraint . . if you speak of publick judgment ( which is the publick decision of a controverted cause ) no doubt it is only the magistrate that is judg , in foro civili : no pastor may enter into the judgment ▪ seat , and judg his own cause . but if you speak of a private judgment of discerning , every mans reason is the discerner of his own duty ; for he cannot do it without discerning it . . the magistrate is to judg publickly , but not as he list , as left to his own will ; but as an officer of christ under the regulation of his laws , ( as our judges are regulated by the kings laws . ) the king may judg between an infidel and a christian , whether christ be the son of god ; but not indifferently as he please ; but only in the affirmative . he may judg if it become a publick controversie , whether god shall be worshipped ? whether he may be blasphemed ? whether there be a life to come ? whether the scripture be gods word ? and so , whether there shall be a ministry ? whether ministers shall preach in his dominions ? or so many as is necessary to mens salvation ? but he is bound before hand to judg only one way , and hath no power to judg on the other side at all . else he might judg that men shall not be saved ? and that christ shall have no ministers or church ; and consequently be no christ. . yet if rulers do judg amiss in any such cases , they are not by force of arms to be resisted , though they are not to be obeyed . obj. by this pretence of a private judgment of discerning , you will set up two soveraigns , or make every mans conscience his king ; and so the king having lost his power over conscience ▪ a zealous conscience will be the unruliest beast in the world . answ. . in good sadness would you have men have a judgment of private discerning , or not ? if you would , all this concerneth you as well as us . if not , then no man must discern that it is his duty to obey the king rather than an usurper , or rather than to rebel against him . such excellent assistance would brutish principles give to government ! then men must not discern whether to preach or be silent ? or what to preach on ? nor whether to be drunk or sober ? chaste or unchaste ? to think and speak well or ill ? whether god should be honoured or blasphemed ? or what religion we should be of , christians or infidels ? then only the king must be a man , and his subjects bruits , that must use no reason ; and so the king be made a herdsman to govern beasts instead of men . and then what councellors , judges and justices shall he have ? and o then what excellent preaching shall the people hear ! absolute obedience is due only unto god. . and as to what you say of conscience , to bind conscience , that is , science , is an improper expression ; but as to that which is commonly meant by it , it is one thing to bind a mans soul to make conscience of his duty , and another thing to bind his soul to go against the conscience of his duty . binding conscience is an ambiguous word . we flatly affirm as well as you , that the kings laws do bind the mind or soul ( or conscience if you will so call it ) to a conscionable performance of all his lawful commands ; for nothing but cords and irons bind the body without the soul ; and he that obligeth not the soul , obligeth not the man ; and he that obligeth not , ruleth not . as god bindeth by a primary obligation as god , so kings bind the mind by a secondary obligation , by the power which they derive from god as men . i say , not only that god bindeth us in conscience to obey the king , but that the kings derived power enableth him to oblige the soul in subordination to god ; which is no more than to say that he may make laws and rule by them . but whether this shall be called a binding of conscience , is only lis de nomine . conscience is sometime taken as largely as conscire ; and so we are conscious of our duty to the king. but in theology it is usually taken more strictly , for a mans judgment of himself as he stands related to the judgment of god. and so when the very definition appropriateth conscience to our relation to god , it cannot so be subject to man. . conscience is no king , no competitor with the king , no ruler of any man at all ( in a true proper sense . ) it is but only a discerner of our duty , and not a maker of it ; a knower and applier of the law , and not a law-giver . and is it not fine reasoning to say , if a man must be the discerner of his duty to god and the king , he can be no good subject ? . and conscience discerning duty to god , is it that is here to be orderly distinguished from conscience discerning duty to man ? god and man are our governours ; if we are not agreed which of them is the greater , stay a while , and we shall be agreed . conscience is but a discerner of our respective duty to each of them ; ( or taken strictly and theologically , of our duty to god only ) so that this is the question , whether when a man is conscious of his duty to god , he may omit it , because that man forbiddeth it ? or when a man is conscious what god forbiddeth , he may do it if man command it ? so that for man to bind conscience ( if you will speak ineptly ) to duty , is one thing ; and for man to bind us to go against conscience is another thing . for that 's all one as to bind us to do that which , as far as we can discern , is against gods law ; and so the issue of all is whether conscience of gods command , or conscience of mans command , is to be preferred ? and this being the plain english of the case , is it not a blessed time and land think you , when confident raw confused wits shall by such questions as , vvhether the king or conscience be supream , deceive and mislead poor people in a maze , and confound them as to all religion ; when an ordinary wit that had been but preserved by humility and catholicism , ( or freedom from faction ) might easily have distinguished , and set them in the open light ? . it went for current in the catholick church , not only for the first years , but long after there were christian emperors , that the people were to chuse their pastors . cyprians epistle that earnestly pleadeth for the peoples power and duty in this kind , and chargeth the guilt upon them if they forsake not seducing and schismatical pastors , is well known . the common practise of the churches also is known as well . and long after there were christian emperours , though some dignitaries , as patriarchs , and a few great bishops , were obtruded on the people by the emperours choice , when they could not agree among themselves , yet the people constantly kept their former custom and priviledg , and chose all the ordinary bishops and pastors in conjunction with the presbyters . the bishops sometimes chose alone who should be a minister in general ( as the colledg of physicians licenseth general physicians . ) but who should be their own pastors , was always , or usually at the peoples choice ( with the ordainers ) , as every man chuseth his own physician . ) see blondels copious testimony de jure plebis in regimine ecclesiastico , adjoined to grotius his excellent treatise , de imperio sumar , potestat , circa sacra . now this being so , the old christians never believed that the emperour could justly so frustrate their choices , as to make it unlawful by his prohibition , for their pastors to preach to them , when their preaching was necessary to the churches good ; nor that the emperours were the only judges of the necessity ; and that god and nature had given no power to themselves , to know what is necessary , good and helpful , or unnecessary , bad or hurtful to themselves . obj. the sheep chuse not their own shepherds , nor children their own school-masters . ans. . this is , as some call it , phrase-divinity . similitudes prove nothing beyond the point of likeness . sheep have not reason , and children have it not in maturity and full use . . are we grown better and wiser now than the churches all were for years ? or for the first either ? why do men pretend so much to antiquity , and cry out against novelty , who when interest bids them do more than others , despise the judgment and example of the primitive ancient church , as a ragged , fordid , infant-thing ? . mans nature hath laid the foundation of this order . it is not possible for the people to be edified by ministers , or worship god in their communion acceptably , against their own wills . and therefore as their consent is of absolute necessity to their benefit and salvation , so it is the more necessary to the just calling of him that must profit them . for they are the likelier to consent to his doctrine and rule , when they have first consented to his relation ; and so e contra , they are the likelier to reject the guidance of him that was forced on them against their wills . obj. but what divisions and heresies shall we have if all the people shall chuse their pastors ? and then they may bring in hereticks whether the magistrates will or not . ans. . their choice is a matter of mutable convenience , but their consent is a matter of necessity . . i say not that they alone must chuse them or consent . two or three negative wills , sine quibus non , in a case of great concernment , is safer than one alone . writings or treasures belonging to three parties kept in a chest , of which every party hath a lock and key , are safer than under a single lock . the ordainers have a negative voice , and so have the people , as to the relation of the pastors to themselves . and so hath the magistrate ( under gods laws ) , whether that man shall live or preach in his dominions . . and god in wisdom is pleased to lay all mens salvation or damnation more upon themselves , and their own choice , than on the kings ; because it is themselves that must have the everlasting joy or sorrow . and therefore so he hath done by all the actions and means that stand nearest to their own salvation . . and when we say the ordainers and people conjunctly should chuse their pastors , we still say that when they are chosen , they are under the government of the king. . apply all your objections to the case of a physician to his patients ; it is meet that all physicians be under the government of the king , and that he by laws restrain them from the abuse of their callings . and it is meet that the colledg that can best judg , be the discerners who shall be a licensed physician ? but when all 's done , it is not meet that any one be forced on the sick without their own consent ? and why ? . because their consent is necessary to the use of the remedies . . because it is themselves that are most concerned in the event . . because every man knoweth much of his own condition , which the king doth not know . yet here you may as handsomely exclaim , what ? shall every woman , every boy , every sottish rustick and tradesman , have liberty to put his life into the hands of women or foolish empericks ? what murdering of men by medicine shall we then have ? and what diminution of the kings subjects . ans. but , . this is your error which confoundeth all , that you think the matters of imperfect man in an imperfect world , can be done without any imperfection or inconvenience ; and then that you look only with one eye on your own side , and cannot or will not see the far greater inconveniencies on the other side ; but will cure an inconvenience with a mischief , and subvert the end and substance to preserve your particular way of order . what would follow on the other side , if all men must have physicians forced on them ? those empty fellows that could make most friends , should be the seekers and finders of the place , ( especially if physicians were made lords , and had the honour and maintenance that bishops have . ) and next , the people must be taught by these formalists , that it is not for them to judg themselves what is good or bad for them , nor when to take physick , nor how much . and next they must be told , that it being an office of government as well as of skill , they must put their lives into his hand who ever he be , that is the physician of the place , and not go to others , as abler men . o what work would these orderers make ! if you here except against the aptness of the similitude , i will only ask you now , . whether the king is not as truly the governour of his subjects as to their lives , as he is as to their salvation ? do not his subjects bodies and lives belong to his care ? . is not every man as much concerned for his own soul , more than the king is , or any other , as he is for his health or life ? will not the salvation or damnation be his own ? . is not every mans free ▪ will as much and more to be exercised for his salvation as for his health ? you may drench him by force as a horse for his health , ( and therefore there is more pretence for cogent laws ) : but so you cannot for his soul. these things are plain to them that are willing to see ; but not to them whose interest will not give them leave , but like the ephesian craftsmen , must cry up diana , and cry down paul , to save their trades . and yet i still maintain that the king is to afford his subjects all help in his power , for their souls as well as for their bodies . iv. our fourth main reason why we dare not cease our ministry , is , because we shall sin against nature it self , even the great and radical law of love , and shall be guilty of murdering mens souls . and because magistrates cannot dispense with the great and necessary laws of nature , we put them all into one for brevity . . if we were lay men , yet charity would naturally oblige us , to do our best to save mens souls , in a way that doth not greater hurt ▪ deny this , and you deny the master-points of natural obligation , and are unfit to dispute about things indifferent . and the judgment of the ancient church , ( as the case of origen and other teachers and catechists at alexandria , as well as that of frumentius and edesius do witness ) is flat against you ▪ and so is the common judgment of divines , both protestants and papists , who use to cite these instances to prove that in some case lay-men may be publick teachers . but if they might not in churches ( lest they seem usurpers ) yet in other places they may do it , when necessity requireth it , and so they exceed not their abilities in their undertakings . . but being once consecrated as ministers to christ , we are now under a double law of diligence ; the law of nature , and the positive law of the ministry ; ( as a father sinneth against the law of nature and love , and against the positive laws of his relation , if he famish his children . ) and here we must take into consideration , . that a soul is more precious than a body , and a mans salvation or damnation is a thousand times more than his life or death . . that yet the murder of mens natural life is a sin so great , that no man hath power to allow us in or justifie . . that love and the expressions of it are so very great duties , that it is called , the fulfilling of the law ; and according to it the process and doom of mens final judgment is described in mat. . it is for not feeding , not clothing , not visiting , &c. that men perish ; and not feeding and saving souls is worse . . that murder of body or soul may be committed by privative means , as truly as by positive . he that provideth not for his own , and his family , hath denied the faith , and is worse than an infidel . the father that famisheth his children , murdereth them , as well as he that cuts their throats . and if ezekiel ( chap. . . ) &c. had so strict a charge of the people as gods watchman , that their blood should be required at his hands if he were silent ; though we are no prophets , we are called by the ordinary way ( as the priests then were ) to as real a charge . so that their damnation may be charged on us if we be silent , whoever forbids us , when our preaching is necessary . and when in our thoughts we compare the peoples lying for ever in hell , with our lying in prison for a little time , or lying under displeasure or reproach , o how vastly different is the case ! if you your selves believe not such a state of impenitent souls hereafter , and that convincing and converting teaching , is needful to prevent it , give over your callings , and lay not claim to tyths , and glebes , and lands , and lordships , for a needless work . but if you do believe it , judg then of our case as men that do believe it . suppose those damned souls were now crying out against us , why did you not teach us , and call upon us , and warn us , that we might not have come to this place of torment ? and we should answer them . the magistrates forbad us . would this answer seem wise and honest to your selves , if you did but see the things you hear of ? obj. but the magistrate may chuse the objects of your charity , and also he may regulate it : and so the law forbiddeth you to relieve the wandring poor ; charity in general is necessary ; but what way it shall be used in , whether high ways , or bridges , or building ▪ churches , &c. the magistrate may determine . ans. there are more things go for indifferent with some men , than ceremonies . charity in general without any determinate object or way of expression , is nothing . it is but a logical name . and as for the objects , some are to our charity of standing necessity , and so are some expressions of it ; and some other acts of charity are about mutable circumstances to be governed by men ; that is , the universal laws of the universal soveraign , have predetermined of some , and not left them as mutable to the laws of men . it is not in our judgment an indifferent thing , nor alterable by the will of princes , whether parents shall nourish their children , or whether children shall supply their parents wants if able ? nor whether we shall give food to him that is dying through famine ? nor whether we shall seek to save mens lives from fire or water , or other dangers ? otherwise all the charge against the damned at the day of judgment , described mat. . might be answered in a word , and christs mouth be stopped , by saying , rulers forbad us to feed thee , to clothe thee , to visit thee in thy members . he that may not command me to murder the innocent by action , may not command me to do it by omission or privation ; except in case that the publick good or safety , or the lives of many will be hazarded by my saving the life of one . it is not to us a thing indifferent whether a man or many thousand men , be saved or damned . nor is it in mans power to warrant us to forbear that means that is really necessary to mens salvation , according to gods ordinary way of working . . we fully grant that the magistrate may regulate acts of charity , that is , he may govern us in them for the better promoting of their ends . but he may not hinder them on that pretence , or destroy the end . i will obey the law that forbiddeth me to relieve a wandering beggar , if really he be not in danger of death for want of food ; but if he be ready to die at my door , i will disobey the law , except in case that the saving of that one mans life would destroy many , or hinder a greater good . if the law make one in every parish an overseer of the poor , and forbid all other relief but by that overseer ; and either through the number of the poor , or his own disability or negligence , he relieveth not one of twenty , or at least so poorly , that twenty , or ten , or two to one are in danger of famishing , i will disobey that law , and relieve them as far as i am able , though i go to goal for it , and be voluminously railed at as a schismatick or rebel . yea more , if the poor be ideots , foolish , proud and surly , and will rather famish than beg relief of their overseer , i will take my self as guilty of their death , if i relieve them not when i am able ; and if i think their folly to be my excuse , i shall be deceived . and here i cannot but confess my dissent from the ecclesiastical politician in the case of scandal , pag. , . i do not believe that the schools distinction of scandal into datum & acceptum , is apparently false and impertinent , and is the main thing that hath perplexed all discourses of this article : much less that all the obligations of scandal proceed purely from that extraordinary height of charity and tenderness , of good nature , &c. nor yet that if it proceed from humour , or pride , or wilfulness , or any other vicious principle , then is the man to be treated as a peevish and stubborn person ; and no man is bound to part with his own freedom , because his neighbour is froward and humourous , &c. i perceive by many such passages as these , that we differ in doctrinals as well as in ceremony , from some that are for our suffering ; yea that indeed we are not of the same religion : for love is the life of our religion . and our love is not not so limited and narrow a kind of love , nor so feeble and impotent as this here described ; much less do we number it with things indifferent , or that are left to our liberty , or with those that some call either works of supererogation , or of evangelical perfection , as answering to counsels and not to commands . we are not ashamed of our judgment in this point , whoever shall account it heresie or error , we hold that it is our duty to love our neighbours as our selves ; and that this is not an act of extraordinary charity ( unless as the malice of uncharitable men doth eventually make and denominate it extraordinary . ) but that it is essential to all true saving love , and common to every true member of christ that shall be saved . we believe that this love must be extended to the proud and peevish , and unto our very enemies ; and therefore we pray ( more conformably to the liturgy than such conformists ) that god will forgive our enemies , persecutors and slanderers , and turn their hearts . accordingly it is part of our religion , that we are obliged to do good to the proud and peevish , as well as others ; yea unto all men to the utmost of our power ; except those who by law are taken out of our care , by being destined to death for their crimes , whose bodies we may not endeavour to save , but their souls are as much under our necessary duty as others ; we hold that even a traytor , murderer or felon , going to the gallows , must be so far loved , pitied and helped , that we must do much more than forbear a thing indifferent to save their souls . for we long ago received pauls opinion , that we should rather chuse never to eat flesh while we lived , than to hinder their salvation for whom christ died . we believe very confidently , that if a proud or peevish man were cutting his own throat , or hanging or drowning himself , that by an ordinary obligation common to men , we are bound in charity to do our best to save his life , to cut the rope , to pull him out of the water , though we lost for it the liberty of a lawful game , or feast , or rest , yea , though it must cost us dear . and we believe that if we do not this , we do not only fail of an extraordinary height of charity , but that we are murderers ; and that we do not only cross the tenderness of good nature , but common humanity ; we cannot deny but we take him for a beast , and worse than an infidel , that will not only famish his family , but stand by and let them cut their own throats , if he can but say , they are stubborn , proud and peevish , or drunk ; or that will see his neighbours drown or hang themselves , if they do it in pride , or peevishness , or stubbornness , rather than he will forsake his liberty in a thing indifferent . and therefore it is contrary to our religion to sell a soul ( much more many thousands ) for a ceremony . we take the sixth commandment to mean , thou shalt not murder the good or the bad , the patient or the peevish by commission or by omission . and as much as souls are more worth than bodies , and everlasting life than temporal , so much the greater sin do we take it for , to be the murderers of souls by omission , than of bodies . and that it will be an insufficient excuse for omissive soul-murdering , to say , he was peevish , and i should have parted with my freedom . could we once think that doing no harm is all our necessary religion , and that doing good is only the work of an extraordinary height of charity , then we could be in this of another mind ( and could think a stone or tree more religious than a mortal saint . ) but we have not so learnt to be religious . . and indeed we think that this opinion would almost excuse the whole world from works of charity to any , at least except ideots and infants . for ( to confess all our cross opinions freely ) we deny not but that we hold the doctrine of original sin as inherent in all the seed of adam ; and we must have pardon in our nonconformity for conformity so far to the scriptures and the articles and doctrine of the church of england , and of the universal church . and therefore we hold that the whole nature of man is corrupted from the womb with some vicious principle ; yea more than so , with the particular principles of pride , humour , and stubbornness , and peevishness . and therefore that according to this rule , which we dissent from , all the world should be suffered to be hanged and damned for ever , rather than a conformist should lose a game at chess , or a cup of sack , or abate a ceremony . because if it proceed from humour , pride or peevishness , or any other vicious principle — no man is bound to part with his own freedom , because his neighbour is froward and humourous . and we hold , that there are few men , or none , that have lived so innocently , but that ( if original sin were denied ) they have by practice contracted some vicious principles , even of pride , and humour , and frowardness . and we hold that it was to cure such viciated souls , and such principles , that christ came into the world , and that he made the gospel , and instituted the ministry ; and that we are workers under christ in this work ; and that this seeking and saving of that which is lost , even of the proud and froward , and humour some , and peevish , is the very employment of our office . and that none of these are that blasphemy of the holy ghost that maketh sin unpardonable and uncurable . and that though dogged hearing us , and swinish contempt of the gospel it self , may excuse us from further importunity with some , and allow us to shake off the dust off our feet against them ; yet so will not every vicious principle , nor the frowardness and humour here described . nor yet will a particular humour or peevishness allow us to neglect the souls of them , that in the main have received the gospel of salvation . i confess we are of the number of them that mourn for the reproach of those pitified churches , where the pastors are of these opinions , and think that if all the children of christs family be but peevish and froward , the nurses may let them all sin and be damned , and not part with any of their freedoms to cure them , or to save them . were i also of this opinion , i should not stick to make merchandize of souls , and to sell an hundred for a benefice , and twenty thousand for a bishoprick , nor to give over preaching to prevent my suffering , were fouls so contemptible , and of so little value . and consequently we think that the school-distinction of scandal given and taken , is not so false and impertinent as is here said . the sense of the distinction is , that the fault is sometimes in the giver , and sometimes only in the taker . scandal being a snare , a trap , a stumbling-block , or a temptation to sin ; we think there are several sorts of scandal : first , scandal given is by actions otherwise sinful ( for it s no wonder if one sin be a temptation to another ) or by actions sinful only in this . and that scandal is , . when the action otherwise lawful is purposely intended as a snare or temptation . . when it is not so intended but hath a strong natural tendency in it self to tempt , and being unnecessary , is the effect of great inadvertency , carelesness , rashness , and want of love to others souls . but scandal taken and not given , ( that is , not culpably given ) is , when it is either from a necessary duty of ours , or from a thing so harmless as that there is no probability that it should be a temptation to any but those that go out of their way to seek for matter of temptation to themselves , by an extraordinary perverseness . we think it no false distinguishing to say , that it is one thing to lay a trap or dig a pit purposely for men to fall in ; and another thing rashly and carelesly to dig a pit and cover it , to catch wild beasts in , in the common high-way , or very near it ; and another thing to dig a pit quite out of all ordinary passage of men , where yet a drunkard , or one that will seek a pit to leap into , may possibly find it . scandalum datum is that which charity and prudence bind men carefully to prevent ; and scandalum acceptum is that which ariseth not from any omission of the duty of him from whom it is taken . but more of this anon . we have told you our religion , but we are not now disputing against yours . if the naming of such opinions be confutation enough , the owners have confuted them themselves . if it be not , let them pass . our work at present is only apology , ( though we are tainted too with the disputing disease . ) and so much for our reasons for preaching christs gospel against mens will. the sum of all is this , it is an indispensible duty lying on us as men and ministers , by the obligation of gods law of charity , and as ministers , also by the obligation of our own vows or self-dedication at our ordination , to do our best in the exercise of all our talents , humane , christian , and ministerial , to seek to save the peoples souls , and so to preach , or teach , and exhort them in the manner which most conduceth thereto , when and where our teaching is truly and evidently necessary . but now in the kings dominions our teaching is to these ends truly and evidently necessary , therefore it is our duty so to teach . iii. because many of your contrary reasonings are already answered before , i will here annex the rest , that they may not have the disadvantage of too great a distance . . obj. your own preciseness and censoriousness maketh the common people seem mostly ignorant and prophane to you ; and then you pretend a necessity of your preaching , when you do but feign it , by setting your selves more above your neighbours than there is cause . ans. . i confess that many of the separatists are truly guilty of what you here object . for when they have unchurched whole parishes of men whom they know not , nor ever heard speak for themselves , we that have come after them have found abundance of the people much better than they imagined . but one error or extream will not justifie another : remember that we are not now talking of mens qualifications for visible communion in the church , but of their necessity of being taught . and we censure none beyond such cogent evidence as is not in our power now to be ignorant of . i beseech you deal openly with us , and answer us these few questions , and all the matter will be ended . . if men do not know who christ is , or what he came into the world for , nor what he hath done for us , nor what the holy ghost is , nor what he is to do for us , nor what a saviour or a sanctifier is , nor what is the plain sense of most articles of the creed , or petitions in the lords-prayer , have such men need of teaching to save their souls , or not ? . if men follow the world eagerly all the week , and talk of it on the lords day , and love not to hear any talk of another world , or how they must be pardoned and saved ; but swear , and curse , and rail , and many of them are drunkards , gluttons , or fornicators ; and if they never teach their children or families , or pray with them any more than infidels , and shew no religion but going to church , or perhaps sometimes say the lords-prayer and the creed without understanding ; and if we advise them to prepare for death , and the life to come , and tell them the need of a saviour , a sanctifier , and of faith , repentance , and a holy life , they tell us , that they will trust god with their souls , and not trouble their heads with things so high ; they shall speed as well as their neighbours . have these mens souls any need of teaching ? . if any of the people so much love their drunkenness and fornication , and other gross sins , that they hate the minister that seriously , though gently , reproveth them , and like cain would see their brothers blood if he offer god a more acceptable sacrifice than themselves , or slander and hate the most conformable minister that is but strict and seriously religious , and is talking against them on all occasins ; have these mens souls any need of exhortation , or not ? . if many of the people be weak in judgment that mean well , and have only a glimmering confused knowledge of most of the greatest matters of religion ; and though we hope well of their sincerity , they have abundance of mistakes and sad miscarriages in their lives , and are inclined to most of the real errors which the debate maker reciteth , and in danger of being carried into any opinions , which are offered by men who by nearness or plausibility of perswasion , come to them with any great advantage , yea and are like to be troublers of the church , have these men need to be taught or not ? let us but be once agreed , that the true belief , consent and performance of our baptismal covenant is necessary ordinarily to mens salvation , and that without faith it is impossible to please god ; and that except a man be regenerate of the spirit as well as of water , and except he be converted and become as a little child , he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven ; and that he that hath not the spirit of christ is none of his ; and that they that are in the flesh cannot please god , because the carnal mind is enmity against him ; and that without holiness none shall see the lord ; and that if the gospel be hid , it is hid to them that are lost ; and how can they hear without a preacher , &c. agree but to this , or any of this , and sure our case is fair for a good issue . mark . . heb. . . joh. . , , . mat. . . rom. . , , , , . heb. . . cor. . . rom. , &c. . and for the matter of fact , may a man that hath conversed among such people all his life-time , and been familiar with them daily , and that can hardly get a servant into his own house that is much better , or hardly in a years time get a servant to understand his baptism , or a quarter of his creed ; or a minister that hath made it his work every week to discourse about these matters with all the families in his parish , may such a man believe his own ears and eyes , or may be not ? if not , he is capable of being a papist , and believing transubstantiation : if yea , the business is determined so far as his acquaintance reacheth . . and if the same man live in many counties , and travel over most of the land , and find most places , as far as he can perceive , to be worse than the parish which he had thus tried ? and if all the painful pastors that he talketh with , that ever tried it , and all the most judicious christians of all countries , tell him that their experience is the same ; yea , if the great divines of the church have long made the same complaints in their printed sermons , may any of all these be believed or not ? . if at this day the divines that are angry with us for preaching , do make almost as sad complaints even of the people that we preach to our selves , or of the puritans or nonconformists : and if the most grave and reverend of the conformable divines do now in their sermons to the people , describe them as aforesaid , and much worse ; yet may we not believe that they have need of teaching ? if all this , and all that is said be nothing with you , we have nothing to say . but if it be , we are agreed , or at least you yield the cause to us , that know these things . a man of fourscore years old in the town where i was teacher , being asked what god the father was , said , he was a good man in heaven . and being asked what god the son was ? said , he was the sun , and pointed to the sun that shined . and being asked what the holy ghost was ? said , the moon . a wise and worthy neighbour-minister told me , that the oldest man that ever he knew , judged about sixscore ( having fled thither in his youth from another country for some crimes , and the old men of the parish never knew him but an old grey-headed man ) being in sound understanding before his death , and being asked by this minister , whither he thought to go when he died ? answered , to the church-yard i believe they will carry me . and when he was asked what he thought would become of his soul ? he answered to this purpose , as not knowing whether he had any soul or not ; but if he had , whether it would go to the moon , or what would become of it , it was not for him to know . the parish from which i was sent to goal , ( for exhorting them , and not swearing ) can witness , that they have heard their ancient grave and reverend pastor , and a dean , &c. tell them in the pulpit , that he thought they were all heathens , and there was no religion amongst them , and despairing of catechising them , ( because some came not two or three days ) gave it over many years ago . to say nothing whether some were well excommunicated for not communicating with such a church of heathens , i only ask , whether such a people had no need of teaching ? obj. we grant that all have need enough of teaching : but what can your teaching do more than other mens ? you think so highly of your selves , as if men cannot be saved unless they be taught by you ? do not we teach them the saving truth ? answ. . this is sufficiently answered before : the best school-master in england that hath a thousand , four thousand , ten thousand scholars , will have need of help ; will you say thus in any other case ? why may not one physician or apothecary in a city , one soldier in an army , one seaman in a ship , one magistrate in london , &c. serve turn as well as many ? many may do more than one alone ; and it is not mens anger that will hide the disparity of grace or abilities , by which one man is fitter than another . . judg but by your own experience : do you not see that the people are yet ignorant and uncured ? hath your ministry done that which maketh the help of others needless , yea or no ? if it have not , why should you hate assistance , or think that help will do no good ? if a physician have tried his best remedies , and yet his patient is visibly uncured , he will sure be willing that another shall try also , and do his best , rather than leave his patient desperate . . but if you are but willing to know the truth , you may be presently thus convinced , that it is not as nonconformists at all that we are followed or valued by those that i am now speaking of , or that we expect success with . in one of those parishes where we complain of raw and lifeless preaching , let but a clear , convincing , able teacher come and preach , and let not the common people know whether he be conformable or not , and you shall see that they make as great a difference as i am talking of ▪ let him be a conformable man also , and let them know it , except those partial persons that i am not now speaking of , the common hearers will applaud him above the parson of the parish that is cold and dry . this differencing of preaching among your selves sheweth , why it is that the common people do so willingly , where they have liberty , hear the nonconformists . alas , they have no prejudice against you antecedently , nor no such mind for nonconformity as to be partial for them , ( for they know not well what it is ) ; why is it in london that the congregations are so crowded , where bishop wilkins , dr. stillingfleet , dr. tillotson , mr. wells , dr. outram , dr. gifford , dr. horton , and such other conformists preach ? the soul of man will have a rational gust , and will not think all that they hear to be equally convincing , clear , effectual and good , when men have done all that they can against it . . obj. we confess the peoples necessity , and that there is a difference of teaching : but your teaching will not supply this necessity ; yea , it doth more harm than good . . some of you preach sedition and faction . . and others of you disaffect the people towards the parish ministers . it is you that have put all the scruples into their heads , and then you pretend that their weakness and partiality doth necessitate your preaching . how came it into their heads to think ill of bishops , and to scruple ceremonies , and corporation-oaths , but by you ? . and when you have done , you rather cherish all this , than plainly seek to cure them of it . go preach for conformity , and you may have liberty . ans. whether all this be true or not ( being matter of fact ) and because it hath been published of my self by name , and because they judg of the rest of the puritans and presbyterians ( as they will needs call them ) by me , i take it to be my duty as for my self and others , to answer this more historically than otherwise i should think convenient . . is it justice to charge men with seditious preaching that never were accused or convict of any such doctrine before any competent judg ? if any man preach sedition , heresie or schism , convict him , and let him suffer for it . the law is open , and the judges are not partial for nonconformists . and you may have more witnesses against us by how much the more publickly we are allowed to preach . . do you think that men cannot differ from your opinions , unless we put it into their heads ? i know not how to consute you but by experience : . i must needs assure you , that upon my experience above thirty years , the people are much proner to separation , and to think very hardly of the liturgy and ceremonies , than the ministers be . insomuch that it hath been my wonder many a year to observe it , that when we have but awakened the consciences of ignorant and sensual persons to repentance , shortly , e're we are aware , they fall on scrupling ceremonies , and disliking the liturgy , when we know of none that put them on it . but the openest cause that ever i could observe ( if you can bear publick historical truth ) is this : as soon as they repent of an ungodly worldly life , and begin to have serious thoughts of another world , they are apt in their ignorance to judg of things by persons ; and when they are convinced of a great difference between a life of faith and of sense , and between the sober , righteous , godly , and the intemperate , unrighteous and ungodly , they presently mark what way these several people go in the matters of worship which are past their own understandings . and when they have seen in most places the deboist and vicious people to be great haters of strictness , and so of puritans , and of religious exercises in any way but by forms , and see them so much for bishops and common-prayer , and then see some severities exercised against those that have lived most strictly , they presently suspect that bishops are the suppressors of the most religious , and the encouragers of those that need reformation , and that forms and ceremonies are but the means to quiet the ungodly in their want of the truth and life of godliness , and to make them think themselves religious . these are the ways of the peoples receiving prejudice against you , as far as ever i could discern , which i write not in approbation , but historically . and i ever found that those bishops and pastors that most encouraged serious godliness , such as bishop hall , potter , davenant , morton , &c. were reverenced by the people . and the names of jewel , abbot , grindal , parry , babington , pilkington , and many more such , are still venerable among the puritans , as you call them . but i cannot speak so certainly of any ones case as my own : i will give you the true narrative of my education , and leave it to you to judg , what put the principles of nonconformity into my head . i was never bred up under any nonconformable minister ; from the age of six till ten , i had four school-masters , curates of the place successively , that read common-prayer ; two never preached , the other two seldom ; but the two more learned drank themselves into beggery and left us . i came then to live at the habitation of my ancestors . there i fonnd one sir william rogers about fourscore , parson of two places twenty miles distant , that never preaehed ( they told me ) in all his life ; when his sight failed , he said the common-prayer by rote ; and he that read all the scriptures was a poor day-labourer of the place ; and the next year when he gave over , a taylor read it . after him a pretended minister , grandchild to the parson , took the whole cure , but never preached once . the son of the old parson also was there sometimes a minister , that is a reader , and a famous debauched stage-player . at this time a son of the next neighbour turned minister , and exceeded them so far that he undertook to preach , and had a benefice a great way off , whence after many years scandal he fled upon a discovery that one of the forementioned had forged his orders . the next curate ( that did all that there was done ) and my school-master , was another neighbours son , who being set to be a lawyers clerk drunk himself into such necessity that he was fain to turn curate . when ever he came in drunk , we knew it by our smarts , being sure to be whipt . he never preached in my time there but once , which was the terriblest sermon that ever i heard , to hear a man drunk in the pulpit ( or else he had not ventured to preach ) to talk a deal of stark nonsense upon so terrible a text , as mat. . come ye blessed and go ye cursed . our next parson was no nonconformist neither . and then i was taken into the tuition of a grave and eminent man , of high esteem among great men , who expected verily to have been a bishop . he loved me well ; but so far frustrated my expectation , that in almost two years time he neither read to me , nor instructed me one hour , but discoursed usually of the unlearned factious puritans . in his study ( which was all my help ) i remember not one greek book but the testament , nor one father but austin de civitate dei , nor any of the councils but ordinary english and neoterick divines ; and he studied little all the year but bishop andrews sermons . hitherto i had no nonconformists principles . and if you suspect my own father , it is enough to say , that he only read the scriptures in his house , and scarcely any other book , and i never heard any prayer ( out of the pulpit ) but a form till i was about seventeen years of age . but because my father would not drink and swear with them , and restrained us from the dancing-place on the lords-day that we might read the scriptures that while , and sometimes would speak of god and scriptures , and the life to come , he was by the drunkards and rabble of the place reviled by the names of precisian and puritan , as bitterly as any nonconformist now , though he never scrupled any point of conformity , nor spake against it . and hearing all the drunkards revile that which i knew to be good , as puritanism , i liked that name no whit the worse . but lest you think that the experience of such priests did disaffect me , i shall add , that though there was another such an old reader that never preached in the same parish at another church , and very many parishes round about us had the like , yet three neighbour-ministers , venerable for age , ( dying two above eighty years a piece , and the third near it ) and very worthy godly conformists , who were my most profitable acquaintance , did keep me from the principles of nonconformity . of whom ( though they had all much rather have been rid of it , and so were before they died ) one was a learned great disputer for conformity , and was my chief tutor , and did so engage me in reading dr. burgess , mr. sprint , bishop downham for episcopacy , mr. hooker , &c. that i was not at all in doubt of the matter ; and with this satisfaction i was ordained and did subscribe . but i had never read any thing on the other side , nor ever read the book of ordination , nor exactly weighed what i subscribed to : but being satisfied that episcopacy was the only government , and that ceremonies and liturgy were lawful , i thought i was not bound to seek after objections and difficulties , and to fill my head with scruples , but to go on quietly as i begun . but when i came into another county , i met with divers private poor men that were very zealous nonconformists , against whom i was so forward a disputer , that the first controversie that ever i wrote on , was against a minister of one of theirs , which condemned kneeling at the sacrament , which i confuted so as to silence the opponents . ( mr. paybody having fully satisfied me in that . ) but yet they brought me to resolve to read the writings of both sides impartially , especially dr. ames his fresh suit ; so that setting upon the controversie again with my most serious studies , i setled in the judgment which i never since changed , about liturgy and ceremonies , expressed after in my disput. of church-government ; but still i was absolutely for episcopacy as it is with us , till . when the new canons came out with the &c. oath , and that was the very thing that occasioned such non-conformity as i am guilty of at this day . for when my mind was before quiet , in the way that i was in , ( being at bridgnorth , where six parishes were under an ordinary and court of their own , exempt from the bishops jurisdiction , so that i never used cross or surplice , having liberty to forbear them ) , when i saw that i must swear , the reverence of an oath excited me to an exacter scrutiny . i thought , as in subscribing i wrote but my opinion , which did not provoke me to so strict a search , so when i must swear , that the government by archbishops , bishops , deans , &c. was that which ought to be , and that i would never consent to change it ; without so much as excepting , if the king himself would have a change ; it was time for me well to understand what i did . for i supposed that he that feared not an oath , feared not god ; and that he that would venture on perjury , would stick at no sin in the world as sin , and was unfit for humane converse . whereupon we appointed a meeting of the ministers about it ; and mr. cartwright ( afterwards of york ) disputing for the oath , did not satisfie me , but i resolved now to hear what both sides said , before i would bind my self by an oath for all my life ensuing . whereupon i got gersom bucer de regimine eccles. & altare damascen . and paul bains diocesans trial , and parker de polit. eccles. and others . and on the other side saravia , and bilson , and andrews , besides hooker and downham before mentioned . and the effect of my most impartial study was , that there is an episcopacy of venerable antiquity , and desirable in the church , if not of divine institution ; but so far unlike the present frame of the english hierarchy , that they are neither the same , nor yet consistent ; as i exprest my thoughts in the foresaid disputes . and thus i have told you who put these scruples into my head . had you not driven me to swear , i had never been like to have so scrupled . and i am confident if men were not driven so much to subscribe and swear as they are at this day , and their consciences thus awakened to search , and scrupulosity , but the agenda of religion might be only agenda , and the doing of them might serve the turn , you would have had much fewer scruplers and nonconformists . but you 'l ask , how came those lay-men to scruples , whom i before mentioned , if not from ministers ? i must still answer you historically . there were but two nonconformists in all those countrys then . one was one mr. atkins , my neighbour , who would never talk either for it or against it , but almost always talk so seriously of heaven , and a heavenly life that you could scarce get him to talk much of any thing else . the other was that most excellent disputant john ball ; to whom some of the men that i speak of went purposely to be strengthened by him against some arguments used by the conformists . and he perceiving their humour to be set towards faction and ceremonious disputes , did so school them , and rebuke their factious humour , that they would never come at him more . and i my self still perceived in some of the younger hotter sort , so much inclination to censoriousness , and siding and self conceit , that i almost still opposed them when we met , and set my self to repress their confidence , and to bring them to better thoughts of the conformists . and so much to that part of your charge , that it is we that put these scruples into their heads , when i confess , i think , it is you . but you chide us because we perswade them not to conformity ? ans. either you mean so much of conformity as we can conscionably yield to our selves , or that which we judg our selves to be unlawful . the later no sober man can expect from us till our own judgments are changed . and verily it must be reasoning that hath more cogent evidence than yet you have shewed us , that must do that ( though for confidence and contempt of dissenters we desire no more in you ) we are men as well as you , and we study as hard as you , and though you deny it , we think as impartially . and which side hath more to byas them , is not hard to judg . you think we are byassed by mens applause . but i pray you forget not ( for here it concerneth you esse memores ) what a few contemptible people you think it is whose applause doth byas us ? and that it is not the richer or greater sort , or the greater number as you think . and remember , if we were hypocrites , how poor and dry a reward we should have in such mens estimation . and that poverty and reproach , and jealousies , and voluminous defamations , and prisons , are put with these poor mens estimation into the scales to byas us . and whether any man in england believe , that bishopricks and lordships , honour and wealth , with the reverence of so great and so many as you suppose do reverence you , are not a stronger byas to sway an hypocrite to betray his conscience , than ours is ? alas , that obloquy should live upon such airy food , and uncharitableness glory of so thin a cloak ! but if it be separation and things that we judg unlawfully , that we should unteach the people to do you service , or to serve the church , i will not say as they that tell you , that it is somewhat hard usage to perswade us by poverty , and prisons , and silencing , to lose our friends to gratifie them that thus abuse us ; and to take pains to exchange kindness for cruelty , and to strive hard to leap out of the ashes into the fire . but i will tell the truth to the world and you ; we do what you desire of us , or reasonably can desire . i constantly preached till the goal restrained me , against separation , and much more against sedition and rebellion . we do it openly and plainly . i am the man that am reproached in print for want of this . and the same hand so far justified me , as before the kings majesty , and lords , and before the right reverend bishops , to say of me and my disputes of church-government , about the ceremonies , &c. no man hath written better of these things . and can we speak louder than by the press ? or can they prove that we preach not as we write ! o wonderful ! that ever the world can degenerate to so much unrighteousness as to condemn men upon such defamations as these ! besides that book , many a year before and since , i have still written to the same purpose : i have preached to the same purpose . but thinking it more seasonable in private conference , i have an hundred , and an hundred times more pleaded for the like in private . and my disputes before mentioned are accused by many offended persons , as having made a hundred ministers at least conformable . and had they not been written in the very height of usurpation before the kings return , i should have been taken for the vilest temporizer . this is our course ; and yet if wrath and partiality , and ill will , do but dream that we do infect the people , and cherish them in separation , and do not contradict but flatter them in their extreams , against our own judgments , the world must ring of all these dreams , and they think it fit that we be used as if all were certain truth . we have need to bless our selves against dreaming neighbours , if we must be estimated , and used , and described to the world , according to their dreams . nay , i will tell the world here the certain truth of our success and usage . i preach , i write , and i frequently and openly talk against separation , and for the lawfulness of joining with the church in the use of the liturgy , and to rebuke mens extreams and censures of the episcopal clergy , and for an impartial love of all true christians . i sharply reprove the weak reasonings of those that are otherwise minded ; and by this i occasion the true sectarians every where to speak against me ; and yet even these sectaries wish me well , and would do me no harm ; and the generality of my hearers bear all this well , and seem to be of the same mind . and yet when i am loved by those that i plead against , i am reviled and abused by those that i plead for . yea more , i must profess it before the world , that i plead your cause as far as conscionably i can , and its you that hinder me , and none like you . you would have us do your work with the people , and you would not let us do it . you use us , as i saw a man lately do by a colt , who tyed him fast to a great tree , and lashed him most cruelly to make him draw . you make our work difficult if not impossible , and then think us worthy of your smarting wrath , for not performing it . were it not for two things , we could do much to reconcile the people to you . . if you would not impose those oaths , subscriptions , and such like burdens , which we are our selves unable without fraud and falshood to defend . . if you would not silence their faithful teachers , but would encourage godliness and good men impartially , and would exercise love as openly and largely as you exercise wrath . but we must tell the world and you , that we are unable , utterly unable to justifie the corporation-oath and declaration , and to bring the people to like those bishops whom they think are the chief cause of depriving of them of their long tried painful faithful pastors , and setting over them such as in too many places are set . when our people are in goals for meeting as they have done these twenty , yea thirty or forty years , only to repeat their teachers sermon , and pray and sing a psalm together between the publick exercises on the lords-day ( where they have reverently attended . ) it is a hard task that you put on them to like you , but a harder that you put on us , that we must preach them to it , even when we must not preach at all . that we must go to the gaols to them , or after they come out , to their houses to teach them to like the bishops and their impositions ! they will tell us , vve love them with a love of benevolence , as we must our enemies ; we wish them no harm , but the greatest good ; but we cannot love them as such complacentially , nor think approvingly of their ways . whether you do well or ill in promoting their sufferings , i am not now judging ; i only tell you that it is the greatest hinderance to our reconciling them to you , and your ways , that you could easily have devised . i never saw that wooing speed well , that said , love me , or i will send thee to gaol . when i was a child i never thought any correction more unreasonable than whipping children to make them give over crying , when whipping was an unresistible means to make them cry , if they had not cried before . while i am voluminously reproached for not reproving the spirit of separation or nonconformty , ( as afore limited ) when i did it last , i was sent to prison ; and when i would do it by preaching , i have not leave . and if your meaning be , speak when we have shut thy mouth ; and teach men to like us when they suffer our wrath , you increase our task when you have taken away our straw . i conclude therefore with repeating it : you will not suffer us to serve you as we can , but are our greatest hinderers while you blame us . and lastly , as to their scrupling the corporation , declaration and oath , i can speak best for my self . the bayliff , justice , and all the twelve capital burgesses ( besides inferior burgesses ) did refuse it , and were every one displaced , save one ( now dead ) that had been a soldier in the kings army ( what men were put in their stead , i am not now to tell you . ) and they were so far ▪ from being perswaded to this by me ( at almost an hundred miles distance ) that i never once spake to them , nor wrote to them one letter or word about it . and it being no part of the old conformity , how could this be put into their heads by me ? especially when they know that i had kept the covenant from ever being put upon that town and country . obj but the issue sheweth how little good your teaching doth ! where are any more against bishops and conformity than your hearers ? you make men hypocrites , and teach them to prate phrases , and cut faces , and rail at carnal reason , and this goeth for godliness , when they are worse than you found them . and how have you cured all that ignorance of the people which you lament ? if it be cured , that argument for the necessity of your preaching is gone ? if they are not cured , how can you yet think to cure them ? therefore their necessity is no plea for your preaching . ans. . thus indeed the quakers were wont to revile us in the open streets , and tell us our preaching did no good ; and they would point at a gaudy coat , or any thing that they accounted pride or vanity , and cry out , see , this is the fruit of your ministry . but through the great mercy of god , our success hath been such , that constraineth us thankfully to acknowledg his unspeakable mercy that ever called us to so blessed a work , though we had been sooner fed with the bread and water of affliction ; and that under usurpation it self , even while we wrote and preacht against it , we had so many years liberty before we were silenced . . a town and church is not a being of the same materials from time to time , but like a river which consists of transient matter . abundance are dead and got safe to heaven , that we at first instructed , who are yet our comforts , being saved from this untoward generation , and from this present evil world . and those that were children when i was last with that people , and taught them , are now men . and what need all these may have of teaching as well as their parents had , i know not . but i am sure where i come , that ignorance doth prevail . . knowledg is gotten by slow degrees , especially by the poor and vulgar . the school that hath been taught many years successfully , may have need of teaching still . the best are too ignorant , and the want of knowledg will appear in the wants of virtue , and obedience and good life . . you force us to answer this also historically : but the best is we have witnesses enough upon the place . i will first speak of that success which you your selves desire , and then of that which we desired , and which some contemn . . this week i spake with a very learned , worthy , silenced minister , who dwelleth in a great market-town in the west , who telleth me , of a multitude there that have been formerly otherwise minded , there is scarce two or three that now go not with him to the publick parish-worship . when i was in kiderminster i could have been more confident of the ruling of that people in equal ways ; but since i came away , my silencing hath so disaffected them to the bishops , more than i then left them , that multitudes will not communicate in the sacrament in publick : i cannot come at them , nor i do not write to them , lest i offend those that think i do but seduce them . but those that call on me , say , vve cannot embody our selves in church-communion with such persecutors . especially since several of them have lain in the goal ; but before , they had no such argument to plead . yet do i usually satisfie those that speak to me here in their travels . but that is but a few . but yet i hear not of four men and women in the town that do not come to the publick assembly . i have told you , at acton where i lived last , i knew not of three persons of all my hearers of that parish that did not come to the publick assembly , and join in the use of the liturgy . so much for that part of our success . . but i will not deny to you that we define not godliness by conformity to diocesans , or ceremonies , and therefore have another kind of success which we first and more endeavour , which is to teach them the meaning of their baptismal covenant , and the creed , lords-prayer , and ten commandments ; and to teach them to believe aright in christ ▪ and to love god above all , and their neighbour as themselves , and to live soberly , righteously and godly in the world , and to have their hearts and conversations in heaven , and by the spirit to mortifie the lusts and deeds of the flesh . and if we can get them well to digest and practise thus much , we think we have not lost our labour ; though they are not yet acute enough , to cut by so small a thred as some more subtle wits , nor to cleave a hair , nor to decide all controversies about diocesans and ceremonies . and seeing neither of these are in our creed , we hold them no articles of our faith , and therefore not necessary to our hearers salvation . and as to our success in this , the men themselves , and those that know them , and see their lives , are the fittest judges . i meddle not with other men : i must say of my own hearers with humble thankfulness to god , that when i came to kiderminster it was noted publickly for one of the rudest towns in the county ; and when i left them it was much otherwise . and to those that may say , it is but in prating phrases , and cutting faces , and thinking themselves better than others : i answer , . they were not academicks , much less doctors ; they spake not artificially according to the rules of rhetorick or logick . they could not dispute well of the fixed stars or planets , the vortices or spheres , the elements or atoms , &c. and they are in their garb and speech as poor men are , both plain , and some of them rustical . and when they talk of religion , some of them are not free from some such unaccurate expressions , and uncogent arguings as in the schools would make them ridiculous . and they pray not all in words so accurate ( especially the youngest ) as i could wish i could do my self . but some of them understand the body of divinity , and the doctrinal controversies too , which i have written on , and pray in so good order and expression , as i meet not now with one parish-minister of ten or twenty that excelleth them . indeed those of them that fear god , do take themselves to be better and happier now than they were when they feared him not , or than drunkards , worldlings , and malicious enemies of godliness are . and though they abhor the pharisees hypocritical thanks , they think that unthankfulness to god for his grace is no virtue , nor thankfulness a vice or thing indifferent . they are eminent for humility ; so far from a proud and preaching vein , ( when it was the temptation and disorder of the time ) that i could never get one man of them to try his parts by one private exercise that way ; some from oxford that admired them would have drawn some of them towards the ministry ; which made me wish them to a trial , but never could procure it . i never knew of one man that preacht or expounded scripture to others ( unless in conference about the sense of a text ) in all the time that i was there . though i am not one that condemn all that in their families do otherwise . they were not then noted for censorious to dissenters ( unless two or three particular persons . ) they addicted themselves to no parties , sidings , or factions in religion . they that you call puritans , and our followers , were neither episcopal , presbyterians , or independents ; but for plain christianity and godliness as such , and for the unity of all sober christians , and to do their own duty , in that especially which all these parties did consent in . when i was removed from them , and they heard a stranger in the pulpit crying out against them as presbyterians , and a generation of vipers , &c. i hear they looked somewhat strangely at such strange kind of preaching ; what ! the man meant to pretend to know their judgments better than they knew their own ! when i never knew two whose judgments were for the presbyterian government in all the town and parish . they were in all this so unanimous and concordant , that when division shattered some other parishes , there was not that i heard of one anabaptist , one quaker , nor of any different party at all among them , save that two ot three in the war fell off from christianity and all religion , and became as a pillar of salt unto all the rest . when i called them to my house to be catechised and instructed , there were very few families refused . and there were not , that i could hear of in the heart of the town , above one or two families in a street ▪ side that did not call on god , and daily worship him . the lords-day they spent in publick worship , and in repeating for memory what they heard , and in praying and singing psalms of praise . they lived in quietness , and had no law-suits nor known contentions . none of them lived in wealth or worldly honours , none in idleness , few or none in begging , but in daily painful labour in their callings , by which they lived from hand to mouth . those few that were common drunkards in the town ( three or four that custom had made as beasts ) were yet convinced that their neighbours were better and happier than they . as to their cutting faces , i can say nothing to you , but that their tone was as decent as most preachers i now hear , and their countenance as sober and well composed . but god most regardeth the composure of the heart . but all that seemeth serious is to some men matter of scorn ; and one lately telleth you , that if you stop the nonconformists mouths , no wonder if they speak through the nose . and men will have more care to wash their faces , and compose their countenances in publick , than if you drive them into corners . and for their prating-phrases , they are ambitious but of two excellencies of speech , the one is to speak their minds in that matter which may have the fullest signification , both of the matter spoken , and of the speakers affections about the matter ; ( for the use of speech is to express them both ) , the other is for ornament , and that is to speak in scripture-phrase , not abused ( any further than weakness causeth all the weak to do , even publick preachers as well as others ) , but as well understood as they are able . and they that scorn at scripture-phrase , should not conform to the book of ordination or articles , where the scripture sufficiency and perfection is confest . if the phrase of the scripture it self is not odious , neither is the sober use of it , where it is not perverted . but to such general charges , we can give no answer , but nexa caput sequitur ; name the particular persons and words , and prove your accusation , and caluminate not the rest against whom no such proof is brought . obj. but what excellent preaching or labours have you to boast of more than others , that your preaching must be thought so necessary ? what did you when you did preach , but cast out catechising , the lords-prayer , the creed , and the communion in the sacrament out of the church , and bring the people to be almost heathens ; and cast out all true discipline and government , and substituted presbyterian examinations before the sacrament , and rigor and tyranny which the people would not endure ? and is this so necessary a thing ? ans. these things indeed we read and hear from you very often ; but another judg must pass the final sentence . you make us pity the poor world in regard of the uncertainty of history . you put us upon the recital of our practice which will sound like the boasting of a fool . but if blessed paul was put upon that which he calleth , speaking like a fool ; though they were not the words of folly , we must not murmur if we have the like inconvenience put upon us . . if the successes before described be nothing worth in your esteem , yet labour must be continued still ; and we must in meekness instruct those that oppose , if god peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth , tim. . , . and i suppose few parish-priests of my acquaintance will either judg themselves and their labours useless , or give them over , if the maintenance fail not of success ; else how many empty temples should we have ? but you shall not so easily tempt us into utter unthankfulness for so great a mercy as our success beyond our expectation was . i remember dr. ames telleth his father in law dr. burgess , in his fresh suit , that bishop morton himself did silence old mr. midsley of rutsdale in lancashire after god had blessed his ministry with the conversion of many thousand souls ( and his son after him he silenced also . ) whether you will think that this which he calleth conversion , being but from popery , ignorance , sensuality and prophaneness , be to be valued , or whether you will deny the publick matter of fact , i know not ; but for my part i was glad to hear that he was not silenced till many thousands had been converted by him . and o what abundance of success this way had the ministry of mr. hildersham , mr. nichols , mr. dod , mr. thomas hooker , mr. john rogers of dedham , mr. herring , mr. barlow , and abundance more of the old nonconformists ? and what understanding excellent persons were dr. ames , mr. bradshaw , mr. john ball , mr. john paget , old john fox , mr. paul bain , mr. parker , &c. to say nothing of mr. perkins , dr. humphrey , dr. john reynolds , &c. who were more nonconformists than i and those of my judgment are . doubtless they were as like to know how to preach , without either prating phrases , or ignorant , unlearned , dry unedifying sermons , tending to bring christianity into contempt , as most ( at least ) of the parish-priests that i use to hear in any place where ever i come . . and as to our own preaching , i confess we have little cause to boast of it . for my own part god knoweth i have seldom come out of the pulpit without some grief and self-accusation , that i should stand there to speak as a minister of christ about so great a matter as the everlasting salvation of the peoples souls , and that to men that are almost dying , and must shortly be all in an unchangeable state , where there is no more time of preparation for their final doom , and yet that i should speak with no more wisdom , life and servency . that i do not every time importune the hearers with the greatest seriousness that my soul can reach unto , and with tears beseech the impenitent to consider , and with earnestness awaken stupid souls , at least to some regard of their salvation , ( though i were never so much derided for all this with all the reproaches that blinded malicious wit can invent ) the lord knoweth that if it had not been for the undeniable necessities of the world , which hath not enow that are fitter than my self , ( though very unworthy ) i had never entered into the sacred ministry ; and after i was entered i had soon repented of it . we have upon our selves so penitent a sense of our own neglects , that hindereth us from flying in the face of those that silence us . we use not to others ( whatever we now say to your selves ) to talk of your faults herein so much as of our own . and we daily beg of god to pardon us , that we speak no more wisely and importunately in so great a case when we had time . and that we did not watch more diligently over the peoples souls , and teach them publickly , and from house to house day and night , in season and out of season , even with tears . and we daily pray that those that come in our places may be better than we have been , and may take warning by us , to be more studious and laborious . but yet seeing you have left us no other answer , i shall historically tell you the truth of our course , and leave it to the judgment ( not of you , for you are partial , and some deride us , and some believe us not ; nor yet of our people , for they know it , and therefore believe not the reproachers ; but ) of all indifferent sober men . i remember when mr. thomas wadsworth minister at newington-buts was put out , the parishioners came to me with a petition to the king for some pity to their souls in his restoration , and would have had me to have directed them how to get it delivered . i told them it was a thing not to be attempted , being contrary to the course of the present laws , and so it never was delivered ( that i know of . ) but when i read it , i saw the difference between man and man. they therein expressed that he had been a prudent , constant , painful preacher to them , that he was of a most blameless exemplary life ; that he spent all that he had in charitable works ; that he visited , and instructed , and catechised every family , house by house , that he hired a minister to assist him in such private catechising and instructing ; that he bought bibles to give all the poor of the parish that could not buy them ; with much more of the like . and he was not succesless , nor is not since his silencing to this day . it would be endless to multiply such instances of the now silenced ministers in this land. but because i am purus putus puritanus , as it s said , and you will have it so that i must be named more than others , as one by whom the world may know the rest , even with an ex uno omnes , to use some of your own expressions ; i shall tell you what was my course , and how far i am guilty of the matter of these accusations . . my body being exceeding weak , i preached but twice a week , once on the lords-day , and once on the market-day . . the doctrine which i preached being visible in above seventy books , and my religion described so fully in my reasons of the christian religion , my confession , and many other treatises , i need not now repeat ; nor plead for it to the world , that it is not heresie , nor phrase-divinity ( as they now speak . ) and whether non sense , other men that have sense must judg . . i had one or two assistants with me ( who besides two sequestred ministers and my self ) were maintained out of the maintenance of the vicaridg ( and at last an augmentation for a chappel . ) one of these preached one part of the day with me , and the other twice at a chappel near . . we never baptized a child without the profession of the creed , ( so that we did not cast out that ) ; and we seldom prayed any day without concluding with the lords-prayer . and the sacrament we administred oft . indeed we kneeled not in the reception , because we had liberty to do as we thought fittest . but i openly told them that i judged kneeling not unlawful , nor would refuse any that did kneel on that account . but many came not , because the rest kneeled not , and they might not have it on a distinct day by themselves ( which tended to division ) , but most because they were told of the ( after mentioned ) discipline that would be used towards them . . at first we catechised in the church , where the creed , lords-prayer and decalogue were daily repeated . afterward we took a more effectual course ; all the families in the town came to my house , and my assistants went to their houses in the parish ( it being almost twenty miles about . ) mondays and tuesdays half the day we constantly spent in this work , taking about fourteen families a week between two of us . we first heard them repeat the words of the catechism , or at least of the creed , lords-prayer and decalogue . next we tried how they understood some part of them . then we a little with tenderness and modesty enquired of their consent , their resolution , and their thoughts of , and preparations for another world ; and if any were ashamed to open their ignorance , we urged them not any further , but turned our speech to instruction and exhortation . and the superiors and ancients we examined not before their servants or children , but put those questions , and used those exhortations to their servants and children in their hearing which we desired them themselves to receive . and we still concluded with the most urgent exhortations for preparation for death and judgment that we were able ; and when it was meet , engaging the ignorant , negligent and sensual , to sober promises of another course . and thus we usually spent about an hour with a family , in which i spent my self as much as in a sermon at least . and through gods mercy we seldom parted with them , without some signs of their present repentance , and purposes of amendment for the time to come . but our method being punctually described in the end of my reformed pastor , i shall say no more of it . . my assistant in the town mr. sergeant , was a man of so great prudence , piety , meekness , peaceableness , self-denial , and blamelesness of life , that i never to my remembrance saw him in anger , nor ever heard an offensive word from his mouth , nor ever saw or heard of an offensive ( much less a scandalous ) action done by him in all the years that he was there . i never heard him grudg at any labour , ( when he travelled as aforesaid to all the houses of the parish , and preached usually twice each lords-day , at three miles distance one from the other . ) nor did i ever hear man or woman blame him for any word or deed ; nor ever heard him ask what money he should have , but took it as it came . and was indeed as a willing and loving servant unto all , and was beloved by all ; ( though we had many more affectionate taking preachers . ) . i gave to every family in town and parish ( being beside a great borough about twenty villages ) a catechism , and some of my lesser books , and of every book i wrote usually as many as my purse could well afford . and to every family a bible , which either for want of money , or of willingness to buy , had none , where any one in the house could read . . after the lecture at evening , as many as had leisure and will , assembled at my lodgings , where one of them repeated the sermon ; and any one that would did by word or writing , put in such doubts about the things delivered , the solution of which would tend to their further satisfaction , which i then answered . and if they had any other cases of conscience , they offered them to me in writing ( that i might see whether they were fit for publick mention ) , and then we sung a psalm , and i or one of them did pray . . all the ministers of the county whose names are printed in our book of concord , did agree ( seeing the rulers that then were did leave all discipline to the churches will , and constrained none ; and seeing we were divided about church-government , to the great damage of the church ) , that we would all practise so much of the spiritual discipline as all three parties , episcopal , presbyterian and independents were agreed in , ( which we thought enough for our union and reformation ) and leave the rest without the compass of our agreement ; that so the episcopal party might not say , that we break the laws , or shut them out ; nor the rest say , that our narrow principles excluded them from our communion . . accordingly once a mouth i had a meeting to hear and admonish them that after more private reproof , had refused repentance for heinous and notable offences ; where were present three justices of the peace ( as at their monthly meeting , to do that which belonged to the magistrate , and see that we did not usurp their power ) and above twenty of the seniors of the town and parish , ( not as lay-elders or officers to vote , but as those of the people that had best leisure and advantage to see that we did the church no wrong ) and two or three pastors , and three or four elected deacons . where our chief trouble was with drunkards , exhorting them to repentance , and praying with them , and to keep peace among the neighbours , and maintain their unity . . the next day of every month , the neighbour-ministers met at the lecture , and afterward at an ordinary in an honest neighbours private house ; where if any of our parishes obstinately refused repentance for drunkenness or such open heinous sin , he was gently admonished and exhorted before all the ministers . but our usual work was a disputation on some useful point in divinity , to exercise and edifie the younger sort , where were usually present about twenty , and among them some of the most learned , sober , episcopal divines that were in these parts , who were constant or frequent helpers of us , mr. thomas good , mr. mar. johnson , &c. . those open great offenders who before these ministers also refused to profess repentance , i did three lords-days as gently and affectionately as i could , admonish publickly before all the church , and after that some days publickly prayed for their repentance ; which if they refused not , they there consest their sin , and desired the churches prayers for their pardon and reformation . but if they still refused , i declared them unfit for the communion of the church , according to the laws of christ , and required the church to avoid their communion ; and we used no other excommunication . but this discipline we used on none but those that consented to it before , and not over any that would rather forsake our communion than submit to it , lest they should think i did them wrong . . the people of the place also did , for ought i know , as much as i , for the promoting of their neighbours good : . by their unity and concord . . by their humility and blameless lives . . they met in the houses of many of those that were ablest to help them ; on saturday ▪ nights , to call to mind the last lords-days exhortations , and on the lords-days twice to repeat the sermons preacht that day , and sing a psalm , and pray together , and no more . the reasons of these meetings i refer ( not to the enemies of all things that favour of diligence for a mans soul , but ) to all that know what a soul is worth , and what is due from the creature to his creator , and what is necessary to the information of an ignorant man. . many families had no one that could read ; and such were also the most ignorant ; so that they could not do any thing in a holy use of the lords-day but what they did at church , unless they took their neighbours help . and time on any day is precious , and not to be cast away in vain . . these persons , and many more , could remember but little of a sermon by once hearing ; yea twice was too little with the most . and we preach not only to be heard and admired , but to edifie souls ; and how great a discouragement is it to a faithful minister , to bestow his time and labour in preparing and speaking that which so nearly concerneth his auditors , and to cast it as seed by the high-way side , and to have it all die in the hearing , and carried no further than the church-doors . if i taught a school of boys , or sent my servant but on certain businesses for my self , i should not be willing that all my words should go no further . and old ignorant men do hardlier learn than boys ; and heavenly doctrine is more hardly remembered than common business in the world . . if the lords-day had been but a time of leave to use such helps , and not of duty , we should take it for a great mercy to have leave to spend that time in seeking god , and life everlasting , which else would be lost , or spent in trifles . . our people were generally poor labourers , that could spare so little time for such things on the week-days ( but what they did in their shops at their work ) that it must be now , or not at all . . common charity and many scripture-precepts oblige all good christians to help to edifie and save their neighbours by all just and lawful means . . we found by great experience , that it greatly increased knowledg and obedience , and piety in the people . . and so far was it from causing sects or heresies , or contempt of ministers , or private mens preaching , that it was the chief of all means that ever i found successful against these exorbitancies ; so that when those pastors that cried down such meetings as conventicles , and restrained the people from meeting to repeat or pray , did thereby occasion them to go further in their undertakings than they ought . i still found that to let them do what belonged to them as private men , was the means to keep them from that which belonged only to the ministers ; and needful meetings in their houses in due subordination to the pastors and church-assemblies , was the best way to keep them from schismatical meetings , which were in opposition to the pastors and church-assemblies . yea , that to drive them hard on to their proper duty in their families , and for their ignorant neighbours , was the best way to convince them , that they had neither ability nor leisure for more , which belonged not to them . in a word , it was a principal cause that we had no sects nor divisions among us . and now if any man come with his exceptions against such meetings as dangerous to the church or state , i only answer him , . try it as much as we have done , before you condemn you know not what . . will you do nothing to help the people to heaven , but that which is lyable to no abuse , or inconvenience ? then christ and the gospel , and scripture , and much more reason it self must be renounced , which are all more abused than such private meetings . . see that you be not more afraid of sects , than of mens apparent ungodliness and damnation . . and see that it be not your own want of skill and diligence , that makes you oppose that means which you cannot guide and manage . obj. but this was not the common case of the nonconformists : what do you tell us a long story of your doings , when it was otherwise throughout the land . ans. . you know that there were then many sectaries in the land , and you may as well impute to us your own misdoings as theirs . we justifie not the sectaries in their principles or practises . . what was the doctrine and practise of presbyterian and independents , the writings which they all agreed to , will partly tell you . in the confession of faith you see what doctrine they agreed to preach . in the catechisms they shew you that the creed , lords-prayer and decalogue , were not only to be learned by the people , but the sense and use also of them all . and is this casting them out of the church ? and in the directory they advise to the use of the very words of the lords prayer in the churches . . that i was not singular in this course , you may soon learn if you will but enquire what was done at bewdeley , stourbridg , and other places round about me . nay when our two agreements , one for catechising and personal conference from house to house , and the other for common concord in discipline , were subscribed by so many of all that county , and some adjoining , whose names are visible there in print , you may imagine they endeavoured to do what they subscribed to do . . nor was it that county only ; you may see in their printed agreements that the ministers of westmorland , and other counties agreed much on the same courses . and essex , wiltshire , dorsetshire , and many others , had begun the same work , from which the return of diocesans hath released them . and remember that the charge of casting out all discipline ; and of presbyterian examinations and severities , are hardly reconcileable ; nor yet the not administring the sacrament , and the examining of the people before the sacrament . but for our countrys , we used not such examinations ; because our foresaid ordinary catechising and conference , and also our requiring a publick profession of the christian faith and life , at the transition of the youth out of their state of infant-membership into that of the adult , ( described by me in my treatise of confirmation ) did better answer their necessities . obj. but all this while you lived in sequestrations upon other mens estates , and eat other mens bread , of which you never made restitution ; and how then can you think your merits are such as may plead for your readmission : and in particular , mr. durel and many others have told the world and your self , that as a reward for your military service you had a good benefice , out of which another only for his fidelity was cast out ; with what conscience this was done , see you to it . ans. reader , seeing it 's the pleasure of mr. durel , and so many more to call out the man , and cull out the matter with which the world must be thus troubled , i intreat thee to pardon my personal narratives , for which were it not that they lay the interest of so many of my brethren , of my writings and office upon it , i could not pardon my self . . let the world then know that these ministers whom we succeeded were cast out by the secular power that bore sway , and not by those that succeeded them . if you know of one minister of a hundred that was the agent in that work , let that one , and not the innocent hear of it . . that the people of each parish , or some of them , were the accusers , witnesses , and sollicitors of the cause ; who beg'd for deliverance , and a better ministry , as if it concerned the benefit of their souls . . that it was somewhat an excusable error in the ministers that succeeded them , to think that if the parliament or any usurpers , did turn out the former ministers of any place , the people should not therefore be left as heathens , and all gods worship be forsaken , and the doors shut up as in the venetian and other interdicts by the pope , and this for ten or twelve years together , yea almost twenty ; and that if the parliament had cast out the overseers of the poor , or the nurses of your children , it 's hard that all they that after relieved them , and saved their lives , must be accused as so greatly injurious ; and that it 's hard that when the love of souls doth make them unweariedly spend themselves for the peoples good , that this should be one of their unpardonable crimes ! how different are mens judgments of vice and virtue ? and they did think also that really before god and man the salary was for the work . and if they had a lawful calling to the work of the place , they thought they had so to the salary . they thought that if a pilot of a ship were on pretence of insufficiency and utter ignorance cast out by usurpers of the power , that all shipping must not therefore stand still , nor all men be proclaimed sinners that take the place and maintenance . i justifie not their reasons ; but i may tell you my opinion , that being young men ( mostly ) in the universities , that had little or nothing of their own , they could not well otherwise have got bread and clothing , much less books , fire , house-room , &c. nor long have preached without bread and clothing . and i knew few of them that when they were cast out , were able to refund or restore that which bought them bread and fire , and clothing ; unless you would sell them as slaves to work it out . and to speak truth , many of them thought it a good work , yea very good , to cast out those ( how many such there were i meddle not now ) , that were utterly unable for the work of that office , or grosly ( and long-uncurable ) vicious . but i am called by mr. durel to speak for my self . and , . mr. durel did you ever know either me or the man you speak of that was cast out , or ever hear or see the articles against him ? if not , fye man , what doing is this for a french divine of so much learning , and a preacher of the word of truth ! but because you talk to the world of things that you never knew , let your patience bear while i trouble you and the readers with the story which you extort . when the long parliament sate , and shewed a forwardness to reform the clergy , the people of all countrys fled to them with petitions , that thought they greatly needed better pastors ; and too many in dislike of altars , and rails , and lords-day dancing , which they judged hardly of . and among others many people of kiderminster drew up articles against their vicar , under three general heads , insufficiency , and negligence , scandal and innovation . ( true or false i am not now telling you ) , with these their agents go to london , and the vicar after them , where seeing how matters went , he got the people by the mediation of sir henry herbert to yield to this agreement , that they should chuse a lecturer to preach to them , and leave the vicar in his place and vicaridg to read common-prayer , ( not forbidding him to preach when he would , so he hindered not the lecturer . ) for which he bound himself in a bond of l . to pay the said lecturer threescore pounds a year . after this agreement , the bayliff and improp●iator , and others of the people , sent to me to bridgrorth where i lived , to invite me to accept this lecture . at last i came and preached there twice every lords-day , and a thursday-lecture every fort-night , besides funeral-sermons , &c. for about a year and half ; in all which time i never heard or knew that the vicar preached above twice , ( though indeed before and since he preached once a quarter , or at least once in half a year ; ( i am not now concern'd to tell you how . ) being driven away at the end of a year and half by the wars , i came again by the peoples importunity , when the war was ended , ( about four years after . ) for all that time i never asked the vicar for a farthing according to his bond , though i was forced away . but before i came back to them ( without any concurrence of mine ) they had again articled against the vicar as before , ( that he was utterly insufficient ; that when he did preach once a quarter , his own wife ( though fully conformable ) would not hear him ; and a great deal of such stuff ; to which certain witnesses , ( well accounted of for veracity by the people ) took their oaths : whereupon the vicar was sequestred by the committee , and the vicaridg put into the hand of several of the neighbours to receive the profits , and pay it to one to officiate the cure . after this the people importune me to take it : i absolutely denied it . they followed me at coventry , and elsewhere , with importunity ; and i still refused it . only i told them that by an augmentation which i procured , making my l . a hundred , and a house , i would come to be only their lecturer as before . when they could not move me , they consented . and lest any misinterpretation should be after made of it , ( or any mr. durel have a pretence of accusation ) , i got all the magistrates and chief of the whole town together , and in the town-hall openly , they subscribed an agreement with me to pay me l ▪ per ann. as their lecturer , and that no part of this should accrew from the vicaridg . which writing i think i have yet to shew . after this they chose an assistant to do the rest of the work ; and the sequestrators gathered the tythes , and never gave any account to me of it , nor had i any title to them ; till at last some one put it into the peoples heads that some other would get in and take the place : whereupon to keep out others they went privately and got the committee to give them an order to put me in the sequestred vicaridg , which they kept privately to themselves for their own indemnity . and i never once saw it , till just the day that the kings majesty now reigning went into worcester , and the town was full of soldiers of both sides ; one of them came and brought me the order , and intreated me to keep it as my own . i told him i would not take it , nor keep it as my own , but they might leave it in the house for safety for their indemnity . and these men thus used my name only for their security ; and when i knew it , and asked them whether any of the money they gave me came out of the tythes , they told me that the , which was my due by bond before , and an augmentation granted by the parliament to a chappel , was more than i had . and they used my name in letting their tythes ; which when i knew what they had done , i consented to for their indemnity . and this was my taking the sequestration . and as for the riches of it , and the reward of my military service , the last is a putid falshood : and the case of the former is this : i was offered in my native country a parsonage accounted worth l . per ann. and my choice of others not much worse . i never had any thought of taking them , but of returning to my former work . the agreement was made by the vicar himself ; and the articles against him first that moved him to it , could not be for his fidelity about the war ; for they were long before the king and parliament disagreed , and a year and half before the wars . when i returned , instead of the l . which they agreed to pay me and an house , i had usually but l . and sometimes l . and a few rooms in the top of another mans house . and i never asked them for more . the vicaridg they told me they used to let at sevenscore or eightscore pound almost , ( now worth more ) ; of this my assistant was to have threescore or more , but seldom had near so much ; l . per. ann. went to the king and chief lord , ( as they then spake . ) the fifths the vicar had ; and they told me they gave him more , about l per ann. l . a year an old conformable curate at a chappel had ; and taxes , and the poor , &c. had something . this or l which i had , was far from defraying my necessary charges . i kept no family but one servant . i spent as little on my self as most men of my calling . when i had kept usually one boy or more at the university , and paid for bibles , and other books , and teaching some poor peoples children to read , with other necessary helps to the poor , and particularly my poor relations , my stipend was spent before my charges were defrayed . and for the vicaridg-house ( which was large and private ) i know not what is within the doors . from the first day of its sequestration till my coming away , which was about fourteen years , i never set my foot within the doors , much less disturbed the vicar in his possession , even when cromwell published a declaration for the removal of all sequestred ministers from the parsonage or vicaridg-houses , and two miles from the place ; but i contented my self with the rooms aforesaid . and so much for mr. durels better information against the time of his next invective against a stranger , and of a case unknown . but he further signifieth to the world how hardly i parted with it at the last . and such usage is very useful to believers , that they may know what to expect , even from some great pastors of the church in this present evil world . therefore reader , seeing such men will have it so , if i weary thee with one more of my own stories , forgive it as a necessary trouble . the truth is this . when general monk came up to london , i came away from the place i was at before the sequestration revolved to the vicar : when the king was restored , and his declaration about ecclesiastical affairs was published , the lord chancellor moved me to accept a bishoprick ( of which more anon ) ; which when i refused , ( in a manner not displeasing to him ) , i told him that if he had any kindness for me , i should accept of my continuance with my ancient flock , as a satisfying expression of it , sobeit he would give the old vicar a better place , that is , some prebendship which required no preaching , or some sine cura , ( for i durst motion him to no other . ) to which my lord chancellor expressed readiness and resolution . sir ralph clare was used by him ( who liveth in the place ) to treat about it with the vicar ; but it was so ordered that the vicar refused unless he had another place : no place could be found ▪ my lord chancellor would not put such a man ( pardon his censure ) , into a prebendship , lest it should dishonour the church . i told him that in a pastoral cure it would be much worse . at last my l. chancellor wrote a letter with his own hand to sir ralph clare , expostulating with him that it was not done , and telling him that it was his majesties desire ; and speaking more of my desert and his majesties favour than i will recite ; and promising that his own steward should pay yearly to the vicar the full value of the vicaridg if he would resign it to me . and he gave me the letter unsealed , and i took a copy of it . but the vicar was not to take this for security . at length that i might satisfie my conscience and people to the utmost that i did not forsake them , i moved the lord chancellor that i might be but the old vicars curate , and preach under him as such , for any thing or nothing . and at last this also was refused , and sir ralph clare plainly told me , that i was the fittest man in england for the place if i would conform , and the unfittest of all others if i would not , because of my interest in the people . ( and at the parting i thank him , he sent me a purse of money , which i returned him as it came . ) and so long a time was spent in attendance of my lord chancellor before this business came to an end , that i suppose it is all the occasion of mr. durels conclusion , how hardly i let go a good benefice so ill gotten . so that reader , to accept of a poor curateship for nothing , under an old reading vicar , when i might have had a bishoprick easily at the same time ; and to be denied even that after all these expectations and attendance , is a heinous crime in a poor silenced minister of christ in our age , and worthy to be published to the world , and left on record to posterity as a brand of a mercenary man , by one that hath at least more promotions than one . and thus goeth the history of this age . and for restitution , the vicar himself is so well satisfied of my dealing with him , that he gave the sequestrators or trustees , ( who indeed did meddle with his tythes ( and i verily believe more to their loss than gain ) a full discharge of all matters that he could call his due to that day . and my lectureship , which he was by his bond to allow me in without impediment , and to pay me l . per ann. i never once claimed , ( though i thought by forbidding me to preach , he had forfeited his bond ) which was to others , not to me . ) and now if their own rule hold , ex uno disce omnes , you see how the ministers of england are to be judged of . obj. you think we should grant you leave to preach ; but what leave did you give us when you were in power ? then such requests could not be heard . ans. whom do you speak this of ? of all the silenced ministers , or some ? of most , or few ? . we were never at all in any other power , than to preach the gospel , and administer the sacraments to the people of one parish , and to guide them by gods word . for my own part , it hath in all changes been my lot to be among them of the unpleasing or the afflicted side . what the parliament would have done , if cromwell had not garbelled them , i know not . but when the presbyterians seemed uppermost , i was looked on as a dissenter . when that which they call the rump was uppermost , i was de jure by their order sequestred , though not de facto , and greatly under their displeasure . and with the army i was out much more . cromwell was not for me , because i was not for him . when was it then that we were in power ? a power of ordination no minister in the county that ever i heard of , claimed or used . none of us did impose our hands in an ordination . when the commissioners for trying ministers cast upon me some of their work , i disclaimed it , till the angry importunity of many episcopal divines , that were referred to my examination , and would else have lost their augmentations or places , prevailed with me to keep them in . a great part of the episcopal ministers in our country ( and in all that i knew ) were never removed . and those that were , might have had other places ; and i knew not that any were by any of cromwells orders forbidden to preach or use the common-prayer in private houses , till towards the later part of his usurpation ; which yet i never knew any execute within the reach of my ( then ) acquaintance . for my own part , by the approbation aforesaid , and certitificates , i kept many in their benefices , ( even the vicars own curate that in was cast out before i was called to the place . ) and i published in print in my own name and my brethrens , our detestation of the casting out of any competent worthy minister for his judgment for episcopacy and conformity , much more for being in arms against the parliament , or preaching against them . and i published it as our earnest request , that all men that were utterly ignorant , heretical and scandalous , or of vicious debauched lives , might be cast out , without respect to other opinions , or civil causes ; and that all the rest might unite their labours , and be encouraged . this is yet in print . and i met with few of my acquaintance in the ministry that were not of the same mind . and i had some more trial as to practise , when cromwell forbad ( as even now i said ) the sequestred ministers to live within two miles of their old benefice , and commanded t●em to quit the houses , our vicar was never disturbed , nor i never came within the house . i never forbad him to preach . and at a chappel we had another conformable minister that read common-prayer , and said somewhat like a sermon often , one mr. turner , infamous for ignorance , drunkenness , railing , and living by unlawful marryings , and making his ministry a scorn . this curate i connived at many a year , till his death . i provided a preacher at first once a day , and afterwards twice , to be resident on the place . i allowed mr. turner his stipend , but intreated him not to meddle with the ministry . for besides his vicious life , i examined him , and could not perceive that he understood scarce any article of the faith ; nor had the fortieth part of the knowledg or ability of many of the wevers , or some of the plowmen of the parish . musculus his common-places englished was all the books that i could perceive he had , and that he preached out of . but he would continue to read common-prayer , and did , though he might have had his stipend as much without it . judg by this whether we were over-forward to silence the sons of the church , or cast them out . . but what reason or conscience is it , that if you can say cromwell , or the parliament , or rump cast out such ministers , that therefore we that had no hand in it , must be silenced ? or if you can name forty ministers in england ( as i cannot ) that consented unto this , that therefore eighteen hundred that never consented should be forbidden to preach ? yea , those that declared themselves to be against it ? . and you know that even the usurpers allowed the wives of the sequestred ministers the fifth part . for my part i never asked you so much . . and either the unjust silencing of ministers by the usurpers , was well done , or ill done ? if ill done , it should be your warning to take heed of sinning as they did ; for sure their practices seem not so right and lovely to you , as to be worthy of imitation . they beheaded mr. love , and imprisoned many london ministers , and others , for the kings sake ; and you think not , sure , that you must therefore do so too ? obj. but we are not to distinguish of nonconformists , when conformity is necessary to the order of the church . if a few honest men suffer among a company of schismaticks , presbyterians , independents , rebells , they must take it patiently , and not blame their rulers , but themselves that chuse so bad companions . the greater part of you deserve it . ans. we are not blaming our governours , but our selves , not for our nonconformity , but for serving god no more diligently when we had time . but , . can you not distinguish , and yet be just ? what not the innocent from the guilty ? nor friends from foes ? this is not the first confusion and evil that want of distinguishing hath caused in the world . . if your , i say , your conformity be more necessary than all our preaching and ministry , and will help more souls to heaven , go on with it , and let it prosper . but be sure that you are not mistaken . . are presbyterians so intollerable a sort of people ? or will the bare opinion , that singular churches have all church-power of christs institution among themselves , while they submit to the civil government , prove men otherwise sober , to be unsufferable ? you know dr. hammord and other episcopal divines do assert an independency of diocesan churches ( which he saith de facto in scripture-times had no presbyters but one bishop and his few deacons . ) and you know dr. stillingfleet ( of whose judgment bishop reinolds and many conformists have profest themselves to be ) maintaineth that no one form of church-government is of divine right and institution . and if so , then the independents and presbyterians refuse none that is of divine institution . . but are you sure that you mistake not , to the injury of the sufferers ? i can tell the world and you , that i knew but one presbyterian minister in all vvorcestershire ; and that one was not of our association ; nor any one independent associated with us , ( though there were three worthy ministers in the county so esteemed ) there was not one of the associated ministry that was so much as reputed presbyterian or independent ( but episcopal , some were , that now conform ) ; much less anabaptists , or of any other sect ; but held the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace , and loved a christian as a christian , and were for the uniting of all the churches that are sound in the faith , and in the things necessary to church-communion , even upon the ancient primitive terms . and when i think of the association of vvestmorland , vviltshire , dorcetshire , and other countrys , i have reason by their articles to think they were of the same mind . and must such abundance be silenced for the opinions of a few , whom they never signified any consent to ? obj. if you are suffered to preach , you will but confirm the people in their nonconformity and dislike of the government : for though you say nothing of it , they will become a faction for the sake of your opinions : and what confusion will it cause , to have one party of the church for one preacher , and another for another ; yea , as you would have it , for one to cross the baptized child , and another not ; or for one to wear a surplice , and another a gown ? ans. . there is nothing in this imperfect life that shall attain perfection ; nor can any publick good be done without any inconveniencies . but , o cure not an inconvenience with a mischief ! kill not a fly that sitteth on your brothers forehead , with a beetle or a butchers axe . it 's strange that wise men can be so partial or narrow-sighted , as to look so intensly after their own desires or interests , as to spy out possibilities of inconvenience , and never see the loss of souls , and great calamities that attend the other way . . and indeed are you conscious of no frailties in your selves , which are as great an inconvenience to the souls of men , and the successes of the gospel , and honour of the church , as different practisings of the cross or surplice ? are you humble men , and teachers of humility ? do you know your selves , and teach the people to know themselves ? are you penitent men , and preachers of repentance ? and yet have never found any thing more injurious to the souls of men , or the ends of your office in all your preaching , praying and ministration , than the not using of a cross or surplice ? forgive me if i ask you , whether you dare appear before god with no better a repentance ? and what a pharisee could say more than , i thank thee , god , that i am not so bad as this puritan , that will not subscribe , or use the cross or surplice ? but i suppose you will confess that you have much worse ministerial failings ; and if so , should you not be impartial , and say , veniam petimusque damusque vicissim ? i verily thought when i entered into the ministry , that not one of all my school masters , the tipling readers before-mentioned , were more useful to the church than an amesius , a hildersham , &c. . but i beseech you let not conceit affright you ; or at least let not so many pay so dear for your causeless fears : it is in your power more than in ours , to prevent all the feared inconveniences of our preaching . it is most certain , that needless impositions are the great cause of factions and divisions in the church . we heretofore instanced to you : . there is no imposition what gesture to sing a psalm in , or to hear gods word ; and about these i never heard of a contention . but about the sacrament-gesture , and bowing rather at the name of jesus , than of christ , or god ; there is imposition , and there 's contention . . there is far more difference between your cathedral worship , and your common parish-worship , than between the users and not users of a cross and surplice : and yet it causeth no such factions . . if you say that it is because they differ not in judgment , but in practice . i answer , . that 's more than you know . i believe you would have some more nonconformists , if you everywhere imposed the cathedral-worship . and . we shall be known to differ in judgment , whether we preach or worship with you or not . . and some of you ( as dr. heylin , and the answerer of a parcel of our reply to you ) are against the use of any prayers in the pulpit , but the liturgy ; and some against praying there before sermon , but only for bidding prayer , as they call it . and most of you practice otherwise , and yet it maketh no division . . nay , when bowing towards the altar was recommended in the canon of , it was not imposed , but men desired not to judg one another about it . and why might not crossing be under the like liberty ? . and even in doctrinals ( which are more than ceremonies ) you know what a notorious difference there is among your selves ? some called arminians , and preaching for it : some that think , and preach against it : some preach for original sin , and bishop taylor writeth against it ; and yet you can bear with one another . yea , how many new doctrines hath mr. thorndike published , and yet his ministry is tollerable ? . yea , even about the matters of state , you know what mr. thorndike hath said against the oath of supremacy , as necessary to be altered , for the papists sake : and yet what faction hath this caused ? . yea , you should consider , that it is one of the greatest policies of rome , for the preservation of their peace and unity , and the power of their hierarchy , that the pope alloweth such diversities of religious houses , orders , rules and ceremonies , that all humors are thereby fitted ▪ and every man that hath a mind of an odd and stricter way , may find a time or society for his turn . and will not the long experience of so great a church , do something to convince you of your mistake ? . but what confusion will it be for a man to forbear a surplice every day , when many of your own forbear it most days , and wear it but seldom , and this without confusion ? and what if a child be uncrossed , when the parents so desire it , or done by another when they desire it ? what confusion is this ? why may not a little measure of brotherly love serve , to procure mutual patience in that which is no injury to any , as well as in the bowing towards the altar , where you think it may serve turn without uniformity ? . but that which i would chiefly have you mind is , that your own way will cross your ends and interest much more than this which we propose to you . it is long since you told me your thoughts ( some of you ) , that if the ministers were taken from them , the people would conform , and be reduced : and since i told you , i was assured you were mistaken ; and that the casting out of the ministers , would be a very great increase of the peoples disaffection to you , and consequently of divisions . you have since had seventeen years tryal , whether this be true or not ! alas , that england must suffer so much , while the bishops are learning how to rule , and do their office , yea learning that which weaker persons easily perceive ? alas ! that so many thousand souls must pay so dear , for a few mens experience ? i know you say that it is , because the laws are not strictly executed : but i suppose you know how many ministers ( such as the world is not worthy of ) have layen long in the jayls , in devonshire , in somersetshire , in dorsetshire , in worcestershire , and in many other counties ; and also how many of the laity have suffered their three months imprisonment , and some much more : and how little all this hath served your turn ; and how much further you would carry on your severity , i know not : but i know you are not like to cause either love or unanimity by this way . will no experience teach you such easie and obvious things ? do you not see , that there are many more of the common people disaffected to your ministry and way , than were when the ministers were first silenced and cast out ? yea , they that lost no ministers of their own , are yet changed by the common experience of the land. you will not endure us to tell you truly , what a ministry you have cast out , and what a ministry in too many places are in their stead . but the people will know it , whether you will or not . to tell men beyond sea in latin , as mr. durel doth , of our badness , and of the excellency of your present ministry , will not perswade the people of england , not to believe their ears and eyes . i love to instance where i dwell and see , because of certainty . this market-town of barnet , ten miles from london , was so extremely addicted to your way , and so impatient of the directory and the ministry now cast out , that one who was their minister in the times of usurpation , told me he was fain to leave them ; and prosessed to me , that he was really afraid , lest they would have put him into the grave , and buried him alive , for burying a corps without the common-prayer , according to the directory . and now the case is so much altered , that ( though the town consist so much of inns and ale-houses , which are very seldom nonconformists ) a private meeting , near the church , is crowded like as the churches were , and the church is almost empty . . and i will make bold to tell you , that if you should banish or imprison all the ministers , and if you should force the people to forbear to conform to you , as forced conformity against their wills is but hypocrisie , and doth but paint your churches with the ornament of mens company , and profiteth not their souls ; so you do thereby but prepare instruments to undermine your selves . for forced unwilling conformists will turn against you , as soon as they have opportunity : and if you imprison men in your churches , they will be still seeking to get out . were not almost all the westminster-assembly espiscopal conformable men , when they came thither ? and did not almost all the people of the land conform before the wars ? and yet you know that they did you never the more service , nor the less displeasure . i must profess it was my unhappiness to have so bad acquaintance , that before the unhappy wars , i knew not one conformable divine , to my best remembrance , who was of a religious blameless life , and seemed seriously to believe , and seek the life to come , and to prefer heaven before earth , who did not conform only upon mr. sprint's argument of necessity , and had not rather have been excused ; and would not profess , that they had far rather that this conformity were not imposed ; and that they did it ( as paul submitted to some jewish ceremonies ) meerly that they might not be kept from preaching ; and so they held conformity to be lawful : and therefore with the assembly , when they might be free , they chose it rather . and is this the happiest unity that you might attain ? obj. your pretended piety is but pharisaical hypocrisie : you are the successors of the pharisees , whom christ spoke hardlier of , than of publicans and harlots : and the vicious and debauched are more tolerable than you , whose religious and zealous villanies are of greater danger to the publick safety ; and whose piety is but pride , in counting your selves holier , and better than your neighbours , and saying , i thank thee , god , that i am not as other men , nor as this publican . ans. . it is a shrewd suspicion that their cause is not good , who are put to uphold it by accusing their adversaries of heart-sins , as hypocrisie is , which are quite out of the sight of men . either you mean that it is hypocrisie latent , or hypocrisie detected by a wicked life . if the former , i confess you have us at an advantage ; for as you pretend to be as gods in knowing the heart ; so we who confess our selves but men , have no way of defence against heart-accusations , but denial , and calling for your proof : and our denial were not enough , if you knew the heart indeed . our judgment is , that hypocrisie is a most hateful sin ; and ( as i have declared my opinion at large , in a discourse called the formal hypocrite ) we think that all men ( except the professed atheists and infidels , who have multiplied since the ministers were silenced ) among us in england , are either saints or hypocrites ; for all that profess true christianity , according to their baptismal-covenant , do profess sanctity : and therefore we suppose , that the more any mans life is contrary to his profession , the more notorious hypocrite he is . for the difference lyeth not in the materials of our profession : for we profess nothing as our religion , but christianity : if any go further , we renounce their profession . and all of you that stand to your baptism , profess christianity , the same christianity as we . the question therefore is , whose lives do most contradict their profession ? i doubt not but you will confess ( for you cannot deny it ) , that a proud , domineering , worldly , covetous , drunken , gluttonous , malicious , persecuting christian , is an hypocrite . if you prove any among us guilty of these , you were best name the men , unless you think that non-conformity to oaths and subscriptions , make all that are endued with it , eat and drink too much . as for these other zealous villanies which you charge upon us , they are to be spoken of by themselves . we are content , that if the nonconformists lives do contradict their christian profession more than the conformists ( proportionably ) that you write in capital letters , the name [ hypocrite ] upon every ones back and breast , that the people may know them as they go along the streets ; and may gratifie the politician , by hating them more for their hypocrisie , than they admired them for their pretended saint ship . but , if you will hear a person whom you so much dislike , i will tell you how this may be best discovered . do not perswade our rulers any more to make laws to eject men for not taking those oaths , subscriptions , &c. for then men will think ( whether you will or not ) that you had no greater fault to prove them hypocrites by : but get them to make a law , that all rebels , traytors , swearers , drunkards , fornicators , gluttons , covetous persons , pluralists , non-residents , soul murdering idle teachers shall be cast out , whether they subscribe and declare , or not : and then those that are flagitious will be the sufferers ; and if it fall upon the present nonconformists , let them bear it , and spare not . again we intreat you to get us such laws against all vice , except those that are made vices by the wills and interests of differing factions , and execute them as severely as you will. and then if we be proved criminal , name the vices which you think proveth men hypocrites , and it will sound better to accuse them of these , than of hypocrisie ; or at least to prove their hypocrisie by those , than by presumptions , and general unproved accusations . let him have his portion with hypocrites ; who by living most contrary to the christian profession , doth most convincingly prove himself an hypocrite . i confess , since i have still observed from my youth , that the most vicious enemies of godliness have used to call those hypocrites , who do but seem to be no hypocrites , that is , to be serious in the christian profession , and seriously to mind , and mention , and seek the life to come ; i have been constrained when i heard a man called an hypocrite , and no more ( especially by a vicious man , or an adversary ) , to suspect that there is some more than ordinary excellency in that person : for i must suppose it is some great good which he is thought to make a cloak for evil : if long praying had not been good , it had not been a fit pretence for oppression in the pharisees . if praying and alms-deeds had not been good , it would have disgraced the hypocrites , matth. . to have made ostentation of them . when you call us hypocrites , and dissembled saints , you tell the world , that we have the profession , and outward appearance of good : and whether we corrupt it by a deceitful heart , remaineth to be proved , as well as asserted . mr. robert bolton was no nonconformist ( as to the old conformity ) who noteth it to be the use of the world , to charge the soundest christians with hypocrisie , because then they talk of the secrets of the heart , which we cannot open for our own vindication . . as for self ▪ estimation , our judgment is , that pride is one of the worst of sins , and pride of wisdom and godliness is one of the worst sorts of pride : and there are too many guilty of it in the world , and we would fain have leave to preach against it : in the mean time we spare not by writing and conference , and such preaching as we use , to do against it what we can . and we shall heartily thank you for any true help , to detect and mortifie it more in our selves . but remembring from my childhood , that the sots and drunkards of the town and countrey , where i lived , were used to speak the very same words with this objection , against all serious godly christians , how conformable soever ; i presume to ask you these few questions . q. . are the conformists more godly or holy , than all the ignorant , drunken , unchast , voluptuous , carnal rabble , or are they not ? q. . if not , why do they take it for a wrong to hear of much less ? if they are ( as i doubt not but very many are ) , do they so esteem themselves , or not ? if not , why should they be angry with others for thinking of them , as they think of themselves ? if yea , q. . may they not take it for a greater mercy than all the riches of the world ? if all are none of christs , that have not his spirit , may not they give god thanks for it that have received it ? rom. . . q. . and do you never give god thanks for his grace of sanctification your selves ? q. . if you do , how shall a man know that you are not as very hypocrites in so doing , as the nonconformists ? when they and you thank god for the same mercy , how shall we know but by the fruits , which of you is sincere ? q. . do you know that there are any , or many among us , that live after the flesh , an ungodly , sensual , worldly life ? if not , you are strangers to the land which you inhabit ? if yea , q . do you think all these are in a good and safe condition ? if yea , give over preaching against them : if not , do not better men differ from them ? q. . and must not our light so shine before men ( though not for their applause ) , that they may see our good works , and glorifie god ? matth. . . . and seeing we are accounted the pharisees , come on , and let us recite the pharisees character , and see who is likest him ? . the pharisees were the chiefest members of the sanhedrim , and rulers of the church , and so are not we , act. . . mat. . . & . . & . . john . . . the pharisees were against the scripture-sufficiency , for the customs and traditions of their ancestors , mat. . . . they imposed these traditions as laws on others , and accused the christians for not observing them , mat. . . . they preferred these tradition before the practice of some moral duties , mat. . . . . . they were so much for ceremony , that they were precise and strict in the observance of their ceremonies , mat. . . . , &c. and for them neglected mercy and saith , mat. . . . they were covetous , and sought after riches , even by oppression , mat. . . . they were proud and lordly , and strove for preferment , the highest places , and the highest titles , mat. . , , &c. . they wore a different sort of garments , which was openly to signifie their special holiness , mat. . . . they were very zealous to make men proselytes , and conformable to all their ceremonies , mat. . . . they foolishly and preposterously preferred small matters before great , v. , , &c. . they laboured to silence christ and the preachers of his gospel , and forbad them with threatnings to preach any more , mat. . . act. . , &c. . they persecuted christ and his apostles , and sought first to intrap them in their speech , and then to bring them into sufferings , luke . , &c. if you know any that ever silenced or persecuted any faithful minister , he is none of the men that i am speaking for . . they pretended law for all their cruelties , john . . and accused them as breakers of the law , luke . . & . . . they urged christ to decide state-controversies about caesars right , which he warily avoided , knowing they did but seek matter of accusation , mat. . . mark . . . yet did they accuse him as an enemy to caesar , and as guilty of disloyalty , even to his crucifixion , luke . . john . . and were not contented to take away his life , unless they put on him the infamy of treason . . they would not understand the meaning of the law of love , or i will have mercy , and not sacrifice , mat. . . . they were stricter for tything , and such levitical rights , than for the spiritual worshipping of god , mat. . . . their righteousness was more in outside religious pomp and bodily exercise , than in the inward part , and moral practise , mat. , &c. . they pretended great veneration for the dead saints , and built them monuments for an honourable memorial , while they imitated those that murdered them , and persecuted the living saints that imitated them , mat. . , , &c. . they had their set-days of formal fasting twice a week , turning even extraordinary duties and all , into form and ceremony , luke . . and were inquisitive after them that conformed not herein , mat. . . mark . . . they counted it the folly and ignorance of the law , in the common people , whom they took for cursed , to be such admirers of the preaching of christ , john . . . they used long prayers , as a cloak for their oppression . query , whether they were a liturgy or not ? if yea , so let it pass in their character . if not , then it is scarce like that there was any other liturgy than the scriptures in those times : else it is most like that the pharisees would have used it . for , . they went up into the temple to pray , and sometime in other publick places ( as bishop hall notably describeth the hypocrite in his characters , that he kneeling down behind a pillar in the great church , muttereth over certain words , praying to that god whom he all the week at home forgetteth and disobeyeth ; and rising up , commendeth the devotion of our ancestors : he boweth at the name of jesus , and sweareth by the name of god , &c. ( this is the sense , for being separated from books i pretend not to recite verbatim ) : so did these pharisees make ostentation of their prayers in the temple ; but we read not of their family or secret prayers , which christ enjoineth to his disciples , that they may differ from the pharisees , mat. . they insulted over the followers of christ as an accursed ignorant vulgar sort , when they were blind themselves , and knew not the spirituality of doctrine or worship , mat. . . . they were loose expositors of the law of god , and extended it not to those internals , and necessary strictness which was the proper sense , but made it forbid no more than those notable external evils which themselves and their vulgar followers could spare , mat. . . and with the forbearance of these outward sins , and the performance of their ceremonies , they so contented themselves , and quieted their consciences , that they wanted the true and spiritual righteousness , absolutely necessary to salvation , mat. . . . they were the very leaders of all the malignant party that hated christ and his disciples , and more zealous against them than the very heathen roman governours , who sometime saved the preachers from the pharisees rage . . they were so malignant that they envied the very good works , and healing miracles which christ did , and repined and fretted that god should so much honour christians , joh. . . . they were so malignant that no course of the servants of god could please them , or escape their obloquy . but john that lived austerely , they reproached as a melancholy demoniack , or a crackt-brain'd man ; and christ that used a freer converse , they accused as not strict enough for them . . they were so malignant that they could not endure to have god acknowledged the owner and approver of christianity , but would rather have the people take christ for a deceiver , or his works to be done by the devil himself , than that god should be known to be the author of them , as his attestation and seal to the truth of christ , mat. . . . being a generation that never had done complaining of those that conformed not to their ceremonies and outside rites , and yet void of true sanctification , christ pronounced them a plant that his father had not planted , that were e're long to be extirpated , mat. . . . . & . , . . they formally preached much good , as sitting in moses chair , and having a holy law to speak of , but their own lives were covetous , proud , persecuting , and contrary to the law , and to their own doctrine ; and yet their very doctrine had much corruption , mat. . , , . & . . & . . luk. . . . yet were these pharisees of a much sounder judgment than the atheistical sadduces , and therefore thought highly of themselves ; and some few among them had a secret favour unto christ , as far as their reputation and the fear of their party would permit , luk. . . joh. . , . act. . . & . , , , . in all this i have but recited the scripture characters of the pharisees , not daring to speak a word of the application ; for i much doubt whether you will not think that i have drawn your picture , by the bare recitation of the text ; so much did i wonder at one of the last sermons which i heard in publick ( but just such as i have oft heard forty-five years ago ) which was spent in likening the puritan to the pharisee ; how the speaker avoided blushing , and remembering what the hearers would think when they should read the history of the pharisees in the bible ; and whether they perceived what injury they did themselves , who used to call the people to such observations . for my part i would counsel them never to name the pharisees more , left the hearers apply it otherwise than they imagin . at least never more to go about to make men think that the puritan ( who is so contrary to him ) is like the pharisee ; for men never speed worse than by such monstrous undertakings . but yet it may be some of them believe themselves . for he that will needs make his own creed , may make his own faith ; but if they make as large creeds for others , and call them to subscribe them , and to swear to them , when they cannot make them a faith proportionable , they will but multiply nonconformists . and so much to your angry censure , which leaveth us room for no more argumentative a defence . obj. if you do scruple conformity , why do you gather private meetings , and separate from the church , and hold your meetings at the time of our publick vvorship ? and encourage the people in their separations ? for whatever you say of your self , you cannot but know that it is so in london , and in many other places ? ans. . i told you not my own practise alone , but many others ; and when i have told you our principles , you will the better know how to judg of our different practises . the nonconformists hold , . that we are members of the catholick church , in order of nature , before we are of any particular church . for baptism , as such , doth enter us into the former . and that no man must ever separate from this church upon any pretence whatsoever . . that our communion with this catholick church is our concord in the performance of that baptismal covenant which uniteth us . . that our conjunction with this or that particular church , is a matter left to humane prudence , and to be changed according to the interest of our own souls , and the publick good ; and that god bindeth me not to one church more than to another , by any law , except that general law which directeth us what choice to make of matters undetermined . . that the magistrate is the governour of these churches as to their external ordering , which supposeth the pastors to be governours governed by him ; ( as schoolmasters , philosophers , pilots , architects , &c. ) and that the pastors are essential to the church , ( in a political sense , as we now take it ) as a schoolmaster is to a school ; but so is not the magistrate . . that the ordinary instituted way of the pastors call to a particular church , is by the direction of the ordaining pastors , and by the election or consent of the congregation . and that as the churches had true pastors without and against the magistrates consent , so may it have still ; seeing then and now the magistrate had power of governing churches already made , by exterior order , rather than of making or unmaking churches . and therefore that a pastor may still be a true pastor , when he is prohibited to preach . . that the magistrate hath the power of things circa sacra , that is , of temples , tythes , maintenance , &c. so that he divest not the pastor of his intrinsick power , proper to his office , ( as to chuse his subject , method , words , &c. ) and therefore that no minister may seize upon the said temples , tythes , &c. against the magistrates will. . that ubi episcopus , ibi ecclesia , as cyprian faith , where the true pastor is , there is the church , because the pastor is an essential , and the governing part . and as this was true in cyprian's time , so it is now . . that if usurping pastors , though by the magistrates consent , do take possession of the temples and publick maintenance , ( and legal right as well as possession ) this is not enough to make those men true pastors over that people , without their consent , and to nullifie the relation of their former-lawful pastors . . that it is not impossible or rare for the usurper to have the foresaid advantages , and the true pastors to be put to meet in privater places ; and so thought dr. vvild , dr. guning , dr. hide , &c. in the time of our civil usurpations . and even under lawful governours it was so judged by the churches in the case of athanasius , basil , and multitudes of bishops then cast out . . that abundance of the ministers now cast out , were once the lawful pastors of the flocks . . that when the true pastor is thrust out of the temples , and usurpers have that place , he is rather the separatist that followeth the usurper in that more publick place , than he that adhereth in private to the lawful pastor ; as dr. vvild and the rest aforementioned then thought . . that therefore in those places where the relation of prohibited ministers to the people is truly dissolved , they are the faulty dividers that adhere to them . but where it is not dissolved , but the publick teachers were never their true pastors , there those may be the schismaticks that forsake their lawful pastors , though under that restraint . . that where the pastors that have the temples , and those that are shut out , are both true pastors , caeteris paribus , it is as good a proof that they are separatists and schismaticks who join not with them in other places , as that they are so for not coming to the temples ; that is , neither of the inferences is good . . every man is not a separatist , that is not present with others in publick worship . i separate not from all foreign churches , nor from all the parish churches in london save one , though i be present but with one . but he that censureth a true church to be no church , and so separateth from it as none ; and he that accounteth any church injuriously , to be so corrupted as that it is unlawful to hold communion with it , both these are guilty of culpable schismatical separation , but in very different degrees . . a mans absence from you will not alone prove him a separatist , unless he be absent upon separating principles . . he that keepeth not local communion with a particular church , and yet honoureth them as a church that may be communicated with , and holdeth communion of faith and love , and obedience with them , cannot be a separatist from them simply , but only extrinsically secundum quid ; and that is to be tried and judged of as aforesaid . . if therefore they will admit you to communicate with them in their way , and will not communicate with you in your way ; it sheweth that it is something in your way and not directly in your selves , from which they separate . . and no man ought to commit one sin for the communion of any church . . i may have more mental communion with a church , which i dare not outwardly join with , because they impose some one unlawful word or action , than with a more corrupted church , with which i hold more external communion , because they put me not to approve their errors . . when there are several churches near , caeteris paribus , a free man should join himself with the purest , and to the most edifying ministry ordinarily . . yet in times of suspicion and division , it is fit to shew our judgment by our practise , and to join sometimes with some less pure churches , that put no sin upon us to shew that we withdraw not from them on separating principles . . when a minister is not lawfully separated from his flock , but another is obtruded without a just call upon his people , yet if he see that the voluntary relinquishing of his relation , is most for the peoples good , that they may accept another that hath more secular advantages to profit them , and guide them in peace , he is finis gratiâ in prudence bound to do it . . all people in england therefore are not in the same condition , but to some it may be a fault which to others is a duty . were i in a place where the minister is faithful and worthy to be owned , i would draw all the people to attend his ministry , and would help him at other seasons as i were able , in unity and love . but if i lived where the publick minister were intollerable , i would do otherwise . . the case of london much differeth from most other places in the land ; as very many of them think that their relation to their ancient flocks is not yet dissolved ; so necessity putteth them out of the track of formal parish-order . . in the great plague almost all the parish-ministers deserted them ; and those that then stuck to the people , found such success by the help of that awakening judgment , that they durst not since forsake them , nor will easily be forsaken by them . . there being so many score churches burnt down , and the inhabitants not gone , and the conformable ministers not officiating but in the standing temples , there is no reason that the people should therefore turn atheists , and give over worshipping god. . many parishes being so great , that the twentieth person cannot come to the temples , and many of the preachers voices so low that half cannot hear them who might get in , there is no reason that all the rest must therefore be cast off and left as the indians , without the means that god hath appointed for mens salvation . . and why then should not their assemblies take the fittest time of the day as well as yours ? all men know that ( especially in the short winter-days ) there is little convenient time left for the work of a lords-day , besides the time of your morning and evenings liturgy , and other offices . . and when you have as many as can hear you , o why should you be angry that the rest ( or rather some few of them ) are hearing others , that preach as profitably as you ? nay i beseech you before god judg , try and judg what is the cause that when many parts perhaps of your absent parishioners are at no church , but some in ale houses , taverns , or gaming-houses , and some idle at home , that yet the few that are worshipping god with an able faithful minister are more exclaimed on , and written against , and angerly accused , than all the rest . obj. but many of the parish-churches are half empty ? ans. . it is not so with the rest ; and therefore you may see that the difference between your own preachers is the cause . unedifying teachers will not have so many voluntary intelligent hearers as others . . as i said , half the church-full cannot hear many of your preachers . . when the parishioners know beforehand that the temple will not hold a quarter of the people , they are never certain of room , as not knowing when others will exclude them ; and therefore they seek another place where they may be certain . for he that brings his family to church every day upon such uncertainty , is every day uncertain whether he shall spend the day as the lords-day , or have any publick communion with the church . and they are apter to be sensible of this calamity themselves , than the objectors are . . and i must add also , that as london is the most populous place , so it hath the greatest number of true separatists and sectaries ; and the sounder part are not responsible for their actions . obj. but with what conscience do you come into cities , corporations , or within five miles of them , or of your former preachingplaces ? doth god bid you preach just here ? and how do your scruples engage you thus to break the laws ? ans. even with such a conscience as we preach in england , when the scripture nameth not england to us . did not the ancient christians also disobey a lawful power , when they setled their churches in cities , even when they were forbidden both city and country ? and if christ say , vvhen they persecute you in one city , fly to another ; and you bid us , fly from all , and fly to none . hath not a nonconformists conscience something of the command of christ to countenance his practice ? but our true reasons are the same as are forementioned for our preaching . if necessity be upon us to preach because of the peoples necessity to hear , then where their necessity is greatest , there our obligation is greatest . but in populous cities and towns , when the ablest conformable minister is insufficient for a quarter of the parish , the peoples necessities are greatest . ergo , if it be lawful for us to desert and betray to satan the souls of all the cities and corporations in england , and within five miles of them , and of all the places where we have preached , why will it not be lawful to do so by the rest ? vvhere the carcass is , the eagles will be gathered together ; and where the work and vineyard is , the labourer must be . and all good men love the publick good , and therefore will chuse those places for their labour ( caeteris paribus ) which the publick good doth most depend on . especially if the people of their ancient charge live there , and they think that their relation to them is not dissolved . and i must profess , that few of the passages of this generation do more astonish me with dread and wonder , than to think that city-pastors who have so vast a charge , and so much more need of help than the country , yea men of reputed learning , sobriety and piety , should ever be desirous to take this burden wholly on themselves , and should be the forwardest to drive away assistants , yea and make it a sin to preach to those souls , that they know they cannot preach to themselves ! yea , that the same men that one year have much ado to satisfie their own consciences to conform , and think they speed well , if with conformity they can but keep up some reputation of honesty , yet the next year make so great a progress , as to question his honesty , that will not sacrilegiously renounce his ministry , and are the forwardest to put down all preaching save their own ! do the pastors themselves no better know the parish bounds , and the peoples wants , or the worth of souls ? what then can we expect from others ? obj. but it is not your help , but your hindering us that we are against . do you help us by drawing the people from us to your selves ? ans. i cannot tell whether we help you or not , till i know what is your help . if your work be not to get followers and applause , but to bring men to christian knowledg , faith , love , obedience , and patience , then all the ministers that i plead for are you helpers ; those that are not , silence them , and spare not . but if your work be to preach up your selves , and your successes be reckoned by your applause , i cannot tell whether we help you or not . for though we seek to increase your reputation with the people , yet it is not as you are self-seekers , but as in charity we hope you preach more for christ , and mens salvation , than for your selves . obj. but what you before denied of the magistrate , you cannot deny of the church : the church calleth you , and giveth you your power : therefore it may take it from you : and so mr. rathband confesseth , and the old nonconformists practised . ans. . the [ church ] is an ambiguous word . if you mean the bishops , all those whom you call to be re-ordained , deny that ever the bishops gave them their power . . and it was one bishop who ordained each of the rest , or two at most , who are both dead , and cannot take away what they gave . . i have answered this before , and more largely in my dispute of ordination : men give us not our power at all , as from themselves ; but as servants of christ invest them solemnly to whom he giveth it . and a servant cannot dispossess him whom by his masters orders he hath invested . . you give us our baptism and matrimony , as truly as our ministry : and yet you cannot take them from us . . but indeed , if the church , that is , the people , refuse us , we cannot teach and edifie them against their wills . . and if one bishop silence us , he doth it but as exercising government in his diocess ; and it followeth not , that we are silenced in all others . . and they that dissent from our diocesan frame of prelacy , do not much reverence their governing spiritual power : and if the kings prohibition bind them not against their conscience of gods obligations to be silent , much less will yours . . no bishops have silenced us by spiritual government that we know of , but only as barons by the secular laws , to which they gave their votes ( which yet all did not ) : how then are we obliged by their power of the keys to be silent ? for my part i have one or two of their licenses never re-called or nulled . . if a bishop should silence him under pretence of government and order , whom god obligeth to preach , as much as i have before proved that we are obliged , it were ipso facto null as to our consciences , as being against the laws of god. . he that is silenced in every bishops diocess , is not yet thereby degraded , but is still a minister , to the world at least for their conversion ; for those without ( the infidels and heathens ) are of no bishops diocess ; and it 's a question , whether those among us that openly renounce the prelacy , and declare themselves to be none of their church , are yet indeed members of their church whether they will or not ? we believe not , that a law of the land doth make any man a church-member without his own consent . if you think otherwise , why distinguish you the sons of the church from others ? if all the people of london be not the sons , or members of your church , the rest are not under your pastoral spiritual government : and as for your secular power , enough is said of that before . and i think no man will say that the extent of your diocess to many hundred parishes , is a divine institution , obliging all mens consciences to obey you , that shall come within that circuit of ground : you will ascribe this extent of your power to the king and laws ; of which more in due place . and as to the old nonconformists , they forbore the temples and publick maintenance , and so do we : and i am sure they used to preach in private , as well as we ; yea and in the churches when they thought it brought no great inconvenience by offence . mr. hildersham , mr. nichols , and abundance more , did preach in publick after they were forbidden and silenced , till execution hindered them as well as law. and mr. nichols , mr. langley , mr. bromskill , and many more , when they were driven from one place , would preach where they found opportunity in another . and mr. herring was wont privately to preach in shrewsbury , as his most credible friends and hearers told me . and indeed the far greatest part of the nonconformists , that ever i knew , had publick liberty , in some small peculiar , for most of their time , if not by connivence in greater places : so had mr. knewstubs , ash , slater , root , ball , barnet , gilpin , and many more . and yet we as well as mr. rathband will submit to a suspension , or prohibition of authority , when it is but an act of order and government of just authority , and not a notorious subversion of the thing ordered , or the end , and gods laws and mens necessities oblige us not to the contrary . the papists hold that a father may not keep his son from taking orders . if the bishops were our fathers then , they could not hinder us from the faithful exercise of what we have undertaken . obj. the reason why you are against bishops is , because you cannot be bishops your selves : and why was it that you so long demurred on the matter , before you refused them , when some had such offers ? did it not shew that you had a mind of them ? ans. the first half of this charge was given in the pulpit to my face , when no minister or nonconformist else was present : the other is the debate-makers ( in sense ) . and seeing i am personally concerned in the matter , my answer must be historical accordingly . will not all sober by-standers think that we have very hard measure , and have to do with a strange generation ? when they shall know that bishopricks were offered us without seeking directly or indirectly , and refused with as much modesty as we could use ; and after all are denied not only the place of the poorest curates , but even all liberty to preach for nothing , to the rudest , poorest inhabitants of the land ; and yet after all this , to be told that we are against bishops , because we could not be bishops our selves ? o happy christians , that must be finally judged by a more righteous judg ! if you say that you mean it of those that never had such offers , why should you not rather judg of them by us that were tryed , than boldly judg that of them which they were never tryed in , and of which it is impossible for you to have knowledge ? but the later objector telleth us whom he speaketh of . to whom i must say , there were but five or six nonconformists of all england , that ever i heard of , that had any church-dignities offered them since his majesties restoration : and of these but three that had bishopricks offered them , which were dr. edward reignolds , mr. calamy , and my self : and of these three , i refused it the next day , or next save one , after the first offer of it by the lord chancellor ( for private overtures by inferiors before , i answered with as much refusal as was fit to such uncertain offerers ) : dr. reignolds in a very short time accepted : only mr. calamy delayed : and if dr. bates and dr. manton , who were offered deanries ( as they said , for i am certain of no offer but my own ) , did delay their refusal , it was on the same account . and the true reason of mr. calamies delay ( which few men knew better than my self ) , was because perhaps he would have accepted a bishoprick as altered by the kings declaration about ecclesiastical affairs , and to be used according to that declaration , but not according to the ancient laws and customs of the land and church , though of this much he was unresolved . therefore he being uncertain whether the kings declaration would stand , or pass into a law , he delayed to see the certainty : and when he saw that the declaration was dead , and prelacy was what it was before , he refused it . and dr. reignolds professed ( to me ) to accept it but on the terms of that declaration . now i would put two questions to the justice of the debater : . whether he do well to mention our refusing of bishopricks at all , which we our selves so studiously silence ? there is now no refuser living but my self : and i must profess , that to this day i have been so careful to silence it , that i do not believe there are many men , if any alive , that ever heard me mention it , unless in answer to some one that askt me about it , or in confutation of some such aspersions as these . and my reason was , because i apprehend it to favour of ingratitude , and disingenous carriage to my rulers : if they shall offer me preferment , and i should boast how i refused it , it would seem a casting it in their faces with unthankfulness and contempt . and no man can say that ever i was so unworthy ; and few have ever heard me mention it . and yet we cannot be quiet , for accusers ; but if we say nothing , such men will. q. . whether candor or justice would without any distinction perswade the world , that we had a mind of preferments , and therefore so long delayed ; whereof only three men that had the offer of bishops , one refused in a day or two , and the other presently accepted ; and the one that delayed , with the two about deaneries , were known to do it , that they might know first whether the kings declaration would pass into a law , or be cast by ? and if you proceed to intimate , that we refused but for fear of losing our party . i know no mans heart but my own ; and i will help you by some evidence to know it in this matter . . upon the offers by inferior agents that first were made to me , my neighbour ministers in worcestershire having some knowledge of it , concurred in a letter to me , neither perswading nor disswading me , but thinking me the fittest judg ; assured me , that if i accepted it , they should be so far from censuring me for it , as rather to believe that it would be for good , &c. . when i refused it , being wary what men might after say , i did it in writing , in a letter to the lord chanceller , giving him those reasons that did content him , viz. if the kings declaration were established ; though i wisht a perfecter frame of discipline than it reciteth , yet i was so glad of that much , that i took it to be my duty to promote our concord with all my power , upon that foundation : and i knew that if i were no bishop my self , i could far more effectually perswade men to conformity , than if i were . and this was the reason i gave of my refusal . but if the kings declaration should not be ratified ( as i verily did believe it would not ) , i knew if i took a bishoprick , i must quickly leave it . and then it was better refuse it at the first . and this being our case , methinks i might refer the judgment of it even to the censurer himself ( whose civility to my self through the rest of his debate , i do acknowledge ) . obj. if the king must change or relax his laws as oft as men will be scrupulous or discontented , there will be no setledness , consistency or order . your tender consciences are but tender heads : and soft-headed people must be rulers of us all , if we must change as oft as their weakness will desire it . ans. you cannot think that when you talk at this rate , the readers and hearers can be all so simple , as not to understand , that your words only signifie that you stand on the higher ground , and not that you have the better cause : for , . you were not only importuned before these laws were made , to have done your part , for a more universal concord , but you were also commissioned by the king under his broad seal , to consult for the making such alterations in the liturgy , as were necessary to satisfie tender consciences : when instead of so doing , you have made the burden heavier than before . and is this a fit plea for men , that before the new laws and impositions , had so much power and opportunity to have prevented the matter of our grievance , and were so long importuned to it in vain , to talk afterward of the inconvenience of changing or relaxing laws . . have the nonconformists so often changed their cause , that you should be put to talk of so frequent change of laws ? do you not tell them that their arguments and exceptions are but the same that have been answered to their predecessors long ago ? if their cause be the same , one alteration since the first imposition of conformity would have served their turn . if after the troubles or differences at frank ford they had been brought to an agreement by mutual accesses and concessions , what need any more as to the nonconformists to this day ? . who were the changers when you put your new clauses into the liturgy ( as the doctrine of baptized infants salvation , without distinguishing of them that were baptized rightfully , or without right , &c. ) if all the new oaths , subscriptions and declarations be imposed by your advice , surely it was you that were in that the changers . changes then will do well , and be laudable when they serve your ends , but they are dangerous when they are against your minds . what changes doth thorndike plead for ? . when the new canons and oath were made , and when rails and altars were set up , and bowing towards the altar recommended , there was no danger in these changes : but if an oath or subscription of seven years age be abated , how dangerous would such changes be ! . the kings majesty , when he published his declaration about ecclesiastical affairs , did not take those changes there made to be so dangerous : nor did the commons in parliament , who gave him thanks for that declaration . we may know then by that much , whence the noise of danger cometh . . if a needless subscription or a ceremony have burdened so many and considerable subjects an hundred years and more ; and if the calamitous attempts of change , that have been made unlawfully in the land , have been occasioned by mens differences about those things , and if they are still the burden of so many as are now against conformity : let impartial persons then be judges , whether the removing of those troublesome unnecessary burdens , were not the likest means imaginable to prevent any more ill attempts of change ? . is there any thing in the world , that you think unlawful ? no doubt there is . suppose that one thing were by a law imposed on you : would you think that a change of that law would be a dangerous thing ? and would you exclaim against it as now you do ? what if king charles i. his concessions in his restraint in the isle of wight , had past into a law ( as they had if the parliament had not suddenly been broken ) , and that episcopacy had received as great a change as was then intended in those concessions ? would you have taken the rescinding of all these laws for a dangerous change ? obj. it is obedience that beseemeth tender consciences : disobedience is as the sin of witchcraft ; and would you have any countenance you in so great a sin ? if subjects must have the laws changed , instead of obeying them , they will be rulers , and not subjects . why are you not more tender of offending and disobeying your governours ? ans. . are not you and we agreed that god is the chief ruler , and to be first obeyed , and no man against him , but only under him ? in this sure we do not differ . to disobey god , is as the sin of witchcraft , and obedience to him is better than sacrifice : and when it is only our obedience to god that maketh us disobey any governours , judge whether we were not more chargeable with disobedience , if we obeyed men , and disobeyed god. we have no reason to cast our selves under all your reproach , and so much suffering , but only to avoid disobedience to god : and when our costliest obedience , must go for odious disobedience ; and if we disobey god to please men , it would go for obeeience ; what remedy , but to wait for a more righteous judgment , where obedience and disobedience will be better known . . again i ask , is there any oath that you dare not take ? any thing that you dare not subscribe to and declare ? any thing that in gods worship you durst not use ? suppose that one thing were imposed on you ? would you conform to it or not ? if you were but put to subscribe all to the truth of dr. hammonds opinion , that there were no presbyters , but bishops in the scripture-times , and that no church then was bigger than one bishop with his deacons did efficiate with , would not some part of you scruple subscribing to it ? if any one thing or word which you judge unlawful to be done or subscribed , were put on you by a law , would not you then be the nonconformists ? and were it not as easie then to declaim against your disobedience and nonconformity , as it is now for you to do it against ours ? might not volumes as plausibly be written to shew the mischief of subjects disobedience , and quarrelling with the laws , and being judges of what is unlawful ? and might not you be as largely characterized as a stubborn unquiet people , as we are by you now ? so that all this still doth only tell us , that you are got up in the highest seat , from whence you have advantage to look down with scorn upon those that are more fearful of sinning than your selves . . we are so tender of disobeying our rulers , that we will do any thing to obey and please them , except disobeying god , and damning our own or others souls : and if you must have us yet go further , you must excuse us ; we had rather go to your prison under all your obloquy . your furnace is not so hot as gods. obj. the only reason ( say most of them ) why they forsook their ministry was , that they durst not abjure the covenant : dispense with them for this , and they are conformists . but if that be the only thing they scruple , then why are they not conformists in all other particulars , against which they pretended no such exceptions ? and what doeth renouncing the covenant concern the people , & c ? thus the ecclesiastical polititian , pag. , . ans. . is this flaming-hot disputer so much better acquainted with us , than we are with our selves and one another ? hath he talkt with the most of us ? or have the most ever said or written , that it is only the covenant that we stick at ? i must profess , of all the nonconformists that ever i knew or spake with , i never knew any one of this mind , which he saith [ the most of them say ] they are of . nay i never heard of any one nonconformist of that mind . and if the world and posterity must be told so confidently , that most say and hold that , which i that am supposed so much on their side , did never know nor hear of any one man that said or held , you may judge what a history posterity is like to have of this age ; and also with whom we have to do , and upon what terms . i confess i know one that hath suffered the loss of all these many years , and been denied so much as leave to teach school , that is for episcopacy , liturgy and ceremonies as lawful , and never took the covenant , nor was ever for it , nor for the parliaments war , but against both , that yet cannot disoblige every one that ever did take the covenant , so far as is required to conformity , nor cannot subscribe or declare assent and consent to every word in the three books so to be consented to . but such a one as sticks at the covenant only , i never knew nor heard of . . but if the accusers of the brethren do believe themselves , they tell the world the little charity that is among them ; who had rather so many ministers were silenced , ( to say nothing of their bodily sufferings ) , and so many thousand souls want their ministry , than abjuring the covenant should be dispensed with , when a fuller security for loyalty and peace is offered . . it is either the episcopal , presbyterian , or independent nonconformists ( for all these sorts there be at least ) that he meaneth , by most of them , or most as mixt : . the episcopal nonconformists are not for the covenant , but stick most at consenting and swearing to the english hierarchy and discipline , and church-state , as it differeth from the old episcopacy described in archbishop ushers reduction . . the presbyterians surely have told the world by books enow , that they are nonconformists in more things than abjuring the covenant . and in good sadness , doth not england know that ( call them what you will ) the divines commissioned by the king did give their reasons against more ? and the independents are so far from being to be numbered with his [ most of them ] that i know not if you would free them from the rest of conformity , whether the leaders would not yield in this . for when scotland was invaded , and mr. love beheaded , it was pleaded that the covenant was as an almanack out of date . and mr. eaton hath written a book to prove , that the covenant , and the oath of allegiance bind not . . but as for [ abjuring ] i never heard that it was required of the ministers ; and how can that possibly be their only nonconformity , which never was imposed on them . . but what he and others mean to pretend that the laity are unconcerned in the renouncing of the covenant , when it is known by printed laws , and by practice , that all the cities and corporations in england , as to the governing or trusted part , are constituted by the renunciation of the covenant , and also all the vestries ; as the corporation act , and the vestry act declare , is but more matter of wonder to men , that have not been used to such things ! so many new printed laws , and the visible state of all the cities and corporations in england are not evidence enough on a nonconformists part , to decide a controversie of fact . but if they shall say that they meant that the laity are not on such terms forbidden to come to church : i answer , if we also had learned the trick of speaking , writing , and swearing in universal terms ( or equipollent ) , and meaning not universally , but particularly , as many do , we could say , or subscribe , or swear as far as you desire us . obj. if you be tollerated , why not all others as well as you ? and so the quakers and the papists may come in . and it 's well if the presbyterians do not thus let in popery . ans. . what if the law imposed one word on you which you could not conform to , and you differed from the church in nothing else ? what answer would you give to such an objection as this , which equally excludeth chillingworth and knot ? would you not say that a difference should be made ? o how hardly can men understand that are unwilling to know ! how easie a case were this to the willing ! mr. john rogers of dedham , mr. john ball , and sometime mr. dod , and mr. hildersham , had liberty to preach without conforming ; and did it infer the necessity of such a toleration as you talk of ? . i pray you take heed of bringing conformity more into contempt than yet it is , by seeming to judg it such a thing as men will not yield to without constraint and punishment . take off the penalty of subscribing , declaring , crossing , &c. and all that are willing will use them without force . and if most must be forced , it intimates that they do not like or love them . what good doth subscribing a sentence which he believeth not , do either to the soul of the lyar himself , or to the church ? . if so large a toleration as you talk of be so dangerous , and the presbyterians are like to occasion it for their liberty , why will you not prevent so great a danger at so cheap a rate , as it might be prevented at ? are you indeed against a toleration of heresie and popery , and yet would you rather venture on the danger of it , than abate to protestants a needless ceremony or subscription ? . i cannot tell whether you are indeed such strangers to the thoughts and talk of the people of england concerning your selves as you seem to be . if you are , i will not now tell you what they say of you . but they rejoice that they have a king so far from popery , that he hath by a law made it a heinous crime for any to vent any suspicions of his constancy ( which through so many temptations he hath approved . ) and indeed it were a crime that deserved no small punishment , as imputing that to our sovereign which is scarce to be thought of a rational man ; even to give up most of his power and kingdom to a foreign usurper after his power is shaken off , and that without any cause . princes that ever got loose from the roman yoke , do not use to come under it again ; at least , except as king john resigned his crown , constrained by meer necessity . but godfrey goodman a papist was the last bishop of gloucester ; and i must profess that if i were a papist and studied to help them to a toleration , i would by writings , and by all my interest , endeavour to bring as many more of you as i could into a necessity of seeking liberty or toleration , that when the party that needed and sought it were considerable , and the cry for it were great , we might look for our part among the rest , and say , why not we as well as others ? and yet i would have the papists and all conscientious persons used like men , and not with any cruelty or inhumanity . obj. there was indeed a necessity of much preaching , before the world was converted to christianity : but there is no such necessity now when we are all christians . ans. this is fully answered before . do you think the bare name of a christian and his baptism , will save those thousands that know not what christianity is ? or those that live in enmity , contempt or neglect of the laws of christ ? is a wicked christian that sinneth against the greatest means , and his own covenant , vow , and profession , a happier man than the poor infidels that never heard the gospel ? if not , these have need of teaching here at home , as well as men in foreign parts . but i will add no more to my former answer . obj. but why do you not go preach among the indians , or in other lands where there is more need , if liberty of preaching be all that you desire ? ans. . some are sickly and weak , and some aged , unable to travel . . some have families which they are obliged to , and must not desert , and cannot carry with them . if you say , they should have kept themselves without : i answer , they were born in a land where good men were suffered to serve god quietly , and therefore they thought they might fix themselves therein . but if they could have foreseen that they should have been forbidden to preach at home , i believe that many would not only have forborn marriage , but also have set themselves to learn some foreign languages that they might have been able to preach abroad . but , . our great impediment is , that we have not the vulgar tongue of any other country , and therefore cannot preach to any of the vulgar there ; and if we could in a long time learn the tartarian or indian tongue , &c. a half learnt broken tongue doth but make the speaker ridiculous to the vulgar . ( to say nothing of our want of maintenance to sustain us thither , and there ) for my own part , had i strength and any vulgar tongue , which i might use in preaching in other lands , i think i should have left england long ago , and not been an eye-sore to you so long . object . have not the friendly debate , and the politician fully and unanswerably opened the folly and villany of your religion ? and can you yet for shame desire leave to preach and propagate such a religion as that ? ans. because so great prejudice is taken against us from those books , i intended in the end to have given a full answer to all that concerneth us ; not in their mode , but in my own , that is in certain propositions containing our judgment and our reasons about those matters , which i leave out now to avoid length , having written books enow to declare what my religion is , and so have others . and therefore now only say this in general concerning the authors , and their dealing with us . . as to the men , i judg them to be of more than ordinary parts , as to ratiocination and expression ; and had they with humility , patience and impartiality taken but a dozen or twenty years more time to have furnished their minds according to their capacity , before they had permitted themselves with so great considence to say what they have said , i believe they would have been as excellent persons as most ages have produced . but they have put off the habit of little children too soon . . i imagin by their writings , that they have been unhappy in their converse and acquaintance ; and that they have had more to do with sectaries , and weak women and boys , and the weaker sort of serious christians among those called puritans , than with the sober understanding sort ; and so judg of the party by such as they have been acquainted with . for most of the weak expressions and passages which they fill their books with , i have heard from some sectaries , or true fanaticks , and from some weak women and ignorant persons , but never from the grave and sober sort of nonconformists . nor have i used to converse with many of the laity , that talk at so low a rate , as they feigned them to talk . . i doubt also that their converse hath been more at the universities , and with scholars , and with the richer and well-bred sort of persons , besides those sectaries , than with plowmen and other of the lower rank ; and therefore that they are strangers to the condition of the vulgar , which faithful country ministers know , whose work hath been to catechise them , and personally instruct them . . they cannot but know that most of those things which they blame in the people , which are real weaknesses and faults , we tell them of as loud as they do , and as plainly as they , though not so wrathfully or flamingly as they . mr. pool's vox calmentis hath told the si'enced ministers even in latin in the hearing of the world , of more of their faults , then both these authors could remember ; and not only in my directions for weak christians , but in divers other books , i have dealt as plainly with the people . . saving therefore the debaters civility to my self ; i must ask him , whether it savoured of common equity and justice , to make the nonconformist in the general , the author or owner of all those weaknesses , follies , impudences ; falshoods , &c. which he could fasten only on sectaries , or on the ignoranter sort . and especially when scarcely ever books were written by any man as against nonconformists that so little touch upon nonconformity it self , or any of the points in difference ? is gersom bucer , or altare damascenum , or amesius fresh suit , or any other of the nonconformists writings answered there , except a late nehushtan , that few men own , and he thought he could more easily say somewhat to ? . if he say that he told us that he spake it not of all : i answer , what if he had put the word [ christians ] instead of the word [ nonconformist ] and said that christians hold all those sottish and impudent opinions , but yet said , it is not all christians , had this been justice to christianity ? and yet it is true ; for if nonconformists be christians , then christians hold what they hold . he that heareth such a word [ christians , or protestants , or nonconformists have a foolish religion ] , doth suppose it to be locutio formalis , and that the meaning is , [ as christians , or as protestants , or as nonconformists , their religion is foolish . ] and for the author to say when he hath done , [ i meant not , all christians , all protestants , all nonconformists ] is to say , i speak not of them as such ▪ what then ? why , as antinomians , or as ignorant unlearned people . but why then did you not charge your fooleries only on antinomians , sectaries , and ignorant people , and make them as such only the actors in your scene ? and not as christians , protestants , &c. i know the name christians is more venerable than protestant , or nonconformist . but the injustice is as palpable in the one as in the other . and the cause or the principle is bad that can engage men in such unrighteousness , and make them so strange to themselves as not to see it , yea to proceed impenitently in it , even when righteousness is one of the things which they write for , as neglected by them whom they endeavour to disgrace . it is an ill cause that produceth such effects , though a quick and hasty wit can write another volume to defend it ; till love it self shall sit in judgment , and condemn all the issues of uncharitable wrath . the cause of nonconformity as of old , and as owned now by us , was punctually expressed to you in our many papers given in when we vainly attempted unity ; and the new conformity is known by the acts which are lately made . and what is the matter of the debaters dialogues to any of this ? doth any act of parliament forbid men to say , i am well through mercy . or is there any nonconformity in that speech ( or any unfitness either . ) and so of abundance of such other passages . . and is it for the interest of justice , honesty , and charity , to perswade the world that the nonconformists religion is foolish , senseless and unpeaceable , when they profess to own no religion at all , but naked christianity ? is christianity so vile a thing ? and indeed is not your religion the same with ours ? i thought we had not been of different religions , but only of different opinions about discipline and modes of worship in the same religion . but you know your selves better than we do . but if really you are of another religion from us , why were there never any attempts to reconcile us in doctrinals , when the work of reconciliation was ( vainly ) on foot ? why did you never charge us with errors in doctrine ? nay why did dr. cornelius burgess his reasons for reformation in doctrine , discipline , &c. so much offend , as you may see even in the kings declaration about ecclesiastical affairs , where he takes it ill that some pretend that we differ in doctrinals . but now the religion of one must be wise , and the other foolish . the king there declareth our unity in religion , after his trial of both sides . and this author maketh our religions as different as light and darkness , that is , as wisdom and folly . our religion as to its containing rule , is the holy canonical scripture . is that foolish and seditious ? we profess to have no more . the explication of the nonconformists sense of it , you have much in the assemblies catechisms and confession ? why wrote you not to prove them to be another religion ? our books also are abroad , mr. hildershams , greenhams , hierons , dods , amesius , bains , bradshaws , cartwrights , mr. gataker , mr. vines , mr. anth. burgess , mr. shaws , mr. how 's , mr. allens , and an hundred more . what false religion do they contain ? i have told you my religion oft enough , especially in my reasons for the christian religion , and in my confession . and if it be not false and foolish , then it is not the nonconformists as such , that is so ; for a quatenus ad omne you may justly argue . yea the author is pleased to favour me with some vindication , and to blame others for opposing me ; and is not that enough to prove that such opinions as he disliketh , are no part of nonconformity , as now in controversie . but he will give me occasion to tell him , how much i differ from his mind and ways ; when as there are near thirty or forty books written against me , in whole or in part ( by men of several sects and parties ) and yet i fall out with none of them all ; nor charge them with such foolish religions , unless they be downright apostates or hereticks . nor would i silence any one of them that is a sincere preacher of the christian faith. my provocations its like have been more than this authors ever were . but must i forgive enemies , and not friends ? do we contend for our selves , or for truth , and love , and unity , and peace ? it is some honour from those adversaries both to me , and to my brethren , that i am called their antisignanus , who have written such abundance of books against me ? for it seems that we forgive and love each other . if you say that it is because we now agree in nonconformity : i answer , . it was so before . . and you suppose us as little agreed in that ; and indeed many censure me more for differing from them there , than in all the rest . . and is it not as valid arguing , to say , mr. hildersham , dr. reignolds , amesius , bradshaw , burgess , &c. have written soundly and learnedly ; ergo , the religion of the nonconformists is wise and sound ; as to say , mr. bridge one of the five dissenters from the presbyterians hath some harsh expressions , and mr. t. w. hath some little sententious jingles ( such as conformists most abound with ) , ergo , the nonconformists religion is foolish . . but it may be you will say , that the nonconformists must be judged of , not by an odd person as your self is , but by the major part ? ans. . it never goeth right among divines , when they judge causes by persons , contrary to signed avowed professions . do they print and publish their professed religion to the world ? and will you measure and denominate the religion of the nonconformists ▪ by two or three mens writings ( against which also you have no more to say ) ? . and why did you not prove that it is the major part ( or one of an hundred ) that are guilty of the real weaknesses which you mention ( for all that you find fault with , are not weaknesses ) ? are the two or three that you named , the major part of eighteen hundred ? what of all this have you to charge on those forenamed ? or on mr. john ball , mr. john paget , mr. langley , &c. or on dr. twisse , dr. arrowsmith , and the rest of that assembly ? or on dr. tuckney , dr. langley , dr. staunton , dr. seaman , dr. manton , dr. bates , mr. bull , mr. wadsworth , dr. annesly , and abundance more about the city , or on the generality of the silenced ministers in all the counties of the land ? . but do you consider how heinously you dishonour the conformists , by the disparity of the charge which you lay on the nonconformists , and which they have laid on you ? i am not justifying either of your accusations : but if i were a stranger in england , and had seen the chair-man of the committee of parliament publish his century of conformists accused on witness , of so many crimes ( especially drunkenness , and negligence , and insufficiency in so many ) , and had seen the like charges before the committees of the several counties attested on oath , and had heard both your icabods groans , and the gloucester coblers history of the present ministry : and then had read the most learned and sharp of the nonconformists adversaries , charging them with heart-hypocrisie , with disobedience to those laws for oaths and ceremonies which they think are contrary to the laws of god , and with cutting faces , and prating phrases , and incongruous expressions in praying and preaching to the vulgar , &c. i should suspect that their cases were not alike . . is it a thing possible that a divine in england should not know , that there are in all countries such readers , and young , raw , ignorant conformable preachers ( o that they were but here and there one ) , that in understanding , in method , in phrase , and all ministerial abilities , may learn seven years and seven , before they are like to reach the measure of w. b. and t. w. whom he reproveth ? and could he forget that it is as just and solid reasoning to say , this multitude of conformists frequently speak non-sense confusedly , &c. ergo , the conformists have such a religion : as to say , w. b. and t ▪ w. did not express this or that congruously : ergo , the nonconformists religion is such . obj. you overthrow all principles of government , while you say that the magistrate may not command things evil by accident ; and while you allow doubting or scrupling persons to disobey authority , as oft as they are but pleased to question their commands ; whereas if you are uncertain whether the matter be lawful , you are bound to obey ; because you are certain that governours must be obeyed , and being uncertain that the thing is evil , the certain part must prevail against the uncertain . ans. we have long been silent at such accusations , supposing by this time they would have been ashamed of themselves : had we read such moral divinity , as some would teach us , in father banny , escobar , or other such jesuits , we had been like to have found it in the collection of their morals , which the jansenists published . . i never read or heard man yet say , that the magistrate may not command any thing evil by accident : but i have said my self , that his commands of things evil by accident may be sinful ; that is , that it is not all things that are evil by accident that he may command . but because some men will not understand till they are constrained against their wills ; i shall elsewhere open the truth about this so plainly , as that they shall hardly avoid the understanding of it , but by refusing to read it : and i will shew them what it is to maintain , that men may command any thing that is evil by accident only . . and the other accusation is the forgery of passionate enmity also ; we believe that a man is not to obey authority at all times , whenever he doubteth of the matter commanded , or in every case of doubting : but we never thought that all doubtings will excuse his obedience . we use to speak more distinctly , and leave them to confusion , that either cannot distinguish , or must have troubled waters to fish in , for matter of calumniation . of this also i shall elsewhere give you a satisfactory account of our judgment ▪ done since in my d plea for peace . obj. but the grand accusation against us by dr. heylin in his life of a. b. laud , and elsewhere , is for calvinism , or puritanism in doctrine , against that which is commonly called arminianism ; which he maketh the matter of our great contentions and calamities : and many other say as he : and mr. thorndike carrieth it yet much higher , accusing us not only of the doctrine of imputed righteousness , but others in which we have departed from the church of rome . see his just weights and measures , and his greater volume . ans. . by this it further appeareth , how unjustly and partially we are used , and how unnecessary they themselves hold unity in doctine it self to be , in matters which some account so great to the liberty of preaching the gospel . for in all the arminian controversies , the conformists differ among themselves as much as we do from any of them , if not more . nothing more common now in our pulpits , than for one man to preach up free-will , and another to preach it down ( and neither of them know what free will is ) ; and for one to preach for absolute election , perseverance of all saints , &c. and another to preach the contrary , and shew the tendency of these opinions to all wickedness . and yet all these men are suffered to preach , because they all subscribe the same doctrine , though they neither believe nor preach the same : the articles of the church of england are subscribed by them all : they assent and consent to all the doctrine of the church . and indeed , is it because the articles are not intelligible ? or have they contrary meanings to fit the use of every subscriber ? are they hot to one , and cold to another ? or rather , do many of the subscribers take heed of tenderness of conscience , because it is but tenderness of head , and is more sensible of hurt and smart than a feared conscience is , or is a word and thing that is grown into disgrace and scorn in our times ? for my own part , i doubt not but the compilers of the articles and liturgy were in these things of augustines judgment , who was for absolute election , but for no other reprobation but non-election , and the decree of damnation and desertion only upon foresight of sin . but as to the differences themselves , it would grieve a man of any understanding to read such a history as dr. heylins life of the archbishop , which intimateth to the world , that such points as these were the occasion of all the contrivances against each other , and of the enmities and calamities which these kingdoms have undergone ! when-as the things are such as never bred any such dissention in the first ages of the church , nor would do among us , if we had their piety and simplicity . i long ago began a treatise ( which the agitations of my troublers have interrupted ) to reconcile the arminians and anti-arminians in these matters , in which i should easily have manifested , how unfit such subjects were to be so fiercely and implacably contended about . and because i know not whether ever i shall live to re ▪ assume it ( being toss'd about , and having neither health nor liberty for any setled habitation ) , i must give the judicious a few hints of the media of conciliation which i would have used . . i would have distinguished and reduced the controversies unto three sorts : first those that are only de nomine , and seem to the unskilful to be de rebus , which are more than most imagine : and these an explication would have ended . secondly , those that are about things unrevealed , and unknown to mortals ; which are some that are hotliest contended about : and these all must grant are to be cast aside . thirdly , those that are real differences , fit for our disputes : which i should prove , . to be very few . far from the foundation , and of no such moment as ignorant , self-conceited , furious disputers would make the world believe they are . . and that they are of so great difficulty , that all sober christians should easily bear with one another about them . . i would shew the necessity of beginning our controversies about the temporary effects , and not about the eternal decrees , because as the first do more concern us ; so they are natiora , more within our knowledge : and then the questions about the decrees , will more easily be decided . . i would open distinctly the covenant of grace made universally with mankind , . before christ. . with adam ▪ . with noe. and . after christs incarnation : and distinguish it from the narrower particular covenant with abraham and the israelites . and i would open the nature of the universal pardon and gift of life , which god hath made through christ in the gospel , to mankind , upon the conditions which are to be punctually explained ; which conditional justificaton or pardon is acknowledged by all . . i would open the nature and extent of that common operative grace of the holy ghost , which is given to those that are yet unsanctified ; and i would prove from the case of adam , that there hath been such a thing as grace sufficient , or necessary to the effect , which through mans fault was not effectual ; and which without any more helps , man could and ought to have made effectual , or to have acted by . and then i would prove that ad aliquid , there is still such a thing as grace necessary or sufficient , ( that is , without which men cannot , and by which they can , use certain means which god hath made the duty of all mankind to use , which have a tendency to their recovery ) : and that certainly no part of the world is left under the first covenant of innocency , ( though under the precept or duty of it ) but are under a law or covenant of grace , as that law by which they are governed and judged ( though all consent not ) ; and therefore that all are under such obligations , to use such means for their recovery as are vouchsafed and appointed them ; and are condemnable if they use them not ; and need not fear using them ( faithfully ) in vain . . i would open the nature of liberty and free-will , and above all make plain the distinction between the essential , natural liberty , and the mutable moral liberty ; and shew that mans will is a self-determining faculty , supposing the necessary objects , and intellectual apprehension ; and that it is part of gods image on it , so to be dominam suorum actuum ; and that every man hath this natural liberty of willing , not willing or nilling ( which mr. le blank hath most judiciously opened in his late theses ) ; but no man hath more of the moral liberty , which is a freedom from a vicious disposition , than he hath ( either special or common ) grace . . i should shew how the want of the natural liberty is a full justification for omission or action ; and that the want of moral liberty , being nothing else but want of dispositive willingness , or of a right will , is the very matter of guilt , and aggravateth all actual and omissive sin . . i should open the nature of [ power ] , and shew what goeth to make [ power ] in a proper sense : and whether god may be said to give sufficient grace to believe , when he giveth proper power to believe ? and that grace sufficient ad agere , est efficax ad posse : and what austin meant by posse credere est omnium ; credere vero fidelium . especially i should distinguish of natural and moral power , and shew that no man wanteth the former , which is the faculty it self ; and i should shew , that moral power sometime signifieth strength , which not only can perform an act , but do it easily ; and so it is nothing but special grace , or the holy disposition and liveliness of the soul , by which it hath such a degree of power to things spiritual : but sometimes moral power signifieth no more , but that the natural power is not so far destitute of moral helps , and disposition to the action , but that it may be properly said to be a power morally , with that measure of moral helps it hath ; and that it is not a thing impossible properly , for the effect to be produced without any more grace . and i would shew how far this extendeth . but above all , that confused disputers are never in one sentence to be suffered to cheat their readers or hearers , with [ can ] and [ cannot ] with [ power and impotency ] unexplained , but still forced to shew what sort of power or impotency they mean. every one hath the natural power of repenting and believing , which is not plenarily and properly called a power to that which from any other cause remaineth simply and naturally impossible ; nor is it a moral power to that which remaineth morally impossible : every man hath a moral power so far as he hath grace , and that is in all men to be better than they are , and omit more evil , and to do more good ; but only the faithful have moral power in the more excellent degree . . i should shew that the disputes about the manner of gods operation or influx on the soul , whether physical , or moral , are usually managed to more deception than instruction : and that no mortal man can tell just how god worketh on the soul. . i should shew what acts god doth in his three distinct relations , as owner , ruler and benefactor : and how equally he dealeth as ruler , both in his laws and judgment , avoiding all respect of persons : but how far as owner and benefactor he is free , and maketh an inequality in the distribution of his mercies , and giveth more to some than to others , without respect to merit . and that accordingly , . he giveth the gospel to one nation , rather than to another ; and to one person , rather than to another , without any different demerit of theirs . . and also giveth such grace to some as shall infallibly convert them , with an absolute will to accomplish the effect , when that person no more deserveth it , than some that never have it . . but yet that no man is shut out of a state of grace , but for or by his wilful refusal or neglect of it ; nor any man denied any necessary grace , but for the neglect or abuse of some sufficient antecedent grace : and though god give grace without and against desert , he never denieth it to any without desert ; and that more than the desert of original sin ( not now interupting our discourse with the case of infants ) . . that when common grace hath brought one man much nearer the kingdom of god , than another , the same degree of further divine operation and help , which would be uneffectual to make a distant and unprepared man a believer , may make him a believer that is nearer and more prepared . . all effectual grace proceedeth from an effectual will of god to work it . . the great question therefore , whether none are converted but by special effectual grace ? or any also by that which in its own nature is meerly sufficient , and made effectual by mans will ? is captious , and partly past the reach of man : it being certain , . that grace is the chief agent in all that believe ; . that the will and mind of man is the immediate actor in believing , . that whoever believeth hath such grace as cometh from an absolute , certain , fixed will of god , that it shall attain the effect . . and that in what degrees of influx god worketh on one that is converted , more or less than on another , is no enquiry for any man that knoweth what he talketh of ? nor can we well tell when one mans will deth do its part better than anothers , by the same degree of grace . . i should shew when free-will and necessity are consistent , or inconsistent . . and also how god hath his will , as much when man hath greatest freedom , as if he had none ; and that man hath as much freedom under the will and decrees of god , as if they were none ; nay without them as a cause he could have no freedom . . i should shew that the calvinists ( that run not with some few into extremity ) do acknowledge as much common grace to all men , as the arminians do ; for they confess the universal , conditional promise or covenant ; and they say , that all men that hear the gospel have pardon and sanctification , and salvation brought to their own wills ; and that if they refuse it not , they they shall have it , and that they have the posse credere : and the difference is , that the arminian thinketh that none ordinarily have any more than this , with such perswasions as make it possible antecedently ; but the calvinists think the elect have more , that is , that grace maketh them actually willing ; which is certain : but how grace and the will concur , is as uncertain as aforesaid . . all creatures are passive or receptive as to gods efficiency , or influx on them ; and so is mans soul ; and therefore it is true that it is meerly passive not only in receiving the first gracious influx of god , but in all the influxes which it is under in every action of our lives : but it is a truly vital , active soul or power , which is thus passive first ; and therefore is ever the next agent in all its acts of believing , &c. and never meerly passive ; for that were a contradiction . nor can it be proved that the soul is meerly recipient or passive as to the true habits of grace , but only as to that influx which exciteth us to act , and by that act ( done by god and the soul ) the habit is produced ; which yet is called infused , because it is caused by a special influx ; what ever more than this is possible , no more can be proved de facto . . our differences about universal redemption , and of the decrees , depend on those about operations , and are easily reconciled with them . christ died for all men , so far as to procure them all the grace that he giveth them . and he giveth all men the universal grace fore described ; the conditional pardon , &c. therefore so far he died for them . but of this i have written a peculiar treatise ( not yet published . ) . the doctrine of gods antecedent and consequent will must be better explained , as being but his governing will , so called from legislation and judgment , which are the antecedent and consequent parts of government . . so must gods will de naturalibus & moralibus , and his legislative antecedent will be well opened , and the uselesness and confusion of the distinction of signi & bene placiti manifested . . i would prove that god hath no decree or will of meer negatives , as not to give grace , faith , glory , not to save , &c. and therefore hath no decree to permit , because permitting is but not-hindering , which is nothing . by which one sort of reprobation ( as now called ) will be disproved . . that reprobation to positive damnation , is only upon foreseen , and not decreed impenitency or unbelief . . that election and reprobation therefore go not pari passu , but as austin and prosper taught , the one is a positive absolute will or decree of god , the other only upon fore-sight . . predetermination by physical premotion to evil materially , and as necessary to all actions natural and free , is to be left to the dominicans , and not owned by any that know the consequences . . the numbering and ordering of decrees secundum ordinem intentionis & executionis is to be discussed , and the vanity of mens fictions here about made known . . the nature of futurition , and the falshood of founding it necessarily in an eternal cause , is to be opened . . the foolish disputes of the manner of gods knowing future contingents , are ( by clear reason ) to be cast out of the church and schools . . in a word , a convenient explication will manifest that the difference in all these controversies really is next to none , except in the point of perseverance ; and that in that point those that hold with augustine and prosper , that not all the truly justified , and sanctified do persevere , but all the elect ; and those that hold that all the justified and sanctified are elect , and do persevere ; have great reason to number this difference among those school-disputes which should break no charity nor communion among christians . but of perseverance i have long ago published my thoughts in a peculiar treatise . i have said thus much to shew the world not only that we ought not to be silenced or oppressed as an odious sort of people , for those doctrines which some abhor ( when we subscribe to the same articles of the churches doctrine as they do ) ; but also that it is a mixture of that ignorance and pride which is the disease and calamity of church-men as well as of the world , which hath caused most of the heats on both sides , and the cruelties in holland , or in england , thence proceeding about these controversies . and that when men have more understanding or humility , these differences will but little disturb the church . and again i say , that those church snuffers who put out the lights , should have remembered our moderation in this point , that whereas parliaments have complained so long and zealously against arminianism , and when bishops have been so hot about it against each other , ( as heylin will tell you of abbot and laud , &c. ) and when yet the conformists preach against one another about it , yet did we never speak a word to the king or them of any such matter . because if all men will subscribe the same wholsome doctrine of the articles , we cannot hinder any from dissembling , and destroying what they do subscribe . obj. . agreement with the church of rome is more desirable on the terms described by dr. heylin in a. b. lauds life , and you would make it impossible ? ans. we are for a just concord with all christians ; but true popery we cannot agree with ; and as to papists they are but a part ( a third or fourth part saith your primate bishop bramhall ) of the catholick church . we must unite with the whole church , or else we are schismaticks . to embody in the faction of the papists is as schismatical , as to do it with a smaller faction . and if you will unite with all christians , i still say , you must unite on vinc. lirinensis terms , on that which all christians are agreed in , that indeed deserve the name of christians . now if you establish your concord on the scripture , and on universal terms , all christians in the world will confess that your religion , yea all your religion is certain truth , and that it hath also all things universally necessary to salvation ; and this is a fair degree of unity , though they say that yet you want their traditions . and then you can tell a papist quickly , where your religion was before luther , even where ever the scripture was received . and you do not wilfully and resolvedly cut off your selves from communion with all the protestant churches , who do not hold the traditions and decrees of rome . but you are united with all the christians in the world in christianity , and so far as they have any union among themselves . and then all those that will needs go further , do run the hazard of their own additions . we will live in peace with them , if they will live in peace with us . but if the papists be such men , that they will hold no communion with any that hold not all their religion , that is , all the decrees of their councils , than neither abassines , armenians , greeks , nor protestants can be received into their communion . and do you think it desirable to comply and embody with them in such a schism and factious combination against all the rest of the churches of god ? if you will deal like christians , catholicks and wise men , let us first be as moderate as may be in our doctrinals , and not pretend that we are further disagreed with papists or any other christians than indeed we are . i am one of those who believe that in many doctrines , quarrelsome ignorant men have made differences where there are none ; and have made those that be seem , wider than they are ; cut off these superfluities and spare not ; and then reduce your terms of union and communion to the primitive simplicity of doctrine , worship , and discipline ; and if any will have more , let it be a matter of liberty and not of necessity ; or if they will not be limited as we are , let them take their scope . or if you your selves will needs have more , yet hold it with liberty , as matter of conveniency , and not of necessity to the union or communion of the church . if you will take this course , we shall deny papists no love , no peace , no communion with us on our terms ( which they justifie for the truth of them ) in our churches . and if they will fly from us , and refuse our communion , or will put unlawful terms on us , and drive us from them , we shall have no accusation for this by our consciences , or any wise man. he is the schismatick that maketh communion impossible by his additions or impositions , or runs away from those that will not receive all his supernumeraries . usurpation is the peace breaker in the church of god. christs sheep know his voice and follow him ; but they will not be so obedient to an unknown voice . why cannot a man be content to be a lord bishop , and to have many hundred or thousand pound a year , for promoting the preaching and practice of christianity , and for punishing hereticks , rebels , drunkards , sensualists , &c. and serve god himself with what garb , or forms , or ceremonies he please , as well as to have the same wealth and honour , to prosecute much wiser and better men than himself , with a burning zeal , for not swearing obedience to him , or for not subscribing that his books are faultless , or for not wearing a surplice , or signing children with the transient image of the cross. but we must suppose that we cannot make papists to be protestants ; if they will not turn protestants , and we will not turn papists , the contrivance or supposition of a turn , or half-turn , is but a vain imagination , not the way to unity and peace . we must take them as they are , and they must take us as we are , and we must take all the christian churches as they are , in our design for concord , if we will do any good in it . the question is not how , or how far we shall change one anothers minds , or be changed , but how we shall maintain so much love and peace as is due to one another in the capacity that we are in ; and how far we shall endure the different opinions and practices of another to such an end . and such a conciliator with rome i would be my self , and magnifie the design as much as heylin doth , and be as zealous in it as grotius , laud or forbes were in theirs . for it is but the service of love and peace , and that is certainly the service of god. i would treat with any papists on such a design . if peevish or suspious protestants should try out on me , and defame me for such a design , ( as some have done ) i would no more regard it than the crying of a child . if christian princes would make such a treaty their business by their embassadors , that love and liberty might be regulated by the just rules of equality , and not be pretended only by a faction for their own ends , even by them that will seek liberty but will not give it , i would bless god for such princes , and for so good a work . and i would be ( and am ) ready to manifest to all wise impartial men , whose religion is love and not malice under the name of zeal , that in many doctrines that we are by some supposed to differ in fundamentals , ignorance hath feigned the difference to be doubly greater than it is . and i think many of forbes and spalato's arguments ( in his very learned books de republ. eccles. ) to be worthy the serious study of every learned man. i know luther took the doctrine of uncertainty of salvation alone , to be cause enough of our unreconcileableness with rome ; and yet i know as well , that it is not one godly person of many , yea very many of them that are farthest from the papists , who do say that they are certain of their own salvation . i know that many excellent protestants have made it the sense of that article of the creed , i believe that my own sins are pardoned , and say that this proposition , my sins are pardoned , is de fide divina and yet i know that in propriety and strictness of speech ( which should be used in controversies ) it is not true . i know that many of the school-mens assertions are commonly rejected as erroneous , because they are not commonly understood . i know that luther maketh the doctrine of justification to be articulus stantis vel cadentis ecclesiae ; and yet i know that ludovicus le blank of sedan in his theses hath greatly narrowed the difference , and understands it much better than luther seemeth to have done . which i may say also of bucer , conradus bergius , ( in praxi cathol . ) ludov. crocius , and many other such conciliators . and that luther on the galatians is so acceptable to the antinomians , that i conceive divers passages in it have need of as candid an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the doctrine of scotus , and many papists on that point . i am my self a christian , and that is my religion ; and i own the name protestant for no greater reason than because it is the protestant religion to be meer christians , and to protest against the roman superadditions , and depravations of it . and so to be a protestant , and to be a meer christian adhering to scripture sufficiency as the test and terms of union and communion , are all one . yea , if any one doubted of the canonicalness of the canticles , esther , or some one or few books , and acknowledg the main body of the scriptures and the ancient articles of faith i would not cast such a one from my communion . and these terms or none ( i have foretold it you oft ) must heal the church if ever it be healed . and till the papists will see the equity of these terms , it is our great advantage that the certain truth of all our religion is so fully acknowledged . but , . as long as we let others alone with their additions , why may they not live in peace with us , and let us alone without them ? all men are united in the essentials of humanity , though they are not all of one complection , stature or degree of strength . and if any be so peevish that he will associate with none that are not of his own complection , the separation is the effect of his folly , which may possibly be cured ; and till it be cured , both the fault and the suffering is his own . if a law were made that none shall live in the kings dominions but men of a sanguine complection , and of a strait and comely person , and of such a proportion of tallness and of strength , and of flaxen hair , this law would necessitate a separation and diminution of the kings subjects from generation to generation . but if the law be that all english men that will live after the rules of reason , honesty , and society , shall have the priviledges of subjects , if an hundred thousand had got a conceit that they may not lawfully be of the same kingdom with any but men of their own complection and stature as aforesaid , this is a cureable folly ; and the law-makers may say , we have done our parts for universal society , and it is not we that make it impossible , or hinder it , and men in time may come to reason . we refuse not them , but they refuse us . if you make things necessary , and of common agreement to be your terms of union , greeks , abassines , armenians romans , may take their own way , and every one without injury enjoy his own ( be it wisdom or folly ) upon these terms . but if you unite upon any other terms , you make laws for schism , even for the exclusion of all that are not of your mind . for hales his doctrine is true in the judgment of all men save the guilty , that the imposer of unnecessary doubtful things is the schismatick , or cause of all the schism . so that there is no true union to be expected with rome or any others , but on the terms of primitive simplicity , or which all true christians are agreed in . and they are no good terms which induce the authors through the force of interest , to say that none in the world are good christians , that are not of their cut and strain , and wear not their livery , and lace not their coats in the imposers mode . and as long as we take nothing from the men of various modes and fashions , by unity in the essentials of humanity and christianity , to imagine that it is the way to union to force all dissenters to their modes , is but to renounce union , and to gratifie a distant party so far as to make them laugh at us as fools , and hope ere long to get us at their mercy , and thereby to lose , disoblige and destroy those that are nearer to us , and would indeed be our friends and strength ; and to become enemies to our own families , rather than to displease the people of france by not wearing their fashions . . and if you had attained a seeming union with the papists , you are not sure it will hold seven year . for their religion still thriveth , and thereby changeth , and is yet far short of its maturity in all likelihood . for general councils make their religion ; and who knoweth how many general councils ( of forty bishops perhaps like that at trent , for a great part of the time ) there may yet be , and what alterations of religion they may make ? and are you sure you can go along with them in all as far as they will go ? if you must break at last , unite not on such mutable terms at first . but there 's no talking to men whose interest and passion , and partiality is the maker of their religion . it is not my purpose to speak any of this , either to one of grotius's mind ( if saraviad , and the book called grotius papirans be credible , or if he be that man that wrote the discussio apolog. rivet ; who would have us unite upon the acceptance of all the councils even that of trent ) nor to such as come as near them as mr. thorndike , nor any of that degree of affinity . for i suppose they are already gone out of the hearing of such a voice as mine . yet still remember that i am not setting a law , ( no not christs law ) to your selves for the rule of your own opinions or practices . if you will please the papists by coming yet nearer them ( even nearer than the learned forbes bishop of edenburgh did ) , if you will have more of their doctrine , discipline and worship , take it if it will do you any good ? but why must all others needs be of your judgment ? or those be of your way that are not of your judgment ? and why cannot you unite with the papists ( if you will ) without destroying the protestants , or renouncing them . unite in things necessary , and hold and use the rest as matters of liberty , and it will better attain your just ends than violence can do . obj. . but if we should abate you any thing , though but a ceremony , or a subscription , or oath , or should make any alteration in the church ▪ government , ( though it were but to take the church keys from lay chancellors ▪ , or if we should reform discipline , or any thing at your desires , you will be taken by the people to be their deliverers and reformers , and your cause will be taken to be good when we yield to it in any part , and it will be said that you did not dissent from us , and make all this ado in vain ; and we shall be thought to have been in the wrong , and all this while opposed reformation or ( as the young eccl politician speaketh , pag. ) this would but give the countenance of authority to their scruples and superstitious pretences , and leave the church of england under all those calumnies to posterity , with which themselves , or their followers labour to charge it ; and oblige future ages to admire and celebrate these peevish and seditious persons , as the founders of a more godly and through reformation . ans. . it is the nature of all sin to blind the mind , and engage the affections to it , that the more men have of it , the less they may either see or hate it . and so it is with faction , schism , and selfishness , which is the root of all ( as the case of the roman clergy witnesseth . ) and if any besides your selves had reported you to speak such words , which are the full significants of these vices , ( selfishness , faction and schism ) , i should have judged him uncharitable . alas ! that ever men that call themselves ministers of christ , and pastors of his flocks , should and would be thought to be the wisest and worthiest of his ministers in comparison of whom we are worthy to be silenced , banished and ruined , should yet dare before god and man to vent and own the language of pride and faction , and envy , while they cry out against pride , and faction , and envy ! but they that think they know something , know nothing as they ought to know ! the lord teach me to become a fool , and escape their wisdom , that i may be wise ; and to know my self better than such men do , before i pretend to know the folly , and hypocrisie , and unworthiness of men that are wiser , and more sincere and worthy than my self . what little need had you to disgrace your selves by telling the world that you will not amend , lest you be thought to have done amiss , and lest those that desired it be celebrated as the founders of a godly reformation ! hath not self-seeking and siding done enough against us yet , but you must keep up the distinction of parties and their merits for your own reputation against them whose desire is to have unity setled upon terms of common agreement , that there may be no more names or signs of faction among us ? thus is the church ( or kingdom rather ) of rome kept from reformation , lest they should part with the honour of their infallibility , and seem to confess that they needed reformation . . but it is a gross mistake to think that this course will keep up your honour to posterity , or hinder the estimation of them who desire you to amend . for when you and we are in the dust , the world will not be afraid of you , nor silence truth lest they incur the danger of your frowns ; but will freely tread upon your hic jacet , and cast up your bones to make room for others , and talk of you and your acts as freely , as king henry the eighth , queen mary , bishop bonner , and gardiner are now talkt of . and there will such men survive us , as will take it for a greater fault and shame to have sinned impenitently than to have repented ; and to have refused amendment , when peace and common interest required it , and so many arguments were used for it ; yea , and to have so afflicted their brethren that desired and sought it of them , than to have been guilty of the mutability and weakness of amending , or of being more for love and unity , and peace . . but if that be the matter , men of half your pretended wisdom , might easily know how to heal the church , and yet to salve your honour too , yea and to deny the feared honour of the dissenters , so far as such as you can hinder it . and if you will not interpret it as an approving of your act , i will tell you how : cannot you abate the subscriptions , oaths , and other such impositions , and tell the world , that you do it not as convinced by the nonconformists arguments , nor as supposing that the things have any evil in them , but only out of your eminent charity , as bearing with the weak , and your love of the churches peace and concord , more than the dissenters love them ? nay you may rail at the nonconformists in your very concessions , and call them as bad as you do in your writings , so you will but yield to healing terms ; and do it not as a reformation , but as a peaceable forbearance of these schismatical , peevish , disobedient reformers , that they may have no more pretence for schism ▪ . did peter heylin , or archbishop laud and his adherents , if heylin belie him not , deal with the papists on such terms as these ? did they say , they will justifie their invasion , and their powder-plot , and all their treasonable practises , and bulls , and all their false doctrines for which these were done , if we abate them any thing , or yield them the least ; and therefore we will yield them nothing at all ? did grotius , did your bishop forbes , doth your mr. herbert thorndike go upon such terms with them , or not ? speak out , do you think us or the papists nearer to you ? if they are nearer you than we are , then you are nearer them than us ; even than us who subscribe to all the faith of the church of england , and differ , as you say , but in indifferent things : than us whose writings declare our judgments to the world . but if you be really nearer to us , than to the papists , why may you not yield as far to us , for peace and concord , as the episcopal reconcilers would have done to them ? even dr. r. cox would have yielded to church-images , vid. epist. ad cassand . . lastly , o that you would remember , that he that denieth not himself , cannot be christs disciple . and that you would never tempt the world to think , that we should all have peace , if there were none that were cast down , because abel offereth a more accepted sacrifice than their own ; yea or if there were none that made it the chief point of difference , whether we should be seriously , or only seemingly christians , and live as men , that believe indeed that there is a life to come , and that the scripture is true . i hope i may recite dr. hammonds paraphrase on act. . , , . if we this day be examined of an action , which is so far from being a crime , that it is a special act of mercy ( as preaching the gospel is ) — though they were as maliciously and petulantly affected toward them ( v. . ) as was possible , yet had they nothing to object , or except against the whole action . — but peter and john made light of their interdict or terrours , and told them plainly that they were commanded by god to preach ; and that in all reason , god must be obeyed before them , or the greatest magistrate on earth , and that they themselves could not but confess so much ▪ — and so not knowing what else to say to them , being not able to deny the force of their argument ( they wanted our new wits ) , they added more threatnings , if possibly they might terrifie them , and so dismiss'd them , having nothing to lay to their charge . and if mr. middlesly in lancashire had brought out the many thousand people converted by him , which dr. ames mentioneth , had it not been a silencing argument against his silencer , as well as the cure of a lame man here was ? and on thess. . , . it being unreasonable that they which have cast off obedience to god , should persecute all men that come to tell them of their duty . and this generally is the ground of their quarrel to us , that in spight of their prohibition we preach to the gentiles , use means that they might repent of their idolatries , &c. by which and the former things , the jews do so fill up the measure of their sins , that the wrath of god , to the utter destruction of them , is now come out upon them , already denounced ; and within a very little while , most certain to overtake them . i apply it no further than to tell you , that if you will still chuse our suffering , as more desirable than our preaching the gospel of christ : your arms will sooner be tired with striking , than faithful ministers will be tired with sufferings ; and you will be sooner a weary of smiting with the sword , than they will be with preaching the word , under all your pressures . and when your nets have taken only the greater fishes , the lesser fry will all get through , and become more numerous , and in time as great as those you took , and will make the vanity of your trade apparent , and make you one day wish that you had left such nets , and with peter and them , have been fishers of men , to win them , rather than to destroy them . . obj. but castellanus his objection against bicot ( elsewhere cited out of scaliger ) is their greatest strength , who said aristotle was against monarchy : here they may borrow that by deceiving , which by disputing they could not prove : the counterminor , and many others like minded endeavour to make rulers and people believe , that it is rebellion that is in our hearts , and that it is only the renouncing of a rebellious covenant that we stick at , and the renouncing of subjects taking arms against the king , and any commissioned by him ; and therefore the silencing of such as cherish the principles of rebellion is necessary : and they think that this oven gapeth so wide , and is so hot , that here they may boldly challenge our answer . ans. if men have any remnants of justice and modesty left , they shall be constrained to confess , that my answer to this objection is satisfactory . i. i take that man to be an enemy to god , to kings , and to mankind , who will maintain that there is any such thing in the world , as a lawful unlimited monarchy or humane power ; and therefore wonder that bishop morley did put the denial of this among the accused passages of my political aphorisms , where i expresly speak of gods limitation . . he is an enemy to god that asserteth this , because he thereby denieth god to be the universal soveraign , who hath made laws for all kings , who are all his subjects ; and as they are finite , receive but a finite power from him : it is atheism to deny gods soveraignty . hath not god forbidden kings idolatry , perjury , blasphemy , murder , tyranny , oppression , adultery , & c ? . he is an enemy to kings who will render them odious to mankind , by drawing such a picture or description of them , as to say , a king is one that is absolutely unlimited in his power , and therefore may deny or blaspheme god , and may destroy city and kingdom , and kill all the innocent people when he please . . he is an enemy to mankind that would bring them into such slavery , under such a monster , and tell them , if your king send but a few commissioned executioners , to command all your heads , and murder senate , city and countrey , parents and children , and burn up all your dwellings , neither the law of nature , or of the land will allow you to defend your selves against them . who will defend such a monster in war against his enemies , when no enemy can bring them into greater slavery ? ii. almost all mankind on earth agree , that all humane power is limited , and that propriety is in order of nature antecedent to regiment , which is to order the use of propriety : men are born with a propriety in their lives , members and health : and nature giveth them a propriety in their children , and contract in their wives , and natural industry in the fruit of their labours : and what am i that i should deny all this , and seem wiser ( in atheism and inhumanity ) than almost all the world ? iii. it is a known thing , that tyranny is the great hinderer of the preaching of the gospel , and so of the conversion and saving of the world. why is not the saving truth of god preached among heathens and mahometans ( who are five sixth parts of mankind ) and among papists ( who are the fourth part of the other sixth ) , but because tyrants will not suffer it ? and no friend of god , christ or man then should set up or plead for such an evil . iv. to stop the mouth of malice it self , i here truly adjoyn the profession of my judgment about all this controversie and accusation : i do assent and consent to all that is said for the power of kings , and the obedience and patience of subjects , in all the word of god , in all the confessions which ever i yet saw of any christian church , reformed greek or papist ( except what exalteth the pope , his councils and agents ) or which is the ordinary consent of politicians , lawyers or divines , or which is established by the constitution of this kingdom . i stand to the oaths of allegiance and supremacy . i hold it unlawful for any of his subjects to take arms against the king , that is , against his person , authority , dignity , rights or laws , or against any of his courts , officers or soldiers lawfully commissioned by him ; yea or if they be unlawfully commissioned , except when gods law of nature , or the kings own law , or contrary commission bind me to it . and i will never endeavour to alter the constituted monarchical government of this kingdom ; nor will i endeavour to reform the church or its government , by rebellion , sedition , or any other unlawful means : and i believe that no other oath , league or covenant doth disoblige me from any of this aforesaid , nor warranteth me to disobey any lawful command of the king , or any of my governours , nor to do any unlawful thing : and i renounce all doctrines and practices contrary to this profession ; especially of those popes and councils of bishops , who have decreed the excommunicating and deposing of kings , or other temporal lords , and the absolving their subjects from their oaths and fidelity , and the rest of the papal usurpations and church-tyranny , against the rights of princes and christian people , though judged hereticks by pope , prelates or priests . if this be not enough , see the d plea for peace , and my form of professed loyalty , in my book , called , the true and only way of the concord of all christian churches . v. and because they still cant over the mention of the late miserable wars , as if they hated the act of oblivion and peace ; i add , that malice may have no more to say that hath the shew of reason . silence and cast out all that ever had any hand in those wars , ( except the conformists ) and no more , and we will give you a thousand thanks , and acquiesce in it as unexpected justice . and is not all this yet enough ? vi. as to the particular reasons that we have against subscribing [ universally and unlimitedly , without any exposition given by the law-makers , that it is unlawful to take arms against any commissioned by the king , and as referring to [ on any pretence whatsoever ] , it belongeth to another discourse to render them , which giveth the reasons of our nonconformity : it would be here unseasonable , and they are many and great . obj. but good words must not satisfie , while the remembrance of your rebellious practises yet remaineth . ans. . i have elsewhere told the strangers and young men that know it not , that it was between two parties of episcopal conformists that the war began . . is it not words that you require as satisfactions in your subscriptions and oaths ? what more than words is it that you would have ? . are not the laws in power , and judges to execute them against any that shall speak or do disloyally ? what would you have more than words , and that mens estates and lives be answerable for their offences ? obj. but why will you not then subscribe and swear in the words of the law , but in your own ? ans. to give here the reasons of that , is the unseasonable digression before disclaimed . you may as well here call us to dispute over all our differences . obj. but here i am charged as an impudent falsifier of history , for saying that the war began between two parties of episcopal conformity ; which maketh me pity the world in point of history , when the publick affairs of a kingdom so openly managed shall be in such a manner controverted in the very age when they were done . divers lords are yet living who were interessed in these matters : and it is unpleasing to give men the catalogue of great mens names in a matter which his majesty hath committed to oblivion : but a breviate of all the necessary proof , i shall draw up in a history by it self . the accusation , being made publickly by my old friend dr. thomas good , in his book , called dubitantius & firmianus , i will annex a letter which i wrote in answer to it . accus . . to my reverend and worthy friend , dr. thomas good , master of baliol-colledge in oxford . reverend and worthy sir , it is now about a month since i received a letter from you , for the furthering of a good work , which i sent to mr. foley by his son mr. paul foley , not having opportunity my self to see him . i have stayed so long for an answer , not hearing yet from him , that i think it not meet any longer to forbear to acquaint you with the reasons of the delay . he liveth quite at the other end of london from me , and my weakness and business keep me much within doors , and it 's hard to find him within , except at those hours when i am constrained to be in bed . but i have reason to conjecture that his answer will be , . that the rich men whose judgments are for conformity , are far more numerous than those who are of another mind , and therefore fitter to promote that work . and there are so very few that do any thing for the ejected ministers , that some of them live on brown bread and water , &c. which hindereth those gentlemen from other kind of charitable work . . and i must crave your patience ( being confident by your ancient kindness , of your friendly interpretation ) which i tell you , that this day i heard one say , we can expect that dr. good do make his scholars no better than himself . and what reason have we to maintain and breed up men to use us as he hath done in his late treatise ? i got the book , and was glad to find much good , and several moderate passages in it , ( and i knew you so well as that i could not but expect moderation ) , but when i perused the passages referred to , i could say no more for them , but that i would write to you to hear your answer about them . for i confess they surprized me ; though at the same time i received many new books of a sanguine complection from other hands without any admiration . i. the first passage referred to , was pag. . which are confessedly things indifferent . this is spoken indefinitely of the presbyterians . where have i lived ? i know not one presbyterian living that divideth from you for any thing which he confesseth indifferent . i crave your answer containg the proof of this ? at least to name some one of them that we may reprove him . we take conformity to be so far from indifferent , that we forbear to tell the world the greatness of the sin which we think to be in it , lest men cannot bear it , and lest it should disaffect the people to the ministry of the conformists . ii. your p. . i pass by . the main matter is p. , . that though all the nonconformists were not in actual arms against the king , — nor did they all as natural agents cut off his head ; but morally , that is , very sinfully and wickedly they had their hands stained with that royal blood ; for whosoever did abet these sons of belial in their rebellions , treasons , murders of their king and fellow subjects , either by consenting to their villanies , praying for their prosperity , praising god for their successes , &c. the charge is high : if it be not true , . they are almost as deeply wrong'd as you can wrong them . . our rulers are wronged by being so provoked to abhor them , silence and destroy them . . posterity is wronged by a misinforming history . i. you are too old to be ignorant that it was an episcopal and erastian parliament of conformists that first took up these arms in england against the king. the members yet living profess that at that time they knew but one presbyterian in the house of commons . interest forced or led them to call in the scots , and presbytery came in with them . if you doubt of it , see the propositions to the king at nottingham , where a limited episcopacy is one . ii. the lord lieutenants that seized on the militia were far most conformists , and scarce any presbyterians at all . iii. the general officers and colonels of the earl of essex's army were ten to one conformists , and few if any presbyterians save a few deboist mercenary scots , if they were such , which i know not ; and the general episcopal himself . iv. the major generals of the militia in the several counties were mostly conformists , and scarce any presbyterians . v. the assembly at westminster when they went thither were all conformists , save about eight or nine , and the scots commissioners . v. one of the two archbishops was a general in the parliaments army . vi. many of the present conformable ministers were in arms against the king , and some wrote for his death , and many of them took the covenant and engagement . vii . the most of the conformable gentry of my acquaintance that were put upon it took the engagement against the king , and house of lords . viii . the nonconformable ministers of gloucestershire , ( mr. geery , mr. capel , mr. marshall , &c. ) were against the parliaments war , though the parliaments garison was over them . mr. bampfield ( who hath lain six or seven years in the common goal for preaching ) ( with his brother ( sometimes speaker of the house of commons ) was so much against the parliaments cause , that to this day ( even while he lay in goal ) he most zealously made his followers renounce it . many nonconformists in many counties were of the same mind . ix . many of the nonconformists lived in the kings quarters , and never were drawn the other way , as dr. conant ( lately one of them ) and others in oxford , and so in other parts . x. some of the nonconformists were in the kings army . poor mr. martin of weeden lost an arm in his army , and yet the other arm lay long with him in warwick goal for preaching . xi . almost all the nonconformists of my acquaintance in england , save independents and sectaries , refused the engagement , and took cromwell and the commonwealth parliament for usurpers , and never approved what they did , nor ever kept their days of fasting or thanksgiving . ( to tell you of the london ministers printed declarations against the intended death of the king , you will say is unsatisfactory , because too late . ) xii . most of the nonconformable ministers of my acquaintance were either boys at school , or in the university in the wars , or never medled with it ; so that i must profess , that setting them all together , i do not think that one in ten throughout the kingdom can be proved to have done any of these things that you name against the king. xiii . we have oft with great men put it to this trial , let them give leave but to so many to preach the gospel as cannot be proved ever to have had any hand in the wars against the king , and we will thankfully acquiesce , and bear the silence of the rest ; make but this match for us , and we will joyfully give you thanks . xiv . who knoweth not that the greatest prelatists were the masters of the principles that the war was raised on , bilson , jewel , &c. ) ( and hooker quite beyond them all . ) xv. but because all proof must be of individuals , i intreat you as to our own countrey where you were acquainted , tell me if you can , i say it seriously if you can , whatever was done or said against the king , by mr. ambrose sparry , mr. kimberlye , mr. lovell , mr. cowper , mr. reignolds , mr. hickman , mr. trustram , mr. baldwin , senior , mr. baldwin , junior , mr. sergeant , mr. waldern ( dead ) , mr. joseph baker ( dead ) , mr. wilsby , mr. brian , mr. stephen baxter , mr. badland , mr. butcher , mr. eccleshall , mr. read , mr. rocke , mr. fincher of wedgbury , , mr. wills of bremicham , mr. paston , &c. i pass by many more . and in shropshire by old mr. samuel hildersham , old mr. samuel fisher , mr. talents , mr. brian of shrewsbury , mr. barnet , mr. keeling , mr. berry , mr. malden of newport , mr. thomas wright ( dead ) , mr. taylor , &c. these were your neighbours and mine ! i never heard , to my remembrance , of any one of them that had any thing to do with the wars against the king. it 's true ( except mr. fisher and some few ) they were not ejected , but enjoyed their places ; and did not you as well as they ? if i can name you so many of your neighbours that were innocent , will you tell the king and parliament , and the papists and posterity , that all the nonconformists ( without any exception ) had their hands stained with the royal blood ? what! mr. cook of chester , and mr. birch , &c. that were imprisoned and persecuted for the king ! what! mr. geery that dyed at the news of the kings death ! what , sir francis nethersole ( and mr. bell his pastor ) who wrote so much against the parliament , and was their prisoner at kenelworth castle almost all the wars ! — what may we expect from others , when dr. good shall do thus . — i put not in any excuse for my self among all these . it may be you know not that an assembly of divines ( twice met ) at coventry ( of whom two doctors , and some others are yet living ) first sent me into the army to hazard my life ( after naseby fight ) against the course which we then first perceived to be designed against the king and kingdom , nor what i went through then two years in opposing it , and drawing the soldiers off : nor how oft i preached against cromwell , the rump , the engagement , but specially their wars , and fasts , and thanksgivings : nor what i said to cromwell for the king ( never but twice speaking with him ) of which a great man * told me but lately , that being an ear-witness of it , he had told his majesty . but yet while i thought they went on bilsons principles , i was then on their side , and the observator ( parker ) had almost tempted me to hookers principles , but i quickly saw those reasons against them , which i have since published . his principles were known by the first book , before the last came out ; and i have a friend † that had his last in m. s. but i am willing unfeignedly to be one of those that shall continue silenced , if you can but procure leave to preach christs gospel only for those that are no more guilty of the kings blood than your self ; and that no longer than there is real need of their ministerial labour . reverend sir , if you will but so long put your self as in our case , i shall hope that with patience you will read these lines , and pardon the necessary freedom of london , feb. . . your truly loving friend , and obliged servant , richard baxter . note , . that this dr. good was one of the most peaceable , moderate and honest conformists of my acquaintance ; and subscribed our worcestershire agreement ( published ) for concord ; and joyned with us in our association and meetings at kidderminster , and was the man that drew up the catalogue of questions for our disputations at those meetings ; and never then talkt to us of what he here writeth ( in a book called dubitantius & firmianus ) . . mr. thomas foley ( a nonconformist gentleman , eminent for charity ( having built near stourbridge a hospital , and endowed it with about l. per annum ) being my friend , dr. good wrote to me , to move him to give maintenance for two scholarships in baliol-colledge ; and i wrote this letter in answer to that , but the sending was delayed till he was dead . accus . . another to save the nation from the labours of a concordant ministry , and from the blessings of unity , peace and innocence , hath written a book lately , called the modern pleas for comprehension , toleration , &c. considered ; who at his enterance saith , i would fain have any of our dissenting brethren to answer directly , whether there be any one thing sinful in her communion ( the churches as by law established ) , or only some things ( as they conceive ) inexpedient . and p. . he saith , suppose that the terms of the communion of the church , are not only inexpedient , but really sinful ; if so , then i shall readily grant that the church ought not to be communicated with , while the terms of her communion are such . but — i shall presume to say with some confidence , that it is not easie to find a considerable man among them , who will not be ashamed to own it publickly , or who doth himself really believe it . and p. . i have been credibly informed ( not to say that i am able to make it good ) that mr. calamy did before his majesty , and divers lords of the council profess , that there was not any thing in the constitution of the church , to which he could not conform , were it not for the scandalizing of others ; so that in his esteem the constitutions of the church were in themselves innocent , and the whole objection against them lay in the mistakes of other men . yet saith he p. . that the separation from the church is so avowed and pressed upon the people , as if that it were highly necessary , and that communion with the church was highly criminal , at least in the opinion of the teachers . ans. and now , reader , what a shake doth this instance give to the credit of history , at least such as is written by interessed factious men ? yea what a reproach to humane nature ? for what untruth can be imagined so gross ! and what thing so nakedly evil , as may not be expected to be found in man , yea in professed christians , yea in divines ( of such a character ) ! either this man and such others believe what they say themselves , or not ! if not , what preachers , what christians , what men are these ? if they do , what matter of fact can ever be so notorious , as that we can hope that such men can know it ? what history of such writers can deserve any credit ? what regard can the people be encouraged to give to the words and writings of such doctors , that no better know such publick notorious matters of fact , and so confidently and boldly deceive the world , in cases where so many thousands , yea the churches peace and concord is so much concerned ? reader , judge by these notorious evidences of fact , of these mens credibility and usage . . the judgment of the ancient nonconformists is declared to the world by abundance of writings , in which they thought that they proved much in the english constitutions to be sinful , and such as men must suffer deprivation and death , rather than consent to . and are all these writings no evidence of their judgments ? nor their sufferings neither ? . since his majesties restoration , the present nonconformists still distinguished , . between diocesan or national churches , and parish-churches . . between the communion and conformity of private men , and of ministers : and . between approbation of the church-constitutions , practising all imposed and peaceable behaviour and submission : and though some exasperated persons have by the late sufferings of conscionable men , been tempted to separate from the prelates and their party , as far as st. martin did from the bishops about him , and their synods ; yet the main body of the nonconforming ministers , as far as ever we could learn , did judge as followeth . . that those parish-churches which had true ministers ( not utterly uncapable persons ) were true churches of christ. that the ordinary liturgy , appointed for the publick worship , was such as a good christian may lawfully joyn in ( not speaking of baptizings , burials , &c. in which some things they thought more dubious ) . . that though combined churches , whether you call them diocesan or national , are not any otherwise a divine institution , than as concord is commanded us in general , and may not be set up to the detriment of the particular churches , which are of divine institution ; yet a good christian may and must live peaceably and submissively , where some such combined churches are guilty of usurpation and sinful abuse . . that conformity to all the subscriptions , declarations , oaths , covenants and practices now imposed on ministers , would be to us a very great and heinous sin , ( modesty forbidding us to meddle uncalled with the consciences of the conformists ) . . their judgment of the sinfulness of ministerial conformity , they declared to his majesty and the bishops in many writings , when they had encouragement to attempt once the healing of the divisions : and when , because they agreed to leave out all harsh provoking words , in their accusations of the church-orders and ceremonies , the lord chancellor had put into the first draught of a declaration , that we do not in our judgments believe the practice of those particular ceremonies , which we except against , to be in it self unlawful . in our next address we desired that those words might be expunged , and so they were . yet this extended not to subscriptions , oaths , &c. and afterward many particulars were mentioned which we thought sinful , and the supposition vindicated in a reply ; to which the bishops never answered . and in a long petition for peace , p. . we make this protestation following : who can pretend to be better acquainted with their hearts than they are themselves ? for what man knoweth the things of a man , save the spirit of a man which is in him ? and they are ready to appeal to the dreadful god , the searcher of hearts , and the hater of hypocrisie , that if it were not for fear of sinning against him , and wounding their consciences , and hazarding and hindering their salvations , they would readily obey you in all these things ; that it is their fear of sin and damnation that is their impediment , they are ready to give you all the assurance that man can give , by the solemnest professions , or by oath , if justly called to it . and one would think that a little charity might suffice to enable you to believe them , when their non-compliance brings them under suffering , and their compliance is the visible way to favour , safety and prosperity in the world : and if men that thus appeal to god , concerning the intention of their own hearts , cannot be believed , even when the state of their worldly interest bears witness to their professions , but another shall step into the throne of the heart-searching god , and say , it is not as they say , or swear : it is not conscience , but obstinacy or singularity : all humane converse upon these terms will be overthrown : and what remedy have they but prtiently to wait , till god whom they have appealed to , shall decide the doubt , and shew who were the assertors of truth or falshood . and p. . they are not indifferent in the judgment of dissenters , though they be so in yours . and p. . and if it be said that men do willingly keep out the light ; we must say , that few men are obstinate against the opinions which tend to their ease and advancement in the world , and to save them from being vilified as schismaticks , and undone : and when they profess before the lord , that they do impartially study and pray for knowledge , and would gladly know the will of god at the dearest rate : we must again say , that those men must prove that they know the dissenters hearts better than they are known to themselves , that expect to be believed by charitable christians , when they charge them with wilful ignorance , or obstinate resisting of the truth . this was then the profession which the nonconformists consented to , no man of them once contradicting it : and mr. calamy ( here accused ) among the first . . after this in their debates with the bishops at the savoy , they undertook to prove the sinfulness of several things then imposed : and when bishop cousins , then in the chair , gave them in a writing , desiring them to distinguish sins from inconveniences , and to debate only that which they accounted flat sin ; they gave him in eight particulars , reserving liberty to add the rest ; and one of them was , that it is sinful for a minister of christ to exclude or reject from the churches communion in the sacrament , persons godly , and otherwise duly qualified , meerly because that ( fearing it , though causelesly to be a sin ) they dare not receive the sacrament kneeling . this they earnestly desired to have begun with , and dispute at large , and offered to have then given in their arguments , and then to have proceeded to the other seven particulars . . the kings declaration about ecclesiastical affairs , had a little before given them a relaxation or indulgence as to those things which they accounted the greatest sins ; such as in the declaration may yet be seen ; especially the subscription , that there is nothing in all the books there mentioned contrary to the word of god , &c. and it did not concern us , or become us , to talk at the the savoy against the sinfulness of those particulars which his majesty had in clemency , and as a healer , so lately freed us from : but why were they in the declaration suspended ( as for our concord ) , if they had not been judged to be unlawful by the dissenters , when we ever professed that in all lawful things we would obey ? . but yet the part of our answer is , that at that time the new subscription and declaration since imposed , and the alterations in the liturgy , and the corporation and oxford oath , &c. were not invented , or in being , and so we had never opportunity and leave to declare our judgment and reasons of the sinfulness of the new conformity , which to us was the heaviest part . . but surely our nonconformity on terms so hard , declared it sufficiently to all reasonable men . if ministers ( none of them cast out as accused of any other crime ) should have ceased the work of their office , and occasioned divisions in the land , and have cast themselves and families into so many years distress and poverty ; and all this for to avoid that which they took to be no sin ; they had not deserved the name of christs ministers , of christians , or of men . . lastly , those writings which any of the nonconformists have since ventured to publish for their cause , have all of them downright endeavoured to prove that conformity is a sin ; let mr. cawdrey's , mr. hickman's , dr. collins's , or any of all the rest be perused ; and this will be found the scope of the books . yea he that they judged moderate in these matters , in his book called , sacrilegious desertion of the holy ministry rebuked , saith , o be not too angry with those that censure you as sinners — god hateth sin , and so must all that truly love him : and they are our best friends that do most to preserve us from it ; and they are our greatest enemies that would flatter us into it . to preach against sin is your ministerial office : and if any man think that you make a solemn covenant to sin , that you may have leave to preach against it , yea that you deliberately commit a greater one , that you may have leave to preach against a lesser in other men ; this man deserveth to be heard , though he mistake . if we say nothing to you , yet it is easie to gather by the costly terms on which we avoid it , that we take conformity to be a sin . — i must tell you , that we cannot but think that you need repentance , great repentance , for sinning more ( and that by publick , deliberate , chosen , convenanted , ministerial sin , protesting against repentance ) in the day when judgments called us all to renew our repentance for our former sins . — we beseech you be not too angry with us for differencing between good and evil , between him that sweareth , and him that feareth an oath , as long as we do it to the loss and suffering of our own flesh , which disputeth in us more cunningly and strongly for conformity , than all the durells , the fullwoods , the stilemans , &c. in england . we have naturally no more love to poverty , to scorn , to a prison , than you have . — it is not pleasure , profit or worldly preferment that we contend for : we would do no man hurt or wrong : if our lovers of church-power do think us intollerable , because we obey them not as fully as they desire ; we profess before god and man , that it is not because we would not be subject and obedient to any , as far as will stand with our obedience to god ; but only because we dare not ; we will not do that which we believe that god forbiddeth us : and if we err , it is not for want of studying , perhaps as hard and impartially as they , to know the truth . — it is sin , and no small or tolerable sin , which our consciences fear , in our forbearing subscriptions and conformity . — ch. . and now , reader , pity , pity , pity , the ministry , the church the world , that have such men , such usage , such historical informers as these , that can , that dare thus publickly and confidently face down the ignorant , that we take not ministerial conformity and communion with them to be sin : and never wonder at it if the same men should as confidently print , that we are all profest mahometans . and as to his report of mr. calamy's words before the king , we must testifie some of us , that we were from first to last in his company at such meetings , where those matters were transfacted , and at all the meetings before his majesty that we heard he was present at , and we over and over have heard him profess that he took several things in conformity to be intollerable sins , but never heard a word from him to the contrary : and he may be judged of by the preface to our reply , which he wrote ; and by his not only refusing a bishoprick , but by his sufferings , and constant profession to his death . this writer , to save the church from concord , by restoring the silenced ministers , feigneth comprehension to be a late device , a thing unknown , or that amounts to no more than a pretty artifice of saving the reputation of about a dozen persons , who are sick of their separation , and stand in need of a plausible pretence , under which to return unto it . their credit will not suffer them to renounce their old principles , and they are weary of sticking longer to them . now if the pride of these men should be thus far gratified , &c. ans. . see how boldly this man pretendeth to search the hearts of others . . how he feigneth that to be new , which they so laboured for , and ever since : read but their petition for peace and judg. . doth he not take it to be more for our reputation to conform , and to be dignified and preferred , than to live under the scorn and sufferings that we do ? do not bishop reignolds , and many others that conform , live in more reputation in the world , than we that are thus reviled by so many doctors of the church , and sometimes lie in the common jayls , and are fain to stoop to be beholden for our bread or necessary maintenance ? . who are those dozen men ? and why doth he not name them , and prove his charge ? are they not men of strange facinating power , that could make such ministers ( distant in all counties ) to deny conformity ? and are they not strange persons that will ( all over the land ) give over preaching , or live in poverty and suffering ( some have dyed through the effects of want ) , and all to gratifie a dozen men ( no one knoweth who ) ? ( and it 's like some that he meaneth in his dozen , have done more to displease many of the rest than others ) . . what nonconformist hath not groaned for our divisions , and been indeed aweary of them from the first day , and longed for our common concord ? but that is not to be weary of their principles . o that he would procure us but liberty to preach the gospel , for all the rest that earnestly desire agreement , and shut out the dozen that he meaneth , whoever they be . but pardon me for saying , that these men do satisfie us , that sadduces are blind , who believe that there is no devil , when so much of him appeareth actively in the world. but our difference is not in government and ceremony only , but in doctrines of grand importance in morality : for he saith , pag. . for unless it ▪ ( the covenant ) be lawful in every particular respect , no body can be obliged by it . o dreadful doctrine , to come from a doctor of a christian church ! that a covenant and vow to god can oblige no body , unless it be lawful in every respect : if so , protestants that hold that imperfect man hath no sinless work , and so no vow or covenant is in all respects lawful , must hold that they are bound by no vow or covenant . if this be so , every erroneous man , or every knave , that hath the ignorance or craft to drop in any one unlawful thing into his covenants and vows , is obliged by none of them at all . how easily then may a papist , or an atheist shake off all oaths of allegiance or supremacy , by adding one unlawful particle ? it 's true , that if some one clause in a vow were so essential to all the rest as to be their sense ; if that were unlawful to be kept , all were so : and as to the denomination of the frame , as consisting of several parts , it may be called a bad or unlawful oath , if part were so ▪ because bonum est ex causis integris , and the sense is ; but that it is unlawful quoad hoc , or secundum quid . but as to obligation ( though the actus imponentis , and the actus jurantis be unlawful ; yet if the materia juramenti have ten parts , and one only be sin , that doth not nullifie the obligation to the rest : no nor though nine parts of it were sin , their neighbourhood nullifieth not the obligation to the tenth . but what wonder if conformity by oaths , subscriptions , declarations and covenants seem lawful to doctors of such principles as these ? what if a popish prince or people , put an unlawful clause into their covenants ? are they therefore wholly disobliged as to each other ? the same i say of covenants of peace between several princes ? and of covenants between husband and wife ; and so of other contracts ; but especially of vows to god. but what if perjury prove a greater sin , than not conforming to it ? yea a sin meet for none but utterly debauched consciences , and such as threatneth dreadful ruine ? and what if such principles and practices would make us guilty of the perjury and impenitence of many hundred thousand persons ? should we be drawn into such a guilt by such words as these , and that in a time when god by his judgments is searching after , and finding out the nations sins ? god forbid . another since called , a reproof to the rehearsal transposed , p. , . saith , do you at all know what were the abatements they demanded to bring them off with conscience ? to let you see your confidence , i tell you they demanded none at all ; but the question being solemnly put to them ( and that as i am told ) in his majesties presence , whether they knew of any thing in the liturgy with which they could not comply without sin ? they all declared their own satisfaction , but only desired some abatements for the ease of weak brethren ; or rather as you tell us bluntly , to bring themselves off with some little reputation . ans. o patient god! alas for strangers , and the generations to come that must read such history ! alas for the souls and churches that have such guides ! alas that he whose character is to be the old lyer and murderer , can do so much in the churches at once to destroy love and souls , to make odious gods ministers , and to render it so difficult to believe church-history ! if this man had thus published , that we were not english ▪ men , or that we did at that same time the horrid'st villanies that he could devise , what other answer could we make than that which these words must have ? it is a forgery against such notorious evidence , that i will not undertake for the man that dare print this , but that he may say any thing that can be devised , how false soever . i have told you , . that we gave them in writing an account of what we thought sinful . . that we in dispute maintained it . . that to that very question we after gave in a paper of eight particulars in the liturgy , which we undertook to prove flat sin . . that we published that profession in our petition for peace . . that this was before the worse new conformity . . and had it been otherwise , what were our thoughts to men that were absent ? i must profess i ( that was still with them ) cannot imagine whence this inhumane fiction could arise , unless it were from these words of my own , which others seconded . when we spake for common concord , we told them , that [ the question now was not what would satisfie us few men , but what was necessary to the common union ? and i added , that i never scrupled e. g. kneeling at the receiving of the lords supper ; but better men than i did scruple it , and i undertook to prove it a great sin to cast them out of christian , sacramental communion for that cause . ] i verily believe that the horrid forgery had no better colour of proof than these words . accus . . of mens injurious imputing to us the errors and faults of all the sectaries . the course that some writers ( that should have modesty and justice ) take to defame us is , to jumble all sects ( besides their own ) together under the name of nonconformists , and then to rake up the unwarrantable expressions of men of several parties , as the nonconformists doctrine ; and so whatever they find written by an antinomian , a separatist , an anabaptist , ( and why not a papist or a quaker too ) they lay at the nonconformists doors . when . all men of reason know , that though affirmative titles use to signifie some union , so do not negatives . to call a man a papist or a protestant , signifieth somewhat in which he agreeth with others . but to be no papists , or no protestants , agreeth to all other parties in the world . . and if before conformity was required ( and so there were no conformists ) the several sects were aliens to each others , surely they are so after , or else you may know who is the cause . . and why do the papists ( and such arminians as episcopius ) who are nonconformists , claim kindred and kindness to and from the conformists , rather than the nonconformists , if they know not to whom they are best affected ? . did not the heathens do thus also by the ancient christians , when sects swarmed among them , and deride and accuse them for their divisions ? and did not the papists so by the reformers ? yea , and do to this day ? what more common with them , than to say , all these sects swarm out from you ? and so did the persecutors of the old waldenses , when the manichees were among them . . if nonconformity cause all these sects , then they are the causes of them that cause nonconformity . and if you will call in your impositions , there will be no nonconformists . let impartial sober reason judg who it is that causeth all these sects . if all the decrees of general councils were imposed on all men to be subscribed , would not thousands be nonconformists that are now conformable ? who cry out against sects so much as the papists ? and yet who in all the world more cause them , even by the manifold laws by which they pretend to cure them ? if only a peaceable communion with the church had been required , instead of all the covenants , oaths , declarations , and subscriptions , how many thousand fewer nonconformists had there been ? if any should impose oaths , covenants or subscriptions , against episcopacy , and for lay-elders , would it not make most of the conformists nonconformable ? and what is it that those do who subscribe the same doctrine with you , to make other men heterodox ? . thus were the old nonconformists accused , when they wrote more against sects and separation than all the high conformists did . and we must say , that if separatists , anabaptists , antinomians , and such like , had not been more effectually confuted and kept under by the nonconformists , than they have been by the persecutors or sharp opposers of nonconformists , they had been like to have so abounded , as to have carried down most of the zealously religious sort in the stream . let posterity judg by the writings of hildersham , paget , gifford , bradshaw , ball , rathband , and many more such , against separation ; and by many of the present nonconformists , against antinomianism , anabaptistry , popery , &c. who have done most against these sects . if men that would draw birds to their nets , by throwing stones , or hooting at them , or that would beat the water to make the fish bite at their hooks , or that will still spur-gall their horses to keep them quiet ; will revile those that have more skill , as the causes of their unsuccesfulness , because they do not as they do ; such men must at last be taught by experience , if ever they will learn. for our parts , we cannot be of their minds . accus . . of some printed accusations of us as covetous , and other such like . but it hath pleased some late writers ( of great account with some ) to lay such matters to our charge as the cause of our nonconformity , as one would have thought should never have entred into the thoughts of a sober man that ever saw or heard of the english affairs , and present state . . the year . was published a book under the name of dr. asheton chaplain to the duke of ormond , who in his introduction supposeth the nonconforming people to be such as meerly believing the ministers , and the ministers to be such lest they scandalize the people that think the things unlawful . and so he applieth himself to confute them on that supposition ( a thing easily done , if this were all ) . and he citeth the words of one of us about scandal , against our selves . to which we say , . seeing even pagans , papists , socinians and quakers , anabaptists and separatists , and some arminians and prelatists too , are nonconformists in the largest sense ( as refusing conformity ) and seeing it is not imaginable that all the persons of any one profession should be just of the same degree of understanding , and in every thing of the same opinion ; it is not impossible but that some one called a nonconformist , may be as brainless and dishonest , as he describeth them . but we must say , that we remember not that ever we met with one of them that was such , and that had no stronger reasons against conformity , or that took the things avoided to be indifferent . . and whether we our selves are such , let our writings and reasons therein given against conformity be the evidence . could he hope to make the world believe , that men not mad with factious humour would live as we live , and suffer what we have suffered , and durst forbear much of the work to which we are devoted , and all to avoid that which we account indifferent , and no sin ? and hear then how he doth more than justifie us himself , pag. . [ if conformity be unlawful ; if having beg'd direction from the father of lights in hearty prayer , and having used all moral diligence to satisfie your consciences , you cannot as yet be perswaded of the lawfulness of it : o do not dare for any outward respect whatsoever , to go against the light and checks of conscience ? quod fit contra conscientiam edificat ad gehennam , is a noted truth ] . ay , but what then must we hear and bear from such as you , when we wonder that any of you can doubt of the unlawfulness of what we refuse ? and coming to our accusation pag. . he thus speaketh ( even to our astonishment , that ever humane nature can be tempted into such a state . ) when i have first told them that i shall meet them at the day of judgment , i can then with greater confidence assure the world ( what some mens prejudice will not suffer them to consider ) that the chief reasons why so many nonconformists refuse subscription , are these two , their credit and their interest , springing from those roots of bitterness , pride and covetousness . what then may not the mind of man be perswaded to , if a doctor living in england , in london , can say and believe this , and say it with such an appealing mention of the day of judgment ! o who should not fear what his soul may be seduced to think and say ? . let it be noted that he speaketh not of any odd or singular persons , nor with distinction , but of the [ so many nonconformists ] . . he speaketh of all their hearts and secret intents , even that which moveth them to refuse subscription . . that the thing of which he accuseth them is as odious a crime as most can be charged on man : to disobey the magistrate , to forsake their flocks , to give over much of their office to which they are devoted , to keep up factions and divisions among the people , and to propagate it to posterity , and protest before god and man that they would conform , but that they are perswaded it is sin ( and heinous sin ) , and all this in hypocrisie , when pride and covetousness are the cause , what an odious people are these nonconformists , if this be true ? . and hatred and prosecution are the proper effects which his accusation tends to . who can repent of hating and destroying so odious a sort of hypocrites as he describeth ? . and what is the credit for which their pride doth seduce them ? . consider what is the thing that they look for credit in . . from whom it is . . it must be somewhat that hath at least an appearance of good , that they can look for credit by : pride liveth not upon evil , as known to be evil . we suppose he meaneth , that it is the reputation of being better preachers , holier and honester persons than others , and of more faithful consciences , who fear lying , perjury , covenanting to sin , and practising more than the conformists do . . and either they expect this reputation with high or low , with many or few . . the world knoweth that the law-makers , and rulers , and nobles are for the most part against us ; yea that the oxford-act of confinement , and others , cast upon us the suspicion of as odious crimes as most are in the world : and the conformists , who are desirous to make us contemptible , use to perswade the people , that there are few wise or learned men among us , but that such are almost all for them ; and that it is but a few inconsiderable mechanick sectaries who are for us . and if all this be so , what is here left for pride to work upon ? how contemptible doth the novel ecclesiastical politician , and the debate-maker , among many others render us ? and why should not our pride rather incline us to desire the esteem and favour of the highest , richest , and most honourable , than of mean contemned people , and of the greater number than of a few ? honour is in the honourer , and laudari a laudatissimis is the ambition of the proud ( of which we were as capable as they , but for these and such other differences of mind and life ) ; and unless we must hear with balaam , [ god hath kept thee from honour ] . but if the people that so honour us , as to feed our pride ( against such depressions as the frowns of some superiors , the voluminous , pulpit and private reproaches and derisions of many that should be better imployed , and the debasedness of poverty and long prosecutions ) be indeed considerable for number and quality , it seems they see somewhat in those that others abhor and scorn , to make them believe that indeed they are another sort of men , than such would make the world believe they are . and it is to be noted , that the people in question are no strangers to us , either as to our minds , or parts , or practices , being those with whom we converse , and have long conversed ; whenas the reproachers , even our clergy-neighbours , such as this doctor , are strangers to us , and we to them for ought we know ; and though they live near us , converse so little with us , that they know us but little ( if any whit ) more , than men of other kingdoms ( as is fully proved even by their description of our judgments ; for we must not think that they knowingly speak falsly ) . but his proof of his accusation followeth : first , their credit and reputation ; wherein i am fully instructed by a learned person ( friendly debate , p. . ) who having proposed this doubt , why did many of them deliberate so long whether they should accept of dignities in the church ? he thus adds , if it was so plain a business that their conscience and their covenant would not let them , one would think they should have profest it openly , without any more ado ; and therefore i conclude , that pause and deliberation was about somewhat else ; not about matter of conscience , but of interest and policy : as whether the people would take it well , and not laugh at them as so many magpyes , &c. you think perhaps that they spent their time in fasting and seeking god to direct their consciences . no , no : it was not their conscience , but their credit , which then lay at stake — because i have heard some of them acknowledge , they did not scruple what we do , but thought it unhandsome for them to do it . to all this , we have committed the answer to one of the persons to whom one of the mentioned dignities was offered , who answereth as followeth . . is such a charge of mens secret thoughts and intentions well proved , by telling men what one of your selves hath said , with the same spirit and front as luther , calvin , zuinglius , &c. are now proved wicked by the papists , because some of their adversaries so reported them heretofore ? . are or men accusable upon the account of four mens secret thoughts ? what is this to all the rest ? . is it possible for either of these authors to know a negative , and that by secret heart-action by four other men , viz. that they sought not god to direct their consciences . . would not any other men have thought that accepting of dignities had been a likelier sign of pride , than refusing them . if either of these doctors had refused them , we should have thought it a sign of their humility . what a case are we in with such men as these , when we must needs be proud whether we accept or refufe ? would not the favour and honour of those that would have advanced us to dignities , have weighed down the displeasure of those that we should have offended ? do you not think that they are more , and more honourable persons , whom our conformity would have pleased ? . what scorn or derision does bishop reignolds now undergo , or many of your doctors , who some were , and some reputed formerly of our mind ? . what scorn would it have been to baxter , who had written two years before the change , for moderate episcopacy and liturgies , and whose books was pleaded and produced at the great meeting at worcester-house , before the king and lords , and bishops , and nonconformists , with these words of the now bishop of winchester , no man hath written better of these things than mr. baxter . who answered , that he stood to all that he had there written . and why doth he now suffer so much obloquy and displeasure from the separating part of the nonconformists , if it be reputation that he stuck upon ? why do your party tell him that he is more calumniated by the nonconformists , than by any others ? why hath he lost the esteem of so many ( as he had once almost done of his own quondam flock ) for perswading them from going too far in heart and practice from the bishops ( when it was their silencing himself and such others that was the thing which turned his old hearers hearts against them ) . . but , judge all men of common reason , sobriety and honesty of these mens accusations now by the matter of fact it self , which i opened before as to a former objection . again , let common reason and equity here be judge of the ingenuity and credit of both these defences : when of three men that were offered bishopricks , but one delayed his resolution , and two that were offered deaneries ; and when the notorious reason was , to see whether the refused conformity would stand or fall , when no one of them ever talkt of accepting , if that conformity should stand , and when these were but three men among eighteen hundred nonconformists that after were cast out ( and that conformity was actually dispensed with at the time when one refused , one accepted , and three delayed ) . whether this be a good proof that it was not conscience , but interest that these men stuck upon ? and that consequently this is the chief reason that men subscribed not ? and will not posterity rather think that the change may prove sad to the church of england , when instead of so many men that are silenced for avoiding that which they fear to be perjury , lying and covenanting against the commands of christ ; such men are set up , that dare talk at this rate , and that in print , and with the mention of god and the day of judgment . and whereas the debate-maker saith , that he heard some of them acknowledge that they scruple not what others do ; through gods mercy they are all , save mr. calamy , yet living , and solemnly profess that they never so thought or said to him , or any other , but have oft openly profess'd the contrary : but if he means any others , what proof is that of these accused persons thoughts ? his second proof runs thus : if this excellent author shall be condemned as apocryphal ( and it is a very easie confutation to cry fie upon him , when they are not able to answer his arguments , ( alas for the church of england , if her doctors take such inhumane calumnies for unanswerable arguments ) ! i shall then give them an authority , formerly little less than canonical : how the case stands with him at present , i am wholly ignorant : however he is one that fullwell understands the intrigues of his party . baxters def. of the princip . of love , p. . and here he reciteth the authors words against that pride and self-interest which we are accused of . and here again we appeal to common ingenuity , . whether this man who professeth himself wholly ignorant of the authors case ( and to him is utterly unknown ) , be liker to know the secrets of his and other mens hearts ( it 's like as much unknown to him ) than he himself , who he saith knoweth the intrigues of his party ? . whether it be a good proof that nonconformists are chiefly moved by pride , because they openly write against it , and condemn those that are so moved , with words which the accuser himself highly approveth ? obj. but it seemeth by your words that some such there are among you , and it is not baxter himself that he accuseth . ans. . yes ; for his application followeth [ ex ore tuo ] , which properly should mean that he condemns himself . . but suppose it otherwise ; know , reader , that the person against whom that book was written , was mr. edward bagshaw , an anabaptist , fifth monarchy man , and a separatist , and a man of an extraordinary vehement spirit , who had been exasperated by many years hard and grievous imprisonment ; and that it was such as he that were described ; and that the nonconformists of england were so far from being of his mind and spirit , that when baxter had written three books against him , and such as he , even as separatists ( without medling with him as an anabaptist , or a millenary ) , no one minister of england wrote in his defence , nor , that ever his confuter heard of , pleaded for him . and did we ever dream that no sectary is moved by pride to nonconformity ? do we justifie the secret thoughts of all nonconformists , whom we know not ? or is it a proof that pride chiefly moveth the nonconformists , because they call out to sectaries to take heed , lest it be so with them . . but because this doctor hath told the world that baxter fullwell understands the intrigues of his party ( as he calls them ) . let the world judge whether his testimony then of that party be not more credible than his that so little knoweth them ? and he solemnly professeth to the world , that though he hath reason to call the best of men to be very jealous of their hearts , lest pride and self-interest should pervert them ; yet he verily believeth , that there is not this day on earth ( that he heareth of ) a more conscionable , godly , faithful party of ministers of the gospel , than those that are now ejected , silenced nonconformists in england ( though they are not all equal in judgment , or ministerial ability , or self-denyal ) . as far as his credit will go , let posterity believe this : and his testimony shall be believed , when the defamers and calumniators shall not . . he thus proceedeth , [ a second reason why they conform not , is their interest ] . if this be thought a paradox ( it being a strange method to consult their interest , by losing their livings ) , the dissatisfied person is desired to consider , that the ringleaders of the faction having possessed themselves of other mens preferments , and foreseeing that they should be restored to the right owners , thence made a virtue of necessity , by assuring their proselytes , that they were resolved to stick to them ; and as they had defended the cause with their tongues and pens , they were now ready ▪ if providence call them to it , to seal it with their blood . ( and is it a sign of covetousness , to dye for what they hold ? ) but by this he tells us , that [ the people were melted into such kindness , as that the preachers are no losers by their silence ( here 's the wonder : hear the proof . ) . many of them gain more at present from their party , than they could from the church , if they conformed . ] ans. . o that he would name those many , and let us try the case ? and see also whether they are a considerable number ? the independents are commonly thought to be best provided for in london — but how small is their maintenance to what they had , or might have had heretofore ? and why might they not now have more if they could conform ? we were just now accused by him and another , about our deliberate refusing of church dignities ? and doth he think that we get more now than a bishoprick or deanery would have amounted to ? and as for what he talks of our being in other mens preferments , we took our labours indeed for preferment , but not our maintenance ; and those that are now conformists , as well as the nonconformists , were formerly in sequestrations ; and some were out ; and others ( where the old sequestred incumbents were dead ) were setled by law long before the time of silencing . and would not covetousness rather have perswaded them all to conform and take new livings , than to leave all . is it possible for an english man to think that we live more plenteously upon our neighbours charity , than the conformists do upon their dignities , tythes , and charity together , even such as live in the houses and favour of the nobles and great men of the land ? doth he not here much commend the charity of those that are for the nonconformists , before he is aware , in comparison of others ? but the reader shall know the truth of this anon . but suppose some did gain so much by their nonconformity , would that cause many hundred to continue nonconformists , who live in want , and have no such hopes ? his second proof runs thus , they retain a power and interest in their party to prefer their conforming sons — and this is such a piece of impiety as ( were there not too much ground for the suspition ) i should not think any christian could be guilty of . ans. and this is such a kind of charge and proof as we think a just and sober heathen or mahometan would abhor and would be as a wonder to us , if the sight and hearing of the like from such men did not tell us what monstrous pravity hath corrupted the nature of man. and we are sorry that posterity must know by such passages , that the church of england hath such doctors to succeed the silenced nonconformists , and the houses of the nobility such chaplains , whose most deliberate writings when they appeal to the day of judgment , are such as may make human nature blush . . of or silenced ministers , we know not of twenty that have sons that are conforming ministers : suppose there should be or such in england , would others be purposely nonconformists , that those or sons of other men might get livings ? what are they to them ? or what get they by it ? . would it not be a greater prey for covetousness for both father and son by conforming to have livings , than for the son alone ? yea , for ministers to have livings , than or of their sons alone ? . and who knoweth not ( as they boast themselves ) that nobility and gentry who have presentations to church livings , are so many of them conformable , and distast the nonconformists , as shameth this accusation ? do not the parliament and laws tell us how they are affected ? and doth not the prosecution of the nonconformists tell it us ? will they that make laws to eject , silence , confine , imprison , and banish the nonconformists , if they preach , prefer their sons because their fathers are nonconformists ? were not those few sons liker to get livings , if their fathers got favour by conforming ? and if all the rest conformed too ? either he would have men think that the nobility and gentry who most like the nonconformists , are many , or but few : if many , there is sure some cause that so many who live with them , and know them , should like them better than the conformists ; they take them not to be such as these doctors do describe them . if but few , is not preferment rather to be got from many than from few ? another book called , a free and impartial enquiry into the causes of that very great esteem and honour that the nonconforming preachers are generally in with their followers : in a letter to h. m. proceeding from the like spirit , useth the like ( but more ) accusations . his first assigned cause is p. . a preaching up of an empty , formal , notional kind of religion , and causing and encouraging men to build their hopes of heaven upon very easie and pleasing conditions . and p. . no men have ever given people ground to hope for the salvation of the spirit with less pain , trouble to the flesh , than these men have done . ans. wonderful ! that so many thousands should be so deceived ! make their hearers believe this , and they will soon forsake them . we know no one thing that causeth mens dislike of the conformists so much , as that they take them to be just such as he describeth the nonconformists to be . we cannot express their opinion of too many of them in apter words . nor do we know of any thing in the world that causeth men to like the nonconformists so much , as that they judg them to be just contrary to this mans character . and have the people no sense , nor acquaintance with the persons ? this is a charge which we meet with few of our enemies that believe . let these evidences decide the case : . which side hath ( generally ) the strictest followers ? which side are the generality of the blasphemers , whoremongers , drunkards , and debauched persons on ? and which side hath the most serious , religious sort of persons ? . why is it that the nonconformists and their followers are commonly accused for preciseness and overmuch strictness , for being hypocrites , as counterfeiting more holiness and austerity of life than others ? . how many of the ministers were ever cast out for drunkenness , fornication , deceit , swearing , perjury , or any loose living or immorality ? not one of the that ever we heard of ; but all for nonconformity alone . . if you should turn your charge upon the sectaries , who hath written more against the antinomian loose opinions , than the nonconformists have done ? the many volumes of mr. anthony burges , the writings of mr. richard allen , mr. joseph allen , mr. john howe , with many more of late , and of mr. hildersham , mr. ball , mr. dod , mr. greenham , mr. rogers , mr. perkins , and many more such of old , will tell posterity whether the nonconformists preached loose licentious doctrine . . but the fullest decision of this case will be from their cause it self . the liturgy and canon , . obligeth us to refuse no child that is offered us in baptism . . the rubrick pronounceth the baptized infants so dying certainly saved ( not excepting any child of any infidel or atheist , or open denier of a life to come , or derider of christ and the holy scripture ( of which there are now great store ) . . when the baptized children can say the words of the creed , lords prayer , &c. though they know not what they say , they are confirmed by the bishop . . being confirmed , they are to be admitted to the lords-supper , though they know not what it meaneth ; yea they are compelled for fear of imprisonment and ruine to communicate . . when they are sick , if they will but say they repent , and desire it , they must be absolved in absolute terms ; though they give the minister no satisfaction , that they are truly penitent , and have lived till then a most ungodly life , and perhaps lie cursing , and swearing , and railing at a holy life on their sick-bed . . and being dead , we must pronounce our hope of every one in england , except unbaptized ones , excommunicate and self-murderers , that god in mercy hath taken to himself the soul of this our dear brother out of the miseries of this world ; though they were professed atheists , infidels , scorners of christ , notorious adulterers , or other criminals , and never once so much as said , i repent . . and the discipline of the church being managed by one lay-chancellor and his court , with some small assistance , in a diocess of many hundred parishes , is utterly uncapable of calling one of an hundred to repentance , or keeping clean the church . and these are much of that which the nonconformists refuse to subscribe their full assent and consent to , and to covenant never to endeavour to reform , for which they suffer the loss of all . and now judge which side hath the looser principles and cause . and add their refusal to approve of that which they fear to be in many thousands , perjury , and the rest which the conformists never scruple , and try who are the looser , and have the greater latitude of conscience . and never did we yet meet with many that do believe that we live in more fulness , and idleness , and fleshly liberty than most of the conformists do , which we speak not as accusing any , but in our necessary defence . but he pretendeth to prove it , . by our books . . by particular doctrines of election , justification , good-works , &c. but . doth not the world know that the nonconformists offer to subscribe the same doctrine of the church of england as the conformists do , in the . articles and the book of homilies ? if one then have a wrong faith professed , so hath the other . and let them that must contradict the doctrine which they subscribe , bear the greatest shame and punishment , and spare us not , if it be we . . why is there no publick accusation against us these years , in which by his majesties license we have preached openly , as for any unsoundness of our doctrine ? . who knoweth not that such accusing inferences are usually brought by all factious , quarrel some divines against their adversaries ? whence such writings as caivino-turcesinus , &c. have sprung up . . the reporter here either chargeth on the nonconformists the doctrines of the antinomians , ( which none have more confuted ) and of a few half antinomian erroneous men ( against whom he might have read the writings of mr. burges , mr. vvoodbridg , mr. gibbons , mr. warren , mr. jessope , mr. gataker , and many other nonconformists ) or else he falsifieth their doctrine . he citeth the marrow of modern divinity , written thirty years ago , by a barber tainted with antinomianism ; and though he cite the names of five independents that then approved or commended it too hastily , he never tells you how commonly both the presbyterian and episcopal nonconformists ( and very many independents ) reject and condemn it ; and how many have confuted it ( more than conformists ever did ) . and blessed be god that our forecited books are visible to report our doctrine to the world. . but he singleth out one of us from the report of a conforming contradictor , as making heinous sins , such as peters , lots , &c. consistent with true grace . reader , this is the true case ( in which you will still see what justice we have from this kind of men ) , baxter about near thirty years ago , endeavoured with all his power and diligence to reconcile the episcopals , presbyterians , and independents , at least to joyn in the same communion . he found the two latter full of distast against the prelatical party of ministers , but especially of the common people ( even his own hearers ) still saying , they are swearers , drunkards , meer worldly , loose , ungodly people , that have no seriousness in religion , and it is not lawful for us to have communion with such . to cure them of this distast , he stretcht his charity as far as he thought just , to extenuate their faults , and told the people , that though many of these prelatists would swear and curse , and had divers such faults ; in the exercise of church-communion , they that were not-pastors , but private men , must bear what they could not reform ; and withall must compassionately consider , that many foul faults committed more through passion and custom , than love and interest , might stand with grace ; and pauls counsel , gal. . , . was to be well considered . this being the scope of his discourse , and the end , what doth mr. tho. pierce but retort it on him unthankfully to his reproach , as holding too loose a doctrine ? which this man here also now repeateth . but as he told mr. pierce , that for all this , if one were necessary , he had rather dye in the case of noah , lot , and peter , in the time of their sin , than in the case of mr. pierce when he wrote that book ( being perswaded that they had then more of the love of god and man than he ) ; the same also he still professeth to this enquirer , and all of his spirit that so unthankfully requite men for perswading the people to judge as charitably as they could for concord sake of scandalous prelatists : but if we be odious for pleading for charitable censures to such , what are they that live in the sin it self , and they that receive them constantly to their communion ? and here as a proof he tells us how dr. hammond's catechism , and mr. fowlers book of holiness being the design of christianity , have been censured , and mr. baxter for daring to justifie the argument of that book , p. . to which we say , . we highly value dr. hammonds practical catechism ; and it 's strange , that if one of us have justified the argument of the other , that our doctrine should not rather be gathered from such as he , than from we know not whom : for we must say that we know of none accounted orthodox among us , who have at all disowned that book of mr. baxters : but we observe that these men most injuriously impute the very opposition of some sectaries , and passionate weak persons , to us that are opposed by them , because that all go under the name of nonconformists . . his second reason is , our mighty shew of zeal in all religious performances . ans. and how knoweth he that it is but a shew ? are they like to be better that shew no zeal ? can a man believe the great things of heaven and hell , and preach them without great seriousness and zeal , and not play the hypocrite ? who is it that said , isa. . . cry aloud , lift up thy voice like a trumpet ? &c. but christs kinsmen themselves went about to lay hold on him , thinking that his zeal was a transportation or distraction , mat. . . [ vid. dr. hammond in loc . ] no wonder if mens tongues condemn us for zeal , though our consciences condemn us for remisness and coldness in matters of everlasting consequence . . his third reason is p. . a very great specious seeming sanctity in carriage and common deportment ; the sheeps clothing worn by the wolves , &c. ans. . will not even strangers from such words suspect that our adversaries own not , or have not at least so much as such a seeming sanctity of carriage ? how else could this be noted as a difference ? . and how knoweth he that knoweth not hearts , that this is but seeming ? . and how do these charges of a loose doctrine and great seeming sanctity , well agree ? . would he have us not so much as seem holy ( and so not seem christians ) that we may escape such censures ? . and how shew we that we are wolves ? christ meant that wolves are known by their cruelty ; and paul saith , acts . . that the grievous wolves that shall enter , will not spare the flock . we confess ( v. . ) that we ever expected , that from our own selves some would arise , speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them , by reason of whom the way of truth should be evil spoken of , pet. . . and it hath accordingly come to pass with some ; but with fewer of the ministry than we might have feared according to the experience of the first ages of the church . but sure it is not we that wearing white garments have bloody jaws ; we persecute none , we silence not our brethren . and let our enemies judg of our accuser by his own words , p. . no men ever were better studied in all the little things that make a fair shew in the sight of the vulgar , and carry with them any appearance of piety . no men ever were exacter at oral and gestural sanctity , than they are ; what their hearts are , god and their own consciences know , we will not judg them ( when yet the book is an opprobrious judging them ) : what can be said more for us than this ? and how contrary is it to the rest of their accusations ? . his fourth reason runs thus , p. . another method by which these persons attract a great veneration from their followers , is the suffering a seeming persecution — they appear evidently on the suffering side , and providence hath cast them upon acting the sadder scene , the laws are something smart against them — ans. . this man yet confuteth the former that maketh us gainers . . but what escape is possible from such accusers ? did we make those laws against our selves ? do we persecute our selves ? shall clergy-men provoke magistrates to make such laws as he calleth smart , and then make our sufferings to be one of our methods ? if this be the method to obtain veneration , i doubt such as the accusers will hardly learn it . . but in our experience the vulgar usually most honour the prospering and upper side , and set light by sufferers , as if their very usage proved their desert . it is like to be the better sort that are so compassionate , and so much value men that for conscience are vilified by others . but p. . he hath found out covetousness in our sufferings , which others lay upon us ; and saith , that calamy found three days in newgate more gainful than half a years preaching at aldermanbury : so that now we have found out another vice that may possibly be in this matter , pride and covetousness too , &c. ans. is this the justice of sacred clergy-men ? . do they lay us with rogues in the common gaols for preaching the gospel when they forbid us , and then envy us that charity there relieveth us , and that any are more merciful than themselves ? do these men believingly preach matth. . i was hungry , and ye fed me — i was in prison , and ye visited me ? &c. . how knoweth this man what mr. calamy received ? is it likely that he knoweth what he saith to be true ? which none of us know , that better knew mr. calamy than he . . if our friends are so liberal , sure they are a better sort of people than the conformists , if those preachers say true who tell the world what a wretched case their clergy would be in , if their maintenance depended on the will and charity of the people . but to make them no better than they are , one of us that writeth this , can say by experience how like this report is to be false : for when he lay ( for the ordinary cause ) many times three days in the common gaol , he was never offered a groat by any , but one countrey knight , one lady , and one citizen ( and a by offer from one that he had reason to refuse ) nor received a farthing from any but these three , which did but defray his prison and law charges , but not by many pounds his losses by that prosecution . . his fifth reason is , their continual applauding and commending their people , and crying them up as saints . ans. . and what get we by so doing ? . why are we censured for preaching against mens sins , if we are flatterers ? . whom is it that we cry up for saints ? is it only nonconformists ? let our writings witness whether our description of saints be right or wrong . but if none must be justified as saints , none will be saved as saints . which doth the world among us take for the plainer dealers ? and which party for the more smooth and toothless preachers ? and now let it be judged by impartial men , whether our sufferings were not enough , and the far sadder sufferings of the peoples souls by our divisions , and the ( undeniable ) want of due teaching in many places , without all the addition of these hard reproaches ? and whether the cited debate maker , vol. . p. . spake like a divine , a christian , or a man , when he said , there can no account be given of their behaviour since , in cherishing this fancy among you , ( or suffering it to grow ) that conformity is unlawful , unless it be this , that they think it will make more for their reputation among you , if you believe it was conscience , not care of their own credit and reputation , that kept them from conforming ] . when we can obtain leave to be heard , and give in our reasons , it will be better known whether they be but fancies . in the mean time , he that so boldly doth that which so many others take to be sin of so grand a magnitude , should have better askt us for our reasons , before as a heart-searcher he had pronounced that no other account can be given : and he that is so free in naming those whom he traduceth , is not by sober charity to be believed when he telleth us that he hath heard some acknowledg that they did not scruple what these men do , when he nameth none ; and we never knew such wretched fools , who were for number or quality so considerable , as that the nonconformists ( and the refusers of preferment in particular ) should be known even in their secret intentions , by their words , and from them be characterized . but sure he thinks himself , that some considerable party of men take conformity for no indifferent thing , but a very shameful wickedness , if he think that we deny even lordships and worldly honours and wealth , and all the love , reverence , and honour which from the conformable party is given to the dignified clergy , and take up instead of it , with poverty , reproach , and sometimes a gaol , and all to escape the dishonour of conformity , and obtain the contrary esteem . but they are not ignorant for all this talk , that some of us by free reprehending the faults of nonconformists as well as others , ( for they have their faults ) have been as prodigal of our reputation with them , as with the conformists , when we could ( with great gain also ) have easily preserved it . it is none of our desire to recriminate , or make any of our conforming brethren odious . we suffer much with those people who think they may call a spade a spade , for seeking to moderate their censures of many or most of the conformists . but we must not be blind and sensless under that calamity which wringeth out the kingdoms tears and groans ; nor on pretence of charity , be void of compassion to many hundred thousand souls . and therefore the writings of gildas , lucifer calaritanus , salvianus , sulpitius severus , and st. martins separation from the prelates , are rendered to us the less censurable , by acquaintance with this age . and we read not alvar. pelag. without a commentary ; nor these words of nic. clemangis specul . eccles. pont. p. . de corrupt . eccles. stat . [ ubi vero ( ut fere assolet ) paulum ex divitiis rerumque secundarum affluentia , luxus & insolentia in ecclesiam subiere , tepescere sensim coepit religio , virtus hebescere , solvi disciplina , charitas minui , tolli humilitas , paupertas opprobrio esse , simulque parsimonia . sed ut pompis & luxui res subesset , avaritia crebescere , quae non suis diu contenta finibus , aliena non modo ambire , sed rapere & invadere moliretur , inferiores opprimere , & tam jure quam injuria spoliare — p. ita factum est , ut paulatim extincto in cordibus eorum spiritu , frigescente charitate , tepescente devotione , deo denique oblito , solis terrenis fructibus capescendis inhiarent , sola in dignitatibus beneficiisque aliis emolumenta pensarent . nulla prorsus hodierna die in assumendis pastoralibus sarcinis , in curaque animarum subeunda , de servitio divino , de salute subditorum aut aedificatione , mentio habetur , de proventuum ubertate tantummodo & quantitate quaeritur — p. . si quis forte pastor , surrexerit qui non hoc more incedat , aut qui pecuniam contemnat , aut avaritiam damnet , qui denique non omni via seu justa seu iniqua , aurum a suis subditis extorqueat , aut salutari exhortatione vel praedicatione animas lucrifacere studeat , & plus in lege divina quam in legibus hominum meditetur , extemplo in morsus ipsius omnium dentes acuentur : illum prorsus ineptum , nec dignum sacerdotio clamitabunt . — p. . quid loquar de exercitio suae jurisdictionis ? qua ita violenter & tyrannice regitur , ut magis hodie homines eligant tyrannorum immanissimorum , quam subire judicia ecclesiae . — dici non potest quanta mala faciant illi scelerati exploratores criminum quos promotores appellant ; simplices & pauperculos agrestes , vitam satis innocuam in suis tuguriis agentes , & fraudis urbanae nescios , in jus saepe pro nihilo vocant : causas & crimina contra eos sedulo confingunt , vexant , terrent , minit antur ; sicque eos per talia se componere , & pacisci cogunt : quod si facere renuant , crebris eos citationibus quotidie impetunt , & supra modum infestant . quod si semel qualibet occasione praepediti comparere desierint , censurâ illos anathematis , ut rebelles & contumaces feriunt ; si vero ad diem venire , quoties vecati erunt , perseveraverint , eorum audientias apud judicum tribunalia impedient — quo longo taedio , longaque sui temporis jactura fatigati , superventuram vexationem atque impensam , pecuniae pactione redimere cogantur ▪ — p . ex isto fonte profluit illa copiosa vilium atque indignissimorum presbyterorum multitudo — si quis hodie desidiosus est , si quis a labore abhorrens , si quis in ocio luxuriari volens , ad sacerdotium convolat , quo adepto , statim se caeteris sacerdotibus voluptatum sectatoribus adjungit , qui magis secundum epicurum quam secundum christum viventes , & cauponulas seduli frequentantes , potando , commessando , pransitando , convivando , cum tessaris & pila ludendo , tempora tota consumunt . sed redeo ad nostros episcopos , qui in omni lubricitate ab ineunte adolescentia educati , tales testes ut ita dixerim ministros in ecclesiam introducunt , quorum gesta memorabilia . illud a me praetermitti non debet quod multi ex eis qui pastorali apice potiuntur , perque annosae tempora potiti sunt , nunquam civitates suas intraverunt , suas ecclesias viderunt , nunquam pecorum suorum vultus agnoverunt , vocem audierunt , vulnera senserunt , nisi ea forte vulnera , quae ipsi suis uberibus spoliis per alienos mercenarios eis intulerunt . alienos dixi , quia & ipsimet mercenarii sunt , qui non gregis sui custodiam , salutem , profectum-quaerunt , sed solum temporalis mercedis retributionem . itaquè ipsi verè sunt mercenarii , tantum episcopi habentes nomen , quia res per nomen signata procul abest . — sui corporis curam agunt ; sese & non oves pascunt . — disp. p. quia plerique carnales quibus hodie supra modum abundat ecclesia , propterea pacem illam optant , ut in otio & tranquilla quiete , nullo interpellante turbine adversitatis , suis possint voluntatibus ( ne dicam voluptatibus ) liberius servire . et quis illos in nomine christi dixerit congregatos , qui hac mente unitatem quaerunt ecclesiae ? qui tamen tot sunt , ut non facile sint numerabiles . hi autem carnales filii ecclesiae non solum spiritualia nec curant nec sentiunt , sed etiam persequuntur eos qui sunt secundum spiritum . — hi sunt qui pro temporalibus tantum commodis ad ecclesiam convolant , qui ad secularium formam in ecclesia vivunt , ambiunt , capiunt , rapiunt , praeesse gaudent , non prodesse ; subditos opprimunt & spoliant , praelationis honore gloriantur , pompis , fastu , luxu laetantur , qui questum pietatem aestimant — qui volentes sancte , juste , caste , innocenter , spiritualiter vivere , cum cachinnis irrident , hypocritas appellant , crucifixosque comestores . — talibus hodie ecclesia plena est , ut vix singulis capitulis aut collegiis alios invenire contingat . — p. . qui nihil non modo probare , sed nec patienter audire possunt , quod suae voluntati vel cupiditati contrarium sit ; qui nihil de spiritualibus donis gustantes , siquis aliquid de spiritu dixerit , velut insulsum & insipidum cum risu & subsannatione excipiunt , cum sibilis exufflant , cum clamore & contentione rejiciunt . bernard . serm. . in cant. vae generationi huic a fermento pharis●orum quod est hypocrisis ; si tamen hypocrisis dici debet quae jam latere prae abundantia non valet , & prae impudentia non quaerit : serpit hodie putida labes per omne corpus ecclesiae , & quo latiùs eo desperatius , eoque periculosius quo interius . nam ▪ si insurgeret apertus haereticus , mitteretur foras & aresceret , &c. ecce in pace amaritudo mea amarissima : amara prius in nece martyrum : amarior post in conflictu haereticorum : amarissima nunc in moribus domesticorum : non fugare , non fugere eos potest , ita invaluerunt & multiplicati sunt supra numerum : intestina & insanabilis est plaga ecclesiae , & ideo in pace amaritudo ejus amarissima ▪ pax est , & non est pax : pax a paganis : pax ab haereticis ; sed non profecto a filiis . — id. ep. . quis dabit mihi homines literatos & sanctos in ecclesiis dei praeesse pastores , sin non in omnibus , certe in pluribus , certe in aliquibus saltem ? but though we sigh and groan out these words of others , we intend not by them the accusation of any worthy men , but to tell those that revile us for not being silent , that we cannot possibly believe them , who in this age perswade us that our labours are unnecessary . the true case of the nonconformists sufferings , which they are said to undergo through covetousness of gain . we affect not to be querulous ( though nature inclineth them to it that are hurt ) , nor yet to bring our superiors under the dishonourable title of persecutors ; else had we not so many years been silent as to our own defence : but when even our sufferings are made our crime , and said to be chiefly from our pride and covetousness , faithfulness to the souls of men that are thus led towards the guilt of calumniating the afflicted ; and faithfulness to the interest and honour of our office , requireth us modestly to tell the truth . . when gods marvellous providence restored his majesty , we were some of us in parishes whence the parliament had before ejected others , yet alive , who presently took possession of their places in : this is none of the matter of our complaint . but on aug. . , we were by law made uncapable of any station in the publick ministry , unless we subscribe , declare , and do the other conditions required by that law. not one of us that ever we heard , was cast out as criminal , for any error that we preached , or any evil that we had done : but for not subscribing , declaring and doing , as aforesaid , about or were at once disabled and cast out . the penalty for every sermon that they should preach ( besides the loss of all the ministerial maintenance or benefice ) was three months imprisonment in the common jayl , and l. for administring the sacrament by any not ordained by a bishop , though otherwise ordained when bishops were deposed , and not to be had . those ministers who could bring their consciences to hold all the things imposed to be lawful , did conform . the rest being solemnly dedicated and vowed to the sacred ministry ( some by the ordination of bishops , and some of city and country-pastors ) durst not lay aside their office : partly because of their vow , conceiving it to be sacriledge to alienate consecrated persons , and greater than to alienate consecrated things ; and partly because of the notorious necessity of the people ; multitudes being ignorant , and vicious , and ungodly , some popish , or erroneous otherwise ; and many parishes not competently supplied , and the number of fit men both conformable and not-conformable , too small in proportion to the peoples wants : yet they concluded , that if once the number and quality of the conformable ministers were such as would make our labours unnecessary , we might either be silent , or go try to learn the language of some foreign land , where we might be of use : and we agreed , that the magistrate having the power of the temples , and publick maintenance , we must lay no claim to either against his will : and that though our office might not lawfully be deserted , nor the peoples souls , yet the circumstances of time , place , and numbers of hearers , &c. should be so chosen , as most tended to the ends of our office ( the churches good and mens edification ) , and to the preservation of the publick peace , and the due honour of our governours ) : and that love , peace and submission to the higher powers , and obedience to their authority in all things lawful , was our indispensible duty , with patience under all that we should suffer for our ministerial work . . some ministers by their patrimony , or what god had otherwise blest them with , were able to live when ejected , without extremity of poverty : but a great number had nothing , or next to nothing at all , having lived in places where they had but about , or , or , or l. per annum , and not foreseeing a time of want : and a greater number that had some small matter of their own , had wives and many children , to whose maintenance their estates were very insufficient ; so that most of the nonconformists ( as far as we can compute ) were cast upon the charity of others for their own and families subsistence . in this case some that pitied the distressed , would have set on foot a course among the londoners and countrey gentlemen that were willing , for orderly help of those in their several counties : but so many rumors of plots and jealousies were then raised , that men durst not undertake it , lest they should be accounted plotters against the government , and encouragers of those that the state discountenanced . one of us therefore moved , that our rulers consent might plainly be requested , and he was sent to the lord chancellor hide to request it ; who said , god forbid that men should be forbidden to exercise their own charity to ministers in want : but yet though some talk , and uneffectual attempt was made hereupon , it was not prosecuted , because mens aforesaid fears still continued . but some charitable persons pitied the needy , and kept them from famishing and utter distress . and some few ministers , of more than ordinary parts , and name , and acquaintance , were better supplied than the rest . but those that were ( as conscientious , but ) of meaner parts , and more obscure , and small acquaintance , and lived in poor countreys , were in great necessities : some have long lived with many children , with almost nothing but brown-bread and water ; and some have been put to work for their living at very low and fordid employments ( as musculus once did with a weaver , and in the town-ditch ) : some took farms , and for want of stock and skill , run into greater poverty and debts : some that had studied physick , turned physicians , and so escaped want : some left the obscure villages , through meer necessity , and betook them to london , and other cities and great towns , where the numbers and ability of the inhabitants might afford them some relief . and some by this siege did yield up their consciences , and stretched them by forced interpretations of the words of the declaration and subscription , to conform , and upon the review were cast into miserable distress of soul , which was more troublesome than poverty and famine : and some that thought it not their duty to be very scrupulous , and because they had not taken the covenant , or medled in matters of civil contention or war , did judge themselves more capable than others of conforming , did after upon review repent , and give up the places they had taken , and the practice which they had begun . but all found , that the number of persons that were both able and willing to relieve so many needy families , was small , and that most were either unable or tenacious of their money ; so that the sufferings of many were very great . . but the service that the silenced ministers did , being now in private ; an act was made against conventicles , and such penalties annexed as i need not here recite : and when the act was expired , it was again revived , with many additions . and because that these ministers lived mostly now on cities and corporations , or their former flocks that were acquainted with them , an act was made ( in the heat of all the grievous plague ) at oxford , imposing on them an oath , which he that took not , having kept any conventicle , and after came within five miles of any city or corporation , or place where he had lately preached , was to be sent six months to the common jayl , and pay l. this law was harder to them than the former : for , . many men that had made some shift to settle their habitation in the cheapest or most convenient place they could get , were forced to remove ; yea most of the nonconformists in england were constrained to change their dwelling . . some lived with some friends or relations who would give them house-room or help , and they were thus driven away from their friends and relations , and such entertainments . . abundance of them had their houses for a certain time , having leases of them for years or life : and they knew not how to get tenants to take such houses which were incommodious to farmers , though fit for them . and they that before wanted bread and cloathing , were put to the streights of paying rent for houses that must stand empty , being driven from them . . and they were hard put to it to find places in england to fix their dwellings in : for corporations in most counties are so near , that he that withdraweth five miles from one , doth come within five miles of another ; or at least within five miles of some place where they had preached : and some laborious men , that thirsted after mens salvation , had gone about preaching over a great part of the countrey , or the land , and so were almost sentenced to banishment by this law. and when they did find out a place that was five miles distant from all the prohibited places , it would be strange if there they should find empty houses , when landlords use not to leave their houses untenanted and unpossessed : and if a house were empty , that it should be fit for a poor minister , that could not take the ground or farm , would be strange . and . when they found a capable place , they had not money to take it : being poor before , and poorer by their removal . . and when they borrowed money to take it , they wanted money to pay for the removing of their goods , and the furnishing of their new habitations : those that have tryed such changes , know how chargeable , as well as troublesome , they are . but the thing that most eased them in all these straights , was , that [ market-towns ] were not put into the act with [ corporations ] ; and so many market-towns being no corporations , and there being houses to be had without farms or ground , many ministers got into those towns : which gave dr. fullwood occasion to reproach them as dwelling in populous places , which had least need of them ( of which more anon ) . and some ministers finding their streights so great , as that their imprisonment in the common jayl was not more to be feared ; and finding especially that they were no more warranted by god to desert the souls in all cities and corporations , and all their ancient flocks , and all places where they had preached , and five miles round about all these , than the rest of the land , yea that populous places had the greatest need , and their former hearers might claim the greatest interest in them , and that christ commanded his apostles , when they were prosecuted in one city , to fly to another ; they resolved to follow their work where they were invited , and to commit their liberties and lives to god. but gods dreadful judgments were the great cause of their freedom from these streights . the terrible plague consumed so many thousands a week in london , that some nonconformable ministers durst not leave them in that distress , but stayed and preacht to them , and visited them , and gathered money abroad for the poor , which greatly won the peoples hearts ; and the face of death so prevailed with multitudes to awaken them from security , that the success of the ministers was very great , and so great , as fixed their resolution to hold on , whatever it cost them . multitudes of young people penitently lamenting their former sins , and begging of the ministers not to forsake them in their distress . and so many of the conformable ministers fled from the infection , that the bishop thought it best to connive at the preaching of the nonconformists during that necessity . and quickly after , the lamentable fire consumed with the houses eighty nine churches , which made the necessity of preaching in other places more extensive and notoririous ; it being unmeet that so famous a christian city should forsake all publick worshipping of god till the houses and churches should be all rebuilt . so that by this necessity a greater number of nonconformists were needed and entertained in london ; yea many countrey-ministers that came thither , and by their example the rest throughout england were much encouraged to appear more openly and resolutely in their work . but in the mean time the countrey gaols were possessed by many faithful ministers , where some have dyed , and some excellent men contracted those diseases of which they dyed shortly after ; and some have dyed by the effects of poverty , by cold , and ill food , for want of necessaries . and the complaints of wives and hungry children , and the burden of debts for meat , drink , clothes , fire , and houses , hath been a sharper trial to very many of them , than their revilers seem to be acquainted with . and had they felt it but one year themselves , it 's like they would not have thought this a way to gratifie either covetousness or pride . it 's true , that we should rejoyce in all our tribulations , and in every condition be content ; but humane frailty must be confessed ; that some by such distress have been cast into sad melancholies , which yet seemed more tolerable too , than gripes of conscience for wilful sin . and indeed the minds of few ingenuous persons will account it an ease to live on alms , and to be beholden to mens charity for their daily bread ; especially when it 's too well known how much most men do love their money , and how tenacious they are of it ; and if they give once , how hardly they are brought to it again . who that is able would not rather with paul get their bread by some labour , than fordidly live on a barren and backward sort of charity ? and the truth is , it is the poverty of the friends of the nonconformists that hath been the cause of these defects . it 's well known that it is but few comparatively of the gentry that have owned them ; but the countrey farmers of their several parishes , whose payments and charges were so great , that they had little to spare from the maintenance of their own families . and the lamentable fire so greatly impoverished the londoners , and all the countrey tradesmen that depended on them ( together with the decay of trade ) that the streams were dryed up that should have supplied the nonconformists wants ; so that if some very charitable citizens and others , had not done extraordinarily for them beyond all others , they might have perished by famine . and after all , the number in the city and other parts , who by the peoples liberality have a tolerable maintenance ( which ignorance and envy call a plenty ) is very small in comparison of all those through the rest of the land who have greater wants , and lesser helps . and it hath not been the least of the said ministers sufferings , that the continual uncertainty of their condition , hath disabled them from any commodious fixing of their habitations , and put them to the trouble and charge of frequent removals ; one while severities drive them to retirement ; and afterward his majesties gracious licenses draw them out to more populous places , and encouraged them to take houses accordingly , and put off the old : and shortly after , the revocation of the licenses , and the sharpness of prosecution , puts them on the necessity of another change , which indeed to single men is less ; but to the far greatest part who have families to remove and care for , they that have tryed it , and have no money to defray the charges of such removals , know what it is to be thus unsetled . but all these are light afflictions , compared with the delights of pleasing god , and saving souls , and with the pleasures of our daily work , while we are employed in studying , proclaiming and trusting the certain promises of eternal life , and waiting for the promised reward in glory . and far be it from us to mention them as murmuring at the providence of god ; but only in confutation of the hard-faced calumnies of some men , and to acquaint posterity historically with the truth . god is just in all the corrections which he layeth on us ; we have deserved silencing , mulcts and imprisonments from him , yea he is exceeding merciful to us , both in our sufferings for truth and conscience-sake , and in our preservations and deliverances ; and we are far from repenting of our masters work : but whether we deserve from men the accusations and usage which these years we have undergone , we refer to his judgment , who will shortly by his just and final sentence decide this controversie , and justifie the just . . mr. hollingworth ( in an assize-sermon printed ) tells a story to prove his schismaticks as cruel as the execution of the laws against us would be , that some one leading sectary said , he would have all banished that would not subscribe the doctrine of the church in the articles . i wrote to him to know whom he meant , and he would not tell me , but ( in a very respectful letter ) said , it was not nor dr. manton , &c. i since understood that this is said of dr. owen : but . he professeth it is false . . he is known to be for much liberty . . if he did say it , it was but to avert the odium of an overlarge toleration from the independents . . and what is this to the case of the many hundred nonconformable ministers in england ? but they be rendred odious for this word of his . i will end with the charge of henry fowlis ( passing over his abusive volumes of collections , lest i be over-tedious ) in his history of popish treasons , this is his accusation , he saith of those whom he calleth puritans : i think the puritans to be the worst people of all mankind . a sect that will agree with you in the fundamentals of religion , but will take miff , and destroy all for a trifle ; and rather than submit to an innocent ceremony , though imposed by lawful authority , will ruine kingdoms , murder bishops : a sect that would hate christ , but that he said he came not to bring peace , but war. as for the roman catholick , i must needs have a greater kindness for him than the former fire-brands , as being an adversary more learned , and so to be expected more civil and gentile ; and wherein they differ from us , they look upon as fundamental , and so have a greater reason for their dissent , than our phanatical presbyterians ▪ a people not capable of a commendation , nor to be obliged by any favours , their very constitution being ingratitude . at this rate the ecclesiastical politician , and others inform the world , of puritans and presbyterians in the gross . those that knew this mans morals , laugh at his railery ; but posterity will not know what he was . i shall only desire the reader to note , . that puritans and presbyterians now do signifie what the speakers please . mr. robert bolton , a learned conformist , thinketh that the name puritan , as commonly used in england , in the mouths of common drunkards , and the prophane and impious sort , is turned against true godliness , with the greatest spleen that ever word was in the world . . mark , that we are called the worst people of all mankind , even heathens , jews , turks , cannibals not excepted ; and yet we agree with the accusers in all fundamentals : this is the charity which we meet with from these men . those of their own religion , not charged with one doctrinal difference , if they obey not their wills in every ceremony , are the worst of all mankind . reader , is this the religion taught by st. paul ? rom. . . and phil. . where mutual forbearances , and receiving dissenters is commanded , against both censurers and despisers ? will ever church on earth have concord on these terms ? are such mouths fit to call others fire-brands ? is not this a disgrace to the christian protestant religion , that all its fundamentals will not keep a man that differeth but in a ceremony from being the worst of mankind . . look back but on the instances of our nonconformity before laid down , and then tell thy self what to judge of such men , and such pens , as proclaim to the world , that it is but an innocent ceremony that we submit not to . see the nonconformists plea for peace . . bethink you what our nonsubmission or nonconformity doth to ruine kingdoms , in comparison of the course of such accusers . if poor men desire to serve christ , though in poverty , with diligence , and peace , and lordbishops shall say , either subscribe , say , and swear all this , or be silenced and cast out of all your ministry and maintenance ; doth he now that patiently beareth all their penalties , loseth all , and goeth quietly to the common jayl among rogues , for preaching christs gospel to more than four without swearing and conforming , become hereby a ruiner of kingdoms , while they are innocent that do all this against them ? do they not toto & nudato pectore taelum recipire & tantum non , with great cameron unbutton them , and cry feri miser ? is there any one word of rebellious doctrine proved by this man , when he hath done his worst out of any one church-confession of those whom he revileth ? and if he can find any thing which is not found in the books of any particular men , in the late wars , is that their fault that never owned it , and were then scarce born ? doth he , or any of all the malicious tribe , charge those whom they reproach with drunkenness , gluttony , luxury , fornication , ambition , fraud , lying , or any such immorality ? . are those that suffer , and do so much for that which they think to be the truth of christ , well charged with hating christ ? and is not the exception a prophane scorn of christ ? but that he said he came not to bring peace . it is easie to say with tertullus of paul , that he is a ring-leader of a sect , and a pestilent fellow , and a mover of sedition among the people : but where 's the proof ? . and mark why he professeth himself kinder to the papists : . because they are more learned , civil and gentile . . because they differ in supposed fundamentals . but . did he not know our advantage in learning then was a great cause of the success of the reformation in luthers days ? and who that knoweth the pitiful priests in france , spain and italy , and what a generation erasmus , stephanus , vives , hutten , and others describe , and what men the reformation found in the priesthood in england , and all other countries , will believe this man , that the papists are more learned ? and though we truly ▪ honour the later leared men that have been bred among them , their suarez , their petavius , and many more ; yet he might know that our john reignolds , our chamier , sadcel , bochart , capellus , rivet , with multitudes of their like , were learned men as well as they : and so were rob. parker , amesius , bradshaw , paget , and many other nonconformists here : and twisse , gataker , and many more of the westminster-assembly . and all the learning of the papists in the world is not enough to make them know bread and wine , when they see , and touch , and taste it , which without learning may be easily known . . but that differing in supposed fundamentals , should prove the papists so much better than us , doth tell us with what sort of men we have to do . by that rule the mahometans are much better than the papists , and the heathens yet better than the mahometans , for they differ from us and them in greater things . i perceive why the jews were crueller than the heathens , and the papal than the pagan rome , against the ministers of christ , because they differed not from them in so many and weighty points . note , reader , that this mans book of s . price , is written to prove that treason , rebellion and king-killing is the very religion , and the ancient and later practice of the papists : their councils are cited for it ; and their chiefest and most learned writers cited as maintaining the excommunicating and deposing kings to be in the power of the pope , and that in so great a number , in their own words , the very pages accurately and fully cited ; that after a multitude that have written on that subject , he hath quite over-done them all , and brought whole loads of testimonies to prove it , to be the common doctrine of the roman church ; so that no man that ever wrote hath in this done so much to render them unreconcilably odious to all kings and magistrates , as this man hath done ; and he hath given them the deepest wound in point of policy and history that was ever given them , with as bitter and odious terms of aggravation : and yet we that agree with him in all fundamentals , and refuse ( as he dreameth ) but a ceremony , are worse , far worse than they . had he only done by us , as he did by them , recited the words of our syno●s and professors , we would contentedly have left all to judge of our confessions , and of each particular author , as they deserve ; and those that are proved culpable to bear the blame : but his sentence and inferences only tell us , how desirable the coming of christ is to his servants ; and how earnestly we should pray to the judg of the world to come , and to come quickly . reasons why the conformable clergy should be desirous of their brethrens ministerial liberty , that cannot conform , as is now required . . you ought to be better acquainted with the common state of peoples souls , and the great necessity of teaching in the land , than parliaments or magistrates can be expected to be , who converse not with the people about their everlasting hopes , as your calling bndeth you to do . and you are obliged also to a double zeal , for the kingdom of christ and mens salvation ; as you still profess a zeal for the church , when revenues , power or ceremonies are the things in question . and men that have acquaintance with the common state of souls , cannot chuse but know , how insufficient they are of themselves without help , for so great a work among such multitudes , and what need most parishes have of more than one ( much more of one ) . if the shepherds themselves should either be so ignorant , as to think that their ignorant parishes need no more help than one man is able to afford to many thousands , or hundreds of souls ; and that the labours of others may be spared , because that which they do themselves is enough ; or if they should be so proud , and strangers to themselves , as not be conscious of their single insufficiency , and the defectiveness of their own endeavours , and their need of help ; or if they should have no more care of souls , than to let them be untaught , or be deprived of such helps as god hath provided for them , rather than such as we should assist them ; how unhappy will the people be that have such pastors ? and how unhappy will they find themselves at last ? it will be woful enough to be charged at the last day , with the neglect of souls ; much more with the hindering of their salvation , or being unwilling that other men should help them . . it hath in all ages been the way of malignant enemies of christ and godliness , to hinder , silence or oppose the preachers of the gospel : therefore if you do that which such men use to do , you will hardly ever escape being taken for such your selves by the people . for though you can distinguish your selves out of the guilt , if you be your own judges , and can say that you silence not the preachers of the gospel , but the schismaticks , the nonconformist , that feareth oaths , and subscriptions , and ceremonies ; yet the wits of the vulgar are too dull to feel the strength of such subtile distinctions . if your ax was used but to kill the fly that sate on his forehead , yet if the man dye of the blow , the foolish people will say that you kill'd the man. if a high-way-man take a mans purse , and say , i took it from him , not because he is an honest man , but because he is rich , and i am poor ; yet the gross-witted people will accuse him for robbing an honest man. if you should forbid half the work-men in london to labour in re-building the city , and say you do it not to hinder the building , but because they durst not take the corporation-oath , or use a ceremony ; yet the citizens that cannot distinguish , will think that you hinder the building for all that . if you would cashiere a considerable part of the kings army when they should go fight against the enemy , and say you do it only because they refused to wear any colours besides the generals , lest he should be offended , when perhaps the chaplains impose other colours on them also of their own , the dull-headed people would think for all that , that you were enemies to the kings service , and should have punished them otherwise , without punishing the whole army of the king. and if the people take you for malignant enemies of the gospel and godliness which you preach , they will give you but little comfort in your ministry , and they will receive but little profit from it . i speak not upon surmises , but that which i foretold you long ago , and that which now i have sad experience of : before i and many hundred more were silenced , i found my self capable of perswading my old hearers to some good opinion of you , and to incline them to come as near you as was possible : but since then , i have lost my power in that point : they are more averse to communion with you than ever . the name of a bishop is quite another thing in their ears , than it was before . all the interest that i have in them , and all the means that i could use , i am confident will never reconcile them to you more , till your own good works and merits reconcile them . they had before hard thoughts and fears of bishops , because they heard how many ministers they had silenced ; but when they see and feel it , their apprehensions are deeper of such matters than before . and if we talk to them against experience and sense , we talk in vain : if we tell them that you are their superiors , and must be reverenced ; and they say , so are the prelates and inquisitors to the people of spain ; who are worthy of fear , but not of love , they think they have answered us . if we tell them that you are of the same christian religion with us , and do all that you do for order and decency , and preach the gospel your selves , though you are against our preaching : if they reply to us , tell us not of their sheep-skins , but see whether they have not claws and fangs , and see whether there be no blood upon their teeth ! they think they have silenced our charity by the reply . if we tell them that you are the fathers and rulers of the church ; and they bid us see whether you take not away the childrens bread , and give them not a stone ? and whether the churches lights be not put under a bushel ? and whether they are snuffed or put out ? we can give them no answer , which they will take for satisfaction in spite of their senses and experience . of all the people that are and have been against bishops in my days , i profess i knew not one of twenty , forty or an hundred , that was against them for their order sake , as the disputing presbyterians and independents are , but for their works sake : alas , it is not one of an hundred that now dislike you , that ever studied any such controversie , whether episcopacy be jure divino or not ; or whether they differ from presbyters ordine vel gradu : but when they find their ministers silenced , as schismaticks , and reviled as the odious part of the land , whom they have tryed and known by long experience , to be able , godly , faithful men ; this is it that maketh them cry down bishops . i find among all my sober acquaintance , that the name of usher , hall , davenant , and many more bishops is venerable with them , because they think they were good men . but judging by experience , is a disease that the people will never by all your logick be cured of : their weakness is such , that whatever flyeth away with the chicken , they will call a kite , and will not believe that it was a dove ! and whatever teareth the lambs , they will call it a dog or a fox , and will not believe that it was a sheep . and indeed malignity is so heinous a sin , that no christian should too easily smile upon it . sensuality turneth a man into a beast ; but malignity into a devil . he therefore that would not be accounted such , must neither do as they do , nor that which is so like it , that none can distinguish them , but those that borrow the agents spectacles . if you had only made a canon , that we shall be silenced when ever we preach heresie ( though you had denied us a first and second admonition ) , or else when we preach treason , sedition , or schism , the people would have justified you ! but if you will say , cross a child ▪ or subscribe that we have not mistaken a word in all these three books , &c. or else you shall not preach the gospel of salvation , nor labour to save the peoples souls , nor perswade them to think on the life to come : they will presently remember such texts as these , thess. . , . they have persecuted us : they please not god , and are contrary to all men , forbidding us to speak to the gentiles that they might be saved , to fill up their sins alway ; for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost , acts . , &c. . experience assureth us , that from the beginning of the church , to this present day , christ never gave too many able faithful ministers to his church : supernumeraries of such were never its disease , nor the amputation of them its cure . there is still need of the lords-prayer , thy kingdom come ; and , pray the lord of the harvest to send forth labourers , &c. that man is but a christian or a pastor in jest , and image , and not in earnest and reality , who thinketh that the pastors now allowed are so sufficient for the great employment of the ministry , that more are but supernumerary , and the rest may be spared , without any detriment to the souls of men . even in the apostles age of miraculous gifts , dr. hammond thinketh the pastors were so scarce , that every episcopal church had no more than one bishop , with some deacons , without ever a subject-presbyter ; and that there was de facto , none of the order of subject-presbyters in scripture-times , ( and so think all the presbyterians too ) . and it is a notorious truth , that afterwards the presbyters were so low in abilities , that publick preaching in the church , was mostly used by the bishops only . and many countries have lost the gospel for want of preachers : and wherever ignorance and prophaneness have broken in upon the church ( as the greeks , abassines , armenians , moscovites , papists , and too many protestant churches ) , it hath commonly been by the decay of able , godly , faithful pastors : and if one city or parish of ten thousand have had too many , their near neighbours have so much wanted them , that they could not be esteemed supernumerary . and in england there are few parishes which need not helps , even where the ablest men are placed , much more where — is it seasonable then , or doth it answer the will or providence of to call in so many , when the church hath always had too few ? . the punishment which you inflict upon the ministers , doth fall a thousand times more heavily on the souls of the innocent people , who without being accused , or speaking for themselves in a legal trial , have so great a penalty inflicted on them , as none but a believer that judgeth of things in reference to eternity , is able to estimate a right . alas ! to the preacher the suffering is small , in comparison of the peoples ! what if they live poorly ! what if they want house , or clothes , or bread ! how small a matter is that in comparison of the want of knowledg and faith , of grace and salvation ? i confess their sufferings will cost them dear that are the true cause , ( when christ condemns those that do not relieve them ) : but to themselves it is no such dreadful business : nay if they were but discharged in conscience from the ministerial office , most of them might live in much more peace and plenty in the world . there are many other callings to betake themselves to , in which they might live quietly , and not be as the hare before the hunters , pursued from place to place with cryes , as if they that will imitate paul in labours , must bear also his reproach , as pestilent fellows , and movers of sedition among the people ; that do contrary to the decrees of cesar , and turn the world upside down yea , many are already turned physicians ; and they have better words , and kinder usage . but every man that hath the eyes of a christian in his head , and seeth what the people of england , vvales , and ireland are , for members and for quality , and seeth and heareth also what ministers for number and quality do instruct them , doth know as certainly that many hundred thousand souls do wofully need more ministerial helps , as he knoweth that five hundred scholars do need more than one school-master , or five hundred sick men need more than one physician . but o what a plague is it to the church and world , to have ministers who when they read of the necessity of knowledg , holiness , and salvation , do neither believe christ nor themselves ! argue not the people into such hard thoughts of you , as if this were your case , by perswading them that it is no matter whether their souls have any more ministerial helps than now is given them . either you believe that where the gospel is hid , it is hid to them that are lost , and that the cure of gross ignorance , hard-heartedness , unbelief , and sensuality , are of necessity to salvation , or not . if not , deal openly , and silence both your selves and us . if yea , then either you know how these maladies abound in the people , and how much labour the cure doth usually cost , or not . if not , then take not on you to be pastors or english men , or competent judges of any of the peoples cases and concernments , but confess that these are matters that you are strangers to . but if you do know this , then i need to say no more to you , but to desire you to fuppose that soul-necessities are not the less because men complain not of them ; but greatest where there is the greatest insensibility and contentedness with them . the turks and heathens cry not out for the help of christian pastors . the worldling , drunkard , and fornicator , is most miserable , that would have no reproof or help . suppose therefore that their necessities are instead of cryes , and that you hear them calling to you for help : o pity the many hundred thousand souls that are drowned in ignorance , unbelief , insensibility , worldliness , and sensuality , that are utter strangers to that life of faith , and love , and holiness , without which none can please or see god ; and must quickly be converted and made new creatures , or they are lost for ever . or suppose that their necessities being their complaints , you heard them expostulating with you for their souls : o take not from us that means which god by nature and by his institution hath made so needful to our salvation ! alas , our ignorance , and deadness , and worldly-mindedness , and fleshly affections , are too hardly cured by all the best means and diligence that can be used : what shall we do then , if you deprive us of that which we have enjoyed ! alas ! say not that the reading of the scriptures , and a few lifeless notes of a sermon will serve turn : we confess that it should do so , if our disease were so light as to need no more ; the thing it self is good , and every word of god is precious ; but it is the nature of our disease to be read asleep , and hardned in our sins by the customary hearing of a few good words in a sleepy saying tone : it is the skilful choice of pertinent truths , convincingly and clearly uttered , and closely applied with life and seriousness , that our case requireth : we confess , that if a school-boy , or a raw ignorant youth from the university , did but read a chapter , or say over a less pertinent cento of good words , we should be moved and converted by it . but our disease is deadness , darkness and disaffection to holiness , to god and heaven ; and liveliness , deceit , and love to the world and fleshly things ; and without a miracle these will not be cured , nor our souls be saved , without lively , clear , and affectionate preaching , agreeable to the sacred truth delivered ; nor without the help of prudent conduct , and the constant watchfulness of tender love , and the example of a holy heavenly life . o therefore pity our miserable souls , that must be saved now by the gospel of salvation , or be damned to everlasting fire . you tell us so your selves ; and if you would have us believe you ; shew us that you believe your selves . you speak for good works , and what better works than the saving of mens souls ! and how shall we hear without a preacher ? o give us such for number and quality , as will imitate paul , act. . that covet no mans silver and gold , but will teach us publickly and from house to house , day and night with tears ; that will be instant in season and out of season , reprove , rebuke , and exhort , with all long suffering and doctrine , in meekness instructing even opposers of the faith , much more the tender children of him who is the father of mercies . alas ! we have enemies enow , the devil , and the world , and the flesh , are enemies of our faith , and holiness , and salvation ; and we are the greatest enemies to our selves : be not you also our enemies and destroyers , who call your selves our pastors and our fathers . think what it is for such a multitude of souls to be shut out of heaven for ignorance , unbelief , impenitency and ungodliness , and to lye in hell for ever ; and how little comfort it will be to us in our torments , to be told that the order and decency of church-affairs did require it ; or that it was necessary to preserve the interest of the diocesans . o make not such merchandize of our souls . christ purchased them with his blood : do not you sell them for thirty pieces of silver . he scourged the buyers and sellers out of his temple ; do not you drive out the faithful preachers . he overthrew the tables of the money-changers ; do not you overthrow the doctrine , discipline , or table of the lord. he came from heaven into flesh to seek and save those that were lost ; do not you contrive and labour to famish and destroy them . he gave them his flesh and blood for food ; do not you devour their flesh and blood . he preached in ships , and mountains , and wildernesses , and houses , to many , and to few ; to rich and poor , to ignorant women , and the meanest and the worst among the people ; do not you think then that to read to us those words which we can every day read at home , or to make a formal speech to us once a week , is enough to cure such souls as ours . there is joy among the angels of god in heaven over one sinner that repenteth ! o do not you rejoyce to hinder the preaching of repentance unto thousands ! christ set up a ministry , to preach the gospel to every creature under heaven , and to teach them whatever he hath commanded , even to the end of the world ! do not you contradict him , and say , preach not ! kick not against the pricks ! wo to him that striveth with his maker ! who hath hardened himself against him , and hath prospered ? the saving of souls is too good a work for any that is good to strive against ! and christs ministers are workers together with him , and not against him . if you take away from our mouths the bread of life , it will be cold comfort , and a poor relief to us in our misery in hell , to tell us that they were pestilent fellows , and ringleaders of a sect , that would have saved us ; that is , that they were not conformable to your subscription , oath and ceremonies . suppose them to be in the wrong , and you in the right ! why must our souls be left to damnation , because our teachers think that a sin , which you think you your selves have made a duty ? shall not the soul that sinneth dye ? if they have eaten sowr grapes , why must our teeth be set on edge ? if he be mistaken that thinks that it is aggravated lying and perjury which he refuseth , which you say is but a thing indifferent , yet christ is not to be blamed for that : and why shall the fire of his kindling be quenched , his gifts be suspended , his gospel hindered , his redeemed one 's forsaken , because some of his ministers were , as you thought , too fearful of offending him ? o hear these expostulations of miserable souls , before you are speechless under the expostulations of the tender saviour of souls ? . you have other punishments enough , besides forbidding them to preach christs gospel , whereby to be revenged on non-conformity . is their fearing an oath a greater sin than prophane swearing ? if not , let us pay at the same rates for not swearing , and for not disobliging all others from a vow , as swearers do by the law for every oath . and we will not desire you to execute the laws as seldom on us , as they are executed on them ; which is not , i think , for one oath of twenty thousand ? or are we worse than drunkards , or fornicators ? if not , punish us no worse than they are punished ? are we worse than petty thieves ? if not , let us be put in the stocks and whipt , as paul and silas were ▪ so we may but preach christs gospel ? or if we are as bad as felons , allow us our clergy , and burn us in the hand , use us as prin , bastwick and burton were used on the pillory , so you will not hinder us from preaching to sinners , the word of salvation . or put us in the house of correction , and use us as the israelites were used in egypt , rather than forbid us to labour to save the peoples souls ? can your profound understandings find no way to punish a man that feareth lying , perjury , and false worship ( suppose mistakingly ) , which will consist with such intermission and liberty as is necessary to the doing of our masters work ? the servants of the king and parliament are priviledged from arrests and molestation , which would hinder them from their necessary duty : we crave no impunity for our sins above the basest subjects in the land ! we will be thankful to be under no severer usage , than colliers , and bargemen , and seamen , and begging rogues and vagabonds have ; yea constrain us to beg our bread in rags from door to door , rather than restrain us from doing the work to which in our ordination we are devoted , and by the belief of a life to come , obliged . have all other faults more suitable punishments , save only those of the ministers of christ ? you can punish your child , without forbidding him to love you or obey you : you can punish a school-boy otherwise than by forbidding him to learn ; and a master , otherwise than by forbidding him to teach ; and your servant , otherwise than by forbidding him to work ; and eighteen hundred scrupulous physicians , otherwise than by forbidding them to help the sick . deal not worse with christ and souls . but if still you say , that there is no other way to save mens souls from our false doctrine , or false worship , or any other danger which our ministry will bring upon them ; we still answer you , make canons and laws against false doctrine , or against seditious , rebellious , schismatical , or other intollerable preaching , or against idolatrous , or superstitious worship , or against either tyranny or omission of church-discipline , or against a worldly , fleshly , idle , or otherwise vicious life ; and let us be lyable to the penalty of those laws , as others are . but the next shall further answer this . . it is a most certain thing that your method will not attain the churches edification , unity or concord , but is the directest way to subvert all these : no nor your own establishment , or honour in the world , if that be it which you mean still , by the interest of the church . and why should any men use a means that will subvert , and will never attain his ends ? did you know this , you would never chuse or use it . but i perceive you do not , and for ought i see you will not know it . i shall give you those reasons that should make you know it , if you have but the understanding of ordinary men ; supposing what is distinctly said in the propositions . every wise man in the use of means , will both foresee the probable effect , and fore resolve how far to carry them on . either you think that your silencing , and other hard usages of the ministers , shall convince and change them , or disable and destroy them . the former i have shewed you is a most vain surmise : for , . kindness is more forcible to change the judgment ; than violence and hard usage . this useth oftener to set men in opposition to what a hurtful adversary reasoneth for . it is seldom that an enemies words convert . opposition rather kindleth an opposing zeal . . you may partly conjecture by your selves . if you thought it were lying , perjury and false worship which was imposed on you , would you change your judgment , by threatnings or by punishments ? there is nothing in force to illuminate the mind . if you say , it will tame their obstinacy , and make them hearken more to reason , i answer as before : it most powerfully exciteth those prejudices and passions , which hinder reason , though it may promote hypocrisie in some . . and experience telleth you and all the world , that you are mistaken : we read the same books out of a prison , as in it ( if there we may have them ) : and what abundance of ministers ▪ within these ten years , have come out of long imprisonment in the same mind as they went in ( yea much confirmed ) . but who can you name that came out convinced that his way was wrong ? how long have they suffered , not only poverty and reproach , but that silencing which they account a greater evil ? and yet how few are changed by all this ( for the novel-politicians talk of a hundred men that continue to displease you , is but a means to tell the world , how exactly your actions and historical narratives agree , and what posterity must expect from the later , as well as we from the former ) . . but if or years experience be too little for you , look back to the experience of all the world . your bishop taylor , and many of your own , can tell you , how opposition inflameth the opposed party into a greater zeal . . in a word , i know not only my self , but so many of the nonconformable ministers of england , that i utterly despair that even silencing or imprisonment should change their judgments . . the next question then is , whether it will make them hypocrites , and force them to go against their judgments ? and this i am as confident it will never do with the most : . because i know so many of them to be truer to god and to their consciences . . because experience also long evinced this . . and so hath the experience of former ages , in such as they : some have still shrunk in a time of suffering : but enow have suffered to fill up such volumes as mr. fox's , and the century-writers , and many others . . and here also i ask , would you do so your selves ? would you do that which you think to be lying , perjury , renouncing reformation , &c. against your consciences , rather than suffer ? or would you not ? if yea , you tell the world what your religion is ? if not , judge by your own course , both now and formerly , whether they or you be liker to chuse sin before suffering . i know not you so well as them ; and therefore know not what you would do , so well as i , and you , and all the world may know what they will do . . and if they were such villains , as to sell their souls for the safety of their flesh , why should not the same principle now prevail with them , to stretch their conscience by some distinction , and take livings and honour among you with conformity , instead of a hunted and afflicted state of life ? if satan shall say , skin for skin , and all that he hath will a man give for his life : let me touch his body , and i will make him curse thee to thy face ; whereas now he serveth not god for nought . yet god would support and vindicate the integrity of job ; and though he may fall into some impatiency , he would not yet forsake his master , nor leave his integrity to the death . . the last question therefore is , whether their destruction will do your work , or not , seeing neither their change of judgment , nor for saking their consciences , is to be expected by your means ? i find that the novel-politician is confident of it , that sharp execution is the way , and would easily do it : and so are most that write against us , as well as bishop gunnings chaplain . but , . he speaketh but like one of rehoboams puny councellors ; contrary to all the experience of the world . i hope god will give his majesty wisdom to avoid such counsels , that would have him make his little finger heavier than solomons loyns . i confess if the work be to extirpate christianity it self , they that will and can follow it to the height of the example of japon , might imagine a possibility of the like success . but it cannot be done so in england , if there were any that would do it : because the body of the nation is of the same religion , as the japonions were against . or if the work were to suppress the protestant religion , the inquisition in spain would be a probable means , where there are but very few to be tormented , and the thing may be done secretly in vaults , out of the peoples sight and noise . but for protestants to destroy each other , yea such and so many as must be so destroyed , and this for the advancement of the protestant interest , is a course that will not do that work for which it is pretended . for , . blood was never yet of light digestion : nebuchadnezzars furnace devoured the executioners ; and so did daniel's lyons too . god hath ever shewed himself a god of love , and an enemy to the enemies of it . many are the afflictions of the righteous ; but god hath many ways to deliver them out of all . as i said already , who would have thought that enow should have escaped queen maries bonefires to have planted a protestant church so soon ? or so many escaped the french massacre , as so soon to have made that fact repented of , and ring to the odium of the actors through the world ; yea that so many should survive the two hundred thousand murdered in ireland , as to see so terrible a revenge : yea that the far greater murders of the poor waldenses and albigenses should be followed with a resurrection of the witnesses of the truth , with double advantage ; and leave the everlasting odium of bloody cruelties upon rome ; and that the german-sufferings should so soon be revenged by the swedes ? or that the desolations , which for the interim were made among the german ministers , should so soon be repaired ? or that the prelacy which constantius , and other arrian emperors set up , should so soon be changed , and the arrian cruelties recorded to their perpetual shame ? and that the vandals in africa should but murder ministers enow to kill themselves with the stroke : or that the true persecutions of the heathen emperors should but increase the church of christ , and the blood of martyrs should be its seed ? or that fewer nonconformist ministers than there be counties in england in , should multiply into that number as they did within two or three years ? or that the diocesan-ministers , supprest by cromwell , should revive to the strength that they were in , within three years after his death ? men may contrive , but god will dispose : caiphas may think that one should dye for the people , rather than all the nation perish ; and the fact may prove their speedy and most dreadful ruine . . and as blood cryeth loud to god for revenge , so it usually maketh the actors so odious in the world , that men will hardly leave it unrevenged . there is no hope that ever you should be able to extirpate both grace and good nature out of the world . there will be some sparks of love and humanity in the minds of men , when interest quencheth them not , when you have done all . and these sparks of charity and humanity will make all the actors of cruelty odious ; and the people will take them for bears and wolves . yea , if you were able to perswade others by your words and books , as you do your selves by your interest and passions , that we are as very fools , and disobedient to your lordships , as you describe us , yet most men , and especially english men , will pity the suffering side , and will think with heart-rising on the men of blood . when the puritans suffered , the people pitied them , and cryed out against the prelates . when the diocesan party suffered , the people pitied them , and cryed out against cromwel and those that cast them out . and now they are turning about again ( tho' i know there are many more cases do concur ) . . and god having resolved that the memory of the just shall be blessed , and that the name of the wicked shall ●ot , and that the greatest of the ungodly shall not be the master of fame , nor any more able to leave an odium on the name of the just , than to pursue their souls with malice into heaven ; no , nor so much as to preserve their own names from odium , any more than to keep their bodies from corruption . it hence comes to pass , that the very odor and perfume of sufferers names that endure the wrath of man for the sake of god and conscience , doth so invite posterity to their mind and way , that multitudes quickly rise up in their steads . and the loathed names of the persecutors of the godly , doth make posterity shun their courses . what a stink hath the name of david seton in scotland , of bonner of london , and gardiner bishop of winchester , left behind ? the like i may say of all such men . moreover the same reasons that prevail with us , will prevail with others when we are dead . they will be as fearful of lying , and perjury , and of swearing allegiance to church-usurpers , as we have been . there will still be a people seriously religious , that are christians in good sadness , and really believe a life to come . there is no hindering it ; god will have it so , and who can gainsay him ? and these men will be as loth under pretence of order and decency to have religion dwindle into a lifeless form of words and ceremonies , and to take the chaff and straw for the corn , as ever we have been before them . and the history of our sufferings will but animate them . . besides this , . while you are doing your work , you are dying ; you are ( alas ! that 's the cut-throat of your comforts ) but mortal men your selves ; bonner is dead , and gardiner is dead ; guise is dead , and d' alva is dead . king edward's reformation , and q. maries persecution were both cut short by the shortness of their lives . when you have destroyed ten , or twenty , or an hundred ministers , and are resolving , thus we will use them all ; a fever , or an apoplexy , or some other messenger of an offended god , doth stop you in your course , and call you to judgment , and tell you that when it is too late , which you could not hear from such as we . cum tamen a figulis munitam intraverit urbem . sarcophago contentus erit : mors sola fatetur , quantula sint hominum corpuscula — . nature will not suffer you long ; and justice oft anticipateth the time of nature . the strange histories of gods judgments are not all fables . nullane perjuri capitis , fraudisque nefandae poena erit ? juv. . and sometimes god stoppeth a saul in his way with greater mercy . and sometimes crosses make men melancholy , and retire from their cruel course . can you think of two such instance ; as dioclesian and charles the fifth , without admiration ? and oft-times an accusing-conscience beginneth such a hell on earth , as interrupteth the execution of malicious purposes . and sometimes the very odium of the people turneth them off with shame ; both which the same poet intimateth , sat. . exemplo quodcunque malo committitur , ipsi displicet auctori , prima est haec ultio , quod se judice , nemo nocens absolvitur , improbae quamvis . gratia fallacis praetoris vicerit urnam . quid sentire putas omnes calvine , recenti de scelere , & fidei violatae crimine . and domestical afflictions may cool the fire of vour consuming zeal ! you must not look to be still imposing crosses , and making crosses for your neighbours , and feel none your selves : it may be your great patrons may dye , or fall , or forsake you , and then your hearts are broken ! it may be death may enter into your own families , and make you think what blood-thirstiness doth tend to . ut vigeant sensus animi , ducenda tamen sunt funera natarum ; rogus aspiciendus amatae conjugis , & fratris , plenaeque sororibus urnae . haec data poena diu viventibus , ut renovata . semper clade domus , multis in luctibus , inque perpetuo maerore , & ingra veste senescant . . and you must consider also , that if blood or destruction be the means which you trust to , you must set up a shambles , or trade of butchery , and make it the profession of all your lives : for it is egregious folly to think , that it is but like the fighting with an army , where all your enemies are in sight before you ; and if you conquer them , you may kill them all at once : for they are dispersed all over the land ; and they cannot all , in a little time , be detected , and fairly convicted and brought to execution : but you must be a long time about the killing of those that are now in being ; and when they are gone , the surculi that spring out of their stumps , will in number perhaps exceed them , and find you work as long as you live . and then one cruel act will seem to cause a necessity of another , to justifie it , and to make sure work , lest those that you have wronged , or any of their friends should possibly live to see your folly make you miserable ( therefore the japonians kill'd and tormented not only the christians , but their kindred , and all the next inhabitants ) . and besides , when men turn to so great sin , god usually so forsaketh them , that they cannot tell how to make an end ; they thirst for blood , till like leeches they fall off with fulness : and the more wickedness they do , the more they are disposed to do . that you may see i have my boys school-books , though i am driven from my own , you shall have some more of juvenal : mobilis & varia est fermè natura malorum . cum scelus admittunt , superest constantia : quid fas atque nefas tandem incipiunt sentire peractis criminibus ; tamen ad mores natura recurrit damnatos fixa , & mutari nescia : nam quis peccandi finem posuit sibi ? quando recepit ejectum semel attrita de fronte ruborem ? quisnam hominum est quem contentum videris uno flagitio ? and verily there was never any , or many known , that set up this carnificine trade , the stink of whose name did not reach as far as fame could carry it to the ears of men . and you will tempt men not only to think odiously of your selves , but to suspect your cause that needeth such a trade to keep it up : even erasmus had almost been made a protestant , by the burning and tormenting of some protestants : and hospitalius , thuanus , and the whole tribe of those learned moderators in france , were driven from the extreamer sort of popery by the extremity of their bloody cruelties . the nature of man pitieth and loveth chickens , and lambs and harmless loving creatures ; and it hateth foxes , wolves and kites , that live on flesh , and devour those that are better than themselves . or if you could pretend that you had been first abused your selves , and did it in revenge , the world will think that you should be revenged but proportionably , and that on none but them that did it : yea revenge it self is a sign of a weak , ignoble soul , that hath little of a man , and less of a christian. quippe minuti semper & infirmi est animi , exignique , voluptas ultio ; continuò sic collige quod vindicta nemo magis gaudet quam faemina ; cur tamen hos tu evasisse putes , quos diri conscia facti mens habet attonitos , & surdo verbere coedit occultam quationte animo tortore flagellum ? poena autem vehemens , ac multo saevior illis quas & caeditius gravis invenit , aut rhadamanthus , nocte dieque suum gestare in pectore testem . therefore the foolish ambitious idols , who would fain be like to god in power , will yet pretend , that they would be like him also in love and mercy ! and nero will not disdain to read seneca de clementiâ , & de irâ . they would have power to do as much mischief as you can imagine ; but they say they would not use it , but affright men by it into the obedience of their wills . et qui nolunt occidere quenquam posse volunt . but as the power breeds fear , so usually fear breedeth hatred . though , i confess , it is not possible to have a sufficient power to do good , without a power to do some hurt . . and then the whole countrey will take notice how many worse men you leave alive , which will increase the odium ; and make them look on you but as the enemies of mankind , and of all virtue and civility : or as the seed of the serpent , that have an enmity to the womans seed : they will call you by the name of cainites , when they see the blood of your brother abel , while evil workers still survive . when such as ames , baine , bradshaw , hildersham , dod , &c. yea as hooker , bilson , jewel , &c. are hanged ( which must be done if you will extend the punishment to all nonconsormists ) , the people will take notice , that thousands of fornicators , drunkards , ignorant sots , and sensless atheists are suffered to live in peace ! and do you not know what they will say and think of you upon such observations ? they will say , if these learned , holy , faithful preachers would but have turned drunken sots , they might have scaped your jaws as such have done . as the forecited poet mockt at cicero's , o fortunatam , natam me consule romam , antoni gladios potuit contemnere si sic omnia dixisset : ridenda poemata malo , quam te conspicuae divina philippica famae — . if these preachers would have talkt a little half sense , and read a cold oration , and lived like those that have little to do with god and heaven , and would save men by a charm of words and shews , without this serious godliness and christianity , they might have had countenance and maintenance , and as much honour as such men as these can put upon them : but judicious , serious , hearty godliness is intolerable to all the fleshly tribe , whose mind neither is nor can be subject to the law of god , to which their interest and disposition hath an enmity . eloquium ac famam demosthenis aut ciceronis incipit optare , & totis quinquatribus optat , quisquis adhuc uno partam colit asse minervam , quem sequitur custos augustae vernula capsae : eloquio sed uterque perit orator : utrunque largus & exundans letho dedit ingenii fons : ingenio manus est , & cervix caesa , nec unquam sanguine causidici maduerunt nostra pusilli . . but especially forget not , that the number of nonconformists in england is so great , that it will weary the hangman to dispatch them ; or executioners enow will scarce be found : for what if you hang a thousand or eighteen hundred ministers , you cheat your selves ( as you have wilfully long done ) if you think that you are ever the nearer your ends : for the people are more averse to your conformity , than most of the ministers are ; and they are hardlier kept to the rules of patience and charity to those that destroy them ; and they will chuse teachers and pastors out of the best qualified of the people that survive , and will not lay down the worshipping of god according to their consciences , though they were used for it as daniel was , for praying thrice a day openly in his house , contrary to the law. and these new pastors perhaps will have less moderation than the old : and thus you will be troubled with a succession of dissenters . . and suppose ( as it is not improbable ) that one half of the people , and some of the pastors , should be constrained to conformity , your icabod hath told you in his groans what they will do . their judgments would not be changed , but they would only stretch their consciences to take your oaths and subscriptions with their own interpretation , contrary to the plainest sense ( as abundance do who now conform ) . and these men will do more against you than the open nonconformists , being abler to supplant you , as being nearer to you ; as the conformable westminster-assembly did ; and the conformable long parliament ; and , as heylin thinks , abbot and the puritan bishops and clergy did by laud and his party . . those that survive ( as thousands will do when you have done your worst ) will take their first opportunity , to shew their sense of your horrid inhumanity , with far greater animosity , than if you had never tasted blood ; and your cruelties will but be the fewel of their fiercer opposition . . and there are some hypocrites , no doubt , among those that will suffer by you , who are carried on by a self-conceited zeal : and these may be tempted by your extremities to break out into treasons , seditions and rebellions ; the truly wise and godly will not : but all that are against you , are not such : nay you your selves , i suppose , think that few of them are such . and if oppression may ▪ make a wise man mad , no wonder if it make weak foolish people and hypocrites mad : and then you know that one felton may end the great duke of buckingham . because we abhor the thoughts of such villanies , we would not have you lay such temptations on men , as you are not able to bear your selves . if a little worldly wealth and greatness could tempt you to think that you do god service when you kill'd his servants , why should you think that among many thousands , there will no hypocrites be found , that will break gods laws to save themselves by sinful means ? you know how deeply the principle of self-preservation is planted in nature ; and what need there is of considerable grace , to make men patiently resign their lives , when they think they are taken away injuriously . if peter in fear might deny his master , and all the disciples forsook him and fled , an hypocrite may be tempted to a sinful defence against his persecutors . i do hereby warn all men that they take heed of such temptations , and plead not nature against the laws of grace ; and that they not only live , but dye in honouring their rulers whatsoever they suffer by them ; and say not as the poet that lived among heathenish impatience : ad generum cereris sine caede & vulnere pauci descendunt reges , & siccâ morte tyranni . the true fear of god will teach men to live and dye in patience . but while you your selves think that those that you afflict are wicked , and know that cruelty is the most powerful temptation to sinful self-defence , do you think that you will be innocent by such temptations ? what if it were felony to cry ! were he innocent that would scourge men , women and children till they bleed , and then call out for justice against the felons that cryed ? some men will think that your cruelties are of purpose to constrain or tempt some hypocrites into seditious words or deeds , that you may have matter to accuse the rest of . rehoboams young counsellors , in my opinion , could not justifie themselves from the guilt of all the sufferings of that king , by saying , it was the rebellious ten tribes that did forsake him : it was an unhappy proof of their own loyalty , to be the counsellors of so great a temptation . we hate rebellion and treason so much more than such as these , that we would not have you say , the king shall have no loyal subjects that will not lay down their lives to shew their loyalty : he that striketh the flint , is guilty of the fire : he that will kill , or banish , or undo men for nothing , to try if he can find any among them all that loveth his life better than his loyalty or subjection to superiors , that he may prick him forward to sedition by torments , will prove no loyal subject himself at last . i remember a person of quality , more great than good , was reported to assault a farmers house , to have defiled his daughters : but the door being bolted , and no threats would open them , one of his company bid him throw drown the hive of bee's in the garden in revenge : the bees , when the hive was broken down , had almost stung the great man and his company to death . if the question was , whether the owner or the bees must be accused of the crime ? i can only say , that the counsellor was not innocent . and if a thief should break into a bishops house , and bind his servants , and set a pistol to the breast of one , and bid him disclose his lords money , and he should dye rather than be guilty of disclosing it , and all the rest should dye save one , and that one should confess to save his life ; i do not think it would be congruous for him that did affright him to it , to say , i am innocent ( though perhaps he took not the gold himself ) ; so he that should by cruelties tempt men to such a wicked act as felton or card. betons executioners used , would not be found the truest friend to peace or government . . if you say , we will not hang or burn , but banish them : i answer , so were some fugitives exiled in q. maries days , who yet soon returned to head the diocesan churches of england . and those few of the clergy that fled from cromwell , returned to see revenge upon usurpers . and what stricter laws would you have both for banishment and death , than is made here against the romish priests ? and yet they live in peace among us . banished men are alive , and are exasperated ; and your guilt will make you think that you are not safe from them till they are dead . amesius at franekera did more service to the church of god , and more disservice to the english diocesans , than ames at cambridg did . some have banished themselves for an opportunity by writing to do the more against their adversaries , and said , difficile est satyram non scribere : nam quis iniquae tam patiens urbis ? tam ferreus ut teneat se ? si natura negat , facit indignatio versum — — quando artibus , inquit , bonestis nullus in urbe locus , nulla emolumenta laborum ; res hodie minor est quam fuit , atque eadem cras deteret exiguis aliquid , proponimus illuc ire satigatus , ubi daedalus exuit alas dum nova canities ; dum prima & recta senectus , dum superest lachesi quod torqueat , & pedibus me porto meis , nullo dextram subeunte bacillo cedamus patriâ : vivant arturius istic et catulus : maneant qui nigrum in candida vertunt . i think this much , with what is said in the propositions , may satisfie men that are willing to understand , that your way will never attain the peace and concord of the churches , nor in likelihood your own ends ; . either by changing mens judgments . . or bringing them to conformity against their judgments . . or by destroying them . nay , that it is the most destructive course to all good ends that you can take . and i may add , that if you should banish them , the worth which they carry with them ( as in amesius his instance ) will shine where they come ; and their honour will be your shame : for men are naturally ( and not without cause ) inclined to think them to be extreme bad men , by whom men so good , and learned , and unblamable , do so much suffer . and methinks you of all men should not be guilty of so much self-denial , as to contemn your reputation in all other countreys , and not to care how odious your names are to others , and to posterity , so be it you hear not their words your selves ( of which more anon . ) but here i would insert an humble request to my silenced brethren , that they will study , and pray , and labour so diligently , and live so holily and innocently , that whithersoever they be driven , their light may shine to the glory of their lord , and the service of his church ; and that they would not disgrace their silencers and afflicters by hard words , but by eminent knowledg and holiness : and they shall find that this splendor of their worth will speak more for them , and against those that hate them , than all our apologies will do . i will here , to this purpose , cast in a brief history both for your afflicters sake and yours . it is the occasion of the translation of philosophy from greece unto the saracene arabians , as it is recorded by caelius august . curio histor. saracen . l. . and out of him by hornius hist. philos. l. . p. , . mamunus their califf , or king , was a great lover of learning ; in whose time there was among the greek christians one leo a bishop of thessalonica , who for differing from those in power in the controversie about images , which then troubled the churches , was driven from his flock ; and coming to constantinople , he lived in a poor cottage privately ; but being a most excellent philosopher , taught many in his private school ; so that many excellent philosophers went out of it in a little time : among whom one young man was taken prisoner by the saracens in the wars , who being excellent in geometry , fell into the hands of a great man , by whom his fame was brought to the king ; who trying him , and finding him to excel all his philosophers , must know who was his master . he told him , one leo , a man that was frowned into obscurity and poverty , but a most excellent philosopher . the king mamumus was so inflamed with a desire of leo , that he presently wrote to him , and offered him all the honour and riches that he could desire , so he would but come to him . leo shewed the letters to the emperor at constantinople ; whereupon the emperor not willing that such an honour should pass to his enemy , gave him license to teach in publick . king mamumus despairing of leo , sendeth important letters to the emperor to beg leo's presence but a little while , professing that he would have come with the request himself , but that the government of a fierce sort of people detained him . hereupon the emperor coming to know his worth , and how his own honour was interessed in the business , restored leo to his bishoprick , and had him in great honour , and gave him great riches . and mamumus not obtaining his desires , wrote many of his difficulties as questions to leo , and so procured some of his instructions in writing , by way of answer , to his great satisfaction . and this is noted as the introduction of learning into that countrey , which since mahometanism hath famished . o that we were all such , that our worth might be our apology ! and o that those who think it their interest to afflict such , and suppress them , and render them odious to the world , did better understand their own interest , and know on whom the dishonour will redound at last ! which i wish not to befall them , but wish them to prevent . . if you could procure uniformity by the means of violence , it must be both got and kept up at dearer rates than the thing is worth . . uniformity must be purchased at the loss of unity . if violence drive mens bodies nearer together , it will make the heart-separation much wider . christ hath said , that by this shall all men know that ye are my disciples , if ye love one another : but not , by this , if ye all swear obedience to the bishops , or subscribe that their writings are infallible ; or if ye use the same liturgy , cross , or ceremonies . our salvation lyeth more on our unity in faith and love , than in our uniformity in things unnecessary . and that is the most prosperous state of the church , in which mens salvation is most promoted . he that loveth not his brother whom he seeth daily , loveth not god whom he never saw . and he that hateth his brother , is a manslayer ; and no manslayer hath eternal life abiding in him ; and violence and cruelty are the great and known destroyers of love. he that saith as some , let them hate , so they fear ; doth shew that he hateth god and man , and will prove the greatest hater of himself at last . . you will wrong the king and kingdom by depopulation , and weaken it so , that it may become not only the scorn of our common enemies , but their prey . for ought i can discern , you that have despised my predictions of that kind , have encreased the number already manifold of those that dislike you and your way . and if your self-conceitedness and unskilfulness shall first make most of the kings subjects distast you , and then your cruelty shall suggest that they must be punished till they love you , or be destroyed for disliking you , this will be but like the work of unhappy surgeons , that must cut off the limb , because they have themselves made the wound uncurable . believe it , the hanging or banishing of a few hundreds or thousands , will not do your business , but make it worse ( i told you so long ago as to silencing , and you would not believe it ) ; nay , it will make it incomparably worse : and if you banish or kill all that are against you , land will be very cheap , and houses cheaper ; and others will call that solitude , which you call concord , uniformity , and peace . and our unity will be like theirs in moldavia and vvalachia . and who shall compensate the kings damage ? . and foreign churches and posterity will be brought by it to so great a hatred of prelacy , that they will never be reconciled to it more , but prefer a poor and humble ministry . and indeed it is already so known by its fruits , that i am much in doubt , the experience of it will alienate the people from that primitive lawful episcopacy which i would have them to desire . they say already , give us the old , honest , humble , serious puritans , that lived not upon gold and worldly greatness , and cherished not mens sins , that they might cherish them . fruatur vocibus obscaenis omnique libidinis arte , qui lacedomonium pytismate lubricrat orbem , namque ibi fortunae veniam damus ( alea turpis , turpe & adulterium mediocribus ) : haec eadem illi . omnia cum faciant hilares , nitidique vocantur . juv. i suppose you know how much it alienateth men from popery , that their religion must be fed , and live by blood ; yea by precious blood . some of you have written your wishes , that the course had been followed , which was begun in the days of whitgift and bancroft , when divers nonconformists were hanged : and some have written , that it was not for religion , but for treason . as for hacket and coppinger , it 's known they were crackt-brain'd men , pretending to be sent to judge the world , whom the nonconformists condemned : which bancroft himself in part confesseth . and whereas dr. sutliffe conjectured that cartwright was privy to all : mr. simeon ash gave me a manuscript , supposed to be mr. cartwrights own writing , fully confuting that accusation . and as for the rest , it 's true that the bishops then laboured by exposition of a law to make treason by consequence of that which was spoken against themselves : but it will be long ere the confutation of that is well answered , which is written by some one learned in the law , called , a petition to her majesty , &c. and what the same author saith ( pag. . ) of that pious man mr. udal , will by others ( and perhaps one day by your consciences ) be thought on with respect to the silenced ministers of late , and the many that have dyed in and by imprisonment , and much more of so many , as if you prosecute what you have begun , you must destroy . his words are , that the bishops should be so unnatural as to seek the life of a right , godly and faithful preacher of the gospel , i mean mr. udal , to whom life was offered if he would take his oath , that he did not make a book whereof he was supposed to be author . a rare example ; that a man should be known standing at a bar , shackled in bolts ( but quaere quo jure ? ) and coupled with a murderer , whose conscience was thought so faithful and sound by the judg himself , that he would not swear falsly to gain his life . ( he had not learnt some mens rules for expounding oaths ) : nor loved his life so well as some men do a benefice ) . but were no worse men suffered ? . you may have all that is truly desirable , and to be expected in this world , as necessary to unity and concord , to order and decency , and to your own honour , accomplished ten thousand times easilier , surer and better , by obvious , honest , lawful means . god never putteth men upon such bloody and desperate courses as some advise : it is no necessity of gods making that is pleaded for such means , but of their own sinful making , or false imagining . god never wanteth lyes or cruelty to his service or glory . they are usually wicked selfish ends ( whatever is pretended ) , for which men chuse and use such means : or if the ends were never so good , they will not justifie such means ; nay good ends will condemn them as contrary , incongruous , and destructive . but when there are easie , suitable and honest means enow at hand , the choice of such as are forementioned , beseemeth none but those whose design is to destroy . if you say , what be those means ? they are easily told you ; but your little self-interests will not give you leave to think them tolerable . i shall tell you more particularly anon . i will now speak but of the generals . quest. . what if you would learn of the holy ghost to impose no other than necessary things ? act. . what if you had the patience to endure the apostolick primitive way of discipline and worship , and suffered men to go to heaven in the same way as the apostles and christians of those times did ? what if you kept all that wisdom to your selves , in which you excel the apostles , and put no more upon the churches than they did ? would the inconveniences of this weigh down the mischiefs which are now upon the churches throughout the world by the contrary course ? let not your passion make you run away with a conceit of an intollerable conclusion , and say i would reduce you to the primitive poverty or persecution : no , i talk not of matters extrinsick to discipline and worship ( for faith we will yet suppose we are agreed in ) , i suppose you think not that poverty or riches are parts of the instituted worship of god. i am as far from expecting that you should consent to be as poor and persecuted as the apostles , as that you should be as good as the apostles . those that you have to do with , believe that the scripture hath more exactly determined how god will be worshipped , than h●w much a year shall be the revenues of a bishop . we meddle not with your lands or lordships ( whatever our own opinion be of such matters ) : though we are ambitious of your higher and wealthier condition , yet we neither envy it , nor think it our duty to diminish your wealth . but the question is , if you let men worship god , without any more yokes or burdens than christ and his apostles laid upon the churches , what harm would it do ? did they then want any needful uniformity ? did they not pray decently without a surplice ? did they not baptize decently without the cross ? if you say , that they had their rites of decency then , though not the same that we have now : i answer , impose no other than they imposed : leave those free which they left free . though you think your own to be better than theirs , so do not all christians : if it be mens infirmity to think that the scripture-rites are better than yours , yet what harm will it do you to bear with that infirmity ? what if you required no more oaths of obedience to the bishops , than the apostles required to themselves , or to any pastors of the church ? what if you required no subscription to any thing as certain truth , but only to the infallible oracles of the spirit ? nay the apostles required not any to subscribe to all the books of sacred scripture , but only to receive them in general as the doctrine of christ and the holy ghost ; and they culled out the few necessary articles of the faith , as the matter of a necessary particular profession . i will tell you what good these things will do , and do you tell me what harm they will do , and let the good and hurt be well compared . . it would either unite all christians , or make their union an easie thing , as soon as the minds of men were prepared for it . all christians are agreed that the holy scriptures are infallible ; all christians are not agreed that your three books are infallible : therefore all christians may easilier unite in their subscription or belief of the scriptures , than of your three books . perhaps you will say , that it will not unite us with the papists , nor with any that require more . i answer , we shall be so far united , as that they will approve of all our religion , though we approve not of all theirs ? for they confess the truth of all our canonical scriptures ; and confess that all things universally necessary to salvation are contained in them ( and much more ) : so bellarmine , costerus , and many others , and especially the old schoolmen freely assert . and it is a great advance to concord , and to our satisfaction , to have the common concession of all christians , that our religion is all true , and nothing of absolute necessity wanting . but i have spoken more to this before ; to which i refer you . . it would make it as easie for any protestant to justifie all his religion , as it is to justifie the sacred scriptures , to those that confess them to be true ; and so to tell the papist where our religion hath been in all ages , and what succession our church hath had . it would take none of your forms or ceremonies , or superadditions , from any that will needs have them : while you make them not the necessary terms of union and communion , he that will may be without them . . christian love , and saving unity and concord , may be thus maintained by mutual forbearance , while nothing is done contrary to the nature of love , to mortifie it . and if any would take occasion by differences to revile and villifie one another , the magistrate may have the approbation of all sober men , in keeping the peace , and punishing all the fruits of such uncharitableness that tend to the destruction of love or godliness . . a thousand unhappy crimes will be prevented , which will follow the death of christian love , and the exasperation of mens passions and tongues by their sufferings . . the pastors when they grow like to christ in meekness , gen tleness , and love , will be loved and honoured by the flocks , and the name of a bishop will not be odious any more ; and consequently the lives of faithful pastors will be more comfortable . . and then the doctrine and labours of ministers will be more successul , and consequently piety and justice will increase , and multitudes more will be sanctified and saved . . it will be a comfort to the king and magistrates to be loved , honoured , and obeyed , by an united willing people , and to be excused from the unpleasing works of fining , imprisoning , banishing , or hanging their subjects for differing from them about some cases of sin and duty , when the fear of offending the god of heaven is that which bringeth them to their sufferings . . it will be a great strength and beauty to the state , and church , and fortifie us against a common enemy , and end our fears of sedition on account of religion at home . . in a word , it would make us liker to the primitive believers , and lead the way to all christian states and churches , for the right reconciling of all the christian world. and what now is the hurt that these scripture primitive terms would bring ? obj. it would make as many factions as there be different opinions or ceremonies . ans. . do you judg of others by your selves ? are all men so proud and void of humanity and love , that they must needs be factious if they do but differ in an opinion or ceremony from others ? or that they cannot live in love and peace with any that differ from them in an opinion or ceremony ? or that they can endure to see none live at liberty out of gaols , that be not in all such things of their mind ? . if there be any such proud and uncharitable persons , the magistrate may curb the expressions of their folly , that it wrong not others . . if that were true , there would be as many factions as men ( if you will pardon your contradiction ) : for all men differ in opinion from each other , and in as great matters of religion as a ceremony . doth the differences forementioned among yourselves ( as between dr. taylor , mr. thorndike , and some others , from the doctrine of the church of england ) make any such factions among you ? did the difference mentioned by heylin between bishop mountague and wren , about coming up to the altar to communicate , make any factions ? doth the difference now between your arminians and calvinists , which we ordinarily hear in your own pulpits , make such factions ? doth the different modes of cathedral and parish-worship , make such factions ? if not , why should it make a faction for one man to cross a child in baptism , and another not ? do not the very papists keep up their unity and strength , by allowing far more and greater diversities in doctrines , and in religious orders , rules , and ceremonies , according as every order hath desired ? obj. but if any be allowed to forbear , those that use the ceremonies or subscriptions will be censured by the followers of the nonconformists . ans. and is it indeed to preserve your honour , that we must undergo all these convulsions ? speak it out then plainly , that the world may understand you . must all that differ in a ceremony from you , be silenced and hunted about the world , lest the people should think worse of you than of them ? . but how notoriously do bad means overthrow the ends of them that use them ? it is honours motto , quod sequitur fugio , quod fugit ipse sequor . do not the people know that we differ from you in these things , as much when we are silenced , as when we preach ? will imprisonment or banishment make us agreed , or make the people think we are agreed ? or will they forget all the difference , think you , when we are out of sight ? if the bare different opinion and practice make them undervalue you , will not they think worse of you when they think you do worse ? will they not distast a conformable man , whom they judg an envious persecutor , more than a conformable man whom they judg a meek and loving man ? one would think that you should need no answer to such objections . but i have answered enow before . . well! if the scripture simplicity be too narrow for you , my next question is , what harm will it do you to unite on such terms as all the churches did unite in , in the days of tertullian and cyprian , yea for . years after the birth of christ ? look whatever was then the terms of the churches union and communion , and we shall not be unthankful to you , if you will make that , and only that to be so now . i do not say , that you should make all that necessary which was then used on terms of liberty and indifferency ; they had then their necessaries for u●ion , and their unnecessaries , which were used at liberty as every church saw good . impose no more than they imposed ; no more of liturgy , no more of ceremony , no more subscriptions , promises , or oaths , and it will heal us all . impose liturgy no further than they then did ( which at the most was but every bishop on a particular church that was united for personal ( not representative ) communion , and was no bigger than one of our parishes for number of souls ) . if these terms will not serve you neither , you shall not with us have the reputation of the best friends of antiquity , unity , love or peace . q. . what harm would it do , if the churches were healed by such means as all the most grave , experienced conciliators have pitched upon as the only way , at least in all the protestant churches ? we are contented with lerinensis terms , qu●d ab omnibus , ubique & semper receptunest . all the famous reconcilers of the last age and this , acontius , melancthon , pelargus , duraeus , calixtus , lud. crocius , joh. bergius , conradus bergius , junius , paraeus , hottonus , amy●aldus , usher , morton , hall , davenant , chillingworth , hales , bucer , burroughs , stillingfleet , and every man that ever wrote a rational irenicon , conspire in this one necessary means , the forbearing all imposition of doubtful unnecessary things , as necessary to actual unity and communion , and the centering and cementing all on the terms of the few certain , gre●t , and necessary things which we are commonly agreed in ; or as rupertus meldenius his oft-cited words are , in necessariis , unitas , in non-necessariis libertas ; in utrisque charitas . do you think verily that all these were mistaken ? and that you are wiser than they who have studied the art of peace as much as you have done the arts of victory , and getting down those whom you first make , and then call your adversaries ? i know you will still say , these are good terms for our union with neighbour churches , but not for our church within it self . to which i have answered you already ; and now add , . every company of christians associated for personal communion in gods publick worship ( as distinct from distant communion in spirit only , and from communion by delegates or representatives ) is a true particular church , taking pastors and people to be the parts thus associated . every such church had a bishop in scripture-times , as dr. hammond in his annot. will tell you over and over ; and in ignatius his time too ; for he saith , that to every church there was one altar , and one bishop , with his fellow presbyters and deacons . and this one altar ( which shewed only one place of meeting for ordinary publick communion ) , and one bishop , were the notes of unity to every one church , as mr. mede also fully openeth it . and dr. hammond will further bear witness what every bishop with his church is , in tim. . and such all the particular churches of the whole world , considered together , under the supreme head christ jesus , dispensing them all by himself , and administring them severally , not by one oeconomus , but by the several bishops , as inferior heads of unity to the several bodies , so constituted by the several apostles in their plantations , each of them having an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a several distinct commission from christ immediately , and subordinate to none but the supreme donor or plenipotentiary — and before , so was every such regular assembly of christians under a bishop , an oeconomus set over by christ ( the house of god ) — mark all this then , and let your impositions be measured by this rule ; so that either you will have the many churches in one kingdom , to be united on terms of regiment , or only on terms of concord . on the terms of the extrinsick accidental regiment , we grant that all the kings subjects are united , and that he hath power circa sacra : but so you might have said of all the roman empire ; and so if the christian part of the world had all one monarchy , your own concession must be overthrown ( that neighbour churches must unite on necessary terms , leaving indifferent ones to liberty ) ; or else you will see that the case of the catholick church , under such an empire , would be the same with a national church under one king : and our churches are as much to be accounted neighbour-churches , as those in such an empire would be . but if you speak of one essential , constitutive , ecclesiastical head and governour , we know none such , any more than one pope . therefore it must be an union of concord , by which you call many churches in a nation one ( or an extrinsick accidental union ) . and consequently it is an improper speech , because it is not locutio formalis , sed accidentalis ; for the form denominateth . we being therefore one church but accidentally ( by one king , and by concord , as several agreeing churches may be called ) , it followeth that we must hold our concord accordingly , with those at home , as well as with those abroad , upon terms of equal charity and liberty , ( except what the king will take away ) . for as for councils , even general ones ( much more provincial , it is not bishop ushers opinion only , but ordinary with protestants , that they are to the particular bishops not directly regimental , but means of agreement . mark your bishop bilsons words of christ. subject . pag. . to councils , such as the church of christ was wont by her religious princes to call , we owe communion and brotherly concord , so long as they make no breach in faith , nor in christian charity : subjection and servitude we owe them none : the blessed angels profess themselves to be fellow-servants of the saints on earth , rev. . what are you then , that with your tribunals and jurisdictions would be lords and rulers over christs inheritance ? . the same reasons which require you to agree only on necessary terms with foreign churches , will oblige you to the like course at home . the judgments of natives are of the same temper , and their differences will be as certain and constant , and your charity to them should be no less than to strangers . only this we all confess , . that all the churches must agree in their subjection to the same king. . and every particular church must agree with their particular pastors in the exercises of communion . . and that concord in one translation , one meeter , and such like is desirable , not so much because we are under one king , as because we are neighbours , and of one language , and would be desirable if we were of several kingdoms , in the same propinquity : but it is not to be procured at a price which is above its worth . . when you profess concord with the foreign churches , upon catholick terms , and deny the same to the churches that are under one king , you do plainly tell them how little they are beholden to you for their peace ; and that it is , because you have not power to take it from them , which you would do if you could . . you greatly injure christian monarchs , while you would make the world believe that they are the great adversaries of the churches peace and unity ; for it is not only from the will of their several princes , that several churches must unite only on catholick terms , or not at all : but it is from the impossibility that all the christian world should ever come in all things controvertible and indifferent to be of one opinion , any more than to be of one stature and complexion : and now you come and tell them , that if they had all one emperor , they must all agree upon all the controvertible and indifferent things , which canons and laws should impose upon them , or else their ministers be forbidden to preach christs gospel to the people , and the churches forbidden to meet and worship god ; yea , prisons and other penalties shall constrain them . and what a temptation is this to men that know the wonderful variety of humane temperaments , educations , advantages , apprehensions , that is , who know what it is to be a mortal man , and a weak christian , to pray against the largeness of empire , and to dread it as the most certain engine to wrack the churches in pieces , and to silence , imprison , unchurch and distress the christian ministers and churches . to conclude this reason , take away but your imposition of the few things controverted , and leave the particular churches free in things confessed indifferent by your selves , and we are then all one , and the quarrel at an end . and a little love to christ , to the gospel , and the souls of men , would tell a disinteressed person , whether the fruits of that concord , or the fruits of our present uniformity in those subscriptions , oaths and ceremonies , would be the better ; and which is the more lovely and beautiful state of the church . . the different estimation which the two parties have of the things imposed , doth make your violence notoriously unequal in the sight of any equal judges . you call the impositions ( antecedently ) things indifferent . the nonconformists do not so , but take them for such heinous sins , that they dare scarce denmoinate them to you ▪ lest while they do but tell you their own reasons for avoiding them , they be thought to make you , or the imposers odious , by their censures . so that they are fain to suppose their judgments to be scruples , and themselves to be the weak christians , and bring all under that name of tenderness of conscience , lest if they should tell you that they are strongly perswaded , that if they should conform ( not medling with any others ) , it would be in them no less than owning the perjury of many thousands , and a publick ministerial renunciation of a needful reformation , and a promising to god , or declaring before all the people that we will not obey him , nor repent and amend what is amiss in our places ; and an owning of all the usurpations and abuses committed by many others , and a publick lying on deliberation , declaring , that we assent and consent to more than we do indeed , or can do ▪ and a justifying of all the failings in that worship which is thus prescribed ( when we dare not justifie the best prayer that ever we put up to god in all things ) , and an offering to god a worship which we cannot in faith be assured that he accepteth , &c. these are the names of their fears , which they dare scarce utter , lest the incarnate accusers of the brethren cry out , they make us all perjured , and publick rebels against god , and they make our rulers the imposers of such things : ( but the day is coming when it will be proved an unhappy artifice to stop the mouth of innocencies defence , by making the crime imposed ( in their judgments ) so great , that it shall not be judged a thing sufferable to name it ) . but if you believe that ever there will be a judgment where equity shall be of any regard , methinks you should see , that quoad hoc their end of the ballance much weigheth down yours ; and that the opinion of indifferency should yield to the opinion of so desperate a danger . if you prove it the right , yet you confess , that god may be worshipped decently in a comely gown , without a surplice , and that a child may orderly and decently be baptized , without the transient image of a cross appointed to a dedicating half-sacramental use ; and that a man may acceptably worship god , that cannot subscribe that your three books are infallible to a word , &c. but if it should prove that the nonconformist is in the right , aggravated perjury , deliberate lying , rebellious profession of disobedience to god , owning great and publick sins , corrupting holy worship , &c. are more tremendous matters than a thing indifferent : let any then besides your selves be judges , whether not yielding and complying be the heinouser crime in them or you ? if you say , that [ by this rule we must abate the imposition of things indifferent to all that will but be so erroneous as to account them heinous sins ] . i answer , . if you did do so , it were but the doing according to the wisdom of the holy ghost and the apostles ▪ acts . to impose nothing but necessary things : and to do as paul did , that would forbear eating flesh while he lived , rather than the weak should be offended or scandalized . . but whether there be no more reason of the nonconformists dissent and fears , than what such silly scrupulosity as you intimate may suggest , have patience till we come to the particulars , and we shall tell you , if you can endure to hear it . . the argument from real scandal in this matter , is of greater force than you seem to take notice of : we fear that we shall do much to make our hearers infidels , impenitent , or utterly debaucht , and to make all our ministerial labours a vain and fruitless thing to them , if we should conform . we still tell you that we are not accusing the lawmakers or you ; but telling you what we fear it would be in us , if we should do it . you see here that we plead not against the meer displeasing of our hearers , but the damning of them ; nor for the preservation of our own interest in them , but for the preservation and salvation of themselves . and is this kind of scandal , think you , which consisteth in tempting , ensnaring and damning men , regardable or not ? had paul a soft head , in having so soft a conscience in this point ? we were never apprentices to the butchers trade , but to the physicians : it is not with us a thing indifferent , to send souls , as much as in us lieth , to hell. you shall hear the reason of our fears . our calling is to save men from sin ( without which we cannot save them from hell ) : were it not for this end , we had nothing to say to you ; no request to make to you ; nor would we stoop to be beholden to you for our ministerial liberties . many of us can live otherwise ; and if we live as ministers , it hath been in the days of our liberty with many of us , more to give than receive : and we have too much of the suggestions of the flesh , which would be glad if we might cast off the burden which you take from us , and would take our silencers for our greatest friends . but the spirit of god hath taught us yet to prefer things spiritual and eternal , for our selves and others : he that said , ye are our crown and our rejoycing , &c. and now we live , if ye stand fast in the lord ; and i count not my life dear , that i may finish my course with joy , and the ministry given me , &c. shall be our pattern as far as we can imitate him . the saving of the people from their sins , was christs work , and must be ours . and we fear t●●t we shall perswade them to all sin and villany if we conform ; for , first , the sins which we fear being guilty of , are as great as almost any that ever we shall preach against in them . . our owning and justification of them will be as notorious as most ways that we could devise to do it : for , . it must be deliberate . . publick . . ministerially . . perseveringly : and therefore sure impenitently . . a man in a passion , or by a surprise , or inconsiderately , may lie , or speak an unjust thing : but when a man is called to do it , to study the case , and to do it upon mature deliberation , doth shew more of the habitual temper of the will. . a man that is secretly perjured , or false , destroyeth himself : but he that openly both practiseth it , and professeth and justifieth it , doth his worst to destroy the hearers and beholders . . if a minister preach sound doctrine , and in his life be a drunkard , fornicator , or the like , i will hear him in case i can have no better , because his sin is personal , and not ministerial : but if in the open church , as a minister , he will declare that to drink away a mans reason is no drunkenness or sin , and to use forbidden congress is no fornication or sin , &c. this is a heresie , and a ministerial wickedness , that is not so easily to be born . . if a man commit a fault in his drunkenness or passion , and after repent of it , god will pardon it , and so may we : but if a man publickly persevere both in the committing and justifying heinous sin , and live by it in the world , yea and entitle god to it , and say he doth it for his service — blame us not to fear such things as these . now the sins which we fear being of the greatest sort that hell suggesteth , perjury , and owning the perjury of thousands , and doing that which is equivolent to the preaching of impenitency to them , and say repent not , for i declare that it is no sin ; and lying deliberately ; and making a publick ministerial profession of usurpation and church-corruption , and of our resolution never to obey god in doing any duty of ours in order to a reformation ; and other such like ; i say these being the sins we fear , what can we think less than that the fornicators ; drunkards , swearers , thieves , &c. that hear us should say , is ours a sin , and is ministerial perjury , &c. none ? what an hypocrite is this wretch , to talk against lying and swearing , with a deliberate lying , perjured tongue , and to consent to be a publick , ministerial , professed , impenitent lyar , and perjured , on condition that he may have leave to serve god in perswading us from lying , swearing , and other sins ? shall we believe his sermons , or his profession and practice ? or can we believe that he believeth himself ? what doth he mean by talking against sin ? is there any sin much greater than that which he listeth himself a defender and practiser of ? and are we like to win souls on such terms as these ? yea , or can we expect that god should bless our labours , when we offer him lying , perjury , &c. for a sacrifice , and so blaspheme him ? as interpretatively , to say , i deliberately commit these sins against thee , and will declare them to the congregation to be no sins , that so i may have leave to preach against sin . this is the scandal which we fear , and plead against . . it is the work of your own calling , and your ministerial interest , to cherish a true fear of sinning in the people : and if you will prosecute them with imprisonments or excommunications , and violence , who are come to so much regard of your doctrines , as to fear sin ( if you think there be any error in the materials ) , what could you do more to contradict your preaching and office , and destroy that which is or should be your end : especially , if withall , you do , as it were , proclaim , [ he that will do all these things that we bid him do , and will not fear lest he incur any guilt of perjury , lying , professed disobedience to god , &c. in so doing , shall be capable of church-preferment ] . if you go this violent imposing way to work , whether you can see it or not , men that stand out of the dust can see , that there are but these ways to scape your punishment and censures : . either to be so perfect in understanding , as to know in all things , what is lawful , and what not : and that is an impossible way , because the generality of subjects will never possibly be brought to that perfection : nay if they were , it would be the way to their certain suffering and ruine . for it is most certain that you your selves have not attained this perfection , and therefore are still fallible ; and when you your selves take any one sin for a thing indifferent , if the subjects know it to be sin , they must fall under the punishment of your imposing domination . . or else they must be men that believe nothing to be sin ( which is the case of all that believe there is no god ) , and so dare do any thing to save their flesh : and this way will make all the world conformable to you , that are under your power . . or else they must be such as believe that nothing is sin which you or their rulers shall command them ( as all do , who believe that you are gods , or above god , and consequently indeed that there is no god ) ; or that believe that god hath made men absolute rulers of the peoples souls , and put heaven and hell into their power . can you imagine how very many others should ever be exact conformists to your imposing wills universally . if a few individuals should chance to be in all points of your judgments , indeed ( which must be a rare case ) it cannot be expected to be so with many , much less with all . and if your interest should lead you to debauch the people , and take away all fear of sinning , by forcing them on that which is so feared , you would find your own interest cross'd at last : for it is the godly or the superstitious people that must long keep up your reverence and honour : we see by daily experience , that the atheists and infidels , and professedly impious ones , deride you behind your backs , and come very seldom to the publick assemblies . your assemblies are more made up of such as dislike your proceedings , than of these that are brought beyond all fear of sin or punishment . . the preachers whom you silence would do you less hurt in their permitted publick ministry , than they do now , or will do when you have done your worst . in publick , . your friends and multitudes of several sorts will be their hearers , and witness against them for every word that they say amiss . but in secret they may take more liberty to oppose your way , if they affect so doing . . your kindness , and their own and the churches interest , will more oblige them to forbear you when they have publick liberty , than when you prosecute them as foes . . and the very assemblies of men separated by expulsion and violence , doth seem to invite all the people to a sense of the cause thereof , which a liberty of such meetings without danger and unkindness would not do . . and if you keep them from assemblies , they will make the deeper impressions on the people , in the families and secret converse which they use . . or if you banish , imprison , or hang them , their sufferings will do far more against you , than all their preaching . i am assured that it is you that advance the reputation of many nonconformists , and arm them thereby against your selves . the truth is , though they are commonly the most hearty , serious , feeling preachers , yet some of them are weaker as to the congruity of expression , than the debate ▪ maker , or the young politician . but when the people see them true to their consciences , they value them much more than they would have done if you had let them alone . whether you like it or not , so it is , and so it will be . therefore it is you that fight against your selves . . you take the way to make your church an unknown thing . none are to be reckoned for christians and church-members , but voluntary professors of it . coacti non est consensus . and as protestants tell the papists , they may know who come within their temples , but they never know who are members of their church , because they know not who professeth voluntary consent , and who doth it involuntary by meer constraint . and so it may be said of others that go their way . . by the course fore-described , you will have a church so corrupted , as will be a continual temptation to the most religious sort to distaste it , if not to separate from it . when men that fear sin are the suffering side ; and fearlesness of sin , and a conscience that can do any thing , is full security from all those penalties , it is easie to foresee what sort of people you will make your friends , ( who will do you more harm than good ) and what sort will be more and more alienated from you . and then the zealous sort of ministers and people will from age to age be the sharp reprehenders of your vices . and then that will encrease your enmity against them ! and what will this come to at last ? i will give you but two instances now to calm you . gildas our ancient britain , hath so characterized the british clergy , even in those elder and less tempted times , that he doubteth not to call them wolves and not pastors ; and plainly to profess , that he that took them for ministers or pastors , was not eximius . christianus , one of the more excellent sort of christians . what could a separatist have said more of you ? and yet you can praise gildas ( for it is not in your power to eclipse his glory ) and not endure the same words from any one that is near you . the other is that oft mentioned instance of st. martin , who would not come to their synods , nor communicate at all with ithacius , idacius , and the rest of the prelates of the synods and countrey about him , though of the very same belief , because by their cruel ungodly prosecution of the priscillian hereticks , they had taught the world the way of violence in matters of religion , and had made the strictest religious people every where brought under the malignant suspition of being priscillianists : so that having but once for the saving of a condemned mans life , communicated with the bishops ( being a bishop himself ) at the perswasion of the emperor maximus , he was , as he professeth , sharply rebuked for it by an angel in a vision , and would communicate with them no more . and what worse do the separatists do by you , as to communion ? and yet sulpit. severus tells you by what abundance of miracles martins credibility was confirmed . hear a little of the story from your own hooker , with his application , judg you to whom , i deny not but that our antagonists in these controversies may per adventure have met with some , not unlike to ithacius , who mightily bending himself by all means against the heresie of priscillian , ( the hatred of which one evil was all the virtue he had ) became so wise in the end , that every man careful of virtuous conversations , studious of scripture , and given to any abstinence in diet , was set down in his character for suspected priscillianists : for whom it should be expedient to approve their soundness of faith , by a more licentious and loose behaviour : such proctors and patrons the truth may spare . can you endure these words of hooker ? ( too short a scrap of that notable history ) and can you mark them , and learn by them to know your party , and to foresee the end , and perceive what service such do the church ? nonconformists think that this is too like our present case . . sword-severities , as coming from the instigations of the clergy , do abundance more harm , than if they came from the magistrate alone . experience telleth us , that they have ever made the clergy much more odious than the magistrate : because the sword is the magistrates weapon : and if he err in using it , it doth the less abate mens respect to his person , because it is but the misdoing of his proper work : or if he drive men into hard thoughts of his person , it hath not much influence on the honour of religion . but ministers have nothing to do with the sword : their office is exercised by gods word alone , and that is the only weapon with which they are to strike offenders . and their office being only to govern by light and love , the people cannot bear that from them which they do from magistrates : it seemeth a monstrous and horrible usurpation to them . and if the clergy will play the hypocrites , as the papists do , and say , we do not meddle with the sword , but only deliver them up to the secular power to be punished , when they tell the secular power that it is their duty , and drive them on to it , with the threats of excommunication or damnation : this will never reconcile the people to their cruelties . of all beasts , they love not sheep that have bloody teeth and fangs ; nor of all birds , a dove , that liveth like the hawks , on flesh . and when the clergy are once made hateful to them , i have told you that the scandal tendeth to make them think hardly of their doctrine , and at least to run into some contrary extream , if not to dislike religion it self . i have seldom observed any extream in hereticks or schismaticks , which was not notably caused by the clergies contrary extream . antinomianism rose among us from our obscure preaching of evangelical grace , and insisting too much on tears and terrors . arminianism rose from mens prophane abuse of the doctrine of election , saying , if i am elected , i shall be saved , whatever i do ; and when god will give me grace , i shall have it ; and till then , it is not in him that willeth or runneth . the quakers arose from the pride and vanity of religious people , from which they fled into the fordid extream . and separatists have almost always risen from the ignorance , ungodliness , the shameful disabilities , idle negligence , pride , covetousness , or cruelty of the clergy . this is true , as the experience of all ages telleth us . the insufficient and naughty clergy make separatists . at this day the superstitious think they can scarce go too far from men that they account so ungodly , malignant and cruel : and the ungodly , and infidel , and cruel sort of men , do think they can scarce go too far from the superstitious . if you would read and learn of such reprovers , as gildas , and salvian , and nazianzen , and hilary , and alvarus pelagius planct . eccles. and acontius , and such like , you need not have so many thousands flying from your churches , as from an house on fire , or infected with the plague ; nor reporting your crimes , as the parliament-centuries , or the gloucester-cobler , or your groaning icabod have done . . you should rather help to cure the prejudice that the world hath against the clergy , as envious , selfish , and cruel , than encrease it . the world already thinketh that the clergy are so covetous , proud and envious , that they can endure no man that standeth in their light ; but like the great dog that hath got the carrion , snarl at every little dog that looketh at them , suspecting they come to take some from him : it is their common opinion , that the clergy are the incendiaries and troublers of the world ; and that the worst princes left to themselves , are not half so cruel against the faithful preachers and practisers of christianity , as the proud and covetous clergy are . it is therefore your duty not to confirm the world in this opinion , by seeming as envious and cruel as others have been ; but to cure it by love , and tenderness , and self-denial . . have you ever considered and regarded , whether the apostles ever took your course ? you say your selves , that they had power to give men over to the devil for corporal punishment : and yet when did they ever do so ▪ by any but desperate infidels , ( as elymas ) or desperate hereticks , that denied fundamentals , as alexander , hymenaeus and philetus ? or whom did they so much as threaten church-sharpness to , else , unless it were such a proud domineering bishop as diotrephes , who would neither receive some brethren , nor permit others to do it , but cast them out of the church , prating with malicious words against the apostle . paul blamed mark , but did not silence him . he fell out with barnabas to a parting , but did not hinder him from preaching the gospel . he blameth demas for forsaking him , and loving the world , and many more for forsaking him , when he appeared before nero , and elsewhere , they all mind their own things , and not the things that are jesus christs : and yet he silenced none of them that preached the same gospel which he did : he met with some preachers so bad , that they preached christ of envy and strife , of contention , not sincerely , supposing to add affliction to his bonds : what then ? notwithstanding every way , whether in contention or in truth , christ was preached , and he therein rejoyced , and resolved to rejoyce , and not to silence them , phil. . , , , . some indeed that preached the law , and , as it were , another gospel , he saith must have their mouths stopped ; but none that preached the same gospel ; nor they , by the sword , but by the convincing word . he that wrote as he did , rom. . . was far from silencing preachers for not using ceremonies , or things called indifferent , or for not taking an oath of obedience to himself . and will you prove wiser and better than the apostles at the last ? . methinks ( as i said before ) even selfishness should make you have some regard to your surviving names ! think not that your party shall be the masters of fame : think but on all history , whether those that suffered in their times , as the martyrs , and such bishops as athanasius , nazianzen , chrysostom , &c. have not left a sweeter name to the church , than those by whom they suffered ! whether the name of the nonconformists , john rogers , and his followers , and bradford , sanders , glover , hooper , latimer , ridley , cranmer , &c. be not sweeter now than gardiners and bonners ? and think on the nature of your cause and ours : when you have done your worst against christs faithful ministers , and sought to justifie it by calling them schismaticks , posterity will enquire into the merits of the cause , and the evidence of their words and yours : and their writings at least will some of them survive when you have done your worst . and do you think that they who read such works , as amesius , hildershams , hierons , baynes , balls , &c. of old , and as gatakers , vines , anthony burgesses , allens , &c. of late , will believe that they were schismaticks , or unworthy to preach repentance and faith in christ ? i have written so much against schism my self , as that i defie malignity it self , to make posterity believe me a schismatick . when they peruse the declarations , subscriptions , oaths , and actions which we refuse , and weigh our reasons , they will judge otherwise than interest , and partiality , and malice will do at the present . the next sulpitius will describe us liker martin than you , and the fanaticks like the priscillianists , and too many of your selves like ithacius and idacius , and their synods of bishops ; which you may easily foresee when your hooker himself in his preface doth it by some conformists already . . you take so notorious a way to tempt the people to their present suspicions of your over-much kindness to popery , as that charity to them obligeth you to help to cure them of that uncharitable suspicion of you . and , i confess , if i would have liberty for any one sect my self , i would counsel and perswade men to take away the liberty of religion from as great , and worthy , and considerable a part of the ministers and people as i could , that the cry for changes and liberty might be so great , that others may be let in with them , as if it were to gratifie them . but it is our comfort that we have a king and parliament , whose aversness to popery , and their law against all such surmises , doth put them out of the peoples suspicions ! and i think you should do no less , but more than any others , to avert all unjust suspicions from your selves . . is it possible that any partiality , interest or passion can make you think , either that the people of england need not as much teaching , and exhortation , and ministerial help , to bring them to repentance and salvation , as all the qualified ministers in the land together are able to afford them ? or that god may not bless the labours of such men as burges , allen , norman , and hundreds more that now are silenced , to the conversion of many hundred or thousand sinners , unto repentance and a holy life ? and if you cannot , or dare not deny this , have you considered whether your reasons for silencing them be so weighty , as will countervail the salvation of so many souls , and will comfort and excuse you at the bar of god ? and whether then you can justifie your selves by saying , lord , though so many souls persisted in sin , and are damned , that might have been saved by the ministry of these learned , grave and godly preachers ; yet the good which we obtained by their silencing , and all their other sufferings , was greater than so many mens salvation would have amounted to . and if deliberately you will venture on such a cause your selves , what would you wish the silenced ministers to do ? you say it is our duty to forbear preaching when we are forbidden . but what if it prove otherwise , and that we must be judged as sacrilegious for alienating consecrated persons from gods work ? and as guilty of the blood of all those souls that have perished by our silence and neglect ? what say you ? will you undertake to justifie us , and answer for us , and bear all the divine displeasure your selves which shall fall upon us for our obeying your silencing commands ? are you willing to run all that danger for us ? but why do i ask you such a question , when your undertaking would but shew your greater obdurateness , and neither save us nor your selves ? if you say , that the crime is ours for not conforming ; that is to be examined by it self . if ever episcopacy had two learned and judicious defenders , it was bishop bilson and bishop andrews : let not interest now make you differ from your chiefest champions . i will add the words of one of them at large . bilson of subjection , p. . saith , the election of bishops in these days belonged to the people , and not to the prince : and though valens by plain force placed lucius there yet might the people lawfully reject him as no bishop , and cleave to peter the right pastor . and indeed the people so rejected lucius , that the boys in the street would not touch the ball any more which lucius's horse feet had trod upon ; and to the last suffered all the magistrates displeasure in refusing the pastor imposed on them ( who yet perswaded them that he was orthodox ) . and the error of a magistrate taketh not away his power , as i before said , but only his aptitude to use it aright . and the nonconformable people think that they lawfully adhere to their old known faithful pastors , and reject unknown obtruded persons . pag. he saith , princes have no right to call or confirm preachers , but to receive such as be sent of god , and give them liberty for their preaching , and security for their persons . and if princes refuse so to do , gods labourers must go on forward with that which is commanded them from heaven ; not by disturbing princes from their thrones , nor invading their realms , as your holy father doth , and defendeth he may do ; but by mildly submitting themselves to the powers on earth , and meekly suffering for the defence of the truth what they shall inflict . how you gather out of this , or any words of ours , that christ and his apostles might not preach the gospel without cesar's delegations , and license from others , the kings of the countreys whither they went , i see not , except you take the word [ supreme ] for superior to christ ; all which standeth neither with our assertion nor intention , but is a very pestilent and impudent sophistication of yours — marg. bishops may preach without cesars leave , if they submit themselves to cesar's sword , as the apostles did . to this , i pray add his two pages , p. , . to prove that patriarchs were not erected by christ , but by the consent of bishops ; and that archiepiscopal and metropolitan dignities were the gifts of princes ; and then consider how far that office of presbyters , which is of christs own instituting , is to be forsaken in obedience to the command of a metropolitan , or any power of mans ordaining . pag. . the charge which the patriarchs and bishops of england have over their flocks , proceedeth neither from prince nor pope , nor dependeth on the will or word of any earthly creature ; therefore you do us the more wrong to say what you list of us — by supreme governours we do not mean moderators , prescribers , directors , inventors , or authors of these things as you misconster us , but rulers and magistrates , bearing the sword to permit and defend that which christ himself first appointed and ordained , and with lawful force to disturb the despisers of his will and testament . now what inconvenience is this , if we say that princes as publick magistrates may give freedom , protection and assistance , to the preaching of the word , ministring of the sacraments , and right using of the keys — doth that prove that all ecclesiastical power and cure of souls do proceed and depend of the princes right ? see also page . and p. . as bishops ought to discern what is truth , before they teach ; so must the people discern who teacheth right before they believe . pag. , . princes as well as others , must yield obedience to bishops , speaking the word of god : but if they pass their commission , and speak besides the word of god , what they list , both prince and people may despise them . see him further , proving that all have a judicium discretionis , pag. , , , . bishop andrews his determination against giving unfit kings the sacrament , and in what sense the pastors rule their princes , ( and consequently may not obey them in the neglect of their own office ) , i have shewed in the decision of the erastian controversie , and need not repeat it ; yea he alloweth the very deacon to deny an unworthy king admittance to the sacrament . and chrysostome would lose his life , rather than give it to the greatest that is unworthy . how far then christs ministers must give over preaching , sacraments and all , if men command them so to do , you may hence gather by these mens judgments . and in the conclusion , let me again remember you , that the trick of twisting your interest pretendedly with princes , and making them believe that those that you would have to be afflicted , or expelled , are more against monarchy and loyalty than you are , though it be an old device , and of great success , hath ever been hateful to sober men , when the falshood hath appeared , and will but make your blot the fouler . there were two great philosophers in france , in the time of king francis the first , castellanus and bicot . bicot was a most profound interpreter of aristotle , and saith hornius , hath got the immortal fame of scaligers testimony ( hist. phil. l. . p. . ) and indeed scaligers words are very high in his praise , exercit. . n. . pag. . and smart against his adversaries : haec quidem risui sunt atque contemptui nostris lucianis atque diagoris culinariis , sed non neglecta sunt a maximo philosopho guilielmo bicotio , qui quidem pene solus hoc summum jus hodie tuetur in reconciliâ philosophiâ . but castellanus hated bicot because he was a peripatetick . the king being a great lover of learned men , heard castellanus often ; and when some courtiers extolled bicot , and desired the king to hear him , castellanus in wrath and cunning together saith , vvhat do you praise an aristotelian ? and that you may know , o king , what men these aristotelians are , they affirm that aristocracy is better than monarchy . which knockt the nail on the head , and the king would not hear bicot , but castellanus . melancthon hath recorded the whole story , and hornius after him . these devices may do the feat for a while , and serve for a shift against not only aristotles philosophy , but more necessary truths ; but at the long running they will be out of breath , and flattery and calumny will stink . postscript . let the reader , who hath read my repetitions of martins and bicots stories in other books , know that this was written before them all , and cast by , till mens importunity have prevailed with me to publish it . and now we humbly lay these petitions at your feet , and beseech you ( not for our own ease , or honour , or wealth , but ) for the souls of many hundred thousands of ignorant , sensual , impenitent sinners , that you who call your selves their pastors , and the fathers of the church , will not deny them the bread of life . we beseech you for the souls which are ready to appear before their judg , and to receive their final doom , and are lost for ever , if they be not presently recovered ! their lives are going ! time will not stay while you are waiting for advantages to attain your ends ! they are posting into another world ! o let them know whither they are going before they are there ! and feed not your anger , envy , or interests , at so dear a rate , as the damnation of so many ! if you believe that if the gospel be hid , it is hid to them that are lost , and that men cannot love , desire or seek what they know not , deny not poor souls the means of knowledge . if you yet believe that ignorance and sin is not so common as we think , or that the silly , dry and dead discourses or sayings over of some broken notes , which is the food of too many churches , is enough to cure them ; we beseech you come out of your palaces a while , and dwell in some countrey-village , and be familiar with the people , and confer with all the poor of the parishes , as we have done , that you may not see many hundred thousands damned , by your means , and have nothing to say when it is too late , but a non putarem . as ever you believe there is a heaven to be obtained , hinder not souls from entering in , if you will not help them : strive not for a title to the keys , that you may lock the doors , and neither enter your selves , nor suffer them that would to enter . if you believe there is a hell , have some pity on souls , and tye not their hands who desire to save them . if you believe not the gospel , confess it , and deal plainly with the world . if you do believe it , forbid us not to preach it , till you have made our labours needless by better supplies . we beseech you remember the price that was paid , the blood that was shed by christ for souls , and sell them not now for a thing of nought , and make not merchandize of them for your honour , interest , or passions . remember that you , and we , and they , are ready to lye down in rottenness and dust , and our souls to appear before our judg ! and where then will be your wealth , and ease , and greatness ! and how will these things appear in the review , when you shall stand in that more clear convincing light ? fall not on the corner-stone that you should build upon , lest you be broken ; and strive not against it , lest it fall on you , and grind you to powder . who will set the bryars and thorns against him in battel ? will he not go through them , and burn them up together ? remember that our god is a consuming fire . though ( as paul once ) you have verily thought that you ought to do many things which are contrary to the gospel and work of the lord jesus , be warned in time , and do so no more . o that god would make them sensible by repentance who are truly guilty , how many thousand persons damnation is like to be charged upon them , for what they have already done in above seventeen years , hindering so many faithful ministers of christ to labour the saving of their souls . right reverend lords ! though we are your petitioners for the sake of poor souls , and of the church and gospel , and for the sake of christian love and peace , and for the sake of christ who valueth these ; yet are we not your flatterers . had we not seen in history and experience , especially in the numerous roman clergy , how far interest and self-love can blind men , and bring both learning , reason and pretences of religion into their service , it would be a wonder to us , that humane nature could be guilty of your course , and that in the face of such dreadful judgments as have lately been upon us ! that when gods displeasure had afflicted your selves ( or some of you ) for many years , you should come out of the fire so unrefined , as to use the gospel and ministers of christ much worse than your predecessors did before you ! and shew that you have learnt so little by all gods judgments on you , and on the land , as to forget what god did , and what your selves did , while you remember only what the instruments of his wrath did ! nay under pretence of remembring your afflicters , your wrath burneth implacably against the innocent , that never hurt you , nor had the hundredth part so great a hand in your afflictions as you had your selves . wonderful ! that in the very time while the plague was devouring , and souls crouding out of time into eternity , and each man a terror to another , and about a hundred thousand dead in one city , you should be a terror to your surviving brethren , and study how to stop the mouths of those that would but help to prepare poor souls for so great a change ! that when such dreadful flames have followed such wars and wasting plagues , yet nothing moveth you to see so great and grievous sins ▪ as the silencing so many hundred ministers , and the starving so many hundred thousand souls , that never deserved evil at your hands ! that the instances of the obduration of pharoah , and the pharisees , with the consequents , make you not afraid , lest the wrath should come upon you to the uttermost , while you please not god , and are contrary to all men , forbidding christs labourers to gather in his harvest , and to preach to the ignorant and impenitent that they might be saved ! thess. . . that you are no more sensible of the foretold tenor of christs final doom on them that did not feed , cloath and visit the least of his servants ; but think that you please him by reproaching those whom he calleth his brethren ; and think still that you do god service , when you do so much against his servants , and against the peoples souls ! wonderful ! when christ had so plainly rebuked his disciples for striuing who should be the greatest , and forbidden them to lord it over his heritage , and told them the necessity that they become as little children , and the servants of all ; that yet the pomp and vanities of this world , and an uncharitable mind , can make the very name of obedience to your selves , seem a sufficient pretence for the lamentable dissipations and confusions of the churches of true believers ! that ever you can preach for loving your neighbours as your selves , and not feel the convictions and sentence of your consciences for what you have already done ! for my own part i have little sense of any of your injuries to my self ! nor am i unthankful for that respect of my governours , which would have advanced me to your degree of honour . but , i must profess , if it were the last word that i should speak in the world , that i had rather be the basest scavinger , yea and suffer many deaths , than be found at the judgment-seat of christ , in the place , and under the guilt of those of you who have done what is done against the gospel and church of christ among us in this land. i am not so foolish as not to know that all this talk is grievous to you , and not the way to my ease , or honour with you , nor to procure favour in your eyes : but if in such a day , and in such a case we should all be silent , and none so much as call you to repentance , nor plead the cause of an injured saviour , and deserted souls , we should partake of the crimes which we are lamenting ; and not only gildas and salvianus , and such like , but all the prophets and apostles would condemn us . and if all that is here said have no other effect , than to increase your indignation and our sufferings : judg o posterity ! judg all disinteressed impartial men , between these reverend lords and us ; whether the petitions here presented to them , be selfish , or unreasonable , or such as should be rejected at so dear a rate as our lamentable divisions and church-distractions come to ! yea christ , whose cause and interest we plead , will certainly and shortly judge ; before whom their worldly grandeur and dignities will be insignificant , and wrathful reproaches will not prove the innocent criminal , nor justifie them that condemn the just , or that will not understand the will and interest of their lord. even so , come lord jesus , come quickly , amen . if you ask why i write all this to you , and not to his majesty and the parliament . i answer , it is not them , nor any of their laws or actions , which in all this book i intend to speak against . the most pious princes and rulers have been most addicted to reverence the counsels of the bishops in the matters of religion : all men are supposed to know more than other sorts of men in their own professions . uncontrolled fame imputeth all our sufferings to your designs and wills . and i have reason to remember , that when his majesty did graciously authorize you by his letters patents , to make such alterations in the liturgy as were necessary to the satisfaction of tender consciences , you would make none at all , but what is now done , which maketh our burden much greater than before . and more than once his majesty by his publick declarations hath warranted us to be confident , that his desires are and have been for the quiet , peace and welfare of his subjects , upon moderate terms . and i know not any man alive that doubteth , but if you would cordially desire it , and endeavour it , the king and his parliament would soon be found the healers of our wounds , and the restorers of unity and concord , by casting out that which hath cast out love , and turned the people as into guelphes and gibelines ; and we might soon see the blessed fruits of concord . amen . a postscript to the apologie for our preaching . since the writing of what goeth before , i have heard so much from the most learned accusers , of their accusations of us , as enableth me the better to know what objections to answer . and the ablest that i have met with , argueth at this rate [ mr. h. dodwell . ] . he confesseth that we cannot subscribe , declare and swear as is required , without stretching the words to an improper sense ; and such as i think will allow ( by parity of reason ) almost any lying equivocation or perjury in the world . some others of them say , if rulers will go about by fraudulent impositions to turn us out of our ministry , we will countermine them , and take their words in any tolerable sense to which we can subdue them . but we cannot practice that art . . he confesseth that we ought not to perform active obedience herein against our consciences . . but he saith it is schism in us to preach as we do , because the passive obedience of silence is our duty . his reasons are , . because a presbyters calling is dependent on the bishop , and not otherwise to be exercised . . because by preaching we become church ▪ rulers , and take the bishops office on us ; as if a man should depose the king , and take his place , because he governeth not aright , ( as he conceiveth . ) . because without such passive obedience , no peace can be kept by any government . . because the bishops and not we are judges who should preach or not . . and presbyterians are for silencing some . . and the hurt that followeth our silence , must be charged on the bishops , and not on us . so that the great crime of the nonconformists is preaching christs gospel when the bishops forbid them . here he granteth all the following matter of fact and right . . that the preachers in question ( e. g. my self , &c. ) are consecrated to god in the sacred ministerial office. . that it is sacriledg and soul-murder to alienate our selves . . that in god's ordinary way men cannot be saved without knowledg , faith and obedience . . nor be brought to these but by teaching . . that few of the churches that were burnt in london , are rebuilt . . that many parishes are so large , and the churches so small , and the preachers voice so low , that one of ten or twenty of the parishioners cannot hear , if they were never so willing . . that many ministers are insufficient ( and the parson of the parish where i live , hath been suspended ab officio these two or three years , or at least hath not officiated . ) . that therefore the silence of all the nonconformists is like to prove the damnation of many thousand souls . . that if the king only forbid us preaching ( and not the bishop ) we are not bound to such silence as he requireth . . that our bishops are not chosen by the presbyters of the diocess , or the people , but by the king ( whatever formality seem to contradict this . ) . that the extent of their diocesses is not jure divino . . that none of them is jure divino , the bishop of me , or any other such . . that national churches are but of humane institution . . that what man instituteth , man may abrogate or undo . . that if king or bishop forbid me to relieve the poor in true necessity , or to feed any family , or teach them , i must not obey . . that the prime part of religion is in positives , and but the second in negatives ; and therefore sins of omission are the first sins . . that no sin must be matter of obedience to bishops or any man. . that the apostles had their power to edification , and not to destruction . . that in case of controversies of faith , the church may not judg in partem utram libet , but only for the truth . . that all bishops power is limited , and not absolute . . that when they command without power , only passive obedience is due . . that bishops are not made judges whether there shall be preaching and worshipping god or not ; but only to order it aright , and judg by whom it shall be done . . that bishops cannot dispense with the law of god , nor humane power prevail against divine . . that order is for the end and for the thing ordered , and not against it . . that natural morals are to be preferred caeteris paribus , before positives , much more before humane orders , and god will have mercy and not sacrifice . . that the silencing of the faithful preachers of the gospel greatly pleaseth the devil ; and that he is so far of the silencers mind . . he accuseth not the silenced ministers with any false doctrine . . he chargeth them not with immoralities , or a bad life , saving his supposed sin of schism , for preaching christs gospel when forbidden . . he confesseth that paul must preach , though forbidden ; and that he chargeth timothy before god and angels to preach in season and out of season . . he confesseth that the pastors for . years preached when lawful magistrates were against it , and for bad them . . i acquaint him , that i my self have the bishops ordination , the bishop of the diocess license not repealed , and the kings license : and yet unless i will say , that i trust to the bishops license , as that without which all were schism , it is schism still : so that it seemeth to be made necessary , not only to have it , but to believe in it , or trust it . on the other side we grant as followeth . . that we must not over-value our own grace or gifts , nor undervalue other men , nor pretend that our labours are more necessary than they are . . we must not disobey our lawful rulers by omission or commission ▪ in any thing which it belongeth to their office or power to command or forbid us . . that if they command or forbid without power , that which belongeth not to their office ( as that which belongeth to a mans private trade , or self-government , or family-government , &c. ) if it be not in it self evil , we should materially obey them finis gratia , to preserve order and reverence to their office , and that we embolden not men to disobey in other things ▪ though formally that particular injunction be powerless of itself . . that if they command us that which god forbiddeth , or forbid that which god commandeth , we must patiently suffer what unjust punishment they inflict on us for not obeying them , and not resist them in their executions by force . ( though we cannot say that this hath no exceptions ; as if a bishop would ravish a woman , she may resist him to save her chastity ; yet at least no resistance is lawful which deposeth the governour , or disableth him to govern ) . . we think it not lawful to invade or take the publick temples or tythes , or other maintenance of the publick ministers , against the kings will , or without authority . . we believe that lawful rulers have power to forbid such ministers to preach in this or that place , or any where in their dominions , whose preaching is such as tendeth to do more harm than good . . had we any reasonable conviction that our ministry is unnecessary , we would obey our rulers , though they silenced us causlesly ; and would seek some other place or way of serving god. . in those times , places , and circumstances , which perswade us that more hurt than good will come by it if we preach , we will then and there forbear it , though it be not as an act of formal obedience , nor a desertion of our office , or of the exercise of it at other times . . we judg it our duty to further the good success of the conformable ministers to the utmost of our power . . and we take schism to be a great sin , and that which we are bound to do the best we can not only to avoid our selves , but to cure or hinder in others . but we cannot in our present case give over the preaching of christs gospel for the reasons before given . . we judg it a violation of the grand law of charity to agree with the bishops , that the people shall be damned by thousands , and content our selves , that not we , but they shall answer for it . . we judge it perfidiousness to violate our ministerial covenant with god , in which we gave up our selves to his service . . we judge it also heinous sacriledge , it being a holy work to which we are devoted . . it is an idolatrous setting up mans will and power above and against gods. . it is a preferring of pretended order , before the thing ordered , and that which is less than sacrifice ( even sin ) before mercy , yea the greatest mercy . . it is a pleasing of the devil , who is the great enemy of preaching the gospel , and of sinners repentance and salvation ; and whose instruments the hinderers of the gospel are , we leave to consideration . . it is a contradicting of the prayer taught us by christ ; pray the lord of the harvest to send forth labourers : for we are sure he hath not sent forth supernumeraries . . it is a wilful running on christs damning sentence after his premonition , matth. . by omitting greater matters than feeding , cloathing , visiting , &c. . it will be a burying our talent with the unprofitable servant , and denying ▪ god the service which he hath qualified us for , and all our former time hath been spent in preparing for : and so it is as a casting away our time and life . . it will be a wilful compliance with phariseism , after the warning of their ill examples , who preferred their orders , traditions , sabbaths , and their own authority , before the good of the peoples souls and bodies . . it will be an encouraging compliance with church-tyranny in exercitio , if we will give over preaching as oft as bishops forbid us , because we will not take their oaths , and be stigmatized with their per : i say , supposing this had been the case . . we think it will be a compliance with church-tyranny quo ad titulum , being ready to prove not only that the present diocesans have no true power over us ( but what is given them by the king as magistrates ) , but also that their frame of government is destructive of the churches ministry ( both episcopacy and presbytery ) and discipline of christs appointment . . we are afraid of being guilty , as things now go , of mens usurpation and injury against the king ; while we have the kings license to preach , and they tell us not only that the king hath not so much authority to license us as they , but also that he hath less authority to silence us than they ; and that it is lawful to preach when kings unjustly forbid us , as the ancient pastors did , but not when these bishops forbid us . . in short , when we think what a work it is to damn souls by starving them , or to hinder their salvation , our hearts dread to participate in such guilt , considering , . it is contrary to the very nature of god , who is love it self : and we find that the silencers are ready to trust in gods love to themselves in the hour of their extremity : and shall we think that he so little loveth the souls of men , as to desire that they should be damned , rather than saved against the will of a diocesan ? . it is contrary to the very office and design of christ , who laid down his life a ransome for many , and came to seek and to save that which was lost , and would not cease when the rulers forbad him to teach the people , and demanded an account of his authority , but would break even the rest of the sabbath to save mens health , telling them , that the sabbath was made for man , and not man for the sabbath ; and if prelacy be of god , it is for the peoples salvation , and not their salvation to be sacrificed to a prelates will. . it is contrary to the sanctifying-work of the holy ghost , who by the gospel converteth man to god. . it is contrary to christs institution of the ministerial office , which was for mens salvation . . it is contrary to our duty to the catholick church , whose increase we must endeavour . . it is contrary to our daily prayers : to pray god to have mercy upon all men , and to deny them his mercy , and starve their souls , is gross hypocrisie . . it is contrary to our baptismal-vow , in which we engaged our selves to fight under christs banner ( in the place where he should set us ) against the world , the flesh and the devil . . it is contrary to our due love to our native countrey ; for whose temporal welfare even a heathen would have dyed . . it is contrary to that peace of the church which is pretended for it : for it destroyeth the necessary foundations and ends of peace . . and it is contrary to the very honour of the prelates themselves , which is set in competition with things of inestimable worth : for it will make the people that believe the gospel , to take such men as ( prosessing themselves the fathers of the church ) do silence the faithful preachers of it , to be grand enemies of christ and souls , and the captains in the army of the devil . . all good men long for the propagating of the gospel to the heathen and infidel world ! and shall we then be guilty of suppressing it at home ? . the papists , and all such will condemn us , who will not give over preaching , even when king , and law , and bishops forbid them . and shall we incur all this guilt by ceasing for nothing , yea even now while we are licensed by the king ? we had rather be taken in the company of thieves in a pursuit , than to be found among per's , and soul murderers at judgment : sion is the city of salvation , but in babylon is found the blood of souls , of whom for carnal ends they made merchandize . the foregoing reasons of our accusation are sufficiently answered already . i. where it is said that our calling is dependent on the bishops ! i answer : it is yet lis sub judice , whether such a prelacy be of god , we mean the english species ( that is , for one man to destroy a thousand , or many hundred churches , and make them but parts of one diocesan church , and without any bishop under him , to rule and exercise the power of the keys over that one church by a lay-chancellor , in a secular manner , and deny the power of the church-keys to all the demi-presbyters ) ? if these diocesans were of god , so is not every one that by worldly power gets possession of the place , being neither chosen by the clergy or the people , any more than one that forcibly usurpeth the name and dignity : what maketh that man a bishop over me any more than another man ? had they said the king , i should have reverenced the answer at least ( though the arrians had the same in constantius and valens's days ) : but when they trust not to this , but to their divine right , what is it that is their title ? they say , consecration . i answer , . consecration is but a ministerial investiture ( like marriage ) of one that before had right by election : this they deny , and lay all on consecration , and not election . . but if so , then if the unjustest claimer be consecrated , he is our bishop . and then the consecrators have more power to determine who shall be bishops than kings and people . . but who be these consecrators ? are they any bishops whatever , or some in special above the rest ? if any , then any wicked bishops may make more , and undo the church ? and then , what if three bishops consecrate one , and three another , and three another , over one diocess ? are they all the bishops of that diocess ? or which ? . but the objectors confess that consecration doth but make one a bishop without a determinate church ; but to make him the bishop of this or that church , humane application is necessary . but , . where find they in scripture a bishop made , that was not made the bishop of a particular church ? i believe that a minister of christ in general , and an evangelist in specie , may be made before he is fixed to any particular church : but not a bishop , if scripture must be the rule . . but if he be consecrated a bishop , and not my bishop , ( or any other mans ) this layeth on me no obligation to obey him . . but they are forced at last , to resolve all their power and our duty into humane will or institution . it is man that must make him my bishop : and this they call the application of the power ! but by what act is this application ? is it by election ? or by another consecration ? or how ? sure they will say by election . and doubtless some one must first elect him to be a bishop indeterminately ? it 's strange that men must be consecrated that no men chuse . then they chuse themselves : and then the consecrators must consecrate any one that will chuse himself to be a bishop : but if not so , they make the consecrators chusers , and therefore should not say that election doth nothing to make him a bishop . but who are the second determing electors ? they know not who to lay it on , nor who it is that maketh a man bishop of these persons , and this place . one will say the consecrators ( and then they know not who these must be , and we may possibly have ten bishops at once ) , another will say the clergy ( which really here chuse not ) ; another will say the king , and they must all come to that or nothing , though they are very loth ( for none of them will say , the people ) . . but what is the dependance of our calling on the bishops ( supposing them of gods appointment ) ? is it a dependance , . of essence , . for operation , . or for the order and circumstances of operation ? and do they mean that we depend , . on the bishops first ordination ? . or on his continued will ? . if our calling ( as to authority and obligation ) did depend in esse on the will of the ordainer as such , that is , that we receive it from him ( of which more elsewhere ) ; yet doth it not follow , that the continuance of it dependeth on his will , and that he may undo what he hath done . for he engageth men to god durante vita in a perpetual office ( which maketh the papist call it an indelible character ) : in ordination a contract is made between christ and the minister ; and till they null it that contracted it , he cannot do it that did but ministerially contract them . a priest may marry man and wise , but cannot unmarry them . a bishop may crown and anoint the king , but cannot depose him . . and if the bishop cannot null the esse of our calling , than the operation is not at his will : for . the esse is nothing but the potestas operandi cum obligatione . . else it were left to the will of bishops whether christ should have any ministers and worship , and whether the gospel should be preached , or souls be saved . . but if it be only the time , place and order of our ministration that is left to bishops , they have no power to forbid the necessary preaching of the gospel , on pretence of ordering it : to order operation , is not to prohibit it : he doth not order my studies , writing , travel , building , who biddeth me study , write , travel , build no more . . as the bishops of spain at trent defended the divine right of their office against the pope , so must we ours against the prelates . christ hath instituted the office of presbyters himself ; which is more generally agreed on among christians , than that he hath instituted our prelacy : but if dr. hammond's opinion hold true , that there were no subject ▪ presbyters in scripture-times , we shall think it hard to prove that there ought to be any now : and then all ministers must be of one order . . suppose scotland possessed of the christian religion under such presbyters as coleman , aidan , finan , &c. and after a courtier perswadeth the king to call one man their bishop , and make him be consecrated ; are all those churches and holy pastors on a sudden by that act become such dependants on that bishop , as that they must give over preaching when he bids them ? . by your rules men may enlarge diocesses at their pleasure ; and if the king will make all england one diocess , he may put down all the bishopricks save one , and give one man power to chuse whether christ shall have any gospel or souls in england ; and so christ must shortly be no christ or saviour , without the bishops leave . ii. to the second reason , i deny that by preaching we use any prelatical power ; the ( pretended ) office of a prelate is not to be the sole preacher , but the governour of preachers . if we made our selves governours of preachers , we should assume their power . but to preach is our own work . obj. you call and govern assemblies . ans. we govern not diocesses nor other presbyters ; and to guide particular assemblies in worship , was ever acknowledged the presbyters work . obj. yes , under the bishops government , but not without him . ans. to do the work of his own office without him that should govern him , could be but a disobedience against that governour , but not a deposing him , and usurpation of his government . if a physician , taylor , or shoomaker , exercise his calling when the king forbiddeth him , yea or a schoolmaster or minister who governs others , this is not to depose the king , and take his power , but only to disobey his power . can you perswade all popish priests in england , that they depose the king ? iii. the third reason is as gross a fallacy , supposing that our silence is but passive obedience ; but passive obedience ( as it is commonly called ) is but patient suffering without resistance . if the bishops excommunicate us , or imprison us , or deprive us of all ministerial maintenance , or take all our estates , we never resist them , but endure all . but when the first part of religion is positive , and the second negative , will any say that it is but passive obedience to omit all our duty if a bishop forbid it us ? then it were but passive obedience to give over loving god and man , and maintaining our families , or praying to god , or doing any good , if the bishop forbid it us . . and for keeping peace ( which you demand how it should be done ) i answer you : . satan keepeth possession of his kingdom in some peace . peaceable unholiness is the surest way to hell . . we are commanded , but if it be possible , and as much as in us lieth , to live peaceably with all men . but peace is first in the power of rulers ; and if they will have no peace , it is not in our power to procure it against their wills , but only to do our part towards it . if a bishop should forbid all men to feed their children and servants with any wholsome food , and then say , what peace or order can you have without such obedience ? this is but to put a scorn on the churches when they have persecuted them , and to take away their peace , and then ask them why they will not have it . iv. to the fourth reason , that the bishop is judg who shall preach . i answer : . were the bishops calling justified , yet he hath not power to judg in partem utram libet , whether there shall be preaching or none . the churches in london are burnt down ; the parishes are many so large , that one of ten or twenty cannot hear in publick . if it be in the bishops power to judg that nine parts of london shall have no preaching , why may he not so judg of the other tenth part ? and if he may judg that there shall be no preaching , then why not that there shall be no praying and worshipping god ? and if so in london , why not in other places ? and so whether there shall be any gospel , religion , or salvation ? in cases of faith , a council hath power only to judg truly that there is a christ , a resurrection , a life to come , and not to judg that there is no christ , no resurrection , &c. and holy practice is as necessary to our salvation , as right believing . and therefore the bishops may judg that we shall preach , and pray , and worship god , but not that we shall not . obj but they are to judg who shall preach . the gospel is not cast out , if two thousand of you be silenced . if there were not preachers , there may be readers , and the liturgy . ans. let them set up such competent teachers in a sufficient number of churches as will tell a sober conscience that all our labours are become unnecessary , and then we shall think further of the case . but is it so in london now ? or can any be ignorant that it is not so ? and god useth to work according to the aptitude of means ; and too many churches in the countreys have such teachers as say over a few cold words as boys do their lessons ; and when experience telleth us how few are the better for them , we are afraid of being so hypocritally modest as to let souls perish for fear of seeming to undervalue your raw lads , or scandalous ignorant priests , and to overvalue our selves . . are the bishops absolute judges , or not ? if absolute , we must obey them if they command murder or idolatry . if not , what are the limits of their power ? sure it is gods universal law. they have no power against his commanding or forbidding word ; none against him , or against the common good , and mens salvation . if popish and other casuists use so to limit kings , as to say that they are ministers of god for good ; and that they have no power against the common good , and that all laws against it are null ; may we not much more say so of all our diocesans ? you grant that they cannot command us to sin , or forbid us duty : but then either we have a judgment of discerning to know what is duty and sin , or not . if not , then still if they forbid us duty , and say it is no duty , or command sin , and say it is no sin , we must obey . but if yea , then if we prove in an error , it will be our sin : and if the bishops prove in the error , it will be theirs . and to obey conscience before a bishop , is in our sense nothing but to obey god before a bishop , in doing what we judg to be his will. v. the next reason is none to us : for if presbyterians or any other , silence christs ministers causlesly , and forbid that preaching of the gospel , which is necessary to mens salvation , we abhor it in one as well as in another . vi. and as to the last , . we believe not that if christ should ask us , why we preach not , it would excuse us to say , the bishop forbad us ; no more than if he ask us , why did you not feed , clothe , visit me in my servants ? the reasons forementioned tell you why we think we cannot be excused . . but if we could , nature and grace incline us to do all the good we can do in the world . and if thousands were like to be drowned , if we did not help the ship-master when he forbids us , nature teacheth us to prefer their lives before his will. and when our first question is whether according to gods ordinary operation by means , so many thousands shall be saved from ignorance , sin , and hell , or be damned ? for you to determine that they shall be damned if the bishop will , and then come in with a second question , who shall answer for it ? is so horrid to us , as frightneth us from obeying the silencers , as if we saw satan himself perswading us to obey them . will you give us leave openly to tell the people where our controversie lyeth ? that it is the bishops will that they shall rather be all damned in their ignorance and sin , than taught , converted , and saved by nonconformists ? but they say , that it 's they , and not we , shall answer for it . as if they said , their blood be on us . but we are loth to yeild that you must be untaught and damned , though we were never so sure to be excused . whose interest or work it is , christs or satans , to forbid faithful ministers to preach the gospel , and do their office , the light of grace , when you have all done , will tell the gracious , as the light of nature telleth men whose interest and work it is to deny to as many their necessary food . should you deny the necessity of either ( word or food ) still grace or nature would from age to age resist you . of the two , methinks those that perswade us to stretch to conform against our consciences , that we may preach , do look more favourably towards the common good , than those that perswade us not at all to conform , but meerly to give over preaching the gospel . the very motion hath an ugly aspect ; it affrights us , as perceiving the voice of an affrighting solicitor in it . it amazeth us to think that some scholars of great parts , and humility , and obliging carriage , dare make such a motion to so many vowed and consecrated to the ministry , while in so many parishes so many thousand souls are wallowing in ignorance , impiety and sensuality , and have not a church to hear in , nor a minister to instruct them , but must stay at home , or worse , for want of room , were they never so willing . shall the churchwarden on his oath present twenty , or forty , or fifty thousand in a parish for not coming into a church where two thousand can scarce hear the preacher ? or shall all those thousands be idle , play or drink , without trouble and a few hundreds of them be hunted and ruined , that rather join in gods worship with a silenced minister ? o how easie would it be to our flesh , and how dreadful to our consciences , to forbear , and leave men to themselves ! have men nothing to accuse us of , as our intollerable crimes , but the greatest and costliest duties that ever we performed in the world . the lord keep us all from seducing faction , and forgive us the sin which we see , and which we see not , and cause us to pray harder for his glorious appearing , and most righteous final judgment . come , lord jesus , come quickly . amen . interest real or mistaken , ruleth the world . gods interest is the highest with all the sanctified . i. god's interest is the pleasing of his will in his glory , which is much in the love and concord of his servants . ii. the interest of the universal church is , the pleasing and glorifying god in its unity and strength , in the same faith , hope , love and obedience to christ the sole universal king. iii. the interest of particular churches is , their pleasing and glorifying god by their union with christ and the church universal , by faith , love and obedience ; and their holy union between pastors and people , and of the people among themselves . iv. the interest of the kingdom is , its pleasing and glorifying god , and the welfare of the whole by a holy unity with god the universal king , and of the soveraign and subjects , and of the subjects among themselves . v. the interest of the king is , the pleasing and glorifying god in the foresaid welfare and just government of the kingdom , his own salvation , and his political strength and honour , which consisteth much in the most inseparable twist of union and interests with his united subjects . vi. the interest of the pastors of the church is , the pleasing and glorifying god in the ministerial uniting of souls to god in christ , and among themselves , in the same holy life , and light , and love , and their own salvation and consolation herein . vii . the interest of each particular christian is , his pleasing and glorifying god in his holy union with christ , and with the church universal ; and subordinately his holy unity and concord with the ecclesiastical and civil society where he liveth . viii . the true interest of an honest separatist and papist ( in england ) ( supposing them uncurably such ) requireth them to live quietly and peaceably in subjection to the king , and in love with others , in the concordant practice of so much of religion ( even the laws of nature or common christianity ) which we are all agreed in , and in such tolerated exercises of their several errors as is consistent with the common welfare , and not to exasperate others by reproaches , or striving to get into suspected power . ix . the mistaken interest of the pope and papal clergy is , to have their own wills in ruling all the world ; and to that end , to weaken and disable kings and states by divisions , contentions , and diversions , and to draw them by deceit to a voluntary subjection , as necessary to their salvation , and to the concord of their subjects , and the christian world ; and to silence and disgrace all such as are against them . x. the mistaken interest of english papists , quakers , and all true uncurable separatists is , to encrease and strengthen their several parties , and if it may be to get into power , and to that end , to unite in the bond of a common toleration , and to make the tolerated party as strong as they can ; and to weaken the united ministry and churches ; and therefore to cry down a comprehension or union of the sober conformists and nonconformists ; and to desire that those impositions which themselves account sinful , may be continued , that good may come by the evil , viz. lest the union of the rest should weaken the tolerated party , and render them inconsiderable ; and to bring the established ministry , and all that are for union with them , into contempt by reproaches . xi . the true interest of a meer nonconformist requireth him , to commit no known sin on pretence of obedience , unity , or peace ; nor forsake his ministry , whatever he suffer for it ; but to live in loyalty , peace , and patience , and in love and communion with the parochial churches , and all christians , so far as they are agreed . xii . the true interest of a conformist requireth him , to use all lawful means to procure as comprehensive a union and concord of all sound and faithful ministers and christians as they are capable of , and to bear with tolerable differences ; to live in peace among themselves , and by ministerial skill , fidelity , diligence , and holy living , and by condescending humility and love to all men , to win dissenters , to edifie and unite the people , and so to advance the true honour of the ministry , and to encrease and corroborate the church . octob. . . r. b. finis . the contents . a prefatory history of our case . page , &c. our judgment how far we are bound to preach . p. . our reasons for preaching . i. we judge it sacriledge to for sake the work to which we were consecrated . p. . ii. we cannot be ignorant of mens obliging necessities . p. . iii. many express texts of scripture oblige us . p. . many objections answered , to p. . whether princes may silence us ? largely answered . of mans binding conscience . of the peoples choice of pastors . iv. by deserting our ministerial work , we shall sin against the natural law of love , and be guilty of soul-murder . p. . objections and accusations answered , . that our preciseness falsly pretendeth mens necessity . p. . . that we think too highly of our own preaching as necessary . p. . . that our preaching doth more harm than good . p. . . that we have made the people disobedient , hypocrites , &c. p. . . that when we had liberty we cast out catechising , the creed , the lords-prayer , decalogue , and church-government , &c. p. . . that we lived in sequestrations on other mens bread . mr. durel's accusations of my self herein , answered . p. . . that we silenced and ejected others when we had power . p. . . the better must suffer with the worse , if they will joyn with them . p. . . that our preaching will increase mens dislike of government . p. . . that our pretended piety is pharisaical hypocrisie , pride , zealous villanies . the pharisees described . p. . . of gathering assemblies , and separating from the church . p. . . for coming into cities and corporations , within five miles ▪ p. . . the church giveth you power , and may take it from you , as the old conformists ( in mr. rathbands book &c. ) confess . p. . . you are against bishops , because you cannot be bishops . why did you demur so long before you refused preferments ? p. . . must the laws be changed as oft as tender heads will scruple ? p. . . obedience beseemeth tender consciences : disobedience is as the sin of witchcraft . p. . . the only reason why some forsook the ministry is , that they durst not abjure the covenant . why do they not do the rest ? p. . . why not all tolerated as well as you , and so let in popery ? p. . . preaching was necessary before the world became christian , &c. p. . . why do you not go preach among the indians ? p. . . the folly and villany of your religion is so opened by the debater and the ecclesiastical politician , that you should be ashamed to ask leave to preach . ibid. . you overthrow all principles of government ( p. . ) this is answered since in a full volume , called , the d plea for peace . . they object our doctrine as calvinism and puritanism , &c. the intended scheme of my reconciling doctrine ( since published ) . p. . . you would make our reconciliation with the church of rome impossible , which is more desirable than with you . p. . . abating would countenance your scruples by authority , and make you thought to be true reformers . p. . . it is rebellion that is in your hearts , as your not renouncing the covenant , and resistance sheweth . ( the foresaid d plea for peace fully answereth this accusation ) . p. . . we remember your practices heretofore , &c. p. . . dr. goods charge of the kings death , answered in a letter to him . p. . . the inhumane calumnies of a book , called , the modern pleas for comprehension , toleration , &c. considered . p. . . the errors and faults of sectaries imputed to us . p. . . dr. ashtons and the debate-makers accusation of us , of covetousness , and pride , and delaying to refuse preferment . p. . . the calumnies of a book , called , a free and impartial enquiry into the causes of the very great esteem and honour that the nonconformists are in , &c. p. . a notable passage of clemangis , and another of bernard . p. . the true case of the nonconformists sufferings which they are said to under go by covetousness for gain . p. . . mr. hollingworths story of a nonconformists cruelty . p. . . henry fowlis heaviest accusation examined . p. . twenty reasons why the bishops and conformable clergy should desire and endeavour the nonconformists ministry ; plainly and seriously urged to their consciences . p. . a postscript , answering mr. h. dodwell's reasons against our preaching and publick worship , when forbidden by the bishops . what he cannot deny us ; what we grant him ; what we cannot grant , with the reasons of our dissent . p. . an account of the interests of all the several parties among us : interest ruleth the world. p. . reader , i have not time to gather the errata of the press . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e all this was written . * . ●y gods mer●y , since the●riting of this have publi●hed it , called ●atholick the●ogy . * the earl of orery , who was present all the while , at both times , that ever i spake to cromwell , which was plainly and faithfully to his displeasure . † the lord chief justice hale told me he had hookers last books before , and i now have the last printed long before bishop gauden published them . ☞ ●his was writ●●n when we ●ad the kings ●icense . by the king. a proclamation. charles r. ... we having, with the advice and consent of our parliaments, past so many acts in favors of the protestant religion, against field-conventicles ... scotland. sovereign ( - : charles ii) approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page image. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). b wing c estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. b ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) by the king. a proclamation. charles r. ... we having, with the advice and consent of our parliaments, past so many acts in favors of the protestant religion, against field-conventicles ... scotland. sovereign ( - : charles ii) charles ii, king of england, - . sheet ([ ] p.) printed by the heir of andrew anderson, printer to his most sacred majesty, edinburgh : anno dom. . title from caption and first line of text. royal arms at head of text; initial letter. dated at end: given at our court at white-hall, the . day of june, , and of our reign the thretty one year. reproduction of the original in the national library of scotland. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng dissenters, religious -- legal status, laws, etc. -- scotland -- early works to . church and state -- scotland -- early works to . broadsides -- scotland -- th century. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - mona logarbo sampled and proofread - mona logarbo text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion c r 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 royal blazon or coat of arms by the king. a proclamation . charles r. charles the second , by the grace of god , king of scotland , england , france and ireland , defender of the faith , &c. to all and sundry our good subjects whom these presents do or may concern , greeting : we having , with the advice and consent of our parliaments , past so many acts in favours of the protestant religion , against field-conventicles , whereby our subjects were withdrawn from publick ordinances , in such ways as exposed them to hear jesuits , or any other irregular preachers , and were at last debauched to meet with arms informed rebellions ; we might have expected a most hearty concurrence from all such as resolved to live to live religiously and peaceably in suppressing those disorders : in place whereof magistrates having by their negligence , and masters by their connivance , hightned those distempers into a formed rebellion , founded upon extravagancies , inconsistent with the protestant religion and our monarchy ; which , we having by the mercy of god , and the affection of our subjects , overcome s ; o totally , that our clemency cannot be lyable to any mis-construction : we have therefore thought fit , with the advice of our privy council , to recommend the vigorous execution of all our former laws and proclamations against such rendezvouzes of rebellion ; commanding hereby our judges , magistrates and officers of all ranks and degrees to apprehend , condemn and punish all such as frequent any field-conventicles , the ministers by death , and the hearers by fining , and otherways according to the prescript of our laws ; such as bear arms there , being to be demained as traitors , conform to our former proclamation , dated the . day of may last , and ordaining that all masters shall be lyable for presenting such of their tennants , and such live upon their ground to underly the law in our justice-airs , conform to the sixth act , par. third james the fifth . as also , we most peremptorily command all in office under us , to prosecute with all legal rigor , those inhumane and execrable murderers of the late arch-bishop of st. andrews , and all such as have had accession thereto , by concealing or ressetting the assassinates . but we , being desirous to reclaim all such in that our ancient kingdom , as have been misled by ignorance , or blind zeal ( the pretexts of disorders ) and to convince all indifferent persons , that too great severity is as far from our design , as our inclinations , have according to the power reserved to us , by the fifth act , and second session of our second parliament , suspended the execution of all laws and acts against such as frequent house-conventicles in the low countreys on the south-side of the river of tay only : excepting always the town of edinburgh , and two miles round about the same , with the lordships of musselburgh and dalkeith , the cities of st. andrews and glasgow , and stirling , and a mile about each of them ; being fully resolved , not to suffer the seat of our government , nor our universities to be pestred with any irregularities whatsoever . and for a further evidence of our protection to all who resolve to live peaceably , we hereby suspend all diligences for fines upon the account of conventicles , except such fines as are imposed by our privy council , and such fines of inferiour judicatures , as were uplifted or transacted for , prior to the . of may last , and all letters of intercommuning , and other executions , except in so far as concerns those who were our actual servants , or in publick trust . but to the end , that none whom we may justly suspect , shall under the colour of this favour , continue to preach rebellion , schism and heresie ; we hereby ordain all such as shall be suffered to preach , to have their names given in , and surety found to our privy council for their peaceable behaviour , only one preacher being allowed to a paroch ; and none to be allowed who have appeared against us in this late rebellion , nor none who shall be admitted by the un-conform ministers in any time hereafter : assuring all those to whom we have extended this favour , that if they or any of them , shall for the future frequent any field-conventicles , or disturb the peace of these our kingdoms , we will secure our people , and maintain our authority and laws by such effectual courses , as in ruining the authors , cannot be thought rigid , after so insufferable and unnecessary provocations . this our forberance being to continue in force only during our royal pleasure , as we shall see those dissenters deserve our favour . and to the end , all our good subjects may have notice of this our royal will and pleasure , we do hereby command our lyon king at arms , and his brethren heraulds , macers , pursevants , messengers at arms , to make proclamation hereof , at the mercat-cross of edinburgh . given at our court at white-hall , the . day of june , . and of our reign the thretty one year . by his majesties command , lauderdale . god save the king . edinburgh , printed by the heir of andrew anderson , printer to his most sacred majesty , anno dous . . a proclamation, against field-conventicles scotland. privy council. approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page image. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). b wing s estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. b ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a proclamation, against field-conventicles scotland. privy council. scotland. sovereign ( - : charles ii) sheet ([ ] p.) printed by the heir of andrew anderson, printer to his most sacred majesty, edinburgh : . caption title. royal arms at head of text; initial letter. intentional blank spaces in text. dated at end: given under our signet at edinburgh, the eight day of april, one thousand six hundred eighty and one, and of our reign, the thretty three year. signed: wil. paterson, cl. sti. concilii. reproduction of the original in the national library of scotland. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng dissenters, religious -- legal status, laws, etc. -- scotland -- early works to . assembly, right of -- scotland -- early works to . broadsides -- scotland -- th century. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - scott lepisto sampled and proofread - scott lepisto text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion royal blazon or coat of arms c r 〈…〉 a proclamation , against field-conventicles . charles , by the grace of god , king of great-britain , france and ireland , defender of the faith ; to _____ our lyon king at armes , and his brethren herauld , macers of our privy council , pursevants , messengers at arms , our sheriffs in that part , conjunctly and severally , specially constitute greeting : forasmuch as field-conventicles , which were in our laws , by the universal consent of all the representatives of this our kingdom , declared to be the rendezvouses of rebellion ; are now found , by the undenyable experience of all sober men , to have bred up the unwarry commons unto a most atheistical giddiness , to the owning of those murdering principles , which are a reproach to the protestant religion , and inconsistent with the security of every private man , and to the contemning of their own master and landlords ; we therefore , with advice of our privy council , resolving to secure , not only our government , and such of our subjects , as live peaceably under it , but even to restore these very masters and landlords to their just rights , over these their tenants and servants , which they so justly lost by suffering them to frequent field-conventicles , in which they were so debauched in their duty to them ; do hereby command and ordain , that how soon soever any field-conventicle , or other conventicles , understood to be field-conventicles by construction of law , shall be kept , the heretor in whose lands or house the same is kept , whether the lands belong to them in propperty or commonty , if they be present , or their baliffs or factors if they be absent , or their tutors or curators , and their baliffs or factors if they by minors , shall immediately advertise the sheriff of the shire , lords of regality , stewart of the stewartry , bailiff or bailirie , and the magistrates of the burghs , within whose jurisdiction the said field-conventicle was kept , within three dayes after the same is kept ; certifying them , if they fall to give the said advertisement , they shall be fined in the fourth part of their valued yearly rent ; upon which information , the said sheriffs and other magistrates foresaids , shall be oblieged , and are hereby commanded and required , to order the heretors of the paroch to meet , and to take trial who were at , or in accession to the said conventicle . and to the end , they may be the better able to proceed in the said trial , the the saids heretors are hereby impowered to examine upon oath , such as they shall suspect , or who shall be best able to give information therein , and to return to the sheriff , or other magistrates foresaids , the trial so taken by them , and that with all possible expedition ; and which trial , the said sheriffs and magistrates , or ther deputes , are hereby required immediately to cite before them , those contained in the said return , or any others whom they have reason to suspect to have been at the saids conventicles , and to fine such of them as compear , and amerciat such as are absent , as accords of the law : upon which sentences , hornings and captions being raised , under the signer of our privy council , by the saids sheriffs , and the other officers foresaid , ( to whom the half of the s●ids fines and amerciam 〈◊〉 s , are for their pains and expenses , hereby declared to belong ) the heretors and masters of the saids rebels , are hereby oblidged to concur with the sheriff or other officers , their deputs or others whom they shall name , to the poinding the saids rebels goods , apprehending their persons , and that under the pain of being lyable to the fine , and penal●i●s inposed upon the delinquents . likeas , the saids sheriffs and others foresaids , are hereby required to give an account of their diligence in the premisses , to our privy council , upon the first council of july and december yearly , under the pains contained in the eighteenth act of the third session of our second parliament ; all which shall be with or prejudice to us ; and our officers of state in our name , to raise pursuits before the lords of our privy council against such who have been present at field-conventicles ( though without arms ) for an arbitrary punishment , or to insist before our criminal court , against such who have been thereat in arms , for underlying the crime of treason , conform to the fifth act of the first session of our first parliament , and our proclamation , dated the thirdenth day of may , one thousand six hundred seventy and nine years . and to the effect , our pleasure in the premisses may be made known ; our will is , and we charge you strictly and command , that incontinent , these our letters seen , ye pass to the mercat cross of edinburgh , and mercat crosses of the head burghs of the several shires within this kingdom , and other places needful , and therein our name and authority , by open proclamation , make publication of the promisses , that none pretend ignorance , according to justice , as ye will answer to us thereupon ; the which to do , we commit to you cojounctly and severally , our full power , by thir our letters , delivering them by you duly execute , and ind●●●… again to she bearer . and ordains these presents to be printed . given under our signet at edinburgh , the eight day of april , one thousand six hundred eighty and one , and of our eaign , the threity three years . per actum dominorum secreti concilii . wil. paterson . cl. sti. concilii . god save the king . edinburgh , printed by the heir of andrew anderson , printer to his most sacred majesty , . the loyal nonconformist; or, an account what he dare swear, and vvhat not. wild, robert, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page image. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing w estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) the loyal nonconformist; or, an account what he dare swear, and vvhat not. wild, robert, - . sheet ([ ] p.) s.n.], [london : printed in the year, . signed: r.w. author and place of publication suggested by wing. in verse. reproduction of original in the society of antiquaries (london, england). created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng loyalty oaths -- early works to . dissenters, religious -- england. broadsides -- england -- th century. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - elspeth healey sampled and proofread - elspeth healey text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the loyal nonconformist ; or , an account what he dare swear , and what not . i fear an oath , before i swear to take it ; and well i may , for 't is the oath of god : i fear an oath , when i have sworn , to break it ; and well i may , for vengeance hath a rod. and yet i may swear , and must too , 't is due both to my heav'nly , and my earthly king : if i assent , it must be full and true ; and if i promise , i must do the thing . i am no quaker , not at all to swear ; nor papist , to swear east , and mean the west ; but am a protestant , and shall declare what i cannot , and what i can protest . i never will endeavour alteration of monarchy , or of that royal name , which god hath chosen to cōmand this nation , but will maintain his person , crown & fame : what he commands , if conscience say not nay , ( for conscience is a greater king than he ) for conscience-sake , not fear , i will obey ; and if not active , passive i will be . i 'll pray that all his subjects may agree , and never more be crumbled into parts ; i will endeavour that his majestie m●y not be king of clubs , but king of hearts . the royal oa● i swear i will defend ; but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ivy which doth hug it so , i swar that is a thief , and not a friend , and about steeples fitter for to grow . the civil-government i will obey ; but for church-policy i swear i doubt it ; and if my bible want th' apocrypha , i 'l swear my book may be compleat without it . i dare not swear church-government is right as it should be ; but this i dare to swear , if they should put me to 't , the bishops might do better , and be better than they are . nor will i swear for all that they are worth , that bishopricks will stand , & doomsday see ; and yet i 'l swear the gospel holdeth forth christ with his ministers till then will be . that peter was a prelate they aver ; but i 'l not swear 't when all is said and done but i dare swear , and hope i shall not err , he preach'd a hundred sermons to their one . peter a fisher was , and he caught men : and they have nets , & in them catch men too ; yet i 'l not swear they are alike , for them he caught he sav'd : these catch , & them undo . i dare not swear that courts ecclesiastick do in their laws make just and gentle votes ; but i 'l be sworn that burton , pryn and bastwick were once ear-witnesses of harsher notes . archdeacons , deans & chapters are brave men , by canon , not by scripture : but to this , if i be call'd , i 'll swear , and swear agen , that no such chapter in my bible is . i 'll not condemn those presbyterians , who refused bishopricks , and might have had 'em : but mistris calamy i 'll swear doth do as well as if she were a spiritual madam . for holy vestments i 'll not take an oath which linen most canonical may be ; some are for lawn , some holland , some scotscloth ; and hemp for some is fitter than all three . paul had a cloak , and books , & parchments too ; but that he wore a surplice i 'll not swear , nor that his parchments did his orders shew , or in his books there was a common-prayer . i owe assistance to the king by oath ; and if he please to put the bishops down , as who knows what may be , i should be loth to see tom beckets mitre push the crown . and yet church-government i do allow , and am contented bishops be the men ; and that i speak in earnest , here i vow where we have one , i wish we might have ten . in fine , the civil power i 'le obey , and seek the peace & welfare of the nation : if this won't do , i know not what to say , but farewel london , farewel corporation . r. w. printed in the year , . bishop taylor's judgment concerning the power of parents over their children in his ductor dubitantium, &c., edit. iv, ductor dubitantium. selections. taylor, jeremy, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page image. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing t estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) bishop taylor's judgment concerning the power of parents over their children in his ductor dubitantium, &c., edit. iv, ductor dubitantium. selections. taylor, jeremy, - . broadside. s.n., [london : -?] imprint suggested by wing. extracts from the author's ductor dubitantium, edition, p. - . "possibly published in connection with the controversy in may-june over 'an act to prevent the growth of schism', directed against dissenters' educational institutions"--nuc pre- imprints. reproduction of original in the cambridge university library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng religious education -- law and legislation -- england. children's rights -- england. dissenters, religious -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - emma (leeson) huber sampled and proofread - emma (leeson) huber text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion bishop taylor's judgment concerning the power of parents over their children in his ductor dubitantium , &c. edit . iv. . so long as the son is within the civil power of his father , so long as he lives in his house , is subject to his command , is nourish'd by his father's charge , hath no distinct rights of his own , he is in his father's possession , and to be reckoned by his measures . in the law of the twelve tables it was written , sacra privata perpetua manento , that the private religion of a family should not be alter'd : which cicero lib. . de legibus expounds to mean , that all those to whom the care of the father of the family did appertain , were tied to the celebration of the same rites ; and the lawyers say , that filii sunt in sacris parentum , dum sunt in eorum potestate ; children are within the holy rites of their parents , while they are in their power . the father's commands are exacted before the laws of god or princes do require obedience ; because the government of children is like the government of the sick and the mad-men , it is a protection of them from harm , and an institution of them to obedience of god and of kings ; and therefore the father is to rule the understanding of his child , till it be fit to be ruled by the laws of god ; that is , the child must believe and learn , that he may chuse and obey . the father hath the prerogative of education . a turk , a jew , a heathen can reckon their children in sacris parentum ; they have a power , a natural and proper power to breed up their children in what religion they please , but not to keep them in it ; for then when they can chuse , they are under no power of man , god only is the lord of the understanding . in the countries of the roman communion , — if the father be an heretick in their accounts , they teach their children to disobey their parents , and suppose heresie to destroy the father's right of power : and government . between christian and christian there is no difference , as to matter of civil rights , no law allows that . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e p. . p. . ibid. ibid. p. . p. . p. . dr wild's humble thanks for his majesties gracious declaration for liberty of conscience, march . . wild, robert, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page image. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). b wing w a interim tract supplement guide c. .f. [ ] interim tract supplement guide c. .f. [ ] ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. b ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books; tract supplement ; a : [ ]; a : [ ]) dr wild's humble thanks for his majesties gracious declaration for liberty of conscience, march . . wild, robert, - . sheet ([ ] p.). [s.n.], london : printed in the year, . signed: iter boreale [i.e. robert wild]. verse: "no, not one word, can i of this great deed ..." with reference to charles ii's declaration of march . item at a : [ ] imperfect: torn at foot with loss of imprint. reproduction of original in the british library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng england and wales. -- sovereign ( - : charles ii) -- poetry -- early works to . dissenters, religious -- england -- early works to . great britain -- politics and government -- - -- poetry -- early works to . great britain -- history -- charles ii, - -- poetry -- early works to . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - robyn anspach sampled and proofread - robyn anspach text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion d r wild's humble thanks for his majesties gracious declaration for liberty of conscience , march . . no , not one word , can i of this great deed , in merlin , old mother shipton read ! old tyburn take those tychobrahe imps , as silger , who would be accounted pimps to the amorous planets ; they the minute know , when jove did cuckold old amphitryo , ●en mars and made venus wink and glances , their close conjunctions , and mid-night dances . when costive saturn goes to stool , and vile thief mercury doth pick his fob the while : when lady luna leaks , and makes her man throw 't out of window into th' ocean . more subtle than the excise-men here below , what 's spent in every sign in heaven they know ; cunning intelligencers , they will not miss to tell us next year , the success of this ; they correspond with dutch and english star , as one once did with charles and oliver . the bankers also might have , had they gone , what planet governe'd the exchequer , known . old lilly , though he did not love to make any words o●'t saw the english take , five of the smyrna fleet , and if the sign had been aquarius , then they 'd made them nine when sagitarius took his aim to shoot at bishop cosin , he spyed him no doubt ; and with such force the winged arrow flew ; instead of one church stagg he killed two ; glocester and durbam when he espy'd , let lean and fat go together he cry'd . well wille lilly thou knew'st all this as well as i , and yet wouldst not their lordships tell . i know thy plea too , and must it allow , prelates should know as much of heaven as thou : but now friend william , since it s done and past , pray thee , give us phanaticks but one cast , what thou foresaw'st of march the fifteenth last ; when swift and sudden as the angels flye , th' declaration for conscience-liberty ; when things of heaven burst from the royal breast , more fragrant than the spices of the east . i know in next year's almanack thou'lt write , thou saw'st the king and council over-night , before that morn , all sit in heaven as plain to be discern'd , as if 't were charles's waine , great b , great l , and two great aa's were chief under great charles to give poor fan's relief : thou sawest lord arlington ordain the man. to be the first lay metropolitan . thou saw'st him give induction to a spittle , and constitute our brother tom-doe-little . in the bears paw , and the bulls right eye , some detriment to priests thou didst espye ; and though by sol in libra thou didst know which way the scale of policy would go ; yet mercury in aries did decree . that wool and lamb should still conformists be . but hark-you will , steer-poching is not fair ; had you amongst the steers found this march-hare , bred of that lusty puss the good old cause , religion rescued from informing laws ; you should have yelpt aloud , hanging's the end , by huntsmens rule , of hounds that will not spend . be gone thou and thy canting-tribe , be gone ; go tell thy destiny to followers none : kings hearts and councils are too deep for thee , and for thy stars and doemons scrutinie . king charles return was much above thy skill to fumble out , as 't was against thy will. ●rom him who can the hearts of kings inspire , not from the planets , came that sacred fire of soveraign love , which broke into a flame ; from god and from his king alone it came . to the king . so great , so universal , and so free ! this was too much great charles , except for thee , for any king to give a subject hope : to do thus like thee , would undo the pope . yea , tho his vassals should their wealth combine , to buy indulgence half so large as thine ; no , if they should not only kiss his toe , but clement's podex , he 'd not let them goe . whil'st thou to 's shame , thy immortal glory , hast freed all-souls from real purgatory ; and given all-saints in heav'n new joys , to see their friends in england keep a jubilee . suspect them not , great sir , nor think the worse ; for sudden joys like grief , confound at first . the splendor of your favour was so bright , that yet it dazles and o'rewhelms our sight ; drunk with her cups , my muse did nothing mind ; and until now , her feet she could not find . greediness makes profa'ness i' th' first place ; hungry men fill their bellies , then say grace . we wou'd make bonfires , but that we do fear the name of incend'ary we may hear . we wou'd have musick too , but 't will not doo , for all the fidlers are conformists too . nor can we ring , the angry churchman swears , ( by the king's leave ) the bells and ropes are theirs . and let 'em take 'em , for our tongues shall sing your honour louder than their clappers ring . nay , if they will not at this grace repine , we 'l dress the vineyard , they shall drink the wine . their church shall be the mother , ours the nurse . peter shall preach , judas shall bear the purse . no bishops , parsons , vicars , curates , we , but only ministers desire to be . we 'l preach in sackcloth , they shall read in silk . we 'l feed the flock , and let them take the milk. let but the black-birds sing in bushes cold , and may the jack-dawes still the steeples hold . we 'l be the feet , the back and hands , and they shall be the belly , and devour the prey , the tythe-pigg shall be theirs , we 'l turn the spit , we 'l bear the cross , they only sign with it . but if the patriarchs shall envy show to see their younger-brother joseph go in coat of divers colours , and shall fall to rend it , ' cause it 's not canonical : then may they find him turn a dreamer too , and live themselves to see his dream come true . may rather they and we together joyn in all what each can ; but they have the coyn : with prayers and tears such service much avail : with tears to swell your seas , with prayers your sails ; and with men too , from both our parties ; such i 'm sure we have , can cheat , or beat , the dutch. a thousand quakers , sir , our side can spare ; nay , two or three , for they great breeders are . the church can match us too with jovial sirs , informers , singing-men and paraters . let the king try , set these upon the decks together , they will dutch or devil vex . their breath will mischief further than a gun. and if you lose them , you 'l not be undone . pardon dread sir , nay pardon this coarse paper , your license 't was made this poor poet caper . iter boreale . a discourse concerning the unreasonableness of a new separation, on account of the oaths with an answer to the history of passive obedience, so far as relates to them. stillingfleet, edward, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing s estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a discourse concerning the unreasonableness of a new separation, on account of the oaths with an answer to the history of passive obedience, so far as relates to them. stillingfleet, edward, - . [ ], , [ ] p. printed for richard chiswell ..., london : . errata: prelim. p. [ ]. advertisement: p. [ ]-[ ] at end. includes bibliographical references. attributed to edward stillingfleet. cf. nuc pre- . reproduction of original in duke university library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng seller, abednego, ?- . -- history of passive obedience since the reformation. dissenters, religious -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - olivia bottum sampled and proofread - olivia bottum text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a discourse concerning the unreasonableness of a new separation , on account of the oaths . with an answer to the history of passive obedience , so far as relates to them . licens'd , october the th . . london , printed for richard chiswell , at the rose and crown in st. paul's church-yard , mdclxxxix . the contents . some general reflections upon the new separation , on account of the oaths p. , &c. of oaths in general p. . whether the obligation of the former oaths continues ibid. the general good the measure of obligation p. of the state of slavery p. no such thing as absolute power in nature p. of a state of vsurpation p. allegiance to be measured by the laws ibid. no apostasie from the church of england by taking the present oaths . the history of passive obedience considered , and the force of the whole resolved into three points , viz. p. . . that the present oath is to the prejudice of a third person . that it is contradictory to our former oaths p. . that the person who had the right hath given no release p. dr. hammond's arguments considered ibid. our constitution considered , and that it is a branch of it for the three estates to limit the succession , and determine the oaths of allegiance p. so it was under the british and saxon government ibid. england a true successive monarchy , and yet reason of state and the publick good was wont to overrule p. and it was lawful to transfer allegiance accordingly ibid. of the norman line p. the case of maud and stephen ibid. of york and lancaster p. the agreement of richard duke of york and hen. vi . ibid. an oath of allegiance , declarative of right or submissive p. of a king in possession , according to our constitution , and the difference between a king de jure & de facto , and an vsurper p. , , of the rise and reason of that difference de facto & de jure p. the case of the lady jane p. the case of k. john and lewis . the homilies considered p. the case of tiberius p. and of the jews under him p. errata . page . line . read of england . p. . l. . r. to preserve the right of , &c. p. . l. . r. tied . p. . l. . but it may be said , our — p. . l. ult . after place r. , p. . l. . r. as at that — and after state r. , p. . l. ult . for can r. such : marg. l. . r. confestim . a discourse concerning the unreasonableness of a new separation on account of the oaths . sir , your former letter gave me an account of your own and others dissatisfaction about the oaths ; but your second carries the point a great deal farther ; for therein you tell me , those who are unsatisfied , think themselves bound to separate from the communion of those who have taken them ; and that if ease be not given to the scrupulous , new congregations will be immediately formed ; and therefore you beg my assistance in clearing these points , in order to the preventing a new separation . i was not a little surprized at the reading these passages ; and i soon apprehended the mischievous consequence of a new schism , especially among the members of the church of england : but i can hardly think it possible that those who have expressed so great a sense of the mischief of it in others , should be so ready to fall into it themselves , and that upon the meer account of scruples ; when the difference is only about the resolution of a case of conscience , wherein wise and good men may easily differ : but it cannot be a mark either of wisdom or goodness , to separate from those who do so . some think the oaths lawful , and therefore take them ; others do not , and therefore forbear : but is taking the oaths made a condition of communion with us ? is it required of all who joyn in our worship , at least , to declare , that they think the taking of them to be lawful ? if not , what colour can there be for breaking communion on the account of the oaths ? suppose those who take the oaths are to blame ; if they act according to their consciences therein , what ground can there be of separation from them for so doing , unless it be lawful to separate from all such who follow the dictate of an erroneous conscience ? and so there can be no end of separations , till all men's consciences judge alike : for a man's conscience in his practical judgment concerning moral actions ; and there are so many circumstances , which vary the nature of such moral actions , as oaths , that i do not wonder to see men differ about them ; but i should wonder and lament to see them separate from each other for the sake of such a difference . but , there is a great deal of difference between a tenderness and a sowreness of conscience . there is a natural tenderness in the eye , which makes it apt to be offended with mores ; and in that case it is to be gently dealt with : but when an ill humour falls into it , there seems to be greater tenderness , but from a worse cause ; and then the best way of cure is to sweeten or remove the bad humor which caused it . i cannot imagine why , because some men's consciences are so tender in the point of loyalty , that they cannot take the oaths , that they must be so tender too , as not to joyn in communion with those who do it . this seems to come from another cause , and not from the original scruple : are they afraid of joyning with others , not so tender as themselves ? this is the scruple about mixt communion , which hath been so long exploded among us . what then ? have we hereby changed the standard of our communion , or are there in this case imposed any new terms of communion with us ? how then comes a scruple about the oaths , to lead men to think of a separation ? how come they to make so much conscience of one , and so little of the other ? is a separation from our church become a duty with those , who so lately looked on it as so great a fault in others ? but , i perceive , a tender conscience is like a tender constitution , it is soon put out of order : so much greater care then ought those to have who forsake any worldly advantages for the sake of their consciences , lest that which begun with a scruple , at last end in humour and faction , and the ruine of that church , which they have alwaies pretended to value . but to leave these general reflections , i shall now apply my self to the main point , whether there be any reason for these scruples about the oaths ? for if there be not , it will be granted that there can be no reason for a separation on the account of them . if there be any reason , it must arise , either from the continuing obligation of the former oaths ; or from the nature of the present oaths : and therefore i shall enquire into two things : first , the nature and measure of the obligation of political oaths in general . secondly , the difficulties which relate to our oaths in particular . first , as to the nature and obligation of political oaths ; by which i mean such as have immediate and particular respect to human society , and the government we live under ; as all oaths of allegiance do . and herein the difference lies between those and the common oaths between man and man ; because these are founded on an equality of right , but the other on the general security of human society . in political oaths we must distinguish the particular intention and designs of the persons to whom they are made , from the general end and scope of the oaths themselves . i do not deny but such oaths at first came from the mistrust , which those in power had , of such as were at present in subjection to them . and because the fears of a deity made the strongest impressions on people's minds , therefore they were not contented with bare promises , but they added the solemnities of oaths , that they might look on god as concerned , both as a witness and a judge . but if we search narrowly into this matter , the obligation comes not from the bare oath , but from something antecedent to it , or from the promise contained in it , to which the oath adds greater solemnity on the account of religion . and therefore it is generally resolved by the civilians as well as casuits , that an oath follows the nature of the thing about which it is conversant ; for that , say they , is the principal , and the other is but the accessary ; and the accessary still follows the nature of the principal . even molina , who is noted for singularity in this matter , ( for asserting , that an oath added an obligation of justice besides that of religion ) yet when he comes to explain himself , he founds it on the promise included in the oath , and not in the oath it self : for after an oath taken , such as the obligation was before , such is it after , and the promise contained in an oath admits of the same conditions , which it would have had , if no oath had been joyned with it . if there be a law , which makes a contract void , on the account of the publick good , the adding an oath to such a contract doth not make it valid : as for instance , if the law of a country makes void all clandestine marriages ; if a man marries a woman after such a manner , although this be an obligation of the strictest nature : yet such is the force and power of laws made for a publick good , that although the intention of one person was to tie the other in an indissoluble bond ; yet the law supersedes that obligation , or else it is made to no purpose , at least , so far as it relates to the civil contract , which is as much as is necessary to my purpose ; for , even that hath an obligation of conscience going along with it , which however in this case is superseded for the publick good. i do not deny , that the chief intention of those who require oaths of allegiance to themselves , is to bind men as fast as may be to them ; and there is a personal obligation consequent upon it . but then , i say , that the rule & measure of it , is not to be taken from such intention of the persons , but from the general good , which was chiefly intended in such things . for , there is a common good of humane society , which mankind have an obligation to , antecedent to that obligation they are under to particular persons . for , as magistrates were designed for a general good , so the obligation to them must be understood so , as to be still in subordination to the main end . and it is agreed on all hands , that an antecedent and superiour obligation doth void that which is subsequent and inferiour , when they contradict each other ; else an oath might bind a man to sin ; which no man will assert . therefore whatsoever the intention of the persons was , how strict soever the expressions may be , if the keeping of the oath be really and truly inconsistent with the welfare of a people , in subverting the fundamental laws , which support it ; i do not see how such an oath continus to oblige : for , there is no relation of mankind one to another , but there is some good antecedent , which is the just measure of that obligation they stand in to each other . thus it is between parents and children , husbands and wives , masters and servants ; and therefore it is most reasonable to be so between princes and their subjects . a vow to god is as solemn a thing as an oath ; but our saviour declares , if it hinders that good which children are bound to take care of with respect to parents , it ceaseth to oblige . if parents , instead of regarding the good of their children , do openly design their ruin , and contrive ways to bring it about ; none will say but that they are bound to take care of their own welfare , although such parents may call it obstinate disobedience . for , even the government of parents , as natural as it is , is not absolute , but is limited by reason and the good of their children . and when they are of age , they are allow'd to judge of what concerns their welfare , and ( if it be necessary ) to withdraw from their parents immediate care , but preserving a due reverence and respect to them . the hardest case we can suppose , is that of slavery , i.e. of dominion by force ; but altho' the law of nations allows it , yet it is with such limitations , as still shew , that whatever the condition of men be , with respect to one another , there is still a regard to be had to the benefit of those who are in subjection to others . the only thing which makes a state of slavery reasonable , is , that when men are taken captive by others , they are at their mercy ; and the giving of life is so great a benefit , as cannot be compensated by any thing less than a perpetual service ; and in consideration of it , the master is to afford protection and maintenance . still we see all reasonable subjection is in order to some good of those who are under it ; and without it , as aristotle saith , they are not used as men , but as tools . and it is agreed by the best writers on this subject , that if the slave be kept in chains , he is under no obligation of conscience to him that keeps him ; but he may find his own way to escape , because he is treated as an enemy , and therefore hath all the right of war on his side . but if he yields upon terms , then he is under obligation , but it is according to the terms upon which he yielded himself . mr. hobbs indeed saith , that those who submit upon compact , are capable of no injury afterwards ; because they have given up their wills already , and there can be no injury to a willing mind . but this is very false reasoning ; for himself grants , that where there is such a compact , there goes some liberty or priviledge along with it . and it is not to be imagined , that such who entred into compact for their benefit , should renounce all right to it when they have done it ; and if they have right , they may be wronged . and in the case of the greatest slavery , natural equity was required , and a common right was still due to slaves , as men : so that nature owns no such thing , as meer absolute power in some over others , meerly for their own advantage ; but all reasonable power supposes consent , and a good to be attained by it . but when it is carried to a contrary end , it is against the intention of nature , which lays an obligation on some men towards others , with regard to a common good , which cannot otherwise be attained . it is not denied by the strictest casuists in these matters , but that under a state of usurpation , notwithstanding their oaths to the rightful prince , men are bound to do those things which tend to the publick safety as well as their own . but then they found it upon a presumptive consent of the absent prince ; whereas , the true reason is , that men are in the first place bound to promote the publick good , and consequentially , and with respect to it , to regard the will of their princes , who are appointed by god and nature for that end . and if such be rendred uncapable of doing it , yet the obligation on others remains . whereas , if it depended on the will of the absent prince , his presumptive will would not be sufficient ; for that can lay no obligation . but , that the publick good is the true and just measure of the obligation in these oaths , doth further appear , in that the oaths are reciprocal . whereas , if only the good of the persons to whom oaths of allegiance are made , were to be our rule , then there would be no mutual oaths . i am not now enquiring how far in reciprocal oaths one party's failing disobliges the other , but i am shewing , that it must be a general good that is aimed at when both parties are sworn to each other ; so it was in the strictest feudal allegiance , the lord was as much sworn to the tenant to protect and defend him in his rights , as the other was to attend him in his wars for the security of his person . and this was certainly founded on a mutual contract , called by the old feudists liga , and thence ligeas and ligeantia , and so our allegiance . the words of glanvil and bracton and the customary of normandy , are plain , to shew the reciprocal obligation in this case , and the measures on both sides were to be the rights , and customs , and laws of the land. so that allegiance originally implies a compact , and is to be measured by the laws , which are the standard of the publick good of a country . ly , having thus in general fixed these grounds to proceed upon , i come to the particular examination of the difficulties which relate to the present oaths ; and because we are charged with apostacy from the principles of the church of england , and that is made the main ground of the designed separation , i would fain know what this charge is built upon , with respect to the oaths , for that is all we are concerned in . if any particular persons have advanced new hypotheses of government , contrary to the sense of our church , let them answer for themselves . the case of the oaths is quite of another nature . here is no renouncing the doctrine of passive obedience , or asserting the lawfulness of resistance ; but the single point is , whether the law of our nation doth not bind us to allegiance to a king and queen in actual possession of the throne , by consent of the three estates of the realm ? and whether such an oath may not lawfully be taken , notwithstanding any former oath ? and by this very stating of the case , any one may see how impertinent to this purpose the book called the history of passive obedience is ; the truth is , there are not many passages in it which come near the business ; but those that do , contain in them the main difficulties which relate to the oaths , and therefore i shall impartially consider them . which are these , i. that they are to the prejudice of a third person . ii. that they are contradictory to a former oath . iii. that the person to whom they were made , hath given no release or discharge from them . for the first we have these testimonies ; bishop hall , p. . saith , that a promissory oath , which is to the certain prejudice of another man's right , cannot be attended with iustice. bishop sanderson , p. . an oath imposed by one that hath not a just authority , is to be declined as much as we can ; if it be forcibly imposed , it is to be taken with reluctancy , upon this condition , that the words imply nothing unlawful or prejudicial to the rights of a third person ; for if so , we must refuse the oath at the peril of our lives . i grant , it is a rule among the casuists , that an oath ought not to be taken to the prejudice of a third person ; but so it is likewise , that it ought not to be taken against the publick good ; and these two are often put together . it is a sin , saith zoesius , to make a compact to the publick prejudice and injury of another ; and an oath that is conversant about such a matter , is unjust , and not to be kept . so that the right of a third person is not to be taken as distinct from the publick good ; for , if it be inconsistent with it , there is no ground to set up a personal interest against a general good. and so far a mischief is better than an inconvenience ; for it is a standing rule in reason as well as law , the publick right cannot be changed by the contracts of particular persons , ff . l. . tit . . if a man takes an oath to a third person , to do something which the law forbids ; although he suffers by it , yet it is concluded , that such an oath doth not bind , because the publick good is to be preferred , as often as a compact doth depart from the common right , it ought not to be kept ; nor is an oath requiring it to be observed . ff . l. . tit . . iuris gentium § . . and again , an oath against the force of law and authority of right is of no moment . what is the reason that an oath doth not bind against the law ? is not the authority of god above that of men ? no doubt of it ; but since god hath established government and laws for a publick good , their meaning is , that men cannot by any act of their own be bound to overthrow it , in what solemn manner soever it be done . it is resolved in the text of the canon law , in the king of hungary's case , that an oath taken against the good of the kingdom , doth not oblige , de jurejur . c. . intellecto ; although it were to the prejudice of others , because it was in praejudicium regni sui , to the prejudice of his kingdom ; which was more to be regarded ; and because it was contrary to the oath which he took at his coronation , iura regni sui illibata servare , that the rights of the kingdom were to be preserved inviolable . sylvester in sum . . juram . . n. . saith roundly , that an oath doth not bind against the publick good in the first place ; but if it be for a private benefit principally , and consequentially for the publick , then the oath holds ; because still the publick good is to overrule in all such oaths . if a man swears to keep a secret , and that be to the prejudice of a third person , the casuists say , that oath doth not oblige ; how much less , where the publick interest and safety is concerned ? and it is generally agreed by our divines , that an oath of secrecy , where the publick safety is in danger , doth not bind ; as in garnet's case , who pleaded his oath for not discovering the gun-powder-treason . now if an oath doth oblige against the common good , garnet made a good plea ; for his discovery was to the prejudice of others : but if his plea was naught , then the publick good doth make the obligation of an oath to cease . suppose a man makes a contract with another , who thereby acquires a right ; yet if that contract be against the common good , and be confirmed with an oath ; that oath doth not oblige , saith bonacina , de contract . disp . . q. . p. . there are two sorts of law , saith suarez , which respect the publick good ; some which concern ipsum statum reipub. & utilitatem communitatis ; the general state of the commonwealth , and benefit of the community : others which concern bonum commune mediante privato ; that common good which results from every man 's good : against the former , he saith , an oath cannot oblige ; but in the latter , it may , as far as concerns his own benefit . suarez de juram . l. . c. . no obligation , though sworn to , is of any force against those things which are owing to god and the kingdom , saith zei●lerus in his notes on grotius de jure b. & p. l. . c. . § . . from all this it appears , that if the right of a third person be inconsistent with the publick good , such an oath doth not oblige . and it is to be observed , that those persons , whose testimonies are alledged , never put the case of the right in a third person and a publick good standing in competition ; and therefore they do not reach our present case . ii. it is alledged , that this oath is contradictory to a former oath . bishop hall again , history of passive obedience , p. . no oath is or can be of force that is made against a lawful oath formerly taken ; so that he that hath sworn allegiance to his sovereign , and thereby bound himself to maintain the right , power and authority of his said soveraign , cannot by his second oath be tied to do ought that may tend to the infringement thereof ; and if he hath so tied himself , the obligation is , ipso facto , void and frustrate . no doubt , if the first oath continues in force , the second is void , so far as it contradicts it . but we say , the former oath is not in force , as it is repugnant to the publick good , and so the second may be taken without any contradiction : and if the doctrine there laid down holds in our case , i cannot see how it is consistent with the former oath , for any such persons to continue under the protection of the present government , or to enjoy the benefit of the laws ; or to take out a writ in their names , any more than to pray for them ; the one being owning their authority as much as the other . iii. because the person who had the right hath given no release . for this dr. hammond is quoted , in his practical catechism , history of passive obed. p. . s. but was not tiberius an vsurper , and yet christ saith , render to caesar the things that are caesar's . c. julius caesar wrested the power out of the hand of the senate ; but before the time of tiberius the business was accorded between the senate and the emperors , that the emperors now reigned unquestion'd , without any competition from the senate ; which case , he saith , is distant from other forcible vsurpations , where the legal sovereign doth still claim his right to his kingdoms , and to the allegiance of his subjects , no way acquitting them from their oaths , or laying down his pretensions . to clear this matter , i shall enquire into two things . . how far a discharge is necessary from the person concerned . . how far our saviour's rule holds in our case ? as to the former , i say , the resolution of conscience in this case doth not depend upon the will and pleasure of the person to whom the former oath was made , but upon the grounds on which it was made , and from which it had its force to oblige : and if those cease , the obligation of the oath ceases together with them . and whether they do or not , no particular person is so fit to judge as the three estates of the realm ; as i shall now prove from several remarkable instances to this purpose in our histories and parliament records ; whereby i shall make it appear , that when a dispute hath happened about the right of succession , and to whom the oaths of allegiance were to be made , they have looked on it as their proper right , to limit the succession , and to determine the oaths . under the british government , we find a considerable instance to our purpose ; vortigern the british king had entered into a secret league , to bring over the saxons ; upon which the great men of the nation deserted him , and chose vortimer in his room . here it is plain , they thought the introducing a foreign power , a sufficient discharge of their obligation to him , it being so directly contrary to the publick good of the nation , although vortigern gave them no discharge . in the saxon times , sigebert king of the west saxons , was complained of for misgovernment , and for changing their laws for his own ends ; but when he persisted in his way , there was a convention of the nobility and people , ( convenêrunt proceres regni cum populo universo , saith matt. westminster ) and they declared themselves free from allegiance to him , and chose kineulfus in his room . in the kingdom of mercia beornredus for not governing by the laws , was by a convention of the nobility and people set aside from the government , and offa chosen king ; who was of the royal stem , but not the next heir ; and so william of malmsbury observes , in the west saxon kingdom after ina , that no lineal succession was then observed ; but still some of the royal line sat in the throne . and of ina himself , that he was rather put into the throne for his virtue , than by right of succession . aethelulphus , king of the west saxons , went to rome , and there crowned alfred , his youngest son , king , and married the king of france's daughter in his return , and made her queen , against their laws ; for which reasons he was excluded his kingdom : his eldest son and alstan , bishop of shireburn being at the top of this act of exclusion ; and he came back only upon the terms of receiving his son into a share of the kingdom : which shews , that they looked on the laws as the measure of their allegiance ; and where those were openly broken , that it was in their power to transfer it . if our allegiance cannot be transferred by the states of the realm , it must be because ( as some think ) by the fundamental constitution of this kingdom we are bound in allegiance to the next right heir in a lineal succession ; but i find no such thing in the saxon times : for although generally they kept to the royal line , yet not so , but that when it appeared to be much more for the publick good , they did not stick upon the point of proximity . i shall not meddle with the kingdom of the northumbers , which alone was originally elective , as appears by matt. westminster ; wherein there happened so great disorders and confusions , that at last william of malmsbury saith , none could be perswaded to accept of the kingdom ; and so it continued thirty three years , till at last egbert took it into his hands ; and so it became a part of the english monarchy ; which was established in him . but if by the fundamental constitution , allegiance were indispensably due to the next rightful heir in this monarchy , how came athelstan to be crowned , magno consensu optimatum , saith malmsbury , when he was not the rightful heir ? some say ( from an old monk in malmsbury ) that his father left him the crown by his testament ; ( which doth not clear the difficulty as to the inviolable right of succession by the constitution ) . but this cannot be true , for his elder brother elwardus died after his father ; and none pretend that his father disinherited him : and if athelstan were lawful heir , what made him to dispatch his brother edwin out of the way , and to build two monasteries for expiation of that guilt ? how came alfred to oppose his election , as being illegitimate , as malmsbury confesses ? but matt. westminster gives the reason , the times were then difficult , and edward's other sons were too young to manage the government , and therefore they set up athelstan , as one fit for business . how came edred to succeed edmond , and not his sons edwin and edgar ? matt. westminster and bromton give the same reason ; they were uncapable by reason of their age , repugnante illegitimâ aetate , patri succedere non valebant . florence of worcester saith , the northumbers sware allegiance to edred ; and he saith , he was next heir , and yet there were two sons of edmond before him ; for he confesses , that they were the sons of edmond and algiva his queen . after the death of edred , the eldest son of edmond succeeded ; but being found under a moral incapacity , ( for in florentius his words , and matt. westminster , in commisso regimine insipienter egit ) he was set aside , as to all the government beyond thames , and edgar put into it : and not long after into the whole kingdom , by general consent . how came a dispute to happen about the election , after the death of edgar , between his eldest son edward , and etheldred his youngest ? i lay no force on his mother's endeavours to advance him ; but if there had been such an unalterable right of succession , there had not been any colour or pretence for it ; especially since it is said , that his father declared his mind , that the elder should succeed . but saith florentius wigorn. there was a great contention among the great men , about the choice of the king : how could there be any dispute , if they knew the constitution of the kingdom to be , that the next heir must inherit the crown ; and that those are perjured who transfer their allegiance ? after the death of ethelred , the nobility and people were divided , some chusing canutus the dane , and swearing allegiance to him ; others to edmund the son of ethelred . the former pleaded for themselves , that ethelred had broken his faith with them , and therefore they deserted him , so as he was fain to fly into normandy ; and that edmond was not his legitimate son. matt. westminster saith , that the greatest part of the nation , clergy as well as laity , did swear allegiance to canutus ; without any discharge from ethelred , while living , or his son after him . after the death of canutus , a new difference arose about the succession ; some were for harold his supposed son by algiva , others for hardecnute , his son by emma . if the lineal succession were a part of our constitution , how come such perpetual disputes to be concerning it ? for , if it had been owned as a fundamental law , the right of succession must have been clear beyond dispute . but reason of state and the publick interest still over-ruled this matter , and so ethelred's sons by emma , who were the true heirs by legal succession , were set aside , and harold , being upon the place , and so best able to manage the affairs of the kingdom , carried it . hardecnute being dead , how came the banisht sons of edmund ironside , if he were lawful heir , not to be sent for to succeed ? if edmund had no good title , how was the right of succession then preserved ? how could allegiance on these principles be sworn to him ? if he had a good title , how could the oaths be taken to edward the confessor , when the heirs of edmond ironside were living ? i perceive some , to salve the succession , make the mother of edmond to have been ethelred's first wife , and call her elgiva duke thored's daughter ; but william malmsbury saith , she was so obscure a person , that she was not known ; and that edmond ironside made up what was wanting in the management of his father , and the quality of his mother . and the same is said by matt. westminster . florentius wigorn , shews the reason of the mistake ; for he saith , that emma , ethelrede's queen , was in the saxon language called algiva ; and so , out of two names , they have made two queens . bromton leaves the matter in dispute , and saith some affirm , the mother of edmond was betrothed to king ethelred , and was the daughter of count egbert : others , that she was a stranger and a concubine . now , if a man's conscience be strictly hid in such oaths of allegiance , to the right heir in a lineal succession , what satisfaction can he have as to the taking them , since he is then bound to satisfie himself in the strict justice of a title ? for , if edmond's mother was not married , he had no title , and no oath of allegiance could be taken to him ; and whether he was married or not , for all that we can perceive , there was a great doubt at that time , and so continued . and , it is not easie to determine what is to be taken for marriage in a prince , unless the law be the rule . and , if the law determines the nature of contracts in princes , why not as well the obligation of subjects ? for , if there be no rule , it is not possible to satisfie conscience in the niceties of titles ; if there be a rule , the general consent of the people , joined with the common good , seems to have been that which our ancestors proceeded by . i do not hereby go about to set up the power of the people over kings , which is in effect to overthrow monarchy ; for then the whole soveraignty lies in the people , and kings are but their servants : and so there is but one sort of reasonable government , viz. that of a commonwealth . whereas , from the eldest times , the rights of soveraignty have been placed in single persons , before any popular governments were known ; and monarchy hath been ever esteemed a distinct and a reasonable government , especially where it is limited by laws , and those laws made by the consent of the people , i.e. by the three estates of the realm ; which are together the true representatives of the people . i see no necessity of going about to undermine the monarchy , that i may come at a resolution of the present case ; for , i take ours to be a true original monarchy , especially after the rights of the lesser monarchs were swallowed up or delivered into that of the west-saxon kings . and farther , i do not stick to affirm , that it was hereditary , where the right of succession and the publick good did not interfere ; i.e. where there was not a natural or moral incapacity : a natural , as in the sons of the elder edmond , when edred was made king before them ; a moral , as when edgar's elder brother was set aside for his ill government , by one half of the nation , and the other never disputed the matter with them ; and when ethelred was so far deserted , that he went into normandy , and was recalled upon promise of better government . si ipse vel rectius gubernare , vel mitius eos tractare vellet , are the words in florentius ; and to the same purpose matt. westminster , and bromton , and malmsbury : h. huntingdon adds , that he promised omnia rege & populo digna ; all things worthy of the king and people . these things i mention to shew , that although this were a true & successive monarchy in ordinary course ; yet where the publick good was by the estates of the realm judged to require it , they thought it no perjury , or breach of faith , to transferr their allegiance , although it were without the consent of the actual governour , or the next lineal heirs . having thus far cleared this point , as to the saxon constitution of our government , i come to that of the norman ; and here i shall not go about to shew how broken the succession was by force and faction , but what the judgment of the nation was , as to the transferring allegiance . and , the first instance i shall bring , is in the case of the oath taken to maud the daughter of henry the first , in the one and thirtieth year of his reign ; and there is no question , but he designed her to succeed him ; legitimâ & perenni successione , as malmsbury's words are ; but stephen , ( who had before sworn allegiance to her ) watched his opportunity , and by the help of a party made by his brother , ( the bishop of winchester ) he was crowned king ; and although at first , malmsbury saith , but three bishops , and very few noblemen , joined with him , yet he soon after saith , that most of them went in to him : and even robert of gloucester , king henry the first 's natural son , took an oath to him , but with the condition of his preserving his honour and covenants . there are several things worthy our observation in this affair , with respect to oaths of allegiance . ( ) that those who excuse them from perjury , who had sworn allegiance to maud before , do it upon this account , because it is said by rad. de diceto , that hugh bigod sware , that king henry the first , on his deathbed , disinherited his daughter , and made stephen his heir . supposing the story true , what is this to the discharge of the oath as to maud ; ( for the oath was not made to henry the first , but to his daughter , and her right was chiefly concerned in it . ) if this hold , an oath of allegiance may cease , without discharge from the party to whom it is made . and so the archbishop of canterbury , and the bishops of winchester and salisbury , as well as the nobility , thought themselves at liberty to take a new oath of allegiance , without a release from the party concerned in the former oath . ( . ) that upon the agreement between k. stephen and h. . maud her self was set aside , and stephen was to continue king for his life , and h. . to succeed him . now if oaths of allegiance must not be interpreted by the publick good , here are insuperable difficulties as to the obligation of these oaths . for the allegiance was transferr'd from the right heir to an usurper , as stephen must be owned to have been by those who deny that allegiance can be transferr'd from the right heir . and they must continue allegiance to the usurper for his life ; which is repugnant to the nature of our constitution , if it be founded in a lineal and legal succession . and again , maud , to whom they had sworn , is set aside , and the reversion of the crown is entailed on her son , although she was living . fortescue , in a manuscript-discourse about the title of the house of lancaster , saith , this was done in parliament , communi consensu procerum , & communitatis regni angliae . rad. de diceto , who lived nearer the time , saith no such thing ; but fortescue appeals not only to the chronicles , but to the proceedings of parliament , for it . and matt. westminster and paris say , the right of h. . was declared by k. stephen in conventu episcoporum , & aliorum de regno optimatum ; which was the description of a parliament of that time ; for , as yet , the baronage represented the nation . gervase saith , the great men were summoned to perfect the agreement , by giving their assent to it , and confirming it by their oaths . fortescue saith further , that h. . was crowned king in the life of his mother , ( who lived to the of h. . ) by the general consent of the kingdom . which shews how far the publick good was thought to be the measure of the obligation of these oaths . for gul. neuburgensis saith , that the bonum publicum was the foundation of this agreement . and matt. westminster , that the king and the lords did all swear to it , and a solemn charter was made of it , and kept in a most secure place . and thus the oaths of allegiance were continued to one that had no right for his life ; and made to one who pretended to no right , but after his mother , who was set aside in this agreement . so that here were three oaths of allegiance at once , that to maud the empress , that to k. stephen , and to h. . and yet the general good of the nation must give an equitable sense of these oaths , or there must be perjury on all sides . for those who had first sworn to maud , could not transfer their allegiance on any other account , either to stephen , or h. . during her life . for we never read that she was present at the agreement , or resigned her right to the crown . the next instance i shall produce , is in the oaths that were taken during the controversies between the houses of york and lancaster . which was not so plain a case as men commonly imagin ; and in truth , if the just legal title be the only rule of conscience in this case , it was hard to take the oaths on either side . for , as on the one side , a lineal descent was pleaded from the daughter of the duke of clarence , who was elder brother to iohn duke of lancaster , from whom by marriage the duke of york claimed his title ; so , on the other side , it was objected , that there was no sufficient evidence of the legitimacy of philippa daughter to the duke of clarence ; because , as fortescue observes , the duke of clarence was abroad from before the time of her conception till after her birth , and that he never owned her mother after ; that she never assumed the arms of the duke as her father , nor those descended from her , till the duke of york pretended to the crown ; that e. . made an entail of the crown upon his heirs male ; ( of which i have seen a written account as old as the time of h. . which not only affirms the absence and divorce of the duke of clarence ; but that e. . seized all his lands into his hands , and in parliament soon after entailed the crown on his heirs male , and that his daughters there present agreed to the same . ) but besides they pleaded , that so long a prescription as the house of lancaster had of above threescore years , was allowed by the ius gentium , to purge the defects of the first title : these are things which deserved consideration against such a meer lineal descent as the house of york insisted upon . and against the house of lancaster , the intrusion of h. . upon the deposition of r. . is an invincible objection to such as found allegiance on the right of succession . but that which i lay the greatest weight upon , is the way of ending this difference in parliament , which hath several remarkable things in it : ( . ) that the duke of york , notwithstanding his title , takes an oath of allegiance in parliament to h. . during his life ; reserving to himself the right of succession after him . for he swears to do nothing to the prejudice of his reign or dignity-royal , nor against his life or liberty ; and that he would to the utmost of his power , withstand all attempts to the contrary . the same oath was taken by his sons edward earl of march ( afterward e. . ) and edward earl of rutland . was this a lawful oath or not ? to say it was unlawful , is to reflect on the wisdom of the three estates , who looked on this as the best expedient for the publick good , as being the way to prevent the effusion of christian blood. and it is not easy to prove such an oath unlawful ; as containing nothing unlawful , nor to the prejudice of a third person , when he who was chiefly concerned voluntarily took it . if it were a lawful oath , then an oath of allegiance on the account of possession , is a lawful oath . for the matter of right is not mentioned in it , and richard duke of york did not renounce the opinion of his own right hereby , ( whether true or false ) but did bind up himself to do nothing to the prejudice of the royal dignity of h. . and yet he look'd on him as meer possessor of it ; therefore in his judgment and the parliament's , an oath of allegiance may lawfully be taken , on the account of the possession of the crown , although persons be not satisfied of the right of it . the words of his agreement are remarkable to this purpose , as they are to be found in the parliament-rolls . the said title notwithstanding , and without prejudice of the same , the said richard duke of york tenderly desiring the weal , rest and prosperity of this land , and to set apart all that might be trouble to the same ; and considering the possession of the said king henry the sixth , and that he hath for his time be named , taken , and reputed king of england and france , and lord of ireland , is content , agreeth and consenteth , that he be had , reputed and taken king of england and of france , with the royal estate , dignity and preeminence belonging thereto , and lord of ireland , during his life natural ; and for that time the said duke , without hurt or prejudice of his said right and title , shall take , worship and honour him for his sovereign lord. here was certainly an oath taken to a king , whom the person taking it looked on only as a king de facto , and not de jure ; and yet this oath was taken and allowed , nay contrived in parliament ; and that for no less an end , than for the weal , rest , and prosperity of the land , i.e. for the publick good. it may be said , that the case is different ; for richard duke of york parted with his own right ; but we cannot with anothers , which we have sworn to preserve . i answer , that he did not look on such an oath as parting with his right , but as a thing fitting to be done on the account of possession for the publick good. and so many others taken such another oath of allegiance , wherein there is no declaration as to right , but the same things required , which the duke of york promised in his oath to hen. . but allegiance is not due but where there is a right to claim it ; and that cannot be , where there is no right to the crown . i answer , that an oath of allegiance may be twofold : . declarative of right ; and in that case none can be owned to have right , but he that hath it . . submissive allegiance ; where no more is required than is contained in the duke of york ' s oath , and yet he declared this was no prejudice to his right . but it may be said , he declared so much before he took the oath , and so gave the sense in which he took it . i answer , that his putting in his claim , and his title being allow'd after the king in being , had been sufficient ; but in our case there is no need of a declaration , since the declaratory part is left out ; which is a fuller declaration of the sense of the oath , than our words can make . but to proceed ; ( . ) the first objection the parliament made to the duke of york's claim was , from the oaths they had taken to h. . to which the duke of york gave a large answer , that oaths must not bind against truth and iustice. but this was to take it for granted , that he had the truth and justice of his side , whereas there was a long possession of threescore years against him ; surely matters of fact which were necessary to the disproving his title , were then so far out of memory , that it was impossible to make clear evidence about them ; and others were not examin'd , as whether the duke of clarence were absent so long from his wife abroad , when philippa was born ? whether one sir iames awdely suffer'd about it ? whether he was divorced from her upon it ? whether e. . after the death of the duke of clarence , did entail the crown on his heirs male ? whether upon the deposition of r. . the claim of right on behalf of the duke of clarence's heir , ought not to have been made ? how far edmond mortimer's owning the title of h. . and the duke of cambridge's attainder did affect him ? whether he had not renounced his own pretentions , by owning h. . to be his supream and soveraign lord , as he had often done in a most solemn manner , particularly in his oaths at the altar at st. pauls , which is to be seen in the book of oaths , p. . and elsewhere . but at that time , h. . was under the power of the duke of york ; and that was a very unfit time to clear a sinking title . but however the lords in parliament were concerned for their oaths to h. . and proposed the former expedient , not only for the publick welfare , but in regard to their oaths , notwithstanding that they allow'd the duke's title to be good . their words are , it was concluded and agreed by all the said lords , that since it was so , that the title of the said duke of york cannot be defeated , and in eschewing the great inconvenience that might ensue , to take the mein above rehearsed , the oaths that the said lords had made unto the king's highness at coventry and other places saved . from whence it is plain that they look'd on their oaths to hen. . as consistent with owning the right to be in the duke of york ; and that possession was a sufficient ground for continuing their oaths . ( . ) in e. . where the right and title of the d. of york is most amply set forth , yet there this agreement , h. . is recited , and the proceedings against h. . are grounded upon his breach of it . which shews farther that those parliaments which did assert the right of succession highest , ( among which , this of e. . ought to be reckon'd ) yet it was never disputed , whether those who had taken the oaths to h. . were perjured ; for they look on the possession of the crown as a sufficient ground for the allegiance required . but it may be said , that from hence we see that he was look'd on as having the best title , who had the best right by lineal succession . i answer , that we are not enquiring into titles , but searching into the reasons and measures of oaths of allegiance ; and whether those do require full satisfaction about the best title ? or supposing one unsatisfied about that , he may not yet be satisfied in taking such an oath as the d. of york and his sons did ? but such precedents prove nothing , unless they be agreeable to our laws and constitution . yes , a great deal , while we are enquiring into our legal constitution ; and we find such things allowed in parliaments ; and not only so , but in such parliaments which allow'd not the title of the king to whom those oaths were made . our law owns no king meerly as in possession , but the right heir is the legal king , whether in possession or not . our law does own a king in possession , if treason may be committed against him ; and for this we have not only the authority of sir e. c. but of the year-books , e. . where it is deliver'd for law at that time ; and with a particular respect to h. . et home sera arraigne de treason fait a dit roy. h. and therefore sir e. c. had good authority for what he said ; and that not in the reign of a king de facto , but when a king thrust out another for want of right , and derived his whole right from a lineal succession . bagot's case goes farther than grants and judicial proceedings of a king de facto ; for therein it is declared treason to compass the death of a king de facto ; and it is very absurd to imagine treason against one whom the law doth not own : for treason is a high violation of the law , and how can the law be violated against one whom the law doth not own ? besides , in bagot's case there is a distinction made between a meer vsurper , and one on whom the crown is setled by parliament ; and so h. . is denied to be a meer usurper . et six le dit roy h. de fait merement , come vsurper , car le corone fuit taille a luy per parliament . so that by our constitution a great deference is to be shew'd to the judgment of the three estates in matters that concern the right of the crown ; or else , an entail made by them could make no difference ; but the whole resolution must be into the lineal desent . and thus i look on the statute , h. . as agreeable to our constitution ; for if it be treason to compass the death of a king de facto , there is great reason there should be indemnity for those who act for him. but what doth this signify to the consciences of men ? very much , if they are to be satisfied by our constitution . i grant meer indemnity doth not clear a man's mind ; but its agreeableness to former proceedings and judgments shews how far our constitution allows us to go , and that there is no argument from thence which can hinder the satisfaction of conscience so far . but suppose a king de jure be in possession of this act , and another comes and dispossesses him , and so is king de facto , doth this law indemnify those who fight against the king de jure for the king de facto ? whosoever is in actual and quiet possession of the crown , by consent of parliament , hath the right to challenge the benefits of this act for those who serve him. but i do not say , that this act gives any man right to oppose a rightful king ; but it only provides for the indemnity of those who assist the present possessor , although another had the right by descent . for , after the d. of york's challenging the crown by right of succession against the possessor , there were two parties in the nation , the one was for the right of succession , and the other for the right of possession by a national consent . and the disputes between these two continued as long as the differences between the houses of york and lancaster lasted . when h. . was setled in the throne , without regard to the right of succession , although there was a general submission , yet there was still a great dissatisfaction in the york party ; which occasion'd all the disturbances of h. th's reign , from setting up an heir of the house of york . ( and sir william stanly was gained to that party , which cost him his life . ) and they went so far as to conclude it treason to stand by the possessor against the next lineal heir . which i take to have been the true occasion of the statute h. . which doth certainly indemnify those who adhere to the possessor , although another may claim a better right ; and thereby declares a possessory right to be a sufficient ground of allegiance , as far as that act goes . there are three sorts of persons may be said to have possession of the crown , an vsurper , a king de jure , and a king de facto ; and because the distinction between these doth not seem to be well understood , i shall briefly explain it . an usurper is one , who comes in by force , and continues by force . a king de jure is one , who comes in by lineal descent , as next heir , and whose right is owned and recognized by the estates of the realm . a king de facto is one , who comes in by consent of the nation , but not by virtue of an immediate hereditary right ; but to such a one being owned and receiv'd by the estates of the realm , the law of england , as far as i can see , requires an allegiance . or else the whole nation was perjur'd in most of the reigns from the conquest to h. . for the two williams , six at least of the seven henries , king stephen , and king iohn were all kings de facto , for some time at least , for they came not in as next heirs in a lineal descent . but still oaths of allegiance were taken to them ; and no such scruples appear to have been made all that time ; nor any charge of perjury , on those who did what our law and constitution required . was the nation perjured in the time of h. . who , as all know , had no pretence of an hereditary right ? yet being received and crowned , the oaths of allegiance were taken to him , before he was married to the daughter of e. . for , he was crowned octob. . had the crown entailed in parliament nov. . and was married ian. . but the first parliament of r. . endeavoured to make void the title of the children of e. . upon pretence of a precontract with the e. of shrewsburies daughter ; and of george duke of clarence by his attainder , thereby to make r. . right heir to the crown ; but lest these things should fail , to his claim of inheritance , they join their own election , and desire him to accept the crown ▪ as to him of right belonging , as well by inheritance as by lawful election . it seems , they would have made him a king de jure as well as de facto ; but the excluding the children of e. . never gave satisfaction since the lady lucy her self disowned it to the mother of e. . and if such an allegation would hold , the whole succession both of york and lancaster might be questioned ; for both derive from h. . whose mother was believed at that time to have been precontracted at least to hugh le brun , before she was married to k. iohn , and was married to him , whilst his former wife was living . and if q. eleanor's divorce from the k. of france were not good ( as it is hard to prove it so ) what becomes of all the line of h. . who married her , after she had two children by her former husband ? but if mens consciences are tied to a strict legal and lineal descent , they must be satisfied in all these points . but supposing the right of the children of e. . to have been never so good ; what doth this make towards the justifying the oaths of allegiance , which were made to h. . whom some will not allow to have any claim by the house of lancaster , since they say , the same act which legitimated iohn of gaunt's children by kath. swinford , did exclude them from any title to the crown ? yet the oaths of allegiance were taken by the whole nation in the time of h. . and no dispute was then made about it ; because it was then believed , that quiet possession was a sufficient ground for allegiance . it is objected , that it cannot be agreeable to the law of england to swear allegiance to a king de facto , when the duke of northumberland suffered by the law for adhering to a queen de facto . a king de facto according to our law ( as i said ) is one in quiet possession of the crown , by consent of parliament , without hereditary right ; such as h. , , , . were all thought to be , by those who made this distinction . for , as far as i can find , the distinction of a king de facto and de jure was then started , when the house of york so much insisted on their hereditary right ; and so many of our kings had governed the kingdom by consent without it . therefore the lawyers , to find a sufficient salvo for the kings of the house of lancaster , framed this distinction of kings de facto and de jure ; but still they meant kings regnant , as they called them , or in full possession of the royal dignity by a national consent . ( the distinction had been better of a two-fold right , viz. possessory and hereditary . ) but this was far from being the case of queen iane , who was set up by a particular party against the general sense of the nation , as soon appeared ; for the main point her title stood upon was this , whether the king by his grant could dispose of the crown against an act of parliament which setled the succession ? and that this was the true point , appears evidently by judge mountague's papers , who was imployed against his will , in drawing up the grant. so that the duke of northumberland's case doth by no means reach the point of a king de facto . but it is further urged from our homilies , that our church therein condemns those english who did swear fidelity to the dauphin of france , breaking their oath of fidelity to their natural lord the king of england . to which i answer , ( . ) that king iohn was only a king de facto himself , if a legal succession makes a king de jure . for , ( . ) his eldest brother's son arthur was then living , as all confess . ( . ) he was convicted of treason against his brother r. . and the sentence pronounced against him by hugo de pudsey bishop of durham , as the king of france pleaded to the pope's legat who came to solicit for him . ( . ) hubert archbishop of canterbury declar'd at his coronation , that he came not in by hereditary right , but by election ; and he accepted of it so . ( . ) what right he had after the death of his nephew , he gave up by the resignation of his crown to the pope . he could have no hereditary right while arthur's sister lived , who survived him , and was kept in the castle at bristol . but supposing it , i do not understand how he that gave up his right of dominion to the pope , could still retain it ? and if he was feudatary to the same , he could not challenge allegiance as due to him , but to the pope as lord paramount . and it was pleaded against him , that although he could not dispose of his crown without consent of his barons , yet he might demise it . and upon his resignation he ceased to be king ; and so the throne was vacant . and by that means there was a devolution of right to the barons to fill up the vacancy ; who made choice of lewis by the right of his wife , who was heir to king john. if after all this , an oath of allegiance to him was lawful , then , i say , an oath to a king de facto is so , for king iohn was no more . ( . ) as to the barons calling in lewis , and forsaking k. iohn , it is necessary to observe on what reason it is that our homilies condemn it . for the whole design of that homily is , to shew the popes vsurpations over princes , and their stirring up subjects to rebellion against them , by discharging them from their oaths ; and for those the instance of king john is produced . as appears by the words just before ; now had english-men at that time known their duty to their prince set forth in god's word , would a great many nobles , and other english-men natural subjects , for this foreign and unnatural vsurper his vain curse of the king , and for his feigned discharging them of their oath and fidelity to their natural lord , upon so slender , or no ground at all , have rebelled against their sovereign lord the king ? would english subjects have taken part against the king of england , and against english men , with the french king , and french men , being incensed against this realm by the bishop of rome ? ( . ) this doth not concern the present case . for men may condemn those english men who sent for lewis , and yet may lawfully take the present oaths . by which men are not bound to justify such proceedings , but to promise faith and allegiance to such as are in actual possession of the throne . which the oaths taken to k. iohn will justify . thus i have considered the greatest difficulties i have yet met with about taking the oaths , and have not dissembled the strength of any of them . there is only one thing remains , and that is the answer given to the case of tiberius , who was an vsurper , and yet our saviour said , give unto cesar the things that are cesar's . the answer is , that although it were a forcible vsurpation in julius cesar , yet before that time the matter was accorded between the senate and the emperors , and they reigned unquestioned without any competition from the senate . so that it was not lawful to swear allegiance to iulius cesar , who had the full possession of the power , but it was to tiberius : and why so ? where was the right of government in the time of iulius cesar ? in the senate and people . and so it continued all iulius cesar's time . but how came the senate and people to lose their right in the time of tiberius ? ( . ) had they given it up by any solemn act of theirs , as many say they did by the lex regia , which iustinian confidently affirms ? then all the right which the emperor had , was by devolution from the people ; and so they acted by virtue of that power which the people gave them ; ( populus comprehends both senate and community . ) and then the emperors had their rights of soveraignty from the people , and not from god. for here was no other act but that of the people giving up their right . and then the case of obedience to the roman emperors will be found very different from that of the northern kingdoms , where the people never gave up their rights in such a manner ; but in cases of difficulty concerning succession , the three estates did look on themselves as particularly concerned ; as might be easily proved , if it were needful , in all the northern kingdoms . ( . ) but suppose they did not formally give up their right , but were partly wheedled and partly forced out of it ; doth this give a good title ? suppose augustus had by his acts procured the consent of the people , as to his own government ; what was this to tiberius ? did they give him a power to make whom he pleased his successor ? something may be said from dion and strabo as to the former ; but there is no pretence as to the latter : for it was a meer arbitrary act in augustus to nominate tiberius ; and all the title he had at first was from the praetorian band and legions : afterwards the consuls , and senate , and souldiers , and people did swear allegiance to him , as the historians tell us . now here i desire to know , whether tiberius were any more than emperor de facto , when they did thus swear to him ? for all the right he had was from their voluntary submission to him at rome . as to the roman provinces , tacitus saith , they were content with the present change of government , because they suffered by the factions and avarice of the great men ; which made them weary of the government by the senate and people . but this only shews they were willing to change their masters , hoping they might mend their condition , but signifies little to the matter of right . since after they were made provinces , they owned their subjection to the roman government , by paying tribute , and receiving magistrates from it , however that government was managed , whether by senate or people , or by one who had the imperial power , whatever name he were called by . but as to the province of iudea in particular , there are several conditions of it to be considered . ( . ) while it was tributary to the kings of persia and syria . jaddus the high priest told alexander that they had taken an oath of fidelity to darius , and therefore could not bear arms against him while he lived . but was darius king de jure or de facto over the iews ? he was not king over them by a lineal succession from their own princes ; nor by the fundamental constitution of their government , which owned no legal king that was not of their brethren : i do not say they were not to submit to , but not to chuse any other . but what right had darius over the iews , any more than succeeding in the persian monarchy gave a right to the chaldean conquests ? i grant , the iews did act under the persian monarchs , as nehemiah was governour under artaxerxes , and that they did swear to them , appears by iaddus ; but the question is , on what right that oath was founded ? and whether upon alexander's conquest , they could not as well take a new oath to him ? for why should not present actual dominion give as much right , as succeeding into anothers right of dominion , which was at first gained by conquest ? if possession gives right in one case , why not in the other ; since there is more reason for allegiance , where there is a power of protection , than where there is none . and so we find iaddus and the iews did submit to alexander afterwards , and some of them went into his army , although darius was still living ; which shews , that as they were not forward to break their allegiance sworn to darius ; so they were not obstinate in opposing alexander , but yielded to the over-ruling hand of providence . ( . ) when the iews had their liberty granted them by the kings of syria . for antiochus eupator made peace with them , by which they were to have the liberty of their own laws ; and although he soon brake his agreement with them ; yet the lacedaemonians and romans owned them as a free-people , and treated with them as such . and simon pleaded to athenobius in this war ; we have neither taken other mens land , nor holden that which appertaineth to others ; but the inheritance of our fathers , which our enemies had wrongfully in possession a certain time . wherefore we having opportunity , hold the inheritance of our fathers . which plainly shews , that they look'd on those who ruled over them as unjust possessors ; at that time when they were so far under them , as to swear allegiance to them . after this antiochus pius did grant them their liberty upon composition ; which they enjoyed as their neighbours did , and suffered not as slaves to the kings of syria , but as sometimes oppressed by them . ( . ) when they were reduced into the form of a roman province ; which was done by pompey . and from that time they were in subjection to the roman state ; being only permitted to enjoy the liberty of their religion . but i shall take notice only of the case of the iews subjection to the roman emperor in our saviour's time . suetonius takes notice of the strange impudence of tiberius , in seeming so long to decline the accepting the soveraignty , when from the very first he had assumed the soveraign power , without asking the leave either of senate or people . * tacitus saith , that he took upon him the government immediately upon the death of augustus ; and did exercise the imperial power every where ; only when he was in the senate he seemed to demur , for fear of germanicus and his legions . † dio , that he exercised all the parts of the government , having secured the italian forces to himself ; but he declined the name , till he understood the design of germanicus . so that here we have a plain original usurpation in tiberius ; there being no consent of senate and people to his assuming the soveraign power . and yet tacitus saith , first the consulls and great officers , then the senate and people did swear allegiance to him . which was before he had their consent . for he used his own art afterwards , that he might seem to be chosen by them ; and not to come to his power by the force of arms , or the intrigues of his mother . but what appearance of consent soever afterwards he gained from the senate , it was extorted from them by force or fraud ; as is evident from the same historians . but what right can such a consent give ? and he took away the remainder of the peoples liberties in their comitia , and never asked their consent . what then was the right of tiberius to the government founded upon ? augustus had several repeated acts , whereby they continued his government from time to time , and thereby shewed their consent , as dion and strabo affirm , that the whole government was committed to him from the senate and people ; but what is there like this in the case of tiberius ? he was augustus his wife's son , and he made him his heir by his testament : and what was that to the roman state ? was not agrippa posthumus , then living , much nearer to augustus , who was his own grand-child ? and by , the story in tacitus of fabius maximus , seemed designed by him to succeed him ; but upon the discovery of it , first augustus , and then agrippa was sent out of the world to make way for tiberius , who had before-hand engaged the italian legions . so that he trusted to no testamentary right , as appears by all his collusions with the senate , which there had been no place for , if he had assumed the government by virtue of augustus his testament or adoption . here we have then a plain instance of one who was in the possession of power without colour of right , and yet oaths of allegiance were taken to him , both by the senate and people . and when these oaths were taken , there was no adjusting the matter between him and the senate ; for he had newly assumed the government by force when they took these oaths . here was no unquestion'd authority from the senate ( whatever vell. paterculus pretends ) but when he had gotten the power into his hands , he required them to own it . augustus was so wise , as when they offer'd him their oaths , he refused them for this reason ; he considered well , saith dio , that if they gave their free consent , they would do what they promised without swearing ; and if they did not , all the oaths in the world would not make them . but tiberius was of another mind , and he required their oaths in the first place ; and it is not improbable that the same were required in several provinces . when our saviour appeared in iudea , tiberius was in possession of this power , over the roman empire ; and because the jews were more scrupulous than other people , on account of their fundamental laws , as to the owning any usurped jurisdiction over them ; some among them put the question to him about paying tribute to caesar , i. e. about owning any act of subjection to an usurped power . for there were plausible arguments on both sides ; one was from the strictness of their laws ; the other was from the benefit they received from the roman protection . the former seemed to have more of conscience , and the latter of human prudence . our saviour takes a wise method to answer the doubt ; he asks for the currant tribute-mony , and finding it had cesar's superscription , saith , give to cesar the things that are cesar's . they might have replied , they are his de facto , but not de iure . why did not our saviour answer this difficulty , but leave them to collect their duty from the use of cesar's coin among them ? might not one that had no right , have the power of coining mony , and dispersing it , so that it should be in common use ? and was not tiberius such an one ? what then doth he mean by this answer ? either we must say , that he declines the main question , or that he resolved it to be lawful , upon general reasons , to shew acts of subjection to such a power , which we may not be satisfied , is according to our laws . for so it is plain the roman power was not agreeable to the jewish constitution ; and although that were from god , yet our saviour , who gives the best directions for conscience , would by no means have men to be peevish or obstinate in such matters . but paying of tribute is quite another thing from oaths of allegiance . it is so , as to the manner of testifying our subjection ; but the main question is , whether any act of subjection be lawful or not ? if it be lawful to testify it one way , why not another ? if in paying tribute , why not in solemn promising to pay it ? if in promising , why not in swearing , i. e. in calling god to witness that i do it ? thus far then we may go ; we may swear to pay tribute ; but on what account ? is it not as a token of allegiance , i. e. of a duty owing on the account of protection ? then we have gained one step farther , viz. that we may swear to perform some parts of allegiance . but why then may we not do so as to all that such an oath implies ? if it respects no more than the duty which we owe , with respect to the publick . and that is certainly the meaning of an oath , when all declarations of right are left out , and only those of duty expressed , as it is in our present case . as to the dreadful charge of perjury and apostacy , which some , of much greater heat than judgment , have made use of against those who hold it lawful to take the oaths ; if what i have said be true , it is little less than ridiculous : and it would have had more appearance of reason , if the pharisees had urged it against our saviour's resolution of the case about tribute-mony . for , had not god by his own law settled the government among them ? and was it not a fundamental article of that law , that none should rule over them , but one of their brethren ? was the roman emperor , or pontius pilate such ? have not all the ancient zealots of the law opposed any such foreign power ? what can it be then less than perjury and apostacy to give any countenance to such an open violation of this law , and to incourage men to renounce it ; when they find such liberties allowed by such a teacher ? but i forbear . to conclude then ; i have , at your earnest desire , taken this matter into serious consideration , and have impartially weighed the most pressing difficulties i have met with ; i cannot promise to give you satisfaction , but i have satisfied my self , and have endeavoured to do the same for you . i am heartily sorry for any breaches among us at this time , and it is easy to foresee who will be the gainers by them . but i am glad to understand that the chiefest of those who scruple the oaths , have declared themselves against the attempts of such an unseasonable separation , and i hope others will be so wise as to follow their example . i am , sir , yours . octob. . . books lately printed for richard chiswell . the case of allegiance in our present circumstances considered , in a letter from a minister in the city to a minister in the country , . a breviate of the state of scotland in its government , supream courts , officers of state , inferiour officers , offices and inferiour courts , districts , jurisdictions , burroughs royal , and free corporations . fol. some considerations touching succession and allegiance . to . reflections upon the late great revolution : written by a lay-hand in the country , for the satisfaction of some neighbours . the history of the desertion ; or an account of all the publick affairs in england , from the beginning of september , , to the twelfth of february following . with an answer to a piece called , the desertion discussed , in a letter to a country-gentleman . by a person of quality . k. william and k. lewis . wherein is set forth the inevitable necessity these nations lie under of submitting wholly to one or other of these kings ; and that the matter in controversy is not now between k. william and k. iames , but between k. william and k. lewis of france , for the government of these nations . a sermon preached at fulham , in the chappel of the palace , upon easter-day . at the consecration of the right reverend father in god gilbert lord bishop of sarum : by anthony horneck , d. d. the judgments of god upon the roman catholick church , from its first rigid laws for universal conformity to it , unto its last end. with a prospect of these near approaching revolutions , viz. the revival of the protestant profession in an eminent kingdom , where it was totally suppressed . the last end of all turkish hostilities . the general mortification of the power of the roman church in all parts of its dominions . in explication of the trumpets and vials of the apocalypse , upon principles generally acknowledged by protestant interpreters . by drue cressener , d. d. a discourse concerning the worship of images ; preached before the university of oxford . by george tully , sub-dean of york , for which he was suspended . two sermons , one against murmuring , the other against censuring : by symon patrick , d. d. now lord bishop of chichester . an account of the reasons which induced charles the second , king of england , to declare war against the states general of the united provinces in . and of the private league which he entred into at the same time with the french king to carry it on , and to establish popery in england , scotland , and ireland , as they are set down in the history of the dutch war , printed in french at paris , with the priviledg of the french king , . which book he caused to be immediately suppress'd at the instance of the english ambassador . fol. an account of the private league betwixt the late king iames the second and the french king. fol. dr. wake 's sermon before the king and queen at hampton-court . dr. tennison's sermon against self-love , before the house of commons , iune . . mr. tully's sermon of moderation , before the lord-mayor , may. . . an examination of the scruples of those who refuse to take the oath of allegiance . by a divine of the church of england . a dialogue betwixt two friends , a iacobite and a williamite ; occasioned by the late revolution of affairs , and the oath of allegiance . the case of oaths stated . to . a letter from a french lawyer to an english gentleman , upon the present revolution . to . the advantages of the present settlement , and the great danger of a relapse . the interest of england in the preservation of ireland . the answer of a protestant gentleman in ireland to a late popish letter of n. n. upon a discourse between them , concerning the present posture of that country , and the part fit for those concern'd there to act in it . to . an apology for the protestants of ireland , in a brief narrative of the late revolutions in that kingdom ; and an account of the present state thereof : by a gentleman of quality . to . a true representation to the king and people of england how matters were carried on all a long in ireland by the late k. iames , in favour of the irish papists there , from his accession to the crown to the th of april , . the mantle thrown off : or the irish-man dissected , to . reflections upon the opinions of some modern divines , concerning the nature of government in general , and that of england in particular . with an appendix relating to this matter , containing , . the seventy fifth canon of the council of toledo . . the original articles in latin , out of which the magna charta of king iohn was framed . 〈◊〉 the true magna charta of king iohn in french : by which the magna charta in matth , paris is cleared and justified , and the alterations in the common magna charta discovered . ( of which see a more particular account in the advertisement before the appendix . ) all three englished . the doctrine of non-resistance , or passive obedience no way concerned in the controversies now depending between the williamites ▪ and the iacobites . jacobi usserii armachani archiep. historia dogmatica controversiae inter orthodaros & pontificios de scripturis & sacris vernaculis , nunc primum edita . accesserunt ejusdem dissertationes de pseudo-dionysii scriptis , & de epistola ad laodicenos ante hac inedite . descripsit , digessit & notis atque auctuario completavit henricus wharton , a. m. r. archiep. cantuar. à sacris domest . o. a discourse concerning the unreasonableness of a new separation on account of the oaths . with an answer to the history of passive obedience . a discourse concerning the ecclesiastical commission opened in the ierusalem . chamber , octob. . . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e less . de iust. & iure , l. . c. n. . molina de iust. & iure , tr . . disp . . de cive c. . n. . arist. nic. l. . c. . sen. de clem. l. . c. . mutua quidem debet esse dominii & homagii fidelitatis connexio , ita quod quantum debet homo domino ex homagio , tantum illi debet dominus ex dominio praeter solam reverentiam . glanvil . l. . c. . bracton . l. . §. . cust. norm . c. . zoës . in dig. l. . tit. . n. jus publicum privatorum pactis mutari non potest . a. g. . magnates brit. regem vortigernum penitus deserentes , unanimiter filium suum in regem sublimaverunt . mat. west . p. , cum autem modis omnibus male tractaret eos , legesque antecessorum suorum propter commodum suum , vel depravaret , vel mutaret . matt. west . a. d. . h. huntingd. l. . p. . a g . gen. de regno merciorum , contra regem suum beornredum insurgens , pro eo quod populum non aequis legibus , sed per tyrannidem gubernaret , convenerant in unum omnes , tam nobiles quam ignobiles , & offa duce ipsum à regno expulerunt , mat. west . nam & ipse brithricus & caeteri infra inam reges licet natalium splendore gloriantes , ( quippe qui de cerdicio originem traherent ) non parum tamen à lineâ regiae stirpis exorbitaverant , will. malmsb. de gestis reg. angl l. . c. . regnum per inam novatum qui cinegisli ex fratre cuthbaldo pronepos magis pro insitlvae virtutis industria , quam successivae sobolis prosapia in principatum ascitur . id . ib. matth. west . a. d. , . mat. west . p. . bromton p. . w. malmsbur . l. . c. . p. . mat. west . a. d. . a. d. . mat. west . a. . bromton . p. . flor. wigorn . a. . a. . a. . florent . wigorn. a. d. . w. malm. l. . p. . . mat. west . a. d. , , a. . wil. malm. l. . p. . mat. west . a. . florent . a. . append. . ad vit . alt. bromton inter . script . p. . florentin . wigor . a. d. . h. huntin . l. . p . . malmsb. hist. novel . l. . p. , . . rad. de diceto , a. d. . matt. westm. a. . mat. paris . ib. gervas . a. d. . gul. neoburg . l. . c. . matt. westm. s. . rot. pa l. . h. . n. . n. . mat. west . a. . sixth part of the homily against wilful rebellion . mat. paris . f. . matt. westm. a. . mat. paris . a. . mat. paris . a. . l. . tacit. l. . tacit. ib. joseph . l. . c. . deut. . . neh. . . joseph . . c. . maccab. . . . . . . * principatum , quamvis neque occupare confetim , neque agere dubitâsset , et statione milirum , hoc est , vi et specie dominationis assumpta , diu tamen recusavit impudentissimo animo . sutton . c. . † sed defuncto augusto , signum praetoriis cohortibus , ut imperator dederat , excubiae , arma , catera aulae ; miles in forum , miles in curiam comitabat ; literas ad exercitus , ranquam adepto principatu misit ; nusquam cunctabundus nisi cum in senatu loqueretur . tacit. l. . dio. l. . dio l. . the reasons of the new converts taking the oaths to the present government in a dialogue / by the author of the reasons of mr. bay's conversion. brown, thomas, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing b estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) the reasons of the new converts taking the oaths to the present government in a dialogue / by the author of the reasons of mr. bay's conversion. brown, thomas, - . [ ], p. [s.n.], london : . written by thomas brown. cf. dnb. reproduction of original in union theological seminary library, new york. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng dissenters, religious -- england -- early works to . oaths -- england -- early works to . dissenters, religious -- early works to . oaths -- early works to . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - emma (leeson) huber sampled and proofread - emma (leeson) huber text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the reasons of the new convert's taking the oaths to the present government . by the author of the reasons of mr. bay's conversion . in a dialogue . — multa in homine signa insunt , ex quibus confectura facile fit , duo , cum idem faciunt , saepe ut possis dicere ▪ hoc licet impune facere huic , illi non licet , non quod dissimilis res sit , sed quod qui facit . ter. — uxori nubere nolo meae . mart. london , printed in the year . the preface to the reader . there needs nothing more be said concerning the following dialogue , then that it was written about a month agoe , as several gentlemen in town know very well ; and that it had been then published , but for a particular reason , that is , not perhaps so very convenient to be told . the author is not so great a fool , as to imagine that a little fair language in the preface will make any sensible reader think the better of his performance ; only he begs ▪ leave to acquaint him with the occasion of printing it at this time ; especially when so many people of such different opinions and characters in the world , have appear'd on the same subject before him . last week there came abroad a certain poem called the weesils , which several persons were at first pleased to lay at my door , though now they are satisfied it was done by another hand ; the author of it having since thought fit to own it publickly , and so to take care , that whatever reputation or scandal was to be gotten from such an undertaking , might not be carried away by a stranger . however a certain nameless rascal about the town upon no better a ground , than the common report , which yet the fellow owns to be a common liar , charges me with writing it : and though in the beginning of his libel , he cants about the gates of mercy being always open , and that excellent rule of not doing to others , what what we would not have done to our selves , yet before he had fully informed himself of his man , or the merits of the cause , he very honestly recommends it to the pious care of the doctors relations to get me knocked in the head for abusing his lady ; and at last tells the world that i am as proper a person as any is in the three kingdoms to be shewn at chirurgeons-hall . i am sorry for the reader 's sake , that this malicious wretch is of too mean and sordid a character for me take him into my consideration ; for otherwise , the scriber might expect to receive a small cast of my old office ; and i assure him he should find to his own cost the heaviness of my hand , if i were in humour to give my self the trouble of ierking him . however before we part , i must tell him , that i have no reason as yet to be so weary of my life , as to desire to be deified after andrew marvel's manner : nor are my obligations to the city physitians so very great , but that i could be content to see all of them hanged , before they should ever come to learn anatamy at the expence of my tabernacle . if i must be sent to another world , i think 't is but reasonable that it should be for something of my own , and not for the merits of another man ; and therefore for this reason i was resolved to publish the ensuing dialogue . what served to confirm me further in my resolution to print it , was because it having been transcribed by several hands contrary to promise and without my own consent , it cou'd not fail one time or other to steal abroad ; and according to the common apology that we authors use to make in such cases , i was not willing , that what was design'd as a satyr upon other men , should turn to be a satyr upon my self . i hope none of our dissenters are so vain as to imagine that i wou'd ever contribute to make them merry at the charges of any member of the established church ; if they please to turn over two or three leaves , i don't question but they 'll be sensible enough , that i design'd no such matter ; and to say the truth , if a man may guess at the hearts of a people by their pamphlets and coffee-house conversation , one has all the reason in the world to conclude that they 'll preserve the honour of monarchy under this reign , much after the same ra●e as they consulted the security of the protestant religion under the last . i was always of opinion , that nothing in the world is so ridiculous as a feeble , impotent satyr , and that consideration perhaps has carried me sometimes into such heats as i will not pretend to excuse , tho it is easie enough to observe that i have often avoided to pursue my reflections , even where there was a plausible occasion to do it . 't is as impossible now to retract what is done upon this score , as it would be foolish to implore the reader 's candor to forgive it : but however as this is the first time i ever meddled with so nice a subject , so 't is likely to be the last . the reasons of the new convert's taking the oaths to the present government . in a dialogue between timothy , and freeman . tim. vvho's that , my old friend mr. freeman , e comitatu bucks ? 't is the very same , i 'll e'ne go and renew my acquaintance with him . dear sir , your humble servant ; how have you done this many a fair day , and how long have you been in town ? freeman . but just come out of the coach , as you may perceive , where it has been my misfortune to do pennance all the way , in such intolerable company , as never any man was plagued with ; men of no sense or reason , yet mighty politicians , and ten times more troublesom . tim. than damnation burgess , when he 's answering cases of conscience , or millington at an auction , or a scotch-man upon an occasional sermon : but prethee who had you got with you ? freem . there was a venerable old gentleman , that by the courtesy of the late reign , was made a iustice of peace ; and he was declaiming perpetually upon the puissance and heroical vertues of louis le grand , whom he fancied to be as irresistible at the calvinist divines make god's grace . then there was a leash of country attorneys , who took a great deal of care i heartily thank 'em , to stun me all the way with their damn'd unintelligible law-cases , which i had no more a mind to understand , than i have to learn , either the modern notions of government , or the modern systems of theology . lastly , to compleat my misery , we had an ancient sage matron in the coach , and she with tears in her eyes , railed very devoutly at the lewdness of the present age , occasioned by the non-resistance doctrin of some divines ; i thank god , says she , i never practised it since i was fourteen : and then she fell as severely upon the miscarriages of the late fornicating admiral ( as she called him , ) as a she tarpaulin , who has lost her only husband in the engagement . tim. a very pretty consort i'faith . so i don't question but what between the politicks of the justice , and the impertinence of your lawyers , and the pious ejaculations of your female companion , you found your self as uneasy , as a blundering cit amongst the verse-repeating beaux of wills coffee-house , or the chair-man of a committee amongst his herd of country petitioners . but setting this business aside , prithee tell me how thou hast done this long while , for unless i am mistaken , 't is above three years since we saw you last in town . freem . why truly tim. i live after my old laudable custom still ; sometimes i divert my self with a chearful bottle , and sometimes , pass away an hour or two with an honest old author ; for to say the truth , your new gentlemen scarce deserve a reading . i pay my taxes without repining ; do what good i oan amongst my neighbours , never trouble my self with other mens business ; and though the duty i owe to their present majesties will not permit me to talk so scandalously and disrespectfully of the two late reigns , as some hot-headed sots have done , yet i am as well satisfied with the present establishment , and as zealous for the prosperity of old england , as the forwardest courtier , who has made his fortune by the revolution , and consequently is obliged to stand up for it as well upon the score of his interest as his choice . thus i have answered your question , and now prithee let me know what news you have in town . tim. a right country gentleman's question i'faith , for the first thing he generally asks you is , what is the news ? as the country ladies when they come up to town , enquire in the first place , which is the newest play or lampoon ? which is the topping mistress of the court , or the most fashionable suit of ribbons at the exchange ? well then to satisfy your curiosity , you must know that there has lately happened a very remarkable change or conversion , ( call it which you please ) of a certain person here in town which no body could ever have imagined or expected ; and now i leave it to you , to conjecture what it is . freem . a conversion , and that a very remarkable one too ! why then i fancy . tim. that your friend mr. bay's is returned to his primitive church . tim. nay the lord knows , which is mr. bay's primitive church ; but prithee why dost thou trouble thy head about a poet's religion ? for as we say , a beggar is never out of his way , so a poet is never out of his religion . freem . well then , a discarded jacobite captain turn'd an humble retailer of wicked bottl'd ale and brandy ; the discarded recter of exeter , turn'd a friend of athanasius ; or the never to be forgotten apostate turn'd a defender of passive obedience ? tim. no. freem . a physician turn'd a zealous expounder of the bible ; or a sworn friend to scoth-cloth , reconciled to lawn-sleeves ; or a city usurer turn'd a refunder of his ill-gotten estate ? tim. no. freem . a son of slaughter at white-chappel converted to the observation of fish-days ; or an old inveterate republican turn'd a stiff assertor of monarchy ? tim. no , but you had best consult mr. ferguson to resolve your last question . freem . is dr. oates reformed from his usual way of raskalling people , and return'd to the use of his memory and good manners on the sudden , or has that bloody sweare● refused to take the new oaths ? tim. why don't you know , that in a late auction of paintings there was a picture of the dr's to be seen , where he was represented like a blackamore with a glocestershire parliament man a washing him , in order to make him rectus in curia , by the same token that it was called , the labor in vain ? freem . is the red-fac'd chaplain-maker of whitehal reconcil'd to the choice of honest divines and renounced taking mony for places . or have any of the topping sons of schism by the bribe of a good deanry or bishoprick been converted to the liturgy ? tim. no , no , but hark you friend of mine you had best have a care what you say . sons of schism ? why , i tell you every man amongst them disowns the word , and say , that thanks to the new laws , they are as much an established church , as you know which was . freem . is there then no difference between tolerating and establishing ? after this rate ▪ the bear-garden and play-house may all in good time pretend to be established parliamentary assemblies — but to go on ; is there any of the new interpreters of daniel and the apocalyps converted to sense and reason ? or any of the modern comprehension-men converted to a good opinion of the poor suffering ceremonies of the church ? tim. no , not a single man among 'em as far as i can hear . freem . to conclude then : is the vicar near charing-cross convinced there 's not so much bawdry in the service of matrimony as without it ? is any noted s●●●●ian turn'd a friend to faith ? or any of the good people of doctors-commons to unlicenc●d marriges ? is a 〈…〉 ●arlon turn'd a friend to cleanliness ? any court - 〈…〉 ●●nen , and no back-biting ; any litigious attorney to 〈◊〉 and arbitrations ? any thrice married widow to impotence ? any of the town criticks to modesty ? or lastly , any alderman that was begotten on a bulk , to heraldry and pedigrees ? tim. no , you have not hit the point after all . freem . why then the devil take me , if i am able to guess what is the matter . to pursue this point any further , i find , would be as endless a piece of trouble , as to reckon up all the dull , stupid , senseless passages on the conference at the brasiers shop in long-acre , or in sh-dwel's panegyricks ; or to give you a list of all dr. pain 's pretended reasons for alterations , or all the similies in the plain dealer . therefore let me once for all intreat you dear tim. to put me out of my pain , and let me know what mighty business it is you have to communicate . tim. prepare then with reverence and attention to receive what i am going about to deliver for ; give me leave to tell you sir , now we are nose inter nose the saying is , 't is the most surprizing , unexpected piece of news you ever heard in all your life . freem . lord ! what a deal of insignificant flourish and preparation is here to usher in , it may be , but a foolish story at last ? why , by and by th●● wilt perswade me , that the monument last week took a pair of oars to go and plead the cities cause against the orphans at the kings-bench , or that the two old pastboard giants at guildhal have laid their heads together to confute . baker's chronicle , or wood's oxford antiquities . tim. nay , sir , since i find you begin to be somewhat must and all that , like father teague in the play , when the outside of the door was put upon him , i am resolved to ease you of your trouble immediately . know then for a certain truth , that one of the most celebrated divines we have in town ( i must not give my self the trouble to name him to you ) who has silenced the papists , confounded the independants , lately maul'd the anti-trinitarians , and by his zealous performances for passive obedience , has made little atwood pass for a great author ; has at last upon mature consideration , and after a year and halfs chewing the cud upon the matter — . freem . done what i prithee . tim. why , faced about to the right , and taken the swear . freem . and is all your mighty news , which you prefaced with so much show and ceremonie , come to this sorry issue at last ? parturiunt montes , nascetur ridiculus mus. to be plain with you , i am not at all surprised at what you have told me , i have heard of it before ; but because i hate to be behind hand with you , or any body else , in lieu of your domestick news , i 'll acquaint you with a very remarkable foreign story . tim. with all my heart , begin as soon as you please . freem . a certain dutch grammarian , ( no matter for his name or place of abode ) in his commentaries upon suetonius's lives of the twelve caesars , when he comes to take the emperor domitian to task , who you know took a strange pleasure in dragooning prince belzebub's subjects , meaning the flies , out of their lives and fortunes with his royal needle . tim. very well , i understand you . freem . wonders , in the name of god , how the emperour cou'd ever find in his heart to butcher the poor flies ( in the pedant's dutch latin , called vespas , ) after so barbarou a manner , since his own natural father's name was vespasian . tim. a very pretty edifying story this , as i take it . freem . at last he concludes with this observable sentence , ingens est hoc profecto mysterium , nec facile explicandum . tim. so sir i am your very humble servant ; but you 'll infinitely oblige me however , if you 'll be pleased to think of making an application to your story . freem . why then i must tell thee tim ▪ in plain downright english , that i wonder full as much , as the dutchman did at 〈◊〉 above mentioned passage , that thou should'st ever have the assurance to 〈◊〉 the dr's conversion , as thou callest it , upon 〈◊〉 for such a strange piece of news : for to give you my sen●●●●●● 〈◊〉 for all ●pon this occasion , i rather wonder that it was so late before he reconciled himself to the government , than that he was prevailed with to do it at all . tim. nay , now i perceive you are in the humour of maintaining paradoxes ; for though you seem to make so slight of this news , yet give me leave to tell you , it has been matter of astonishment almost to every body here about the town . but may a man be so happy as to hear you produce any reasons for what you have said ? freem . ay , with all my heart . you must know then that several worthy persons whom i could name to you , if there were any necessity for it , came immediatly after the revolution , to advise with the doctor in that exigence of affairs . some of 'em he disswaded from taking the oaths , and without question furnished 'em with his own reasons for his dissenting from the government in that particular , and i don't hear that he ever sent for 'em to come in with him ; but when others came to consult him about the very same business , he was pleased to say , that he would prescribe to no bodies conscience but his own ; and so dismist them with bidding them use ▪ their own discretion in the matter . tim. well , and what of all this ? freem . why , say i , any man who could deliver himself so ambiguously upon a question that so nearly concerned the security of the government , and the wellfare as well as the honour of the established church , either looked upon it not to be a thing of that importance , as it really is , or else had not fully determined his sentiments either to the lawfulness or unlawfulness of it . i am of opinion , that nothing but the fear of incurring the guilt of perjury , could excuse any man from giving the government so reasonable a satisfaction , as the taking the oaths amounted to . now that the doctor was , not fully perswaded in his conscience that there was any perjury in such a compliance , is very apparent as i think , from his advising the gentlemen to make use of their own discretion ; which he would never have done , if he had really believed that so black and scandalous and cowardly a sin , would be the necessary consequence of it . tim. well then , granting all you have said to be true , what advantage do you intend to make of it ? freem . that the doctor considered the taking of the oaths to be only an indifferent thing , and no more , which a man might either do or not do , at his own pleasure ; for otherwise it had been his duty to disswade all persons who came to be advised by him , from swearing . now tim , pray tell me what miracle is it for a man to part with his opinion about an indifferent thing , when there 's nothing but scandal and poverty to be had in maintaining it still , and so much interest and advantage to ballance him to the contrary side ? tim. to say the truth , there 's no extraordinary miracle in such a case . but then i would have you consider , dear friend of mine , that the doctor 's circumstances were perhaps clearly different from the gentlemen's that came to consult him ; and consequently what might be either lawful or expedient for them to do , might not be so lawful , at least so reputable for himself . freem . let me desire thee honest tim to explain thy self a little farther about this same business . tim. you know to what heights , or rather extremities the doctor has all along carried the doctrine of passive obedience ; you know how stiffly and zealously he has asserted the ius divinum of monarchy ; and with what assiduity and pains he has combated the other party ; who fell upon different schemes and notions of government . and therefore imagining that several passages in the late revolution could not be well reconciled to what he had formerly preached , what wonder is it , if he could not at that time prevail with himself , to give his assent ? freem . nay , if that reason is worth a farthing , it holds as well now as it did the last year . tim. prithee let me alone for a while , and afterwards say what you please — but then this cafe , as i told you before , seems only particular to the dr. for the other gentlemen perhaps never preached or printed those doctrins , which the dr. has , or perhaps never believed a syllable of 'em , as is evident some of their brethren never did , who in several treatises and sermons that have been published since the abdication , pretend to assert abundance of things , that were not so very current doctrin in the two late reigns . and so the dr. might excusably enough leave 'em to use their own discretion in the matter , since if they complied with the government it wou'd contradict nothing which they formerly preached or believed . what may be the reason do you think why the fanaticks are so loyally affected to their present majesties ; and were so easily brought over to renounce the last ? all the world knows what a great deal of dutiful care they took to lull asleep the late king with their addressing opiates , and sacrificing their lives and fortunes to him , whenever he should have an occasion to make use of them . and yet among so numerous a herd , unless a very few , and those incognito , none have scrupled to take the oaths , altho you know they are a people that understand how to make the best of a scruple of any men breathing . their democratick principles are still the same , and their sincerity to this government has no better a foundation than what they pretended for the last . therefore in short the business is this , besides the interest they perceived in crying up their loyalty now , our last turn of affairs could not but be very acceptable to those persons , who all along placed the sovereign power in the multitude ; and made their princes upon every transgression and male-administration in the state accountable to the people . freeman . as for what concerns the fanaticks i readily own . but then the other part of your discourse , tim. is not so well grounded as it ought to be . you say the dr. might refuse to take the oaths , because in doing so , he must run counter to several principles , which he had formerly justified and asserted ▪ now if this be true , he 's as much oblig'd at this present moment to dissent from the government , as at first . you say likewise that the case of those gentlemen , who consulted him about taking the oaths , is very different from his ; but this i take neither to be satisfactory nor solid . the question is , whether what the dr. has formerly preached or written , is the true doctrin of the church of england or no ? if it is not , i am of opinion he 's bound to make a solemn retractation of it ; and if it is , it obliged his brethren , who came to advise him , equally with himself , altho they never preacht it , or publickly justified it in print . for instance , here are two clergy-men , one of 'em preaches against oppression and covetousness once a month at least , and perhaps has appear'd in a term-catalogue upon that subject ; the other , we 'll say , never medled with the point in all his life : and yet you 'll never conclude i suppose , that the latter has more pretence and plea to cheat the poor , and trouble his parish for a single tithe-pig than the former . after all , tim. you seem to make the dr's dissent rather to proceed from a nicety of honour than a principle of conscience ; for which piece of service , i believe , he 'll never return you his thanks : now i wonder in my heart , that you should lay so great a stress upon that point , or admire to see one single man be prevailed with at last to make a sacrifice of his honour , ( if even so much as his honour be concerned ) when you see so many thousand people in the world , that make no scruple at all of sacrificing their conscience . tim. but prithee wou'd not you have a man be careful to preserve his character and reputation in the world , and study to give as little scandal as may be ? freem . ay without question , tho as the world goes , i don't think a man ' honour and reputation are worth the while to be maintained at the expence of starving for 'em , and some people i cou'd name to you , wou'd scarce put that dangerous compliment upon their religion , as to suffer any severe extremities for its sake . besides , now you talk of scandal , i question whether the dr. has not given a great deal more scandal by his late compliance with the oaths , then then his former dissenting from ' em . before he was generally considered as a person of conscience and honour , and now perhaps abundance of ill-natur'd people will allow him a share of neither . and what may serve to confirm 'em in such an opinion , is that the dr's conscience , which has for this long while lived among the laywers , has not been so uniform ( if i may use the expression ) as you imagine it first sight to be , or i cou'd have wished it had been . tim. i wou'd desire to know how you make that out , noble sir ? freem . i call that an uniform conscience , tim , which proceeds regularly in all its actions , and never does any thing in contradiction to its own principles . now let us see whether the dr's conduct since our new establishment of affairs can endure the left of this definition . most men will agree that the reason why the dr. refused the oaths , must be , because he apprehended it was sinful to take them ; so then if the dr. at the same time when he judged the taking the oaths to be sinful , nevertheless submitted to do another thing , which was tantamount to taking 'em , how can you or any man else excuse him from acting quite contrary to his own principle ? tim. this is very true , i own , but however it is not enough to say so , unless you can prove it . freem . i was in good hopes you would never give me the trouble to prove so plain a point . did you never hear then , that when some of the doctor 's councel had found out a loop-hole for him in the act of parliament to enable him to preach at his lecture in st. dunstans ' , how he prayed very heartily for both their majesties by name , when at the same time he cou'd not prevail with his conscience to swear to ' em . tim. why prithee man , every body in the town knows that . the truth on 't is , people discoursed very differently upon that occasion ; but all his friends , who at that time seemed to justify his proceedings , were agreed that it was a different thing to pray for a person , and swear allegiance to a person ; for you know the apostle commands us , to pray for all men , but he no where commands us to swear to all men. freem . this is a very miserable pitiful shift , as i take it , when it comes to be narrowly examined ; for prithee tell me , honest tim , what is it to swear allegiance to any prince ? tim. to acknowledge in the presence of god almighty , that the prince to whom i swear , has a lawful title to the throne he possesses ; and consequently to my fidelity and service , as far as the respective constitution of the government , where i live commands it . freem . well then , and is not praying for a prince , and recommending him in all his acknowledged titles to the protection of god almighty , the very same thing in effect with swearing to him ? i am sure it is , if your heart goes along with your words ; and a church , as far as i understood the matter , is none of the fittest places in the world for a man to prevaricate in . besides tim , there 's this remarkable difference between swearing to a prince , and praying for him , that you may perhaps have occasion to swear to him but once in your life , and that before very few witnesses ; whereas you are obliged to do the other once a week at least , in the face of a very numerous and solemn assembly . tim. but how do you know , dear friend , but this very same case which looks so intricate and perplexed at first sight , may be made to appear plausible enough with the help of two or three of the doctors distinctions ? freem . nay let ▪ me conjecture you , tim , to overwhelm me with no distinctions as you love me ; for the case is so very plain and obvious , that it will not admit of any . i am certain that , where there are two controverted titles , if my conscience would not give me leave to swear to a prince , my conscience would never permit me to pray for him publickly ; and i am as sure , that if i could prevail with my conscience to pray for him under the title he assumes , and which this person once controverted , ) i should never make any scruple of swearing to him . the apostle you tell me , commands us to pray for all men. so we do , and for my own part i can pray very heartily for the grand seignior , the cham of tartary , or the great mogul without any remorse ; but at the same time i can never pray for any of the aforesaid monarchs as king of england , and so forth ; or if i could , why then as i told you before tim , i should make no question of testifying my acknowledgment of them by an oath . tim. that may be your conscience perhaps , but it were as ●●reasonable to think that all people are acted by the same conscience , as to imagine that all people pursue the same end , or think the same things , or are influenced by the same motives . you see several hundreds of men flock every sunday to church , yet one man goes there to pick a pocket , a second to make an assignation with a girl , a third to take a comfortable nap , and a fourth perhaps to hear dr. sh●● contradict himself . thus every man has his particular aim or design , and so it is in the business of conscience ; a thousand men may do the same thing , and pretend their conscience is interested in the doing of it , and yet every particular man's conscience may proceed upon a different motive or salvo . as for an instance , let us examine the case of swearing to this present government . the dissenters , of all sects and denominations , do it to be revenged on the monarchy , and passive obedience ; for , tho' the protestant religion is the word with them now , it is not to be imagined , that those people , who shew'd so small a concern for it in the late reign , should heartily entertain any affectionate regard for its welfare in this . it wou'd be too tedious a business to examine the grounds upon which all the rest have gone ; yet you may be pleased to observe , that as all of them have embarqued their conscience , more or less , in this affair , so generally speaking , every man's conscience goes a different way to work ; for conscience is a very intricate thing , and oftentimes is influenc'd by very unaccountable considerations . freeman , that observation of yours is very true , and i could cite several famous modern examples , to prove the truth of it , but shall at present only content my self with one of ancient standing . is it not a strange thing , that pythagoras , who had the reputation of a wise and learned philosopher , should ever make it a matter of conscience to refuse the eating of beans ; or that any of his disciples should arrive to that prodigious degree of stupidity , as to be confessors for that sottish , unthinking , bean-renouncing doctrine ? and yet we have one of their names upon record , who chose to undergo the punishment of the rack , rather than gratifie the curiosity of a certain tyrant so far , as to acquaint him with the true reason why pythagoras forbad so innocent a food , and at last very heroically bit off his tongue , lest the extremity of his torment should oblige him to part with so profound a secret . here was an odd whimsical sort of a conscience , with a witniss ; and i believe you 'll find it a hard task to meet with a conscience in any of the conventicles about the town , that would suffer so much for its lawful prince , as this poor fellow suffer'd for a bean , and is very like the conscience of a certain person , who never saw his cathedral , and yet took that care of his diocess , as to prohibit 'em the eating of black puddings , because it seem'd to contradict st. paul's admonition about blood. but all this while , honest tim , as i take it , we have discoursed besides our matter , therefore to return to our first subject again , prithee tell me how the dr's conversion relishes with you here in the city . tim. why you know there are store of malicious people in all communities in the world , and these are hardly to be pleased . indeed , as for the generality of the established church , they are well enough satisfied with his new acquaintance with the oaths , & don 't at all question , but that as he had leisure and retirement enough to study the point , so he has at last complied upon very solid substantial grounds . freeman . well , but the dissenters , i hope , are very well satisfied with his coming over to us . they seem , you know , upon all occasions to be very zealous and affectionate to their present majesties , by the same token , that by their good will they could be content to have all the gentlemen in the kingdom hanged out of the way , or de-witted , who refuse to acknowledge them by taking the oaths . therefore , i should think , it must needs rejoice the hearts of all these worthy patriots , to see a person of the doctor 's learning and character , lay aside his former prejudices to our settlement , and voluntarily own it . tim. no , no , you are quite mistaken ; the dissenters are masters of too good memories , to be ever guilty of any charity towards a man , who had the boldness to touch the copyhold of the schism . they rail at him ten times more furiously than ever they did , and challenge him , if he dares , to reconcile his present compliance with his old musty notions of passive obedience ; and then they say , they 'l get enroclydon baxter , or one of the poultry divines , to reconcile transubstantiation to his preservative against popery . freeman . but are they all so inveterate ? what , not one single man amongst the whole herd , that congratulates the government for the great happiness of his reduction ? tim. the only man i hear of , who has been pleased to testifie his joy for this occasion , is that learned son of socinus , mr. thomas f — rm — n by name : he pretends , that the doctor has effectually answered all his other treatises , by taking the oaths , excepting his late book against the anti-trinitarians , and he comforts himself , that the doctor will all in due time ruin the reputation of that piece ; for , says he , the dr. has got such a pretty way of answering his own books , that 't is a thousand pitties any one else should take the trouble out of his hands . nay , i am inform'd ( continues he ) that when he took the oaths , he desired to be sworn upon the naked gospel . freeman . 't is strange me thinks that the dissenters should be angry with the dr. for what he has done : if their zeal for the government is real and sincere , which 't is a sin for us in the country to question , i wonder why they should quarrel with him upon this score , since the influence of his example , for all they know , may be serviceable to reduce the rest of his brethren , who at present dissent from us . tim. that does not signifie a farthing ; for , besides their particular pique against the dr. as he is a member of the established church , they would have neither him , nor any one else who is not of their party , be thought loyal : for all their former bellowings and cries against the illegality of monopolies , yet at present they would willingly engross all the little honesty and loyalty that is left in the nation , into their own hands ; though , by the by , their loyalty is compounded of such cross , surly , ill-natur'd ingredients , and is such an odd awkward sort of loyalty , that for all i can see to the contrary , no prince in christendome is likely to be the better for it . freem . a dissenter's loyalty is like the officiousness of a rock at play , who only lends you mony in order to your ruin . i pray heaven it proves of long continuance , but for my own part , i am afraid it will last no longer , than they find their religion ( i mean their interest ) concerned in it . tim. more than all this , they 'l tell you , that we owe the sunshine of the gospel , and all the other blessings of the late revolution , intirely to their discretion and state-principles ; and , that if these impracticable doctrines of the church of england , concerning the civil magistrate , had taken place , we had by this time been utterly overwhelmed with popery and slavery . freem . why this is ten times over a more fulsome plea than their pretensions to loyalty . they preserve the protestant religion ? where , or how ? or in what reign , that we may see it registred in our almanacks ? i am sure they have contributed in all their pious endeavours to make the reformation as scandalous and despicable , as any of the fathers of the society could have done . they preserved it after a fine rate , by their universal silence in the late reign , and their little , low , abject applications to popery ; and now , when the enemy is beaten out of the field , they make a great pother with a few gleanings out of our own authors , and pretend the victory is owing to their assistance and conduct . tim. nay , the dissenters have not been wanting , even in this reign , to do the protestant religion all the good service they can . one of the tribe , in his modest enquiry , as he called it , very modestly advised the rabble to knock all the clergymen in the head. and another nameless rascal , in his reflections upon the miscarriages of our navy , that are printed by one of those godly wholesale dealers in scandal , those scruple-selling vermin of the poultry , has this remarkable passage , viz. that there 's more virtue and honour to be found among the rabble than the gentry : rabble is likewise the word with their dear brethren in scotland , and you may guess what a brave religion we shall have of it at last , if we follow these blessed methods , and suffer it to be modell'd and fitted to the inclinations of our judicious rabble . freem . why prithee tim , you need not give your self the trouble , at this time of day , to acquaint me with any of the laudable qualities of the dissenters , and especially of their levites , as for instance , either with their wit , which never appears but in their similes , and in interpreting the prophets ; or with their charity , which is never extended beyond their own party ; or with their modesty , which is never visible , but when they wink in the pulpit ; or with their sincerity , which never appears , but when they own themselves in their prayers to be a pack of the damnedst rogues in the world ; or with their learning , which never goes beyond a dutch system , and a little herauldry ; or with their sobriety , which is never admitted to keep them company at their pious friday entertainments ; or with their loyalty , which was ▪ ever shown but by their promising to lend this king more mony than they could raise , and abusing the two last reigns ; or lastly , with their zeal against popery , which is never to be proved , but by their continual endeavours to undermine the established church . — but let me conjure you , dear tim , to drop this nauseous fulsom subject , for , as i hope for mercy , i am as weary of it , as a presbyterian splitter of cases is weary of a poor brother ; that constantly comes every sunday with his dozen troublesome scruples , to be resolv'd , sub forma pauperis . tim. thus you see , sir , with what contempt and aversion the dissenters in town entertain the story of the dr's conversion ; now give me leave to add a word or two more concerning them , and then i 'll have done . you very well observe , that they pretend to have abundance of zeal for their present majesties , so they do , & if you 'l take their own words for it , they 'l tell you , that no body keeps the fasts , and thanksgiving days with that devotion as themselves have done . but for all this , dear friend of mine , they are angry to see the number of the kings subjects increased , & if they see a church-of - england-man come over to the government , they immediately call him all the rogues and rascals in the world : the reason is plain , they 'd willingly have his majesty served by none but themselves , and then they don't question , to reduce the french king , and demolish popery in due time . besides , if all the church-of - england-men had taken the oaths , they had lost their dearly beloved topick of railing at them , and i dare swear ( so well am i acquainted with a dissenter's tenderness ) they 'd rather sacrifice all the princes in the universe , than lose the precious opportunity of libelling and railing . you are infinitely mistaken , if you imagin , that the bishops would find better quarter from the fanaticks , if they should ever take the oaths ; no , no , they pray , with all their hearts , that they may refuse the doing of it still , for then they are in hopes to see their order abolish'd , and their revenues divided amongst the saints , i. e. their old oliverian leases come in play again : of all which expectations they would be miserably disappointed , if those immortal patriots could prevail with themselves to comply . freem . i don't pitty the dr. however , for being used after this unmerciful rate , by those sons of schism ; for , if it were my own case , i should rather chuse to put that sanctified generation to the expence of a little scandal , for my sake , than a little flattery ; and rather accept of their reproaches , which are excellent in their kind , than of their i●s●●ce , which is the nastiest coursest stuff in the world. 't is well enough with him , so long as his own brethren are satisfied , as you have before informed me , with the honesty of his proceedings ; or ▪ if they were not at first , i don't question , but the reasons he has published for his own defence , carry so much strength and solidity wi●h ' ●m , as to satisfie all the reasonable part of mankind as to that particular . tim. why there you are mistaken , dear friend of mine ; for tho' the dr ▪ has con●escended to acquaint the world in publick with the reasons of his conversion , yet he has not been so happy as to satisfie all people . freem . who could ever expect that ? 't is an impossible thing you know to do it ; but however i am glad the dr. has published his reasons , for otherwise i should have bin a little angry with him . for , could he dissent from the government above a year and half , and by his example hinder so many country parsons from taking the oaths , and keeping their livings , and yet refuse the world so slender a satisfaction , as to let 'em see the motives of his change ? i ever thought , that so inconsiderable a piece of trouble was due to his own reputation and credit , as well as the farther instruction of his younger brethren of the clergy , who i am afraid little consider'd the merits of the cause , but rather what a brave thing it was to be thought of the dr's company , and embarqued in the dr's quarrel , and now have nothing else left 'em to do , but to starve with as much decency as they can , and to curse the expensiveness of their vanity and loyalty . tim. all this you and i cannot possibly help , and therefore 't is a great piece of nonsence for us to talk of it any longer , only thus much i must add , that in my opinion too , the dr. lay under all the obligations in the world , to make the true occasions of his late reconcilement publick . 't is a debt which was due to the interest he now espouses , no less then the party he has forsaken , some of which , as you say , the temptation of being thought of his acquaintance or judgment , has reduced to their present mortifying necessities . and therefore this being so necessary a debt , as well in regard to himself , as the rest of the world , i always persuade my self , that the dr. would take care to acquit it as soon as ever he has got his reasons ready . freem . got his reasons ready do you say ? that 's a iest with all my heart , as if a man of the drs learning and experience in the world , after so long a time too , to examine all the niceties of the case , could suffer himself to be ingaged in an affair , to which he formerly expressed so incurable an aversion , without having his reasons ready by him . nothing but either pride ( which i would be loath to suspect in a person of his mortified character ) or the weakness of his cause could engage him to act only on the defensive part . 't is a hundred to one , but a man's adversary may say somthing or other , which will lye a little obnoxious to censure and exception ; so 't is but falling without any more ado , upon the authors blind side , and the business is soon over . there are a thousand ways for a man of any tolerable discretion to put by his enemy's thrust when he is attacqued ; nay , 't is possible too he may come off with the better on 't , especially if the man he has to dealt with , plays open , and lies unguarded in any part . and therefore if this had been the dr's policy , i should have thought the worse of his skill in polemies , as long as i lived . i remember i was once in a coffee-house in the country , where we happened to be talking of the dr's coming over to the government ; and a gentleman in the room was pleased to say , he was of opinion , that the doctor had got his reasons ready , much after the same rate as a country innkeeper , whom he knew , got a poor fellow's porcupine ready . tim. prithee what story is that , for , to the best of my knowledg , i never heard of it before ? freem . nay , the story is entertaining enough , that i can assure you , and perhaps will deserve your attention . you must understand then , that a certain fellow , here about the town , who gets a sorry livelihood by carrying some outlandish beasts about the country with him , and shewing 'em for pence a piece to the people , had by chance brought a porcupine , the only support he had left him in the world , to an inn where this gentleman was acquainted ; the next morning he calls the innkeeper to him , and thus accosts him : ' landlord , says he , i must beg one favour of you , and that ' is ▪ to get my porcupine and room ready by eleven of the ' clock precisely , and in the mean time i 'll step into the town , to see what company i can pick up . tim. very well , sir , pray proceed . freem . away goes the fellow into the town , and for a while stares about him , to observe all the curiosities of the place ; towards ten , he makes a solemn proclamation of his porcupine , and so musters up as much company as he thought would defray the expences of the show for that time , and carries 'em to his inn. tim. well , i mightily long to hear the issue of your foreupine . freem . when the fellow was got into his room at the inn , he knocks for the landlord , and asks him whether he had got his porcupine ready ? ay sir , that i have replies the landlord , i hate to be worse than my word to any man , but i must desire you , sir ; that you 'll be pleased to tell me what sawce you 'l have for him . tim. why , what a devil did he mean by that question ? freem . you shall hear . crys the master of the porcupine , you rascal , what do you intend by asking me what sawce i 'de have for him ? nay , no harm in the world , says the man of the house ; you ordered me to get the porcupine ready for you by eleven , and so i have , for i gave directions to the maid to put him in the pot immediately ; but sir , says he , i never boil'd a porcupine in my life before , and therefore must once more request you to let me know what sawce your worship will order for him . tim. the poor fellow without question looked very simply upon the matter , to hear his livelihood was boil'd away so unluckily in one morning . and now to come close to you , noble friend of mine , was it the opinion of your gentleman then , that the dr's reasons were boil'd away like the strowler's porcupine , so that there was no procuring a sight of any of them ? you see how much he was mistaken in his judgment . the dr. ( as i have told you ) has been pleased to oblige the world with his reasons ; you may have them at any bookseller's shop in town , but i cannot forbear to tell you , that there was never any book since the days of the hind and panther , or the letter to a dissenter , that has been so universally pelted as this ; lawyers and divin●s , iacobites and williamites , though they agreed in nothing else , yet they have all of 'em agreed to mawl this unfortunate book . nay some of our city prentices and puny scriblers have had the hardiness to tilt against it , only to make experiment of their talents , as school-boys use to try their knives , by running them up to the hilts in a hot bag-pudding . freem . say you so tim ? 't is , i confess , somewhat odd , but who can help it . come then , since the dr. has had such ill luck with his reasons , & you and i have no other business now upon our hands , prithee let us invent some plausible specious reasons for his conversion , they 'l help to pass away t'other bottle , and t'other hour , well enough , and perhaps they 'l serve to amuse the world , and entertain the reader , as well as some of his own . tim. no sir , i desire you to excuse your humble servant as to this affair ; i 'll never invent any reasons for another man , not i , i promise you , he may even do it himself if he pleases ; 't is a very ungrateful performance let me tell you , and generally the person whom you intend to oblige by this kind of office , will hold himself as little beholden to you , as a man in the state of cuckoldom , for giving him four and fifty reasons to support himself under his afflictions : but what will serve the turn full as well , to put off half an hour or so of conversation , i will acquaint you with the several reasons , that people here in town , of all sorts and parties , have already assigned for his conversion . at the same time i must tell you , that as i don't believe them altogether my self , so i would never oblige you or any man besides to place any great assurance in the truth of them . freem . come then honest tim , and begin as soon as you will , for i can assure you , 't will be no small diversion to your friend here , who is just come out of the country . tim. nay , sir , not altogether so fast , i beseech you . i design my self a little more sport and pastime than you imagin , and since you have so admirable a talent at conjecturing , &c. i am resolved to keep your hand in play , and put you to the trouble of guessing what they are . freem . well then , since you 'l have it so , i 'll dispatch them out of hand ; but however , before i make any trial of my noble faculty , i must desire you to remember , how that at the beginning of our conference , when you told me of the dr's conversion , i looked upon it as no miracle , and that for these two following weighty reasons . in the first place , because when some gentlemen came to advise with him about that matter , he civilly referred them to their own discretion , which i supposed he would never have done , if he had been fully satisfied , that the taking the oaths was a sin , or had looked upon it to be any thing more than an indifferent action . in the next place , because the dr. had long ago prayed for their present majesties ; which is virtually , and in effect , the same thing with swearing to them ; and if it is a sin to swear to a prince , where the title is controverted , and under dispute , i am sure it must be the very same thing to pray for him . now then tim , since i was so bold as to make the dr ▪ s conversion no miracle at all , you are not to expect that i should assign any miraculous reasons for it but onely such as are frequent and common in the world ; so i will begin with that which ever since the creation of the world has had a mighty influence upon men of all countries , and degrees , and religions . the greater part of mankind , and especially our dissenters at home , love to christen it by the name of conscience , but for my part , the best english word i think we have for it , is interest . what think you of this now ? tim. to say the truth , there are abundance of ill-affected men about the town , that have trumped that unlucky card upon the dr. but for my part , i don't believe it had any great share in his reconciliation to the government . therefore you had best guess again . freem . nay , but prithee consider , dear tim , what a lovely charming thing this same interest is , before we shut our hands of it : it has all the ear-marks of love , and love , you know , works little less than miracles . it conquers the young , and the old are not able to withstand its almightyship : it makes those that can see , as blind as so many beetles , and as for those that are blind , why 't is the best oculist in the world , and recovers their eyesight to all intents and purposes . tim. no , no , all this shall not pass upon me i 'll assure you . freem . have a care tim , i advise you , what you say against five hundred pounds per annum , name it you rogue with fear and reverence , and fall down upon your knees when you hear it mention'd in company ; five hundred pounds a year is not to be spoken scandalously of , honest tim , it will buy a coach and a pair of sunday-horses ; it will purchase petticoats and commodes , the polyglot and councils , and half the non-resistance in christendom , with abundance of other fine things , too tedious to be reckoned up . tim. thou keepest as great a pother here with thy interest , as a scribling courtier with his last lampoon , or a school-philosopher with his newest set of distinctions , or what is equally as impertinent as a country fidler with his newest set of tunes . but i can tell you for your comfort , that if you do not guess better at your second essay , than you have done at your first , you are not in any great probability of finding out the secret. freem . to proceed then , is the dr. brought to a better opinion of the abdication , or does he go altogether upon the merits of forefaulture ? tim. no , i suppose he does not , for if he does , the lord have mercy , say i , upon all his poor passive obedience . freem . why other people , tim , have store of passive obedience about them , as well as the dr. and yet they dont apprehend that it is a farthing the worse , or that they have broke it at all . suppose tim you should find occasion , for reasons best known to your self , to remove a bag of your money from one goldsmith to another of better reputation , would you not break that fellows head , who should have the impudence to tell you , you had broke your sum ? even so in the business of passive obedience , the dr. and some of his brethren , have only transferr'd it from k. james's hands , who , you know , is broke and ruin'd , and a statute of bankrupt has passed against in parliament , to k. william , who can give them better security for it : and passive obedience , i can tell you , will be as acceptable to any prince in europe , at a good sum of money to a banker . tim. well , but this is not the point still , so try again . freem . is the dr. then reconciled to us by that verse in the psalms ; the earth is the lord's , and the fulness thereof . tim. why no is the word still ; for i suppose , that that text proves more than the question , and besides would serve a iohn of leyden's turn as well as any ones else . freem . but where there 's a plain conquest and an honest cause , as well as a legal title to support the conquest , that i believe cannot fail to make a convert . come tell me now , have i hitupon the true reason or no ? tim. for your satisfaction , sir , you are come pretty nigh the point , or else some of the dr's friends have misinformed me as to this particular ; though to say the truth , this reason was every ▪ whit as good all the last year , as it is at this present moment , and i don't see that the reduction of ireland has made it the better . freem . now we talk of ireland , what say you , if the dr. was resolved to hold out till the taking of dublin , and to surrender himself immediately when the place was surrendred . tim. all as i can say to the question , is , that the dr. then may be retaken from us again ; for alas , sir , all the world can tell you ▪ that dublin is a place of no considerable strength , and cannot hold out long against any enemy , especially if he have a female friend in the garrison . — but , sir , you have not as yet had the good fortune to light upon the most material motive , that makes the greatest bustle about the town , therefore once more make use of your divining faculty . freem . no , i heartily thank thee , dear tim , i shall pump my imagination no more for the matter ; i think i have drudged long enough in all conscience to find it out and to employ my brains backward and forward any longer upon this occasion , would be as wise a piece of trouble , as to lye waking all the night in ones bed , only to hear how the city-weatherglasses , the watchmen , vary every hour , in their bellowing out of rain , frost , and moon-shine . why , prithee tim , what dost thou take me for , a prophet , or a conjurer ? tim. for neither i swear ; but tell me seriously , dost thou not know what thing it is that baffles heroes , spoils divines , turns the greatest princes into milksops , makes admirals lower their bloody flags , and in fine , breaks all obligations , and governs all mankind ? freem . why interest i told you . tim. and what does interest , meer interest only do all this ? freem . why then 't is conscience , i say . tim. conscience do you say ? why just now conscience , you told me , was but another english word for interest . and does nothing but bare conscience ( which adoniram byfield of blessed memory , defined to be a cat-skin pouch to put mony in ) or bare interest do all these fine things , which i just now mentioned to you . freem . why then 't is a coach and six horses i tell you , and nothing in the world else that i can fancy ; for , you know , a coach and six , was bishop parker's best body of divinity . tim. worse and worse faith . and does a coach and six horses baffle heroes , spoil divines , and make milksops of princes ? come , consider i say once more upon the point , for 't is impossible to miss it . freem . no tim , pray excuse me ; you see i have no tolerarable luck at guessing to day ; and besides , to tell you the truth , i hate this slavish pi●ce of drudgery , as heartily as sir will. tem — in his last essays tells us , he hates good ▪ honest drollery , as a bookseller hates an un-selling author , or a jacobite printer does a surly messenger of the press . tim. say you so sir ? nay , then i am resolved to lay it out so open to you , that you must of necessity perceive it . dost not thou understand the meaning of the ital●an proverb , piu tira un pelo di donna , che cento carra ●i bo●i . freem . not i tim , i no more understand the difference between italian and arabick , than that learned protestant critick mr. rymer knows the difference between the name of callimachus and epimenides . tim. come then , wert thou ever married , my honest friend ? ha! what sayest thou ; freem . no sir , i bless providence for it . tim. not married say you ? poor rogue , thou art unacquainted i perceive with the damn'd persecution of a curtain-lecture . oh! dull , dull still ; i can't imagin how to cure this stupidity of thine , thou art ten times duller than one of sh — dwell's men of sence , or a simile without a sting , or an expounder of the revelations , at the finding out stoln silver-spoons , or an old dozed fellow of a house at the ingenious sport of questions and commands . freem . why , i cannot help all this , tim ; if my stars made me so , it was their fault , not mine . tim. once more then i 'll endeavour to relieve the weakness of thy apprehension , therefore listen to the following rhimes about adam and eve. when eve the fruit had tasted , she to her husband basted , and chuck'd him on the chin-a ; dear bud ( quoth she ) come taste this fruit , 't will finely with your pallate suit , to eat it is no sin-a . dost thou now comprehend my meaning ? freem . no , ' saith tim , i am in the dark still ; you have made me no wiser with your dull story of adam and eve , than you would make a cheapside tradesman , by telling him , that an obstacle is an impediment ; or a walking oxford-dun , that motion is an action from the terminus a quo of his habitation , to the terminus ad quem of the refectory . tim. nay then , i am sensible thou art full as slow of apprehension as the famous ierry blackacre in the play. i have but one trick left to bring you to 't at last , and if that fail , i must even serve thee as a stale city-wife serves her dull rustick prentice , when she has a mind to make him understand her virtuous inclinations ; that is , i must needs name the thing to thee in plain downright broad english. but listen prithee : as moody job , in shirtless case , with collyflowers all o're his face , did on the dunghill languish , his spouse thus whispers in his ear ; swear husband , as you love me , swear ; 't will case you of your anguish . freem . oh ho ! now i begin to smell a rat ; your meaning is , that the dr. has been brought to swear at last through the vertue of a few conjugal sollicitations ; is it not so , tim ? tim. of a few conjugal sollicitations do you say ? no , i am afraid there were abundance of them used in the present case . — well , dear friend of mine , not to be tedious with you , i must tell you , that you have made a shift at last to hit my meaning . however , i would not have you report this matter as from me , though i can safely wash my hands from the guilt of inventing it , and all the town will do me the justice , to own , that 't is a common story , and no more a secret than the mole on the rector of exeter's foot. besides , you are desired not to lay too great a stress upon the truth of it , but to follow that advice , which the dr. you know gave upon another account , and so to make use of your own discretion . farewel . finis . theodulia, or, a just defence of hearing the sermons and other teaching of the present ministers of england against a book unjustly entituled (in greek) a christian testimony against them that serve the image of the beast, (in english) a christian and sober testimony against sinful complyance, wherein the unlawfulness of hearing the present ministers of england is pretended to be clearly demonstrated by an author termed by himself christophilus antichristomachus / by john tombes. tombes, john, ?- . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing t estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) theodulia, or, a just defence of hearing the sermons and other teaching of the present ministers of england against a book unjustly entituled (in greek) a christian testimony against them that serve the image of the beast, (in english) a christian and sober testimony against sinful complyance, wherein the unlawfulness of hearing the present ministers of england is pretended to be clearly demonstrated by an author termed by himself christophilus antichristomachus / by john tombes. tombes, john, ?- . [ ], [i.e. ], [ ] p. printed by e. cotes for henry eversden ..., london : . errata: p. 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( in english ) a christian and sober testimony against sinful complyance . wherein the unlawfulness of hearing the present ministers of england is pretended to be clearly demonstrated by an author termed by himself christophilus antichristomachus . by john tombes , b.d. luke . , . and john answered and said , master , we saw one casting out devils in thy name , and we forbade him , because he followeth not with us . and jesus said unto him , forbid him not , for he that is not against us is for us . london , printed by e. cotes for henry eversden under the crown tavern in west-smithfield . . perlegi hunc librum , cui titulus theodulia , in quo nihil reperio doctrinae , disciplinaeve ecclesiae anglicanae , aut bonis morihus contrarium . joh. hall s. t. b. rev. in christo patri humfredo d. episc. lond. à sac . dom . ex aedibus fulhamiens . calend. maii , . to the right honourable edward earl of clarendon lord chancellour of england . the great favour your honour hath vouchsafed me , and the great candour your ingenuity hath shewed in accepting some former writings , have imboldned me to present this also to your hands , not only that it might be some part of a plea for my self as not averse from union and peace , but also that it may somewhat conduce to a closing of that miserable breach , which that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as st. basil termed it , the unmeasurable drawing things in contrary ways hath made among us , as hoping that though difference of opinions should be incurable , yet the discords of protestants of the same faith are not incurable . to the remedy of which no person , after his majesty , by reason of your eminent authority and prudence , is likely to contribute more than your self . whereto if the lord make your lordship instrumental , it may be so blessed a work , as may tend much to your honour , and comfort in the day of the resignation of your spirit into the hand of him that gave it . the sad face of things in europe , chiefly by reason of differences about religion , makes it seem a deplorable thing , and should move every right-hearted christian to endeavour the composing of differences ( salva veritate ) that a deluge of popery or mahometanism may not overwhelm us . as for my self i expect no other event than obloquy from persons of this authors mind , and such like ; it being the usual lot of men that seek to part a fray to displease both parties , though i am not conscious to my self , that i have herein written or done any thing which might be a just grievance to any , my study being neither to uphold a rising party , nor to depress the dejected , but to promote truth and the publick peace , to which i have addicted my self , and in order thereto , subscribe my self , your honours devoted and deeply obliged servant in our lord john tombes . to the christian readers . especially those to whom at any time i have preached the word of god. sect. . prefaces needful by reason of readers prejudice . it was the order of the court of areopagites at athens , that pleas before them should be without proems , lest their passions being stirred by oratory , their judgment should be perverted ; and favourable inclination to a person , should cause a sentence to be passed by them , not congruous to the merit of the cause . and it were well , if in all controversies about matters of religion , there were so strict a law observed ; that in all disputes , whether by writing or conference , all such prefaces or expressions be severely prohibited and restrained , as tend to create prejudice and partial propension to one part more than to another . but experience too much informing us , that even in morals and matters of religion , though the consequent be their peace , or undoing , the guiding aright , or misleading their consciences ; yea , the salvation , or perdition of their souls ; treatises have their fate pro captu lectoris , as the readers or hearers are affected , each thing is received secundum modum receptivitatis recipientis , as the quality and mind of the receivers disposeth them ; insomuch that any corrupting errour from some whom they affect , is received by many , and the clearest truths are rejected by persons preoccupated with prejudice either against the thing , or person that doth deliver them . which makes it very necessary to blow away such du●● out of the ballance of mens minds , as might mak● the scales of their understanding unequal , what they are to weigh what is presented to it . i list not to give instances by mentioning such experiments as either former , or this present age have yielded , of the ill effects that debates have had through prejudices on both sides , against persons and things , caused by such preconceits as either education , relations , advantages , or engagements forestall men with ; being unwilling to rake out of the grave again such occurrences of this kind , as i hope are buried , and wish they may not be revived . nevertheless , ( sith i have too much intelligence , that personal exceptions have caused such misprisions , as are likely to hinder the equal judging of the present controversie , whereby as the writer is wronged , so the reader is much more wronged by himself , when he refuseth to examine the matter , though of much concernment to him , because he is by fame or other motive dis●ff●cted to the author ) i am induced to speak something of my self , and the occasion of this writing , and the history of this controversie , being necessitated thereto by the strange title , and preface of the book , i am now to examine . sect. . prejudice against the author , as favouring separation , causless . i find by very many evidences , that my writings about a point , which few can concoct , have caused such an aversness in the spirits of a great number , even of those that seem to be inquisitive into truth , that my later writings , even those which have been recommended to the world by the chief of my antagonists , though not much contradicted , yet have not found such receptions , as such arguments were deemed to require . which had discouraged me from this kind of imployment , did not the expectation of my giving account about the improvement of the talent committed to me by my lord and master , make me judge , that being restrained from publick preaching , i ought to use it in this way , out of hopes of serving my generatian therein . being busied in some other arguments , i met with the book which i here examine , and not long after with another , having this title [ prelatical preachers , none of christs teachers ] whereby i perceived , that the seeds of most rigid separation were sown , and did spread themselves much among many , whose good i conceived my self bound to endeavour ; and not only for their sakes , but also for the publick peace , ( as much as in me lies ) to pluck up such roots of bitterness ; which i rather thought did appertain to me to do , because i found that many that had heard of my judgment in another point , did imagine , that i must needs be also a separatist from the church and ministers as now they are ; and where my practice is known to the contrary , i have been censured as acting against my own tenet , yea , and my own light , and taken to be , and shunned as a deserter of that cause for which i have appeared : notwithstanding in many places of my writings i have disclaimed separation , for that , wherein i was dissenter from others , alwayes foreseeing , that a groundless separation would be endless , and therefore have still professed my desire of such a reformation as might be without separation from brethren , who are not heretical in the doctrine of christian faith , nor idolatrous in their worship ; nor impose that on me for communion with them , which i cannot yield to without sin against god , and accordingly did in express words in the addition to my apology , sect. . declare my willingness to joyn with any churches of christ , and unwillingness to be a separating member in any church , being willing to be a conjoyned member with all the churches of christ in general and each in particular . apol. p. . i abhor separation from my brethren in this regard : p. . i durst not gather a separated church , as not knowing how to justifie such a practice . in refutatione positionis dr. henrici savage , sect. . sanctissimè in conspectu domini corda scrutantis possum profiteri me in animo semper habuisse , ut si fieri posset , èsset reformatio absque separatione & animorum exacerbatione . praecursor . sect. . i am conscious to my self of using what means i could for reformation without schism if possible . yea , when some of those who agreed with me in that tenet , which my writings held forth differently from others , were moved to admit me to their communion , and they excepted against it , because i did not disclaim the church of england , nor renounce ordination by a bishop , nor desert my standing as a parish minister , nor my maintenance by tith or augmentation , nor my hearing with the world , as they used to speak , nor some such like practices as were inconsistent with the principles of the separatists : i refused many years ago to joyn with them that would not otherwise admit me than upon such terms ; but did answer their exceptions against me , and persisted in my refusal unto this day . and how averse my spirit and wayes have been from division , that antagonist of mine whose former writings had given occasion to men to conceive of me as a sect-master ; yet hath in his two epistles printed before my two books , one against the quakers about the insufficiency of each mans light within him for his guidance to god ▪ being nine sermons on joh. . . and the other , entituled , romanism discussed , against the papists assertions about their church and pope , declared his opinion of my inclinableneness to brotherly communion and agreement , notwithstanding our dissent . they to whom i was a teacher , even in the times of our greatest liberty , can bear me witness , that i alwayes withstood by writing and conference such insinuations as tended to alienate their minds from dissenters , and alwayes advised conjunction in church communion , and hearing such as taught the truth of the gospel in respect of the foundation , though in their worship and preaching , some hay and stubble were superadded : and therefore to shew my constancy in the same opinion and practice , i have conceived my self obliged to appear in this matter at this time . sect. . the evils consequent on the tenet of separation , urge to an examination of it . which i conceived my self the more urgently provoked to , by the direful imputation of serving the image of the beast , which the title of the book chargeth on the hearers of the present ministers ; and the terrible predictions which in the epistle to the reader seem to be levelled against compliance in hearing the present ministers ; as if it were likely to meet with the same judgment in the day of gods wrath with the antichristian beast ; and seeming commiserations of such as did joyn in communion with the publike church assemblies , in praying and preaching , as worshiping with the nations , waiting at the posts of an antichristian ministry , and through the power of temptation turned aside by the flocks of the companions ; and expostulating with such as forsaking the fountain of living waters , for broken cisterns that will hold no water ; changing their glory for that which will not profit , leaving the bread in their fathers house , and going a begging to the doors of strangers ; casting contempt upon the pure institutions of christ , and thereby provoking the lord to send leanness into their soul , giving occasion of grief and stumbling unto their brethren , pouring contempt upon the offices , wisdom , and faithfulness of christ , hardning persons in a false way of worshiping of god to their eternal ruine , disobeying the heavenly voice calling aloud to them to come from the lions dens , and mountains of the leopards , to come out of babylon ; admonishing them to arise , depart hence , this being not their rest , but polluted , to hasten their escape , and be like the he-goat before the flocks in their retreat from the tents of these false worshippers , lest being partakers of their sin , they receive of their plagues that are even ready to be poured forth . which is further pressed by intimating as if this may be the last warning such may have from god. which passages if i should my self read without commotion of mind , as if they were brutum fulmen , a great thunderclap without any thunderbolt ; yet i doubted whether they might not have such operation on many well-meaning persons , as to affright them from any hearing or communion with the present church or teachers , as judging such compliance a damnable sin , such as the scripture makes drinking of the cup of fornication of the whore of babylon , receiving the mark of the beast in their forehead , and in their hand and in some an irremissible sin ; like that of blasphemy against the holy ghost ; which must needs produce these woful effects , an irreconcilable enmity between the separatists and such as hold communion with the present churches and their pastors ; and if the law should not be mitigated , the utter ruine of many thousands , in respect of their liberties , estates , and perhaps lives ; or else the violation of their consciences , if being possessed with these notions out of fear , or secular hope they yield to things of so direful an aspect ; which things have appeared to me of so great importance , that i conceived both prudence and charity bound me to examine these pretences , and to inform my self and others of what i found conducible to the preventing of those sad consequences which attend the compliance , if it it be such as it is pretended to be ; and the unyieldingness to what laws injoyn , if it be not such an evil as it is accused to be . that which dr. john burges in his rejoinder , said p. . is to be considered . as under the name of christ and pretence of advancing his honour , antichrist was set up ; so it is possible that under the name of antichrist , and under the opinion of only opposing him , even the kingdom of christ may be pulled down : and in part already is so , and men scarcely feel or fear it . sect. . the motive and end of this writing . whereunto i have been further incited by the relations i have met with ; of the practices and success of separatists of elder and later times : which have for the most part ended in some prodigious errours , or endless brawls , and other effects as have caused great hinderance to the progress of the gospel , and the disturbance both of the ecclesiastical and civil peace in those places where they have had any considerable duration . nor do our own times want such experiments of the discords which have fallen out by such separation ; the factions that have been in the congregations of men of that perswasion , the many , not only vain fansies , but also opinions destructive of true religion and christian faith , as have been vented through a promiscuous liberty of so called prophecying , and adhered to by many of the weaker s●rt of those of that way , as have caused many both learned , godly , and considerate divines , even of those who were non-conformists , to account the way of separation as a very pernicious evil ; and accordingly have by preaching , writing , and conferences , opposed it to the uttermost of their power . the sense of which moved me to look upon the book here examined , together with the other forenamed , of the same kind , and some such as have been divulged to the same purpose , as blazing stars portending some such danger , as we all may have cause to rue ; tending to keep open , yea , and widen our breaches , which the romanists foment , and hope thereby in time to make advantage of for their own designs . hoc ithacus velit , & magno mercentur atridae . for preventing of such malignant influence as that treatise may have on many souls who are well affected , but not so cautelous as were requisite , chiefly those to whom heretofore i have been a teacher , i have composed this writing , which i advise and request the reader to peruse without any such prejudice , or preingaged partiality , as the epistle of this author tends to beget in the readers of his work , seriously considering that the right regulating of his own judgment and practice , and the promoting of the publick peace , are of more value than either his own credit , or the contenting of those that are otherwise minded ; and that in all enquiries for the satisfaction of our conscience , and doing our duty truth only is to be sought after , which hath been , and still is the aim of , your brother and servant in christ jesus iohn tombes . the contents . in the epistle to the readers sect. . prefaces needful by reason of readers prejudice . sect. . prejudice against the author , as favouring separation causless . sect. . the evils consequent on the tenet of separation urge to an examination of it . sect. . the motive and end of this writing . in the answer to the preface . sect. . of the worship of god , and how hearing is worship of him . sect. . of hearing how instituted worship , and to be devolved on the scriptures of the new testament . sect. . hearing not a meer positive or ceremonial worship . sect. . the judgment of the ancients not useless in this controversie sect. . no approved practice of the saints afore the law countenanceth separation from the present preachers in england . sect. . jewish laws admitted some dispensation and addition . sect. . the election or ordination of levites is no rule for election or ordination of ministers now . sect. . the texts injoyning the things appointed , prove not that some things undetermined might not in gods worship be ordered by men . sect. . the defection of the jews to idolatrous inventions of men , is of a more hainous degree , than the use of humane ceremonies with us . sect. . such testimony as the prophets gave against the jewish defection , is not now to be given against the conformists . sect. . the conformists not chargeable as the false prophets of the jews . sect. . invectives against teachers and worship now , may be from another spirit , than that of the prophets . sect. . the forsaking of false prophets and worship among the jews , is no justification of separation from the present teachers and worship . sect. . the arguing by analogy in positive rites , not rational . sect. . the first querie about a national church instituted , answered . sect. . national ministers may be ministers of christ , and national churches true churches . sect. . mr. parkers arguments that the form of churches is of divine institution , are answered . sect. . the ministry of the gospel is a true ministry of christ. sect. . a true gospel ministry may be in a false church so deemed sect. . gods love to us is not less in not determining the whole of his worship to us , as he did to the jews . sect. . christ designed officers and offices for his church ( not as were in the jewish ) which are the same while their work is the same , though some titles be new . sect. . the solemn deputation of ministers , is not the peculiar priviledge of saints . sect. . corruptions in non-fundamentals unchurch not . sect. . every errour makes not a false prophet . sect , . separation by reason of some corruptions unwarrantable . sect. . it is prudence to joyn in worship and hearing , where some errours and corruptions remain . chap. . arg. . sect. . some scruples of conscience are of ill consequence . sect. . there is warrant in scripture to hear the present ministers of england . sect. . accidentals of instituted worship warranted without command in scripture . sect. . prejudice is no argument , nor personal motives good proof . chap. . arg. . sect. . preachers may be heard as teaching truth . sect. . they may be heard as ministers of the gospel , who are not rightly called . sect. . preachers may be ministers of the gospel , who are not chosen by a particular instituted church . sect. . the present ministers may be heard as gifted brethren . sect. . tender consciences may call the bishops rev. fathers . sect. . it is not proved that the best of the present ministers are to be separated from as walking disorderly . chap. . arg. . sect. . that which is by some termed antichristian , is not always unlawful . sect. . the names given to the ministers of england prove not their office not to be from christ. sect . the term priest proves not symbolizing with the popish order of priests , sect. . the parallel particulars prove not the english ministers symbolizing in office with popish priests . sect. . the office of bishops is not proved to be antichristian , but may be found in scripture . sect. . the office of lord bishops is not contrary to express precepts of christ in the scripture . sect. . the office of lord bishops not from the papacy . sect. . the ordination of bishops is also of presbyters . chap. . arg. . sect. . they that deny not christs offices doctrinally may be heard . sect. . every not hearkening to christs order is not a denial of his office. sect. . it is not proved that christs sovereign authority is rejected by the present ministers . sect. . ministers oppose not the will of christ , by not joyning in the separation pleaded for . sect. . election and excommunication by the church are not christs institution . sect. . no contempt of the authority of christ is in the church of england by setting up officers and offices . sect. . election of ministers by the common suffrage of the church is not proved to be christs appointment . sects . prophecying is not opposed by the ministers . sect. . ministers service may be divine and spiritual in the use of the liturgy . sect. . things objected against the ministers are not such as justifie separation . chap. . sect. . all owning of orders different from , or contrary to christs , proves not a denial of his offices . sect. . ministers submitting to canons is unjustly censured . sect. . making canons in things undetermined , and subjection to them , agrees with scripture . sect. . it s no derogation from scripture , or christ , that such canons are made and obeyed . sect. . all particularities of decency and order in things sacred , are not determined in scripture . sect. . it s not proved that the ministers of england own constitutions contrary to the revelation of christ. sect. . a prescript form of words in prayer devised by man is not contrary to rom. . . cor. . . sect. . the admission of vitious persons to communion , justifies not separation . sect. . receiving of the lords supper kneeling , is not directly opposite to christs practice or precept of abstaining from appearance of evil , thess. . . sect. . forbidding to marry or eat flesh at certain times are not characters of apostates , as tim. . . is meant . sect. . no such headship is owned by the present ministers as is a denial of christs offices . sect. . conformity to laws opposite to christs , proves not owning another king co-ordinate to him . sect. . headship of the church under christ not monstrous . sect. . the kings supremacy is such as was allowed the kings of israel . chap. . arg. . sect . false doctrine only makes a false prophet not to be heard . sect. . the ministers not false prophets , because not sent , as jer. . . rom. . . is meant . sect. . the ministers not proved to commit adultery and walk in lyes as jer. . . is meant . sect. . the ministers are not proved to strengthen the hands of evil doers , as jer. . . is meant . sect. . the ministers are not proved such daubers as those , ezek. . . sect. . ministers changing of places , sadning some mens hearts , not characters of a false prophet . sect. . pressing rigid conformity no proof of the ministers being false prophets . sect. . the charge , ezek. . . reacheth not the ministers of england . sect. . the ministers are not the false shepheards , meant ezek. . . sect. . the ministers of england are not the second beast , foretold , rev. . . chap. . arg . sect , . all idolatry is exhibiting divine worship to a creature . sect. . all will-worship of god is not idolatry . sect. . this authors argument as well proves himself an idolater as the conformist . sect. . prayer in a stinted form may be worship of god of his appointment . sect. . common-prayer book worship shuts not out of doors the exercise of the gift of prayer . sect. . common-prayer book worship is not of pure humane invention . sect. . common-prayer book worship is the same with the worship of the reformed churches . sect. . no particularity instituted is a meer circumstance ; yet particularities undetermined are . sect. . praying in a form may be praying in the spirit . sect. . the forms of prayer imposed are not made necessary essential parts of worship . sect. . acting in the holy things of god by the office , power , and modes of idolaters may be without idolatry . sect. . the english ministers oppose popish idolatry as other protestants . sect. . the ministers of england act not by vertue of an office power from idolaters . sect. . the common-prayer book worship was not abused to idolatry . sect. . kneeling in the receiving the sacramental elements is not idolatry . sect. . the crimination of the ministers as idolaters is not excusable . sect. . the martyrs are unjustly made idolaters by this author . chap. . arg. . and , sect. . every offence of others makes not sinful that which is otherwise lawful . sect. . hearing the present ministers may be the saints duty . sect. . sinful scandalizing is not by hearing the present ministers . sect. . it is not scandal given but when the offensive action is done blameably . sect. . offending some sincere christians by hearing the present ministers , is not the scandalizing threatned , matth. . . sect. . the separatists give more just cause of offence to godly sober christians , than the conformists do to them . sect. . hearing the present ministers may be without participation with them in sin . chap. . arg , , , , . sect. . separation of some from other christians is no institution of christ. sect. . meeting of christians as a distinct body is not christs institution . sect. . separated congregational churches in opposition to national , are not of christs institution . sect. . to attend only on the ministry of ministers of congregational churches is not christs appointment . sect. . hearing the present ministers casts no contempt on christs institutions . sect. . hearing the present ministers hardens none in sin . sect. . gods people are not called out of the temples in england as places of false worship . sect. . there is ground to expect a blessing in hearing the present ministers . sect. . hearing the present ministers is no step to apostasie . sect. . pollution in one part makes not the whole worship polluted chap. . fifty arguments for hearing the present ministers . sect. . christs direction , matth. . , . warrants hearing the present ministers . sect. . the scribes and pharisees sate in moses his chair as teachers , not as magistrates . sect. . the pharisees were not church officers of gods appointment . sect. . christ allows hearing the pharisees while they taught the law of moses . sect. . hearing pharisees teaching moses law , not attendance on their ministry as pastors is allowed by christ. sect. . christ and his apostles going to the jewish meetings is opposite to the separatists opinion and practise . sect. . pauls rejoycing at the preaching christ of contention , warrants hearing the present ministers . sect. . the truth ministers teach , warrants the hearing of them . sect. . evil persons may be heard as true ministers . sect. . it is a sin not to encourage good men in their ministry . sect. . the example of the learned godly non-conformists is some inducement to hear the present ministers . sect. . the magistrates command to hear the present ministers is to be obeyed . sect. . conformists ministry instrumental to convert souls . sect. . to the observation of the lords day hearing the present ministers , as the case now is , may be requisite . sect. . an appendix containing forty additional reasons against denying the lawfulness of hearing the present ministers . sect. . some passages in the writings of mr. john goodwin opposite to the book , entituled , prelatical preachers none of christs teachers . theodvlia : or , a just defence of hearing the sermons and other teaching of the present ministers of england . in answer to the book , entituled , a christian and sober testimony against sinful complyance . an answer to the preface to the ensuing discourse of that book . having premised so much as i suppose may be of use to the reader , concerning the title and epistle to the reader of the book which i intend to examine , i proceed to a discussion of the book it self : which is more scholastical than the other treatise . entituled [ prelatical preachers none of christs teachers ] or any other that i have met with of late composure , and therefore more fit to be sifted for the bolting out of the truth by argument . it is distributed into a preface and ten chapters . i shall follow him in his method as being suitable enough , and comprehensive of that which may be said in this matter . s●ct . . of the worship of god , and how hearing is worship of him . first he conceives it a reasonable postulatum in the present enquiry concerning our part of the instituted worship of christ under the gospel , with respect unto the duty incumbent upon the saints ; in order thereunto , that the whole thereof be divolved upon the scriptures of the new testament ; and those royal lawes , that christ ( the alone king and law giver of his church ) hath given for saints under the new testament dispensation to walk by , untill they arrive unto a perfect man , unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of christ. eph. . . answ. the term [ worship of christ or worship of god used chap. . &c. ] imports such an action as whereby god is observed , served , or honoured as god , and christ as christ. all actions therefore , whereby god and christ are acknowledged and glorified under the proper consideration of god or christ as god or the messiah , are meant by worship of god and christ : either of which may be real , or putative and imaginary . they that worshipped the golden calf did proclaim a feast to jehovah , and said , these are thy gods o israel that brought thee out of the land of egypt . exod. . , . which shews they intended to worship jehovah as god by that feast , and the sacrificing to that idol , but this was not real worship of god , but only imaginary and false worship . real and true worship is either mediate or immediate . mediate is when any action of holiness or righteousness , is done in obedience to god as the motive or impulsive cause , to glorifie god as god , christ as christ , as the end or final cause ; yet not without respect to some other . so by works of righteousness , peace and joy in the holy ghost , christ is served acceptably to god , rom. . . servants that obey their masters fearing god do it to the lord and not to men , and thereby serve the lord christ , col. . , , . where the action of it self is not a worship of god or christ , but in respect of the motive and end , though the doing of the thing be not per se of it self a worship of god , yet it being done by vertue of gods command and in reference to him as god , it is in that respect a worship of god and a service of christ. immediate worship is that which is directed to god as the sole object of it without the intervention of any other , as for whose sake , end or use it is done , or upon whom it is terminated for his honour , though it may be that some other may be used as the means , by which the action is done . as for instance , offering sacrifice to god was immediate worship to god , though it were done by the priest : because , though the priest were used by reason of his office and dignity , yet it is not directed to , or terminated on him for his honour , nor out of any such respect of acknowledging superiority or excellency in him , as in a servants obedience to his master , nor to benefit him , or gratify him as in acts of righteousness to men out of obedience to god , but the action is done entirely , and immediately to and for god his honour , and glory , by testifying thereby his excellency , worthiness , soveraignty , goodness , or other excellency , which i conceive agreeable to the notion of worship , which seems to be a contract of [ worthyship ] and notes singular respect , esteem , or regard , by reason of some worth in the thing worshipped conceived in the heart , and expressed by some signe , the former being inward worship , the other outward , this ] gather from the use of the term worshipfull ; your worship given to superiours by reason of their dignity , and the use of the words in the solemnity of marriage , [ with my body i thee worship ] that is , honour thee in the sence in which st. peter epist. . . requires the husband 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to distribute , render , impart or give honour , esteem , price or valuation to the wife as his own for his use as a helper , or to gratifie her as in the old ritual alledged by mr. selden in his uxor ehraica , l. . c. . was in latin [ corpore meo te dignor ] i bestow on thee , to gratifie thee out of singular regard to thee , my body . both which notions seem to be implied in that old version of the words , sam. . . mentioned in the conference at hampton court [ them that honour me i will honour ] in the old [ them that worship me i will worship ] in the one our worshipping of god importing our glorifying him as god , as the expression is , rom. . . in the other gods worshipping of us his gratifying us as a benefactour , out of that love , favour and esteem he hath of us . now hearing is worship of god or christ in the former notion , it being for enquiry of god or christ , what is their minde or will towards us , out of apprehension of our dependence on them or respect to them , as a servant on his master , a scholler on his teacher . and then we worship god in hearing when we hear , as it is said of the thessalonians , thessal . . . that when they received the word of god , which they heard of st. paul and other teachers , they received it not as the word of men , but ( as it is in truth ) the word of god , which effectually worketh also in them that believe . hearing then , as it is a worship of god , is a seeking from god such revelation as may be for our benefit , arising from the apprehension we have of his omnisciency , goodness , wisdome , and truth , who neither can be deceived nor deceive , that he only knoweth all things , that we are to call no man our father upon the earth : for one is our father which is in heaven , mat. . . as on the contrary when ahazias kings . sent to baalzebub the god of ekron to enquire of that idol , he worshipped baalzebub , and when saul enquired of one that had a familiar spirit and not of the lord , chron. . , . he worshiped that familiar spirit . our lord christ is that prophet whom god requires us to hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto us , acts . . god , who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets , hath in these last dayes spoken to us by his son heb. . , . and they that hear his word as the person to whom all things are delivered by the father , mat. . . as he in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdome , and knowledge , col. . . as that great prophet who was to come into the world , luke . . do worship christ in hearing . as on the other side he that heareth any other as rabbi or master , in that sense in which christ asserts himself to be the only master , mat. . , . ( as the papists do , who enquire of the pope as infallible , when he speaks or determins from his chair ) doth worship him as his great prophet , rabbi , or master , which christ forbids as an usurpation of his prerogative . this worship of christ is immediate even when we enquire of his minde by hearing other teachers who bring his word to us , though not called as the apostles , and some others in the first planting of the christian churches , as he that attends to a kings proclamation read or brought by never so inconsiderable a person , declares by his loyal hearing of it his honouring of his prince , not of the reader , c●ier , or messenger . yea god is worshipped and christ honoured by hearing the gospel read as the word of god , as immediately and truly , though not so solemnly , by a boy at home , as by a pastor of a church . sect. . of hearing , how instituted worship , and to be devolved on the scriptures of the new testament . instituted worship of christ is such , as is by christs institution . now institutions , saith a civil lawyer , are praeceptions by which men are instructed and taught , as the books of ouintilian inscribed , institutions of orators , of lactantius divine institutions , of erasmus ▪ the institution of a christian prince , of aldus institutions of grammer , of calvin institutions of religion . instituted wo●ship of christ under the gospel is that which is by christs praeceptions taught , directed , or appointed in the times of the gospel since christs coming in the flesh. which may be meant of that natural or moral worship , which belongs to god or christ , such as are prayers to god , giving thanks to him , & such like . of this it is true in respect of the explicite way of prayer or thanksgiving in the name of jesus christ or such peculiar manner as belongs to the new testament , the whole thereof is to be divolved upon the scriptures of the new testament , that is , as i interpret his words , the direction or precept concerning it , is to be taken from the scriptures of the new testament , yet not excluding the directions and precepts of the scriptures of the old testament , nor the light of nature so far as that worship is perpetual and general to all people , and times , as being either natural or moral . of which sort i take hearing the word of god to be , though some peculiarities there are which the almighty hath tied us to in the new testament in hearing : as mat. ▪ . this is my beloved son in whom i am well pleased : hear ye him . luke . . he that heareth you heareth me , and he that despiseth you despiseth me , and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me . yet these passages do not exclude the precepts or directions of the old testament , but presuppose them to be heard and learned in respect of the matter therein contained , and the persons that reveal it , so our lord christ , luke . . they have moses and the prophets let them hear them . peter . . we have also a more sure word of prophecy ; whereunto you do well that ye take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place . nor do i meet with any prohibitions of hearing any but false-prophets , mat. . . deceivers , titus . . that teach other doctrin , tim . . john another gospel , gal. . , . our lord christ caveat is mark. . . take heed what ye hear , not warning them to avoid any that preacheth the same truth that he delivers ; though he more especially tyed his disciples to hear his apostles , and such other as were sent by them to him ; yet when all the church at jerusalem except the apostles ( which consisted of many thousands ) were scattered abroad by persecution , and went every where preaching the word , acts . , . it was no sin to hear them , they were not the strangers meant , john . . whom his sheep were to flee from , but rather they were bound to hear them in preaching his gospel , though not by any peculiar calling , designed for that work as their function , it being christs declaration , that his sheep hear his voice , john . . nor are the many precepts or directions in the old testament about hearing or reading , isai. . . in the books of the psalmes and proverbs , and other parts of holy scriptures vacated , but that they remain still rules to us about hearing in the new testament times , and therefore it seems not to me to be a reasonable postulatum or demand , that in the present enquiry of the lawfulness of hearing the present ministers of england , the whole thereof be devolved upon the scriptures of the new testament . sect. . hearing not a meer positive or ceremonial worship . but perhaps the author means by [ instituted worship of christ ] such as is meerly positive , or as we use to speak , ceremonial ; such as are baptism and the lords supper , which are only worship of god , by institution in the new testament , which is probable to be his meaning by what he adds [ not perplexing our selves , nor the consciences of any , with what was ( or may be supposed to be ) permitted unto the saints before the time of reformation , whilst the worldly sanctuary was yet standing , the carnal ordinances pertaining thereunto , in being at least by the providence of god not sully dissolved as afterward , both it and they were , being buried in the ashes and ruines of that temple , to which they were inseparably annext . ] but if he make hearing of the present ministers , such an instituted worship of god or christ he seems to me very inconsiderate , hearing of preachers being a moral and perpetual worship common to all times and persons , not a meer positive or ceremonial , as being baptized or receiving the lords supper are , and therefore by reason thereof it is not a reasonable postulatum , which he demands to be granted him , that in the present enquiry the whole thereof be divolved upon the scriptures of the new testament . yea were it granted him , yet it would disadvantage those separatists , with whom he concurs in judgment about nonconformity and separation from the church of england and the ministers thereof , who use many places of the old testament , not only about the sabbath and it's observation , but also about baptism and the lords supper . churches , ministry , and ceremonies in their enquiries , and himself also in the present enquiry , who useth about election of ministers by the people and other things in this dispute out of the old testament , and even the levitical ordinances sundry places , and therefore i conceive not any reasonableness in his postulatum of divolving the whole upon the scriptures of the new testament . sect. . the judgment of the antients , not useless in this controversie . that which he also speaks [ not perplexing our selves , nor the consciences of any with the judgments of men in generations past ; ( wherein they cannot acquiesce ) though to take of the prejudices of some against truth , upon the account of its seeming novelty , we may here and there manifest their harmony with us , in the main principles of the ensuing structures ] may seem to be a reasonable postulatum , or demand in respect of those who are not able to examine what is said by fathers , councils , schoolmen , protestant and popish writers , forraign and domestick , and i should have liked it well if he had wholly omitted any such citations in this book , which hath been dispersed so farr as i can learn , chiefly , if not only among such . nevertheless if we would intimate as if in this and other controversies of the separatists and others , there were not use of studying and alledging those writers , i think his postulatum or demand unreasonable . for as dallaeus in his learned book against popish worship hath done much service to the truth , in shewing out of the fathers , that the popish worship of saints , angels , the host or bread in the eucharist crosses , images and reliques , according to the tradition of the latins , was unknown to the christians of the three first centuries : so it may be of good use to satisfie mens consciences , that no such separation as now is from the present ministers of england was allowed of by the first fathers and writers , or any approved council , it being a thing of much moment in the arguments about the lords day ; and other festivals , the sacraments , church and ministry ; to understand what was the judgment and practice of the primitive christians : with whom religion was more pure than in after times , though corruptions too soon crept in among them . sect. . no approved practice of the saints , afore the law , countenanceth separation from the present preachers in england . yet , saith this author , inasmuch as some beams of light may be communicated unto the present enquiry , by a retrospection into the state of things in the time of the old law , it shall not be grievous to us ( nor will it be altogether unprofitable to the reader ) briefly to remark , so far as may concern the matter in hand , the state and management of affairs under that oeconomy and dispensation : not to mention the administration of holy things in the time of the antediluvian fathers ; nor the general apostacy from the pure wayes of god , in the dayes of seth ; ( when according to their duty , the faithful remnant ( the sons of god ) separated from the wicked ( or the daughters of men ) and solemnly joyned themselves together to worship god according to his holy appointments , gen. . . ) let us take a brief view of things , with relation unto the people of god , after the giving of moses law , when a standard was set up for them to repair unto , and they became ( being gathered into one ) as a city on an hall , conspicuous unto all . answ. how some beams of light may be communicated unto the present enquiry , by a retrospection into the state of things in the time of the old law , will not be easie to discern , if the whole thereof be divolved on the scriptures of the new testament . yet it will not be grievous to me to examine what i find produced for his purpose . i grant that dr. owen hath in his book in latine , of the nature , rise , progress , and study of true theologie , shewed divers corruptions in the ages before and after the flood of noah in theologie ; and the pure worship of god , unto moses his time ; and that the restitution of true theologie was sometimes by a separation from the wicked , when there was a general apostacy from the true wayes of god , unto a prophaning of the name of god , ( as some conceive gen. . . is meant ) either by blaspheming , or by setting up of idol-worship ; as it was before abrahams separation , josh. . . but neither by him , nor i think , by any other is it shewed , that a separation was approved from preachers , that teach no worse doctrine than is held forth by the articles , homilies , and other avowed books of the church of england ; or from a society or church that was no more polluted by idolatry or other corruptions in worship , than are chargeable on the publick enjoyned worship of the church of england . if gen. . . be meant of a reformation , by setting up separate congregations ( as dr owen conceives in that book , l . c. . ) it was , that therein they might call on the name of the lord ; which shews it was from them that did not call upon the name of the lord , not from them that did as in the worship of the church of england is done . and if noah did reform by separation , it was from wicked men , who had filled the earth with violence , gen. . . which doth indeed make a necessary separation , ( though it appear not but that noah continued to preach to them , and live among them , pet. . . pet. . . ) but is not the cause of the separation avowed by this author from the ministers and church of england . and though it be true , that by the law at mount sinai , and other acts of gods providence , israel became ( being gathered into one ) as a city on a hill , conspicuous unto all , yet how then a standard was set up for the people to repair unto , needs some explication , sith such as job , and such like holy persons ( if he or any other lived at that time ) seem not to have repaired to them , nor were bound to repair to them , unless they would be made proselytes , which the avoiding idolatry , of the gentiles might require of them ; not such corruptions onely as are in the church of england . but let us see what beams of light may be communicated unto the present enquiry , by retrospection into the state of things in the time of the old law. sect. . jewish laws admitted some dispensation and addition . first then , saith he , that the lord gave unto the people of the jews ( whom he had chosen out of all the nations of the world , to be a people near to him , his peculiar treasure above them all ) statutes and ordinances to walk by , both with relation to civils and ecclesiasticks , which they were indispensably bound to conform to , without adding to , or detracting therefrom : that the management of all their affairs was singly to be bottomed upon , and conform to these statutes and judgments is very frequently asserted in scripture , exod. . . lev. . . & . . & . . & . . & . ▪ . deut. . , , . & . . & . . & . , . & . . & . . & . . chron. . . & . . psal. . . ezek. . . & . . dan ▪ . . answ. it is granted that the lord gave unto the people of the jews statutes and ordinances to walk by , both with relation to civils and ecclesiasticks , or ( as usually they speak ) ceremonials ; and that they were bound to conform to them , and so much the texts alledged do prove . but that they were bound indispensably to conform to these statutes , without adding to , or detracting therefrom ; and that the management of all their affairs was singly to be bottomed upon , and conform to these statutes and judgments , is not asserted in those scriptures , there being not one of them , that saith that they were bound indispensably to conform to them . our lord hath determined to the contrary in justifying his disciples plucking the ears of corn on the sabbath ; davids eating the shew bread and entring into the house of god , and confirming his determination by the words of the prophet hosea , . . in his dissertation against the pharisees , mat. . , . in which there was a dispensation with , and detraction from the laws of the sabbath , and the shew-bread about ecclesiasticks , for a time in some case . and for addition to laws ecclesiastical the assemblies keeping other seven dayes besides those prescribed in the law of the passover , chro. . . and to civils that ordinance of david , sam. . . shew , that in both some additions might be by the prince , captain or private persons to both sorts of lawes with divine approbation . and that the management of all the affairs of the people of israel , both civil and ecclesiastical , was not singly to be bottom'd upon and conform to those statutes and judgments , but that in both sorts of affairs humane prudence , and the rulers authority might order many things , may be cleared from sundry instances of david , jehoshaphat , hezekiah , and others ; which there will be occasion more fully to discusse in examining the allegations brought by this author to prove the major of his first argument ch. . of this treatise . sect. . the election or ordination of levites , is no rule for election or ordination of ministers now . secondly , saith he , that persons were appointed by the lord to be chosen by the congregation for the publick administration of ordinances and worship , cannot be denied : thus were the levites , exod. . , , . and . . numb . . . called therefore the wave-offering of the children of israel , numb . . , , . because given up by them to the lord as their offering , by solemn ordination , and imposition of hands . answer , it is true , that the levites were wholly given unto god from among the children of israel , to do the service of the congregation ; but it is not true , that they were appointed by the lord to be chosen by the congregation . god saith , numb . . . in stead of the first-born of all the children of israel have i taken them to mee . and upon what occasion god took the levites in stead of the first born , is to be seen in exod. . , . deut. . . saith ainsworth annot . on numb . . . so that here appears no choice of the congregation , so as that it was left to them to take or to leave those . it is true also , that numb . . . it is said , that moses shall bring the levites before the tabernacle of the congregation , it was therefore his business to present them , and that he should gather the whole assembly of the children of israel together , and that he should bring the levites before the lord , and the children of israel , that is , some of the chief of them , ( as the first born ) in the name of the rest shall lay or impose hands on the levites , saith ainsworth annot . on numb . . . and then it follows , v. . aaron shall offer or wave the levites before the lord , for an offering or wave-offering of the children of israel , that they may execute the service of the lord. and then aaron was to make an atonement for the levites , and moses should set the levites before aaron and before his sons , and offer them for an offering unto the lord , and that he should separate the levites from among the children of israel : and the levites should then be gods. v. , . the reason of the laying on of the hands of the children of israel upon the levites , was to signifie their obedient yielding them to god in their stead , to do the service of the children of israel , in the tabernacle of the congregation , and to make an atonement for the children of israel : that there might be no plague among the children of israel , when the children of israel came nigh unto the sanctuary , v. . but these were not the priests , they were distinct from the levites , to wit aaron and his sons , who were called of god , heb. . . without the prophets laying on of hands . now it was the priests office to do that work , in which was the worship of god to wit the offering sacrifice , sprinkling the blood , and such other duties , the levites were imployed to do other services , as the bearing of the utesils and such like , in respect of which they were to attend on the priests , deut. . . & therefore it is said by god , v. . i have given the levites as a gift to aaron and his sons . so that the choice was gods , the presenting moses his act , the yielding them by imposition of hands signifying their offering them to god , in stead of themselves , was the act of the first-born , the wave offering , and cleansing them , aarons act , which may more truly be called their solemn ordination than the imposition of hands by the first-born . but were it true , that in this act of imposing their hands there was election and ordination , this wa● not a successive election or ordination , as is when one dies and another is chosen and ordained in his room , as oft as there is such vacancy , when one minister dies and another comes in his stead . for this election or ordination ( if it may be so called ) was but once , and of the whole company together , and so is no pattern for election or ordination of elders successively by a particular congregation , or the major part of them . sect. . the texts enjoyning the observation of things appointed , prove not that some things undetermined might not in gods worship be ordered by men . thirdly , saith he , that persons thus invested into the office of priesthood were not left to the liberty of their own wits , nor have they any dependance upon the will or authority of the sons of men , ( one or other of them ) either in respect of the matter or manner of their worship , the whole whereof was purely of divine institution and divine appointment , exod. . , . numb . . . heb. . . chron. , . exod. . . levit. . . exod. . , , , , , , , and . , , , . levit. . , , , , . numb . . . exod. . , . and . , . isaiah . . answer , the levites were not invested into the office of the priesthood by solemn ordination & imposition of hands of the children of israel , but aaron and his sons , and therefore as it was an usurpation in uzziah to burn incense to the lord , sith it appertained to the priests , the sons of aaron that were consecrated to burn incense , chron. . . so it was the sin of korah that , not content with that service he was to do , he would usurp the office of the priests , to come nigh the altar and to burn incense , or as it is numb . . . to seek the priesthood , which was in degree above the levites , who were to minister unto the priests , but not to come nigh the altar , as ainsworth proves in his annot. on numb . . . out of numb . . , . chron. . , . chron. . . it is granted that neither the levites nor the priests in their office or service were left to their own wills , nor had they any dependance upon the will or authority of the sons of men ( one or other of them ) either in respect of the matter or manner of their worship , which was of divine institution , and divine appointment . every circumstance of time , place , order , habit , and what ever else was particularly determined , was to be strictly observed under pain of death , if presumptuously done otherwise ; as in the case of nadab and abihu , hophai and phinehas , or culpable negligence as in the case of uzzah , and if it were by ignorance , yet an offering was to be made for an atonement , and thus much it is granted the texts alledged do prove . but neither these texts nor any other do prove that no circumstances about place , time , order undetermined by god were left to the liberty of the people , or prince , or sanhedrin , or priests in and about the worship of god among the jewes , who yet had their service more fully particularized in all things pertaining to it than we have . the priests were invested into the office of priesthood by moses , according to the rites distinctly set down , exod. . , , , , . levit. . throughout . the text , isai. . . alledged in the first chapter out of mark . . will there fitly be considered , that we may discusse , whether the whole of their worship was purely of divine institution and appointment in respect of the matter , and manner of it . sect. . the defection of the jews to idolatrous inventions of men , is of a more hainous degree than use of humane ceremonies with us . fourthly , saith he , that this church gathered by the lord , and wonderfully separated from the rest of the world ( though they had him nearer to them than any people had his law made known amongst them ) did notwithstanding quickly depart from his pure institutions , mingling therewith the inventions of men , and customes of the nations ( after which they went a whoring ) is frequently remarked in the scripture : of this the lord sorely complains , deut. . . jer. . . and . . and . . hos. . . and . . and . . chron. . . isa. . . jer . . and . , . and . . and . . deut. . . kings . . and . . and . . kings . . ezra . . for this he severely threatens and punisheth them , deut. . . judg. . . sam. . . chron. . . and . . and . . jer. . . and . . the very truth is , the contests of god with that people from first to last , are to be bottom'd upon this foot of account . answer , it is true , that church of israel was gathered by the lord , and wonderfully separated from the rest of the world by great signs , miracles , providences , and judgments ; which he shewed against their enemies and towards them , especially by the hand of moses , and that he did not , till christ came , so gather , and wonderfully separate any church from the rest of the world , as he did them . but after the ascension of christ by the preaching of the gospel , and other wayes he hath gathered out of all nations his church , and wonderfully separated it from the rest of the world . it is true also , that the israelites quickly departed from gods pure institutions mingling therewith the inventions of men , and customs of the nations . but those inventions of men and customs of the nations , which the texts alledged mention , were such as were expressely forbidden , drew them to serve other other gods and to forsake the lord , not such as are usually by seperatives called inventions of men , to wit humane ceremonies , confessed out of the case of worship in themselves to be things indifferent , such as out of pretended prudence at least , or publique authority are imposed for discipline , order , or decency without giving any divine worship to a creature . let all the texts alledged be viewed , and there is none of them , that mentions the mingling such inventions of men , no not those , which our saviour reprehends in the pharisees , mark . , , . ( which are farr worse ) as the departing from gods pure institutions , nor doth god contest with the people of the jewes , in those places alledged for other inventions of men and customes of the nations , than such as were idolatrous , and therefore the threatnings and punishments in those places are grossely abused , when they are applied to the imposing or use of such ceremonies or discipline as are ( whether rightly or wrongly ) retained in the church of england . sect. . such testimony as the prophets gave against the jewish defection , is not now to be given against the conformists . fifthly , saith he , that notwithstanding their dreadful apostacy from god , they were usually confident , that they were the only people , had not forsaken the lord , nor done any evil , and could not bear the prophecies , and rebukes of the prophets and servants of the lord , against their abominations : whom they persecuted and put to death ( as at last they did the prince of life and glory ) for no other cause but for telling them the truth , and bearing testimony against their innovations , and apostacy from god ( the usual practice of persons degenerated from the way and spirit of the lord ) mal. . . jer. . . luke . . john . . mat. . . act. . . answer , all this is granted , and if this author can prove any such innovations and apostacy from god ( as the prophets , christ and his apostles , and other servants of god , rebuked in the jewes ) in the people or teachers , who adhere to the doctrin , worship , or discipline of the church of england , this author with others of his minde , do well to bear their testimony against them as the prophets did , and they that persecuted them for so doing , may expect the like judgments of god to fall on them , as fell on the jewes . but if it be otherwise , and the things inveighed against , be not such as they make them , and their bearing testimony be such as tends to infringe the publique peace , but not to rectify any thing , they are guilty of calumny , and their practice not to be judged to proceed from holy zeale , but evil passion . sect. . the conformist not chargeable , as the false prophets of the jewes . sixthly , saith he , that they had all along their corruption in worship , and degeneracy from the worship of god , false prophets ( who ran before they were sent , prophesying smooth things to them in the name of the lord , seeing lying vanities for them , according to the desires of the hearts of them , and their rulers , who were therefore in great esteem amongst them . isa. . . and . . jer. . . and . , . and . . hos. , jer. . , . and . . and . . and . , . ezek. . . and . , . mic. . , , . zeph. . . pet. . . answer , all this is granted , and if any of the preachers in england prophesie lies in gods name , or bring in damnable heresies , denying the lord that bought them , or are such as those , whom the texts alledged describe , let them be branded as false prophets . but if they teach the fundamentals of christian religion truly , and in respect of the substance of worship , use no other than god hath appointed , though they may in some points remote from the foundation erre , and use some things in and about the worship of god , which should not be , yet do not overthrow the worship of god in substantials , then are they false accusers , who accuse them as if they were such , as those texts of scripture alledged do describe . s●ct . . invectives against teachers and worship now , may be from another spirit than that of the prophets . seventhly , saith he , that in the height of their apostacy , god left not himself without a witness , having one or other , extraordinarily raised up and spirited by him , to testify for his name and glory , against all their abominations , and self-invented worship , reserving also a remnant unto himself , that were not carried away with the spirit of whoredoms and delusions , kings . , . kings . . romans . , . jer. . . and . . and . . answer , that self invented worship was bowing the knee to baal , kings . . rom. . , . serving idols , kings . . burning incense to vanity , jer. . . going after other gods to serve them and worship them , jer. . . and . . if there be found any such self-invented worship in the church of england , it will do well to testifie against it . but if there be not such abominations and self-invented worship , these texts will not justify persons , who have no other than ordinary calling , to testify against them , much less to censure them as whoredoms and delusions , and they that practice them as carried away with the spirit of whoredoms and delusions . and though persons may imagine they imitate elijah , are extraordinarily raised up , and spirited by god , and that they testify for gods name and glory , when they call the common-prayer book an idol , the ministers that conform baals priests , the communion the mass , with such like billingsgate rhetorick , yet it is not unlikely , but that it may be truly verified of such , which our lord christ said to james and john , when they would have fire commanded to come down from heaven and consume the samaritans , even as elias did , ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of : and that it may be bitter and not holy zeal which moves them , and their language judged by god not just reproof , but unjust reviling . sect. . the forsaking of false prophets and worship among the jewes , is no justification of separation , from the present teachers and worship . eighthly , saith he , that it was the sin of that people to hearken unto the teachings of such as were not sent by the lord ( though they pretended never so much to be sent by him ) and the unquestionable duty of the lords preserving remnant , to separate from them , as also from all the false devised worship of that day , though commended by their kings and rulers , kings . , . hos. . . the former is evident , such prophets were to be cut off from the middest of them , deut. . . and they are expressely forbidden to hear them , deut. . . jer. . , . so is the latter , their devised worship being a breach upon the soveraign authority of god , must needs be a grievous sin , as the names of adultery , whoredom , idolatry , fornication , by which the spirit of the lord doth frequently set it forth , abundantly demonstrates ; psal. . . isai. . . . jer. . . ezek. . . hos. . . and . . lev. . . jer. . . ezek. , . . . hos. . . rev. . . and . . , . which without controversie , the people of god were to separate from , and have no communion with any in , upon what pretence soever : which is solemnly charged upon them as their duty in the scripture , hos. . . amos . . prov. . . and . . cant. . . answer . none are said in those texts or any other i meet with , not to be sent by the lord , who delivered the truth of god , but they only in those places are denied to be sent by god , who delivered falsehoods , and such falsehoods as were inciting to idolatry , or contradictions to the messages of the true prophets , and such were not to be heard , though they should be comm●nded by kings and rulers , who ought to cut them off , when they spake in gods name a word , which he had not commanded them to speak , or did speak in the name of other gods , deut. . . and if they sought to turn them from the lord to serve other gods , they were not only not to hearken to them , but also , if they were never so near to them , they should not spare them , but kill them , deut. . . which i presume he will not say of the present ministers of england , and therefore me thinks he should have left out these allegations , if he had well bethought himself how unfit they were to his present designe . that devised worship , which is termed adultery , whoredom , idolatry , fornication , is levit. . . committing whoredom with molech , psal. . . being farre from god , going a whoring from him , isaia . . inflaming themselves with idols under every green tree , slaying the children in the valleys under the clefts of the rocks , jerem. . . treachery , jer. . . abominations on the hill in the fields , ezek. . . making to her self images of men to commit whoredom with them , v. . sacrificing their sons and daughters to them to be devoured , ezek. . . committing adultery with idols , hos. . . departing from the lord , revel . . . and . . such fornication as babylon made all nations , even kings of the earth to commit , and from such it is without controversie the people of god were to separate , and have no communion with any in , upon any pretence whatsoever , nor in any other sin by joyning in the practice , and if the present worship of the ministers of england , be any such fornication , or the hearing or joyning with them , must be a partaking with them in any sin , so farre at least , they are to be separated from . but neither the texts alledged , nor any other do require separation from the worship of god , or the ministers that are in some things corrupt , even in their ministration ; when hophai and phinehas , did corrupt the worship of god , yet samuel did lawfully minister before the lord , and hannah did well in presenting him thereto , and her self at the solemn feasts , and even-while there was burning incense , and sacrificing in the high places , those of judah were not to separate from the service at jerusalem , which was to god , and though the high priests were unduly set up , and sundry corruptions , and superstitions in the pharisees , and the services of the jews in our lord christs time on earth ; yet did our lord christ joyn in the publick service of the temple , and perswaded the cleansed leper to offer to them the gift that moses commanded . wherefore i inferr , that though there should be some degree of corruption in worship , and that this should be a breach upon the soveraign authority of god , as every sin is , and a grievous sin it is ; yet this might not be a sufficient cause of separation from the worship , church , or ministers , of it , and that the allegation of the texts produced , will not be sufficient for the design of this author , in urging separation from the ministers and church of england . but let us further attend his motions . he adds : sect. . the arguing by analogy in positive rites not rational . what may rationally be inferred from these positions , so evidently comprized in the scripture , and by way of analogy at least may be argued from them , is evident to any ordinary understanding ; for our parts being resolved ( as was said ) to trie out the matter in controversie , from such rules and soveraign institutions , as our dear lord hath left his new testament churches to walk by , we shall not stand to make that improvement of them as otherwise we might : a few queries upon the whole that hath been offered , shall put a close to this preface . answ. whether the positions before set down , be evidently comprised in the scripture , may be perceived by the examination of them ; what may be rationally inferred from them for his purpose of condemning the hearing the present ministers of england , is not evident to my understanding , which i do not conceive to be any other than ordinary . as for arguing by way of analogy from the institutions of the old testament to those of the new testament from supposed parity of reason , how little rationality , or force there is therein , i presume he may perceive , if he read the second part of the review of my dispute about paedobaptism , sect. . . wherein how infirm the way of arguing from such analogy is , is so far evinced , that i judge , that if the improvement he thinks he might make of his positions for his purpose , be by that way of proof , it will be found insufficient by an ordinary understanding , whether he hath kept to his resolution of tiying the matter in controversie , by the rules and institutions of the new testament , will appear by the examining of the ensuing discourse . i judge that to be the way whereby to settle mens consciences about mere positive duties , or sins under the gospel , and therefore am resolved to pursue his dispute pede pes , yet clearing the way by considering his queries in a velitary skirmish before i set upon his triarii or main battle . sect. . the first querie about a national instituted church answered . his first querie is , whether since the apotomy or unchurching the nation of the jews , the lord hath ever since so espoused a nation or people to himself , as that upon the account thereof , the whole body of that people or nation may be accounted his church ? whether there be any national church under the oeconomie of the gospel ? if so , let it be shewed when , and where it was instituted by the lord : what is produced by some to this purpose , is ( but upon a slight view thereof ) of no moment , it is isa. . . kings shall be your nursing fathers , &c. which prophesie waits the time of its accomplishment : hitherto , both before and since the rise of antichrist ( being made drunk by the whores intoxicating cup ) they have been , for the most part , cruel butchers of the saints : and were we under its accomplishment , a national church would be far enough from being its result . of a nations being born at once , we shall not sure hear pleaded in this matter , it being a prophesie expresly relating to the jews , and their miraculous conversion : if there be no such thing as a national church of the institution of christ , as most certain it is there is not ( the assertion whereof is wholly destructive of gospel administrations ) then , answ. as king james in his remonstrance against cardinal perons oration , saith , that the appellation and name of the church serveth in this corrupt age , as a cloak to cover a thousand new inventions ; meaning this of the popish party : so may we say also of others , that by reason of the ambiguous use of the appellation and name of the church , and the dictates of men about it , the minds of many are perplexed and perverted . wherefore in answering this first querie ( which the separatists do so much harp upon ) it is necessary that there be a distinct understanding of the notion of the church , and its institution . the greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which by use is now almost appropriated to the christian church , hath been variously used , both in the greek versions of the old testament , in the apocryphal writings , and in the new testament . it seems to me of little concernment in the present question to collect them all , the queries to be answered be●ng of the new testament use . now in the new testament , excepting what i find act. . , , . where it is applied to assemblies of unbelievers , whether tumultuary or orderly , and act. . . where it is applied to the congregation of israel in the wilderness , in all places in the acts of the apostles , the epistles of the apostles , and revelation of st. john , it is meant ( so far as i discern ) of the christians , or people of god , or their meeting or assembly ▪ as it notes the christian believers , or people of god , so it is taken sometimes for the universal church , whether invisible or visible , as cor. . . heb. . . ephes. . . sometimes for the visible church indefinitely , but not universally , as cor. . . sometimes for the church topical , and then it is taken for the church of a city , or town , or house ; and so we read of the church at jerusalem , act . . of corinth , ephesus , &c. in philemons house , philem. . or of a country or nation , and then it is put in the plural number , as the churches of asia , galatia , judaea . in the evangelists history of the doings , sufferings , and sayings of our lord christ , i find the word [ church ] used but in two places , mat. . . and . . of the extent and meaning of both which texts there is so much controversie , not only between the protestants and papists , but also among the protestants themselves of different persuasions about church government , that it would require a treatise by it self to make a thorough discussion of those two texts in order to the clearing of the controversies that are started about them . that mat. . . is undoubtedly meant of the christian church , but whether oecumenical , visible or invisible , or indefinite , or topical , is doubted . it is without any proof appropriated to the church of rome , or any particular church as ordered under this or that peculiar form of government ; but is to be taken for the number of believers in christ , whether of jews or gentiles , more or fewer , abstractively from any political considerations , and such external adjuncts and denominations , as whereby usually churches are in common speeches diversified . in the other place , mat. . . in as much as it is not said [ tell my church ] but [ tell the church ] and the term [ thy brother ] may as well be meant of a brother , as by birth , or proselytism adjoyned to the jews , as st. paul calls the jews by birth his brethren , kinsmen according to the flesh , rom. . . ( in which sense it may seem to be taken in that place , mat. . , . which is a precept like to this , for the reconciling of particular differences , and righting of wrongs , and the expression [ let him be to thee as a heathen ] seems to intimate ) as of a brother in christian profession ; it may not without reason be doubted whether by [ the church ] there , be meant the christian church , or an assembly of the jews in their synedrium , whether greater or lesser , and if it be extended as a direction to christian brethren ; whether it be meant of their assembly under an ecclesiastical consideration or political , that is the christian magistrate . institution of a church by preception or command i find not : neither christ nor his apostles ( that i know ) have given us any rule or law of bounding , modelling , or numbring churches . there is a precept heb. . . that christians should not forsake the assembling of themselves together , as the manner of some was . but none about the defining how many should go to a church , or be accounted to belong to one church ; no determination by any precept concerning members belonging to a church , whether they should be fixed to one meeting , or ambulatory , and moveable ; sometimes belonging to one assembly , sometimes to another of the same profession . nor do we find any institution of churches , whether they ought to be domestick , congregational , parochial , classi●al , diocesan , provincial , patriarchical , or oecumenical . the ordering of such distinctions christ and his apostles ( so far as i deprehend ) have left to divine providence , and humane prudence , allowing more or fewer to a church , as the imes will permit , the increase or diminution of believers should be , as pastors may be had , and their partitions and meetings be convenient for their edification and government . it is true , the romanists would infer from christs promise to peter , mat. . . upon this rock will i build my church , that st. peter , and after h●m the bishop of rome was made universal bishop . but that by [ christs church ] is meant the universal church , and by [ christs building ] it is meant constituting an universal bishop , is an assertion without proof . in some of the ancients the bishops of rome have been stiled oecumenical ; but so also have other patriarchs . we believe one catholick and apostolick church ; but so denominated from their common confession or the same faith ; not from union to , and subjection under one visible church head . mr. paul bayne ( as i remember ) long since disputed against diocesan churches for parochial : and in the assembly at westminster the dissenters against this proposition , that many particular congregations may be under one presbyterial government , from such distinction of churches as the new testament yields . but the arguments seem not to me to be cogent , they declaring only what was done de facto , not what was necessary to be done de jure . that text mat. . . is much urged by sundry sorts of pleaders , for their several wayes of church-government . but it is uncertain whether by [ brother ] and [ church ] be meant christian believers , and the christian church ; and if christian believers and church be meant , whether the church be meant of the christian civil judicatory , or ecclesiastical consistory , or congregational assembly of believers of all ranks : or some select arbitrators , that of which the church is to have cognizance , being there no other than the sin of one brother against another , which v. , . luk. ▪ , . shew to be meant only of private trespasses or injuries done by one to another , who might remit or forgive them ; nor is any other act ascribed to the church , than an admonition to the injurious brother , to do right to him whom he hath wronged ; whereupon it is then allowed , or appointed upon non-satisfaction to him , or disobedience to the church , without any other juridical sentence mentioned , that he that is thus disobedient should be to him that complained , as a heathen or publican , with whom the jews would not have familiarity . nothing is said of being such to the church , or by vertue of its sentence juridical , or being excluded à sacris , which we are sure the publicans were not , luk. . . these things seem to me to evince , that neither is here that instituted church , which the assertors of congregational churches and church-government urge , as the only churches and church-government of the new testament , and inculcate as the pattern in the mount , and any other way to be as the setting of mans posts by gods posts , and separate from a national church as a humane invention . nor is here that church-government instituted ( which they make the only government appointed by christ ) that the congregation , or the major part are to cast out , exclude from communion in holy things in every church , though but of seven or eight , every member that sins and will not obey the monition of the rest of the congregation . these things being premised , i answer to the questions in the first querie fore-mentioned . . that it is granted , that since the unchurching of the nation of the jews , the lord hath not yet ( that we know of ) so espoused a nation , or people to himself , as that upon the account thereof , the whole body of that people or nation may be accounted his . we say that christ hath redeemed us to god by his bloud , out of every kindred , and tongue , and people , and nation , and hath made us unto our god , kings , and priests , revel . . , . we own no church visible now , but of believers , by their own personal profession . we approve the . article of the church of england , that the visible church of christ , is a congregation of faithful men , in the which the pure word of god is preached , and the sacraments be duly administred according to christs ordinance , in all those things that of necessity are requisite to the same . the addition in the confession of faith of the assembly , ch. . art. . that the visible church universal under the gospel , consists of all those throughout the world that profess the true religion , and of their children , is not found in the writings of the new testament , and those texts that are alledged for it , ezek. . , . rom. . . gen. . . gen. . . if they were pertinent , would as well prove a whole nation to be gods visible church , yea , all mankind descended from eve , as the visible church to consist of the children of them that profess the true religion . and the same may be said of them that assert an ordinance of infants visible church-membership unrepealed , that alledge mat. . . as proving christs appointing nations as such to be baptized , that alledge the jewish proselytism as a pattern to us . how far this quaerist agrees with these , may be discerned by other passages . if he concur with those of the congregational way about church-members , and their proof from the covenant to abraham , gen. . . as made to his natural seed , and so to all believers natural seed , i see not how he can avoid the asserting of a national church like the jewish ; which i grant is not agreeable to the gospel , according to which , the visible church of christ is a congregation of faithful men , as the definition of the church of england , art. . expresseth it , and hath been fully proved by me in the third part of my review , sect. . &c. . in answer to the question , whether there be any national church under the oeconomy of the gospel ? i say , that though there be no national church , so as that the whole nation , and every member of the nation be to be accounted of the visible church of christ , by vertue of their generation , or proselytism , and such covenant as was made to abraham concerning his natural seed , or to israel at mount sinai , or elsewhere ; yet the whole number of believers of a nation , may by reason of their common profession , be called a national church , as well as the whole body of men throughout the world , professing the faith of the gospel , and obedience to god by christ according unto it , not destroying their own profession by any errours everting the foundation , or unholiness of conversation , are and may be called the visible catholick church of christ , as the congregational men speak in their declarat . ch . . wherefore it is no more against the gospel to term the believers of england or scotland , the church of england or scotland , than it is to term the believers throughout the world , the catholick church ; nor is it more unfit for us to term our selves members of the church of england in this respect , than to term our selves members of the catholick church ; nor is there need to shew any institution of the lord more for the one than for the other . nor is there need to alledge isa. . . or isa. . . for such an institution . nevertheless , that the prophesie , isa . . kings shall be your nu●sing fathers , &c. waits the time of its accomplishment , is said with more confidence than evidence . many learned interpreters think otherwise , among whom mr. gataker ( in my judgment inferiour to none in his exposition of holy scripture ) hath these words annot. on isa. . . and kings shall be thy nursing fathers , and queens thy nursing mothers ] fulfilled in those persian potentates , cyrus , artaxerxes , darius , aha●uerus , ; with the queens also of some of them , that patronised and protected gods people , and promoted gods work with them , ezra . , . and . . and . , . neh. . , . esth. . , . and much more in other emperours and kings , together with their queens ; as constantine , theodosius , and the like , who both embraced the christian faith themselves , and maintained the profession of it . of some whereof , see rev. . , , . and mr. mede on rev. . . hath these words ; for truly out of the same ten horns , or kings , they shall be , who at length shall hate the whore whom they have so long born , ( which partly we perceive to be fulfilled ) shall make her desolate , and naked , shall eat her flesh , and burn her with fire . nor is it to be denied without ingratitude to god and men , that kings and queens since the rise of antichrist ( though many of them made drunk by the whores intoxicating cup , have been cruel butcherers of the saints ) both before the reformation , and since , even in our dayes have been nursing fathers , and nursing mothers to the church of christ , and that a national church , in the sense fore-mentioned , hath been the result of its accomplishment ; and we hope in more ample manner , will be the result of its fuller accomplishment . as for the text , isa. . . that it is a prophesie expresly relating to the jews , and their miraculous conversion , is not certain . mr. gataker in his annot. on isa. . . hath these words , the most interpreters , both jew and christian , understand these words , of the strange , sudden , and unexpected delivery of the remainders of gods people out of the babylonian bondage by cyrus . howbeit , divers interpreters understand them of the restitution and restauration of the church under the ministry of the gospel , when so many thousands were so soon , and so suddenly converted , without any great labour , or pains-taking about them , of those by whom they were converted , act. . . & . . and both these expositions conceived , as subordinate the one to the other , may very well be admitted . and therefore if the author hear it not pleaded in this matter , yet he may find another exposition than that which he imagines , that it expresly relates to a future miraculous conversion of the jews . however if it did , sith it is said rom. . , . when the fullness of the gentiles is come in , all israel shall be saved ; he might find something for a national church in that prophesie , isa. . . as for those words in his parenthesis , [ that the assertion of a national church of the institution of christ , is wholly destructive of gospel administrations , ] they are said with no more truth than proof , though we should say , a national church , in respect of its government , or officers , is of the institution of christ. for suppose it were asserted , that christ had instituted patriarchs or arch-bishops , and bishops , and the government of the church of england or scotland under them , yet this might be without total destruction of gospel administrations . the preaching of the gospel , administration of baptism and the lords supper with other administrations of christian worship and discipline , have been , and may be continued even where archbishops and bishops have been over a national church as instituted by christ. but let us attend his motions : thus he goes on . if there be no such thing as a national church of the institution of christ , as most certain it is there is not ; then . whether national ministers are the ministers of christ , or whether there can be a true ministry in a false church , as a national church must be , if not of divine institution , upon what pretence soever it be so denominated ? sect. . national ministers may be ministers of christ , and national churches true churches . to this querie i answer , that if by [ national ministers ] be meant ministers for the nation , or such as have inspection over the nation , whether for the maintenance or propagating of true doctrine , or worship , or holiness of life , they may be ministers of christ , though no such thing as a national church were of the institution of christ. as for instance , i conceive dr. james usher ( when he was alive ) was a minister of christ , when he was primate of ireland . the assertion i prove thus , if the apostles were ministers of christ , and national ministers , though a national church were not instituted of christ , than national ministers may be ministers of christ , though a national church be not instituted of christ : but the apostles were such , as for instance , peter had the apostleship of the circumcision , paul of the gentiles , gal. . , . rom. . . tim. . . therefore national ministers may be ministers of christ. . titus was a national minister of the cretians , for this cause , saith st. paul , tit. . . left i thee in crete , that thou shouldst set in order the things that are wanting , and ordain elders in every city , as i had appointed thee , and yet a minister of christ , st. pauls partner and fellow-helper concerning the corinthians , cor. . . ergo : . they that may be ministers of christ , though they be ministers for the body of christ , and all the members thereof , may be ministers of christ , though national ; because the denial of a national ministry is upon this supposition ; that a minister of christ is only for one particular congregation , but the pastors and teachers , as well as apostles , evangelists , prophets , are given for the edifying of the body of christ , till we all come in the unity of the faith , unto a perfect man , eph. . , , . therefore , for all , or any ; and consequently , for a nation , and not only for a particular congregation . . if any of the saints , as well as one particular congregation , have an interest in all the ministers of christ , so as that they are truly theirs , then ministers of christ may be national ; yea , ought to be ; yea , and oecumenical , if they could be serviceable to them in the things of christ. but cor. . , . paul and cephas , and apollos , were all the corinthians , and all others who were christs ; therefore the same may be ministers of christ , and national ministers . i know not whether this might be an argument ad hominem , but this i take to be justifiable , that a man may be a commissioner for approbation of publick preachers throughout a nation , and so a national minister , or an itinerant preacher to the nation , and yet be a minister of christ. . a national church , denominated so , either from the agreement of all the believers in that nation , in the same profession , or from their subjection to some common rulers ecclesiastical or civil , or convening by deputies in some national synod , though not of divine institution , may be a true , and not a false church : which i prove thus . they may be a true church , who have all things essential to a church , and nothing destructive of its being such . but believers of a nation , or a national church , so denominated any of those wayes , may have all things essential to a church , and nothing destructive of its being such ; ergo. the major is taken from the proper notion of the term [ true church ] or its definition . for the definition of a church of christ , or a true church , is and can be no other than a company or number of persons believing in christ , or professing the faith of the gospel , and obedience to god by christ according unto it , not destroying their own profession by any errours concerning the foundation , or unholiness of conversation , even according to the expression of the congregational men in their declaration , octob. . . ch . . the minor is also manifest by reason and experience . a national church , so denominated , may have the truth of doctrine of faith , the truth of worship , the truth of holy conversation ; besides which , there is nothing essential to a true church . for the defect of outward order , were the order pretended indeed of christs institution , yet could not nullifie the church , or destroy the truth of it , but only the regularity . the corinthians were a true church cor. . . even then when there were disorders in their meeting , cor. . . in their discipline , cor. . , . in their communion , cor. . . in their faith , cor. . . in their conversation , cor. . . and . ● . as for the outward form of their combination by a church covenant , or their number , or their habitation , or their descent ; these and such like things , though for convenience they be requisite , yet not essential to the church or its truth . yea , the having of baptism , organizing by officers , though more necessary and of divine institution , yet are not essential to a church or its truth ; but that the church without them , may be a true church , though not so regular and well ordered as it should be . nor doth the having of national rulers ecclesiastical , either single persons , or in a synod or convocation , make a false church . those of the congregational way have had synods , and submitted to courts even in ecclesiastical things of larger extent than a congregation of one town , and churches of a greater number , and at greater distance of habitation than could meet in one place every lords day for all ordinances , and deny not a catholick visible church , and therefore should not by reason of the number , distance , want of officers of divine institution , or because modelled by humane prudence , call a national church , a false church . the proofs used by those that held , that many particular congregations may be under one presbyterial government , printed in the year . from the number of the church at jerusalem ; yet one church , acts . . under one government , besides what is found in the scripture about the churches of corinth , ephesus , are sufficient to evince , that many congregations may be one church ; and that the unity and truth of churches , is to be taken from agreement and verity of faith : and that a national church , so denominated , in respect of the agreement in profession , or subjection to government , or convention by deputies or messengers in one synod , may be one national church , and a true church of christ. but it is objected , that the first church is of christs institution ; and that was of so many as might meet in one congregation , even the church at jerusalem , that was numerous before the dispersion , yet might meet together in one assembly ; as appears , acts . . when the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them about the election of deacons . to this it is answered , . that in st. luke there are many places where the multitude with an universal sign ] is not to be taken for every one , not one exempted , as luke . . acts . . when it is said that all the multitude of the disciples began to rejoyce , luke . . it is to be limited to those that were present . and so in this place , and act. . , . and . . as in many the like expressions , all sorts of authors are to be interpreted , to understand by the multitude , and all , or the whole multitude , city , company , of such a number as might be reputed as the whole . now it is not likely that there was one place fit for that business , which could receive the whole number of the disciples then at jerusalem , so as to place them orderly for the hearing and debate of that business , for which they met , and , the multitudes being of women as well as men , act. . . it is not likely every woman was called to that meeting . . but were it granted that they then met for that business , yet there is no likelyhood they met for all ordinances . for though it be said , act. . . that they were all with one accord in solomons porch , and they continued daily with one accord in the temple ; yet they did break bread from house to house , acts . . . this church of jerusalem , though the first church , cannot be said to be the pattern of all churches , sith it was not with any distribution of believers under particular pastors , nor at that time had any fixed officers , but was to be surcularis ecclesia , that church from whence were to be taken such as might plant other churches , for which end they were after dispersed , acts . . . . this disposition of that church , we find not to have been by any institution of precept , which should make a certain rule to us about the fashioning and setling of churches : but these things came to pass according to divine promises and providence , which being so various , as that no certain rule can be accommodated to all times , places , and estates of the church of god , we may judge , that christ hath left the shaping of churches much to humane prudence , the ends of christian assemblies and societies being observed . sect. . mr. parker's arguments , that the form of churches is of divine institution , are answered . but this seems to some to be absurd , and thus i find it argued by mr. robert parker , de polit. eccl. l. . c. . is not the first church the body of christ , cor. . . and he that shewed himself an accurate worker in the determining the dimension and measure of mans body , gen. . so as that nothing might be added or taken from it by any : may it be thought that he hath not shewed himself also an accurate worker in circumscribing the dimension of his own body ? answ. it is true : the church of christ , is the body of christ. but this is rather true of the universal church , and mystical body of christ , as may be gathered from . cor. . , . in that by one spirit christians are all baptized into one body , whether jews or gentiles , bond or free ; and from ephes. . , . where the church , which is the body of christ the head , is the fulness of him that filleth all in all ; eph. . . there is one body , and one spirit ; then of the first church , that is the first visible church , which he makes a particular congregation , such as that at jerusalem was . and it is true of this church , he is so accurate a former , as that he fashions the dimensions of it . he is the head , from whom the whole body , fitly joyned together , and compacted by every joynt of supply , according to the effectual working in the measure of every part , maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of it self in love , eph. . . yet this is not without the use of men , for the perfecting of the saints , for the work of the ministry , for the edifying of the body of christ ; till we all come in the unity of faith , and of the knowledge of the son of god unto a perfect man , unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of christ , v. . . so that it cannot be said , that no more is left to man about circumscribing the dimensions of this body ; much less , that nothing more is left to humane prudence about circumscribing the dimensions of the visible church , universal , national , or parochial , than was to the making of mans body in the first creation , gen. . this therefore is but a rhetorical flourish from a similitude , in which though there be an agreement thus farr , that christ is the alone framer of his church , in respect of its inward form by the operation of his spirit ; yet it is not so in respect of the outward forme , but that much of it is left to the ordering of men , as divine providence shall guide them , and circumstances require . the rest of his arguing is of like sort . again , each first church of god is the house and building of god , cor. . . heb. . . . tim. . . and what prudent housholder will permit the figure or quantity of his house , to the arbitrement , and will of others ? answer , it is true , the church of god , not only the universal , or particular church , but also each believer is the house of god , not a material , but , as st. peter speaks , pet. . . a spiritual house , and it is true , that it is god that builds this house , and that christ is the only foundation , and yet others are subordinate builders and foundations , whereof some are master builders , and wiser than other after workmen , cor. . . and foundations too in respect of their doctrine , ephes. . . and to these builders or foundations , though the faith and doctrine , upon , and by which they are to be built , is not left to mens will and choice , yet many things pertaining to the outward figure and quantity , that is the distributing of churches into oecumenical , national , classical , parochial ; and the ordering of meetings for their edifications with many things pertaining to good order and decent behaviour , are left under general rules to be observed , to the prudence of governours of gods house . but we have more of the like stuffe . what ? the corporal temple had its dreadth , and its measure described most accurately by god , shall not the spiritual have its ? wherefore then was that reed given to john ? wherefore a command to measure the temple rev. . : answer , each believer is the temple of god , cor. . . cor. . . and . . and this is as true of each houshold church , as of each congregational church , and it is true , that god hath by his providence described the spiritual temple as well as the corporal , but he hath not given to us any such description of the outward fashion , and order the breadth and measure , that is the number , situation , disposition of the parts of the spiritual temple , as he did to moses , david , soloman , ezra , or others of the material temple . a reed was indeed given to john , and a command to measure the temple of god , revel . . . but not that john should set down the figure or quantity of each particular visible church , or the number of persons , that are to belong to one visible church , their nearness or remoteness of their dwelling one to another , the choice of meeting places , and of ministers to them fixed or unfixed : these and such like things were never done by st. john , nor do mr. brightmans words cited by mr. parker import he did , but st. johns measuring of the temple was his understanding the extent of it , that is , how large or how narrow the church should be in after times , in what estate of peace or persecution , what accidents should happen to it , as mr. mede , mr. brightman and others do conceive , in order to the fulfilling of that prophesying , which by eating the little book , rev. . , , he was assigned to . as for mr. brightmans words , ( though they be not an oracle yet ) they may be granted without any detriment to the thing i assert . for though it be true , as he saith , that the true christian church is shadowed by the type of the old temple , of which the several parts were of old most accurately described and measured by the command of god : to wit that men might know that this house was made by god , that it is not of humane structure : and therefore that men should not take upon themselves any whit to change things at their pleasure , as if the heavenly wisdome had not sufficiently provided concerning the most commodious manner of each thing ; yet it might be true , which i assert , that god hath not determined the distribution and order of particular churches so , but that he hath left many things therein to humane prudence . but mr. parker addes some thing more . what was the visible church of the jewes , when that nation was called to the faith ? rev. . . moreover he who spake with me , saith john , had a golden reed , that he might measure the city and the gates of it , and the wall of it , &c. he that will neglect no part of the jewish church , but designe most diligently the quantity , longitude , latitude , hatr he cast off all care of our church , so as that he hath negligently left it's dimension to humane pleasure ? further , let it be marked in this last example of divine care and wisdome , that the church is compared to a city : and is any city so negligently administred by men , that no regard is had of limits and bounds ? answer , that the holy city , the new jerusalem , descending from god out of heaven , as a bride prepared and adorned for her husband , is the visible church of the jewes , when that nation was , or shall be called to the faith , or that the measuring the city and the gates of it , and the wall of it was to design the quantity of particular churches , or the frame and order of a particular congregation as the first visible church , is scarce probable . to me such kinde of arguments as are framed from jewish church state , from their rites , and ceremonial worship to inferre duties , priviledges , and orders about the christian visible church-state , government and rites are of no force , as savouring more of fancy than of judgment , if christ or his apostles have not made those arguments before us . yet , if any such argument were of weight , sith the apostle , rom. . , . would not have us ignorant of this mistery , that blindness in part is hapned to israel , untill the fulness of the gentiles be come in , and so all israel shall be saved : as it is written , there shall come out of sion the deliverer , and shall turn away ungodliness from jacob , i might better argue for a national church of gods institution from the visible church-state of the jewes at their future calling , than for a congregational church . but i count neither firme , nevertheless , if god do design more diligently the quantity longitude , and latitude of the jewish church at their calling hereafter , and leave the dimension of our church to humane choice , this may be done out of more special love to them , who are in a peculiar manner beloved by reason of the fathers , rom. . . and not out of negligence , nor so as to have cast off all care of our church . and though the church be compared to a city , the heavenly jerusalem , heb. . . yet it may agree well with gods wisdome , and care to leave many things to the prudence of the present governours , concerning the distincton of churches , and order of meetings ; as it may suite well with the wisdome and care of a good prince , who in his charter of incorporating a city , sets down what officers they shall have , and what jurisdiction they shall exercise , yet leaves it to the choice of some one or more to order their companies , meetings , and many particularities of their government as shall be found most convenient for them . from this disgression in answer to mr. parker , i return to our author . sect. . the ministry of the gospel is a true ministry of christ. thirdly , he enquires whether there can be a true ministry in a false church , which he supposeth a national church to be as not of divine institution , and consequently the ministry of the church of england , in that it is the ministry of a national church , cannot be a true ministry . before the query be resolved it is necessary , that it be considered what is the ministry of which it is enquired , whether it be true or false ; what is the ministry in a church , and the falsehood of the church , which may be a cause of the falsehood of the ministry . for explication whereof we are to observe . that the ministry is all one with the imployment of a minister , and a [ minister ] is a latin word answering to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , from whence comes the english word [ deacon ] and notes the office of one , reaching to another that which he wants , or doth any other act whereby he gratifies or helps another , and it is for the most part the work of a servant , and implies inferiority , whence those speeches of our saviour , luke . . he that is chief as he that serveth , mat . . he that is the greatest of you shall be your servant or minister , mat. . . the son of man came not to be ministred to , but to minister , sometimes to acts which imply no inferiority of condition , but freeness or readiness , as it is said , that when some women ministred to christ of their substance , luke . . there is another word , which is used for the most part of them , that do publick offices , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and so it is said , phil. . . the minister of my need or , he that ministred to my wants , sometimes both are joyned , cor. . . the administration of this service , or the ministration of this ministry , and the higher powers are termed , rom. . . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 v. . that is , the minister or officer of god. in ecclesiastical matters both words are used , and are applied to christ , who is termed the minister of the circumcision , rom. . . a minister of the sanctuary , heb , . . and to ministers of christ , acts. . . cor. . . the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is oft restrained to the office of a deacon , phil. . . tim. . . but the ministry we are enquiring of , is neither that of a servant , that waits on his master , nor of a contributor that supplieth anothers wants of outward necessaries , nor the performing of the function of a magistrate , by doing acts of publique justice , nor the ministry of christ , which was , and is peculiar to him , nor the ministry of angels , who are also termed gods ministers and ministring spirits , heb. . , . nor the office of deacons as their office is termed serving tables distinct from the ministry of the word , acts. . , , . but that ministry to which matthias was elected , acts . . and of which it is said , cor. . . who then is paul , and who is apollos , but ministers by whom ye believed , even as the lord gave to every one , and is meant , ephes. . , . where it is said , that christ gave some apostles , and some prophets , and some evangelists , and some pastors and teachers for the work of the ministry . this ministry was performed by the apostles , prophets and evangelists somewhat extraordinarily either in respect of their gifts or their commission , which are now ceased . that ministry , we now enquire of , is that of ordinary pastors and teachers as now sent . to these sundry ministries are usually assigned , to 〈◊〉 ministry of the word , of baptism , of the lords supper , of confirmation , ordination , government by admonitions , censures , and if there be any other work allotted to those whom the scripture terms bishops or elders . but our quaerist in this his writing , medling only with that part of ministry in this main question disputed by him , which is by preaching i understand his quaerie to be meant of that part of the ministry . now this ministry is usually expressed by the ministry of the word , acts . . the ministry of the gospel of god , rom. . . the ministry of the new testament , not of the letter but of the spirit , cor. . , . of righteousness , v. . the ministry of reconciliation , cor. . . stewards of the misteris of god , cor. . . and sometimes our ministery without any other adjunct , cor. . . and an oeconomy , or dispensation , cor. . . more fully , acts . . the ministery , which i have received of the lord jesus , to testify the gospel of the grace of god. which shewes the author of this ministry , whereupon he requires , cor. . . let a man so account of us as of the mynisters ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 translated minister , acts . . ) of christ , and stewards of the mysteries of god. the finis cui , or those , for whom this ministry is appointed , are the saints , and therefore it is said to be for the perfecting of the saints , or joynting together of them , and the edifying of the body of christ , ephes. . wherefore st. paul saith of himself , that he was made a minister of the church according to the dispensation of god , which is given to mee , for you to fulfill the word of god , col. . , . which shewes , that he was not a minister for one particular church , but for any part of it where his lot was to preach , and that he was not minister of the church by their election or mission , or direction ( for these were of god , and christ jesus ) but for the church , or saints , as the subjects to and for whom he was appointed to fulfill the word of god , even the mystery which had been hid from ages and from generations , but then was made manifest to his saints , to whom god would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the gentiles ; which is christ in you the hope of glory , v. , . to which purpose he speaks also of himself , ephes. . , , , . which yet is not to be restrained so to the saints , but that the ministry of the gospel was to be to them that were not saints , i am a debtor , saith he , rom. . . both to the greeks and to the barbarians , both to the wise and to the unwise , and cor. . . we preach christ unto the jewes a stumbling block , and unto the greeks foolishness , and cor. . , . thanks be to god which alwayes causeth us to triumph in christ , and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place . for we are unto god a sweet savour of christ in them that are saved and in them that perish . so that the ministry of the word though it be primarily for the church and the saints , yet is the preaching of the gospel the ministry of christ , even to unbelievers , as ezekiel was a prophet to the rebellious nation of israel , when he spake gods word , whether they did hear or forbear , ezek . . . and hence i inferre that there may be a true ministry not only in , but also out of a church of believers . sect. . a true gospel ministry may be in a false church so deemed . secondly , a church may be said to be false many wayes . . because it was irregularly constituted , that is not gathered by consent , or church-covenant , or baptism , but by humane laws , in forcing men to meet together in one congregation , or more ; because dwellers in such a precinct , or born or living in such a countrey . in this respect i conceive the quaerist makes a national church a false church . . because it is an hypocritical company , which doth indeed make them a false church before god , yet quoad nos they are a true visible church , if there be no falsehood in that which is descernible by men . . because it is schismatical , so as to break off from other parts of the catholique church , without a justifiable cause , whether out of ambition , passion , misapprehension or any other such like undue motive . . because it is heretical , or heresy is broached and upheld by a party in it . now i confess , that it can hardly be , that there should be a true ministry in a church tainted with heresy . yet sith our lord christ , writes to the church of pergamos , as one of his seven golden candlesticks , though there were that held the doctrin of balaam and of the nicolaitans , revel . . , . and in like manner the church of thyatira , or the angel of it suffered the woman which called her self a prophetess , to teach and seduce his servants to commit fornication , and to eat things sacrificed to idols . i inferre those angels were true ministers , though in a church in some sort false , that is , tainted with heretical or false doctrin . and sith the church of corinth was manifestly schismatical , cor. . , . yet apollos a true minister to them , or who else were their pastors . and sith the church of sardis is charged , as having a name that it lived but was dead , yet the angel of it , one of the seven stars in christs right hand , then may there be a true ministry in such false churches , revel . . . that is schismatical , or hypocritical not consisting of real saints . and if it be , that what is charged on laodicea , rev. . , , . were by reason of defect in church constitution and disciplin ( as mr. brightman conceived ) then also a false church , in respect of such irregularity may have a true ministry . but because this is only an argument ad homines , to such as concurre with mr. brightman in his conceit ; i will prove , that in a national church , or a church irregular in its constitution or discipline , miscalled false , may be a true ministry of christ. . if the truth of the ministry depend upon the truth of the church or it's regularity , then where is no true regular church , there is no true ministry . but that is false , sith there may be a true ministry , where there is no church at all , and therefore no true church . ergo , the truth of the ministry depends not on the truth of the church : but a true ministry may be in a false church . . if there be a true ministry , though to or in a national visible church or catholique , then that extent , which is conceived to be inconsistent with a true gospel church , makes not the ministry false , but peters and pauls ministry to the jews or gentiles churches , were true ministries , though the churches were national or catholique , even set by god in the church , cor. . . ergo. . if ministry to churches hypocritical , schismatical , and in some sort heretical may be true ministry , much more to a church national , irregular in constitution and discipline , those being greater degrees of falsehood than this . but the antecedent is before proved from the epistles to the corinthians , to the churches of pergamos , thyatira , and sardis ; ergo the consequent is true . . if the regular constitution , disciplin of the church , the election of the church or their sending be extrinsecal or accidental , not necessary , or essential to the truth of the ministry , then may there be a true ministry in such a church as this author calls false . but the antecedent is true , sith the apostles were true ministers , afore the regular constitution and discipline of churches , without their election or mission , therefore the consequent is also true . . if the denomination of true ministers be from the truth of their doctrin , and no other form denominating them , and there may be a ministration of true doctrin in such a supposed false church , then there may be a true ministry in such a false church , for where the form denominating is , there the subject is rightly denominated from it . but the antecedent is true , both from all the texts before alledged , which place the truth of ministry in the doctrin taught , and no other thing , and in that the colossians learned the grace of god in truth , from epaphras he is termed st. pauls fellow-servant , and for them a faithfull minister of christ , col. . , . and reason and experience confirms the possibility of preaching true doctrin in a national mis-called false church , therefore the consequent is also true . . if false prophets , false apostles , false brethren be only denominated from their false doctrin , then they are not false ministers but true , who teach the truth of the gospel , notwithstanding their defects , or the churches in which they are . but the antecedent is true , as may be evinced from , pet. . . cor. . . gal. . , . john . ● , , , . . john. . and many more places which denominate them false prophets , false teachers , false apostles , false brethren , antichrists , not ministers of christ , from their erroneous doctrin , therefore from it , and not from defects of churches , or other things are they false ministers , and if they preach true doctrin , true ministers though in an irregular church . there being nothing offered against this to be answered , i pass on to this authors next quaerie . sect. . gods love to us is not less , in not determining the whole of his worship to us , as to the jews . . saith he , whether god doth not bear as much love to , and exercise as much faithfulness over his new testament churches , as over the national church of the jews ? answ. no doubt of it : yet doth not god shew his love , nor exercise his faithfulness over his new testament churches in the same way or course of providence as he did , and perhaps , will do over the national church of the jews . he doth not gather the new testament churches by a mighty hand , and a stretched-out arm ; as he did , when he brought israel out of egypt by the hand of moses ; but by the calling of his word , and operation of his spirit . nor doth he make them conquerours by arms ; but they overcome the old serpent by the blood of the lamb , and by the word of their testimony , and they love not their lives unto the death , rev. . . nor doth god now settle his church in one fruitful land , under one earthly king , as he did the jews under david , and solomon ; but in all countries , where they are called ; protects , and feeds them by the great shepherd of the sheep , the lord jesus christ , and his spirit , in that estate and station , wherein they are called . nor is it improbable , that in the future calling of the jews , god will shew more remarkable providences , for their re-ingraffing into their own olive , than ever he hath yet shewed towards the churches of the gentiles , it is added . if so , then . whether he hath not ( as of old he did , with reference unto the then church ) determined the whole of the worship , appertaining unto them , to whose institutions , without any humane additions , it is the duty of souls solely to conform ? answ. the whole of the worship appertaining to the new testament churches , is either inward or outward . to the new testament churches , god hath determined the whole of his inward worship , as of old he did , with reference unto the then chu●ch ; or rather , he hath more fully determined the worship of himself , by exercise of faith , and hope in prayer and thanksgiving , having now more 〈◊〉 opened the mystery of his will , in the way of access to him , and accepting of our service ; than he did to the jews before christs coming . but for the outward worship , though he have set down sufficiently what we are to place his worship in , and wherein he hath determined by precept or example ; that hath the force of a precept , what is to be done by us ; that alone we are to account his worship , and to conform solely to it as his institution , without any humane additions or alterations ; yet in respect of circumstantials , such as are , time , place , meetings , order in doing , and the like , god hath not determined the whole of the outward worship appertaining to the new testament churches , as of old he did with reference to the then church ; but hath left such things ( though needful to the well performing of the worship he hath determined ) under general rules prescribed in holy scripture , to be set down by men , who are governours ; to whom obedience is due in order to the end of their directions , though not with equal tie of conscience , as to divine institutions . nor doth god hereby bear less love , or exercise less faithfulness over his new testament churches , than he did over the national church of the jews ; but rather more : . because the determination of the whole of the worship of god to the national church of the jews , was the imposing of a yoke on them , which neither the elder nor later jews were able to bear , acts . . and therefore god shewed more love , and exercised more faithfulness over his new testament churches , in not determining the whole of his worship in circumstantials , as he did to the jews . . the determination of the whole of gods worship to the jews , in circumstantials of outward worship , did bring in many things which were unprofitable , and weak , and made nothing perfect , heb. . , . and if god had so determined to us , he had commanded things unprofitable , weak , which made nothing perfect ; therefore he shewed more love and faithfulness to us , in not so determining . . the things god had determined to the jews about the circumstantials and rituals of his worship , were but shadows of good things to come , which were not fit to be continued , or to be supplied with any other , christ being come , who was the body , or substance , col. . , . heb. . . therefore god in not determining such things to us , hath shewed more love and faithfulness . such ordinances were carnal , to endure only until the time of reformation ; therefore it is a part of gods love and faithfulness , that neither the same in particular , nor other , are precisely determined to us by god , this time of the gospel , being the time of reformation , heb . , . . god so determined the whole of his worship to the jews , because they were in their minority , and therefore were to be kept under those weak and beggerly elements of the world , as under tutors , and governours , until the time appointed of the father , gal. , , , . but the christian believers are as sons come to age , and therefore fit to be released of them , and such like ; and to be at more liberty in these things , than they were before , v. . . the time before christs coming , was an estate under moses a servant ; but now the estate of christians is under christ the son , gal. . , , , heb . , . therefore our freedom from such determinations as were upon the jews , is more congruous , than to have them imposed on us ; and consequently , a sign of more love in god. . if such determinations of the whole of gods worship had been to us , as were to the jews , we had not reaped the fruit of christs death , by which he did abolish them , eph. . , . col. . . and consequ●ntly , had tasted less of the love of god than we have ; if the same , or such precise determinations of the whole of gods worship , had been continued to us . . the apostles judged it a great benefit to the christian churches , that they were exempt from them ; and it seemed good to the holy ghost , and to them , to lay upon the churches no greater burden , than those necessary things , mentioned acts . , . therefore they counted it an effect of gods love , that he had not determined the whole of his worship to us , as he did to the jews . . this yields us also another reason why it is an effect of gods greater love to the gentile churches , that he hath not determined to them the whole of his worship , as he did to the jews ; because those gentile christians being of divers nations and languages under divers governments , used to divers customs , could not conveniently , if at all , practice such an uniformity of circumstances , as they must have done if god had determined the whole of his worship , as he did to the jews . to averr that god hath determined the whole of his outward worship in circumstantials , as he did to the jews , is to infringe our christian liberty , and to bring us into such bondage as they were in , who were under the law ; which is not agreeable to that love which god hath born to the new testament churches , and the new covenant , which he hath made under the gospel , gal. . , , . this author adds : sect . christ designs officers and offices for his church ( not as were in the jewish ) which are the same , while their work is the same , though some titles be new . yea , . whether he hath not now ( as then ) designed the several officers and offices , his wisdom thought sufficient for the management of the affairs of his house ; so that the invention of new ones by the sons of men , is not only needless , but a daring advance against the soveraignty , care , and wisdom of god over his churches ? answ. . god did , besides moses and the seventy elders , joshuah and the judges , david and other kings , for the government of the people of israel , and prophets raised up , as he thought good , for special purposes ; design aaron and his sons , and the levites for the services of the tabernacle , and temple . but he hath not designed such officers or offices , as either moses and the jewish sanhedrin , david or the judges ; or as the priests and levites , and their services , were for the management of the affairs of his house ; that is , the christian church ; it being gods design not to gather this church , or to form it in that way and government , as he did the jewish . christ did not gather his church , as the jews were by moses brought out of egypt ; nor were erected into the form of a political body , but of a school ; without either infringing the power of the caesars , and their officers ; or withdrawing the people from the officers belonging to the temple , though corrupt . if any advance themselves , or others into offices , from the pattern of the aaronical priesthood or services ; as the papists , who will have their pope to be universal supreme bishop , in correspondence to the high priest of the jews ; to be absolutely obeyed , as he was in the synedrium ; to be infallible in his determinations , to have power of adjudging to death for heresie ; to make sacrificing priests for quick and dead , in imitation of the levitical priests . i conceive that the invention of such new ones by papists , or any other of the sons of men ; is not only needless , but a daring advance against the soveraignty , care , and wisdom of god over his churches ; the temple , and the priesthood thereof , being now by god taken away . . god hath designed by his son and his apostles , the several officers and offices his wisdom thought sufficient for the management of the affairs of his house , that is , his church , as they are such . first , christ jesus called his twelve disciples together , and gave them power and authority over all devils , and to cure diseases ; and he sent them to preach the kingdom of god , and to heal the sick , luke . , . after he appointed other seventy also , and sent them two and two before his face , into every city and place , whither he himself would come ; and these were confined to the lost sheep of the house of israel , mat. . . to whom ( he saith ) only he was sent , mat. . . st. peter having confessed him , christ tells him , mat. . . thou art peter , and upon this rock will i build my church ; which by reason of the repeating of his name , and alluding to it , and thereby minding him of it , is justly to be thought to imply a promise of a special use of him , in the building of his church ; not barely as that particular man , but as a foundation of it by his preaching ; as other apostles are called foundations , eph. . . in respect of their doctrine , wherein st. peter had some work before the other in his preaching , acts . and . and . and therefore christ promiseth to give him the keys of the kingdom of heaven , mat. . . so as by his preaching to open the kingdom of heaven , first to the jews , and then to the gentiles , when cornelius was admitted into the kingdom of heaven ; and therefore act. . . he speaks of it as his preheminence , that god made choice among the disciples , that the gentiles by his mouth should hear the word of the gospel , and believe ; he imploying that key of knowledge , which the lawyers had taken away ; who entered not themselves into the kingdom of god , and them that were entering in , they hindered , luke . . to him our lord christ assures , mat. . . whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth , shall be bound in heaven : and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth , shall be loosed in heaven . which phrase seems by the expressions , mat. . . rev . . to import , that what he should command to be done , should be in heaven ratified , as commanded by god ; as it was acts . . acts . , . acts . . and what he should untie , that is , free men from the obligation of , that should be untied in heaven ; that is , god would not require the observation of it : which was performed acts . , , , . acts . . which promises , though personal to st. peter ; and in respect of the first work , peculiar to him ; neither imparted to any other apostle , nor derived from him to any successour : yet this last promise was after made to the rest of the apostles , mat. . . and performed when st. peter , with them , decreed about circumcision , acts . . and the holy ghost established it , v. . afterwards our lord christ being risen from the dead , finds his disciples assembled for fear of the jews , thomas being absent , and saith , peace be unto you ; as the father hath sent me , even so send i you . and when he had said this , he breathed on them , and saith unto them , receive ye the holy ghost . whose soever sins ye remit , they are remitted unto them , and whosesoever sins ye retain they are retained , john . , , , . the words of salutation , of mission , the breathing on them , and imparting the holy ghost to them do import , that the remission and retaining of sins there promised , was a peculiar power given to them on whom he thus breathed , though also communicated after to other apostles , who were in like manner sent , and received the holy ghost as they did . which remission of sins was accomplished , when by their preaching , persons repented , and were baptized in the name of jesus christ , for remission of sins , acts . , . when aeneas was cured by st peter , acts , . . for healing is by remission of sins , mat. . . james . . john . . or by taking off the sentence of delivering to satan , by which the apostles had power to retain sins , as appears by that speech of st. paul , tim. . . that he had delivered hymenaeus and alexander unto satan , that they might be instructed , or corrected , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so as either to be afraid or disabled from blaspheming any more as they had done , when satan should chastise them with bodily punishment , st. paul also had determined by his spirit , with the power of our lord jesus christ , in the name of our lord jesus christ. when the christians were gathered together , that they might be witnesses , to deliver him that had his fathers wife unto satan , for the destruction of the flesh , that is the wasting of his body , that the spirit or soul being sensible of his sin and humbled for it , might be saved in the day of the lord jesus , cor. . , , . which had been his comming to them with a rod , cor. . . and the retaining his sin , had not his after-sorrow caused s. paul to forgive him in the person of christ , cor. . . which was the remitting of sin , confirmed in heaven . other instances there are of the retaining of sins by apostolical power , when st. paul smote elymas the sorcerer with blindness , acts . . and st. peter inflicted death upon ananias and his wife sapphira , for lying to the holy ghost , and keeping back part of the price of the land which they had sold , acts . , , . after this mission , commission , and breathing of christ on the disciples , to reestablish st. peter after his fall , christ injoynes him to feed his lambs and his sheep , thrice charging him , that he might shew his love to him , whom he had thrice denied ; whereby he doth not make him universal bishop , or monarch of the whole visible church ( as romanists impiously pervert the text ) but requires of him diligence in testimony of his love to him , by doing that work which is expressed in words , which signifie teaching ( one of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies not ruling ) and that ministry which is common to other bishops , acts . . and elders , among whom st. peter termes himself a fellow elder , and christ the chief shepherd , peter . , , . but then christ did most design the officers and offices , he thought requisite for the management of the affairs of his house , when being to ascend into heaven , not long after , in a mountain of galilee jesus spake to them , saying , all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth , go ye therefore , and teach all nations , or rather disciple or make disciples all nations , or , of , or , in all nations , not the jewes , only , as formerly , ( mark . . go ye into all the world , and preach the gospel , to every creature , or , to all the creation ) baptizing them , thus discipled , ( mark . . he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved ) into the name of the the father , and of the son and of the holy ghost : teaching them to observe all things whatsoever i have commanded you : and lo , i am with you alway , even unto the end of the world , amen . in which instruction of the apostles , is founded the function of the evangelical ministry , as pareus speaks in his commentary , consisting in preaching the gospel and baptizing and teaching the obserservation of christs commands ; which offices , the promise to be with them all dayes to the end of the world , shewes to be perpetual till christs second coming . who the officers are of christs designing may be best gathered from , ephes. . . some of which are undoubtedly to continue . and that there should be a succession by ordination of some for the churches is apparent from , tim. . . tit. . . and that they should be ordained , may be gathered from , acts . . . and . . tim. . . and . . that there should be some , who should have inspection over others , that they do not sow errours , or otherwise corrupt the churches , may be granted from , tim. . , . tit. . . . and by the things charged on the seven angels of the seven churches , rev. . , , , , , . rev. . , , , , . to set down the history of officers and offices in after-ages , to determin the disputes , about their several degrees or orders is full of difficulty , and to our present business unnecessary . this only is sufficient for present , to say in answer to the question now under hand , that such as do these works which christ or his apostles have appointed to be performed for his church are officers designed by christ , and their ordination thereto agreeable to his design , nor are those officers or offices an invention of new ones by the sons of men , not only needless , but a daring advance against the soveraignty , care and wisdom of god over his churches , though they have other names , and titles , and maintenance , and immunities , and dignities , and additaments than the scripture mentions . they that are called archbishops , bishops , deans , canons , prebendaries , parsons , vicars , curates , chaplains , masters of colledges , hospitals , wardens , fellows , clerks , priests enjoy emoluments by tithes or other revenues , may be truly officers of christ ; if they be ordained to , and do the works or offices appointed , by christ and the apostles , to the ministers of the church of christ , as well as they who are termed presbyters , presbyteries , teachers , pastors , lecturers , itinerant preachers , gifted brethren , whether they be chosen by a particular congregation , and ordained by an eldership , and receive maintenance by collection , augmentation , stipend or other waies . sect. . the solemn deputation of ministers , is not the peculiar priviledge of saints . . saith our author , whether the priviledges of saints , be not every way as great and extensive under the gospel , as those under the law ? if so , then whether the solemn deputation of men , signally pointed out by the lord , for the administration of holy things in his house , by the body of his church , be not now ( as then ) their peculiar priviledge ? answer , the people of israel were a holy people to god , and conceived to be meant by the saints of the most high , dan. . . but , that the solemn deputation of men , signally pointed out by the lord , for the administration of holy things in his house by the body of that church was their peculiar priviledge , is not proved , but the contrary is manifest , that the priests and levites were by gods own choice set a-part as is before said sect. . saints now are either real , or in appearance only . the former as such are invisible , and it is granted , that they have priviledges in spiritual blessings in heavenly things in christ , every way as great and extensive under the gospel , as those under the law ; yea in some degree greater , to wit in the clearer revelation of the mystery of gods counsel , and accomplishment of gods promises by the prophets , and gift of his spirit . saints in appearance only or the visible church of the jews had in some things greater priviledges , such as those mentioned , rom. . , . rom. . , . gods revealing his minde by urim and thummim , extraordinary prophets and many more , than christians now , and therefore no good inference can be made from the priviledge of the saints then in the solemn deputation of ministers of holy things ( if it had been such as this author supposeth ) unto the same priviledg to the saints now . the solemn deputation of apostles and other ministers of the gospel , we finde not to have been the peculiar priviledg of the body of the church in any part of the new testament . their ordination is no where mentioned as done by the saints or brethren , which were not officers , nor is there any plain proof of their election by all or the major part of the members of each church in the scripture , and though ther● be in antiquity in the first ages relations of their election , yet withall such stories of the tumults , frayes and other disorders , as necessitated an a teration of that course , are related . considering how unquiet , in judicious , deceitful , factious , divided those are that usurp the name of saints , and perhaps are , i see not how safe it were to commit the solemn deputation of ministers to them without much regulation of them , and ability of discerning of spirits , which is not a gift continued to the churches , who oft are as easily deceived by hypocrites and seducers , as others , and if it were the peculiar priviledg of saints , it were not to be denied to women , contrary to the apostles rule , cor. . , . tim. . , . if it were such a peculiar priviledg to saints , to ordain or choose their ministers , so as they were not to own any , but whom they choose , then the lesser part of a congregation were not bound to take him for their minister , who is not chos●n by themselves , though chosen by the most , each person might choose his minister , and withdraw for his ministry at pleasure , if not chosen by him , and refuse to contribute to his maintenance , which , w●th many inconveniences , too often exemplified in churches gathered in the congregational way , cause such churches to be often dissolved , or to be multiplied into so many parties as make them unfit for any good order or use . sect. . corruptions in non-fundamentals un-church not . the quaerist adds . whether any church in the world ( we speak of a visible instituted church ) hath greater security against apostacy from god , and that sore judgment of having its candlestick removed ( and being unchurched ) than that people of the jews had ? if not , then whether , supposing a national church to be of the institution of christ , it may not so come to pass that it may be so overspread with corruptions , that it may lose the essence of a church , and justly be disrobed of that appellation . answer , i grant that no particular church visible , whether national , provincial , classical , parochial , or congregational hath greater security of apostacy from god than the jewish , and that any such church may be so overspread with corruptions , that it may lose the essence of a church , and justly be disrobed of that appellation , we justly plead against the church of rome , pleading [ that they are the church built on peter , against which the gates of hell shall not prevail mat. . . ] that the promise is not to that or any other particular visible church , but to the invisible church of gods elect , and we alledg that st. paul writing to the church at rome , tells them , rom. . , . well , because of unbelief they were broken off and thou standest by faith : be not high minded , but fear . for if god spared not the natural branches , take heed lest he also spare not thee . but we add , that not every , nor many corruptions of some kinde do unchurch , there being many in faith , worship , and conversation in the churches of corinth , and some of the seven churches of asia , who yet were golden candlesticks , amidst whom christ did walk . but such general , avowed , unrepented of errors in faith , as overthrow the foundation of christian faith , to wit , christ the only mediator between god and man , and salvation by him , corruptions of worship by idolatry , in life by evil manners , as are utterly inconsistent with christianity , till which in whole or in part they are not unchurched . sect. . every error makes not a false prophet . our quaerist proceeds , eighthly , whether the ecclesiastick and spiritual rulers , governours and officers of such a collapsed church , may not righteously , as of old , be accounted and esteemed as false prophets , that go about to cause the people to forget the name of the lord ( or his pure worship ) by their lies ( or unscriptural traditions , innovations , and ceremonious pageantries . ) answer , st. peter foretold , pet. . . there were false prophets among the people , even as there shall be false teachers among you , who privily shall bring in damnable heresies , even denying the lord that bought them , jude . ungodly men , turning the grace of our god into lasciviousness , and denying the only lord god and our lord jesus christ , john . . many false prophets are gone out into the world , john . many deceivers are entred into the world , who confess not that jesus christ is come in the flesh . this is a deceiver and an antichrist , john . . who is a lier but he that denieth that jesus is the christ ? he is antichrist that denieth the father and the son. if any ecclesiastick and spiritual rulers , governours and officers of a collapsed church do in this manner , go about to cause the people to forget the name of the lord ( or his pure worship ) they are righteously , as of old , to be accounted and esteemed as false prophets . but if they hold the foundation , that is jesus christ , and teach the worship of god in the name of christ , without idolat●y in their worship , or heresie in their doctrine , though they build upon the foundation layd by the apostle hay , and stubble , cor. . . that is some errours of their own , and some additions to the worship of god from unwritten traditions , or other supposed power about ceremonies , they are not righteously , as of old the prophets of baal and balaam , and other seducers , to be accounted and esteemed as false prophets , that go about to cause the people to forget the name of the lord ( or his pure worship . ) i add that if the addition of some humane ceremonies to the pure instituted worship of god , and some errours to the sound doctrin of faith , do make the teachers or rulers of a church false prophets , in te ipsum haec cudetur faba , neither this author , nor any of the pastors or teachers of the congregational churches , but may be judged false prophets . sect. . separation by reason of some corruptions unwarrantable . it is added , . whether separation from such a collapsed church in respect of its worship , ministers and ministry , be not only justifiable , but , as of old , the duty of the lords faithfull remnant , that desire to worship him according to his appointments ? answer , separation from a church somewhat erroneous or corrupt in worship or conversation , yet neither idolatrous in worship nor heretical in doctrin , nor requiring that to their communion which would be sinful , especially if it be total from all parts of worship , all attending on ministers and ministry at all times is unjustifiable , utterly dissonant from any of the rules or examples which either of old the prophets , or holy men , or christ and his apostles have prescribed , is for the most part the fruit of pride , or bitter zeal , and tends to strife , and confusion and every evil work , james , . . sect. . it is prudence to joyn in worship , and hearing where some errours and corruptions remain . yet once more saith the quaerist , yea . whether , supposing a church ( so called ) thus dreadfully as aforesaid , departed from the pure institutions of christ , never to be according to truth , a visible instituted church of christ , and the lords poor people living in the nation , never by their free consent members thereof , as it is on the pretended churches part , most unheard-of-cruelty to compel them , so it be not on the part of the free born children of god , most stupendious folly and disvaluation of the institutions of christ , and ingratitude to god , for the light and liberty from the yokes of men , received , imaginable , to joyn affinity with it in worship , or attend upon the self invented ministry that appertains thereunto ? many more questions of the like nature and importance might be added . answer , compulsion of men may be cruelty . but it is neither pendious folly , nor disvaluation of the institutions of christ , nor ingratitude to god , but true christian prudence warranted by the counsel of st. james and the elders at jerusalem , by the yielding and practice of st. paul , acts . , &c. acts . . cor. . , , . by christs example , mat. . . for persons living in a nation for their peace to joyn in affinity with such a church , which hath some humane inventions in worship , and to attend upon that ministry , which appertains to it , when they preach the gospel for the main , though not without some mixture of errours , and neither require them to practice that which is in it self evil , nor binde them to assent unto that which is erroneous . what more questions of the like nature and importance , this quaerist might add i know not : i thought it necessary to answer these as being praelusory to the main question , and tending to forestall the reader with unmeer prejudice . having removed these stumbling blocks out of the way , i proceed to examine the rest of the writing . chap. . arg. i. sect. . some scruples of conscience are of ill consequence . as a preamble to his dispute , the author writes thus . this is that which the lord hath said , i will be sanctified in all that draw nigh me , and before all the people will i be glorified . the great care of saints in matter of worship , is to sanctifie the name of the lord therein : this is the great thing that god looks at , the omission whereof the often severely punishes , he children of men for : now in order hereunto , it 's necessary that in all our approaches to god we see to the institution of the lord , both in respect of the matter , and manner of worship , that it be according to divine prescript , else we cannot sanct●fy the name of god therein , nor glorify him before the people . answer , this is yielded , that wherein god hath prescribed it is necessary we see to the institution of the lord both in respect of the matter and manner of worship , even to determined particularities : but in those things which are not determined by god , yet it is requisite they should be some way determined by our selves or others , we and they are not so limited , but that keeping to general rules there may be liberty of variation , and there may be too anxious care , tending to beget unnecessary scruples , perplexities , divisions and censurings , even in and of saints , which experience hath too much proved to cause fluctuations in mens minds , and inconstancy in their practice ; and to produce a brood of seekers , quakers , ranters , and prophane atheists . for which reason it is very advisable , that persons of good meaning , but weak judgments did less busie themselves in questioning such undetermined particularities in gods worship , and were received , but not to doubtfull disputations , rom . . and did satisfy themselves in such things by preferring the judgment of their faithful , learned , wise and holy teachers and rulers before their own , when their own capacity is insufficient to settle their consciences . he proceeds thus , hearing ( as was said , and shall beyond contradictions in its proper place be evinced ) is part of instituted worship , it therefore more nearly concerns saints than many are aware of , to have their consciences resolved from the scriptures of god , in the matter under enquiry , whether it be lawful for the saints to hear the present ministers of england ? 't is the negative , which we have received under our maintenance , because we are satisfied christ hath so ; to the proof whereof we now address our selves . answer , of hearing , how it is a part of instituted worship , somewhat hath been said in the answer to the preface , sect. . . . what more is to be added , will come in it 's proper place . i grant , that it concerns saints to have their consciences resolved from the scriptures of god in the matter under enquiry , and do therefore joyn issue with this author , and whereas he denies it lawfull for the saints to hear the present ministers of england , meaning in their teaching of the doctrins of faith and holiness according to that which is authorized in the church of england , i affirm it , and address my self to the examination of this authors arguments . sect. . there is warrant in scripture to hear the present ministers of england . argument . is thus , that which there is no warrant for in the scripture , being part of instituted worship , is not lawful for the saints to practise : but there is no warrant in the scripture for hearing the present ministers of england , and hearing is part of instituted worship . therefore . answer , the term [ warrant ] being a law term , notes not only an injunction requiring that a thing be done , but also an allowance or permission of a thing to be done with impunity or without blame , and either way the thing warranted is lawfull . instituted worship ( as is before shewed ) is either moral or meerly positive and ceremonial . parts of instituted worship may be either subjective , if instituted worship be conceived as totum universale , an universal whole , and so hearing of the present ministers of england may be conceived either as one sort of instituted worship , or one individual of that sort , or parts of instituted worship may be integrant , if instituted worship be conceived as an integral whole . i do not deprehend hearing of the present ministers of england , is to be conceived as an integral part of instituted worship , sith it is one act , which without any other act is worship : or parts of instituted worship may be essential or accidental , instituted worship being conceived as an essential or accidental whole . those are parts essential of instituted worship , without which it is not or is not rightly called instituted worship , those are accidental parts which may be present or absent , and yet the worship be , or rightly be , so called . these things being premised , for answer to this argument , i lay down these propositions . . every sort or kind of instituted worship of god , hath warrant in the scripture by precept of command if it be lawful . . those things which are determined by god , ●n any part or sort of instituted worship of god , are to be counted essential parts , so as that the omission or alteration of them , or any of them , makes the worship not to be , or to be rightly so called , worship of god. . those things which are in this sense essential parts , must have warrant in scripture by precept express , or by just consequence . . accidental parts , or adjuncts of instituted worship undetermined are lawful , if they have warrant in scripture by permission , so as that they are not contrary to any precept or rule in scripture about such worship . . hearing of the word of god , is a sort or part of gods instituted worship . . it is essential to it , that we hear it as gods word , with honest and good hearts , with attention and reverence , as being determined by gods command . . it is but accidental , as being undetermined by god , that we hear it from this or that person , and therefore needs not warrant in scripture by command to make it lawful . . the hearing of the present ministers of england , preaching the word of god , hath warrant in scripture by permission , as being not contrary to any precept or rule in scripture about such worship . searching , and reading the scriptures as the word of god , is a part or sort of instituted worship , and accordingly hearing it read . when god commanded the levites to read the law , and all israel to hear it at the end of every seven years , in the solemnity of the year of release in the feast of tabernacles , deut. . , , , , . the reading by such persons , and hearing at that time , was an essential part of worship ; but shaphans reading before josiah , ( chron. . . ) and his hearing of it then , was a part of instituted worship accidental , because not determined by command , but ordered by providence , and yet warrantable by permission : gods command being not exclusive , so as to forbid any other but levites to read it , or the israelites to hear it read by others at other times , there being general precepts requiring all to hear the word of god at all times , deut. . . and even the light of nature dictating this , that a message from god is to be heard whoever brings it , of which the king of moab was sensible , judg. . . and the king of niniveh , jonah . in like manner , when christ tells the seventy disciples , luke . . he that heareth you , heareth me ; he doth not restrain hearers from hearing others who delivered the same truth : but the general speech , joh. . . he that is of god , heareth gods words , warrants the hearing of gods word . to the argument i answer , that if the major be meant of warrant by command , and part accidental of instituted worship , it is denied , and the minor is denied in that branch , that there is no warrant in the scripture for hearing the present ministers of england . but let us view his proofs . sect. . accidentals of instituted worship warranted without command in scripture . the major ( or first ) proposition ( saith he ) is evident , . from the nature of instituted worship , which consists in this , that it be of divine revelation ; else whatsoever it is , it is not instituted worship . answ. this is true concerning the kind or sort of instituted worship , and concerning the essential parts , those things , i mean , which are determined and necessary ; but not true of accidentals , parts , or adjuncts of worship undetermined ; these may be from men , and yet the worship be of god. if jehoiakim had heard and believed the roll which was dictated by jeremiah , he had worshiped god , though jehudi's reading were by his appointment , jer. . . ▪ from the verdict of christ , who pronounceth all the worship of man to be vain and fruitless , and so unlawful , that is bottom'd on any thing but divine revelation , mark . . answ. this is true , that all those actions , in which is placed the worship of god , having no appointment from god , but onely from men , are vain and fruitless , and so unlawful , and so much the text alledged proveth : but this proveth not , that the worship of god appointed by him is vain , fruitless , and unlawful , because of some adjuncts , or circumstances appointed by men , which god hath left undetermined . so though the receiving to hold traditions of the elders , and dictates of pharisees , as if they were of god , and god were worshiped by them , was vain , fruitless and so unlawful ; yet the hearing of the law of god read in the synagogues , which we find not to have been appointed by god , but by the prudence and authority of rulers , was lawful and approved , luk. . , . act. . , . act. . . . if it be lawful to conform to any one part of instituted worship , without warrant from scripture , 't is also lawful to conform to another , a third , the whole , which would banish instituted worship out of the world . answ. the first consequence is granted , yet the later is not necessary ; for though it be true , if it be lawful to conform to any one part of instituted worship without warrant from scripture , 't is also lawful to conform to another , a third , the whole ; yet this would not banish instituted worship out of the world . for when the pharisees , and all the jews , except they washed their hands oft , eat not , holding the tradition of the elders , and when they came from the market , except they washed , they eat not . and many things there were , which they had received to hold , as the washing of cups and puts , brazen vessels and of tables , mark . , . yet this did not banish the instituted worship of the passeover , and other worship appointed by god to the jews out of the world . . to assert , that it is lawful to conform to any part of instituted worship without warrant from scripture , reflects sadly upon the wisdom and faithfulness of christ : for either he was not wise enough to foresee , that such a part of worship was , or would be requisite , or had not faithfulness enough to reveal it , though the scripture compares him to moses for faithfulness , who revealed the whole will of god to the making of a pin in the tabernacle . answ. it no way reflects , with any disparagement , upon the wisdom and faithfulness of christ , to assert , that it is lawful to conform to accidental parts , or rather adjuncts , or circumstances of instituted worship , without warrant from scripture by express command ; for though christ was wise enough to foresee what parts of worship were or should be requisite , and had faithfulness enough to reveal what god did require , and did make known by himself , or his apostles , what kind of worship should be observed by christians , and what parts were essential or necessary to be observed , were determined in scripture : yet many accidental things , adjuncts , or circumstances of that instituted worship , were left to the prudence , and authority of men , chiefly of rulers , which the lord foreseeing , that his churches would be gathered out of many nations of various customs , dispositions , governments , thought fit to be permitted to them , though he did restrain the jews more strictly by moses , which was their burthen , and it is our ease , that we have more liberty than they had : christ was faithful as moses , in that he revealed to us what was his fathers will in spirituals , more clearly than moses ; but for externals , appointed but few things , and those easie ; in what else was to be added , he left it to be ordered under general rules , as it should be found convenient in after times . and to argue in this manner , if christ did not appoint every accidental part of instituted worship , he had failed in wisdom or faithfulness , and had come short of moses , seems to me to be like their arguing , who in the canon law say , if christ had not appointed an universal bishop to end controversies , as there was an high-priest among the jews , non satis discretus esset , he had not been discret enough , very presumptuously , if not blasphemously , shaping christs wisdom after the model of our understanding ; and injuriously to us , in bringing again christian believers under that yoke of bondage , from which christ hath freed them . . it pours out contempt upon the care of god over the new-testament churches ( as if it were less to these , than to those under the law ) and the oeconomy of the gospel , as not so compleat as that of old , the whole of whose worship , orders and ordinances ( as was said ) was bottom'd upon pure revelation . answ. it is before proved , in the answer to the preface , sect. . that it pours no contempt upon the care of god over the new-testament churches , that the whole of gods worship , orders , and ordinances in circumstantials or accidentals , which are liable to much variation in churches of different nations , are not bottom'd upon pure revelation divine , but in many things left to humane prudence : yea it is an effect of gods love and care over the new-testament churches , that he hath not tied them in so many things to external rites and particularities of instituted worship , as he did the jews : nor is the oeconomy of the gospel less compleat , than that of old for this cause ; but if i understand the apostle , col. . , , . this reasoning is either the same , or every like that of the philosophical , or judaizing teachers , to which the apostles caution is opposed , telling them , that all fulness was in christ , they were compleat in him without the tradition of men , or rudiments of the world ; by which the jewish rites to be meant , is apparent from col. . , , . gal , . . saith he , it carries with it a sad reflection upon the authority of the scripture , as not thorowly furnished to make the man of god perfect . answ. the authority and use of the holy scripture is delivered by st. paul , tim. . , , . that they were able to make timothy wise unto salvation through faith in christ jesus , that they were profitable for doctrine , for reproof , for correction , for instruction in righteousness , that the man of god may be perfect , throughly furnished unto all good works . whence is rightly deduced against the romanists , the perfection and sufficiency of the scripture without unwritten traditions for all doctrinals of faith and manners , and worship , in respect of essentials . but it is no ill reflection upon its authority , to say that some accidentals of instituted worship undetermined in scripture , ordered by men according to general rules in scripture , are warranted by permission , without command of those particularities in holy scripture . . the lord condemns not onely that which is done against the warrant and direction of the word , but also that which is done beside it , deut. . . and . . mat. . . lev. . . ( their sin lay not in this , that they offered strange fire , which was forbidden , but which god commanded them not ) prov. . . jer. . . answ. i suppose that this author when he saith , the lord condemns not only that which is done against the warrant and direction of the word , but also that which is done besides it , means it of warrant and direction by command , and in instituted worship ; otherwise he should hold that nothing is indifferent , which is too absurd ; and therefore i shall not charge him with it , till he do expresly assert it . but if his meaning be , as i conceive , that god condemns all that which is done besides the warrant and direction of the word , by a command in the new testament , even in accidentals of instituted worship ( which must be his proposition , if he argue to the purpose ) his assertion is false , and not proved by any of the texts alledged . not deut. . which is to be understood of doctrines , commands , or institutions , as from god. thus ainsworth in his annot. on deut. . . not add ] hereby all doctrines of men are condemned , mat. . . and the all-sufficiency and authority of gods word stablished for ever , gal. . . tim. . , . add thou not unto his words , lest he reprove thee , and thou be sound a liar , prov. . which place is to be understood not of particularities of instituted worship undetermined ; for then the reason should have been thus , lest he reprove thee , and thou be found superstitious : but of gods commands , promises , or predictions , of which he had said , v. . every word of god is pure , he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him ; and is opposed to the practice of false prophets ; who pretended revelations as from god , which they had not from him ; and therefore were reproved by him , and found liars . which is also confirmed by that parallel place , rev. . , . mat. . . is the same with mark . . before alledged , and is taken from isa. . . and both by the prophet against the seers of his time , the rulers and prophets to whom the vision of god was as a sealed book , and they understood not , or taught not according to his law , but made shew of drawing nigh to god , whilest their fear towards him , that is , their worship of him , or obedience to him , was taught by the precepts of men , and by our lord christ urged against the pharisees , who were guilty of the same hypocrisie ; and indeed proves , that all doctrines are condemned wherein that is taught , or commanded , or urged as gods worship , which is onely by the command of men ; but condemns not every particularity of accidentals in instituted worship undetermined by god , because from men , who reach it not , nor observe it as gods worship by his command . which exposition is agreeable with that which this author puts after in the margin , in a translation of the new testament in edward the sixths time , the author of the notes on mat. . saith , god will not be wo●shipped after the doctrine and precepts of men , but as he himself hath prescribed and taught us in his word . the same is to be said of deut. . . where god , having warned the israelites , that they should not do so unto the lord their god , as the nations destroyed by them served their gods , adds whatsoever thing i command you , observe to do it ; thou shalt not add thereto , nor diminish from it . which hath the same sense as the words , deut. . . well expounded in the english large annotations , deut. . . shall not add ] not as a comment , or exposition to a text , but man must not add any thing to gods word , either for words or meaning contrary to it ; nor as gods word , with an intent to make that of divine authority , which is but humane , as the papists do by apocryphal writings , and unwritten traditions : see chap. . . and . . diminish ] by denying any part of it to be of divine authority ; or concealing any part of it , either for words or meaning , or by partial belief of it , or obedience to it . god is not to be believed , obeyed , or served in part , and by halfs ; but as he is to be loved , wholly ; chap. . . which precept is not to be restrained to immediate worship , but to be extended to all other duties enjoyned , not only to the priests , by whom the solemn worship of god was to be administred ; but also the king , who was to have a copy of the law , and not to turn aside from the commandment , to the right hand or to the left , deut. . and yet might make orders about civil government not expressed in the law. yea , were the prohibition deut. . . and . . restrained ( as it is not ) to worship , it cannot be taken for a prohibition of all orders made by men concerning gods worship , as might be proved from josh. . . chron. . . and . . esther . , . and other places , if there were need , but such as were different from gods commands in things determined by him , or in things indeterminate , when urged as gods command , and made his worship ; wherein it is to be considered , that god was more strict to the israelites , being more full in ordinances concerning ceremonies typical , and peculiar to them , than he is to christians , whom he hath released of their burden of rites . lev. . the sin lay in this , that they offered strange fire , which was forbidden ; as even mr. ainsworth acknowledgeth , annot. on lev. . . strange fire ] that is other fire than god had sanctified on his altar . as strange incense was expresly forbidden , exod. . . so strange fire was not commanded , but implicitely forbidden , by lev. . . & . . as afterward god plainly sheweth in levit. . . so that both the expression there , and jer. . of gods not commanding , must be expounded by a figure of speech frequent in scripture , wherein words or phrases often signifie more than is expressed , which must be understood of that place , jer. . . where the thing god is said not to have commanded , is that which he had most strictly forbidden , and severely punished ; to wit , the building the high places of tophet , which is in the valley of the son of hinnom , to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire ; and therefore is rightly paraphrased by mr. gataker , in the large english annot. on jer. . . which i commanded them not ] or , which i never commanded : but expr●sly forbad , and professed to abhor , levit. . . and . . deut. . . and . . and therefore these texts are ill alledged to prove the lords condemning of that which is done onely beside the warrant and direction of the word , and that it is not lawful for the saints to practise that which being but an accidental part , adjunct , or circumstance of instituted worship hath not warrant by command in the scripture . he adds . of the same mind with us in this matter , are the renowned witnesses of christ in all ages ; generally all that write upon the second commandment , speak fully hereunto . answ. this assertion cannot be proved , nor is it likely to be true , such those few testimonies alledged of cyprian , beza , luther , and whitaker , are impertinent . that of cyprian , epist. . to caecilius , is manifestly meant of that which is prescribed by christ , and not of adjuncts undetermined ; the whole epistle being against the aquarii , who would have water only in the lords supper ; whom cyprian refutes , asserting that christ used and commanded wine mingled with water , erring therein . bezas words in his annot. on philip. . . that it is unsafe to decline from the word of god , though but an hairs breadth , are to be understood of things determined therein . luthers words on pet. . . as they are cited ( which i have not the book to examine ) are meant of doctrines or decrees , which he would not have subscribed to , or taught , unless in the word of god. the place where dr. whitakers words are , is not quoted : they seem to be against the popish use of oyl in their sacraments , which they conceive to confer grace , and add it to baptism , in which christ hath appointed no other element but water , and therefore i conceive them not to assert that which is the major to be proved , that the practice of adjuncts of instituted worship undetermined , is unlawful without a command in scripture . that many others may be added to these , i doubt not ; but that they speak home to his proposition , i believe not . voet. polit. eccles. part . . l. . h. . c. . sect . . ecclesiae in genere potestatem ceremonias adiaphoras assumendi , & in cultu divino adhibendi nemo hactenus negarit qui ei tribuit potestatem clavium & cum ea potestatem regiminis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. the declaration of the congregational elders , ch. . saith , there are some circumstances concerning the worship of god , and government of the church , common to humane actions and societies , which are to be ordered by the light of nature and christian prudence according to the general rules of the word . sect. . prejudice is no argument , nor personal motives good proof . he adds : the minor , ( or second proposition ) consists of two parts : that hearing is part of instituted worship , one would wonder should it be denied ; however 't is evident it is so , from the light of this single demonstration : that in which we wait upon god in the way of an ordinance for the communication of good , beyond the vertue of any creature to conveigh to us , is part of the instituted worship of god ( for what i wait for , not being in the thing it self , in which i am waiting , no ground can be assigned for my expecting good through it , but divine institution ) but in the hearing of the word , we wait upon god in the way of an ordinance , for the communication of good , beyond the vertue of any creature to conveigh to us : therefore . answ. i do grant hearing the word of god to be one part , or sort of gods instituted worship in the sense delivered by me in the answer to the preface , in the three first sections ; because it is required by god , and tends to shew our subjection to him as our soveraign lord , and our acknowledgment of his transcendent wisdom and infallibility ; and is for these ends an address immediately to god , on whom only we wait to know his will , though brought us by his created messenger , whose doctrine we receive not as his word , but as the word of the living god ; nor believe or obey it any farther than it appears to be his . but i do not take the argument here produced , to be demonstrative , sith there be many things , as marriage , eating , drinking , ploughing , sowing , &c. in which we wait upon god in the way of an ordinance for the communication of good beyond the vertue of any creature to conveigh to us , and yet are not parts of the instituted worship of god. . saith he , that hearing the present ministers of england is not warranted in the scripture : this will be manifested when we come to the ventilating and scanning of those places which are usually produced for the abetting of the practice of some in this matter : in the mean while , we crave liberty to profess , that it is not opinionativeness , singularity , vain-glory , uncharitableness , or any thing of that nature ( as some are apt uncharitably enough to censure ) but the dread and awe of god ( who is a jealous god , and especially in point of worship ) and an holy fear of offending him , that hinders us from complying in these matters : could but one word , tittle , or iota be produced from the scriptures of god , for the warranting the hearing the present ministers of england , we should quickly lay our mouths in the dust , confess and bewail our folly in refusing to conform thereunto : but this we are fully assured , those that dissent from us are not able to do : what they say therein , shall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , be sifted to the uttermost . answ. the hearing the present ministers of england , while they teach the doctrine of gods word , is warranted in scripture , which forbids only the hearing of false prophets , mat. . . antichrists , that seduce , that bring not the doctrine of the apostles , joh . , . and . , , . joh. . which if he prove the ministers of england to be , his minor is proved ; but not either by personal exceptions against their entry on their ministry , or their sinful practices ; nor by ventilating or scanning of those places which are usually produced for the abetting of the practice of some in this matter . for though ministers be as bad as judas , yet they may be heard preach the gospel , as he was ; and though the places alledged should prove insufficient for what they are produced , yet is not the minor proved , till the sin be shewed , which is committed by hearing the present ministers , ( for where there is no law forbidding , there is no transgression , rom. . . ) and not people affrighted , by filling them with unnecessary scruples ; nor divided one from another upon such suggestions , as this writing yields ; nor drawn to separations and oppositions , which tend to the undoing of men in their estates , hinder the publick peace , and the furtherance of the gospel . to prevent which it little avails , that this author acquaints us with his motive in his writing this piece . for though all he sayes of himself were true ( as charity binds me to believe it to be ) yet it serves only to create prejudice in the minds of well-meaning people , who are led more by the opinion they have of the writer , than by the strength of his arguments ; and for the most part hinders the impartial search for truth , and makes men adhere faster to a party . we know the opinion that was had of the holiness of the pharisees , was the greatest stumbling-block to the jews against christs doctrine ; and the opinion of the holiness of monks , was the great furtherance of popish superstition and idolatry ; and the opinion of many teachers , hath bred many errours ; of which i gave warning many years since , in a little treatise , entituled , anthropolatria on cor . . foreseeing ( as it hath come to pass ) that glorying in teachers would be the mischief of the churches ; from which it is time to take off people , and to make them more diligent and serious in examining what is said on both sides ; as the apostle admonisheth us , thess. . nevertheless i doubt not but in the progress of this dispute , i shall shew scripture warrant for hearing the ministers of england that preach the gospel , notwithstanding the objections against them ; and accordingly proceed in answering this writing , that i may promote truth and peace , which is my aim , however i be censured ; hoping that in time god will direct honest-hearted persons to unlearn that mischievous course of esteeming res ex personis , things by persons , and give over that evil custom of too many , who speak for , or against opinions , or practices , according to the affection they bear to men ; and have no other argument why they refuse a thing , but this ; that good people , as they judge them , are against it ; nor why they adhere to it , but because they are for it . which is in effect to make them their masters , contrary to christs prerogative , mat. . . and in some sort idolizing of them . nor do i think it unfit to mind this author , that it were adviseable , that he did better examine his tenet and arguments , sith as , gisbertus voetius professour of utrecht saith , polit. eccl. part lib. . tract . . c. . sect. . that it is the common opinion of all the reformed divines , who notwithstanding the defect of reformation of rites and government in the church of england , under edward , elizabeth , james have held fraternity with it constantly , that consent in ceremonies , or the manner or form of government , is not necessarily required to retain , or restore fraternity between churches of the greatest , greater or lesser , diverse union and correspondence . chap. . arg. . sect. . preachers may be heard , as teaching truth . if it be lawful to hear the present ministers of england , it is lawful to hear them , either as ministers of the gospel , or gifted brethren : but it is not lawful to hear them , either as ministers of the gospel , or as gifted brethren : therefore . the major ( or first proposition ) will not be denied ; that christ hath appointed some as ministers , by vertue of an office-power , to dispense the ordinances of the gospel , until his second coming ; is granted by all , that it is permitted to others , as their liberty ; enjoyned them as their duty ( having gifts and enablements from the lord thereunto ) to improve those gifts , in preaching , praying , &c. for the edification of the body of christ , ( though not solemnly invested into office ) is assented unto , at least , by some of those with whom we have to do ; whence a lawfulness to hear them as ministers , or as gifted brethren , doth necessarily arise . answ. i deny the major , or the consequence of the first proposition . . because the disjunction is of terms not opposite , but coincident ; the same persons may be and are both ministers of the gospel , and gifted brethren , and may be heard under both considerations . . the disjunction is not full , sith a third member may be assigned , that they may be heard , as preaching , or declaring the word of god , or speaking the truth of the gospel : which is the only consideration requisite to the hearer to be respected in hearing . . because god hath forbidden hearing of none , but such as teach falshoods ; and therefore hearers are not bound to decline hearing any , but such as they have reason to conceive teach contrary to gods word . . because hearers are not all of them at any time , nor any of them at all times enabled or fit to examine the office , power , or gifts , or brotherhood of those they may hear . . it is lawful to hear such as are neither in office , power , nor gifted brethren ; as it was lawful for apollos to hear priscilla , acts . . timothy to hear lois his grandmother , and eunice his mother , tim. . . tim. . . the iberian prince , the captive maid ; the indians , frumentius . . the beraeans are commended for their examining st. pauls doctrine , without examining his office , power , or his gifts , or brotherhood , acts . . . if the scriptures be the rule of the doctrine we are to hear , then are we bound to look to no more for the lawfulness of our hearing , than the congruity or agreement of what we hear with it ; yea , we sin if we do not hear it , whoever he be that brings it ; as on the other side , if any bring it not , though he be a minister in office , power , or a gifted brother ; yea , or an apostle , or an angel from heaven , he is not to be heard , gal. . , . . to forbid a man to hear him that preacheth , or declares the truth of god , because he knows him not to be , or conceives him not to be a minister in office , power , or a gifted brother , perhaps out of partial prejudice against him , or upon false reports and surmises , or because he is not of his party , may be a means to hinder a mans edification , and salvation , and to harden him to his perdition . which is not unusual , but too too often ; many declining to hear them that preach sound doctrine , because they say they rail , when they reprove their errours , or vices ; and choosing to hear those that are of their way , and preach according to that which they like , or else turn seekers , denying any to be ministers , but such as speak by immediate and unerring motion of the spirit ; or hearing none at all , because of dissenting judgment from themselves . wherefore , though i grant that christ hath appointed ministers , as is said , and that it is wisdom to choose and hearken to such , and most of all to the best , and the most able : and though the reading of mr. matthew pool's quo warranto ? might deterr many , who take upon them to preach constantly and publickly in solemn assemblies , as gifted brethren , from their practice which they use . nor do i deny there may be liberty , yea , and duty occasionally , especially when there is want of ministers in office to preach ; yet i deny , that a lawfulness to hear them as ministers , or as gifted brethren , doth necessarily thence arise . for suppose a minister , or gifted brother , should be heretical , yet he is not to be heard , but shunned , tit. . . here by the way i take notice , that if it be lawful to others , then ministers to preach as their liberty permitted to them . some practice that is a part of instituted worship , is warranted in scripture , as the persons liberty by permission without command ; and therefore hearing of the present ministers may be lawful and warranted in scripture as mens liberty by permission without command , which was my answer to this authors first argument against hearing them , and is now confirmed by his concession concerning the preaching of gifted-brethren . sect. . they may be heard as ministers of the gospel , who are not rightly called . it is added : 't is the minor ( or second proposition ) that is capable , in the thoughts of some , of a denial : which we prove per partes , thus . . 't is not lawful to hear them as ministers of the gospel : they are not such , therefore may not be heard as such . ans. i deny this consequence , if a man either ignorantly or fraudulently get into the place of a minister of the gospel , or be unduly chosen or ordained ; yet if he have the place of the minister of the gospel , and preach it truly he may be heard as a minister of the gospel , though he be not such ; that is , rightly called and stated in that function . the reasons whereof are , . because every hearer is not bound to examine the entrance of the teacher into his function ; therefore it is enough to hear him as such , that there is nothing appears to the contrary . . because it is above the ability of hearers to judge of the ministers call in many cases , the resolution thereof depending upon sundry controversies about the power of election and ordination , which they are not able to discuss ; and there are many proceedings in getting testimonials , using means for obtaining ordination , institution , ( besides what concerns their baptism ) which either they cannot , or their time and estate will not permit them to enquire into , and sure christ hath not bound men to impossibilities . . in all governments and societies , the peaceable possessour is presumed to have right till the contrary be evinced , otherwise there would be perpetual unquietness , and so societies be dissolved . nor do i think even in the most reformed , no not in the congregational churches , it would be permitted to a member of the society to decline the hearing of him , who is taken for their minister by the most , though he conceive or know him to be unduely admitted into the office. sure i am st. paul did apply the precept exod. . . to ananias as high priest , acts . . though it was manifest that he was not such , by any legitimate succession , but by unrighteous practices , and favour of the roman governour in judaea . yea , the scripture makes caiaphas to prophesie as high priest , though ( contrary to the law ) not high priest for life , but that year , joh. . . and if relations of the histories of those times be right , no legitimate successour in that office , but an usurper , and yet our lord christ did not except against him , when he was convented before him , as convented coram non judice , or any other way excepted against his office. and therefore i judge that christs example and st. pauls are sufficient warrant to us to submit to , and hear them that are not right officers , when they peaceably possess the place ; and consequently it is lawful to hear them as ministers of the gospel , who are not such rightly called . but let us consider this authors plea against the present ministers of england . sect. . preachers may be ministers of the gospel , who are not chosen by a particular instituted church . that they are not ministers of the gospel ( but thieves and robbers ) is manifest : such as come not in by the door , which is christ , joh. . . ( viz. by vertue of any authority derived to them from him ) are not ministers of the gospel , but thieves and robbers , joh. . . ( from whom 't is the property of the sheep to flee , ver . ) but the present ministers of england come not in by the door : therefore . that they come not in by the door , ( viz. by vertue of any authority derived to them from christ ) is evident : if they have received any such authority or commission from him , they have received it , either mediately , or immediately : the latter will not be asserted , nor without the working of miracles , should it so be , would it to the worlds end be made good : 't is the former must be fixed upon , viz. that they have received their authority or commission mediately from christ , but to as little purpose ; for those that receive authority to preach the gospel mediately from christ , have it from some particular instituted church of christ , to whom power is solely delegated for the electing of their own officers , according to the tenor of the ensuing scriptures , acts . . & . . answ. if this could be proved , there need no more to prove , that the present ministers of england , are not to be heard , for if they be thieves and robbers , the sheep will flee from them , and ought to do so , joh. . . but it is an ill sign of an inconsiderate and audacious spirit , for so high a charge ( which he that fears god , i think , should tremble to bring against so many preachers of a reformed church ) to bring so low a proof ; which , if it be well considered , may be not only urged against presbyterian preachers , if he mean by particular instituted church ( as his meaning appears to be by his preface ) a church gathered in the congregational way by church covenant , as they speak , but also against his gifted brethren , who have not authority to preach mediately by election of a particular church , but onely from their gifts . and if it be said , they are chosen by the church ; yet this will not authorize them , unless the church have power to choose any besides their own officers , which this author doth not pretend . now let it be considered , what a heavy burden is put on the consciences of hearers . they must hear no thieves and robbers , no nor any stangers : if this author argue rightly from this text , and all are thieves , and robbers , and strangers , who are not chosen by a particular instituted church , who have power onely to choose their own officers , therefore they must hear no meer gifted brethren , no itenerant preachers , though approved by tryers , none but their own officers , and those rightly chosen ; and consequently they must , before they hear them , know their election to be right , and the particular church electing them to be rightly instituted , which tends to such dictraction of peoples minds , and alienation of them from hearing , as can end in nothing but meer irreligion , and make men seekers or quakers , the mischiefs of which are too too conspicuous . but i shall more directly answer this argument , and that so much the rather , because the text john . is abused by papists , to prove , that they are not right shepherds , who have not authority from the pope , whom they make the one shepherd , v. . ( as hart in his conference with dr. rainold , chap. ) from whom all bishop● derive their power , and all the sheep are to hear ; and by quakers and others to prove , that they are not true shepherds , nor to be heard , who receive any maintenance by tithes or other stipend ; because they that do so , are by them judged hirelings , and not shepherds , v. . it is granted , that christ is the door , joh. . . but it may be doubted , whether christ be meant by the door , joh. . . the reason of which is , because then christ should be said to enter by himself , and the door to enter by the door . to avoid which , maldonate in his commentary , conceives the door , v. . not to be the same with the door , v ▪ . but the door , v. . to be the scriptures of the prophets , wh●● foretold of the good shepherd , ezek. . ▪ & . . jerem. . . & . . isa. . . by vertue of which prediction he entred . and indeed the whole purport of the parable doth tend to this , that he onely was the good shepherd ; that is , the messiah foretold by the prophets ; and that all other that pretended to be the messiah , or good shepherd , such as theudas , and judas of galilee , mentioned act. . , . and if there were any other like them , were but thieves , and robbers , strangers , hirelings , though they took on them to be shepherds ; they were but false christs , such as christ foretels should arise , mat. . . but let it be granted , that the door is the same joh. . . and . the entering in , v. . cannot be meant of entring into the ministery lawful election of a particular instituted church . for then it would follow , that every one that enters into the ministry by by election of a particular instituted church shall be saved , and go in and out and finde pasture , which is manifestly false . therefore entring , is meant of every true believer , and is by faith in christ , who is the right door , by whom , that is , by his doctrin , men come to be his sheep , and he is their shepherd . but be it , that the entring be into the ministery , and that entring be by vertue of authority derived to them from him , how is it proved they are not authorized by christ immediately who work not miracles ? have not many , especially in cases of necessity , been ministers of christ by immediate inward call , who have not wrought miracles ? it were hard to conclude of petrus waldo , and many other reformers , that had no power of working miracles , that they were not ministers of christ ( that i say nothing of gifted brethren ) that they were thieves and robbers , because they had no immediate calling by a particular instituted church . sure this would be to offend against the generation of gods children , who in the darkest times of papal tyranny , took upon them to preach the gospel , without a praevious election of a particular instituted church . but how doth he prove , that those that receive authority to preach the gospel mediately from christ , have it from some particular instituted church of christ ? he alledgeth no other but this , that to a particular instituted church of christ , power is solely delegated for the electing of their own officers . but what then ? may not , for all this , power be given to some others to choose , send and ordain preachers for the unconverted , who yet may be ministers of the gospel , and may be heard as such ? yea , may not some others ordain elders for particul●● instituted churches ? sure when st. paul left titus in crete , that he might set in order things that were wanting , and ordain elders in every city , as he had appointed him , tit. . . giving him direction whom to ordain , he left it to him to choose preachers for instituted churches , who were to be heard , and this by power delegated by christ to him , and therefore power is not solely delegated to a particular instituted church of christ , for the electing of their own officers , but that they may be chosen and ordained by some other for them , by vertue of an authority derived t● them from christ. but how proves he the power for electing their own officers delegated solely to a particular instituted church of christ ? he saith , it is according to the tenour of the ensuing scriptures , whereof one is acts . . and that relates onely one act , of choosing the seven deacons by the whole multitude of the disciples at hierusalem , who cannot be well counted such a particular instituted church , as made up one congregation to meet every lords day for all ordinances : they were too numerous to be such , nor were they organized under fixed officers with such constitution , as is now made necessary to a particular instituted church : nor did they choose the deacons upon any conceived power delegated from christ , by vertue of any rule established by christ or his apostles , which should be perpetual in all ages to all churches ; but upon advice of the apostles for their more liberty to attend on other work of more importance , and their own liking : nor , if it were to be a perpetual rule for all churches in all ages , can it be any rule for choosing other officers besides deacons , there being a peculiar reason , why they should choose deacons , whose honesty , prudence , and mercifulness was to be discerned , and not other officers , whose sufficiency to teach , and orthodoxie were to be considered ; of which the whole multitude of disciples then , and the major part of a particular instituted church are rarely now competent judges . the other text act . . hath no colour to prove such a delegated power , but from one word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which our translation renders [ when they had ordained . ] beza , after others , [ per suffragia creâssent , had created by suffrages ; ] and because the word arose from a custom among the greeks of choosing their officers by suffrages or votes , signified by the stretching out of the hand , conceives , that paul and barnabas , did not create the elders in the churches , without the churches election , signified by stretching out of their hands , to shew their consent to the elected ; and thence is inferred , that so it should be now . but this is but one example , ( though it is not to be denied , that in after ages , which were times of persecution , the elders were chosen by the church ) and therefore seems not sufficient to inferr a necessary perpetual rule of such election ; especially other passages shewing the constituting or ordaining of elders without mentioning of any such election , as tit. . . tim. . . and though the original and use of the word , were from the custom mentioned , and did in popular elections signifie election by suffrages ; yet , as in other words , so in this , use hath enlarged its sense , & apples it to other creating , than by such suffrage , as is manifest by the use of it , even in the same book , acts· . . where the apostle are termed witnesses , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , chosen before of god ; who did not choose by suffrages of others ; and by dr. hammond , in his annot. on act. . . is shewed to be used in like manner in philo judaeus , and other authors , besides christians ; as the same with electing , ordaining , or constituting without suffrages of others , and must be so understood in this very place ; because none are said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to stretch out their hand , but paul and barnabas ; and it is said , they did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which cannot be well translated any other than ordaining by laying on their hands on the elders ; not by bare stretching out , or lifting up their hands , as was wont to be in suffrages ; and it is said , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to or for them , manifestly distinguishing the disciples from the electors , or ordainers , by stretching out or laying on of hands . so that this place doth not prove power solely delegated to a particular church instituted for the electing of their own officers ; and therefore if all were true , which is added by this author , [ these men ( as it s known ) have no such authority , pretend not to it , have it in derision , come barely with a presentation from a patron , and ordination , institution , and induction from a lord-bishop ( things forraign to the scripture ) and impose themselves upon the people whether they will or no. ] yet they may be ministers of the gospel , and heard as such , notwithstanding this argument . yet i add , that it will be hard for this author to prove , that the parish churches in england , are not particular instituted churches of christ ; or , that the ministers are imposed on the people whether they will or no : the contrary is true of many places , especially in london , concerning the incumbents and lecturers : nor is the ordination of a lord-bishop such a forraign thing to the scripture , as this author would insinuate , the bishop not ordaining without other elders joyning with him , and giving him no other authority , than to preach the word of god , and to minister the holy sacraments in the congregation , where he shall be lawfully appointed thereunto . to shut up the answer to this argument : as the text joh. . . is abused by hart , to prove the bishop of rome to be the supreme pastor of the church of christ , as dr. rainold sheweth in his conference , ch. divis . . it being meant only of the lord christ : and the quakers abuse joh. . . to cry down preachers as hirelings , because they receive wages , though it be according to christs own determination , luke . . the lords ordinance , i cor. . . st. pauls practice sometime , cor. . . and his precept , gal. . . and his approbation , tim. . , . the word [ hireling ] joh. . . being not used as making it a sin for a minister to receive hire ; but to distinguish christ from other shepherds , who was not as hirelings , whose sheep are not their own , but was a singular pastor , owner of the sheep of whom he was pastor : and those abuse joh. . . who urge it against the hearing of any preachers , but those of their own church or way , calling them strangers ; whereas the strangers there , are such as were usurpers of christs office , and were enemies to the sheep , not feeding them , but perverting them : so this author abuse●● john . , . by saying , the present ministers of england , are thieves and robbers , because they come not into their ministry by the door ; that is , by any authority to them from christ ; that is , not by election of a particular instituted church ; when this is but from an expression in a parable , in which is not the scope or doctrin intended by it , and therefore not argumentative ; and neither is it certain , that the door , v. . is the same with the door , v. . nor if it were , is the door that whereby there is entrance into the ministery , but the church , nor the entrance by right election of others , but by the persons true faith , nor is the not entring in by the door , brought as the reason or form denominating them thieves and robbers , but only as some description of them from a concomitant , nor are any meant there to be thieves and robbers , who do direct to christ , or receive him , for defect of regular calling , but such only as obtruded themselves as the messiah on the people , with intent to make a prey of them . sect. . the present ministers may be heard as gifted brethren . there is yet more of the like stuff ; . saith he , 't is not lawful to hear them as gifted brethren . . the most of them are not gifted brethren ; nor , . brethren , being canonical drunkards , swearers , gamesters &c. answ. that any of them are such , it is to be bewailed , and in a christian way the persons that are guilty , are to be rebuked , levit. . . not to be thus charged in print , in a book vented in the dark , tending not to amend them , but to make them odious ; even with them that are too much inclined to censuring and reviling of those that dissent from them , or are of an opposite party . but how it appears that the most of the present ministers of england are such as he stigmatizeth them , i know not ; and i hope it is not true . however , if it were so , it proves not that others better qualified might not be heard ; nor that these men may not bethren ; yea , if he follow st. pauls rule , thess. . . alledged a little after , he is not to account them as enemies , but to admonish them as brethren : and were all this , and more true , yet they might be heard preach the gospel as brethren gifted , as judas was to be heard , though declared by christ to be a devil , joh. . . but what saith he of the rest ? . the best of them cannot by saints , in respect of gospel communion , be so accounted : for , . there was never any giving up of our selves each to other , according to the will of god and primitive example , whence such a brotherhood doth result . answ. by [ saints ] i doubt not he means such as are members of a particular instituted church congregational , distinct from parish churches , either under episcopal or presbyterial government . for such only are accounted saints by him , as give up themselves each to other , according to the will of god , and primitive example : and by [ gospel communion ] no doubt he means hearing of them preach , praying with them , receiving the sacraments from them , or breaking bread in the lords supper with them , or submitting to them , or joyning in ecclesiastical discipline with them ; which is in effect to make an utter separation from them , as no members of a christian church . now this assertion shews not a dram of christian love , but very much antipathy in him , who denies not p. . but that there are some amongst the present preachers of this day , that are good men : and methinks he should tremble to exclude such from gospel communion here , from whose company he would be loath to be excluded hereafter . but he doth not insanire sine ratione . he implies in his first reason , that giving up of our selves each to other , ( he means by church-covenant in the congregational way ) is according to the will of god and primitive example ; which is either explicitely or implicitely to engage themselves one to another , to walk together , and to hold communion in all gospel ordinances . i will not say this is unlawful , nor at no time necessary ; but that it is according to gods will , by way of institution for church communion , or according to any primitive example , i do not yet find . gods command for such a church covenant , i remember not to have found alledged , nor primitive example : besides , cor. . . which is far from the purpose , the macedonians giving their own selves to the lord , and then to paul and timothy by the will of god ; being no covenant between themselves to walk together in christian communion , but a free addicting themselves to the ministry to the poor saints elsewhere in judaea , by making a collection very liberally for them , and urging st. paul and timothy to prosecute the collection at corinth , with offer of assistance of some of their own to that end . and the assertion [ whence such a brother-hood doth result ] is groundless . for though some have made the church covenant the form of a particular instituted church , as mr. norton in his answer to apollonius , ch. , &c. and thence deduced the right to communion , and the relation of brother-hood ; yet the scripture makes all who hold the same faith and are baptized into christ , to be brethren and members of all the churches of the world , gal. . , , , . cor. . , . and . , . ephes. . , , . whence it follows , that the assertion of the resultance of brother-hood in respect of gospel communion from such giving up of themselves each to other , is opposite to the unity of christians ; and doth rather tend to make particular churches , particular parties , than to advance the communion of saints in the catholick church . dr. ames is more charitable , trip. p. . i doubt not to say ( according to my conscience ) that among those which live under the tyranny of the pope , and do not utterly separate from him through ignorance , there be many christians sincere , according to their knowledge , belonging to the true catholick church , and so to be accounted our godly brethren . . saith he , we cannot ( as things stand ) perform the duties of brethren to them , according to mat. . nor will they , or can they in the state in which they stand , to us . answ. this reason depends upon many uncertainties , if no errours ; of which i have said somewhat before , in answer to the preface , sect. . in the addition to my apologie , sect. . and much more is in grot. annot. in mat. . , , . selden de syned . ebrae . lib. c. . where it is argued , that mat. . . cannot be understood of such ecclesiastical censure , as is now in use . certainly without all shew of reason , the term [ church ] mat. . . is restrained to a particular instituted church in the congregational way , as the phrase is , and the term [ brother ] to one , that is a member of such a church , and to say , that men of the principles with this author concerning the independent discipline , cannot ( as things stand ) perform the duties of brethren to the best of the present ministers of england ; whereof some are by him confessed to be good men : according to mat. . nor will they , or can they , in the state in which they stand to them , is in effect to profess the same hatred , or distance , as the scripture notes to have been between the jews and samaritans , joh. . . contrary to christs doctrine in the parable of the wounded man , luke . . in that thereby is denied to one another the greatest work of mercy commanded , levit. . . thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart : thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour , and not suffer sin upon him ▪ but he goes on . . if we acknowledge the best of them for such , we must also acknowledge the worst of them : for , . they are all members of the same church . . profess themselves to be one brother-hood ; so saith their rime upon the lords prayer , our father which in heaven art , and makest us all one brother-hood , &c. answ. gospel communion is either private or publick : there is private gospel communion in private reproof , and i think ( as bad as the worst of the present ministers of england be ) they are to be accounted by real ( though perhaps they be not by pharisaically minded reputed ) saints as brethren in respect of gospel communion . even towards them is to be that exhortation , gal. . . brethren , if a man be overtaken in a fault , ye which are spiritual restore such an one in the spirit of meekness ; considering thy self , lest thou also be tempted , which sure humble saints do . there is private gospel communion in opening their minds one to another , as it is said , mal. . . then they that feared the lord , spake often one to another : and this st. james requires , james . . confess your faults one to another , and pray one for another that ye may be healed . now concerning this , it follows not , if we acknowledge the best of the present ministers of england as brethren , in respect of gospel communion , we must also acknowledge the worst of them . publick gospel communion may be in hearing them , praying with him , praising god , receiving the lords supper , exercising with them , or submitting to them in respect of church discipline . in some of these at least , i know no sufficient reason , why the saints may not account the worst of the present ministers of england as brethren , in respect of gospel communion . judas might be heard as an apostle , and if he were a communicant at the lords supper ( as mr. seldens discourse in his first book chap. . de syned . ebraeorum , seems to me to evince ) there is warrant to receive the lords supper with the worst of them . we find that those that made acclamation to christ when he rode into jerusalem , were a mixt multitude of disciples , children , and such as came to the feast ; though it is likely they were not disciples , viz. those greeks that desired to see jesus , as may be gathered by comparing mat. . , . luke . . joh. . , , . yet our lord christ himself justified their joyning together in their praying and praising god , mat. . . luke . , . sure it can be no sin in any person to joyn in the true worship and service of god with any , if he have no command to withdraw himself from that service because of their presence , nor power to exclude them , and yet is bound to the duties then performed . believers might prophesie and hear it , though unbelievers came in , cor. . , . christians are commanded to separate , and not touch the unclean thing , cor. . . but those they are to separate from , are no other than unbelievers , and the unclean thing is the idol , v. , . not the true service of god , because of the presence of some scandalous brother . the people of god are to come out of babylon , rev. . but that is no other than rome , and that because of its idolatry , v. , . rev. . , , , , , . we are not to keep company with a man called a brother , if he be a fornicator , or covetous , or an idolater , or a railer , or a drunkard , or an extortioner , with such an one , no not to eat , cor. . . but this prohibited keeping company , and eating can be meant of no other than arbitrary , unnecessary society in civil things , and eating common bread , because v. . that keeping company which is forbidden to such brethren , is allowed in v. , . to the fornicators of this world ; which cannot be gospel communion , keeping company in eating the lords supper , but civil eating . the doctrine of defiling our selves by the presence of wick●d men at the lords supper , hath begotten so much superstition in the minds of many well-affected people , that they can scarce ever break bread with comfort , no not in the best instituted churches ; there being seldom such an unspotted congregation but that some or other is known , or reported , or suspected to be guilty of some sin , or errour , which is made sufficient to exclude themselves from the communion ; so that as they use to speak , they are not free to break bread , and that before the fault be examined , or the person judged upon trial to be guilty and impenitent ; which makes those very churches , which by themselves are counted purest and best disciplined , to be full of brawls , and rash censures and separations , and without any regular discipline of any long continuance . these things being considered , i answer , that i know no evil in it , to account the worst of the ministers of england brethren , in respect of gospel communion , ( if not under regular censure ) in hearing , prayer , praising of god , eating the lords supper , nor evil to account them members of the same church , and of one brotherhood , according to the rime , which should not be derided by any holy , sober christians , being only the lords prayer in metre . it follows . sect. . tender consciences may call the bishops reverend fathers . nay , . we cannot so acknowledge them , but we must also acknowledge the bishops for our reverend fathers ( for theirs they are ) which how abhorring it is to any tender enlightned soul , may easily be conjectured . answ. the bishops are acknowledged by the present ministers of the church of england , as their reverend fathers , in respect of their ordination , but as brethren only in respect of gospel communion . nor do i think the bishops affect the title of reverend fathers , as if they were superiours over the ministers or people , in respect of the common faith , had dominion over their faith , or were lords over gods heritage , or would be called masters or fathers in that sense , in which our lord christ appropriates these titles to himself and his father , mat. . , , . in which sense i acknowledge any tender enlightned soul should abhor to give it to them . i conceive they are far from usurping that title , as the bishop of rome doth , who now hath ingrossed the title of pope , that is father heretofore given to other ministers , even to deacons ; and doth claim the prerogative to be the oecumenical bishop , and universal monarch , as christs vicar over the whole church ; as having power to make laws binding the conscience out of the case of scandal and contempt , to determine infallibly in point of faith ; with much more , wherein he sitteth in the temple of god , showing himself that he is god , thess. . . but i conceive the title of reverend fathers is given to them , and taken by them in no such sense ; but that they account not only the ministers , but also the meanest christian , their brethren in christ. yet may they be called reverend fathers , not only in regard of their age , and their success in begetting others through the gospel in christ jesus , as the apostle of himself , cor. . . in which respect there have been , and i presume some of them are rightly termed fathers in christ ; but also in respect of their office and dignity , according to that of the apostle , tim. . . rebuke not an elder , but intreat him as a father . in which respects usual titles may be given , even to the unworthy , as st. paul did , acts . . and . . and such compellations and salutations have been used by holy persons , gen. . . dan. . . as warrantable ; which quakers , and tender consciences not enlightned , but darkned by prejudice and undue suggestions abhor , as giving flattering titles to men , disclaimed by elihu , job . . whose example and opinions are not imitable : nor doth this author any good office to any in such affrightments , whereby our breach is widened , and our wound uncurable . sect . it is not proved that the best of the present ministers are to be separated from , as walking disorderly . this author goes on thus : but to hear this plea speak its uttermost , let it be granted they are brethren , and may be so esteemed : they are brethren that walk disorderly , or they do not : that they walk disorderly cannot be denied by such as pretend to reformation , if submi●ting to ordination , or reordination by a lord bishop , covenanting and protesting with detestation against a reformation according to the scripture , and the best reformed churches , to own ( as consonant to scripture ) a lyturgie or stinted forms of prayer in the church , and read them , to wear the surplice , &c. be disorderly walking ; they are ( the very best of them ) beyond contradiction , to be reputed in the number of disorderly walkers . and so after due admonition ( according to the scripture ) and a perseverance in their sin , to be separated from , by vertue of positive and express precepts of christ , mat. . thess. . . now we command you , brethren , in the name of the lord jesus christ , that you withdraw your selves from every brother that walketh disorderly , and not after the tradition he received of us : with what vehemency , authority , and holy earnestness doth the apostle press separation from brethren that walk disorderly ? we command you , and we command you in the name of the lord jesus ; and we command you brethren , by vertue of our relation to each other , and that love and endearment that is betwixt us as brethren , that you withdraw your selves , &c. i scarce know any one thing pressed by the apostle with greater vehemency , than what is here instanced in : wherein we have also an undeniable convincing argument , that the persons of whom we are treating , walk disorderly : those that walk not after the tradition received from the apostles , ( we may add , and from the primitive church for above three hundred years after christ , but according to the traditions of the old bawd and strumpet of rome ) are such as walk disorderly : but the present ministers of england walk not after the tradition received from the apostles , but after the traditions of the whorish church of rome : therefore they are such as walk disorderly . what apostolical tradition have we for stinted forms of prayer , or liturgies in the church ? did they frame any ? ( those that are ascribed to some of them , are all spurious , as hath been over and over proved . ) for surplice , crossing in baptism , and many other gewgaws used by them ? if they have any apostolical written tradition for these things , let them produce it , and we shall lay our mouths in the dust , and for ever be silent , as to a charge of this nature . if they have not ( as there , is nothing more certain ) they are disorderly walkers , if the apostles argument be valid , we command you to withdraw from such as walk disorderly . but who , i pray , are these disorderly walkers ? how shall we know them ? they are ( sayes the apostle ) such as walk not after the tradition received from us . answ. though it belongs to the persons charged here to speak for themselves , and not to me , who am not chargeable with the accusation , as here it stands , yet conceiving they would say the same in effect , which i shall say now , i do , that the invalidity of this authors arguing may appear , say thus much for them ; but chiefly for the truths sake . i conceive they will deny , that they covenant and protest with detestation against a reformation according to the scripture , and the best reformed churches , and would challenge this author to prove it , that he may not be found a calumniator ; that they would take on them the justifying of their submitting to ordination , or re-ordination by a lord bishop , their owning ( as consonant to scripture ) a liturgie or stinted forms of prayer in the church , their reading them , their wearing the surplice , the crossing in baptism ( they would say , after baptism ) and deny these things to be disorderly walking , according to the traditions of the old bawd and strumpe● of rome ; and i doubt not but that they would maintain it , that beyond contradiction they are not to be reputed in the number of disorderly walkers , but that this author is an egregious false accuser . however , whether they be faulty or not , this i think i may safely avouch , that these practices ( except the first , which i assure my self they will deny ) whether justifiable , or sinful , are not of so great a degree of pravity , as that barely for them they should be reputed in the number of disorderly walkers , and so after due admonition ( according to the scripture ) and a perseverance in their practice , to be separated from , by vertue of positive and express precepts of christ , mat. . thess . . either by a separation of saints from them in gospel communion , or private familiar society . for the former precept mat. . , , . is only concerning such a sin , whereby a person sins against his brother ; that is , doth him some personal injury . which appears both by the constant use of the phrase of sinning against another , in the new and old testament , as acts . . cor. . . gen. . . and . . and . . and . sam. . . and . , . and . . and particularly in the same chapter , v. . luke . , . which were occasioned from christs words , mat. . . where christ commandeth peter , and the rest of his disciples , to forgive their brother that sinneth against them seven times a day , yea , seventy times seven times . which can be understood of no other sins than personal injuries ; for these alone they were to forgive , as trespasses against them , as the parable , mat. . shews v. . . mat. . , , . of which sort those practices imputed to the best of the present ministers are not . yet , if they were , the separation is not to be made without an admonition , and gradual process , which i think this author hath not used towards them , as i conceive his own words evince a little before : we cannot ( as things stand ) perform the duties of brethren to them according to mat. . if the sins were such as christ means , mat. . . and their proceeding according to the direction there ; yet the separation , whether enjoyned , or permitted rather , is no other than such as was by the jews from heathens and publicans , which was not from communion in holy things ; for the publicans were allowed to go to the temple to pray , even with the pharisees , luke . , . though they would not receive them , and eat with them , luke . . acts . . which shews , that the being to him that is injured as a heathen and publican , mat. . . is no other than separation from eating and familiar reception ; not from gospel communion , as this author would have it ; and therefore the text mat. . , , . is impertinently alledged to prove his separation from the present ministers of england in respect of gospel communion . nor is thess. . . alledged more to the purpose . for . the disorderly walking there must be understood of sins of greater pravity than the rest , besides the first ( which they will deny ) charged on them ( if they be proved sins ) as the vehemency , authority , and holy earnestness the apostle doth press his command with , doth evince . for this vehemency is not an undeniable convincing argument , that the persons , of whom this author is treating , walk disorderly , as he fansies ; but that they , that walk so disorderly , as the apostle here means , are so corrupt , and their walking so evil , that their converse with them in a familiar society , as with others , would not be for their safety , or credit , or the repute of christianity . which will the more appear by the instance that is given , v. . where he saith , for we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly , working not at all , but are busie-bodies : which shews , that the walking disorderly , is not being in some disorder about church government , and outward rites , proper to ministers ( which are the instances of disorderly walking here brought by this author ) but gross sins of any brother ( not a minister ) who was bound to work , or else was not to eat , v. . which ministers were not bound to do , as v. . thess. . . tim . , . cor. . , , , , , . shews ; nor were they for this not working so as not to earn their own bread , to be noted or signified , and declined , that they might be ashamed , as is required , v. . . gross sins then common to every brother , such as those cor. . . cor. . , . not those practices charged on the present ministers here by this author , are meant by disorderly walking , thess. . . which is also confirmed by thess. . . where after the apostle had beseeched them , v. , . to know them which laboured among them , and were over them in the lord , and admonished them , and to esteem them very highly for their works sake , ( which shews he expected not of them other works for the earning of their bread , than their labour in the word and doctrine ) he adds , now we exhort you , brethren , warn them that are unruly ; the same word which is , thess. . translated disorderly , whom he distinguisheth from th● feeble minded , and weak ; and therefore is meant of brethren , who sinned openly and wilfully ; and not of ministers , who do yield to that which is controverted even by learned and godly men , whether it be evil at all ; and if it be evil , it s not of such a kind as the apostle any where censures , so as he doth this disorderly walking ; and it s most likely is practised out of ignorance , errour , fear , or other motive , which may befall an holy , and upright man. nor is there any force in this authors reasoning , that the practice of the ministers must be disorderly walking , unless they can shew an apostolical written tradition for those things they practise . for . it doth not appear , that the tradition thess. . of the apostle , is any other than the command , v. . that if any would not work , he should not eat , which is not improbable from the connexion of the following verses with this , which also makes it probable , that the disorderly walking , v. . is no other than being idle , and busie-bodies ; the apostle acquitting himself from behaving himself disorderly , v. . in that he wrought with his hands that he might not be chargeable to any of them , v. . and then they need to bring no other tradition to acquit themselves from disorderly walking , than their labouring in the word and doctrine according to tim. . , . . if the tradition be further extended to those mentioned thess. . . it will not be necessary that they may be acquitted from disorderly walking , that they produce for themselves an apostolical written tradition for a liturgie , surplice , or crossing , they think it concerns him that accuseth them as walking disorderly in doing them , that he produce an apostolical tradition against the use of them . for being ( as they conceive ) in themselves things indifferent , they think it enough that there is no apostolical precept forbidding them , and then they have this apostolical tradition for them , rom. . . where no law is , there is no transgression . if it be replied in things that pertain to gods worship , there must be an express institution , or else the practice of it is walking disorderly ; besides what is said before in answer to the first chapter , sect. . it may be retorted , where is your apostolical written tradition by institution for your church covenant , infant baptism , election of ministers by most voices , excommunication of members in a congregational church by the major part , with many more ? to use your own words , if you have not ( as there is nothing more certain ) you are disorderly walkers , and to be separated from as well as the present ministers , if the apostles argument be valid , we command you to withdraw from such as walk disord●rly . but who , i pray , are these disorderly walkers ? how shall we know them ? they are ( sayes the apostle ) such as walk not after the tradition received from us . eadem in te cudatur saba . as much may be said of the separatists , if by apostolical tradition be meant an institution for every thing used in worship and church government . . this authors argument , if it proceed thus , every one that hath not a written apostolical tradition for what he doth , or that doth otherwise than the apostles tradition requires , walks disorderly , which is the force of his reasoning , then every one that sins in any kind is a disorderly walker , for sure he hath no apostolical tradition for any sin ; and then this author , if he be not a perfectist , nor thinks himself excluded from the number of those of whom it is said , james . . in many things we offend all ; and joh. . . if we say that we have no sin , we deceive our selves , must acknowledge himself a disorderly walker , and to be separated from . . the present ministers , i imagine , will be apt to alledge for themselves , that they have apostolical written tradition , even for those practices for which they are accused as disorderly walkers , to wit , rom. . . heb. . . and be ready to recriminate this author , and those of his mind , as disorderly walkers , in separating from their brethren , disobeying their ministers , and governours , commanding things lawful , and to be separated from as practising of division . to conclude this matter , were it granted that the present ministers of england were disorderly walkers , and that they were to be withdrawn from , yet this doth not prove that they might not be heard as gifted brethren , or that the best of them cannot by saints be accounted as brethren in respect of gospel communion : partly , because the withdrawing themselves from every brother that walks disorderly , cannot be meant of exclusion of himself from hearing , praying , or receiving the lords supper , if such a one be present ; unless it be determined , that every one must not only examine himself before he comes to the lords supper , which the apostle requires cor. . . but also every brother , even his minister with whom he is to joyn in gospel communion ; yea , and hath power to excommunicate his brother , or liberty , notwithstanding the institution of christ , to exclude himself , which sure is no apostolical tradition , but a far more disorderly walking , than most of those things , the practice whereof is made by this author the ministers disorderly walking . besides the injunction to every christian to withdraw himself , not to keep company , thess. . , . being expressions which note not acts imposed by church governours , but such as they ought of their own accord to practice , are to be understood of such familiar , private , arbitrary communion in entertainments , and other societies , as they are at liberty to do or not to do , or might do , were it not for this consideration , not such communion , as if they omit , they omit the worship of god , which he hath appointed , and so break his commandment . partly also , because if the withdrawing were upon publick censure of the community , yet it must not be ( according to their own rule ) without a gradual proceeding of endeavouring conviction , and precedent admonition , which being not done to the present ministers of england , to separate from them , even the best in hearing , and other gospel communion is irregular , and unjustifiable . i go on to examine what follows . chap. . arg. . sect. . that which is by some termed antichristian , is not alwayes unlawful . those that act in the holy things of god by vertue of an antichristian power , office , or calling , are not to be heard , but to be separated from : but the present ministers of england act in the holy things of god , by vertue of an antichristian power , office , or calling : therefore . the major is evident . for , . the power , office , and calling of antichrist is opposite and contrary unto the power , office , and calling of christ : not to separate from such as act by vertue of such an office-power , is to stand by , and plead for antichrist against christ. answ. the ambiguity that is in the termes of this argument is that , which makes this argument seem to many well-meaning people to be of some force , which will appear to be a meer fallacie , when the terms are clearly opened . concerning which , that which is chiefly to be explained is , who is the antichrist here meant , and what is meant by antichristian , which hath been so : strangely abused , especially of late years , that every thing that hath been m●sliked by an opposite party , is branded with the name of antichrist , and mark of the beast , and made a sufficient cause of utter separation from such as own any thing so called and of almost vatinian hatred . the word [ antichrist ] i find not in any place in the bible , but in the epistles of st. john , joh. . . as ye have heard that antichrist should come , even now are there many antichrists , whereby we know that it is the last time , v. . he is antichrist that denieth the father and the son , ch . . . and every spirit that confesseth not that jesus christ is come in the flesh , is not of god : and this is that spirit of antichrist , whereof ye have heard that it should come , and even now already is it in the world , john. . for many deceivers are entered into the world , who confess not that jesus christ is come in the flesh . this is a deceiver and an antichrist , or the deceiver and the antichrist . in which passages i observe : . that antichrist is described as a deceiver , as one that opposeth the grand truth of the gospel , and therefore the word in the scripture use is not applied to persecuting princes and emperours , as the great turk , but to false teachers . . that the opposition is by denying , not by making himself christ , but by denying jesus to be the christ ; and therefore the term antichrist is not one that sets up himself as if he were christ , they are expressed by another word [ pseudo-christs ] mat. . . but one that is against christ by teaching contrary to him . . that the term antichrist is applied to many false teachers who were in st. johns time . . that yet there was one antichrist more notable than the rest to come into the world. about whom hath been variety of opinions of old , and of late much controversie , whether he should be a single person , or a state or rank of persons succeeding one after another : whether the antichrist be already come , or is yet to come : whether the popes of rome for some generations , have been the antichrist , or they and some other . the opinions of the fathers were various as conceiving of antichrist by conjectures , after the popes of rome began to be so haughty , as to usurp dominion over emperours and kings , and to be tyrannous in cruel persecutions of them that opposed the papal corruptions , many pious and learned men stuck not to stigmatize the popes of rome as antichrists : and since the reformation begun by luther , it hath been the common tenent of protestants , that the later popes of rome have been the man of sin foretold thess. . , , , , , , , . the city of rome , the whore of babylon ; and the papacy , or popes , the beast , described rev. . which is taken for a prophesie of antichrist . and though some have endeavoured to apply these prophesies to caligula , simon magus , domitian , mahomet , the turkish sultans ; yet generally not only the french and german protestants , but also the english , the most esteemed for learning even of the order of prelates , such as downham , robert abbot , usher , bedel , prideaux , together with king james , and his defendant andrews , and many more have applied the prophesies in the revelation , and thess. . to the roman popes , as the antichrist that was to come . whence every thing that is retained in the protestant churches , not taught or exemplified in the scriptures , according to the use of the church of rome , is usually termed antichristian , as coming from rome , and the mark and image of the beast , in which sense i conceive this author useth the term antichristian , as being against christ , and by power antichristian , he means authority , and rule prelatical ; by office-antichristian , the office of preaching , reading the common-prayer , administration of sacraments , and discipline according to the church of england ; by calling antichristian , he means ordination by a bishop . now out of this may be gathered an answer to the argument . if by antichristian power , office , and calling , be meant the papal power , office , and calling , and the acting in holy things be by preaching the doctrine of the trent council , in the points determined therein against protestants , by administring sacraments according to the roman missal ; and discipline according to the canon law of the popes , in which papal power is established , the major is granted and the minor denied . for though i deny not that a person ordained by a popish bishop , if he forsake popish doctrine , and preach the truth taught by protestants , may be heard preach the gospel , though he do not renounce his ordination , yet while he holds that doctrine , he is not to be heard as being an antichristian deceiver . but if by an antichristian power , office , or calling , be meant by vertue of ministry , according to the liturgie , articles of religion and homilies of the church of england , from the ordination and license of the bishops , ( which this author terms antichristian ) the major is denied ; and to the arguments to prove it , i answer , that that which he calls antichristian , is not truly such , but only miscalled such by him ; and therefore till he proves that power-office and calling which he calls such , and means in his major proposition is such : his major is denied , and it is denied , that what he calls antichristian , is opposite and contrary to the power , office , and calling of christ ; or not to separate from such as act by vertue of such an office power , is to stand by , and plead for antichrist against christ , until he proves such acting to be really so . and this answer might suffice to invalidate all the other arguments he brings for his major , they all moving upon this unproved supposition , that what he calls antichristian , and standing by and pleading for antichrist , is in truth such . but because there are some things to be examined in the other arguments also , i shall survey them also . . saith he , it 's unlawful to attend upon the teachings of antichrist , therefore upon the teachings of such as act by virtue of a power derived from him . answ. if by teachings of antichrist , be meant , the teachings of the present doctrin of the church of rome , according to the trent council , wherein they dissent from protestants ; and the power derived from him , be meant , of the engl●sh bishops ordination ; it is denied , that the preachers of england derive their power from antichrist , pope or church of rome , and i say , that it is meer impudency to say they do , who renounce the popes authority by solemn oath , and separate from the church of rome , and are persecuted , condemned , and put to death , where the pope hath power , even because they disclaim the pope and his doctrin . yet if any should act , by virtue of ordination from the pope ( as doubtless many did before the reformation , such as wickliffe , and many others ) and yet not teach his doctrin , he might be heard teaching the gospel , and in such a case the consequence were not valid ; and therefore in this sense it may be denied , that because it is unlawful to attend upon the teachings of antichrist , therefore upon the teachings of such as act by virtue of a power derived from him . . saith he , christ calls and solemnly charges his , upon the penalty of most dreadful judgments , to separate from every thing of antichrist , rev. . . & . , , . answ. it is true , rev. . . we read thus , and i heard another voice from heaven , saying , come out of her my people , that ye be not partakers of her sins , and that ye receive not of her plagues . which may be understood of a local departure f●om babylon , or rome , when her judgment of destruction from the kings of the earth draws nigh : but if it be extended further , to a departure by forsaking communion with her in worship , and leaving the subjection which was yielded to her in her government ; yet is it not understood of every doctrin the pope teacheth ; not of the bible or apostles creed , or any doctrin or service agreeable to these ; nor of relinquishing every rite and usage , though undue and illegitimate , which is observed by them ; but the fornication , that is , idolatry , heresie and other wickedness mentioned , v. . chap. . . revel . . , . it is said , if any man worship the beast and his image , and receive his mark in his forehead , or in his hand , the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of god. by the beast and his image are meant , some empire or state which promotes idolatry : some conceive it meant of the pagan emperors : others , and those both more and more accurate commentators among the protestants , understand by them , the roman papacy , and latin empire ; the worshiping of which is undoubtedly the acknowledging of its power , and subjection to their idolatrous decrees and edicts . the receiving his mark in the forehead or the hand , is , allusively to the use of marking slaves in the forehead , and souldiers in the hand , to profess themselves servants to the popes , and ready to fight for them ; which mr. brightman makes to be in the roman clergy their indelible character in ordination ; in the emperors their oath of protection of the popes ; in the common people their assuming the names of papists and roman catholiques . mr. mede more exactly in his comment on rev. . . thus , to receive the mark of the name of the beast , is to subject himself to his authority , and to acknowledge him to be his lord ; but to receive the number , is to imbrace his impiety , derived unto him from the dragon , to wit , the idolatry of the latins : whence that happily will not be unworthy consideration ; although no man can receive the mark of the name of the beast , or be subject to his authority , but together also he must receive his number , that is , be must needs be partaker of his impiety : yet it may be , that one may admit the number or impiety of the beast , but yet refuse the mark or name . that which now long since is true of the greeks , which doth evince , that the worship of the beast and his image , and receiving his mark in his forehead or in his hand , is not retaining of every usage of the papists , no not though it be corrupt and superstitious , as many zealous persons against popery , but superficially viewing the text conceive , much less such customs as are not superstitious in their use ; but acknowledging the universal monarchy of the popes , and adoring images , the host , reliques , crosses , invocations of saints , and such like impieties , which the present ministers of england do profess to abhorr ; and therefore it is without cause , that they are charged with receiving the ma●k of the beast ; and people are affrighted with the penalty of the dreadful judgments , rev. . . unless they separate from them and their ministry as a thing of antichrist . . saith he , there is not a command in the scripture enioyning saints to take heed of being deceived , to try the spirits , because many antichrists are gone abroad into the world : but is an abundant demonstration of the truth of this assertion . answ. i grant it , if the assertion were , they that act in the holy things , as acknowledging the power , teaching the doctrin , owning the calling of him that is truly antichrist , are not to be heard , but to be separated from : but being understood of other things , which the separatists call antichristian , it is not true , nor proved by the commands in scripture , which forbid only to reject antichristian doctrin and worship , not every thing said by any without proof to be a thing of antichrist . the baptism given in popery , is not by all separatists rejected as antichristian ; there is less reason to call the ministry of england a thing of antichrist . . saith he , the institution of officers of his own , by christ , to be continued in the way appointed by him to the end of the world , ephes. . . answ. it is true , that christ when he went up into heaven gave gifts to men ; some apostles , and some prophets , and some evangelists , and some pastors , and teachers , and that some of these are to be continued to the end of the world , and in that way he hath appointed : but that there is any particular way of election , ordination and mission of ordinary pastors and teachers in those words appears not ; nor how the major is proved , those that act in the holy things of god by vertue of an antichristian ( so called , not proved ) power , office , or calling , are not to be heard , but separated from , i discern not , unless this be the argument , christ hath appointed these , therefore no other are to be heard , but to be seperated from , which overthrows the hearing of , and communion with gifted brethren ( whom he would have heard ) for they are no officers of christs institution . . saith he , that there is not one promise of a blessing in the whole scripture , upon persons attending on such a ministry , with innumerable things of the like tendency and import , that might be produced if needful , are such a basis upon which the truth of the major proposition stands , as cannot be easily shaken or removed . answ. though there be no one promise of a blessing in the whole scripture , upon persons attending on such a ministry , as theirs is that act in the holy things of god , by virtue of an antichristian power , office , or calling , whether real or supposed as such ; yet if any , that so acts , as suppose a dominican fryer , or jesuite in the indies do preach the gospel truly , there is a blessing promised in scripture , upon persons attending on such a ministry , christ having said , luke . . blessed are they that hear the word of god , and keep it ; yet were there no promise of blessing , the major is not proved , unless this were true , they are not to be heard , but to be separated from , to whose ministry , as such a blessing is not promised ; which makes unlawful the hearing of gifted brethren , unless they can produce such a promise ; yea , every action indifferent should be unlawful , unless it have a blessing promised to it . what more he can say for his major , yet rests in his breast , and so needs no answer till it be produced . i hasten to the proof of his minor . sect. . the names given to the ministers of england , prove not their office not to be from christ. the minor ( saith he ) wants not sufficient demonstration . first , the present ministers of england , are either from christ , or from antichrist . there is no medium ( a linsey-woolsey-ministry , that is partly of christ , partly of antichrist , as 't is not to be proved by scripture , so will it not be abetted ) that they are not from christ , hath in part been proved already , and may further be evinced . . their names are forraign to the scripture : where read we of deacons in their sense , priests as distinguished from christians , in the new testament , deans , cannons , petty-cannons , prebendaries , arch-deacons , lord bishops , parsons , vicars ? &c. these are only found in the popes pontifical , whence they are derived . answ. it hath been abetted by mr bradshaw in his answer to francis johnson his second reason against hearing the ministers of the church-assemblies of england ( whose arguments this author hath revived , though answered long since by mr. william bradshaw , and the answers vindicated by mr. thomas gataker , from mr. cans reply ) that there is a medium , and that a ministry may be from christ in respect of the thing ministred , though from antichrist in respect of the way of entry into it ; yea , he saith , it is not necessary , that the ministry of priests and deacons , though ordained by antichrist himself , should be the ministry of his apostasie : but notwithstanding his ordination , their ministry may be the ministry of jesus christ as was the ministry of luther , huss , wickliffe , and others . i add , that if by being from christ or antichrist , be understood of outward calling ( as this author seems to mean ) ministers m●y be neither from christ nor antichrist , and yet true ministers , as those that preached christ even of envy and strife ; yet st. paul saith , philip. . , . notwithstanding every way , whether in pretence , or truth , christ is preached , and i therein do rejoyce , yea and will rejoyce . but let us consider his proofs , that the present ministers of england are not from christ. to the first i answer , that the term priests as distinguished from all christians in the sense used by the convocation of the church of england , is the same with presbyters , as appears by the latin translation of the articles of the church of england , art. . . extant by it self , and in the corpus & syntagma confessionum of the protestant churches , and the letters of orders under the seals of bishops in latin , and this is sure found in scripture , act. . , &c. the other names note not any ministry different from the ministry of christ , but are used to signifie some difference in their maintenance , or places , which may be annexed to them , and yet their ministry from christ. if this authors reason were good , the names are forraign to the scripture , therefore the things ; it would follow , that congregational churches are forraign to scripture , lecturers , sacraments , ruling elders , itinerant preachers , &c. because their names are not there . but this author adds , so are . their officers : deacons attending tables we read of , but deacons praying , preaching , administring sacraments ( so called ) by virtue of an office-power , an order of the first step to the priesthood , we find not . priests in the old testament ( both true and false ) we read of : in the new , saints are so called , . in respect of analogie to the ritual priest of old , whose prerogative it was to come near to god , deut. . ▪ to whom through christ , saints have access with boldness , ephes. . . & . . james . . . in respect of their union and engrafture into christ , the great high-priest over the house of god. . in respect of that analogie there is betwixt what christ hath done for them as priest , and by his spirit worketh in them : he offered up sacrifice ; so do they , psal. . . & . . rom. . . heb. . . he was crucified , died ; so are they , rom. . , , , &c. gal. . . . as priests , they are anointed to the participation of , do thereby attain to , a kind of holy and intimate communion with christ in all his glorious offices , rev. . . but an office of priesthood in men for the ministery of the gospel , that are to be branded by men in that their office , must preach what they would have them , and cease when they would have them ( as is the case of the present ministry of england ) the scripture is a stranger to . answ. though the present ministers of england , men are to hear , be more than deacons ; yet this may be said , that if it be supposed , that the office of a deacon be not now to attend tables , as the first seven deacons were , act. . . yet according to the book of ordination , it is his office , where provision is so made , to search for the sick , poor and impotent people of the parish , to intimate their estates , names , and places where they dwell , unto the curate , that by his exhortation , they may be relieved with the almes of the parishioners or others . if they be appointment to pray , preach , and administer the sacraments , they have this to plead , that philip the deacon did both preach and baptize , act. . , , . that st. paul requires of the deacons , tim. . . that they hold the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience , and v. . they that have used the office of a deacon well , purchase to themselves a good degree , and great boldness in the faith which is in christ jesus , and therefore may the deacons office be well conceived the first step to the priesthood , that is , the office of a presbyter . as for the word priest , as it answers to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the new testament ; if the saints , as saints , may be termed priests , then may the elders , or the best of them surely be called priests ; yea , and that in a special manner , as in respect of their office drawing near to god , engaged to offer spiritual sacrifices of prayer and praise , which the apostles conceived to belong to them in special manner , together with the ministry of the word , acts . . and . . yea the apostle paul rom. . . useth this expression , that this grace was given to him of god , that he should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( the word applyed to christ as a priest , heb. . . and joyned with sacrifice , phil. . . ) the minister of jesus christ to the gentiles , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ministring as a priest the gospel of god , that the offering , or sacrificing of the gentiles might be acceptable ; and therefore in respect of his office , he might have been called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a priest , though not properly , yet allusively ; and so may ministers now , as the christian church is called the temple of god , the israel of god , the heavenly jerusalem , &c. and if , as some conceive , the word priest be derived from the greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it may be judged the fitter word than minister , which is more apposite to signifie a deacon , than an elder . selden de syned , vet . ●braeo . l. . c. . p. . vocem nostram priest , & teutonum belgarumque priester , uti & gallorum prebstre & prestre , & italorum prets a presbytero deformatam nemo puto non concedit . p. . nec pueruli nesciunt voces istas , seniorem , priest , presbyterum , elder , ex sui tam naturâ usuque primario & significatione apertissimâ non magis differre , quàm 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & consulem , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & principem , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & regem , aut quae alia sic invicem omnino eadem sunt . as for that which is added , that the present ministry of england , is bounded by men in their office , so as that they must preach what they would have them , and cease when they would have them : i think it is not without example in the best ordered churches . i do conceive that in the churches of the separatists , they would tie their ministers to preach according to their confession , and that if any taught otherwise than according to the declaration of the faith , and order of the congregational churches , in their meeting at the savoy , octob. . . they would restrain him , or withdraw from him . sure the apostle would have timothy to abide at ephesus , that he might charge some that they teach no other doctrin , tim. . . and titus to reject an heretick , tit. . . and cor. . . if any thing be revealed to another that sitteth by , let the first hold his peace , v. . if there be no interpreter , let him keep silence in the church . which is sufficient proof , that even those that are gifted extraordinarily , may be bounded by order ; and they that teach otherwise than they should , may be silenced . which if the prelates , or others do , when they should not , they are accountable to christ , who will judge them for it : but it is no proof , that their ministry is not from christ , who submit to the commands of men , that have power over them , forbidding them to teach some truths , and forbearing to teach , when it cannot be with safety and fruit to the church of god , themselves , and them which are without . it is added : so is it . to their admission into this their office , viz. by a lord-bishop without the consent of the congregation , in which they are as officers . answ. in the answer to the second chapter of this writing , sest . . hath been shewed , that the praeelection or consent of the congregation in which a minister is to act as an officer , is not so necessary to his office , or to the communion with him in it , but that he may be owned , and act lawfully as their minister in some cases without it . the admission of the present ministers of england hath not alwayes been by lord bishops ; some have been made by suffragan bishops , not lords , and instituted , i think , by dean and chapter , and if ordained or instituted by a lord bishop , yet not as lord , but as bishop , which is not alwayes without the election of the congregation , who are in some parishes patrons ; and in others there is supposed in law , an implicit consent in their ancestors , yielding that power to the patron to present , and an after consent by receiving him that is instituted as their minister . in some peculiars and donatives , there 's no institution from a lord bishop required , nor alwayes any other than a licence to preach from the bishop . but whether these usages be right or wrong , notwithstanding them , yet may the offices of the present ministers of england be from christ , though this author further argue to the contrary , thus . sect. . the term priest proves not symbolizing with the popish order of priests . the very truth is , both in their names , office , and admission thereunto , the present ministers of england symbolize not with the ministers of christ , but the popish order of priests : ( so that if these do act by vertue of an antichristian office-power , then do they ) as he that runs may read in the ensuing paralled particulars . . they are both called , and own themselves priests ; which though some may make light of light of , yet considering that it is a term borrowed , either from the priests of the law , the assertion of such a priesthood , being a denial of christ come in the flesh : or from the priests of the heathen ( in conformity to whom , as the druides of old , our priests wear their white garment or surplice ) or from the antichristian church ( so called ) of rome : such idolatrous superstitious names , being commanded by the lord to be abolished , hos. . . z●ch . . . wants not it's sufficient weight ; the retention whereof , being also a sore suspicion of too great a compliance with , if not a willingness to return to that from whence they are derived . of the same mind with us herein is hierom upon the . of hosea , the hebrew doctors , kimchi and aben-ezra , the chaldee paraphrast , ribera ( though a jesuite ) zanchi , danaeus , sanchius , polanus , river , and almost all that write upon the said scripture . the last mentioned , viz. learned rivet , hath these words in his corollaries from hos. . , . there are many names which in themselves are good enough , and might be used , but god abhorreth the use of them , because they have been abused to idolatry ; he instanceth indeed in the word m●ss : but priest or altar being of the same a●●ay , upon the same foot of account , is to be rejected . the reformed churches in helvetia , in their harmony of confessions , are of the same mind , the ministry ( say they ) and the priesthood are things far different the one from the other — he himself ( viz. christ ) remaineth only priest for ever ; and we do not communicate the name priest to any minister , least we should detract something from christ. answ. every one , saith mr. selden de syn. ebrae . l. . c. . p. . yields , that our english word priest , and the dutch priester , and the french prebstre , and prestre , and the italian prete , to be formed from presbyter . selden de syn ebrae . l. . c. p. ▪ certà in ritualibus anglicanis nostris priests & ministers pro presbyteris clim semper usurpata . and , besides what i said before out of the english articles , and letters of orders , it doth appear from the very words of the master of the sentences , peter lombard ; cited by this author in this chapter , pag. . out of the fourth book of the sentences , distinct . . divis . . that the same whom the papists call priests , they call presbyters ; and say , that they have the precept of the apostle for them , and that the order of priesthood , or presbytery , the primitive church had ; and therefore in this the papists themselves use the word priest in english , but as the same with presbyter or elder , from the scripture or primitive church ; not from either jews or heathens , and therefore symbolizing in this name with the papists , if men had not mistaken it , and clamourously and ignorantly inveighed against it ; had given no cause of suspition of compliance , or willingness to return to the idolatry of the mass , as it is used in the church of england , who have declared against transubstantiation , and the sacrifice of the mass , in the articles . . in the liturgy , as it hath been lately revised , and to which assent is required by all ministers ; besides other wayes , as amply as any other protestant church , and therefore it is very evil , that this author doth insinuate into the minds of men such a suspicion of the willingness of the present ministers to return to popery , because of retaining the name priest , which neither came from the antichristian church ( so called ) of rome , nor is an idolatrous superstitious name commanded by the lord to be abolished , hos. . . zech. . . this of zech. . . is not a command , but a promise , that god would cut of the names of the idols out of the land , and that they shall be no more remembred , which if it imply a command ; yet it is but of the abolition of the names of idols , not of the name of priests , whom i never found to be reckoned amongst idols ; or that the name priest is the name of an idol . the other text , hos. . , . is thus ▪ and it shall be at that day , saith the lord , that thou shalt call me ashi , and shall call me no more baali . for i will take away the names of baalim out of her mouth , and they shall be no more remembred by their name ; which is a prediction of what should be , rather than a prohibition ; and the reason of that prediction seems to be this , god would not be called baali , that is , my lord , because that word noted a husband as commanding , or dealing hardly or rigorously with his wife ; but ishi , according to the first notation of ishah , gen. . . one from whom the wife comes as bone of his bone , and flesh of his flesh ; and therefore is bespoken as a kind and gentle husband , which the words , v. , , . lead to . but if the reason of the not calling god baali , be as grotius in his annot : although baal in common use signifie an husband , she shall not dare to use that name , out of horrour of that name , which hath been imposed on an idol : it may seem , that the reason of not using , should be not the unlawfulfulness of bespeaking god by that name , according to the proper and original meaning ; but lest either she should in thought remember the idol , or be thought by others to continue that idolatrous name : for the words are not , thou shalt not use the words at all thy husband among men ; but , thou shalt not call me baali , that is , in thy prayers and confessions of me as thy god. but if it be understood as a prohibition , according to the law exod . . which i will not deny the . v. [ for i will take away the names of baalim out of her mouth , and they shall be no more remembred by their name . ] to import , it cannot be conceived , that it forbids any more than the use of those names with honour , or so as to trust in them , as their worshipers did , when they applyed them to their idols , as psal. . . is meant , when the psalmist saith , he would not take up the names of their gods within his lips ; that is , as hos. . . neither will we say any more to the work of our hands , ye are our gods . which sense the words before lead to , that they should not any more prepare their silver or gold for baal , as v. . and , as in the dayes of baalim , wherein she burnt incense to them , and she decked her self with her ear-rings , and her jewels , and she went after her lovers , and forgot me saith the lord , v. . by which name of baalim , was meant the sun and other planets , as may be proved out of holy scripture , and is shewed by mr. selden in his syntagma de diis syris . so that the forbidding the name of baal , or baalim , doth not appear to be any more than the using of these names , as applyed to idols , with approbation of the idolatrous worship done to them , or giving occasion in applying the name to god , to conceive , as if he were like the idols , or allowed their worship , even as the apostle , eph. . . forbids any naming of fornication , uncleanness , or covetousness , with any shew of liking . for that the prophet meant not to prohibit the name of baal to be given at all to god , much less by a woman to her husband , or lord , as the word did originally signifie , may be gathered from that , isa. . . ( who prophesied about the same time with hosea ) where what we render [ thy maker is thy husband , the lord of hosts is his name ] is in the hebrew , thy baal , or baalim in the plural number : and nahum after him , nahum . . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the baal of wrath , that is , who is a lord of wrath ; by our translatours rendred furious , and by god himself after him , as we now read , jer. . . i was a husband unto them , is in hebrew , i was a baal to them , saith the lord. yea ▪ were the prohibition such , as that we might not give the names given to idols to god , we might not give god the title of melec or king , because the idol of the ammonites was called molech , milchom , or malcham , that is their king , zeph. . . nor call god jehovah , because the gentiles termed their god jove , or jah , because they termed their god jacchus , or helion the high one , because they termed the sun helios , or adonai , because of adonis , all which to have been used in imitation of , and derivation from these names of god is shewed in that imperfect relique of mr. hugh stanford in the first book of mr. parker , de descensu ad inferos , in fullers miscel. l. . c. . dr. hammond annot. on psal. . . in mr. selden de diis syris syntag . c. . in heinsius his aristarchus sacer on nonnus , c. . if names abused to idolatry or superstition , might not be used without such abuse , the godly might not say , as isa. . . doubtless thou art our father , or we cry abba father , or our father , or christ father ; because idolaters said to a stock , thou art my father , jer. . . or say to the lord , thou art our god , because idolaters said , our gods , hos. . . nor christ be termed a priest , lord , master , because of the abuse of them to saints deceased , popes , rabbins , or others . surely the name priest being the name of no idol , it cannot be proved from zech. . . hos. . , . that it is commanded by the lord to be abolished . nor do i think any of his authors say it . hieroms words are ; though it might well be spoken in respect of the signification of the word , which signifies in common application , an husband as well as ish ; yet i so hate the name of idols , that i will not have it said baali , but ishi ; in ●espect of the ambiguity and likeness of speech , lest while a man speaks one thing he mind another , and mentioning an husband he mean an idol . what the hebrew doctors , and others named by this author , say upon this place of hosea , i cannot examine for want of the books . that which he produceth out of rivet , i assent to . that which this author saith , that priest or altar are of the same allay with the word mass , and is upon the same foot of account to be rejected , is not true ; sith mass doth usually signifie not only the service , but also the consecrated host , as the chief thing in it , which is an idol , and so is not the name priest. in the helvetian larger confession , ch . . 't is true they make a difference between the ministry now , and the priesthood in the old testament ; and it is true , that they assert christs priesthood as for ever and incommunicable ; and therefore give not the name of sacerdos , usually translated priest , to their ministers ; not because they take the word priest , as it answers to presbyter to be evil , in the sense used in the church of england , as a degree or order above deacons ; but as it is used in the church of rome , as their words shew , which are these . for our lord himself ordained not any priests in the church of the new testament , which having received a power from a suffragan , might offer daily the host , i say the very flesh and very blood of the lord for the quick and dead , but such as should teach and administer sacraments . this author proceeds in his paralellism thus : sect. . the parallel particulars prove not the english ministers symbolizing in office with popish priests . . the priests of rome must be first deacons ere they are priests ; so must the present ministers of england . . the priests of rome must be ordained to their office by a lord bishop or his suffragan : so must the ministers of england . . the priests of rome must at their ordination , be presented by an archdeacon , or his deputy , with these words , reverend father , &c. reverend father , i present these men unto thee , to be admitted unto the order of priesthood : so are the present ministers of england . . the priests of rome must be ordained to their office according to their pontifical , devised by themselves : the priests of england , according to their book of ordering priests and deacons ( which is taken out of the popes pontifical ) as is evident to any that shall compare the one with the other , and as hath been long since confessed by themselves in an admonition to the parliament in q elizabeths dayes , in their second treatise . . the popish priests must kneel down upon their knees at the feet of the lord bishop that ordains them , and he must say to them , blasphemously enough , receive ye the holy ghost ; whose sins ye remit or forgive , they are remitted ; whose sins ye retain , they are retained : which exactly accords with the fashion of ordaining the priests of england . . the popish priests are not ordained in and before the congregation to whom they are to be priests , but in some metropolitan , cathedral city , several miles from the place : so are the priests of england . . the popish priests take the care of souls , though not elected by them , from the presentation of a patron , by the institution and induction of a lord bishop : and do not the present ministers of england the same ? . the popish priests wait not the churches call to the ministry , but make suit to some prelate to be ordained priests , giving money for their letters of ordination : so do the present ministers of england . . the popish priests are ordained to their office , though they have no flock to attend upon : so are the priests of england . . the popish priests must swear canonical obedience to their ordinary : so do the present ministers of england . . the popish priests may at their pleasure , without the consent of the people , resign and give over their benefices , and betake themselves to some other of greater value : a symmetrie with them herein is visible by the frequent practice of the ministers of england . . the popish priests , though ordained to preach , must have special license from the prelates so ●o do : so must the priests of england . . the popish priests are subject to be silenced , suspended , deprived , and degraded by the prelates : as are the present ministers of england . . the popish priests are not of like and equal power , degree and authority amongst themselves , but are some of them inferiour to others herein ; as parsons to arch-deacons , arch-deacons to lord bishops , lord bishops to arch-bishops : so the priests of england . . the popish priests must be distinguished from other people by their vestments , as surplice , tippet , &c. so must the priests of england . . the popish priests are tied to a book of stinted prayers , and a prescript order devised by man , for their worship and administration : so are the ministers of england , and that to such an one as is taken out of the popes portuis , as hath been proved by divers . that the common-prayer book in edward the sixth his time was so , you have his , with his councils testimony for it : thus they write , as for the service in the english tongue , it hath manifest reasons for it ; and yet perchance it seemeth to you a new service ; and indeed is no other but the old , the same words in english which were in latine . if the service of the church were good in latine , it is good in english. how little different the common-prayer book now in use , is thereunto they that will take pains to compare the one with the other , may be satisfied . to these parallel particulars might be added sundry more , wherein there is an exact symmetrie betwixt the popish priests and the present ministers of england , but ex ungue leonem . the sum of what we have been offering in this matter , is this . first those ministers that in their names , offices , admission into their offices , are not to be found in the scripture , are not ministers of christ , act not by vertue of an authority , office , power , calling , received from him . secondly , those ministers that in their names , office , admission into their office , are at a perfect agreement with the ministers of antichrist ( such are the popish priests acknowledged to be by those with whom we have to do ) are not the ministers of christ , have not received any power , office , or calling , from him to act in the holy things of god : but such ( as hath been abundantly demonstrated ) are the present ministers of england : therefore these have received no power , office , or calling from christ , and so are antichristian . quod erat demonstrandum . answ. of these particulars the three first are granted , and avouched as not popish , but justifiable and agreeable to orthodox antiquity . to the fifth , i return the same answer that arch-bishop whitgift gave . surely if those things which were good in the popes pontifical , and either contained in the scripture , or well used before in the ancient church , or well prescribed by general councils , be also in our pontifical , our pontifical is never the worse for having of them : for if the thing it self be good and profitable , it forceth not from whom it was taken , or of whom it was used , so that now it be rightly used . but it is most false and untrue , that the book of ordering ministers and deacons , &c now used , is word for word drawn out of the popes pontifical , being almost in no point correspondent to the same , as you might have seen , if you had compared them together . but ignorance and rashness drives you into many errours . to the sixth , though the english prelates avouch not the opinions of the popish writers , of giving grace , ex opere operato , by the sacrament of orders , as they call it , of the indelible character imprinted by the laying on of hands of the prelates , with such other of their errours , as wherein they over-magnifie the power they have in their imposition of hands , yet they plead that they do use the words joh. . , . in the ordination of priests , without blasphemy or absurdity . archbishop whitgift in his answer to the admonition , p. . of the edition . in . to use these words ( receive the holy ghost ) in ordering of ministers , which christ himself used in appointing his apostles , is no more ridiculous and blasphemous , than it is to use the words that he used in the supper : but it is blasphemy thus outragiously to speak of the words of christ. the bishop by speaking these words , doth not take upon him to give the holy ghost , no more than he doth to remit sins , when he pronounceth the remission of sins : but by speaking these words of christ , receive the holy ghost , whose sins soever ye remit , they are remitted , &c. he doth shew the principal duty of a minister , and assureth him of the assistance of gods holy spirit , if he labour in the same accordingly . mr. richard hooker eccl. polit. l. . sect . . the holy ghost may be used , to signifie not the person alone , but the gifts of the holy ghost , and the very power and authority which is given men in the church , to be ministers of holy things , is contained within the number of those gifts whereof the holy ghost is author , and therefore he which giveth this power , may say without absurdity , or folly , receive the holy ghost , such power as the spirit of christ hath endued his church withal . see edward stilling fleets irenicum , part . . c. . p. . bradshaw against fr. johnson , p. . of gatakers rejoynder to can. though in their ordination of ministers the bishops use , as a ceremonial speech , to say , receive the holy ghost ; and therein peradventure offer some force to the scripture , unto which they allude ; yet they disclaim all actual power and authority of giving the person or gifts of the holy ghost unto men . besides , i add , sith the laying on of hands is together with the designation of the person , a sign of prayer , as mat. . . mark . . and in confirmation , and the apostles use acts . . and in ordination , acts . . those words may be used prayer-wise , and freed from exception . whereto perhaps that makes , which dr. field l. . of the church , ch . , hath ; the council of carthage . canon . . provideth , that in the ordination of a presbyter , the bishop holding his hand on his head , and blessing him , all the presbyters that are present , shall hold their hands by the hand of the bishop , and the person ordained kneeling , joyns in prayer for the blessing . so dr. sparks conceived it might be understood , ch . . of unity and uniformity . ecclesiast . disc . of the french reformed churches , art . . ch . . the ordained shall kneel when they impose their hands on him . to the seventh , ordination is not alwayes at a cathedral , and may be before the congregation to whom the person is to be priest. to the eighth , that it is not alwayes so ; nor when so , popish . see before in answer to the preface , sect . . and to chap. . sect . to the nineth , to offer a persons self for ordination , may be no evil , but in some cases a duty , tim. . . isa. . . giving money for letters of ordination is no simony , but only wages to the register for his writing ; as when the register was paid for writing and sealing the instrument signifying the person to be an approved preacher . against any bishops taking money for ordition , and the registers exacting overmuch , provision is made canon ▪ eccl , . jac. and even in the council of trent , sess. . decr. de reformatione c. . to the tenth , the priests of england are not to be ordained without some title , according to cannon . even the trent council , ubi supra c. . hath made some provision about it . it is necessary that some b● ordained , though they have not a fixed flock to attend upon ministers are necessary for armies , navies , and sundry occasions , which continue but for a while . even the synod of dort made some orders about such ; and the new-england elders that imploy ministers to teach the native salvage people , do justifie the ordaining to office without a flock to attend upon , unless they would have them imployed without ordination , which were incongruous to the holy ghosts direction , act . . if itinerant preachers should have approbation , they should have ordination . to the eleventh subscription is required by the . canon . to three articles about the kings supremacy , the books of common-prayer , and ordination , and the . articles of religion ; at ordination the priest promiseth obedience to his ordinary , to follow with a glad mind and will , his godly admonitions , and submit himself to his godly judgment , by the late act unfained assent and consent is further required , but none of these by oath ; the oath of canonical obedience is only required at institutions into benefices , and is bounded with such terms as make it not intolerable ; sure it is nothing like that which is required of papists , according to the bull of pope pius the fourth , supra forma juramenti professionis fidei . to the twelfth , the practice of leaving benefices , is not strange to any churches : even from new england some have come into old england , leaving their places there ; nor are there wanting like instances of congregational men at home , perhaps for greater benefit , without consent of the people . the practices are not on any side justifiable in all : yet we read in scripture of removals of ministers from one place to another upon urgent occasions . to the thirteenth , the person ordained hath authority committed to him by the bishop to preach the word of god in the congregation where he should be lawfully appointed ; that is , by license , which is thought needful to be added besides ordination , because all persons are not alike fitted for all congregations ; the voice , and other abilities not serving for one congregation , which will for another . to the fourteenth , silencing , suspending , and degrading , may be necessary in some cases , tit. . . and . . if the laws intrust the prelates with it : so it hath been in other churches besides the popish . the abuse of it is justifiable in none . to the fifteenth , inequality is judged to have been in the elders of the primitive churches , by the inscription of the seven epistles of christ to the seven angels of the seven churches of asia ; and hath been in some sort in all churches , which have been well ordered ; and too much experience shews , that by reason of the inequality of parts and minds , it is necessary to settled order . what is undue in the popish or protestant churches , should be charged on the authors , not on the ministry it self . to the sixteenth , the vestments of english priests are not all the same with popish ; those that are , it 's denied to have the same use , and therefore not to be charged with the same superstition . to the seventeenth , even the late assembly of westminster prescribed a directory for worship and ministration . the common-prayer book , that now is urged , should not be judged the worse in those prayers or portions of scripture , which are holy and good , because they were in the popes porluis ; no more than the acknowledgment of jesus to be the son of the most high god , is the worse because the devil used it , mark . . and therefore king edward the . his plea for it was good ; and the thing not to be misliked , because used in the roman church ; who though they have many great corruptions in their doctrine and worship , yet have they retained the bible , apostles creed , many prayers from ancient fathers , and some popes who were holy men and martyrs in the first ages , which are not to be rejected , because continued by later vicious and antichristian popes . that which is insinuated , as if the common-prayer book now in use , were little different from the popes portuis or missal , is very untruly and unjustly suggested . he that shall impartially , and without prejudice compare the one with the other , shall find a vast difference in the things liable to exception . i have made some view of the roman missal of pius the . and clement the . and breviary of pius the . and urban the . and though i deny not sundry collects prayers , hymns , lessons , psalms , epistles and gospels are the same in the common-prayer book in english , with those in latine , as being either parts of holy scripture , or agreeable to it ; yet there are so many differences in fundamentals of doctrine , substantials of worship ; and in rituals , as the invocation of saints , and the opinions of merit , sacrifice for quick and dead , adoration of the host , vertue of the cross , half communion , and many more things material , that i cannot but judge that either much ignorance , or much malice it is that makes any traduce the english common-prayer book , as if it were the popish mass book , or as bad as it ; and to deterr men from joyning with those prayers and services therein , which are good ; as if it were joyning with antichrist the pope , or receiving the mark of the beast , when they can hardly be ignorant that the martyrs in queen maries dayes were burnt for it , is impudent falshood . by the parallel particulars , and such other as might be alledged , cannot be inferred an exact symmetrie betwixt the popish priests and the present ministers of england . in many particulars might there be shewn a parallelism between ministers of the congregational churches , and presbyterial , and the popish ; yet an exact symmetrie would not thence be demonstrated . few of these particulars alledged , are unjustifiable , those that are , if not excusable , yet are far from that which is the main thing charged on the papists , and disputed against learnedly , by mr. francis mason against champney , that they ordain priests to offer the unbloody sacrifice of the mass for quick and dead ; which is abhorred by the english prelates and ministers , and they are not to be charged to symbolize in office with the popish order of priests , for which this author hath produced nothing , though it were the chief thing to be proved : and therefore the minor of his syllogism is denied , and it is manifestly false which he saith , he hath abundantly demonstrated it , he having said nothing to prove it in the main . sect. . the office of bishops is not proved to be antichristian , but may be found in scripture . it follows , secondly , those that receive their power , office , and calling from a lord bishop , and act in the holy things of god , by virtue of that power , office , or calling , act in the holy things of god by virtue of an an●ichristian power , office , and calling : but the present ministers of england receive their power , office , and calling from a lord bishop , and act in the holy things of god by virtue of that power , office , and calling : therefore . the consequence of the major ( or first proposition ) is manifest , the office of a lord bishop is antichristian , therefore those that act by virtue of a power , office , or calling received from them , act by virtue of an antichristian power , office , or calling . that the office of lord bishops is antichristian , one would wonder should be denied in such a day as this , after so full a demonstration thereof by many witnesses of christ , who have wrote so clearly in this matter , as if they carried the sun-beams in their right hand , especially that it should be denied by persons of presbyterian and congregational principles ( if indeed any of them do deny it . ) to prosecute this matter to the uttermost , is not our present intendment , the intelligent reader knows where to find it done already to our hand : and if after all that hath been said , any through self love , or fear of persecution , will herein be ignorant , we might say , let them be ignorant . answ. the office , power , and calling received from a lord bishop , is all one with the office , power , and calling received from a bishop suffragan , who is not a lord ; and therefore the adding of the title lord to bishop , being only a civil title , they being made barons of the land by the king , and nothing pertaining to their ordination , but only giving them power to vote in parliament or convocation with other dignities , is only brought in here ad faciendum populum , to create envy or hatred against them in the common people or others , who are prepossessed with prejudice against them . what their office is , as bishops , may be best discerned by the book of consecration , which i gather from their promises and the prayers then used , to be the instruction of the people committed to their charge out of the holy scripture , and to teach or maintain nothing as required of necessity to eternal salvation , but that which they shall be perswaded may be concluded and proved by the same faithfully to exercise themselves in the same holy scriptures , and call upon god by prayer , for the true understanding of the same ; so as they may be able by them to teach and exhort with wholesome doctrine , and to withstand and convince the gainsayers , to be ready with all faithful diligence to banish and drive away all erroneous and strange doctrine , contrary to gods word , and both privately and openly to call upon , and encourage others to the same , to maintain and set forward as much as shall lie in them , quietness , love , and peace among men ; and such as be unquiet , disobedient , and criminous within their diocess , correct and punish according to such authority as they have by gods word , and as to them shall be committed by the ordinance of the realm , to be faithful in ordaining , sending , or laying hands upon others , to shew themselves gentle and merciful for christs sake to poor and needy people , and to all strangers destitute of help . these are their offices which they are required to perform at their consecration , whatever their practise be , it pertains not to the present point ; this is the office they undertake , and it is as much wonder to me that any sober man should assert this to be antichristian , as it is to him that some should deny it . i deny not but there are many that have termed bishops antichristian , nor have there been wanting who have said as much of persons of presbyterian and congregational principles , but such use of this term i have alwayes condemned , even when bishops were lowest , as tending to nothing but to inflame the minds of dissenters in opinion with hatred one against another : but i have not met with any sober writer , or considerate man , who in conference hath judged their office as it is undertaken by them to be antichristian . i deny not that many learned men at home and abroad have disputed , whether bishops are by divine right an order above presbyters , nor have there been wanting even of the bishops themselves who have denied it : somewhat i have read on both sides , but shall leave that controversie now , and only examine what this author saith to prove , the office of lord bishops to be antichristian . we shall , saith he , propose briefly a word or two in this matter . . that office that is not to be found in the scriptures of the institution of christ , but is contrary to express precepts and commands of his , is antichristian : but the office of lord-bishops is not to be found in the scriptures , is contrary to express precepts . therefore . answ. i think the major is not true , if universal . the office of some religious votaries is not to be found in the scriptures of the institution of christ , but is contrary to express precepts and commands of his , and yet may not be antichristian , in that special sense in which the scripture useth the word antichrist , nor as i suppose this author useth it , unless he make every sin to be antichristian . but because the minor is that which he insists on , i pass to his proof of it . the minor proposition consists of two parts . . that the office of lord-bishops is not to be found in scripture of the institution of christ : he gave indeed apostles , prophets , pastors , and teachers , ephes. . . of pastors and teachers we read rom. . , . ephes. . . bishops also , and deacons without the interposition of any other order , we find tim. . . deacons we have appointed , acts . elders , acts . . those who are bishops we find called presbyters , tit. . , . and those who are presbyters , we find termed bishops , acts . . ( gr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , bishops , ) but where the office of lord-bishops was instituted by christ , we are yet to seek : indeed some appearances of a spirit striving to ascend into this chair of wickedness , was seen in diotrephes , and others , in the apostles time , but these were the antichrists that were then gone abroad into the world . the scripture before mentioned , ephes. . . speaks as fully to the officers and offices instituted by christ , as any we meet with : fail they in their deduction of their office from hence , and they will undoubtedly prove successless in their attempts . let us then fix here a little ; mention we find here of apostles , prophets , pastors and teachers , none at all either here , or elsewhere of lord-bishops . but perhaps their office , though they are called by another name , is comprehended in some one or other of these , let that then be considered . are they prophets ? that ( in the sense of the spirit in this place ) they will not pretend to . are they pastors or teachers ? this is too great a debasement of their lordships , their parochial priests over whom they preside , are supposed to be offi●ers in that degree . what then are they ? apostles ! their successors , they do indeed boast themselves to be , and are so accounted by their abettors ( and so doth the pope himself ) but how prove they their succession from them ? if they derive it through the papacy , who sees not the invalidity thereof ? how lubricous and uncertain is that their succession ? how do they therein proclaim their shame , and yield the matter in controversie ? what clearer argument that they are antichristian , if the pope be the antichristian head over many countries , as is by the generality of protestants believed , and will not by themselves be gainsayed ? but in what sense do they pretend to be the apostles successors ? do they succeed them as christians ? that is not the thing in question , they stand or fall , in respect thereof to their own master ; herein we have no controversie with them , as not willing to judge any thing before the time . do they succeed them in respect to their off●ice ? let them prove that , and take the cause . the apostles were first immediately sent by christ ; secondly , extraordinary officers , commissionated to the preaching of the gospel throughout the nations of the world : are their lordships such ? what can be imagined more frivolous or false ? where find we any apostles after the departure of those that were immediately by christ called to that office ? did the apostles ordain any as their successors therein in any of the churches of christ ? where read we of their so doing ? yea , are any qualified with gifts as they , for the discharge of such an office ? or doth christ indeed send forth servants in any imployment , and not furnish them with gifts sutable thereunto ? credat apelles ? apella would have been printed . what more dishonorable to the lord jesus can be asserted ? it remains then , that they being neither prophets , nor apostles , nor pastors , nor teachers , that they are not to be found in the scripture of the institution of christ. nor are they dreamed of in the world of several hundreds of years after christ. clemens in his epistle to the church of corinth , takes notice of no other besides 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , bishops and deacons ; which bishops he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , presbyters or elders ; yea , lombard himself confesses , hos solium ministrorum duos ordines , ecclesiam primitivam habuisse , & de his solis , praeceptum apostoli nos habere , lomb. l. . sen. d. . h. . ext. the primitive church , he tells you , had no other order of ministers , than bishops ( or presbyters ) and deacons : nor did the apostles give commandment concerning any other . that their rise and occasion was from the aims and designs of men , to accommodate ecclesiastical or church affairs to the state and condition of the civil government , is ingenuously confest by one that was looked upon to be as great an admirer of , and as able a champion for diocesan , and metropolitical prelates , as any one of late dayes ; t is dr. hammond we mind , who in his dissertations about episcopacy , sect. . hath these words , his sic positis , illud statim sequitur ut ( in imperii cognitione ) in provinciâ qualibet , cum plures urbes sint , una tamen primaria , & principalis censenda erat , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ideo dicta cui itidem inferiores reliquae civitates subjiciebantur , ut civitatibus regiones , sic & inter ecclesias , & cathedras episcopales , unam semper primariam & metropoliticam fuisse : so far is the office of lord-bishops from being of the institution of christ , that their primacy and supremacy was the result of the designs and contrivements of men to accommodate the state and frame of the church , to the state and condition of the government of the nations . answ. the thing to be proved was , that the office of lord-bishops is not to be found in the scriptures ; but the whole discourse is about another thing , not the office , but superiority of order above presbyters , primacy , or supremacy of degrees among bishops , the dignity of their sees , or episcopal chairs , which is quite another thing than what he undertook to prove ; so that we may hereto apply the poets words ; — amphora coepit institui currente rotâ cur urceus exit ? which were enough to answer this whole passage ; yet there are some things to be animadverted therein : . it is true we read of diotrephes , joh. , . and of no other in scripture , that he l●ved the preeminence either over or among the church , or the brethren and strangers who were to be received , that they might be fellow-helpers to the truth , v. , . and that st. john if he came , would remember his deeds , prating against them with malicious words : and not content therew●th , neither doth he himself receive the brethren , and forbiddeth them that would , and casteth them out of the church . but this was not the usurping the superiority of order of a bishop above a presbyter , but a proud pragmatique , arrogant practice over the church , brethren , strangers , even st. john himself , together with very injurious violent proceedings in words and deeds , which are nothing to the bare challenge by dispute , or assuming by collation either of the civil or ecclesiastical power , a superiority of order above presbyters ; nor is diotrephes mentioned as one of those antichrists that were then gone abroad into the world , or any mention of antichrist in that epistle . . i know not the reason , but i take notice that in this passage reciting ephes. . . twice , he leaves out evangelists , and concludes thus , it remains then , that the bishops being neither prophets , nor apostles , nor pastors , nor teachers , that they are not to be found in the scripture of the institution of christ. which conclusion might be overthrown , if it were pleaded , that they were evangelists , and so successors to timothy , termed an evangelist , tim. . . and to titus , whose work is alledged for a pattern of bishops , tim. . . & . , . titus . . but sith that title is declined by pleaders for episcopal superiority , i let it pass . . but the term of pastors and teachers , is challenged by bishops : and what saith he against it ? this is too great a debasement of their lordships : which is a satyrical sarcasm , no proof . did any of them say so , or count it to be so ? if any did so , he shewed himself unworthy of the name , yea forgetful both of what he promised and prayed for , alluding to this very text , as his consecration , and which was expresly charged on him by the arch-bishop when he delivered him the bible . nor doth it any whit derogate from the congruity of the titles of pastors and teachers as it is given to bishops , that their parochial priests over whom they reside , are supposed to be officers in that degree , than it doth from the giving of the title of teacher to a presbyter , because assistents or coadjutors are given them in case age or infirmity hinder them from the frequent doing of that office . i omit mention of the living , to avoid imputation of flattery , but i suppose the author of this writing is not ignorant , that jewel , usher , and many more , have , when they were bishops , been truly termed pastors and teachers , and hope well of others . . but under the term of apostles they may not be reckoned . true ; they had extraordinary commission and power , yet they may be successors to them . ( dr. owen of schism , c. . sect . . professedly disclaims all thoughts of rejecting those ministers as papal and antichristian , who yet adhere to this ordination in a succession from popish bishops , being many of them eminently gifted of god , to dispense the word , and submitted unto by his people , in the administration of the ordinances , and are right worthy ministers of the gospel . ) this author denies not they succeed to them as christians . if so , they may be heard as gifted brethren , which was denied by him to the ministers chap. . but why not in office ? was the apostles office any other than what christ injoyned them mat. . , . mark . ? and therein they must have successors , though not in the extent of their commission , and in their power ; else , how should christ be with them all dayes unto the end of the world ? but , they cannot derive their succession , but through the papacy , and then they are antichristian . i answer , they may derive their succession by proving their consonancy with them in doing the same work after them , and preaching the same gospel . if any , to stop the mouths of the clamourous papists , have derived their succession from the bishops under the papacy , by proving ( as mr. francis mason did ) the consecration of the bishops after the reformation by three bishops allowed by the romanists themselves after the ancient canon , though perhaps more than needs ; yea , though they were consecrated and ordained by the pope himself and some cardinal bishops ; yet , if they were consecrated , or ordained to no other work , nor in any other manner than priests and biships are ordained and consecrated , according to the order of the church of england , they would not be antichristian . for though it be not gainsayed , but that the pope is the antichristian head over many countries ; yet it is gainsayed , that all that is derived from him , or done by him , is antichristian . i do not think it is antichristian to confess the apostles creed , though a person say he believes it , because it is received from the pope and trent council . ▪ that bishops as a superiour order or degree above presbyters were not dream'd of in the world , for several hundreds of years after christ ; i think can hardly be made good : though i will not meddle with that point , which hath been debated so much by men of greatest and most exact skill in antiquity , with whom i conceive my self no way fit to be compared : yet this i say , that the not taking notice of bishops distinct from presbyters by clement in his epistle to the corinthians , published not long since by patrick yong , is ballanced by the passages in ignatius his epistles , if they be genuine , concerning which , the reader may judge by what arch-bishop usher hath written in his edition of those epistles of ignatius . as for lombard ▪ if the primitive church , according to him , extend not beyond the dayes of the apostles , as his words import , they prove not , that the order of bishops above presbyters was not dreamt of several hundreds of years after christ. but of this i will not contend , it 's enough for my purpose , if the office be found in scripture , though not their superiority . . as for the words of dr. hammond , i find them dissert . . de episcopatu c ▪ . sect . . though not fully cited by this author , and i acknowledge , that he makes the state and frame of the churches to have been accommodated to the state and condition of the government of the nations in the empire ; yet withall , he conceives , that the reason of directing seven epistles to the seven angels of the seven churches was , because they were metropolitan or mother-churches ; and conceives this division into provinces , dioceses , and depending churches , to have been transcribed from the samplar of the jews by moses law , deut. . . and . . and therefore his words are not to be drawn to an acknowledgement of lord-bishops primacy and supremacy to have been the result of the design and contrivements of men ; much less , that the superiority of bishops above presbyters , had its rise and occasion from the aims and designs of men , to accommodate ecclesiastical affairs to the state and condition of civil government . it is added . sect. . the office of lord bishops is not contrary to express precepts of christ in the scripture . . that the office of lord bishops is contrary to express precepts of christ in the scripture ; the truth of which , he that runs may read in the ensuing scriptures , mat. . . mark . . luke . . pet. . . the english of , vos autem non sic , but ye shall not do so ; neque ut dominantes cleris , not lording it over god's clergy or heritage ; an ordinary reader may easily conclude to be inconsistent with their lordly dignities . answ. this author still shoots wide from the mark : he undertook to prove , that the office of lord-bishops is contrary to express precepts of christ in the scripture ; but he concludes against their lordly dignity ; which is no more their office , than the honour ascribed to a preacher , or reader in the university by giving them the titles of master , or doctour in divinity , is their office. the term bishops indeed implies their office appointed by christ , to have inspection over the flock ; but the term lord is only a t●tle given them by the king , when he makes them barons of the realm , which may be severed from the office of bishops , as it hath been since the reformation in england , when suffragan bishops have been made without the addition of lordship . but however this author conceives the having such titles as lords to be contrary to the express precepts , mat. . . mark . . luke . . pet. . . and he translates vos autem non sic , but ye shall not do so . but this is more than either the words or translations do permit . it is in mat. . . mark . . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it shall not be so among you , or to you ; which explains best luke . . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , but ye not so ; that is , as our translation renders it , but ye shall not be so ; and so notes not a precept , but a prediction , and shews event , not duty , which mr. gataker thinks in his cinnus l. . c. . p. . after a discussion of several interpretations , to be the genuine meaning of christ. but granting it to be a precept , is it a precept to the apostles only , or to others ? the former hath countenance from the text : . from the occasion , the request of the mother of zebedees children . . the indignation of the ten , by reason of it . . christs calling of them to him , and no other , in matthew and mark. . their contention of st. luke . . christ's speaking to them who had been with him in his temptations . . his allotting to them a kingdom , and to sit on twelve thrones . but if it be to others , it is doubtful , whether to all christians , or only to ministers of the gospel ; and , whether it forbid simply dominion at all , or such dominion as the rulers of the gentiles exercised ; to wit , tyrannical ; or the affectation and inordinate seeking of it , not the having or the exercise of dominion . in my romanism discussed , article . sect . . p. , . i have set down ten reasons to prove , that the rule meant in those texts , is not only tyrannical dominion , but also the dominion of one apostle over another , and the affectation and inordinate seeking of that rule , which a person may have , and lawfully exercise ; and this is forbidden not only to ministers , but also to all christians : but not a christians having or exercising the office of a king or civil magistrate ; nor the apostles rule over the church of god , or ministers of a lower order : for then christians should be forbidden to exercise that office which is gods ordinance ; and the apostles did ill in practising and appointing rule over christians , yea of some ministers over others in some cases . but the rule which is forbidden , is , rule over the faith of the saints , which st. paul disclaims cor. . . and the popes usurp ( whose decrees in points of faith , and determinations of doubts of conscience , and impositions of laws binding the conscience are made unerring ) such rule over princes in secular affairs with pomp & outward grandure , like gentile princes , as the same popes usurp , rule for themselves , not for christ , rule by force , not by authority of gods word . if any lord-bishop affect , seek , take upon him , or exercise such lordship or dominion , it may be censured for antichristian , yet not his office , but his practice is to be thus censured ; and this not to be imputed to his order , but his person . but to judge so of a person barely , because of the title of lord , which was given by sarah to her husband , and propounded as meet , pet. . . or to deny any liberty to manage any civil business to an ecclesiastical person , because of those words of christ is more than i conceive they have sufficient ground to do . sure such congregational men as have been heads of colledges in the universities , or vicechancellors , or leaders of forces , have given occasion to be termed antichristian , as well as lord-bishops , if lordly dignity , and secular rule merit that appellation . as for pet. . . the annotation in the book of the annotations in english , termed the assemblies , is thus , lords ] that is , not imperiously commanding your own inventions , instead of the doctrine of the gospel ; nor carrying themselves insolently and magisterially towards gods people , john ver . . which imports not an office forbidden , but the evil practice of them whose office is allowed ; for this very exhortation is given to those who were elders among the christians , even st. peter , who entitles himself a fellow elder to them , and therefore contains not a precept forbidding the office of a lord bishop , any more than of an elder , such as st. peter was , but the abuse of the office ; nor doth it forbid lordly dignity , but lordly rule ; whereas bishops rule should be pedo non sceptro , not as princes , but as shepherds . if any prelate use such rule , it is not his office , but his practice , which is to be termed antichristian . sect. . the office of lord-bishops not from the papacy . but this author proceeds , not to multiply arguments in a matter that others have so largely debated . . that office that is derived from , and is only to be found in the papacy , is surely antichristian ( if the pope be the head of antichrist , this must not be denied . ) but the office of lord-bishops is derived from , is only to be found in the papacy . which of the reformed churches that have separated from the papacy have retained it ? did the woman in her flight into the wilderness carry it along with her ? what more absurd , then to run to the persecuting whore and beast for an office of ministry ? and what more evident demonstration of its being an antichristian office , than its entertainment only by that false antichristian church , and its utter rejection and detestation by the true spouse and witnesses of christ in all ages ? what is delivered over to us in this matter by some of them ; we shall briefly affix hereunto . hierome in his epistle to evagrius , and in his commentary on the epistle of titus , professes , that it is more by custom than by any institution of the lord , that bishops are become greater than the elders or ministers . harm . of conf. sect. . tit. . so from him do the churches of helvetia proclaim ; whence they infer ( and that truly according to act. . . ) that no man by any right can forbid , but that we should return to the old appointment of god , and rather receive that , than the custom devised by men . wickliff in his answer to king richard the second , citing mat. . . pet. . . sayes , lordship and dominion is plainly forbidden to the apostles , and darest thou then usurp the same ? if thou wilt be a lord , thou shalt lose thy apostleship , &c. the university of geneva say , ( theses genev. . ) these functions following , we hold to be altogether false , and destitute of all true foundation , viz. the primacy of the bishop of rome over all churches ; the cardinalship , patriarchship , archiepiscopalship , and briefly the whole degree of lord bishops over their fellow elders . marlorat in his exposition on the revel . chap. . . sayes , that archbishops , deans , &c. are in office under antichrist ; yea upon chap. . that they are the tails of antichrist . beza saith , they could not be brought into the church , until they had driven him out , who is the only master , christ : and , there is neither holy scripture , nor council , nor antient doctors , which ever did know such monsters , beza's confess . art. . . the noble antient oldcastle , lord cobham saith , that the whole episcopal degree of lord bishops over their fellow elders is altogether false and destitute of all true foundation — yea , that all other functions and offices besides priests and deacons are unlawful , as being sects devised by men destitute of all true foundation . to these we might add honest bale upon the revelation , viz. chap. . where he saith , canterbury and york are the beastly antichrist's metropolitans , and primates ; and upon chap. . that archbishop , diocesan , archdeacon , dean , prebend , doctors , parson , vicar , &c. are very names of blasphemy : for offices they are not appointed by the holy ghost , nor yet mentioned in the scripture . cartwright sayes of them , that their functions are not in the word of god , but of the earth , new devised ministries , and such as can do no good : that their office is the neck of the popish hierarchy , come out of the bottomless pit of hell. fenner proclaims them to be no natural members of the body of christs church , as being of humane addition , not born with her , nor grown up with her from the cradle . the french and belgick confession sayes , that they pass not a rush for them . the church of geneva , that the hierarchie is devilish confusion , stablished ( as it were ) in despight of god , and to the mocking and reproach of all christian religion . the seekers of reformation in q. elizabeths time spake fully hereunto , [ adm. to parl. ] we have an antichristian ▪ and popish ordering of priests , strange from gods word , never heard of in the primitive church , taken out of the popes shop , to the destruction of gods kingdom — the names and offices of archbishops , archdeacons , lord bishops , &c. are , together with their government , drawn out of the popes shop , antichristian , devilish , and contrary to the scriptures : parsons , vicars , parish-priests , are birds of the same feather : to whom might be added many others . answ. . though the pope in these later ages , especially since boniface the third , obtained of phocas the emperor , more than years after christ , that rome , the seat of blessed peter the apostle , which is the head of all churches , should be both so called and accounted of all , as platina speaks , and as onuphrius addes , had the title of universal bishop conferred on him ; and it was added , that the name of pope , which was determined to be the more excellent of all episcopal terms , the roman bishops should alone retain it , whereas before it was common to all bishops , hath been judged deservedly the head of antichrist , which gregory the great bishop of rome , had not long before , lib. . indict . . epist. . made antichristian , and the usurper a forerunner of antichrist : yet the bishops of rome , in the first ages , were not so accounted , and therefore , it follows not , though the later popes be the head of antichrist , that the office that is derived from , and is only to be found in the papacy , is surely antichristian ; there having been offices perhaps derived from good popes , and continued only in the church of rome , which deserve not that censure , but approbation rather . nor is it necessary that every thing derived from popes , since they have been the head of antichrist , and continued only in the papacy , should be antichristian : the head of antichrist may institute something that is not antichristian . . it is not true , that the office of lord bishops is derived from , and is only to be found in the papacy . it is manifest in the first nicene council , canon . that then and before were patriarchs , metropolitan bishops , and lord bishops with their office ; and that council was in the fourth century , about the year . and that in the greek , eastern , russian churches , the same office is continued . and therefore though no other of the reformed churches had retained that office , besides the english , yet there would be no need for the bishops of england to run to the persecuting whore and beast , for an office of ministery . but it is also pleaded , that the lutheran churches reformed , that have separated from the papacie in germany , denmark , swethland , have retained the same office under the name of superintendents , which is the same in latine , with bishops in greek ; and that it is false , that the true spouse and witnesses of christ have in all ages utterly rejected the office of lord bishops , and that it hath its entertainment only by that false antichristian church . yea , it is manifest by the many epistles written to the english prelates , by the reception at the synod of dort , and innumerable other wayes , that there hath been no such rejection or detestation either by any church reformed , or eminent writers of them , except those of the separation , who have been also averse from the discipline of the protestant reformed churches beyond sea , and have given opprobrious language to , and of them , as well as the english. as for the testimonies here cited , some of them , as the speeches of hierome , the helvetian confession of the lord cobham , are only about the superiority of bishops above presbyters , not of their office ; most of them , as that of wickliffe used before by bernard in his tract to pope eugenius , those of the university and church of geneva ; beza's , the belgick , french confessions , marlorat , bale , are against the popish hierarchy ; those of cartwright , fenner , and authors of the admonition , were speeches of adversaries , which in no court pass for testimonies ; to which arch-bishop whitgift and others have given answers long since . it is added : sect. . the ordination of bishops , is also of presbyters . object . one stone of offence must be removed out of our way ere we pass on further ; it is this : though lord bishops are antichristian , yet it doth not follow , that the office and ministry derived from them is so : for they are also presbyters , and ordain as presbyters . answ. give me leave to say , that were not men resolved to say any thing , that they might be thought to have somewhat to say , we had not heard of this objection . for , . that they act in the capacity of presbyters in the matter of ordination , is false . ( . ) contrary to their own avowed principles ; their lordships think it too great a debasement , to be degraded from their lordly dignity to so mean an office. ( . ) contrary to the known law of the land , by which they receive power to act therein ; in which they are known , and owned only in the capacity of lord bishops . ( . ) contrary to their late practice , whereby they have sufficiently declared the nullity of a ministerial office , received from the hands of a presbytery , in thrusting out of doors several hundreds of ministers so ordained . strange ! that it should be pleaded they act as presbyters in the matter of ordination , and yet they themselves judge a presbyterian ordination invalid . but , . what if this should be granted ? it would avail nothing , except it can be proved , that they are , and act as presbyters of the institution of christ , which ( these being only in a particular instituted church of christ ) will never be to the worlds end . thus far of the third argument . answ. 't is true , to some that have either renounced episcopal ordination as antichristian , or refused to hear ministers ordained by bishops , as acting by virtue of antichristian calling , it hath been told , that the bishops were first presbyters , and ordained presbyters together with presbyters ; and some of them that held that a bishop and a presbyter were not superiour in order , but in degree , did ordain as presbyters ; and that therefore , if the ordination of presbyters be not antichristian , the ministers should retain their ordination by bishops , and the people hear them , though that were yielded , that lord bishops office were antichristian . now nothing is here replied to the allegation , that bishops ordain with presbyters ; the bishop with the priests present are to lay their hands on the ordained , according to the book of ordination : nor to this , that some of the bishops have acknowledged episcopacy not to be an order above presbytery ; nor to this , that though the bishop imposing hands , do act as of superiour order , yet being a presbyter , his act is valid , as he that conveighs a thing as conceiving himself as heir , and executor , if he be not heir ; yet if he be only executor , and by that hath power to conveigh it , the grant is good . but he sayes , . it is false they ordain as presbyters : it is contrary to their principles . answ. whether it be so in all is uncertain , nor do i know how this author can prove it , unless they did declare it , which is more than i have learned . . it is contrary to the known law of the land. answ. . it is not true , that the bishops do receive power by the law to act in ordination , in it are known , and owned only in the capacity of lord bishops : for the ordination of suffragan bishops , who are not lords , is valid by law. . the law which gives power to act , ties not bishops to think themselves of a superiour order to presbyters , nor to act with such an intention , or under such a notion . . they have nullified presbyterian ordination , and required re-ordination by a bishop . answ. they do not nullifie ordination by a presbyterie in foreign churches ; but in england perhaps , because the laws require episcopal ordination ; and it is conceived necessary to avoid schism , or some confusion . . however those presbyters are not of the institution of christ , these being only in a particular instituted church of christ. answ. if this be held , no presbyters in any church , but congregational , are of christs institution ; and then all the presbyters of the french , dutch , and other churches under presbyterial government , are excluded from being of christs institution , as well as these ordained by bishops of the church of england ; and then they by his argument are no more to be heard than these ▪ and so separation avowed from all churches , even protestant , besides those of their own way , which is the pernicious errour to which this arguing tends . but till it be proved i count his dictates fit to be rejected , and proceed to the next chapter . chap. . arg. . sect. . they that deny not christs offices doctrinally , may be heard thus it is argued : those that oppugn or deny any of the offices of jesus christ , are not to be heard , but separated from : but the present ministers of england oppugn and deny some of the offices of jesus christ : therefore . before we come to clear the several parts of this argument , we shall crave liberty briefly to premise . . that there is a two-fold denying or oppugning of the offices of christ , verbal and professional . such was and is that of the jews , the papists are not guilty hereof ; in words they own , preach up , plead for all the offices of christ as much as any : so do all the present ministers of england : this is not then the denial of the offices of christ we implead them as guilty of . . real and actual , when persons do that which enwraps in the bowels of it , an impugning and denial of the offices of christ. this the romish synagogue are eminently guilty of : so are the present ministers of england , as shall ( we doubt not ) be clearly demonstrated in its proper place . secondly , that a verbal professional acknowledgment of the offices of christ is nothing , when contradicted in practice : this the apostle avowedly asserts , in respect of the knowledge of god , tit. . . they profess they know god , but in works they deny him ; and may congruously enough be applyed to the matter in hand . this , as applied to the combination and synagogue of rome , some of themselves have long since ackowledged , whilest they profess christ to be king , and submit not to the laws he hath prescribed in his word , they make him an idol and put a scepter of reed in his hand : so some of their own . but i interrogate , what if a man should with the greatest earnestness profess , and in the height of a confident spirit averr , that he were born again of god , washed , sanctified in the blood of christ , and by the spirit of the lord , that he did receive and own christ as his king and law-giver , when i see this man at the same time walking in a way of rebellion against christ , in open contempt and defiance of his laws and government subjecting to the yoak of other lords and law-givers ; shall hi● plea be admitted ? surely no , quid verba audiam , cum facta videam . 't is long since decided by christ , that false prophets are to be descried , not by their words ( they may speak like , angels ; cry , hail master , kiss him , yet be false prophets , yea , judasses to him ) but by their fruits : let them profess a thousand times over , that they own all the offices of christ , if they are the mean while found in the practice of those things that are inconsistent with the truth of such a profession , they are really deniers and opposers of the offices of christ. this is that then we affirm in this matter . . that those that do really oppose any of the offices of christ , are not to be heard , but separated from : this carrying a brightness along with it , that is sufficient to convince all , except such , whose eyes the god of this world hath blinded : that its original is from god , we shall take for granted will not be denied by a professing enlightned people , though otherwise it were easie to multiply arguments for its demonstration . . to oppose christ in any of his offices , bespeaks such as are guilty thereof to be antichrists , . joh. . . and . , . joh. . ( of the same mind with us herein , is learned beza upon the forecited scriptures ) and none will surely be so inconsiderate ( not to say worse ) as to assert , it is lawful to attend upon the ministry of antichrist . . to hear such , is to strengthen and encourage them in that their denial of , and opposition unto the offices of christ ; and thereby become partakers with them in their sin : the thought of which , cannot but be grievous to the poor lambs of christ. but this will not be denied . answ. i allow the distinction of verbal and real oppugning the offices of christ : but it is false , that the papists are not guilty of a verbal denying of the offices of christ , and that in words they own , preach up , and plead for all the offices of christ as much as any . for though they do acknowledge christ to be king , priest , and prophet , yet their doctrine , and not their practice only , doth overthrow all the offices of christ. as he that ascribes kingly power to a subject , doth make another king than the right king , and so doth u●king him ; and as he that ascribes to a creature that which is proper to god , doth set up another god , and so ungod the true god , who can no more be multiplied than the heavens can bear two suns ; even so it is with the papists , while they assert , that traditions unwritten are to be received with alike affection of piety and reverence as the written gospel , when the pope ascertains them that he is infallible , that he is judge of controversies , can determine what is to be held as an article of faith unerringly , can make laws to bind the conscience by vertue of his authority , without the case of scandal and contempt ; can dispense with gods laws , lawful oaths , incestuous marriages prohibited by god ; by his indulgences can forgive sins authoritatively and absolutely , that ascribe to every priest a power to offer in the mass a propitiatory unbloody sacrifice for the quick and dead , to forgive sins in the sacrament of penance , to enjoyn laborious works of penance , which shall be satisfactious to god for sins , while they make saints deceased , and angels mediatours between god and man by their merits and agency with god for us ; they ascribe to creatures the power proper to christs offices , and so do make other prophets and priests to officiate as christ ; they do verbally deny the offices of christ , and not in words own , preach up , and plead for all the offices of christ as much as any , as this author most untruly suggests ; but do doctrinally evacuate them all , of which no such thing can be charged on the present ministers of england , nor is at all demonstrated by this author . . i grant , that a verbal professional acknowledgment of the offices of christ , when contradicted by practice is nothing to the salvation of the person so professing , in the sense in which st. paul saith cor. . though i have the gift of prophecie , and understand all mysteries , and all knowledge ; and though i have all faith , so that i could remove mountains , and have no charity , i am nothing , that is , as v. . it profiteth me nothing ; and no further are to be drawn the words of the apostle , tit. . . than that which is expressed in the text , that to such persons nothing is pure but their minds and consciences are defiled ; and so to the interrogation i answer , such a ones plea shall not be admitted before god , or in an ecclesiastical censure , or a private judgment , so as that he shall have the approbation or benefit of a real subject to christ ; yet all this doth not prove that his doctrine impugnes the offices of christ , or that his doctrine may not be heard to the profit of the hearers . j. owen of the duty of pastors , p. . god oftentimes out of his care for his flock , bestows gifts on some , for the benefit of others , on whom he will bestow no graces for the benefit of their own souls . p. . people must beware of false prophets . how shall they do this , but by trying their doctrine by the rule . nor is it true that christ hath decided the question as he would have it ; as if christ had said that false prophets are to be descried by their virtous life , not by their doctrine : he saith indeed , they are known by their fruits , but that these fruits are only their evil life , he saith not . no where is any one said to be a false prophet , that doth not take upon him to prophesie ; he may be a bad man , that teacheth no false doctrine , but not a false prophet . judas was a wicked man , a devil , but no where termed a false prophet ; yea he was one of those that christ sent to preach , and one of those of whom he saith , mat. . . he that receiveth you , receiveth me ; and he that receiveth me , receiveth him that sent me . in the old testament , jer. . . & . , , , . micah . . false prophets are said to be such as prophesied lyes in gods name and he sent them not ; that they taught lying divinations , the visions of their own heart , they cried peace when there was no peace , they attempted to draw them after other gods , deut. . . in the new testament , pet. . there were false prophets among the people , even as there shall be false teachers among you , who privily shall bring in damnable heresies denying the lord that bought them , joh. . . many false prophets are gone out into the world , and they are said to be such as confess not that jesus christ is come in the flesh , that they speak of the world , v. , . that is true which mr. john ball in his trial of the grounds of separation , ch . . pag. . hath , if we look into the scriptures of the old and new testament , we shall never find the prophets called true or false in respect of their outward calling , ( i add , or only their vitious lives ) but in respect of their doctrine . yea , though a man should by his doctrine deny the offices of christ only by remote consequence ; as , by teaching something as appointed by christ , which was not ; or denying something to be instituted by christ , which was so appointed ; yet should he not be accounted a false prophet , but an erring man , who while he layes the foundation rightly , yet through ignorance , or inadverrencie builds hay and stubble thereon , as the apostle speaks , cor. . . and therefore that which this author doth so confidently pronounce , as if it were as clear as the sun , and denied by none , but those whose eyes the god of this world hath blinded , [ that those that do really ( that is in their practice , though not in their preaching ) oppose any of the offices of christ , are not to be heard ( no not when they preach saving truths of the gospel ) but separated from , ( not only in respect of private or church communion in the lords supper or prayers , but in attending on the ministry of the word delivered by them ) which is his major proposition ] is so far from being light , that it seems rather to me , some of that smoak of the bottomless pit , wh●ch the god of this world raiseth , to hinder many poor souls from hearing that word , wherein the light of the glorious gospel of christ the image of god doth shine unto men . nor were not professing enlightned people , as he calls them , held by prejudice , or guided by affection more than by judgment , could they grant this proposition . for if according to this authors dictates , he that really , that is , in heart or practice opposeth any of the offices of christ , is to be separated from : then every one who disobeys his commands , believes not his words , that is an hypocrite ; yea , that sins or errs in any thing christ hath revealed or commanded , is to be separated from , and not to be heard ; and so all must turn seekers or quakers , if they do not meet with a teacher who is perfect without sin or errour . as for what this author saith for demonstration of it , that such are antichrists , joh. . . and . , . joh. . and that beza is of the same mind , and that they that hear them strengthen their opposition unto the offices of christ , and partake with them in their sin , is false . for neither doth st. john , nor beza in his annotations count any for antichrists there meant , but such as by their doctrine oppugne christs nature or office , which he terms the false doctrine of the antichrists ; nor is he at all guilty of the sins of the minister who is evil in his life , by hearing him preach truth ; yea , though he preach some errours , and it be probable , that when he hears him , he shall hear some errour preached by him , unless some other way he abet his sin or errour , or omit his duty in seeking to amend him . but let us attend the proof of his minor . sect . every not hearkning to christs order , is not a denial of his office. 't is the second thing may sound harsh in the ears of some ( as did some sayings of christ , but if truth , where god shall give the seeing eye , and hearing ear , 't will be received , ) viz. . that the present ministers of england do oppose and deny some of the offices of christ , viz. his kingly and prophetical office , which we come to the proof of . arg. . those that hearken not to the revelation christ hath made , and as supreme lord and law-giver , hath enjoyned to be observed touching the orders and ordinances of his house , deny the prophetical and kingly office of christ , deut. . . acts . . isa. . . but the present ministers of england hearken and conform not to the revelation christ hath made touching the orders and ordinances of his house : therefore . answ. though i doubt not but i could retort this argument upon this authour , whom by sundry passages in this book i judge to be one that hearkens not to the revelation christ hath made , and as supreme lord and law-giver hath enjoyned to be observed touching the order and ordinance of his house , even that most express , mat. . . mark . , . one of the principles of the doctrine of christ , and part of the foundation , heb. . , . yet i shall wave that , and answer directly by denying the major ; of which i give these reasons . . because denial , is more than not hearkning to ; the one is by positive contradiction , the other may be only by omission . . the not hearkning may be out of ignorance , incapacity to understand , dulness , slothfulness , fearfulness , mistakes , prevalency of temptation without any enmity of heart , habitual stubbornness , or willful gainsaying , which are requisite to a plain denial of the kingly and prophetical office of christ. . there may be sundry orders of his house revealed by christ , which are controverted , whether they be such or no ; there may be some acknowledged to be orders of his house , yet thought not of such moment as that the peace of the church should be broken by contending for them ; or judged not perpetual , but temporary ; or not binding the ministers to observe , till the magistrate reform ; as in the case of putting down images , or conceiving in cases of necessity , or for avoiding of scandal , they may not hearken to them ; as in davids eating the shew-bread , the apostle pauls not hearkning to the order of discontinuing circumcision , and a jewish vow and offering ; in these , and perhaps more cases a person may not hearken to the revelation christ hath made , and as supreme lord and law-giver hath enjoyned to be observed touching the orders and ordinances of his house , and yet be so far from denying the prophetical and kingly office of christ , that he may be sound in the faith , and a zealous and faithful maintainer of them , by holding forth the truth of the gospel unto the death . and therefore i take the major proposition of this argument to be manifestly false , which he seems by not proving to take for manifest truth . sect. . it is not proved , that christs soveraign authority is rejected by the present ministers . but he goes on thus : 't is the minor ( or second proposition ) that in the thoughts of some is capable of a denial , but the verity thereof shines forth as the sun in its brightness , in the review of the orders and ordinances of the house of christ appointed by himself ; and the present frame and deportment of the present ministers of england with respect thereunto : which of them have they not made void by their traditions ? this is that which christ hath said , . that all power for the calling , institution , order , and government of his church , is invested solely in him , as the alone lord , soveraign ruler , and head thereof , mat. . . tim. . , . joh. . . acts . . and . . 't is upon this foot of account that christ chargeth his disciples not to be called of men rabbi , nor to call any father , ( viz. not to impose their authority upon any , or suffer themselves to be imposed upon by any in the matters of their god ) mat. . , , . because one is their master and lord ( viz. christ. ) hence also the apostles lay the weight of their exhortations upon the commandment of christ , cor. . . and . . proclaim all to be accursed that preach any other gospel , gal. . . ( yea though angels from heaven , should they live and speak as such ) charge those to whom they write not to receive any into their houses that bring any other doctrine , ( much more not to receive them as their teachers ) joh. . yea , the spirit of the lord in the close of the last revelation of his will , it pleased this great king and law-giver in such a way to give forth , testifies that if any man shall add unto these things , the lord shall add unto him the plagues that are written in his book , rev. . . do the present ministers of england conform unto this great institution ? in words indeed they do so . but what meaneth the bleating of the sheep , and lowing of the oxen in our ears ? do they not own other lords , heads , and governours , that have a law-making power , and would enforce the consciences of the free-born subjects of christ over his churches besides him ? what doth this less than evidently proclaim their disobedience and rebellion ( which is as the sin of witchcraft ) against the king of kings , and the rejection of his scepter and soveraign authority over them ! but of this more hereafter . answ. it is no strange thing to find in this author high charges backed only with confident assertions , and no proofs ; so that men , comparing the one with the other , may think he wrote his dreams , rather than meditations . for what are we to think otherwise when we read such passages as these : the verity of his minor proposition shines forth as the sun in his brightness ? which is no more than is to be said of the first universal indubitable principles of the light of nature or reason , which are indisputable ; and yet he saith , in the thoughts of some it is capable of a denial : and when he should prove it so clear , in stead of an argument , proves all with interrogations , which if the reader deny , he is put to a stand . but to shew the vanity of his arguings to his question , which of the orders and ordinances of the house of christ appointed by himself , have not the present ministers of england ( he means all , even the best of them , as his words , ch ▪ . and arguings against them indiscriminatim do evince , ) have they not made void by their traditions ? i answer by another question , which of them have they so made void ? sure the ordinances of searching the scriptures , hearing the word , praying to the father in the name of christ , believing on the son , with many more ( which are the chief orders and ordinances of the house of christ , appointed by himself ) have not been made void by the traditions of the ministers of england that now are , at least not by all or the best of them , that i know or hear of . but he imagines he can prove it by an induction of particulars , of which he names only seven ; though to make his induction full ( without which it is no good argument ) he should have reckoned seven times seven . but perhaps he thinks if he can make good the charge in these seven , it will be without question his charge is true of the rest . let us then view each of these in order , and see how well he hath acquitted himself therein . the first of these orders or ordinances of christ is , that all power for the calling , institution , order and government of his church , is invested solely in him as the alone lord , soveraign ruler , and head thereof . which i grant as a truth , though i assent not to his paraphrase on mat. . , , . as if christ did forbid the apostles to impose their authority upon any in the matters of their god ; which they did , act . , . but how comes this to be an order , ordinance , institution of the house of christ appointed by himself ? such orders i took to be precepts of christ to us , but this seems to be gods gift to him , mat. . . joh. . . and . , , . and . . acts . . and . . ephes. . . &c. no precept to us . but let it imply a precept to us ; do not the present ministers of england conform to it ? he grants , they do so in words , but not in deeds . why so ? they own other lords that have a law●making power , and would enforce the consciences of the free-born subjects of christ over his churches , besides him ; and thereby proclaim their disobedience and rebellion ( which is as the sin of witchcraft ) against the king of kings , and their rejection of his scepter and soveraign authority over them . this is a high charge , and if true would unchristen them , but i see no proof of it , so that i take this to be only a piece of oratory , such as tertullus used against st. paul , acts . which is so much the more venomous in that it is in generalibus without instancing in particulars , which is the sign of a diabolical calumniatour . yet i shall not let it pass . the lords he means are either the king or the bishops . the king is owned by the ministers in the oath of supremacie , the bishops in the promise at their ordination , wherein they promise the lord being their helper , to obey reverently their ordinary , and other ministers , unto whom is committed the charge and government over them ; following with a glad mind and will their godly admonitions , and submitting themselves to their godly judgements . the law-making power of the king is with the parliament , of the bishops in the convocation , the enforcing of the conscience ( though it be an uncouth phrase ▪ as supposing the conscience can be enforced by man , which is impossible ) is meant of causative compulsion , by enjoyning men to act or speak according to such statutes or canons as are imposed on them under certain penalties . how many , and which of these acts or speeches are rebellion and rejection of christs authority , is to be demonstrated ; and not persons of place and authority to be thus criminated after the manner of railers and scolds . and sure it is not easie to prove , that though such acts and speeches were imagined to be such rebellion ; yet that they are so in them , unless it could be proved they did them presumptuously 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with a proud heart and an high hand , which , if this author hath not learned the maxime calumniare audacter , aliquid haerebit , methinks he should tremble to attempt . but sith he tells us of this more hereafter , i intend to observe his motion . he goes on . sect. . ministers oppose not the will of christ by not joyning in the separation pleaded for . . saith he , this great prophet and king hath also revealed , and proclaimed , that 't is his will , that those whom he hath called by his word , should separate from the world , walk together in particular societies and churches , having given up themselves to the lord , and one another , according to the will of god , for their mutual edification and comfort in the lord. the truth of this soveraign institution of christ , he that runs may read in the scriptures hereunto annexed , cor. . . and . . cor. . . rev. . . joh. . . and . . acts . . and . . phil. . . acts . . and . . cor. . . with many more . in the proof of this we might be copious , but that we study brevity : the diligent reader knows where to find this theam at large , treated of by learned ainsworth , bartlet , cotton , rogers , &c. how do the ministers of england acquit themselves , in respect of this solemn appointment of the lord ? alass ! who sees not that they are , in their practice , at open defiance herewith , have it in derision and contempt , making no difference betwixt the holy , and prophane ; admitting persons led captive by the devil at his will , that openly blaspheme the spirit of the lord , and deride its effectual operation in the consciences of men into their society ? are any too vile ( except such as truly fear god ▪ and desire to press after holiness ) to be admitted by them into their communion ? is not their church-state ( so unlike is it to the institution of christ ) a very babel , a den of dragons , and hold of unclean beasts ? answ. this crimination proceeds on these suppositions . . that christians should separate from the parish assemblies , and joyn together in the congregational way by church-covenant , which they call separating from the world. . that ministers are bound to reject , and not to admit to the communion those that are profane , and to admit only real saints in the judgment of charity , and that by opposing the way of separation , and promiscuous admission to the communion , they infringe the solemn appointment of the lord. for my part having read somewhat in mr. ainsworths and mr. cottons writings , both concerning the way of the separatists in the low-countries , and the independents in new-england , i do not either in the scriptures here alledged find such a solemn appointment of christ , either that private persons , or ministers are to make such a separation , as these authors do press upon the consciences of others : nor hath experience either in the low-countries , or old or new-england given such encouragement to sober minded christians , as to engage them in that way , but rather many divisions , declinings into errour , and other evils , have given too much cause for men to doubt , whether it were ever a plant of gods planting . it is granted that it is the will of christ , that those whom he hath called by his word should separate from the world ; and this they are to do in respect of their worship , so as not to have communion with them therein : and this i doubt not may be proved from cor. . . and some other of the texts alledged . but then by the world , are meant professed infidels , such as denied the lord jesus and worshipped idols ; or at least such as were professed unbelievers , as john . . and . . acts . . and . . the jews were , and yet the apostles did not refuse to go to the temple to pray , nor to go into their synagogues , or to take a vow and purifie themselves at the temple , notwithstanding the corruptions of their priests , service , and people , and their open opposition to the christian faith. but that ever it was the will of christ that christians should separate from the true worship of god , and the professors of true faith in christ , because of either known evil in the coversation of those present , or only suspected , or reported , is without all colour of precept or example in the holy scripture . it is true , the people of god are invited , rev. . . to go out of babylon : but that their going out is by separation from the service of god not idolatrous , or from a church not heretical , by reason of some supposed or real corruption , or disorder , or defect in government , service , members , or ministry , is so far from the meaning of the text , that it needs no other refutation , but the looking into the text and comparing it with the foregoing chapter . of withdrawing from such as walk disorderly , thess. . . enough hath been said before , ch . . sect ▪ . nor is it made any where the ministers office to make such separation as the separatists require . cor. . . is not spoken of ministers as belonging to their office to judge them that are within ; or if it be , yet the putting away , v. . is not made his act ; and how it is to be done , is best discerned by v. . christians are to walk together in societies or churches , for their mutual edification and comfort in the lord : and this they are no doubt bound to do , as occasion is , towards all christians . and so much phil. . . acts . . and . . may prove : but that they are to conjoyn in separated churches by the so termed church covenant , as if they were not members of other churches , nor to joyn in prayer , praise of god , hearing , breaking bread , but with either that one church or company , to which they have associated themselves , or those that are of the same way of church-order , is neither proved from those texts , or cor. . . ( which mentions no such church-covenant , as it is alledged for ) nor any other . and therefore the imputations here used to the ministers and churches without distinction , are so unsavoury , and from such an intemperate spirit , that i had rather cover them , than rake in such a dunghil . and i think respect to the fraternity this author seems to be of , should have made him wary in charging the ministers with these things , lest some of his adversaries should throw as much dirt on the face of the separated churches out of bayly's disswasive , edwards gangraena , welds history of antimonianism , yea , the preface to their declaration , octob. . . besides what particular persons know by experience , and the relations of the miscarriages of the ancient separatists would furnish them withal ; sect. . election and excommunication by the church is not christs institution . yet this author cannot hold , but on he goes . . saith he , that he hath entrusted them , so called and united together , with power , and given them rules for the due and right exerting thereof , for the carrying on the worship of his house , to chuse officers over them to act in the holy things of god , for and to them ( of which more shall be spoken in its proper place ) to admit members , to excommunicate offenders , &c. all which we find shining forth in brightness in the ensuing scriptures , act. . . and . , . and . . cor. . . mat. . . cor. . . do the present ministers of england conform unto this institution of christ ? nothing less : is there any thing like this in the whole oeconomie invented and practised by them ? do they not to the utmost of their power , labour to break this bond of christ asunder , cast away this cord from them by stirring up the magistrate to persecute by fines , imprisonments , banishment , &c. the precious people of the lord , that desire to be found in the practice of this law of christ , branding them with the odious names of phanaticks , sectaries , schismaticks , &c. answ. the election , acts . . was of an apostle , and that by lot and contains no law or institution of christ , which we are tied to follow . of the impertinent allegation of acts . , . and . . enough hath been said before , ch . . sect . . the election cor. , . was of a person not to be a pastor to themselves , but to travel with st. paul about the contribution for the poor saints ; and though it be a good precedent for the like occasion , yet was but a fact , not a precept , law , or institution of christ , necessary to be observed at all times , much less binding as a perpetual rule in election of pastors or teachers . no other excommunication is expressed , mat. . . but what is permitted to the injured person , of which more may be seen in the answer to this authors preface , sect. . the delivery to satan cor. . . is argued by peter moulin in his vates , lib. . c. . to have been more then our ordinary excommunication , to wit , the permitting satan to cruciate the body of the person that sinned ; which no church now hath power to do , nor indeed was the church then to do it , but the apostle by his power apostolical as having power over unclean spirits , though absent , yet with the power of our lord jesus christ in their presence when gathered together ( which being in the greek in the genitive case absolutely put , notes not their acting but presence ) the apostles determined to do it ; and therefore contains no institution of christ , which ministers are to practice . what else is charged upon the ministers , it concerns them who are guilty to answer ; i know he cannot justly charge all with it . it follows . sect. . no contempt of the authority of christ is in the church of england by setting up officers and offices . . that the officers of his appointment are onely such as these ; pastors , teachers , elders , deacons , widows , or helpers : who as they are in one particular congregation , so they have not any lordship , or lordly authority over each other , being all brethren , ephes. . . rom. . . and . . cor. . . phil. . . pet. . , , . act. . . and . . and . . and . , . tim. . chap. and . , , . this law of christ so clearly revealed in the scripture , they are so far from subjecting to , that they have neither the name nor thing required by him therein . see up other officers and offices , as if in open contempt and defiance of his authority ; of which it may righteously be said , he did at no time command them , neither did it ever enter into his heart so to do . answ. it is true , that those whom he calls officers , are mentioned in some or other of those texts he cites , and are some of them termed gifts given by god or christ , in , or to , or for his church or body : but there are also other , as apostles and prophets , mentioned in some of the texts as given also by god ; and therefore those whom he reckons are not the only officers of his appointment , nor all of them to be in one congregation . apostles were certainly to go up and down , and though they had not lordship or lordly authority over others , yet had they authority , preeminence , and some kind of superiority over others , and if not in the same measure , yet some superiority is still allotted to pastors over deacons , which are acknowledged to be officers to be still continued in the church : nor is it unlikely , that those elders who were worthy of double honour , tim. . . had some preeminence above the rest ; nor doth the relation of brotherhood hinder , but that though in respect of the common faith all of them are equal , yet some may have some power or office committed to them , which others have not , and so may have authority over them . that some offices or services may be added to those mentioned , may be gathered from cor. . . whether all the officers or offices be rightly ordered in the church of england , is not our present enquiry . much hath been said before in answer to the second and third chapters of this writing , which need not be here repeated . that the present ministers of england , have neither name nor thing required by christ in this law , is notoriously false ; the names of pastors , teachers , or doctors , deacons , or ministers , and the office of preaching the gospel , continues therein , both in the name and thing . that they have set up other officers and offices , as if in open contempt and defiance of christs authority , cannot be said but very unrighteously ; nor do the alterations or additions , any more prove it , then the setting up catechists , or expositors , or lecturers in the primitive or later times , proves open defiance and contempt of christs authority . he goes on in the same vein of crimination thus : sect. . election of ministers by the common suffrage of the church is not proved to be christs appointment . . that these officers be chosen by the common suffrage of the church of christ , and solemnly set apart by fasting and prayer , this is evidently comprised in the ensuing scriptures ▪ act. . . and , , , , . and . . and . , . and . , . in conformity whereunto , we find the saints for many centuries of years after christ , in the peaceable possession of this their priviledge and right . clemens in his epistle to the church of corinth , p , . saith , our apostles also knew by our lord jesus christ , that contention will be about the name of episcopal charge : therefore for this reason , having received a full predetermination , they constituted such as were forenominated ; and in their instructive distribution delivered , that if they were negligent , other approved men should receive their ministration , being ordained by them , or in the mean time by other choice men , all the church consenting thereunto . yea afterwards , let some one among you , ingenious , merciful , filled with love speak ; if through me faction , and contention , schisms , i will depart : of which if you are willing , i return , and will do the things appointed by the multitude . wherein he fully asserts the priviledge of the church or people of christ , we are pleading for : and afterwards during the raign of antichrist , christ hath not left himself without a witness , nor his people without champions to plead their right in this matter . to instance but in a few : that lively witness of christ martin luther loudly proclaims , that the voice of the people ought not to be severed from the chusing of ecclesiastical persons . and long before him , cyprian ( who lived about years after christ ) sayes , plebs obsequens , &c. the people that obey the commands of god , and fear him , ought to separate themselves from a wicked pastor , seeing the people themselves chiefly , have either power to chuse pastors that are worthy , or to refuse those that be unworthy , cypr. epist. . and tells us plainly , that this is bottomed upon the authority of god : that that is a just and lawful ordination which is tryed by the judgment and voice of all , viz. that fear and obey god. of the same mind , long after , was francis lambard , the companion of luther in germany , in the preface of his book , intituled , the sum of christianity ; who sayes , verily every parish ought to have his proper bishop , the which should be chosen by the people , and confirmed by the commonalty of every parish , who if they swerve one jot or tittle from the doctrine of the gospel of the kingdom , ought to be deposed by the people , and others more fit , to be elected by them . and in chap. . of the said book , he professes , that 't is the most gievous crime , and by no means to be suffered , that many children of perdition do deprive the people of god of their just right and title , viz. to chuse them a pastor . peter martyr in his common places , refers the chusing and election of ministers to the people as their undoubted right : to whom we may joyn mr. bullinger , who sayes , that the apostles exercised not tyranny in the church , in ordaining ministers without the consent of the people ; bullin . decad. . serm. . tit. . tim. . gualter also upon act. . . saith , that those that profess the gospel , handle the matter as evil as the monks and popish bishops , in that they restore not again to the church , the liberty of chusing ministers , which by tyranny they took from them . of the same mind is zanchie , calvin , beza , danaeus , tilenus . tyndal ( the martyr ) with many others , as mr. fox , cartwright , mr. jacob , &c. we cannot omit the famous case of the united brethren of bohemia , who concluding the whole papacy to be purely antichristian , could not allow of the ordination of their ministers by any in communion with it ; and yet being perswaded of a necessity of continuing that ordinance in a way of succession , send some of the greek and armenian churches , who returning with dissatisfaction , they thereupon commit themselves and their cause to god , and chuse elders from among themselves , and by fasting and prayer , solemnly set them apart to the work of the preaching of the gospel . to these many more might be added . the practice pleaded for ( as is evident ) is as antient as the dayes of the apostles , and the first election of ordinary new-testament officers , continued in the church till after the dayes of constantine , when pride and tyranny soon brought all things into horrible confusion , upon the pretext of decency and order ; yet in the worst of times have the witnesses of christ born their testimony hereunto . what say our reverend fathers and ministers of the church of england to these things ? have they not an equal respect to this appointment of christ , as to those before instanced in ? is there any thing like it almost practised by them , in this great concern of separating persons for the preaching of the gospel of christ ? is not the liberty of the brethren and churches of christ , as much as lies in them , wholly disanulled and broken by them ? have they any such call to the ministry ? do they at all value or esteem of it ? are they in the practice of the primitive church , or of the reformed churches of this day in this matter ? is not the print of the feet of the old strumpet of rome , the bloody persecutor of the saints , the cunning deviser of a new self-invented and whorish worship , to be solely found in the paths , they are in this matter traversing ? and can such be accounted as the subjects of the kingdom of christ , and the real owners of his authority and power ? answ. that bishops or presbyters should be chosen by the common suffrage of the church of christ in each city or parish , or select congregation , i find not to be the appointment of christ in the scriptures alledged , or any other ; the impertinency of the allegations to this purpose is shewed before , chap. . sect. . in this chap. sect. . besides what is said in answer to the preface , sect. . . the only text not before considered , acts . , . and . . ( if it were alledged ) were altogether impertinent ; there being no election of st. paul but to be an apostle ; and that by christ , not the church , on whom ananias laid hands at the appointment of christ only , that he might receive his sight , and be filled with the holy ghost ; and to remove the fear of him , and non credence , of his being a disciple , barnabas ( and no other we read of ) took him , and brought him to the apostles declaring how christ had converted him . which are altogether impertinent to prove election of ministers by the common suffrage of the church , and ordination thereupon to be the appointment of christ. it is granted before in the answer to the preface , sect. . that there are relations in antiquity of the election of bishops by the people , which could be no other way then in times of persecution , when the emperors were infidels ; yet withal , that even then things grew into such heats , that sometimes the emperor was fain to interpose for quietness ; and after , when wealth and power by favour of christian emperours were added to bishops , sometimes bloody frayes , and other evils made that election so turbulent , that it was found necessary to put it into the hands of fewer , until the investiture of bishops being wrested from the emperours , the popes seized on it , leaving the election of the inferior clergy unto the bishops or patrons , that had endowed the ministers with estates , except in cases reserved to his romans . but , where the reformation is with the consent of princes , much of the power usurped by popes is recovered by them , in other places the people either chuse or consent to the election ; which being made the whole essence of the ministerial call by congregational men , and by divine right , their opinion is opposed by the london ministers in their jus divinum ministerii evangelici , printed . chap. , . nevertheless , the testimonies produced by this author , are not fully to his purpose ; those out of clements his epistle are not home ; the former speaks of constituting and appointing ministers after the apostles by other famous and discreet men ( as it is in burtons english translation of that epistle ) with the good liking and consent of all the church , which is less then election constituting their call. the other contains only a voluntary offer to prevent breaches , which is nothing to the asserting of a power in them rightly seated ; if it were such , it would be more then this author , i think , would yield , that upon the command of the multitude , a minister is to relinquish his place . the words of luther , bullinger , and perhaps the rest of the protestants ( whose words are not set down ) meant no more than the not obtruding ministers on the churches of christ , as the monks and popish bishops did , who put on the people priests unable to preach the gospel , such as fed themselves and not the flock , without choice or consent of the people . which , if it be any where practised , is unjustifiable ; as on the other side , where people are corrupted with error , or factiousness , or carnal relations , and s●lf aims , or are unskilful to judge of the disposition and abilities of a minister , it is unsafe , or rather more dangerous to intrust the church of christ , though a gathered congregation , with the election of their minister by common suffrage without intervention of some discreet and able ministers to ratifie or disanul it . what cyprian saith , upon the occasion of the lapse of basilides and martialis bishops in spain , of their rejection and the election of sabinus , and felix , was agreeable to the canons then in use , and to the state of those times : what he saith of divine authority , is not rightly proved . the scriptures of the new testament and old , prove no divine institution of a certain way of electing or rejecting ministers , so as that there may not be variation from what he saith was in his time : yet it is meet , that according to the sayings of cyprian , lambard , gualter , or others , respect be had to people , that they be heard what they can say for , or against their minister ; and that he , who is criminous or insufficient , be not imposed on them to their souls hurt . what our reverend fathers and ministers of the church of england say to these things , may be seen in whitgift's answer to the first admonition and defence of the answer , tr. . p. . bilson of the perpetual government of christs church , chap. . andrews respons . ad bellarm. apolog. chap. . p. . after , king james his premonition : hooker eccles. pol. l. . sect . . field of the church , l. . c. . if the prelates do any thing unjustly therein , they must give an account to god ; the ministers , who consent not thereto , are not chargeable ; both may be accounted as subjects of the kingdom of christ , and the real owners of his authority and power , notwithstanding what is objected against them ; especially if the evil be either from the defect or iniquity of laws , canons , and customs , whereby that redress of grievances in this kind , which even the prelates have complained of , is stopped . i confess , that the continuance in force of so much of the popes canon law , or our common law , as hinders a godly and able ministry in every parish , hath been deplored , and much endeavour hath been to amend things : but the experience that hath been of the difficulty therein , even when congregational men have been most industrious to rectifie things , should methinks abate the censures of this author , and rather cause men quietly to wait for a remedy , using the benefit of the ministry we have , than by separation , and popular election in gathered congregations make things worse than they are . sect. . prophesying is not opposed by the ministers . but this author hath not yet done , but tells us , to these , many other institutions of christ may be added , which they subject not to . what should i mention , . that royal command of our soveraign king and lawgiver ( which the profound , self-philosophically wise , but indeed foolish and unlearned doctors of this day , wrest , to the countenancing of the disorders and confusion of antichrist ( darkness so gross that it may be felt ) that all things be done decently and in order , cor. . . viz. that the saints may prophesie one by one , and ought to admonish , exhort , and build up one another in their most holy faith , rom. . . and . . cor. . . and . . and . . ephes. . , , . tim. . . and . . jude . cor. . , . mat. . . pet. . , . cor. . . and . , . ephes. . , , , . acts . . rom. . . ephes. . . col. . . thess. . . thess. . . heb. . . to which might be added the frequent examples of the saints in the old and new testament , chron. . , , . job . . mal. . . luke . . acts . . cor. . . to . and the practice of the primitive church , as witness origen ( in his epistle to celsum ) terrullian ( in his apologie ) justin martyr ( in his apologie ) and many others . answ. the censures of the doctors of this day , and their wresting cor. . . are too general , and not to be answered , save to tell the author , that it is good for a man not to be wise in his own conceit , nor to be too free in censuring others , lest he fall into diogenes his evil , when he trampled on plato's pride with greater pride . but to the rest of the charge i say , that i know none of the ministers of england , that forbid the saints to prophesie one by one : nor do i know of any at this day , that have the gift of prophesie , which i gather from cor. . , . and . , , , . and other places to have been an extraordinary gift , by immediate revelation of the spirit , whereby some hidden thing is discovered . ( see lysord's apologie for the ministery , pag. , . ) if there were any that could prophesie indeed , neither prelates , nor others , may or can hinder them . but when persons mistakingly call all speaking to men to edification , exhortation and comfort , from cor. . . prophesying ( as if these terms were reciprocal ) and under pres●n●e thereof , vent many mistakes and fancies , the restraint or regulating of such exercise● may be no transgression of christs command . and , though the performing of the duties in the texts alledged , ought to be cherished and furthered ; and such meetings , as do really tend thereto , should be countenanced : sith there may be abuses , which are to be prevented by governours , though sometimes there be injustice , and liberty too much restrained , and complaints made to god in secret ; yet should not invectives be used to alienate the minds of people from their teachers or rulers , nor any unlawful practice used tending to sedition , or disturbance ; but by patience and quietness we should possess our souls , expecting help from god in due time , as did the primitive christians with happy success . yet once more , saith this author : sect . ministers service may be divine and spiritual , in the use of the liturgy . yea , . what should i mention that grand institution of this soveraign lord and lawgiver , that nothing be offered up to the father , but what is of his own prescription ( divine and spiritual , without affectation of legal shadows ( john . . ) of worldly pomp or carnal excellency , cor. . . and . . cor. . . and . . ) cor. . . isa. . . jam. . . matth. . , . heb. . . king. . . & , . jer. . . numb . . . deut. . , , . it 's evident , the present ministers of england conform not to the orders and ordinances , christ as the great prophet and lawgiver to his people , hath appointed them to walk by ; and therefore really disown the kingly and prophetical office of christ. answ. it is true , no prayers , or praises , or other religious exercises should be offered to the father ; but , what is of his own prescription in respect of the service it self , matter , or manner , which he hath prescribed : but when he hath left it free to use a prescript form of words , or to pray without such a stinted form , where he forbids not the use of musick in praysing of god , and no idolatry or superstition is used or furthered by ordinances and utensils for the celebration of gods ordinances ; notwithstanding these , the service of god may be divine and spiritual without affectation of legal shadows of worldly pomp , or carnal excellency , contrary to the texts alledged . if any be faulty in that way , it is to be imputed to the persons , not either to others not guilty , nor to the liturgy prescribed ; much less such ministers as offer up prayers and prayses to the father in the name of christ for things agreeable to the will of god , and use the lords supper without idolatry , are to be charged to disown really the kingly and prophetical office of christ. sect. . things objected against the ministers , are not such as justifie separation . this author addes . but perhaps to these things , some may say , these are but small matters , good men differ among themselves herein . to which we answer , . that they are part of the instituted worship of god ; the orders he hath left his children to conform to , hath already been proved : to say , that any part of the instituted worship of christ , is a small matter ; is no small derogation to the wisdom of the lawgiver , that gave it forth . . what if it should appear , that as small as these things seem to be , they are the grounds of the late controversies of god , pleaded with fire and sword in most of the europaean kingdoms ? this may perhaps a little stay sober persons from so rash a conclusion , that these are small matters : a serious review of the late contests of god in the nations , with the consideration of the grounds and rise of them ; will , to persons of sobriety , sufficiently evince the truth of the suggestion . . as small matters as these , have been severely punished by the lord : he is a jealous god , and stands upon punctilio's ( if i may so call them ) in his worship : hence is that expression , ye cannot serve the lord , for he is a jealous god , josh. . . what should i mention the case of uzziah , chron . . of corah , dathan and abiram , numb . . of uzzah , whose sin lay meerly in , whose judgment was singly upon this foot of account ; his not seeking the lord after the due order , chron. . . god commands that when the ark was removed , it should be covered by the priests , that no hand touch it , that it be carryed on mens shoulders , numb . . , . which order was violated , when they brought it from the house of abinadab , 't was uncovered , and upon a cart , after the manner of the egyptians , sam. . . for which breach of order uzzah is struck dead . . as small matters as these , when once commanded by the lord , are of that force , as not only to deface the well-being , but to overturn the true being of the worship of god. take one pregnant instance herein . the lord commanded the israelites by moses , to bring their sacrifices to the place that he should chuse , and offer them there ; which in it self was but a circumstance of place ; yet all the sacrifices offered elsewhere , were a stink in the nostrills of god , and not accounted by him as any worship performed unto him . . but the objection is altogether impertinent : we are not debating the greatness of the sin , but the truth of what is charged upon the present ministers of england : what we have mentioned , are either the appointments of christ , or they are not ; if they are ( as hath been proved ) the present ministers conform to them , or they do not ; if they do not ( as nothing more sure ) they conform not to the orders and ordinances christ hath left his people to walk by ( which is the thing in debate ) and therefore really deny his kingly and prophetical office. answ. by whom this objection is made i know not , i think it of use to abate the rigour of the separation , and the sharpness of the censure that this author passeth on the present ministers of england . for sure if these matters excepted against , be small matters , and good men differ therein , they are not fundamentals of faith or practice ; but that notwithstanding defects , errours , or differences about them , churches , their members , and ministers , may be true churches , christians , and ministers ; nor should there be separation for these things , but mutual toleration of one another , according to the doctrine of st. paul , rom. . , , . and . , . philip. . , . nor ministers disclaimed , while they hold the foundation , much less so heavily judged , as this author doth , contrary to st. pauls doctrine , cor. . . nor should there be such rents and breaches in the church of god for them as there are . though nothing commanded by god is small , yet some are comparatively small , mat. . . that they are part of gods instituted worship , appointments of christ , which he chargeth the ministers of england to oppose , needs better proof than is yet made ; that they overturn the true worship of god , is not demonstrated ; nor that they are the grounds of the late controversies of god , or that therein the ministers sin , as uzziah , corah , dathan , abiram , uzzah ; and therefore the judgments of god which fell on them , may be rashly threatened to the ministers , especially considering that many of them if they sin , may be charitably deemed to sin out of ignorance , not affected , or such weakness as is incident to one truly godly ; which how far he grants , may be perceived by that which follows . as for what is added , that good men differ among themselves in this matter , it 's of no more weight than what went before . for , . 't is not at all to the business in hand . . 't is possible good men may for a while , do that which really enwraps in the bowels of it a denial of the offices of christ. we shall not deny but some of the ministers of england may be so in the account of god. . that good men differ , is an argument of their ignorance and darkness , which though in some cases it excuses à tanto , yet not à toto ; it may alter the degree , never the nature of the sin . . 't is false , that good men , pressing after reformation , and the rest●tution of the worship of god according to the primitive pattern , do differ touching the substance of the things instanced in : were but the pride and passion of mens spirits a little more allaid , and they disentangled more from their selfish interests , a greater harmony would appear amongst them in these matters . but , . as was said , the particulars instanced in , are commanded by christ , or they are not ; if they are ( as hath been proved ) doth it in the least discharge persons that conform not to them , from the charge they are impleaded as guilty , viz non-conformity to the laws of christ ; that good men differ in these matters ( i. e. some good men transgress the laws of christ , which is sure no part of their goodness , nor any warrant to justifie me in the doing of what may strengthen their hands in such a non-conformity . ) answ. . how far this branch of the objection is to the business in hand , is before shewed . . that good men may do that which may be by consequence a denial of christs office , is granted , it being no more than that they may err and sin . that he grants some of the ministers of england may be good men in the account of god , should have made him afraid to censure them so deeply as he doth , and to disswade men from hearing them , or joyning with them in gods worship , as being such as walk disorderly , even the best of them , as symbolizing with antichrist , really denying christs kingly and prophetical office , . if there be darkness in others that dissent from this author , so there may be in this author ; and considering the many learned non-conformists , who have opposed the separation , such as bradshaw , hildersham , ames , paget , ball , and others ; there is as much reason that this author should ascribe darkness to himself as to them . . if the difference among the good men pressing after reformation , be not in the substance of the things instanced in , but in circumstances ; the more to blame is this author for widening the breach , and urging separation by reason of them . pride , passion , self-interests we may more safely charge our selves with , than others ; especially such as it cannot be denied , but that they may be in gods account good men . . 't is true , the main matter to be discussed , is the thing it self , whether it be sin or no : which i have therefore endeavoured to examine impartially , and do conclude , that in this chapter it is not proved unlawful to hear the present ministers of england . let us consider the rest of his arguments . chap. . sect. . all owning of orders different from , or contrary to christs , proves not a denial of his offices . thus he proceeds : that the ministers of england deny the kingly and prophetical offices of christ , and therefore are not to be beard , but separated from , hath been asserted , and by one argument , proved in the foregoing chapter : to the further evidence whereof , a few things more are to be offered in this . argum . those who own , submit and subscribe to orders and ordinances , which not only are not of christs revealing , but contrary thereunto , do really deny , and oppose the prophetical and kingly office of christ : but the present ministers of england do own , submit , and subscribe to orders and ordinances , that are not only not of christs revealing , but contrary thereunto : therefore . the major ( or first proposition ) is beyond exception . if an owning , submitting , and subscribing to orders and ordinances , that are not only , not of christs revealing , but contrary thereunto , be not a denial of his kingly and prophetical office , i must profess , i know not what is . suppose the chief magistrate or magistrates of a nation should give forth a declaration of their will , touching this or that concern , were not persons non-conformity thereunto ( supposing it to be what lies within the verge of their authority , and power to command , and may righteously be exacted of them , whose conformity is thereunto required ) a silent opposition of their authority ; but should any presume to give forth laws of their own , without the least stamp of authority upon them , yea , contrary unto the statute and declarations of their governours ; would not all conclude that these persons and their abettors were guilty of rebellion against their rules , and did really deny the lawfulness of their authority ? this is the present case , if men shall be found traversing paths , in the possession and practice of orders and constitutions that are foreign to the edicts of christ , yea , contrary thereunto ; shall we not as rationally conclude that these persons are really opposers of his soveraign authority and government ? doubtless so . answ. to the major proposition of the fourth argument [ those that oppugn or deny any of the offices of jesus christ , are not to be heard , but separated from ] answer is made before . the major of this argument here needs elucidation and limitation . orders and ordinances which not only are not of christs revealing , but contrary thereunto , are not all of one sort . some are in points of faith , some of practice , some in things not fundamental , some in fundamental . owning , submitting , and subscribing to them , is either out of ignorance , inadvertency , infirmity through fear or some other motive , or voluntary , more or less , which may be aggravated by many circumstances and effects . likewise the denying really , and opposing of the offices of christ , may be virtual or formal , directly or by consequence , by a factious setting up an open antichrist , or by neglecting the proper authority of christ. it is true , every sin and every errour doth in some sort and degree oppugn the offices of jesus christ : every disobedience to a lawful magistrate , every subjection to an usurper hath in it somewhat of denying or oppugning his authority . yet he that should deny , that for every such sin or errour a person can be a good christian , or for every such disobedience or subjection a person can be a true subject , should too stoically make a parity in sins , and neither hold good divinity , nor teach good policy . it is true , he that shall openly and factiously set up another universal monarch of the church , make other mediatours to god besides christ , teach any other way of justification than by faith in christ , that shall expresly forbid the observation of what christ hath commanded ; as for instance , the lords supper , or any other plain command of christ ; such do deny really , and oppose openly the offices of christ. but there may be some errours in faith , and teaching of some use in positive rites , as may be a real denying or opposing interpretatively christs offices , as in teaching circumcision as necessary at that time , acts . . in owning , submitting , and subscribing to some use as may be not only not revealed by christ , but also is by nearer or remote consequence a denial of christs offices ; and yet the persons observing it , as v. g. the reservation of the bread , in the eucharist , sending it to the sick absent , as many did in former times , either out of ignorance , fear , or such like motives , and yet these neither to be reckoned for such , as either in heart , or profession , or practice , deny the offices of christ , as enemies to him , nor to be shunned as such ; but may be his true subjects though weak ones . peters denial of christ , his dissimulation , gal. . shewed not enmity , but infirmity and instability . and many sincere christians may out of errour or weakness teach , and practise many things not only a while , but also all their dayes , and that with much contention and zeal , which may inferr a denial of christs offices , or his nature ; as for instance , lutheran consubstantion , and yet are not to be judged opposers of the kingly and prophetical offices of christ , so as to be disclaimed , separated from , and rejected as no true christian brethren , or teachers . and therefore the major proposition here , may be variously conceived ; and without some limitations and explications is not to be received . but he tells us : sect. . ministers submitting to canons is unjustly censured . 't is the minor ( or second proposition ) that may be under suspition among some , viz. that the present ministers of england ( the very best of them ) do own , submit , and subscribe to orders and ordinances that are not only not of christs revealing , but contrary thereunto : in which two things are incumbent on us to prove . . that the present ministers of england do own , submit , and subscribe to orders and ordinances that are not of christs revealing . this being a charge , as to matter of fact , the production of a few particulars , that lie near at hand , for its confirmation , will give it a speedy dispatch . . they own , submit , and subscribe to the orders and offices of arch-bishops , bishops , deans , arch-deacons , with many others appertaining unto this hierarchie , as orders needful and necessary in the church of christ , and promise subjection and obedience unto them , eccles. canons , can. . . they own , and submit ( can. . ) to a liturgy or prescript form of worship devised by men , and imposed solely by their authority , to which they tie themselves , neither diminishing nor adding any thing in the matter or form thereof . . they own , subscribe , and engage to conform to all the orders , rites ▪ and ceremonies prescribed in the said book of common prayer ( can. . ) such as bowing at the name of jesus , using the cross in baptism , kneeling at the lords supper , ( which though we do not , some would say , smells very strong of the popish leven , and is but one peg beneath the adoration of their breaden god ) wearing the surplice , &c . they own , that the office of a deacon is the first step or degree to the ministry ( can. , ) to which they are t● submit and subscribe , before they are made priests . . that no person be admitted to expound the scriptures , though indeed worthy of the cure of souls ( as they speak can. . ) without license from the bishop thereunto . . that there be some lawful ministers which are no preachers ( can. , . ) . that these unpreaching ministers ( can. . ) may lawfully administer the ordinances of baptism and the lords supper . . that persons refusing to have their children baptized by such dumb ministers , or receive the communion from them , worthily deserve excommunication if they shall persist herein , ( can. . ) . that confirmation by diocesan bishops is an ordinance of god , ( can. . ) . that it appertains to the office of ministers to marry , ( can. . ) . that the bishop of the diocess may lawfully , for a while , suspend a minister from his ministry , for refusing to bury the dead , ( can. . ) . that 't is not lawful for ministers to preach or administer the communion in private houses , except in times of necessity , ( can. . ) . that no minister may lawfully appoint or keep any solemn private fasts , or be wittingly present at any of them ; nor hold any meetings for sermons in market-towns , or other places ; which if he do , and persevere therein , he may lawfully be deposed from his ministry , ( can. . ) . that ministers ought to be distinguished by their vestments and apparel , as gowns , hoods , tippers , square caps ; and in their journeys cloaks with sleeves , ( called priests cloaks , can . ) with many more that might be added , to which the ministers of england are to subscribe and own , as agreeable to the word of god , before their admission into the ministry , according to the . canon ecclesiastical ▪ are any of these ordinances and constitutions of the appointment of christ ? when or where were they instituted by by him ? that these are posts set by the lords posts , and thresholds by his thresholds ( of which the lord complains , ezek. . . ) who sees not ? that the present ministers of england do conform and subscribe hereunto , cannot be denied ; and thence an owning , subscribing , and submitting to orders and constitutions that are not of christs appointment , is evidently evinced . answ. though i undertake not to justifie all that is in the ecclesiastical canons of the synod at london , anno . nor need the present ministers , nor perhaps will they or the bishops themselves take it upon them ; yet that it may appear how falsly and injuriously this authour hath dealt with them , and how superficially he hath handled this argument ; i say , i. that he hath misrecited the canons in all or most of the particulars alledged . . in the . canon it is not said , that the orders and offices of arch bishops , bishops , deans , arch-deacons , with many others appertaining unto this hierarchy , are orders needful and necessary in the church of christ ; nor is it required therein , that the ministers promise subjection and obedience unto them . but it is censured as a wicked errour to affirm , that the government of the church of england under his majesty by arch-bishops , bishops , deans , arch●deacons , and the rest that bear office in the same is antichristian or repugnant to the word of god ; and it is required of such as have thus affirmed that before their absolution from excommunication they repent , and publikely revoke it . . in the . canon , ministers are not required to own and submit to a liturgy , or prescript form of worship devised by men , and imposed solely by their authority , nor to tie themselves to it , neither diminishing nor adding in the matter or form thereof : but it is judged a wicked errour to affirm , that the form of gods worship in the church of england , established by the law , and contained in the book of common prayer and administration of sacraments , is a corrupt , superstitious or unlawful worship of god , or containeth any thing in it that is repugnant to the scriptures ; and it is required of such as have thus affirmed , that before their absolution from excommunication they repent , and publickly revoke it . . in the third particular are sundry things liable to exception . . it is said that in the book of common prayer , bowing at the name of jesus is prescribed ; which i find not there , but in the canon ▪ . it is not well , that when this author does not , yet he tells us some would say , that kneeling at the lords supper smells very strong of the popish leven , and is but one peg beneath the adoration of their breaden god ; when he might know , that not only the . article of the church of england , and the homily of the peril of idolatry , and the apology of the church of england , are fully against it , but also the compilers of the common prayer book , suffered martyrdom for their refusal and abhorrency of such adoration ; and in the rubrick of the common prayer book , as it is now established , after the communion there is a clear and sufficient declaration against it ; which should , if this author had dealt candidly , have been told ignorant people , who are drawn into a separation upon this suggestion . . it is true , that in the canon subscription is required to this article , that the book of common prayer , and of ordering of bishops , priests , and deacons , containeth in it nothing contrary to the word of god , and that it may be lawfully used , and that he himself will use the form in the said book prescribed in publike prayer and administration of the sacraments , and none other ; which i take not to be the same with owning , submitting , and engaging to conform to all the orders , rites , and ceremonies prescribed therein . . it is said canon . . the office of a deacon , is a step or degree to the ministry , according to the judgment of the ancient fathers , and the practice of the primitive church , and the subscription is required in the . canon to the book of ordination , as i have set it down here ; but they are not required by that subscription to own this assertion , that the office of a deacon is the first step or degree to the ministry . . in the . canon it is said , no person whatsoever , not examined and approved by the bishop of the diocess , or not licensed for a sufficient or convenient preacher , shall take upon him to expound in his own cure , or elsewhere , any scripture , or matter , or doctrine : but they do not speak [ though judged worthy of the cure of souls ] they may have a cure of souls by indirect means , or by reason of the imperfection of the law to debarr them , or by reason of the want of sufficient preachers , as was in the beginning of the reformation , or for want of maintenance for able preachers to undertake it , who are not judged worthy of the cure of souls . , and . neither of the positions are canons , . though their ministration of baptism and the lords supper is made sufficient . and the . particular is in canon . . can. . it is not said , that confirmation by diocesan bishops , is an ordinance of god , but that it hath been a solemn ancient and laudable custom in the church of god , continued from the apostles times , that all bishops should lay their hands upon children baptized , and instructed in the catechism of christian religion , praying over them , and blessing them ; which we commonly call confirmation ; and that this holy action hath been accustomed in the church in former ages . . it is not said canon . that it appertains to the office of ministers to marry ; but they are only regulated therein . . the bishop is to suspend according to can. . ministers refusing to bury ; but the lawfulness of it is not there asserted , though presupposed . , . ministers preaching , administring the communion in private houses , except in times of necessity ; some appointing of fasts , holding meetings for sermons , are forbidden , can. , . but it is not there determined that they are forbidden , because of the unlawfulness ; inexpediency , or inconvenience may occasion a prohibition of that which is not unlawful . . it is not asserted can. . that ministers ought to be distinguished by the habit there prescribed , but that ancient churches thought it fit . ii. were all true which this author hath alledged in these particulars , yet it is not true which he saith , that either in the , or . canon ecclesiastical ministers are to subscribe to , and own all these orders and ordinances , as agreeable to the word of god. iii. to the questions , are any of these ordinances and constitutions of the appointment of christ ? when or where were they instituted by him ? i might answer by cross interrogations , are the church-covenant , gathering of churches in the congregational way , by severing choice members from the rest , requiring an account of the manner of their conversion , making election by the common suffrage of the members essential to a minister , imposition of hands , tied to the eldership of that church ; maintenance by collection every lords day , excommunication by the major part of the members , with many more of the orders of congregational churches , ordinances , and constitutions of the appointment of christ ? when and where were they instituted by him ? it is not i presume altogether forgotten , that such questions have been propounded to them by mr. ball , apollonius , and many others , and their answers judged insufficient . and if they cannot shew christs appointment for their orders , which they require , why do they charge so deeply the ministers of england as denying and opposing the prophetical and kingly office of christ , for submitting to orders , which as well may be said to be of christs appointment as their own ; or at least when they themselves may by the same reason be concluded to deny or oppose the same offices ? but for a direct answer , i grant they are not ordinances and constitutions of the appointment of christ , and yet judge they may be submitted and conformed to , and required of governours , while they are regulated by laws of ecclesiastical policy , and do think that mr. hooker in his three first books of ecclesiastical policy hath evinced thus much . iv. to what is said , that these are posts set by the lords posts , and thresholds by his thresholds ( of which the lord complains , ezek. . . ) who sees not ? i answer , diodate his annot. on ezek. . . is this , their threshold ] that is to say , they set their idols , and perform their service in my temple , in places and chappels near to the places which are consecrated to my service . see king. , . and . . jer. . . ezek. . . and . . and . . all the interpreters i meet with , and the words themselves shew , that the thing complained of , was another thing than making orders and constitutions without revelation and appointment of christ for ecclesiastical rule ( such as those constitutions in the canons of the church of england , are , which in christian churches have in like sort been made in the best times ; yea , and some in the jewish church without reproof ; ) to wit , idolatrous practices by their kings ( such as ahaz and manasseh were ) called whoredoms , v. , . and abominations which they committed and defiled gods holy name ; and for which be consumed them in his anger ; and therefore tell this author , that i see not those ordinances he mentions to be posts set by the lords posts , and thresholds by his thresholds , complained of ezek . . but rather think him in a dream or phrensie that saith he sees it . yea further , if it were granted that the complaint were against their act , as adding inventions of men to gods ordinances , yet this cannot be understood but of such as are made gods worship , or wherein that which god hath appointed is altered or corrupted . and therefore i conclude , that it is no small abuse of this text , which occurrs in sundry printed sermons and other books to make every order of men about gods worship , or the governing of the church to be thus branded , and out of all infer , that what he saith he hath evidently evinced , is but a vain brag of this author . let 's proceed in viewing what follows . sect. . making canons in things undetermined , and subjection to them , agrees with scripture . object . if it be said , that though these canons , and constitutions owned by the ministers of england , be not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be found in the scripture of the institution of christ in so many words , yet by consequence they may rationally be deduced from thence : as where it is commanded , that all things be done decently and in order , cor. . . which 't is the duty of the church to make rules and constitutions about , which when it hath done , it is the duty of every son thereof , to own , or subject to , without questioning its authority . answ. though i assert not that the canons and constitutions ecclesiastical of the church of england , may be rationally deduced from scripture ; and therefore make not the objection as here it is framed , yet i assert that canons , and constitutions ecclesiastical concerning divine worship , and church covernment may be made by governours , if they be not opposite to such rules as are in scripture about gods worship , and the rule of his church ; and be indeed subservient and conducible to the well-ordering of such worship and rule : and that the members of the churches under their governours should submit to , and yield obedience to them , as to other humane laws , not conceiving the things commanded obligatory of their consciences , as things appointed by divine authority , so as that it should be sin to disobey or omit them in any case : but by virtue of the general precept of obedience , heb. . . and in order to the ends of their rule without any contempt of their authority , or refractariness they should be either actively or passively obeyed , though the things themselves be only indifferent , and not of themselves , or directly binding the conscience . and this i conceive to be proved , . from reason , because without such regulations , church societies can no more be continued by reason of the difference of minds and capacities than other societies , which is proved true by experience . . from the practise of all sorts of churches , who have in process of time found it necessary to have synods to this end . . from the course god hath taken with the christian churches , to whom he hath delivered the doctrine of faith , and necessaries of worship in the scriptures , but hath left many accidentals about worship and church government undetermined , & therefore left them partly to each one 's own light in things concerning himself only , partly to the rulers domestical , national , civil , ecclesiastical in things that concern the several communities . . from the texts cor. . . heb. . . and other places . for in that after all his discourse about ordering the use of their gifts , he ends with this general rule ; he thereby shews , that more things were to be ordered by that rule , either by each one himself , or by their governours , as he himself did resolve , cor. . . and appointed titus and timothy in the epistles to them , and enjoyned obedience , heb. . . now let us consider what is answered hereto . he saith : sect. . it 's no derogation from scripture , or christ , that such canons are made and obeyed . answ. that there is any thing of moment in this objection , though their achilles in this matter , and that which they are upon every turn producing , is easily demonstrated . the whole of it being built upon as uncertain principles , yea , upon as notoriously false suppositions , as ever objection in so weighty a case was built upon . . 't is supposed that christ hath not determined in the scripture , how the affairs of his house should be managed with decency and order , as well as commanded that they be so ; which is : . no small derogation to the perfection of the scriptures . . to the wisdom and faithfulness of christ , debasing him herein below moses ; though the scripture in this respect prefers him before him . . diametrically opposite to the scripture instanced in , which stands as a two edged sword to cut the throat of their cause , in its approaches thereto for shelter : of which take this brief account ; the apostle having in the beginning of the chapter prest the church of corinth , to follow after spiritual gifts , but especially that they might prophesie ; the liberty of the saints therein being fully asserted , and several directions thereabout given , he condemns their disorderly practice , in respect of this important duty and priviledge , ver . . and gives direction touching its regular performance ; and this he doth , first , generally , ver . . let all things be done to edifying , which with a little alteration he represses , ver . . let all things be done decently and in order . secondly , particularly , by telling them how they ought to manage this affair in a way of decency , order , and edification ; wherein several rules are comprised , too long to be here insisted on , as in cases of speaking in an unknown tongue , ver . , . of prophesying by two or three , ver ▪ , . of the duties of women , with respect thereunto , ver . , . that from hence a power invested in the church for the binding of the consciences of men , touching ceremonies in worship , should be regularly deduced , is the first born of improbabilities and absurdities . . paul speaking by an infallible spirit of prophecie , advises the church of corinth , that all things be done decently and in order ; therefore persons that have not , pretend not to such a spirit , may of their own heads bind our consciences by laws and rules of their own in the service of god. . paul doth not only tell them , that all things ought to be done decently and in order ; but discovers to them , wherein that decency and order lies ; therefore the church hath power to determine in this matter , are such non-sequiturs as will not in haste be made good . i reply , as the argument is framed by me , there is moment in the objection , which is not built upon the principle he expresseth , but this ; that however christ hath not only commanded , but also determined in generals in the scripture , how the affairs of his house should be managed with decencie and order ; yet in many particularities he hath not determined how the worship of god and rule of his church should be managed with decencie and order ; as whether at the communion there should be a table spread with a linnen cloth , the service begin with a recital of the institution , or prayer ; publike prayer begin with confession of sin , or thanksgiving , or profession of our faith ; seating of persons in the meeting be with respect to their civil degrees , or sexe , or promiscuously ; sermon begin at the reading of the text , and prayer be after or before ; these with many more are indeterminate by christ or his apostles in the scripture , and yet are to be determined according to the rule of decency and order , either by each person himself in that which is private , or by rulers in that , which belongs to the community ; and obedience is due to the determinations of rulers in these things . and it seems to me ( to use this authors own phrase ) the first-born of improbabilities and absurdities , that god should charge parents to bring up their children in the nurture and admonition of the lord , eph. . . that we should first of all make supplications , prayers , intercessions , giving of thanks for all men , for kings , and for all that are in authority ; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty , tim. . , . that the bishop should be one that takes care of the church of god , tim. . . if these have no power in the worship of god , and rule of the church to make constitutions about things undetermined , or that they may without any sin be disobeyed . for as for the exception , as if such power reaches only to things civil not ecclesiastical , the contrary is proved by bishop sanderson in his sixth lecture about the obligation of conscience . nor is there any derogation to the perfection of scripture , or the faithfulness of christ by such a grant . for the sufficiency of the scripture being in affording doctrines of faith and rules of life , if as able to make a man wise unto salvation through faith in christ jesus , as the apostle speaks , tim. . . its perfection is acknowledged , there is no lessening of its use , though it be said , that notwithstanding its sufficiency to its end ; yet laws domestical , civil , national , ecclesiastical , are necessary to be added for good order and government . and the faithfulness of christ , heb. . . is not placed in determining every particularity in worship , ( yea , he was faithful in that he did not ) for then he should have put upon us such a yoke , as moses bid , contrary to his office , joh. . . but in that he discharged the work his father had appointed him as our high priest , in suffering and interceding for us ; and as the apostle of our profession , in teachinng us the counsel of god fully in the doctrine of the gospel , and that above moses , as being not as a servant in gods house only as moses , but as a son over his own house . and it is to be considered what bishop sanderson observes , that if christs faithfulness must have been extended to the determination of all particularities equally to moses , he must have set down all particularities of civil government , as moses did in the judicial laws of the jews , and so those laws must be observed ( as some have attempted ) and the common law of england must be evacuated ; and a yoke put upon our necks , from which christ hath freed us . and therefore a good argument is hence deducible , that god would have the ordering of things undetermined left to governours , because otherwise christ should not have been faithful as moses , sith he hath not determined them ; yea should have been unfaithful if he had , sith it was the will of god that christians should not have such a yoke of rites put upon them , as moses did put upon the jews , acts . , ▪ gal. . , , , . but the text cor. . . requires more consideration , sith he saith it is diametrically opposite to that principle it is alledged to establish , which is but a meer dictate of his , for which he brings no proof : for neither is his account of the apostles dissertation right , it being not true , that he asserts the liberty of the saints in prophesying ; as if prophesying were the liberty of the saints as such , which was the peculiar gift of prophets , v. , . which now the saints have not , no● can now claim , as many do arrogantly , as if it were their liberty , inferring from v. . that because it is said , he that prophesieth , speaketh unto men to edification , and exhortation , and comfort ; therefore every one that speaketh unto men to edification , and exhortation , and comfort , did prophesie ▪ which is like as if , because it is said , cor. . . charity edifieth ; therefore it should be inferred , that whatever edifieth is charity ; nor is it right , that the apostle , v. . represseth his direction , v. . that being another direction , and a general one after and besides the particulars , v. , , , , , . nor if it were as he saith , is there any thing to prove , that all the particular wayes of decency , order , and edification , are there set down ; or that none are permitted to the care of after-rulers . nor is the argument , as i have framed it , evacuated ; who have not endeavoured to prove thence a power invested in the church for the binding of the consciences of men , touching ceremonies in worship , but do wave the controversies about the ceremonies of the cross , surplice and kneeling ; about which the writings of bishop morton , burges , ames , and others are extant ; nor do i alledge the words as doctor hammond expounds them , rendring 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , according to appointment ; in which he is opposed by mr. jeans : but only thus argue , there 's a general rule after divers particulars instanced in , left by the apostle in the close of his dissertation , which were of no use , if he had set down all wayes of decency and order , and left none to be determined by others ; therefore yet there remain particularities of decency and order about divine worship and church-rule to be determined by men : which that it belongs to rulers , i gathered from other places . as for the arguments as he frames them , i know none that avows them , neither do i think any doth express himself thus , paul speaking by an infallible spirit of prophesie adviseth the church of corinth ; for though i doubt not but paul spake by an infallible spirit in that advise , yet that is fitter to be termed apostolick than of prophesie : nor do i conceive any of them whom he opposeth would unadvisedly thus conclude , persons that have not , pretend not to such a spirit , may of their own heads bind our consciences by laws and rules of their own in the service of god : nor do i think any would say , paul doth not only tell them , that all things ought to be done decently and in order ; but discovers to them , wherein that decency and order lies . for they conceive this false , except about the point of prophesying in that place , and that the apostle gives only a general rule , and leaves the particularities of decency and order to be determined by others , chiefly rulers : nor would they thence inferr , therefore the church hath power in this matter ; but rather thus plead , that which belonging to decency and order is commanded in general , but not in the particularities determined , is in respect of communities left to be determined by their rules : but so is the apostles command , cor. . . therefore , &c. the major rests on this , that what is to be determined in or for a community , is supposed to belong to their rulers . this author goes on thus : sect. all particularities of decency and order in things sacred , are not determined in scripture . but let this be granted , suppose that 't is the priviledge and duty of the church to make laws and constitutions , for the binding of the consciences of men in matters of decency and orders ; this church herein is bounded by the scripture , or it is not : if it be ( for which he cites in the margin these words of , macovius in loc . com . cap. . p. . the laws by which the governours of the church are to judge , are such as are prescribed in the word of god ) bounded by the scripture , then when it hath no prescription therein for its commands , it s not to be obeyed , and so we are where we were before , that decency and order is to be determined by the scripture : if it be not bounded thereby , then whatever ceremonies it introduceth not directly contrary thereunto , they must be subjected to ; which how fair an inlet it is to the whole farrago of popish inventions , who sees not ? answ. i say not , 't is the priviledge and duty of the church to make laws and constitutions for the binding of the consciences of m●n in the matters of decency and order ; but that the particularities of decency and order not determined in scripture may by canons to that end , be prescribed ; the general rules in scripture , the laws of nature , right reason , other laudable customs and just laws being duely observed ; and that persons are to obey them , not as bound in conscience directly , and by the things themselves , but indirectly and by accident , ; because appointed by rulers , to whom god requires obedience in those things : which being rightly understood , both horns of the dilemma are avoided , they being bounded in the scripture , in the general are to be obeyed as other humane laws ; and the particularities not being there determined , the wayes of decency and order not determined by scripture , are to be received : and yet it follows not that whatever ceremonies rulers introduce not directly contrary to scripture , must be subjected to ; much less a fair inlet made to the whole farrago of popish inventions . for if indirectly they be contrary to scripture , or otherwise hurtful , or not subservient to the ends of such laws , or become by reason of their number or imposition , such a yoke as christ hath freed us from , there may be a relaxation from them , more than from other humane civil laws ; and for all , or some of these reasons , the whole farrago of popish inventions is to be excluded , though other ecclesiastical laws of the church of england be subjected to . wherein i meddle not with the question about the ceremonies controverted , and therefore may let pass that which this author adds ; yet were this also yielded them , they were never a jot nearer the mark aimed at , except it can be proved , that supposing a power of introducing ceremonies to be invested in the church , thence a power for the institution of new orders and ordinances , the introducing of heathenish , jewish , and superstitious practices in the worship of god , may be evinced ; there being no necessity that in answering his argument i should avouch the imposition or use of those ceremonies , which the non-conformists argue against . nor need i reply to what he adds : and yet should all this be yielded them , none of which will they be able to prove to the worlds end ; how will they manifest those lordly commands and constitutions are the constitutions of a truly constituted church of christ , ( a strong supposition hereof is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the present objection : ) and yet sail they in the making good their ground herein : who sees not that their plea hitherto impleaded sinks of it self ? sith i neither plead for the constitutions of the church of england in particular ; nor is it my supposition , that only the constitutions of a constituted church of christ bind in things of divine worship and church rule , and therefore my answer and position need not sink for want of making good this plea. and accordingly might put him off to others to answer his impertinent questions , what is it then they mean by the church , whose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we are without disputing to subject to ? is it the national church of england ? but where find they any national church of the institution of christ , in the oeconomie of the gospel ? how prove they that the church of england is so ? nevertheless , i may say i know not any that hold concerning the church of england that its 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 proper opinions are to be subjected to , without dispute ; though the romanists hold it of the church of r●me : and for a national church i refer him to what is before in answer to his preface , sect . . but there are more questions behind . yet should this also be granted , where are the constitutions and laws of this church , that we may pay the homage to them as is meet ? which question he might answer himself , who in this chapter cites so many of the canons of the church of england . but he yet enquires , when was it assembled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the same place together , in its several members freely to debate , ( cor. . . and . ) and in the margin , maccovius in loc . com . append . de adi . p. . things indifferent , he tells you , ought not to be introduced into the church , but by the common consent thereof , according to acts . ) determine what laws and constitutions were fit to be observed by them ? to which i answer , the church of england was assembled at london , anno . in its several members by deputation freely to debate things , as was the usage in the synods of ancient and later times , and even in new england at cambridge , there about the antinomian opinions in mr. welds history ; in england in the assembly at westminster , of the congregational churches by their elders and messengers in their meeting at the savoy , octob. . . which kind of meeting must be allowed as the meeting of the whole church , which they represent , there being no other way , in which orderly many particular churches throughout a nation can convene and debate freely , either points of doctrine or discipline , than by such deputies ; and therefore as the whole kingdom is said to meet in the parliament , so the whole church may be said to meet in their synod . nor is there any thing against this , in cor. . or cor. . . unless it be supposed , that all those must meet to debate matters of doctrine and discipline , who did then meet for worship , which is not to be said : for then in such things women also must have a voice contrary to the apostles resolution , cor. . . and the practice of all the churches . as for act. . the synod was about a point of doctrine , and though it be said , ver . . that it pleased the apostles and elders , with the whole church , to send some to antioch ; yet the whole church is not likely to be meant of every particular member , but as acts . , . acts . , . and elsewhere , by the multitude , or whole church , is meant a great part or indefinite number . however those from antioch , mentioned acts . . were not many , and therefore if that synod be a pattern for after times ; yet it cannot be a rule in respect of the number of persons convening , when churches are so increased , or so far distant one from another , as that they cannot commodiously meet in their multitudes or debate orderly , but must of necessity act by deputies , and their constitutions are to be taken as the constitutions of the whole church , for whom they appear . but this author excepts : if it be said , that this is not requisite , it is enough that it be assembled in its several officers , or such as shall be chosen by their officers , whose laws every member is bound to be obedient to . we answer , but these officers are the church , or they are not ; if they are not ( as there is nothing more sure ) i owe no subjection to their laws or constitutions , it being pleaded , that 't is the church that hath only power in this matter : if they are the church , let them by one scripture prove they are so : or where the true officers of a true church are so called , and as nonius saith out of n●vius to them , dum vivebo fidelis ero . yet except this also be yielded them , there is nothing of moment in the objection produced . answ. the objection , as it is by me made , is not the plea as here is supposed . the power in this matter , is by me ascribed to rulers , and texts requiring obedience to them have been produced ; and notwithstanding this authors exceptions , there is something of moment in the objection ; and the speech is not made good , that the present ministers of england , submit , own , and subscribe to laws and constitutions that are not in any sense of christ revealing ; nor if it were , doth it follow , therefore they oppose the kingly and prophetical office of christ. sect. . it 's not proved , that the ministers of england , own constitutions contrary to the revelation of christ. he goes on thus : but this is not all . ly . the present ministers of england do own , submit , and subscribe to laws , constitutions , and ordinances , that are contrary to the revelation of christ , whence an opposition to the kingly and prophetical office of christ , may rationally be concluded . this also by the induction of a few particular instances , will be evinced beyond exception . answ. four things are here undertaken : . that the particular instances , stand by laws and constitutions . . that these laws , constitutions , and ordinances , are contrary to the revelation of christ. . that the present ministers of england , do own , submit and subscribe to them . . that from thence an opposition to the kingly and prophetical office of christ , may rationally be concluded . in which , how he hath failed , will be apparent by the view of what he alledgeth . they own , saith he , and acknowledge , . that there may be other arch-bishops , and lord-bishops in the church of christ , besides himself : which is contrary to pet. . . cor. . . ephes. . . heb. . . luke . , . answ. that there may be other arch-bishops and lord-bishops in the church of christ besides himself , is acknowledged by the present ministers of england , but not in the sense in which christ is called the chief shepherd , pet. . . or the same lord , cor. . . or one lord , ephes. . . or the apostle and high priest of our prosession , heb. . . or lordship is forbidden , pet. . . luke . , . they are not acknowledged arch-bishops over the whole church , as the pope ; but in their own province : nor are they termed arch-bishops , as if other bishops had their authority from them , as the pope claims ; but they only have a primacy or precedency , with some other prerogatives , by that title . nor are they , or other bishops , made lords , as christ , over the whole church , or have such dominion ascribed to them over the church they oversee , as is forbidden , pet. . . luke . , . and is usurped by popish bishops ; but are lords only by the kings grant , as is said before in answer to chap. . sect. , . not in the church of christ , but in the kingdom and parliament ; and therefore this acknowledgement is not contrary to the revelation of christ ; there being no contrariety , or contradiction , unless there were an opposition in the same respect , as logicians determine christ is said , tim. . . to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the only dynasta , or potentate ; and yet without contrariety , or contradiction the eunuch , acts . . is termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dynasta or potentate , as in the reading in the margin of our translation . but were there contrariety , yet it is not shewed , that what is acknowledged is a law , constitution , or ordinance ( which do usually determine not what may be , but what shall and must be ) nor that ministers own it by subscription . . that men may and ought to be made ministers , only by these lord-bishops : which is contrary to heb. . . john . , . and . . and . . act. . . with . , . answ. it is true , it is acknowledged by the present ministers of england , that men may be made ministers by these lord-bishops ; but not that they may and ought to be made ministers only by these lord-bishops ; sith ministers are allowed , who are made by suffragan bishops , who are not lords ; and for the churches reformed , of foreigners dwelling in england ministers made by presbyters only . but this is not a law , constitution , or ordinance to which ministers subscribe ; nor if they did , is there any contrariety therein to the revelation of christ. heb. . . it is said , and no man taketh this honour , that is , of being high-priest , unto himself , but he that is called of god as aaron . but this is impertinently alledged , being not spoken of the gospel ministery ; but of the priesthood of the law , and the high-priest , and of his calling by god immediately ; and therefore , if that which the ministers acknowledge be proved contrary to the revelation of christ by this text , the making of m●nisters in congregational churches by their eldership is alike contrary , sith they are not called of god as aaron . of the impertinency of john . , . enough is said before in the answer to chap. . sect. . joh. . . he that receiveth whomsoever i send , receiveth me . is no more contrary to bishops ordination , than to presbyters , john . . speaks not at all of making ministers , but of the way whereby christians have access to god of acts . . and . , . enough hath been said in answer to chap. . sect. . . that prelates , their chancellors , and officers , have power from christ to cast out of the church of god , contrary to mat. . , . cor. . . answ. that there is a law , ordinance , or constitution of this , to which ministers subscribe , i finde no● . of the texts mat. . , . cor. . . enough hath been said in answer to the preface , sect. . to chap. . sect. . whence the impertinency of the alledging these texts may appear . . that the office of suffragans , deans , canons , petty-canons , prebendaries , coiristers , organists , archdeacons , commissaries , officials , parsons , vicars , and curates are lawful and necessary to be had in the church , evidently contrary to cor. , . rom. . . ephes. . . the officers instituted by christ are sufficient for the edification and perfecting of the saints , till they all come unto a perfect man , unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of christ , ver . , . in what sense the forementioned , being not one of them of the institution of christ , may be owned as lawful or necessary , without an high contempt of the wisdom and soveraignty of christ , cannot by such dull persons as my self he conjectured that any others see them any way useful to the church of christ , may be imputed to such a sharp-sightedness as was that of caius caligula , to whom , when he enquired of vitellius , whether he saw him not imbracing the moon ? 't was answered solis ( domine ) vobis-diis licet se invicem videre . answ. where this imagined law , ordinance , or constitution is , or when and how the present ministers do own , acknowledge , submit , and subscribe to it ( as this author suggests ) is not here shewed by him , nor do i know where to finde it . o● the office of so many of these , as are ordained presbyters , or priests ( as the term is in the english liturgy ) enough hath been said in answering the chapter , sect. , . &c. that though their names are various ; yet their office is the same with some of those who are of christ , cor. . . rom. . ephes. . . and consequently lawful and necessary ; the rest are not reckoned among the orders of ministry in the church , but counted services , which are acknowledged not necessary ; and whether they be useful or not , it matters not in respect of the present enquiry , if there be no law , constitution , or ordinance to make them lawful and necessary to be had in the church , which the ministers subscribe to , as i think there is not . . that the office ●f deacons in the church , is to be imployed in publick praying , administration of baptism , and preaching , if licensed by the bishop thereunto ; contrary to act. . . ephes. . . answ. that at first the institution of deacons was to serve tables , acts . . not to preach the word of god ; yet steven and philip being imployed in preaching , and philip in baptizing , it is not contrary to christs revelation in those texts or any other , that they should be imployed in those works . . that the ordinance of breaking bread , or the sacrament of the lords supper may be administred to one alone ; as to a sick man ready to die : which is diametrically opposite to the nature and institution of that ordinance , cor. . . and . . mat. . . act. . . and . . answ. the communion is in time of infectious diseases allowed to be administred to one only besides the minister , which whether it be fit to be done , is left to the minister . that it is diametrically opposite to the nature and institution of that ordinance , is not easily proved . cor. . . a communion is proved in that sacrament , but ver . . and cor. . . rather proves the communion to be therein with all believers throughout the world though absent , than only with the present partakers ; and if so , though but two joyn , the minister and the sick man , the communion there meant is held with all christians , the meaning and intent of the apostle being to shew that by partaking thereof , they shew themselves of one body or community with all christians , and so may not partake of the table of devils , ver . . christ did institute the lords supper to his disciples ; but that so many or a number above two are necessary , so as that otherwise it should not have the nature of that sacrament , cannot be thence inferred . cor. . . acts . . do prove it should be administred , when all communicants come together ; but whether it want the nature of the sacrament , if but two be together , specially in a case extraordinary , may be questioned . as acts . . it is said , they continued in breaking of bread ; so ver . . it is said , they did it from house to house ; therefore not the whole church in jerusalem brake bread in one house , but by companies in several houses , and so as they could commodiously , which is an argument , that the smalness of the number takes not away the nature of the sacrament , if the thing appointed by christ be done . sect. . a prescript form of words in prayer devised by man , is not contrary to rom. . . cor. . . . that a prescript form of words in prayer , a ceremonius pompous worship , devised by man , and abused to idolatry , is according to the will of god , and may lawfully be used under the new-testament dispensation ; contrary to mat. . . and . . john . . deut. . . jer. . . rom. . . cor. . . answ. that which the present ministers own and subscribe to , as containing in it nothing contrary to the word of god , and that it may lawfully be used , with promise to use it , is the book of common-prayer . this author impeacheth it as contrary to the will of god , and not to be lawfully used under the new-testament dispensation . . because there is a prescript from of words in prayer . . the worship is ceremonious . . that it is pompous . . devised by man. . abused to idolatry . what part of it is , or was abused to idolatry should have been expressed . if he mean kneeling at the lords supper , that is his tenth instance to be considered again , if that which is said already in answer to this chapter sect. . be not sufficient ; if he mean the whole book , because out of the popes portuis , that is answered before , in answer to chap. . sect. . his allegation of jer. . . seems to be brought to prove it unlawful to use any thing in the worship of god abused to idolatry . but it is so impertinent , that were any conscience made how scripture is applyed , or shame to abuse readers with texts impertinent , it had been omitted ; it being only a prediction of the ruine of the city of babylon , not of the temple of the idol , that it should not be built again , by reason of the opression and idolatry of the inhabitants , not a prohibition to the jews , that they should not use the stones of babylon , to build a temple to god at jerusalem , because abused to idolatry . why the worship of the common prayer is termed ceremonious , or pompous , is left to be ghessed . if he mean it , as it is used in cathedrals and collegiate churches and chappels , there is no constitution for it as such , to which ministers are required to subscribe ; if because of the ceremony of the surplice and cross , and the singing of psalms ; or because it is with external words and gestures , the first of these being an adjunct only to the minister , doth not make the worship it self ceremonius or pompous ; and the second being only a monitory sign annexed to a rite of worship is not fitly termed worship ; the third methinks should be allowed , as commanded ephes. . . col. . . external words and gestures if agreeable to the examples of holy men should not be excepted against , nor are they contrary to john . . which excludes only the legal shawdowy worship of the law , and that which is only external , and so hypocritical ; otherwise external worship is required , cor. . . but i suppose the chief exception is , that the ministers own and use a prescript form of words devised by man ; which he conceives contrary to the other texts alledged by him , how pertinently , is to be considered . to mat. . and deut. . . answer is made chap. . sect. . mat. . . requires teachers to teach disciples of christ to observe all that he hath commanded ; but proves not , that no prescript form of prayer devised by man , may be lawfully used . for then it would follow , that conceived forms of prayer may not be used , for they are devised by men , they are not immediately from gods spirit , as is apparent by the phrases , and matter oft times used ; nor are they commanded by christ , but rather a set form is commanded , to wit , the lords prayer , luke . . and therefore the use of a prescript form of words in prayer devised by man , is not contrary to christs revelation , mat. . . for all that christ hath commanded , may be observed by those who use it ; and it is more agreeable to christs command , to use one prescript form of words of prayer , which he hath directed mat. . , , . rom. . . is more impertinently alledged : for it is not said , the spirit helps our infirmities , by suggesting to us the form of words we shall use : but by making known what things we shall ask in his secret impulse on our spirits , not in ordinary motions of our tongues , and by exciting in us grones and sighes that are unutterable ; and therefore this text is so far from proving , that it is unlawful to use a prescript form of words in publick prayer , because of this promise of the spirit to suggest without meditation , such words as shall be spoken , that it is quite another thing which is here meant . first it is not meant of publick prayers , but of secret private prayers : secondly , it is not meant of private ordinary prayers ; but as cameron in his treatise of the nature and condition of the church , observes , the apostle distinguisheth some , and those singular prayers of believers from the rest ▪ to wit , when the minde constituted in anguish , and the same erected by trust in god , prayes , as wrapt beyond it self ; such as were moses his prayers , who when he is not said to have prayed in scripture , yet god so be speaks him , as if he had cryed ; to wit , the spirit did pray in moses , the understanding prayed not : the spirit , that is , the understanding conceived not distinctly the prayers . and cor. . . ( which is the other place cited by this author ) i will sing with the spirit , i will sing also with the mind . to wit , i believe none sings with the will ; for to sing is a work of the understanding ; but the apostle hath opposed the spirit to the understanding ; because the spirit in that place signifies the understanding so affected , as that it cannot distinctly explain what it hath conceived . therefore in the same chapter above he exhorts , that he who speaketh with tongues ( that is with the spirit ) pray that he may interpret ; that is , not only speak with the spirit but also with the mind . therefore it is manifest that the prayers rom . . cor. . . are meant of such as are in extraordinary raptures and ecstacies , such as the prophets sometimes had ; and st. paul speaks of cor. . , , , . and cannot be applied to the ordinary publike prayers of the whole congregation . thirdly , the help of the spirit cannot be meant of suggesting a form of words , because it is said , the spirit it self maketh intercession for us with groans unutterable ; and cor. . . is such praying in the spirit as may be without the understanding of him that prays or others , even such as he that occupieth the room of the unlearned cannot say amen to , seeing he understandeth not what the speaker saith . fourthly , the praying with the spirit is such as is unfruitful of it self , v. . and not to be affected of it self , nor can be a matter of duty , sith it is motus liberi spiritus , as the school-men speak rightly , a motion of the free spirit , such as lumen propheticum , prophetical illumination is , which is such a gift as that it may be our duty to use it when we have it , not our duty to acquire it . upon all which reasons it is apparent , that these texts are much perverted against the use of a prescript form of words in prayer devised by man , because of the spirits help , rom. . . praying in the spirit , cor. . sith they cannot be meant of ordinary publike prayers , and of praying in words unpremeditated , as immediately suggested by the spirit of god. sect . the admission of vitious persons to communion , justifies not separation . . that wicked and ungodly persons , and their seed , are lawful members of the church , and if they consent not willingly to be so , they may be compelled thereunto : contrary to psal. . . acts . , , . and . cor. . , . and . . answ. this author shews not where the law is , nor when or how the ministers subscribes to a constitution of this instance , not know i where to find either . it is said , psal. . . thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power . but it doth not therefore follow , that men may not be compelled by pecuniary mulcts , or other penalties , to come to common prayer or the communion . for however the question be resolved about liberty of conscience , and toleration in the new testament , yet david meant not that there must none be then compelled ; if so , neither asa nor josiah did well in urging the people to swear to cleave to god , and to stand to it , chron. . . if understood of the times of the new testament it proves that members of the church should be a willing people , but not that no other may be lawful members , or admitted or caused by commands of rulers , or penalties to joyn with the church in gods worship . for then it must be the duty of them that admit members into the church to know that they whom they admit are a willing people , which i think none now can do . it is true acts . . peter exhorted the jews to save themselves from that perverse generation of them that opposed christ , and v. . then they that gladly received his word were baptized ; and v. . the lord added to the church such as should be saved ; but how this proves that wicked and ungodly persons may not be admitted as lawful members of the visible church christian , nor compelled thereunto , i discern not . sure judas was admitted to the apostleship , and to the passover , if not to the lords supper ; ananias and saphira were taken as lawful members , simon magus baptized , we find none blamed for admission to the lords supper , of disorderly corinthians . and for compulsion from idolatrous worship , and other evils , if parents may correct these in their children , princes may do it in their subjects ; and if parents may by penalties compel their children to conform to true religion , so may princes . the separation , acts . is nothing to countenance the separation from the service and assemblies of the church of england : for that separation was not because of the presence of professed christians of vitious life ; but because of divers who were hardned and believed not , but spake evil of the way of christ before the multitude , and so endeavour to disturb them in the practice of christian religion . the words cor. . . whether we read it , be not unequally yoked , or unevenly ballanced to the other side with infidels ; and whether we expound it of marriage , or familiar converse , or ( as the words v. . what agreement hath the temple of god with idols , do plainly evince it to be meant ) do not joyn with the idolaters in their idol temples to eat there things offered to idols , which he had forbidden , cor. . , . to partake of the table of devils , cor. . . it is manifest from , v. . to be meant of professed infidels opposite to him that believeth , and therefore cannot be understood of not joyning in prayer and the lords supper with a professed believer , though of vitious life . nor can the separation from among men , v. . be understood of any other than professed infidels ; nor the the touching the unclean thing be any other then joyning in service of idols mentioned , v. . and therefore is manifestly impertinent to the separation from believers by profession in the service of god by reason of their personal wickedness . the last text cor. . . is less to the purpose : for what shew of consequence is there in this ? christians glorifie god for others professed subjection , or the subjection of their confession , or consent to the gospel of christ ; therefore wicked persons , and such as consent not willingly , are not to be taken for lawful members of the church , nor may be compelled thereto . it is added : . that women may administer the sacrament of baptism , contrary to cor. . . tim. . . matth. . , , . ephes. . . answ. that it is true that in q. elizabeths time baptism by women in supposed case of necessity , was in the english churches either tolerated or allowed ; and the like hath been in the lutheran churches , and mr. hooker in his fifth book of ecclesiastical policy , sect . saith somewhat for it ; yet since the conference at hampton court in the beginning of king james his reign to the rubrick of private baptism in the common prayer book , the words [ lawful minister ] were added , which still continue ; the baptism of women is not allowed by any constitution , nor owned by the present ministers that i know , and therefore this instance is unjustly here recited . yet thus much may be said , that notwithstanding women are excluded from any ordinary ministery of the word or sacraments in the church by the texts alledged , cor. . . tim. . . and from baptizing , mat. . , , . ephes. . . sith we find that philip the evangelist had four daughters that did prophesie , acts . . mention is made of the woman praying or prophesying , cor. . . we cannot exclude them from extraordinary ministry , when god gives such a gift ; nor , sith priscilla instructed apollos , acts . . can we exclude them from private teaching of the most able , if they be fitted thereto . sect. . receiving the lords supper kneeling , is not directly opposite to christs practice or precept , of the abstaining from appearance of evil , thess. . . . that the lords supper is to be received kneeling , which is directly opposite to the practice of christ , in the first institution thereof , mark . , , . and positive precept , as being what hath an appearance of evil in it ( being a gesture used by the papists in the adoration of their bread●n god ) thess. . . as also to the practice of the churches of christ for several hundred years after , to the time of the invention and the introduction of the popish breaden god ; not to mention its contrariety to the judgment and practice of most of the reformed churches ( if not all ) at this day . answ. this constitution and the subscription to it by the present ministers of england , cannot be denied ; nor that it hath been a great stumbling block to many persons , and as great a cause of separation from the communion , as it is ministred in the church of england , as any other thing . but that it is directly opposite to the practice of christ in the first institution of the lords supper , is denied by them . for though it is said , mark . . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which we translate [ as they sate ] yet it is denied ▪ that this gesture is mentioned as binding christians to the the same gesture in the use of the lords supper in subsequent times . . because this gesture seems not to have been of choice used by chris● , that thence he might prescribe the same gesture he used in the institution , making his example in this as a constant rule : but it seems rather to have been used occasionally , because it was instituted after the paschal supper , at which they used that gesture , as they did eat , mat. . . mark . . . because st. paul ▪ cor. . . where he saith , he delivered to them what he received of the lord , he omits the mention of christs gesture which he would not have done , if he had judged it binding and necessary to christians . . he mentions the night in which christ was betrayed , v. . that he took the cup after he had supped , v. . luke . ● . and it it is not judged necessary , that the lords supper should be either annually on the night in which he was betrayed , or weekly or monethly in the night , or after supper , no not though it be termed by the apostle the lords supper , cor. . . therefore with 〈◊〉 reason the gesture should be urged by them as obligatory . . if the gesture christ used be obligatory to christians , then they must use the self same gesture he used , but that was neither sitting nor standing , which are used by the opposers of kneeling ; but lying along on beds , as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used mark . . intimates , and is gathered from joh. . . and other relations of the use of those times , which i think will not be denied , it being by the learned generally acknowledged . see ainsworth on exod. . . and so kneeling is no more directly opposite to the practice of christ in the first institution thereof than other gestures ; nor however it be different from his practice then , can it be truly said to be directly opposite to his practice , unless he had commanded the gesture he then used to be observed , or forbidden by his practice at that time , kneeling . the positive precept thess. . . is urged very importunely , not only in this point of kn●eling at the lords supper , but also very frequently on many other occasions in sermons , writings , and conferences , to deterr persons , especially of scrupulous consciences and weak understandings , from any thing to which persons and practices are disaffected ; and therefore for the setling of such persons judgment , as are not averse to the unlearning their mistakes , as i did many years since in my book of scandalizing , cap. . sect . . somewhat fully open the meaning of that text , so i shall again with some enlargement in this place , it being no grievance to me to write the same things again , but necessary ; and so much the rather , because mr. henry jeans in his second edition of his tract upon this subject , gives me occasion to examine more exactly the meaning of this precept . the chief difficulty is concerning , . the translation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . . concerning the appearance of evil which we are to abstain from , and how far we are by that precept bound to abstain from it . . concerning the translation , it is doubted whether it should not be rather read , abstain from every kind or sort of evil , answering to genus and species , as cicero renders 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and as porphyry in his isagoge , aristotle , plato , and other logicians use it . that it may be so , saith mr. jeans , mat. flac. illyricus and beza determine ; that it is so , the syriack interpreter , and after him faber , and after them our own great and learned doctour hammond resolve . but i would fain know upon what ground they are thus singular against the current both of an ancient and modern expositors . wherein he might have been satisfied from dr. hammonds own words in his annot. on the place , where having said , the meaning will be from all sort , or the whole kind of evil , from all that is truly so , be it never so small , according to that in pirke avoth , be as careful in the keeping a light , as a heavy commandement : to this sense he cites st. basil on the beginning of the proverbs ▪ theophylact and leon●ius . but saith mr. jeans , it is used but four times in the new testament besides this place , and in none of them in a logical notion . it is true , and it is true also that in none of them it is taken in his sense for an appearance to the understanding , but either for the shape or representation to the sight , or the sight it self , as it is rendred , cor. ● . however it is sufficient for the justifying of the translation , that it is used in that notion not only in other greek authors , but also in ecclesiasticus ch . . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 two sorts of men , ch . . . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 three sorts of men , and in the lxx version jer. . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is rendred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 four kinds ; which acception is enforced by this reason , which out of st. basil dr. hammond thus expresseth the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , v. . try all things , being taken from merchants , that which is evil , v. . is opposed to that which will upon trial bear the touch , a good merchant will keep that which is good unadulterate metal , but will abstain from all kind of evil , or adulterate ; not from that which appears ill , if it be not ; for to what purpose then is his skill or touchstone ? but from that which is ill , what ever it appear . from all which a reason may be gathered for dr. hammonds exposition , and tremellius his interpretation out of the syriack , ab omni voluntate malâ fugite fly from every evil will ; or as in his marginal note , negotio malo , sive re malâ , evil business or evil thing ; and then kneeling at the lords supper will not be proved contrary to this precept , till it be proved to be of it self an evil thing , and not only what hath an appearance of evil in it . . but if it be yielded that it is to be rendred shew , or appearance , and not sort or kind , yet it may be doubted whether , as the vulgar and tigurin , it be not rather to be read ab omni specie mala , from every shew or appearance which is evil , rather than ab omni specie●mali , from every shew , or appearance of evil , though it be not evil . beza in his annotation on the place saith , we may also interpret it , ab omni specie malâ , from every evil shew or appearance , and that more usual . for otherwise it seems it had been to be written , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the article being adjoyned ; and the precept is then to abstain from that which is an appearance it self evil , not from an appearance not evil , but indifferent , and so not from kneeling at the communion . . for the appearance of evil that we are to abstain from , it may be doubted whether it be meant of an appearance in doctrine or in practice . chrysostome and the greek scholiast , and others apply it only to false doctrines , or lies of false prophets ; as if the apostle had said , though you are not to quench the spirit , v. . nor to despise prophesyings , v. . yet you are to trie all doctrines , and to hold that which is good , v. . and to abstain from that doctrine which appears evil . against this mr. jeans only objects , that an accurate and exact coherence is not necessary in those short precepts : and to understand the words of appearance in practice also suits well with the coherence . which i will not gain-say : but only say if this be granted , yet if the interpretation of abstaining from all appearance of evil in practice , be not necessary , but that it may be limited to doctrine , the allegation of it to prove that kneeling at the lords supper is an appearance of evil , from which we are to abstain , is not cogent , sith it is not in a point of doctrine to which this text may be limited , but in practice ; of which it is uncertain whether this text be meant , and therefore is not directly opposite to it , as is here asserted . . were it granted that this text is meant of the appearance of evil in practice , to which it is not denied interpreters of all sorts do apply it , yet it may be doubted whether the apostle means it of that which appears evil to another , or to a mans self . surely the words and series of the text do best suit with this interpretation , abstain from that which appears to your selves to be evil . for having said , try all things , whether doctrines you hear taught , or practices to which you are moved by your own thoughts or others examples or perswasions , to direct them what to do ; he adds , hold that which is good , that is , what you find upon trial to be good , and abstain from all evil appearance , or appearance of evil , which so appears to you upon your trial . which sense , as it hath the concurrence of good authors , so doth it seem to me to be the genuine meaning of the text. . because it best suits with the coherence and scope of the apostle . for it is plain that the apostle makes these two precepts of holding that which is good , and abstaining from every appearance of evil , the consequents of trying all things , to which it tends : for to what end should men try all things whether doctrines or practices , but that they may hold the one , and abstain from the other ? now as it is undoubted , that they are to hold fast that which upon trial appears to themselves to be good , not what appears to another : for to what purpose should they themselves trye , if they must hold what others think good , and not themselves ? so for evil , they should abstain from what appears evil to themselves who try , not what so appears to others . . the absurdities which follow on this ▪ that i must abstain from all that appears evil to another , seem great and unavoidable . . because it would require an impossible task : for it is impossible for me to know what appears to another evil , sith i cannot know his thoughts , and therefore cannot discern what appears to him good o● evil : nor , if i could know somewhat that appears evil to another , is it possible for me to know all that so appears ? and yet the apostle requires me to abstain from all appearance of evil , and that without exception of any man. which is made impossible , if understood of appearance to others in respect of the thing ; abstaining from all that appears evil to another being impossible , without destroying our being , the eating of our meat , clothing of our bodies , and doing other necessaries for our subsistence , appearing evil to some or other , either out of ignorance , hatred , prejudice , superstition , envy , or some other malignant quality , though the thing we do were never so right . . that which dr. hammond in his treatise of scandal , p. , . observes , that appearance of evil is so uncertain and unconstant a thing , that to abstain from it universim , cannot be the matter of any possible command , and that which is of ill report with one , or of evil appearance to one , may be of good report , and appearance of good to a thousand others , is considerable . for then a person must either do nothing , or act that which is appearance of evil to some , when it appears good to others and to himself , which must of necessity create innumerable perplexities , or rather impossibilities , if the apostles precept be so understood . nor am i satisfied with what mr. jeans saith , this fear will quickly vanish and be discovered to be idle and vain , when anon we shall explain that distinction of appearance of evil into real and imaginary . for ( besides that i conceive that no appearance of evil to another , can be said to be real , per se ex natura operis , from the nature and condition of the fact it self : when that of it self , and in its own nature , is a very probable sign of evil , as he explains it , p. . but that which is from actions of themselves sinful , and then we are not to abstain from them as appearances of evil , but as evil : all other appearances that are from actions lawful or indifferent , are but imaginary ; that is , from others misconceits and censures thereupon , and so his distinction as to this thing , is rather to be accounted vain and idle , than the fear he mentions ) were the distinction good , yet the fear will not quickly vanish nor be discovered to be idle and vain , sith if we must abstain from all appearance to others of our evil , we must abstain from all appearance of evil , whether it be real from the condition of our work of it self , or imaginary by accident through others interpretation , which must cause perplexities unavoidable without number . yea , . that may appear to be evil to others which is our necessary duty , as christs doctrine and actions did to the pharisees , the apostles preaching to the jews ; yea , to good men , as peters going in to cornelius , acts . , . the magistrates punishing some vices according to his duty , may seem evil to good subjects , the obeying laws of governours , commands of parents and masters do often seem evil to some that are sincere-hearted , but weak in judgment ; yea , the necessary defence of truth may be opposed and appear as evil to godly , learned , and otherwise judicious divines . if we must abstain from every appearance of evil to others we must abstain from these duties ; gods laws will cross one another , and we must infringe or suspend one , or otherwise be necessitated to sin : governours must revoke their laws , and subjects cease to obey gods laws ; and so all confusion and anarchy must follow . lastly , were the precept so meant , that we must abstain from every thing of ours , which is an appearance of evil to another , our christian liberty were evacuated ; there being nothing we do which will not appear evil to some or other , and many things lawful and indifferent , will appear evil , even to the best . it s true there are many cases in which we are to forbear our liberty ; of which , before mr. jeans his first edition of his treatise , i wrote in the fourth chapter of my book of scandalizing , but the forbearance of our liberty i did not ascribe barely to the appearance of evil to others , but to the scandal ; that is , ruine or harm to another consequent thereon . and to prevent the frequent abuse of the text , thess. . . i wrote thus , p . lastly if it were granted that the apostle for bids us to abstain from all that which appears to be evil to another , yet no interpreter that i meet with , understands it of such appearance of evil , as is conceited to be such upon some erroneous principles in him that conceives it to be such : or by reason of the meer phansie , or rigid austerity , or evil will , or such like cause of him that thinks it evil : but they usually apply it to such causes or signs of manifest evil , as are means of drawing to some notorious sin ; as going to hear a mass , which is a cause and sign of idolatry ; or wanton dalliance , which is a cause or sign of whoredom . and they apply hereto that saying of julius caesar , that caesars wife should be free not only from evil , but also from the suspition of it . so that even in their intent this scripture is not appliable to this purpose ; as if the apostle did prohibit a christian to use any thing that another thought evil , whether he thought so upon probable reason or no reason , upon some ground or none . and to speak truth , the application of this text in that manner , as it is by some , as if the apostle did forbid us the use of any thing though in different in it self , when it appears as evil to another , without any further restraint , is very absurd and so unreasonable , as that it will bring a yoke upon mens consciences impossible to be born , sith there is scarce any thing a man can do , but some or other infidel or christian , weak or strong in the faith ; orthodox or superstitious , will think it to be evil ; that saying by experience being found true , quot homines tot sententiae , so many men , so many minds : nor shall a mans own conscience only make a thing evil to him but the conscience of any other man in the world. out of all which i gather , that the ministers tenent or practice in receiving the lords supper kneeling , is not directly opposite to this positive precept , as being what hath an appearance of evil in it , unless it be in it self evil , or evil in their own opinion , or else a probable sign and cause of their adoration of the papists breaden god . whereas this author himself in this chapter , p. . does not say , though some would say , that kneeling at the lords supper smells very strong of the popish leven , and is but one peg beneath the adoration of their breaden god . in answering which passage , sect . . of this chapter , i shewed , that it could not be taken for such by any that will candidly and charitably interpret their actions , as for other reasons very clear and convincing , so from the words of the rubrick at the end of the communion , which i here subjoyn . whereas it is ordained in this office for the administration of the lords supper , that the communicants should receive the same kneeling , ( which order is well meant , for a signification of our humble and grateful acknowledgement of the benefits of christ therein given to all worthy r●ceivers , and for the avoiding such prophanation and disorder in the holy communion as might otherwise ensue ) yet , lest the same kneeling should by any persons , either out of ignorance and infirmity , or out of malice and obstinacy , be misconstrued and depraved ; it is here declared , that thereby no adoration is intended or ought to be done , either unto the sacramental bread and wine , there bodily received , or unto any corporal presence of christs natural flesh and blood . for the sacramental bread and wine remain still in their very natural substances , and therefore may not be adored ( for that were idolatry to be abhorred of all faithful christians . ) and the natural body and blood of our saviour christ are in heaven , and not here ; it being against the truth of christs natural body , to be at one time in more places then one . thus the common prayer book . that which is said , that the receiving of the lords supper kneeling , is a gesture used by the papists in the adoration of their breaden god , is denied by dr. john burges in his treatise of the lawfulness of kneeling in the act of receiving the lords supper , cap. . p. . & p. . of the rejoynder , where he thus saith : with us the bishops or ministers communicate kneeling as well as the people : but with the papists , the pope , when himself performeth the office , receiveth sitting , as being a type of christ , the mass priests receive standing reverently , by the canon of the mass : and for this he cites in the margin , ord. rom. apud b●bl . pat. col. ●om . . p. . colum. . liter . ● . edit . colon. . the people indeed receive it kneeling as we do , as did also the priest , till such time as the doctrine of transubstantiation b●got the canon of his standing , for fear of shedding ought . but i deny that kneeling in the very time of receiving , was ever in the church of rome any rite of , or for adoration of the sacrament it self , or any creature , and therefore not idolatrous . i deny not the errour of their minds , concerning that they received into their mouths . but i deny , that they ever intended adoration of the species at that moment of time when they took it in their mouths : but then turned themselves to god rather , to give him thanks , which was not uncomely . of which he gives three reasons . . because it was never yet enjoyned by any pope that they should then kneel . . in the mass there is no direction for adoration of the sacrament when it is received . . for that it is an incongruous thing in their superstition , to adore a thing which is not higher than their polls when they adore it , because they cannot be said to humble themselves to that which is lower than they can cast themselves . ( to this last reason nothing is returned by dr. ames in his triplic . ch . . p. . and dallaeus adv . lat . cult . l. . c. . id quod adoratur eo , à quo adoratur celsius ac sublimius aliquid esse debere insito à natura ipsa sensu omnes mortales confitentur , atque consentiunt . ) to which is to be added , that kneeling is used according to the common prayer book with prayer to god , and at the receiving of the wine as well as at the bread , which are not so with the papists , and therefore kneeling is not to be taken as adoration of the bread , as the papists do . and for that which is said , that the lords supper is to be received kneeling , is directly opposite to the practice of the churches of christ , for several hundred years after christ , to the time of the invention and introduction of the popish breaden-god ; it is denyed by the same dr. burges in that and other following chapters , by the bishop of rochester , paybody , and others , about which , and the judgment and practice of most of the reformed churches at this day , it is not necessary that i should make inquiry ; sith if it were so , yet it proves nor , that the present ministers of england , do oppose the kingly and prophetical office of christ , by their submitting to kneeling at the lords supper . sect. . forbidding to marry or eat flesh at certain times , are not characters of apostates , as tim. . . is meant . it is added , what should i mention the constitutions and canons before pointed to , wherein 't is forbidden to any to preach , not licensed by the bishops thereunto , to marry or eat flesh at certain times , with many more of the like nature ; all directly contrary to the soveraign edicts of christ , and some of them evident characters of the last dayes apostates , tim. . . from whom saints are warned by the lord to turn aside , ver . . these we have produced , carry an undeniable evidence with them , that the present ministers of england do own , submit , and subscribe to orders and ordinances , that are contrary to the revelation of christ , and therefore deny his prophetical and kingly office. answ. to that of forbidding to preach , answer is made in the examining this chapter sect. . forbidding to marry , and commanding to abstain from flesh at certain times upon politick considerations , or for the better observing a religious fast , are not characters of the apostates , tim. . . but may be justified by such passages of scripture , as jonah . . joel . . cor. . . dan. . . nor do i think the most zealous separatists , but would restrain from marriage and flesh , the members of their churches , in the times of solemn fasts , or would count it evil , that the magistrate forbids for civil ends , abstinence from some kind of food ; which being the case of the prohibitions of the civil laws of england , rather than the canons of the church , which make it not a sin against god to marry or eat flesh then , is unjustly made the character of apostates , tim. . . which is more justly charged on the monks and popish votaries , who account it sinful to marry ; as if it were unchastness , and more lawful to use concubines than wives for priests ; as if they joyned with pope siricius , terming such , persons in the flesh , and such as could not please god , and place more holiness in eating fish than flesh ; which sort of people are very accurately proved to be there characterized by mr. joseph mede in his book of the doctrine of daemons ; intituled , the apostasie of the later times . that the present ministers of england are such , or that precept which is ( not tim. . . ) tim. . . from such turn aside , belongs to them , is not proved by this author , nor that they do own , submit , and subscribe to orders and ordinances that are contrary to the revelation of christ , or deny his prophetical and kingly office. french protestants in the synod of charenton . chap. . art . . the church shall not solemnise marriage in the dayes on the which the lords supper is administred , nor on the dayes of a publick fast. see this crimination retorted on the separatists by paget in his arrow , ch . . sect . . p. . n. . yet he hath not done with this argument . sect. . no such headship is owned by the present ministers , as is a denial of christs offices . to all that hitherto hath been offered in this matter , we shall yet add , as a further demonstration of the truth we are in the disquisition of . arg. . those that acknowledge another head over the church beside christ , deny his prophetical and kingly office : but the present ministers of england do own and acknowledge another head over the church beside christ : therefore . if the assertion of another king in england , that as the head thereof hath power of making , and giving forth laws to the free-born subjects therein , be a denial of his kingly authority ( as no doubt it is ) the major ( or first proposition ) cannot be denied . if christ be the alone king of his church ( as such ) he is its alone head and lawgiver . if he hath not by any statute-law established any other headship in , and over his church , to act in the holy things of god , from and under him , besides himself ; who sees not the assertion of such an headship , carries with it a contempt and denial of his authority ? if there be any such headship of the institution of christ , let us know when and where it was instituted ; whether such a dominion and soveraignty over the subjects of his kingdom , with respect to worship , be granted by them to any of the sons of men , absolutely or conditionally : if the first , then must the church ( it seems ) be governed by persons casting off the yoke of christ , trampling upon his royal commands and edicts : for so it 's possible it may fall out those that a●tain this headship may do ; as it 's evident many popes of rome ( the great pretenders hereunto ) have done . if the second let one iota be produced from the scripture , of the institution of such an headship , with the conditions annexed thereunto , and we shall be so far from denying of it , that we shall cheerfully pay , whatever respect , homage , or duty , by the laws of god or man , may righteously be expected from us . but this will not , we humbly conceive , in hast be performed ; and that because . the scripture makes mention of no other head , in and over the church , but christ , ephes. . . & . , cor. . . . if there be any other head , he must either be within or without the church : the latter will not be affirmed ; christ had not sure so little respect unto his flock , as to appoint wolves and lions to be their governours and guides in matters ecclesiastical , nor can the former ; for all in the church , are brethren , have no dominion over each others faith or conscience , luke . . . if any other be head of the church but christ , then is the church the body of some others besides christ : but this is absurd and false , not to say impious and blasphemous . . there was no head of the church in the apostles dayes , but christ. . if any be head of the church beside christ , they either have their headship from an original right seated in themselves ; or by donation from christ. to assert the first , were no less then blasphemy ; if the second , let them shew when , and where , and how they came to be invested in such a right , and this controversie will be at an end . . he that is asserted in scripture to be the head of the church , is said to govern , feed , and nourish it to eternall life , is her spouse and husband , cor. . . in which sense , none of the sons of men , one or other , can be the head thereof ; and yet of any other head , the scripture is wholly silent . but of this matter thus far . it cannot by any sober person be denied , but an owning of a visible head over the church , having power of making and giving forth laws with respect to worship ( such an headship not being of the institution of christ ) must needs be a denial of his soveraign authority and power . answ. this author in this argument , seems to me , to hide his meaning , as they say the fish saepia doth , by casting out some black colour , whereby the water is infected , and she not discerned . a headship over the church besides christ's , he makes the present ministers to acknowledge in some of the sons of men , but who they are he means , what the headship is , and how it is opposite to christs kingly and prophetical office , is not plainly expressed ; nor in what subscription , oath , or conformity they own , and submit to it . headship is a metaphor , and sometime notes origination , vital influence , direction or guidance , superiority , power , authority , or government , which may be in many things . no minister i think gives such a headship to any of the sons of men , as to christ over his whole body , either so as to derive their being members , having their faith , or eternal life , or dominion over their consciences , or sovereign power , authority to rule or dispose of soul or body , as christ hath : and that which the bishop of rome claims over the universal church , is utterly disclaimed by the present ministers . the headship which is made a denial of christs headship , ascribed by the present ministers to some person on earth , is expressed in various phrases ; a headship in , and over his church , to act in the holy things of god , a dominion and soveraignty over the subjects of christs kingdom , with respect to worship , a visible head over the church having power of making and giving forth laws with respect to worship ; which it 's said they own by conformity in worship to laws and edicts , made and given forth by the sons of men , as heads and governours of the church , th●y own an headship ; that is , not in all things subordinate to christ , having a a law making and law-giving power touching institutions of worship , that never came into his heart , headship over the church to make laws , introduce constitutions of their own framing in matters relating to worship . this can be conceived to be ascribed by the present ministers to no other than the bishops , or convocation , or the king , whose supremacy in causes spiritual or ecclesiastical , seems to be that headship here meant by the answer to the second objection . what headship is ascribed to the bishops , or convocation , in making laws or constitutions about worship , to wit , the accidentals thereof undetermined , in order to the orderly decent performance of it to edification by the present ministers , hath been examined all along in the answer to this book , specially to the . and . chapters , sect. . and as yet no such headship is proved by this author to be ascribed by the present ministers , as amounts to a denial of the prophetical and kingly offices of christ : that the taking of the oath of the kings supremacie , or submission to his edicts about matters of worship , is not owning such a headship , is further to be cleared . and first i deny his major , that those who acknowledge another head over the church beside christ , by acknowledging the king as supream governour in causes ecclesiastical or spiritual ( as the oath of supremacy is proved by me in my book of the serious consideration of the oath of the kings supremacy , ought to be understood ) particularly that he , or with him the bishops or convocation , may make laws or constitutions in the accidentals of worship undetermined in scripture , observing the rules of order , decency , edification , deny christs prophetical and kingly office : and to the proofs of it , i answer : this author doth most injuriously suppose the power and authority asserted to the king of england in the oath of supremacie , to make laws or canons about the worship of god with the counsel of a synod , or convocation , or parliament , is making another king besides christ over his church . for there is no such thing acknowledged thereby , which is proper to christ ; to wit , to be the universal monarch of the whole church , to prescribe what faith or worship shall be given to god , to be infallible interpreter of gods will , and the supreme judge and lawgiver , who is able to save and to destroy ; or which is arrogated by the popes of rome , and thus acknowledged by hart the jesuite , in his conference with dr. john rainold in the tower of london , ch . . div . . in these words . the power which we mean to the pope by this title of the supream head is , that the government of the whole church of christ throughout the world doth depend of him : in him doth lye the power of judging and determining all causes of faith ; of ruling councils , as president , and ratifying their decrees ; of ordering and confirming bishops and pastors ; of deciding causes brought him by appeals from all the coasts of the earth ; of reconciling any that are excommunicate ; of excommunicating , suspending , or inflicting other censures and penalties on any that offend , yea , on princes and nations ; finally of all things of the like sort for governing of the church , even whatsoever toucheth either preaching of doctrine , or practising of discipline in the church of christ. which his practice sheweth to be such as to dispense with the laws of god , as by legitimating incestuous marriages , releasing of lawful oaths , granting indulgences , releasing out of purgatory , canonizing of saints , consecrating of things for the expulsion of devils , with many more ; and i● it be true which is related in a book lately printed , to have been asserted by the party of jesuites in the colledge of clermont in france , that the pope is not only infallible in matters of faith , but also in matters of fact , he is elevated to that height as to accomplish the prophesie which is , thess. . . but the present ministers of england do abhorr the giving such power to the king , bishops , or convocation ; yea , it is disclaimed by the king , bishops , and convocation , as blasphemous ; and that power they ascribe to the church , is set down in the . article of religion , every particular or national church hath authority to ordain , change , and abolish ceremonies , or rites of the church , ordained only by mans authority , so that all things be done to edifying . and that which they acknowledge belonging to the king as the only supreme governour of the realm of england , and of all other his highness dominions and countries , as well in all spiritual or ecclesiastical things or causes as temporal , is thus explained : artic. . we give not to our princes the ministring either of gods word , or of the sacraments ; the which thing the injunctions also lately set forth by elizabeth our queen do most plainly testifie : but that only prerogative , which we see to have been given alwayes to all godly princes in holy scriptures by god himself , that is that they should rule all estates and degrees committed to their charge by god , whether they be ecclesiastical or temporal , and restrain with the civil sword the stubborn and evil doers . which is so far from being no other than the headship pleaded for by the church of rome , ( as this author saith , p. . ) that to shew the calumny of it , i need use no other words than those of dr. john owen in his answer to a popish book , entituled , fiat lux , ch . . p. . the declaration made in the dayes of king henry the . that he was head of the church of england , intended no more , but that there was no other person in the world from whom any jurisdiction to be exercised in this church over his subjects might be derived , the supream authority for all exteriour government being vested in him alone ; that this should be so , the word of god , the nature of the kingly office , and the ancient laws of this realm , do require . and i challenge our author to produce any one testimony of scripture , or any one word out of any general council , or any one catholick father or writer to give the least countenance to his assertion of two heads of the church in his sense ; an head of influence , which is jesus himself ; and an head of government , which is the pope , in whom all the sacred hierarchy ends : this taking of one half of christs rule and headship out of his hand , and giving it to the pope , will not be salved by that expression thrust in by the way under him ; for the headship of influence , is distinctly ascribed unto christ ; and that of government , to the pope ; which evidently asserts , that he is not in the same manner head unto his church in both senses , but he in the one , and the pope in the other . i add that mr. philip nye in his book of the lawfulness of the oath of supremacy , and power of the civil magistrate in ecclesiastical affairs and subordination of churches thereunto , printed . though not published , hath these words , p. . for persons and causes spiritual or ecclesiastical , that are properly and indeed such ; as first table-duties , which contain matters of faith and holiness , and what conduceth to the eternal welfare of mens souls : an interest and duty there is in the civil magistrate more su● , to give commands , and exercise lawful jurisdiction about things of that nature . and for persons , there is no man for his graces so spiritual , or in respect of his g●fts and office , so eminent , but he is under the government of the civil powers in the place where he lives , as much in all respects as any other subject . yea , in the apology of the brownists , printed . these words are alledged for their common defence out of the letter of henry barrow to a lady ; . p. . i have every where in my writings acknowledged , all duty and obedience to her majesties government , as to the sacred ordinance of god , the supreme power he hath set over all causes and persons , whether ecclesiastical or civil , within her dominions . out of these things i infer , that asserting the kings supremacy , or the power of making laws owned by the ministers of england , is not making another king besides christ over his church , nor ascribing such a headship to the king , or governours of the church , as is pleaded for by the church of rome ; and that for the kings supremacy , those that dissent about ceremonies and church government do acknowledge it as it is meant in the oath taken by the ministers . concerning which supremacy , if what i have written in the little treatise printed . intituled , a serious consideration of the oath of the kings supremncy , in the proof of the fourth and fifth propositions , be not sufficient to produce from the scripture , the institution of such an headship with the conditions annexed thereunto ; methinks dr. rainold his argument , which convinced hart in the conference with him , ch . . div . . and such other writings as have been written by bilson , mason , bramhall , and many more , should have prevented this calumny of making thereby another head besides christ equivalent to a denial of his kingly office. and to his objections , i answer , . to the first , that we use not the title of head , but supreme governour ; yet when it was used , it meaning the same , it might be used as it was given to saul , sam. . . though not as it it is given to christ , ephes. . . and . , cor. . . nor is the title of head so appropriate to christ , but that it is given to the man over the woman , cor. . . to the husband over the wife , ephes. . . and may , in a qualified sense in respect of government , be given to the king over the church in his dominions , as to saul , sam. . . to the chief of families , as parents or others of greatest authority or esteem ; as the heads of houses , exod. . . in which sense parliament men , judges , ecclesiastical governours , may be termed heads of the church or state they represent , or are subject to them . to the second , though all in the church are brethren , have no dominion o● authority over each others faith or conscience ; yet neither are all equal in the church , nor doth luke . . prove it . the apostles sure had power over the members of the church to command , cor. . . to give orders , cor. . . to judge , cor. . . though no superiority over one another . and though the king , and bishops , or convocation are brethren ; yet are they superiours , rulers , rom. . . heb. . . and though they have no dominion or authority over each others faith or conscience , so as that their laws shall bind the conscience immediately , and must be obeyed as precisely and fully , as the laws of god and christ ; yet their laws , edicts , commands , canons , or rules , even in the worship of god , in things undetermined by god , and according to such rules , as the scripture directs them to observe , bind in some sort the conscience ; as the commands of parents and masters by virtue of the authority given them by god , rom. . . peter . , , , , . though not in respect of the things commanded by them . to the third , the church is not the body of any other than christ as joyned to any , or depending on any , or subject to any absolutely as unto christ ; yet may particular churches in respect of that ministration and government which their governours afford them , be said to be the bodies of their governors , as a wife is in some r●spect the body of her husband , ephes. , . nor is there any impiety or blasphemy in so saying : and in this sense the apostles and bishops or elders , were heads of the church in the apostles dayes , which answers the fourth . to the fifth , their headship is by donation from christ in the places often alledged ; and in answer to the sixth , though not as christ is termed the husband of believers , cor. . . can any be termed husband , nor to govern , feed and nourish to eternal life , as christ by influence of his spirit , or power to give eternal life , cor. . john . . nor their father , as god is said to be ephes. . . cor. . . jam. . . joh. . . yet the apostles and all others may be in a qualified sense , who are instruments to convert or build up others by the word or discipline , be termed their fathers in christ , cor. . and to govern , feed , and nourish them to eternal life , as thess. . , . the apostle saith of himself : whence i conclude , in answer to his major , that notwithstanding what he hath said , it may by a sober person be denyed , that an owning of a visible head , or heads over the church , having power of making and giving forth laws with respect to worship , as the king , parliament , bishops , or convocation do , may be no denial of christs soveraign authority and power . le ts view that which remains . sect. . conformity to laws opposite to christ's , proves not owning another king coordinate to him . that ( saith he ) the present ministers of england do own and submit to such an headship , is undeniable : witness their subscription , oath , conformity in worship , to laws and edicts , made and given forth by the sons of men , as heads and governours of the church ; which are not onely foreign to , but ( as hath been already demonstrated ) lift up themselves in opposition against the royal institutions of christ. this being matter of fact , the individuals charged herewith , must either acquit themselves by a denial of what they are impleaded as guilty , or prove what they do is not criminous , but lawful to be done . the former being too notoriously known to admit of a denial , 't is the latter must be insisted on : what is therein offered , is nextly to be considered . answ. though i cannot justifie all that the present ministers of england do in their subscriptions , and conformity , as if it were no way criminous , but in every thing lawful to be done ; nor perhaps will all of them plead so for themselves , as being mindful of the psalmists words , psal. . . who can understand his errours ? cleanse thou me from secret faults . yet for the oaths of supremacy and allegiance , which are the only oaths i know they have taken , as i have , so i do still plead , that the taking of them is not criminous , but may be lawfully done . and i further say , that were it yielded that the laws and edicts made and given forth by those sons of men , he means , as heads and governours of the church , not only foreign to but ( which i utterly deny he hath demonstrated ) that they lift up themselves in opposition against the royal institutions of christ , yet might the ministers be free from that which he chargeth them with , as denying christs kingly office , and setting up another king besides christ , as his peer ; sith it is clear , that such conformity and subscription may be out of weakness or errour , not out of faction or rebellion ; nor doth he who conforms or subscribes to the laws or edicts of an usurper own his power , when he yields subjection to his commands . those who obeyed the laws of richard the . of england , did not thereby acknowledge him to be the king of right : nor do all that submit to the decrees of the trent council , or the popes edicts , either own the one or the other as being just , or the power as rightly claimed : but for peace sake submit to what they cannot remedy . sect. . headship of the church under christ , is not monstrous . it is added : this is that some say , obj. . that they acknowledge another head besides christ , cannot indeed be denied : but the headship owned and acknowledged by them , is an headship only under christ. to which we answer : answ. . but this headship is either of christs appointment , or 't is not : if it be , let it be shewn where it was instituted by him , and ( as we said ) this controversie is at an end : if it be not , the assertion of such an headship , even in subordination to christ over his churches as such , hinders not ; but persons owning , submitting thereunto , are guilty of denying the kingly office of christ. . the headship pleaded for by the church of rome , is no other . . 't is not so , as is pretended , they own an headship that is not in all things subordinate to christ , having a law-making , and law-giving power touching institutions of worship , that never came into his heart , are flatly against his appointments , as hath been proved . . one head in subordination to another , doth as really make the body a monster , as two heads conjoined . answ. . the term [ head of the church ] is not used in the oath of supremacy , but supreme governour ; and this is agreeable to scripture , rom. . . tim. . . pet. . . and how out of these and other scriptures , his government is proved in that sense , in which it is asserted by the ministers , is shewed by me in my book of the serious consideration of the oath of the kings supremacy in the proof of the fourth and fifth propositions ; and if the church as the church be comprised under every soul , rom. . . they are governours of the church as the church ; that is , as they are a company of m●n that profess faith in christ. not as if we acknowledged that kings had a lawful power to prescribe another faith or worship besides christs ; but as physitians are said to be subject to the king as physitians , because he can prescribe rules with penalties in the use of that art they practise , according to hippocrates his aphorisms ; so the king is governour over the church as such , by prescribing rules about the profession and exercise of that faith and worship they learn only from christ , in things undetermined by him , and serving for the ends which they are to aim at . nor do i perceive that in so doing any more i● usurped by them , than is ascribed by this author unto the church , from mat. . , . mistaken by him ; and therefore owning such a power under christ , as given to the church , is as much a denial of christs kingly office , as when it is given to the king ; yea , it is more absurd to ascribe such a power to the church over the church as such , than to ascribe it to the king ; it being a confounding of governours and governed , head and body , which were monstrous . . though i deny not that the headship pleaded for by the church of rome , is pretended to be under christ , and the pope terms himself vicar of christ ; yet it is in the foregoing section shewed , that they usurp a power not only equal , but in some respects rather superiour to christs , in their dispensing with the keeping of lawful oaths , and allowing of incestuous marriages , none of which is claimed by those whom the ministers acknowledge as heads besides christ ; and therefore it is false , that the headship pleaded for by the church of rome , is no other than what the ministers own . . his proofs have been examined before , and shewed defective . . the terms head and body being used only metaphorically ; there 's no more monstrosity in making a head under a head , than in making a governour under a governour , used by st. peter epist . , . or making more fathers of the church one under another . sect. . the kings supremacy is such as was allowed the kings of israel . he ends this chapter thus . if it be said , object . . that the kings of israel were the heads successively , of the then church ; and therefore a visible headship over the churches of christ in the new testament is lawful . we answer , . that betwixt the oeconomy of the law and gospel , there is a vast disproportion ; many things were lawful in that day , which to do , or subject to now , were no less than a denial of christ come in the flesh . . the kings of israel were types of christ. . that the kings of israel were heads of the church , is false . god was its alone head and king. hence their historian saith , their government was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and when they would needs chuse a king , god said , they rejected him to whom even as to their political head , a sicle was paid yearly as a tribute , called , the sicle of the sanctuary . true indeed , as they were a political body , they had visible political governours , who when they ceased , their policy was at an end ; but that these had any headship over them to make any laws , introduce constitutions of their own framing in matters relating to worship , will never be proved . answ. . that there is any such disproportion between the oeconomy of the law and gospel , as makes the same power , which the kings of israel exercised lawfully , to be now unlawful to the kings of england , is falsely and vainly asserted ; sith there is nothing therein ceremonial and temporary , peculiar to the jewish oeconomy , as appears in that all nations have ascribed to their chief rulers dominion about things sacred , as is proved by me in the assertion of the fifth proposition in my book of the serious consideration of the oath of the kings supremacy , from that which is ascribed to cyrus , isa. . . and . . to the king of niniveh , jon. . , . and others , ezra . , &c. and . . &c. dan. . . & . . and that christianity alters not civil relations or estates , cor , . . parents and masters have the like power , ephes. . , . gen. . , . which things are more fully vindicated by mr. selden in his first book de syned . hugo grotius in his book de imperio summarum potestatum circa sacra , and others . . it is true , that david is made a type of christ , but that all the kings of judah , much less , that all the kings of israel are made types of christ ; or that christ alone was to have that power which they used , or that the kingly power used by them , ceased upon the coming of christ in the flesh , are all most palpably false ; sith the scriptures of the new testament do plentifully assert the dominion of civil powers , and our lord christ himself , and his apostles yielded subjection to them . . that the church of israel was different from the kingdom or people of israel , is one of the placita or proper opinions of those who would establish from that example an ecclesiastical independent government in the church distinct from the civil government of the state. but neither the arguments of mr. gillespy in his aarons rod blossoming , book . c. . nor any other i have met with , convince me that it was so . sure both david and solomon , and other kings did exercise power over ecclesiastical persons , as in deposing abiathar ; and in ecclesiastical things , about keeping the passover , chron. . . & . . and many other things , which were approved by god , being related in the holy story without reproof , as arguments of their integrity . and therefore if the kings of israel were , as it is said of saul , sam. . . heads of the tribes of israel , they were also heads of the church of israel , being governours of the same persons , whether of the tribe of levi , or of other tribes , and about the same things , to wit , those of the worship of god , though they were not to meddle with the peculiar ministry of the priests and levites . it is true , that god alone was the head and king of the church of israel in some sense . he was their sole , supreme , absolute king , that had power legislative to assign what faith , worship , judicatories , and what other things were necessary for that congregation , originally and of himself de jure communi , of right common to all nations , as their creatour ; and de jure speciali , out of right peculiar to that people , as being brought forth out of the land of egypt , lev. . . and being joyned in covenant with him , were not to set up a king over them without his appointment ; and de facto , he was actually their sole king ( till the people weary of samuels government , because of his sons iniquity , and out of fear of nahash king of the ammonites , desired a king as other nations ) because moses , joshuah , and all the judges were immediately chosen by god , and raised up extraordinarily for a time to do special services without ordinary succession ; and accordingly acted and ruled by extraordinary immediate motions and revelations from god ; in which respects the government of the israelites before sauls reign , was not unfitly termed by josephus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , gods rule ; and when they would needs chuse a king , or have samuel to make them a king to judge them like all the nations , sam. . , , . god said they rejected him , that he should not reign over them , v. . where the desire of having a king is not simply condemned as unlawful , nor because they desired a k●ng over the church as such ; as if they might lawfully enough have desired a king over them as a political head , but not as head of the church as such ; for neither is there any intimation of any such limitation of their desire ; but on the contrary , they desired that they might also be like all the nations , and that their king might judge them , and go out before them and fight their battels , sam. . . nor is there the least hint of any reprehension of their desire , that they would have a king over them , as a church , to appoint them religion and worship as other people ; neither was it spoken that they rejected god , as though the lord did not reign where there is set up a monarchical government ; for it is gods ordinance , and kings have their power and authority from him , according to that , prov. . , . by me kings reign , and princes decree justice , &c. and they are his deputies and lieutenants , by whom he ruleth . in which regard the people might have lawfully desired a king , if they had done it with upright hearts o● lawful grounds to good and warrantable ends , in a right manner , and in due time for the lord had promised , that when they were settled in the land of canaan , he would ( when he thought good ) set a king over them , out of whose loyns the messiah should come , and also sheweth how he would have him qualified , and what he required of him , deut. . , . and he had promised unto abraham , that kings should come out of him , gen. . . and jacob in his prophetical blessing saith , that the scepter should not depart from judah , nor a law-giver from between his feet , until shiloh did come , i. e. the messias , gen . . and david speaking of himself as a type of christ , saith psal. . . yet have i set my king upon my holy hill of zion . and therefore this is not simply condemned as a sin in it self to desire a king ; but because they did it with an ill mind , affecting innovation , as being weary of gods government which he had established , till himself pleased to change it ; and in a pr●posterous and tumultuous manner , before he had given any intimation of his pleasure , and to a wrong and evil end , that they might be like to the heathen nations ; and out of their confidence in a king , as able to protect them ; and their diffidence in god , as insufficient to defend them in his own way , unless he would be directed in a course of their prescribing ; and finally , because they would not wait upon him for the accomplishment of his word in his own due time , but with all importunity press him to do at their own pleasure . thus the assembly annotations . whence the impertinency of the allegation of this text either against kingly government , or their headship over the church is manifested . no● is it more to the purpose which is added , that to god even as to their political head , a sicle was paid yearly as a tribute , called the sicle of the sanctuary . for . if this payment be meant of that which is mentioned , exod. . , , , , . it doth not appear by the text , that it was a yearly tribute paid to god as their political head ; but a tax put on them when moses took the summ of the children of israel after their number , then they should give every man a ransome for his soul unto the lord when he numbred them , that there might be no plague among them ; half a shekel after the shekel of the sanctuary , the offering of the lord to make an attonement for the souls , which he was to appoint for the service of the tabernacle of the congregation , that it might be a memorial unto the children of israel . but if it be yielded that it was after made a yearly tribute , as the jewish doctors say , and a perpetual ordinance according to what mr. ainsworth on exod. . out of maimony cites , and that it continued so till the destruction of jerusalem , as josephus relates in book . ch . . of the jewish war ; yet this proves not , that it was paid to god under that notion as to their political head. it is true , that the tribute or custome called didrachma , that is , shekels mentioned mat. . , . is conceived by very many learned men to be that which was paid to the lord for the use of the temple as a tribute to him ; which is largely argued by cameron in his praelections on that text , with whom diodate , hugo grotius , dr. hammond concurr ; and before them hilarius cited by maldonat , who thinks it was paid to the romans , and cites hierome , bede , and of this mind are many others , as beza , piscator , pareus . but if camerons opinion were certain , yet it may seem rather to be paid to god as head of the church , then as a political head , as this author speaks ; sith it was paid for the service of the temple . . were that which this author saith , granted him , it should rather se●ve against him than for him . for if it were paid to god as their political head , it rather proves god to be the alone political head , and so against that which he saith , [ true indeed , as they were a political body , they had visible , political governours , who when they ceased , their policy was at an end ] than that god was the churches alone head and king , and that it is false that the kings of israel were heads of the church ; and therefore his sayings do interfer : that the kings of israel had a headship over them to make laws , introduce constitutions of their own framing in matters relating to worship , is conceived to be proved from chron. . , . & . . & . , , , , . & . , . with many more , which i find not yet to be enervated by the answers i have met with . i proceed to examine that which follows . chap. . arg. . sect. . false doctrine only makes a false prophet not to be heard . he thus writes , argument . those who have the characters and properties of false prophets and priests upon them , are not to be heard but separated from : but the present ministers of england have the characters of false prophets and priests upon them : therefore . the major ( or first proposition ) stands upon too firm a basis to be quickly removed : nor will any attempt so to do , christ having charged his to beware of such , mat. . . to take heed that none deceive them , mat. , , , , . not to believe every spirit , but to try the spirits , because many false prophets are gone out in the world , joh. . . not to receive such into their houses , joh. . to watch against them , acts . , , . with much more that might be said ( if needful ) for its confirmation , is a sufficient evidence of the truth thereof . but herein the parties litigant are at a perfect agreement . answ. it is true the major is yielded , if the hearing be meant of hearing them of choice or ▪ with reception , and separation from them in respect of that , wherein they are false prophets and priests . but if it should fall out , that one that should as balaam at one time prophesie as he did , numb . . and . at another time through his counsel cause the committing of a trespass against the lord , as in the matter of peor , numb . . . hold the doctrine of balaam , who taught balack to cast a stumbling block before the children of israel , to eat things sacrificed unto idols , and to commit fornication , rev. . . or as caiaphas being high priest that year , at one time prophesie that jesus should die for that nation , and not for that nation only ▪ but that also he should gather together in one the children of god , that were scattered abroad . joh. . , . at another time say , that christ had spoken blasphemy , mat. . such a one may be heard & joyned with in the former , though not in the latter . whence it follows , that it is not the character or property of the man , who is a false prophet , or a false priest , that is the reason , why he is not to be heard , or is to be separated from ; but his false doctrine , and his evil counsel , whereby he seeks to thrust us away from the lord our god , deut. . , , . or the damnable heresies denying the lord that bought them , as it is pet. . . turning the grace of god into lasciviousness , and denying the only lord god and our lord jesus christ , jude . that do denominate them false prophets or false priests , and bind us to a refusal of hearing them , or joyning with them in that communion , in which we cannot partake without fellowship in their errour , false worship , or other sin . and this is it , which is to be collected from the texts alledged ; not that we are to refuse to hear persons , or separate from them because of their personal vices , or irregular obtruding themselves into their places ; but in respect of their pernicious doctrine , and impious worship , by which we are in danger to be ensnared and defiled . we are bidden , beware of false prophets , mat. . . but no where is any called a false prophet , but from his false doctrine . and therefore though his counterfeit shews of piety be mentioned as the bait to catch men , yet the false doctrine is the hook they are to beware of ; as in like manner st. paul warns , rom. . , . and st. peter , pet. . , , . and thus in the places cited , where christ bids take heed that no man deceive them ; he alledgeth the reason : for many shall come in my name , saying , i am christ , and shall deceive many , mat. . , . and v. . if any man shall say unto you , lo , here is christ , or there : believe it not , for there shall arise false christs , and false prophets , and shall shew great signs and wonders , insomuch that ( if it were possible ) they shall deceive the very elect , v. . the false prophets that were gone out into the world , joh. . . were they that confessed not that jesus christ is come in the flesh , v. . the person not to be received into house , joh. . . is he that brought not the doctrine of christ , v. . that confessed not that jesus christ is come in the flesh , who is the deceiver and antichrist , v. . those that the ephesian elders were to watch against , acts . were grievous wolves that should enter in among them , not sparing the flock ; and men arising of their own selves , speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them , v. , . and thus farr i agree to the major ; let us see how he proves the ministers to be such . sect. . the ministers not false prophets , because not sent , as jer. . . rom. . . is meant . 't is the minor proposition , saith he , that is judged by some to come short of a sufficient substraction , viz. that the present ministers of england have the properties and characters of false prophets and priests upon them . this we doubt not , by a serious observation of the characters are given of such in the scriptures by the holy ghost , will to any ordinary understanding be made exceeding perspicuous and evident , the signal characters of whom are , . that they run before they are sent , jer. . . that a mission from the lord is of the essence of a lawful ministry ; that whoever wants such a mission is no officer of christ , but a false prophet , and minister of antichrist , may hence rationally , at least by way of analogy , be deduced , is evident : which also exactly accords with what is asserted by the apostle , rom. . . that the present ministers of england want such a mission , hath already been demonstrated , and we shall not actum agere . in a word , when it shall be proved that they have received their authority from christ , either immediately or mediately , from any rightly constituted church of christ , or by succession from the church in the wilderness , we shall acknowledge them to be ministers of christ , and look upon our selves as obliged to pay them all honour and duty , that as such , we are charged in scripture to do : but if they have nothing else to plead for themselves but what is usually instanced in by them , a succession from the church of rome : that apostate church having lost her churchship , and therewith all lawful power for the sending forth officers into the churches of christ , we shall not fear to say , that they are such as are characterized here by the prophet , persons that run before they are sent . answ. a man that meant honestly , and had any spark of charity , justice , or ingenuity , would not charge so deeply the whole order of men throughout a nation containing many thousands of men of years , breeding , parts , and by reason of their calling to be reverenced ; and some of them , by his own confession , good men ; as being false prophets , who by the law of moses , deut. . . were to die , and as false priests without some irrefragable proof , unless he had learned that accursed art of him in terence , calumniare audacter , aliquid haerebit ; or having once past the bounds of modesty were resolved to be gnaviter impudens . but i must confess , that however he thinks , that by a serious observation of the characters , which are given in the scriptures by the holy ghost , it will be made exceeding perspicuous and evident ; yet to my understanding he hath made neither of his charges perspicuous or evident in any degree . for , . his charge is against all the present ministers of england , and therefore his proof should have been of that , which all , even the best of them are guilty of , taken from that which they all unanimously agree in and practice ; and not from things which may perhaps be personally objected against some , but not against the whole order . . the characters which he gives should have been such as are convertible , so as that it may be truly said , all that have these characters are false prophets and false priests , and all false prophets and false priests have them . . he should have told us , whether each of these is convertible , or all of them , if not which they might have and not be false prophets . . his proof being of matter of fact , should have better testimony then his own assertion or interrogations , that may be denied . . his characters are such as perhaps the ministers may tell him , physitian heal thy self , novimus & qui te — we can prove , if not the same , yet as bad characters or properties of false prophets , or false priests in those you allow to be heard even in your instituted churches , though we rake not up out of the ashes what was charged on the brownists of old , or of late by edwards , bailey , and others on the independents . . that which is the chief character of a false prophet , pet ▪ . . and other passages before recited , the bringing in damnable heresies , denying the lord that bought them , is wholly omitted , without which , what else he chargeth them with , will be insufficient to prove them false prophets , or to warrant the refusal of hearing them : but will occasion the ministers to charge him with the schism of donatists of confining the church and ministry to their party , and if these things be done with a factious unquiet spirit ( as they take them to be ) tending to hinder the good of souls in not embracing their ministry , and the peace of both church and state : with a fury like that of the circumcellions , or at least an humour of reviling or uncharitable censuring . but whatever were the authors motives , i shall examine them as they are presented , because this argument ( if it were made good ) is instar omnium , and the only genuine reason , why the present ministers should not be heard . for the first , i grant that jerem. . is a signal character of a false prophet , and that a mission from the lord is of the essence of a lawful ministry , that whoever wants such a mission , is no officer of christ , but a false prophet and minister of antichrist ; and that this exactly accords with what is asserted by the apostle , rom. . . but i deny , . that by the sending here is meant the mediate regular outward calling . . that the regular outward mediate calling is only from a rightly constituted church of christ in his sense ; that is , after the congregational way , or by succession from the church in the wilderness ; that is , such as have been separated from the church of rome after its apostasie . . that either an immediate , or such a mediate mission , are of the essence of a lawful minister . . that any of these can any way be deduced from jer. . . or rom. . . . i say , it is contrary to his own grant ch . . to make an outward mission of the essence of a lawful minister , sith he expresly allows gifted brethren , who have not such mission , to preach , and to be heard . as for inward immediate calling , he is no judge of it ; and it may be as well acknowledged in the ministers , as in his gifted brethren . as for the texts , it is clear from the text it self , that their running before they were sent , was in that they preached in gods name , what he did not command or deliver to them ; so that their false prophecying was not for defect of outward calling , but for their taking upon them to deliver that message as from god , which they received not from him : which the words plainly shew , jer. . . . i have not sent these prophets , yet they ran ; which is explained by the next words , i have not spoken to them , yet they prophesied ; and in the next verse , but if they had stood in my counsel , and had caused my people to hear my words , then they , &c. where their not being sent of god , is expressed by gods not speaking to them ; their not standing in his counsel ; making his people to hear words which were not his ; termed after , v. . prophecying lies in his name ; v. . prophets of the deceit of their own heart , ver . . stealing his words every one from his neighbour , ver . . prophecying false dreams , ver . . perverting the words of the living god. all which passages , and the whole chapter shew , that their running when god sent them not , was not in that they had not an outward calling , but in that they prophesied that , as from god which they had not from him , but was of their own invention , lies , perverting gods word : and that this is meant by not sending , is manifest in that , ver . . these are put as equipollent , i sent them not , nor commanded them , and v. . i have sent unto you , saying , ye shall not say the burden of the lord ; where sending is expressed to be saying what they should not speak . which might be further proved out of jerem. . . and the plain words , jerem. . . the prophet which prophesieth of peace when the word of the prophet shall come to pass , then shall the prophet be known , that the lord hath truly sent him . whence it is plain , that the mission of god is known by the word delivered : which if it be according to gods minde , a person cannot be judged a false prophet , nor without mission from him . nor can the sending , rom. . . be otherwise meant . for the words imply , a person cannot preach except he be sent . but this is not true of mediate outward calling , for those that were scattered went every where preaching the word , acts . . and so do gifted brethren without such a calling . but he is not sent who doth preach another gospel , and he is sent who doth preach the gospel , as the words following intimate , how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace , and bring glad tidings of good things ? which i would not have understood , as if an outward regular calling were not necessary for him that takes on him the publick function of preaching , or that every one were to be permitted to do so that did intrude into it : but that the speaking of gods word whether in private or publick , is with such a mission as acquits him that preacheth it from being a false prophet , and the hearer from transgressing the precept , matth. . . beware of false prophets . what he said before against the ministers mission , chap. . is answered before . what is pleaded about a succession from the church of rome is represented by many that understand not the occasion and plea , as odious , and a proof of the antichristianism of their calling . but they who peruse what mr. francis mason against champney and others , who have answered the papists question , whence had the protestant ministers their calling ? have written , will be otherwise minded . it follows . sect. . the ministers not proved to commit adultery , and walk in lyes , as jer. . . is meant . . that they commit adultery , and walk in lyes , jer. . . which none as i ever yet met with ; interpret literally of corporal whoredome and adultery , but mystically of spiritual adultery , a departure from the wayes and institutions of the lord in worship , to the devices and inventions of men : in the margin . in an old translation of the new testament , dedicated to edward the sixth , the author thereof in his notes on matth. . sayes , they which in their ministry and preaching do otherwise then god had commanded them are no true disciples of christ ( a sin usually in the scripture expressed , for the nature and greatness of it , under that notion , jer. . . ezek. . . rev. . . which is also in scripture called a lye , isa. , . amos . . john . . the whole worship of antichrist being patched up with such dirty inventions , is so called , thess. . . ) that this character also doth rightly appertain unto the present ministers of england , the best of whom do in the sence of the spirit in the forecited scripture , commit adultery , and walk in lyes , hath already been proved ( and more hereunto shall afterwards be spoken [ 't were well if upon some of them it had not a literal accomplishment ] which of the institutions of christ have they not mixed with their inventions ? from how many have they gone a whoring ? is not a great part of their worship drops of the whores cup of fornication , and shreds of the great lye of antichrist ? who that hath soberly and unbiassedly considered of these things , but must acknowledge it ? answ. to acquaint this author with somewhat obvious enough , yet it seems this author met not with it , i will set down the annotation of mr. gataker on jer. . . inferiour to none of the annotators of the bible . they commit adultery ] do as eli 's sons did , sam. . , . whence adultery became so rise in the land , ver . . and walk in lyes ] or walk up and down with lyes . hebr. with falshood , or a lye ; as isa. . . they utter their lyes not in baals name , but in mine , and so father their lyes upon me , chap. . . see ver , . hebr. committing adultery , and walking with a lye ; that is , at full , committing they commit adultery ; and walking , they walk about with lyes : they make a common trade and practice of either : a form , though defective , yet very significant , see on isa. . . see these two vile practices joyned together in the false prophets again , chap. . . for those that here restrain the term of adultery to idolatry , spiritual adultery , seem therein to wrong the text. now if this be the meaning of the committing adultery , it may be a signal character of a wicked man , but not of a false prophet as such . but if it be understood of spiritual adultery , every departure from the wayes and institutions of the lord in worship to be devices and inventions of men , is not in this prophet , nor in any other , termed committing adultery ; but when that divine worship which is appropriated to god is given to that which is not god , as may be shewed out of the . and . chapters of jeremiah , where ch . . ▪ . it is said , they committed adultery with stocks and stones , ezek. . . with idols . now if he can prove that the present ministers do thus commit adultery , are idolaters in their worship , i will yield , they and their worship are to be separated from ; and if they teach it , not to be heard . what he saith he hath proved before , is answered before ; what he saith in the next chapter , will be then discussed . the words in the margin may be right , yet impertinent . as for walking in lyes ; i grant it to be a signal character of a false prophet , understanding it of lyes in doctrine opposite to the principles of theology : and if he can prove the present ministers do walk in such lyes , i shall yield them to be false prophets , and not to be heard : but yet he hath not done that , nor goes about it . that which he produceth out of isa. . . amos . . john . . thess. . . proves not every device and invention of men in worship to be meant by lyes , jer. . . isa. . . by lyes some understand their idols , some their treachery in dissembling and compliance with the adverse party , some their crafty shifts and wily devices . mr gataker conceives , most likely their strength raised , and wealth gotten by fraudulent and deceitful courses , amos . . diodati annot. their lyes ] namely , their idols , false worships and superstitions , john . . is meant of any lyes , but chiefly that which is opposed to the truth of gods word in the gospel , not meant as this authour applies it . thess. . . is manifestly understood of a lye opposite to the truth by which they might be saved , that is , the gospel , v. . . and so notes anti-evangelical doctrine , though i deny not the whole worship of antichrist being patch'd up with such dirty inventions may be so called . but to his queries i answer . to the first , which of the institutions of christ have not the present ministers mixed with their inventions ? . it concerns him that accuseth to shew which they have so mixed . . that i think the institution of preaching the gospel , which is that about which is the present question , they have not so mixed . sure , if they preach such doctrine of faith as they subscribe to , they do not mix their doctrine with their own inventions ; yet , if any do , while he holds the foundation , though he build some hay and stubble he is not to be charged to walk in lyes . i conceive the preachers of the congregational churches have been as guilty of antinomian , arminian , and other errors as the prelatical . to the . from how many have they gone a whoring ? . it concerns him that accuseth to shew . . they have not gone a whoring from the lords supper to the mass , by transubstantiation , and the unbloody propitiatory sacrifice for quick and dead , and adoration of the breaden-god . to the third , is not a great part of their worship drops of the whores cup of fornication and shreds of the great lye of antichrist ? the whores cup of fornication and great lye of antichrist , are according to brightman , mede , and others their idolatries in invocation of saints , worshipping images , reliques , the crucifix , the host , in their herisies about justification , merit , the popes supremacy , and other points of the trent council . a great part of the worship of the ministers of the church of england is in their prayers to god , their praises of god in psalms , and hymns , in their teaching and instructing of the people . let this author shew any part of this worship of the ministers of england to be a drop of the whores cup of fornication , or a shred of that great lye of antichrist , even according to the exposition of the authors named , or any other sober author ; yea , though he be biassed towards the congregational way , such as mr. cotton , mr. thomas parker , or any other of that party , or else let him be branded lege remnia , as an egregious calumniator . as for that inserted passage [ 't were well if upon some of them it had not a litteral accomplishment ] it had been honest dealing , if he knew any , that he had either reproved them or complained to their superiors , but thus obliquely to insinuate it to the readers , too apt to entertain any suggestions against the present ministers , whether true or false , was neither the part of a charitable christian , nor of a candid moralist . sect. . the ministers are not proved to strengthen the hands of evil doers , as jer. . . is meant . . saith he , that they strengthen the hands of evil doers , that none doth return from his wickedness , jer. . . that the present ministers of england really do so , is capable of an ocular demonstration : perhaps they do in their sermons reprove sin , thunder out the judgments of god against the transgressors of his law , as much as any ; but alas , what is this , to condemn them in the state wherein they stand , without repentance to the pit of hell , in the pulpit ; and by and by to saint them in the chancel , and tell them there , without exception , that the body of christ was broken for them , his blood shed for them ? o how many millions of souls are and have been thereby hardened to their own undoing , and their hands strengthned in wickedness ? what should i mention their admission of the children of all to baptism , without exception , their owning them as church-members ; yea , die they never so wickedly , as brethren , of whose joyful resurrection they profess they have a sure and certain hope ; thereby proclaiming their undoubted perswasion , that they are a people in covenant with god ? not to take notice of the terrible reflections , and uncharitable censures are publickly past by them upon men truly fearing god , because they cannot conform to them : how desparately are the hands of the wicked hereby strengthned ? so that none indeed doth return from his wickedness : how rare a thing is it to hear of one soul that is brought over to god by all their preaching ? so that visibly that judgment of god seems to be upon them , ver . . therefore they shall not at all profit this people . answ. they confirm them in their wickedness , and so keep them from repentance , by bearing them in hand , that they shall do well enough , whatsoever gods messengers tell them , that though they do continue in their sins : see ezek. . . is mr. gatakers paraphrase of this passage of the prophet . and this author is not ashamed to say , that the present ministers of england really do so , is capable of an ocular demonstration , when his next words acquit them , perhaps they do in their sermons reprove sin , thunder out gods judgments against transgressors of his law as much as any ; if so , they do not strengthen the hands of evil doers by bearing them in hand , that they shall do well enough , though they do continue in their sins : and that , which he acknowledgeth they do , is enough to acquit them from that character of the false prophets here charged upon them , which perhaps might more truly be imputed to those , who have taught arminian and antinomian errors , which have been too rife in the congregational churches . in the point of baptism i can acquit the one no more than the other , nor will i justifie the censures of men truly fearing god ; i have some grounds to think that it is oft a matter of mourning , not only to the present ministers , but also to some of the bishops , and that they wish , that there were a remedy in that , and in the admission of many ignorant and evil doers to the lords supper , and they conceive by the warning before the communion , the enlargement of power to the minister in the liturgy , as now it is , in the joynt confession of sin , and preaching before the communion , besides conference , and examination , which may be used to redress it , some provision is made against it , however laws restrain them from doing more ; which being made against recusant papists , are thought fit to be continued , though used concerning others who are not such . that expression of the breaking of christs body for them , and shedding his blood is known to be but a charitable speech , upon the supposal of the persons repentance and faith ( the truth of which is above the ministers cognizance ) professed by them , they use ; and if judas were at the lords supper , it was used by christ ; and being understood as those speeches , cor. . . through thy knowledge shall thy weak brother perish , for whom christ died . heb. . . hath counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing , are not liable ro exception . if any do undoe themselves by mis-understanding it , the same thing happened to christs hearers , john . ▪ . and is to be remedied by expounding the meaning , and warning persons , that they do not abuse it to their destruction . that the ministers own men as brethren , die they never so wickedly , is not true , if by legal censure or judgment they are declared criminal ; if not , the ministers are not allowed to exclude persons from brotherhood upon their own opinion without proof and judicial sentence ; if they do call them brethren , so all men are ; and those that profess faith , may be charitably accounted christian brethren . in the words used at burial , the minister doth not profess , he hath a sure and certain hope of the joyful resurrection of all them that are interred ; but the words are , in sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life without application of it to the person then to be interred ; and therefore these allegations are too short of proving ministers strengthening the hands of evil doers as false prophets . if their success in preaching be not as were to be wished , it is the same that the prophets complained of , isa. . . isa . . and was verified of christ , john . , . and if it fall out , that people are hardened notwithstanding their ministers do preach , as here it s not denied they do , it is from themselves ; and i wish their hardening and destruction be not to be charged on this author , and such others as are of the separation , who , by declaiming against them as antichristian , alienate the spirits of people from them , so as to refuse to hear the word ; which i count a most pernicious wickedness in whomsoever , though reputed saints . and though there is too much cause to bewail , that there is so little effect upon the preaching of the present ministers , yet sure to argue thence that they are not sent of god , but are false prophets , is altogether inconsequent . mr. robinson in his justification of separation , p. , . speaks better than so , when he saith , it is most evident , that whosoever converteth a man unto god , that person doth in truth and in deed , minister the word of god , and the spirit by the word , and so may be said to be sent of god. in that general and large sense , wherein mr. bernard , p. . expounds the word , sent or apostle , i do acknowledge many ministers in england sent of god ; that is , that it comes not to pass without the special providence and ordination of god , that such and such men should rise up , and preach such and such truths for the furtherance of the salvation of gods elect in the places , where they come , but this accuser adds . sect. . the ministers are not proved such daubers as those , ezek. . . . that they prophesie placentia , smooth things , according to the desires , tempers , and lusts of men , to the pleasing of whom they addict themselvs , jer. . . and . . ezek. . , . and . what visible lineaments of such a frame of spirit , are drawn upon the faces of that generation of men , concerning whom we are now discoursing ? have they not been of all others ( i am now speaking of such as are looked upon by professors , as men of the greatest parts and holiness ) the most ready to strike in with , preach up , and plead for what was suitable unto the spirits of such upon whom they have had a dependance . 't were indeed well for them , could they in their present standing and practise acquit themselves from that sore crime of seeking to please men , which if they do , they cannot be the servants of christ , gal. . . answ. they do by their glossings and flatteries , lull people asleep in security , bearing them in hand , that there is no such dangerous matter towards them , as gods prophets tell them ; but that all shall be well , whatsoever they say : see the same , chap. . . see also , lam. . . ezek. . . is mr. gatakers paraphrase in his annotations on jer. . . that which was prophesied , jer. . . is expressed to be , that they should not serve the king of babylon . the daubing . ezek. . , . was by seeing vanity , and divining lies , ver . . ezek. . saying , thus saith the lord , when the lord hath not spoken . if the present ministers of england do so , they are to be accounted false prophets . but do not this authors own words in the next crimination before , when he saith , [ perhaps they do in their sermons reprove sin , thunder out the judgments of god against transgressors of his law as much as any ] clear the ministers , and prove himself guilty of false accusation ? what those visible lineaments of such a frame of spirit are , should have been named , if he would have dealt plainly . if men of greatest parts and holiness on one side , have been the most ready to strike in with , preach up , and plead for , what was suitable unto the spirits of such upon whom they have had dependance : may it not be said so of men of the greatest parts and holiness of the congregational party , that they have been liable to the like ? it were well if both parties would search themselves , and not be so forward to accuse each other . as i conceived long ago in my printed treatise of glorying in men , on cor. . . so i am still by much experience confirmed , that the so termed professors of england out of their injudiciousness , and partial affection have done much hurt to themselves and the church of god , by looking upon , glorying in , adhering to some as of greatest parts and holiness with disparagement of others ; whence evil surmizes , censurings , divisions from them that are disaffected , swallowing down without chewing , what those utter whom they follow ; which hath been a temptation to teachers to vent such things as were not right , for the retaining of their followers , and a trap whereby their hearers have been ensnared to their own and others no small disquietness . and i agree with this author , that it were well indeed with the ministers , and with their dissenters or opposites , if they could all acquit themselves from this sore crime of seeking to please men , and that we could all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seek and speak the truth in love , ephes. . . yet further saith he . sect. . ministers changing of places , sadning some mens hearts , not characters of a false prophet . . that they are greedy dogs , that can never have enough , and look every man for his gain from his quarter , isa. . . seeking and serving themselves in their ministration , ezek. . , micah . . . in the margin . in a translation of the new testament , dedicated to edward the sixth , the author of the notes on chap. . sayes , we must preach the truth without any respect of reward or gains . they therefore that preach for their bellies sake , or preach after the prescript of man — are not the disciples of christ. that herein is a perfect harmony betwixt these false prophets and the present ministers of england cannot be denied ; what means else their frequent calls , from places of less , to places of greater value ; their gaping and greedy desires after preferment ; the vexations they put poor men to , that cannot in conscience put into their mouths preparing war against them . answ. isa. . . may be understood as well of the civil magistrate as the minister ; and of neither is it a character of a minister not to be heard , as being a false prophet , nor of an usurper or unlawful magistrate , that is not to be obeyed . ezek. . . notes a character of a false prophet , but the proper character of him as such , is not that he prophecied for handfuls of barley , or pieces of bread , but that they polluted god among his people by lying to them . micah . . is a character of a false prophet , in that they made gods people to erre , their preparing war against him that put not into their mouth is a common accident to corrupt men , not a property of a false prophet ; and in like manner the prophets divining for money , ver . . or the priests teaching for money no more proves a false prophet or false priest , then the heads judging for reward proves them false heads : these are their personal vices , which may be in a true prophet , as in judas , and in a true priest , as hophni , or in a true head , as in jehoiakim , jer. . . and so are impertinent to prove a minister a false prophet . nor is it any more to the purpose what is in the margin , sith he that preacheth truth with respect of reward or gains , may be a true prophet , though not a good man ; and so they that preach for their bellies sake , though if they preach not according to the word of god , but after the prescript of man , for the matter of their doctrine they may be false prophets : but this is not so much as offered to be proved concerning the present ministers of england ; and therefore it is untruly said , that it cannot be denied that there is a perfect harmony between them , and those false prophets . as for their removals from places of less to places of greater value , it is a thing which may be objected to preachers and pastors of the congregational churches , and may be upon just cause , and therefore of it self proves not so much as a covetous minde : whether it be out of gaping and greedy desire after preferments god may be the only judge . if preparing war be meant of suing for their dues by law , it may be just ; nor is a minister bound to live upon alms , or voluntary contribution ; the elders of the separated churches have found by experience how great a misery it is for a student though godly and painful to live of the benevolence of their churches ; nor is it any sin for a minister more than for another man to make use of the magistrate and law to gain his due , according to the law of the land. and however some have instilled into peoples heads the unlawfulness of requiring or paying tithes , or other dues to the present ministers , as they did before to non-conformists ; yet there is no colourable plea for not paying them , it being not unlawful for me to pay what is unjustly demanded , there being therein no doing of wrong , though there should be a suffering of wrong . and therefore it is but vainly pretended , that they cannot in conscience put into ministers mouths , when there is no appearance of sin in doing it ; and if their consciences be misled by erroneous casuists , poor men may thank them for their vexations , and beware of hearkening to them , and not clamour against the ministers as the only cause of their trouble ; if out of meer obstinacy they deny to pay , they are to blame themselves . it is added . . that they sadden the hearts of the righteous , ezek. . . what need i turn aside to make application of this to the prophets of this day ? who that is serious , doth not experiment the truth thereof in his own soul ? to see the name and ordinances of god prophaned , the ceremonies and inventions of man subjected unto , by such as pretend to be ministers of christ , would make an heart of stone to bleed ; much more those whose hearts are made tender by the lord. those of our brethren that as yet attend upon their ministry , will tell us , they are troubled at their compliance and conformity — all that look in the least after reformation , say , they could wish it were otherwise ; so that this character also is visibly upon them . answer . by lyes sadning the hearts of the righteous , as ezek. . . is granted to be a character of a false prophet , but this author omits that , and makes that a character of a false prophet which is not , and applies that to the ministers which he goes not about to prove they are guilty of . perhaps those righteous persons he means are sadned out of mistakes , as conceiving the name and ordinances of god prophaned when they are not ; as the israelites were when they mistook the reubenites fact in building an altar , josh. . , . perhaps it may be without their fault , perhaps the ministers are sadned as well as they , perhaps the sadness is from such erroneous suggestions , as are instilled into the people by such as hold the same principles of separation with this author ; perhaps men as righteous , as they who are sadned , do without any sadness attend upon their ministry ; perhaps they are sadned that they stumble at that they need not ; perhaps they are more sad at such principles of division as pervert them that are counted otherwise righteous than at any thing they perceive practised by the ministers of england . if sadning the hearts of righteous by the inventions of men be a character of false prophets , and that for it the ministers of england are to be judged such , the renting of errors and fancies which have been in the congregational churches , and even by their teachers , the many unnecessary scruples , janglings , oppositions , arrogant , wilful carriages , deceitful and unrighteous dealings in members , which have sadned the hearts of many sober , and better composed spirits , and made them weary of their societies ; the heart bleedings for professors abominations are indeed as signal characters of false prophets in their churches , as of the ministers in the church of england being such . though there were an utter oblivion of what of old was done by separatists in england , the low countries , in new england ; yet what hath been done in england in our times , and is yet in the memory of many yet alive , should have stopped this authors mouth , and made him forbear to object that against the ministers of england , which may perhaps more fully be retorted on those whose ministry he would have attended on . the elders and messengers of the congregational churches meeting at the savoy , octob. . . in the preface to the decclaration of their faith and order do of their own accord say , it is true , that many sad miscarriages , divisions , breaches , fallings off from the holy ordinances of god , have along in this time of temptation , ( especially in the beginning of it ) been found in some of our churches . yea , such insinuations as this author urgeth against the ministers of england , would have proved not only the ministers of the reformed churches of late , but even the angels of the seven churches of asia , the teachers of the churches of corinth , and other the best churches in the primitive times to have been false prophets . but i forbear . he addes , . that they mix the word of god with their dreams , jer. . . . in the margin . the notes on matth. . in the foresaid translation are ; here do all preachers learn what they should teach ; nothing else but gods word ; nothing else but that the lord hath commanded them : not their own dreams and inventions . so do the present ministers of england , as hath been proved . sect. . pressing rigid conformity no proof of the ministers being false prophets . answ. this needs no further answer than what is before given . . saith he , that they come in sheeps cloathing , having the horns of a lamb , but are inwardly ravening wolves , and speak like dragons ( i. e. pretend to the holiness and meekness of christ and saints , but are inwardly full of raven and cruelty , yea terrible in their edicts and laws , stirring up and making use of the powers of the world , to persecute , kill and destroy the saints mat. . . revel . . . ( which second beast is no other than the false prophet mentioned , revel . . . as might easily be demonstrated ) as face answers face in a glass , so do the present ministers of england the false prophets there spoken of . are not all the persecutions , imprisonments , slaughters and butcheries of the children of god , that the first beast hath exercised upon the saints for this . years to be charged upon this generation of men ? yea , who do more eagerly press a rigid conformity ( not only contrary to the kings declaration from breda ) and others since published by him , but also ( as is thought ) to his natural temper , and the inclination and bent of his spirit ) though to the infringing of the liberty , the banishment , the taking away the lives of the saints , who love truth and peace , and humbly beg , that they may be suffered for the tribute they pay ( as in the dominion of the grand seignior they are ) in quietness to serve god according to their perswasins . answ. it is true , false prophets are noted by christ , matth. . . to be in outward shew as sheep , meek and holy , inwardly cruel ; but this is not the form , denominating them false prophets ; nor a signal character of them , by which they are known , but a reason of the caution , of being deceived by their fair shews . that by which they are false prophets , and are known to be such is their fruits , v. . which though variously expounded by the ancients , and maldonat understands it of their works , grotius of the works of iniquity , yet of the ancients some understand it of their faith ; protestants , some by fruits understand their false doctrine and evil life , as beza , their doctrine , manner of teaching , spiritual efficacy in their hearts , their life , customes and intentions , so diodati annot. their doctrin , self-seeking and wickedness , so the large annot. pareus , the fruit of a false prophet is his false and damnable doctrine . dr. hammond , ye shall certainly know and discern them , if you take notice of , and weigh the doctrines , which , when they have gotten some authority with you , they will presently endeavour to infuse into you . piscator in his scholies , from the effects of their doctrin : for as for what pertains to life , it may be that he may teach well , who lives ill . molin . vates , l. . c. . the fruits which their doctrine produceth in the minds of auditors . that the doctrin is meant by the fruits , matth. . . was long since in my antidote , sect. . asserted , and in my praecursor vindicated , sect. . to which i still adhere , and therefore count this , which is here made a signal character of a false prophet unfit to that end as being congruous to them who are no prophets in pretence , and to them who may be true prophets or teachers . the second beast , revel . . . is saith molin . vates , l. . c. . the roman clergy with the pope himself ; the bishop of rome with his clergy , saith mr. mede , comment on revel . . . most of the protestant divines make it either the pope when he usurped the power over the emperour , or the pope and his clergy , who were indeed terrible in their edicts and laws , stirring up and making use of the powers of the world , to persecute , kill , and destroy the saints . but this did not shew them false prophets , but their false doctrine . but that as face answers face in a glass , so do the present ministers of england the false prophets there spoken of , is said with much heat , and without proof . that all the persecutions , imprisonments , slaughters and butcheries of the children of god , that the first beast , ( whether he mean it of the roman emperours , or ten horns , that is , ten kings into which it was parted , or the bishop of rome ) hath exercised upon the saints for this . years , are to be charged upon this generation of men , that is , the present hierarchy and ministry of england , ( which he means if he speak pertinently ) is i confess a very dreadful and heavy sentence , but pronounced à non judice , who i hope will be found a false prophet , in the event , as it shews him inwardly cruel to them , and by his own rule is a signal character of himself being a false prophet , i hope , by their appeal to heaven they will get this indictment quasht . i presume the rigid conformity pressed hath not yet tended to the banishment , the taking away of the lives of the saints , who love truth and peace ; and i wish such writings and practices , as this author , and some others are deemed to use , do not exasperate the king and parliament to effect it . i assent to what he saith of his majesty , as having by experience found it true , ( which in all humble thankfulness i acknowledge ) nor do i doubt but he is , as the poet describes a good prince , est piger ad paenas princeps ad praemia velox , quique dolet quoties cogitur esse ferox . concerning the declaration from breda , and other declarations since published by his majesty , how far the pressing of rigid conformity opposeth , and who are the causes thereof is above our cognizance , who are at so great a distance , that the present ministers , who are the ordinary teachers to be heard , are the men that do it hath no likelihood , sith they are the men upon whom the rigid conformity is pressed , and therefore this allegation is very inaptly made a signal character of their being false prophets . sect. the charge ezek. . . reacheth not the ministers of england . it follows . that they put no difference betwixt the holy and prophane , ezek. . . do not even the ministers of england the same ? are not all their dear brethren and sisters , living and dead , though drunkards , swearers , adulterers , and adulteresses ? &c. are not , as was said , the children of them all admitted to the font , and they themselves to the lords table ? is not the childrens meat frequently given unto dogs , and the holy ordinances prostituted to be polluted by the worst of men ? answ. the charge , ezek. . . is against the priests of the law accusing them of neglecting to discern between clean and unclean offerings , as piscator in his analysis . grotius , they made not them to understand , to wit , the difference , from that which was common . they are the very words from lev. . . where they are commanded to do what here they are said to have neglected . that is holy which is dedicated unto god : profane which is in common use . polluted which is forbidden to be eaten ; clean which it is lawful to eat . aynsworth on lev. . . that ye may separate ] or , to make difference ; and this is meant not only for themselves , but others , as in ezek. . . they shall teach my people ( the difference ) between holy and profane , and cause them to discern between unclean and clean . and for not doing this , the priests are blamed , ezek. . . see also lev. . . holy ] heb. holiness : meaning of persons , and things . in greek , between the holy ones and the profane : which texts and others , as levit. . , , . shew that this thing was an evil indeed of a levitical priest , when either they admitted unclean and profane offerings of beasts or fowls , or legally unclean persons ; or taught not the people to put difference between them ; yet was no character distinguishing a false priest from a true , though it shewed him to be negligent . but is nothing to our ministers who are not now to count any man or creature common or unclean , act. . . . whether they have power to keep any professing the faith from the lords supper , it may be doubted . granting it that they have , yet this author will not allow it , i presume , to each single minister , and if not , it is unjust to account them false preists for not doing it . but of this before in this chapter , section . . sect. . the ministers are not the false shepherds meant , ezek. . . it is added . that they exercise not pity to the weak broken scattered sheep of christ , nor shew bowels in their recovery , but with force and cruelty rule over them , ezek. . one would think , the former part of the chapter were rather an history of what is practised by the false shepherds of this day , than otherwise : so perfect an agreement is there betwixt their practice , and this prophecy of the lord. they tell us 't is our weakness and distemper that we conform not to their worship ; that we are persons gone astray : we profess to them , that we would not give way to spiritual distempers , nor stray one step from the wayes of god might we but know it ; we would thank any to convince us of our mistakes , and reduce us to the true sheepfold , if we are gone astray : do they seek after us , in a spirit of tenderness labour to convince us , and carry us in their bosomes , like tender shepherds to the true fold ? what less ? with force and cruelty they rule over us , threaten us with excommunications , imprisonments , banishments , dispoiling us of what god hath graciously given us , yea , condemning us to death : in all which ( through the grace of god ) we can rejoice , though they thereby abundantly demonstrate , that they are the successors of the false shepherds here spoken of . answ. though diodati , the annotator in the large annotations , junius , the marginal notes of the geneva translation , say , he meaneth by shepherds , the king , the magistrates , priests , and prophets ; yet after piscator , grotius , and others , i think this passage is only appliable to the kings and other civil rulers of israel , the prophets not ruling over the people with force and cruelty , but beguiling them with lies and deceit . which with sundry more passages of the chapter upon my reading of it do convince me , that this author doth misalleadge it , sith the ministers of england are not successors of the civil magistrates , nor are the prince and governors here termed false shepherds , but negligent , and unmerciful ; which are not the signal characters of a false prophet , or false priest , and therefore this text is impertinent to prove the ministers to be such . as for the practice he chargeth the ministers , with , sith it is in generals , a distinct answer cannot be made to it , nor can any but the accused well answer it . possibly that which this author counts force and cruelty may be necessary , though severe discipline . i do not justifie the neglects or menaces mentioned in any ; nor is it unlikely , but that there are men of violent spirits in the hierarchy and ministry of england , to whom this evil is imputed : nor do i think this author can acquit all those that are elders or other members of the congregational churches . iliacos intrà muros peccatur & extrà . it is to be lamented that such sad things should happen as he recites . for my part i have , even when the congegational men had most liberty , had conferences with persons , in which i shewed my dissent from them in respect of the separation with my reasons , and have often in writing answered their arguments for it , which i can yet produce , yet found them still inflexible . this writing was begun by me out of compassion of those , to whom i was once a preacher , whom i found seduced by it , and have endeavoured without any bitterness to convince this author of his mistakes , yet i doubt whether he will thank me for it . i rather expect to be told for writing this book , as i was for writing of some other pieces , that i am an apostate , temporizer , flatterer , adversary to the saints , and such like imputations . they that know what hath been done in new-england , and old england even at oxford to quakers for inveighing against their teachers and governors should be somewhat more moderate in censures of the present ministers and governors ; who when they read this very chapter will be apt to think , that the soul of the quakers is by transmigration gotten into this author . my prayer to god is , that on all sides there may be such a calm and considerate spirit , that we may forbear one another , and in love endeavour the rectifying of each other , not bite and devour one another , lest we be consumed one of another , and so we be homo homini lupus , not shepherds . sect. . the ministers of england are not the second beast foretold . revel . . . but there 's more behind . what should i mention , saith he , . that they come up out of the earth , rev. . . are raised up by men of earthly spirits and principles . . that they exercise the power of the first beast , or make use of the civil power for their supportment , ver . . . that they make an image to the beast , ver . . . ( i. e. erect an ecclesiastical state of government , in a proportio●ableness to , and resemblance of the civil state. ) . that they compel all under the penalty of death , to worship or bow down to this image of the beast ( or ecclesiastical government , in its courts , canons , laws , and ceremonies devised by it ) v. . . that they compel all to receive a mark , either in their right hands or foreheads ; secretly or openly , one way or other to acknowledge subjection unto this beast , without which they may neither buy nor sell , being cut off from the church , by their excommunications for their stubborness , v. , . all which characters of the second beast ( or false prophet ) he that runs may read upon the present hierarchy and ministry of england . it remaineth then that the present ministers of england have the characters of the false prophets and preists upon them , and therefore are not to be heard but to be separated from . answ. though the book of the revelation be a holy divine writing , and hath been of great use to support the spirits of christians under the great persecutions , which have befallen them , and is still of very great importance for the animating of believers either to patience in sufferings , or watchfulness in time of temptation ; yet such abuse there hath been made of it to uphold many wild conceits , many irregular practises ; notwithstanding the confessed obscurity , and the frequent refutation of such conceits , as men have with much confidence delivered , by the manifestation of their vanity in the event ; that sober men have wished it were either less read by some , or more , considerately weighed , and more warily applyed . the passages here alledged have been so abused by men of opposite parties against dissenters , especially by those of the separation against not only the prelates and prelatical preachers , but also the presbyterian , that they have served for no other purpose but to inflame the minds of one against the other . the first and second beast , rev. . are differently conceived . dr. hamond conceives the first beast to be the heathen roman emperors upholding the idol worship , the second beast the augurs , priests , and magicians , such as apollonius tyranaeus was , & so conceives the accomplishment already past . the author of an essay on that part of the revelation , which begins at chapter the . conceives it meant of one to come . molinaeus in his vates , l . c. . with mede , and others , understand it of the pope and roman clergy . there is no probability , that this second beast should be meant of the hierarchy and ministry of england , or that they should be the false prophet mentioned , rev. . . which is said to work miracles before the beast , and with the beast was cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone : which to say of men , of whom some he acknowledgeth to be good men , is so horrid an imagination , as had not this author been transported with extreme passion , me thinks he should have trembled to have let it enter into his thoughts , much less to have written and printed it . nor can the conceits be free from these and such horrid consequences , that then the first beast must be civil powers , and they to be cast into the lake burning with fire ; that the hierarchy and ministry of england , cause the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast , whether the roman emperors , or pope , or civil powers , or idols , that al that be subject to the image of the beast ▪ which is made the ecclesiastical government , shall drink of the wine of the wrath of god , which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation , and shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels , and in the presence of the lamb , and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever , with more of the like ; which are so monstrously uncharitable to be conceived of such men , and so utterly destitute of all colour of proof , that i can scarse censure it so mildly as to term it dotage , but rather take it to be the speech of a furious bedlam . his applications also are so frivolous and wild , as that they should be abhorred rather than answered . how doth it appear that to come out of the earth is to be raised by men of earthly spirits and principles ? how doth it appear that men raising them , whether princes or patrons are men of such spirits and principles ? when were they raised by such ? to exercise the power of the beast is not to make use of the civil power for its support , ( which were indeed no evil , but may be good , and the wisdom of men ) but to act with the same power the first beast used in making war with the saints . if the ecclesiastical state as it resembles the civil , be the image of the beast , and to erect it , be the character of the false prophet ; and this be so evil , then it is much more evil to erect the civil state , which is the prototype , which me thinks he should fear to say . how doth it appear , that the proportionableness to & resemblance of the ecclesiastical state of government to the civil is not therefore the better and more desirable ? when did the ministers compel all under the penalty of death , or outlawry to acknowledg subjection to the hierarchy ? are there not many persons and places of peculiar and exempt jurisdiction ? many persons that either by indulgence or connivence , though not acknowledging such subjection , live as free as those that do ? do all great as well as small , rich and poor , free and bond receive such a mark ? i am weary with refuting such palpable gross untruths , and do wonder with what face without the least proof , a man that would be accounted a saint should attempt to obtrude them upon the world , much more that he should do it to the church of god , and upon such absurd premisses conclude thus , it remaineth then that the present ministers of england have the characters and properties of the false prophets and priests upon them , and therefore are not to be heard , but separated from . chap. . arg. . sect. . all idolatry is , by exhibiting divine worship to a creature . those that are guilty of idolatry , saints may not have communion with ( much less own them as their teachers ) but ought to separate from them : but , the present ministers of england are idolaters : therefore . the major ( or first proposition ) will not be deined , because bottom'd upon express commands from christ , cor. . . and . . cor. . . . before we descend to the confirmation of the minor ( or second proposition ) we shall crave leave to premise ; that idolatry may be considered under a threefold notion . st . most gross and absurd idolatry , when the creature is worshipped terminatively ; this few are guilty of : the israelites of old worshipped not the calf terminatively , but god in it , therefore they are said to proclaim a feast to jehovah , exod. . . rab. m. maimonides de idolat . . , , &c. observes , that never any idolater was so silly , as to think , that an idol of wood , stone or mettal , was a god that made the heaven and earth , but through them all idolaters intend to worship god. ly . somewhat more refined idolatry , ( viz. in respect of what we but now instanc'd in ) when we offer up any worship or homage , proper and due to god only , before any creature , as the medium or representative of god : such was the idolatry of israel in the golden calf , brazen serpent , &c. of this are the synagogue of rome , amongst all the combinations of men in the world , most eminently guilty . to this head may be added , . the ascription of godhead to any creature , as to herod , acts . . . the ascription of the properties of the godhead to any creature . . the worshipping of god in any other way than what he hath prescribed : which all that write upon the second commandment say , is the idolatry therein forbidden . . the oblation of worship or service to god , that hath been offered up to idols , for which there is no prescription in the scripture . ly . most refined idolatry , when the heart goes forth in desires after any thing beyond what is limited by the lord , or trusts and relyes on any creature on this side god. in the first sense , there are ( as was said ) few or no idolaters in the world : the papists come as near thereunto as any , praying to the cross , the virgin mary , saints , angels , &c. expresly affirming , that the virgin mary may be worshipped with that worsh●p , which they call cultus latriae , which yet they say is due only to god. in the last sense , there are none , but at one time or other may be said to be idolaters ▪ the hearts of the best men 〈◊〉 too often going forth too farr in desires after , and secret dependence upon ▪ things beneath the lord : which yet they are watching and warring against , waiting and longing for the day , in which they shall be c●mpleatly swallowed up in the will of god. t is in respect of the s●cond particular before instanc'd in , that we assert the present ministers of england to be idolaters : to the proof whereof we now add●ess ourselves . answ. the conclusion is not the same with that which at first ch. . was undertaken to be defended , that it is not lawful for the saints to hear the present ministers of england ; nor doth it necessarily follow , that if we may not have communion with persons , nor own them as our teachers , but separate from them , that we may not hear them preach the gospel . an excommunicate person i am not to have communion with , nor to own the teachers of forreign churches as suppose the lutheran , as my teachers ▪ yea i may be bound to separate from such , as suppose a popish priest , as jansenist , preaching the doctrine of original sin , of efficacious grace ▪ or the gospel concerning redemption by the blood of christ ; whom yet i may lawfully hear handling those truths according to the received doctrine of st. augustin . nor is the ma●or true , if the idolatry be in that way which he here calls idolatry , the worshipping of god in any other way than what he hath prescribed , nor if the idolatry be secret and not open , nor though it be open , if by infirmity he fall into it and repents ; or be not censured as such ; or teacheth nor such idolatry ; nor requires any communion with him in his idolatry . nor do the texts prove his ma●or : cor. . forbids no o●her communion than eating , and that eating which might be with idolaters of this w●●ld , v. and therefore not eating the lords supper : nor doth it any mo●e forbid eating with a b●other called an 〈◊〉 , than with a brother called a fornicatour , or covetous , 〈…〉 , or an extortioner , and therefore , if this text prove a necessity of separation from such in holy exercises as prayer , or the lords supper , it forbids doing these things with a covetous person , or railer ; and then a christian brother must have cognizance of such sins , and be a judge of every one he communicates with , which were absurd : and therefore it can be meant of no other than arbitrary familiar converse , as in eating , where i am at liberty to eat , or not to eat ; and of private judgement of discretion , which each one is to exercise in the choice of his company : but nothing to the owning of a teacher , or shunning to hear him . for here the person is considered only as a brother , not a teacher in office. cor. . is less to the purpose , for it requires only to flee from idolatry , not from teachers that are any way idolatrous , so as not to hear them . cor. . , , , , . requires , not to be yoaked with infidels , not to have part with them , not to agree with idols , to come out from among infidels , to be separate , not to touch the unclean thing , that is the idol ; which may be done , and yet a person some way guilty of idolatry may be heard , yea owned as our teacher , and we may have some communion with him in holy things , as in prayer , and the lords supper , and praising god , which are not idolatrous . that which is premised by this author before his confirmation of the minor , requires some animadversions upon it . the definition of idolatry , which hitherto hath been received by all protestants that i know of , is , that which dr. john rainold hath delivered in his d. book de idololatria ecclesiae romanae . c. . that it is the exhibiting of divine worship to a creature , and hath proved it from rom. . . where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , whether it be read instead of the creatour , as explained by the authors of the writing of the constitutions of clemens by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as it is cited by grotius in his annot. or praeterito creatore , the creatour being forsaken or neglected , as beza after hilarius , or besides the creatour , as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , besides that which is laid , cor. . or as the vulgar , potius quam creatori , rather than to the creatour , or as ours , more than the creatour , shews , that there is a worship and service proper to the creatour , and herein was the idolatry of the gentiles , and all other , that they worshipped and served the creature , with that which was due only to the creatour . and therefore i conceive it , not to be idolatry , where divine worship is not exhibited to a creature , that is , directed to some person or thing , substance or accident , real or imagined , which is not the creatour of all things ▪ it is true , that heathen-idolaters did many of them make the creatour of all , the utmost bound or terminus of their image-worship , as the apostle saith , acts . . that the athenians did ignorantly worship the unknown god , and yet were idolaters , because their worship was first of the image as the next terminus or object to which it was exhibited . and the same is true of the israelites worshipping of the calf , though they worshipped god in it , exod. . . because , though they did not worship the calf terminatively , that is , so as to intend to direct their worship to it as the utmost bound of it , or last , or chief object : yet it was the molten image which they worshipped , psal. . . exod. . . it is indeed most gross and absurd idolatry , when the creature is worshipped terminatively , and therefore the worship of baal is accounted worse than the worship of the golden calves at dan and bethel , kings . . because it was terminated lastly to the sun , or to the devil , who was worshipped by molech , to whom they sacrificed their sons and daughters , psal. . , . and this idolatry was the idolatry of the canaanites , and a great part of the world , and of the jewes at last , as st. stephen chargeth them with , acts . , , . nor do i think it true , which this author here , and p. . saith , that there are few or none that worship the creature terminative , sith not only of old the host of heaven was worshipped by most of the idolaters , as may be gathered out of the scriptures , and is largely demonstrated by m● selden in his syntagma de diis syris ; but also at this day the devil himself is worshipped in the east - and west-indies , in some northern countries , and southern , if the relation of travellers , historians , and chorographers be true . it is granted , that it is somewhat more refined idolatry , when we offer up any worship or homage , proper and due to god only , before any creature , as the medium or representative of god. for then the worship is directed to it , as gods deputy , to receive it for him , and so the immediate or next terminus or object is the creature , though it be intended further to or for god , as the last or utmost term , bound or object , to which it is exhibited . but unless it be exhibited to the creature , it is not idolatry , though it be done before the creature , as [ before ] notes only the presence of it with the worshipper , whether seen or unseen , minded or not minded , and not any respect to it in the act of worshipping . worshipping at the temple ▪ before the ark or altar , was no idolatry , it was a duty required , psal . . worship at his footstool , meaning the sanctuary and ark there , saith mr. ainsworth in his annot. not , as the vulgar reads it , and the papists would have it , worship his footstool ; no nor if the lord be worshipped before a creature , as the objectum à quo , as the matter or thing which is the occasion , motive or reason ; of worshipping the lord at that time , is it therefore idolatry , though the worship be not instituted in respect of the time . we read , chron. . and when all the children of israel saw how the fire came down , and the glory of the lord upon the house ( the temple , ) they bowed themselves with their faces to the ground upon the pavement , and worshipped and praised the lord : yet was no idolatry therein ; nor in that which manoah and his wife did , judg. . . or the people , kings . . chron. . . exod. . . and . : whence i inferr , that , though there be divers sorts of idolatry , yet in every of them there is divine worship ; and that , as tertullian in his book of idolatry , c. . speaks of the three children refusing to worship the golden image of nebuchadnezzar , probantes idololatriam esse quicquid ultra humani honoris modum ad instar divinae sublimitatis ext●llitur , then it is idolatry , when any thing that is not god , is extolled beyond the measure of humane honour , to the likeness of divine sublimity , whether it be terminatively , or as a representative . concerning which i acknowledge , that the papists are deeply guilty in praying to the cross , the virgin mary ▪ saints , angels , &c. in which they give them , and their breaden-god , images , and reliques , that which the scripture counts latriam , or the service which is to be given to god only , as to the image of christ , ( aqu. sum . parte . qu. art . . ) ●aith , is to be adored with the adoration of latria : yea bellarmine l. . de imagin . sanctorum , c. . holds , that the images of christ , and the saints , are to have veneration , not only by accident or improperly , but also by themselves and properly , so as that themselves terminate the veneration , and not only as they supply the place of the samplar . and this veneration is expressed in the trent council , sess. . to be , the kissing of them , uncovering the head , and falling down before them , which are the same which were done to the image of baal , kings . . and counted idolatrous , being given to an image . and so are the services done to the virgin mary , though i think the papists do not affirm expresly , as this author saith of them , that the virgin mary may be worshipped with that worship which they call cultus latriae , which yet they say is due only to god ; for they in words deny they give her latriam , and call her worship hyperduliam . nor do i conceive the worshipping of god in any other way than what he hath prescribed , is the idolatry forbidden in the second commandment ; or that all who write upon the second commandment say so , or that the oblation of worship or service to god , that hath been offered up to idols , for which there is no prescription in the scripture , is idolatry , though perhaps it may be superstitious , and will-worship ; between which , if a distinction be not made , the pharisees that worshipped god by washing their hands after the tradition of the elders , will be sound idolaters , of which christ doth not accuse them , matth. . . and therefore , if in respect of this , it is , that the ministers be asserted idolaters , his proof will come short : but let us view it thus he writes , sect. . all will-worship of god is not idolatry . arg. . th●se that worship the true god in any other way than he hath said he will be worshipped in , and is prescribed by him , are idolaters : but the present ministers of england worsh●p the true god in another way than he hath said he will be worshipped it , and is prescribed by him : therefore ▪ the ma●or ( or first proposition ) is evident from this single consideration : to wo●ship the true god through false mediums is idolatry ; such as so wo●ship him are idolaters ; ( this must be so , or else there is little or no idolatry in the world , nor ever was . the athenians ( and other gentiles ) worshipped the true god , for they worsh●pped him whom paul declared to them , even that god , that made the world , acts . , . yet none doubts but they were idolaters , which they cannot be charged with upon any other account , than their worshipping the true god through false mediums : ) but to worship god in any other way than what is of his own prescription , is to worship him through a false medium : therefore so to worship him is idolatry , and they that so worship him are idolaters . answ. if by [ any other way ] be meant of any creature , as the medium or representative of god , as the golden calf , or brazen serpent , i yield the major to be true , and deny the minor : but if he meant by [ any other way ] any sort of worship , such as was the worship of god by washing of hands according to the tradition of the elders , mark . , . i deny both major and minor . and to his proof of the major i answer : though the worshipping of the true god through such traditions of men , which he seems to call false mediums , be not idolatry ; there is and hath been too much idolatry in the world , paganish , and jewish , and popish , and is yet at this day ; and in the athenian worshipping of the true god , acts . , . there was idolatry , in that they worshipped this unknown god by an image , worshipping the image as the representative of god , which may be gathered from v. . where the city of athens is said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that is , wholly given to idolatry , as we translate it , but more rightly , full of idols ; which is thus expressed by dr. owen in his third book of his theologumena , c. . the streets of the city were called pagi , because to every of their deities some stone ( that is , a pillar consecrated to this or that idol ) was erected . thence to signifie s●me part of the city the use of the word was first drawn . the same was done at athens as was done at jerusalem , jerem. . . for according in the number of thy cities , so are thy gods o judah , and according to the number of the streets of jerusalem , ye have made altars to that shame , altars to burn incense to baal . and from the expression of an altar , v . which among the gentiles had an image near it , and the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which dr. hammond in his annot. on v. . saith , was not their worsh●ps , or their altars , but their idols , that is , their deities themselves , for so the word is used , wisd. . . and , on thes. . alledgeth theophylact as interpreting 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , acts . . by their idols ; and from the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . v. applyed to this worship , is collected , that the unknown god was as a daemor , to whom they erected an image or pillar , which they conceived their deity present at , which is rendred , a standing image , in our translation , or an image of stone , to which they did bow down , forbidden levit. . . of which ainsworth in his annot. there , may be seen . so that upon this account the athenians may be charged with idolatry , in that they , in bowing down to , or worshipping the unknown god , did direct it to the idol or pillar which did represent him , unto which also an altar was dedicated . but it s added , sect. . this authors argument as well proves himself an idolater as the conformist . the minor ( or second proposition ) viz. that the present ministers of england worship the true god in another way than he hath said he will be worshipped in , and is prescribed by him , is that which is denied by some : but the truth thereof , we doubt not , will to the unprejudiced reader be beyond exception evident , from the ensuing demonstration , viz. those that worship god after the way of the common-prayer-book , worship him in another way than that he hath said he will be worshipped in , and is prescribed by him : but the present ministers of england worship god after the way of the common-prayer-book : therefore , &c. the minor ( or second proposition ) cannot be denied ; their subscription before they are admitted to the ministry , together with their daily and constant practice , are sufficient evidences thereof . answ. that unwary readers may not be deceived by the ambiguity of the phrase here used , it is to be considered , that the way of worship not prescribed by god , may be either when the worship is to another thing besides or with god , which alone proves idolatry , and in which sense the minor was denied , and should have been proved : or , by another way , is meant another ceremony or rite , in which the worship of god is placed , such as was the pharisees washing their hands , which may be will-worship , if to god only , but not idolatry ; and so , if he could prove our ministers guilty of this , yet should they not be proved idolaters , any more than the pharisees were , with which neither christ nor his apostles do charge them ; but this author doth no● so much as goe about to prove the minor denied in this sense . but in a third sense , to wit , by another way of worship than what god hath prescribed , he understands another way of expression of worship , in which the worship is not placed , but is used only as an outward means for conveniency , yet accounted alterable . in which sense the minor is not denied . but the major of his argument is denied in either of these two later senses of the phrase , and the minor in the two former : in neither of which doth he goe about to prove it . i add , . that he doth vainly suppose god hath appointed or prescribed the particularities of the modes or way of his worship , in every of the sorts or kinds of worship he hath prescribed , as particularly in prayer , that it must not , in a pre-conceived and stinted form of words , imposed by rulers , be performed to him ; but that it must by the minister be done in a loose , undetermined , unpremeditate or unprescribed form of words by any man ; the which supposition is before shewed to be an errour , in the answer to the preface , sect . . ch . . sect . . ch . . sect . . ch . . sect . , , , . . in this sense in which he useth the phrase , his argument may be retorted upon himself . those that worship the true god in any other way , that is , form of expression , than he hath said he will be worshipped in , and is prescribed by him , are idolaters : but they who pray in a loose , undetermined , unpremeditated or unprescribed form of words by man ; worship the true god in another way , that is , form of expression , than he hath said he will be worshipped in , and is prescribed by him : therefore they ( among whom th●s author is one ) are idolaters . the major is his own ; the minor by his own grants stands firm , till he can shew where god hath said , he will be worshipped in , and hath prescribed such a loose form of expression in prayer ; which i yet find not . what this author hath said before , is answered before . till he brings better proof , though i will not pronounce him an idolater ; yet i shall judge him to be guilty of superstition , in counting that to be sin , which god hath not made such , and of usurpation of gods legislative power , in pharisee-like requiring observance of his own tradition as gods command ; together with evil censoriousness , rash judging , and uncharitable separation . but let us goe on . sect. . prayer in a stinted form may be worship of god of his appointment . as for the major proposition ; saith he , that to worship god after the way of the common-prayer-book , is to worship him in a way that is not of his appointment . . let any shew when and where such a stinted form of service was appointed by christ , and this part of the controversie is at an end : sure we are , there are not the least footsteps of such a way of worship to be found in the new testament , no , not in the whole book of god ( whatever is pretended by some touching liturgies ( in the sense we are speaking ) amongst the people of the jews ; ) no , nor yet was there any such a way of worship thought of , much less imposed , in the first and purer times of the gospel , for several centuries of years , after the dayes of christ , and his apostles . in the epistles of the church of smyrna ( about the martyrdome of polycarpus , ) and of the churches of vienna and lyons ( concerning their persecution , ) in the epistle of clemens ( or the church of rome ) to the church of corinth , in the writings of ignatius , justin martyr , clemens , tertullian , origen , cyprian , and their contemporaries , there is not only an utter silence of such a thing , but assertions wholly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and opposite thereunto . tertullian sayes expresly , illuc suspicientes christiani , manibus expansis , quia innocuius ; capite nudo , quia non erubescimus ; denique sine monitore , quia de pectore oramus . apol. cap. . the christians in those days ( he tells us ) looking towards heaven , ( not on their common-prayer-books ) with their hands spread abroad , &c. prayed to god without a monitor , because from their hearts . and in several places he ●estifies , that they praised god in a way of prayer and thanksgiving according to their abilities . indeed claudius de sainctes , and pamelius ( two popish divines ) tell us of liturgies comp●sed by the apostles , james , peter , and mark ; of peter 's and mark 's , cardinal bellarmine himself not only takes no particular notice , but upon the matter condemns them , as supposititious and spurious : which that they are , is abundantly demonstrated by learned mo●ney , and no more need be added thereunto . there are some also fathered upon basil , chrysostome , and ambrose : but as these l●ved about the years , , . in which time many corruptions had crept into the churches of christ ; so the spuriousness thereof , as being falsly fathered upon the persons wh●se names they bear , may easily be demonstrated : t is already done to our hands by learned morney , in his book de missa , l. . chap. . durantus himself ( the great liturgy-monger ) acknowledgeth , that neither christ , nor his apostles , used any prescribed forms , but the lords prayer , and the creed , ( that they used these , he sayes , but proves not , nor will it ever be proved to the worlds end ) that about the year . theodosius ( the church being rent by heresies ) intreated pope damasus ( at whose election , though the contest was betwixt him and ursinus , a deacon of the church , there were not fewer than one hundred thirty seven persons slain ) that some ecclesiastical office might be made , which was accordingly done by hierome , and approved by pope damasus , and mad● a rule . the unlik●lyhood of this later part of the story is manifest : theodosius was too well acquainted with the spirit of prayer , than to goe about any such thing ; had he judged it necessary , having assembled the great council of constantinople , wherein were not less than an hundred and fifty persons convened ; is it probable this good man theodosius , would in so momentous a concern , rather consult with one single person , than such an assembly as were by his authority met together ? and yet , should this be granted , it would not from hence appear , that at this time there was any devised and imposed ; all that is pretended to be done by hierome , was the appointiing an order for the reading of the scriptures , which is another thing to the imposition of forms of prayer in worship . there is one passage in socrates his ecclesiastical history , l. . c. . who lived about the year . that carrying an undeniable evidence with it , that at that time there were no liturgies , we cannot pass over in silence , t is this : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , wherein he tells us , that among all the christians in that age , scarce two were to be found that used the same words in prayer . not to tire the reader in this disquisition ; though one part of the liturgy was not long after introduced by one pope , and another part by another ; yet till gregories time ( who , to the honour of liturgies be it spoken , was the very worst of all the bishops of rome that preceded him ) viz. about the year . was there any considerable use , or any imposing of them ; yea till the time of p●pe hadrian ( which was about the year . was it not ( as i find ) by publick authority imposed : then indeed the emperour charles the great ( being moved thereunto by the foresaid hadrian ) by his civil authority commands the use of a liturgy , ( viz. gregories liturgy , as it is thought ) to which he compels his ministers , by threats and punishments , the usual attendencies and support of liturgies ever since their production in the world . the summ is , that in as much as first it cannot be proved ( the contrary being most manifest in the scripture ) that any liturgy was enjoyned by christ , or his apostles , or in use in the first churches planted by them ; ly . it is evident , that for the first four hundred years and more after christ , there was no liturgy framed , nor any by solemn authority imposed , to the year eight hundred ; it follows undeniably from hence , that to worship god in the way of a liturgy , or stinted forms of prayer , is to worship him in a way that is not of his appointment . answ. . it is to be remembred , that , as i said before , were his conclusion granted , yet ministers would not be proved to be idolaters ; all worshipping of god , in a way that is not of his appointment , being not idolatry , except therein divine or religious worship be exhibited to a creature . . that his own argument , whose way of worship is not prescribed without a stinted form of prayer , would as well prove himself an idolater , as the ministers of england . . that he still acknowledgeth , that the worship according to the common-prayer-book , is the worship of the true god , nor doth he shew , that , according to it , any other is worshipped . . that he doth not except against the matter of the prayers in the common-prayer-book , no nor the particular forms of expression , as if they were not agreeable to the scriptures , or indecent , or inept ▪ but , . that all liturgies , or stinted forms of prayer ( and consequently this ) are not of gods appointment , but of humane invention . . that they are unduly imposed on ministers . . that ministers do sinfully , yea idolatrously use them , because it is a way of worship not appointed by god. the two former of these reach not the ministers of england , but the composers and imposers ; it is the third thing which is pertinent to the present crimination , which may occasion to enquire , . whether stinted forms of prayer , and service of god , which are not otherwise faulty , than in that they are stinted , may not be lawfully used by a minister of the gospel in his publick ministration ? . whether such prayers and service may not be a worship of god in a way that is of his appointment ? i affirm both , and to what is said against either , i answer , . that christ did , in appointing the lords prayer to be used by his apostles , matth. . luke . . the salutation to be used by the seventy disciples , luke . . appoint such a stinted form of service . . that we have footsteps of such a way of worship in the new testament , in his justifying and countenancing the crying of hosanna , that is , save us now , taken from psal. . , . ( as mr. ainsworth in his annotation observes ) by the multitude . and the children , matth. . . . mark . with the disciples , luke , . john . . in christs using the forms which david used before in the psalms , matth. . . he prayes in the form used , psal. . . luke . . in the form used , psal. . . in the apostles use of a form of prayer in his epistles , rom. . . rom. . . cor. . . cor. . . cor. . . gal ▪ . . ephes. . . phil. . . phil. . . col. . . thes. . . thes. . . thes. . . thes. . , , . tim. . tim. . . tit. . . philem. . heb. . . pet. . . pet. . . john . jude . revel . . . in the old testament , numb . . , , , . chron. . . . chron. . . chron. . . chron. . . chron. . . in the titles of psal. . and . jerem. . . ezra . . zech. . . jude . revel . . , . revel . . . hos. . , . isai. . . deut. . . and . . . isai. . . mr. ainsworth himself ( than whom none was more opposite to any set form , as appeared by his avouching in his writing to mr. paget , the reasons in the separatists apology , p. . against using the words of the lords-prayer in prayer , to which mr. paget hath answered , in his arrow against the separation of the brownists , p. . &c. ) in his annot . on exod. . . reciting the form of the later jews at their passover , saith , vnto these phrases the new testament seemeth to have reference , when it speaketh of the cup of blessing ▪ cor. . . and of singing an hymn , mark. . and after , these observations of the jews , while their common-wealth stood , and to this day , may give light to some particulars in the passover that christ kept ; as why they lay down , one leaning on anothers bosome , john . . ( a sign of rest and security ) and stood not , as at the first passover , neither sate on high , as we use . why christ rose from supper , and washed , and sate down again , john . , . . why he blessed , or gave thanks , for the bread apart , and for the cup ( or wine ) apart , mark . , . and why it is said , he took the cup after supper , luke . . also concerning the hymn which they sung at the end , mat. . . and why paul calleth it , the shewing forth of the lords death , cor. . . as the jews usually called their passover , haggadah , that is , shewing , or declaration . from which observations we may gather , that our lord christ did use the forms in blessing ( which is a part of prayer ) which the jews , without particular command of god , had taken up : and that st. paul alludes to them , expressing the use of christians , by the phrases of the jews , which shews the christians used their forms . yea , that the apostles , in many things of their ministry , retained the customes in their synagogues , in matters of worship and ecclesiastical government , is avouched by mr. stillingflete in his irenicum , part d. ch . after mr. selden , dr. lightfoot , dr : hammond , mr. thorndike , and many others . which things do abundantly prove , that this author doth too too inconsiderately write , that there are not the least footsteps of a stinted form of service , in the worship of god , to be found in the new testament ▪ no , not in the whole book of god , amongst the people of the jews ; no , nor yet was there any such a way of worship thought of , much less imposed , in the first and purer times of the gospel , for several centuries of years , after the dayes of christ , and his apostles . i do not gainsay what this author writes about the liturgies fathered on some of the apostles , and some of the ancients : neither will i justifie the use or imposition of them , as they have been in the later ages ; only this i say , ( which is sufficient for the present purpose ) . that neither the words of justin martyr in his d. apology to ant●ninus , that the president did send forth prayers and thanksgivings , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as he had ability , the people testifying their consent , by saying , amen . nor the words of tertullian , alleged by this author , out of his apologetique against the gentiles , c. . that the christians prayed for the emperour , looking towards heaven , and without a monitor , because from the heart , do necessarily exclude stinted forms of prayer . the words of justin martyr may be understood of the intention of the affections , or duration of prayers , which may be in stinted forms ; nor is it unlikely , but that thanksgivings were some of them such , as in their psalms which they sung , which pliny mentions in his epistle to trajan in that age ; and those it is likely were stinted forms : and they might pray without a monitor or prompter , which excludes the suggestion of others , and from the heart , includes of their own accord , and yet pray in stinted expressions : yea , the things mentioned that they prayed for , seem to intimate set forms , agreeable to the things he mentions as prayed for . . however , it is apparent , if not from tertullians book of prayer , yet out of cyprians book concerning the lords prayer , that christians did , and conceived they ought , in publique prayer , to use the prescript words of the lords prayer , and that they had some other forms then , whieh are still retained , which those words intimate , therefore also the priest , a preface being premised before prayer , prepares the minds of the brethren , by saying , lift up your hearts : that when the people answer , we lift them up to the lord , they may be minded , that they ought to think on nothing else but the lord. which , if it prove not an entire liturgy to have been then in use , yet a worship of god by a stinted form of words , was sure thought on in cyprians time ; and that this author writes too confidently , when he saith , the least footsteps of such a way of worship are not found , nor were thought of in those times . it follows . sect. . common-prayer-book worship shuts not out of doors the exercise of the gift of prayer . to which we add , . that worship which is an obstruction of any positive duty charged by christ , to be performed by the saints , is not a worship that is of his appointment . but this is undeniably true of the common-prayer book worship . therefore , that christ did upon his ascension give unto his church , officers , as signal characters of his love to , and care of it , will not be denied , ephes . . is an evidence hereof beyond exception . that to th●se officers he gave gifts and qualifications , every way suiting the empl●yment he called them forth unto , cannot without a most horrid advance against the wisdome , faithfulness , love and care of christ towards the beloved of his soul , be gainsaid . that he not only expects , but solemnly charges upon these officers , an improvement of the gifts bestowed upon them , for the edification of his body , is evidently compriz'd , and very frequently remarked in the scripture , tim. . . cor. . . ephes. . . prov. . . luke . . to imagine after all this , that any worship should be of the institution of christ , that should shut out of doors , as unnecessary , the exercise of the gifts given by him , to be made use of in the solemn discharge of the worship of his house , is such an imputation of folly to him , as may not be charged upon any person of an ordinary capacity or understanding : yet this is righteously to be imputed to him ( absit blasphemia ) if the common-prayer-book worship be a worship of his appointment : the exercise of the gift of prayer ( to mention no more ) being wholly excluded hereby . nor will it in the least take off the weight of this argument , to say , that liberty is granted for the exercise of this gift before and after sermon : for , . the whole worship of god , may , according to these mens principles , be discharged without any sermon at all ; and it is manifest it is frequently so , at one time or other , in most of the assemblies of england . . those their prayers are also bounded and limited by the th . canon of the constitutions and canons ecclesiastical . . we had alwayes thought , that christ having given gifts unto men , did require the use of those gifts at all times , when ever persons were called to the performance of that service for which they were designedly given by him , by vertue of the fore-mentioned precepts . when christ hath given a gift of prayer unto his children , and charged them to stirr up the gift given them , and not to napkin their talent , we had verily thought , that when ever they had been called forth to the performance of that duty , he did really intend and expect , that they should be found in the exercise of the gift given ; and see as yet no reason to change our apprehensions in this matter . answ. the major proposition is not in all cases true . the resting on the sabbath day was a positive duty charged by god , yet the sacrificing , which was an obstruction of that duty , called by our lord christ , prophaning the sabbath , matth. . . was worship of gods appointment . following of christ , and preaching the gospel , were worship of christs appointment , and yet they were obstructions to positive duties required to be done to parents , wives , and children therefore it is not true , unless the thing , which is an obstruction , be such of its own nature , of it self , and not by accident , and so necessarily and universally such an obstruction . but not to insist on this , the minor proposition is many wayes faulty . . it is supposed , that the common-prayer book worship is a different sort of worship ▪ from such as is used by those , which exercise the gift of prayer , as he terms it ; which is absurd : for then so many several forms of words as are used , should be so many several sorts of worship ; all expressions , that are not immediately inspired , should be will-worship ; and so preachers several methods , and expressions in preaching , should be several sorts of worship . this is that which i assert , that the same petitions , the same confessions , and thanksgivings , for matter , are the same prayer , and worship , though in various expressions ; and that the same prayers , read out of the common-prayer book , and the prayers of the preachers , framed by themselves , and uttered , if they ask the same things in other phrases , are the same prayers , and worship : and they that can joyn with the one , and say amen to them ; may as lawfully , and safely , without sin , joyn with , and say amen to the other . . this authors phrase doth intimate , that ability to conceive , compose , and utter in variety of expressions , petitions to god , is the gift of prayer ; and the exercise of it , is the exercise of that gift ; which is false : sith the gift of prayer is by the moving of the affections , directing the mind , exciting faith , as the text alledged by this author , rom. . . proves , the spirits work being there to acquaint us , what we are to pray for ; and to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to over-intercede for us , with groans unspoken ; or , as it is read , which cannot be uttered : and therefore , no● in the inspiration of words , or method , or fitting a person with various , or unpremeditated expressions . yea , those who express not , who do not compose their petitions in any order or method , as in ejaculatory prayers , such as nehemiahs prayer was , nehem. . . hannahs , sam. . . hezekiahs , isai. . those who premeditate before they pray , as david did , psal. . . have as truly , and perhaps more rightly , and do exercise the gift of prayer , as those who in never so extemporary manner , enlarge themselves in various expressions and petitions . it is true , the author of the discourse concerning the interest of words in prayer , ch . . tells us , the gift and grace of prayer are two things : this , he derives from the spirit of adoption ; that , he defines to be an ability of mind , to form words expressive of such desires of our hearts , as are according to the will of god , conjoyned with a faculty of memo●y , and of expression , and elocution ; which , he saith , is partly natural , partly by industry attainable . but the gift of prayer here , by our authors words , pag. . is the donation of the spirit ; and usually the exercise of it in expressions unpremeditated , or conceived in opposition to praying by a book , or written set forms kept in the memory , is termed praying in the spirit , and so no natural or acquired ability ; which is to be observed , that the ambiguity of expressions may not deceive the unwary reader . now if this be observed they that pray in a set form , and those that read the common-prayer , may be truly said to pray in the spirit , if their heart goe with their words ; and to exercise the gift of prayer , if the gift of prayer be as the discourse cited doth describe it . . the gift of prayer , by alleging ephes. ▪ should seem , by this author , to be accounted a ministerial gift , proper to them ; for so were the gifts mentioned ephes. . . which if so ▪ then it is not common to the saints , nor the exercise of it a positive duty cha●ged by christ to be performed by the saints , except they be ministers ; and so it is not lawful for them , except they be ministers , to seek , or to use the gift of prayer . if they have it , by this authors arguing , they are to exercise it , as well as ministers ; and it is as unlawful for them to pray by a book , as for the ministers ; they so praying , worship in a way not appointed by god , and are idolaters , as well as the ministers ; and separation is to be from them ▪ as well as from ministers . whereas ▪ i● the gift of prayer be partly natural , partly acquired , then it is lawful for ministers , or other saints , to make use of any lawful means , which may acquire that gift , such are any that may be a directory to know what they a●e to pray for , that may advantage them , for remembring , composure , or elocution , conference , imitation of others , reading , meditation , self-examination ; and if the common-prayer book be a help ( as some conceive it is ) it may be lawfully used , or any others treatises , or forms of prayer , for the obtaining of it . and if so , the common . prayer book worship may be , so far from being an obstruction to the positive duty of exercising the gift of prayer , that it may further it , by acquainting us with many things we should ask for : as the homilies also may be helps for the knowledge of what doctrine preachers are to teach their people . and then this authors argument may be thus retorted . that form may be lawfully used for worship , which may be a means to further any positive duty , charged by christ to be performed by the saints . but such may be the forms of prayers in the liturgy of the church of england . therefore . the major is grounded on the rule given by divines about the decalogue : that which requires a duty , requires the means conducing thereto . the minor is proved , in that the common-prayer book directs what things are to be prayed for , by reason of the brevity of collects ; the responds , the frequent use , the plain expressions , help the memory and elocution , wherein the acquired gift of prayer consists ; therefore it is not an obstruction , but a help to the gift of prayer . but this author , though he may perhaps count this tolerable in others , yet not in ministers ; let 's view what he saith of them . he alledgeth eph. . . and would inferr from thence , that all ministers have the gift of prayer , and are to use it ; that the common-prayer book worship shuts it out of doors , as unnecessary , and therefore is not of christs appointment . but , . the text expresseth not the several sorts of qualifications , but the several sorts of officers . . if it be supposed , that ministerial gifts are also implyed ; yet whether extraordinary , or ordinary , may be doubted . . if ordinary gifts , there may be a question , whe●her the gift of prayer , as he means it , were one : that is , whether christ hath required ▪ that every minister should be able , on all occasions , to express himself without any stinted form , either conceived by himself , or composed by others , to make known the requests , which it concerns his people , to whom he is pastour , in the most solemn and publick auditory , to ask of god , in their behalf , in words and elocution fitting the matter and auditory . i doubt not but the minister should be able to express the requests of the people , as he should be able to declare the mind of god to the people ; yet neither the one ▪ nor the other , is of necessity to be done , or the minister tied to do it every way , but the best way he is able , or at least , that way as is fit for the end of his expressions , to wit , the peoples understanding , not the ostentation of his parts . the apostles could preach without study , but timothy was to give attendance to reading , to meditate , to give himself wholly to th●se things , whereby his profiting might appear to all , and yet had a gift given by prophecy , tim. . , , . ministers are to preach the word now , but they are not tyed to preach without notes , without study , without other helps which god affords : nor are ministers bound to express themselves alwayes without pre-conceived , or prescribed forms in prayer , and yet they may faithfully discharge their work . now god doth not give gifts , as he did in the apostles times ; and therefore the same readiness and exuberancy of expressions , or composure of petitions , is not to be expected of ministers now , as was of them . · i add , that though the apostles said , acts . . we will give our selves continually to prayer , and to the ministry of the word . and st ▪ paul , tim. . . exhorts , tha● first of all , supplications , prayers , intercessions , and giving of thanks be made for all men , for kings , and all that are in authority : yet we read not , that this is made the ministers work , to express the common necessities of the church , in a publick auditory , or any rules about the form or manner of praying . nor do we find , that either christ , or his apostles , used any forms of prayer , before or after their preaching ; and therefore conceive not this to be the proper work of a minister , or that either way of praying is determined ▪ and therefore both may lawfully be used by the minister , or other christians . nor doth the one way of worship shut out of doors the other ; or the minister , by using the common-prayer book , exclude conceived prayer by the speakers . if they were tyed , by the governours , to use no other than the common-prayer book expressions ; yet this is not to be imputed , either to the common-prayer book , or its way of worship , or to the ministers , but unto those who do so rigidly impose it . i add further , that were there a prohibition of using any other than the common-prayer , yet this were not a shutting out of doors christs institution , unless it were proved christs institution , that at all times in prayer no stinted form should be used . nor doth it shut out of doors the gift of prayer , unless it be proved ▪ they only have the gift of prayer , who use their own conceived expressions ; which if so , not only those who use the forms of prayer , though with never so much fervency of spi●it , which they read or remember in the common-prayer book , or in the practice of piety , or any other such book of mens composure : but also those , who use the words of the psalms , or the lords-prayer , yea that do say amen to the words of any preacher before sermon , or any that gives thanks afore meals , should shut out of doors the gift of prayer , or the exercise of it , sith he useth not the gift he hath , to wit , the ability of mind to form words , and to utter them , which is the definition of the gift of prayer before given . there are many in the congregation perhaps yea some women that can form and utter words as fit for prayer as the minister ; will not this author have this gift of prayer shut out of doors , and yet not conclude that a positive duty is obstructed thereby ? besides , there may be a restraint of a duty , as unseasonable , sith affirmative precepts bind not ad semper , to be done at all times , perhaps time will not permit , or weather , or some accidents , or more necessary business ; and yet the gift not shut out of doors , as unnecessary , but as only inconvenient at that time . do not the most able preachers sometimes omit the exercise of their gifts , and yet count not them shut out of doors , as unnecessary ? yea , doth not the apostle , cor. ● . put some restraints upon prophecying , to keep order ? did he then shut out of doors , as unnecessary , the gift of prophecy ? i have read , that the separatists in the low countries , have spent so much time on the lords day in debating causes , and matters of discipline , that they have omitted exercise of their gifts in some other ordinances ; and yet i presume they have not shut them out of doors , as unnecessary . if at one meeting of christians , no other thing had been done , but the reading of st. pauls epistles , as he appointed , col. . . yet were not the exercise of a●chippus his ministry thereby shut out of doors , as unnecessary , but only suspended for that time . and this would be no napkining up of his talent , nor such exclusion of the gift of preaching or prophecying , as , with others , this author clamou●ously inveighs against the th . canon directs preachers what they should pray for , doth not limit or bound them in the words or matter : it saith , they shall move the people to joyn with them in prayer , in this form , or to this effect , as briefly as conveniently they may : not forbidding to pray for other things , or in other words , than are there set down . and blessed be the almighty , that yet ministers have liberty at all times to express themselves in prayer and preaching , as fully as there is need ; that the kings majesty invites to fasting and prayer ; that , notwithstanding it is to be bewailed , that the worship of god is no better performed than it is ; and that the intemperate abuses of some , have caused more severe restraint on others , than were to be wished : yet there is so much purity of worship and doctrine ▪ as that separation is unnecessary . and this author , as if he imitated the gloss in the canon law , non satis discretus esset , &c. writes causelesly , if not blasphemously , that folly may righteously be imputed to christ , if the common-prayer book worship be a worship of his appointment . he goes on thus . sect. . common-prayer book worship is not of pure humane invention . but ly . the common-prayer book wo●ship , is a worship , of which we find no footsteps in the scripture ( nor in some centuries of years after christ ) as hath already been demonstrated : whence it follows , that 't is a worship of pure humane invention , which is not only not of christs appointment , but contrary to the very nature of instituted wo●ship ( as is proved in our first argument ) and to very many precepts of the lord in th● scripture , exod. . , deut. . and . . prov. . jer. . matth. . , . mark . , . rev. . . the mind of god in which scriptures we have exemplified , lev. . , , , . josh. . . &c. judg. . kings . chron . . answ this author runs on in his gross mistakes , as if the form of words in the common-prayer book were the worship , that it were a several sort of worship from the prayers made by a preacher of his own conception , and that such prayers were worship of christs institution , and not the other . which mistakes are shewed before : and what he saith here , is answered , either in this chapter , sect . . or chapt . . sect . . the common-prayer book worship is no more a pure humane invention , than preachers conceived-prayers : nor is it any idol , forbidden exod. . , . nor any prophecy added to the book of the revelation , forbidden revel . . . nor such an ephod as gideon made , judg. . . nor such a not seeking god after the due order , as was the carrying of the ark in a cart , and uzzah 's putting his hand to it , chron. . . nor such an invention forbidden , as was the altar of damascus , imitated by uriah , kings . and therefore it is sufficient to deny what is here said , without forming of an argument . as for josh . &c. it makes for the common-prayer-book , not against it : sith that altar was allowed of , though it were for religious signification , and yet not by divine institution ; and therefore proves , that all inventions of men , whereby our worship of god is signified , are not unlawful , if they be not made necessary , nor the worship of god placed in the things so invented , or their use . it follows , sect. . common-prayer book worship is the same with the worship of the reformed churches . . that worship which is not necessary for the edification , comfort , or preservation of the saints , in the faith and vnity of the gospel , is not of the institution of christ : but such is the worship of the common-prayer book : therefore . the major ( or first proposition ) will not be denied . the lord jesus having freeed his disciples from all obligations to the ceremonies of the law , institutes nothing de novo , but what he kn●w to be necessary ( at least would be so by vertu● of his institution ) for the ends assigned : which was the great aim in all gospel administrations , ephes . . to . col. . acts . . rom. . , . cor. . . and . , ▪ , , . cor . tim . . that the common-prayer book w●●sh●p is n●t necessary for the edification , comfort , or preservation of the saints , in the faith and vnity of the g●spel ( what ever is pretended by its admirers ) might many wayes be demonstrated . take one p●●grant instance instead of all ▪ that will make it exceeding man●fest : the churches of christ , for the first four centuries of years , and more , after his ascension , knew not any thing of such a worsh●p ( as hath been already demonstrated ) not to mention the reformed churches at this day , to whom it is as a polluted , accu●sed , abominable thing ) yet , than those first and purer churches , for light , consolation , truth of doctrine , and gospel-vnion , hitherto there hath not been any extant in the world , more famous , or excellent ; no , nor by many degrees comparable to them . but we shall not further prosecute this argument , enough hath been said , to demonstrate , that the common prayer book worsh●p is not of the appointment of the lord : therefore , such as worship him in the way thereof , worship him in a way that is not of his prescription . if the former , notwithstanding all that hath been said , be scrupled by any , we referr him to tracts written by smectymnuus , v. powel ; to a treatise , entituled , a discourse concerning the interest of words in prayer , by h. d. m. a. the common-prayer book unmask'd ; as also to a treatise lately published by a learned ( but nameless ) author , entituled , a discourse concerning liturgies , and their imposition : in which that matter is industriously and la●gely debat●d . a●sw this author still continues his confounding of the worship of the common-prayer book , with the form of it , that is ▪ the method , and phra●e , and manner of it , which no man that speaks distinctly ▪ calls the common-prayer book worship . the common-prayer book worship is no other than the prayers , praises , lessons , ministration of the sacraments : and these are of christs institution , and are necessary for the edification , comfort , or preservation of the saints , in the faith and unity of the gospel ; and accordingly the mi●or proposition is false which denies it . but sith this author , by worship , understands the forms and modes of it , though they be not prescribed or determined in scripture ; or the kind of wo●ship , in respect of those forms : meaning , that the worship , for example , p●ayer , prai●e , and the like , which are expressed or performed by forms or modes not prescribed by christ , though the kind or so●t of worship be of christs institution ; yet , because it is performed in such forms or modes , as are not necessary for the edi●ication , comfort , or p●eservation of the saints , in the faith and unity of the gospel , it is so adulterae●d thereby , that it is not of the institution of christ. in which sense the maj●● proposition is to be denied , and the argument may be 〈◊〉 thus : that worship , which in respect of the mode or form of performing , is not necessary for the edif●cation , comfort , or p●eservation of the saints , in the faith and unity of the gospel , is not of the institution of christ : but such is the extemporary , conceived prayer of preachers , and others , such is the praising of god in the english metre ; the reading of the scriptures , according to ordinary division of chapters and verses , with the contents of the chapters : therefore . the major is his own , the minor stands good , till it be shewed , where christ hath appointed such extemporary praying , or such praising , such reading the scripture so divided : to which i might add , in hearing , taking notes of sermons , preachers using notes in the pulpit , with sundry more ; but i forbear . as for the texts alledged , ephes. . . &c. it speaks not of worship , and its institution by christ ; nor what is the necessary requisite to such worship , as is instituted by christ : but only of gifts , that is , preaching officers , and the end and use of those gifts . col. . . speaks not of worship , or what is requisite , that it be of christs institution : but tells us , that seducers , which taught worshipping of angels , held not the head , that is , christ : and that from him all the body ( that is , the church ) by joynts and bands , having nourishment ministred , and knit together , increaseth with the increase of god. acts . . speaks not at all of worship , or its institution by christ , or christs aim in gospel-administrations , or what is requisite that worship be of his institution : rom. . , . much less ; it speaks of the cleanness of things of themselves , the uncleanness to him that thinks them so ; and our duty not to grieve our brother with our meats . cor. . . tells us , of the inexpediency of some things lawful , in that they edifie not ; nothing of christs aim in his institutions , or what is requisite to his instituted worship . cor. . , , , , . tells us , of the benefit of prophecying , the end and use of spiritual gifts ; nothing of christs aim in his institution of worship , or the requisite to such institution . cor. . . doth not mention any thing ▪ but pauls affection and estate . tim. . . nothing but the incommodity of fables and genealogies . which should be observed by the reader , that he may be wary , how he trusts to this author's , and other separatists multiplying texts impertinently , that they be not ensnared by them ; and that such persons may see , what cause they have to repent of such abusive wresting of scripture . as for that which he saith of the common-prayer book worship , if he mean thereby the prayers or praises in the forms therein , i will not say , they are necessary for the edification , comfort , or preservation of the saints , in the faith and vnity of the gospel : i yield , that they are not necessary ; those ends may be obtained by other forms of prayer , or rather by preaching , confessions of faith , and reading of the holy scriptures ; unto which the lessons and portions of scripture , confessions of faith , in the common-prayer book , are as conducible as other . whether the churches of christ , in the four first centuries , were so excellent , as he saith : and whether they knew not any thing of such a worship as the common prayer book worship , is a disputable point , et adhuc sub judice lis est . what is said , that to the reformed churches , at this day , the common-prayer book worship is as a polluted , accursed , abominable thing , i find no cause to believe , except he mean by them , the churches of the separatists . i find calvin , in his th . epistle , saying indeed , in anglicana liturgia , qualem describitis , multas video fuisse tolerabiles ineptias : yet in his th . epistle , he saith . quod ad formulam precum & rituum ecclesiasticorum , valde probo , ut certa illa extet , &c. and i find maresius of groning , in his academical decision of some questions , qu. . alledging those words of calvin , and disputing against francis johnson his latine answer to carpenter against liturgies , and asserting liturgical forms to be admitted by all the reformed churches : nor do i find any thing to the contrary in voetius his ecclesiastical policy , or any other , that have lately written , who have gainsaid these speeches ; and therefore , i conceive , that this author , in this speech , hath too great a smack of that , which is in one of tullies epistles , said of such men : qui semel vere●undiae fines transilierit , eum gnaviter impudentem esse oportet . neither smectymnuus , nor the assembly , nor mr. baxter in his disputation of a form of liturgy , nor any other of the presbyterians , that i know , have written such things of the common-prayer book , as this author vents . if they are to be read , he that would find truth , should also read the answers to smectymnuus , ball 's tryal of separation , paget 's arrow against the separatists , with others . as for ● . powel his tract , i find in it such a sardle of false principles , misallegations of texts , non-syllogizing , confused dictates , with vain gi●des , that me-thinks no sober or judicious person should be moved by it . the common-prayer vnmasked , i have not seen : the discourse of the interest of words in prayer , doth not advantage this author , to prove separation from ministers , or their ministry , by reason of the common-prayer . the discourse of liturgies i have read , and find in it little logick , a great many words , which if they were reduced to syllogistical form , would appear to be a bulk without sinews : not to mention the many absurd dictates ; among which i have observed this , that p. . the l●rds prayer is made to belong to the oeconomy of the old testament , and to argue thence to the new , is to deny christ to be ascended on high . but i must attend the author here , who adds , sect. . no particularity instituted is a meer circumstance , yet particularities undetermined are . object . if to what hath hitherto been proposed , it be said , that the liturgy , or common-prayer book , is no essential part of worship , but meerly circumstantial : praying , t is true , is part of worship , but praying in this or that form is not so , but meerly a circumstance thereof : and therefore , though it be true , that the present ministers of england worship god after the way of the common-prayer book ; yet it follows not , that they worship him after a way that is not of his appointment . to this we answer , . that many things are strenuously supposed , as the basis upon which the weight of this objection is laid , which the framers thereof knowing to be no easie task to demonstrate , do earnestly beg us to grant unto them : which being matter of greater moment than many are aware of , we shall not part with , on such easie terms . t is supposed , first , that there are some things in the instituted worship of christ , that are meerly circumstances thereof , as such . secondly , that it is lawful for saints to pray in a form. thirdly , that forms of prayer imposed , are but meer circumstances of worship , and no essential parts thereof . fourthly , that circumstances of worsh●p , as such , are not determined by the lord in the scripture , but left to the wills of men , to determine therein as they shall judge meet . all unproved . of the last of we have already spoken , and shall not here re-assume the debate thereof . touching the first , that there are s●me things in the instituted worship of christ , that are meerly circumstances thereof , as such , we crave liberty to deny , which , till the proof be attempted , may suffice . circumstances in the worship of christ , attending religious actions , as actions , we grant ; ) but circumstances of worship , as such , will never be proved : ) to inferr , that because time and place , with sundry things of the like nature , are circumstances in worship , therefore there are circumstances of worship , as such , is frivol●us : those things being the attendments of religious actions , common to any civil actions of the like nature , to be performed by the sons of men ; no action to be managed by a community , can be orderly performed by them , without such an assignment of time and place : publick prayer being so to be managed , as a religious action , hath the circumstances before mentioned attending it ; and so it would , were it a meer civil action , to be performed by a community , though it related not at all to the worship of god. answ. it is not true , that the objection supposeth , that some things in the instituted worship of christ , are but meer circumstances thereof , as such : meaning , that any particularity of that action , which christ hath prescribed for his worship , being instituted by him , is a meer arbitrary circumstance , and not a necessary part of that worship . it is held in the lords supper , and all institutions of christ , in which particularities are expressed , there should be strict observation of them , as part of the worship : but in things not determined , liberty is allowed to vary ; and therefore , if christ have not instituted , that you shall pray without a book , or set form , prayer by it may be lawfully done . the distinction of circumstances in , and of the worship of christ ; of religi●us actions , as actions , or as religi●us , a●e but unnecessary nice●ies , so long as the meaning of the objection is manifest , that the praying in this , or that form , is not a part of the worship ; as if without it , the worship were not , or not according to christs institution , but an accident of it , which may adesse vel abesse , which is in effect , if ● understand this author , the same which he grants , that there are circumstances in the w●rship of christ , attending religi●us actions , as actions which are not in their particula●ities expresly prescribed by christ and if we agree in the thing , it is but frivolous to wrangle about words . sect. . praying in a form , may be praying in the spirit . . saith this author , that t is lawful for saints to pray in a form ( i. e. to tye themselves to a written stinted form of words in prayer ) is not yet proved , nor like to be ; t is too large a field for us to enter into : nor is it needful to do so , till it be proved , that to pray in the form of the common-prayer book , or imposed devised liturgies , is so : yet in transitu , we crave leave humbly to offer , that to pray in a form , as before explained , is altogether unlawful , being , . a quenching of the spirit of prayer . ly . a rendring useless the donation of the spirit , as a spirit of prayer , unto the children of god. ly . directly opposite unto the many positive precepts of christ , before instanc'd in , of stirring up the gifts given to us of god , improving the talents he hath been graciously pleased to intrust us withall . ly . if it be lawful for saints to pray in a form , t is lawful , either because they have not the spirit ; or that having the spirit , he is not a sufficient help to them in their approaches to god : if the first , they are not saints , rom. . . to assert the second , is little less than blasphemy , besides its direct opposition to rom. . . answ. the position of this author here , by his words , appears to be , that not only it is altogether unlawful for ministers , but also for all saints , all that have the spirit of god , to pray in a form : and though he seems to mean by his addition , that he counts it only then unlawful , when they tye themselves , ● whether by vow , or customary use , or once only , to a stinted form of words in prayer , without variation , written , not conceived by him that prays , and kept in his memory ; yet his arguments are against using any set form , by any saint , conceived by himself , and kept in memory without writing , though but once used : for then the spirit of prayer is quenched , its donation is rendred useless , it s against the positive precepts of stirring up our gift , improving our talent , disabling the spirit ; which are at no time to be done : and if so , no way of worship of christs institution , and therefore idolatrous , and , by this authors doctrine , to be separated from ; and therefore this authors principles ▪ carry him , not only to separate from hearing the present ministers , but also from every saint , that not only often , but once useth a set form , devised by himself , in family exercises , as before meals , or other times : and , if he be of mr. ainsworths mind , in the controversie between him and mr. r●binson of old , he must not only separate from the publique communion of the church of england , but also from the private religious communion of every one that joyns in common prayer , or in private stinted forms of prayer , except they profess their repentance : and if we should prove it lawful to pray in the form of the common-prayer book , or imposed devised liturgy ( which seems no hard thing to do , if we suppose the ministers , and common-prayer book worshippers , not to have the spirit ; for then , by his arguments , they do not quench , make useless , neglect the gift of the spirit ; and therefore are not forbidden a stinted form , which would overthrow this argument against the ministers ) yet we must do somewhat more ; we must prove it lawful for the saints , who have the spirit , to use once a stinted form of words , though it be the lords prayer only . which i think will be done by this argument : that prayer may be lawful to saints , in which neither is any thing done forbidden by god , nor any thing omitted which god requires thereto , but such may be praying in a form : therefore . to what this author humbly offers , i answer , . that the things he offers , proceed only upon mistakes : that the praying the spirit , ephes. . . jude . in the holy ghost , is meant of extemporal , unpremeditated , unprescribed forms of words ▪ whereas , praying in the spirit , is meant of praying by the operation of the spirit within , not of prayer in respect of the form of words wherein it is expressed ; which may be gathered concerning the former text , in that the prayers there , which are to be in the spirit , are all , alwayes with all prayer and supplication , watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication : which cannot be well expounded of other prayers , than such as are solitary , of which many are only ejaculatory , without words : and this is confirmed by the words , ephes . where the effect of being filled with the spirit , is the speaking to themselves in psalms , and hymns , and spiritual songs , singing and making melody to the lord in their heart . besides , as all the directions , eph●s . . , , , , . are precepts of what each christian should do by and for himself : so is v. . and so , if not solely , yet chiefly meant of solitary prayers , to which words are not necessary ; and therefore , praying in the spirit , is by the operation of the spirit in the heart , not by the spirits immediate forming of words in the tongue . and the same is to be said of jude . of cor. . . i have spoken before , in answer to ch . . sect . . . the ability to express petitions in words extemporary , unpremeditated , is termed , the spirit of prayer , as if it were in every one that hath the sanctifying spirit of god , and they only ; for so the alleging rom. . . . for it , in the th . argument , must inferr . but who knows not by experience ▪ that many that have not the spirit of god , have yet this ability to admiration , as is related by camden , saravia , the author of the relation of the conspiracy concerning hacket , in q elizabeths time , and many others : and on the other side , many whose holiness of life shewed they had the spirit , yet not this ability ; and therefore it is ill called , the spirit of prayer , whereby many unwary souls are ensnared with the opinion , as if such as can express themselves fluently in words , largely , and with shew of affection , were immediately moved by the spirit ; and they distill thereby into many inconsiderate persons , errours and evil principles : whereas it is acknowledged to be but an acquired ability , with help of natural endowments , and many times is proved to be but a counterfeit and deceitful practice . now then , in answer to each of the particulars , i say , . that the spirit is not quenched , as is forbidden , thes. . . by a set form of prayer , used by another , and read out of a book , any otherwise , than by a pronouncing without a book , a conceived form ; the ability of another to conceive and utter , for matter and words , is as much limited by the one , as by the other . it is true , when prejudice is against reading , or the forms read , or the reader huddles it over , or delivers it coldly , it much abates the affection of the hearer : and so it is in saying over a conceived prayer , if there be a prejudice against the person , or his delivery be dull and heavy . and it is not to be denied , that lively affectionate expressions , with readiness of speech , and apt emphatical words , have much energy on hearers ; and so sometimes it is , when a written sermon or prayer is well and pathetically pronounced : so that the form doth but lessen the affection by accident , not necessarily , and of it self ; and thus either when a stinted form is pronounced by another , or by the person praying , it may be very incommodious to use it , usually such forms being read or said without heed or feeling . yet universally it is not so : nor is the quenching of the spirit ( meant thes. . . ) meant of the spirit of prayer , more than any other exercise of godliness or gifts , whether ordinary or extraordinary : nor is the quenching the spirit , the act of another , but of him in whom the spirit is quenched ; who , either by his sinful life , or by cares , and riches , and pleasures of this life , and lusts of other things , ch●kes the word of god ( which is the sword of the spirit , ephes. . . ) as our saviour speaks , luke . and they bring no fruit to perfection ( unto which sense the following exhortations , of not despising prophecyings , and proving all things , v. , . do incline me ) and so the sense is , quench not the operation of the spirit , by the preaching of the word , whether by embracing errours , or by evil lusts : or if , by the spirit , be meant , the comforts or extraordinary gifts of it : in any of these wayes , the quenching is by the persons own act , in whom the spirit is quenched : it is neither , by any interpreter i meet with , or any shew of reason , applyed to the extinguishing or slackning the ability of another , to utter and conceive prayers , by publique use of a liturgy , which doth not any otherwise quench that ability , than any other way of expression doth the ability of the hearer , which must be stinted ; and so , the spirit of prayer , as this author terms it , be quenched by the speaker in all joynt-prayer , unless it be allowed all to speak together , contrary to cor. . . whence i conclude , that this text is most impertinent : and though it be , that some mens reading , and in like sort , some mens speaking without book , some using of a set form in publique , and in private , may by accident , through the fault of the speaker , hearer , or user , abate the fervency of spirit in solitary or joynt prayers ; yet it is not so necessarily , or of it self , and therefore not unlawful , nor quenching the spirit of prayer , nor a rendring useless the donation of the spirit , as a spirit of prayer , unto the children of god , as this author speaks in his d. offer : but in some cases a stinted form is helpful , both to the understanding , memory , affections , utterance in prayer , both publique and private , as many holy saints have found by experience . to the d. i say , that the precept to timothy , of stirring up the gift of god , which was in him , by the putting on of pauls hands , tim. . . cannot be understood , of the ability to express himself in extemporary prayer ; but of his ability to preach the gospel , as tim. . . is meant ; which he is encouraged to by the next words , v. . for , god hath not given us the spirit of fear , but of power , of love , and of a sound mind ; or , as some read , of castigation , or reducing others to s●briety . however , it is impertinent to the purpose of the author here , it being not meant of exciting the gift of expression in prayer with others ; and yet , if it were , he that reads a liturgy , may stirr up the gift of expression at another time , if he cannot when he reads . as for the impr●ving of the talents , matth. . . . luke . . . it is the duty of every christian , and not only of ministers ; and if it be meant , of using abilities in joynt-prayer , every christian must , as he is able , utter himself in prayer , contrary to cor. . , . i conceive , by comparing matth. . , . with matth , . , . mark . , ▪ that the talent which is given to each , is the knowledge , or teaching of the word of god , or the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven , which each person is to improve , by bringing forth the fruits of it , matth . . or if it be meant of the ministers gift , it is to be understood of his ability to preach the gospel , and the improving it , by converting others to faith and obedience ; not of so mean a thing , as an ability of conceiving and uttering forms of prayer without book . as for the th . thing offered , the lawfulness of the saints praying in a form , is neither because they have not the spirit ; nor , that having the spirit , he is not a sufficient help to them in their approaches to god : but because in such praying , neither is any thing done forbidden by god , nor any thing omitted thereby , which god requires for the performing the duty of prayer . the spirit , i grant , is sufficient to help in our approaches to god , and doth help , rom . . but that it is done by enabling , by immediate inspiration , to utter matter of prayer , for the benefit of others , is not meant in those places . and indeed , such a mistake hath filled some with high conceit of themselves , and others with admiration of such , to their mutual perditions : whereas this is but a common gift , or rather an acquired ability ▪ often used with cunning to deceive others , of which there are many footsteps in the affected expressions , & otherwise , which shew , their p●aying is not from the spirit of god , but their own spirit ▪ but of the impertinency of this text i have spoken before , in answer to ch . . sect . . it follows , sect . the forms of prayer imposed , are not made necessary essential parts of wo●ship . answ. the 〈◊〉 p●oposition , m●ant of making it doctrinally necessa●y , by vertue of gods appointment , so as that the omission of it at any time , when the worship is performed , should be sin ; or using any other form , should make it not gods worship , or not acceptable to him ; might be granted : but being understood , of making a thing the condition of an action , by vertue of the authority of governours , so , as that at some time and place , it is not to be done without it , by persons that are their subject● , under a civil penalty , the major is denied : in which sense , the use of the liturgy is imposed , which doth not make it any other than a circumstance of divine worship , not such an adjunct as is a necessary part thereof . this author granted before here , sect . . circumstances in the worsh●p of christ , atttending religious actions , as actions ; without assignment of time and place , no action to be managed by a community , can be orderly performed by them . therefore , if the governours assign a time and place , undetermined by god , it is that which they may do lawfully , and not requiring them as necessary by vertue of gods institution ; nor of all but only of their own subjects , they are made but circumstances , not necessary parts of divine worship . so , if for avoiding of inconvenience , publique praying be forbidden in the night , and in some places ; and it be commanded to be done at such hours of the day , in such a place : these hours and place are made no other than circumstances of the religious action , no religion is placed in them , ●hey are not made parts of worship , but adjuncts alterable as it may stand with conveniency . there is the same reason of imposing a liturgy for uniformity , to prevent dissonancy , or some other inconvenience , which may be incident to some persons , as of requiring prayers without it . if neither be determinatively instituted by christ , but commanded for conveniency , they both remain circumstances , ●ot necessary parts of divine worship , notwithstanding the imposition by governours . sacrificing on the altar , at the tabernacle and temple , was a part of the worship , because commanded by god ; and so would the liturgy be , if it were commanded as that was : but that the liturgy is not so , it appears from the words of the preface to it the particular forms of divine worship , and th● rites appointed to be vsed therein , being things in their own natu●e indifferent and alterable , and so acknowledged ; it is but r●asonable , that upon weighty and important considerations , according to the 〈◊〉 exigency of times and occasions , such changes and alterations should be made therein , as to th●se that are in place of authority , should from time to time seem either necessary or expedient . nor do i think it true , that any considerable minister of england , would affirm the common-prayer book to be an essential part of worship , or make it such , as this author imputes to them ; nor in use of it , is it alwayes so observed , but that it gives place to preaching , to reading briefs for collections , and some other occasions ; and yet , if they did so strictly observe it , this doth not prove , they esteem it a necessary essential part of worship , by vertue of gods command : but that they conceive they ought to obey their governours laws , not judging others , who use it not . but whatever be the judgement or practice of the present ministers , yet the words of the preface ( which are more to be regarded , than any particular ministers opinion , whereof some , it s confess'd , have too much magnified it ) do shew , that the imposition makes it not such as this author chargeth on them . and this is enough to acquit the use of it from idolatry , even in this authors own sense , sith they do not place the worship of god in the form , but in the kind of worship commanded by god ; and so the minor of his argument is denied . for though the form of the common-prayer book be not prescribed , yet the way of worship therein , that is , prayer , praises , the lords supper , are worship pre●cribed by god. if the author mean , by way of wor-ship , the forms and modes , the way of worship by preachers conceived or extemporary prayers ▪ this authors form of preaching , and other worship , is not prescribed by god ; and the separatists are idolaters , as well as the ministers of england ; and so his argument is retorted as before ▪ he goes on thus , sect. . acting in the holy things of god , by an office-power and modes of idolaters , may be without idolatry . to which we add . argument . those who act in the holy things of god , by vertue of an office-power received from idolaters ; and offer up to him a worship meerly of humane composition , once abused to idolatry , with the modes and rites of idolaters , are guilty of the sin of idolatry : but the present ministers of england , act in the holy things of god , by vertue of an office-power received from idolaters , and offer up to him a worship meerly of humane composition , o●c● abus●d to idolatry , with the modes and rites of idolaters . therefore . the major ( or first proposition ) carrying a brightness along with it , sufficient to lead any one into the belief of the truth thereof , one would think may be taken for granted . two things are asserted therein , . that such as act in the holy things of god , by vertue of an office-power received from idolaters , are themselves such at least in respect of that their office-power so received by them ) that jeroboams priests were all of them idolaters , we suppose will not be denied : supposing some or more to act in the worship of god , by vertue of an office-power received from them , were these to be accounted in that respect idolaters ? it seemeth so : nor can there be the least pretence of reason to the contrary : certainly such as act by vertue of authority committed to them , in matters civil , from rebels , are equally guilty of rebellion , as those from whom they derive that their authority . the case is here the same . . that such as offer up to god a worship meerly of humane composition , once abused to idolatry , with the modes and rites of idolaters , are idolaters : if these be not such , i must profess , i know not who are . that there are few , or none , that worship the creature terminative , will not be denied , the most of idolaters in the world are such , upon the account of their worshipping the true god through mediums of their own d●vising , with rites and modes that never entred into the heart of god to prescribe . to assert , that any should symbolize with idolaters herein ( who are solely upon this foot of account such ) and not be guilty of the sin of idolatry , is absurd and irrational . the major proposition then ( as was said ) may be taken for granted . answ. not so , without better proof , and thus understood , that they still abuse it to idolatry ; and , that the modes and rites be of themselves idolatrous : without these limitations , the major is denied . those that were ordained priests by papists , and used the common-prayer book after , in the dayes of edward the th . were not idolaters : though this author will not acquit latimer , cranmer , ridley , hooper , and others , from idolatry then , yet i shall boldly do it : and to what this author saith , i reply , that the office-power , no , not though it were from idolaters , for idolatrous purposes , doth not make persons actually idolaters , till they do actually exhibit divine worship to a creature . suppose a person be ordained a priest , to offer sacrifice propitiatory for the quick and dead in the mass ; yet if he ●epent thereof , and never do adore the breaden-god he is not an idolater : yea , suppose he act in baptizing , preaching , marrying , burying according to the rituals of the romanists , by vertue of his ordination , as a priest ; or , as this author speaks , his office-power , without exhibiting any divine worship to a creature ( which in some of these may be ) yet is he not thereby an idolater . the reason whereof is manifest , because he is not an idolater , to whom the definition of idolatry ag●ees not . and this is the reason why , if jerob●ams ●riests , though consecrated for the worship of idols , did not worship them , they were not to be accounted idolaters : nor are those that act by vertue of authority committed to them , in matters civil , from rebels , equally guilty of rebellion , as th●se from whom they derive that their authority , unless they act rebelliously ; if they act for the restitution of their p●ince , the publique peace , they are accounted good subjects , and not rebels , though at first they derived their authority from rebels . nor doth the worshipping of god by a form meerly of humane composition , make idolaters , though it have been abused to idolatry , with the rites and m●des of idolaters , unless the●e be idolatry in the form , and the rites and modes be idolatrous in their use : because , notwithstanding this , no divine worship may be given to a creature . so , though the form of baptism in the roman church ▪ were mee●ly of humane composition , used with crossings , cream , oyl , spittle , if these rites were used , though by them abused to idolatry , not as they do , so as to give divine worship to a creature , the users , in this manner , however guilty of will-worship or superstition , yet would not be justly chargeable with idolatry ; no , not though they should in ●ome sort symbol●ze with idolaters , that is , be assimilated to them , or in some sort comply with them . much less is it true , that they are idolaters , who use that which is of di●ine appointment , to the right use , because idolaters a●u●ed it to idolatry : he that should use the lords prayer , or the psalms , to worship god with them should not be an idolater , because witches have invocated the devil , by the lords prayer , or the papists the virgin ma●y , by the words of the p●alms in bonaventures psalter . that which he saith here , that few or none worship the creature terminative , he doth revoke the next page save one , finding bellarmines ass●rtion , l. de imag. c. . that the images thems●lves ●erminate the veneration given them , as they are in themselves considered , and not only as supplying the 〈…〉 that which they represent . but had not this passage p●oved it , the idolatry of the papists , in worshipping the h●st , invocating angels , saints , the worship of the devil by americans , the sun and moon of old , would prove , that most of ●dolaters do worship the creature terminative . from that which is said , i inferr , that his maj●r may be denied wi●hout 〈◊〉 or irrationali●y . but i pass to his minor , of which he sai●h thus , sect. . the english ministers opp●s● p●pish idolatry , as other protestants . whether this be true of the pr●s●nt ministers of england , is next to be considered , of which briefly . . that the romish church ( so called ) are idolaters ; their wo●ship , in the complex thereof , id●la●ry , will not ( we suppose ) be denied by any that call thems●lves p●otestants ; the most learned of whom have asserted an● 〈…〉 : and then allegeth th●●● hymns , o felix pue●pera ▪ o crux spes unica : bo●a●scius the j●suite , that is , 〈◊〉 lib. amphith . honor. c. ult . ad divam hallensem & 〈◊〉 j●sum , hae●eo lac inter medita●s , interque cruo●em , &c. aqu. sum parte . q . bell. de imag. c. . f●ar● seus de mend●za in viridatio utriusque eruditionis , lib. . p●o● . ▪ the vsual ascription in bellarmine , baronius , laus deo virginique matri mariae . answ. in which i agree with him , that the papists are guilty of most horrid idolatry : and , could he shew any such things in the common-p●aye● bo●k , or the service of the ministers of the church of england , i should agree to his separation . but when no such thing is to be found in the liturgy or service of the present ministe●s of england : and , when he knows the h●mily of the peril ●f idolatry , and the writings of the lea●ned bishops and d●v●nes of the church of england , are as much against ●h●ir idolatry as other protestants , to insinuate into the peoples minds , as if the present ministers of england did symbolize with these idolaters , of whose idolatry they shew so much detestation , is a most viperous calumniation , and most unworthy of a christian. but he goes on thus : sect. . the ministers of england act not by vertue of an office-power from idolaters . . that the present ministers of england act by vertue of an office-power from this combination and assembly of idolaters , they themselves will not deny : succession from hence being one of the best pleas they have for the justification of their ministry : ( which when they have proved , that ever the lord jesus did intrust an assembly of the greatest murderers , adulterers , and idolaters in the world , with any power , for the sending forth officers , to act in the holy things of god , to , and for the church his spouse , will be admitted ; but that they shall never be able to do ) so hugely importunate are some of them herein , that they are not ashamed to ask us , vvhy ordination may not be received from the church ( so called ) of rome , as well as the scripture ? to which we shall only say , that when it is proved , that we received the scripture from that apostate church , by vertue of any authority thereof , as such , somewhat of moment may be admitted in that enquiry , but this will never be done . t is true , the bible was kept among the people , in those parts , where the pope prevaileth ; yet followeth it not from hence , that we received it from their authority , as ordination is received : if we did , why did we not keep it , as delivered from them to us , in the vulgar latine ? so that of these things there is not the same reason . it will not then be denied , but the present ministers of england , act in the holy things of god , by vertue of an office power received by succession from the church of rome , and so from idolaters ( that church being eminently so , as hath been proved . ) answ. this objection , though it be but a slight thing , and of no real force , to nullifie or invalidate the calling of the present ministers ; yet , because the well-affected protestants are zealous against popery , as having learned the pope to be antichrist , and that terrible threanings are , in the revelation , against any communion with any thing that is suggested to them by those , to whom they adhere , to come from rome , or the pope , as being antichristian , it is needful , that this thing should be cleared ▪ for rectifying the mistakes of people , that their unadvised zeal against some things as popish , which are not , may not occasion unnecessary schism , and such other evils , into which persons , perhaps otherwise of honest hearts , cast themselves to their ruine . it is known to those that study controversies between protestants and papists , that this hath been one grand objection of the papists against the reformed churches , that their ministers are not rightly ordained , and therefore they have no succession ; which by bellarmine , in his book de notis ecclesiae , c. . is made a note of the church ; and therefore they are not a true church , but schismatical . the answers given to this objection , are , . for the truth of the reformed churches , the succession in them of true doctrine , is sufficient to demonstrate them true churches , as i have asserted in my romanism discussed , against the manuel of h. t. art. . . that ministers may be sent of god , who teach the doctrine of god , though they have not ordination according to church-canons ▪ as was the case at the first beginning of the reformation ; in which there was something extraordinary , by reason of the long tyranny of popes , and the great corruptions in the latine churches . . that their ministers were at first ordained by the popish bishops ; and though they did after renounce the offering sacrifice for quick and dead , yet even by the papists own canons , and resolutions of their casuists , their power to administer the word and sacraments , according to the word of god , continued still . . that those who had been thus ordained , had power to ordain others , for which the french , and other protestants of the presbyterial government , allege , that presbyters may ordain , even by the confession of the romanists ; and that bishops , though they be hereticks in their account , yet they lose not the power of ordaining , no , not when degraded ; of which more may be seen in rivet . sum . controv. tract . . q. . alsted . suppl . ad chamier . panstrat . de memb . eccl. milit c. . ames . bellar. enerv. tom . . l. . de clericis , c. sect . . and many more , who have still pleaded , that , notwithstanding the impurity of the church of rome , yet the calling , which luther , zuinglius , and others had from popish bishops , was sufficient , without any other ordination , for an ordinary calling to the office of a minister ; and that those , who have succeeded them , have been true pastours in their churches . the english protestants , who have had bishops above presbyters , have advantage above other protestants , to plead for the regularity of the ordination of their ministers , because they have been ordained by bishops , and those bishops consecrated by other bishops , according to the ●anons of the ancients , in a succession continued from bishops acknowledged by the papists themselves . to evacuate this plea , saith dr. prideaux , orat. . de vocatione ministrorum : the papists would fain find a defect in the succession of the english b●sh●ps from the preceding b●shops , and in the solemnity of their consecration : and being beaten off from the denial of cranmers consecration ▪ by the producing of the popes acknowledging of him arch-bishop , and the register of his consecration , as also of other bishops in king edwards dayes : after , christophorus à sacr●b●sco , or father halywood of dublin in ireland , anthony champney , and james wadsworth say , that arch bishop parker , bishop jewel , and those others , which were made bishops in the beginning of q. elizabeth , though the●e were an attempt of their consecration at a tavern , at the nags-head in cheapside , yet could not they procure an old catholick bishop to joyn with them , and therefo●e their consecration was disappointed . to shew the falshood of this fable , and to make evident the compleat solemnity of pa●kers , and others consecration ; and the truth of the ordination of the english ministers , even by the canons of the papists , bishop b●del in his answer to wadsworth , ch . . and mr. francis mason in his vindication of the english ministry , have fully proved the solemnity of the consecration , out of the a●ch-bishops begister , to have been ●ight , and the succession to have been legitimate , even according to the canon law ; and the ministers ordination to have been good , though not ordained sacrificing priests for quick and dead , against the exceptions of bellarmine , 〈◊〉 , and such other of the papists ' as have denied protestant ministers true pastours , and their churches true churches . it is not unlikely , that some of the prela●ical party , have vented in writings and conference , such expressions , as carry a shew of their disclaiming the churches which have not bishops , and extolling the popish churches government , and avouching their ordination from rome ; which hath caused a great ave●seness in many zealous persons from bishops , and the conforming ministers ; and is taken hold of by this author , and other promoters of separation , as an engine sutable to that end . but as those learned men , bedel , mason , prideaux , and others , have pleaded the succession of bishops from the popish bishops , and the ordination of ministers by them , there is no cause given of that out-cry , that is made of the bishops antichristianism , declining to popery , or of separation , for that reason : the presby●erian churches making the like plea for themselves , that the first reformers had ordinary calling , even according to the papists own canons ; and the episcopal divines pleading only the same thing more fully . yet it is not true , which this author saith , that either the one or other make the succession from popish bish●ps , one of the best pleas they have for the just●fication of their minist●y : for , though they plead this succession against the clamorous and violent actings of the popish party , which petrus molinaeus , in his d. epistle to bishop andrews , mentions to have been in france , by arnola the jesuite ; and the writings of champney , wadsworth , and others , shew to have been in england : yet they have justified their ministry without it , as may be seen in amos , als●ed , b●del , and others . and for the present ministers of england , i conceive they will deny , that they act by vertue of an office-power from the combination and assembly of idolaters in the church of rome ; their office-power being not such as priests are ordained to in the church of rome , to offer sacrifice propitiatory for quick and dead , but to preach the gospel , administer sacraments , and discipline , according to christs institution : and in the solemnity of their ordination , the rom●sts rites being relinquished by the ordainers , who are not a combination or assembly of idolaters , but professors of the true faith , and haters of popish idolatry , though some succession of their predecessors from idolaters be alleged to stop the mouths of papists , who pervert their proselytes , by impu●ation of novelty to the reformed churches , and their ministers , rather than by proving their doctrine out of scripture . as for that which is ob●ected , that christ would never entrust such , to send forth officers , to act in the holy things of god , for his church , it is without reason objected , sith many of them might be , and in charity we are to conceive , were the servants of god , who abode in the communion of the roman church . dr. ames himself , in his animadversions on the remonstrants scripta synodalia , artic. . c. . saith , we believe there were , and yet are many , who have not so farr separated themselves from the papists , but that they are polluted with their manifold idolatry , who yet have their part in the kingdom of god. even in the dayes of king henry the th . and q mary , all the bishops were not like gardiner , bonner , and such as were inhumane persecutors . why christ should not entrust cranmer , tonstall , and such like , to send forth officers , to act in the holy things of god , as well as judas to be an apostle , i find not cause . the baptism received in the church of rome , the brownists in their apology , p. . acknowledge to be so farr valid , as not to need rebaptization ; and why not then the ordination by their bishops ? bishops and ministers , though they be evil men , and unduly get into power ; yet , as it is with other officers , their actings are valid : as caiaphas , ananias , and such like persons , who by bribes unjustly and irregularly usurped the high-priests office ; yet their sentence and ministration were not therefore disannulled . he who said , we received the bible from the church of rome , it is not likely meant it to have been received by vertue of their authority , but their ministry , preachers having been sent by the pope , to instruct the saxons in the faith : but whatever was meant by that speech , this we may safely say , that if the office-power of the present ministers had been ( as it is not ) received by succession from the church of rome , and so from idolaters ; yet being no other office-power , than what hath been instituted by christ , it no more proves the present ministers idolaters , than the receiving of baptism , or the scriptures , by the ministry of men in that church . it is further added , sect. . the common-prayer book worship was not abused to idolatry . . nor can it be denied , but they offer up to god , a vvorship meerly of humane composition ( as the common-prayer book worship hath been proved to be ) once abused to idolatry , with the m●●es ●nd rites of idolaters . that the common●prayer book worship , is a worship , that was once abused to idolatry , being the worship of that church , whose worship ( at least in the complex thereof ) is so , cannot with the least pretence of reason be denied . that the whole of it , is derived from , and taken out of the popes portuis , as are the common-prayers out of the breviary : the administration of the sacraments , burial , matrimony , visitation of the sick , out of the ritual , or book of rites : the consecration of the lords supper , collects , epistles , gospels , out of the mass book : the ordination of arch-bishops , bishops , and priests , out of the roman pontifical , hath been a●●erted and proved by many . vvhich might be evidenced ( if needful ) beyond exception ; not only by comparing the one with the other , but also from the offer was made by pope pius the th . and gregory the th . to q. elizabeth , to confirm the english liturgy , which , did it not symbolize with the service of the church of rome , they would not have done . yea , when the said queen was interdicted by the popes bull , secretary walsingham procures two intelligencers from the pope , who seeing the service of london and canterbury in the pomp thereof , wonder , that their lord , the pope , should be so unadvised , as to interdict a prince , whose service and ceremonies did so symbolize with his own : vvhen they come to rome , they satisfie the pope , that they saw no service , ceremonies , or orders in england , but might very well serve in rome , upon which the bull was recalled . not to mention what we have already minded , viz. the testimomy of king edward the th . and his council ; witnessing the english service to be the same , and no other but the old , the self-same words in english , that were in latine ( which was the worship of england and rome in queen maries dayes ) it is evident , that the present minsters of england , offer up a worship to god , once abused to idolatry . that they do this , with the rites , ceremonies , and modes of idolaters , ( viz. such as are in use in that idolatrous church of rome ) needs not many words to demonstrate : what else is the priests change of voice , posture and place of worship enjoyned them ? not to mention their holy vestments , bowings , cringings , candles , altars , &c. all which , as it s known , owe their original unto the appointments thereof . in the margin , maccovius loc . com . append . de adiaph . p. . saith , non licet mutuari , aut retinere res aus ritus sacros idololatrarum sive ethnicorum sife pontificiorum , &c. etsi in se res fuerint adiaphorae quia vitandam esse omnem consormitatem cum idololatris docemur . lev. . . . and . . deut. ▪ ▪ it remaineth , that the present m●nisters of england , acting in the holy things of god , by vertue of an office-power received from idolaters ; and offering up to him a worship meerly of humane composition , once abused to idolatry , with the rites and modes of idolaters , are deeply guilty of the sin of idolatry . answ. that the common-prayer book worship , is a worship meerly of humane composition , however the form of words be , is denied , and not proved by this author , whose mistakes in confounding them are before shewed . nor is the worship of the common-prayer book proved to have been abus●d to idolatry , because the fo●ms of words were taken out of the popish service books , any more , than that the scriptures or creed , found in them , were abused to idolatry , because thence taken : the worship being agreeable to gods word , cannot be abused to idolatry . nor doth the form of words used in the mass-book or b●eviary , which is otherwise holy and ●ight , if it had never been in those books , cease to be holy and right , when the idolatrous forms are left out , any more , than gold found in a dunghill , remains dung , and ceaseth to be gold , when the filth is washed away from it . to that of the common-prayer book being taken out of the popes portuis , and king edwards words , answer is made in the answer to the d. chapter , sect . . the offer of the pope , and the report of his intelligencers , p●oves , that the pope had nothing to except against the common-prayer book , or the service of the church of england ; but not , that they are every way the same with that which is used in the church of rome . concerning its being taken out of the popes portuis , at least for the greatest piece , arch-bishop whitgift , in his a●swer to the first admonition , p. . said long agoe , it maketh no matter of whom it was invented , in what book it is contained , so that it be good and profitable , and cons●nant to gods word . well saith ambrose , omne verum à quocunque dicitur , à spiritu sancto , all truth , of whomsoever it is spoken , is of the holy ghost . as for the book of ordination , he an●wers , the words of the second admonition , p. . thus ▪ it is most false and untrue , that the book of ordering ministers and d●acons , &c. now used , is word for word drawn out of the popes pontifical , being almost in no point correspondent to the same ; as y●u might have seen , if you had compared them t●gether : but ignorance and rashness drives you into many errours . as for the rites , and modes , and ceremonies objected , those , which are in the church of rome idolatrous , are not observed , or used by the ministers , who minister according to the common-prayer book , to whom conformity with the popish priests therein is injuriously imputed ; and they are so farr from being found deeply guilty of the sin of idolatry , that the very a●guings of this author rather acquit them , than convince them . as for the words of maccov●us , they are not right ; we may retain the goods used to idol●try and apply them to holy uses , though they have been abused by idolaters , yea , and abused to idolatry , as the temples , bells , tables , which have been abused to the idolatry of the mass , as is largely proved by mr. page● , in his arrow against the separation of the brown●sts , in answer to mr ▪ ainsworth , ch . . nor is it p●oved by maccovius ▪ out of the texts alleged here , that the sacred rites of idolaters , though they be things in themselves indifferent , are not to be retained ; but that all conformity with idolaters is to be avoided . for none of the texts speak of things in themselves indifferent ; turning unto idols , and making to themselves molten gods , forbidden levit. . . being gross idolatry : the rounding the corners of their heads , marring the corners of their beards , v. . making baldness upon their head , shaving off the corner of their beard , cutting their flesh , levit. . . making baldness bettween their eyes for the dead , being heathenish customes , which were idolatrous ; as ainsworth , annot. on levit. . . such as those , kings . . or as salmasius in his book of long hair ; the rounding of the corners of their h●ads , to have been in honour of the moon : or shewing heathenish sorrow for the dead ; all sinful in themselves , and therefore not indifferent . but there is yet one more charge behind . sect. . kneeling in receiving the sacramental elements , is not idolatry . argument . adoration in , by , or before a creature respecti●è , or with relation to the creature , is idolatry ; such as so adore or w●●ship g●d , are idolaters : but the present ministers of england , do adore or worship god , in , by , or before a creature respective , or with relation to the creature : therefore . the major ( or first proposition ) being generally owned by protestants , it being the very same maxim they make use of , and stop the mouth of the papists with , in the point of adoring god mediately by the creature , we shall not stand upon the proof of it : none that know what they say , will deny it . the minor proposition ( viz. that the present ministers of england do adore or worship god , in , by , or before the creature respectivè , or with relation to the creature ) will receive a quick dispatch : not to mention their bowing and cringing at the altar : that they kneel at receiving of the sacrament , is known : that they , with their communicants , should do so , is enjoyned by their church : that their so d●ing , is an adoration , or worshipping of god before the creature respectivè , or with relation to the creature , is too manifest to admit of a denial : nothing being more certain , than that the elements are the objectum à quo , or the motive of their kneeling , which if they were not there , they would not do . and in the margin . didoclavius p. . saith , genus●ectere non modò excludit ritus institutionis , sed etiam praeceptum secundum de vitanda idololatria multis modis violat . vvhich maccovius assents to , loc . com . p. . answ. whether this authors antagonists know what they say , this author seems not a fit judge , unless either he knew better what himself saith , or could better clear his meaning than he doth , that his readers might know what he saith . in this argument , he doth accuse the present mnisters of england , and their communicants of idolatry , in kneeling at the receiving of the bread and wine in the sacrament of the lords supper ; and yet , ch . . p. . he had said . kneeling at the lords supper , though we do not , some would say , smells very strong of the popish leaven , and is but one pegg b●neath the adoration of their breaden-god . here he exp●esly makes that idolatry undeniable , as being adoration or w●●ship of god in , by , or before the creature , to wit , the element● respectivè , or with relation to the creature , as objectum significativè a quo , or the motive of their kneeling ; which if it were not , they would not do . so that one while , he will not say , it sm●lls strongly of the popish leaven , nor that it is but one pegg beneath the adoration of their breaden-god ; and if so ( did he know what he saith ) he acquits it from idolatry , which at another time he imputes to it . to which might be added . that , whereas in the beginning of this very chapter , he ●eckons up as many sorts of idolatry , as either he could , or thought fit at least for his design , of making the present ministers of england idolaters ; and indeed , more than he should : yet this sort of idolatry , of worshipping and adoring god ▪ in , by , or before a creature respectivè , or wi●● relation to the creature , as the objectum significativè à qua , or the motive of the adoration , or worship of god ▪ is no● mentioned there by him ; nor is this kneeling any of them . for neither is the kneeling at the sacrament , the worsh●p ●f the creature terminatively : nor before it , as the medium or representative of god : nor the ascription of the godhead , or 〈◊〉 properties , to any creature : nor the worshipping of god in any other way , than what he hath prescribed ; for it is kneeling in prayer , or thanksgiving , to god , which he hath appointed : nor is it the oblation of worship or service to god , that hath ben offered up to idols , for which there is no prescription in the scripture . for , if it be such , it is that which was done to the breaden-god : but that he will not say it is ; for , ch . . p. . he would not say , it smells very strong of the popish leaven , and is but one pegg beneath the adoration of their breaden god ; therefore he makes it more than one pegg beneath it ▪ and so beneath that oblation or service , that hath been offered up to idols . besides , as i have before said , the papists themselves are not enjoyned to adore the bread , at the putting into their mouths , but at the elevation of the host ; i● not consisting with their principles , to worship that which is not above them : nor is it the most refined idolatry , as he speaks , when the heart goes forth in desires after any thing , beyond what is limited by the lord ; or trusts and relyes on any creature , besides god : for this kneeling , if it be idolatry , is outward , not inward ; of the members , not of the 〈◊〉 ; and therefore , it may be more truly charged on 〈◊〉 author , that he knew not what he said , when he accused ministers and people of idolatry , for receiving the bread and wine at the lords supper kneeling , though he had said enough before to acquit them from it . and , may he not be said , not to know what he said , who writes so ambiguously , indistinctly , and confusedly , as that his reader cannot well discern his meaning ? for , whereas worshipping god in , by , or before a creature respectivè , or with relation to the creature , may be understood before it respectivè , or with relation to it , as the terminus , or object to which i● is directed ; as worshipping before , luke . . is wo●shipping of satan , matth. . . and the relation to the creature , may be , as conceiving god included in it , as in the consecrated host ; or represented by it , as by the golden cal● , or a crucifix , or as pertaining to god , being consecrated to him , as g●deons ephod , or popish reliques of saints , or hallowed grains ; or the like , without gods institution ; in these , and such like relations , the adoration being directed to the creatures , whether as the only object to which , or the intermediate object ; whether properly , or improperly ; of it self , or by accident ; if this author had distinctly set down , that he meant his major in one or more of these respects , his readers would have known what he had said , and would have granted his m●jor , and denied his minor . but he thought it best to hide his major in ambiguous speech , and to express himself more intelligibly in his instance in the minor , that kneeling is adoration o● worshipping of god before the crea●ure respectivè , or with relation to the creature , as the objectum significativè à quo , or the motive of the kneeling . but in this sense i deny his major ; and that he may not think me bereft of my wits , but that i know what i say , i give him this reason of my denial , i find the holy ghost inviting the jews to worship at gods footstool , his holy hill , psal . . ▪ which were creatures ; and there they were to bow down to god , in , by , or before these creatures respectivè , or with relation to them , as the objectum significativè à quo , that is , that thing which was an object signifying gods presence there , and the motive of their bowing down to god ; which , if they had not been there , that is , the ark ▪ temple , altar , they would not have done ; and there was no idolatry therein . and to stop the evasion , that it was so , when god appointed it , though this would not avoid the instance , the bread and wine being of gods appointment , and the use of them in the sacrament of the lords supper , as well as the altar , ark , temple , were , they were instituted to be memorative signs of christs body and blood , communicated to the receivers by faith ; yet i find that adoration or worshipping of god before the creature respectivè ▪ or with relation to it , as the objectum significativè à quo , and the motive of the adoration , hath been performed occasionally without institution , and yet no idolatry committed . when the is●aelites at mount carmel , kings . . saw the fire of the lord fall , and consume the burnt offering , and the wood , and the stones , and the dust , and lick up the water that was in the trench , they fell on their faces , and they said , the lord he is god , the lord he is the god. here was adoration of god before the creature respectivè , or with relation to it , as the objectum significativè à quo , signifying the lord to be god ; and as the motive of that adoration , which , if it had not been there , they would not have done it ; and yet no idolatry committed . another instance is chron. . when all the children of israel saw how the fire came down , and the glory of the lord upon the house , they bowed themselves with their faces to the ground upon the pavement , and worshipped and praised the lord , saying , for he is good , for his mercy endureth for ever . here was adoration and worshipping god , in , by , or before a creature , not having special institution , abiding in their sight , as the objectum significativè à quo , or the motive of their adoration , and worship of the lord , and yet no idolatry . i confess , that when the worship is before it , so as it is directed to it , as upon the sight of the bread , or a crucifix , the host , or a crucifix is worshipped , whether terminatively , or as the representative of another , it is idolatry : as if job , when he had seen the sun when it shined , or the moon walking in brightness , his heart had been secretly enticed , and his mouth had kissed his hand , as it is job . , . it had been idolatry : for then the sun had been not only obj●ctum à quo , the motive or occasion , but also objectum ad quod , or the terminus ad quem , to which it had been directed . but if he had only taken occasion , upon the sight of the sun , to worship god , as david did , psal. . . magnifie or worship god the creator , it had been no idolatry , though the moon or sun were the objectum à quo significativè , or the sight 〈◊〉 it , the motive to it . till divine worship be given to a creature , it is not idolatry ; although in the kind or means of worship , there may be will-worship ; and in the opinion of those , that count their act , or the object to be holy , when it is not , there may be superstition of the mind ; and in the use of such things , or forbearing their use , superstition in the members . that which this author saith of his major proposition , as generally owned by protestants , i do not believe it to be true , understanding it as he doth , of relation only to the creature , as objectum significativè à quo , or the motive of the adoration , and not the object to which it is directed . as for this minor , it may be denied , even in his own sense ; for the adoring of god , though it be at the receiving the elements , yet the elements are not objectum significative à quo , or the motive of their kneeling , according to the common-prayer book , which saith , that the order in the office , for the administration of the lords supper , that the communicants should receive it kneeling , is well meant , for a signification of our humble and grateful acknowledgement of the benefits of christ , therein given to all worthy receivers ; and for the avoiding of such profanation and disorder in the holy communion , as might otherwise ensue : that thereby no adoration is intended , or ought to be done , either unto the sacramental bread and wine , there bodily received , or unto any corporal presence of christs natural flesh and blood : which intimate , that the elements are not the objectum significativè à quo , or the motive of their kneeling ; but the benefits of christ in the lords supper , given to all worthy receivers : and that , not the sight of bread or wine , ( which is not seen till the cup be in their hand ) but the remembrance of christs death , and the remission of sins by his blood , by saith , are the motive to kneel to god , with prayer and thanksgiving to him , without any honour of the bread and wine , though received , eaten and drunk , to remember christs death , as the procuring cause of those benefits . as for his reason , if the elements were not there , they would not kneel ; therefore they are the objectum significativè à quo , or the motive of their kneeling ; partly the antecedent is not true , for they kneel before they receive the elements brought to them , and after they have eaten and drunk , while they are in the meditation of christs death , and the benefits by it , using holy ejaculation in prayer and thanksgiving to god ; partly the consequence may be denied : for , though they would not kneel , were not the elements there , yet this is not sufficient to prove their presence the motive of kneeling , any more , than the presence and speech of the m●nister , who delivers them with prayer and exhortation , to whom yet this author makes not the kneeling to have relation . and indeed , it is not the presence of the elements , when they are received , that is , while they are in the ministers hand , or their own , or in their mouths , which is the objectum significativè à quo ; but the actions with the elements , at the consecration by the minister , which signifie christs death : and the use by themselves in eating and drinking , whereby are signified their nourishment by christ unto life eternal , which are the motive to that gratitude and trust in christ , which in kneeling they exercise by prayer . as for the words of didoclavius , with maccovius his assent , they are the words of an adversary to the ministers in this cause , and therefore not fit to be alleged as a proof in this matter : nor , if they were true , would they prove kneeling to be idolatry , but to be some way against the second commandement for avoiding idolatry . we might more justly , and more to the purpose , allege the words of dr. ames , in his triplication to dr. burges his rejoynder , ch . . sect . . p. . there is no non-conformist , which refuseth to kneel unto christ , in the celebration of the lords supper : and the conformists deny , they require kneeling to any other than god , and the lord jesus christ. as for their bowing and cringing at the altar , it concerns them to speak for themselves , who use it ; neither do all the conformists use it , no not in cathedrals ▪ if my information be right ; nor is there any established law for it ; and those that use it , do avouch they do it , not to any other than god , and therefore are not to be charged with idolatry , whatever other fault they are chargeable with , by reason of it . it follows sect. . the crimination of the ministers , as idolaters , is not excusable . object . to what hath been hitherto offered in this matter , if it be said , that the charging the present ministers of england with idolatry , is exceeding harsh , and that which is an argument of a very unchristian and censorious spirit : though this makes nothing to the enervating of what hath been offered , yet we answer , . that many words of christ himself were accounted hard sayings , and not to be born ; and that by such hearers , as were once his admirers , and did with seeming great affection attend upon his ministry . that such poor worms as we should be recharged herewith , it is no great marvel , it is enough for the disciple to be as his master . ly . we have in this matter said nothing , but what is in thesi over and over asserted by most or all protestant writers upon the second commandement : who assert fully , that the worshipping god in a way not prescribed by him , is idolatry , such as do so , are idolaters : with our application hereof unto the present ministers of england , if they are guilty ( as that they are , hath been abundantly demonstrated ) why should any be offended ? to speak truth , when our silence would be prejudicial to the souls of our brethren , me-thinks should not be accounted unchristian or censorious . in the margin are these words , calvin , perkins , ames , macc●vius , altingius , wendeline , paraeus , explicat . cate. p. . q. . p. . saith , quid postulat secundum praeceptum ? res. ne deum ullâ imagine , aut figurâ exprimamus , neve nullâ ratione eum colamus , quàm qua se in suo verbo coli praecepit , sam. . . deut. . mat. . and afterwards he addeth , huic secundo praecepto contraria sunt ea , quae vero cultui divino adversantur . . idololatria , quae est culius numinis fictitius , aut superstitiosus . sunt autem idololatriae du● species , praecipuae : una crassior , cum fictitium numen colitur — haec species prohibetur in primo praecepto , & aliquâ ex parte , in tertio : altera est subtilior , cum verus deus coli fingitur , sed erratur in genere culius , hoc est , cum vero deo culius fingitur praestari , aliquo opere , quod ipse non praecepit : haec species idololatriae , hoc praecepto propriè damnatur , & nominatur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , sive superstitio . and pag . qui peccant contra secundum praeceptum , peccant & contra primum , quia qui deum aliter colunt , atque vult coli , illi fingunt deum aliter affectum , atque est , hoc est , alium deum : ita non deum , sed cerebri sui commentum , quod sic affectum esse sibi persuadent , colunt — fingere alium dei cul●um , est aliam dei voluntatem , proinde & alium deum fingere , &c. but , ly . what would these objectors have said to tertullian ( that renowned servant , and witness of the lord j●sus in his day ) who is , by farr , more nice in this print of idolat●y , than we have declared our selves to be : he , in his bo●k de idololatria , chargeth such as make statues or images , build or adorn temples ( though it were their trade ) astrologers , schoolmasters , ( that name the names ●f idols , making honourable mention of them in their orations ) such as keep holydayes , d●dicated to idolatrous service , as their satu●nalia ( in the stead of which , is the time with us called christmass ) &c. such as adorned their gates , posts , houses , after the pagan manner , at festivals , with lawrel , ivy , &c. as symbolizing with idolaters : yet sure we are , he could not justly be charged with an unchristian or censorious spirit . answ. the charge is rightly laid , and your plea insufficient to take it off . christs sayings were unjustly counted hard , because they were true ; yours justly , because not so : his sayings tolerable , yea precious , because they tended to direct them in the way to life eternal ; yours , judged to be from an unchristian and censorious spirit , because uncharitable , and tending to division . that , which by the protestant writers is said , is not all true : i think all will-worship is not ●dolatry : our lord , who accused the pharisees of will-worship , did not accuse them of idolatry . how farr from demonstrations your arguments are , may appear by this answer . were it fit to recriminate , i could prove you guilty of as great idolatry , as you impute to the conformists . your zeal for truth , and love to your brethrens souls , were good , if it were in a good thing : if without knowledge , and it tend to errour and schism , it may be pernicious in its consequents . as for tertullian , omitting what may be excepted against him , and the spirit by which he was acted in the close of his life , which shewed him to be ( as dr. casaubon observes , in his treatise of enthusiasm , ch . . ) a man , though otherwise learned , that ascribed too much to private revelations , out of an excess of zeal , which he shewed in all his works , ( in which , i wish it were true , that this author , who here so extolls him , were not too like him ) i conceive tertullian might have such reasons for his niceness in the point of idolatry in his time , when the christians lived among pagan idolaters , who bore sway in the empire of rome , which only maintained such idolatry as the publick received worship , and persecuted christians for not conforming to their idol-service , as this author hath not , for his accusing ministers of idolatry , for using a service-book in the main right , in respect of the worship ; and a gesture , avowed to be only to the true god ; in a church , holding in the main , the ●ight faith ; under a prince , that professes the same faith and worship , and to be a defender of it . as for such reliques of pagan customes , or popish , as yet remain , though it were to be wished , they were quite left , 〈◊〉 sith they are not used in any honour to the pagan idols , but the original and reason of them at first , being almost , if not quite forgotten by those that use them , and are become but as civil customes , that have no state in religious worship , experience shews , that they are more easily reformed by neglect , than by earnest declamations against them nor do i think , the course this author takes , of seeking reformation by invectives and separations , likely ●o promote it ; but to exasperate rulers , and make opposites more violent in their way . it is added , sect. . the martyrs are unjustly made idolaters by this author . obj. . but what shall we judge of latimer , ridley , hooper , and many other famous witnesses and martyrs of christ , who worshipped god after the same way of worship that these do now ? were they also idolaters ? how could they be saved then , when ●he scripture sayes , that no idolater shall inherit the kingdom of god , and we do not find that they repented hereof ? to this we answer , . that the persons instanc'd in , were eminent witnesses of jesus christ in their day ( whose very names are in our nostrils as sweet perfume ) we readily grant , and would be loth to speak one word to abate of that just esteem is due to their names , and testimony for christ. ly . that they are now with christ , and shall come with him , a●d sit upon thrones to judge their unjust judges , in the day app●in●ed thereunto , we have not the least scruple . but , ly . they were but men , encompassed about with many infirmities : that they were guilty of the sin of idolatry , cannot ( from what hath been said herein , its evident ) be denied . y●t , . they were , in that day , but just peeping out of the gates of babylon , beginning to arise , and shake themselves out of the dust of the abominations of the great whore ; and , t is no wonder , if some of the filth of her fornications did cleave to them . . they worshipped god in sincerity , according to the light he was pl●●sed in that day to communicate ; and god accepted of them in christ , granting to them a general repentance for those iniquities they saw not to be so , or knew not themselves to be guilty of : which is all we shall at present say hereunto . the intelligent reader knows , that these things are not of any moment , for the invalidating of what hath been offered upon this subject . thus farr of this argument , the present ministers of england are guilty of idolatry ; therefore , t is the duty of saints , not to hear , but separate from them . answ. though this objection be not a direct answer to your argument , yet it is a very great prejudice against it , that by striking at the present ministers , you wound the holy martyrs ; you make them idolaters for that very thing for which they dyed , that they might not be idolaters ; judging them , as committing idolatry , in kneeling with such respect to the bread , as they did utterly detest , abhorred to the death , and for witnessing against it , laid down their lives in the flames ; and making all the godly at that time , who did as they did , and held communion with them , guilty of their sin , for hearing them , and not separating from them , and urging that against the present ministers , which the holy martyrs rejoyced in , and the ministers think themselves happy , that they are found like them . me-thinks when you wrote this chapter , you should have thought of that which is psal. . . if i say , i will speak thus : behold , i should offend against the generation of thy children : and have taken heed , how you had perswaded to separation for that , which in the martyrs you make their infirmity , and in charity you might so conceive of the present ministers : whereof many of them , even of the bishops , and such as were in exile with the king , and others , at home , and abroad , have shewed their constant adherence to the doctrine of the church of england , particularly against the ado●ation of the consecrated host , when they were tempted to joyn with the papists . i wish you did not strengthen the hands of the papists , by this your pleading , rather than help to reduce them from their great abominations : and that you did not weaken the protestant party , by hind●ing the union that should be among men that agree in the main , though they dissent in some things considerable , in this time , wherein the common cause is endangered by divisions . if the martrys were but peeping out of the gates of babylon , it may seem , they were not , in your opinion , escaped thence , if some of the filth of the great whores fornications did cleave to them , how is it , they are now with christ , where no unclean thing enters ? that they should repent of that which they offered to justifie a little afore they dyed , is not likely . it would be more for your comfort , and the churches peace , if by getting out of babylon , you did not run to the contrary extreme of fana●icism : and in seeking reformation , you did no● unsettle all ; and that you did review this argument , in which i find strong accusation , and weak proof . chap. . arg. th . and th . sect. . every offence of others , makes not sinful , that which otherwise is lawful . t is not lawful for saints to do any thing , for the doing whereof , there is no positive p●ecept in the scripture , that is an offence , grief , scandal , and cause of stumbling to their brethren : but the hearing the present ministers of england ( as there is no positive precept in the scripture for it , so it ) is an offence , grief , scandal , and cause of stumbling to the brethren : therefore . the major ( or first proposition ) is bottom'd upon express precepts in the scripture , rom. . , , . cor. . , ▪ and . . answ. there are varieties of circumstances and cases incident to the point of scandal ▪ which make the action from which it ariseth to be lawful or unlawful : there are several effects of scandal , and divers degrees considerable : there are several states of persons offending , and offended . all which , and more besides , do require caution in denying or granting the major proposition : of these i wrote many years agoe , a treatise of scandalizing , sold by richard r●yston at the sign of the angel in ivy-lane , in london : from whence many limitations may be fetch'd by the intelligent reader , wherewith to limit the major proposition , without which it is not to be granted , nor is it to be proved from the texts alleged . nevertheless , because if ● should take them in here , i should enlarge and encumber the present dispute too much , i think to let the major pass at present , and to wave also the exception which might be taken at the form of the argument , the conclusion either not being that which is to be proved but by consequence , or if it be , there be four terms in the syllogism , and to examin what he saith for his minor . sect. . hearing the present ministers may be the saints duty ▪ the minor ( or second proposition ) , saith he , consists of two parts . . that for hearing the present ministers of england , there is no positive warrant in the scripture ; if there be , let it be produced , and this controversie is at an end : the contrary thereunto hath all along been manifest in this present d●scourse . it cannot enter into our hearts , to imagin , that the lord jesus having instituted officers of his own , for the management of affairs in his house , should ordain , that any of his houshold should attend upon the ministry of such as are not of his institution ( as hath been abundantly demonstrated touching the present ministers of england , that they are not ) nor is it by many pleaded as their duty so to do ; but onely as their liberty , which they judge they may , or they may not do , without sin . answ. what warrant there is to hear the present ministers of england hath been shewed ▪ and that which hath been produced to the contrary examined especially ch . . & . the institution of christ concerning ministers , and what concerns their calling hath been also discussed especially in answer to the preface , and the chapter : in which places is shewed , that warrant by permission is sufficient to justify the hearing of ministers ; that the positive precept for hearing determins not hearing of ministers as thus called , but as teaching the word of god ; that such election and ordination , as this author requires , are not necessary to make make men instituted officers of christ , that while the present ministers preach the word of god the saints may , and ought to attend on their ministery : and that they are not bound to examine their outward calling , but to leave that to rulers , and themselves only to examin their doctrine ; that they may as lawfully attend on their ministry if edifying them in the faith , as on the ministers of a gathered congregation , that they ought rather in obedience to rulers , and to avoid schism ▪ and to prevent the intangling of themselves with private and novel opinions which are more easily vented in private meetings then in publique , and more readily entertaine● by private persons ( few of whom are learned and judicious ) than in more publique and solemn auditories : to hear ministers that preach the truth in publique congregations caeteris paribus , if their abilities , and faithfulness be alike , than to hear ministers in gathered churches privately meeting . and with these explications , i asse●t it not onely the saints liberty , but also their duty to attend upon the ministry of the present ministers of england . it follows . sect. . sinful scandalizing is not by hearing the present ministers . . that for the saints ( such as are visibly so , profess themselves to be such ) to hear the present ministers of england , is an offence , grief , scandal and occasion of stumbling to their brethren . this is too evident to be denyed , to how many thousands in england , for whom ( those that as yet attend upon the present ministry thereof , dare not but think ) christ dyed , is the practice of some herein , a grief , scandal and occasion of stumbling ? their groanes and tears alone , and together upon this foot of account , will better demonstrate the truth thereof , than our words can . yea , how many poor souls have been drawn , by reason of the practice of some leading bretheren in this matter , against the checks of their own consciences to a conformity herein , to their after grief and wounding ? vpon whose doors 't is to be feared ( and we wish they would in the fear of god , lay it to heart ) may be written , the bloud of souls . answ. the term of visible saints hath been too much contracted by being almost appropriated to the members of those churches , which are termed congregational in contradistinction to presbyterial , and prelatical : or if applyed to any of the more zealous of the presbyterial way of disciplin , yet scarce vouchsafed to any of them , who are for episcopal government , or conformable to the worship and ministry of the church of england , who are commonly termed antichristian , persons without , in babylon : and for men to profess th●mselves visible saints is in effect all one as to say they are of a gathered church ; all others being counted without . which abuse of words , as it smels of arrogance , in appropriating to themselves the title , which is common to all true believers , and uncharitableness in conceiving of others as no visible saints , because they are not entered into that , which is termed church covenant ; so is it injurious to others , though godly , from whom such are estranged as no visible saints , but they are censured and declined as persons without , that have nothing in them of god , yea as adversaries to the power of godliness , meer formalists , if they speak for the common-prayer book , or any thing favourably of any of the bishops ; and this serves for a design of keeping them to themselves without joyning in prayer and hearing in publique , which they call hearing with the world out of the church . this i conceive to be the reason of this authors expressions here of the saints visibly so scandalizing their bretheren by their hearing the ministers that now preach publickly . by which it may be seen , that he regards not much who do hear the present ministers of england , so that they do not ; as if it were not necessary to deterre all others from hearing them , if they be false prophets and idolaters , as this author accuseth them , yea and to oppose them even unto the death , if they be such : so that this argument is unnecessary , if the other be good , and rather supposeth all that is formerly disputed to be weak ; yet this point of scandal may serve turn to affright them from communion with the publique ministery and keep them to themselves , though it prove never so injurious to their peace and outward estate , and sinful by reason of the schism that is continued by it . for this reason i shall examin this argument also as it is here delivered , and so much the rather because i have found by experience , that when in this and other doubts of conscience i have in conference with honest but scrupulous christians satisfied them concerning the lawfulness of that which they doubted of , yet in this i could hardly quiet their consciences , that they might do without sin what they scrupled to do , because they should offend good people , the scandalizing of whom our saviour and the apostle paul make a hainous sin , and procuring an heavy curse . for which reason i printed the treatise of scandalizing forementioned , more then twenty years ago ; in the epistle dedicatory whereof are these words in my small reading and experience i finde few doubts of conscience , concerning mens patent actions , in the resolving of which the difficulty hath not most of all rested on this point of scandal . at present , i shall not open the word scandal , nor insist on the definition of scandal , nor the sorts of scandalizing or causes of it , or the various cases concerning it , leaving the reader to that treatise , or to what else hath been since written by d. henry hammond of scandal , ma. henry jeanes , of abstinence from appearance of evil , and others for a fuller understanding of this point , but assert that notwithstanding what is here said of the offence of brethren ▪ and the sad consequence of blood guiltiness , which this author would have it conceived the hearing the present ministers tends to : yet neither the so termed visible saints , nor any other by hearing the present ministers , do sin against the precepts of non-scandalizing , given by christ or his aposte st. paul. matth. . . luke . . rom. . . . . cor. . . . . and . which i prove thus . . that is not scandalizing forbidden in these texts which is neither by giving evil example in doing ▪ that which is intrinsecally or of it self evil , though none were offended , nor by enticing practices , or persecution impelling to evil ; nor by abuse of liberty in things lawful to the harm of another ; which are all the wayes i know of scandalizing there forbidden , if there be any other shewed i think however it will not reach to the present case : that which this author seems to reduce it to is the last , in that he puts in a parenthesis in the minor these words ( there is no positive precept in scriptures for it . ) but it is not to be reduced to that sort of scandalizing , for the hearing of the present ministers of england cannot be accounted a matter of liberty , or indifferency , but either duty or sin , hearing the word of god being an express precept in the general , and so is obeying them that are rulers : now the ministers preaeh the word of god , and our rulers command us to hear them , and this they have power to do , and in this they have power over their subjects as parents have over their children , and masters over their servants , and are to be obeyed in that which is not evil , but good , and therefore the scandalizing is not by abuse of liberty in things indifferent ; nor is it scandalizing in doing a thing in it self evil or impelling to it , as hath been shewed in the foregoing chapters of this answer . therefore the offending bretheren what ever it be by hearing the present ministers is not the scandalizing forbidden . . that is not scandalizing forbidden in those texts , which doth not tend to any of those evils , for preventing of which , those precepts of not scandalizing were given ▪ but the hearing of the present ministers tends not to any of those evils , for preven●ing whereof , those precepts of not scandalizing were given . this is proved , because it tends not to any sin , but to the performance of duty in hearing gods word : nor to any such sorrow or vexation , as the precepts would have prevented ; which were such , as made either persons to be discouraged in christianity , or to walk uncomfortably in the profession of it , as by view of the texts may appear . but to neither of these effects doth the hearing of the present minister tend . this author saith , it makes visible saints to grieve , as their grones and tears alone and together demonstrate . but , how doth the hearing the present ministers tend to it ? sure , neither in the nature of the action , no● in the will of him that hears , if the person do hear , as perswaded he may , and ought to do it , is any tendency to such grief : neither is there aptitude to beget it , in what he doth , which harms not the grieved : nor intention to produce it , when he does but what he is to do ▪ and neglects not what belongs to him to do , to hinder it . in this case , the persons grieved , if it be , because they are displeased with what is done , out of a contrary judgement , they grieve themselves ; if they mourn for it , as the hearers sin , because it is a recession from their party , it is not out of zeal that they groan , but out of frowardness , out of passion , not out of compassion , out of an erroneous principle , to which they adhere , not out of weakness of faith. this author saith , many poor souls have been drawn , by reason of the practice of some leading brethren in this matter , against the checks of their own conscience , to a conformity herein , to their after grief and wounding , and so those leaders guilty of spilling the blood of souls . surely this were a direful scandalizing , if this conformity were a return to babylon , as they would make it : but being no such matter , this is but a scarbug : if there be such checks of conscience , after grief and wounding , it is to be imputed to such as this author , who represents it to such a poor soul , as a horrid sin ; not to him , that by doing what he may and ought , leads others to do the like . but the truth is , those offended brethren , for the most part , are vexed and enraged , ( as their reviling speeches , and hard censures shew ) rather for the crossing them in their way , than affected with godly sorrow for it , as a sin , counting him as an enemy , scarce ever admonishing as a brother , contrary to thes. . . which is so much the worse in them , in that , by representing the hearing of publick teachers as dangerous and odious , many fall to the opinions of quakers , seekers , and other erroneous opinions and practises , which by hearing the present ministers , might have been prevented ; which whether they groan and weep for , their own consciences can tell them : so farr as i discern , the principles of the separatists , and their practice , have occasioned them ; and for that i think they ought to mourn . . that is not scandalizing forbidden in those texts , which doth not arise from any defect of charity , or undue behaviour of the person offending ; but from the distemper of the person offended . but the offence by the hearers of the present ministers , doth not arise from any defect of charity , or undue behaviour of the person offending ; but from the distemper of the person offended . therefore it is not the scandalizing forbidden in those texts , which do impute the offending to defect of charity , or pride , in contempt , or the like undue behaviour , towards the offended , rom. . . cor. . , . but that it is prejudice in the offended , wherewith they are pre-possessed , and such other malignity as comes from thence , will be made manifest in the examination of what is said by this author , in answer to the objection of scandal taken . . that is not scandalizing forbidden in those texts , which is not offending of persons weak in the faith , and of doubting consciences , yet peaceably minded ; but of persons conceiving themselves strong , able to argue against the practice of hearing the present ministers , that oppose it with violence , will entertain no fair debate with them that dissent , but inveigh against them , with many more evidences of wilfulness in their way . but such is the disposition and carriage of those , that pretend to be offended with the hearing of the present ministers , as experience doth too frequently evince . therefore , the offence is not such , as is forbidden in the texts , which forbid offending the weak , rom. . . and . . cor. . , . . . that is not scandalizing forbidden in those texts , which is by using our liberty where we know not any present that will be offended at the use of our liberty , or that signifies his offence at our action , when we do it , in which case the apostle allows the eating of things offered to idols cor. . , , . and consequently the use of our liberty in other things lawful and if any that are absent are likely to be offended , we have given a just rea●on , or are ready to give a just reason of our doing , for this is all , that in this case charity binds us to , to wit , to do what lies in us to rectify them . but so it is in the offence of persons at hea●ing the present ministers : they that are offended are either absent , or signify not their offence , or exception , if present ; or if they do before or after shew their dislike , have the reasons given of our practise ; or the offending person is ready to do it , as experience shews : therefore the offence taken at their hearing is not scandalizing forbidden . . that is not the scandalizing forbidden in those texts , in which , if the offence be regarded , the pe●son supposed to offend shall be deprived of his liberty , and the benefit of the use of it , and not for one time only but alwayes , contrary to the apostles resolution cor. . ▪ . and that not in a thing which he ma● be well without , such as was flesh offered to an idol ▪ but also that , which is of grea●est moment for his souls welfa●e , the hearing of the word of god , and thereby his liberty will be lost , and a yoke of bondage received contrary to gal. . , and . . but so it is in the offence for the hearing the present ministers , if it were regarded , so as to abstain from hearing to satisfy this author , and such as are like minded , the persons supposed to offend them must never hear them , nor any of them though preaching never so profitably , and so must not only lose the present benefit , but also be deprived perpetually , and judge that which is their liberty to be unlawful , and ●o intangle themselves in a yoke of bondage , which it were sinful for them to do , and that without any real benefit to the offended , therefore they cannot be rightly judged to scandalize , as it is forbidden in the texts mentioned who offend others by their hearing of the present ministers , as they are charged . . that is not the scandalizing forbidden in those texts , the avoiding of which drawes after it a greater scandal and of worse consequence ; and that which is not imaginary only , but real scandal . this i conceive none should deny : for if every scandal should be avoided , then the chiefest , in which case the lesser , and only imaginary , cannot be said to be forbidden . but in shunning to hear the present ministers , there is a real , manifold worse scandal , than is by hearing of them . which i demonstrate thus , . the person that might hear a profitable preacher , by shunning hearing of him , upon the conceit of unlawfulness to hear him , doth scandalize himself , contrary to matth . , . and . , . in that he confirms himself in his superstitious errour , and hinders his spiritual good , and progress in christianity , and ensnares himself in an unjustifiable separation . . he doth also truly scandalize ▪ others by his example ; confirming those that refuse to hear , in their errour and schism , whom he ought to oppose , as st. paul did st. peter , gal. . . when their shunning to hold communion with some , as unclean , tends to the establishing of an errour and schism , as his did . . by this refusing to hear the present ministers , through such suggestions as this author instills into the minds of men against them , people are driven from the publique congregations , and thereby the sheep of christ are scattered ; some betake themselves to the meetings of quakers , where they are mis-led by the delusions of satan , under pretence of following the light within them , other joyn with the fifth monarchy men , who pervert them with peruicious tenents and designes against magistrates ; and in the best of the separatists , there is so much bitterness and enmity , against dissenters from them , instilled into their minds , as quite breaks the bond of charity , that should unite all christs discipl●s , which surely is real scandal . . the refuser to hear the p●esent ministers , doth really scandalize tho●e that a●e confo●mists in hearing , who are therefore unrighteously judged , censured and shunned , as lapsed brethren , or meer formalists , and thereby are grieved , and moved to mourn , for this evil spirit , that is between them , and their brethren . the present ministers are al●o much scandalized for the same cause , and are much hind●ed in the performance of their ministry , by reason of the opposition of the separatists ; which experience hath too much shewed , in former and later times , to have hindred the fruits of many holy preachers , even non-conformists labours and to have shortned their dayes ; so that upon the doors of the separatists may be written , with greater reason , than upon the doors of the diligent conforming preachers of the gospel , the blood of souls therefore scandalizing by hearing the present ministers , is not forbidden in the texts alleged . . that scandalizing is not forbidden in those texts , by avoiding of which , the magistrate is scandalized , his government disturbed , his power excited against others , as disobedient to his laws ; and for that reason ▪ many persons , with their families , undone in their liberties , and outward estate . for the offence of our brother is not to be regarded , by observing of that which will include in it disobedience to the command of the magistrate , which may be lawfully obeyed , whereby his authority is n●glected , his government disturbed , division and ruine of families occasioned : but so it is , when the present ministers are not heard , as the state of things now is therefore the scandalizing by hearing the present ministers , is not forbidden in the texts , rom. . cor. . and . it follows , sect. . it is not scandal given but when the offensive action is done blameably . if it be said , object . that there is a twofold scandal , . scandalum acceptum , a scandal , or offence taken , . scandatum datum , a scandal or offence given . in respect of the former , possibly many may be offended at their practice in the matter treated of , and so would some or other whatever is done by them : 't is impossible but offences should come , that there is any just offence given by them , herein , is denied to this we answer . answ. . that as we admit of the distinction , so no doubt there is a truth in what is suggested thereupon , that what ever i do , some one or other will be offended at it : there are a generation of men , whom the doing of my duty will offend , and cause to blaspheme ; th●se are not to be minded , but to be pittied : christ himself was to some a rock of offence and stone of stumbling . . but t is not yet proved ( nor like to be ) that the scandal treated of , is a scandal taken and not given , the very nature of ●candal given , as is confest by all , and evident beyond exception from the apostles discourse , cor. . . lying in the doing of what is judged , by me , to be my liberty , which other saints are not fully perswaded of in their own minds to be so , but are ready to conclude it to be my sin , and evil , and from thence have occasion of grief , or stumbling , administred to them . this was the very case of the church of corinth ( upon the occasion whereof , paul writes to them , cor. . ) some of them judged it their liberty , to sit at meat in the idols temple ; others , not being fully perswaded hereof , were scandalized many wayes at this their practice , which the apostle therefore condemns as unlawful . answ. . that there is any generation of men , whose offence is not to be minded , is not the doctrine of the apostle , but contrary to it , cor. . , . give none offence , neither to the jews , nor to the gentiles , nor to the church of god. even as i please all men , in all things : not seeking mine own profit , but the profit of many , that they may be saved . which practice of his he had expressed , cor. . , , , , · for though i be free from all men , yet have i made my self servant unto all , that i might gain the more . and unto the jews , i became as a jew , that i might gain the jews ; to them that are under the law , that i might gain them that are under the law ; to them that are without law , as without law , ( being not without law to g●d , but under the law to christ ) that i might gain them that are without law. to the weak , i became as weak , that i might gain the weak : to all , became i all things , that i might by all means save some . and this i do for the gospels sake , that i may be a joynt partaker thereof . where his avoiding of offence , and pleasing all , is not restrained to the saints , or the church of god , but is extended even to adversaries , that opposed the gospel , to whom he would both forbear his liberty , and do that which was otherwise not to be done ; as in the case of circumcising timothy , acts . . and taking on him a vow , acts . . and purifying himself with others , acts . . and . . and other wayes , acts . , , . while there was any likelyhood , either of winning them to the liking of the gospel , or abating their opposition , and procuring his own peace and safety : but when it was dis-advantage to the truth of the gospel , he would not have titus to be circumcised , nor any compliance with the jews in declining eating with the gentiles , gal. . , , which yields us a rule , whose offence we are to avoid ; with whom , and when we are to comply in things lawful ; to wit , with all , either when we may win them to the embracing of the truth , or the abating the opposition of adversaries , or procuring our own peace . which is a good plea for them , that , by hearing the present ministers , do accommodate themselves in doing that which is lawful to the command of rulers for their own peace , though some brethren be thereby offended . . it is not confess'd by all , that the very nature of scandal given , lyes in the doing of what is judged , by me , to be my liberty which other saints are not fully perswaded of in their own minds to be so , but are ready to conclude it to be my sin and evil , and from thence have occasion of grief or stumbling administred to them . for , . dr. hammond in his treatise of scandal , after he had accurately considered the use of the word [ scandal ] and the sorts of scandal , § . , , , , , . he inferrs , that no man is offended or scandalized , but he that falls into some sin : that to be angry , grieved , troubled , at any action of another , is not [ to be offended ] in the scripture sense : nor consequently doth it follow , that i have done amiss , in doing that which another man is angry at , unless my action be in it self evil . for if it be not , then he is angry without cause , and that is his fault , not mine ; yea , and he judgeth or censures his brother , that hath done no hurt , which the weak are forbid to do , rom. . . and secondly , he is of a●l men most unlikely to do that after me , which he is angry at me for doing ; and therefore i have least reason to fear , or possibly to foresee , that he will be scandaliz'd in the scripture phrase : which fear , or fore-sight , were the only just motive to me , to abstain from any justifiable indifferent action . and as for the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , grieved , rom. . . he gathers it from the occasion of the grief of the grieved persons eating with a doubting conscience , the three words by which it is explained , v . stumbling , being offended , and being weak or sick ; that the meaning is [ ●is grieved ] i e. wounded , or falls into sin . which he endeavours to shew , to be agreeable to language in other words , and in that word . whether he be in the right , or not , this seems to me most agreeable to the text , that 〈◊〉 grief mentioned rom. . . ( which is the only place where i find grief in the offended , made the effect of offence forbidden ) is the grief of the offended , from his own action , in eating with a doubting conscience : not from the action of him that used his liberty uncharitably . for if the offended had been displeased , angry and grieved , because he did eat , he had not followed his example , but would have shunned his practice , as judging him licentious in so doing . and therefore , it is not right , that this author and others , object scandal given by the conformists , because they do that , for which their brethren do mourn , as done by them , but do not follow them in , only are displeased , and angry with them for so doing . mr. jeanes , in the d. edition of his treatise of abstinence from appearance of evil , p. . the mistake of scandal , for the angring one , is taken notice of by calvin also , upon cor. . . having affirmed , that some corrupted the doctrine of scandal with foolish glosses , and others with their impious calumnies , he sheweth the original of both their mistakes , touching the meaning of offence in the apostle utrique errant in verbo offendendi : nam offendere accipiunt , pro incurrere in odium vel offensionem hominum , aut , quod idem ferè est , facere quod ipsis displiceat , vel minus arrideat . atqui clarissimè patet ex contex●u , nihil esse aliud quàm malo exemplo ranquam obice fratiem impedi●e à recto cu●su , aut illi praebere causam lapsus . non ergo hic disputat paulus de retinendâ hominum gratiâ ▪ sed de sublevandis infirmis , nè concidant ; & prudenter regendis ne à rectâ viâ deflectant were dr. hammond , or my self mistaken , yet all that i meet with , do make it necessary to active scandal , that it be in all such words , or deeds , as culpably occasion the fall of another , whether of themselves , or by accident . and for passive scandal , if it be culpably both given and taken , then it is scandalum datum : if it be culpably taken , and not culpably given , then it is scandalum acceptum , as m. jeanes speaks , in his later edition , p. . of his treatise of abstinence from appearance of evil . so that , until there appear something culpable in hearing the present ministers , they that hear them cannot be justly charged with scandal given by them to their brethren and this will not be proved , untill it be shewed , that either by the nature and condition of their hearing , or the intention of the hearers , their brethren are made to sin against god. for , as it is in the discourse concerning the interest of words in prayer , by h. d.m a. ( commended before by this author , ch . . p. . ) in the postscript , p. . the true notion of a scandalous action , is , any action done by us , not being required by the divine law , by which our brother , whether from the nature and condition of the thing done , or the intention of him that doth it , or both , is made to sin against god and therefore , it is not confess'd by all , that the nature of scandal given , lyes in the doing of what is judged , by me , to be my liberty , which other saints are not fully perswaded of in their own minds to be so , but are ready to conclude it to be my sin and evil , and from thence have occasion of grief or stumbling administred to them ; unless that stumbling be by falling into sin , through the culpability of my action , either from the faulty nature of it , or my intention in the doing of it , by my unseasonable doing it , with fore-sight of the effect , which i might have avoided . nor is what this author saith of the nature of scandal given , evident beyond exception , from the apostles discourse , cor. . . for , whereas he supposeth the case of the church of corinth , concerning the practice of them that eat idolothytes , to have been , as he expresseth it , on the one side , the offending persons judging it their liberty to sit at meat in the idols temple : and on the other side , others not being fully perswaded hereof , were many wayes scandalized at this their practice , which therefore the apostle condemns as unlawful : and conceives , the nature of scandal given , to be in these two things , one judging it his liberty to do it , another judging it evil , and grieving thereat , and that such is the offence of them that hear the present ministers , he is many wayes mistaken . . that the offending person , it is not likely , judged it his liberty to sit at meat in the idols temple , he being described as one that had knowledge , opposed to the weak , who with conscience of the idol , eat it as a thing offered to an idol , and their conscience being weak , was defiled : now it is not likely , that the strong , that had knowledge by the doctrine of christ , that what entreth into the mouth doth not defile , and therefore the eating of the idolothyte , though he knew it offered to an idol , could not defile him , would yet judge it his liberty to sit at meat in the idols temple , which was manifestly evil , even partaking of the table of devils , cor. . , . or that it was the weakness of the offended person , that he was not fully perswaded of that liberty , it had been his weakness and sin , if he had judged it his liberty to sit at meat in the idols temple . but it was the sin of him that had knowledge , that he sate at meat in the idols temple , though it was his liberty to eat it else-where , knowing it had been offered to idols : and it was the weakness of the other , that he was not so perswaded , yet was by the others practice emboldned to it , and so was defiled both with the errour and practice of eating against his conscience , with the conscience of the idol ; that is , though he knew it offered to the idol , and therefore was thereby some acknowledgement of the idol , as something honourable , or a thing sacred . however , if it were , that the offending person judged it his liberty to sit at m●at in the idols temple , yet this is ill applyed to the hearers of the present ministers , as if their hearing were such an action , as was his , that sate at meat in the idols temple : for that was having fellowship with devils , cor. . but this is the service of the living god , no idolothyte , or sitting at meat in the idols temple : and , as if being perswaded of the liberty to do the one , were like th● perswasion of the liberty to do the other , whereas , the hearers judge it not only their liberty to hear the present ministers , but also their duty , and so not , as the case stands , a thing indifferent . . this author conceives , that the corinthians were offended in that they were grieved at the practice of him that judged it his liberty to sit at meat in the idols temple , and that giving occasion of such grief , was scandal given : whereas the scandal given , was not by causing grief for the offenders practice , as evil ; but in that the offended being swayed by his practice , did , against his conscience , eat the thing offered to idols , and perhaps in the idols temple , which had been a great sin , such as would wound his conscience , make him weak or sick , and tended to his perdition , it being a degree of back sliding to idolatry : and therefore , this is ill applyed to the effect of the hearing of the present ministers , which is not in the offended any such backsliding or sin against their conscience , tending to their perdition , or present wounding of spirit ; but mourning for their brethrens conceited back sliding , which they conceive tends to their salvation , not to their perdition . the offence of the corinthians is set down by this author , without any intimation , that the corinthians might have reason to be scandalized , because the eating the idolothyte was both against the precepts of the mosaical law , and the apostles decree , acts . . which was of much moment to make the offence , scandal given , and not only taken . for if offence be taken , where there is no probable reason , why the scandalized should judge it evil , it is his fault who thus judgeth , not his who acts , that , which he sees no reason why any should conceive any evil in it . the apostle therefore did not require to forbear the eating of the idolothyte , but when the weak brother said this is offered in sacrifice to idols , cor . which shewed the reason , why he should be offended , if he did eat it ; and that reason might probably induce him to conceive it unlawful , which thing is a requisite condition to scandal given , sith , if upon any surmise of a weak brother , i must forbear my liberty , though there is no shew of reason , or no probability why he should conceive it evil to use it , my liberty would be as no liberty , and a yoak more intolerable than the law would be on my conscience . now , that there is no probable reason , why persons should imagine evil in my hearing the present ministers , notwithstanding what this author saith , hath been , and shall be further shewed , in answering that which is said by this author . . this author doth not mention that , which , in the case of the corinthians , was requisite to scandal given , to wit , that the scandal should be fore-seen , as the words cor. . , intimate ; and that not only as possible , but also as future , with some moral certainty , by reason of the presence of persons known to scruple the thing i do , or some one that intimates his dislike of my action . calvin therefore upon cor. . saith , non jubet nos apostolus divinare nunquid offendiculo futurum sit quod facimus , nisi cum est praesens periculum . the apostle doth not bid us divine , whether that we do will offend , but when there is present danger . now this shews , that the hearing the present ministers is not scandal given , where none are present that are offended , nor any give intimation of the futurity of the offence . . this author doth not take notice , that scandal given by the use of our liberty , is not to be made perpetual , as the apostles words in the same place shew : for if i must alwayes abstain from that at which another is offended , it will be made sin in it self , and so not scandal given by the intempestive use of our liberty in a thing indifferent : but that we must not yield to , that we may not lose truth for peace sake : but if men must not hear the present ministers , for the reasons given , they must never do it to avoid offence , which will be perpetual , and so the scandal supposed to be given , not such as that which was in the corinthians liberty , in eating idolothytes . . it should not have been forgotten , that the case of the offended among the corinthians , by eating idolothytes , and the brethren now in england , for hearing the present ministers , cannot be parallel'd rightly : because the corinthians offence was at the time , wherein the gospel had been but lately preached to them , and the doctrine of gospel-liberty not fully cleared , which cannot be said of christian professors in england , who have been fully instructed therein ; and therefore , in the use of our liberty now , cannot be the like offence given , and not taken only , as was in those dayes among the corinthians : yet this author thus chargeth them with scandal given . sect. . offending some sincere christians , by hearing the present ministers , is not the scandalizing threatned matth. . . should it , for arguments sake , be granted , ( though in truth it be not so ) that t is the liberty of saints , to hear the present ministers ; yet many of the sincere lambs of christ , being stumbled , grieved and scandalized herea● , for that very reason ( ●f no more could be said herein ) it becomes our sin , ( to be guilty whereof , who can chuse but be filled with trembling , that hath ever with seriousness , read that terrible commination of christ , matt. . . who so shall offend one of these little ones , that believe in me , it were better for him , that a milstone were hanged about his neck , and he were drowned in the depths of the sea ? ) especially , when those that are thus scandalized , are able to demonstrate , that their offence is not any peevish humour , or foolish nicety , but what is too really administred by the actions of their brethren : when they shall hear christ commanding them to separate from every thing of antichrist , revel . . . and therefore from his ministry ; and they are in conscience perswaded , the ministers of england are such , which they judge , they are able to demonstrate : when they consider , how the laws of their dear lord and law-giver are made void , by the traditions of these ●●e●ended ministers , whose kingship they see them visibly opposing : when they find upon them the characters of false prophets and apostles ; and are able to manifest , that they are deeply guilty of the sin of idolatry , ( from whom they are enjoyned by christ to turn away : ) yea , when they take a view of the frame of the spirits of their now conforming-brethren in dayes past , and the principles were then owned by them : that they did then ( some of them at least ) separate from the assemblies of england , as not true churches of christ ; and accounted the common-prayer book priests , persons not meet to preach , unworthy to be attended upon in their so doing : and see them now saying , a confederacy with , and attending upon the ministry of those very persons and things , from whom , not only christ hath commanded them to separate , but these very brethren did formerly decry , and , at least seemingly , abominate ; they judge , they have just ground of offence given them : nor can it be denied , but it is indeed so . answ. it were indeed very grievous to a christian , if it were their sin , and such as brings them under the terrible commination of christ , matth. . . to do , what many of the sincere lambs of christ ( much more those whom this author counts such ) are stumbled , grieved and scandalized at , for that very reason , if no more could be said therein : it were to make every honest-hearted christian , though simple , a law-giver to me , a pope , a lord over my conscience , an infallible judge , so that what he determines , i may not do or omit , because it wil grieve or offend him without any other reason , why i must not do or omit it ; this sure would take away christs king-ship really , and invest every sincere lamb of christ with it , which this author makes so hainous a thing in the present ministers , as to justifie separation from them ; it would be , to ascribe dominion to them over my faith , to spoyl me of my christian liberty , and to make me in almost every thing i do , uncertain what i may do , lest i grieve some of them , whom i have found to be so scrupulous , and so censorious , as that they are offended , if there be a prejudice against a person , at every thing he doth or saith , if it agree not with their minds . to deliver the consciences of people from such a slavery ( worse than the bondage of the mosaical law ) which this principle brings to , i conceive my self bound to do my best , and to decry it as antichristian . i think i have read seriously christs commination , matth. . . and i presume my treatise of scandalizing shews it to be meant of other scandalizing than such as this author means , to wit , such as is opposite to receiving them , v. . and is with despising , and persecution of them , v. . causing their perdition , v. , . i dare not say , that the offence of the sincere lambs of christ , is out of a peevish humour , or foolish nicety ; i hope it will not be denied , that they are weak , many of them ; i am sure , none of them are infallible , or free from undue passions and prejudice : and this is enough to quiet my conscience , in doing what i do , notwithstanding the offence of many honest christians , yea and holy learned preachers . i find cause , i confess , to mourn on their behalf , and to pitty them , whom i have heard or seen offended at my actions , which they never examine , nor by conference , or otherwise , enquire into the reasons or equity of them , taking reports upon trust , and judging them evil , without any brotherly affection , or sober consideration . i may truly say , my peace of conscience would be desperate ▪ if i must judge of my self , as they judge of me . i will not mention my own experiences , lest i should be thought to particularize ; but i find an author , one paybody , in a treatise about kneeling at the lords supper , printed . . part . ch . . p. . saying , concerning the professors of his time , opposing kneeling ( and i think opposers of the present ministers now are too like them ) thus , let not our brethren be offended , that i say , many of their professors are set on work by humour and prejudice . for , . they which profess , in great resolution , without grounds or reasons , that is , which meerly profess , in imitation of certain men of note , or for company of the best sort of christians , ( as they judge opposers to be ) or out of ill opinion conceived of conformable persons , or church government , are led by humour and prejudice . . so are they which cannot abide to be instructed or directed by them of contrary judgement ; despising the words and writings of such , before th●y know them . . they , which upon discourse , hearing many things which they cannot satisfie their consciences in , do yet never seek to have their doubts resolved , but rest in one song , say what one can to the contrary . . they which dare avow the necessity of confessing against kneeling ▪ upon pain of eternal damnation , charging other men , in the deepest obligation that may be , to stand out ; and yet , upon some other mans declaration of the lawful liberty of kneeling , at some time , can be content , without gain-saying , to profess , they never studied the point . . they which make no conscience of slandering , back-biting , conformity to the world in vaniti●s of apparel , pleasure , and scandalous covetousness , unfaithfulness in their callings , unjustice in their dealings , and such like , in opposing kneeling , are led by humour . . they which have confessed themselves to be convinced of the lawfulness , and yet will not , or would , but for their discredit in the world , specially among the persons of that side . but there is nothing more manifest , than , that many of your professors are thus and thus disposed and carried , which i doubt not , but i can particula●ly maintain , so farr , as outward expressions can discover the inward meaning or purpose . now i know you would not have us bound to abstain from kneeling ( may i not say , hea●ing ) for avoiding the scandal of such persons . but , saith this author , their offence is too really administred by the actions of their b●ethren . but who do suggest these actions , to be a sufficient reason of separation , but such as this author ( who is indeed , with others like minded , the true scandalizer , or he by whom the offence cometh ) or else it is the offended persons own inference , from the real or imaginary actions of their brethren , of a necessity of separation , that scandalizeth him . that which this author brings here , is farr from a demonstration . we find , revel . . . that st. john heard a voice from heaven , saying , come out of her● my people , that ye be not partakers of her sins , and that ye receive not of her plagues . but to ●erch out of this passage , this proposition , christ commands them to separate from every thing of antichrist ; and to inferr this conclusion , and therefore from his ministry , needs a delian diver , or cunning alchymist , or sophister , that can deduce quidlibet ex quolibet . it is plain , that the exhortation is , to goe out of rome , called babylon , ch . , . nor do i gainsay , that it is meant of it , as it is corrupted by the papacy : nor do i question , but the papal monarchy is an antichristian state ; and that , though the plain meaning is no more , but that gods people ( whereof i doubt not , some are , and will be in rome when it shall be destroyed ) should abandon that place afore it be destroyed , to avoid participation of its sins and plagues ; yet too , it may be understood of communion with the papacy in their idolatry and heresies . but it is a wild conceit , to make every thing done or used by popes , to be a thing of antichrist ; much more is it , to make the ministry of the ministers of england , the ministry of the pope , when it is so directly contrary to the pope , and popish doctrine and worship expresly abjured and abhorred by them . how frivolous his proofs are , of the present ministers opposing visibly christs kingsh●p , having the characters of false prophets , of being guilty of idolatry , is shewed already . what the frame of the spirits of the present conformists is , or hath been , god only , who is the searcher of hearts , is fit to judge , what their principles were formerly , and are now , is to be known , either by those that have conversed with them , or heard them preach , or read their writings : sure every sincere lamb of christ is neither fit nor able to judge or examine the truth of any number of conformists spirits or principles ; and therefore , if these alterations , which are here mentioned , be the ground of the offence that is taken against them , it cannot be a just ground of their taking offence . if it were , there were just ground of offence given to separate from the separatists . not to mention what of old was charged upon the brownists , whose spirits and principles were such ▪ as made many , as holy persons , as england yielded , to dehort the godly from joyning with them in their way of separation : nor what either mr. edwards , in his gangraena ; or mr. baillee , in his disswasive ; or mr. weld , in his story of the antinomians , have written , of the state of the congregational churches , the elders and messengers of the congregational churches , in the preface to their d●claration of their faith and order , in their meeting at the savoy , octob . . say , it is true , that many sad miscarriages , divisions , breaches , fallings off from holy ordinances of god , have along this time of tentation , been found in some of our churches ; yet they do not at all stumble us , as to the truth of our way ▪ had they been many more : and avow this as their great principle , that , amongst all christian states and churches , there ought to be vouchsafed a forbearance , and mutual indulgence , unto saints of all perswasions , that keep unto , and hold fast the necessary foundations of faith and holiness , in all other matters extra fundamental , whether of faith or order . mr. weld . in his answer to mr. rathband , heretofore denied not the congregations parochial in england , to be true churches , though impure : and mr , norton , in his answer to appollonius , ch . . saith , we reject the separatists , who distinguish not between the church , and the impurities of the church : whence the great crime of schism . yet this author , not considering , that the congregational men disclaim his rigid separation , avows separation as commanded by christ from the church of england , as no true church ; and condemns hearing the present ministers , as the ministers of antichrist , though they preach the gospel of christ , because of some defects conceived in their calling , and some impurities , real or imaginary , in their worship , as if it were saying a confederacy , forbidden isai. . and a just ground of offence given to the sincere lambs of christ , in that they do not separate from the assemblies of england . but he hath not yet done , but adds , sect. . the separatists give more just cause of offence to godly sober christians , than the conformists do to them . if it be yet further said , obiect . . but if i do not goe to hear the preachers of this day , many truly godly and sober christians will be offended at my forbearance ; so that whether i hear , or whether i forbear , i shall offend . to this i answer , that , granting the case to be as is suggested , ( though perhaps somewhat else , upon a serious and strict search , may be found to lye at the bottom of our conformity , beyond what is here pleaded : i am very apt to believe , were but a toleration granted , t is not the fear of offending any , would cause our conforming brethren to attend upon the ministry of the present priests of england . yet supposing it to be as is intimated ) we ask . do you look upon your going to hear , as your duty , or meerly as your liberty ? if the first , let it be proved from any positive precept of christ , and we are satisfied : if the second , you are bound by many solemn injunctions ( which are at least reduceable to the moral law ) not to use your liberty to scandalize your brethren . . let both parties be weighed in an upright ballance , such as you judge to be offended with you for not hearing , and such as are offended thereat : i am bold to say , that the last mentioned , for number , holiness , spirituality , and tenderness , do farr surmount the former , who will really be scandalized at your forbearance . . let also the grounds of the offence on both sides be weighed : the one are offended at you , that you build not up in practise , in a day of trouble ; and cause thereby the enemies of the lord to triumph and blaspheme , what in a day of liberty , you did , in your preaching and practice , pull down and destroy : the other , because of your disobedience to what they are satisfied , and you your selves once were , god is calling you to ( viz. to have nothing to do with , separate from this generation of men . ) but , . that t is your duty ( especially if in a church-relation ) to meet together , as a people called and picked by the lord out of the nations of the world , cannot be denied : the neglect of which , is charged by the lord , as the first step to apostacy , heb. . . be you in the practice of this duty , and see what spiritual saint will be offended at you ; if any should , you might have peace therein : you doing your duty , no just cause of scandal is given . yet further , . consider on which side the cross lies , which the flesh , and fleshly interest is most opposite to , whether in going , or forbearing to goe to hear these men : vsually , that is the way of god , that hath most of the cross in it , and the flesh is most strugling and contesting against . but thus much of the th . argument . answ. if the case be granted as is suggested , the same argument , which proves it unlawful to hear the present ministers , proves it unlawful not to hear them , unless omission may not be said to scandalize , which is contrary to matth. . . no serious and strict search of men , can find what lies at the bottom of mens conformity , till god discover it . it is not fit to insinuate conceits of others , which beget evil surmises in us of them ; true charity believeth all things , cor. . . it is a fruit of malignity , to say , i am very apt to believe , what may beget evil prejudice in me , or another , towards a brother . but what if there were an embracing a toleration , if granted ? this would only shew , that they did not tye themselves to the present ministry ; not that then , or now , they hold it unlawful to hear them ; nor that their hearing is only to avoid offence : but for other reasons conjunct with it , which may be lawfully aimed at in the same act . sure it is not evil in doing that which is lawful to arm at our own peace , and other outward advantage besides the avoiding of offence . if a man were disposed to retaliate , it might perhaps be told this author , that perhaps somewhat else lay at the bottom , besides his not offending the lambs of christ : that he did separate heretofore , it may be credit ▪ preferment , power and gain , lay that way ; it may be , adherence to a party , interest in their affections , that , i say no more , retains him still in this way : yet would he take this ill ; and why he should do to other , what he would not they should do to him , i see no cause : christ taught otherwise , matth. . , , , , , . but to the question , i answer , it is their duty to hear the present ministers , while they preach the gospel , or word of god : and though , by immediate precept , a man is not bound to hear this or that particular minister , of this or that way of church-government or perswasion , but is at liberty to choose , as may be ( all things considered ) for his conveniency ; yet , if other things concurr , he ought to hear such , as the providence of god hath placed over him , or near his habitation , though he be not chosen by himself to be his pastour , which i think may be proved from th●s . . heb. . john ▪ mark . . how we are to avoid scandalizing our brethren , is shewed above : but it favours of schism , to appropriate the term [ brethren ] to christians of our perswasion , or of our society . who exceed in number , holiness , spirituality and tenderness , is a hard thing to determine . vivorum difficilis est censura . who can tell what measure of these qualifications there is in them that are living ? who can point out , who are such , who not ? who can tell , what men may prove , for all their fair shews ? how is it possible for this author , or any other , to number them , compare , weigh them in an upright ballance ? may not those be more carnal , yea very hypocrites , which he counts spiritual saints ? are not he , and all others , specially of his way of separation , most apt to magifie those who jump with him in his way ; and to disparage dissenters ? are not the sincere lambs of christ oftentimes carried away with false shews , and partial affections , and wrong reports ? what a lesbian leaden rule doth this author then give , whose offence is to be avoided , rather than anothers ? yea , the rule is against his scope : for if those non-hearers be such holy spiritual persons , as he makes them , there is the less danger of offending them . yet i dare not grant it they are : the experience the world hath had of the brethren of the congregational way , hath yet given us no such assurance of their surpassing holiness , but that they have been , many of them ▪ ca●nal , and walked as men . have not they , even some of the prime leaders of them , shewed as much passion , pride . covetousness , self-seeking , and other sinister affections , as others of different wayes ? sure hildersham , ball , bradshaw , gataker , and many other , who have opposed the way of separation of old , and of late have given as much proof of their holiness , spirituality and tenderness as johnson , ainsworth , robinson , and others , in old or new - england , or holland have done ▪ nor do i think any of the congregational way have exceeded , i will not say the martyr'd bishops in q. maries dayes , but even late bishops , vsher , bedel , potter , and others of the prelatical ministers and churches , in holiness , spirituality and tenderness . let the reader pardon my just indignation at this rotten and stinking course of puffing up his own party , and disparaging dissenters , which can never tend to clear truth , and beget righteous judgements in men , but to delude men with specious pretences , and ●oment divisions . non est ex personis fides aestimanda , sed ex fide persona , said tertullian , truth is not to be measured by the persons , but the persons by truth . if we must know our duty , by this authors rule , we must leave studying the holy scripture , and study men . every weak christian must take upon him an impossible task , to weigh two parties in an upright ballance , one offended at hearing the present ministers , and the other for not hearing them , and both being conceived godly and sober christians , judge which party is most numerous , holy , spiritual , and tender . nor is the next direction much better . it supposeth , that they who conform , whether ministers or h●arers , blame the separatists , that they do not build up in practice in a day of trouble , what in a day of liberty they did in their preaching and practice pull down and destroy : and thereby cause the enemies of the lord to blaspheme , and that this is the ground of the offence on the one side : that th●y are disobedient to what they are satisfied , and the conformists ministers , or hearers of them , or both , once were ; that god is calling them to have nothing to do with , to separate from this generation of men , and that this is the ground of the offence on the other side : and that the ground of the offence is more just on the side of these later . these words are aenigmatical , and require an o●dipus to unriddle them . however , this i conceive is his meaning . that the godly and sober christians have no reason to be offended at him , and others of his way , that , what in their preaching and practice , he and they did pull down and destroy , conce●ning the p●elatical conforming preachers , their communion , and church government , and worship by the common-prayer book ; they do not by conformity in hearing and communion build up ; because if they should do so , they should cause the opposite party ( whom he counts the enemies of the lord ) to triumph , that they have brought them to recantation , and returning to what they had left ; and to blaspheme , or speak evil of the holy way of endeavouring reformation they formerly took in the day of liberty , because they are now fallen into a day of trouble : on the other side , that this author , and those of his way , being satisfied , that god is calling all godly sober christians to have nothing to do with , but to separate from this generation of men , that is , ministers that conform to the common-prayer book , and episcopal government ; and that these now hearers of them , were once satisfied of the same ; that yet they should disobey this calling of god , and hold communion with them , have most just cause of offence for their so doing . but i presume the godly sober christians in the objection , were never satisfied with this way of separation , which this author saith , god calls them to , but though they have been for reformation , yet not for such violent practises and preaching , as , it may be gathered , this author hath been for , as to pull up root and branch of the old form of government , to unsettle all the ministers , to set up itinerant preachers ▪ any gifted brethren , though many of them never studied divinity , but had gotten some ability by hearing preachers , and other wayes , to speak of practical points , without any ability to convince gainsayers ; and that they should take away the frame of parochial churches , and gather churches out of churches , which should , though but a few , be an entire church within themselves for government , without appeal or subordination to any other minister or synod ; that they should be tyed to use no form , no not the lords prayer ; in effect , that there should be , as some were wont to speak , overturning , overturning , overturning , without setling any thing , making the pastors eligible by every small company , that should call themselves a church , who should admit and excommunicate by most voices , censure their pastor , desert him , allot him maintenance , and deprive him , as they saw cause sure the godly sober ch●istians , who now are offended at this authors separation , were then offended , as many of their writings then did shew , and the apology of the ejected non-conformists lately hath shewed , p . of the d. edition ; and particularly at that eminent independent , who would not have the lords prayer used in the prescript form of words , p. . which , and the like courses , they conceive were in the day of liberty evil , and occasions of the day of trouble , and if persisted in , likely to bring more trouble on themselves and others , who neither then , nor now did , o● do approve of such rigid separation , or deformation of all , instead of reformation , conceiving a middle way might agree better with truth and peace ▪ they condemn such heavy censures of them that a●e of the opposite party , as if they were the enemies of the lord , a generation of men they were called by god to have nothing to do with , but to separate from them , sith they are christians of the same faith , they judge , that this author , and such as acted , as he seems to have done , should have brought glory to god , and peace to their own consciences , if they had un-said those things , which abusing their liberty , they vented heretofo●e ▪ and did endeavour to promote union , as they have done division , and this would tend to their honour , as augustine's ret●acta●ions did , and would not cause the enemies of the lord to triumph and blaspheme , but both them , and all sober godly christians , to rejoyce , and bless god for their so doing , who are now justly offended at these separatists pertinacy , and have , by their moderate conformity in hearing ministers , who preach the gospel , and joyning in the publique worship of prayer , and the communion , given no just cause of offence to this author , or any other . nor do they think i● their duty to meet together as a sepa●ate church : nor do they conceive , that heb. . ● requires such assembling , but that the fo●saking th● assembling there meant , was the forsaking the assembl●ng of christ●ans , and going back from christianity to judaism , as the whole series of the text shews ; and that their joyning in the publique assemblies in england ▪ is agreeable to the precept there , and that it ●ends no● to ap●stacy . but the assemblies , according to the separatists p●inciples , are schismatical , and that spiritual saints will be offended at them , at giving just cause of scandal , nor can they expect peace by so doing : nor is that which is here , made a rule [ 〈◊〉 that way , that hath most of the cr●ss in it ; ] right , suffe●ings being n●t ●ight , unless the cause be for god sometimes the ●onforming 〈◊〉 , sometimes the popish pr●est● , have been under sufferings ; yet i suppose this author would not have men go their way ; and therefore his rule is not sale , until the cause for which we are to suffer , be proved to be for god. sect. . hearing the present ministers , may be without participation with them in sin . arg. . that which saints cannot do , without being guilty of partaking with others in their sin , is utterly unlawful for them to do : but the saints cannot attend upon the ministry of england , without being gu●lty of partaking with them in their sin : therefore . the major proposition is clearly bottom'd upon scripture , psal. . ● . ephes. . ▪ tim. . . john . revel . . . which m●ght be abundantly demonstrated , were it needful : sure that god , who commands me to abstain from all appearance of evil , thes. . . never enjoyned , expects no● that i should be in the practice of what , without sin , cannot be performed by me . the 〈◊〉 p●●p●sition , that the saints cannot attend upon the m●●●stry of england , without being partakers with them in thei● sin , will admit of a speedy dispu●●h two things are briefly to be enquired into . . what that , or those sins are , we suppose the ministers of england to be guilty of ? . how it will appear , that any person's amending upon their minist●y , renders him guilty of partaking with them therein . of the former we have already trea●●d , and proved , ( beyond what any are able to say to the contrary ) that they are guilty of the sins of worshipping god in a way that is not of his appointment ; of acting in the holy things of god , by vertue of an antichristian p●wer , office , or calling ; of opposing really the prophetical and kingly office of christ ; of using and conforming to modes and rites in worship , not appointed by the lord , that have been abused to ido●atry , &c. nor is it denied by our conforming brethren , but with some of these things , the present ministers of england may be justly charged : that they worship god after the way of the common prayer book , with modes and rites used in the papacy , cannot be denied : nor can their undue administration of that great ordinance of our lord jesus , of b●eaking bread to all , according to th● form therein prescribed ▪ that they are ordained , and some of them re-ordained by the episcopacy , is also known . i ask , are these things the sin and evil of th●se men , or are they not ? if they are not , why did not our preaching brethren receive the ordination from the bish●ps these received ? yea , why do not our half-conforming brethren attend upon the reading of the service used , joyn with them in the sacrament of the lords supper , as administred by them ? doth not their absenting themselves herefrom , abundantly demonstrate , that they in their consciences are perswaded , that , t is the sin and evil of the prese●t priests of england thus to act , and from such a mission , in the worship of the lord ? answ. the major proposition is granted : to what he saith he hath already proved , answer is made before , that the present ministers are justly charged by him ; or that they worship god with modes and rites popish ; that their b●eaking bread to all , according to the form prescribed , is undue ; or their ordination requires proof . the not receiving ordination , may be from another cause , than perswasion in conscience , that t is the sin and evil of the ministers , that they act by such a mission , perhaps they cannot subscribe to what is required . they may forbear the communion , not because ministers sin in not keeping back some , but because they scruple the gesture prescribed . here then is no proof of their sin , let 's see how , if it were granted , that they did sin , participation in their guilt is proved . as for the second , saith he , that the hearing the present ministers of england , is that which renders a man guilty of being partaker with them in their sin ; the consideration of the several wayes persons may be justly charged with being guilty of partaking with ●thers in their sin , will abundantly demonstrate the ▪ truth thereof . to instance in a few particulars : then may persons be justly cha●ged as guilty hereof . . when they are found any way consenting with th●m in their sin . ps. . . when thou sawest a thief , then thou consentedst with him : and hast been partaker with the adulterers . t is not the doing of the act , that was done by these wicked persons , that is here called , partaking with them , but a secret consenting with them therein . . when they do that which hath a real tendency to encourage persons in their sin . john . receive them not into your houses , bid them not god speed : for he that biddeth them god speed , is partaker of their evil deeds . . when they neglect the doing of those duties , which the lord requires at their hands , for the reclaiming of them from their sin ; such are watching over , rebuking , admonishing , first privately , then by two , and in case of obstinacy and perseverance therein , telling it to the church : which are duties eminently c●mprised in the ensuing scriptures , thes. . heb. . , . and . , . levit. . . mat. , , . . when they ( notwithstanding all that they have done , or can do , being under an utter incapacity of proceeding further therein ) perceive them to persevere in their sin , shall still continue to hold communion with them , and not separate from them · rev. . . come out of her , my people ; left being partakers of her sins , ye receive of her plagues . the abiding with obstinate persevering offenders ( as it is against positive injunctions of the most high , rom. . . cor. . , , , . tim. . . ephes. . , . rev. . . so is it in the last place instanc'd in ) assigned by the spirit to be one way of partaking with others in their sins . not to multiply more particulars , let us , in a few words , make application of these remarkes to the business in hand . is there any thing in the world , that carries a greater brightness and evidence with it , than this , that the hearing the present ministers of england , is to be partakers with them in their sin ? is not our so doing , a secret consenting with them , and encouraging of them in their evil deeds ? is this to discharge those duties incumbent upon us ( if we indeed look upon them as brethren ) for their reclaiming ? yea , is this to come out of , and separate from them ? what less ? so then , except it can be proved , that the particulars instanc'd in , are not some of those wayes , whereby persons do become guilty of partaking with other mens sins : or , that to attend upon the present ministers of england , is not what doth symbolize with some one , more , or all of them , ( which can never be done ) it evidently follows , that t is not lawful for saints to hear the present ministers of england , the doing whereof , is apparently a partaking with them in their evil deeds . answ. i grant , consent in sin , doing that which hath a real tendency to encourage persons in their sin , neglect of rebuking , admonishing , when they are our duty , makes us guilty of others sins . nor do i except against the texts brought to prove these , except that mat. . , , . which i have said before , in my answer to the preface of this book , sect . . is a rule , not of reproving all sorts of sins , but only of particular injuries ; and that telling the church , is not telling a particular separate congregation in the independent way , but such a number of brethren ( as may be fit to compose the difference ) above two or three : and that not of necessity , so as if the complainant did not do , it should be his sin ; but as of indulgence and conveniency , as being the way fittest to rectifie the offendor . the last way of partaking with other mens sins is not true , to wit , that if after admonition , and obstinacy of the offendor , we joyn in hearing the word of god , praying with him , receiving the lords supper , we are partakers with the minister that preacheth , prayeth or administers the lords supper , in his personal sins , such as are acting by an unlawful mission , or other , using a sinful irregular way in his calling : nor do the texts alleged prove it . the first , rom. . . is an admonition to them which cause divisions and offences , contrary to the doctrine they had learn●d , which is nothing to the avoiding of him , that teacheth the same doctrine that the apostles taught , because of his personal sins : it may more fitly be applyed against such as this author , who causeth divisions and offences by his doctrine of separation from them that hold and teach the true faith , which is contrary to the doctrine of st. pa●l , r●m . . , . the coming out from among infidels , being 〈…〉 not touching the unclean thing , that is , the idol , or un●ighteousness . cor. . , , , . is nothing to prove a separation from hearing , or joyning in prayer , or the communion , with a minister that preacheth the truth , prayes to god , in the name of christ , for things agreeable to gods will administers the lords supper in remembrance of christs death , because of his personal sins : partaking with a minister in these things , in this case , is not having fellowsh●p with the unfruitful works of darkness , or being partakers 〈◊〉 who●●mongers , or unclean persons , or covetous , idolaters , forbidden eph●s . . . it is nothing for , but against this authors pu●pose , which the apostle chargeth timothy , t●m . , , . that he should withdraw himself , that is , not 〈…〉 to himself in the work of the ministry , such as 〈◊〉 otherwise than st. paul had instructed timothy ; that consen● not to wh●lesome words , the words of our lord jesus christ 〈◊〉 the doctrine which is according to godliness . as for the last text though it be still in the mouths of the separatists , and is ridiculously applyed to every thing , that they call babylon , as bishops , common prayer , ministers of any party besides their own , tythes , at the last by the quintomonarchians , to all the p●esent rulers , so it is by this author often u●ged , still besides the purpose of the holy ghost , it being only a warning for the people of god to come out of rome , whether by local departure from the city , or by leaving the communion of the papacy in doctrine and worship , which is nothing to a separation from hearing , or joyning with the ministers in holy things , because of their personal sins . nevertheless , this author cracks of abundant demonstration ; and , as if nothing in the world carried a greater brightness and evidence with it , than this , that the hearing the present ministers of england , is , to be partakers with them in their sins : just as if one should say , he that heard judas preach the gospel , was partaker with him in his theft , which is more like the inference of a man crazed in his intellectuals , than a sober minded man but because some mens confident words prevail with some persons addi●ted to them , more than sound reason , let 's consider what brightness is in his application ▪ is not our so doing , saith he , a secret consenting with them , and encouraging of them in 〈◊〉 evil deeds ? marvellous brightness ! clear evidence ! no wonder he applauds himself like an archimedes , and cryes 〈◊〉 ▪ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , i have found , i have found the demonstra●●on ; and that his followers add their plaudite thereto 〈◊〉 we mo●●s do not see the brightness of this consequence ▪ a christian professor goes to hear a minister that preacheth the word of god truly , therefore he consents to his intrusion into his place ; he doth openly hear , therefore he doth secretly consent ; he applyes himself to learn the word of god from him , therefore he encourageth him in his evil deeds . it is too favourable a censure , to say , his argument is a baculo ad angulum as if a man argued , the staff stands in the corner , therefore it will rain to morrow ; he seems to me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to speak contradictions . he that goes to hear him preach gods word , doth consent with him , that teacheth , in doing well , and encourage him to preach the truth ; not , as this author saith , in evil deeds : it may more truly be said , that this author , and other separatists , are guilty of sin , in not consenting with the preacher , but discouraging him in well doing . did not ministers heretofore , and perhaps this author , complain , that their auditories were thin , that good people withdrew from publique exercises to p●ivate meetings , that this was a discouragement to them in their work , and is it now to go hear them an encouragement in their evil deeds ? is not this to blow hot and cold with the same breath ? we silly ignaro's think , we ought not to discourage any who preach the truth of the gospel , be they episcopal , presbyterian , independent , antipaedobaptist , by our absence , or exceptions against him for his personal failings , but to countenance and encourage him by our presence and otherwise , and think we have the example of st paul , philip . . to warrant us therein , and marvel that such should argue thus , who blame them that silence good preachers ▪ for not assenting to the liturgy , not considering , , that they may thus argue , if we should permit the separatists to preach , we should consent secretly with them , and encourage them in their evil deeds , such as they conceive their gathering a separate congregation , and taking their mission from it , to be . yet we have more of this doughty demonstration , in a socratical way of disputing , by questioning , is this to discharge those duties incumbent upon us ( if we indeed look upon them as brethren ) for their reclaiming ? it seems it can hardly go down with this author , to call them brethren , their conformity hath unchristened them . but i answer , if it be not the discharging their duty , for the reclaiming them ( which as it is stated , would perhaps be rather their sin , than their duty ) yet it is to discharge their duty in hearing gods word , which is so farr from hindring them in the discharge of any duty incumbent on them , for the reclaiming of ministers from any sin , they are to reprove in them , that it rather fits them for it . for the hearing them , shews , they do not , as this author , count them their , or the lords enemies , which makes a reproof to be better taken , and is agreeable to the apostles rule , even when we shun the company of any that is unruly , to count him not as an enemy , but to admonish him as a brother , thes. . . but doth indeed this author think it the duty of every hearer , to reclaim , or else separate from every minister , that either enters into his ministry unduly , or doth not discharge his function as he should ? suppose a john de cluse is unduly made an elder , or a johnson excommanicate his brother and father rashly , an ainsworth disagree with johnson or robinson , about private communion with the members of the church of england , a wheel-wright vent antinomian errours , must every hearer reclaim them , or separate from them , or be guilty of their sin ? they that leave the church of england , to be in congregations of such principles , would find it to be matter of repentance : to avoid episcopal government , to be under popular , would be like tinkers work , to stop one hole and to make two ; under shew of better discipline , to introduce anarchy and confusion . but enough of answer to this wild argument , in which the author accuseth deeply , but brings no proof , only puts questions for proofs , and would have the defendant prove himself not guilty , when it concerned the accuser to prove his indictment . i hasten to the remainder . chap. . arg. . sect. . separation of some , from other christians , is no institution of christ. that the doing whereof doth cast contempt upon the wayes and institutions ( some or more of them ) of our lord jesus , and hardens persons in a false way of worship & rebellion against him , is utterly unlawful for the saints to do : but the hearing of the present ministers of england is that , the doing whereof doth cast contempt upon the wayes and institutions ( some one or more of them ) of our lord jesus , and hardens persons in a false way of worship and rebellion against him : therefore . the major is laid down in such full , clear and evident expressions , bottom'd upon scripture , and right reason , as carry a brightness with them , that none but such as are desperately and judiciously blinded , will or can gainsay . the minor ( or second proposition ) viz that the hearing of the present ministers of england , is the doing of that which doth cast contempt upon the wayes and institutions of our lord jesus , and hardens persons in a false way of worship and rebellion against him , is by our dissenting brethren gainsaid . answ. if the major be understood of real , and not only imaginary , and in the opinion of men ; of it self per se , and not by accident , through the prejudice or ill disposition of some persons , casting contempt and hardning ; the major is granted , and the minor denied : otherwise it is not granted . but let us attend the proof of the minor . three things , saith he , are therein asserted . . that our hearing these persons , is that which casts contempt upon the wayes and institutions of christ. ly . that it hardens persons in a false way of worship . ly . that it hardens and encourages souls in their rebellion against the lord. as for the first , a brief observation of some of the institutions of christ , clearly bottom'd upon the scripture , will abundantly evince its original to be from god. first then , that separation from the world , and men of the world ; from all wayes of false worship , and the inventions of men thereabout ; untill the saints of the most high be apparently a people dwelling alone , and not reckoned among the nations , ( however it be decryed , and found harsh in the ears of carnal men ) is one grand institution , a man may run and read in the following scriptures , numb . . . joh. . . cor. . , , , . ephes. . , . tim ▪ . . hos. . revel . . . prov. . . ( nor is it denied by some of our conforming brethren . ) answ. by the world , and men of the world , in opposition to the saints of the most high , are understood , such professed christians , as are not visible saints , able to give such an account of their conversion , and proof of their integrity , as the elders and members of a gathered church , in the congregational way , are satisfied with , to be sufficient for their admission into their church : or that enter not into church ▪ covenant , explicite or implicite : and dwelling alone , is meant either of joyning alone with such a church in hearing , praying , and sacraments ; or of dwelling alone in their habitations . not being reckoned among the nations , may be understood , either of not being members of a national or parochial chureh , or not under a national government , whether ecclesiastical or civil ; or not taking upon them an● offices or employments in either such church or common-wealth . in none of these senses ▪ is the proposition proved , by any of the texts alleged concerning the first part of the separation from the world , or men of the world ; but the proposition is both false and dangerous . the first text , numb . is only a prophesie of balaam , concerning the people of israel after the flesh , that they should dwell alone , and not be reckoned among the nations , to inferr thence , any of his sorts of separation , to be the institutions of christ , concerning the christian churches , is without any shew of reason ; it might yield better proof , for a national church christian , against this author , if any institution of christ , concerning the ch●istian church visible , could be thence deduced . john . . christ saith to his disciples , if ye were of the world , the world would love his own : but because ye are not of the world , but i have chosen you out of the world , therefore the world hateth you . and it is true , that the saints of the most high are not of the world , that is , that party that are opposite to christ , that hate him , and the profession of his name , and accordingly hate them that are for christ , as v. . shews ; but that , by the world , is meant , a national or parochial church , or national state , common wealth , kingdom , city , or house , as such , because of the mixture of good and bad , is most false . it is true , that christ chose the apostles , and other christians , out of the world , by his calling , by the gospel , and the work of his spirit , that they might not be united to the world , in their enmity against him , or his word ; but be a peculiar people to himself , zealous of good works : not by any institution to separate themselves from other christians by profession , into a congregational church , contra-distinct from national , or parochial , in the episcopal , or presbyterian way of discipline , by an explicite or implicite church covenant ; or into a plantation or body politick or oeconomick , independent on any civil government or governours of the nations . cor. . , , . or rather . ( for . is the last v. of that chapter ) hath been , and so have ephes. . , . rev. . . in the last section of the answer to the th chapter , shewed to be impertinently alleged , for proof of such a separation as is here meant . nor is it proved , tim. . . but it is a precept for timothy to turn away , either in respect of arbitrary society , or in respect of associating with such , as are there described , in the work of the ministry , or other employment , as , wherein they would be either treacherous to him , or a hinderance , or a blot to him hos ▪ . . is only a precept unto judah , of not being idolatrous as israel . prov. . . is a precept , advising men in prudence , that they go from the presence of a foolish man , when they perceive not in him the lips of knowledge . to allege texts , so farr from the proving of what they are brought for , shews rather a mind willing to cheat honest and weak people , than any regard to truth or honesty . and , as i said , the position is false . for it supposeth christ to have instituted such a separation , as he hath told us in sundry parables , shall not be till the end of the world , matth. . , , . such as neither christ , in the seven epistles to the seven churches of asia , nor st. paul in that to the corinthians , or any other , ever urged : such as never was attempted , but it was judged schismatical , and proved unhappy in the conclusion : and it is dangerous , sith it puts persons upon withdrawing their subjection , not only from ecclesiastical rulers , but also from civil and houshold rulers , that are counted the world , or men of the world , that they may be a people dwelling alone , and not reckoned among the nations ; which would overthrow also all states , bodies politick , and houshold government , and is contrary to rom. . . cor. . , . it is added . sect. . meeting of separated christians , as a distinct body , is not christs institution . secondly , that saints separate from the world , should frequently meet tog●ther , as a distinct body therefrom , for the edification and building up of each other in the way and will of god , according to the gifts bestowed upon them , is so evidently asserted , as the institution of our alone king and law-giver in the scripture , that it cannot be gainsaid , mal . . thes . . heb. . jude . heb. . , . cor. . . acts . . & . . ephes . . james . . thes. . . answ. it is granted , that saints separated from the world , that is , professed unbelievers , should frequently meet for the ed●fication and building up of each other in the way and will of god : but it is neither agreeable to scripture , nor allowable , that one party of christians should call another part of christians , the world , and the men of the world , who own the true faith of god , and worship him , because they are not of the same way of church-government and worship : nor is it either in the scriptures alleged , or any other , that such should meet as a distinct body from other christians , holding the true faith , and worshipping the true god in christ , as if they were a severed body from other christians . the separatists , i think , do not rebaptize , but hold baptism in the church of england , as being into the universal church , right ; so in the brownists apology , p. . robinsons justification against bernard , p. . and else-where : which , if this author hold , he must hold , that the saints of the gathered churches are one body with other christians , according to that of st. paul , ephes. . , . there is one body , and one spirit , even as ye are called in one hope of your calling ; one lord , one faith , one baptism , one god and father of all , who is ab●ve all , and through all , and in you all . cor· , . for as the body is one , and hath many members , and all the members of that one body , being many , are one body : so also is christ. for by one spirit we are all baptized into one body , whether we be jews or gentiles , whether we be bond or free . and therefore it is against the institution of christ , that christians of one profession in point of discipline and worship , should meet as a distinct body , separate from other christians of different perswasions , unless there were another faith , lord , baptism , god , whom they worship . nor do the texts justifie such separate meetings : not mal. . . in which is mention of speaking one to another , but not as a distinct body from other believers . the same may be said of thes. . . heb. . , . jude . the assemblies heb. . , . were not meetings of a distinct body from other believers , but from hebrew infidels . cor. . . or rather , it speaks of gifts given to profit withall , but not of meeting , much less as a distinct body from other believers acts ▪ . mentions a meeting for prayer , but not as a distinct body from other believers . acts . . ephes. . . james . . thes. . . mentions employing of gifts for our own and others good , not a church meeting , as a distinct body from other christians . it follows , sect. . separated congregational churches , in opposition to national , are not of christs institution . thirdly , that particular congregations or assemblies of believers , gathered into one body , for the celebration of the worship of god , ( in opposition to any national church or churches whatsoever ) is of the appointment of christ , is alike evident as the former , act. . , . & . . & . . & . . & . . & . , . cor. . & . . act. . . cor. . . rom. . . cor. . . gal. . . acts . , . & . . cor. . ▪ & . , . , cor. . . rev. . , , . answ. in these texts there is mention made of churches , where the christians in different cities , or in a province are mentioned ; and of the church , where christians of one city are mentioned ; though it be made a question , whether the church , acts . & . . be not a provincial church : but that this proves an appointment of christ , that the assemblies of believers , gathered into one body , for the celebration of the worship of god , by their voluntary agreement , under pastours of their own choice , in opposition to any national church or churches whatsoever , should be accounted the only lawful and regular churches of christ , appears not ▪ for there is no mention , in any of the texts , of any institution of christ , or his apostles : but only thence may be gathered ▪ that it was then the manner of speech , to call the christians that dwelt together in one town , the church of such a place ; though it is probable they were not gathered into one body or congregation , for the celebration of the worship of god , under select officers : but that they were called the church of such a city , as that of jerusalem , from their habitation , where they had many meetings from house to house , for celebration of the worship of god ; as from acts . , . and other places , was gathered by the presbyterians , in their answer to the dissenting brethren . nor was then any such distinction of congregations of christians , as that in one city , as the independents in london , and elsewhere , did distinguish them ; such a number should belong to such a pastour , and be termed his church ; and another number be another church in the same city ; but the elders of the christians in jerusalem , are termed , the elders of the church there , acts . , . & . . not one an elder of one part , & another of another part . sometimes there is mention made of the church in the house of such persons , cor. . . rom. . . philem. . and yet this proves not , that particular congregations or assemblies of believers , gathered into one body in a house , for the celebration of the worship , in opposition to any city , church or churches whatsoever , is of the appointment of christ ; and therefore no such appointment of christ , as here is asserted , can be gathered from the phrase of calling the christians in one city , the church there ; the christians in a province or nation , the churches . a national or universal church , may be as well collected from cor. . where it is said , god hath set some in the church , first apostles , secondarily prophets , thirdly teachers , sith the apostles were for the universal church : but for my part , i conceive the distinction of churches only prudential , not by any constitution of christ , or his apostles . and that however mr. rob●r●s●n in his catechism , mr. cotton in his way of the churches of new-england , have put it into their definitions of the visible church , that it consists of so many , as may meet every lords-day , for all ordinances : and mr , norton in his answer to apollonius , ch . . makes such a church , the only lawful political church : and this hath been continually inculcated , that it is necessary , that every person be in such a particular instituted church , and that is the fi●st seat of ecclesiastical power , alleging matth. . & . . to that purpose , and build thereupon their separation . yet i never judged , either the allegation of those texts , to be pertinent , to that they produce them for ; or that such conclusions as they gather from them , about the constitution and power of a congregational church , or the necessity of being a member in such a church , so formed , are rightly deduced . but of this i need say no more , than what is said in answer to the preface of this book , sect . . and else-where . sect. . to attend only on the ministry of ministers of congregational churches , is not of christs appointment . f●u●thly , saith this author , that christ hath appointed officers of his own , to act in the holy things of god , in and over th●se assemblies , whom he furnisheth with gifts every way suiting their employment , to whom , without turning aside to the voice of strangers , or attending upon the ministry of such as are not of his appointment , it s the duty of saints to hearken , is very conspi●uous in the ensuing scriptures , ephes. . . heb. . , mat. . , . . , joh. . . & . . joh acts . , , . revel . . , , . which exactly agrees with what was practised by primitive believers , who it seems received none , without the testimony of some brethren of known integrity in the churches , cor. . . acts . . answ. it is true , that christ hath appointed officers of his own , to act in the holy things of god , in and over the churches , and that he furnished them with gifts every way suiting their imployment , when he ascended up on high ; and this may be proved from ephes. . . and that such officers , as may gather and perfect his churches , are of his appointment , and that we are to follow and obey them , heb. . . . and that we are not to hear or attend upon the ministry of such strangers as are deceivers , false teachers , antichrists , that bring not the same doctrine with the apostles , that are false prophets , speak perverse things , nicolaitans , that teach the doctrine of balaam , as the texts alleadged do import ; and that s. paul sent alms to jerusalem by such messengers as the corinthians approved ; that s. paul was not at first admitted into society with the disciples , till barnabas brought him to the apostles , and informed them of his conversion . but that christ hath appointed officers onely in and over particular congregational churches , or that they onely , who are chosen by such a church , are his officers , or that they are furnished by christ with gifts every way suiting their imployment , as when he ascended up on high ; or that all other ministers or preachers are strangers , not of christs appointment , or that the saints are not to attend on their ministry , or that hearing them is turning aside to the voice of strangers , or that none is to be admitted to preach , or to communion in a congregational church , or to be heard preach , but such as have had testimony of some brethren of known integrity in the gathered churches , are not in the texts alleadged , nor in any other part of the holy seripture : but these tenents and rules of the congregational churches , although the things may be observed in many cases , as agreeing with the state of churches at some times , and in prudence may be commended ; yet to make them institutions of christ necessary to be observed at all times , and no other orders different from these lawful , but rather antichristian , is an humane invention , and no better then superstition , which this authour and other separatists do so much inveigh against . and indeed to injoyn christians members of a congregational church , or other christians to hear onely such officers , is both against the doctrine and practise approved in the scripture , against the practise of the congregational churches themselves , and if it be urged rigidly according to this principle of this authour , puts such a yoke of bondage on the consciences of christians , as is intolerable and pernicious . for . the ministers of the gospel are according to christs design , for the benefit of all christians , not appropriate to this or that particular number of men , so as not to act as ministers of his appointment , but in particular gathered churches . it may be requisite perhaps for good order and government , to assign particular places to them , and this is of divine and apostolical institution , that in particular churches there should be pastors and elders , and that they should be bound to be resident with them , and to feed them : but that no other then such should be officers of christ , is not proved ; if there be not apostles , prophets or evangelists now , as were in the primitive times , yet i presume none will deny , that men may be officers of christ , that are assigned to no particular charge ; as lecturers , catechists , readers in the universities , members of synods , commissioners for setling churches in discipline , for approbation of preachers , and the like ; and they , being for the benefit of the church of god , either in common , or more specially for some place , may be heard , or else the end of christ in giving them should be frustrate . this i gather partly from the expressions cor. . . that not onely apostles and prophets , but also teachers are set by god in the church indefinitely , not in this or that definite church , and pastors and teachers as well as apostles , prophets and evangelists , are given by christ , ephes. . . for the perfecting of the saints , for the work of the ministry , for the edifying of the body of christ , without the determinate assignation of some saints , or some part of the body , but making them his gift to any saints , or any part of the body which his providence shall order ; partly , and chiefly , in that s. paul counts it sinful glorying in men , to appropriate this or that teacher as peculiar to some , and that because paul , and apollos , and cephas , and by the same reason every minister was every christians , in that every christian was christs , and he gods cor. . . so that however , every of them cannot be every christians in use , so as that he should have jus in re , yet every christian hath a title to every minister , or jus ad rem , and therefore to say none are christs officers , but such as are in the co●g●egational churches , and over them , and to attend on the ministry of others , is to turn aside to the voice of strangers , is to deprive christians of the right god gives them to all the ministers , and tends to that glo●ying in men whch the apostle condemns . . we find , that apollos , said to be a minister by whom the corinthians believed , whom paul planted , and apollos watered ▪ cor. . , . was a diligent teacher of the things of the lord at ephesus , and he disdained not to be instructed in the way of the lord more perfectly by aquila and priscilla , acts . , . who are also termed st. pauls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , fellow-labourers in the lord , rom. . . which proves , that christians did and might hear others , besides officers of particular instituted churches ; yea that they might and did make use of the gifts of any , though a woman , that could expound to them the way of the lord. . that this is against the practise of the congregational churches , who do allow the hearing of gifted brethren that are not officers , who send preachers to convert the natives , such as mr. eliat , mr. mayhew , who yet are no officers to them , who hear the pastors of other congregations , than those of which they are members ; which is not agreeable to this authours principle ▪ that other than their own officers are strangers to them ; and if it be , as some have delivered , that the ministry is limited to that church , to which he is pastor , he cannot preach as a minister , when they hear him , nor they hear him under that consideration ; and if a minister be an officer onely to the people who chose him , and they are bound to attend on his ministery who chose him , and not others , then a minister ceaseth to be a minister when his electors are dead , or removed ; they that choose him not , though he be elected by the major part , are not to take him for their minister , nor may hear him , sith his voice is the voice of a stranger . . to be tied to attend on such mens ministery , and not to have liberty to hear others , puts an yoke of bondage intolerable and pernicious on mens consciences . . in that in case the minister become empty , or erroneous , yet being his minister , and the major part adhere to him , he must also attend on his ministery , who is weary of it , and may not use the benefit of anothers ministry more sound and profitable , no , not though it be of great consequence for the finding out the truth , in that he doubts ; which is an art like to the practise of the papists , who will allow none of their church to hear protestant preachers , or confer with them , or read their books , lest their errours should be detected . thus it might come to pass , that if mr. ainsworth deliver errour , his people might not go to hear mr. paget in the same town , who might discover his errour ; and there is the same reason concerning any in england , as in london , a minister to an independent church must be heard , though a man of mean abilities , and perhaps an antinomian , and none other , though a neighbour , godly , learned conformist preach truth profitably near to him . . in case a member of a separated church , as a woman removed with her husband from london into the countrey , far from her pastour , have a godly learned able teacher , who is a conformist near her , and no other , she must not hear him , because a stranger , none of christs officers , but must rather live without the benefit of the publique ordinance , though it be to the great decay of that spiritual life , heat and vigour in godliness , which she once had . these , and more evil consequences attend the position of this authour , that those onely who are christs officers in his sense are to be heard . yet he goes on thus : sect. . hearing the present ministers casts no contempt on christs institutions . not to mention more , let it be weighed , whether the hearing of the present ministers of england , doth not cast contempt upon these institutions of christ. what is more evidently preached by such a practise , than . that separation from the assemblies of england ( ' though in their constitution carnal and worldly ) and the worship thereof ( although false , and meerly of humane invention ) was , and is our sin and evil . dly , that it 's not by vertue of any soveraign institution of christ , the duty of saints to meet together as a body distinct ( without going out to other assemblies to worship with them ) for their mutual edification in the lord. dly , that particular assemblies are not solely of the institution of the lord jesus , but that national are also to be accounted as the true churches of christ ( though they have no footing in the scripture of the new testament , from whence the pattern of gospel-churches is solely to be deduced ) yea thly , that the officers of christs appointment are not sufficient for the saints ; but together with them , the help of false and idol-shepherds is to be sought after , than which , what greater contempt can be poured upon the forementioned institutions of our dear lord ? yet who sees not all this to be the language which is heard , and goes forth into the nations , from the practise of our brethren in the matter we are debating ? if they look upon separation in the sense before minded , to be of the institution of christ , can th●y offer a greater affront thereunto , than to run into the assemblies of the nation ? if they judge it their duty to meet together distinct from the world and it's worshippers , why run they thereunto ? if they apprehend national churches to be the result of humane prudence , without bottom in the scripture , and the ministers of christ to be onely ( in contradistinction to the ministers that are not of his appointment ) attended unto ; why give they the right hand of fellowship unto such assemblies , as profess themselves to be parts of such a national church , and hear ministers that have relation thereunto ? who have received ( as hath been proved ) no mission from christ to their ministry . if this be not evidently to pour contempt upon the institutions of christ , and confessedly so , we shall for ever despair of success in the most facile and righteous undertaking . answ. i acknowledge that he who granteth your premisses , cannot deny your conclusion : but none , but dissemblers , will attend on the ministry of the present ministers , and hold the assemblies of england in their constitution , carnal and worldly , and the worship thereof false , and meerly of humane invention ; that the members of the assemblies of the english church , are the world in contradistinction to the saints ; that they are the worshippers of the world , not of the true churches of christ ; that the ministers are false and idol-shepherds , who have received no mission from christ to their ministry . by this answer this authour may perceive , that these charges are judged false criminations , not at all proved by him ; nor are those things granted to be institutions of christ , which he makes such : and therefore if the practise of going to the parish-assemblies be a casting contempt on his way , it is not on christs institutions , but his unjustifiable separation . and yet the truth is , our hearing the present ministers , is for the performance of our own duty ; that we may hear the word of god , and worship god truly ; and our doing this we account not any approbation of any thing evil in the ministers , or giving the right hand of fellowship to the assemblies in any thing that is disorderly . nor do we condemn any thing but their sin , in the separated meetings , whose separation we declare against , although we should not think it evil to hear their ministers preach the word of god , or to worship god with them . we are of opinion that it is a gross errour , which is often in the mouths of separatists , that they may not hear with the world , nor pray with the world ; whence it hath come to pass , that some have left off praying in their families , catechizing their children , instructing their servants , unless members of their churches ; which tends to bring in irreligion and profaneness , and is contrary to the precepts of scripture , ephes. . . deut. . , &c. contrary to the practise of christ and his disciples , who heard christ preach with the scribes and pharisees , praised god with the multitude , even the children , christ approving it , luk. . , . matth. . . , . and however we approve not any evil in the ministers , or their ministration , nor do assent to any unfitting thing therein , yet we rejoyce that gods word is taught , and his name invocated in any company by any persons , and think we have the apostles example to warrant us , philip. . and do wish , that god would not lay to the separatists charge , besides other sins ( which we think are nor a few in these withdrawings from communion , and invectives ) their ingratitude for that benefit others have , and they might have , from that ministry they so much oppose . if this authour , or those of his way suffer contempt , reproach , and hard usage , though we wish it may not be , yet it may be told them , that not christs institutions are contemned , but their own intemperate carriage is rebuked ; which is not likely ever to succeed well , but to be a hindrance to the work of christ , and the peace of his church . yet this authour proceeds . sect. . hearing the present ministers , hardens none in sin . as for the second particular , that hereby poor souls are hardned in a false way of worship , what can be thought less ? ( supposing the worship in the parish-assemblies of england to be so , as hath been proved ) when they shall see professors , that were wont to pray and preach together , to profess and protest against common-prayer-book priests , and worship , to cry up , or at least approve of , laws made for their ejection , if guilty of no other crime than conformity to the worship they now conform to and practise , now stock unto their assemblies and bear their priests : what can they imagine less , than that these persons , thus acting in a direct contrariety to their former judgement and practice , do now see they were mistaken ? and are beginning at least , to return unto those paths from whence they departed , and that these ways in which they and their forefathers have walked , are the good old way in which rest is to be found ? wo unto the world because of offences , wo also unto them by whom they come . answ. the hearing the present ministers to be no false way of worship , is that which is now asserted , the contrary is not yet proved by this authour . they who are chargeable with former miscarriages , are to answer for themselves : the hearing the present ministers , which is defended as lawful , is not justly offensive , nor for it onely do men fear the doom of scandalizers . it is added . nor is the d particular , viz. that hereby poor souls are hardened in their rebellion and blasphemy against god , the spirit , his tabernacle , and them that dwell therein , to be in the least questioned : we every day hear to the breaking of our hearts stout words spoken against the lord , because of the practise of some in this thing . what say the wicked of the world less , than that religion , which many pretend to , is but a fancy , that the professors thereof are but a generation of hypocrites , that will turn to any thing to save themselves ; that the spirit by which they are acted , is but a spirit of phanaticism and delusion ! yea how do they bless themselves that they are not , nor ever were ( and resolve so much more , they will never be ) of the number of such professors ! ask them a reason of all this , and they wonder you should ask them , and speedily reply to you , do you not see how many of you , for fear of persecution , have deserted your former principles , and are returned to our assemblies , and the ministry thereof , and that any of you stand out ( 't is from hence evident ) that it is from a spirit of pride and obstinacy , and not , as you pretend , from divine tenderness , and the leadings of the spirit of the lord ? and what can we say to all these things ? must we not with grief and sorrow confess , that there is indeed too great an occasion administred to them for their thus speaking , though this will be no plea for them in the day of christ. blessed are they that are not offended in him . it remaineth then , that inasmuch as the hearing the present ministers of england , pours out contempt upon the ways and institutions of christ , hardens persons in a false w●y of worship , rebellion and blasphemy against the lord : it 's utterly unlawful for saints to be found in the practice thereof . answ. such kind of consequences as these are incident to persons of any party , who have been earnest for that , whch after they have relinquished : so have papists insulted over protestants , upon the returning of any seeming zealous protestant into the roman church . if my memory fail me not , the authour of fiat lux imputes the like things to protestants , upon the coming over of some to their party : yet the answerer , and others , know how , in that and the like cases to reply to such , that mens instability shews their own weakness , not the thing in which they have been zealous to have been either good or bad ▪ that any take advantage from their fact to harden themselves ▪ it is by accident , not from the nature of their action , if it were good and lawful otherwise ; that in such cases men are not to condemn or commend the thing which is done , because of the actions of the person , but to examine things by the rule , which is the onely remedy against such events . it is true , that it is just cause of mourning and dejection , when such things happen : but not to measure truth or falshood by such motives and considerations , nor conclude a thing to be evil , because of such accidents . to which i add , that this authour doth not well to call the obloquies against his party , speaking against religion , blaspheming god , the spirit , tabernacle , and them that dwell therein ; whose ways may be reproached by reason of their zeal for their way , and yet no reproach to god , his spirit , religion , tabernacle , and the indwellers . it would be more for their benefit , if he , and others of his mind , and others who have occasioned such blasphemies against religion did excu●●re semetipsos search themselves , whether their own present violence of spirit , unpeaceableness out of pretended zeal for god , or their and others now conforming intemperate heat , have not opened the mouths of adversaries , and if they have to be humbled for it , as david was when s●imei curst him , and so make advantage of an opposite persons enmity , to amend themselves . and indeed it were very unequal that we should either be afraid to do a thing because of clamours , or continue in that which we cannot justifie , because mens mouths will be opened against us , and perhaps hardened in their own way . such kind of blasphemies as they are termed , are vented against non-conformists , sep●ratists , as turbulent persons , and yet this author would not have it thought that they by their course harden poor so●ls in rebellion and blasphemy against god. why then doth he charge this upon the conformists as an argument by it self , as if it po●red contempt , and hardened others , and not impute the same to his own way ? but he tells us , sect. . gods people are not called out of the temples in england , as places of false worship . to all that hitherto hath been said , we shall yet briefly add argument . god calls his people out of , and strictly chargeth them , not to go to the places of false worship : therefore 't is unlawful for the saints to attend upon the present ministers of england . the antecedent is clearly proved , hos. . . amos . . the reason of the consequence is , because we cannot go to hear the present ministers of england , without we go to their places and assemblies of false worship ( as the common-prayer-book-worship hath been proved to be . ) answ. this argument proceeds upon the opinion of the rigid separatists termed brownists , who in their apology p. . . have this as their twelfth position , that all monuments of idolatry in garments , or any other things , all temples , altars , chappels , and other places dedicated heretofore by the heathens or antichristians , to their false worship , ought by lawful authority to be rased and abolished ; not suffered to remain for nourishing superstition ; much less imployed to the true worship of god. exod. . , , . & . . esa. . . gen. . , , . deut. . , , , . & , , , . kings . , , . and . , & . , , , . chron. . . acts . & . , . jude v. . with lev. . , , . rev. . . & ▪ , , &c. which is asserted by mr. ainsworth in his answer to mr. bernard about the twelfth article , page . and in his letters to mr. john paget , and since by mr. robinson , in his justification of the separation from the church of england , against mr. bernard , about the twelfth and last errour imputed to them , p. . p. . where he writes thus : i see not , but as the religion of the papists , in the opposition it hath to christianity , is rightly called antichristianism , so the religion of the ten tribes , in the opposition it had to the law given by moses , may fitly be called antijudaism . and for the baalims then and there worshipped , they were even as the lesser gods at this day , which are called patrons among the papists . the devil , to the end he might bring in again the old idolatry , craftily borrowing the names of the apostles and martyrs , by whom it was in former times overthrown and driven away : and by this means it hath put on another person , that it might not be known . whereupon it followeth by proportion , that as the temples , altars , and high places for those baalims , and other idols , were by godly kings to be raced down and taken away , and no way to be imployed to the true worship of god so are the temples ( with their appurtenances ) built to the virgin mary , peter , paul , and the rest , though true saints , yet the papists false gods , and very baalims , to be demolished and overthrown by the same lawful authority ; and in the mean while as execrable things to be avoided by them , which have none authority to deface or demolish them . p. . the moral equity of those commandments in the old testament , touching the demolition and subversion of idolatrous temples , and other the like superstitious monuments , doth as well bind now as then . which commandments are also in effect renewed in the new testament , where the faithful are charged to touch none unclean thing , cor. . . to keep themselves from idols , john . . which they cannot do , except they keep themselves from their appertenances : to hate even the garment spotted by the flesh , jude . not to receive the least mark of the beast , revel . . . but to go out of babylon , revel . . . which is also called sodom and egypt spiritually , as for the other sins reigning in her , so for her idolatry amongst the rest . from whence it is , that many at this day term the temples the high places , decline them , bury not in churchyards , with other actions of separation , in speech and gesture opposite to what other protestants conform to . and , though the chief leaders of the congrestational churches not long ago did preach and hear in the publique temples in england , yet it seems this authour now holds it unlawful to attend upon the present ministers of england , not onely because of their calling and worship , but also because of the places in which it is performed ; and therefore seems to revive the controversie about the use of places once polluted by idolatry . concerning which i shall not need to answer what either the brownists in their apology , or mr. robinson hath said about this point , the thing being so fully argued , and the arguments of mr. ainsworth and others , answered by mr. john paget in his arrow against the separation of the brownists , from chap. . to the end of the book ; wherein the supposed moral equity of those judicial laws is shewed not to be such , and that it is a great derogation from the benefit of the gospel purchased by christ's death , to intangle the consciences of christians with such jewish opinions , as if any creature were now polluted by paganish or popish idolatry , as that it might not now be enjoyed by christians , and imployed for god ▪ contrary to what the apostle determines concerning meat offered to an idol , cor. . , , , , , . tim. . . nor do any of mr. robinsons texts serve for the purpose he brings them : cor. , . the unclean thing not to be touched , is not the place where idols have been worshipped , but the idol it self , v. . which , by going to places heretofore abused to idolatry , but now the idol and it's worship is removed , and the living and onely true god onely served , is not touched in the apostles sense : but then onely , when the idol is kissed , adored , or otherwise worshipped . they who joyn not in any idol-service or honour , keep themselves from idols , as is required , john . . although they go to the places heretofore abused to idolatry : the garments spotted by the flesh , however it allude to legal pollution , yet it is not meant of material garments , as belonging to an idol ; but by it is meant , any tokens or means of sinful lusts ; revel . . . and . . have been often shewed to be so impertinently alleadged against the actions of protestants , which are done in opposition to popery , that it is a wonder , that men pretending tenderness of conscience , should be so impudent as still to accuse protestants as receiving the mark of the beast , and staying in babylon , even for that for which the holy martyrs died in opposition to popery . but if it be true which mr. paget hath in his arrow p. . mr. robinson was not constant to this opinion . as for what this authour saith , the common-prayer-book-worship is proved by him to be false worship , it hath been shewed not to be true in the answer to all he saith here . yet were there some superstition in the worship prescribed in the common prayer book , it is not sufficient to make the places , in which the present ministers and people meet , places or assemblies of false worship , every corruption in gods worship not making the place or assembly to be a place or assembly of false worship , as is manifest , both in the case of the sin of hophni , sam. . . of the corinthians , cor. . , , . & . . nor if the places and assemblies were for some corruption , yet were it necessary to go out of them , except they were idolatrous . for so were the going up to gilgal , bethaven , or bethel forbidden , hos. . . amos . . to offer sacrifice to the calves set up by jeroboam ; which therefore prove not going to a place of false worship to be forbidden , except it be idolatrous , and to joyn in that worship ; and therefore the antecedent of this authours argument is denied , if it be meant of false worship , that is not idolatrous . gods people were required to go to the temple at jerusalem after it had been defiled with idolatry , and the idol removed ; and even then when corpuptions of buying and selling there , and will-worship was in sundry things continued there , yet our lord christ himself went up to the temple at jerusalem . the consequence also is denied , it being false , that we cannot go to hear the present ministers of england , without we go to their places and assemblies of false worship . to which i add , that this is contrary to our saviours doctrine , john . , , . to tie men to worship onely in the place and assembly of the separated churches , and contrary to s. pauls doctrine , tim. . . to forbid any to worship god in any place ; and therefore herein this authour , and such separatists as are of his mind , are guilty of judaizing . but he goeth on thus : sect. . there is ground to expect a blessing in hearing the present ministers . argument . that , upon the doing whereof saints have no promise of a blessing , nor any ground to expect it , is not lawful for them to do . but in the hearing of these men , the saints have no promise of a blessing , nor ground to expect it . therefore , the major ( or first proposition ) will not be denied . as for the minor ( or second proposition ) that the saints have no promise of a blessing from god , nor ground to expect it , in the hearing of the present ministers of england , may many ways be demonstrated . if there be any promise of a blessing upon them from god , in their so doing , let it be produced , and we shall willingly confess , there is no weight in this argument : but this we conceive to be no easie task for any to discharge , and that for these reasons : . the blessing of the lord is upon sion , psal. . . & . . there he dwells , psal. . . & . . jer. . . isa. . . joel . . . the presence of christ is in the midst of the golden candlesticks , rev. . . & . ▪ 't is his garden in which he feedeth and dwells , cant. . . & . . and we are not surer of any thing ( nor will it be denied by our conforming brethren ) ( many of them ) tha● we are of this , that the assemblies of england , in their present constitution , are so far from being the sion of god , his candlestick , his garden , that they are a very wilderness , and that babel out of which the lord commands his people to hasten their escape , revel . . . . god never promiseth a blessing to a people waiting upon him in that way which is polluted , and not of his appointment , as we have proved the worship of england to be . ▪ the lord hath expresly said concerning such as run before they are sent , that they shall not profit the people , jer. . . . the lord protesteth , that such as refuse to obey his calls , to come out of babylon , shall partake of her plagues , revel . . . . where the lord is not in respect of his special presence and grace , there is no ground to expect any blessing ; but god is not so in the midst of the parochial assemblies of england . where are the souls that are converted , comforted , strengthened , stablished , that are waiting at the● doors of their house ? though many will not see it , yet a● sad spirit of withering , and visible decaies is to be found upon many that are waiting upon the teachings of the ministers of this day : and we hope the lord will in mercy , cause those that are indeed his , to see it , that they may remember from ▪ whence they have fallen , repent , do their first works , and watch to strengthen the things that remain , that are ready to die , for god hath not found their works perfect before him . answ. blessings are of many sorts : any good in general , yea any immunity or freedom from evil , is a blessing in a large sense ; but in a strict sense , that onely is called a blessing , which is the conferring of some special good , whether temporal or eternal , corporal or , spiritual . in the former sense the major is true . it is not lawful for the saints to do that which there is no promise of good to them upon doing it , nor ground to expect that the person shall not be punished for it . but if it be meant of good , as of long life to the honouring of parents , eternal life to believing on christ , there are many things the saints have no promise of special good to be conferred on them for doing them , nor ground to expect any such blessing , but what is common to all men , and yet the thing is lawful to be done by them , as eating and drinking for their sustenance , buying and selling , planting , building , &c. common to other men with them , and in this strict sense ( in which this authour takes it ) the major is not true : ezekiel preached lawfully when he was told israel would not hearken , ezek. . , . and jonah , when he thought nineveh would not repent , jonah . . but to wave this exception , the minor is not true : i assert the saints have a promise of spiritual blessing by hearing these men , while they preach the gospel , as much as any preachers in the congregational churches , isa. . . hear and your soul shall live . luke . . blessed are they that hear the word of god , and keep it , are promises made to them that hear the prelatical preachers , as well as to those of the separated churches , while they preach the same word of god : the promise being not made to the hearing of the men because of their personal qualities , their church-relation , or any such consideration extrinsecal to the faithful discharge of the work of preaching , but to the teaching of gods word : in hearing of which men have been blessed , though the teachers themselves had no blessing , the hearers have been saved , when the preachers themselves have been castaways , as s. paul speaks . and if we look to experience of former times , there is ground now to expect a blessing fro● conforming preachers , as well , or rather more , then from preachers of the separated churches . sure the conversion , consolation , strengthening , establishing of souls in the truth , ha●h been more in england from preachers , who were enemies to separation , whether non-conformists to ceremonies , or conformists presbyterial or episcopal , even from bishops themselves , then from the best of the separaratists . i think all that are acquainted with the history of things in this last age , will acknowledge that more good hath been to the souls of men by the preaching of usher , potter , abbot , jewel , and some other bishops , by preston , sibs , taylour , whately , hildersham , ball , perkins , dod , stock , and many thousands adversaries to the separated churches , then ever was done by ainsworth , johnson , robinson , rigid separatists , or cotton , thomas hooker and others ( though men of precious memory ) promoters of the way of the churches congregational . and therefore if the bishops , and conforming preachers now apply themselves ( as we hope when the heat of contention is more allayed , they will ) to the profitable way of preaching against popery and profaneness , exciting auditors to the life of faith in christ , duties of holiness towards god not onely in publique , but also in private families , and righteousness , love , peace towards men , there may be as good ground ▪ if not better ( considering how much the spirits of separatists are for their party , and the speaking of the truth in love , edifying in love is necessary to the growth of the body , ephes. . , . ) to expect by them a blessing in promoting the power of godliness than from separatists . and as for this authours reasons to the contrary , the first of them is from a fond application of what is said of gods dwelling in sion ( which is meant of the special presence there , in that his temple and service was upon that hill in the time of the old testament ) to the congregational churches , as if gods blessing were appropriated to them , and excluded from the assemblies of england , they were not the sion of god in their present constitution , nor christs candlestick , or garden in which he walks ▪ but a wilderness , that babel , revel . . . and saith , we are not surer of any thing than we are of this ; which if true , it is an article of his creed ▪ of which he is as sure as that jesus is the christ. but he gives no proof of it ▪ to assure us of it , but that we may take him to be phrenetick , or to be in a dream ; and , notwithstanding his confidence , he can make no better proof of this then the romanists can for the new article of their creed , subesse romano pontifici , est de necessitate ad salutem . it is indeed said , heb. . . that the hebrew christians were come to mount sion , in opposition to mount sinai , that is to say ( say the annot. ) to the church under the gospel , as gal. . . whereof mount sion was a type , psal. . . & . esa ▪ . . and where the gospel was first proclaimed without that terrour wherewith the law was delivered , esa. . . but why the assemblies of england should not be the sion of god as well as the separated churches ▪ no reason is given , but the vain conceit that of late he and others have entertained of appropriating that title to churches of their way , whose maintenance of ministers by collection , they call the provision of sion , psal. . . in opposition to maintenance by tithes , counted babylonish , with such like language , whereby many well-meaning christians of weak judgement are misled . sure if the church be called mount sion from the preaching of the gospel , the assemblies of england may be called sion , christs candlesticks and garden , as well as any christians in the world : and if the constitution of churches is by faith , their constitution ▪ is as good as the constitution of the separated churches . and methinks the separated churches , which have consisted of persons converted and instructed , and edified in the assemblies of the church of england , should have acknowledged that gods blessing may be in them , their own calling therein proving it , if there were any spark of ingenuity and love of truth in them , and not , as this authour , express such malignity as to make them a very wilderness , and that babel out of which the lord commands his people to hasten their escape , revel . . . which how grossly it hath been abused by this authour , sundry times before hath been shewed ; for which i now onely say , the lord rebuke thee . as for the second reason , the worship of england is no more polluted and not of his appointment , then i have shewed to have been in the jewish , corinthian , some of the asian churches , whom christ yet walked in the midst of , as his golden candlesticks , and yet gods blessing did belong to them . and why should we not expect gods blessing to be on the assemblies of england , in which the true faith is preached , and the true worship of god is constituted , notwithstanding errours or pollutions remaining in them ? that jer. . . is wrongfully applied to the present ministers of england , is shewed before in answer to ch. . sect. . and how shamefully ( mirum ni contra conscientiam ) revel . . . is applied to a call of gods people out of the church of england , when it is by the holy ghost interpreted revel . . . of that great city which then reigned over the kings of the earth , and acknowledged by papists , the jesuites themselves to be rome , hath been often shewed before . in his last reason , that which he saith , that god is not in respect of his special presence and grace , in the midst of the parochial assemblies of england , is a speech of a man of an uncharitable venemous spirit ; but we hope such as that which solomon speaks of , prov. . . as the bird by wandring , as the swallow by flying , so the curse causeless shall not come . and to his question , where are the souls that are converted , comforted , strengthened , stablished , that are waiting at the doors of their house ? i say , that though there were none such , yet this proves not god not to be present in them ; if they complain of the little effect of their preaching , is it any other then we meet with elsewhere , isa. . . isa. . . john . . rom. . . isa. . . rom. . . micah . , . luke . , , , . matth , . ? may they not say , that these very men that upbraid them with the paucity of their converts ▪ are the cause thereof , by their invectives begetting enmity and prejudice against them in the minds of men ? may it not be said to themselves , where are the souls that are converted , comforted , strengthened , stablished by your ministry ? were not many , if not most in your churches wrought upon at first by other preachers ? and if so , may it not be said , ye your selves are the seal of their ministry in the lord ? nevertheless , though god onely can tell exactly and fully , what is the fruit of any mens ministry , yet i hope there are that can testifie their receiving good by the ministry of some of the present ministers ; and that , however it be , by reason of the many stumbling-blocks cast in the way , god will yet have mercy on the people of england , and give them hearts to receive the truth preached to them in the love of it . sure this authour should rather pray it may be so , and encourage the ministers to do the work of the lord more faithfully , and not weaken their hands by drawing their auditors from them . as for that which he saith of the decaies of the auditors of the ministers , i joyn with him ; but add withall , that , so far as mine acquaintance , or intelligence reacheth , there is too great and sensible a decay of the spirit of love , power , and of a sound mind in the congregational churches of old and new england , and that a spirit of bitterness , consoriousness , misreporting , mistaking dissenters words and actions , unrghteousness , unpeaceableness is too abundant in them , that i say nothing of their proneness to embrace antinomianism , quakerism , and other dangerous errours . iliacos intra muros peccatur & extra . the lord pardon our evils , and heal our breaches . yet there is one more argument to be answered . sect. . hearing the present ministers , is no step to apostacy . argument . that the doing whereof is one step to apostacy , is not lawful to be done . but the hearing the present ministers of england , is one step to apostacy . therefore , the major proposition will readily be granted by all : the beginnings of great evils are certainly to be ●esisted . apostacy is one of the greatest evils in the world . the minor ( or second proposition ) viz. that the hearing of the present ministers is one step to apostacy , is evident . . it cannot be done ( especially by persons of congregational principles ) without a relinquishment of principles owned by them as received from god : that the church of england , as national , is a church of the institution of christ : that persons not called to the office of the ministry by the saints , are rightfull ministers of christ , must be owned , and taken for granted , ere the conscience can acquiesce in the hearing the present ministers ( for we suppose 't will not be asserted by those with whom we have to do , that there can be a true ministery in a false church , or that false ministers may be heard ; and yet the present ministers are ministers in and of the national church of england , and were never solemnly deputed to that office of the suffrage of the lords people . ) ly . nor can it be done without the neglect of that duty , which with others , is eminently of the appointment of the lord , to secure from apostacy , instanc'd in by the author to the hebrews , hebr. . . not forsaking the assembling of your selves together as the manner of some is , but exhorting one another , and so much the more as you see the day approaching ; in which the duty of saints assembling themselves together , as a body distinct from the world , and it's assemblies , ●s also their frequent , and as often as may be , exhorting one another , as a medium to secure them ( by the blessing of the lord thereupon ) from a spirit of degeneracy and apostacy from god , is clearly asserted : whence it undeniably follows , that the hearing of the present ministers of england ( being inconsistent with the constant and diligent use of the means prescribed for the preservation of the saints in the way of god : for whilst they are attending upon their teachings , they cannot assemble themselves according to the prescription of god in the forementioned scripture ) is at least one step to the dreadfull sin of apostacy from god , and therefore it is utterly unlawful for saints so to do . and thus far of the twelfth argument for the proof of the assertion under our maintenance , viz. that 't is not lawful for saints to hear the present ministers of england , to which many others might be added : but we doubt not , to the truly tender and humble enquiring christian , what hath been offered will be abundantly sufficient to satisfie his conscience in the present enquiry . answ. if by apostasie be meant apostatie from the living god and the christian faith the major is granted , and the minor is denied , nor is there any thing tending to a shew of proof of it produced for it , and if it should be meant of such apostasie the thing is so notoriously false , the hearers of such ministers , as ●e now ministers in england , having been as constant in the profession and practice of christianity both against popery and other ungodliness in times of persecution by papists and at other times , as other christians in other ages , that this author would be hissed at as one extremely impudent in asserting so palpable an untruth . but i conceive by his proof of the minor he means by apostasie the relinquishing of the congregational principles and practise . concerning which i conceive the major may be denyed , it being not unlawfull , but a necessary duty to depart from some of their principles and practises , i mean such as are for separation in communion from dissenting christians . yet i do not think but the conscience may well acquiesce in the hearing of the present ministers , as teaching truth without relinquishment of the two principles owned by them as received from god. i think if they will weigh what is here written , they may find , if not the congregational principles , yet separation inferred from them to be an errour , and to beget nothing but superstition in their minds , and sinfull uncharitable division in their practise . nor do i think it necessary that they which still adhere to that way of communion need neglect the duty of meeting and exhorting one another according to hebr. . . the mistake of which is shewed in the answer to this chapter , sect. . they that hear the present ministers some hours , may hear other ministers at other hours , they that at one time hear them , may at another time exhort one another ; heretofore persons of congregational principles could hear in parochial assemblies parochial ministers ; why they may not do so still i understand not , were it not that opinions of separation animated them to division and faction , which the lord amend , and make them diligent to provoke one another to love and to good works . i have now answered the jury of twelve arguments , which i have found brutum fulmen , as the shooting off ordinances without a bullet , nothing that might deter tender , and considerately enquiring christians from hearing the present ministers . it remains , that i make good the catasceuastick part of this dispute by confirming the arguments brought for hearing them , which i shall apply my self to after the answering of the questions which here follow . sect. . a pollution in one part , makes not the whole worship polluted . we shall , saith he , onely in the close offer a few queries to be in the fear of the holy one , considered by the intelligent reader . quer. . whether the lord jesus be not the alone head , king , and law-giver to his church ? answ. yes , meaning it of the supream , absolute , independent , head , king , law-giver to his church as such . . whether the laws , statutes , orders and ordinances of christ be not faithfully to be kept , though all the princes in the world should interdict and forbid it ? answ. they are . . whether to introduce other laws for the government of the church of christ , and the worship of his house , be not an high advance against , and intrusion into his kingship and headship ? answ. not , if they be no other then such as are shewed to be warranted in this answer to the preface , sect. . . to ch. . sect. . to ch. . sect. , , , , , , . . whether the lord jesus as king and head over his church , hath not instituted sufficient officers and offices for the administration of holy things in his house , to whom no more can be added without a desperate undervaluation and contempt of his wisdom , headship and soveraignty over it ? answ. some servants and services may be appointed by rulers , without such an undervaluation or contempt . . whether the officers instituted by christ , are not onely pastors , teachers , deacons and helpers ? answ. in this catalogue i find not helpers officers instituted by christ , by some others not here mentioned , i find of christs institutions , cor. . . ephes. . . . whether the offices of archbishops , lord bishops , deacons , sub-deans , prebendaries , chancellors , priest , deacons ( as an order of the first step to a priesthood ) arch-deacons , sub-deacons , commissaries , officials , proctors , registers , apparitors , parsons , vicars , curates , canons , petty-canons , gospellers , epistollers , chaunters , virgers , organ-players , queristers , be officers any where instituted by the lord jesus in the scripture ? answ. some are , some are not : see the answer to ch . . . whether the calling and admission into these last mentioned offices , their administration and maintenance now had and received in england , be according to the word of god ? answ. so much as is necessary to the resolving of this question in order to the present controversie , is answered before in sundry places , which the reader is to observe to satisfie himself . . whether every true visible particular church of christ , be not a select company of people , called and separated from the world , and false worship thereof , by the spirit and word of god , and joyned together in the fellowship of the gospel , by their own free and voluntary consent , giving up themselves to christ , and one another according to the will of god ? answ. some of these terms are so ambiguously used , as is shewed before , that in some sense it may be answered affirmatively , in some negatively . . whether a company of people living in a parish ( though the most of them be visible drunkards , swearers , &c. or at least strangers to the work of regeneration upon their souls ) coming ( by compulsion or otherwise ) to the hearing of publick prayers or preaching are in the scripture account saints , and a church of christ according to the pattern given forth for him : or rather , be not to be esteemed daughters of the old whore and babel , spoken of in the scripture ? answ. if their faith be right , the first part is answered affirmatively , the last negatively . . whether in such a church there ●s , or can rationally be supposed to be , a true ministry of the institution of christ ? answ. it may . . whether the book of common-prayer , or stinted liturgies , be of the prescription of christ , and not of mans devising and invention ? answ. the worship or matter ( for the greatest part ) of the common-prayer-book is of christ , though the method and form of words be of men . . whether if one part of a worship used by a people , be polluted , the whole of their worship be not to be looked upon , in a scripture account , as polluted and abominable , according to kings . . kings . . isa. . . hos. . . ezek. . . z●ph . . so that , ●f their prayers be naught and polluted , their preaching be not so too ? answ. no : nor is any such thing said in any of these texts : not ki●gs ▪ . is c●ndemned their following after baal , and not cl●av●ng to god ; no intimation that if they cleaved to god , it would be polluted by reason of the following of baal ; but shewing they could not cleave to god , if they did follow baal . no pollution is ascribed to the fear of the lord , kings . . because of the service of the gods of the nations ; but the service of the gods of the nations is counted pollution , notwithstanding such fear of god as they had . isa. . . the killing of an ox was not a pollution , because of other pollution of worship , but because of the evil of the person , it was polluted to him , not in it self hos. . . swearing the lord liveth , was evil , because they pretended they did swear by the true god , when they swore by these calves , amos . . diodati annot. in locum . ezek. . . notes not one part of lawful worship polluted by another unlawful ; but mentions onely an idolatrous service near to gods temple , of which i have spoken before in answer to chap. . sect. . swearing by the lord was not polluted , because they sware by malcham ; but the hypocrisie of the persons is noted , who made shew of swearing by the lord , when they sware also by malcham ; whereas he that serves god acceptably , must cleave to him onely as god ▪ if , as this authours quaerie intimateth , a ministers prayers be naught and polluted , his preaching must be so too , then all preaching is naught in him , that by imperfection or passion vents that in prayer , which is not right ; which i am sure hath been in the ministers of congregational principles ; and none then should be heard preach , whose prayers have any errour , or imperfection in them ; which is a very gross absurdity , and such as would make all mens preaching unlawful , and bring in the opinion of the seekers , who would have none accounted ministers of god , but such as speak by immediate inspiration . . whether a ministry set up in direct opposition unto a ministry of christ , which riseth upon it's fall , and falls by it's rise , can by such as so account of it , be lawfully joyned unto ? answ. no : but they are bound to leave this account , if it be erroneous . . whether such as have forsworn a covenant-reformation according to the word of god , and swear to a worship that is meerly of humane devising , that have nothing of the essentials of a minister of christ to be found upon them , may be accounted of as his ministers , and be adhered to ? answer . no. . whether such as shall so do , be not guilty of casting contempt upon the institutions of christ , and disobedience against his royal edicts , commanding them to seperate from persons of such a complection . to which many others of the like nature might be added . answ. they would be , if they should do so wittingly and willingly . enough of questions are propounded already ; and this is answer to the . arguments and . quaeries ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 now for the other part of the book in the last chapter , which begins thus . chap. . fifty arguments for hearing the present ministers . sect. . christs direction matth. . , . warrants hearing the present ministers . having hitherto been upon the confirmation of the truth asserted by us , viz. that 't is not lawfull for saints to hear the present ministers of england , we come now to consider , what is in this matter objected by our d●ssenting brethren . this is that they say , object . . christ commands ( or at least permits ) his disciples to hear the scribes and pharisees ( who were men as corrupt in their doctrine , as vicious in their lives , as the present ministers of england can be supposed to be ) matth. . , . therefore it is lawfull to hear these . answ. this being the main objection used by our dissenting brethren in this day ( as it was by others in times past ) their very achilles in this controversie , we shall speak the more largely to it . to which i reply , that this is justly urged to prove it lawfull to hear the present ministers of england preaching ▪ the doctrine of christ , because christ allowed his disciples and the multitudes hearing the scribes and pharisees teaching the law of moses , notwithstanding they were erroneous , vicious , intruders in that business , as much or more than are the present ministers of england into the office , or work of preaching the gospel . that the force of this reason may be perceived , it is to be noted , that it was the office of the priest , who were to be of the tribe of levi , to instruct the people in the law of moses , as we find the prophet malachi speaking , mal. . the priests lips should keep knowledge , and they should seek the law at his mouth , for he was the messenger of the lord of hosts , yet there they are complained of to have departed out of the way , to have caused many to stumble at the law , to have been partial in the law , v. , . which occasioned , especially after the return from the captivity of babylon , the rising of sundry sects among the jews , as sadduces , and pharisees known by their peculiar tenents and usages , who were not all , nor necessarily of the tribe of levi , as it is certain concerning st. paul , that he was a pharisee , and the son of a pharisee acts . . yet of the tribe of benjamin , philip. . . which therefore had no special function of teaching committed to them by god , having neither extraordinary nor ordinary calling of god , but had betaken themselves to that way , as the orders of friers among the papists , by their voluntary choice , yet , as the friers among the papists , so the pharisees among the jews bare the greatest sway with the common people , as having greatest influence upon their consciences in matters of religion , and in process of time greatest power in the government of the state ▪ though they were not the ordinary magistrates . now to these pharisees were adjoyned scribes , who were writers , teachers , expositors , disputers , rabbins , masters , lawyers , or doctors of the law , among whom our saviour is said to sit at years old in the temple hearing them , and asking them questions , luke . . by which it is apparent , that they which were then the doctors of the law used to sit in the temple to resolve cases about the law ; for which reason they were said to sit in the seat of moses , matth. . . concerning whom , though our lord christ had charged them with corrupting the law by their traditions matth. . . mark. . and had warned his disciples to take heed of the leaven of their doctrine , matth. . . . yet matth. . , , . he spake to the multittude , and to his disciples , saying , the scribes and pharises sit in moses seat : all therefore whatsoever they bid you observe , that observe and do ; but do not ye after their works : for they say and do not . now our lord christs appointing them to observe what they bid , shews he allowed or permitted their hearing them ; ( for otherwise they could not observe what they bid them ) yet not absolutely , for then he should have contradicted himself in warning them against their traditions , and the leaven of their doctrine , but conditionally or respectively , that is what they bid them do according to the law of moses , in whose seat they sate , that is took upon them to be expounders of the law of moses . whence it is inferred , that while the ministers of england teach the doctrine of christ , they may be heard notwithstanding defects in their calling , and their personal evils , as the hearing of the scribes and pharisees was allowed by christ to his disciples . and the argument may be formed thus . that hearing of ministers against which there is no more just exception than was against the hearing of the scribes and pharises sitting in the seat of moses in christs time by his disciples , is lawful for christian saints now : but there is no more just exception against hearing the present ministers of england , than was against hearing of the scribes and pharisees sitting in the seat of moses in christs time by his disciples . therefore the hearing the present ministers of england is lawfull to christian saints now . the major proceeds on this rule , that what in the same case our lord christ allowed to his disciples then , is allowed by him to christian saints now , which , if it be not granted , christs resolutions then are no satisfactions or directions to our consciences now , which were to make those scriptures useless , which were blasphemous . the minor is proved by shewing the exceptions against hearing the present ministers are not greater nor more just then against the scribes and pharisees , and the hearing of them , nor the christian saints now any more forbidden to hear the present ministers , than the disciples of christ then to hear the scribes and pharisees . again , we may thus argue , that which warranted christs disciples hearing the scribes and pharisees in his time notwithstanding other defects warrants the saints hearing of the present ministers of england ; now notwithstanding other defects which is grounded on such rules of logick as these de paribus idem est judicium , of things alike we are to have the like judgement idem quà idem semper facit idem , the same consequent follows on the same reason as it is the same . but the scribes and pharisees preaching or declaring the will of god warranted christs disciples hearing the scribes and pharisees in his time notwithstanding other defects . therefore the present ministers preaching or declaring the will of god notwithstanding other defects warrants the saints hearing now the present ministers of england . the minor is grounded upon that , which is intimated to be the reason of christs direction matth. . , . that they sate in moses his chair , that is taught the observation of gods law , and that what they bid them observe according to it they were to hear and do , as on the contrary they were not , when they taught corrupt traditions of men , and other leavened doctrine . to these things this author thus answers . sect. . the scribes and pharisees sate in moses his chair as teachers , not as magistrates . many things are supposed by the objecters , and taken for granted ( and must be so by all that judge any weight to be in what is from this supposed command of christ argued ( which they will never be able to prove ; and yet they are the very basis upon which the stress of the objection lies . as . 't is supposed that the scribes and pharisees here spoken of , were in the ministerial seat , teachers and expounders of the law , which at first view seems to be a difficult task for any to demonstrate , that some of the scribes and pharisees ( which were particular sects among the jews , as is known ) were so , cannot be denied ; that these here mentioned by our saviour are such , is not so evident . they are expresly said to sit in moses seat ( not aarons ) who though he were of the tribe of levi , yet was not the ministerial , but magistratical seat committed to him . to the posterity of aaron did the office of priesthood appertain ( as is known to all that have but in the least turned aside to consider of this affair ) nor is it altogether frivolous , that is by some observed , that these scribes and pharisees are especially charged with the omission of judgement and mercy ; things most nearly relating unto the office of magistracy , to whom it doth especially appertain to look thereunto . nor will it in the least follow , that supposing christ enjoyned his disciples to attend upon the scribes and phariseees , acting as magistrates , and conform to what is justly and righteously prescribed by them as such : that therefore it is lawful to attend upon the present ministers of england . i reply , that it is indeed supposed , that the scribes and pharisees here spoken of , were in the seat of moses , teachers and expounders of the law : but not that they were officers about the sacrifices and services belonging to the worship of god at the templé , as were the priests and levites ; nor need we so to suppose : it is sufficient for rhe argument , that they took upon them the expounding of the law , and to resolve consciences , what they were to do , they did as casuists or doctors of divinity in schools or synagogues , or in the temple : which is proved from that which is said , that they did bind heavy burdens , and lay them on mens shoulders , v. . which was by their precepts , their affecting to be called of men , rabbi , rabbi , masters , fathers , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , leaders , v. , , . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , doctors , or teachers , translated master in israel , john . but were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , matth. . . blind guides , matth. . . blind leaders of the blind . and that they were not priests , appeared by their paying tythes , matth. . luke . . nor were they ordinary magistrates , except such as were in their synedria ; the romans were then the ordinary magistrates . nor could they be said to sit in moses chair , either as magistrates having the same power he had , or as law-givers . for the power and office of moses , whether as magistrate , judge , or prophet , was singular . he was a prophet to whom there arose none like in israel , deut. . . and he was a judge or prince under god supreme , who had jurisdiction and empire supreme , in matters sacred and profane , although the function of doing holy rites was committed to aaron and his sons , and the levites , as is proved by selden , l. . de syned . ebrae . c. . from exod. . . deut. . . the address to him in difficult causes his sentences , and other things acknowledged by writers jewish and christian. it is not denied , that the pharisees and scribes were many of them rulers of the jews , as it is said of nicodemus , john . . and of the priests and levites john . . . but not as scribes or pharisees , who were , as such , onely particular sects among the jews , as this authour truly acknowledgeth : nor as sitting in moses chair , which onely noted their function of teaching and expounding of the law , being bred up at the feet of rabbins or doctors of the law , as st. paul at the feet of gamaliel , and after sitting in the school , or auditory of the temple or synagogues , where moses of old time had in every city them that preached him , being read in the synagogues every sabbath-day , acts . . wherein the scribes and pharisees affected and obtained the chief seats , matth. . and had much sway with the people , though they taught not with such authority as christ did , matth. . . mark . . now wherein they taught according to moses law , or the truth , as about elias coming matth . . . they were to be heard in other things , as in their own traditions , and the commandments of men their doctrine was to be rejected , matth. . . it is frivolous which is observed , that because judgement and mercy , the omission of which is charged on the scribes and pharisees , matth. . . and those nearly relate to the office of magistracy , to whom it doth especially appertain to look thereunto : that therefore the scribes and pharisees , v. , . are considered as magistrates . for , as is in the assembly annotations on the place , the judgement , mercy , and faith , are just dealing with all men , mercy in relieving the poor , and faithfulness in covenants , promises and contracts , judgement being there taken for right ordering the conversation towards god and men , as matth. . . which is manifest , in that it is joyned with mercy and faith , or as it is luke . . the love of god opposed to ravening , extortion , intemperance or excess , matth. . . rapine and wickedness luke . . such as was when they devoured widows bouses , making long prayers for a pretence , matth. . . compassing sea and land to make one proselyte , and when he was made , making him twofold more the child of hell then themselves , v. . no such argument therefore is or needs be made , as this authour frames as made by his opponent , that supposing christ to injoyn his disciples to attend upon the scribes and pharisees acting as magistrates ; therefore it is lawful to attend upon the present ministers of england : for neither do we say that christ injoyned attendance on them , nor that they acted as magistrates ; but our supposition is , that they acted as teachers , and his disciples were permitted to hear them , though liable to greater and more exceptions then the present ministers . it is added , sect. . the pharisees were not church-officers of gods appointment . but let this be granted . suppose . the scribes and pharisees to be the preachers and expounders of the law in that day , the seat mentioned to be a ministerial seat : yet this will not at all help them in the matter in controversie , except it be granted to them , that the scribes and pharisees were not a lawful , but a false ministry that had surreptitiously climbed up into this ministerial seat ( for who sees not the invalidity and nothingness of this argument , 't was lawful to hear the scribes and pharisees which were the lawful church-officers of that day , of the appointment of the lord , acting by vertue of an authority derived from him ; therefore 't is lawful to hear persons that have not any such authority from christ , but are meer intuders , and ministers of antichrist ( as the present ministers of england have been proved to be ) now this upon that supposition , that they were ministers , we cannot yield , to these reasons . . the pharisees are expresly said to be priests and levites , john . . ( and this is the record of john , when the jews sent priests and levites from jerusalem , to ask him , who art thou ? v. . and they that were sent were of the pharisees ) which were the ordinary lawful ministers of that day . . these of all others were most apt to question the authority of such as taught the people : so when john appears preaching and baptizing , and professes to them , that he was not the christ , nor elias , nor prophet ( who was expected by the people of the jews ) they immediately question his authority , john . . why baptizest thou then ? which they could not be supposed to have the face to do , if they themselves of all others had been the greatest intruders . nay . when they question christ himself about his authority , he asks not them from whence they had theirs ( which doubtless upon that occasion , he would have done , had they not been lawfully seated in the seat they did possess ) but from whence john had his , who was esteemed as a prophet . . we have the lord jesus many times crying out above all others against the pharisees , condemning them of pride , hypocrisie , avarice , &c. but not the least tittle of the usurpation of moses seat is by him charged upon them , or in the least intimated , which doubtless would have been , had they been guilty thereof . i reply , that this grant , that the scribes and pharisees were preachers and expounders of the law in that day , will help the objectours in the matter in controversie , though it be not granted to them , that the scribes and pharisees were not a lawfull , but a false ministry , that had surrepticiously climbed up into this ministerial seat . for they are assured , that this author hath not proved , nor can prove the present ministers of england to be meer intruders and ministers of antichrist , and therefore need not this supposition concerning the scribes and pharisees , to prove christs allowing the hearing of the present ministers . only this is urged , that there is as much exception and more against the pharisees teaching , than against the present ministers , and yet they might be heard , therefore with better reason may the present ministers be heard . nevertheless i deny , that the scribes and pharisees , which they were to hear , were the lawfull church officers of that day , of the appointment of the lord , acting by vertue of an authority derived from him , it being certain that , as he saith , they were a particular sect among the jews , no where appointed by god to this office of priesthood or teaching , but taken up by men , as orders of friers among the papists , though some of them were priests , and some of them rabbins , or teachers of the law , and educated thereunto , as teachers of divinity are in the schools among us at this day ; which , if the ministers of england had no further ordination , being the condition of most , or very many of the present ministers in england might justifie the hearing of them as well as the hearing the pharisees , who had no better calling to that function . as for the reasons of this author , the first is not valid . for it proves only that some of the priests and levites were pharisees , not all , st. paul certainly was not , though a pharisee ; nor that those that sate in moses chair were priests , for all were not there being many thousands of pharisees , who were not rabbins . st. paul was a pharisee , the son of a pharisee , when he sate at gamaliels feet , acts . . yet not a doctor of the law sitting in moses his chair . nor , if they were priests , doth it prove they were the lawfull ministers of that day . for , to say nothing of christs apostles , who were at that day the lawfull ministers with and under christ himself , it is certain the priests of those times got their places , as for instance the high priest by undue and unlawfull wayes , by bribing the roman deputy , as josephus reports , and therefore if it were proved , they were priests , yet they are not proved to be lawful ministers . yea that which is said of their ordination , and education by the most favourable writers of the jewes , proves they had some kind of entrance into their profession according to the customs of those times , which were of human invention , but nothing of gods institution , that they should sit in the chair of moses . as for the second reason , there is no marvel they had the impudence to question iohns authority , though themselves intruders , when they were puft up with conceits of their authority , though they had none , when they were so proud and impudent as to conceive themselves righteous and despise others , luke . . and to allege it in prayer to god , though their consciences might tell them they were covetous and unrighteous , yea to deride christ , when he told them they could not serve god and mammon , luke . . nor is the third reason of force , for christ might question their authority though he did not when they questioned johns , and he seems after john to have done it in calling them a generation of vipers , blind guides , with sundry other expressions disparaging of them and their traditions ; and his charging them with affectation and ambitious seeking of the chief seats , and to be called rabbi , rabbi , what is it but an evidence , that they did unlawfully climb into moses his seat , which they did so ambitiously gape after ? as for the not in express words charging them with usurpation , it is no marvail it is not related , sith their instigation of herod to take away john baptists life related by iosephus is not related , as imputed to them , by christ in any of the evangelists ; besides how irrational this argument is , we read not , that christ charged them with usurpation of moses seat , therefore he did it not , every puny in schools knows , who hath learned that rule in logick , argumentum non valet ab authoritate negativè , an argument from testimony negatively is not of force , especially in matters of fact , it is not related , therefore it was not done ; and most of all concerning christs acts , of which it is noted , that many things are not written , john . . sect. . christ allows hearing the pharisees while they taught the law of moses . yet again saith this author , but let this also be granted , that we may hear this argument , speak its uttermost , the scribes and pharisees sit in moses seat ; this seat is a ministerial seat , and they sit not here by virtue of any lawfull authority , but are meer intruders ; what follows from hence ? why this , if it were lawfull to hear the scribes and pharisees , persons vicious in their lives , corrupt in their doctrine , having no lawfull call to the place they possessed : then it undeniably follows , that its lawfull to hear the present ministers of england , though they have no lawfull authority or call to the office they assume . it must it seems , then dly , be granted , that when christ sayes , what they say unto you , do , he is to be interpreted , to command , or at least , to permit an attendance upon their ministry . but this is that we deny , and dare confidently aver , that it never entred into the heart of christ to permit , much less to command any to attend upon the ministry of the scribes and pharisees : nor is any such thing in the least intimated in the words under consideration . for first , the words are in the original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. which may more strictly be rendred , the scribes and pharisees have sate in moses chair , all things therefore whatsoever they have said unto you , &c. ( i. e. whatever in times past , you have heard delivered by these men , according to the mind of god , do you not now reject because of that hypocrisie , pride , covetousness , &c. you are made to see is predominant in them . i reply , the argument is framed not as here by this authour , but as i before formed it . the command to do what they bid implies a permission to hear , else how could they do as they bid ? though the words v. . may be rendered , have sate in moses chair , yet the words , v. . according to the greek language , and , i think , according to all interpreters must be rendered , whatsoever they shall say unto you , it being a precept concerning their future actions , and the word render'd [ sit ] being in the first aorist is best rendered , as noting an indefinite time , and so is to be conceived as signifying a continued time past and present , they have and still do sit . but were it granted , that the bidding were meant of the time past , the argument were of force , they heard , therefore they may hear , christ not disapproving their former hearing , but giving a reason , which infers a continued permission to hear them , because they sate in moses chair , that is , taught the law of moses , so that he makes this the entire reason of their observing , and consequently of hearing , in that they bid them observe the law of moses , which while they did , they were to hear them , and observe them , not when they taught for doctrines the precepts of men : which is indeed the genuine reason of his caveat there and elsewhere , especially in the sermon on the mount , matth. . & . & . in which having said , matth. . . think not that i am come to destroy the law or the prophets : i am not come to destroy , but to fulfill , he then adds , that one jot shall not pass from the law till all were fulfilled , that he would not have the least commandement broken by practise or doctrine , yet with monition , that their righteousness must exceed the righteousness of the scribes and pharisees , if they would enter into the kingdom of heaven , and accordingly clears the law from their false glasses , warns his disciples of their hypocritical practises , of their corrupt doctrine and traditions , directs persons to observe the rites of the law , while he was on earth , and to acquit himself from being an enemy to the law a little before his death , though he had late experience of their opposition , yet minds his disciples that they should not neglect their teaching out of the law , though they were not to imitate their practise . whence may be clearly discerned , that christ would have them heard teaching out of the law of god , notwithstanding other defects or corruptions , and that the resolution of this case is a plain rule to us , that we may lawfully hear such as teach truth , notwithstanding other defects and corruptions in their lives and ministry : it is added , sect. . hearing pharisees teaching moses law , not attendance on their ministry , as pastors is allowed by christ. let the words be as they are rendered , whatever they bid you observe and do , that observe and do . yet ly , who that hath but half an eye can chuse but see , that an attendance upon their ministry is remote enough from being their intendment ? we had alwayes thought , that they might have been sufficiently acquainted with , and been in a capacity of hearing and knowing what had been said by these men through their particular occasional meeting and discourse with them , though they had never spent one hour in attending upon their ministry : which that our saviour did not enjoyn , no nor so much as permit by that expression , we suppose may be clearly demonstrated from the ensuing considerations . . there are not a generation of men of whom the lord iesus doth speak more contemptuously ( and charges with greater enormities ) than he doth of that generation of scribes and pharisees . in this very chapter he informs us of their hypocrisie , ver . . . . , , . and pride , ver . , . and tells us plainly , that they shut up the kingdom of heaven against men , neither entering in themselves , nor suffering those that are entering , to go in , ver . . that they make their proselytes twofold more the children of hell than themselves , ver . . that they are blinde guides , ver . . . . . perverters of the scripture , such as make void the commandements of god by their traditions , ver . , , . that they are serpents , a generation of vipers , that cannot escape the damnation of hell , ver . . yea , such as shall kill , crucifie , scourge , persecute the messengers of the lord , ver . . and can it be imagined , that christ should have no more tenderness to poor souls , than to direct them to an attendance upon such persons as these for teaching ? — credat apelles ! ( apella likely ) are these likely motives to perswade or enforce a●y thereunto ? yet this is what he immediately subjoyned , having said , whatever they bid you observe , that observe and do . . the doctrines owned by them are known : the tessera of their sect , was , justification by the works of the law , which is diametrically opposite to the work christ was then upon , and the doctrine preached by him . . that they denied christ to be the messiah , blasphemed him in his doctrine ( as the deceiver of the people ) in his life ( as a wine-bibber and gluttonous person ) in his miracles ( as one that wrought them by the devil , who are therefore condemned by christ , as guilty of the very sin of blasphemy against the holy ghost , matth. . . ) is known , as being what is frequently remarked in the scripture . . we no where find the disciples attending upon the ministry of the scribes and pharisees , notwithstanding this supposed command or permission of christ. nay , we cannot but think the supposition hereof , not onely inconsistent with , and opposite to that expression concerning christ , mar. . . and jesus when he saw much people , was moved with compassion towards them , because they were as sheep not having a shepherd ( what ? without a shepherd , and yet the scribes and pharisees , whose feeding they might lawfully attend upon ; doth christ pity them in this desperate state , and not give them one word of direction to wait upon these profound and worthy doctors ? ) but also contrary to that solemn command given forth from the lord , acts . . save your selves from this untoward generation ; and the practice of the disciples , who continued in the apostles doctrine and fellowship , and breaking of bread , and prayer , acts . . . were that the intendment of christ , as is suggested ( and the argument of our brethren valid ) a lawfulness to hear the veriest blasphemer in the world that denies that christ is the messiah , affirms that he was a deluder of the people , a gluttonous person , a winebibber , one that did miracles by belzebub the prince of devils , that persecutes even to death christ in his people , might by a like parity of reason be deduced . christ commanded , or at least permitted his disciples to hear the pharisees who were such ( as hath been proved ) therefore 't is lawful to hear persons with the same characters upon them . but god forbid any such injurious dealing should be offered to christ , or that any who pretend to fear god ( and i hope do so in reality ) should stand by a cause which hath no better arguments to defend it , than what may be as righteously every way made use of for the attending upon the ministry of the greatest blasphemer , or opposer of christ in the world . evident then it is , notwithstanding the great flourish that many make with this scripture , for the abetting their attendance upon the present ministers of england , that it refuses to admit the least sanctuary thereunto . the scribes and pharisees mentioned matth. . , . may for ought we know be magistrates , not ministers ; if ministers , they were , as hath been proved , lawfully so : christ says concerning them , whatever they bid you observe and do , that observe and do . therefore 't is lawful to attend upon the ministers of england , whose lawful calling to their office cannot be proved ; yea , though there is not the least intimation of a command from christ , or so much as a permission to his disciples to hear the scribes aad pharisees , — nugae & tricae siculae ! if this be to dispute , a man need not fear but to be able to multiply arguments at an easie rate , for whatever he hath a mind to undertake the defence of : yet this is supposed by many to be of greatest moment in this controversie . i reply , if by attendance on the ministry of the scribes and pharisees be meant a constant and ordinary hearing of them as their ordinary shepherds ( as this authous words seem to import ) doubtless neither christ did command , nor permit his disciples such an attendance , both for the reasons given by this authour , and specially because he asserts himself as their onely master or doctour , matth ▪ . . . yet the mention of their sitting in moses his chair or seat , notes more then their discourse upon particular occasional meeting , to wit , their ordinary expounding the law of moses in their schools , where our lord christ permitted his disciples and the multitude to hear them with this limitation and proviso , in , and as they taught the law ; which hearing he did not forbid them , but allow them with such caveats as are there given in that chapter . and against such hearing , none of the reasons of this authour are of force . not the first : for though such personal evils were sufficient motives to keep back people , either from following their example or private counsels , yet not to keep them back from hearing gods law expounded by them the same answer is for the second reason ; the permission of christ is not to hear the pharisees teach all the doctrines of their sect , he had before warned them of receiving their traditions , matth. . . the leaven of their doctrine , matth. . . in which no doubt they understood the doctrine about justification by the works of the law , to be comprehended : but the permission of hearing them is onely as they sate in moses his seat ; that is , as they taught them the duties of moses his law , which he said , matt. . . he came not to destroy , but to fulfil , which is manifest from the illative particle therefore , v. . because they sit in moses seat , and bid you observe what moses did , you are to observe what they bid you observe , and consequently may hear them so teaching . the third reason hath the same answer with this overplus , that to prevent any conceit of allowing the hearing of them in their blaphemy , he avoucheth himself to be their master and teacher , v. . . to the fourth it is but from a testimony negatively , and so of no force : we read not that they used the lords prayer , yet none will say they did not , less that they might not ; we read not of their alms , or fasting , yet they might do both . to the fifth , it was but a limited permission of hearing them as they taught moses law , not as allowing constant attendance on them as their shepherds . christ did conceive the people to be without a shepherd , notwithstanding the pharisees teaching the duties of the law , because though that doctrine were right , and to be observed , yet it was not sufficient to feed them to eternal life . acts . . st. peter did well to exhort his auditors to save themselves from that untoward generation of opposers of christ , as his master before would have him and all his disciples do , not doing after their works , nor following their perverse doctrine , and the church did rightly practice , in continuing in the apostles doctrine and fellowship , and breaking of bread , and prayer ; yet he neither did , nor was to disswade them from hearing or practising the pharisees doctrine of the observing the duties of moses his law , which they were obliged to observe . to the sixht , i grant it lawful to hear any man teach truth , which is gods , and may be heard from the mouth of any man , with whom god allows us converse and communion as they are men ; though we are to hold no communion with them in wickedness , nor willingly hear their blasphemies . that the pharisees as such , were not magistrates , nor lawful ministers , nor considered as such , is shewed before . neither do we say that christ permitted attendance on the ministry of the scribes and pharisees as their pastors , nor need we . it is sufficiene for our purpose , that christ allowed the hearing them teaching moses law , and that proves it lawful to hear the present ministers while , and so far as they teach truth ; which hearing , not constant attending on their ministry , was to be proved lawful , as the question was stated by this authour , ch . . and all along was his conclusion . and that he hath not proved it unlawful , nor evaded the arguments from mat. . , . notwithstanding his irrision of this dispute , i am of the mind the solid reader will say . i think it not amiss to add here the words of mr. john norton minister of ipswich in new england , in his answer to apollonius of middleburg in zealand , c. . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , scribarum & pharisaeorum in mosis cathedrâ sedentium fuit corruptio al qua in publico d●i cultu absque debitâ reformatione tolera●a : quia cathedra mosis , i e. officium docendi publicè in ecclesiâ legem mosis , & libros prophetarum , sacerdotibus , & leviti● ex instituto dei ordinariò propria erat : eos autem audire , non ab eis separare jubet christus , matth. . , . of the scribes and pharisees sitting in moses seat , the embassage without commission , was some corruption in the publick worship of god tolerated without due reformation : because the chair of moses , that is , the office of teac●ing publickly in the churches the law of moses , and books of the prophets , was ordinarily proper to the priests and levites , by the appointment of god : yet christ commands to hear them , not to separate from them , matth. . , . it follows , sect. . christs and his apostles going to the jewish meetings , is opposite to the separatists opinion and practice . object . . if it be said , but we find christ and his apostles after him , going frequently into the synagogues , where the scribes and pharisees preached . ans. we answer first , that all that christ and the apostles did , is not lawful for saints to practice , will not be denied : many instances are near at hand for its confirmation , should it so be . ▪ that 't is one thing to go into the synagogues , and another thing to go thither to attend upon the ministry of such as taught there : this is the present case , which that christ or the apostles ever did , cannot be proved . . they went thither to oppose them in , and confute their innovations and traditions in the worship of god , to take an opportunity to teach and instruct the people in his way and will : which when any have a spirit to do , and are satisfied that they are thereunto called by the lord , in respect of the present ministers and worship of england , we shall be so far from condemning them therein , that we shall bless god for them . but this is not to the purpose in hand : the attendance of our brethren upon the ministers of england , is quite another thing , that requires other arguments for its support , than we have hitherto met with . — parvas habet spes troia si tales habet . i reply , it is clear from luke . . that our lord went to the temple at jerusalem , sate in the midst of the doctors , both hearing them , and asking them questions . luke . . that he came to nazareth , where he had been brought up , and as his custom was , he went into the synagogue on the sabbath-day , and stood up to read , that he cured persons there , preached in the synagogues , that peter and john went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer the ninth , acts . . that paul and barnabas went into the synagogue on the sabbath-day , and sate down , and did not speak to the people till after the reading of the law and the prophets , the rulers of the synagogue sent unto them , acts . , . that on the sabbath st. paul went out of philippi by a river side , where prayer was wont to be made , and sate down ; and that this was his manner , acts , . and . . now neither were these synagogues by any appointment of god that we find , nor their meeting , nor their rulers , nor the order of their reading of the law and the prophets , nor their teachers , nor their worship at the temple without many corruptions ; and yet our lord and his apostles were present at them , and joyned with them in hearing them read , and such other services of religion as were done to god. which is a good reason , wherefore it should not be counted necessary to separate from the present assemblies in england , and the publick ministers , notwithstanding such corruptions in their worship , such defect in their calling , such pullutions in the places of meeting , as are by this authour and other separatists urged as a sufficient reason of their separation . the answers hereto are insufficient . for . though all that christ and his apostles did either out of peculiar power or commission , or instinct be not lawfull for us to do , as to●whip buyers and sellers out of the temple , to sentence persons to death as peter did ananias and his wife : yet what they did as men , or part of the jewish people in the worship and church of the jewes , is a warrant to us in the like case to do in the assemblies of the christians , there being no cogent reason , why we may not in these things do as they did , and if these things may not be used for direction and setling our consciences ▪ they are in vain written by the spirit . . though christ and his apostles did not go into the synagogues to attend on the ministry of such as taught there , yet they did there hear the law and prophets read , and joyned in prayers , which this authour will not allow his brethren to do in the church assemblies of england . . that christ or his apostles went into the synagogues to oppose them in , and confute their innovations , and traditions in the worship of god , is more than i remember to have read : nor do i know that any that have or shall come into the assemblies of the church of england to such an end , as quakers and other separatists heretofore have done , can be judged to do it out of any other spirit than a turbulent and evil spirit , without any true calling by the lord , which might satisfie their consciences : and though we should bless god , if liberty were granted more than is , and opportunities taken to teach the people , especially where there is want thereof , in the way and will of god , yet we should not rejoyce that mens particular opinions , or such unnecessary truths , as being unseasonably delivered , would tend to division , and not to edification , should be vented , especially in such auditories , as are in the common sort of those assemblies , and most of all where there are able preachers , who constantly and rightly teach the doctrine of the gospel of christ. it is added , sect. . pauls rejoycing at the preaching christ , of contention , warrants hearing the present ministers . object . . paul rejoyceth at the preaching of the gospel , though 't was preached out of envy , phil. . . to which briefly ; . there may be cause of rejoycing in respect of the issue and event of things , by the wise providence of god , though the means used for their production be evil ; and not to be abetted or complyed with : in what have christians greater cause of rejoycing than in the death of christ ? yet had it been utterly unlawfull to have joyn'd in counsel with , or any wayes abetted or encouraged those wicked persons that crucified and slew him . should the pope send some jesuits into any remote parts of africa to preach the gospel to the poor indians there , here were upon some accounts ground of rejoycing yet no ground for saints to attend upon a jesuitical ministry . but , ly , it appears not , that these paul speaks of , were not true gospel ministers , and so it reacheth not the case in hand : this being that , we have proved the ministers of england guilty of , viz. and acting in the holy things of god without any commission from christ , which when our dissenting brethren prove they have , we shall easily acknowledge the lawfullness of attending upon their ministry . ly . it follows not in the least , that these the apostle speaks of , were either not real saints , or not true ministers of christ , because they are said to preach him out of envy ; the object whereof was not christ ; ( for had they envyed him , they would never have preached him ) but paul , ( thinking , sayes he , to add afflictions to my bonds ) which is consistent with grace , and a lawfull mission to the preaching of the gospel . yet , ly , here is not in this scripture the least word requiring christians to hear them . that because paul rejoyces at their preaching , therefore 't is the duty of saints to attend upon their ministry , is such a non-sequitur as will never be made good . i reply , nor needs it , the lawfulness to hear the present ministers of england , not the duty of the saints to attend upon their ministers being the thing in question , and therefore it is sufficient for my purpose if i prove hence the lawfulness of hearing them , though i should not prove it the saints duty to attend on their ministry . which i conceive may be done by this argument . they , in whose preaching of christ we may rejoyce , though they should not preach christ sincerely , but in pretence out of envy , not good will , out of contention , thinking to add affliction to other ministers bonds , may be heard by the saints lawfully : but the saints may rejoyce in the present ministers of england their preaching of christ , though they should not preach christ sincerely , but in pretence , out of envy , not good will , out of contention , thinking to add affliction to other ministers bonds . therefore the saints may hear the present ministers of england lawfully . the major is grounded on this , that the thing we may rejoyce in is good , for which we may thank god , and consequently hear : which is agreeable to that of the prophets , esai . . . nahum . . . applyed by the apostle rom. . . to the preaching of the gospel , who , he supposeth , are to be welcomed and heard . the minor is proved from the apostles example , phil. . , , . . that preaching of christ that is no other then st. paul rejoyced in , and professed he would rejoyce in , the saints now may rejoyce in , though it be not sincerely , but in pretence , out of envy , not good will , out of contention , to add affliction to other ministers bonds ; but such is the preaching christ by the present ministers , ergo , the saints may rejoyce in it . the major is not to be denyed , unless it be shewed that the apostle did evil in so rejoycing . the minor is manifest , in that no other exception is taken against their preaching , then such as with as great reason might have nullified the joy of st. paul in that , which moved him to rejoyce . in a word , though personal defects and miscarriages were in the preaching of christ , yet the thing it self being good and occasioning the magnifying of christ , it is , and should be , matter of joy to all that love christ. to this argument i find the author of the pamphlet intituled prelatical preachers none of christs teachers , p. . answering thus , that preaching of christ is not to be rejoyced in without limitation , because of these texts , mark . , . luke . , . . acts . . acts . . gal. . , . . phil. . , . acts . . psal. . . . but he sets not down the limitation he would gather thence ; only it may se●m by the texts , that we are not to rejoyce in the confession of christ or his servants by the devils , when the necessity of circumcision and keeping the law of moses for justification is taught , when hypocrites take gods law into their mouths by professing or declaring of it , but hate to be reformed . which we grant , but say all these texts , and the limitation thence deducible , are impertinent to the present argument , for as much as these do not preach christ. nor , saith that author , in propriety and strictness of speech can christ be said to be preached by a prelatical ministry : they justifie them that deny christ to be the sole law-giver of his church , and so make him an idol . which to be false is shewed in the answer to the th . chapter of this treatise . yet saith that author , p. . in case such a minister as this that preacheth by the bishops licence should in his doctrine or sermon affirm jesus christ to be the sole law-giver unto his churches , yet in , and by his very act of preaching he should deny it : should the apostle rejoyce in that preaching of christ which is a denying him ? an horrible speech of monstrous absurdity and impudent malice . i should not say so much of such preaching , though it were by the popes licence , or the devils instigation : for though i should not rejoyce in the motive or impulsive cause by which it is done , yet i would not so censure the thing it self as a denying of christ. but how the receiving of a license from a protestant bishop to preach the gospel within his diocess , and preaching there by vertue of it according to the order established by the law of the land should be a denying of christs legislative power , is to me incomprehensible , and to use that authors phrasifying , the first born of absurdities . i should rejoyce , and bless god to obtain such power upon justifiable conditions . but to our author ; his first answer is not to the purpose ; for rejoycing in the ministers preaching of christ , or those that preached out of envy , is not a rejoycing in the good event by evil means , but in a good event by good means , the preaching christ is a good thing , in which the apostle , and we rejoyce , and the effect is good , although the motive and end of the preachers be evil . the putting of christ to death was in it self evil , and not to be rejoyced in , though the effect of it be good , and to be rejoyced in , no way was the acting of pilate , or herod , or the jewes , to be abetted , but to be abhorred , though the counsel of god was to be justified and extolled , as was done , acts . . &c. should the pope send jesuites to preach the gospel , and they should continue to preach it , and no doctrine antievangelical , i know no reason , why the saints might not attend on their ministry . to the d. d. and th . answers i reply , that the preaching of christ in opposition to paul makes it probable , that they were not real saints , nor true ministers in his sence , such motives being contrary to that brotherly love , which is in every real saint , john . . and that order of the church by which is a lawfull mission , which me thinks he should not conceive to have been in them that acted in a way of contention against st. paul the apostle of the gentiles . and for the ministers of england , i like better the words of mr. iohn robinson in his justification of the separation , p. . then these authors words : in the general , i confess , there is a proportion , and so in that general and large sence , wherein mr. bernard pag. . expounds the word sent , or apostle , i do acknowledge many ministers in england sent of god : that is , that it comes not to pass without the special providence , and ordination of god , that such and such men should rise up , and preach such and such truths for the furtherance of the salvation of gods elect , in the places where they come . they which preached christ of envy and strife to add more afflictions to the apostles bonds , were in this respect sent of god , and therefore it was , that the apostle joyed at their preaching . how much more they that preach of a sincere mind , though through ignorance , or infirmity , both their place and enterance into it be most unwarrantable ? and sure , if they may in this sense be said to be sent of god , it follows saints may hear them , which was to be proved . it is added , sect. . the truth ministers teach , warrants the hearing of them . object . . the ministers of england preach truth , and is it not lawfull to hear truth preached ? we answer , . that 't is lawfull to hear truth preached is readily granted ; but this must be done lawfully , and in the way of christs appointment . . all that preach truth are not to be heard , nor will our discenting brethren say they are . for , . there was never yet any heretical preacher in the world , but he preached some truth ; is it lawfull to hear such ? this will not be said . . the devil himself preached truth , yet christ forbids him , and commands that he hold his peace . . the popish priests preach truth , yet who will say 't is lawfull to attend upon their ministry ? but , . as the present ministers of england preach truth , so , . they preach it but by halves , and dare not for fear of the l. bishops inhibition , preach any doctrine , though never so clearly revealed in the scriptures , and owned by them as the truth of christ , he commands them not to meddle with . . the main truths they preach ( at least many of them ) are contradicted in their practice , they 'l tell you that the lord jesus is the great prophet , and king of his church ; but how palpably this is contradicted by them in their practice , conforming to institutions and laws that are not of his prescription who sees not ? this we have abundantly demonstrated . . with the truth they preach , they mingle errours directly contrary to the scripture , and the revelation of his will therein . instances of this kind have been already exhibited , to which may be added many more : we shall mention but a few , . that the ministry , worship , and government , which christ hath appointed to his church , is not to be received or joyned unto , unless the magistrates ( where they are reputed christian ) do allow it . . that the apocryphal books which have in them errors , ( mac. . , . & . , . eccles. . . wisd. . . ) untruths ( esd. . , , . mac. . . . tob. . , , . with . . judith . . . & . . with v. . & . . , , , . mac. . . . with mac. . . to . and . . . . . . . ) blasphemy ( tobit . . . . with rom. . . tim. . . rev. . . . ) magick ( tob. . , , . & . . . with . , . & . , , . with . , . ) and contradiction to the canonical scriptures , ( judith . , , . compared with gen. . , , . esther in the apocrypha chap. . . & . , . with ester canonical , chap. . . & . . eccles. . . with isa. . . may be used in the publick worship of god. . that the most wicked and their seed , may be compelled , and received to be members of the church . . that marriage may be forbidden at certain seasons , as in lent , advent , rogation-week , &c. . that baptism is to be administred with a cross in the forehead , and that as a symbolical sign . . that though the most notorious , obstinate offenders be partakers of the lords supper , yet the people that joyn with them , are not defiled thereby . . that there may be holy days appointed to the virgin mary , john baptist , to the apostles , all saints and angels ; together also with fasts on their eves , on ember-days , fridays , saturdays ( so called heathenishly enough ) and lent. . that the cope , surplice , tippit , rocket , &c. are meet and decent ornaments for the worship of god , and ministry of the gospel . . that the book of common-prayer is the true worship of god. . that christ descended into hell ( as if christ descended into the place of the damned ) as the papists hold . . that lord bishops can give the holy ghost , and power to forgive and retain sins . . that altars , candles , organs , &c. are necessary and useful in the church of god. . that all children when baptized , are regenerate , and received by the lord for his own children by adoption , common-prayer-book of publick baptism . yea , . that children being baptized , have all things necessary for their salvation , and shall undoubtedly be saved . so they profess in the order of conformation in the common-prayer-book ; with much more that might be offered in this matter . i reply , . the grant , that it is lawfull to hear truth preached , is sufficient to prove it lawful to hear the present ministers preach truth ( which he denies not they do ) unless he could prove it were contrary to the way of christ's appointment to hear the truth from them . . all that preach some truth , are not to be heard ; yet all that preach the great truths of the gospel , notwithstanding some errours non-fundamental may be heard , especially if the errours be seldom or never pressed on the hearers , but left to them to examine , and to be approved or disproved . heretical preachers are not to be heard , because they preach not the great truths of the gospel but errours , which overthrow the foundation , so do the popish priests ; yet it were no sin to hear either of these speak truth . the devils we are to have no communion with , god having put an utter enmity between the serpent and the seed of the woman . . if the present ministers of england preach truth but by halves , it is lawful to hear them preach those halfs . the bishops allow them to preach all truths needful to salvation , all that is contained in the creed , lords prayer , and ten commandments , in the articles , the two tomes of homilies ; nor are men inhibited in schools , or convocations , or at some times in books published in latine , to discover any truths of god , so it be done without disturbance , or other evil consequence . that some truths needful to be known , are not permitted to be published to the vulgar auditories , may have the same reason as christ had for not acquainting his disciples with many things he had to say to them , because they could not then bear them , john . . some things may seem very clearly revealed in the scriptures to some , and be owned by them , which are pernicious , as that the saints have all right to government , that they are to smite the civil powers as part of the fourth monarchy , that justified persons are not under the command of the moral law ; some disputable , as about the thousand years reign , that god cannot forgive sins without satisfaction to his justice , church-constitution , covenant , government , and many more , which it is agreeable to the apostles rule , rom. . . their practice , acts . . not to vent in all sorts of auditories ; and if the bishops do restrain preachers , especially those that are young , raw , injudicious , but violent , and apt to cause division , they do , agreeably to the apostles rule , to the example of all churches , where government is not popular ( which breeds confusion ) yea i think the separatists have found by experience some restraint necessary , and that the universal liberty of conscience , or of prophesying , as it is termed , is intolerable ; and if bishops , who are men , and may be more rigid then they should , hold the reins in too hard , yet there is no reason why the people should refuse to hear that truth which is necessary and sufficient to salvation , because they cannot hear every truth , which perhaps out of faction , or a childish inconstancy , or having itching ears , they desire to know . as for what is said about the ministers contradicting their preaching by their practice , it is answered before in the answer to the th chapter . and yet were it granted , their personal evils are not sufficient to make the hearing of the truth unlawful to the hearers . as for the errours they are said to mingle with the truths they teach , they are not such as overthrow the foundation , if they were errours , and taught by them ; and therefore this is no sufficient reason why they may not be heard preaching necessary truths . yet to shew the futility of this allegation , i shall consider each of the supposed errours . the first i doubt not they will deny , and require this authour to prove it . for the second , it is not , for ought i know , preached by any of the ministers , that the apocryphal books which have in them errours , may be used in the publick worship of god , nor do i think if they should so do , could it well consist with their subscription to the sixth article of the confession of the church of england , which excludes them out of the canon of holy scriptures , which contain all things necessary to salvation , and saith , the church ( as hierome saith ) doth read them for example of life , and instructions of manners : but yet doth it not apply them to stablish any doctrine . and what dr. rainold , the bishop of durham that now is , with many of the english protestant , and conforming divines have written about the apocryphal books , is sufficient to clear the present ministers from suspicion of complying with the papists , who according to the decree of the trent council ses . quarta , put most of them ( though they leave out some of them ) into the catalogue of sacred books , containing that truth and discipline of the gospel which is saving , and to be preached to every creature , and receive and venerate them with equal affection of piety and reverence , as other books of holy scripture . and although the passages alleaged by this authour are liable to exception , nor do i think it fit for me to justifie or excuse them ; yet this i say , to shew there is not a sufficient reason to withdraw from hearing the present ministers preaching or praying . . some of the books are not appointed to be read at all . . some of those that are appointed to be read , are capable of an easier censure , and better construction , then is put upon them by this authour . . that those which are not so capable of excuse , yet are appointed to be read on such days , and in such places , as those that alleadge this for a reason of not hearing the present ministers , need not be present . . that it was once resolved as lawful by dr. george abbot , after archbishop of canterbury , in his answer to dr. hill the papist , p. . from the preface to the second tome of the homilies , for the minister , instead of the apocryphal books , to read some other part of the canonical scripture of the old testament . which things being considered , there seems not for this to be a sufficient reason of not hearing the present ministers , or charging them , as this authour doth . the third errour i conceive they will deny to be their tenent . but concerning this , and the th . th . ●● ▪ th . th . th . errours , so much hath been said before chiefly in the answer to the th . th . th . chapters of this book , that i need not here make a particular answer concerning each of these severally ; yet i say , the things are not matters of the ministers doctrine , however they be of their practice , and therefore cannot be a reason of not hearing their sermons . and they who make this a sufficient reason not to hear , or to pray , or receive the lords supper with a person by reason of some errour he holds or teacheth , or some undue practice on gods worship , or conversation with other men , go against all rules and examples in holy scripture , and approved christians ; and such a one must suppose preachers infallible , every communicant unblameable , or each christian to have power to excommunicate , if the person faulty be not amended upon his reproof , that he must know what tenents his teacher holds , and what is the conversation of each communicant , ere he can warrantably hear the one , or communicate with the other . which with sundry other superstitious conceits , or unnecessary scruples , put an intolerable burden upon mens consciences , and will as well prove withdrawing from the ministers and churches congregational necessary , as from the conformists . as for the th . errour , it will be denied by them to be their tenent , that there may be holy days appointed to the virgin mary , john baptist , &c. for though they be termed for distinction sake , st. peters day , &c. yet saith archbishop whitgift in his answer to the second admonition , the d. reason , the papists saints days were appointed for the honouring and worshipping of the saints by whose names they were called : ours be ordained for the honouring of god , for publick prayer , and edifying the people by reading the scriptures and preaching : neither are they called by the name of any saint in any other respect , than that the scriptures which that day are read in the church , be concerning that saint , and contain either his calling , preaching , persecution , martyrdom , or such like . the like is alleadged by rainold , conference with hart , ch . . divis . . hooker eccles. policy , l. . sect. . yea t. c. the defender of the admonition confesseth that the church of england meaneth not that in these holy days the saints should be honoured , and rivet on exod. . praecept . quartum , acquits the church of england from idolatry , by reason of our form of service , and our doctrine of worshipping god onely . of which more also may be seen in zanchius , tom . . in praece . quartum loc . . q. . &c. as for the th . errour , that christ descended into hell , is in the creed called the apostles , and is the d. article of the confession of the church of england , and is deduced by augustin , epist. ad evodium . from acts . , . and how to understand it of other descent then the place of the damned , or limbus patram , which is the papists tenent , may be seen in archhishop vshers answer to the jesuites challenge , ch . . dr. pearson his exposition of the creed on that article , and others . the th . i think neither the present ministers , nor any of the bishops will assert . the two last let them that hold them answer for themselves ; i say onely that they are such as hearers are not necessitated to assent to , nor such as can justifie separation . but it follows , sect. . evil persons may be heard as true ministers . object . . judas preached , though a wicked man ; and no doubt 't was lawful , yea the duty of saints to hear him . to this we say , no doubt it was so . but . judas was not a visible wicked man at the time of his preaching , but so close an hypocrite , that he was not known to be so , no not to the disciples : but some of the present ministers of england are visibly wicked and profane . . judas was chosen , and called by christ to be an apostle , commissioned by him to preach : but the present ministers of england are not so , as hath been proved . so that this is not at all to the business in hand . i reply , it is confessed that the present ministers are not chosen and called by christ to preach as iudas was ; and it may be also proved concerning the ministers of the congregational churches , whose calling may be questionable as well as theirs , being often by a small company of ignorant persons , many of them women , who challenge power of election without ordination , or other help , or giving the right hand of fellowship by elders of other churches , nor are they all free from visible wickedness and prophaness . and this may be somewhat to the business , by allaying the vehemency of this authours spirit against others . but the chief use of this objection is to answer one exception of this authour , ch . . that the present ministers are not to be heard as gifted brethren , because they walk disorderly : for iudas did walk disorderly , and yet might be heard . 't is true , iudas was not so apparently a thief as others that are openly vitious ; yet christ knew him to be a thief and a traitour , when he appointed him to preach , and forbade none to hear him preach the gospel , and therefore allowed hearing of evil men preach truth , which is denyed by the author of prelatical preachers none of christs teachers , p. , . and is frequently the reason of many people 's not hearing them that preach truth . it is to be added that christ had given some intimation of judas his wickedness , john . , . he goes on , sect. . it is a sin not to encourage good men in their ministry . object . . but there are some good men amongst them , and such as belong to god , may we not hear good men ? to which briefly . answ. . that there are some among the present preachers of this day , that are good men , we shall not stand to deny . yet , . we crave leave to say , that they are all of them such as are sadly polluted and defiled by their complyance , in respect of their standing in the ministry antichristian , whose teachings saints have no warrant to attend upon . . the greater hopes we have of their goodness , the more cautelous should we be of encouraging them in a false way ; that they by our relinquishment of them , and separating from them ( after we have discharged all other duties we are satisfied are incumbent upon us to perform towards them ) may come to see their sin , repent , and do their first works , that god and we may again receive them . . yet the goodness of any , as to the main , is no warrant for any to hold communion with them , or attend upon their teach●ngs : there are brethren that walk disorderly , whom 't is the duty of saints to separate from : that the very best of the ministers of england do so , will not be denyed . the incestuous person , cor. . was , as to the main , for ought i know , a good man : yet were not the saints at corinth to hold communion with him , till upon his repentance he was again received cor. ▪ . . 't is utterly unlawfull to communicate with a devised ministry upon what pretext soever . . so is it for any to partake in other mens sins ( as hath been proved : ) but every usurped ministry is the sin of him ( though never so holy a person ) that exerciseth it . i reply , this objection being an argument ad hominem against this author , who hath represented all the present ministers as walking disorderly , deniers of christs offices , antichristian , idolaters , scandalous , even the best of them : which what face he can say of them , and yet acknowledge them good men is not easily conceivable , they seem to me inconsistent speeches . that their ministry is antichristian , when they minister the word of god is also in my understanding oppositum in apposito a contradiction ; that they stand in that ministry , which they had by episcopal ordination , is so far from being their defilement , that it seems to me their vertue and wisdome , it being alwayes judged by me a great sin to renounce that ministry , sith it is no other then of the doctrine and sacraments , and the discipline of christ as the lord hath commanded , and as this church and realm hath received the same , according to the commandements of god ; which , for any to disclaim , is to go back from the service of christ , and if the present ministers do stand in this ministry , the saints are warranted , and engaged to attend upon it . the greater hopes we have of their goodness , the more are all , that love the lord jesus , bound to encourage them in this way , as being the the true way of christ , and to relinquish them , and separate from them , for this cause is very sinfull , sith it is to separate from them for doing their duty : to hold them as excommunicate , to reprove , to urge them to repentance , not to receive them , to conceive of them as brethren walking disorderly , is uncharitableness , and injustice . that the incestuous person was a good man before he repented cannot be well conceived , sith he committed such a sin as was not named among the gentiles : it was the sin of the corinthians that they were puffed up and had not rather mourned , that he that had done that deed might be taken away from among them , it is no sin , that the saints do not mourn , that the present ministers , who are confessedly good men , may be taken away from among them , it is their great sin , if they do not bless god for them , and pray for their establishment and good success in their ministry . that the ministry is devised by any other than god is not shewed : they that talk and write ignorantly , not ever reading the book of ordination , which shews what their ministry is , make invectives against them , and wildly wander from them upon false suggestions often to their perdition . that to hear them is not to partake with them in sin , is shewed in answer to this authors th . argument , chap. th . that their ministry is usurped , is not proved ; if it were , it might be a true ministry , which if it be , though it were usurped , it is not the sin , but may be the duty of him that exerciseth it . it follows , sect. . the example of the learned godly nonconformists is some inducement to hear the present ministers . object . . but many learned and good men ( and such as in conscience could not conform to the ceremonies of the church of england ) have in dayes past ( and do now ) hear the present ministers thereof . to which we answer , . that the greatest scholars , and most accomplished for humane wisdom , parts , yea visible holiness , have not been alwayes on the lords side , following him in paths of his own appointment ; but many times have been found the greatest persecutors and opposers of christ ; the most stupendiously ignorant of the will of god , in respect of the truth , and work of their generation , of any persons in the world : witness the scribes and pharisees , the learned rabbies , and profound doctors of that day , with what virulency did they oppose christ and the doctrine of the gospel preached by him ? . that persons of as great holiness , and renown for learning , and all manner of accomplishments , as learned ainsworth , cotton , &c. have been and are of the same apprehension with us in this matter : not to mention the reformed churches , who generally renounce the ministry of the church of england , not admitting any by vertue of it to the charge of souls ( as they speak . ) but . to the law and to the testimony , isa. . . if they speak not according to this rule , though angels for knowledge and holiness , they are not to be received or heeded : one word from the lord is of more weight to hearts made truly tender , than the example of an hundred professors can be : 't is possible these may err , be yea and nay ; but so cannot the truth of god , which is alwayes the same , and will abide so for ever . . the apostle hath long since determined this case , cor. . . be ye followers of me , as i am of christ : so far as saints follow christ , i may and ought to follow them , but no further : so that the learning parts or holiness of any that attend upon the present ministers of england , is no warrant for me so to do ; nor will ever be a satisfactory answer to that enquiry , who hath required these things at your hands ? i reply , it is not denied , that the most learned and zealous of the law , such as st. paul among the jews , the most excellent moralists among the gentiles , have been great enemies to the gospel afore their calling to the faith of christ , but the objection is of learned and good men among christians , who are never found the greatest persecutors and opposers of christ. possibly it may fall out , yea and it hath fallen out , that among christians the greatest scholars , and most ac●omp●●shed for humane parts , wisdoms , yea for visible holiness , have not been alwayes on the lords side , following him in paths of his own appointment , but have been stupendiously ignorant of the will of god in respect of the truth and work of their generation ; i think ●ardinal caietan was one of the greatest scholars of his time , yet saw not what luther saw , about justification by faith , and luther , though he did much in that point , yet saw not so much as calvin in the point of the re●l presence in the eucharist ; and therefore ( like well the d. and ●h . answer here , that we should adhere only to the law and to the testimony and be followers of the learned as they are of christ. yet i conceive , that it is a wicked course , which is taken by some , so to disparage learning , as if it were of no necessity , universities , as of no use , but rather seminaries of ungodliness , to say that men that have humane learning are the unlearned and unstable , which do wrest the scriptures , pet. . . as how the cobler a much followed preacher a great while ago in london vented in print , that learned scholars do make the scriptures as a nose of wax , are but juglers , and deceivers , which are too too often insinuated into the minds of well meaning , but weak minds , whereby they are more addicted to such as how , tillinghast , and other popular orators , and their injudicious discourses , if stuffed with fained words and earnest affections , then to the most solid proofs of the most learned , whose interpretations of scripture , and handling of controversies , have cleared the truth , and restored purity of doctrine to the great benefit of the church of god , which these people understand not . but it hapneth according to the saying , scientia n●minem hab●● inimicum nisi ignorantem . and sure though i would have no christian enslave his judgement to any man , it were that anthropolatria or sin of glorying in men forbidden , cor. . . against which i printed a little treatise in the the year ▪ foreseeing it would be the means of dividing christians into parties ; nor would i have that which is propounded by men of none or lesser learning rejected , because it is from them , one paph●utius may see that truth , which a whole council , though such as the first n●cene , without him did not discern , it was an evil spirit in matthaeus langius , that made him disdain to be taught by luther , as is related in the history of th● council of ●rent , god doth out of the mouth of babes and sucklings perfect praise , as our saviour matth. . . allegeth psal. . . against the priests and scribes indignation at the childrens saying hosanna : yet i would have such things examined by the learned , and godly , especially either their own pastors , or such as are found or reputed learned and judicious , and that as well what may be said against , as what is said for the thing vented be weighed , lest persons deceive themselves , as too often they do , by their propensity to take all for oracles , which is said by such as they do affect or magnifie . and surely in doubtful cases , and in points which are above the sphere of common capacities to determine , i mean such as require more insight in languages , history , arts , and other reading , than they can reach to by reason of defect in their natural abilities , educations , time to study , means of attaining the use of books , health or strength , it is a safe way to rest on the received practice and determination of their learned guides , whom they have reason to judge faithfull and able , and to be satisfied with their resolutions and reasons after a serious and modest arguing of the thing , though every scruple be not removed . as for that which is here said of ainsworth , cotton , &c. i think they that knew , and read what vssher , ball , gataker , and such like men were , will not believe it . mr. ainsworths differences between him and johnson , robinson ▪ and paget , and their writings , especially of this last , shew him to have been much short of what this author conceived of him . what mr. cotton was i do not rely upon mr. baylies dissuasive , but i think dr. twisse his answer to him about reprobation , mr. cawdrey about the keyes , that i mention no other , shewed him not such , as whose judgement might be safely rested in . and i scarce think either by the reading of his way of the churches in new england , or his commendation of mr. nortons answer to apollonius he could be of the same apprehension with this author in this matter . that the reformed churches generally renounce the ministry of the church of england , i think is a manifest untruth . the passages at the synod of dort , peter moulin his letter to bishop andrews , with many more of the like evidences of former and later times assure me this author is deceived . he adds . sect. . the magistrates command to hear , the present mininisters is to be obeyed . object . . but the magistrate commands us , and ought we not to obey magistrates . answ. . that magistrates have no power to command in matters of instituted worship , where christ is silent , or to govern in his church is affirmed by many . . the commands of magistrates , when contrary to the will and way of christ , are not to be subjected to . this case is long since stated and resolved by the apostle ( acts . , . and . ) and spirit of the lord , breathing long before in his renouned witnesses , dan. . , . and . . nor is it denyed by any that are sober , and judicious . whether the hearing of the present ministers of england be contrary to the word of god , the will and way of christ , we leave from what hath been offered , to the considerate reader to judge ; and shall only add what was long since asserted by augustin de verb domini serm. . in this matter , who was herein fully of the same mind with us ; sed timeo inquies ne offendas majorem , time prorsus ne offendas majorem , & non offendes deum . quid enim times ne offendas majorem ? vide ne forsan major sit isto qu●m times offendere . majorem certe noli offendere — quis est inquies major eo qui me genuit ? an ille qui teipsum creavit ? — qui enim resistit potestati , dei ordinationi resistit : sed quid si illud jubeat quod non debes facere ? — timendo potestatem ipsos humanarum rerum gradus advertite : si aliquid jusserit curator , nonne faciendum est ? tametsi contra proconsul jubeat , at non utique contemnis potestatem , sed eligis majori servire , nec hinc debet minor irasci , si major praelata est . rursum si aliquid ipse proconsul jubeat , & aliud jubeat imperator , numquid dubitatur in illo contemptu illi esse serviendum ? ergo si aliud imperator & aliud deus quid judicatis ? solve tributum , est mihi in obsequio recte ▪ sed non in idolio , in idolio prohibet , quis prohibet ? major potestas . da veniam ! tu carcerem , ille gehennam minatur . he tells us plainly that such as fear to offend their superiours , should much more fear to offend god , who is greater than all . the emperours and monarchs of the world , threaten us with a prison if we disobey them ; the lord threatens us with hell upon our disobedience of him . i reply , the brownists in their confession of faith , art . . say , princes and magistrates by the ordinance of god are supreme governours under him over all persons , and in all causes within their realms and dominions , and that it is their duty to enforce all their subjects whether ecclesiastical or civil to do their duties to god and men , protecting and maintaining the good , punishing and restraining the evil , according as god hath commanded , whose lieutenants they are here on earth ; and to prove this many texts are cited by them , of which confession mr. ainsworth said to be of the fame apprehension with this author in this matter , was a principal composer . in the apology of the non-conformists by irenaeus e●eutherius in the admonition to the reader , the kings supremacy is acknowledged . which hath been more largely proved before in this answer to the th . chapter of this book , sect. , , , . and though it be not yeilded , that princes should exercise ecclesiastical jurisdiction , or determine doctrines of faith , or impose what worship they will on the subjects , yet it is allowed by all i know except papists , that when the magistrate commands men to be present at the true worship of god , and to hear them that preach truth , he doth what he ought , and is to be obeyed therein . this author where in this chapter , p. . he supposeth christ enjoyning his disciples to attend upon the scribes and pharisees acting as magistrates , and conform to what is justly and righteously prescribed them as such , must yield this , that the saints are to obey the magistrate in this , unless he can shew , that it is an unlawfull thing to hear the present ministers , which he pretends he hath done , but how vainly is shewed by this answer , and so his answer here to this objection to be insufficient . and indeed it tends to the gratifying of popish recusants ▪ who alledge , for their not hearing , the non-conjunction with the pope and church of rome , as this author , doth the non-election and non-membership of the present ministers in a congregational church , to be in which as the only instituted church of christ , is made necessary , as papists do to be in communion with the church of rome : and therefore if it be unlawful to hear the present ministers , the papists have a just plea for their not coming to church ; which evacuates all the laws and government requiring it . it is added , sect. . conformists ministry hath been instrumental to convert souls . object . . but the ministers of england are true gospel-ministers , for they convert souls ; which the apostle makes the seal of his ministry or apostleship : therefore it is lawful to hear them . to this we say , . that the ministers of england are true gospel-ministers , is absolutely denyed by us ; what is offered in this objection proves nothing . . paul makes not the conversion of the church of corinth , singly , a sufficient demonstration , or convincing argument of his apostleship ; he only useth it , as what was most likely to win , and work upon their affections , who upon other accounts could not but know that he was an apostle of the lord jesus . . conversion of souls is no argument , either of a lawfull call to an apostleship , or ministry of christ. for , . many have converted souls , that were not apostles , as ordinary ministers . . the lord hath used private brethren , women , yea , some remarkable providences , as instruments in his hand for the conversion of many souls ; yet who will say that private brethren , women , or divine providences , are apostles or ministers of the lord jesus . but . should it be granted , that conversion of souls is an argument of a lawfull ministry , where are the churches , nay where are the particular persons converted by them ? we have not heard of any , nor will it be an easie task for the objectors to produce instances in this matter . i reply , that the ministers of england , who preach the gospel truely , are true gospel ministers , may be denied absolutely , but not justly , their preaching the gospel truely being it , which alone is the form denominating a minister a true gospel minister ; though more be required to his regularity . election by a congregational church , ordination by an eldership , or bishop , do not make a true gospel minister without it , and it doth it notwithstanding some other defects . but conversion of souls is no certain sign of a true gospel minister , or the defect of it an argument against it : nor do i alledge cor. . , . to prove either . yet when the gospel of christ is truly preached , and so blessed an effect follows on their labours , who do so , it is a good motive to the converted to hear them who have been instruments of their conversion , and is an engagement to them to follow their doctrine and conversation , cor. . , . heb. . . . thes. . , . and if this author , or any other do separate from them , who have been instruments of their conversion , and continue still to preach the gospel truly , because they abide in their station without renouncing episcopal ordination , or accepting of an election by a congregational church , they do it unwarrantably and injuriously . as for the words of the apostle cor. . , . the apostles aime is to shew he was as free , and might use his liberty as much as any other apostle , being as truly an apostle as any other , which might , besides other evidences , from the effect of his apostleship on them appear to them ; so that it is an argument of his apostleship , though not singly , not , as this author conceives , a motive to win upon their affections ; yet i think it an argument from and of some thing proper to the apostle , and the corinthians , and therefore would not meerly from conversion of souls , conclude a true gospel ministry in all that have been instruments therein . as for the demand , where are the churches , where are the particular persons converted by them ? it may perhaps be as justly demanded of this author , where are the churches or particular persons converted by the ministers of the congregational churches in old or new england , or holland ? mr. robert baylie of scotland in his dissuasive from the errors of the time , mr. thomas edwards in his gangraena tell stories of the fruit of separation , which i will not avow as true : yet so much of truth may be picked out of them , as may stop the mouths of them , that extoll those ministers , and decry the best of the conformists ; who yet have been , if not of late , yet heretofore fathers in christ to the members of the congregational churches , and to the most eminent in the churches of old or new england . but this disparagement of some , and extolling of others , is an odious course tending to nothing but promoting of faction , and weakning the hands of them that do the work of christ , and therefore do pray that this spirit of pride and bitterness may be extinguished , than in love we may serve one another , and that nothing be done out of strife and vain-glory , but that in lowliness of mind each may esteem others better than our selves . and i wish none had vented or read such criminations as those in the book entituled prelatical preachers none of christs teachers , in which he breaks out thus , p . they that were ●oundly right down without any abatement or need of explication , ministers of a prelatical ordination , have amongst them in matters of true religion , sound knowledge and piety towards god reduced the generality of the nation to a morsel of bread . all those idolatrous and superstitious conceits and practises , all the bloody ignorance and prophaeess , all that customary boldness in sinning , that hatred of goodness and good men , which are the nakedness and shame of the land , and render it obnoxious to divine displeasure , may justly call this generation of men either fathers , or foster fathers , or both , p. . he terms their ministry a ministry which is no where approved or sanctified by christ in his word , but obtruded upon christians with an high hand by those who are confederate both in spirit and in practise with the scarlet coloured beast , and drunken with the blood of the saints ( a description which belyeth not the prelatical priesthood and ministry , ) and then applies the description revel . . . to them , and the warning revel . . to those who joyn to them , p , . he makes the bishops to comply with antichrist in claiming and exercising a power of imposing on men what they please in matters of religion , or faith , and worship , under what penalties they please also , makes those ordained and ministers under them and by them to receive the mark of the beast , p. . though god did before the discovery of the evil of prelacy benefit souls by them , yet not after . but enough of this ; there remains yet that which follows , sect. . to the observation of the lords day , hearing the present ministers as the case now is , may be requisite . object . . but our ministers are removed , and we know not where to go to hear ; would you have us sit at home idle ? we cannot so spend the lords day . answ. to which we would humbly offer a few things . . that though we are not against any ordinance of jesus christ , yet we are afraid that those poor souls , that know not how to spend the lords day without hearing , do too much idolize that ordinance of god , and never knew what it was to spend that day with him . . you need not sit at home ; if you are enquiring after god , and communion with his people , you may soon hear of some one or other of the assemblies of the saints , whither you may repair to wait upon the lord with them . . but thirdly , were it , or should it be otherwise ; yet better be idle , than do worse ; better do nothing , than sin against god , encourage others in their evil deeds , pollute and wound thy own soul , grieve the saints , stumble and harden the wicked , and cause them to blaspheme his name , sanctuary , and such as dwell therein . but , . there is no necessity of being idle , if thou knowest not where to hear on that day , hast thou no work to do save that ? . art sure that god , and christ , and eternal glory , are thy portion and inheritance ? thou walkest in the light of assurance , or thou dost not ? if thou dost , is one day in seven too much to spend in the solemn admiration of grace , that ever so vile a creature as thou , should be accounted worthy of such unexpressible kindness and glory ? what , o what will eternity be then ? if thou dost not , are not these worthy of thy utmost diligence to get assurance of ? what , stand idle , and an interest in god , christ , and eternal glory to make sure of ! . art thou sufficiently acquainted with thine own heart ? dost know so much of thy self as thou needest to know ? or judgest thou this to be a work that requires not thy utmost diligence and attendance ? . hast thou no sin to be mortified , no want to be supplyed , no grace to be quickned and strengthned in thee ? , hast thou as much communion with god as thou desirest ? hast heard as often from him by the tea●hings of the spirit ( the incomparably and infinitely best teacher ) as thou dost wish ? or dost think that god will not manifest himself to , and teach in a corner , a poor soul that 's there waiting for him alone , because there be no assemblies of saints he knows of , to whom he might joyn himself , and he dares not have communion with adulterers ? if thou have not fellowship with god thou desirest , and teachings from him ( as who hath ) stir up thy self to lay hold on god , groan and cry after him , till he hath brought thee into his chambers , and afforded thee richer displayes of his glory . . art thou altogether ready trimmed ( without more ado ) for the coming and kingdom of christ jesus ? what should i mention those important duties of reading the scriptures , meditation on them , &c. hast thou all this to do , and much more that might be added , and yet nothing to do on the lords day ? set about these things in good earnest , and when thou livest in the light of assurance , without the least doubt or clouding , when thou art sufficiently acquainted with thine own heart , the will and scriptures of the lord ; when thou hast as much communion with god in retirement , as thou desirest , and teachings from his spirit ; when thou hast no sin to be mortified , nor grace to be quickened and strengthened ; when thou art quite ready for the day of christ , and needest no further fittings , we shall consider what may be further said to this objection ; but till then , it cannot be pleaded , when souls have all this work to do , that they must sit at home idle , if they go not to hear the preachers of this day . but thus far of the objections that are by some made against the assertion of the unlawfulness of attending upon the present ministers of england ; which are all of any moment we have yet met with : what of weight is in them , must be left to the judgement of the christian reader to determine . we shall add no more but this , that we have spoken our judgement and conscience herein , as in sincerity , in the sight of god : with what meekness , christian tenderness , and fear of giving any just offence to the truly conscientious , he knows . the sole of our aim in the whole is , that christ may be glorified in the recovery of any poor lamb , that is turned aside to the flocks of the companions in this cloudy and dark day ; that others that have hitherto kept themselves from idols , might be further established in the will of god , and strengthened to follow christ in his temptations , that they may inherit that kingdom and glory , prepared for them before the foundation of the world : may we but in the least contribute , by divine blessing , hereunto whatever becomes of these papers , or however they be by others accounted of , we have our end , and shall rest satisfied . i reply , this objection i find made not onely by some of the common sort of professors , but also particulaly by mr. crofton , and made by him as an argument , wherefore he did , and ought to joyn in hearing and praying in publick on the lords day , notwithstanding the defects in the ministerial mode and method of the publick ministers , the worship of god substantially existing in matter and essential form in their ministration , and the lords day being to be observed in publick as well as private , where , and when the ordinances cannot be enjoyed in a purer manner . his second in the book intituled , jerubbaal justified , doth reduce his plea to this syllogism . communion with the church visible in gods solemn publick worship , is an essential part of the sanctification of the sabbath , and indispensable duty . but communion with the english church , in the worship by her celebrated , is communion with the church visible in gods solemn worship . ergo , communion with the english church ( having no opportunity with any other ) in the worship of her celebrated , is to me an essential part of the sanctification of the sabbath , and indispensable duty . this syllogism is defended in that book , to which i refer the reader , and consider the objection as here it is urged and answered . the objection proceeds upon suppositions of the separatists , or independents , in the number of whom he is to be accounted , as appears by his wordes in this chapter , in answer to the th . objection , where he saith , learned ainsworth , cotton , &c. have been and are of the same apprehension with us in this matter . now in mr. cottons way of the churches of christ in new england , it is put into the definition of a visible church , that they are a number that may meet every lords day for all ordinances , and in the declaration of the elders and messengers of the congregational churches at the savoy , oct. . . ch . . art . . the sabbath is then kept holy to the lord , when men are taken up the whole time in the publick and private exercises of his worship , and in the duties of necessity and mercy . among these art . . the reading of the scriptures , preaching and hearing of the word of god are reckoned , and art . . god is to be worshipped as in private families daily , and in secret each one by himself , so more solemnly in the publick assemblies , which are not carelesly nor wilfully to be neglected or forsaken , when god by his word or providence calleth thereunto . upon which , and other suppositions , it concerns every tender conscience , which receiveth these principles , to consider how they can acquit themselves from not observing the lords day in publick assemblies , where god is invocated in the name of christ , and the word of god truly taught , especially in such places where they may enjoy these performed by the present ministers , and are deprived of their former ministers and communion , and cannot of themselves discharge these duties . that which this authour answers , doth not solve the doubt : that such persons conceive they cannot spend the lords day without hearing , is not out of any idolizing the ordinances of god ; but from those grounds which are by the declaration afore named , and the generality of zealous preacher , pressed upon christians , that it is one duty of sanctifying the lords day , not onely to abstain from labour , which makes onely sabbatum asinorum , a sabbath that beasts have as well as men ; nor onely to exercise themselves in reading and prayer at home , for that is every days duty ; but also to frequent the publick assemblies where god is worshipped , which this authour conceives injoyned , heb. . . and is gathered from exod. . . acts . . revel . . . cor. . . . john . . . that many persons cannot in many places find such assemblies of the saints , as this authour means , is a thing out of doubt with me . were publick hearing a sin , i confess it were better to do nothing than do that : but that is not yet proved , and i think it fit to acquaint the reader , that mr. norton of new england , in that answer to apollonius his questions , which is commended by mr. cotton , dr. thomas goodwin , mr. philip nye , and mr. sidrach simpson , ch . . doth thus determine , such things being observed as are to be observed , it may be lawful to use forms of prayers , administrations of sacraments , &c. prescribed in the church , neither are the churches which use them guilty of superstition , will-worship , and violating the second commandment ; yea , it is lawful to embrace communion with them , where such forms in the publick worship are in use : neither doth it lie as a duty on a believer , that he separate and disjoyn himself from such a church , unless he would partake in the superstitious worship of images . communion with a church , quâ utitur , as it useth worship of it self unlawful , is unlawful ; communion with a church quae utitur , which useth it , to wit , in other lawful worship , is lawful ; and separation from it , is unlawfull . and to shew how evil the counsel of this authour is to men to spend the lord's day in a corner idle at home , rather then go to hear in publick . i think good to subjoyn some words of mr john paget in his preface to the christian reader , before his book , intituled , an arrow against the separation of the brownists . of the brownists there are sundry sorts : some separate from the church of england for corruptions ; and yet confess both it and rome and it also to be a true church , as the followers of mr. johnson , christian plea , p. , . some renounce the church of england as a false church , and yet allow private communion with the godly therein , as mr. robinson justifie . p. , , . and his followers relig. com. p. . &c. some renounce all religious communion both publique and private with any member of that church whosoever , as mr. ainsworth counterpoy . pag. . and such as hearken unto him , being deepest and stiffest in their schism . the evil of this separation is great . first , the minds of many are troubled and distracted hereby ; even of such as do not separate , but have some liking thereof ; especially if it be true which mr. robinson writes of them , relig. comm . preface ; to wit , that they seeing it not to be for their purposes that the world should so esteem of them ▪ do undoubtedly strain and wring the neck of their consciences and courses , to look the contrary way ▪ &c. what can be more miserable then to have the necks of consciences thus broken by the doctrine of separation ? secondly , for those that separate , but do not yet joyn unto them , or being joyned ▪ do withhold from actual communion , living alone , and hearing the word of god in no church , as some do ; how great is their misery also ; mr. robinson himself , ibid. p. . . shews it at large , no●ing them to be idol-members , such as break the commandment of christ , loose the fruit of his ascension , and fail their own edification and salvation many ways , &c. thirdly ▪ for those that being enjoyned to them , do also live with them , seeing they have in effect excommunicate themselves from all other churches of christ ▪ and consequently from the fellowship of christ jesus himself , and from the participation of his grace and glory , so far as he reveals the same by dwelling in those churches : it is therefore no wonder to hear mr. johnson treat on matt. . preface a. . complaining of the evils among them , as emulation , debate , and other sins which daily arise and spread themselves to the great dishonour of god , &c. as for the directions given by this authour , how to spend at home the lords day , some of them are such as weak persons ; women and novices cannot make use of it , yea , they would be dangerous to them , occasioning them to fall into errours , enthusiastick conceits , some of them antinomians count unnecessary , and those that are good ; yet by the deprivation of society , and publick teaching , and heavily performed ; and they that take such courses , do either very frequently decay in the exercise of godliness , grow barren and liveless in prayer and holy conferences , or turn seekers , quakers , ranters , censurers , scoffers , libertines : however , were they all used , yet they solve not the doubt arising from those principles , which require publick hearing for hallowing the lords day ; which is to be observed not onely for the benefit of our own edification , but also for the glory of god , and testification of our profession ; which is not done by private exercise of religion . and although some persons may more benefit themselves in knowledge by reading at home , yet the example hinders others from the use of the publick ordinances , whereto we should by our practice encourage them . for these , and other reasons often urged by those , who have been for separation , it is not to be expected that such private exercises should be blessed or accepted of god , when the publick are to be performed . both certainly should be done in their seasons , not one exclude the other . i have thus answered all i find in this authour , and do joyn with him in referring the thing to the reader , who , if he will not cheat his own soul , must judge impartially , and without prejudice , weighing what is said on both sides . as for my aims and spirit in writing this thing , having found so little equity in mens censures of me about former writings , i can the less trust to any sort of mens good or bad of one or other opinion or judgement of me : my care i hope shall be , to approve my self to god , and to sollicite him by prayers for his blessing upon my labours in this thing : to which i shall add as over-measure , these ensuing arguments for hearing the present ministers as now the case is . sect. . an appendix , containing fourty additional reasons against denying the lawfulness of hearing the present ministers . first i argue for the lawfulness of hearing them preach the doctrine of the gospel , as it is professed in the church of england , from the definition of sin , which is a transgression of the law , john . . whence the apostle , rom. . . where no law is , that is , no law prohibiting that which is done , there is no transgression . whence i argue , that is lawful in which is no sin , in the hearing of the present ministers preach the doctrine of the gospel , as it is professed in the church of england , is no sin , therefore it is lawful . the major is undoubted , that being unlawful onely in which is sin according to the notion of the terms : the minor is proved ; because it is no breach of the law , there being neither any law of nature , nor any written law of the old or new testament , moral or positive , in express terms , or by good consequence against it . which is sufficiently proved by the answer to such arguments as are here brought to prove a prohibition of such hearing , and by requiring those that condemn it as unlawful , to produce the law which forbids it ; which yet is not done that we know . if it be said ( as it is by many of the people who scruple the doing of many things used in the publick worship as now it is ) that in gods worship it is not enough , that there is no law against what we do , but there must be also a command to do it , else it is will-worship . besides what i have answered in the examination of the first chapter of this treatise i add . that the alleadging of a command is not necessary to prove a thing lawful , but to prove it a necessary duty , it is sufficient to prove my present conclusion , that no law forbidding the hearing the present ministers can be produced . . that as express command may be shewed for hearing the present ministers , as for hearing the congregational ministers , at least those of them that are separatist , against whom there are more just exceptions then against the present conforming ministers of england , why they should not be heard : which leads me to a second argument for the lawfulness of hearing them ; which i thus form . . those ministers may lawfully be heard , against the hearing of whom by no exceptions , but such as are extrinsecal to the duty of hearing , as it is a part of gods worship . but so it is concerning the hearing of the present ministers : therefore they may be heard . the duty of hearing , as it is a part of gods worship , consists in this , that we apply our selves to learn the mind of god , by which we come to know and obey him : it is extrinsecal to this , that it be delivered to us by a good or a bad man ; a man in church-covenant or not , our proper pastour chosen by our selves , or imposed upon us ; and therefore such personal exceptions against the deliverer , are extrinsecal to the duty of hearing or non●hearing , if he declare gods mind to us , we may worship god in hearing , though the preacher sin in his conversation , or entrance on his ministery , or be otherwise faulty , if he be faithful in delivering the truth of god to us : though other things make one mans teaching more desirable , or more delightful , or useful to us , yet the defect of them makes not our hearing his teaching unlawful , who teacheth the word of god truly , because we may thereby learn gods mind , in applying our selves whereto is his worship by hearing . . this is further proved in that where there are any prohibitions which restrain us from hearing any teachers , it is because of their doctrine : which is an argument , that in hearing others that teach true doctrine , or the truth of gods word , we are at liberty to hear them , and consequently the present ministers supposed to do so . the antecedent is verified by inspection of these , deut. . . matt. . . mark . . and such other texts as cautionate men from hearing teachers . whence may be inferred : that 's not unlawful for us , from which gods cautions restrain us not ; but from hearing the present ministers supposed to teach the truth of gods word , gods cautions restrain us not : therefore it is not unlawful to hear them . . it is the character or property of one that is of god , or is a sheep of christ , to hear gods word , or christs voice without limiting it to some persons , john . . he that is of god , heareth gods word , john . . my sheep hear my voice . whence i argue , that is not unlawful which may be a duty , and a characteristical property of one that is of god or christs sheep . but to hear the present ministers , being supposed to teach the word of god , and the voice of christ , may be a duty , and a characteristical property of one that is of god , or christs sheep . therefore it is not unlawful to hear them , being supposed to teach the word of god , and the voice of christ. . from the same scriptures it may be argued thus , that may be unlawful which may be a sign of one that is not of god , nor of christs sheep ; but not to hear the present ministers , when they teach the word of god , and the voice of christ may be a sign of one that is not of god : for christ saith , john . . ye therefore hear them not , because ye are not of god , nor a sheep of christ , who saith , john . . but ye believe not , because ye are not of my sheep , as i said unto you . therefore it may be unlawful not to hear the present ministers , and consequently lawfull to hear them . . to refuse to hear the word of god , though delivered by the present ministers , is profaneness , such as is condemned in esau. heb. . . for it is the rejecting , or neglecting of a holy thing , as it is termed by our lord christ , matth. . . therefore it may be unlawful to shun hearing them , and consequently lawful to hear them . . the word of god is a pearl of great price , matt. . . such as a merchant man should sell all he hath to buy , matth. . . a great treasure , v. . therefore to be heard and received by whomsoever held forth , and consequently it is folly and sin to shun hearing it , because of personal exceptions against the bringer , as it would be folly to refuse a treasure found in a dunghill , or a pearl brought by an unworthy person . . if the word of god preached by the present ministers , may be effectual for that good , which is the end wherefore it is preached , then it may be lawfully heard from them , or rather ought to be heard according to that precept , james . . receive with meekness the ingraffed word , which is able to save your souls , pet. . , . desire the sincere milk of the word , that ye may grow thereby . but the word of god preached by the present ministers , may be thus effectual : for the efficacy of it comes not from the personal qualifications of the preacher , but from the verity of it , it 's derivation from god , his promise and blessing ; and however sepatists have declaimed against such ministers , and suggested to their partisans , as if no good could be gotten by hearing them ; yet experience hath proved the contrary : and therefore they are to be heard . finis dat mediis ordinem mensuram & amabilitatem . the hearing of them is an ordinary means of hearers edification in the faith and obedience of christ , and therefore is not unlawful , but to be made use of . . that is not unlawfull , the neglect of which may be the occasion and reason of a mans condemnation , it is the condemnation of a person , john . . that he comes not to the light . but the present ministers holding forth the light , mens not hearing them , is not coming to the light , and so much the more dangerous , if by not hearing them , they are deprived of any other to bring the light to them , as it may , and perhaps doth fall out at some times ; and in some places : therefore the neglect of hearing them may be the occasion and reason of a persons condemnation , and so a damnable sin in them that refuse to hear them , and in those that deter others from hearing them . . the words of peter , john , . . lord to whom shall we go ? thou hast the words of eternal life , include in them this proposition , we may go to them , as to teachers of us , who have the words of eternal life ▪ but the present ministers who teach the gospel of christ , have the words of eternal life : for it contains his words , and is the power of god to salvation , from the matter of it . rom. . , . mighty through god to bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of christ , cor. . , . therefore we may go to the present ministers , who teach the gospel of christ , and hear them as our teachers . . the apostle paul , th●s : . . writes thus : for this cause also thank we god without ceasing , because when ye received the word of god which ye heard of us , ye received 〈◊〉 not as the words of men , but ( as it is in t●●th ) the wo●d of god , which effectually worketh also in you that believe . whence i thus argue , if the word of god be to be heard as his word , and not as the word of men , then it is sufficient for right hearing , that we attend to the preaching of it , without consideration of the personal qualifications of the men that deliver it ▪ and consequently we need not decline hearing of preachers that deliver it , though otherwise liable to exceptions ; yea , it is our duty to hear any men preach it without questioning any thing , but whether it be the word of god , and it is evil to refuse to hear it , because of our disaffection and prejudice against the preachers ; and accordingly it is enough to justifie the hearing of the present ministers , that they preach the word of god , and that we hear them as teaching it . for quatenus ipsum inc●udes de omni , if we may , yea ought to hear the word of god , as gods word , we may and ought to hear it at any time , from any person ; and if we do not hear it under this consideration , we hear amiss , and worship not god in hearing . but the word of god is to be heard as gods word , as is evident from st. pauls thanksgiving that the thessalonians so heard it , and not as the word of men , though preached by himself , who ascribes the efficacy of it to this consideration in their hearing . therefore it is sufficient for right hearing ▪ that we attend to the preaching of gods word , without consideration of the personal qualifications of them that deliver it ; and consequently we may rightly hear the present ministers preaching gods word , though without such personal qualifications as are required of them . . the same is further proved by the holy ghosts approbation of the practice of the beraeans , neighbours to the thessalonians , acts . , . these were more noble then those in thessalonica , in that they received the word with all readiness of mind , and searched the scriptures daily , whether these things were so ; therefore many of them believed . whence i argue , they may be right hearers of the present ministers , who may hear them as the beraeans did ; which proposition is confirmed , in that the holy ghost gives them the commendation of right hearers , in that they received the word with all readiness of mind , and searched the scriptures daily , whether the things taught by st. paul were agreeable thereto , without examining his commission to preach , or other qualifications of his person ; yea , and this is made the reason of their believing : and therefore the word of god is sufficient to beget faith , because of it's agreeableness to the scripture , and hath most success when hearers hear it with respect to it's congruity to the holy scripture , and not because delivered by such men as they approve of . but thus may christians hear the present ministers of england , and therefore may be right hearers of the present ministers ; and consequently they that do so , do lawfully hear them ; and they that hear their ministers out of other particular respects , and not in this manner , hear not rightly , nor doth their hearing edifie them in the faith of christ , but tends to inordinate glorying in men , and to division consequent thereon . . from our lord christs word : luke . ▪ . and john answered and said , master , we saw one ca●ting out devils in thy name , and we forbade him , beca●se he followe●h not with us . and jesus said into him , forbid him not ; for he that is not against us , is for us . i gather , that christ would not have him forbidden to preach , who preached in his name , though he were not joyned to christs disciples . for though the acting in christs name expressed , 〈◊〉 onely using his name to expell devils , yet by using his name there was some preaching of christ , and the words mark . . for there is no man which shall do a miracle in my name , that can lightly speak evil of me , and the occasion both mark . . and luke . ▪ immediately foregoing , whosoever shall receive one of such children in my name , receiveth me : and whosoever shall receive me , receiveth not me , but him that sent me ; and christs reason , forbid him not : for he that is not against us , is for us , shew that christs words are at well meant of preaching in his name , as of casting out devils , at least the reason of them is of like force for the not prohibiting of men to preach in his name , as to cast out devils : whence i argue , they may be heard preach in christs name , who are not to be forbidden to preach in christs name ▪ but the present ministers of england are not to be forbidden to preach in christs name ; therefore they may be heard preach in christs name . the major is of it self evident , there being no reason to be given why they that are allowed to preach in christs name , should not be heard by the same allowance , allowance to preach being vain and frivolous , without allowance for others to hear . the minor is also proved by parity of reason , for allowing them to preach as well as those who cast out devils in christs name , yet joyned not with the disciples , sith so doing they did not speak evil of christ , nor were against him , but for him , nor is there so much reason of prohibiting the ministers to preach in christs name , because they are not in a separated church , nor elected by the members thereof , as there was of prohibiting them that followed not with the apostles to cast out devils in christs name . if christ would not have these forbidden to do a miracle in his name , neither would he have the other forbidden to preach in his name , which they do in effect , who make it unlawfull to hear them . . i shall adjoyn to this , that our saviour , matth. . , . where he alleageth the plea and expectation of formal hypocrites , he doth not reject them for prophesying in his name , but for their working iniquity , thereby shewing , that he allowed their prophesying in his name as good , though not sufficient without obedience . whence i argue , if their prophesying in christs name who were workers of iniquity , then much more their teaching in christs name , who are only supposed to be defective in outward calling , or faulty in some actions consistent with christianity , is to be allowed , and if their teaching be allowed , then the hearing of them is by consequence allowed : for these are conjugates . . our lord christ saith luke . . concerning the seventy disciples , he that heareth you heareth me , and he that despiseth you despiseth me , and he that despiseth me , despiseth him that sent me . the reason hereof is , because they preached the same doctrine : if if there be an outward mission , and the same doctrine which christ taught is not preached , christ is not heard , but when the same doctrine is heard which christ taught , he is heard , and if it be rejected , he is despised . whence i argue , they may be lawfully heard , by hearing of whom we may hear christ. but by hearing of the present ministers who preach the doctrine of christ , we hear christ , therefore we may hear the present ministers who preach the d●●trine of christ. the reason of the minor is from that speech 〈◊〉 christ , john. . . my doctrine is not mine , but his that sent 〈◊〉 , in the preachers doctrine which he preacheth after christ , is not his own , but christs who sent him , as an embassadours message is his kings , not his own , and by hearing him deliver it according to his commission , his master is heard . . this is further confirmed from rom. . . and how shall they preach except they be sent ? as it is written , how beautifull are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace , and bring glad tydings of good things . the citation of these words to prove , that they cannot preach who are not sent , doth presuppose , . that they who preach the gospel of peace , that bring the glad tydings of good things , are sent to preach , and that by hearing of it comes faith , and that the word of god is heard , else were the citation impertinent , and the inference v. . inconsequent . . that their feet are beautifull , and that they are to be heard in this respect . but i subsume the present ministers , who preach the doctrine they undertake to teach , preach the gospel of peace , and bring the glad tydings of good things , therefore are they sent , their feet are beautifull , and are to be heard . . in the parable of the talents , matth. . . or pounds , luke . . our saviour saith the kingdom of heaven is as when a noble man goes into a farr country , gives his servants his money to trade with , and they are to gain more thereby , cor. . . . the gifts of the spirit are given to profit withall , in which are reckoned the word of wisdome , of knowledge , teachers v. , . ephes. . . for the ed●fying of the body of christ in the unity of the faith , and of the knowledge of the son of god. whence it is apparent , . that ability to teach the things of christ , to edifie the body of christ is a gift of christ , . that they who do use this ability do it unto christ's advantage according to his design . . that not to improve this gift is to disappoint christ of his end in giving it , . for any to hinder this improvement is sinfull . whence i argue : they that have ability to preach the gospel have received a talent from christ to improve it , their improving is by preaching , this cannot be done unless they be heard , therefore the not hearing them makes voyd the use of that gift . the present ministers who preach the gospel have received this gift , and by preaching do use i● , therefore they are to be heard , and the not hearing them is to d●sable them from improving it , and consequently is a sin against christs designe . as from the end of christs gifts , so from the duty of them that have received them we may prove , that the present ministers are to be heard , pet. . . as every man hath received the gift , even so minister the same one to another , as good stewards of the manifold grace of god. if any man speak , let him speak as the oracles of god. whence i argue ; if the present m●nisters have received a gift to speak the oracles of god , then are they to minister the same , and consequently to be heard . this is acknowledged by this author ch . . in these words ; that christ hath appointed some , as ministers , by vertue of an office power , to dispense the ordinances of the gospel , untill his second coming , is granted by all , that 't is permitted to others , as their liberty ; enjoyned them , as their duty ( having received gifts and enablements from the lord thereunto ) to improve those gifts in preaching , praying , &c. for the edification of the body of christ ( though not solemnly invested into office ) is assented unto , at least by some of those with whom we have to do ; whence a lawfulness to hear them as ministers ▪ or as gifted brethren doth necessarily arise . but the present ministers have received a gift to speak the oracles of god , as experience shews , and that equally , if not beyond the teachers of the congregational churches , and they are to minister the same , which cannot be done unless they be heard , and therefore are to be heard . when is opposed against this is answered in the examination of the second chapter of this book . . that the present ministers may be heard preach the gospel , is further proved from cor. . . where it is said to the corinthians against their addicting themselves to some teachers rather than others , whether paul or apollos , or cephas , or the world , or life , or death , or things present , or things to come ; all are yours . they are said to be theirs , because they had interest in the use of of them , and the use of the teachers was their hearing them , any of them , though not their particular pastour , and one of them , to wit apollos his setting a part to that function is not recorded , and however he did teach , and was to be heard acts . , , . afore he was ordained to be a preacher , or fully knew the way of god. whence i infer , that every christian hath an interest in every preacher of the gospel , that no minister is to be accounted 〈◊〉 peculiar to any party of christians so as to be impropriated by them , that the ability of every one may be used by any though not their proper minister , nor perhaps regularly ordained , and therefore the present ministers of england may be heard by any saints , while they teach the gospel , though such irregularities , as are objected against them , were granted to be in them or their ministry . . from the same scripture i collect , that the practise of this author in disclaiming the ministry of those , who are not either officers in a gathered church in the congregational way , or gifted brethren members in such a church , though otherwise good men , and able diligent preachers , and adhering only to those of their own society , is glorying in men forbidden by the apostle , cor. . . and contrary to what he saith , cor. . . and these things brethren , i have in a figure transferred to my self and to apollos for your sakes , that ye might learn in us not to think of men above that which is written , that no one of you be puffed up for one against another . wherein the apostle dissuades from such esteem of some ministers above others , as to overprize some , elevating some , and disparaging others , following some , and flighting others , though teachers of truth . which sin i deprehended long ago to be in this land , chiefly in the capital city thereof , and therefore discovered it in a sermon in one of the most eminent auditories thereof many years before ; and printed it in the year . with this title , anthopolatria , or the sin of glorying in men , especially in eminent ministers of the gospel , and i wish i had not been too prophetical therein . i do now wish that this author , and such others as magnifie their own teachers , or tie men to them , and draw them off from hearing other ministers , because conformists , though teachers of the gospel , did by scanning these texts see their errour and evil . it is true chrysostom and hierom on cor. . . and many other interpreters conceive a fiction , as if the apostle paul had transferred that to the persons of the apostles , which did agree to the false apostles , being moved by the words , cor. . . which it is likely our translators conceived by their reading , i have in a figure transferred these things to my self . at which pareus marvai●● in his commentarie on cor. . . and i give reasons against it in my sermon forenamed sect. . conceiving the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not to note a rhetorical figure of speech , but application as the outward habit is to the body , and the things applied are either , as pareus , what he had said , cor. . . that he which planteth is nothing , and he which watereth is nothing , or , as i rather conceived then , what is said cor. . . that they were ministe●s of christ and stewards of the mysteries of god , christian berman exerci● . theolog. . intelligit metaphoram ministri , oeconomi , villici , & hortu●an , he m●ans the metaphor of a minister , steward , husbandman , gardiner : which confirms my argument against the separating principle of those that forbid the hearing of the present ministers , though stewards of the mysteries of god , planters , waterers , builders , and tie men to hear those only who are their elected ministers or gifted brethren , which is glorying in men , and tends to puff up for one against another . . the apostle , cor. . . saith , let a man so account of us as of the ministers of christ , and stewards of the mysteries of god. thess ▪ . , ● . and we beseech you , brethren , to know them which labour among you , and are over you in the lord , and admonish you , and to esteem them very highly in love for their works sake , and be at peace among your selves . tim. . . let the elde●s that rule well be counted worthy of double honour , especially they who labour in the word and doctrine . heb. . . remember your rulers or guides who have spoken to you the word of god. wh●ch texts do shew who are to be accounted true ministers , to wit , such as are stewards of the mysteries of god , who labour in the word and doctrine , who spake unto us the word of god , what account should be made of them , they are to be esteemed highly , honoured ▪ remembred , and for what reason , for their work sake , not for particular respects only , as our election of them , our opinion of their parts , our affection to them as of our party . now i suppose the present ministers of england are stewards of the mysteries of god in dispensing the gospel truly , that they speak the word of god to the people , that they labour in the word and doctrine , and therefore are to be accounted ministers ▪ and to be esteemed , honoured , remembred for their work sake : and therefore much more are to be heard who are such , for this reason however otherwise defective . the main of this , that they speak the word of god is so manifest that it is not denyed , what is gainsaid is answered before : and therefore : judge the denying the saints liberty of giving them audience , and most of all the 〈◊〉 against them are great sins against these precepts , the th . commandement and other precepts , as acts . . st. paul conceived . . the precept , thess. . . and be at peace among your selves , a●ded to that of esteeming them in love who admonish them for their wo●k sak● , gives me occasion to annex this further reason , why the present ministers should be heard : because it tends to peace among christians , and the not hearing them ; especially upon the principles of separation is from disunion , is schism , or tends to it contrary to that peace , unity , and love which should be among christians , who have the same god , lord , spirit , faith , hope , and are , or should be joyned in one body with all christians , from whom there should be no schism , cor. , , . the schism in the church of corinth did arise from the affecting of , and addicting themselves to some teachers with relinquishment , if not disclaiming of others , as appears by that which is said cor. . . every one of you saith i am of paul , and i of apollos , and i of cephas , and i of christ : whereupon there were among them envying and strife , and division , cor. . . and they sorted themselves into companies severed from others , as may be gathered from cor. . , . and that about the lords supper , v. . . now the not hearing of the present ministers and the separation from the churches that hear them , and adhering only to their own teachers and churches according to the principles of the separatists is either the same , or very like the schism , or division among the corinthians , or tends to it , and hath begotten , and is like to beget the same , if not worse , effects among the christians in england , as were in the church of corinth , and therefore it is to be censured to be alike evil , as the schism among the corinthians , and is reckoned gal. . , . among the works of the flesh excluding out of the kingdom of god. what is alledged by this authour to justifie such separation is answered before . that which dr. john owen hath in his book of schism , tending to acquit such separation from the crime of schism , or to difference it from that which was the evil among the corinthians , hath been examined by mr. daniel cawdrey . that notion which is appropriated to the corinthian schism , as if it were onely division in the same particular church , and not separation from others not joyned in the same particular congregation , or such congregational church , is not agreeable with what the apostle delivers , cor. . . and . , . rom. . , . ephes. . . ephes. . , , . ephes. . . col. . . . whereby every christian believer where-ever is counted of the same body , to which they should be joyned in love , peace , mutual affection , and correspondent endeavours for their good , and if the apostle cor. . . expresly count it a schism in the body when any christian doth neglect another , and not take care of another , much more is it schism , when christians separate wi●hout necessary cause from communion with others , and more specially , when they disclaim them that are teachers of the word of god , as if christ were divided , as st. paul speaks , cor. . . . st. james in his epistle ch . . . writes thus , my brethren , have not the faith of our lord jesus christ the lord of glory with respect of persons , and he expresseth himself by instance , that they preferred the rich before the poor , in placing them in their assemblies , and taxeth them therefore as partial in themselves , and judges of evil thoughts . now to hear one that preacheth the faith of christ because he is of our particular society , or by reason of particular interest , or agreement in opinion , or any other then the unity of faith in the lord jesus , and to disclaim hearing another , that hath the same faith , preacheth it , and holds communion with them that embrace it , and to separate from such , to despise or oppose such , is to have the faith of our lord jesus christ with respect of persons for other reasons then their faith , and therefore is condemned by st. james as evil . . st. paul rom. , . writes thus , now i beseech you brethren , ma●k them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned , and avoyd them . but those who teach men not to hear their ministers , which preach to them the truth of gods word , because they are not in a congregational church , or not elected or ordained according to the rules of such churches , or because they conform to some things conceived unwarrantable ( which are made the reasons of unlawfulness to hear the present ministers who preach the gospel ) do cause offences and divisions contrary to the doctrine , rom. . . . rom. . . &c. rom. . . &c. therefore their doctrine is to be avoyded . . the apostle cor. . . speaks thus , what ? came the word of god out from you ? or came it unto you only ? which seems to reprehend the conceits whether schismatical or arrogant , as if the word of god were from them as the onely right teachers , or confined to them as the only persons , to whom it was communicated , and from whom it might be received , and so condemns such supposed inclosures by any church or company of teachers . but such conceits and inclosures they have and make ▪ who deny the present ministers are to be heard , conceiving the separated churches , and ministers , the only right churches and ministers to be heard . . the apostle philip. , . writes thus , let us therefore , as many as be perfect , be thus minded : and if in any th●ng ye be otherwise minded , god sh●ll reveal even this unto you , tha● is , as many of you as are well instructed in the christian doctrine ( for so the word is used cor. . . co● . . . h●b . . being opposed to children and babes that is w●ak in th● faith , rom. . . ) l●t them be minded as i am , which he had expressed before in the chapter from v. . to v. . and if any through weakness ●n faith be otherwise minded , as those rom. . . that thought mosaical laws were yet obligatory , god would in time reveal this to be their liberty , whic● i now judge to be mine ▪ nevertheless , saith he , whereto ye have already attained , let us walk by the same rule , let us mind the same things . which requires christian communion without separation notwithst●nding such difference , and consequently condemns separation from minister● or christians by reason of diversity of judgement about church government and liturgy , and different practise about conformity or non-conformity to them , which are of less moment than those differences about meats and dayes , and therefore notwithstanding them , there should be walking together in preaching , hearing , praying , and other duties of christian communion . . the holy ghost hath recorded the prophesie of ●alaam , numb . . , . &c. of caiaphas john ● . , . yea the sayings of greek infidel idolatrous poets cited by st. paul , as the words of aratus acts . ▪ of menander cor. . of epim●nides , titus . . which shews the lawfulness of reading , hearing , and making use of true sayings of any though neither true ministers of christ , nor believers , but idolaters and wicked enemies to the faith much more may the books be read , and the sermons heard of such learned men , or preachers , as clear and deliver the word of god notwithstanding dissent , or disconformity to others about liturgy and church discipline . . the apostle thess. . , . requires christians not to despise prophesyings , but to prove all things : to hold fast that which is good . st. john epist. chap. . beloved believe not every spirit , but try the spirits whether they are of god ; they make it not sin meerly to hear them that are erroneous if they try them , they may hear pretenders prophesying if they prove it , much more those ministers who preach the truth ; it is each christians duty to try their doctrine , nor their sin to hear their sermons . . this authour himself , ch . . in the words before cited , alowed the hearing of gifted brethren , though not solemnly invested into office ; nor do i think he would think it unlawful to hear parents or masters catechize , or readers in the university , when they read divinity lectures , or dispu●e in divinity schools ; and therefore by a like reason must allow the hearing of such ministers , who preach the gospel , and are found in the faith , and are regularly ordained according to the discipline of that church in which they live , and are taken for true ministers , by the godly and learned at home , and the most able and pious pastours and brethren of the reformed churches abroad . . the reasons of this authour , and other separatists , against hearing the present ministers , may be retorted against themselves . mr. william bradshaw having answered mr. francis johnsons arguments to prove this conclusion [ it is not lawful to hear or have any spiritual communion with the present ministry of the church-assemblies of england ] added reasons or arguments tending to prove , that it is a sin to separate from the publick ministry of the church-assemblies of england : directly contrary to mr. johnsons own reasons , and usually in that regard , made in the same mood and figure , which are to be seen in the unreasonableness of the separation , p. . &c. printed . in mr. gatakers rejoynder against the reply of mr. john canne . and as for this authours . arguments , it were no hard matter to prove [ that the ministers of the separated churches are not to be heard ] by some , if not by all the middle terms he hath used to prove [ that the present ministers of the church of england are not to be heard . ] as for instance , that they come not in by the door , but climb another way , by usurping ministry without any regular ordination by other ministers , that they walk disorderly in separating themselves from true churches , they have antichristian names or titles , in being called masters , that they deny christs offices in submitting to , and imposing orders or ordinances about worship , not appointed by christ , as church-covenant , paedobaptism , &c. that they are false prophets , that deny them to be true churches of christ , who hold the faith of christ , that some commands of the ceremonial law of moses , are rules to us christians , that they are babylon , and antichristian in their constitution , and their practice in dividing from other churches , not submitting to their teachers , those who have begotten them through the gospel , without any well setled order among themselves , that they therefore long agree not , but crumble into many small companies , and sometimes take them to be members of their churches who dwell in remote places ; so that their gathered churches extend as far some times as a bishops diocess , that they ascribe the power of the keys to the whole church , confound governours and governed , allow men not set apart to that function , to teach publickly , and that frequently , if not constantly , those to take upon them to prophesie , who are no prophets , that they scandalize their brethren , their governours by their invectives , that they partake of the sins of others , in allowing them to usurp that power which christ hath not committed to them , that they cast contempt upon the ways of christ , to wit , the prayers and preaching of the ministers of the church of england ; that they go to the places of false worship , as mr. iohn paget in his arrow against the separatists proves against ainsworth , that they cannot expect a blessing from god upon their separation , it having no promise of god , but is against the union that should be among christians ; that it is a step to apostacy , is a forsaking of the assembly of the saints ; to refuse to hear the present ministers , and to joyn in prayers with them , and too much experience hath proved what backsliding , if not to popery , yet to other errours of antinomians , familists , quakers , seekers , ranters , hath been the fruit of separation . but i forbear recrimination , and touching the sore , which i rather desire may be healed , and that our breaches may be made up , and not widened , to which this authours reasonings tend . . the grounds upon which this authour and other separatists deny the lawfulness of hearing the present ministers , are either false or doubtful ; as , that nothing is to be done in the worship of god , and church-discipline , without a particular institution ; that onely a congregational church is of christs institution ; that a true ministry cannot be in a false church ; that a prescibed form of prayer by men , is unlawful ; that we may not use any thing in gods worship , which hath been composed by popes , or used in the church of rome , with many more ; whereof many are shewed in this answer to be false , or uncertain , and insufficient for this authours separation , and the fallacy of them manifested in so ▪ many other treatises of conformists and non-conformists extant in print , that i need not add any more in this place . . on the other side the ministers of the church of england , have so sufficiently proved the truth of their ministry against papists and separatists , and so firmly by wrirting and otherwise , opposed popery , even the prelates , whom the separatists do so much cry down as antichristian , popish , &c. that were not men resolved never to lay down a calumny they have once taken up , they would lay this down , and forbear pressing separation upon such exceptions , and imputations as this authour hath gathered together in this his dung-cart , to furnish the inconsiderate , though perhaps otherwise well-minded in matters of religion , to cast into their faces . ▪ if it be not lawful to hear the present ministers , because they are not rightly elected , ordained , in and by a congregational church , according to christs institution ( as this authour conceives ) or because they use the common-prayer-book , are faulty in their lives , or some evil consequences , as offence of some saints , contempts of some ways of god , by accident ensue thereupon , then it will follow that every hearer , before he hears a minister ; must . be able to judge of the validity of these reasons , whether they can warrant his not hearing . . he must be able to judge every minister or preacher he hears , whether he be rightly thus elected , ordained , or qualified . . he must actually examine him afore he hears him . . he must have power either to silence or withdraw from him , if he be not so qualified , and must use that power . but . such ability is not in every hearer , nor indeed is it as the estate of things in this life is , ordinarily possible it should be . . then ministers preaching and ministry should be at the will of their auditors . for , if one may forbear hearing , all may upon the same reason , and so the minister be silenced or deprived for want of hearers . . this would put power in hearers over their ministers , and overthrow all church-government . . it would introduce greater oppression of ministers , then either prelats or their canons bring upon them . . even the ministers of congregational churches would be in danger of being deserted by their members , their maintenance withdrawn , they exposed to penury and other grievances , as well as conforning ministers . nor do i think , but that many even of them have found the bitter fruits of such popular licentiousness out of such principles of separation , as well as others . . nor can there be any setled order of government in church or civil state , if the stated ministers or magistrates according to the present laws , though perhaps in some things unjust , yet in the main upholding truth of faith and worship , and the publick good , should be deserted or disobeyed ▪ because every hearers or subjects conscience or minde is not satisfied . such a plea as is made by these men , is made by papists for their recusancy , that the ministers of the church of england are not rightly called , that they are in a schism , with other the like objections ; and then if the plea of the separatists be allowed , they have this advantage , that they should not be urged to hear the ministers , nor have the penalties of recusancy imposed on them . i say not that this reason would reach to the toleration of their priests and mass , but onely if such a plea should be allowed , why the present ministers should not be heard , the same , or the like justifies the papists for not hearing them , and condemns the inflicting penalties for recusancy , because , if this authour say true , it is unlawful to hear the present ministers . the same may be said in behalf of quakers , seekers , profane persons , ignorant people , they are not to be required to hear the ministers , if it be unlawfull ; and so the magistrate should sin if he command them to hear , though mr. robinson himself in his justification of separation , pag. . as printed in the year . writes thus . that godly magistrates are by compulsion to repress publick and notable idolatry , as also to provide that the truth of god in his ordinance , be taught , and published in their dominions , i make no doubt : it may be also it is not unlawful for them by some penalty or other , to provoke their subjects universally unto hearing , for their instruction , and conversion ; yea to grant they may inflict the same upon them , if after due teaching they offer not themselves unto the church . . that position which takes away a considerable and important part of christians liberty , and puts a yoke on their ne●ks grievous to be born , is not to be received , it being contrary to that which the apostle chargeth on christians , that they should stand fast in the liberty wherewith christ hath made us free , and not be again intangled with the yoke of bondage . gal. . . ye are bought with a price , become ye not the servants of men , cor. ● . . but , if we hold it unlawful to hear the truth of gods word taught by the present ministers , we let go our liberty of hearing , which christ hath not debarred us of , and make our selves servants to some whom alone we might hear , to the insharing of us if they err , so as that we may not hear them who may free us : which is no small bondage to a christian , and tends to the calling rabbines or masters , forbidden matt. . , and is an artifice by which papists and others have still held people from discerning their errours , and kept them in dependence on them , and adherence to their party : therefore it should not be received by us . . there is a negative superstition , when men abstain from some things , under a notion of religion , or worship of god , which are not forbidden by god , but left free and indifferent : either not forbidden , or , if once they were , now antiquated or outdated : and of this so●● was that col . . touch not , taste not , handle not ; which was superstitious negative will-worship , as mr. cawdrey in his treatise of superstition , sect . writes . this the apostle v. . blames as being dogmatized , or yielding to mens ordinances , as living in the world , not dead with christ from the elements of the world , though it have a shew of wisdom in will-worship , such was that of the pharisees in not eating till they had washed their hands , observing the tradition of the elders condemned by christ , mark . . as teaching doctrines the commandments of men ; which he counts worshipping god in vain , and it hath these evil effects , . that it occasions the neglect of gods commands . . it bege●s unnecessary perplexities in mens spirits . . it puffs men up with conceit of more holiness then others . . makes them censorious of those that are not as scrupulous as themselves , as if they were loose and profane . that such is the opinion of the unlawfulness of hearing the present ministers , as it is maintained by this authour , i suppose is manifested by the answer and reasons foregoing ; and that it hath the evil effects here named , is too evident , by experience , in the neglect of the publick communion in worship , and other duties of love to them with whom communion in publick worship is not held , in the doubts and opinions of not observing the present ministers with any respect , nor paying them dues imposed by law , in conceiving themselves the saints , others antichristian , with many bitter taunts , scoffs , reproaches , revilings , tales of and against them , contrary to the fruits of the spirit of god mentioned , gal. . . therefore it is not be to received . . hereto is to be added , that upon the same suppositions the opinion of denying the lawfulness of hearing the present ministers , as it is asserted by this authour , is an usurpation of christs regal office , in putting a law on the consciences of men , arrogating that power which is proper to that one lawgiver who is able to save and destroy , james . . binding heavy burthens and grievous to be born , and laying them on mens shoulders , matt. . imitating therein pharisaical pride , and papal dominion , and such other practises as they condemn in others . they that condemn those that permit not them to preach , who will not use ceremonies , are guilty of the like imposition , who permit not christians to hear preachers of the gospel , unless they be in a congregational church , and be called by them ; and while they charge others with adding to the word the inventions of men , are themselves guilty thereof . . nor is it a light matter , but to be well pondered , that by this means the knowledge of the word of god is much hindred , and thereby the furthering of the kingdom of god , the coming of which we are to pray for , is neglected , such as hold the opinion of not hearing the ministers in publick , thinking it enough if they can teach those of their society ; if by conference they instill any truths into others , it is seldom without somewhat that alienates them from others , and engageth them to their own society , with diminution of love to others , if not worse dispositions and practices . whence many remain in ignorance , profaneness , and errours , being hardned in opposition to the present ministers ; whom i deny not , may give too much occasion by their loose walking , and negligent preaching , in which they are not to be excused ; yet is not the opinion of not hearing them while they preach the gospel thereby justified , but both to be blamed as guilty of hindring the good of mens souls , and christs kingdom , and so in some sort antichristian . . nor are the effects of this opinion onely pernicious to them who are without ; but evil also to them within , whether ministers or people . to ministers , in that by the neglect of hearing them , and such esteem as is due to them for their work sake they are disheartened , and by this wrangling , opposition , disquietness they meet with , disabled in a great measure from doing that good which otherwise might be done . yea , by this opinion , their ministery , though they preach the gospel , is disanulled , and accounted as accursed . so the people , in that they are divided , become unpeaceable , some for not hearing , being unnecessarily cast on the danger of the laws , deprived of estates and liberty , in many places growing empty of fruitful knowledge , exposed to the attempts of seducers , who lie in wait to deceive , filled with bitterness of spirit towards others , though profuse towards those that agree with them ; and in a word , there is a sad breach between christians of the same profession of faith , which is most contrary to the union which they should have in christ by the same spirit ; and i wish it were not true that it is fulfilled now , which was foretold tim. . , . that men heap to themselves teachers after their own lusts . . the many absurdities which are consequent on the opinion , should disswade us from entertaining it . for if it be true , that it is unlawful to hear the present ministers , then it is not lawfull for us to invite them to preach , or to exhort them to it , or to rejoyce in it , or to pray to god that they may , or to praise god for their preaching : then it is better that quakerism , ranting , barbarism , rudeness should be spread among the people , then they be urged to hear the publick preachers ; that magistrates do ill to command people to go to hear them ; that they countenance or maintain them , then it is good at sermon time to stay at home idle , or to lie in an ale-house , rather then to go to hear them ; the non-preaching readers are as tolerable as preaching ministers ; their forbearing to preach , is avoiding of sin ; the less they preach , and the less they are heard preach , there is the less sin , their silencing is no evil , not they to be blamed for not preaching ; for it can be no evil for them to forbear preaching , if it be a sin for others to hear them , they ought rather to forbear preaching , then to draw others to sin . and yet , so wild is this opinion , that many of them that refuse to hear and condemn as this authour doth , the hearing of them , do yet except against non-preaching ministers , blame the ministers for not preaching more frequently , and those that hinder their preaching : whereas , if the hearing them were unlawful , it were good counsel to perswade men not to hear their sermons , nor to preach them ; which would introduce irreligion , or some pernicious errour , as the state of things now stands in this nation . sect. . some passages in the writings of mr. john goodwin opposite to th● book intituled , prelatical preachers none of christs teachers . for a conclusion , whereas the book mentioned in my epistle to the reader intituled [ p●elatical preachers none of christs teacher ] shewed to me as that , which did make men separatists , and the book was written not in a logick form , and therefore not answered by me , yet the authour being supposed the same with him who printed in the year . two books against some that about baptism left his communion , i have here added some passages with animadversions , which shew how his separation in this latter book crosseth his sayings in the former . in his . quaeries , qu. . i read thus , when men may separate that which is precious from that which is vile , and enjoy it thus separated and apart without suffering any inconvenience by that which is vile , is it a point of wisdome in them to deprive themselves of the enjoyment of what is precious , because there is somewhat , which they suppose to be vile near to it ? why then doth lie dissuade from hearing the present ministers ; who preach precious doctrine , because of some things conceived vile in them , yet may be separated from that which is precious ? qu. . the experience of many years in the reformed churches abroad , and of some years amongst our selves at home , hath abundantly taught and informed us , that the said question hath yielded little other fruit unto those that have set their hearts to it , yea and to others also , but contention , strife , emulations , evil surmizings , distractions , confusions , alienations of mind , and affections , amongst christian brethren , evill speakings , vilifyings , revilings , needless and wastfull expence of time , loss of many precious opportunities for matters of greatest consequence , unprofitable disturbings and turmoylings of weak consciences , shatterings , scatterings , rendings , and tearings such of churches and christian societies , who , till this root of bitterness sprang up amongst them , walked in love , and with the light of gods countenance shining on them , holding the vnity of the spirit in the bond of peace , edifying one another in their most holy faith , &c. these things were not the fruit of that question , but of that separation , which was made by occasion of it , and are as true of the separation this authour maintained in his later book . qu. . whether ought not the law of edification [ cor. . . ] to over-rule all laws and precept concerning spiritual and church administrations , as the law of salus populi ought to umpire and over-rule all politique laws and constitutions , in their respective executions ? if so , the supposed laws of outward calling of ministers should not be urged , so as to hinder people from hearing ministers , because of some defect supposed therein , when they may be heard to edification of the hearers . in his water-dipping , consideration . is it not then presumption in the highest , and an assuming of an antichristian power , to impose laws upon christian societies , which the lord christ never imposed ; yea , and to cesure and scandalize them with the odious and reproachful terms of antichristian , and unclean , onely for the transgression of their own laws ? what doth he less , who forbids to hear in his latter book the present ministers . consideration . whereas antichrist himself is not more antichristian , then in claiming and exercising such a dominion over the faiths of his proselytes and disciples ; by vertue whereof he commandeth them to depend onely upon ministes and teachers of his own faith and wicked perswasion in matters of religion , severely prohibiting unto them the hearing of protestant preachers ; we understand that the same high imposing spirit domineers more generally in the churches and congregations , which solemnly conjure all their proselytes and converts not to hear jesus christ himself speaking by any other mouth then theirs ; thus bearing them in hand , as if a voice from heaven , like unto that which was heard by the people at christs baptism , concerning him , had come to them also in reference to themselves and their teachers , in this or the like tenor of words , we are the onely true churches and ministers of christ : hear us . yea , there was of late a very great schism made in one of these churches , and the greater part aposynagog●ized by the lesser , because of the high misdemeanour of some of the members , in hearing the words of eternal life from the mouths of such ministers , who follow not them in their way . such principles and practises as these , we judge to be most notoriously and emphatically antichristian , and such wherein ( as was said in a like case ) the very horns and hoofs of the beast may be discerned . yea , we cannot but judge them to be of most pernicious consequence to the precious souls of men , as depriving them of the best means and opportunities which god most graciously affordeth● unto them for their recovery out of all such snares , wherein at any time their foot may be taken , ex ore tuo . — from these words might the authour of that book [ prelatical preachers none of christs teachers ] have learned not to condemn the hearing of the present ministers , as if none were to be heard but of his own way . finis . errata . page . line . read one . p. . l. . r. by him to them . p. . l. . r. case . p. . l. . r. utensils . p. . l. . r. wills . p. . l. . add after . & . . l. . r. . . l. . r. . . p. . l. . r. separatists . p. . l. . r. persevering . l. . r. . . p. . l. . r. times . p. . l. . r. breadth . p. . l. . r. hath . p. . running title , r. makes not . p. . l. . r. stupendious . p. . l. . r. he . p. . l. . r. distra . p. . l. . r. applies . p. . l. . r. bounded . p. . l. . r. parallel . l. . r. sanctius . p. . l. ult . r. ishi . p. . l. . r. super . p. . l. . r. solum . p. . l. . r. preside . p. . l. . r. acknow . p. . l. . r. pretence . p. . l. . r. did . p. . l. . r. queristers . p. . l. . r. the. p. . l. . r. venting . p. ( . ) l. . r. tyanaeus . p. ( . ) running title , r. ill applied . p. . l. . r. intension . p. . l. . r. ly . p. . running title , r. preacher . books printed for henry eversden , and are to be sold at his shop under the crown-tavern in west-smithfield . . the sphere of gentry , deduced from the principles of nature , an historical and genealogical work of arms and blazon : by sylvanus morgan . . the history of the late civil warrs of england . . riverius his universal body of physick in five books , &c. . the language of arms by the colours and metals , in quarto , by silvanus morgan . . scepsis scientifica , or confest ignorance the way to science , by joseph glanvil , fellow of the royal society . . the gospel physitian in quarto . . the mistery of rhetorick unveil'd , eminently delightful , and profitable for young schollars , and others of all sorts , enabling them to discern and imita●e the elegancy in any other author they read , &c. by john smith gent. . a crew of kind london gossips , all met to be merry : to which is added ingenious poems , or witt and drollery , in octavo , at s. bound . . the natural rarities of england , scotland , and wales , according as they are to be found in every shire , very useful for all ingenius men of what profession or quality soever , by j. childrey , in octavo . . pearls of eloquence , or the school of complements , very useful for all young ladies , gentlewomen , and schollars , who are desirous to adorn their speech with gentile ceremonies , complemental , amo●ous , and high expressions , of speaking or writing , at s. bound . . hodges directions for true writing , in octavo . . gods alsufficiency , by mr. jeremy , in ▪ notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e see selden de syned ▪ ebre . l. . c. . notes for div a -e ainsworth of the church of rome against johnson , p ▪ . every abuse doth not make a thing an idol ; but , when the honour due to god alone , is given to a creature , then it is made an idol . vide gatak . annot. in antonin . l. . sect . . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . vide bezae annot. in matth. . . . dr. rainold in his letter to mr. barker , testifies his sil●ncing hart the jesuite herewith ; which is extant in mr. ●yfords apology , p. . ludov. crocius antisocinism . contr . disp . . qu. . geniculando coenam sumere nos per se indifferens judicamus . q. . nobis hic ritus est indifferens , allegatq , lutherum , m●lanchthonem , ut idem statuetes , contra flacium . see dr. hammond of scandal , § . notes for div a -e arg. . notes for div a -e owen of schisms ch . . sect. . upon what account those heb. . . so seperated themselves is declared v. . thereby slipping out their necks from the y●ak of christ v. . and drawing back to perdition v. . that is , they departed off to judaism . notes for div a -e dr. sparks in his book of uniformity allowed , and printed by command , . c. . in the conference at hampton court , his majesties order was , that none of the apocryphal books that had any errour , should be read , &c. dr. barlow by the preface to the second tome of homilies , declared it might be lawful by our church , to read other chapters , and alleadgeth archbishop abbot c. . quis ergo nisi infidelis negaverit fuisse apud inferos christum ? so are the words in the book of ordination . a letter form [sic] a gentleman in the country to his friends in london upon the subject of the penal laws and tests penn, william, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing p estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a letter form [sic] a gentleman in the country to his friends in london upon the subject of the penal laws and tests penn, william, - . p. s.n.], [london : . attributed to penn by wing and nuc pre- imprints. place of publication suggested by wing and nuc pre- imprints. reproduction of original in the union theological seminary library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng test act ( ) dissenters, religious -- legal status, laws, etc. -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - mona logarbo sampled and proofread - mona logarbo text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a letter form a gentleman in the country , to his friends in london , upon the subject of the penal laws and tests . quod tibi non vis fieri , alteri non feceris . printed in the year . gentlemen , i wonder mightily at the news you send me , that so many of the town are averse to the repeal of the penal statutes ; surely you mean the clergy of the present church , and those that are zealous for their dignity and power : for what part of the kingdom has felt the smart of them more , and at all times , and on all occasions represented their mischeif to the trade , peace , plenty and wealth of the kingdom , so freely as the town has always done ? but you unfold the riddle to me , when you tell me , 't is for fear of popery , tho i own to you , i cannot comprehend it , any more then you do transubstantiation : for that we should be afraid of popery for the sake of liberty , and then afraid of it because of persecution , seems to me absurd , as it is , that liberty should be thought the high way to persecution . but because they are upon their fears , pray let me tell you mine , and take them among the rest in good part . if the romanists seek ease by law , 't is an argument to me they desire to turn good countrymen , and take the law for their security , with the rest of their neighbours ; and a greater complement they cannot put upon our english constitution , nor give a better pledge of their desires to be at peace with us . but if we are so tenacious as we will keep on foot the greatest blemish of our reformation , viz. our hanging , qua tering , plunder banishing laws ; is it not turning them out of this quiet course , and telling them if they will have ease , they must get it as they can , for we will never conceed it ? and pray tell me if this be not thrusting them upon the methods we fear they will take , at the same time that we give that , for the reason why we do so . if law can secure us , which is the plea that is made , we may doubtless find an expedient in that which may repeal these , if the danger be not of liberty it self , but of our loosing it by them at last ; for there is no michief the wit of man can invent , that the wit of man cannot avoid . but that which i confess makes me melancholy , is , that methinks we never made more haste to be cous●ned ; no not in the business of the declaration of indulgence , when in the name of property that was actually damn'd , which at least reprieved it ; and the price the church of england gave for it , viz. her promise of a legal case , actually failed us : for instead of saving our selves from popery , we are by these partialities provoking it every day , and methinks foolishly for our own safety ; because there can be no other end in doing so , then securing that party which calls it self the church of england , that is in her constitution none of the best friends to property ; for mens liberties and estates are by her laws made forfeitable for non-conformity to her : and i challenge the records of all time since popery got the chair in england , to produce an eight part of the laws , to ruin men for conscience , that have been made since the other has been the national religion , which is , i say , a scandal to the reformation . she says , she is afraid of popery , because of its violence , and yet uses force to compel it ; is not this resisting popery with popery ? which we call loving the treason but ha●ing the traytor : she would have power to fo●ce or destroy others , but they should not have power to force or destroy her , no not to save themselves : shift the hand never so often , this weapon is still the same . 't were happy therefore that all parties were disarm'd of this sword , and that it were put where it ought only to be , in the civil magistrates hand , to terifie evil doers , and cherish those that do well , remember●ng st peter's saying ( in cornelius's case ) for an example , i perceive now of a truth that god is no respecter of persons , but those that fear him , and work righteousness in all nations shall be accepted : else what security does the church of england give to the great body of her dissenters , that she will not do what she fears from popery , when she has a prince of her own religion upon the throne , that has made so fair a progress these last six and twenty years in ruining families , for non-conformity under princes of an other perswasion . come , interest will not lye , she fears liberty , as much as popery : since those that want , and plead for the one , are an hundred times more in number then the friends of the other , and all of her side , that popery should not mount the chair : so that she would get more then she would lose by the repeal , if an equal desire to subject both popish and protestant dissenters to her power and government be not the principle she walks by in her present aversion . and to shew you that this is the case , and that her aversion to popery is a sham to the liberty desired , the dissenters are of no use to her , while the penal laws are on foot ; for by them they are put in the power of a prince of the religion of the church she fears ; but the moment they are repealed , so far as concerns the preventing popery to be national , the dissenters are equally interested with the church of england against it . but then here is the mischief ; this liberty takes the rod out of her hand ; she can no more whip people into her churches , and she perhaps may modestly suspect her own vertue and ability to preach them thither . in short , if she were in earnest against popery , more then in love with her own power and grandure ; that is , if the world were not in the way , she would rejoyce to deliver men of her own religion , that are so much more numerous then the papists , that they might ballance against her fears of their prevailing : but to cry she is for liberty to protestant dissenters , and make the demonstration of it , her keeping up the laws that ruin them , and then say it is for fear of the religion the prince owns , and yet force them into his hands by doing so , is , i must confess , something incomprehensible . besides , properly and naturally speaking , the church of england is the people of england , and when it s apply'd to a party , 't is a faction to the whole ; and that title has no more truth in it , then 't is sence to say the roman catholick church , which in english , is a particular universal church : and pray is there no room left to consider this hard case of the kingdom ? i hope the civil magistrate will , who is the supream pastor of this civil church on earth . is she then no more then a party ? no certainly . and how great a one , a true liberty of conscience would best tell us , and that is the true reason , and not popery , that she is tender in the point . i conclude then , that whilst those of that religion only desire to be upon the level with others ; i mean upon native rights , the great charter , what we all of us call , our birth-right , let us not refuse it , lest god suffer them to prevail to curb our partiallity . there are laws enough to punish offenders against the state , if these were repealed , and not condemn people by anticipation . that law which catches a protestant , will catch a papish traytor , riotor or seditious person . again , let us reflect , that we have a prince of age , and more honour ; the prospect of three excellent princes of the protestant religion , the paucity of the papists , the number of the enemies of their commnion , their unity in that aversion : what greater security can we have in the world ? policy , honour , religion , number , vnity , ●ay , necessity too , conspire to make us safe : for all these are concerned in the means of our preservation ; unless our fears and our follies should prevail : which i confess i apprehend most ; for they will be deserted of god , that forsake him and themselves too ; who dare do a certain evil that a supposed good may come of it , contradict their own principles deny what they expect , sow what they would not reap , do to others what they would not that others should do to them : but there is a god in heaven , and he is just : he will meet to us what we measure to one another , and his judgment is inevitable . i therefore advise the church of england to be as ready in her christian complyances as is possible : first , because it is impious to keep up distroying laws for religion , when her saviour tells her upon this very question , that he came not to destroy mens lives but to save them . secondly , because by this she will wipe off rhe reproach she throws by continuing them , upon her own apologies for liberty of conscience , when under the wheel of power . thirdly , because liberty to the papists by law , is bringing them into the legal interest of the kingdom , and will prevent the force , they may else be driven to , by being made and left desperate : for ' its not to be thought they will willingly pay the reckoning in another reign , if by any means they can prevent it ; and keeping up the penal laws can be no security to the church of england from such attempts , though they may provoke them upon her . fourthly , she hereby saves her dissenters ; and if it be really her inclination to do so , she has no other way , and this unites them to her in affection and interest , if not in worship . but if on the contrary she persists obstinately to refuse this national paciffick ; the dissenters , i hope , will consider their honest interest , conscience and property , and imbrace those oppertunities to secure them , that god in his all-wise providence is pleased to yield them in this conjuncture . thus gentlemen , you have my thoughts upon your news , pray communicate them to our acquantance , and believe that i am , yours , &c. post-script . for the tests that are so much discoursed of , i shall only say , that 't is , an other mystery of the times to me , how the church of england , that was against the exclusion , can be for them that were design'd for a preamble to it ; since in so doing , she is for that which was contrived to introduce the exclusion she was so zealously against . i confess i never understood her very well , and she grows more and more unintelligible ; but this i know , that she must either be sorry for what she has done , or she did not know what she did . the first reflects upon her loyalty , the last upon her understanding ; and because i think that the least , and likeliest evil , i conclude she is no infallible guide upon the question . another thing you tell me , that gives great offence , is , his majesties turning out protestants , and putting in people of his religion . this i conceive a fault , that the church of england is only answerable for . other princes have been so unhappy as to suffer tests and marks of distinction that have broken and disorder'd their kingdoms , by depriving those of their temporal comforts , that would not receive them ; and this people esteemed a mighty grievance ; and were frequent and elegant in their complaints about it . we have a king now , that would remove these marks of distinction , and secure all men upon their native right and bottom , that all parties might sit safely under their own vine , and under their own fig-tree ; so that now , who is for liberty ? becomes the test . are they then fit to be trusted that are out of his interest , and against the liberty he is for , and the nation wants and craves ? or is it good sense , that he ( who is mortal as well as other men ) should leave the power in those hands , that to his face show their aversion to the friends of his communion tho he offers to maintain her still ? she had the offer to keep them , upon that principle that must heal and save the kingdom liberty of conscience : which shows the king was willing to be served by her sons to chuse , if upon the same general principle with himself : wherefore 't is the gentlemen of the church of england that turn themselves out of power , rather then endure liberty of conscience to others ; and shall this vice be their vertue . they must be heartily in love with persecution that can sacrifice their places to the upholding of penal laws for religion , because they would not let others , not only , not come in , but not live at their own charges : a fine thing to suffer for . their ancestors were martyers by penal laws , but these for them . the cause is chang'd whatever they think , and i am afraid they are chang'd too for want of thinking . i profess i pitty them with all my heart and wish them more wit , and better consciences against next time , if ever they have it , for these , if they will believe me , will hardly ever make so good a bargin for them , as they have lost by them . more of this , if you like it , next time , and till then , adieu . finis . the judgment of mr. baxter concerning ceremonies and conformity with a short reflection upon a scandalous pamphlet intituled, a proposition for the safety and happiness of the king and kingdom : in a letter to a gentleman of the house of commons. baxter, richard, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing b estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) the judgment of mr. baxter concerning ceremonies and conformity with a short reflection upon a scandalous pamphlet intituled, a proposition for the safety and happiness of the king and kingdom : in a letter to a gentleman of the house of commons. baxter, richard, - . gentleman of the house of commons. p. printed for r. jenaway [sic] ..., london : . halkett and laing ( nd ed.) attributes authorship of "a proposition for the safety and happiness of the king and kingdom" to david jenkins. reproduction of original in british library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng jenkins, david, - . -- proposition for the safety and happiness of the king and kingdom. dissenters, religious -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - mona logarbo sampled and proofread - mona logarbo text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the judgment of mr. baxter concerning ceremonies and conformity . with a short reflection upon a scandalous pamphlet , intituled , a proposition for the safety and happiness of the king and kingdom . in a letter to a gentleman of the house of commons . london , printed for r. jenaway , in the year sir , i suppose the pamphlet which you sent mee , was designed rather to let me see the impudence of this licentious age , than to draw me into the impertinence of answering it . the lameness of the style , the sence , and the coherence , but especially the weakness of what he calls arguments , make me ashamed to deal with such an adversary . yet in running it over , i could not but observe this one confession : it is not the dignity of the bishops , their lordships and revenues ; it is not their cathedrals , organs , and their divine service in what state and magnificence they please ; it is not common prayer , no nor any ceremony of the church whatsoever for all its significancy , if it be but a circumstance of worship , and no more , that could hinder most of the sober nonconformists to come over to you ; but it is these declarations , subscriptions , and oaths which you impose on them in your acts. now , though i think it no hard matter to make it appear , that these declarations , subscriptions , and oaths , contain nothing in them but what is absolutely necessary to the safety of the church and state ; and that those men who refuse to make such acknowledgments and engagements , are utterly unfit to be intrusted with the cure of souls , and the office of preaching to the people ; which , like other good things , as it is excellent in the use , so is it no less dangerous in the abuse : yet supposing , for once , that these oaths and subscriptions were as unlawful , as they would have the world believe ; what is this to those that are not required to subscribe or swear ? is not this a plain acknowledgement , that notwithstanding all these clamors against the governours , and the ceremonies of the church , yet there is indeed no just ground of separating from either , since no swearing or subscription is required of the multitude , of which they so much boast , and whose cause they pretend to plead ? of these , by their own confession , as many as are judicious and sober , may come over and conform : so that we have only a few factious men ( that call themselves ministers ) that make all this noise ; as if for their sakes , the king and parliament must undoe all that they have done , for the restoring of religion and good order in the church , and preserving peace in the state : and because the city and the ships have been lately burnt , these men that are well skilled in blowing coals , must have leave to set the whole kingdome in a flame . the worthy gentlemen of your house , will , i hope , consider this : which that you may not look upon only as an unwary word dropt from a loose pen , i shall add , for confirmation , what i long since observed in a book written by a great rabbie of that tribe , under the title of five disputations of church government , and worship : printed at london , . a time , when he could have but small encouragement to say more than be thought in this matter . the judgment of mr. baxter concerning ceremonies and conformity . those modes or circumstances of worship which are necessary in genere , but left undetermined by god in specie , are left by god to humane prudential determination : ( else an impossibility should be necessary . ) but many such there are , that are necessary in genere , but left undetermined of god in specie ; therefore many such are left to humane prudential determination . § . . yet it is in the power of man to determine of such modes and circumstances as are necessary to the performance of that worship which god hath instituted in his word : and therefore lawful governors may in such cases bind us by their commands . . it is left to humane determination , what place the publick assemblies shall be held in . . it is left to man to determine of the time of holy duties , except only where god hath determined of it already . . it is left to the determination of humane prudence , what utensils to employ about the publick worship of god. here therefore we must thus conclude , . that every misordering of such great affairs , is the sin of them that do it . . but yet that the subject is not exempted from obedience by every such mistake of the governor : but by some , he is . § . . if the mischoosing of such circumstances , by church-governors , be but an inconvenience , and do not destroy the ordinance it self , or frustrate the ends of it , we are to obey : . for he is the judge of his own work , and not we : . the thing is not sinful , though inconvenient : . obedience is commanded to our lawful governors . we must obey in all things lawful . and when we do obey in a case of miscommanding , it is not a doing evil , that good may come of it , as some do misconceive : but it is only a submitting to that which is ill commanded , but not evil in him that doth submit . it is the determiner that is the cause of the inconvenience , and not the obeyer . nor is it inconvenient for me to obey , though it be worse perhaps to him that commandeth . while he sinneth in commanding , he may make it my duty to obey . § . . dist . . we must distinguish between ceremonies imposed by a lawful magistrate , or church-governors ; and such as are imposed by usurpers , or men without authority . § . . prop. . it may be very sinful to command some ceremonies , which may lawfully , yea , must in duty be used by the subject when they are commanded . § . . prop. . yet certain things that are commonly called ceremonies , may lawfully be used in the church upon humane imposition ; and when it is not against the law of god , no person should disobey the commands of their lawful governors in such things . of set-forms , and the book of common-prayer . prop. . a stinted liturgy is in it self lawful . . a stinted liturgy in some parts of publick service , is ordinarily necessary . . in the parts where it is not of necessity , it may not onely be submitted to , but desired , when the peace of the church requireth it . . the safest way of composing such a publick form , is , to take it all , for matter and words , out of the holy scriptures . . yet is not this of such necessity , but that we may joyn in it , or use it , if the form of words be not from scripture . prop. . a stinted liturgie is in it self lawful . this is thus proved : argument . that which is not directly , or consequentially forbidden by god , remaineth lawful : a stinted liturgy is not directly , or consequentially forbidden by god : therefore it remaineth lawful . the major is undoubted , because nothing but a prohibition can make a thing unlawful . sin is a transgression of a law : where there is no law , there is no transgression : and yet i have heard very reverend men answer this , that it is enough that it is not commanded , though not forbidden ▪ which is plainly to deny both scripture and civil principles . now for the minor , that a stinted liturgy is not forbidden , we need no other proof , than that no prohibition can be produced . argument . if it be lawful for the people to use a stinted form of words in publick prayer , then is it in it self lawful for the pastors : but it is lawful for the people : for the pastors prayer ( which they must pray over with him , and not onely hear it ) is a stinted form to them , even as much as if he had learnt it out of a book . they are to follow him in his method and words , as if it were a book-prayer . argument . it is lawful to use a form in preaching : therefore a stinted liturgy is lawful . . because preaching is a part of that liturgy . . because the reason is the same for prayer , as for that , in the main . argument . that which hath been the practice of the church in scripture-times , and down to this day , and is yet the practice of almost all the churches of christ on earth , is not like to be unlawful : but such is the use of some stinted forms of publick service : therefore , &c. that it was so in the jews church , and approved by christ , i have shewed . that it hath been of ancient use in the church since christ , and is at this day in use in africk , asia , europe , even among the reformed churches in france , holland , geneva , &c. is so well known , that i think i need not stand to prove it : yea , those few that seem to disuse it , do yet use it , in psalms , and other parts of worship . as for the common-prayer it self , i never rejected it because it was a form , nor thought it simply unlawful because it was such a form ; but have made use of it , and would do again in the like case . of ceremonies . the ceremonies controverted among us , were especially , the surplice , the gesture of kneeling in receiving the lords supper , the ring in marriage , laying the hand on the book in taking an oath , the organs and church-musick , holy-dayes , altars , rails , and the cross in baptism . of the surplice . some decent habit is necessary ; either the magistrate , or the minister himself , or the associated pastors must determine what . i think neither magistrate nor synod should do any more than hinder undecency : but yet if they do more , and tye all to one habit ( and suppose it were an undecent habit ) yet this is but an imprudent use of power . it is a thing within the magistrates reach ; he doth not an aliene work , but his own work amiss : and therefore the thing in it self being lawful ; i would obey him , and use that garment , if i could not be dispensed with . yea , though secondarily the whiteness be to signifie purity , and so it be made a teaching sign , yet would i obey . of kneeling at the sacrament . but yet , as sinfully as this gesture was imposed , for my part i did obey the imposers , and would do , if it were to do again , rather than disturbe the peace of the church , or be deprived of its communion . for god having made some gesture necessary , and confined me to none , but left it to humane determination , i shall submit to magistrates in their proper work , even when they miss it in the manner . i am not sure that christ intended the example of himself and his apostles , as obligatory to us that shall succeed . i am sure it proves sitting lawful ; but i am not sure that it proves it necessary : ( though very convenient . ) but i am sure , he hath commanded me obedience and peace . of the ring in marriage . and for the ring in marriage , i see no reason to scruple the lawfulness of it : for though the papists make a sacrament of marriage , yet we have no reason to take it for any ordinance of divine worship ; any more than the solemnizing of a contract between a prince and people . all things are sanctified and pure to the pure . of organs and church musick . and for organs , or other instruments of musick in gods worship , they being a help partly natural , and partly artificial , to the exhilerating of the spirits , for the praise of god , i know no argument to prove them simply unlawful , but what would prove a cup of wine unlawful , or the tune and meeter , and melody of singing unlawful . of holy-dayes . nor for my part do i make any scruple * to keep a day in remembrance of any eminent servant of christ , or martyr , to praise god for their doctrine or example , and honour their memorial . but the hardest part of the question is , whether it be lawful to keep days , in celebrating the memorial of christs nativity , circumcision , fasting ; transfiguration , ascension , and such like ? and yet for all this i am resolved , if i live where such holy-days as these are observed , to censure no man for observing them ; nor would i deny them liberty to follow their judgments , if i had the power of their liberties ; provided they use not reproach and violence to others ; and seek not to deprive them of their liberties . yea more , i would not onely give men their liberty in this , but if i lived under a government that peremptorily commanded it , i would observe the outward rest of such a holi-day , and i would preach on it , and joyn with the assemblies in gods worship on it . yea , i would thus observe the day , rather than offend a weak brother , or hinder any mans salvation , much more rather than i would make any division in the church . of altars , and rails . and for the next ceremony , the name and form of an altar ; no doubt it is a thing indifferent , whether the table stand this way , or that way : and the primitive churches used commonly the names of sacrifice , and altar , and priest , and i think , lawfully : for my part i shall not be he that shall condemn them . i conceive that the dislike of these things in england ( the form and name of an altar , and the rails about it ) was not as if they were simply evil . whether we shall receive the lords supper at a table , or in our seats ; and whether the table shall be of wood or stone ? whether it shall be round , or long , or square ? whether it shall stand in the east or west-end of the temple , or in the middle ? whether it shall have rails , or no rails ? all these are left to humane prudence . of the cross in baptism . but of all our ceremonies , there is none that i have more suspected to be simply unlawful , than the cross in baptism . yet i dare not peremptorily say , that it is unlawful : nor will i condemn either antients or moderns that use it : nor will i make any disturbance in the church about it , more than my own forbearance will make . i presume not to censure them that judge it lawful ; but onely give the reasons that make me doubt , and rather think it to be unlawful , though still with a suspicion of my own understanding . ambros . contr . symmach . unus quis que patienter ferat , si non extor que atur imperatori , quod moleste ferret , si ei extor quere cuperet imperator . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e p. , . p. . notes for div a -e disp. . p. . disp . p. ▪ p. . p. . ibid. p. . p. . p. . p. . disp . . p. . p. . p. . p. . p. . p. . p. . p. . p. . p. : * in point of lawfulness ; for conveniency is according to several accidents . p. , . p. . p. . ibid. ibid. p. , . p. . p. . a necessitie of separation from the church of england, prooved by the nonconformists principles specially opposed vnto dr. ames, his fresh suit against humane ceremonies, in the point of separation only. also dr. laiton, mr. dayrel, and mr. bradshaw, are here answered, wherein they have written against us. with a table in the later end, of the principal occurrents in this treatise. by iohn canne, pastor of the ancient english church, in amsterdam. canne, john, d. ? approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a stc estc s this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a necessitie of separation from the church of england, prooved by the nonconformists principles specially opposed vnto dr. ames, his fresh suit against humane ceremonies, in the point of separation only. also dr. laiton, mr. dayrel, and mr. bradshaw, are here answered, wherein they have written against us. with a table in the later end, of the principal occurrents in this treatise. by iohn canne, pastor of the ancient english church, in amsterdam. canne, john, d. ? [ ], , [ ] p. printed [by the successors of giles thorp], [amsterdam] : in the yeare . in part a reply to: ames, william. a fresh suit against human ceremonies in god's worship. identification of printer from stc. running title reads: a necessitie of separation, proved by the nonconformists principles. includes index and a final errata leaf. reproduction of the original in the british library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng ames, william, - . -- fresh suit against human ceremonies in god's worship -- controversial literature -- puritan authors -- early works to . church of england. -- controversial literature -- puritan authors -- early works to . dissenters, religious -- england -- early works to . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - emma (leeson) huber sampled and proofread - emma (leeson) huber text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a necessitie of separation from the church of england , prooved by the nonconformists principles . specially opposed vnto dr. ames , his fresh suit against humane ceremonies , in the point of separation only . also dr. laiton , mr. dayrel , and mr. bradshaw , are here answered , wherein they have written against us . with a table in the later end , of the principal occurrents in this treatise . by iohn canne , pastor of the ancient english church , in amsterdam . prov. . . . open thy mouth for the dumbe , in the cause of all such as are appointed to destruction . — and plead the cause of the poore and needie . ioh. , . if ye know these things , happie are ye if ye doe them . printed in the yeare . to every one , that seeketh after the truth in sincerity , salutations . there are extant allready so many bookes in the defence of our cause , * ( which never yet received any answer ) that it hath been in my thoughts a long time , not to enter publickly the lists of contention about it with any man ; but to imploy that smal portion , which i have in the knowledg of holy things , more peaceably otherwise ; not with standing perceiving of late , the general fame , which was given forth of dr. ames his booke , and namely in his answer to the point betweene the nonconformists and us , as that it was so learnedly and absolutely done , that it gave all men satisfaction ( the separatists only excepted ) and that no man would ever be able to make any sound reply therein vnto it . i thought it requisite , to take a thorow view thereof ; which , when i had so don , and saw the sleightnesse of it , ( to say no worse ‡ ) i conceived with my selfe , that this common bruit must need arise , either from some ignorant people , who cannot judge of things which differ , or from such as have mens persons in admiration , and so like the shadow will follow them where ever they goe , be it right or wrong . it is knowne to those , which know the controversies betweene the formal protestants in england , and the reformists , that the principles of the later , by the former are said to be the direct and plaine grounds of separation ; sundry arguments and reasons they allege for it , as the reader may see in their several treatises . ‡ this thing by the other is not only denyed , but withall they proclame themselves the main refuters of the separatists , and doe affirme , that they 𝄁 never saw any prelate to confute their opinions any otherwise then by rayling words ; but how wel they have confuted us , it will appeare in the following dispute , unto which i referre the reader : only i thinke good in breefe to give him here a sight of most of their weapons , which they draw out vsually against vs , and whereby they indeavour to conquer and quel us quite . . vile calumniations , and bitter scoffes , proclaming us to the world , to be schismaticks , brownists , donatists , &c. and matching us many times with the most notorious hereticks a , and blasphemers b , that they can thinke vpon , of purpose to make our persons and profession odious to all men . . raysing up many manifest lies & untruths c , & gathering together the faylings of some particular persons , which had walked with us , & casting the same as dung in our faces . . braggs and boasts of victorie ; a notable instance for this we have , in a certaine preface , made to mr. hildersh . booke on ioh. . the author of it , tels his reader there , that mr. hild. had the best in the controversie , betweene him and mr. iohnson , notwithstanding it is well knowne , he never made any reply to that which the other had published against him , although he was by divers earnestly desired to doe it ; and this i write from the report of honest and faithful witnesses , who are yet alive , and will not ( i am perswaded ) willingly relate any thing but the truth . . grosse contradictions , in seeking to justifie against us , the very things , which by sound arguments and reasons , in their writings against the hierarchy , they prove to be evil and vnlawfull ; and this we have manifested in the answ . to mr. bradsh . book . . and in a word , falsisications of our positions , cōtinual begging of questiōs , larg proofs , for what was never doubted of , but no proving of the main point in questiō , either by scriptures , reasons , or any ancient & sound writers . these , and such like arguments , have they used hitherto against vs ; and it is no marvel , that they are such : for what better should we exspect from them , who seeke to put out that light againe , which hath beene by themselves cheifly revealed vnto many , i know what i say , and have good experiēce of this thing ; for there is not ten of ▪ an hundred , which separate from the church of england , but are moved first thereto , ( i speake of outward meanes ) by the doctrines of the nonconformists , either in word or writing , taught to the people : and indeed , vpon their grounds , how can any one doe lesse then separate , if his heart be tender against every sinne , seeing they confidently affirme , that their ministery , worship , and discipline , is from antichrist , and in their church are swarmes ‡ of atheists , papists , erroneous , & hereticall sectaries , witches , charmers , murtherers , theeves , adulterers , lyars , &c. moreover , all popery ( say they ) is poyson , the roote , stalke , and branches ; and we cannot be said sincerely to have repented of the idolatry , or superstition , whereby we or our forefathers have provoked the lord , unlesse we be ashamed of , and cast away with detestation all the instruments and monuments of it . againe , whosoever partakes in the sinnes of rome , are also under the same curse : so that we cannot in any sort communicate with them in their errours , unlesse we will beare them company in their destruction also . these are their owne testimonies , and we know they are true ; and therefore in obedience to god , and care of our pretious soules , we have left our vnsanctified standings in their assemblies , and through the lords mercy to vs , doe walke in the holy order of his gospell , although dayly sufferers for it , of manifould afflictions ; notwithstanding all these things offend us not : for we know whom we serve , and are most certaine , if we watch , and doe christs worke still in his owne way . we shall have a sure reward for it at the resurrection of the just . and to speake now a word or two vnto such as are commonly stiled professours of the gospell ; whether vnconformable , or not ; the thing truely , which i most wish vnto them , is , tender consciences , and that the lords house , and his ordinances may be deare to their soules , and that they may be able to deny the profitts , and pleasures of this life : for if these things be in them , and abound , my hope is , that by their judicious reading-over of this treatise , there will follow much reformation . when some men take a little phisick , they have their health by it soone restored : but if the same , and a great deal more , be ministred to others of an other constitution there followes not the like effect : it is even so in the cause of the soule , such as vnfeynedly desire to know the truth , and have a conscionable resolution towalke in it , doe receive much profitt by the fruitfull counsell , which is given them , either by word or writing . but on the contrary : those which seeke the truth with no better affection than pilate did , neither purpose to obey the same more then did the dissembling hypocrites in ieremie : certainly good advise given to them , is but as pearles cast before swine and dogs ; therefore my desire is , that the former sort may be viewers only of these lines ; and to them i say , in the words of the apostle : consider what i say , and the lord give understanding in all things . the following principles ( touching a true church , ministery , worship , and government , as also hew quite contrary hereto the english is , ) are not taken out of our writings , but from the nonconformists , yea even from the cheifest of them , which for learning , zeale , judgement , holinesse of life , &c. have ever held that cause . moreover they are not barely affirmed , but sufficiently confirmed ; and therefore it standeth every one vpon , to take them the more to heart ; for else , not one , but many of themselves , even prophets of their owne , will condemne them . i know , the devill vseth many meanes , to keepe people in cursed ignorance ; and among other , one specially is , by disswading them from hearing such persons , and reading such books , which might shew vnto them their evil & sin ; and this he doth vnder a pretence of doeing good vnto them . oh! ( saith he ‡ ) you must beware of false prophets , and not hearken to that counsel , which causeth to erre , avoyd the companie of all deceivers , and not once looke into their books , &c. now , by such syren songs , the crafty serpent keepes them fast asleepe , till he have brought the poore soule into the pitt of endlesse perdition ▪ we would thinke that man to be sencelesse , who ( taking his enimies counsel ) would shutt all his doores & windowes , in hope to get the more light into his house thereby . the devil dayly makes many thousand worse fooles in the world , in causing them to shutt close their eyes against the saving light of the gospell , in exspectation that their soules by this meanes shal be filled with the more wisedom and spiritual vnderstanding . it is not my meaning , that any one should beleeve things suddenly & rashly , but i would have him as salomons counsell is , to looke wel to his going ; and as we take gould by weight , corne , cloth , &c. by measure , so to receive the doctrines of every man by due examination ; and this is onely the thing which i doe request of thee ( good reader ) whosoever thou art , be thou but pleased to put the principles & inferences here written , vpon their proof , & to hold that only fast , which ( after good triall by the scriptures ) thou findest to be good and it is sufficient , and i have my desire of thee to the full . one thing more i desire others to take notice of , namely , that i judge not my self bound so much , to justifie their principles , as our inferences from them . jf therefore any shall deny them to be true , my purpose is to give place to such , whome it more nearly concerneth to write in the defence thereof . ‡ but if any shall oppose vs in the conclusions , i would have them ( leaving all by matters ) to follow the truth in love , without gall and bitternesse , that so things may come to a happy and speedy issue . it is wel said of a heathen man , 𝄁𝄁𝄁𝄁𝄁 the oftner truth commeth to hand , the more the l ght therof appeareth . i hope this wil be verified in the point now in controversie : for howsoever i doubt not , but we have said here enough , to justifie the matter undertaken ; notwithstanding much more i could have alleged from their writings , concerning these things , but for the present i content my self herewith , till there be a further just and necessarie occasion given thereof . i. canne . a manvdvction to the following treatise . howbeit not any religion should be judged the lesse true , because few embrace it : neither the sooner to be followed , for the generall good liking and approbation which it hath among men : notwithstanding having now so just and necessarie an occasion to vrge men to practise what they professe ; i shall indeavour ( by the grace of god ) clearely to prove , that this our waye is of the apostolique primitive institution , even frō their tenets , which walk contrary to it . among other crimes charged upon nonconformists , ( as they are called ) by the prelates and their favorites , one chiefely is , that their principles layd downe against the churches of england , doe lead vnto separation , and therefore if they were true to their owne grounds , they should not ▪ communicate in the church assemblyes of england . many of the bishops parasites heretofore have thus accused them , and of late one doct. burgesse most confidently maintaines the same against them . the which by doct. ames is vtterly denyed . now which of these two doctors in this thing have the truth , j hope it shall evidently be declared in this treatise following . chapt . . doctor burgesse , having read , and sereouslie ( as it seemes ) examined the nature , & true consequence , of the many particular arguments , published to the world by the nonconformists , against the great abuses in the ministerie , worship , and church government of england . affirmed in his rejoinder to d. morton , that the same are the maine grounds of separation , and for his part , if he beleeved them to be true , he would ( in all good conscience he protesteth ) proclaime separation from idolatrous worship and worshippers before he slept , and not halt as these men ( by their owne positions doe ) betwixt idolatrie and religion : doctor ames in his new booke , intituled a fresh suit against ceremonies denyeth that any such thing can be necessarilie concluded from their principles : but i will here shew by evident and sound reasons , that the former assertion is true and certaine , and all the arguments brought by the other to the contrary , are of no weight or force to make good his deniall thereof . and because i much desire , that the reader may well understand our points in dispute . i shall therefore ( if god will ) write in order , of them . and first i will begin with their ministerie : and touching it will lay downe things . . how the nonconformists doe describe a true ministery . . how far that of england by their owne confession differs from , and is contrary to it . . i will shew what inferences and conclusions doe necessarily follow upon it . . answer the reasons , brought by doct. ames , in defence of their ministerie . not to speake of apostles , prophets , and evangelists , which were extraordinary ministeries , and therfore ( as themselves say ) are now wholy ceased . the ordinarie offices perpetually belonging to all true churches , are onely these five , . a pastor or bishop , which is the highest ordinarie ecolesiasticall officer in any true constituted visible church of christ , and they are all equal by gods institution : and are forbidden to exercise authoritie one over another ; or exspect any such title as may import it , or affect preeminence . his giftes , properties , and conditions in doctrine and manners , are distinctly set downe in scripture . he must be apt to teach & exhort , no yōg scholler , able to devide the word aright . have a continuall care to watch over the soules of those , for whom he must give an accompt . discerne their diseases , and apply the word , according to every disease , and every time and occurrant . briefly he must love , cherish , & defend his sheepe frō ravenous beasts , feed them in greene and wholesome pastures of the word , pray for them , and seale up to them the promises of god by the sacraments . secondly , the lord hath ordained , that there should be in every congregation doctors : which is an office ( they say ) different from that of the pastor ; the reasons which they give , are these , . because the apostle doth so distinguish them one from another rom. , , . ephes . . . . their giftes appeare to be divers , cor. . . . the pastor is commaunded to take one course in teaching , the doctor another , rom. , , . . this distinguishing of them makes more for the building of the church , then to unite and makechem one . his office is to deliver sound and wholesome doctrine , convince the gainesayers , preserve knowledge , and build vpon the rock ( which is christ iesus ) gold , silver , and precious stones , &c. the third officers , as they name them from the scriptures , are governors or ruling elders , who are to look to the manners of the people , and to be assistant to the minister in government . this office was established by the apostles in all churches act. . . and it serves to helpe forwarde the building thereof , cor. , . and without it the body can not be intyre , rom. , , . to justify this office , many scriptures , reasons , & testimonies taken from the learned , are alleged by them , ignat. ad trall . tertull. de baptist. ierom. cont . lucrf . ambr ▪ upon tim. . socrat. lib. . cap. . bucer de reg . chr. l. . pet. mar. vpon rom. . cal. instit . l. . c. . sect. . these must be men of wisedome , knowledge and sound iudgment , sober , gentle , modest , loving , temperate &c. able to discerne , and all wayes vigilant , for the quietnes , wellfare , peace , purity and good order of the church . fourthly there ought to be in every congregation certaine deacons endued with those qualities whi●● the word of god describeth . that is , they must 〈◊〉 men of good report , indued also with the holy gho●● ▪ grave , temperate , not covetous &c. to prove this office these scriptures are alleged act. . tim. . . rom. . . cor. , . phil. . and also these reasons for it , . the lord takes care both for the bodies and soules of men , and therefore instituteth , such offices peculiarly serving for that purpose . . that the faythfull may be the more free from feare , and follow their owne callings diligently . . that the church may be the more inriched with heavenly , and spirituall blessings , for she receives grace and gifts for the discharge of each calling . . that men may be stirred vp to help the poore the more willingly , considering that the lord hath appointed a speciall office for that purpose . . that their should be no complaints , but that all the poore might be comforted against their poverty , and wants . their office onely consisteth in receiving the liberality of the saints , and distributing the same vnto the necessity of the poore : and howsoever the english booke of ordering preists , &c. makes this a degree of the ministery , yet the nonconformists , professe that that practice is naught and vnlawfull , and the deacons office is ( not to medle with the word and sacraments but ) onely to collect the benevolence of the faithfull , and faithfully to distribute the same , and to prove this , they render these reasons . . by the apostles institution these were onely to attend vpon the provision for the poore . act. . . the scripture maketh it an ordinary & distinct office 〈◊〉 others in the church , and not to be mingled with any other . rom. . . . no man can in any tollerable measure discharge the office of a minister , and deacon also . act. . . . the ministeries of the word be perfect without it . they have also to prove this thing , the learned generally on their side . concill . constant . cap. . chrisost . vpon act. . bulling . decad . . ser . . buc. de reg . christ. . pet. mar. rom. . cal. inst ▪ l. . cap. . sect . . beza . confess . cap. . sect . . sixtly widowes , or deaconesses whose proper office is to looke to the weake , impotent , and poore strangers , and specially to helpe such who in their sicknesses have neither friends nor kins folkes to administer vnto them . this office is proved of them by these scriptures . . tim. . rom. . . rom. . the grounds or reasons , which they bring for it are these . . wisedom , to imploy such , as being to receive maintainance , from the church , are fit for nothing but this , and fittest for this . . that none may lack any thing for their good and preservation . . that men may be the rather incouraged to goe about the churches businesses , having such to attend them . these are the necessarie and onely ordinarie functions , and offices which our saviour hath ordained in his church , vnto the due administration whereof , he hath promised his blessing to the end of the world , and these are perpetuall and to continue for ever , and beside these it is vnlawfull , for men ( following the devises of their owne braine ) to institute and ordaine any in the churches of god. now the election and ordination of these officers , must ( as they say ) necessarily 〈◊〉 made , by the free choyse of the congregation wherein they are to administer : the elders going before , the rest are to manifest either by some outward token , or else by their silence , their allowance , if they like of the action , or gainesaying , if they judge it not just and vpright . yea not onely may they gainesay it : but if there be just cause of dislike make it altogether voyd and of none effect , vntill at the last a meet one be chosen , by the authority and voyces of the elders , and allowed of by the generall consent and approbation of the rest of church . and this was , the churches continuall practice in the time of the apostles , and therefore an ordinance of god to be followed for ever . moreover the thing appertaineth vnto all : and it is a course most effectuall to bring the people to obedience , when they shall see him teach or rule , whom they themselves haue chosen . yea this procureth greatest reverence of the people to their officers . it is also affirmed that this manner of chusing and making officers , continued so long in the churches of god , as there was any light of the knowledge of him , so that indeed it ought to be perpetuall , and vnchangeable , and may not at any hand either by church , or magistrate be altered : for it is a greater wronge to haue any ecclesiasticall officers forced upon a people against their will , then if they should force vpon men wives , or vpon women husbands against their will and liking : here also generall counsels and many old and new writers are brought-in by the nonconfor . to speake for them in this thing . concil . nicene test . theo. conc. const. test . tripart . hist. l ▪ . c. . concil . carth. can . . con. toletan . test . dist . : concil . gabil . can. . cyprian . l. . ep. . amb. epist . . ierom. ad ruffin . basil . epist . . and whosoever condemnes the making of ministers , after this sort what doe they else , but open their mouths against god and against the truth . defence of admon . p. . moreover every officer in the church must be ordained by imposition of hands of the eldership , the whole church joyning with them in fasting and prayer ; and without a lawfull calling no one must presume to exercise any spirituall function , or ministery , nor dare to enter in any other way , then by the doore . a notable example for this purpose , is rehearsed by moyses in numb . . whereby it seemeth , that the lord meant to ratifie the law of a necessity of a true vocation for ever . for there we see , that neither the heavens could abide to see , nor the earth beare so shamelesse boldnesse , but the one melting consumed with fyer , such as without a calling would take vpon them the presthood , and the earth gapeping , opened it selfe and swallowed them vp alive , which ought to be a lesson to vs for euer , that no man presume to pervert or alter that order which god hath established in his church , nor arrogate to himselfe that honor which he hath by no right and lawfull calling obtained : &c. moreover none must be ordained vnto any office in the church , vntill there be such a place voyd for him , as is meet , and fitt : for as the apostles did in planting of churches , so must it be don in the building thereof for ever : but they ordained neither pastor . , teacher , eder , nor deacon , but to some certaine congregation , that had present vse and need thereof . a roving and vnsettled ministrie therefore , is a new and false ministerie , meerely , instituted by men . and never read of to be practised , but by idolaters . iudg. . . againe great care must be taken , before consent be given , vnto any calling in the church , that it appeare by sufficient trial , and due examination , that the person is qualified with those gifts which the word of god requireth , in one of that place : for else there will follow a manifest breach of gods commaundement : besides , god will not owne his ministery , thirdly , if he want abilityes , he cannot doe the things required of him . as to divide the word aright , espy the enimy , and give warning a forehand to the people how to resist him : but contrarywise will lead himselfe and his people into hel fyer . the truth is , no vnskillfull or vnlearned man , may be called to the steering of this helme , vnlesse we would have the shipp not onely to be in daunger , but willing , to runne it vpon the rockes . these officers chosen , and made as aforesayd : ought to execute the office committed vnto them , with all faithfull diligence , and consequently must be continually , resident vpon their charge . this later position , to wit , the necessity of perpetuall residence , & the vnlawfulnes of nonresidence , is confirmed of them by good reasons . . a minister is a sheepheard and his charge a flock , now a sheepheard hath a flock to feed it continually . . wheresoever god placeth a man , there is dayly need of his labour and care . . the people are in daunger of harme if they be not watched over day and night . . the church requireth an officers residecy with her as a duty of him . . if they do otherwise , they cannot give their people a good example , neither will there be love , and familiarity between them . &c. breifly , they hold it , as great an injurie , to force a congregation , or church , to miantaine as their pastor , with tiths and such like donations , that person , which either is not able to instruct them , or that refuseth in his own person ordinarily to doe it , as to force a man to maintaine one for his wife , that either is not a woman , or that refuseth in her owne person to doe the duties of a wife vnto him . and thus much for the first point , wherein we and they in iudgement doe accord , but our practise as yet is contrary each to other . section . ii. now it followes that we truely relate , the present state of the english ministery , how far it disagreeth , ( by their owne testimonies ) in every particular thing from the positions , before named , & touching it in generall , they affirme confidently , that it is a base ministerie which god never erected in his church , but came wholy from the pope , for say they , not onely is the calling of the hierarchie , but also their dependent offices all vnlawfull and antichristian , observe the largnesse of their speach , how they comprehend , and so consequently here cōdemn all their ecclesiasticall functions ▪ for indeed they take all their originall of one roote , namely the praelarey , from it i say , they have their ryse , and by it onely they administer vnto the people . and whosoever shall deny this , may with as much reason , deny that fyre is hott , the sea salt , the sunne shines . &c. but let us heare what reasons they give , to prove their ministery false and antichristian ; and every way contrary to that true ministery , of which we have before spoken ; first , they say , that the church of england , wanteth her pastors , teachers , deacons , and elders : for which cause she hangeth downe her head , for heavinesse ; her eyes be bleared with teares ; her cheekes be defiled with the water of her eyes , her heart is heavy with sorrow , her bones are withered with drynesse , her whole body is clothed with sackcloth , shee lyeth in caves and dens , being ashamed to shew her face , haveing so deformed and maimed a body ; if her case and state be so , she hath reason enough to greive : for to want these true officers , and to have counterfeits placed in their stead , is one of the heaviest and fearfullest miseries , that can possibly befall any people . yet this thing is affirmed by others of them also . of which more hereafter . now concerning elections & ordinations . in these their church standeth vnder a romish regiment , and hath not left babylon , but partaketh of her sinnes , in the choyse of ministers . for neither are their ministers proved , elected , called , or ordayned , according to gods word : but their entrance into the ministery is , by a popish and vnlawfull vocation , strange from the scriptures , and never heard of in the primitive church . all authority is give into the hands of the prelates alone , & their booke of ordination , wherby they make bishops , priests , and deacons , is against the very forme of the ordination of the ministery , prescribed in the scriptures ; and nothing else but a thing word for word , taken out of the popes pontificall , wherein he sheweth himselfe to be antichrist most lively . it will not be amisse if i here briefly relate , in what manner , and forme , their bishops make ministers , as the nonconformists doe describe it . when the time ( say they ) of giveing orders draweth neere , the b. bull is sett upon the church doore , to give warning , rhat if any be minded to receive orders , that he repaire to the prelate at such a time and place . now this bull is in latin , so that the people can not understand the sound of the trumpet , neither indeed are they desired to come , and object against the persons to be ordained , &c. when the day of ordination is com , after an exhortation made , and the communion celebrated , the epistle & gospell read , and the hymne veni creator sung , or sayd , the archdeacon presents to the b. all those that are to take on the order of priesthood that day , with these words , reverend father in christ , i present to you the persons here present , to be admitted to the order of priesthood . then after some demaunds and answeres , of the b. and the other , who are to be admitted , he demaundeth of the people , who are present there , if they know any impediment , which may hinder any of these present to be admitted , to the order of priesthood , which is a manifcst mockage . for it may be , that none there present either heard or saw any of them , or all of them before that day , &c. then after the oath of the kengs supremacie is taken , there followes an exhortation again , with other demaunds and answeres . after this the people , who are present , are desired secretly to commend the businesse to god : for which cause they are all silent for a little space . this don , the b. readeth a prayer , which beeing finished , they who are to be ordained , sitting on their knees at the bishops feet ; the bishop and the rest of the priests , who are present , lay handes severally upon the heads of every one of them , the b. uttering these words , receive the holy ghost , whose sinnes thou dost forgive ▪ ●●●y are forgiven , & whose sinnes thou dost retaine , they are retained , and be thou a faithfull dispenser of the word of god , and of his holy sacraments in the name of the father , &c. thus he commaundeth the ordained to receive the holy ghost , as our lord & maister did . now as well may they imitate his breathing , as to vsurpe these words . is any of their curats after the pronouncing of these words either the holyer or more apt to teach : and whereas he puts a bible into their hands , he might rather put their service booke : for either they are ignorant and cannot preach , or if they can , yet may not , till they procure by mony a licence from them . when all this is don the company sing the creed , and receive the communion together . but it must here be observed that they ordaine not any man wholy at once to the office of preisthood : but lead him by degrees vp to the pulpit : for they must first be deacons ( as they call it ) for a yeare , that is to say , they must receive authority to say prayers , read the scriptures : but in no wise administer the sacraments , or preach , without further licence : then at last he is made a full minister . this practise is professedly affirmed of the nonconformists , to be a vaine invention of mans braine , taken from the manner of popish orders , and cleare against the expresse appointment of the scriptures . moreover , they will make ministers in their galleries and cloysters at their pleasure ; give orders to whome , & to how many they list , without any triall , either of their judgment in religion , or of their honestly in conversation : and sometime make , , or a at a clap , whereof ●o one is called or desired to any particular congregation , and when they have done , send them abroade as rogues , vagaboundes , or maisterlesse servants , into the country , giveing them their bull to preach in others mens charges where they list , or else get benefices by freindship , mony , flattery , where they cā catch them , or if this faile , they may goe vp & downe like beggars , & fall into many vile follies or sett vp bils ( as many have don ) at pauls , the royall exchange & such like publick places , to see if they can heare of some good master , that will hyre them , and vse their labour , or to conclude , tary in their colledge to lead the lives of loytering losels so long as they live . what a horrible and wicked doing is this ! indeed such times are spoken of in the stories of the iudges , when ionathan the levite , wanting a high place and an altar , went roving vp and downe to let out his service to any that would hyre him . but it is added in the same place , that there was no king in israel o not without cause may they say ( if these things be true ) that all reformed churches blush , and are ashamed of them . yea and i am perswaded that if they were fully and truely informed hereof , they would no more communicate with their ministery , then they doe with that of rome : for if they did , it would be certainly their great sin , seeing both of them appeare to be false and vnlawfull . thou hast heard ( reader ) who makes their ministers : and allso how they are made : now in the next place , thou shall heare what they say touching their gifts , and qualificatiōs & if thou wilt in this beleive the nonconformists : boyes and sencelesse asses are their common ministers for the most part . yea notorious idolaters , halting hypocrites , openly perjured persons , idle bellied epicures , manifest apostates , old munks and friars , drunkards , ideots , idols , such as know not a b. from abattle dore : or the lords prayer from the articles of faith , nor how many sacraments there are : for he that will weare a surplesse , a cloake with sleeves , a gowne , a cap , a tippet ( ornaments fitt enough for such deformed coxcombs ) , read a gospel , church women , bid fasting dayes and holy dayes , prophane the sacramēts , pray at the buriall of the dead , pronounce a curse against sinners vpon ashwensdday and at no time else , ordaine a new sacrament of the crosse in the prophanation of baptisime , visit the sicke with a wafer cake , and a wine bottle , read homilies , pray for the prosperity of theeves , pirats , murderers , yea a pope , a cardinal , an archbishop , a lord b. or any other enimy of god and his church : he is a creature fitt enough to receive their orders , and by his outward calling is bound to doe no more . there are besides these , others of them which witnesse the same , to make ministers according to their fashion , is nothing else but to make a service sayer , or a reader of prayers out of a booke , so that a starke foole , or an arrant knave , may fulfill all the conditions which they require of him . it is certaine sayth mr. gilby , he that will vse antichrists ragges , may be made an english priest , be he never such a dolt or villaine . the truth is the conditiō of those men , whome the prelates for the most part thrust into their ministerie , is so contemptible and base , as they affirme , that ieroboom never made worse priests of the refuse of the people to serve his goulden calves . nay they say more , if the devill did make and send forth ministers , he could not finde worse men upon the earth : and if he would have worse , he must bring them out of hel . mr. cartwright sayth of a certainty , that all the ecclesiasticall histories extant , are not able to furnish vs of so many vnworthy ministers , chosen by all the churches throughout the world , which have beene since the apostles time , as have swarmed these few yeares , out of the palaces ( as out of the troian horse ) of that small number of bbs , which are in england ▪ &c. and there is as much difference betweene them and the ministers , chosen in other congregations beyond the sea , as betweene gold and copper , or any other refuse mettal . i have not yet declared what the nonconformists write , touching the most ungodly courses , used by their priests , to procure benefices , and how extreamely they tyrannise over the poore people , and will be officers to them , though they consēt not unto it , nay howbeit they be wholy against it , & have good reasō for it , yet if the patron ( whether popish prophane or religious all is one ) & the bishop doe accord in the businesse : they must necessarily put their necks under the yoak of this wicked usurper , or remove their dwelling , though it be to their utter undoing : beside the congregation knowes not , what the conversation is of him , who by the arme of flesh is forced upon them , neither his fittnesse in gifts for the ministery : this cannot be denyed ( say they ) that there is not any one man or woman amongst , in any one parish among , that can tell that ever he , or she , did see , or heare of the minister appointed , & sent by the ordinary to be parson , or vicar of the parish vacant , before such time as he or shee did heare , or see the parish clarke t● trudge with the church do●● ke●e● to let in the s●xtin , to ring the bells for the sayd parson or vicars induction , and reall possession . oh intollerable bondage ! that men should be thus bought and sould like beasts ; and yet there is little hope of reformation , in regard too many will rather submitt to those slaughterous & inhumane courses , then seeke to redeem their pretious liberty , by good and lawfull meanes . and for that base and shamefull beggerinesse , which they use to gett benifices , it cannot be better shewed , then mr. brightman hath truly done it . thus he writes ▪ let vs take a view and make a generall muster as it were of the whole cleargie , and if you will let vs begin at the basest vnder lings . the curates , as they cal them are both in very deed , and in all mens account a company of beggarly fellowes ▪ in whom a man may see that verifyed , which was threatned against the family of eli men bowing themselves to the ground for a pecee of silver and a morsell of bread , and craving to bee put into one of the priests offices , that hee may have a snappe at a crust of bread ▪ . sa. . . now for the rest , those that by meanes of their more full purses walke more lustily , such as wee call sturdy beggars , what running vp and down is there among them , what bribing what importunate and impudent begging ▪ what flattering offers do they make of all their obeisance ▪ and all duetifull complements , that they may come by these ecclesiasticall promotions ? you may see many of them that post vp to the court , or to the house of the right honourable . the lord keeper of the great seale : for ▪ these two places are like the beautifull gate of salomons temple , act. . . men come in by this way apace , thicke and threefold , and they are in great hope to carry away some good releife . others there are that become followers of noble men and peers of the land , whose chaplines they become , either houshould , or retayners , as i may call them , that live vnder their potection ; for what end trow ye ? even for this and no other , that assoone as any benefice , as they call it , shall fall voyd , they might enioy it by their lords gift . and doth not this i pray ye soeme to be an honest way to get a church-living , no such base and beggarly one , as you speake of ? but is not this currying of favour meere beggary ? is it any whit a lesse●ilt●sy thing , to come to a rectory , that is of gods appointmēt , by favour , then by money ? if wee will iudge indifferently , it is all one fault to creepe inc , whither it bee by bribing and symony , or by fawning and flattery . the rest of the rout in the country are diligent in attending the common sort of patrones ; whose thresholds they by watching at , whose wyves they brave and court as if they were their mistresses , whose children they cogge with , whose servants they allure with faire words and promises to bee their spokesmen , and in every place and point they play the partes of miserable beggers . some there are that begg more craftily ; like to those that sit in the high wayes or in places where two wayes meete , and there they offer pilled roddes to passengers , to get a peece of money therewith , as it were a penniworth for a peny : so do these men make way for their suits , by large giving of money in hand , or els by compacting to give some of their yearely tithes for a gratification ▪ but some man will say ▪ all this is not the corruption of lawes , but the corruptnes of men . nay surely , as long as that manner of conferring ecclesiasticall charges taketh place , which hath been in vse among vs to this day , there can bee no remedy applyed to cure or prevent , this beggerlines . doe wee not sufficiently finde it to bee true in experience ? in the late parliament , lawes were enacted severely against it ; but what came of that ? nothing truely ; but that it made men deale more closely and cunningly to cosen the law . wee must not think to do any good with our laws , where christes laws are not observed , but to proceede , when once the living is by beggery obtayned from the patrone , what a deale of begging worke is there to come , for those sir iohn lack-latines , that institution might bee had from the b b. here hee must supplicate , not onely to the right reverend lord b b ; but to master examiner , to my lords grome of his chamber , his register , the yeoman of his buttery and larder , yea the meanest that belongeth to him . not that want of latin and learning will keepe him from entrance into his benefice , but that hee that hath neede of more favour for dispatch , or speach with my lord , or the like , must fee the servantes the better , whose gaine cometh trowling in this way . there is no castle so defenced , which a latin-lesse asse laden with golden metall may not scale and conquer . neither is there any almost so vnfit that hath the repulse , but by what engines hee prevayleth , let them looke to it . the like is the condition of prebendaries , archdeacons and deanes , nay are the lord bishops themselves cleare of this base beggery ? what meaneth then that continuall haunting of the court , and banging vpon the nobles ? why doe they not stay and wayte , till they bee sent for ? yea why are they not rather pulled away from their studyes against their wills ? nay rather if a man should appeale to their consciences , whither are not some of those fat demeasnes of their bishopricks let out of their own accord , to such as they seeke and sue to , that they might farme and hire them , or els are there not other large bribes covenanted to bee given to such as shall stand them in stead , for attayning of these dignities ? but are they onely thus beggerlike in their ambitious suing for theyr promotions ? nay truely ; some of them are grown so extreemly base this way , that if they be to change their sea , they pay not their first fruites , but by raking together in a filthy fashion an almes from the poore vicars , which yet must go vnder the name of a benevolence to make a cleanly cloake withall . thus ( reader ) thou seest how wickedly and basely they come buy benefices , and yet thou hast not heard of all their abomination ▪ for the nonconformists will tell thee further : that after they have gotten one liveing , they will take another if they can : yea , & in spight too of that congregation , to which they were first , and are still personally tyed ; and after all this they may be nonresidents , abiding or preaching at none of their many liveings . but forsake their flocks , moneths , yeares , yea sometime for ever , and leave them to hyrelings & unlearned men . yea they may chop and change , sel , & buy like marchants , so they doe it closely ; which is such an abomination , as rome & trent condemneth , and hell it selfe will scarse defend . and as the people are in bondage thus to their ministers , so they are intollerably to the prelates . for all power and authority is taken from them , as that they may not preach to their people except they have their licence ; and if they have that , yet their preaching is hedged in with penalties , injunctions , caveats , canons , advertis●ments , that they may not deliver the whole counsell of god. besides , they can not receive the best of their congregation to communion , if he be censured in the spirituall courts : though it be but for not paying of sixpence be the man otherwise never so innocent , nor keepe one from the communion , that is not presented in those courts , or beeing presented , is for mony absolved though he benever so scandalous . thus are they the chanc●llours and officials slaves to doe what they commaund them : if not they thēselvs must hurry up presētly to their spirituall court , there to stand with cap in hand , not onely before a b. but before his vassalls , to be rayled on many times at their pleasure , to be censured , suspended , and deprived , for not observing some of those canons , which were of purpose framed for snares ▪ when fart more ancient & honest canons are every day broken by these judges themselves for lucre sake : as in the making of viopian ministers , who have no people to minister unto , in their holding of commendams , in their taking of mony even to extortion for orders , and institutions , in their ●ymony as well by giveing , as by taking ▪ and in all their idle , covetuous , and ambitions pompe . i omitt heere to relate the innumerable prophane scoffes , and reprochfull names , given ( as they say ) by their prelates , to their gravest ministers , when they are brought before them , for they shall be called asses ●eese , fooles , dolts princock boyes ▪ beardlesse bayes yeaster dayes bayes , new com out of ▪ the shel , &c. and after much rayling in this sort silenced ▪ and put out of their meanes , to the utter undoing of themselves , their wvies , children , and others . as i read these things in their writing● , i thought upon the great slavery of the iewes under the philistins , when there was not a sword found amongst them in the day of battle . i confesse in this their condition & case was miserable & bad : but alas , both the ministers and people of the church of england ( as these men report ) are in a case ten thousand times worse ▪ for the prelates ▪ under whose antichristian bondage they are have quite unfurnished them of the chieffest weapons , needfull for the lords battle ▪ yea ▪ and have so fast tyed them up , with their ▪ romish canons articles , excommunications , imprisonments ▪ &c. that they can not or at least dare not give a blow against their spiritual enimies ▪ though there be a necessity thereof and theire soules otherwise are likely to perish ▪ now i wish that these people were senceable of these things and that gods house & his ordinances were deare to their soules ▪ then doubtlesse they would breake asunder those chaines of unrighteousnesse : sh●ke antichrist of , and make any shift ▪ to come out of babylon , for to enjoy that light and liberty , which christ hath so dearely purchased , with his precious blood . but to the point in hand . by the former passages it plainely appeares , that the reformists not without great cause , have made humble suites unto princes , & parliaments , for a lawfull ministery to be established , throughout the realme , and that their present ministery mought vtterly be abolished , with the rest of romish abominations ; for not onely have they indited their cleargy , to be followers of antichrist , and avouched their ministerie to be from the pope : but also they prove this ( as we have shewed from their writings ) by infallible and undeniable reasons ; so that every upright & sincere person ( if he well understand what they say ) must necessarily consent unto it . i could produce many others of them , which affirm the same thing , but it needs not , seeing enough hereof hath beene allready spoken . notwithstanding it cannot be amisse to sett downe the words of one more : because the author was a nonconformist of note : generally well beloved , and not undeservedly : now thus he sayth , what a miserable pickle are our ministers in , when they are vrged to give an account of their calling : to a papist indeed they can give a shifting answer , that they have ordination from bishops , which bishops were ordained by other bishops , and they or their ordayners by popish bishops , this in part may stop the mouth of a papist : but let a protestant , which doubteth of these matters , move the question : & what then will they say ? if they fly to popish bishops , as they are bishops , then let them goe no longer masked vnder the name of protestants : if they alledge succession by them from the apostles , then to ( say nothing of the appropriating of this succession vnto the popes chaire , in whose name , and by whose authority our english bishops did all things in times past ) then i say they must take a great time for the satisfying of a poore man concerning this question , and for the justifying of their station : for vntill that out of good records they can shew a perpetuall succession from the apostles vnto their diocesan , which ordained them , and vntill they can make the poore man , which doubteth perceive the truth and certainty of these records ( which i wisse they will doe at leasure ) they can never make that succession appeare . if they fly to the kings authority , the king himselfe will forsake them , and deny that he taketh vpon him , to make or call ministers . if to the present bishops and archbishops , alas ! they are as farre to seeke as the other . the effect of his speach is : that those which receive their ministerie from the prelates ( as all doe in the church of england ) they can not any way justifie the same to be lawfull ; for howsoever they may say , this or that in the defence of it : notwithstanding , it is all either falshood or vanitie , which they say , and herein doe wholy deceive themselves , and every one that beleeveth them . and thus much in generall be spoken concerning the second point ; namely , the differences manifested by the nonconformists , betweene a true ministerie , and the ministerie of england ; as also their judgment of it , that it is popish & false , and the many reasons , which they shew to prove the same . now in this we and they doe also accord , and our difference stands onely in practice ; for they thinke ( as it seemes ) that a people may communicate lawfully in a false ministery : but our judgement and practice is otherwise , both which i undertake here to prove . by scripture . by reasons . by the testimony of the learned : and so we come to the third point , which is to lay downe our inferences & conclusions , which necessarily doe follow upon their principles , to wit , that our seperation from their ministery is ( by their owne grounds ) warrantable and holy ; the same beeing ( as they themselves acknowledge ) false and antichristian . section . iii. and first of the scriptures . to communicate in a false ministery , is certainly a breach of the second commaundement . for what doe they , but indeed sett vp an idoll , yea and bow downe vnto it , which serve god in , and by , a devised or vsurped ministerie . in song . . . . the faithfull intreat christ to be shewed where he , by his ministery , with his spirit , word , seales , censures , &c. feedeth his flock , that there they might place themselves for instruction and government , and not turne aside to the flocks of his companions , that is , the congregations of false christs and false prophets , which come in his name saying , i am christ and deceive many : againe . ephraim is joyned to idols , what were they ? among other , the new preists which ieroboam , ordained for the high places : what followes ? let him alone , that is , have no communiō with him either in his false ministerie , or other idolatrie . often do the prophets , christ , and his apostles , forbid men to heare those which thrust themselves into ministeriall offices not beeing sent of god and from the church . secondly the reasons . . to communicate in a false ministery is to doe a vaine worship : and therefore vnacceptable altogether to the lord. . in this , men doe abet the party in his sin , and so make it their owne by imputation , and inwrap themselves in the same guilt with the offender . . god hath promised no blessing to his word but in his owne ordinance , though i confesse he may , yea and doth grant oft times that , through his infinite goodnesse , which no man can chalendge by an ordinary promise . . to doe otherwise , is to rebel greivously against the lord , and to vphold what in vs lyeth that which the lord will consume , therefore as no good subject should assist or communicate with any person in the administration of civil justice to the kings subjects ( no not though he administred the same never so legally , justly , impartially ) except the same person had a commission from the king so to doe : so neither ought the subjects of christs kingdome , to partake with any person whatsoever in the dispensation of any spirituall ordinance ( though in it selfe never so holy ) without sufficient warrant and commission from the most absolute and sovereigne king of his church christ iesus . . such as have spirituall communion in a false ministery , doe embrace the bosome of a stranger , and so committ spirituall whoredome against the lord. . christ setteth it downe as a property of his sheepe to be observed , that they follow not strangers , but flee from them , for that they know not their voyce . thirdly , the learned generally doe affirme this same thing . par●●s in his commentary upon mathew , sayth : that all those without doubt , are to be taken for deceivers , who take vpon them the office of teaching without a true calling ; and a little after he sayth , that so much being discovered : a christian must shutt his care against them , and fly from them as from wolves . musculus on the place sayth the like : one note of a false prophet is , that he comes , not beeing lawfully called and sent , and whereas christ bidds us to beware of such , he meanes , sayth he , that we should not heare them , but avoyd them as most certaine plagues . cope , a learned minister in france , speaketh as much : and gives this reason for it , because they destroy both bodies and soules of as many as either beleeve or reverence them . and thus much is acknowledged of the papists ; for thus they write , whosoever taketh vpon him to preach without a lawfull sending , breaketh in by force or favour of men , and by humane lawes , he is a theef and a murderer . and how men are to walke towards them , they shew in another place of that booke : in matter of religion , in praying , reading their bookes , hearing their sermons presence as their service , partaking of their sacraments , and all other communicating with them in spirituall things , is a great damnable sinne to deale with them . and heere it is to be observed , that mr. cartwright on this place in answere to the rhem. test. grants all this to be true . other testimonies i could alleage , but it needs not ; for the nonconformists affirme as much : we may not ( say they ) adventure to goe vnto him for those things , which he hath no commission to deliver . another sayth , that whosoever preacheth by an unlawfull calling : ought not to be heard , although he speaketh the truth , no more then the devill was to be suffered , although he professed christ . as the firmenesse of the seale , standeth not in the print or forme it maketh : but specially that it be sett on by one that hath authority therevnto : so much more it is in the case of the sacraments : for to receive the same in a false ministery , is to deny gods ministery , and to give the glory of it there , where he hath not given it : and to deprive our selves of this comfort ; that our hearts may say : gods solemne voyce speaketh , his solemne hand offereth and giveth , which is here the lively stay of our fayth . by this it appeareth , that the daunger is marvelous great , to communicate in a false ministery , a man would pull a sore punishment upon his head , if he should have a hand to putt by a princes lawfull officer ( whether iudge , mayor , bayliefe , &c. ) and sett up a rebel in the roome thereof , and come to him for justice . he that receives in a false ministery denies gods ministery , sayth the former author ; and so puts a traitor in his place , and takes the holy things from the handes of a traitor , which is a fearfull transgression , and surely will procure extreame wrath , without true and sound repentance . from all that hath beene before spoken , we may here frame this argument . none may heare or joyn in spirituall communion with that ministery , which hath not a true vocation and calling : by election , approbation , and ordination of that faithfull people , where he is to administer . but the present ministery of the ecclesiasticall assemblies of england hath not a true vocation and calling , by election , approbation , and ordination of a faithfull people , where they administer . therefore none may hear or joyne in spirituall communion , with the present ministerie of the ecclesiasticall assemblies of england . which of the propositions the nonconformists will deny i know not : but sure i am , they are both theirs : howbeit ( it may be ) they doe not so well weigh their owne principles , as they should ; and hence it is , that their practice is not strictly answereable to their profession , and therefore doe give just occasion ( i speake it with greife ) unto the prelates and their parasites , to insinuate against them , hypocriticall ends , in condemning so greivously the ministery , worship & government of the english church , and yet to partake in the knowne evills and abuses thereof . but for my part i am otherwise minded then the bishops in this thing , and doe thinke , that they doe of conscience condemne the state of that church : but doe not maturely consider the responsive conclusions , which follow upon their principles . for which cause i haue written of purpose this treatise , to prove that they cannot justify their tenets against that church , and stand members lawfully thereof . concerning their ministerie , i have shewed before , that by their owne confession it is false , and so not to be joyned with . and if i should here end the point , i thinke every indifferent reader would sufficiently be satisfied . but because i judge the same to be of importance , to justifie a seperation from them : and also that their ministers , are of sundry sorts & degrees , therfore i will speake a little more thereof and prove further from their writings that every kind & degree of their ministery is false and antichristian . according to the prelates canons , their ministers are divided into . . heads or orders . namely bishops , preists , and deacons . the first comprehends the superiour , the other two the inferior ministers . what the superior are , few but know , viz. archbishops , and lordbishops , against whose courses and callings , whole books have beene written , to manifest the same to be evill and vnlawfull . i shall onely here breifly lay downe some of their passages touching both , referring the reader for more full satisfaction , to that which is published at large by them . as for their bishops if they be as the nonconformists report of them , surely they are not fitt for church or common wealth , for they oppose ( say they ) with tooth and nayle every thing that is good . they have had their hand in all the great evils that hath befallen their church and state : never any good thing prospered that they put their hand too , the king & state stood never in need , but they allwayes deceived thē : & if oppertunity serve , they will make peace with their head ( he meanes the pope ) if it be with the losse of all their heads , if they continue their places : and hence it is that all the professed enimies of state and church make vse of them to effect their evill ends as david sayd of goliahs sword , there is none to that , fo sayth the pope , spaniard , and arminian , for overturning of a state , and making havock of a church , there is none to a bishop , give them that . to the same purpose others . they are the greatest and most pestilent enimies that the state hath , and are likely to be the ruin thereof . take them for better who will they are no other then a remnant of antichrists brood , a viperous generatiō , caterpillers , moaths , canker wormes , sonnes of that monstrous giant the man of sinne , men of bloods , base fellowes , murderous tyrants , vsurpers , time servers , cages of vncleane birds , vnnaturall , false , and bastardly governors , lordly epicures , proud , popish , presumtious , perfidious , prophane , paltry , and pernitious prelates , open enimies to the sincere preaching of the gospell , the scepter of christs kingdom , and the glory of the land , men contented to be bawdes vnto all kind of sinnes , and therefore all the professed and notorious , atheists , papists , blashemers , adulterers , drunkards , and most infamous persons in the kingdom are with them , they have further with them the counsell of achitophel , the courting of shebna , the roaring and brawling of goliah , the cruell pride and vanity of hamon , the flattery of amaziah , the falshood of samaiah , and the bloody cunning of doeg , these wax worse and worse , and growe to a height of iniquity , greiving at the encrease of good men , and persecute nothing more then holinesse , they care not for king , country , nor their own souls , but for a bishoprick . and therefore if they can by flatteries invectives , whisperings , or other evill courses , keepe the king and counsel , so ignorant and blind as to be firme on their side , they care for no more , to be short , the best of them , in some sort are the worst , because , they hold vp the reputation , of that vnlawfull office and make way for more wicked successours and their traditions . much more then this , yea and worse too , is sayd of their bb. but i passe it over , as blushing to speake it . only i here thinke of that saying in the proverbes , when the wicked beareth rule , the people mourn . it was just so with the israelites , when pharaoh sett cruell tas kemaisters over them : and it seemes their case is much like unto it : indeed some difference there is , for the egyptian lords , onely beate the lords people ; but their prelates ( say they ) imprison and kill them also . i should wonder at such horrible injuries , committed in any common wealth ; but that the scripture sayth , the kings of the earth shall give their strenght and power to the beast ; the truth whereof many can witnesse by wofull experience : for princes generally in those dayes , have given so much authority unto the hierarchie , that they have scarse left themselves power to defend many times , the innocent cause of their best subjects , or to punish justly the vilest offender : we would thinke him a man sencelesse , that should give up willingly his weapons into the hand of his enimie ; for to doe so , were to be murdered himselfe , and to be accessarie to it : the bishops are proved to be the greatest enimies that the king and state hath ; surely then ( with reverence be it spoken ) it is not wisely done , that any power is given unto them . for by this meanes in all likelihood many will be killed : and not in their bodies only , but in their soules also . but enough of their persons : let us heare what they speake of their callings : the offices ( say they ) of arch-bishops and lord bishops , &c. be rather members and part of the whore and strumpet of rome , then of the pure virgin & spouse of the immaculat lamb. their calling indeed is meerly antichristian , false , divelish , contrary to the word of god , taken out of the popes shop , with their names also ; yea it came frō the bottomlesse pit . i say frō heathens , frō darknesse , & the devil , a thing degenerate , and grown out of kind , a humane creature , an addition , an institution , an ordinance of kings and princes ; as it began with oppressing the onely lawfull pollicy and administration of the church , so the end of it hath been the most proud and ambitious tyranny that ever was in the world . it is as clear as the light , that they are no brāches of gods engrafting ; their ministery hath no root in christs testament , but of the earth , new devised , and which can doe no good . as for the apostles they never knew them , syon hath not heard of them , ierusalem , which is above , will not acknowledge them , and no marvail , for antichrist , and they are of one , and the same brood and offspring , of one and the same foundation , his rysing was their rysing &c. and their traditions and ceremonies are his , they had them from him , they are installed , after the same manner of popish bishops , creäted with the most of the same ceremonies , they are trimmed up with the same trappings , they have the like attendants , the like armes and observancy , they vsurpe the same power & jurisdiction , and exercise the like tyranny over ministers and people . all their principall reasons brought to prove their standing , are the same that turrianus & other popish writers alleadg for the popes supremacy , as indeed they must stand or fall together . it is evident therefore , that they are no ministers at all in the church of christ , but have and doe usurpe and invade the name and seat of the ministery , beeing doubtlesse very theeves , robbers , wolves , and worriers of the flocks : the magistrate therefore is to doe to them as our saviour dealt ( ioh. . ) in whipping out buyers , and sellers , and mony changers , those might better come into the temple then these bishops into the church of god , and had more necessarie use : but they had abused holy things , and made it a den of theeves . not only is this barely affirmed of them : but also they doe lay downe many singular arguments and reasons to prove it ; to instance these . those offices and callings are antichristian , without which all forms of governments are perfect , save onely the government of the kingdome of antichrist . but such are the callings of lord archbishops and bishops , as all forme of governments may be perfect without them , save onely the antichristian kingdome where in no case they can be missed . for the government both of the church and common wealth can well spare them , and be never a whitt the more unperfect . therefore the callings of archbs. and bs. doe only belong vnto the kingdome of antichrist . those governours are justly called antichristian , who are assistant to the pope in his vniversall government . but bishops , archbs. &c. are assistante to the pope in his vniversall government . therefore bishops , archbs. &c. are justly called antichristian . that ministerry , which all christian men and women are bound to submitt and yeeld obedience unto , is to be found in the word of god. but the ministery of archbishops , bs. is not to be found in the word of god. ergo , there ought not to be obedience yeelded to it . he that desires to see the prelates arguments answered , and soundly refuted , which they alleadge to uphold their vnsanctifyed places and standings . let him read mr. baynes his diocesans triall , the first and second reply to doct. downenams sermon , mr. parkers eccles . polit ▪ and there he shal receive satisfaction to the full . moreover such is their certainty of this thing , that they have often chalenged , yea dared the prelates vnto disputation : offering to adventure their lives , if the other would but their bishopricks , to prove that they are neither pastors nor teachers , but officers erected against the word of god , the ancient fathers , & the moderne most learned , and godly divines : and the like they speak of archdeacons , deanes , prebanes , canons , and the whole hierarchye : of which more hereafter . if this be so , then by the reasons before shewed , it is evident , and most certaine , that no man can lawfully cōmunicate , at any time , in the ministery of these men , and so much they acknowledge . why should gods people of what degree soever subject their neck to a babilonish yoke , should they not stand fast in the liberty wherein christ hath set them free ? if they sit not in moyses chayr , why should they heare them ? if they bring not a lawfull warrant of their calling , why should they be obeyed ? to heare and obey christ , coming in his fathers name , and antichristian prelates coming in their owne name , cannot subsist together . but because the thing is allready sufficiently proved , we will therefore proceed to a second sort of their ministers . yet by the way i desire the reader to take knowledge of one thing . to weet , that the nonconsormists , by these positions laid downe against their prelates , doe herein certainly condemne their whole ministery allowed by the lawes of the land : for if the calling and office of their bishops be ( as they say it is ) of the earth , false , divilish , antichristian , &c. then it followes , that their calling and office , must necessarily be of the same qualitie , nature , and condition , to weet , of the earth , false , divilish antichristian , which is wholy derived from it , which receives ( i say ) and takes its life and beeing of it onely : and no where else . for if their bishops have not a right power in themselves , then can they not transferre it to an other , as the law saith , nemo potest plus juris transferre in alium , quam sibi competere dignoscatur . no man can give more to another then he hath himselfe . if korah , dathan , and abiram , when they vsurped the preisthood and goverment of the church , should ( by that false power which they assumed ) have ordained some of the people vnto the preists office : no doubt all the israelites which feared the lord , would have judged their place and standing vnlawfull : and why : because they which made them had no commission from god so to doe : the case of their ministery is just so . and it must needs be vnlawfull , seeing it is made by them , who like the rebels before named , doe vsurpe the preisthood and government of the church : and therefore have no more authority to give an ecclesiasticall function vnto any man : then the former had , and so much is testifyed by themselves , for they say that their priests and deacons , bishops and archbishops , are not made according to the word of god. and they give reasons that it is not lawfull for any one to be ordained by them . and here i must confesse that the conformists , keepe much better to their grounds then the other doe : for they professe downeright that their ministery is from the church of rome : so that if the popish bishops , preists and deacons , be good : theirs are good also , they beeing from them . now no doubt these men doe wel perceive that their ministery cannot possibly be justified , vnlesse it be by this way of dispute : in this respect their judgment and practice is one , and so far they are to be commended , and i verily thinke , that if they were sure that their ministery brought into the land by the prelates from rome is false and antichristian , as the nonconformists affirme it to be ▪ that many of them would not hereafter ever have any spirituall communion with it . truely it would make a man admire , if he should vnderstandly compare together , the writings of these two companies , touching a church ministery , for in their opinions about it , they are as contrary each to other as light is to darkenes , christ to belial , righteousnesse , to unrighteousnes , notwithstanding though so different in judgment , yet they will communicate together in one ministery , but one of these against knowledge offends surely , and let them look well to it . for to him that knoweth to doe good and doth it not , to him it is sinne , that is , his fault is so much the more , and proportionablie his condemnation shall be without repentance . we come now to their inferiour ministers , and will begin first with their bare readers : these poore creatures the nonconformists doe call idle idols , yea bastardly idols , greedy curres , dumb dogs , slayers of the people , wolves , ignorant asses , silthy swine , such as are not worthy to live in a well ordered common wealth , foolish sheapheards , vnsaverie salt , good for nothing , but to be cast out to the dunghill , cankers of their church , a swarme of caterpillers , the trash and riffe-raffe of their nation , a wofull crew , a ragged regiment , which have even covered the land like the frogs of aegypt , leading many thousands with themselves into the ditch . it can hardly be expressed how base and vile these are generally reputed , indeed they are held no better then theeues and murderers , which live by the ruin and spoyle of the people . somtime ye shall heare them in their pulpits so terribly spoken against , that one would thinke they would rather returne vnto their old former occupation of husbandry , cobling , coo●ery , &c. then ever come againe to their churches or to read , mattens , and evening song . and touching he prelates they are esteemed as base and contemptible , ●very way for putting such dunsticall and vnlettered ●r. iohns in their ministery : i could relate many instances of their infamous caryages therein but it is not my purpose to rake into their dung . the nonconformists have don it sufficiently , in so much as they doe stinke horribly for it in the nostrels of the people . but to our purpose : if things be so , is not the ministery then of such men to be left ? yea surely . a man that is fallen into the hands of theeves & murderers , if by any means he can escape with his life from them , shall therein be justified by the law of god , of nature , and nations , now by how much a spirituall life is better then a corporall : by so much are they to be commended above the other , which come away from these soule slayers , and place themselves vnder the ministery of true and lawfull pastors . and for further proofe of what i say , i desire the reader to marke well , what is sayd first against the calling of these men . . what , against that worke and service which they doe . their calling , is sayd to be from the pope a meere human invention , taken vp without any warrant from gods word , and brought into the church by the boldnesse of men . and to prove that these are vnlawfull ministers , many reasons are rendered for it . . because they want the very life , essence , and beeing , whereby a minister , is a minister . . the common law , provinciall law , civill law , and statute law , pronounce all with one voyce and consent , that they have no approbation or allowance , no favour or entertainment from them , or by their authority &c. but beeing found culpable they are by definitive sentencs on the part and behoofe of the law , not onely to be adjudged guilty of voluntary intrusion into the right and possession of others , but also to be punished for taking vpon them offices without any lawfull calling . . they can doe nothing , which appertaineth to the charge and office of true and faithfull sheepheards , and therefore justly called idols . for they stand for that , and make shew of that which they are not . . it is a like to have no minister at all , as to have an idol in the place of a true minister , yea and in some case it is worse , for those that be vtterly destitute of ministers will be diligent to search for them : but those which have a vaine shadow , doe commonly without further care , content themselves with the same , and so remaine they continually deceived , thinking they have a minister when in very deed they have none . for we cannot judge him a dispensator of gods misteries , that in no wise can breake the bread of life to the fainting and hungring soules , neither thinke we that the sacraments can be rightly administred by him , in whose mouth god hath put no sermon of exhortation . . god rejecteth them and pronounceth that they shall be no ministers to him . hos . . . the retayning of such is a manifest token of the vengeance of god against all them which do it . . their name & office is taken only of the pope that roman antichrist , never by god erected in his church . many other reasons they give , to prove them to be vnlawfull and false officers , not sent of christ ( forall whome he sendeth he furnisheth with gifts ) no better then ie●oboams preists . and therefore vtterly to be removed , if ever such a reformation be minded as god shall be therby glorified and his church edified . if any should object that the prelates , have layd their hands upon them , and therefore they are ministers . to this the nonconformists doe answere , that when the bishop hath laid his hands on them , that then , they are no more ministers then they were before . but there is no need , to spend much time , to prove these mens ministerie , false and vnlawfull : seeing none will replie for thē , that have any spark of pietie to god , or pittie towards his people : onely some non-residents that keepe poore vnderlings , or greedie patrons , that would have the light of the gospell die : or poore ignorant people that would live at their owne wils , in all licentiousnesse , these happilie would vndertake the plea against christ , but it were better their tongue should cleave to the roofe of their mouth , then that they should once dare goe about the overthrow of christs ministerie . and is not this a ground of separation ? yes verely , and if the nonconformists will stand to it , i will hence prove a necessity to separate from all spirituall communion , with the greatest number of their parish assemblies : and thus i reason . a dumb ministerie beeing vnlawfull and false , is to be seperated from : their ministers for the greatest part are dumb ministers : therefore it is lawfull to seperate from the greatest part of their ministers . the proposition is manifest and cleare , and i dare say they will not deny it : for besides the reasons already given , it is confidently by them affirmed that a reading ministery cannot deliver the lords holy seales vnto the people without great sacrilege , nor the people , receive at the hands of such without dreadfull sinnes , and whosoever listeth to read the place , he shall see many effectuall arguments laid downe by the author to prove it , and this is not the judgment of one alone , but others of them affirme it to be an vnlawfull thing , to joyne with reading ministers in any ministeriall duty , either in praying , or administring the sacraments , and he gives worthy reasons for it . the assumption i prove also by their owne testimony : for they say , that generally throughout the land there are six reading preists to one preacher . yea others of them doe affirme , that where the bb. ordaine one minister that can preach , they make twenty that can not ; so that there are many thousand churches in england without preachers , ( defenc. pet. for refor . . ) and in some shyres , people must goe or miles to heare a sermon . defenc . against bridg. p. . now , i wish them to consider well of thes things , & to labour what they can for their brethrens deliverance out of these spirituall robbers and murderers hands . he that should come to a deepe pitt or wel , wherein doe lye many people , almost perished , if he should see there , some of them com forth from the rest , would we not judge him an unmercifull and cruell man , if he should rather seeke to cast them in againe , then to help out the other behind in miserie : such as live under a dumbe ministerie ( by the nonconformists confession ) are in a farre worse case ; therefore i hope hereafter they will give no more carnall counsell , to perswade those , which are escaped , to com back into that pitt againe , but rather will seeke to draw out the rest , as their duty is to doe . secondly , for the work which these idle readers doe , we shall have a fit place herafter to speak of it . only by the way , i thinke good to sett downe heere one of their passages , which is , that bare reading of the word , and single service saying , it is bare feeding , and rather an english poperie , than a true christian ministerie ; yea it is as evill as playing vpon a stage , and worse too : for players learn their parts without booke , but these ( at least many of them ) can scarse read within booke ; how ! is their service saying as bad as stage playing ? what , and worse too ! truely then it is bad enough ▪ and farre be it from the lords people to heare it . for if they should doe so , they would sacrifice vnto the lord a corrupt thing , and so be lyable justly to that curse in malachi . thus much for their dumb ministerie . it followes next , that we speak of their parsons , vicars , parish preists , stipendaries , and chaplines . if you will know ( say the nonconformists ) whence all these came , we can easily answere you , that they came from the pope , as out of the trojan horses belly to the destruction of gods kingdom , it is certaine , that their names and office is wholy from that roman antichrist , never instituted , either by christ or his apostles . for the church of god never knew them , neither doth any reformed church in the world know them . these are clouds without raine , trees without fruit , painted sepulchres , full of dead bones , fatted in all abundance of iniquity ; such as seeke not the lord iesus , but their owne bellies . mr. bale , in his exposition upon the revelation , speakes the same , that these are the very names of blasphemie , written upon the beasts head , against the lord and his christ : their offices are not appointed by the holy ghost , nor yet mentioned in the scriptures . here is enough spoken for the condemnation of their calling , and for the justification of seperation from all communion therewith : from hence i might frame this argument , whosoever he be that dealeth with the holy thinges of god , and worketh vpon the consciences of men , by vertue of an antichristian power , office , and calling , him the people of god ought not to receive , or joyne themselves vnto . but all the parsons , vicars , parish preists , stipendaries , &c. that stand over the church assemblies in england , deale with the holy things of god , and worke upon mens consciences , by vertue of an antichristian power , office , and calling ; therefoee the people of god ought not to receive them , or to joyne themselves vnto them . the first part of this reason the nonconformists do yeeld willingly unto , as it is to be seen in a treatise betweene mr. fr. io. and mr. hild , about the ministerie of england : as for the other part , i hope they will not now deny it , seeing they have published it openly and often to the world : yea and many of them suffered greevous persecutions at the hands of the prelates , for affirming it , and other truths of this nature . but to keepe them to their owne grounds , in the assumption : i will here lay downe another argument . if their parsons , vicars , parish preists , stipendaries &c. be neither in election nor ordination made ministers agreeablie to gods word , thē is their ministerie false , vnlawfull , antichristian , and so consequently they deale with the holy things of god &c. as is before sayd . but neither in their election nor ordination are they made ministers according to gods word . therefore is their ministery false vnlawful , antichristian , &c. both these propositions i will prove true by their owne writings , of the first thus they say . a due examination of learning and life , going before the free consent of the church , whome it concerneth : and ordination or laying on of hands by these to whome it appertayneth is so required , as if default be made either in the examination or election , the whole action is disanulled and made voyd . i desire the reader to note well , what they say here : viz. so necessarie is a right election and ordination , to euery ecclesiasticall office ▪ that without the same , it cannot possibly be true and lawfull . the same they doe againe affirme , a little before the place cited . indeed if their evill had bin onely in life ( meaning popish preists ) or in some principall points of doctrine it were somthing : but their defect is in the very calling : for christ beeing the doore , and god that openeth to the pastors that enter by it , and all that enter otherwise are theeves and murderers . we have also to prove the minor , their owne testimony , for they say directly that not any one of the forenamed officers are either , proved , elected , called or ordained according to gods word , but after the old popish order , and for this cause , doe confesse that they have not a right ministerie among them . it was a great fault in pharaoh , when he had given his consent vnto the israelites , that they should freely depart out of aegypt , and goe vnto canaan according to gods appointment , that he should afterward vse all the meanes he could to gett them back into their former miserable servitude : i haue shewed by the nonconformists grounds , that our seperation from their ministery is with their leave and approbation : and therefore they doe not well to seeke our bondage and misery again , the same thing we shall prove , touching their worship , government , and church , in order and place . if therefore they would have vs in earnest , returne vnto them : let them first by the scriptures justify the things which they haue condemned , i say refute their owne bookes , and build againe the thinges which they have destroyed : and when they have made themselves transgressors : if we be not able by gods word to prove that the things , which we refraine from , are every way as evill as they have testified , we will ( by his grace ) acknowledge our error and returne againe vnto them , in the meane while we shall judge wel of our order and manner of walking : and put vp our dayly petitions , vnto the father our of lord iesus c. in behalf of all gods elect yet in babilon , that they may com out from that vnholy state , and doe the lords worke in his owne way . it remaines to speake now of their deacons office , the which ( as the rest before ) is wholy condemned of the nonconformists . for they ●say , that those ordained deacons in their church , never purpose in their life , to execute any part of a deacons office , neither are chosen for that end : but onely that within a short time after they may be made preists : nothing in the world , differing from the superstition of popery : where the office of a deacon was conferred onely as a step vnto preisthood , as though it were necessarie , that every one which is ordained an elder should first be deacon , and yet when he is made a deacon , he is but an idoll , yea scarse an idol of a deacon , having noresemblance at all vnto a deacon indeed , but that he is a man. this prophaning of gods institution , god will not allwayes suffer vnpunished , especially when it is not maintained of ignorance or infirmity , but defended against knowledge & vpon willfulnesse . others of them doe affirme the like : that they have thrust vpon them a counterfeyt and popish deaconship , a meere humane institution : foolish , and made according to antichrists canons , without any ground for it out of the scriptures , nothing like the ordinance of god for the releefe of the poore . and therefore they have desired that it might be vtterly abolished and taken a way . that a man from those principles may inferre a lawfull separation , from all spirituall communion in the ministerie of their english deaconship , i think every one ( if he vnderstand what a principle is ) will freely grant it . but if there be any that beleeves the former positions to be true , and yet will vndertake to prove by gods word that it may warrantably be joyned with , i shall be willing to read what he can say herein ; promising ( if i live ) either to yeeld , or reply againe , according to the worth or weaknesse , which i shall see to be in the writing for the thing : and because he may not want matter to begin with , i will lay downe this argument for him . if the present deaconry of the church assemblies of england be a meere human institution , and no ordinance of god , but an office taken onely of the pope , that roman antichrist , &c. then it is not lawfull in the worship of god to have any spirituall communion therewith . but the present deaconry of the church assemblies of england , is a meere human institution , and no ordinance of god , but an office taken onely of the pope , that roman antichrist , therefore it is not lawfull in the worship of god to have any communion there with . the proposition is evident and certaine , and cannot be denied . for no man can lawfully joyne in communion with a false ministerie . as it hath bin formerly proved , by scriptures , reasons , and the testimony , of the learned . the assumption is wholy taken from their owne writings . the which if they should deny : yet can we justify the same against all men . it may be some will exspect that i should write somthing of their lecturers : and the rather , because they in the judgment of many , are thought to be the best ministers , of their life and doctrine i say nothing : but as for their ministerie surely it is new and strange , as king iames , was wont to say of it . for the original of their name , manner of enterance , and administration , is vnknowne wholy to the scriptures , & i thinke never before heard of till in these later broken and confused times . therefore it is no marvaile , when the question hath been propounded to some of them , as it was by the pharises , to iohn , who art thou ? that they have not been able for their life to answere the point , neither could agree among themselves , what kind of ministerie it is that they have taken up ; and beeing hard pressed for resolution , they have ingeniously confessed , that unlesse they be evangelists , they could not see how their ministery doth accord with any ministerie mentioned in the new testament . this i write upon my owne certaine knowledge , the persons i thinke are yet liveing , whose names for some reason i forbeare to expresse . howbeit i can and will doe it , if i see there be a just and necessarie occasion . i doe not thinke it strange , that they should thus speake : for indeed , i know not what they can say better in defence of their standing ; pastors , i am sure , they will not say they are . for first they doe not take any particular charge of a flock upon them . . they performe not the office thereof : for they agree with the people only , to preach , & not to administer , either the seales , or censures to them . . their comming unto the people is in a strange sort : for they make a covenant each with other , for some certaine yeares ; and when that time is out , both parties are free , and so may leave one the other , and doe many times . but a true pastor may not doe so ; for if he should he were worse then an hyreling , which leaves not the sheepe till he see the wolfe comming . but many of these , when they see a richer lectureship comming toward them . . he that is the parson or vicar , is taken generally for the minister of the place ; and truly howsoever their calling be false and antichristian ( as the nonconformists say ) yet in many respects they doe better resemble a true minister , then any lecturer whatsoever ; therefore not without just cause doe the reformists utterly condemne this extraordinarie office of preachers , and affirme , that they are neither pastors or teachers , which the scripture alloweth off . and this may be easily proved . that ministerie which is instituted and sett vp besides those , which god hath appointed in his word , is vnlawfull and false : but ●he ministerie of the lecturers in england is instituted and sett vp beside these , which god hath appointed in his word . therefore that ministerie is vnlawfull and false . the proposition is plain and undeniable , and we have their owne words to confirme it ; for thus they say : all the ministery is by the word of god , and not left to the will of men , to devise at their pleasure , as appeareth by that which is noted of iohn , where the pharisees comming to him , after that he had denyed to be either christ , or eltas , or another prophet , conclude if he be neither christ , nor elias , nor of the prophets , why baptisest thou ? which had been no good argument , if iohn might have been of som other function then of those which were ordinary in the church , and instituted of god , and therefore iohn to establish his singular and extraordinarie function , allegeth the word of god , whereby appeareth , that as it was not lawfull to bring-in any strange doctrine , so was it not lawfull to teach the true doctrine , vnder the name of any other function then was instituted by god. let the whole practice of the church vnder the law be looked vpon , and it shall not be found , that any other ecclesiasticall ministery was appointed then those officers of high priest , & preists & levites , &c. which were appointed by the law of god , and if there were any raysed extraordinarily , the same had their calling confirmed from heaven , either by signes or miracles , or by plain and cleare testimony of the mouth of god , or by extraordinarie exciting & movings of the spirit of god. so that it appeareth , that the ministery of the gospell , and the function thereof , ought to be from heaven and of god , and not invented by the braine of men : from heaven i say , and heavenly , because although it be executed by earthly men , and the ministers also chosen by men , like vnto themselves , yet because it is done by the word and institution of god , that hath not only ordained that the word should be preached , but hath ordained also in what order , and by whome it should be preached , it may well be accounted to come from heaven and from god. againe , to devise any other ministery then that which god hath appointed , is condemned by the second commaundement . the assumption is thus proved , first if their lecturers , have taken ordination from the bishops , and exercise by that power onely then is their office false by the reasons before laid downe . secondly if it be objected that they never received the prelates orders , or have repented thereof ; i answere , yet this proves not that they are therefore true ministers : for as iehu , though he did wel to suppresse , ahabs idolatrie , yet in that he followed the wayes of ieroboam , he himselfe continued still a grosse idolater . even so , howsoever som may privately report , that they stand ministers by no relation to the bishop : yet are they notwithstanding , vnlawfull ministers , seeing they were never elected chosen , and ordained according to gods word : if any reply that they have their calling of the people . i answere the thing is surely otherwise , as shall be manifested presently . but if this were granted , yet i deny that any church vnder heaven , hath power from christ to ordaine such a kind of ministerie , and therefore if any people should doe it , seeing it is against the scripture , it must needs follow that it is an vnlawfull ministery , & so consequently not to be communicated with , and that it is so i prove it thus . that ministery is vnlawfull which none may lawfully give , but none may lawfully bestow the ministerie of a lecturer . therefore that ministerie is unlawfull . the propositiō is evident by their owne principles : the assumption cannot for shame be denyed if the nature of it be considered . for as we but even now sayd , their lecturers take no charge of a flock vpon them , they make covenant with the people but for a certaine time , the peculiar works of a minister is not by the people laid vpon them , neither exspected of them : if any object that they preach the word ; to this doctor ames gives an answere fully , that the preaching of the gospell is not a worke peculiar to a minister : for such as are private men and out of office , may and ought to preach the word as occasion is offered , and not only privately , but ( saith he ) in the publick congregation , and for this thing he citeth these scriptures , . cor. . . act. . . and yealdeth many good reasons for it also . other of the nonconformists affirme the same thing . as the church hath need of all mens gifts , so all ought to imploy them at publick ordinary meetings , yet so , as good order be still observed . section . iiii. thus reader thou seest how the present ministerie of the church assemblies of england , both the greater and lesser , is by the nonconformists professed and proved to be all and wholy false . now we com to the . point according to our division which is to answere the reasons laid downe by doctor ames , in the defence of their ministerie , and they may be cast into two heads or branches . first what he speakes for it himselfe . . the reference which he hath for helpe to m. bradshawes booke , entituled the vnreasonablenesse of seperation . we will first treat of the doct owne arguments . or rather argument . for i find but onely one , touching this thing in his booke . the words are these , we vtterly deny that the calling of our ministers doth essentially depend vpon the bishops calling . i know the word our here hath in it a misterie , which every bodie knowes not . for d. a doubtlesse meant to speake onely for som particular churches , because in his later dayes he would not vndertake to justifie the standing , but onely of some ministers in the land , which were mostly vnconformable . now it had been wel , if he had publickly declared so much , and shewed the differences , between the true and false , and proved soundly by gods word , such to be true ministers whome he so judged : for a little of this kind of writing , would have profitted more the professors in england , than a multitude of wordes , and yet all but one thing , about . or . foolish ceremonies , and which are the least evils of many hundreds among them . there are others of them to my knowledge in this thing of the d. mind , to weet , that some few ministers onely in the land are true , and privately they doe expresse so much . but in the meane time the people are ignorant hereof , and therefore walke disorderly , and so greivously sin against god , and their own soules : but of this enough elsewhere . therefore to the matter . i wish the d. had declared what the ●ssence is of a minister in his judgement , and whence the calling of his ministers doth essentially depend , if not upon the bishops calling . for then to use his owne words , this question would easily be decided : but seeing he thought it best in this to be silent . i answere directly : . the ministery of england , as it is established by law , doth certainly depend vpon the bishops calling wholy , & no mans else ; & if any in the land stand otherwise , he cannot properly be said to be a minister of that church , but rather is a schismatick from it , according to the formall constitution of it . and for this we have the testimony of another other doctor , and a man better experienced then ever mr. ames was in the making of english preists , and deacons . if you ( sayth he writing against mr. penry ) repel the vnpreaching minister , because of his outward calling , you may by the same reason discharge the worthiest ministers in the land of the holy ministery ; for all have one , and the same externall calling in the church of england . this witnesse is true : all their ministers indeed have one & the same outward calling . i say their best preachers no other then their ignorant asses & idols have ; the difference betweene them is onely in their qualification for a calling , and in the execution thereof , and not in the outward calling it selfe . for in this respect , if any ministerie be false and antichristian , there is never a ministerie then true among them all . and so much d. ames seemes to acknowledge in p. . for there he saith , that power of ordinatiō is not given ( by our lawes ) to individua vaga , that is to say vagrant men , of whome the law taketh no notice , such as were wont to be called , hedge-preists , but to authorized prelates . now if none by their law have power to ordaine , but bb. then are his ministers , either made officers by them , or else ( as i said before ) they are not of that church , and so he speakes not any thing to the matter in hand . secondly , there is not any congregation in the land that hath any power to ordaine a church-officer , neither is this either formallie ( nor i thinke intentially ) any where practised ; for the most free parish hath but only a liberty to admitt of a minister , before made by the bishops , so that the people give him not any part , much lesse the substance of his calling● , as mr. paget vntruely speaketh , but a bare permission , onely to exercise by vertue of that calling , which he had of the prelates : such therefore doe horribly abuse the people , which ascribe that unto thē , which they neither doe , can doe , nor intēd to doe , we blame justly the familists , for their idle pretence of inward devotion , they manifesting no outward obedience , whereby we should judge well of them . yet truely as bad as they are , this in them , can better be justified , then mr. doct. new principle , to wit , that the calling of their ministers doth essentially depēd vpon the peoples calling . for so i know he meanes : for it is so palpably false , as there cannot be a leafe found to cover the nakednesse of it ; for as i said , how can it with any coulorable shew be affirmed , that the people should doe that thing , concerning which they neither doe , nor intend to doe any thing belonging to it , nay more , which they make account , is done before , and not only so , but doe thinke ( at least most of them ) that it doth not at all appertain unto thē . vpon this ground a man might devise and say any thing , but i spare to urge it further , because the man is not alive to answer me . if any list to make a rejoinder , he shall heare more in my next answer . but before he goe forth hastily to strive , let him first make diligent search among all the parish assemblies in the land , whether there be any that doe make their own ministers , according to gods word ; that is , choose them by a generall and free consent , ordaine them by imposition of hands , with fasting and prayer , &c. for about this is our question , and not of their fittnesse to be ministers , neither of the leave , which the people give to administer among them , after they are made ministers by the bishops . moreover i thinke , that d. ames in pag. . doth contradict himselfe , his words are these . if the rejoynder , would have brought a fitting example , he should have shewed vs , that paul , or barnabas beeing at ierusalem , ordeyned a minister , and sent him to antioche , iconium or listra , signifying by letters , that such a man was appointed their pastor , though they never knew or heard of him before : for that had been somthing like vnto the practice of a bishop who vpon the patrons praesentation , wheresoever he be , sendeth his minister , from the place , or palace of his residence vnto a congregation , . . or . miles of , which poore despised people , must be content with towling of a bell , as sufficient notice given of their ministers fittnesse , and their necessitie to acknowledge the same : he speaketh so generallie , as i take it , his ministers are here comprehended , and i have good reason so to thinke , in regard of a busines which he writes of his experience : i was ( saith he ) once , and never but once , i thanke god before a bishop , and beeing presented vnto him , by a cheife magestrate of an incorporation , for to be a preacher in their towne , the lowly man first asked them , how they durst choose a preacher without his consent ? you ( said he ) are to receive the preacher that i appoint you . for i am your pastor , though he never fed them . and then turning to me , how durst you ( said he ) preach in my diocesse without my leave ? so that without any other reason , but meer lordship , the whole incorporation , and i , were dismissed , to wait his pleasure : which i for my part have don this twenty yeare , and more . by this little the reader may judge , whether the calling of their ministers , doth essencially depend vpon the bishop , or peoples calling . . if it should be granted that the doctors ministers , have their calling onely from the people : yet what is this to the point betweene him and the rejoinder , i may use his owne words , truely the answere doth not looke towards the question . now marke all readers that have sence , it is affirmed by doct. burgesse , whereas the nonconformists say the calling of their bishops , and consequently of the ministers is antichristian , that separation must herevpon necessarily follow . how is this answered ? not at al : if the proverbe be true : as good never a whit , as never the better . for d. ames speakes of a certaine ministerie which the separatist never to this day , yet saw in their assemblies , neither have they left any such . if therefore he would have answered the rejoinders charge indeed , he should have proved that those ministers , whose calling doth essencially depend vpon the bishops calling : which have , i say , no other election nor ordination , but what they had from them , in a word , which doe administer to the people only by that power and authority , may ( notwithstanding for for all this ) warrantably by scripture be judged true ministers , & be lawfully cōmunicated with in their ministerie , & yet the nonconformists grounds , published against them , all just , true & good . this is the very point indeed : for such ministers we have onely left , and we know no other . if there be , let them be manifested to us ; tell us their names , their places ; and if we finde by scripture their ministerie to be lawfull , we will surely have communion with it , as occasion serves . till then , we purpose by gods grace to live as we doe , and to practise that which the nonconformists professe to be the order , and way which the lord commaunds all his servants to walke in . . if the doctor speake here truth , then have the nonconformists greatly abused the princes and state of england , in complayning so often to them , against the bishops , and for what thinke you , forsooth because the prelats take away the powr of the people , make ministers alone , hēce none are either proved , called , or ordaind according to gods word , &c. now how doe these things agree together ? is not this yea and nay ? it is so indeed . but imagin , there should be a parliament againe in england , and the nonconformists should there petition : that the calling of their ministers might not essentially depend any more upon the bs. calling , would not the bb. have matter to persuade both houses , not to harken unto them , yea to reprove them sharpely , for moving this thing , seeing they confesse they have it allready ? but it may be they would say some congregations doe not ordaine their ministers ; to this the prelates might reply , that is then their fault ; for they give liberty and power to all alike , and that is none at all ; i am sory they have laid such a snare , whereby to undoe themselves . but usually , this is their course , when they have any hope , to have the magistrates helpe for reformation , they will truely declare the abuses and corruptions among them to the full , afterwards ( nothing being amended ) when they are put in mind of their principles , that is , if such things be true , then necessarily must they leave the church of england ; what doe they , but goe quite from them againe , as i shall in convenient place , prove it clearely ; and is not that a miserable case , which cannot be maintained , but by grosse contradiction . i may well here use the doctors owne words , such turning , winding , and running against walls , you shall seldome see an ingenious man to vse in a good case . lastly , howsoever doct. ames thought to have crossed much the course of the separatists ; yet if his words be understandingly weighed , he hath justified them , and made way to a generall departure from their ministerie . for thus i reason : none may heare or have any spirituall communion with such a ministery , whose calling doth essentially depend vpon the bishops calling . but the calling of the ministers of the church assemblies of england doth essentially depend vpon the bb. calling . therefore none may heare or have any spirituall communion with the ministerie of the church assemblies of england . the proposition by good consequence is the ds. own ; and herein he agrees with the rest of the nonconformists ; for in opinion they all hold this thing , as we have from their writings manifestd . and whosoever should deny the assumtion , mought with as much reason deny that there is any idolatrie at rome , although it is there both taught and practised : therefore i thinke no man will have the forehead to oppose it . but have not now the people of the land good cause to looke about them seeing those who count themselves the only men to refute the separists , are come to that streigth , as that they will not justifie it to be lawfull , for to joyne to any ministery in the land , but to that , which a man should not find among them , if he sought all their churches with candles , as the prophet speaketh . i hope gods elect yet there , will take salomons counsell , which is , to looke well to their going . and thus much for answer to the doct. reason : now next we should speake of mr. bradshews booke , but because i have been long vpon this chapter , and the reply to it will be large . i will leave it therefore till last , and handle other things in the mean time . sect . v. before i end this point i thinke it convenient to answere breifly to a few objections , which i have often heard some to make in the defence of their standing . object . . compassion towards the people constraineth many preachers to keepe their places : for if they should not , alas what would the people doe ? ans . . we may not doe any thing against the will and pleasure of god , vnder pretence to shew mercy to others . but we are bound to doe that which is good and honest , by just and lawfull meanes : that pitty which christiās are to shew , must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rightly bowelled , that is required of god , both for the matter and manner of it . . god needs no mans lie . for he hath power enough to accomplish his owne purposes . he may thus say : if i be hungry i would not tel thee , that is , what need i thee , or any thing thou canst doe ? i am allsufficient . . the truth is , the people are not holpen by this meanes , but rather hindered : for if they ceased from preaching in their vnlawfull offices , the godly generally throughout the land , would seeke where christ feedeth his flock , and so their state would be much better then now it is . object . . though they will not plead to justify their ministery , yet they hope to glorify god by preaching ans . so thought the leper when he published abroad the matter of his healing , but he not beeing called to do it , sinned greatly therein therefore it is certaine , that ▪ men doe then glorifie god , when ( leaving their owne , wisedome ) they doe whatsoever they are commaunded , for as m. perkins saith , the intention to honor god is not good , vnlesse it be an intentiō to honour him by yeelding that obedience which he commaundeth , now seeing these refuse to keepe strictly his order and ordinances : they take not the right course to honour him . and in this respect can have little assurance to receive glory and honour of him . therefore it is better a man never preach then doe any evil in preaching . object . . but they hope to doe much good by staying in their places . ans . . the least sin may not be committed if one were sure the whole world might be saved thereby . : it is a great dishonour to god to doe any sin to a good end , as though he could not provide for mens soules without sining against him and serving the devil . . although we invent a . wayes , yet we have no reason to thinke that we shall profit others , but onely by those meanes and instruments which he hath appointed for his worke . for with those his blessing is joyned : but if we passe the bounds sett by god himselfe , and institute of our own head , meanes and instruments to doe good by , not onely may we feare the want of his blessing , but the fearefull exspectation , both of temporall and eternall judgments . object . . but the people doe much desire that they would retaine their office . ans . beit so : yet seeing god commaunds them to leave it , they ought to obey him rather then men : if one had borne armes a while against his prince , yet should he doe wel , to lay them downe , though his father , mother , and a thousand more should counsel him to the contrarie . i leave the application of it to others . it was worthily answered by gideon when the kingdome with the alteration of the government which god had sett over his people , was presented vnto him : i will not rule over you , &c. the lord shall rule over you , to weet , according to such order , as he hath appointed . such a holy answere should they give the people . we will not stand over you by an antichristian authority , but exhort you to forsake the false wayes of the world : and to make a covenant with god , that so christs iesus may raigne , as king , preist , and prophet over you . . let it be considered that every one shall beare his owne barden . though adam took the womās counsel , & she the devils , to sin against god , yet they both in their owne persons caried the just punishment thereof . . the people vnderstand not so generally the vnlawfullnes of their ministerie as the others doe : for if they did , i thinke they would as much perswade them , yea more , to leave it by repentance , then they ever vrged them to retaine the same . object . . many of them have good gifts , great learning , and able to preach the word profitably : therefore in this respect they may be true ministers . answ . . be a man never so godly , never so learned , indued with never so many lively faculties of the ministery , yet he is no minister indeed , vnlesse he have the ordinance of god vpon him , by a true outward calling . he which vnderstands wel the office of a justice , and could sufficiently execute the place , yet is he not a lawfull justice of peace , except he be rightly called thervnto ? even so &c. . if gifts onely make men ministers , then many of the popish preists are true pastors . for they ( as the nonconformists acknowledge ) have great learning and gifts , very great knowledge and skill in the arts , and in languages : are of excellent vtterance , exp●rt and ready in holy scriptures ; can speake and write truely agreeing with the scriptures , of sundry of the se●rets of the kingdome of heaven : as of god , his nature , persons , attributes , of christ iesus his incarnation , his birth , life , preachings , sufferings , coming to judgment , of the resurrection , of the life to come , with many other of this kind . the like may be said of many lawyers , phisitians , &c. these by the former reason are ministers also . object . . many are converted by their doctrine , therefore it seemes they are true ministers . answ . . men in no office may , and often doe turne their neighbours from much euill . if this be not so , to what purpose should privat persons exhort , instruct , and reprove , any vpon any occasiō whatsoever . . good prophets have seene little fruit to follow their labour : therefore if this had argued a true note of their calling , they might have been judged false . . if fruit be a signe of a true minister . then are many of the bishops in england , and rome too , true ministers . for without doubt some of both have been instruments vnder god of mens conversion . . it hath been the manner alwayes , of wise and learned men , to esteeme of things by the causes , and not by the event , and that specially in matters ▪ of religion : for if they should be esteemed of the event , who would not commend the midwives lying vnto pharoah , for much good followed amongst the israelites : but what if the lord give his blessing vnto his word , is it to be thought therfore , that he liketh wel of a false calling ? nothing lesse , but rather a man might reason thus : for as much as those which preach in an vnlawfull office , doe somtime edifie their hearers : surely then such would doe much more good , if they stood in a right and true calling . . to convert is not the most proper worke of a pastor : but to feed christ sheepe , with sound and wholesome doctrine : and therefore if it should come to passe , that he never converted any , yet his ministery neverthelesse would still be true and lawfull . object . . many worthy men did never leave their ministerie in england , and yet dyed comfortablie . ans . . without doubt they never saw fully the vnlawfullnesse of it . . men must doe as they are further inlightened and guided by the spirit of god , who from step to step leads his people . . many of the fathers vnder the law had many wives at once , the which thing if any now should practice he could not exspect the mercy which they obtained , because they did it ignorantly . . no mans ●xamplie must be further followed then the same agrees with the scripture , for where david , peter , &c. doe differ from the truth , therein we ought to differ from them . . had they duly considered the conclusions of their owne grounds , layd downe against the abuses of their church , i am perswaded they would have changed their course . object . . but many have their gifts tried by some godly ministers , and so have their consent and allowance ▪ and this gives them ( they thinke ) the true substance of a true calling . ans . . these must consider , that it is against rule , to make that which is in question , the ground of the thing in dispute . for we doe deny , that those here intimated , are true ministers , and therefore their consent and allowance is nothing to make the thing warrantable , . if they were ministers , yet is their officiall power confined within the freedom of their owne church , and so have no authority delegated to them from christ , to give the substance of the ministers calling to another people . for to doe thus , were to be like unto the pope and prelates , the which practice in them they doe abhorre . . it is a fearefull mocking of god ▪ and a high prophanation of his ordinance . when men will take a holy worke in hand , & pretend they doe it , and yet doe nothing touching the true substance thereof . a man which hath but a little path to keepe , and great sea lying on both sides of him , would surely be drowned , if he should turne out of his way , but a little , either to the one hand or other ; the like may be said of gods pathes , and institutions : if a man keepe not full in the way , doe not every thing according to the patterne . it is all one , whether turning on the left hand , he embrace the idolatry of the bishops , or turning on the other hand , follow the new devises of mens foolish braines , for utter destruction certainly followes them both . now for conclusion , if these lines , by gods providence , shall come to any of your hands , which stand at this present ministers in the church of england : my desire truly is , that you will be pleased ingeniously to consider the things here written , and specially how the nonconformists ( such as you cannot but much reverence and love for their learning and graces ) have by invincible reasons and arguments proved clearely your offices to be false , vnlawfull , & antichristian . now if you cannot justifie your standing before men , ah how doe ye think that ye shall be able to stand comfortably before the holy god , if you stand longer therein . the lord give you eyes to see how exceedingly you have broken the sacred order of the gospell , and hearts tender against every sinne , that the evill may be put away . and thinke not scorne ( i pray you ) to take any fruitfull counsell of me ; but harken to the lord that it may goe well with you . and looke as the men which had maried them wives of the heathen , did put them quite away , at nehemiahs commaund : even so , seeing you have taken upon you a strange ministery , put it away at gods commaund , and doe not continue one houre in it . if you say , what shall we doe for the hundred talents ? how shall we ? our wives and children be releeved ? if we leave our benefices , our stipends , freinds , & benefactors . i answer you as the man of god did amasiah , the lord is able to give you more then this . christ sayth ( as you know well ) he that will forsake father and mother , house and land , for his name sake , shall receive a hundred fould in this world , beside the possession of life and glory hereafter . truly there is a great reward in this promise , & me thinks you should value it to be much more worth then all the personages , vicarages , lecture-profitts , &c. in england . mind well therefore ( good freinds ) what a large offer the lord makes , tobuy ●ou out of your vnsanctifyed places , whereas he might cast you forth headlong , and inflict upon you many visible and sencible punishments , as he did on corah , vzziah vzza , &c. for their usurpation and intrusion . but he offers you a hundredfould profitt , which is a great matter indeed , and therefore ye are alltogether unwise , if ye doe refuse it . i may say to you , as david to the men of iudah : why are ye the last to bring home the king ? surely ye are too flow in helping forward christ to his kingdom . you doe indeed complaine , that the office of christ , as he is king , is no wise acknowledged vnder the jurifdiction of your bishops in many places of the land. but are not you in part the cause thereof , in walking hand in hand with the rebellious prelates , to support that divised ministery , which they have received from the pope , and doe thrust upon the people . thinke therefore , oh what a blow it would give to antichrists kingdome , and how it would even shake and overthrow the very foundation of his house : if such as you would breake the bonds of iniquitie , & draw your necks out from the bishops yoke , and bring your learning and other good gifts ( as the people did the lords vessells , which had beene a long time kept in babilon ) to the building and beautifying of sion : this would make your faces to shine , and make your names to florish in all ages after , as those doe in our generation , which according to that light received , did powre out their vtals upon the seat of the beast , to the great discovering of his lies and beastly vanities . ye know that some , who were sometime cheif among you , have layd downe their ministery , as unlawfull : for it beeing a dependent office of the hierarchie , they found it by scripture unwarrantably to be used for the edifying of the body of christ . if you have these for an example , you shall doe wel , otherwise , if either for cafe , profit , credit , liberty , or other worldly respects , you retaine still this ●iverie of antichrist and popes creature , you will loose that honour and reward which the other ( if they make straight pathes for their feet ) shall vndoubtedly obtaine : notwithstanding as mordecay sayd to esther : enlargement and deliverance shall arise to the iewes from another place . for god surely will fulfil his word , in abolishing vtterly that great scarlet whoore , and all the accursed offices and ministeries , which she hath devised , in spight of all humane policie and power to the contrarie , and establish one day his owne ordinances more largely and perfectly , to the singular joy and comfort of all true beleevers both iewes and gentiles . moreover let it be considered whether those ministers , which have taken orders , and offices of the prelats , and stand by their power and authoritie , are not in this , transgressors against the king and the lawes . yea and might be legally executed for treason and felony if the king and state were not pleased to interpret the statute , contrary to the very letter , form , and truth of the same . the words of the statute . ( eliz. . . ) are these . it shall not be lawfull , for any seminary preis● , or other preist , or ecclestastic all person whatsoever , made , or ordained without or within any of her majesties dominions , by any authoritie derived , chalenged or pretended from the sea of rome , by or of what name , title , or degree soever the same shall be called , or knowne , to be or remaine in any part of her highnesse dominions . and every person so offending shall be judged a traitor , & shall suffer as in case of high treason . and every person which shall wittingly and willingly receive , releive , comfort , and or maintaine any such preist or ecclesiasticall person , shall be judged a felon without benefit of clergie , and suffer death , loose and forfeit as in case of felony . chap. ii. in this chapter we will speake of the outward worship , vsed in the assemblies of england , the summe whereof ( as the nonconformists say ) is contained in their communion booke , and hence the same is called divine service , ( as for preaching , it is held to be no part thereof ) we will follow here the same method . and first i will shew what a true divine worship is , according to their owne discription of it . how farre that in the church of england , by their owne confession differs from , and is contrarie to it . lay downe arguments to prove our separation lawfull by the former grounds . answer d. ames reasons alleaged to the contrary . it is certaine that the lord hath given a perfect platforme and absolute rule , how he will be worshipped , in the time of the new testament , an excellent direction for vs , how we may acceptablie performe the same vnto him , is laid downe in iohn . . . two things are there mentioned : spirit and truth , first it must be a true matter of worship grounded on the word , it must be no devised worship . for nothing may goe vnder the name of the worship of god , which he hath not ordained in his owne word , and commaunded to vs , as his owne worship . all the parts and meanes thereof , must be don according to his revealed will : even as the service which is given to an earthly prince by his attendants at court , must be onely according to that kings commaundement : so the outward solemne worship to be performed vnto the king of kings , ought to be that onely , which he alone is the author and institutor of . as for rules given by men not grounded on the scripture , in case of religion , matters of faith &c. they are not of any moment , neither are we bound to the observation of them . for the truth is , whosoever vseth those wayes and inventions in worshipping god which are not commaunded of god in his word , but be devices of men , christ saith that they worship him in vaine &c. if it have no further begining then mans braine , god will give no blessing to it : but sends a curse vpon it ; for cursed is he that addes any thing to the word of god : god will ad so much to his plagues , and the reason is , because he makes himselfe wiser or better then god. for if god be perfectly wise , then he knew best what worship would please himselfe ; and if he be perfectly good , then he would reveale vnto vs , what ever he knew fit for vs to practice : a gaine it is a great injurie offered to god , when we will let his deadly enimies have the ordering and appointing of his service rather then himselfe . a king would thinke it a great indignitie that his servaints , should not yeeld to his direction , but some base person that were a professed enemie , should set downe what service he must have , and in what manner he must be obeyed who shall be his attendants , and what his provision . but much more absurd and injurious it is , that we will let the wit and will of the flesh * bear sway in gods worship : for these two doe joyne with the devil , and are enmity to god. and if we will have this preheminence in our houses , that our servants must doe as we bid them , not what they themselves thinke good ( for he is a good servant that doth his masters will , not his own ) then why should not we thinke it right , that god must be lord in his house , and we must doe his service after his appointment , and not our own . and not onely doe they teach these wholesome and good doctrines : but also doe lay downe sundry effectuall reasons , to prove that men may not worship god otherwise then he hath appointed and revealed in his word . . because we can have no true comfort in our devotions so long as they be but limmes of that which paul termes voluntary religion : so long as they are onely taken vp by vs , and not prescribed to vs , make we never so great a shew of zeale in the performance of them : yet it is nothing . . all worship devised by man is abhorred by the lord : for he likes nothing but what he appointeth himselfe . . it is against his expresse commaundemēt , that men should bring any of their owne devising , neare his ordinances : because he will have no more don in his worship then he teacheth and commaundeth in his word . therefore whatsoever is added , that we are to esteeme , to be an image , which he detesteth and abhorreth . . because whatsoever god would have vs either to know , or doe . he hath fully revealed it by christ . . it is the property of superstitious and●dolatrous things to infect the places and persons where they are . . it argues certainly that men doe not love the lord and his commaundements , but hate rather both : when they worship god otherwise then he commaundeth , for although every wil worshipper will say that he loveth god , yet god witnesseth in the second commaundement , that he is a liar , and that he hateth god , in that he hateth the worship which he commaundeth , in the love whereof , god will have experience of his love . . the lord will blesse the true worshippers of him vnto many generations : both in themselves , their children , and posterity , and in whatsoever belongs vnto thē . . we must learne to proportion our worship to gods nature , which is simple , in that which is simple there is no composition or diuision , therfore in our worship there must be no composition , it must be vayd of mixture , a linsey woolfey patch worship sauced , spiccd , sophisticated with humane inventions , doth nothing sort with the spirituall simplicity of the divine essence . . god promiseth his presence onely in his owne worship , and therefore neither accepteth nor blesseth a worship , that is not directed by his owne word . for conclusion : worthily speaketh m. perkins , the second way of erecting an idoll is , when god is worshipped otherwise and by other meanes then he hath revealed in the word . for when men sett vp a devised worship , they sett vp also a devised god. augustine saith of the gentiles that they refused to worship the god of the hebrewes , because if their pleasures were to worship him in another sort then he had appointed , they should not indeed worship him but that which they had faigned . the samaritans worshipped the god of abraham , isaac & iacob , and they waited for the coming of the messias : & yet christ saith of them . ye worship ye know not what : because they worshipped the true god by a worship devised of old , & set vp by men . the lord saith to the israelites ye shall call me no more baali : whereby he signifieth that because the iewes did somtime worship god in the same manner , with the same images , rites and names , whereby the heathen worshipped the false god baali , therefore they made him indeed to be even as the idol baal , &c. againe iohn saith in his first epistle , chapt . . vers . . if that which ye have heard from the beginning remaine in you , ye shall continue in the father and the sonne . hence it followes , that those which abide not in the doctrine of the prophets and apostles , but set vp other formes of worshipping god , abide not in the sonne and the father , gods worship must be according to his nature , heavenly , divine , and spirituall ; but all devised worship is according to the nature and disposition of the deviser , foolish , carnall , vaine &c. therefore when god is worshipped not according to his owne will , but according to the will and pleasure of man the true god is not worshipped , but a god of mens invention is set vp . thus he . secondly , there must be a true manner of worship : which is to proceed from the very heart ▪ root , and to be performed with the will , the affections , and all that is within us ; for this gives life , and welbeeing to divine service : as a well proportioned body , if it want breath , offends us , and we desire to have it taken out of our sight ; for the noysome smel which it maketh in our nostrels : even so every worship ( how outwardly glorious , and formall soever ) voyd of uprightnesse , displeaseth the lord greatly , and he bids such hypocrites , to cary the same away out of his presence , because it is noysome and abominable unto him . let every man therefore looke to this maine thing , to wit , that he worship god in the truth and sincerity of the inward man ; for in this god onely taketh delight , and without this maine qualification he cannot abide , either the person or action . it is a thing common with men , when they take a peece of worke to doe for an other , and exspect to have a good reward for their labour , to be carefull so to doe it , as the mr. for whome they doe it , may have good content therein ; the like should be our care , whensoever we take in hand any service of god ▪ and hope to be recompenced , to perform the same in that sort , as the lord may be pleased to accept graciously of it in iesus christ . in all this we do fully agree with the nōconformists , & are persuaded , that no man can rightly beleive , that his service is well pleasing unto god , unlesse it be performed , both for matter and manner , as they have before truly expressed ; and therefore to our power we are carefull allwayes thus to doe ; and so much the more , because herein we know our masters will , and have promised to doe it ; so that , if we neglect it , both our trespasse and punishment will be the greater . sect . ii. in the former section we have heard , what a true worship is : now it followes , that we describe the worship of the english assemblies , according to the testimony given thereof , by the nonconformists . this worship ( for the matter of it ) is contained wholy ( as was said ) in their church leiturgie , in the handling whereof , for the readers better information . i will first shew what they say of the whole booke , and afterwards of the particular parts and peeces thereof . touching the former , they write thus : the whole forme of the church service , is borrowed from the papists , peeced , and patched together without reason or order of edificatiō ; yea not only is the form of it taken from the church of antichrist , but surely the matter also ; for none can deny , but it was culled and picked out of that popish dunghill , the portuis and vile massebooke , full of all abominations : from three romish channells , i say , was it raked together , namely the breviary , out of which the common prayers are takē , out of the rituall or book of rites , the administration of the sacraments , burial , matrimony , visitation of the sick are taken : and out of the massebooke , are the consecration of the lord supper , collects , gospels , and epistles . and for this cause it is , that the papists like well of the english masse , ( for so king iames used to call it ) and makes them say : surely the romish is the true and right religion , else the heretikes in england would never have received so much of it ; for some have avouched it to my face ( saith the author of the curtaine of church power ) that the service there , is nothing but the masse in english , others , that it wants nothing but the popes consecration . these things thus retained it was also thought , that popish kings and princes , would be the lesse offended ; what marvell , seeing the i●suites themselves are so well pleased with the ceremonies and service , that i heard one of them ( god is my wittnesse herein ) make it his hope that the maintenance of them against the puritans , would make england the sooner returne to rome in the rest . mine eyes and ea●es ( saith bishop hall ) can wittnesse with what approofe , and applause divers of the chatholikes royal ( as they are termed ) entertayned the new translated lyturgie of our church . which is the lesse wonder seeing pope pius , the . sending vincentio parpatia , abbot of s. saviours to queene elizabeth offered , to confirme the english lyturgie by his authority , if she would yeeld to him in some other things . indeed it pleased them so wel , that for the first eleven yeares of queen elizabeth : papists came to the english churches and service , as the lord cooke sheweth : others of them , affirme the same thing : namely their churrh service pleaseth marvelous well the romish beast , and his vngodly followers . witnesse the pacification of the devonshire papists , in the time of edward the . when as they vnderstood it was no other but the very masse booke put into english , wittnesse also the assertion of d. carryer a daungerous seducing papist . the common prayer booke ( saith he ) and the catechisme contayned in it : hould no point of doctrine expresly contrary to antiquity , that is ( as he explaine●h himselfe ) the romish service , onely hath not enough in it : and for the doctrine of predestination , sacraments , grace , free will , and sinne , &c. the new catechisme and sermons , of the puritan preachers , runne wholy in these against the common prayer and catechisme therein contayned , &c. and therevpon he comforteth himselfe , vpon the hope of supply of the rest , to this effect speaketh bristow and harding . if these things be right why not the rest ? it shall not be amisse to marke one accurrence in q. elizabeths time , who beeing interdicted by the popes bull , secretary walsingham , tryed a trick of state pollicie to reverse the same . he caused two of the popes intelligencers at the popes appointment , to be brought ( as it were in secret , into england , to whome he appointed a guide ( beeing a state intelligencer ) who should shew them in canterbury and london , service solemnly sung and said , withall their pompe and procession , which order , the popish intelligencers seeing , and so much admiring , they wondered that their master would be so vnadvised , as to interdict a prince or state whose service and ceremonies so symbolized with his owne : so returning to the pope they shewed him his oversight , affirming that they saw no service , ceremonies or church orders in england , but they might very well have been performed in rome , wherevpon the bull was presently called in . moreover such is the vnholinesse of this idol booke , as the nonconformists , generally have refused to subscribe vnto it affirming it , to be such a peece of work as it is strāg any will vse it , there being in it most vile & vnallowable things . and for this cause they have besought the peeres of the realme , that it might be vtterly removed , and many reasons , they have given in severall treatises , to prove their condemnation of it , just and lawfull ▪ first because it is an infectious liturgie , ●o●ish stuffe , a devised service , and in it are many religions mixed together of christ and antichrist , of god and the devil , besides a booke full of fancies , and a great many thinges contrary to gods word , and prayers which are false , foolish , superstitious , and starke naught &c. . they cannot account it praying , as they vse it commonly , but onely reading or saying of prayers : even as a child that learneth to read , if his lesson be a prayer , he readeth a prayer , and doth not pray : even so it is commonly a saying and reading prayers and not praying . . in all the order of it there is no edification but confusion . . we read not of any such liturgy in the christian church in the dayes of the apostles , nor in many ages following till blindnesse , ignorance and lazinesse , occasioned a prescript forme , to be made for idle and dumb preists . . if this were not , many would make more profession of love to preaching , and hearing gods word , but by this meanes it is neglected , and despised , for worldings , vsurers , drunkards , whoremongers , and other earthly and prophane people , away with nothing so well as english masse , and why ? but because it doth not sharply reprove them of their sins , nor disclose the secret of their hearts , but that they may continue in all kind of voluptuousnesse , and all other kind of wickednesse , and therefore rightly is it called their sterve-vs booke . . god hath no where appointed , that the church should be tyed , to read the booke of common prayer for his worship : and therefore to doe it , is an high transgression before him , as great as the sinne of nadab and abihu , and such are liable vnto the like or greater punishment . . if this were praying , and there were never an ill word nor sentence in all the prayers , yet to appoint it to be vsed , or to vse it as papists did their mattens and evening song , for a sex service to god , though the words be good , the vse is naught , the words of the first chapt . in iohn be good , but to be put into a tablet of gould , for a soverainge thing to be worne , the vse is superstitious and naught , and so is the vse of this service . sundry other arguments of this nature are used of them , to prove their service-booke a false , idolatrous , & unlawfull worship , the which i purposely omitt , because enough already hath been said about it . yet there is one thing , which i thinke good here to note , namely a comparison , which they make betweene the papists and prelates , in forcing the practice of this foolish stuffe : welfare the papists ( say they ) for they shall rise up in judgement against you , ( it is meant of the hierarchie ) who like good fellowes , yet in plain and open termes , even bare faced , as it were , doe seeke to reduce vs , and to draw vs to their false and idolatrous worship and service in poperie , as namely by their masse , mattens , ensong , purification , and other such like , whereas you must daungerously , and even vnder a maske or visard , as it were , and not vnlike to him that transformeth himselfe into an angell of light , doe goe about to draw and allure vs to the selfe same worship and service , but by cleanlier names and honester titles , &c. marke ( i pray thee ) reader what they speake here , touching their likenesse and unlikenesse with the papists : for their worship & service , it is ( they confesse ) the selfe same false worship , used in popere ; the difference stands in their bishops beguileing of the people ; for they doe lay more cunning snares & baites then the other , to have their idolatrie submitted unto ; as for an instance : the papists call their trashe , masse , &c. the other call it divine service , &c. and why have they left out the first title , but because they thinke few people would come to it , if it did cary still the ould name of the beast upon the forehead of it . nothing have the nonconformists here said against that idolatrous book , but we also doe assent wholy therto . indeed in practice we agree not ; for they will be present where the same is used , whether they thinke it lawfull so to doe , i know not , but this i know , that by their grounds laid downe against it , every true beleever is necessarily bound to separate from it , and not upon any occasion to joyne in communion therewith ; and this i will prove , . by precepts . . examples . . by reasons . . by the testimonies of the learned . of all which we will treat in order in the section folowing . sect . iii. the lord in scripture , hath laid it as a straight charge upon all the faithfull , to separate themselves from idolaters , and to be as unlike to them as may be , specially in their religious observations and ceremonies . the second commaundement proves this effectually , for there is absolutely forbidden all participation in any feigned service , whether it be to the true god or any other . when ieroboam had set up a false worship , we reade that the good prophets of that time , and after , called the godly israelites away from it , and bidd them in plaine termes not to joyne therewith , but on the contrary to keepe gods commaundements and statutes , appointed for his service , without adding any thing to them , or taking any thing from them . and this they must doe , although the king had confirmed his new religion , by act of parliament or counsell , and therefore no doubt would persecute most grievouslie all the refusers therof . the great whore ( much spoken off in the revelation , ) hath devised an vncleane service , to worship the true god by ; but what counsell gives the holy ghost to the elect concerning it ? very profitable , even in these words , come out of her my people , rev. . . that is , forsake her detestable religion , communicate in none of her vile & odious devises , what coulorable reasons soever , her unblessed followers make in defence thereof . againe as this is a duety , so the faithfull in all ages have practised it , a memorable example whereof we have in chro. . . . there it is said that the preists and levites , and after them of all the tribes of israel such as sett their hearts to seeke the lord & . came to ierusalem to sacrifice , the like practice we read of , in hezekiahs time , divers of asher , and manasseh , and of zebulun , humbled themselves and came to ierusalem . all will confesse , these were good separatists , and they did lawfully forsake the body , whereof they stood formerly members , notwithstanding if we take a strict view and inquiry of that ministerie , worship , and government , which they left at dan and bethel , it will appeare evidently , that the same was not more false , idolatrous , and vnlawfull , then the present ministerie , worship , and government , of the english assemblies is by the nonconformists affirmed to be , and because none may thinke that i speake more than can be proved , i will therefore here lay down , an apologie or pretext , which an idolatrous israelite , might frame in the defence of the kings religion , takē out of their own writings : & if d. ames phrase be tollerable i will pawne my head , that there is never a nonconformists , this day in the world ( let him keepe to their groundes ) that is able to give more pretty reasons , and coulourable shews , to justifie the religion of the church of england ; for thus they write : when the preists and levits ; according to their duety , resisted the novation , as liking better of their better warranted old profession : both they , and some of all the tribes of israel following the voyce of god in their mouthes , were hardly intreated , whereupon there arose a great schisme : the men of iudah and some of israel , objected that they had forsaken god ; but the most part of israel judged them to be renters of the vnity of the kirk , rebells against the king , who was advanced by the lord beside all expectation : was their lawfull prince peaceably disposed , contenting himselfe with his own kingdome , providing for the good estate of his own people , and vsing all meanes that they follow not other gods ; and esteemed them to be superstitious precisians in standing out against so gracious a king , commanding nothing against any article of faith , against any fundamentall point of salvation , detesting the gods of the nations , and all kinde of idolatry . the matters he vrged were but circumstantiall , rituall and variable , and such as the best kings , having the lords approbation , had changed before . they could say that the worship was the same in substance , that they served the same god who brought them out of egypt , with the sacrifices and observation of all the statutes kept by all the fathers since the beginning of the world . that their bullocks , which precisians called idols , were similitudes representing the onely sacrifice of the messiah , in whom they looked for salvation . were there not cherubines in the tabernacle and temple , and twelve oxen or buls of brasse appointed by the wisest king ? the lord forbiddeth such images onely as have divine worship done vnto them ; like the calse in the wildernes , turning the glory of god into the similitude of a bullock that eateth grasse . but they could say , that they worshipped not these calves more then the images of the cherubines . are we so grosse when we say , behold our gods , as to think that they brought vs out of egypt ? we speake figuratively , as the arke was called the king of glorie , and the holy lord god. wee will rather give our lives , lands , libertie and all , then commit idolatry for the pleasure of any prince ; and doe abhorre the abuse of images , which is to bow down and serve them ; albeit we be not of that mind but we may have them and worship god by them ; because we know no place of scripture to the contrary . the place of worship is but a circumstance ; and to tie gods presence to any place , who is neere in all times and places to them that call upon him , is superstition . the arke was not ever in one place but often removed . in salomons own time there was two publick places of gods worship , and salomon sacrificed in them both . is not the whole land holy ? the promise made to salomon of a speciall presence at ierusalem , was tyed to the condition of keeping his statutes and iudgements , wherein he hath failed . and therefore as his throne is thrown down , which the lord at the same time promised to establish , so hath the place lost the priviledge of holinesse . we may plead from antiquity : for heere is bethel , so famous for that glorious testimony of his presence given to iacob , from whom we this day have the name of israel , rehoboam is no wiser then his father , he may fall into his idolatry , and so israel by resorting to ierusalem may be snared . all danger of idolatry would be prevented , the poore people eased of their tedious journies , and both prince and people saved from rhehoboams conspiracy . all this dinne and division proceedeth of the humours of some contentious and avaritious levits , seducing the simple people , making them to thinke that god cannot be served but in ierusalem , after their fashion in every circumstance and particular ceremony : and of the doting of some persons of the weakest wit and ●ox , delighting to goe abroad , to be talked of for zeale , and more pleased with any worship then that which they have at home . the observation of the feast of tabernacles vpon the day of the month , is but the change of a circumstance of time . the day was made for man , and not man for the day . it was lawfull by gods own warrant to keep the passeover on the day of the second month ; he careth not for the month so the day be kept . it is presumption to alter things substantiall in matters of faith or doctrine : but superstition to stand vpon circumstances and variable ceremonies . what can be done , the lords worship cannot be neglected . if the priests of levi make it nice , will still prove contentious , and lead a faction with them for strengthening the kingdome of iudah , vpon warrant of antiquity , before the distinction of levi was made for orders sake , others of other tribes , as well qualified as themselves , must be put in their places , and they put away as abiathar was by salomon , because he had his hand with adonijah . it may be when they see their places well filled , and the charity of profuse people , which cannot last long , to decay , that their giddines will go away , and they returne to their right wits . the prophet that came to the king when his hand dryed vp , might have beene a witch comming with lying wonders , for he was slaine by a lyon : and howsoever he threatned destruction , he condescended vpon no time , lest he should have been convinced of a lye . ahijah dealt not with the king in meeknesse and sincerity as became a prophet ; but by his bitternesse and passion declared that he was partially inclyned to iudah . abijah dyed not before his day . all things come a like to the godly and to the wicked , to him that sacrificeth and him that sacrificeth not . or if his death was vntimous , it was rather for his secret intentious crossing his fathers courses , then for any good that was in him towards the god of israel , as the prophet would have it . in elias time , there were seuen thousand in israel which bowed not vnto baal . that is refused to joyne in that vnholy worship , which was don vnto him . i might here instance daniels forbearence of the kings meats because they were defiled by idolatry . thirdly the reasons are these . . it sheweth that the love and zeale of god , is much in vs , when our care is to worship onely in his own ordinances , and to leave the contrarie . . men offer a blind and lame sacrifice , when they communicate spiritually in a devised service : who would be so foolish to cary trashe , and dung for a present vnto a mighty prince , and hope to receive a favor of him , what is a false worship , but very dung and trashe , yea worse too : and therefore not acceptable to god. . so long as men are willworshippers , it argues they are vnregenerate and wicked , and have not repented of their sinnes : for one infallible evidence of true conversion , is to see the filthinesse of idolatry , and to cast away the same with reproach , and disgrace , and to goe from it as farre as it is possible . . to communicate in a false worship causeth pollution to the soule . if we would avoyd that which would make the body to be full of scabs , and biles and so to be lothsome to mē : much more , should we detest this great wickednesse , which causeth spirituall botches and sores to the soule : and so is odious , before god. . by this meanes , gods holy name is prophaned . . christ not suffered to reigne as king over the whole man , but rejected . . such service is don to the devil . . the lord hateth vnspeakeablie all devised worship . . wrath and vengeance without repentance will be inflicted upon all the doers therof . for society in sinne brings fellowship in punishment . . in a word , let gods puritie and holinesse be considered , and his charge given unto us , to be unlike idolaters , when we performe publicke service unto him ; and last of all , if we joyne to no false worship , but serve god , according to his revealed will , then is christ obeyed as our king and lord ; the reward wherof will be glory & immortall happinesse . . in this we have the consent of learned men generally . calvin sayth , we are bound to seperate from all superstitions , which are contrrry , as well to the service of god ▪ as to the honour of his sonne . and a little after , let vs hold this rule , that all the inventions of men , which are sett vp to corrupt the simple purity of the word , and to overthrow the service which god demaundeth , and alloweth they are very sacrileidges , wherewith a christian man may not communicate without blaspheming of god , that is to say , without treading his honour under foot . pareus to the same purpose sayth , that all kinds , occasions , and instruments of idolatrous service , must be avoyded as a most abominable and hurtfull plague , with the mind and body . bullinger upon the revelation sharply reproves those which will be present at false worship , and saith , that every ones duty is to fly from the same as farre as it is possible . we must forsake ( saith museulus ) the society of all unlawfull and superstitious services , and joyne our selves with those that walke directly in the true religion of christ . the like speaketh a piscator , b artopeus , c bucer , d pomeranus , e erasmus , f cyprian , g hieron , h augustine , i pelican , & k rivetus . to this the papists assent also ; for speaking of false services shifted into their churches , in stead of gods true and only worship , they say , that all catholike men , if they looke to have any fellowship with christ and his members in his body and blood , &c. must absteine from them , &c. and among other reasons , they give this , viz. because christ will acquit himselfe of all such as joyne in communion therewith . but i need not to spend time , to seeke abroad for witnesses ; for the nonconformists doe grant the thing : we may not ( say they ) have any religious communion , or partake in divine worship , with idolaters in their false idolatrous worship ( no not in body be present at idolatrous service , ) but we must absteine from all participation of idolatrie , yea from all shew thereof , heathen or antichristian , & must separate , and com out from among them . the like speaketh d. fulke , brinsley , perkins , cartwright , &c. and the author of the post-script to mr. perkins expositiō vpon iude renders this as a reason of it , not to absteine from communicating with them in their idolatrous services , &c. were no other but to expose and lay our selves open and naked to all manner of daunger , of infection of our soules , defection from our god , and in the end of all destruction , both of body and soule . now from the last two sections we may frame this argument . if the worship of the english service booke hath no warrant in gods word , but is a devised , false , and idolatrous worship ; then is it vnlawfull to be communicated with . but the worship of the english service-booke hath no warrant in gods word , but is a devised , false , and idolatrous worship ; therefore is the worship of the english service-booke vnlawfull to be communicated with . i need not here take d. laitons compasse , to fetch the bishops major , and the separatists ▪ minor , to make vp an entire syllogisme of separatiō ; for both parts of this argument are the nonconformists , and i thinke they will stand to the justification therof , if not against us , yet against the prelates , if occasion serve : but if any part be questioned , i know it will be the assumption , and therefore in the next section i will further prove the same by more of their owne testimonies . sect . iv. howsoever by the grounds of the nonconformists , laid downe in the second section , separation must necessarily follow , from all communion with them , in the worship of their church service book : yet to have the point more fully proved . i will here shew that every particular part thereof , is affirmed of themselves , to be idolatrous , false , antichristian . touching the booke we may consider two things : first the distinct services thereof . . the ceremonies vsed in , and about the same ; we will speake first of their ceremonies , that is of the surplusse , crosse , and kneeling , in the act of receiveing the lords supper . against these many treatises have bene purposely written , i will here onely observe some of their speaches , referring the reader to their bookes , if he desire more satisfaction . of all these ceremonies thus they say : a they were inspired by satan , invented by man , commaunded first to be practised by the beast , and his bishops : therefore they are idols of rome , babilonish rites , b part of the scarlet woman her inventions , c popish fooleries , accursed remnants , and leaves of the blasphemous popish preisthood , knowne liveries of antichrist . god never planted them , nor his spirit inspired them , the holy apostles never taught , nor practised them , all sincere professors , are offended with them , and detest them . e the defenders of these carnall and beggarly rites , are tyranous proud prelates , romish champions & apostates , covetuous chancellors , dignifyed chaplins , alias choplivings , ambitious pluralists , symonicall patrons , alias latrons , and the approvers of them they say are impious atheists , scandalous nonresidents , dumb homilists powling registers , proctors , paritors , &c. and all other prophane livers and wicked haters of god. moreover we find many vnanswereable arguments vsed , in their writings to prove , this trashe to be against the word of god , exceedingly idolatrous , and so ought not to have any place in religious worship , to instance a few . all addition in gods worship is directly forbidden in gods word , both in the old & new test . deu. . . rev. . . but these ceremonies are an addition in gods worship to the word , as they doe not deny . ergo , they are directly forbidden by the word : all spirituall communion with those idolitours amongst whome we live in the misteries of their idolatrie and supersition is sin . to vse those ceremonies in divine worship is a spirituall communion with idolatrous papists , in the misterie of their idolatry and superstion . ergo to vse those ceremonies is to sin . to mingle prophane things with divine is to sinne : to vse these ceremonies in divine worship is to mingle prophane things with divine . ergo , to vse those ceremonies in divine worship is to sinne . another thus . all things in the church ought to edifie , these things doe not edifie , therefore they ought not to be in the church . offences and superstitions ought to be avoyded , these rites offend and are superstitions , therefore they ought to be avoyded . no idolatrous remnants , nor monuments must be reteyned ; these are idolatrous monuments and remnants , therefore they may not be reteyned . nothing may be thrust into the church contrary , or besides the scriptures : these are contrarie and besides the scriptures . therefore they may not be thrust into the church . i could name many others of this kind . but here is enough , to shew the reason , why the nonconformists say , that these ceremonies are not to be received , though all the princes in the world doe commaund them , no good christian must yeeld any way to them . but rather avoyd them , more then the ceremonies of the turkes , and to thinke no otherwise of them , then of the devil himselfe . thus much for their ceremonies in generall : now a few words of them in particular , and so to another point . the surplusse is called of them the popes creature , a a lowsy rag , b popish apparel , c the whore of babilons smocke , d a filthy idol , e charactor of antichrist , and the divel , one of the pedlerie wares of popery , and the cast apparel of the harlot of rome , devised by pope adrian in the yeare : . who borrowed it as they thinke , of certaine , aegiptian monkes , who vpon the skinns which they vsed to weare , for their apparel , did weare linnen garments , from whence the name of surplusse seemeth to come : sundry reasons they give to have this trashe abolished . . because it serves not for comlinesse and gravitie , but rather it is rideculous & stagelike , meeter for fooles and commedians , then for ministers . . it hardens the hearts of the papists , and causeth them to be stiffe in their poopery . . hinders the weake from profitting in the knowledge of the gospell . . it is a massing garment , & therfore as vndecēt for the holy spouse of christ , as harlots weeds are for a grave matron , . christ and his apostles , and the fathers in the better times of the church made no distinction in apparel . . the gray amice and other popish garments defiled with superstition , can make as good plea for themselves as the surplusse can . i will end this in the words of the admonition to the parliament . copes , caps , surplesses , tippets and such like baggage , serve not to edification , but they cause discord , they hinder the preaching of the gospell , they keepe the memorie of aegypt still among vs , they bring the ministery into contempt , they offend the weake , they encourage the obstinate , therefore can no authority by the word of god , with any pretence of order and obedience , commaund them nor make them in any wise tollerable . but by circumstances they are wicked and against the word of god. the signe of the crosse which they vse in baptisme , they say is the marke of the beast , a a jugglers gesture b a magicall instrument , c a rite , and badge of the divel , a harlot which stirreth vp to popish lust . if a maypole should be brought into the church for children to daunce about , and clime vpon , in signe of their desire to seek things above : if a stif straw were put in the childs hand for a signe of fighting against spirituall enimies , as with a speare , there would be no more follie in those , then in the crosse . againe , to prove that no such thing should be used in baptisme , they give these reasons . . because the word of god is wholy against it . . the crosse is made there a very idol . . it is to depart from the plaine institutution of our saviour christ . . it hath been idolatrously abused in poperie , and hath no necessarie use now . . it encroacheth upon the very substance of the sacrament . . it is but a late devise , hatched by the pope . . it is not a ceremonie pertayning to the decencie of a sacrament . . it is scandalous and offensive to good christians . lastly , as much may be said , for putting salt in the mouth of the child , annoynting with oyle the breast , and shoulders , and the top of the head with holy chrisme , and to put a burning taper in his hand , &c. and for the whole waineload of such toyes , and as the proctors of the crosse can say for it . hence it is that the strictest inconformists affirme , that it is utterly unlawfull for parents to bring their children to be crossed , and they give many reasons . . men may doe nothing to their children , but what themselves would have don to themselves , if they were to be baptized , now what good heart could endure this idolatrie ? . it is a speciall dishonour to the lord , which men should avoyd , both themselves , and in , and by others . . this , as all humane inventions , hinders frō the child when it is wittingly don by the parents , the power of baptisme , as much as is possible . touching kneeling in the act of receiving , they say it is idolatrie , a spawne of the beast , a diabolicall gesture , a superstition which prophaneth christs true religion , and makes the sacrament of the lords supper to become an idol feast . there are many treatises extant at this day against this evill practise , now among other arguments , laid down by the nōconformists , to prove it an vnlawfull gesture . i will breifly here repeate eight of thē . . kneeling in the act of receaving the bread & wine in the lords supper , is a ceremonie altogether inexpedient to be used . . it takes away that commendable gesture , used by christ & his apostles in , and after the constitution . . the second commaundement of the law is hereby broken , and idolatrie divers wayes committed . . this robs the lord of that due worship , which he ought to receive from every one . . there is no direction in the whole scripture , either by precept or cōmaunded example , for receaving any sacraments kneeling , whereas for receaving with other gestures , there is both . . this is to conforme grosly with the papists , even in an act wherein the life and soule , as it were of their idolatrie , standeth . . the primitive churches for sundry hundred yeares after the apostles , never used to receive the sacrament kneeling , till pope honorius afterwardes decreed it . lastly , this gesture of kneeling holds no proportion with the cheife end and use of this sacrament , nor with that inward disposition of heart , which is then required of us . and thus much for their surplusse , crosse , and kneeling , from all which this argument may be framed : that worship , in which a man cannot possibly communicate without sinne , he is bound necessarily to separate frrom : but that worship , in which these idols are made and vsed ( viz. ) the surplusse , crosse , and kneeling , a man cannot possibly communicate without sinne . therefore from that worship , wherein these idols ( viz. the surplusse , crosse , and kneeling ) are made and vsed , a man is bound necessarily to separate : the proposition is certaine , and by d. ames in his cases of conscience acknowledged . although ( saith he , we may joyne to that church , in which many defects are to be tollerated , yet not to that in which we cannot but necessarily partake with sinne . the assumption is assented unto , by as iudicious and zealous nonconf . as ever held that cause , and they have brought good proofes for it . first , because men must fly from idols and idolothites , but when they come to worship god , after the order of the congregation , where these things are practised they doe not fly from them , but draw neere unto them . . their bare presence argues their approbation and yeelding in shew to ceremonies . . though the personall sinnes of the minister , doe not hurt the people , yet his ministeriall and publicke sinnes doe hurt , which he performes from the people to god , and so their joyning with him is unlawfull . . what example can be brought , where the holy men of god have communicated with such things . the author of the dispute vpon communicating at their confused communions , affirmes confidentlie , that the sitter is accessary to the sin of the kneeler , and he gives many reasons for it , whereof we shall have a fit occasion hereafter to speake . and now let the reader consider , if both parts of the former reason be true , as the nonconformists say : whether this one principle of theirs , will not justifie a seperation from most of their parish meetings . for surelie i thinke , not one minister in the land of , but makes , and vseth ordinarilie those idols of rome , when their publike service is administred . having ended with their ceremonies , we are next to treat of the worships themselves : and because these are divers , i will speake therefore of each the more breifly : wishing the reader if he desire to know more heerin , to iniquire after their bookes . churching of women , after childbirth they terme a superstitious service , a point of poperie , a soolish custome : indeed no other then a plaine mocking of god , and prophaninge of his name and religion , devised meerelie of men , viz. the papists . moreover to prove it a false and idolatrous worship , they give these reasons . . in the whole forme there is no thanksgiveing at all : but a mecre iewish or popish purifying , and therefore it is a horrible mocking of god , to pretend that they give him prayse , when there is not a word spoken , tending or lookinge that way . . this thanksgiveing as they cal it ) is even the very same , word for word ( excepting the title ) with their purification in poperie , the difference is onely in this , that the papists is in latin , and theirs in english . . whosoever doth this , shewes herselfe , either to be a low or papist . . the primitive churches never vsed it , neither ought it to be suffered in any wel reformed church . : chauncellours , officials &c. are hereby justifyed in their crooked , and vnconscionable proceedings , . this breedeth and nourisheth many superstitious opinions , in the simple peoples hearts , as that the woman which hath borne a child is vncleane or vnholie , contrarie to the apostles word , who teacheth that godly women are sanctifyed by bearing of children . againe that it is vnlawfull for her , vpon necessitie to goe out of her doores , before she be churched , that this churching is a necessarie part of the ministers office &c. touching the psalme , . appointed for that purpose , they say , it is child shlie abused , yea the words grealy prophaned . lastly for their other rites and customes viz. the womans lying in with a white sheet vpon her bed . her coming forth must d and vailed , as beeing ashamed to looke vp for some folly committed : her appointed offering , the clarkes waiting her home , and the midwives going by her side forth and back &c. these they terme bables , foolish , and superstitious things . the confirmation of children , by laying on of the hands of the bb. is not ( say they ) agreable to the word of god at all . but a meere device of man , a popish , and peevish superstition , brought in by pope clement the first in the yeare . who affirmed that he was no christian which wilfullie left this vndon . pope melciades came after , and affirmed it to be a more worthy sacrament , then the sacrament of baptisme . to prove this confirmation a wicked and most vile practice , these reasons are alleaged of them . . because as it is prescribed by their booke , it is made a new sacrement beside those two which iesus christ ordained . seeing the gifts of miracles which the apostles had , are ceased , this kind of imposition of hands ( which was taken vp at first from an apish imitation thereof ) must ceasse also . . whereas the ministration of baptisme is permitted to everie hedge preist , minister , and deacon , the prelates , doe presumptiouslie and damnablie , to appropriate this alone to themselves . . they doe not onely pray over them , but impose hands vpon them , that by meanes thereof they may receive strength against all the temptations of sin , which is to take that powr to them which god never gave them , & to do a thing wherof they have no promise that any good shall follow : lastlie , this displaced chatechising brought in steed thereof , vaine toyes and childish ceremonies to the great hurt of the church . therefore for these reasons it ought to be shut out , and have no place in the church of god. the like they speake of their order and rites , whereby matrimony , is celebrated in their churches . the forme of it is taken out of the masse booke , & therefore called prettie juggling trash , the ring there vsed is generallie reputed , a popish and idolatrous practise , and no lesse superstition , is there committed in saying with may body i thee worship , for herein the new maried man makes an idol of his wife . i omitt many other heathenish and antichristian toyes which the nonconformists relate , to be observed herein , whereby saith the author of the admonition , they make rather a maygaime of marriage , then a holy institution of god. as for their restraint of marriage in lent , and other certaine times , they call it the doctrine of devils : devised by pope nicholas , in the yeare . and since vpheld by his vncleane birds , for filthie lucre sake . but here the nonconformists , would have vs to take notise , that howsoever the hierarchie , forbid somtime this thing ; yet any man may have a dispensation for mony , and then those holy times shall have no pollution by marriage , such vertue mony hath with it , or such powr it hath with these base caterpillers . concerning burials , this they say . all prayers either over , or for the dead , are not onely superstitious and vaine : but also are idolatrie , and against the plain scriptures of god. no such thing was vsed in the apostles time , & as for their prescript forme of service , appointed for this businesse , it is taken wholy from the stincking portuis , and for this cause they name themselves popish apes . beside prayer for the dead is maintayned , and partlie gathered out of some of their prayers . as for the white or balck crosse , set vpon the dead corps , & ringing a threefould peale , the practice is popish : mourning in black garments for the dead , if it be not hypocriticall , yet it is superstitious and heathenish : funerall sermons , they also vtterly condemne , because they are put in the place of trentalls , and many other superstitious abuses follow thereby . to be breife the pre●sts meeting the corps at the church stile , with the clarke in their surplusses , the manner of laying the dead in the grave . viz. east and west , that he may rise with his face to the east , the preist offering and mortuarie , the bread and other thing , given to the poore , distinction of burials , as some in the chauncel , some in the church , and some in the churchya●des , all these are said to be naught , idolatrous , vnlawfull : and therefore the nonconformists , will have the dead to be buried in this sort , ( holding no other way lawfull ) namely , that it be conveyed to the place of burial , with some honest company of the church , without either singing , or reading , yea without all kind of ceremony heretofore vsed , other then that the dead be committed to the grave , with such gravity , and sobriety as those that be present , may seeme to feare the judgements of god , and to hate sin , which is the cause of death , and thus doe the best and right reformed churches bury their dead , witout any ceremonies of praying or preaching at thē . we com next to their sacraments , which are ( as they say ▪ sinfully mangled , prophaned , and wickedly ministred : the prescript sorme of service , whereby their lord supper is consecrated and administred , is taken wholy out of the popish dunghil , the masse-b●oke , and such are the●● inventions , prophanations , and superstitions , vsed in this ordinance , as the nonconformists , professe that they eate not the lords supper , but playe a pageant of their own to blind the people , and keepe them still in superstition , farre from the simplicitie of christes supper : to make the seely soules beleeve that they have an english masse : ( which is too true faith the author in the margent ) and so put no difference betwixt truth and falshood , betwixt christ and antichrist , betwixt god and the devil . i might here lay dowe every particular thinge , which they doe herein , as the preists standing at the north side of the table , his begining with the lords prayer , and a collect , rehearsing afterwards the ten commaundements , and the creed : then reading a short exhortation to those which are minded to receive : their falling downe , and rysing vp againe many times together , their manner of consecrating the bread and wine , taking it kneeling , the ministers going vp and downe to give it to every one with his owne hand , his speaking in the singular number . take thou &c. theyr saying over againe the pater noster , with singing , piping , surplusse &c. all these say the inconform : are disorders , superstitions , prophanation of scriptures , and don contrary to the practice of the primitive churches , and just after the manner of the papists . their publick baptisme is ful of childish and superstitious toyes , and as for the prayers vsed therein , they are either foolish or false . and no marvaile seeing they are also taken out of the cursed masse-booke . the conjured font , ( as they name it ) was brought in by pius the first in the yeare . and pope higinus brought in godfathers , and godmothers , in the yeare . both which they call pecces of poperie , the interogatories ministered to the infant , a foolish thinge , agreat mockerie of gods service , whereby an occasion is given to men to vtter a lie before the lord. that the godfathers and godmothers shill promise that the child , doth beleeve and doth forsake the devil &c. is a thing wickedly put vpon them , and baptisme by this meanes exceedingly prophaned . of the crosse we have spoken before : there is yet one thing touching it , which the reformists , wish vs to observe : that is , a most wicked practise of their vngracious bishops , these whelpes of antichrist , will have infants signed forsooth with the signe of the crosse . in token that hereafter they shall not be ashamed to confesse the faith of christ &c. and to fight against sin &c. now marke , what notorius mockers of god these are . for if any one who is thus signed , doth afterwards confesse the faith of christ against arminians and papists , and fights against the maine workes of the devill , to weet , the popish ceremonies , goverment , worship , ministerie &c. they will surely rayse vp against him , the greatest persecution that may be , & he must either forsake his owne countrie , or they will kill him in prison . moreover touching private baptisme , and ministring the lords supper in their houses , this geare ( they say ) is repugnant and against gods word , in effect like to a popish masse , a popish and superstitious practise , foolishly and sinfully first taken up ; for the sacraments were not ordained of god , to be used thus , as charmes and sorceries , but left to the congregation , and necessarily annexed to the scriptures , as seales of the same , yet not tyed to the material churches , made of dead stones , but to the church made of livelie stones : if therefore the congregation be in a wood , house , or cave , the sacraments may be administred in a wood , house , or cave , but the same must be don in the sight of the assemblie , for they are irrigiously handled when they are administred otherwise . baptizing by women they also condemne , and hold it to be no more the holy sacrament of baptisme then any other dayly or ordinarie washing of the child . lent fast , they say , was ordained by pope telesphorus in the yeare . and they keepe it england , for the fame end that the papists doe . iustlie , therefore is it named a romish error , a superstitious fast . the service appointed for that time , is against the seriptures , and gods name prophaned by the curses and adjurations then used . for their other fasts , they are said to be monuments of idolatrie , devised of antichrist , in all the rites and orders of them superstitious , and directlie against gods commaundements . as for wendesdayes , frydayes , and saterdayes fasts , bonifacius is said to ordaine them in the year . and pope calixtin in the yeare . ordained imber fastes . and in the yeare . another romish beast ordained saints eves fasts . and all this trash & dung was first devised by montanus , that notable heretick , as mr. cartw. observeth from eusebius : and for what use serues all this trumperie : but only to keepe out , and hinder true fasting indeed . the observation of holy dayes : as christmasse , circumcision , epiphanie , purification , and all other of the saints , is a breach of the second commaundement ; and herein , some part of the abominations of the romish religion is practised ; such therefore as impose this upon mens consciences , doe it without any warrant of gods word , and therefore the same cannot be kept lawfully ▪ many good reasons for this , are shewed in their writings , as the reader may see ( if he please ) in the places noted . moreover they doe affirme , that the whole prescript service appointed for these saints dayes is idolatrous , antichristian . of the same nature are all their ordinarie collects , pope gregorie & celasius , they say , ordained them ; and they have them word for word , as they stand in the blasphemous massebooke . i might here shew how some of their collects are charged with arianisme , others with poperie & arminianisme ; many with lies , and manifest contradictions . but to be short , they tell us in one word , that the saying of them is not praying , but indeed wicked pratling . as for the letanie well naturing the name of a laborious service in the dust and durt ( for so homer and others useth the same ) it is borrowed from the practise of the heathen , as causabon out of dionysius habicarnasse observeth ; and is in verydeed nothing , but an impure masse of conjuring and charming battologies , whereby the name of god is highly prophaned , his house and worship abused , gods people by it abandoned the sanctuarie , and the prophane love no worship so well as it . the epistles and gospells read in their churches , is a practise taken wholy from rome , and they use the verie same which the others doe . this chapping & hacking of the scriptures , this rending of it a peeces one from another , is contrarie to the order which god hath ordained , and his churches practised from time to time , and therefore the nonconformists have desired that it might be taken away as an evill thing . againe , in those epistles & gospells , which the prelates cause superstitiouslie thus to be read : there are sundry words and sentences of holy scriptures left out , which were given by divine inspiration , for the profit of the whole church : and many words and sentences of their owne foolish braine added to the text , as parts of it , yea in many places , such absurd things are put , as no reasonable sence can be made thereof . besides very often the meaning of the holy ghost is perverted , by a false interpretation of the text , and sundry places applyed to the countenancing , of some points of false doctrine . all this is shewed largely by the ministers of lincolne in the abrigement , and the like they say of the psalmes in the booke of common prayer : the prescript number whereof and lessons , as the english preists now observe , were devised by pope gregorie the seventh in the yeare . that any of the apocrypha should be publikely read , the nonconformists hold it utterlie unlawfuli , . because to use any word publikelie in the church , beside the written word of god , contayned in the canonicall scriptures , is condemned by the second commaundement . . in the church of the iewes , in the apostles time , only moyses and the prophets were read . . the scriptures are sufficient , both for doctrine , and manners , and were given to that end . . it is the proper office of christ to be the teacher of his church , and therefore no writing may be appointed to be read in the congregation , for instruction of manners , but only such as have been indited by his spirit . . many by this meanes are brought into a great error , thinking that the same is scripture . . these apocripha bookes containe a number of shamefull lies , horrible blasphemies , vaine vanities , plaine contradictions , ridiculous fooleries , athean impieties , fables , fitter for t●l●machus and aeneas , then for gods people . notwithstanding though these bookes be thus false , wicked , and abominable , yet in their assemblies many of them are commaunded to be read , for first lessons , yea under the name of the holie scriptures of the old testament , without any note of difference from the canonicail , as the lying story of susanna under the name of daniel . and in as great a measure for their proportion as the other . moreover many of the apocryphall chapters are to be read twise in one yeare , and some thrice , but so are not any of the canonical chapters of the old testament ; but a great part of thē & of the new also , by the order which their cōmon prayerbooke prescribeth , are not to be read at all in their churches . lastly , the nonconf . tell us , that these idle legends are read upon their great holy dayes , when the church assemblies are wont to be best frequented , and oftimes the holy scriptures must give place to them , as tending more to edification , and therefore may not be so well spared as the other . reading of homilies in the church ( which is a cushion for idle and blind priests to rest upon ) is said to be foolish , fond , and vnlawfull ; a practise never heard of in the church in the apostles time , neither indeed is it a meanes to beget faith , but the instrument of foolish and idoll sheapheards . as the prophets therfore might not in calling the people together , blow any trumpets , but those which were made and set a part for that purpose , by the commaundement of god , so ought not the ministers of god , to expound or read openly in the congregation any writings , but onlie the canonicall scriptures , which the lord hath set a part , and sanctifyed for that use . here by the way i wish the reader to note well the last words , viz. that no writings , ought to be read in the congregation , but the canonicall scriptures . this position is often affirmed by the learnedst of the nonconformists , namely mr. cartwright , d. chadd●rton , &c. hence then it must follow , that all formes of prayer , devised by men , are unlawfull to be read in the congregation ; and therefore where ever this is practised , men ought necessarily to abstaine from joyning therewith . but to proceed : not onely is the reading of homilies vtterlie condemned , but also it hath bene proved by the nonconformists , that those which the bishops commaund to be read in their assemblies , have in them many things doubtfull and of daungerous construction , yea sundrie erronious points of doctrine , and things most evidentlie false and vntrue . i have beene more large in the former points , then i purposed at the begining , i will therefore in the rest be the shorter , touching nunc dimittis , benedictus and magnificat , which they vse to read and sing in their churches , the nonconformists say , it is a prophaning of the scriptures , palpable folly and vaine pratling . their minister saying one peece of prayer , and the people with mingled voyces to say another , is babilonish confusion . the lords prayer also is horribly abused by their often and vaine repetition of it , beeing said not lesse then times at some meetings : other shreds and short cutts , they handle in this manner . viz. let vs pray , glory be to the fathers &c. lord have mercy , &c. christ have mercie , and many like , which is meere babling , and cannot be more justlie defended , then the papists beads . vncovring the head , making a leg & scraping on the ground , & such like curtesie , whē iesus is named , is counted a superstitious foolish and unlawfull device , a mocking of god , and a beggarlie signe of obedience , no lesse is standing at the gospell , a thing wickedly devised by anastatius the pope , in the yeare . their good fridayes service , is vtterly disliked , so the holy weeke before easter , the observation of gang dayes , or rogation weeke , is wholy popish , invented by hillarius the great antichrist , in the yeare . organs and other church musicke they call idoll service , because it serves not to any edification , but drawes the mind to carnall delight : besides , this was a part of the levitticall service , which is now ceased in christ , and for many hundred yeares after the apostles , musicall instruments , were not knowne to the church , till in the yeare . the old serpent by pope vitalianus , brought vp the organs , and to have them goe , about the same time , that beast with gregory , & gelatius , ( two monsters like himselfe ) ordained descant , foreward and backward , plane song , and pricksong , and thus was the musick made vp : just as the divel would have it . ringing of curfewes vpon hallowe eves , is like the rest : yea the bels themselves as they are vsed in their assemblies , are put vnto popish vses . he that first ordained them was sabinian the great pope , in the yeare . and much vertue is attributed to them in popery , as to stirr vp mens devotion , perserve fruites : put enimies to flight , still tempests , drive away all wicked spirits and devils , &c. i doe omitt to speake of many particular thinges , vsed in their cathedrall dens or closters , partlie because the reader may guesse what there is , by that which hath bene said : and partlie because the dung & trash there , is so vile and lothsome , as i am not willing to blot paper therewith . but there is one thing which i had almost forgotten : viz : their visitation of the sicke . not that it is lesse superstitious and naught then the other , for the nonconformists , affirme the prescript service of it , to be taken as the rest , out of the masse booke , and it is such stuffe , as he which wrot the altar of damascus , made himselfe merrie when he described the foolishnesse of it . thus the assumption is sufficiently proved , the conclusion therefore is certaine . viz. that the worship of the english service booke is vnlawfull to be communicated with . in the next section we shall see what d , ames hath to say against this thing . sect . v. for the readers better vnderstanding of the point to be handled in this section : i will first lay down the substance of d. burgesses speach . i have seen ( saith he ) some of the inconformists confutations , ( meaning of the separatists ) which i confesse never satisfied my consciēce , for i am and ever have beene of that opinion , that there can be no just confutation of them , made by such of the nonconformists , as have given them their maine principles ( what these principles are he afterward declares . viz that nothing may be established in the church but what god hath commaunded in his word : that all formes of worship not prescribed and all mere ecclesiasticall rites are will worship &c. that our ceremonies are idolatrous in the vse of them &c. which principles if i did beleeve to be true , i professe in gods presence i would proclame separation from idolatrous worship and worshippers this day ere i slept , and not halt as these men ( by their owne positions doe ) betwixt idolatrie and religion . d. ames answereth to this effect . the confounding of mere rites with formes of worship is not ours , but onely by the rej . his fiction . that every church is to be vtterly condemned , and so to be separated from , that hath any thing in it by participation idolatrous , is made scismaticall by a scismaticall conceit of the rej. &c. his profession of separation ( this day before he stept ) is nothing but a rhethoricall flourish which he would twice recall , before he would separate , from those that bow to the altars , or even those which worship an vbiquitarie body in the lords supper , though these are more palpablie idolatrous ( in his conscience ) then the ceremonies questioned are in ours . here is some thing said , although not a word , to the maine point in dispute which either mr. d. saw not , or else ( and so i rather thinke ) he thought it best to let it passe in silence . the wordes which the rej. takes from the nonconformists are , that all formes of worship not prescribed of god are will worships . and hence inferres separation , now what saith d. ames to this ? nothing at all , but talkes of the rej. fictiō , in confounding mere rites , &c. but by his leave , i see no such thing in the rej. but indeed the cause of the confusion is , wholie of himselfe , for d. b. layes downe formes of worship and ecclesiasticall rites distinctly , vnto both which he should distinctly have answered , if his meaning had beene to satisfie judicious & conscionable readers . i will not here vse d. ames , comparison of . a stile , and . a nokes , but a more sober one ▪ if a woman should be brought before the magistrate for certaine crimes , as namely whoredome , and some light carriage , and for this her husband would be divorced , now imagin that she had a proctor there to plead for her , which would not mention her adulterie at all : but gives som reasons why a man should not put away his wife for everie light cariage , would any wise judge approve of such pleading ? but contrariewise give sentence on the mans behalfe : d. ames carieth the matter just so : the church of england is charged by the nonconformists as the rej. truely reports of false worship in it , and also of som idle ceremonies , now marke reader how he pleads for his mother , as touching the worship he saith nothing of it : but of the rites onely : which are evils a hundred fould lesse then the other ▪ againe that every church is not to be left which hath some thing in it by participation idolatrous . i know no man holds the contrarie : therefore i cannot tel for what end he speakes it , much lesse why he puts a scismaticall conceit , vpon the rej. whose words if they be wel considered , have substance and weight in them , and not conceits , & to speake truely what i thinke , d. ames his conceit , in framing this answer , was not of the best . for thus they seem to argue , a church which hath somthing in it by participation idolatrous , is not to be separated from . the church of england is such ergo. now according to this argument no false worshippers should be left , papists , iewes , nor turkes . who sees not the lightnesse of it . notwithstanding except it be this way applied , for my part i cannot tell what to make of it . if any object , he meant that the ministerie , worship , and government of the eng. assemblies is not so bad , as to be separated from . i answer this is yet to prove , the which thing lay now full vpon him to doe , if he would have taken the right point , and not needlessly to tell us of that , which no man either asked of him , or doubted of . ▪ though everie church is not to be condemned , &c. yet such may be the corrupt state of some , as separation from them , is both lawfull and necessary , the nonconformists say as much . so the cause of seperation be good : the separation from a companie where with we were first vnited cannot be blamed : much lesse condemned of heresie . the thing which the rej. cheifelie insisted vpon was , that the cause of separation , from the church of england is good , if the nonconformists principles be true , what they are he names . d. ames , neither saith they be true or false , nor one word to any purpose , vnlesse this be : viz. it is not lawful vtterly to condemne , and so to separate from a church for everie thing , therefore not for any thing . . touching the matter here insinuated , against the person of d. burg. as if he meant not to practice what he professeth , i will leave it to himselfe to answer , onely this i say , if he and others are so minded as he writes , certainly they shall find nothing in d. ames answere , to informe them otherwise . but that they may safely retaine still the same opinion , and separate from the church of england ▪ when they doe beleeve , the nonconformists principles to be true . . i wonder what moved the d. to mention onely ceremonies , and to intimate , as if the difference between them and the bb. lay now mainly in this , considering ( as he knew wel ) that these rites are very toyes , to other things in question , heare what they say . the controversie betwixt vs , and the bishop is not for trifles as they would beare the world in hand . as for a cap , a tippet , or surplusse &c. but for great matters concerning a true ministerie , and regiment of the church according to the word , which things once established the other , would melt away of themselves . againe , another thus : the question is not ( as it is every day in publike sermons uncharitablie upbraided ) about triffles , and things of no weight , as of variable ceremonies , and matters of circumstances , which yet are to be squared by the sacred canons of holie scripture , but about matters of no small importance , even about the great and weightie cause of christs kingdome , by what lawes and offices his heritage is to be governed and protected , that is , of the whole disciplin , of the church of christ , whether it be to be ordered by the vncertain & deceivable weights of humane constitutions , or by the infallible oracles of gods most holie testimonies . others thus : our principall greifes , about the which ( alas brethren ) we have now too long and vnhappilie contended , are that all false ministeries , and false government , devised by men , may be taken away , and a lawfull ministerie , and a right church-power restored , as for the square cap , and such other toyes , which not without cause we disalow ▪ yet they doe not so sore wound vs , as those greater and weightier matters doe , from the which all the rest are derived and drawne . to the like purpose mr. cartwright and others . and are not those great and weighty things in question still ? yes surelie , and therefore for what reason d. ames passeth them over without any words , and speakes of toyes and triffles in comparison . let the reader judge . moreover , he had little need to make himself so ignorant , what the rei . meant by a principle ? what by separation , for if he had had any list to the thing , he could easilie have understood the same , for in truth , a child may perceive , if he read the place , that d. burg. intended such principles , as i before named from their writings , to wit , that they say , they want a right ministerie , worship , and church-government . but the proverbe is here true , who so blind as he that will not see ? the author of the preface to his booke , speaketh much like thereabout this point , a little there is added , namelie , that christ ( our teacher ) and his aposiles did joyne in the iewes worship , vnto which were added many superstitions , as vnlawfull as their ceremonies . answ . . i may use his owne words , he doth not prove that which he concludeth ; for howsoever many superstitious traditions were used by the iewes , yet whether they were brought in , and added to their sacred worship , instituted of god , as any parts therof , is doubtfull , and the contrary more probable . . to say , that christ and his apostles did joyne in that worship , to which many superstitions were added , is too presumptioeslie spoken ; and i wish men , to be more sober , and not so bouldlie to affirme such groundlesse positions , to justifie a corrupt and halting practise . i know d. ames hath the like saying , that christ was present when the traditions of men were observed in gods worship ; but he delivers this onely upon his owne word , and therefore we may beleeve it accordingly . . he saith , these superstitions in the iewes worship , were as unlawfull as their ceremonies . what testimonie brings he for it ? ( as before ) none at all . if such arguments will passe , a man may soone have enough , to fill a cart with . but note here how greatly they contradict one another : they said even now , that their ceremonies are such idolls as a man cannot lawfullie joyne with that worship , where they are used , yet here they say , that they are not worse then were the superstitions in the iews worship , vnto which christ and his apostles joyned ; now which shall a man beleeve of them ? not the later , for he gives no reason for what he speakes , but the others doe . . if it should be all granted him ( howbeit he proves nothing ) yet it will not follow , that a man may communicate in the ministerie , worship , and eccles . government of england , unlesse he can prove , that that ministerie , worship , & eccles . government , to which christ and his apostles joyned , was false , idolatrous , antichristian , as the non-conconformists doe affirme the other to be . some thought that this point would have beene more effectually answered , specially because d. burg. pressed it home so close upon them , and tooke such a solemne protestation in it , as the like is not to be seene ( i thinke ) in the booke ; but for my part i exspected no better ; for i saw the rei . had them at the advantage , and therefore d. ames was constrained , either to condemne their owne cheife principles , or to justifie separation by them , or else to shift off the point , and say nothing , or ( as the very truth is ) nothing of it to the purpose , before i end this chapter ; i will answere briefly to some objections , which many are ready to make for their joyning in communion with this worship . object . . howsoever we doe beleeve that the same is ( as the nonconformists say ) unlawfull and antichristian , yet we think , we may yeeld our bodily presence to it , so we inwardly loath the same , & keepe our hearts to god onely . answ . it is certaine the prophane brood of the cursed familists , doe hold that religion standeth not in outward things , & therefore outwardly they will submitt vnto any , be the same never so false and vile , pretending that it is not the body which can sin but the soule onely , the name of them , i know is generally odious , although their principles are loved and practised too well : but that no good man may fall into this snare : let it be considered . . the lord hath created soule and body , and by christ they are both redeemed : therefore it is necessarie that we should honour him , with the whole man , for how else should the whole , enjoy glory and immortalitie hereafter . if a wife should prostrate her body to the vse of another man , shall she be excused towards her husband , by saying , that she reserved him most deare in her heart ? no surely : if this be no reasonable excuse much lesse the other . . it ought to be alwayes our care , so to live as others thereby may have cause to glorifie god : but this cannot be , if our visible conversation be idolatrous . . this is a practice taken vp merely to avoyd the crosse of christ . and therefore such dooing , bewrayeth selfe love , infidelitie , fearefulnesse &c. sins which god will punish men extremely for . . whatsoever is not of saith is sin : but no man can in faith be present at that worship which he condemneth , and therefore the action must necessarily be evil . . the ignorant by this meanes are hardened in sinne : for when they shall see one that hath much knowledge , to be present at idolatrous service , they immediately thinke the better of it , and are the lesse willing to receive the love of the truth that they may be saved : we would thinke him a cruel , and most in humane creature , which should lay wood or stones in a blind mans way , at which he fals and breakes his neck , yet they doe worse , who by their evill example strengthen their neighbours in idolatrie , for by this meanes the soule and body perisheth vtterly . . this practice cannot possiblie please the lord it beeing wholy against his revealed will ▪ and therefore the faithfull in all ages have alwayes don otherwise . . the lord in this life , hath executed sundry fearefull iudgments , vpon divers persons , for allowing in bodie , that false worship , which in heart they condemned : as hofmaster in germany , spiera in italy , mr. hales in england , all these died despearately : and are left for warnings : that no man sinne against his conscience : least he find it to be , a hel vpon earth , when he exspects consolation and peace from it . object . . but we keepe close to god in other walking . ans . . there are many doubtlesse in the land , very strict in the duties of the table , and in the private & personall exercises of the first also , so farr as they can go with good leave : but what of all this , yet so long as upō knowledge they share their service betwixt christ and antichrist , they cannot by any promise of scripture assure their soules of gods acceptation thereof in christ . . sound comfort flowes from sincere obedience : and therefore whosoever stocks himselfe , in any the least parts of the revealed will of god , he is as iehu , rotten at the best , even when he manifesteth most shew of religion . . where there is the true love and zeale of god , nothing can be indured of antichrists , no not the name of any thing that belongeth to him , or is defiled by his polluted members , there i say will be no countenance given to his idolatric much lesse any conformity to the least of his beastlie devises : and therfore those which bow the knee to that idol book , want the love and zeale of god , specially if they know it to be the popes creature , although they cary themselves strict and precise in some other respects . object . . but we are perswaded herein we doe wel . ans . so doe the papists , arians , and other heriticks , yet are their courses cursed , and abominable . . our duety is to prove all things , and onely to hold that fast , which we have found by evident testimony of scripture to be good and lawfull . . as a man that is out of his way , and supposeth otherwise , makes his journie so much the worse , so those which practice false worship , and yet know it not , are in a condition the more daungerous : and therfore it is nessarie , that men examin the ground of their perswation , whether the same be right and sound or no. object . ▪ howbeit this worship is not as good as it should be , yet we thinke it is not so bad , but it may be lawfully vsed . answ . . we have shewed from the nonconformists , writings , that the authors of it were the popes , which were all antichrists , now whatsoever comes from them ( they say ) commeth first from the devill , and out of the bottomlesse pitt . . they further affirme that there is no idolatrie cananitish , paganish , iewish , or what else soever , worse then popish : neither shall any suffer greater plagues , then such which offend this way . . whosoever partakes in the sins of rome , are surely vnder the same curse , for we cannot in any fort communicate with them in their errours , vnlesse we will beare them company in their destruction also . . it is a daungerous thing to doe any false worship , because thereby mens transgressions are multiplied , and the divel , and not god , is certainly served . object . . the law of the lard is , that all should come to heare this service , and therefore they will be punished which refuse to doe so . answ . . humane authority is not to be obeyed , if it commaund any thing against god : therfore every man , is to looke to himselfe , that he communicate not with the evils of the time , induring patiently what it shall please the state to inflict vpon him . . in cases of this nature , grace is best tryed : for as the skill of a mariner is most seene in a tempest , and the courage , of a soldier in a fight : so our faith , sincerity , obedience , &c. is best discerned by the care which we take to leave such sins , and practice such dueties , as lie most open to afflictions . . we have a promise , that all things shall worke together for our good : therefore it we suffer for christ , our wise father will so dispose of it : as it shall serve to helpe vs forward , in the holy way to life and glorie . object . . we shall be charged with sedition , schisme , heresie , obstinacie , &c. if we goe not to it . answ . . they doe no more against you , in this thing , then hath beone don against our ancients and betters in former times : for so were the prophets used , so was christ and his apostles served by the iewes , for restraining their feet from iniquitie , and serving god purely . . it is a great comfort to the godly , against all the reproaches and censures of the world , that their hearts are open and manifest in the sight of god , and that they are able to approve before him their owne uprightnesse ; for such need not feare the calumniation of men , who have the lord to approve the actions which they doe . . we have a gracious lord and saviour for our judge , who wil reward us one day for our obedience towards him , let men speake of us what evill pleaseth them . object . . we shall quite loose the love of our friends , if we refuse to joyne with them in this worship . answ . . that love and freindship will never doe a man good , which is purchased with the losse of gods favour ; he hath love enough whome god loveth , and whosoever is not beloved of god , is in a miserable condition , what reckoning soever the world makes of him . . thou shalt not be forsaken of christ , if thou be for his sake left of freinds . though my father and mother ( saith david ) should forsake me , yet ichovah would gather me . he meaneth , that god would be a father unto him , & so his condition should be good enough . object . . but our feare is , if we should separate our selves from this false worship , that we shall not be able to beare the troubles , which will follow therevpon . answ . . if your hearts be perfect with god , feare none of those things , which you shall suffer ; for surelie , he will , either keepe you out of troubles , or preserve you safely in thē , & make way thereby for your greater happinesse : so long as a father carefully leads the child in his own hand , it needs not feare of falling , how weake of foote soever it be : the lord by the right hand of his power evermore upholdeth his people , and therefore they may be perswaded , that no adversarie strenght , shall ever be able to plucke them away from him . it remaines now , that i speake a few wordes unto you , which are professors in england : you see how your stinted-service , devised by the bb. and translated from the masse , is affirmed by your owne writers , to be a false and forged worship ; and that it is even so , i appeale to many of your consciences ; for why doe you loath to vse the same in your families , but because you know it is not the incense made by fyre from the altar of the lord. i will purposely forbeare to relate , the innumerable , odious , and base termes , which you ( upon all occasions ) cast forth deservedly against it , onely i doe exhort you , to be true to your owne grounds , and conscionablie to practise that , which yours have published to the world . if our servants doe that thinge which we forbidd them , and which they know is most hatefull to us , they are punished severely for it , & justly too . the eng. masse , you know , is an abomination to the lord , and his commaundement preciselie is , that you should not partake therewith : now if you will not harken to his voyce , what may you feare ? truely that his feirce wrath will fall heavily upon you . if the separatists onely had found fault with that booke , your communicating therewith were somewhat tollerable , but seeing your selves acknowledge it , to be a devised service . oh! thinke how altogether in excusable this your practise is now before god ; in truth it cannot , but provoke him to sore displeasure , considering how grossely those doe mock him , which professe one thing , and doe another . i would know , what assurance you can have that god is your father , seeing his promise is not to be our father , but vpon this condition that we touch no polluted thing : in words you confesse that leiturgy , to be an vncleane thinge , can you then touch it , and yet beleeve vpon good ground of scripture , that you are his sonns and daughters in christ , i spare to speake mine owne thoughts ▪ but i wish you , to looke wel vnto it . it may be you thinke your disliking thereof is sufficient , but in truth , god loves no halfe servants . he that should goe , and ly downe in bed with an harlot , and give her the defiance , sinned notwithstanding : even so how disdainfully soever you either speake or write against that idol , yet are you still trespassers , so long as you prostrate your soules vnto it , be therefore sincere , and plaine in gods matters , so shall you have peace , and comfort in the later end . marvaile not that i am thus earnest with you , alas , how can i choose , the love of god constraineth mee , and truely it greeves my very soule , to thinke , of the great number among them , which are inlightened , and in their owne conscience fully convinced of this truth viz. that their service booke , is vnlawfull and antichristian , and yet partake in the filthinesse thereof : surely these doe not consider , that there is no sin , in the eye of the lord , more hatefull then idolatrie ▪ for as a man will beare with much frowardnesse and vnkindnesse in his wife , but not suffer her at any hād to committ whoredome , so god will beare with many sinnes in men , but he cannot indure idolatrie : spirituall whoredome and adulterie , this seldome or never escapeth some sencible and visible punishment . i will here end this chapter with the words of a learned conformists . it is not enough to worship god , except we give him such worship as is seemely for his d●itie , which paul calls glo●ysying god as god , and if any aske , what this meet worship is , here spoken of ? it is when god is worshipped according to his will ; secondly with worship agreeable to his nature ( viz : ) spirituall . in this thing therefore let vs deny our own carnall wisdome , and cleave precisely to the word of god. how vnmeet is it that fleshly wisedome which is an enimie vnto god , should be a framer of his worship ? how vnprofitable is will worship ; yea how abominable to add or alter the least circumstance in the worship of god ? and howsoever there may be a shew of wisdom in voluntarie religion . col. . . yet beeing rightly weighed , all the devises of men shall be found foolish , vaine , yea more then sottish in the judgement of god. chap. iii. in this chapter we will speake of church government , observing the former method , that is , first i will shew how the nonconformists , doe describe a right ecclesiasticall discipline . . how farre the present ecclesiasticall discipline of england , by their owne testimonie , differs from , and is contrarie to it : : lay downe responsive conclusions . . answere to d. ames objections , and others which may seeme to be against the same . it is certaine that christ ( our heavenly prophet ) hath set forth vnto vs in the new testament the ordinarie forme , and manner of ordering churches . for this sundrie reasons are given ; . otherwise the church ( which is his bodie ) should be left maymed , imperfect , and voyd of some speciall furtherances , and helpes for her edification and perfection , but this cannot be . . we read that vnder the law the lord by moyses , ordained a certaine forme which was not altered , nor to be altered by any king or preist whatsoever : yea from the begining of the world , even from adam to christ , this ordinance the saints ever had , as agreed best with that time for which it is served , and therefore it cannot be , but that christ coming in his owne person , ( who was the day starre and sunne of righteousnes , from whence all other borrowed their light ) must needs teach his church a certaine government for the safetie and good thereof . . we must either confesse this , or else spoyle christ of his kinglie office : for what doth more belong vnto the name , office ▪ and duety of a king , then to give lawes vnto his citizens and subjects and to make such decrees , and ordinances whereby all the parts of his kingdome may be maintained . . that which teacheth everie good way , teacheth also how the church must be governed : but the word of god teacheth every good way . pro. . . therefore it teacheth how the church must be governed . . no human form is sufficient , or able to governe the church of christ , wherein so many diseases are to be healed , and businesses to be dispatched , for the good of mens soules , and preserving the people of god , and vpholding the kingdom of christ . . the church is the house of god , therefore it is not to be supposed , since he requires vs to set our families in order , and he among men is counted a carelesse vnthrift , that leaves his servants to doe what they list : that he will himselfe neglect to give order , how both steward , and children , and servants should be dealt with all , besides these reasons , the nonconformists alleadge the testimonies of the learned to prove the position , yea some of the prelates best champions . d. bilson ( who was bishop somtime of winch●ster ) saith thus . we must not frame what kind of regiment we list for the ministers of christes church ; but rather ob●e●v● and marke what manner of externall government the lord hath best liked and allowed in his church from the beginning , and as this ecclesiasticall power , is common to all churches , and ought to be in all , for as much as they are all in dependant bodies , and have privileidges alike : so it is confined and bound within the limits onely of one particular congregation , and the greatest power ought not to stretch beyond the same , for in truth it is a great wickednesse , for any person , or persons , to take vpon them selves ecclesiasticall jurisdiction , over many churches , much more over whole kingdomes , and provinces of people . touching the order or cariage for the execution of it , this government is committed to a fellowship or company of elders , consisting of lawfull and true pastors , elders , & deacons , by whose common advise , according to the precise rule of the scriptures , both the rest of the church ought to be governed , and all church matters also ordered , and determined , reserving alwayes , that libertie which god hath given to his church . of the election and ordinatien , of these officers we spake in the first chapter , this onely may be added , that if any of these shall sinne , he is as subject to the censures of the rest , as any other member of the congregation . if they shall all sin scandalouslie , either in the execution of their office , or in any other ordinarie manner : then the congregation that chose them freely , hath as free power to depose them , and to place others in their roome . and because the vse of this church government , serves for to reforme abuses : the brethren therefore are to watch one over another , and when any one sinneth : if the offence be private , he must be admonished thereof secretly , and by the person alone which knowes it : for except it be of necessity the fame of our brother is not to be hurte , his mind provoked , his offence enlarged , neither suspition of reproach , & defamation needlesly published forth against him , but if he refuse to harken , then two or three other members , must be taken for the purpose , and such as have best judgment , most abilitie to perswade , and in greatest estimation with the offender , and here againe love is shewed , seeing his amendment is still sought for , and nor his disgrace : if he will not yet acknowledge his offence , then must he be brought vnto the church , and there againe be lovingly admonished , and soundly convinced , of his fault , but if he be still incorrigible , & will not be brought by any means to repentance , then ( after long forbearance , much waiting , and great patience , with greife and sorrow of the whole church ) in the name of our lord iesus , he is to be cast out of the church , and given over to satan for the destruction of the flesh , and to be held as a heathen and publican : but if the offence be publike , there is no vse of private admonition : but it must openly be rebuked , and admonished , yet so , that the same be don circumspectly , seasoned with gravitie , love , meekenesse , &c. alwayes ayming , at the offendors safetie , and not his destruction : and speciall care is to be had , of every weake offender , with discretion of offences : if for all this , he remaine incorrigible then must the church proceed against him as before . yet let it be minded , that no church governours may upon a●y secret informations , or suggestions , or private suspicions , goe about , to bind mens consciences to accuse themselves of such crimes , and imputations , as cannot by gods word plainly be proved against them , for such a course is most damnable , and tyrannous , and against the very law of nature , devised by antichrist , through the inspiration of the devill . moreover , they ought with all patience and quietnesse , to heare what every offender can possibly say for himselfe , either for qualification , defence , apology , or justification of any supposed crime , or errour whatsoever & they ought not to proceed to censure the grossest offence that is , vntill the offender have said as much for himselfe , as he possibly is able ; for it is an evident character , of a corrupt ecclesiasticall government , where the parties convented , may not have full liberties to speake for themselves , considering that the more liberty is granted to speake in a bad cause ( especially before those that are in authority , and of judgement ) the more the iniquitie of it will appeare , and the more the justice of their sentence will shine . again , excommunicatiō must not be used , but as the last and desperate remedie , even as a chirurgiō tryeth all gentle meanes , before launcing , searing , or cutting off . indeed if the cause be great , weighty , and necessarie , then it may not be omitted . reasons . first , for the glorie of god , that it may appeare his house to be no cage of vncl●ane birds , no stye of swine , no den of theeves , no stewes or brothelhouse , but the holy citty , the seat & throne of justice , the temple of the liveing god , where the chast virgin worshippeth , & where no cananite may be suffered . . that the worship and service of god may be kept and preserved from pollution , contempt , and prophanation . . for the good of the sinner himselfe , that he may see his fault , be ashamed thereof , and reconcile himselfe first to god , and then unto the church against whome he offended , and so be saved in the day of the lord. so long as a harlot hath freely the society of chast matrons , she takes no shame of her adulterie but whē all honest women reject her , then at last , &c. so a thiefe , if he be suffered to converse still with true men , to have his liberty in citty and country to the full , he will not be ashamed of his robberies , murders , &c. but , &c. it is just so in this cause . if open sinners be suffered in the church , and admitted to publike and private communion in the exercises of religion , certainly then ( though they declare their sin as sodom , and hide it not yet ) they will not be ashamed of it , but rather , thinke they have not sinned , or it is so light and small , as they need not make any matter thereof . . the honour and the good name of the church is hereby preserved , which would be lost , if vile persons were left alone therein . . that others may fcare , for if this course be omitted , it may be a meanes , to embolden many to doe the like . a member being thus justlie excommunicated , he is not to partake in the spirituall good things , which the lord communicateth in his church , as the sacraments , prayer , &c. yet he may be admitted to the hearing of the word , because that is a means to humble him for his sinne , and to bring him to repentance , which is the end of all ecclesiast . censures . moreover , the rest of the faithfull must avoyd all kind of familiar conversation with him , be it in eating , drinking , buying , and selling , yea in saluting and talking with him , so farre as they are not bound unto him , in any of the bands of civil right and society . i adde this , because excommunication unlooseth it not , but such as are of the family , or affinitic must performe all duties to such a one , which such a relation hath made his due , the husband to the wife , and the wife to the husband , the child to the father , the servant to the master , &c. so an excommunicate magistrate , remaineth a magistrate still , and must of all christians so be acknowledged ; beside all lawfull contracts and promises must be kept , and performed with him , & workes of mercie shewed to him if there be just and necessarie cause . if the offender afterwards shall see his sin , and desire to be taken againe into the communion of the saints , the church is to assent thereto willinglie , yet so , as the partie make publike repentance , according to the proportion of the offence , a verball profession of repentance sufficeth not ; for so the most holy institutions of god , are exposed to the mockage of the wicked , and the action of the church placed onely in an outward forme . therefore such evidences are required , which in the judgement of charitie doe declare true and sincere repentance , and which serve as probable witnesses of the thing . be it here speciallie noted , that excommunication , and the absolution or reconciliation of the excommunicate , are actions common to the whole church , and not of any private person or persons : for howsoever the elders for the peace , profitt , and good order of the church , are to administer these ordinances , yet the whole church must give their consent freely hereto . in the apostles time , and after , till the yeare . every man that was a member of the church , had in the church his voyce in ecclesiastical censures , causes , and determinations of the church . christ doth not say , when there is cause of accusing or censuring any , tell the bishops , but tell the church ; and accordinglie in the times of the apostles , and long after , as the epistles of ciprian doe manifest , they were judged by the word in an assemblie of presbyters and brethren , as the incestious corinthian , which shews us , that neither one man , nor the presbyters alone were judges in such causes , but church , which by scriptures , either cleared , or censured any person accused , as by the word of god he appeared , either guiltie or not guiltie , &c. many reasons are yeelded by the nonconformists , to prove this thing , and all objections made against it soundlie answered , and the testimonies of the learned alleaged for it , as the reader may see largely in their bookes named in the margent . the like they speake touching the admission of any member into the communion of the church : that person which is to be joyned , ought publikely to com before the face of the congregation , and there to be examined of his fayth , knowledge , &c. and beeing found meet by the general consent of the people , he is joyfullie received . but of this more hereafter . moreover if the ecclesiasticall officers , shall refuse to doe their duety yet may the brethren notwithstanding performe church actions , and the same are to be esteemed good and lawfull . to come vnto a conclusion , this forme of church government here described , is vnchangeable , ordinary , best , and perpetuall , common to all true churches , and to which all states must be subject , as well the rulers as they that are ruled : yea and the preachers themselves , as well as the poore within the church , and good reason : for the same is not a thing indifferent as some thinke , but a point of the gospell , yea of the substance thereof , a matter of faith , and of necessitie to salvation . i mean in such an absolute degree of necessitie , as is of any ordinarie outward meanes , especially to every church , and by consequence to every soule in it . and therefore as no common wealth can florish , or long endure without good lawes , and sharpe execution of the same , so neither can the church of god , be brought to purity , neither yet continue in the same , without the use and exercise of this ordinance , but lies open to all daunger and confusion . whatsoever the nonconformists have here said , about church government , we for our parts ascent wholy to it , and through gods mercie towards us doe comfortablie enjoy the same , and wish unfeynedlie , that there were in them , such zeale of god , and love of his house and ordinances , as to practise once themselves , the good duties , which they well teach others to doe . sect . ii. the nonconformists in the former section , gave us a good description of a true church government , now let us heare what they say of their owne in england , & compare them together . in this ( as in the rest ) we shall find great confusion , * and therefore lest the reader should loose himselfe , i will observe some order in the handling of it , and first speake of their ecclesiasticall officers . . of their lawes , by which they governe . . of their courts , where they be executed ; and lastly , of the manner how they are executed ; and of all these breiflie , intreating still the reader to gett their bookes , if he be not herewith fully satisfied . in the first chapter sect. . we were shewed what their bishops are : now some thing here is to be said of their dependant officers , which most wickedly vnder them minister the ecclesiasticall discipline of their church , namely commissaries , chancellours , archdeacons , officials , registers , proctors , doctors , sumners , and the rest of that , viperous generation . all these the nonconformists say , are greedy cormorants , servile varlets , a horned generation , base fellowes , trash , the ofspring of romish babel , murderous beasts , the scourges of all gods people ▪ ravening rablers , which thrust away most sacralegiously , that order which christ hath left to his church , and proudly tyranize over their superiours . the papist is on their side , because he can shelter himselfe vnder them , to hide his idolatry : the atheist is tooth and nayle for them , because by them he enjoyeth carnall liberty : the man of most notorious life defendeth them , because he can from them , redeem the corporall punishment of his sins by mony : at a word , all the rank adulterers , common drunkards , vnthrifts , ruffians , horrible swearers and dispisers of gods word take part with them . and no marvaile : seeing these for the most part , are all papists , and beside either bribers , drunkards , epicures &c. so vnmeet to be governours , as indeed they ought not to be members at all in any reformed church ▪ iustly therefore are they said to be the root and cause of al the ignorance , atheisme , schismes and treasons , in the land , the nurses and cherishers of recusants , and other hereticks , and of all the great iniquities and abominations that are committed therein ; especially in regard they live by the faults of men : and will rather increase offences ( that their gaine may increase ) then vse meanes to lessen any : and this experience dayly sheweth . as for their names and offices , it is testifyed by all the nonconformists that they are all derived from antichrist , and are therefore false , earthly , vnla●full : and the discipline which they exercise : is not prescribed in gods word : never appointed by the lord christ , but taken wholy , and every part from the pope , and vsed in the time of the greatest darkenesse vnder him : yea and it is defended by the same canons , whereby his popedome is supported : so that were it not for the helpe of the papists , they have no authority either from god , or man , to helpe them either by reason , or learning . i may not here omitt how the refor . exceedingly condemne the offices of church wardens and side men , and prove the same to be vnlawfull and hurtfull , by many reasons . . because they are counterfeyts of gods true officers , namely elders , & deacons , which christ hath left in his church by divine institution . . they retaine the marke of the beast in part , by serving the tyranny of the hierarchie : so that it is not lesse warrantable to be a masse-preist , then a church-warden . . their functions are devised by men and came first from rome : and therefore they cannot exspect any blessing , or protection from god in their courses . . they are bound to most vnlawfull conditions : and so necessarily , either they must be perjured : or commit horrible iniquitie , as to present their minister , if he vse not superstitious ceremonies : so those which will not com at their devised service , kneele at the sacrement , have their children crossed and bishopped , women churched , joyn with the letanie , observe their holy dayes &c. and thus they minister matter of filthy lucre to the harpies of the prelates courts . for these and such like causes , every good man is exhorted not to touch these vnclean places : for if he doe , he shall surely be defiled therewith . their collectors calling , also they judge unlawfull . thus much of their ecclesiasticall officers , now for their lawes : these by the nonconformists , are said to be foolish articles , slavish ordinances , lawlesse , perilous , popish , wicked , and damnable canons , shamefull idolls , very devilishnesse , and hypocrisie . invented by the dragon and antichrist , our lords enimies , in the time of poperie , without any warrant of gods word , yea manifestly against it : and for what end servs it now in england ? surely for no other : but to strengthen the kingdom of the beast ▪ and the power of darkenesse & ignorance : to breed trecherous papists , nourish superstition and popery , vphold the cages of vncleane birds , as archbishops , and l. bb . seas , arches , cathedral churches &c. and destroy vtterly the churches of god , by crossing every faithfull minister in the discharge of his duety , and every good christian walking in the wayes of godlines , and nipping in the head every good action . for these and many the like reasons the nonconformists , have oft times desired that all their ecclesiasticall decrees , constitutions , provinciall and sinodal statutes , fatherly customes &c. might vtterly be abandoned and as froth and filth be spued out of the common wealth . yea as infectious and noysome boiles and soares , sent back again to the stincking sinckes , and channel out of which they were taken . touching the oath exofficio , whereby the popish prelates in rome , and england , goe about to bind mens consciences to accuse themselves , and their freinds : the nonconformists professe it to be a bloody law , most damnable and daungerous , as cruel a racking of the mind , as the most exquisite torture of the body can be , this was invented by antichrist , through the inspiration of the devil , that by meanes thereof the professors , and practizers of true religion might be suppressed and abolished . in very deed it is a lawlesse oath , given and taken against the law of nature , contrary to the commaundement of christ . mat. . and expresse word of god : against all equity and conscience , contrary to the common law , the canon law , counsels and imperiall statuts , directly contrary to the nature of an oath : beside such as take it cannot sweare in judgment and righteousnes , but are forced , either to accuse and betray their brethren , or by perjury to damne their own soules . as their ecclesiasticall officers and lawes , are all and altogether antichristian and vnlawfull : so also are their bb . courts said to be popish , human devises , presumptious insolences , such as were never planted by the apostles in the primitive churches , but long after erected by antichrist , against god , his church , and the lawfull jurisdiction of eldeish p , & therefore as most prophane things they ought , to be rooted out . if i were not vnwilling , to make this treatise large , i would here write particularly of their courts , that so every good man might both loath , and leave them the sooner . howsoever , something i will say of each : although but little , for a man may perceive what is in the kaske , if he tast a spoonefull thereof . their court of faculties , is said to be a romish court a filthy quagmire , and poysoned plash of all the abominations that doe infect the whole realme , out of it are dispensations given for boyes and d●l●s , to have many benefices . for non-residents , and such as doe not preach , dualities , trialities , pluralities , tot quots , licenses to mary at any time and place &c. absolutions for mony : and one man to be absolued for another , breifely the popish enormities , and deformities of this b●se court , are innumerable , for it hath full power together with the petty pope , the primate of england , to dispense in all causes , dispensed heretofore by the pope of rome , and more also . not without cause therefore have the nonconformists , desired that might be pluckd downe , and vtterly overthrowne without hope of restitution . as for the commissaries court , that is , a petty litle stinking ditch , which floweth out of that former great puddle , a pack of popery a sinke of corruption , a sea of idolatry , whereby religion and godlinesse dayly decayes . in this courte as in the other , one alone doth excommunicate , one alone sitteth in iudgement , and when he will , can draw backe the iudgment which hee hath pronounced , having called vpon the name of god , and that for mony , which is called the changing of penance . in this court for non-payment of two pence , a man shall be excommunicated , if he appeare not when ●ee is sent for , if hee do not as his ordinary would , from whom he had his popish induction and institution , and to whom he hath sworne canonicam obedientiam , canonicall obedience , if he learne not his catechisme like a good boy without booke , when it were more meete he should be able to teach others . to conclude : if hee bee not obedient to all these lord bishops officers , by and by hee must bee cut off by excommunication . and as it is lightly granted and given forth , so if the mony be paid , and the court discharged , it is as quickly called in againe . this court pouleth parishes , scourgeth the poore hedgepriests , ladeth church wardens with manifest perjuries , punisheth wheredomes and adulteries with toyish censures , remitteth without satisfying the congregation , and that in secret places , giveth out dispensations for vnlawfull marriages , and committeth a thousand such like abhominations . god deliver all christians out of this antichristian tyrannie . their bb. visitation is ( as the nonconformists say ) an vngracious course , purposely devised to pick the purses of poore men , and to suppresse those which are not friends to the kingdome of antichrist . in very truth it is holden for no other end allmost , but to gather vp fees , both ordinary and extraordinary , with dayly new devises , to poll the poore priestes of their mony , which they extort for seeing the letters of orders , for dynners and such like matters . and yet a new invented pyl●age , whereby they compell men to buy bookes of them for pence or pence , which are too dear of a penny or two pence : and not onely such small ware , but also great bookes , beeing such as every parish is appointed to buy , must be bought of them for two or three shillings in a booke dearer , then it may be bought in paules church-yarde : yea otherwhiles , though the parish be furnished of them allready , they are not authenticall , except they be bought at master chauncellers & officiall , at master registers hands . as for reformation of any thing in the church , there are indeed many presentments , and men sworn to present matters , but little or none amendment at all doth follow . so that it is a common saying in the countrie , when the presentment is once received , they shall never heare more of it . soone after the visitation or synode , the petitbribing sumner , rideth foorth laden with excommunications which he scattereth abroad in the country , as thicke as hail● shot , against this parson , and that vicar : this church-warden , and that side-man , whome he himselfe , when he came to summon him to the synode , for a cheese , or a gammon of bacon , had vndertaken to excuse for none appearance . but when he is once excommunicated , there is no remedy , but he must trudg to the chancellour or officiall for absolution , who after he hath once absolved his purse of a fewe groates , giveth him his blessing , and sendeth him away . their convocationhouse is held to be an vnlawfull assemblie , stuffed full of popish , and prophane chancellours , lawers and other ravening wolves . none are chosen to come there , but such as are knowne to be utter enimies to all sinceritie ; and if it come to passe , that any man there seeme to favour the cause of christ , he is immediately banished out of their synagogue . these romish birds have allwayes condemned the lords ordinances ; and all of them , bended and linked themselves together , to maintaine grosse corruptions , and to prevent christ from bearing rule in the church by his owne lawes . in memorie of man , they never concluded any thing for the common good of the church , more then by others was better don to their hands : but much evill hath come from them , and more would , if their commission had served therto . i had forgotten allmost their high commission , which is erected ( say the nonconformists ) to suppresse the libertie of the church , and to maintaine the usurped power of the persidious prelates ; what is it but indeede the spanish inquisition ? sett me up this throne , and satan shall sett up papistrie , or any other religion whatsoever in short processe of time ; for they sit at the rudder , and may turne religion as it pleaseth them , and no doubt will , when they shall see a fitt occasion , and themselves to have able power . we should come now to the . point , which is their manner of proceeding ; of this something allready hath beene spoken , but certainly if i should here fully sett down the notorious vilenesse thereof , as the nonconformists report it to be , a whole booke would not containe the same . howsoever the hierarchy will beare with church papists , and whoremongers , with non-residents , idle , ignorant , superstitious , and adulterous clergy men ; admitt freely a doctor lamb , or any like monstrous monster , to live peace-ablie amidst all his known abominations , and let goe scott-free , and unpunished knowne atheists , charmers , blasphemers , drunkards , fornicators , heretikes , prophaners of the sabbath , &c. notwithstanding those , called puritans , which will not observe their traditions & beggarly ceremonies , shall be hurryed up & downe to their spiritual courts , upon every occasion , and there be scorned , derided , taunted and reviled with odious and contumelious speaches , eyed with big , and sterne lookes , have proctors procured , to make personal invectives against them ; made to daunce attendance from court to court , and from terme to terme , frowing at them in presence , and laughing at them behind their backs ; never leaving molesting of them , till they have emptied their purses , or caused them to make shipwrack of their consciences , or driven them out of the land , or lastly by imprisonment starved , stifled , and pined them to death . thus they cherish vice , & correct vertue , give men leave to be any thing saving good christians ; besides , in these vncleane stewes , all is done for mony , nothing is regarded else , for mony any sinne may be bought out with them : but those which will not fee them , shall be cursed and cast into hel ; for every triffle , although they have done no evill at all , but contrariewise for doeing that which is right and good ; and this is so manifest a truth , as the prelates creatures have openlie confessed : the church censures now a dayes doe onely touch the purse , evill doers when they have payd their see , returne scott free . if no monie , then have at the off enders with the episcopal sword , presently at one blow they are cutt off from the church , delivered over vnto satan , proclaimed publicans , heathens , anathema ; for the most ridiculous things , and against every good man , these brutish thunderbolts doe fly vp and downe , and onely to be feared of the purse . and yet this is not the greatest wickednesse which is committed by these peslilent fellowes : for it is further affirmed that their learned preachers are excommunicated many times by foolish boyes . no marvaile therefore their censures , are not regarded , and that the nonconformists , give counsell that no man should make any conscience of them , for surely they are of no more effect , weight or consequence , then if a villaine or rogue , should give sentence of death against a lawfull prince . i forbeare to mention the bawdy pleading , of their doctors , and proctors , in those courts ▪ and the sumners , yea and registers themselves , it is so scurilous , vncleane and beastly , as the nonconformists , say it would greive a chast care to heare it ; for the archdeacons and chauncellours , are fain to laugh it out many times , when they cannot hold their countenance any longer . ¶ in the writing of these things there comes to my minde a speach , which a b. spake once to me in private . i relating to him certaine base , and inhumane cariages which they did me in his courts , out of great compassion he vttered these words : i pray god ( saith he ) to keepe all good men out of their hands , his speach was good , but in what a case is he himselfe all the while , which vpholds with both hands , these soule murderers , their court and courses , and yet in his conscience is perswaded that they are all starke naught . it is not needefull that i proceed farther in this point , seeing the nonconformists , doe generally affirme , that their church is still vnder the bondage of antichrists government , the very same false & tyrannous discipline , that is pourtrayed out in the popes canons , for which cause we refuse say they to have christ an immediate king in the immediate government of the church , so as great indignitie is offered vnto him , as if some base vnderlings vnto a king , should commit his beloved spouse , vnto the direction of the mistresse of the stewes , and enforce hir , to live after the order of a brothel house . i will here conclude with this argument : whatsoever is contrary to the institution of christ , and his writen word , is antichristian ▪ and is to be banished out of church of the god. but the government by lord bishops , with episcopall domination , is contrary to the institution of christ and his writen word . therefore it is antichristian , and is to be banished out of the church of god. sect . iii : we have heard , what the nonconformists say , of their church government : in this section we will lay downe our conclusions from it : and these are cheiflie . . first , no obedience must be yeelded to these ecclesiast . officers i say , we may neither acknowledge their authority , nor in any thing , kind , or degree partake with them in their administration : but strictly avoyd the same , as we would avoyd wrath , and vengeance to come . there is no need that i alleadge scriptures , reasons &c. ( as before ) for confirmation of this , seeing the nonconformists , goe with vs fully in the thing , and doe affirme , that men ought not to appeare , in their courts , neither to obey or regard their citations excommunications , warrants &c. nor to receive any absolution from them , in a word , not to yeeld obedience to them : in any one thing , which comes from them , as they are bishops , archdeacons , chancellors , commiss . officials , &c. for this were an acknowledging of them , and a way , to maintaine them , in their vsurpation , pride , idolatrie , covetuousnes , &c. beside , we should suffer men , to rule then over vs at their pleasure , and so not stand fast in that christian liberty , which the lord commaunds vs to doe . moreover it is certaine , a man cannot obey the bishops government , but he must necessarily , transgresse , against the lawes of the realme , and to prove this , an argument may be framed thus . whosoever shall allow or countenance in word or deed , any forraigne power , authority , or jurisdiction ( and more particularily of the pope of rome ) makes himselfe a transgressour to the king and to the lawes . but such as obey the b● . fool. government , doe allow and countenance , in word and died a forraine power , authority , and jurisdiction , and particularly of the pope of rome . therefore such as obey the b● . eccles . government , make themselves transgressors to the king and the lawes . both parts of the reason are evident and cleare as the light . the former , are of the words of the oath of allegeance : touching the later to weet , that the prelates exercise a forraigne power , authority , and jurisdiction , derived from the pope : we have before sufficiently proved . and therefore it behoveth all the kings subjects , to looke well to this thing , least they be not onely forsworne , but incurre also the penaltie of the law : which is after conviction , forfeitures , judgements , and executions , due to high treason . our second inference is , that the publick assemblies of england are false and antichristian : and therefore to beleft : this necessarily followes vpon the former premises : for if they have not the power of the censures , and of excommunication : but stand vnder a government , which came wholy and every part from the devil , and antichrist , then is their condition naught : the reason is , because this power is of absolute necessity , for the churches of christ , an essentiall property therof , and serves not onely for their well beeing but the beeing it selfe , for without this there can be no coupling of the parts and members together . and so much d. ames , testifyeth . now the assemblies of england were not gathered by any such power , but in their first constitution wanted the same , and had this false power , which is exercised at this day , as the nonconformists doe aknowledge . our arguments which we have used in this point , have been to this effect . every true visible church hath a power immediately vnder christ to execute church government . but the publike congregations of england have not any such power vnder christ , to execute church government . therefore they are not true visible churches . what they will say to this , i know not : but hitherto they have , either beene silent , or answered to no purpose in the world : for it is usually their manner , to tell us how the churches in corinth , pergamus , thyatira , &c. neglected to execute discipline , as though there were no difference betweene omitting , to administer the ordinance , and the want wholy of it ; yea and to have an antichristian & divelish in the roome of it . indeed herein they well resemble children , which being not able to read the lesson given them , doe skip over , and take another easie one : so these , leave altogether the point in hand , which is to prove by gods word , that a true church may want in it selfe immediate power under christ , to execute ecclesiasticall government , and may be subject to that which was brought-in by the romish beast : and talke of a matter , which i thinke no man ever denyed . it is true , some have assayed to prove it , but after many thoughts , spent about it , we have had nothing but wind from them : namely of a city wiihout a wall : of a vinyard , garden , orchard &c. wanting a hedge , fence , bounds &c. and such broken stuffe , not worthy of any answere : for where doe they read in scripture , that this power , which christ hath given to his church , is compared to a wall , hedge , &c. but rather may be better likened , to the power of the body , which receives food , and whereby excrements are purged and avoyded , the want whereof were prodigious in nature , neither could the body possiblie subsist and live . and here by the way , i thinke it convenient , to answere breifly , vnto some reprochfull passages , writen by d. lai●en , against the separatists , he accuseth them , of strange and vnsound conclusions : but names nothing : onely from m. park . polit. eccles . he englisheth a sillogisme in this manner . if discipline be so necessary and also vnchangable , it is lawfull to separate from such churches as doe not vse it , ( say the prelats ) but discipline is vnchangablie necessary , ( say the separatist ) ergo it is lawfull to separate from such churches as doe not vse it . the minor he grants to be true but denies the major , and to prove it false he gives this reason . for want of an integrall part of the whole ; or of some essentiall part in it selfe ( though not of the whole ) is no sufficient ground for separation . he might with more credit and good conscience , have granted the major also , then sought to refute it by frothy , empty , and impertinent words : for first he speakes as a man most ignorant of the nature of church power , for were he able truely to define it : he should see that it is of such necessity , as a people cannot constitute themselves in the right order of the gospell without it , as we have before expressed . . if the bishops major as he termes it be wel vnderstood it , caries this meaning : discipline is so necessary , that where it is not , there can be no church ordinances rightly administred : no true ministery worship ▪ sacraments , censures , &c. and it is certainly so , and if m. d. have any thing to object against it , let him speake out , he knowes his liberty . . if m. d. will but hold vp his words against the light , he shall see they have not the face of an answere : for let his words be graunted : what is this to the necessity of discipline , vnlesse he could prove , that the same is not so essentiall but a true church may wholy want it , the which thing , neither he nor any man is able to prove , and therefore he only beggs baselie the matter , but proves nothing ; and therfore for the warme cloathes , whereof he speaketh , he may even keepe them himself , to cover the nakednesse of his argument . i will not here speake of his irreligious phrase , comparing the holie way of god , to hatching , neither of his untruth , to say that separatisme was not before b. whitgift wrote for ceremonies . i think the man knowes better , to wit , that from false ministers , worship , &c. the saints have separated before whit. either wrote , or was borne . if our practise be otherwise even by the testimonies of the nonconf . let it be manifested . if this will not serve the turne , let him then take knowledge of what d. ames saith : in the beginning of queene elizabeths reigne , there was a company of honest men , that for the ceremonies , refused to joyne with the parish assemblies at london , as appeareth in the examination of iohn smith , w. nixson , extant in a booke called part of a register . we could prove ( if there were need ) in king edwards reigne , that there were some good christians , which would not communicate with the parish assemblies , but there is no use hereof , seeing we have the word of god , to justifie our practise . there is one thing more , which mr. dr. much talkes of , and makes it even the burden of his song , i. e. that the bb. are the authors of the separatists scisme , their practise butteth full vpon the others vnreasonable and vnsound reasoning . but what if it appeare that mr. dr. arguments doe lead rather to separation , and that he speakes one thing , and practiseth another ; would not this be a strange sight , especially to himselfe ? now whether this be so , we will here trie by some reasons , in his owne mood and figure . if the booke of common-prayer , vsed in the assemblies of england , be an insectious leiturgie , romish stuffe , a devised service , and raked out of romish channells , it is lawfull to separate from such churches as doe vse it , ( say the learned ) but the booke of common-prayer , vsed in the assemblies of england , is an in sections leiturgie , romish stuffe , a devised service , and raked out of romish channells ▪ saith mr. dr. ) ergo it is ●awfull to separate from such chu●●h●●●s doe vse it , specially when they continue obstinate and incorrigible in the practise thereof , after due dealing and conviction , as i suppose mr. dr. will freely confesse , they have done even after due meanes used , both by manie godly learned from time to time , & now at last by himself . if the ministerie of the church of england be vnlawfull and antichristian , it is lawfull to separate from it ( say the learned ) but the ministerie of the church of england is vnlawfull and antichristian ( sayth mr. dr. ) ergo it is lawfull to separate from it . if the church of england hath not christs key , she is not his house ; ( saith mr. dr. ) but the church of england hath not christs key , ( saith mr. brightman and others ) ergo she is not his house , and so consequentlie to be separated from . to separate from corruptions is lawfull ( saith mr. dr. ) the ministerie , worship , and church government of england are corruptions , ( saith mr. dr. ) ergo it is lawfull to separate from the ministerie , worship , and church government of england . i doe not gather up these his arguments for any need we have of them , but to put him in minde of his owne take heed : for if he say one thing , and doe another , he may perhaps at last fall worse then vpon the quick sands of separation , even into the bottomlesse pitt of condemnation . and whereas i perceive he is not willing to be compared to barrow ; for my part i am not willing that he should , for reverend barrow was true to his grounds , and walked conscionable in the holte order of the gospell : to which order mr. dr. hath beene hitherto an utter enimie , but for what reason , let himself looke to it . i have spoken the more , because of this mans insolent boasting against us , and the untrue reports , which he giveth forth of refuting the cheifest separatists : i hope now the world shall see what abilitie he hath in this thing , or otherwise all will have just cause to conclude , that mr. dr. will speake more to his good freinds in private against us , then he is willing to have publicklie knowne , to receive an answer to it . our third inference is , if church government be a matter of faith , necessarie to salvation , as is any outward ordinance of god , and wholie wanting in the assemblies of of england , then it is the dutie of all the faithfull there , ( shaking off the prelates yoake ) to erect this power , and exercise the same among them . i doe not mean that any private person should meddle with the affaires of the realme , but that every one , in his owne person , doe place himself , about the throne of god , leaving the abuses of the publike state , to be reformed , by such as have a lawfull calling thereto . it is certaine , this ordinance must be sett up , retained , and practised , though princes are utterlie against it : we must not tarie one houre , to exspect a new grant from men , to doe our duties in the true worship of god , when as we have a sufficient grant allreadie from heaven ; for if we doe , we shall surely dye in our sinnes , and our blood shall be upon our owne head . the primitive christians had not the magistrates leave to serve god , yet they did , whatsoever he commaunded them : their practise is an example for us ; and all beleevers are bound to doe the like , as often , as there is the like just , and necessary occasion : for as the approbation of men and angels , makes the wayes of god , and workes of religion , never a whit the more lawfull , but onely the more free from bodily daunger , so neither can their disalowance make unlawfull such duties of religion , as the word of god approveth , nor can they give dispensation to any person , to forbeare the practise thereof . but because my purpose cheifly is , to shew the judgement of the nonconformists , touching religious ordinances , and the use and practise thereof , i will therefore lay downe their words , that so the reader may see , how well they , and we , in these thinges doe accord , except in obedience . the magistrate ( say they ) is but the servant of the lord , and therefore hath no power to bind the the conscience , neither can he exempt any man from obedience to god. another saith , if the law of man be wanting , yet the church must not cease from doeing her duety and exercise her power which is granted her by christ , who hath also promised his presence , when two or three are gathered together in his name , therefore she may entreat , determine , and strengthen her decrees , and constitutions with ecclesiasticall censures , and punishments , notwithstanding the prince will not assent , approve and ratifie the canons of the church , nor confirme them by his lawes and fortifie them with temporall punishments . m. wing an eminent reformist , hath . reasons in print , to prove that all persons , are necessarily bound , to practice perpetually the ordinances and commaundements of the gospell , although the civill magistrate allow not thereof , and because they are effectuall and weighty . i will here lay them downe . . if the onely sure way for comfort of our soules be the practice of gods ordinances for his visible church vnder the gospell , then we are bound to practice the said ordinances , notwithstanding the magistrate doe forbid the said practice . but the only sure way for the comfort of our soules is the practice of gods ordinances for his visible church vnder the gosp ll . therefore we are bound to practice the said ordinances notwithstanding the magistrate doe forbid the said practice . . all the magistrates power wherein he is actually to be obeyed , is onely where he commaunds or forbids , from god , or for god. but the magistrate forbidding the practice of this way , doth not forbid from god nor for god. therefore the magistrate forbidding the practice of this way , is not actually to be obeyed . . where the magistrate may not commaund , and be lawfully obeyed in the negative part of any commaundement of the first table , there he may not forbid , and be lawfullie obeyed in the affirmative . but the magistrate may not commaund and be lawfullie obeyed in the negative of the commaundement ; therefore he may not forbidd and be lawfully obeyed in the affirmative . . we cannot justifie , specially the continued omission of any dutie , and cheifly of the first table , vnlesse we be by violence restrained from the practise thereof . but to omitt the practise of these ordinances of god for his visible church vnder the gospell , because it is not tollerated or allowed by the magistrate , is a continued omission of a dutie of the first table , and this not omitted by reason of a violent restraint . therefore we cannot justifie the omission of this dutie . . it is not lawfull to omitt the dutie of charitie , to releive any poore saint of god , though the magistrate forbidd it : therefore we may not omitt this dutie of piety , though the magistrate forbid it . . if the lord foresaw the aversnesse of magistrates to the practise of this church government , and yet did never exempt nor dispense with the peoples omission therefore , then we may not omitt or forbeare this dutie , though the magistrate doe not tollerate it . but the lord foresaw the aversnesse of magistrats to the practise of this church government , and yet did never exempt nor dispense with the peoples omission of this dutie . therefore we may not omit or forbeare this dutie , though the magistrate forbid . . whatsoever was commaunded to the churches , to be practised vnder persecuting magistrates opposing , that we must not omitt , though the magistrate doth not tollerate it . the practise of church government was commaunded to the churches , revelation and . therefore we must not omitt the practise of church government , though the magistrate doth not tollerate it . . if the church government may be omitted , wheresoever , and whensoever the magistrate doth not allow it , then it doth depend wholy for the practise of it on the will of man. but it doth not depend , neither ought it to depend wholy vpon the will of man. therefore the church government may not be omitted , when and wheresoever the magistrate doth not allow it . . if the magistrate may forbid mee the practise of the ordinances of god , then he may forbid me to be so good a subject , as i can be or may be : but the magistrate may not forbid me to be so good a subject to christ as i can be or may be . therefore the magistrate may not forbid me the practise of the ordinances of god. the nonconformists are not alone in this thing , for all the reformed churches affirme the same ( viz. ) that it is the part and dutie of all the faithfull to submitt to the doctrine , and discipline , appointed by christ , yea though the contrarie edicts of princes and magistrates doe forbid them vpon paine of death ; and so have their practises beene many ages together , and there is good reason for it : for the regiment and government of the church dependeth not ( as the nonconformists well teach ) upon the authoritie of princes , but upon the ordinance of god , who hath most mercifullie and wiselie so established the same , that as with the comfortable ayde of christian magistrates , it may singularly flourish and prosper : so without it , it may continue , and against the adversaries thereof prevail ; for the church eraveth helpe , and defence of christian princes , to continue and goe foreward more peaceably and profitably to the setting up of the kingdom of christ , but all authoritie she receiveth , is immediately of god. before we proceed to another point , we may here frame this argument : if the professours of the gospell in england , have not among them a true church government , but are vnder that which came from the great antichrist , then are they bound to set vp that ordinance of god , and to to practise it , not withstanding the magistrate doe forbid the said practise . but the professours of the gospell in england have not among them a true church government , but are vnder , &c. therfore are they bound to set vp that ordinance of god , and to practise it , notwithstanding the magistrate doth forbid the said practise . these are both their owne positions , and so soundlie proved , that no man liveing is able to confute them . but some will say , this is hard to doe ▪ i answer , difficulties must not hinder duties : where we have an expresse commaundement laid upon us , there al disputation must cease , of hardnesse , daungers , losses , &c. excellently for his purpose speaketh calvine : there is no travell or labour so great , which we must not endure , to the end we may enjoy the face of god , how perilous soever the passage be , be it ( as they say ) betwixt fyre and water , yet let men goe foreward to have libertie , to serve and worship god pur●lie : is a man in going , pinched with famin or thrist , yet let him not faint , but scrape the earth rather with his nailes , for food and maintenance , then be turned , or driven back from comming to the temple of god. many use to say : they wish all were well , and pray for reformation . to this i answer , it is not enough that we desire to have all things well , except we endeavour to make them so . he that wants and hungers for bodilie food , deserves to starve , except with all he use diligence , and sore labour also , as he is able to get it . againe , prayers i confesse are good , but without practise they profitt not : the heart which setts the hand at worke , and is full of zeale , obedience , sincerity , &c. shall doe well , and prosper . when moyses stood crying at the red sea , what saith god unto him ? speake unto the children of israel , that they goe forward . i am perswaded the nonconformists pray dayly for their deliverance from the bb. government : but here is their fault , they goe not forward , but are like him in the prov : which lyes in the ditch , and cries god help , but doth not seeke to help himselfe , though he can , and is able . others think because mens laws are against christ , that they shall therfore be excused , in omitting their service unto him , but they will finde it otherwise , and as for this shift , it denotes a most unsound ▪ heart , for as we would repute that servant verie naught , who being commanded by his maister to do divers things ; doth onely that which serves for his own credit , profit , pleasure &c. but the rest not being so , ( though more weighty and necessarie ) he purposly omitteth : so certainly they carry the broad characters of notable hipochrites even in their foreheads , which walk onely in such waies of christ as ly open for them , by the authority of man , where they may go with good leave safely , and free from all bodily daunger ▪ but where the commandements of god , are hedged up with thornes , by mens prohibitions , there they fowllye step aside , and walke corruptly ▪ when the apostles were sent forth to plant churches , if they should have left the lords worke , because they were forbidden to preach in the name of iesus , they had surely sinned , and would have beene greatly punished for it ; are not the ordinances of the gospell , as strictly to be kept now , as heretofore ? yes surely , mr. hierom saith , that such outward observances in matters of religion , as are of divine institution , not the least of them are to be neglected , dispised or difused , vntill he that ordained them shall be pleased in expresse termes , to disanul them . if not the least must be omitted , then not church government , because it is a cheife ordinance , and without the which ( as i said before ) no publick worshipp can be rightlie administred . there are some , which out of tendernesse of conscience refuse to kneel in the act of receaving , and doe take the sacrament sitting . moreover doe meet in private families , to fast and pray together ; and are persuaded that herein they doe well , though their practise be forbidden by the magistrate . now i desire these seriouslie to consider , if they may lawfullie performe some religious duties against human lawes , why not others ? and specially if they be such duties , as serve more for gods glory , the furtherance of the gospell , the edification of the church , and salvation of their owne soules . i doe not finde any thing written by dr. ames about this point , although he well knew that one maine ground of our separation from their parish assemblies , is because ( as the nonconformists affirme ) they want the power of christ , and stand under that which was taken wholy from the pope ; yet it may be , he thought that he had said enough hereof , in the addition of his first booke , pag. . where he repeates certaine words , which had beene before printed in his reply to d. morton : if gaius ( saith he ) had made a separation from the church , wherein diotrephes lived , whether the apostle iohn had been the cause of that scandall , because he condemned his abuse of excommunication . this speach ( saith d. burgesse ) is the weakest pretence that could be devised ; and truly so it is , and therefore i marvaile , seeing he was tould so much that he had not either said somethinge for his owne defence , or blotted it out , that so the weakenesse and impertinēcy of it , might never have been seen . could not d. ames perceive any difference , betweene the abuses there noted by iohn in diotrephes , and those which are mentioned by the nonconformists , against the church of england ; we doe not read , that diotrephes is said to be an vnlawfull and antichristian minister , that he had brought into the church a devised worship , had sett up a false government , yet such are the faults which the nonconformists have found out , in the church of england ; i wonder therefore , that the doctor should so much overshoot himself ; for though we doe not thinke , that it was lawfull , either for gaius , or any other member of that church , to separate , because diotrephes playd the diocesan ( but they were to stay , and seeke his reformation ) notwithstanding we thinke , yea , and doe know of a certainty , that from a church , where the ministerie , worship , and government is vnlawfull and antichristian , we may warrantablie depart ; and such is our separation by the nonconformists principles . thus reader thou hast heard the most , and all which dr. ames hath said , to maintaine the reputation of their grounds , charged with separatisme ; now if thou considerest how effectually he hath refuted the rejoinder , in the matter of ceremonies , but contrary wise about this point of separation , how he speaks either nothing , or nothing to any purpose , thou mayst well perceive that in the former , he had the truth with him , but not in the other , although ( it seemes ) he was unwilling in plaine termes , to give the case away . chap. iv. that the ministerie , worship , and church government of england , is not lawfullie to be joyned with , we have evidentlie allreadie proved by their owne principles : in this chapter we will speake of their church , observing still the former order , that is : . i will shewe their tenets , touching a true visible church . . how farre their english church by their owne testimonie differs from , and is contrary to it . . i will lay downe our inferences and conclusions . . answer to such objections , as may seeme to carie most weight against them . to let passe the strict significatiō of the word ( church ) and also the sundry acceptations of it ; concerning true visible churches , the nonconformists say , that there are none , but particular ordinarie congregations , † such churches , and such onlie , they affirme god erected , but as for nationall , provinciall , diocesan , they are now of human institution , & altogether unjustifiable by the scriptures . the author , institutor , and framer of every true visible church , a is only christ : for he alone hath the disposing of the word , vouchsafing it to some , and denying it to others ; and it is his spirit , which converteth mens soules , and begetteth them to everlasting life , and so they become stones for this building . for the persons whereof the same are constituted , they ought to be a faithfull people , called b and separated from the world , and the false worship , and the wayes thereof . such i say as keepe the commaundements of god , and the faith of iesus ; for how else should the church be , the house , mountaine , and temple of the eternal god , his vinyard , kingdom , heritage , and enclosed garden , the body of christ , his spcuse , love , sister , queene ; a chosen generation , a holy nation , a peculiar people , and the joy of the whole earth . howsoever therefore there may be hypocrites , which beare the face of godlie men in the church , whose wickednesse is onelie knowne to god , and so cannot be discovered by men , yet in the churches of christ , there ought to be admitted no drunkard , no whoremonger , &c. at least , which are knowne , because the temple of god must be kept as neere as it is possible , free , and clean from all pollutions , and prophanations whatsoever . the meanes whereby men are made fitte for this church of god , is by the word , when they have well proffited by hearing the same , they are then freely , and of their owne accord , to present themselves to the lord , that is , either to joyne themselves to some true church already constituted , or by voluntary profession of faith , and obedience of christ , to knit themselues together in a spirituall outward societie or body politick ; now everie true particular congregation assembled lawfully in the name of christ , is an independent body , and hath by christs ordinaunce power to performe all publick worship , for unto it appertaineth the covenant , the worship , the sacraments , and all ecclesiasticall discipline , having also the promises of peace , love , glory , and salvation , and of the presence of god , and his continuall protection , and for this cause , it is the dutie of everie faithfull christian , to make himselfe actually a member thereof . , in respect of gods institution , matth. . . in which not onely the precept is contained : but a certaine necessitie of the meanes . . in respect of the presence of god , & of christ . for if we wil com to god , we ought then to com to that place where his presence is in a speciall manner , & where he is to be found , of all such as secke him with the whole heart . . in respect of gods glorie , the which by this meanes is publikely propagated , and advanced ; for as the name of god in the old testament was placed in ierusalem , so now it is in the churches of the saints , although not in this or that place . . in respect of gods covenant and promise , for those which are in the church , are directlie ( as it were ) joyned to his blessings , the which are there powred forth abundantlie upon them . . in respect of our profession , for otherwise it cannot be , but those evidences will be darkened , whereby the faithfull are discerned from unbeleevers . . in respect of mutuall edification , which necessarily followes , upon our joyning together in the fellowship of the gospell . touching the manner and order of this joyning unto true visible churches , the nonconformists doe describe it thus : he which is to be received , first is to goe to the elders of the church , to be well informed and instructed by them , and to have his cause by them propounded to the congregation , afterwards he is to come himselfe into the publike assemblie , all men looking upon him with love and joy , as upon one that commeth to be maryed , and there he is to make a profession of faith , and to be asked sundrie needfull questions , to which he having well answered , and beeing found worthie , by the consent of the whole church , is joyfullie to be taken into their communion ; and this they say , was the practise of the primitive churches : for eusebius reporteth in his ecclesisticall historie , that a romane emperour , named philip ( who first became a christian of all the emperours , and first submitted the romane empire unto christ desireing to communicate with the rest of the church , was not admitted , before he had openlie made profession of true religion . when a people are thus established , in the faith and order of the gospell , their care then must be to walk unreproovablie . and as in the naturall body , everie several member is ( as it were ) the member of every other , in serving to their good , as the eie doth see , the hand doth take , the tongue doth speak , for the good of anie other member : so must it be in the church of god , everie person according to his place and calling ought to be as profitable unto the rest as he can , and specially their godly watchfulnesse must bee , to keepe their communion clean and pure ; and therefore no unholy person may partake with them in the holie sacraments , but such onelie ( as farre as men can judge by their outward profession ) that doe belong truely unto christ ; when any one among them falls into sinne , he must be lovinglie admonished thereof , and brought to repentance , or else to be cutt of by excommunication , if he continue obstinate in his sinnes . how this dutie of brotherly admonition is to be performed , we have already shewed , this onely is to be added , viz. that it ought necessarily to be practised , & may not be omitted , for certainly the tolleration of known iniquitie , is a greivous sin of the church , & in its own nature tendeth to the corruption thereof , yea it defiles the communion hag. . . and everie one makes himself guilty of the pollution , which doth not indeavour as much as in him lyeth , to remoove such offences : in a word , this mixture which ariseth by tolleration , much hinders the comforte and edification of the godly . as in all the rest , so in this point the nonconformists and we , are of judgments alike , and it is our greate greife , that they will not joyne with us in practise also , and make themselves members of such true visible churches , as here they have well described , for so should gods name be glorifyed , the gospell propagated , satans , and antichrists kingdome much weakened , and themselves obtaine mercie in the great day of the lord. they pray , let thy kingdome come , but how doe they thinke , that ever they shall behold the beauty and glorie therof , seeing they resolve not to set their hands unto the raysing of it up , but doe leave the work wholy to the magistrate : so that if the arme of flesh will not build a spirituall temple for the lord , he is likelie for their part , to have none at all : but whether such courses will not prove ill at last , i leave it to themselves to thinke of . sect . ii. we heard before what a true visible church is , now it followes , that we shew how everie way contrarie to the former patterne , the english assemblies are said to be by the nonconformists . first , they acknowledge , that their reformation at first after poperie , was not rightly founded , because neither then , nor ever since , was there any profession of faith publickly made by the persons , which entred into church estate , but indeed it was then held , and so it is at this present , a sufficient thing to be members of their churches , if men come to their service and sacraments , take the oath of allegeance , and be conformable to their wicked ceremonies , whosoever doth this , passeth for a protestant ; howsoever in practise he be a papist , arminian , &c. yet is he more regarded then the most sincere christians , whome they call puritants . and by this meanes it is , that in the bosom of their church are swarmes of atheists , idolaters , papists , erronious , and hereticall sectaries , witches , charmers , sorcerers , murderers , theeves , adulterers , lyars , blasphemers , oppressors , voluptuous persons , whose god is their bellie . moreover , such is the great ignorance of god , and his truth among them , that the greatest multitude by many parts , doe not understand the lords prayer , or the articles of faith , or the doctrine and vse of the sacraments , there are not five , among five skore , which doe understand the necessarie grounds and principles of religion , but many thousands , which are men & women growne , if a man aske them how they shall be saved , they cannot tell . mr. nichols esteemed a forward preacher amongst them saith . we finde by great experience ( and i have now five and twenty yeeares observed it ) that in those places where there is not preaching , and private conferring of the minister and the people ; the most part have as litle knowledge of god and of christ as turks and pagans , and to prove this , he gives an example in his own flock , for i have beene in a parish ( saith he ) of foure hundreth communicants , and marvelling that my preaching was so litle regarded , i tooke upon me to conferre with every man and woman , before they receaved the communion ; and i asked them of christ , what he was in his person ? his office ? how sinne came into the world ? what punishment for sinne ? what becomes of our bodies , beeing rotten in the graves ? and lastly whether it were possible for a man to live so vprightlie , that by well doeing he might win heaven ? in all the former questions , i scarse found ten in the hundred to have any knowledge , but in the last question scarse one , but did affirme , that a mau migh be saved by his owne wel doing , that he trusteth he did so live , that by gods grace , he should obtaine everlasting life , by serving of god and good prayers . and it is no wonder , that the condition of the people is generallie thus , seeing they thinke that all the service of god , to lie in churching , crossing , kneeling , and beeing houseled , ( as they call it ) at easter ; and as for preaching , they hould it a superfluous and needlesse ceremonie ; and therefore when their service is done , they take it , they may lawfullie goe out of the church , though the minister be ready to goe into the pulpitt . moreover , they say , that the greatest number of their people , are so wicked and vile , that were it not to save their purses , and for the lawes of the kingdome , which doe constraine and compel them , to make some outward profession , they would make none all . for as mr. fenner saith : every man followeth the pride , covetuousnesse , whor●d●me , drunkennesse of his own heart , and no man remembreth ioseph ; the barres are filled with pleadings , and the streets are full of the cryes of the poore , fullnesse of meat , and contempt is among us , and who considereth ? yet if this our sinne were onely against men , and not against god , there might be some hope . but when the mouth of the blasphemous swearer is not tyed vp , and the hands of the idolatrous generation of atheists and prophane persons , be not chained , when the most holie and precious word of god , is manifestly contemned , the joyfull and heavenly tydings of salvation , so negligently and vngratefully troden vnder foot , the true and faithfull messengers pursued , arraigned , and divers wayes afflicted : then if the old world for malitious imaginations ; sodom and gomorra for pride , fullnesse of meat , and vnmercifullnesse ; if ierusalem for abusing gods prophets , & wilsu●nes were d●stroyd , what may we poor carelesse people loke for , if we doe not repent , but ( as it is allmost vniversallie feared ) speedy ruine , and vtter desolation . another saith : what christian heart is so stony , that doth not mourne ? what eye so dry , that doth not shed teares ? yea rather gush out with teares , to consider and behold , the miserie of our supposed glor●●us church , by the spirituall nakednesse , blindnesse , and povertie thereof ? i meane the great ignorance , the superficiall worship of god , the fearefull blasphemies , and swearings in houses , and streets , so also the direfull cursings , the open contempt of the word and sacraments , the wicked prophanations of the lords dayes , the dishonour of superiours , the pride , the crueltie , the fornications , the covetuousnesse , the vs●ries , and other the like abominations , allmost as greivous , as either heretofore in the time , or now in the places of poperie , when and where there was no preaching at all of the gospell . it is also further testifyed , that the holy thinges among them , are prostituted , and sett open to adulterers , fornicators , drunkards , and all kind of vicious and sinful livers ; they sett no porters at their church dores , to keepe out the polluted , but every uncleane person is permitted to enter freely . i say , all may come boldlie to the lords supper ; they looke after nothing but this , that they kneele , which if they doe but observe , be their life and religion then , what it will , it matters not . thus are the misteries of god prophaned , in that , they communicate with papists , & other unclean people . to draw unto a conclusion , not onlie are their congregatiōs , said to be vnrightly constituted , & to be impure & vnholy lumps , but ( which is the depth of misery ) they have no meanes ( as they stand ) of reformation ; for the wholesome remedies , appointed by the lord , to keep out unworthie persons , to preserve pure and cleane gods ordinances , and to take away offences , is not among them ; and here the reader may see what the reason is , that they say , the walls of syon ly even with the ground , and they have not scarse the face of a church . for if it be as these men report , it is babel , no bethel , which they have erected . i could name others of them , which write the same things , but we have enough , to rayse our conclusion ; the which i will lay downe thus : all true visible churches , gathered , and planted , according to gods word , consisted in their constitution of saints onelie : but the churches of england , after poperie , were not so constituted , but on the conirarie for the greatest number , of prophane people , even mockers and contemners of religion , as atheists , idolaters , sorcerers , blasphemers , and all sorts of miscreants , and wicked livers . therefore the churches of england are not true visible churches , gathered , and planted , according to gods word . there is never a part of this argument , that they can denye , unlesse they will let fall their owne principles . for the assumtion , i make no question , but it will passe without exception , and none of them will have the face to oppose it , considering how generally the thing hath been affirmd , & stil is upon all occasiōs , both in word and writing . now that the proposition may appeare as true also . i will prove the same , . by scriptures , . by reasons , . by the testimonie of the learned : of all which in the next section . sect . iii. if we take a strict view , of all the churches which the lord hath constituted since the beginning of the world , it will appeare that at the orderly gathering and planting , the members of them were all holie and good . i here intend of visible & external holinesse , and so farre as men may judge , and not of that which is within , and and hid from us : for i doubt not , but in gods sight the purest congregation on earth might consist at first of good and bad , and yet of men , every person to be judged truely faithfull , and sanctified , untill any one by his iniquitie , outwardly committed , appeared otherwise . not to speake of the church of angells , which god created in heaven , and which were all holy and good , till some by transgression fell away . neither of it in paradise , consisting of two persons , & both true beleevers . after the fall , the constitutiō of the● church , in the covenant of grace , was of good matter , & such was the lords care , to have the practise of it still preserved , that he thrusted out kain from the same , for the great wickednesse , which he fell into . the lord sealed not up with abraham , the seale of the righteousnesse of faith , untill he left his fathers house . and that idolatrous place , wherein he had lived ; which signifieth to us , that all men must necessarily come out of the world , and from worldlie corruptions , or else they are uncapable to have a church covenant in christ , confirmed unto them of god. as for the visible churches , planted by the apostles , it is evidēt , that in their collectiō , they consisted of , such & none other , as were called by the gospell , confessed their sinnes , beleeved , walked in the spirit , and separated themselves from the false state , in which they stood members before . such a beginning had the congregations in rome , corinth , galatia , ephesus , phillipp . colosse , thessalonica , &c. & who dares affirm , that there was one man or woman admitted a member at the constitution of any of these churches , which had beene known to be an il liver , and did not first manifest sound repentance thereof . the matereall temple was a tipe of the visible churches under the gospel , now we read that it was built from the verie foundation of costly stones , of cedars , algum , fi●●e , and the like choice and speciall trees , and those all prepared aforehand , hewed and perfect for the building , so that neither hammer nor axe , nor anie toole was to be heard in the house , in the building of it , no common or vile thing , was used towards it , neither might anie polluted person enter into it , and offer , untill he had repented , and embraced the faith , and been clensed from his filthinesse : by the gates of the house were porters sett , to keep the unworthy out . vpon the altar there might be offered no uncleane beast , no nor that which was cleane , having a blemish upon it . what in all this was signifyed ? surely this : such as will build a spirituall house for the lord to dwell in , must be a holy people : for he is of that infinite puritie , that he will not vouchsafe his speciall presence , unto profane companies , which joyne themselves together ; and therefore let it be farr from all men to prepare a place for him , with such trash , or to defile his holy things with such uncleane persons , or to offende his nostrels with the stench of such sacrifices . the reasons upon which our proposition is grounded , are these , . all wicked men are forbidden expresslie by the word of god , from meddling with his covenant or ordinances : now if men to escape temporall punishment , are affraid to transgresse against the lawes of worldly princes . much more fearefull should they be to breake his ▪ who is the king of kings , and will inflict for it , upon their soules and bodies torments eternallie . . that which destroyeth a church● , and makes it , either to become a false church , or no church at all , cannot be a true church , or be true matter wherof it is made : but men visiblie wicked , and prophane make the church , a synagoge of satan , babylon , sodom , aegypt ; and so to be spued out , and removed . . it is against sence and common reason , that a church should be constituted of vnholie people ; for as in a materiall house , the wood and stones must be first prepared , and then la●d orderlie in the building ; so in the spiritual ▪ men and women must by the word of god necessarily be first reformed , before they are any way fitt , to have any place therin . . they which have no right to the holy things of god in the church , are not to be admitted into it , neither is that church , which is gathethered of such persons , rightly constituted ; but men of wicked conversation , have no right to the holy things of god in the church , and therefore that church , which is gathered of such , is not rightly constituted . . they cannot performe the services and duties of members , for they are spirituallie dead . if a master will not covenant with one to be his servant , which hath in him no natural life : much lesse , &c. . they have not christ for their head , and therefore cannot be of his bodie ; for as in the natural bodie , there must be first a natural union of the parts with the head , before there can be any action of natural communion , between the head and the members , or one member and another ; so in this spiritual bodie , the members must be first united with christ the head , and become one with him , before they can any way partake in his benefits , or have communion one with another , as members of the same body under him the head . . they are altogether uncapable of this covenant ; for as a woman , which hath been once a wife , cannot mary againe with another man , untill her first husband be deceased , or she from him lawfullie divorsed . so neither can these be maried to the lord , till they have mortifyed their corruptions , and put the world and satan away , unto which before they were ( as it were ) maried . the godlie and wicked are contraries , guided and led by different causes : now two contraries are not capable of one , and the same forme . thirdly , for this we have the judgment of the learned also . there must be ( saith molierus a profession of true religton , and obedience yealded thereto , at least outwardly , to become a member of the visible church . beza saith , he is rightly joyned to the church , which separates himselfe from the wicked . paul calls the romans saincts ( saith aretius ) to put a difference between their former estate wherein they lived , which was unholy and impure , and the condition to which they were now called . piscator affirmes , the matter of a particular church , to be a companie of beleevers . mr. iacob in his definition of christs true visible church , saith , that those which joyne in a spiritual outward society , or body politick together , must be a faithfull people . mr. bradshaw saith , they must be a people , called and separated from the world , and the false worship , and wayes thereof , by the word . the same speaketh mr. attersoll , and alleageth these scriptures for it , gen. . , and . . iosh . . . , & . . . num. . . lev. . . . ioh. . . act. . . i could name many others , † which write the same thing , but there is no use thereof . onelie it cannot be amisse to shew , how the church of england makes this , an article of her faith , as the prelates have published it in her behalfe . the visible church of christ , is a congregation of faithfull men , in the which the pure word of god is preached , and the sacraments dulie be ministred , according to christs ordinance , in all those things , that of necessitie are requisite to the same . thus the proposition beeing proved , and the assumption acknowledged to be true , the conclusion must needs stand firme ( viz. ) that the churches of england are not true visible churches , rightly gathered , and planted , according to the scripture ; and therefore by necessarie consequence lawfully to be separated from . before i end this point , i will here lay downe some few syllogismes , intyrelie made up , betweene the inconformists , and conformists , all concluding the forenamed position . that church which hath not a lawfull ministery , is not a true visible church : but the church of england hath not a lawfull ministerie ; ergo the church of england is not a true visible church . the proposition is affirmed of the conformists , as burton , sutcliffe , &c. the assumption is granted by the nonconformists , as we have in the first chapter largelie shewed . the true visible church of christ , is a society of beleeving and faithfull people , and a communion of saints ( so say the conformists ) but the church of england is not a society of beleeving and faithfull people , a communion of saints ( thus write the nonconform . see p. . &c. ) ergo , the church of engl. is not a true visible church . the true church is the kings daughter , described in psal . . but the church of england is not the kings daughter , so described : therefore the church of england is not the true church of christ . the proposition is laid downe by the conformists , wherby they prove rome a false church . the assumption is the nonconformists : for if they say the truth , their members have not those qualities , belonging to the kings daughter ; neither their preists nor people . see pag. . . . . . . the true church of christ is the flock of christ , but the church of england is not the true flock of christ ▪ therefore the church of england is not the true church of christ. the proposition say the conformists is undeniable , son. . . . act. . . ioh. . . the assumption is proved by the nonconformists principles , compared with ioh. . . . . christs flock heare his voyce , and know it , & follow it , but the church of england , submitting to an vnlawfull ministerie , worship , and discipline , heare not christs voyce , nor know , nor acknowledge , nor follow it , but the voyce of antichrist . the church of god doth keep the doctrine of the apostles & prophets , without addition , alteration , or corruption ( thus the conformists ) but the church of england keepes not the doctrine of the apostles and prophets , without addition , alteration ▪ and corruption ( say the nonconformists , see pa. . ) ergo she is not the church of god. no society can be termed gods church , which retayneth not gods true worship ; ( thus say the conformists ) but the church of england doth not retayn gods true worship ; ( say the nonconformists , see pag. . to . ) ergo she cannot be termed gods church . the true church consisteth not of feirce lyons , wolves , tygers , and such like wild and feirce beasts , but of sheepe and lambes , which learne of christ , and are meeke , humble , gentle , &c. ( so say the conformists ) but the english church doth consist of lyons , wolves , tygers , and such like wild , and feirce beasts , and not of sheepe and lambes , which learne of christ , and are m●eke , humble , gentle , &c. ( thus affirme the nonconformists , see pag. . &c. . . . ) therefore it is not a true church . here the reader seeth clearly , how the conform : majors , and the nonconform : minors , make up intyre syllogismes of separatisme . and how they will be able to unlose these knots , i know not , except by revoking utterly their owne grounds ; which if either of them doe , yet i doubt not , but we shall well enough be able to maintaine them against men . sect . iv. now we come to take a view , of such exceptions , as may seeme to cary most weight , against our former conclusion ; and these are laid down cheifly by mr. dayrell , in his treatise of the church : this man made a shift , to fill up there , with words , above thirty sheets of paper ; the which subject , if some men had tooke in hand , they would easily have comprised all the matter of it , in . or . leaves . my purpose is not to follow him , in his idle repetitions , neither to speake much of his contradictions , & absurdities , but in short to give a full answer to his tedious & tyresome discourses . touching the description , which he makes of a visible church , he saith thus : all that be , and remaine vnder the voyce , and call of god , that is , the ministerie of the word , &c. be of the visible church . answ . this is a false and prophane errour ; for first , then the vilest hereticks that ever have beene in the world , may be members thereof , as the appellites , cerdonians , macedonians , paternians , patricians , &c. such as held two contrarie beginnings , or gods , the one good , the other evill ; such as held , that christ is not rysen from the dead ; denyed the holy ghost to be god ; affirmed the bodie to be created of the devill , &c. . then may excommunicate persons be of the church , before they acknowledge their sinnes ; yea tu●●es , iews , and infidles . . whereto leadeth this position , but indeed to make the church a very stincking ditch , to receave all filthinesse , and to be like the whorish woman , which openeth her knees to every passenger , contrarie to the patterne , given us of god , rev. . ult . . if this were true , then should no man for any offence be censured , so long as he remaines vnder the voyce and call of god ; for that which is enough to state one in the church , is enough to keepe him there still , if he retaine it . . he speakes contrary to the judgement of all reformists and conformists , that ever i have heard or read of , and contrarie to his owne writing in other places : for in pag. . , &c. he defines a church to be a company called out from the rest of the world , and such as doe submit themselves to the true worship of god. now there is a great difference betweene this calling from the world , submitting to the true worship of god , &c. and onely to be under the ministerie of the word . . i cannot tell from whom mr. dayr ▪ receaved this strange doctrine unlesse it were the heretick eunomius , which taught , that so men were of his religion , it was no matter what their conversation was , nor how many sinnes they committed . he doth often affirme in his booke , that it is not faith and repentance , but the profession thereof , which is necessarie to the making of a member of the visible church . marke how blasphemously he speakes ; intimating , if men with their mouth speake some few good wordes , they may be taken lawfullv into the communion of the saints , and partake with the rest in the sacraments and prayer ; all be it knowne to be notorious murderers , theeves , traitors , sorcerers , witches , whoremoungers , &c. and so resolved to live , and continue . it is very likely this mr. dayr . had a great church , seeing he made the doore unto it , broad and wide , just like the way to hell . i could here lay down many grosse absurdities , which might be truly concluded from his words , viz. that a church cannot cast out some obstinate sinners , neither is she ▪ and the world , to be distinguished , &c. but because the vanitie , and evill of this speach , is enough allready shewed , i purposely passe them over . we have seene one of mr. dayr . definitions ; now followes another . let there be an assembly , joyned together in prayer , hearing the word , and receaving the sacraments , according to christs institution , and it is a true visible church . answ . it is so indeed , and hence this argument against them may be framed : if in the ecclesiastical assemblies of england , there is neither prayer , preaching , nor sacraments administred , according to christs institution , then are they all false churches : but the first is true , therefore the second . the proposition hath sufficient confirmation , from their principles , before named ; the assumption is certaine , and manifest , by the doctrine and description , which he here makes of a true visible church ; and there lyeth against it no exception . in the next page he delivers a paradox ( viz. ) that men outwardly may submitt to true worship , and yet be irreligious and prophane . now this is either falsely or foolishly spoken . if he meane of visible prophanesse , and irreligion , then it is a contradiction , and indeed plaine nonsence ; for to say , that a person , may outwardlie submitt to god , and yet outwardlie be prophane and ungodly . if he intended of secret and inward irreligion of the heart ; in this sence it is true , but answereth nothing at all to the matter , for which he brings it . here also he layeth downe mr. ●insw . wordes , as he saith ; unto which he makes no direct reply , but runnes to another matter , whereof he had now no cause at all to speake : he denyeth that either the papists , or anabaptists doe professe true religion , although they professe , some true and sound doctrine . what moved him thus to thinke , i know not , unlesse it were because these have many errours in their religion ; now if this reason will stand firme , and good against them , then it must needs follow , that the church of england professeth not true religion , though she prof●sse some true and sound doctrins , in regard she maintaineth many lyes , and vile errours . mr. gilb●e , † a forward minister , reckoneth up , above seven score grosse points of poperie , remaining in their church , and many others of them have don the like , as i have in this treatise manifested . and i think it would aske a better witt , and head , then ever mr. dayr . had , to proove , that there are halfe so many corruptions , in the religion professed by the eng. anabaptists . from pag . to . there are certaine reasons ( as he calls them ) to prove the church of eng. and their parish assemblies true visible churches . as for the first of them , i deny both the proposition and assumption ; he saith : whatsoever people or nation is within the dayly voice and call of god , &c. the same is a true visible church . this is untruelie affirmed , as i have proved before ; and for his speaking of it againe , it sheweth the more his ignorance in the way of god ; for will any wise man take lyons , wolves , foxes , &c. into his sheepsould ? sow tares , or darnel , in his garden , plant thistles , or thornes , in his orchard ? the church is the lords speepcfowld , his garden , orchard , &c. and therefore if mr. dayr . had been so wise as he should , he would not have spoken so corruptly , but have given rather counsell to keepe out vncleane persons , considering what the prophet saith : holynes becommeth thy house o iehovah , to length of dayes . againe , we may perceive by his wordes , that he understood not the nature of a visible church ; for as to the constitution of it , there belongs a holie people , as the matter , so also a uniting and coupling of them together , which is the forme , whereof it consisteth : as the constitution of a common wealth , or of a cittie , is a gathering and knitting of people together in a civill policie ; so the constitution of the common wealth of israel , ( as the church is called ) and of the cittie of god the new ierusalem , is a gathering and uniting of people into a spiritual policie ; the forme of which policie is order , as the philososophers acknowledged , calling policie an order of a citty ; which order is requisite in every administration of the church , as the apostle teacheth ; and cheifly in the collection thereof ; and therefore next unto faith in god , it is to be esteemed most necessarie , for all holie societies . this was one thing , for which paul rejoyced in the church at collosse , as for their steadfast faith in christ , so their order also . but mr. dayr . will have his church without order ▪ or forme ; and what is it then , but a meere , at●xie , or confuse chaos , a state onlie fitt for the devills goates to be in , which desire liberty , and not for christ sheepe , which are to make streight pathes to their feet . he saith , there lyeth no exception against the assumption . and why so ? because their pastors and teachers are true ministers . me thinkes the man should have beene ashamed , to have begd so much at one time ; but to let his folishnesse passe , we do deny them to be lawfull officer● , and have brought their owne hands against them for it . secondly , he writes here , against his brethren , yea ( and i thinke ) against his owne conscience : for the greatest number of their bb. preists & deacons , are dumb dogs , ignorant asses , &c. such as either cannot , or through pride , sullnesse bread , and abundance of idlenesse ( sodomes sinnes ) will not preach ; and therefore it is untruely said , that the people generally of england are within the dayly voyce and call of god. . the later part of his reason , is wholie against himselfe ; sor whereas his wordes import , that the people generally of england are impenitent sinners , and unbeleevers , it must follow necessarily , that they are alltogether uncapable of any church estate , and so much we have formerly proved . were it not a ridiculous thing , to set up a house with wood and stones , and afterward to take axes , sawes , hammers , and other tooles , to cutt , saw , and fitt them for the building : yet such an unskilfull builder mr. dayr . sheweth himselfe in his whole booke . for hee will have idolaters , adulterers , theeves , conjurers , murderers , and any villain in the land , to be placed in the lords spirituall house , and afterward will have meanes used to prepare them for the same . not to contend about the proposition of his second argument , howbeit it is verie faulty . i denie the assump . viz. that the people of england doe injoy , and outwardly submit themselves to the true worship of god : for the worship which they have , is affirmed of the nonconformists to be antichristian and unlawfull : but let us heare his reason . if such as both in their life , and at theire death served god with the verie same worship we doe , have in that worship beene saved , then i● the worship wee now have , true divine worship . but the first is true , therefore the second . if mr. bradshaw had found such a reason in mr. iohnsons writing , he would surely have called him idle head , crackt braind , foole &c. but i leave such terms to men of his intemperate spirit , and doe thus answer . . a papist , arminian , or anabaptist may say as much and upon as good ground , and who dares denie but manie of their religion , have found mercie with the lord , must it therefore follow that their worship is good ? indeed mr. dayr , logick so concludeth it . , men may serve god with an outward worship , not agreeable to his word , and yet be saved : for who knoweth how infinitely good hee is to his poore creature . . it is apparent this man had a very ill case in hand , that could not tell how to maintaine it , but by revealing the secret and hid consell of the lord : for i wonder how he came to know who in their worship have beene saved : if he should say in the judgement of charitie he thinkes thus , then his argument must be of an another fashion , namely , that he thinkes their worship is true : for otherwise it will want shape and proportion . . it hath beene the constant practice of the godly , to proove their positions by the scriptures , but it is likely he saw that there was no helpe for him there , and therefore onely makes use of this reasonlesse reason . his third argument is foolish and carnall ; and both parts of it false . for first it is incident to the best and purest churches upon earth to erre and to bee deceived , and therefore their sentences and approbations must be examined by gods word . . if the reformed churches doe justifie the english , therein they condemne greately their owne practice : for in theire constitution , ministery , worship , and governement they are as opposite as light and darkenesse one to the other : and so much the nonconformists confesse . . seeing the prophets christ and his apostles condemne their church , their case is never a whit the better , though all men in the world speake well of it . . the strictest professors , do hold the church of england as it is nationall , provinciall , and diocessan , false : howbeit they thinke some particular congregations in the land to bee true . . with such weapons as these doe the papists fight : and where they can bring one , the others ten , to witnesse for them , and their romish superstitions . i meane antiquity , universality and such like popular reasons , whereby they seeke to uphold their cursed kingdome . lastly , it is untruely affirmed , that all the churches of god in the world doe acknowledge the people of england to be a true church . for there are many which have both professed and prooved the contrary . now for his last argument , i deny also both parts of it : and affirme that neither the mother nor daughters are true churches ▪ the reason which he layeth downe is , as the rest , sillie , and most impertinent to proove the thing for which he brings it . the summe and effect of that which hee hath written in five or sixe pages is this , that their worship and religion is true , because in q. maries dayes , divers martyrs professed the same , and died in it . answ . . here the thing in question is brought for confirmation : the martyrs allowed of their worship , be it so , what then , should hee not yet have prooved the same to be lawfull ? yes doubtlesse , if hee would have written either according to rule , reason , or religion . . if a papist should suffer death under heathen or turkes , because he would not denie christ ●esus , wee think he may in some respect be judged a martyr , and yet the romish worship which he professeth , remaine still false , and idolatrous . . i desire the reader to marke how absurdly he speaketh : the thing which he undertakes to proove , is , that their assemblies are true , for this he alleageth the martyrs , now to what purpose i can not tell in the world : unlesse he meant that there was such vertue and efficacy in their sufferings , as the whole nation thereby was sanctified , and made churches . lastly , this reason is one and the same , with that which he brought to confirme the second syllogisme , save that for the more authority of it , hee addeth the name of the m●rtyrs , the insufficiency whereof i have there shewed and thither doe referre the reader . in the conclusion he saith , answer me this one argument and so i end . if mr. hooper mr. bradford with others knowing the corruptions then in the worship and ministery , being the same also with ours now , notwithstanding this knowledge , and not separating , were saved : then men at this day notwithstanding their knowledge of the corruptions and not separating because of them , may likewise be saved . but the first is true : therefore the second . ans . his former reasons were not more false and foolish , than this is wicked and profane , for first , wherefore serves it , but in truth to teach men to cast off all care in seeking gods glorie , by an even walking , and to doe so much of his will as is sufficient to bring them to heaven , and no more ▪ thus he counselleth people to be lovers of themselves more than lovers of god : yea to love god for themselves , and to serve him for a reward onely ; but let all persons , in all places take heede , that they follow not this mans advice , for if they resolve to doe no more , but what they think will serve their turne to be saved , they will surely misse of that , and for their self love suffer wrath and vengeance eternally . howsoever iwill not judge another mans servant , yet it is more then he or anie mortall man that can infalliblie tell , whether mr. bradford , mr. hooper and others were absolutely saved , and therefore hee reasoneth still most childishly , to prove his matter by things secret , and known to god onely . when luther , calvin , and others left the church of rome , might not anie popish priest have said as much to them . if mr. w. mr. c. with others knowing the corruptions then in worship &c. now i perceive if mr. dayr . had been in their place , he would not have separated from that synagogue of satan , and to speake the verie truth , he could not do it lawfully upon his own groundes . . that these men knew some corruptions to be in their worship & ministrie , i grant it , but not in that kinde and degree , which the nonconformists since have manifested , for if they had certainly known that these things were unlawfull and antichristian , and their church government taken wholly from the pope : i beleeve they would not have joyned in spirituall communion therewith , & therfore mr. dair . shamfully abuseth the reader , to say the martyrs saw their corruptions , and they are the same which they have now : whereas he should have proved , that they saw them according to the nature of them , and as his fellow brethren have since seene them , & affirmed them to be , for unlesse this can be shewed , they differ herein asmuch from the martyrs , as if one sinned ignorantly , aud another against his knowledge and conscience . . the saintes are taught of god , not to be servants of men , but to live by their owne faith , & to presse forward toward the mark . and therefore hee sheweth litle skill in the course of religion , to sette downe this , or that mans practise for a rule to walke by , unlesse he had professed himselfe to be a familist or perfectist , and so would make the world beleeve , that none could erre which took such for example whom he prescribed to them . . i cannot tell for what end be propounded this argument , for imagin it should be granted him , that the martyrs knew the corruptions of their church , &c. and yet were saved : and so are many now in england , which understand the same : what would hee from hence conclude ? i thinke there is no man on earth that knowes ; if there be , they might doe well , at the next impression of his booke , to set it in the margin , for to cover what they can , the mans empty , naked , and absurd writing . mr. dayr . having shewed his best skill , wit and learning , to proove their parish assemblies , true churches : in his second booke ( according to his division ) hee attempteth to confute the description which mr. barrow , and the brownists ( as he maliciously names gods people ) have laid downe of a true visible church : and about this point , hee writes more then an hundred and fifty pages , all the matter whereof ( leaving out his battalogies and impertinenr speeches ) might well have beene written in sixe leaves of papier . but it seemes the man wanted no money , and therefore would make it up to his reader in taile , what he could not doe in weight ; forgetting in the meane time the proverbe , a little and good ; and also what the learned use to say , the worth of a writing doth not consist in bulke and belly : but in the sinewes , veines , and arteries , which with good blood , and spirit , may be comprehended in a little body . but let us see how he confutes us . first he layeth downe our definition of a true visible church , which is , a company of people , called , and separated from the world , by the word of god , and joyned together by voluntary profession of the faith of christ , in the fellow . ship of the gospel . before we ●ome to examin the reasons ( if they may be so termed ) which he alleageth against this definition , i desire the reader to minde it well , that we herein do say no more , then what in effect is fully acknowledged , by the nonconformists , a conformists , b the church of england , c the learned generally , d and all the reformed churches e upon earth , as is to be seene in their books here named . yea mr. brad. f although no friend of the separatists , yet confesseth the whole , as it is here laid downe to be true and good . notwithstanding , this man commeth boldly forth against us , as if he had been either asleepe all his life time , or lived in some unknowne parts of the world , and so could not tell what any body had said about this thing . and now for his reasons , in which he is as confused as is the subject for which he pleadeth : notwithstanding such as i finde here and there , disorderly written of him , i will reduce into some particular heads . the maine and chiefe argument , wherewith he fighteth against us , for saying , a true visible church is a company of people called and separated from the world . is , because hypocrites and reprobates may beein the church . and to proove this , he is very large and tedious : for i dare say , more then halfe of his booke is spent about it ; in alleaging for it , scriptures , examples and reasons : but a few words will serve for answer to it ; in regard he talkes of a thing , which neither helpes him , nor disadvantageth us , for the question betweene them and us , hath ever beene , about the true and naturall members , whereof gods church is orderly gathered , and planted : and not about the decayed and degenerate estate thereof . but of this he saith nothing : onely reasoneth much to this purpose . if a mans body may have sores , boyles , broken limmes , &c. then is not the body whole and sound in the definition . if in a garden , vineyard , or orchard , after the constitution , there grow weeds , thornes , and thistles : then cannot the same in the description , be said to bee planted at first of all good herbes , vines and trees . but the first is true : therefore the second . now if such philosophie be to be laughed at , then truely much more is mr. dayr . divinitie here to be pittyed : for he denieth our definition , to wit , that a true visible church in the first collection consisteth of a people called and separated from the world : and why ? because forsooth afterwards some of them may fall into unlawfull and sinfull courses . if all our writings should bee read over , yet will it not be found , that ever we have denied ; but many hypocrites may be in the true church , yea open and vile transgressours : but here lyeth the poynt , if any shall affirme , that the same may be first gathered , of knowne lewd , and unconverted men , that indeed wee deny utterly , and can proove the contrary : or if they shall say , that obstinate and incorrigible sinners , may lawfully be suffered therein , this also we affirme to be untrue , but if they say , that in a true visible church , there may be great evils committed , yea and a long time tolerated , wee assent unto it . howbeit it is certaine ( as dr. ames saith ) this forbearance is a grieveus sinne before god. if mr. dayr . therefore had well understood , what our negative and affirmative positions are , hee might have spared most of his writing . for throughout his booke , he hath most falsely reported of us , by insinuating as if we held all of the visible church to be saved , and that no wickednesse therein can be committed : now our words tend onely to shew , what a church is , and how every member ought to walke : but if in some respects they bee not so , yet may the congregation notwithstanding be true and good . mr. dayr tells us verie often of the sinnes committed in the iewish church , so in corinth , pergamus , &c. if he were alive , i would aske him whether they did well herein ; if he should say yea , then were he a blasphemer ; if nay , then he gave us the whole cause , and so might cast his booke into the fyre . for the thinge which we affirm , is , that every member of the church ought to be holy , not that they are allwayes so , but should be so , and it is their great fault , they are otherwise . and here the reader may observe how greatly he hath mistaken the matter : for whereas mr. barrow , mr. ainsw . and others , doe shew from the scriptures , what a true church is , whereof gathered , how every member should walke , & how abuses are to be reformed , &c. he ( either through ignorance , or mallice , or both ) still inferreth from their writings : that they held perfection of churches , that there can be no hypocrite or reprobate in the church , &c. things groundlesly collected of him . of the same nature are the reports , which many of them publish dayly in their sermons and bookes ; namely that the main cause of our separation is , because wicked men are suffered in their church . but this is untrue , for howsoever ( as i said before ) such a tolleration can not be justified ; yet this is not properly the reason , but because their parishes were at first constituted , as now they stand , of the members of antichrist , to wit , the idolatrous papists , and of all other kind of most notorious sinners , as whorems . witches , atheists , swearers , usurers , cursers , scoffers at religion , &c. this prophane multitude , without any profession of faith and repentance , were forced and compelled by human authority in the beginning of qelizabeths raigne , to be members of their church , and so have continued , they and their seed ever since : contrary to the expresse word of god * and this is so evident and certaine , as the nonconformists acknowledge it most true , beside , we leave them in respect of their ministery , worship , and church government , which is also prooved unlawfull , and antichristian by their owne testimony . another exception which he taketh against our description is , because we say , a people called by the word of god , this he denies to be true , and affirmes that men may come to be members of the visible church , and not be called by the word , and therefore verie unfitly is it placed in the description of a visible church ▪ pag. . . ans . we need not wonder when a man undertakes to justifie a bad cause that he useth ordinarily vile , and profane arguments for it . first this which he affirmeth is directly against the holy scriptures of god. a . contrarie to all example in the old and new testament . b . wholy against the doctrine of his brethren and fellow preists , and the learned everie where . c . the scriptures which he names , are both untruly and unadvisedly applyed of him , for first touching that in exod. . . howsoever many egyptians and other nations were mooved by gods workes shewed in egypt , to go out with the israelites , notwithstanding that they should bee all taken into actuall communion with the church , it is onely his dreame : and no such thing can be truely gathered from the place : but the contrary is most probable , as i could ( if there were any use ) give many reasons for it : see numb . . . and the like may be said unto the place in est . ● . . and this also further added how he knew ( if any were received into the fellowship of the saints ) that the word of god , was not preached unto them by some meanes , in one measure or other , before their admission . as for the other texts , namely , iohn . . and . . and . . his alleaging of them , plainely notes , that his knowledge was not much in these scrip. fort. christ did not there cōstitute any visible church . . the persons there spoken of , were most of them members by birth of a true church . . howsoever the things which hee mentioneth , as miracles , reports , &c. were great meanes to confirme the gospel , and to draw people unto the hearing of the word , notwithstanding the word alone was the instrument ( gods blessing going with it ) whereby the people were brought unto faith and repentance , ioh. . : . but wherefore doth he instance these examples , seeing they are extraordinary , and therefore if it should be granted , as hee ignorantly understands the places : yet it will not follow , that there is any other outward ordinary meanes to call men out of the world , beside the word : now of this ordinary meanes speakes the definition onely . . observe how the exception which he makes here against us , serves nothing to helpe his case ; for if all the persons which he names , were received into the visible church , and say it was by some other meanes , beside the word , that mooved their hearts to obey the lord therein ; yet how can he proove , that these were outwardly wicked , and irreligious , knowne to be idolaters , drunkards , sorcerers , mockers , lyers , blasphemers , &c. for unlesse he can manifest this , if all the rest were granted , yet will it not stead him a whit , to justifie the state of the english church , which was erected after popery ( as hee could not deny ) of such vile varlets and uncleane creatures . it is therefore worth the noting , what ill speede mr. dayr . hath still in all his testimonies , and witnesses : for after he hath puld them in at the window , or backdoore by the haire of the head , yet this is his crosse , either they stand up against him , or are quite dumb ▪ and speake not a word , touching the point for which he brings them ▪ we heard what the reasons are , why mr. dayrell disliked our definition . now before we come to the last part of his booke , there is somthing to be said touching the manner which he layes downe , of making of churches by the sword , about this he begins with a tedious comparison of one that hath children and servants which be papists , and by threats will have them worship god aright , thereupon they frequent the church assemblies and seeme outwardly to be religious , and are to be accounted of the visible church , and yet these came not to be of the church by the call of the word &c. now may the master and father doe this , and may not the magistrate ? &c. ans . . howsoever parents and masters , are to use all good means , that those which are under their government may be religious & holy , yet have they not anie more power to make them members of gods church ( if they be not under the visible covenant ) then they have power to give them saving grace , & sanctification . . whereas he saith , these come not to be of the visible church , by the call of the word , that is untrue ; for howsoever a person may come , to the place where a church is ; yet his comming simplie there , doth not immediately make him an actuall member of it , as he still ignorantly intimates ; for those of his brethren , which were farre more judicious then himselfe , doe teach otherwise : when men doe profitt in hearing , then are they to be joyned to the church . but it seemes if heathen & turkes , would have but come to his service and preaching , he would have acknowledged them to be part of his flock , albeit they manifested no repētance at all ; if he should say , no , then were he contrarie to his owne saying here . . this similitude is against himselfe ; for first , the magistrate did not commaund the subjects , to goe unto churches , formerly gathered , and there to be prepared by hearing . but forded them to be members ; they beeing altogether and every way most unfitt . . the worship which they did , was not according to gods word , but after the traditions and devises of men . . they neither outwardly seemed religious , nor renounced poperie , nor professed true religion , but in all this plainely shewed the contrarie , as we have before proved by their owne writings . after this he makes a long narration , to justify this compulsion by the practise of the ●ings of i●dah : now this point by others hath beene so fullie answered , as one would thinke , that mr. dayr : should never have had the forehead once , to have named it , except he had been more able to refute their arguments . for answere to it : i deny that there is any true proportion between this example ; and the thing unto which they doe apply it . . the iewish church was nationall , but such are none now under the gospell ▪ neither provinciall , nor diocesan , as the nonconformists doe say and prove . . howsoever iud. .h fell fearfully into sinne , yet by vertue of the lords covenant with her forefathers , faithfully on his part , remembred and kept , remained still the true church of god , and was not ( as israel ) quite broken-off , and therfore the magistrate compelled not the people , to be members , but to perform the duties thereof , they beeing members truly before . indeed if either hezechiah , iosiah , asa , or nehemiah , had forced the fdomites , aegyptians , babylonians , &c. into the holy temple , and there to have sacrificed to the lord , it had been something like unto their practise ; for the english nation , cōsisting of many sheires , citties , townes , and villages , was never within the lords covenant , & holy in the roote ▪ as iudah was ; howbeit , it may be , many hundred yeares past , there were some true churches planted in the land , by the preaching of the gospell , and obedience of faith . . the ministerie , worship , and church government , unto which iudah submitted , was the lords , and the contrarie abolished by her good governours , as the reader may see by these scriptures . † but neither in the beginning of king edwards , or q. elizabeths raigne , was there such a course taken , but the selfe same false ministerie , worship , and church government , left to stand , which the romish beast , had before devised , and is at this day used in his cursed kingdome , onely some few faults put out : and this themselves , when they write against the hierarchie , doe avouch boldly . . if we consider the preists and people of the iewes , it will appeare evidently , that there is no agreemēt or liknesse in the cōparison : for these separated themselvs frō the filthines of the heathen of the land , a confessed their sinns , humbled their soules by fasting and prayer before the lord , c sanctifyed themselves , d prepared their whole heart to seeke god , e made a covenant with him , frejoyced at the oath , g kept the passover with joy : h but the english at first in every particular were much unlike these people , as appeares by the great rebellions , which they made in many places , because they thought that their idolatrous service should be put downe . yea so unwilling were they to leave their idolatrie , as the magistrate was saine to informe them by a proclamation how they did mistake his reformation . it seemes to you ( saith he , speaking of their mattens and evening song ) that you have a new service , now indeed it is no other but the olde , the selfesame words in english , which were in latin , * saving a few things taken out , so fond , that it had been a shame to have heard them in english &c. if therefore the service in the church was good in latin , it remaineth good in english , for nothing is altered , but to speake with knowledge , that which was ignorantly before uttered . to be short , i would have them once to tell us , where they have learned to inforce and constraine men to be members of their churches ; i thinke they will not finde a president for it in the world , unlesse they take it from mahomets doctrine : * who taught that men should be compelled to the faith by warre and sword . for all reformed churches practice otherwise . there are no swine and dogs driven in among the godly , but whosoever joynes ; comes freely and voluntarily to them ; sometimes mr. dayr . and his brethren , are all for these churches , but when they see that their owne standing must needes be naught and foule , if the others be justifyed , then they will call back their words againe , and plead corruptly for themselves . mr. dayr . hath one string yet left to his bow , the which if it should be broken too , then all the shooting would be mard . be it granted ( saith he ) that all our parish assemblies were at first no true churches , &c. yet notwithstanding now they may be , and indeed are true , seeing that ever since , above fifty yeares , we have beene partakers of the true word and sacraments , and many of us effectually called thereby : and to drive this nayle into the readers head , he layes downe a similitude thus . there are many men in a house , but gotten into it , not through the doore whereby is the ordinary passage into it , but by some back doore , or through the window , or haply at some breach violently made into the same house , were it not extreame folly , or rather madnesse , because of this manner of entrance , to deny the inbeing of the aforesaid men in the house . answ . a man fallen into the water , will rather catch at a mote , thē willingly sinke : it is just so with this mr. dayr . being loth to fall under the controversie , which inconsiderately he took up ; he talks of this thing and that : the which if they should be judiciously weighed , would be all foū● as l●ight as vanity . to reply breifly , for it is not worth a long answer . first , if their churches were false in the constitution , then are they so still , because they stand in the very same state , and have not repented of the evill thereof , neither since have entered into any visible covenant with god , by publick , and voluntarie profession of faith . if two persons should make an adulterous covenant , who would deeme them , to be lawfully man and wife , so long as they stood by vertue of that false agreement , which they made at first together ? . their having of the word and sacraments , proves no more their churches to be true , then doth a true mans purse , in the hand of a theife , prove him to be an honest man. as the lords vessels were of old in temporall babilon , so are there sundry of his ordinances now in spirituall babi●●n ; and therefore the papists can say the like , and all other hereticks ; if any should reply , but these have the word preached , in an vnlawfull ministery , and the sacraments vnrightly administred : i answere , the same may be said of the english assemblies , as the nonconform . have soundly proved . . what their obedience is , the reader may partly guesse by comparing their profession and practise together : the former is shewed in this treatise , and what the later is , all may see it at home , by their doings in england . as the prophet said of isra●l , let them lift up their eyes to the high places , and behold where they have not plaid the harlot . i could give many instances to shew what small cause they have to boast of their order and manner of walking . for first , they are not a people separated and called from the world ; a dutie much urged in the scriptures , a and practised allwayes by the saints . b . they are not free , but stand most slavishly under strange lords , expresly against gods commaundement . c . they worship the lord not in the sincere order of the gospell , but after an idolatrous and popish manner , which is a fearfull and crying iniquity . d . add hereunto the knowledge , which many of them have , that these things are evill . it is the saying of king iames , that the puritans are the founders and fathers ▪ of the brownists , the later ( saith he ) only bold●y putting in practise , what the former doc teach , but dare not p●rforme . for what end he wrote this , i let it passe , but the words in part are true : our separation from the church of england , is by their grounds certainly good and lawfull , and therefore they say , and doe not . † now what the reason of it is , i know not ; unlesse to enjoy libertie , pleasure , profi●t , freinds , credit , and such wordly respects . i doe omitt the fearefull apostasies , which sundry of them have made , from that obedience , unto which they were come , some for wives , others for riches , and many to avoyd persecution for the crosse of christ . besides , whome doe they take for greater enemies , then the separatists ? and why ? because ( as the king said ) these boldly put in practise , what they doe teach , but dare not performe . and for this verie thinge , many of us have receaved most greevous injuries both from their tongues and hands , but the lord forgive them for it . . be it granted , that som of them are effectually called ; what then . doe these make all the rest holie ? not in the least : for as a handfull or bundle of corne , shuffled into a feild of weeds , though in it selfe , it may retaine the same nature , yet cannot make the feild a cornefeild , so neither can a few good christians , sanctifie the whole lump of the idolatrous & vile multitude in the land , and make them to be the true churches and people of god. . touching his comparison , it is a begging foolishly of the question ; for first , let them prove themselves , to be in the house , and then they shall heare what we we will say of the window and backdoore . from pag. . to . he attempteth to prove , that men may lawfully joyne in divine worship with the wicked . touching this thinge , although it concernes not much our matter in hand , yet i will write a few wordes , in answere to his long talke in this chapter . first he sayth , that the apostles had religious communion with infidels . but this is a false doctrine , for a man may preach the word and yet not have spirituall communion with all which are present and heare the same , and this must necessarisy be so , because otherwise it would follow , that every one when he teacheth , communicates with the devill , for in likelihood he is constantly there with the rest : indeed mr. dayrels words import no lesse , but i hope he hath not left any behind him , of so corrupt and vile a judgement . . he sets downe a manifest untruth : for we doe not affirme that there can be no religious communion ▪ but with members of a visible church . our profession and practice daily is otherwise ; yet so , that they be such persons , howbeit not in a church state , yet to be judged to bee in the faith by their gracious and holy walking . . whereas he affirmes , that we separate from them , because wicked and prophane people are suffered to come unto their worship : this also is untrue , for we leave them rather , because the worship it selse is wicked and prophane , as we have from their owne writings already shewed . . in page . he speakes enough to justifie our practice . for thus he writes . we may not have religious communion , or partake in divine worship , with idolaters , in their false and idolatrous worship , heathen or antichristian , but must separate and come out from among them . and a little after he gives a reason . idolaters and false worshippers , in their worship , doe not worship god , but indeed the devill . not christ , but belial , &c. if this be true , in what a fearefull case then , are the people of the land ? who serve christ by that idoll booke , considering the same is affirmed by the precisest of them , to be an idolatrous and false worship : yea and i am perswaded that this mr. dayr . would have said as much too , if he had written of it , against the prelates . . by his owne confession , they are all levened , through the iniquity one of another . for thus he saith , the open sinne of a man , and impunity thereof , defileth them that have authority and power , to punish the delinquent , and doe it not , that is , maketh them also guilty of sinne , or to partake in that sinne . now compare with this , their positions in page , &c. where it is acknowledged , that the authority and power to punish the delinquent , belongs wholly to the whole church , and not to the bh. chancellours , officials : seeing therefore most horrible sinnes are openly committed among them , and no meanes of reformation is used by those which are thereto onely called : it must needs follow , if mr. dayr . and his brethren speak the truth , that all their parishes are defiled , and they are guilty of each others sinnes , and doe constantly partake in the knowne transgressions one of another . . whereas he would have us to proove that the place in hag. . . . doth signifie spirituall pollution and that the apostle in . cor. . . by a little leven , &c. meaneth that the whole assembly may become guilty and defiled by open sinne . i answer , these scriptures are not onely by us thus interpreted : but also by d. ames and other learned men : and therefore herein , he hath them as much as us against him . the like might be said of other scriptures which he accuseth us of perverting ; if it were needfull , i could shew how expositors do apply them as we do , and so do the nonconformists in all their writings against the church of england , notwithstanding this man casteth out of his mouth stoods of reproaches after us . but this will appeare to be no new thing , if we take a view of their writings , which have stood for error and falshood ; for when the truth hath brought for her defence , the evident scriptures , papists † have beene wont to carpe at the allegations , and interpretations of them , and challenge their adversaries for corrupting them ; the formall protestants * in england have done the like against the reformists , and they now use the like colour against us : but how truely , let him judge , whose heart desires to know the truth in sinceritie . onely i would have it observed , how prettily he prooves the separatists to pervert the scriptures , to wit , because he understandeth them otherwise then they doe . concerning other passages in his booke , i judge them not worth an answer . if there be any , i am willing that he should take them for his advantage , which undertakes to make a reply unto the things which i have here written . chap. v. we heard in the first chapt. of the reference , which dr. ames had unto mr. bradshawes book , intituled , the vnreasonablenesse of separation ; now as my promise there was , so i will ( according to the measure of knowledge , and grace , given me ) in this chapter make answer unto it , that so the godly minded , may judge , whether the separatists , or he , are most vnreasonable . that the reader might not exspect to see any thing in the booke , proved by the word of god , the publisher therefore of it ( after some scoffing at mr. iohnson and others ) tells us , that it was not the authors meaning to gather proofes , &c. and much quotation may prove som thing , but answereth not directly to any thing . answ . . whosoever meanes to settle well the conscience , especially in a main point of faith and religion , ought necessarily to bring good proofes from the scriptures , for the things whereof he speaketh : for otherwise , either men will give no trust unto his words , or if they doe , it must be unadvisedly . and howsoever , he putts gods word here sleightly by , notwithstanding others have otherwise esteemed of it . augustine was of mind , that councells , bishops , &c. ought not to be objected for triall of controversies , but the holy scriptures onely , another saith , i yeeld the scripture a witnesse of my sence ; and my exposition without the scripture , let it be of no credit : yea hereto accord the very papists , we are rather to beleeve one private faithfull man , than a whole councell , and the pope himselfe , if he have the word and reason on his side . as d. ames therefore said , so doe we say , we esteeme not any thing like of a thousand objections , fetched from testimonies , subject to errour , as we would have done of one plaine testimonie divine , if it could have been produced . . that quotation of scriptures should not answer directly to any thing , it sounds in my apprehension very harshe , to say no worse ▪ for i have hitherto allwayes thought , that there could be no better answering then by scripture , i mean rightly all eaged & applyed . . as many wordes simply will not serve to vntye the knot of a syllogisme , so neither will a few firmely knitt it , except they be spoken to good purpose . . for his upbraiding of us with ignorance about logical formes , i let it passe , we are , that we are , and doe blesse god for that small knowledge of humane learning , which we have received , & do think it a practise most unbeseeming any of the saints , to boast of their own ability , much more to deride others , for their lacks but this is to be observed generally , that those which stād for bad causes , doe after this sort still reproch their adversaries ; thus do the papists , a the protestants , so the protestants , b the puritans , and so they us , as here , & in their other writings c usually . now to the booke . i thought once to have sett downe his answer , before my reply , as he hath done mr. iohnsons reasons , before his answer : but i perceived then , that this treatise would be very large ; besides , both their bookes are allready in many mens hands , & therefore i changed my mind ▪ only i doe desire the reader to peruse both their writings , for so shall he profitt the more , by that which i have here penned . i find nothing here , but some insinuating florishes , of his owne skill in logick , and great contempt putt upon mr. iohnson , for his vnablenesse therein . now , my purpose is , both here and in other places , in a manner alltogether to passe-by his vntemperate speaches , knowing that before this time , he hath made his reckoning for them with god. besides , it is a christian part not to render rebuke for rebuke , and a thousand times better were it to sustaine even a legion of reproaches , then for a man by turning ( though but one ) to give cause of suspition , that evill hath gott som part of conquest over him . but i marvell , why he saith , that mr. iohnson in disdaine stileth them forward preachers ; for . he knew not the others heart . . to my knowledge , this is a terme commonly given , and taken of them , acceptably , and in good part . . the apostle saith , love hopeth all things ; but it is evident mr. bradsh . followed not his rule , which is , when things are doubtfull in themselvs , to embrace the best . he speaks often of their law , but what law he means , i know not , whether the cōmon , provincial , civil , or statut ; neither what by the true intent of it , and therefore until some freind of his , doe set forth an exposition of it , we cannot give to it any direct answ . . seing he grants , to be a true minist . there must be a qualificatiō , according to the intent of the law , we desire them , in their next writing , to tell us plainly , whether all their bb. preists , & deacons , are so qualified : if not , then certainly mr. dayr . mr. bradsh . &c. have much deceived the people : for under the colour of some few among them , qualified ( as they say ) they have cunningly sought , to justifie all the rest ; and yet knew , ( as it is cleare by this mans writing ) that their ministerie is false and unlawfull . . let the vanity of his speach be here observed ; their ministers are true , if they bee , &c. which is , as if a knowne harlot , should say , i am honest , if i am qualified , according to the word of god. . he mistakes mr. iohnsons words , for he doth not say , that the prelates are ministers of the church assemblies , but of the church of england ; notwithstanding , if there were need , we could prove both by their profession , and practise , that the bb. are the proper pastors of all the parishes in their diocesses , and the rest are curats only to them . . if the ministerie of the prelates , belong not to any ordinarie assemblies , then is the same antichristian , and so consequently is that which is derived from it ; and so much from their owne principles , we have formerly proved . . he should have proved , that that authority & power , which the law gives to the prelates , is lawfull , and good ; for if the same be otherwise ( as he knew in his owne conscience it is ) i doe not see for what reason he mentioneth it , it having no weight of matter against us , nor for themselves . answ . . to let passe the name priest , and that likenesse which is betweene their ministery and the popish priesthood , because others already have sufficiently handled the thing : i doe deny that they are such pastors and teachers as are spoken of in ephes . . , . and have shewed the contrary from their owne principles . . note this mans lightnesse and inconstancy . sometime he stands for the justification of all their ministers , as here , and in pag. . &c. but otherwhile he will only defend those which are qualified according to the law , and execute their office , as page . . , &c. thus a man knowes not how to follow , nor where to finde him : as the way of an eagle in the ayre , such is the way of an adulterous woman : it is hid and cannot be knowne . . it is untruely affirmed , that their priests and deacons doe exercise the proper and essentiall ministerie of pastors and teachers . for first , most of them , by their confession , are idle bellied epicures , sencelesse asses , and not one of twenty that can preach . . by their law , their deacons are not to administer the sacraments , neither any of those which are full priests , but according to a popish leiturgy . . none of them , neither may , nor doe exercise church-governement , though they acknowledge it an assenti●●● and proper part of their ministerie . answ . . our question is not of what should , or may be in a land , but of that which we know is by law established and practised accordingly . . i cannot thinke that the prelates have permitted the ministery of some , which never received ordination from the papists or themselves : for though it may be possible , that one or two , may secretly passe without being made priests by them , yet that they should permit this thing , i am perswaded he could never proove it . . he often taxeth mr. iohns . with absurdenesse , but no man i thinke could passe him here . for if it should be granted , that there was a prelate which for love or money permitted the ministery , &c. doth it therefore follow , that the ministery of that church , is any other , but of their prelacie , priesthood and deaconry , as mr. iohnson sayth . for what if some have as much permission under the papacie , is not their ministery then of prelacy , priesthood and deaconry ? indeed so mr. bradsh . doth inferre , but with what wit or truth , let the reader iudge . . a man may be an unlawfull minister , though he never received the bb. ordination , viz. when he runs of his owne head , and is not elected , called and ordained by the free and common consent of a true church , and such were those of whom mr. bradsh . speaketh , if there be any truth in his relation . . if some do swerve from some observances , which the law requires , yet is not their calling hereby the more true and lawfull : for if monkes and friars do not keepe sometimes all their rules and orders , yet are they notwithstanding the divels and popes officers , even so , &c. . though their law intend not , such a proper priesthood , as was in the iewish church , nor ( as in all respects ) is now under the romish beast , yet this helpes nothing their cause , seeing it both tendeth and establisheth such a ministerie , as by their owne confession is directly against the word of god : . touching their parsons , vicars , stipe ndaries , chaplins , &c. wee have prooved from their writings that these names and offices come wholly from the divell and antichrist : and therefore his pleading for baal is altogether here unusefull as to say , all is one kinde of ministery and in this respect they are parsons , and in that respect , vicars , &c. for , as much may a papist say of their parsons , vicars , &c. and as true too . if therefore he would have justified these men , he should first have manifested , that his brethren have notoriously slandred their ministery , & so have taken quite away their reasons , by shewing better , and not needlessely to bring in a tale , which neither helpes him , nor hurts us . . his conclusion is pi●tifull : for instead of satisfaction , he leaves his reader more doubtfull then before : in regard of an exception which he makes thus , if they duely execute the same , meaning , the office of true pastors , now what , if they doe not this , as indeed they doe not , what be they then ? to this he saith nothing : neither will i inferre any thinge , but leave it as a quaere , to be answered by him , which shall next write in the behalfe of mr. bradsh . before i make answer unto the particular things in these pages , i will lay downe some generall observations , touching the manner of this mans writing , both here , and in the rest of his booke . . haveing nothing with any shew to object , like a bold sophister , he makes a flat denialls of expressed truths , as thus : i say it is false , i deny it , &c. as if the weight of an argument were sufficiently removed by empty denials , . his proofs are allwayes beggarly i sayes , or ifs , and may be soes ; and doth not in all his writing , either directly , or by sound consequence from the scripture , confirme any one thing , whereof he speaketh . . although in the course of his life , he made shew to be a great enimy of the bb. and their traditions ; yet now against us , he standeth to maintaine the vilest abominations in their churches . . such corruptions as the nonconformists generally have condemned , he basely here justifieth ; and by the same carnall and corrupt reasons , which the prelates use to doe , so that his writing is not more against us , then against themselves , and therefore it concerneth them as much as us , to set forth an answer unto it . . as mr. dayr . in his booke , hath shewed much ignorance , and contradiction ; no lesse hath he great hypocrisie , in pleading for such evills ; as some , which knew him , doe well know , that his judgement of them ( at least of many of them ) was wholy otherwise . it is true , the report goes , that he was not the proper author of it , but another did it , and gott him to father it ▪ this may be so , and it is probable enough , notwithstanding mr. brandsh . evill is not the lesse , if he should suffer any one , as the asse did balaam , to ride upon him , for to curse the israel of god. now to answer the things particularly . answ . . when we know what those accessarie parts bee , which true pastors , and teachers may have of their offices , callings , and administrations , not ordained by christ , we will speak more of that point , in the meane time , they may doe well , to consider , that they want not the accessarie only , but indeed the substanciall and essenciall parts of true offices , &c. & this they thēselvs doe not barely say , but soundly prove : & to cōfute this , mr. bradsh . hath nothing in all his writing , and therefore their owne arguments must needs stand in force , untill they doe revoke them , and bring better to the contrary . . whether the prelates be ordinarie , or extraordinarie ministers , it is not material , and therefore the distinction is idle , and impertinent ; for if their office and calling be false , devilish , antichristian , &c. as the nonconformists say , we will give mr. bradsh . leave , to place them in what order or degree he will , and yet his cause shall be never the better by it : but observe , howsoever some time he undertakes to justifie their standing ; yet here by a wile , which he useth , they are left , to shift for themselves . . he could not prove , when he was alive , that either the prastise of all the preists in the church of rome , in all things was according to that constitution , or their constitution , according to their practise , or either of them answereable to the strict termes of the law. what then , might not he therefore conclude any thing generally against the unlawfullnesse of their ministry ? his wordes import positively no , but we are sure yes ; & so will every wise man i think ( beside himselfe ) affirm too . notwithstanding his tenets usually doe lead unto such absurdities . . he either , through ignorance , or deceit speakes , besides the present question . for mr. iohns . to proove them false ministers , mentioneth their calling and entrance , according to their pontisicall , now to this he saith nothing , but talkes of their practise : the which , if it should be granted , to be otherwise then the law requires , yet it is nothing to the purpose , for which he bringeth it . would it not make some men laugh , if they should heare one , that is accused to be a bastard : to maintaine the contrarie , by this reason , viz. because he doth such duties , as those children doe , which are borne under wedlock . the thing which mr. iohnson affirmeth from their owne writing , is , that their ministerie begotten by the prelates , is illegitimate and false ; i say those , which take their offices , and callings from them , are bastardly ministers . now , marke ( good reader ) how handsomly mr. bradsh . makes an answere to it . he cannot prove ( saith he ) that the practise of all our ministers , is in all things according to the constitution , &c. what then , yet seeing he proves your ministerie by your owne confession to be a child of the whore , * it must needs be still a bastard , whether the practise of it be good or evill . . i doe deny that those administrations , which are performed by their popish canons , and booke of common prayer , are the maine , principall , and essentiall administrations , which christ hath ordained . for first , these allow of no true pastors and teachers . . require the sacraments to be unlawsully administred . lastly , command an idolatrous worship , and divellish discipline to be performed and executed in all their congregations . in page . he sayth , that the prelates may well laugh at mr. iohnsons simplicity and sillinesse of wit , that thinkes to fright them with such a bugbeare as this , &c. but may they not much more laugh at the writings , which his brethren have published against their canons & service-booke , calling the former slavish ordinances , lawlesse , perilous , popish , wicked , & damnable canons , shamefull idolls , &c. the later , a devised service , the masse in english , &c. but what of all this , if they will beleeve mr. bradsh . they need not be frighted with such bugbeares , as these : for if it should be granted ( as it is only for reasoning sake , that he will doe this ) that some thinges are in the canons and booke aforesaid , which were never ordained by christ , yet the main , principal , and essencial administrations , which he commaundeth , are contayned in them . now , how much better had it beene , if this mishappen thing , had had its mothers womb , for the grave , or beeing brought out , had been ever kept in some hole or darke place , where it should never have seen any light , nor any mans eyes should ever have looked upon it , then to serve in this sort , which it doth ; namelie , to strengthen the handes of the wicked , greive the hearts of the righteous , & to discover their owne vile halting , & double dealing . ans . . are the princes of the earth bound by gods lawes to mainetaine the ordinary ministery of your assemblies ? then have you from time to time , shamefully mocked and abused them , in craving so earnestly for their aide , to have this same quite rooted out , and abolished , and a right established in the roome and place thereof . . the dumb dogs , caterpillers , and idle bellies never had a better proctor then this man to plead for their unlawfull standing . for he saith the magistrate is bound to protect their ministery . but how can we beleeve him , seeing the nonconformists teach otherwise , and lay downe unanswerable arguments for the same : but as for him he gives none at all . if any should say , he meanes not the bare readers . i answer , he makes no distinction , nor exception , but speakes generally , and indefinitely of the ordinary ministery of their church assemblies . beside , the office and calling of these , is for nature and kinde the very same which the rest of them have received . . i doe not so much admire , that he makes here some question , whether there be any corruption , in and about their ministery . and that pag. . he thinkes needlesse to spend any time , in justifying their canons , as i wonder he had not downe right affirmed , that there are no faults at all in either of them . for any one may see by his worke , that he meant not now to tie his conscience short , but would make a little bould with it for the present , and so he might fetch over a sure blow upon us , he cared not though with every stroke he made wounds through the sides of his brethren . . seeing he confesseth , the idolatrous ministerie of antichrist is to be abolished . it must needs follow then , that these scriptures , † alleaged by mr. iohns . are neither abused nor prophaned : for such is theirs . . because their enterance into the ministery , is by a popish , and vnlawfull vocation . . the service , which they are enjoyned to doe , is idolatrous and antichristian . . the manner of performing it , is also unlawfull . for they are to weare surplusses , signe children in baptisme , with the signe of the crosse , kneel in the act of receaving the bread and wine in the lords supper , &c. the which things are very idols . . touching preaching , it is no essencial part of their ministerie : for those which neither doe it , nor can , are yet by their law as true and lawfull ministers , as any other among them . and all this , many nonconformists of greater note , and zeale , then ever mr. bradsh . was , have by reason soundly manifested , and therefore he hath here shewed the more pride , and ignorance , thus still to oppose them , haveing nothing wherewith to refute their effectual arguments ; but to use his own phrase , a vomit of his coleworts , not twise , but twise twenty times sodden , that is , bold i sayes . doth he speake in earnest , that the prelacie , in and of it self , may stand well enough with the offices of the apostles , evangelists , pastors , &c. truely i cannot think so , and therefore if i should have seene such a passage , in their writing against the bb . i would have admired at it ; but seeing it is put forth onelie against the separatists tush , why may it not passe , though it be as contrarie to their saying otherwhere , as light to darkenesse . the author of the preface , before the fresh suit , against humaine ceremonies , saith , he cannot abide dawbing . now , i professe in all good conscience , i never saw to my remembrance , such dawbing in any conformist ; and to say truth , it is a great deale worse : and for proofe hereof , observe what they write in their writings against the prelacie : the hierarchicall government cannot consist in a nation with soundnesse of doctrine , sincerity of gods worship , holinesse of life , the glorious power of christs government , nor with the prosperity and safety of the commonwealth . another saith : not paul himselfe , if he were liveing , should be permitted , to continue his function , if he would not conforme , as we are verily perswaded he would not . mr. vdal , mr. cartwright , mr. banes , mr. bates , and many others of them , have spoken to the same effect , and suffered for this banishment , spoyling of their goods , yea some of them losse of life . see also before in pag. , . . it is reported of a certain thratian , by name leicurgus , how imagining that he was , hewing downe a vine with his hatchet , slew his owne sonne , and maymed himselfe . much to this purpose is mr : bradsh . worke : for thinking to refute us , he quite overthrowes his brethrens cause , and his owne too . and whether this be not unreasonable , let the judicious judge . if dr. ames had not boasted of this mans booke , i would not have touched it , because i knew the bowels of it could possible not be opened , but it would cause an ill savour to some , in regard it containeth most vile and uncleane matter ; but seeing they are neither affraid to publish such stuffe to the world , nor ashamed afterward to glory of it , they must give us leave to returne it home to them againe , howbeit to their losse & discredit too . † answ . : touching the corrupt shifts , which he useth , to justifie civil offices , in ecclefiastical persons , i will not speak much of it , but doe desire the reader to take knowledge , that the nonconform . * affirme the thing to be utterly unlawfull , and give sundry good reasons for it . . whereas he saith , the same authoritie that permits their ministers to be civill magistrats , doth permit them to be drunkards , &c. and by the same law , that their ministers may take vpon them civill magistracy ; any true pastors may take vpon them the same authoritie . to this i say in his owne words , what a shamelesse man is this to affirme such vntruths : for concerning the first , he slaundereth the state , and in the other he puts the lie on the writings of his brethren , which testifie otherwise . . whether they be made civil magistrats , by the favour or grace of princes , as he speakes , or any other way , it is nothing to the purpose , seeing the thing in it selfe is every way , and alltogether unlawfull . . when they have proved themselves to be true pastors & teachers , then there will be a fitt place , to shew , whether the admitting of a civil office● , doe change the nature of a church ministery or no. here mr. bradsh ▪ in plaine termes , casteth his brethren off , and good reason too , for he sees , that either he must wholy renounce their principles , or conclude with them , that their ministery is unlawfull . but he tels us , that he is not bound to their opinions . well , neither i thinke are they to his . and now , seeing he , and they , are thus parted , let us a little consider , whose of their opinions , in likelyhood , are the truest , and best , to be embraced . touching the former , i mean the nonconformists ( to say nothing of their number , zeale , learning , knowledge , sufferings for the truth , &c. in all which they farre exceeded him , ) not onely doe they affirme their ministery to be false ; but as i have often said , and also shewed out of their bookes , they prove by good arguments , the thing to be so . but as for mr. bradsh . he delivers his opinion upon his owne word , and if we will not take that , we must have nothing : nay truely many times we cannot have his word , sor he turnes his tale so often forward and backward , as no man can tell where , when , or how to beleeve him : for instance , somtime all their ministers are true with him , otherwhile they which be qualifyed only , & such as duly execute their office . thus he is like to one that hath a mad dog by the eare , and knowes not whether it be best to hold him , or let him goe . for mr. barrow , & mr. greenwood , as we will not bind our consciences to their opinions , so neither will we rashly reject the grounds , which they have taught , and given reasons of , unlesse we be able to shew better , although mr. bradsh . hath dealt thus ilfavouredly with his brethren . there are fishes name sepiae ( as writers report ) who least they should be taken of their pursuers , do cast behinde them abundance of blacke matter , and so escape out of sight . by such a wile mr. bradsh . thinkes here to get away from us ▪ for with his shifts ; and trickes , he puts quite by the matter in hand . but to answer briefely . . there are many hundred priests in the land , which have no particular places to serve in : is their ministery therefore unlawfull ? indeed he seemes here to grant it , as the rest of his brethren doe . . seeing not all ( as he confesseth ) but some of those that have offices are bound to bee members of true visible churches . i will leave it in this place as a quaere , whether such as neither are , nor by law are bound to be such , are true pastors or no ? for mr. bradsh . had so much forecast , as to say nothing about this thing ; howbeit , it was the maine point in question . . he takes it for granted , that their churches are true , but brings no proofe for it : and except we will give him all this at once , there is nothing which he speakes to any purpose in the world . but this we cannot give him , though he beg it shamefully , because the thing is otherwise , as their owne writings manifest . . what if their priests be not in all points answerable to their lawes , are they then members of a false church ? indeed either his words cary such a meaning , or to me they seeme non sence . . have not some in the church of rome dispensations to have more cures then one ? yes surely ; now doe these speciall dispensations make the action lawfull ? such an inference mr. bradsh . words have , or else the man talkes he knowes not what . . howsoever the matter be not much , whether the governement which the bb. excercise in civil and ecclesiasticall cases , doe impaire the dignity , authority , or supremacy of the civill magistrate , seeing the same is unlawfull and antichristian as we have before prooved . notwithstanding this thing is confidently affirmed of the nonconformists , and they give sundry instances thereof ; and therefore the boldnesse of this man is notorious , that he should dare in this manner still to dawbe up the vile things , which his brethren pull downe with both hands . some men in matters of controversie , care not ( as one saith ) * though they loose the peace of conscience , so they may gaine their supposed victory . if mr ▪ bradsh . in judgement came the nearest ( as it is reported ) of all the nonconformists to the separation ; surely his soule could have small comfort in this writing , it conteining nothing for the most part , but what is quite contrary to all their sayings otherwhere . to let passe his idle scoffing , as imputing it to a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 necessarily attending that pen which undertakes the defence of such a cause . in these pages he sheweth himselfe a miserable informer and setler of the cons●ience : for his counsell is much to this effect ; so a man hold some thing , it is no matter what it be , nor how ungroundedly taken up , to answer his ifs and thoughs , and what 's particularly . first , what if some ( saith he ) shall say that our archbb. and bb. have the pastors office ? answere . then they shall speake untruely , or else you your selves doe beare false witnesse against them ; in affirming , that they are not ‡ pastors and teachers , neither any true ministers at all in the church of god. . what , if one hold , they are not pastors , but named only so , metaphorically , as princes are so called ? &c. answ , this were to hold a thing , which is contrarie to their law , and directly against their profession and practise . . what , if one hold , that the ministers of our particular congregations , are pastors ? answere . he hath no reason for it , because they have no true calling unto that office , neither doe performe the substanciall duties thereof . when dr. burges stiled himselfe pastor of sutton coldfeild . marke what dr. ames writes , in answere to it : it is ( saith he ) such a name or title as by the prelates rules , is not admitted , and our booke of ordination acknowledgeth no such pastors , from whence also it is , that in our convocation church language , we never heare of a pastor of one parish alone . none of our divines in the synod of dort would take to themselves that title , though most others did in their subscription . d. andrewes , an archbishop in esteeme , censureth this title for a noveltie . . what though one hold , that our archbb. and bb. are commissioners and visitors , in causes ecclesiasticall , vnder the king. answ . the magistrate hath no authority from god , to set up such officers , which shall take into their hands the rights and priviledges , belonging to the whole church , and therefore whereas he attempteth , both here , and in pag. . . to justifie the hierarchicall government ; and by this reason , viz. because they take it from the king. i desire the reader to compare with this base stuffe their former principles , and consider whether there be not probable reasons , to think , that he sinned herein fearefully against his knowledg and conscience . but to the point in hand , is not here witt , to dispute by ifs & thoughs ? now , i am not of mr. bradsh ▪ merry dispositiō , to laugh at anothers fault : but truly , if a man were so disposed , his sillie , and childish wordes would give him often occasion enough . for suppose , a papist should argue , as he doth , what if one should hold , that our archbb. and bb. be pastors , or what &c. would not every one , that seeth it , say , there is in it , neither ryme , nor good reason . if therefore he had not meant a meere gulling and mocking of the world , he would not have taught men to hold this thing , and that , or what they would , without any reason and ground , but have shewed first by the word of god , that the opinions were lawfull and good , which he counselled them to embrace . after this , he tells us , that some of their preists and deacons , are pastors , & som teachers ; but i have proved the contrarie , and therfore both now , & hereafter doe purpose , to let his idle repetitions passe ; onely if i may without offence aske a question of them , seeing mr. bradsh . makes here this distinction , and doth oftentimes justifie the whole clergy , by what names or titles soever they be called , i would willingly therefore know , of what kind their dumb ministery is , whether these sr. iohns be pastors , or teachers ; for if they be true ministers , one of these , they must be necessarily . mr. bradsh . haveing a great desire to justifie their deaconrie ( howbeit , he knew that his brethren had condemned it for a false office , as they have it in their assemblies ) demaundeth of us , whether magistrates may not require some things of teachers , not required by the apostles ? answ . yes forsooth , but if they require , before a man shall be a teacher , that he enter into the ministery by an unsawfull and popish vocation , and shall execute afterwards the same in an idolatrous manner , if he in all this doe obey them , he must needs therupon become no true minister ; and such is their cause , by their owne confession ; and therefore the question , as he propoundeth it , is deceitfull and impertinent . lastly , he excuseth their preists , which obey the bb. what obedience ( saith he ) doe they promise to prelates , but onely in things , that they shall judge honest , and lawfull , and not repugnant to the word of god. if this manner of arguing be good , what corruptions so abominable but may get contenance ? vnder such pretences , any heretick may maintaine the grossest errours , which he holds , and practiseth . but to let passe any further answer , i desire the reader to take knowledge , that none of the nonconformists have more effectually condemned their popish ceremonies than this man , for he hath by many arguments proved , that the use of them is very sinfull : notwithstanding behold his forehead , how in his writing here against us , he seeks by flattering speaches , to justifie the very practise , which he professeth in his writing against the hierarchie , to be unlawful , idolatrous , antichristian . i may well use the words , which they speake against the conformists : we abhorre this hypocrisie , and leave such temporising vnto those , which are content , to make themselves the servants of men . but it s true , as one saith : extremitie drives men vnto hard shifts . here mr. bradsh . bestirreth himself , to prove their ministery good , by the scribes and pharisees , but this example will not helpe him in the least . for first , howsoever they had new names , and in many things were very corrupt , yet they sate in moyses chaire , * that is , came rightly , and lawfully , to the leviticall and preistly offices , which they executed in the church of god. but their ministers ( as we have shewed it under their owne hands ) doe want this true calling , and therefore the comparison holds not . it is possible , that two persons , liveing in adultery , may in sundry respects be no worse , then some , which are truely married : is their state therefore one ? not so ; and why ? because the former wanted a right comming together : so in this cause , in somethings i am perswaded , their ministers are not worse thā the pharisees , ‡ as in pride , covetuousnes , hypocrysie , persecution of the saints , &c. yet neverthelesse , their standing ( in respect of the ministery ) is not as good , as the pharisees ; because ( as i said before ) they have not a true calling thereto , which the others had . . i cannot thinke , that mr. bradsh . should be so ignorant , as in this place he makes shew of . for his words import , that the abilitie , which the pharisees had , to expound the law , argued them true ministers : but this is false , for that ; and indeed that only , which argued their office to be true , was the lords institution , in setting the tribe of levi apart for the holy administratiōs ; † of which family were these , ‡ so many as were imployed , in , and about the service of the sanctuary . . if the preaching of the word and administration of the sacraments be sufficient , to argue a true ministery ; then are not onely many papists preists , but other , vile , heretickes , and excommunicates , lawfull pastors and teachers , for so much they can doe . the truth is , his arguing is no better , then if ieroboams preists should thus have pleaded : those preists , that teach iacob gods judgements , and israel his law , that put incense before the face of god , and burne incense upon his altar , are true preists ; but these things doe we , therfore we are true preists . if they shall say , the assumption is untrue , the like say we of their cause . . howsoever , he often undertakes , the defence of all their ministers , yet here he leaves the blinde preists in the ditch : and indeed this is the manner usually of them , they are so shifting up & downe , as a man knows not where there home is , nor when to find them there , for some time the whole clergie is pleaded for : when they are beaten thence , then they fly to their best ministers ; when they cannot defend them any longer , then we have an howers talke of their gifts and services . thus as a man that sitteth uneasie , is ever stirring to & fro , till he be out of his place , so doe they shift , and shift , till they be cleane out of their arguments & matter : if they thinke , i speake beyond my compasse , let them once pitch and insist upon any one of these grounds , without starting , joyne issue with us , and come to the particular , that so a directly named position , may receive a direct and speciall reply . answ . . there is little hope to finde any good here , seeing so manifest an untruth , is uttered in the beginning . he tels us ( if we will beleeve him ) that to communicate spiritually with the ministers of antichrist , in holy things , is not to communicate in his apostacie . if this be true , then unlawfull ministers , may be lawfully communicated with ; but this cannot be , for as it was unlawful to communicate with corah , or with vzziah , though they burnt true incense , or with ieroboams preists , though they offered true sacrifices , so it is unlawfull to communicate , with a devised , or usurped ministery , what things soever , ( though good in themselves , ) are administred in , and by it . and this we formerly have proved fully . . it is certaine , that the ministery of preists and deacons , ordained by antichrist , is the ministery of his apostacie , and not christs , as he prophanely affirmeth : for he makes them not according to the institution , prescribed of god , but wholy after a wicked and divelish device of his owne braine ; so that the same is a meere fruite of the beast and false prophet , and no accidental effect , but a most cursed thing , which doth as properly flow from his defection , as figgs from the figg-tree , or a child from the seed of the parents . as for luther , husse , wickliffe , and others , whereof he speaketh , it is but an absurd and childish begging of the question , seeing it cannot be proved , that they received a lawfull ordinary ministery from the church of rome . . he saith , that the ministerie of such priests and deacons , which the prelates ordaine , are the true ministers of iesus christ . what every dumb dog , and all those . . and a . which are made at a clap , and sent forth as rouges and masterlesse servants , to get benefices , where then can , having no particular congregation ? &c. yea now all againe are justified : for he speakes without exception● or limitation . if i were not unwilling to give occasion unto the bb. to insult over these mē , i could hence manifest much bad dealing in them , but i will forbeare for the present , and doe referre the reader to their ow● principles , † which is , that all ecclesiasticall officers ough● necessarily to be made by the free choise of the congregation wherein they are to administer . this manner of ordination , they professe , is only lawfull , and none else . t● this ascenteth dr. ames , and denies utterly , that the calling of their ministers doth essencially depend upon the bb ▪ calling . now , what the reason is , that they are thus mu table , it may easily be conceived , namely , the differen condition of the persons ▪ against whome they write for if a man should read over their bookes , publisher to the world , against the hierarchie , he should not ( warrant you ) heare them once there to say ( as heer they doe ) that it is lawfull for their prelates , to ordaine ministers ; but then they will speake out boldly , that this practise is wicked , and unwarrantable , yea and they can upon such occasions give good reasons for it also . mr. bradsh , in page . justifieth the ministery of such among them , as are not ordained by the bb. here he saith that these are the ministers of iesus christ , which receive their ministery from the bb. yea and from antichrist too , so that it seemes , if men will be priests of their churches , they may come in any way , and it is no matter how they be ordained , nor who ordaines them , nor whether they be ordained or no : indeed his words imply no lesse , and therefore he must needs be reasonable . but if the nonconformists should have seene but halfe such rotten stuffe in any . conformists writings , they would have cried out , and that justly , dawbing , dawbing . . he hath little cause to scoffe so idely as he doth , at mr. iohns . for the manner whereby he prooves his propositions , considering how he himselfe never brings either scriptures , examples , reasons , or human testimonies to confirme any one thing whereof he writeth . hierom speaketh of some who have their syllogismes and argumentations not * in mood and figure but in their heeles . mr. bradsh . is not much unlike these ; for wanting all proofe to make good the points which he boldly affirmeth , he lay●th about him with his heeles , by kicking the person whom he opposeth , with bitter and unchristian floutings . notwithstanding , the wisedome of god is marvellously here to be seene , which suffered not this man to countenance his corrupt speeches with any weight or shew of arguments , that so it might appeare , to be penned by him , rather for disgrace of others , then defence of themselves , & also that none by it might be deceived , but such as are willing to pluck out their eyes , and to take one that is blinde for their guide and leader . . to let passe the unlawfull speach , which they use in ordayning ministers ( i. e. ) receive the holy ghost , ‡ and certaine frothy demaunds , which he moveth , to uphold ( if he could ) the bb. kingdom . the things not beeing worthy of answer . in pag. . he bewrayeth great ignorance , in not putting a difference betweene a minislerie , and the execution of it , for these are two distinct things , and therefore it is possible , that one may be a true ecclesiastical officer , and yet never doe the services thereof ; as for example , a woman is really a wife , immediately upon her marriage , i say , before she performes any dutie ; yea though it should come to passe , that she never performeth any . and therefore mr. bradsh . was deceived , to thinke , if one bee a false minister by ordination , that the administration of lawfull things , makes him true ; for it is not so . if the church of israel should have chosen some , not of aarons house , but of other tribes , to be preists , and they had administred without exception , had these therefore been lawfull officers ? in truth , according to his understanding they had ; but herein he grossely erred . mr. perkins * layes it downe , as one infallible note of a false prophet , to come without a calling from god , and from the church . i pray observe , although a man should execute the ministerie of a pastor , notwithstanding if he want a lawfull calling , he is still a false minister in the judgement of this author , and i thinke of all wise men , beside mr. bradsh . againe , if one be ordained a pastor , according to christs institution , he hath certainly a lawfull ministerie ; howsoever , things afterward shall fall out ; yea though he should sing masse and mattens , as he speaketh ; but he asketh , if any , that is in his witts , will say so ? yes , and prove it also , and if he himself had not wanted some witt in this point , he would not thus have confounded one thing so absurdly with another ▪ for as a person may be a servant or subject truely , & fully , and yet doe afterwards the actions of theeves , rebels , traitors ; so a man may take a true ministerie , by ordination , and yet both in life and doctrine doe wickedly , and deserve justly to be deposed . but i gesse , wherefore he hales-in these foolish positions ; it is probable , he knew wel enough ( what gloses so ever he made sometime to the contrarie ) that their ordination of preists & deacons , by the prelates , is ( as his brethren say ) unlawfull and antichristian ; and therefore he hoped now to justifie themselves , in regard of their good services : but this will not helpe him neither ; for if their administrations were right ( which are not ) yet would their ministerie be still false , so long as they doe retayne that false calling , which they tooke first of the bb. they of the pope , and he from the devill . † ans . . as a man , when in his answers , he purposeth to deceive others , his manner is , to conceale that which should give special light unto the matter : it is even so with mr. bradsh . that he might meerely gull the reader , he hides from him , whatsoever should most serve for his true information , about the point in dispute . in pag. . he tould us , that pastors and teachers may have divers accessarie parts of their offices &c. not ordayned by christ. here he sayth , that they may in divers , and sundry particulars , disobey christ in his ordinances of worship and government . now he doth not expresse in either place , what these divers & particulars are , neither durst he , i am perswaded , for had he , we should soone have joyned issue with him . but to leave him in the midst of his idle words : this i say , when we understand once their meaning , they shall have our direct answer unto it . in the meane while , i doe entreat them , to consider advisedly of their owne principles , about their worship & government . touching the first , it is ( as they say ) contained , in the booke of common prayer , the which was taken out of the vile massebooke , full of all blasphemies ▪ lyes , and abominations ; and the other is taken wholy , and every part from the pope . . to let passe many thinges , which he often affirmeth , without any proofe , i doe desire , that they wil shew us , in their next reply , some good reason for that which he writeth in pag. . . viz. that ministers may execute the ministerie and government of other archb● . & lordbishops besides christ , be archdeacons , parsons , vicars , read stinted prayers out of a booke , and observe other humane inventions , and have their church government , according to canons , courts , &c. which were never appointed by christ , and yet obey christ in all the main , essen●iall , and substanciall points of his ministery , worship , and government . if they can prove all this , i doe not see , but the controversie may be easily taken up , between them and the bb. only then , they have just cause to beg pardon of them , for their pleas against the prelacie , and the many heavie accusations , which they have put up , both to princes & parliaments , against them . but if they cannot ( as i know they cannot ) make good the thinge here avouched , then let it ly as a blot for ever upon their cause , for thrusting abroad such deceivable trash , especially upon those , which either were authors of it , or have since justifyed so hypocriticall and shamelesse a writing . . he once more here rejecteth , the principles of the nonconform ▪ and bidds them , answere for themselves , touching the suits , which they have putt vp to the parliaments , for the abolishing of their ministery . now , the reason why i doe againe note it , is , because the reader may see how impossible it is for any of them , to justify their standing and writings too ; the same beeing as unlike each to other , as good is to evill . for the prelates laughing , whereof he speakes in this place , i have mentioned it before ; this only i add , that never did mr. iohns . by his simplicitie and sillinesse of witt , give that occasion unto the bb. of mirth , as he hath justly of sorrow to all his brethren , by his dawbing and rotten speaches ; for truely in the wordes of iacob , they may say , he hath troubled us , to make us , to stinke among the inhabitants of the land ; yea to increase their greife , as david said of ahitophel , & christ of iudas , so may they speake of him , our familiar freind , in whome we trusted , which did eat of our bread , hath lift vp his heele against vs. answ . . mr. bradsh . sayth , that there is no ordinary ministeriall office , which christ hath given to his church , but their ministers either have , or by their lawes ought to have the same . i have proved before , that this is untrue , and therefore it is not needfull that i should make answere any more to his bold thredbare , i sayes . but observe here ( to use his owne wordes ) what a jugling method of reasoning he hath gotten . their ministers have such ordinary ministeriall offices , &c. why ? because by their lawes they ought to have them . now , may not a man , by the same manner of arguing , prove that there are no theeves , traitors , whoremoungers , &c. within the kings dominion , in regard by the lawes , every one should be true , loyall , chast , &c. but this later , i thinke , would be laughed at of all , notwithstanding to the very same effect , is only the other , or else it serves for no use at all , but to shew , that the man had more will to doe mische●fe , then he had , either witt or skill to accomplish the same . . i passe over againe his idle scoffing at mr. iohnson , for quotation of many scriptures . indeed mr. bradsh . was careful to shunne this fault ; for he hath not from the beginning , to the end of his book , brought one proofe from the word of god , to make good any one thinge whereof he speaketh , but as if he were one of the illumated fathers of the familists , delivereth his yea & no alwayes upon his owne bare word . . many greivous errours are bound up in this invective of m. bradsh . but for lying here is one that surmounts them all , ; namely , that the prelates doe not thrust them into a ministery , but leave them to be called and chosen by the people ; or those patrons , vnto whose fidelity the people , have committed this charge . this ( as i have shewed ) is very false . and truely it is strange to me , that they should dare affirme , so knowne and apparent an untruth ; for according to their law , profession , and practise , whosoever is ordained by the bb. hath immediately upon his ordination all the essenciall and substancial parts of a minister , is ( i say ) as true in their understanding , as these , which have a people , or have bought benefices of their patrons ; yea although he should never have any particular congregation , to administer unto . therefore welfare the conform . for howsoever , their courses are starke naught , yet they will owne their errours , and not shift them off ( as these doe ) by groundlesse devises , the which they can no more prove , then that there is a man in the moone . they have laboured these many yeares , to get away this power of making ministers from the bb. but seeing they are now out of all hope to gaine it , they perswade the people , that it is only but a leave & libertie , which the prelates grant ; and touching the ministery itselfe , they have it else where . oh , horrible mocking and abusing of the world ! a meere invention of their owne , haveing no shew or coulour of truth in it . . if the prelates doe not put them into a ministery , but leave them to be called or chosen by the patrons , then it must follow necessarily , that either they are made ministers by those patrons , or else they are none at all . but this i will leave as another qu●re . moreover , because my desire is , to come speedily unto some particulars with them . i doe therefore demaund some good proofe , for the thinges which this bold man here affirmeth . first , that the people have committed this charge , vnto the fidelity of patrons . . if they have , whether the thing be lawfull or no ? and to give the reader in the mean time some information about the point , this i would have him to know , that howsoever here against us , they plead for these patrons , yet in their writings against the prelats , they tell quite another tale , for there they call them all latrons , and professe their places to be unlawfull and wicked ; and give many worthy reasons thereof . and no doubt , this is true , which they say ; for indeed , the bondage is intollerable , which the poore enslaved people suffer at these mens hands . if some one in a parish , had entayled to him and to his heires for ever , the power of appointing husbands and wives to all the people therein , the slavery were unsufferable , although in a matter of a civill nature : but how much more then unspeakably great is their sin , which loose this spiritual freedome ! and greater those patrons , which keepe it : and greatest mr. bradsh . and such fellowes , who labour what they can , to maintaine so vile & wicked a thing . . seeing he asketh what errours we can prove in their church , and is so audatious , as to affirm , that those set downe by mr : iohs . † are pretended . i will therefore give in som particulars ( for it were impossible to name them all ) published under their owne handes , and professed of them to be the poysonsome leaven of antichrist . * . the popish names , and offices of archbishops . . lord bishops . . their titles of primacy , lords grace , &c. contrarie to the commaundement of christ . . their visitations ▪ and power , which they exercise over their brethren . . their lordly dominion , revenues , and retinew . . their black chym●re , or sleevelesse coat , put vpon the fine white rochet , with other popish apparel . . chauncellours . . deanes . . subdeanes . . archdeacons . . officials . . chaunters . . commissaries . . prebendaries . . apparitors . . parsons . . vicars . . parish preists . . idle readers . . vagabound ministers of no place . . chapleynes . . canons . . petty canons . . virgerers . . rector chori . . epistlers . . gospellars . . queristers men and boyes . . singing clarkes . . organists . . organ blowers . . beadmen . . sextins . . impropiations . . ministers , not made , neither by election , vocation , nor aprobation , agreable to gods word . . deacons , made to other purposes than the scriptures appointe . . the horned cap. . the tippet . . surpl●sses . . copes in great churches . . the t●mporall offices of ecclesiasticall persous . . a dumb ministery . . the popes accursed canon law. . the prelates articles & injunctions from time to time newly devised . . the church wardens eath , to present to their courts , all the offences , faults , and defaults , committed in their parishes against the aforesaid articles . &c. . the court of faculties , from whence are had dispensations , licences , tolerations , &c. . dispensations , to eat flesh , at their times forbidden . . and licences , to marie in any time of the year , and in priviledged places , by means wherof , many are maried without their parēts knowledg , or consent , yea and many stolen oftimes from their freinds , and so maried . . dispensations for boyes and dolts , to have benefices . . dispensations for nonresidents . . & for plurality of benefices , as they haveing of . . . or more to●quot , as many as a man will have , or can get . . their institutions , inductions , proxes , &c. . absolving the dead dying excommunicate , before they can have ( as they call it ) christian burial . . houseling the sicke . . private baptisme . . godfathers , and godmothers . . the ring in marriage . . bishopping of children . . churching of wemen . . prayer over the dead . . lords supper to be received kneeling . . lent. fast . . crosse in baptisme . . hallow eves . . imbring dayes . . frydayes and saterdayes fast . . the hallowed font . . marriage forbidden at certaine seasons of the yeare . . the oath ex officio . . apccripha bookes , which have in them errours , lies , blasphemies , magick , contradiction to the canonical scriptures . . an antichristian discipline . . private communion . . their administring of it , not with the words of christs institution , but with other , taken out of the popes portuis . . reading homilies . . corrupting the scriptures , in mistranslating many places , adding to the text , and leaveing quite out many parts thereof . many score of vile errours , besides these , i could name , from their writings , but this is enough for the time . only i request the reader , to observe the bad dealing , which is here shewed . the corruptions , which mr. iohnson mentioneth in his trea●ises , to be in the church of england , are only such , which he tooke out of their owne bookes . † yet see , how they will beare now the world in hand , that these are but pretended matters , when indeed ( as i said ) they are only their owne principles , set forth by their owne hands , and justifyed still upon all occasions , when they deal against the hierarchie . it seemes therefore they are not willing , that any , saving themselves , should say , that their bb. their courts , canons , officers , ceremonies , service , &c. is antichristian and unlawfull ; for if we say but word for word the same , which they say before us : they cry out pretended errours , and yet the things are true when they speake them . now , if this be not vnreasonable dawbing , i know not what is . but he asketh , how we can prove , that these things are taught in their churches ? if a papist should have thus replyed , unto one , which had written against their transubstantiation , images , holy water , &c. it would have been counted an idle and foolish put off ; for what if they be not allwayes taught , yet these are their sinnes , in regard they both professe and doe them , and have them established by law , in their congregations . the like may be said of the errours , fore named , as authority commaunds them , so they are constantly practised , and upon all occasions defended publikely & privately . besides , if any one shall open his mouth , to shew the evill of them , he is subject to be immediately sil●need , suspended , excommunicated by the lords , the prelates . and to prove this , let their terrible canons beare witnesse ; for thus it is enacted : whosoever shall hereafter affirme , that the form of gods worship in the church of england , established by law , and conteyned in the book of common prayer , &c. is a corrupt , superstitious , or vnlawfull worship of god , or conteyneth any thing in it , that is repugnant to the scriptures ; let him be excommunicated ipso facto , and not restored , but by the bishop of the place , or archbishop , after his repentance and publick revocation of such his wicked errours . whosoever shall hereafter affirme , that the rites and ceremonies of the church of england , by law established , are wicked , antichristian , or superstitious , or such as being commaunded by lawfull authority , men who are zealously and godly affected , may not with any good conscience approve them , vse them , or as occasion requireth , subscribe vnto them ; let him be excommunicated ipso facto , and not restored vntill be repent ; and publickly revoke such his wicked errours . whosoever shall hereafter affirm , that the government of the church of england , vnder his majestie , by archbishops , bishops , deanes , archdeacons , and the rest that doe beare office in the same , is antichristian , or repugnant to the word of god ; let him be excommunicated ipso facto , and so continue , vntill be repent and publickly revoke such his wicked errours . whosoever shall here after affirm , or teach , that the form and manner of making and consecrating bishops , priests , and deacons , conteyneth any thing in it , that is repugnant to the word of god , &c. let him be excommunicated ipso facto not to be restored , vntill he repent and publickly revoke such his wicked errours . . where he demaundeth , what one truth of religion we can name , that is not , or hath not beene ( when just occasion hath been offered ) taught by some of their ministers ? although this be not much materiall , touching the point in controversie , seeing none of them teach true doctrine , but in a false and antichristian calling , which is utterly unlawfull to be done ; notwithstanding if we will beleeve the nonconform he had small cause to bragg thus of their preaching . for first , their ministers for the most part are ignorant asses , and loytering idle bellyed epicures , which either cannot , or doe not teach at all . . a number of those , which doe , are prophane , and heathenish oratours , that thinke , all the grace of preaching lyeth in affected eloquence , in fond fables , to make their hearers laugh , or in ostentation of learning of the latin , their greek , and hebrew tongue , and of their great reading of antiquities : when god knoweth most of them , have little further matter , then is in the in the infinite volumes of common places , and apothegmes called to their hands . . howsoever some of them deliver many sound truths , * yet they doe not lay the axe to the root of the tree , i mean , seeke to suppresse such evills , as raigne most among them . we would repute that phisitian unwise , which hath a patient under cure sicke of a great fever , and he gives him a medicine , which serves only to heale the gout or dropsie . now , in truth , such vnwise phisitians are the best of them : for the main disease , which cleaves to the foule of the people , is false worship . but what course take they about it ? thus they doe : they administer good things , to purge out pride , drunkennesse , &c. but leave all the while this capitall disease alone , by which meanes many persons perish , and are utterly cast away . now , these have not the prophets for an exāple : for it is marvelous observable , when the ten tribes fell away from the true worship of god , that all those prophets , whome the lord then sent early , and late after them , applyed their doctrines even alltogether ( as it were ) against the sinnes of dan and bethell : † as the spiritual sicknesse of israel was idolatry , so they gave them constantly such souveraigne medecines , as served best to cure the same ; and indeed this course of teaching is onely profitable : for as a small stroake downe-right upon the naile , is better then a thousand besides it : even so , a little home matter , against the present evils of the people ; as namely , their devised service , false ministery , antichristian government , &c , would profit them much more , then all their lowd & long crying out , of judgement , judgement ; only against swearers , drunkards , usurers , whoremoungers , &c. because the former faults are more generally committed , and have taken deeper roote in the hearts of old and young . . concerning the defence , which he makes for reading their booke of articles and canons in the church , a few words will serve in answer to it . . if it were true , which he saith , that they doe not this thing ministrially , yet their fault is not the lesse . but he speaketh falsely herein , for this is laid upon them as a proper part of their office ; and none else but they , by their law , either doe , or may doe the same . . if they doe not teach them for truths , then it must be for lies , and errours ; if so , their evill is the greater , and proportionable thereunto , without repentance , will gods vengeance be upon them for it . . his answere here , is quite beside the point ▪ and he seekes meerly to cozen the reader ; that which mr. iohnson mentioneth , is their articles & canons , very vile and wicked things by their owne confession ; to this he replyeth : may not a man in the weakenesse of his judgement and in infirmity , at his first entrance , into a calling , conforme , and subscribe to some things , not so warrantable and true , &c. note how punctually he speakes , and comes up , as neere to the matter , as yorke is to the lands end , a man in the weakenesse of his judgement , &c. may doe some thing , &c. ergo , he may conforme to the damnable canons , and articles , read them to the people , &c. by the same manner of arguing ▪ he may be a ●ew , a turke , a heathen ▪ any thing . and not only in this place , but such sencelesse shifts are common with him , throughout the booke ; for whereas it is proved in mr. iohnsons writing , that their ministery is ●nlawfull & antichristian , because neither their offices , calling , nor administration , is according to gods word , but ( as they say themselves ) all taken from antichrist . he childishly tells us , that true pastors & teachers may want some accessarie parts of their offices , &c. which answereth nothing to the point ; nor is more to any purpose , then if a convicted traitor would seek to prove his cause , to be otherwise , for that he wants som accessarie parts of a true subject . . touching the distinction which he puts betweene reading the canons to the people , and not teaching the ●rrours contained in them . i shall leave it , as another demaund : how they can proove , that these falshoods and lies may be read in the manner that they are , and yet be neither taught nor justifyed ? answ . . if it be vnlawfull ( as he sayth ) outwardly , and but in appearance to joyne with idolaters in their idolatry , then hath he shewed himseife all this while an vnreasonable man , to pe●swade us to returne againe unto their service , considering if we should , it were upon their owne grounds , to joyne with idolaters in idalatry ; but this we dare not doe , neither i thinke would they , if they did feare the lord and his righteons judgments , as they should , and mind advisedly their owne writings . they have a long time beene named professours , and fitly so : for truely , their profession is good , † and therefore in this , they and we doe well accord , as i have before shewed : but those , which will be christians indeed , must be more than professours , to weet , practisers , and doers of all the lords commaundements , so farre as they know , according to their power & abilitie . . i would know , what scriptures there are , which doe witnesse , that there was false worship in the iewish synagogues , and of what kind it was , and proofe also that christ was present , where , and when the same was practised . these doctrines we finde often in their bookes against us , but to this day never saw their reasons for them ; and therefore we are perswaded , they are meerely their owne dreames , purposely taken up , to countenance by them , if they could , their insincere walking . . i cannot see what profit any reader can have by mr. bradsh . writing ; for whofoever desires to know what ministers are true among them : first , he must ( if he will follow his direction ) search their lawes , to know what is their pres●rib●d about this thing ; afterward , make diligent inquirie of the true meaning therof , then goe among the clergy , to examin , whose office , calling , and administration , is according to the law and the intent of it . * now , is not he vnreasonable , to put poore people upon such hard taskes ; notwithstanding unlesse they doe all this , they are as farre to seeke in the thing , as ever they were ; for any satisfaction he gives them ; but no doubt , if mr. bradsh . had had a good cause in hand , he would have referred his reader to the prophets , christ , & his apostles , and not used such carnal & idle talke . . he saith , it is lawfull to communicate in that worship where the ceremonies are vsed ; but we cannot beleeve him , for his brethren both affirm , and prove the contrary . and here now is a fist place , to write downe the wordes , whereof mention was made in page . partly , because the author is a principal nonconformist , and partly to discover the rashnesse and folly of this inconsiderate man , which durst without any reason , ( more then boldnesse ) still justifie the very things , which his brethren , by many sound arguments , have manifested to be evil and unlawfull . thus he writes : the sitter is accessorie to the sinne of the kneeler . first , he endureth the kneeler by his presence , and maketh him thinke , that his kneeling is neither scandalous nor idolatrous . you say , your sitting condemneth his kneeling . no such matter . but in communicating with him , you approve it as indifferent , as when ye sit in time of prayer after sermon , when another is kneeling , or standing ▪ for shall you communicate with an idolater in the very act of his idolatrie ? and not be accessarie in countenancing it with your presence . if you doe damne it as scandalous , or idolatrous , why communicate you with bim ? if you build vp that , which you destroyed , you make your selfe a irespasser . the apostle forbiddeth the corinthians to converse , or eate with a brother idolater , . corinth . . and yet you will eate and drinke with him , when he is committing the very act . the apostle forbiddeth not societie with him in publick assemblies , but onely in private , and where he committeth the act , till he be reclaimed . next , the communicant with the kneeler casteth himselfe into tentation , by setting before him an evill example , which may induce him to doe the like , especially , if the kneeler be a person of any credit and countenance . many are disquieted with the sight of a monster , or carcasse many moneths after . it is an evill token , when you can be so well content to see such a monster in our kirk , and your heart not rise within you . if you should present your solfe to the masse in the same manner , and with the same liberty , custome would so harden the heart , that in the end you would halt with the lame , and conforme in every point . it will creepe like a ring-worme : seemeth it now tollerable , the next day it will seeme holy , and the third day necessa●ie . so bewitching sinnes are idolatry and superstition . thirdly , you are partaker of an idoll feast . start not at this i say : for the sacrament of the lords supper may be turned into an idoll feast , and hath been a more abhominable feast then ever was any among the heathens . and howbeit , there may be some difference betwixt the formalists , and the papists , arising upon the diversitie of inward opinions and conceits of christs reall presence in the elements , yet if both their gestures be idolatrous in their owne kindes , the lords supper is made an idoll feast . non ad diabolum pertinet quis isto , vel illo modo erret , omnes errantes vult quibuslibet erroribus . it is nothing to the devill , whether a man erre this way , or that way whatsoever way they erre , all that be in errour , he seeketh to be his . fourthly , the communicant advanceth this innovation , and setteth forward this grosse corruption by his presence and communicating with the kneeler . for if the kneeler● were left to themselves , they would be ashamed of themselves ▪ whereas now they are comforted , and hardened in their sinne , and some follow their example . fides pura moram non patitur ut apparueri● scorpius , illico conterendus est . pure faith suffereth no delayes . as soon as the the scorpion appeares , it is to be bruised saith hierom. fourthly , a confusion of gestures lawfull , and vnlawfull , is brought into the lords table , some sitting like ghuests at a feast , as christ and his apostles sate ; others like supplicants kneeling and adoring vpon the knees . this confusion is not like that varietie of gesture , in time of prayer , when some sitte , some stande , some kneele . for all the three gestures are there indifferent . but not so heere . if men are polluted , by receiving the sacrament with those which kneel , then much more , when withall they take it where the same is administred , by an unlawfull person , and according to a prescript form● , culled out of the blasphemous massebooke . and this is their present cause , by their owne confession ; i wish therefore , they would take due consideration of it , and speedily reforme themselves herein . they professe to be espoused unto christ : now , marke the similitude , if a betrothed virgin , before the day appointed for marriage , should prostrate her body to a stranger , she disables herselfe for ever hereby from being his wise : their marriag day , they make account , shal be celebrated in heaven ; but now , if in the mean while , they defile their soules and bodies with the uncleane acts of idolatry , what reason have they to think , that they shal enjoy the sweet comfort , and pleasure of so heavenly & blessed a husband . answ : . though it should be granted , that in a true constituted church some matters incerely ecclesiastical may be imposed through humane srailty ; yet this helpeth their cause nothing at all ; in regard , that a false worship , an antichristian hierarchy , or church government , and unlawfull ministery therefrom derived , is imposed upon , and by the people slavishly submitted unto . . though every humane ordinance be not of that nature , as to make that church and ministery false , where it is vsed ; yet some are , or else there are no false churches and ministers in the world ; and such humane ordinances , there be many in their parish assemblies , as from their owne principles , we have shewed . . though it were generally granted of all , that thoses churches and ministeries are to be communicated with all that have some thing in , or appertaining to the constitution thereof not instituted by christ ; yet it will not thence follow , that we may with such , as in their constitution were wholy false ; but such are theirs . . grant this , that all are not false churches , which doe not , or by the laws of man are not suffered to vse their power . notwithstanding such congregations , as doe altogether want this power , and stand under that , which was taken every part from the devill & antichrist , are certainly false , and so not to be communicated with all ; and this is their present state , if they speake truely themselves . . admitt , that those may be true pastors , who are outwardly by mans lawes subjected to a superiour ecclesiastical officer . * yet can it not hence be concluded , that their ministers are true , seeing neither their offices , calling , administrations , &c. are agreable to the word of god. . if the offices of provincial and diocesan bishops be contrarie to the scripture , then necessarily that ministery , which is derived from it , must be so also . and this conclusion the papists have drawne from the writings of the conformists . if our english prelates be no true bishops , then surely neither be the preists , or ministers , or deacons , that be ordained by them ; and so consequently the congregation of england , is not the true church of christ. here we have againe much rude scoffing , and such crowing ( to use his owne termes ) as if he were some cock of the game , that hath picked out the eyes , and broken the neckes of all that have beene set against him . the proposition ( sayth he ) is false , the assumption is false , the consequence is false . but for proofe , a man may finde assoon a needle in a bottle of hay , as any for the things which he boldly denyeth . moreover , the points in controversy , which are of greatest weight , & moment , he either puts quite off , by a fine trick , they need no answer , or else answereth to them , besides the matter . for an instance to this purpose , writeth mr. iohnson : every true visible church of christ , or ordinary assemblie of the faithfull ▪ hath by christs ordinance power in it selfe immediately vnder christ , to elect and ordaine , deprive , and depose their ministers , and to execute all other ecclesiastical censures . but none of the parish assemblies of england have such power : therefore they are not true visible churches of christ. both parts of this reason he proves from their owne writings ; now marke his reply to it : all are not false churches , which doe not vse this power , &c. and is not this ( thinke ye ) wittily answered ? we say from their principles , that a true church cannot be without power ; but their churches are wholy without it . for answere , he tels us , a true church m●y want the vse of it . we say so too . but doth it follow , because a man in a sound , hath not the use for the time , of that life , which is in him ; therfore one may be quite without life & yet not dead . to this effect he reasoneth , or else ( as paul sayth of som ) he understood not what he said , nor wherof he affirmed , but spake evil of the things which he knew not . mr. bradsh ▪ having used all the witt and skill he had to refute the former reasons : in these pag. in a mocking contradiction of mr. iohnson , he undertakes to prove that the publick ministery of the church assemblies of england , is true and lawfull . i have neither time nor mind , to follow him in his vagaries , & idle repetitions , but will set downe , in few wordes , the summe of his long talke , and give answer to it breifly . first , thus he sayth : to have such gifts , as christ ascended to heaven , for the worke of his ministery , to be outwardly called to that worke , by such a church as professeth the fundamentall points of the gospell ; to instruct the people committed to their charge , in the doctrine of the law and gospell : to administer vnto them the holy sacraments of christ , and to be their mo●th in prayer vnto god are all the things essencial , appertaining to the office of true pastors and teachers . such is the ministery of our assemblies . howsoever . i will not contend much with him about the proposition , which is lame to the ground ; and a farre better might have beene framed breifly thus : to have such an office , as christ in his testament hath given to his church ; a lawfull calling and enterance therevnto , and a lawfull administration thereof , according to the said testament , are all the essencial , &c. the assumption is false . . their ministers have not the gifts , whereof he speaketh , and so we have manifested from their owne writings . . i doe denie , that their bb. of whome they take their ministery , are a church in any sence , saving the malignant , and therefore if all the rest were granted , yet hence would his whole argument ( like the unwise mans house ) fall to the ground . . though they instruct the people in some doctrines of the law and gospell , as doe papists & all other hereticks ; notwithstanding the reading of the servicebooke , in forme and manner , the celebrating of marriage , churching of women , burying of the dead , conformity , and subscription , are more essencial to their ministery , & more necessarily required by the lawes of their church , then preaching either of the law and gospell is . and so much mr. bradsh . elsewhere affirmeth : those that yeeld to ceremonies , need not preach at all in their churches , except they will , no nor doe any other part of divine service , if they will maintaine a curate , that will keepe the ceremonial law , and fairely read or singe the kinges service , as they call it . † . for the sacraments , they are ( as they say ) wickedly mingled , and prophaned , and wickedly administred . besides , if we will beleeve mr. bradsh . when he speakes out against the hierarchy , they have divers sacraments , which are not of divine institution , administred in their churches , viz. the crosse , ring in marriage , surplesse , &c. . the prayers , which they are to make unto god , must of absolute necessitie ( without partiall , dispensation , or manifest violation of their oath to the bishops ) be foolish , false , and superstitious . ‡ but i desire the reader to observe how wittily he confirmeth the assumption . it shall be sufficient ( sayth he ) that we can set forth vnto him such a ministery in sundrie of our church assemblies , of which all those points may be truely verified . who would have thought that mr. bradsh . having blotted many leaves of his booke , with meere scoffing at mr. iohnson , about his logick , should so grossely overshoot himselfe in termes of reasoning . for what wise man , but he , would have laid downe a position , that comprehended indefinitely , & generally all the ministers of their assemblies ; and to prove it , saith , we can shew some such . it seemeth then , that those ( some such ) must make all the rest true . intruth , so he inferres , or else his argument ( as he saith often of mr. iohnson ) is crackt braind , and lacks not truth only , but sence also . there are some merchants , who to put off the false wares , which lie upon their hands , will shew the buyer a little that is good , and by this meanes cunningly shift all the rest upon him , and so deceive him : the like subtilty useth mr. bradsh . here , and often in his booke , that he might perswade the reader to beleeve that all their ministers and churches are true , he sheweth him some of the best ; in hope that under these , he shall craftily put all the rest upon him . i mention these his deceiveable shifts the oftner , that we may have hereafter more honest dealing . if they will justifie all their ministers and churches , let them say so directly ; if but som few , as in their writings they still intimate , i desire them to speake it out plainely , and not to cary the thing so covertly , as if they would have the poore people to beleeve , that they meant all , when themselves are perswaded the greatest number are false and antichristian . another reason , which he brings , to prove their ministery lawfull , is , because they professe the pope to be antichrist ; renounce all ecclesiastical homage to him , and maintaine all the members of the church of rome to be hereticks and idolaters . &c. to this i say , quid verba audiam cum facta videam . it is true , i know , many great errours of that church , they opppose and have left , notwithstanding , they retaine the selfe same ministery , church government , service , courts , canons , &c. which they brought out from thence , uphold them still ( i say ) to the uttermost of their strength and power ; and hate , revile , imprison , banish kill , &c. those which will not conforme thereto . and hence it is the papists say , that from their treasure house , the religion now established in england , hath learned the forme of chrining , marying , churching of women , visiting of the sicke , burying of the dead , and sundry other like , as the book ( translated out of theirs ) declared . so iacobus gretzerus alleadgeth against the reformed churches their service-booke , for their popish holydayes , dr. tucker , and their late booke of canons , both for the signe of the crosse , for kneeling in the act of receiving the sacrament . for the whole hierarchy , from the archbishop downewards , & divers other their superstitions . so cornelius scultingius † citeth whitgift , and taketh whole leaves out of him , for defence of their hierarchie . * stapleton also useth the foresaid doctors arguments , to uphold thereby their discipline , and professeth , that they are built upon one foundation . i could multiply authors of this nature , ‡ but it needs not , only let it be here minded , that all these testimonies are acknowledged to be true of the nonconformists . is not therefore their profession great against the pope : they clal him ( they say ) antichrist and the beast , &c. yet notwithstanding in respect of many maine and foundamental orders , and ordinances of his church , they wallke along hand in hand with him . so that , they are much like to one , which cals a woman , &c. whoore , whoore , and lyeth with her all the while in the bed , and commits folly with her . nothing is here said , but the former thinges againe repeated . indeed , he undertooke to answer certaine demaunds , but he kept himselfe off , so covertly from the points , that he hath left them farre more obscure & darke then they were before . for this cause i have thought it necessarie to propound unto them . questions , all gathered from mr. bradsh . shifting answeres , & idle putt offs , with request , that they would answere them directly and sincerely , and from the scriptures ; and so doubtlesse the controversie betweene them & us will be brought the sooner to an end . . whether the office of lecturers in the ecclesiastical assemblies of england , be not new , and strange from the scriptures ? if not , whether they be apostles , evangelists , pastors , teachers , elders ? &c. . whether the civill magistrate hath power to set over the churches of christ , in his dominions , such commissioners and overseers , as the present hierarchie is , or no ? . what be those ecclesiastical officers , which some true churches in england , have these many yeares beene without , either all , o● cheifest of them ? . whether the calling , enterance , administration , and maintenance of any of the publicke ministers of the church of england , be unlawful , and antichristian , or no ? . who are those ecclesiasticall officers , in the church of england , which neither in name , nor in deed , are true , as he himself confesseth ? . whether it be lawfull for the ministers of the gospell , to be maintained by tithes and offerings , &c. in the manner and forme , as it is practifed now in england , or no ? . whether all the parish assemblies of england be true visible churches or no ? . where are those churches in our kingdom , from whence we have separated , which doe consist , as now they stand , of a companie of people , called , and separated from the world , and the false worship , and wayes thereof , by the word of god , and are joyned together in the fellowship of the gospel , by voluntarie profession of faith , and obedience of christ ? . what are those parts and parcells , in the booke of common prayer , which is not the true worship of god , whereof he speaketh ? . whether it be lawfull , to have communion with the english leiturgie , as it is ordinarily now used in their churches ? . if the true worship of god be prescribed , in the booke aforesaid , we demaund then in what part thereof the same is contained ? . whether those , which joyne to the ecclesiastical ministerie , worship , and orders of their cathedral or parishional assemblies in those things , which are not performed therein , according to the true meaning & intent of their lawes , doe sin , or no ? . what is the true intent and meaning of these lawes , and to whom doth it properly belong , to give the interpretation of them ? thus having finished , what i purpose to write for this time , i commend now the same to the best acceptance of every wel disposed reader . beseeching god to make us more and more of one mind in the truth , and to give us all hearts , to walke sincerily in it , untill our changing come . isa. . , , . o that thou haddest hearkened to my commaundements , then had thy peace been as a river , and thy righteousnesse as the waves of the sea. thy seed also had been as the sand , and the off-spring of thy bowels like the gravel thereof : his name should not have been cut off , nor destroyed from before me . goe ye forth of babilon , flee ye from the c●ldeans ▪ &c. finis . a table of the principall things , contained in this treatise . a. administrations performed , according to the booke of common prayer and canons unlawfull . pag. . administrations , in themselves good , may be done by false ministers . pag. . apocripha unlawfull to be read in the church , and reasons thereof . pag. , . dr. ames writing , for their ministery answered . pag. . , &c. and for their worship . p. , , . and about their church government . p. . . archbishops , see bishops . b. baptisme in the church of england , unlawfully administred . p. . benefices , how they are obtained by the ministers of the church of england . p. , , , , &c. bels , as they are used in their assemblies , unlawfull . p. . the english service-booke , taken out of the vile massebooke . p. , . the wickednesse of the bishops described . p. , . their offices false and antichristian , and reasons for the same . p. . . . they cannot give a true ministery : p. . their booke of ordination , taken out of the popes pontifical . p. the manner of burialls in englād unlawful . p. mr. bradsh . his scoffing . p. . . . . vncharitablenesse . p. . absurdnesse . p. . . . . ignorance . p. . contradictions . p. . . dr. burgesse protestation , to become a separatist , if he did beleeve the nonconformists principles . p. . c. no man may administer in the church , without a lawfull calling . p. . the calling of their ministers doth essencially depend upon the bb. calling . p. . ceremonies condemned ; and why . p. . . they are the least evills of many in their churches . p. . canon law unlawfull , and reasons for it . p. . no person by their canons may speake against the abuses of their church p. . no true visible church , but a particular ordinary congregation p. to the right constitution of a true visible church , it is of necessitie , that all the members be holy and good . p. . . . . . . churches of england false , and reasons thereof . p. . . . . civil offices in ecclesiastical persons unlawful . p. all their spiritual courts in eng. unlawfull . p. no man ought to appeare at them ; reasons for it . p. . the manner of their proceedings in these courts . p. . the commissaries court described . p. . the high commission like the spanish inquisition . the convocation-house described . p. . church wardens office unlawfull ; reasons for it . p. conversion no signe of a true ministery . p. their collectes in their assemblies idolatrous . p. confirmation of children unlawfull , and reasons for it . p. . crosse in baptisme unlawfull , and reasons for it . p. . excommunication , and the absolution of the person , are actions common to the whole church . p. churching of women , see women . d. there ought to be deacons in every true church ; reasons thereof . p. . . their office consisteth only in receiving and distributing the benevolence of the church ; and arguments for it . idem the deaconrie of their church assemblies is an unlawfull office . p. the office of a doctor is distinct from that of a pastor ; and reasons for it . p. mr. dayrels description of a visible church refuted . p. . . the reasons which he layes downe , to prove their parish assemblies true churches ; answered . p. . . . . ▪ &c. discipline , see government . e. the election of every ecclesiast . officer must be by the free choyse of the whole church where he is to administer . p. . the ministers of the church of england are not elected , according to gods word . p. obstinate sinners must be excommunicated . p. . reasons for it . p. . how the church is to walke towards such . p. . and when , and how to receive them againe . p. . grosse errours , practised in the church of england . p. . examples , proveing the unlawfulnesse of communicating in a false worship p. . , &c. f. the court of faculties described . p. their fasts are popish . p. so is the font. p. g. a certaine forme of church government is prescribed by christ ; reasons for it . p. . . the same is unchangeable , ordinary , and common to all churches . p. . a matter of fayth , and necessary to salvation . p. it cannot be a true church , which wants it . p. this government must be set up , and practised , though the civil magistrate allow not thereof . pag. ● . and reasons for it . p. . . , &c. the church government in england , taken wholy and every part from the pope , page . men cannot submitt to it , without breaking the law of the land. pag. . governours or ruling elders ought to be in every true church . page godfathers in baptisme popish . p. the manner of reading the gospells and epistles condemned . pag. gifts make not ministers . pag. h. homilies unlawfull to be read in the church ; reasons for it . p. . . the observation of holy dayes superstitious . p. the hierarchie impaires the authority of the civil magistrate . pag. i. what ieroboams preists could have said for their religion . page . . , &c. such as maintaine ill causes , upbraid others with ignorance . page k. the example of the kings of iudah ; vainely alleaged to justify king edwards , & queen elizabeths ; compelling of their subjects , to be members of the church p. . kneeling in the act of receiving of the lords supper , an idolatrous gesture ; reasons why unlawfull . p. the sitter is accessary to the sinne of the kneeler . p. . king iames his saying of the puritans . p. l. the ministery of lecturers , in the assemblies of england , new and strang from the scriptures ; and reasons thereof . p. . , &c. dr. laiton answered , and his principles proved , tolead unto separation . p. . . such as take any ecclesiastical office from the bb. transgresse against the law of realme . p. . letanie no better then blasphemie and conjuration . p. the learned against communicating in a false ministery . p. . . . and false worship . p. . m. the manner of marrying in england unlawfull . p. members are to be taken into the church , by making publick profession of faith and repentance . p. . every man that is a member ought to have his voice in the ecclesiastical causes of the church p. reasons , why men should make themselves members of true visible churches . p. what makes members of the church of england . p. . the great wickednesse of them . p. . . . the ministery of england taken wholy from antichrist . p. . proved to be false . p. . . their manner of making ministers . p. . . what they are for qualification . p. . . and practises p. men may be unlawfull ministers , though never ordained by the bb. p. . vnlawful ministers not to be communicated with in any thing they doe . p . reasons for it . p. conversion of men to god , no note of a true ministerie . p. the ministers of england of one constitution . p. true ordinary ministery , tyed to a particular assembly . p. . a roving & unsetled , false p. musick in the church unlawfull . p. n. the profession & practise of nonconformists , how they differ . p. . their minors and the conformists majors , lead to separation . p. . not so true to their grounds as the conformists . p. . o. oath ex officio , why unlawful . pag. no obedience must be yeelded to the bb. government . p. five kinds of ordinary ecclesiastical offices , only belonging to every true church . p. . officers not simply necessary for the publicke administrations in the church . p. the church may depose her officers . p. offences how to be suppressed in the church . p. . . and why . p. the officers of the spiritual courts in england described . p. . their places antichristian p. ● brethren out of office may teach publickly in the church . p. order and forme required in the collection of all true churches . p. p. pastors are all equal by gods institution . p. these are wanting in the english assemblies . p. parsons , vicars , &c. unlawfull officers . p. . parents ought not to bring their children to be crossed in baptisme ; and reasons for it . p. patrons places unlawful . p. . to be present at idolatrous worship , unlawfull . p. . . and namely where the ceremonies are used . p. . power given to every particular church . p. an essencial property there of . p. preaching of the gospell , no part or property of the ministery in fngland , but a thing casual . p. the manner of preaching there . p. . neither preaching nor administring the sacraments argue a true mininistery . p. not enough to be professours . p. their preists and deacons take their ministery from the prelates , and no where else . p. they have not the essencial ministery of pastors and teachers . pag. prelates , why worse then the papists p. of pollution by other mens sinns . p. . q. none must be chosen into any office , but such as are wel qualifyed for it ; and reasons thereof . pag. . . questions , propounded with request to be answered . p. . , &c. r. reading preists described : p. . their ministery unlawfull , and reasons for it . p. . . a sinne , to communicate in their ministery . p. . what service they doe , p. . the greatest number of the english ministers are such . p. every officer must be resident in his place , and why ? p. rome and england how like in church ordinances . p. the judgement of the reformed churches no good argument to prove the church of england true by . p. . s. sacraments prophanely administered in the church of england . p. . more sacraments then christ ordained administered in their churches . p. sacraments , administred in private houses , unlawfull . p. service booke , a devised worship , and reasons for it : p. . . the scribes and pharisees misapplyed , to justifie the ministery of england . p. sidemens office unlawfull . p. our separation , why . p. . lords supper , how abused . p. . surplices unlawfull , & reasons for it . p. . scriptures , how abused in the church of england p. t. toleraticir of sinne in the church hurtfull ▪ and why . p. v. visitation of the sick , as used in england popish . p. bb. visitation described . p. ▪ w. widdowes , an office in the church , and reasons for it . p. god hath prescribed a perfect platform , how he wil be worshipped . p. reasons , why he should be worshipped , according to the same . p. . the worship of the church of england is contained in the booke of common prayer . p. churching of women unlawfull , and reasons for it . p. the word of god , the only meanes , to fitt men for church-estate . z. true zeal will not endure any thing of antichrists . p. finis . errata . for eder read elder . p. . lin . . for honestly read honesty . p. . lin . . for as read at . p. . lin . . for thelr read their . p. . l. . for nor read not . p. . l. . for hierom read hieron . p. . l. . for number . in marg . read . after arrow . ag . br. p. . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e * our apologie . mr. bar. refutation of mr. giffard . a treatise of the minist . of the church of england . mr. robinsons iustification of separ . mr. penry of the ministery of england . an answ . to mr. stone . ‡ i mean only in the point of separation , for in other things he bath answered . d burg. fully , and laid him flatt on the groūd . ‡ hooker eccles . pol. pref . p. . whitg . . treat . c. . div . . p. sutclif . treat . of disc . c. p. . d. bils . perpetual goverm . ch . . p. . bancr . surv. of disc . c. , p. , , . loe quaerimon . ecclesiae . p. . answ . to the petition by the vice chanc. & heads of oxf. p. . d. morton , d. burg. 𝄁 repl. to d. mort. sect. . p. . defence of petition to the k. p. . a dayr . treat . of the ch. p. . b mr. nichols plea of the innocent . p. , c the scurrulous libels , published under the names of lawne , fowler , bullard , &c. ‡ serm. on rom. . p. , . sold. bar. abridgm . p. . cartw. catechis . p. . . rev. . ioh. . chap. . & . ‡ he speaks thus by false ministers . prov. . ‡ yet we beleeve their principles to be true , & is there be no nonc . that will defend them , we will. 𝄁𝄁𝄁𝄁𝄁 magis veritas elucet , quò ▪ saepius ad manū venit . senec. lib. de ira . notes for div a -e pag. . pag. . necessit . discip . , , . offer . cōfer . pag. . t. c. l. . p. . & l. pa. . & p. . . demonst . discip . ▪ mr. bates . informat . frō scott . p. , . necessity discip . . defen . ag . slaund of bridg. . forme ecclesias . govern . p. , , , &c. demonst . discip . , . inform. frō scott . pag. . forme eccles . govern . , , &c. rom. , ● cor. , . tim. ● . . mr. bate , &c. demons . disc . p. . inform. from scot. p. . eccles . gover . p. ●● . m. bates p. . answ . to bancr . ser . p. . t. c. l. . . . admo . p. . t. c. l. . p . disc . eccles . infor. scott . ▪ demonst . discip . . . &c. d. chat. rom. , p. . m. bates . p. . def. of dis . p. . . def. coun . . eccle. gov. p. . admon . . p. . off. of confer , p. . necessit . discip . . t. c. l. . p. . . eccles . disc . . first book discip . . . m. bates . . demonst . discip . . . &c. t. c. l. r. p. . forme chur. gou. p. . eng. putan . p. , . t. c. l. . p. , p. eccles . dis . . d. am. cas . cons . l. , c. . inform. scott . . ioh. . , necessit . disc . , , &c. t. c. l. . , , t. c. l. , , neces . dis . , demonst , dis . p. , tabl. div . rea. in camb. demo . id . eccle. dis . foll . , t. c. l. . p. , p. , tit. , , hos . , ▪ demons . dis . p. , . ●●ces . of disc . pa. . . t. c. l. , p . dem. disc . p. . . d. tayl. tit. , , dr. willet . sam. , ▪ eng. puri . , , dem. disc . p. . defene . godly minist . ag . bridg ▪ ● ● . pref . adm . & p. ● , , . syons plea. , doct. chat. on rom. . . esa . . bright . rev. . p. . chr. mar. p. . admon . p. . soldier . bar. m. bates pag. . adm. p. act. . & , . def. of godly mi. ag . br. . alt. dam. . necel . dis . p. . against brid . . def. disc . . id. p. . admo . . alt. d. . necessit . discip p. . eccles . gov. . bright . reve. . . . admo . p. . sold. barw . church polic. . . abstr . . exhortat . gover. wal. . neces . dis . p. . brigt . re. . p. . prefa . p. . eccles . gover. dial. str . ch. p. . . rep. . p. . . preface dioc . t. fres . suit . l. . p. . assertion . christ . ch. pol. p. . vpon the apoc. ch . . p. . edition . . pref. dioc ▪ tri. defen . godl . minister ag ▪ brid . p. . so they are in rev. , . . def , disci . . alt ▪ dam. . def. pet. for refor . p. . pref. dio . tri. sam. ● . neces . dis . p. ▪ admon . exhort . to bish . and their clearg . p. . preface dioces . trial. matth. . . hos . . . see iunius on the place . ier ▪ . . pro. . . mat. . . ioh. . . . phil. . ioh. . . rom. . . . numb . . psa . . . tim. . . mat. . . luk. . ▪ . the● . . . . . rea. . & . . . & . . ioh. . . chap. . in pro. . . rhemist tost . ioh. . an. . ioh. . exhort . gover. w. p. . admon . p. . note . fenner doct. upō the sacra ▪ p. . preface ▪ before the forme and man. of ord . b. p. & d. syonsple● p. . id. . hay any work . p. . &c. . admon . to parl . . syons pl. . & . & . alt ▪ dam. . rep. to mor. p. pref. ans . bancr . pref. offer for conf . demonst . dis . . mart. epist . & . . m. bates . d. state chu . . offer for confor . . . . syons pl. . curt. ch. pow . . fall bab. . read martin mar-prelates works . pro. . . exo. , . def. peti . . epist . syons plea &c. p. ● revel . . . d. chad. ser. rom. . p. . vdal . diol . . stat . ch. p. . offer confer . . admo . p. . t. c. li. . p. . curt. ch. po . . disc . of abus . ch. & . defen . disc . . d. ch. ser . rō . . curt. ch. po . p. . repl. to mort. . syons pl. . def. disc . p. . strife of the church prefa . reprofe of mart. iunior . mr. bates . answ . to bancr . ser. p. . t. c. . syons pl. . demonst . disc . p. . . preface demonst . defen . ec. gov . ag . bridg. p. . protest . scott . p. t. c. l. . p. . d. cha. rō . . . second book . dis . p. . syons plea p. . rex iuris . . num. . cathol . confer . p. . yates mod . of div . p. . see mr. masons booke of succession of bishops , published by authority anno . iam. . vlt. modest . off . adm. . eccles . gor. . syon pl. . t. c. l. . pref . dem . de eccles . . . . . rem . imp . d. c. . atters . phile. v. . p. . adm. . . eccl. gov. . neces . dis . . exh. gov. . . m. bates p. . abstr . p. . . eccl. gov. . . t. c. l. i. p. . eccles . gov. . first book of disc . . . sol. barw . adm. p. t. c. l. . p. . dia ▪ str . ch. . def. per. for ref . . . . t. c. l. . p. . m. bates . exhor . gov. w. . mr. bates , p. . , &c. repl. to powel . . petit. q. . sol. barv. admon . p. . chap. . . admo . p. , . sol. barv. chap. . defen . of discip . aga . p. bridg. . p. . ● . adm. prefac . admon to the parl. note . dis . eccl. gov. p. . tab. div . rea. ca. des . dis . . def . godly mi. ag . br. . adm. . p. . & l. . p. . ioh. . iohn . . . neces . disc . . mind this ye lecturers . t. c. l. . p. . eccl. gov. p. . demons . disc . . mr. bat. . cartw. chr. rel . ch . . p. . demons . dis , . de consc . l. . c. . p. . mr. bates . . def. of disc . ag . d. bridg. . fresh suite l. . p. . i have good testimony for this thing . d. somes last treat . c. . p. . arr. ag ▪ br. . pro. . . defen . admon . fresh suit l. . p. . neces . ●efor . ● . zep. . . pro. . ephe. . pet. . . king. . psa . . mar. . iohn . first . vol. p. . sam. . . rom. . iudg. . gal. . heb. . . m. dayr . pref . trear . of the ch. lev. . . . & . . v. . . mal. . . mal. . . cor. . . . es . . . king. . . . chro. . . answ . banc. ser . p. . ephe. . esther . . notes for div a -e m. bates . . how 's . ser . in psal . . p. . can. . syon pl. . m. bat. . fresh suit l. . p. . m. dike six evang. hist . p. m. perk. idol . las . in last . vol. p. . m. brins . truewatch p. . rom. . cart. hist ▪ christ l. . p. . elton upō colos . p. . rev. . note . rom. . * yet so is it where l. bb. rule , as it is in rome & england . m. dod vpon comman . . m. hern. vpon psa . . p. . m. bates . . deu. . chap. . . park . of the crosse l. . p. . colos . . . . exod. . . . ba. , . syons . pl. . cart. chr. relig . cha . . p. . m. dike sixe evan. histor . p. . d. tayl. vpon tit. . . pag. . . exhort . to the kirk of edenb . pag. . first vol. idol . last times p. . . ang. de consen . sa . evang. l. ● . . ioh. . . hos . . . with deut. . . psa . . . esa . . psa . . . mr. dike six evang. hist . . , &c. mr. hern. in psa . . , &c. luke . sold. bar. t. c. l. . p. . abridg. adm. . p. , and ad. . fall of bab. . altar . damas . p. . syons pl. . perth assemb . . syons pl. . p. . quo vadis sect. . cambden in an. . fresh suit l. . . l. cooke . de iure regis ecclesiastico fol. . syon pl. . . consider . pag. . sec. . . mot. pref . to the ans . admon . p. . def. ad. p. . . admo . p. . syon pl. . . . m. gilby p. . admon . . adm. . adm. ● ad. p. alt. dam. . against bridg. . curt. ch. pow . . learned dis . eccl. gover. . mart. sen. p. . practice of princ . addit . admon . . questions concern . churching of women p. . . note . abridg. linc. min. p. . hos . . . . am. . . out of which is the english service booke taken , as the nonconform . say . see iob . . mat. . . iam . . see mr. bale on the place esa . . chro. . fresh suit l. . p. . course of conformity p. . king . . king. . . exod. . ioh. . . psa . . mal. . rom. . . . esa . . . rev. . . eze. . , . chro. . eze. , . deu. , , . see pareus in am. , levit. , . . zep. . . rev. , . lev. . & . . col. . . king , , . cor. , . rev. . . sermon upon ps . . . in cor. . . chap. . dial. of serving the time . a in cor . . . b in apo. , . in mat. fol. . c in censura cap. fol. . d in psal . . . p. , . e paraph. in cor. , . f de unit . cc. nu . . g in hos . , and am. . h de civit . dei , l. . c. ● . i in levit. . . . k in hos . . , p. . and vers . , p. . rhe. test ▪ in cor. . . darrell . treat . ch. . trial subscript p. . mr. gilby preface . refutat . rast . . upon com. idolat . last time . t. c. l. . p. . syons p● . . a anatomy of cerem . made by m. sprint before def . of pet. to the king. b alt. da. . a park . cr . l. . . c trial. subscrip . p. . d gilby p. . . . e anatomy of ce. fr. suit . l. . ● . anat. cer. syon pl. . . m bradsh . . arg. . . sold. bar. ans . to the exam. p. . offer for conf . p. . t. c. rest of second rep . . park . cross . lib. . p. . a admo . . b sold. bar. c necess . disp . . d proposit . about kneel . . park . cross , ● . . . id . . . adm. . neces . dis . , alt. dam. . t. c. l. , def . pet. for ref . . par. cr . . . def. pet. for re. . adm. a sy on pl. . b alt. da. . c park cross l. . . . . l. . . fresh suit l. . . . remove of imputations from the minist , of devonsh . & cornw. pag. . defenc. pet. for refor . p. alt. dam. , park . of the cr. , , p. mr. bates disput . upō commun . at confus . comm . . syōs pl. disp . up . . abridg. perth assemb . idem . mr. bat. . abridg. per. assem . . abridg. adm. . abridg. lib. , cap. . park . cr. l. . , . cor. , . mr. bat. . p. . al. dam. . sol. barw . ques . con . chur. wo. . lear. dis . ec. gover. . qu. con . ch. wom . p. . . id. p. . note id. . . id. . ec. go. . q. con . chu . . idem . . . tim. . ec. go. i. adm. p. . qu. con . ch . w. . def. adm. . ad. p. ec. gov. . see t. c. l. . . . ad. . ad. . ec. go. distinct de conse . cap. de his vero . sold. bar. def. pet. for refor . p. , fe. on the sacsr . park . of the cr. l. , , perth assem . , ● , t. c. rest sec . rep . , t. c. l. , , . ag. bridg. slan . p. eccles . gov. , syon pl. defenc . admon . t. c. l. . & . rep . . def. pet. for refor . , , adm , in chro. graftoni . sold. bar. def. per. . alt. dam. , . first b. dis . p. . t. c. rest sec . rep . , def. ad. syon pl. , adm. p. ● , sold. bar. r adm. t. c. l. , p. . id. a. dam. . , , ec. go. m. bates . first . of dis . . ec. go. p. . ad. . syon pl. . m. gilbie pref . p. . alt. dam. . . ad. . adm. adm. sold. bar. park . cros . l. , . adm. . t. c. l. , . alt. dam. . , des . p. for refor . . t. c. sec . rep . last p. . . gilb. end b. adm. curt. ch. pow . p. . . ad. . . . sol. barw . t. c. l. . . . t. c. rest sec . rc . ▪ . . per. asse , ▪ . def. pet. for ref. . , adm. t. c. i. . , t. c. rest last rep . . sol. barw . alt. dam. . curt ch. p. , adm. syon pi . . id . sol. barw . alt. dam. . sold. bar. first rep . . sy. pl. . alt. da. . t. c. i. . . adm. m. iac. art. . scarpius cru . the. de ec. tri. p. . . per. ass . p. . to , sol. barw . ag. banc. . curt . ch . pow . adm. . alt. dam. . abrid . . adm. exercit. p. . hist . trob . frank . p. atar . da. . . syon pl. . . def. ad. . cartw. ag . rhe. test . p. . see defence of the minist . reasons , for refusal of subscrip to the booke of com . pr. first and second part , pa. , to . sold. bar. tabl cartwr . cat . p. . act. . and , tim. , , . abrid . . def. pet. for refor . , . second part of the defence of minist . reas refus . subscrip . mr. brought . treat . of apo. p. to . a bridg . p. . they meane in the opiniō of the bb. alt. dam. . adm t. c. i. . , . neces . dis . . . eccl. gov. . park . cr. l. , , &c. nu. . d. chader . sermon upon rō . , p. . let such as have been pleaders , for humane formes of prayer , answere this if they can . def. ag . brid . ● , . abridg. , . adm. adm. eng. puritan . p. . alt. dam. . , . fall of bab. . sold. bar. abridg. sol. barw . fresh suit l. . . def. pet. for refor . . alt. dam. . fall of babel . sold. bar. tab. adm. sold. bar. tabl. pag. . . cart. con . rh. t. iud. . adm. note . pref. coūterp . table div . read in camb. note . t. c. l. . p. . fresh suit . l. . . pag. . cor. . . . rivetus in hos . . ve . . and . p. . . an admonition of coelius secundus curio to all faithf . christi . mat. . . scarpius symphon . proph . gal. . . rev. , . rom. . . luke , , . calv. in psal . . . pa. . bucer in psal . , . p. . mat. , . cor. . , &c. ps . , . dan. ▪ king. . marke it well . see park . of the crosse , l. ▪ p. , ● , &c. pet. mart. loc . com . p. . thess . . . t. c. lib. pag. . park . of the cross . . . . cart. catachism . of christian rel. pag. . . am. . . see brentius on the place . piscat . in cor. . . pareus ●d . act. . protestat . of the king. sup . pag. . rom. . eze. . . amo. . dan. . luc. . ioh. . act. . . & . . ps . , . esa . , mat. , . rev. . . cor. . . ioh. . i have beene an eare witnesse hereof many times . cor. . , . d. sclater upon rō . chap. . ver . . p. . rom. , . mat. . . levit. . , . notes for div a -e protest . from scot. . def. eccl. discip . ag . brid . . . neces . disc . . . demonst . disc . p. . cipri . in serm . de bapt. chtist . cip. de prescrip . advers . haer . ignat. in ep. tral . ierom. in esa . . aug. epi. . amb. in tim. . cipr. l. . epist . . d. bils . perpetu. gover● . pag. . nec . dis . . m. bates . dioces . trial. . protest . king. sup . , . tab. divi . read. in camb. offer for confer . . prot. kin. sup . p. . marke & make use of this , you that stand under a self-wild diotrephes . this is christ commaundement : woe therfore to such as know so much and doe neglect it . d. am. de cons . l. . c. . pag. . cartw. hist . christ l , , p. . protest . from scot. . engl. pur. . id. . def. pet. for refor . . m. perk. vol. . vpō iud. . lear. dis . ec. discip . . esa . . . za. . . ioel . . rev. . vlt. psa . ● . cartw. histor . christ . l , . . neces . disc . . perk. vpon creed . vol. . . cor. . thess . . . cor. . tayl. ●pon tit. . . cartw. in the place before . deu. . . heb. . perk. on the cr. vol. . pag. . cartw. lib. . hist . christ . first boo . discip . p. . tail. vpon tit. ch . . v. . p. . . protest . from sco. p. . d. am. de consc . l. . c. . adm. . t. c. l. . . tail. tit. . . . see a●str . p. . to . cart. ref . rh. test . mat. . sect . . d. am. de cons . l. . c. . . protest . king. sup . p. . discip . eccles . . demonst . discip . p. . . &c. crown . christ . mart. p. . ●ear . d. e● . . . discours . of abus . in the ch. . . &c. see aretius in mat. . v. . mr. iacob art. . adm. . fall of bab. . cipr. lib. ep. . and epist . , and . august . lib. , cont . epist . permenn . ierom. ad demet. epist . . bucer de reg . ch. l. . chap. calv. inst . l. , cap. sect. . vrsin . car . pars , pag . curt. chu . pow . . fall of babell , . his . trob . fran. . ans . to bridg. neces . dis . . park . de pol. ecc. l. . c. , p. ▪ def. disc . p. . . first book disc . p. . t. c. l. , park . de pol. ec. l. . p. . def. disc . pag. . fall bab. . first book disc . . * no marvail , seeing the matter is of babylon . adm. alt. dam. . p. print before t. c. l. . alt. da. pref. ref. answ . to bancr . alt. da. adm. demons . dis . . dialog . st . chur. . dial. strif . chur. . adm. demonst . disc . . t. c. l. . . demonst . discip . preface . de eccles . disc . . demonst . disc . . sold ▪ bar. syons plea . . fresh suit . l. . . learn . dis . ecc. gov. . ● . neces . dis . , . def. pet. for ref. , . offer . conf . p. . confer . p. . thank . ack . p. . alt. dam. , . abstr . , & . d. strif . chur . . mr. bate , &c. fall of babell , p mr. bate . p. , to . syons pl. , , & . . dial. st. ch . . learn , dis . ec. gover. , &c. admo . pref. syons pl. . repl. to mort. . abst . . alt. da. . mr. bal. upon revel . . bright . rev. , syons pl. , , . demonst . disc . . , . abstr . necessit . disci . . , offer for conf . pre . alt. dam. . . syon pl. , , , , m. bat. , , eng. puri . , , def. of pet. for refor . , , park . on the cros . i●r . . abst . . fall bab. , curt. ch. ● t. c. l. , , dioces . trial. pref . dial sol. bar. tab. div . read . in camb. syon pl. , . ad. , sold. bar. t. c. l. . . alt. dam. . ad. . sold. bar. adm. . pres . dioces . trial. diol . strif . , , learned disc . of eccle. go. . . . answ . to banc. p. ec. gov. . supplic . to the parl. p. . to fresh suit ● . , p. , to . alt. dam. p. , . curt. chu . pow . pag. . & . q. chur. wom . p. def. pet. for refor . . park . cro. l. . . syon pl. pag. . eng. puri . . dial. str . ch. . dem. dis . pre . supp . gover. d. str . ch. . . . necess . discip . lear. dis . ec. go. p. . d. andr. ser . to the convoc . lear. dis . ec. go. adm. . fresh suit l. . . ¶ here were a fit place for him , who published the lying libels , vnder the name of lawne , fowler , saunders , and bullard , for in those courts his vncleane tongue might have matter enough to talk of . . adm. . m. davis . pag. . syon pl. ● . neces . di. . . . brigh . rev. . p. . pref. dio. tri. epi. to read. dem. disc . prot. fr. scott . pag. . m. bates . . syon pl. . . . protest . from sco. . mart. iun. . . mart. sen . col. . gal. . . eliz. . iaco. r. de consc . , , cap. . def. pet. for ref. p. . cor. . l. . cap. pag. . fresh suit , l. . p. . see before pag. . svons pl. , , ●● . see before pag. , syons pl. syons pl. . vpon rev. . pag. edit . . see before pag. syons pl. , and p. . . . mr bate p. , . alt. dam. p. . a collection of sundry matters , to prove the use and practise of gods ordinance . harmony of confes . sect. . belgick artic . , & french artic . . see the historie of scotlād p. . and . discourse of eccles-govern . p. . . t. c. l. . p . sermon upon psal . . ver . . exo. . vpon psa . , ver . . p. , pag. . notes for div a -e † offer for confer . pag. . dioces . tri. p. . neces . of ref. p. , . first part of repl . in answ . to d. down . defen . l. . par . . p. , &c. & second repl . l. . chap. , p. , &c. a m. clev. upon pro. ch . , ver . . p. . b m. iaco. institut . of true vis . chur . pa. . m. bradsh unreason . of separ . p. . fall of b. p. . t● . , . esa . , . zach. , . esa . , . song . , ephe. , son. , , pet. . . psa . , . protest . frō scotl. p. . t. c. l. . p. . neces . disc . p. . m. bradsh unreas . of sep . p. . mr. h. upon psa . , ver . . fol. . t. c. l. . p. . m. iacob● institut . of true vis . ch . p. . mr. bate p. . offer for confer . p. ephe. , r● . , , . cor. , luk. . . zach. . . mat. , ult . protest . from scot. p. . dr. ames de consc . l. , c. . p. rev. , psal . , , and , cor. . . heb. , , . cor. . , and , , . rom. , fall of b. pa. . curr . chu . pow . p. lib. . neces . dis . p. . printed at geneva . cartwr . cate. of christ . rel. p. . neces . dis . p. . t. c. l . p. . see p. . rev. , . cor. , curr . chu . pow . p. . d. ames de consc . l. , p. . . fall of b. p. , curt. chu . pow . p. d. chater . serm. on rom. , pag. , neces . dis . p. . mr. perk. on mat. . ver . . p. , vol. . dialog . concern . strif . of the chur. pa. , mr. giffar . count . div pa. . plea of the innocent . p. quest . cōcer . chur . of wom . pag. . mr. hern. on psa . , pag. . cathol . confer . pag. . m. giffard dialog . between a pap. and prot. p. preface to his counterp . defen . of certain argum . ag . g. powel pag. . neces . dis . p. ● . plaine declar . of eccl. disc . p. . curt. chu . pow . p. . neces . dis . p. . supplicat . pag. . admon . d. feild of the ch . p. , , &c. pet. , . iude . eccl. , . gen. , , and . rom. , ioh. , pet. ▪ . psa . , rev. . , cor. . rom. . . cor . , , gal. , , ephes . , phil. , , colos . , , thes . , , , king , , , , chro . , , . chro . . lev. , and , . psa . , , , hab. , . psa . . . esa . , . zach. , . rev. , vlt. see mat. , . act. , . . mat. , . ephes . , rom. , pet. , . ioh. , , . rom. . rom. , hos . , , . gal , . in psal . annot. in act. , in rō . , volumen . thes . theolog. p. exposi . on numb . v. , p. † see mr. fenner sacra . theolog. l. , . , p. articl . of relig. babel , not beth. pag. , challeng . chap. , p. , , sntcl. chaleng . p. , & answ . to the excep . p. burton in answ . to h. cholm . p. burton in the same booke pag . sutcliffe chaleng . ch . , pag. , arg. . the same booke , p. , arg. id. p. , arg. . pa. . & eze. , august . de haeret. ● . , pag. , mat. , , pag. , pag. . † in the table after sold ▪ of barw . eph. , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . aristot , polit. c. . cor. , col. , . heb , . eze. see before pag. . pag , ▪ . see pag. . &c. rom. , . . admonition . bellarm. de notis eccles . phil. . apol. p. a fall of bab. p. . cart. hist . christ . l. . page . dudl . fenner . sacra theolog. lib , ▪ eap ▪ . pag , . neces . disc . pag. , mr iacob . defin . chur. pag , . b mr butt . agan . h. col. p. . sutcl . chal . pag. , . mr. atters . on numb . , , pag ▪ and . c articl . of relig. pag. , art . d pet. mart. in in loc . commun . pag. . vrsin . catech . explicat , pars , pag. . alstedius theolog. polemic . pars , pag. , piscat . volum . thes . theolog. pag. . e harmony of confes section , belg i●k , articl . , and fren. art. . f vnreason of sepation pag. . see page . . * acts . . & . . rom. . & . . . . io● . . . , ez ▪ k. . . phil. . . act. ● . . . . & . . . & . . . rom. . . . cor. . . psal . . . esa . . . & . . & ● . . zach. . & . . . . . cor. . . . iosh . . . . psal . . . mar. . . . . cor. . chap. & . . . ● . eph. , . . . & . . . . . , . a mat. . . . psal . . . ● . cor. . . ier. . . . pet. . . iames ● . . iob. . . . act. . . rom. . . b . cor. . . gen. . . acts . . and . . col ▪ . . . ephes . . . cor. . . . thes . . . . c atters . on phil. pag. . t. c. i. . p. . clev. on prov. . . pag. . barn. sep. schism . pag. . by field on col. . . pag. . d willet . on rom. . obs . . pag. . elton on col. . . pag. . scharp . cursus theo. p. . cent. magdeb , i. . c. . pag. . pisc . aph. loc . . pag. . page . . t. c. l. , pag. . see mr. robinsōns iustisicacation of separation . mr. ains . counterp . , &c. rom. , , , † king , . , , chro. . , , , , &c. and , , , &c. & , , &c. king , , and , , , , , , , , , . chro . , , , , ▪ . a ezra , , ● and , , , , . c chap. . , , d chro . , , , chro . , , , , chro . , , , e chro. , , , g chro . , , h chro . , , , * this serves to proove what the nonconformists have before said , touching their worship in chap. , sect. , and . acts and monum . , volum . pag. . & . edition . * alcorancap . . and . page . chro . , ier. , . a esa . ▪ , rev. , psa . , , b king. , . , act , , , ezr. , , lev. , c lev●● . , co● . , , gal. , . d ioh. , rev. , chro. , lev. , . meditatiō upon the lords prayer , p. . † see mat ▪ ● , , page . de consci . lib. . pag. . . pare . in . cor. . hemin . in eph. . , . eras . paraph . in cor. . beza ann . in cor. . † greg. martin . campian . kellison , &c. * whitg . defence of answer to admonit . in the gen . tab. s . notes for div a -e pag. . august . contro . maxim . l. , c. orig. homil . . in ier. panormit . de elect . & ele . potest . c. signif . fresh suit , l. , p. a defence of the apolog . of the chu . of eng. p. b mr. hutton against the minist . of devon , & cornwal , p. , & p. the . confideration . stones serm. on psa . . c sprint answ . to pag. . pet. . . rō . , , cor. . answ . to pag. , . reply to d. morton pa. . p. , , . vnto p. . see treat . of the minist . of the church of eng. page , , &c. prov. . , . pag. , , . to the , , . pages . pag. . , . to pag , , . see p. , * so is the pope called by the holy ghost , in rev. , p. , p. . to pa. . . adm. † rev. , . tim. , rom. , deut. , p●a . , pag. . to pa. . syons plea p. . remove . imputations from the minist . of d. and cor. p. apoll. de orig. deorum l. . † this is the book , which mr. pag. upbraides us , with , ar. ag . separ . p. . to , pag. * t. c. the rest of the second replie , p. , to . mr. bates , , &c. course of conformitie , p. p. . to , pag. to page , , , . see before page . &c. re moove imputat . from minist . of c. d. pag. syons plea pag. . page , ▪ protestat ▪ from scot. pag. , , &c. altare damas● . , , &c. * intus in animo perdant , modo victores abscedant . ambro● . to page , , , , . ‡ defen . eccle. dis . ag . bridg. pag. , pref. dio. strif . of the ch. repr . mart. iun. pag. . mr. bates , pag. . in title page of his rej. fresh suit l. ▪ p. . resp . ad epist . . ma. see before p. , , . see before p. . see mr. bradsh . general argumēts against ceremonies . remove . imput . frō the minist . of d. and c. p. . fresh suit l. , p. . to p. , , . * see pareus in mat. , v. , p. . ‡ yet the nonconf . say , they are worse , see page , . † exo , , ● mal , , ▪ heb. , . ‡ ioh. . with . deu. , to p. . , , , , , , . pag ▪ , † admo . p. . offer for confer . p. . n●ces ▪ dis . p ● . t. c. ● . , p. , eccle. dis . p. . mr. bates , p. . demon. dis . p. , . def. adm ▪ p. . * non in modo & figura , sed in calcibus . ‡ t. c. ● . , pag. ● , &c. altar . da. pa. . * exposition upon mat. . ver . , pag. . last volu . † this is no otherwise , then according to their owne tenets ; for they say : whatsoever commeth frō the pope , which is antichrist , commeth first from the devill . to pag. , , , , , , , . see before pag. , p. , gen. , psa . . . from pag. . to . pag. . p. , , . an●tomy of cere . made by mr. sprint before defore def . of pet. to the k. learn . discours . of ▪ eccl. gov. p. . m. bright . on rev. , p. , edit . . alt. dam. p. . † an answ . to mr. h. iacob . his defen . of the chur. and minist . of eng. page , . a treatise of the minist . of the church of eng. p. , , , &c. * m. gilby in the table , luk. , ● † namely , the admonition to the parliament , sold , sold. bar. tabl. t. c. his first and second reply . neces . dis . canon . . canon . . canon . . canon , . admon . p. . asser . christian . ch. pol. . admon . p. . * out of their own mouth , they condemne many times their sinfull practises . sam. , † read the prophesies of hosea , ioel , amos , and michea , who were prophets , especially ray sed up , to recover that people . from pa. , to . † when they write against the prelates . * quaere . to whom must men goe , to know the true meading of the law. a dispute upō communicating , at cōfuled cōmunions , pag. , , &c. august . hom . de pastor . hieron . ad ioannē hierosol . from pag. , to . see chap. . sect. , and ch . . sect. , ch . , sect. . p. , &c. * but for this thing i shall exspect , to see some proofe . a detection of divers notable untruths , &c. p. , &c. p. , . tim. , iud. . answ . ●● p. . . psa . , . mat. . † you must observe , he wrote this against the bb. . argum . ag . cerem . . argum. ‡ i mean , whē they read their service-booke . admon . pag. pap. supp . an . . reas . of religiō . panegyr . missae , cap. , . and demonst . dogm . cap. . † in his hierarchica anacrisis . * relect. against whitak . cont . . q. art . . ‡ rhemist . in . , . answ . to p. . melius inquirendum, or, a sober inquirie into the reasonings of the serious inquirie wherein the inquirers cavils against the principles, his calumnies against the preachings and practises of the non-conformists are examined, and refelled, and st. augustine, the synod of dort and the articles of the church of england in the quinquarticular points, vindicated. alsop, vincent, or - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff 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(eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) melius inquirendum, or, a sober inquirie into the reasonings of the serious inquirie wherein the inquirers cavils against the principles, his calumnies against the preachings and practises of the non-conformists are examined, and refelled, and st. augustine, the synod of dort and the articles of the church of england in the quinquarticular points, vindicated. alsop, vincent, or - . g. w. p. s.n.], [london : . attributed to vincent alsop. cf. dnb. epistle dedicatory signed: g.w. reproduction of original in union theological seminary library, new york. a reply to john goodman's a serious and compassionate inquiry into the causes of the present neglect and contempt of the protestant religion and church of england. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng goodman, john, or - . -- serious and compassionate inquiry into the causes of the present neglect and contempt of the protestant religion and church of england. dissenters, religious -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - emma (leeson) huber sampled and proofread - emma (leeson) huber text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion melius inquirendum . or a sober inquirie , into the reasonings of the serious inquirie : wherein the inquirers cavils against the principles , his calumnies against the preachings and practises of the non-conformists are examined , and refelled , and st. augustine , the synod of dort , and the articles of the church of england in the quinquarticular points , vindicated . prov. . . he that is first in his own cause seemeth just , but his neighbour cometh , and searcheth him out . printed , . to the ever , and much honoured s. k. esquire . worthy sir ! i received yours , which brought along with it , both its own welcome , the assurance of your restered health , and continued love , and also my own entertainment , the serious and compassionate inquirie . i have now perused it with as much seriousness as 't was written , and return'd it with mere clemency then it deserves ; and must confess my self cast down so much the lower by my disappointments upon the reading it by how much the flattering title had rais'd me higher to expect from thence mere healing counsels . i have read of a polish embassador in queen hizabeths dayes , who at his landing whisper'd it abroad that his embassy was peace , but when admitted to his audience , threatned a war : her majesty with invincible patience attended the winding up of his long-winded oration , and then cries out heu quam decepta fui , legatum expectavi , heraldum accepi ! i expected a dove with an olive branch in his mouth , and i tread upon a snake , with a menacing sting in his tail ! iust such another treat has your inquirer given me . the title raised me on tip-tocs to see at length that famous weapon-salve ; which might consolidate the churches bleeding wounds , but the book presents me with a weapon ready drawn to render them more wide , and more incurable . you see , real passion , will not long conceal it self under feigned compassion , nemo diu egit hypocritam ! a feaverish preternatural heat in the body , usually breaks out at the lips ! the crocodiles tears , are but a ●…ort formal grace , over his prey , and yet his importunate stomack thinks his throat cut till it be done ! you are pleas'd indeed to recommend it to me , as an irenic , and when i said , it had rather the meen of a military tactick , a friend of ours a little inclinable to be witty replied , it was neither the one nor the other , but an innocent game at ticktack . it 's come in fashion again i perceive to lard lean discourses with grave sentences , and therefore that you may not think i am cap't , let me remember you of seneca . infeliciter aegrotat , ●…ui plus periculi à medico , quam à morbo . that patients case must needs be desperate , whose physitian is a greater plague then his discase : and that church must certainly languish , quae nee morbum ferre potest nee remedium , that can neither endure the remedy , nor the malady : it 's a sad cheise , whether we will die of our wound , or our plaister . and therefore your great pretenders might do well to forbear their slighter applications , which do but exasperate the humour , for the more we tamper with improper means , the less success must we expect from those that are proper , and proportionable . i beseech you sir ! answere me with mere seriousness , and compassion , then this gentleman makes inquiries , can you once imagine these dissenters so irreconciliably sallen out with themselves , as to maintein an utter 〈◊〉 to be disputed cut of a prison , into liberty ? to be argued cut of poverty into plenty ? out of imminent danger , into a safe retreat ? can you really believe them at such deadly sead with their own case , and repose , such sworn enemies to their own peace , as to be more ambitious of ruine , then 〈◊〉 are of self preservation ? that they should court their miseries , with the same passionate caresses , that other 〈◊〉 do their mistresses ? that they should run over one anothers heads for the first grasp of destruction , as if they rod post , all upon the switch , and spur for a presentation to a warm parsonage ? that what ever pr●…mises of fair and honest conveniences are offered ; yet they are so absurdly obstinate as to hold the conclusion of self-created vexation ? believe it sir ! ( i know you believe it ! ) the non conformists are men , as well as their neighbours , as apprehensive of trouble , as desireus of tranquility . they have their interests , and honest concerns too , on this side another world ; their backs must be cloathed , their families must cat , or die : and as , pudicitiâ , & formà , so conscientiā , & integritate , in foro nil emitur . a good conscience is not current coyne , in this worlds markets ; it will not purchase one dish of meat , though with a good stomack , it makes most excellent sawce ; and will make the soule , a noble feast ●…lone . you ought not therefore , you cannot entertain a thought , s●… unreasonable , so uncharitable , that any thing short of sinning against god , and thereby exposing themselves to his displeasure , any thing on this side polluting their consciences and so making their best friend their worst enemy , could be a temptation strong enough , to prevail with them to expose to apparent hazard what ever they enjoy of accommodation to render their lives desirable . you might perhaps please your self with a thought , that the rhethorick of this discourse would proselyte one of whose intellectuals you had just cause to think nothing but mean , and contemptible . and had i found his reasons as cogene , as his style is fluent , his arguments as hard , as his words are soft . you could not despair of success upon him , who is ever ready to offer himself to be practis'd upon at the satisfaction office : but he that would do his work throughly upon an impartial inquirer , must use arguments of steel , as well as words of oile : and the main thing i complain of in his declamations is , that whilst we surfeit upon rhetorick , we are chapfallen for 〈◊〉 of reason ; and the hungry reader sits picking his teeth like a spanish don , after an insipid salade , as if he had dined upon the oxe at bartholomew fair . if ever you saw the sign of the porter , and dwarf , you have seen the true scale of proportion between his mellifluous language , and pittiful argumentation . and i am resolved that no importunity shall prevail with me to accept a well-measured sentence , or laboured period , for a syllogism , where two gingling words stand for the propositions , and a decent comely cadence for the conclusion : but this i will freely own , that since there is a necessity ( which yet we know no reason for ) that the nonconformists be reviled , it s some comfort to be rail'd at in good language , and to meet with dirty matter wrapt up in clean linnen . and since you will needs have my judgment of the style , and dress , i shall only say thus much . cum omnis arrogantia est molesta , illa ingenii , & eloquentiae , est longè molestissima . all arrogance is indeed nauseous , but that of wit and rhethorick in a polemical treatise is a downright vomit . they that talk so confidently that there can be no unity hoped for among christians , without uniformity : nor peace maintein'd , unless all men be of a scantling in their judgments , or at least , that ( though indulged to retain their different apprehensions ) they be obliged to conform to the same practise , in every circumstance , do seem to me to have entertain'd notions very unworthy the christian religion , or perhaps to understand very little of the nature , and design of it . an epicurean , can nuzzle in the same straw , with a swine of his own stye : and truly it was well thought on ; saevis inter se convenit ursis . but christianity enlarges our love to a greater latitude , it raises our affections to a nobler pitch , cordially to embrace with the best armes of good will whoever are dignified with the image of christ , though not distinguisht with our own superscription , nor express the fi●…r strokes of our private conceptions , why can we not love a christian as he is such , though differing from us in innocent accidents , as well as a man , because he is a man , though his hair be of another colour , his face of another symmetry ; and complexion then our own ? it 's true , we cannot without abhorrence , and recoil of spirit behold those monstrous births , which nature ( ever designing regularly , yet through the ineptitude of her tools and matter , miscarrying in her operations ) does sometimes affright the world with ; nor can we bear those prodigious heresies , and uncouth blasphemies , the by-blows of depraved nature , begotten by a corrupt head , upon a debauched heart , yet even towards these , we ought not to be more monstrous in our behaviour , then they are in their nature ; one sin will never heal another . rigorous impositions , will never cure froward sentiments ; it was a b. of hereford's prescription to cut of the head , because it aked ; as some divisions , and errours are the works of the flesh , proceeding from pride and passion , nourished by discontent or other unruly lust , so are some magnified remedies for those distempers , which smell as strong , and sav●…ur as ranck of the flesh , as those very corruptions which they pretend to purge away . they do but therefore delude themselves , and abuse others , whose great ambition it is to reduce the world into a strict , and precise uniformity in every minute punctilio , god has no where promised it , we have 〈◊〉 reason to expect it ; all conclude it unattainable , and many judge it not desirable . the healing rule must be this . in necessariis unitas : in non-necessariis libertas , in utrisque charitas . if our judgments and practises center in things fundamental , let a latitude be allowed in the non-necessary , and a charitable temper be mainteined in both , and then shall we see the wellcome dawnings of primative peace , and glory . that peace which fills up both pages in the gospel , is not founded upon an assent to every inconsiderable nicetie which an idle and fruitful invention can broach , when he has little else to do , but in cherishing a quick and vigorous spirit of mutual condescention , and forbearance of one another under our dissentings . no external application can possibly reach this inward grievance , purge out that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the spirit of malice , envy , hatred , pride , revenge , and the wound will heal of it self . it will remain the eternal blot of pope victor's memory that he embroyl'd both east , and west , with the quarto-decimane impertinencies , when he might have allay'd those heats , and ferments of spirit , by removing the subject of a needless question , or leaving 〈◊〉 at liberty as he found it ; but i much mistake my self if ever he , or his successors in that usurpation , understood the things that belonged to the churches peace ; whose solemn method it was to set the earth on a flame with sparks kindled from hell , blown up by imposing pride , yet all along visibly justified with the specious plea of uniformity . n●…w the plea ( in short ) is this : without uniformity there can be no unity , and without unity we must expect no inward love , diversity of opinions lead to a diversity of practises , and these alienate the affections , which works it self into factions , and parties to the disquiet and rending of the church , and hazard of the state. but these reasonings lye very naked , and open , to the judicious and impartial considerer . for our true unity lies in the profession of one god , one lord jesus christ , one spirit , and not in one ceremony , and our love will therefore be the more eminent , because it has these differences to prove its truth , and exercise its ' strength : and what ever the evil may be in different apprehensions , the remedy will never be by halters , but humility , and charity ; for humility will schoole me into this lesson , to think well of the persons , and ●…udge modestly of the principles of those ●…at dissent when a halter will sooner break the neck , then conwince the judgment : it 's easy to play the hypocrite and practise what another pleases , but impossible to believe what i please my self : but now , if these diversities of judgment , and practise , shall boyle up into animosities , which through their ill management shall endanger , or but seem to threaten the safety of the government : the magistrate in this case has a proper and specifick remedy of his own , entrusted in his hands by divine right ; viz. to reduce delinquents into the way of sobriety by due punishments ; leaving the sober , and peaceable dissenters in the mean time to reap the fr●…its 〈◊〉 their own innocency ; with this singular advantage ; that they can now learn by the 〈◊〉 , and exemplary punishments upon others , to watch against these corruptions of their hearts , least they should break out into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 practises unbecoming the gospel which they do profess , and should adorne . how beautiful 〈◊〉 is in the eyes of men , and what deformity the difference of modes , rites , formes of wors●…ip carry along with it , rending religion it self less pleasing , and amiable in the eyes of curious and critical spectators is easily pretended ; and with aequal right , and reason might they complain , that god has not made all men of one size , one stature , and thence take occasion to make goodly declamations against the ugliness of the creation . the variety which we behold in the universe , is not its deformity , but its beauty ; as the eye is more ravished with landscape , which enriches it with the grateful interposition of hills , and valleys , woods , and champian , alternately taking up the thoughts , and feeding contemplation with the natural chequere-work of light , and opake , then if it were let out to loose it self in the uniformity of a wast horison , or empty prospect ; so is the soul more surprized with the glory of the christian religion , when various apprehensions agree in the same substantial holiness , and several statures bear the image of the same god : one star differing from another in glory , yet all shining with a light borrow'd from the same fountain , the smallest eye of heaven filling up a place in the asterisms of those of the first magnitude . if indeed all men were soundly cudgell'd into one e●…n way of profession and practise , they whose design it is to sleep out their dayes in ease , might enjoy themselves , and their acquists over conscience , with more soft , and delicate touches of carnal contentment , dreaming all the while that the world is their own ; yet still the minds of men would sit as uneasy under ●…h rigours , as he that pinches his body with too straight a 〈◊〉 , onely to recommend himself to acceptation by the new and obteining fashion : and as we observe an uneasy suit . soon becomes an old suite , so they that sit pinch't under a straight laced religious forme , do but grumble , and make sow●… face●… waiting the good hour ; when they may fairly and honestly dise●… themselves of an ungrateful cumber . what advantage this inquirer may promise to himself from 〈◊〉 a way of writing , i cannot divine . the best use i conceiv●… 〈◊〉 made of it , is to support the evil consciences of the 〈◊〉 of their fury , a●… such tolerable rates , that they may not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 souls in pieces : for persecution for religion , ●…s an 〈◊〉 so abhorrent to the common sight of mankind , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thoug●… for a while perhaps it may contract a lethargick d●…ness , yet will awake and mutter , and grumble 〈◊〉 : 〈◊〉 ●…ade a pandar to coveteousness , or malice , a 〈◊〉 horse to base revenge , or to held a candle to the devil ; and when it shall begin to lowre , and scold , it 's no little gain that will make a sop for that barking cerberus , no small see will bribe it to hold its tong●…e . but now in comes one of these plausible declamations , rending the principles of the dissenters so silly , their grounds so weak , their lives so wicked , their practises so ridiculous , and yet of such treasonable , and schismatical tendencies , which ●…uskes the clamour of conscience , and like the jogging of the cradle rocks the pievish thing asleep again , assoon as it begins to whimper . really sir ! i cannot but exceedingly pitty , and pray for a sort of persons of your own quality , who to their more refined extract , having added all the ornaments of posi●…e literature , and those more graceful accomplishments fetcht 〈◊〉 by travel , and a fr●… converse in the world , besides that honour which they have bravely won in the field , and creditably worn at home , have yet their judgments so far imposed upon , their spirits so imbitter'd by prejudices formed from misrepresentations , as to become the instruments of other mens passions in executing those severities , which their calmer thoughts , and more sedate advisements must needs regret ; and though a true generos●… english temper , valiant , but not cruel , may confidently claime the magnanimous lyon ( cui satis est prostr●…ss ▪ ) as the embleme of courage mixt with clemency , for his crest , yet some few of m●…re rigid inclinations , will depopulate and lay wast many a mile about them , who when they behold an odd kind of peace , as the happy fruits of their cruelties , applaud themselves for persons of deep judgment , and great success , ●…yling desolation , universal quiet . if you ask me why i have not underwritten my name ? besides that you know it well enough without my subscription , you may be pleas'd to remember what you once told me , that though truth needs no maske , she may want a helmet ; and seeing she desires no better , do not grudge her the covert of darkness . innocency knows no guilt that should dye her face with shame , yet she apprehends danger , which may make her pale with fear . truth seeks no corners , as to the justice of her cause ; and yet she may seek a corner as to the injustice of her judge . i am not conscious to my self of any evil design , but they who will call preaching , prating , will hardly scruple to call my ears hornes , and i am not to be judge in the case . i am confident you commiserate ●…ur hard fate , and the unequal termes our ●…ffing antagonists impose upon us . they chalenge us to a paper duel in the most provoking language such as would set an edge upon the most obtuse coward . if modesty , an ambition for peace , or love of retiredness tempt us to decline the combate we are then posted up for cowardise ; but if we awaken so much spirit as to take up the gauntlet , and return the mildest answere , then trusty r. gets it in the wind , and immediately summons his hamlets , raises the whole posse ecclesiae , and spiritual militia upon us , and strangles the helpless infant in the cradle : a wary answere may sometimes steal of the forme before it 's started , then comes in mr. warden m. ( the common hunt ) whistles out the whole pack of his infallible beagles , pursues , runs down , catches the poor fugitive , and then you know to seize a book is the most effectual way to confute it : if one in a thousand has the happy success , to escape this inquisition , then the new smectymnuan divines , or convocation of the coffee-house will reply upon it , that they will , if it was pend with becoming seriousness and gravity , they have one reply . this is nothing but whining , or raving : if the style be brisk't with a dash or so of facetiousness , they have one word ready to confute it . this is drollery , burlesque buffoonry ! a blank imprimatur lay ready every week against poor robin , ( the doughty second of the friendly debate , and ecclesiastical polity ) creeps abroad ; and to all bis blasphemies , obscaenities , scurrilities , ribaldries , the priviledge underwrites , this may be printed : if mr. sh. goes big with some of his illegitimate socinian foolcries , a chaplain waits at the door to midwife the brat into the world : but if a piece comes out with little zeale for ceremonies , though in vindication of the old doctrine of the ancient church of england , it expects nothing but lydford law , first to be condemn'd , and afterwards perhaps to be tryed : against all which i see no other remedy , but silent complaints , or it may be this short rejoinder , tolle legem & fiat disputatio ! but i have already given you too much trouble , what remains must be mine own , to study to be master of a calm , serene , submissive frame of heart , which may enable me to suffer like a christian , for doing like a christian ! and if after all i cannot escape the lash of virulent tongues , and violent hands , yet at least i may not fall under the severer stings of my own conscience . i shall not need to beg of you to give this paper a leasurely , and impartial perusal , 't is so agreable to your own nature , and that strict law which your own wisdome has impos'd upon you , not to pass a final judgment upon any thing , before you have duely weighed all things ; that as i cannot suspect you will decline your constant , and fixed method in my single case , so i can hardly prevail with my self to ask that as a favour , which you in justice must needs grant . i shall only beg the pardon of this interruption given to your important concernes , and if you smile sometimes at my simplicity , let that be the sharpest correction , your affection will suffer you to give to honour'd sir ! your much obliged servant and most unworthy friend . g. w. the introduction considered , and the enquirer's expected advantag●…s from his comparison between the religion of the former and present times , seasonably disappointed . arhetorical introduction is nothing but a politick shooing-horn to draw on an incredible discourse more smoothly over the readers tender belief , in case he should prove too high in the instep : or you may please to call it a l●…sser wedge , prudently applyed to a knotty piece to make way for a greater ; for with such grave maxims , wise men arm themselves ; to drive that widge , not which is best in it self , but which will go . the learned verulam observes , that they are not those stincks , which the nostrils streight abhor , and expel , which are most pernicious ; but such air , as have some similitude with mans body , and so insinuate themselves , and betray the spirits . thus downright railing discourses are in part their own antidotes ; and we stop our noses at those fulsom eructations of some writers , who have been c●…rtainly fed a long time with carrion ; whereas these more plausible pe●…s recommended to our gusto by the vehicle of supple phrase , and glib expressions , and with all aromatiz●…d with a whiff of pretended charity , creep into the affections , and so wit●… ease betray the judgement ; for perit judicium cum re●… transit in affectum . when a controversy once gets f●…ir quarter i●… the ●…ffections , it will soon undermine , and blow up the understanding ; so hard it is to perswade , that it can be poyson which is sweet , or destructive to nature which accommodates it self to the critical humours of the palate . it has pleased , the enquirer ( upon mature advice no doubt ) to usher in the main body of his discourse , with a patherical comparison between the ancient state of christianity , and the pr●… ; and ●…e very affectionately laments the change : wherein he imitates the vain humour of our young travellers , who at their return unmeasurably praedicate the glories of forreign countreys ; but can find nothing but mean , and contemp●…le to b●…stow on their native soil : whether it be that they would be thought to know something more than those home-bred sn●…ls which never travell'd beyond the sight , or smell of their own chimneys , or that they presume to shelter themselves under that pretection which all great travellers are supposed to carry in their pock●…ts ; yet this is certain , that far-fe●…cht , and dear●…ht , will recommend a very trite , and ordinary ●…ory , to the acceptation and admiration of the many . the poets are never more transported into pleasing extasie , then when they are gotten into the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the golden age ; and then the rivers shall flow with pure nectar and milk ; the trees distil life honey ; and the prodigal earth , without cultivation gladly exhaust her spirits , and spin out her bowels to pay tribute to the satisfaction of mankind ; with a great many more pedantick good-morrows ; but when once that iron age appeared with its harder-face ; pandora's box was then open'd , and whole legions of furies invaded the world ; but above all , navigation and trade , those two implacable enemies to all religion , were invented , and i cannot sufficiently admire , that amongst all the reasons muster'd up against th●…se schismatical evils , this primitive one , that they came in with the iron age , escaped our enquirer's industry . as all good christians are ready to give the primitive times their due praises , and as willing to lament the degeneracy , and apostacy of the present , ●…o they look upon it as a piece of incivility no modest person would be guilty of , to spend all his frankincense in embalmin●… the memory of the ages dead , and gone ; whilst the present , lie●… like a rotten ●…arease stinking above-ground without the courtesie of a 〈◊〉 shrowd to cover its nakedness . a vanity ( to say nothing more ●…vere ) noted by wisdom it self , eccles. . . say not t●… , what is the cause that the former dayes were better than these : for thou dost not enquire wisely concerning this . had this genteleman concern'd himself to appear a wise and impartial , as well as a compassionate enquirer , he had never been guilty of that folly to pelt witty sentences and apothegms at his readers head . as boys do snow-balls , which with equal ease , and execution , may be retorted for thus might a vulgar ingeny form a panegyrick of the singular piety and exemplary holiness of those primitive christians . that they imployed their affections in keeping the old commandments , and never strained their inventions to find out new ones : they made no more duties , nor sins , than god had made and left the way to heaven no narrower , th . gate no straighter than they found it : they judged him a good man that squared his conv●…rsation , a pious man that modelled his devotions by that of ●…he word , though he knew ▪ no other rubrick : they contented themselves with gospel simplicity , and durs●… not be wise above what was written , least , they should prove learned fools : they understood what a spirit of bearing with , and forbearing of one another signified ; and the fathers of the church approved themselves to deserve that venerable character , who never dasht out their childrens brains , because their heads were not all of one block . that little wit which there is in these popular trappings , is only this . to single out the most eminent instances of refined sanctity in the primitive times , and from thence to take the general measures of their devotion , and then again to cull out the most infamous examples of prodigious villanies in the present age , and from thence to give us the idaea of our modern piety ; that is , to make a mis-shapen parallel between the flower of those , and the bran of these days . he that would make a right judgement of the wealth of a nation , must not visit the hospitals only : he that would take a just prospect of a nations fiety , must not inform his pencil from the records of new - gate , or the executions of tiburn : or if he would be satisfied in the sweetness of a city , i would not advise him to hang his nose over the vaults , and common-shores : or if he would take the exact height of the nations glory , let him not take instructions from some depopulated village : if we consider the best of the worst man , or the worst of the best man ; if we only view the mole or wart upon the fairest face , and some single feature in the most deformed , we may easily betray our selves in this false judgement ; that thersites was a great beauty , and absalom a gorgon : thus if we will denominate the lapsed ages from some eminent rarities of virtue : or the present , from some notorious examples of impiety , we shall never distinguish between the common-wealth of plato , and the dregs of romulus . suppose we , that some tribunitial orator , to exercise the gallantry of his pen in a theme so common ▪ and copious , wou'd set himself to decry the piety of that other world. let him copy out the treachery of iudas , exaggerate the apostacy of demas ▪ the heretical pravity of hymen●…us , and phil●…us ; let him enlarge upon the ambition of diotrephes , the blasphemies of cerinthus , the debaucheries of the nicolaitans ; and above all , be sure to plie the villanies of the gnostieks , with warm cloaths , and what a frightful m●…dusa would that age appear , if drawn to the life by those exemplars ? suppose once more that our orator had an itch to imploy his mercenary pen to scrape acquaintance with some tempting preferment ; to reconcile his lines to the genius of the present age , and imploy his talents where he shall not lose his oyl , and pains , let him with apelles take up on trust the particular excellencies of the most exemplary christians , let him borrow the single beauties of meekness , patience , humility , charity , faith , self-denyal , constancy ; that like the sporades lie dispersed and scattered up and down the world ; let him a masse all the individual worthinesses that are not yet banisht to heaven , and unite all these in one table , and such a draught perhaps shall not need to be ashamed to shew its face before the most exact pieces of proportion that are reserved in the archives of antiquity . and to speak a plain truth , if one tenth part of what these men ascribe to their great patrons in their dedicatory epistles were true , i could easily evince that there are very few who have the disposal of fat advowsons , but are more illustrious saints , than any of the primitive fathers , and perhaps we shall not need to except the twelve apostles . as he would scandalously reproach the stable fixed providence of god , that should conclude nature to be almost worn off her legs , her powers enfeebled , her spirits d●…bilitated from the precotious deaths of those who dig their graves with their teeth , and with the sheers of luxury and riot cut the thread of their lives before reason would say it was half spun out to its just length ; so would he no less maliciously blaspheme the steady reiglement , and superintendency of the only head , and governour of the church , with the efficacious influences of the h. spirit upon the souls of true christians , who from hypocrisie the mother , and her daughter apostacy of those who court religion for her dowry , shall conclude against the power of godliness in those christians , which is very conspicuous to all who are not concern'd in point of self-preservation , and self-justification to decry real holiness according to the primitive pattern , whilst they would be thought the great adorers of the primitive times . a practice well-becoming the legions of beelzebub , or the trainedbands of accaron , whose delight it is with the importunate flie , to fix upon the galled parts , exasperating sores with their venomous probos●…es , which would heal of themselves ; whilst prejudice will not suffer them to take notice of the entire , and sounder parts . what arguments our enquirer hath furnisht a theism with to wound religion , which he would pretend to heal , i shall not need to observe , they are a generation quick-sighted to espie , and take their advantages without a monitor : but when i hear him l●…ment , the palpable contra●…ion of the li●…es of the generality of christians now , to the rules of their own religion , and that few 〈◊〉 the measures of their actions , or the rule of their lives from the new testament . i expect to hear others ask ; why they should be more obliged to the humility , self-denial , sobriety recommended in the gospel , than their teachers ? who apparently conform themselves to the secular grandeur , and swelling pomp of the most licentious times : and if a plain truth might be spoken , without any ones taking snuff , there can be no more reason assigned , why the people should be tyed up to the rules of the n. t. in their lives , than church-men are to make it the rule , and rubrick of their wors●…ip : they who expect primitive submission , must give precedents of primitive moderation : and if they will exact and challenge the ancient manners , let us see in them the ancient examples : in vain shall mother crab command her ●…aughter to creep forward , if she confutes her instruction by creeping backward . if then ●…ters be really so retrograde , and gone off from their true centers ; yet it cannot become them to condemn the world for being wrong , who resolve it shall never be right . he that compla●…s things are not as they were , and yet disputes that they ought to be as they are ; shall never dispute me into a plerophory of his sincerity . they that confess a want of the ancient discipline , which yet they will not restore , and complain at the same time of a defect of the ancient piety , which they pretend they cannot remedy , do but weep over the vineyard which is laid wast , whilst they either pluck up the ●…edge , or refuse to repair the decayed mounds and fences ; or deplore an inundation of wickedness which is broken in upon us , and yet stand by the sl●…ce , and will not shut it down , nor suffer others to do it , because they have no ●…all to the work. all things in this lower world insensibly contract corruption , and with a silent foot decline from their original integrity ; so that every day furnishes us with new reasons to scowr off the encroaching rust , and restore them to their primitive brightness . he that ●…ows against the stream , must inc●…ssantly ply his arms , and oats , and work against the pressing importuni●…y of the current , or else shall find himself unawa●…es hur●…ied down the stream . — sic omnia ●…ato , in pejus ruere , ac retro sub●…apsa referri . virg. it was a seasonable question of a great person many years ago ; why the civil state should be purged , and restored , by good and whelsome laws , made every third or fourth year in parliament , pr●…iding remedies , as fast as time breede●…h mis●…s ; and contrariwise the ecclesia●…al state should still continue upon the dregs of time , and rece●… no alterations , now for this five and forty years , and more ? and i am sure its another five and forty years ; and upwards , since that complaint was made . it will then be very seasonable to complain of modern corruption , and cry up primitive devotion in these men , when they shall demonstrate a real willingness to reduce what is amiss into order , to make what is crooked straight , by the primitive rule of reformation . that the conversations of those early christians was commendable , i readily admit ; that there is a wretched degeneracy in our days , i sadly see , yet give me leave to note , and detest the h●…pocrisie of those who build s●…tely monuments to , and bestow ranting epitaphs upon the deceased piety of the former , and yet destroy or discourage the remaining piety of the present age : that pluck down the living temples of the spirit , that upon their ruines they may build their own palaces ▪ who first stigmatize primi●…e holiness with the modern brand of fanaticisme , and then persecute it ; and the same time canonize primitive superstition , for the christian religion , and then impose it . but our enquirer has mark'd out some of the peculiar glories of those elder times , and perhaps it may not be unpleasant to the reader to run over with me some of their excellencies . of old to be a christian , was to be all that 's holy , iust and good , &c. when i read these juvenile declamations in praise of vertue , i am ready to snat●…h the answer out of his mouth , who replyed in a case not unlike : quis enim unquam vituperavit ? i wonder who ever spoke one word against it ? but it 's easy to strain a string till it breaks , which being screwed up to its just height , would bear its part in the harmony . to be all that 's holy , all that 's iust , all that 's good ; is the glory of him whom 't is our duty to imitate , our folly to strive to equali●…e : in a limited sense , 't is the glory of those blessed ones , who are comprehensores ; to be really holy , truly iust , sincerely good , is pretty fair for those that pass under the notion of viatores : but if this were the character of primitive saintship●… the apostle paul must not have worn a red letter in our enquirers calender , who professes philip . . that he had not already attained , neith●…r was already perfect , ●…or counted himself to have apprehended ; but yet he r●…ched forth unto those things which were before ; he press'd towards the ma●… for the price of the high calling of god in christ iesus . . wherever religion came , it was a principle of purity in mens ●…arts , honesty in their 〈◊〉 , and peace 〈◊〉 kingdoms , &c. wherever religion came ? why religion may come , either in the declaration of it , or in the power ▪ and cordial acceptation of it . and i presume this enquirer will not assert , that wh●…er religion came in the former sense , it had those blessed effects in the purest primitive times ; and i am confident he ca●…ot deny , that wherever it comes , in the latter sense it produces those happy fruits even in the worst of times . but so easy it is to render trivial , and common matter plausible to the ear , whilst we are cheated with a charivary of sounding brass , or the ditty of a tinckling symbal . . but then the christian faith was not a trick of wit. in it self indeed it was not , nor is so now ; yet crafty knaves would venture then , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , cor. . . to dilure the pure w●…e of gods word with the watry mixtures of their own inventions , and we have those still that will be shewing such tricks of audaeious wit upon it now . what therefore he quotes from lactantius , any man may venture to say , and never hurt himself , or spoil his credit , give me a firce and con●…entious man ; and if he will but apply himself to th●… grace and institutions of the gospel , he shall become as m●…k as a ●…mb : let a covetous person hearken to the doctrine of the gospel , and he shall presently dispense his money . nay , for once i will say as bold a word as that comes to . give me the most inhumane , and barbarous persecutor , that without scruple of conscience ●…ats up gods people like bread ; and if he will but conform to the doctrine of the gospel , he shall be forced to take out a new lesson , and turn over a new leaf , and of a bloody saul , become a paul ; profess , or preach the same jesus whom he has so ●…utragiously persecuted : give me that church-man , that seeks his peoples goods more than their good ; he that heaps ossa upon pelios , and olympus upon both , one steeple upon another , and a third upon the former , as if he hoped either to scale or purchase heaven , to take it by storm or surrender ; and let him but attend , and give up himself to those documents , which he either preaches , or however reads , and he shall presently refund the price of souls , and errogate upon the members of christ , what he had once squeezed out of spungy consciences . but the heathens could boast as much as this comes to of their moral precepts . invidus , irac●…ndus , acer , vin●…sus amator : nemo ad●…ferus est ut non mitescere possit , si mode culinrae patientem commodet aurem . horat. . then the professors of christianity were all of one heart , and one lip ; there was then but one division of men : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , were the only sects the world was divided by : all good men were of one way , and all evil men of another . i have seriously considered for what juncture of time this eloquent period was calculated ; and when those happy days did shine , that might deserve so fair a character : and i conclude it must he some pre-adamitical state , commencing with the iulian period ; or at lawest that of paradise , when we may probably conjecture , that all good men were of one mind , because there was but one man there . but if the enquirer would acknowledge it as a favour , i would shew him how he might reconcile his rhetorick to truth , which is not often feazible : all good men were of one way , the way of holiness leading to happiness ; and all evil men were of another way , the way of sin and impenitency which leads to misery : but so it is still , and thousands of ages will never alter the case . but then to be of one heart and lip in the minuce circumstances of religion , that i never heard all men were , nor never expect they will be so on this side absolute persection . the roman church even in the apostolical times , was not without its heats and animosities : some there were , who being weak in the faith , discerned not their christian liberty , but confined themselves to salades , and judged others that went beyond their short tedder , as libertines , and men of a latitudinarian conscience , others who were strong , and understood that christ had emancipated them from the yoke of mosaical ceremonies , used their freedom , and these despised the rest , as a company of scrupulous coxcembs ; what fierce bandyings and jostlings there were in the church of corinth , whilst one party hangs out the eus●…gns of paul ; another shelters it self under the headship of peter ; and perhaps a third not afraid to entitle the prince of peace to their quarrels , and draw in christ himself to be the head of a faction : and yet these were all members of the same church ; and whilst agreeing in the substantials of religion , the apostle durst not strike in with one party , to crush the other , but maintains the flame of charity alive , amidst the sparks of their contentions in things remote from the foundation . that great promise that god would make his people of one heart , and one lip , is either not understood , or not fulfilled ; or if fulfilled in some measure , yet the more glorious accomplishment thereof reserved for times and persons of a more healing temper , and to be brought about by more proportionable means , than gibbets , halters , fire and baggot , viz. the pouring out the spirit of light and love. i think i may refer it to almost any one to judge ; whether he be not most ridiculously absurd , that shall so severely animadvert upon our present divisions , when he may at such casie and cheap rates heal them all , and yet will not . by some mens words you would think they hated divisions implacably ; but by their actings , you would think they lov'd them as desperately . let the primitive rule of reformation , of which the reverend dr. pierce has minded the forgetful age , be severely attended to ; to set what is crooked straight , by what was from the beginning ; let all the churches conform to it , and reform by it , and then will discord be as great a stranger amongst christians as peace is said to be at this day . lay but the weight and stress of unity upon necessaries , in the rest exercise charity ; and then , as we never had peace about the institutions of men , so we shall never have wars about the confessed institutions of christ. the christian religion numbers it amongst its peculiar glories , and choicest singularities , that it teaches us to maintain brotherly love , under differing apprehensions , and variety of practises , in those lesser matters , which neither weaken holiness , nor cross the design of the gospel . as god in the first creation formed men of differing s●…es , various statures , and multiform shapes and complexions , and yet none quarrel upon that account ; none is so apish to enact , the fox shall cut off his train , because the other has none . none will impose his own height as the just standard of all others , that he that is a hairs-breadth taller shall be adjudged a monster , and he that is as much lower shall wear the reproach of a dwarf : so in the new creation , it 's none of christ's design to reduce all sincere believers to an uniformity in every punctilio in judgment , and practise , but to perform a nobler , and more glorious work than this , namely to infuse such a spirit of love , and from thence such healing counsels , to inspire into all his disciples such moderation , such condescention , that notwithstanding these diversties they may all love as brethren , and keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace ; and if in any thing , any one be otherwise minded , to wait till the god of peace from the word of peace should reveal it unto him nor indeed is it any credit to the religion of our saviour , to be represented to the world , as if it taught so narrow and restrained a charity that would only embrace those that were cast in the mold with our own particular perswasions ; or to hang on a string only with those who jump in with our own points to a tag : an excellency , if it be one , to be found more eminently amongst the lyons in the tow●…r , the turks in their mosques , or perhaps of old in the african conventicle , ( much reviled , and as much 〈◊〉 who monopoliz'd salvation to them that were ex parte 〈◊〉 . but that which is the most pleasant in this period , is , to see what a world of truth our compassionate enquirer has massacred for the sake of one poor sorry climax . there are now ( says he ) almost as many opinions as men , as many parties as opinions , and as many religions as either . that almost may , i confess , do him some service ; it has in its days help'd many a lame dog over the stile : but surely there may be great diversities of opinions amongst them that are of the same religion ; he might as well conclude , that the spaniard and the french , are of two religions , because the one buttons his doublet upwards , the other downwards . i have been much taken with a decree that i sound in b. iew●…l , made by pope innocent iii. and might have become a far better man. quoniam in plerisque partibus , intra 〈◊〉 civitatem , & diocesim , permissi sunt populi diversarum linguarum , habentes sub und 〈◊〉 , vario●… ri●…s , & mores , distinctè praecipimus , ut pontifices hujusmodi civitatum , provid●…ant viros idoneos , qui secundum diversitates p●…ituum , & linguarum , divina illis officia celebrent , & sacramenta administrent . forasmuch as in most places , in the same city , and dioc●…ss , there are people of divers languages mingled together , wh●… under one , ●…and the same faith , doreta in differing ceremonies , and customs ; we do therefore expresly charge , and command the bishops of the said cities , and diocesses , to provide able p●…rsons ▪ who may celebrate amongst them the divine offices , and administer to them the sacraments , according to their differing languages and ceremonies . differing ri●…es , and observations , whilst left indifferent , will not make differing religions ; what they may do , when imposed as the necessary terms of communion , i shall not determine . nay , that there are as many parties , as opinions , will need not only some grains , but whole bushels of salt to keep it sweet : do we not see those of the same party indulge each other in their private conceptions ; and none more than they who most triumph in a pretended unity , and uniformity , who can agree in few things amonst themselves , and yet can sweetly accord to extirpate all but themselves . . time was ( says our enquirer ) when men sacrificed their lives in testimony to their faith , as frankly as since they have done to their passion , revenge , and ambition . and time is ( says another ) when men will sacrifice the lives of their brethren , and th●… peace of the church to the same waspish deities , and their own consciences to boot , to another idol known of old by the name of mammon . such elegant orations have we penn'd about time was , and time is , that i suspect they were indited from frier bacon's brazen head-piece . but more anger still ! then was charity counted as essential a part of religion , as censoriousness is now wich too many . this is witty enough in all reason ! and one would not stick to break a jest now and then , though it broke anothers head , or perhaps his own with the splinters but men are bad enough , and need not be worse than they are : censoriousness , is a crime too odious to be desended , and yet too notorious to be denyed , to cover a fault will make it two ; but to justify it , will make it many : but yet that any should make this censoriousness a part , much more an essential part of their religion , is an hyperbole too daring for my weak faith to meddle with . i have been considering into what place of religion they can possibly crowd it , whether into their creed or ten commandments : the papists have rob'd the people of just one half of a sacrament , and then to give them their due , to make them ample satisfaction , they have created five entire sacraments , de nevo ; they have craftily also purloyned the whole second commandment ; but then , because the laity have an ●…nkling that there were once ten of them , lest they should miss one out of the decalogue , they have very discreetly split the tenth into a couple : but where to wedge in this censoriousness was a great difficulty , and had continued so , had not some repealed the fourth commandment , as purely ceremonial ; and therefore if any where , there it must go . some perhaps may censure this censurer as guilty of more censoriousness , than half the world besides ; but such d●…not consider , that we must ●…llow for shrinking in the silk grograin phrase of rethoric●…ns ; what 〈◊〉 flat , humble , low , j●…une expression had it been to have said ; truly men are too c●…nsorious ! but now the stile mantles , and the language brisles , and burnishes , it comes off with a noble grace , it fills the mouth , and sounds augustly ; to say , they make it an essential part of their religion . . nothing was then thought too good , or costly , for the service of god , or religion ; men could not content themselves to serve god with that which cost th●…m nothing . it was one , a julian , or such another , that envied the costly vessels wherewith christ was served . ay! time was indeed , ( and pity it is , so good a time had not its wings clip'd from flying away ! ) time was , that mens money burnt their pocket-bottoms out , when the fire of purgatory made it too hot , for the most frozen usurer to hold ; but now alas , that time is past . — and for the brazen head , it fell down , and dash'd out its brains ! if these things be truly , represented , and that the glory of the primitive times did consist in pompous devotions , polished altars , guilded organs , sumptuous candlesticks , embr●…dered copes , silken cowles ; much good may it do them , we neither envy , nor shall imitate their inimitable excellencies if iulian envied the plate wherein christ was served , let him grow lean with envy ; but surely the chronicles are hugely wide , if these matters be not mi●…d : the cost and charges at which the primitive christians were in the service of their god , and saviour , was quite another thing ; they bestowed their hearts upon him , bore reproach for him , laid down their lives , and whatever was dear to them in defence of his truth ; silver , and gold they had none , and christ as little need of it . however , that age could not well upbraid the present with irreligion , if the true measure of gods worship be to be taken from its exterior garb , and splendor : as we cannot mock them with their wooden presbyters , so i am certain they could not us with wooden chalices ; at least in this one parti●…ar i expect he should retr●…ct , and freely own , that for costly worship ( which is the main ) we have theere out-vy'd the primitive times . i shall not much con●…rn my self to reflect upon that useful policy of those who have imposed upon the credulus world , a belief , that whatever is devoted to the priests , is therein consecrated to god , but yet i may silently admire the easiness of those ages that suffer'd themselves so tamely to be abus'd : and above all , i cannot but wonder at the chaldaeans , a people renowned for wisdom , that they could once be perswaded by the priests of bell , that his hungry deity had devoured all that good beef , and mutton , which their blind devotion offer'd at his altar . the truth is , their own belly was their god , and poor bell , bore all the blame of their gluteony . thus what they got over their idols back , they spend it under his , or upon their own infatiable paunches : it 's no new thing for sacred names to give patronage to avarice : thus the kite soars aloft , as if she designed heaven , when her steady eye is fix'd upon the prey below ; and glorious pretences to endow the holy mother church , had almost reduced the lay-world to beggery . . in those early days the christian assemblies drained the theatres . ay! but where 's the antithesis ? but now ( so it should have run ) the theatres have drained the christian assemblies : but that had been a repart●…e too close , and home for one that would be kind to himself . had the primitive preachers exposed their own religion , they had never drained the theatres ; and if our modern pulpits will drive that trade , the theatres will drain the water , if not draw the grist from their mill ; for they know how to expose religion more ingeniously , and more effectually . but what other issue must we expect , when some clergy-men shall frequent , others plead for , and justifie the play-houses ; when the bears , with their decent , and harmonious bagpipes ; the fencers with their ratling drum , shall find fair quarter , shall have free ingress , egr●…ss , and r●…gress , when yet some christian assemblies are disturbed , and broken in pieces . we poor folk , are apt to think , that we may venture a step or two nearer the brink of the pit , than our teachers , and take a little more latitude than our guides ; for they are well paid for their gravity , whilst we must be forced to be sober and austere at our own proper cost and charges . it has been an old observation : if ministers be merry , the people wil be mad ; if they drink , their people will be drunk ; if they argue for the lawfulness of theatres , and other such nurseries of good learning , the people without scruple will frequent them : and then have a care in good earnest , left the stage plunder the pulpit ; and the theatre drain the chistian assemblies , more effectually than the conventicles . . the holy men of those times that approach'd our saviour , had as it were some rayes of his divinity upon them , and their faces shone , &c. and would he indeed have these times talk of rayes , and beams , and shinings of face ? on purpose perhaps , because they want new matter for ecclesiastical burlesque and canonical drollery ! one such expression as this dropt from the tongue or pen of a dissenter , had been enough to equip out a whole fleet of friendly debates for a summers expedition : but yet he has qualified it pretty well ; they were but some rayes ; and as it were some rayes : and that may mollify as dangerous a word as this , and save the primitive times a satyr . . a christian church was then a colledge of holy , and good men : incomparable proof , that all churches were either then cathedrals , or at least collegiate : and truly they might have continued so still , had not remissness of discipline in just causes , and severity of discipline in slighty causes endangered to make them a don of thieves . if the church doors were strictly guarded , and the church windows narrowly watch'd , that none might come in by the one , nor climb in by the other , that are unquali●…ed : if simoniacal buyers , and sellers , were soundly whip'd out , which have bribed their admission by the golden key ; and none denied entrance that claime admission upon christs terms , such as can produce testimonial letters , from a sound faith , and holy conversation , the church might still be a colledge of good and holy men : but if some must be forced in , in spight of their teeth , though as unfit as ignorance , and prophaness can make them ; if like the americans they must be compelled to go to heaven upon pain of death ; if others be excluded by the palizadoes of ceremonies , however meet materials , for such a constitution , never hope the church should be a holy colledge , but a lazarhouse ; for they that are of no religion , will be of any religion , rather than be undone for being of none ; and they that are really of any religion , will endeavour to go to heaven in better company . and such were the beauties of the prime-primitive confess●…rs ; but now there is a sad regeneracy ; and that the rend●…r way not suspect i envy our authors abilities , i shall give him a tast of his excellencies in exposing the mod●…rn piety . . now dry opinions are taken for faith. oh what a lucky hint had here been for one that was so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be ingenious ? for dry opinions ( you know ) are very 〈◊〉 matter , which will catch at the smallest spark , and therefore must needs set the whole world in a flame . but . men have been busy in making new creeds , and have forgotten to practise the old. whence note for your learning , and singular e●…ification , that though some mistake the creed for a prayer , yet it will serve without sensible error for the ten commandments : and yet perhaps pra●…ng a creed is not so easy a matter as he may imagine : let men but believe their credenda , and practise the agenda , and they shall never be reproach'd by me , for not practising their creed , whether it be old or new. i am very consident the innocent reader takes it for granted , that the enquirer has all this while been comparing the piety of ancient days , with that of the present , as i●… stands at home amongst our selves : but he 's meerly guiled ; for all this gawdy eloquence has been spent upon forrein countries . such ( says he ) is the condition of the greek , and latin churches . there 't is , that they are so busy in making new creeds that they have forgotten to practise the old. just as if one of iobs messengers should cry out in the streets , fire ! fire ! and on startled at the alarm , asks , where ? where ? oh at 〈◊〉 escur●…al ! at the escurial ! in spain , near madrid ! nay then we are well enough ! i was afraid it had been my next neighbour ucalegon ; and therefore i hope we may have time enough to remove our goods . but reader , be not too secure , for the sparks are already flown over into england : if we come nearer home ( says he ) i doubt we shall not find things much better . there is one piece of iustice , or charity , which i must here demand , or beg of my reader ; and ' ti this . that if the enquiter has a priviledge to suppose his searfire beyond the seas , i may be allowed the priviledge to suppose , that my poor bucket was bestowed there also ; and that though the tragedy of mustapha was acted in london , yet the scene was laid at constantinople . that the brittish churches were so famous for religion in the first times of their plantation ; i am right glad to hear , and hope the news is true : but the evidence , and the consequence do both exceedingly trouble me : the former is slender , that if we touch it not very gingerly , like the apples of sodom , it will moulder into dust , and the latter is so dangerous , that it concerns him to handle it gently , lest it prick his fingers . and . for the evidence ; if the presence of the british bishops at the council of arles , be his best proof , it must proceed thus . the british bishops were present at the council . their presence must presume their subscription to the articles ; their subscription must imply a virtual , and implicit consent of the british clergy ; and then the consent of the clergy must involve the approbation of all the churches : and lastly , the churches approbation of the articles must infer , that they practised their creed , and that their lives were so eminent for holiness , that they did as it were shine with some rayes , or beams of divinity . and here is a teame of connected inferences , that if one fails , the conclusion will be left in the mire . and therefore he has another proof to help it out at a standing pull : at the time of the nicene council , britain was accounted one of the six diocesses of the western empire . and then no rational creature can desire clearer demonstration , that they were eximiously holy ; for if they were of any diocess , first , or sixth , it makes no great matter , provided it be but of the western empire , it will infallibly conclude their piety ; though it had been more clear in my mind , had it been a diocess not of the empire only , but the church . and then . for the consequence , that seems very perilous ; for if the presence of the british bishops at the council at arles implies their subscription , and that subscription the consent of the clergy , the clergies consent the approbation of the people ; and that infers their holiness : then ( say some ) the presence of the english divines at the synod of dort , and their subscription to the articles , will imply the consent of the clergy , and the consent of the clergy the approbation of the english church ; and there 's no remedy for it that i can see . if the presence of the one will evince the kingdoms sanctity ; the presence , and subscription of the other will much stronger evince the kingdoms orthodoxy : for subscription is a good step beyond bare presence , and so our premises are stronger ; and sanctity is a good step beyond truth in the understanding , and so our conclusion is more modest . we are now coming to lower times , to the catholick times of popery : and religion holds very good still , and runs ●…lear : but there 's no help for it , he must tilt it , or it will run dregs in the reformation . the inhabitants of this island ( says he ) have not been more famous for martial prowess , than for sincere piety , and devotion : for polydore virgil , an italian , and erasmus a dutchman , both of the roman communion , and ( therefore be sure ) competent witnesses , affirm there was more true devotion , and sincerity of religion in this church , than in any one place of the world besides : auditum admissi , risum teneatis ? i have known a sober horse break bridle upon a far less provocation : we will for once , to gratifie this enquirers longing , suppose that there was more true piety , and sincere devotion amongst the english papisis , than among the albigenses , and wald●…nses , than in 〈◊〉 , or wherever else the gospel had begun to dawne ; but that i 〈◊〉 vir●…il , and erasmus , should be competent witnesses , and th●…refore competent witnesses , because of the roman communion , does a little ●…tumble me ; and that because it has ever been as the 〈◊〉 , so the religious practise of those in communion with rome , to magnifie those in communion with her , and as much to depretiate the holiness of all those that had once withdrawn themselves from her corruptions . the argument , such as it is , proce●…ds thus . they that were of the roman communion , must need●… be 〈◊〉 competent witnesses of the truth of the devotion , and si●…ccrity of ●…he religion of those of the same communio ; but such , and so qu●…lified were this polydore virgil , and this erasmus , and therefore they must needs be supposed test●…s 〈◊〉 , comp●…tent witnesses of the truth of the devotion and sincerity of the religion of those of the same communion , and such at that time was the church of england : and the strength of the argument depends upon some old stable maximes , which like the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are never to be denied : as that , ask his f●…llow whether he be a thief ? and birds of a feather are impartial in ●…lazoning one anothers vices . but yet if he will define piety , by superstition , and religion by blind zeal , and devotion by hood-wink'd obedience , charity by a merit-mongering humour , laying out it self in uncommanded fopperies , idle self-macerations , idolatrous masses , fool-hardy pilgrimages , dirges , trentalls , obits , requi●…ms , and such like trash , and trumpery ; i will not contend . let erasmus , and his fellow polydore pass for irresragable evidence , and the piety of those days out-shone that of their contemporaries , and successors amongst the reformed christians , quantum interignes luna minores . well , but yet the universal pastor observed the sheep of england to bear such good fleeces , and so patiently to submit to the shearer , that he kept a vigilant eye over his flocks , and his vigilancy was rewarded with the golden fleece . this indeed quite shames the present age , and dazles our eyes with the lustre of those brightter times . and here we are ●…quainte ▪ with two notable secrets , . that the piety of the english sheep , th●…n lay very much in patiently submitting to the s●…carer . and surely were men but ingenuous to confess a known truth , they could have no cause to reproach the present piety of the english sheep upon that account . what they could desire more of the poor sheep then the fleece , unless they would fl●…a off the skin , and eat the flesh , i cannot imagine , and that can be no profound policy in the pastor ; for the fleece of the living . will give more then the skin of the dead ; it s much better husbandry to strip them yearly of their coats , then once for all to cut their throats ; and it has past for wholsome doctrine in the days of yore . boni pastoris est p●…cus tondere , non 〈◊〉 . but . another deep point is this , that the vigilancy of the pastor consists in looking strictly after the fleece of the flock . in which particular i know no reason why the vigilancy of former times should be so idolatrously predicated above that of our own . we are come at length to the times of the reformation ; and whilst he engages in a just , and sober commendation of them , there 's n●…ne shall more chearfully keep pace with him , provided always he ●…allop not too fast , and ride us quite out of breath : and the glories of our english reformation were as followeth . . it was the most orderly , not brought in with tumult , and sedition , as most changes are . let god alone have the glory of so great a mercy ! and such was this ; though indeed the excellency of a reformation , lies not only , or chiefly in the still and silent manner of its introduction , but in its harmony with the primitive rule of reformation , which is to reduce all things to their divine patterns and originals : peace is mainly valuable for purity ; and the freedom from noises of axes and hammers in the building of solomons temple , was , that they might more severely attend to their archetype . where god gives reformers more peace , he expects from them more purity ; and if they may work the safer ; he expects they should work the better : it were great ingratitude to go●… if we should account our gospel cheap , because it came to us so : and as much vanity to boast how our ancestors got it , unless we can produce it as pure as they left it to us peaceable . . it was the most moderate , and temperate . moderation is a virtue very much commended by those who never intend to exercise it . as an old griping usurer commends his coin so highly , and loves it so dearly that he will not part with one penny . the reformation might be moderate in a two sold acceptation ; either first , moderate in our departure from error and corruption ; or secondly , moderate , and temperate in our approaching to the word of god : now to resolve to be moderately reformed either of these ways , ought not to be recorded amongst the glories of a church : there are few that would be moderately rich , moderately great ; they fear no excess that way ; all the danger is , least we should be too immoderate , and unreasonable in obeying christs commandments , and conforming to the aposto●…cal churches , the measure of our love to christ , is to love him without measure ; the degree of our obedience is to obey in the highest degree , and the bounds of our conformity to the gospel , to set our selves no bounds but what christ has set us ; gods praise can suffer no hyperbole , his love need fear no paroxysme : as he that presumes ●…e has grace enough , may do well to question whether he has any grace ; so he that is so confident he is reformed enough , shall tempt others to suspect he is very little reformed : there 's more danger of being lukewarm in reforming , than scalding hot ; and though it be easie to be over righteous in imposing our own inventions , it will be impossible to be so in imitating gods prescriptions : but amongst all the kinds of moderation that were in the reformation ▪ one small quantity more of moderation towards their brethren would have sweetned all ; and yet they say that wanted not at first , but is since much decayed . but the moderation of the first reformers appears . § . in that they did not purge out the good , because it had been formerly abused , as the humour of some is . this indeed argued their singular prudence , and discerning spirit : but yet there are some things not evil in themselves , but made so by abuse , which without imputation of humorists they might have purged out . and this was hezekiah's humour , ( if it must be so called ) who made the brazen serpent a nchushtan ; and scarcely that , when once it had been abus'd to idolatry , which yet had more to plead for it self , than those good things , of which our enquirer is so tender . i mean the signature of an old ius divinum . whatever is good in it self , or made so by divine positive law , and shall afterwards be abused to superstitious ends and uses , we must take some pains to scowr off the filth , and file away the rust , and to wash away the soil that it has contracted , and to vindicate it to its native beauty , and integrity ; but for the inventions of men , i know no such service we owe them , to lie always scrub●…ing , and scowring , and rinsing , and when all 's done , their obstinate , and inveterate leprosie , like that of gehazi , will never be fetch'd out : and this was the humour too of bishop andrews . serm. on phil. . . whatsoever is taken up at the injunction of man , when it is drawn into superstition , comes under the compass of the brazen serpent , and is to be abolished . and the catholick moderator , who was a greater friend to moderation , than reformation , was partly of this humour too : when the occasion of a humane cons●…itution ●…ases , and the abuses remain so great ; it 's no time to wink at them any longer . to stand pecking at abuses which have eaten themselves into the substance of an old custom ▪ is like the endless labour of weeding ivy out of an old rotten wall , the only way is to dig down the wall it self : nay the great legislator of the iews , commanded them utterly to abolish all the instruments , and utensils of idolatry , and ▪ ●…ot to dally in lopping , and pruning , but to chop them up by the roots : thus lev. . . after the doing of the land of aegypt ye shall not do , and after the doings of the land of canaan ye shall not do , neither shall ye walk after their ordinances ; ye shall do my iudgments , and keep my ordinances . and whether he will call this a humour or no i know not . but this i know , r. moses , b●…n . maim●…n , with whom agre●… no small names , assures us , that this was one reason of many negative precepts given to the iews , as not to round the corners of their beards ; not to wear a garment of linsey-woolsey , nor to sew their ground with divers seeds ; not to eat the fruit of their trees for the three first years , &c , namely that they might not symbolize with the idolatrous nations . nay further , if 〈◊〉 w a humour , the church of england i not ashame●… , was not ashamed to own her self of it , in her discourse prefix'd to the liturgy . the most weighty cause of the abolishment of certain ceremonies was their abuse : she knew well ▪ that what was bred in the bone , would never be got out of the flesh ; that which was naught in the egge , will never be good in the bird. it 's not washing , but burning , that must cleanse the garment spotted with the flesh. and therefore she routed whole legions of these pompous trinkets , and had doubtless scattered the reserves , and brought up her practise , to her own rule , had not some tender hearted moderate persons stood by , wringing their hands , and weeping for tammuz ; oh deal gently , deal gently with the poor distressed ceremonies , for their fathers sake . § . another specimen of their moderation is : that they did not abolish a venerable order , or office in the church , for the ill manners of them that bore it . what venerable order , or office this should be , because he is not so open-hearted as to acquaint us , i have something else to do with my conjectures than to throw'em away upon such desperate uncertainties : if it was an order of christs institution , the ill manners of those that bore it , might well warrant the thrusting them out of the office , but not the office out of the church : but if it could not justly plead his authority , no pretense of usefulness to some imaginary ends of i know not what unity , and order , will conciliate to it the honourable epithete of venerable , or secure its station in the church of christ : as christ , the only law-giver of his church has made abundant provision of offices and ordinances in his church , to suit and answer all the necessities of believers ; so of officers too , to discharge those offices , and administer those ordinances , and there is no need of mens over-officiousness to supply his pretended defects either in the one kind , or in the other . indeed we pray , that it would please the lord of the harvest to thrust in more labourers for number , but not for kind : they who shall assume to themselves a power to create new offices , may , by parity of reason , claim an authority to erect new officers ; for it 's a thousand pities , that any but humane officers should be put to the toyl to celebrate humane ord●…nances ; or that any of christs ministers should be put ●…o the drudgery to administer any but christs own ordinances ; for indeed they have their hands full of work enjoyned them by their lord , and master , and can neither spare time no●… strength supernumerary to expend in super●…uous exercises : as christ has annex'd no promise of his presence to any but his own servants , so no promise of success to any but his own services : he that runs upon christs errand , his master will bear his charges ; he that runs upon his own head , or the heads of others , for ought i know must bear his own : it 's a scandalous impeachment of the unquestionable love christ always bore to his church , once to imagine that he has not either provided work enough for his labourers , or that he has not apportioned labourers enow for his work. the same reproach will it be to his absolute sovereignty over the church , either to pretend to supply his defects , and shortnesses , or to institute n●…w officers , and offices , which plainly imply it . if it were only vitium person●… , the removing the scandalous , had been a plaister broad enough for the ●…ound ; bu●… i●… it proves vi●…um r●…i , you may purge all the officers into their graves before you can purge away the evil of the office , which like tartar , is so ●…aked , and crusted to the sides of the vessel , that till you knock off the hoopes , and take the frame in pieces , no art of man will free the cask from a tang , at least of the old mustiness . § . they were not of opinion ▪ that the church could not arrive at primitive purity , unl●…ss it were reduced to primitive poverty : purity , and poverty , i must needs say do rhime so sweetly , that no wise man would have lost the melodious ●…hime of two such harmonious words for a small matter : but what if the church never propounded the primitive purity for her pattern ? if she did , ●…he has run all the things in controversie out of distance ; yet this i will say , that if ever the church be reduced to primitive purity , without some such humbling providence , and refining dispensation , which pur●…ed the primitive christians from their ●…ross ; or the effusion of such measures of grace , humility , self-denial , condescension ▪ as may answer primitive poverty , very wise men , and her very good friends are much mistaken . § . their moderation appears in this . that though they found ●…ome ceremonies then used that were superstitious ▪ and dangerous , and thought too many burdensome , yet concluded not all decency in the service of god was popish . it had been a conclusion wild to ●…rensie , to infer that all decency was popish , because some ceremonies were superstitious : nay , though they all were so , and had accordingly been 〈◊〉 : but this had been a sober and moderate conclusion , that because all popish ceremonies were superstitious and dangerous , the worship of god might be decent without them : gods service was decent before they were born , and would be so again , if they were all in their graves , as well as dead , and rotten . and if those decent ceremonies had a decent bu●…ial , it were an honour as great as those of a nobler extract , 〈◊〉 divine ceremonies had bestowed on them : i would seriously enquire of our serious enquirer . . if some ceremonies were abolished , because they were superstitious , and therefore dangerous , why all the rest were not served with the same sawce , that were equally , or more superstitious , and therefore more dangerous ? i think it 's demonstrable , that all the superstition that ever stuck to holy water , cream , salt , spittle , oyl , was ●…nnocency , to that horrid abuse of the sign of the cross. but . 〈◊〉 the superstitions of the remaining ceremonies were capable of separation from them , why might not a little oyl , and elbowgreace have been bestowed on the rest , and their lives saved ? 〈◊〉 seems most of the ceremonies were knock'd o th' head , because they would not go to the charge of rearing them . . if many ceremonies were a burden , whether were not half of that many , half as great a burden , and so pro rato ? and if so , where was the churches commission to impose any unnecessary burden upon the necks of disciples . . if some of the old superstitious ceremonies ( when well scraped , and wiped ) were lest for decency , and comeliness in the worship , why where not the rest scummer'd up , that the worship might be more decent ? for i●… two or three innocent ceremonies will add a decency , two or three hundred will have burnish'd it to such a lustre , as must have either ravish'd , or blinded the eyes of all beholders ? . who shall insallibly assure us just how few will be no burden , and the imposing of them no sin ? and y●…t ●…ne more shall make them all burdensome , and so the imposition of them to become sinful ? or just how many to an unite will render the worship decent ; and the adding of one more render all deformed ? if the church ; then why might not the church of rome in her days have determined the question ? especially seeing that of all pretenders , she alone challenges an infallibility , which is the most considerable thing in this case , when the church must carry her hand even , and cut by a thred , between decency , and indecency ; a burden , and no burden ? . if the church has a power to impose a load , ( though a lesser load ) has she a power to communicate strength , though it be but little strength , to bear that little ? especially seeing the burden here must not lie on the back , but the heart ; not on the shoulders , but the conscience : she that pleads an authority to institute , can she produce a power to bless what she institutes to any spiritual end ? this encouragement we have from christ , whose perogative it is to impose ; that he will give grace to bear what he imposes , and thereby make his yoke casie , and his burden light . qui mihi est oneris author , idem erit ad●…inistrationis ad●…tor , said leo : and so austin . da quod jubes , & jube quod vis . if any church could incline the heart towards her testimonies ; or give a heart to keep her statutes , iudgments , and commandments , and do them ; or make her commandments not grievous : let her multiply ceremonies , till she is weary , and spare not ; let her use her discretion , and we shall use nothing but submission . but this dead weight sinks our spirits quite . . whether is not such an assuming power exceeding dangerous in its consequences ; for upon this principle the church may impose a round thousand of ceremonies , if she will say , and think them decent , and the crow thinks all her young ones white , and all are sond of the brats of their brains , as well as the issue of their bodies ; yes , and ten thousand more , if she will but decree they are not burdensome ; which she is the less a competent judge of ; because superiours who command , do not feel that load , which inseri●…urs who must obey , do groan under : so much of the moderation of the reformation . . the english reformation was the most perfect , and compleat in its kind . the perfection , and compleatness of a reformation , is to be taken from its agreement with its rule , and idea , which ( say we ) is th●… word of god , and to this we do unmovably adhere , till we have good security that they have found out a better : all perfection with us , is but defection , and all compleatness , fancy , which is not measured by that rule : it will therefore be the great glory of the english reformation to acquit it self well in this point , wherein our enquirer will endeavour our satisfaction . . for doctrine . this church retains ( says he ) the most ancient doctrine , and soundest confession of i aith founded upon the h. scripture : that the 〈◊〉 . scriptures are the foundation of faith , we gladly hear some intimation of , and shall lay up the concession against another time , whether the church has attended to this rule in her doctrinals , belongs to another discourse . . for government : he tells us , the english reformation retains the most primitive church-government . these things , are wisely , and warily penn'd , ( thought i : ) a scripture creed , and a primitive church-government ! confession sounded on h. scriptures , and government founded on a word called primitive ; why shhould we not have a confession sounded on something else than scripture , as well as a government ? or why not a church-government founded on the scripture , as well as the doctrine ? so that he has provided well for the doctrine ; but for the government it may sinck or swim for any relief it can expect from our enquirer , except a hard word will do it : primitive antiquity , is one of those stulta amuleta quae controversi●… collo appendunturut armilla maleficarum ; potent charms . and pompous enchantments not to cure , but conjure down a controversie ; for since 〈◊〉 may be taken in a latitude of three , 〈◊〉 , five , or ( 〈◊〉 time of need ) six hundred years after christ , it would be very hard if any crotchet , humour , and fancy had not set up for it self in that time , which shall be enough to entitle it to the warrantie of the primitive times : let him therefore prove it scriptural , and so jure divino , and he has said more to me , than if he had run up its pedigree through a dozen or more centuries : but is not this short word [ the most primitive church-government ] a foundation too narrow for that high boast , p. . that our church is of a sound , and healthful constitution , i think i have sufficiently , though briefly manifested in the introduction . briefly and suffciently ? the two most desirable qualifications in argument and evidence that may be ! and surely it must de brief enough , which is comprehended in this one sentence : the english reformation retains the most primitive church-government : but whether it be sufficient or no , let the reader look to that . . for the liturgy . that is ( as he thinks ) the best accommodate to reconcile , and unite mens devotions . and how well it has answered its end , and the design of its institution . i shall say the less , because others will say the more ; some say it has distracted more devotions , than ever it united : and others ; that it has accommodated them as much as could be expected from a humane contrivance , that had no more of christs authority for its institution , and therefore could expect no more of his blessing for the success . that this , or any other liturgy was an expedient appointed by christ to unite mens devotions , he may explain , and attempt the proof of at his best leisure : but that christ has not been wanting to his church in leaving her the proper and sufficient means for the advancing of devotions , and uniting affections we are satisfied , and so fully contented , that we shall seek no further . that protestants in the days of edw. vi. ●…d rejoyce in the liturgie , dissenters will not deny : an english liturgie left free , was better than a latin mass : half a loaf , was much better than no bread : to them who had been in such da●…kness , and bondage , any light , any liberty were most grateful . the first original of liturgies ( as is express'd in the preface to our own ) was , that the whole bible should be read over ( or the greatest part of it ) once every year ; intending thereby , that the clergie , and especially such as were ministers of the congregation should by often reading , and meditation of gods word , be s●…rred up to godliness themselves , — and further , that the people , by daily hearing of the holy scriptures read in the church , should continually profit more in the knowledge of god ; — but these many years past , this godly , and decent order of the ancient fathers ●…ath been●… so alter'd , b●…oken , neglected , by planting in unce●●ain 〈◊〉 , legend●… ▪ responds , verses , vain repetitions , commemorations , and ●●nod●…ls , that &c. and moreover , whereas st paul would have such language spoken to the people in the church , as they might understand ; and have profit by hearing the same ? the service 〈◊〉 this church of england hath been read in latin to the people , which they understood not , so that they have heard with their ears only , and their heart , spirit , and mind have not been edified thereby . from hence we are evidently taught , first , that the true original of liturgies , was only an order for the methodical reading of the scriptures for the benefit of an ignorant clergy , and sottish people ; and secondly , that that wherein the reformers gloried to have out-done popery , and edified the people , was , that they had procured them their wo●…hip in a language understood . when therefore i hear these popular harangues : how happy this church and nation was in edw. vi. days : in what glory and majesty the prince reigned , in what peace and concord the subjects lived , how devout , and pious an age that was : i am ready to think , that as the graves of patients do hide the faults of physicians , so the follies and vanities of those days are buried in their own graves too ; for dr. heylin had almost perswaded me . that the death of that prince was none of the infelicities of the church of england . but our enquirer has set him right again ; and his days were the golden age of reformation , his reign the glorious pattern of peace , and concord ; and so shall continue till the next occasion those men have to reproach the reformation , and then edw. vi. days shall be an infelicity again , and as great a prejudice to religion as ever . so easie it is for a cunning orator with his orient colours , to fill up the wrinkles of a furrow'd face , and again to deform the most beauteous complexion , just as it pleases master painter . the total summe of all , is thus much . the primitive times were glorious for piety ; in polydore virgil's days , and those of popery , there was a great deal of sincere devotion ; in the beginning of the reformation , affairs were in an excellent posture , but now all 's degenerated , and a lukewarm neutrality , and lazy indifferency , has over-spread the face , and crept over the heart of religion . and what should be the matter ? what is the reason of this sad change ? why ! . men are not so fond of ceremonies as they used to be , and people have resolved against the building of churches , and endowing them . but let us hear him lament the change . all zeal then , cold indifferency now . then all harmony , now all discord . then the society of the church was so venerable , that to be cast out by excommunication , was as dreadful as to be thunder-smitten : but now it 's become a matter of some mens ambition to be cast out . then few , or none , but frequented the church ; now the church is become the conventicle , and the cinventicle the church , as to frequency . then the liturgie , and publick prayers were counted a principal part of gods worship ; now they a●… nothing without a sermon . then there were few things that were scrupled ; but now it s become the great point of sanctity to scruple every thing . it will be time for me , and the reader , to take our leave of this learned introduction , when we have observed , and returned a few things . . that the true reason why there is more discord now , than at that time , is , because there are more difficult terms of peace , and concord . several things were then in use , which were not imposed : many were permitted to discharge their ministerial functions without subscription to the new terms , and conditions of communion : it was pretty well in queen elizabeths reign , before a. 〈◊〉 . whitguift could strain conformity to it's height ; and yet they are now screwed much higher . restore indifferent things to their ancient liberty , and we shall soon arrive at our ancient amity . . that excommunication has so much lost its former authority upon the conscience , and become so like a brutum fulmen , is to be imputed to these reasons . . because that thunderbolt is darted out for meer trifles , some have been delivered over to satan for a groat ; now it 's a sure maxime . that nothing will bring a law sooner into disuse , and contempt , than the disproportion of the penalty to the offence : it will be difficult to perswade weak understandings , that that can be of god which has but one sort of punishment for all sorts of crimes , and the same rigour for vertues , as for vices : to be delivered up for a penny , exposes to the same inconvenience as if it were a pound ; and it shall fare as ill with him that scruples at a ceremony , as with him that commits whoredom ; and some say , the former has more evil in it than the latter , though you throw in drunkenness , swearing , and half a dozen more such into the reckoning . . it has been made an engine , to gratifie some mens passions , and exonerate their spleen upon the innocent ; and nothing renders iupiters thunder more despicable , than when the wretched salmoneus shall dare to imitate it . . it has been so frequently practised in pecuniary matters , that men discern it not to be a spiritual weapon ; money has been a lock to shut men out of heaven , and a key to let them in again . . they that have been ejected by that 〈◊〉 , find no evil consequences in their ejected state . in the primitive times it was therefore terrible , because christ abbetted his own ordinance , administred for his own spiritual ends , in his own regular way ; but now men dare not trust christ with his own work , but have supplied his vengeance with a significavit , a writ de excommunicato capiendo , delivering men over to the sheriff , whom thereby they call the devil by craft , but otherwise the excommunicated person cats his bread , and drinks his wine with a chearful heart , because the lord has accepted him . . that so few frequent the church , is , because they have either been scoffed , or railed , or beaten out of doors , or barred out by conditions , not comporting with scripture rule , and warrant men know that christ must be their judge ; to him they must give an account of their souls , and worship , in the great day ; and therefore they are willing to worship god according to his will revealed in his sacred word , unless any can give them counter-security to save harmless , and indemnifie them before his dreadful tribunal ; and if they must suffer for such resolved adherence to a scriprure religion , they have only this humbly to reply . daveniam imperator , tu carcerem , ille gehennam . christ threatens a hell ; the law only menaces a goal . . that the liturgy was then counted a principal part of gods worship , we cannot help : we judge , that none but god can make the least , much less a principal part of gods worship : god only knows which way he will be worship'd with acceptation : and it is our grear happiness , that he has acquainted us with that will of his in his word , to which we apply our selves for our directory , and are not sollicitous about apocryphal rubrics . as to matters concerning religion , nature teacheth no further , than the obligation to the du●…y ; but leaves the particular determination of the manner of obedience to divine positive laws : so we are instructed from the author , of origin . sacrae , p. . . that it is now become the great point of sanctity to scruple every thing ; was not spoken with that regard to honesty and truth , as might have been expected from a compassionate enquirer : they scruple being holier than christ has commanded them , wiser in matters of religious worship , than the scriptures are able to make them : they scruple giving up their consciences to those whom they see no great reason to trust , till better evidence be given how they regard their own : they scruple all retreats in reformation , and all retrograde motions towards evangelical perfection and purity ; and they with our enquirer would scruple a little more this overlashing , that it 's an essential part of some mens religion to be censorious ; and a great point of sanctity to scruple every thing . let him then continue to lament the change , and we will pray that god will make a more through change , reducing doctrine , worship , discipline to the word of god , the only rule of reformation . part . i. chap. i. a sober enquiry into the apocryphal causes of non-conformity , pretended by the serious enquirer : st. augustin , and the synod of dort vindicated ; the articles of the church of england cleared . the learning , preaching , and conversations of the n. c. modestly justified , against the scandalous reflections of the pretended compassionate enquirer , but without recrimination . after a very short epistle , ( or to speak canonically , that which stands instead of the epistle ) to very little , and a tedious introduction to much less purpose , the enquirer falls full drive upon the causes of the separation from the english reformed church . in imitation of the french embassadors musicians , who would needs give the grand seignior a fit of mirth ; but were so cruelly tedious in tuning their fiddles , that the sultans patience was quite worn out , and he could not be perswaded to hear the first lesson . now the causes are either apocryphal , and pretended , or canonical , and real ; and it 's a wonder to me , when his invention was once broached , that he did not feign this for another cause of separation , that such heterogeneous causes should be bound up together in the same volume , and covers . for these apocriphal causes , let it not beget another scruple , in your captious heads , whether they are pretended by dissenters , or only pretended by this enquirer . to be amongst their pretences ; for it will come all to one , there being some collateral matters , which it shall go hard but he will entice , or force into the discourse , or else the reader might have sung wh●…p barnaby ! and retreated to his recreations , the longest holy day in the year . . the very first of these pretended causes , is some blame they lay upon the doctrine of the church , and the main ( if not the only ) thing excepted against in this kind is , that the thirty nine articles are not so punctual in defining the five points debated in the synod of dort as they could wish . just as your common hackney versifiers , or water poets , make one verse for the reason , and the other for the rhime sake , so was this objection mounted against the doctrine of the church for the sake of his precious answers , wherein he will find or make as handsom an occasion , as impertinency will admit to vilifie st. austin , and the synod of dort. it will be extreamly difficult to give our enquirer a satisfactory answer in this point . shall we say , this is not the main thing in the articles excepted against by dissenters ? he will readily reply , however then you t●…itly grant , that this is one of your little cavils : shall we say , this is not the only thing they scruple ; he will return nimbly . then it seems you consess this to be one , though not the only thing you boggle at : really if i know how to content him i would do it ; and the best expedient that offers it self at present is this answer . . that the church has other doctrines , not contained in the articles , imposed on the faith of subscribers ; and perhaps the scruple may lie against them . . that the articles contain other doctrines besides those relating to the five points debated 〈◊〉 the synod of dort , as that of art . the church hath power to decree rites , or ceremonies . and that of art. . every particular , or national church hath authority to ordain , change and abolish ceremonies or rites of the church ordained only by mans authority , and what now if the quarrel should lie against one of those . and i am the rather induced to suspect they may hesitate in these particulars , because i have heard some of them privately speak , and seen others publickly print , that though they can practise such things , which being in their own natures indifferent , remain under all their concurrent circumstances lawful ; yet they cannot find where the church has any commission to impose them : they can assert , and use their christian liberty , and yet cannot subscribe to the doctrine of the churches power to take it away . . that the most rigid calvinists do not scruple subscription to the articles , so far as they relate to the quinquarticular controversies ; and for a clear experiment herein , for once let the church make those articles only , the single rail about the communion table , and we shall soon see such multitudes of dissenters crowd into the constitution , that she will hardly find two benefices a piece for them . it 's my greater admiration , that they who deny particular election , original sin , the interest of christs death in reconciling god to us ; that they who assert iustification by our own works , freewill , &c. can subscribe them ; and indeed it seems they swallow'd them with some reluctancy , and are now reaching and straining , with many a sowr face , to degorge , not the bait of the benefice , which is infinitely sweet ; but the hook of the article , which is unmereifully sharp . this pretended pretence then might safely have been forborn , but that the lapwing thinks it advisable to raise a huge cry , where 't is not , that we may not search where really it is ; to make a clampering about the non causes , to divert our fnquirers from the true and proper causes of non-consormity : like the ingenious policy of the thief , that being arraigned for a horse , freely confessed the stealing of a bridle , but prudently concealed it was upon the horses head. but ( says our enquirer ) though this neither needs nor deserves an answer , yet i stall reply two things to it : that is , he will give us two needless answers to one needless objection . . the summe of the former needless answer is thus much . common arts , and sciences , which depend upon humane wit , and invention , are capable of daily improvements ; but christianity depending solely upon divine revelation , can admit of no new discoveries . the busie wit of man way perplex , but it can never bring to light any new thing ; for if we admit of any new revelations , we lose the old , and our religion together ; we accuse our saviour , and his aposiles , as if they had not sufficiently revealed gods mind to the world , and we incur st. paul's anathema which he denounces against him , ( whosoever it shall be , nay if an angel from heaven ) that shall preach any other doctrine than what had been received . the enquirer may call this a needless answer , ( sor who shall hinder him from calling his own what he pleases ) but i assure him it contains a great deal of needful truth , which had he like a good husband improved , the rest of his book had been more needless than this answer : needless we consess it to be as to the objection , which was it self needless , but not so for his own confutation ; for thus the dissenters will come over him : if neither time nor the wit of man can make any new discoveries in christianity ; then the pope , who like another columbus , or americus , has made great and new discoveries in the terra incognita of tradition and ceremonies , must either be a god , or a devil . that the liturgy was a principal part of gods worship , he has told us in the introduction , that it was discovered from the beginning , and not by later adventurers , he will be sore put to it to prove , for all the musty fragments of st. iames's liturgy : that it was not part of the wisdom of christ , or his apostles , we are well enough satisfied : that there was wit and invention in it , we confess , all the question is , whose wit should have the glory of the invention . again ! if to admit new revelations be to lose the old , and our religion together : let us make a short quaery upon 't , whether to admit of new ordinances , and constitutions , be not to lose the old , and our religion together ? that is , whether gospel institutions be not exclusive of new ones , as well as gospel revelations ? and why we may not expect a new credimus , as well as a new mandamus ? new revelations as well as new injunctions ? a new prophet of the church seems to me as necessary as a new king over the church , and a new high-priest as needful as either : and i proceed upon this principle , that the law of christ was as perfect as his discoveries : he has told us as fully , and clearly what we should do , as what we should believe : he that may invade the royal office , upon pretence there are not laws enough for the government of the church , may with equal appearance of reason invade the prophetick office too , upon pretence there are not revelations now for its instruction : and therefore the vigilant universal pastor has found it as necessery to supply the defect of revelations , by his own traditions , as the nakedness of worship by decent ceremonies . as jesus christ vindicated the moral law from the false glosses of the scribes and pharisees , so he superadded a ceremoni●…l law , depending meerly upon his own fulness of power , and authority ; now what right any can pretend , to add new particulars to his ceremonial law , which they may not also pretend , to add to his meral law , i cannot divine : and therefore one of our enquirers great friends , who had his eyes in his head , and saw farther into these matters than his poor neighbours , was constrained to assert a power that had lain dormant somewhere of adding new particulars to the divine law. but further ; if new revelations do accuse our saviour , and his apostles , as if they had not sufficiently revealed gods mind to the world : then new ways of teaching gods mind , new invented symbolical ceremonies will accuse him , and them of the same culpable failure in not discharging those offices , committed by god to a mediator , and by him to his apostles . and in short ; if we incur st. paul's anathema , which he denounces against him that shall preach any other doctrine , than what he has received : then they will do well to get out of the way of that curse who preach this doctrine , the church has power to decree rites , and ceremonies : unless they be sure they have received it from christ , for it s but ill venturing to stand in the way of an angel with a drawn sword ; more terrible than which is one of the scriptures anathema's : some will ask where , and when , and from whom the church received that doctrine which some preach , viz. a power to impose mystical , and symbolical ceremonies , as the terms of communion with a church●… but i shall only say , that our compassionate enquirer will need a most compassionate reader , upon these two accounts : first , that he makes an objection for dissenters , which is their answer : and secondly , that he gives an answer to that objection , which is their very objection ; but yet we have not heard the conclusion . the consequence ( says he ) of these premises is ; that the elder any doctrine of christianity can be proved to be , it must needs be truer ; and he that talks of a more clear light of the latter times , and clearer discoveries in religion , talks as idly as he that should affirm he could discern things better at a miles distance , than a man that hath as good an eye as himself , and yet stood close by the object . this is that needless conclus on drawn out of his needless premises , and having discovered the weakness of the former , i might leave him at his leasure to deny his own conclusion ; but yet i shall give him some items about that also . and . it 's a crude unconcocted no. ion , that the elder any doctrine of christianity is , the truer it is : for it was a truth that christ was born , before it was that he was crucified : and yet the former article , that he was born of the virgin mary , is no truer , than that he was crucified , dead , and buried : the truth of the doctrine depends not upon it . antiquity or seniority , but upon the infallibility of the revealer , quo ad ●…os , and upon the close connexion of the terms , in it self , whether a truth was revealed by christ , or his apostles immediately inspired , all are of equal truth in themselves , and equal authority as to us ; that is , the lateness of the revelation will breed no difference . . the enquirer might have informed himself ; that there is a double light , an objective , and subjective light : the former is the discovery of the thing it self , the latter is the enlightning of the faculty : it 's true there is , there can be no new objective light rationally expected : in this sense all new lights are but old darknesses ; but yet there may be more subjective light , or a greater discovery made to us of what god has discovered in his word : the papists lock'd up our bibles in the latin tongue , and kept the key of knowledge in their pockets : god by his gracious providence in the resormation ; has taken off the embargo , and restraint that was upon knowledge , and great light is sprung in amongst us , we say not god has put more books , or chapters , or verses into the bibles , but that he has given us more light in our minds ; he has not revealed new truths , but given us advantage to discover the old , thus the learned stillingf . somewhere expresses himself . the common way of the spirits illuminating the minds of believers , is by enlightning the faculty , not by proposition of new objects : a man then may talk of more light in these latter times , and yet not talk idly ; if by more light he intends no more than a clearer understanding of gods mind , and will revealed in his word ; and a man may talk of more light in these latter times , and talk very idly ; if thereby he means , more revelations of gods mind and will to supply the defects of the scripture ; but yet none talk so idly , as the rhetorical men , whose premises speak against new objective light , and their conclusion against new subjective light. if subjective light be not capable of growth , if it does not recipere magis & minus : let him give me a reason why the churches articles of . do clear up the doctrine more darkly , and imperfectly laid down in the days of edward vi. refined silver is more clear , than the same mettal in the oare , and yet there is no more mettal . but if it be capable of growth , and increase ; what an idle flourish is his similitude of a mans seeing better at a distance , than he that stands close by the object : for if we have got no surther light into the scriptures by all the advantages which merciful providence has surnish'd us with above the darker times of popery , they were very ill bestowed upon us ; and he that would repay him in his own coyn might tell him ; that a man may possibly stand too near the object , as wel as too far off ; and a dwarf upon a gyants shoulders may see further than the gyant himself . what he has hitherto philosophiz'd upon , has been little to our edification ; nor had we been troubled with this first messe , but for the sake of that which is now to be served up in the second course ; and that is , a piece of revenge that he will take upon st. augustin , and the synod of dort. ¶ . and first , here 's a heavy charge drawn up against one augustin , of whom i presume the reader may have heard at one time or other some mention made . now this augustin ( or rather austin ; for his name , as well as his fame suffers a syncope ) has been formerly a person in great danger of incurring that curse denounced against those of whom all men speak well , till of late some charitable divines , loath to let a poor man lie in purgatory from age to age , when a few bad words would release him , took some pity on him : and one of his best friends in this nation is this compassionate enquirer , who informs us , that no father , or writer greek or latin before this austins time agreed in doctrine with the synod of dort , which is so notoriously plain that it cannot be deny'd . and if he agrees therewith , yet it 's certain , that in so doing he disagrees as much with himself as with us of our church : that he was indeed a devout man , but his piety was far more commendable than his reason , and that being hard put to it , by the manichees , on the one hand , and the pelagians on the other , he was not able to extricate himself ; and that he was rather forced into his opinion , than made choice of it . he that shall thus confidently dare to censure that worthy father , must be presumed to have read over his voluminous writings , with all those of the ancient writers before him , both greek and latin , to a man , to a sentence , which might sufficiently have proclaimed his learning , and recommended him to a patron , ( one would think ) though he had never reproached that father himself : many a poor hungry man have i known in my little time , that has scribled one piece after another railing at the pope , which yet never turned to such account , as half a score lines smartly penn'd against this great sinner austin . and yet sor all these insinuations of industry in reading , and acuteness of piercing wit , in hunting and tracing the poor man through all the windings , and turnings of his self-perplexing contradictions ; it 's our meer good nature if we will believe , that ever he saw any more than the back side of st. austins works ; for indeed all this may be no more than an ingenious pataphrase of their great grotius , who thu●… spends his judgment upon him : discuss . p. . ut dicam quod sentio puto augustinum adeo non cum prioribus , ne secum quidem per omnia posse conciliari : ita contranitendi studio , se in illas ambages induxit ut non invenerit , quà se extriearet ; paucis scripturae adductus locis , quae facilè commodam interpretationem recipiunt , aliis locis , & pluribus , & clarioribus , per quae deus significatur omnium salutem velle , interpretationes det violentas , & nunc has , nunc illas , incertus quò se vertat ; ut dicam aliquid amplius suit utilis augustinus ad monita danda piae vitae , ad interpretandas sacras scripturas satis in soelix . when i first read this dismal charge against austin , it minded me of our common forms of indictments against breakers of the peace ; how they did vi & armis , with bills , and staves , and swords , and guns , make an assault , and battery , when it may be all the out-cry is for no more than a fillip , or a sorry box o th' ear. but what will the reader say , if all this bluster , and clamour which our enquirer has borrowed upon grotius his word , and the publick faith , be no more than what grotius himself has borrowed from the pelagians who were bound in their own defence to reproach his person , before whose arguments they durst not stand ; and who being the great oppugners of the grace of god , must needs hate him who was its great propugnator . i read indeed in marius mercator , p. . that theodorus , bishop of mopsu●…stia , the dad of the pelagians , did at this rate nibble at austins learning : sed nihil illorum perspicere potuit , mirabilis peccati originalis assert or , quippe qui in divinis scripturis nequaquam suerit exercitatus , nec ab infantiâ , juxta b. pauli vocem sacras didicerit literas ; sed sive de scripturae sensibus , five de dogmate saepius d●…clamans , multa frequenter inepta , propriè communitérve de ipsis scripturis . dogmatibusque plurimis impudenter deprompsit . but this wonderful maintainer of original sin , ( austin ) could set none of all these things ; being a person not at all exercised in the h. scriptures : nor one that had ( according to st. pauls saying ) learn'd the scripture from his childhood ; but frequently declaiming whether of the meaning of the scriptures , or of some opinion , he oftentimes utters many fooleries , at all adventures , hab●…nab , concerning the scriptures , and many points of doctrine . but yet let us hear the indictment against austin , in its several branches . § . one branch of the charge is ; that he was a novelist in the weightiest points of religion . no one father , or writer , greek , or latin , before his time agreed with him . a deo non cum prioribus posse conciliari : and this is so plain , that it needs no proof ; further than the bare say-so of grotius ) nor can it be denied . there 's your charge ! there 's your evidence ! these are indeed big words , utter'd with that confidence which men commonly assume , that would be believed in an unproved falshood ; for i will suppose vincentius lirinensis , that malleus haeroticorum , to have understood the sentiments of former ages , as well as this enquirer , or hugh grotius . now he tells us cap. . adversus haeretic . quis unquam ante prophanum illum pelagium tantam virtutem liberi praesumpsit arbitrii , ut hoc in bonis rebus per actus singulos adjuvandum , necessariam dei gratiam non putaret ? quis ante prodigiosum discipulum ejus caelestium , reatu praevaricationis adae , omne genus humanum adstrictum negaret ? who ever before that prophane wretch pelagius , ever presemed the power of free-will to be so great , as not to judge the grace of god necessary to help it , in all good things , even in every particular act ? and who before his monstrous schollar coelestius , ever denied that all mankind stood guilty of adams apostacy from god ? when irenaus bishop of lyons , had excellently discoursed of original sin : how that we were wounded antiqua serpentis plagä , with the old blow of the devil , and how that adstrictum est humanum genus morti per virginem , viz. evam . that all mankind was bound over to death by the transgression of eve : and protoplasti peccato , vinculis alligati eramus . we were all bound in chains of guilt by the sin of adam the protoplast . st. austin made use of this testimony , lib. , cap. . contra iul. videsne antiquum dei hominem , quid de antiqua serpentis plagâ sentiat ? quid de similitudine carnis peccati , per quam sanatur plaga serpentis in carnes peccati ? quid de protoplasti peccato , per quod alligati eramus . do you not observe ( says austin ) what that ancient man of god thinks of that old blow given us by the devil ? what his iudgment is , concerning the likeness of sinful flesh , ( christ incarnate ) by which the wound of the serpent in our sinful flesh is healed ? and what his opinion is touching the sin of the protoplast , by which we are all guilty ? and origen against celsus , lib. . agrees exactly with him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : the curse of adam is common to all men , and there 's no woman of whom it may be said what was said of the first woman . so nazianz orat. . de pace . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; i have need to be wholly saved , who am wholly lapsed , and condemned by the disobedience of adam , and the subtility of the devil . and austin quotes chrysostom to prove both the influence of the first adams disobedience , upon our condemnation ; and that of christs obedience upon our acceptation with god. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; when a cavilling jew shall object , how can the world be saved by the rectitude , or obedience of one christ ? answer him again , by asking him ; how came the world to be condemned by the disobedience of one adam ? i shall give the reader no further trouble in this matter ; the greek and latin fathers were either of austins , or pelagius his mind , if they were of pelagius his opinion , then he has at once canoniz'd them for orthodox pelagians ; but if they were not of pelagius his mind . ( for i know no medium ) they were of austins , and by consequence of the same judgment with the synod of dort. st. hierome indeed says expresly , that before that southern devil ( he means arius ) appeared in the world , the ancients spake many things in the simplicity of their hearts , and not so advisedly , which might give some advantage to the heretick ; and austin will confess . that ante mota certamina pelagiana , the fathers seemed to speak favourably of free-will ; but afterwards multo diligentiores , vigilantioresque facti sunt , they began to bestir themselves , and watch over their words a little better : now as it would be a severe charge upon all the primo-primitive fathers , that they were arians , because a suspicious word at sometimes drop'd from their mouths , or pens , so would it be a rash , and ignorant censure of them , that they were all pelagians , because some odd expressions fell from them , which may seem to favour pelagianisme : and therefore i am in hope , since pelagius is risen from the dead , this sleepy age will awake , and give him no ground by unwary expressions ; at least we expect thus much , that non-conformists may not be ruined , because they are no wiser than austin . § . a second branch of the charge is , that st. austin agrees not with himself . a pitiful sorry self-inconsistent scribler he was it seems , that could not make his matters hang together : one that caper'd backwards , and forwards , that it was the easiest thing in the world to trip up his heels , such a novice was this austin ; all which i could easily believe , when it shall be proved , that he wrote the first and second part of the serious enquiry . really , that man must have amassed a vast stock of confidence , that shall hope with one puff of contemptuous breath to blow away that fair heap of repute that that fathers name has gathered in so many centuries ; and he must have an over-weening conceit of his own rhetorick , that can presume to perswade this learned age , that he was so insignificant a ceremony , so great a trifler : the papists with incredible zeal have struggled for him ; the protestants have tooth and nail wrestled to draw him into their tents ; all parties have ambitiously courted his suffrage ; at last comes one hugh gr●…ot , and our enquirer , and they cashier him as an inconsiderable fellow not worth the whistling . but luther had this great stone thrown at his head by bellarmine : and the learned dr. field thus puts by the blow . on the church book . . ch. . luther ( says he ) was as worthy a divine as the world had any in those times , or in many ages before , and that for clearing sundry points of greatest moment in our christian profession , much obscured , and entangled before with the intricate disputes of the schoolmen , all succeeding ages shall be bound to honour his happy memory : that herein he proceeded by degrees , and in his latter writings disliked that which in his former he did approve , is not so strange a thing . did not austin , the greatest of all the fathers , and the worthiest divine the church of god ever had since the apostles time , write a whole book of retractations ? did we not carefully observe what things he wrote whilst a presbyter , and what when made a bishop ? what before he enter'd into the conflict with pelagius , and what afterwards ? did he not formerly attribute the election of those that were chosen to eternal life , to the fore-sight of faith , which afterwards he disclaimed as a meer pelagian conceit ? and would it not vex a man of our enquirers humour , that austin the presbyter should be more orthodox , than austin the bishop ? the truth is , st. austin disagrees no more with himself , than it became a wise man , who by long studying the scriptures , and the primitive fathers , had gained a more concocted , and well digested knowledge of religion ; his retractations were never laid in his dish , but interwoven amongst those excellencies which crowned his learned head , before now. a piece of such self-denial it was , that a proud heart could not bear , unless more politick considerations turned the scale ; this last age has few instances of such an ingenuity as will confess it self truths prisoner ; though it abounds with too many that surrender themselves captives to base lusts , and worldly interest : their own grotius professes he was progressive , and very prone to dislike what a little before he was well pleased with , and the reasons of his change were evident to all the world. § . a third branch of this charge is , that st. austin disagrees with the church of england . there are indeed a knot of gentlemen , that in spight of right and truth , are resolved to be the church of england , and with these st. austin , and the ancient fathers have no very good correspondence , nor are they ambitious of it : but that the ancient church of england had very high thoughts of austins judgment , is from hence evident , that she quotes his opinion in one at least of the articles of her faith , and justifies her authority from his doctrine , art. . but yet if the church should be a weary of him , ( as i am confident she never will ) and has no further service to command him , 't is but transmitting him with letters of safe conduct into holland , where the divines of the synod of dort's perswasion will give him better quarter , and a most cordial welcome , and there 's no harm done . § . another branch of this tedious charge is , that he was a devout good man , but whose piety was far more commendable than his reason . fuit utilis ad monita danda piae vitae , ad scripturas interpretandas satis infoelix : that is , the man was a well meaning zealot ! one that according to his dim light meant honestly , but he never had wit enough to write obscaene annotations upon the canticles ; he poor man was little versed in anacreons ribaldry , nor had much studied ovid de arte amaendi , he was a meer stranger to catullus , and martial ; and therefore must needs be satis , nay nimis ad interpretandas scripturas inf●…lix . the most wretched unhappy creature that ever bungled at a text of scripture . it was never my unhappiness but once to hear the learned a. b. usher reproach'd , and it was by a grave divine of the same temper , and upon the same account : that the primate was indeed an honest man , but one of no depth of iudgment . we need not search far for a reason , why these men cry down austins reason : in short , 't is but to be reveng'd on him for crying down theirs ; for there 's a certain maleporrsaway thing , as blind as a beetle , and as giddy as a goose , which they have nick-named reason , and this austin decries with some severity . thus the learned iuell against harding , art. . diris . . observes , that austin speaking of the scripture judging mysteries , by reason , faith thus . haec consuetudo periculosa est , per scripturas divinas enim multo tutius ambulatur : and again , si ratio contra divinarum scripturarum authoritatem redditur , quamvis acuta sit , fallit verisimilitudine , vera enim esse non potest . if reason be brought against the authority of the scriptures , though it may seem ●…xte , and witty , yet 't is but fallacious under the shadow of truth , for 't is impossible it should be true. and for this he quotes , ad marc●…llinum ep. . and let the reader have a special care of the quotation , for the ecclesiastical politicians sake . but that our austin was no such shallow-brain'd-fellow , no such half-witted-piece , as those divines judge it their interest to represent him . i shall call in the testimony of ierome , one whose learning , and judgment may at least counterballance those of the enquirer . i have always ( says he to austin ) reverenced thy holiness ! increase in vertue ! thou art famous through the world : catholicks reverence thee as the re-builder of the ancient faith ; and i promise you he must be no blockhead , that shall be able to redintegrate the ruinous doctrine of the christian church : but i shall knock all dead with an infallible , and therefore irrefragable testimony ; 't is no less i assure you than that of coelestinus bishop of rome : we have always accounted austin a man of holy memory , for his life , and merits of our communion , whom we have long since remembred to have been of so great knowledge , that he was amongst the best masters . it would be impertinent to tell you , how panlinus bishop of nela , calls him the great light set upon the candlestick of the church ; or how prosper gives him the character of a very sharp wit , clear in his disputations , catholick in his expositions of the faith : but to what purpose should we control him with inferior evidences after that of a pope ? or to what end subpoena our little witnesses after these grandees ? for surely he that will break austins pate , will not fear to dash out prospers brains . § . another branch of this endless indictment is ; that being hard put to it by the manichees on the one hand , and the pelagians on the other , he was not able to extricate himself . se in illas ambages induxit , ut non invenerit qua se extricaret . you see , i hope , that if ever we should want an able head to translate grotius into english , our enquirer is the man : never was poor man so bewildred , so sadly intangled in the bryers , as this austin , between the manich●…an fatal necessity , and the pelagian contingency ; one while he 's just a splitting upon the seylla of free-will , and whilst he goes a point or two too near the wind , he 's ready to be swallow'd up of the desperate gulf of stoical necessity . i shall say no more ; let the reader seriously peruse st. austins works , and when he has done , study this enquirers volumes , and by that time he may be satisfied , whether all his rhetorick , and confidence , will make him a competent judge of st. austins learning . § . his conclusion of his charge is ; that he was rather forced into his opinions , than made choice of them . h●… whose tongue is his own , may employ it how he pleases ; but this slander carries its consutation , as well as its confidence in its forehead . 't is as if we should conclude ; that men become enemies , because they have shed one anothers blood ; whereas most think they wound , and shed one anothers blood , because they were first enemies : it was the zeal of this learned , and holy person , for the cause of god that put him upon study ; that drew him out in the open field against the open enemies of the grace of god , who might otherwise have slept secure in a whole skin ; dispute cleared up truths to him , but he was not forced from any , or into any , i shall conclude this head , with that of bradwardine , another famous champion in the same cause with austin . eccè enim quod non nisi tactus dolore cordis refero , sicut●…lim contra unum dei prophetam , octingenti , & quinquag inta prophetae real , & simil●…s reperti sunt , quibus & innumerabilis populus adhaerebat ; ita & hodiè in hâc causâ , quot o domine , hodiè cum pelagio , pro libero arbitrio contra gratuitam gratiam tuam pugnant , & contra paulum pugilem gratiae specialem ? exurge ergo , domine , sustine , protege , robora , consolare ; seis enim quod nusquam virtute mei , sed tuâ consisus , tantillus aggredior tantam causam . behold ! ( which i cannot mention without gri●…f of heart ) as of old against one prophet of god , eight hundred and fifty of the prophets of baal , and such like , were found , to whom a great multitude of people did adhere ; so in this cause , how many o lord at this day contend for freewill , with pelagius against thy free grace , and against st. paul that famous champion of grace ? arise therefore o lord ! uphold , defend , strengthen , comfort me ; for thou knowest that not trusting to my own strength but thine , so weak a combatant has engaged in so great a cause . ¶ . his second assault is against the synod of dort : a task as needless as the answer itself , and such as will not quit for cost for having already routed austin , this poor synod must fall in ; course with him , and be buried under his ruines . that it was a dutch synod i cannot deny : dort is , and always was in the province of holland ; and therefore to pare off as much needless controversie as may be , let him triumph in our concession , and make his best on 't ; the synod of dort was a dutch synod . that england was not within the iurisdiction of dort , i shall easily admit , nay . i can be contend that it be exemp●…ed from the popes west●…rn patriarchate , if grotius , b. bran●…hal , and some others would agree to it . the question then is , how far the church of england was , or is concerned in , at agreement with , or obliged by the decrees thereof ? that king iames sent thither several of his most learned , and eminent divines , premunited with an instrument , and ther by impowred to sit , hear debate , conclude upon those arduous points , that should be brought before them , i think is not denied ; but by those who deny there ever was any such synod . that they did according to their instructions , go thither , sit there , debate upon , and at last subscribe to the determinations of that convention , is also out of dispute : if their subscription did not formerly oblige the nation , yet it evidently proves what was the iudgment of the nation : nor do i think it had been for the honour of this church to have been of that religion , because those delegates had subscribed ; but they therefore subscribed , because they were in their own judgments conformable to that of the church , of the religion and judgment of the council . there had been formerly one bar●… in the university of cambridge , who delivered himself some what broadly in favour of the arminian novelties ; hereupon the heads of that university , sent up dr. whitaker , and dr. tyndall to a. b. whitguift , that by the interposition of his authority those errours might be crush'd in the egge , which were but new-laid as yet , and not hatch'd in the bosom of this church . the zealous prelate presently convenes some of the most judicious divines of his province , and nov. . . by their advice draws up the lambeth articles coming up to , if not going beyond the dordrectan creed : forthwith he transmits these articles to his brother of the other province , the a. b. of york , who receives , and approves them : so that now we have the primate of england , and the primate of all england owning more than virtually the decrees of that synod ; and surely two such persons , so learned , as having been both of them professors of divinity in the university , and of so great power in the church , must be presumed , if any , to understand the true meaning of the articles in the five controverted points . after all this king iames allows the inserting them into the articles of the church of ireland ; and it were some what difficult to believe , that a prince so wise , and learned , would allow that doctrine for orthodox in one of his kingdoms , which was reputed heretical in the other ; unless we will say , they were erroneous at home , but purged themselves like french-wines at sea , by crossing st. georges channel ; or that the malignity , or latent poison of them , was suck'd out by the sanative complexion of the irish air , and soyl : if then the substance of the articles was owned , it 's no matter whether the jurisdiction of the synod was owne●… : for i rather think , that the synod of dort owned the doctrine of the church of england , than that the church of england owned that synods iurisdiction . i must here remember him of his own discourse in the introduction ; and desire to know whether he abide by that doctrine he once preach'd to us ; that the presence of the british bishops in the council of arles , was good proof of the nations piety . let him show how that proof proceeds , and it s very probable we shall be in a fair way to show him how the presence of the english delegates at the synod of dort , might imply , that the church of england did compromise with it in the points now in question . i confess i do not well understand the mystery of one company of mens making a faith for another ; but yet i may plead from an equality of reason , that if the non-conformists are bound up by the decrees of a convocation at london , where they have no representatives , the church of england may be as well bound up by the decrees of dort , where she had her representatives . if it be said that this church had no equal number at dort to make a full representation of her body ; it may be answer'd ; that in the convocation . there was no such equal representation of the clergy , nor any at all of the people , who have souls to save , and consciences to account for , and ought not to be concluded in matters of faith , by what a couple of clerks shall agree to , who are only chosen by the parochial ministers : i never saw a good argument to this day , to prove , that the people ought to believe all that their ministers believe , or that the ministers are bound to hold all that their representatives shall subscribe , seeing it cannot be supposed that they give them so large a commission ; and if they should , it were actually void , because they give away their consciences , which are none of their own . how things are now i know not well , but in former times a convocation had been judged no equal representation , either of the inferior clergy , or the body of the people . in the lower house of convocation , there have been in some diocesses , one dean , one clerk for the cathedral , three or four archdeacons ; and for the inferior clergy of the whole diocess , only two clerks to counterballance all the rest . so that all things must of necessity be concluded according to the temper and interest of the cathedrals , and that i think was no equal representation ; but these things are inconsiderable . he comes now to draw up a charge against , not the iurisdiction , but the doctrine of that syn●… . . they were such as knew not how god could be iust , unless he was cruel , nor great , unless he decreed to damn the far greater part of mankind . a company of silly souls i perceive they were , and their heads just of the same size with st. austins : but in my poor judgment they took the wrong end of the staff ; for it had been much he harder task to make him iust , if he were first supposed cruel ; but this is one of those chymerical consequences , which the persons of this distemper , and prejudice , use when their blood is up to fasten upon the principles of the calvinists , it was an ingenious observation of the author of orig. sacr. p. . where he assigns this as one cause of errour . to question the soundness of foundations for the apparent rottenness of the superstructures : for ( says he ) there is nothing more usual than for men who exceedingly detest some absurd consequence , they see may be drawn from a principle supposed , to reject the principle it self for the sake of that consequence , which it may be doth not necessarily flow from it , but from the shortness of their own reason doth only appear so to do . and if it were possible to perswade these censurers to so much humility as to suspect they may possibly not be infallible , in drawing conclusions from other mens principles ; all this heat might be over : what the synod of dort asserts in this matter is thus much . ar. . deus homines quosdam ex liberrimo , justissimo , & immutabili beneplacito dectevit in communi miseriâ , in quam se suâ culpâ praecipitârunt , relinquere , nec salvificà side , & conversione donare , sed in vijssuis , & sub justo judicio relictos , tandem , non tantum propter infidelitatem , sed etiam caetera peccata omnia , ad declarationem justitiae , damnare , & aeternum punire , in which , as there is nothing but what is iust , so there 's nothing at all that is cruel . . that act of god which our enquirer , for the greater grace will call a decree to damn the far greatest part of mankind , the synod calls a reliction of some men , or a decree to pass by some men. quosdam homines decrevit relinquere . . they say not that god decrees to damn men absolutely ; but , propter infidelitatem , & caetera omnia peccata damnare , to damn men for their infidelity , and all their other sins ; which is neither injustice , nor cruelty . . they say indeed that god decrees to leave some men in the common misery , but withal t is such as whereunto they have thrown themselves through their own fault . in communi miseriâ , in quam se suâ culpâ praecipitarunt . . they say this is an act of iustice in god to leave them to lie in that common misery , into which they had plunged temselves , it is iustissimo beneplacito . so that all the difficulty will be to resolve , . whether it be an act of cruelty in god to leave man as he found him in massá corruptá ; & damnabili ? and . whether it be an act of injustice in god to damn men for their unbelief , and other sins . if neither of these ; it will be no difficult province to make it out , how god may be just in damning men for their sin , and yet not cru●… leaving them in their sin . i am aware that this whole controversie at last must empty it self into that of original sin . and a difficulty it is that may require strong heads to prove , that will not bring humble faith to believe , how men have plunged themselves into the common misery , wherein god leaves those some , by their own default , culpâ suâ : but the church of england will be responsible for this difficulty , who determines in her ninth article , that in every person born into the world it deserveth gods wrath and damnation . the pretence for this odious imputation , is nothing but a fancy , which forsooth these great masters of wit have agreed to call reason , that that which would be cruelty , and injustice in man , must presently be so in god : as thus , because it would be cruelty , and inhumanity in me to see my enemy ( or if it were but his oxe or his asse ) lie in a ditch ready to perish , and not to put forth a helping hand to pluck him out , that therefore it must be cruelty in god , to see a sinner lie under sin , and its present consequents , and not to deliver him from that state : whereas we might consider that god has tyed us by the laws of charity and interest to such assistance ; because we may possibly call for the same assistance from others in our miseries ; but god is not so bound up , having once set his creature on his legs , to raise him up as oft as he shall please to fall . the vanity of this reasoning wil more easily appear , if we take the pains ( a little pains will do it ) to put , and consider this case . scelus qui non prohibet cum potest jubes ; 't is seneca's maxime , and owned by all ; that every man is bound to prevent , and hinder all the wickedness he possibly , and lawfully can ; now if we will measure god by this rule , we must conclude , that god is unjust and cruel , if he hinders not all the evil in the world , which he can possibly , and lawfully prevent : nay , put the case as favourably as you can , that god is bound to prevent all the wickedness of mankind , as far as he can by moral means , not exerting any physical influence upon his creature , to impede its vitious propensities , yet this will not excuse him from apparent injustice and cruelty , if our obligations must be made the rule and measure of his : for he has not in many places of the world sent them so much as the preaching of the gospel , nor help'd them to the best arguments against disobedience , nor propounded to them the strongest motives to obedience . the remonstrants i perceive would gladly fasten this upon the contra remonstrants , that there is the same reason , and proportion between foreseen faith , and election , and foreseen infidelity and disobedience , and reprobation . so ames coron . p. . parilitatem quandam inferre c●…nantur inter electionem , & reprobationem . to which he thus returns : sed sine ratione , privilegium enim exemptionis , & liberationis a pana , merita , benè potest aliquibus concedi , sine ulla ratione conditionis antecedentis , & impellentis ; & pana tamen caeteris inflig●… ratione sui meriti , i. e. the priviledge of exemption , and deliverance from deserved punishment may safely be granted to some without any respect had to an antecedent , and moving condition , and yet the punishment be inflicted upon the rest , on the account of their own demerits : so that he seems to have cleared what he had said , p. . interim advertere debent aliam esse rationem infidelitatis ad rejectionem ; aliam verò fide●… ad electionem . to shut up this discourse : if by reprobation this enquirer will needs understand a peremptory decree of god to damn any man , without respect had to the violation of his law , the synod is a perfect stranger to it : but if by reprobation , they may have liberty to understand no more than they have a mind to , viz. gods purpose not to give grace to some to whom he ows it not : as it speaks no injustice in him , because he was not their debtor ; so neither does it imply any cruelty , if as a righteous , and iust iudge , he punish them for those sins , which they commit for want of such special , and undeserved grace . . a second charge against the doctrine of that synod is ; that they could not tell how men should be kept humble , unless they made him not a man , but a stock , or a stone . and yet the harder task had been to make him humble , if they had made him either a stock , or a stone ; and yet the harder task had been to make him humble , if they had made him either a stock , or a stone ; for it would have puzled them to preach a sermon of humility with any considerable success to such an auditor , though the legend would perswade us , that venerable bede had once , and but once , that happiness : but let the reader hear what they say for themselves , art. , . § . , . sicuti post lapsum , homo non definit esse homo , intellectu , & voluntate praeditus , nec peccatum quod universum genus humanum pervasit , naturam generis humani sustulit , sed spiritualiter ●…cidit ; ita etiam haec divina regenerationis gratia , non agit in hominibus , tanquam truncis , & stipitibus , nec voluntatem , ejusque proprietates tollit , aut in vitam violenter cogit , sed spiritualiter vivificat , sanat , corrigit , suaviter simulac potenter slectit . as after the fall , man ceased not to be a man , endowed with an understanding , and will , nor hath sin , which overspread all mankind , taken away the nature of mankind , but only spiritually stain it . so also that divine regenerating grace , works not in men , as if they were stocks , or blocks , not takes away the will , and its essential properties ; or compels it by force against its will , but spiritually quickens it , heals it , corrects it , and gently , but yet powerfully inclines it . hence it is clear , that this synod were satisfied that god in the work of conversion deals not with men , as if they were stocks , ( and the same you may imagine of stones ) but the question then will be , whether upon this hypothesis , they knew how to keep man humble : man indeed is a very proud creature , and it may exercise the skill of the wisest how to keep him humble upon the best principles ; but of all that have undertaken this hard task , i most admire at their want of skill , that know not how to keep man humble unless they knock him ot●… head. the knot of the controversie among the contending parties lies here . the contra-remonstrants assert . post dei operationem , non manet in hominis potestate regenerari , vel non regenerari : so ames coron . p. . after the work of god ( i. e. his utmost work that he designs in conversion ) it remains not in mans power to be regenerated , or not regenerated ; for they suppose that god does not leave his work in the halves , but that before that effectual grace , which proceeds from his purpose of regenerating , does cease to operate , the person is actually regenerated ; yet still that in all the process of this glorious work , he offers no violence to , commits no rape upon the natural faculties of the soul : the remonstrants on the other hand assert , that positis omnibus operationibus , quibus ad conversionem , in nobis efficiendam , deus utitur , manet tamen ipsa conversio , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nostrâ potestate , ut possimus non converti . supposing the whole work of god , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 uses to work conversion in us , to be finished ; yet still conversion it self remains so 〈◊〉 in our power , that we may not be converted . which principle seems clearly to ascribe conversion not to gods grace , but to mans will , and strength ; it 's the man that makes himself differ from another : it 's man that regenerates himself , when all is done that god does ; and perhaps our enquirer may have something to do to keep man humble upon this hypothesis : but whether of these two principles makes the nearer approach to the church of england , i mean that doctrine which is express'd in the thirty nine articles , let the . art. judge . the condition of man is such after the fall , that he cannot turn , nor prepare himself by his own natural strength to faith , and calling upon god ; wherefore we have no power to do good works pleasant and acceptable to god , without the grace of god preventing us , that we may have a good will , and working with us , when we have that good will. our enquirer , will tell us by and by , p. . that there has been little or no alteration made in the doctrine of this church , since the beginning of the reformation : and therefore i conclude , that there has been no alteration made from an anti-arminian to an arminian sense ▪ for that cannot be called little or no alteration : now that this art. in the beginning of the reformation , in edw. vi. reign , had an anti-arminian sense , will be out of question to him that remembers what addition there was then made to it . the grace of christ , or the h. ghost by him given , doth take away the stony heart , and giveth an heart of flesh ; and although those that have no will to good things , he maketh them to will ; and those that would evil things , he maketh them not to will , yet nevertheless he forceth not the will. articles printed by i. day anno . cum privilegio : if this then be the sense of the article , let him go practise at home , and turn his brains , how to keep man humble , and yet neither make him stock nor stone ; and when he has found out the mystery , send word to the synod , who i am assured never asserted higher than this amounts to : but if this be not the sense of the article at present , though it was once so , then it must follow that the church has more than a little alter'd her doctrine since the reformation : and then a worse thing than all this will follow ; for p . he allows , that if this church did approach too near popery , it would serve to justifie a secession from it . but says another , if it approaches too near arminianism , it approaches too near popery ; and therefore our enquirer will warrant any mans secession from the church , without the least imputation of schisme : what a close connexion there is between those two errours we shall hear e're long , and thither we refer the reader , when we have told him , that the church of england is certainly free from any tincture of arminianism , and so far free from any spot of popery ; only it concern'd the enquirer to understand the consequences of his own scandalous reflections . i have done with his first answer . . i come now to his second : the arti●… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this church do with such ad●… prudence and wariness handle thes●… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 paerticular respect was had to these men , and care taken that they might abundare sensu suo . i cannot imagine what greater reproach he could throw upon these famous articles , and their worthy compilers , then to suggest that they were calculated for all meridians and latitudes : as if the church did imitate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the delphian apollo , whose oracles wore two faces under one heed , and were penn'd like those amphilogies that cheated croesus and pyrr●… into their distruction : or as if like ianus , they looked 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 backwards and forwards : and like the untouch'd needle , stood indifferently to be interpreted through the two and thirty points of the compass : the papists do never more maliciously reproach the scriptures , than when they call it a lesbian rule , a nose of wax , a leaden dagger , a pair of scamans trowzes ; a movable dyal , you may make it what a clock you please : and yet they never arriv'd at that height of blasphemy , as to say it was industriously so penn'd by the amannenses of the holy ghost . i dare not entertain so little charity for an assembly of holy and learned men convened upon so solemn an occasion , that they would play legerde main , and contrive us a systeme of divinity , which should be 〈◊〉 pacis non veritatis : the conventicle of trent indeed acted like themselves , ( that is , a pack of juglers ) who when they were gravelled and knew not how to hush the noise , and imp●…rtunate clamour of the bickering factions , the crafti●…r l●…ng m●…n found out a temper ( as they call'd it ) to skin over that wou●…d which they could not heal , and durst not search ; and what was the success of these carnal policies ? only this ! both parties retained their differing opinions , believed just as they did bef●…re ; and when they f●…und how they had been cajouled , the con●… versi●…s which for a while had been smothered under the ashes of a blind subscription , broke out into a more violent flame . the craft of this politick juncto , that impartial h●…storian pietro pola●… has opened to the world : hist. conne . of trent . p. . in the ●…ear . ( says she ) in the end of the session dominicus a soto , principal of the dominicans , wrote three books of nature and grace , wherein all his old opinions were found ; then comes andreas vega , a great man amongst the franciscans , and he ●…ites no less than fifteen books , upon the points of the decree that passed that session , and expounded all according to his own opinions : and yet their opinions were directly contrary to one another , though both supposed to agree with the decree of the council . so righteous it is with god , that they who design not their confessions for an instrument of truth , which is gods end , should not find them an instrement of peace , which is all their end : they that will separate truth from peace , shall certainly miss both of p●…ace and truth . the title prefix'd to the book of articles does abundantly secure us of their honesty . the catholick doctrine believed and professed in the church of england . now how shall we at all believe , if we know not what to bel●…eve ? and if the trumpet gives an uncertain sound , 't is all one as if it were not sounded : that which is every thing , and every where , is nothing , and no where . that which has no determinate sense , has no sense , and that 's very near akin to non-sense . the iews indeed have a tradition , that the manna was what every mans appetite could relish ; and such a religion would these men invent as should be most flexible , where it ought not to bend , and where it should yield , there to be in●…exible . strange it is , that religion of all things in the world should be unfix'd , and like delos , or o-brazile , float up and d●…n in various and uncertain conjectures : what aristotle ●…'d to say of o●… of his books . that is was editus , & non editus , and what was the just reproach of the rhemists testament , that it c●…e forth ( as some repor●… of a great princes sword ) with a padlock upon 't , so stuffed with pen and ink-horn terms , that it was almost as intelligible in latin ; the same contumely does our enquirer pour out upon the articles of the church , which were the most famous testimony that then for many years , nay ages , had been given to the truth of the gospel . i conclude then , that he must be very immodest , that can entertain a thought so unworthy the learning , religion , and sincetity of our first reformers , which were their greatest ornaments , as they were of their times , and the articles the greatest glory of them both . i know it 's an easie matter to draw up a proposition so dubiously , that the greatest dissenters may subscribe it ; but what is the advantage of such dawbing policy ? peace or unity of judgment ? some men indeed have got a worm in their pates , and they fancy this an expedient for these ends , but there 's no such matter ; for the subscribers in this case do not bow their jugdments to the articles , but gently bend the articles to their judgment . it 's not the bank that moves to the boat , but the boat that moves to the bank , and each party thinks it self the stronger , because it can draw in the obsequious articles to abet their opinioons when therefore he insinuates , that they of the cal●…inistical perswasion , in subscribing the articles , are forced to use scholastick subtleties to reconcile their opinions to them ; we entreat them to use scholastick sub●…leties , who are of the other judgment , to reconcile the articles to their opinions , and they will find all too little , unless they borrow a point or two of conscience , first to resolve to subscribe , and then defend it afterwards as well as they can . and when he intimates that they were only some few divines of this church that used this expedient , we know well , that till the appearance of the late a. b. laud , the generality of this church were of the dort perswasion ; arminianism has been openly declared schism ; arminius himself an enemy to the grace of god , by our greatest and most learned princes ; and the greatest of our church-men have declared against it , as a stranger and enemy to our church . but all this , as i observ'd , was brought in to vilifie the synod of dort ; and that eminently learned and holy person st. austin , whose credit whilst the enquirer would wound , he shall but like the viper in the fable , break his own teeth , and never hurt the impregnable steel . . a second pretended objection against the church is , that it is not sufficiently purged from the dross of romish superstitions . it 's a marvelous advantage to him that challenges another to fight ; if he may prescribe and impose the weapon ; this authority has our enquirer , and some of his camerades arrogated as peculiar to themselves , that they may put what objections they please into the mouths of dissenters . for though they cannot in the largest charity acquit a party , ( neither considerable for number or solid learning ) which yet by noise and pragmaticalness , and some other artifices , have vested themselves with the name of the church ; yet they are ready to clear the articles of the church from popery , and arminianism . i intend those alone , who would obtrude a meaning upon the doctrine , as if it impugned particular election , original sin , and asserted free-will , iustification by our own works , and the rest of those points whereof some mention has been made . in the first of car. i. the house of commons exhibited articles against one mr. richard mountague ; the th . of which was thus . and whereas in the th . of the said articles , it is resolved , [ that god hath certainly decreed by his counsel secret to us , to deliver from curse , and damnation , those whom he hath chosen out of mankind in christ , and to bring them by christ to everlasting salvation , wherefore they which be endued with so excellent a benefit , be called according to gods purpose working in due time , they through grace obey that calling , they be justified freely , walk religiously in good works , and at last by gods mercy attain to everlasting felicity ; ] he the said richard mountague , 〈◊〉 the said book called the appeal , doth affirm and maintain , that men justified may fall away from that state which once they had . thereby la●…ing a most malicious scandal upon the church of england , as if he did differ herein from the reformed churches in england , and th●… reformed churches beyond the seas , and did consent unto those pernicious errours commonly called arminianism , which the late famous q. eliz. and k. james of happy memory , did so piously , and religiously labour to suppress . and farther they charge him , that the scope and end of his book , was to give ●…ncouragement to popery , and to withdraw his majesties subjects frrom the true religion establisht ; from whence we have gained this point , that that doctrine which denies perseverance in them that were once justified , doth abet arminianism , and therein draw near popery : but if these men might expound the articles , they would deny the one , and abet the other ; and therefore do draw too near popery : hereupon dissenters have a warrant under his own hand to withdraw from the church , for ( says he ) p. . if the charge ( of drawing too near the church of rome ) were true , or if it were probable , it would justifie their separation from it . in caroli i. the house of commons made this protestation , whosoever shall bring in innovation of religion , or by favour or countenance se●…k to extend popery or arminianism , or other opinion disagreeing from the truth , or orthodox church , shall be reputed a capital enemy to this kingdom and common-wealth . and so close has the connexion between popery , and arminianism ever been adjudged , that the jusuites , who throughly understand their interest , and the most proper and suitable means to promote it , h●…ve p●…ht upon this as the best expedient to introduce that , for 〈◊〉 ●…s in that triumphant letter of theirs to their rector at 〈◊〉 , they express themselves , now we have planted that soveraign drug of arminianism , which will purge the protestants of their heresie , and it flourishes , and brings forth fruit in due season . whence we are taught both our disease , and our remedy : the disease under which poor england laboured was protestancy , the remedy was the iesuites powder , or a round dose of arminianism , which is it seems a specifick purger of that humour . that the divines of this church did formerly maintain a just suspicion , that the opinions of conditional election , and falling away totally from grace , were an in-let to popery , we need no other evidence then that letter written by the university of cambridge , to their chancellor , upon the occasion of barrets , and baro's preaching up such like novelties : it was dated march . . if ( say they ) passage be admitted to these errours , the whole body of popery will break in upon us by little and little , to the overthrow of all religion . and therefore they humbly beseech his lordships good aid and assistance , for the suppressing those errours in time ; and not only of those errours , but of gross popery , like by such means in time to creep in amongst them , as they found by late experience it dangerously begun . i say , not that the articles of the church encline to popery , nay they detest it , but this i say , that if they did encline to arminianism , they must to popery ; if they do not , why are they with allowance , so misconstrued ? if they do ; then the secession of the non-conformists is thereby justified . having therefore made this objection for the dissenters , he will give them their answer , and prove the unreasonableness of this suggestion , that the church of england approaches too near the superstitions of rome . . it s certain ( says he ) there hath been little or no alteration made , either in the doctrine , discipline , or liturgy , since the first reformation . little or none ? does he mean for the better , or the worse ? to say , there has li●…le or none been made for the better , is a commendation so cold , that silence had been more an honour than such praise . the reformation was begun as the times would bear ; a fair copy was set for posterity to imitate , never dreaming that their rudiments should have been our utmost perfection . that their first step should have been our hercules pillars , and a ne plus ultra , to all future endeavours . to say , there has been little or no alter●… made for the worse , is a more modest way of defamation ; but ●…enters have many things to say to this . § that there have been cons●…ble alterations made in the articles themselves , if not as they remain in scriptis , yet as they are publickly interpreted , for we subscribe not to a heap of letters and syllables , but to the sense and meaning of certain propositions , as they are owned by the church , what the church owns ( say they ) we can no otherwise understand , then by those writings which appear every day licensed , and approved by those of greatest authority in the church : now if we may judge of the meaning of the articles by those writings , they are as much altered , as if negatives had been changed into affirmatives , or affirmatives into negatives . in former times they were generally subscribed , because the most scrupulous were generally informed by those of most eminent place in the church , that the meaning was found , but now ( say they ) we are informed otherwise , we see our mistake , the words have a different and contrary meaning ; and therefore we must be excused in subscription . . they will say , that what the enquirer calls little or nothing , is a very great something : for it concerns us not so much what is put into the liturgy or rituals , as what is made a condition of communion whi●…h the church : now in the beginning of the reformation , though many things were in use , yet few imposed as the necessary terms of enjoying a station in that society ; things supposed indifferent were used as in different . in the th . of q. eliz. subscription is only required to doctrinals , and such subscribers , though not ordained by prelates , were admitted to officiate as ministers of the church of england . but now subscription is peremptorily required to all and every thing contain'd in the book of commonprayer , the book of ordering bishops , priests , and deacons , wherein are considerable doctrinal additions , and alterations ; such as the different orders of bishops ▪ priests , and deacons , supposed to be distinct jure divino ; a doctrine which a. b. cranmer understood not , as is evident from his m. s. exemplified in dr. st. his irenicum . in the beginning of the reformation , ceremonies were retained to win upon the people who were then generally papists , and doted upon old usages , and not as the necessary conditions of communion ; they were retained , not to shut out of dores the protestants , which is their present use , but to invite in the romanists , which was their original end , but there 's nothing more common , then for institutions to degenerate ; and be perverted from the first reasons of their usage , and yet still to plead the credit of their originals : thus indulgences , and remission of sins were first granted to all that would engage in the holy war , to recover the sepulchre of christ out of the hands of the saracens , but in process of time they were dispensed to them who would massacre the waldenses , and albigenses , and such as could not obey the tyranny of the romish saction : thus was the inquisition first set up to discover the hypocritical moors in spain , but the edge of it since turned against the protestants . and thus were the ceremonies perverted , at first made a key to let in the papists , and now made a lock to shut out protestants . what a glorious work must it then be to abolish those engines , that seeing they are become weak to do good , they may be rendred as impotent to do mischief : imitating herein the apostle ; who once circumcised timothy to gain the weak iews , yet stoutly refused to circumcise titus , least he should stumble the weak gentiles . . the ceremonies its true crept into the church pretty early , yet they laid no weight , no stress upon them ; it was decreed by the councel of sardica , that none should be made a bishop , 〈◊〉 ●…e that had passed the inferiour orders , and continued in them for some time ; and yet we see they insisted not upon such a canon , when it might prejudice the church , and exclude useful persons from the ministry : and therefore nectarius was chosen patriarch of constantinople , not only being a lay-man , but unbaptized : as our enquirer commends and admires the churches wisdom in forming her doctrinal articles , that men of various perswasions might subscribe them ; so her tenderness and wisdom had been no less admirable , had she recommended ceremonies with such an indifferency , that they who were passionately sond of them , might be humoured , and they that protest they scruple them in conscience towards god , might fairly let them alone : for it can be no dishonour to a church to be as lax in ceremonies of humane constitution , as in doctrines of divine revelation . . dissenters say from good grounds , that that which makes all an insupportable burden , viz. that we must subscribe according to the clause of the th . article , that the church has power to decree rites , and ceremonies , is added since the beginning of the reformation . and this they think heavier than all the ceremoni●…s put together ; many could practice a thing supposing it indifferent in it self , and having a real tendency to a greater good , who can by no means subscribe that the church has such a power to take away my liberty : i have taken notice , that in the ancient bibles of this church , the contents of psalm . ran thus ; the prophet exhorteth to praise god for his love to his church , and for his benefits . but in the latter days we had got high ranting language , the prophet exhorteth to praise god for his love to his church , and for that power that he hath given to his church over the consciences of men : this is no little addition . . they will tell him , that the number of non-conformists was considerable from the very infancy of the reformation , though it could not be expected that their names should be inserted in the church calender amongst the confessors ; and that non-conformity has run a line parallel with the national reformation to this day . but ( says our enquirer ) the main quarrel is , that we are not always reforming . no that 's not the main , nor any quarrel that dissenters have with them : let but reformation be made in what is necessary , and as often as is necessary , and i know none disposed to quarrel : it were better never to be sick , than to have a remedy ; yet upon supposition of a disease , in my mind there 's nothing like an approved medicine . it 's more desirable not to make shipwrack , than to escape by a ●…lank ; yet when a wrack is made , he deserves to sink that despises a subsidiary plank : if it were possible for churches not to contract corruption , i know no need , because no use of reformation . some men hate reformation as the bear hates the stake . they pretend , that the reformation of the church will discompose the state : but the best way to preserve the iron , is to scowr away the rust : a dirty face may be wash'd , and yet the skin never rub'd off ; and the house swept , and never thrown out of the windows : they plead again , that no reformation can be made , but what will notably diminish the revenues , grandeur , and credit of the church . and this objection has more real weight in it than all the rest . this is the capital grievance , hinc illae lachrymae ! but does it not argue ae saleable and mercenary soul , that would barter away purity for pluralities ? the most severe reformation would leave too much , if any thing , for such an objector ; what ever have been the specious pretences , this has been the real obstruction of an effectual reformation ; kings and parliaments have always been inclinable towards a redress of exorbitances ; but the covetousness and pride of churchmen have ever impeded their pious endeavours . a parliament in queen eliz. reign , as we read in dr. ●…llers ch. history was bringing in a bill against pluralities ; and a. b. whitguift sends a letter to her majesty , signifying they were all undone horse and foot 〈◊〉 it passed : observe how he deplores the miserable state of the church . the woful and distressed estate , whereinto we are like to fall , forceth us , with grief of heart , in most humble manner to ●…ave your majesties most soveraign protection . — why what ●…s the ●…ter ? were they making a law against preaching ? no! or against common-prayer ? by no means ! what ailes then the distressed man ? — why , we therefore not as directors , but as humble remembrancers , beseech your highnesses favourable beholding of our present state , and what it will be in time , if the bill against pluralities should take place . no question it must be utter extirpation of the christian religion : thus in another letter to the same queen he complains with lamentations that would soften a heart of marble . that they have brought in a bill giving liberty to marry at all times of the year , without restraint : well , but if men be obnoxious to the evil all times of the year , why should they not use the remedy that god has appointed all times of the year ? the apostle who tells us , it s better to marry then burn , did not except any time of the year . but why may not a parliament make a law , as well as the ecclesiastical court give a license , that it shall be lawful to marry at any time of the year ? ay but the parliament will make the law for nothing , whereas those other will have money for their lice●…ses . but he proceeds , — it s contrary to the old canons , continually observed by us . why but is it not contrary to the old canons to take money for a license ? yes ! but — it tendeth to the slander of the church , as having hitherto maintained an errour . and now you have the bottom of the bag : all reformation must touch the clergy either in their credits or profits ; and it were better never to put a hand to that work , then to touch either of those with a little finger . . his second answer is , all is not to be esteemed popery that is held by the church of rome , we are not to depart further from her , then she has departed from the truth , and those things wherein they agree , are such ( and no other ) as were generally received by all christiaen churches , and by the roman before it lay under any i●… character . many things might be returned , but i shall say little , only . as all is not to be accounted popery which is held by the church of rome , so neither is all to be accounted schism which hot men in their passions and prejudices will call so . let that be now accounted popery , which in the beginning of the reformation , by the most eminent divines of this nation , was so accounted , and he will hear no more i presume of that argument . . i would be satisfied whether rome departed from the truth , simplicity , and complexion of the evangelical worship , when she loaded the church with such multitudes of unnecessary ceremonies , and superstitions ; if not , why did the church of england depart from her in any ? if so ; why did she not depart in all ? . why should we be so tender of departing from an abominable strumpet ? were it not more christian to say , we will depart from the reformed churches abroad , no further then they have departed from the truth , and then the argument will be ingenuously strong , rather to part with ceremonies that we may syncretize with protestants , then retain them that we may hold fair quarter with papists . . it cannot be made appear , that those things wherein the agreement yet abides , were generally received by all christian churches : kneeling at the sacrament was not received in the church , till rome came under an ill , and most odious character , many centuries after the apostles knew it not , and when it was first entertain'd , it was accommodated to the grand idol of transubstantiation . but our enquirer has a mind to be resolved in a few questions for his own private satisfaction . . qu. if there be such a dangerous affinity between the church of england , and the romish , how came it to pass that the blessed instruments of our reformation , a. b. cranmer , and others , laid down their lives in testimony to this against that . i meddle nor with his dangerous affinities , nor c●…nsanguinities , nor whether they come within the prohibited degrees or no ; what i am concern'd in , is his argument , which may receive this short answer . they laid down their lives in testimony against those errours wherein they differ'd , and not against those wherein they might be agreed : they might possibly agree in many , and yet differ in so many as might cost them their lives : there was difference enough to justifie their opposition ; and yet there might be agreement enough to justifie a modest complaint . i once heard a person upon his arraignment for burglary plead strongly , that he had served his majesty faithfully in his wars ; the judge i remember took him up somewhat too short : friend ! you are not indicted for your loyalty , but for breaking a house : the non-conformist agree with the church of england in more , and more material points , then england can be supposed to agree with rome , and yet all his smooth and oylie oratory , will not perswade the dissenters that they suffer not from their brethren . the difference between the church of england , and rome , is very considerable , it is essential , it constitutes them two distinct societies , and such as cannot coalesce without fundamental alterations in the one , and yet there might possibly remain some things , which might speak too near an approach . i should be loath to be misunderstood ; and do question more my own infelicity to cloath my conceptions with apposite expressions , then the acuteness of the reader , and therefore i shall give him this general advertisement to prevent mistakes . i am not concerned to assert , that this church approaches too near that of rome , but modestly examining whether the enquirer has ●…roved his negative , that she does not ; and therefore does not , because cranmer , ridley , &c. laid down their lives in testimony against romish corruptions . i deny not the consequent , but the consequence ; not that this church maintains a due distance from rome ; but that it appears true upon this reason , because the bloody papists put many of her ancient fathers , and zealous children to death , of whose weakness i am the more confident , being assured by good history , that they have most barbarously persecuted and murdered those who differ'd from them in some single point , whilst they held communion with them in all the rest . the church of england ( i say it again ) is departed from rome , but yet it may be true , § . that some amongst us have laid such foundations , as being regularly , and proportionably advanc'd in their superstructures , will either re-introduce that abomination , or condemn cranmers separation . in the grand debate , p , . the reverend and learned divines lay down these rules . . that god has given not only a power , but a command ●…lso of imposing whatsoever shall be truly decent , and becoming his worship . . that not inferiours , but superiours must judge what i●… truly convenient , and decent : now allow but the pope , and ●…is consistory these favourable concessions , ( and it cannot reasonably be deny'd them by those who claim them ) and all their injunctions will be justified ; and cranmer with his brethren found will-sufferers , who charg'd their persecutors to be will-worshippers : the pope commands us to worship an image , nor terminating our adoration therein , but letting it slide nimbly through that medium to the adorable object which it represents ; and all this as august , and decent , and a great exciter of devotion , a mighty mover of pious affections : i suppose my self to be one of those inferiours , who scruple the lawfulness of this practise : he who is my supposed superiour , asks me , whether i do not own it my duty to worship god ? i plainly own the affirmative , but i am not satisfied in the mode of adoration . he answers readily , the modes of worship are but indifferent circumstances , in their use very decent , and commanded too by those who have power to impose and iudge what is truly decent : i rejoyn again , this is very strange do●…trine , i have drunk in other apprehensions from my mothers milk : but he stops my mouth , and turns me to the very page , where some of our most eminent divines of late years do plead on their behalf , what he pleads on his . but further , he commands holy oyl , holy water , consecrated salt , cr●…m , spittle , insuff●…ations , exorcisms , with abundance of ●…ine d●…es to be used in or with , or in order to baptism ; the inferiour scruples these as me●…t fooleries , too childish and light to be used in gods worship . but the superiour takes you up : you are not competent judges ; it belongs to him to impose , and judge what is de●… , and such he has judged these , and as such imposed them , and your work is not disputation , but obedience . when b. bo●…ner heard , th●… in ●…r reforma●…ion we had reserved some of the old ceremonies , he answered with a smile , they ha●…e begun to tast of our br●… , and in time they 'l eat of our beef : the old crafty fox knew well , that where there was a nest , egge left , the priest ; and friers would lay to it the whole racemation of their superstitions . they that take away a practise , and do not renounce the principle upon which 't is built , do but lop off some of the more luxuriant branches , whilst the tree is alive , or turn his holiness out of doors , and yet give him the key in 's pocket to return at his leasure , or pleasure : and he might be too hasty that said , the english forced the pope out of d●…rs so hastily , that he had not time to take his garmen●… with him . i confess , i have been puzled what answer to give to a cavilling popish priest ; when he asks so pertly , why the priest may not put his fingers in the childs ears , in token that it shall hearken diligently to the word of god ; why not put salt upon the childs tongue , ( methinks i see how the poor wretch screws and twist ; up its mouth ) in token that its speech shall be seasoned with salt , as well as make an airy cross over its fore-head , in token that it shall confess a crucified christ : if we will give scope to our wanton extravagant fancies , and set our pregnant inventions on work , we might easily excogitate a thousand such pretty ingenious knacks , as might bear some imaginary allusion to some spiritual grace or duty ; but amongst them all i wonder no lucky fancy never stumbled upon 't , to put a decent banner , with st. georges ●…ss upon 't into the childs hand , in token that it should manfull , ( and not like a child ) fight under christs banner . . quest. how comes it to pass , that all those of the roman communion withdraw themselves from ours , and all true protestants think it their duty to absent themselves from their worship . physitians do carefully observe the indications of nature ; and therefore observing that our enquirers mind stands strongly inclined to a little pleasantness . why should we check the humour ? how comes it to pass ? truly i neither know that it does come to pass , nor why it comes to pass . i am certain i have read or heard , that for the first . years of queen eliz. the papists came to church ; and if they have knock'd off since , and why they have knock'd off , i wait for an answer from this enquirer . king edw. vi in his proclamation to the devenshire rebels ; tells them ; that if the mass were good in latin , it could not be bad by being translated into english. it could not be objected , as 't was against the commedian , ex graecis bonis . fecit latinas non bonas ; this could not be the reason to be sure . no , no , ( says he ) they are commanded so to do by the head of their church : there 's the reason ; then what needed all this stir ; the command of a superiour will hallow , or at least excuse an erroneous action . as a transcendent in our church speaks ; and if this doctrine would but pass , we should have a sweet time on 't : our superiours must impose , and judge what 's indifferent and decent ; and we have the easiest life in the world , nothing but to wink hard , and lift up our legs high enough , and there 's no danger . and yet the papists learn'd not possibly all this lesson of withdrawing from the church of england , from their own superiours , they might be taught the doctrine neater home : a. b. laud being ask'd by a lady , whether she might be saved in the romish communion ? answered readily , madam ! you may ; and the good lady took his word , and ventured it . it 's possible it might be the same lady , that dr. ●…uller , ch. hist. b. . p. . tells us of . she being ask'd by the same prelate , why she had changed her religion ? answered , because i ever hated a crowd . and being desired to explain her meaning herein ; she replyed . i perceived your lordship , ( it should have been grace by her ladyships favour ) and many others are hastning thither as fast as you can , and therefore to prevent a press i went before you . what design of reconciliation with rome , and upon what terms grotius carried on , is pretty well known by this time of day : that he had a party here in england , or expectations of one , his own words testifie . aequis multis non displicuisse grotil propace labores , n●…unt lutetiae , & in omni gallia multi , multi in poloniâ , & germaniâ , in angliâ non pauci , pla●…idi , pacis amantes , discus . p. . there were i see by this , a company of loving , sweet-natur'd , tractable souls here in england , that would have step'd half way over the ditch to meet his holiness : especially since mr. mountagues time , who informs us , that the controverted points ( between england and rome ) are of a lower and inferiour nature , which a man may be ignorant of , without peril of his soul , and may resolve to oppose this or that without peril of perishing for ever . that images may be used for instruction of the ignorant , and excitation of devotion : and that the church of rome has ever continued form upon the same foundations of sacraments , and doctrine instituted by god. they are not single instances of those who have not abhorred the communion of rome , which i could give , but i will spare the living and cover the dead . nor will i say , that these or such as these were papists , yet methinks they did incline , and warp desperately towards it ; there 's an odd distinction we often meet with , of a sensus compositus , and a sensus divisus , which may a little illuminate us : now because my readers are not like to be any of the more deadly learned sort , i will a little explain the distinction to their capacities , by a very familiar , though i confess a very homely comparison : it 's impossible ( say i ) that a maggot should ever be a fly : that is , in your sensus compositus ; or so long as it continues to be a maggot , because these have two distinct forms , and the one keeps the other out of possession , whilst it hath a nail or tooth to scratch or bite : but now it s not only possible , but easie for this fly to become a maggot , in sensu diviso ; that is , for the maggot to strip her self of her old shape , and appear in another likeness ; i shall be modest in the application , and hope the reader will not be immodest : such persons as i have mention'd could never be papists , whilst they adhered to the doctrine of the church of england ; but yet such were their disposednesses that way , that the transition was easie , to slide from such loose principles into popery , and yet the church the mean time might be innocont . . quest. whence comes it to pass , that the romish church have more spight against our church , than against any sect or party whatsoever ? when it is once well proved that they have so , it will be time enough to enquire why they have so ; but we must suppose one half of his discourse to be true , that we may have leave to answer the other . the spight of the roman faction against protestancy as such , has so eminently discovered it self , under whatever denominations they have been differenced ; that none of them have cause to boast of it , or be ambitious to tast further of it : it were well improved , if they who are objects of their implacable spight , could learn to love more , and agree better amongst themselves : the papists think themselves excusable in persecuting all , when 〈◊〉 protestant so suriously persecutes another , they know no reason why they should love us better than we love our selves : and truly against whom their spight is hottest is hard to judge . if we compare the cruelties of the parisian massacre ●…ith the butcheries of the irish rebellion ; we shall find the true reason why they flew more in ireland than paris , was , because there was more to be slain : the fire may go out for want of matter , but i dare say , never for want of a good stomack to its food : in short , their spight is there the greatest where they can shew it most ; as to one that 's very hungry the biggest dish is ever the best : the papists judge of the object of their hatred , as one did of tullies orations ; the longest is to be sure the most excellent : and yet i conceive the enquirer to be quite out in this matter . the papists may spight the church of england upon the account of its fair and vast revenues , great dignities , marvellous honours , wealth , splendour , and whatever is desirable to the eye , because hereby the church is able to vye with her ; and yet their malice upon the pure account of religion may be greater against other lesser , weaker parties , whose principles stand more directily in opposition to those of rome : i do not doubt but our enquirer could bring better arguments than these , to prove the distance of religion between the two societies , for this i am sure is too weak , unless it may appear , that their spight is levelled against the church , meerly on account of those principles wherein she differs from dissenters . . quest. how comes it to pass , that they of all men most zealously ●…and in the gap to oppose the return of popery ? that gap at which popery must enter , if ever it enters into england , is the division between protestants , and if that gap were well stop'd . popery might look ●…ver , but would never leap over , or break through the ●…dge : this gap of divisions , is made by the imposition of such things , which in the judgment of the imposers are indifferent in their own nature ; but in the judgment of the dissenters sinful in their use and exercise . the dissenters say , they cannot stop the breach , unless they make a wider in their own consciences : if now they who seem so zealously to stand in the gap to keep out popery , would come out of the gap , and make it up , which else will let in popery ; we shall thank them more fo●… making up one , than standing in , and keeping open a thousand . i know very well , that many men do oppose the introduction of popery , and there 's cause for 't : there 's a popery that would take away their wives , and some fear it , and others hope it upon that account : there is a popery that would subject them to a forrein metropolitan , and make them trot to rome upon every ●…leevless errand ; that would let strangers like locusts and caterpillers into the land to eat up every green herb ; that would drain the thames into tyber , and derive all the blood and spirits of the nation into another channel . caesar had rather be primus in villâ , quam secundus in romā . every one may sooner hope to learn a b c , than to arrive so far as p : a distance then there is , and yet the opposition against popery may not prove the distance so great , but there may be too great an agreement : the state of venice did once expel the iesuits , and yet they expelled not popery ; the french were long before they entertained the decrees of trent , yet still they were popish : i quote them for no more than this ; that its evident there may be fierce opposition upon some particular accounts , when yet there may be a great harmony upon other accounts : many oppose a popery coming top and top gallant , that yet would compound for a popery upon handsome terms . this last question has strangely transported him into a most passionate panegyrick in commendation of some church-men , for some rare exploit or other , which by all the circumstances , must be the procuring the late proclamation against dissenters : an act so glorious , that no age shall ever wear out its memory ; this is it , which challenges from posterity , statues of corinthian brass , and will embalm their memories to all succeeding generations : he had lately exposed the ignorance of those simple men of dort , that they kn●…w not how to make god just , unless they made him cruel too ; and what was their reproach , must now be these mens glory , that they know not how to make the magistrate great , unless they make him cruel , nor glorious , unless they destroy a considerable part of mankind : methinks church-men should not be so ambitious to survive their own funerals by such epitaphs . here lye they who first taught religion to be unmerciful . this high encomium is attended in the rear with a severe charge against the dissenters , that they were instrumental in procuring a toleration and suspension of the laws for popery : it is true . consciencious dissenters desire not the execution of sanguinary laws upon papists , merely for their religion , there are proper ways enow to obviate the cursed tendencies of their principles , without dishonouring our own . nor ought the modest desire of a sober liberty for the exercise of their own consciences , to be interpreted an endeavour for a toleration of popery ; they ever hoped that governours know the difference between dissenting protestants ; who agree with the church of england in the essentials of christianity , and recusants who substantially differ ; and the wisdom of his gracious majesty in his declaration for indulgence , made a clear distinction between them , though some wise church-men could not see it . protestants however differing in some things from the present establishment , yet have no forreign interest , no transmarine dependences ; they own no exotick head , that may alienate their affections from their natural prince and leige lord , their private peace and happiness is wrapt up in the general happiness of the king and kingdom ; any eye but that of envy might have discovered a sensible difference between these parties . that protestant dissenters were instrumental to procure such a toleration for popery , is therefore a slander so unworthy , that none would have forged , but they who never baulk an officious untruth , when it may subserve their main design , to render the non-conformists odious ; that so the instruments of their destruction may not be fetter'd with the reluctancy of their restif consciences . but we envy not them the glory since they aspire after it , of reducing their brethren to primitive poverty , because they endeavour primitive purity , let them enjoy the glory , that no humble under-woods can grow under the shadow of their spreading branches ; let them take the glory of the gardiners shears , which snips off every aspiring twig that would mount towards gospel simplicity above its fellows ; such is the glory of an old a king tooth , that is in insupportable pain till it may either chew the flesh of the consciencious , or come under the discipline of de la roc●…'s instrument . for when his majesties grace had for a while 〈◊〉 them to the rack-staves , they were ready to break the bridle till they could come at the manger . let it be a quaere then , whether it be more probable to cure , or encrease the old suspicions of some mens inclinations to popery , that they could never be at ●…ase , whilst their protestant brethren had any in their native countrey . i shall not need to add to all this ( says he ) that there are as understanding men in religion , persons of as holy lives , and of as comfortable consciences of this churches education , as are any where to be found in the world besides . they who are masters , or however owners of such comfortable consciences , do surely know what it costs to get , what care it requires to keep , and what torment it is to lose a comfortable conscience . he that shall swear a thousand times by the great osyris , that he has a comfortable conscience , and yet shall thrust other men upon the turn-pikes of sin , and force them to act against their light , that shall rail at , or persecute them for worshipping god according to their convictions of duty from the word of god , must give me leave to be incredulous , and earnestly desire him to find out some solifidian . that can believe the moon to be made of a green cheese . let him farther consider . § . that it s not the main considerable in conscience , that it be comfortable , but that it be so upon solid grounds . the apostle peter , ep. . . commands us to be ready to render a reason of the hope tha is in us . if the reason of our hope , comfort , and confidence , be not as strong , as the building is high , the towring edifice will tumble down upon our own heads : it behoves us to be as solicitous about the spring of our comforts , as the sweetness of the streams : and i am the more earnest with this enquirer to look after the comfortableness of his own conscience , for as for the religious and orthodox divines of this church , i doubt not both of the purity and peace of their consciences ) because . he allows no other election , then gods determining absolutely of temporal blessings , p. . but the church of england art. having described a particular election to everlasting life , from gods everlasting purpose ; tells us . that the godly consideration of predestination , and our election in christ , is full of sweet , pleasant , and unspeakable comfort to godly persons , and such as feel in themselves the working of the spirit of christ. he then that disowns this doctrine , must needs want one main ground of a pure and comfortable conscience . . they who own justification by works , want another bottom of a comfortable conscience . so the church of england , art. . wherefore that we are iustified by faith only , is a most wholsome doctrine , and full of comfort : all peace then is founded in grace : in gods grace as the fountain whence it springs , and in the operations of grace upon the soul , as the evidences of that grace in god ; and though men may bless themselves in evil , and flatter themselves when they find prosperous iniquity , yet if any one be a lyar , a persecuter , a hater of godliness , and godly men , a slanderer , &c. god speaks no peace to him ; and therefore it s more adviseable to boast less of a comfortable conscience , and mind the things that belong to a comfortable importance . . the last pretended cause of the dissenters withdrawing from the church of england , is , a charge against the sufficiency , but especially the sanctity of the clergy . the dissenters do gladly acknowledge , that the learning and piety of very many of the ministers of the church of england , is such as deserves an honourable place in their hearts ; that they have not such a valuation for some of our enquirers co-partners , they beg his excuse , till they may see more cogent reasons to alter their judgements ; when they are in the humour to take a few sorry sophismes candied over with rhetorick , to be learning , or uncharitable censoriousness , crusted over with smooth hypocrisie , to be piety , they see nothing to the contrary but they may enlarge their charities . that there are many of the present establishment , eminent for sound learning , and exemplary holiness , who exercise christian tenderness towards those , who dissenting in conscience , do suffer for conscience , is the rejoycing of their souls under their great pressures ; and they know that the more learned and godly any person is , the more humble he must needs be ; a little knowledge ferments a●… impotent heart , and makes it intolerably arrog●…nt ; but he that knows much , amongst other things must needs know , that he that stands in need of mercy from god , and therefore will more readily shew pitty to man : he that knows what a tender conscience is at home , will pitty and indulge it , wherever he meets with it abroad . he that knows much , cannot presume all the world enjoys his measures of light. the enquirer might therefore well have spared this odious and invidious discourse , had he not found it necessary , first to make a man of clouts , and then execute it : and yet his victory cannot be great , in trampling on those that lye on the ground , and can be laid no lower , but in their graves , for to hell he cannot send them . two needless things he will say to this objection , for he is full , et si non aliqua no●…uisset 〈◊〉 esset . . supposing this objection had been true , yet it could not be made by any protestant , without contradicting his principles . no , why not ? oh , for the papists are taught , that the efficacy of all divine offices , depends upon the intention , and condition of him that administers ; but protestants are taught it seems otherwise , that the efficacy of all divine ordinances , depend●… upon the divine institution , and the concurrence of gods grace wi●…h my use of them . the reader must give me leave to repeat my former caution , which is always understood , though not exprest , that i deny not the sanctity of the english clergy , my only task is , to examine the strength of his arguments , which are sometimes so weak , as would tempt the less considerate to conclude , that cannot be true , which so bold 〈◊〉 undertaker cannot make out . his answer to the objection , is ●…nly more weak then the objection it self : for. § . , when he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the church of rome , sure the protestant dissenters must expect no quarter : the papists do indeed hold , that the efficacy of sacraments depends upon the intention of the priest ; but that it depends on the condition of the priest as to holiness , they assert not . i shall produce one evidence of many . tolet de instructione sacerdotis , lib. . cap. . propounds this question . quando licet à ministris malis accipere sacramenta ? when , or in what case is it lawful to receive the sacraments from wicked ministers ? and the very moving of the question implies , that at least at sometimes , and in some cases , its lawful ; but this will more fully appear from his answers , which he gives . . negatively , a non-toleratis ab ecclesiā non licet ullum sacramentum accipere etiam necessitatis tempore , it s not lawful to receive any sacrament from those who are not tolerated by the church , no not in case of necessity . here is doctrine to his own hearts content , and wherein the jesuite may assure himself of our enquirers suffrage . a non-conformist amongst them may not baptize , or administer the supper , though the salvation or damnation of never so many depended on it . and yet when the casuist thinks better on 't , he will except baptism , and perhaps the other sacraments in the article and point of death●… . a ffirmatively . a m●…lis ministris , dum non sequatur aliquod grave scandatum possumus sacra recipere , nam ecclesia ipsos tolerat . & ipsi ta●…a administr●…ntes sibi solis nocent . we may receive sacraments from wicked ministers ( such as he there describes ) provided no grievous scandal follow upon it ; for the church tolerates such as these , and when they administer the ordinances , they hurt none but themselves . nay he quotes pope nick. to back him . isti sunt sicut fax a●…censa quae alios illuminat , & se consumi●… ; & unde aliis commodum exhibent , sibi dispendium praebent mortis : these evil ministers are like a burning torch , which enlightens others , though it wast it self ; and destroy themselves by that very means whereby they advantage others : but at last he comes to this . ab his quibus ex officio incumbit , sive sint parati , sive non , licet petere , & accipere sacramenta , five ex necessitate five non quia ille ex officio tenetur quandocunque petiero ministrare , nec ego jus meum à mitto ex illius malitiâ . we may demand , and receive sacraments from those , whose duty it is to administer , whether they be prepared or not ; whether it be in a case of necessity or not ; because su●…h a one is bound by virtue of his office to minister when i demand it , and i cannot loose my right through his malice . navar indeed cells us , that mortale est peccatu●… audire missam , aut recipere sacramenta , à notorio concubinario . that its a mortal sin to hear mass from a notorious whore ma●…erly priest ; but honest suarez corrects that preciseness , and clears it up , that that prohibition is repeated by the council of constance . so that in this one point , the papists are as orthodox as our enquirer can reaso●…bly desire , and have laid no stone of offence at which any on●… might stumbl●… into separation . they do indeed hold , that holiness is necessary in a priest necessitate praecepti , and i hope even ●…e will not deny that , but that they held i●… not absolut●…ly necessary , necessitate medii , so as that the absence thereof will make a nullity in all ministerial acts , or render them utterly veid , and of none effect ; and that 's as much as he can prove . the papists then are taught no such matter . § . protestants may without contradiction to their principles , separate from a person who by law is vested with all the tythes , profits , perquisites , emoluments of a parish whatsoever , whether he be called parson , vicar , curate , if withal he be ignorant , and not apt to teach , erronious , and does worse then not teach , and scandalously prophane , and so does unteach all he taught before : he must have a good stomack that can receive the sacramental bread from him , out of whose nasty hands i could not take my co●…poral bread , without a vomit . if a preacher shall constantly preach heresies , and damnable doctrines , such as the ent●…rtainment of them would destroy my soul , must i venture the ruine of it out of civility and run the risque of being damned for fear of one of those theological sc●…rcrows , which men have set up to fright us into compliance . can i in faith expect that god will deliver me from evil , ●…hen i lead my self into temptation ? can i hope that he will preserve my judgement untainted , when i expose my self to be practised upon , by the cunning insinuations of a sly deceiver , and set my self as a mark for satan to shoot at ? mr harding i remember presses the reverend iuel with this . be the bishop of rome's life never so wicked , yet we may not sever our selves from the church of rome . the learned man answers from cyprian , plebs obsequens praeceptis dominicis , & deum metuens , à peccatore praeposito separare se debet . a people that obey gods commands , and fears him ( not only may , but ) ought to separate from a wicked minister , art. . and yet he understood the principles of protestants as well as our enquirer . but let cyprianus africanus go which way he pleases , we have a greater than he , cyprianus anglicus , who in his discourse with fisher , from that text , rom. . . mark them which cause divisions amongst you : observ●… to 〈◊〉 . that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the causer of the division is the schismatick . the prudence which we use in flying the contagion of a scandalous mi●…ister , does not imply , that all his minis●…erial acts are meer nu●…lities , nor that god may not possibly concur wi●…h his ministry to advance my spiritual welfare , but that a soul is a being so precious , bought with a price so precious , the loss of it so irrecoverable , and my whole concerns embarqued in the bottom , that i ought not to expose it to apparent danger , upon presumption of what god can , or may do ; for ordinarily we know that ●…od delights to serve himself of the labours of those instruments , who having dedicated themselves inwardly to the service of god in the gospel , do sincerely design , and zealously pursue the glorifying of his name , in the turning sinners from their evil ways to god ; which we may reasonably suspect of them , whose lives witness that they have no concern for others salvation , who have so little for their own . the apostle paul commands his son timothy , ep. . . to take heed to himself , and so the doctrine ; for in so doing he should both save himself , and those that heard him . more then implying that the soul of another will never be dear to him , to whom his own soul is cheap : as my running from a pest-house does not suppose that all must necessari●…y die that come within its walls , but that it becomes a prudent man to dwell , not where he may possibly escape death , but where he may most probably secure his life : so my with-drawing from an heretical and scandalous minister , does not imply a necessity of damnation by attending upon his ministry , but that a soul is too precious a concern to be put to that adventure . in all matters of lesser moment we exercise our wisdom freely , without the least scruple in our selves , or rebuke from others . if an act of parliament were made , by advise of the convocation it self , that no sick person should consult any other physician , but only him that dwells in the parish ; nor any one to take advise of other councellor , than him that dwells in the vi●…age ; he that knows how difficult it is to keep , and preserve health and estate , how much more difficult to recover them when lost , would without any prefaces of modesty , take leave to seek out the most experienced in their faculties , and to become a civil non-conformist to those injunctions : there 's no man but will tell money after his own father ; and thinks it no incivility that he will see with his own eyes , and not anothers ; and why my soul must be hazarded in a complement , as if it were the most inconsiderable trifle in the world , i cannot once imagine . and the rather , because , if by my imprudent choice i should destroy my soul , the sin and guilt will lye upon my self alone ; but if i should ruine it by the neglect of timely escape , none can give me security that he will answer for my folly before the judge of all the earth . nor can it be imagined , that i should be such an enemy to my own soul , as to destroy it wilfully ; or that any other should have a greater kindness for it than my self ; and when i find them not over tender of my body , estate , liberty , good name , life or livelyhood , which they have seen , they have cautioned me into a jealousie that they can have no such miraculous good will to my better part which they have not seen . i have heard of a gentleman , who having a son fitted by academick learning for fome serviceableness and employment , was much perplext within himself , upon what particular calling to fix for a future livelyhood : he consults his fri●…nds , and with them thus debates the case . if i design him a physician , he must study long , and gain good experience , before any judicious person will put his life into his hand , which he values so dear : if i should educate him towards the law , he must wear out many a year before the wary world will intrust an estate under his management : the only way therefore will be to make him a minister , for such are the low thoughts men have of their souls , that they will intrust them with the most raw , and unexperienc'd novice , hitherto his discourse has proceeded upon a supposition , that the charge had been true , yet the inference he thinks would have been false , but now he comes roundly to the denial of the charge , and a laborious confutation of it to no purpose . . combined wit and malice ( says our enquirer ) shall not be able to fix any scandal upon the body of the english clergy . i hope they never shall ! nor have i met with any so absurd and disingenuous , as for the sake of some , though many individuals to cast an aspersion upon a whole society , excepting those who have least reason if the body of the clergy be innocent , all the combinations of wit and malice shall not be able to eclipse their unspotted innocency ; that it shall break more gloriously through those envious clouds which had obscured its brightness ; and if they be peccant , all the combined wit and rhetorick in the world wil not wipe away the guilt and filth ; it must be repentance and reformation that can only be their compurgators . . first then concerning their learning : a thing that has been hitherto indisputable , and may continue so still , if the weakness of this gentlemans proofs do not render the truth of the proposition suspected . but hear his arguments . . if the preaching of the present age be not better than that of the former , i would fain know the reason why the homilies are in no greater reputation . and so would i too ! in those ancient sermons there are two things especially remarkable ; the phrase or cloathing , and the matter or substance of them . 't is true , time , and the growing refinings of the english language have superannuated the former ; but why the latter should also become obsolete , i would as fain know a reason as himself ; and that from himself , who is best able to account for his own actions : i assure him i would not exchange the old truth for new phrases , and modern elegancy : i had rather see plain truth , in her sober homely garb , than gawdy error spruced up with all the fineries of the scene and stage . the weakness of the former clergy , was the great reason that introduced both liturgies and homilies . and if the present clergy are grown so strong that they can despise one of their crutches , perhaps in time they may go alone without both . those cogent reasons pretended for the necessity of the one , will hold as strongly for the other ; 't is full as easie to disseminate heresies , to vent crude , raw , undigested non-sense in the pulpit , as the desk . when i hear any of our enquirers sermons , i shall summon up my best reason to make a judgment , whether he has so infinitely ●…ut-dene the ancient homilies , as he pretends : in the mean time i fear the language is not so much polished , and tricked up , as the doctrine is defiled ; nor have they shamed the homilies so much in briskness òf fancy , quaintness of words , and smoothness of cadencies , as the homilies have shamed them in plainness and soundness of truth : i would mind our author of the last words of the second part of the homily of salvation , and though he may mend the phrase , i doubt he will hardly mend the doctrine , so that our faith in christ ( as it were ) saith thus unto us : it is not i that tako away your sins , but it is christ only , and to him i send you for that purpose ; forsaking therein all your good vertues , words , thoughts and works , and only putting your trust in christ. in the homily of the place , and time of prayer , the church praises god , for purging our churches from piping , chanting , as wherewith god is so sore displeased , and the house of prayer defiled . hence perhaps some would conclude , that the true reason why we have forsaken the use , is , because we have forsaken the doctrine of the homilies . . arg. all protestants abroad admire the english way of preaching , insomuch as some forrein congregations , 〈◊〉 i am credibly informed , ( that was wisely inserted ) d●…ray the charges of the travels of their pastors into england , that they may return to them instructed , in th●… method of the english preaching . for the logick of this paragraph i shall not so much as examine it , all protestants admire english ●…reaching , for some congregations send to be instructed ●…n't . there 's the all and some of this argument . again , protestants admire english preaching ; ergo they admire the conformists preaching ; for all dissenters preach in an unknown tongue . again , they send them hither to be instructed in the method of english preaching ; all the excellency then lies in the method , which is to preach without doctrine , reason , and use : and now methinks i hear a pastor of a congregation in holland , returning home with a flea in his ear , and gi●…ing an account of the expence of his time and charges ; beloved ! we have been sadly mistaken all this while , for our synod of dort was a pack of silly ignorant fellows , that knew not how to make god iust , unless they made him cruel ; or man humble , unless they made him a stock or a stone : as for us , we are informed , that we are not true ministers of iesus christ , as wanting a thing , i think they call it episcopal ordination , and if any of us should become ministers there , we must be re-ordained , though a priest from rome shall not need it : and therefore by consequence your baptism is a nullity , all our ministerial acts void , and of none effect , your churches are not true churches , your reformation was began in rebellion , continued in schism , and thus i have got my labour for my pains , and naught for my labour . . arg. the preaching of the church of england is beyond that of rome . yes so it may be , and yet none of the best neither ; what sleighty topicks are these from whence to evince the excellency of english preaching : commend me to read one sermon in the works of the learned b. reynolds , and it storms the incredulous sooner then a hundred of these ridicules put together : but how does it appear that the english transcends the romish preaching ? pray mark the proof : why erasmus wrote a book of the art of preaching , and full of the follies and rediculous passages in popish sermons . most meridian conviction ! has not i. e. written a book also full of the follies and ridiculous passages in english sermons ? pray then set the hares head against the goose giblets . ah! but erasmus his book is as full as his : very good , and so is his as full as erasmus's : really when the act comes out against metaphors , i hope there will be a clause in 't , that no rhetorician shall ever again use an argument . as he would be injurious to the truth that should take the sollies gathered up in this modern author for the measure of present preaching , so shall he be equally vain , that shall make those impertinencies gleaned up by erasmus , to be the true measure of the preaching of those times : and why may we not charitably suppose , that the romanists have furbisht up their rusty preaching since the days of erasmus , as well as we have scowred up ours since the days of the homilies ? . arg. his fourth argument is none of the strongest , and yet worth all the rest put together : which were but the vaunt-courriers to usher in this main one with more solemnity . compare ( says he ) but the preachings generally in our churches , with those ordinarily in conventicles , you will find them unequally matcht . though we could be content they were modestly compared , yet we can by no means allow this enquirer to use his own false weights of comparing , and generally such comparisons are odious . non-conformists do not affect strong lines , nor are ambitious of the gigantick vein and stile , they study not measured sentences , nor use the compasses to every dece●…t period , they had rather with their austin , have a wooden key that will open the lock , then one of gold , which makes a fidling din , in the wards , and yet confounds them . none of them but do praise god for the learning , sound judgement , solid preaching , holy lives , which are to be found among the conformable clergy , but can he rear his triumphant arches to their praises upon no other foundations , then the ruines of other mens credits . for my part , i am always apt to suspect that persons credibility , who thinks more to confirm it by two or three ratling oaths : and i never received it as an argument of her honesty , that carries her tongue so loosely hung , that she deals about most liberally s●…rumpet and whore ; but i see he is impatient till he compares them . on the one side you have sound theology , strength of argument , gravity of expression , distinctness of method ; on the other side nothing more frequent , then puerile , and flat , oftentimes rude , and sometimes blasphemous expressions , similitudes instead of arguments , and either apish gestures , or tragical v●…ciferations instead of eloquence . reader , this language is pure cicero , i assure thee , ex hac enim parte pudor pugnat , illinc petulantia , hinc pietas , illinc stupram ; hinc fides , illinc frraudatio . i am sorry our enquirer dwells by so very bad neighbours , that his own mouth must be the very trumpeter of his praises ; if the common cryer could have been engaged for love or money to proclaim them , no modest man would have done the drudgery . but nemo patriam suam amavit quia magna est sed quia sua . 't is propriety that renders all things sweet and beautiful ; all this had been pardonable , but i see some that love to be ingeniosi in aliená famâ ; huge facetious upon other mens fames , and perhaps never witty in a twelve-month , but when they write satyr . as all impartial readers know one half of his oratory to be false , so it s to be feared they may suspect the other moyety not to be very true : that 's all an honest man shall get by being in a knaves company : truth has sometimes been set in the stocks , because it has been found under the same roof with falshood . he that wishes well to his own due praises , let him never desire , they should be yoaked with anothers unjust reproach ; least the hearer knowing the one unrighteously slandered , conclude that the other is as unjustly flattered . for its an unquestionable maxime , he that will be a sycophant against one , will be a parasite to another . let our enquirer then sweetly enjoy the ravishments of his pleasing dreams , i shall not awaken him with loud recriminations , only softly whisper that of the poet. bella es ; novimus ! & puella ; verum est ! et dives ; quis enim potest negare ? sed dum te nimiùm . fabulla , laudas nec dives , nec bella , nec puella es . mart. ep. l. . . yet there is one salvo for their credits , which all the fraternity of gentlemen-raylers do use to bring themselves off , and heal all again , when at any time they have most unconscionably over-lasht : and that is , when they have pour'd out all the contempt and scorn , have heap'd up all the slanders and reproaches that they can make or rake together , then to make an honourable retreat , and tell you , they do confess there may be one or two that may be innocent . god forbid ( says our gentleman ) that i should charge all the non-conformists with such indecencies . nay i can tell him more then that : god forbids him to charge any one with such indecencies , unless he had better proof of them : and had he known any individual guilty of these crimes , he should have personally charged that one , that he might be brought to repentance for his prophanation of gods holy name , and not involve a whole party under the scandalous suspicion ; all the charity that these words necessarily contain is , that they are all such save one . suppose another as charitable as himself , should write after his copy , and when he had with much pleasant scurrility and drollery made the devil sport with the indecencies of church-men , should come off at last with this epanorthosis . god forbid i should charge all the conformists with these extravagancies ; what would it argue but a more crafty and safe way of hypocritical calumny ? thus i remember a gentleman once in a frolick , told his companions , they were all fools but one ; and when a young gallant of the knot , more tender of his reputation then it deserved , and willing to venture more for it then 't was worth , began to draw . the other takes him aside , and whispers him in the ear , how do you know but that i intended your self , by that single exception ; and this little dust parted the fray . well , i see he is sick till he comes to particulars ; asahe●… would not take abners civil warning ; some men seek mischief to themselves , and all the friends they have cannot stave them off from the duel ; the more you hold a coward , the more eager he is to engage ; let the man alone , pray let him alone , and in the mean time , i will fortifie my self with patience , that no provocation of his , may tempt me to a back blow under the fifth rib ; for how then should i lift up my face to my dear brethren ? . their sermons are generally about predestination . about it ? 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; what a word was that for a wise man ? the church of england in her th . article propounds the doctrine of predestination to be believed by us , according to the scriptures ; that which is the matter of faith , ought to be the subject of our preachings , cor. . . we believe , and therefore we speak . and yet i am confident that our enquirer , and his like , preach more , write more , and make more noise about that serious point , then the non-conformists , i presume i may have heard my share of their sermons , and yet i can assure the reader . i never heard that doctrine professedly handled in my life ; i speak not this in their excuse , or commendation , no , 't is their just reproof , and were i meet to give them their due , i would speedily come out of their debt : what shall the great truths of the gospel , the articles of the church of england , the famous st. austin be trampled in the dirt by the foot of insolence , and shall a pretence of i know not what modesty , unwillingness to offend them that are resolved to be offended , stop your mouths ? reverend sirs ! it s high time to awake , and plead the cause of god , least he give you up to reproach and contumely , because you have left his truth so . if the reader be so curious as to enquire wherein lies the great evil of preaching about predestination , he may know , that there is a preaching about , id est , pro : and there is a preaching about , id est , con : to preach about it , when it signify's for it , that indeed is scandalous and dangerous : but to preach about it , when it signifies against it , that indeed is laudable , for it s well known , that when the arminian faction got a little heart in the rising days of a. b. laud , the abe●…ters of those novelties procured a proclamation , that none should meddle about those controversies , pretending they were nice school-points , unfit for vulgar ears , but presently the arminians fell pell-mell upon fiery declamations against them . . they preach about union with god and christ. about it still ! i doubt not but this gentleman could be willing the dissenters had free liberty to preach again , provided they preacht about just nothing . if the church-doors were unlockt , the pulpit-doors set wide open , and their mouths sealed up , and a padlock hung upon their bibles , the case would be much the same ; but to speak freely , if they did preach about it , at the rates that many write about it , reducing all to a politick union , e'ne nail up their pulpits , and set the arrow-head upon the doors of their meetings : 't is then no such heinous crime to preach about it , you may preach about , and about , and about the bush again , provided you never come near it , or doff it off with an airy nothing . ay , but the n. c. confess this union to be unintelligible , and they help to make it so . there are many great truths in the gospel , which in their heigths and depths , in their utmost improvements , we cannot comprehend ; yet such a knowledge of them is attainable , as may whet the edge of our appetite after more , and in the mean time direct us in our duties towards god and man , the perfect opening of which mysteries is reserved for heaven , when we shall see face to face , and know as we are also known . he that will throw away every object of knowledge which he cannot 〈◊〉 , must throw away the two great volumes of scripture and nature ; the doctrine of the trinity is certainly owned in the articles , and yet what ever key the great engrossers of reason have got to that tremendous mystery , in my judgement there 's an unintelligible depth in it , for which faith must lie at the stake , and the veracity of god be responsible . our union with god and christ have been cleared up from the scriptures , to stay the stomacks , and give some present satisfaction to the holy ardency of true believers ; and yet though the thing in its own nature be cognoscible , yet so glorious are the priviledges that flow from it , such the mercies which issue out in eternal life , that we freely confess our ignorance ; eye has not seen , nor ear heard , nor has it enter'd into the heart of man , ( such poor men as we are ) to conceive all those comforts which lie in the bosom of that relation , and which god has laid up in store for those that are in covenant with him . whatever is received , must be so according to the capacity of the recipient ; we do not thinck that the ocean can be put into narrow mouth'd vessels ; when god shall raise our faculties , and enlarge our capacities , that we can hold more , he will give more ; and therefore leaving the sublime speculative gnosticks to their own fancies , we shall bless god for what we know , and humbly aspire after greater measures of divine light . they preach of the sweetness , beauty , and loveliness of christs person . they do so ! and are willing to be criminal ; if this be a crime , our enquirer bewails the want of love amongst christians ; and if he were as sollicitous to enquire into the reasons of that defect , he would find this to be a main one , that the loveliness of christ is so much depreciated : he that cannot love christ , cannot possibly love a christian ; since that for which every christian as such is amiable , must be that he partakes of those graces for which christ is amiable : it 's an humane love that only eys our own image , but a divine grace that loves the image of a saviour : but these things were not reproach in those days , when ignatius upon every mention of christ stiled him his love , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . my love is crucified ! but that the preaching of christ●… loveliness stirs up sensual passions , is a note of blasphemy abo●… ela , not to be parallel'd but by the friendly debate , whose dunghill our enquirer has first raked , and then epitomiz'd . and thus much shall suffice at present to have descanted upon the ignorance of the non-conformists preaching : now wipe your eyes , and you shall read a specimen of his own . i have seen a picture of such artificial contrivance , that as we enter'd the room , it presented to us the ridiculous prospect of the cat and the fiddle : we had not traversed a few paces to the other side , but it was by a strange metamorphosis become a very beautiful lady : curiosity drew me nearer to view the mystery of this dubious piece , and it soon discovered it self a trivial essay of mechanisme : thus when we enter'd upon this subject , the enquirer gave us , the non-conformist , and his preaching in ridicule ; now turn you twice about , and in a trice the scene is changed , and you shall have the lively pourtraiture of a rational divine in all his pontificalibus . and here first we meet with discourses of god , his nature , and attributes : which if some of them found not so , they have left unintelligible . such a nature as they have contrived , such attributes as they are graciously pleased to assign to him ; so that tertullians complaint is not more frequently than justly repeated . god shall not be god , but upon such terms as man shall prescribe . and then of the reasons of religion . yes no doubt you are the men , and all wisdom shall die with you . what a sad case had religion been in , if these eminent men had not been raised up to set religion upon its proper basis , and unsettle it from the feeble foundations upon which former ages had erected it ? but then they give us arguments for contentment , under persecution perhaps , such as would make a man weary of his life , and almost petition to be hang'd . and of reverence too ; consisting in uncommanded postures of bowing at the naming of iesus , worshipping towards the east , and altar ; and of submission , viz. of private reason and conscience to the publick , but of all , and of all they excel when they treat of th●… eternal reasons of good and evil ; a point admirably fitted to the capacities of the vulgar , which nothing but unskilfulness could make a man bold enough to undertake the unfolding of . an dantur aeternae rationes boni & mali , in mente diviná indispensabiles ? oh how the ladies sit and admire this profound theology ! notions which cannot be characteriz'd better than in gondib●…rts phrase , — to charm the weak , and pose the wise. but then they treat of the nature of faith and how there 's nothing a justifying and saving faith as such , but what the devils can shew for it : and to conclude of charity too , to all of their own cue , to a hairs breadth , with denunciation of fire and faggot , to all that come not up to their apices iuris , and jump not in , with every iota , and tittle of conformity : i had almost forgot their discourses of obedience to magistrates ; i suppose this enquirer has not very long treated of that subject ; the meaning of it is , so long as they are well paid for their pains : o emperour ( said one ) defend me with thy sword , and i 'le defend thee with my quill ! could you blame him ? it will cost more to maintain an army , than a penny worth of quills : notwithstanding all these bravadoes , the world must see , if their eyes be not out , that dissenters give more real obedience to magistrates , for bare life , and uncertain liberty , than some do for all these revenues , which publick indulgence has loaded them withal ; for when the finger of the magistrate is put forth to touch them , not in skin or bone , but some sorty accident , they are ready to make good the devils charge , and curse him to his face . . he has done with the learning , and will now come to the lives of 〈◊〉 clergie : whatever good he shall speak of the clergy , i can heartily agree with him in it , provided he could forbear the disparagement of others : let it be accorded that the lives of the generality of church-men are unblamable : yet that they need no foyl to set them off ▪ is such a childish way of wheedling our belief of it , as if a jeweller should shew you a stene with its foyl , and then protest it needs none . here then needed no quarrel ; we can rejoyce in , and bless god for the graces , as well as gifts ; the piety , as well as the learning of our brethren who differ from us . nay we can pray to god to double his spirit upon them in both respects , and for those who deride the grace and spirit of god , we can pray that god would give them a sounder mind : we pray that there may be such burning and shining lights found amongst all them that profess the reformed religion , however in small matters varying , as may confound atheism and popery , with whatsoever is contrary to found doctrine and godliness ; but yet this compassionate enquirer , that he may not be uncivil , nor pass by the door of a non-conformist without a salute , will call in , and say a word or two to them , when he has first given us a reason why he will treat them like christians . . r. because he will not render evil for evil , nor retaliate the reproaches cast upon the sons of the church ; for he has not so learn'd christ , and doubtless he that has learn'd christ to any purpose , either in his example or doctrine , must learn quite another lesson than foul language , and blackmouth'd barking , or he has gone to school to no purpose , and must come back to his horn-book , and begin at christs-cross . . r. such uncharitable recriminations have not only made an apology for atheism , and the prophaness of the age , but they afford a pleasant spectacle to all wicked men. . r. it taken from the example of constantine the great , who when the bishops and clergie at the nicene council had exhibited a bundle of libels one against another , burn●… them all before their faces , protesting that if he should see one of them in the most scandalous commission , he would cover his shame with his own purple . being therefore convinced , that all recriminations are unbecoming the gospel , and that from the nervousness of our enquirers arguments , i will make a reasonable motion , that all the friendly debates , the ecclesiastical policies , with the foul-mouth'd co●…ler of gloucesters canto's , be condemned to the next solemn bonefire . unless you will make the compassionate enquiry the protomartyr : and add the porter , who when he should have covered the scandalous commission with his frock , openly exposed it upon his back . these massive reasons ( one would think ) might have sunk any ordinary mans railing inclinations into a modest silence , and suspended his pr●…clivity to reviling , ab officio for three years ; and yet ( like a compassionate , self-consistent , or self-condemned enquirer ) he will say these two things further in this case . nay , i did look for it every moment , and that all those re●…s against slander were but a foyl to set off hypocrisie , prophaning of scripture , and the deba●…ching of his conscience , with a greater grace , when he shall come to blazon th●… scandalous impieties of the non-conformist ministers . and here i first got a satisfactory in-sight into one truth more , that there is the same proportion , between the title , and the book , that there is between his rhetorick , and his reason . the title calls the boock , a serious and compassionate enquirer : but the book ingenuously calls it self , the ridiculous and passionate enquiry and if they thus revile and scold at one another , we must not admire if both join in reviling the dissenters . . two things then he has to say ; and the first of them is three things alone . § . if a man be male-content with the government , and sorsaking the church , resort to private assemblies , such a man may debauch his life too ; and yet have a very charitable constrnction among the generality of dissenters . that is , if a man will be a rascal in one paricular , he may be a villain in all the rest , provided he become a non-conformist : ay! sit sacrilegus , sitfur , sit vi●…iorum omnium flagitiorumque princeps — at est bonus fanaticus ! come but over to their way , and you may lye , and steal , and whore , and drink , and be drunk ! this was spoken without all peradventure out of tenderness of conscience , to fulfil that royal command , of not rendring evil for evil ? that it might appear how well he had learned christ. but let him know , that they allow no non-comformity , to compound for severe piety ; nor dissent from ceremonies , to substitute assent to the substantials of christianity . he that is not brought over to the obedience of the gospel , is with them no christian , by what name or title soever he be dignified or distinguished ; and i seriously desire , that this over-charged slander may not recoil , and hurt the enquirer . but though he be very uncharitable , i shall endeavour to give the most charitable construction of his words that they will bear ; and therefore observe , that though he be engaged not to render evil for evil , yet he never promised not to render evil for good . § . if being a clergy-man ( says he ) and continuing in the church , he shall debauch his office , and undermine the church which he should uphold , such an man ( also ) may then debauch his life too , and yet have a very charitable construction among the generality of dissenters . what must enemies expect from this man , who has no mercy an his friends ? there are many holy and learned persons , now within the bosom of the church , who having considered the terms of enjoying the more publick exercise of their ministry , have overcome the difficulties of subscription ; and do yet retain their former orthodoxy , and sobriety of conversation ; these per●…ons knowing what conscience is , do exercise great tenderness towards it in their brethren , who cannot get over their rubs , and obstacles ; and these , if i mistake not , are the glory of the church of england , for purity of doctrine , and piety of conversation , for all true learning , and useful knowledge ; against these persons , the enquirer has a desperate stitch , as those that undermine the church which they should uphold : that is , if they condescend never so little to a tender conscience , in one of those little institutions , which themselves cal indifferent , the whole church must presently fall about their ears : but if the church were built upon christ the rock , and not upon the wool-packs of ceremonies , such condescension would never undermine it : these are taxed also with debauching their office. and indeed if the office of ministers be to become informers ; if preaching the gospel be nothing but to make a p●…ther about ceremonies , i hope they will debauch it still ; but that any of these do debauc●… their lives , and are thereupon more acceptable to dissenters , is a lo●…d falshood , only to let us understand , how wel he has learned christ. § . if a man ( says he ) be of the most holy conversation , but zealous for the interest of the church , this man shall have wors●… quarter from the fiery zealots of other parties , then one of a more loose life , and meaner abilities . let no man reply , if a man be of a loose conv●…rsation , and but zealous of the grandeur , and for the ceremonies of the church , this man shall have fairer quarter , and more encouraging preferments , from the fiery bigots of conformity , then one of a severe life , and greater ministerial abilitits . to interpret this myst●…ry , we must inform our selves , what is the church●…s true interest as it is a church : it s very easie to mistake in stating the true interest of any society , and if we mistake there , its impossible we should be regular in the means of pursuing it . an errour in the first concoction is never rectified in the second : the true interest of every true church of christ , is to promote holiness , and conformity to his commands , engaging thereby his presence and protection ; and a spirit of love and peace amongst its members ; though under some variety of apprehension in adiaphorous matters : the mistake is to advance a churches secular grandeur , external splendour , and worldly pomp , which every true christian in his baptism has renounced , to●…ether with all the works of the devil , and the lusts of the flesh : if ever a church shall be so far mistaken as to judge worldly glory , its true interest , i know not why it may not also mistake the works of the devil , and the lusts of the flesh to be its true intere●…t also : a conforming minister , who despising that false , understands and pursues this true interest , is truly dear to all the non-conformists ; but for those who are so deluded as to think , it lies in destroying and ruining all that are not satisfied with their canons and constitutions , however aliene and forreign to the temper of the gospel , they confess they are no great admirers of them , whatever appearance of holiness they may make : if the interest of a faction , shall lie in sending po●… christians to the alms-house of new-gate , and the hospital of bedlam , and will give no quarter to the most holy , and religious , if they fail in two or three niceties , i must needs say i see no reason why such should adorn themselves with the plumes of gravity and devotion , to render their inhumanity more plausible . . but he has somewhat further to say then all this : if impertinent , and fantastical talking of religion , endless scrupulosities , censorious , and rash judging our superiours , melancholy sighing , going from sermon to sermon , without allowing our selves time to meditate on what we hear , or to instruct our families , be the main points of religion , then the non-conformists are holy men. and now i hope the reader is abundantly satisfied , that the enquirer has otherwise learned christ , than to render evil for evil , that he dares not furnish atheism and prophaness with an apologie : that he makes a conscience of affording a spectacle to evil men : that he dares not ( for a world ) dress religion in a phantastical habit. that boys may laugh at it : this is his constantines robe which he casts over scandalous commissions . serious discourses about the concerns of the world to come , about our own death , and the day of judgment , is phantastical talking : tenderness of conscience , holy fear of sinning against god , is endless scrupulosity ; modest refusal to practise every thing commanded , though reason , judgement , scripture reclaim , is censuring and rash iudgment of superiours . godly sorrw must be melancholly sighing ; attending upon gods word preached , shall be running from sermon to sermon : and a downright falshood added to close up the whole : that they neither allow themselves time to meditate of what they have heard , nor to instruct their families : and yet if they shall dare to practise this last , with a few of their weaker neighbours that drop in to hear a sermon repeated , they shall be lyable to the law , and punished as seditious conventiclers , and railed at as schismati●…ks . when all is said and done , machiavils old rule is a sacred maxime with these sort of men ; fortiter calumniare , aliquid adharebit : throw dirt enough , and some ont ' will stick . wild-fire flies further , than the water that should quench it : a reproach will run , where a just vindication will not creep : had the providence of god allotted the non-conformists their abode any where but amongst those whose interest it is to render them odious , they might have pass'd for good christians : it would be difficult to hire men to be instruments of cruelty , if they were not first perswaded , that they are ministers of iustice ; and the only way to perswade that , is to represent dissenters as the off-scowring of all things not fit to live a day : the best way to take away the life , is to render it abominable . none can handsomly be destroyed , till they be dress'd up in a malefactors cloaths . and it seems as much for their enemies advantage to make them seem wicked , as 't is for theirs to be really holy. it had been a more important enquiry , than any he has yet made , whence such an exulcerated spirit should proceed ? the gospel is a message of peace from the god of peace , by the prince of peace , to the sons of peace ; which gospel breaths nothing but healing counsels , drops down the balmy dews of gentleness , meckness , patience , long-suffering , charity ; and if i might borrow an ●…ld maxime at second hand from him : aut hoc non est evangelium aut nos non sumus evangelici : either charity is not gospel , or our enquirer is an infidel . it 's a grave axiome in the law ; that his cause ought more to be favoured , who only seeks to avoid wrong , than his that seeks to get gain . the dissenters humbly plead the benefit of it : they grudge them not their preferments , and accumulated dignities ; they neither envy nor seek their great things : they only deprecate ruine till they shall deserve it : it 's only from a prison , not for a palace that they petition : when others have got the two swords , the secular and the spiritual , they only crave the protection of the defensive shield : and think they may with some reason demand of them who deifie the freedom of humane will. that they may be indulged in the freedom of their consciences regulated by the word of god. chap. ii. of the more remote causes of the infelicities of this church : the persecution under q. mary : the bad provisions for ministers in corporations : frequent wars : the mischiefs of trade and travel : the designs of atheists and papists enquired into ; with what influence they may have had upon the present separation from the church of england . when adrian vi. was pressed by the clamorous importunity of the german princes to reform the clergy , he answered very gravely , that a reformation was necessary , yet the danger of reforming all at once was so dreadful , that he resolved to proceed step by step . some wise men smiled at the cautious advisement of his holiness , and said , they hoped he would not break his shins for hast , but deliberately make a hundred years at least between every step the same prudence which this politick pope used in his advance towards a reformation , our wary enquirer uses in his approaches towards the causes of separation . hitherto we have been entertained with certain romantick imaginary causes , and now he will give us a gentile treat with the real ones . but of th●…se , some are more remote , others near hand ; these come by the running post , those by tom long the carriet . thus your poching fellows , when they have found the hare sitting , go round about , and about the bush , till they have screwed themselves into a convenient distance , and then give poor pus●… club law , and knock her dead upon the form. . now the first of these remote causes is ; that it was the misfortune , and is the great disadvantage of this church , that it was not well confirmed , and swadled in its infancy , it conflicted with serpents in its cradle , and underwent a severe persecution . what he understands by that old blind heathenish beldame fortune , i cannot tell . the scriptures have taught us to believe , that the hairs of our head are all numbred ; and therefore much more the heads of the martyrs : that a sparrow falls not to the ground without the providence of our heavenly father . much less the blood of the saints , which is more precious in his sight than many sparrows , but this is only a shibboleth , which serves for a certificate that he is no friend to the immutable counsels of god. however this early persecution must needs have a considerable influence upon the churches present weakness ; for thus mephibosheths nurse , making more hast than good speed , in her fright and flight threw down her nursery , and he became lame to his dying day . it was therefore politickly done of licurgus ( thinks the enquirer , when he had framed the body of the spartan laws , to pretend an occasion to travel ; and having first taken an oath of the people , that they should make no alteration in that government ( either in church or state ) till his return , he resolvedly never returns again . if the old masters of ceremonies could have perswaded the people to some such subscription , that they would never alter their inventions till their return , and then had sentenced themselves to a voluntary perpetual exile , it had been a successful piece of self denial to cheat a nation into uniformity , no less honourable to themselves than grateful to thousands . but thus the case stood with the church in its infancy . king edward vi. dying immaturely , ( too soon says the enquirer , too late says dr. heylin ) q. mary succeeded him in the throne , and so the church was put upon difficulties and trials , before its limbs and ioints were settled and confirmed . persecution has hitherto been esteemed one of the churches best friends , whereof it has been often afraid , but never hurt : such was the constant experience of the primitive christians : exquifi●…ior quaque , crudelitas illecebra magis est secta , plures efficimur quoties metimur , sanguis martyrum est semen ecclesia . the cruelties of enemies does but more encrease the number ; the oftner the church is mowed down , the thicker it comes up , and there 's no seed thrives so well as that which is steeped in the blood of martyrs , that which christians lose by the wind of persecution , is only their chaff ; that which the fire of tribulation preys upon , is only their dross . the marian fiers did the church this one good turn , that it melted down much of that imposing spirit and lordly temper , which reigned in some church-men over their dissenting brethren , which bishop ridley confessed at the stake : that tree which is of gods planting , takes deeper root by shaking , and if it loses any ceremonious leaves , let them go , the tree will bear better and sweeter fruit with out them . could persecutors have seen how much good the wise god would extract out of their evil , they would never have aggravated their own damnation , to be the instruments of the christians salvation : but malice is so quicksighted to do mischief , that it 's blind in the reasons of doing it ; and makes such hast to her end , that she stumbles in the means ; thus nero's fingers itcht to be burning of rome ; but that he knew it would arise a more glorious phoenix out of its own ashes ; which could the devil himself consider , he would never be content tribulos metere , dum nobis spinas serit , to sow us thorns , and reap himself a crop of thistles . all this while we are waiting to see how he will make it out , that this early persecution did any real hurt to our infant church ; and after some preambles and introductions , he will doubtless come home to the point : and first , by reason of this persecution ( you must understand ) a great number of the ministers , and other members of this church , were driven into other countries for refuge , and shelter from the storm , i hope their finding refuge , and shelter was no part of their misery : but is was seasonably remembred ; for if the ministers , and other confessors of this church , found such cordial entertainment amongst the reformed churches beyond the sea , if ever the like sad providence should send them hither , they may expect to meet with proportionable welcome , and not be remitted with their beards half shaved , and their coats dock't , with a paper pinned at their backs , intimating that they are fugitives , schismaticks , and rebels . but still , quid hoc ad iphicli boves ? what is all this to the matter ? oh now it comes ! there they were tempted with novelty , and distracted with variety of customs and ri●…es , before they were well instructed in the reasons , or habituated in the practise of their own . and hereupon they brought home with them forreign fashions : the meaning is this , reader ! religion travailed too young and raw , and drunk in the ceremonies of the reformed churches , and she cannot be dis-infected to this day : a little matter will blow this dust out of the readers eyes , and let him see the egregious trifling of this harangue . § . he supposes that those exiled confessors , did but chop , or barter one ceremony for another ; as suppose they carried out with them the cross , they exchanged it for cream , or if they went out in the surplice , they returned home in the friers coule : as if the competition had been between two ceremonies , which as candidates vyed , which should be most for edification , and the adorning religion : whereas , they who improved their afflicted state to the best advantage , left their ceremonies behind them , and brought no other home in their rooms : alas ! to what end should they bring more to england ? this had been to carry coals to new-castle ; or to what end steal from the reformed churches ? which had been meerly to rob the spittle . § . those holy men made not the forreign churches the rule or reason of their reformation in worship ; but their help , to lead them to the common rule of reformation ; they that were reduced to primitive poverty , might be allowed to emulate primitive purity . it was no wanton humour , but a sence of duty , begotten by awaken'd conscience , rouz'd up by their affliction , which brought them to a self-denying compliance with the institutions of christ : it would break the proud heart of them that live in ease and triumph , to imitate their patience and resolution , whose return to gospel-simplicity , they can so pleasantly deride . § . it s a scandalous reproach which he throws upon the english reformation , as if it lay in rites and ceremonies , and such kind of inventions . before ( says he ) they were well in●…red to the english reformation , they became enamoured of the rites of other churches : the reformation lay not in preserving rites and ceremonies , but in purging them away : so far purged . so far reformed ; you may call the scar upon the face , it 's healing , if you please : but i will rather chuse to call it , a foot-step , or relique of the old former wound : nor will i call the dust behind the door part of the houses cleanliness , and yet i dare not impose , let others call them as they please : this is evident , that those things wherein the reformation consisted , were opposed by the papists , but the ceremonies were not opposed by the papists , therefore our reformation consisted not in ceremonies . § . no less is the reproach cast upon those famous exiles ▪ that they were enamoured of the rites of other churches ; we read indeed kings . . . that king ahaz in his journey to damascus , saw an altar there , which pleased his humour , and he sent to urijah the priest , the fashion of the altar , and the pattern of it , according to all the workmanship of it , and he like a tractable good-natur'd man , that would not offend the king for a small matter , built an alter according to all that king ahaz had sent from damascus : but our banished worthies imitated not the example , it was not the opposing one ceremony to another , but the opposition of all ceremonies which was their glory . but our enquirer is resolved they shall be in an errour , and which looks something like charity , he will convince them of it too . . their first weakness was , that they considered not whether those other rites were better , so long as they were newer and fresher . a groundless charge ! new or old , fresh or stale , was nothing to them , it was ceremonies as such which they rejected ; and if he can evince , that the present dissenters have derived from the transmarine churches any rite or ceremony , which is not of divine institution , they are not so enamoured of it , but they will presently deliver it up into his hands , to be dealt with at discretion . another failing was , that they observed not , that there are oftentimes reasons to make one form necessary in one place or people , and not in another , when its possible they may be both indifferent . they observed without his information , that the circumstances of time and place in general , were indifferent ; but they observed not , that new invented rites were necessary in any time or place , to present the grace and duty of the gospel ; they knew well , that all christs ordinances were decently to be administred ; and they knew as well that there was no need to institute new rites or ceremonies to create a decency , to conciliate a respect or reverence to any of christs ordinances : if we must have new rites , to render christs ceremonies decent and comely , then we must have new rites also invented to render those humane ceremonies decent and comely ; and so infinitely forwards , others to make those latter decent and comely , because we cannot imagine the wisest man on earth able to contrive a more perfect ceremony then christ has done : and thus we must have a lace to make the garment decent , and then an edging to make the lace decent ; and then we shall make religion a suit , as fantastick as that princes , who fitted it with loop-holes , like argu●… his eyes , and then hung a needle at every loop-hole to make all decent . i have heard of a taylour ( from france no doubt ) that was sent for to take measure of , and make a corde robe for the moon ; she was then very slender , as being in conjunction with the sun , and when at the fortnights end he brought her home her gown , she was grown so corpulent , that it would not meet by a third part of her circumference ; the poor man was sadly ashamed , blamed his spectacles , and with more circumspection , takes measure of her ladyship , and when he came to try her stayes , she was grown so slender , that she looked like a shrimp in a lobsters symarr : now the moon is the church , which according to the measures which our modish fashion-mongers take of her , must at every change and full , appear in new accoutrements : and as nations have differing attires each from other , and the winters-freeze differs from the summers-stuff ; so the same church must have a mourning worship , and a wedding worship , accommodated to her outward accessions or declensions in wealth and riches . the external condition of the church does vary , but her god is the same ; her joy may be turned into sorrow , her sorrow into joy ; she has her fasting , as well as her feasting days ; solemn humiliations , and solemn thanksgivings , but her worship continues still the same ; though the worshippers may alter their garbe , yet the worship which respects the immutable god , is immutable like himself : if new things pleased our god , it were our duty to study new things . if he shall declare for summer ceremonies , and winter ceremonies , we must provide accordingly ; but if with him there be no variableness nor shadow of turning , that worship and service which we offer to him , ought to observe the same fixedness and stability . . another of their follies was , that they could not hit upon the right rule of reformation . it was their unhappiness , that this enquirer was not then born to direct them to it ; which advantage the present age may enjoy , if we be not wanting to our selves ; and it is this : that those differing forms be fitted to the humour and custom of the people , and made consonant to the civil constitutions : a rule had need be straight , or else whatever is framed by it will be crooked : now . for the humour of the people : this has sometimes the sad fate to be decryed as the cause of deformation , and now the happiness again to be as much cryed up for the rule of reformation ; which if it be varied according to the ebbing and flowing of this euripus , must needs be changed half a score times in four and twenty hours . . custom has i confess a fairer plea , some persons of no small learning , pretending it to be the only rule of decency in things indifferent , in p. . our enquirer intimates , that the constitutions ( of a church ) by time are digested into customs , and made natural . now if custom be the only rule of decency , then the churches constitutions ought to be of no things but what are naturalized to a people by custom , and thereby made decent , unless he has a power also to command all things te be done undecently , and then leave to be made comely by long usage , and continued custom ; but if the churches constitutions , her power to impose and judge what is decent , be the rule of decency , and the reason of our obedience , then custom is not the only rule of decency . how much better were it , that the peoples fluctuating humours , odd customs , and the churches constitutions , were all regulated by the word of god ; which is equal , insallible , and impartial : equal , and therefore we shall not be to seek for our worship upon every accident ; infallible , and therefore we may safely confide in its direction ; and impartial , and so abets no party , favours no faction or worldly interest , but faithfully and fully delivers out to us the mind and will of god : whereas our enquirers rule , must prove the author of all mis-rule and confusion amongst the churches of christ , when humours shall cross customs , customs thwart humours , and perhaps civil constituiions shall retrench both customs and humours . one instance will a little enlighten us in his design and meaning . where ( says he ) the reformation had not at the first the countenance of the civil government , there the reformers were constrained to enter into particular confederations with one another , from whence presbyterian government seems to have taken its rise . say you so ? then i know who will assume ; but for the first three hundred years after christ all along through the purest primitive times , the christian reformation had not the countenance of the civil government , and therefore they enter'd into particular confederations ; from whence the presbyterian government had its rise . i cannot certainly tell , and therefore dare not conjecture , whether these particular confederations , be not a kind of new latine , for the solemn league and covenant ; but this i will say , that t●…●…anks of the classis are ordered to be returned to this gentleman for his learned argument to prove , the presbyterian to have been the primitive church-government . all this while it remains a great mystery , how these poor exiles prejudiced the english reformation ; and therefore in the first place he will give us some light into it by a plain and familiar illustration . as the children of israel , even when they had bread from heaven , angels food , longed for the onions and garlick of aegypt , remembring how sweet they were to them , under their bitter bondage ; so these men retained as long as they lived a lingring after those entertainments which they found then very pleasant , when the other was denied them . the foundation of this ingenious illustration lies in these two things . first , that the rites and ceremonies of england were manna , bread from heaven , angels food : and secondly , that the worship of the reformed churches without these ceremonies were onions and garlick , he must have an ostrich-stomack that could concoct them , unless they were first m●…erated , and dissolved in a menstruum of ceremonies : now the parallel is so self-evident , that we shall only need to gather what drops of it self , and not to shake the tree : for . as the manna was of gods own appointment , so we must not question but the ceremonies also were . . the manna was angels food , and as whenever angels will cloath themselves with a garment , they cannot assume one of more congruity than light ; so whenever they shall please to condescend to a treat from men , they cannot be served up with a more agreeable dish than ceremonies ; and then . as the manna was despised , and accounted dry meat , so are these ceremonies too ; and therefore as wise fathers take away their childrens meat , if they will not eat their bread ; so the fathers of the church think it wisdom to deny their children spiritual food , if they will not down with the ceremonies , or let them fast till they have a better stomack : but the parallel comes off very lamely at last : for the manna lasted only whilst the church was in the wilderness , and ceased as soon as they entered the land of canaan ; whereas the poor afflicted and persecuted churches knew none of those rites , but surfeited of them in the day of her rest and prosperity : and therefore to have carried on the humour , he might have feigned one thing more as well as all the rest ; that those exiled worthies lived all the fourty years of their banishment upon nothing but rites and ceremonies , but when they came to the land of promise , the manna ceased . we have heard a long narrative of the cause of non-conformity from the exiles in queen maries days ; which had it been delivered without colour or fraud , had amounted to no more than this naked little , when the righteous god saw it necessary to unchain the devil , and let him loose upon the englis●… protestants to exercise their graces , and correct their follies ; he gave some of them christian courage to abide by the tryals ; to others of them christian wisdom to secure themselves by fligh●… : had all fled , the truth had wanted witnesses at home for the present ; had all stay'd , the truth had wanted successors for the future ; they that fled , found the care of god attending them , and the mercy of god as a harbinger going before them , to provide them first a room in the hearts , and then in the houses of their brethren : where being eman●…ipated from the prejudices of in●…eterate custom ▪ got from under the d●…resse of imposing power ; humbled by afflictions , and made more willing to bear the yoke of christ , and finding the reforming churches a tolerable counterpane of the new testament worship , many of them not consulting with flesh and blood , came off from ceremonies , content to worship god with the same measure of decency prescribed ▪ and practised by christ and his apostles . when therefore he tells us , that those fxiles received a tincture of those other rites before they had well imbibed , or sufficiently understood the reasons of the church of england . he says no more tha●… that the rationale of the liturgie , and the compassionate enquiry , were not then written ; for where else to find the reasons of the church , for imposing ceremonies , i am yet to seek . . a second cause of this evil effect is : the bad and incompetent provision made for a learned and able ministry in the corporations , and generality of the great parishes in england . but before this incompetency can possibly be remedied , it must be known what is a competency for a learned minister , for some that are learned enough , are also able to spend five times more than the people are worth , or can spare . two things are here considerable , which have exercised our enquirers politick head-piece . the grievance , and the redress of the grievance . . for the grievance . the multitude of opinions that deform and trouble the church , are generally hatch'd and nursed in the corporations and market towns. nay not only the dissatisfaction with the rites and ceremonies , but the con●…ulsions and confusions of the state took their origin from the bad humours of th●…se greater societies . but how easily might all this mischief have been remedied , had he pursued his own primitive rule of reformation . viz. modelled the rites and government of the church to the humours and customs of the people . but his meaning was ; that reformation should be accommodated to the humours of the villages , where the people mind nothing of religion , ( as he thinks ) but not of the market towns , where they are intent upon new fashions : but the reader must look on these as the lesser sports of his wit , and the dilations of a pregnant fancy ; for the true reason of all the dissatisfaction about those rites , has been the want of good ground for them in the word of god , and the main cause of the troubles that have ensued thereupon , has been the unreasonable and unseasonable imposition of them upon the consciences of men. but our enquirer is otherwise minded , and he imputes these con●…ns and confusions . § . to the fullness and luxury of these great towns. well! have a little patience till he can procure his proclamation against trade , and to shut up the shops , and that will most effectually take down their greace , and humble their haughty stomacks , and they will grow tame and manageable : but then another difficulty will arise , how they should maintain a learned and able ministry , and allow him such a revenue as he shall confess to be a competency ; but is not this inconvenience to be found in the country towns and villages ? no! they are for the most part quiet , and peaceably comply with establish'd orders ; for they are tired with hard labour , and never trouble themselves no●… others ▪ but apply themselves to till the ground , and earn their breat with the sweat of their brows . let them have liberty to be poor , and pay their tithes , and they concern themselves little in religion , or the saving of their souls ; they go by the old rule , si mundus vult vadere sicut vult , mundus debet vadere sicut vult : these creatures indeed will make fit materials for uniformity to work upon ; you may put the bridle in their mouths , and clap the saddle on their backs , and ride them till they are broken winded and foundred , and they will neither wince nor complain ; and yet there are some sowr lads and knotty pieces amongst these too , that will not budge a foot , nor yield an ace further than conscience informed from the word of god shall command them . § . in these great towns they have leasure to excogitate novelties , and spirit , and confidence to abet them ; and here there is great concourse of people , where notions are more easily started , and parties sooner formed for the defence of them : where the dividing notions have been most started . i cannot infallibly tell ; but i am sure the richest corporations find themselves something else to do than to excogitate ceremonies , or other novelties ; and whether convocations have always sat in the great towns or little villages , is easily determined . § . the misery of all is ; that in these great towns where was most need of the most liberal maintenance : so pittiful a pittance is left to the curate or minister , that he can scarce afford himself books to study , nor perhaps bread to eat , without too servile a dependance upon the benevolence of his richer neighbours , by which means either his spirit is broken with adversity , or the dignity of his office obscured , or he tempted to a sordid ●…nnivance at , or complyance with their follies , and so like esau sells his birthright for 〈◊〉 mess of pottage . the bottom of the grievance in plain terms is this : if the clergy could but once procure a revenue settled hard and fa●…t upon them to their minds , ( which what it is , neither we , nor perhaps themselves ever knew ) had they but more wealth to support their grandeur , out of the hard labour of the poor drudging moyls , that tug hard night and day to get bread , had they but midas his option , or fortunatus his wishing 〈◊〉 ▪ that every thing they touch'd might be gold ; they would then make the ble●…-aprons lacquey it , and trot to the courts by their horse sides , and it does them good but to imagine how they would firk their lazy hides , and curry the s●…abbed humour of non-conformity out of them : thus much of the malady ; the remedy follows . . the remedy of this insupportable grievance in short is this . that a law be made , that all corporations , market towns , and great parishes , provide a maintenance for the vicars ▪ in proportion to london ; for till some such course be taken , it will be in vain to expect , that the church of england , or the best laws of religion , should either obtain just ven●…ration , or due effect . so far am i from envying them their honours , revenues , and desired affluences , that i could be content they had the nine parts , and the poor tenth only left to the land-lord , as a small quit-rent in memory that the whole was once his own : but what security can we have , that that also will not be demanded in time to make up a compotency ; for trade is too great , corporations too rich , every one has too much , only the clergy have just nothing till they have got their competency , which is nothing less than the whole . this was the glorious design managed by the council of trent , when the church was so unmeasurably rich , that it maintained abundance of cardinals , every one carrying the port and state of a king ; so many arch-bishops , bishops , priests , besides the infinite numbers and swarms of religious persons , all endowed with ample revenues , and yet they made a begging decree ; much would have more ; cujus avariti●… totus non sufficit orbi●… . that all the faithful should be exhorted to give largely to the bishops and priests to maintain their dignities . but the parliament of paris , a wise and foreseeing assembly , abhorring this mendicant trade , and knowing well , that your counterfeit beggers hide luxury under the covert of rags , and remembring possibly that of solomon . prov. . . there is that maketh himself poor , and yet there is no end of his substance ; gave this censure of it . that this had been good indeed , if they did serve the people as they ●…ght , and were really in need ; for so st. paul exhorts , that he that is instructed , should give some part of his goods to him that instructs him ; but when he that bears the name of a pastor does intend any thing rather then to instruct the people , the exhortation is not proper ; and the rather because ecclesiastical goods formerly were for maintaining the poor , and redeeming slaves ; for which causes , not only the immovables , but even the ornaments of churches , and holy vessels were sold. in the mosaical law , god gave the tenth to the levites , who were but the th part of the people ; but the clergie now , who are not a fiftieth part , have gotten already the fourth part , and doth still proceed to gain , using many artifices therein ; moses having invited the people to offer for the service of the tabernacle , when as much was offer'd as did suffice , forbad them in th●… name of god to offer any more ; but here will be no end found till they have all , if men will continue still in the lethargie : if some priests and clergie-men be poor , it 's because others are excessively rich , and an equal distribution would make them all rich abundantly . hist. trent . counc . p. . again ●…b . p. . for a synod to put their hands into mens purses to ●…intain curates , seemed strange , both for the matter and the manner ; for the matter , because the clergie was superfluously rich , and rather indebted to the laity : for the manner , because neither christ nor his apostles did ever compel men to make contributions , but only gave power to receive them that were voluntary ; and he that reads st. paul to the corinthians and galathians , shall see the masters treatment of the oxe that treadeth ●…ut the corn ; and the duty of the catechised , towards him that catechiseth , yet so that those labourers have no action by rigour of law , nor any chancery to relieve them . it was a notable constitution of the wise and potent prince catolus m. constitut . fol. . ut decimae populi dividantur in quatuor partes , id est , una pars episcopo , alia clericis , tertia pauperibus , quarta ecclesiae in fabricis applicetur , ut in decretis gelas●…i p. continetur : that the peoples tythes should be divided into four parts , one whereof should maintain the bishops ; a second the clergy-men , a third should maintain the poor , and a fourth should go to the repair of churches : now if the church-wardens and overseers of the poor , should have all their levies raised out of their tythes , which was the first and best use of them , what a peal of sacriledge should we have ringing about our ears continually : let me soberly propound a few quaeries . . qu. whether they who are for a moderation in reformation , a mediocrity in coming up to the primitive purity , ought not to be as real for a moderation and mediocrity in maintenance ? it seems to be very disproportionable to cry out for a mean in trading , a moderation in preaching , moderation in reforming , and yet to be immoderate for revenues . a little i see will serve of any thing but riches . let men have but enough of wages , and they can be content with little enough of work . . whether it be rational to proceed in this matter ascendend●… , to bring up the lean vicarages to the corpulency of fat parsonages , or descendendo , to reduce the gouty benefices to the modicum of the m●…agre vicarages , and not rather to make an equality , that they may both meet in the half way ? . when a market town or corporation is low , and not able to maintain its poor , the law enables the justices of the peace to bring the neighbouring village under contribution ; and they who understand what charity is in a mean estate , are glad since there is so sad occasion to demonstrate their charity , to lay hold on it : let it therefore be enquired , why the poor corporation vicars ought not to be augmented out of the richer parsonages of the neighbourhood ? but many will cut a large thong out of anothers hide , who will be sure to spare his own skin ; and they whose tails sweep the ground , will not lend an inch ●…o him ●…hat is docked close by his buttocks . . whether the poor vicar ought not rather to be relieved out of the rich clergy-mans excrements , then out of the life-blood of the laity ? if the revenues of pluralists and prebends , with other such useless creatures , were annext to the ill provided places , all would be well ; but the daughters of the horse-leach cry still , give , give , and yet they are ready to burst with blood . . whether it be not more agreeable to the prim●…ive times ▪ and the na●…ure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 christian religion , that the 〈◊〉 ●…uld hav●… some dependance on the people as to temporal ▪ 〈◊〉 depend so moch on their clergy in spirituals ? we consider the inconveniencies of a depending clergy , but not the greater ones of having them absolute and independent : who having got a settled maintenance , defie their benefactors , contemn those that drudge to maintain their splendid equipage , and torment their consciences , who keep the woolf from their doors : the middle way is therefore best . that so much be settled as is absolutely necessary , and leave them to stand upon their good behaviour for superfluities : since he that is rich , and able to contribute liberally this year , may become poor , and need contribution the next ; and it s not equal to be compelled to charity when he cannot discharge his debts . . whether it be not a most scandalous reflection upon the english clergy , which he intimates p. . that the motives and invitations of the most judicious clergy , to undertake the work ( viz. the charge os the flock ) is from the most liberal maintenance ? . whether the healing of the clergies poverty , will not cure them of their laboriousness in preaching ? and whether doubling the revenues will not single the sermons ? i have read of a poor vicar , that being taken notice of by the bishop for an industrious preacher , to encourage him in his work , he gave him a good bulkie parsonage ; but observing that he began presently to slacken his pace , and come to once a day , he sends for him , expostulates the case with him , why he should work less now he had more wages , to whom he answered ingenuously , parv●… l●…quuntur curae , ingentes s●…upent . . whether it was advisedly spoken by our enquirer , to compare a ministers condescension to his scrupulous people in the matter of ceremonies to esau's selling his birth-right for a mess of pottage ? for if the minister should happen to cut short his common service to gratifie his patron in hopes of a dinn●…r , the worst he can make of it is , that he fells a mess of pottage for a sunday-pudding , and if a ministers birth-right consist in rites and ceremonies , he that gives a mess of pottage for it , will certainly buy it too dear . . the third cause is the late wars : and for proof hereof he will desire the reader to look no further back , then the late wars between this kingdom , and the states of the low-countries . but why no further back ? we used to be lead back as far as the late civil wars ; but our enquirer was better advised then his reader perhaps is aware of : it had not been safe to follow truth too near the heels , least it should have dasht out his teeth . but into what a perplexed dilemma has he brought the church of england ? if we have peace with holland ; and therewith trade and commerce , then comes in all the new fangled commodities ▪ ceremonies and rites of forreign growth , exotick customs , jack-in-a-boxes ; if we have war with them , then the reins of government are remiss , and non-conformity grows apace : for that ( says he ) the contempt of religion is greater , and the state of the church worse at the end , then the beginning of th●…se wars : could we but onderstand the mystery that lurks under that word religion , and that i●…rgon and cypher [ the state of the church ] we might easily return an answer . by religion then understand ceremony , by the state of the church , understand , its power to crush , and ruine all that comply not with those ceremonies , and then it 's very true , that wars are a great enemy to religion : every thing is so far to be reputed evil as it crosses , and so far good as it advances the trade of ceremonies and impositions : if navigation and merchandise be essential to the flourishing state of the nation , yet if they stand in the way of ceremonies , damn them as schismatical ; and wars and blood-shed , and the beggering of the nation ▪ if they would but promote ceremonies , were amongst the choicest desirables : however the remedy is cheap and easie : , 't is but parting with the flag , the soveraignty of the sea , ( which our enemies would have perswaded us were but a cer●…mony ) the fishery , the east-india trade , and perhaps two or three more such inconsiderable necessaries , and we might have secured our innocent ceremonies , and the church-men swagger'd over the consciences of dissenters . he that has a mind to interpose in a discourse of wars , may possibly get a broken pate for his pains ; otherwise the valour of the english nation , has so justified it self in our naval engagements , that it needs not be ashamed to look back upon its behaviour ; but i shall only observe as i pass on these few things . . that the ecclesiastical histories observe to our hand , that the wars between the emperour and the persians , proved a means to check those persecutions which the arians raised against the orthodox : and if the great governour of the world will over-rule publick calamities , to render the condition of persecuted christians tolerable , we have the more reason to admire his powerful wisdom , who out of so great an evil could extract so great a good. . i must call to mind one of our enquirers grave sentences ; ubi solitudinem feccrunt , pacem vocant : that which some men count peace , is nothing but havock and desolation . like some great enclosers , who having depopulated all about them , and left nothing but the bare ribs , and naked skeleton , of sometimes flourishing farms , bless themselves that they are 〈◊〉 from the noise of the obstreperous carters . thus when our ecclesiastical projectors , shall have ruined trade , routed the conscientious , and forced peaceable dissenters into deserts ; beggar'd corporations , those nests of schism , they may applaud themselves for profound states-men , that they have wrought out their own ease , with the miseries of the people . . wars may reasonably contribute something to a just and well bounded liberty of conscience , for how could a prince expect his subjects should hazard their lives in his righteous cause and quarrel ▪ and open their purses wide to maintain the war , when either they must lose them in his service , or if they return having survived apparent dangers , be trampled upon at home , by those who have all the while sat still at ease , wrapt up in warm furr , and security . there 's no great difference whether a man be slain by chain-shot , or a single bullet ; and yet a generous spirit would accept is as moreeligible to meet a noble death in the field , fighting for his prince and countrey , then to languish and pine away an inglorious life in servitude , under ecclesiastical impositions . . if the effects of war were lamented , as letting in debauchery and prophaneness , tolerating immoralities , antiquating the practice of religion ▪ we should mourn with him that thus mourns : but when we shall have an oration of the evils of the war , and at last , the great one is , that it makes people not so fond of ceremonies , whereas peace and prosperity multiplies them , it 's enough to make a people entertain thoughts less evil of the one , and less honourable of the other : for thus the spartans made the lives of the people so intolerable in peace . that they might more readily engage in wars abroad . and indeed such mis-representations of the reasons of things , have made the world desire like the salamander , ●…ar for its element , that they might not dwell in the hotter fire ●…f persecution in a more moderate climate called peace ; for a person of honour that in defence of his country has come up to the mouth of a canon , and come off with renown , to be slain by an ecclesiastical canon , would make him resent his fall with regret , and dying , bite the ground . . the fourth , and indeed the greatest cause of all these mischiefs , is a pestilent evil , known by the name of trade : this kingdom of great britain is an island , which as by its situation it has the greatest need of , so the greatest advantage by commerce . that which nature made a necessity ; art and industry have turn'd into a virtue : that as we cannot live comfortably without it , so we are capacitated to live gloriously by it : to speak of its usefulness to english men , were to be as impertinently absurd , as that soldier who would needs de re militari c●…ram hanibale diss●…rere , read a lecture of tactics , to one of the bravest captains of his time for courage and conduct ; and he may seem almost as vain that should commend it , as he would be impious that should disparage it . b●… trade be irreversibly doomed for an intolerable evil , may we ask with pilate , pray what evil has it done , has it introduced the sins of the torrid zone ? or made those wickednesses denizons , that were peculiar to hotter climates ? has it impoverisht the subject , or lessen'd the revenues of the crown ? no! nothing of al thes●… ; but it has feloniously , and of its malice forethought , brought down the price of ceremonies , which are the staple commodities of the kingdom : but did not the dear ceremonies come over by shipping too ? they are not drugs of our own growth , and therefore in civility , we are obliged to car●…y a 〈◊〉 ●…spect ●…owards 〈◊〉 , that brought us home so ri●… 〈◊〉 ; bu●… consider , shipping was useful ●…ill it has landed this sraught , and then like iulius caesar , burn them all , that they may never export so precious a commodity . in drawing up a charge against this trade , our enquirer looks like the very picture of modesty : he seems to say , o utina●… nescirem literas ! he could almost wish ( had it not been too great an injury to the world ) that he had not been so eloquent : if he might do it without offence he would take the boldness to say ; that is , i●… the merchants would not be angry to have an embargo laid upon their ships , and their goods seized . he would say something — nay , pray sir speak out ; the merchants will exercise so much self-denial sure for once as to be beggered . why then this is the something he would say . that the vast increase of trade does vsually reflect some inconveniences upon ecclesiastical affairs : the most favourable indictment surely that ever was drawn up against an evil of so pernicious consequence in all the world . . they are but inconveniences ; and what commodity is there but is attended by some small inconveniences ? . they are but some inconveniences neither , as perhaps , that one of the wealthy un governable fanaticks cannot be called to account in the ecclesiastical courts , because he is extra quatuor maria , or so . . it 's not always neither , though usually that these fatal effects follow it ; for sometimes an eclipse , or quartile a spect may be disappointed of its malignant influence , by the interposition of a more bening planet . . nor has trade a direct spleen against the church , it does but reflect its malevolent beams ; now you know that radius reflexus langu●…t . . nor is trade , quà trade , in it self considered , but the increase , and the vast increase of trade that has all the guilt upon it ; so that if we could perswade merchants and tradesmen , either not to trade , or not to thrive of their trades , it would prevent all this mischief , and i durst undertake to perswade one half of them at least to this latter , if that would reconcile them to him . . and these inconveniences are but to ecclesiastical affairs . religion will not be prejudiced , nor holiness suffer i hope ; but there are some affairs , whatever they are , that some ecclesiasticks are a brewing , will not work so well : in one word it 's all but ceremonies . the most christian king is all this while endeavouring to settle factories and plantations for trade abroad , and to gi●…e ●…t all possible encouragement at home . and indeed they say , he has a very wise council about him ; who verifie the old proverb , that the french are wiser than they seem ; and they tell him , that whatever quarter he carries with these church-men , who have ever private desings of their own distinct from the general interest of that monarchy ; yet navigation and trade must be encouraged , and let the priests fume and fret , or whine , and put the finger in the eye , all 's one , he will settle commerce for all the idle chat of kirk-statesmen : but to speak truth , i do not hear , that the clergy there , whether regular or secular , have these dreadful apprehensions , that the rise of trade will be the fall of the church ▪ and perhaps the reasons of things they differ . they have legions of ceremonies , and may well spare some 〈◊〉 tered companies ; their commons are stock'd sans number , and if they were a little stinted , the rest would thrive the better ; but should we lose a brace , or a leash , we were half undone ; and yet i am confident , that wise and valiant prince , would sell us a dozen of the best ceremonies he has in his empire , for one half of our trade , and thank us into the bargain . we should smile at the tenderness of the gentleman that would throw himself , and hopes away , to satisfie the impotent longing of a green-sickness girl ; and others would as much smile at us , should we sacrifice the wealth and strength of a nation to the humour of those , who for a few ceremonies which apprized by indifferent persons , are not worth one of our plantations , would loose both : but if the trade of a nation be os no more concernment then to be cast away for such trifles , all we shall gain by the hand , is an additional reason why they are c●…lled beggarly rudiments . you are therefore satisfied that it was mannerly done to scrape a l●…g to the merchants before he would propound so harsh , and displeasing a business : he would do it without offence , if he might be so bold ! he envies no mans wealth ; it s far from his thoughts to wish the tide of trade dammed up ; offended ! i wonder who could find in his heart to be offended at such civility ? such potent charms of rhetorick are able to perswade them to moor up their ships for ever , rather then import any of those holland prohibited commodities . readers , you are now to give your attendance to a most eloquent oration , wh●…ch is the embalming of trade , before it be converted to mummy : for thus the orator ! trade is hugely advantageous to the publick as well as private persons , in many respects , it much raises the parts , and sharp●…s the wits of a nation by forreign conversatious ; it opens a passage to the discovery of other countries , and of the works of god and man , of art and nature ; it s the great incentive , and instrument of humane society . it makes all mankind of one bedy , and by mutual intercourse to serve the occasions , supply the needs , and minister to the delight and entertainment one of another , it enlarges the minds of me●… , 〈◊〉 well as their fortunes , insomuch that any nation is unpolite , unbred , and half barbarous without it ; it inures men to hardship and danger , and instructs them in subtlety , and all the arts of living and self-security , it adds much to the beauty , power , and strength of a nation , and to the riches and revenues of the prince . — dixi ! — and yet all this notwithstanding — ay! there 's one evil in 't which we little dream of , which out-weighs all those conveniencies , inlargement of trade hath usually been attended ( he must crave leave to say it ) with as much latitude of conscience : then some mens consciences have above degrees of south and north latitude . and the heat of that , with as much coldness and indifferency in r●…gion . it 's commonly observed to introduce great diversity of opinions , and consequently to abate of mens zeal for , and reverence of an uniformity in what was before established . and therefore better the publick were undone , mens parts and wits made as dull as a beetle , forreign discoveries left to the pragmatical dutch , all commerce with other world 's interrupted , and the britains once again excommunicated from the rest of mankind : better a thousand times mens fortunes and hearts were broken , the glory of the nation stained , its s●…rength shattered , the exch●…quer exhausted ; than uniformity in some little things endangered , one ceremony disparaged , the wills of some clergie-men crossed , which might shorten their days , or one pair of organs put out of tune , which would make them grumble like a pair of scotch bag-pipes . and to speak the truth , all the great ends of trade might be secured by ceremonies , and an exact uniformity in them ; for it will wonderfully sharpen mens wits , and make them both as keen and blew as a razer , to find out every day some happy new conceit : pope vitalian was the man that glories first to have taught mankind the art of worshipping god with a box of whistles . society will be maintained by being all of a piece at home , and instead of forreign discoveries , an inquisition will better search out the terra iucognita of conscience , and let this enquirer be one of the lords inquisitors of that holy house ; and the strength of the nation would be better secured , if the train'd bands were untaught all their old postures , to the right and the left , and knew nothing but face about to the east . the beauty of the nation will be so enhanced , that we shall shine with a painted face of religion : and the old controversie between marc liberum , and mar●… cla●…um , will be for ever determined , and that on the right side ; which out of zeal to the honour of the incomparable grotius , every devout person is bound to pray for ; nor shall the seas any more be prov'd of their blood , which have fought to assert their right to that rolling empire . it was then seasonably , and well thought on , to propound to us the wisdom of the lacedemonians , who that the laws and government might not be disturbed with novelty ; absolutely forbad trade or traffick , or so much as travelling into other countries , lest the citizens should barter away their own laws and customs , for those of other cities . but then i doubt 〈◊〉 laws were about the great things that concerned the nations being . they did not make laws , that every mans hair should be of a length , and then swear the people to observe them , and forbi●… trade , lest they should bring in the geneva cut , and destroy periwigs : and besides all this , they prohibited travel as well as trade ; as good leave all the doors of a house open , as one , and stop never a leak , as not all , for one will sink the vessel . now how to restrain travel deserves more consideration ; and therefore let it be remembred , that trade and travel are no otherwise evil , than in their mischievous consequence ; and could we separate the gra●…d inconveniences from them , they would not be mortal ; seeing then we trade more into holland . and travel more into italy , simple travel cannot be so destructive as compounded trade . these arguments cook'd up in good language , may perswade all men to step out of the way , and throw themselves over the bridge in convenient season ; for what can be impossible to these arts ? but he had told us p. . that there are oftentimes reasons that make one form necessary in one place and people , and not in another . and therefore his reasonings from sparta will hardly go current in england : some say sparta was a free state , and therefore it may not hold in a monarchy ; and others say , these were the fundimental laws of their magna charta , which they would secu●…e by abridging trade and travel ; and not some odd artic●…i cl●…ri , what garments their priests should wear upon holy-days . but never was man in such a distraction between his remaining pity to the distressed merchants , and his yearning bowels to the precious ceremonies ; so has the merchant himself been distracted in an aphoretick debate between his lading , and his life , till at last dear life overcame the stickle of combating objections , and over board went all his merchandise : thus this compassionate person would not have trade die , but yet he must have impositions live ; and where are those grave head-pieces that can reconcile these differing interests ? why yet he hopes that the english reformation is such , that it may rather gain than lose proselytes , by being confronted with any other institutions : and there is no question but under its present advantages it would do so , did not the severity of impositions , and rigorous exacting of things which at best are but indifferent , at most doubtful , and to many sinful , against which standing caveats have been entred from the beginning of the reformation , a little marre the sweet air of her truly beautious face , and thereby render her not altogether so surprizing . but as the case stands , from whence should we hope for this numerous offspring of proselytes ? from amongst the papists ? alas , they have conceived greater hopes of us : that their tyber shall swallow up our thames , before our london shall proselyte their babylon : and they are encouraged in their hopes , because 〈◊〉 say our ceremonies are a bridge over the narrow seas , not to let all the women of europe into england as we fancy , but to admit rome amongst us with all its retinue of pompous nothings , from the reformed churches then ? alas , they are satisfied in their primitive simplicity , they content themselves that their churches are true churches , their ministers gospel ministers ; and though they may perhaps make a journey now and then to learn english preaching , they think it not worth the while to fetch fire : the expedients propounded to reconcile trade and uniformity , are as follow . . that there may be such laws provided , and such care taken , that the one ( i suppose he means trade ) be not discouraged , nor the other ( discipline no doubt ) corrupted . i have been studying what further acts of uniformity this gentleman would have enacted ; whether with the grave recorder he would introduce the spanish inquisition , or revive the act ●…r banishment , or extend the statute of praemunire to every one that shall keck at a ceremony ; i hope god will pour out the spiri●… of wisdom and understanding , of counsel , and the fear of the lord upon our legislators : we may make rods to whip our selves upon ●…r childrens backs ; and the teeth of posterity may be set on edge with those sowr grapes , which though the fathers did not eat , yet they planted the vines that bore them . but what would he have ? why he would have a more simple way of agriculture attended to , as it was amongst the spartans , and this nation formerly : really if it had not been for these spartans , i cannot tell what we should have done : but it 's always thus when divines will be statesmen , and dictating to their superiours ▪ scholars sit up late at their studies , till the cocks and their brains begin to crow , and what uncouth whimseys breed in their heads ? there was once amongst us an odd generation o●… folk , we call'd 'em adamites . and they would level all things , reduce all things to the mode of paradise ; such another capri●…io is our enquirer , who though he will not reduce religious affairs as high as the apostle , yet trade must be carried higher , and new modeled secundum usum spartae . i am a thinking what we should do with our wool , which was once the staple commodity of the nati●…n till the ceremonies carried it ; when we have spun it , wove●… it , and worn as much as we need , what must we do with the rest ? i should never have guessed , but that there ' s an old stuff set off with a new name , they call it episcopacy revived , and that must employ the remainder . i have heard of a supercilious spanish dom , who being ask'd by his friend , how the english men lived ? answered , oh they live by selling ale to one another . the answer was unpardonably scandalous , yet agreeable to the morose humour of that people : but to this very pass must we come , when the design against trade takes , to barter food for raiment ; and both for ceremonies . . his next expedient is ; that every one have so much charity towards the governours of his own countrey , and th●… church , as to think them both as wise and honest as in other places . and let me add : a great deal honester and wiser too . we hope our governours are so wise , and tender of their subjects , as to allow them their consciences , the only thing god has reserved to himself , and that they are ambitious to preserve intire for him ; which will sweeten all that cost and pains they are at in the service of him , whom divine grace has set over them : but the highest opinion we can possibly entertain of the wisdom and sincere piety of our governours , may well consist with a humble petition , to be excused in that one thing the immediate worship of god. as it does not imply that i am wiser or better then every man whose religion i cannot own in every particular , so neither doe it suppose that i entertain low thoughts of the legislators wisdom , because i cannot subscribe to his tendries , whilst i patiently submit to his penalties , for it must needs be supposed that i judge him vested wi●… authority from god to govern me , and wise in annexing a sanction to his law so equal , that i may submit to it , whose preceptive part i cannot discern so to be . i have heard some plead in justification of the severities inflicted on the jesuites in q. elizabeth and k. iames his reign , that they suffered not for religion , but disturbing the government , we humbly beg the same savour ; let not our worship be accounted a breach of the peace , ipse fact●… , but if the matter be disloyal , or the consequences turbulent and tumultuous , we have no farther to plead in our own behalf . . a third expedient is , that we impute not all the distractions of m●…ns minds , and the quarrels against the church , to the badness of its constitution , since this point of trade hath such an influence , as we see both in the nature of the thing , and in the effects of it . i have no power to compound for the trading part , and presume he has as little to treat on the behalf of the other part . the blame of our distractions , divisions and quarrels , will lie whe●… they ●…ught , let him or i lay them where we please ; if trade brings in multitudes of opinions , yet that those opinions make quarrels , is because perhaps one needless opinion is made cock of the dung-hill , and crows over all the rest its equals , and may be its betters . i think impartially there 's blame on all hands , and if we could wave that sorry way of excusing our selves , by accusing others , we were certainly in a fair way of healing : yet one ●…uint he has left unproved to the charity of his well-disposed reader , viz th●… trade in its own nature has such an influence upon our distractions . . his last remote cause is from the papists and atheists , who both , though upon several grounds combine their malice against the church . and first for the papists : concerning whom he will treat of two things : first , why they are such enemies to our church ; and then wherein the fnmity discovers it self . § . what is the reason that these papists should be such implacable en●…mies to this church ? did we ever go about to blow up the pope and his consistory with cun-powder ? or ever massacre a hundred thousand of his catholicks in ireland ? oh no! it was a higher , or a deeper cause , no matter which , whilst our enquirers penetrating head can reach it . . th●… decent order of our church shames their pageantry : rome has a brazen-face of her own ; and i assure this gentleman for all his c●…nfidence , it ' s not a little matter will serch the blood into her ●…heeks . she has cause enough to blush , but she wants a bore-head ; though the blood of thousands of protestants lies upon her conscience , yet it appears not in her looks : but before our enquirer upbraid them with their pageantry , it will be necessary that he gives us the nice critical difference between ceremonies decency and pageantry ; for if the definitions of both be not fixed to a hairs breadth , either the papists will prove their theatrical pomp to be decency , or our ceremonies to be pageantry ; if all mystical rites be decent , they will shew us twenty for one ; and will hardly be made to bl●…sh for their penury ; or to envy our greater p●…y . but if they should be found a piece of pageantry , they have infinitely out-done us , but withall , it s no great commendation to have but little pageantry in gods service . . the dignity of the church shames theirs : dignity is a term of art , and capable of several meanings : if by dignity we should ( as we ought ) to understand , a real essential worthiness , arising from something excellent in the account of god ; then this church has so out-stript her , that she ought not to be named in the same day and year . but if we speak with the vulgar , and take this dignity for some external glory shining out in secular lusire , which is that currant signification , which custom , the master of the mint , has stampt upon it , i doubt she will hold up her head , and not be dasht out of countenance ; she can prod●… her purpuratos patres , her cardinals , ( princes fellows ) her dignitaries , she can produce you her acolytes , dancing attendance upon her decans ; her deacons footing it after her priests , her inferiour clergy bo●…ing before her mitred prelates ; and al●… these orderly reverencing their metropolitan , but then she boasts unmeasurably , that she has an ecclesiastical head to be the center of union to all those ; so that whether you run up the scale from the poor ostiary to the exorcist , and so upwards , or down the scale from the supream infallible noddle , moving , all the inferiour wyers , she will brazen it out , and never hang down her head. . the an ient gravity of our church reproves theirs : i am sorry for the honour of our church , which i truly reverence , that this gentleman in vying with rome , should pitch upon those particulars , wherein if we do excel , and carry the day , it will be no such victory as to challenge a triumph ; and yet such is the dubiousness of the case , that perhaps we may lose the day : i do not yet hear that rome has disclaimed antiquity to be one of the marks of the true church : and know something of her presumption in applying into her self : let any antiquity short of scripture epocha , be fixt upon , and she will make a sorry shift to scramble through many a tiresome century , and scuffle to come as near the apostolical days as some others : both sides i think have play'd at the game of drop-father , so long till they are weary , and forced to confess , that some things now in usage , were unknown to the fathers , and many things practised by the fathers , which we have silently suffered to grow obsolete by desuetude . i look upon these things as matters of course and form , to look big , and set the best foot before : for if ever we confute rome with an army of hard words , decency , order , antiquity , gravity , they must be such as the word of god has made so . it must be a decency warranted by god himself , either from the light of nature , or scripture ; an order of christs establishment ; a gravity exemplified from the apostles ; and an antiquity which was from the beginning ; and when scripture is once made sole umpire in the quarrel . as the church of england will certainly run the papist out of all distance , so the non-conformist will begin to put in his stake , and perhaps win the plate . § . if you ask how the church of rome undermines our church , he answers . . she furnishes other parties with arguments against it . it were much easier to evince , that the euquirer has rather borrowed his arguments from rome , then rome lent one to the non-conformists : i think there 's not one arrow he can shoot against them , but i can shew him where 't was borrow'd , or shotten from a jesuites quiver : where was that argument taken from axes , halters , pillories , galleys , prisons , consiscations , as some express it , or as he more concisely , executing the laws , borrow'd , but from rome ? the scripture knows it not , the better sort of heathens abhorr'd it , protestants disown it , papists only glory in it . uterejure tuo caesar , sectamque lutheri , ense , rotâ , ponto , funibus , igne neca . and whence was that argument for active unlimited obedience to all things commanded by the church , borrowed ; for though it becomes no mouth so well as his that can boast of infallibility , yet still we are pressed with the same argument , and in the last resort publick conscience must carry it . i am sorry this imprudent person should give any one occasion to say further , that some of us at home , have furnisht rome with arguments against the reformation , arguments from the scripture , rome has none ; from the nature of the thing , not one ; but some have put into their hands a left-handed dagger , which does mischief enough , it 's called argumentum ad hominem . thus when we are earnest with them to throw away their oil and cream ; they bid us , throw away our cross ; if we desire her to reform her cowles and copes , she calls to us to reform our surplice . when we in a friendly way caution them not to feed upon the devils flesh , they answer , as good eat his flesh as the broth he was boiled in . . she is all for blind obedience at home ; but preaches up tenderness of conscience abroad . and what the difference is between blind obedience , and obedience meerly on the account of the command , i would willingly learn : and if any can shew us a better reason for the things commanded and enjoyned then that , we shall return him thanks . if i might now borrow the enquirers place so long as whilst i propounded a few enquiries , i would immediately resign to him his province . § . if the enmity between the two churches be so great as is pretended , what was the reason that so many stars of the first magnitude in this orb , were in conjunction with the dragons tail ? why were they so ready to yield him his western patriarchate , and all within the first four hundred years ? which will at once bring england under his subjection : though i much question whether the grand seignior will have so much good nature as to resign him the eastern patriarchate so easily . § . if the church of rome be this churches enemy , is she not then concerned to get more churches to be her friends ? it 's a wild humour of some church-men , that they will disoblige all the world , provoking every ones hand against themselves , whilst their hand is against every one ; if rome be an enemy , she is a potent , malicious , subtle , and united enemy , and it concerns a church not to be divided at home , when her enemies are united abroad : and to combine with the forreign protestants in love , were an excellent way to prevent the combinations of romes hatred . § . it would be enquired , if rome be such an enemy , what should be that which provokes her wrath and indignation ? what that should be that makes the envious snakes , wherewith antichrists head is periwigg'd to hiss and spit out their venom ? does she storm and rage because we have retained two or three of her fine ceremonies ? that cannot be the origin of her spight ! they are those things wherein the church of england , and non-conformists are mutually agreed , that rome opposes this church in , and they are those things wherein this church symbolizes with rome , wherein she differs most from the non-conformists . when the heathens triumphed in the great feats of their maximus tyrius , and apollonius tyanaeus , the christians answered . that whatever good effect their religion ever had upon the lives of men , was owing to those principles and truths , which it had in common with christianity ; thus will dissenters plead , that whatever success this church has had in its ministry upon the souls of men , is due to those fundamental truths and doctrines of the christian faith , which she obtains in common with the reformed churches : on the other side ; the roman faction persecutes and undermines this church upon grounds equal to all the reformed churches , and this church is angry ( at least ) with dissenters for those matters wherein she seems to approach too near roman corruption . . we come now to the atheists ; a generation so abominable , of whom we may yet say as was said of the astrologers in old rome , hec genus hominum semper vetabatur , & semper in urbe nostrâ retinebitur ; a people always banished , yet never departed from the city ; such a tribe are these atheists . every one has a hard word for them , yet many entertain them : you shall not meet with a man in a thousand , but will liberally tail at●… damned machiavellian policy , which yet according to the proportion of their little wit , they strive to imita●…e : which tempt me to think , th●… they hate not so much his knavery , as they ●…epine at their ownf●…lly , and judge not his politicks so evil , as they are vext tha●… they cannot equallize him ; that they nibble at his principles , because they cannot reach his wit. it is but a slender evidence that another is in the right , because atheists are so grosly wrong ; and yet to declaim against atheism , has these considerable advantages : first ▪ some think they may be securely atheistical themselves , if they can but flourish with a few ingenious sentences against them ; and a witty libel against such , is a sufficient purgation for him that has a talent to expose the rest of religion : secondly , it 's a plausible argument that that religion must needs 〈◊〉 excellent , that has the worst of men for its enemies , and they must certainly be adjudged worthy persons who are so zealous against such impiety ; what man of charity would suspect irreligion to wear the cloak of f●…rvency against atheism ? and yet it 's common to hear it hotly prosecuted in the pulpit , by some who come warm from that s●…rvice to the practise of it . i dare 〈◊〉 it to the judgement of the impartial world , whether he be not a ●…in to a practical one who disputes for a god , and then tears men in p●…eces for worshippin●… ●…im , according to the best light they can get from scripture an●…●…ature ? and in 〈◊〉 a manner , as wher●… ▪ 〈◊〉 they ca●… find no 〈◊〉 , but that 't is not their ●…on ? and p●…ly was their own to●… not many years since , and pr●…ly had ●…een so still , had they not been purchased into a better ? there are three questions here to be res●…ved . what atheism is ? whence it comes ? and wherein does it oppose the church , and contribute to a separation from it ? . what atheism is , and who is the a●…st ? and this is as needfu●… an enquiry , a●… any of those 〈◊〉 , wherewith h●… tormenced us in the ●…ast chapter : i assure the re●…der , it is a word of a volatile nature , and versatile signification , as any that gives us trouble with its double meaning . in germany an atheist once signi●…ed a person that medled with the pop●…s mit●…r , 〈◊〉 the monks fat bellies : epic●…s of old some think was 〈◊〉 with atheism , because he could not swallow poly●…heisme : ●…t home some conclude he must be an atheist that s●…ruples the ius divinum of ty●…hes : and if he shall detein a ty●… pig , he is a sacrilegious atheist to boot : formerly it border'd upon athei●…m to have denied the divine right of episcopacy ; but i see one may question that now , and yet be a christian : what then an atheist is ? i shall leave to the industry of this enquirer . . but from whence this atheism should proceed , is a question that has been so fully answered by a learned and honourable pen of lat●… . i shall not need to repeat any thing : yet this is obvious ; that when preachers preach against preaching , their auditors may easily stumble into a belief , that what they preach is not much material to be believ'd , when they had rather it should not be preach'd at all , than not under their formalities : if ever i should hear a tradesman bitterly inveigh against trading ; that it never was a good world since there was so much trading ; that we never had peace since we had markets twice a week ; that there can be no peace or settlement expected , so long as men may lay out their money , and buy their goods where they pleased , let such a one be dealt with as severely as the enemies of trade can wish . i shall not plead his cause : to this if we shall adde ▪ that when the world takes notice , that they who are called the men of god , and are therefore supposed to know most of him , to be most like him , and to represent him 〈◊〉 their lives as a holy , merciful , tender , and gracious god , a●… they present him in their doctrine ▪ shall yet with unwearied fury prosecute men to poverty , p●…ison and grave , meerly for noncom●…lyance in those things which themselves have invented ; they give great occasion to atheistical inclinations to say in their hearts , as good believe no god , as one so cruel and unmerciful , as his own 〈◊〉 repr●…sent him to us . . but the last is the most important question : how , or wherein does atheism under 〈◊〉 the church ? or contribute to separation from it ? that atheism does oppose all religion as such , was never doubted , in that it takes away the great principle pre-supp●…sed to all religion . that there is a god ; but how it does particularly oppose the church of england , so far as she differs from others , is i conceive the present question . it is somewhat difficul●… to imagine , that they who have put off humanity , should scruple to put on an●… gat●… of obtaining conformity . they who have renounced on●… god , will easily own a thousand ceremonies ; what were it to them i●… all the numerous rites of rome were introduced , could they but get the sense of a deity oblitera●…ed out of their consciences , that they might sin without the stings and twinges of an approaching judgment , which is the prefection they aim a●… ? their heaven has no god in it , their hell no devil in it ; it must be a strange imposition which an atheistical throat cannot swallow ; he that is of no religion , ( as i said ) can subscribe to any religion , to which those principles are very cognate , which are contrived to avoid persecution under all forms and constitutions : how therefore they should be such grand enemies to conformity , i wait to be resolved . . the atheists ( says he ) will not set th●…ir 〈◊〉 against a fanatick , they must have higher game : by this argument our enquirer has demonstrated himself to be no atheist ; yet i would not have him trust much to it ; i suppose too they have found higher game than ceremonies , when they open their black mouths against god himself . . they inflame the causes of divisions , provoke mens passions , and exasperate mens minds one against another , he has spoken more truth than perhaps he is aware of in these few words : i have ever suspected , and now have warrant to utter my suspicions , that it is a spice of atheism that exasperates men against those who quietly and peaceably worship god blessed for ever . . they scurrilously traduce all that 's serious ; and what they cannot do by manly discourse , they endeavour by buff●…onry : thus these blind bettles that rose out of filth and ex●…rement buz about the world. and now i am sure where to find the whole club of atheists . amongst those churchmen who blaspheme the office of the divine spirit as a noise and buz : amongst those who openly scoffe at the beauty , loveliness , and preciousn●…ss of a redeemer : amongst them who have no better way to confute the satisfactoriness of christs death , then to make god like an angry man when his passion 's over , and has glutted himself with revenge ; amongst them who can no otherwise describe the zeal of christ for his fathers house , then by the furies of a iewish zealot . he has now dispatch'd the remote causes of separation ; and if the reader complains , that amongst all these causes he hears not a syllable of that grand cause of all divisions , the needless imposing of things doubtful or sinful , as the terms of union and communion with the church : let him have a little patience , he may find it in its proper place , viz. amongst the nearer , immediate , direct , and proper causes of separation , whither we now follow our enquirer . chap. iii. where the more immediate causes of distractions , viz. rashness of popular iudgement , iudaisme , prejudice , want of true zeal , are considered , and the enquirer manifested to have been something ridiculous . hitherto our author has acted with good applause the part of a compassionate enquirer ; he will now alter his properties , and play the other part of the passionate enquirer . he has worn the person of a friend long enough ; and will now put on the severer habit ●…f a iudge , and then he is resolved some body or other shall smart sort it , though that belongs properly to the lictor's or beadle's office. there is only one small matter which he would bespeak , and if he could procure it too of his reader , he need not doubt the happy issue and success of this discourse ; and that is a certain commodity which men call candour ; a very scarce and dear commodity it is grown , since the writers of this age appealed from the tribunal of their iudicious and learned , to the chancery of their courteous and candid readers . if any should be so critical as to enquire , what this candour ●…s ; he may understand that it is a native whiteness of judgement , that has not yet received the prejudicate tincture of any colour , but retains its indifferency and neutrality to every customer . such a mind the reader is desired to bring to the perusing of this chapter ; that he be neither black nor blew , his affections devirginated neither with ass. nor diss. but a meer rasa tabula . but how much of this candour might pleasure him , is a great question ; for if a small quantity would serve his occasions , no more then may incline one to think he never expected a bishoprick , or more then a first-rate benefice , for writing this elaborate work ; i have just such a parcel of candour lying by me , that will exactly fit his turn , but this will not do ! he has bespoke so much of his reader . that he will believe , it is not any delight he takes to rake in the wounds of his brethren and fellow christians , that prompts him to this undertaking : a candour to believe all this ? it must be a stretching white-leather candour indeed that will reach to the belief of such incredibles . that he that makes wounds does not delig●…t to rake in them ; that he that forges crimes , takes no pleasure in divulging them , that he who reproaches his brethren most passionately , tenders their repute ; that he who would ruine mens bodies , has such a compassion for their souls : i confess i cannot furnish him wi●…h such a lot of candour ; but if i meet with apella the jew , or any other candid wise-acres , that have enough to spare , he may possibly hear further . proceed we therefore to the next , and immediate causes of the distractions of the church of england . . the first assigned cause , is popular rashness and injudiciousness . whom he should intend by the people , that are so rash and injudicious , i am at a great loss in my conjectures : one division of a kingdom , is into the soveraign ▪ and his leige people . now it must not be the people in this notion , that are so hair-brain'd , for that would include the clergy : again , the subjects of a kingdom may be divided into the nobility , and the common people : but neither under this notion must rashness and injudiciousness be charged upon the people , for besides that , this would still reflect upon the inferiour clergy , it would also cast reproach upon the peoples representatives . there is therefore another distinction of us all , we are all either of the clergy , or the laity , that is in plain english , the populace or v●…lg●… : and there is good ground for this classical distinction , not only because we hear of sermons ad cl●…rum , that is , to those who are gods lot , portion , and inheritance ; and others ad populum , the common herd and drove of animals : but because we read of old , such a division made by the learned and iudicious pharisees , joh. . . have any of the rulers or pharisees believed on him , but this people , that kn●…ws not the law , is accursed . and yet it will be thought scandalously harsh to fix the guilt of popular rashness and injudiciousness , upon the people in this acceptati●… ▪ for under this denomination will come , not only the nobility and ●…try of a nation , but the prince himself , unless he should take on him the office of the priesthood . we must therefore find out another sort of people that must bear the burden of this reproach ; that which comes next to my thoughts , and offers fairest to assail the difficulty , is the distinction between the conformists and the non-conformists ; and thus we shall need to seek no further for this grand cause of non-conformity . the non-conformists are a rabble-rout of rash and in●…udicious people : and there needed not half so many words to assert it , though twice as many will not prove it . this cause of popular rashness , is like the chamaeleon , which they say accommodates i●…elf to the nearest subject , and will resemble all colours save one , only it 's not susc●…ptible of that , which our enquir●…r wants most , candour : for the dissenters complain of the in●…udiciousness of the people , the rashness of their censures , how little they understand their principles , how wrongfully they interpret their practices ; and 〈◊〉 at last , it wheels about t●… 〈◊〉 a reason of conformity . there is no theme upon which school bo●…s are more frank in th●…ir 〈◊〉 inv●…ctives , then of the common people , that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a hydra with many heads , ann ●…er i●… no●…e of ●…hem ▪ 〈◊〉 consliu●… , vel ratio , vel 〈◊〉 , vei d●…gentia , so saith ●…is comp●…re the great roman orator . but i admire h●… thes●… m●…n of wit and iudgement would live . ●…f the people w●…om they so undervalu●… as not worthy to wipe their sh●… , d●…d not moil and toil , and plow and sowe , and spi●… , that they might lie at ease , arrayed like solomon in ●…ll his glory . the method of our enquirer in managing this business , is this : first , he will 〈◊〉 to the purpose , then a little nearer to the purpose , and l●…t of all close home to the purpose . . that which he says to the purpose , is this : when weakpersons judge of the determinations and counsels of wiser men , and those that pierce no further then the meer surface of things , pas●… a ve●…dict upon those whose iudgements are profound and deep , there ●…n no good issue be expected . the vulgar indeed do not wear the head-pieces of states men , nor the helmets of commanders , they have no need for , and therefore no ●…st of them , they pretend to no authority to inspect the secrets of state , to dive into the intrigues and mysteries of government ; but yet under correction , they are a de●…ree removed from beasts ; and pretend and plead a right to judge of their own actions , as they are accountable to the divine majesty . they are not concern'd to enquire upon what reasons the legislators shall bring in a law , but they are concern'd to enquire into the lawfulness of the thing , that they may give a more humane , chearful , and rational obedience . understand me in things especially relating to the immediate service of god , and their acceptance with him therein : in other things , they can part ●…ith th●…r ●…n right ; and though the command should prov●… unrighteous , they may righteously submit ; but in matters of religion they ought to be conducted by more manly arguments . gods worship , is a service reasonable , and if i must not use my reason there to judge of its lawfulness , it had been an advantage to be made , what some would make us , ●…rutes : for as he that has lost his smell , has this to comfort himself withal , that as he enjoys not the satisfaction of the worlds perf●…mes , so he is not tormented with its stinks . thus though the beasts have not the contentment of en●…anchised reason , so they are discharged the cumber and torment which necessarily arises from restraint put upon the dictates of right reason . i shall never therefore reconcile the contradictions of those who cry up a rational clergy , and yet at the same time revile a rational laity . there was once one virgilius bishop of saltzburgh , that held an odd opinion , that there were antipodes , the pope it seems suspecting some dreadful heretical pravity to lurk under that uncouth opinion , convenes , condemns , executes him for a downright heretick : our enquirer protests , he can by no means commend the zeal of the bishop . it s like there was some of that popular rashness and iniudicious●…ss in it : but what would ●…e have had the poor honest man h●…e done ? su●…scribe that twice two make f●…ve and 〈◊〉 ? or against ●…athematical demonstration swear , and d●…clare . that the glob●… of the earth has no dismeter ? i grant ●…hat weak persons ( 〈◊〉 we are all so weak ) ought to suspect themselves , and give very much to the counsels and reas●…ns of wiser men : but to deny our reason in its most easie velitations , and famili●…r instances , for fear of being schismaticks , or causing distractions is but a whimsey , or a wind-mill got into some mens heads ; and as it came in , so let it come out again at its leisure . but this example of virgilius was unto vardly applyed ; for if the good bishop had on his side demonstration against papal d●…termination , as it proves that th●… private reason may be more orthodox then the publick , so i dare refer it to any ordinary b●…dy to judge , whether in case any distra●…tions or separations had followed in the church thereon , the pope or the bishop had been the culpable cause of th●…m ? the latter for asserting that which was simply impossible should be otherwise ; or the former , for executing hi●… as an heretick for not denying a demonstrabl●… verity ? . but now he will come nearer to the purpose . i assure him he had need ; for hitherto we have been a filthy way off , it s an ob●…rvation not more ancien●… then true , that the same thing seldom pleases the many and the few . and a wise observation it was , whoever first observed it to the world ! i once heard a grave 〈◊〉 in the pulpit , after all the civil prefaces of the learning , piety , and orthodox of that father , quote st. austin for such another observation , not more ancient then true . omnes homines sunt pec●…atores ! all the question here will be , whether the many or the fe●… , are more probable to be in the right ! oh no doubt the few : for the many are the people , the vulgar : why then i refer it again , whether popular iudgement can be the cause or reason of non-conformity , when the many are infallibly of that religion which the law allows and encourages , and the few ever of that way which is discouraged and persecuted . but ( says he ) wise men generally take middle counsels ; that was indeed a little nearer the purpose , if not too near ; for hence the world will discern , that many church-men are none of the wisest , who are all for high-flying or high-trotting counsels : but what are those middle counsels ? he tells us in the instance of erasmus , who was the glory of his time and countrey , for the sagacity of his wit , and simplicity of his temper ; and he indeed hung in the middle between popery and protestantism ; or as some say , between heaven and hell ; so that hence we learn another secret , what are those middle counsels , which wise men would take , if occasion served ; but then i doubt the many , and not the few , would entertain those middle counsels . i meet with this moderation the word , at every corner , but moderation the thing is as gre●…t a rarity as candour ; moderation in ceremonies that 's a vice ; hence we hear of these famous sermons : conformity according to canon justified , and the new way of moderation reproved . a sermon preached at exon , ir the cathedral of st. peter . at the visitation of the right reverend father in god anthony — this is that moderation our enquirer attacques so briskly , p. . charging the best of clergy-men with debauching their office , and undermining the church ; but now to be moderate like erasmus , between canterbury and rome , that 's your commendable temper . and such a religion did calvin fear , like the interim of germany , the articles of h●…n . . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of zeno , the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of heracli●…s , the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of constance . such a one as was too high for this world , and too low for the next , such a one as whether or no it provided a heaven in the other world , would make a purgatory of this ; calvin was taught when to be zealous , and when remiss , to be zealous in gods cause , and remiss in his own , which seems somewhat a better frame then theirs , who are ●…re and ●…ow for their own inventions , but as cool as patience it self in the concerning truths of the gospel . to prove the moderation of our church , and that she cuts by a thred , ( or by threds ) between both these extreams ; he produces an argument both from papists and protestants ; those of the church of rome cannot but confess all is good in our liturgy : protestants on the other hand generally acknowledge the main to be good ; and so between them both , give a glorious testimony to this church as guilty of neither extrea●… . there is nothing more childish then to use an argument , which with the same ease may be retorted as used ; for those of the roman church condemn the liturgy as defective in necessaries and fundamentals , and protestants complain of many redundancies and superfluities ; and so between them both , they charge her as guilty of both the extreams . but i am afraid he has promised himself more respect from rome , then they will allow her . if they will confess that all is good in the liturgy now , i am sure they would not have confest so much , when it pray'd to be delivered from the tyranny of the bishop of rome , and all his detestable enormities . but if it hath been so well amended to gratifie the papists , give it one amendment more to gratifie the protestants , that they also may say , there 's nothing but what is good in the liturgy . i have read , that when the embassadour of the duke of brandenburgh presented his mandate in the council of trent , he shewed his masters good affection to , and reverence of the fathers of that synod , they answered very discreetly , that the council had heard his discourse with great content , especially that part of it , wherein the elector doth submit himself to the council , and promiseth to observe the decrees of it , hoping that ●…is deeds will be answerable to his word . but here ( as the historian observes ) the council pretended a promise of ten thousand , when the bargain was but for ten. the embassador proffer'd re●…erence , and they accept of obedience . and thus the fathers of the council of carthage , giving an account to innocent i. that they had condemned c●…lestius and pelagius , desired him to conform himself to their declaration : he commends them in his answer , that remembring the old tradition , and ecclesiastical discipline , they had referred all to his iudgement , whence all ought to learn whom to absolve and whom to condemn . an usual and pious allurement of the church of rome , which yielding to the infirmity of her children , maketh shew to believe , that they have performed their duty . by the same artifice would our enquirer wheadle the non-conformists into a good mood , to acknowledge the liturgie to be good in the main , and that there are only some redundancies which they would have taken away . . and now at last he will come home , and close to the purpose , that which i chiefly intend ( says he ) is , that a great part of men have not their minds elevated above the horizon of their bodies , nor take an estimate of any thing , but by its impression upon their senses : from whence ( say i ) it must needs follow , that most men judge of the excellency of a religion , as it approves it self to their carnal interests , and ambitious expectancies ; and if that will make to the purpose to prove , that popular injudiciousness is a cause of s●…paration from the church , let him make his best of it : some think it proves the contrary . two things he will spend his rhetorick upon as he goes along . the excellency of the liturgy , and the excellency of his own preaching ; which last we have had enough of to sa●…iety , if not to nauseousness , very lately . the excellency of the liturgy lies , in being composed plainly , gravely , and modestly , no turgid or swelling words , no novelty of phrase or method , no luxurian●…y of wit or fancy : and might not this have passed for proof of the excellency of the homilies ? if the plain composition , the gravity , the modesty of the homilies , innocent of all turgid or swelling expressions , free from novelty of phrase , or curiosity of m●…thod , could not procure a reprieve , but they are condemned to silence , and instead of them , we are all for artificial composures , suggar'd phrase that will melt in the mouth ; and meth●… such as brings forreigners to england to be instructed in it , quaintness of expression , and luxurianey of wit and fancy ▪ why then was not the liturgy a little lickt over , and trimm'd up more sprucely ? but if those characters of plainness , gravity , modesty , humble expressions , ordinary language , be the glory of the prayers . why not of the preaching also ? the old homilies were too course spun for modern ears to hear , the phrase too heavy and common , the method cryptic and obscure ; but preaching is now more finical , and accommodated to the itching ears of well-bred christians , we are got into the mode of lovedays letters , and cassandra and cleopatra ; as if god did not understand strong lines , as well as the ladies , and as if we were not as much obliged to tell the people their duty , as god our wants in small english. popular rashness and injudiciousness are great evils as it appeats ; but how to apply a proper and suitable remedy to the evil is all the skill . and first , the church of rome ( says he ) have a cure for this ; they appropriate all iudgement to the clergie and deal with the rest of mankind as sots and idiots . but the church of england mak●…s not her self the mistress of mens faith , or imposes upon their understandings ; she ●…eaches that our saviour hath delivered the mind of god touching the points of necessary belief plainly , and in other lesser matters she allows a iudgement of discretion . and will not this iudgment of discretion , or indiscretion become a cause of all those divisions , separations and schismes , of which so loud a peal has been rung in our ears ? and is not this a new name for popular rashness and injudiciousness ? oh ( says he ) since the peace of the church often depends upon such points as salvation does not , and ●…nce in m●…ny of these every man is not a competent iudge . but must either be ●…n danger of being deceived himself , or deceiving others ▪ or of necessi●…y 〈◊〉 trust some body wiser than himself , she recommends as the safer way for such private persons to compl●… w●… publick determinations ▪ and in so advising she jointly consults the peace of the chu●…ch , and the quiet of mens consciences . these ma●…ters seem very artificially put tog●…ther , and the taking them asunder will discover their weakness . . let me have a solid reason given , why the peace of the church should be laid upon those things which salvation depends not upon ? is the peace of the church ●…rown so cheap and vile that it should be sold for things unnecessary ? one while he cries up peace so high , p. . that he protests , if a man must suffer martyrdome he thinks it equally acceptable to god to lay down a mans life for preservation of the peace and unity of the church , as in testimony against flat idolatry : are they not to be admired that value peace more than their lives , and yet will venture it upon indifferent things ? are they not more to be admired , that extol peace so highly , and yet sacrifice it to their own meer wills and pleasures : but is not this yet the greatest wonder , that peace should depend o●… that which salvation does not ; and yet he will sacrifice his life for it , as soon as against that , upon which his eternal damnation depends ? . if men be not competent iudges of their own actions , what is become of that iudgement of discretion , wherewith we were even now gratified ? is this the iudgement of discretion , to surrender our consciences upon discretion ? the romanists , who appropriate all iudgement to the clergie , and deal with the rest of mankind as idiots and sots , could have said no more , then that men are not competent iudg●… of their own good : and if we may not be allowed a liberty to judge for our selves in those lesser matters debatable amongst christians ; much less in those greater matters which they say admit of no debate : and how much our authors cure is better than that of the romanists i know not ; i think they are both worse then the disease . . why is not the danger of trusting others , as great as trusting to the word of god ? mine eyes may be presumed to see for my conduct as faithfully as another mans ; and my own conscience will probably be as faithful to my eternal concerns as any ones i could find . and i have tried it , that it 's much easier to obtain a moral certainty that i have the mind and will of god , then that i have grasped the mind of any church from their most authentick articles , or confessions of faith. . why should others be troubled , that i am not so wise as they ? it 's none of my trouble that they use their liberty without dispising , whilst i exercise that which god has given me without judging . if we must trust others in composing worship and divine service for us , terms of communion of christians , where is then the difference between that , and the popish implicit faith ? this will make the people sheep indeed , but silly ones i am sure ; such is my weakness , i can see no difference between blind obedience , and trusting others with the determination of it ; or between implicit faith , and trusting others as the reason of my belief ; either then here 's no remedy , or one worse then the disease : the disease at worst is but to enjoy a liberty in those things christ left free ; nor is there any necessity that freedom should be 〈◊〉 ; and the remedy , to trust others blindfold with our consciences , whom we have no assurance will be over tender of them ; and if we had ▪ have no commission from christ to intrust them any where but in his own hands . but what now if the people be foolish , proud , and contentious ; what remedy has the church 〈◊〉 ? why she only declares them guilty of sin and cont●…macy , and casts them out of communion but ●…hat if they be humble , and meek , and peaceab●…e , only cannot by searching , studying , praying , discoursing see the lawfulness of the imposed terms of communion ? must the church declare them contumacious , and cast them out of communion ? it may tempt us to think that is no remedy of gods prescribing , that deals alike with humble and pround , the peaceable and contentious . but for all this demureness , i doubt there are other remedies besides a declaration , other weapons besides paper pellets . there is a significavit , a writ de excommunicato capiendo , de har●…tico comburendo . an oath of abjuration , a warrant of distress , if they submit not to those impositions , upon which salvation depends not ; and in their judgements , such as are sinful , and then damnation is hazarded by them . i have often admired the modesty of the church of rome : she never put any man to death : she never burnt any at a stake : it 's not for holy men , men of peace to shed blood , to be instruments of cruelty ; no , the church only delivers them over to the secular power , and what he does with them , how he treats them she knows nothing : thus having drawn in the magistrate to do her drudgery , she wipes her mouth , washes her hands , and protests she is innocent of the blood of these men. an objection was timely foreseen that might be made against his discourse , and like a person that knew how to be friendly to himself , he has put it in favourable and gentle terms . this will equally extend to all other reformed churches , as well as our own , and might have brought forth all the evil we complain of , and impute to it in former ages as well as now ; for the generality of the people were not much wiser then now . that is , the protestant churches have their members as lyable to mistake beyond sea , as ours on this side ; they have private reason as well as we , and a iudgement of discretion too ; and so had the primitive times too ; christians then were equally in danger of being seduced by their own injudiciousness , and yet the one continued in much peace , and the other still continues so , without the remedy of imposing mystical ceremonies : nay , to speak properly , without the disease of impositions : the not imposing doubtful things as the terms of communion , were with them the prophylacticks of schisms and divisions , and the imposing of them ( which is strange ) is the therapeutick of schisms and divisions , to which he answers two things . § . that other churches found the effects of ignorance and arrogance more or less as well as we : to which might be returned ; that they found it not in those things which they left free ; but if at any time they laid the weight of the churches peace upon unnecessaries , they found in proportion the same effects of the same cause , which we have found : but ( says he ) that was to be ascribed not to the happiness of their constitutions , but to the unhappiness of their conditions . i confess i am not altogether of his mind ; it was mainly due to the happiness of their constitution there were fewer contentions , because fewer bones of contention ; and less of divisions , because they united upon a scr●… ptural , and therefore secure bottom . that the church of corinth needed a check for her divisions , is very true , and a smart one she deserved : and 't is as true too ; that the apostle had not recourse to our modern remedies , to exert his apostolical power , to silence the clamour by darting the thunderbolt of excommunication against the weaker party ; and yet he had a far more specious pretence , then any church governours can now justly claim : his apostolical commission to plant and water churches , which would have commanded reverence to his person , and conciliated authority to his determinations ; and yet he either had no such power , or durst not use it , but took the healing way , tolerating things tolerable , and pressing them mutually to love and peace under their various apprehensions about mint , anise and cummi●… . but yet he thinks , that the reason why primitive christians , whilst under persecution , had one heart and mind , was , because they submitted their private fancies to publick safety : which is only the assigning of an imaginary cause for a real one . primitive christians , whilst surrounded with adversaries , were of one heart and mind in the main , and the true reason was , because their dangers and pressing fears had not yet let in that prelatical imposing spirit into the guides of the church , which ease and liberty afterwards produced . and though we dare not charge our divisions upon peace , plenty and liberty , which are great mercies to a sinful people ; yet we would lay the saddle upon the right horse , the blame at the right door ; 't is not the injudiciousness of the people , who are willing to be quiet , and accept of rest upon tolerable terms ; but the obstinacy of clergy-men , who make their own wills , the reason of their injunctions , not considering that all mens intellectuals are not of one size and height ; and yet as if consciences were to be fooled with , mens souls sported with , they necessitate the people either to act against their light , or to fall under the severe lash of a poenal statute . § . that these evils broke out no sooner ( says he ) is due to the contentment generally took in their first emerging out of the darkness and superstitions of popery : very true ! they were so full of admiration at what god had done for them ; that they considered not what further to ask god to do for them : so transported that they were out of egypt , that they never considered how short the wilderness was of the promised land ; and hence he might have answered himself , p. . if there be such a dangerous affinity between the church of england and rome , how came it to pass that cranmer and ridley , &c. laid down their lives in testimony to this against that ? rome was not built , nor will it be destroyed in one day . our first martyrs laid down their lives in testimony that rome was guilty of dangerous doctrines , but not that we had nothing remaining that needed a reformation . . a second cause is , that a great part of this nation having been leavened with iewish superstitious or traditions , hath thereby been indisposed to an uniform reception of , and perseverance in the reformation of religion held forth by this church . when i first read the charge of judaism brought in against the dissenters , i remembred what i had met with in the virulent titles of some lutheran book : calvinus iudaizans ; calvinianorum nesterianismus ; calvine-papismus ; no●…us calvinistarum deus ; to which we may add , calvine-turcismus , and some others . i began to cast about in my thoughts for the reason of such an imputation : have they set up an image of the aaronical priesthood ? have they their high-prie●… , their inferiour pries●… and levites , attired in the linen ephod ? with all the accoutrements of the aaronical wardrobe ? and that they may more exactly symbolize therewith , have they provided for their priests an altar ? settled upon them a levitical maintenance ? and to carry on the parallel have they erected temples distinguisht by sacred apartments ? have they their holy , and most holy place , chancelled in for the greater reverence of the sacred mysteries ? to secure them from the approaches of the prophane and injudicious rabble ? and have they all these enclosed within holy ground ? and the rather beacuse dionysius assures us , that the christians in his time , had solemn temples like the iews , and the chancel severed with special sanctifications from the rest of the church : whereas ( says he ) the christians of the first age made their assemblies both in such private places , and in such simplicity as the apostles did : i considered again , whether the non-conformists had not introduced a pompous padag●…gie of ccremonies ▪ and imposed them upon the people ? whether they might not parhaps have instituted some feasts and holy-days , upon an old judaical account , as of the circumcision , purification ? or whether they had not appointed some office , or solemn special service for lustration of women after childbirth , in correspondence with the iewish purifications of women after their uncleanness ? whether they observed any sacred time analogical to the passover , or had any foot-steps of the ancient distinction of meats into clean and unclean ? or any thing that might give cause of suspicion , that they had by a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 revived moses his extraordinary quadragesimal abstinence ? or whether they introduced temple instrumental musick , whether loud sounding cymbals or organs , having such good proof in durantus his rationale , from that text , let every thing that hath breath praise the lord ! and when i could find no track of reason for the charge upon these accounts , i went to enquire of the enquirer . and it does appear ( by his talk ) that a more secret and mysterious judaisme then all this , has of old been rooted in this nation , that no ecclesiastical pick-axes have been able to extirpate it ; for ( says he ) the greatest difficulty that austin the monk found here , was to bring the inhabitants from the observation of easter , and some other rites according to the manner of the iewish and eastern churches ; to that of the roman and western : and the doing it , cost the lives of twelve hundred monks , who stubbornly opposed his inovations . this austin was certainly a formal fop as ever this poor nation was harassed with . two third parts of his whole ministerial or apostolical work , was ceremony ; for upon these conditions he propounded peace to the britains . if you will in these three things obey me , in celebrating eastar in due time : in baptizing according to the manner of the roman church , and in preaching the word to the nation ; all other ceremonies , fashions and customs , though they be contrary to ours , yet we will willingly bear with them . was not this a person of great moderation ? but why not condescend in those two , as well as all the rest ? oh , it s the religious policy of rome , to reserve as much of ceremony , as like a quit-rent , will serve to recognize the papal soveraignty ; and that point of soveraignty alone will in due time fetch in the other . to own that churches power to impose , ics jurisdiction to award terms of communion , though but in one single instance , is the delivery of a twig and a turf , which give her livery and seis●…n of the conscience in the name of the whole man. but if austins reformation was so ceremonious in it self , and so bloody in its effects , which are , if not inseparably , yet commonly linked together : if he could have spared their blood . they could well have spared his ceremonies . but was this austin so great a saint , that he must be quoted for the famous reformer of judaisme ? or were those martyrs of bangor such wicked jews , that the non-conformists should be their spawn ? no , this austin made our ancestors only romanists , he found them christians before ; and perhaps of a better , and more generous race of religion , then that he engrafted upon the old stock . then it seems that christians , however iudaizing in one instance , may be of a nobler temperature then an old doting ceremony-monger , that for a meer caprice , would mingle their blood with their sacrifices : but how does the example come home to the purpose ? austin was mad upon his ceremonies ? the britains were tenacious of their easter : wherein are dissenters concern'd in their quarrels , who neither dogmatize with the quartodecimanes or quinto-decimanes ? let the one plead traditions from papias and st iohn , with the eastern , the other pretend the pope and st. peter , with the western christians , we can be contend they should scuffle it out , about goats-wool , or moon-shine in the water . our enquirer nevertheless , will give us an anatomy of non-conformity , and lay open their principles to view , that it shall appear that a vein of iudaism●… runs through the whole body of dissenters . . the first vein is : their great hypothesis is , that nothing is lawful in the service of god , but what is expresly prescribed in the scripture . which proposition needs many limitations , before the dissenters will father it , and when it is so limited , they will challenge him to prove , that there 's the least capillary of judaism in it : and . if by nothing he understand no meer circumstance , as of general time , place , he may know what they have told the world a thousand times , they hold many such things lawful , which are not prescribed particularly in the scripture ; but if by nothing he will understand no ceremony , being an outward and visible sign of inward and invisible grace ; they do assert , that no such thing is lawful in worship , but what is prescribed in the scripture . . if by in the service of god he mean , only an action accompanying gods worship , not of religious application , but such as is common to civil and ordinary affairs , they deny it any principle of theirs , that nothing may be done in time of worship , by the worshippers , that is not commanded by the scriptures . but if by in the service of god , be meant , so in it , that it is part of it , they own it to be their avowed judgement , that nothing is lawful in the service of god , as a part of worship , which is not commanded by god himself . . if by expresly commanded , be intended , what is literally and syllabi cally so ; they disown it as any hypothesis of theirs : but if by expresly commanded be intended what is either 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or by just consequence derived thence , they are ready to justifie it without fear of judaizing , that nothing , no outward visible sign of inward and invisible grace , is lawful in the service of god , as a part of that service , which is not expresly , or by just and clear consequence prescribed in the scripture , not excluding whatever help from the light of nature , to give us a fuller prospect into the mind of god in his word . nor ought this to be stigmatized as a principle peculiar to the iews , but common to them , with all other true worshippers of god , from the beginning of the world. to impose a part of worship , is not only an imposition upon man , but upon god. the imposer does not only compel man to offer , but god to accept what is offered : for seeing the end of all worship is acceptation with him whom we worship : this end must influence our whole worship . and this is supposed by the church of england , who prays , ( or invites to pray ) for true repentance and the holy spirit , that those things may please him which we do at this present : now it 's neither our own fancies , nor the will of men , but the word of god that is a competent declaration of what will please our creatour . dissenters plead further : that the same god , that iealous god , who commanded the iews not to add to gods commands , commanded it upon reasons common to all mankind . it was well urged against the iews by the learned author of orig , sacr. p. . that the meaning of that strict prohibition , deut. . . was no other , then that men should not of their own heads offer to find out new ways of worship , as jerobo●…m did ; but that gods revelation of his own will , in all its different degres , was to be the adequate rule of the way and ●…rts of his own worship . and i would fain know of the jews , whether their own severe and strict prohibition of things , not at all forbidden in the law of god , came not near the adding to gods law ? again , god having given no rule to direct us in excogitating and imposing new worship , it 's impossible but we should mistake ; or if we should hit now and then upon some happy contrivance , we must thank his blind goddess fortune , rather then the fruitfulness of our own understandings : and this loose principle would make the world a pantheon , or encumber it with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and would multiply religions according to the multitudes of the churches , as they of old multiplied their idols , according to the number of their cities . they do also still believe from heb. . that christ was faithful to him that appointed him the lord of the church , in making all necessary provisions for the encreasing , confirming , and perfecting their graces , for their comfort , edification , and all spiritual necessities , without any new additional contrivances for those ends : nay they say yet further ; that as these new ways and parts of worship , do impeach christs faithfulness in discharge of his trust , so they do invade his regal office too , in making new laws to bind the conscience ; an usurpation which no earthly prince would endure ; for when a prince has establisht his laws , though he supposes that the inferiour magistrates must have time and place to execute them in , which are left at liberty according as emergency in particular cases shall invite to determine them , yet he allows them to make no new laws , upon pretence of necessity to execute the old ones , nor to institute new observances , under colour of more effectual managing old customs : and it seems reasonable that the people should not practise what ministers may not preach ; nor the church impose what it cannot command in christs name ; but it can only use christs name to urge whatsoever he has commanded them ; nay the enquirer , when perhaps he did not think of after mischief , told us p. . that we incur st. pauls anathema , which he denounces against him ( whosoever he be , nay ●…f an angel from heaven ) that shall preach any other doctrine , then what hath been received : and if the church has received any such command to invent and impose ceremonies , she can tell us where others may read it as well as her self . and to conclude at present , they say , that this one principle granted , that the church may impose upon her members whatever is not expresly forbidden , does either put the body of christians under a more heavy yoke then that of the iews , or else torment them with fears , that they may be so : and indeed supposing this exorbitant power to impose parts of worship or ceremonies , or any of these things in debate , the condition of the iews was much more desirable in this respect then that of christians . for , § . their law-giver was iehova , who had an absolute and unlimited power over them , and they that are gods creatures will not grudge to be his servitors : he was lord paramount of worship and conscience , and might he not be allowed to do what he would with his own ? he is the god of the spirits of all flesh and shall they not live in subjection to him , who expect to live in a kingdom with him ? since there is a necessity of obedience , it sweetens it unspeakably , that it 's both interest and priviledge to obey ; and that he who requires obedience is their god , a god whose will is the rule of righteousness ; and therefore the most satisfactory reason of his commands , and his creatures duty ; and implicit obedience is then honourable , when god calls for it . § . as their law giver had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , authority to command , so he had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a power to influence the weakest elements . he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and had absolute sovereignty , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , one of almighty power , which was a double encouragement to the observers of his precepts : for . he was hereby able to secure the obedient in his service ; upon which account christ claims the legislative power over conscience . ●…am . . . there is one law-giver . who is able to save , and to destroy , . by this power he could render efficacious these rudiments , which in themselves were but beggerly ordinances : and produce by them spiritual and supernatural effects . and i am 〈◊〉 the rather to think that god has not committed the ●…ral power of instituting , much less the sovereign power of imposing religious ceremonies and observances , because he has not communicated that other power to bless their own appointments , ●…or invigorate them with success : god may well be allowed to command what he pleases , seeing be can and will bless whatsoever he commands . § . their law-giver was faithful , one to whom they might securely commit their consciences , one with whom they might ●…ith the greatest satisfaction of heart commit their souls ; he ●…hat has a sole right to any thing will be faithful in keeping it , because 't is his own , and who may better be entrusted with the guardianship of worship and all religion , then their owner ? but though we ought not to be censorious , yet we may , and ought to exercise some prudence and caution to whom we resign our selves in matters of religion , though the best of men , not knowing how they may use us . but well knowing , that we may more easily captivate ourselves to the will of an imposer , then being once enthralled , vindicate our selves into our christian liberty : or if for no other reason , yet for this , because they are but men. § . the jewish yoke was a determinate yoke : it was onus , but determinatum . a burden , but a stinted burden : it 's no small alleviation to the labourers toyl , when he knows his work ; to the traveller , that he knows his journeys end : the fews had their work before them , but upon the modern principle : the burden of christians is indefinite , which is but a better word for infinite : the truth is , in these humane impositions we see the beginning , but no man knows the end of them ; it 's a nemo scit . our load must be bounded with no other limits then a churches will ; and that will perhaps bounded with no other then its power , since it 's canoniz'd for good divinity , that the church may impose whatever is decent , and that the church is iudge of what is decent ; though who the church is , is not so certain . § . their law-giver was one of known and approved tenderness , who either apportioned his work to their strength , or their strength to his work ; he fitted the yoke to their neck , and their neck to the yoke . the main thing that renders christs own yoke so easie , his burden so light , is , that as his authority imposes , so his strength supporta . men may lay heavy burdens on our shoulders . but where there is most need , cannot touch them with one of their fingers . § . their law-giver was one , who in all his impositions consulted their own good and benefit , as wel as exercised his own authority : the iews wrought hard indeed , but their work had much of wages in 't . the design of their mystical rites and ceremonies directed them to a saviour . legal administrations well order'd , were gospel priviledges : before christ came ceremonies were illustrantia , such as discovered the person , nature , office and grace of the messiah ; a candle is better then no light ; but to us they are all obscurantia , such as darken the state of christianity . as before the sun-rising , the prodromous clouds , whose edges are fringed with gold , comfort us with the hopes of an approaching greater light , which when the sun is up , do but darken the horizon . thus did ceremonies illustrate christ at the annuntiation , but obscure him at his advent . it will be needless further to vindicate the dissenters : i shall leave them to the enquirers patronage ; who by the same reason , that he justifies the church of england from popery , will i hope clear the non-conformists from judaism , p. . all ( says he ) is not to be accounted popery which is held or practised by the church of rome : nor ( say i ) is all to be accounted judaism which was either the principle or practise of the iewish church , p. . nor is it reasonable to say such a thing is received from the church of rome , because it is there to be found , unless it be found no where else . and as little reason to say the dissenters have received this principle from the jews . [ that no worship is lawful ( for that is their principle ) but what is prescribed by the scripture ] unless it were found no where else . but this was a principle so clear in the light of nature , that numa the great ritualist of heathen rome , durst not hope that ever his ceremonies would ever ob●…ein amongst a people that had fyes in their heads , unless he had , or pretended to have , a conference with his goddess aegeria . thus the palladium of troy , that mystick ceremony , in which the fate of their city was wrap'd up , is supposed to have come down from minerva ; the famous image in diana's temple , ' acts . . is supposed to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , fallen from jupiter ; and whilst the world was filly enough to be imposed upon by those little artifices , we had scarce a new shrine , altar , place of pilgrimage erected , but upon pretence of some rising from the dead , or an angel from heaven , or a letter from the virgin mary , or some such pious frauds and religious cheats , which the priests had at their fingers ends . let us now consider the enquirers discourse upon this principle . that all absolutely necessaries are so determined , we readily grant , ( says he ) and that all those rites prescribed by our saviour are necessary to be obserued , we will yield them ; but that nothing is lawful but what is to be found so prescribed , we utterly deny . and so do we ! let that end the controversie : when rethoricians have flanted it out in fine language , and ruffled a little in phrase , apposite words and expressions they have satisfied their office , and are not obliged by the rules of their art , either to state the question , or speak to it : something may be practised which is not prescribed that we grant ; but from something to every thing is too great a leap for bucephalus : from practising to prescribing is another large stride ; from circumstances to ceremonies is a third ; from civil things to sacred is one more ; from indifferent to necessary conditions of church communion may go for another ; and from the common accidents that attend the worshippers as men , to parts of worship , are inferences which we can neither make to lead or drive . . we come now to a second judaical principle : that all princes and law-givers are bound to conform the municipal laws of their several dominions to the institutions of moses . this indeed has a strong taint of jewish leaven in 't ; which they who plead so zealously for the ius divinum of tythes , and holiness of places , because moses once put off his shooes may do well to advise upon ; the non-conformists for ought i know are little concern'd in 't . we grant that there is no necessity that the temporal sanction even of the moral law it self , should be the same under the gospel , that it was under the administration of moses : that the violaters of the lords days holy rest should be stoned , as the infringer of the sabhath was of old ; the adulterers should be punish'd with death , or a blasphemer endure the same now which then was exacted . law-givers do consider the tempers and dispositions of their subjects in these matters ; we are no further concerned herein then to pray , that they who moderate the affairs of the empires of this world , may be directed with wisdom from above , may order all things in a subserviency to his glory by whom they reign , and the publick peace , welfare and prosperity . . a third instance is in excommunication . which ( says he ) they hold must be by a synod or presbytery , and the prince as well as the people must be subject to the sentence . here are several questions that invite our serious debate ; as . what is the proper seat of the power of excommunication ? . who are the proper objects of this power ? . whether to fix the power of excommunication be a judaical principle ? and . whether a prince may come under the edge of that sword ? any one of which would require more room then i have allotted my self to turn in : what i shall say is this . . that the synod or presbytery are the seat of excommunication , carries as fair proof at least , as the chancellor who is a lay-man , or at best a deacon of no scripture institution , can show for himself by divine right . . that all scandalous persons are lyable to that censure , is true in the general , but that it may not be executed upon a supreme magistrate , arises from peculiar maximes of government , upon which the safety of a kingdom depends : i know not that this is a principle of the n. c. for my part i disown it . . that this was a jewish principle to excommunicate their kings , i do not certainly know , nor date positively determine : that they received any such standing law from god i do not find : that a high-priest did once actually separate a king upon the score of his leprosie , we read , and that others perhaps would not do as much if a prince pleased not their humours we have no security : i should shrowdly suspect their inclinations this way , whoever they were , that inse●…ed this doctrine into our bibles ; which we find in the contents of the . psalm . the prophet exhorteth to praise god , for that power he hath given to the church to rule the consciences of men : which they refer to v. . and the following . let the saints be joyful in glory ; let them sing aloud upon their beds . let the high praises of god be in their mouth , and a two edged sword in their hand ; to execute vengeance upon the heathen , and punishments upon the people : to bind their kings with chains , and their nobles with fetters of iron . if this be the power god has given the church over the consciences of men , the non-conformists did not insert it , and wish it may be expunged the bible . . he must by no means omit their superstitions about the lords day ; which must be called a sabbath too , though such name is no where given it ; either in the new testament , or any an●… : writer that he knows of . here are two branches , the first de n●…mine , the second de re. . de nomine ; whether the lords-day may be called a sabbath , especially with the usual epithete , the christian sabbath ? that it must be so called ( as he falsifies ) the n. c. assert not : that it may be so called , they are willing to enter a sober discourse with him when he is at leisure . a sabbath in general , signifies no more then a day of rest. and he that owns the day may be called the lords-day , must needs own it to be a resting day , and by consequence a sabbath day ; and the greatest fault herein is , that it 's good in english , but stark naught in hebrew . nay there 's somewhat more will follow , this day of which we speak , is called the lords-day . rev. . . i was in the spirit on the lords-day . and the reason of the appellation is this , because the lord iesus has a special interest and propriety in that day : as the great standing ordinance of the gospel is called the lords-supper , cor. . because it was instituted by him , and was to be devoted to communion with him ; so this day is called the lords-day , because it was determin'd by him , and ought to be dedicated to him in his service and worship , that we may approve our selves eminently the lords servants , upon that day which is eminently the lords-day . and if so , it will challenge the title , not only of a day of rest , but holy rest : and if men were not swarming full of crotchets and idle whimseys , and superstitious dotages , they would never scruple to call that a holy sabbath day , which they must confess a holy resting day . but how came this precise qualm over our enquirers heart , that he is so skittish at the word sabbath , because forsooth it 's not given the day in the new testament ? they have some singular priviledge , and prerogative surely , that may institute what officers , what offices they please , though neither name nor thing be found there , nor print nor mark of the least foot-step , when the poor non-conformists may not use indifferently an innocent word , which signifies no more in it self , then he will acknowledge to be found there . but how is this a point of judaism ; or how one of the nearer causes of separation ? if it be , we may confidently say we have imbibed both from the liturgy of the church , which teaches the minister to rehearse the fourth commandment . remember the sabbath-day to keep it holy ; and then enjoins us all to pray , lord have mercy upon us , and incline our hearts to keep this law ; but if this word , this dactrine , be of such pernicious a contagion , as to insect us with judaism , and non-conformity ; we have need of another , miserere ●…i deus ! for keeping it . that this name sabbath , applyed to the christian holy-day of rest , is found in ancient writers , i shall not urge . ignat. epist. ad magnes . let every one of us keep the sabbath spiritually , not in bodily case , ( only ) but in the study of the law. not the author of the sermons de tempore , ( none of austins , for any mans word will go further then his ) for so we rightly sanctifie the lords sabbath , as the lord hath said . in it thou shalt do no manner of work ; but this i shall say , that he that denies it to be a day of holy rest , it 's no great matter what he calls it . and he that owns it such , must be most rediculously obstinate , that denies it may properly be so called . we come to the dispute de re. and first he charges the n. c. that the lords-day amongst them , must have all the nicety of observation that the iewish sabbath had : and which is yet worse such observation thereof is made one of the principal parts of religion . what the non-conformists hold and practise in this point , is so well known from their writings and conversations , that no man can possibly slander them , but he must do it against his conscience ; which had the enquirer attended to it , would have tought him other language : what was the practice of the best christians who lived up in any good measure to the holiness of their profession , that is the practice of the non-conformists ; and wherein they come short , have cause to be humbled in the sight of god : if any ind●…viduals have added any jewish austeri●…ies , or invented any superstitious severities to make the day a legal yoke , we wish they may be no more favoura●…ly dealt with , then those other additions that have been made to religion . for the publick service of the day , i shall give the reader a piece of clemens rom. lib. . cap. . on the lords-day frequent more carefully the temple of the lord , that ye may praise god who made all things by iesus christ ; whom he sent unto us , and suffered him to dye for us , and raised him from the dead ; for what can excuse him with god , who meets not to hear the saving word of god concerning the resurrection . on which day , we pray thrice , standing , remembring him who after three days rose again . for the private observation of the day , the same author lib. . cap. . thus . we admonish you , brethren and fellow-servants , that you fly vain words and filthiness , pleasant jests , & 〈◊〉 . for on the lords days , which are our days of rejoicings , we do not permit you to do or speak any thing not savoury ; for the scripture s●…h , serve the lord with fear . st. hierom commends the aegyptian monks , that they designed the lords days wholly to prayer , and reading the holy scriptures . the author of the sermons de tempore . this day is called the lords-day , that in it abstaining from all earthly works , and worldly pleasures , we should only give our selves to the service of the lord : let us therefore brethren , observe the lords day , and sanctifie it , as it was commanded them of old concerning the sabbath . if our enquirer had the trimming up of this author , he had dressed him up for a marane , a baptized jew . chrysost. on gen. . god from the beginning did insinuate unto us this instruction , to set apart , and separate one whole day in the circle of every week , for spiritual exercises ; and in homil. . on math. let us prescribe this as an unmoveable law to our selves , to our wives and children , to set aside one day of the week , and that wholly to hearing , and laying up of things heard . isidore hispalensis : the apostles therefore ordained the lords-day to be kept with religious solemnities , because in it our redeemer rose from the dead , which was therefore called the lords-day , that resting on the same from all earthly ●…ts , and temptations of the world , we might intend gods holy worship , giving this day , due honour for the hope of the resurrection we have therein . but because our enquirer admires the piety of former ages in this our britain , i shall come a little home , and see what were the publick constitutions of our own nation . leg. inae . cap. 〈◊〉 . an. . si servus operetur die dominied per praecep●… domine sui , sit liber ; & dominus emendet . ad witam : si●…servus sine testimonio domini sui operetur . corium perdat , ( i. e. vapulet ) si liber operetur ipso die , sine iussu domini sui , perdat libertatem : if a servant work on the lords-day at his masters command , let him be free , and his master be fined thirty shillings , if a servant without his masters order do any work , let him be whipped . if a freed man work on that day , without the command of his master , let him lose his freedom . concil . bergham , cap. . an. . si in vesperâ praecedente diem solis , postquam sol occubuit , autin vesperâ praecedente diem lunae , post occasum solis , servus ex mandato domini sui opus aliquod servile egerit , dominus factum octaginta solidis luito . if a servant on the evening before sunday , after sun-set , or on the evening before monday , after sunset , shall do any servile work by order of his master , let his master pay for his fault pounds , c. . if a servant on those days shall travel , let him pay to his master si●… shillings , or be whipped , c. . if a free-man be guilty of the same offence , let him be liable to the pillory . excerpt . egb. archiepiscopi eborac , an. chr. , c. . god the creatour of all things made man on the sixth d'ay , and upon the sabbath he rested from all his labours , and sanctified the sabbath for the future signification of the sufferings of christ , and his rest in the grave ; he did not rest because he was weary , who made all things without labour , whose omnipotency cannot be wearied ; and he so rested from his labours , that he made no other creatures then he made before ; he made no other creatures afterwards , but whatsoever he made , he makes them every year , to the end of all time ; he createth men in their souls and bodies ; living creatures and beasts , without souls ; the soul of man is given by god , and he renews his creatures , as christ saith in the gospel , my father worketh hitherto , and i work ; christ suffered for us in the sixth age of the world , and on the sixth day , and reformed lost man by his sufferings , and the miracles which he wrought , he rested in the sepulchre on the sabbath-day and sanctified the lords-day by his resurrection ; for the lords-day , is the first day of the new world , and the day of the resurrection of christ ; and therefore it is holy , and we ought to be his , spiritually keeping a sabbath-day , sabbatum sabbatizantes leg. presbyt . northumbr . mereaturam in die solis exercere , & curias allicubi celebrare prohibemus , opus etiam quodlibet , & omnimodam vectionem , sive in plaustris , sive in equis , sive in aliis oneribus ferendis , qui contra hoc deliquerit solvat , — we forbid any to trade , or keep open courts on the sunday , and also all other work whatsoever , and all manner of carriages , whether with carts or horses , or in bearing any other burdens : he that transgresses this decree shall pay — nisi sit viator necessitate compulsus , vel ob cibi inopiam , aut ex caus●… evitandi mimicos . except he be a traveller compelled by necessity , either by the want of food , or to avoid the enemies . reader , whether this be judaism or no , i shall leave to thy more sedate judgement ; but it is a mighty strong temptation rather to be one of those old iews , then one of the new christians . leg. eccles canut . an. christi . die quidem dominico , mercata concelebrari , populive conventus agi , ( nisi stagitante necessitate ) planissimè vetamus . ipso die sacrosancto , praetereà à venationibus , & opere terreno prorsus omni , quisque abstineto . we do absolutely forbid all markets , and assemblies of the people to be kept on the lords-day , ( except in case of urgent necessity ) and moreover . let every one refrain from hunting , and from all other earthly business upon that sacred day . a little now for diversion let us step over the seas , and look into the temper of the times , under the reign of charles the great : statuimus secundum quod dominus in lege praecepit , ut opera servilia diebus dominicis non agantur , sicut , & bonae memoriae genitor meus ( pipinus ) in suis synodallbus edictis mandavit , i. e. quod nec viri ruralia opera exerceant , nec in vineâ colendà , nec in campo arando , vel foenum secando , vel sepem ponendo , vel in sylvis stirpare , vel arbore caedere , vel in petris laborare ; nec comus construere , nec hortum laborent , nec ad placita conveniant , nec venationem exerceant : we ordain , as also the lord hath commanded in the law , that no servile works be done on the lords-day . as also our father of happy memory , in his synodal edicts hath commanded , that is to say , that men neither exercise the labours of their farms , neither in dressing vineyards , nor in plowing , nor in mowing grass , or in laying a hedge , or to grub up , or cut down trees , or to labour in quarries , or to build a house , or to order a garden , or to hold pleas , or to practice hunting . item foeminae opera textilia non exerceant , nec capillent ; vestitús non consuant , vel acupictile faciant , nec lanam carpere , nec linum battere , nec publicè vestimenta lavare , nec verveces tondere , habeant licitum , ut omnimodis . honor & requres diei dominicae servetur , let not women practice weaving ; let them not take pains about their hair , nor mend their cloaths , nor work needle-work or point ; nor card wool , nor heckle flax , nor wash cloaths openly , nor shear sheep , that the honour and rest of the lords-day may by all means be secured . const. carol. m. fol. it will be time now to draw to a conclusion , when i have noted : § . it looks like a piece of great disingenuity to bait dissenters like jews , for the indifferent use of the word sabbath , because not found in the new testament , and at the same time to worry them with barking words , and biting penalties , for not practising upon that very day . humane ceremonies , which ( name and thing ) are perfectly strangers to the new testament . § . it seems so far from a next cause of non-conformity , religiously to observe the lords-day , that it were rather an allurement to conformity , when we observe the church so strictly commands her children in the rubrick , after every commandment , kneeling to ask god mercy for their transgression of the same . and if the dissenters were of this enquirers principles , they must be obliged to be non-conformists , till the liturgy in that particular should be reformed . § . it s highly disingenuous to upbraid them with the less strictness of some of the reformed churches abroad in this one point , when they are not allow'd to vouch their principles and practices in twenty others . § . it deserves a most serious enquiry , whether any church did long maintain any splendour of practical religion , that grew remiss and loose in the consciencious observation of the lords-day . § . whether the strict and religious attendance to the worship of god on that day , be a cause of non-conformity or no , is uncertain ; but this is certain , that the loose and formal observation of it , has been a direct and immediate cause of that atheism and prophaneness , and perhaps of those iudgements which have broken in upon us . § . it ought to be matter of serious humiliation and repentance , both to the conformists and non-conformists , that between them both , they have suffered piety to decline in their hands , by a visible degeneracy from the strictness of former time , in sanctifying gods name on his holy-day . § . it ought to be considered , that they who of late times have written against the divine right of that day , have yet spoken so honourably of , and pleaded for , the holy use of the day , as will justifie greater reverence to the day , then i fear the non-conformists are guilty of . the learned brerewood , tract . . p. . i confess , it is meet that christians should on the lords-day abandon all wordly affairs , and dedicate it wholly to the hunour of god. the b. of ely , p. . devout christians , who are so piously affected , as that on the lords-days , and other holy-days , they do resolve to retire , and sequester themselves from secular business , and ordinary pleasures and delights , to the end they may more freely attend the service of christ , and apply their minds to spiritual and heavenly meditations , are to be commended and encouraged ; for the doing thereof is a work of grace and godliness , and acceptable to god. § . it would be enquired , whether it have not a greater tincture of judaism , to enjoin other days for holy-days , which have no f●…ting in gods word , then to spend the lords-day in pursuit of those things which concern our everlasting peace , which is clearly warranted thereby : b. andrews urges this against trask . the apostles kept their meetings on that day ; on that day they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , i. e. held their sacred synaxes , their solemn assemblies : to preach , to pray , to celebrate the lords supper , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the lords supper , on the lords-day ; for these two words only , the day and the supper , have the epithete of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in the scripture , to shew that its alike in both . . a fifth instance of their judaical principle is their doctrine of absolute predestination . this doctrine has perplext the enquirer beyond measure , he would mention it every where willingly , but knows not where to mention it pertinently : it was lately one of the pretended , or apochryphal , and now it s become a real and canonical , nay a near and immediate cause , or at least the just sixth part of a cause of separation . i shall for once suppose , that all the non-conformists are sublapsarians : now let him show me that article or doctrine to which this church requires subscription , relating to the decrees of god , to which a sublapsarian cannot freely subscribe . the art , of the church speaks without question her fense in this matter : predestination to life , is the everlasting purpose of god , whereby before the foundations of the world was laid , he hath constantly decreed by his counsel secret to us , to deliver from curse and damnation those whom he hath chosen in christ ou●… of mankind , and to bring them by christ to everlasting salvation . it were more for this gentlemans comfort and credit , to write a serious and compassionate enquiry into the pretended and real , the remote and near causes of his own conformity to that doctrine which he so pleasantly derides . and with what engines , machines , screws and pulleys he could hale his conscience to a subscription : the old device was good . lingud juratus sum , mente juravi nihil : it 's a happy freedom of spirit , a blessed enlargement of mind to subscribe any thing , and believe nothing . two things there are which ought to have been cleared ; first , that the doctrine of predestination is a iewish principle , secondly , that it 's a cause , or a piece of a cause of non-conformity . for the former he makes it out thus : he that seeks the source of so odd an opinion , can in my ●…ind pitch no where more probably , then upon the absolute decree of god to favour the posterity of abraham for his sake : alas poor man ! and had the church of england ( thinks he ) no more wit , then to talk of an everlasting purpose before the foundation of the world , of a constant decree to deliver from curse and damnation some that he had chosen out of mankind , and bring them to everlas●…ing salvation , from such a ridiculous ground ? but the difficulty was , how to make this a piece of judaism ; and when men set themselves insuperable tasks , they must rub through them as they are able . the second will yet be more difficult : for many conformists have been , and are sublapsarians . and some non-conformists subter-sublapsarians : and the enquirer told us p. . that the articles of the doctrine of our church do with such admirable prudence and wariness handle these points , ( the five points ) as if particular respect was had to these men , and care taken that they might abundare sensu suo . so necessary it was our author should confute his own contradictious cavils ! well! whether this church , the iewish church , the non-conformists , or any , or all , or none of them be of this opinion , yet it is a most monstrous one ! for ( says he ) the n. t. has often assured ●…s , that at the great day god will judge the world in righteousness , and that without respect of persons , he will render to every one according to his works . wonderful ! and are the sublapsarians all this while to seek , how god may be righteous in the great day ; if he derceed to give grace to some men which he never owed them , and left others to perish under the fruits of their own apostacy and unbelief ? . the last instance is their superstitious observation and interpretation of prodigies . the works of god are all admirable , those of creation glorious , those of providence mysterious ; we have reason to revere his greatness in all that he doth them ; his wisdom in all , in that he can ; his goodness , in that he will make them bow to subserve his own counsels , and purposes , in working together for good in them that love him . to fetch our creed from that book of providence we allow not , it 's well if we can make gods use of them to awaken a sleepy world to repentance . the greatest prodigy that has startled me of late , has been a story that many tell us : that in several places in the nation the graves have been seen to open , and many old hereticks to have risen , and walk'd , and talk'd , and preach'd , and printed books ; whom we verily believed to have been as dead and rotten as their heresies . thus i remember lirinensis calls coelestius , prodigiosum pelagij discipulum , that prodigious scholar of pelagius : something was useful to have been said about prodigies , and it must come in here , or no where , and therefore let it pass for a iewish opinion , and a sixth part of one whole cause of non-conformity . [ ] he reckons pre●…udice amongst the causes of our distractions , and let it passe for a third : there is a sound sense , in which our enquirers notions may be very true , could we be but so happy as to hit out . tertullian complained sadly of those insuperable prejudices against the christian religion , under which they all gro●…ed . non s●…lus aliquod in causa est , sed nomen . it was the name of a christian that was their greatest crime . bonus vir cajus s●…jus tantum quod christianus . a poor woman amongst the ignorant devoto's of rome , was instructed by her ghost●…y father , that the hugonots were all monsters : it hapned that one of her neighbours spying a protestant passing by , told her , that man is a hugonot : it 's imposible replyed she , he looks as like a man as ever i saw one in my life . thus are dissenters by prejudice and partiality sentenced and executed in the peremptory judgements of many , before their cause is heard , or thy admitted to a fair defence and tryal . i shall therefore spare my common place book , and reserve my stores for more important occasions , and at present borrow our enquirers more refined collections ( for they will serve any mans turn ) to evince that prejudice is a cause not why there are so many non-conformists , but that there are no more . this prejudice alone was able to seal up the eyes of the gentile world against the sun of righteousness , when he shone upon them in his brightest glory , and to confirm them in th●…r blind idolatries , when the god that made heaven and earth gave the fullest discoveries that it was fit for mankind to expect . upon the account of this , the jews rejected that messias , they had so long expected , and gloried in before he came , though he exactly answered all the characters of time , place , lineage , doctrine and miracles that their own writings had described him by . no wonder then if the non-consormists suffer under prejudice amongst those that have not only seen their doctrine stigmatized with the odious marks of judaism , their churches with the brand of schism , their persons with treason and rebellion , but also had been formed into a combination against them ; and so had both their consciences and worldly interest engaged against them and it . for few have the generosity , and strength of mind to bear up against the torrent of times , or confidence enough to oppose the impetuousness of common vogue , or prevailing opinion . there are not many that have the sagacity to discern the true images of things , through those thick mists that cunning politicians cast about them , it 's very ordinary to take the condemnation of any person or party for a sufficient proof of the accusation , and to think the indictment proved . it was enough both with the jews and gentiles against our saviour , that he was condemned as a malefactor : the ignominy of his cross was a greater argument against him with the generality , then the excellency of his doctrine , or evidence of his miracles was for him . the arguments against non-conformity were not weighed , but numbred : an impeachment of accumulative disorder , schism , faction , judaism , popular rashness , and disobedience to magistrates , was formed against them , and still there was more in the conclusion then ●…uld be made ●…ut by the premises , and in the sum total , then in the particulars of which it consisted ; for though no point of all these could be proved against their doctrine , worship or discipline , yet they must be so upon the whole , this being agreed , the cry is then , crucifige ! destroy it root and branch . to all which add , that it was the corrupt interest of some to deceive others into an ill opinion of the reformation , partly as being enraged , that any sparks of primitive purity should be left unquenched , which might burn up their vast hopes they had conceived of dividing the spoil amongst themselves : partly being conscious to themselves , that by reason of their no more then declamatory , vulgar and puerile abilities improved from apothegms and proverbial sentences , they could not be fit to fill any considerable place in a church reformed according to the scriptures ; nor yet to content themselves with a private station in a persecuted society ; they therefore chose to fall in , where they might be entertained as useful tools , and rewarded for their singular talents of reviling . and when once it is come to that pass . that by this craft we get our livings , ( one , two , or three ) like the silver-smiths of ephesus , no wonder if the apostolical doctrine and government be cried down , and the great diana of pauls-conformity , cried ●…p sooner then built . the sum is this ; some men are blindly led by their education , and care taken that they never come to a view of the dissenters principles ; others by interest , forced to espouse that religion that has the fairest dowry ; a third sort , by their reputation , that they may not seem to have been in an errour ; and when all these causes shall ( as they too frequently do ) happily concur , such an associated and complicated temptation , will form a prejudice strong enough to oppose the clearest demonstrations , and to stir up so much rancour and malignity , as shall incessantly persecute mis-represented truth . i will add one word from the learned author of orig. sacr. and conclude . it cannot be conceived . that many out of affectation of novelty , should declare themselves christians in the primitive times , when so great hazards were run upon in the professing ofit : few soft spirited men , and lovers of their own ●…ase , but would have found out some fine distinctions , and nice evasions , to have reconciled themselves to the publick laws , and such things which the primitive christians so unanimously refused , when tending to idolatry and prophaneness . an ordinary judgement will soon determine , whether party may more plausibly complain of being pressed down with unreasonable prejudices . they that will appear in the quality of dissenters , must stem the violent current of prevailing example , inveterate custom , whilst others have nothing to do but skull away with the tide , when it comes in , with the celeusma of queenhithe , westward hoe ! lambeth hoe ! dissenters must storm the turn-p●…kes of reproach , poverty , and those more formidable ones of the displeasure of friends , and wrath of superiours . smoaking out in imprisonment , or other penalties , besides the ecclesiastical chariti●…s of excommunication : the rest have nothing more to do , but patiently and meekly submit to preferments and dignities ; and if they can but compass such a measure of self-denial , as to renounce ruine and misery , and rise to such a height of contentment , as to be willing to enter upon ease and a●…luence , the worst is over , and their greatest prejudices conquered . . the last cause of the distractions and ill estate of this church , is the want of true christian zeal , and of a deep and serious sense of piety . and the enquirer wishes that it be not the greatest as well as the last . and so do i too ! for the want of zeal for gods commands , makes us so scalding hot for humane constitutions . the want of such a zeal for the authority of christ as a king , makes us so bold to invade his office. the want of zeal for the perfection of scriptures , makes us so zealous for unscriptural traditions . the want of zeal for the substance , makes us so zealous for ceremonial shadows . when all those spirits , that holy ardour of soul , that flame of affection which ought to be expended in the love of god , and his law , is evaporated in airy speculations , contentions for , and impositions of new inventions . this cause is plainly in the number of those , which like the weathercock , conform to every gust of wind , it is communis juris , and therefore the first occupancy creates a title . what was it made the primitive church so unanim●…s that it was not crumbled into parties , nor mouldred away in divisions , nor quarrelled about opinions , nor separated one part from another , upon occasion of little scruples , but because the turbulent ●…pirit of imposition was not yet raised , nor ambitious domineering over the faith and consciences of the brethren , had not yet got any considerable head ? it 's true there was a spice of this encroaching humour found amongst the iudaizing christians , who would needs obtrude their ceremonies upon the gentile converts , as necessary to communion with the church ; but the divinely inspired apostles were ready at hand to check the growing evil , and vindicate the churches from the servi●…ude ●…f beggarly rudiments . it 's true , diotrephes his fing●…rs it ●…hed to be tampering ; but the beloved disciple that lay in his masters bosom , who was privy to his meek and gracious temper , and knew how displeasing such imperiousness was to him , gave an early and timous rebuke to the attempts and essays of praelatical arrogancy ; and indeed he could not but remember , and was concern'd in it , how smartly christ had snibb'd aspiring church-men . that there was so much tranquility therefore amongst the primitive christians , was not that they were without differing apprehensions ; for mens parts were no more alike , nor th●…ir educations more equal , then now : but because there was a spirit of condescension to , and mutual forbearance one of another . the strong , either in knowledge or authority , did not trample upon the weak ; there was then some diversity of eupressions , in which the pastors of several churches delivered themselves , ( for there were neither homilies nor li●…urgies ) yet they did not dispute themselves into parties , because they made not their own sentiment ; the test of orthodoxy , nor their private faith the publick standard and measure , to which all christians should be tyed to subscribe ; they allowed a latitude in things not fundamental , nor had learned the modern artifice of fettering consciences in the chains of assent and consent , to the dogmats of a prevailing party . in those days me●… were sincerely good and devout , and set their hearts upon the main ; the huge consequence and concern of which , easily prevailed with those holy men , to over-look other mens private opinions : they were intent upon that wherein the power of godliness consisted , and upon which th●… salvation of souls depended ; and so all that was secure , they were not so superstitiously concerned for rituals , either to practice them , much less to impose them ; they would not stake the churches peace against ceremonies , and then play it away rather then not be gamesters . they considered that they had all one god , one faith , one baptism , one lord iesus christ ; and never insisted upon one posture , one gesture , one garment , one ceremony : they , good men ! found enough to do to mortifie their passions , to bear their burdens of afflictions and persecution , to withstand the temptations of the devil , and the contagion of evil examples ; and had no strength to spare , nor superfluous time to wast , to conn the theory of ceremonies , and practice new devices . but when men grow cold and indifferent about great things , then they become ●…ervent about the lesser ; when they give over to mind a holy life and heavenly conversation , then they grow fierce disputants for , and rigid exacters of the sul●… tale of ceremonies . thus when the scribes and pharise 〈◊〉 became so violent for the necessity of washing hands , they little regarded the cleansing of their hearts ; they that will make things indifferent to become necessary , the next news you hear of them is , that they make things necessary to become indifferent : when men cease to study their own hearts , they become very studious how to vex and torment other mens ; for then they have both leisure and confidence enough to trample upon their inferiours . then it shall be a greater sin for a monk to lay aside his cowle , then his chastity , and to be a scrupulous non-conformist to the laws of men , then a scandalous non-conformist to the laws of god. in short ( that i may say the same thing over again , which i have twenty times already said , and that i may convince the reader that i have read erasmus de ( opi●… v●…orum , as well as his famous piece of the art of preaching ) then , and not till then , do the little appendices of religion grow great and mighty matters in mens esteem , when the essentials , the great and weighty matters , are become little and inconsiderable ; which i had had little need to have mentioned , but for the sake of those elegant and modish words , appendices and essentials , which in an eloquent oration ought not to have been forgotten . — dixi ! that there are distractions in the nation . divisions amongst christian brethren , and a separation from the present church of england in various degrees , is evident ; the industry of our enquirer in tracing out the causes of them , has been very commendable , though his success has not been answerable . had he pleased to approve himself a skilful and impartial , as well as a serious enquirer , he had certainly directed us to one cause more , which for want of ariadnes threed , in the anfractuous windings of this labyrinth , he has quite lost himself , and his travels . honest gerson of old has notified it to the non-observing world , and from him i shall recommend it to the reader . there , can be ( saith he ) no general reformation without the abolitions of sundry canons and statutes , which neither are , nor reasonably can be observed in these times , which do nothing but ensnare the consciences of men to their endless perdition , no tongue is able to express what evil , what danger and confusion , the neglect and contempt of the holy scripture , ( which doubtless is sufficient for the government of the church , else christ had been an imperfect law-giver ) and the following of humane inventions , hath brought into the church . serm. in die circ . part . . 't is that which has ever been lamented , and by all moderate persons complained of : that unnecessary impositions , have been made the indispensible conditions of church-communion , without precept or precedent from the word of god. to this cause had he reduced all our divisions , he said more in those few plain words , then in all those well coucht periods wherewith he has adorned his discourse , and darkened counsel . as the matter of law arises out of the matter of fact , so the justice of the non-conformists cause , appears from the terms that are put upon them in order to communion ; if the terms be unjust , it will justifie their cause ; if they have sinfully managed their cause , its goodness will not justifie their persons ; what dissenters usually insist upon for their justification , i shall reduce to these heads . § . they plead , that some things are imposed upon their faith , tendered to subscription , as articles of faith , which are either false , or at best , they have not yet been soo happy as to discover the truth of them : in art. . they are required to subscribe this doctrine , the church hath power to decree rites and ceremonies ; which clause of the article , as we fear , it has been by some indirect means shuffled into the article , it not being found in the authentick articles of edw. . so it proves also , that the terms of communion have been enlarged since the first times of the reformation . they object also against that doctrine in the rubrick ; that it is certain from the word of god. that children baptized , and dying before the commission of actual sins , are undoubtedly saved . the scripture , the protestant churches , nor any sound reason , have yet given them any tolerable satisfaction of the truth of the doctrine about the opus operatum , of sacraments : that doctrine laid down in the catechism ; that children do perform faith and repentance by their sureties , is also as great a stumbling to our faith , and we cannot get over it : how the adult should believe and repent for minors , or infants believe and repent by proxie . i omit many others . § . they plead , that they are not satisfied in the use of any mystical ceremonies in gods worship , and particularly they judge the use of the cross in baptism to be sinful : a sacrament of divine institution according to the definition of the church in her catechism , is an outward and visible sign , of an inward and invisible grace given unto us , ordained by christ himself , as a means whereby we receive the same , and a pledge to assure us thereof : where we have . the matter of a sacrament , an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace ; . the author of a divine sacrament , christ himself . the end of it : to be a means to convey the thing signified , and a pledge to assure us of it . hence it 's evident . that it 's simply impossible that any church should institute a divine sacrament , because they cannot give it a causality to those graces it is instituted to signifie : nevertheless it 's possible for men to institute humane sacraments ; which shall have the matter of a sacrament , that is an outward visible sign of an inward spiritual grace ; and they may pretend to ascribe an effect to it also to stir up , to excite , or encrease grace and devotion : and yet because it wants the right efficient cause , it 's no lawful sacrament , though it be an humane sacrament ; such an institution ( say they ) is the sign of the cross. an outward visible sign of an inward spiritual grace , ordained by men as a means to effect whatever man can work by his ordinance . here is the matter without divine signature , which is the thing they condemn it for . . they plead , that since communion with the church is suspended , and denyed but upon such terms as take away christian liberty in part , and by consequence leave all the rest at mercy ; they dare not accept of communion upon those terms : there are some things which god has in the general left free and indifferent , to do or not do ; yet at some times , and in some cases it may be my great sin if i should do some of them , as when it would wound the conscience , and destroy the soul of a weak christian : if now i shall engage my self to the church , that i will never omit such an indifferent thing ; and the soul of that weak christian should call to me to omit it , i have tyed my hands by engagement , i cannot help him , though it would save his or a thousand souls out of hell , because i have given away my freedom to the church . . they plead , that they ought not to hazard their souls in one congregation , if they may more hopefully secure them in another ; for that their souls are their greatest concernment in this world and the next : now say they , there 's no question but men preach such as they print with pubiick allowance ; and therefore they ought to provide better for their souls elsewhere : especially they say , that the doctrine of justification is articulus stantis vel cadentis ecclesiae , an article with which the church falls or stands : this article , say they , in the parish where we live is quite demolish'd by the doctrine of iustification by works ; we are bound therefore to provide for our safety and depart ; and when we are once out , we will advise upon another church , not which is tolerable , but which is most eligible , and in all things nearest the word . . they plead , that there 's no obligation upon them to own the churches power to impose new terms of communion ; unless the church can prove her power from christ : it 's not for them to disprove it ; it lies upon her to prove it , and to prove it substantially too , or else it will be hard to prove it their duty to own it . . they say , the world is pestered with disputes about worship , about religion ; and therefore since all cannot be in the right , they are willing to go the safest way , and worship god according to his word : if the things disputed be lawful to be done , let 'em be so ; they are sure its lawful to let 'em alone ; and they think there 's no great hazard in keeping to scripture rule , nor can believe that christ will send any to hell , because they did not worship god in an external mode , more neat and spruce then god commanded . . they pretend , that the things imposed are parts of worship , which none can create but god , nor will god accept of any but such as are of his own creating ; and whether they be integral or essential parts they do not know , but in the worship of god they find them standing upon even ground , with those that are certainly divine : or at least as high as man can list them . . they do not find that god ever commanded the things imposed , either in general , in special , or their singulars ; if god has commanded a duty to be done , the church must find a place to do it in ; but though the church must find a place for the duty , a time for the duty , she may not find new duty for the time and place . . they are the more cautious of all ceremonies , because the old church of england , in her homilies serm. . of good works tell us : that such hath been the corrupt inclination of man , superstitiously given to make new honcuring of god of his own head and then to have more affection and devotion to keep that , then to search out gods holy commandments , and do them . . they say , they have read over all the books that have been written in justification of those things , and they find their arguments so weak , their reasons so futilous , that setting aside rhetotick and railing there 's nothing in them , but what had been either answered by others , or is contradicted by themselves , which hardnes them in their errour , who are gone astray into the right way . . they say , it 's their duty to endeavour a reformation according to the word , which if others will not , they cannot help it , and hope they will not be angry with the willing . part . ii. chap. i. the several ways for prevention of church-divisions mentioned by the enquirer , considered . the papal methods : . keeping the people in ignorance . . an infallible iudge . . accommodating religion to the lusts of men. three other ways mentioned by the enquirer . . teleration . . comprehension . . instruction . as that person will highly merit of this present age , whose discerning eye shall discover , and his charity propound to the world such rational expedients , as may amicably compose our present differences , upon terms comporting with the consciencious principles of the contending parties ; so our fears of the success are justly greatned by the frequent disappointment of our hopes ; confident pretenders posting up their bills in every corner , promising nothing less then miracles , but performing nothing more then pretences . it is some encouragement to expect more then a palliate care from this undertaker , to see him fall to his business so like an artist : it cannot be hoped ( says he ) that where the business is religion , and the concern eternal life , that men should incuriously swallow every thing without moving any question , or stirring any debate . to which i subjoin , nor can it be expected that when they have moved the question about the important concerns of eternity , they should acquiesce in their own question , without a satisfactory answer : like that governour who scorned to surrender before a gun was shot off , but then thought it enough for his credit to capitulate . most men swallow their religion , as the insant does it●… pap , which has no other previous chewing , then what the nurse gives it : and are driven into profession just like a stock of geese with no greater difficulty , then holding over their heads the ceremony of a long pole. and i will add further , that as this is not to be hoped from all : so neither is it desirable in any , that they should cease to be rational creatures , before they become christians . the enquirer had curiously and carefully searched all the dispensatories , and out of those stores , promises us the choicest medicines that may fit the patients case , and seem most practicable : and we cannot pray for a physician better qualified , then one who is master of many remedies , and of a judgement to choose out those which are agreeable . the church of rome has been an old empirick ; so noted a quack , for a desperate cure in a desperate case , that the greatest civility we can allow her here , is that which we commonly give your mountebanks ; lend them a hearing , and do as we see cause . she glories indeed in her unity and peace , and it might invite a modest curiosity to desire a sight of that sympathetical powder which has effected such wonders : and to satisfie you in one word it s nothing but the iesuites powder , or a great nothing in a iuglers box , . her first prescription is prophylactick , by way of prevention : the best of remedies ( no doubt ) since its more desirable not to have needed , then having so , to have obtained the help of a●…sculapius and it is nothing more then this plain , cheap , and easie recipe . that the people be kept in profound ignorance : thus when the philistines had put out sampsons eyes , they knew he would make a stout mill-horse ; thus when the empress irene had plukt out her sons eves , who could see , she found it easie to set up images which have eyes , and see not . but our enquirer looks upon this prescription as too strong a narcotic , that it will not down in england , though it has done great feats in italy and spain , and the uniformity of those nations , is an unquestionable certificate to avouch its excellency . and it 's to be feared at present it will not : for some learned men are very confident , that our own english simples are more connatural to english bodies , then the exotick druggs of pont●…s , and that we have the true dictamnum growing in our own gardens , had we but skill to use and apply it . but we ever doted upon forreign novelties , and prize nothing that liberal nature has bestowed on us ; king lucius , the glory of our island , and the whole world , who first submitted his crown of gold to one of thorns , and laid his scepter at the foot of him who bore a reed , not well instructed in the riches of his own dominions , must needs send to rome for advice ; eleutherius good man , who had not yet learnt how to make all thrones depend upon his infallible chair , sends him this answer , that there were already in britain , the old and the new ●…estament , out of which , by the council of his kingdom , he might take a law to govern it . did england know its own strength , it 's so well furnisht at home , that it might spare its travels , and never cross the seas , or climb the alpes to seek new models of religion ; the holy scriptures being ( as lirinensis well says ) perfect , and abundantly sufficient for all things , yea and more then sufficient . and on this account too there would be less need of trade and navigation . two reasons there are why our enquirer thinks this papal dose of ignorance will not be admitted in england . § . because it comes too late : ah! it's thousand pities that a receipt of 〈◊〉 fame should be like , post mortem medi●…na ; but is there no hope left under the lid of pan●…ra's box ? t●…e church is a ●…uccessive body ; and ●…hough she m●… b●… 〈◊〉 in her present individuals , yet she may 〈◊〉 and re●… in those of the next generation : the disease is not 〈◊〉 , but chronical , and ●…ere may be some 〈◊〉 roo●…●…or ●…vour . what if a thousand or ●…wo more of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sile●… 〈◊〉 ●…nd the labours of as many discourag●…d ●…nd 〈◊〉 ? wh●…●…ctures were pro●…ibed ? private 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ●…d your twicers suspended ? if it perfo●…m 〈◊〉 that may be desired ▪ it might effect more then co●… be 〈◊〉 : o●… no! it comes too late ! for the people of england 〈◊〉 so 〈◊〉 already , that the only way to cure th●… inconvenien●…ies o●… tha●… is to let them know more : this is excel●…ent indeed , when th●… poison becomes its own antidote , and death proves its own cure , w●…ch but in one only case , the amazed world never yet saw , a●…d will hardly yet believe ; but thus they tell us of quicksilver , that a little dose will certainly kill , when a great o●…e will cure the twisting of the guts , and th●…se intes●…ine dissentions which thence ari●…e in the bowels : yet so it is a little knowledge only ferments the natural pride of the heart , which a round quantity would wipe off , and carry away : or to express it more elegantly from our authour : when men know a little , they con●…it they understand all that 's knowable , and here●…pon refuse instruction , and oppose their private opini●…ns to the publick wisdom : whereas , did these men see further into things , they would then dis●…ver a reason , of ●…any things they are now dissatisfied with , or at l●…ast distrust their own understandings , and grow modest and peaceable . it becomes every good christian , and good suject , ( and he that is really the former , will certainly be ●…he latter ) to suspect the shallowness of his own judgement , and to revere the depth of his governours wisdom ; he may be an useful mariner , t●…at is no skilful pilot , nor knows how to steer the publick bottom ; but i do not remember that we have been discoursing about the expedi●…ncy of the transporting of wool , the making of war or peace , or the mysteries of government , quae supra nos , nihil ad nos ; but our business is religion , and the direct and immediate concerns of another life : and how to cure the pride of the understanding without putting out its eye , and ●…aking it a p●…lyphemus : and here , though i suspect not the shallowness of the governours judgement , i dare not act against my own . i confess my self to seek in the great secret of a private and publick wisdom , ●…s much as i am in that of the private and publick conscience , a superstructure raised upon that foundation : nor have i learnt the difference between the roman ignorance , and resigning my own r●…ason , between darkness , and no use of light ; between having no private reason , and renouncing it for the publick reason in things directly respecting god and his worship : the one is born blind , and the other has lost his eyes ; the one is the romish opiate , and the other a more gentle ; ( if more gentle ) preparation of 〈◊〉 . § . he answers secondly . if it had come timely , yet the remedy is worse then the disease , we esteem it better if one be necessary , to ●…rr like men , then to be driven like beasts , or act●…d like ●…ppets : an heroick spirit ! and such as may assure us , that our physician will not cast us into a lethargi●… , to prevent the ravings of a feaver ; and that he will not follow that bish●…ps ●…thod , who had no other cure for the head-ake , then to cut it off . i have read of a king of france , who was extreamly delighted in a gentleman of his b●…d-chamber , who had the proper case of a man ▪ b●…t his upper rooms it seems , were but furnisht like 〈◊〉 , wit●… lumb●…r ; t●…is young courtier by some accident , took an occasion to fall into a 〈◊〉 , which elevating his b●…ain ●…bove its natural and dull temper , to a due height requisite ▪ or raptures , created him ex tempore , a most accomplisht poet : physicians are al●…●…ummon'd , and they summon their art to restore him to his form●…r little self ; success attends their endeavours , and the gentleman is at once delivered from his distra●…ion , and t●…at ●…reater madness , poetry : the king having lost the satisfa●…tion he conceived in his airy fancies , and valuing a mad vi●…oso before a sober logger-head , threatens to hang 'em up every mothers son , unless they did presently recover him again to wit , by putting him bes●…des it : such mountebanks there are in the world , who cannot keep men peaceable , unless they make them ●…ocks and stones . . a second 〈◊〉 for ●…visions much used by the romanists , is their infallible iudge , ●…o which , whosoever pretends on this side a deity , needs only his own mouth to confute him ; what follows in our enquirer i read with much complacency the scripture plainly t●…lls us that all men are lyars , such as may deceive , or be deceived ; and most undoubtedly would never h●…ve made such a distinction of christians , as strong men , and babes in christ , nor made it our duty to consider one anothers weakness , and practise mutual f●…rbearance , if it had intended any where to direct us to such an umpire ; as should have ended all differences , and made all men equally certain . much less , that the weak in judgement should be forced to keep pace with the strong in their practises ; or that babes should drive at the rate of grown men : again , there ●…as ( says he ) a time when the apostles had the assistance of the h●…y spirit , in such a manner as to guide them into all truth , and gave miraculous proof that they had so , and yet this would not cure all the schismes , nor resolve all the scruples , nor silence all disputes , it must needs therefore seem unreasonable for them , who confessing a fallibility of judgement , should yet as peremptorily bind their deoretals upon the consciences , as if they not only pretended to , but could give evidence of their infallibility : it 's noted for one of the impudent essays of papal presumption and hypocrisie , that he calls himself , servus servorum dei , and yet acts as if he were rex regum , & dominus dominantium . i never liked jacobs smooth voice , when i felt es●…'s rough hands , and heavy fists : when we hear of the publick wisdom and conscience , and both fallible ; and yet like moses his rod , swallowing up the private wisdom and conscience , because they are fallible , i rejoyce in the great advantage of an infallible god , who guides us by an infallible rule , to whom we may securely commit our souls . nor can i see the so much boasted preheminence of their infallible visible iudge , above our certainly infallible rule ; for whatever this infallible gentleman determines , it must come to our cognizance either by word or writing , and then it amounts to no more then an infallible rule , and by consequence , lyable to mis-interpretations , and all the inconveniencies which they have unjustly charged upon the word of god : which has been confirmed to us by autopsy ; for whatever have been his determinations de fide , the contenders retain their former sentiments , which they protest they would never do , were they assured in the true meaning of his decrees . here i began first to suspect that this second part of the enquiries could not possibly be the child of the same father with the former : for that other enquirer assured us , that in the primitive times , all good men were of one way , and all bad men of another : that there was but one division of men ; that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , were the only sects that the world was known by ; but this enquirer tells us , that there were schismes , divisions , scruples , disputes in those early days , which the holy spirit given to the apostles in such a manner as to lead them into all truth , would not cure , resolve , nor silence . had the apostles understood those frightful consequences which we have learnt to impute to diversities of judgement in lesser matters , with suitable variety in practise attending it , they might easily have silenced those disputes by the interposition of their authority ; and the churches no doubt would as easily have acquiesced in the judgement of the apostles , who could give irrefragable proof that they were sent of christ. nor have these rigorous decisions ever reacht their pretended ends , in healing differences , but only consopited them under the ashes for a while , or taught men a little more craft to draw over the articles to their private opinions , rather then conform these to the publick belief . another papal remedy , is the accommodation of religion to the lusts and interests of men , allowing them to think , believe , do any thing in the world , provided they be subject to the universal pastor : for the pope seeing that the world will not be brought over to him upon the terms of christ , is content to come over to the world in morals , if they will but come over to him in his ceremonials . much what of the same good nature with that other grand impostor mahomet , who when that sullen mountain would not stir a foot to come to him , very courteously answer'd , then let us go to the mountain . whether this prescription will be agreeable to , or practicable upon english constitutions , is a great question ; the author of this second part , concludes that we of this church have too much simplicity and sincerity of devotion to make use of this remedy to put an end to our distractions . and yet i find some have been tampering with it ; who will be very strait laced in ceremonies to gratifie the superstitious , and widen the moral part to humour the voluptuous : thus if mens lusts will not bend to the strait rule of the word , they can gently bow the rule to their corruptions and crooked propensities : and the author of the former part seeing well that men are grown too pursey to be crambt up with the religious observation of the lords-day , has pruden●…ly accommodated the day to their latitude ; they that have no great mind to keep a christian holy day , shall need but to call it a iudaical sabbath , and they are well fortified against all the checks of their consciences . i know the reader will pitty him that must contend with two such adversaries , ( hercules himself would not engage a couple , but though they be two , they have but one single weapon . we want not some who can reconcile the levity of the stage and theatre , to the gravity and severity of the christian doctrine ; that can teach men by their writings or practice , how they may retain these vanities , and never throw off their baptismal livery ; and it is upon good advice : for should they lose such numbers from the party , it would make a filthy hole in it ; and the weeding out such tares would make a thin field of corn ; and therefore some plead that they ought to grow together till the harvest . . we are now come to the great and infallible remedy , which the pope trusts more to , then his great infallibility ; but there are considerable diversities about the form of this medicine in the dispensatories : some ( as mr. necessity bays ) express it by a tedious periphrasis , axes , halters , racks , fire , faggot , with an et catera , which has more in 't then all the rest ; but the romanists , who are concise men , and love short work , and to express multum in parvo , have epitomiz'd all in that one word , the holy inquisition , so called by the same catachresis , by which we call our former antagonist , the compassionate enquirer . if you enquire a reason of this various reading ; know that it arises from the different copies of the dispensatories : the pharmocopaeia of london calls it one thing , that of rome another ; the titles differ , but the medicine is the same , only rome , according to her old overdoing and undoing humour , has added a few drops of the spirits of vitriol ; and yet the last edition of ours at the old bayly , re-assumes its former title , and calls it downright , the inquisition of spain . this medicine is truly soveraign ; it has the probatum of thousands who being dead yet speak , its answerableness to its primitive design , to silence all disputes , and stop the mouth of all gain-sayers ; when all is done , there 's no argument convinces so effectually as stone-dead ; the wild-irish themselves will believe their enemy to be dead , when his head lies sever'd a yard from his body ; but the question will be still , whether it will down with english-men ? for though they have good beef stomacks , they want that of the ostrich to digest axes and halters : there 's no question but it will go down well enough with them that give it , but it needs the assistance of much rhetorick to perswade them into a willingness of mind , who are to take this wallowish potion : if we could agree who should be persecuted , there are enow could be content to be the persecutors , and this is one of the greatest quarrels . that the genius of this nation ( as our enquirer informs us ) is so couragious , and withal so compassionate . i am very glad to hear ; the one part so tender hearted that they will not inflict , the other so tender conscienced that they will endure what shall be so in●…icted , rather then prostitute them to the lust and tyranny of men ; but then i must conclude , that some of our church-men , are either no english-men , or no christians , whose tender mercies have been cruelties , and whose compassions like draco's laws written in blood ; and i rejoyce to meet with these concluding words : the exercise of so much cruelty upon the account of religion in q maries days hath made that profession detestable to this day , and it looked so ill in the romanists , that we shall never be perswaded to practise it our selves : had we but now an exact definition of cruelty , we should soon be satisfied whether the enquirer would not perswade another to it , if not be perswaded to it himself . none of the romanists expedients then will work this blessed cure , they are either impracticable , or come too late , or are worse then the disease , or one mischief or another , there are therefore three others , which he will mention , universal toleration , comprehension , and instruction and consideration . the first is universal toleration . but here the doctors man , whom he sent a simpling , was horribly mistaken . and like elisha's servant whom he sent to gather good wholesome pot-hearbs , has imprudently pickt up your poysonous colequintida ; an oversight that might have lost the patient his life . universal toleration ? i have observed english spirits to bear some secret antipathy to these universals ; they like not either universal bishop , nor universal monarch , nor universal grace , nor universal admission , nor this universal toleration . but what if he had omitted this universal in the receipt ? there may be a toleration of what is tolerable ; whatever disturbs not the publick peace ; whatever contradicts not the scriptures , the creeds , whatever crosses not the great ends of religion , whatever is peaceable , holy , humble , just , modest , righteous , though perhaps not ceremonious : this corrected toleration has been given with admirable success in the primitive and purer times ; it fills up both pages in the apologies of iustin martyr , athenagora●… , and tertullian , who pleaded for a toleration of their innocent profession : it is the main ingredient in that famous mass of pillulae sine quibus esse nolo , nay of pillulae sine quibus esse nequeo . the scripture ( said the enquirer just before ) has made it our duty to consider one anothers weakness , and practice mutual forbearance : and what forbearance is without toleration i do not understand . had the imposing spirit obtained in the infancy of the church , they had saved the heathens a labour , and destroyed each other ; he might safely therefore in his irenicon have used from a scruple to a drachm of this toleration ; 't is the herb gratia dei , the great fraenum cholerae , which addulces the blood , begets good spirits , restrains surley humours , and sweetens the tempers of one christian towards another . 't is not the opening 〈◊〉 pantheon , but not shutting up the temple of the one true god ; not a licenciousness to blaspheme , but a liberty to glorifie our redeemer that we plead for ; 't is a priviledge that every one has a claim to , that the lives and souls of them that have not wronged their country may be secure in it : if the works of the flesh be found amongst us , adultery , forn●…cation , uncleanness , lasciviousness , idolatry , witchcraft , hatred , variance , emulation , bitterness , strife , seditions , herefies , envyings , murders , drunkenness , revellings , and such like . we plead not for the guilty ; only let the innocent find mercy at home , who in other places might expect a reward . is he a meet person to undertake the healing of our breaches , to compose our differences , that cannot distinguish between a toleration in ceremonies , and the tolerating of idolatry ? that knows not the nice difference between tolerating every thing and nothing ? if it be all one to indulge in things confessed adiaphorous at best , and the necessary duties of the decalogue , talk no more of healing ; he must prove a physician of no value , that when the balm of gilead drops into his mouth , knows not how to apply it . . the second propounded remedy , is an excellent opener , known to this present age by the name of conprehension , which in our authors glossary signifies , the making the terms of communion more free and easie , opening the arms of the church , to receive more into her bosom , thereby to enlarge both the society and intrest of the church : and one would think that so much reason coucht in so few words , might have vindicated the receipt above contempt , and recommended it to a probationary experiment ; self-preservation would make a harsher medicine then this go merrily down ; if any thing make a building strong , that must be carried to such a vast height , that must bear such a weight , that shall be exposed to such shaking winds , it must be a proportionable widening the foundation : but let us hear our betters . § . for my part ( says he ) if such a course please our governours , i have no mind to oppose any thing to it . they are infinitely obliged to him , surely , that if they please to shew kindness to tender conscienced subjects , he will not oppose , not declare against them . this is a moderation far beyond mr. bayes's hotter temper ; he will tell them : if they will rule , they must , they must , they must , — but is this all ? i had thougt he had brought with him licentiam ad practicandum , a commission to prescribe , and now i see he can do nothing without the colledge : but what now if such a wholesome course please not , though it profit , might it not have become a compassionate enquirer , to have forwarded them with a humble hint or two of their interwoven interest and duty ? when he preaches so admirably upon those points of reverence , contentment , submission , charity , and has shewn his skill in the theory , does he use to rivet it no better then thus ? if these virtues please my auditors , i have no mind to oppose ; if you will be chartiable , you may for all me , i 'le promise you i shall never study your ruine , and plot your destruction . if church-governours please to enlarge the society and interest of the church ; if they please to strengthen it against 〈◊〉 enemies abroad , and procure it peace and contentment at home , he will not oppose : the best natur'd man that ever was in the world ! they who are governours of the church , are bound in con●…nce to make the terms of communion eas●… and free ; not to make the yoke heavier then christ made it . they that came in easily , ought to let others in upon the same terms : whoever they were that first clogg'd the churches communion with multitudes of unnecessary conditions , are like him that receiving a clear estate of inheritance from his father , leaves it encumbred , and charged to his son , who perhaps may never be able to take off the mortgage , and so shall thank his father for just nothing : christ made the way to heaven narrow enough , and there 's no need to make it straiter : governours in the church may easily mistake in the quantity of their power , but this is sure . how great soever it be , they have all for edification , none for destruction . they ought not to reject those whom christ will receive ; and a little plain english would here have done no hurt , but have been acceptable to the best of church-men , whose misery it is , to have many flatterers about them which let them know their virtues , but few faithful monitors , who will acquaint them with their duty . § . he desires it may be considered , that there are many things that look very probably in the general notion and speculation , that would flatter one into a great opinion of them , which when they come to be ●…ycd , are no ways answerable : therefore never attempt any thing that wears the appearance of honourable to the worlds end : the benefits may possibly exceed , as well as fall below expectation . it was davids counsel to solomon , up , and be doing , and the lord be with thee ! there are many things which in the generalnotion and speculation would terrifie one with appearances of inconveniencies , which when they come to be tryed , were the suggestions of cowardice . thus children in the twi●…ght , seeing every object through the spectacles of their own fears , make that a bear , which nature calls a harmless bush. § . but many difficulties occur in the reducing things of this nature into practise ; that were not foreseen in the theory ; and many blessings and mercies may and will occur , which will overweigh the difficultes in attaining them : the difficulties momentany , the advantages perpetual ; the inconveniencies personal , the benefits general , the prejudices to some sew mens too much plenty , the advantages to many mens souls . it 's a strange resolution , that we will not endeavour to be happy , for fear we should encounter a difficulty in the way thither ; if the knot cannot be untied , alexanders sword will cut it , to withdraw from apparent duty , for fear of uncertain danger , is but like his , that would not shoot the bridge , because it might possibly fall on 's head. those accidents which can neither be foreseen nor prevented in doing a good work , are by wise men not to be regarded : i never hear such arguments used against the attemps for preferments : i shall judge them real in their declamations against comprehensions , when they use to discourage themselves from the same difficulties in seeking great things for themselves . the sluggard cries out . there 's a lion in the way , when it 's nothing but his own lazie soul , that paints out dread and terrour to his imagination : let none hereafter ●…at , because he may possibly find his death , where he sought his life : let none travel , because he may be robb'd , nor ride on horseback , because he may possibly get a fall : there 's nothing truly glorious , but must be waded to through difficulties , but some secret lusts commonly pretend them greater then they are . § . this is not done , ( says he ) and we do not know when it will be set about . that is , we will use the means when the end is effected : how happy had the christian world been , if the first imposers of ceremonies had acted by those principles : suen conditions are not imposed , and we know not when they will therefore we will never begin : but though it be not yet done , i know when it will be : when god shall open the eyes of church men to see the things that belong to their duty , and the curches peace ; when all our totterings and shakings , shall have humbled us into more condescension and evangelical tenderness ; when men shall see it both their interest and duty to secure the building by enlarging the foundation ; and that the security and stability of society , lies in the close union of the parts , that the beauty of a church consists much in the amplifying of the fold ; then will something of this nature be done , for which all generations shall call the authors blessed . . if then none of these remedies be practicable , what must the languishingh patient do ? there is yet one thing more , which is like those cordials we use to drop into the mouths of the dying to procure the old admired 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and that is instruction or information . it 's pitty the poor clinical church should dye under so many hands , and in the view of a whole shop of medicines , and therefore rather this then nothing , which that it may be effectual , it will be necessary to consider , . who are meet to give , . who ought to receive instruction , . from what grounds the instructions are to be setcht . . what other means may possibly be administred . § . it 's very considerable who are to be the instructors , and called into the consultation ? for every one would be in the chair , and none willing to be auditors . the brethren of the episcopal perswasion having got the priviledge of law , take it for granted that they are the only persons meet for this service ; whereas , if the doctrine , worship , and discipline of the dissenters , should prove nearer to the prescript of scripture , no subsequent law can possibly set it further off : that which was better before the ordinance of man , cannot be made worse by it ; let therefore neither the one nor the other be the instructers , but let the word of god instruct both : and this was the expedient of constantine the great at the opening the council of nice ; he did not turn the scale by his authority ; but delivers himself thus impartially to the wrangling factions . all seditions contention set aside ( says he ) let us discuss the things in controversie by the testimony of the divinely inspired scriptures , as we are informed from the cath , moderator : and it was austin's great reserve when he was pressed with the inartificial argument of authority , ne audiantur haec verba , ergo dico & tu dicis , sed quid dicit dominus . tell not me what you say ; any more then i tell you what i say , but let us both hearken to what god shall speak . quod enim ( as hierom ) de sacris scripturis non habet authoritatem eâdem facilitate , contemnitur , quā proponitur ; whatsoever is not grounded upon the scriptures , may with as much case be slighted as 't is urged . § . it s material too , who are to be instructed ? it 's presumed by our enquirer , that the dissenters alone want a word of advice , they only are crooked ; but whatever they want , as they will submit to , and be thankful for wholesome counsel , so they conceive a word of instruction will be necessary another way . when the non-conformists are come to the end of their tedder , when conscience will suffer them to advance not one step further . others will need an use of instruction too , to go to the end of theirs : such instruction as this of our enquirers , the creditor can give his debtor whom he laid fast in ludgate : truly friend ! you have been reputed a discreet person , i wonder at you , and so do all that know you , that you will be so little a friend to your case , so obstinate against liberty , as to lye reezing your self in a smoakie hole , you ought to submit your private judgement to that of the generality of mankind . who with one voice agree , that the fresh air is much sweeter then this nasty lodging ! how much more proper had it been to have expostulated with this cruel creditor , sir ! the poor man has paid you all he has , he is not worth a groat more in all the world , you may have his skin , but flesh he has none , shew now your charity , and since he cannot release himself , but you may , shew your charity . the dissenters say this is their case : they cannot come up to the propounded conditions without sin , the imposers may abate of the conditions without sin , and therefore they are the proper subjects of instruction : indeed i find the non-conformists very shy in charging the terms to be sinful ; they are loath to speak a word that may be interpreted any reflection upon the church , and therefore commonly insist upon other pleas : but when importunity shall extort it from them , they must deal liquidly , and assert , that they cannot do these things , and sin against god thereby . § . from what grounds will this instructer draw his instructions ? i do the rather propound it , because i meet with great variety of them : some say , master , save they self ; and to this they answer , my scul is my self , and if the soul be lost , the man is lost . others cry , oh be very tender of peace ! and they reply , yes , and a little of truth too . others exclaim , you will bring in pop●…y ! and they return , we did not make the terms of communion ; they that speak thus , are more zealous to keep us out then popery : the arguments then must be drawn from such heads as are agreeable to the fixed scripture principles of those that come under instruction . otherwise the advice is no more but this : come over to our party , and there will be peace ! why , so there will ( reply the dissenters ) if you come all over to ours , or to any third party , there would be a peace , an ill cemented , ill grounded one ; and such , as upon every occasion would bre●…k out in a more desperate rupture . § . it 's very considerable what this gentleman 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 his instruction should prove addle ; for if neither a well ●…tressed toleration , cramped down soundly with wholesome law●… , nor yet a due comprehension will be admitted ; the condition of dissenters would yet be supportable , if they might be kept to this wholesome kitchin physick of instruction : but his instructions look very like those of spain , who use to exhort and instruct the poor wr●…tches caught in the iron claws of the inquisition ; to be pittiful to their souls , not to throw away their lives , and presently shut up their last words with the flames . what the operation of this instruction may be , i cannot tell ; but the dissenters i perceive have their last propositions sent in , and the next is escalado ; for he tells us , p. . that if they will not be instructed , he sees no obligation upon the magistrate to forbear to make or execute such laws as he apprehends for the good of his government : so that after all his experiments , and great shew of skill in healing , he is wheeled about to that last , and worst of papal remedies , which some call axes , halters , gibbets , racks , pillories , imprisonment , others the holy inquisition ; which is just the plea of the papists for all their barbarities : that if the people will not be perswaded , they see no reason why the church should not deliver th●…●…er to the secular powers to be burne for hereticks . chap. ii. the enquirers notion of schism examined , and as applyed to the sober non-conformists , proved uncharitable , unjust and false . schism is an ecclesiastical culverine , which being overcharged , and ill managed , recoyles , and hurts the canoneer . he that undertakes to play this great gun , had need be very curious , and careful to spunge his canon well , lest it fire at home . nothing has more naturally tempted the imprudent to account nothing to be schism , then that some hasty angry men have made every thing so . that causeless separation from a particular church of christ , whereof we were once duly members , is a sin of a deep dye , is owned by all that own the gospel , and have any tender regard t●… the prosperity of the church , or propagation of the truth , but yet we ought not to be so easily credulous , as to believe every departure to be that heinous thing , which passionate men , in hot blood , out of prejudice to the persons of others , or a necessity to secure and establish their own acquists over m●…ns consciences , are resolved to call so . it was not therefore lightly , but with great judgement , that the learned hales calls it , one of those theologi●…al 〈◊〉 , with which they who use to uphold a party in religion ▪ use to fright 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 making any enquiry into it , are ready to relinquish and oppo●… it , if it appear either erroneous or suspicious . st. cyprian ( it seems ) affirms it to be of so hor●…ble a g●… , th●… martyrdom was not a sufficient expiation of it . and upon the like occasion , he might have said as much of any other si●… , for i have not learnt , that martyrdom was design'd to expiate our si●… , but to bear witness to gods truths : and the same cyprian at another time will inform us , that plebs obsequens praeceptis dominicis , & deum metuens à peccatore praeposito separare se debet . a people fearing god , and conscienciously obsequious to his commands , ( not only may , but ) ought to separate it self from a scandalous and wicked pastor . and therefore we may secure our selves , that such separation ( in his judgement ) is not that schism which martyrdom will not expiate . the true reason why separation in the scripture , and purer primitive times , was esteemed a crime so unpardonable , was , because the church made no other terms of enjoying her communion , then christ had made : that superiours durst-not venture the churches peace upon such a sandy foundation , as her own inventions , turned into impositions : for if the terms of communion be of mans making , the separation that en●…ues will be but a schism of mans making too , and whether a church has first a power to make a sin , and then to make it damnable , i have some reason to question . let nothing be declared schism , but what the scriptures ha●… made so , and we shall be content it be made as great a sin as he can reasonably desire . had not our enquirer been carried down in the torrent of his own overflowing eloquence , till he had quite lost himself , he might have answered himself from his own words , p . for this cause ( says he ) it pleased god that his church , in those early days , should rather be harassed with persecutions , which made it unite it self the closer , and paring off all superfluities , keep to the necessary and essential doctrines delivered to it , then to be softned , and made wanton by ease , and so to corrupt the simplicity of the gospel : let a church then return to the simplicity of the gospel : let her repent of that softness and wantonness of spirit , which by ease she has contracted . let her pare off all superfluities , and keep close to the necessary and essential doctrines delivered to it , and she shall find us as ready to write philippics against schism as him self , though we want his ciceronian quill , and wordie excellencies . now though we are all convinced that schism ( veri nominis ) is a most detestable impiety ; yet to beget in us a greater aversation from it , it may be profitable to listen to his reasonings , which are so potent , as will doubtless drain both the conventicles and the theatres . § . none ( says he ) can doubt of this , who considers what care our saviour took to prevent it , what pains he took with his apostles that they might be throughly instructed , and not differ in the delivery of his mind to the world. we do with all humble thankfulness own the faithfulness of our saviour in instructing , and the carefulness of the apostles in following their instructions . they delivered to the churches , as the whole counsel of god , acts . . so , only the counsel of god ; cor. . . i have received of the lord that which i also delivered unto you ; and let but the pastors of the church imitate these patterns , keep exactly to their instructions from the lord christ , which we doubt not are proportionable to reach the ends of unity and peace , ( else they had not been sufficiently instructed ) and either we shall have no separations ; or the case will be so plain ; the separation so evidently schism ; ●…hat the schismaticks shall not be able to obtend the least umbrage to cover their gross prevarication : but when embassadors throughly instructed in all the means to prevent that evil ; shall go beyond their instructions , and impose new , unheard of terms of communion , which never came into his heart to approve , nor ever came out of his mouth to impose , give me leave to say thus far , they are not embassadors , and by consequence , a noncompliance with them therein , cannot be interpreted any affront , but faithfulness to him who entrusted them with those dispatches : and if christs instructions given to his apostles to prevent this growing evil were insufficient , i am affraid they will be but sorrily helpt out , who have recourse to men for fuller instruct●… , § . to prove the greatness of this sin , he observes ( and we thank him for the observation ) that the apostles were industrious to resist all beginnings of schism in every church , to heal all breaches , to take away all occasions of division , to unite all hearts , and reconcile all minds : and to requite his kindness , i will repay his observation with this other ; that they either are not the apostles successors in their healing spirit , or else have seen some weighty reason to depart from their judgement about the hainousness of that sin , who instead of taking away the occasions of divisions , which they have given : or removing the stumbling blocks out of the way of union , which they have laid , do give greater to , and lay more obstacles before the christian world . § . his third proof is taken from the loveliness of unity . it 's not ( says he ) the sublimity of christian doctrine , nor the gloriousness of the hopes it propounds , that will so recommend it to the opinion and ●…steen of beholders , as when it shall be said , ecce ut christiani amant : when they shall observe the love , concord , and unanimity amongst the professors of it . the enquirer has here stumbled at unawares upon the formal reason of schism , or sinful separation , which lies not in the variety of opinions , or differing practices , modes or forms of worship , but in a want of true love and charity : that which renders christianity truly beautiful and amiable in the eyes of beholders , is ▪ that it teaches the professors thereof to love one another with a pure heart frvently ▪ though under different perswasions , as to modes of divine worship and discipline ; that their hearts are larger to receive one anothers persons , then their heads are to conceive one anothers notions . but yet , as he is a fond lover that chuses his wife by the eye , for the symmetry of her external frame , or cloathing of wrought gold , rather then those virtues which adorn the soul ; so he that chuses his religion by sense , and not by faith , will make a most lamentable bargain ; he that falls in love with christs church upon external allurements and extrinsick motives , will either repent , or quit his choice when she is persecuted , her outward frame discomposed , her order violated , the shepherd smitten , and the sheep scatter'd ; whereas , he that espouses religion for those invisible glories which she propounds , and keeps in his steady eye the recompence of reward , will adhere to his choice when she is most black , and the sun of persecution has too familiarly looked upon her . but i shall not need to trouble my self , or the reader , with any more of these fine arguments ; schism is an evil , whether he be angry at it or no. and separation may be good , whether he be pleased or no : all the question will be , that seeing there is an apparent separation found amongst us from the political church of england , and supposing that there is sin one where or other , where the guilt of it ought to lye ! the enquirer has spoken a great deal of truth in in a few words , that some have found pleasure to get that child , which they would by no means have laid at their own doors ▪ a successful piece of villany it is , which sometimes passes for a virtue , for the fathers who have begot these brats , to expose them to be kept and maintained at the cost of the poor innocent parish . and if we might guess at the true father by the childs physiognomy : all the divisions which have so heavily charged the churches , having sprung from ceremonies , from needless impositions , from unnecessary terms of communion ; they who take such pleasure to beget th●… one ; may be presumed to have been the grand-fathert of the other . if yet there be any controversie depending whose the child is : the enquirer recommends to us the wisdom of solomon , for discovering the true mother , and because we know , partus sequitur ventum , if we can once find out the damm , we shall make her confess the sire : it was the early proof ( says he ) solomon gave of his wisdom in discovering the true mother of the living child , to which both the litigants laid equal claim — i confess his illustration proceeds hitherto but very oddly , for there , the quarrel was , who should have the child , and be reputed the true mother but with us , all the controversie is who shall be discharg'd of it : but all similitudes do not run of four leggs , and it 's very well if this will hop on one : observe how he lays both ends of his discourse together : as that wise prince discovered the true mother by the tenderness of her bowels towards the infant , so we may perhaps discover the true children of the church by their respect and tenderness to her . ay ; just so no doubt ! even as the wheelbarrow rumbles over the pebbles , so a thumb-rope of sand , will make an excellent 〈◊〉 for fishers folly ; the comparison would run a little more naturally and regularly thus . as the true mother was discerned by the tenderness of her bowels towards the infant , who would rather part with her right , then that her bleeding eye should ever see her child divided , so we may perhaps discover the true mother of the church , by her condescending and relenting pity , who would rather wave her claims , and resign her right ▪ in some lesser instances , then ever endure to see the body of christ divided by a schismatical dichotomy . and as the harlot , notwithstanding all her pretences , bewrayed her self to the discerning eye of that judicious prince , who could be content the child should rather dye , then she lose her moyety , so will she evidence her self to be a stepmother church , which peremptorily insists upon a pretended right to imp●…se , at the peril of the churches peace , rather then by waving those pretences , save the endangered church from imminent destruction : but some mens allegories are never so excellent , as when they are impertinent , or non — sense ; and i presume he found this allusion in the wisdom of solomon , in the apocryphal writings . we are come at length to the question , what is the true notion of schism ? a point that deserves to be handled with the greatest exactness ; for upon the true stating hereof , the issue of the whole controversie depends . his notion , or definition of schism , is this . schism is a voluntary departure or separation of ones self , without just cause given , from that christian church , whereof he was once a member : or , schism is a breach of that communion wherein a man might have continued without sin . i shall not need to find faults , or pick holes in this definition , they will offer themselves as he opens the terms , only i observe , ( ) that it offends against one of the sacred laws of definition , which ought to be most religiously and inviolably preserved . definitiones debent cum definito reciprocari ; the definition ought to be convertible with the thing defined : and that this is not so , is evident , because there may be a schism where there is no separation from external communion : there is a schism in a church , as wel as from a church . the churches garment may be rent , and yet not rent in two : thus the apostle , cor. . . when ye come together in the church , i hear there are divisions amongst you : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ch . . v. . that there may be no schism in the body , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . that definition which is as narrow as his charity , and leaves out those who ought ●…o be taken in , must necessarily be stark naught . ( ) this definition is very short , in expressing that which is indeed the poison and venom , the formal reason of all schismatical departure , viz. the want of charity , and true evangelical love ; for he that departs from a society , yet loves the real christians therein , and the society it self , so far as it is a church of christs institution , only he loves his own soul with a more intense love , and accordingly makes the best provision for it he can , and would rejoyce that others would accept of the same advantages , ought not to be called a schismatick ; but if they who pretend to a power to stamp what significations they please upon words , will call him so , the best is , no nick-names will prejudice him in the sight of that god , who searcheth the heart , and tryeth the reins . as heresie is opposed to the faith , so schism is opposed to love ; and heresie and schism are distinguisht by those things to which each of them is opposed . . it 's faulty for its ambiguity : because he tells us not what the christian church is , from whence the departure must be made to denominate it schism●…ical : if he means a particular congregation united under its proper pastor according to the laws of christ , it will prove it schismatical to depart from a church of non-conformists . if he understands a national church , he should do well to prove , that such a church is of christs institution ; but i shall wave these and many more , till he has discanted upon the particulars of his own definition . § . i call it ( says he ) a departure or separation from the society of the church , to distinguish it from other sins , which though they are breaches of the laws of our religion , and consequently of the church , yet are not a renunciation of the society . there may be such a person , who for his wickedness deserves to be ●…ast out of the church as being a scandal and dishonour to it , yet neither separating himself , nor being cast out of the society , remains still a member of it . this is indeed too true , and hence it is , that many churches are so over-run with scandalous debauchez , that there 's very little difference between the impaled garden , and the wide wilderness : and perhaps was there more of this authorative separation , there would be less of that prudential separation : if rotten and gangreened members were cut off , the sound would not have that necessity to provide for their own security ; if the contagion were not so epidemical ▪ there were less need to seek out for better and more wholesome airs : when an impudent blasphemer , who out-faces the sun , the notoriety of whose crime needs no dilator , shall yet quietly maintain his station in a church , whilst others for not coming up to a ceremony , shall be rejected , though otherwise holy and inoffensive , men may make models and idea's of schism to save their credits long enough , before they will be much regarded . § . i call it ( says he ) a voluntary separation to distinguish 〈◊〉 from punishment , or schism from excommunication . yes , but he ought to have called it voluntary upon a higher account , in opposition to such departure as is made with regret and reluctancy : for when a sincere christian has used all due means to inform himself of the truth of such a principle , or the lawfulness of such a practice as may be made the conditions of communion with that society ; when he has asked advice of god in his word , when he has pray'd with david , that god would open his eyes , when he has conferred with the most judicious and impartial christians , when he has humbly and modestly represented to the pastors and governours of that church , the suspected condition , or the innovation crept into the church , and yet can neither procure reformation of the abuse , not toleration of his particular non-complyance , nor yet find satisfaction of the lawfulness of such practice , he may without guilt withdraw himself from that society ; nor ought this to be charged upon him as a departure , having in it any thing of sinful voluntariness : when a merchant throws his lading over-board to preserve life , i grant that he may be said willingly to throw it away , because his precious life preponderates and turns the scale of the will , yet none will condemn that poor merchant of too little affection to his merchandise . thus when a christian can find no rest , no satisfaction to his conscience from those suspected conditions , which in the constant exercise of his communion do recur , and shall re●…ede from that society , joyning himself to another , where with full satisfaction of spirit he may pursue his own edification , such a one ought not to be charged with a voluntary departure , nor shall it be charged upon him as such in the judgement of him that shall judge the world. § . i call it ( says he ) a departure from a particular church , or from a part of the visible church , to distinguish it from apostacy , which is a casting of the whole religion , the name and profession of christianity : but here his definition is very crazie , and ill joynted : for it ought to be defined a departure from a particular church of christ ; to distinguish it from such a constitution , as is either no particular church of christs institution , or none , so far as the separation is made from it : such a one as is not united under christs officers , nor conjoyned by christs ligaments : christ has taken special care that there may be no schism in the body , cor. - . and for this end he has commanded a spirit of mutual forbearance and condescension ; he has mingled and temper'd the body together with such exact geometrical proportion , that each of the parts may care for the other ; for this end also he has instituted some extraordinary officers , whose work and office , was to cease with the present exigency and occasion , and the ordinary , whose office and employment ( as the reasons of them ) were to be perpetuai . now if any society of men , calling themselves a church ( and in the main respects being really so ) retaining the great doctrines of christianity , and such ordinances whereby salvation is attainable , shall yet put it self under other officers then christ has appointed , and practise other ordinances then he has instituted , and make communion with her impracticable , without submitting to such officers , such ordinances ; separation from that society , can be no separation from a particular church of christ : because ▪ though they may be such a church in the main , yet so far as the separation is made , they are not so : and they deny communion with them , so far as they are a church of christ ; because of non-submission to them , so far as they are no●… a church of christ. § . i add ( says he ) those words — whereof he was once a member , because schism imports division , and making two of that which was but one before . so that if an act was made to divide some of our greater parishes ( which are much larger then some of the primitive diocesses ) into two , under their distinct pastors , this must be a schism , according to this famous definition ; for here is , . a voluntary departure , . from a particular church , . whereof once they were all members ; and wherein . they might all have continued without sin . but the most considerable thing here will be , how i became a member of that church , from which the departure is supposed to be made ; for . to be forced into a church , will never make me such a member , but that i may re-assume my liberty and right when the force is removed ; violence and constraint unite me no otherwise to a church , then a great beetle unites a wedge to a tree ; which though it may by main strength be driven into the tree , yet not being engras●…ed into it , no union is created with it , nor does it derive any nourishing juices from it . . baptism alone will not do it : because as i conceive , that ordinance solemnly unites me only to the catholick visible church , and not to a particular congregation ; otherwise , whenever the providence of god shall transplant me into another particular church , i must be re-baptized , and so as often as i remove , because as to that church i am unbaptized . . nor will my being born and bred within national limits and precincts , denominate me a member of such national church or constitution , because it passes for a current maxime . that the church is in the common-wealth , and therefore church and kingdom ; church-member and subject are not terms of equal extent and demensions . and besides , there are many congregations of christians in this nation , not syncretizing with the national policy , who yet are not stigmatized with the brand of schismatical , but without the least reproach of schism worship god , and exercise discipline according to their own private and peculiar laws . . therefore to make me a member of a particular church , there must be the concurrence of my own free choice , which whether it ought to be signified by express and over●… acts ▪ or that an implicite and tac●…te consent may not suffice , is he●… no season to discourse . § . but the only difficulty ( i am sure the gr●…est ) is , that which he subjoins in th●…se words — an unn●…ssary separation , or without just cause , or to separate from that society wherein i may continue without sin . two extreams there are it seems . . of the zealo●…s of the church of rome , who scarcely allow any thing as a sufficient cause of separation ▪ but i look on this as a very unjust surmise of the romanists ; for their most rigid zealots will in the●… allow sinful conditions , imposed for a just ●…round of sinless departure , only they deny to individuals a judgement of discretion to determine each for himself of the sinfulness of the condition ; and thus what they seem to give with the right hand ▪ they take away with the left : and herein our enquirer is as strait laced as they ; for though in the general he will prodigally allow us , that sinful impositions are a just plea for separation , yet he has forestalled that concession all along with a fine contrivance ; that our private wisdom must lower the top-sale to the publick . thus p. . since the peace of the church often depends upon such points as salvation does not , and since in many of those , every man is not a competent judge , but must either be in danger of being deceived himself , and of troubling others , one of necessity must trust some body else wiser then himself ; so that the matter according to this gentlemans hypothesis , is just as long as 't is broad ; but that the church of rome speaks that with open mouth , which he delivers between the teeth . . the other supposed extream is , that of some protestants , who make the causes of separation as many , and as light as the iews did of divorce , almost for any matter whatsoever : but as our saviour , when the case was put , found out a middle way betwixt divorce for no cause at all , and for every cause , so ought it to be done in this business of schism . reader ! we are now in a hopeful way for the compromising all the controversies that have vext our northern climate , and to seal general releases of all actions , and causes of actions against each other , from the beginning of the reformation , to the day of the date of these presents : for as we may charitably presume of all our episcopal brethren , that they will stand to the final award of so great an undertaker as our enquirer , so i am confident i may engage for all the dissenting brethren , that they will abide by the umpirage of iesus christ ; and that whatever expedient he used in deriding the grand question about divorce , shall conclude them in all their debates about schism : now the final decision of that affair we find , mat. . . where our saviour considers not what could plead inveterate custom , or a gray headed practise to abet its pretensions , he slights all the arguments from laudable examples , and the traditions of their forefathers , and runs up the practise to its primitive institution ; and tells them , from the beginning it was not so . and indeed if a transcript be blotted or blurr'd . we presently have recourse to the original , and from thence redintegrate whatever the hungry worm , or greedy moth has de●…aced : when the streams are muddied and polluted , we relieve our selves from the spring , where the virgin , and unpolluted waters , flow clearest and sweetest , without adulterate mixtures . it was the cry in the council of nice , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and we cry the same one and all , let the terms of comunion in the first plantation of the gospel church be produced , and he that will not subscribe , and submit to those archetypes , let him be branded for an obstinate schismatick . now therefore if ever our enquirer promises himself and us , that he will hit the m●…rk ; i say then , and then only , is there just cause of separation , when perseverance in the communion of such a church cannot be without sin , that is , when she shall impose such laws and terms of society , as cannot be submitted to , without apparent breach of the divine law. thus he says ! and if i should tell the reader , i say the contrary , we should make a squabble on 't , to render our selves ridiculous ; let it therefore neither be what i say , nor what he says , but what wiser men then us both say , who may be presumed more impartial in their judgements , wherein they vindicate the dissenters , because they were , or are eminent members of this church . and first i will present him with the judgement of mr. hales , a person of whom the church of england has great cause to boast . now amongst many other things to our purpose , in his treatise of schism , he acquaints us ; . that when either false or uncertain conclusions are obtruded for truth , or acts either unlawful or ministring just scruple , are required of us to be performed ; in these cases , consent were conspiracy , and open contestation , is not faction or schism , but due christian animosity . . that nothing absolves men from the guilt of schism , but true and unpretended conscience . therefore such a conscience will absolve from the guilt of it . . that where the cause of schism is necessary , there not he that separates , but he that is the cause of the separation is the schismatick . . that to require the execution of some unlawful or suspected act , is a just cause of refusing communion ; for not only in reason , but in religion too , that maxime admits of no release , ▪ cautissimi cujusque praeceptum , quod dubitas ne feceris . . that it hath been the common disease of christians from the beginning , not to content themselves with that measure of faith which god and scriptures have expresly afforded , but out of a vain desire to know more then is revealed , they have attempted to devise things , of which we have no light neither from reason nor revelation ; neither have they rested here , but upon pretence of church authority ( which is none ) or tradition , ( which for the most part is but ●…eigned ) they have peremptorily concluded , and confidently imposed upon others a necessity of entertaining conclusions of that nature . . to l●…ad our publick forms with the private fancies upon which we differ , is the most soveraign way to perpetuate schism unto the worlds end . prayer , confession , thanksgiving , reading of scriptures , administration of sacraments in the plainest and the simplest manner , were matter enough to furnish out a sufficient liturgie , though nothing , either of private opinion , or of church pomp , of garments , or prescribed gestures , of imagery , of musick , of matter concerning the dead , of many superfluities which creep into the church , under the name of order and decency , did interpose it self . to charge churches and liturgies with things unnecessary , was the first beginning of all superstition . . that no occasion hath produced more frequent , more continuous , more sanguineous schisms , then episcopal ambition hath done . . that they do but abuse themselves and others , that would perswade us , that bishops , by christs institution have any superiority over other men , further then that of reverence : or that any bishop is superiour to another , further then positive order agreed ●…pon amongst christians , hath prescribed , . in times of manifest corruptions and persecutions wherein religious assembling is dangerous ; private meetings howsoevr , besides publick order , are not 〈◊〉 lawful , but they are of necessity and duty : all pious assemblies 〈◊〉 times of persecution and corruption , however practised , are indeed , 〈◊〉 rather alone the lawful congregations , and publick assemblies , though according to form of law , are indeed nothing else but riots and convemticles , if they be stained with corruption and superstition . there is one person more , whom , since he has quoted incognit●… for an excellent person , i will the rather recommend to his consideration . irenic . p. . where speaking of the private christian , he says ; he is bound to adhere to that church , which appears most to retain the evangelical purity . and p. . he is bound to break off from that society which enjoyns a mixture of some corruptions as to practise : one word from dr. iackson , chap. . of the church : where he acquits those of the schism which withdraw from●…hat church which imposeth rites and customs , that cross the rule of faith and charity . bishop bramhalls testimony will pass for sterling . p. , . of schism : when there is a mutual division of two parts , or members of the mystical body of christ one from the other ; yet both retaining communion with the universal church , quamcunque partem amplexus fueris schismaticus non audies , quippe quod ▪ universa ecclesia neutram damnavit : which side soever you close with , you shall not be reproacht for a schismatick , because the universal church has condemned neither side : and he plainly tells us , p. . that it was not the erroneous opinions of the church of rome , but the obtruding them by laws upon other churches that warranted a separation . next we will hear a word from the learned lord verulam , 't is a sign ( says he ) of exasperation to condemn the contrary part as a sect ; yea , and some indiscreet persons have been bold in open preaching , to use dishonourable and derogatory speeches and censures of the churches abroad , and that so far , as that some of our men ( as i have heard ) ordained in forreign parts , have , been pronounced no lawful ministers , — and further ; let us remember , that the ancient and true bounds of unity , are one faith , one baptism , and not one ceremony , one policy ; and endeavour to comprehend that saying , ▪ differentia rituum , commendat unitatem doctrinae : christs coat was indeed without seam , yet the churches garment was of divers colours . amongst all these , we must not forget that noble and gallant person the lord falkland , a little search will find them , ( he speaks of no little ones ) to have been the destruction of unity , under pretence of uniformity ; to have brought in superstition and scandal under titles of reverence and decency , to have slacked the strictness of unity , which was between us , and those of our own religion beyond the sea●… . s●…rates , lib. 〈◊〉 . cap. . tells us , that in his time there could scarce●… be found two churches that used the same forms of prayer . in france , the ritual of paris differ'd from that of anjou , and in england we had our devotions secundum usum sarum , & secundum usum bangor ; and yet the one never reproacht the other for sectaris or schismaticks ; i am consident therefore to assert it . that neither the wit nor malice of man can prove him a schismatick , who maintaining evangelical love towards , and holding the substantial doctrines owned by the church of england , shall either out of choice , or necessity , transplant himself from under the spreading shadow of a goodly cathedral , to a parochial church , and yet the one has its organs , adoration towards the east , and altar , adoration at the naming of iesus , with multitudes of rites and observances , unknown to the villages , and far more differing from the parochial usages and customs , then the worship of most country towns differ from that of the non-conformists . after all this , i shall throw up the authority of these great names , and give him full scope for his rational abilities , to prove his proposition , when i have first noted those few things . § . he requires an apparent breach of the divine law , as the only thing that can excuse separation from the guilt of schism : but will not a real breach of the divine law serve the turn , unless it be so apparent as he can desire . i perswade my self , god never yet spoke so loud , that they who have barracadoed their ears with prejudice , will hear him : nor ever yet wrote so plain , that they will see his mind , whose eyes interest has sealed up : and what if it be an apparent breach of the divine law in the sincere judgement of him that separates ; must he never discharge his duty , till he can perswade all the world to see theirs , and pursue it . § § who shall be iudge , whether the imposed terms contain an apparent breach of the divine law ? and such as will justifie a separation ? mr. hales indeed tells us , it 's a point of no great depth or difficulty ; but yet the true solution of it , carries fire in the tail of it ; for it brings with it a piece of doctrine which is seldom pleasing to superiours . but were it not that men hate chargeable truth more then cheap errour , and love cheap corruptions beyond costly reformation , there could be no great difficulty who should be judge in this case : for . who may more justly challange a liberty to judge what is sin , then he that must be damned if he do sin : he that sins at another ; command will hardly perswade him to be his substitute in the condemnation , nor will god accept him for the sinners proxy . . if the church must judge ; then though her terms be the most apparent violations of the divine law , yet there can never be any lawful separation , unless we can imagine her so modest , as to confess a sin , and yet at the same time , so immodest as to impose it . to acknowledge her terms sinful , and yet with the same breath to enjoyn them as necessary to communion . it will be pretended , that the same inconveniencies will follow the other way : for if a particular person who withdraws , must judge , then let the terms be perfectly innocent , yet to be sure , he will plead , that they are sinful ; unless we can suppose him so modest , as to confess himself a schismatick ; and yet at the same time so immodest , as to persevere in his schism . but i conceive that this arguing is very wide : . because every mans soul lies at stake , and it cannot be imagined that he should either not study its interest , or that understanding it , he should not endeavour to secure it : i speak of such as are otherwise consciencious ; for if he be a person vitious , and pro●…igate , one eaten up of wickedness , we ought not to flatter our selves with any great hopes of the impartiality of his determinations : and if he have thus debauched his conscience , the laws are open ; the magistrate who has his power from the moral law , has by the same law sufficient authority to coerce by punishments , whatever enormities are committed against it . . we have no reason to suppose any man to be a hypocrite in the matter of separation , which is attended with so mamy dreadful penalties , unless notorious evidence will warrant such a judgement . § . a rational suspicion of a breach of the divine law is enough in the apostles judgement to justifie the suspension of my own act ; and if it prove no other then a thing indifferent in it self , yet such dissatisfaction will excuse from sin : for so the apostle , rom. . . let every man be fully perswaded in his own mind . . to him that esteeme●…h any thing to be unclean , to him it is unclean , . he that doubteth , is damned if he eat , because he eateth not of faith ; for whatsoever is not of faith is sin . the enquirer has all this while stood like the very picture of modesty , equally placed between the two exar●…ams of all separavation , and no separation : have but a little patience , and you shall see how manfully he will behave himself against them both . . for the poor romanists , he gives them a small pat with his foot , and they are silenced for ever . it 's plain ( says he ) it can be no sin to separate , when it 's a sin to communicate yes very plain it is ! but so say the dissenters . it can be no sin for us to separate , when it 's a sin to communicate : ay but ( says he ) it was an apparent breach of the divine law upon which we separated from rome . why so say the dissenters : it 's an apparent breach of the divine law , upon which we separated from the church of england . ay but ( will he say ) you ought to have trusted wiser men then your selves , and not like the antipodes , to have run upon your heads : oh! but then comes in the romanists , and falls upon his bones : you ought to have trusted wiser men then your selves , your superiours in the church , from whom you separated , and not have ran upon your own heads : nay replies he , but we have a judgement of discretion , and ought to be masters of our own reason , so far as to take cognizance of our own acts : well! the non-conformists catches that word by the end , before it be well out of his mouth ; we are for a judgement of discretion too , and ought so far to be masters of our own reasons , as not to act against them ; nothing can be returned that i can foresee , but that it is not for such pitiful sneaks as the dissenters , to talk of conscience , and a judgement of discretion , it s enough for the gendarms of reason to make use of that plea against rome . but i will leave him to squabble it out with the romish synagogue . , he has quickly ( you see ) shaken them their foddering ; but these cumbersome fanaticks stick as close to him as a burr , and therefore he must now give them a rattle . it 's plain ( says he ) that schism being so great a sin , and of so extream bad consequences , that which must acquit me of the guilt of it in my separation , can be nothing lesse then an equal danger on the other hand , and that when i may persevere without sin , it must of necessity be a sin to separate upon inferior dislikes . this looks pretty well at first but for a few inconveniences in the argument . . that he begs the whole question at a clap , the question was whe●…her the imposition of such laws and terms of society as cannot be submitted to without apparent breach of the divine law be the only just cause of separation ? he affirms it , and for proof gives us this , that schism being so great a sin that which must acquit me of the guilt of it in my separation , must be equal danger of sinning : wherein he supposeth that all separation is schism , where there is not equal danger of sinning that is of an apparent breach of the divine law , whith is but the question it self a little disgnised to make it more passable to the unwary reader ; the truth is , schism is so great a sin that no danger of sinning whatsoever can acquit me of it , for i do not know that any thing will compound for uncharitableness , for pride , for obstinacy , but separation for the benefit of all gods ordinances , that i may be edifyed and built up in the most holy faith , but nothing of the nature of the abominable sin in it . . dissenters will answer , that the danger of sinning is more clear and evident when i act against my conscience , then in separating peaceably and modestly from a particular church : for it cannot be lawful in any case to act against my light , but it may be lawful in some cases to separate from a particular church : there is lesse danger of sin in breaking a humane constitution , whitch ( 't is at least ) questionable whether man has power to en●…oyn , then of violating the dictate of my own reason informed by all the means i can use from the word of god. . non-conformists say , that they ought not to separate , but when non-separation is sinful , but then they say , that non-separation may be sinful upon other accounts then the apparent breach of the divinelaw made the terms of entring into ; or continuing in communion : for , say they , it is our sin , if a church retains some corroptions in it , which prejudice edification , and she shall resolve never to make any alteration in her worship ; or discipline , nor make any further progress towards a through reformation , not to provide for my self elsewhere , and having opportunity , i sin if i take not , accept not the advantage which providence offers me , and wherein the word warrants me . and yet he wonders that any doubt should be admitted in this case . let me advise him to beware of excessive wonderment : they say , it will make a man as lean as a rake : but what 's the cause of his admiration ? why some think to wash their hands of the imputation of schism upon other terms as namely ; if a church shall not require such terms of communion as are expresly sinful , yet if she shall require indifferent unnecessary or at most suspected things that in this case there is enough to excuse the person that shall separate from a participation of this sin . there are some no doubt of that judgment : and when i have praelibated a few things , he shall have his full blow at them . § . that when they joyn issue upon this point , 't is not because they are satisfyed that the things required unto communion as the antecedent conditions of it , or to be practised in communion as the mattor of it are indifferent in their use and application , for they are ready to maintain it upon equal laws , before equal judges , that they are sinful in their use , antecedent to , their imposition , but the true reasons why they use this place , are . . ex abundanti thinking that their very outworks are impregnable against his batteries . . out of respect to this church which they highly honour , and reverence her too much then to charge her flatly with sinful impositions ; and therefore do offer this state of the question , and are hardly capable of so much incivility to so considerable a body , and so great a part of the visible catholick church , unless the importunity of some modest men did extort that answer from them . . they doubt whether some churchmen will be masters of so much patience as to bear freedome though temperateness of speech , which is absolutely necessary to the manadging the controversy when thus stated : and have reason to fear that some who provoke them to assert the sinfulness of the terms , will make such an assertion an unpardonable sin , not to be expiated without , if with martyrdom . § . when he states the question about things suspected to be sinful , i hope he will give them the common civility to draw up their own plea in their own terms , and to ●…xp●…ane what they mean by suspected things in the question : because they are not compelled to maintain every proposition which he in his well known charity shall obtrude upon them : a pract●…se th●…n may be taken upon suspicion of sinfulness two wayes , first upon light slighty , trivial grounds of suspicion , which have no w●…ight , with a serious and rational considerer : or dly , upon violent presumptions , such as may s●…agger a person of good judgment and diligence : and 't is these that they are willing to argue it with him ; whether if a church shall impose such things as the terms of communion with her , as have , or do , or may puzzle judicious persons about their lawfulness , and cannot clear it up to their consciences that they are lawful , yet they may not forbear communion in this case . § . they desire the same justice in explaning themselves about the term indifferent : a thing may be indifferent in its own nature , which is not so in its use , as applyed to and practised in the immediate worship and service of god ; if the things under debate be found upon diligent search to remain indifferent , after they are vested with all their circumstances in gods worship , they have no quarrel against them that i know of ; but if they be only indifferent in their own general nature , they desire to be excused if they dare not admit the consequence , that therefore they must needs be so when used in gods worship , and then made the terms of communion . § . unnecessary things may be either such as are absolutely unnecessary , or such as are hypothetically so , some things that are not absolutely and in themselves necessary , yet may become necessary pro●…ic & nunc , even antecedent to the interposition of the churches authority ; and dissenters say that what ever the church shall impose ought to be necessary , either in it self , or by concurrent circumstances , which when they shall conspire together , may be by a lawful authority enjoyned pro tempore , that is so long as such necessity shall continue , which when once removed the things ought to return into their former classis of indifferents . § . when they deny the churches power of imposing things expresly sinful , they deny also a power of imposing things sinful by just consequence ; they judge many things sinful which are not forbidden . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in the scriptures , and many things duties which are not litterally and syllabically commanded in the scriptures : they say not that the sign of the crosse was ever by name prohibited : but they say there are undoubted maximes laid down in the word , from which it will undeniably follow that in its present station in the church it is sinful ; and now he may when he pleases speak his three things , which if they be pertinent and proved as strongly as they are spoken confidently , i am content . ( . ) his first say consists of a conce●…ion and an assertion . § . his concession , i willingly acknowledge that such a church as shall studiously or carelesly clog her communion with unnecessary , burdensom and suspected conditions , is very highly to blame , that is , the sins ; but that it became not him to tell her so ; and then i will venture to say a few words also . . if it be the churches sin to command unnecessary burdensom suspect conditions : it cannot be my duty to obey ; a church may possibly sin in the manner of her command , and yet i not sin in doing the matter of the command , but when the sins in the enjoyning , i cannot conceive how it should be my sin not to give obedience ; for i look upon my duty as the result of the churches authority . and wherein she has no authority it will be impossible to find a foundation upon which to build my duty : all offices of justice arise from that relation wherein he that claims and he that yeelds subjection stand to each other : and where there 's no relation , there can be no relative duty : now in this case before us where the church has no power to command , nay where she sins , if she commands , so far she is none , of my superior ; and therefore so far the relation is none , and by consequence the duty just as much . . if the church be to blame highly , nay very highly to blame , that clogs her communion with these burdensom things , then we may presume she sins , for who shall dare to assume so much freedom as to blame her , unless she transgress the law of her god ? if then she have sinned and transgressed some law of god , it must be some negative precept , thou shalt not impose burdenso●… things ; for it is a principle our enquirer will not sell for gold : that what ever is not forbidden , is lawful ; if then god had not forbidden her to impose such burdensom things , she could not sin , or be to blame in so doing ( according to his principles ) now say i , the same god that has prohibited the churches imposition of , has also prohibited my subjection to burdensom conditions : and let this gentleman produce his scriptures for the one ; and i will drop texts with him for the other when he pleases ; thus we are commanded , cor. . . not to be the servants of men : not only bought with a price , and set free once , but commanded to assert that freedom , and . gal. . to stand fast in that liberty wherewith christ hath made us free , and not again to be entangled with the yoke of bondage ; now if ever these scriptures do us any service , or be of any use , it must be in this particular , that i am obliged not to take a burden and cumber upon my soul , at his hands who has no authority to impose it : if then a church shall clog her communion with burdensom things , she is to blame , she sins , and i am not bound to obey , and therefore my departure can be no schism . i mean no schism but one of mans creating ; . if a church sin in clogging her communion with things which without crime or fraud are suspected of sin upon such grounds as are allowed just and ponderous in other cases , then it cannot be my sin to separate : for the church sins in commanding , and i should sin against the authority of god in my conscience in doing what i really upon strong presumptions judge to be sinful , though it were not commanded : and no●… one would think it could be no such meritorious work , no act so acceptable to god to persevere in the comunion of a church , when she sins in commanding , and i sin in obeying suspecte●… conditions . § . we come now to his assertion notwithstanding all this , which he has granted he will fetch it back again , if it be possible , and we shall gain nothing by any thing he gives us , and there are also two parts of his assertion . . the negative part ; 't is not burdensomness , nor every light suspicion of sin that can justific any separation ; concerning the burdensomness we have spoken somewhat before ; yet a word or two about the suspicion ; 't is not a light , or however not every light suspicion that is but like the dust of the ballance that will do it : really it was cunningly fenced ! he expects perhaps that we should assert every light suspicion that weighs no more then a feather should be enough to justifie a separation ; ay ; but there are violent presumption , which they say in some cases are admitted for good evidence . if i meet a person coming out of the house in a great rage with a bloody sword in his hand , and immediately i enter in and find a person lying in his blood , i do assure you i shall not condemn my self for lightness of belief , or casmess of entertaining suspicions ; if i suspect the man i met to have been the murder or ; light suspicions may be as easily shook of as fastened on , and contemned as tendered : but it becomes no wise man to act against these strong presumptions of sin , which the dissenters have of the imposed terms of communion ; and it will appear they are such as may make a hardy resolute person stand and pause before he rushes upon the practise : . they are sure that christ is the perfect and therefore the only lawgiver of his church : had he not been the former , there had been no pretence he should be the later : now seeing these terms of communion , are laws imposed upon the church ; they seem to impeach his wisedome that he saw not the fittest terms for his churches to hold communion upon , they do reproach his care that he has not left laws enough for his church , and they seem to invade his authority without any warrant : all which things are enough to raise a suspicion ( at least ) of good strength in a wisemans breast , which none but a hardy spirit would act against . . they are sure that some of these conditions have been occasioned by and used in and with , and are suited and accommodated to the grossest idolatry that ever was in the world , and is at this day used to give countenance to it : and they say they are sure that god did once hate idolatry , and so hate it as that he could not endure to be served in the vessels , worshipt in the places , not after the manner ( in the most minute circumstances ) that idolatry was committed in ; and therefore we have reason to suspect that the things required of us are displeasing to god : our using of them has emboldened idolaters , and hardened them to go on without repentance in the way of so great abomination : nor have they been a bridge as was hoped , to bring them over to us , but a boat to waft us over to them , they being more hardened by our retaining them , and some of our own made more wavering ; thinking there can be no great difference between those religions , where there is so great a symbolizing in outward modes and ceremonies . . they are sure that all uncommanded worship is forbidden worship , and do think their time ill bestowed with him that shall deny it : all worship being part of that homage and service we owe to god , it will be impossible to guess what he will accept as such without revelation : now we are sure that the enquirer owns the liturgy to have been a principal part of worship : and we are as sure that the ceremonies are part of the liturgy , and that which is a part of a part , is part of the whole , nor can any man discern any difference between them , and other things which are confessedly parts of worship , and therefore they think they may with modesty say , there 's ground enough for a violent suspicion of their sinfulness . . the affirmative part of his assertion follows ; it must be plain necessity or certainty of sin in complyance that can justifie any separation : i should be glad to know what cortainty of sin he will allow to justifie a separation ? does he expect a mathematical certainty ? or only a moral assurance ? if you ask , an arithmetician says ( i : martyr in his dialogue with trypho ) how many twice two will make ? he will answer yo●… as often , four ! and if i were asked a thousand times what certainty of sin were required to the suspension of my own act , i would as often answer no more of necessity then that the thing does not appear to my best and impartial judgment to be lawful , separation is not necessarily a sin , there are as pregnant commands for it , as prohibitions of it , it may be a duty , and it may be a sin , and why need we not as plain argument to prove that separation is not my duty , as that it is not my sin ? seeing it may be one as well as the other ? why now he arrests us with his reasons . § . forasmuch ( says he ) as i cannot be discharged from a plain duty , but by an equal plainess of sin . this reason looks very prettily at first sight , and yet it demonstrates no more then a great good will to the cause : and . 't is no more then a plain begging of the question ; viz. that complyance is a plain duty , schism indeed is a plain sin , but separation is not plainly schism ; it is a plain contradiction to the assertion , but not a plain confutation of it , unless the denyal of it in other words be a confutation . the business in short is this ; i suspect such compliance is not my duty ; and again , i suspect the terms of communion are sinful , and surely we may set suspected sin , as a barr to what is but suspected duty at any time of the day ; let us a little compare things : that which he calls plain duty , is complyance with such a church as imposes things unnecessary , burdensom and suspicious , that which he calls plain sin , is refusing such compliance ; now this say i , is a plain begging of the question which is all the plainess in his reason : first to enquire whether such a separation or non-complyance be lawful , and then to suppose such complyance to be plain duty . and then to assign this for the reason that nothing but equal plainess of sin can discharge me from a plain duty . . dissenters do affirm that it is as plain , nay more plain , and if he will have it so much more plain a sin to practise the ceremonies then to separate , for separation may be a duty in some cases , but the practising of such ceremonies cannot be a duty in any case , on this side divine prescription : god has warranted separation in the general , but he has not so warranted ceremonies . § . his second reason is ; and for this phrase suspected ; it is so loose and uncertain that there 's no hold of it , men will easily suspect what they have no mind to : whether this word suspected be a phrase or no , i shall leave to the wrangling grammarians , only i am afraid in a while , every small particle will be a phrase , where these gentlemens occasions require it . a suspected evil is no such trivial thing in the apostles divinity as the enquirer would persuade us : to act in any case when we have not clear light into the lawfulness of the action is sin , and such a one as renders the actor obnoxious to eternal damnation . he that doubts is dammed if he eat . and indeed to act against the restraine of our own judgment though mistaken , argues a mind prepared to act against our judgments , if they had not been mistaken : he that shall attempt to clip the kings coyn , may meet with a plated piece , yet had if been right stander'd , he would have served it no better : that men will easily suspect what they have no mind to , ought not to prejudice those wo have no mind to a thing , because they suspect it to be evil . t is as easy for another to say that what men have a desperate love to , they will never be brought to suspect its sinfulness . what wise man would suspect four or five hundred pounds per annum to be unlawful ? our inclinations naturally warp towards ease , and rest , and they that know no god but their mistaken selves , will own no scripture but what is dictated from the inspiration of fleshly interest . the byas of nature draws us more to suspect the lawfulness of that which being unlawful would undo us , then to suspect that to be unlawful , which being lawful would advance us . and this may justifie all sober dissenters , that they who condemn them are confessed to be too blame in clogging their communion with unnecessary , burdensom and suspected conditions , and they who are condemned for suspecting it to be as sinful in them to obey as it is in others to command , and thereupon suspending their compliance , are either violently cast out of , or not admitted into communion . and this is your monstrous schismatick . and i am very confident , that not only the scripture , but all antiquity with the unanimous su ●…rage of the reformed churches will justifie and acquit that person of the guilt of schism , who being found in the faith , holy in his life , earnestly pleading , and petitioning for reformation , humbly desiring he may have christs ordinances upon christs terms , and yet being denyed his right shall make his applications to some other particular church of christ , where his admittance may be more easy , his continuance more certain and safe , his mind not distracted with suspicions about his own actings , but his whole strength and spirits expended in the edification of his own soul in truth , holiness , and peace , which before were wasted in doubtful disputations . ( ) the second thing he will say is , if the non-necessity of some of the terms of communion be a warrant of separation , then there can be no such thing as schism at all : i doubt not but he intends that his argument shall proceed a remotione consequentis ad remotionem antecedentis : but there is such a sin as schism , therefore the non-necessity of some of the terms of communion is not a warrant of separation : there are many things i would answer to this argument : . that the whole syllogism is troubled with an old malady called ignoratio elenchi , for 't is not half an hour ago since he undertook to prove that the churches requiring indifferent , unnecessary , or at most susp●…cted things would not excuse the person that should separate from the guilt of schism . afterwards he put in burdensom into the question : and now i perceive he would be glad to take eggs for his money , if he could get them , and sit down content with this sorry conclusion , that the non-necessity of some of the terms is no sufficient warrant of separation : which fault is an argument some call an ignorance of the question , but i call it a fighting with his own shadow , what if bare non-necessity alone , without burdensomness , or what if both these without strong suspicion of sin will not warrant it , yet if all conjunct will do the feat . dissenters will escape the hue and cry after schism , and schismaticks ; . i deny his consequence : there might be , there would be schism , to much schism , though i confess not half so much as there is , though the non-necessity of the terms were a good warrant of separation : if schism lay in nothing indeed but running away from a church ( as the vulgar error carries it ) he had come a little nearer the mark ; but if we durst content our selves with the scripture notion of schism which includes those feuds , heats , intestine broiles , those envyings malignities , wherewith factious and bandying parties in the besome of a church do persecute each other , there might be as much schism as almost the divel could desire , and yet no separation : but let us hear his proof of the consequence , forasmuch ( says he ) as there never was , nor probably ever will be such a church as required nothing of those in her communion , but things strictly and absolutely necessary , ergo what ? why therefore if the non-necessity of some of the terms of communion be a sufficient warrant of separation , there can be no such thing as schism , pray forbear , there is a medium as i take it between non-necessary , and strictly and absolutely necessary ; i mean those things which being neither necessary in their own nature , nor made so by any positive law of god in particular : yet by a concurrence of weighty circumstances serving under some general command of god , do become at that time , and under those circumstances necessary , and these are those things wherein many churches , i suppose all churches , have at one time or other exercised their power , now then though 't is true that if the non-absolute necessity of the terms of communion be a warrant of separation , there would be no such thing as schism at all by unwarrantable separation from a church , because perhaps there never was a church that required nothing of those in her communion but things absolutely necessary ; yet it may be true , that the non-necessity of the terms of communion may be a good warrant for separation , and yet there may be schism enough in the world : for captious froward spirits will be cavilling at , and dividing upon the account of those things which by a particular church are required becoming necessary from circumstances : but to inform him aright in this matter ; non-conformists do affirm , that what ever is made a condition of communion , ought to have some kind of necessity in it or with it , antecedent to its imposition ; and being made such a condition ; still he is harping upon : and has great mind to prove what we are not concern'd to deny : but if he tempts to it , perhaps i may deny it : that there was never , nor ever will be any such church , &c. and because i would entertain the reader with a little of our enquirers merriments , he shall hear his proof of the point . . he tells us he has shewed us this partly in the intro●…uction , and so pag. . for proof of the soundness of this church●… constitution , he posts us over to the introduction , and w●…en we come to turn over this introduction , there 's an honest we●…lmeaning oration of something or other without proof ▪ . he could easily make it appear at large through all ages ; we●…l , then we will suspend our belief till his magd●…burgensis come abroad ; . he will save himself , and the reader the labour ( of writing the century's ) very good ! we are satisfied any way i' th world , he shall find us the most reasonable people in the world , if he will but abate us these unnecessary i●…positions : but which way shall we spare our pains ? oh thus ! name one church if you can that hath admitted of no other opinion or rites , but such as have been absolutely necessary . and has this great montain teemed this little mouse ? he should have proved that never any church in any age , in any country , but had imposed things not absolutely necessary , and he like a modest man that can be content with a competency , proved only that there never was any church but admitted such things : is there no small critical difference between admitting in the use , and practise somethings indifferent in an indifferent way and imposing , requiring , and enjoyning them as necessary terms of communion : i will make a fair motion ; let this church admit of the use , and practise of some things not absolutely necessary , yet neither in their nature sinful , nor for multitude burdensom , nor for abuse suspected , nor in their instituted use sacramental , and yet not impose them as necessary , conditions of communion , and if there be less uniformity , there will be a thousand times more unity , and true inward love , evangelical tenderness , and fra●…nal forbearance to compensate a little outward decorum , which perhaps is very surprizing with women and children . all this while i distrust not the readers a●…umen to see the sophistry ; he would make it out there 's no church which admits not some determinations , not strictly and absolutely necessary ; and he would thence inferr that there 's no church , but what imposes such not absolutely necessary determinations , and thence that if non-necessary terms of communion be a warrant of separation , there can be no schism in the world at all : whereas there are such things as being neither unnecessary , nor yet absolutely necessary , may be ●…it matter of agreement in christian societies , that they may be more stedily governed , more peaceably and inoffensively manadged , the ord●… nances more methodically and orderly administred , and the spiritual and eternal welfare of souls more effectually advanced . ( ) the third and last thing he will say is , that somethings are necessary to t●…e constitution and administration of a particular church , that are not in themselves necessary absolutely considered ; this he will say , and who can help it ? why will he say it ? why doubtless as a medium to prove his conclusion , or he had better have said nothing ; now that which he engaged to prove was this ; that things indifferent , unnecessary , &c. imposed as conditions of communion are not enough to excuse the person that separates , from a participation of the sin of schism ; the argument marche●… in this order : if somethings are necessary to the constitution of a church , which are not absolutely necessary in themselves , then the imposition of unnecessary terms of communion is no excuse for separation ; but the former is true , ergo so is the later ; or in short , if some things be necessary then , the church may impose things not necessary : quod er●…t demonstrandum . he has been told over and over again , that many things not necessary in themselves , may become necessary pr●… hic & nunc , but then they must be thus qualified , before they can be fit matter of a churches determination . . they must be necessary one way or other , antecedently to the churches determination ; . the necessity must extend as far as the determination : for if they become necessary to one particular church , and not to another , it will not oblige the other church to come under the imposition , unless they come also under the necessity . . that when the necessity evidently ceases , the imposition ought also to cease , and the members of the church may claim it of right to be relaxed of the burden , and may reassume their former liberty , which the present necessity did restrain . . churches are not to feighn necessities , and imaginary exigencies as an engine of ambitious spirits to try conclusions upon mens consciences , or practise upon their ●…ameness , and therefore the necessity ought to be such as carries its own evidence along with it . there are many things which the divine authority had determined as to its ●…id and sort , which yet are not so determined in the in●…viduals ; now when a church meets with any of these , she must come to a determination , for otherwise the divine commands cannot possibly be reduced into act , nor our duty exercised : thus he has commanded his churches to assemble themselves together for publick worship , he has appointed them ordinances wherein to receive mercy , and grace , from him and officers to administer the ordinances in the church , the church therefore is obliged to do whatsoever is necessary to the doing of her duty ; thus go●… having obliged them to worship , they must come to an agreement about the place , meerly because 't is impossible to meet no where . but if the divine will hath not determined in specie , man cannot under the most specious pretence of decency , or adorning the worship institute any thing , because it wants some head of a divine command , to which to reduce it ; thus god having given no command to any church , to worship him under sensible formes , and signes of invisible grace , no church has power to institute any such , and worship god by them ; for in this case divine wisdome , love , and authority , have demonstrated themselves , and setled enow to answer gods ends and ours . if he had said , as often as you baptize , besides the washing with water which i have commanded you , see that you make some figure over the face of the person to be baptized , and not determined the figure , whether hexagonal , pentagonal or the like , the church must come to a conclusion about some figure , or the duty must for ever lye fallow . but a general command , that all things be done decently and in ●…der , will never introduce these symbolical ceremonies , because the command may be satisfied without them , or any of them , they are ●…ot necessary so much as by disjunction ; whatsoever is comprehended under a divine precept , is a necessary duty at least by disjunction , antecedent to any command of any church ; but these ceremonies are not necessary in any sense antecedently to the command of a church , and therefore are not comprehended under that general precept . let all things be done decently and in order ; and indeed if they were , the sign of the cross would be a necessary duty , not only in o●… at baptisme , but in the lords supper , in every prayer , in al●… preaching , in singing of psalms , and in every religious exercise , seeing that precept enjoyns all things to be done decently and in order . and we may presume that our saviour , with his disciples and apostles , performed all divine service in the most decent , congruous , and edifying modes , and yet they never practised that ▪ or any other ceremony of that sort ; and therefore they are not comprehended under the rule . nevertheless our enquirer is resolved he will give us two instances of this truth that some things are necessary to the constitution , and administration of a particular church , that are not in themselves necessary absolutely considered : and if he thinks it worth the while , he may give us two hundred , for we are perfectly unconcerned in them all . ( ) the first instance is in the apostles times : the abstaining from things strangled and blood , was by the council of ierusalem adjudged and declared necessary to be observed by the gentiles , in order to an accommodation between them and the iews ; and yet i suppose scarce any body thinks the observation of that abstinence so enjoyned necessary in it self : let us apply it , either then the abstaining from ceremonies must be adjudged necessary in order to an accommodation between our church , and other protestants , or the obs●…rving of them be adjudged necessary in order to an accommodation between us and the romanists , which he would chuse , i am not informed . but let us examine a little his great instance . § . it was adjudged and declared necessary to be observed ( sa●… he ) therefore ( say i ) it was enjoyned , because first necessary , and not made necessary by the injunction : the thing was not unnecessary before the syn●…dal letters , nor the council at liberty to have determined the contrary unless an accommodation between jew , and gentile , was a thing unnecessary , . acts . it seemed good to the holy ghost and to us to lay upon yo●… no greater burden then those necessary things , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . now let him try his skill to conclude a power to impose things unnecessary from this fact of theirs , who only imposed things necessary . § . that a council had the immediate assistance of the holy ghost , and might more safely adventure upon such an imposition , then any particular or national church , who as they have no promise , cannot in faith expect any such extraordinary direction ; and we hope that no church will assume equal power to impose , unless they could produce equal authority for their power , in which the consciences of christians might securely acquiesce : it would be strange language from a synod . it seemed good to the holy ghost and to us to lay upon you no other burdens then these necessary things , that yet observe all ceremonies of our appointment . § . the people might reasonably conform to that decree , which had their own antecedent consent , and the more patiently bear the burden , which was not imposed upon them , without themselves , for this canon was not only sent to the churches by the order of the apostles , and elders , and the whole church , v. . but what ever obligatory power there was in it from man , it ran in the name of the apostles , elders and brethren ; but alas the case is otherwise with the poor churches in reference to impositions of late ages , who know no more what impositions shall be laid upon their consciences , then the poor horse is acquainted whither his master intends to ride him . § . . this was a decree not to burden them , but to case and relieve them , not to pinch the gentiles , but to discharge them of those servile loads , which some judaizing converts , would have imposed on them ; we read v. . that certain came down from iudea which taught the brethren ; and said , except ye be circumcised after the manner of moses ye cannot be saved . and when paul , and barnabas opposed this tyranny , yet such was their zeal for their old ceremonies , that they reinforced their scatter'd squadrons from certain of the sect of the pharisees who believed , ( v. . ) saying , that it was necessary to circumcise them , and command them to keep the law of moses : at last the case comes before the council , and they determine against these judaizing bigots ; that their blind zeal should not be the measure of what was necessary , or unnecessary ; and yet not to exasperat●… them , left perhaps they might apostatize wholly from christ , and relapse to moses , ( as they were in a fair way , ) they determine to lay no other burden upon them but those ( really ) necessary things : in opposition to those other , which the jewish brethren falsly pleaded to be necessary : so that they eased the burden which some would by doctrine have laid upon their shoulders , and only charg'd them by their determination with what was really necessary . § . . let us consider the things imposed . v. . abstaining from meats offer'd to idols , and from blood , and from things strangled , and from fornication . of which , fornication , was unlawful in it self ; by blood , many learned men understand murther , which opinion the learned dr. hammond recites , and , as i remember approves : as to the not eating of things strangled . it had contracted a very reverend , and grave countenance by its antiquity , being numbered amongst the seven percepts of the sons of noah : and lastly , as for meats offer'd to idols , under that notion , it was , and is still , unlawful . § . . all this was for avoiding scandal ; the morality of which praecept , had it been understood by the raw novice professors of the gentiles , it had taught them to abstain from a greater matter then blood or things strangled ( supposing them indifferent ) that they might give no offence . and therefore whilst this canon was in force , and the sharpest edge set on it , i question not but that the gentile christian might have eaten the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 priyately , or in company where no offence was taken , for what were the jews concern'd what i should eat at home , either of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , fragments , or portions of the sacrifices sent to me by the heathen relation , or of those things that were killed by sus●…ocation : for thus was the end of the decree attained , the apostles satisfied , the jews pleased , and christian liberty asserted , and vindicated : but the case is otherwise with us : for such is the holiness of a cross , or surplice , that if a minister satisfied in their use ; and yet convinced that they ought to know their distance , and give place to the conscience of the weak , or of the strong , who is supposed weak in this instance , shall omit them , he shall be lyable to be reviled by the author of the former part of the enquiries . p. . for an underminer of the church , a debaucher of his office , and what not , and for want of a white garment , shall have a hole pickt in his black coat , and suspended both a●… officio , & beneficio . § . . here was no penalty annext by way of sanction to this decree . the apostles contented themselves with that spiritual power wherewith the lord christ had armed them : nor do we read that ever any were excommunicated about it , nor urged it as an indispensable condition of enjoying the ordinances of the gospel . § . . it appears from the apostle paul , that when this decree had a little gratified a people ter●…cious of old usages , and humour'd them into some handsome complyance , it expired of course , ( as to whatever obligation arose from the prohibition of things in themselves indifferent ) and lay amongst the obsolete canons not regarded , for when the reason of an ecclesiastical law ceases , the law it self ceases , without any formal repeal ; which some expecting should have been more solemn , conceive it i●… force to this day . there is no question but those churches who going of from the dregs of rome , finding their people both ignorant , and obstinate , and extreamly a verse to a through reformation , did in prudence leave them some of their old little toyes , till they should know better , and then they would throw 'em away of themselves ; they that had suckt in popery with their mothers milk , would be very pievish , and wrangle unmercifully to be weaned all at once : staied nurses did therefore deal with them as they could bear , expecting when they should fall to more manly food : but seeing by this time they have either reacht their end , or never will ; and seeing the subtle enemy of purity and peace , would pervert their ends , if they be permitted quietly to expire , and dye of themselves , ( which they would soon do , if not fetcht again by their over-officious friends importunity ) the protestant religion should have no cause to bewail their funerals . [ ] his second instance is in church-government . the short of , it is thus much : that some church-government is necessary , yet no particular form necessary . as whether it ought to be monarchical , or aristocratical , episcopal , or consistorial . this seems very dangerous doctrine , for now it seems episcopal government is degraded of its old pretence to a jus divinum : and now the presbyterian and congregational forms stand upon even grounds with the praelatical , saving wherein this last has got the advantage by law. but here we are to understand that his text and his marginal reading ; his chethib , and keri , do strangely vary , and its like to cruciate our rabbines to reconcile them : for his text reads thus : few , or none wil affirm that either of these formes ( episcopal or consistorial ) are necessary . but his margine reads thus ; i do not mean to weaken the authority , and reputation , of episcopal government , which i sincerely think to be both best in it self , and apostolical for it's antiquity : thus the author of the introduction , calls it the most primitive government . now some will perplex themselves how to agree his scriptio , and his lectio : the text , and the comment . he tells the episcopal mode is not necessary , and yet he does it not at all to weaken it's reputation ; though it has been hetherto reputed to stand upon a divine bottome by our learned churchmen ; but yet he does not mean any harm , good man , no not he : but with such good meanings , filly soules use to palliate the irregular effects of grosse ignorance . if a man should come to my house , and with his crows , and pickaxes , begin to belabour the foundation , alarmed with the noise , i come out , friend what do you mean to weaken the foundation of my house , i shall have the roof shortly come about my ears ; oh good sir. ( replies he ) i do assure you i have no meaning to weaken your house , or shake its walls , i sincerely think your house is the strongest house in all the parish : and to his work he falls again as hard as he can drive : a declaration contrary to the fact has no more credit with me then it needs must . but this is not the worst on 't . here seems to be an irreconcileable contradiction . episcopacy , is indifferent , and yet best in it self : not necessary , and yet apostolical , and yet some think there was an absolute necessity of this quarrel between the text , and margine ; the margin was added to make the text passe muster , and if the one had not been a deleatur , the other had mi●…'t of an imprimatur ; the necessity of the argument required episcopacy should be a thing indifferent : but the necessity of pleasing his patron required it should be best in it self ; and in what a lamentable plight must a learned author be , to gratify such contrary demands ? let him then agree himself with himself , whilst i examine his reasonings . church government is necessary in the general ; but this or that form of government , in particular , is not necessary , ( not absolutely necessary ) therefore somethings not necessary in themselves , are , or may be necessary to the constitution , or administration of a particular church . this , if i greatly mistake not , is the whole strength of this period . to which i answer in these particulars . ( . ) that though the scripture does not trouble us with terms of art , monarchical , aristocratical , democratical , yet at least all the officers belonging to the church of christ are there specially determined : and from the nature of the officers , the species , or particular form of the government , will of necessity emerge ; if the officers of the particular churches stand upon equal ground one with another , the government which results from thence will be aristocratical : if there be an imparity , and subordination of the governors of one church to another the government which results from thence will be monarchical ; and if the churches governed by their respective pastors are not knit together by some common bond , the government will be denominated congregational . ( . ) supposing that the government is only commanded in the general , but the particular form not determined , yet this will never conclude , that the church may impose such things as terms of communion which are noe commanded in the general . it can never follow that a church may institute , and impose ceremonies , for which there is no general warrant , because it must agree upon a government , for which there is a general warrant : nor that she may impose those things which are not necessary either to the constitution or administration of a church , because she must determine upon that , which is necessary both to the constitution , and administration of it . ( . ) he pretends to prove that it is unlawful to separate upon the account of unnecessary conditions of communion , and he gives us an instance in episcopacy , which yet his margin affirms to be best in it self , and apostolical for antiquity : from hence we are instructed , that unnecessary conditions , are such as are or may be best in themselves : and let him but produce such terms of communion , as being unnecessary in themselves , are yet best in themselves , and i am confident there will be an end of this controversy : whereas therefore his margine tells us , that this is argumentum ad homines : he says very true , it is so to himself and his friends . if episcopal government be best in it self , how will he thence conclude the churches power to impose indifferent things , unnecessary things ; which are not best in themselves ? but if episcopal government be indifferent , and unnecessary in it self , how is it best in it self , and apostolical for antiquity ? an indifferent thing , best in it self , an unnecessary apostolical constitution , is a notion which founds very harshly in my ears , and perhaps the most of our readers . but we are all tyred out with these paralogisms , we have heard a great clamour of schism , schism , as the manner is , and when we come to enquire after that reason , we are returned with a nihil dicit , or which is all one , nothing to that purpose . chap. iii. of the nature of the things scrupled by dissenters : shewing that there is no necessity to sacrifice either conscience or truth to peace , which may be purchased at lower rates , or else would be too dear . it was my unhappiness to read of one ; who , to an excellent discourse of the influence of adams transgression upon the misery of mankind , made this blasphemous return ; what a stir is here about the eating of an apple ? much what of the same temper was that blustering hector pope iulius the second : who being humbly advised by a cardinal not to rage so immoderately for a peacock , ( which it seems was stoln ) answered like himself , god could be angry , and plague the world ser a sorry apple , and shall not i much more for a delicate peacock ? when our enquirer would perswade us , that the things in controversie are of small importance : let me perswade him , that no disobedience to god , or treachery to our own souls , can be little to those who understand the majesty of the one , or the worth of the other . when the compilers of our liturgy shall plead on the behalf of the ceremonies , that though the keeping or ommitting of one , in it self considered , is but a small thing ; yet the wilful and contempinous transgres●… of a common order and discipline , is no small offence before god : i hope without offence we may affirm a little more of the least of christs precepts ! that little sins will find a great hell. it 's the solemn , and religious custom of those who would make their own pleasures the supream reason of their own commands , and our obedience ; first to flatter us , that the matter is inconsiderable , till we have submitted ; and then to threaten us with the sanction of those commands , as no less then eternal damnation , when violated . but if the making the things in dispute a sacrifice , would satisfie our enquirer , we are content they be immediately offered up as a holocaust , to the peace and unity of the church , in those flames they have kindled : but he comes to explain himself : 't is not that the ceremonies should become a burnt-offering to peace ; but that the consciences of the dissenters should be sacrificed to the ceremonies : or , which is more to his purpose , their persons sacrificed to those touchy deities , ( as he calls them ) of custom and vulgar opinion . those sins , which men count small , are therefore great , because their temptations are less pressing , and so being more easily avoidable , have less to plead in their excuse , or defence , but an imposing spirit , alwayes turns the wrong end of the perspective-glass , which shrinks a mountain into a mole-hill , and a bulky-minster , with all its cathedral apurtenances , into a chappel of ease , where twenty nobles per annum will not defray the charges of a ceremonious conformity . all things are little or great , as they serve the present occasion : little , when their imposing is vindicated ; and great , when the neglect of them comes to be punished . little , or nothing , till the yoke is fastened on ; and then weighty , when once their conscience is shakell'd with canonical obedience . the undoubted way therefore to settle a righteous and a durable peace , is to take just measures of things : not to keep one bushel , by which to m●…e out impos●…tions , and another , by which to deal out censures ; neither on the account of peace to reneger any of gods truths ; nor by unnecessary impositions to disturb the churches quiet . and if men could be perswaded to set aside passion , and those alluring baits to empire over souls , and calmly consider how mean ( at the best ) those things are upon which they lay the vast weight of our concord , they would see reason , not to perpetuate our divisions , nor intail quarrels upon innocent posterity , who are not yet imbroyled in our contentions ; upon the account of those things , which the church may well spare without any eclipse of her glory ; part with , without impeachment of her wisdom ; leave free , without prejudice to the worship , or just offence to any , to the unspeakable joy of all cooler spirits , besides the infinite satisfaction that would arise to our brethren of the reformed religion beyond the seas . there are three things , which the enquirer has propounded to himself to treat of in this chapter . [ ] that the causes of dissentions amongst us , are not like those upon which we seperated from the roman communion . we acknowledge it with all cheerfulness ! yet a man may die of many other diseases besides the plague . we rejoyce that the church of england has such clear grounds to justify her departure : and we wish we had fewer grounds to justify ours . but here for the credit of his discourse ( wherein we are all equally concerned with himself ) i could have wish't he had not prefaced it with so foul and gross a slander : it is said by some , that there is as much cause for secession from this church now , as there was from the roman in the time of our ancestors . i only demand so much justice from the reader , as to suspend his belief till this judicious imputation be made good , and in the mean time return thus much in answer . § . there may be a just cause , where there is not an equal cause of separation : there may be a great latitude in the terms of communion , and yet all injustifiable , and there may be great variety in the reasons of separation , and yet all may be warrantable . had the popes terms been much lower , they had been much too high for our ancestors to come up to : and though the terms of this church are lower then those of rome , yet they are something too high for dissenters , who humbly plead that they have just cause for a peaceable departure , since they cannot peaceably abide in the society . § . . upon our enquirers principles , it had been as lawful for our ancestors to have continued in communion with the roman , as for dissenters to conform to the present demands of this church . for let me have a clear answer , why their private wisdoms , ought not to be sacrificed to the publick wisdom in queen maries reign , as our private wisdom resign to the publick , under our present circumstances ? for in this case , we consider not the lawfulness , or unlawfulness of the terms as they are in their naked selves ; but where the final decision shall rest , whether they be lawful or unlawful ? now the enquirer tells us , page . it s enough to warrant our obedience , that the thing is the command of the superiour , and not beyond the sphere of his authority . but who can measure the sphere of the magistrates authority , unless we could take the just diameter of it ? again page . the result of all will be , that instead of prescribing to the magistrate what he shall determine , or disputing what he hath concluded on , we shall compose our minds , and order our circumstances for the more easy , and cheerful compliance therewith . what rivers of precious blood had this doctrine saved , had it been broached in q. maries dayes : that men must not dispute what the magistrate has concluded on : and though he thinks to heal all this by saying page . that god has made the magistrate a general commission , and made no exception of this kind , ( meaning as far as circumstantials , and those things that god himself has not defined ) yet this will not salve the difficulty , because . who shall judge what is a circumstantial , and what a substantial ; what an integral part only , and what an essential part of religion ? where shall we lodge the determination ultimately , what god has defined and not defined ? if the magistrate ! then our ancestors are gone by the common law. if the private person , we are all in statu quo . . god has no where disterminated circumstantials , from substantials in the magistrates commission ; for though our enquirer has excepted the one , yet it is by his private authority , which binds not the magistrate , his commission is patent , and therefore it may be read . rom. . let every soul be subject to the higher powers , &c. this commission does no more except an obedience , then a circumstance ; he that will put in the one , may at pleasure insert the other , and he that will except the one , may and will , except the other . so that i conclude , or at least see no reason why i may not ; that according to this enquirers sentiments , had providence allotted us our habitations under a prince of the roman communion , we might have practised all his injunctions , without warrant to plead our consciences in bar : which principle will bear a mans charges through all the turks dominions , and make any man a free citizen of malmsbury , when once conscience is sacrificed to the deity of leviathan . every true protestant will gladly read his justification of this churches departure from rome : and therefore though it be not much to the matter in hand , i shall not grudge to go a little out of my way with him , for his good company and profitable discourse . . we could not ( says he ) continue in the roman church upon any better conditions , then nahash propounded to the men of jabesh gilead to put out our right eyes , that we might be fit for their blind devotion . whether the eye be put out that it cannot ; or hood-winckt , that it may not see , is no such considerable difference ; but we have the less need of a private , if there be a publick eye that can see for us all , and better discern the fit terms of communion : and whether it be the right eye , or the left , or both , that our enquirer would pluck out of our heads i cannot tell : for when we have considered with the best eyes we have whether it be our duty to withdraw from the present establishment in some things , and the result of our most impartial inquiries , concludes in the affirmative , yet we are schismaticks , and all that is naught ; if then we may not see with our own eyes , as good pluck them out . they that fancy man to be but an autamoton , a well contrived piece of mechanism , have certainly fitted him to this hypothesis : for suppose him to be like a clock , which once put in motion , will jog on the round , and drudge through the horary circle , and perform you a twelve hours work , in twelve hours time without attendance , or other charge than a little oyle ; and you may then set him to what hour you please . and he shall as freely strike twelve at sun-set , as mid-day . . we must not here have renounced our reason ; what if we had ? our own private reason is not worth so much as to contend with the publick : and thanks be to god , that our governours are counselled by their own reasons ; for had they been guided by the counsels and interests of such divines , we must have renounced ours too long ago . . that church in lieu of the scriptures gives them traditions : nay , do not wrong the grave tridentine fathers ; it was but pari pietatis affect●… veneramur . the church of england abhors indeed that sacriledge , in her article . whosoever through his private judgement willingly and purposely doth openly break the traditions and ceremonies of the church , which be not repugnant to gods word , ought to be rebuked openly : and i am confident the roman church will allow us openly to break any of hers , when she shall confess them to be repugnant to the word of god. . instead of such things as were from the beginning , it prescribes those things that had their beginning from private interest , and secular advantages : it has been a piece of policy of our duellers to escape the laws , to cross the channel , and fight it out upon callice sands : if our enquirer will go with me thither i would dispute it fairly with him , whether the terms of communion be the same that were from the beginning ? if the church of rome be warrantably deserred , because her matters stand not in the primitive posture : they that can make the plea , will expect the same priviledge . the learned author of the irenicum p. . assures us , that it is contrary to the practice and moderation then used , to deprive men of their ministerial functions for not conforming in habit , gestures , and the like : and he adds his pions wishes : that god would vouchsafe to convince the leaders of the church of this truth it will be less material therefore , whether the things so ●…ifly insisted on , had their beginning from private interests and secular advantages , for if they were not from the beginning , is 't little to us where they had their rise . the canons of . leave bowing towards the altar indifferent , and prohibit censuring and iudging : extend but the same moderation to all other things as far from the beginning as they , and of ●…o greater importance , or confine them to cathedrals as organs once were , where they that have little else to do , are at more leasure for such operous services ; and we shall be secure as to schism , which the enquirer will certainly yield to , since he equalizes that sin to the most horrid crimes of idolatry , murther and sacriledge . . they make seven sacraments . and at our equirers rates may make sevenscore : what is a divine sacrament , but an outward visible sign , of an inward and spiritual grace given unto us , ordained by christ himself , as a means whereby we receive the same , and a pledge to assure us thereof : and let him define a humane sacrament more appositely if he can . then an outward visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace ordained by man himself ; as a means whereby we receive the same grace . and wherein does a mystical ceremony come short of this description , whose declared end is , to stir up the dull mind of man to the remenbramce of his duly to god , by some notable and special signification , whereby he may be edified . nor is there any thing wanting but the royal assent , the divine stamp of authority to make it a sacrament as accomplisht at all points as those which are declared generally necessary to salvation . and if the papalins erroneously judge their five ordained of god , and we confess ours are not so ; all the difference is this ; that they are mistaken , and act proportionably to their mistake , and we see better , and yet act disproportionably : but the truth is , many of their most learned writers freely own their five sacraments to be no more then ecclesiastical traditions and mystical ceremonies ; such as the sign of the cross , though to set them off to the eye , they honour them with the august title of sacraments : thus petrus a soto . omnes illae observationes sunt traditiones apostolicae , quarum principium , author & origo , in sacris scripturis inveniri non potest . cujusmodi sunt , oblatio sacrificii altaris , unctio chrismatis , in vocatio sanctorum , orationes pro defunctis , totum sacramentum confirmationis , ordinis matrimonii , paenitentiae , ●…nctionis extremae , merita operum , necessitas satisfactionis , enumeratio peceatorum facienda sacerdoti . we are to account all those observations . apostolical traditions , whose beginning , author and origine , are not found in the holy scriptures : such as are the oblation of the sacrifice of the altar , the anointing with chrisme , invocation of saints , prayers for the dead : the whole sacrament of confirmation , of orders , of matrimony , of penitance , of extreme unction ; the merits of good works , the necessity of satisfaction , and auricular confession . . they have taken away one of the ten commandments , and have arts of evacuating all the rest : and why may they not evacuate the second , as well as our author the fourth commandment ? all were equally promulgated in mount sinai , all have the same signature of divine authority , and he that can make schism equal to idolatry , may when he sees his time , throw off the second as he has done the fourth for a piece of judaical superstition . . they have brought in pageantry instead of piety and devotion , effaced the true lineaments of christianity , and instead thereof , recommended and obtruded upon the world the dictates of ambition , the artifices of gain . he may safely talk his pleasure at this distance ; though it would not be so prudent to preach this doctrine where the popes great horse sets his foot : all the use i shall make of it is this little : that if the introduction of pageantry instead of piety and devotion be a good warrant to justifie our separation from rome ; let them judge ( who have to do with it ) whether it were fellony to remove a mans quarters ten miles from some cathedrals . . lastly ( says he ) these things could not be submitted to without grievous sin , and manifest danger of damnation : no! now observe how the romanist will belabour him with his own cudgel : p. . it s the custom of those that have a mind to quarrel , to aggravate , and heighten the causes of discontent , to the end that the ensuing mischief , may not be imputed to the frowardness of their temper , but to the greatness of the provocation . and passion is such a magnifying glass , as is able to extend a mole-hill to a mountain ; if men would be perswaded to lay aside their passions , and calmly consider the nature of those things that they divided from the catholick church upon , they would be so far from seeing reason to perpetuate the schism , that they would on the contrary be seized with wonder and indignation that they have been imposed upon so far as to take those things for great deformities , which upon mature consideration are really nothing worse then moles , which may be upon the most beautiful face : but the reader will easily see that these are nothing but some ill gathered shreds out of your formul●… , oratoriae , or clarks transitions , which will fit protestant or papist , and indeed any school-boy that has a theme , or declamation to compose . that the causes of separation from the church of rome were pregnant , every way clear and evident , we do therefore agree : and that the reasons of separation from the church of england are not so great , but then neither is the separation so great ; for as we agree in the fundamental articles of religion , so we may quickly agree in all the rest , when some of a more fiery temper will let their mother alone to exercise to all her children such an indulgence as is agreeable to their various measures of light in lesser concerns . but ( says our author ) it 's quite otherwise in the church of england . for. . no man here parts with his faith upon conformity , but i am afraid they must part with it , or they will hardly be accepted . their faith is , that the lord christ is the only lawgiver of his church ; that the scriptures are the adequate , and commensurate rule of all religious worship , and if they do not part with thus much of their faith , they must live in a contradiction to it ; but perhaps he may understand their faith better then they themselves . . no man is bound to give away his reason for quietness sake : then i know who was mistaken p. . who tells us . that since the peace of the church often depends upon such points as salvation does not , and since in many of those every man is not a competent judge , but must either be in danger of being deceived himself , and of troubling others , or of necessity must trust some body else wiser then himself , she recommends in such a case , as the safer way for such private persons to comply with publick determinations . and we may assure our selves of our enquirers good nature in this particular ; who condemnes virgilius for asserting the antipodes , though it were demonstrably true , and the contrary impossible . and then i am afraid we must sacrifice our reason to peace , and rather subscribe like brutes , then run the risque of being perscuted like men. . a man may be as holy , and good as he will. the goodness and holiness of a christian lyes very much in using holy means for holy ends : gods holy ordinances , in order to holiness in the habit and complexion of the soul : he that may not use the means of holiness when he will , may not be as holy as he will : but as holy as he can without them : he that will use all the means of god in order to that great end , it may possibly cost him more then he would willingly lose for any cause but that of righteousness : methought it was an odd sight t'other day to see a grave divine in his canonical habit , marching with a brace of informers piping hot on either hand , the one like the gizzard , the other the liver stuck under the wings of his sacerdotal habiliments , from one of his rectories to the other , to give disturbance to a company of poor innocent people that would have been a little more holy if they might ; when this is reformed . i 'le believe that the more of holiness appears , the better churchmen we are reputed . . this church keeps none of her children in an uncomfortable estate of darkness ; for we must know that there 's a twofold estate of darkness , a comfortable , and an uncomfortable estate : now the comfortable estate of darkness , lyes in trusting others , submitting our private to the publick wisdom ; this is that blessed state whereinto he would wish his best friends : but the unconfortable state is , that remedy which is practised in spain and italy for the cure of church divisions . an excellent remedy it is , but it comes too late to do any good here : the difference between them was observed before , either to be born blind , or made blind , to have no conscience , or prohibited to exercise it ; to have no eyes , or not to use them ; and in my private opinion there 's no great comfort in either of them . . she debars none of her members of the comfort and priviledges of christs institutions . some that have struggled with a doubting conscience , have attested the contrary ; but however she may possibly debar some of those priviledges and comforts , that would have been her members , because they dare not give the price , she rates those priviledges and comforts at . . she recommends the same faith , the same siriptures , that the protestants are agreed in : yes ! but then she recommends those ceremonies to boot , in which protestants neither are nor ever will be agreed in . we do therefore seriously triumph that the church of england with the protestants , are also fully and perfectly agreed that they have not only the same god and christ , but the same object of worship too . ( though i know not wherein god and the object of worship differ ) the same way of devotion in a known tongue , the same sacraments , the same rule of life , which are all the great things wherein the consciences of men are concerned , to which i shall need to say no more ; but that we in the general profess our owning of all these , and yet our differences be very considerable , but let our consciences be concerned about no other ; no other sacraments , no other rule of life , no other devotion , and what is necessary to reduce all these into practice , and i can assure him , dissenters will flock a pace into the bosome of the church . he promises us now that he will faithfully and briefly recite the matters in difference . and i confess for brevity , he has performed his promise well enough , but for his fidelity , the dissentets sadly complain of him : i shall therefore crave the liberty to use a little more prolixity , and i shall endeavour to compensate it with much more fidelity , to reciting the material points wherein we differ . as § . whether a minister ordained according to the appointment of the gospel to the exercise of the whole ministerial work , may without sin consent , that a main part of his office be statedly and totally taken out of his hands , and his work cantoned at the will of another ? § . whether any church has power from christ to appoint in , and over it self , or members , any officers specially distinct from those christ hath ordained . § . whether any church hath authority from christ to institute any other ordinances of fixed and constant use in the church then christ hath instituted ? § . . whether it be an apparent invasion of , and open reproach to the regal office of christ , for any society of his to institute either new officers or new offices , for the govorning and administring that society , which the head hath not allowed . § . . whether it be not the duty of every particular church to conform all the worship , and administration of religion to the laws of their institution ? and that whatever is not so conformed , be not a corruption , which ought to be reformed by those laws ? § . . whether if a church shall peremtorily refuse to remove such officers , offices , ordinances , superadded to the evangelical law : a person that shall separate from its communion in those things wherein it refuses to reform , may without breach of charity be called a schismatick ? § . . whether a christian may act against the superseding dictate of his conscience , and may give it up to be ruled by an imaginary publick , conscience ? § . . whether , seeing we have the unerring word of god to guide us to be mislead by our leaders is a good countersecurity against the judgment of god ? § . . whether it be lawful to break the least of scripture commandments to purchase our quiet with men , or secure our own repose in the world ? § . . whether the command of my superiour will justify me in murthering the soul of my weak brother , when i may avoid giving the scandal in things indifferent ? § . . whether can the command of a superiour make that no sin , but a duty : but without that command , had been no duty , but sin ? § . . whether a minister of the gospel may submit to have his prayers and sermons composed for him by others ? and whether he be a minister at all who is not able in some measure to discharge both to edification ? § . . whether a christian may without sin wholly and perpetually suffer his christian liberty to be determined one way , though under future circumstances , it may be the command or god for a season to determine it the other way ? § . . whether a christian willing to subscribe to all that christ has propounded to him to believe , and to engage solemnly to do all that christ requires him to do , and not contradicting such engagement by conversation , arguing him of praevalent hypocrisy , but having given good proof before men of his holiness , ought to be denyed christian communion ? § . . whether upon such tendries made , and their refusal ; only because he will not submit to new terms of communion not approved by the word of god , he shall adjoyn himself to some other particular church , where the doctrine of christianity is purely preached , the sacraments duely administred , and the conditions of enjoying all these , and other the ordinances of christ , honourable and easie ; such departure from the one , and conjunction with the other , be that schism noted in the scripture ? § . . whether any church hath power to advance indifferent things above their indifferent natures , and make them holy in their use , and relation , appropriated to gods immediate worship , and impose them as the terms of exercising the ministerial office ? § . . whether any church hath power to institute new dedicating , and imitiating signs and symbols , whereby persons are declared and professed to be visible cristians ? § . . whether being clearly convinced by the word of god that there are corruptions in a particular church whereof i am a member ; i ought not to endeavour in my place and station lawfully to reform them : and if a prevailing number in that church shall not only refuse to reform , but require of me to renounce all such lawful endeavours , upon pain and peril of casting out of communion ; i may not wave the society of the corrupt majority , and adhere to the more sober and moderate party who will reform themselves ? [ ] his second task is to prove that something must be foregone for peace . the design of this loose discourse may de reduced to this argument . small matters though truths , or duties , are to be sacrificed to peace : but the things that dissenters stick and boggle at , are such small matters , therefore they ought to be sacrificed to peace . to which i only say at present ; that i modestly deny both his premisses , and do hope he will as modestly deny the conclusion . and perhaps some sawcy fellow or other will take up the argument , and give it one turn . small matters that are indifferences ought to be sacrificed to peace , but the things imposed upon dissenters ( in the judgment of the imposers ) are small indifferent things , therefore they ought to be sacrificed to peace , or thus . those things which we account little , we ought not make necessary to peace & union , 〈◊〉 the things which are in difference , are in our own account little , therefore we ought not to make them necessary to peace and union . something then we would give for peace , and more then we can modestly speak of : if it were to be had for money , we should not think that gold could buy peace too dear , though truth may . but may we humbly enquire of the enquirer , whether he have this peace to sell ? and at what rates it may be purchased ? i have carefully , not to say curiously perused his whole discourse ; and i must confess to the reader , that i am so far from understanding how the market goes , that i suspect he knows not his own mind . page . he tells us : we must be at some cost to purchase it , and part with something for it . well! but what is that something ? will petitions , supplications , prayers , humbling our selves at his footstoole procure us peace ? no! that something , is nothing : men are not so mad , as to part with such a rich commodity as peace for an old song of petitions . what is it then ? oh! pag. . he told us from erasmus , that peace was not too dear at the price of some truth . very good ! will then telling half a dozen round lyes procure us our peace ? or the renouncing half a score scripture-truths . or so ? oh but we are commanded to buy the truth ; not sell it : net to do evil that good may come . and besides that peace will never wear well , nor last long that is purchased with the loss of truth . to war with god , or skirmish the scripture , is no approved method to secure peace amongst our selves . well then , pag ●… . he tells us , we must subdue our passions and castigate our heats : and i think we have had pretty good coolers ; then we must take in our sailes , lighten the ship , cast overboard the fardles of our private fancies and opinions : and we are content to cast overboard any thing that is purely our own ; only if any of the rich lading of truth should be packt up in those fardles , we humbly pray that may be spared : if our own private personal concerns were only called for , he should find the non-conformists as one man ; saying , sin autem jonas ille ego sim , projicite me , in mare ut tempestas desaeviat : pray throw us into the sea , only do not throw any concern of christ , nor reformation after us : well! then he would have us offer something to those touchy deities of custom and vulgar opinion . but really these are a couple of such insatiable idols , it were cheaper to starve them , then feed them ; we may maintain bell , and the dragon at as easie rates : what is it then we must part with for peace ? at last it comes out with much ado ; loath to confess till just turning off the ladder , for these are his last words under this head , pag. . in a word that we part with all that which is no essential point of our religion , for charity which is . i am heartily sorry that peace is not to be had upon easier terms ! but especially that charity , a lady of so much debonaireté , that seeks not her own , much less to rob another , that 〈◊〉 not to look so big , and stand upon terms ; should enflame the reckoning : it is not , it cannot be charity , i know her temper too well ; that requires conscience , or truth should be sacrificed upon her altar : a true friend she is to truth , and no less to peace , and will wait on her usque ad aras and no further . no! it 's the tyrian idol meloch that old canibal and bloodsucker , that delights in humane carnage ; for thus we read in q. curtius , that when they were in a great straight . sacrum quod quidem diis minime cordi esse crediderim , jam multis saeculis intermissum , repetendi quidem autores erant . which we may accommodate in the translation thus , some there were that perswaded the state to revive an old and obsolete statute , which since the time of ancient persecutions had lyen d●…rmant , and to sacrifice freemen to the common safety ; but for my part , though you count me a heathen writer ; i can never believe , according to those notions i have of the gods , that such cruelties were ever acceptable to their deities . i would have peace upon any terms that are reasonable , but to part with all that in religion , which he shall say is no essential part of it , is a very hard chapter . we may chop off a mans legs , arms , put out his eyes , cut off his nose , and yet though thus miserably dismembered and mangled in his integrals ; his essential parts , body and soul remain : thus he may cut off even what he pleases of religion , all worship , all sacraments , all discipline , and leave us but faith , hope and charity , there 's as much as is essential to our salvation , and then dispose of the rest . to this , or some other , or no purporse at all he quotes us greg. nazianzen . who asks us this question : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; what 's far more beautiful then our own reason ? and he answers : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . nay i will add , the most profitable too . we were made to believe page . that no man ( in england ) is bound to give away his reason for quietness sake : but now four pages further , peace is far more beautiful and useful then our own reason : how shall we reconcile these cross capers ? why , qui bene distinguit , bene respondet . then he was commending the moderation of the church of england in opposition to rome . how that imperious lady that sits on the seven hills , hectors the world out of their reason , and common sense ; and then reason was more precious then peace ; but now he 's arguing the non-conformists into obedience , and then peace is more precious then reason . to the same purpose he gives us that excellent counsel of the apostle . rom. . if it be possible , as much as in you lyes , live peaceably with all men . admirable advice it is , god grant us grace to take it . and truly the non-conformists can live peaceably with all the world , if they might be let alone , but it s not in their power to prescribe terms to others , but to receive them . leges à victoribus dari , à victis accipi , said caesar : if then reasonable terms be offered us , we will accept , and love them : if unreasonable , we will refuse , and love them . if we be taken into the circle of their charity , we will love them ; if we be excluded , yet still we love them : amabo & si nolis , amabo & si nolim ipse . we will love whether they will accept our love , and thank us for it or no : nay we will love them whether our own exasperating sufferings will perswade us , or no ; that is , we will follow them with a christian affection , in spight of their teeths , and of our own . but this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to live , converse peaceably , perhaps may be impossible , and the apostle we see will not tye us up to impossibles : now sinful conditions create a moral impossibility ; for id tantum possumus quod jure possumus . i confess it cost me a smile when i read his improvement of the apostles exhortation . surely ( says he ) he did not mean we should only accept of peace , when it s offered us for nothing , or be quiet till we can pick a quarrel , but that we should be at some cost to purchase it , and part with something for it : the old something still ! why , we are willing to part with all our outward concerns , we will give skin upon skin , will neither gods terms , nor the devils please him ? only we would not part with our consciences instructed from the scriptures , the soveraingty of christ , the perfection of the written word ; and is all this nothing ? but still he 's at it again — we must deny our selves something upon that account . why , we will take an oath in the presence of almighty god to lead quiet and peaceable lives as become good subjects , in all godliness and honesty ; will that serve to purchase our peace ? no! it must be something else , which before he acquaints us with , he will first prove the necessity of it , and thus he reasons . there are hardly ( says he page . . ) any two persons perfectly of the same apprehensions , or stature of understanding in the whole world. so much difference there is in mens constitutions , such diversity of education , such variety of interests and customs , and from hence so many prejudices and various conceptions of things , that he that resolves to yeeld to no body , can agree with no body . what now is to be done in this perplexed case ? must we take our constitutions in pieces ? i doubt we shall never put them right together again ; or must we have no peace till all the propensities and inclinations , rooted and riveted in our beings , natures temperaments , besides that second nature growing out of custome , be stormed ? the terms of peace will be next to desperate this way . what then , must the prevailing party commit a rape upon the intellectuals of the depressed minority , and marry them afterwards to make them amends : yet still there is a tower called assent and consent , can never be forced by assault what then , must the lesser number openly profess themselves convinced , and make recantations before they have cause for 't ? alas this is but to proselyte a few hypocrites , who are not worth the whistling ! or must we tarry till we come to heaven , where we shall be of one mind ? oh our enquirer is not satisfied in that point to plerophory , some thin●… so indeed ; but he wisely keeps his faith to himself , what course must we then steer ? why we must castigate our heats , take in our sailes , lighten the ship , and offer sacrifice to the touchy deities of received custome and vulgar opinion , with all the fine stuff you heard before : but surely there 's an easier , cheaper , more honourable and christian way then all these put together : to bear with one another , to leave judging , censuring , despising , persecuting ; to leave men to those sentiments which they have contracted from insuperable weakness , or less happy education , whilst they are good men , good subjects , good christians , sound in the faith , and worship god no worse then the scripture commands them . and he that cannot indulge his brother sound in the fundamentals , and walking together with his brethren so far as he has attained , let him prate of peace till his tongue akes , 't is evident he would not purchase peace with shoobuckles . the apostle has recommended this expedient to us by his own example , cor. . , . which the enquirer could see to quote , and not to understand . unto the iews i became as a iew , that i might gain the iews ; to them that were without the law as without law ( being not without law to god , but under the law to christ ) that i might gain them that are without the law ; to the weak became i as weak that i might gain the weak , i am made all things to all men , that i might by all means save some . it seems the blessed a postle had not yet learnt to snickle the private conscience , with his publick authority . that which he quotes from greg. naz is indeed more considerable to his design : who affirms how st. basil dissembled the coesseutiality of the holy chost , and delivered himself in ambiguous terms on that point , least he should offend and loose the weak . the reader will conclude by these instances , that though the enquirers designly open to condemn the dissenters , yet his mediums do strongly plead their cause : we are illustrated with an apostle , with a famous bishop , both eminent for their condescentions to the weak , such as laid not the stress of the churches peace upon their own wills , or a postolical power , or ecclesiastical authority , nor defined too severely controverted points ; and yet when he comes to the application , the duty of yelding is pressed upon the dissenters : whose coming up in a hundred points were perfectly insignificant , unless they could nick the very 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of canon-conformity . i would ask the enquirer whether the dissenters ever pleaded to be gracified in so weighty a point as the coessentiality of the holy spirit ? or whether ambiguity , or a handsome equivocation there , must be one of those things we must give for peace ; if neither of these , he might have spared bafil , if not for our sake , yet for his own . and out of all these excellent materials we expected he should have composed a speech to the reverend bishops . my lords ! i have humbly set before your discerning judgments the great example , of the great st. basil , and the greater instance of the famous dr : of the gentiles , persons , whose authority in the church and wisdom to manage that authority , was ( without disparagement ) equal to the same qualifications in your lordships ; and yet their hearts so humble , when their places were so high , their condescentions greater then their exaltations , carries somewhat in it of that divinity which bespeaks your imitation . they would become all things to all men , though sin to none ; they were ambitious to wi●… the weak by meekness , and not to wound the weak by majesty . the way of peace lyes plain before you , st●…p to them in things indifferent , who cannot rise to you in what they call sinful , your yeelding to the weak will be your strength . and whilst you gain tender consciences to the church , you will gain immortal honour to your selves . let it be the glory of your lives , that you have made up our breaches , and not the epitaph of your tombs ; that the way of peace you have not known . he comes now to the grand example indeed , that of our blessed saviour , which if it be but faithfully alledged , and congruously applyed , must silence all dispute , and conquer the must restif reluctancy , let us then hear how christs example leads us to conform . . christ complied with the rites and customs he found ; what , right or wrong ? 't is true ! he complied with those he found , because he found such rites and customs as were warranted by the law. he was circumcised . true , it became him to fulfil all righteousness . he did eat the passeover . very true ! he was made under the law. he wore their garments , spoke their language . no doubt of it ; he was a jew by birth , and approved himself a minister of the circumcision for the truth of god. . he condescended to the very humours of that stubborn people . true ! not by imitating them ; not assuming the person of a iewish zealot , but mildly reproving their irregularities ; he came not in the blustering whirlwind , nor in the terrible earthquake , but in the still small voice of evangelical meekness . he came not to break the bruised reed , nor quench the smoaking flax ; but rebuked his mistaken disciples that they understood not the spirit of the gospel , nor what a temper it called for , that they must needs fetch fire from heaven , to consume the truly schismatical samaritans ; when they should rather have castigated their own heats , and calmed their own passions , which were kindled from a worse fire : i expect still how he will accommodate this condescention of our blessed saviour to his purpose ; for either the dissenters must be those stubborn people , and then if the clergy will imitate their lord and master , they must condescend to their very humours , or else dissenters must in imitation of christ condescend to the clergy , and then it supposes them to be the stubborn and inflexible party . besides condescention in inferiours to superiours , will be very improper language . . he used their phrase in his discourse . and the non-conformists speak as proper english as their wit serves them , that they cannot adorn their conceptions , or cloath their thoughts in thunder 〈◊〉 ping phraseology , may , perhaps be their misery , but certainly not their sin. . he observed their feasts . we question it not ; he came to do his fathers will , and amongst other particulars , that also of observing what ever ordinance was of divine institution : but the render must know , here 's a secret argument couch't in these words against non-conformity , which i will ingenuously own , and 't is this : the jews had instituted a feast in memory of the dedication of the temple . now this festival had not the character of divine institution ; and yet this feast our saviour solemnized , and who then can be so refractory as not to observe the holy-dayes , and consequently all other humane constitutions , which bear no direct repugnancy to the law of god ? i shall neither assert at present that this festival had divine warrant , n●…r deny that it was properly of a religious nature , but this i return , that it appears not that our saviour performed any act , or spoke any word , that may be interpreted , or construed an approbation of that practise . all that appears is from i●… . , . and it was at jerusalem the feast of the dedication , and it was winter , and iesus walked in solomons porch : how shall we draw in christs conformity from these words ? it was winter ; ergo jesus approved the feast . he walked in solomons poreh : ergo , he condescended to that usage ! the business was no more then this : christ went up and down doing good , and seeking all occasions for that great end of his coming into the world : where most fishes were , there he threw his net ; where the greatest confluence of people were gathered , there he preached : he took them where he could find them ; they would not come to him , he would go to them ; whatever was the lawfulness of that feast , or the occasion of their assembly , christ could make a holy advantage of it , to preach the gospel for their salvation . he made his own institutions of baptism and the lords supper as consonant to their customs as 't was possible . a notable instance it was of his condescension , if it was but true ; but i am afraid we shall not be so happy as to see clear evidence of it ; which is therefore to be lamented , because our enquirer will miss an advantage of charging dissenters with iudaizing in the sacraments . but i will promise him thus muc●… ? when non-conformists have a commission from heaven to institute sacraments , they shall , if i can prevail , make them as consonant to all honest customs as 't is possible ; but till then i hope he will not be displeased that we regulate all our customs by christs commands , and not warp his commands to our customs . . he would not disturbe them with novelty , but ingratiate●… himself and his doctrine by these complyances . i have but one answer to these objections . let him be imitated . let all that profess the name of christ , so far evidence the sincerity of their profession , as not to torment mens consciences with new fangles , nor vex an age ( wearied with contending , and willing to be quiet ) with novel inventions : let all junior ●…ervances be reduced to the sacred rule and rubrick , and then we shall all conform and joyn cheerfully in the antiphonie ; as it was in the beginning , so it is now , and ever shall be , world without end . . when a certain tribute was demanded of him , he first proves he was not oblidged to pay it ; yet least he should offend them , determines to pay it , and works a miracle to enable peter to pay it . an unanswerable argument that non-conformists are not exempted from ta●…es and subsidies : but what 's their coine to their conscience ? it may seem a piece of unpardonable boldness to say that dissenters go beyond this pattern : and yet . they plead no immunity from assessments . nor . pay their levies meerly to ●…id offence , but out of sence of their duty , nor , can they raise money so easie as by miracle , they are glad to work hard for it ; and yet they endeavour to get their silver ready against it be called for ; and if their persens , or purses may serve their prince , they know nothing too precious for his service , that under the auspices of his gracious government , they may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty . and now let the enquirer cast up his accounts , and see what he has gained declaro , by all these great examples ? the apostle who was strong in the faith , parted with something of his liberty , to please and gain the weak ; therefore the weak must part with their consciences , wherein they have no liberty , to gratifie the strong : jesus christ , who was the lord of worship , accommodated his ordinances to the jewish customs , therefore the non-conformists who have no power over worship , may accommodate their practices in worship to the present customs st. basil concealed his judgment in a great truth therefore non-conformists may subscribe what they judge a falsehood . from the publick instances our enquirer at last appeals to our consciences . let me appeal ( says he ) to the consciences of men , is it ●…t plain from hence , that although i be perswaded that such a certain rite is less commendable in it self , yet if it appear to be an instrument of accommodation , that it is therefore in that case best on that account ? these retrogade appeals from the publick iudgment to the private conscience are wholy irregular ; yet since he has appealed to conscience , to conscience he shall go ; whose determination in the case , if it may be heard speak , is this ; that it is plain from those instances , that if any rite in it self indifferent , shall prove an instrument of distraction , and division , it 's just upon that account to abolish it , but his appeal was not drawn clerk-like : for the competition , and contest is not amongst us , between ●…ne mys●…ical ceremonie , and another , but between ceremonies , and no ceremonies ; if the controversie were about a meer circumstance of time , or place , or the natural cloathing of a religious action ; as whether the publick worship shall commence at nine , or ten a clock , or whether it shall be celebrated in a house of timber or stone , in which determination the wors●…ippers may perhaps suffer some 〈◊〉 , ●…ut the worship it self no prejudice , seeing we must worship our god at some time , and some place , we can have no concern for stiffness or abstinacy ; but when the controversy shall be about such rites , which being neither in general commanded , nor in their individuals expressed , do enter into the worship it self , as an integral part of that devotion which we present to the divine majesty , we say such rites are sinful , on this side the command of a church , and can be no fit instruments of accommodation . after many an impertinent paragraph , the enquirer starts a new question , which , though i never once dream't of it , shall have that attendance it deserves . if i am perswaded that such an opinion is more true , then that which is publickly owned , ( so long 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 doctrine of christianity is not in dispute ) may i 〈◊〉 rather conceal if , then dis●…urb the church ? the case is i confess before ▪ mean 〈◊〉 , and the best assistance i can contribute to it's resolution , is to recommend him to the apostle . . ro. . hast th●… faith ; have it to thy self before god! upon which text our enquirer descants notably . . by faith in the text ( says he ) the apostle means not the doctrine of christianity . for then the meaning should be , that he that understands the great doctrine of christianity should conceal it : well , but what hurt in a concealement ? st. basil was just now applauded , for dissembling the coessentiality of the h. spirit : which , if the athana●… creed say true , is one of the great doctrines , of christianity , necessary to be believed for salvation . . by faith ( says he ) is not meant the habit of saving faith : we agree to it ! and are glad he can find such a thing as a habit of saving faith. . by faith is meant only a perswasion of the ●…awfulness of such a thing in it self indifferent . i shall not contradict , yet let me say . . that though it be a confessed truth . that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 interdum licet , yet 't is as true , pr●…scribere falsum ▪ ●…unquam licet : though i may conceal a truth sometimes , i may never assert a falshood . i may forbear to say there are antipodes , yet may i not say , or subscribe , or swear there are none , and yet these are none of the essentials of our religion . negative precepts bind us semper , and ad semper ; that is , there can be no case put wherein , no time assign'd when it may be lawful to deny or renounce the smallest truth , or violate the least of gods commands by my practise . . though i may conceal my judgment , or suspend my practise , in some of these lesser matters , yet when a sweet concurrence of inviting circumstances shall call for my asserting that truth , or pract●…sing that duty , i am then to assert the one , and practise the other . in some cases i may wave an explicite profession , or open practise , when such forbearance shall be compensated with a greater good , when a little time shall pay the truth , and gods glory , interest , and make amends , for the lucrum cessans , and damnum emergens , the spiritual loss sustained , or spiritual advantage delayed . though i may conceal , or suspend as aforesaid , yet i ought not to give away my christian liberty , nor commit any act , or acts , that may de●… my future claim , or be pleaded in bar to my right . . when ●…he consciences of christians are notoriously hazarded by my silence , or forbearance , when i am in danger of betraying my brother to errour , or hardening another in his , i have need of much wisdom and prudence how to speak and act , but speak , and act i ought ; for it 's a most monstrous cheat , to urge the manner of a duty , against the duty it self ; as that because i ought to act prudently , that therefore i ought to sit still . . i am much dissatisfied how it should follow from hence , what he makes his conclusion : that we may change any rite or ceremony that we have a great kindness for , for one more grateful to others : nay , if any ceremony i have in my worship not commanded by christ , may do him a kindness , i have no such kindness for it as to disoblige him , nor shall he need to send me back one of his beloved ones in exchange , i shall never feel the want of it . but now the reader must be entreated to use his eyes : the assertion was that it is lawful to conceal my opinion ( when the main doctrine of christianity is not in dispute ) rathet then disturb the peace of the church : from whence he would wisely infer , therefore we may practise ceremonies , which i am either fully satisfied are sinful , or not fully satisfied that they are lawful : for this is the upshot : — that we may comply with the laws in being , so they be not palpably contrary to the scriptures or common reason ; it very amazing to me , that i cannot conceal what i think true , unless i must assert what i judge false : nor bite in my sentiments about anothers unlawful practise , but i must practise with him : i may suppress my judgment that such a thing is sinful , and yet not dare to deliver my judgment that it is lawful . he that commanded me not to judge my brother , did not command me to imitate him . it must not be overlook't , what an emphasis he lays upon this word palpably , we may comply with the laws , so they be not palpably contrary to the scriptures . and p. . it must be an apparent breach of the divine law , that gives just cause of separation . and p. . conditions of communion that are not expresly sinful , and such wherein there is not a plain necessity , and certainty of sin in compliance , are justified . sinful terms , will not justify separation , unless they be apparently , expresly so . nor will a sinful command warrant my non-obedience , unless it be palpably such . it must be some gross impiety , which like the egyptian darkness may be felt : thus if i be prohibited to partake of the lords supper , oftner then once in three , four or seven years , i must pocket up the wrong , because here 's no palpable , apparent , express violation of the law of god. the law says indeed , as often as ye eat this bread , and drink this cup : but has not determin'd how often . as one of your roman casuists determines , that we are not bound actually to love god above once in three years ; and another thinks , once in a mans life will serve the turn , provided we do not down-right hate him : because 〈◊〉 command of loving god , is an affirmative praecept , which binds indeed semper , but not ad semper . and if all the rabble rout of popish ceremonies were commanded , and five times as many more , yet these will not justify non-obedience , because ( forsooth ) they are not expresly forbidden , by name , nor palpably contrary to any one text of scripture . and to conclude , the reader shall now know at a word the lowest price of peace . that we part with all that , which is no essential point of our religion , for charity , which is . this is the lowest penny , take it , or leave it , try the world , and mend your selves , where you can . but . it 's palpably ridiculous , to oppose charity to any point , or part of religion : as if charity , which is commanded by the principles of our religion , should cross those principles : charity commands a religious person to stoop to all in his private concerns , but requires not that any principle of religion should stoop to it . . it 's weakly supposed , that it 's the concern of charity , that we be of one uniform practise in the minutes of religion , when her highest , and noblest exercise is to embrace those that differ from us in sinless practises . for i cannot yet understand , what interest evangelical love has to reduce us to an uniformity in rites , and ceremonies ; and do know that protestants who differ in the lesser points of religion , as to principle , and practise , do yet maintain a more entire and cordial love amongst themselves , then the papists who are cudgelled by the iron rod of the inquisition into a precise indentity , in their little fopperies . did we never hear of two friends that could really love each other with the most endeared affections , though their cloaths were not made by the same taylor ! nor trim'd up with the same ceremonies of ribbonds , and lace ; let the worshippers of mahomet quarrel about their green , and red turbants , yet christian kingdoms can hold firm peace , and inviolate amity , without abolishing their respective country customs : the irish in one of our kings reigns could not be perswaded nor forced to leave their odd way of plowing , and threshing out their grain , and yet that prudent prince never sent ta●… amongst them with his iron ●…ail to thresh them into a compliance with more decent , and useful manners , . this distinction of the points of religion into accidental , or circumstantial , integral , and essential , ( or however else they please to marshal it ) had need be well , warranted , sufficiently clearly , carefully limited , and distinctly butted , and bounded ; that we may exactly see where the circumstantials end , and the integrals begin , and where the integrals expire , and the essentials commence , or we may soon be distinguisht out of all our religion : for under the cover●… of such arbitrary distinctions rome has already rooted out much of religion within her quarters . she confesses that christ did institute both the eating of the bread , and the drinking of the cup ; but withal affirms , that he that eats the flesh of christ , receives the bl●… 〈◊〉 per concomitantiam . drinking is not essential to the sacrament , and therefore she has upon prudential grounds , ( as she thinks ) appropriated that moity to the priests , who need it most , and love it best : and in the judgment of grotius , both bread , and wine may be spared , as he leardnedly determines upon that question . an semper communicandum per symbola ? and 't is but suitable to what he endeavours to evince ( as our enquirer cites him pag. ) that the magistrate exceeds not his commission when he interposes , for the determination of the circumstantials of religion . and seeing bread and wine in his judgment are not essential to that ordinance ; by his own , and our authors principles , the magistrate may ( for some time at least ) prohibite both : for if the magistrate has a power from god to determine the circumstantials , he must be supposed , to be judge what are so , and thus we may have all our religions justitutions distinguish't , and determined away in a moment . for though at present whilst we are under the care of faithful governours , we are secure of the essentials ; yet we have granted a principle in this generation , which may utterly eradicate all positive and instituted worship in the next ; and we hold all the ordinances of christ upon precarious terms ; that is , we are fiduciaries of that grand depositum , till some men shall please to call for it , and then like the traditores of old , must resign and betray the concerns of the gospel . [ ] he is now entering upon his third labour ; which is to prove ; that the things in difference are of such a nature , as may be fit to become a peace-offering , and sacrificed to the magistrate , the laws , and the church . for the proof of which he will give us these five following remarkes . ( ) that the things now scrupled in this church are such as were heretofore submitted to , by the most leading-men of those that now depart from it : to which i shall very briefly return these few particulars . . that the non-conformists are not led by men , further then as they have authority in the name of christ to lead them . the leaders or pastors disclaim all other conduct , then by gospel direction ; their power is ministerial , not despotical , and their people disclaim all such leaders , as would lord it over their faith , and take away the judgment of discretion over their own acts. it 's a very uncomely fight to behold a drove of rational creatures with their consciences tayled to one ●…e horse , and so conducted to a faire , there to he sold for peace , and expediency . . with equal reason the dissenters will plead , that the worship which they now use , is the very same that was lately used , and practised by some of the most leading-men amongst the conformists ; and is it not a wonder that whether men go backwards or forwards , yet both shall form an argument for conformity . if they have sometimes been non-conformists , and are now reclaimed , that shall conclude for conformity , because they must be supposed to have their eyes anointed with some excellent collyrium , and to see better ; if they were once conformists , and become at last dissenters , yet that will conclude full as well for conformity , because they once saw better : such shuffling arguments would with equal truth serve the occasions of the dissenters too . many of the conformists were once non conformists , and therefore we are no worse now , then they were then ; and many of the non-conformists were once conformists , and therefore having tryed the difference are more competent judges which way of worship is nearest the rule . and though both these ways of reasoning are none of the best , yet if there be any advantage , the latter carries it : because there can be no such arguments from worldly interest the one way , which may possibly have a stroke the of other ; few are ambitious to be starved , and as few that are so irreconciliable to preferments . . not former apprehensions , but present light into the mind of god from his word , ought to be our immediate , and next director in our worship of him : men may change , as times and external accidents change , but the rule of religion is unchangeable , and abides for ever . ( ) some non-conformists daily come over to the church , and those none of the meanes●… for ability , or piety : but let them brag of any one if they can find him , that hath since the resettlement of the church apostatized to them . the dissenters send back the challenge , let them brag of any one if they can find him that has apostatiz'd to them . but yet i shall say a little more . § . . it 's no wonder to hear of few conversions to a persecuted profession . it must be a deep impression of duty to god , and a violent respect to the reward of another world , that will prevail with flesh , and blood to set it's face against the blustring wind of opposition , and ●…owe against the impetuous current of general example , men are not easily induced to close in with that worship , which will not only prejudice , but ruine their temporal concerns . it 's ordinary to see secular advantages to command the minds of many , but no turning to a reproached reformation , but what arises from clear and irresistible convictions . all the avene us to preferment , all the passes to a livelyhood are so strictly guarded , that men of parts whose educations have promised them the outward rewards of ingenuity , and learning , are sometimes necessitated to sowze over head and ears into compliance at first dash ; all arguments are drowned in the noyse of a croaking belly , and hungry stomacks swallow first , and leave it to the strength of nature to concoct all as well as it can ▪ nay , from the good old woman at the towns-end , that teaches the criss-cross-rowe to the bellfray schoolmaster , and so upwards , all the places of education are tinctur'd with conformity ; every p●…isny is taught first to swim with bladders , that at last he may venture alone ; first to act without knowledge , and then with it , or against it , like the crotonian milo , who first carried the sucking calff , till by gradual essays he could carry it when a bull. thus traps of temptation must needs take , when they are baited at both ends , great necessities and great preferments . § . . this argument is borrow'd , or stollen from the papists , who use and urge it every day against the protestants ; i shall propound and answer it in the words of monsieur de la motte . in his late motives to his conversion : p. . . d'o●… vient done ( disent ils ) qu'il y a si peu de personnes qui quitent la religion romaine ? & que , de ceux qui l'ont quitée pour embrasser la protestante , on en voit une grando partie , qui y retonrnent , & qui font , comme on dit , leur recantation ? whence comes it ( say the romanists ) that so few quit the roman religion ? and that of those who have forsaken it , to embrace that of the protestant , we see many that return back , and as we say make their recantation ? to which he gives this answer . ie pourrois ●…lleguer mille raisons particuliers pour lesquelles , plusiturs illustres protestans ont 〈◊〉 religion en france , quin'est plus à la mode , ( dit on ) ●…n ce païs-là , & ●…nt embrassé la romaine , je dis seulement en general , ce qu'il est facile de remarquer dans les particulieres , que ●…'est l'interest , qui les ment & les retient , qui les fait changer , & quiles empeche de rechanger . i could give a thousand particular reasons , for which some emin●…nt protestants have ●…uited their religion in france , which , say they , is now no longer the mode in our country ; and have embraced the romain faith : but i only say this in general , which is very easy to observe in the particulars , that it is meer interest that allures them first , and then fixes them ; that makes them change , and then hinders them from a rechange . the pension of a thousand crowns ( as he goes on ) which they promise to a minister , in case he will renounce his calling , is a most violent temptation . § . . i could tell the enquirer of those that have deserted their station in the church of england , and have given their reasons for it , and embraced a persecuted reformation : i could tell him of many young schollers eminent for piety and learning , who have rather chosen a retired estate and mean condition , then those allurements , which would make many a mouth water at them . but let every man stand or fall to his own master ; i am not qualified to judge either way , but this i will say , that whosoever shall reason the one way or other , will find his argument inconclusive , and i have known so much in my small observation , and known some men too well , then either to be much confirmed in my judgment by their presence , or stagger'd by their absence . ( ) there are men of as clear understanding , as good life , and as comfortable consciences , in the society of this church , as are any there else to be found . and if i should say , there are persons of as clear understanding , as good life , end as comfortable consciences in the society of the non-conformists , as are any where else to be found , i should discover a vanity equal to that of the enquirer . i cannot be of every mans religion , that is of a much clearer understanding then my self , unless i resolve to be of twenty contradictory religions at once : nor can i judge it my duty to imitate every one of a holy life , further then in his holiness : nor of every mans way that pretends to a comfortable conscience in his way , because i see some fitch in comfort to their consciences from the greatest provocations , or grossest delusions ; besides it 's no part of the clearness of mens understandings , to be wiser then the scriptures , or to study reasons , why they ought to destroy all that are not of the same intellectual stature with themselves . nor does it add to their holiness , that they can persecute others whose lives are holy ; nor to the solid comsort of their consciences , that they endeavour to weaken the comfort of other mens ; and i will further add , that since my own conscience can only directly witness to my self , it can never be allowed credence with another , if i deny it its proper work , and office in another , but we have met with this braggadochian pyrgopolinias before , whether the reader is referred , if at least he shall judge so inconsiderable a trifle to merit further consideration . ( ) the things objected against this church are but at most disputable matters , because all wise and good men are not agreed upon them , but that which is sub judice , and yet under dispute , cannot be called evil , till the dispute is ended , and the decision made against it : to which i crave leave to answer . . that then some of the greatest and most important points in religion must be called disputable , seeing all wise men , and some good men are not agreed upon them . . if the matters he still sub judice , and cannot be called evil till the dispute be ended ; why are the non-conformists executed before condemnation ? for i hope he arrogates no such partial tribunal to himself , that the things in controversy , shall be reputed undecided when he would justify the one , and yet decided when he would condemn the other . . we say the things are already decided by scripture long ago , if that may be judge , and if any other judge be set up , the condemned party will appeal thether as the highest court of judgment in matters relating to conscience and the immediate worship of god , where alone they ought to be judged . ( ) the things scrupled in this church are such as the like may be found , and complained of in any church of the whole world , at least since the apostles times . to which i say , . that i have been too much beaten to the game , then to be overborn by the enquirers daring confidence , and do smoothly deny the matter of fact. many particular churches may be found at this day , where mystical ceremonies are not found , much less made the terms of communion . but he has two wide creep holes at which he will escape . . that we choose wath national church we will : it seems then a particular church , and a national church are terms that measure each other . and thus if we instance in the ancient albigenses , waldenses , or the present french churches , he may reject the issue , because they are not national churches . and all the churches for three hundred years after christ , because they were not national . . he will undertake this taske , if he may have the history and knowledg of that church , whatever it be or was since the apostles times , as we have of this . i commend his discretion , 〈◊〉 knows it difficult to get the church-history of other national churches , so full as we have of our own . . if the churches in the apostles times had none of these things now scrupled , we shall rather chuse , and such choise is our duty , to conform to their patterns then any junior and more green-headed constitutions . they are the apostolical times and churches , of whose constitutions we have infallible records which we propound for our exemplars , and he will be tryed by any others , if we will bate him them , for which we thank him . i am now expecting a serious proposition , and he sends us this offer : that since there is no grand master of religion concerned in the controversies between us , nor any violation of the laws of god in our complying with the laws of this society , and since mahomet must either go to the mountain , or the mountain must come to mahomet , i. e. one side or other must yeeld ; we will be perswaded to think it reasonable , that the subject should submit to the governour , and opinion give place to ancient custom , and novelty to the laws in being . this is his friendly motion , and one so modest , that we would be perswaded to think it reasonable , if he had given us reasonable arguments to be perswaded ; which that he has not i think is evident from what has been already said , with these further considerations . § . . that his motion is grounded on a false suggestion , that there 's no grand matter of religion concern'd in the controversie , nor any law of god violated by our complyance : for the perfection of the scriptures as the rule of faith , worship , and church-government , is a grand matter of religion , and greatly concern'd in this dispute . the soveraignty of christ over his church , his compleat discharge of all his offices , his kingly office in making laws , his prophetical in revealing the whole mind of god , is no small matter of religion , and greatly concern'd also in this dispute : which law-giver , by his express law , and royal edict has commanded all his true ministers , . math. . . to disciple all nations , baptizing them in the name of the father , son , and holy ghost ; tra●…hing them to observe whatsoever he has commanded them ; adding a gracious promise of his special asssisting presence in this work , that he would be with them always unto the end of the world : we think that the terms of enjoying all the ordinances of christ , is but observing whatsoever christ has commanded : which law is apparently , expr●…sly , palpably violated ( to use his own expressions ) when any thing else or less or more is made the condition of our admittance into the kingdom of christ. § . . i know no reason why any party should be the immoveable mountain , that is too stiff in the hams to come to christ ; i have ever judged christ him self to be that mountain , to which mahomet and all pretenders ought to move . it was noted as a piece of arrogant moroseness in austin the monk , that he would stir no more then a mountain to meet the british christians half way in an amicable association : but if the church will needs be the 〈◊〉 , yet let her remember that christ is set upon that holy hill , and if she will not move in deference to his authority , he that touches the mountains and they smoak , and makes the hills to tremble , can by his almighty power send such an earth-quake in her bowels , as may cause her to yeeld to reason . § . . though opinion , and custom may fight it out for me ; yet let the proudest ancient custom bow down to the institutions of christ. it has ever been as a common , so a successful peliey to clap hoary periwigs upon juvenile innovations , to conciliate some reverence to their antique looks : errour has often a more wrinkled face then , truth , but truth alway's carries the graver aspect . they that imp their pin-feather'd inventions wich plumes borrowed from time's wings , do not teach them to fly , but flutter , antiquity is like romulus his assylum , where all pursued corruptions take sanctuary ; 't is the grand borrough , and safe retreat of superstition , when fetretted out of her lurking-holes of counterseit reason . he can say very little for his opinion , that cannot plead antiquity , custom , and such like mormo's : thus the aquarian hereticks pleaded custom to use water mingled with wine , in the eucharist , whose folly cyprian thus censures . victi ratione , opponunt consuetudinem ; quasi consuetudo major esset veritate . being beaten at the weapon of reason , they fetch out the old rusty sword of custom ; as if such abilbao sword durst try its edge against the tryed scimitar of truth : such a roat does tertullian give these childish pretences . consuetudo ab aliqua ignorantiâ , vel simplicitate initiam sortita , in usum per successionem corroboratur ; & it a adversus veritatem vindicatur , sed dominus noster jesus christus , veritatem se , non consue●…udinem cognominavit : haereses non tam novitas , quam veritas revineit , quodcunque adversus veritatem sapit , erit haeresis , etiam vetus consuetudo , a custom of base and dunghil extract , yet gaining some repute by long usage , and prescribing for it's gentility time out of mind , grows sawcy , and malapert against truth it self : but our lord iesus christ called himself by the title of truth , not of custom ; the clearest conviction of heresy is not by the leaden lesbian rule of practise , but by the golden rule of the scriptures . errour , is errour still , and will be so , of plebeian bre●…d and ignoble parentage , though it has purchased a coat of armes , scrapes acquaintance with some ancient families , and would make it out , that it came in with the conquerour . the gibeonites acted very subtlely , when they came to io●…na , with old sacks upon their asses , and wine-bottles old , and reut , and bound up , and ●…ld shooes , and clonted upon their feet , and all their provision dry , and mouldy as if they had come from far , when all this while they were but their next neighbours . it 's a pretty sight doubtless to see the state which the great czar of muscovy uses upon publick festivals , and entertainments ; the great chamber all beset with grave personages adorned with ermines , and gold from head to foot , dazling the weak eyes of vulgar spectators , and yet perhaps you shall find some of these knezzes next day in their blue aprons , who shall think it no empeachment of their late glories to sell you a penny worth of pepper ; such a masque we have presented to us of old customs , all gorgeously attired like the antediluvian patriarchs , and when we come to examine them , they are little better then ( to use our authors expressions ) the dictates of ambition , the artifices of gain , and a colluvies of almost all the superstitions , errours , and corruptions , of former ages . § . . since there must be a yeelding in order to peace , then surely they have all the right , and reason on their sides to have the honour of the condescension . who consess that the matters in difference are indifferent in themselves . such as where in no grand matter of religion is concerned ; rather then they who ate bound up by immoveable persuasions , that they are sinful . . they who are most remote from the primitive simplicity , and not they who have no higher ambition , then to perform all things which , and as christ has commanded . . they who have made the additions , which cause the divisions ; and not they who only take up their religion , as near as they can , as they found it delivered , and recommended to them , by the unerring word of god. . they who have enough to spare , and may part with some excrescences , and never touch the quid of religion , rather then they who own a naked religion without any additaments , and if any such be found amongst them , they are content to surrender them up as a sacrifice to peace . . they who by their authority are qualified to make a through reformation , and such abatements in supernumerary observations , such fillings up of the chasmes , and vacuities , as may not only retrieve peace at home , but procure a general union with all the reformed churches abroad , to the strengthning of the protestant religion ; weakning the hands of the common enemy ; rather then those poor people , whose circumstances are such that they cannot propose the terms of peace to others , and what alterations they shall make in themselves , will be insignificant to an universal settlement . . they who have already given some specimens of their condescensions to the romanists , by removing some exasperating passages , and it may be hoped , and expected that they will take a few steps towards a compliance with dissenting protestants . for as the author of the irenicum observes well . p. . that which was laid as a bait for them ( the papists ) was never intended as a hook for those of our own profession . and therefore to conclude this chapter , i will take the freedom to quote that celebrated son of the church for a theological notion , whom he has already quoted 〈◊〉 philosophical one . dial. . p. . speaking of the papacy as the kingdom of anti-christs , he has those notable words . which we knowing so experimentally , not to be compassed by needless symbolizing with them , in any thing ; i conceive our best policy is , studiously to imitate them in nothing ; but for all indifferent things to think the worse of them for their using them . as no person of honour would willingly go in the known garb of any lewd , and infamous person ; whatsoever we court them in , they do but turn it to our scorn , and contempt , and are the more hardned in their wickedness ; wherefore seeing that needless symbolizing with them , does them no good but hurt , we should account our selves in all things indifferent , perfectly free , to satisfy , and please in the most universal manner we can those of our own party ; nor caring what opinions , or customs , or outward formalities , the romanists , or others have , or may have had from the first degeneracy of the church , which we ought to account the more hid●…ously soiled by the romanists ; using them ; but supporting our selves upon plain scripture , and solid reason , to use , and profess such things , at will be most . agreable to us all , and make most for the safety , and welfare of the kingdom of christ ; for this undoubtedly . o philopolis , is the most firm , and true interest of any protestant church , or state whatsoever . chap. iv. the vanity of the enquirers confidence noted ; in boasting , that they who find fault with the churches constitution , will never be able to find out , or agree upon a better : his reasonings about this matter examined . it was a piece of the old roman val●…ur , to kill themselves , for fear of being killed ; and it 's a considerable piece of the new roman piety , not to stir , for fear of going out of the way , to resolve against reformation , upon some dangers which are fancied may attend reformation : that church always apprehending , or pretending to apprehend dreadful inconveniences in all changes , though apparently for the better . before we can possibly know , whether . a better way may be found out , we must first be agreed what is a good way . now all goodness consists in the due conformity of a thing to it's rule and idaea by which it ought to be measured ; and it 's fitness to reach that end to which it is a means : and therefore the betterness of any thing must be judged of by it's nearer approach to that rule , and it 's greater proportionableness to the attainment of it's design : if then we could find out a worship more agreable to the rule of worship , or a constitution more apt to reach the great intendments of holiness and peace , such a worship , such a constitution will justify it self to be a better , then any of it's competitors which shall deviate from that rule , or more uncertainly attain the desired end. ( ) the first part of our task then will be to find out our rule , which when we have done , we have nothing remaining but to apply that rule to those models which we would erect , or having erected , we would examine their regularity . and as they shall be found to approach nearer , or depart farther from that rule , we may confidently pronounce they are therefore by so much the better , or the worse . now the only rule of reformation , in our judgment , is the infallible word of god : which we therefore judge sufficient and adaequat , because they give this testimony to their own perfection : and seeing we have now to do with those who own the scriptures to assert nothing but truth , it will be evidence enough that they are such a rule if they do but assert that they are so . it is indeed no new thing to hear them charged as lame and defective , such as must be pieced and eked out either with immediate revelations , or humane traditions , to render them a compleat and perfect standard of our faith , and acceptable obedience . to which we only oppose the testimony of the apostle , . tim. . . . all scripture is given by inspiration of god , and is profitable for doctrine , for reproof , for correction , for instruction in righteousness , that the man of god may be perfect , thorowly furnisht unto all good works . concerning which sacred rule , i will use our authors confidence with ( i think ) better warrant ; that they who find fault with this rule will never be able to find out , or agree upon a better ; whereof the endless mazes , the perplexed labyrinths into which they have cast themselves , who despising , and forsaking this only canon , have delighted to find out by-paths , is very clear , but very sad demonstration ; for when they have tryed traditions , or gaped for revelations , or depended on the churches authortiy , and yet found no satisfaction , they think to secure themselves , and gratify themagistrate with a new power who has already such burdens upon his shoulders , that we have more need incessantly to sollicite the throne of grace on his behalf for wisdom , counsel , strength to manage , and bear them , then fondly to think to do him a kindness , by imposing upon him a greater work which all others are weary of . but this one text which i have mention'd , may abundantly satisfy us that there can be nothing requisite to equise , and furnish out a christian , a minister , a church for duty , and obedience , but what is summarily therein ascribed to the written word . § . . that the scriptures are of unquestionable authority to determine all those controversies whereof they havecognizance ; because they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , divinely inspired , which no person , no church , no convention of men , can with any colourable pretext affirm of their dictates , canons , decretals , or constitutions : and that amongst many other reasons , because they were not indited in heat , or passion ; were not contrived to advance one party , or to depress , and crush another , but were the result of infinite wisdom , impartially respecting truth , fuithfully acquaniting us with the mind , and will ofgod , without adhering to any faction . § . . that there can be no concern of any church , or officer in the church , or member of thechurch , but the scripture speaks fully to it . as , . if a church will approve her self to be the pillar of truth , and expose to all her members the doctrine of the gospel , the scripture is , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , profitable for instruction , or . has she occasion to convince the cavilling world , and stop the months of gainsayers : the scripture is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . it lays down the truth , and thereby discovers errour , heresy , false doctrine , all corruption , in worship , and manner ; it gives us what is straight , and thereby enables us to judge what is crooked ; or . are there any tares sprung up in the field of the church , sowen by the enemy whilst men slept , ( and men will sleep ) it is profitable also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , for the correction , rectifying , and redintegration of whatever is warped , and declined from its original . it supplies , and fills up the wide chasmes of defectives , and pares of all excrescences , and prunes of superfluities , or . . must christians be trained up under gospel discipline , and order , that they may grow up in knowledge , in every grace , in mutual love , it 's useful 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , no paedagogy , no constitution , no discipline to be compared with it . § . . that it is a rule which must direct all the builders in gods house in whatsoever quality , under whatsoever character they appear ; it 's profitable for the man of god , and indeed it only becomes the man of sin , he that is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or lawless person . who has a curbe for every mans conscience , but will not endure a snaffle upon his own to despise this rule , and cry up another . § . . the absolute profection , and compleatness of this rule is also asserted : it 's able to make the man of god perfect , throwly furnish to all good works . notwithstanding this perfection of the scripture as a rule : it is always supposed , that every one in his private , or more publick capacity be able to use , and apply the rule . as the square , or rule of the architect , however exact in it self , yet presupposes him to have eyes to see , and brains to apply it to his work ; so the scripture as a law teaches duty , and whatever of well-pleasing obedience we can perform to god , yet supposes us at least to be rationalcreatures , that can apply that law to our own particular actions . whence these two things must necessarily follow . . that it was not only needless , but impossible , that the scripture should enumerate , or determine upon the particular natural circumstances , of general time , place , person , when , where , who should worship god , every day , hour , and minute to the end of the world : for so the whole world would not have afforded sufficient stowage for rubricks , nor have been able to contain the volumns that must have been written : for as the end , and use of a rule is not to each the artificer when he shall begin to work , but how he may do it like a workman , whenever he begins ; so neither was the scripture design'd for a clock to tell us at what hour of the day we should commence the publick service of god , but that when ever we begin , or end , we manage all according to this rule . . that when the scripture has prescribed us all the parts of worship , instituted the administrators of worship , given ●…les how to separate them to that office , and laid down general rules for the regulating those natural circumstances , which could not particularly be determin'd , as that they be done to edification , decently and in order ; and has withal commanded us to attend to this rule , and no other , it has then discharged the office of a rule , and as a rule is compleat and perfect . ( ) besides our retrospect to our rule , we must also look forward to the end , and design of all riligion , and when that is once well fixt , we shall have another great advantage to judge what worship is better , and what is worse ; now the great end of all religion , and specially of religious worship is the glorifying of god , the pleasing of god ; and therefore whatever shall pretend to that glorious title , and dignity of being an act of religion , a part of religion , and yet has no real tendency to the advancement of his glory , ( which it can never have without a due regard to the rule ) ought to be expunged out of the catalogue of lawful acts , or parts of worship ; and is so much the more abominable both to god , and man : to god ; because it offers him a sacrifice not subservient to his praise ; and to man ; because it deludes him with a pretence of recommending his person , and service to god , and yet leaves and exposes both to gods abhorrence . from what hath been said , i might plead my self competently qualified to gratify the importunity of the enquirer ; and answer the question , whether a better frame of things might not possibly have been found out ? if whatsoever agrees with the rule is good , then what is discrepant from the rule is evil ; if what makes a nearer approach to the rule is better , then what departs further of , is worse ; but i look upon these kind of questions as a vapouring party sent out to draw the unwary , within the clutches of an ambuscado . whatever constitution shall impeach the only true rule of shortness and deficiency , is less good then that which implies no such shortness or deficiency ; but there are some constitutions on the world , which impeach the only true rule of shortness and deficiency , and therefore they are less good then those which impeach not the rule of such deficiency , whatever constitutions are made , supposed useful for decency , which are not comprehended under the rule , do impeach that rule of deficiency ; but there are some constitutions made , supposed useful for decency , which are not comprehended under the rule ; and therefore there are some constitutions which impeach the rule of de●…ncy . whatever is comprehended under a rule , must at least be necessary by way of disjunction ; but there are some constitutions in the world which are not necessary , so much as by way of disjunction ; therefore they are not comprehended under the rule . there is not the smallest or most minute circumstance which can cleave to any religious act , or wherewith we can lawfully cloath gods worship , but it is by the command of christ made necessary at least disjunctively . but there are some constitutions which are not made necessary disjunctively , and therefore they are such as wherewith we cannot lawfully cloath religion , or the worship of god. we are commanded by christ to baptise ; now though it was not possible that it should be determined how often , in what places , at what houres , with what number of persons the ordinance should be administred in every age and country from its first institution , to the end of the world ; yet its ' determin'd that they to whom of right it belongs to baptise at one hour or other , in one place or other , and so time and place are determined by way of disjunction : but there are some things which 't is not necessary to do , the one or the other to the compleat fulfilling , and decent performance of the precept , and therefore are not commanded by way of disjunction . it would therefore be no such difficult labour to find out a better way , for all the difficulty would lye in reforming abuses , removing corruptions , and reducing christs ordinances to their primitive institutions : hoc enim adversus omnes haereses valet : id esse verum quodcunque prius : id esse adulterum , quodcunque posterius . this is ( saith tertullian ) the great mawle of all heresies , ( and i will add , against all corruptions ) that whatsoever was first is true , whatsoever was introduced afterwards , is a corruption . but though perhaps , the dissenters may possibly find out what is better , yet they will never agree amongst themselves ; which is an old politick put-off for reformation : the levity of which objection is easily discovered for . § . . we are all agreed , that the scriptures are the only rule of worship , and they that are thus far agreed are in a fair way towards perfect unity so far as 't is attainable in this state of imperfection : for though they may miss in the application , through the weakness of their judgment ; yet being secure that their rule is good , and sincerely endeavouring to come up to it , and reform by it , they cannot be fatally wide , nor mortally differ : all that are agreed in their rule , have this singular advantage , that they can debate their differences amicably upon common principles , whereas they who differ in the rule must needs differ in all the rest ; they that divide in the center , must needs divide infinitely in their motions towards the circumference , and they that differ in the foundation , must necessarily disagree in the superstructures . § . . all that agree in the rule have prepared minds immediately to cassier , whatever they shall once discover to be repugnant to that rule : and will easily part with any mistake as it shall be made out to them ; whereas they who set up false rules of worship , and yet suppose them to be true , are as tenacious of whatever they find suitable to those erroneous measures they have taken , as if they were the most sacred concerns of religion . § . . they that own the same perfect , and infallible rule , are thereby kept within such bounds of sound judgment , warrantable obedience , and christian moderation , that they can maintain communion with each other , and both of them with the same one god , one lord , one spirit , in the ordinances of the gospel , though still differing in lesser matters : whereas they who set up new rules of worship ; exclude all others from their communion , but such as submit to their novel canons , and constitutions , imposed as the terms of that communion . § . . they who embrace the word of god for their rule , do keep alive the fire of evangelical love towards each other , notwithstanding the little diversities that are found amongst them ; when they who advance their own pleasures for the rule . and reason of obedience , are engaged in a zealous persecution of all those who comply not with their concepts , as is evident in the church of rome at this day . it will be delightful no doubt to the reader , to be refresht with the enquirers rhetorick , who has been tyred with my duller discourse , and therefore i shall gratify him with his reasonings . it 's reasonable ( says he ) we should be able to agree upon , and produce a better model , least in stead of having a new church , we have 〈◊〉 church at all : yes , highly reasonable it is ; for — ( let him that reads now endeavour to understand the strength of his four arguments . ) . such a society as a church can never be conserved without some rites or other . . neither any society can continue , nor any publick worship be performed , if all ceremonies , and circumstances , such as of time , place , persons , and the like , be left indefinite , and undetermined . . if there must be some determination of circumstantials , it must be made either by god or man ; . if there must be some determination of circumstances , or no society , and god hath made no such determination , what remains but that men must ? and then who fitter then our governours ? and what these four learned arguments contribute to the proving his assertion : that dissenters will never be able to find or agree upon a better constitution , i hope the learned do perceive , for my own part such is my dulness . i cannot discern it : but let us examine the assertions as they lye in order . [ ] it can never be thought by wise men , that such a society as a church can be cons●…rved without some rites , or other : [ rites , ceremonies , circumstances ] are the terms under which all the collusion lurks : when he would flatter us into the humour to yeeld him a point , or two , then he speaks of nothing but circumstances : when he would amuse us with an obscure term , then we hear of nothing but rites , and when he would kill us with a mortal conclusion , then out comes ceremonies ; but i answer : § . . if a church cannot be conserved without some rites , then let the imposed terms of communion be only of such rites , without which the church cannot be conserved , and we will contend no longer : if any rite be so necessary to the being of a church , that its constitution must moulder away into dust , without it , we are content that rule be made a term of communion : § . . from hence then it will evidently appear that mystical ceremonies , such as the cross in baptism , the surplice , ought not to be imposed as the terms of communion , because that without such rites of humane appointment , the society of the church may be conserved : i would fain know how the church was conserved in the early , purer times of christ , and his apostles ? they had not recourse to the ladies closet open'd , they understood nothing of the modern curious arts of conserving , candying , and preserving religion in ceremonious syrrups ; and yet religion kept sweet , and good. they were some of his holinesses ladies of honour that first taught the world , out of a miraculous good will , and tender pitty to the church , to conserve the two sacraments of christs institution , in five more of their own invention : because our saviour had not prescribed enow to conserve the church from dissolution . § . . this seems to be a little too high preferment for humane ceremonies , to make them conserving causes of the church ; at rome they have proved defiling causes ; in other places causes of offence , scandal , and division ; they have burdened some , and debauched others , and raised persecution against the rest : but they were never yet conservators of the churches purity , or peace ; surely the parts of a church are very sorrily put together , that has no other cement , to unite them ; and the frame and contexture there of exceeding brittle , that must dissolve upon the removeal of a ceremony . § . . if by rites , he understands nothing more then meer natural circumstances we grant that no church can be conserved , no publick worship celebrated without the observation , and determination of some such rites , that is in plain english no church can worship god , except they agree to worship him somewhere , which is a discovery well worthy of all this periphrasis , and tedious circumlocution , for who ever once thought in a dream , that a body , could exist , and yet possess no place ? or an action be spun out by men for an hour , or so , and yet not be measur'd with time ? it must be some strange vertigo therefore that whitles the brains of these non-conformists , that they will endure the utmost extremities , rather then renounce , and abjure such cross non-sense , that god must be worship't , and yet may be worship't no where : that a sermon may be extended to an hours length , and yet preach't in an indivisible instant : some or other must needs be out 〈◊〉 their wits . god ( says he ) cannot be worship't by men without all circumstance : by men ? no nor by angels ! they have their ubi , and definitive place ; nor can they traverse the poles in a moment ; though they are so swift winged , as to dispatch it in imperceptible time : so that this argument will enforce the cherubims to conform to the ceremonies , as well as the poor dissenters , and well did he say , it can never be thought by wise men , — for he must be a natural fool , or idiot that thinks otherwise ; and to make sure work , he will confound us quite with two most unmerciful reasons , . reason , f●…rasmuch ( says he ) as no petty corporation , or company can . nay i will strengthen his reason for once ; not only no petty , but none of one great trading corporation , those nurseries of schism , and nesis of non-conformity can be conserved with u●… some rites or others : they have their pageants , ( and goodly things they are , and contribute wonderfully to their cons●…rvation , ) but yet to deal freely , and plainly with our enquirer ; though i allow his conclusion , i cannot swallow his medium . arguments taken from my lord majors show will never enforce religious mystical ceremonies , bodies politick may be beholden to some little artifices to conciliate admiration , if not adoration from the thickskin'd rulgar , who see no further then the scarlet , and furr ; but religion needs non●… of these tricks , and devises of wit , to set her off . she is never more glorious then when she shines with her own naked , and native lustre : she adornes her attire , but borrows no ornament from her cloathing . she is none of these empty quelque choses , who wanting intrinsick worth to recommend him to society , thinks to strike the spectators with reverence to his pantaleons , and waving plume : such was the answer of luther to vergerius : that it was the great fault , and folly of rome to establish the church with agovernment taken from humane reason , as if it were some temporal state . reason : because men have bodies , and are bound to glorify god with their bodies as well as souls . i am sometimes ready to say in passion of an age cheated with such silly arguments , qui decipi vult , decipiatur : he that has a mind to be gulled , much good may it do him ! that we have bodies , will only i●…fer that all natural circumstances , which necessarily adhare to a body , must be determined ; but not at all , that we worship god by mystical ceremonies , for that i may worship god acceptably without them , i can demonstrate . because christ did so : but that we may worship him acceptably with , or by the ceremonies he has not yet offer'd us demonstration . i never yet understood that the dissenters did worship god in statu separato , which if they could 't would notably disappooint the informers , who could never swear their presence at a conventicle , because they never saw the complexions of their souls . [ 〈◊〉 ] it 's as plain ( says he , that neither any society can continue , nor any publick worship be performed , if all ceremonies , and circumstances , such as of time , place , persons , and the like , be left indefinite , and undetermined . all the stile in this proposition lies in this , that he has wisely foisted in , ceremonies amongst circumstances : and to prevent all fraud , and legerdemain , let him use a little of that candor , he borrow'd of his reader not longe since ; and tell us uprightly , whether he takes ceremoniès and circumstances for terms of the same impor ? t and if so ; then whether he will degrade the word ceremony , from its usual repute , to signify no more then a natural circumstance : or advance the term circumstance to signify mystical ceremonies : for if by circumstance , he understands ceremony , in the common , and received acceptation of the word , the proposition is false : that no society can be conserved without some circumstances ; that no publick worship can be performed without some circumstances ; that is without unscriptural symbolical ceremonies : and all this discourse will not reach the hundreth part of a proof of it : for its the easiest thing in the world to worship god without the sign of the cross : or any such like circumstances , and there are thousands that have made the experiment : but if by ceremonies he intend no more then bare natural circumstances : the whole proposition is granted him , but then the misery is , it will do him no service , contribute nothing to his design . the reader may beat a loss perhaps as well as my self about the determinate sense of his words , and it 's convenient we should be so at present , matters are not yet ripe for discovery ; i know his cause requires , his conclusion needs ceremonies , but his premises are modest , his instances only pretend to circumstances , such ( says he ) as of time , place , person , and the like : which must be a little examined . ( ) time. that time is a natural circumstance , inseparably adharing to , or if you will , say accompanying , every action sacred or civil , wants not the authority of the seven wise men of greece to confirm it : that is sometime in general , yet time in special , that is religious time , is no such circumstance : no action can be done without time to do it in , yet actions may be done without such time , as shall render them either morally better , or worse : that is , such as add any moral goodness , or evil to the actions : if then he take time , in the former sense , 't is then very true , that no publick worship can be performed without the determination of time : it must be determined by some or other when the publick worship shall begin , as whether at eight , nine , or ten of the clock , otherwise it cannot be attended on by the whole church . but if time be taken in the latter sense , for such time as shall render the worship more asceptable to god , because perform'd in such time , there 's no necessity man should determine it , both because all the skill he has , can add no such respect to time , and because god has already determin'd for so much of that time , as his wisdome has judged necessary . there are three considerations of time which may deserve our thoughts in this case . . the quamdiu . or the quota pars temporis : how long the action shall continue . . the quoties , how often the action shall recurr , as whether in an annual , diurnal , horary , or septenary revolution . ( let that word please , or displease . ) . the quando , or epocha , from what point of time the action shall start , or bear date . when therefore he says , 〈◊〉 worship can be performed , unless this circumstance of time be defined , and determined : i would know to , which of these considerations of time , his assertion does relate ? for it 's certain that in every of these respects , time either is , or must be determined , by god or man. § . . then for the quamdiu of solemn time , we affirm that god has sanctified to his service and commanded us to keep holy one day in seven : but how much of this time shall be alotted to private , and personal devotions , how much bestowed upon domestick , and family duties , how much assigned to publick service , is not precisely determin'd by god ; yet thus far he has determin'd by the light of nature , and common reason , that if a day must be expended in , and divided between these three kinds of devotions , that each ought to have such a proportion assigned to it , as the weight , and dignity of the work requires ; still apportioning the whole time amongst them , excepting so much as he has reserved for the incident duties of necessity , and charity , which exception he has put in to all affirmative precepts . § . . for the quoties , how often this solemn sacred time shall return : we affirm that god has sufficiently determin'd it , nor can we be affrighted out of our senses , with the empty clamours of iudaism , sabbatarianism , or whatever other noyses , irreligion , and prophaness can muster up : there is no necessity therefore that any church should determine upon any other revolution of sacred time , and if she shall make the adventure she will apparently sin , for she must either make the revolution narrower , and so sin against the churches liberty , by prescribing too frequent a return ; or wider , and to sin against the churches edification by too seldom a return of the publick worship . § . . for the quando : when this solemn , and sacred time shall comm●…nce ; he that has determined , when the day of labour has determined thereby , when the day of rest shall begin , as in the one he commands us , to do all our work ; so on the other he commands us , to do all his ; which is therefore the more ours : because it is wholy his : but for the quando of the publick worship , as god has not determin'd it , so it 's necessary , some or other must : but still what 's all this to ceremonies ? now the great question here will be , who ought to make this determination ? and in my weak judgment . they who are upon the place , who know best the particular circumstances , out of which the expediency of such determination must a rise ; they who 〈◊〉 ●…e conveniences , and inconveniences of determining this way or the other , are the most competent judges in this case : suppose the question were , whether we ought to meet together for publick worship at nine , or ten of the clock ? what could a convocation say to this ? or what general law could be made for all the particular churches in a thousand miles circuit ? if we look upon the country villages , they have the oxe , and asse to water , and feed , their cattle to attend in the field , for whom god has made provision , that they shall rest , and not serve upon his day : if you look on the petty , or greater corporations , they have no calves in the stall , no flocks in the field , their shops are shut in , their affaires reduced to a narrower compass , and therefore may commence sooner then the country v●…lages . suppose , nevertheless , that some will needs determine this affaire ; that all churches under whatsoever circumstances , expedient , or inexpedient , right , or wrong , with all their particular members , shall upon pain of excommuniation assemble for publick worship , strictly at nine of the clock , upon pretence of uniformity , and that all may unite and associate their devotions , as it were at once beleaguering heaven , and wrestling for a blessing ; i cannot but think what distractions , confusions it would raise in mens hearts , and consciences ; what squabbles , what quarrels it would create in the viceinage ; for my neighbours dyal , i observe , goes a full quarter of an hour before mine , and he sets his clock by his own dyal ; and then rises in the morning by his own clock : if for no other reason , yet because he can hear his clock strike , better then his dyal , so that here 's an endless controversy like to arise between us , whether his clock , or mine shall deserve excommunication ; now to part or prevent this fray , there is a certain infallible officer erected , called a sexton , or sacristan , one that will take his cath , his clock goes true , whatever sir , sun says to the contrary , and he shall decide this brawle , when he chimes all-in ; so that in the upshot , this great question , the church troubles her self with , must be resolved into this momentous canon . that all churches shall begin their publick worship , when my goffe whatchicallum pleases . and thus much for the circumstance of time. ( ) place . this is indeed a circumstance , and considered in general , an inseparable circumstance of a body ; so that it haunts us wherever we go like a familiar , and pursues us more earnestly then our shodow ; and therefore as to publick worship there must be some determination of common place , where a church shall assemble for the ordinary worship of god. but if place be consider'd as riligious , that is , as such a place , as renders the worship more acceptable to god , we say , it 's not in the power of man to determine of any such religious , or holy place , because he can make none so . and yet though he cannot determine the place as religious , he may determine it as convenient , and perhaps 〈◊〉 ; and besides , since the magistrate is concern'd to keep an eye upon all assemblies whatsoever , that the publick peace committed directly to his charge , may be preserved , and not violated by seditious meetings , he may therefore command all the churches under his jurisdiction to convene in such open places where his officers may come , and make inspection into their demeanours , and behaviours , and the churches are bound in order to this end , to submit to his determinations , in conscience to god : for if the place ( or time ) be inconvenient , yet that 's only some prejudice to the worshippers , but no pollution of the worship it self ; and the primitive christians no doubt would chearfully , and thankfully have struggled with many incommodities , provided the freedom of worship at any time or place might be secured to them . but if more open places will certainly expose them to ruine , they may lawfully keep their foot out of the snare ; for as master hales says well . in times of manifest corruption , wherein religious assembling is dangerous : private meetings however besides publick order , are not only lawful , but of necessity and duty , else how shall we excuse the meetings of our selves in q. maries days ? ( ) for persons : they also will fall under the same distinction . the circumstance of the person in general , as whether his name be n. or m. is of little , or no consideration in the case ; but for persons in special , as marked out for publick service , that is very material . and we affirm that christ has already determined upon that point ; the qualification , calling , setting apart of such a one to his office , with the nature and end of his office , together with his whole emploiment , work and duty towards the church , are all determined , and none has power that i know of to dispense with those determinations . the materials out of which a church is to be formed , the ends of that embodying , by what bonds and ligaments they are united , the duty of pastors , teachers , and all church governours prescribed , by what laws they shall govern , and how far the members are to give obedience , are all so far limited , that the church has nothing to do but to submit to the commands of her lord , and if she be a true spouse of christ , she will submit exercising all prudence in applying general rules to particular persons , and emergent cases . ( ) but his last word [ and the like ] will do him more service , and us more mischief then all the rest : for how to bring in the cross , surplice , and other mystical , symbolical ceremonies , under time , place , or person , was very difficult ; but this et catera [ and the like ] will do the feat ; and at this back-dore thousands of ceremonies , such as holy oyl , spittle , cream , salt , ephata's , and the like , may be introduced . but what now if these ceremonies be not the like , but other-like ? why , then is all this pompous discourse blown up ! a moral circumstance is not the like with a natural ; that which adds neither moral good , nor evil to the worship , is not the like , with one that does so : that which is commanded with the duty , is not the like with that which is not so . that without which the worship cannot be performed , is not the like , with that which is not requisite to its performance . i conclude therefore , that and the like conceals some mysterious point from us , which 't is not as yet convenient to discover to us ; and keeping a wary eye upon it , let us proceed to his third assertion . [ ] if there must ( says he ) be some determination in circumstantials , it must be made either by god , or man : very true ! if it must be done , it must be done , there 's no remedy . and for all religious circumstances such as may render the worship either more useful , and edifying to men , or more pleasing , and acceptable to god , they are already determined by the lord of worship ; and kirke , or keysar , have nothing to do herein , at least he has not proved that they have : for those other circumstances , which are necessary to reduce the ordinances of christ into act and exercise , it 's no very great matter who determines them , if they have but power , and abuse not their power . god has determined in general that we worship him , and has prescribed all the ordinances by which we ought to worship him , and therefore we must come to a determination when , and where we will worship him : he has determined more specially that the churches worship him solemnly upon his own day , and the churches must come to a fixed resolution , when they will begin that worship : he has determin'd we shall baptise with water , and therefore if we will execute that command , we must use some water or other : but he has not determined that we shall make any figure , either of triangle , square , cross , or circle , and therefore none can determine in particular where god has not determined in the general : he has determin'd that i must worship him decently , and therefore that i worship him in some garments , for nakedness is contrary to natural decency ; but he has not commanded me in general , that i worship him in holy garments , and therefore none can determine holy garments in worship . again , he has determined the officers of the church , and wherefore such and such persons , duely qualified according to his rules , must be chosen to execute the offices ; but he has not empowred the church to erect new officers , and new offices , and therefore such an attempt is beyond the churches commission . but now ( says he ) god has made no such determination . ay! but we say , and must say it a hundred times over , if the contrary be a hundred times asserted without proof , that god has already determined all religious circumstances , which we call ceremonies , all ordinances of worship to exhibite , seal , convey any spiritual mercy , or supernatural grace : and for those natural circumstances which attend all actions whether sacred or civil , they must be agreed on before such actions can be performed in a community ; and if this be the game he flies at , believe it he stoops to a very mean quarrie . the reader is often vext with an odd word , which frequently oceurs in the enquirer called determination a term both of a mischievous , and a lubricons nature , and it would be good service to the peace , to bind it to it 's good behaviour . to determine , signifyes to settle or fix to one side , that which has hung in the aequipoise of neutrality ; when those things which have played in a pendulous posture between good or evil , use or non-use , come to be settled one way or other , they are determined : now the question is , whether any have power to determine things in themselves indiffirent , that they shall be no longer indifferent in their use ; to which all that i shall need say as to the present occasion , will be comprehended in these following particulars . . that where two circumstances of the same kind offer themselves , if the one or the other be necessary to the discharge of some necessary duty , there 's a power lodged somewhere , to determine whether of these two shall carry it ; otherwise a necessary duty must be eternally suspended , it's ends ●…ustrated , and it self hang 〈◊〉 petentiâ , for ever , without ever being brought in to act. . where two , or more circumstances offer themselves , none of which are necessary to the discharge of the duty , there 's no power lodged in any to determine for any of them : for if one unnecessary circumstance ( which is every way unnecessary ) may be determined by power from god , ten thousand such may be determined , and then our misery will be this , that though our burden be intolerable , yet we can have no cause to complain , but with issachar must patiently ●…ouch down under it : . if circumstances besides their natural adhesion to an act , have any morality ascribed to them , as if they render'd an act of religion either better or worse , none is vested with power to impose them , nor any with a liberty to use them . because we ought not to make gods worship worse ; and we are sure we cannot make it better then he has made it . . in those cases where god has vested any with a power of determination , it ought to be made clear that they who pretend to the power , have a commission to show for it ; because liberty is a thing so precious that none ought to be deprived of it without good reason : and this is the task which our enquirer will in the last place undertake for us [ ] if circumstantials ( says he ) must be determined or no society ; and god hath made no such determination , what remains but that man must ? and then who fitter then our governours , who best understand the civil policy , and what will suit therewith , and with the customs , and inclinations of the people under their charge . in which notable thesis two things call for examination , his ●…ssertion , and the reason of it . § . . his assertion : that none is fitter to determine circum●…antials then our governours . where . . we must suppose that he understands civil governours , or else his reason will bear no proportion to his assertion . . let it be observed , that it 's no ●…eat , or however no killing matter to the non-conformists , 〈◊〉 their cause , who it is that determines meer circumstan●…als , for they are things of a higher nature then these , about which the controversy is , if some mens interest would 〈◊〉 them see it . . seeing that the determination of such ●…eer circumstances , in some cases is matter of meer trouble ; in some cases impossible for the civil magistrate to determine them , i am confident they will not be displeased , if reason discharg●…s them of so useless a burden . as time , in general , is a circumstance concreated with every humane action , so with every command , and obligation to duty , there is a concreated command , and obligation to determine of some time , wherein to discharge that duty . and hence it must unavoidably follow , that to whomsoever god has immediately and directly given a command to worship his great and holy name , to them he has immediately and directly , at the same time , ipso facto , given a concurrent command , to determine of all those circumstances which are necessary to the executing of that command . thus if god has obliged every individual person to pray , he has therewith commanded him to single cut , and set apart some time wherein to put up his supplications to god. thus also , if god has directly , and immediately commanded every particular church to worship him jointly and publickly , he has also by virtue of that command enjoyn'd them to agree upon a time to celebrate and solemnize that worship ; now this command is so straightly bound upon the consciences of all churches , that though none should determine for them , nay though all should determine against them , yet are they under it's authority , and must come to an issue about it , unless they will draw the guilt of the neglect of worshipping god upon their souls , with that wrath which is due to so great contempt of the divine law. now that every particular church has a direct command to worship god , and by consequence to determine of those circumstances which are necessary to the worship , is evident from this one consideration , that they all did so in obedience to the authority of christ in his word , whilst all civil governours were so far from determining the circumstances , that they determined against the substance . the gracious god has now made some of the kings of the earth nursing-fathers to his churches , but yet we cannot believe , that the churches power is less under her fathers ; then it was o●…der those bloody persecutors : and if this power be lodged in the civil magistrate , and he have no rule to direct him about the when , and where , what a miserable case would the churches be in , if he should never determine these circumstances , without which the churches can never worship god : for thus proceeds his argument . no publick worship can be performed without the determination of some circumstances ( as time for one , and place for another ) but god has determined none of these circumstances , therefore unless some other determination be made , besides what god has made , no publick worship can be performed : again , if some other determination must be made besides what god has made , then it must be made by man , but some other determination must be made besides what god hath made , therefore it must be made by man : again , if a determination of circumstantials must be made by man , then by the civil magistrate . but a determination must be made by man , therefore by the civil magistrate , from whence it will be easy to argue : that if a magistrate will not determine of those circumstances which are necessary to the publick worship of god , there can be no publick worship ; but when the magistrate is an enemy to the christian religion , he will never determine of those circumstances which are necessary to the publick worship of god , therefore when the magistrate proves an enemy to the christian religion , there can be no publick worship of god : nay there ought to be none : and it will hold against the protestants worship where the magistrate is a severe romanist . now though it be true that the command to worship god publickly , be directly and immediately given to the church , yet seeing every church is in the commonwealth as a part of it , and that every soul therein ought to be subject to the higher powers , and because the peace of a nation is not a little concern'd in the prudent or disorderly management of publick assemblies , and seeing that the chief magistrate is the vicegerent , and great minister of god to preserve the peace , that this lower world may not be too like a hell , therefore has he a very great concern herein . ne quid re●…ublica detrimenti capiat : and therefore if any church shall chuse such unseasonable times , or places , as may give just occasion of jealousy that some mischief is hatching against the government , he may prohibit them that suspected place , time , or other jealous circumstance , and command them to elect some more convenient , and in offensive ones . that so religion may be cleared , the magistrates heart 〈◊〉 , the pe●… secured : only it seems reasonable to assert . . that the magistrates power herein is but indirect and in order to peace , and that the christian church had such power to determine all such circumstances before ever magistrates owned christianity . . that the magistrates power seems not to extend to determine between contradictories but disparates , that is , that he has no power to determine whether the church shall worship , or not worship : but that of two times , or places , or ●…her natural circumstances , the one carrying some appearance of suspicion , the other none , he has therein a just power , . that where no private person might determine of such a circumstance in his personal devotions , nor a particular church hath any power to determine for themselves in their publick worship , there it seems the magistrates power reaches not , because he might then make that a persons , or a churches duty by his authority , which without his command had been their sin : if then the question be ; who is fittest to determine those circumstances which are necessarily to be determined ? the answer is ready ; they are fittest to determine to whom the command is directly given , and who must answer it to god , if for want of such determination the worship of god be laid aside , and neglected . , if the question be put , who is fittest to determine of those circumstances in publick assemblies , which relate to the publick peace ? the answer is clear : he to whom the conservation of the publick peace is committed , is accountable to god , if through his default it be violated . . if the question were once more moved : what if the magistrate should forbid a church to worship god at all ? the answer is obvious , though the duty be hard . he that has made it a duty to suffer quietly and patiently , has promised suffering grace , that they may suffer comfortably and couragiously , taking up the cross willingly , bearing it ●…omely , and following their master faithfully . . but if the question were put ( as it ought to be , if it answers the enquirers designs ) who is fittest to determine of ceremonies , which are not any way necessary to the discharge of the duty , such new ordinances whereof god has not spoken one word , either in general , or particular ? it will be hard to say who is the fittest , because none is fit : that is though many may be meet to determine of meet natural circumstances , and they the fittest to whom the command to perform the duty is directly given , yet none is empowred to make new worship or new parts of worship , or to add any thing to the commands of christ. § . . the reason of his assertion follows . they best understand the civil policy , and what will s●…t with it , and with the customs , and inclinations of the people . this divinity , that religion is to be modelled according to civil policy , the costoms , and inclinati●… of the people , was certainly borrowed from apollo's oracle : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 idol was therein 〈◊〉 to his own interest , who used this one principle to root out 〈◊〉 true religion , wherever he bore sway , where haman had learn't it i know not , but i am sure he h●… it at his fingers ends . . esth. . and haman said unto the king. there is a people dispers'd and scatter'd abroad among the people in all the provinces of thy kingdom , and their laws are divers from all peoples , neither keep they the kings laws : therefore it 's not for the kings profit to suffer them . thus aristotle in his adulatory discourse to alexander the great , tells him that when apollo was asked concerning the worship of the gods , he answered : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . that all the oracles enjoyned men to sacrifice , according to th●… own country customs . thus socrates in xenophon : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . you see that the delphian god , when any one asked him . how he might worship the gods with acceptation ? answered ; according to the law of the city , or commonwealth . and seneca professes , that in matters of religion he considered not : qua diis grata , sed qua legibus justa : not so much what was acceptable to the gods , as what was warranted by the laws of the land. but i hardly forbear smiling , when i read how the delphic devil was put to his trumps , about this question : tully tells us . lib. . de legibus . cum athenienses apollinem pythium consulerent , quas potissimum religiones tenerent ; oraculum editum est , ●…as quae essent in more majorum . when the athenians consulted apollo , what forms of religion chiefly they should embrace : the grave oracle answers , those which had the authority of their ancestors custom , and usage . but here the embassadors cross't him , and told his worship ; morem majorum saepe esse mutatum : the custom of their ancestors had been often changed . alas they had reform'd , and reform'd again , and again , over and over , and could arrive at no settlement for want of a rule , and therefore they demand : , quem morem potissimùm sequerentur è variis ? which of all those various customs and rites they should observe ? the devil , who is never wholy at a loss for an answer , gave them this : optimum ! pray pick out the best you can find : though never a barrel had better herrings . but to his reason i say . . that he has now wholy given away the churches authority , which has made such a noise in these last ages , and all her power in determining things indifferent is surrender'd upon discretion . it 's very suspicious that they have no assurance of the consistency of their notions , when they know not where to fix this power of instituting , and imposing ceremonies : one age talk't of nothing , but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , but we hear no more of that but privately among friends : another time the church was ●…ght in to vouch for them , but it will not do there ; at 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thomas erastus taught us to throw them upon the civil magistrate ; grotius has made use of the notion , and for his sake we cry it up at home , but another chapter will offer us further occasion to discourse that matter . . that the magistrate understands the civil policy best , is very true , but no warrant for the imposing of ceremonies : for what is the civil government prejudiced , if i worship god according to his own rules ? or what propriety of the subject destroyed ; what prarogative of the prince impaired ; or what priviledge of parliament invaded by a ministers baptising according to christs naked institution , without the cross ? . it 's one of the greatest disservices the enquirer can do to religion , to make it truckle to the humours , and customs of the people : p. . he tells us , the vulgar are altogether for extreams ; and blames calvin for complying with the humour of the vulgar . and yet now all o th' sudden the magistrate must determine , because he knows best what suits with the inclinations of the people : though indeed one main end of the christian reli●…ion was to oppose those radicated customs , and idle humours received by tradition from their fathers . i am now obliged to look a little backwards , and consider his attempts to prove , that god has not determined circumstances : wherein if he had pleased to have understood others , all this had been spared , unless perhaps he understood not himself . a long story he tells us of temple and synagogue worship . how punctual god was in his directions about the former , how more laxe in those about the latter . and his reason is : because there was nothing symbolical , but natural religion , which the nations they had of god , and the common sense of mankind was sufficient to guide them in . which discourse of his well improved , would give a notable shake to the ground-work of this whole chapter : for all the religion of christians is either instituted , or natural , if it be instituted , it depends wholy on the will of ●…od , to make it known to us , and to make it our duty : and therefore so much of it as is of this nature , will plead the priviledge of the temple , man has nothing to do with it . if it be natural , then the notions we have of god , and common sense are sufficient to guide every particular church in it , nor shall they need any dictatorship to supply the defects . as christ has cleared up to us the moral law ; so he has prescribed us a ceremonial law : and as it would be a bold affront to the divine majesty to pretend to add one commandment to the former , so is it no less an usurpation upon the legislative power of christ to superadd one institution to the latter . he that may make three or four humane sacraments , may with equal pretext make eleven or twelve humane moral commandments . there is a command . . deut. . what thing soever ▪ i command you , observe to do it , thou shalt not add thereto , nor diminish from it . and under whatever dispensation we are we areunder the restraint of this prohibition : this is granted by all in the general , only the question is what constitution or institution will amount to an addition to gods commandment ? to which i answer . . negatively : it can be no addition to a commandment , to determine of such natural circumstances , which are necessary to the executing the particular duties commanded either by a ceremonial , or moral precept , god has commanded me to relieve the widow , and the fatherless , with part of that which his bounty has graciously given me : he has not determined on what day , or what hour of the day , or in what particular place , or to what persons by name i shall extend my charity , and therefore every person to whom the command is given ( and it is given to every man to whom god has given ability ) must determine these , and other circumstances , without which 't is impossible that law should enure , and take effect . thus has he commanded some to baptise with water , but he has not told us , whether that water shall be brought from a river or spring ; and therefore he that is commanded to baptise , is thereby commanded to determine , and he is necessitated to it , if he will discharge his duty : nor can such determinations be interpreted any addition to the law , because they are included in the law , unless we will suppose the law-nugatory , and to be vacated by every forward caviller . . affirmatively : whoever shall inst●…ute any ceremony , which is not necessarily required to the performance of any of gods commands , such as is not comprehended in any general law of christ , must necessarily be adjudged to have added another law or institution to the institutions and laws of christ. to illustrate this , i shall use a very familiar instance ; i will suppose a standing general law in a nation , that no person ( except the legislatour ) shall add to the laws of the land. i will suppose also a particular law promulgated by the legislatour : that every subject shall sweep his dore once a week with a beesom : now to sweep my dore with a beesom of birch , or broom , cannot possibly be any addition to that law , because 't is necessarily required to the putting of the law in practise , that i do it with the one , or the other , and therefore they are both comprehended virtually in the law by way of dis●…unction , that is either with this , or that , or some other . again , to sweep my dore on the third day of the week , and at the ninth hour of the day , can 〈◊〉 no addition to the law , because i am commanded to do 〈◊〉 , upon some day in the week , and at some hour of the day , and the law not having defined the precise day and hour , 〈◊〉 it indifferent to the lawgiver , which i chuse , but one or other i must chuse , unless i will obstinately disobey the law. but now , if i will not only sweep my dore , but over-officiously will needs make a cross over it , this is an addition to the law , being neither compehended under the command of sweeping , nor necessarily required to the reducing the law into act. let us suppose yet further , that the mayor of some of our enquirers petty corporations , with the advise of his brethren , shall put forth an order or edict , that non-obstant the law de non addend●… , every person within the limits of that burrough shall be obliged to cross , as well as sweep his dore , and that unless he will cross it , he shall not sweep , and that every man shall subscribe to this order and edict , and whosoever shall contravene the same , shall be disfranchised ; this must needs be interpreted an addition to the law with a witness ; a most express and daring violation of it . but now to mend the matter , we will suppose the mayor with his brethren shall solemnly declare , that though they do command crossing as well as sweeping , yet they do not here by intend , in any wise to make any addition to that or any other law ; such an explanatory declaration would be of little credit among the more considerate sort of men , as being contrary to the fact . but mr. mayor will plead , that though he has added something for the greater solemnity , and decency of the action , yet he pretends not to make a law for the nation , his is only an order of the court for his own corporation , and therefore he ought not to be charg'd with adding a law , to the systeme of the laws ; but his worship is hugely out , for the general prohibition , caution'd him not only against adding a law to the law , but against adding any thing to the law : the reader has often observed our distinction of natural and moral circumstances . now a natural circumstance is such a one , as arising out of , or adhaering to a natural action , adds no goodness nor evil to the action : but a moral circumstance is such , as always renders the action either better , or worse : thus baptism is neither better nor worse , more , nor less pleasing to god , whether it be administred at ten a clock , or eleven ; but every symbolical ceremony must either render the ordinance to which it is added or with , which it is used , more or less acceptable . thus the sign of the cross instituted to signify a persons dedication to the lord christ as his faithful soldier , must either add to , or detract from the moral goodness of that institution to which it is annex't , or with which it is used : for either it makes it better : as doing the same thing with baptism . viz. dedicating a person to the service of christ , seeing a double tye , or obligation to any duty seems stronger then a single one , or else it will render it worse , because it does that supertuo●…sly , which christs own ceremony had before done sufficiently ; and endeavours to perform that ineffectually , which the institution of christ had already effectually performed : and because it being a part of instituted worship , and yet wanting divine institution ; nor having any track , or footstep in the light of nature , it seems to overdo , what was once well done . now since it must either prejudice , or meliorate the worship , it may be convenient to enquire , whether it may have a propitious , and benign ; or a malignant influence upon it ? and dissenters are enclined to think the latter : all the goodness of instituted worship depends meerly upon the authority of the legislatour , either as he has instituted it , or empowred others to institute it , or promised to accept it from us , and bless it to us : now ( say these dissenters ) christ has neither instituted this dedicating symbol , nor empowred others to institute it , nor promised to accept it at our hands , nor entailed any blessing upon it , and therefore it must needs render the worship less good , because itself , ( as used ) is evil : and whether christ has instituted it , or warranted others to do it , or annext any such promise to it , they are willing to joyn issue with any of their brethren who will soberly manage the debate . some of them i have heard thus argue : all worship not-commanded , is forbidden ; but these ceremonies are worship not-commanded ; therefore they are forbidden . § . . the major proposition i thus prove , first from the concession of the learned dr. h. hammond , a great and strenuous patron of ceremonies , who in his treatise of superstition , and will-worship against master d. c. ●…teely owns it . that all uncommanded worship is forbidden . secondly , i prove it by this reason . they who may institute new worship , may destroy the old worship . for cujus est instituere , ejus est destituere : the same authority that can make a law , can repeal a law ; but no man can destroy the old worship , therefore none can institute new worship . lastly , i prove it from the authority of god , who destroyed nadab , and abihu , . lev. . and renders this reason of it , because they offer'd strange fire before the lord , which he commanded them not : i know it is answered by master booker , and others , that the strange fire was not only not-commanded , but forbidden : to which i reply , suppose that to be true ; yet god only insists upon this that it was not-commanded : it is pleaded further , that god was strict , and punctual in his commands to the iewish church ; but he has indulged us a greater latitude under the gospel : but the reply is easy : that our liberty under the gospel lies not in an exorbitant power to frame new ceremouies , or new worship , but in our discharge from the ser●…itude of the old : not that we may create more , but that he has loaded us with fewer particulars of instituted worship : it 's then very evident : that all worship not-commanded is forbidden . § . . the minor i thus prove : viz. that symbolical coremonies are worship not-commanded . that which is a part of worship , 〈◊〉 worship , but the ceremonies are a part of worship and not commanded , therefore they are worship not-commanded . 〈◊〉 will seruple to grant the major : the parts must needs partake of the nature of the whole : the m●…r i thus evince , from the enquirers concession in his introduction : where he reckons it amongst the glories of the first times of resormation , that the liturgy , and publick prayers were counted a principal part of gods worship . that which is made a part , of a principal part of gods worship , and yet uncommanded , is a part of worship not-commanded , but such are the ceremonies , therefore they are a part of worship not-commanded . the former proposition depends upon a known , and received maxime : quod est pars partis est pars 〈◊〉 : the second proposition is our enquirers own assertion ; the liturgy is a principal part of worship , the ceremonies are a part of the liturgy , therefore the ceremonies are a part of a principal part of worship : and if the enquirer stick at any thing here ; i will make him this fair offer , let him undertake to prove the ceremonies commanded : and i will undertake to prov●…them worship , there are only some excellencies in this chapter , which like the sporades lye dispersed up , and down his discourse , whose cohaerence not obliging them to any fixed residency , i shall for a conclusion , in this place consider them . ( ) his first great assertion is , p. . that christ uever went about the composure of laws , either of civil , or ecclesiastical policy , we shall not need to concern our selves about christs civil laws , seeing he professes his kingdom was not of this world . 't was not a worldly kingdom , administred according to the maximes of state , and mysteris of policy which had obtained here below ; that it should be spiritual : the laws and constitutions , the officers , and ministers thereof of divine original , managed for spiritual ends , by spiritual means ; the rewards spiritual and eternal , the punishments inflicted upon the disobedient all spiritual , so the apostle . . cor. . . the weapons of our warsare are not carnal , but mighty through god. v. . and having in readiness to revenge all disobedience : it 's true also , that when once we have tinctured our brains with false notions of ecclesiastical policy , whereof we find no footsteps in scripture , we shall be ready to affirm as much of those laws which he has prescribed concerning the administration of his spiritual kingdom : but this we think clear . . that christ has instituted as many laws , as such a church as he established shall need , and perhaps he was not concerned to write decretals . extravagants , glosses , canons , bulls , to fit all the governments that the wit of man should afterwards excogitate . . he has by himself , and his apostles described all the officers which he judged sufficient to conduct his disciples in wayes of holy obedience through the temptations of this world to eternal life , . he has also instituted as ma●… ordinances and sacraments as may serve to guide and direct them as christians , and let any one name one that is wanting to that end , if they be able . . from the nature of those officers which he hath appointed , the species , nature , kind , of his ecclesiastical government is abundantly manifested . . he has given express charge that it be not so with his officers , as 't is with the kings of the gentiles who exercise lordship over them , ●… . luk. . . nor has he commissioned any governours to make any laws directly for his church , as a church , binding the conscience of his disciples . . the sacraments which he has ordained , the express rules he has given for pastors or bishops , with all other officers , are evidence sufficient that he has made some laws of ecclesiastical nature : and that he has been defective therein , becomes not christians to assert . ( ) the apostles ( says he , ibid. ) gave certain directions suited to the conditions of the times and places , and people respectively ; but never composed a standing ritual for all aftertimes : which will be put beyond all dispute by this one observation , that several things instituted by the apostles in the primitive churches , and given in command in their sacred writings were intended to be obliging only so long as circumstances should stand as then they did , and no longer . where we have two things that challenge consideration . § . his doctrine . that the apostles game certain directions suited to the conditions of the times , places , and persons respectively , but never composed a standing ritual : to which i say , . if by a standing ritual he mean a portuis , a liturgy , a mass-book , a ceremonious rubric , the rules of the pye , or the like , it 's very true , and that which the non-conformists do gladly accept the confession of : but if by a standing ritual he understand fixed laws , suited to the condition of the church in all ages , under all the various dispensations of gods providen●…s , we deny it , and expect his proof , § . . his evidence is this . this 〈◊〉 observation will put 〈◊〉 beyond all dispute . it 's a happy observation , and deserves a hecatombe for its invention , that will silence all dispute in this matter : but what is it ? that several things instituted by the apostles in the primitive churches , and given in command in their sacred writings , their epistles were intended , and so construed only to be obliging so long as circumstances should stand as they did , and no longer . to which i answer . . that there were indeed some temporary ordinances , such as were to expire with the reason and occasion of their institution : but then there was also sufficient evidence that it was the will of god that they should expire , and cease : such was that command of anointing with oyl . . jam. . which was sealed , and attested by an extraordinary concurrence of gods power ; witnessed to by miraculous effects . but god having now broken that seal , withdrawn the concurrence of his power , we need no other evidence that it was only proper for the first planting of christianity and is now long ago out of date . . his one observation comes infinitely short of putting this question out of dispute with any wise man : for what if several institutions were temporary , will it follow that none were perpetual ? what if some were suited only to those times , shall we thence conclude there were not enow suited to all aftertimes ? there were extraordinary apostles , are there therefore no ordinary pastors and teachers ? or must a nation be at all this vast charge to maintain humane creatures ? what if some rites were momentany ? are there not sacraments , in the right use where of christ has promised to be with his ministers to the end of the world ? such wherein we are to shew forth the lords death till he come ? it 's as easy to say all this of baptism and the lords supper , that they were calculated only for the meridian of those days , ( and some are not ashamed to say it ) as of any other order , or constitution of christ by his apostles , whose temporary nature is not expressed , or evidently implyed in the temporary reason , upon which it was built . . the epistles of the apostle to the corinthians as a church , shews what ought to be the order and government of every church : the occasion of writing those epistles might be , and was peculiar to them , and so was the occasion of writing all the rest , but th●… design is common to all. nor ought any one to dare to distinguish betwixt temporary , and perpetual institutions , where the scripture has not furnisht us with sufficient ground for such distinction . . as there never was a more pernicious and destructive design managed by the prince of darkness , then the rejecting the scriptures as the only rule of faith , worship , and all religious obedience , so the mediums where by 't is carried on , is the very same with that of this enquirer : there are an absurd generation amongst ●…s in this nation , to whom if you quote the apostles authority in his epistle to the corinthians . for the standing and perpetual use of the lords supper , will give you just such another answer . w●… do you think 〈◊〉 dwell 〈◊〉 c●…th ? what is 〈◊〉 e●…le to the corinthians to us ? wh●… are english men ! and so it seems unconcern'd . thus the papists justify their half communion : serenus cressy . chap. . p. . in answer to dr. peirce , his primitive rule of reformation : we acknowledg ( says he ) our saviour instituted this mystery in both kinds ▪ that the apostles received it in both kinds . that st. paul sp●…aks as well of drinking , &c. but the general tradition of the church , ( at least from his beginning ) will not permit us to yeeld , that the receiving in both kinds was esteem'd as necessary to the essence of the communion ; or in●…grity of the participation of christs body and blood : but let us see what service his select instances will do him to prove his doctrine . of this nature ( says the enquirer ) were the feasts of love , the holy kiss , the order of deaconesses . to which i return . . the feasts of love , and the holy kiss were not as all institutions of the apostles . all that the apostle determined about them was , that supposing in their civil congresses , and converses they salute each other , they should be sure to avoid all levity , wantonness , all appearance of evil , for religion teaches us not only to worship god , but to regulate our civil actions in subordination to the great ends of holiness , the adorning of the gospel , and thereby the glorifyin●… of our god , and saviour , i say the same concerning the feasts of love. the apostle made it no ordinance , either temporary , or perpetual , but finding that such a civil custom had obtained amongst them , introduced , we charitably believe , for the maintaining of amity amongst them , and seeing it sadly to degenerate amongst the corinthians , he cautions them against gluttony , drunkenness , all excess , and ryot , to which such feasts , through the power of corruption in some , and the remainders of corruption in the best , were obnoxious : which is evident from . cor. . . one is hungry , another is drunken . the apostle paul. tim. . . commands that men pray every where lifting up holy hands : can any rational creature imagine , that he has thereby made it a duty , as oft as we pray to elevate our hands ? that was none of his design to that age , or the present : but under a ceremonial phrase he wraps up an evangelical duty . as if he had said . be sure you cleanse your hearts ; and if you do lift up your hands , let them be no umbrage for unholy souls . . concerning deaconesses , i can find no such order , or constitution of the apostles . it 's true they used in their travels , and other occasions the services , and assistances of holy women , who chearfully administred to their necessities , and are thence called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . but how childish is it to conclude an order or institution from so slippery a thing as an etymology ? the angels are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : ministring spirits . . heb. . ●…ill any from hence infer , that they read the liturgy ? magistrates are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , . r●…m . . . and ●…et it●… no part of their o●… t●… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 st. 〈◊〉 was by some ecclesiastical writers , dignified with the title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . whence some conclude he was a liturgy-maker . and thus our willing enquirer , to serve a turn , must needs have those good women that did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , by all means to have been ordained to the office of she-deacons . these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as bellarmine notes , signify no more in their general import , then qu●…libet public●… munere sungi : to perform any publick service for the common benefit , whether sacred , or civil : but when they are applyed to any religious work or service , then by accident they have a sacred signification ●…tampt upon them : and therefore the same cardinal from those words . act. . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . as they ministred to the lord : has sound out a masse , compleatly rigged out for service : others will discover from thence a liturgy , though the duller sort of people ean espy no more then the worship of god , which may very well consist without either : . in a word : the duty 's of saluting with an holy kiss : the ordering of all our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or feasts of love to gods glory ; the ministring in our respective places to the necessities of the saints , are as much in force as ever , unless holiness be grown out of fashion , so that this one observation will hardly put the question beyond all dispute : let him try a second . ( ) if it be true , as he says , that the christian religion ●…as to throw down all inclosures , to unite the world under one head , and make of all nations one people , and therefore must be left with freedom as to circumstantials : then it seems they design some depopulating inclosures , and to disunite the world again , who set up such distinguishing ceremonies , as divide those of the same nation , the same religion , both at home and abroad . ( ) his confidence , that it is evident , that it is unreasonable to expect that every ceremony made use of by christians should be found prescribed in the scripture or proved thence , does not at all move me ; i am accustomed to encounter feeble proofs , seconded with gigantick confidences : i think it 's reasonable that they who pretend to imitate christ , should follow his example in this also . . john. . i can of my self do nothing , as i hear , i judge : and that they who act under his authority , should produce his commission , or at least not expect so ready a compliance with those ceremonies , which they confess not to be proved from scripture . in the mean time from circumstances in the promises , to ceremonies in the conclusion ; from some circumstances to all , from natural to moral , is a leap too great for any one to take that valued the breaking of his neck , more then the breaking of his east . his fine story of pacuvi●…s is lamentably impertinent , for the question there was , who should be the senator : allowing the senate : approving the order , but quarrelling the persons : but dissenters greatest dispute is about the office , whether jur●… 〈◊〉 or no ? they question not whether cross , or cream suit best with baptism ? but whether any such ceremonies ought to be used with it , or added to it : they do not set op two or three new devices as candidates for preferment , but plead that all of that kind be removed . and if all the scuffle were which of them should be used , which repudiated , the non-conformists would not bet a penny on either of their heads . chap. v. a thorough examination of that principle , whereon the enquirer lays too great stress : that god lays very little stress upon circumstantials in religion . the historian observes of the ligurians , a kind of banditti , that skulk't here , and there , and always plaid least in sight , that major erat aliquanto labor , invenire , quam vincere . they were an enemy harder to be found out , then being once discovered , to be rowted : upon which account this enquirer may pass for an antagonist more troublesome then formidable ; and yet therefore formidable , because troublesome . he professes himself as ready to lay down his life for the preservation of unity , as in testimony against flat idolatry : and next to , if not before them , he seems willing to dye a thousand deaths , rather then ever state a question . god lays very little stress upon circumstantials : that may be true ! and god lays very great stress upon circumstantials ; that may be as true also ! but when he lays very little , and when very great stress upon them , let others blow the coal for him , he will save his breath for better purposes . the question would receive a very quick dispatch , if we his poor plebeian readers were worthy to know what he intends by circumstantials ; but seeing we are none of his great cronies , and confidents that may be admitted into his cabinet-consels , we must be content with the andabatarian feneers , to cuff it out blindfolds . if he were under any obligation to use such mediums , and instances , as were proportionable to his conclusion , we might conjecture that by circumstantials he means some divine instiutions : but seeing he has imposed upon himself no such severe discipline , i know none has that power over him , as to compel him to their laws of discourse and disputation . god lays very little stress upon circumstantials , undetermined by himself ; but there imposers lay the main stress ; and god lays very great stress upon circumstantials by himself once determined , but there , ( i thank you ) , our enquirer lays very little . and there is reason enough , and to spare , why god should lay great weight upon the smallest matters which he has commanded , but not half enough why men should lay such a stress upon their pleasures , as to venture the churches peace upon them , unless it could be made out , that they had authority from god to do it warrantably , an infallible spirit , to do it exactly , and infinite charity , to guide that authority , without which , to entrust any creature with such a power over circumstantials , were but to put a sword into it's hand , that would kill some , wound many , and at last destroy himself . it is indeed a noble design which he pursues , viz. to beget in men better notions of god , and better measures of religion ; for hetherto men have sancied god to be very rigid , and severe about small sins ; but our enquirer will ease the minds of men of their scrupulosities , and discharge conscience from any regard of the authority of god in his positive laws , and institutions . a work infinitely grateful , and eternally obliging this prophane , and atheistical generation , who had rather keep ten of their own , then one of gods ceremonies . and with such sophistry did the archenemy prevail upon the less wary minds of our first parents . ye shall not surely dye ! the command is meerly positive , no eternal reason of evil in the thing ; and god lays little , very little stress upon circumstantials , secure but the main , let there be no schism between you , and never trouble your selves about these institutions which are but secunda intentionis ; and he is seconded notably by the enquirer ; p. . all ceremonial appendages , ( and such were the trees of life , and knowledge , in paradise : circumcision , and the passeover , under the law ; baptism , and the lords supper , under the gospel ) are perfectly subordinate , and ought to yeeld to the designs of peace , charity , and edification . and yet these poor deluded ones found to their cost , that he who represented god as a captious deity ( as the enquirer with great seriousness words it ) proved himself a captious devil , and that it had been more their intetest to have credited gods most severe threatnings , then satans most sugred promisos . but if it be true , that god lays so very little stress upon his own , we need not question but men will lay at least as little upon their institutions ; if god be so indifferent , and remiss , we hope we shall not find them rigorous ; for seeing magistrates are called gods , such as hear some considerable part of his image , and borrow of his authority , they will no doubt represent that god to us , truly as he is , a god of mercy , grace and pitty ; and not watch advantages against their creatures ; but so long as the main of subjection is provided for , and the substance of their institutions observed , alterations may be made in lesser matters without their offence . that the servant is sometimes more severe then the master , we are taught from gehazie's sin , and may we never learn it from his leprosy . . kin : . , my master hath spared naaman this syrian , but as the lord liveth i will run after him , and take somewhat of him . and there was another servant in the parable , who laid a great stress upon a few deniers , when his lord laid less upon many talents ; and would have pluckt out his fellow servants throat for a sorry circumstance , when he had the face to beg indulgence in the substance . and we are sufficiently lesson'd that it 's better to address the lord himself , then the steward ; ever since the syrophenician met with such churlish treatment from the disciples , and so gracious a reception from our b. saviour : such are some of our church men , who lye baiting at and worrying of the magistrate night and day , to exact the rigour of conformity and the penal statutes , as if all religion were utterly lost , unless their circumstantials were preserved , sacred and inviolable , whatever become of gods circumstantials . the title of this chapter modestly asserts only thus much , that god lays very little stress upon circumstantials : but the continued tenor of his discourse labours to make it out , that he lays very little upon some of his own precepts , the true and clear stating therefore of circumstantials in the question , would be above half way towards its answer . under the mosaical law god commanded that they should offer to him the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 juge sacrificium , or the daily burnt-offering : and in this case the coulour of the beast , ( provided it was otherwise rightly qualified ) was a meer circumstance . such as god laid no stress upon , and that man had proved himself an ardetious , superstitious busy-body that should curiously adhaere to any one colour : but for the heighfer , whose ashes were to make the water of separation , there the colour was no circumstance , but made by gods command a substantial part of the service : to be rod , was as much as to be a heighfer ; for when circumstances have once pass't the royal assent , and are stampt with a divine seal , they become substantials in instituted worship . the question then ought to have been , whether god have any regard to his own positive laws ; or whether he be so indifferent about his own institutions , that he lays little stress upon our obedience to them ? but this had been too broad english , a little too uncivil for any that would carry fair correspondence with the scriptures : and therefore let it be mollified , and stand as it does : whether god lay very little stress upon circumstantials in religion ? in deciding this question , he had done very ingenuously , and fairly to have told us , from whence we are to take the measures of that stress , and weight , which god lays upon these things ; which because it was not for his interest , yet may be much for the readers , i shall endeavour to clear up these two things , first , from whence we ought not ; and secondly , from whence we ought to fetch these measures . [ ] from whence we ought not to take the measures of the stress which god lays on them ? ( ) then we ought not to judge that god has little regard to any of his commands , because the matter of them abstracted from his authority , is little ; for we must not conceive that christ sets little by baptism , because the element is plain fair water ; or little by that other sacrament , because the materials thereof are common bread , and wine : nor to set them of , must we varnish them with pompous pageantry , as if any thing were necessary to buoy up their repute , or beget an awful reverence to his institutions , besides his authority , for . though the things in themselves be small , yet his authority is great . as god appears great in creating little things , his power conspicuous in employing little instruments to archieve great effects , so is his authority very glorious in enjoyning small observances : . though the things be small , yet god can bless them to great purposes . . king. . . naaman was in a great huff , that the prophet should prescribe so plain , and mean a way for his recovery : he expected some majestick procedure in the cure , that the prophet should come out , and stand , and call on the name of the lord , and strike his hand over the place . this had been something like ! but to send him away ingloriously , with all that train , and bid him go wash in jordan seven times , was not to be endured by a person of his ranck . and quality . are not abana , and pharpar , the rivers of damascus better then the waters of israel ? may i not wash in them , and be clean ? and he went away in a rage ! but we are to judge that to be best , which best reaches the end ; healing jordan , then ineffectual pharpar . . if the things be small , then the grace , and mercy conveyed by them , may be had at cheaper rates ; and shall it be objected to gods ordinances , as their reproach , which is their real glory ? baptismal water may be had a thousand times cheaper , then the popes holy water , shall that be it's crime , when 't is a thousand times more useful ? ( ) nor are we to judge that god lays little stress upon his institutes , because he does not immediately avenge the contempt and neglect of them upon the violaters . and yet such is the unworthiness of reprieved sinners , that they have formed one of their strongest arguments for the continuance of corruptions in gods worship , because he breaks not out upon them with present destructions . . eccles. . because sentence against an evil work is not speedily executed , therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil : whereas , . such an argument would equally conclude that god lays very little stress upon murder , idolatry , sacriledg , nay schism itself . . god will find a time soon enough to reckon with all those who bolster up themselves in these presumptions , and take an unworthy occasion to be therefore bad , because god is so good : all the threatnings that are upon record , will certainly find out , and lay hold on the despisers of his sacred institutions ; and who to accommodate their doctrines to the genius of the age , and humour the people with a religion agreable to their customs , must remember . . math. . whosoever shall break one of the least of christs commandements , and teach men so , shall be called lease in the kingdom of heaven . . god has not left himself without a witness that he is a iealous god , in the matters of instituted worship : for though nadad , and abihu might plead that it was a small matter , a meer trifle what fire they used , so long as they kept close to the substance of the command ; yet god let them know , that he that offers strange fire to the lord , may be consumed with strange fire from the lord : and under the state of the gospel , he has given such evidence of his displeasur●… herein , as may justly alarm us out of our security . cor. . . for this cause many are weak , and sick among you , and many sleep . ( ) we are not to conceive that god lays very little stress upon his institutions , because we see a prophane , and contemptuous generation of men lay little weight on them , except it be a load of reproach , and contumely : for this were to measure god by the world ; as those prophane wretches did . . ps. . these things hast thou done , and i kept silence , and thou thoughtest , that i was altogether such a one as thy self as we must not think that god appretiates , whatever men set a high value upon ; so neither are we to judge that he disesteems any thing because it 's grown out of fashion , and thereby exposed to contempt by the atheistical wits of mercenary writers . our saviour has told us ; . luke . . that what is highly esteemed amongst men , is abomination in the sight of god. and on the other side , what is of high account in the sight of god , may be depretiated by men . if any of christs institutions seem necessary to be broken ; it will be first necessary to decry them as poor , low , inconsiderable circumstantials , and then to fill the peoples heads with a noice , and din●… , that christ lays little stress on them , and in order hereto to call them the circumstantials , the accidentals , the minutes , the punctilio's , and if need be , the petty-johns of religion , that conscience may not kicke at the contemning of them . ( ) nor may we conclude that god lays little stress on his positive laws , because he is ready upon unfeigned repentance to pardon the violation of them , for thus we might conclude also , that he laid little stress upon murder , and adultery , in that ●…oon as david had said : i have sinned against the lord : the prophet delivers him a sealed pardon , the lord hath also put away thy sin , then shalt not dye . . sam. . . ( ) nor yet ought we to form such conclusions , that god lays little stress upon his positive precepts , because he lays a greater stress upon moral precepts in themselves . as it would be an injury to conclude that any church lays little weight upon the observation of the lords day , because when one of its own instituted festivals , is coincident with that day , the ordinary service thereof gives place to the proper service of that festival ; when all that can possibly by the wit of man be inferred thence is but this , that the church may have a less respect for the one , then the other : so would it be injurious to conclude , that god has very little respect to his own institutions , because he may suspend their exercise pro hic , & nunc , rather then the duties imperated by a moral precept : mint , anise , and cumine , are inconsiderable things , compared with the weightier matters of the law , judgment , mercy and faith , and yet our saviour tells them , . math. . these ought ye to have done , and not to have left the other undone . ( ) as absurd would it be to conclude , that god lays little stress upon positives , because he disrespe●…s the performance of a duty in hypocrisy , for at this rate we may conclude that he lays little upon preaching his word . ps. ●… . what hast thou to do to declare my statutes ? or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth ? seeing thou hatest instruction ? and the consequence is as natural , that god regards not prayer , because he hears not the petition of him that regards iniquity in his heart , . ps. . and that the prayer of him that turns away his ear from hearing the law , is an abomination , . prov. . ( ) nor may we gather that god makes little account of a positive precept , because he sometimes sees reason to indulge the omission of its practise for a season . what weight he laid upon circumcision is well known , that he threatned excision to the malechild that was uncircumcised at eight days old : and yet for fourty years in the wilderness the act of circumcising was suspended : for the acts of an affirmative moral praecept may be forborn for some time by our own prudence , and much more and longer by divine warrant , and yet the precept itself all the while stand firm in gods regard , and in full force , power , strength and virtue to us . ( ) we are not to conclude that god lays little stress upon an institution , because he sometimes commands an act , which were it not for that particular and special command , would by virtue of a general command , be a most horrid impiety . thus god laid a great stress upon killing , much greater upon a fathers killing a child ; and yet greater upon offering humane blood in sacrifice : and yet he commanded abraham to sacrifice his only son , and by his command made that most acceptable , and rewardable service , which otherwise had been most abominable to the divine majesty . to borrow , and not to pay again , is one of the characters of a wicked person . . ps. . and yet god by his special command authorised the israelites to borrow of the egyptians iewels of silver , and jewels of gold : with no intent i am perswaded to repay them either use or principal . god is the soveraign , and absolute legislatour , who may suspend , rescind , alter his own laws at pleasure , and yet he has said such a stress upon the meanest of them that no man may , nor any man , but the man of sin , dares presume to dispense with them , much less to dispense against them . ( ) nor are we to think that god lays little stress upon a commandement , because he little regards those observances , which superstition , folly , tradition , custom , have ascribed to it , which were never comprehended in it : yet such is the process of our enquirers arguments : he instances in some superstitious additament to the command , which god never required , and thence concludes very learnedly that god lays very little stress upon the command ; let him therefore have leave to infer ; god laid little weight upon the observation of the sabbath day , because the supperstitious jews were halter'd with an erroneous opinion , that they were bound tamely to sit still , and offer their naked throats to their enemies naked swords upon that day , which folly indeed god little regarded . [ ] whence then ought we to take the measures of that stress god lays upon his institutions ? ( ) the true measure of that respect which god has for a commandment , is to be taken by us , from the authority of god : if the thing be small , yet we are to regard his authority in it , for this god regards : and therefore he has back't of old both the positive , and the moral precepts with this ; i am the lord ; and the greatest instances of his royal praerogative are given us in those mandates , which have only his soveranig pleasure to recommend them to our observance . ( ) the measure of that regard god has to an institution , is to be taken from the greatness of that glory which we give him in our obedience . the great tryal of our sincerity , and subjection to god lies in giving deference to his will as the rule , and reason of our obedience : and then do we recognize his absolute power to dispose of us when his will , whatever be the reason of it , is the reason of our compliance . thus abraham gave god the greatest testimony of inward honour , when he praepared himself to sacrifice his only son , upon his only command . ( ) we may take the measure also of the weight of a command from its designed usefulness to his great ends : for seeing , the smallest , and seemingly weakest of his injunctions are attended with his blessing upon the holy , and due use thereof , we are thence to instruct our selves in the weight and worth of it . the enquirer tells us from maimonides , that there were some things in the iewish law , that were primae intentionis , such as god required for themselves , as being intrinsically good : others that were secundae intentionis , only required for the sake of , and in order to the former : now his own judgment herein he acquaints us with , in these words . the first kind that were essentially good , were absolutely necessary : and could never be otherwise , such we call moral duties : the latter kind were of so indifferent a nature , as th●… they might not only not have been commanded , but also insome cases having been commanded , they may not be a duty : but either he , or his mr. maimonides are quite out . for. . the acts of affirmative moral praecepts may in some cases become no duties , the command it self abiding in it's full force ; yet none will say that god lays little stress upon the acts of affirmative moral precepts : thus the acts of affirmative positive precepts may become no duty , yet none can say , that god lays little stress upon the acts of obedience to a positive precept . . if this wil prove that god lays little stress upon positives , because they are required only for the sake of , and in order to the former : then it will evince that god lays little stress upon all the means which he has appointed for his great ends : for the means , as they are , means are only valuable for the sake of , and in order to the end . ( ) what stress god lays upon his positive precepts , we may judge from those severitiis which god has threatned against , and sometimes executed upon the violaters of them . it was for the violation of a ceremonial law : the eating of the tree of knowledge of good , and evil , that god ejected adam out of paradise : it was for the neglect of a ceremonial affirmative command that the lord sought to kill moses . ex. . and yet he had this to plead , that he was upon a journey , and about gods errand . it was matter of meer institution , that was the israelites security against the destroying angel : , exod : viz. the sprinkling the blood of the paschal lamb upon the lintle , and posts of the dore : that many do escape gods vengeance at present , notwithstanding their not obeying what god has instituted ; and insti●…uting what god has not commanded , will prove the admirableness of gods forbearance , towards them who turn this grace into lasciviousness , and embolden themselv's to sin from his patience , but not in the least , that he lays little stress upon his own precepts , whereof he will find a time to satisfy the sons of men , from whence . § . . it follows , that he argues himself a pittiful sophister who concludes the least command may be broken , because god turns not men to hell as oft as 't is broken . § . . he proves himself a notorious hyprocite , that from either gods grace in waiting or pardoning , shall encourage himself in sinning ; and flatter his soul that he may curse god and live , when the devil was more modest to suggest : curse god and dye . § . . whosoever shall openly preach this doctrine , that god lays little stress upon the circumstantials of religion , has open'd a floodgate to let in a deluge of prophaness upon the world : for seeing no command of god is small , in respect of the authority of the law-giver , which is the formal reason of our obedience 〈◊〉 that law , so no command of god will be great , but that command paramount , de non-separand●… ; and then if every command that is less then another , may be said to have little stress laid on it ; seeing there is such a gradation in the weightiness , this is in order to that , and that for another ; there will but few , perhaps but one , of which it may not be said , god lays very little stress on them . § . . although the acts of positive commands may give place to the acts of moral precepts , when both cannot consist , yet when ever we can possibly perform both , we can omit neither without sin . § . to forbear the practise of an affirmative precept , when circumstances do not conspire , is no violation of such a precept : though no evil may at any time be done , yet some good may at some time be forborn . § . . in all laws of this sort there are several casus reservati , cases kept in gods own hands , which cases when they are put , the controvention of that precept 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , is no violation of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : that is some things seem to enterfeire with the letter of the law , which are allowed in the equitable construction of it ; thus god commanded the jews to do no servile work on the sabbath , and yet in case of assaults from enemies they migt lawfully fight without violation of the law , 〈◊〉 prophanation of the day . from what hath been said , the reader may be furnisht with an answer to those little attempts of the enquirer , endeavouring to extort from us these two things ; first ; that god laid very litle stress upon circumstantials in the old testament . secondly , that he lays less weight upon them under the new. [ ] that god laid very little stress upon circumstantials under the o. t. he proves . § . . by the instance of the jews : who have now generally received that maxime , periculum vitae dissolvit sabbatam , ( though they were a great while before they understood it and sondly smarted for their ignorance . ) to which i shall need to say no more , then . this instance was as ackwardly applied as can be imagined : he would prove that things commanded may become no duty : and he instances in that which never was commanded . he undertakes to prove that god lays very little stress upon a positive command , and he brings an instance , that god lays very little stress upon their superstitions . . i would seriously enquire of this serious enquirer , whether god did really allow them the liberty of self preservation , and defence upon that day ? if he did ; then it was their own superstitions ignorance , and foolish fancy , that debarre'd them the use of their liberty : if not ; then whenever they defended themselv's they sinned ; for sin is the transgression of a law. and then let the question be new modelled : whether god lay any stress upon sin ? . if ever the jews had such light into that maxime , as to interpret it thus : the danger of life dissolves the sabbath , that is , disannuls the command , their light was gross darkness : and they ran from superstition , to prophaness ; the common reel of those who to avoid one extream , run into the opposite . the true intent of the maxime being no more then this : that self-defence on the sabbath seem'd to be a violation of the holy rest of the day , but really was none : it being casus reservatus , an exception , not from the law , but in the law ; thus our saviour . . math. . have you not read in the law , that the priests in the temple prophane the sabbath , and are blameless ? now it cannot be , that a real prophanation of gods ordinance should be free from all blame : but the meaning is , that the priests by virtue of their office were obliged to do such acts of bodily labour on that day , which in their general nature were servile works ; and as they had an appearance of prophanation in them , so they had really been so , had not the special command , of sacrificing on that day , secured them from the contracting of guilt by such bodily labour : wherein there was no violation of any obligation , but only minor , & debilior obligatio , cessit majori , & fortiori : and for this he is loaden down with authorities in our synops. critic . in loc. polluunt : non verè , sed impropriè , & quo ad speciem so maldonate . violâsse dicuntur , quia ea fecerint , quae nisi cultus dei excusaret facere non lieuisset , opera nempe genere suo servilia ; cujusmodi sunt sacrificia mactare : so menochius : and grotius fastens the interpretation with this reason : , . quia licet polluant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , contra legis tamen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nihil admittunt . § . . but his fullest instance is out of master selden : that in case of sickness a iew might not only eat such meats as were otherwise forbidden , but ( say they ) for the recovery of his health , or avoydance of any great danger , he might break any prec●…pt , save only those three great ones against idolatry . murder , and incest . the answer to which is very obvious . . for the eating of meats for the recovery of health , which otherwise were forbidden . that word [ otherwise ] supposes them lawful in this case , though not in other cases . and is it not a learned proof , that god lays little stress upon the violation of a law , because he lays little upon that which is none ? an exception in the law implies no violation of the law. . that they might break any other precept after except one of those three great ones . master selden says not only he says , the iews lay so : who were very favourable casuists sometimes for their own ease , and convenience : this was indeed a prophane gloss of the looser rabbines , but no ways warranted by the law-giver : it seems they might swear soundly , to recover their health , for that might open their pipes , if they were asthmatical : or commit adultery , ad purgandos renes , as the popish gloss has it : and i once heard a catholick doctor advise his patient in another case to be drunk once a moneth , though for some it must be once a week , or 't will not do : or they might lye , or steal to procure a soveraign remedy , for these are none of the three great ones , either idolatry , murther , or incest : and by this rule if schism would any way have contributed to the avoidance of any great danger , they might have separated without sin . but these instances he confesses come not home to his purpose ; which i agree to , but withal tell him , they come as home , as any of the rest , which now we must undergo the penance to hear . § . . his first instance that comes home to his purpose , is in the passeover and the summe of his reasonings from thence is thus much . this was a great sacrament instituted by god himself upon weighty reasons . ( perhaps to awe mens childish minds into a greater reverence of the deity ) made a statute for ever throughout their generations , and the soul that observed it not was to be cut of from among his people , . exod. . and the most minute circumstances are defined , amongst other that they should eat it , with slaves in their hands , shooes on their feet , and their loyns girt . by which expression is plainly intimated ( and accordingly they understood and practised ) that they should eat it , in the posture of standing ; yet when th●…y were come into the land of canaan , they ate it sitting , 〈◊〉 lying , according to the usual custom of feasting in those countries . and this change continued till the times of our saviour without any reproof from god ; and our saviour himself conformes to them herein , and in the same posture eats the passeover with his disciples : i shall only offer these few things in answer . . that there appears nothing in the institution of acommand to eat the passeover standing ; that which carries the greatest face of probability is , that god enjoyned them to have their slaves in their hands , and their shooes on their feet , that they might be ready for a march , at gods signal , and word of command : which they might have , and yet sit at the passeover , unless it be such an impossible thing to s●…t with our shooes on ; or that they could not hold their staves in their hands , as well sitting , as standing . . that the jews understood , and practised accordingly , is a precarious , groundless , and self contradicting fiction : for what practise of theirs could possibly evidence that they understood the words to enjoyn standing , when he confesses , that when they were come into the land of canaan , they are it ●…tting or lying ? unless he dreams of some such practise in the wilderness , when ther was no passeover . . suppose a command for standing ; yet it might be only pro hâc vice ; whilst that posture might be symbolical of their hasty departure out of egypt : and that sitting should ever after enure , when providence should allot them more setled habitations ; a posture more accommodated to express the fixed condition of the church in the promised land. . if god commanded them to eat the passeover standing throughout their generations , without any exception in the canon of the institution , without any dispensation from the institutor himself , then they did most certainly transgress , were guilty of sin ; continued in , lived in , dyed in sin , through all their generations , for sin is nothing else but a transgression of a law ; and then our b. saviour himself had transgressed his fathers law which he came to fulfil ; and thus blasphemy must be added to folly , to make way for an argument that may secure the imposition of ceremonies . i shall therefore conclude with more reason thus : christ ate the passeover in a table-gesture , therefore god allowed it , rather then thus , god forbad sitting , and yet christ sinn'd not , though he ate it sitting ; from hence i will thus argue with our enquirer : either god commanded the jews to stand at the eating of the passeover in all ages , or not : if he did so command them , no cunning will excuse them from sin , who ate it sitting : if he did not so command ; then this instance comes home to his purpose , just as his others did : for it can never prove , that god lays little stress upon commanded circumstantials , because he laid so little upon uncommanded ones . positives may be altered , changed , or abolished , by the legislator , when , and how far he pleases ; but this will never prove that he lays little stress on them whilst they are not changed , not abolished : nor will it prove that man may chop , and change , barter , and truck one of gods least circumstantials , because the law-giver himself may do it : he that may alter one , may for ought i know , alter them all , seeing they all bear the same image , and superscription of divine authority ; and he that has a commission to abolish one , i am confident has as good a commission to abolish all the rest , which none pretend to but the pope , george fox , and this enquirer . § . . his next instance which comes home to his purpose , is in david , who distributed the priests into orders for the conveniency of their ministration : and besides that , he institututed instrumental musick to be used in the worship of god , without any commission from god that appears : but this instance is further from home then any of the rest . for. . that one word of his [ that appears ] will destroy his whole argument : for it was not simply necessary , that it should appear to us , at this distance of time , and under our present dispensation , that every prophet , or pious reforming prince , had a commission in particular for every alteration he then made in , or about gods worship : for seeing we know they had a standing prohibition upon record , not to add to , or take from gods institutions : it is supposed that they were armed with such a commission , and received particular instructions from the divine will , though the wisdom of god saw it not good to exemplify those commissions , and instructions ; it was enough that when god authorized any such extraordinary commissioners to regulate the concerns of his service , they produced their sealed letters patents to that age , and people who were concern'd to obey them , . david did not ordain priests , and levites , he created no new order , or office , of his own head , and heart , all he did was this : seeing the whole number of the priests must attend upon the sacerdotal , as the whole body of the levites upon the levitical service , and yet all could not at once engage therein without confusion and distraction , he casts them into regular courses , that in successive revolutions they might all share in the work and duty , . david was an eminent prophet , who received directions from god in affaires of less moment , and as i cannot easily believe it , that god would call him to an employment without sufficient advise how to manage it , so neither can i conceive that so holy a person would enterprize any thing of this nature , without such advise , when he might so easily have it from god : and that which fully satisfies me herein , and may do as much for another , that is not highly concern'd to quarrel plain scripture , is this . that when david had order'd the levites . . chron. . . . . and the priests . ch. , and the singers , ch . and the porters . ch. , and the captains and prin●…es of the tribes , ch. . and was come at last to give his son solomon particular directions about the temple . ch. . the scripture tells us . v. . . that david gave to solomon his son , the pattern of the porch , and of the houses thereof , and the pattern of all that he had by the spirit ; also for the courses of the priests , and levites , and for all the work of the service of the house of the lord : and v. . all this ( said david ) the lord made me understand in writing , by his hand upon me , even all the works of this pattern . and as david had special direction from the lord thus to distribute the levites , priests , singers , porters , for the conveniency of their ministration : so was he to make particular application to god , for the determination of the most minute circumstances : one would think that if there must be so many divisions of priests , levites , porters , and singers , it had been a most inconfiderable circumstance , which of these divisions should begin the round , or circular combination , that they might winck , and chuse ; and yet david used even in this punctilio a great , and solemn ordinance of god , viz. the lot , wherein the alseeing , and alruling god controuls the contingency of the voluble creature , for when the lot is cast into the lap , the whole disposing thereof is of the lord. . prov. . so that the very porters , and singers were chosen as solemnly , and with respect to gods determination , to the order of their courses , as matthias was chosen to be an apostle , and preferred to barnabas by the decision of the true . . i will add , that it appears that this determination of david was not made iure regio . but prophetico , & divino . because when that holy prince iosiah set about reformation , he regulates the priests , and levites according to the order of david . . chron. . . he set the priests in their charges — v. . and he said unto the levites , prepare your selves by the houses of your fathers after your courses — according to the writing of david , king of israel : which was that writing , no doubt , which he mentions . chron. . . by which god made him understand all those things : now i would gladly learn what need this good , and pious prince had to have recourse to davids pattern , to davids writing , had he been acquainted with our new doctrine , that god lays very little stress upon circumstantials in religion , and might have determin'd that small matter iure regio : and this is farther evident , in that solomon , a prince of great power , and wisdom , yet was so punctual , and precise in this very thing , to order the courses of the priests , and levites , according to davids rubric . . chron. . . he appointed also according to the order of david his father , the courses of the priests to their services : and the levites to their charges , to praise , and minister before the lord , as the duty of the day required ; for so had david the man of god commanded . where we may observe first , that what david commanded herein , was not as king , but as the man of god , a prophet , or one commissioned by god for that service : and secondly , that david could not bind his successors , by any determination of his own , meerly as a prince , and therefore their obligation to follow that pattern , did arise from the authority of god. . whereas our enquirer has searcht it seems , but can find no commission for instrumental musick . i have sued out a melius inquirendum , and he may read it exemplified . . chron. . . hezekiah set the levites in the house of the lord , with cymbals , and psalteries , and with harpes , according to the commandement of david , and of god the kings s●…r , and nathan the prophet : for so was the commandement of the lord by the prophets : where we have a commission express . . from whom , the lord : by whom , the prophets : to whom , king david : about what , instrumental musick . . and lastly : supposing david had ordered all these particulars of his own head , yet will it not follow , that god lays little stress upon either the omitting what he has commanded ; or the doing what he has prohibited ; seeing he supposes , that the things ordered , were neither commanded nor prohibited : all that with modesty could be drawn from hence , would be no more then this little : that a meer circumstance undetermined by god , and yet necessary to be determined , to the executing what was determined , might be determined by a prophetical person : and even for this also he had an express , and punctual warranty from the lord. § . . a third instance is from sacrifices : which ( says he ) though god had with great solemnity instituted as the means of propitiating his divine majesty towards sinful men , and had with great accuracy prescribed the laws thereof , yet he puts a great slight upon all of that nature , as a thing he regarded not in comparison of the substantial points of virtue , and obedience . we have hence a great help to understand a little of our authors mind , about those circumstantials in religion , which he says god lays so little stress upon . and sacrifices , the means of propitiating the divine majesty towards sinful man , are of that number : and hence we may also satisfy our selves why iesus christ has no more stress laid on him in some mens divinity ; for seeing he is the means of propitiating the divine majesty toward sinful man , he may prove a circumstantial in religion , and upon the matter an insignificant , or at best but a significant ceremony . but for his answer i shall say these things . . it is a falshood very opprobrious to the great law-giver of the church , that he ever instituted , and yet slighted what he had instituted , whilst it continued in for●…e . 't is true indeed , god always slighted hypocrites , who offer'd those sacrifices , and they became vain oblations , as to any benefit they had from , or by them ; but his own ordinance he never slighted till christ the grand propitiation had answered all their ends , and pretensions . . god never slighted sacrifices , in comparison of virtue and obedience , for to offer sacrifices aright , was virtue and obedience , but in opposition to sincerity , to virtue , and obedience : just as he would have slighted the most splendid outward acts of virtue , and obedience without the heart , which is the life , and soul of all . to give almes , to pray were , and are duties of moral virtue , and obedience , and yet when the pharisees performed both to be seen of men , to hunt for popular applause . god not only slights , but abominates them ; not the acts themselves , but the persons that perform'd them ; not what they performed , the outward work , but that they kept back the heart : or if the things yet not as commanded in specie : but as sinfully done in individu●… . thus he that commanded all men to kiss the son , slighted , and abhorred iudas his kiss , when made a cloak to hide his traiterous design to deliver up his lord and master . sacrifices had a threefold use , . a typical use , as leading to christ , and in this respect god was so far from slighting them , that he laid the greatest stress imaginable on them ; . a political use , to set the transgressor of the law right in the court of justice , and to satisfy for the temporal punishment . . a moral use might be accidentally made of them too , they served well to represent some moral virtue , or duty . and i will not deny that god might slight this symbolical use of them , . because that use had no institution , and we never find that god had any esteem of symbols that were not of his own appointment , . because no ceremony , or symbol , could represent the moral duty , or virtue to that advantage , which the precept it self , with those encouragements and rewards propounded by god himself , were able to do . yet he will prove from scripture that god slighted sacrifices . . ps. . i will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices ; v. . offer to god the sacrifice of righteousness , as if he had said , let me have the latter , and i shall not much complain for defect of the former . this is his gloss , this his proof ; wherein i only blame two things . ( ) the falshood of it : the words may be interpreted as spoken either by way of concession , or commination . . by way of concession . i will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices . q. d. quantum ad externa sacrificia satis estis occupati : says a learned person . i have no cause to rebuke you on that account , for you do your duty , you are very deligent in them : god slights not sacrifice , but he requires a better sacrifice , that of righteousness : . by way of commination . and there is no greater argument of gods displeasure then when he threatens to leave a people without reproof for their neglect of duty : thus. . hos. . ephraim is joyned to idols let him alone . god 's not reproving for omission of a duty , or commission of a sin , is a sorry reason that god lays little stress either upon the duty , or the sin : thus again . . acts. . god is said to have suffer'd all nations to walk in their own ways . gods keeping silence at , and non-reproof of sin , when once it shall be interpreted an indulgence of sin , his future rebuke in thunder , and lightning shall convince mistaken sinners of the folly of their comment upon the text of gods forbearance . and this seems the true sense of the place we are upon . for , v. . god uses parrallel language ; these things hast thou done , and i kept silence , but i will reproove thee . ( ) i blame his gloss of blasphemy : he puts words in to gods mouth which are the abhorrence of his soul. let me have these latter , and i shall not much complain for defect of the former . strange doctrine this ! what ? god not complain for want of obedience to his commands ? he told us in the beginning , that god was not a captions deity : and now he would prove him one : he tells us that god instituted sacrifices with great solemnity , as the means of propitiating his divine majesty : and now he introduces god of another mind : let them use the means , or not for averting his displeasure , god will not much complain : § . . another instance is that mentioned . math. . whereupon the occasion of the disciples rubbing the ears of cor●… on the sabbath day : and christs justifying their fact from the example of david , who ate the shew-bread , in a case of extremity . christ tells the superstitious pharisees , i will have mercy , and not sacrifice : but this will not do his work : for. . the plucking of the ears of corn , in a case of extremity , was not forbidden by the law ; so grotius : neque negat christus , opus esse famulam , sed ex circumstantiis ostendit , factum hoc discipulorum , legis sententiâ non comprehendi ; est ergo questio , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , statús scripti , & voluntatis : christ denies not that it was a servile work , but from the due consideration of circumstances he proves , that this fact of his disciples was not included in the meaning of the law : so that the question is between the letter , and the equitable construction of the law : . the same answer to the other instance of davids eating the shew-bread ? a nnon legistis ? si legistis , hoc licitum esse didicissetis : si non legistis ; pudent vos ignaviae vestra . have you not read ? ( says christ ) if you have read it , you must needs have learned that this fact is lawful : if you have not read it : you may be ashamed of sloathfulness , david ejusque comites pars necessitate pressi , quā nunc premuntur discipuli mei , secerunt contra 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , legis de panibus : neque tamen secisse censentur contra 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . sequitur ergò nec discipulos meos quicquam hoc facto adversus legis sententiam committere . i. e. david and his companions , being urged with the same exigence wherewith my disciples are now urged , acted against the letter of the law concerning the shew-bread ; yet are they not to be thought to have transgressed the true intent , and meaning thereof ; it follows therefore that my disciples by their fact have not violated the intendment of the law. . that our saviour tells them he will have mercy , and not sacrifice , has no difficulty in it , because . . negatives are often put for comparatives : i will have mercy , and not sacrifice , is no more then i will have mercy rather then sacrifice , when i cannot have them both . there 's no question but if an act of mercy , and an act of instituted worship . should stand in competition , all circumstances concurring : the act of instituted worship ought to give place ; we will suppose a congregation assembled for the publick worship of god , and at the same time a fire breaks out , the church is not only allowed , but obliged to omit the publick worship at present , and to employ their endeavours towards the quenching of the fire : and he will render himself somewhat more then rediculous that would infer from hence , that god lays little stress upon publick worship : or that god lays less stress upon the churches worshipping him in publick , then upon the preserving of a house : but only that the work of mercy must be now performed , or the season is lost for ever : whereas the worship of god may be reassumed . so that all the business is , that a circumstance of undetermined time is of less weight in gods account , then an act of mercy , or charity . . cor. . the apostle tells them : that christ sent him not to baptise , but to preach the gospel : that is not so much to baptise , as to preach : which yet will never inforce , that christ lays little stress upon the ordinance of baptism : our b. saviour . . luke . . acquaints his disciples . that he that hates not father , and mother , cannot be his disciple and yet it 's true too , that he that hates his father or mother cannot be his disciple : but by hating ▪ is meant only less loving ; he that loves not father and mother less then me cannot be my disciple : now let the reader judge , how absurd it would sound in his ears , to hear such doctrine : that god lays very little stress upon our filial affection , and duty to parents ; a doctrine worth it's weight in gold to such a jew , that would plead carban against commandment , and evacuate the precept of god , by his own traditions . and sometimes that duty which god lays the greater stress upon , may give place pro hie , & nunc , to that which he lays less weight upon : a father commands his son to discharge such a service , as he is addressing himself to his duty he finds his enemies oxe , or asse ready to perish ; in this case i conceive the son ought to suspend the execution of his fathers command to save the life of a beast : and yet the debt of iustice which i owe my father is greater then the debe of charity which i owe an enemy : and thus much of his old testament instances . [ ] he proceeds now to those in the new , which must prove that god lays little stress upon circumstantials under the gospel : which he will first prove by this argument . if this ( says he ) was the case , and condition of things under the old testament , where god seemed so punctual in his prescriptions . so rigorous in his animadversions , and where : he danger of ●…rring capitally from the design of those institutions , by the least deviation from the line of divine revelations was so great ; then certainly in the new testament where the divine wisdom hath express't far less concern for such little points , may the minds of men be secure from such superstitions fears wherein we must fairly examine . . the antecedent , . the consequence , . the reason of the consequence . ( ) the antecedent , that god laid little stress upon circumstantials , that is ( as his instances bear witness ) had little regard for his positive praecepts under the old testament : now how false this is , in any sense , which being true would subserve his main design , i think is pretty well cleared by this time ; but the enquirer like a good natured man , searing his answerer should be so silly as not discover his weakness , has our of a prudent forecast refuted all his own instances . for he tells us . . that god seem'd to be punctual in his prescriptions ; . rigorous in his animadversions . . that the danger of ●…rring capitally was great . . implies that the least deviation from the line of revelation , was an errour : now if all this be to lay a little stress upon them , i despair of ever knowing what 't is to lay a great : when clergy-men are punctual in their praescriptions , telling us when we must how , and when stand , when kneel , and when sit , when look this way , when another , when speak , when hold our tongue ; when they are so rigorous in their animadversions , that to slip , or trip , to stumble , or grumble at compliance , shall be an admonition thrice with a breath , and a dreadful excommunication at the end of all , when it shall be criminal if not capital to deviate from the line of humane determination , dissenters are humbly bold to call this a laying very great stress upon ceremonies . ( ) his consequence is , then certainly in the n. t. the minds of men may be secure from superstitious fears . oh without peradventure ! to see how strangely we have been out all this while ! i thought verily the question had been , whether god lays little stress upon circumstantials under the old testament , and the new , and we are now flam'd off with this conclusion , that we may be secure from superstitious fears : which is very true , whether christ had instituted many ceremonies or few ; whether he had laid great , or little stress upon them ; but all the policy of this lyes in a crafty insinuation , which it 's to be hoped the perfunctory reader will swallow down , that all fears about displeasing christ in the matter of instituted worship , are but superstitions fears . ( ) the reason of his consequence follows : because ( forsooth ) in the n. t. the 〈◊〉 wisdom has express't far less concern for such little points . but i expected to be informed where christ has express't for less 〈◊〉 for the●… points : i do not know how 't is possible to express far less co●…rn , then a very little : but he that put words into the fathers mouth so lately , may make the son also speak what he pleases , and both of them to bear false witness against themselves . but whereas his argument proceeds thus : if god laid so little under the o. t. upon positives , how much less under the new : i should invert his argument , if god was so rigorous in his animadversions , so punctual in his prescriptions , when his institutions were so numerous , his praescriptions so multiforme , what will he be when he has prescribed us so few , and those so easy , and useful to the observer ? if we cannot be punctual in the observation of a very few positives of so plain signification , how should we have repined had we been charged with a numerous retinue of types , and carnal rudiments ? if christs yoke be accounted heavy , how should we have sunck under the mosaical paedagogy ? the servants of naaman thus humbly expostulated with their lord. . kin. . . my father if the prophet had commanded thee some great thing , would'st thou not have done it ? how much rather then when he saith to thee ; wash and be clean ? suppose christ had exacted of us what barchocheba exacted of his disciples , that every one in token of absolute subjection should cut of his little finger ; had it not been better to enter into life maimed , then having all our joints to be cast into hell for our disobedience ; how much more then , when he has enjoyned us only these few , which are our singular priviledge , as well as our unquestionable duty ? our benefit , not our burden ; and our helps , and not our hindrances in the way to everlasting felicity : the fewer are his institutes , the more punctual will he be in exacting conformity to them ; and therefore as the last thing christ instituted before his death was the ordinance of the supper , so the last command he gave before his ascension , was that of baptizing all nations , charging them to observe whatsoever he had commanded them . if a tender , and loving husband at the point of death should recount to his beloved spouse , all the former evidences of endearing affections , and withal tell her that he expected nothing in lieu of so great love , but that he might live in her memory , when he is dead and gone , by one only observation ; surely the words of a dying friend would live in the living friend , and if there had been ever any true conjugal affection , it would operate strongly to be punctual in that single observance : our b. saviour when he was just ready to give himself a price of redemption for many , institutes his last supper , with the greatest punctualness imaginable ; and being ready to dye , commands all his faithful followers — do this in remembrance of me . and is it not a hard case if his church cannot afford to be tyed up precisely in this one thing ? we read . . luk. . that iesus sate down , and the twelve apostles with him , and v. . he took bread , and gave thanks , and brake it , and gave it to them , saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , do this in remembrance of me ! now it 's a great question made by some , what should be the antecedent , to this relative [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ] and the reverend , b. morton a great patron of ceremonies in his treatise of the sacrament , cites some josuites thus : [ hoc facite : ] ad omnes praecedaneas christi actiones refertur . and as chemnitius upon . john. . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : rectè ( inquit ille ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ad totum complexum eorum , qua hactenus dicta sunt refertur : so say i ; this relative [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ] in the institution of that sacrament , ad totum complexum eorum quae hactenus dicta , & facta sunt refertur . do this ▪ relates to the whole complex of all those things which christ had done before . and if so , then it includes sitting down : or the application of our selves to the table in a posture suited to a feast ; which agrees best with the celebrated rule of decency , seeing there 's no nation under heaven shall kneel at their meals ; yes ( says that learned bishop ) but i will except time , and the posture of sitting ; and excepting these two circumstantials , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , is referred to all the rest : but then i would reply . . that there was no necessity to except time ; because it neither was , nor possibly could be included in the command , do this : for all men that have any ambition to speak congruously agree it to be non-sense , to say : that time can be done . it must be some action here to which this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must relate . . if he will needs except the action of sitting down , i ask quo warrant●… ? why should one ante●…dent action be excepted more then all the rest ? and if one , why are not all the rest foreprized ? the papists have excepted the whole cup from the laity ; the reverend bishops have excepted sitting ; and then why may not a third except breaking ▪ a fourth . blessing ? and then come the quakers , and the learned grotius with a non semper communicandum per symbola ; and shut out the whole institution : i confess i never liked these exclusions , ever since i saw first one parcel , and then another excluded , till at last there was a clean house : and thus by our enquirers maxime we have made a fine sacrament of it , under pretence that christ lays little sires●… upon circumstantials under the new testament : little stress did i say ? nay none at all ; for if god layd very little stress upon them under the old testament , and the divine wisdom has express't far less concern for them under the new ; i cannot guess , what that something should be , that is far less then a very little , but a meer nothing ; we should now examine his instances under the new testament ; but plenty has made him so poor , that he will give us but one ; but one indeed ; but that one is a great one , and may stand for many : when ( says he ) the apostle paul had vehemently declaimed against the necessity of circumcision , and proclaimed the danger of it , as is obvious to any one that reads his epistles , yet the same paul circumcises timothy , to the intent that thereby he might render himself , and his ministry more acceptable to the iews . this is his one , his only , great instance out of the new testament . and it was but reasonable that a person so polite , and terse in his style , should employ all the flowers of elegancy to embellish it , and therefore for it 's greater ornament , he will now use a figure , which some by a hard name call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . it has been hetherto taken for granted by all that i have met with , that the apostle circumcised timothy some good while before he wrote any one of his epistles , and somewhat longer before he wrote those wherein he proclaims the danger of circumcision . the first epistle that he wrote was that first to the thessalonians : and ( not long after ) the second to the same church : the postscripts to both which , date them from athens , where we find him acts. : but the learned dr. lightfoot judges , and i think upon clear grounds , that they were penned a year after , and written from corinth . but whether from athens , or corinth , both must needs be written after the circumcision of timothy , which we find acts. . . in his journey to lystra and derbe : and the learned estius is of the same judgment with our own learned doctor : the learned whitaker also concurrs thus farr with them . qu. . contra humanas tradit : p. . novi testamenti canonem non fuisse tum editum cum paulus hanc epistolam ad thessalonicenses scriberet ( he speaks of the second epistle written the same year with the former ) imò ne ullos quidem n. t. libros tum fuisse scriptos affirmo , excepto solo matthaei evangelio , & ( si irenaeo credimus ) etiam matthaei evangelio antiquiores fu●…re hae duae . if then these two epistles were the first he wrote ; and they written from athens , according to their postscripts , or from corinth , as indeed they were ; it 's certain that they , and therefore all the rest , must be written some time after the circumcision of timothy ; here is then a most desperate stumble somewhere or other ; unless he can prove , ( and what can he not prove ) that st. paul's journey to lystra , and derbe was after his journey to athens , and corinth , which unless he showes himself a scorn to the reader he will not attempt . the instance being so impertinent , we need not much be concern'd about the winding up of his conclusion : yet because some may have a mind to be pleasant , let us have it . in which carriage of his he has beyond all exception demonstrated to us , that all ceremonial appendages are perfectly s●…bordinate , and ought to yeeld to the designs of peace , charity , and edification , as the greater good : yes this is demonstration : infallible demonstration ! demonstration which puts the controversy beyond all exception , and the poor non-conformists are siderated with the violence of it . and yet to speak plain english , here 's nothing but pittiful trifling : for. . this irrefragable demonstration is reared upon a rotten foundation ; that paul wrote his epistles first , wherein he declaims against circumcision , and then afterwards circumcises timothy . . all that he has built upon that foundation is as rotten . that all ceremonial appendages are perfectly subordinate , and ought to yeeld to peace , charity , and edification : let me observe . § . . if these ceremonious appendages b●… so perfectly subordinate to those great ends ; then how will it prove that god lays very little stress on them ? just as if some superacute philosopher should undertake to prove , that because eating and sleeping are perfectly subordinate to health , and life , therefore we ought to lay very little stress on them . § . . if those institutions of the gospel which he calls ceremonious appendages , should at any time cross the great ends of peace , charity , and edification , there 's no doubt but that they ought to strike fail , but he cannot prove that the meanest of christs institutions are opposite at any time , to a just peace , that they weaken christian charity , or hinder edification : nor can we suppose without the highest derogation to the divine wisdom . that any of christs means for edification should ever overthrow their designed ends . their subordination to the end shows their inseriority to the end ; but since christ has allotted them their place , let no man dare to disturb their station . § . . if divine ceremonial appendages ought to give place and yeeld to peace , charity , and edification ; then we may presume without presumption , that humane ceremonial appendages shall be compelled to submit , and conform themselves to those great ends , and that none shall ever lay such a stress upon these as may endanger , much less destroy those glorious intendments . but here we are disappointed ! god must lay little stress upon his , but they will lay incredible weight upon theirs . and as one said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : let heaven , and earth be blended and jumbled together in an eternal 〈◊〉 , it 's a principle to be maintained to the death , that no ceremony oughtto yeeld to the recovery of peace , the reviving of frozen charity , and promoving edification . and now to shut up all , and himself , and whole discourse out of doors , he recommends to us . rom. . the kingdom of god ( that is , the gospel ) is not meat , and drink , that is , consists not or lays little stress upon those nice and perplexing matters , but in righteousness , peace and joy : whence some would be ready enough to infer that that church which lays very great stress upon these nice and perplexing matters , is none of the kingdom of god : and i shall only desire him to add for a close that apostolical golden canon , v. . for meat destroy not the work of god : do not by unseasonable using , much less by rigorous imposing things indifferent much less things doubtful , and least of all things sinful in their use , destroy souls created of god , redeemed by christ , and capable of eternal happiness ; where god has commanded , let him be obeyed , not disputed , not cavilled out of his right , and where god has laid little weight , let none make their little fingers an insupportable burden . chap. vi. whether the magistrate hath authority to determine such externals of religion as are the matters of our dispute ? fabulam auditor lege , lector audi ! when the eagle , persocuted by the beetle , could find no place of safe retreat , she prudently deposites her eggs in jupiters royal lap , but he rather then endure the perpetual vexation about a birds nest , shakes them out of his robe , and at once dasht all the hopes of an aiery of eagles : our ceremonies have sometimes shelter'd themselves under the pretence of decency , and yet under that specious covert could not be secure ; thence they fled for refuge into the abstruse receptacles of venerable antiquity , and longaeve custom . yet from those burroughs have they been hunted . the churches authority to judge of the lawfulness , and to impose what she so adjudged lawful amongst the numerous tribe of indifferencies was nextly pleaded , but upon more severe researches into the records , no such commission can be found , at last therefore they have taken sanctuary under constantins purple , and when princes shall be weary of protecting them against the pursuit of scripture , they will fairly shake them thence also , and leave them to shift for themselves . that the persons , and authority of magistrates are most sacred , the one , not to be toucht with common , and unclean hands ; the other , not to be profaned with irreligious breath , all protestants must acknowledge : of which deep things , whilst we discourse it , will be seasonable to caution our selves from the royal prophet , ps. . not to exercise our selves in great matters , or in things too high for us . where though the humble lamb may safely wade , the castle-bearing elephant must be forced to swim . i look upon the extent of the princes power to be as far beyond my reach as the primum mobile ; which though i can neither touch , nor measure , yet may say , there is a being beyond it : thus though it were unpardonable boldness to determine its bounds , or say thus farr shall it go , and no farther , yet a truly loyal heart may conceive , and a modest tongue express , there is a god above it . that the magistrate is custos utriusque tabulae . the great fiduciary of gods law ; is not so much a confession extorted from us , by rack of scrip●…ure , as our triumph that he is so●… rejoycing in 〈◊〉 th●…kfulness to the ●…lmighty , who has made him a nur●…ng ●…ather to his 〈◊〉 , to preserve the worship of god in purity , and his worshippers in peace , is a flower of the crown imperial , which adornes the royal diadem farr more then all it 's own diamonds , and rubies ; and gives him a more orient lustre , that he serves the king of kings , and lord of lords , then if he had grasped the universal monarchy , and brought mankind to adore his footstool . as no forreign power can justly pretend to intermeddle with his government at home , so no person of whatever character at home , ought to own a dependance upon any forreign potentate abroad . let every soul be subject to the higher powers : upon which words holy bernard thus : si omnis anima ; ergo & vestra : quis vos excepit ab universalitate ? qui tentat excipere , tentat decipere . if every soul : then yours also ( ye ecclesiasticks ! ) for who made you an exception from the general rule ? the pope that would exempt you from your soveraigns jurisdiction , does but expose you to the indignation of god. what is the ne plus ultra , the utmost extent of this power in civil , and religious concerns , for such pittisul creatures as we are to determine , were at once to discover our folly , and betray our pride : and yet we may say without offence , though princes are called gods ; they shine with borrowed beams , from the divine majesty , the fulness of whose power is incommunicable : and propriety with law in the former case , and god with conscience in the latter , will go as near to be the shoars , that shall terminate this ocean , as any two things that shall measure with them for exactness . there are two sorts of persons that fancy they have laid an eternal obligation upon princes , beyond all possibility of requital : the first are they who would entitle them to an absolute right to , and dominion over the possessions of their subjects : the second , they would make them soveraign lords of conscience : thus the great hooker , eccles. polity . p. . in litigious and contraverted causes , when they come by authority , to be determined , it is the will of god , that we should do accordingly , though it seems ( yea perhaps truly seems ) in our private judgment , or opinion , it 's utterly disallowed by the law of god. and yet these men are truer friends to their own interest , then the princes in this matter ; for whilst they de●…k his atchievements , with titulado's , impracticable , useless and cumbersome regalities , they are sure to make provision for themselves , and wisely lick their own fingers : for thus it has ever been the cheap way of church-men to sell shadows for substances ; as his holiness sells the shred of a lambskin to an arch-bishop for a thousand pounds sterling , and a consecrated rose for more then his whole belvedere is worth . when the enquirer then is so zealous to become the princes champion in spirituals , i hope he understands , on which side his bread is butter'd , and will speak two good words for himself , whilst he speaks one for the magistrate ; and when he has a little reproacht others , and magnified his own sincerity in this undertaking , he wipes his mouth decently , stroaks his beard gravely , and reasons most profoundly upon these two heads . [ ] that the magistrate exceeds not his commission when he enterposes for the determination of the circumstantials of religion . this proposition thus loosely hung , may be owned or disowned according to every mans humour ; dissenters may subscribe it , whithout the least prejudice to their cause , or reflection upon their practise ; and they may deny it too , when they have done , whithout fear of self-contradiction , or danger of entrenching upon the magistrates authority . for. . what must we understand by [ interposing ] if i might freely deliver my own private opinion ; it 's lawful , nay expedient , nay necessary , that he interpose , or else i am affraid his poor dissenting subjects will be worried to death : but they who plead so zealously for his interposing , when that interposition is not tempered to their good liking , make the vault of heaven echo again with their clamours that the distressed church is quite undone . in a word : if church-men will be determining one thing after another , that we can see no end ; new subscriptions , new oaths , new jests , new ceremonies , superconformity to the canon , above law ; and practise above canon ; what will become of the simplehearted laicks , if a vigilant and prudent prince do not interpose , and timously determine upon their determinations . . i now utterly despair of understanding his meaning of circumstantials : a word that has run through as many shapes as are in all ovid's metamorphosis ; and amongst all the pleasant stories in that ingenious romance , i remember one that the reader will not condemn for impertinent . there was one ezisichthon , whose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and extream voracious stomack had no other supply at last , but from one daughter : now this madamolselle ( you must know ) had a singular faculty to transform her self into any shape she pleased : once he sold her for a round summe , and she came trotting , or ambling home again ( for she had all her paces ) in the shape of a bonny filly : another time he sold her , and received his money honestly for her , and she came home in the shape of a milckcowe . such another ambiguous , versatile creature is this circumstantial ] if we should say , the magistrate has no power to determine circumstantials , presently he 's o th' top o th' house : what an obstinate generation are those fanaticks ! what will you not allow your prince to appoint where you shall assemble for your publick worship of god ? must he have no concern in time , and place , in order to the securing of the peace ? yes ! yes sir ! withal our hearts , and we shall be heartily glad on 't , humbly thankful for it , and honestly proud on 't too , and i would ●…e could preavail with our enquirer to be our sollicitour to procure us a determination of those circumstantials : well then ( says he ) you agree the magistrate may determine circumstantials , but such are the ceremonies , and now you are in a cloos , get out again how you can . . therefore he should have resolved plainly whether the magistrates commission extends to the determination of all , or only some certain circumstances ; and my reasons are these . . if he have not a commission to determine all , then the question will recurr , whether it reaches those under debate ? for thus he argues . circumstantials may be determined by the magistrate : but ceremonies are circumstantials . therefore ceremonies may be determined by the magis●…rate : now if the major in this syllogism be not universal , the syllogism is peccant in forme ; if it be : then deprecating the displeasure of those whom we truly honour in the lord , and for the lord we humbly deny it . all circumstantials may not be determined by the magistrate , for . . christ has already determined of some circumstantials , and whoever makes it one , it 's no question with me , that no power on earth can undetermine , or otherwise determine , what god has already fore determined . there are some circumstantials which cannot profitably , and therefore not lawfully receive an universal , and uniform determination . . because if all undetermined circumstances may be determined in their use , the life of man may be made the most wretched miserable and undesirable thing in the world ; and he had as goo●… preach that other more eligible , and more edifying doctrine , ita , & de te literam longam facito ! for where should the most ca●…telous foot tread besides a snare ? and such is the condition of superstitious papists , whose consciences are perpetually perplexed with endless scrupulosities about those minutes which the church has made sin , which else had been as innocent in offensive things as a piece of powdred beef , and turneps . now for the proof of this doctrine , he tells us : it has been 〈◊〉 fully , and substantially done by the incomparable hugo grotius , and by a late eminent divine of this church , that it 's enough to referr the reader to them . indeed he must be an incomparable person that can write substantialy , about circumstantials , but i confess i do not build much either upon the authority or reasonings of the otherwise incomparable hugo , ever since i read his dangerous discourse , lib. . cap. . § . . de jure b. & p. si rex habeat partem imperii , partem alteram populus , 〈◊〉 senatus ; regi in partem non-suam in volanti , vis justa oppon poterit ; quia eatenus imperium non habet ; quod , locun habere sentio , etiamsi dictum sit , belli potestatem penes regemfore : id enim de bello exter●…o intelligendum est ; cun alioqui quisquis partem summi imperii habeat , non possit nor jus habere eam partem tuendi , quod ubi fit , potest etiam rex suam imperii partem , belli jure , amittere , that is : if king hath one part of the soveraign power , and the people , or sen●… the other part ; if the king shall invade that part which is none of h●… own , just resistance may be made against him , because so farr 〈◊〉 hath no auth●…rity at all : which i judge to hold true , although it 〈◊〉 said . that the power of making warr is in the king ; for that must be understood of a forrain warr ; whenas otherwise , whoever has a share in the soveraignty , cannot but have also authority to defend that share ; which when it so falls out , the king may lose by the right of warr his own share of the soveraignty here is dangerous doctrine enough to cure me of my ambition of ever being a hugono●… . as for that late eminent divine of this church , who has so convincingly asserted this power , i cannot divine who it should be , unless perhaps that longwinded author , with whose eluoubrations some are resolved to vex the fanatics though they never read him themselves . and therefore leving these voluminous authors to scold it out with their own mouths , let us attend to the enquirers more concise reasonings . ( ) it 's certain ( says he ) that magistrates had once such a power in the circumstantials of religion , and that in the old testament . it is certain indeed that they had a power not only in the circumstantials , but the substantials of religion , all the question is , whether they had such a power as he pleads for . and if they had it , then whether they had it , jure regio , or prophetico ? whether in their own right as kings , or by delegation in some extraordinary case from god ? § . . the prince might have , nay he had a power to spur up , and quicken the lazy priests , and levites to their duty , and yet no power to create them a duty : he had power to punish church-men , to restrain the exorbitances of the clergy , and for male-administration to cashiere them , nay to order the high-priest himself , if he proved factious , seditious , or rebellious , and endeavoured any alteration of the theocracy either in church or state , but he had no power to make new administrations ; he had a power to restore the corrupted worship to it's primitive integrity , but he had no power to institute worship ; and therefore it 's more then ridiculous to argue from a power , to such a power . § . . he pretended to prove , that the magistrate in determining these circumstantials , did not exceed his commission : and his medium is from the iewish magistrate . now his proper , di●… , and easy way to have evinced that the iewish magistrate had this power , had been to have exemplifyed the commission it self , and not stand trifling with matter of fact , to prove matter of right , especially seeing that the commission is upon record ; and many doubts in law will arise from the fact , as whether what was done was done jure ? and if jure ; then quo jure ? now for the commission from him by whom kings reign , it was ready drawn of old only a blanck left to insert the name of that particular person , whom god immediately or by ●…cession should chuse . . deut. . . . it shall be when he 〈◊〉 upon the throne of the kingdom , that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book out of that which is before the priests , and levites ; and it shall be with him , and he shall read therein all the days of his life ; that he may learn to fear the lord his god to keep all the words of this law , and those statutes to do them ; that his heart be not lifted up above his brethren , that he turn not aside from the commandement , to the right hand , or to the left : to the end he may prolong his days in the kingdom , he and his children in the midst of israel : from whence 't is evident , that though the israelites were for some time in their minority govern'd by judges , yet when their nation should grow up to it's greatest perfection , god would then bestow upon them ●…he most perfect form of government , viz. monarchy , and in the most perfect manner continue it , viz. by succession , not impeaching his own prerogative to alter either the form or the time , but with a negative upon any , or all the people , so is it as plain that god fyes up his prince to govern by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : the deuteronomy , à copy of the laws and statutes morel and positive , without turning to the right hand or the left , in excess , or defect , mangling , or mending gods laws . allowing to himself still a power to vary , but not to them save by his direction . § . . this great proof for the magistrates power over the circumstantials of religion , is fetcht from the magistrates power i●… the iewish commonwealth ; he that is so severe upon the nonconformists , that they are iudaizers if they argue but a fortiori from moses to christ , now takes his greatest proof from david to the christian king , and though it be scandalous for them to reason from that topick in doctrinals , yet is safe and honourable for himself to reason thence in politicals , and ceremonials , his instances come now to be considered . § . . david ( as i shewed before ) altered somethings and instituted others in the temple worship . that 's his instance : and david ( as i proved before ) altered nothing , instituted nothing , without special direction from god , that 's my answer : which special warrant when it shall be produced for any alterations of , or additions to christs institutions under the gospel , they shall by me be most cordially embraced . § . . hezekiah ( says he ) without a scripture for it , broke the braze●… serpent to pieces , though it was a symbolical ceremony of gods own iustitution . oh but if hezekiah had set up one braz●… serpent as a symbolical ceremony , without gods institution , it had been more to his purpose , then if he had broken a hundred . let him take these few things along with him , and then make the best he can of his instance : . if hezekiah needed no scripture warrant to destroy an old antiquated institution of god , because it had been , and still was abused to idolatry , much more may a christian prince without further scripture warrant abolish such symbolical ceremonies , as being originally the meer inventions of men , have been , and still are abused to the most fowle idolatry , and grossest superstition that ever was in the world . . let the enquirer recollect himself a little . he undertook to prove that princes have power to set up ceremonies , and his instance proves only thus much , that they have power to pluck them down . . hezekiah needed no scripture to empower him to destroy the brazen serpent , because it was then no institution of god : it had been once indeed a temporary appointment of god , but the ceasing of the end was the determination of the use ; when it 's sacred relation ceased , it was of no more value in gods account when hezekiah broke it , then so much brass . 't is not true therefore that hezekiah broke in pieces the brazen serpent , though it was , but though it had been for●…rly an institution of god he did not make it , but declare it , to be nchushtan , an old relique , made a new idol , and now served , as it deserved . . i do not understand that the brazen serpent was a symbolical ceremony , what grace , what duty did it signify ? a type it was , to direct their faith to christ fot that time , to expect the healing of their souls from him , but the visible service was only to heal their bodies stung with the firy serpents . . john. . as moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness , even so must the son of man be lifted up ? . hezekiah had scriptures more then one , not only to enable , but command him to do it . he needed no new authority , but new wisdom to apply al●…s old general command to a particular case . if the enquirer could but shew as much scriputre warrant for the setting up one ceremony , as hezekiah had for destroying a thousand idols , he would think himself a jolly fellow . i might urge his authority from the second commandement , where god declares himself a jealous god in the matter of instituted worship , and how many following generations might smart for the prevarication in that particular , he well knew : there might have been a drachm of the brazen serpent , as well as an ounce of the golden calf , in their subsequent calamities ▪ if he that was custos utri●…sque tabulae , and now had not his name for nothing , had not testifyed against that abomination : but i shall crave leave to remember him of the incomparable huge , who upon this fact of hezekiah thus . egregium documentum regibus , at quamvis bene instituta , sed non necessaria , ubi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 malè usurpantur , è conspectu tollant , ne ponant offendiculum caecis . a notable lesson to all kings , to remove out of the way such things , however at first well instituted ( yet not at present necessary ) when they are commonly abused , that they become not a stumbling block to the blind . where we see the incomparably quicksighted huge could find a scripture to justify hezekiah , and yet it was very farr fetcht , from . deut : . cursed be he that maketh the blind to wander out of the way . and yet he has a clearer vindication of hezekiah's fact from scripture : where speaking of their burning incense to the brazen serpent , he thus expresses himself . quod inter illa erat quae dei solius honori reservata , extra templum , usurpari non lic●…bat . which ( incense ) being in the number of those things , which were peculiarly appropriated to the worship of god , might not be lawfully used out of the temple . . exod. . whosoever shall make like unto it to smell thereto , shall even be cut of from his people : but what need all these circumlocutions , when god commanded his people , exod. . to destroy the altars , break the images , cut down the groves of the nations , for that he is a jealous god , that wise and discerning prince could easily see the command reach't all the instruments , and utensils of idolatry , especially those found amongst his own people , his people in covenant , for whom thus to transgress , was to provoke him to his face . § . . but his great instance is from hezekiahs celebrating the passeover otherwise then god had commanded , & in that one fact he finds several branches of his variation from the first institution . as ( 〈◊〉 ) he caused the passeover to be kept by all iudah , and israel on the second moneth , though it was not according to the divine institution , but done by the advice of his council upon pious and prudential considerations : . chron. . . old objections must be content with old answers . [ ] hezekiah had sufficient warrant from the word of god to celebrate the passeover at that time , pro hâc vice , the people being under those circumstances : . numb . . . if any man of you shall be unclean by reason of a deod body , or be in a journey afarr of , yet he shall keep the passeover unto the lord. the fourteenth day of the second moneth at even shall they keep it . that we may reach the full intendment of this deuteronomy , or after law , we must carefully attend to the occasion of it . in v. . there were certain men that were defiled by a dead body , that they could not keep the passeover on that day , the day of the institution ; this was a case seeming inconsiderable , and such whereon our enquirer would have said very little stress , made no bone of it , being a circumstantial , a nicetie about the time , but the people being more consciencious brought the case to moses ; and he sound it so weighty , that it needed the resolution of god himself ; v. . stand still , and i will hear what the lord will command concerning you . why , what needed that ? had he not all kingly power within himself ? had he not his council of the seventy two ? might he not have first determin'd it to be a circumstantial , and then have determin'd what he pleased about a sorry circumstance ? or was he so meanly instructed in the extent of his royal authority ? and how little stress god laid upon these circumstantials ? well , nevertheless he will consult the lord for a determination of the case : whereupon god gives him that command which we have already heard , v. . . wherein i observe . . that though that question was propounded only concerning that particular case , of a person unclean by a dead body ; yet the gracious god , who well knew , that many other incident cases of the like nature would emerge out of the various providences which they would come under in aftertimes , and that they would still be at a loss for resolution about their duty therein , answers also concerning him , that was in a iourney , or farr from home ; which philo understands de peregrinatione in regionem à judaeà longè dissi●…am ; the very case of the ten tribes in hezekiahs time . . that under these enumerated particulars , of being defiled by a dead body , or in a journey , were comprehended all other irregularities , which might render them uncnonically meet , to observe the passeover : it a statuit philo. ( says our synopsis ) qaia eadem est ratio omnium . there 's a parity of reason , which reaches all other cases : this then was the case of the ten tribes , they were afarr of , kept from the worship of god by many pressing circumstances , for which god in this provisional post-law had taken care : and for iudah , they were defiled , all things out of course , worship decayed , the temple polluted . sacrifices neglected , and universal disorder , and therefore under the case of defilement by a dead body , god makes provision for them also , for eadem est ratio omnium : thus . v. . they could not keep it at that time , because the priests had not sanctified themselves sufficiently , impedimentum , hic erat illi simile , nempe justum , illi enim dies mensis primi , ( quibus phase erat observandum ) templo expurgando consumpti sunt : and both protestants , and papists , junius , piscator . estius , lyra , martyr , vindicate hezekiah's proceedings from that general law , numb . . [ ] whereas the enquirer would insinuate , that the king did all this by the advise of his ( privy ) council , he may know that there was another council of more authority in the concerns of religion , which being appointed by god himself , might more reasonably have been consulted : once more i will hear grotius , de jure belli , & pacis , lib. . cap. . §. . haec cum ita sint , tamen aliqua judicia regibus adempta , arbitror mansisse penes synedrium virùm , quod divino imperio , à mose institutum ad herodis tempora perpetuâ cooptatione duravit ; itaque & moses , & david iudices , deos vocant , & judicia vocantur judicia dei , & judices dicebantur non humanâ , sed divinâ vice judicare ; imò apertè distinguuntur res dei , à rebus regis ; . chron. . . ubi res dei , monentibus doctissimis hebraeorum . judicia exlege dei exercenda , intelligi debeant ; although these things be thus , yet i conceive that some judicial matters , exempted from the kings cognizance , were under the jurisdiction of the sanedrin ; which being instituted by moses , at the command of god , endured in a continual succession , to the days of herod : and therefore both moses and david call the iudges ( of that council ) gods : and their judgments are called the judgments of the lord ; and the iudges are said to judge not in mans name , but in gods. and hence is it that the matters of god , and the matters of the king are apparently distinguished . . chron. . . where by the matters of god ( as the most learned of the iews inform us ) we are to understand , the determining of cases out of gods law. and thus also the same grotius upon this place . ad v. . the king had taken counsel . and his princes , and all the congregation in ierusalem ; id est , inquit grot. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . and the meaning is plainly this , that the king and his princes , ( or privy counsellours ) advised with the sanedrin , whether it were lawful in this exigeney for both iudah , and israel to keep the passeover in the second moneth , by vertue of that decl●…ration of god. numb . . and the court did agree in the affirmative nemine contradicente . [ ] but let us suppose the worst that can be imagined , that hezekiah had varied from the canon 〈◊〉 the institution , yet did he make a canon that they should transgress it for ever ? suppose that in a perplexed time he kept it once on the second moneth , when necessity , an old evil counsellour ( when not directed by gods word ) stood at his elbow , and had his ear ; yet did they not ever after observe it on the first moneth ? if he brought iudah to israel at this time , israel must come up to iudah at other times : men may turn the stream of gods institutions which way they will , but they will find their old channel again in time : truth was before errour , and it will be after it ; and therefore both king and people , when the reason of this seeming irregularity ceased , ceased their practise ; but will this justify any to take any ordinance from its proper hinges , and force it to turn for ever upon other centers ? this was indeed the great transgression of jeroboam , in divine worship . . kin. . . who ordained a feast in the eight moneth , on the fifteenth day of the moneth , like unto the feast that is in iudah , — even the moneth that he devised of his own heart . 't is true he was a person obnoxious upon many other accounts , guilty of other superstitions and encroachments upon gods authority , and yet the scripture takes special notice , and severely brands him for the altering of the moneth , the circumstance of time , without better warrant then he had from his own heart , or the regal authority . [ ] still admitting that this was done besides the primitive institution , or the warrant of that after-law , yet still the prophets of the lord were in iudah , with whom in extraordinary cases both king , princes , peopl●… , and great council might advise : and must we needs think that so prudent , so pious a prince would run upon his own head , in a matter of such concern , when he might so easily have received particular instructions from heaven ? [ ] supposing still more then all this comes to , that his practise was besides the primitive pattern , not warranted by numb . . that he had no lawful direction from the sanedrin , nor from any of the lords prophets , ( which yet can never be disproved ) but that he made this alteration meerly iure regio ( which can never be proved ) yet did he not set up any one mystical ceremony , appointed no other worship , part of worship , m●…ans of worship , only he determined of the time for that once : which though it had been a presumption too high for the greatest prince to attempt , ( as the case then stood ) yet it came far short of appointing new institutions , or symbolical coremonies . ( ) a second branch of his variation from the primitive pattern , he give us from v. . where he appointed the levites to kill the passeover , which by gods appointment was to have been performed by the people themselves : wherein he supposes , that by the institution the people ought to kill the passeover ; that hezekiah non-obstante that institution appointed the levites to do it ; that he did this without divine direction , and yet was perfectly innocent in what he did . § . but . whether by gods appointment the paschal lamb was to be stain by the people , or the priest , is a question that has been ventilated by no small names : and though it seems most probable that the people were entrusted with that service , yet the grounds are too weak the ●…rain of consequences too many and intricate , for a wise man to erect a superstructure of that height , and weight upon it , that princes may from thence dispense with gods law. they tha●… hold that the master of the family was not commanded to slay it in his own person , do urge . exod. . it is the sacrifice of the lords passeover . and if a sacrifice , then to be performed by a priest , and whereas it is said . ver . . that the whole assembly of the congregation of israel should kill it , they answer , jugulent , id est iugulari curanto , nempe per sacerdotes . that their killing was no more then their taking care that the priests should kill it . as to my own private judgement , i conceive that the master of every family was a priest within his own temple , and did perform that service according to the primitive institution ; but that assoon as god had chosen out the family of aaron to minister unto him in that holy employment , all the powers that lay dispersed , and scatter'd up and down particular families were thereby united ; and devolved upon that family which god had called . and that this notwithstanding the people in this as well as other sacrifices had some hand in the oblation of it . abarbinel reckons up ten things in a sacrifice ; five of which he assigns to the people . . to put their hands upon the head of the sacrifice . . the killing it . . the taking of the skin . . the dividing it into parts . . the washing of the entrails . the other five he allots to the priest. . to receive the blood in basins . . to sprinkle it . . to kindle the fire on the alter . . to order the wood . . to take the parts of the flesh that were sacrificed . § . . whether hezekiah commanded the levites to kill the passeover against the rule of the institution ? is yet another question . for. . it 's the judgment of some , that in hezekiah's passeover the levites did not personally kill the lamb , but only deliver it into the hands of the priests to be killed . so menochius : existimo rem ita peractam esse , ut populus immundus , agnos levitis darent ; levitae ad sacerdotes afferrent , qui eos immolarent . i conceive ( says he ) that the matter was thus transacted , that the people being unclean , delivered the lambs to the levites , who handed them to the priests , and they slew , and sacrificed them . . it seems more probable that the levites did actually slay the passeover , as also those other sacrifices . chapt. . v. . and in justification hereof i affirm , that if it was besides the order of the first institution , yet it was agreable to the after determination of god himself , and t●…t whatever con●… the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ●…in , it was appointed them jure divino , non regio . and if so ; then how will it evince , that the prince had this power over gods institutions , because god had such a power to alter , and change the first institution according as he in wisdom saw good ? now that whatever change was made , was wholy by the command of god , i think will be evident from these scriptures . . chron. . . . . . and ( josiah ) said unto the levites — serve now the lord your god , and his people israel , and prepare your selves by the houses of your fathers , after your courses , according to the writing of david king of israel , and according to the writing of his son solomon — so kill the passeover and sanctify your selves , and prepare your brethren , that they may do according to the word of the lord by the hand of moses . now hence it 's evident , that the levites in killing the passeover acted according to the writings of david , and solomon : which writings must necessarily be one and the same , and both of them received from the lord. . chron. . . where david protests : that the lord made him understand all this , in writing by his hand upon him : . it 's plain also that good iosiah aimed at this one thing in all he did , that all might be done according to the word of the lord by moses , and then either the levites must be judged to have the same power by the command of moses , or else that no subsequent dispos●…tion of affairs otherwise by the authority of god could be adjudged contrary to what he had commanded by moses . . it is plain also that iosiah had no respect to hezekiah's practise as the reason of his own , because he quotes not the practise of hezekiah , but the writings of david and solomon , so false it is what the enquirer so confidently asserts , that hezekiah preferred the levites to assist the priests in killing the other sacrifices , which never before they were admitted to . and therefore i would be satisfied , to what purpose iosiah should trouble himself , to conform to the patterns of moses , david , solomon , in these circumstantials , if by praeregative royal he might dispense with , alter , r●…peal in whole , or in part any of gods positive institutions . § . . whatever irregularities there might be in ●…his passeover of hezekiah , ( and to be sure there were some in so great and inveterate a degeneracy ) that holy prince humbly deprecates the just displeasure of god , and stands not saweily to justi●…y himself , that it was in his commission to order circumstantials in worship . v. . they did eat the passeover otherwise then was written . and hezekiah prayed for them . v. . . saying , lord god pardon every one that prepareth his heart to seek the god of his fathers , though he be not cleansed according to the purification of the sanctuary , and the lord hearkned to hezikiah , and healed the people . whence it 's undeniable . . that if we would take the exact measure of the stress which god lays upon an ordinance , we must have no regard to those idle coined distinctions , invented in case of u●…most extremity , as men in famine will live ( poor souls ) upon any thing , but to the word of institution . they did otherwise then was written . what moses his writing was , they knew ; what davids , what solomons writings were , whereby the levites were warranted to kill , or assist in killing the passeover , they also knew , yet somethings there were not warranted by any of these writings , for which there was no scriptum est : and [ otherwise ] in an institution , is [ contrary ] to the institution , and for these hezekiah begs pardon . . that though the people who had been long hardened under the degeneracy , made no bones of the matter , they might perhaps look upon all these as circumstantials , upon which god laid little stress , ( for in times of corruption there are never wanting some ingenious persons who will justify any thing , ) yet hezekiah a prince of an apprehensive spirit and tender conscience , knowing well , that not to keep close to what was written , in instituted worship , might draw down a curse , sooner then procure a blessing , ●…e earnestly cries to god for the pardon of irregularities . he went as near the archetypes of the institution as the iniquities of the times , and a general prevarication would admit , and for the rest he is importunate with god that his jealousy might not consume them . wherein our enquirer had he stood by would have su●…ciently derided his superstitious folly and fear , that laid so great a stress , where god laid very little , not understanding the praerogative of his imperial crown , in dispensing with these circumstantials . . that this irregularity was so hainous in the eys of god , that some wrath was already broken out from the lord upon the people . the plague was begun . and it was high time for a zealous prince to interpose , not to determine circumstantials , but to determine that wrath , which for these neglected circumstantials was kindled , which by prayer he attemps , the only incense by which , in his politick capacity , he could stand between the living , and the dead . and thus the jews say : antea qui comederunt occisi sunt , sed regis precibus clades cessiavit ; they that first eat of the passeover in their uncleannesses , were cut of by the inmediate hand of god , but by the interposition of hezekiah's prayers the plague stayed . . and we may reasonably hence conclude , that this pious prinse , who was so sensible of the peoples irregularity in one kind , would have been as apprehensive of the levites deficiency in another , had their fact conrravented the institution ; and as little reason to doubt , but that the jealousy of god had smoaked and flamed out against the levites as well as the people had they killed , as the other ate the passeover otherwise then was written . and therefore grotius , who magnifies this as an illustrious instance of royal authority to relax a divine command in case of necessity , yet dares not affirm that the king did all this upon his own head , ( least whilst he advanced his power , he should draw his prudence into question ) but consulto ( ut credibile est ) priùs synedrio : having first advised with the sanedrin about the legality of the fact : when therefore he askes us this question ; since the magistrates had once such a power , how came they to lose it ? i confess i cannot tell ! i believe they have as much power as ever they enjoyed ; and this i am certain of , that never any received such a power from god , as would warrant him to alter any of gods institutions , to set up a new religion , a new office , or institution , without special direction from divine prescription , or immediate revelation . ( ) we come to his second argument , which is this : the new testament is frequent in asserting the power of magistrates , and requires all to be subject to them , of what quality or condition soever . . rom. . let every soul be subject to the higher powers . thus far he has no enemy , at least he ought to have none . the practise of the primitive christians , which commented admirably upon that text of the apostle , and other clear places , has put all this out of dispute , who were most severe in their obedience , under the most severe persecutions . thus tertullian in apolog. cap. . nos pro salute imperatorum deum invocamus , — precantes sumus pro omnibus imperatoribus , vitam illis prolixam , imperium securum , domum tutam , exercitus fortes , senatum fidelem , populum probum , orbem quietum , quaecunque hominis , & caesaris vota sunt . we pray to god for the safety of our emperour ; that god would give them a long life , a peaceable government , that he would preserve the royal family , that he would vouchsafe them a faithful council , a loyal people , a quiet world , valiant armies , and what soever their own wishes can des●…re . thus dionysius in his apology for the christians , in the persecution under verus , nos unum deum colimus , & veneramur , omnium fabricatorem , huic etiam sine intermissione , pro eorum regno ut firmum , & stabile maneat preces adhibemus . we worship ( says he ) and adore only one god , the creatour of all things , and to him we powr out our prayers night and day , that the government of our emperours may abide firm , and unshaken . they that would plead . christianus sum , i cannot conform , would as sincerely say , christianus sum , i dare not resist : there is then no question but that we are all upon pain of eternal damnation bound to obey the civil magistrate , and all that are sent by him , in all civil things which are not demonstrably sinful , according to the municipal laws , but the question will meet us again though we avoid it , how farr their power extends in matters of immediate worship , and things directly within the verge of conscience , wherein possibly i can yeeld as farr as another , though i would proceed upon better grounds then the enquirer has layd down , which now i come te examine . § . . the new testament ( says he ) no where excepts the case of religion . answer . no where excepts it ? ay but where d●…s ●…he new or old express , and include it ? i was in hopes tha●… according to his promise , he would have proved that the magistrate exceeds not his commission in determining the thin●… under debate , and he puts us of with this , they are not excepted out of his commission : he that acts by commission , must have his powers authorized by his commission . suppose a prince should issue out a commission to certain delegates to hear and determine all differences relating to the forrest , and they shall intermeddle with affaires that are out of the purlieus , will it be thought enough to say , these places are not excluded their commission . . nor do i except , the case of religion , out of the magistrates commission , but only humbly enquire , of the enquirer , how farr the commission extends in religious matters ? to this he gives us an answer , i mean so farr as circumstantials , and those things which god himself hath not defined . but this will either destroy all again , or not mend the matters one jot : for , . i no where find that god has excepted substantials , more then circumstantials out of his commission : in what respect the one is included , the other is so : and in what respect the one is excluded , the other is so : that is , both are included , for his preservation , and both excluded , as to his alteration of , adding to , or subtracting from them . if a commission be produced that the magistrate shall guide me in all acceptable external instituted worship , excepting the substantials thereof , i have enough ; for exceptio in non exceptis firmat regulam . the exception of substantials would more strongly include the circumstantials . and therefore i am affraid he will not produce a commission that excepts substantials . let it be substance or circumstance : let men invent what terms or names they please , if in the outward exercise of religion christians shall disturbe the peace , they shall know and find that the magistrate has a coercive power that will reach them and all their outward actions , for the assecurating that peace wherewith god has entrusted him . to give almes is an act , a substantial act of religion ; yet if any pharisaical spirit shall sound his trumpet to draw a concourse of people after him , and thus turn the trumpet of religion into a trumpet of rebellion ; if he shall make sacramentum pictatis , vinculum iniquitatis . he , and his act come within the magistrates commission ; and yet it extends not to alter an act of religion , but to suppress a design of faction , and sedition . . such an exception as he fancies in the magistrates commission , as it no where appears , so would it be purely nugatory , did it appear , unless we had withal some infallible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to discriminate the circumstantials from the substantials : otherwise either he might encroach upon the substantials , under the notion of circumstantials , or a refractary people would be alwayes crossing and thwarting his determinations , under pretence that the substantials were invaded , when he was only modelling and ordering the innocent circumstantials : and thus as the sea and the land are alwayes eating into each others liberties , or as in some nations , where prerogative and propriety are not equally ballanced , the one is beating up the others quarters perpetually , so would there be an unappeasable warr between these substantials , and circumstantials , which like the marches between two kingdoms of no firm correspondence , would be ever subject to the longer and sharper sword : but christ has not left these concerns at such a loose end . § . . he argues thus : if they have not power in such matters of religion as we speak of , it 's manifest they have no magistracy , or legislative power at all in religion . i will deal freely with our enquirer : for ought i know to the contrary , they have this power , and a farr greater power in the matters of religion w●…hreof he speaks , for i do not yet understand what those matters of religion are whereof he speaks ? but to answer as well as i can conjecture at his intentions . . i know not what a legislative power in religion means in the hands of any but the lord iesus christ. the scripture has told us . . jam. . that there is one law-giver who is able to save or to destroy . he that can eternally save , upon obedience , or eternally damn upon disobedience , may securely challenge a legislative power over the church . it 's certain from hence , that christ is the only law-giver to his church , in some sense ; and in what sense that should be , but that he alone can impose matters of immediate worship upon the conscience , i cannot tell . he that denies christ to be the only legislator , at this day , may with equal reason deny him to be the only iudge in the great day : and it 's not worth the while , for a few ceremonies to loose one of the articles of our creed : hetherto a general council has been thought to have the highest visible power on earth to make laws for the church , and yet the church of england has determin'd . a●… . . that they may err , and have sometimes erred ●…en in things pertaining to god. and therefore it will ●…e our safest , and wisest course to leave the legislative power in matters of religion in the hands of christ , where god entrusted it , and where we found it , who can neither deoeive , nor be deceived . . there may be a magistratical power about religious matters , where there is no legislative power : the magistrate may have an executive power to do all that god has commanded him , and see others do all that god has commanded them , and yet no legislative power to alter , or add to the institutions of christ : what a vast field has every supream magistrate , wherein he may place out all his zeal , power , and authority , and yet never touch ●…he philactory , or fringe , of the garment of christ , either by enlarging or pairing it away . his power is very evident in the moral law , bottom'd upon eternal , and immutable reasons , and to build it upon such dubious , and precarious hypotheses , ●…r to overcharge it with unscriptural powers , is but secretly to undermine it , or crush it down with it 's own weight . ( ) his third argument is this : it 's generally acknowledged ( and accordingly practised ) that fathers and governours of families have authority in matters of religion within their own families , at least so farr as the case in hand . nay pray forbear a little : that they have an authority in matters of religion , is indeed acknowledged , and i wish it were more practised ; all i haesitate at , is , whether he has such a power as farr as the case in hand : the case in hand is or should be , whether the magistrate has power to determine , such externals of religion , as he ( to blind the business ) thought meet to call circumstantials : and such a power , as dissenters acknowledge not , so they practise not : it were very hard if a master of a family should arrogate to himself such a power as to enjoyn his wife , children , servants , relations , strangers , to have a pugil of salt layd upon their tongues , in token that they shall not be ashamed to have their speech seasoned with savoury discourse , without submission to which crotchet they shall either not be admitted into the family , or if already admitted , cast out of doors , or however not permitted to hear a chapter read , or joyn in prayer all their days ; this would have been a little more to the case , of which our enquirers instances come exceeding short . who doubts ( says he ) but the father , or head of a family may prescribe what chapters shall be read ? what prayers used ? what times shall be set apart for devotion ? what postures , whether kneeling , standing , or being uncovered ? who shall officiate in his family ? with innumerable others of a like nature : and if they be but of the like nature , they will never do us any harm . let 's look'em over however ! , what chapters may be read : why truly if the question be only which of the two or more , of equal authority , he may be as fit as another : but if the competition were between two , the one out of scripture , the other out of some legendary fabler , that has stufft a farce with romanticks , i question much his power to determine , for god has at least determined thus farr , that in all our worship of him , we speak and read nothing but the truth ; and he that teaches his family , ought to teach from , or according to the oracles of god : . what prayers used . god will not accept a female from him that has a male in his flock ; as the prince will not accept such a present , much less will the great god , who gives what he receives , and therefore may justly expect the best . no master of a family has authority to offer prayers to god less good , if god have furnish't him with better . . what times shall be set apart for devotion : the setting apart of common time for family-worship , is a meer circumstance , which neither renders the worship more or less acceptable to god as it is time . and it is disjunctively commanded by him , who has commanded masters of families to continue in prayer , and watch in the same with thanksgiving . . col. . . if god has commanded worship , he has also therewith commanded some time , wherein to worship : a time must therefore necessarily be resolved on , but 〈◊〉 good favour this is not to the case in hand . and yet as large as the masters power may be in this matter , he must have regard to the general rules of the gospel : that all things be done for edification , to advance the success of the duty . he may neither determine upon a revolution too infrequent , nor upon a continuance too short , to slubber , and huddle over the ordinance in formal hast ; nor upon an unseasonable hour , when his overworked , and overwatched servants are ready to drop asleep , when tyred nature is ready to over-master the souls gracious propensities towards gods service . and where he seems to have most power , he has farr short of an absolute power . . for postures whether kneeling , standing , or being uncovered . i never so much admired the difference between praedicamental situs , & habitus , as to move a quarrel , whether being uncovered was a posture or no ? yet i think these things are not capable of an universal , fixed , unalterable law. if one of these postures shall render any one in the family uncapable of pursuing , and reaching the ends of an ordinance ; that parent shall sin against god ; who rigidly exacts the most plausible posture , or gesture ; and i suppose he has no commission from god to sin against him : if standing shall so disease a weak child , that being in pain he cannot attend the present service ; if kneeling , shall ordinarily expose another to drowziness ; if being uncover'd , shall prejudice health , and endanger life ; if any of these or any other , shall distract the mind , make the duty a burden , wear out the body , masters of families must know , that their power is for edification , and not destruction , and god will have mercy , and not sacrifice , whatsoever an imperious master will have . he that shall teach that magistrates may dispense with the circumstantials of gods worship , will sure never be so hardy , as to teach , that masters of families , and magistrates too , ought not to dispense with their own institutions . . in what habit : no master of a family has power to enjoyn any religious habits , appropriated to divine service : in the general 't is true , habit is necessary , upon many accounts , for health , decency : but religious habits are not so , not put into the charter of domestick power , nor indeed capable of a canon . . who shall officiate in a family : the duty of officiating in the family , is primarily incumbent upon himself ; i know no reason he should claim the authority , who waves the duty : if he will have the honour , let him discharge the work of a master of a family , nor may he command his child to pray that cannot pray , with that usefulness to edification to the whole : if any person whose greater abilities may manage the service more to the glory of god be present , his charitable prudence will instruct him to procure such assistance as may best promove the spiritual concern●… of those under his charge . to shut up this point . the powers here ascribed to a master of a family , are such as do not reach the case in hand : determination of chapters , prayers , times , postures , gestures , persons , which were not before determined by the divine power , will not make up one mystical ceremony ; and the magistrate may have all this power , and yet none such as will reach the case in hand ; that power which will serve to make a primitive directory , will not serve to impose a modern liturgy ; all that can possibly be screwed out of these instances of paternal authority is no more then this , that he may determine between two or more circumstances , one of which is disjunctively necessary to the performance of a necessary duty : but it will be hard when he comes to try it , to infer a power to impose mystical ceremonies , which are no ways necessary to the performance of any duty , no not by disjunction . i presume i have saved my bail , if i should give no further answer , yet for his greater satisfaction i shall trouble the reader with these few considerables . § . , that the governour of a family , being upon the place , and having all present circumstances within his prospect , may more usefully determine upon all determinable circumstances , then a magistrate for a whole nation , and the several congregations therein , whose accidents are so various that they cannot possibly come under any uniform determination : suppose a strict law were made at paris , that every particular church in the nation should commence their publick service on the lords day precisely at nine a clock , it is mathematically certain , that some would have done and got half through their dinners , before others would be half way in their devotions ; they in furthest eastern parts would have come to their amen , before those on the calabrian ocean would be at their oremus , because of the diversities of meridians , and longitudes , and yet all would be but nine a clock . § . . that the consequence from the power of a master of a family , to the civil magistrates power , is not very clear : for the master of a family is supposed to have minors in his family , who cannot be safely trusted with the determination of those circumstances , which must necessarily be determined , but it would be a reproach to the christian religion , that all the bishops , pastors , and churches in a nation could not find wit enough to determine , what time of the day were most expedient to assemble in . the power of a prince is farr more noble , then that of the family governour , and yet by reason of the incapacity , and unfitness of the matter , the bulkiness of the aggregate ; the lesser power may possibly determine upon some small circumstances which the greater power is unfit to do : to be captain of a man of warr is more honourable , then to command a skuller ; and yet this latter will tack about more nimbly , then that cumbersome argosie , because the vessel is more manageable . § . . this uniformity which is so much driven at in all these arguments , as the great reason of the necessity of universal determination , is a name much bandied in speculative discourses , rather then a thing practicable ; if we may judge that not fecible , which never yet was attained . let us look a little nearer home ! and first we find no punctual uniformity between the two provinces : he that can sing divine service in the province of york , may without new instruction be utterly to seek in the psalmodie of canterbury ; look upon the same province , and compare the parochial , with the cathedral service , and there 's less uniformity still . he that can ●…adge pretty well at a country-church , is quite lost in the uncouth usages of the minister : look into the parochials , and some have their conformity , superconformity , statute ceremonies , and canon cer●…monies , so that you would hardly judge them to be half-sisters : take a step nearer , and look in the same parish-church , uniformity is not to be found there ; the minister is not conformable to himself . at one prayer he stands , at another he kneels , at one part of the publick service he is all white , and then that colour is most decent , by and by all black , and then that is most decent ; nor is there any uniformity between the minister , and the people ; ●…e , at the delivery of the consecrated elements , praying in a posture of standing , and they in the act of receiving , who pray not , yet confined to geniculation . nor is there less discrepancy between the several parts of worship ; for whereas the grand plea for ceremonies is a certain decency , which they conciliate to the service , and their great usefulness to stirr up the dull minds of men , yet only baptism is adorned with the sign of the cross , and the rest left naked of so great an ornament , and yet the apostles rule is , let all things be done decently ; and we have as much need to have our dull minds quickned in the other sacrament , and all other pars of worship . § . . lastly . that power which belongs to the supream civil magistrate , as such belongs to all and every supream magistrate ; but this power of instituting , imposing ceremonies belongs not to every supream magistrate , therefore it belongs not to the supream civil magistrate as such , that is , it belongs to none . the reason of the major proposition is taken from that common axiome . a 〈◊〉 , ad omne valet consequenti●… : the proof of the minor is this : that which belonged not to the supream civil magistrate for three hundred years after christs time , belongs not to all civil magistrates ; but this power of instituting , and imposing ceremonies belonged not to the civil magistrate for three hundred years after christs time , therefore it belonged not to all . to enervate which argument it must either be denyed that the roman emperours during that period were supream civil magistrates , which st. paul opposes , charging the churches to obey them ; or asserted that they had a power to determine of the circumstantials of the christian religion , and prescribe what ceremonies they saw good in the evangelical worship . [ ] we now come to his second thesis . if the magistrate may determine these matters ; then not only christian charity , and humility , but common prudence requires us to presume of the wisdom , and reasonableness of his determinations , and much more to obey them . i shall say little , but perhaps smile the more at the prettiness of the consequent . it 's our duty to presume of the reasonableness , but much more to obey those determinations ; that is , it 's much m●…re our duty to obey , then to be rational . that we are to presume very highly of the wisdom of our superiours acting within their proper sphaere , we readily admit : for when god calls them to a work , he will bestow competent wisdom for the discharge of it : but yet am i not to presume so unmeasurably of any ones wisdom , as to resign up my faith and conscience , with the disposal of gods worship without more a do to it , if god had given him authority to determine these matters , i should not have been concern'd to question his wisdom : gods command had superseded my little scruples , and though he had miscarried in his prudential decision , i should have received the praise of subjection , but till such authority do appear , i shall s●…t down on this side such pr●…sumption , though somewhat beyond despair . if the reader has any pitty left , he may do charitably to bestow a little of it upon me , that must be obliged to answer all the sentences and apothegms in wits-commonwealth , and yet to this drudgery i shall patiently submit ●…ill i am quite tyred , and then resign this province : ( ) it 's enough ( says he ) to warrant , and require our obedient , that the thing is the command of our superiour , and not beyond the sph●…re of his authority . that religion is within the magistrat●… sph●…re , i have freely owned , but not to all intents , and purposes ; not to pluck up what god has planted , not to plant what god has pluckt up . substantials , and circumstantials are all within his sphaere , but not to do what he pleased withal . as all persons , with their civil concerns are within the magistrates sph●…re , their lives , liberties , and estates all come under his cognizance , and yet there are some great lawyers , and loyal subjects , who think they are not within his sph●…re to dispose of them at pleasure ; so are all the conncerns of religion within his sphaere too , to preserve , not to destroy ; to propagate , not to alter ; to encourage , not to innovate in the worship of god : for all power is for edification , not destruction ; every christian has religion within his sphaere , that is , he has a concern in it , but no concern over , and above it ; tota religio , but not totum religionis , as totus homo , yet not totum hominis are within the reach of magistracy : he has a power to secure religion ; religion is therefore within his sphaere ; but he has none to make new religion , or a new part of religion , that therefore is out of his sphaere , nor will it excuse me to god , his word and my own conscience blindly to obey in every thing , some whereof may be out of his sphaere , because he has a power to command somethings which are within his sphaere . the true ancient protestants of this church with no less zeal then success defended the princes power , and supremacy against all the claims of rome , and yet never ascribed such a power to him as might shackle conscience , and dispose of religion at pleasure . i shall give the reader a tast from the learned bishop bilson , who dedicates his book to q : eliz : and it came abroad cum privilegio . dial : p. , . &c. the discourse is between a papist , and a protestant . philander . if the queen establish any religion , you are bound by your ●…ath to obey it whatsoever it be . theophilus . we must not rebel , not take armes against the prince ( as you affirm you may ) but with reverence , and humility serve god before the prince : phil. then is not the prince supream . theo. why so ' phil. your selves are superiour , you will serve whom you list . theo. as though to serve god according to his will , were to serve whom we list , and not whom all princes , and others ought to serve . phil. but you will be iudges , when god is well served , and when ●…t : theo. if you can excuse us before god , when you mislead us , we will serve whom you appoint us : otherwise if every man shall answer for himself , good reason he be master of his own conscience in that which toucheth him so near , and no man can excuse him for , phil. this is to make every private man supream iudge of religion . theo. the poorest wretch that is may be supream governour of his own heart : princes rule the publick , and external actions of their countries , but not the consciences of men . phil. would you have such confusion suffered in the church , that every man should follow what he list ? theo. i would not have such presumption , and wickedness brought into the church , that christ , and his word should be subjected to the wills , or voices of mortal men : for though the whole world should pronounce against him , or it , god will be true , and all men shall be lyars . phil. no more would we . theo why then restrain you truth , to the assemblies , and sentences of popes , and praelates , as though they must be gently entreated , and fairly offer'd by christ , before he might attempt , or expect to recover his own . phil. we would have things done orderly . theo. call you that order , where christ shall stand without doors , till your clergy shall consent to bring him in ? phil. god is not the author of confusion , but of peace . theo. it 's no confusion , for one family , yea for one man , to serve god , though all the families , and men of the same realm will not . ioshua said to the people : if it seem evil to you to serve the lord , chuse you whom you will serve , but i , and my house will serve the lord. elias was left alone , for any that he saw willing to serve god in israel , and yet abated not his zeal : micheas alone opposed himself against . prophets ; with what judicial authority , can you tell ? amos neither spared ieroboam the king , not amaziah the priest , and yet he was but a simple heards-man , and not so much as the son of a prophet . iohn baptist had no competent jurisdiction over the scribes , and pharisees that sa●… in moses his chair , and yet he condemned them for a generation of vipers . the counsels , where peter , stephen , paul , were convened , accused , and punisht , lacked none of your judicial formalities , and yet the apostles stoutly both resisted , and condemned their deliberative , and definitive sentences . phil. the apostles commission we know , but yours we know not . theo. you cannot be ignorant of ours , if you know theirs ; so long as we preach the same doctrine , that they did , we have the same power , and authority , which they had keep your competent jurisdictions , judicial cognitions , and legal decisions to your self : the son of god first founded , and still gathereth his church by the mouths of his preachers , not by the summons of consistories : he that is sent to preach , may not hold his tongue , and tarry , till my lord the pope , and his mitred fathers can intend to meet , and list to consent to the ruine ( as they think ) of their dignities , and liberties . phil. deshise you counsels ? theo. by no means ; so long as they be counsels , that is sober , and free conferences of godly and learned teachers ; but if they wax wanton , against christ , and will not have the truth received , until they have consented , we reject them as conspiracies of the wicked , which no christian ought to reverence — but will you suffer god to make laws for his church ? phil. what else ? theo. and may not every private man embrace those laws which god hath made , whosoever say nay ? phil. he must . theo. what if some bishops will not agree they shall ? must the prince , and people cease to serve god ; till the clergy be better minded . phil. in matters of faith the prince and lay-lords have no voices . theo , in making laws they had . phil. true ! but laws for religion they might not prescribe . theo. no more might bishops ! it 's only gods office to appoint how he will be served . phil. gods will must be learned at the mouths of the bishops , theo. they must teach , leaving always the liberty to the prince , and people , to examine their doctrine , and avoid their errour , and if they teach not truth , the prince and people may expel them . i shall now leave it to the determination of the impartial , and unprejudiced reader , whether he that was then the protestant , would not now be the fanatick ; and whether he that makes our enquirers objections , would not have passed for a catholick of the roman edition in those days ? ( ) humility ( says he ) requiring that we think meanly and modestly of our own reasons , charity that we judge favourably of anothers , and prudence that we think best of the magistrates , all these together make it our duty not only to obey , but to do it with all chearfulness imaginable . ans. . no humility teaches me in the matters of eternal salvation , to put out my own eyes to see with anothers spectacles : my neighbours eyes may be clearer , and stronger then mine , yet mine are mine own ; he that has better eyes then i , has this happiness , that he may direct himself better , but yet he would direct me worse , without the use of my own : a christians own reason , informed from gods word , is the immediate guide of his steps in all acceptable obedience to , and walking with god. blind obedience in this case is no obedience : humility teaches me to think my self a man , and therefore may err ; but not a brute , which cannot but err : it neither teaches me to revere any creature as my god , nor to despise my own intellectuals , as if i were a beast . . though charity command me to judge favourably of anothers spiritual estate for the present , his eternal state for the future , yet it commands me not to neglect making provision for my own : it commands me to love another as my self , and therefore nor above my self ; i cannot expect another should be true , if i prove false to my own soul. it 's a blind charity , and only fit for the hospital , that would make me of every mans religion , of whom it teaches me to judge favourably : for at this rate i must be of twenty religions , and perhaps one half of them together by the ears with the other half : charity will heal the evil eye , and make it good , but not put it out . . charity teaches me to think best of the magistrates reason in common kingdoms , but better of scripture reason in the territory's of conscience . and prudence will dictate to me , that god who has placed him in his political orbe , will provide an intelligence to move that sphaere regularly , for qua supran●…s , nihil ad n●…s , but no prudence will teach me to espouse a religion because 't is his , but because it approves it self to the test , and touch-stone of all religion , the word of god. i could learn better divinity from an honest heathen then this stuff : pliny has given us this rule : cantissimi cujusque praceptum , quod dubitas ne feceris . and tully : quocirin benè praecipiunt qui vetant quicquam agere , quod dubites aequum sit an iniquum : they preach true doctrine who warn you not to do any thing , whereof you doubt whether it be good or evil . and though such a prudence as he has described may contingently do me no great hurt at home , yet it will make me a papist in italy , a m●…ssulman at the port , a heatheen in china , or rather every where just nothing . ( ) it 's a common mistake to think charity , and compassion only due from governurs to their inferiours in the frame and composure of their laws , for it 's due also from inferiours towards them , and that they ●…ake a fair , and canaid : construction of their inj●…nctions . the duty is reciprocal without doubt , but with great difference 〈◊〉 we pitty , and pray for our superiours under their burdens of government , and expect only pitty from them under our loads of subjection ; and though we account subjection no servile yoke , yet 't is a yoke ; as bernard in another case , dulce quidem conj●…gium est jugum , sed tamen jugum ; and yet a compassionate tenderness towards inferiours in those things wherein god has tyed up conscience , is an abundant recompense for all that subjection : we would willingly part with all that is properly our own , to secure that which is properly gods ; and though magistrates are strictly above our pitty , and compassion , yet we hope we are not be low theirs : if they call for our pitty in any case , 't is to see them tormented with the importunate sollicitations of one part of their subjects to destroy the other : as it must needs be an unspeakable affliction to a father to be harrassed by some of his children to abnegate and disinherit the rest . as 't is a great injury to the son to endeavour to monopolize his beams ; to the fountain , to impropiate it's streams , when the one would shine indifferently , the other flow impartially towards all , so is it a great trouble to a generous prince to have his favours intercepted , his royal grace under sequestration , that he cannot equally influence the whole body , of which the grace of god has made him head. nor do we dare to judge our superiours , but our selves : not their intentions , but our own actions : which if we may not do , better it were to be devested of these cumbersom reasons of ours , which therefore serve to encrease our misery , because they teach us what it is to be happy . to make a candid interpretation of their actions , we own our duty , and as we suppose they steer by the light of their own judgments , so we hope they will indulge us to act by ours : if we mistake , we wrong our selves , if our mistakes should wrong them , we submit to correction : if they mistake , we must wait under the inconveniences of the effects of that mistake , till the father of lights shall inspire other counsels ; only let us remember , that it is the princes glory to be rex hominum , non asinorum , nec angelorum . ( ) the scriptures ( says he ) call the magistrates . masters of restraint . . judg. . and it 's amongst their most glorious titles , the least of which ( if any may be called little ) we revere ; and it will be their immortal honour to restrain wicked men from doing evil , if they cannot restrain them from being evil : it was a flower in jobs coronet , . ch. . . that he brake the ja●… of the wicked , and plucke the spoile out of his teeth , masters●… of restraint they are , not to estrain religion , but irreligion , and the insatiable thirst of thoe which nothing will quench but the blood of their brothern ▪ 〈◊〉 that which was earned with the sweat of their faces . ( ) nor will it be a foolish charity , 〈◊〉 blind obedience to permit our selves to th●… 〈◊〉 of our 〈◊〉 in those little things 〈◊〉 speak of : to permit and resign up our selves to the conduct of others in religious matters absolutely is blind obedience , whether a sober enquirer will call them little or no. though the things may be small , the blindness of our obedience may be as great as if the things were greater ; blindness consists not in the object ; but in the faculty , but. . the things wodiscourse of , ( if we discourse ad idem ) are no little , but the great things of the gospel : great i say , if we either consider the greatness and danger of those principles which they proceed upon , or the greatness , and dangerousness of those consequences which they draw along with them , a ●…ttle spark may kindle if neglected a great flame ; they suppose either that christ had not all power committed to him in heaven , and in carth or that he has given it away by some dormant warrant , and clandestine commission , or that he never exercised his power to settle the regiment of his church , or that his edicts may be rescinded , and cassated by humane will. and they draw along with them a train of fatal consequences , as that 't is possible the condition of christs church may be irremediably more servile then ever was that of the jewish , if religion should fall into bad mens hands . but no sin is little to him , that knows what blood it cost to expiate it , what sorrow it costs the true penitent to mourn for it , and what pains it cost the true christian to resist it . . if the things be so little in the judgment of imposers , we hope we shall tast of their compassion in indulging such little things ; it shall be no little praise we should return to the great god , no little returns of duty , and exemplary obedience we should make to his vicegerent , that should permit us the indisserent use of indifferent things , and suppose them so , yet the faith of indifferent things is no indifferent thing : but i observe , that when our enquirer would have dissenters punisht for the neglect of these things , then they are not little ; then they become the greatest , weightiest , most important things in the world ; then churches , government , religion cannot subsist without them , as accidents cannot subsist without their substances ▪ so neither substances exist without their accidents ; but when he comes to drole us into compliance , then they are little triffles , the minutes , punctilios , of religion . . if to resign up our selves in matters of immediate worship without a warrant from god , to any but god , be not blind obedience , 't is because we are blind , and cannot see what blind obedience is : we freely commit our selves to the political conduct in all things temporal ; a ministerial conduct we own in our pastors , and teahers ; a soveraign conduct we would gladly reserve for christ. we would willingly go any whether but to hell , do any thing but sin , lose any thing but the peace of our consciences , and part with any thing , but what is none of ours to dispose of , rather then seem to tergiversate from the commands of our governours . and as we confess the magistrate stands upon higher grounds then we ; so we must , and without displeasing our superiours way say ; that christ stands upon higher ground then he ; and when we shall come to stand before his tribunal , there to receive according to our works , we shall all stand upon even ground , as to any difference , that external advantages in this present world , shall then make . ( ) we have reason to perswade our selves that we may as easily lye under prejudices , as they ; and that we may be as much transported with considerations of ease , and liberty , as they may probably be suspected to be with ambition . ans : it 's the duty of all to watch against those temptations , to which welye most open from without ; and to watch over those corruptions , to which we are most obnoxious from within : we dare not think it probable that our magistrates are transported with ambition ; and we profess that we are not transported with any base lust , or pittiful considerations to suspend active obedience , till we discover such transport by its proper fruits . but if we must still be represented by our sometimes brethren , but now persecutors , as misguided by prejudices , we are sorry for it , but cannot help it : and must place these secret aspersions in the number of those burdens , which by frequent use grow familiar , and less pinching , and such as seeing they are not to be avoided , wisdom dictates they ought to be contemned . and yet we shall pray that our magistrates , like the highest boughs of the goodliest trees being most fruitful , may bow down themselves with abundance of precious fruits , and drop some of it into the laps of their despised , but loyal subjects . ( ) there are no less different capacities of mind , then constitutions of body , and as great difference in mens outward circumstances , as in either of the former : the magistrate will certainly thence judge that there ought to be as great a diversity and latitude in his impositions : he that has a larger swallow , let him have a larger cann : let the best stomack have the largest trencher : and since one stomack will bear , what would oppress another , why should one mans conscience be compelled to digest , what anothers can easily put over : either we must practise , whilst we think not the same things , which is a sordid piece of unworthy hypocrisy , and no credit to uniformity to congregate such heterogeneous materials ; or else tormented , because our constitutions , capacities , consciences , circumstances are not of one size , which is not our fault , for we had not the mingling of our temperatures , nor the putting together of our frames ; or else ( which we hope they who are wiser then us all will judge most eligible ) that every one retaining his different sentiments which impede not christianity , or disturb the peace , may be indulged in a practise peaceably managed , suitable to those innocent variations . and since our enquirer has quoted an old story , i shall only repeat his words , and leave the reader to his own thoughs for the application : those that would have the laws fitted to their humour , without respect to other men , do but imitate the barbarous custom of the infamous procrustes , who is said to have either rackt all those persons that fell into his hands , and stretcht them out to his own size , if they were too short ; or cut them of to his own proportions , if they were too long . and really if any of the dissenters be of that imperious and tyrannical temper . i know not why they should expect that mercy they will not show , or institute themselves in those priviledges , out of which they would eject all others . i have heard that the famous b. andrews , disputing with the great cardinal p●…ronne about these matters , urged very smartly , that man ought not to add to gods word , lest he loose his part in the book of life . the politick cardinal askes , why then do you retain the cross in baptism ? the bishop answered : because authority enjoyns it . and for the same reason ( replyed the cardinal ) we retain all the rest of the ceremonies : ●…hat rejoynder the bishop made , i do not remember . it 's the great duty , and will be the unspeakable comfort of all in authority to preserve the whole worship of christ pure and undefiled , and all the worshippers of christ in peace , and security , and when they have done this , they seem to me to have discharged their commission , and may sue out their quietus est ; and easily receive , that huge , well done , good and faithful servant , thou hast been faithful in a few things , i will make thee ruler over many things , enter thou into the joy of thy lord. as for them who fear a prince , will have nothing to do , since necessaries are already determined , unlawful things , prohibited ▪ if he may not determine the rest : they are worse scared then hurt ; god has cut him out work enough in his precept , and many times ( for the sins of a people ) ●…uts them out harder work by his providence , and he is little beholden to those over-officious 〈◊〉 , who prompt him to grasp more employment , whilst any lyes upon his hands . the christian religion was perfect , and absolute at all points , as it came out of christs hands , and if we make it no worse when 't is in ours , he will never complain , though we never make it better : alcibiades brings in the athenians complaining to the o●…acle of iupiter 〈◊〉 , that their enemies the 〈◊〉 pr●…vailed against them ; and yet ( say they ) we offer many , and costly sacrifices , when they present the gods with few cheape , or none . the oracle answers ( and it might have become a better mouth ) that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the plain simple service of the lacedemonians was more acceptable to the gods , then all the splendid , pompous will-worship of the athenians . as the great god is exceedingly jealous in this particular , so has he not le●…t himself without a witness in the consciences of those who had no other notices of gods nature but what came in by the light of nature , or some refracted beams of revelation conveyed to them by tradition . the pythagoreans taught this doctrine , that the gods were to be worshipt , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , according to their own good pleasure : and it was one of the platonical dictates . that all divine worship must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , measured by the acceptation , and appointment of god. the conference which numa pompilius , the great roman ritualist had , or pretended to have with the goddess aeger●… , instructs us , that he confided little in his regal power , without a divine 〈◊〉 to conciliate a due reverence to those ceremonies , which having in them no moral goodness , depended wholy upon a positive institution , and that no artifice will ever preserve a religious rite , sacred and intemerate , which is not stamped with a jus divinum . if indeed an old fragment , a trivial sentence , or shred out of an heathen author , were to be the canon of our faith , or the rubric of our worship , i could easily comply with this enquirer , who brings ( and 't is as fair a proof as any he brings ) a saying of aemilius paulus to his souldiers . vos gladios acute ! what you your swords , and be ready to execute what shall be commanded you , but leave the management of affairs to your general . if christans do really owe that subjection in religious matters to their superiours , which private soldiers owe their general in the field , this controversy is at an end , and with it all instituted religion in the world , that deserves that excellent name . it may easily be applied : provide you knees to bow , and backs to bear , mouths to say what shall be put into them , hands to subscribe what shall be tendered to you , and leave the truth of principles , the composure of a worship , the guidance of conscience to wiser heads . and he might have quoted us caesars commentaries to as much purpose , where that great commander upon the reluctancy of his souldiers to engage , sharpely chides them , quod aut quam in partem , aut quo consilio 〈◊〉 . si●…i 〈◊〉 aut cogit●…dum putarent : who durst once surmise , ●…r enquire , either whether , or upon what design they were ●…rawn out . and thus at last we shall be sped both of a dir●…tory for worship , and a canon of church-government ; and may with the traditores of old deliver up our bibles for wast paper : unless we had rather imitate the famous legi●… fulminatrix , who knew how t●… wh●…t their swords against the common enemy at the command of the emperour , and yet to refuse a religious ceremony , vouched by no other then humane authority . his fine sentence out of cato is also hugely wide in this case , nulla lex s●…tis ●…mnibus comm●…da , id 〈◊〉 qu●…ritur , si majori , parti , & 〈◊〉 summ●… prodest . no law sits aequally easy upon all mens shoulders , the only consid●…ation is , whether it suit with the generality , and be useful in the main . 't is very true law-makers cannot apportion out their civil constitutions to an ounce or a drachm ; but one scruple of conscience weighs heavier then a pound of temporal inconveniences . if it be true , that because in the laying of an impost , custom , or e●…cise , the minor part of the civil s●…ffragans must yeeld to the major , that therefore a religion too must be chosen by the poll , and god compelled to accept of that , or nothing , which the majority of votes shall allot him , religion shall be sure in most parts of the world to be out-voted by atheism ; truth run down by errour , holiness proscribed by impiety : as socrates in his time was a fanatick , athanasius in his an heretick , and christ himself amongst the high-trotting scribes and pharisees a deceiver : with such maximes as these has christianity been prostituted to will and pleasure : regi aut civitati imperium habenti nihil injustum quod utile : to a prince , or commonwealth vested with soveraign power , nothing can be unjust , that is profitable . in summâ fortunâ , id aequius , quod validius ; in the highest estate , that is ever most just , that has obtained the upperhand . and the enquirer has approved himself a person qualified with carneades his excellencies , qui pro falso , non minus quam pro vero , vires eloquentiae potest intendere ; one that for time of need can strain his wit , to set a fair gloss upon a fowl matter , and with as little trouble can expose a truth , as impose an errour . chap. vii . wherein christian liberty consists ? the enquirers reasonings examined , and dissenters vindicated from that insinuation , that they pretend by their christian charter to be discharged from obedience to laws . it is a priviledge that has too much of absolute soveraingty in it for the opponent , to impose what state of the question he pleases upon the respondent : the enquirer has therefore got the poor non-conformists upon a sure lock , if he can oblige them to maintain , that christian liberty discharges them from obedience to laws . there are indeed some laws from whose obligation if christian liberty cannot discharge us , it can do very little : and there are other laws , from which if christian liberty should pretend to give a discharge , it would assume too much . to discharge from obedience , is to ambiguous a term to be put into this question . for. . christian liberty in some cases does not discharge us from obedience , but prevents the obligation : it does not dissolve the bond , but prevents the binding ; . christian liberty may discharge from a necessity of obedience ( in some cases ) which is the formal reason of subjection to a law , and yet not discharge from the lawfulness of doing that which is the material part of the law : if a law be made the matter whereof is things purely indifferent in their natures , and these things appropriated to the immediate service of god , christian liberty will not make it unlawful to do those things , but it will still maintain it's ground , that it 's lawful not to do them . the province of this liberty whereof we now treat lyes between those things which are necessary , and sinful ; as it is frequently pleaded about the magistrates power , since things forbidden cannot lawfully be done , nor things commanded , lawfully omitted ( in their proper seasons ) the magistrate must either have a power in these middle concerns , or he can have no legislative power at all : the same or some such thing i would affirm here ; whatever is sinful admits of no release , whatever is a duty admits of no indulgence , and therefore christian liberty must have it's appartment in these adiaphorous things , or be quite shut out of doors . now seeing the magistrates power lyes only in those things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , such as stand in a posture of neutrality , and side in neither with good nor evil ; and seeing also that christian liberty has for it's sphaere indifferent things , these two powers must needs strike fire , and their interests perpetually clash , unless some expedient may be found out to reconcile their seeming enterfeering motions . indifferent things may fall under a twofold consideration , either as they are applied to , or used in ordinary affairs of humane life ; or as they are appropriated to divine worship , and preferred to serve in religious affairs : in the former respect they come unquestionably under the magistrates cognizance , which our b. saviour has put beyond the die of controversy by his exemplary practise : . math. . where though he might have pleaded a peculiar priviledge , yet he rather chose to wave it , and recommend to us a singular pattern of due subjection : in this case then christian liberty ought not interpose . in the other consideration christian liberty puts in a claim , and this also our saviour has made indisputable by his example , who though he would freely submit to a tax of twenty pence , would not yeeld to their ceremony of washing hands , though it was not worth a farthing , when superstition had lifted it up above it's place . and yet as sacred things in their external exercise may come under the inspection of the civil powers , in order to the securing of publick peace , which is directly entrusted with him by the god of order and peace ; so may things in their own nature secular , come under the jurisdiction of christian liberty , when they shall be advanced above their pedegree , and made either parts of worship , or conditions to the enjoyment of communion therein . there are two sorts of persons who as they are enemies to all truth , so they are but back-friends to christian liberty ; some there are who have made it such an idol , that they have sacrificed things sacred and civil to it's deity : and given it such a boundless dominion , as if like quicksilver it were neither to be contained , s●…is aut ●…lienis terminis . against these i shall need to say the less , because every one has a stone to throw at , a cudgel to bestow upon them : others there are who have adorned it with a hogan mogan title , and yet have cut asunder the senews of it's authority , and with these it 's a meer name , which either with ech●… evaporates into air●… , or with narc●…ssus dissolves into water . but that there is such a charter our enquirer grants : i suppose he has found it amongst some ancient records , if it be not forfeited for want of renewing , yet that it has some considerable immunities and priviledges , he thus demonstrates . . from the gratitude we owe to him that purchased it : and therefore we may conclude that christians stand seized of a good and indeseazable estate therein , for it could hardly claim so much gratitude to be tenants at the will of m●…n ; . from the price it cost him ; which was no less then the precious blood of a redeemer ; and surely that which could not be purchased with silver and gold , should never be sold for the highest offer of things corruptible . . from that strict injunction . gal. . to stand fast in the liberty wherewith christ has made us free , and not to be entangled again with th●… yoke of bondage : from whence the apostle instructs us ; . that no force can wrest this sacred priviledge out of our hands without our own consent : 't is our sin if our charter be lost . . that we are prohibited to submit our necks to any religio●…s yoke , as well as that from whence the disciples were t●…en exempted ; for as good have the back broken with an old burthen as with a new one . this christian liberty being so considerable in the purchase , must be also of great usefulness in the practise ; which that we may the better understand and improve , i shall modestly give the reader my thoughts in the ensuing propositions . ( ) christian liberty consists not i●… a meer liberty of judgment : because . . this had been too mean 〈◊〉 purchase for the blood of christ , to procure us that which never was , never could be denied to any creature that had a judgment . for. . the ●…ews when under their most ●…le burdens , had ever a liberty to judge the things imposed , to be indifferent in their ●…wn natures , antecedent to the positive law of god . such a liberty the poor ●…ird in the cage may celebrate , and fancy herself a citize●… of the woods , when she 's confined within the grates of her little cloister : such a one the prizoner may flatter himself with ; and it reminds me what i observed th' other day pa●…ng in th●… street●… , this guilded inscription invited my eye : pray re●…ember the poor freemen , that are priz●…ners in 〈◊〉 : poor freemen indeed ( thought i ) who have only the freed●…m to talk how they have served an apprentiship with a master , and now must serve a double , perhaps a perpetual one , with the gaoler . . nay this would encrease the bondage , to be always harping upon our liberty in actu pri●… , and yet never tast the sweet of it in ac●… secundo . . this would render the christian church in a worse plight then that of the jews , who though they bore m●…re 〈◊〉 then we at home who breath in a freer aire , yet had this countervailing advantage , that god himself was the imposer ; it is no such bargain to exchange a divine for a humane yoke , though somewhat lighter : and if it be so , no thanks to those officious gentlemen , who would gratify magistrates with a power over all indifferent things , and therefore 't is but contingently that ours is not much more insupportable . ( ) christian liberty consists in something practical : that which tends to , and chiefly lyes in the using . . gal. . ye have been called unto liberty , only use not your liberty for an occasion to the flesh : where the caution that we do not misuse it , strongly implies that it must be used . and if it lay only in a freedom of judgment , the caution had run ; use it not at all : all external use had been an abuse of it . ( ) this liberty must hold in utramque parte●… , that we may act or not act , or determin●… this or that way , or it can be no liberty : and this will be granted by all those , who deny the will to be free , unless it have a powerful freedom towards both the terms : but as the self-determination of the will to one side prejudices not it 's liberty : so the determination of our christian liberty ( by our choise , guided by prudence and reason ) is no extinguishment of it's radical freedom . and as external compulsion , and forraign force put upon the will , would be a violation of it's liberty , so all force put upon this christian liberty , is an annihilation of it . ( ) he that has enstated me in this great priviledge , ha●… also commanded me to restrain my self in the exercise of it : and that ( ) by prudence , when the use of an indifferent thing would prejudice my neighbours spiritual good , my own salvation , or the glory of god : in these cases i must not plead my christian liberty to act. but exercise my christian liberty to forb●…ar what would oppose those commanding ends of all religion . qui f●…ciunt quicquid licet , hac 〈◊〉 d●…labuntur ut ●…iant quod non licet ; he that will always do all he may , shall easily slide into the doing of what he may not . the same thing may be usefully done at one time , which would sinfully be done a●… ano●…er : . cor. . . all things are lawful for me , but all things are not expedient . and omne quod non expedit , in quantum non expedit , non licet ; whatever may not be done with expedi●…cy , cannot be done lawfully . . god has commanded me to restrain my self in the exercise of my christian liberty by charity to my weak brother : to lay a stumbling block in the way of the weak , or blind , is a gross abuse of my christian liberty ; because no use of an indifferent thing ought to weigh against my neighbours spiritual w●…lfare : and it argues a very light esteem of a soul , when i am too proud to abridge my self in a trifle , rather then hazard his seduction into sin , and exposing to the wrath of god ; this rule the apostle was under : . cor. . . all things are lawful for me , but all things edify not ; and when they edify not , charity commands me to forbear them , in compassion to my brothers soul. ( ) though christian liberty may in some cases be restrained , yet can it not in any lawfully be resigned : he that has commanded me to moderate it by the rules of prudence and charity , has yet commanded me to stand fast in it : he that resigns his liberty in one case , by consequence gives it away in all ; for though he has not actually resigned in every case , yet has he virtually betray'd it , by yeelding in one , for there is the same reason of all the rest ; as an owner may forego the use , and yet reserve the right ; which right will reduce tho use too in season ; so may a christian wave his liberty in the use , still serving his right , that when opportunity shall invite , the use may attend , and wait upon the right . the main violation of christian liberty lyes in a fixed , stated , perpetual compulsion to do what god has permitted me to omit , or in a like fixed , stated prohibition to do what god has made lawful : for indeed this is that mainly which distinguishes between the restraint , and the infringment of this liberty : in the restraint and moderation of my liberty by prudence , charity , or whatever other methods god has commanded , though i suspend my act for a time , yet when those circumstances which render'd such suspension a duty , go of from their places , i reassume the free exercise of my liberty ; the stream for a while damm'd up , finds it's old sree channel , and slides along in it's wonted course : but if a law be made that i shall never act what i might lawfully do ; or that i shall always act , or always in such a revolution , and at such stated periods , it 's then an apparent encroachment upon my liberty : this the apostle notably teaches : . cor. . . all things are lawful for me , but i will not be brought under the power of any : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . to be brought under the power of a thing indifferent : or under the power of any person in a thing indifferent , is that great violation of this charter . for. . such resignation of my self to be restrained fixedly and statedly , is to subscribe , engage , and make an implicite vow and oath against all opportunities of using my liberty for the spiritual good of another , which providence may offer to me . gods providence by mustring together all due circumstances , is the great director when , and where to use , and employ my christian liberty : if then such concurring circumstances should command my forbearance of an act , to prevent the sin of my brother ; if now i have suffered my self to be determined the other way , that i will const●… act , and never forbear ; i have tyed my hands behind me sro●… plucking him out of the snare of sin , and perhaps the pit of hell. and this is an evil the utmost reach of whose mischievousness i cannot possibly foresee : for god may possibly place me in such a juncture of circumstances , that i might reasonably hope , might win souls to christ , and i have ●…acled my hands , and cannot act , or hung a padlock on my own mouth , and cannot speak ; or an advantage may be put into my hands to prevent the sinful scandal of another by my forbearance , and i am not ●…ijuris , but must act : . by such predetermination of my self in things indifferent , in submission to any man i do as much as in me by alter the nature of indifferent things . for things sinful can never be done ; duties must always be performed in due time , and place , and indifferent things should be indifferently used , as present circumstances invite prudence , and charity to determine : but when once they are predetermined , i can no more do an indifferent thing , then if it had been sinful ; or no more omit an indifferent act , then if it had been necessary . . by such a fixed predetermination of my liberty i ascribe more to man in his positive precepts , then to god in his affirmative moral precepts : for the acts of such commands may be suspended pro hic , & nunc , when they obstruct some great good , but in this case i must act uniformly , without respect to circumstances , let thousands be offended , stumbled , wounded in conscience , and prejudiced against religion . and in short , by such resignation of my liberty in is't exercise , i have reduced my self to that imaginary liberty of opinion , that dreaming freedom , which the lollards enjoyed in their tower , and the poor protest ants in bonners cole-hole . ( ) when christian charity commands me to forbear the use of the thing , which otherwise is within the charter of christian liberty to use ; and at the same time the christian magistrate shall command me to to practise that very thing by a fixed law ; i humbly conceive , that christian charity ought to restrain my liberty , not to act , rather then the commands of the magistrate enforce me to act , . because the restraint which charity puts upon me , will soon determine , and ●…pire , but the command of the magistrate is perpetual : . the restraint which charity puts upon me is internal , and so agreable to , and consistent with the greatest freedom and liberty , but the restraint , put upon me by the magistrate , is external , and compulsory , which comports not with my inward liberty : for if he deals meerly by his will , and authority , that suits not with my reason , and therefore has in it the nature of force ; but if the magistrate should deal by argument , then when a stronger appears to act according to his precept , then that drawn from the good of my neighbour by charity , christian liberty may be free , and yet obey : provided always that that argument be taken from the nature of the thing commanded , and not from the naked commands . . the weak christian for whose sake charity commands me to forbear acting , is one that cannot prevent his own weakness , his stumbling scruples , and aptness to be wounded ; but he that commands me to act , may prevent , recal , or suspend his own edict in that which in it's own nature is indifferent . and god has commanded me not to offend my weak brother by the use of indifferent things , but he has no where commanded the magistrate to impose indifferent things , which become not some way or other necessary . . it seems a most horrid thing to interpret scriptures at this rate : that i should be commanded to walk charitably , till i am commanded to walk uncharitably ; and forbidden to destroy him for whom christ dyed , by my indifferent things , till i am enjoyned to destroy him . not to wound weak consciences , till i am commanded to wound them . thus shall moral precepts be avoyded by humane positive laws , which cannot be superseded by the divine positive laws . and if one may be thus enervated , the whole d●…calogue has no firm station ; and thou shalt not make to thy self a graven image , may be eluded by this , till we are commanded by authority , and i am somewhat confident the foundation laid by the enquirer , will bear that superstructure . it is therefore a most approbrious , and invidious charge with which he begins this discourse . all that we have hetherto discoursed about the power of the magistrate , some think may be avoided by pleading the magna charta of christian liberty ] for though it may be pleaded against some power that may possibly be assumed , yet against none wherewith he stands ' endowed by the law of nature , or scripture ; nor indeed against any useful power for the attaining the great ends of government , publick peace , and tranquillity . the church of england in her avowed doctrine asserts , that christ has ordained in his church two sacraments , generally necessary to salvation ; now we conceive , that having a right as christians to all the ordinances of christ necessary to salvation , christianliberty may plead the enjoyment of all thoseordinances , upon those naked terms christ has off●…r'd them to mankind . this is our maegna charta ; and if any shall encumber that communion with new clogs , provisoes , restrictions , and limitations , we plead our petition of right , which if it be denyed us , our christian liberty is so far violated . nor do we deny the magistrate a power about our christian liberty ; if any shall turn this liberty into licenciousness , he may restrain them : nay he may restrain the liberty it self , where god has not praeengaged us to restrain it ; and he will eminently employ his power for christ , when he exerts it , to assert and vindicate to all his loyal subjects the free use of that great charter ; and if encroaching violence shall make a forcible entry upon that priviledge , whereof we are in quiet , and peaceable possession ; we shall complain of the force to him , who will remove it , and reinvest us in our christian freehold , whereof christ has made the purchase with his own blood . two things there are which the enquirer has lustily promised us , and therefore we may confidently expect from him : first , that he will give us the true notion , and secondly , the due extent of christian liberty : and he has freed his name pretty well , for first he has made it a meer notion , and then layd an extent upon it , that is , he has seized it into his own hands , upon pretence for the magistrates use . [ ] and first for his true notion ( for none cry stinking mackerel ) there are two things also very considerable : the liberality of his concessions , and the policy of his retractations . he makes us fair lange deeds , but with a secret power of revocation frustrates all ; so that when we come to cast up our accounts , we must say , with that bewildred clyent , in the comadian , when he had advised with his brace of advocates ; probèfecistis , incertior sum multò quam du●…m . ( ) for his concessions they are truly noble , and generous , and such as would heal us all . § . concession . p. . when the gospel was fully published , then the aforesaid enclosure is laid open , and all nations invited into the soci●…ty of the church upon equal terms , neither party being bound to those nice laws of moses , nor to any other but those plain , and reasonable ones contained in the gospel ! this is certainly the great year of iubilee ! and will he not deserve to be shut out for ever that shall refuse so free an invita●…ion ? is he a reasonable creature that refuses the plain , and reasonable terms of communion , contained in the gospel ? what a hideous monster would a schismatick be , did churches keep to these terms ? but his limitation retracts all this again : — and such other ( not contradictory to them ) as publick wisdom , peace , and charity , shall dictate , and recommend . now you have it ! thus the crane most courteously invited the few to dinner ; but fitted him with such terms of communion , that unless he could stretch his neck as long as hers , he shall have his belly full of nothing but hunger ; esurire licet , gustare non licet ! it minds me of the story of sanctius the king of arragon's brother , who marching against the saracens , diverted himself a while at rome ; the bountiful pope , who is always prodigal of what costs him nothing , causes him to be proclaimed , sanctius by the grace of god king of egypt , &c. the noyse of trumpets calls him to the belcony , and he askes what was the matter ? he was answered that his holiness had presented him with the entire kingdom of egypt : presently he commands his own trumpetters to go , and salute the pope in requital . caliph of baldach : thus has the enquirer gratified us with an empty concession , which by his retractation is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ! i shall not need to observe to the reader the egregious folly of such propositions . we are not bound to the laws of moses ( i. e. as terms of communion ) nor any other , but such other — that is , we had been free , but that we are in bondage . negatives are infinite ! and under that one word [ such other ] we may be pester'd with more then those nice laws of moses . for. . who can tell what publick wisdom may determine ? the publick wisdom of italy , and spain , has introduced such a lumber of those other terms , as hath eaten out almost all religion , with the divertisements of iudaical , paganical , whimsical constitutions : the publick wisdom of abassia has introduced circumcision it self , and no thanks to these principles , or the discourses of erastian novellists , that the case is better with us . , peace and charity require no other terms then those plain ones laid down in the gospel ; charity teaches us not to lay stumbling blocks in the way of those that would come towards the church ; peace requires us to unite upon christs own terms ; but the name of peace is often used to destroy the thing : so austin of old : eccl●…siae nomine armamini & contra ecclesiam dimicatis . thus are we gogled to part with our christian liberty for peace , when as the parting with the ceremonies would secure both peace , charity , and christian liberty . . it 's very childish to put the determination of those other terms of communion upon the tresviri , publick wisdom , peace and charity . for what if they accord not in their votes about the terms ? what if perhaps publick wisdom should clash with charity ? charity should say i will have no terms of communion that may exclude persons of honest hearts , though weaker intellectuals ; but publick wisdom should contend for some other intercalated conditions , which may render divine institutions more august and solemn ; . no publick wisdom can possibly determine upon those other terms ; in a way that shall secure the interests of charity , nor in what cases i am bound for her sake to restrain my self in the use of my christian liberty . for the prudent admeasurement between my christian liberty , and my charity to my christian neighbour , depends upon the view of the particular circumstances of time , place , persons , which cannot come under the prospect of publick wisdom : suppose a command were given forth from publick wisdom , that i should at such a time , and in such a place drive a coach with violenee down the high-way , and when i come to execute this command , i find multitudes of little children playing in that high-way ; the circumstance of these persons was not foreseen by publick wisdom ; must that therefore take place of my charity to destroy the lives of these little ones ? or my charity submit to publick wisdom , and fall pell mell in amongst them ? our saviour has commanded us not to offend any of his little ●…nes ; telling me that if i do , it were better that a milstone were hang'd about my neck , and i east into the sea : publick wisdom may perhaps command me to do something not sinful in it self , but when i come to obey , i find evidently it must scandalize them ; i refer it to charity , peace , and prudence to determine this case between them . § . . his second generous concession is . there lyes now no more bonds upon the consciences of christians , then did upon the ancient patriarches , saving those improvements our saviour has made upon the law of nature , and those few positive institutions of his expresly set down in the gospel : and what a blessed day were it with the christian world , if we might see this made good ! this would shut out of doors all those ianus articles , penn'd by wise reconcilers , to perswade the combating parties first to shake hands , and then to fall more suriously to cudgels . this would shut out of doors all humane impositions : forestalling our communion with the christian church . but now mark the retractation . — and that men obeying these are at liberty to conform to whatsoever common reason , equity , and publick authority shall impose . had he not turn'd wrong at the hedge corner , it should have follow'd thus . — and that men obeying these , are at liberty to enjoy all the priviledges of the gospel . but. . is not this a broad contradiction , that there 's no more bonds upon our consciences then upon the patriarchs , and yet we are bound to submit to those other terms , imposed by publick authority ? that is , we are at lib●…rty upon their terms , but only for one thing , that we are not at liberty upon their terms : and we may serve god as cheap as they , but that we must serve him at dearer rates : did abraham receive the modes of worshipping god from gerar , or the terms of serving god from egypt ? and yet those kings where he sojourned were friendly , and extended their royal bounty to him . . we are at liberty to conform to whatsoever common reason equity , and publick authority shall impose : at liberty 〈◊〉 conform ? but are we at liberty not to conform , if com●… reason oppose publick determinations ? it 's an idle thing 〈◊〉 put the determination of my liberty upon reason , equity and authority , unless we were assured they should always agree , which yet in some countries may not be till the secular games , or the greek calends . . this is in effect to say , that if we obey what christ commands us , we are at liberty to give away our liberty in all the rest : whereas our liberty was given us , not to give it away at a clap , but to dispense it in parcels , as weak christian●… have occasions to borrow of us . § . he concedes yet further , for liberality grows upon his good nature . our christian enfranchisement discharges us not only from a necessity of observing the law of moses , and the rites of iudaism , but further , and especially sets us at liberty to pursue our own reason . and can he pretend to be a rational creature , that will not submit to it's dictates ? if ever christian liberty have scope enough , it must be when it exspatiates in the fields of our own reason ; i am confident , the most straight-laced precisian cannot pretend he is pincht : but now the limitation ! — and to obey any laws of men that shall not contradict the express laws of the scriptures . i suppose there are very few or none in the world that form their laws expresly contrary to scripture laws , and yet they may make such as may as effectually frustrate the design of scripture laws , as if they had in terms point blanck contradicted them : a rare liberty this is ; and was the foundation of that gentlemans humour , who profess't he would preach in a fools coat , if the king should command him . for i do not remember that that contradicts any express law : amongst all the crafty devices of the devil to induce our grand-mother eve to eat of the tree of knowledge ; and of all the weak excuses of eve for eating of that tree , i wonder : this was not thought on , that it was not contrary to any express law of god. for. . gen. . god commanded the man saying , of every tree of the garden thou may'st freely eat : but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat : but it seems the devil had not learnt the sophistry to evade the precept , because the express law was given to the man , and not to the woman : there are consequ●…ntial laws which we have no liberty to contradict : that a minister contradi●…t not destroy not the ends of his ministry ; a christian the ends of his christianity : and it had been impossible that all negatives should be expressed , thou shalt not stand upon thy head : thou shalt not wear a fools coat : thou shalt not play at dice , or cards , in the worship of god : but thus he thinks he has made goodprovision for a safe conformity to the ceremonies , because it is not said ; thou shalt not use the cross in baptism ; thou shalt not use cream , oyl , spittle ; thou shalt not conjure out the devil . at which back-dore came in all the superstitious fopperies of rome . and with this passeport we may travel all over the world , from rome to the port , from thence amongst the tarrars , and chineses , and conform to all , for perhaps we shall not meet with one constitution that contradicts an express law of scripture : . concession . p. . i have a power in utrámque , and may do , or leave undone all those matters that are not defined in scripture . this indeed makes amends for all : for if it be part of my liberty to leave undone , what 's not defined there , as well as to do what is not so , i have no great reason to complain for want of liberty ; but yet there is a restriction behind that recals one half of this — according as publick laws , and the ends of all society , shall require . thus all along the reader will observe that he seems to retreat from his fort in the concession , and when we are mounted he springs his mine , and blows us all up ▪ with his retractation . the summ of this liberty then is thus much : we have a liberty in utramque , but you shall be determined to one : you may do which you will , provided you do which another commands you ; you may pursue your own reason , provided you do not pursue it , but the publick wisdom ; you are not tyed up to any other ins●…itutions , save only those plain ones of the gospel , provided you be obliged to such other as authority commands . this is such an ●…tramque , that i have been studying what should be the substantive to it , and i cannot imagine what , unless it be in utramque , either a good benefice , or a comfortable importance : i shall further offer these things . . christian liberty may be restrained by publick authority , and by private reason , but if publick authority restrain it one way , and my private reason would restrain it another , and the publick authority shall carry it against my own reason , not only christian , but humane liberty is violated . . the perpetual determining of my liberty to one part , that i may in no case act the other way , whether it be by an external compulsory power , or by my own superstition , is a violation and destruction of my christian liberty . . authority , peace , charity prevailing with my reason , to determine one way , will not violate christian liberty , for when the great ends of peace and charity shall cease to be obtained by such determination , it 's supposed also that reason will cease , and authority ought to cease , to continue such determination . . if peace , and charity shall cease to call for such a determination ad unum , and thereupon my reason cease to put me upon such a determination , and yet authority shall continue its determination ; my christian liberty will warrant me to follow my own reason . that which was the intolerable burthen of the jews , which they were not able to bear , our enquirer tells , p ▪ . was especially this : that the law of moses enjoyn'd a great number of little observances , which by their multitude were hard to be remembred , by their nicety difficult to be observed , and by their meer positive nature , and having no essential goodness in themselves , had less power upon the conscience of men , to awaken their care , and diligence about them ; and because it 's hard for the mind of man to attend to many things at once , especially if also the things in which his care and obedience is required , be such as are not enacted in his conscience , and when he can see no other reason of , or advantage by his obedience but meerly his obedience , therefore was that law called impossible : this , say the dissenters , would be their case , should they submit to what the enquirer pleads for , and there fore an infringment of their christian liberty . there is one text of scripture by which he will prove that his is the true notion of christian liberty : the apostle ( says he ) in several of his epistles , but especially that to the romans , en joyns the christians in their scruples about eating of certain meats , and in the conduct of themselves to consult charity towards their weak brethren , the peace of the church , and their own edification : to which purpose he advises us to see . rom. and chap. . now if the reader will be ruled by me , we will venture for one quarter of an hour to look into those places , let the danger be what it will , and i am confident we shall not find our christian liberty determinable by any outward power : v. . the apostle lays down the only true way of maintaining peace and love amongst christians under their various apprehensions , and various practises . ●…t not him that eateth , despise him that eateth not , and let not him that eateth not , judge him that eateth . and to this rule the canons of . did attend . can. . we recommending ( not commanding ) to the serious consideration of all good people , the doing reverence and obeissance at their coming in , and going out of the churches , chancels , and chappels in the practise , or omission of which rite they desire that the rule of charity , prescribed by the apostle , may be observed . that they which use this rite , despise not them which use is not , and that they who use is not , condemn not those that use it . which rule was it applied to all other matters of the like nature , would undoubtedly preserve what of love is left , and recover that measure of christian amity , which is lost . peace may be had under differing notions about indifferent things , and peace must be had under differing practises suitable to those differing notions , not by screwing up the weak to the latitude which the strong allows himself , nor by pulling down the strong to the narrow practises , wherein the weak are confined , but by the strong christians not despising the weak , and the weak christians not judging his more grown , and stronger brother ; v. . the apostle gives a reason against this uncharitable judgment : who art thou that judgest another mans servant : every christian as to his conscience , is alieni f●…ri : the servant of god : and if he be summon'd before a forreign tribunal , may plead , it is coram non iudice . to his own master be standeth or falleth : v. . let every man be fully perswaded in his own mind : the things before us may perhaps be indifferent in themselves , but yet if we have not a full assurance that they are so , we are bound to suspend our act . for as our rejoycing must be in our selves , and not in another , so must our satisfaction ; 't is not the clearness of a practise in anothers mind that will warrant my acting , i must be fully satisfied in my own mind . v. . the apostle lays down an excellent rule for the prudent restraint of our christian liberty . let us not therefore judge one another , but let every man judge this rather , that no man put a stumbling block , or an occasion to fall in his brothers way . if my christian liberty will warrant me to act . yet christian charity will teach me to moderate my self in the use of that liberty , when such acting would occasion the sin of him that is not so perswaded of the lawfulness of my fact ; which is to be limited to things of this nature whereof he treats , namely things indifferent , for if my brother will be offended at what god has made my duty , there 's no remedy , but that he lay aside his unjust offence , and not that i lay aside my necessary duty : v. . the apostle gives a reason of his former rule : if thy brother be grieved with thy meat , then walkest thou not charitably ; and much more if he be scandalized , and drawn into sin : is it not a most unchristian humour to insist so peremptorily upon doing , because in it self lawful ; when charity countermands that doing , and therefore 't is unlawful in the use . destroy not him with thy meat for whom christ dyed : surely thou hast little value for a soul redeemed by the blood of christ , if thou wilt for a sorry indifferent thing hazard its eternal damnation : our liberty to act must stand out of the way , when a brothers soul comes in place ; v. . let us follow the things that make for peace , and the things that may edify one another . here we have another rule for the restraint of our liberty in things indifferent : when the using my liberty would disturb the peace of the church . i must cease to act : for the strong may forbear what he judges lawful , and yet the weak cannot do what he judges sinful : and therefore to the strong he speaks thus : v. . hast thou faith ? have it to thy self before god : art thou perswaded such a thing is lawful , notwithstanding the many violent presumptions of others of it's sinfulness , keep thy judgment to thy self ; trouble not the church with thy orations , let thy disputing talent yeeld to the weak judgment of others . but to the weak he speaks thus . v. . he that doubteth is damned if he eat ; because he eateth not of faith , for whatsoever is not of faith is sin . all this while here 's not one syllable of restraining christian liberty by the authority of another , by outward force , and violence , all must be determined by a christians own prudence , as moved by the edification of anothers charity to his soul , and the peace of the community : not a word to consult my own secular advantage , and emolument ; not a letter that conscience , christian liberty , private wisdom , my own reason must be impressed to militate under the command and conduct of the publick wisdom , the publick reason , or the publick conscience . that is therefore the thing which he must bring about by sorr●…e lincks of consequences , some trains of deductions ; and he advances towards his conclusion , by winding staires , that we may be lead seni●… sine sensu to the top of his matter , to the height of his design without taking notice of our ascent , and the whole contrivance of this chapter lyes in the dexterous management of this one engine . ( ) his first postulatum is this : that christian liberty doth consist in a freedom in utramque : ( pray do not mistake him ) that is , that antecedently to the considerations of prudence , peace , and charity , it 's equally in the power of a christian to do or not to do , any , or all those things that are not expresly forbidden by the h. scriptures . very good ! then i will assume : but to love god with all my heart , and soul , and strength , is one of those things which god hath not expresly forbidden in the h. scripture : therefore antecedently to the considerations of prudence , peace and charity , it 's in the power of a christian to love , or not to love god with all his heart , and that christian liberty consists in this freedom in utramque . i am not so uncharitable as to think that the enquirer owns this conclusion , or that any principle he holds will inferr it : all i note it for is to evince to him , that he has worded his matters besides his onw intention , and that he intended really to have said : that antecedently to the considerations of prudence , & charity it 's equally in the power of a christian to do , or not to do , any or all those things that are not expresly forbidden by , nor contradict the express laws of the scriptures . and taking the words according to the presumption of his meaning , and not the letter , i say . . here 's something more then truth . that christian liberty gives us a power to do what is not expresly forbidden : many things are forbidden by consequence , which are not expresly forbidden . i pray shew me an express prohibition to recognize the popes supremacy . to subscribe the tridentine decrees ; and if this be part of the enquirers christian liberty , to do , what is not expresly forbidden , i hope he will not find himself aggrieved if we judge that he , and some others of the same latitude , are not at so irreconcileable a distance from rome , as they would be thought . . as all is not truth , so neither is this the whole truth : for christian liberty gives us a power-to do , or not do the things neither commanded , nor forbidden , not only antecedently to the considerations of prudence , peace , and charity , but also . . subsequently to those considerations , that is , assoon as ever those considerations shall ecase ; and . conco●…itantly with those considerations ; that is , further they shall reach : for though 〈◊〉 suspend my act in charity to my weak brother , yet am i impowred to act at the same time out of the cognizance of my weak brother ; and assoon as those considerations of peace and charity shall vanish , no other considerations separate from them , ought to keep the restraint on foot , but my liberty recovers its former lustre . . there is much ambiguity in the jumbling , the considerations of prudence , peace , and charity together : for the considerations of peace and charity are objective , such as i am to consider as the motives , and inducements to restrain my liberty : but the consideration of prudence is subjective : that is , prudence is that virtue which is to make a judgment , when , and in what cases , those two peace , and charity , are considerations suffieient to enforce such a restraint : so that , would we speak plain english , the matter amounts to no more then this : that antecedently to my prudent consideration of the concerns of peace , and charity , i may do , or not do , whatsoever is in it self indifferent : which truth will be too feeble a foundation to erect his intended superstructure upon . ( ) his second postulatum is this : that it is no infringment , but an exercise of this liberty , actually to be determined to that side towards which prudence , or charity , shall incline : though in the mean time the other side be in general as lawful as that : it would ill become me to teach him how to word his own conceptions , though i should rather have chosen to have express't my self ; not disjunctively . [ to that side towards which prudence or charity shall incline ] but rather conjunctively , [ prudence and charity ] or most properly [ prudence at the invitation of charity ] for prudence enclines me neither one way nor other further then as she is directed by the considerations of peace , and charity , the good of my self or neighbour ; nor can the interests of these two ever be divided . but i answer . . that it is no infringment of christian liberty for prudence , to determine upon my own act , as that i will not do an indifferent thing , when peace , and the spiritual good of my brother prohibit me ; because the scripture , which contains the charter of christian liberty , has also directed my prudence , thus , and in this case to restrain it : but yet ( which is the thing he drives at ) to be determined to one side by outward power , civil force , naked authority , or will ; when my own reason can see no prudence is such a determination , is an evident infringment of my liberty : so that to be determined to one side may be an infringment , when i am determined by violence , or menaces ; and yet to determine my self upon the considerations of charity , and peace , may be none ; for in the former case , i see no reason of my obedience , but my obedience ; but in the latter i am determined by my own election , upon rational grounds , becoming a rational creature . . though a prudential determination not to act , at the request or command of peace , and charity , when otherwise i might have acted , be no infringment of my radical liberty , yet it is a restraint of my liberty , which the enquirer calls , p. . a denying himself some part of his liberty , and therefore it seems improperly called an exercise of liberty : 't is indeed an exercise of my prudence , an exercise of my charity , but hardly an exercise of my liberty , further then as the will is the principle of such restraint , and determination . . though prudence ma●… teach me not to act , but to adhere to the side of charity ; yet prudence must not take her measures for not acting from such poor , low , selfish considerations , as the saving , or gaining those outward advantages to my self , which are the great idols of prudence salsely so called , which is no better then carnal policy , and sinful selfishness ; but from the interest of gods glory , the advancement of his gospel , and all this bondfide , for if prudence mistakes in her reckonings , an imaginary good end will not indemnify , and save her harmless . ( ) these two points thus gained ( as the enquirer fancies ) will give abundant foundation for a third to be inferred from them , viz. that whatsoever is so free to me , that i may do it , or not do it , according as i shall be inclined by the considerations of brotherly charity , and compassion , must of necessity be also , as free to me to obey the magistrate , and serve publick peace , and order in . let us but resolve this unwieldy proposition into it's distinct branches , and we shall need no more to expose it's nakedness . . what soever i may do at the command of charity , i may do at the command of authority in order to publick peace : now to furnish him with a minor : but i may practise the ceremonies at the command of charity , therefore i may practise them at the command of authority in order to publick peace . and now for the proof of the minor we are as far to seek as ever . this then is the quintessence of his reasonings , the utmost resort of all the wit , and learning of this chapter , which in other , and more advantagious words to his purpose he gives us thus : whatsoever i usay do in compassion to my brothers infirmity , surely that i may much more do in reverence to gods ordinance , the lawful magistrate , which is the point i have all this while drove at . but this conclusion however he seems cock-sure of it , will no ways follow from those premises . and the fallacy of it is so thin that it 's transparent to the weakest eye . in the first postulatum he allows a freedom to act in utramque , antecedently to the considerations of prudence , peace , and charity : in the second he asserts , that it 's no infringment of this liberty to be determined to one side by prudence , or charity . in his third , that we may ( and therefore may ) act or not act according as we shall be determined by authority . i shall summ up my answer in these particulars , and conclude . § . . though the lawful magistrate be gods ordinance , yet it remains a question und-cided , whether he be gods ordinance so far , and for this end , to deter●… of things indifferent , antecedently to the determination of gods providence , by gathering together all due circumstances which ought to determine the natural indifferency of the things aforesaid : many things are true secundum quid , which are not so simplicitèr . but if he shall judge it a prize worth all his labour to impose upon us with so broad a sophism , much good may his own dream do him . § . . though the lawful magistrate be gods ordinance , yet it 's a greater question still , whether he may determine my liberty in utramque , to the one side , when charity would determine it to the other : that is whether he has power to command me to act , when charity prohibits me to act , or make it my duty to move , when charity commands me to stand still . it 's true the concerns of a true and desirable peace , and charity are inseparable : nothing can advance the design of the former , but what does really subserve the interest of the latter : for so has the apostle conjoin'd them , . rom. . let us follow after the things that make for peace , and things wherewith we may edify one another . whatsoever advances the edification of my brother , advances also peace , unless imprudent men have made the terms of peace so desperate , that it 's not attainable , without the ruine of charity , which the enquirer confesses an essential part of our religion : but yet it 's possible that the command of a magistrate may oppose the concerns of charity , in which case , i think without offence i may say , he is none of gods ordinance to that end and purpose , nor has god given me any liberty to obey in that case : and as such a command would be a direct invasion of my christian liberty , so obedience to such a command would be a plain betraying of it : if therefore the freedom to act in utramque he determined to the one side , by charity . i have no freedom ( under that posicure of circumstances ) to submit to a determination to the other side at the command of authority . § . . as the lawful magistrate is gods ordinance , so is it an express ordinance of the same god , not to use my liberty in indifferent things , when by such use my brother is made weak , or stumbled , or offended . . rom. : and it 's a hard way of concluding ; that what one ordinance of god countermands , that i may do at the command of another . god has oftens superseded general commands by special ones , but i find not that he has instituted any general ordinance to suspend the duties of a special command . he that says , if thy brother be offended , eat not , has given no power to any to say ; though thy brother be offended , yet eat ! and if our own prudence upon the view of all circumstances shall determine that 't is my duty not to act at the prohibition of charity , notwithstanding a command to act by the magistrate , yet cannot this be interpreted irreverence to gods ordinance the lawful magistrate , unless we will suppose , that by shewing obedience to the one , we must be irrevertent to the other of gods ordinances . § . . christian liberty is committed to every christian to keep for the use and behoof of his weak brother , and not to resign at the meer pleasure of another : publick peace , and charity shall not need to weigh against one another , for their interests sweetly meet together , and kiss each other ; but when a command issuing out from will , pleasure , and bare power , shall come in composition with them , christian liberty has secured me , and prudence will counsel me , and charity enclines me , and god commands me what course to steer , which way to take . § . . the magistrate himself is gods ordinance , the great officer and minister of jesus christ to secure , and preserve the great charter of christian liberty sacred , and inviolate , against all the encroachments of those who would commit a rape upon a priviledge , in it self so innocent , to others so useful , and in the price payd for it so invaluably dear and precious . the summ of which is this much , that though charity and peace are always agreed when to use , when to restrain my liberty , yet if any power without reference to the concerns of these shall endeavour to restrain my liberty , by commanding me to do what reason and prudence shall inform me , are repugnant to those ends ; such command is a plain infringment of my liberty , and my obedience a plain abuse of my liberty , unless we can imagine . that it 's an exercise of my christian liberty to act against the great ends of christianity ; or an exercise of my freedom to run against the dictates of my judgment , and conscience . to conclude therefore , if this be that great thing , he has all this while drove at , i must tell him , he drives at too surious a rate for me to keep pace with him ; but thus would phaeton drive , though he set the world on fire ; such was iehue's career , though he sought himself more then god , and so have i seen your hair-brain'd drivers resolve to whistle out their whilstle , though the cart turn over . chap. viii . of a tender conscience ; what it is ? and it's priviledges . it was a malicious artifice of iulian the apostate , to erect the images of the heathen gods in the forum near his own statue , reducing hereby the christians to this dilemma either to seem to worship the images , whilst they reverenced his statue , or to contemn their soveraign , by refusing to bow before the images : into the same straights would the masters of ceremonies bring us : that either our loyalty must argue us into a conformity to their intentions : or non-conformity shall be an interpretative contempt of authority : thus has it ever been a succesful policy to twist their own concerns with those of majesty ▪ and royalty , that they may not be separated . and when they have laid up their little knacks amongst the sacred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in his majesties jewel-house , to touch one ceremony , is to steal the crown . conscience has ever hetherto maintained a good repute amongst the more civiliz'd part of mankind , and he has been adjudged a person unmeet for converse , that should once prostitute and debauch it ; it will therefore he expedient at least , first to represent it as an usurper , and then to execute it as a traytor . i pittied that innocent person who being fast asleep , and dreaming no harm , an assassinat puts into his hand the bloody knife wherewith he had committed an execrable murther : upon which violent presumption being apprehended he is arraign'd , condemn'd , executed . thus the jews found no better way to deliver our b. saviour over to the secular powers , then to misrepresent him as an enemy to temple , and caesar ; church , and state : and when they had arrayed him in a mock-robe , put a reed-sceptet in his hand , and a crown of thorns on his head , lead him out with triumph to be crucified . the enquirer being very sensible that this conscience has been an old enemy to the dear concerns of ceremony , tells us feelingly : that unless we can pull down this usurper , we must look for no magistracy ; and except we discover the weakness and absurdity of this pretension , all endeavours of restoring uniformity in the church will be vain , and useless . the master-piece of iezabels policy was to make naboth more then he desired to be , that he might be really less then he deserved to be . . king. . . proclaim a fast , and set naboth on high among the people ; and set two men sons of belial to bear false witness against him saying : thou didst blaspheme god and the king ; then carry him out , and stone him that he may dye . this conscience ( says he ) is thought to have not only a priviledge , but a kind of praerogative , to carry with it an exemption from all humane laws , but especially ecclesiastical ; it pretends to be gods peculiar , and exempt from any inferiour cognizance ; nay it looks like a dictatorian authority , and seems to be legibus soluta , this ( they would make us believe ) can limit the magistrate , null laws . forbid execution , and which is more , change the very nature of things , and make that good and holy , which was wicked , and rebellious before . this can canonize any opinion , legitimate any action , warrant any extravagancy in the person that owns it , whatsoever he thinks , can be no heresy ; and whatsoever he does , can be no sin : in which charge he has sprinkled here and there a word of truth , for he that would be believed in a great falshood , must be sure to intersperse some little verities . conscience is a most absolute monarch indeed , if it has all these praerogatives , but this is the great praerogatives of his own conscience , to bear salfe witness against his neighbour ; and ( if we may call things by their proper names ) by unworthy , scandalous insinuations , sinister reflexions , and false accusations against dissenters , to provoke the magistrate to proscribe them as out-laws . but i answer . § . . the highest immunities i ever met with , ascribed to conscience are in bishop saunderson , a most zealous stickler for ceremonies . serm. on . rom , . there cannot ( says he ) be imagined a higher contempt of god then for a man to despise the power of his own conscience , which is the highest under heaven , as being gods most immediate deputy for the ordering his life , and ways ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . could the heathen say . conscience is a god to all men ; which is somewhat a higher note , then the enquirer makes the dissenters sing : that it pretends to be gods peculiar , and is exempt from any inferiour cognizance . § . . it 's a most injurious charge , if applied to non-conformists , that conscience can alter the nature of things , make that good which was wicked , and rebellious before ; &c. all they say in this particular is with a●…es . thes. de consc : . tanto vis est conscientiae , ut actionem suâ naturâ mediam , efficiat bonam , vel malam ; & suâ naturâ bonam , reddat malam , quamvis illam quae suâ naturâ , mala est , non possit convertere in bonam . so great is the power of conscience , that it can make an action in it self indifferent , to become either good or evil ( viz. to the person ) and an action , in it's own nature good , to become evil . although it cannot make that which is in it's own nature evil , to become good . which powers are clearly ascribed to conscience by the apostle . . the power to make an indifferent , or good action in it self , to become evil to him that judgeth it to be evil , and yet will venture upon it : . rom. . to him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean , to him it is unclean . . it 's power to make an indifferent thing good : using it to gods glory , with all other due circumstances , is clear also from . tit. . unto the pure all things are pure . but that it can alter the nature of things ; that it can make an action evil in it self to become good , that it can null laws , are such powers , as no casuists have ever attributed to it , but those whose consciences carry an exemption from any necessity of speaking truth , when 't is in order to the advancement of their cause . but it is too common for men to charge others with the wickedness of their own thoughts , and hearts , and what was once their own old crime , to make other mens new accusations . § . . as to the power of conscience to excuse errour from heresy : we say , that there may be a material heresy , which is not formally so : what a man judges to be a real truth , though possibly it may be a dangerous errour ; yet unless there was prava dispositie as the cause of that errour , or something of obstinacy in the will in adhaering to it ; errour , and heterodoxy it is , but heresy it cannot be ; that is , it will not denominate the person a heretick : thus the learned and judicious mr. hales : heresy is an act of the will , not of the reason ; and is indeed a lye , not a mistake : for else how could that saying of austin be true . errare possum haereticus esse nolo . i may possibly mistake , but am resolved never to be an heretick : that is , by a tenacious and obstinate abetting any mistake after conviction . there are three things which we are obliged to wait upon our enquirer in . . whilst he entertains us with his discourse what conscience is . . what a tender conscience is . . what priviledges , or exemptions it may claim to ? [ ] what conscience is : now ( says he ) if men loved plain english , and to understand what they say , it is plainly this , and no more : a man 's own mind , or understanding , under the distinct consideration of reflecting upon himself , his own actions , and duty . he may call this plain english , if he pleases , define , and describe his own conscience how he will , but we poor people are edified much what as with the rhemists parasceve , azymes , and paraclete ; who seeing there was no remedy but they must translate , were resolved that few should be the wiser for the translation . there are somethings that look oddly in this description . § . . it seems very improper to assign the mind or understanding for the genus of conscience . for conscience is not a faculty , but an act seated in a faculty ; or the exercise of the faculty of the understanding , putting the will upon operation : thus that fore-mentioned bishop . ibid. the will of man ( which is the fountain whence all our actions immediately flow ) should conform it self to the judgment of the practique understanding , as to it 's immediate rule , and yeeld it self to be guided by it ; and indeed the office of conscience is not only to judge what is good or evil , according to those notices it has of god from the light of nature , and scripture , nor only to take cognizance whether the will has obey'd those dictates of the practique understanding , but to be a monitor and counsellor , nay a commander to the will to act according to it's discoveries of good or evil . this is good , therefore i charge thee to do it : and this is evil , therefore i command thee to avoid it . § . . it seems very defective , in that it tells us of the mind reflecting upon actions , and yet mentions not with reference to whose authority it is so pragmatical , as to meddle with those actions : whereas all that conscience dictates as a counsellour ; ●…ll that conscience determines as a iudge , is in the name of the supream and soveraign iehovah . . jam. . there 's one law-giver who is able to save , and to destroy , and who are thou that judgest another ? . rom. . who art thou that judgest another mans servant ; to his own master he standeth or falleth . § . . his description seems very lame , in that he makes the whole employment of conscience to be reflection : whereas 't is in it's commission to dictate before the fact , as well as to reflect upon the fact . it teaches what we ought to do , as well as enquires and examines whether we have done well or no : and such a faiture will expose us to great mistakes in this case ; as that we are not bound to examine the lawfulness of our work before we act ; but to rush headlong upon the precipices of dubious and suspected things , and examine them afterwards at leasure . whereas the apostle condemns the gentiles , especially that they knew before such and such things to be evil , and worthy of death , and yet not only did those things , but took pleasure in those that did them . rom. . of such a conscience as this he will certainly make a proportionable emprovement : for scarcely ( says he ) any man that says his conscience is incontrollable will say , his own opinion or reason is the ultimate rule of his actions . truly i believe so , nor any man neither that says his conscience is controllable , except he be out of his senses : for i would sainbe in formed what an ultimate rule signifies , with him that pretends to speak plain english , to them that understand nothing else ? i have heard of a subordinate and ultimate end : and i have heard also of a near , and a remote rule , but an ultimate rule like that monster which was like a horse , and yet not a horse , is like sense , but in truth very non-sense . all that we affirm of conscience as 't is a rule , is no more but this : that it is the next , and immediate guide , and director of our actions ; and that the mind of god , however notified to us , is the next and immediate governour , or director of conscience ; that as nothing can possibly intervene between the command of conscience - , and the will and executive power in man ; so nothing can possibly interpose between the authority of god and the conscience ; and both these are expresly owned by the above mentioned learned person . dr. s. . that god is the immediate controller of conscience by his word , and will revealed to us . conscience ( says he ) is gods most immediate deputy , for the ordering the life , and ways of men . . that conscience is the immediate rule of our actions ; the will of man ( says he ) should conform it self to the judgment of the practique understanding , as to it 's proper , and immediate rule . and such were once the notions of that great man , when he is professedly pleading the cause of conformity , which had never been waved but that wise men are aware , the cause not to be tenable , if conscience be not made a piece of non-sense , whose nature and office are therefore inconsiderable , because unintelligible . but some wise men or other it seems have formed a parcel of objections ( or else he has formed them to their hands ) which h●… will answer , and then suppose himself victorious . objection , allowing conscience to be nothing but the mind of man , yet even so it 's subject to no humane laws : for as much as no man can force me to think otherwise then i do , nor compel me to be of his opinion , in the inward sence of my mind ; my mind therefore or conscience is only obnoxious to god. to which he replies . [ the answer to this is easy ! for since my mind is not insallible : i may and must have something to guide my mind , and that is it which we call law. ] to which i rejoin . that this is an easy , but not a satisfactory answer . for. . the remedy is not proportionable to the disease : for if the reason why my mind must have something else to guide it , be , because the mind is not infallible : the same reason will informe us to have recourse to a better guide then that which he calls law , because humane laws are not infallible : it will mend the matter but sorrily to take me of from one fallible guide , and send me to another . . since the mind of man is thus fallible , and there is a necessity that it have something else to guide it in it's determinations , god has provided an infallible directory in his word , in all things concerning his immediate worship , and that is it which we call the law of god. . but if the mind of man be fallible in it's directions , as well as humane laws , it 's safer to be guided by that which god has made my next director though fallible , then by that which being also fallible , he has not made so . god has constituted conscience the next , and immediate counsellour to my will , the next , and immediate deputy under himself , and therefore to erre with a humane canon , against the voice of conscience , is to despise and contemn the authority of god in whose name it speaks ; whereas to erre with my conscience , against an humane decrre , is but a part of that frailty , to which all imperfect creatures are obnoxious . . nor is it universally true what he says : that the law ( of man ) morally obliges ( to follow it's directions ) that is , it will be my sin , if i do not : for it may be my sin , if i do obey in some cases ; as well as my sin , if i do not in others ; at least the apostles were of this opinion . . act. . whether it be right in the sight of god to hearken to you more then god judge ye . whatever inconveniences therefore shall ●…rise , from an absolute resignation either to the laws of men , or to our own minds directed by natural light , we have the infallible word of god , which is a light to our feet , and a lamp to our paths , for the guidance of our particular actions . . object : but we are beund to obey the dictates of our mind , or conscience before any law , or command of any humane authority , if they happen to interfere . he replies . it 's true in things notoriously , and plainly evil . — but where those ( the law of god , or reason ) are silent , there the law of the magistrate is the immediate rule of my conscience , and then to contradict that , is to affront the publick tribunal , with a private consistory , &c. to which i rejoin . § . that he has given away his whole cause by this one concession . that a higher law of god or reasen may make a nullity in the law of the magistrate : for if reason in any case may make such a nullity : it must either be the publick reason , or the private reason : if the former : then it amounts to no more then this goodly maxime , that the magistrates reason may make a nullity in his law. but if it be the latter : that private reason may make such a nullity , then conscience guided , and directed by that reason cannot transgress the law , because reason has already disannulled it , as to that particular person : and if it be said , that it 's only in things notoriously evil , that reason has this soveraignty to make a nullity in the law ; it 's easily answered , that whatever my reason judges evil , is notoriously evil as to me , for i have no way to make out the notoriety of the evil of a thing , but my reason informing it self from gods word . § . . we are bound to obey the dictates of our own consciences , in not acting against them in those things which only appear notoriously evil ; and god himself has tyed up conscience from taking one step under those apprehensions . . rom. . to him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean , to him it is unclean . and the reasons are very evident . . because bonum oritur ex integris , malum è quolibet defectu . the want of that single circumstance of the satisfaction of my iudgment that it is lawful makes the action sin . . he that has a prepared mind to act contrary to what he takes to be the law of god , would act accordingly , if it really were the law of god. as he that dares to strike a private person , whom he takes for a magistrate , would no doubt have struck him though he had been a magistrate : every man takes the voice of conscience to be the voice of god , and he that will disobey that dictate which he supposes the voice of god , will disobey that dictate which really proves to be his voice . . the goodness , or evil of an action is much estimated by the will of the deer . he that judges an action evil , and yet will do it ; god sees that though the thing was not evil , yet he had an evil will. the action was not materially evil , but it was so interpretativè . i must once more quote the same learned person : if a man ( says he ) be fully perswaded in his conscience , that a thing is unlawful , which yet in truth is not so , the thing by him so judged unlawful cannot be done without sin . even an erroneous conscience bindeth thus far , that a man cannot go against it , and be guiltless ; because his practise should then run cross to his judgment , and so the thing could not be done in faith : for if his reason judge the thing to be evil , and yet he will do it , it argueth manifestly , that he hath a will to do evil , and so becometh a transgressour of gods general law , which bindeth all men to eschew all evil . § . . nor is this to affront the publick tribunal with a private consistory , nor set up my own opinion against gods institution : for it's gods own institution , . rom. . eet every man be fully perswaded in his own mind . . objection : but if after all my consideration of the reason of publick laws , i cannot satisfy my self of the lawfulness of the thing commanded , i must then govern my self by my conscience , and not by the law. he replies . if the unlawfulness of the thing commanded is not as plain , and visible , as the command of god for obeying authority , my opinion , or conscience , will be no excuse to me ; because i forsake a certain rule , to follow an uncertain . to which i rejoin : that he has made a very unaequal comparison : viz. between the unlawfulness of the particular thing ; and the general command of obeying : whereas the comparison ought to have been between ; either gods general command not to act against my conscien ; and his general command to obey authority ; or else between the unlawfulness of that particular action , and gods command to obey in that particular : it is plain in the general , that i ought to obey authority . and it 's as plain in the general , that i ought not to sin against the dictate of my conscience . it may be doubtful , and not so plain , that this particular action is sinful ; but then it 's doubtful , and no more plain , that in this case 't is my duty to obey . compare the general law of obeying the laws , with the general law of not sinning against my conscience , and it 's much more plain , visible , or what he pleases , that i ought not to sin against my conscience , then that i ought to obey the laws of humane appointment ; for that i ought to obey the latter admits of many exceptions , but that i ought not to act against the former admits of none . and if conscience may deceive me in a particular instance ; so also may the law deceive me in the particular command . this will more evidently appear , if we take the ranverse of the case , thus : if the lawfulness of the thing commanded by the law , be not as plain and visible , as the command of god not to act against conscience , no command of the magistrate will excuse me , because i forsake a certain rule , to follow an uncertain . god commands me to obey authority the same god commands me not to sin against my light . in some cases i am not bound to obey authority ; but in no case am i allow'd to act against my light : it 's very clear that the magistrate has a power to command , but not so clear that he has a power to determine things indifferent , and make those determinations the conditions of my enjoying the means of salvation : but it 's very certain , that conscientia errenea ligat , licet non obligat , an erroneous conscience though it oblige me not to act against what god has made a duty ; yet it binds me up from ever acting against it's convictions ; and therefore it 's safest to adhaere to the clearer side , and not to act against the decission of conscience , in compliance with a command which it 's uncertain whether it oblige or no. and in a word , if this way of our enquirers reasoning be solid ; then it will not excuse a protestant from sin , who refuses to how before an image when the magistrate commands it ; because it 's plain in the general , that we ought to obey authority , but not so plain that it 's sinful to how before an image , if things disputable be less plain then indisputable . . objection : but if after all endeavours of satisfying my self to obey the humane law , yet the thing commanded by the magistrate ( however innocent in it self ) seems to be as plainly unlawful , as obedience is plainly a duty ; what now ? he replies , ) this case is pityable , and will make some abatement of the sin of disobedience , but it doth not totally excuse it , much less make a nullity in the law. to which i rejoin . that he has now made a very noddy of his objector . that can suppose the thing commanded innocent in it self . and yet to seem to him as plainly unlawful as obedience is a duty : but to the thing . . he has put the case very unfaithfully : for we suppose the things controverted , though lawful in their abstracted natures , ( and what actions are not so ? ) yet to be really unlawful in their use , upon a just ballancing of all circumstances : for we conceive many things lawful out of worship , which in worship are not so : many things lawful when used without offence , which are otherwise when they give offence to the weak : many things lawful when conscience is satisfied , which are not so under it 's real dissatisfactions ; many things lawful to be used , under the power of which 't is sinful to be brought : . we say not that conscience makes a nullity in the law , but that under present circumstances it will not suffer us to act : but if we had said so , we might perhaps have drunk in the delusion from his own words so lately quoted . some higher law of god , or reason , by which my conscience is guided , hath in that case made a nullity in the law of the magistrate . . his reason : because s●…n is a transgression of the law. applied to the law of god is true ; but when applied to the law of man , is not of universal truth : sor neither is the transgression of a humane law always a s●…n : nor at any time is it the formal reason of sin , but because such transgression of the humane law , transgresses some particular law of god , or at least that general law , to obey where we ought to do . [ ] his second enquiry is what is a tender conscience ? and here that nothing sacred might escap●… the pe●…ulancy of priviledged drolery , he is in a rapture of facetiousness , and makes fine spout with poor tender conscience . when iosiah that great pattern of all royal virtues , the great instance of ripe grace in green years had heard the book of the law read , with those dreadful comminations thundred out against prevarication in that holy law , and had duly consider'd how his people had incurred the menaces by violating the praecepts thereof , he rent his cloaths , and went to enquire of the lord. who gives him this answer : because thy heart was tender , and thou hast humbled thy self , i also have heard thee , saith the lord , . kin. . . wisdom it self has taught us : that the man is happy that feareth always ; but he that hardens himself , shall fall into mischief . . prov. . they that know the world is thick sown with snares , and those snares baited with suitable temptations , will see reason to walk very cautelously towards the world , and to maintain a godly jealousy over themselves , least they be surprized with the deceitfulness of sin : but there are a daring sort of jolly adventurers , that fear no colours ; that will come up to the mouth of a canon , that neither regard gods threatnings , or warnings , the devils stratagems , or the ambuscadoes of the flesh , but being fool-hardy , make a mock of sin , and all preciseness about it ; who think it a piece of gallantry to dance on the brink of that praecipice , that hangs over the bottomless pit , and can find no fitter essays of their valour , and skill , then how to come within a hairs-breadth of hell , and yet not tumble in . and these are the men that fall into mischief . this tenderness of heart being of so great price in the sight of god , we must expect it will not escape long the severe lashes of virulent spirits ; but it will be difficult to persecute a thing so innocent before it be exposed , and therefore they advise themselves from amnon's example , who first defiled , and then reviled his sister tamar . a tender conscience ( saith this compassionate enquirer ) is nothing but either an ignorant or uninstructed mind , or a sickly , melancholy , and superstitious understanding , which he might more concisely have described without this vast expense of words . a tender conscienced person is one that has a soft place in 's head : or had he but spoke in plain english , as he did in the definition of conscience . he is a most profound coxcomb . they who preach this doctrine to the world , might with the same labour , and almost equal honesty , preach god out of the world : for whoever would dethrone god from the heart , discovers but an impotent ambition to pluck him down from his throne in heaven : but when they have run through all their vain methods to excusse his soveraignty , god will maintain to himself an authority in the conscience . nay this will destroy the magistrates power also in a while , for whose sake the contrivance is pretended ; for when subjects are once instructed so far to debauch conscience , that though we judge an action sinful , yet we may do it , it will lead to this easy inference , that though we judge the magistrates commands lawful , yet we may disobey them : for as we say , when men have got a hole in their hearts , one concern will drop through after another without regret . when the italians would call any one fool with an emphasis , they say he is a christian ! hence forwards when the devil would shame his modester servants from cowardise in sinning , he has a nickname for them , these are your men of tender consciences ! and that which has been a holy engine of gods wisdom to secure from sin , shall now become the devils machine to flish raw novices in it . that a tender conscience is a good conscience , has been hetherto presumed by all our divines ; and i never met with a collect in the liturgy of any church that taught us to pray from the great plague of a tender conscience , good lord deliver us ? which yet if it be so great a judgment , we may presume they would have done . but the enquirer is of another judgment , and perhaps may proselite us with his reasons . . reason . tenderness cannot be taken in the same latitude with a good conscience , every good man has such a tenderness as to be affraid of sin , and to decline the occasions of it : if this argument has any strength in it , it must be because every good man is a fool : but why i pray cannot a good , and a tender conscience meet in every good man ? oh the reason is this , it would be too arrogant and presumptuous for those that plead the tenderness of their consciences to suppose themselves the only men that make conscience of what they do . but if a tender conscience be a good conscience , it will be nevertheless good , because some unjustly pretend to it , or others unjustly revile it . dissenters do not suppose themselves the only men that make a conscience of what they do ; it suffices them to enjoy the peace of their own without daring to judge other mens consciences . . reason : because ( says he ) then the contrary to it must be a brawny conscience . well! what hurt is there in that ? soft and hard ; tender , and call●…us ; sensible and brawny , have been opposed before this dispute began : a heart of stone is opposed to a heart of flesh , and would it not be a way of reasoning well-becoming a rhethorician , to argue , a heart of flesh cannot possibly be a good heart , the contrary to it then will be a stony heart . the whole argument stands thus : if a tender conscience be a good conscience , then the contrary to it must be a brawny or hard conscience ; now assume . but a brawny or hard conscience cannot be contrary to a tender conscience , ergo ▪ &c. he that has nothing else to do with his time , let him abuse it in answering such syllogisms . ay! but ( says he ) this would be too contumelious to reproach all men but themselves with : very admirable ! as if the no●…ions of words , or things were to be taken from mens rash applications of them to themselves or others . a tender conscience would be a good conscience , though the enquirer had the confidence to monopolize all tenderness to himself : and a brawny conscience will be an evil one , though he should be so contumelious as to asperse all others but himself with it : this way of arguing is a shooe that will fit any mans foot , serve any mans occasions , as will as the owners . a tender conscience cannot be an ignorant mind , for it would be too presumptuous and arrogant for those that reproach it to account themselves the only wise men on earth : and then the contrary to it must be an inlightned mind ; and it would be too contumelious to reproach all the world for fools but their own precious selves . use , is the grand master of words : he that will speak as others sp●…ak , must either understand as they do , or be content to be misunderstood : a tender conscience amongst us of the populace , is conscience under that office of warning us of the danger of sin ; it advises us to take the safer side in things dubious , and rather avoid the smoak for fear of the fire , then with empedocles rush into the smoak and find our ruine . but the best of our entertainment is yet behind : for he will now read a very learned lecture to this tender conscience : which in my weak judgment is monstrously absurd , seeing he supposes his auditors to be all fools . men of ignorant minds , or sickly understandings : the business lyes here , how a tender conscience must be qualified , that it may enjoy it's priviledges ? § . . he that pleads for compassion upon the account of his weakness ( that is his tenderness ) must be so ingenious as to submit himself to instruction : and if the enquirer must be the instructer ; he deserves to wear a fools coat for his pains , for i would gladly learn that as the first lecture ; what is the nice , and critical difference between a tender , and a compassionate enquirer ? there are two points they say of wisdom , the first that we be able to advise our selves , the second , that being conscious of our own inability , we be willing to submit to the advise of others , wiser then our selves : but this tender conscience being such a widgeon , it cannot be expected he should be guilty of such ingenuity . § . . he that pretends to tenderness of conscience , must make good his claim by being uniformly consciencious . the plain meaning whereof is this : that he that pretends to be a fool , must ●…qually maintain the humour , and carry on the allegory of folly all the days of his life ; otherwise ( as he wisely observes ) it will be but pharisaism ! to prove which deep point he instances in david ; whose heart smote him when he cut of the skirt of sauls garment , but it would never have been called tenderness of conscience in david , if at another time he should have attempted the life of saul . and what he says is very true , if we take tenderness of conscience in it's true and proper acceptation ; but nothing more ridiculous , nay more dangerous , should we according to his new notion , take a tender conscience for a weak understanding . i ask ! did davids heart smite him when he cut of sauls garment ? yes ! but was it out of tenderness of conscience that it smote him ? why yes ! the enquir●…r has just now told you so , are you deaf ? ay! but is a tender conscience nothing but an ignorant or uninstructed mind , a sickly melancholy , or superstitious understanding ? why should you be so importunate ? it can be nothing else : the enquirer has defined it so in plain english : why then this is in plain english the doctrine under which his auditors must be prepared for their priviledges . that david being a tender hearted , that is , a tender headed person , through the tenderness , that is , the slenderness of his crazed intellectuals , coming under the distinct consideration of reflecting upon his own action , in a melancholy , and superstitious qualme rebuked himself for cutting of the skirt of sauls garment . but by his good favour this is too severe a censure of that holy act of david , whose tender conscience ( after some surprizal ) being recovered , and awakened , sever●…ly schooled him that he durst make so near an approach to the destroying , by the touching of the lords annointed . but such glosses he might find in some old pair of bandeleers — priscae vestigia fraudis . thus the jews out of ignorance crucified christ. . act. . but when conscience was well informed , and sprinkled with that blood which they had once shed ; when grace had applied that to their hearts , which they rashly imprecated upon their heads , they were pricked in their consciences , and cried out men , and brethren what shall we do ? it was ignorance that lead to that murder , but a conscience made tender , and reflecting upon their own act , which caused them to repent of , and turn from their sin . the rule indeed is a most excellent one in it self , though wickedly applied in this particular ; he that claims the priviledges of a tender conscience , must make good his claim by being uniformly consciencious . for he that is tender of eating a black-pudding , and yet not tender of the blood of the saints : he that scruples the omission of a ceremony , though his weak brother perish by it , yet never scruples to bear false witness , nor to murder the reputation of another ; he that is tender of the ceremonial law of man , and yet makes no bonds of the moral law of god : must not be allowed to plead this priviledge ; though any one may be allowed the priviledge of our authors tender conscience , which is only this : that if he holds any land in capite , he shall be begg'd for a fool. § . . he that is truly tender , if he cannot do all that is commanded , yet will do all he can . he that cannot bow at the name of iesus , yet perhaps can stand up at the creed . but what now if this instance of his tenderness be impertinent ? i question whether bowing at the naming of iesus be commanded ! however dissenters are excused by this reason from conforming to what they can , unless it be matter of their ambition to be admitted in the colledg of all fools . to do all we can to no purpose , is small encouragement to the attempt : we are denied communion with the church in all ordinances , unless we come up to all the terms of communion , now since it 's our apparent duty to live in the practise of all christs institutions , if we cannot enjoy them in one place upon christs terms , his command , and tenderness to our own souls oblige us to seek out , where we may enjoy them better cheap . § . . he that cannot perform all that the laws require of him , may forbe●… judging them that do , the man of a tender conscience finds it enough to judge his own actions . this is a most excellent rule ; and dissenters desire no more liberty . let them but judge of their own actions , and they leave all others to stand , or fall to their own masters . and it seems hard , if they may not be indulged this priviledge , since the silliest creature that ever was is presumed to have so much wit , as to come out of a sh●…wr of rain , rather then to be wet to the skin . § . . the truly tender conscience ( that is , the fool all this while ) will freely part with money , nay of all the men in the world , there 's none so free as he , for a fool and his money are soon parted . well! but if he cannot conform to the laws , he can pay the penalty . i promise you that 's a great question , whether he can or no. where nothing's to be had , the king must lose his right . but if this be the grand qualification of a tender conscience to be made a begger , i wonder what his priviledge can be , unless it be to succeed old clause , the king of beggers . for his satisfaction ; if the penalty be moderate , such as i can pay without ruine to my self and family , though i be not satisfyed in the justice of it , yet herein i may lawfully depart from my own right , and shall esteem it a great mercy if my coyn may compound for my conscience . [ ] readers you have heard the qualifications of a tender conscience , be but now masters of so much patience as to sit out the priviledges ; and that last scene will make you ample satisfaction . ( ●… ) every private christian is bound in charity , and compassion towards such a man , to deny himself of some part of his liberty to gain him ; that is , in those things that are matter of no law : where you have first a bit , and then a knock ; or the fair concession , and the wary revocation . § . . the conc●…ssion ; every private christian is bound in charity to such a man , to part with some of his liberty to gain him : wherein there are several things to be advised upon . . the subject of the proposition . every private person . . the nature of the obligation . bound in charity , and compassion . . the matter of the duty . to deny himself of some part of his liberty . . the end to gain him . in few or none of which particulars can i arrive at any clear satisfaction . . ] every private person . and are not all publick persons bound by the law of god to walk charitably ? not to destroy souls ? i doubt we forget that god is here the legislator , with whom is no respect of persons . charity is the fulfilling of the moral law : and if any person be so publick as not to be obliged by it , we must leave those commands , thou shalt do no murther ; thou shalt not commit adultery to exercise the small fry , and hamper the vulgar . the apostle paul was a publick person , and one as well qualified to discern , and impose things indifferent , as any that have made the fairest pretences that way , and yet he professes with more then ordinary servency . . cor. . . that he will eat no flesh whilst the world stands , least he should make his brother to offend . and who shall venture to make that the matter of an ecclesiastical canon , which the apostle durst not venture to practise ? they that assume a greater authority , had need give greater proof of greater charity . and yet greater was the importance of flesh to the health and life of paul , then a ceremo●… can possibly be to the peace of the church , for. . flesh is disjunctively necessary to the health , and life of man , that is , either flesh or some other food ; but neither this , nor that , humane ceremony is necessary , either to the glory of god , the peace of the church , or decency , and order in the worship . the church has served god decently , lived peaceably , and glorified god eminently without them , and in his time may do so again . . flesh was a thing perfectly indifferent in it self , and owned so by all that were well instructed in their manumission from the mosaical servitude ; but the more we are faithfully instructed in the doctrine of christian liberty , the more are we satisfied , that we are at liberty from all other ceremonies of men as well as from those that were once of divine institution . ] bound in compassion , and charity . i am not well satisfied that a debt of meer compassion , or free charity is all we owe our brother in this case . however ; we owe our god a debt of iustice ; it 's he that says , destroy not him with thy m●…at for whom christ dyed . . rom. . and that there is no comparison between the law that enjoins ceremonies , and that law that commands us not to offend our brother , i thus prove : . the law that forbids scandal , is negative : but the law that commands ceremonies , is but affirmative . now gods own affirmative precepts may have their outward acts suspended in some cases for some time ; but negatives admit of no relaxation ; he that says thou shalt not do , says , thou shalt never do ; unless dispensed with by a power aequal to his that gave the prohibition . . the command of not scandalizing is purely moral , the heart , and life of the sixth commandement ; for he that says thou shalt not kill , primarily intends i shall not destroy the soul : but the command of ceremonies but positive ; and positives ought to give place to morals : if there be any truth in that doctrine of the enquirers : that godlays little stress upon circumstantials : that his own positive laws give place to the moral law : much more ought mans ceremonial law give place to gods moral law : thou shalt not kill . . the command of not giving offence , because moral , is therefore perpetual , but the command of ceremonies temporary , and may be momentany , for the church of england , . art. asserts a power in every national church , not only to ordain , but to change , and abolish ceremonies . . the command of not scandalizing the weak , not destroying the soul , is in materiâ necessar●… , the thing it self is good in it self , and for it self , though no positive command had interposed in the case ; but ceremonies have no other goodness , but what is breath'd into them by the breath of man , which if it were measured by the good effects , would be found very little . . the command not to offend , is unquestionably obligatory , but that command for ceremonies is at best questionable whether it be so much as lawful . . the command to avoid offence , has a direct and natural tendency to beget and preserve amity and unity amongst christians ; but the command of ceremonies apparently has occasion'd divisions between protestants , and papists , between protestants themselves , between those of the same nations , and all humane terms of church-communion necessarily produce the same bitter fruit . . the power of ordering the smallest matter in the church , must conform to the soveraign end of edification . . cor. . . — the power which the lord hath given me for edification , and not destruction ; but no power may suspend my duty of pleasing my brother to his edification . . supposing the worst : that it 's only a debt of charity which my brother may challenge of me , not to scandalize him ; and a debt of justice to obey the magistrate in this very case , yet the mini●…s of justice ought to vail to the magnalia of charity : as the command of a father , in lower instances , ought to yeeld to the preservation of my neighbours life . ] some would except against the matter of his concession : [ to deny himself in some part of his liberty ] what a small some that may be none knows : perhaps there 's no part of his liberty , which that duty may not command . ] i except lastly against his propounded end : to please and gain him : as not adaequal to that which the command has in it's eye . to scandalize , or give offence , may be taken either in a primary sense , and so it denotes a culpable giving occasion to a brother to sin , or in a lower and secondary sense , for the angering , and displeasing of a brother . this distinction well observed would unravel much confusion , which pesters our discourses . . if we compare the displeasing of a private person , with that of a publick , the latter is more sinful , and much more dangerous , for the wrath of a king is like the roaring of a lyon. . to occasion culpably a publick person to sin , is more heinous , then to occasion the sin of a private person , because the sins of those in eminent places have such a fatal influence upon the peoples pollution , and the procurement of gods displeasure . . but if we compare a scandal in the primary sense , with one in the secondary , then it 's no measuring cast , whether it be more eligible to displease the one , or destroy the other : nor can there be sin in displeasing one , when i cannot otherwise please , but by destroying the other : for though my own folly may possibly so ensnare me ; yet god never puts me under such circumstances , that i shall be necessitated to sin : § . . you have heard his fair concession , now take his limitation along with you : that is ( says he ) in those things that are matters of no law , but left free , and undeterminate , there the rule of the apostle takes place . . rom. . . we that are strong , ought to bear the infirmities of the weak , and not to please our selves : and , let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification , and we will add . . rom : . let no man put a stumbling block , or an occasion to fall in his brothers way . v. . destroy not him with thy meat for whom christ dyed . v. . let us follow after the things which make for peace , and things wherewith one may edify another . v. . for meat destroy not the work of god. this is the last retreat of these gentlemen : hether they retrire as to their triary , and strong reserves . you ought to bear the infirmities of the weak , to edify him heavenwards , not to murder his soul , till a law be made to the contrary , you are bound in charity , and compassion to such a one , till you receive further orders , and then you must be savage , and barbarous : but his reasons follow . . reason : because we may not do evil that good may come : the sinews of which reason lye in a supposition : that to omit a ceremony , is an evil thing , compared with the saving of a soul. this general rule may be applied that other way : we must not do evil that good may come ; and therefore may not draw a poor brother into sin , that some good may come by it ; and the rather , if we consider what good comes by it . as the saving my self a pecuniary mulct ; or recognizing , the magistrates power to command ; which may be done , and is so in many ways , wherein the scandal of another is not concern'd ; and if i should transgress a ceremony , or so , for the saving of a soul , we may lawfully presume upon the general will of the legislator , that no positive command of his should be so rigorously insisted on , when it would destroy a greater good . . reason : we must not break the laws of god or man ●…ut of an humour of complaisance to a brother : ans : to discharge a weighty duty , to avoid the scandalizing of a brother , to walk charitably : which the enquirer p. . ( when he had occasion to magnify charity ) tells us is an essential part of religion : ought not to be put of with a frothy droll , as if it were nothing but the humour of complaisance . the apostle whose head understood the speculation , and whose heart entertained the love of this doctrine much better then himself , has taught us other things : that to sin against the brethren , is to sin against christ , cor. . . 't is to destroy with our meats ( indifferent things ) him for whom christ dyed , . rom. . and if these be matters of humour , and complaisance , and we should venture a ceremony for them , it would be but to stake one complement against another . . reason : in those times ( says he ) the magistrate being pagan , took no care of the church , nor had passed any laws concerning the management of the christian religion : and so christians had a great deal of scope , and room for mutual condescension . — but the case is quite otherwise when there 's a law in being , &c. really , the pagan magistrate was very much overseen , unless perhaps he knew nothing less or more of his authority over things indifferent ; and then the apostles must needs be to blame , who never inform'd him of that power over the church , wherewith christ had e●…rusted him ; and above all st. paul was utterly inexcusable , having so inviting an opportunity to do it in : being so long at rome , having friends in ●…aesars household , and this in quinqui●…nnio neronis , when the lion was treatable and approachable ; besides this must have obliged him to entertain better thoughts of christians , and christianity , and engaged him to protect , and defend it , when it lay so entirely at his devoir . the enquirer instructed us , p. . that such a society as a church , could never be conserved without some rites or other , nor any publick worship be performed if all ceremonies , and circumstances such as of time , place , persons , and the like , be left indefinite , and undetermined . he has told us since , that the power of determining and defining these things ly's in our governours who understand the civil policy . p. . and now he tells us , that in those ( primitive ) times the magistrate had passed no laws concerning the manage of the christian religion : so that it was impossible that either church government should be lawfully administred , or publick worship duely performed , because the apostles were negligent in informing the emperour of his power , or he careless in performing his duty . i wonder that amongst all the apocryphal epistles of christ to ag●…arns , or paul to 〈◊〉 , we meet with none of the apostles to nero. that whereas their lord and master had left them in great hast , and either through the ●…urry of business had forgotten , or littlen●…ss of the things had neglected to settle his churches , nor had passed any laws concerning the manage of religion , for want of which politick constitutions they were in a lamentable confusion , the worship of god lying at sixes , and sevens , the government of the church mee●… anarchy , none had power to command , none were obliged to obey , every one did that which was rig●…t in his own eyes ; none had power to impose , or compel the rest to submit to such terms of communion as were necessary , besides those few and plain ones appointed by christ himself ; and for as mu●… as they were altogether by the ●…ars about indifferent things , and they had no rules in their law-●…ooks to determine these intricate matters ; they do therefore humbly beseech his imperial majesty , that he would review and revise their religion , and add such other mystical ceremonies , significant of gospel grace , wherewith his well-known piety could not but be intimately acquainted ; and that he would take speedy and effectual care with these vexatio●…s tender consciences , who scrupled eating of meats , because once prohibited by the law of moses , and straightly charge , and command that none should gratify them in ●…heir weakness ; and take such other , and further order about their religion , as he in his royal wisdom , from time to time , and at all times hereafter should judge meet , and expedient . and his petitioners shall humbly pray , &c. but to satisfy that assertion , i shall offer further these pariculars . . it cannot appear that the roman emperours had any such commission as is supposed to make that no duty , which god had made a duty . to make it no sin to give offence , which otherwise had been a sin : nor to add new terms of communion , or to shut out of the church those whom the fundamental laws of christ would receive . . this principle of his reflects most scandalously upon the greatest temporal mercy which god ever vouch safed his churches ; i mean the christian magistrate : for it implies , that the condition of christians was much more easy under the pagan , then under the christian magistrate . then ( says he ) the christians had a great deal of scope , and room for mutual condescension : but now they are crowded up by restrictions . then the worship of god was not clog'd with needless ceremonies , but now it 's incumbred with new terms of communion . i might then have relieved a weak conscience . but the case is quite oth●…wise ( says he ) now there 's a law in being . then i might have used my liberty in indifferent things , and only be restrained by prudence , and charity , but now i am debarred of it , by the will of authority : this i say is a scandalous reflexion : for god has promised christian princes as nursing fathers to the gospel-church , to secure and protect them , and the enquirer makes them step-fathers , tempting us to think , that we have got no such great bargain by the change . . it 's clear that the apostles had as much power to order the meer circumstances of worship , and church-government , as was needful to their exercise , and actual performance , or else all their determinations were sinful . ( ) the next priviledge of this tender conscience is : that it becomes the magistrate so far to consider the satisfaction of peoples minds , ( as well as the safety , and peace of his dominions ) as not to make those things the matter of his laws , which he for●…sees mens weakness will make them boggle at . this is his concession : wherein he needed not have been so timorous . for when the magistrate is settling the civil peace of his dominions , he needs not concern himself , whether the people will skew , or no. but as if he had been affraid , he had conceded too far , he wisely limits the concession , as , unless there be weighty reasons on the other hand to counterbal●…ance that consideration ; and they must be weighty reasons indeed , that will counterballance the edification and salvation of weak yet sincere christians ; that will counterballance the peace , and safety of his dominions ; indifferent things will hardly weigh against these : but what are those ponderous things that will make the scales even against these ? why . . such things , which ( though some scruple ) are necessary to government : yes , by all means ; when things necessary to government are put in the ballance , with the peace and safety of his dominions , they ought to turn the beam : but this is freely granted , that if mens scruples would overturn government , they must scruple on , at their own peril : but now we are ready to join issue with him upon this point : that the things scrupled are neither necessary , or any ways advantageous to the being , well-being , or glorious being of this , or any government : the roman empire was in its greatest glory , at its highest pitch , when the apostles baptized without the sign of the cross , and preacht without the holy garment : the christian religion , naked , and plain as christ left it , had not the least evil , or malignant influence upon the peace of that empire ; though it was the policy of its enemies then , to clap all the commotions that arose upon other accounts , upon the back of the christian doctrine ; it was the popular cry : these are the men that have turned the world upside down . and when the judgments of god broke out upon them for their persecutions , still to clamour : tollit●… impios : christianos ad leones ! away with such fellows , 't is not sit they live a day ! nay it 's evident that many nations have prospered both in war and peace , by land and sea , who never knew the ceremonies , and none the better for them ; . such things which are grateful to the greater or more considerable part of the subjects : those are such things which counterballance tender consciences , and the peace and safety of his dominions . i suspect the enquirer to be a raw statesm●…n , as well as a crude casuist : what would he have a prince destroy one half of his subjects to graetify the other half ? the apostle has offered a rational expedient , that the one may be gratified , and yet the other not destroyed . . romans . . ●…et not him that eateth , despise him that eateth not : and let not him that eateth not , judge him that eateth . they to whom ceremonies are so grateful sawce , may have their fill of them , and must they needs compel squea●…ish stomacks to feed on the same dish ? the gratefulness of ceremonies to some mens fancies , is no solid reason , why a cons●…rable , though not the more considerable part , should be undone , tempted to sin , deprived of communion in what they have a clear right by the constitutions of the gospel . nor are the measures of considerableness , to be taken from outward advantages that such a one is rich , a dignitary , a canon , a prebend , a dean , an arch-deacon , chancellour , bishop or arch-bishop , for he that is most inconsiderable in these respects , is too considerable to be ruined either in his temporal , or spiritual concerns for a ceremony . and when all is done , it 's a question whether the ceremonies are so grateful to the greater and more considerable part ? many learned and pious ministers , many sincere and sober christians make a rubbing-shift to get them down , accounting them tolerable , though not eligible ; to these they are not grateful , but as a burden of which they cannot fairly discharge themselves , may be grateful ; and leave but them at liberty , and it will soon be visible , that the matters of our differences are not grateful either to the greater , or more considerable part of the nation . ( ) it becomes the magistrate ( says he ) who governs men not beasts , to afford means of instruction , and competent time for those instructions to take place . i am glad however , to hear that subjects are not beasts , but men : the rather , because he told us just before , that it is the duty of a good magistrate to drive as the cattle can go . but for answer . . if there must be time afforded for instructions to take place : then such competent time must be allowed to every generation , for new days will produce the same doubts . it was a true observation of a learned person : that leave english men to their english bibles , and there will a new off-spring arise in every age that will have the same apprehensions about these matters , that non-conformists now have . . the time of these instructions , that it may be competent to work upon our minds , will be a considerable circumstance . i have read of one who being asked , what god was ? desired a days time to consider of that important question : and when that was expired , he desired two , then four , still doubling his time , as he had doubled his diligence in his study of the point : i am verily perswaded the more impartially , and sedulously any one shall examine the matters in controversy , the more reason he will find to crave more time for his satisfaction ; and if he arrives not at a plerophory that the things are sinful , he shall never be able to reach a full assurance that they are lawful : but yet time to consider will be acceptable ; as he that undertook to make an asse speak , in time ; thought himselfe pretty secure , notwithstanding the impossibility of his undertaking ; because he might dye , the asse dye , or his enemies dye , in the interval . . the means of instruction are to be considered , that apt mediums be used for conviction ; for if scripture , and plain deductions from thence , if reason , and the practise of the apostolical churches are not produced for our satisfaction , a few scraps , and shreds , old ends , and fragments , out of livie , tacitus , and cato , will never do it . . and the persons who are to instruct us , are no less material . they must be equal , and unbyassed persons , who are not engaged by preserments , dignities and great revenews to uphold an interest ; it must not be such whose wi●… , and rhethorick make a slutter in the aire without reason , that will probably convince gainsayers , and therefore we humbly beg that he may be instructed from the word of god , the practise of the purest and primo primitive times , and the instruction managed fr●… the writings of the first reformers of the church of e●… till this instruction be given : we hope , and pray 〈◊〉 expresses it ) there may be a suspension of rigorous 〈◊〉 what now i●… after all this the people will not be●… 〈◊〉 ( and what is after all this , and a great deal more to 〈◊〉 purpose , they have no reason to alter their judgment ) why then there 's no way but one with our enquirer . — i see no obligation upon the magistrate either to for●…ear to make , or execute such laws as ●…e apprehends for the good of his government . no more do i neither : only hope that he will not apprehend penal satutes , made upon the account of ceremonies with their execution , ( or rigorous execution ) will be for the glory of god ; the peace of the church , or the good of his government , though that was our authors insinuation ; and thus we have the short , and the long of the compassionate enquirer . i must for a conclusion entreat the reader to recollect himself , and remember where abouts his lesson is . in part. . ch. . he had mentioned three ways for the cure of church divisions . the first toleration , the second comprehension , but these were either impracticable , or remedies worse then the disease it seems , something or other amiss in them that turned his stomack at them : at last he fixed upon a third method , and that was this of instruction : under which course of physick we have been disciplined all this while : strange chimaerical inconveniences we have heard to be in separation : how very little stress god lays upon his 〈◊〉 positive institutions : what an imaginary name christian liberty is ; what a silly ridiculous thing a tender conscience is ; what a transcendent power christ has entrusted the magistrate with , to make what terms of christian communion he pleases , if not expresly prohibited in gods word . in these things we have been indoctrinated without reasonable proof , and we are , or have reason to be as far from satisfaction as we were before , and somewhat further : why then have amongst you my masters ! — i can see no obligation — well! it 's no great matter whether you can or no! if princes saw with your ●…ctcrical eyes , that can see nothing but ceremony ; if they should handle dissenters with your rough esaus hands , lined with the down of porcuspine ; did they hear with your ears which chime to the musick of the cathedral , i perceive it would go very hard with these poor wretches . many clergy-men measure the wisdom , grace , mercy , tenderness , and bounty of princes to their subjects , by their own narrow , and incapable hearts ; thus when one told alexander , that his bounty was too large to bestow upon a subject ; he answer'd ; tell not me what 's meet for him to receive , but what 's fit for alexander to give : princes are called gods , and they then most eminently answer their names , when they imitate him who commands the sun impartially to shed abroad his beams upon the habitable world , not taking the proportions of his goodness to his creatures , from the malice , and envy of some , or the little merits of others . the story of augustus caesar is as remarkable as common : ve dius pollio had once invited this emperour to a treat ; whilst they were in the gallery , comes in a poor slave , with death in his face , and hope in his hast , cast himself at the emperours feet , and humbly begs , he might suffer a less cruel death , then his patron pollio had doomed him to : augustus was surprized ; and upon enquiry into the matter , understands , that this boy had accidentally broken some of his masters chrystal glasses , wherein he greatly delighted , for which fact his furious master had inhumanely condemned him to be thrown into a pond , there to be devoured by the canibal lampreys : and this was the reason of his so confident application , to the grace of soveraign majesty : augustus transported with the novelty of so barbarous punishment , commanded the rest of the glasses to be broken , and the fish-pond to be filled up : that there might either be no occasion for such passion , or not the means to execute it . let therefore the enquirer know , who with his smooth praelatical charity has given up dissenters to the rods and axes , that they will honour and obey the king , under all those penalties which it shall please his wisdom to inflict ; and if they cannot be so serviceable in well-doing , will endeavour to suffer for well-doing , with a heart so submissive , and a conversation so inoffensive , that shall make their enemies more repine at the glory of their sufferings , then the eye-sore of their indulgence ; nor yet dare they despair of the clemency of their soveraign , who having suffered hard things in his own sacred person , has learnt to pitty them who do suffer : but if this compassionate enquiry be all the instruction they must expect for their satisfaction , the non-conformists may have reason to say , they are illfed , and worse taught . chap. ix . wherein the enquirers insinuated detractions are refelled , some little artifices discovered , calvin vindicated , and the whole concluded . detraction differs from contumely , just as theft from robbery by the highway . the slaunderer is but a pickpoket ; the reviler a padder : the one can dexterously do the feat , and carry of his prize with a cast of cleanly conveyance , but the soulmouth'd rayler attacques the repute of the innocent ●…i , & armis , and pleads his commission to plunder . the serious enquirer , in some of his former chapters , has with downright oblequy assaulted the credit of dissenters , but in this he proceeds more discreetly , undermining their reputations by oblique infinuations and indirect suggestions : whereby he has gained this singular advantage , that whilst he lays before the malicious sufficient matter to seed , and furnish their malice , yet lyes close under the covert of this excuse , that he affirms nothing positively , at once taking from the aggrieved party all possibility of just defence , and sheltring himself under the politick plea of not being dogmatical . the design of all which , ( as of his whole elaborate discourse ) he could not more fully instruct us in , then in those few words of his , pag. . it was an effectual course haman took . esth. . . when he designing to ruine the whole church of the iews , first undermines the reputation of their prosession , delates their religion as not fit for the protection of the prince , and that it did contain laws contrary to all people , and that they would not obey the kings laws . so solemn and sacred is that practise to love the treason , and hate the traytor , to imitate the policy , and yet decry the politician . but sure our enquirer is quite out in one thing ; for though haman's policy was subtle , yet it proved not effectual , unless he account a pair of gallows such great success : and therefore i hope the enquirer will accept it as a specimen of my charity , if i pray that he may never take an effectual course . examples indeed are numerous , and obvious which prove that wicked counsels have most perniciously recoiled upon their authors ; and phaleris ( in this one thing most just ) taught perillus the sweetness of his own brazen bull , by giving the artificer the first handsale of his ingenicus contrivance . — nec lex est justior ulla , quàm necis artific●…s arte perire suâ . § . . now his first ins●…nuation is , that the n. c. stand out only upon a point of honour . i cannot see ( says he ) what should be able to perpetuate our distractions , unless , it be a point of honour , that some men think themselves obliged to persevere , because they have begun : which sly method of detraction , as it may safely be contemned by the innocent , so as easily retorted by the confident : for others perhaps cannot see what should be able to perpetuate their persecutions , unless it be a point of honour , that some men think themselves obliged to persevere in their rigorous impositions , because they have begun , and had rather justify an errour , then have it thought they have been in one so long : it 's a most unrighteous procedure to charge any man with base and unworthy designs , further then pregnant overtures will justify such a charge , and yet a. b. whitguift has given the world too great occasion for such a jealousy , that it was a point of honour that obstracted a reformation , when his great argument , to defeat the pious intentions of the parliament , was , that it would tend to the slaunder of the church , as having hetherto maintained an errour . nay i have read in the grand debate sect. . that the reverend prelates authorized to reform the liturgy ▪ insist upon this as one reason of their non-condescension to more alterations : that it would be a virtual concession , that the liturgy was an intolerable burden to tender consciences . but a few considerations would rout a legion of such ungrounded suggestions . as. . that the applause of inconsiderable persons must needs be very inconsiderable : and that credit small , which is gained amongst those who are of small credit in the world. ad ly , that the temptation lyes visibly on the other side : he that would drive a gainful trade for credit , and honour , must settle his factory where such commodities are native , and staple : he may gape for dignities , and honours till he is chap fallen , whose conscience shall cast his lot amongst the dissenters , and when he has angled all day . , may come home with a diverbe , i have fight fair , and caught a frog . and. . sure no wise man would purchase honourable scars , with mortal wounds ; nor incur the displeasure of armed power , only to wear the cognizance of foolish valour in black , and blew . 't is a slender alleviation of those loads of reproach which they feel , besides those greater severities which they may fear , to wear a feather in their caps , and the aiery plume of popular applause . nay . . let this gentleman make it his own case , and learn to judge more moderately : suppose it were enacted by law. that to practise the ceremonies should be punisht with suspension ab officio , & beneficio , would he upon a point of honour espouse their quarrel ? or would the waxen wings of fame support his courage under those penalties ? why then should he judge that corruption colodge in the breast of another , which he would not harbour in his own ? and yet i must needs say , that the good name , and moderate repute of every christian , much more of every minister of the gospel , ought to be of that value to him , as not to prostitute it to every three half penny temptation , nor to render it cheap by levity , and inconstancy , when no more cogent reasons are offer'd for an alteration , then meer will , and pleasure : nor has any one thing more debased the honour of christianity , nor weakened the success of the ministry , then that some of those who wear those glorious liveries , have either fullied them in the dirt , or turned them wrong s●…de outwards , wheeling about like weathercocks , with the smallest breath of flattering preferments , or however , with the more violent gusts of threatned persecutions . a good man is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , one of a cubical figure , that falls upon his basis of conscierce , which way soever the providence of god shall throw him ; though some mens practise would make us believe , that the plain english of that hard word is to fall on his legs like a cat : which an old hyperbolical proverbe tells us , will wriggle her self into her true perpendicular , though shot out of a canons mouth . such persons , i consess , do not want their specious arguments , to prove themselves constant , under the greatest demonstrations of inconstancy . for ( say they ) we have setled our ultimate end , and fixed our main design , which is to assecurate our revenews , our ease , our splendour , and if the terms of enjoying them vary , yet we n●…ver vary from the ecliptick line of preferments ; let contingencies appear in multiform shapes , we can press all accidents into the service of our unum necessarium . such was that quadrangular doctor , a zealous protestant in edw. th dayes , a papist in q. maries , and upon the advancement of qu elix faced about , and read the service in english : o come let us sing a new song ! thus let the exteriour face of religion receive more shapes then proteus , yet , he abides constant to his principles , and resolves to continue vicar of bray . yet that we may not prove sturdy okes , but flexible willows , the enquirer has two waighty things to say to us . ( ) that it 's no real dishonour , but a manly generosity , and a christian virtue to change our minds upon mature deliberation , and the evidence of better reason . very orthodox ! i hope then he will allow it to be a manly generosity , and a christian virtue to keep our minds unchanged , to assert our own convictions , till those evidences of better reason shall appear which may change them , and that it would be a childish pusillanimity . to change our practise , till better reason shall oblige us to change our minds : but i am fearful , though upon mature deliberation we fix our minds according to the dictates of the best reason we can get , yet shall we not avoid trouble till we conform them to the publick reason . but ( says he ) the very temper which our saviour requires of his disciples , and which is the great preparatory disposition to the entertainment of christianity , especially consists in a simplicity of mind , and an indifferency to comply with whatsoever shall best recommend it self to our faculties . well! dissenters say they have already complied with that which has best recommended it self to their faculties , shall they be secured from vexation upon such complyance ? they resolve never to be non-conformists to their own faculties ! still i doubt that they who have invented a publick wisdom , a publick reason , a publick conscience , will set their wits on work once more to contrive a publick faculty wherein those publick powers may reside , for it 's but congruous that the publick treasure should be deposited in a publick treasury . i am all this while at a loss where our saviour has required this same indifferency , unless perhaps where he says , he that will be my disciple , let him deny himself , and take up his cross and follow me . an indifferency of spirit towards every thing is an excellent preparatory towards just nothing . and the best temper ( 〈◊〉 seems ) to entertain the christian religion , is to be of no re●… . as the eye is the better prepar'd to receive the species of all colours , because it 's of none ; and the imaginary first matter is therefore capable of all forms , because it 's tinctur'd with no form . such has been the policy of our romish emissaries ; to endeavour to reduce the dissenting world to atheism , that they might be prepared to receive the impressions of their catholicism ; and upon this maxime was the counsel founded their great boverius gave to a greater person fortified with more grace then to take it . ut quoniam v●…ra religio tibi inquirenda est , antequam ad eam investigandam accedas , omnem prius religionem suspectam habeas , lubeatque tamdiu a protestantium fide , & religione animum , & voluntatem suspendere quamdiu in veri investigatione versaris . that seeing your majesty is now going to search for the true religion , before you fall upon the work , you would first suspect every religion : and that you would be pleased so long to suspend your assent , and consent to the faith , and religion of the protestants , as you are engaged in the disquisition of the truth . ( ) the second thing he has to say to us is , that the honour of our religion is of more value then our personal reputation , still orthodox ! but the honour of religion is very little secured by the professors adapting themselves to that which has the vogue , and carries no other advantage but that of power to second , and back it : christianity will shine with it's own native beams , without sinful complyances : nor need we fear but that christian magistrates will cast a benign aspect upon the religious , though the religion was never of their composure : they like it the better , because their saviour made it , and not they : and how high soever god has set them above their subjects , it 's their greatest glory to stoop as low to a redeemer , as the meanest peasant . christianity in it's naked simplicity , and most modest attire disturbes no forms of government , but is admirably suited by the wisdom of christ to all modes of civil policy : and if we may speak according to the best evidences of the reason , and own that which recommends it self to our faculties , a monatch may be as absolute without the ceremonies , and other unnecessary additions , as with them : § . . a second insinuation is , that non-conformists are turbulent , unperswadable , ungovernable ; that their principles have a malignant influence upon government ; and for the more dexterous management of this suspicion he tells us , that it 's a great blot in the writings of calvin , that after he had discoursed rarely well of the power of princes , and the duty of subjects , he undoes all again with an unhappy exception in these words : de privatis hominibus semper loquor . i see if calvin has but one blot , the enquirer will hit it , so quicksighted he is , that none must hope to take him with a why not ? i meet indeed with an eagle-eyed jesuite , who to palliate the villanies of their own society , would gladly pick a hole in calvins coat , but the reverend , and protestant bishop bilson roundly takes him up thus : calvin is so well known to those that be learned , and wise for his great pains , and good labours in the church of god , that a few suarling fryers cannot impeach his good name , though you never so wretchedly pervert his words . and yet the bishops book came sorth cum privilegio , and was dedicated to q. elizabeth , by one very tender in the point of supremacy , and prerogative . dialog . p. . but calvins greatest crime was his syncretism with the doctrine of the church , and not his enmity to the civil government . and because a shred cut of from the whole piece of his discourse may easily through ignorance be misconstrued , or through malice misrepresented to his prejudice . i shall present his words at large to the reader . institut . lib. . cap. . parag . . nobis autem interim summoperè cavendum , ne illam plenam venerandae majestatis magistratuum authoritatem , quam deus gravissimis edictis sanxit , ( etiamsi apud indignissimos resideat , & qui eam suâ nequitiâ , quantum in se est polluant ) spernamus , aut violemus : neque enim , si ultio domini , est efraenatae dominationis correctio , ideo protinùs nobis demandatam arbitremur ; quibus nullum aliud quam parendi . & patiendi , datum est mandatum . de privatis hominibus semper loquor ; nam siqui nunc sint populares magistratus ad moderandam regum libidinem constituti ( quales olim erant qui lacedaemoniis regibus oppositi erant , ephori ; aut romanis consulibus , tribuni plebis ; aut atheniensium senatui , demarchi ; & quâ etiam fortè potestate , ut nunc res habent sunguntur in singulis regnis tres ordines , quum primarios conventûs peragunt ) adeo illos , serocienti regum licentiae pro officio intercedere non veto ; ut si , regibus impotenter grassantibus , & humili plebeculae insultantibus , conniveant , eorum dissimulationem nefariâ perfidiâ non carere , affirmem ; quià populi libertatem cujus se dei ordinatione tutores positos , norunt , fraudulenter produnt . i think we may safely venture to translate them : in the me●… while we ought studiously to beware that we neither despise , nor oppose the authority of magistrates , so full of dread and majesty , which god himself has established by most severe decrees , ( although possibly it should reside in persons most unworthy ; and such as by their personal wickedness do defile it , as much as in them lyes . ) for though the divine vengeance be the restrainer of unbridled empire , yet must we not the●…e imagine that the management thereof is committed to 〈◊〉 . i speak always of private persons : for if there should be any such popular magistrates constituted to moderate the arbitrariness of princes , ( such as of old were the ephori , who ballanced the lacedaemonian kings . the tribunes of the people , who moderated the roman consuls , or the demarchi , who were the same to the senate of athens ; and which power ( as things go now ) the three estates in each kingdom , when they are convened in full parliament , do peradventure enjoy , i am so far from forbidding them to intercede according to their duty , with the furious licenciousness of kings , that if they shall connive at them when they passionately harrasse , and trample upon the poor comonalty , i may affirm that their silence cannot be excused of sinful breach of trust , s●…ing they falsly betray the peoples liberty , whereof they knew themselves to be the guardians by gods institution . reader ! these are those dismal lines which have raised the clamour against poor calvin , wherein thou wilt observe these particulars . . that private persons have no warrant from god to restrain the exorbitances of governours , but are left to the only remedy parendi , & patiendi , of submission , and patience . . yet he supposes that some magistrates may possibly have a larger power then bare suffering , or passive obedience . . this power which he supposes may possibly be entrusted with them , is but serocienti regum licentia pro. officio intercedere : dutifully to intercede with the prince to redress grievances , humbly to represent the invasions made upon propriety , or perhaps ( if called ) to counsel and advise a redresse : which is a power far greater then that of bare suffering , and enduring the evil , and yet infinitely short of rebellion against deposing , banishing , or murdering princes . . this is only upon a supposition that there be such persons so qualified , and entrusted by the constitution of 〈◊〉 government , and known laws of the land , si qui sint populares magistrat●…s constituti . such he supposes indeed the ephori at lacedaemon , the tribunes at rome , the demarchi at athens to have been ; but he 's not sure , 't is but a peradventure , there were any such in his time , quá etiam fortè potestate ( ut nunc res habent ) sunguntur in singulis regnis tres ordines . for he knew pretty well how their own little commonwealth at geneva was governed , but the models of france , spain , and other soveraign monarchies he had but a guess at ; he had heard perhaps of les etats generaux in france , but he was not very certain whether they had any such interceding authority , or no ; however or whatsoever it was , it could not be exerted but in full convention of the estates in a general dyet . cùm primarios conventûs peragunt , and then was the time to petition , to make addresses in a submissive way for the redress of grievances . and . the guilt he charges upon these popular magistrates for betraying their trust , arises from this alone , that they connived at the miserable harassings of the comonalty , they took no notice at all of the invasions upon the subjects rights , and proprieties : which they might have done , and never have mingled heaven and earth together with civil broyles . and what can an ordinary eye espy hence , that should justify the enquirers out-cry a passage ( says he ) of that ill aspect upon government , that it is suspected by some , and not altogether without cause , that most of the confusions of kingdoms , that have happen'd since , and especially the troubles of this nation , have received encouragement , if not taken rise from hence . if this enquirer ( or any other ) has formerly contributed to the confusions and troubles of this , or any other nation , and received encouragement from this place of calvin , he ought first to be deeply humbled before god , that he should draw such desperate conclusions as those of rebellion out of an innocent sentence , and give more essential proofs , and signal marks of repentance , then accepting a benefice of three or four hundred per annum ; and secondly , be ashamed that he ventur'd to read calvin , before he could well construe a piece of plain latin , for i cannot understand that calvin , though he was bound to write true latin , was also bound to help every one to a construing book ; no no , god obliged to prevent all the evil consequences which an evil heart , and base lusts might draw out of the most inoffensive expressions . he that will give scope to suspicions , may easily conjecture where the enquirer might drink in those principles which have such an ill aspect upon government ; he needed not have travelled to the lake lemane ; his own incomparable hugo could have furnisht him with maximes of that tendency : ignatius loyola himself might have been scholler to such a master : i shall refer the reader only to his famous piece de iure belli , & pacis . lib. . cap. . § . . . . . . . . a place containing many passages of that ill aspect upon government , that it 's suspected by some , and upon good grounds that most of the civil war which have happen'd since in europe , have received encouragement if not taken rise from thence : let him try if he can find in calvin , such a passage as this : potest rex etiam suam imperii partem am●…tters : or this : regi in partem non suam involanti , vis justae opponi potest . or this other : qui principes sub populo sunt , sive ab initio talem acceperunt potestatem , sive postea ita convenit , ut lacedaemone , si peccent in leges , ac rempublicam , non tantum vi repelli possunt , sed si opus sit , morte puniri . but i shall spare loyal ears , and only leave this caution . quiescat porr●… mone●… , & desinat lacessere , malefacta ne noscat sua . i had almost forgot his creaking triumph , what glorious exploits he has atchieved in his former adventures : but the author of the ecclesiastical policy will doubtless be as civil to him , as he was to the author of the friendly debate ( not that between sir satan , and master skerlock ) and take some handsome occasion to claw him with a congratulatory epistle , and rejoyce with him in his great successes . having ( says he ) as i think ( that was an useful , and modest parenthesis ) demonstrated the sin , and mischiefs of separation , and evacuated all the excuses , and palliations of it from the plea of christian liberty , and pretence of tender conscience , i cannot see what should remain able to perpetuate our distractions , &c. wherein i can thus far agree with him , that he has evacuated all the excuses of schism from the pretence of tender conscience ; for none will be very forward to pretend a tender conscience ( of his making , ) least he be beg'd for an idiot , and sent to the colledge of all fools : but for his boast of evacuating excuses and palliations , it 's but the rodomontado of seignior di medico campo . he that fetcht prester iohns head from china , after it had been a fortnight burried , and set it on his shoulders again ; he that cured shirley in the grand sophies court , when he had been twice shot through with ordnance , and had two canon-bullets in each thigh ; he that gather'd up the vomited fragments of his friend , eaten by the canibals , placed them together , and restored him to a perfect man again ; but i shall leave the enquirer to the pleasing dream of his heroick victories . his argument from the danger of introducing popery by our divisions is seasonable , and his counsel thereupon grateful , only we could wish he would prescribe it to those whose circumstances enable them to remove our differance , by removing their true and proper causes . and let me remind him for a farewel ; that whosoever shall deny us the liberty to judge of the lawfulness of our own acts , or shall teach us the art to rub on with a doubting conscience , has paved a broad causway for , and rear'd a triumphant arch to entertain his holiness , if the wisdom of our superiours ( not imposed upon by such tri●…ling declamations ) did not obstruct his entrance . finis . lvcifers lacky, or the devils new creature being the true character of a dissembling brownist whose life is hypocriticall, instructions schismaticall thoughts dangerous, actions malicious and opinions impious : with the relation of their repulse from the parliament house upon thursday the of december : and the reason why constables had warrants in the city and liberties of london to take up men to guard the parliament-house upon friday the of december, . taylor, john, - . this text is an enriched version of the tcp digital transcription a of text r in the english short title catalog (wing t ). textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. the text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with morphadorner. the annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. this text has not been fully proofread approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. earlyprint project evanston,il, notre dame, in, st. louis, mo a wing t estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; :e , no ) lvcifers lacky, or the devils new creature being the true character of a dissembling brownist whose life is hypocriticall, instructions schismaticall thoughts dangerous, actions malicious and opinions impious : with the relation of their repulse from the parliament house upon thursday the of december : and the reason why constables had warrants in the city and liberties of london to take up men to guard the parliament-house upon friday the of december, . taylor, john, - . [ ] p. printed for john greensmith, london : . attributed to john taylor. cf. bm. reproduction of original in thomason collection, british library. eng dissenters, religious -- england. a r (wing t ). civilwar no lucifers lacky, or, the devils new creature. being the true character of a dissembling brownist, whose life is hypocriticall, instructions s taylor, john c the rate of defects per , words puts this text in the c category of texts with between and defects per , words. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - john latta sampled and proofread - john latta text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion lvcifers lacky , or , the devils new creature . being the true character of a dissembling brownist , whose life is hypocriticall , instructions schismaticall , thoughts dangerous , actions malicious , and opinions impious . with the relation of their repulse from the parliament house upon thursday the . of december and the reason why constables had warrants in the city and liberties of london to take up men to guard the parliament-house upon friday the . of december , . london , printed for iohn greensmith , . lvcifers lacky , or , the divels new creature . it is but very requisite that j should begin this short treatise with the words of our saviour , that a kingdome divided cannot stand . oh then poore england in what a miserable estate art thou groaning under the burthen of so many divisions . thy townes and cities are filled with a company of yeas and verilies , whose tongues and harts doe as much differ as truth and errour , they plead for conscience forsooth , & they will hazard their eares rather then loose the truth , they stand in defiance against bishops , and the booke of common prayer with them is abhominable , the lettime hath too many by 's in it , in which judgement ( in my opinion ) they sell their reputations and pawne their credits to the arch-broker the divell , who at the last day , the day of judgement will require more then ten in the hundred of them . the tap as they professe is abhominable , and yet they doe jdolize the tub , which as they suppose doth consecrate their devotion instead of a pulpit , the congregation being assembled , rather dissembled in a barne top . they affirme that papists are damned , arminians shall not enjoy heaven , for why , they are like to a greene stick which doth bowe too much . they pitty adamites and doe proffer them garments because they know they will not receive them , they seeme more innocent then do●es , and yet will be accounted as wise as serpents . they professe they will honour all teachers vnlesse the pope , and yet will be ready to raise an vnnaturall siege against their owne father if hee doe but crosse them . they would be accounted all friends to down-right , but yet cannot effect plaine dealing or tom-tell-troth . they love their neighbour as themselves , they say , but they must not then if males be widdowers or being married have vnhandsome wives . they say they would have religion reformed , and the true church onely to be adored , adored say i , the parson may chance to have a scrape on the sunday morning , and it shall be accounted no prejudice to their hobnayles , otherwise all outward worship and ceremony , and that their seeming piety doth spit , at the name of jesus no knee must bow except that of the heart , although hee that saved the one , saved the other , and hee that made the one made the other . this sort of people were not once a handfull , and then crept in corners , but now they are like to the aegyptian locust covering the whole-land , and they will rule religion , nor religion them , or else they will goe against religion , as the iewes did to meet our saviour with swords and staves , and there is not amongst them onely one iudas , but many which seeke to betray it . and yet are there amongst this holy assembly ( as they tearme themselves ) as many severall opinions , as men , which will easily be made manifest by their last congregation in the malt-house of one iob a brewer , the number being about sevenscore , there had every one a religion by himselfe , and every one a nigher way to heaven than the other , each shewed his opinion , which to relate it would be too tedious , but their ambitious zeale was so hot , that in snuffe each left the other , but not long after the reverend box-maker elevated as high as little st. bartholmewes pulpit , where he threw more stones against the bishops and the booke of common prayer , then little boyes use to doe snow-balls in the time of winter . what shall i say of this sort of people ? shall i commend their actions ? god forbid . they goe about to rob levi of his due , and it is to be feared least that vnawares they deceive the tribe of iudah . twice have their troopes been collected being armed with swords and staves , and what place have they gone to besiege , a place of no lesser consequence then the parliament house . the first day was upon thursday the . of decemb. the second upon friday the of december , upon the first day the trayne band ceazed upon them , not knowing otherwise but that they came against the parliament house , but their plea was they came to defend the truth , but it was very true that many of them were committed to prison . vpon friday notice was given to the parliament , how that their number was so great , so that instantly there was warrants sent vnto each constable to command sufficient men , with swords , and halberts , to guard the parliament house from schismaticall oppression ; all shcismaticks good lord either convert , or confound , that this kingdome may conclude of nothing , but what may be pleasing in thy sight . finis . when women preach , and coblers pray , the fiends in hell , make holiday . the brownists conventicle, or, an assemble of brownists, separatists, and non-conformists as they met together at a private house to heare a sermon of a brother of theirs neere algate, being a learned felt-maker contayning the whole discourse of his exposition with the manner and forme of his preaching, praying, giving thankes before and after dinner and supper : as it was lately heard and now taylor, john, - . this text is an enriched version of the tcp digital transcription a of text r in the english short title catalog (wing t ). textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. the text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with morphadorner. the annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. this text has not been fully proofread approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. earlyprint project evanston,il, notre dame, in, st. louis, mo a wing t estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; :e , no ) the brownists conventicle, or, an assemble of brownists, separatists, and non-conformists as they met together at a private house to heare a sermon of a brother of theirs neere algate, being a learned felt-maker contayning the whole discourse of his exposition with the manner and forme of his preaching, praying, giving thankes before and after dinner and supper : as it was lately heard and now taylor, john, - . p. s.n.], [s.l. : . a satire by john taylor. cf. bm. illustrated t.p. reproduction of original in thomason collection, british library. eng dissenters, religious -- england. a r (wing t ). civilwar no the brownists conventicle: or an assemble of brownists, separatists, and non-conformists, as they met together at a private house to heare a taylor, john c the rate of defects per , words puts this text in the c category of texts with between and defects per , words. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - tcp staff (michigan) sampled and proofread - john latta text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the brownists conventicle : or an assemble of brownists , separatists , and non-conformists , as they met together at a private house to heare a sermon of a brother of theirs neere algate , being a learned felt-maker . contayning the whole discourse of his exposition , with the manner and forme of his preaching , praying , giving thankes before and after dinner and supper , as it was lately heard and now discovered by a brother of theirs who is turned out of their society upon some discontent , to be buffeted by sathan . his auditors were button-makers , translaters , weavers , box-makers , with divers other holy brethren and sisters . printed . the brownists conventicle . contayning their manner and forme of their preaching , praying , eating , and drinking , &c. hereticks , schismaticks , novellists , seperatists , have beene in all ages , and long before the gospel was preached : there were amongst the jewes a sect who called themselves abel●sts , of abel the proto-martyr of the world , who required such chastity in marriage , that they would admit of no congresse , or mutuall consociety betwixt man and wife : but it was an heresie suddenly set up , and as soone suppressed . the essees , or esseans , retired themselves to solitude , and separated themselves from the congregations , who were abstemious in their diet , and strict and austere in all their deportments , harmelesse to others , onely rigid to themselves , in so much that it is observed , that our saviour was silent concerning them , when he so severely reproved the scribes , pharisees , and sadduces . the pharisees strived to come neere to the law , and were a strict and exact sect , but corrupt both in their doctrine , demeanour , and conversations . the sadduces were but few , but those great and rich men , who were of a more obtuse and stupid apprehension , denying the resurrection . to come to our owne home , almost in every domesticke diocesian parish , we have novellists , some thraskites , or sabbaterians , banisterians , brownists , and anabaptists , which puts mee in mind of a young lubber of that sect , who being brought as a witnesse to take his oath in court , and the judge by accident asking of what age hee was ? who answered him , that he was yeares old . three yeares old ( replyed the judge ) and no more ? how can that possibly be , seeing thou art of that full growth and bignesse ? who answered him gain uerily i reckon mine age but from the time since i was last baptized . then we have your familists : but of all the rest which is of greatest remark , there is sprung up a new sect of adamists , who take their denomination from our first father adam , and these with men and women promiscuously mingled , have their private meetings , where they will not heare the word preached , nor have the sacrament administred unto them , but naked , not so much as fig-leave breeches upon them , thinking thereby to imitate our first parents in their innocency . some of these separatists have their conventions within the wals of the city . others have made their assembly in the fields , some in woods , and upon hye-gate and hamsted hils , and such like places . in some families the women catechize and preach , making the back side of her gro●ning chaire the pulpit , their prayers being unpremeditate and without president ; for nothing can passe muster , which proceeds from their mouths , which is not extravagant ex tempore . nay , some most prophanely , i may say blasphemously , have beene heard to say , that they could make a better prayer than that which our saviour himselfe taught to his disciples . further , these our sectaries will endure no degrees in schooles , all learning must be layd by , academyes are to them abhominable , thereby cohering with the grand adversary of our christian saith the turk , who will suffer no university thorow his whole deminions : all his creatures must be souldiers , no schollers , nor suffred to meddle with the alcaron , but the mufti , and those idolatrous flamins belonging to the order : nay , herein they punctually comply with the papists , whose doctrine they pretend utterly to abhor ; who hold that ignorance is the mother of devotion . and of these opinions was how , the notorious predicant cobler , whose body was buried in the high way by dame agnes á cleere , and his funerall sermon preached by one of his sect in a brewers cart . such an anti-bishop was eaton , the famous button-maker in saint martins , and a shooe-maker that dwelt betwixt pauls chaine and old fish-street , whose name i remember not , and now the onely famous seeming predicants are one greene a felt-make , and a fellow who was once a serving-man . to rip up all the whole rabble , would take up too great time , and blot too much paper . hence come those violent outrages , and sacrilegious disorders committed in the church , even in the time of divine service , and hubbub , and strange tumults raised , where nothing but reverent silence ought to be used , by laying violent hands upon the minister , rending his master of arts hood from his neck , and tearing the surplice to filters upon his back , he hardly scaping from being torne peece meale in his owne person , and this even when the psalme was singing , and the preacher ready to goe up to deliver his sermon , as like wise rending the railes from before the communion table , and then chopping them in peeces , and burning them in the church-yard , and this to be ryotously done wit●out authority , commission , or order . but when any man shall take upon him a further power than peaceable justice requireth , he perisheth from the church ; and whilst he proudly lifts up himselfe , branded with his owne arrogant presumption , he is bereft of the light of the truth . and now of late lest these supermysticall sectists should be wanting in the land , there is lately come over from new england , as from a new hierusalem , one samuel eaton a minister , who preached at saint iohns church in chester , that the very names of parsons and uicars were antichristian , that pastours and teachers of particular congregations , must be chosen by the people , that all humane inventions , in which he comprehends the booke of common prayer , &c. are to god unsavoury and loathsome , that all ecclesiasticall censures of excommunication , and the like , ought to bee exercized by particular congregations within themselves : hee further denyes all nationall , provinciall , and diocesian churches , &c. and further , at knutsford , a market towne in the same countie , that every particular congregation is an absolute church , and it is to have all ordinances and officers within it selfe , that the members thereof must be only saints , who must enter into covenant amongst themselves , and no covenant no church , and that it was a grievous sin to be present where prayers were read out of any book whatsoever , either by the minister or any other , &c. two or three houres did our learned felt-maker preach , and declare himselfe to his deare brethren and good sisters , which expressions took very well . and these are they that prate , not preach , like men raptur'd with their owne spirituall non-sense . i cannot stand upon the miserable inconveniences depending upon this fantasticall doctrine , of which i could wish there were not so many simple seduced disciples . now all these innovators in generall , are arch-enemies to lent , saints eves , ember weeks , fast dayes , and good fridayes . imagine their exercise is done , and high time to goe to refresh themselves ; this holy brother which preached this and the like sort of doctrine , was envited to another brothers house to dinner , which was there present , and being come and meat set upon the table , and all the saints set at boord , hee began to say grace , which is to this effect , having first surveyed every dish , and in what order it was placed at the boord , he began his thanksgiving as followeth . the grace before dinner . corroborate these thy good gifts unto our use , i beseech thee good father , and make us thankfull for all these thy bountifull blessings upon this boord , to nourish our corrupt bodies . these are boyl'd chickens ( i take it ) let this dish of chickens put us in mind of our saviour , who would have gathered hierusalem together as an hen gathereth her chickens , but she would not : but let us praise god for these chickens , which are set before us , being six in number . let this leg of mutton call us to remembrance , that king david was once a shepherd ; and so was christ the son of david . that good shepherd , who having an hundred sheep , and losing one , to find that left ninetie and nine in the wildernesse . here is an excellent loyne of ueale , let that prompts us to remember the parable of the prodigall child , whom to welcome home , the father caused the fat calfe to be killed , which i thinke could not yeeld a better rump and kidney than is now visible before our eyes . and by this cramm'd and well fed capon , let us be mindfull of the cock , which crowed three times , when peter had as often denyed his master , for which he went out and wept bitterly . these rabbets re collect us to think ( having worne fur upon their backs ) of the two wicked elders , that lay in wait to betray the chastity of susanna : but i feare i have too much over-shot my selfe in alleaging any example out of the prophane apocrypha . what see i there ? a potato pye , and a sallad of sparagus , these are stirring meats , and provocations to procreation , by which good god , wee desire thee that according to thy blessings to our first parents in paradise , we may increase and multiply . and when that gamond of westphalia bacon comes to be cut up , let us think of that herd of swine , into which by the permission of our saviour the devils entered , and from an high rock hurried them headlong into the sea . and as for these thy good blessings that are from the land , so likewise make us thankfull for this thy bounty sent us from the sea , and first for this ●ole of sturgeon , and let it so far edifie in us , as to thinke how great that whales head was , which swallowed the prophet ionas , and kept him three dayes and nights in his belly . and though these lobsters seeme to be in red coats like cardinals , having clawes like usurers , and more hornes than the beast of rome , which is the whore of babylon ; yet having taken off their papisticall copes and cases , let us freely feed upon what is within ; for god regardeth not the outside , but the inside of man . i conclude with the fruit , which may it by thy grace so fructifie in our hearts , that these pippins may put vs in mind of the apple of the forbidden tree , which our grand mother eve ( by the temptation of the serpent ) tasted in the middle of the garden . for had she not , vild wretch , eaten ye forbidden apple , all our crabs had bin very good pippins , and all our thistles had beene very good harti-choaks . and these carawayes call to our remembrance that manna which was like coriander seed , by which the children of israel were fed forty yeares together in the wildernesse . thus as briefly as i can , i have gone thorow every dish on the boord , for every sundry dish ought to have a severall blessing . and now let us fall too , and feed exceedingly , that after our full repast , wee may the bettor prophesie . then falling to , and feeding lustily , and dinner being ended , another began his grace after meat , as followeth . the grace after meat . wee thank thee , good lord , that as thou hast sufficiently satisfied these our bodies with the blessings of the earth , so thou hast the like care to feed our soules with the spirituall food of heaven : and in this our thanksgividing , let us remember all the blessed pastours and professours , whether in amsterdam or elsewhere : but especially the ministers of the church in new england , the new ierusalem , as master samuel eaton , lately come from thence , and the rest , with all our brethren and sisters , the saints there , that little flock , of which our saviour speaks in the gospell , feare not little flock , who forsoking , and utterly renouncing all the prophane and papisticall ceremonies here at home , have left the land , to professe the more pure and sincere truth and doctrine abroad ; as also for the seperated saints here amongst us , the elders and deacons of our cougregations wheresoever assembled , whether in any private houses within the city , or in any cow-house , barne , or stable without the wals or whether in the fields , woods , or groves , wheresoever the holy assembly is convented and gathered . as for the prophane churches , in which idols have been formerly worshipped , and copes and surplices ( the garments of the great babylonish whore ) are still worne , we utterly abhor them : neither let us forget that holy and good mans precepts , who never spake unto us but with a great measure of the spirit , i meane master how the cobler ; nor those christian admonitions which were broken unto us by the breath of master eaton , the button-maker in saint martins : nor those godly instructions which issued from the mouth of master greene the felt-maker , with all the rest of their sanctified society : as also for all our she fellow-labourers in this our holy and good work , i meane those blessed and fruit-bearing women , who are not only able to talk on any text , but search into the deep sense of the scripture , and preach both in their owns families and else where . whom though saint paul forbade to preach in the church , yet he left them liberty to preach in the chambers : nay , we all therefore , both brethren and sisters , so use our talents together , that the brethren may be daily regenerate and new borne , and the sisters so labour in their severall vocations , that it may be the encrease and multiplying of these thy saints , amen . after which they prepared for their after-noons exercise . you have heard what doctrine hath beene preached by master samuel eaton and others in the countrey , now you shall heare part of a sermon preached , which was by one of the elders , who was pickt out for that dayes exercise , who took his text the . of the revelation , the verse : and there was a battell in heaven , michael and his angels fought against the dragon , &c. grace & peace be multiplied . this text dearly beloved brethren , and most dearly beloved sisters , may not unproperly be applyed to these present times , and to acts late in agitation , here is a combat spoken of betwixt michael and the dragon : now my deare brethren and sisters ; first , to enquire who is personated in michael and his angels , and who pointed at in the dragon and his angels . to save you men your looking , and you women your longing , i will tell you both , and that briefly thus . by this michael and his angels in my text , is meant one particular church , and peculiar church : and you deare saints of both sexes have bin sensible , you know many yeares we have most miserably suffered in all servitude and slavery : now by the dragon , the holy ghost labours to delineate unto the great dragon and devill of lambeth . i say unto you againe brethren , wicked angels are the bishops deanes , arch deacons , prebends , non residents , which live without the care and charge of soules ; i could have expressed it in latin , but i hold it to bee the language of the beast of rome , and therefore omit it as a heathenish language : besides his other procters , prosectors , pursuivants , pariters , and all other his ecclesiasticall ministers and officers . i had almost forgot his advocates , surrogates , with the judges of his spirituall and prerogative courts , all which ( brethren ) are abhonomination in the eyes of the lord & their very names stink in his nostrils : the bishops function , deare brethren , is an anti-christian calling ; & the deanes & prebends are the frogs & the locusts mention'd in the revelation : there is none of these bishops but hath a pope in their bellies : i will tell you , deare brethren , they be papists in grain ; they are all of them unleavin'd soules , & now , i say , we have turned them over to be buffeted by ye vgly fin satan . what then shall we say of all his toyes and popish trincats ? his invention and innovations ? or what shall we think of their altars , images , unhallowed hoods , surpleces and coaps , with their unchristian cornerd caps : their palls , albs , rochets , crosiers , miters , crosses , with all their traditions , ceremonies , and unsanctified superstitions ? what my brethren ( my sisters not forgotten ) are but as the very rags dropt from the whore of babylons rotten garments : nay , their cleanest washt surpleses are at the best but like po●ters frocks , which they weare when they carry burthens ; and they appeare in our eyes more slovenly and sluttish , than the very fulsome and foule smock she puts off when she shifts her selfe : nay , my deare brethren , there is another crosse which stands in our way , and is an eye-sore to our uprightnesse , that guilded idolatrous crosse in cheap side , which so many adore and reverence whe● they passe by it : then there is another crosse , which is our eare-sore , as well as our eye-sore , deare brethren , that is , those pipes , or organs , as the reverend scots ministers call them ; which makes more noyse with their roaring , than all the bulls of bason did , when og their king passed by them in triumph . what further may we liken that dogmaticall dragon to : this litigious arch priest of lambeth , than to a tyrannicall nimrod , a proud pharaoh , a politick achitophel a wicked haman , a cunning caiphas , a iugling pilot , a bloudy minded herod , a persecuting saul , and though he were a batchelour , yet for a long time bore him as proudly as that apocallypticall beast of rome with seven heads of impietie and ten hornes of iniquity : for how hath he persecuted this little flock of ours ? and when he would not be seene in it himselfe , be imployed his apostaticall agents to disturbe us in our conventicles , and debar us the libertie of our consciences : and my dear brethren & beloved sisters , was not this the very device ofan old d●gon , nay of a venemoous dragon ? and are not the archbishops and bishops , the very buls of bashan , their superiour and inferiour officialls , and officers , the great and little foxes ? those that wait on them , are the wolves that would worrie the sheep and lambs : and yet you see how in the end wee that may bee called the michaelists , or michaelitains , have in this great battatle late fought since the time of the parliament , have subdued and overcome the dragon and his angels , so that their court is no longer to be found at lambeth● : so it is ( according to my text ) no more to be found in heaven . this dragon , i say deare brethren , and beloved sisters , is that nimrod of lambeth , the great hunter , who with his bloud-hounds hunted and chaced us from one place to another . this was that proud pharaoh , who would have us deliver up to the task masters the full tale of brick , and yet would not allow us straw nor stubble to burne it . this is that politick achitophel , who having mist of his designes , would saddle his asse ( if hee had it ) and ride home to his house at lambeth and hang himselfe . this is that wicked haman , that would make havock of all us poore mordecais , and the whole nation of us distressed jewes : ( for i know there be some christians and sabaterians amongst us ) but as he hath idolatriz'd in the high places , wee hope to see him , like that haman , mounted upon something fiftie cubits high . this is that cruell herod , but more bloudy hearted : he onely slew the babes and sucklings but this dragon woul● make slaughters of all of you , deare brothers and sisters , for which hee shall bee eaten up with the wormes of his owne conscience . this is that caiphas , that would couzen us of our lives . that pilot that would give partiall sentence against us ; & that saul before he was paul ) that would bring persecution amongst us , who are taken for the olive-branches of the house of the lord . and now where is their starre-parlour , for star-chamber i cannot call it : chambers ( as we all know ) were made for rest and pleasure ; but this was onely for rigour and punishment : and where is now their high commission courts , by which the saints hearts could not rest quiet in their bodies , nor their eares safe upon their heads ? but some of his servants report that he was cleare of all these ; but deare brethren , and best beloved sisters , i will tell you of what he was cleare : cleare from all sinceritie , vertue , and piety ; cleare from all charitie , veritie , and honestie : but he , with all the rest of the archiepiscopacy , much contaminated with gormundizing and hypocrisie : but where are his full and surfeting tables , where hee safe plentifully feeding , with his chaplins , gaping one at another : some gaping after fat bits , others after fat benefices , they aspiring to the highest degrees after the prelacy , and he alike ambitious after the papacy . but what is now ( my deare brothers , and sweet sisters ) become of their vehement orations , their demonicall disputations ? their syllogisticall examinations ? their logicall interpretations ? their erronious equivocations ? their mentall reservations ? and their iniust condemnations of us that are the flock of the faithfull , and the onely reserved to eternall salvation ? what i say , but that this great dragon , and his angels shall be precipitated to perdition , be hurryed to the inferiour parts of the earth , which is also called hell , and gehimon , and the tormenting tophet , to which we also leave them , with all their prelaticall trash and popish trumperles . the unreasonableness of separation, or, an impartial account of the history, nature, and pleas of the present separation from the communion of the church of england to which, several late letters are annexed, of eminent protestant divines abroad, concerning the nature of our differences, and the way to compose them / by edward stillingfleet ... stillingfleet, edward, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing s estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) the unreasonableness of separation, or, an impartial account of the history, nature, and pleas of the present separation from the communion of the church of england to which, several late letters are annexed, of eminent protestant divines abroad, concerning the nature of our differences, and the way to compose them / by edward stillingfleet ... stillingfleet, edward, - . [ ], xciv, [ ], p. printed by t.n. for henry mortlock ..., london : . includes bibliographical references. errata: p. [ ] in third grouping. advertisement: p. . reproduction of original in duke university library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng church of england -- history. schism. dissenters, religious -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - emma (leeson) huber sampled and proofread - emma (leeson) huber text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the vnreasonableness of separation : or , an impartial account of the history , nature , and pleas of the present separation from the communion of the church of england . to which , several late letters are annexed , of eminent protestant divines abroad , concerning the nature of our differences , and the way to compose them. by edward stillingfleet , d. d. dean of st. pauls , and chaplain in ordinary to his majesty . london , printed by t. n. for henry mortlock , at the phoenix in st. paul ' s church-yard . mdclxxxi . the preface . it is reported by persons of unquestionable credit , that after all the service b. jewel had done against the papists , upon his preaching a sermon at st. paul's - cross , in defence of the orders of this church , and of obedience to them , he was so ungratefully and spitefully used by the dissenters of that time , that for his own vindication he made a solemn protestation on his death-bed , that what he then said , was neither to please some , nor to displease others , but to promote peace and unity among brethren . i am far from the vanity of thinking , any thing i have been able to do , in the same cause , fit to be compared with the excellent labors of that great light , and ornament of this church , ( whose memory is preserved to this day , with due veneration in all the protestant churches ; ) but the hard usage i have met with , upon the like occasion , hath made such an example more observable to me ; especially when i can make the same protestation , with the same sincerity as he did . for , however it hath been maliciously suggested by some , and too easily believed by others , that i was put upon that work , with a design to inflame our differences , and to raise a fresh persecution against dissenting protestants ; i was so far from any thought tending that way , that the only motive i had to undertake it , was , my just apprehension , that the destruction of the church of england , under a pretence of zeal against popery , was one of the most likely ways to bring it in . and i have hitherto seen no cause ( and i believe i shall not ) to alter my opinion in this matter ; which was not rashly taken up , but formed in my mind from many years observation of the proceedings of that restless party ( i mean the papists ) among us ; which hath always aimed at the ruine of this church , as one of the most probable means , if others failed , to compass their ends. as to their secret and more compendious ways of doing mischief , they lie too far out of our view , till the providence of god , at the same time , discovers and disappoints them ; but this was more open and visible , and although it seemed the farther way about , yet they promised themselves no small success by it . many instruments and engines they made use of in this design ; many ways and times they set about it , and although they met with several disappointments , yet they never gave it over ; but , would it not be very strange , that when they can appear no longer in it , others , out of meer zeal against popery , should carry on the work for them ? this seems to be a great paradox to unthinking people , who are carried away with meer noise and pretences , and hope those will secure them most against the fears of popery , who talk with most passion , and with least understanding against it ; whereas no persons do really give them greater advantages than these do . for , where they meet only with intemperate railings , and gross misunderstandings of the state of the controversies between them and us ( which commonly go together ) the more subtle priests let such alone to spend their rage and fury ; and when the heat is over , they will calmly endevour to let them see , how grosly they have been deceived in some things , and so will more easily make them believe , they are as much deceived in all the rest . and thus the east and west may meet at last ; and the most furious antagonists may become some of the easiest converts . this i do really fear will be the case of many thousands among us , who now pass for most zealous protestants ; if ever , which god forbid , that religion should come to be vppermost in england . it is therefore of mighty consequence for preventing the return of popery , that men rightly understand what it is . for , when they are as much afraid of an innocent ceremony , as of real idolatry ; and think they can worship images , and adore the host on the same grounds , that they may use the sign of the cross , or kneel at the communion ; when they are brought to see their mistake in one case , they will suspect themselves deceived in the other also . for they who took that to be popery which is not , will be apt to think popery it self not so bad as it was represented , and so from want of right understanding the differences between us , may be easily carried from one extreme to the other . for , when they find the undoubted practices of the ancient church condemned as popish and antichristian by their teachers , they must conclude popery to be of much greater antiquity than really it is ; and when they can trace it so very near the apostles times , they will soon believe it setled by the apostles themselves . for , it will be very hard to perswade any considering men that the christian church should degenerate so soon , so unanimously , so universally , as it must do , if episcopal government , and the use of some significant ceremonies were any parts of that apostacy . will it not seem strange to them , that when some human polities have preserved their first constitution so long , without any considerable alteration , that the government instituted by christ , and setled by his apostles , should so soon after be changed into another kind , and that so easily , so insensibly , that all the christian churches believed , they had still the very same government which the apostles left them ? which is a matter so incredible , that those who can believe such a part of popery could prevail so soon in the christian church ; may be brought upon the like grounds to believe , that many others did . so mighty a prejudice doth the principles of our churches enemies , bring upon the cause of the reformation . and those who foregoe the testimony of antiquity , as all the opposers of the church of england must do , must unavoidably run into insuperable difficulties in dealing with the papists , which the principles of our church do lead us through . for we can justly charge popery as an unreasonable innovation , when we allow the undoubted practices and government of the ancient church , for many ages after christ. but it is observed by bishop sanderson , that those who reject the usages of our church as popish and antichristian , when assaulted by papists , will be apt to conclude popery to be the old religion , which in the purest and primitive times was professed in all christian churches throughout the world. whereas the sober english protestant , is able , by the grace of god , with much evidence of truth , and without forsaking his old principles , to justifie the church of england from all imputation of heresie or schism , and the religion thereof , as it stood by law established , from the like imputation of novelty . wherein he professes to lay open the inmost thoughts of his heart in this sad business before god and the world. i might shew , by particular instances , from my present adversaries , that to defend their own practices they are driven to maintain such principles , as by evident consequences from them , do overthrow the justice and equity of the reformation ; but i leave those things to be observed in their proper places : yet i do not question the sincerity of many mens zeal against popery , who , out of too eager a desire of upholding some particular fancies of their own , may give too great advantage to our common enemies . three ways bishop sanderson observes , our dissenting brethren , though not intentionally and purposely , yet really and eventually have been the great promoters of the roman interest among us . ( . ) by putting to their helping hand to the pulling down of episcopacy . and , saith he , it is very well known to many what rejoycing that vote brought to the romish party : how even in rome it self they sung their jo-●aeans upon the tidings thereof , and said triumphantly , now the day is ours ; now is the fatal-blow given to the protestant religion in england . ( ) by opposing the interest of rome with more violence than reason . ( ) by frequent mistaking the question ; but especially through the necessity of some false principle or other , which , having once imbibed , they think themselves bound to maintain : whatever becomes of the common cause of our reformation . which may at last suffer as much through some mens folly and indiscretion , who pretend to be the most zealous protestants , as by all the arts and designs of our open enemies . for , as the same learned and iudicious bishop , hath said in this case , many a man , when he thought most to make it sure , hath quite marred a good business , by over-doing it . thus when the papists of late years , have not been able to hinder the taking many things into consideration , against their interest , it hath been observed , that their instruments have been for the most violent counsels , knowing , that either they would be wholly ineffectual , or if they were pursued , they might in the end bring more advantage than prejudice to their cause . and it is to be feared , they may still hope to do their business , as divines observe the devil doth ; who , when he finds one extreme will not do , he tries whether he can compass his end by the other : and no doubt they will extremely rejoyce , if they can make some mens fears of popery , prove at last an effectual means to bring it about . as some of the jews of old , out of a rash and violent zeal for the preservation of the purity of their religion ( as they pretended ) by opposing the sacrifices offer'd by strangers , and denying the use of the lawful customs of their country , brought the roman power upon them , and so hasten'd the destruction both of their religion and countrey too . i do not mention this , as though we could take too great care by good and wholsom laws to strengthen the protestant interest , and by that means , to keep out popery ; but only to shew , what mighty prejudice an indiscreet zeal at this time may bring upon us ; if men suffer themselves to be transported so far as to think that overthrowing the constitution of this church will be any means to secure the protestant religion among us . for , what is it which the papists have more envied and maligned than the church of england ? what is it they have more wished to see broken in pieces ? as the late cardinal barberini said in the hearing of a gentleman who told it me , he could be contented there were no priests in england , so there were no bishops ; for then he supposed , their work would do it self . what is it they have used more arts and instruments to destroy , than the constitution and government of this church ? did not cranmer and ridley , and hooper , and farrar , and latimer , all bishops of this church , suffer martyrdom by their means ? had not they the same kind of episcopacy which is now among us ; and which some now are so busie in seeking to destroy ; by publishing one book after another , on purpose to represent it as unlawful and inconsistent with the primitive institution ? is all this done for the honor of our reformation ? is this the way to preserve the protestant religion among us ; to fill mens minds with such prejudices against the first settlement of it ; as to go about to make the world believe , that the church-government then established was repugnant to the institution of christ ; and that our martyr-bishops exercised an unlawful authority over diocesan churches ? but , whither will not mens indiscreet zeal , and love of their own fancies carry them , especially after years prescription ? i do not say such men are set on by the jesuits , but i say , they do their work as effectually , in blasting the credit of the reformation , as if they were . and yet after all these pains , and forty years meditations , i do not question but i shall make it appear , that our present episcopacy , is agreeable to the institution of christ , and the best and most flourishing churches . and , wherein doth our church differ from its first establishment ? were not the same ceremonies then appointed ? the same liturgy in substance then used ? concerning which dr. taylor who then suffered martyrdom , publickly declared ; that the whole church-service was set forth in king edward ' s days , with great deliberation , by the advice of the best learned men in the realm , and authorised by the whole parliament , and received and published gladly through the whole realm ; which book was never reformed but once , and yet by that one reformation , it was so fully perfected , according to the rules of our christian religion in every behalf , that no christian conscience could be offended with any thing therein contained , i mean , saith he , of that book reformed . yet this is that book , whose constant use is now pleaded by some , together with our ceremonies , as a ground for the necessity of separation from our churches communion . but if we trace the footsteps of this separation as far as we can , we may find strong probabilities , that the jesuitical party had a great influence on the very first beginnings of it . for which , we must consider , that when the church of england was restored in queen elizabeth's reign , there was no open separation from the communion of it , for several years , neither by papists , nor non-conformists . at last , the more zealous party of the foreign priests and jesuits , finding this compliance would in the end utterly destroy the popish interest in england , they began to draw off the secret papists from all conformity with our church , which the old queen mary's priests allowed them in : this raised some heat among themselves , but at last the way of separation prevailed , as the more pure and perfect way . but this was not thought sufficient by these busie factors for the church of rome , unless they could , under the same pretence of purity and perfection , draw off protestants from the communion of this church too . to this purpose persons were imployed under the disguise of more zealous protestants , to set up the way of more spiritual prayer , and greater purity of worship than was observed in the church of england : that so the people , under these pretences , might be drawn into separate meetings . of this we have a considerable evidence lately offer'd to the world , in the examination of a priest so imploy'd at the council-table , a. d. . being the th of q. elizabeth , which is published from the lord burleighs papers , which were in the hands of arch-bishop usher , and from him came to sir james ware , whose son brought them into england , and lately caused them to be printed . two years after , one heath a jesuit was summon'd before the bishop of rochester on a like account , for disparaging the prayers of the church , and setting up spiritual prayers above them ; and he declared to the bishop , that he had been six years in england , and that he had laboured to refine the protestants , and to take off all smacks of ceremonies , and to make the church purer . when he was seized on , a letter was found about him from a jesuit in spain , wherein he takes notice , how he was admired by his flock ; and tells him , they looked on this way of dividing protestants as the most effectual to bring them all back to the church of rome ; and in his chamber , they found a bull from pius v. to follow the instructions of the society for dividing the protestants in england ; and the license from his fraternity . there is one thing in the jesuits letter deserves our farther consideration , which the publisher of it did not understand : which is , that hallingham , coleman , and benson are there mentioned , as persons imploy'd to sow a faction among the german hereticks ; which he takes to be spoken of the sects in germany ; but by the german hereticks the english protestants are meant , i.e. lutherans : and these very men are mentioned by our historians , without knowing of this letter , as the most active and busie in the beginning of the separation . of these ( saith fuller ) coleman , button , hallingham and benson were the chief . at which time ( saith heylin ) benson , button , hallingham , and coleman , and others taking upon them to be of more ardent zeal than others , &c. that time is , which agrees exactly with the date of that letter at madrid , october . . and both these had it from a much better author than either of them ; camden i mean ; who saith , that while harding , sanders , and others attacked our church on one side ; coleman , button , hallingham , benson , and others were as busie on the other ; who , under pretence of a purer reformation , opposed the discipline , liturgy , and calling of our bishops , as approaching too near to the church of rome . and he makes these the beginners of those quarrels which afterwards brake out with great violence . now , that there is no improbability in the thing , will appear by the suitableness of these pretences about spiritual prayer , to the doctrine and practices of the jesuits . for they are professed despisers of the cathedral service , and are excused from their attendance on it by the constitutions of their order ; and are as great admirers of spiritual prayer , and an enthusiastick way of preaching , as appears by the history of the first institution of their order , by orlandinus and maffeius . they who are acquainted with their doctrine of spiritual prayer , will find that which is admired and set up here , as so much above set-forms , to be one of the lowest of three sorts among them . that gift of prayer which men have , but requires the exercise of their own gifts to stir it up , they call oratio acquisita , acquired prayer ; although they say , the principle of it is infused . the second is , by a special immediate influence of the holy ghost upon the mind , with the concurrence of infused habits . the third is far above either of these , which they call the prayer of contemplation , and is never given by way of habit to any ; but lies in immediate and unexpressible unions . all these i ●ould easily shew to be the doctrine received and magnified in the roman church , especially by those who pretend to greater purity and spirituality than others . but this is sufficient to my purpose , to prove , that there is no improbability that they should be the first setters up of this way in england . and it is observable , that it was never known here , or in any other reformed church before this time : and therefore the beginning of it is unjustly father'd by some on t. c. but by whomsoever it was begun , it met with such great success in the zeal and warmth of devotion which appeared in it , that no charm hath been more effectual , to draw injudicious people into a contempt of our liturgy , and admiring the way of separation . when by such arts the people were possessed with an opinion of a more pure and spiritual way of worship than was used in our church , they were easily drawn into the admiration of those , who found fault with the liturgy and ceremonies that were used among us ; and so the divisions wonderfully increased in a very short time . and the papists could not but please themselves to see that other men did their vvork so effectually for them . for the authors of the admonition elizab. declared , they would have neither papists nor others constrained to communicate : which although , as arch-bishop whitgift saith , they intended as a plea for their own separation from the church , yet , saith he , the papists could not have met with better proctors . and elsewhere he tells them , that they did the pope very good service , and that he would not miss them for any thing . for what is his desire but to have this church of england ( which he hath accused ) utterly defaced and discredited , to have it by any means overthrown , if not by forrein enemies , yet by domestical dissention . and , what fitter and apter instruments could he have had for that purpose than you , who under pretence of zeal , overthrow that which other men have builded , under color of purity , seek to bring in deformity , and under the cloke of equality and humility , would usurp as great tyranny and lofty lordliness over your parishes , as ever the pope did over the whole church ? and in another place , he saith , they were made the engines of the roman conclave , whereby they intend to overthrow this church by our own folly , which they cannot compass by all their policy . arch-bishop grindal ( as i find a letter of his ) expressed his great fear of two things , atheism and popery , and both arising out of our needless divisions and differences , fomented , he doubts not by satan the enemy of mankind , and the pope the enemy of christendom . by these differences , the enemies of our religion gain this , that nothing can be established by law in the protestant religion , whose every part is opposed by one or other of her own professors ; so that things continuing loose and confused , the papists have their opportunity to urge their way , which is attended with order and government , and our religion continuing thus distracted and divided , some vile wretches lay hold of the arguments on one side to confute the other ; and so hope at last to destroy all . dr. sutcliffe said long ago , that wise men apprehended these unhappy questions about indifferent things to be managed by the subtle jesuits , thereby to disturb the peace and settlement of our church , until at last they enjoy their long expected opportunity to set up themselves , and restore the exploded tyranny and idolatry of the church of rome . among mr. selden's mss. there is mention●d an odd prophecy , that popery should decay about , and be restored about , which is there said to be most likely by means of our divisions , which threaten the reformation , upon the interest of religion , and open advantages to the enemies of it , and nothing is there said to be so likely to prevent it as a firm establishment of sound doctrine , discipline , and worship in this church . among the iesuit contzens directions for reducing popery into a country , the most considerable are , ( . ) that it be done under a pretence of ease to tender consciences , which will gain a reputation to the prince , and not seem to be done from his own inclination , but out of kindness to his people . ( . ) that when liberty is granted , then the parties be forbid to contend with each other , for that will make way the more easily for one side to prevail , and the prince will be commended for his love of peace . ( ) that those , who suspect the design , and preach against it , be traduced as men that prea●h very unseasonable doctrine , that the●● are proud , self-opiniators , and enemies to peace and union . but , the special advice he gives to a catholick prince , is , ( . ) to make as much use of the divisions of his enemies , as of the agreement of his friends . how much the popish party here hath followed these counsels , will easily appear by reflection upon their behaviour these last twenty years . but that which more particularly reaches to our own case , is , the letter of advice given to f. young , by seignior ballarini , concerning the best way of managing the popish interest in england , upon his majesties restauration , wherein are several very remarkable things . this letter was found in f. young's study , after his death , and was translated out of italian , and printed in the collection before mention'd ; the first advice is , to make the obstruction of settlement their great design , especially upon the fundamental constitutions of the kingdom , whereunto if things should fall , they would be more firm than ever . ( . ) the next thing is , to remove the jealousies raised by prin , baxter , &c. of their design upon the late factions ; and to set up the prosperous way of fears and jealousies of the king and bishops . ( . ) to make it appear under-hand , how near the doctrine , worship , and discipline of the church of england comes to us : at how little distance their common-prayer is from our mass ; and that the wisest and ablest men of that way are so moderate , that they would willingly come over to us , or at least meet us half way ; hereby the more stayed men will become more odious , and others will run out of all religion for fear of popery . ( . ) let there be an indulgence promoted by the factious , and seconded by you . ( . ) that the trade and treasure of the nation may be engrossed between themselves and other discontented parties . ( . ) that the bishops and ministers of the church of england be aspersed , as either worldly and careless on the one hand ; or so factious on the other , that it were well they were removed . these are some of those excellent advices then given , and how well they have been followed we all know . for , according to this counsel , when they could not hinder the settlement then , the great thing they aimed at for many years , was , the breaking in pieces the constitution of this church by a general toleration . this coleman owned at his trial , and after sentence , declared , that possibly he might be of an opinion , that popery might come in , if liberty of conscience had been granted . the author of the two conferences between l'chese and the four jesuits , owns the declaration of indulgence , / , to be of the papists procuring ; but he saith , the presbyterians presently suspected the kindness , and like wise men closed with the conformists ; and refused the bait , however specious it seemed , when they saw the hook that lay under it . it was so far from this , that when one of the furious dissenters , suspected the kindness , and made queries upon the declaration , wherein he represented it as a stratagem to introduce popery , and arbitrary government ; one of the more moderate party among them , wrote a publick vindication of their accepting the licences , wherein he declared to the world , in their name , that they were not concerned what the secret design might be , so long as the thing was good and why , saith he , do you insinuate jealousies ? have not we publick , and the papists only private allowance ? in fine , we are thankful for the honor put upon us to be publick in our meetings . was this the suspicion they had of the kindness , and their wisdom in joyning with the conformists ? if such bold and notorious vntruths are published now , when every one that can remember but years backward , can disprove them , what account may we expect will be given to posterity of the passages of these times , if others do not take care to set them right ? and i am so far from believing that they then closed with the conformists , that i date the presbyterian separation chiefly from that time . for , did not they take out indulgences , build meeting places , and keep up separate congregations ever since ? and did not those , who before seem'd most inclinable to hold communion with our churches , then undertake in print to defend the lawfulness of these separate meetings upon such principles as will justifie any separation ? vpon this , many of those who frequented our churches before , withdrew themselves ; and since they have formed and continued separate bodies ; and upon the death of one minister have chosen another in his room . and , what is a formal separation if this be not ? then the ejected ministers resorted to cities and corporations , not to supply the necessities of those who wanted them , but to gather churches among them . for a very credible person informs us , that in the city he lived in , where there were not above or that ordinarily refused the publick , and met privately before the indulgence ; there were ten non-conformist ministers that came into their city . and , what could this be for , but to draw people from their churches , to make up separate congregations ? and ever since that time , they have been hammering out principles , such as they are , to justifie their own practices . but the presbyterians did not joyn with the papists for a general toleration . i grant some of them did not , although very powerful charm's were at that time used to draw them in : and not a few swallowed the specious bait , although some had the skill to disentangle themselves from the hook which went along with it . but that this honor doth not belong vniversally to them , i shall thus evidently prove . in a. d. there was a book printed , entituled , the peaceable design , or an account of the non-conformists meetings , by some ministers of london . in it an objection is thus put ; but what shall we say then to the p●pists ? the answer is , the papist in our account is but one sort of recusants , and the conscientious and peaceable among them , must be held in the same predicament with those among our selves , that likewise refuse to come to common prayer . what is this , but joyning for a toleration of popery ? if this be not plain enough , these words follow , but as for the common papist , who lives innocently in his way , he is to us as other separatists , and so comes under like toleration . this notable book , with some few additions and alterations , hath been since printed , and with great sincerity called , an answer to my sermon . and the times being changed since , the former passage is thus alter'd , the papist is one , whose worship to us is idolatry , and we cannot therefore allow them the liberty of publick assembling themselves , as others of the separation . is it idolatry , and not to be tolerated in ? and was it idolatry and to be tolerated in ? or was it no idolatry then , but is become so now , and intolerable idolatry too ? the latter passage hath these alterations ; in stead of , he is to us as other separatists , and so comes under the like toleration ; these are put in , he is to us , in regard of what he doth in private , in the matter of his god , as others who likewise refuse to come to common prayer . now we see toleration struck out for the papists ; but it was not only visible enough before , but that very book was printed with a design to present it to the parliament , which was the highest way of owning their concurrence with the papists for a general toleration . and the true reason of this alteration is , that then was then , and now is now . and to shew yet farther , what influence the jesuitical counsels have had upon their people , as to the course of separation ; i shall produce the testimony of a very considerable person among them , who understood those affairs as well as any man , viz mr. ph. nye . vvho , not long before his death , foreseeing the mischievous consequence of those extravagant heats , the people were running into , vvrote a discourse on purpose , to prove it lawful to hear the conforming ministers , and answers all the common objections against it ; towards the c●nclusion he wonders , how the differing parties came to be so agreed , in thinking it unlawful to hear us preach ; but he saith , he is perswaded it is one constant design of satan in the variety of ways of religion he hath set on foot by jesuits among us . let us therefore be more aware of whatsoever tends that way . here we have a plain confession of a leading man among the dissenters , that the jesuits were very busie among them , and that they and the devil joyned together in setting them at the greatest distance possible from the church of england ; and that those who would countermine the devil and the jesuits , must avoid whatever tends to that height of separation the people were run into . and mr. baxter , in those days , viz. but a little before the indulgence came out , was so sensible of the mischief of separation , that he saith , our division gratifieth the papists , and greatly hazardeth the protestant religion , and that more than most of your seem to believe , or to regard . vvhere he speaks to the separating people . and among other great inconveniencies of separation , which he mentions , this is one , that popery will get by it so great advantage as may hazard us all , and we may lose that , which the several parties do contend about . two ways especially popery will grow out of our divisions . ( . ) by the odium and scorn of our disagreements , inconsistency , and multiplied sects : they will perswade people , that we must come for unity to them , or else run mad , and crumble into dust and individuaals . thousands have been drawn to popery , or confirmed in it by this argument already ; and i am perswaded , that all the arguments else in bellarmin , and all other books that ever were written , have not done so much to make papists in england , as the multitude of sects among our selves . yea , some professors of religious strictness , of great esteem for godliness , have turned papists themselves , when they were giddy and wearied with turnings ; and when they had run from sect to sect , and found no consistency in any . ( . ) either the papists by increasing the divisions , would make them be accounted seditious , rebellious , dangerous to the publick peace ; or else when so many parties are constrained to beg and wait for liberty , the papists may not be shut out alone , but have toleration with the rest . and , saith he , shall they use our hands to do their works , and pull their freedom out of the fire ? we have already unspeakably served them , both in this , and in abating the odium of the gunpowder plot , and their other treasons , insurrections , and spanish invasion . thus freely did mr. baxter vvrite at that time ; and even after the indulgence , he hath these passages , concerning the separating and dividing humor of their people ; it shameth , it grieveth us to see and hear from england , and from new england this common cry , we are endanger'd by divisions , principally because the self-conceited part of the religious people , will not be ruled by their pastors , but must have their way , and will needs be rulers of the church and them . and soon after he saith to them , you have made more papists than ever you or we are like to recover . nothing is any whit considerable that a papist hath to say , till he cometh to your case , and saith , doth not experience tell you , that without papal unity and force , these people will never be ruled , or united ? it is you that tempt them to use fire and faggot , that will not be ruled nor kept in concord , by the wisest , and holyest , and most self-denying ministers upon earth . ( are not these kind words for themselves , considering what he gives to others ? ) and must you , even you , that should be our comfort , become our shame , and break our hearts , and make men papists by your temptation ? wo to the world because of offences , and wo to some by whom they come . let now any impartial reader iudge , who did most effectually serve the papists designs , those who kept to the communion of the church of england , or those who fell into the course of separation ? i will allow , what mr. baxter saith , that they might use their endeavors to exasperate the several parties against each other ; and might sometimes press the more rigorous execution of laws against them ; but then it was to set them at the greater distance from us , and to make them more pliable to a general toleration and they sometimes complained , that those who were most adverse to this , found themselves under the severity of the law , when more tractable men escaped ; which they have weakly imputed to the implacable temper of the bishops , when they might easily understand the true cause of such a discrimination : but from the whole it appears , that the grand design of the papists for many years , was to break in pieces the constitution of the church of england ; which being done , they flatter'd themselves with the hopes of great accessions to their strength and party ; and in order to this , they inflamed the differences among us to the utmost height , on purpose to make all the dissenting parties to joyn with them for a general toleration ; which they did not question would destroy this church , and advance their interest . whether they did judge truly in this , i am not to determine ; it is sufficient that they went upon the greatest probabilities . but , is it possible to imagine such skilful engineers should use so much art and industry to undermine and blow up a bulwark , unless they hoped to gain the place , or at lest some very considerable advantage to themselves by it ? and it is a most unfortunate condition our church is in , if those who design to bring in popery , and those who design to keep it out , should both conspire towards its destruction . this , which i have represented , was the posture of our church-affairs , when the late horrible plot of the papists , for destruction of the kings person , and subversion of our religion came to be discover'd . it seems , they found the other methods tedious and uncertain ; and they met with many cross accidents , many rubs and disappointments in their way ; and therefore they resolved upon a summary way of proceeding , and to do their business by one blow . vvhich , in regard of the circumstances of our affairs , is so far from being incredible , that if they had no such design , it is rather a vvonder , they had not ; especially considering the allowed principles and practices in the church of rome . upon the discovery of the plot , and the means of papists used confirm the truth of it ( knowing our great proneness to infidelity ) by the murder of a worthy gentleman who received the depositions , the nation was extremely alarm'd with the apprehensions of popery , and provoked to the utmost detestation of it . those who had been long apprehensive of their restless designs , were glad to see others awaken'd ; but they seemed like men roused out of a deep sleep , being amazed and confounded , fearful of every thing , and apt to mistrust all persons who were not in such a consternation as themselves . during this heat , some of us , both in private , and publick , endeavor'd to bring the dissenters to the sense of the necessity of union among protestants , hoping the apprehension of present danger , common to us all , would have disposed them to a better inclination to the things which belong to our peace . but finding the nation thus vehemently bent against popery , those who had formerly carried it so smoothly and fairly towards the common and innocent papists ( as they then stiled them ) and thought them equally capable of toleration with themselves , now they fly out into the utmost rage against them ; and others were apt , by sly insinuations , to represent those of the church of england ( some of whom had appeared with vigor and resolution against popery , when they were trucking underhand for toleration with them ) as papists in masquerade . but now they tack about , and strike in with the violent rage of the people , and none so fierce against popery as they . vvhat influence it hath had upon others i know not , but i confess it did not lessen my esteem of the integrity of those of the church of england , that they were not so much transported by sudden heats , beyond the just bounds of prudence , and decency , and humanity , towards their greatest enemies , having learnt from st. paul , that , the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of god. they expected as little favor from them as any , if they had prevailed , and i doubt not but some of them had been made the first examples of their cruelty . however , this was interpreted to be want of zeal , by those who think there is no fire in the house , unless it flame out at the vvindows ; and this advantage was taken by the inveterate enemies of our church , to represent us all as secret friends to the papists ( so improbable a lie , that the devil himself would blush at the telling of it , not for the malice , but the folly and ill contrivance of it ) and those who were more moderate , were content to allow or among the bishops to be protestants , and about or among the clergy of london to feed this humor ( which wonderfully spread among more of the people than we could have believed to have been so weak ) most of the malicious libels against the church of england were reprinted and dispersed , and new ones added to them . among the rest , one translated out of french , to prove the advances of the church of england towards popery ; but so unhappily managed , that those persons are chiefly mention'd , who had appeared with most zeal against popery . yet , so much , had the arts of some men prevailed over the iudgments of others , that even this discourse was greedily swallowed by them . but i must do the author of it that right , to declare , that before his death , he was very sensible of the injury he had done to some worthy divines of our church therein ; and begged god and them pardon for it . wherein , as he followed the example of some others , who were great enemies to our church while they lived , but repented of it , when they came to die ; so , i hope , others , upon better consideration , will see reason to follow his . but this was but an inconsiderable trifle in comparison of what follow . we were still in hopes , that men so wise , so self-denying as the non-conformist ministers represent themselves to the world , would , in so critical a time , have made some steps or advances towards an union with us ; at lest to have let us known their sense of the present state of things , and their readiness to joyn with us , as far as they could , against the assaults of a common enemy . in stead of this , those we discoursed with , seemed farther off than before ; and when we lest expected such a blow , under the name of a plea for peace , out comes a book , which far better deserved the title of a plea for disorder and separation , not without frequent , sharp , and bitter reflections on the constitution of our church , and the conformity required by law ; as though it had been designed on purpose , to represent the clergy of our church as a company of notorious , lying and perjured villains , for conforming to the laws of the land , and orders established among us ; for there are no fewer than tremendous aggravations of the sin of conformity set down in it . and all this done , without the lest provocation given on our side ; when all our discourses that touched them , tended only to union , and the desirableness of accommodation . if this had been the single work of one man , his passion and infirmities might have been some tolerable excuse for the indiscretion of it ; but he writes in the name of a whole party of men , and delivers the sense of all his acquaintance ; and if those principles be owned , and allowed by them , there can hardly be expected any such thing as a national settlement , but all churches must be heaps of sand , which may lie together till a puff of wind disperses them ; having no firmer bond of vnion , than the present humor and good will of the people . but of the principles of that book , i have discoursed at large , as far as concerns the business of separation in the second and third parts of the following treatise . but , as though this had not been enough , to shew what enemies to peace men may be under a pretence of it ; not long after , the same author sets forth another book , with this title , the true and only way of concord of all the christian churches . as though he had been christ's plenipotentiary upon earth , and were to set the terms of peace and war among all christians ; but i wish he had shewed himself such a pattern of meekness , humility , patience , and a peaceable disposition , that we might not have so much reason to dispute his credentials . but this is likewise fraught with such impracticable notions , and dividing principles ; as though his whole design had been , to prove , that there is no true way of concord among christians : for if there be no other , than what he allows ; all the christian churches this day in the world , are in a mighty mistake . when i looked into these books , and saw the design of them , i was mightily concerned , and infinitely surprised , that a person of his reputation for piety , of his age , and experience in the world , and such a lover of peace , as he had always professed himself ; and one who tells the world so often of his dying , and of the day of judgment , should think of leaving two such firebrands behind him , as both these books will appear to any one who duely considers them , which have been since followed by or more to the same purpose , so that he seems resolved to leave his life and sting together in the wounds of this church . and it made me extremely pity the case of this poor church , when even those who pretend to plead for peace , and to bring water to quench her flames , do but add more fuel to them this gave the first occasion to those thoughts , which i afterwards delivered in my sermon ; for since by the means of such books , the zeal of so many people was turned off from the papists against those of our church , i saw a plain necessity , that either we must be run down by the impetuous violence of an enraged , but vnprovoked company of men , or we must venture our selves to try , whether we could stem that tide , which we saw coming upon us . and it falling to my lot to preach in the most publick auditory of the city , at a more than usual appearance , being the first sunday in the term , i considered the relation i stood in under our honored diocesan , to the clergy of the city , and therefore thought my self more obliged to take notice of what concerned the peace and welfare of the churches therein . upon these considerations , i thought fit to take that opportunity , to lay open the due sense i had of the unreasonableness and mischief of the present separation . wherein i was so far from intending to reflect on mr. b. as preaching in the neighborhood of my parish , that to my best remembrance , i never once thought of it , either in the making or preaching of that sermon . and yet throughout his answer he would insinuate , that i had scarce any one in my eye but himself . his books indeed had made too great an impression on my mind for me easily to forget them : but it was the great , the dangerous , the vnaccountable separation , which i knew to be in and about the city , without regard to the greatness or smallness of parishes , to the abilities or piety of their ministers , or to the peace and order of the church we live in ; which made me fix upon that subject ; although i knew it to be so sore a place , that the parties most concerned , could hardly endure to have it touched , though with a soft and gentle hand . however , i considered the duty which i owe to god , and this church , above the esteem and good words of peevish and partial men ; as i had before done in my dealing with the papists ; and i resolved to give them no iust provocation by reproachful language , or personal reflections ; but if truth and reason would anger them , i did not hold my self obliged to study to please them . but , against this whole vndertaking , there have been two common objections . first , that it was unseasonable . secondly , that it was too sharp and severe . to both these i shall answer ; first , as to the unseasonableness of it . what! was it unseasonable to perswade protestants to peace and unity ? that surely is very seasonable at any time , and much more then . and i appeal to any one that reads it , whether this were not the chief , and only design of my sermon . and , to say , this was unseasonable , is just , as if a garrison were besieg'd by an enemy , and in great danger of being surprised , and although they had frequent notice of it given them , yet many of the soldiers were resolved not to joyn in a common body , under command of their officers , but would run into corners , a few in a company , and do what they list , and one should undertake to perswade them to return to their due obedience , and to mind the common interest , and some grave by-standers should say , it is true , this is good counsel at another time , but at this present it is very unseasonable . when could it be more seasonable , than when the sence of their danger is greatest upon them ? at another time it might have been less necessary ; but when the common danger is apparent to all , men of sense , or common ingenuity , could not but take such advice most kindly at such a season . but this advice was not given to themselves , but to the magistrates and judges , and that made it look like a design to stir them up to a persecution of them . there had been some color for this , if there had been the left word tending that way through the whole sermon . but this objection is generally made by those who never read the sermon , and never intend to read it ; and such i have found have spoken with the greatest bitterness against it . they resolved to condemn it , and therefore would see nothing that might have alter'd their sentence . it is enough , it was preached before the magistrates and judges , and therefore it must be for persecution of dissenters . no●e are so incapable of conviction , as those who presently determine what a thing must be , without considering what it is . is it not possible for a man to speak of peace before hannibal , or of obedience to government before julius caesar ? must one speak of nothing but drums and trumpets before , great generals ? which is just as reasonable as to suppose , that a man cannot preach about dissenters before judges and magistrates , but he must design to stir them up to the severe execution of laws ? but it is to no purpose for me to think to convince those by any vindication , who will not be at the pains to read the sermon it self , for their own satisfaction . but the dissenters themselves were not there to hear it . and must we never preach against the papists but when they are present ? it seems they soon heard enough of it , by the noise and clamor they made about it . yet still this gives advantage to the papists , for us to quarrel among our selves . would to god this advantage had never been given them ! and woe be to them by whom these offences come . and what must we do ? must we stand still with open arms , and naked breasts to receive all the wounds they are willing to give us ? must we suffer our selves to be run down with a popular fury , raised by reviling books , and pamphlets , and not open our mouths for our own vindication , lest the papists should overhear us ? which is , as if the unruly soldiers in an army must be let alone in a mutiny , for fear the enemy should take notice , and make some advantage of it . but which will be the greater advantage to him , to see it spread and increase , or care taken in time to suppress it ? if our dissenters had not appeared more active , and busie than formerly ; if they had not both by publick writings , and secret insinuations , gone about to blast the reputation of this church , and the members of it , so disingenuously , as they have done ; there might have been some pretence for the unseasonableness of my sermon . but when those things were notorious , to say it was unseasonable to preach such a sermon then , or now to defend it ; is , in effect to tell us , they may say and do what they will against us , at all seasons ; but whatever we say or do for our own vindication is unseasonable ; which , under favor , seems to be little less than a state of persecution on our side ; for it is , like setting us in the pillory , for them to throw dirt at us , without allowing us any means to defend our selves . but some complain of the too great sharpness and severity of it . but , wherein doth it lie ? not , in raking into old sores , or looking back to the proceedings of former times ? not , in exposing the particular faults of some men , and laying them to the charge of the whole party ? not , in sharp and provoking reflections on mens persons ? all these i purposely , and with care declined . my design being not to exasperate any ; but to perswade and argue them into a better disposition to union , by laying open the common danger we are in , and the great mischief of the present separation but i am told by one , there are severe reflections upon the sincerity and honesty of the designs of the non-conformists ; by another , that indeed i do not bespeak for them , gibbets , whipping-posts , and dungeons ; nor ( directly ) any thing grievous to their flesh ; but i do not pass any gentle doom upon them , in respect of their everlasting state. god forbid , that i should iudge any one among them , as to their present sincerity , or final condition ; to their own master they must stand or fall ; but , my business was to consider , the nature and tendency of their actions . my iudgment being , that a causless breaking the peace of the church we live in , is really as great and as dangerous a sin , as murder ; and in some respects aggravated beyond it ; and herein , having the concurrence of the divines of greatest reputation both ancient and modern : would they have had me represented that as no sin , which i think to be so great a one ; or those as not guilty , whom in my conscience i thought to be guilty of it ? would they have had me suffered this sin to have lain upon them without reproving it ; or , would they have had me found out all the soft and palliating considerations to have lessen'd their sense of it ? no , i had seen too much of this already : and a mighty prejudice done thereby to men , otherwise scrupulous and conscientious , that seem to have lost all sense of this sin ; as if there neither were , nor could be any such thing ; unless perhaps they should happen to quarrel among themselves in a particular congregation . which is so mean , so jejune , so narrow a notion of schism , so much short of that care of the churches peace which ch●ist hath made so great a duty of his followers ; that i cannot but wonder that men of understanding should be satisfy'd with it , unless they thought there was no other way to excuse their own actings . and that i confess , is a shrew'd temptation . but , so far as i can judge , as far as the obligation to preserve the churches peace extends , so far doth the sin of schism ●each ; and the obligation to preserve the peace of the church extends to all lawful constitutions in order to it ; or else it would fall short of the obligation to civil peace , which is as far as is possible , and as much as lies in us . therefore to break the peace of the church we live in , for the sake of any lawful orders and constitutions made to preserve it , is directly the sin of schism , or an unlawful breach of the peace of the church . and this is not to be determined by mens fancies , and present apprehensions ; which they call the dictates of conscience ; but upon plain and evident grounds , manifesting the repugnancy of the things required to the laws and institutions of christ , and that they are of that importance that he allows men rather to divide from such a communion , than joyn in the practice of such things . we were in a lamentable case , as to the defence of the reformation , if we had nothing more to plead against the impositions of the church of rome , than they have against ours : and i think it impossible to defend the lawfulness of our separation from them , if we had no better grounds to proceed upon , than they have against our church . for the proof of this , i refer the reader to the book it self . this then being my opinion concerning their practices , was this a fault in me , to shew some reason for it ? and how could i do that without proving those practices to be sinful ? and if they were sinful , how could they who knowingly and deliberately continue in the practice of them be innocent ? what influence the prejudices of education , the authority of teachers , the almost invincible ignorance of some weaker people , and the vncurable biass of some mens minds may have to lessen their guilt , i meddle not with ; but the nature of the actions , and the tendency of them ▪ which i then declared to be sinful ; and i am so far from being alter'd in my iudgment by any of the answers i have seen ( and i have read all that have been published ) that i am much more confirmed in it . but dr. o. saith , he had seen a collection made of severe reflections by the hand of a person of honor , with his judgment upon them . i wish the doctor had favour'd me with a sight of them ; but at present it is somewhat hard for me to make the objections and answers too . and it was not so fairly done to mention them , unless he had produced them . therefore , to the ●nknown objections , i hope no answer is expected . but there is one expression wherein i am charged with a scurrilous sarcasm , or a very unchristian judging mens hearts , or a ridiculous piece of nonsense , viz. when i say , that the most godly people among them can the lest endure to be to told of their faults : now , saith mr. a. how can they be most godly , who cannot bear reproof of their faults , which is a main part of godliness . i am really sorry , some of my answerers have so much made good the truth of that saying in its plainest sense . but there needs no more to clear my intention in it , but to consider , of whom it is spoken ; viz. of those , who will not bear being told of the sin of separation by their own teachers . for my words are , is it that they fear the reproaches of the people ? which some few of the most eminent persons among them , have found they must undergo , if they touch upon this subject ( for i know not how it comes to pass , that the most godly people among them can the lest endure to be told of their faults . ) in all which words i had a particular respect to the case of mr. baxter who , after he had , with great honesty , published his cure of divisions , and therein sharply rebuked the separating , dividing humor of the people , who pretended most to religious strictness , he met with bitter reproaches from them for the sake of this freedom , that he was foced to publish a defence of his cure in vindication of himself from them ; wherein he saith , he was judged by them to be too censorious of them , and too sharp in telling them of that which he did not doubt to be their sin : and again , if i be mistaken , should you be so impatient , as not to bear with one , that in such an opinion differeth from you ? and why should not you bear with my dissent , as well as i do with yours ? again , why should not you bear with lesser contradiction , when others must bear with far greater from you ? will you proclaim you selves to be the more impatient ? you will then make men think , you are the most guilty . — and a little after , and yet you that should be most patient , take it for a heinous crime and injury , to be told , that you wrong them , and that you judge too hardly of them ; and that their communion is not unlawful . and when we joyn to this , what he saith elsewhere , that they are the most self-conceited professors who will not be ruled by their ministers , but are most given to division and separation : in a passage before mention'd ; there needs no more to vindicate the truth of this saying , than to shew , that the most self-conceited do often pass for the most godly among them ; which is a figure so common , so easie to be understood , that it needs no more apology , than our saviours calling the pharisees righteous men , and saying , they were so whole , as to need no physician . and i cannot think such figures which were used by our saviour , unfit for a pulpit . but notwithstanding all the care i took to prevent giving any just occasion of offence , my sermon had not been long abroad , but i heard of great clamors against it . at first it went down quietly enough , and many of the people began to read and consider it , being pleased to find so weighty and so necessary a point debated , with so much calmness , and freedom from passion . which being discerned by the leaders , and managers of the parties , it was soon resolved , that the sermon must be cried down , and the people disswaded , by all means , from reading it . if any of them were talked with about it , they shrunk up their shoulders , and looked sternly , and shook their heads , and hardly forbore some bitter words both of the author and the sermon . vpon this followed a great cry and noise , both in city and country , against it ; and some honest persons really pittied me , thinking i had done some very ill thing ; so many people were of a sudden so set against me , and spoke so bitterly of my sermon . i asked , what the matter was ? what false doctrine i had preached ? did they suspect i was turn'd papist , at such a time , when all the nation was set against popery ? who had written so much against it , when others , who are now so fierce , were afraid to appear ? it was something , they said , had angred them sorely , but they could not tell what : which made me read my sermon over again , to see what offensive passages there might be in it ; after all , i could see no just cause for any offence , unless it were , that i perswaded the dissenters to submit to the church of england , and not the church of england to submit to them . and this , i believe , lay at the bottom of many mens stomacks . they would have had me humor'd the growing faction , which , under a pretence of zeal against popery , designed to overthrow the church of england ; or , at lest have preached for alterations and abatements , and taking away ceremonies and subscriptions , and leaving them full liberty to do what they pleased ; and then i might have gained their good opinion , and been thought to have preached a very seasonable sermon . but supposing my own private opinion were never so much for some abatements to be made , that might tend to strengthen and unite protestants , and were consistent with our national settlement ; had it been seasonable to have spoken of the alteration of laws before magistrates and judges , who are tied up to the laws in being ? is it fit for private persons , when laws are in force , to take upon them to iudge what laws are fit to continue , and what not ? i think the alteration of established laws , which concern the preservation of our church and religion , one of the weightiest things that can be taken into consideration . and although the arguments are very plausible one way , yet the objections are very strong another . the union of protestants , the ease of scrupulous consciences , the providing for so many poor families of ejected ministers , are great motives on our side ; but , . the impossibility of satisfying all dissenters . . the vncertainty of gaining any considerable number by relaxations . . the difficulty of keeping factions out of the church , considering the vngovernableness of some mens tempers and principles . . the danger of breaking all in pieces by toleration ; . the exposing our selves to the papists , and others , by receding too far from the first principles and frame of our reformation . and . the difficulty of keeping out priests , pretending to be allowed dissenters , are very weighty considerations on the other side . so that , whatever men talk of the easiness of taking away the present impositions , it is a sign they look no farther than their own case ; and do not consider the strength and union of a national settlement , and the necessity thereof to keep out popery ; and , how much easier it is to break things in pieces , than to set them in order again ; for , new objections will still be raised against any settlement , and so the result may be nothing but disorder and confusion . of what moment these things may be thought to other persons , i know not ; but they were great enough to me , to make me think it very unseasonable to meddle with establish'd law 's ; but on the other hand , i could not but think it seasonable to endeavor to remove such scruples and prejudices , as hindered the people most from communion with our churches ; for , as i said in the epistle before the sermon , if the people be brought to vnderstand and practice their duty , as to communion with our churches , other difficulties , which obstruct our union , will more easily be removed . this passage , mr a. tells me , was the sport and entertainment of the coffe●-houses . i confess , i am a great stranger to the wisdom of those places ; but i see mr. a. is able to give me an account of the sage discourses upon points of divinity there . but if those pleasant gentlemen would have understood the difference between lay-communion , and ministerial conformity , they might have apprehended the meaning of that passage . for , i am of opinion , if the people once thought themselves bound to do , what they may lawfully do , towards communion with us ; many of the ministers who seem now most most forward to defend the separation , would think of putting a fairer construction upon many things than now they do . and therefore i thought it fittest to handle the case of the people , who are either over-violent in these matters , without ever considering them , or have met with ill-instructors , who have not faithfully let them know what the terms of communion , as to themselves , were . for the scruple of the surplice seems to be worn out ; kneeling at the sacrament is generally allowed by the more iudicious non-conformists ; and the only scruple , as to them , about the sign of the cross , is not , whether it be lawful for the minister to use it , but whether it be lawful for them to offer their children to be baptized where it is used ; and , as mr. baxter resolves the case ; baptism is gods ordinance , and his priviledge , and the sin ( if it be one ) is the ministers , and not his . another man 's sinful mode will not justifie the neglect of our duty ; else we might not joyn in any prayer or sacrament in which the minister modally sinneth : that is with none . as to the use of the liturgy , mr. baxter saith , he that separateth from all churches among us , on the account of the unlawfulness of our liturgy , doth separate from them on a reason common to all , or almost all christian churches upon earth ; the thoughts of which he is not able to bear . and although the new impositions , he saith , makes their ministerial conformity harder than formerly ; yet the peoples conformity is the same ( if not easier , by some amendments of the liturgy ) as when separation was fully confuted by the old non-conformists . and the most learned and worthy of them , he saith , wrote more against separation , than the conformists : and the present non-conformists have not more wisdom , learning , or holiness than they . but , he saith , they did not only urge the people against separation , but to come to the very beginning of the publick worship , preferring it before their private duties . what ground was there now , to make such a hideous . out-cry about a sermon , which perswaded men to no more , than the old pious , and peaceable nonconformists would have done ; who talked more sharply against the sin , and mischief of separation , than i have done ; as may be seen in the first part of the following treatise ? but as if they had been the papists instruments , to execute the fury of their wrath and displeasure against me , they summon in the power of their party , and resolve , with their full might , to fall upon me . and , as if it had not been enough to deal with me by open force , which is more manly , and generous ; they made use of mean and base arts , by scurrilous rimes , by virulent and malicious libels sent to me without names ; by idle stories , and false suggestions , to rob me at once , of my reputation , and the tranquillity of my mind . but i thank god , i despised such pittiful artifices , and such vnmanly and barbarous usage ; which made no other impression on my mind , but to make me understand , that other men could use me , as bad , or worse , than the papists . but this brought to my mind a passage of arch-bishop whitgift , concerning their predecessors usage of bishop jewel ; after he had so stoutly defended this church against the papists . but , saith he , it is their manner , except you please their humor in all things , though you otherwise deserve never so well , all is nothing with them , but they will deprave you , rail on you , backbite you , invent lies of you , and spread false rumors , as though you were the vilest persons upon earth i could hardly have believed so ill a character of men pretending to any kind of religion , had i not found so just a parallel ; abating only the due allowances that must be made as to my case , with respect to the far greater deserts of that incomparable bishop . but notwithstanding all their hard censures of me , i do assure them , i am as firm a protestant as ever i was , and should be still as ready to promote the interest of the protestant religion , yea , and to do any real kindness to the dissenters themselves , that may be consistent with the national settlement of our church , and the honor of our reformation . after a while , they thought fit to draw their strength into open field , and the first who appeared against me , was dr. owen , who treated me with that civility , and decent language , that i cannot but return him thanks for it ; however , i was far from being satisfied with his reasoning , as will appear in the book it self . the next was mr. baxter , who appeared with so much anger , and unbecoming passion ; that i truly pittied him ; and was so far from being transported by it , that it was enough to cure an inclination to an indecent passion , to see , how ill it became a man of his age , profession , and reputation . at first he sent me some captious questions for a trial of skill ; i returned him answer , they were not to the business ; but if he intended to answer my sermon ( as i perceived by his letter he was put upon it , and i knew how hardly he could abstain from writing however ) i desired him not to make too hasty a reply . but he , who seldom takes the advice of his friends , was , i suppose , the more provoked by this good counsel ; and seems to have written his whole book in one continued fit of anger ; and by some rules of civility peculiar to himself , he published my private letter , without so much as letting me know that he intended it . whatever injurious and spiteful reflections he hath made upon me through his book , i can more easily forgive him , than he can forgive himself , when he looks them over again with a better mind . and therefore i pass over the scurrility of his preface , wherein , after he hath in particulars described , the most unskilful , proud , partial , obstinate , cruel , impertinent adversaries he could think of places of scripture , or similitudes for , he then concludes ; but although all this be not the case of the reverend doctor . what a malicious way of reproaching is this ? to name so many very ill things , and to leave it to the reader to apply as much as he pleases ; and when he is charged with any one to say , he meant not that , for he added , although all this be not the case of r. dr. if this be the justice , the charity , and ingenuity of mr. b. and his brethren , who put him upon writing , they must give me leave to think , there are some non-conformist ministers , that are not the wisest , the meekest , nor the most self-denying men upon earth . he seems much concerned about my being likely to have the last word : which i am very willing to let him have , hoping he may come to himself before he dies ; and may live to repent of the injuries he hath done to his brethren and the mischiefs he hath done to the church of god , by so industriously exposing the governors of it , and laying the foundation for endless separation , as will appear in the following discourse . the third who entred the lists , was one , who seemed to write more like a well-disposed gentleman , than like a divine ; he wishes very well to the cause he undertakes ; he di●courses gravely and piously , without bitterness and rancor , or any sharp reflections , and sometimes with a great mixture of kindness towards one ; for which , and his prayers for me , i do heartily thank him . what i find material to the business in his book , i have consider'd in its due place . the fourth comes forth with a more than ordinary briskness ; and seems to set up rather for a sort of wit , than a grave divine . his book resembled the bird of athens , for it seems to be made up of face and feathers : for , setting aside his bold sayings , his impertinent triflings , his hunting up and down for any occasion of venting his little stories and similitudes , there is very little of substance left in him ; but what he hath borrowed from dr. o. or mr. b. methinks , such a light , vain , scurrilous way of writing , doth not become such a tenderness of conscience as our dissenting brethren pretend to . there is a sort of pleasantness of wit which serves to entertain the reader in the rough and deep way of controversies ; but certainly there is a difference between the raillery and good humor of gentlemen , and the iests of porters and watermen . but this author seems to be ambitious of the honor of a second martin , whose way he imitates , and whose wit he equals . yet this is not his greatest fault , for he deals with me as a man that was by any means to be run down , without regard to common ingenuity . for , suppose i had mistaken the sense of my text , which i am certain i did not ; yet i am not the only person in the world that talks impertinently . suppose there had been a fault in my reasoning , methinks the sense of humane frailty should make men not grow insolent upon such a discovery : and yet i do not know one thing which he hath made it in ; as will appear hereafter . but , will nothing serve but to represent me to the world as a kind of atheistical hypocrite , i. e. as a secret underminer of the proof of a deity , under the pretence of proving it ? yet , this he doth more than once : which was so remote from his business , that nothing but a wretched , malicious design of exposing me , could make him draw it in : he gives a gentle touch at it in his preface , to prepare the readers appetite ; but p. . he charges me with proceeding upon such principles , as plainly render it impossible by any certain argument to prove the existence of a deity . mr. b. had unhappily said , and without the least ground , that my principles overthrow all religion ; and mr. a. vouches it , and undertakes to prove it for him . mr. b. begins his plea for peace with a saying of st. augustin , ( he meant st. hierom ) that no man ought to be patient under the accusation of heresy : what should a man then be under the accusation of being guilty of overthrowing all religion , and rendring it impossible , by any certain argument , to prove that there is a god ? according to all rules of iustice , a charge of so high a nature ought not to be brought against any man , without such evidence , as appears clear and convincing to him that brings it . but i very much mistrust in this case , that mr. a. in his conscience knew , his proofs to be weak and insufficient ; what then can we think of him that charges another with so high a crime , when he knows that he cannot prove it ? his first proof , he takes from my popish adversaries , about the inconsistency of proving a deity , by such infallible arguments , as must suppose the existence of what we prove ; as all infallibility from divine assistance must do . but did i ever say , there was no certainty without infallible assistance ? and yet this whole matter about certainty , as to the proof of a god , and the christian religion , i had so lately cleared in my last answer to the papists , which he refers to in this very place , that he could not but be convinced of the impertinency of it . his main argument he pretends to bring from a principle of my own ; for his words are , he lays down this for a principle , that the foundation of all certainty lies in the necessary existence of a being absolutely perfect ; how then , saith he , shall we come to prove his existence by such demonstration , cui non potest subesse falsum ? and then he adds , that i have excluded all demonstration from the works of god , because we must first know , that there is an invisible god , before we can certainly know , that there is a visible world. but if i make it evident , that i lay down no such principles of my own ; and that i do particularly insist upon the certainty of proving a god from his works , what doth this man deserve for his calumnies ? first , that which he saith i lay down for a principle , i only propose as an i●serence from the hypothesis of other men. for my words are , and if that principle be supposed , as the foundation of all physical certainty , as to the being of things , that there is a god : — i say , if that principle be supposed . from hence appears a double falsification . . that i make it the principle of all certainty , whereas i expresly set down in their hypothesis physical certainty as to the being of things ; but , is there no certainty but what is physical ? what thinks he of mathematical , or metaphysical certainty ? so that there might be a mathematical or metaphysical certainty of the being of god , though this principle were allowed . how then doth this prove , that i render it impossible , by any certain argument , to prove the existence of a deity ? . that i make it a principle of my own , whereas i only suppose it as following from a principle of others . to clear this , it will be necessary 〈◊〉 lay down the scope of that discourse , which was to prove , that there is a certainty of faith , as well as of sense ; and to that end i shewed from the nature of the certainty of sense , that it doth fall short of mathematical demonstrations ; which having done from other arguments , i then consider their hypothesis , who derive all physical certainty from the knowledge of god , who will not suffer mens minds to be deceived in clear perceptions ; then from this principle being supposed , i infer several things for the advantage of the certainty of faith. . that the foundation of all certainty , i. e. such as was before spoken of , lies in the necessary existence of a being absolutely perfect . which i deduce as ● just inference from the former hypothesis ; and therefore on this supposition , something above our comprehension , viz. absolute perfection , must be made the foundation of our certain knowledge of things , and so the difficulty of our conception of matters of faith , ought to be no hindrance to the certainty of faith. . that we have as great , or greater reason to believe , that god will not suffer us to be deceived in matters of faith , as in the objects of our senses because as i there argue , there is no sue● great danger of being deceived , or in being deceived in the objects of sense , as in the matters of faith. let any man now iudge , whether this be the discourse of one that rendred it impossible , by any certain argument , to prove the existence of a deity ? or that i laid down that as a principle of my own , from which being supposed , i deduce such inferences as prove the certainty of faith hath no greater difficulties , than the certainty of sense . secondly , i am so far from excluding the certainty of the argument from the works of god to prove his being , that i particularly and largely insist upon it from p. . to p. . but he pretends that i bring no argument but from the idea of god in our minds , wich is so false , that ( . ) i make use of that argument only to slex , that the notion of a god hath no inconsistency in it , nothing repugnant to the faculties of our minds : as appeas by that very place he quotes : ( . ) the main arguments i insist upon , are , that the things in the world are the manifest effects of divine wisdom , goodness and power : and that there be such things in the world which are unacceptable without a deity . let any man now iudge , with what conscience or ingenuity , this man hath managed such an accusation against me ▪ as that i go upon such principles , as plainly render it impossible , by any certain argument , to prove the existence of a deity . but it may be he will pretend , that he did not design to prove me atheistical , but only to shew , that i acted very unreasonably , in requiring a greater certainty in them , as to the principles of separation , than i do allow in far greater things . as to his design i leave the reader to iudge by his way of preceeding in it . as to the colour he hath to bring it in , on the account of the grounds of separation , it is only this ; the sub-committee of the assembly arguing against the dissenting brethren , saith he , i say , that such tenderness of conscience , as ariseth out of an opinion ( cui potest subesse falsum ) which may be false , is not a sufficient ground , &c. to justifie separation . but here is a dangerous &c. in the middle of a sentence , which made me look again into the papers , and there i find such words left out , as fully explain and determine the sense ; for the whole sentence runs thus . we much doubt , whether such tenderness of conscience , as ariseth out of an opinion , cui potest subesse falsum , when the conscience is so tender , as that it may be withal an erring conscience , can be a sufficient ground to justifie such a material separation as our brethren plead for . where we see , the force is not laid upon the bare possibility of deception ( for then no separation could be allowed in any case , since all men are fallible ) but upon the supposition of an actual deception , which an erroneous conscience supposes . for it is such a deception as doth suppose tenderness of conscience , which doth not arise from a possibility of being deceived , but from an error of conscience . the plea is , tenderness of conscience ; the question is , whether this plea be sufficient to justifie separation ? we much doubt it , say they , why so ? the other reply ; our reason is , because this tenderness may arise from an erroneous conscience . but why should you suspect an erroneous conscience in the case ? because persons are liable to be deceived in the dictates of conscience : especially when they go meerly upon their own apprehensions , without producing arguments ex naturâ rei . for all the debate between them about tenderness of conscience proceeded upon this . so that their meaning is not here to be taken as to the bare possibility of deception , but of such an opinion , as carried a great probability along with it , that they were actually deceived . and what coherence is there now between this , and the proof that i bring for the existence of a deity ? so that , it is apparent , that this was an occasion sought after , to lay as much load upon me as he could . and by this tast let the reader iudge , what ingenuity i am to expect from this man. the last who appeared against my sermon is called , the author of the christian temper , i was glad to find an adversary pretending to that ; having found so little of it in the answers of mr. b. and mr. a. his business is , to commit the rector of sutton with the dean of st. paul's : which was enough to make the common people imagine , this was some busie justice of peace who had taken them both at a conventicle . the whole design of that book doth not seem very agreeable to the christian temper which the author pretends to . for it is to pick up all the passages he could meet with ( in a book written twenty years since ) with great tenderness towards the dissenters , before the law 's were establish'd . as though , as mr cotton once answered in a like case , there were no weighty argument to be found , but what might be gather'd from the weakness or unwariness of my expressions . and , have you not very well requited the author of that book for the tenderness and pitty he had for you , and the concernment he then expressed , to have brought you i● , upon easier terms than were since required ? and , hath he now deserved this at your hands , to have them all thrown in his face , and to be thus upbraided with his former kindness ? is this your ingenuity , your gratitude , your christian temper ? are you afraid of having too many friends , that you thus use those , whom you once took to be such ? methinks herein you appear very self-denying , but i cannot take you to be any of the wisest men upon earth . when you think it reasonable , that upon longer time , and farther consideration , those divines of the assembly , who then opposed separation , should change their opinions ; will you not allow one single person , who happen'd to write about these matters when he was very young ; in twenty years time of the most busie and thoughtful part of his life , to see reason to alter his iudgment ? but after all this , wherein is it that he hath thus contradicted himself ? is it in the point of separation , which is the present business ? no , so far from it , that in that very book , he speaks as fully concerning the unlawfulness of separation , as in this sermon . which will appear by these particulars in it . ( . ) that it is unlawful to set up new churches , because they cannot conform to such practises which they suspect to be unlawful . ( . ) those are new churches when men erect distinct societies for worship under distinct and peculiar officers , governing by laws , and church rules , different from that form they separate from . ( . ) as to things in the judgment of the primitive and reformed churches left undeter●in'd by the law of god , and in matters of meer order and decency , and wholly as to the form of government , every one , notwithstanding what his private judgment may be of them , is bound for the peace of the church of god , to submit to the determination of the lawful governors of the church . allow but these three conclusions , and defend the present separation if you can . why then do you make such a stir about other passages in that book , and take so little notice of these , which are most pertinent and material ? was it not possible for you to espy them , when you ransacked every corner of that book , to find out some thing which might seem to make to your purpose ? and yet the very first passage you quote is within two leaves of these ; and two passages more you soon after quote , are within a page of them ; and another in the very same page ; and so many up and down so very near them , that it is impossible you should not see and consider them ? yes he hath at last found something very near them ; for he quotes the very pages where they are . and , he saith , he will do me no wrong , for i do distinguish , he confesses , between non-communion in unlawful or suspected rites or practises in a church , and entering into distinct societies for worship this is doing me some right however , although he doth not fully set down my meaning . but he urges another passage in the same place , viz. that if others cast them wholly out of communion , their separation is necessary — that is no more , than hath been always said by our divines in respect to the church of rome . but , will not this equally hold against our church , if it excommunicates those who cannot conform ? i answer , ( . ) our church doth not cast any wholly out of communion for meer scrupulous non-conformity in some particular rites . for , it allows them to communicate in other parts of worship ; as appeared by all the non-conformists of former times , who constantly joyned in prayers and other acts of worship , although they scrupled some particular ceremonies . ( . ) the case is vastly different , as to the necessity of our separation , upon being wholly cast out of communion by the church of rome ; and the necessity of others separating from us , supposing a general excommunication ipso facto against those who publickly defame the orders of this church for that is all which can be inferred from the canons . for , in the former case , it is not a lesser excommunication denounced , as it is only in our case against publick and scandalous offenders ( which is no more than is allowed in all churches ; and is generally supposed to lay no obligation , till it be duly executed , though it be latae sententiae & ipso facto ) but in the church of rome we are cast out with an anathema , so as to pronounce us uncapable of salvation , if we do not return to , and continue in their communion ; and this was it which that author meant , by being wholly cast out of communion , i. e. with the greatest and highest church censure . ( . ) that author could not possibly mean , that there was an equal reason in these cases , when he expresly determines , that in the case of our church , men are bound in conscience to submit to the orders of it ; being only about matters of decency and order , and such things which in the judgment of the primitive and reformed churches are left undetermined by the law of god. although therefore he might allow a scrupulous forbearance of some acts of communion , as to some suspected rites , yet upon the principles there asserted , he could never allow mens proceedings to a positive separation from the communion of our church . and so much shall serve to clear the agreement between the rector of sutton and the dean of st. pauls . but if any thing in the following treatise , be found different from the sense of that book , i do intreat them to allow me that which i heartily wish to them , viz. that in twenty years time we may arrive to such maturity of thoughts , as to see reason to change our opinion of some things ; and i wish i had not cause to add , of some persons too . there is one thing more which this author takes notice of , and the rest do not ( for else he offers little or nothing but what is in the others ) which is , that when i say our differences are condemned by the wiser protestants abroad , he saith , if it be so , they may thank their friends at home , that have misrepresented them to the world. therefore , to give satisfaction , as to the judgment of some of the most eminent and learned protestant divines abroad now-living , i have subjoyned to the following treatise , some late letters of theirs , to a person of great honor and dignity in our church , to shew the unlawfulness of separation from the communion of the church of england . which were not written by such , who had only a partial representation from others at a distance , but two of them by those who have been among us , and have been curious observers both of the separate meetings and of the customs of our churches ; and the third by the famous and excellent monsieur claude . and i● a council could be called of all the protestant churches in christendom , we should not doubt of their determination of the unlawfulness of the present separation . but before i conclude this preface , there is a great objection yet to be removed , which concerns the time of publishing this treatise ; which some do seem to think , to be very unseasonable ; when there is so much talk of union among protestants , and there appears a more general inclination to it than formerly . and what , say they , can the laying open the weakness of dissenters tend to , but to provoke and exasperate them , and consequently to obstruct the union so much desired ? in so doing , i shall appear to resent more the injuries done to my self , than the mischief which may come to the protestant religion , if this opportunity be not embraced for making an union among protestants . this is the force of the objection . to which i answer . god forbid that i should either design , or do any thing which tended to obstruct so blessed a work , as a firm and lasting vnion among protestants would be . but my business is , to shew the vnreasonableness of those principles and practises , which hinder men from such an vnion , and lay a foundation for perpetual and endless separations . for upon the principles laid down by some of our dissenting brethren , let the constitution be made never so easie to themselves , yet others may make use of their grounds , and carry on the differences as high as ever . which will render all attempts of vnion vain ; and leave the same weapons ready to be taken up by others . if the vnion so much talked of , be such as tends to the lessening , and not to the increasing of our differences ; if it be for strengthning and supporting the protestant religion , and not rather for weaking and betraying it , by laying it more open to the assaults of our enemies ; no man shall be more ready to promote it than i ; no man will rejoyce more in the accomplishment of it : but universal liberty is quite another thing from union ; as much as looseing is from binding up ; and it is strange if that which the papists , not long since , thought the best means to bring in popery , should now be looked on as the most effectual way to keep it out . but suppose the indulgence be at present strictly limited to dissenting protestants ; are we sure it shall always so continue ? will not the same reasons , as to scruple of conscience , suffering for religion , &c. extend farther when occasion serves , and the popish religion get footing on the dissenters grounds ? where hath the church of rome more labourers , and a greater harvest , than under the greatest liberty of conscience ? let the state of the northern kingdoms , as to this matter , be compared with the number of papists in the united provinces . and it will be found impossible to root out popery , where toleration is allowed . ( ) because of the various ways of creeping in under several disguises , which the priests and jesuits have ; and can never be prevented , where there is a general indulgence for dissenters , and an unaccountable church power is allowed to separate congregations . ( ) because it will be thought great hardship , when mens heats are over , for them only to be deprived of the liberty of their consciences , when the wildest fanaticks are allowed it . ( ) because the diversity of sects which will be kept up by this means , will be always thought a plausible argument to draw men to the popish pretences of unity . ( ) because the allowed sects will in probability grow more insolent upon a legal indulgence , and bid defiance to the settled constitution ; as we have seen already by the yet visible effects of the former indulgence . if laws would alter the temper of mens minds , and make proud , selfwilled , froward and passionate men , become meek , and humble , gentle and peaceable , then it were great pitty , some men had not had the law on their side long ago . but is this to be looked for ? are we to expect the laws of men should work more upon them than the grace of god ? if such then continue peevish and quarelsome , full of wrath and bitterness against all that are not of their minds ; and they meet with men as froward and contentious as themselves ; will this look like the union of protestants ? and by-standers will be apt to say , if this be all that you mean by union of protestants , viz. a liberty to pray and preach , and to write and dispute one against another , there seems to be much more of sense and reason in the papal pretence to unity and infallibility . but what then ? is there nothing to be done for dissenting protestants , who agree with us in all doctrinal articles of our church ; and only scruple the use of a few ceremonies , and some late impositions ? shall these differences still be continued , when they may be so easily removed ? and so many useful men be incouraged and taken into the constitution ? do we value a few indifferent ceremonies , and some late declarations , and doubtful expressions , beyond the satisfaction of mens consciences , and the peace and stability of this church ? as to this material question , i shall crave leave to deliver my opinion freely and impartially ; and that , i. with respect to the case of the people ; the terms of whose union with us , is acknowledged by our brethren to be so much easier than their own . but these are of two sorts : . some allow the use of the liturgy , but say they cannot joyn in communion with us , because the participation of the sacraments hath such rites and ceremonies annexed to it , which they think unlawful ; and therefore till these be removed or left indifferent , they dare not joyn with us in baptism or the lords supper ; because in the one the cross is used , and in the other kneeling is required . as to these i answer , ( ) upon the most diligent search , i could make into these things , i find no good ground for any scruple of conscience , as to the use of these ceremonies ; and as little as any as to the sign of the cross , as it is used in our church ; notwithstanding all the noise that hath been made about its being a new sacrament , and i know not what , but of this at large in the following treatise . ( ) i see no ground for the peoples separation from other acts of communion , on the account of some rites they suspect to be unlawful . and especially when the use of such rites is none of their own act , as the cross in baptism is not ; and when such an explication is annexed concerning the intention of kneeling of the lords supper , as is in the rubrick after the communion . ( ) notwithstanding , because the use of sacraments in a christian church ought to be the most free from all exceptions , and they ought to be so administred , as rather to invite than discourage scrupulous persons from joyning in them ; i do think it would be a part of christian wisdom and condescension in the governours of our church , to remove those bars from a freedom in joyning in full communion with us , which may be done , either by wholly taking away the sign of the cross ; or if that may give offence to others , by confining the use of it to the publick administration of baptism ; or by leaving it indifferent , as the parents desire it . as to kneeling at the lords supper , since some posture is necessary , and many devout people scruple any other , and the primitive church did in antient times , receive it in the posture of adoration ; there is no reason to take this away , even in parochial churches ; provided , that those who scruple kneeling do receive it , with the least offence to others , and rather standing than sitting , because the former is most agreeable to the practise of antiquity , and of our neighbour reformed churches . as to the surplice in parochial churches , it is not of that consequence , as to bear a dispute one way or other . and as to cathedral churches , there is no necessity of alteration . but there is another thing which seems to be of late much scrupled in baptism , viz. the use of god-fathers and god-mothers excluding the parents . although i do not question but the practice of our church may be justified ( as i have done it towards the end of the following treatise ) yet i see no necessity of adhering so strictly to the canon herein , but that a little alteration may prevent these scruples , either by permitting the parents to joyn with the sponsors , or by the parents publickly desiring the sponsors to represent them in offering the child to baptism ; or , which seems most agreeable to reason , that the parents offer the child to baptism , and then the sponsors perform the covenanting part , representing the child ; and the charge after baptism be given in common to the parents and sponsors . these things being allowed , i see no obstruction remaining , as to a full union of the body of such dissenters with us , in all acts of divine worship , and christian communion , as do not reject all communion with us as unlawful . . but because there are many of those , who are become zealous protestants , and plead much their communion with us in faith and doctrine , although they cannot joyn with us in worship , because they deny the lawfulness of liturgies , and the right constitution of our churches ; their case deserves some consideration , whether and how far they are capable of being made serviceable to the common interest , and to the support of the protestant religion among us ? to their case i answer , first , that a general unlimited toleration to dissenting protestants , will soon bring confusion among us , and in the end popery , as i have shewed already ; and a suspension of all the penal laws that relate to dissenters is the same thing with a boundless toleration . secondly , if any present favours be granted to such , in consideration of our circumstances , and to prevent their conjunction with the papists , for a general toleration , ( for if ever the papists obtain it , it must be under their name ) if , i say , such favour be thought fit to be shewed them , it ought to be with such restrictions and limitations , as may prevent the mischief which may easily follow upon it . for all such meetings are a perpetual reproach to our churches , by their declaring , that our churches are no true churches , that our manner of worship is unlawful , and that our church-government is antichristian ; and that on these accounts they separate from us , and worship god by themselves . but if such an indulgence be thought fit to be granted , i humbly offer these things to consideration . . that none be permitted to enjoy the priviledge of it , who do not declare , that they do hold communion with our churches to be unlawful . for it seems unreasonable to allow it to others , and will give countenance to endless and causeless separations . . that all who enjoy it , besides taking the test against popery , do subscribe the articles of our faith , because the pretence of this liberty is joyning with us in points of faith ; and this may more probably prevent papists getting in amongst them . . that all such as enjoy it , must declare the particular congregations they are of , and enter their names before such commissioners as shall be authorised for that purpose ; that so this may be no pretence for idle , loose , and profane persons , never going to any church at all . . that both preachers and congregations be liable to severe penalties , if they use any bitter or reproachful words , either in sermons or writings , against the established constitution of our churches ; because they desire only the freedom of their own consciences ; and the using this liberty will discover , it is not conscience , but a turbulent factions humour , which makes them separate from our communion . . that all indulged persons be particularly obliged to pay all legal duties to the parochial churches ( lest meer covetousness tempt men to run among them ) and no persons so indulged be capable of any publick office. it not being reasonable , that such should be trusted with government , who look upon the worship established by law as unlawful . . that no other penalty be laid on such indulged persons , but that of twelve pence a sunday for their absence from the parochial churches , which ought to be duly collected for the vse of the poor , and cannot be complained of as any heavy burden , considering the liberty they do enjoy by it . . that the bishops , as visitors appointed by law , have an exact account given to them , of the rule of their worship and discipline , and of all the persons belonging to the indulged congregations , with their qualities and places of abode ; and that none be admitted a member of any such congregation without acquainting their visitor with it , that so means may be used to prevent their leaving our communion , by giving satisfaction to their scruples . this power of the bishops cannot be scrupled by them , since herein they are considered as commissioners appointed by law. . that no indulged persons presume under severe penalties to breed up scholars , or to teach gentlemens sons university learning ; because this may be justly looked on as a design to propagate schism to posterity , and to lay a foundation for the disturbance of future generations . ii. as to the case of the ejected mininisters , i have these things to offer , . that bare subscription of the thirty six articles concerning doctrinal points , be not allowed as sufficient to qualifie any man for a living , or any church-preferment , for these reasons , first , any lay-man upon these terms may not only be capable of a living , but may take upon him to administer the sacraments ; which was never allowed in any well constituted church in the christian world. and such an allowance among us , in stead of setling and uniting us , will immediately bring things into great confusion , and give mighty advantage to the papists against our church . and we have reason to fear , a design of this nature , under a pretence of union of protestants , tends to the subversion of this church , and throwing all things into confusion , which at last will end in popery . secondly , this will bring a faction into the church , which will more endanger it than external opposition . for such men will come in triumphantly , having beaten down three of the thirty nine articles ; and being in legal possession of their places , will be ready to d●fie and contemn those who submitted to the rest , and to glory in their conquests , and draw followers after them , as the victorious confessors against prelacy and ceremonies . and can they imagin those of the church of england will see the reputation of the church , or their own , to suffer so much , and not appear in their own vindication ? things are not come to that pass , nor will they suddenly be , that the friends of the church of england will be either afraid , or ashamed to own her cause . we do heartily and sincerely desire union with our brethren , if it may be had on just and reasonable terms ; but they must not think , that we will give up the cause of the church for it , so as to condemn its constitution , or make the ceremonies unlawful , which have been hitherto observed and practised in it . if any expedient can be found out for the ease of other mens consciences , without reflecting on our own ; if they can be taken in , without reproach or dishonour to the reformation of the church ; i hope no true son of the church of england will oppose it . but if the design be to bring them in as a faction to bridle and controll the episcopal power , by setting up forty bishops in a diocese against one ; if it be for them to trample upon the church of england , and not to submit to its order and government upon fair and moderate terms , let them not call this a design of union , but the giving law to a party to oppose the church of england . and what the success of this will be , let wise men judge . thirdly , if a subcription to thirty six articles were sufficient by the statute el. c. . i do not understand how by virtue of that statute a man is bound publickly to read the thirty nine articles in the church , and the testimonial of his subscription , on pain of being deprived ipso facto , if he do not . for the l. ch. i. coke faith , that subscription to the articles is required by force of of the act of parliament eliz. c. . and he adds , that the delinquent is disabled and deprived ipso facto ; and that a conditional subscription to them was not sufficient , was resolved by all the judges in england . but how a man should be deprived ipso facto , for not subscribing , and reading the articles , as appears by the cases mentioned in coke ; and yet be required onely to subscribe to , by the same statute , is a thing too hard for me to conceive . . but notwithstanding this , if any temper can be found out , as to the manner of subscription , that may give ease to the scruples of our brethren , and secure the peace of the church , the desired union may be attained without that apparent danger of increasing the factions among us . and this i suppose may be done , by an absolute subscription to all those articles which concern the doctrine of the true christian faith , and the use of the sacraments ; and a solemn promise under their hand , or subscription of peaceable submission , as to the rest , so as not to oppose or contradict them , either in preaching or writing ; upon the same penalty as if they had not subscribed to the . which may be a more probable means to keep the church in quiet , than forceing a more rigorous subscription upon them , or leaving them at their full liberty . . as to the other subscription required , . jac. to the articles . the first is provided for , by the oaths of allegiance and supremacy . the third is the same with the subscription to the articles . and as to the second , about the book of common prayer , &c. it ought to be considered , ( ) whether , for the satisfaction of the scrupulous , some more doubtful and obscure passages may not yet be explained or amended ? whether the new translation of the psalms were not fitter to be used , at least in parochial churches ? whether portions of canonical scripture were not better put in stead of apocrypha lessons ? whether the rubrick about salvation of infants , might not be restored to its former place , in the office of confirmation , and so the present exceptions against it be removed ? whether those expressions which suppose the strict exercise of discipline , in burying the dead , were not better left at liberty in our present case ? such a review made by wise and peaceable men , not given to wrath and disputing , may be so far from being a dishonour to this church , that it may add to the glory of it . ( ) upon such a review , whether it be not great reason that all persons who officiate in the church , be not only tied to a constant use of it in all publick offices ; ( as often as they administer them ) which they ought in person frequently to do , but to declare at their first entrance upon a parochial charge , their approbation of the use of it , after their own reading of it , that so the people may not suspect them to carry on a factious design , under an outward pretence of conformity to the rules of the church they live in . ( ) whether such a solemn using the liturgy , and approbation and promise of the use of it , may not be sufficient , in stead of the late form of declaring their assent and consent , which hath been so much scrupled by our brethren ? these are all the things which appear to me reasonable to be allowed in order to an union , and which i suppose may be granted without detriment or dishonour to our church . there are other things very desireable towards the happiness and flourishing of this church , as the exercise of discipline in parochial churches , in a due subordination to the bishop ; the reforming the ecclesiastical courts as to excommunication , without prejudice to the excellent profession of the civil law ; the building of more churches in great parishes , especially about the city of london ; the retrenching pluralities ; the strictness and solemnity of ordinations ; the making a book of canons suitable to this age , for the better regulating the conversations of the clergy . such things as these , might facilitate our union , and make our church in spite of all its enemies become a praise in the whole earth . the zeal i have for the true protestant religion , for the honour of this church , and for a firm union among brethren , hath transported me beyond the bounds of a preface ; which i do now conclude with my hearty prayers to almighty god , that he , who is the god of peace , and the fountain of wisdom , would so direct the counsels of those in authority , and incline the hearts of the people , that we may neither run into a wilderness of confusion , nor be driven into the abysse of popery ; but that the true religion being preserved among us , we may with one heart and mind serve the only true god , through his only son jesus christ the prince of peace , and our alone advocate and mediator . amen . the contents . part i. an historical account of the rise and progress of separation . § . no separation in the beginning of the reformation , although there were then the same reasons which are now pleaded . the terms of communion being the same which were required by the martyrs in queen maries days . § . a true account of the troubles of francfurt . mr. b's mistake about them . § . the first causes of the dislike of our ceremonies . § . the reasons of retaining them at the time of reformation . § . the tendencies to separation checked by beza and other reformed divines abroad . § . the heats of the nonconformists gave occasion to separation . § . their zele against it , notwithstanding their representing the sinfulness and mischief of it . § , . the true state of the controversie between the separatists and nonconformists . § . their answers to the separatists reasons . § . the progress of separation . the schisms and divisions among the separatists the occasion of independency . that makes separation more inexcusable , by owning some of our churches to be true churches . § . the mischiefs which followed independency both abroad , and § . hither into england . § . the controversie stated between the divines of the assembly and the dissenting brethren . § . the cause of the assembly given up by the present dissenters . § . the old nonconformists iudgment of the unlawfulness of mens preaching here , when forbidden by laws , fully cleared from some late objections . part ii. of the nature of the present separation . § . the different principles of separation laid down . the things agreed on with respect to our church . § . the largeness of parishes a mere colour and pretence ; shewed from mr. b's own words . § . the mystery of the presbyterian separation opened . § . the principles of it as to the people . of occasional communion , how far owned , and of what force in this matter , shewed from parallel cases . § . the reasons for this occasional communion examined . § . of the pretence of greater edification in separate meetings , never allowed by the separatists or independents as a reason for separation . no reason for this pretence she●ed from mr. b's words . § . the principles of separation as to the ministry of our churches . of joyning with our churches as oratories . § . of the peoples judging of the worthiness and competency of their ministers . mr. b's character of the people . the impertinency of this plea as to the london separation . § . the absurdity of allowing this liberty to separate from mr. b's own words . § . the allowance be gives for separation on the account of conformity . what publick worship may be forbidden . § . the ministry of our church charged with usurpation in many cases , and separation allowed on that account . § . of separation from ithacian prelatists . § . that the schism doth not always lie on the imposers side , where the terms of communion are thought sinful . § . the principles of the independent separation , or of those who hold all communion with our church unlawful . § . the nature of separation stated and explained . § . the charge of separation made good against those who hold occasional communion lawful . § . the obligation to constant communion , where occasional communion is allowed to be lawful , at large proved . § . the objection from our saviours practice answered . § . the text phil. . . cleared from all objections . § . a new exposition of that text shewed to be impertinent . § . the charge of separation proved against those who hold all communion with us unlawful . § , . the mischief brought upon the cause of the reformation by it . the testimonies of forein protestant divines to that purpose . § . no possibility of union among the protestant churches upon their grounds , which hath been much wished for and desired by the best protestants . § . all the ancient schisms justifiable on the same pretences . § . there can be no end of separation on the like grounds . mr. a's plea for schism at large considered . § . the obligation on christians to preserve the peace and unity of the church . the cases mentioned wherein separation is allowed by the scripture . in all others it is proved to be a great sin . part iii. of the pleas for the present separation . sect. . the plea for separation from the constitution of the parochial churches considered . sect. . iustice hobart's testimony for congregational churches answered . sect. . no evidence in antiquity for independent congregations . sect. . the church of carthage governed by episcopal power , and not democratical in s. cyprian's time . sect. , . no evidence in scripture of more churches than one in a city , though there be of more congregations . sect. . no rule in scripture to commit church-power to a single congregation ; but the general rules extend it further . sect. . of diocesan episcopacy ; the question about it stated . but one bishop in a city in the best churches , though many assemblies . sect. . diocesan episcopacy clearly proved in the african churches . the extent of s. austin's diocess . sect. . diocesan episcopacy of alexandria . the largeness of theodoret's diocese : the testimony of his epistle cleared from all mr. b's . late objections . sect. . diocese episcopacy not repugnant to any institution of christ proved from mr. b. himself . sect. . the power of presbyters in our church . sect. . the episcopal power succeeds the apostolical , proved from many testimonies . sect. . what power of discipline is left to parochial churches , as to admission . sect. . whether the power of suspension be no part of church discipline . sect. , . of the defect of discipline ; and whether it overthrows the being of our parochial churches . sect. . of national churches , and the grounds on which they are built . sect. . the advantages of national churches above independent congregations . sect. . mr. b's . quaeries about national churches answered . the notion of the church of england explained . sect. . what necessity of one constitutive regent part of a national church . sect. . what consent is necessary to the union of a national church . sect. . other objections answered . sect. . of the peoples power of choosing their own pastors . not founded in scripture . sect. . the testimony of antiquity concerning it fully inquired into . the great disturbances of popular elections : the ganons against them . the christian princes interposing . the ancient rights of nomination and presentation . the practice of foreign protestant churches . no reason to take away the rights of patronage to put the choice into the peoples hands . objections answered . sect. . no unlawfulness in the terms of our communion . of substantial parts of worship . the things agreed on both sides . sect. . the way of finding the difference between their ceremonies and parts of divine worship cleared . sect. . the difference of the popish doctrine from ours as to ceremonies . sect. . the sign of the cross a rule of admission into our church , and no part of divine worship . sect. no new sacrament . mr. b's . objections answered . sect. . his great mistakes about the papist's doctrine concerning the moral casuality of sacraments . sect. . of the customs observed in our church , though not strictly required . sect. . of the censures of the church against opposers of ceremonies , and the force of excommunication ipso facto . sect. . of the plea of an erroneous conscience in the case of separation . sect. . of scruples of conscience still remaining . sect. . of the use of godfathers and godmothers in baptism . sect. . no ground of separation because more ceremonies may be introduced . sect. . no parity of reason as to the dissenters pleas for separating from our church , and our separation from the church of rome . an appendix containing several letters of eminent protestant divines abroad , shewing the unreasonableness of the present separation from the church of england . letter of monsieur le moyn , — p. of monsieur le angle , — p. of monsieur claude , — p. errata in the preface . page . marg . r. church history l. p. . p. . l. . after find insert in . p. . l. . for s. paul r. the apostle , p. . l. . r. follows . p. . l. . for our r. one . in the book . p. . l. . for ( ) r. ( ) p. . l. . r. secession . p. . l , . r. as will. l. . r. for which . l. ult . r. cameron . p. , l , . dele for before say they . p. . l. . r. their teachers . p. . l. . dele whether . an historical account of the rise and progress of the controversie about separation . part . i. sect. i. for our better understanding the state of this controversie , it will be necessary to premise these two things . . that although the present reasons for separation would have held from the beginning of our reformation , yet , no such thing was then practised , or allowed , by those who were then most zealous for reformation . . that when separation began , it was most vehemently opposed by those non-conformists who disliked many things in our church , and wished for a farther reformation . and from a true account of the state of the controversie then , it will appear , that the principles owned by them , do overthrow the present practise of separation among us . in the making out of these , i shall give a full account of the rise and progress of this controversie about separation from the communion of our church . i. that although the present reasons for separation would have held from the beginning of the reformation , yet no such thing was then practised , or allowed by those who were then most zealous for reformation . by separation we mean nothing else , but withdrawing from the constant communion of our church , and ioyning with separate congregations for greater purity of worship , and better means of edification . by the present reasons for separation we understand such as are at this day insisted on , by those who pretend to justifie these practises ; and those are such , as make the terms of communion with our church to be unlawful . and not one of all those , which my adversaries at this time hope to justifie the present separation by , but would have had as much force in the beginning of the reformation . for our church stands on the same grounds ; useth the same ceremonies ( only fewer ; ) prescribes the same liturgy ( only more corrected ; ) hath the same constitution and frame of government ; the same defect of discipline ; the same manner of appointing parochial ministers ; and at least as effectual means of edification , as there were when the reformation was first established . and what advantage there is , in our present circumstances , as to the number , diligence and learning of our allowed preachers ; as to the retrenching of some ceremonies , and the explication of the meaning of others ; as to the mischiefs we have seen follow the practice of separation , do all make it much more unreasonable now , than it had been then . sect. ii. it cannot be denied , that there were different apprehensions concerning some few things required by our church in the beginning of the reformation ; but they were such things , as are the least scrupled now . rogers refused the wearing of a square cap , and tippet , &c. unless a difference were made between the popish priests and ours . hooper at first scrupled the episcopal habits , but he submitted afterwards to the use of them . bucer , and some others , disliked some things in the first common-prayer-book of edward the sixth , which were corrected in the second : so that upon the review of the liturgy there seemed to be little or no dissatisfaction left in the members of our church ; at least , as to those things which are now made the grounds of separation . for we read of none , who refused the constant use of the liturgy , or to comply with those very few ceremonies which were retained , as the cross in baptism , and kneeling at the communion , which are now thought such bugbears to scare people from our communion , and make them cry out in such a dreadful manner of the mischief of impositions ; as though the church must unavoidably be broken in pieces by the weight and burden of two or three such insupportable ceremonies . now we are told , that it is unreasonable that any should create a necessity of separation , and then complain of an impossibility of vnion . by whom ? at what time ? in what manner was this necessity of separation created ? hath our church made any new terms of communion , or alter'd the old ones ? no : the same author saith , it is perpetuating the old conditions , and venturing our peace in an old worm-eaten bottom , wherein it must certainly misc●rry . not to insist on his way of expression , in calling the reformation , an old worm-eaten bottom ; which ill be●omes them , that would now be held the most zealous protestants . i would only know , if those terms of communion which were imposed by the martyrs , and other reformers , and which are only continued by us , do , as this author saith , create a necessity of separation ; how then it came to pass , that in all king edward's dayes , there was no such thing as division in our church about them ? and even dr. ames , who searched as carefully as any into this matter , can bring no other instances of any differences then , but those of rogers and hooper : he adds indeed , that ridley and others agreed with hooper . wherein ? what , in opposing our ceremonies , when hooper himself yielded in that which he at first scrupled ? no , but there was a perfect reconciliation between them , before they suffered . and what then ? is there any the least colour of evidence , that before that reconciliation , either hooper or rogers held separate assemblies from the conformists , or that ridley ever receded from his stedfast adhering to the orders of this church ? this is then a very mean artifice , and disingenuous insinuation . for although ridley , in his letter to hooper , out of his great modesty and humility , seems to take the blame upon himself , by attributing the greater wisdom to hooper in that difference ; yet he doth not retract his opinion , but only declares the hearty love that he bore to him for his constancy in the truth . neither do we find that ever hooper repented of his subm●ssion , to which he was so earnestly perswaded , both by peter martyr , and martin bucer ; and peter martyr in his letter to bucer condemns his frowardness , and saith , that his cause was by no means approved by the wiser and better sort of men. but ames saith , mr. bradford might have been added , who calleth forked caps and tippets , antichristian pelf and baggage . suppose this were true , it proves no more than that a good man had an unreasonable scruple , and such as is thought so by our brethren themselves at this day . but did he ever divide the church on such an account as this ? did he set up separate congregations , because a square cap and a tippet would not go down with him ? no , he was a far better man than to do so . but if the whole words had been set down , the seeming force of these words had been taken away , for they are these ; the cogniza●ce of the lord standeth not in forked caps , tippets , shaven crowns , or such other baggage and artichristian pelf , but in suffering for the lords sake ; i.e. it is more a mark of gods service to suffer martyrdom as a protestant , than to be at ease as a romish priest , for he puts them altogether , caps , tippets , and shaven crowns . and what is this to the impositions of our church , or separation on the account of them ? dr. ames knew too much , to pretend to any thing like that in those times ; for there was no such thing as separation from our church then heard of , on the account of these dividing impositions . some furious anabaptists it may be , or secret papists then had separate meetings , of which ridley bids enquiry to be made , in his articles of visitation ; but no protestants , none that joyned in the articles of our fait● , and substantials of religion with our church , as dr. o. speaks , did then ap●●ehend any 〈◊〉 of separation from it ; not for 〈◊〉 of the a●●● sign of the cross ; nor kneeling at the communion ; nor the religious observation of holy-days ; nor the constant use of the liturgy ; nor any one of all the particulars mentioned by dr. o. which he saith , makes our communion unlawful and separation from it to be necessary . how come these terms of communion to be so unlawful now ; which were then approved by such holy , learned , and excellent men as our first reformers ? were they not arrived to that measure of attainments , or comprehension of the truths of the gospel , that men in our age are come to ? is it credible , that men of so great integrity , such indefatigable industry , such profound judgment , as cranmer and ridley , who were the heads of the reformation , should discern no such sinfulness in these things , which now every dissenting artificer can cry out upon , as unlawful ? is it possible , that men that sifted every thing with so much care themselves , and made use of the best help from others , and begg●d the divine assistance , should so fatally miscarry in a matter of such might importance to the souls of men ? could not latimer , or bradford , or such holy and mortified men as they , discern so much as a mote of unlawfulness in those times , which others espy such beams in now ? what makes this wonderful difference of eye-sight ? were they under a cloudy , and dark , and iewish dispensation ; and all the clear gospel light of division and separation reserved for our times ? did they want warmth and zeal for religion , who burnt at the stake for it ? doth god reveal his will to the meek , the humble , the inquisitive , the resolute minds ? and would he conceal such weighty things from those who were so desirous to find the truth , and so resolved to adhere to it ? if diocesan episcopacy , and the constitution of our church were such an unlawful thing , as some now make it , it is strange such men should have no suspition of it , no not when they went to suffer ? for as h. iacob , the old nonconformist , saith , in answer to iohnson the separatist , did not m. cranmer hold himself for arch-bishop still , and that he was by the pope unjustly and unsufficiently deposed , and by queen mary forcibly restrained from it ? did he ever repent of holding that office to his death ? also did not ridley stand upon his right to the bishoprick of london though ready to die ? latimer , though he renounced his bishoprick , yet he kept his ministery , and never repented him of it . philpo● never disliked his archdeaconry : yea , when he refused bloody bonner , yet he appealed to his ordinary the bishop of winchester . the like mind is to be seen in bishop farrar . and generally , whosoever were ministers then of the prelats ordination , they never renounced it , though they died martyrs . johnson indeed quotes some passages of bradford , hooper , and bale against the hierarchy ; but he notoriously misapplies the words of bradford , which are , the time was when the pope was out of england , but not all popery ; which he would have understood of the times of reformation , under edward vi. whereas he speaks them expresly of king henry's days . and it is not credible , hooper should think the hierarchy unlawful , who ( as it is generally believed ) had the administration of two bishopricks at once . bale's words were spoken in henry viii . his time ; and could not be meant of a protestant hierarchy , for he was after a bishop himself . but h. iacob answers to them all , that supposing these men disliked the hierarchy , it made the stronger against the principles of separation : seeing for all that , they did not refuse to communicate and partake with them then as true christians . and that not only occasionally and at certain seasons , but they maintained constant and fixed communion with our church as the members of it . sect. . thus matters stood as to communion with our church in the days of edward vi. but as soon as the persecution began in queen mary's time , great numbers were forced to betake themselves to foreign parts , whereof some went to zurick , others to basil , others to strasburg , and others to frankford . grindal in a letter to b. ridley , saith they were nigh students and ministers then in exile : these , with the people in all other places , geneva excepted , kept to the orders established in our church ; but at frankford some began to be very busie in reforming our liturgy , leaving out many things , and adding others ; which occasioned the following troubles of frankford . the true ground whereof is commonly much mis-represented . mr. baxter saith , the difference was between those which strove for the english liturgy , and others that were for a free-way of praying , i.e. as he explains it , from the present sense and habit of the speaker : but that this is a great mistake , will appear from the account published of them , a. d. . by one that was a friend to the dissenting party . from which it appears , that no sooner were the english arriv'd at frankford , but the minister of the french congregation there , came to them and told them , he had obtained from the magistrates the freedom of a church for those who came out of england , but especially for the french ; they thanked him and the magistrates for so much kindness , but withal let them understand this would be little benefit to the english , unless they might have the liberty of performing all the offices of religion in their own tongue upon an address made to the senate , this request was granted them ; and they were to make use of the french church at different times , as the french and they could agree , but with this express proviso , that they should not dissent from the french in doctrine , or ceremonies , lest they should thereby minister occasion of offence . but afterwards , it seems , the magistrates did not require them to be strictly tied up to the french ceremonies , so they did mutually agree . upon this , they perused the english order , and endeavour'd to bring it as near as they could to the french model , by leaving out the responses , the letany , surplice , and many other things ; and adding a larger confession , more suitable to the state and time ; after which a psalm was sung ; then the minister , after a short prayer for divine assistance ( according to calvins custom ) was to proceed to the sermon ; which being ended , then followed a general prayer for all estates , particularly for england , ending with the lords prayer ; and so repeating the articles of the creed , and another psalm sung , the people were dismissed with the blessing . by which we see , here was not the least controversie , whether a liturgy or not ; but whether the order of service was not to be accommodated , as much as might be , to the french model . however , when they sent to the english in other places to resort thither , by reason of the great conveniencies they enjoy'd , and acquainted them with what they had done ; it gave great offence to them , which they expressed in their letters . those of zurick sent them word , they determined to use no other order , than that which was last established in england ; and in another letter , they desire to be assured from them , that if they removed thither , they should all joyn in the same order of service concerning religion , which was in england last set forth by king edward . to this the congregation of frankford returned answer , that they could not , in all points , warrant the full vse of the book of service , which they impute to their present circumstances , in which they suppose such alterations would be allowed ; but they intended not hereby to deface the worthy lawes and ordinances of king edward . these learned men of strasburg , understanding their resolutions , send grindall to them with a letter subscribed by ; wherein they intreat them , to reduce the english church there , as much as possible , to the order lately set forth in england , lest , say they , by much altering of the same , they should seem to condemn the chief authors thereof , who , as they now suffer , so are they most ready to confirm that fact with the price of their bloods ; and should also both give occasion to our adversaries to accuse our doctrine of imperfection , and us of mutability ; and the godly to doubt of that truth wherein before they were perswaded , and to hinder their coming thither , which before they had purposed . and to obtain their desire , they tell them , they had sent persons for that end to negotiate this affair with the magistrates , and , in case they obtained their request , they promised to come and joyn with them ; and they did not question the english in other places would do the same . notwithstanding the weight of these reasons , and the desireableness of their brethrens company in that time of exile , they persist in their former resolutions , not to have the entire english liturgy ; for by this time knox was come from geneva , being chosen minister of the congregation : however , they returned this answer to strasburg , that they made as little alteration as was possible ; for , certain ceremonies the country would not bear ; and they did not dissent from those which lie at the ransom of their bloods for the doctrine , whereof they have made a most worthy confession . about this time , some suggested , that they should take the order of geneva , as farthest from superstition ; but knox declined this , till they had advised with the learned men at strasburg , zurick , emden , &c. knowing , that the odium of it would be thrown upon him . but finding their zeal and concernment for the english liturgy , he , with whittingham , and some others , drew up an abstract of it , and sent it to calvin , desiring his judgment of it . who , upon perusal of it , being throughly heated in a cause , that so nearly concerned him , writes a very sharp letter , directed to the brethren at frankford ; gently rebuking them for their unseasonable contentions about these matters , but severely reproving the english divines who stood up for the english liturgy , when the model of geneva stood in competition with it . and yet after all his censures of it , he confesses . the things he thought most unfit , were tolerable ; but he blames them , if they did not choose a better , when they might choose ; but he gives not the least incouragement to separation if it were continued ; and he declares for his own part , how easie he was to yield , in all indifferent things , such as external rites are . and he was so far , in his judgment , from being for free prayer , or making the constant use of a liturgy a ground of separation , as dr. o. doth , that when he delivered his opinion , with the greatest freedom , to the then protector , about the best method of reformation , he declares , that he did mightily approve a certain form , from which men ought not to vary , both to prevent the inconveniencies which some mens folly would betray them to , in the free way of praying ; and to manifest the general consent of the churches in their prayers ; and to stop the vain affectation of some who love to be shewing some new things . let mr. br. now judge , whether it were likely that the controversie then at frankford , was , as he saith , between them that were for the english liturgy , and others that were for a free way of praying ; when calvin , to whom the dissenters appealed , was so much , in his judgment , against the latter . and it appears , by calvin's letter to cox and his brethren , that the state of the case at frankford had not been truly represented to him ; which made him write with greater sharpness than otherwise he would have done ; and he expresses his satisfaction , that the matter was so composed among them , when by dr. cox his means , the english liturgy was brought into use at frankford . and to excuse himself for his liberal censures before , he mentions lights , as required by the book , which were not in the second liturgy of edward the sixth . so that either they deceived him , who sent him the abstract ; or he was put to this miserable shift to defend himself ; the matter being ended contrary to his expectation . for , although upon the receipt of calvin's letter , the order of geneva had like to have been presently voted in , yet there being still some fast friends to the english service , they were fain to compromise the matter , and to make use of a mixt form for the present . but , dr. cox , and others , coming thither from england , and misliking these alterations , declared . that they were for having the face of an english church there ; and so they began the letany next sunday ; which put knox into so great a rage , that in stead of pursuing his text ( which was directly contrary ) he made it his business , to lay open the nakedness of our church , as far as his wit and ill will would carry him . he charged the service-book with superstition , impurity , and imperfection ; and the governors of our church with slackness in reformation , want of discipline , with the business of hooper , allowing pluralities ; all the ill things he could think on . when cox and his party ( with whom , at this time , was our excellent iewel ) were admitted among them , they presently forbad knox having any thing farther to do in that congregation ; who being complained of soon after for treason against the emperor , in a book by him published , he was forced to leave the city , and to retire to geneva ; whither most of his party followed him . and thus saith grindal , in his letter to bishop ridley , the church at frankford was well quieted by the prudence of mr. cox , and others , which met there for that purpose . sect. . it is observed by the author of the life of bishop jewel ( before his works ) that this controversie was not carried with them out of england , but they received new impressions from the places whither they went. for as those who were exiles in henry the eighth's time ( as particularly hooper , who lived many years in switzerland ) brought home with them a great liking of the churches model , where they had lived ( which being such as their country would bear , they supposed to be nearer apostolical simplicity , being far enough from any thing of pomp , or ceremony ) which created in them an aversion to the ornaments and vestments here used : so now , upon this new persecution , those who had friendship at geneva , as knox , and whittingham , or were otherwise much obliged by those of that way , as the other english were , who came first to frankford , were soon possessed with a greater liking of their model of divine service , than of our own . and when men are once engaged in parties , and several interests , it is a very hard matter to remove the prejudices which they have taken in , especially when they have great abettors , and such , whose authority goes beyond any reason with them . this is the true foundation of those unhappy differences , which have so long continued among us , about the orders and ceremonies of our church . for when calvin and some others found , that their counsel was not like to be followed in our reformation , our bishops proceeding more out of reverence to the ancient church , than meer opposition to popery ( which some other reformers made their rules ) they did not cease by letters , and other wayes , to insinuate , that our reformation was imperfect , as long as any of the dregs of popery remained . so they called the vse of those ceremonies , which they could not deny to have been far more ancient than the great apostasy of the roman church . calvin , in his letter to the protector , avows this to be the best rule of reformation , to go as far from popery as they could ; and therefore what habits and ceremonies had been abused in the time of popery were to be removed , lest others were hardened in their superstition thereby : but at last he yields to this moderation in the case ; that such ceremonies might be reteined as were easie , and fitted to the capacities of the people ; provided they were not such , as had their beginning from the devil , or antichrist , i.e. were not first begun in the time of popery . now , by this rule of moderation our church did proceed ; for it took away all those ceremonies which were of late invention . as in baptism , of all the multitude of rites in the roman church , it reserved , in the second liturgy , only the cross after baptism ; which was not so used in the roman church ; for there the sign of the cross is used in the scrutinies before baptism ; and the anointing with the chrysm in vertice after it ; in stead of these , our church made choice of the sign of the cross after baptism , being of uncontroulable antiquity , and not used till the child is baptized . in the eucharist , in stead of fifteen ceremonies required in the church of rome , our church hath only appointed kneeling . i say appointed , for although kneeling at the elevation of the host , be strictly required by the roman church , yet in the act of receiving it is not ; ( as manifestly appears by the popes manner of receiving , which is not kneeling , but either sitting , as it was in bonaventures time ; or after the fashion of sitting , or a little leaning upon his throne , as he doth at this day ) therefore our church taking away the adoration at the elevation , lest it should seem to recede from the practise of antiquity , which received the eucharist in the posture of adoration then used , hath appointed kneeling to be observed of all communicants . in stead of the great number of consecrated vestments in the roman church , it only retained a plain linnen garment , which was unquestionably used in the times of st. hierome , and st. augustin . and lastly , as to the episcopal habits , they are retained only as a mark of distinction of a certain order of men ; the colour of the chimere being changed from scarlet to black. these are now the ceremonies , about which all the noise and stir hath been made in our church ; and any sober , considering man , free from passion , and prejudice , would stand amazed at the clamour and disturbance which hath been made in this church , and is at this day , about the intolerable mischief of these impositions . sect. . but the most material question they ever ask , is , why were these few retained by our reformers , which were then distastful to some protestants , and were like to prove the occasion of future contentions ? i will here give a just and true account of the reasons which induced our reformers either to retain , or to apoint these ceremonies , and then proceed . . out of a due reverence to antiquity . they would hereby convince the papists they did put a difference between the gross and intolerable superstitions of popery , and the innocent rites and practises which were observed in the church before . and what could more harden the papists , then to see men put no difference betwen these ? it is an unspeakable advantage which those do give to the papists , who are for reforming years backward , and when they are pinch'd with a testimony of antiquity , presently cry out of the mystery of iniquity working in the apostles times : as though every thing which they disliked , were a part of it . next to the taking up arms for religion , which made men look on it as a faction and design , there was scarce any thing gave so great a check to the progress of the reformation in france , especially among learned and moderate men , as the putting no difference between the corruptions of popery , and the innocent customs of the ancient church . for the time was when many great men there , were very inclinable to a reformation ; but when they saw the reformers oppose the undoubted practises of antiquity , equally with the modern corruptions , they cast them off , as men guilty of an unreasonable humor of innovation ; as may be seen in thuanus , and fran. baldwins ecclesiastical commentaries , and his answers to calvin and beza . but our reformers , although they made the scripture the only rule of faith , and rejected all things repugnant thereto ; yet they designed not to make a transformation of a church , but a reformation of it ; by reducing it as near as they could , to that state it was in , under the first christian emperors , that were sound in religion ; and therefore they retained these few ceremonies as badges of the respect they bore to the ancient church . ii. to manifest the iustice and equity of the reformation ; by letting their enemies see , they did not break communion with them for meer indifferent things . for some of the popish bishops of that time were subtle and learned men , as gardiner , heath , tonstall , &c. and nothing would have rejoyced them more , than to have seen our reformers boggle at such ceremonies as these ; and they would have made mighty advantage of it among the people . of which we have a clear instance in the case of bishop hoopers scrupling the episcopal vestments . peter martyr tells him plainly , that such needless scrupulosity would be a great hindrance to the reformation . for , saith he , since the people are with difficulty enough brought to things necessary , if we once declare things indifferent to be unlawful , they will have no patience to hear us any longer . and , withall , hereby we condemn other reformed churches , and those ancient churches , which have hitherto to been in great esteem . iii. to shew their consent with other protestant churches , which did allow and practice the same , or more ceremonies , as the lutheran churches generally did . and even calvin himself , in his epistle to sadolet , declared , that he was for restoring the face of the antient church ; and in his book of the true way of reformation , he saith , he would not contend about ceremonies , not only those which are for decency , but those that are symbolical . oecolampadius looked on the gesture at the sacrament , as indifferent . bucer thought the use of the sign of the cross after baptism neither indecent nor unprofitable . since therefore , so great a number of protestant churches used the same ceremonies ; and the chief leaders of other reformed churches thought them not unlawful , our first reformers for this , and the foregoing reasons , thought it fit to retain them , as long as they were so few , so easie both to be practised and understood . sect. . but the impressions which had been made on some of our divines abroad , did not wear off , at their return home , in the beginning of queen elizabeths reign . for they reteined a secret dislike of many things in our church ; but the act of vniformity being passed , and the vse of the liturgy strictly enjoyned ; i do not find any separation made then on the account of it ; no , not by the dissenting brethren , that withdrew from frankford to geneva ; knox was forbidden to preach here , because of some personal reflections on the queen ; but whittingham , sampson , gilby , and others , accepted of preferment and imployment in the church . the bishops , at first , shewed kindness to them , on the account of their forward and zealous preaching , which at that time was very needful ; and therefore many of them were placed in london . where , having gained the people by their zeal and diligence in preaching , they took occasion to let fall at first their dislike of the ceremonies , and a desire of farther reformation of our liturgy ; but finding that they had gained ground , they never ceased , till by inveighing against the livery of antichrist , as they called the vestments and ceremonies , they had inflamed the people to that degree , that gilby himself insinuates , that if they had been let alone a little longer , they would have shaken the constitution of this church . this was the first occasion of pressing vniformity with any rigor ; and therefore some examples were thought fit to be made for the warning of others . but as kindness made them presumptuous , so this severity made them clamorous ; and they sent bitter complaints to geneva . beza , after much importunity , undertook to give an answer to them ; which being of great consequence to our present business , i shall here give a fuller account of it . we are then to understand , that about this time , the dissenting party being exasperated , by the silencing some of their most busie preachers , began to have separate meetings ; this beza takes notice of in his epistle to grindal bishop of london ; and it appears , by an examination taken before him , th of iune . of certain persons , who were accused not only for absenting themselves from their parish churches ; but for gathering together and making assemblies , using prayers and preachings , and ministring sacraments among themselves ; and hiring a hall in london under pretence of a wedding , for that purpose . the bishop of london first rebuked them for their lying pretences , and then told them , that in this severing themselves from the society of other christians , they not only condemned them , but also the whole state of the church reformed in king edward's dayes , which was well reformed according to the word of god ; yea , and many good men have shed their . blood for the same , which your doings condemn . have ye not , saith he , the gospel truly preached , and the sacraments ministred accordingly , and good order kept , although we differ from other churches in ceremonies , and in indifferent things , which lie in the princes power to command , for order sake ? to which one of them answered , that as long as they might have the word freely preached , and the sacraments administred , without the preferring of idolatrous gear about it , they never assembled together in houses : but their preachers being displaced by law for their non-conformity , they be thought themselves what was best for them to do ; and calling to mind , that there was a congregation there in the dayes of queen mary , which followed the order of geneva , they took up that , and this book and order , saith he , we hold . another answered , that they did not refuse communion for preaching the word , but because they had tied the ceremonies of antichrist to it ; and set them up before it , so that no man may preach , or minister the sacraments without them . things being come to this height , and separation beginn●ng to break out , the wiser brethren thought not fit to proceed any farther , till they had consulted their oracle at geneva . beza being often solicited by them , with doleful complaints of their hard usage , and the different opinions among themselves , what they were to do , at last resolves to answer ; but first he declares , how unwilling he was to interpose in the differences of another church , especially when but one party was heard ; and he was afraid , this was only the way to exasperate and provoke more , rather than cure this evil , which he thought was not otherwise to be cured , but precibus & patientiâ , by prayers and patience . after this general advice , beza freely declares his own judgment , as to the reformation of several things he thought amiss in our church ; but as to the case of the silenced preachers , and the peoples separation , he expresses his mind in that manner , that the dissenters at this day , would have published their invectives against him , one upon the back of another . for ( . ) as to the silenced ministers , he saith , that if the pressing subscription continued , he perswades them rather to live privately than to yield to it . for , they must either act against their consciences , or they must quit their imployments ; for , saith he , the third thing that may be supposed , viz. that they should exercise their function against the will of the queen and the bishops , we tremble at the thoughts of it , for such reasons , as may be easily understood , though we say never a word of them . what! is beza for silencing , and stopping the mouths of such a number of faithful and able ministers ; and at such a time , when the church was in so great necessity of preaching , and so many souls like to be famished for the want of it ? when st. antholins , st. peters , st. bartholomews , at which gilby saith their great preaching then was , were like to be left destitute of such men ? would beza , even beza , at such a time , as that , be for silencing so many preachers , i. e. for their sitting quiet , when the law had done it ; and would not he suffer them to preach , when they ought to have done it , though against the will of the queen and the bishops ? it appears that beza was not of the mind of our adversaries , but that he was of the contrary , it appears plainly by this , that before he perswades the dissenting ministers rather to live privately than to subscribe ; and that he expresses no such terrible apprehensions at their quitting their places , as he doth at their preaching in opposition to the laws . ( ) as to the case of the people , his advice was , as long as the doctrine was sound , that they should diligently attend upon it , and receive the sacraments devoutly , and to joyn amendment of life with their prayers , that by those means they might obtain a through reformation . so that nothing can be more express against s●paration , than what is here said by beza : for , even as to the ministers , he saith , though he did not approve the ceremonies , yet since they are not of the nature of things evil in themselves , he doth not think them of that moment , that they should leave their functions for the sake of them ; or that the people should forsake the ordinances , rather than hear those who did conform . than which words , nothing can be plainer against separation . and it further appears , by beza ' s resolution of a case concerning a schism in the french church then in london ; that he looked on it as a sin , for any one to separate from a church , wherein sound doctrine , and a holy life , and the right use of the sacraments is kept up . and , by separation , he saith , he means , not meerly going from one church to another , but the discontinuing communion with the publick assemblies , as though one were no member of them . beza's authority being so great with the dissenting brethren at that time , seems to have put an effectual stop to the course of separation , which they were many of them , then inclined to . but , he was not alone among the foreign divines , who , about that time , expressed themselves against separation from the communion of our church , notwithstanding the rites and ceremonies herein used . for gualter , a divine of good reputation in the helvetian churches , takes an occasion in an epistle to several of our bishops to talke of the difference then about these things ; and he extremely blames the morose humor of those , who disturbed the church for the sake of such things , and gave an occasion thereby to endless separations . and in an epistle to cox bishop of ely , . he tells him , how much they had disswaded them from making such a stir in the church , about matters of no moment : and he complains grievously of the lies and prejudices against our church , which they had sent men on purpose to possess them with , both at geneva and other places . zanchy , upon great sollicitation , wrote an earnest letter to the queen to remove the ceremonies ; but withal he sent another to bishop iewel , to perswade the non-conformists , if the queen could not be moved , not to leave their churches on such accounts , which , for his part , he did not understand how any could lawfully do ; as long as they had otherwise liberty to preach the gospel , and administer the sacraments , although they were forced to do something therein , which did not please them ; as long as the things were of that kind , which in themselves were neither good nor evil . and the same reason will much more hold against the peoples s●paration . sect. . but about this time , the dissenting party much increasing , and most of the old and peaceable non-conformists being dead , or unfit for business ; the management of their affairs fell into the hands of younger and fiercer men. who thought their predecessors too cold in these matters ; insomuch , that honest iohn fox complained of the factious and turbulent spirit which had then possessed that party , although himself a moderate non-conformist ; and he saith , they despised him , because he could not rail against bishops , and archbishops as they did ; but if he could be as mad as they , they would be kinder to him . and therefore he soberly adviseth the governors of the church to look well after this sort of men ; for , saith he , if they prevail , it is not to be imagin'd , what mischief and disturbance they will bring ; whose hypocrisie is more subtle and pernicious then that of the old monks ; for , under a pretence of greater purity , they will never give over , till they have brought men under a iewish slavery . these new men , full of bitter zeal , despised the old trifling controversie about garments and ceremonies , they complained , that all was out of order in the church , and nothing but a new and thorough reformation would please them . for , in the admonition presented to the parliament , eliz. they complain for want of a right ministry , a right government in the church according to the scriptures , without which ( they say ) there could be no right religion . the liturgy they deride , as c●lled and picked out of the popish dunghill , the portuise and mass-book ; the government of the church by arch-bishops and bishops they call devillish and antichristian ; and condemn the vocation of the clergy , as popish and vnlawful ; and add , that the sacraments are mangled , and profaned , that baptism is full of childish and superstitious toys . all which , and many more expressions of a like nature , are extant in the first and second admonitions . which bold and groundless assertions , being so openly avowed to the world , by the leaders of the dissenting party , gave the true occasion to the following practise of separation . for when these things were not only published in the name of the party , being the pleas for peace at that time , but stifly maintained with greater heat , than learning , it is easie to imagine , what impressions such things would make on the common sort of people ; who have still a good inclination to find fault with their governors , especially in the church , and to admire those that oppose them . and these they courted most , having their opinions so suited to vulgar capacities , that they apprehended their interest carried on together with that of purity of reformation . hence they pleaded then , as others do at this day , for the peoples right to choose their bishops and pastors against the vsurpations , as they accounted them , of princes and patrons ; hence they railed against the pomp and greatness of the clergy , which is always a popular theme ; and so would the exposing the inequality of mens estates be , if men durst undertake it , with as great hopes of impunity . besides , it was not a little pleasant to the people , to think , what a share they should come to in the new seigniory , as they called it , or presbytery , to be erected in every parish ; and what authority they should exercise over their neighbours , and over their minister too by their double votes . by such arts as these , they complied with the natural humors of the people , and so gained a mighty interest amongst them ; as the anabaptists in germany and switzerland at first did , upon the like grounds . which made bullinger , in an epistle to robert bishop of winchester , parallel the proceedings of this party here , with that of the anabaptists with them in those countries ; for , saith he , we had a sort of people here , to whom nothing seemed pure enough in our reformation , from whence they brake out into separation , and had their conventicles among us , upon which followed sects and schisms , which made great entertainment to our common enemies , the papists . just thus it happened here , these hot reformers designed no separation at present ; which they knew would unavoidably bring confusion along with it ; for , that was laying the reins on the peoples ne●ks , and they would run whither they pleased , without any possibility of being well managed by them ; but since these men would refine upon the present constitution of our church , there soon arose another sort of men , who thought it as fit to refine upon them . they acknowledged they had good principles among them , but they did not practise according to them : if our church were so bad as they said , that there was neither right ministery , nor right government , nor right sacraments , nor right discipline ; what follows , say they , from hence , but that we ought to separate from the communion of so corrupt a church , and joyn together to make up new churches for the pure administration of all gospel ordinances ? the leaders of the non-conformists finding this party growing up under them , were quickly apprehensive of the danger of them ; because the consequence seemed so natural from their own principles ; and the people were so ready to believe , that nothing but worldly considerations of interest and safety kept them from practising according to them . which was a mighty prejudice against them in the minds of the separatists , as appears by robinsons preface to his book of communion . sect. . ii. the separation being now begun , the non-conformists set themselves against it , with the greatest vehemency . which is the second thing i am to make out . as for those of the separation , saith parker a noted non-conformist , who have confuted them more than we ? or , who have written more against them ? and in a letter of his , he expresseth the greatest detestation of them . now it grieved me not a little , at this time , saith he , that satan should be so impudent , as to fling the dung of that sect into my face , which , with all my power , i had so vehemently resisted , during the whole course of my ministery in england : i think no other , but that many of them love the lord , and fear his name ; howbeit their error being enemy to that breast of charity , wherewith cyprian covered his , qui ab ecclesiâ nunquam recessit , as augustin speaketh ; they cannot stand before his tribunal , but by the intercession of our blessed saviour . father forgive them for they know not what they do . think not these words are applyed to their sect amiss ; for , in effect , what doth it less than even persecute the lord jesus in his host , which it revileth ; in his ordinances , which it dishonoreth ; and in his servants last of all , whose graces it blasphemeth , whose footsteps it slandereth , and whose persons it despiseth . and two characters he gives of the men of that way , viz. that their spirits were bitter above measure , and their hearts puffed up with the leaven of pride . how far these characters still agree to the defenders of the present separation , i leave others to judge . when brown and harrison openly declared for separation , t. c. himself undertook to answer them , in a letter to harrison . his example was soon followed by others of his brethren , who wrote the admonition to the followers of brown , and the defence of that admonition . when barrow and greenwood published their four reasons for separation , three of which they took out of the admonition to the parliament , viz. vnlawful ministry , antichristian government , and false worship ; gifford , a non-conformist at maldon in essex , undertook to answer them in several treatises . and it is observable , that these non-conformists charge the brownists with making a vile , notorious , and damnable schism , because they withdrew from the communion of our churches , and set up new ones of their own . gifford not only calls them schismaticks , but saith , they make a vile schism , rending themselves from the church of england ; and condemning by their assertions , the whole visible church in the world , even as the donatists did of old time : and he adds , that the end of brownism , as it was then called , is infinite schismes , heresies , atheism and barbarism . and the same author , in his second book , reckoning up the ill effects of this separation among the people , hath these remarkable words . now look also on the people , where we may see very many , who not regarding the chief christian vertues , and godly duties , as namely , to be meek , to be patient , to be lowlie , to be full of love and mercy , to deal vprightly and iustly , to guide their families in the fear of god , with wholsome instructions , and to stand fast in the calling in which god hath set them , give themselves wholly to this , even as if it were the sum and pith of religion , namely , to argue and talk continually against matters in the church , against bishops and ministers , and one against another on both sides . some are proceeded to this , that they will come to the assemblies to hear the sermons and prayers of the preacher , but not to the prayers of the book , which i take to be a more grievous sin than many do suppose . but yet this is not the worst , for sundry are gone further , and fallen into a damnable schism ; and the same so much the more fearful and dangerous , in that many do not see the foulness of it , but rather hold them as godly christians , and but a little over-shot in these matters . but that this man went upon the principles of the non-conformists , appears , by his stating the question , in the same preface . for , i shewed , saith he , in express words , that i do not meddle at all in these questions , whether there be corruptions and faults in our church , condemned by gods word ; whether they be many or few ; whether they be small or great ; but only thus far , whether they be such , or so great , as make our churches antichristian . barrow saith , that this gifford was one that ioyned with the rest of the faction in the petition to the parliament against the english hierarchy : and it appears by several passages of his books that he was a non-conformist ; and he is joyned with cartwright , hildersham , brightman , and other non-conformists , by the prefacer to the desence of bradshaw against iohnson : and i find his name in one of the classes in essex at that time . the author of the second answer for communicating , who defends t. cs. letter to harrison , browns colleague against separation , proves ioyning with the church a duty necessarily enjoyned him of god by his providence , through his being and placing in a particular church , and justly required of him by the church , or spiritual body , through that same inforcing law of the coherence , and being together of the parts and members , which is the express ordinance of god. so that , saith he , unless i hold the congregation , whereof i am now , disanulled , and become no church of christ , for the not separating an unworthy member , i cannot voluntarily either absent my self from their assemblies to holy exercises , or yet depart away being come together , without breach of the bond of peace , sundring the cement of love , empairing the growth of the body of christ , and incurring the guilt of schism and division . to the same purpose he speaks elsewhere . richard bernard calls it , an vncharitable and lewd schism which they were guilty of . but i need not mention more particular a●thors , since in the grave confutation of the errors of the separatists , in the name of the non-conformists , it is said , that because we have a true church , con●●ting of a lawful ministery , and a faithful people , therefore they cannot separate themselves from us , but they must needs incur the most shameful and odious reproach of manifest schism . and concerning the state of the persons who lived in separation , they say , we hold them all to be in a dangerous estate , ( we are loth to say in a damnable estate ) as long as they continue in this schism . sect. . but , for our farther understanding the full state of this controversie , we must consider , what things were agreed on both sides , and where the main points of difference lay . . the separatists did yield the doctrine , or faith of the church of england true and sound , and a possibility of salvation in the communion of it . in their apology presented to king iames , thus they speak ; we testifie by these presents unto all men , and desire them to take knowledge hereof , that we have not forsaken any one point of the true ancient catholick and apostolick faith professed in our land ; but hold the same grounds of christian religion with them still . and the publisher of the dispute about separation , between iohnson and iacob , saith , that the first separatists never denied , that the doctrine and profession of the churches of england , was sufficient to make those that believed and obeyed them , to be true christians , and in the state of salvation , but always held , professed , and acknowledged the contrary . barrow saith , that they commended the faith of the english martyrs , and deemed them saved , notwithstanding the false offices , and great corruptions in the worship exercised : and in the letter to a lady a little before his death , he saith , he had reverend estimation of sundry , and good hope of many hundred thousands in england ; though he utterly disliked the present constitution of this church , in the present communion , ministry , worship , government , and ordinances ecclesiastical of these cathedral and parishional assemblies . . the separatists granted , that separation was not justifiable from a church , for all blemishes and corruptions in it . thus they express themselves in their apology , neither count we it lawful for any member to forsake the fellowship of the church , for blemishes and imperfections , which every one , according to his calling , should studiously seek to cure , and to expect and further it , until either there follow redress , or the disease be grown incurable . and in the article of the confession of their faith , written by iohnson and ainsworth , they have these words . none is to separate from a church rightly gathered and established , for faults and corruptions , which may , and so long as the church consisteth of mortal men , will fall out and arise among them , even in true constituted churches , but by due order to seek the redress thereof . but in the case of our church they pleaded , that the corruptions were so many and great , as to overthrow the very constitution of a church . so barrow saith , they do not cut off the members of our church from gods election , or from christ , but from being members of a true constituted church . on the other side , the non-conformists granted there were many and great corruptions in our church , but not such as did overthrow the constitution of it , or make separation from our parochial assemblies to be necessary , or lawful . so that the force of all their reasonings against separation lay in these two suppositions . . that nothing could justifie separation from our church , but such corruptions which overthrew the being , or constitution of it . . that the corruptions in our church were not such , as did overthrow the constitution of it . the making out of these two will tend very much to the clear stating of this present controversie . . that nothing could iustifie separation from our church , but such corruptions which overthrow the being or constitution of it . barrow and his brethren , did not think they could satisfie their consciences in separation , unless they proved our churches to be no true churches . for , here they assign the four causes of their separation to be ; want of a right gathering our churches at first ; false worship ; antichristian ministery and government : these reasons , say they , all men may see prove directly these parish assemblies not to be the true established churches of christ , to which any faithful christian may joyn himself in this estate ; especially , when all reformation unto the rules of christ's testament is not only denied , but resisted , blasphemed , persecuted . these are the words of the first , and chiefest separatists , who suffered death rather than they would foregoe these principles . we condemn not , say they , their assemblies , barely for a mixture of good and bad , which will alwayes be , but for want of an orderly gathering , or constitution at first : we condemn them not for some faults in the calling of the ministry , but for having and reteining a false antichristian ministry imposed upon them : we forsake not their assemblies for some faults in their government , or discipline , but for standing subject to a popish and antichristian government . neither refrain we their worship for some light imperfections , but because their worship is superstitious , devised by men idolatrous , according to that patched popish portuise their service-book ; according unto which their sacraments , and whole administration is performed , and not by the rules of christ's testament . so that these poor deluded creatures saw very well , that nothing but such a charge , which overthrew the very being and constitution of our churches ( the doctrine of faith being allowed to be sound ) could justifie their separation : not meer promiscuous congregations , nor mixt communions ; not defect in the exercise of discipline ; not some corruptions in the ministry or worship ; but such gross corruptions as took away the life and being of a church ; as they supposed idolatrous worship , and an antichristian ministry to do . if mr. giffard , saith barrow , can prove the parish assemblies in this estate true and established churches , then we would shew him how free we are from schism . the same four reasons are insisted on as the grounds of their separation in the brownists apology to king iames , by ainsworth , iohnson , and the rest of them . ainsworth frames his argument for separation thus . that church which is not the true church of christ and of god , ought not , by any true christian , to be continued , or communicated with ; but must be forsaken , and separated from ; and a true church sought , and ioyned unto , &c. but the church of england is before proved , not to be the true church of christ , and of god , therefore it ought to be separated from , &c. by which we see , the greatest separatists that were then , never thought it lawful to separate from our churches , if they were true . on the other side , those who opposed the separation , with greatest zeal , thought nothing more was necessary for them , to disprove the separation , then to prove our churches to be true churches . r. brown ( from whom the party received their denomination ) thought he had a great advantage against cartwright ( the ringleader of the non-conformists ) to prove the necessity of separation , because he seemed to make discipline essential to a church ; and therefore since he complained of the want of discipline here , he made our church not to be a true church , and consequently that separation was necessary . t. c. answers , that church assemblies are builded by faith only on christ the foundation , the which faith so being , whatsoever is wanting of that which is commanded , or remaining of that which is forbidden , is not able to put that assembly from the right and title of so being the church of christ. for that faith can admit no such thing , as giveth an utter overthrow , and turning upside down of the truth . his meaning is , wherever the true doctrine of faith is received and professed , there no defects or corruptions can overthrow the being of a true church , or iustifie separation from it . for , he addeth , although besides faith in the son of god , there be many things necessary for every assembly ; yet be they necessary to the comely and stable being , and not simply to the being of the church . and in this respect , saith he , the lutheran churches , ( which he there calls the dutch assemblies ) which beside the maym of discipline , which is common to our churches , are grossely deceived in the matter of the supper , are notwithstanding holden in the roll of the churches of god. was not jerusalem , saith he , after the return from babylon , the city of the great king , until such time as nehemias came and builded on the walls of the city ? to say therefore it is none of the church , because it hath not received this discipline , methinks is all one with this , as if a man would say , it is no city , because it hath no wall : or that it is no vineyard , because it hath neither hedge , nor ditch . it is not , i grant , so sightly a city , or vineyard , nor yet so safe against the invasion of their several enemies which lie in wait for them ; but yet they are truly both cities and vineyards . and whereas t. c. seemed to make discipline essential to the church , his defender saith , he did not take discipline there strictly for the political guiding of the church , with respect to censures , but as comprehending all the behaviour concerning a church in outward duties , i. e. the duties of pastor and people . afterwards , as often as the non-conformists set themselves to disprove the separation , their main business was , to prove our churches to be true churches . as in a book , entituled , certain positions h●ld and maintained by some godly ministers of the gospel , against those of the separation ; which was part of that book , afterwards published by w. r. and called , a grave and modest confutation of the separatists . the ground-work whereof , as mr. ainsworth calls it , is thus laid . that the church of england is a true church of christ , and such a one , as from which whosoever wittingly and continually separateth himself , cutteth himself off from christ. if this was the ground-work of the non-conformists in those days ; those who live in ours , ought well to consider it , if they regard their salvation . and , for this assertion of theirs , they bring three reasons . . for that they enjoy , and ioyn together in the vse of these outward means , which god in his word hath ordained for the gathering of an invisible church ; i. e. preaching of the gospel , and administration of the sacraments . . for that their whole church maketh profession of the true faith : and hold and teach , &c. all truths fundamental . so we put their two reasons into one , because they both relate to the profession of the truth faith ; which , say they , is that which giveth life and being to a visible church : and upon this profession we find many that have been incorporated into the visible church , and admitted to the priviledges thereof , even by the apostles themselves . so the church of pergamus , though it did tolerate gross corruptions in it : yet because it kept the faith of christ , was still called the church of god. . for that all the known churches in the world acknowledge that church for their sister , and give unto her the right hand of fellowship . when h. iacob undertook fr. iohnson upon this point of separation , the position he laid down was this , that the churches of england are the true churches of god. which he proved by this argument . whatsoever is sufficient to make a particular man a true christian , and in state of salvation ; that is sufficient to make a company of men , so gathered together , to be a true church . but the whole doctrine , as it is publickly professed , and practised , by law in england , is sufficient to make a particular man a true christian , and in state of salvation ; and our publick assemblies are therein gathered together . therefore it is sufficient to make the publick assemblies true churches . and in the defence of this argument , against the reasons and exceptions of iohnson , that whole disputation is spent . and , in latter times , the dispute between ball and can , about the necessity of separation , runs into this , whether our church be a true church or not ; concerning which , ball thus delivers his judgment . true doctrine , in the main grounds and articles of faith , though mix't with defects and errors in other matters , not concerning the life and soul of religion , and the right administration of sacraments for substance , though in the manner of dispensation , some things be not so well ordered , as they might and ought , are notes and markes of a true and sound church , though somewhat crased in health and soundness , by errors in doctrine , corruptions in the worship of god , and evils in life and manners . the second supposition which the non-conformists proceeded on , was , sect. . ( . ) that the corruptions in our church were not such as did overthrow the being and constitution of it . this will best appear , by the answers they gave to the main grounds of separation . i. that our church was not rightly gathered at the time of our reformation from popery . to which giffard thus answers , the church of england in the time of popery , was a member of the vniversal church , and had not the being of a church of christ from rome , nor took not her beginning of being a church , by separating her self from that romish synagogue ; but having her spirits revived , and her eyes opened , by the light of the heavenly word , did cast forth that tyranny of antichrist , with his abominable idolatry , heresies , and false worship ; and sought to bring all her children unto the right faith , and true service of god ; and so is a purer , and more faithful church than before . others add , that the laws of christian princes have been a means to bring men to the outward society of the church , and so to make a visible church : neither were sufficient means wanting , in our case , for the due conviction of mens minds ; but then they add , that the question must not be , whether the means used were the right means , for the calling and converting a people to the faith ; but , whether queen elizabeth took a lawful course for recalling , and re-uniting of her subjects unto those true professors , whose fellowship they had forsaken ; which they iustifie , by the examples of jehoshaphat , and josiah , asa , and hezekiah . ii. that we communicate together in a false and idolatrous worship of god , which is polluted with reading stinted prayers , using popish ceremonies , &c. to this they answer ; . that it is evident by the word , that the church hath used , and might lawfully use , in god's worship , and prayer , a stinted form of words : and that not only upon ordinary , but extraordinary occasions , which requires an extraordinary and special fervency of spirit . nay , they say , they are so far from thinking them unlawful , that in the ordinary and general occasions of the church , they are many times more fit , than those which are called conceived prayers . . if formes , thus devised by men , be lawful and profitable , what sin can it be for the governors of the church , to command , that such fo●ms be used ; or , for us , that are perswaded of the lawfulness of them , to use them ? unless they will say , that therefore it is unlawful for us to hear the word , receive the sacraments , believe the trinity , and all other articles of faith , because we are commanded by the magistrates so to do : whereas indeed , we ought the rather to do good things , that are agreeable unto the word , when we know them also to be commanded by the magistrate ▪ . it is true , the non-conformists say , the liturgy is in great part picked and culled out of the mass book ; but it followeth not thence , that either it is , or was esteemed by them a devised or false worship ; for many things contained in the mass-book it self are good and holy . a pearl may be found upon a dunghil ; we cannot more credit the man of sin , than to say , that every thing in the mass-book is devillish and antichristian , for then it would be antichristian to pray unto god in the mediation of jesus christ , to read the scriptures , to profess many fundamental truths necessary to salvation . our service might be picked and culled out of the mass-book , and yet be free from all fault and tincture , from all shew and apperance of evil ; though the mass-book it self was fraught with all manner of abominations — but if it be wholly taken out of the mass-book , how comes it to have those things which are so directly contrary to the mass , that both cannot possibly stand together ? yea , so many points , saith b●ll , are there taught directly contrary to the foundation of popery , that it is not possible popery should stand , if they take place . and , saith he , it is more proper to say , the mass was added to our common prayer , than that our common prayer was taken out of the mass book : for most things in our common prayer , were to be found in the liturgies of the church , long before the mass was heard of in the world. . as to the fasts , and feasts , and ceremonies retained , they answer , that what was antichristian in them , was the doctrine upon which those practices were built in the church of rome , which being taken away by the reformation , the things themselves are not antichristian . as namely , saith giffard , the remission of sins , and merit of eternal life by fasting ▪ which is the doctrine of the romish church ; the worship and invocation of saints and angels ; the power of expelling devils by the sign of the cross , and such like things , which the papacy is full of , but rejected by us . iii. that our ministery was antichristian . to this they answer . . that antichrist is described in scripture , not by his unlawful outward calling , or office , that he should exercise in the church ; but first by the false doctrine he should teach ; and secondly by the authority he should vsurp , to give laws to mens consciences , and to rule in the hearts of men as god. which two marks of antichrist , as they may evidently be discerned in the papacy , so admit all the outward callings and offices in the church of england exercised , were faulty , and unwarrantable by the word , yet you in your own conscience know , that these marks of antichrist cannot be found among the worst of our ministers . for neither do the laws of our church allow any to teach false doctrine ; and we all profess christ to be the only law-giver to conscience ; neither is any thing among us urged to be done , upon pain of damnation , but only the word and law of god. . that the office , which our laws call the office of priesthood , is the very same in substance with the pastors office described in the word ; and the manner of outward calling unto that office , which the law alloweth , is the very same in substance which is set down in the vvord . doth the vvord enjoyn the minister to teach diligently ? so , by our laws , he is expresly charged at his ordination to do , and forbidden to teach any thing , as required of necessity to salvation , but that which he is perswaded may be concluded and proved by the scripture : yea , it commandeth him , with all faithful diligence , to banish , and drive away all erroneous and strange doctrines , that are contrary to gods vvord . doth the vvord authorise him , to administer the sacraments ? so doth our law. doth the vvord require that the minister should not only publickly teach , but also oversee , and look to the peoples conversation , exhorting , admonishing , reproving , comforting them as well privately as publickly ? so doth our law. lastly , doth the vvord authorise the minister to execute the censures and discipline of christ ? our law doth also command the same . so that , although many , to whom the execution of these things appertain , do grievously fail in the practice thereof , yet you see the office which the law enjoyneth to the minister , is the same in substance , with that which the vvord layeth upon him . tell us not then , that the same name is given to our office , as to the popish sacrificers . do you think the worse of your self because you are called brownists ? and , shall the holy office and calling , which is so agreeable to the vvord , be misliked , because it is called a priesthood ? considering , that though it agree in name , yet it differeth in nature and su●stance as much from the romish priesthood , as light doth from darkness . iv. that discipline is wanting in our church . to which they answer . . that the want or neglect of some of those ordinances of christ , which concern the discipline of his church , and the outward calling of his ministers , is no such sin , as can make either the ministers , or governors of our church antichrist , or our church an antichristian and false church . and mr. h. adds , that no one place of scripture can be found , wherein he is called an antichrist , or antichristian , who holding the truth of doctrine , and professing those articles of religion that are fundamental , as we do , doth swerve , either in iudgment , or practice , from that rule , which christ hath given for the discipline of his church . neither can you find any antichrist mentioned in scripture , whose doctrine is sound . if then the doctrine of our church be sound , vvhat vvarrant have you to call us antichrists ? if our pastors offer to lead you unto salvation , through no other door than christ , how dare you , that say you are christ's , refuse to be guided by them ? if our assemblies be built upon that rock , how can you deny them to be true churches ? that the substance of discipline is preserved among us ; in which they reckon preaching of the vvord , and administration of sacraments , as well as the censures of admonition , suspension , excommunication , and provision for the necessity of the poor ; which , say they , by law , ought to be in all our assemblies ; and therefore we cannot justly be said to be without the discipline of christ ; but rather that we having the discipline of christ ; which is most substantial , do want the other , and so exercise it not rightly , that is to say , not by those officers which christ hath appointed . and farther they add , that the laws of our land do authorize the minister to stay from the lords table , all such as are vncat●chised , and out of charity , or any otherwise publick offenders ; as appeareth in the rubrick before the communion , and in that which is after confirmation . . that although it were granted , that we wanted both the exercise of the churches censures , and some of those officers which christ hath appointed to exercise them by , yet might we be a true church notwithstanding : as there was a true church in judah all the days of asa and jehosaphat , yet was not the discipline reformed there till the latter end of jehoshaphat's reign . the church of corinth was a true church , even when the apostle blamed them for want of discipline . the congregation at samaria is called a church , before the discipline was established there . and even in jerusalem there was a famous visible church of christ long before sundry parts of the discipline ( for want whereof they condemn us ) were established there ; yea , it is evident , that by the apostles themselves divers churches were gathered some good space of time , before the discipline was setled , or exercised : by all which it is manifest , that how necessary soever those parts of the discipline ( which we want ) be , to the beauty and well-being , or preservation of the church ; yet are they not necessary to the being thereof ; but a true church may be without them . . that it doth not belong to private persons to set up the discipline of the church against the will and consent of the christian magistrate , and governors of the church : nay , they declare , that in so doing , they should highly offend god. giffard saith , that the fetters and chains , can no faster bind the hands and feet of brownists , then the hands of private men are bound with the bands of conscience , and the fear of god , from presuming to take upon them publick authority . and if all the brownists in the land should come together , and choose a minister and ordain him , it would make him no more a minister before god , then if all the apprentices in london , taking upon them to choose a lord mayor , and minister an oath unto him , should make him a lord mayor . but of this more afterwards . v. that the ministers of our church stand under ( as they speak ) an antichristian hierarchy . to which they answer , first , they deny that our bishops can be called antichristian , since they do , and by the laws of the land ought to hold and teach all doctrines that are fundamental ; yea , some of them have learnedly and soundly maintained the truth against hereticks , that have gainsay'd it ; some have not only by their doctrine and ministry converted many to the truth , but have suffered persecution for the gospel . secondly , suppose it were an antichristian yoke , which they deny ; yet this doth not destroy the being of a true church , or mi●istry under it . since both the jewish and christian churches , have frequently born such a yoke , and yet have been the true churches of god still . thirdly . that there is nothing unlawful , or antichristian in the office of bishops , if they consider them as the kings visitors and commissioners , to see that the pastors do their duties . and that this cannot destroy the nature of a visible church , to cast many particular churches , under one provincial , or diocesan government . yea , mr. bradshaw undertakes to prove this , not only lawful , but expedient , to that degree , that he thinks the magistrate cannot well discharge his duty , as to the oversight and government of the churches within his dominions , without it : as is implyed in the seven quaeries he propounds to fr. iohnson about it . but supposing them to be pastors of the churches under them , this , saith he , doth not overthrow the office of pastors to particular congregations , so long as under them they perform the main and substantial duties of true pastors ; which all the ministers of our church-assemblies do , and by the laws cought to do . these particulars i have laid together with all possible brevity and clearness , from the authors of best reputation on both sides , that we might have a distinct view of the state of the controversie about separation , between the old non-conformists , and the separatists of that time . sect. . but before we come to our present times , we must consider the alteration that was made in the state of this controversie , by those who were called independents , and pretended to come off from the principles of brownism , or rigid separation . and here i shall give an account of the progress of the course of separation , or the steps by which it was carried on ; and how it came at last to settle in the congregational way ; and what the true state of the difference was , between the assembly of divines , and the dissenting brethren ; and how far the reasons , then used , will hold against the present separation . when those who were called brownists , for the f●eer exercise of their new church way , withdrew into the low-countreys , they immediately fell into strange factions and divisions among themselves . a. d. . robert brown , accompanied with harrison a school-master , and about or persons , went over to middleburgh , and there they chose harrison pastor ▪ and brown teacher . they had not been there three months , but upon the falling out between brown and harri●on , brown forsakes them , and returns for england , and subscribes , promising to the archbishop , to live obediently to his commands . concerning whom , harrison writes to a friend in london in these words : indeed the lord hath made a breach among us for our sins , which hath made us unworthy to bear his great and worthy cause . mr. brown hath cast us off , and that with open , manifest , and notable treacheries , and if i should declare them , you could not believe me . only this i testifie unto you , that i am well able to prove , that cain dealt not so ill with his brother abel , as he hath dealt with me . some of the words of browns subscription , were these , i do humbly submit my self to be at my lord of canterbury's commandment , whose authority , under her majesty , i w●ll never resist , or deprave , by the grace of god , &c. but , being a man of a restless , and factious temper , no promises , or subscriptions could keep him within due bounds ; as one who lived at that time hath fully discovered . for , although he promised to frequent our churches , and to come to prayers and sacraments , yet , living school-master at s. olaves in southwark for two years , in all that time he never did it ; and when he was like to have been question'd for it , he withdrew into another parish . sometimes he would go to hear sermons , but that he accounted no act of communion ; and declared to his friends , that he thought it not unlawful to hear our sermons ; and therefore perswaded his followers in london so to do . notwithstanding this , he preached in private meetings , and that in the time of publick assemblies , when he thought fit ; which this author , though a non-conformist , and friend of t. cs , calls a cursed conventicle : who sets forth at large his strange iuglings , and iesuitical aequivocations in his subscription . by the bishops authority , he said he meant only his civil authority ; by declaring the church of england to be the church of god , he understood the church of his own setting up ; by frequenting our assemblies according to law , he meant , the law of god , and not of the land : he declared , his child was baptized according to law , but then told his followers , it was done without his consent mr. cotton , of new england , hath this passage concerning brown. the first inventor of that way , which is called brownism , from whom the sect took its name , fell back from his own way , to take a parsonage called i●ourc● ; god so , in a strange ( yet wise ) providence , ordering it , that he , who had utterly renounced all the churches in england , as no church ; should afterwards accept of one parish church among them , and it called , a church . but upon the dissention at middleborough , between brown and harrison , that congregation soon broke to pieces . ainsworth cannot deny the early dissentions between brown and harrison , brown and barrow , barrow and fr. iohnson ; but he reckons up all the differences in scripture from cain and abel downwards to justifie theirs ; notwithstanding , as dr. o. well observes , we are to distinguish between what falls out through the passions of men , and what follows from the nature of the thing . but one of their own party at amsterdam takes notice of a third cause of these dissentions , viz. the iudgment of god upon them . i do see , saith he , the hand of god is heavy upon them , blinding their minds , and hardening their hearts , that they do not see his truth , so that they are at wars among themselves , and they are far from that true peace of god which followeth holiness . there were two great signs of this hand of god upon them . first , their invincible obstinacy . secondly , the scandalous breaches which followed still one upon the other , as long as the course of separation continued ; and were only sometimes hindred from shewing themselves , by their not being let loose upon each other ; for then the firebrands soon appear , which at other times they endeavour to cover . their great obstinacy appears , by the execution of barrow and greenwood , who being condemned for seditious books , could no ways be reclaimed ; rather choosing to dye , than to renounce the principles of separation . but penry , who suffered on the same account about that time , had more relenting in him , as to the business of separation . for mr. i. cotton , of new-england , relates this story of him , from the mouth of mr. hildersham , an eminent non-conformist ; that he confessed , he deserved death at the queens hand , for that he had seduced many of her loyal subjects to a separation , from hearing the word of life in the parish churches , which though himself had learned to discover the evil of , yet he could never prevail to recover divers of her subjects whom he had seduced ; and therefore the blood of their souls was now justly required at his hands . these are mr. cotton's own words . concerning barrow , he reports from mr. dod's mouth , that when he stood under the gibbet , he lift up his eyes , and said , lord , if i be deceived , thou hast deceived me . and so being stopt by the hand of god , he was not able to proceed to speak any thing to purpose more , either to the glory of god , or edification of the people . these executions extremely startled the party , and away goes francis iohnson with his company to amsterdam ; iohnson chargeth ainsworth and his party with anabaptism , and want of humility and due obedience to government . in short , they fell to pieces , separating from each others communion : some say , they formally excommunicated each other ; but mr. cotton will not allow that , but , he saith , they only withdrew : yet those who were members of the church do say , that mr. johnson and his company , were accursed , and avoided by mr. ainsworth and his company : and mr. a. and his company were rejected and avoided by mr. johnson and his . and one church received the persons excommunicated by the other , and so became ridiculous to spectators , as some of themselves confessed . iohnson and his party charged the other with schism in separating from them : but , as others said , who returned to our church ; is it a greater sin in them to leave the communion of mr. johnson , than for him to refuse and avoid the communion of all true churches beside ? but the difference went so high , that iohnson would admit none of ainsworth's company without re-baptizing them ; ainsworth , on the other side , charged them with woful apostasy : and one of his own company said , that he lived and died in contentions . when robinson went from leyden , on purpose to end these differences , he complained very much of the disorderly and tumultuous carriage of the people ; which , with mr. ainsworths maintenance , was an early discovery of the great excellency of popular church-governm●nt . smith , who set up another separate congregation , was iohnson's pupil , and went over , in hopes , saith mr. cotton , to have gained his tutor from the errors of his rigid separation ; but he was so far from that , that he soon outwent him : and he charges the other separate congregations with some of the very same faults which they had found in the church of england , viz. ( . ) idolatrous worship ; for if they charged the church of england with idolatry , in reading of prayers ; he thought them equ●lly guilty in looking on their bibles , in preaching and singing . ( . ) antichristian government , in adding the human inventions of doctors , and ruling elders : which was pulling down one antichrist , to set up another ; and if one was the beast , the other was the image of the beast . being therefore unsatisfied with all churches , he began one wholly new , and therefore baptized himself . for , he declared , there was no one true ordinance with the other separatists . but this new church was of short continuance , for , upon his death , it dwindled away , or was swallowed up in the common gulf of anabaptism . and now one would have thought here had been an end of separation ; and so in all probability there had ; had not mr. robinson of leyden abated much of the rigor of it ; for he asserted , the lawfulness of communicating with the church of england in the word and prayer , but not in sacraments and discipline . the former he defended in a discourse between ainsworth and him . so that the present separatists , who deny that , are gone beyond him , and are fallen back to the principles of the rigid separation . robinson succeeded ( though not immediately ) iacob , in his congregation at leyden , whom some make the father of independency . but from part of mr. robinson's church , it spread into new england ; for mr. cotton saith , they went over thither in their church-state to plymouth ; and that model was followed by other churches there ; at salem , boston , watertown , &c. yet mr. cotton professeth , that robinson 's denyal of the parishional churches in england to be true churches ( either by reason of their mixt corrupt matter , or for defect in their covenant , or for excess in their episcopal government ) was never received into any heart , from thence to infer a nullity of their church state. and in his answer to mr. roger williams , he hath these words , that upon due consideration he cannot find , that the principles and grounds of reform●tion do necessarily conclude a separation from the english churches , as false churches ; from their ministery as a false ministry ; from their worship as a false worship ; from all their professors as no visible saints : nor can i find , that they do either necessarily , or probably conclude a separation from hearing the word preached by godly ministers in the parish churches in england . mr. r. williams urged mr. cotton with an apparent inconsistency between these principles and his own practice ; for although he pretended to own the parish churches as true churches , yet by his actual separation from them , he shewed , that really he did not ; and he adds , that separation did naturally follow from the old puritan principles ; saying , that mr. can hath unanswerably proved , that the grounds and principles of the puritans against bishops and ceremonies , and profaneness of people professing christ , and the necessity of christ ' s flock and disciples , must necessarily , if truly followed , lead on to , and inforce a separation . notwithstanding all this , mr. cotton doth assert the lawfulness of hearing english preachers in our parish churches ; but then , he saith , there is no church communion in hearing , but only in giving the seals . mr. williams urgeth , that there is communion in doctrine , and fellowship of the gospel . upon which , mr. cotton grants , that though a man may joyn in hearing , and prayer , before and after sermon ; yet not as in a church-state . yet , after all , he will not deny our churches to be true churches . but , if they remain true churches , it appears from the former discourse , they can never justifie separation from them ; upon the principles of either party . so that though those of the congregational way seem to be more moderate , as to some of their principles , then the old rigid separatists ; yet they do not consider , that by this means they make their separation more inexcusable . the dissenting brethren , in their apologetical narration , to avoid the imputation of brownism , deliver this as their judgment , concerning our parochial churches . and for our own congregations , viz. of england , we have this sincere profession to make before god and all the world , that all that conscience of the defilements , we conceived to cleave to the true worship of god in them , or of the vnwarranted power in church governors exercised therein , did never work in us any other thought , much less opinion , but that multitudes of the assemblies , and parochial congregations thereof , were the true churches and body of christ , and the ministery thereof a true ministery : much less did it ever enter into our hearts , to iudge them antichristian ; we saw , and cannot but see , that by the same reason , the churches abroad in scotland , holland , &c. ( though more reformed ) yet for their mixture , must be in like manner iudged no churches also ; which , to imagine , or conceive , is , and hath ever been an horror to our thoughts . yea , we have always professed , and that in those times when the churches of england were the most , either actually overspread with defilements , or in the greatest danger thereof ; and when our selves had least , yea no hopes of ever so much as visiting our own land again in peace and safety to our persons , that we both did and would hold communion with them as the church of christ. this is a very fair confession from the dissenting brethren ; but then the difficulty returns with greater force ; how comes separation from these churches to be lawful ? if they had gone upon the brownists principles , all the dispute had been about the truth or falshood of them ; but their truth being supposed , the necessity of separation followed ; whereas now , upon altering the state of the controversie by the independents , though their principles seem more moderate , yet their practice is more unreasonable . it is therefore a vain pretence used at this day , to justifie the separation , that they do not deny our churches to be true churches , and that therein they differ from the old separatists ; it is true ▪ in that opinion they do ; but in separation they agree , which is the more unjustifiable in them , since they yield so much to our churches . and yet herein , whatever they pre●end , they do not exceed their independent brethren , whose separation themselves condemned . but the presbyterians were then unsatisfied with this declaration of the dissenting brethren , and thought , it did not sufficiently clear them from the charge of brownism ; because ( . ) they agreed with the old separatists in the main principle of popular church government , which , they say , is inconsistent with the civil peace ; as may be seen , say they , in the quarrels both at amsterdam , and rotterdam ; and the law-suites depending before the magistrates there . ( . ) they overthrow the bounds of parochial churches , as the separatists did , and think such a confinement unlawful . ( . ) they make true saintship the necessary qualification of church members , as the separatists did : whereby , say they , they confound the visible , and invisible church , and make the same essential form of both . ( . ) they renounce the ordination received in our church , but all the allowance they make of a true ministry , is , by vertue of an explicit or implicit call , grounded on the peoples explicit or implicit covenant , with such a man as their pastor . for when they first began to set up a congregational church , after the new model , at rotterdam , ward was chosen pastor , and bridges teacher , but they both renounced their ordination in england ; and some say , they ordained one another ; others , that they had no other ordination , than what the congregation gave them . sect. . and now , new congregations began to be set up in holland , upon these principles ; but they again fell into divisions as great as the former . simpson renouncing his ordination , was admitted a private member of the church at rotterdam ; but he grew soon unsatisfied with the orders of that church , and thought too great a restraint was laid upon the private members , as to the exercise of prophecying ; and so he , and those who joyned with him , complaining of the mischief of impositions , were ready for a separation , if that restraint were not speedily removed . mr. bridge yields to the thing , but not as to the time , viz. on the lords day after sermon ; this gives no satisfaction , for they must have their will in every thing , or else they will never cease complaining of the mischief of impositions . and so mr. simpson , and his party , set up a new church of their own : which i. goodwin doth not deny ; for mr. simpson , saith he , upon dislike of some persons and things in that church , whereof mr. bridge was pastor , might seek and make a departure from it . but were these churches quiet , after this separation made ? so far from it , that the contentions and slanders were no less grievous , saith baylie , than those of amsterdam , betwixt ainsworth and johnsons followers ▪ but did not mr. bridges church continue in great quietness ? no , but in stead of that , they were so full of bitterness , reproaches , and hard censures , that mr. br●dge often declared , if he had known at first , what he met with afterwards , he would never have come amongst them , nor being amongst them , have given them such scope and liberty , as he had . it seems at last , he came to apprehend the necessity of impositions , and the mischief of a separating dividing humor . but the people having the power in their hands , were resolved to shew , that they held it not in vain ; for mr. ward , had it seems given offence to some of the congregation , by preaching the same sermons there , which he had preached before at norwich ; this , and some other frivolous things , were thought intolerable impositions ; and therefore against the will of mr. bridge , they depose mr. ward from his ministery . this being a fresh discovery of the great inconveniency of popular church government , gave a mighty alarm to the brethren : which occasion'd a meeting of the messengers from other churches ( as they called them ) for closing up of this wound ; but they durst not search deep into it , but only skinn'd it over , to prevent the great reproach and scandal of it . from these things , the presbyterians inferred the necessity of civil authorities interposing ; and of not leaving all to conscience . for , say they , conscience hath been long urging the taking away that scandal occasion'd at rotterdam by that schism , where divers members left the one church , and joyned to the other , so disorderly , wherein even the rulers of one church had a deep charge ; yet as that could not then be prevented , so there had been many meetings , sermons , and all means used to press the conscience of taking it off , by a re-union of the churches , and yet the way to do it could never be found , till the magistrates authority and command found it . these things i have more fully deduced ; not , as though bare dissentions in a church were an argument of it self against it ; but , to shew ( . ) that popular church government naturally leads to divisions , and leaves them without remedy ; and ( . ) that humerous and factious people will always complain of the mischief of impositions , though the things be never so just and reasonable ; and ( . ) that this principle of liberty of conscience , will unavoidably lead men into confusion : for when men once break the rules of order and government in a church , they run down the hill , and tumble down all before them . if men complain of the mischief of our impositions , the members of their own churches , may on the same grounds , complain of theirs ; and as the presbyterians cannot answer the independents , as to the pretence of conscience ; so it is impossible for either , or both of them , to answer the anabaptists , who have as just a plea for separation from them , as they can have from the church of england . sect. . from hence we find , that , although the pretence of the dissenting brethren seemed very modest , as to themselves ; yet they going upon a common principle of liberty of conscience , the presbyterians charged them with being the occasion of that horrible inundation of errors and schisms , which immediately overspread this city and nation : which i shall briefly represent in the words of the most ●●inent presbyterians of that time . thence 〈…〉 , a zealous scotch presbyterian , said , that he verily believed , independency cannot but prove the root of all schisms and heresies : yea , i add , saith he , that by consequence , it is much worse than pop●ry . then●e the scotch commissioners , in the first place , pres●ed vniformity in religion , as the only means to preserve peace , and to prevent many divisions and troubles ; a thing very becoming the king to promote , according to the practice of the good kings of judah ; and a thing which , they say , all sound divines and politicians are for . dr. corn. burgess told the house of commons , that our church was laid waste , and exposed to confusion , under the plausible pretence of not forcing mens consciences : and that , to put all men into a course of order and vniformity , in god's way , is not to force the conscience ; but to set up god in his due place , and to bring all his people into the paths of righteousness and life . the errors and innovations , under which we groaned so much of later years , saith mr. case , were but tolerabiles ineptiae , tolerable trifles , childrens play , compared with these damnable doctrines , doctrines of devils , as the apostle calls them : polygamy , arbitrary divorce , mortality of the soul ; no ministry , no churches , no ordinances , no scripture , &c. and the very foundation of all these laid in such a schism of boundless liberty of conscience , and such lawless separation of churches , &c. the famous city of london is become an amsterdam , saith mr. calamy , separation from our churches is countenanced , toleration is cried vp , authority asleep . it would seem a wonder , if i should reckon how many separate congregations , or rather segregations there are in the city ; what churches against churches , &c. hereby the hearts of the people are mightily distracted , many are hindred from conversion , and even the godly themselves have lost much of the power of godliness in their lives . the lord keep us , saith he , from being poysoned with such an error as that of an vnlimited toleration . a doctrine that overthroweth all church-government , bringeth in confusion , and openeth a wide door unto all irreligion and atheism . diversity of religion , saith mr. matthew newcomen , disjoynts and distracts the minds of men , and is the seminary of perpetual hatreds , iealousies , seditions , wars , if any thing in the world be ; and in a little time , either a schism in the state begets a schim in the church , or a schism in the church begets a schism in the state : i. e. either religion in the church is prejudiced by civil contentions , or church-controversies and disputes about opinions break out into civil wars . men will at last take up swords and spears in stead of pens ; and defend that by arms which they cannot do by arguments . these may serve for a taste of the sense of some of the most eminent presbyterian divines at that time , concerning the dangerous effects of that toleration which their independent brethren desired . the dissenting brethren finding themselves thus loaden with so many reproaches , and particularly with being the occasion of so many errors and schisms , published their apologetical narration in vindication of themselves , wherein ( as is said before ) they endeavour to purge themselves from the imputation of brownism ; declaring , that they looked on some of our churches as true churches , and our ministery , as a true ministery ; but yet they earnestly desire liberty , as to the peaceable practice of their own way . to this the presbyterians answered , first , that they did not understand by them , in what sense they allowed our churches to be true churches . secondly , if they did , what necessity there was for any separation , or what need of toleration . as to the sense in which they owned our churches to be true churches ; either they understood it of a bare metaphysical verity , as many of our divines , say they , grant it to the romish church ; that she is a true church , as a rotten infections strumpet is a true woman ; and then they thank them for their favour , that they hold our churches in the same category with rome : or else they understand it in a moral sense for sound and pure churches , and then , say they , why do ye not joyn with us , and communicate as brethren ? why desire ye a toleration ? yes , say the dissenting brethren , we own you to be true churches , and communicate with you in doctrine . to which the others reply'd , if you own it by external act of communion , ye must communicate with us in sacraments : but this ye refuse ; therefore ye must return to the old principles of separation . for where there was such a refusal of communion , as there was in them towards all churches besides their own , there must lie at the bottom the same principle of separation which was in the brownists . and , as mr. newcomen urged them , their agreeing with us in doctrines that are fundamental , their holding one head , and one faith , doth not excuse them from being guilty of breach of vnity , and downright schism , as long as they hold not one body , one baptism . for when men make different assemblies , and congregations , and draw men into parties , it is not their owning the same doctrine doth excuse them from schism , as he proves from st. augustin and beza . of which afterwards . but still they denied themselves to be brownists , or rigid separatists , because they separated from our congregations as no churches , and from the ordinances dispensed as antichristian , and from our people as no visible christians . to which the other replyed , that there was always a difference among the separatists themselves , some being more rigid than others ; and as to the last clause , none since barrow had owned it . but , for the rest , only putting vnlawful for antichristian ; and by ordinances , understanding church-ordinances , they own the very same principles as the others did . and although in words they seem to own our parochial congregations to be true churches ; yet having the same opinions with the more moderate brownists , touching church-constitution , matter , form , power , government , communion , corruptions , &c. the consequence must be , say they , that we have no true churches , and that our ordinances are all unlawful . and the less cause they have to plead for their separation , by acknowledging our churches to be true churches , their separation is so much the more culpable , and the grosser and more inexcusable the schism . for , it is a greater sin , saith bayly , to depart from a church , which i profess to be true , and whose ministry i acknowledge to be saving , than from a church which i conceive to be false , and whose ministers i take to have no calling from god ; nor any blessing from his hand . so that the independents were then charged with schism for these two things . first , for refusing communion with those churches , which they confessed to be true churches . for , say the members of the assembly , thus to depart from true churches , is not to hold communion with them as such , but rather by departing , to declare them not to be such . secondly , for setting up different congregations , where they confessed there was an agreement in doctrine . sect. . but because some men are so unwilling to understand the true state of this controversie about separation , between the divines of the assembly , and the independents , i shall here give a fuller account of it from the debates between them . the desire of the independents , as it was proposed by themselves at the committee for accommodation , dec. . . was this , that they may not be forced to communicate as members in those parishes where they dwell ; but may have liberty to have congregations of such persons who give good testimonies of their godliness , and yet out of tenderness of conscience , cannot communicate in their parishes , but do voluntarily offer themselves to joyn in such congregations . to which the divines of the assembly answered , decemb. . this desire is not to be granted them , for these reasons . . because it holds out a plain and total separation from the rule ; as if in nothing it were to be complied with ; nor our churches to be communicated with in any thing , which should argue church-communion . more could not be said , or done , against false churches . . it plainly holds out , the lawfulness of gathering churches out of true churches , yea out of such true churches , which are endeavouring farther to reform according to the word of god ; whereof we are assured , there is not the least hint of any example in all the book of god. . this would give countenance to a perpetual schism and division in the church , still drawing away some from the churches under the rule , which also would breed many irritations among the parties going away , and those whom they leave ; and again , between the church that should be forsaken , and that to which they should go . decemb. . the dissenting brethren put in their reply to these reasons . to the first reason , they say , ( . ) that gathering into other congregations such , who cannot , out of tenderness of conscience , partake as members in their churches , for the purer enjoyment ( as to their consciences ) of all ordinances yet still maintaining communion with them as churches , is far from separation , much less a plain and total separation . and this is not setting up churches against churches , but neighbour sister churches of a different iudgment . for , say they , if the purest churches in the world ( unto our iudgment , in all other respects ) should impose as a condition of receiving the sacrament of the lords supper , any one thing ; that such tender consciences cannot joyn in ( as suppose kneeling in the act of receiving , which was the case of scotland and england ) if they remove from these churches , and have liberty from a state to gather into other churches , to enjoy this and other ordinances , this is no separation . ( . ) that it is not a plain and total separation from the rule , unless they wholly in all things differ , by setting up altogether different rules of constitution , worship and government ; but they shall practice the most of the same things ; and these the most substantial , which are found in the rule it self . ( . ) that they would maintain occasional communion with their churches , not only in hearing and preaching , but occasionally , in baptising their children in their churches , and receiving the lords supper there , &c. and , would not all this clear them from the imputation of schism ? not agreeing in the main things ? not owning their churches to be true ? not maintaining occasional communion with them ? let us hear , what the divines of the assembly think of all this . thus they answer , first , that although tenderness of conscience may bind men to forbear , or suspend the act of communion in that particular , wherein men conceive they cannot hold communion without sin , yet it doth not bind to follow such a positive prescript , as possibly may be divers from the will and counsel of god , of which kind we conceive this of gathering separate churches out of true churches , to be one . secondly , it is one thing to remove to a congregation which is under the same rule , another to a congregation of a different constitution from the rule ; in the former case a man retains his membership ; in the latter he renounceth his membership upon difference of judgment , touching the very constitution of the churches , from and unto which he removes . thirdly , if a church do require that which is evil of any member , he must forbear to do it , yet without separation . they who thought kneeling in the act of communion , to be unlawful , either in england , or scotland , did not separate , or renounce membership , but did , some of them , with zeal and learning , defend our church against those of the separation . fourthly , the notion of separation is not to be measured by civil acts of state , but by the word of god. fifthly , to leave all ordinary communion in any church with dislike , when opposition or offence offers it self , is to separate from such a church in the scripture sense . sixthly , a total difference from churches is not necessary to make a total separation ; for the most rigid separatists hold the same rule of worship , and government with our brethren ; and under this pretence , novatians , donatists , all that ever were thought to separate , might shelter themselves . seventhly , if they may occasionally exercise these acts of communion with us once , a second , or third time , without sin , we know no reason why it may not be ordinary without sin ; and then separation and church-gathering would have been needless . to separate from those churches ordinarily and visibly , with whom occasionally you may joyn without sin , seemeth to be a most unjust separation . to the second reason , the dissenting brethren gave these answers . . that it was founded upon this supposition , that nothing is to be tolerated which is unlawful in the iudgment of those who are to tolerate : which the divines of the assembly denied ; and said , it was upon the supposition of the unlawfulness , to tolerate gathering of churches out of true churches : which they do not once endeavor to prove lawful . . that if after all endeavors , mens consciences are unsatisfied , as to communion with a church , they have no obligation lying upon them to continue in that communion ; or on the churches to withold them from removing to purer churches ; or if there be none such to gather into churches . to which the divines of the assembly replied . i. that this opened a gap for all sects to challenge such a liberty as their due . ii. this liberty was denied by the churches of new-england ; and they have as just ground to deny it as they . to the third reason they answered . first , that the abuse of the word schism hath done much hurt in the churches ; that the signification of it was not yet agreed upon by the state , nor debated by the assembly . to which the others reply ; that if the word schism had been left out , the reason would have remained strong , viz. that this would , give countenance to perpetual division in the church , still drawing away churches from under the rule . and to give countenance to an unjust , and causless separation from lawful church communion , is not far from giving countenance to a schism ; especially when the grounds , upon which this separation is desired , are such , upon which all other possible scruples , which erring consciences may , in any other case , be subject unto , may claim the priviledge of a like indulgence , and so this toleration being the first , shall indeed but lay the foundation , and open the gap , whereat as many divisions in the church , as there may be scruples in the minds of men , shall , upon the self-same equity be let in . secondly , this will give countenance only to godly peoples joyning in other congregations for their greater edification , who cannot otherwise , without sin , enjoy all the ordinances of christ ; yet so , as not condemning those churches , they joyn not with , as false ; but still preserving all christian communion with the saints , as members of the body of christ , of the church catholick ; and joyn also with them in all duties of worship , which belong to particular churches , so far as they are able ; and if this be called schism , or countenance of schism , it is more then we have yet learned from scriptures , or any approved authors . to this , the divines of the assembly replyed . . this desired forbearance is a perpetual division in the church , and a perpetual drawing away from the churches under the rule . for , upon the same pretence , those who scruple infant-baptism , may withdraw from their churches , and so separate into another congregation ; and so in that some practice may be scrupled , and they separate again : are these divisions , and sub-divisions , say they , as lawful as they may be infinite ? or , must we give that respect to the errors of mens consciences , as to satisfie their scruples , by allowance of this liberty to them ? and , doth it not plainly signifie , that errors of conscience is a protection against schism ? . the not condemning of our churches as false , doth little extenuate the separation : for , divers of the brownists , who have totally separated in former times , have not condemned these churches as false ; though they do not pronounce an affirmative judgment against us , yet the very separating is a tacit and practical condemning of our churches , if not as false , yet as impure , eousque as that in such administrations , they cannot be by them , as members , communicated with , without sin . and when they speak of communion with us , as members of the church catholick , it is as full a declining of communion with us as churches , as if we were false churches . . we do not think differences in judgment in this , or that point , to be schism , or that every inconformity unto every thing used or enjoyned is schism , so that communion be preserved ; or that separation from idolatrous communion , or worship , ex se unlawful , is schism : but to joyn in separate congregations of another communion , which succession of our members is a manifest rupture of our societies into others , and is therefore a schism in the body : and if the apostle do call those divisions of the church , wherein christians did not separate into divers formed congregations , of several communion in the sacrament of the lords supper schismes , much more may such separation as this desired , be so called . . scruple of conscience is no cause of separating , nor doth it take off causeless separation from being schism , which may arise from errors of conscience , as well as carnal and corrupt reasons ; therefore we conceive the causes of separation must be shewn to be such exnaturâ rei , will bear it out ; and therefore we say , that the granting the liberty desired will give countenance to schism . . we cannot but take it for granted upon evidence of reason , and experience of all ages , that this separation will be the mother and nurse of contentions , strifes , envyings , confusions , and so draw with it that breach of love , which may endanger the heightning of it into formal schism , even in the sence of our brethen . . what is it that approved authors do call schism , but the breaking off members from their churches , which are lawfully constituted churches , and from communion in ordinances , &c. without just and sufficient cause , ex natura rei , to justifie such secession , and to joyn in other congregations of separate communion , either because of personal failings in the officers , or members of the congregation from which they separate , or because of causeless scruple of their own conscience , which hath been called setting up altare contra altare : from which they quote st. augustin , and camenon . thus i have faithfully laid down the state of this controversie about separation , as it hath been managed in former times among us . from whence there are these things to be considered by us , which may be of some use in our following discourse . ( . ) that all the old non-conformists did think themselves bound in conscience to communicate with the church of england , and did look upon separation from it to be sin , notwithstanding the corruptions they supposed to be in it . this i have proved with so great evidence in the forgoing discourse ; that those who deny it , may , with the help of the same metaphysicks , deny , that the sun shines . ( . ) that all men were bound in conscience towards preserving the vnion of the church , to go as far as they were able . this was not only asserted by the non-formists , but by the most rigid separatists of former times , and by the dissenting brethren themselves . so that the lawfulness of separation , where communion is lawful , and thought so to be by the persons who separate , is one of the newest inventions of this age ; but what new reasons they have for it , besides noise and clamour , i am yet to seek . ( . ) that bare scruple of conscience doth not justifie separation , although it may excuse non-communion in the particulars which are scrupled ; provided that they have used the best means for a right information . ( . ) that where occasional communion is lawful , constant communion is a duty . which follows from the divines of the assembly blaming the dissenting brethren for allowing the lawfulness of occasional communion with our churches , and yet forbearing ordinary communion with them . for , say they , to separate from those churches ordinarily and visibly , with whom occasionally you may joyn , seemeth to be a most unjust separation . ( . ) that withdrawing from the communion of a true church , and setting up congregations for purer worship , or under another rule , is plain and downright separation ; as is most evident from the answer of the divines of the assembly to the dissenting brethren . sect. . from all this it appears , that the present practice of separation can never be justified , by the old non-conformists principles ; nor by the doctrine of the assembly of divines . the former is clear from undeniable evidence , and the latter is in effect confessed by all my adversaries . for , although they endeavour all they can , to blind the readers judgment , with finding out the disparity of some circumstances , which was never denied ; yet not one of them can deny , that it was their judgment , that the holding of separate congregations for worship , where there was an agreement in doctrine , and the substantials of religion , was vnlawful , and schismatical . and this was the point , for which i produced their testimony in my sermon : and it still stands good against them . for their resolution of the case , doth not depend upon the particular circumstances of that time , but upon general reasons drawn from the obligations to preserve vnity in churches ; which must have equal force at all times , although there happen a great variety , as to some circumstances . for whether the greater purity of worship be pleaded , as to one circumstance , or another , the general case , as to separation , is the same : whether the scruples do relate to some ceremonies required , or to other impositions as to order and discipline ; if they be such as they pretend to , a necessity of separation on their account ; it comes at last to the same point . was it unlawful to desire a liberty of separate congregations , as the dissenting brethren did , because of some scruples of conscience in them ? and is it not equally unlawful in others , who have no more but scruples of conscience to plead , although they relate to different things ? i will put this case as plain as possible , to prevent all subterfuges and slight evasions . suppose five dissenting brethren now , should plead the necessity of having separate congregations , on the account of very different scruples of conscience ; one of them pleads , that his company scruple the use of an imposed liturgy : another saith , his people do not scruple that , but they cannot bear the sign of the cross , or kneeling at the communion ; a third saith , if all these were away , yet if their church be not rightly gather'd and constituted , as to matter and form , they must have a congregation of their own ; a fourth goes yet farther , and saith , let their congregation be constituted how it will , if they allow infant-baptism , they can never joyn with them ; nor , saith a fifth , can we , as long as you allow preaching by set forms , and your ministers stint themselves by hour-glasses , and such like human inventions : here are now very different scruples of conscience ; but , doth the nature of the case vary , according to the bare difference of the scruples ? one congregation scruples any kind of order as an unreasonable imposition and restraint of the spirit , is separation on that account lawful ? no , say all other parties against the quakers ; because their scruples are unreasonable . but is it lawful for a congregation to separate on the account of infant-baptism ? no , say the presbyterians and independents , that is an unreasonable scruple . is it lawful for men to separate to have greater purity in the frame and order of churches , although they may occasionally joyn in the duties of worship ? no , saith the presbyterians , this makes way for all manner of schism's and divisions , if meer scruple of conscience be a sufficient ground for separation : and if they can joyn occasionally with us , they are bound to do it constantly ; or else the obligation to peace and unity in the church signifies little : no man's erroneous conscience can excuse him from schism . if they alledge grounds to justifie themselves , they must be such as can do it ex naturâ rei , and not from the meer error or mistake of conscience . but , at last , the presbyterians themselves come to be required to joyn with their companies in communion with the church of england , and if they do not , either they must desire a separate congregation , on the account of their scruples , as to the ceremonies , and then the former arguments unavoidably return upon them . ( for the church of england hath as much occasion to account those scruples vnreasonable , as they do those of the independents , anabaptists , and quakers , ) or else they declare , they can joyn occasionally in communion with our church , but yet hold it lawful to have separate congregations for greater purity of worship ; and then the obligation to peace and vnity ought to have as much force on them , with respect to our church , as ever they thought it ought to have on the dissenting brethren , with respect to themselves . for no disparity , as to other circumstances , can alter the nature of this case ; viz. that as far as men judge communion lawfull , it becomes a duty , and separation a sin ; under what denomination soever the persons pass . for the fault doth not lie in the circumstances , but in the nature of the act ; because then separation appears most unreasonable , when occasional communion is confessed to be lawful . as will fully appear by the following discourse . those men therefore speak most agreeably to their present practice , although least for the honor of the assembly , who confess , that they were transported with undue heats , and animosities against their brethren ; which deserve to be lamented , and not to be imitated ; that they are not obliged to vindicate all they said , nor to be concluded by their determinations : that it is to be hoped , the party is become wiser since . this is plain dealing , and giving up the cause to the dissenting brethren ; and that in a matter wherein they happened to have the strongest reason of their side . but hereby we see , that those who justifie the present separation have forsaken the principles and practices of the old non-conformists ; as to this point of separation . sect. . it remains now , that i shew how far they are likewise gone off from the peaceable principles of their predecessors , as to private persons undertaking to reform the discipline of the church , and setting up new churches , against the consent of the magistrate , in a reformed church : and particularly , as to the preaching of their ministers , when silenced by our law 's this i am the more obliged to do , because when i said , that i was certain , that preaching in opposition to our established laws , is contrary to the doctrine of all the non-conformists of former times , mr. b. is pleased to say , that my assertion is so rash and false , in matters of notorious fact , that it weakeneth his reverence of my iudgment , in matters of right . i should desire no better terms from mr. b. as to the matter of right in this present controversie , than that he would be determin'd by the plain evidence of the fact ; and if what i said be true , and notoriously true , i shall leave him to consider on whose side the rashness lies . giffard makes this one principal part of brownism , that churches are to be set up , and discipline reformed , without the consent of the christian magistrate : brown maketh many arguments , saith he , to prove , that princes are not to be stayed for , nor yet to have to do , by publick power , to establish religion . which opinion of his , is such abridging the sacred power of princes , and such horrib● injury to the church , contrary to the manifest word of god , that if there were nothing else , it is enough to make him an odious and detestable heretick , untill he shew repentance . but to clear this matter , he distinguishes , ( . ) of princes that are enemies to christianity ; as they were in the time of the apostles ; to what end , saith he , should they , having authority from christ , to establish discipline , sue unto the courts of such princes , or attend their pleasure . ( . ) of such who profess christianity , but are idolaters . in this case , he saith , they are neither ●ound to forbear preaching , nor setting up discipline if they do oppose it . ( . ) of such princes , who own the true doctrine of christianity , but the churches in their dominions are corrupt in discipline . in this case he determines , that though every man is to take care to keep a good conscience , yet no private persons are to break the vnity and peace of the faithful , or to take upon them publick authority to reform : which he there proves , and concludes it to be a wicked and dangerous principle in the brownists to hold the contrary . in answer to this , barrow saith , that the servants of god ought not to be stayed from doing the commandments of god , upon any restraint , or persecution of any mortal man whatsoever ; and for this he quotes the example of the apostles , who then had been guilty of the same disobedience and rebellion , if princes had been to be stayed for , or their restraint been a sufficient let : and adds , that they only , according to gods commandment , refrained from their idolatry , and other publick evils , and assembled together in all holy and peaceable manner , to worship the lord our god , and to joyn our selves together in the faith , unto mutual duties , and to seek that government which christ left to his church , and for the church to erect the same . to the instance of the apostles , giffard had answered , that they were furnished with an extraordinary authority and commission by christ , to set up his kingdom : but ye have no commission from god , it is the devil that hath set you forward ; and will ye , in such vile and wretched manner , pretend the examples of the primitive churches ? barrow replies , if the commandment of god were sufficient warrant to the apostles to do their work , though all the princes of the world resisted ; then must the commandment of the same god , be of the same effect to all other instruments , whom it pleaseth the lord to use in their callings to his service also , though all the princes in the world should withstand , and forbid the same . by this we see , this was a great point in controversie between the brownists and non-conformists . which will more appear by the dispute between fr. iohnson and iacob . for among the points of false doctrine which he charges the non-conformists with , whom they called the forward preachers ; these are two . . that the planting , or reforming of christ's church must tarry for the civil magistrate , and may not otherwise be brought in by the word and spirit of god in the mouths of his weakest servants , except they have authority from earthly princes ; which doctrine , saith he , is against the kingly power of christ , and three whole lines of scripture , which he there puts together . . that it is lawful for a minister of christ to cease preaching , and to forsake his flock , at the commandment of a lord bishop : which doctrine , he saith , is contrary to two lines of scripture more , with the bare numbers of chapter and verse . but , lest it should be supposed , that these two were among those which iacob saith , he falsly laid to their charge ; we find both these doctrines owned by the several non-conformists , who joyned together in a confutation of the brownists . for , say they , as to the peoples power of reforming , first , we cannot find any warrant in holy scripture , for them that are private members of any church , to erect the discipline , no not though the magistrate and ministers , who should deal in this work , were altogether profane and ungodly . secondly , we esteem our prince to be a most lawful and christian magistrate , and our ministers to be true ministers of christ , and therefore we are justly afraid , that by enterprising a publick reformation , not only without , but contrary to the direction and liking of them , who by god's word ought to have , if not the onely , yet the principal hand in that work , we should highly offend god. thirdly , that for the want of publick reformation , the magistrate is every where blamed , and no where the church , for ought we can find : oft are the priests and people blamed for erecting and practising idolatry , but never for that they plucked it not down , when their princes had set it up ; neither can we find , whether ever the church , under a christian magistrate , was by any prophet , either commanded to deal ( otherwise than by perswasion ) in publick reformation , when the magistrate neglected it ; or reproved for the contrary . fourthly , to the instance of the apostles they answer two things . i. that though they set up church-government without the magistrates leave ; yet not contrary to his liking ; or when he opposed his authority directly , and inhibited it ; they never erected the discipline , when there was so direct an opposition made against it by the civil magistrates . ii. if it could be proved that the apostles did so then , yet would it not follow , that we may do so now ; for neither was the heathen magistrate altogether so much to be respected by the church , as the christian magistrate is ; neither have our ministers and people now so full and absolute a power , to pull down , and set up orders in the church , as the apostles ( those wise master-builders ) had . fifthly , as to their ministers preaching being silenced , they declare , . so long as the bishops suspend , and deprive , according to the law of the land , we account of the action herein , as of the act of the church , which we may and ought to reverence , and yield unto ; if they do otherwise , we have liberty given us by the law to appeal from them . if it be said , the church is not to be obey'd when it suspends and deprives us , for such causes as we in our consciences know to be insufficient . we answer , that it lieth on them to depose , who may ordain ; and they may shut that may open . and as he may , with a good conscience execute a ministery , by the ordination and calling of the church , who is privy to himself of some unfitness ( if the church will press him to it ) so may he who is privy to himself , of no fault that deserveth deprivation , cease from the execution of his ministery , when he is pressed thereunto by the church . and if a guiltless person , put out of his charge by the churches authority , may yet continue in it , what proceedings can there be against guilty persons , who , in their own conceit , are alwayes guiltless , or will at least pretend so to be ; seeing they will be ready alwayes to object against the churches iudgment , that they are called of god , and may not therefore give over the execution of their ministery at the will of bishops ? . that the case of the apostles was very different from theirs in three respects . first . they that inhibited the apostles , were known and professed enemies to the gospel . secondly . the apostles were charged not to teach in the name of christ , nor to publish any part of the gospel , which commandment might more hardly be yielded unto , than this of our bishops , who , though they cannot endure them which teach that part of the truth that concerneth the good government , and reformation of the church , yet are they not only content that the gospel should be preached , but are also preachers of it themselves . thirdly . the apostles received not their calling and authority from men , nor by the hands of men , but immediately from god himself , and therefore also might not be restrain'd or deposed by men ; whereas we , though we exercise a function , whereof god is the author , and we are also called of god to it , yet are we called and ordained by the hands and ministery of men , and may therefore by the ministery of men be also deposed , and restrained from the exercise of our ministery . to this , which i had referred mr. b. to , he gives this answer , if mr. rathband hath denied this , it had been no proof . did i ever mention mr. rathband's testimony as a sufficient proof ? my words are , that i was certain their practice was contrary to the doctrine of all the non-conformists , as you may see in the book published in their name by mr. rathband . can any thing be plainer , than that the book was written by the non-conformists , and that mr. rathband was only the publisher of it ? this way of answering is just , as if one should quote a passage out of curcellaeus his greek testament , and another should reply , if curcellaeus said so , it had been no proof . can mr. b. satisfie his mind with such answers ? when fr. iohnson said , that our ministers ought not to suffer themselves to be silenced and deposed from their publick ministery , no not by lawful magistrates . mr. bradshaw answered , this assertion is false and seditious . and when iohnson saith , that the apostles did not make their immediate calling from god the ground of their refusal ; but this , that they ought to obey god rather than man ; which is a duty required of all ministers and christians . bradshaw ( a person formerly in great esteem with mr. baxter , and highly commended by the author of the vindication of his dispute with iohnson ) gives this answer . . though the apostles did not assign their immediate calling from god , as the ground of their refusal , in so many letters and syllables , yet that which they do assign , is by implication , and in effect the same with it . for it is as much as if they had said , god himself hath imposed this calling upon us , and not man ; and therefore except we should rather obey man than god , we may not forbear this office which he hath imposed upon us . for , opposing the obedience of god to the obedience of man , they therein plead a calling from god , and not from man ; otherwise , if they had received a calling from man , there had been incongruity in the answer ; considering , that in common sense and reason , they ought so far forth to obey men , forbidding them to exercise a calling , as they exercise the same by vertue of that calling . else , by this reason , a minister should not cease to preach , upon the commandment of the church , that hath chosen him ; but should be bound , to give them also the same answer , which the apostles gave , which were absurd . so that by this gross conceit of mr. johnson , there should be no power in any sort of men whosoever , to depose a minister from his ministery ; but that nowithstanding any commandment of church or state , the minister is to continue in his ministery . . for the further answer of this his ignorant conceit , plainly tending to sedition , we are to know , that though the apostles , prophets , and evangelists , preached publickly , where they were not hindred by open violence ; and did not , nor might not leave their ministery upon any human authority , or commandment whatsoever , because they did not enter into , or exercise the same upon the will and pleasure of any man whatsoever ; yet they never erected and planted publick churches and ministeries in the face of the magistrate , whether they would or no ; or in despite of them ; but such , in respect of the eye of the magistrate , were as private and invisible as might be . . neither were some of the apostles only forbidden , so as others should be suffered to preach the same gospel in their places ; but the utter abolishing of christian religion was manifestly intended in silencing of them . but our churches whereof we are ministers , are no private and secret assemblies , such as hide themselves from the face of a persecuting magistrate and state ; but are publick , professing their worship , and doing their religion in the face of the magistrate and state ; yea , and by his countenance , authority and protection ; and we are set over those churches , not only by a calling of our people , but also by the authority of the magistrate , who hath an armed power to hinder any such publick action ; who is willing also to permit and maintain other true ministers of the gospel , in those places where he forbiddeth some . if therefore after our publick calling , to minister to such a known and publick church , not by the church only , but by the magistrate also , the magistrate shall have matter against us ( whether just or unjust it skilleth not ) and shall in that regard forbid us to minister to our church ; i see not by what warrant in gods word , we should think our selves bound notwithstanding to exercise our ministery still ; except we should think such a law of ministery to lie upon us , that we should judge our selves bound to run upon the swords point of the magistrate , or to oppose sword to sword. and suppose the magistrate should do it unjustly , and against the will of the church , and should therein sin ; yet doth not the church in that regard cease to be a churh , nor ought she therein to resist the will of the magistrate ; neither doth she stand bound , in regard of her affection to her minister ( how great and deserving soever ) to deprive her self of the protection of the magistrate , by leaving her publick standing , to follow his ministery in private , and in the dark ; refusing the benefit of all other publick ministery , which with the leave and liking of the magistrate she may enjoy . . neither do i know what warrant any ordinary minister hath , by gods word , in such a case , so to draw any such church or people to his private ministery , that thereby they should hazard their outward state and quiet in the common-wealth where they live ; when in some competent measure they may publickly , with the grace and favor of the magistrate , enjoy the ordinary means of salvation by another : and ( except he have a calling to minister in some church ) he is to be content to live as a private member , till it shall please god to reconcile the magistrate to him , and to call him again to his own church ; labouring mean while privately , upon particular occasions offered , to strengthen and confirm in the wayes of god , those people that are deprived of his publick labour . and i take it to be the duty of the people , in such a case , if they will approve themselves faithful christians , and good subjects , so to submit to the ministery of another , as that by prayer , and all other good , dutiful , and loyal means , they may do their best endeavor to obtain him , of whom , against their will , they have been deprived , and still to affect and love him as their pastor : now , if the people do thus , then is that minister called to be silent , not only by the magistrate , but by them also , though with much grief . to this testimony of mr. bradshaw , all that mr. b. saith , is , that bradshaw thought , we should submit to a silencing law , where our ministery was unnecessary , and so doth he . if mr. b. did allow himself any time to consider what he writes , he would never have given such an answer as this . for , mr. bradshaw never puts the case upon the necessity , or no necessity of their preaching , but upon the allowance , or disallowance of the christian magistrate . and if it had been resolved upon the point of necessity , is it possible for mr. b. to think there was less necessity of preaching at that time , than there is now , when himself confesseth , several years since , that thirty years ago , there were many bare reading , not preaching ministers , for one that there is now ? and what was there , which the old non-conformists more complained of , than the want of a more preaching ministery ? this then , could not be mr. bradshaw's reason ; and mr. baxter , upon second thoughts , cannot be of that opinion . i have yet one argument more , to prove this to have been the general sense of the non-conformists ; which is mr. sprints argument for conformity in case of deprivation ; which is , that where two duties do meet , a greater , and a less , whereof both cannot be done at the same time , the lesser duty must yield unto the greater ; but this doctrine of suffering deprivation for not conforming , teacheth , and the practice thereof causeth , to neglect a greater duty for performing of a less ; therefore it seemeth to be an error in doctrine , and a sin in practice . the force of which argument doth necessarily suppose , that ministers , deprived by law , are not to exercise their ministerial function in opposition to the law 's . and to confirm this , several non-conformists undertook to answer this argument , and to give an account of the disparity of the case , as to the apostles times , and ours . for mr. sprint had urged the instance of the apostles to this purpose , since they submitted to iewish ceremonies rather than lose the liberty of their ministery , they ought to yield to our ceremonies on the same ground ; to which they answer ; that the apostles had far greater reason so to do ; because their ministery was of far greater excellency , and usefulness , and therefore the argument was of much greater weight with the apostles , than it could be with them . for , say they , what one minister of the gospel is there , that dare be so presumptuous , as to say , that his preaching and ministery can be of that necessity , and use for the glory of god , and good of his church ; as was the ministery of his apostles ? the work whereunto the lord called and separated the apostles ( viz. the planting of the church , and the preaching the gospel to all nations ) was such , as could not have been performed by any other , but the apostles alone ; but in deprivation of our ministers that refuse conformity , there is no such danger , and of their preaching there can be no such necessity imagined ; though they preach not , the gospel is preached still , and that soundly , and fruitfully . did these men think , the apostles woe be unto me if i preach not the gospel , did reach to their case ? can mr. b. imagine , that such men thought themselves still bound to preach , although they were silenced by our laws ? and now , i hope , i have proved that to be evidently true , which mr. b. saith was notoriously false . but if after all this , mr. b. will persist , in saying , that he knew those who did otherwise ; all that i have to say to it , is , that i hope mr. bs. acquaintance , both of the one , and the other party ( if they were such , as he represents ) are not to be the standard for all the rest ; for , it seems , he was not very happy in either . part ii. of the nature of the present separation . sect. . having made it my business , in the foregoing discourse , to shew , how far the present dissenters are gone off from the principles of the old non-conformists ; i come to consider , what those principles are , which they now proceed upon ; and those are of two sorts . first , of such as hold partial , and occasional communion with our churches to be lawful ; but not total and constant , i. e. they judge it lawful at some times to be present in some part of our worship , and upon particular occasions to partake of some acts of communion with us ; but yet , they apprehend greater purity and edification in separate congregations , and when they are to choose , they think themselves bound to choose these , although at certain seasons they may think it lawful to submit to occasional communion with our church , as it is now established . secondly , of such as hold any communion with our church to be unlawful , because they believe the terms of its communion unlawful ; for which they instance , in the constant use of the liturgy ; the aereal sign of the cross ; kneeling at the communion ; the observation of holy-dayes ; renouncing other assemblies ; want of discipline in our churches ; and depriving the people of their right in choosing their own pastors . to proceed with all possible clearness in this matter , we must consider these three things , . what things are to be taken for granted by the several parties , with respect to our church . . wherein they differ among themselves about the nature and degrees of separation from it . . what the true state of the present controversie about separation , is . i. in general , they cannot deny these three things . . that there is no reason of separation , because of the doctrine of our church . . that there is no other reason of separation because of the terms of our communion , than what was from the beginning of the reformation . . that communion with our church hath been still allowed by the reformed churches abroad . . that there is no reason of separation , because of the doctrine of our church . this was confessed by the brownists , and most rigid separatists ; as is proved already ; and our present adversaries agree herein . dr. owen saith , we agree with our brethren in the faith of the gospel ; and we are firmly united with the main body of protestants in this nation , in confession of the same faith : and again , the parties at difference do agree in all substantial parts of religion , and in a common interest , as unto the preservation and defence of the protestant religion . mr. baxter saith , that they agree with us in the doctrine of the articles , as distinct from the form of government , and imposed abuses . and more fully elsewhere , is not the non conformists doctrine the same with that of the church of england , when they subscribe to it , and offer so to do ? the independents as well as presbyterians offer to subscribe to the doctrine of the articles , as distinct from prelacy and ceremony . we agree with them in the doctrine of faith , and the substance of god's worship , saith the author of the last answer . and again , we are one with the church of england in all the necessary points of faith , and christian practice , we are one with the church of england as to the substance , and all necessary parts of god's worship and even mr. a. after many trifling cavils , acknowledges , that the dissenters generally agree with that book which is commonly called the articles , which was compiled above a hundred years ago ; and this book some men call the church of england . i know not who those men are , nor by what figure they speak , who call a book a church ; but this we all say , that the doctrine of the church of england is contained therein ; and whatever the opinions of private persons may be , this is the standard by which the sense of our church is to be taken : and that no objection ought to be made , against communion with our church , upon account of the doctrine of it ; but what reaches to such articles as are owned and received by this church . . that there are in effect no new termes of communion with this church , but the same , which our first reformers owned , and suffered marty●dom for , in q. maries days . not , but that some alterations have been made since , but not such as do , in the judgment of our brethren , make the terms of communion harder than before . mr. baxter grants , that the terms of lay communion are rather made easier by such alterations , even since the additional conformity , with respect to the late troubles . the same reasons then , which would now make the terms of our communion unlawful , must have held against cranmer , ridley , &c. who laid down their lives for the reformation of this church . and this the old non-conformists thought a considerable argument against separating from the communion of our church ; because it reflected much on the honor of our martyrs ; who not only lived and died in the communion of this church ; and in the practice of those things , which some are now most offended at ; but were themselves the great instruments in setling the terms of our communion . . that communion with our church hath been still owned by the protestant and reformed churches abroad . which they have not only manifested , by receiving the apology and articles of our church into the harmony of confessions ; but by the testimony and approbation which hath been given to it , by the most esteemed , and learned writers of those churches , and by the discountenance which they have still given to separation from the communion of it . this argument was often objected against the separatists , by the non-conformists ; and ainsworth attempts to answer it no less than four times in one book ; but the best answer he gives , is , that if it prove any thing , it proves more than they would have for , saith he , the reformed churches have discerned the national church of england to be a true church ; they have discerned the diocesan bishops of england , as well as the parish-priests to be true ministers ; and rejoyce as well for their sees , as for your parishes , having joyned these all alike in the●r harmony . as to the good opinion of the reformed church , and protestant divines abroad , concerning the constitution and orders of our church , so much hath been proved already by dr. durel , and so little or nothing hath been said to disprove his evidence , that this ought to be taken as a thing granted ; but , if occasion be given , both he and o●hers are able to produce much more from the testimony of foreign divines , in justification of the communion of our church against all pretences of separation from it . sect. . we now come to the several hypotheses and principles of separation , which are at this day among the dissenters from our church . some do seem to allow separate congregations only in such places where the churches are not capable to receive the inhabitants . for this i find insisted on , by almost all my answerers ; some parishes , saith one , cannot receive a tenth part , some not half the people , belonging to them , few can receive all . the parochial teacher , saith another , is overlaid with a numerous throng of people . the parish ministers are not near sufficient for so populous a city , saith a third . and yet not one of these , but assignes such reasons , for the necessity of separate congregations , as would equally hold , if there were never a church in london , but what would hold all the inhabitants together . this is therefore but a color , and pretence , and no real cause . any one would think , by mr. baxter's insisting so very much , on the greatness and largeness of our parishes , as the reason of his preaching in separate congregations , this were his opinion , that such congregations are only allowable in such vast parishes , where they are helps to the parochial churches : and no man denies , that more places for worship are desireable , and would be very useful , where they may be had , and the same way of worship and order observed in them , as in our parochial churches ; where they may be under the same inspection , and ecclesiastical government ; where , upon pretence of greater purity of worship , and better means of edification , the people are not drawn into separation . but , is it possible that mr. baxter should think the case alike , where the orders of our church are constantly neglected , the authority of the bishops is slighted and contemned ; and such meetings are kept up in affront to them , and the laws ? would mr. b. have thought this a sufficient reason for mr. tombs to have set up a meeting of anabaptists in kidderminster , because it is a very large parish ? or for r. williams in new-england to have set up a separate congregation at boston , because there were but three churches there , to receive all the numerous inhabitants ? if such a number of churches could be built , as were suitable to the greatness , and extent of parishes , we should be so far from opposing it , that we should be very thankful to those who would accomplish so excellent a work : but , in the mean time , is this just and reasonable , to draw away the people , who come to our churches , under the pretence of preaching to those who cannot come ? for , upon consideration , we shall find , ( . ) that this is mr. baxter's own case . for , if we observe him , although he sometimes pretends only to preach to some of many thousands , that cannot come into the temples , many of which never heard a sermon of many years ; and to this purpose he put so many quaere 's to me , concerning the largeness of parishes , and the necessity of more assistants , thereby to insinuate , that what he did , was only to preach to such , as could not come to our churches ; yet , when he is pinch'd with the point of separation , then he declares , that his hearers are the same with ours ; at least or for one ; and that he knows not many ( if any ) who use to hear him , that separate from us . if this be true , as no doubt mr. b. believes it , then what such mighty help , or assistance is this to our great parishes ? what color , or pretence is there from the largeness of them , that he should preach to the very same persons , who come to our churches ? and if such meetings as theirs be only lawful in great parishes , where they preach to some of many thousands who cannot come into the churches , then how come they to be lawful , where few or none of those many thousands ever come at all , but they are filled with the very same persons , who come to our parish churches ? these two pretences then are inconsistent with each other ; and one of them cannot hold . for if he doth preach to those who come to our churches , and scarce to any else ( i● any , as mr. b. supposes ) then all the pretence from the large●ess of our parishes , and the many thousands who cannot come to our churches , is vain and impertinent ; and , to speak softly , not becoming mr. baxter's sincerity . ( . ) that if this were mr. baxter's own case , viz. that he preached only to such , as could not come to our churches , it would be no defence of the general practice of dissenters , who express no regard at all to the greatness or smallness of parishes . as , if it were necessary , might be proved , by an induction of the particular congregations within the city ; and in the adjacent parishes . either those separarate meetings are lawful or not ; if not , why doth not mr. baxter disown them ? if they be , why doth he p●etend the greatness of parishes to justifie separate m●etings ; when , if they were never so small , they would be lawful however ? this therefore must be set aside , as a mee● color and pretence , which he thought plausible for himself , and invidious to us , though the bounds of our parishes were ne●ther of our own making , nor is it in our power to alter them . and we shall find , that mr. b. doth justifie them upon other grounds , which have no relation at all to the extent of parishes , or capacity of churches . i come therefore to the real grounds which they proceed upon . sect. . some do allow communion with some parochial churches , in some duties , at some seasons ; but not with all churches , in all duties , or at all times . these things must be more particulary explained , for a right understanding the mystery of the present separation . which proceeds not so openly and plainly , as the old separation did ; but hath such artificial windings and turnings in it , that a man thinks they are very near our church , when they are at a great distance from it . if we charge them with following the steps of the old separatists , we utterly deny it , for , say they ; for they separated from your churches as no true churches ; they disowned your ministery and hierarchy as antichristian , and looked on your worship as idolatrous ; but we do none of these things ; and therefore you charge us unjustly with separation . to which i answer , ( . ) there are many still , especially of the people , who pursue the principles of the old separatists ; of whom mr b. hath spoken very well in his cure of divisions , and the defence of it ; and elsewhere . where he complains , of their violence , and censoriousness : their contempt of the gravest and wisest pastors ; and forcing others to forsake their own judgments to comply with their humors . and , he saith , a sinful humoring of rash professors , is as great a temptation to them , as a sinful compliance with the great ones of the world. in another place he saith , the people will not endure any forms of prayers among them , but they declare they would be gone from them , if they do use them . and he doth not dissemble , that they do comply with them , in these remarkable words , should the ministers in london , that have suffer'd so long , but use any part of the liturgy and scripture forms , though without any motive but the pleasing god and the churches good , what muttering and censuring would then be among them ? and woe to those few teachers that make up their designs by cherishing these distempers . one would think , that their warning had been fair ; but , si nati sint ad bis perdendam angliam ; the lord have mercy upon us . ( . ) when the matter is throughly examined , the difference between the teachers , and the old separatists , will be found not near so great as is pretended . for what matter is it , as to the nature of separation , whether the terms of our communion be called idolatrous , or vnlawful ; whether the ministery of our church be called a false ministery , or insufficient , scandalous , vsurpers , and persecutors ; whether our hierarchy be called antichristian , or repugnant to the institution of christ. now these are the very same arguments , which the old separatists used , only they are disguised under another appearance , and put into a more fashionable dress . as will be manifest by particulars . ( . ) as to the people . ( . ) as to the ministry of our church . sect. . ( i. ) our present dissenters who disown the old separation , yet make the terms of lay-communion for persons , as members of our church , to be unlawful . for , mr. b. in his late plea for peace , hath a whole chapter of reasons against the communion of laymen with our church . and in the same book he saith , it is schismatical in a church to deny baptism , without the transient sign of the cross , or for want of godfathers , &c. or to deny the communion to such who scruple kneeling . now , if the church be schismatical , then those who separate in these things are not . for saith mr. b. when the laity cannot have their children baptized without such use of the transient dedicating image of the cross ; and such use of entitling and covenanting godfathers , which they take to be no small sin ; is it separation to joyn with pastors that will otherwise baptize them ? we see the church is schismatical in requiring these things , and mr. b. thinks the people bound to joyn with other pastors that will not use them ; and what is this but formal separation ? but for all this , mr. b. may hold , that total renouncing of communion with our church may be schismatical ; for , he saith , it may be schism to separate from a church that hath some schismatical principles , practises , and persons , if those be not such , and so great , as to necessitate our departure from them . but here mr. b. saith , there is a necessity of departure , and to joyn with other pastors ; and therefore he must hold a formal separation : and as to the renouncing total communion with our church , that was never done by the greatest separatists . for they all held communion in faith with it : and even brown , the head of the old separatists , thought it lawful to joyn with our church in some acts of worship ; and others thought , they might joyn in acts of private and christian communion , but not in acts of church communion ; others thought it lawful to joyn in hearing sermons and pulpit prayers , though not in others ; and yet were charged with separation by the old non-conformists . and if our present dissenters do hold the terms of communion with our church to be unlawful ; they must hold a necessity of separation , or that persons may be good christians , and yet be no members of any church . for , if it be unlawful to communicate as members of our church , they must either not communicate at all as members of any church , or as members of a distinct and separate church from ours . if they declare themselves members of another church , they own as plain a separation , as the old separatists ever did : if they do not , and yet hold it unlawful to communicate with our churches as members , then they are members of no church at all . so that , if they hold the terms of our communion unlawful ; they must either be separatists , or no good christians upon their own principles . for , saith the author of the letter out of the country ; this were to exchange visible christianity , for visible ( at least negative ) paganism . now , that our present dissenters do hold the terms of our communion unlawful , they are more forward to declare , than i could have imagined . in my sermon i mentioned some passages , wherein it seemed clear to me , that some considerable persons among them did allow lay communion with our church to be lawful : but they have taken a great deal of pains to undeceive me ; some declaring in express terms , that they look on the terms of our communion as unlawful , and that there is a necessity of separation from our parochial churches , and of joyning to other congregations . and others saying , that such a concession , viz. that they hold communion with our churches to be lawful , taken in their own sense , will neither do them any harm , nor us any service . for , as mr. a. hath summed up the sense of these men. . many of them declare so , and many declare otherwise — and it 's as good an argument to prove communion unlawful , because many declare against it , as 't is to prove it lawful , because many declare for it . . they d●clare communion lawful , but. d● they declare total communion lawful ? the same persons will tell us , that both these propositions are ●●ue communion is lawful ▪ and communion is unlawful ; communion in some parts of worship is so , in others not . and , . th●y will further tell us , that communion with some parish chu●ches is lawful , with others unlawful ; that there are not the same doctrines preached , the same ceremonies urged , the same rigid terms of communion in all churches exacted . and lastly , that occasional communion is , or may be lawful , where a stated and fixed communion is not so ; and they give this reason for their iudgment and practice , because to hold communion with one church , or sort of christians , exclusively to all others , is contrary to their true catholick principles , which teach them to hold communion , though not equally , with all tolerable churches ; and that there are some things tolerable , which are not eligible , wherein they can bear with much for peace sake , but chuse rather to sit down ordinarily with purer administrations . here we have the principles of the new separation laid together . . many of them hold communion with our church unlawful ; and that must be understood of any kind of communion ; for the second sort , from whom they are distinguish●d , hold total communion unlawful ; and therefore this first sort must hold communion in any parts of worship unlawful . and so they exceed the more moderate separatists of robinson's , and the new-england way ; and must fall into the way of the most rigid separatists . . those that do hold communion lawful , do it with so many restrictions and limitations , that in practice it amounts to little more than the other . for first , it is only with some churches ; and those it seems must be such , as do not hold to our constitution ; for he saith , the same ceremonies are not urged in all churches , nor the same rigid terms of communion exacted , i. e. if any churches among us comply with them , they can communicate with them , i. e. if they break their own rules , they can joyn with them . is not this an admirable way of communicating with our churches ? but , if our churches hold to their rule , and observe the orders prescribed , then it seems they renounce all communion with them as unlawful . and what is this but to deny communion with the church of england ? for unless parochial churches depart from the terms of communion required by it , they will have no communion with them . and mr. a. delivers this , not only as his own opinion ▪ but as the sense of the party , that if most of the preachers in the separate meetings were asked their iudgments , about the lawfulness of ioyning with the parochial churches in all the parts of worship , or in any exclusive to their joyning with other assemblies , where the gospel rule is more strictly observed , they would flatly deny it . and he goes yet further , when he saith , that the people cannot lawfully separate from those churches whereof they are regularly members , and from those pastors , under whose ministerial conduct their own free election hath placed them , to joyn ordinarily and constantly with any other particular churches . this is owning a plain and downright separation , in as clear and distinct words as ever iohnson or ainsworth did . for , . he makes it to be their general sense , that it is unlawful to communicate with our churches ordinarily and constantly , or to be members of our churches : which is the same thing which they said . . he ownes the setting up new and distinct churches in plain opposition to ours . for he owns other pastors , other people , and a new relation between these , by the choice of the one , and the conduct of the other . this is no mincing the matter , as mr. b. often doth ; but he speaks it boldly , and with great assurance ; and ushers it in with , i have confidence contrary to his . i think no man doubts of his confidence , that ever looked into his book ; but in this matter he is so brisk , that he saith , he doth not question that he should carry it by the poll. and is withall so indiscreet as on this occasion to triumph in the poll of non-conformists at guildhall : as though all who gave their votes there , had owned these principles of separation , for which , many of those gentlemen will give him little thanks , and is a very unseasonable boasting of their numbers . ( ii. ) all the difference then that seems to be left , is about the lawfulness of that which they call occasional communion . as to which , these things are to be observed . ( . ) that it is practised by very few ; especially if mr. a ' s. poll be allowed . ( . ) that it signifies little , as to this matter , if men be fixed members of other churches . for the denomination of their communion is to be taken from thence , and not from an occasional and accidental presence . for communion with a church , is joyning with a church as a member of that church : and it is not occasional presence at some parts of worship , which makes a man a member of a church . i suppose there are many occasionally present at mr. a's , or mr. b's meetings , who renounce all communion with them . a protestant may be occasionally present at some parts of worship in the roman church , and that frequently too , to hear sermons , &c. but , doth this make a man to have communion with the church of rome ? most of our gentlemen who have travelled abroad , have been thus occasionally present in some parts of the romish worship , at rome and paris ; but they would think themselves hardly dealt with , to be charged to have had communion with the church of rome . and if they be urged with it , they will plead still , they were of the protestant communion ; and the reason they will give , is , because they did not joyn with them in all parts of their worship ; not in adoration of the host , or worship of images ; and therefore they remained still of the protestant communion , although they were occasionally present at some parts of the popish service . and is it not the same case here , if men only afford an occasional presence , at some parts of our worship ? how comes this to make them more to have communion with our church , than the like presence would make them to have communion with the roman church ? in the beginning of q elizabeth's reign , most of the papists in england did offer an occasional presence at our churches , in some parts of our worship ; and yet all that time were members of the roman church , because they kept their priests , and had mass in private , and declared , that though they looked on our service as tolerable , yet they thought the roman more eligible ; and so having full communion with that , and being only occasionally present at our service , they thought themselves good catholicks . so , if men do look on the separate meetings as more eligible , and a better way of worship ; with which they constantly joyn , and alwayes choose to do it , their occasional presence at our assemblies , doth not make them members of our churches , but they still remain members of the separate congregations , if they maintain full and constant communion with them . and none of the formed separate churches will look on any one as having communion with them , for being occasionally present at some parts of their worship ; for they say , that heathens and indians may have such occasional communion with them ; but they require from persons that are admitted to communion with their churches , a submission to all the rules and orders among them . the new-england churches will suffer no man to continue a member of their communion , that scruples infant baptism , or refuses to be present at the administration of it ; although he be never so willing to be occasionally present at all other parts of worship with them . for not only openly condemning and opposing infant-baptism , but going about secretly to seduce others from the approbation or use thereof , or purposely departing the congregation at the administration of that ordinance , is liable , by their laws , to the sentence of banishment . and they have found it so necessary to twist the civil and ecclesiastical interests together , that as none but church-members are free-men among them ; so none that are banished can retain their church-membership . from all this , it appears , that this new notion of occasional communion , in some parts of worship . exclusively to others , is disowned by all sorts of churches ; and is a late fancy taken up on purpose to avoid the charge of separation . sect. . but we here meet with an excellent reason for the lawfulness of this occasional communion with our churches ; viz. because to hold communion with one church exclusively to all others , is contrary to their true catholick principles , which teach them to hold communion , though not equally , with all tolerable churches . or as mr. b. expresses it , the benefit of christian love and concord may make it best , for certain seasons , to joyn even in defective modes of worship , as christ did in the synagogues and temple in his time : though the least defective must be chosen , when no such accidental reasons sway the other way . from whence we may take notice , ( . ) that no obligation to the peace and vnity of this church , as they are members of it , doth bring them to this occasional communion with it , but a certain romantick fancy of catholick vnity ; by which these catholick gentlemen think themselves no more obliged to the communion of this church , than of the armenian or abyssine churches . only it happens , that our church is so much nearer to them , than the others are , and therefore they can afford it more occasional communion . but i would suppose one of these men of catholick principles to be at ierusalem , where he might have occasional communion with all sorts of the eastern churches ; and some of the members of those churches should ask him , what church he is member of ? if he should answer , he could have occasional communion with all tolerable churches , but was a fixed member of none : would they take such a man for a christian ? what , a christian , and a member of no church ! that , they would all agree , was no part of catholick christianity . and i much doubt , whether any of them would admit such a one to occasional communion , that could not tell what church he was member of . for , as to the church of england , he declares , that he holds only occasional communion with that , as he would do with any other tolerable churches . but , were they not baptized in this church , and received into communion with it as members of it ? if so , then if they communicate no otherwise with it , than as a tolerable defective church , they must renounce their former membership ; for that did oblige them to fixed and constant communion with it . and if they do renounce their membership in this church , their occasional presence at some duties of worship can never excuse them from separation . we thank them , that they are pleased to account our churches tolerable , but we cannot see , how in any tolerable sense they can be accounted members of our church ; so that this great favor of occasional communion , which they do not chuse but submit to for some accidental reasons , and some very good occasions , is not worth the speaking of among friends ; and so far from looking like communion , that it hath hardly the face of a civility . ( . ) that , if the least defective way of worship is to be chosen , as they say , then this occasional communion cannot be lawful above once or twice in a man's life : for that is sufficient to shew their true catholick principles ; and mr. b. faith , when no such accidental reasons do sway , they are to choose the least defective way of worship ; or as mr. a. speaks , to sit down ordinarily with purer administrations . if then a man be bound , out of love to his soul , to prefer the best way of worship , and he judges the way of the separate congregations to be such , there will arise a difficult case of conscience , concerning the lawfulness of this occasional communion . for the same reasons , which moved him to prefer one communion above the other , will likewise induce him to think himself bound to adhere constantly to the one , and to forsake the other . and why should a man , that is acquainted with purer administrations , give so much countenance to a defective way of worship , and have any communion with a church which walks so disorderly , and contrary to the rules of the gospel ; and not reprove her rather , by a total forbearance of her communion ? and why should not those general rules of approving the things that are more excellent , and holding fast that which is good , and not forsaking the assembling themselves together , perswade such a man , that it is not lawful to leave the best communion , meerly to shew , what defective , and tolerable church he can communicate with ? which is , as if a man should forsake his muskmelons , to let others see what pumpions he can swallow ; or to leave wholsom diet to feed on mushroms , and trash . ( . ) that here are no bounds set to the peoples fancies of purer administrations , and less defective wayes of worship . so that there can be no stop to separation in this way . suppose some think our churches tolerable , and mr. b's . or mr. a's . meetings were eligible ; but after a while , when the first rellish 〈◊〉 . they afford occasional communion to the 〈◊〉 or quakers , and then think their way more 〈◊〉 and the other only tolerable ; are not these men bound to forsake them , for the same reasons , by which they were first moved to leave our communion , and joyn with them , unless they be secure , that the absolute perfection of their way of worship is so glaringly visible to all mankind , that it is impossible for them , either to find or fancy any defect in it ? mr. baxter once very well said , separation will ruin the separated churches themselves at last ; it will admit of no consistency . parties will arise in the separated churches , and separate again from them , till they are dissolved . why might not r. williams of new-england ( mention'd by mr. b. ) proceed in his course of separation from the church of salem , because he thought he had found out a purer and less defective way of worship than theirs ; as well as they might withdraw from our churches on the like pretence ? why might he not go on still refining of churches , till at last he dissolved his society , and declared , that every one should have liberty to worship god according to the light of his own conscience ? by which remarkable instance we see , that this principle , when pursued , will carry men at last to the dissolution of all churches . sect. . this i had objected to mr. b. in my letter , that upon his principles the people might leave him to morrow , and go to dr. o. and leave him next week and go to the anabaptists , and from them to the quakers . to which mr. b. answers ; what harm will it do me or them , if any hearers go from me , as you say , to dr. o. none , that i know . for , as dr. o. saith , since your practice is one and the same , your principles must be so also , although you choose several wayes of expressing them . but , did the whole force of my argument lie there ? did i not mention their going from him to the anabaptists and quakers , upon the very same ground ? and , is this a good way of answering , to dissemble the main force of an argument , that something may seem to be said to it ? i suppose mr. b's . great hast made him leave the best part of the argument behind him . but i desire him calmly to weigh and consider it better ; whether he doth think it reasonable to suppose , that since the peace and vnity of the church is a thing of such great importance , and separation so mischievous ( as he hath represented it ) that the peoples apprehension of a less defective way of worship , shall be sufficient ground for them to break a church in pieces , and to run into wayes of separation ? hath not mr. baxter represented ( and no man better ) the ignorance , injudiciousness , pride , conceitedness and vnpeaceabless of the ordinary sort of zealous professors of religion ? and after all this , must they , upon a conceit of purer administrations , and less defective wayes of worship , be at liberty to rend and tear a church into pieces ; and run from one separate congregation to another , till they have run themselves out of breath , and left the best parts of their religion behind them ? how fully hath mr. b. set forth the vngovernable and factious humor of this sort of people , and the pernicious consequences of complying with them ? and , must the reins be laid in their necks , that they may run whither they please ? because , forsooth , they know better , what is good for their souls , than the king doth ; and they love their souls better than the king doth , and the king cannot bind them to hurt , or famish , or endanger their souls . but , why must the king bear all the blame , if mens souls be not provided for according to their own wishes ? doth the king pretend to do any thing in this matter , but according to the establish'd laws and orders of this church ? why did he not keep to the good old phrase of king and parliament ? and why did he not put it as it ought to have been , that they know what makes better for their own edification , than the wisdom of the whole nation in parliament , and the governors of this church do : and let them make what law 's and orders they will , if the people , even the rash and injudicious professors , as mr. b. calls them , do think other means of edification better , and other wayes of worship less defective , they are bound to break through all laws , and to run into separation . and , how is it possible , upon these terms , to have any peace , or order , or any establish'd church ? i do not remember , that any of the old separatists , no not barrow , or iohnson , did ever lay down such loose principles of separation , as these are . the brownists declare , in their apology , that none are to separate for faults and corruptions , which may , and will fall out among men , even in true constituted churches , but by due order to seek the redress thereof . where a church is rightly constituted , here is no allowance of separation for defects and corruptions of men , although they might apprehend smith or iacob to be more edifying preachers , than either iohnson , or ainsworth . the ground of separation with them , was the want of a right constituted church ; if that were once supposed , other defects were never till now thought to be good grounds of separation . in the platform of the discipline of new-england , it is said , that church-members may not depart from the church as they please , nor without just and weighty cause : because such departure tends to the dissolution of the body . those just reasons are , . if a man cannot continue without sin . . in case of persecution . not one word of better means of edification . for the independents have wisely taken care to secure their members to their own congregations , and not suffer them to wander abroad upon such pretences ; lest such liberty should break them into disorder and confusion . so in their declaration at the savoy , they say , that persons joyned in church-fellowship , ought not lightly , or without just cause , to withdraw themselves from the communion of the church , whereunto they are joyned . and they reckon up those which they allow for just causes . . where any person cannot continue in any church without his sin : and that in three cases . first , want of ordinances . secondly , being deprived of due priviledges . thirdly , being compelled to any thing in practice , not warranted by the word . . in case of persecution . . vpon the account of conveniency of habitation . and in these cases , the church or officers are to be consulted , and then they may peaceably depart from the communion of the church . no allowance here made of forsaking a church , meerly for greater means of edification . and how just soever the reason were , they are civilly to take leave of the church and her officers , and to tell them why they depart . and mr. burroughs condemns it , as the direct way to bring in all kind of disorder and confusion into the church . yet this is now the main support of the present separation ; and meer necessity hath driven them to it ; for either they must own the principles of the old separatists , which they are unwilling to do , or find out others to serve their turn ; but they are such , as no man , who hath any regard to the peace and vnity of the church , can ever think fit to maintain , since they apparently tend to nothing but disorder and confusion , as mr. burroughs truly observed . but what ground is there to suppose so much greater means of edification in the separate congregations ? since mr. b. is pleased to give this testimony to the preaching in our parish-churches ; that for his part , he hath seldom heard any , but very good well-studied sermons in the parish churches in london , where he hath been ; but most of them are more fitted to well-bred schol●rs , or judicious hearers , than to such as need more practicall subjects , and a more plain , familiar , easie method . is this the truth of the case indeed ? then , for all that i can see , the king is excused from all blame in this matter ; unless it be a fault to provide too well for them . and , is this a good ground for separation , that the preaching is too good for the people ? some men may want causes to defend , but at this rate they can never want arguments . yet , methinks , the same men should not complain of starving , and famishing souls , when the only fault is , that the meat is too good , and too well dressed for them . and on the other side , hath not mr. b. complained publickly of the weakness and injudiciousness of too many of the non-conformist preachers ? and that he really fears , lest meer non-conformists have brought some into reputation as conscientious , who , by weak preaching , will lose the reputation of being iudicious , more than their silence lost it . and again , but verily the injudiciousness of too many is for a lamentation . to which he adds , but the grand calamity is , that the most injudicious are usually the most confident and self-conceited , and none so commonly give way to their ignorant zeal , to censure , backbite , and reproach others , as those that know not what they talk of . let now any reader judge , whether upon the stating of the case by mr. b. himself , their having better means of edification , can be the ground of leaving our churches , to go to separate congregations , unless injudiciousness , and self-conceited confidence and an ignorant zeal may perhaps be more edifying to some capacities , and to some purposes , than judicious and well studied sermons . this argument must therefore be quitted ; and they who will defend the present separation , must return to the old principles of the separatists , if they will justifie their own practices . and so i find mr. b. is forced to do ; for discerning ▪ that the pretence of greater edification would not hold of it self , he adds more weight to it , and that comes home to the business ; viz. that the people doubt of the calling of the obtruded men. this is indeed an argument for separation , and the very same , which barrow , and greenwood , and iohnson , and smith , and can used . now we are come to the old point of defending the calling of our ministry ; but we are mistaken , if we think they now manage it after the same manner . we do not hear so much the old terms of a false and antichristian ministry ; but if they do substitute others in their room as effectual to make a separation , but less fit to justifie it , the difference will not appear to be at all to their advantage . sect. . . i come therefore to consider the principles of our new separatists , as to the ministry of our church ; and to discover , how little they differ from the old separatists , when this matter is throughly enquired into , as to the argument for separation . i. in general , they declare , that they only look on those as true churches , which have such pastors whom they approve . how oft have i told you , saith mr. b. that i distinguish , and take those for true churches , that have true pastors . but i take those for no true churches , that have , . men uncapable of the pastoral office. . or not truly called to it . . or that deny themselves to have the power essential to a pastor . and one or other of these he thinks most , if not all the parochial churches in england fall under . you will say then , mr. b. is a rigid separatist ; and thinks it not lawful to joyn with any of our parochial congregations : but this is contradicted by his own practice . there lies therefore a farther subtilty in this matter ; for he declares in the same place , he can joyn with them notwithstanding . but how ? as true churches , though he saith they are not ? no ; but as chappels and oratories , although they be not churches , as wanting an essential part . this will bring the matter to a very good pass , the parish churches of england shall only be chappels of ease to those of the non-conformists . this i confess is a subtilty beyond the reach of the old brownists , and non-conformists , for they both took it for granted that there was sufficient ground for separation , if our churches were not true churches , and the proof of that depended on the truth of our ministry . now , saith mr. b. although our parochial congregations be not true churches , because they want an essential part , viz. a true ministry , yet he can joyn with them occasionally , as chappels or oratories . from whence it appears , that he accounts not our parochial churches as true churches , nor doth communicate with them as such ; but only looks on them as publick places of prayer , to which a man may resort upon occasion without owning any relation to the minister , or looking on the congregation as a church . for , where he speaks more fully , he declares , that he looks on none as true churches , but such as have the power of the keys within themselves , and hath a bishop or pastor over them with that power ; and any parochial church that hath such a one , and ownes it self to be independent , he allows to be a true church , and none else . so that unless our parochial churches and ministers assume to themselves episcopal power , in opposition to the present constitution of our church , as he apprehends , he at once discards them all from being true churches : but i shall afterwards discover his mistake as to the nature of our parochial churches ; that which i only insist on now is , that he looks on none of them as truly constituted churches , or as he calls it , of the political organized form , as wanting an essential part , viz. a true pastor . from hence it necessarily follows , either that mr. b. communicates with no true church at all ; or it must be a separate church ; or , if he thinks himself bound to be a member of a true church , he must proceed to as a great separation as the old brownists did , by setting up new churches in opposition to ours . it is no sufficient answer in this case , to say , that mr. b. doth it not ; for we are only to shew , what he is obliged to do by vertue of his own principles : which tend to as much separation , as was practised in former times , and hath been so often condemned by mr. b. sect. . ii. suppose they should allow our parochial churches in their constitution to be true churches ; yet the exceptions they make against the ministers of our churches are so many , that they scarce allow any , from whom they may not lawfully separate . . if the people judge their ministers unworthy , or incompetent , they allow them liberty to withdraw , and to separate from them . this i shall prove from many passages in several books of mr. b. and others . first , they 〈◊〉 it in the peoples power , notwithstanding all lega●●stablishments , to own or disown whom they judge sit mr. b. speaks his mind very freely against the rights and ●etronage , and the power of magistrates in these cases , and pleads for the unalterable rights of the people ; as the old separatists did . god , saith mr. b. in nature and scripture , hath given the people that consenting power , antecedent to the princes determination , which none can take from them . mr. a. saith , every particular church has an inherent right to choose its own pastors . dr. o. makes the depriving the people of this right one of his grounds of separation . so that although our ministers have been long in possession of their places , yet if the people have not owned them , they are at liberty to choose whom they please . how many hundred congregations , saith mr. b. have incumbents , whom the people never consented to ; but take them for their hinderers and burden ! so many hundred congregations it seems are in readiness for separation . secondly , the people are made iudges of the worthiness and competency of their ministers . this follows from the former . in case incompetent pastors be set over the people , saith mr. b. though it be half the parishes in a kingdom , or only the tenth part , it is no schism , saith he , but a duty , for those that are destitute , to get the best supply they can , i.e. to choose those whom they judge more competent ; and it is no schism but a duty , for faithful ministers , though forbidden by superiors , to perform their office to such people that desire it . this is plain dealing . but suppose the magistrate should cast out some , and put in others ; in that case he saith , if they be men of uniried and suspected parts of fidelity ( of which the people are to be judges ) the princes imposition doth not make such true pastors of the church before , or without the people consent ; nor doth it always bind the people to consent , and to forsake their former pastors , nor prove them schismaticks , because they do it not . thirdly , they give particular directions to the people , what sort of ministers they should own , and what not . mr. b. bids the people not think that he is perswading them to make no difference : but after he hath set aside the utterly insufficient , and the heretical ( of which the people are admirable judges ) he lays down this general rule , any one whose ministry is such , as tendeth to destruction more than to edification , and to do more harm than good is not to be owned . and if not to be owned so , then he is to be separated from : and although he adviseth the people to lay aside partiality and passion ; yet whether they will or not , they are left sole iudges in this matter . and that we may not think all this to be only a romantick scheme , or fiction , he tells us elsewhere , that they are not able to confute the people in too many places , who tell them that their publick priests are so defective in their necessary qualifications for their office , as that they hold it unlawful to own such for true ministers , and to encourage them by their presence , or commit the care of their souls to such , i.e. in plain terms , they are encouraged to separation on this account , which is directly contrary to the principles of the old non-conformists , as appears at large by mr. ball. if , saith he , can's meaning be , that it is not lawful to communicate in the worship of god with ministers not fitly qualified , disorderly called , or carelesly executing their office and function , then it is directly contrary to the word of truth , sound reason , and consent of all the learned . with much more to that purpose . and even mr. b. himself , when he takes upon him as a casuist to determine these things , doth then declare his mind . . that a ministers personal faults do not allow people to separate from the worship of god. . nor all ministerial faults , but only those that prove him or his ministration utterly intolerable . but now , if mr. b. may be believed , the people need not be told , how great a number of cases there are among us , where the ministers are uncapable of the ministerial office , and therefore it is no sin in them to judge him no minister , and consequently to separate from him . hath not mr. b. fully set forth the pride , ignorance , censoriousness , headiness , rashness of raw and injudicious zealots ? and after all this . is it fit or reasonable , that the opinion of such persons be taken , concerning the qualifications of their ministers ? hath not mr. b. complained with more than ordinary resentment , that they are ready to scorn , and vilifie the gravest wisest pastors ? and , must such mens judgments be taken , concerning the abilities and competency of their ministers ? either mr. b. hath extremely wronged them in the characters he hath given of such people ; or he hath taken away all the reputation of their judgment in such cases : when they scorn and contemn the greavest wisest pastors , are they fit to judge of ministerial a●ilities ? but there are graver and wiser among the people . suppose that ; but doth not mr. b. say , that the rawest and rashest professors are commonly the most violent and censorious ? these are the bold and forward men , that will judge in spite of the rest ; these are the men that need not be told , what numbers of uncapable ministers there are among us and it doth not become mr. b's gravity or wisdom to hearken to all the censures and malicious reports of such ignorant and heady zealots ( as he calls them ) about the unworthiness or incapacity of their ministers . are they only the grave and wise pastors among themselves , which are scorned by such men ? it is possible , that those may be grave and wise among us too , whom they censure for incompetent men ; or must the same people which are raw and injudicious , ignorant and censorious , proud and self-conceited , when they make their judgment of them , be of a sudden turned into grave and wise men , when they pass their judgment upon the abilities and fitness of our preachers ? this doth not look like fair and equal dealing . i pray let our ministers have a fair hearing , and let the matter be well examined , before the people be thus encouraged to separate from their ministers for their disabilities , or unworthiness . but suppose there be too great a number of young , raw , injudicious preachers , as mr. b. saith , no man can deny that knoweth england , and hath any modesty . is there no way , but to your tents o israel ? will nothing but separation serve your turn ? is this the way to mend the matter , and to make them grave and wise ? doth not mr. b. confess , that they have too many such among themselves ? must they separate from them too ? what endless confusions do such principles tend to ? but the bottom of all is , this separation must be justified , one way or other ; and such principles found out , which may seem to do it . yet after all , what is this to the present case of separation in this city ? for here the charge was laid , and to this the answer must be given , or it is to no purpose . is it any reason , that near half of some parishes in london , should separate from their grave and wise pastors , such as i know some to be , where this case is ; because in cornwall , or yorkshire , or northumberland , there are many raw and injudicious , besides scandalous priests , as mr. b. speaks ? we urge you particularly with the london separation , you tell us what the people say of the insufficiency and vnworthiness of the clergy in other parts of england ; suppose it true , what is all this to the business ? if you persist in this way , we can name the parishes to you in london , where the ministers are men of unexceptionable learning and piety ; where the churches are large enough to receive the people that separate ; as well as those that come ; and yet they forsake the churches communion , and adhere to the separate congregations : tell us plainly in this case , is this separation lawful or not ? if it be lawful , to what purpose do you make use of so many shifts and evasions , as to great prishes , and insufficient and scandalous priests , in other parts of the nation ? answer to the case proposed , and to the place where the charge was laid ; and think not to escape by such apparent evasions , and impertinencies as these . if you think such a separation unlawful , then why do you pretend to confute my sermon , which was designed purposely against it ? sect. . but while you plead for this liberty of the peoples separating upon their iudgment of their ministers abilities and fitness , you can never secure them from separation from any church or ministers whatsoever . and no setled church in the world could ever subsist long , without infinite disorder and confusion , if this were allow'd . for mr. b. thinks them uncapable of the ministerial office in the peoples judgment . . who have not tolerable ministerial knowledge , or utterance . . who are heretical . . who malignantly oppose serious religion as hypocrisie , or a needless thing . . who by their wicked lives do more hurt than they do good . from such , saith he , st. paul bids turn away . and of all these things the people are to be iudges ; and so may separate , ( . ) when they are unsatisfied about the ministerial knowledge or utterance of their ministers . as for their vtterance ; we may allow them to be judges of that ; but i never heard before , that st. paul did bid people turn away from their ministers , if their vtterance were not thought to be tolerable . for he intimates , that some complained of his utterance and had him in contempt for it . but as to abilities and knowledge fit for ministers , are not the people admirable judges ? how few , how very few , even of those of the people who pretend most to knowledge in religion , have any tolerable understanding of the true principles , and right notion of it ? i do not speak only of artificers and tradesmen ; but of those of better education , who either by prejudices , or want of due application of their minds to such things , are subject to great mistakes about religion , and yet may be very good men : if such as these , are so unfit to judge of ministerial knowledge , and the doctrines of religion , what shall we say to the common sort of raw , and injudicious professors of religion ? mr. b's . experience in the world is not so little , as not to know and be sensible of the truth of this , among the people most apt to divide and separate . is it not then a strange thing he should thus subject the judgment of ministerial knowledge to such a company of triers as these ? but suppose they do allow their ministers to pass for men of tolerable abilities , and reasonable good utterance , there is a harder task yet behind , and that is , to approve themselves to the people to be sound and orthodox ; for , saith mr. b. ( ) if they be heretical , they may without sin separate from them . but how shall a man escape being thought heretical by the people , if they have a mind to make him so ; i.e. if he crosseth their humor , and delivers such doctrine as doth not please them ; for that is generally their standard for heresie ? and they cannot well have any other ; unless you will suppose all the people to be learned divines , and every man obliged to read and understand epiphanius and binius : and then perhaps they may be competent iudges of heresie , and come at last to be even with the divines for having been their judges so long in that matter . let us now suppose a person of great value and esteem among them for his other ministerial abilities , should happen to be thought unsound in the point of iustification , and to draw too near to the papists in it ; and this not only be said by the common people , but they are abetted and encouraged in it , by the greatest part of their teachers , who tell them , this is a fundamental point , articulus stantis & cadentis ecclesiae ; that they had as good give up the cause of reformation , as yield in that matter , as some have said ; i would fain know in this case , whether upon mr. b's . principles , the people are not bound to separate from such a man , notwithstanding his other abilities ? the like may happen as to many other doctrines , which the people are as incompetent iudges of , as they are in this matter . let us yet suppose that such a man may pass for sound in the main among the people ; what shall we say to him , if under pretence of curing divisions he exposes good people , and lays open with great freedom and plainness their factious , turbulent , censorious , vngovernable humor ; not omitting their injudiciousness , but forgetting all the while that these same injudicious people ( with all their other faults ) were once his electors , and are still his iudges ; suppose , that he tells the world , that for their ignorance , injudiciousness , pride and self-conceitedness , they are their grief and their shame ; that they are endanger'd by divisions , principally because the selfconceited part of the religious people will not be ruled by their pastors ; that it is they that tempt the papists to use fire and faggot that will not be ruled , nor kept in concord by the wisest , and holiest , and most self-denying ministers upon earth . notwithstanding all these very kind words of themselves , do not we think such people would call all this reviling , and reproaching the people of god , and say , that such men do malignantly oppose serious godliness as hypocrisie ; and let their lives be what they will , they do more hurt than good ; and therefore by mr. b's own rules , they are bound to seprate from the wisest , the holiest , the most self-denying ministers upon earth . which i think is sufficient for the present to shew the mischievous consequence of putting so great a power of judgment , and separation upon it into the hands of the people . sect. . but this is not all the encouragement to separation , which is given to the people , by their power of iudging , and withdrawing from their ministers ; for , . they insinuate , that the whole body of the conforming clergy is guilty of such faults , as the people may lawfully separate from them ; as will appear by these particulars . first , they make conformity it self to be a very scandalous thing ; and then tell the people over and over , it is no sin to separate from scandalous priests ; especially when the scandal is notorious , as it is in this case . mr. b. goes about to prove this , by many arguments , when he writes in the name of the party ; now let us see what judgment they pass upon conformity . in one place he saith , that the love of peace , and the fear of frightning any farther from parish communion than i desire ( as though such suggestions did not do it enough ) do oblige me to forbear so much as to describe or name the additional conformity ; and that sin which non-conformists fear , and fly from , which maketh it harder to us that desire it to draw many good people to communion with conformists than it was of old . no doubt of it , if you give such broad intimations as these are , what a horrible scandalous sin conformity is . nay , he maketh it an inexcusable sin , when he saith , in the preface to his plea , that more like truth hath been said for the lawfulness of anabaptistry , poligamy , drunkenness , stealing , and lying , in case of necessity , than any thing he ever yet read of all that he hath there described , i.e. full conformity . he chargeth us downright with lying , and by consequence with perjury , and tells me of tremendous aggravations of the sin of conformity ; among which are lying and perjury , and not only that , but drawing on our selves the guilt of many thousand perjuries ( by declaring , that the covenant doth not oblige . ) but i do not question , if mr. b. pleased , he could find out or as tremendous aggravations of the sin of separation . for never did any man lay more load than he , upon whatever he opposes , without considering how it may fall upon himself at last ; and how easie it is to return such heaps of aggravations . and it was well said by one of mr. b's . adversaries concerning him , that be the controversie what it will , he can make his adversary differ with him about the existence of god and christ , a heaven and hell. which i have found too true , by my experience in this case , for without any colour or pretence in the world that i know of , but only by declaring against separation , he tells me , that he is so far past doubt , on the other side , as that he thinks i overthrow all religion , and set up man in rebellion against god. but the worst is that he would make me say , which i never said or thought , that all publick worship is sinful , when forbidden : and then on he runs with a mighty torrent , daniel may go to the lions ; the martyrs , fathers , counsels , the vniversal church are all foolisher , than the meanest of his auditors . i wonder he did not give me tremendous aggravations of atheism and hobbism . for he doth in effect charge me with them ; for it follows , it 's strange that he can be sure , god's word is true , and yet be so sure , that mens laws are above it , and may suspend it . did i ever in my life say the least thing tending that way ? i abhor and detest such principles , as set mans laws above gods. and when i gave him the state of the controversie about separation , i supposed an agreement in all the substantials of religion , between the dissenting parties and our church . how then could he possibly infer from hence , that i set man's laws above gods ? the question is not , whether all publick worship be sinful , when forbidden ? but whether in a nation professing true religion , some publick worship may not be forbidden ? if not , then an universal , unlimited toleration of turks , iews , papists , socinians , ranters , &c. must follow . if some may be forbidden , then another question follows , viz. whether such publick worship , as may have an evil in it , antecedent to that prohibition , may not be forbidden ? viz. such as tends to idolatry , sedition , schism , &c. and if this be allowed , then it comes to this at last , whether such meetings are guilty of any of these faults ; and if they be , whether the magistrate so judging may not justly forbid them ? and this is the utmost that matter can be driven to ; which i here mention , to let the reader understand , what little cause there is to dread mr. b's aggravations of the sin of conformity ; which are built on as slight grounds as this heavy charge against me ; for the sake of which i shall hardly ever dread his aggravations more . but the sting of these aggravations follows . if the people think , ( though they should mistake ) that all the conformists are guilty of the like , can you wonder , if they prefer less guilty pastors to trust the conduct of their souls with ? now the true reason of separation is come out at last . our conformity is a horrible , scandalous sin with them , and therefore they must choose better pastors . is not this just the old brownists argument ? the ministry of the church of england is a corrupt and sinful ministery , and therefore we must not communicate with them , but choose more honest and faithful guides : but let me ask mr. b. supposing all this to be true , is it lawful to communicate with conformists or not ? if it be not lawful , then he condemns his own practice , and takes away occasional communion ; if it be lawful , how comes separation to be lawful , since , that is never lawful , but when it is necessary ? as it will be proved afterwards . sect. . . they make most of the present ministers of the church of england to be vsurpers ; and from such they say , they may lawfully separate . is it separation , saith mr. b. to refuse pastors that are vsurpers , and have no true power over them ? but who are these vsurpers among us , since we have a legal establishment , and we thought law and vsurpation contrary to each other ? but notwithstanding law , it is determin'd , first , all that come into the places of ejected ministers are vsurpers , at least to as many of the people , as do not consent to their coming in : how prove you , saith mr. b. that the relation of the ejected london-ministers and their flocks was dissolved , and that the succeeders , were true pastors to the non-consenting flocks ? when faithful pastors , saith he in his plea ( written in the name of the party , and by consent , as he saith , of many of his acquaintance ) are in possession , if a lawful magistrate cast them out ; and put others in their places of untried or suspected parts or fidelity . i. the princes imposition maketh not such true pastors of that church , before , or without the peoples consent . ii. nor will it alwayes bind the people to consent , and to forsake their former pastors , nor prove them schismaticks , because they do it not . the bottom of all this , is , they are vsurpers to whom the people do not consent in any particular parish ; although the whole nation in parliament consented to the passing of a law for removal of some pastors , and putting in of others . and what dangerous consequences there may be of such principles as these , i leave others to judge . for upon these grounds , when salomon deprived abiathar , and put zadok in his room ; any part of the people might have pleaded , they never consented to zadok 's coming in , and therefore he was their high-●riest still ; let salomon do what he would ; he could not dissolve the relation between them , without their own consent . for the question is not , whether abiathar did not deserve to be put out , but to whom it belonged to do it , whether to the king , or the people ? and whether any part of the people might still own that relation which he had before to them , without palpable disobedience and contempt of authority ? especially if the people had given their own consent , and the thing had been done not only by salomon , but by the states of israel ; as it was in our case . they who discern not the ill consequences of such assertions as to our government , have very little insight into affairs . for it follows , that a small part of the people may disown the publick acts of parliament , and choose other governors , to themselves in opposition to those established by law : and why they should not do it , upon an equal pretence in other cases , i do not understand . for there is no more colour for the peoples resuming their right , especially a small part against the whole , in one case then in the other . which makes me wonder at those who da●e call them vsurpers , who enjoy their places by the same laws , that any men do enjoy their estates . and they who assert , that the people are bound notwithstanding the laws to adhere to their former pastors , as mr. a. doth , who saith , they judge it their unquestionable duty to abide in that relation to their ejected pastors , do not only assert a power in a handful of people to act against established laws , passed by general consent in parliament ; but overthrow the settlement of our church upon the reformation . for , the papists then had the very same plea , that these men have now , v●z . that the magistrate could not dissolve the relation between their former church guides and them : and therefor● notwithstanding acts of parliament , they were still hound to adhere to them . for the magistrate had no power in such matters , and the real schism was to withdraw from those guides ; just as mr. a. speaks concerning the ejected ministers . so much do these men , in pursuing the interests of their parties , overthrow the principles of the reformation . for either the magistrate hath a power to silence some ministers , and to put others in their places , or he hath none : if he hath none , then , what becomes of the iustice of the reformation , when the popish bishops and priests were ejected , and others put into their places ? if they say , he hath a just power in some cases , but not in theirs . is not this a plea common to all ? for whoever thought themselves justly ejected ? or that they did any thing which deserved so severe a punishment ? what then is to be done in this case , if men think themselves unjustly cast out ? the old non-conformists said , they ought to sit down quietly ; with this satisfaction , that there were others to preach the word of god soundly , although they did not . they might by joyning in their private capacities in communion with our churches , and drawing the people to it by their example and encouragement , have done more good both to the people and to this church , than i fear their publick preaching in opposition to the laws hath done to either ▪ but if they go upon such principles ●s these , that the magistrate had no rightful power to eject them , that others are vsurpers who come in their places , that the people are still bound to own them in their former relation notwithstanding the laws , and that 't is schism to separate from them , notwithstanding that they confess the true religion is maintained and preached in our publick assemblies , i leave it to others to determine how consistent such principles are with the submission men owe to government , or that peaceable behaviour which becometh christians . this i the rather insist upon , because i find not only mr. b. and mr. a. asserting it , but that it is made the standing plea for the necessity of the present separation , among those who do not hold all communion with our churches unlawful . so the latest of my answerers makes a question , whether they can be said to erect new churches , or proceed to the forming of separate congregations , who were true ministers , and had their congregations before others came into their places ? if they had done nothing worthy of ejection , or exclusion from their ministry , whether they have not still a right to exercise their function . and consequently , whether others may not as justly be said to draw away their people from them , as they are charged with the same practice ? there is not one word in all this plea but might have equally served the papists in the beginning of the reformation . for the law signifies nothing with them in any case where themselves are concerned , if ministers be ejected without or against law , they who come into their places are no usurpers ; and if they are cast out by law , they that succeed them are usurpers ; so that the law is always the least thing in their consideration . secondly , all those who come into any pastoral charge , whether bishops by vertue of the kings nomination , or others by the presentation of patrons , are vsurpers , unless the people be pleased to give their free consent ; and if they do it not , they may lawfully withdraw from them . for , saith mr. b. the people have an antecedent right to consent , which none can take from them . and he saith , he hath proved it by many canons , that he was no bishop , that was not chosen by the clergy and the people ; or came in without the peoples consent . nay , if they have the consent of some , and not of the greater part , those who did not consent , may proceed to choose another bishop , if mr. b. say true . for these are his words . if a diocess have a thousand or , or parish pastors , and a hundred thousand or a million of people ( or or , as ye will suppose ) and if only a dozen or presbyters , and a thousand people ( or none ) chuse the bishop , this is not the election or consent of the diocesan church ; nor is it schism for twenty thousand to go against the votes of two thousand . therefore if they have so much the advantage in polling , as mr. a. suggests , there is nothing hinders them , but that in spite of laws , they may proceed to the choice of new bishops , and new pastors of churches , wherever they think they can make the majority . for this is an inherent and unalterable right in the people , say they , to choose their own pastors . again , saith mr. b. in the name of the party in his plea , if bishops that have no better a foundation , i.e. that come in by the kings nomination , and not by the majority of the people , shall impose inferior pastors or presbyters on the parish churches , and command the peoples acceptance and obe●●●nce , i.e. if they give them institution upon a patrons presentation , the people are not bound to accept and obey them by any authority that is in that command as such ; nor is it schism to disobey it , no more than it is treason to reject the vsurper of a kingdom . it is plain then , all bishops of the kings nomination , all ministers presented by patrons are meer vsurpers : the people may give them a good title if they please ; but they are not to blame if they do it not . for in them , mr. b. saith , the chief power is , and sometimes he tells them , they are bound to separate ; however , while they do not consent , they are no churches , which they are set over ; and it is no schism so to pronounce them ; nor to deny them communion proper to a church . is not this an excellent plea for peace ; and the true and only way of concord , which lays the foundation for all imaginable disorders and confusions , only that they might have some pretence for their present separation ? sect. . . suppose the bishops and clergy have gained the consent ( implicit at least ) of the people , and so are no vsurpers , yet if they be persecutors , or ithacian prelatists , i.e. if they either act towards , or approve of the silencing non-conformists , the people may separate from them . when mr. b. wrote the defence of his book , called , the cure of divisions , to satisfie the people who were much displeased with him for it ; one of the material questions , he asks about his book , is , is there a word to perswade you to communion with persecutors ? as though that had been an unpardonable crime . in the plea he saith , if any excommunicate persons for not complying with them in sin , i.e. conformity , but also prosecute them with mulcts , imprisonments , banishments , or other prosecution , to force them to transgress , this were yet more heinously aggravated schism : and therefore it is no sin to separate from such . and how easily men are drawn in to the guilt of this persecution , appears by the example he makes of me , for although i expresly set aside the case of ministers , and declared , i intended only to speak of lay-communion ; yet he charges me with engaging my self in the silencing design . and by such consequences , all that speak against separation may be separated from , as persecuters , and ithacian prelatists . sect. . . as long as they suppose the terms of our communion to be sinful , they say , the schism doth not lye on those that separate , but on those that do impose such terms ; and therefore they may lawfully separate from such imposers . this is the most colourable plea hath been yet used by them . but in this case , we must distinguish between terms of communion plainly and in themselves sinful ; and such which are only fancied to be so through prejudice , or wilful ignorance , or error of conscience . that there is a real distinction between these two , is evident ; and that it ought to be considered in this case , appears from hence , that else there can be no sinful separation under an erroneous conscience . as suppose some men should think that preaching by an hour-glass , and much more praying by one , was a stinting of the spirit in point of time , as praying by a form was in point of words ; and all men should be required to begin the publick worship at such an hour , and so end at such an hour ; time being a necessary circumstance , our brethren grant , that the magistrate or church may lawfully determine it . here is then a lawful imposition ; and yet the quakers may really judge it to be sinful ; and declare they cannot communicate unless this sinful imposition be removed ; for it is against their consciences to have the spirit limited to any certain time ; on whose side doth the schism lie in this case ? not on the imposers , because they grant such an imposition lawful ; therefore it must lie on those that separate , although they judge such terms of communion sinful . if therefore the determination of other things not forbidden be really as much in the magistrates and churches power , as the necessary circumstances of time and place , &c. then mens apprehending such terms of communion to be sinful will not hinder the guilt of separation from lying on their side , and not on the imposers . because it is to be supposed . that where there is no plain prohibition , men may with ordinary care and judgment , satisfie themselves of the lawfulness of things required . as for instance , when the church of rome imposeth the worship of images , we have the plain prohibition of the second commandment to prove that it is really a sinful condition of communion ; but when our church requireth the constant use of a liturgy , and ceremonies , which are now pleaded as sinful conditions of communion , where is the prohibition ? in the same second commandment say some . i desire them to read it over to me . they do so . where , say i , are the words that forbid a liturgy , or ceremonies ? i am mistaken , they tell me , it is not in the words , but in the sense . i ask , how we should come by the sense , but from the words ? yes , they say , there are certain rules for interpreting the commandments . are they divine or human ? where are they to be found ? what are those rules ? one , they say , is , that where any thing is forbidden , something is commanded . so say i , there is here a command to worship god without an image . what is there more ? yes , say they , ( . ) that we must not worship god with our own inventions ; now liturgies and ceremonies are mens inventions ▪ but , i say , no inventions are condemned in the worship of god , but such as god himself hath somewhere forbidden ; but he hath no where forbidden these . and human inventions are forbidden in this commandment in the worship of god ; but then ( ) they are such inventions which go about to represent god , and so to disparage him ; and no other inventions are to be understood , than the reason of the law doth extend to , i.e. not such which are consistent with the spiritual and invisible nature of god. ( . ) they are not such as do relate to the manner or form of worship , supposing the worship it self be performed in a way agreeable to the divine nature and law. for otherwise all use of mens inventions , as to preaching , or reading , or interpreting scripture , would be forbidden . and then this interpretation of the second commandment would be unlawful , because it is a meer invention of men ; as much as liturgies , or ceremonies . by this we see , what stretching and forcing of scripture there must be , to make liturgies or ceremonies unlawful terms of communion ; and that men must first blind and fetter their minds by certain prejudices of education , or reading only one sort of books , and taking some things for granted which they ought not , before they can esteem the terms of communion required by our church to be sinful : and therefore the schism doth not lye on the imposers side , but upon those who suffer themselves first to be so easily deluded , and then separate from our church upon it . but there is another plain instance in this case , wherein our brethren themselves will not allow the schism to lie on the imposers side ; and that is of those who deny the lawfulness of infant-baptism . many of whom pretend to do it with as much sincerity and impartiality , as any of our brethren can deny the lawfulness of liturgy or ceremonies : if they break communion rather than allow what they judge to be sinful , on whose side doth the schism lie , on theirs that require the allowance of it , as a condition of communion , or not ? if on the imposers side , they must condemn themselves , who blame the anabaptists for their separation . and so did fr. iohnson , and so did the new-england churches . from whence it appears , that they do all agree , that where men through mistake do judge those to be sinful terms of communion which are not , the guilt of schism doth not lie on the imposers side , but on those that separate . therefore , this matter of schism cannot be ended by the plea of conscience judging the conditions to be sinful , but by evident and convincing proofs that they are so ; but till these are brought forth , which never yet were , or ever will be , they must bear the blame of the schism , if they separate on these accounts . thus i have faithfully represented the principles of those who allow occasional presence in our churches , rather than communion with them ; which i have discover'd to be of that nature , as leads men to the greatest separation . sect. . there are others who deal more openly and ingenuously , and so need the less pains to discover their minds , and those are , ii. such who do in terms assert all acts of communion with our churches to be unlawful . but there is a difference among these ; for , first , some allow hearing sermons in our publick assemblies , and joyning in the pulpit prayers ; but not in the liturgy , or any proper act of church-communion . this i have shewed , was the opinion of robinson , and the new-england churches ; and was lately owned by mr. ph. nye , who wrote a discourse about it , and answered all objections . yea , he goes so far , as to own the publick preaching , as a great blessing to the nation ; and he thinks , the dissenters and their families are bound to frequent , ( as they have liberty and opportunity ) the more publick and national ministry . but towards the end of his treatise he confesses the generality of their people , to be of another opinion ; which he imputes to the activity of the iesuits among them ; and he was a very sagacious man. secondly , others hold it unlawful to joyn with our churches in any acts of publick worship . and some are arrived to that height , that one of my answerers confesseth , that they refuse to hear him , because he owns many parochial churches to be true churches . it seems then , they not only think it unlawful to hear us , but to hear those who think it lawful ; and the next step will be to separate from those who do not separate from them , that own many parochial churches to be true churches . several books have been published to prove it unlawful to hear our ministers preach : and these proceed upon the old arguments of the former separatists ; as may be seen at large in a book called ierubbaal : whose author goes about to prove our worship idolatry , and our ministers antichristian ; which mr. nye was so far from owning , that he grants our ministry to be true and lawful , and utterly denies it to be anti-christian ; because the articles of our religion , to which our ministers are to conform their instructions , are orthodox , and framed for the casting and keeping out of popery . sect. . the several principles of our dissenters being thus laid down , the state of the present controversie , as to separation from our communion , will soon appear . and any one may now discern , . that i do not mean bare local separation . for mr. b. puts this in the front of his quaere's ; do you think , that he is a separatist that meeteth not in the same parish church with you ? no ; i do assure him , provided that he elsewhere joyns with our churches as a member of them ; and doth not think himself bound to prefer the separate meetings , as having a purer way of worship , and ordinarily to frequent them for more gospel-administrations . and so much may satisfie mr. a. too , who , after his trifling manner , talks of a bellum parochiale , as though men were so weak to charge one another with separation because they meet in different parishes ; but as to the gird he gives about a bellum episcopale , i desire him only to look into the evangelium armatum for an answer to it . . i do not mean by separation any difference in doctrine , not determin'd by our church , upon which men do not proceed to divide from the communion of it : and i wonder , who ever did . but mr. b. is pleased to make another quaere about it . to this i shall answer him in mr. hales his words : while the controversies in holland about praedestination , went no farther th●n the pen-combats , the schism was all that while unhatcht ; but assoon as one party swept an old cloyster , and by a pretty art made it a church , by putting a new pulpit in it for the separating party there to meet , that which was before a controversie became a formal schism . . by separation i do not mean any difference in modes of worship allowed by the church in whose communion we live . this is to answer mr. b's . quaere concerning the difference between cathedral and parochial churches ; and publick and private administrations of sacraments . but this sticks much with mr. a. who takes his hints from mr. b. which he cooks and dresses after his facetious manner , that they may go off the better with the common people . and a very pleasant representation he endeavors to make of the difference of the cathedral service from that in countrey parishes . but what is all this to the purpose ? if the same man puts on finer clothes at london , than he wears in the countrey , is he not the same man for all that ? are not david's psalms the same , whether they be sung , or said ? or whether sung in a cathedral tune , or as set by a parish clerk ? that which only looks like argument ( and my business is to mind nothing else ; possibly others may call him to an account for his unbecoming way of writing ) that i say which looks like argument is , that some things are done without rules in our parish churches , as the universal practice of singing psalms in hopkins and sternholds metre ; and therefore they may do things without rules and yet not be guilty of separation . this proceeds upon a mistake , for in the first establishment of the liturgy upon the reformation under edward the vi. allowance was made for the use of the psalms , as they were to be sung in churches distinct from the use of them as part of the liturgy ; and from thence that custom hath been so universally practised . but suppose there are some customs receiv'd without rules ; suppose there are some different customs among us ; what is this , to the denying the lawfulness of constant communion with our churches ? to the choosing of new pastors ? and sitting down , as he speaks , with purer administrations ? all which this man owns in his book , as their avowed principles and practices ; and yet hath the confidence to parallel their separation from our church , with the different modes of worship among our selves . he must have a very mean opinion of mens understandings , that thinks to deceive them in so gross a manner . . by separation i do not understand a meer difference as to the way of worship , which the members of foreign churches are here permitted to enjoy . for they do not break off from the communion of our churches ; but have certain priviledges allowed them , as acting under the rules of those churches from whence they came . but what have we to do to judge the members of other reformed churches ? our business is with those who being baptized in this church , and living under the rules and government of it ; either renounce the membership they once had in it , or avoid communion with it as members , and joyn with other societies set up in opposition to this communion . yet this matter about the foreign churches mr. b. mentions again and again ; as though their case could be thought alike , who never departed from ours , but only continue in the communion of their own churches . . i do not charge every disobedience to the king and laws and canons in matters of religion , government and worship with the guilt of separation . for although a man may be guilty of culpable disobedience in breaking the commands of authority , and the orders of the church he lives in ; yet if he continues in all acts of communion with our church , and draws not others from it upon mere pretence of greater purity of worship , and better means of edification , i do not charge such a one with schism . . i do not charge those with separation , who under idolatrous , or arian princes did keep up the exercise of true religion though against the will of the magistrate . but what is this to our case , where the true religion is acknowledged , and the true doctrine of faith owned by the dissenters themselves , who break off communion with our churches . wherefore then doth mr. b. make so many quaeres , about the case of those who lived under heathen persecutors ? or the arian emperors , or idolatorous princes ? i hope , he did not mean to parallel their own case with theirs ; for , what horrible reflection would this be upon our government , and the protestant religion established among us ? to what end doth he mention valens and hunericus that cut out of the preachers tongues , and several other unbecoming insinuations ? when god be thanked , we live under a most merciful prince , and have the true doctrine of the gospel among us , and may have it still continued , if mens great ingratitude , as well as other crying sins , do not provoke god justly to deprive us of it . what need was there , of letting fall any passages tending this way ? when i told him in the very state of the question , that all our dispute was , whether the upholding separate meetings for divine worship , where the doctrine established , and the substantial parts of worship are acknowledged to be agreeable to the word of god , be a sinful separation or not ? why is this dissembled and passed over ? and the worst cases imaginable supposed , in stead of that which is really theirs ? if i could defend a cause by no other means , i think common ingenuity , the honor of our prince and nation , and of the protestant religion professed among us , would make me give it over . sect. . and for the same reasons , in the management of this debate , i resolve to keep to the true state of the question , as it is laid down ; and to make good the charge of separation , i. against those who hold occasional communion with our church to be lawful in some parts of worship ; but deny constant communion to be a duty . ii. against those who deny any communion with our church to be lawful ; although they agree with us in the substantial of religion . . against those who hold occasional communion to be lawful with our church in some parts of worship , but deny constant communion to be a duty . to overthrow this principle , i shall prove these two things , . that bare occasional communion doth not excuse from the guilt of separation . . that as far as occasional communion with our church is allowed to be lawful , constant communion is a duty . . that bare occasional communion doth not excuse from the guilt of separation . which will appear by these things , first . bare occasional communion makes no man the member of a church . this term of occasional communion , as far as i can find , was invented by the dissenting brethren to give satisfaction to the presbyterians , who charged them with brownism : to avoid this charge , they declared , that the brownists held all communion with our parochial churches unlawful , which they did not ; for , said they , we can occasionally communicate with you ; but this gave no manner of satisfaction to the other pary , as long as they upheld separate congregations , with whom they would constantly communicate ; and accounted those their churches , with whom they did joyn as members of the same body . but if notwithstanding this lawfulness of occasional communion with our churches , they joyned with other societies in strict and constant communion ; it was a plain argument they apprehended something so bad or defective in our churches , that they could not joyn as members with them ; and because they saw a necessity of joyning with some churches as members , they pleaded for separate congregations . and so , must all those do , who think it their duty to be members of any churches at all ; and not follow grotius his example , in suspending communion from all churches . which is a principle i do not find any of our dissenting brethren willing to own . although mr. b. declares , that he and some others own themselves to be pastors to no churches ; that he never gather'd a church ; that he baptized none in years ; and gave the lords supper to none in years . i desire to know , what church mr. b. hath been of all this time . for as to our churches , he declares , that he thinks it lawful to communicate with us occasionally ; but not as churches ( for he thinks we want an essential part , viz. a pastor with episcopal power , as appears before ) but as oratories ; and so he renounces communion with our churches as churches ; and for other churches , he saith he hath gathered none , he hath administred sacraments to none in years ; and if he hath not joyned as a member in constant communion with any separate church , he hath been so long a member of no church at all . it is true , he hath pray'd occasionally , and receiv'd the sacrament occasionally in our oratories , but not as a member of our churches ; he hath preached occasionally to separate congregations , but he hath gather●d no church , he hath administred no sacraments for years together . so that he hath prayed occasionally in one place , and preached occasionally in another , but hath had no communion as member of a church any where . but i wonder , how any man could think such a necessity lay upon him to preach , that woe was unto him if he did not ; and yet apprehend none to administer the sacraments for so long together ; none , to joyn himself as a member to any church . is it possible for him to think it sacriledge not to preach ; and to think it no fault , not to give the sacraments to others , nor to receive one of them himself as a communicant with a church ? was there not the same devotedness , in ordination to the faithful administration of sacraments , as to preaching the gospel ? was not the same authority , the same charge as to both of them ? was there not the same promise and engagement to give faithful diligence to minister the doctrine and sacraments ? is there an indispensable obligation to do one part of your duty , and none at all to the other ? is this possible , to perswade impartial men , that for years together you thought your self bound to preach against the laws ; and yet never thought your self bound to do that , which you were as solemnly obliged to do as the other ? mr. b. knows very well in church-history , that presbyters were rarely allowed to preach , and not without leave from the bishop , and that in some of the churches he most esteems too ; viz. the african ; but they were constantly bound to administer the sacraments ; so that , if one obligation were stricter than the other , that was so which mr. b. dispensed with himself in , for years together ; and why he might not as well in the other , is not easie to understand . however , why all this while , no constant communicant with any church ? what , no church among us fit for him to be a member of ? no obligation upon a christian to that , equal to the necessity of preaching ? these things must seem very strange , to those who judge of christian obligations , by the scripture , and the vniversal sense and practice of the christian church in the best and purest ages . to what purpose is it to dispute about the true notion of an instituted church for personal presential communion ; if men can live for years together without joyning in communion with any such church ? what was this communion intended for ? the antient churches at this rate , might easily be capacious enough for their members , if some never joyned with them in so long a time . but he hath communicated occasionally with us : yes , to shew , what defective and tolerable churches he can communicate with , but not as a member , as himself declares ; and this occasional communion makes him none . for mr. a. saith , their occasional communion with us , is but like any of our occasional communion with them : or occasional hearing of a weak preacher ; or occasional going to a popish chappel ; which no one imagines makes the persons members of such congregations . if therefore men use this occasional communion more than once or twice , or ten or twenty times , as long as they declare it is only occasional communion , it makes them no members of our churches ; for that obliges them to fixed and constant communion . secondly , they that have fixed and constant communion in a church gathered out of another , are in a state of separation from the church out of which it is gathered , although they may be occasionally present in it . now , if men who think our constant communion unlawful , do judge themselves bound to joyn together in another society for purer administrations , as mr. a. speaks , and to choose new pastors ; this is gathering new churches ; and consequently is a plain separation from those churches out of which they are gather'd . the author of the letter out of the country speaks plainly in this matter . such , saith he , of the dissenting ministers , as have most openly declared for communicating at some times with some of the parochial churches ; have also declared their judgment of the lawfulness and necessity of preaching and hearing , and doing other religious duties in other congregations also . if this be true , as no doubt that gentleman well understands their principles , then we see plainly a separation owned , notwithstanding the occasional communion with our churches . for , here is not only a lawfulness , but a necessity asserted of joyning in separate congregations , for preaching , hearing , and other religious duties . and here are all the parts necessary for making new churches , pastors , people , and joyning together for religious worship , in a way separate from our assemblies . for although they allow the lawfulness of occasional communicating with some of them ; yet they are so far from allowing constant communion , that they assert a necessity of separate congregations for divine worship ; and what was there more then this which the old separatists held ? for when they first published the reasons of their separation , which giffard answered , they laid down the grounds of their dissatisfaction with our assemblies ; from whence they inferred the necessity of separation ; and then declare , that they only sought the fellowship and communion of gods faithful servants ; and by the direction of his holy spirit to proceed to a choice of new pastors ; with whom they might joyn , in all the ordinances of christ. and what is there in this different , from what must follow from the principles of those , who assert the necessity of joyning in other congregations distinct and separate from our assemblies for the performance of religious duties ? and if there be a necessity of separation , as this gentleman tells us they generally hold , that seem most moderate , the holding the lawfulness of occasional communion , will not excuse them from the guilt of the other . for , as long as the necessity of separation was maintained , the other was alwayes accounted a less material dispute , and some held one way and some another . and for this occasional communion the same author tells us , that he looks upon it , but as drinking a single glass of wine , or of water , against his own inclination , to a person out of civility ; when he is not for any mans pleasure to destroy his health by tying himself to drink nothing else . it seems then , this occasional communion is a meer complement to our churches , wherein they force themselves to a dangerous piece of civility much against their own inclinations ; but they account constant communion a thing pernicious to their souls , as the other is destructive to their health . so that this salvo cannot excuse them from the guilt of separation . sect. . . that as far as occasional communion is lawful , constant communion is a duty . this the former gentleman wonders at me if i think a good consequence . mr. a. brings several instances to prove , that we allow occasional communion to be lawful , where constant is no duty ; as with other parish churches , upon a iourney , at a lecture , &c. but who ever question'd the lawfulness of occasional communion with churches of the same constitution ; or thought a man was bound to be always of that church , where he goes to hear a lecture , &c. but the question is , about the lawfulness of separation , where occasional commuon is allowed to be lawful . for a man is not said to separate from every church , where he forbears or ceases to have communion ; but only from that church , with which he is obliged to hold communion , and yet withdraws from it . and it is a wonder to me , none of my friends ( my adversaries i am loth to call them ) could discern this . it is lawful , saith mr. b. to have communion with the french , dutch , or greek church , must constant communion therefore with them be a duty ? yes , if he were obliged to be a member of those churches , and thought it lawful to communicate some times , constant communion would be a duty . but because this seems so hard to be understood , i will therefore undertake to prove it , by these two arguments . first , from the general obligation upon christians , to use all lawful means for preserving the peace and vnity of the church . secondly , from the particular force of that text , philipp . . . as far as you have already attained walk by the same rule , &c. first , from the general obligation upon christians to use all lawful means for preserving the peace and unity of the church . if it be possible , saith st. paul , as much as lies in you live peaceably with all men. now i ask , if there be not as great an obligation at least , upon christians to preserve peace in the church , as with all men ? and they are bound to that , as far as possible , and as much as lies in them . and is not that possible and lies in them to do , which they acknowledge lawful to be done , and can do at some times ? what admirable arguments are there to peace and vnity among christians ? what divine enforcements of them on the consciences of men in the writings of christ and his apostles ? and cannot these prevail with men to do that , which they think in their consciences they may lawfully do , towards joyning in communion with us ? this i am perswaded , is one of the provoking sins of the non-conformists , that they have been so backward in doing , what they were convinced they might have done , with a good conscience . when they were earnestly pressed to it by those in authority , they refused it ; and they have been more and more backward ever since , till now they seem generally resolved , either to break all in pieces , or to persist in separation . mr. b. indeed very honestly moved them . to consider how far it was lawful , or their duty to communicate with the parish churches in the liturgy and sacraments ; and brought many arguments to prove it lawful ; and no one of the brethren seemed to dissent : but observe the answer mr. a. makes to this ; i. e. saith he , they did not enter their several protestations , nor formally declare against the reasons of their brother ; like wise and wary persons they would advise upon them . and so they have been advising and considering ever since , till with great wisdom and wariness they are dropt into separation before they were aware of it ; and the meer necessity of defending their own practices , makes them espouse these principles . such another meeting mr. b. saith , they had after the plague and fire , at which they agreed , that communion with our church was in it self lawful and good . here mr. a. charges me for being tardy , and wronging the relator , by leaving out the most considerable words of the sentence , viz. when it would not do more harm than good . and upon this he expatiates about the wayes when it may do more harm than good ; whereas if the reader please to examine the place , he will find , i did consider the force of those words ; when i put it , that they resolved it to be lawful in it self ; although some circumstances might hinder their present doing it . for they declared , that it was in it self lawful and meet ; but the circumstances of that time , did make them think it might do more harm than good ; and therefore it is said , they delaid for a fitter opportunity , which makes it clear , they were then resolved upon the lawfulness of the thing . but that opportunity hath never hapned since ; and so they are now come to plead against the practice of it ; as mr. a. plainly doth ; by such reasons as these . communion with our churches will then do more harm than good , . when such communion shall perswade the parish churches , that their frame is eligible and not only tolerable . as though separation were more eligible , than a communion that is lawful and tolerable ; and schism were not more intolerable , than communion with a tolerable church . what will not men say in defence of their own practice ? was ever schism made so light a matter of , and the peace and vnity of christians valued at so low a rate ; that for the prevention of the one , and the preservation of the other , a thing that is lawful may not be done , if there be any danger that what is only tolerable should be mistaken for more eligible ? as if all the mischiefs of schism and division in the church , were not fit to be put in the ballance , against such a horrible and monstrous inconvenience . methinks , it were better sometimes to be wise and considerate , than always thus subtil and witty against the common sence , and reason of mankind . . when others shall thereby be thought obliged to separate from purer churches , i. e. be drawn off from their separation . . when it will harden the papists . as though their divisions did not do it ten thousand times more . . when it shall notably prejudice the christian religion in general . yes , no doubt the cure of divisions would do so . by these particulars , it appears , that he thinks them not obliged to do what lawfully they can do . yet at last , he saith , he tells us , as much is done , as their consciences will permit them . say you so ? is it indeed come to this ? will none of your consciences now permit you either to come to the liturgy , or to make use of any parts of it , in your own meetings ? how often hath mr. b. told the world , that you stuck not at set-forms , nor at the vse of the liturgy , provided some exceptionable passages were alter'd in it ? did not mr. b. declare at his meeting , publickly , in a writing on purpose , that they did not meet under any colour , or pretence of any religious exercise in other manner , than according to the liturgy and practice of the church of england , and were he able he would accordingly read himself ? is this observed in any one meeting in london , or through england ? then certainly , there are some who do not , what they think they lawfully may do towards communion with us . and mr. b. saith in the beginning of his late plea , that they never made one motion for presbytery , or against liturgies ; and these words are spoken in the name of the whole party called presbyterians . and since that , mr. b. saith , they did come to an agreement , wherein the constant vse of the liturgy , with some alterations , was required . and are we now told , that all that can lawfully be done is done ? mr. b. indeed acts agreeably to his principles , in coming to our liturgy ; but where are all the rest ? and , which of them reads what they think lawful at their own assemblies ? do they not hereby discover , that they are more afraid of losing their people , who force them to comply with their humors , than careful to do , what they judge lawful , towards communion with our church ? sect. . but whence comes it to pass , that any who think occasional communion with us to be lawful , should not think themselves obliged to constant communion ? from what grounds come they to practise occasional communion ? is it from the love of peace and concord , as mr. b. saith ? that is a good ground so far , as it goes , but will it not carry a man farther , if he pursue it , as he ought to do ? what love of concord is this to be occasionally present at our churches , and at the same time to declare , that there is greater purity of worship , and better means of edification in separate congregations ? the one can never draw men so much to the love of concord , as the other doth incourage them in the principles of separation . but , if there be an obligation upon men to communicate with the church they live in , notwithstanding the defects and corruptions of it , that obligation can never be discharged by meer occasional presence at some times , and in some acts of worship ; for , saith mr. ball , to use one ordinance , and not another , is to make a schism in the church . the only example produced to justify such occasional communion with defective churches , is that our blessed saviour did communicate after that manner in the iewish synagogues and temple . but this is so far from being true , that the old separatists granted , that our lord communicated with the iewish church in gods ordinances , living and dying a member thereof ; and from thence they prove , that the iewish church had a right constitution in our saviours time . and did not he declare , that he came not to dissolve the law , but to fulfill it ? and that he complyed with iohn 's baptism , because he was to fulfill all righteousness ? did he not go up to the feasts at ierusalem , as a member of the iewish church , and frequent the synagogues ? even at the feast of dedication , though not instituted by the law , he was present , as other iews were . yea , did he not express more than ordinary zeal , for purifying the outward parts of the temple , because it was to be a house of prayer for all nations ? was not this to shew mens obligation to come and worship there , as well , as that the place was to be kept sacred for that use ? and , doth not the apostle expresly say , that he was made under the law ? where is there the least ground in scripture , to intimate , that christ only kept occasional , and not constant communion with the iewish church ? what part of worship did he ever withdraw from ? did he not command his disciples to go hear the scribes and pharisees , because they sate in moses chair ? where did he ever bid them go thither , when they could have no better ; but when they could to be sure to prefer the purer way of worship , and better means of edification ? was not his own doctrine incomparably beyond theirs ? is there any pretence for greater edification now , to be mention'd with what the disciples had , to forsake the iewish assemblies , for the love of christ 's own teaching ? yet he would not have them to do that , out of the regard he had to the publick worship and teaching . our saviour himself did only teach his disciples occasionally , and at certain seasons ; but their constant communion was with the iewish assemblies . and so it was after his passion , till the holy ghost fe●l upon them , and they were then imploy'd to gather and form a new church ; which was not done before ; and thence the author of the ordinary glosse observes ; that we never read of christ 's praying together , with his disciples ( unless perhaps at his transfiguration with three of his disciples ) although we often read of his praying alone . so that no example can be mention'd , which is more directly contrary to the practice of separation upon the present grounds , than that of our blessed saviour's ; which ought to be in stead of all others to us . sect. . . i argue , from the particular force of that text , phil. . . as far , as we have already attained , let us walk by the same rule , let us mind the same things . from whence it appears evident , that men ought to go as far as they can , towards vniformity ; and not to forbear doing any thing , which they lawfully may do towards peace and vnity . to take off the force of the argument from this place , several answers have been given , which i shall now remove ; so that the strength of it may appear to remain , notwithstanding all the attempts which have been made to weaken it . some say , that the apostles words are to be understood of the different attainments christians had in knowledge , and the different conceptions and opinions which they had concerning the truths of the gospel . thus dr. o. understands the text ; whose sence is somewhat obscurely and intricately expressed ; but as far as i can apprehend his meaning , he makes this to be the apostles ; viz. i. that although the best christians in this life cannot attain to a full measure and perfection in the comprehension of the truths of the gospel , or the enjoyment of the things contained in them ; yet they ought to be pressing continually after it . ii. that in the common pursuit of this design , it is not to be supposed , but the men will come to different attainments , have different measures of light and knowledge , yea and different conceptions , or opinions about these things . iii. that in this difference of opinions , those who differ'd from others should wait on the teachings of god , in that use of the means of instruction which they enjoy'd . iv. that as to their duty in common to each other , as far as they had attained , they should walk by the same rule , namely , which he had now laid down , and mind the same things as he had enjoyned them . from whence he infers , that these words are so far from being a foundation to charge them with schism , who agreeing in the substance of the doctrine of the gospel , do yet dissent from others , in some things ; that it enjoyns a mutual forbearance towards those who are differently minded . and again , he saith , the advice st. paul gives to both parties , is , that whereunto they have attained , wherein they do agree , which were all those principles of faith and obedience which were necessary to their acceptance with god , they should walk by the same rule , and mind the same things , that is , forbearing one another in the things wherein they differ ; which , saith he , is the substance of what is pleaded for by the non-conformists . for the clearing of this matter , there are three things to be debated , . whether the apostle speaks of different opinions , or different practises ? . whether the rule he gives be mutual forbearance ? . how far the apostles rule , hath an influence on our present case ? first , whether the apostle speaks of different opinions , or of different practises ? for the right understanding of this , we must strictly attend to the apostles scope and design . it is most evident that the apostle began this discourse with a caution against the teachers of the circumcision , vers . beware of dogs , beware of evil workers , beware of the concision . but speaking so reproachfully of them , he shews in the next words , that every thing that was excellent in the design of the law , was accomplished in the gospel ; and so he proceeds to declare , how justly he was brought to a disesteem of the greatest priviledges of the law , in comparison with the things revealed by the gospel , which shews , that the apostle had still an eye to these false teachers , who were very busie in disturbing the peace of the churches , and drawing disciples after them , pleading the necessity of observing the law ; and dividing the christians into different communions on that account , as appears by their proceedings at antioch , where they did separate themselves from the gentile christians , and st. peter for a time complyed with them . if such as these had not been busie at philippi ( where it appears that iews inhabited ) what need st. paul give so much caution against them ? what need all this dispute concerning the priviledges of the law ? if it be allowed , that they were there carrying on the same designs , which they did in other churches , then it follows , he had great reason to perswade them to vnity so earnestly , as he doth , philip. . , . and to give so much caution against them ; and to represent the great excellencies of the gospel above the law ; which being done , the apostle after his usual method , makes a digression , concerning himself , viz. how far short he thought himself of what he aimed at , and yet with what earnestness he pressed forward , toward christian perfection ; making no longer any account of legal priviledges . which i take to be his meaning , when he saith , forgetting the things which are behind i press forward , &c. so st. hierome understands it , legis obliviscens ad perfecta evangelii praecepta me teneo . forgetting the law , i keep to the precepts of the gospel . this being understood , the apostles sence naturally follows , according to his former design ; let us therefore , as many as are arrived to this height of christianity ( so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used , cor. . . ephes. . . coloss. . . heb. . . ) agree in pursuing our main end . but then comes the case of those , who were not so fully satisfied in this matter of the law ; there being many and plausible arguments on their side ; well , saith the apostle , if they are doubtful , i advise them however , not to hearken to these false teachers , for they make nothing but faction and divisions among you , wait patiently upon god , which is the best means , for your satisfaction . if any be otherwise minded , god shall reveal even this unto you , i. e. saith beza in his paraphrase , if any yet doubt of the laying aside of the law , let them make no disturbance in the church about it . and so erasmus saith , it ought to be understood of the iudaizing christians , who did not yet discern , that the ceremonial law was to be abolished , however , saith he , they ought not to break the peace of the church for it . but , what sence can dr. o. here put upon the being otherwise minded : otherwise than what ? as many as be perfect be thus minded , to pursue your main end ; but , if any be otherwise minded ; did any think they ought not to mind chiefly their great end ? that is incredible ; therefore the apostle must be understood of somewhat , about which there were then very different apprehensions ; and that it is certain there were about the law among the christians then . the apostle therefore doth not speak of any kind of different apprehensions christians might fall into ; but of such as were at that time among them ; and so one copy reads it , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if hitherto ye have been otherwise minded ; they had no difference concerning the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the things before them ; viz. the happiness of the gospel , but they had concerning the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the things behind , viz. the force and obligation of the law. and since this difference did not rest barely in opinion , but was carried on so far , as to break the peace of the church about it ; it appears to have been no bare difference of opinions , but such as related to the peace and communion of christians . secondly , whether the rule which the apostle layes down , be only a rule of mutual forbearance ? nevertheless , whereto we have already attained , let us walk by the same rule , let us mind the same things . the sence according to dr. o. is this , that those who are agreed in the stubstantials of religion , should go on and do their duty without regarding lesser differences . which is a sence very uncertain , and doth not reach to the differences then among them ▪ it is very uncertain , because it sets no bounds to differences ; and supposes the continuance of such differences among them , which he designed to prevent , by perswading them so often in this epistle to be of one mind , of one soul ; as well as to mind the same things . besides , the difference then on foot , was none of the smaller differences of opinions , but that about which they differ'd was urged on one side , as necessary to salvation , by the false apostles ; and opposed on the other , as pernicious and destructive to it . one of my answerers saith , that the iudaizing christians were leaven'd with such a corrupt opinion , as was by no means to be born with ; which would have madè christ and his death in vain . and that the apostle sets himself against it might and main , shewing the dreadful consequences of it . and is it probable the apostle should prescribe a rule of mutual forbearance , in such a case as this ? especially , when in the same chapter , he gives so great a caution against them , with so much unusual sharpness of expression ; beware of dogs , beware of evil workers , beware of the concision . doth this look like a precept of mutual forbearance , as to the differences then among them ? these we know there were , let dr. o name any other smaller differences of opinion , which might be an occasion of the apostles giving such a rule of mutual forbearance . but now , if we suppose the apostle to speak to the difference about the law , about which the churches were then divided , the sence is plain , easie , and pertinent . for so , either ( . ) it takes in those who hitherto differ'd about the law ; and then the sence is , although you are not come up to so great satisfaction as others have , yet go as far as you can with the body of christians , you live with ; keep within one rule ; break not the bounds of peace and vnity which christ hath set you ; run not with the false teachers into separating dividing courses . ( . ) it is directed to those who have got the start of others , and then it contains the obligation that lies upon them , especially so have a mighty regard to the peac● and vnity of christians ; not to break the common●ties and bonds on the account of their greater attainments , nor to separate from others , as meaner and lower christians , because they are not come up to that perfection , which you have attained to . and so either way , it contains an excellent rule , and of admirable use to the christian church , not only at that time , but in all ages of the world , viz. that those who cannot be fully satisfied in all things , should go as far as they can towards preserving peace and communion among christians ; and not peevishly separate and divide the church , because they cannot in all things think as others do ; nor others on the account of greater sanctity and perfection , despise the inferior sort of christians , and forsake their communion , but they ought all to do what lies possibly in them to preserve the bonds of peace , and the vnity of the church . thirdly , how far this rule hath an influence on our case ? ( . ) it follows from hence , that as far as communion is lawful , it is a duty , since , as far as they have attained they are to walk by the same rule . and so much dr. o. doth not deny ; when he saith , those who are agreed in the substantials of religion , or in the principles of faith and obedience , should walk by the same rule , and mind the same things , forbearing one another in the the things wherein they differ . then as far , as they agree , they are bound to joyn together , whether it be as to opinion , or communion . because the obligation to peace and vnity must especially reach to acts of christian communion , as far as that is judged to be lawful . ( . ) that the best christians are bound to vnite with others , though of lower attainments , and to keep within the same rule ; which is a general expression relating to the bounds of a race , and so takes in all such orders which are lawful and judged necessary to hold the members of a christian society together . but , saith dr. o. let the apostles rule be produced with any probability of proof to be his , and they are all ready to subscribe and conform unto it . this is the apostles rule , to go as far as they can ; and if they can go no farther , to sit down quietly , and wait for farther instruction , and not to break the peace of the church , upon present dissatisfaction , nor to gather new churches out of others upon supposition of higher attainments . if the rule reach our case , saith he again , it must be such as requires things to be observed , as were never divinely appointed , as national churches , ceremonies and modes of worship . and so this rule doth in order to peace , require the observation of such things , which although they be not particularly appointed by god , yet are enjoyned by lawful authority , provided , they be not unlawful in themselves , nor repugnant to the world of god. but the apostles never gave any such rules themselves , about outward modes of worship with ceremonies , feasts , fasts , liturgies , &c. what then ? it is sufficient that they gave this general rule , that all lawful things are to be done for the churches peace : and without this no vnity , or order can be preserved in churches . the apostles , saith he , gave rules inconsistent with any determining rule , viz. of mutual forbearance , rome . . and herein the apostle acted not upon meer rules of prudence , but as a teacher divinely inspired . that he was divinely inspired , i do not question , but even such a one may determine a case upon present circumstances , which resolution may not always bind , when the circumstances are changed . for then , the meaning of the apostle must be , that whatever differences happen among christians , there must be no determination either way . but the direct contrary to this , we find in the decree of the apostles at ierusalem , upon the difference that happened in the christian churches . and although there was a very plausible pretence of the obligation of conscience one way ; yet the apostles made a determination in the case , contrary to their judgment . which shews , that the rule of forbearance , where conscience is alledged both wayes , is no standing rule to the christian church ; but that the governors of it from parity of reason may determine those things which they judge to conduce most to the peace and welfare of that church , which they are bound to preserve . and from hence it appears how little reason there is for dr. o's insinuation , as though the false apostles were the only imposers : whereas , it is most evident , that the true apostles made this peremptory decree , in a matter of great consequence , and against the pretence of conscience on the other side . but saith dr. o. further , the iewish christians were left to their own liberty , provided they did not impose on others ; and the dissenters at this day , desire no more , than the gentile churches did , viz. not to be imposed upon to observe those things which they are not satisfied , it is the mind of christ should be imposed upon them . i answer , . it was agreed by all the governors of the christian church , that the iewish christians should be left to their own liberty , out of respect to the law of moses ; and out of regard to the peace of the christian church , which might have been extremely hazarded , if the apostles had presently set themselves against the observing the iewish customs among the iews themselves . . the false apostles imposing on the gentile christians had two circumstances in it , which extremely alter their case from that of our present dissenters . for , ( . ) they were none of their lawful governors , but went about as seducers drawing away the disciples of the apostles from them . ( . ) they imposed the iewish rites as necessary to salvation , and not as meerly indifferent things . and therefore the case of our dissenters is very different from that of the gentile christians , as to the impositions of the false apostles . thus i have considered every thing material in dr. o. which seems to take off the force of the argument drawn from this text. the author of the letter saith , ( . ) that i ought to have proved , that the apostles meant some rule superadded to the scriptures ; and , ( . ) that other church-guides had the same power , as the apostles had . but what need all this ? if it appear ( . ) that the apostles did give binding rules to particular churches , which are not extant in scriptures , as appears by cor. . . so that either the scripture is an imperfect rule , for omitting some divine rules ; or else these were only prudential rules of order and government , ( . ) that it is a standing rule of scripture , that men are bound to do all lawful things for the peace of the church . and this i have shewed , was the apostles design in the words of this text. sect. . others pretend , that the apostle means no more by these words , but that christians must live up to their knowledge , and mind that one thing . this is a very new exposition ; and the author of it intends to set up for a critick upon the credit of it . it is pitty therefore it should pass , without some consideration . but , i pass by the childish triflings about 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a canon , viz. that is not taken in a military notion , because great guns were not then invented ; that it is an ecclesiastical canon mounted upon a platform of moderation ; which are things fit only for boys in the schools ; unless , perhaps , they might have been designed for an artillery-sermon on this text ; but however , methinks they come not in very sutably in a weighty and serious debate . i come therefore to examine the new-light that is given to this controverted text. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he observes from grotius , is left out in one ms ( it may be the alexandrian ) but , what is one ms. to the general consent of greek copies ? not only the modern , but those which st. chrysostom , theodoret , photius , oecumenius , and theophylact had , who all keep it in . but suppose it be left out , the sence is the very same to my purpose . no , saith he , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to walk by the same must be referred to the antecedent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . and what then ? then , saith he , the sense is , what we have attained let us walk up to the same ; which comes to no more than this , unto whatsoever measure or degree of knowledge we have reached , let us walk sutably to it . but the apostle doth not here speak of the improvement of knowledge ; but of the union and conjuction of christians , as appears by the next words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to mind the same thing . no such matter , saith mr. a. that phrase implyes no more than to mind that thing ; or that very thing , viz. vers. . pressing towards the mark . but if he had pleased to have read on , but to phil . . he would have found 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to signifie vnanimity . and st. paul , cor. ▪ ▪ opposes the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . that there be no schism in the body , but that all the members should take care of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , one for another : and therefore the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , minding the same things , is very aptly used against schisms and divisions . i should think st. chrysostom , theodoret , and theophylact , all understood the importance of a greek phrase , as well as our author , and they all make no scruple of interpreting it of the peace and concord of christians . although st. augustin did not understand much greek , yet he knew the general sense of the christian church about this place ; and he particularly applyes it to the peace of the church , in st. cyprians case . by this tast , let any man judge of the depth of that mans learning , or rather the height of his confidence , who dares to tell the world , that the vniversal current and stream of all expositors is against my sense of this text. and for this universal stream and current , besides grotius , who speaks exactly to the same sense with mine , viz. that those who differ'd about the legal ceremonies , should joyn with other christians in what they agreed to be divine ; he mentions only tirinus and zanchy , and then cries , in a word , they all conspire against my interpretation . if he be no better at polling non-conformists than expositors , he will have no such reason to boast of his numbers . had it not been fairer dealing , in one word , to have referred us to mr. pool's synopsis ? for , if he had looked into zanchy himself , he would have found , how he applyed it sharply against dissensions in the church . mr. b. saith , that the text speaketh for vnity and concord is past question ; and that to all christians , though of different attainments ; and therefore requireth all to live in concord that are christians , notwithstanding other differences . and if he will but allow , that by vertue of this rule , men are bound to do all things lawful for preserving the peace of the church , we have no farther difference about this matter : for then , i am sure , it will follow , that if occasional communion be lawful , constant communion will be a duty . and so much for the first sort of dissenters , who allow some kind of communion with our church to be lawful . sect. . ii. i come now to consider the charge of schism , or sinful separation , against those , who , though they agree with us in the substantials of religion , yet deny any communion with our church to be lawful . i do not speak of any improper 〈…〉 communion , which dr. o. calls comm●●●● faith and love , this they do allow to the church of england , but no otherwise , than as they believe us to be orthodox christians ; yet he seems to go farther , as to some at least of our parochial churches , that they are true churches : but in what sense ? are they churches rightly constituted , with whom they may joyn in communion as members ? no ; that he doth not say . but his meaning is , that they are not guilty of any such heinous errors in doctrine , or idolatrous practice in worship , as should utterly deprive them of the being and nature of churches . and doth this kindness only belong to some of our parochial churches ? i had thought , every parochial church was true , or false , according to its frame and constitution ; which among us supposeth the owning the doctrine and worship received and practised in the church of england , as it is established by law ; and if no such errors in doctrine , nor idolatrous praces be allowed by the church of england , then every parochial church which is constituted according to it , is a true church . but all this amounts to no more , than what they call a metaphysical truth ; for he doth not mean , that they are churches with which they may lawfully have communion . and he pleads , for the necessity of having separate congregations , from the necessity of separating from our communion : ( although the time was , when the bare want of a right constitution of churches , was thought a sufficient ground for setting up new churches , or for withdrawing from the communion of a parochial church ; and i do not think the dr. is of another mind now . ) but however , i shall take things as i find them ; and he insists on , as the grounds of this necessity of separation , the things enjoyned by the law 's of the land , or by the canons and orders of the church ; as signing children baptized with the sign of the cross ; kneeling at the communion ; observation of holy-dayes ▪ constant vse of the liturgy ; renouncing other assemblies , and the peoples right in choice of their own pastors ; neglect of the duties of church-members ; submitting to an ecclesiastical rule and discipline , which not one of a thousand can apprehend to have any thing in it , of the authority of christ , or rule of the gospel . this is the short account of the reasons of separation from our churches communion . that which i am now to inquire into , is , whether such reasons as these be sufficient ground for separation from a church , wherein it is confessed there are no heinous errors in doctrine , or idolatrous practice in worship ; for if they be not , such separation must be a formal schism ; because such persons not only withdraw from communion with our church , but set up other churches of their own . now the way i shall take to shew the insufficiency of these causes of separation , shall be , by shewing the great absurdities , that follow upon the allowance of them . these five especially , i shall insist upon . ( . ) that it weakens the cause of the reformation . ( . ) that it hinders all vnion between the protestant-churches . ( . ) that it justifies the antient schism's , which have been always condemned by the christian church . ( . ) that it makes separation endless . ( . ) that it is contrary to the obligation which lies on all christians , to preserve the peace and vnity of the church . sect. . ( . ) the prejudice it brings upon the cause of the reformation . which i shall make appear , not from the testimonies of our own writers , who may be suspected by the dissenters of too much kindness to our church ; but , from the most eminent and learned defenders of the reformation in france , who can be the least suspected of partiality to our church . i begin with calvin ; against whom i hope no exceptions will be taken . ( . ) in the general , he assigns two marks of the visible church , the word of god truly preached , and sacraments administred according to christ's institution . ( . ) he saith , wherever these marks are to be found in particular societies , those are true churches , howsoever they are distributed according to humane conveniencies . ( ) that although those stand as members of particular churches , ( who may not be thought worthy of that society ) till they are duly cast out ; yet the churches themselves having these marks , do still retain the true nature and constitution of churches , and ought to be so esteemed . ( . ) men ought not to separate from , or break the vnity of such churches . and he hath this notable saying upon it : god sets such a value upon the communion of his church , that he looks upon him as an apostate from his religion , who doth wilfully separate himself from any christian society , which hath the true ministery of the word and sacraments . and a little after , he calls separation a denial of god and christ , a destruction of his truth , a mighty provocation of his anger , a crime so great that we can hardly imagine a worse , it being a sacrilegious and perfidious breach of the marriage betwixt christ and his people . in the next section he makes it a very dangerous and mischievous temptation so much as to think of separation from a church that hath these marks . ( . ) that although there be many faults and corruptions in such a church , yet as long as it retains those marks , separation from it , is not justifiable : nay , although some of those faults be about preaching the word , and administration of sacraments : for , saith he , all truths are not of equal moment : but as long as the doctrine according to godliness , and the true vse of sacraments is kept up , men ought not to separate upon lesser differences ; but they ought to seek the amending what is amiss , continuing in the communion of the church ; and without disturbing the peace and order of it . and he at large proves , what great allowance is to be made , as to the corruption of members from the examples of the apostolical churches : and he saith , mens moroseness in this matter , although it seems to flow from zeal , yet it much rather comes from spiritual pride , and a false opinion of their own holiness above others . although , saith he , there were such universal corruptions in the iewish church , that the prophets compare it to sodom and gomorrah ; yet they never set up new churches , nor erected other altars , whereat they might offer separate sacrifices : but whatever the people were , as long as gods word and ordinances were among them , they lifted up pure hands to god , although in such an impure society . the same he proves , as to christ and his apostles . from whence he concludes , that separation from such churches , where the true word of god and sacraments are , is an inexcusable fault . but how then comes he to justifie the separation from the church of rome ? because in that church the true doctrine of christ is so much suppressed , and so many errors obtruded on mens minds in stead of it ; and the worship of god so corrupted , that the publick assemblies are schools of idolatry and wickedness . and the truth of the gospel , being the foundation of the churches vnity , it can be no culpable separation to withdraw from the communion of a church which hath so notoriously corrupted his doctrine and institutions : especially , when they anathematize those who will not comply with them ? but doth he mean any indifferent rites , or ceremonies , where the doctrine is sound ? no ; but false doctrine , and idolatrous worship ; as he frequently declares . and therefore he that would go about to defend separation from a church , on the account of some ceremonies prescribed , and some corruptions remaining in it , must overthrow the fundamental grounds of the reformation , as they are explained by calvin himself . sect. . among their later writers , no man hath vindicated the cause of the reformation with greater success and reputation then mr. daille in his apology . and the grounds he goes upon are these . ( . ) that we are bound to avoid the communion of those , who go about to destroy and ruin christianity . ( . ) if the church of rome hath not required any thing from us which destroys our faith , offends our consciences , and overthrows the service which we believe due to god ; if the differences have been small , and such as we might safely have yielded unto ; then he will grant , that their separation was rash and unjust , and they guilty of the schism . ( . ) he proves , that they had weighty reasons for their separation ; which are these , ( . ) imposing new doctrines as necessary articles of faith : and yet , not all errros in doctrine do afford sufficient ground for separation ; but such as are pernicious and destructive to salvation : for which he instanceth in the lutherans opinion of christ's bodily presence in the sacrament , which overthrows not the use of the sacraments , nor requires the adoring it , it neither divides nor mutilates it , nor makes it an expitiatory sacrifice for sin ; all which follows from the popish doctrine . from whence he concludes , that to separate from a church for tolerable errors , is an unjust separation . ( . ) requiring such worship , as overthrows the foundations of christianity ; which , saith he , proves the necessity of our separation ; and for this he instances in adoration of the host ; which the church of rome strictly requiring , and the protestants believing it to be a meer creature , they cannot give it without idolatry : from whence he concludes our separation to be ●ust , because it was necessary . besides this he gives instances in the worship of images , invocation of saints , &c. by which we see the iustice of the cause of reformation doth not depend on any such ceremonies , as ours are , nor on the want of discipline , nor on the bare dissatisfaction of conscience , but on such great and important reasons , as obtruding new articles of faith , and idolatrous worship on the partakers of the communion of the roman church . amyraldus goes so far , as to say , that if there had been no other faults in the roman church besides their unprofitable ceremonies in baptism , and other things , beyond the measure and genius of christian religion , they had still continued in its communion ; for , saith he , a physician is to be born with that loads his patient with some unuseful prescriptions , if he be otherwise faithful and skilful . but if he mixes poison with his medicines , and besides adds abundance of prescriptions , both needless and chargeable , then the patient hath great reason to look out for better help , and to take care of his own safety and freedom . by which he plainly declares , that bare ceremonies , although many more than ours , are no sufficient ground for separation . of late years , a person of reputation in france set forth a book against the reformation , charging it with schism , because of the separation from the roman church ; which hath been answered three several ways by three learned divines , m. claude , m. pajon , and m. turretin . but , do any of these insist upon matters of meer ceremony where the doctrine is sound , the constant use of liturgy , bare neglect of discipline , &c. no , they were men of better understanding than to insist on such things as these , which they knew , could never bear that weight as to justifie separation from a church ; and that they should have exposed themselves and their cause to the contempt of all considering men , if they could have alledged no more substantial reasons than these . but they all agree in such common reasons , which they thought sufficient to make a separation justifiable , viz. great corruption in doctrine , idolatrous worship , and insupportable tyranny over the consciences of men. turretin expresly saith , no slight errors , no tolerable superstitious rites that do not infect the conscience ( as they cannot where they are not forced upon it by unsound doctrine ) not any corruption of manners , nor defect in government , or discipline , are sufficient grounds for separation . in one word , saith he , the patient is not to be forsaken , unless his disease be deadly and infectious , nor then neither but with great difficulty . le blanc shewing the impossibility of reunion with the papists , goes upon these grounds . . that it cannot be obtained without subscribing to the decrees and canons of the council of trent , and without anathematizing all those who have opposed them . for the condition of communion with that church is no less , than receiving all its errors for necessary articles of faith. . that the publick worship practised , and allowed in that church is idolatrous , he instanceth in adoration of the host , the worship of saints and images . . that they cannot return to that church without subjecting their consciences to the tyrannical vsurpations of the pope . let our brethren now consider , what triumphs the church of rome would make over us , if we had nothing to justifie our separation from them , but only that we could not have our children baptized without an aerial sign of the cross , nor receive the communion without kneeling ; that we must observe holy-days , and use a liturgy ; and that men are not so good as they should be , nor discipline so exact as were to be wished ; how should we be hissed and laughed at all over the christian world ; if we had nothing to alledge for our separation from the roman church , but such things as these ? and when the papists see the weakness of these allegations , they are harden'd in their own ways ; and cry out presently there is no end of schism's and separations on such pretences as these , by which , unspeakable mischief hath been done to the cause of the reformation . sect. . ( . ) this pretence of separation would make vnion among the protestant churches impossible , supposing them to remain as they are . for the lutheran churches have the same , and more ceremonies , and vnscriptural impositions ( as they are called ) than our church hath . they use the cross in baptism , kneeling at the communion ; and the observation of holy-days and times of fasting , and set-forms of prayer , &c. yet these churches have been thought fit to be united with the most reformed churches , by the best and wisest protestants both abroad , and at home . i do not mean only to have communion with them in faith and love , as dr. o. speaks , but to joyn together so , as to make the same bodies of churches . a synod of the reformed churches in france , at charenton , a. d. . declared , that there was no idolatry , or superstition in the lutheran churches , and therefore the members of their churches might be received into communion with them , without renouncing their own opinions or practices , which shews , that they did not look on those as sufficient grounds of separation ; for then they would not have admitted them as members of the lutheran churches , but have told them , they ought to forsake their communion , and embrace that of the reformed churches . look over all those learned and peaceable divines , who have projected or perswaded an vnion with the lutheran churches and others ; and see , if any of them make the particulars mention'd any cause of separation from them . the helvetian churches declare , that no separation ought to be made for different rites and ceremonies , where there is an agreement in doctrine : and the true concord of churches lies in the doctrine of christ and the sacraments delivered by him . and this confession was first drawn up by bullinger , myconius and grynaeus , and subscribed afterwards by all their ministers ; and by those of geneva and other places . and they take notice of the different customs in other churches about the lords supper and other things , yet , say they , because of our consent in doctrine , these things cause no breach in our churches . and they make no scruple about the indifferency of any of the ceremonies used in the lutheran churches , except those of the mass and images in churches . at sendomir in poland , a. d. . those who followed the helvetian , auspurg , bohemian confessions , came to a full agreement , so as to make up one body , notwithstanding the different rites and ceremonies among them ; which , they say , ought not to break the communion of churches , as long as they agree in the same purity of doctrine , and the same foundation of faith and salvation ; and for this they appeal to the auspurg and saxon confessions . the auspurg confession declares , that agreement in doctrine and sacraments is sufficient for the churches vnity ; then separation cannot be lawful meerly on the account of ceremonies and human traditions . and the confession of strasburg saith , that they look on no human traditions as condemned in scripture , but such as are repugnant to the law of god ; and bind the consciences of men ; otherwise if they agree with scripture , and be appointed for good ends , although they be not expresly mention'd in scripture , they are rather to be looked on as divine than human : and the contempt of them is the contempt of god himself : nay , they say , though the laws seem very hard and unjust , a true christian will not stick at obeying them , if they command nothing that is wicked . ioh. crocius distinguisheth of sorts of ceremonies . the first commanded , the second forbidden , the third neither commanded , nor forbidden . the vnity of the church supposeth the observation of the first , and yet for every omission the communion of the church is not to be broken . the second breaks the churches vnity ; yet its communion not to be forsaken for one or two of these , if there be no tyranny over the consciences of men : but for the third , men ought not to break the vnity of the church . and in another place he gives particular instances in the ceremonies observed in the lutheran churches , the exorcism in baptism , the linnen garments and wax candles , the holy-days and confession , &c. and declares , that we ought not to break off communion with churches , or make a schism for these things . zanchy accounts it a great sin to disturb the peace of churches for the sake of indifferent ceremonies ; and contrary to that charity we ought to have to our brethren and to churches . amyraldus speaking of the ceremonies in the lutheran churches , saith , that those which came in use after the apostolick times , have no other obligation on us , than that for the sake of indifferent things , though at first appointed out of no necessity , nay though there be inconveniency in them , yet the churches peace ought not to be disturbed . and he very well observes , that the nature of ceremonies is to be taken from the doctrine which goes along with them ; if the doctrine be good the rites are so , or at least , are tolerable : if it be false , then they are troublesome , and not to be born ; if it be impure , and lead to idolatry , then the ceremonies are tainted with the poyson of it . but , saith he , the lutheran churches have no false or wicked doctrine concerning their rites ; and therefore he adviseth persons to communicate with the lutheran churches , as their occasions serve : and so do others . and ludovicus prince elector palatine , not only congratulated the mutual communion of the several churches in poland , but pray'd for the same in germany too , as bishop davenant tells us ; who proves at large , that there is no sufficient reason to hinder it ; which he makes to lie only in three things . i. tyranny over mens faith and consciences . ii. the practise of idolatry . iii. the denial of some fundamental article of faith. and none of these things being chargeable on the lutheran churches , the lawfulness of the terms of communion with them doth fully appear . and now i desire our brethren , who justifie their separation upon pretence that our terms of communion are unlawful , to reflect upon these things . will they condemn so many protestant churches abroad , which have harder terms of communion than we ? what would they think of the exorcism of infants , of auricular confession , of images in churches , and some other things , besides what are observed among us ? do we want discipline ? do they not in other churches abroad ? the transylvanian divines in their discourse of the vnion of protestant churches , declared , that little or none was observed among them . will they then separate from all protestant churches ? will they confine the communion of christians to their narrow scantlings ? will they shut out all the lutheran churches from any possibility of vnion with them ? for , what vnion can be justifiable with those whose terms of communion are unlawful ? they may pity them , and pray for them , and wish for their reformation , but an vnion doth suppose such a communion of churches , that the members of one may communicate in another . do they allow this to the lutheran churches ? if not , then they render vnion among the protestant churches impossible , because unlawful . if they do , will they be so unjust , as not to allow the same favor and kindness to our own church ? can they think separation necessary from our church on those grounds , which are common to us with other protestant churches ; and yet think vnion desirable and possible with them notwithstanding ? do they think that 〈◊〉 members of the reformed churches could lawfully communicate with the lutheran churches , although they have the cross in baptism , k●e●●g at the communion , the surpless , and other ceremonies which we have not ? and yet , is it necessary to s●parate from our churches communion on the account of such things as these ; where there is acknowledged to be a full agreement in the substantials of religion ? either therefore they must differ from the judgment of the reformed churches , and the most emine●● ▪ protestant divines abroad , or they must renounce this principle of separation . sect. . ( . ) this will justifie the ancient schisms which have been always condemn'd in the christian church . for setting aside the ceremonies ( of which already ) and the use of the liturgy and holy-days ( which is common to our church with all other christian churches , for many hundred years before the great degeneracy of the roman church ; and are continued by an vniversal consent in all parts of the christian world ) the other reasons for separation are such , which will justifie the greatest schismaticks that ever were in the christian church , viz. want of evangelical church-discipline , and due means of edification , and depriving the people of their liberty of choosing their own pastors , whereby they are deprived also of all use of their light and knowledge of the gospel , in providing for their own edification . for , what gave occasion to the novatian schism , which began so soon , and spread so far , and continued so long , but the pretence of the want of evangelical church-discipline , and better means of edification , and humoring the people in the choice of their own pastors ? there were two things the novatians chiefly insisted on , as to evangelical discipline . . the power of the keys . . the purity of the church . . as to the power of the keys , they said , that christ had never given it absolutely to his church , but under certain restrictions , which if men exceeded , the church had no power to release them : and that was especially in the case of denial of christ before men , when men fell in time of persecution . . the churches purity ought to be preserved , by keeping such who had thus fallen from ever being receiv'd into communion again . they did not deny that god might pardon such upon repentance , but they said , the church could not . and this they pleaded , would tend very much to the edification of christians , and would make them more watchful over themselves , when they saw no hopes of recovering the churches communion , if they once fell from it . add to this , that novatus , or novatianus ( for the greeks confounded their names ) in his epistle to dionysius of alexandria , saith , that he was forced to do what he did , by the importunity of the brethren , who out of their zeal for the purity of the ecclesiastical discipline , would not comply with the looser part which joyned with cornelius , and therefore chose him to be their bishop . and so much appears by pacianus , that novatus coming from carthage to rome ▪ makes a party there for novatia●us in opposition to cornelius , which consisted chiefly of those who had stood firmest in the persecution ; in their name he writes to novatianus , declaring , that he was chosen by the zealous party at rome , whereas cornelius had admitted the lapsed to communion , and consequently corrupted the discipline of the christian church . here we have a concurrence of dr. o's pleas , zeal for reformation of discipline , the greater edification of the people , and the asserting their right in choosing such a pastor as was not likely to promote their edification . but notwithstanding these fair pretences , the making a separation in the church , was every where condemned as a great sin ; as appears by st. cyprian , dionysius of alexandria , theodoret , epiphanius , and others . dionysius tells the author of the schism , that he had better have suffer'd any thing , than thus to have made a rent in the church : and it was as glorious a martyrdom to die to prevent a schism , as to avoid idolatry , and he thinks it a much greater thing ; the one being a martyrdom for the church , the other only for ones own soul. st. cyprian charges those who were guilty of this schism with pride and arrogance , and doing unspeakable mischief to the church , by breaking the peace of it : and will hardly allow those to be christians who lived in such a schism : when as epiphanius observes , they still pleaded they had the same faith with the catholick church ; and yet st. cyprian will not allow that to be true faith which hath not charity ; and saith , that there can be no true charity , where men do thus break in pieces the vnity of the church . the meletians in aegypt agreed with the catholick christians in the substantials of religion , holding the same faith with them , as epiphanius relates the story ; and their schism began too about preserving the discipline of the church , and the best means for the edification of the people . they allowed a restitution for the lapsed to the communion of the church , but after a very severe discipline , and an utter incapacity of those in orders as to any parts of their functions . but peter bishop of alexandria thought the milder way the better ; whereupon a separation followed : and the meletians had distinct churches ; which they called , the churches of the martyrs . this schism grew to that height , that they would not pray together in prison , nor in the quarries whither they were sent . meletius being a bishop was deposed by peter of alexandria , but he went on still to promote the course of separation in thebais , and other parts of egypt , upon which the council of nice , in their synodical epistle , deprived him of all episcopal power , and the people that adhered to him , of the power of choosing their own pastors ( or rather of proposing the names of those who were to be ordained . ) and so , according to dr. o. they had just cause to continue their separation still , although it were condemned by the council of nice . audaeus began his schism out of a mighty zeal for the discipline of the church , and a great freedom which he used in reproving the faults of the bishops and clergy ; but meeting with ill usage , he withdrew from the churches communion , with his disciples , although he still retained the same faith , and agreed in the substantials of religion with the best christians ; but forbore all communion with them ; which epiphanius accounts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the most dreadful thing in the world : and yet upon dr. o's principles of separation , they did a very commendable thing as long as their design was to restore the churches discipline , and to consult their own greater edification . the followers of eustathius sebastenus are on this account likewise excused , who withdrew from the publick congregations on a pretence of greater sanctity and purity in paphlagonia , and stand condemned in several canons of the council at gangrae ; so are those mention'd and condemn'd in the councils of constantinople and carthage ; and the separation of felicissimus and his brethren from st. cyprian ; all which are set down together in my sermon , but are gently passed over by dr. o. and mr. b. and the rest of their adversaries . only one saith , that the errors of the followers of eustathius sebastenus , both in opinion and practise , were very gross , which the council takes notice of and condemns . yet , as gross as they were , there was a pretence of greater sanctity and purity in them . for their abstaining from marriage , and peculiarity of habits , and separate meetings , were all carried on with the same pretence . to proceed then . on the same accounts the donatists will be vindicated in the main grounds of their schism , although they were mistaken in the matter of fact concerning coecilian ; for their great pretence was to preserve the purity of the churches discipline , as may at large be seen in optatus , and st. augustin ; and yet they frequently , and deliberately call it , a most damnable and sacrilegious schism . the luciferians pretended such a zeal for the true faith , and the discipline of the church , that the only pretence for their schism was , that they could not communicate with those who had subscribed to arianism , or received ordination from ari●n bishops ; as may be seen at large in the book of marcellinus and faustinus . and they joyned with the party of vrsinus at rome against that of damasus , and complained , they were deprived of the liberty of choosing their own pastors . so that upon these grounds , there hath scarce been any considerable schism in the christian church , but may be justified upon dr. owens reasons for separation from our church . sect. . ( . ) another argument against this course of separation , is , that these grounds will make separation endless . which is , to suppose all the exhortations of scripture to peace and vnity among christians , to signifie nothing . for nothing being more contrary to vnity than division and separation ; if there be no bounds set , but what the fancies of men dictate to them , be sufficient grounds to justifie division and separation ; any people may break communion with a church , and set up a new one , when they think fit ; which will leave the christian church in a remediless condition against those who break its peace and communion . it being a true saying of mr. cottons of new-england , that they that separate from their brethren farther than they have just cause , shall at length find cause ( or at lest think they have found cause ) just enough to separate one from another . i never heard , saith he , of any instance to the contrary , either in england , or holland . the substance of this i had objected before in the preface to my sermon ; to which mr. a. replies after this manner ; that though some petty and inconsiderable inconveniencies , some little trouble may arise to a church from the levity and volubility of mens minds ; yet this is no reason why they should enslave their iudgments or consciences to others . and is this all the antidote against the mischief of separation ? is it a sin , to break the churches communion , or , is it not ? if it be a sin in some cases , but not in others ; why do you not shew us what those cases are ; and that it is a sinful separation in other cases , but not in them ? but to talk of small inconveniencies by the levity of peoples minds , is childish trifling , and not answering . is schism indeed become such an inconsiderable and petty inconvenience ? is this an answer becoming a christian , to swell every small imposition into a huge insupportable mountain , and to make themselves lie groaning under the weight of a ceremony or two , as though their very heart-strings were cracking , and as if nero had begun a fresh persecution ; and at the same time to lessen the guilt of division and separation , as though it were nothing but a little wantonness in the lambs of their flocks , frisking up and down from one pasture to another ; some small and inconsiderable inconveniencies may happen by it , but not worth speaking of ; and it is pity they should be deprived of their pleasure for it ? what a rare advocate had this man been for the novatians , donati●ts , luciferians , or what schismaticks soever rent the church in pieces in former times ? and supposing st. cyprian , and st. augustine , and other great opposers of the antient schisms , to be met together , we may gather from these words , and the principles of separation , which he lays down , after what manner he would accost them . alass ( saith he ) what do you mean , cyprian , and austin , and other reverend fathers , to talk with so much severity and sharpness against separation from the communion of the church , as though it were such a damnable sin , such a sacrilegious impiety , such a horrid wickedness ? will you make no allowance to the levity and volubility of mens minds ? what! you would have men enslave their iudgments and consciences to others , would you ? you would have us be meer brutes to be managed by your bit and bridle ? if the novatians do think your discipline too loose , why should not they joyn together for stricter ? if felicissimus and his brethren dislike some things in the church of carthage , why may not they go to the mountains for separate meetings ? if the good people were imposed upon against their wills in the choice of cornelius , why may not they choose novatian for their pastor ? what a stir do you cyprian make in your epistles about keeping the peace of the church , and submitting to your rules of discipline ? as though there were not more mischief in your imposing , than in the peoples separating . and as for you , augustin , who can with patience read your long and fierce declamations , against the sober donatists ? for , there were mad hare-brained fanaticks , called circumcellians , who were troubled with more than ordinary levity and volubility , running from place to place , and taking away other mens lives , and their own too , out of pure zeal ; these i grant have an extraordinary worm , which ought to be picked out in time ; but for the rest of the brethren that only separate on the account of impurity which they apprehend in your church , why should you be so severe against them ? why do you so often cry out of the sacrilegiousness of this schism ? we know no other sacriledge , but the sacrilegious desertion of our ministery , in obedience to the laws ; this is a sacriledge we often talk of , and tell the people , it is far worse than robbing church-plate , considering what precious gifts we have . but for the sacriledge of schism , that we can never understand ; although i perceive you have it over and over ; besides many other hard words , wherein you would seem to make it the greatest of all wickedness ; and you say , that god punished it more severely than idolatry ; since those who were guilty of the latter , were to be destroyed by the sword , but schismaticks were swallowed up of the earth ; as corah , and his company . whereas we that have greater light , look upon separation but as an effect of the levity and volubility of mens minds , and though some little trouble may come to the church by it , yet it is far better than submission to others impositions . and is not this an intolerable imposition , for you to force these honest donatists to communicate in a corrupt and impure church , as they do believe yours to be ? when the cause was strictly examined at carthage , what was it their party pleaded for , but purity of discipline , and that the church was defiled for want of it ? and therefore they were forced to separate , for greater purity of ordinances . and , is this the damnable , devillish , sacrilegious schism you talk of ? methinks you should consider better the mischief of your impositions , when you require communion so strictly with you , or else they must presently be separatists and schismaticks . i pray sirs have a little patience with me ; if i do not fetch off my good friends the donatists in this matter , we will all be content to be called schismaticks , as well as they . for if our principles do clear our selves , i am sure they will do as good a turn for them . now , the main principles of our present separation are these . ( ▪ ) that every particular church , upon a due ballance of all circumstances , has an inherent right to choose its own pastor , and every particular christian the same power to choose his own church . i say not to mischoose , do you mark me , but , a power to choose ; not to choose any , but one that may best advance their own edification ; at lest that no pastor be forced upon a church , no church obtruded on a single christian without their own consent . now i pray consider , why might not lucilla , and donatus , and botrus , and celeustus , with their party among the people at carthage , choose majorinus for their pastor ; although the rest had chosen caecilian ? for they were not well satisfied with mensurius his predecessor , whom they suspected for a traditor ; but when they had their liberty to choose , why should they be debarred of their inherent right of choosing their own pastor ? why should caecilian be obtruded upon them ? why should not they choose one , who would best advance their edification ? for caecilian was at lest under suspicion of compliance in time of persecution ; and therefore for my part , upon our principles , i think the donatists very free from the charge of schism . ( . ) that it is the duty of every christian to worship god , not only in purity of heart , but according to the purity of gospel-administrations . now observe , that there was nothing the donatists pleaded so much , and so vehemently for , as the purity of gospel-administrations . this was that which parmenian , petilian , and the rest still contended for , as appears by the plea they put in for themselves in the last conference at carthage . we are they ( say they ) that have suffer'd persecution for maintaining the purity of the church , this hundred years , because we would not comply with their corruptions , we have been turned out of our churches , and been sent to prison , and had our goods taken from us , and some of our brethren have been killed , and others hardly used for so good a cause ; and , can such men as you condemn them for a horrible schism ? i tell you , they are as innocent as our selves , for they went upon the same grounds . ( . ) that every christian is obliged to live in the use of all god's ordinances and commandments . now , is not discipline one of god's ordinances ? and , do we not make want of discipline , one of the reasons of our separation ? and therefore the donatists were very honest men , for they were just of our mind . and these being the chief grounds we go upon , we cannot but in brotherly kindness speak this in vindication of them , against your unreasonable severity . i know you tell them often , there will be no end of separation upon these terms ; for why might not maximia●●us do the same by primianus , that majorinus did by caecilian ? and so make frustum de frusto , by which they did minuta●im concidere , cut the church into so many little pieces , that could never be joyned together again : but , let me tell you , that the force of your argument comes to this , that men may choose one pastor to day , and another to morrow , and a third the next ; and so turn round till they are giddy , and run ●hemselves out of breath in a wild goose chase , till they sit down and rest in irreligion and atheism . and is this all ? ( these are his own words . ) the apostle commands us to prove all things ( what! by running from one communion to another ? ) m●●t we needs therefore never hold fast that which is good ? unsetled heads , and unsetled hearts will be ●●ndring ; let them go , 't is a good riddance of them 〈◊〉 they be obstinate ; but where this humor has destroyed one church , this rigorous forcing of pastors on the people ( as caecilian on the people of carthage ) has divided and destroyed hundreds . thus far the advocate-general for schismaticks . judge now , reader , whether the causes of the present separation , as they are laid down by my adversary , do not equally defend the donatists in their schism ; and his making so light a matter of schisms doth not give encouragement to men to make more . sect. . but i shall not send him so far back as st. cyprian , and st. augustin , for better instruction in this matter ; but i shall refer him to one whose writings i perceive he is better acquainted with , even mr. baxter . who hath very well , in several books , set forth the great mischief of divisions , and separations . he doth not look upon them as petty and inconsiderable inconveniencies , little troubles to the church , the effects of levity , and volubility of mens minds ; but he quotes above forty places of scripture against them , and saith , that the world , the flesh , and the devil are the causes from whence they come ; that they are as much the works of the flesh , as adulteries , fornications , &c. that contentious dividers are carnal men , and have not the spirit ; that divisions are the wounding , nay the killing of the church , as much as lieth in the dividers ; and that to reform the church , by dividing it , is no wiser , than to cut out the liver , or spleen , or gall to cleanse them from the filth that both obstruct them , and hinder them in their office : that divisions are the deformities of the church , the lamentation of friends , and the scorn of enemies : the dishonor of christ and the gospel : the great hindrance of the conversion and salvation of the world , and of the edification of the members of the church : that they fill the church with sins of a most odious nature ; they cherish pride , and malice , and belying others ( the three great sins of the devil ) as naturally as dead flesh breedeth worms . in a word , the scripture telleth us , that where envying and strife is , there is confusion and every evil work . ( and , is not this a lamentable way of reformation of some imaginary , or lesser evils ) yet farther , he saith , they are uneasie to the persons themselves , and rob them of the sweetest part of religion ; they lead directly to apostacy from the faith , and shake states and kingdoms , having a lamentable influence on the civil peace . is all this nothing but the natural effect of the levity or volubility of peoples minds ? this learned author begins his book with a very starched relation of his admirable reading , that in his time he hath read an elegant oration in praise of a quartan ague ; another upon the gout , a third upon folly ; but there wants one yet in the praise of schism ; and i never met with one that doth offer fairer toward it , than he doth . for he not only excuses it , from the natural cause of it , and the small trouble that attends it ; but he implies it to be the consequence of mens using their reason , and not being made bruits to be managed with a strong bit and bridle . but mr. baxter will teach him another lesson ; for , he saith , that schism is a sin against so many , and clear , and vehement words of the holy ghost , that it is utterly without excuse ; whoredoms , and treason , and perjury are not oftner forbidden in the gospel , than this : that it is contrary to the very design of christ in our redemption , which was , to reconcile us all to god , and to unite and centre us all in him : that , it is contrary to the design of the spirit of grace , and to the very nature of christianity it self : that it is a sin against the nearest bonds of our highest relations to each other ; that it is either a dividing christ , or robbing him of a great part of his inheritance : and neither of these is a little sin : that it is accompanied with self-ignorance , and pride , and great unthankfulness to god : that church-dividers are the most successful servants of the devil , being enemies to christ in his family and livery : and that they serve the devil more effectually than open enemies : that schism is a sin which contradicteth all gods ordinances and means of grace , which are purposely to procure and maintain the vnity of his church . that it is a sin against as great and lamentable experiences , as almost any sin can be : and this is a heinous aggravation of it , that it is commonly justified , and n●t repented of by those that commit it ; and it is yet the more heinous , `that it is commonly father'd upon god : lastly , that it is most unlike the heavenly state , and in some regard worse than the kingdom of the devil , for he would not destroy it by dividing it against it self . remember now , saith he , that schism , and making parties and divisions in the church , is not so small a sin , as many take it for . i conclude this , with his admonition to bag shaw , upon his lessening the sin of separation . alass , dear brother , that after so many years silencing and affliction , after flames and plagues , and dreadful iudgments , after twenty years practice of the sin it self , and when we are buried in the ruines which it caused , we should not yet know , that our own vncharitable divisions , alienations , and separations are a crying sin ! yea , the crying sin ; as well as the vncharitableness and hurtfulness of others . alass ! will god leave us also , even us , to the obdurateness of pharaoh ? doth not iudgment begin with us ? is there not crying sin with us ? what have we done to christ's kingdom , to this kingdom , to our friends ( dead and alive ) to our selves , and ( alass ) to our enemies , by our divisions . and , do we not feel it ? do we not know it ? is it to us , even to us , a crime intolerable to call us to repentance ? woe to us ! into what hard-heartedness have we sinned our selves ? yea , that we should continue , and passionately defend it ! when will god give us repentance unto life ? let mr. a. read these passages over seriously , and then consider , whether he can go on to excuse , and palliate the sin of schism . but it may be said , that mr. a. speaks all this comparatively , with enslaving our iudgments and consciences to others , which he calls an enormous and monstrous principle ; and he saith , this is a medicine worse than the poyson , even as 't is much better to have a rational soul , though subject to mistakes , than the soul of a brute , which may be managed as you will , with a strong bit and bridle . to make it plain , that he makes little , or nothing of the sin of separation , we must attend to the argument he was to answer ; which was , that if it be lawful to separate on a pretence of greater purity , where there is an agreement in doctrine , and the substantial parts of worship , as is agreed in our case , then a bare difference of opinion , as to some circumstances of worship , and the best constitution of churches , will be sufficient ground to break communion , and to set up new churches ; which considering the great variety of mens fancies about these matters , is to make an infinite divisibility in churches , without any possible stop to farther separation . where we see plainly the inconvenience urged is endless separation : doth he set any kind of bounds to it ? no ; but only talkes of inconsiderable and petty inconveniencies , and some little trouble that may arise to a church from the levity and volubility of mens minds , i. e. let men separate as long as they will ▪ ●his is the worst of it ; and he must grant , that though separation be endless , there is no harm in it . but he that could find out a medium between circumstances of worship , and substantials ; can find out none between endless separation , and the enslaving mens iudgments and consciences : for he supposes , one of the two must of necessity be : which is plain giving up the cause to the papists . for this is their argument , either we must give up our iudgments and consciences to the conduct of our guides , or there will be endless separation . he grants the consequence , and cries , what then ? it is nothing but the levity and volubility of mens minds , and this is much rather to be chosen , than the other . but any sound protestant that understands the state of the controversie between us and them ( as this author apparently doth not ) will presently deny the consequence : because a prudent and due submission in lawful things lies between tyranny over mens consciences , and endless separation . but he knows no medium between being tied neck and heels together , and leaping over hedge and ditch , being kept within no bounds . and what ignorance or malice is it to suppose , that our church brings in that enormous and monstrous principle , of enslaving mens iudgments and consciences , forcing them to surrender their reasons to naked will and pleasure ? and if he doth not suppose it , his discourse is frivolous and imperti●●●t . for , a due submission to the rules of our established church , without any force on the consciences of men , as to the infallibility of guides , or necessity of the things themselves ; will put a sufficient stop to separation ; which must be endless on my adversaries suppositions . sect. . ( . ) lastly , i argue against this separation , from the obligation which lies upon all christians , to preserve the peace and vnity of the church . and now i have brought the matter home to the consciences of men , who it may be will little regard other inconveniences , if the practice of separation do not appear to be unlawful from the word of god. which i now undertake to prove , upon these suppositions . ( . ) that all christians are under the strictest obligations to preserve the peace and vnity of the church . for it is not possible to suppose , that any duty should be bound upon the consciences of men , with plainer precepts , and stronger arguments than this is . the places are so many , that it were endless to repeat them ; and therefore needless , because this is agreed on all hands . so that violation of the vnity of the church , where there is no sufficient reason to justifie it , is a sin , as much as murder is , and as plainly forbidden . but it happens here , as it doth in the other case , that as murder is always a sin ; but there may be some circumstances , which may make the taking away a mans life , not to be murder ; so it may happen , that though schism be always a sin , yet there may be such circumstances which may make a separation not to be a schism ; but then they must be such reasons , as are not fetched from our fancies , no more than in the case of murder ; but such as are allowed by god himself in his law. for , he only that made the law can except from it . ( . ) the vnity of the church doth not lie in a bare communion of faith and love , but in a ioynt-participation of the ordinances appointed by christ to be observed in his church . for although the former be a duty , yet it doth not take in the whole duty of a christian , which is to joyn together , as members of the same body . and therefore they are commanded to assemble together ; and upon the first institution of a christian church , it is said , the disciples continued in the apostles doctrine and fellowship , and in breaking of bread , and in prayers . and the apostle sets forth christians as making one body , by communion in the ordinances of christ. we being many are one bread , and one body ; for we are all partakers of that one bread. and by one spirit , we are all baptized into one body ; whether we be iews or gentiles , bond or free , and have been all made to drink into one spirit . the vnity of the christian church , st. paul saith , is to be preserved by the bond of peace ; and that vnity supposeth one body and one spirit ; and the members of that body as they are united to one head , whom he calls one lord , so they are joyned together by one faith , and one baptism . therefore as the vnity of the church is founded upon some external bonds , as well as internal , that is , one faith , and one baptism , as well as one lord , and one spirit ; so the manifestation of this vnity ought to be by external acts ; for , how can this vnity be discovered by acts meerly internal and spiritual ; as inward love to the members of the body , being present in spirit , & c ? therefore , the obligation to preserve the vnity of the church , doth imply a joyning together with the other members of the church , in the common and publick acts of religion . ( . ) nothing can discharge a christian from this obligation to communion with his fellow-members , but what is allowed by christ or his apostles , as a sufficient reason for it . because this being a new society of christ's own institution ; and the obligation to communion being so strictly enjoyned , we are to suppose it still to hold , where some plain declaration of his will to the contrary doth not appear . although god hath , with great severity , forbidden killing : yet when himself appointed particularly cases , wherein mens lives were to be taken away ; we are thereby assur'd , that in these cases it is not that killing which is forbidden ; so in the present case , if it appear that although separation from the c●mmunion of christians be a thing condemned ; yet if the same authority do allow particular exemptions , we are certain in those cases such separation is no sin . but then , as in the former case , no man is exempted from the guilt of shedding blood , who upon his own fancy takes upon him to execute iustice ; so here , no mans imagination that he doth separate for a good end , will justifie his separation ; for the guilt of the sin remains as great in it self . and there is scarce any other sin more aggravated in the new testament than this ; it being so directly contrary to that vnity of his church , which our saviour prayed for , and his apostles with so much earnestness recommend to all christians ; and use so many arguments to perswade men to persevere . from hence irenaeus saith , that christ will come to iudge those who make schisms in the church , and rather regard their own advantage , than the churches vnity ; who , for slight causes , or for any , make nothing of cutting asunder the great and glorious body of christ , and do what in them lies to destroy it . they speak for peace , saith he , but they mean war : they strain at a gnat , and swallow camels . the benefit they hope to bring to the church , cannot make amends for the mischief of their schism . nothing provokes god more , saith st. chrysostom , than to divide his church : nay , saith he , the blood of mortyrdom will not wash off the guilt of it . the mischief the church receives by it , is greater than it receives from open enemies : for the one makes it more glorious , the other exposes it to shame among its enemies , when it is set upon by its own children . this , saith he , i speak to those who make no great matter of schism ; and indifferently go to the meetings of those who divide the church . if their doctrine be contrary to ours , for that reason they ought to abstain ; if not , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , they ought to do it so much the rather . do no you know , what corah , dathan , and abiram suffer'd ? and not they only , but those that were with them . but you say , they have the same faith , and they are very orthodox ; why then , saith he , do they separate ? one lo●d , one faith , one baptism . if they do well , we do ill ; if we do well , they do ill . if they have the same doctrines , the same sacraments , for what cause do they set up another church in opposition to ours ? it is nothing but vain glory , ambition and deceit . take away the people from them , and you cut off the disease . and after much more to that purpose ; i speak these things , saith he , that no man might say , he did not know it to be such a sin : i tell you , and testifie this to you , that separation from the church , or dividing of it , is no less a sin , than falling into heresy . if the sin then be so great and dangerous , men ought to examin with great care , what cases those are wherein separation may be made without sin. and i do earnestly desire our brethren , as they love their own souls , and would avoid the guilt of so great a sin , impartially and without prejudice to consider this passage of irenaeus , and how parallel it is with their own case who separate from us , and set up other churches in opposition to ours , which yet they acknowledge to be very orthodox , and to agree with them in the same doctrine , and the same sacraments . . there are three cases wherein the scripture allows of separation . first , in the case of idolatrous worship . for the precepts are as plain that christians should abstain from idolatry , as that they should preserve the vnity of the church . neither be ye idolaters . flee from idolatry . keep your selves from idols . thou shalt love the lord thy god , and him only shalt thou serve . and to the case of idolaters , st. paul applyes the words spoken of old to the babylonians , come out from among them , and be separate ; and touch not the unclean thing . now in this case , where there is so plain a command , there is no doubt of the lawfulness of separation ; if men cannot joyn with a church in their religious worship , without doing that which god hath so strictly forbidden . secondly , in case of false doctrine being imposed in stead of true . for although in other things great submission is required to the guides and governors of the church ; yet if any teachers offer to bring another gospel , or to corrupt the true one ; st. paul denounces an anathema against them : and that implies , that they should have no communion with them , but look upon them as persons cut off from the body ( like putrid members ) lest they should corrupt the rest . st. paul commands titus , when there is no hopes of reclaiming such , to exclude them from the society of christians . st. iohn forbids all familiar conversation with such . the church of ephesus is commended for hating the nicolaitans ; and the church of pergamus reproved for tolerating their doctrine . thirdly . in case men make things indifferent necessary to salvation , and divide the church upon that account . and this was the case of the false apostles , who urged the ceremonies of the law , as necessary to salvation ; and to propagate this opinion of theirs , they went up and down , and endeavor'd to draw away the apostles disciples , and to set up separate churches among the christians ; and to allow none to partake with them , that did not own the necessity of the iewish ceremomonies to salvation . now although st. paul himself complyed sometimes with the practice of them ; and the iewish christians especially in iudaea , generally observed them ; yet when these false apostles came to enforce the observation of them , as necessary to salvation , then he bid the christians at philippi to beware of them , i. e. to fly their communion , and have nothing to do with them . these are all the cases i can find in the new testament , wherein separation from publick communion is allowed ; but there are two others , wherein s. paul gives particular directions , but such as do not amount to separation . . the different opinions they had about meats and drinks ; some were for a pythagorean abstinence , from all flesh ; some for a iewish abstinence , from some certain sorts ; others for a full christian liberty . now this being a matter of diet , and relating to their own families , the apostle advises them not to censure or judge one another ; but notwithstanding this difference , to joyn together as christians in the duties common to them all . for the kingdom of god doth not lie in meats and drinks ; i. e. let every one order his family as he thinks fit ; but that requires innocency , and a care not to give disturbance to the peace of the church for these matters ; which he calls peace and ioy in the holy ghost ; which is provoked and grieved by the dissentions of christians . and he , saith he , that in these things serveth christ , is acceptable to god , and approved of men. let us therefore follow after the things that make for peace , and things wherewith we may edifie one another . in such cases then , the apostle allows no separation from the publick communion of christians . it was the same case as to the observation of days then ; for some christians went then on iewish holidays to the synagogues ; others did not ; but for such things they ought not to divide from each others communion in the common acts of christian worship . and the design of the apostle is not to lay down a standing rule of mutual forbearance as to different communions ; but to shew , that such differences ought not to be an occasion of breaking communion among christians , and so the apostles discourse , rom. . holds strongly against separation , on these and the like accounts . . the corrupt lives of many who were not under churches censure . when st. paul taxes so many corruptions in the church of corinth , no wonder if some of them , put the case to them , what they should do , in case they knew some members of the church to be men of bad lives ; although the offences were not scandalous , by being publickly known ; must they abstain from the communion of the church for these ? to this st. paul answers , that every private christian ought to forbear all familiar conversation with such ; if any one that is a brother , be a fornicator , &c. with such a one , no not to eat . which is all the apostle requires of private christians ; but if the scandal be publick , as that of the incestuous persou , the church had power to vindicate its own honor , by casting such out : not as though the church communion were defiled , if they continued in ; but the reputation and honor of the church suffered by it ; the preservation whereof , is the true cause of the churches discipline . but the apostle gives not the lest countenance to private mens withdrawing from the churches communion , though such persons still continued in it . for there may be many reasons to break off private familiarity , which will not hold as to publick communion . for our communion in publick , is a thing which chiefly respects god , and a necessary duty of his own appointing , the benefit whereof depends upon his promises , and all the communion they have with other men , is only joyning together for the performance of a common religious duty : but private familiarity is a thing which wholly respects the persons converse with , and a thing of mere choice , and hardly to be imagined without approbation at lest , if not imitation of their wickedness . and therefore to argue from one to the other is very unreasonable . the matter of separation being th●s stated according to the scripture , there can be no way le●t to justifie the separation from our church , but to prove , either that our worship is idolatrous , or that our doctrine is false , or that our ceremonies are made necessary to salvation ; which are all so remote from any color of truth , that none of my adversaries have yet had the hardiness to undertake it . but however , what pleas they do bring to justifie this separation must in the next place be examined . part iii. the pleas for separation examined . sect. . all the considerable pleas at this time made use of for separation may be reduced to these heads . . such as relate to the constitution of our church . . to the terms of communion with it . . to the consciences of dissenters . . to the parity of reason as to our separation from rome . . such as relate to the constitution of our church : which are these , . that our parochial churches are not of christ's institution . . that our diocesan churches are unlawfull . . that our national church hath no foundation . . that the people are deprived of their right in the choice of their pastours . . i begin with our parochial churches ; because it is separation from these , with which we principally charge our adversaries ; for herein they most discover their principles of separation , since in former times , the non-conformists thought it their duty to keep up communion with them . but since the congregational way hath prevailed in england , the present dissenters are generally fallen into the practice of it , whatever their principles are , at least so far as concerns forsaking communion with our parochial churches , and joyning together in separate congregations for divine worship . this principle is therefore the first thing to be examined . and the main foundation of that way , i said , was , that communion in ordinances must be onely in such churches as christ himself instituted by unalterable rules , which were onely particular and congregational churches . concerning which i laid down two things . ( . ) that supposing congregational churches to be of christ's institution , this was no reason for separation from our parochial churches , which have all the essentials of such true churches in them . ( . ) that there is no reason to believe that the institution of churches was limited to particular congregations . in answer to this dr. o. saith these things , ( . ) that they do not deny , at least some of our parochial churches to be true churches : but why then do they deny communion with them ? but , he saith , he hopes it will not be made a rule , that communion may not be withheld ( so the sense must be although not be left out ) or withdrawn from any church in any thing , so long as it continues as unto the essence of it to be so . this is somewhat odly and faintly expressed . but as long as he grants , that our parochial churches are not guilty of such heinous errours in doctrine , or idolatrous practice in worship as to deprive them of the being and nature of churches , i do assert it to be a sin to separate from them . not but that i think , there may be a separation without sin , from a society retaining the essentials of a church ; but then i say , the reason of such separation is , some heinous errour in doctrine , or some idolatrous practice in worship , or some tyranny over the consciences of men ; which may not be such , as to destroy true baptism ; and therefore consistent with the essentials of a church . and this is all that i know the protestant writers do assert in this matter . ( . ) he answers , that they do not say , that because communion in ordinances must be onely in such churches as christ hath instituted , that therefore it is lawfull and necessary to separate from parochial churches , but if it be on other grounds necessary so to separate or withhold communion from them , it is the duty of them who doe so , to joyn themselves in or unto some other particular congregation . to which i reply , that this is either not to the business , or it is a plain giving up the cause of independency . for , wherefore did the dissenting brethren so much insist upon their separate congregations , when not one of the things , now particularly alleged against our church , was required of them ? but if he insists on those things common to our church with other reformed churches , then they are such things , as he supposes contrary to the first institution of churches ; and then i intreat him to tell me , what difference there is , between separating from our churches because communion in ordinances is onely to be enjoy'd in such churches as christ hath instituted ; and separating from them because they have things repugnant to the first institution of churches ? is not this the primary reason of separation , because christ hath appointed unalterable . rules for the government of his church ; which we are bound to observe , and which are not observed in parochial churches ? indeed , the most immediate reason of separation from such a church is not observing christ's institution ; but the primary ground is , that christ hath settled such rules for churches which must be unalterably observed . let us then ( . ) suppose , that christ hath by unalterable rules appointed that a church shall consist onely of such a number of men as may meet in one congregation , so qualified ; and that these by entring into covenant with each other become a church , and choose their officers , who are to teach , and admonish and administer sacraments , and to exercise discipline by the consent of the congregation ; and let us ( . ) suppose such a church not yet gathered , but there lies fit matter for it dispersed up and down in several parishes . ( . ) let us suppose dr. o. about to gather such a church . ( . ) let us suppose not one thing peculiar to our church required of these members ; neither the aëreal sign of the cross , nor kneeling at the communion , &c. i desire then to know , whether dr. o. be not bound by these unalterable rules to draw these members from communion with their parochial churches , on purpose that they might form a congregational church , according to christ's institution ? either then he must quit these unalterable rules , and the institution of christ ; or he must acknowledge that setting up a congregational church is the primary ground of their separation from our parochial churches . if they do suppose but one of those ordinances wanting which they believe christ hath instituted in particular churches , do they not believe this a sufficient ground for separation ? it is not therefore any reason peculiar to our church , which is the true cause of their separation ; but such reasons as are common to all churches , that are not formed just after their own model . if there be then unalterable rules for congregational churches , those must be observed , and separation made in order to it ; and therefore separation is necessary upon dr. o.'s grounds , not from the particular conditions of communion with us , but because our parochial churches are not formed after the congregational way . but this was a necessary piece of art at this time , to keep fair with the presbyterian party , and to make them believe ( if they can be so forgetfull ) that they do not own separation from their churches , but onely from ours , the contrary whereof is so apparent from the debates with the dissenting brethren , and the setting up congregational churches in those days , that they must be forgetfull indeed , who do not remember it . have those of the congregational way since alter'd their judgments ? hath dr. o. yielded , that in case some terms of communion in our church were not insisted upon , they would give over separation ? were not their churches first gathered out of presbyterian congregations ? and if presbytery had been settled upon the kings restauration , would they not have continued their separation ? why then must our church now be accused for giving the occasion to the independent separation , when it is notoriously otherwise ; and they did separate and form their churches , upon reasons common to our church with all other reformed churches ? this is more artificial than ingenuous . sect. . as to the second , dr. o. answers , that it is so clear and evident in matter of fact , and so necessary from the nature of the thing , that the churches planted by the apostles were limited to congregations , that many wise men , wholly unconcerned in our controversies , do take it for a thing to be granted by all without dispute . and for this two testimonies are alleged , of iustice hobart , and father paul ; but neither of them speaks to the point . all that chief iustice hobart saith is , that the primitive church in its greatest purity , was but voluntary congregations of believers submitting themselves to the apostles , and after to other pastours . methinks dr. o. should have left this testimony to his friend l. du moulin , it signifies so very little to the purpose ; or rather , quite overthrows his hypothesis ; as appears by these two arguments . ( . ) those voluntary congregations over which the apostles were set , were no limited congregations of any one particular church ; but those congregations over whom the apostles were set , are those of which iustice hobart speaks . and therefore it is plain he spake of all the churches which were under the care of the apostles , which he calls voluntary congregations . ( . ) those voluntary congregations over whom the apostles appointed pastours after their decease , were no particular congregations in one city ; but those of whom iustice hobart speaks , were such ; for he saith , they first submitted to the apostles , and after to other pastours . but iustice hobart could not be such a stranger to antiquity to believe that the christians in the age after the apostles amounted but to one congregation in a city . and therefore , if he consults iustice hobart 's honour or his own , i advise him to let it alone for the future . as to the testimony of father paul , it onely concerns the democratical government of the church , and i wonder how it came into this place ; i shall therefore consider it in its due season . sect. . i come therefore to consider now , the evidence for the institution of congregational churches ; concerning which , these are my words . it is possible at first , there might be no more christians in one city than could meet in one assembly for worship ; but where doth it appear , that when they multiplied into more congregations , they did make new and distinct churches under new officers with a separate power of government ? of this i am well assured , there is no mark or footstep in the new testament , or the whole history of the primitive church . i do not think it will appear credible to any considerate man , that the christians in the church of ierusalem made one stated and fixed congregation for divine worship ; not , if we make all the allowances for strangers which can be desired : but if this were granted , where are the unalterable rules , that as soon as the company became too great for one particular assembly , they must become a new church under peculiar officers and an independent authority ? to this dr. o. answers in four particulars . . that an account may e're long be given of the insensible deviation of the first churches after the decease of the apostles from the rule of the first institution : which although at first it began in matters of small moment ; yet still they increased untill they issued in a fatal apostasy ; or as he after expresses it , leaving their infant state , by degrees , they at last brought forth the man of sin. but i do not understand how this at all answers the former paragraph of my sermon concerning the first institution of churches ; but being i suppose intended for a reason why he doth not afterwards answer to the evidence out of antiquity , i shall not onely so far take notice of it , as to let him know , that when that is done , i do not question , but the primitive church will find sufficient advocates in the church of england : but i desire that undertaker to consider , what a blot and dishonour it will be to christian religion , if the primitive churches could not hold to their first institution , not for one age after the apostles . i know what abominable heresies there were soon after , if not in the apostles days ; but the question is not concerning these , but the purest and best churches ; and about them , not whether some trifling controversies might not arise , and humane infirmities be discovered ; but whether they did deviate from the plain institutions of christ , and the unalterable rules of government which he had fixed in his church ? this seems utterly incredible to me upon this consideration among many others : that government is so nice and tender a thing , that every one is so much concerned for his share in it , that men are not easily induced to part with it . let us suppose the government of the church to have been democratical at first , as dr. o. seems to doe ; is it probable , that the people would have been wheadled out of the sweetness of government so soon and made no noise about it ? yea dr. o. tells us that in cyprian's time it continued at carthage ; and others say , a great deal longer : there was then no such change as to this part of the government so soon after . and why should we imagin it otherwise , as to extent of power and iurisdiction ? suppose christ had limited the power of a church to one congregation ; the pastour of that church could have no more pretence over any other congregation , than dr. o. by being pastour over one congregation in london , could challenge a right to govern all the independent congregations in london or about it ; and appoint their several teachers , and call them to an account for their proceedings . i appeal now to any man of consideration , whether there be the least probability that such an alteration could be made without great noise and disturbance ? would not mr. g. mr. b. mr. c. and many more , think themselves concerned to stand up for their own rights ? and if they could be drawn into the design , would the people submit ? let us put the case , as to new-england . suppose the apostles an age or two since , had planted such congregational churches there , as have been formed within these last years at plimouth , boston , hereford , newhaven , &c. and had invested every congregation with the full power of the keys , the execution whereof they had intrusted with the several elderships , within their own congregation ; but so , as not to have any power or authority , over the elders or members of any other congregation : let us then suppose , that after the decease of the apostles , these churches gradually declined so far , that in this age mr. cotton at boston should take upon him the whole power of the keys , and not onely so , but appoint pastours over other congregations , and keep a great number of elders under him , and challenge the ecclesiastical iurisdiction over the whole colony of massachusets , of which boston is the chief town , and so three others doe the same at the chief places of the other colonies ; would not this be a wonderfull alteration of the church government ? and is it possible to conceive , such a change should be brought about insensibly , without any complaint of the subordinate elders , or the members of the congregations , who were robbed of their inherent right by an institution of christ , and so late an establishment by the apostles ? doctrines may be insensibly changed by continuing the names and altering opinions , through the carelesness and unskilfulness of people : but in matters of government , the meanest people are sensible , and look big with an opinion of it . if therefore it be not conceivable in this case , the government should be thus changed from the institution of christ in so short a time ; let the same consideration be applied to the ages which really succeeded the apostles . sect. . i shall , to prevent all cavils , choose that very church which dr. o. mentions , and i find mr. cotton and others make their appeals to , and that is the church of carthage in saint cyprian's time . here dr. o. finds the community of members determining church affairs ; but mr. cotton hath further discovered the judgment of the elders , the votes of the congregation , and the consent of neighbour ministers ; in short , he hath found there , the express and lively lineaments of the very body of congregational discipline ; and the same for substance wherein they walk ( as he calls it ) at this day . hitherto then , there was no deviation from the unalterable rules of christ. let us therefore impartially consider , what the government of the church of carthage then was : concerning which these things may be observed . . that there was a great number of presbyters belonging to the church of carthage , and therefore not probable to be one single congregation . this appears from saint cyprian's epistles to them in his retirement . in one he gives them advice how to visit the confessours in prison , which he would have them to doe by turns , every one taking a deacon with him because the change of persons would be less invidious : and considering the number of confessours and the frequent attendance upon them , the number of presbyters and deacons must be considerable . when he sent numidicus to be placed among the presbyters at carthage , he gives this reason of it , that he might adorn the plenty of his presbyters with such worthy men , it being now impaired by the fall of some , during the persecution . in the case of philumanus , fortunatus and favorinus , he declares he would give no judgment , cùm multi adhuc de clero absentes sint , when many of his clergy were absent . and in another epistle he complains , that a great number of his clergy were absent , and the few that were remaining were hardly sufficient for their work . at one time felicissimus and five presbyters more did break communion with the church at carthage ; and then he mentions britius , rogatianus and numidicus , as the chief presbyters remaining with them ; besides deacons and inferiour ministers . about the same time cornelius bishop of rome mentions presbyters he had with him in that city . and in constantinople of old , saith iustinian in his novels , were presbyters ( for in one he saith , the custom was to determin the number , and in another , that was to be the number at constantinople . ) let any one now consider , whether these churches that had so many presbyters were single congregations ; and at carthage , we have this evidence of the great numbers of christians ; that in the time of persecution , although very many stood firm , yet the number of the lapsed was so great , that saint cyprian saith , every day thousands of tickets were granted by the martyrs and confessours in their behalf for reconciliation to the church : and in one of those tickets sometimes might be comprehended twenty or thirty persons , the form being communicet ille cum suis. is it then probable this church at carthage should consist of one single congregation ? . these presbyters and the whole church were under the particular care and government of saint cyprian as their bishop . some of the presbyters at carthage took upon them to meddle in the affairs of discipline , without consulting their bishop then in his retirement . saint cyprian tells them they neither considered christ's command , nor their own place , nor the future iudgment of god , nor the bishop who was set over them , and had done that which was never done in foregoing times , to challenge those things to themselves , with the contempt and reproach of their bishop , which was to receive penitents to communion without imposition of hands by the bishop and his clergy . wherein , he vindicates the martyrs and confessours in his following epistle , saying , that such an affront to their bishop was against their will : for they sent their petitions to the bishop , that their causes might be heard when the persecution was over . in another epistle to the people of carthage on the same occasion , he complains of these presbyters , that they did not episcopo honorem sacerdotii sui & cathedrae reservare , reserve to the bishop the honour which belonged to his place : and therefore charges , that nothing further be done in this matter till his return , when he might consult with his fellow-bishops . celerinus sends to lucian a confessour , to beg him for a letter of grace for their sisters numeria and candida who had fallen . lucian returns him answer , that paulus before his martyrdom had given him authority to grant such in his name , and that all the martyrs had agreed to such kindness to be shewed to the lapsed ; but with this condition that the cause was to be heard before the bishop , and upon such discipline as he should impose , they were to be received to communion . so that though lucian was extreamly blamed for relaxing the discipline of the church ; yet neither he nor the other martyrs would pretend to doe any thing without the bishop . cyprian gives an account of all that had passed in this matter to moses and maximus two roman presbyters and confessours ; they return him answer , that they were very glad he had not been wanting to his office , especially in his severe reproving those who had obtained from presbyters the communion of the church in his absence . in his epistle to the clergy of carthage he mightily blames those who communicated with those persons who were reconciled to the church meerly by presbyters without him ; and threatens excommunication to any presbyters or deacons who should presume to doe it . the roman clergy in the vacancy of the see , take notice of the discretion of the martyrs in remitting the lapsed to the bishop , as an argument of their great modesty , and that they did not think the discipline of the church belonged to them : and they declare their resolution , to doe nothing in this matter , till they had a new bishop . by which we see the power of discipline was not then supposed to be in the congregation , or that they were the first subject of the power of the keys ; but that it was in the bishop as superiour to the presbyters . and that they were then far from thinking it in the power of the people , to appoint and ordain their own officers , saint cyprian sends word to the church of carthage , that he had taken one aurelius into the clergy ; although his general custom was in ordinations to consult them before , and to weigh together the manners and deserts of every one : which is quite another thing from an inherent right to appoint and constitute their own church-officers : the same he doth soon after , concerning celerinus and numidicus . when he could not go among them himself , by reason of the persecution , he appoints caldonius and fortunatus two bishops , and rogatianus and numidicus two presbyters , to visit in his name ; and to take care of the poor , and of the persons fit to be promoted to the clergy . who give an account in the next epistle , that they had excommunicated felicissimus and his brethren for their separation . . that saint cyprian did believe that this authority which he had for governing the church was not from the power of the people , but from the institution of christ. so upon the occasion of the martyrs invading the discipline of the church , he produceth that saying of christ to saint peter , thou art peter , &c. and whatsoever you shall bind , &c. from whence , saith he , by a constant succession of times , such a course hath been always observed in the church , that the church hath been still governed by bishops , and every act of the church hath been under their care and conduct . since this , saith he , is a divine institution , i wonder at the boldness of those who have written at that rate to me ( concerning the lapsed ) since the church consists in the bishop , the clergy and the standing people . in his epistle to antonianus , he speaks of the agreement of the bishops throughout the whole world : and in that to cornelius , that every bishop hath a part of the flock committed to him , which he is to govern and to give an account thereof to god : and that a bishop in the church is in the place of christ ; and that disobedience to him is the cause of schisms and disorders . to the same purpose he speaks in his epistle to rogatianus , and to pupianus ; where he declares a church to be a people united to a bishop ; and to stephanus , that they have succeeded the apostles in a constant course . let the reader now judge , whether these be the strokes and lineaments of the congregational way ; and whether dr. o. had any reason to appeal to saint cyprian for the democratical government of the church . but we have this advantage from this appeal , that they do not suppose any deviation then from the primitive institution , and what that was in saint cyprian's judgment any one may see ; when he speaks of nothing peculiar to his own church , but what was generally observed over the christian world . and now let dr. o. give an account , how a change so great , so sudden , so universal , should happen in the christian world , in the government of the church ; that when christ had placed the power in the people , the bishops in so short a time should be every where settled , and allowed to have the chief management in church-affairs , without any controul from the people : which to me is as strong an argument as a matter of this nature will bear , that the power was at first lodged in them , and not in the people . for , as mr. noys of new-england well argues , it is not imaginable that bishops should come by such power , as is recorded in ecclesiastical history , and that over all the world ; and in a way of ambition , in such humbling times , without all manner of opposition for years together , and immediately after the apostles ; had it been usurpation or innovation . when and where is innovation without opposition ? would not elders , so many seeing and knowing men , at least some of them , have contended for truth , wherein their own liberties and rights were so much interessed ? aërius his opposing of bishops , so long after their rise and standing , is inconsiderable . the force of which reasoning , will sway more with an impartial and ingenuous mind , than all the difficulties i ever yet saw on the other side . so much for the account dr. o. promises of the deviations of the churches after the apostles decease . sect. . ( . ) dr. o. answers as to the matter of fact concerning the institution of congregational churches , that it seems to him evidently exemplified in the scripture . the matter of fact is , that when churches grew too big for one single congregation in a city , then a new congregational church was set up under new officers , with a separate power of government . let us now see dr. o.'s proof of it . for although it may be there is not express mention made that these or those particular churches did divide themselves into more congregations with new officers : i. e. although the matter of fact be not evident in scripture : yet , saith he , there are instances of the erection of new particular congregations in the same province . but what is this to the proof of the congregational way ? the thing i desired was , that when the christians in one city multiplied into more congregations , they would prove , that they did make new and distinct churches ; and to exemplifie this he mentions new congregations in the same province . who ever denied or disputed that ? on the contrary , the proof of this , is a great advantage to our cause ; for since , where the scripture speaks of the churches of a province , it speaks of them as of different churches ; but when it mentions the christians of one city , it calls them the church of that city ( as the church of ierusalem , the church of ephesus ; but the churches of iudea , galilee and samaria ) what can be more evident , than that the christians of one city , though never so numerous , made but one church ? if one observe the language of the new testament , one may find this observation not once to fail : that where churches are spoken of in the plural number , they are the churches of a province , as the churches of iudea , the churches of asia ; the churches of syria and cilicia ; the churches of galatia ; the churches of macedonia ; but where all the christians of one city are spoken of , it is still c●lled the church of that city ; as the church at antioch ; the church at corinth ; and when the churches are spoken of together , they are the churches ; but when spoken to single , it is the church of ephesus , the church of smyrna , &c. which being spoken , without any discrimination , as to the difference of these places , in greatness and capacity , or the number of believers in them , doth evidently discover that what number soever they were , they were all but the church of that city . for it is not to be supposed that the number of christians was no greater in ephesus , sardis , pergamus and laodicea , which were great and populous cities , than in thyatira and philadelphia , which were much less ; especially , considering the time saint paul staid at ephes●s ; and the mighty success which he had in preaching there ; which will amount to no great matter , if in three years time , he converted no more , than made up one single congregation . and thus men to serve an hypothesis take off from the mighty power , and prevalency of the gospel . i cannot but wonder , what dr. o. means when after he hath produced the evidence of distinct churches in the same province , as galatia and macedonia , he calls this plain scripture evidence and practice for the erecting particular distinct congregations : who denies that ? but i see nothing like a proof of distinct churches in the same city which was the thing to be proved , but because it could not be proved was prudently let alone : whereas we have plain scripture evidence that all the christians of a city , though never so great , made but one church ; and uncontroulable evidence from antiquity , that the neighbouring christians were laid to the church of the city . all that he saith further to this matter , is , that such churches had power to rule and govern themselves , because in every one of them elders were ordained , act. . . which is again an argument on our side : for if we compare act. . . with titus . . we shall find that ordaining elders 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath the same importance with ordaining them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; so that by the church is understood the body of christians inhabiting in one city , as the ' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at athens was the whole corporation here ; and particular congregations are but like the several companies , all which together make up but one city . sect. . ( . ) dr. o. saith that the christians of one city might not exceed the bounds of a particular church or congregation , although they had a multiplication of bishops or elders in them , and occasional distinct assemblies for some acts of divine worship . then , say i , the notion of a church is not limited in scripture to a single congregation : for if occasional assemblies be allowed for some acts of worship , why not for others ? if the number of elders be unlimitted , then every one of these may attend the occasional distinct assemblies for worship , and yet all together make up the body of one church ; to which , if he had but allowed a single bishop over these , he had made up that representation of a church , which we have from the best and purest antiquity . and so origen compares the churches of athens , corinth and alexandria with the corporations in those cities ; the number of presbyters with the senates of the cities ; and at last the bishop with the magistrate . but dr. o. adds , that when they did begin to exceed in number , beyond a just proportion for edification ; they did immediately erect other churches among them , or near them . name any one new church erected in the same city , and i yield . and what need a new church when himself allows occasional distinct assemblies for greater edification ? but he names the church at cenchrea , which was a port to the city of corinth ; because of the mighty increase of believers at corinth , act. . . with rom. . . i answer , ( . ) it seems then there was such an increase at corinth , as made them plant a distinct church ; and yet at ephesus , where saint paul used extraordinary diligence , and had great success , there was no need of any new and distinct church . and at corinth he staid but a year and six months , but at ephesus three years ; as the time is set down in the acts. doth not this look very improbably ? ( . ) stephanus byzant . reckons cenchrea as a city distinct from corinth ; and so doth strabo , who placeth it in the way from tegea to argos through the parthenian mountain ; and it is several times mentioned by thucydides as distinct from corinth : and so it is most likely was a church originally planted there , and not formed from the too great fulness of the church of corinth . as to the church of ierusalem , he saith , that the converts were so disposed of or so dispersed , that some years after , there was such a church there , as did meet together in one place , as occasion did require , even the whole multitude of the brethren ; nor was their number greater when they went unto pella . to which i answer ( . ) the force of the argument lies in the being said to be added to the church , before any dispersion , or persecution . in which time we must suppose a true church to be formed , and the christians at that time performing the acts of church-communion : the question then is , whether it be in the least probable , that persons should at that time , make one stated and fixed congregation for divine worship and all the acts of church-communion ? what place was there large enough to receive them , when they met for prayer and sacraments ? dr. o. was sensible of this inconvenience , and therefore onely speaks of the church of ierusalem when these were dispersed ; but my question was about them , while they were together . were they not a church then ? did they not continue in the apostles doctrine and fellowship and breaking of bread and prayers ? but how could then doe all this together ? therefore a church according to its first institution is not limited to a single congregation . ( . ) a church consisting of many congregations , may upon extraordinary occasions assemble together ; as the several companies in a common-hall for matters of general concernment , which yet manage their particular interests apart : so for acts of worship and christian communion particular congregations may meet by themselves ; but when any thing happens of great concernment they may occasionally assemble together ; as in the two debates mentioned act. . . and . . so the several tribes in athens did , at their general assemblies ; which strabo and eustathius say , were . ( . ) there is no number mentioned of the christians that went to pella , neither by eusebius , nor epiphanius who relate the story , so that nothing can thence be concluded ; but if the force lies , in his calling pella a village , i am sure eusebius calls it a city of peraea , beyond iordan ; and epiphanius adds , that they spread themselves from thence to coelesyria , and decapolis , and basanitis . so that all this put together makes no proof at all , that the christian churches by their first institution were limited to single congregations . sect. . ( . ) he answers that he cannot discern the least necessity of any positive rule or direction in this matter , since the nature of the thing and the duty of men doth indispensably require it . but is it not dr. o. that saith that the institution of churches , and the rules for their disposal and government throughout the world , are the same , stable and unalterable ? are all these rules now come to nothing but what follows from the nature of the thing ? is it not dr. o. that saith , that no religious vnion or order among christians is of spiritual use and advantage to them , but what is appointed and designed for them by iesus christ ? doth not this overthrow any other order or vnion among christians but what christ hath instituted and appointed for them ? the question is not about such a constitution of churches as is necessary for performing the duties of religious worship ; for all parties are agreed therein ; but whether church-power be limited to these exclusively to all other vnions of christians ? whether every single congregation hath all church-power wholly in it self , and unaccountably , as to subordination to any other ? how doth this appear from the nature of the thing , and the necessary duties of christians ? i grant the institution of churches was for edification : and i think a great deal of that edification lies in the orderly disposal of things . whatever tends to peace and vnity among christians , in my judgment tends to edification . now i cannot apprehend how a sole power of government in every congregation tends to the preserving this peace and vnity among christians : much less how it follows so clearly from the nature of the thing as to take away the need of any positive rule or direction in this matter . and here the main controversie lies , between us and the congregational churches . is there no positive rule or direction in this matter ? then it follows as much from the nature of the thing , that since peace and order is to be kept up among churches as well as persons , every single congregation ought not to engross church-power to it self , but to stand accountable for the management of it to those who are intrusted with the immediate care of the churches peace . and i cannot yet see , by all that hath been said , how those that break the established order in a church wherein all the substantials of religion are acknowledged to be sound , and set up particular independent churches in opposition to it , can acquit themselves from the guilt of schism , how great and intolerable soever it be thought . as to what concerns the churches in the houses of priscilla and aquila , and nymphas and philemon , i say , that this is to be understood , not of a church meeting in their houses , but of their own families was pleaded by the dissenting brethren who say , most of our divines are of that opinion : and therefore the argument holds against them . and from dr. o.'s discourse i less understand than i did before , what obligation of conscience can be upon any , when they may serve god in their families , in opposition to laws , to keep up such publick congregations as are forbidden by them . for ( . ) he grants that a church may be in a family ; although a family as such be not a church . then the members of a family submitting to the government of the master as their pastour are a true church : for a church , he saith , may consist onely of the persons that belong to a family . then there is no necessity of going out of a family for the acts of church-communion ; especially , when the addition of four more , may provide sufficiently for all the officers they believe necessary to the making up a church . ( . ) all that he saith , is , that there is no such example given of churches in private families in scriptures , as should restrain the extent of churches from congregations of many families . and what then ? the question is not now whether they be lawfull , but whether they be necessary ; for nothing less than a divine command can justifie the breach of a plain law ; but where is that command ? doth not dr. o. appeal to the nature of the thing , and the indispensable duties of men with respect to the end of churches , as his great rule in these cases ? but which of all these necessary duties may not be performed within the terms of the law ? so that no obligation can arise from thence to have congregations of many families . all that he saith further , as to this matter is , that if through non-compliance any disturbance happen , the blame will be found lying upon those who would force others to forego their primitive constitution . then it seems at last the primitive constitution is come to be the ground of non-compliance ; which in this case amounts to separation . but this primitive constitution had need be far better proved , before it can be thought a good ground for breaking the peace of the church and the laws of the land ; and much more , before it can carry off the blame from the persons who break orders and laws to the makers of them . all men no doubt that ever broke laws , if this plea would be admitted , would transfer the blame upon those that made them . and so much for the plea of the congregational party . sect. . . i now come to consider the plea of those , who hold our diocesan episcopacy to be unlawfull . in my sermon , as it is printed , i set down this saying of mr. baxter , that to devise new species of churches ( beyond parochial or congregational ) without god's authority , and to impose them on the world ( yea in his name ) and to call all dissenters schismaticks , is a far worse usurpation , than to make or impose new ceremonies or liturgies . which i said doth suppose congregational churches to be so much the institution of christ ; that any other constitution above these is both unlawfull and insupportable : which is more than the independent brethren themselves do assert . now for our better understanding mr. b. 's meaning , we must consider his design in that place from whence those words are quoted . . he saith , christ hath instituted onely congregational or parochial churches . . that diocesan episcopacy is a new species of churches devised by men without god's authority , and imposed in such a manner , that those are called schismaticks who dissent from it . . that such an imposition is worse than that of ceremonies and liturgies ; and consequently affords a better plea for separation . but to prevent any misunderstanding of his meaning , i will set down his own cautions . . that the question is not whether every particular church should have a bishop with his presbyters and deacons : i.e. whether every rectour of a parish be not a bishop , if he hath curates under him . this he calls parochial episcopacy . . nor , whether these should have archbishops over them , as successours to the apostolical and general overseers of the first age , in the ordinary continued parts of their office. . nor , whether partriarchs , diocesans and lay-chancellours be lawfull , as officers of the king , exercising under him such government of the church as belongeth to kings , to which in such exercise all subjects must for conscience sake submit . . nor , if diocesans become the sole bishops over many hundred parishes , all the parochial bishops and parish churches being put down and turned into curates and chappels , whether a minister ought yet to live quietly and peaceably under them . you will ask then , where lies this horrible imposition , and intolerable usurpation ? it is in requiring the owning the lawfulness of this diocesan episcopacy ; and joyning with parochial churches as parts of it . but wherein lies the unsufferable malignity of that ? . it is making a new species of churches without god's authority . . it is overthrowing the species of god's making : which , according to mr. b. requires two things . . local and presential communion , as he calls it , i.e. that it consists onely of so many , as can well meet together for church society . . the full exercise of discipline within it self by the pastours ; which being taken away , they are onely curates , and their meetings oratories and no churches . this i think is a true and fair representation of mr b. 's opinion in this matter . which tending so apparently to overthrow our present constitution as insupportable , and to justifie separation from our parochial churches as members of a diocesan church ; therefore to vindicate the constitution of our church , i shall undertake these three things . . to shew that our diocesan episcopacy is the same for substance which was in the primitive church . . that it is not repugnant to any institution of christ , nor devising a new species of churches without god's authority . . that the accidental alterations in discipline do not overthrow the being of our parochial churches . . that our diocesan episcopacy is the same for substance which was in the primitive church . this i begin with , because mr. b. so very often makes his appeal to antiquity in this matter . and my first inquiry shall be into the episcopacy practised in the african churches ; because mr. b. expresseth an esteem of them above others ; for in saint cyprian 's time he saith they were the best ordered churches in the world ; and that the bishops there were the most godly , faithfull , peaceable company of bishops since the apostles times . and of the following times he thus speaks , most of the african councils , saith he , were the best in all the world . many good canons for church order were made by this and most of the african councils , no bishops being faithfuller than they . therefore concerning the episcopacy there practised , i shall lay down these two observations . obs. . that it was an inviolable rule among them , that there was to be but one bishop in a city , though the city were never so large , or the christians never so many . this one observation made good , quite overthrows mr. b.'s hypothesis . for upon his principles , where ever the congregation of christians became so great , that they could not conveniently assemble at one place so as to have personal communion in presence , as he speaks ; there either they must alter the instituted species of government , or they must have more bishops than one in a city . for , he saith , the church must be no bigger , than that the same bishop may perform the pastoral office to them in present communion , and for this he quotes thess. . , . heb. . , . i.e. their bishops must be such as they must hear preach , and have conversation with . but that this was not so understood in the african churches , appears by their strict observance of this rule ; of having but one bishop in a city how large soever it was . and how punctually they thought themselves bound to observe it , will appear by this one instance , that one of the greatest and most pernicious schisms that ever happened , might have been prevented if they had yielded to more bishops than one in a city ; and that was the schism of the donatists , upon the competition between majorinus and coecilian ; as the novatian schism began at rome upon a like occasion between cornelius and novatian . now was there not all the reason imaginable upon so important an occasion to have made more bishops in the same city , unless they had thought some divine rule prohibited them ? when there were presbyters at rome , had it not been fair to have divided them ? or upon mr. b.'s principles made so many bishops that every one might have had three or four for his share ? but instead of this , how doth saint cyprian , even the holy and meek saint cyprian , as saint augustin calls him , aggravate the schism of novatian for being chosen a bishop in the same city , where there was one chosen before ? his words are so considerable to our purpose , that i shall set them down . et cum post primum secundus esse non possit , quisquis post unum qui solus esse debeat , factus est , non jam secundus ille sed nullus est . since there cannot be a second after the first , whosoever is made bishop when one is made already , who ought to be alone , he is not another bishop , but none at all . let mr. b. reconcile these words to his hypothesis if he can . what! in such a city of christians , as rome then was , where were presbyters , to pronounce it a meer nullity to have a second bishop chosen ? mr. b. would rather have thought there had been need of bishops ; but saint cyprian who lived somewhat nearer the apostles times , and i am apt to think , knew as well the constitution of churches then , thought it overthrew that constitution to have more bishops than one in a city . at carthage it seems some turbulent presbyters that were not satisfied with saint cyprian's government , or it may be looking on the charge as too big for one , chose one fortunatus to be bishop there : with this saint cyprian acquaints cornelius ; and there tells him , how far they had proceeded , and what mischief this would be to the church , since the having one bishop was the best means to prevent schisms . after the election of cornelius , some of the confessours who had sided with novatian deserted his party , and were received back again at a solemn assembly , where they confessed their fault , and declared , that they were not ignorant , that as there was but one god , and one christ , and one holy ghost , so there ought to be but one bishop in the catholick church . not according to the senseless interpretation of pamelius , who would have it understood of one pope ; but that according to the ancient and regular discipline and order of the church , there ought to be but one bishop in a city . after the martyrdom of cornelius at rome , saint cyprian sends to rome to know who that one bishop was , that was chosen in his place . and the necessity of this vnity , he insists on elsewhere ; and saith , our saviour so appointed it , unam cathedram constituit , & unitatis ejusdem originem , ab uno incipientem sua auctoritate disposuit . which the papists foolishly interpret of saint peter's chair ; for in his following words he utterly overthrows the supremacy , saying , all the apostles were equal ; and a little after , episcopatus unus est , cujus à singulis in solidum pars tenetur . but this is sufficient to my purpose , to shew that these holy men , these martyrs and confessors , men that were indeed dying daily , and that for christ too , were all agreed that a bishop there must be , and that but one in a city , though never so large and full of christians . saint augustin in his excellent epistle to the donatists , gives an account of the proceedings about caecilian after the election of majorinus , and that melchiades managing that matter with admirable temper , offer'd for the healing of the schism to receive those who had been ordained by majorinus , with this proviso , that where by reason of the schism there had been two bishops in a city , he that was first consecrated was to remain bishop , and the other to have another people provided for him . for which saint augustin commends him , as an excellent man , a true son of peace , and father of christian people . by which we see the best , the wisest , the most moderate persons of that time , never once thought that there could be more bishops than one in a city . in the famous conference at carthage between the catholick and donatist bishops , the rule on both sides was , but one bishop to be allowed of either side of a city and diocese ; and if there had been any new made , to increase their number , as it was objected on both sides ; if it were proved , they were not to be allowed : for generally then , every diocese had two bishops of the different parties ; but in some places they had but one , where the people were of one mind ; and nothing but this notorious schism gave occasion to such a multiplication of bishops in africa ; both parties striving to increase their numbers . sect. . obs. . in cities and dioceses which were under the care of one bishop , there were several congregations and altars , and distant places . carthage was a very large city , and had great numbers of christians even in s. cyprians time , as i have already shewed . and there besides the cathedral called basilica major & restituta a , in which the bishops always sate , as victor vitensis saith ; there were several other considerable churches , in which s. augustine often preached when he went to carthage ; b as the basilica fausti ; the c basilica leontiana ; the d basilica celerinae mentioned by * victor likewise , who saith it was otherwise called scillitanorum . the f basilica novarum . the g basilica petri. the h basilica pauli . and i do not question there were many others , which i have not observed ; for victor saith , that when geisericus enter'd carthage he found there quodvultdeus the bishop , & maximam turbam clericorum , a very great multitude of clergy , all which he immediately banished . and without the city there were two great churches , saith victor ; one where s. cyprian suffered martyrdom , and the other where his body was buried , at a place called mappalia . in all he reckons about of the clergy belonging to the church of carthage , taking in those who were trained up to it ; and doth mr. b. imagine all these were intended to serve one congregation ? or that all the christians then in carthage could have local and presential communion , as he calls it , in one church ; and at one altar ? sometimes an altar is taken with a particular respect to a bishop ; and so setting up one altar against another , was setting up one bishop against another , as that phrase is commonly used in saint cyprian and saint augustin ; sometimes for the place at which the christians did communicate , and so there were as many altars as churches . so fortunatus a catholick bishop objected to petilian the donatist , that in the city where he was bishop , the hereticks had broken down all the altars : which is the thing optatus objects so much against them . and that there were altars in all their churches appears from hence , that not onely the oblations were made there , and the communion received , but all the prayers of the church were made at them : as not onely appears from the african code and saint augustin ( which i have mentioned elsewhere ) but from optatus , who upbraiding the donatists for breaking down the altars of churches , he tells them that hereby they did what they could to hinder the churches prayers , for , saith he , illàc ad aures dei ascendere solebat populi oratio . the peoples prayers went up to heaven that way . and that distant places from the city were in the bishops diocese and under his care i thus prove . in the african code , there is a canon that no bishop should leave his cathedral church , and go to any other church in his diocese there to reside ; which evidently proves , that there were not onely more places , but more churches in a bishops diocese . and where the donatists had erected new bishopricks , as they often did , the african council decrees , that after the decease of such a bishop , if the people had no mind to have another in his room , they might be in the diocese of another bishop . which shews , that they thought the dioceses might be so large , as to hold the people that were under two bishops . and there were many canons made about the people of the donatist bishops . in one it was determined , that they should belong to the bishop that converted them , without limitation of distance ; after that , that they should belong to the same diocese they were in before : but if the donatist bishop were converted , then the diocese was to be divided between them . if any bishop neglected the converting the people of the places belonging to his diocese , he that did take the pains in it , was to have those places laid to his diocese ; unless sufficient cause were shewed by the bishop , that he was not to blame . let mr. baxter now judge , whether their bishopricks were like our parishes ; as he confidently affirms . saint augustin mentions the municipium tullense not far from hippo , where there was presbyter and clerks under his care and government : and he tells this particular story of it ; that a certain poor man who lived there fell into a trance , in which he fancied he saw the clergy thereabout , and among the rest the presbyter of that place who bade him go to hippo to be baptized of augustin who was bishop there ; the man did accordingly , and the next easter put in his name among the competentes and was baptized , and after told saint augustin the foregoing passages . it seems the donatists were very troublesome in some of the remoter parts of the diocese of hippo , whereupon saint augustin sent one of his presbyters to caecilian the roman president , to complain of their insolence , and to crave his assistance , which he saith , he did , lest he should be blamed for his negligence , who was the bishop of that diocese . and can we think all these persons had praesential and local communion with saint augustin in his church at hippo ? while he was yet but a presbyter at hippo , in the absence of the bishop he writes to maximinus a donatist bishop a sharp letter , for offering to rebaptize a deacon of their church who was placed at mutagena , and he saith , he went from hippo to the place himself to be satisfied of the truth of it . at the same place lived one donatus a presbyter of the donatists whom saint augustin would have had brought to him against his will , to be better instructed , as being under his care , but the obstinate man rather endeavour'd to make away himself , upon which he writes a long epistle to him . in another epistle he gives an account , that there was a place called fussala , which with the country about it , belonged to the diocese of hippo ; where there was abundance of people , but almost all donatists ; but by his great care in sending presbyters among them , those places were all reduced ; but because fussala was miles distant from hippo , he took care to have a bishop placed among them ; but as appears by the event he had better have kept it under his own care. for upon the complaints made against their new bishop , he was fain to resume it ; as appears by a presbyter of fussala , which he mentions afterwards . however it appears , that a place miles distance was then under the care of so great a saint , and so excellent a bishop as saint augustin was . and could mr. b. have found it in his heart to have told him that he did not understand the right constitution of churches ? how many quaere's would mr. b. have made about the numbers of souls at fussala , and how he could take upon him the care of a place so far distant from him ? and it is no hard matter to guess what answer saint augustin would have given him . but besides this plain evidence of the extent of dioceses , we have as clear proof of metropolitan provinces in the african churches . quidam de episcopis in provinciâ nostrâ , saith saint cyprian ; and yet he speaks of his predecessours times , which shews the very ancient extent of that province , in provinciâ nostrâ per aliquot civitates , saith he again ; which shews that more cities than carthage were under his care . quoniam latius fusa est provincia nostra , in his epistle to cornelius . in the african code it appears the bishop of carthage had the primacy by his place ; in the other provinces by seniority of consecration . victor mentions one crescens , who had bishops under him as metropolitan . and i hope at least for the sake of the african bishops , mr. b. will entertain the better opinion of the english episcopacy . sect. . but that he may not think this sort of episcopacy was onely in these parts of africa , let us enquire into the episcopacy of the church of alexandria . and we may suppose athanasius did not spend all his zeal upon doctrinal points , but had some for the right constitution of churches ; and yet it is most certain the churches under his care could not have personal communion with him . it is observed by epiphanius , that athanasius did frequently visit the neighbour churches , especially those in maraeotis ; of which athanasius himself gives the best account . maraeotis , saith he , is a region belonging to alexandria , which never had either bishop or suffragan in it ; but all the churches there are immediately subject to the bishop of alexandria ; but every presbyter is fixed in his particular village ; and here they had churches erected in which these presbyters did officiate . all this we have expressly from athanasius himself , whence we observe , ( . ) that here were true parochial churches ; for so athanasius calls them churches , and not bare oratories . ( . ) that these had presbyters fixed among them , who performed divine offices there . ( . ) that these were under the immediate inspection of the bishop of alexandria , so that the whole government belonged to him . ( . ) that these were at that distance , that they could not have local communion with their bishop in his church at alexandria . which is directly contrary to mr. baxter's episcopacy . so in alexandria it self , there were many distant churches with fixed presbyters in them , as epiphanius several times observes : and it would be a very strange thing indeed , if so many presbyters should have fixed churches in alexandria , and yet the whole church of alexandria be no bigger than to make one congregation for personal communion with the bishop . but mr. baxter's great argument is , from the meeting of the whole multitude with athanasius in the great church at alexandria to keep the easter solemnity ; whence he concludes , that the christians in alexandria were no more than that the main body of them could meet and hear in one assembly . whereas all that athanasius saith , amounts to no more than this , that the multitude was too great to meet in one of the lesser churches , and therefore a great clamour was raised among them that they might go into the new church ; athanasius pressed them to bear with the inconveniency and disperse themselves into the lesser churches ; the people grew impatient , and so at last he yielded to them . but what is there in all this to prove that all the christians in the whole city were then present , and that this church would hold them all ? if a great assembly should meet at one of the lesser churches in london upon some solemn occasion , and finding themselves too big for that place should press the bishop to open saint paul's for that day before it were quite finished , because of the greater capacity of the church for receiving such a number , would this prove that saint paul's held all the christians in london ? athanasius saith not a word more , than that it was easter , and there appeared a great number of people , such a one as christian princes would wish in a christian city . doth he say , or intimate , that all the christians of the city were present ? that none of them went to the lesser churches ? or were absent , though the croud was so great ? doth he not say , the multitudes were so great in the smaller churches in the lent assemblies , that not a few were stifled and carried home for dead ? and therefore it was necessary to consider the multitude at such a time . in my mind mr. baxter might as well prove that the whole nation of the iews made but one congregation ; because at the dedication of solomon's temple there was so great a multitude present , that one of the lesser synagogues could not hold them . but the argument is of greater force in this respect , that god himself appointed but one temple for the whole nation of the iews : and therefore he intended no more than a single congregational church . but to serve this hypothesis , alexandria it self must be shrunk into a less compass ; although dionysius alexandrinus who was bishop there saith it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a very great city ; and the geographer published by gothofred saith it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , an exceeding great city ; so great that it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 past mens comprehension : and ammianus marcellinus saith it was the top of all cities . and for the number of christians there long before the time of athanasius , dionysius alexandrinus saith in a time of great persecution , when he was banished , he kept up the assemblies in the city ; and at cephro he had a large church , partly of the christians of alexandria which followed him , and partly from other places , and when he was removed thence to colluthion , which was nearer the city , such numbers of christians flocked out of the city to him , that they were forced to have distinct congregations : so the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifie , and so athanasius useth them , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , for the christians meeting in several congregations . if there were such a number of christians at alexandria so long before , under the sharpest persecution , is it possible to imagin , in so great a city , after christianity had so long been the religion of the empire , that the number of christians there should be no greater than to make one large congregation ? there is no hopes of convincing men , that can build theories upon such strange improbabilities . i shall onely add one instance more from antiquity , which is plain enough of it self to shew the great extent of diocesan power then ; and that is of theodoret , a great and learned bishop ; and although his bishoprick was none of the largest , yet in his epistle to leo he saith , he had the pastoral charge of churches ; for so many parishes , saith he , are in my diocese , which he had then enjoyed twenty six years . doth mr. b. believe that all the christians in these churches had personal communion with theodoret ? and yet these parishes did not change their species , for he saith , they were churches still . this testimony of theodoret is so full and peremptory , that mr. baxter hath no other way to avoid the force of it , but to call in question the authority of the epistle . but without any considerable ground , unless it be that it contradicts his hypothesis . for , what if theodoret ' s epistles came out of the vatican copy ? is that a sufficient argument to reject them , unless some inconsistency be proved in those epistles , with the history of those times , or with his other writings ? which are the rules , rivet gives for judging the sincerity of them . that epistle which bellarmin and others reject as spurious , is contradicted by other epistles of his still extant ; which shew a full reconciliation between cyril of alexandria and him before his death . and it is supposed , that iohn of antioch was dead some considerable time before cyril ; which manifestly overthrows the authority of it . but what is there like that in this epistle to leo ? when the matter of fact is proved by other epistles ? as to the unreasonable proceedings of dioscorus against him , ( which was the occasion of writing it ) his other epistles are so full of it , that mr. b. never read the rest , if he calls this into question upon that account . that hypatius , abramius and alypius were sent into the west upon theodoret's account , appears by the epistles to renatus and florentius , which follow that to leo. what if several epistles of his are lost , which nicephorus saw , doth that prove all that are remaining to be counterfeit ? but he is much mistaken , if he thinks , there was no other copy but the vatican translated by metius ; for sirmondus tells us he met with another copy at naples , which he compared with the vatican , and published the various readings of the epistles from it . what if leontius saith that hereticks feigned epistles in theodoret ' s name ? doth that prove an epistle wherein he vindicates himself from the imputation of heresie , to be spurious ? what mr. b. means by the printing this epistle alone after theodoret ' s works , i do not well understand , unless he never saw any other than the latin edition of theodoret. but it is a very bold thing to pronounce concerning the authority of a man's writings , without so much as looking into the latest and best editions of them . but there are two things he objects which seem more material . ( . ) that it seems incredible that a town within two days journey of antioch should have churches in it at that time . ( . ) that he proves from other places in theodoret , that it is very improbable that dioceses had then so many churches . . as to the first ; certainly no man in his wits ever undertook to prove , that one such city as cyrus then was , had churches in it . but by cyrus , theodoret means the diocese of cyrus ; as will afterwards appear . if cyrus were taken for the regio cyrrhestica with the bounds given it by ptolemy , strabo and pliny , then there would not appear the least improbability in it , since many considerable cities were within it ; as beroea ( now aleppo ) and hierapolis , and extended as far as euphrates ; zeugma being comprehended under it . the ecclesiastical province was likewise very large , and by the ancient notitiae it is sometimes called euphratensis , which in ammianus his time took in comagena and extended to samosata ( but the regio cyrrhestica before was distinct from comagena as appears by strabo and others ) in that province there was a metropolitan , who was called the metropolitan of hagiopolis , which by the same notitiae appears to have been then one of the names of cyrus , or cyrrhus . but notwithstanding , i do not think the words of theodoret are to be understood of the province , but of his own peculiar diocese ; for theodoret mentions the metropolitan he was under . by cyrus therefore we understand the region about the city , which was under theodoret's care ; within which he was confined by the emperour's order , as he complains in several epistles , and there it is called by him , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , regio cyrrhestica ; and theodoret himself sets down the extent of it in his epistle to constantius , where he saith , it was forty miles in length and forty in breadth . and he saith in another epistle , that christianity was then so much spread among them , that not onely the cities , but the villages , the fields , and utmost bounds were filled with divine grace . and that these villages had churches and priests settled in them under the care of the bishop , appears expresly from a passage in the life of symeon ; where he speaks of bassus visiting the parochial churches ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . if there were then parochial churches settled with presbyters in them , and these under the care of the diocesan bishop , then mr. b.'s hypothesis is utterly overthrown . in his epistle to nomus , he mentions eight villages in his diocese that were overrun with the heresie of marcion , another with the eunomian , another with the arian heresie ; which were all converted by his care : and in another place he saith , he had brought ten thousand marcionists to baptism . in another he mentions the spreading of marcion ' s doctrine in his diocese , and the great pains he took to root it out ; and the success he had therein . and we find the names of many of the villages in his lives , as tillima , targala , nimuza , teleda , telanissus , which are sufficient to shew , that theodoret had properly a diocesan church , and that his episcopal care and authority did extend to many parochial churches ; his diocese being forty miles in length , and as many in breadth . so that mr. b. must reject , not onley that epistle to leo , but the rest too , and his other works , if he hopes to make good his parochial episcopacy ; which is too hard a task to be undertaken , without better evidence than he hath hitherto brought . . but he offers to produce other testimonies out of theodoret to shew the improbability that dioceses had so many churches . the question is not about the bare number of churches in dioceses , which all men know to have been very different ; but about the extent of episcopal power , whether it were limited to one parochial church , or was extended over many . and what is there in theodoret which contradicts this ? i extreamly failed of my expectation , as to the other places of theodoret , which he promised to produce ; for i find five or six places cited out of his history , but not one that comes near any proof of this matter . the ( . ) proves that in a time of persecution at alexandria , nineteen presbyters and deacons were banished to heliopolis in phoenicia , where there were no christians . therefore in theodoret's time , there was no diocesan episcopacy . the ( . ) shews that in a small city of thebais , whither eulogius and protogenes were banished , and there were but a few christians , yet there was a bishop . who ever denied this , where there was a prospect of converting more , as appears by the endeavours of eulogius and protogenes there ? but he ought to have proved that as the christians increased , new bishops were made , which this is very far from . the ( . ) proves that lucius of alexandria was made bishop by force , without any synod of bishops , or choice of the clergy , or request of the people . i suppose by this time , mr. b. had forgotten what he promised to prove from theodoret. but i wonder , how it came into his mind to say the church of alexandria at that time was like a presbyterian church : which i am sure he had not from theodoret , nor from the epistle of peter of alexandria . the ( . ) is intended to prove , that in the time of valens the patriarchal orthodox church of alexandria was but one assembly , which met onely in one place at once . but it is very unhappy , that theodoret shews just the contrary in that place , for he saith , that valens expelled the orthodox christians out of their churches , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , are his very words : to whom , he saith , iovianus had likewise given the new built church . which mr. b. thus translates , valens found the orthodox , even in the great patriarchial city of antioch in possession but of one church , which good jovinian the emperour had given them , of which he dispossessed them . i desire any one who relies on mr. b.'s skill and fidelity in these matters , but to compare this translation with the text in theodoret ; and i dare say , he will see cause to admire it . but if any one can imagin that the patriarchal church of antioch in the time of valens could consist but of one congregation , for my part , i must give him over , as one uncapable of being convinced of any thing by me . i do not speak what the church in a time of great persecution might be driven to , but of what it was in its settled state . the ( . ) is , from terentius his begging one church for the orthodox of valens ; which saith mr. b. intimates their numbers . i am ashamed to reade , much more to confute such arguments as these . for if the papists should desire the liberty but of one church in london , doth that prove they are no more than can make one congregation ? the ( . ) proves that maris was made bishop of dolicha a small town infected with arianism . it is true , theodoret saith , doliche was a little city , and so he tells us , cyrus was no great one ; but he doth not set down the bounds of the diocese ; which for any thing we see in theodoret , might be as large , as , we have evidently proved from him , the diocese of cyrrhus was . let the reader now judge , whether theodoret doth not plainly overthrow mr. b.'s notion of parochial episcopacy . but mr. b. insists upon the institution of christ ; and if christ hath appointed one sort of churches , viz. for personal communion , and men make another , is not this a violation of christ's command , and setting up man against god ? i see no evidence produced for any such institution of christ , which limits episcopal power to a single congregation ; and therefore the extending it to more , can be no violation of christ's command , or setting up a new species of churches , as will appear from mr. b. himself under the next particular . yet mr. b. according to his wonted meekness towards his adversaries , charges me , for speaking against this principle of his , with pleading for presumption , profanation , usurpation , uncharitableness , schism , what not ? what is the reason of all this rage and bitterness ? why , i set down a saying of his , as going beyond the independents in making the devising new species of churches beyond parochial or congregational without god's authority , and to impose them on the world , yea in his name , and call all dissenters schismaticks , a far worse usurpation than to make or impose new ceremonies or liturgies . but is not all this true supposing that such new species of churches be so devised and so imposed ? that is not to the business ; for that which i quoted it for , was to shew that mr. b. looked upon all churches beyond parochial , as churches meerly of mens devising ; and that to charge men with schism for opposing any such constitution is unreasonable ; and that the imposing it as divine , is an intolerable usurpation ; and all this at the same time , when he pretends to write for peace and concord . my business is now to shew sect. . . that such an episcopacy as is practised here , and was so in the primitive church is no devising a new species of churches , nor hath any thing repugnant to any institution of christ. and to prove this , i need no more than one of mr. b. ' s own cautions in his premonition ; viz. that he doth not dispute the lawfulness of archbishops , as he calls them , over parochial bishops , as successours to the apostolical and other general overseers of the first age , in the ordinary continued parts of their office. and what he saith in his own name and others in his plea for peace : there are some of us , that much incline to think that archbishops , that is , bishops that have oversight of many churches with their pastours , are lawfull successours of the apostles in the ordinary part of their work. but i cannot here omit mr. baxter ' s arguments to prove , that the ordinary governing part of the apostolical office , was settled for all following ages . . because we reade of the settling of that form , but we never reade of any abolition , discharge , or cessation of the institution . 〈…〉 affirm a cessation without proof , we seem to accuse god of mutability , as settling one form of government for one age onely , and no longer . . we leave room for audacious wits accordingly to question other gospel institutions , as pastours , sacraments , &c. and to say , they were but for an age. . it was general officers christ promised to be with , to the end of the world , matt. . . which being joyned with the consent of the christian church of the ages succeeding the apostles , that the apostles did leave successours in the care and government of churches , have a great deal of weight in them , and overballance the difficulties on the other side . as upon this occasion i think fit to declare . from whence i argue thus , that which is onely a continuance of the same kind of churches which were in being in the apostolical times is no devising a new species of churches , nor hath any thing repugnant to any institution of christ. but that is the case as to our episcopacy . we intend no quarrel about names : if it be mr. b. ' s pleasure to call our bishops , archbishops , let him enjoy his own fancy . it already appears from saint cyprian , and might much more be made plain from many others if it were needfull , that the bishops of the several churches were looked on as successours to the apostles in the care and government of churches . now the office of mr. b. ' s parochial bishops was onely to attend to one particular congregation ; but the apostolical office was above this , while the apostles held it in their own hands ; and did not make a new species of churches , nor overthrow the constitution of parochial churches . it seems then a strange thing to me , that the continuance of the same kind of office in the church , should be called the devising a new species of churches . but mr. b. runs upon this perpetual mistake , that our english episcopacy is not a succession to the ordinary part of the apostolical power in governing churches ; but a new sort of episcopacy not heard of in the ancient church , which swallows up the whole power of presbyters , and leaves them onely a bare name of curates , and destroyes the being of parochial churches . but if i can make the contrary to appear from the frame and constitution of this church , i hope mr. b. will be reconciled to our episcopal government , and endeavour to remove the prejudices he hath caused in peoples minds against it . sect. . now to examin this , let us consider two things . ( . ) what power is left to presbyters in our church . ( . ) what authority the bishops of our church have over them . i. what power is left to presbyters in our church : and that may be considered two ways . . with respect to the whole body of this church . . with respect to their particular congregations or cures . . with respect to the whole body of this church : and so ( . ) there are no rules of discipline , no articles of doctrine , no form of divine service , are to be allowed or received in this nation ; but , by the constitution of this church , the presbyters of it have their votes in passing them , either in person , or by proxy . for , all things of that nature , are to pass both houses of convocation ; and the lower house consists wholly of presbyters ; who represent the whole presbytery of the nation ; either appearing by their own right , as many do ; or as being chosen by the rest , from whom by indentures they either do , or ought to receive power to transact things in their names . and the custom of this church hath sometimes been , for the clergy of the dioceses to give limited proxies in particular cases to their procuratours . now i appeal to any man of understanding , whether the clergy of this church have their whole power swallowed up by the bishops , when yet the bishops have no power to oblige them to any rules or canons but by their own consent ; and they do freely vote in all things of common concernment to the church ; and therefore the presbyters are not by the constitution deprived of their share in one of the greatest rights of government , viz. in making rules for the whole body . and in this main part of government the bishops do nothing without the counsel of their presbyters , and in this respect our church falls behind none of the ancient churches , which had their councils of presbyters together with their bishops ; onely , there , they were taken singly in every city ; and here they are combined together in provincial synods ; model'd according to the laws of the nation . and when the whole body of doctrine , discipline and worship are thus agreed upon by a general consent , there seems to be far less need of the particular councils of presbyters to every bishop ; since both bishops and presbyters are now under fixed rules , and are accountable for the breach of them . ( . ) in giving orders ; by the rules of this church four presbyters are to assist the bishops ; and to examin the persons to be ordained ( or the bishop in their presence ) and afterwards to joyn in the laying on of hands upon the persons ordained . and is all this nothing but to be the bishop's curates , and to officiate in some of his chapels ? . as to their particular charges ; one would think those who make this objection , had never read over the office of ordination ; for therein ( . ) for the epistle is read the charge given by saint paul to the elders at miletus , act. . or the third chapter of the first epistle to timothy ; concerning the office of a bishop . what a great impertinency had both these been , if the presbyters power had been quite swallowed up by the bishops ? but it hence appears , that our church looked on the elders at ephesus , and the bishop in timothy to be presbyters , as yet under the care and government of the apostles , or such as they deputed for that office , such as timothy and titus were . which i suppose is the true meaning of saint ierome and many other doubtfull passages of antiquity , which relate to the community of the names of bishop and presbyter , while the apostles governed the church themselves . and at this time timothy being appointed to this part of the apostolical office of government , the bishops mentioned in the epistle to him , may well enough be the same with the presbyters in the epistle to titus , who was appointed to ordain elders in every city , titus . . ( . ) in the bishop's exhortation to them that are to be ordained , he saith , now we exhort you in the name of the lord iesus christ , to have in remembrance into how high a dignity , and to how chargeable an office ye be called , that is to say , the messengers and watchmen , the pastours and stewards of the lord , to teach , to premonish , to feed and provide for the lord's family , &c. have always therefore printed in your remembrance , how great a treasure is committed to your charge ; for they be the sheep of christ which he bought with his death , and for whom he shed his bloud . the church and congregation whom you must serve is his spouse and body . and if it shall chance the same church , or any member thereof , to take any hurt or hinderance , by reason of your negligence , you know the greatness of the fault and of the horrible punishment which will ensue , &c. is this the language of a church which deprives presbyters of the due care of their flocks , and makes parochial congregations to be no churches ? ( . ) the person to be ordained doth solemnly promise to give faithfull diligence to minister the doctrine and sacraments , and the discipline of christ as the lord hath commanded , and as this realm hath received the same , according to the commandments of god , so that he may teach the people committed to his cure and charge , with all diligence to keep and observe the same . here we see a cure and charge committed to the presbyters ; preaching and administration of sacraments required of them ; and the exercise of discipline as far as belongs to them , ( of which afterwards ) : but now in the consecration of a bishop , this part is left out , and instead of that it is said , that he is called to the government of the church ; and he is required to correct and punish such as be unquiet , disobedient and criminous in his diocese . so that the more particular charge of souls is committed to every pastour over his own flock , and the general care of government and discipline is committed to the bishop ; as that which especially belongs to his office as distinct from the other . sect. . ii. which is the next thing to be considered , viz. what authority the bishop hath , by virtue of his consecration , in this church ? and that , i say , is what mr. b. calls the ordinary parts of the apostolical authority ; which lies in three things , government , ordination and censures . and that our church did believe our bishops to succeed the apostles in those parts of their office , i shall make appear by these things . ( . ) in the preface before the book of ordination , it is said , that it is evident unto all men , diligently reading holy scripture , and ancient authours , that from the apostles time , there have been these orders of ministers in christ's church , bishops , priests and deacons . what is the reason that they express it thus , from the apostles time , rather than in the apostles times , but that they believed , while the apostles lived , they managed the affairs of government themselves ; but as they withdrew , they did in some churches sooner , and in some later , as their own continuance , the condition of the churches , and the qualification of persons were , commit the care and government of churches to such persons whom they appointed thereto ? of which , we have an uncontroulable evidence in the instances of timothy and titus ; for the care of government was a distinct thing from the office of an evangelist ; and all their removes do not invalidate this , because while the apostles lived , it is probable there were no fixed bishops , or but few . but as they went off , so they came to be settled in their several churches . and as this is most agreeable to the sense of our church , so it is the fairest hypothesis for reconciling the different testimonies of antiquity . for hereby the succession of bishops is secured from the apostles times , for which the testimonies of irenaeus , tertullian , saint cyprian , and others , are so plain ; hereby room is left to make good all that saint ierom hath said ; and what epiphanius delivers concerning the differing settlements of churches at first . so that we may allow for the community of names , between bishop and presbyter , for a while in the church , i. e. while the apostles governed the churches themselves ; but afterwards , that which was then part of the apostolical office , became the episcopal , which hath continued from that time to this , by a constant succession in the church . ( . ) archbishop whitgift several times declares that these parts of the apostolical office still remained in the bishops of our church . as for this part of the apostles function , saith he , to visit such churches as were before planted , and to provide that such were placed in them , as were vertuous and godly pastours , i know it remaineth still , and is one of the chief parts of the bishops function . and again , there is now no planting of churches , nor going through the whole world , there is no writing of new gospels , no prophesying of things to come , but there is governing of churches , visiting of them , reforming of pastours and directing of them , which is a portion of the apostolical function . again , although that this part of the apostolical office which did consist in planting and founding of churches through the whole world is ceased ; yet the manner of government by placing bishops in every city , by moderating and governing them , by visiting the churches , by cutting off schisms and contentions , by ordering ministers remaineth still , and shall continue , and is in this church in the archbishops and bishops , as most meet men to execute the same . bishop bilson fully agrees , as to these particulars . ( . ) that the apostles did not at first commit the churches to the government of bishops , but reserved the chief power of government in their own hands . ( . ) that upon experience of the confusion and disorder which did arise through equality of pastours , did appoint at their departures certain approved men to be bishops . ( . ) that these bishops did succeed the apostles in the care and government of churches , as he proves at large ; and therefore he calls their function apostolick . instead of many others , which it were easie to produce , i shall onely add the testimony of king charles i. in his debates about episcopacy , who understood the constitution of our church as well as any bishop in it , and defended it with as clear and as strong a reason . in his third paper to henderson , he hath these words , where you find a bishop and presbyter in scripture to be one and the same ( which i deny to be always so ) it is in the apostles times ; now i think to prove the order of bishops succeeded that of the apostles , and that the name was chiefly altered in reverence to those who were immediately chosen by our saviour . in his first paper at the treaty at newport , he thus states the case about episcopal government . i conceive that episcopal government is most consonant to the word of god , and of an apostolical institution , as it appears by the scriptures to have been practised by the apostles themselves , and by them committed and derived to particular persons as their substitutes or successours therein ( as for ordaining presbyters and deacons , giving rules concerning christian discipline , and exercising censures over presbyters and others ) and hath ever since to these last times been exercised by bishops in all the churches of christ , and therefore i cannot in conscience consent to abolish the said government . in his reply to the first answer of the divines , he saith , that meer presbyters are episcopi gregis onely , they have the oversight of the flock in the duties of preaching , administration of sacraments , publick prayer , exhorting , rebuking , &c. but bishops are episcopi gregis & pastorum too , having the oversight of flock and pastours within their several precincts in the acts of external government . and that , although the apostles had no successours in eundem gradum as to those things that were extraordinary in them , as namely the measure of their gifts , the extent of their charge , the infallibility of their doctrine , and the having seen christ in the flesh : but in those things that were not extraordinary ( and such those things are to be judged which are necessary for the service of the church in all times , as the office of teaching and the power of governing are ) they were to have and had successours ; and therefore the learned and godly fathers and councils of old times did usually stile bishops the successours of the apostles without ever scrupling thereat . many other passages might be produced out of those excellent papers to the same purpose , but these are sufficient to discover that our bishops are looked on as successours to the apostles , and therefore mr. baxter hath no reason to call our episcopacy a new devised species of churches , and such as destroys the being of parochial churches . sect. . . it now remains , that we consider whether the restraint of discipline in our parochial churches doth overthrow their constitution ? to make this clear , we must understand that the discipline of the church either respects the admission of church-members to the holy communion ; or the casting of them out for scandal afterwards . . as to that part of discipline which respects the admission of church-members . the rubrick after confirmation saith , that none shall be admitted to the holy communion , untill such time as he be confirmed , or be ready and desirous to be confirmed . now to capacitate a person for confirmation , it is necessary that he be able to give an account of the necessary points of the christian faith and practice , as they are contained in the creed , the lord's prayer , the ten commandments and the church catechism ; and of his sufficiency herein the parochial minister is the iudge . for he is either to bring or send in writing , with his hand subscribed thereunto , the names of all such persons within his parish , as he shall think fit to be presented to the bishop to be confirmed . now , if this were strictly observed ( and the church is not responsible for mens neglect ) were it not sufficient for the satisfaction of men as to the admission of church-members to the lord's supper ? and i do not see , but the objections made against the discipline of this church might be removed , if the things allowed and required by the rules of it , were duly practised ; and might attain to as great purity , as is ever pretended to by the separate congregations who now find so much fault for our want of discipline . for , even the churches of new-england do grant , that the infant seed of confederate visible believers are members of the same church with their parents , and when grown up are personally under the watch , discipline and government of that church . and , that infants baptized have a right to further privileges , if they appear qualified for them . and the main of these qualifications are , understanding the doctrine of faith , and publickly professing their assent thereto , not scandalous in life , and solemnly owning the covenant before the church . taking this for the baptismal covenant , and not their church covenant , our church owns the same thing , onely it is to be done before the bishop instead of their congregation . but the minister is to be judge of the qualifications , which mr. baxter himself allows in this case . who grants the profession of faith to be a condition of right before the church ; and then adds , that such profession is to be tried , judged and approved by the pastours of the church to whose office it belongs ; because to ministers as such the keys of the kingdom of heaven are committed ; and they are the stewards of god's house , &c. which he there proves at large by many arguments . but he complains of the old careless practice of this excellent duty of confirmation . this is a thing indeed to be lamented , that it is too hastily and cursorily performed : but let the fault then be laid , where it ought to be laid ; not upon the church , whose rules are very good , but upon those persons in it who slubber over so important a duty . but is it not more becoming christians in a peaceable and orderly manner to endeavour to retrieve so excellent a means for the reformation of our parochial churches ; than peevishly to complain of the want of discipline , and to reject communion with our church on that account ? and i shall desire mr. baxter to consider his own words , that the practice of so much discipline , as we are agreed in , is a likelier way to bring us to agreement in the rest , than all our disputings will do without it . yea mr. baxter grants , that the presbyters of our church have by the rubrick the trial and approbation of those , that are sent to the bishop for confirmation ; and that the doctrine and practice of the church of england , is for the power of presbyters herein as far as they could desire . this is a very fair confession , and sufficient to make it appear that our diocesan episcopacy doth not overthrow the power of presbyters , as to this part of discipline which concerns admission of church-members to the communion . sect. . . as to that part of church discipline which respects the rejecting those for scandal , who have been church-members . in case of open and publick scandal , our church doth allow if not require the parochial minister to call and advertise such a one that is guilty of it in any wise not to come to the lord's table , until he hath openly declared himself to have truly repented and amended his former naughty life , that the congregation may thereby be satisfied , which before was offended . and in case the offender continue obstinate , he may repel him from the communion ; but so , that after such repelling , he give an account to the ordinary within days ; and the ordinary is then to proceed according to the canon . here is plainly a power granted to put back any scandalous offender from the sacrament , whose faults are so notorious as to give offence to the congregation ; but it is not an absolute and unaccountable power , but the minister is obliged to give account thereof within a limited time to the ordinary . now wherein is it that our diocesan episcopacy destroys the being of parochial churches for want of the power of discipline ? is it that they have not power to exclude men , whether their faults be scandalous to the congregation or not ? or is it , that they are bound to justify what they doe , and to prosecute the person for those faults for which they put him back from the communion ? or is it , that they have not power to proceed to the greater excommunication , that being reserved served to the bishop , upon full hearing of all parties concerned ? but as long as by the constitution of our church every minister in his parish hath power to keep back notorious offenders , it will be impossible to prove from other circumstances that the being of our churches is destroyed by our diocesan episcopacy . mr. b. saith , that if it could be proved , that the lesser excommunication out of our particular congregations were allowed to the parish ministers , it would half reconcile him to the english sort of prelacy ; but if it be so , he hath been in a sleep these years , that could never hear or read of any such thing . it is strange , in all this time , he should never reade or consider the canon , which saith , that no minister shall in any wise admit any one of his flock , or under his care to the communion of the lord's supper , who is notoriously known to live impenitently in any scandalous sin. this is not in the reformatio legum ecclesiasticarum , which he mentions as an abortive thing , published by iohn fox , ( which last any one that hath seen them , knows to be a mistake ) nor in dr. mocket's book which was burnt ; yet not so destroyed , but with some diligence he might have seen it ( but it was for nothing of this kind , that book underwent so severe a censure ; as mr. b. insinuates ; but for seeming to incroach too much on the king's prerogative . ) but i appeal to what mr. b. calls the authorized church canons ; which i think are plain in this case . but mr. b. saith , this is not the lesser excommunication , but a temporary suspension of the ministers own act in delivering the sacrament to such persons . let mr. b. call it by what name he pleaseth ; this is certain , the minister is impowred , is required to doe this ; the question then is , whether this be not such a censure of the church , as to suspend notorious offenders from the sacrament ; and that within the power of the parochial minister ? i grant , this is not the lesser excommunication , according to the vse of this church , for that supposeth the sentence passed ; and is so called by way of distinction from the greater pronounced by the bishop in person , upon extraordinary occasions . but yet it is a church-censure upon offenders , and was accounted a sort of excommunication by the ancient church ; for those who were in the state of penitents were then said to be under a kind of excommunication ; as appears by several passages in s. augustin , produced by spalatensis to this purpose , viz. to prove that there was a penitential excommunication . but mr. b. quotes albaspinaeus to shew that the old excommunication did shut persons out from all other church-communion as well as the sacrament . which is very true of the greater excommunication ; but besides this there were other censures of the church upon offenders , whereby they were suspended from full communion ; but not debarred the hopes of it upon satisfaction given . these were said to be in the state of penitents . it was a favour to the excommunicated to be brought into this state ; and others were never allowed to hope to be restored to communion ; others onely on their death-beds ; others according to the nature and degrees of their repentance ; of which those were left to be iudges , who were particularly intrusted with the care of the penitents . albaspinaeus grants that as long as men remained penitents they were actually deprived of the priviledges of church-communion ; but he saith , the penitents were in a middle state between the excommunicated and the faithfull , being still candidates , as he calls them ; so that all that were penitents were suspended from communion ; but not wholly cast out of the church ; because the christians might as freely converse with these , as with any , but they were not allowed to participate in the sacred mysteries . but there was no question , wherever there was a power to suspend any persons from communion , there was a power of discipline ; because the churches discipline did not consist merely in the power of excommunication ; no more than a iudges power lies onely in condemning men to be hanged ; but in so governing the members of the church , that scandalous persons may be kept from the greatest acts of communion , and by admonition and counsel be brought to a due preparation for it . since then our church doth give power to parochial ministers to suspend notorious offenders from the communion , it is thereby evident , that it doth not deprive them of all the necessary and essential parts of church-discipline . but saith mr. b. if a minister doth publickly admonish another by name , not censured by the ordinary , the lawyers tell him he may have his action against him . i answer , . what need this publick admonition by name ? doth the nature of church-discipline lie in that ? suppose a man be privately and effectually dealt with to withdraw himself , is not this sufficient ? i am sure saint augustin took this course with his people at hippo , he perswaded them to examine their own consciences , and if they found themselves guilty of such crimes as rendred them unfit for the holy communion , he advised them to withdraw themselves from it , till by prayers and fasting and alms they had cleansed their consciences , and then they might come to it . here is no publick admonition by name ; and in many cases saint augustin declares the church may justly forbear the exercise of discipline towards offenders , and yet the church be a true church , and christians obliged to communicate with it ; as appears by all his disputes with the donatists . . if a restraint be laid on ministers by law : the question then comes to this , whether the obligation to admonish publickly an offender , or to deny him the sacrament , if he will come to it , be so great as to bear him out in the violation of a law ; made by publick authority , with a design to preserve our religion ? but my design is onely to speak to this case , so far as the church is concerned in it . sect. . if it be said , that notwithstanding this , the neglect and abuse of discipline among us are too great to be justified , and too notorious to be concealed ; i answer , . that is not our question , but whether our parochial churches have lost their being for want of the power of discipline ? and whether the species of our churches be changed by diocesan episcopacy ? which we have shewed sufficient reason to deny . and what other abuses have crept in , ought in an orderly way to be reformed , and no good man will deny his assistance in it . . it is far easier to separate , or complain for want of discipline , than to find out a due way to restore it . no man hath more set out the almost insuperable difficulties which attend it , than mr. baxter hath done ; especially in that , it will provoke and exasperate those most who stand in need of it ; and be most likely to doe good on those who need it least . . the case of our churches now , is very different from that of the churches in the primitive times . for , the great reason of discipline is not , that for want of it the consciences of fellow-communicants would be defiled ( for to assert that , were donatism ) but that the honour of a christian society may be maintained . if then the christian magistrates do take care to vindicate the churches honour by due punishment of scandalous offenders , there will appear so much less necessity of restoring the severity of the ancient discipline . to which purpose these words of the royal martyr king charles i. are very considerable . but his majesty seeth no necessity that the bishops challenge to the power of iurisdiction should be at all times as large as the exercise thereof at some times appeareth to have been ; the exercise thereof being variable according to the various conditions of the church in different times . and therefore his majesty doth not believe that the bishops under christian princes do challenge such an amplitude of iurisdiction to belong unto them in respect of their episcopal office precisely , as was exercised in the primitive times , by bishops before the days of constantine . the reason of the difference being evident , that in those former times under pagan princes , the church was a distinct body of it self , divided from the common-wealth , and so was to be governed by its own rules and rulers ; the bishops therefore of those times , though they had no outward coercive power over mens persons or estates , yet in as much as every christian man when he became a member of the church , did ipso facto , and by that his own voluntary act put himself under their government , they exercised a very large power of jurisdiction in spiritualibus , in making ecclesiastical canons , receiving accusations , converting the accused , examining witnesses , judging of crimes , excluding such as they found guilty of scandalous offences from the lord's supper , enjoyning penances upon them , casting them out of the church , receiving them again upon their repentance , &c. and all this they exercised as well over presbyters as others . but after that the church under christian princes began to be incorporated into the common-wealth , whereupon there must of necessity follow a complication of the civil and ecclesiastical power , the iurisdiction of bishops ( in the outward exercise of it ) was subordinate unto , and limitable by the supreme civil power , and hath been , and is at this day , so acknowledged by the bishops of this realm . . the due exercise of discipline is a work of so much prudence and difficulty , that the greatest zealots for it , have not thought it fit to be trusted in the hands of every parochial minister and his particular congregation . calvin declares , that he never thought it convenient that every minister should have the power of excommunication : not onely because of the invidiousness of the thing , and the danger of the example ; but because of the great abuses and tyranny it may soon fall into , and because it was contrary to the apostolical practice . and to the same purpose , beza delivers his judgment , who likewise gives this account of the discipline of geneva , that the parochial ministers and elders proceed no farther than admonition ; but in case of contumacy they certify the presbytery of the city which sits at certain times and hears all causes relating to discipline , and as they judge fit either give admonition , or proceed to suspension from the lord's supper ; or , which is a rare case , and when no other remedy can prevail , they go on to publick excommunication . where we see , every parochial church is no more trusted with the power of discipline than among us ; nay , the minister here hath no power to repel , but all that he can doe there is to admonish ; and how come then their parochial churches to be true , and not ours ? besides , why may not our ministers be obliged to certify the bishop , as well as theirs to certify the presbytery ? since in the african churches the matter of discipline was so much reserved to the bishop , that a presbyter had no power to receive a penitent into the communion of the church without the advice and direction of the bishop ; and saint augustin proposed it , that whosoever received one that declined the judgment of his own bishop , should undergoe the same censure which that person deserved ; and it was allowed by the council . alipius , saint augustins great friend and legat of the province of numidia , proposed the case of a presbyter under the censure of his bishop , who out of pride and vain-glory sets up a separate congregation in opposition to the order of the church ; and he desired to know the judgment of the council about it ; and they unanimously determined that he was guilty of schism , and ought to be anathematized , and to lose his place . and this was the iudgment even of the african bishops , for whom mr. baxter professeth greater reverence than for any others ; and saith , their councils were the best in the world ; and commends their canons for very good about discipline . but he pretends that a bishop's diocese there , was but like one of our parishes , which i have already refuted at large , by shewing that there were places at a considerable distance under the care of the bishops . so that the bringing the full power of discipline into every parochial church , is contrary to the practice of antiquity , as well as of the reformed churches abroad , which plead most for discipline ; and would unavoidably be the occasion of great and scandalous disorders , by the ill management of the power of excommunication ; as was most evident by the separatists when they took this sword into their hands , and by their foolish and passionate , and indiscreet use of it , brought more dishonour upon their churches , than if they had never meddled with it at all . and in such a matter , where the honour of the christian society is the chief thing concerned , it becomes wise men to consider what tends most to the promoting of that ; and whether the good , men promise themselves by discipline , will countervail the schisms and contentions , the heart-burnings , and animosities which would follow the parochial exercise of it . the dissenting brethren in their apologetical narration do say , that they had the fatal miscarriages and shipwrecks of the separation , as land-marks to forewarn them of the rocks and shelves they ran upon ; and therefore they say they never exercised the power of excommunication . for they saw plainly , they could never hold their people together if they did ; since the excommunicated party would be sure to make friends enough , at least to make breaches among them ; and they holding together by mutual consent , such ruptures would soon break their churches to pieces . besides , this would be thought no less than setting up an arbitrary court of iudicature in every parish ; because there are no certain rules to proceed by ; no standing determination what those sins and faults are , which should deserve excommunication ; no method of trials agreed upon ; no security against false witnesses ; no limitation of causes ; no liberty of appeals , ( if parochial churches be the onely instituted churches , as mr. baxter affirms : ) besides multitudes of other inconveniencies , which may be easily foreseen ; so that i do not question , but if mr. baxter had the management of this parochial discipline in any one parish in london , and proceeded by his own rules ; his court of discipline would be cried out upon in a short time , as more arbitrary and tyrannical , than any bishop's court this day in england : let any one therefore judge , how reasonable it is for him to overthrow the being of our parochial churches , for want of that , which being set up according to his own principles , would destroy the peace and vnity , if not the very being , of any parochial church whatsoever . . that want of discipline , which is in parochial churches , was never thought by the most zealous non-conformists of old , destructive to the being of them . of which i have already produced the testimonies of cartwright , hildersham , giffard , and many others . sect. . and supposing all persons left to the judgment of their own consciences , as to their own fitness for the holy communion , we may observe these things ; which may serve towards the vindication of our parochial churches . ( . ) that the greatest offenders do generally excommunicate themselves ; not daring to venture upon so hazardous a thing , as they account the holy communion to be , for fear of the damnation following unworthy receiving . so that , the most constant communicants , are the most pious and sober and devout christians . ( . ) that if any such do voluntarily come , it is upon some great awakenings of conscience ; some fresh resolutions they have made of amendment of life ; after some dangerous sickness , or under some great affliction ; when they are best inclined , and have strong convictions , and hope for greater strength of grace against the power of temptations . so that whether this sacrament be a converting ordinance or not , by god's institution , yet the preparation and disposition of men's minds before it , puts them into the fittest capacity for divine grace ; if they be not looked on as the effects of it . ( . ) that it is no prejudice to the benefit of this holy sacrament to those who are well prepared , if those who are not , do come to it ; any more than in joyning in prayer or thanksgiving with them . and if the presence of such persons who deserve excommunication and are not excommunicated , do overthrow the being of a church ; then christ and his disciples did not make a church , when iudas was present with them ; as in probability he was , at his last supper . at least , if this kind of discipline had been so necessary , it would never have been left so doubtfull , as it is by the evangelists ; since it had been necessary for the information of the christian church , to have set it down expresly ; not onely that he was not present , but that he ought not to be ; and therefore was cast out before . ( . ) that several presbyterian churches for many years had no discipline at all among them ; nor so much as the lord's supper administred . and were these true churches all that while , and are not ours so now ? nay mr. baxter saith , that some non-conformists have these seventeen or eighteen years forborn to baptize , or administer the lord's supper , or to be pastours of any churches . now i would fain know , what churches these men are of ? some or other they must own , if they be christians ; new churches they have not , they say ; either then they must own our churches to be true , notwithstanding the defect of discipline , or they must be of no church at all . ( . ) that our church is but in the same condition , the church of constantinople and other churches were in , when nectarius changed the discipline of it , or rather took it quite away . for , the poenitentiary , whom he removed for the scandal given , was the person whose business it was to look after the discipline of the church , and to see that all known offenders performed the penance enjoyned them , for satisfaction of the church . and , the consequence of it socrates saith was , that every one was left to the judgment of his own conscience , as to the participation of the holy mysteries . and this socrates saith , he had from eudaemon himself , who gave the counsel to nectarius to take that office away ; which was accordingly done ; and no more restored , saith sozomen : the consequence whereof was , saith he , that every one went to the lord's table , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as his conscience gave him leave , and as he was assured in his own mind . and this example of nectarius was soon followed in other churches , saith sozomen ; and so the discipline of the church decayed . but i hope all those churches did not lose their being , by the loss of discipline . and so much in vindication of our diocesan church government . sect. . i now come to the national constitution of our church . by the church of england , i said , we meant that society of christian people which in this nation are united under the same profession of faith , the same laws of government , and rules of divine worship . and that this was a very consistent and true notion of our national church , i proved from the first notion of a church , which is a society of men united together for their order and government according to the rules of christian religion . and since , the lowest kind of that society , viz. congregations for worship , are called churches ; since the largest society of all christians is accounted a true catholick church ; and both from their union and consent in some common thing ; i said i did not understand why a national society agreeing together in the same faith , and under the same government and discipline , might not be as truly and properly a church , as any particular congregations ? because the narrowness or largeness of extent doth not alter the nature of the thing : the kingdom of france being as truly a kingdom , as the small kingdom of ivetot : and as several families make one kingdom , so several lesser churches make one national . and that this notion was not disagreeing with the importance of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , i shewed , that at athens , from whence the word was taken , it did comprehend in it all the several tribes when met together , although every one of those tribes in its particular assembly might be an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 too ; and from thence in the first ages of the christian church , the name of a church comprehended in it the ecclesiastical governours and people of whole cities , and therefore might by parity of reason be extended to many cities united together under one civil government and the same rules of religion . this is the substance of what i delivered upon this subject ; against which all my adversaries have something to say , though not with equal strength , clearness , or temper . dr. owen saith ( . ) that since i make national churches to begin with the dissolution of the roman empire , it fell out a great while after the first institution of churches , and therefore they are not concerned in it : because he supposeth congregational churches to be entire churches of christ's institution , and therefore to have a just right to govern and reform themselves , independently as to any national constitution . to which i answer , that if the churches of christs institution be not limited to particular congregations , as i have already proved , then the gradual increase of churches , till they came to be national , doth not alter any institution of christ ; and consequently the power of those churches must limit and determin that of particular congregations ; or else nothing but disorder and confusion will follow , if every congregation may have a several rule of worship and doctrine of faith , without being liable to an account to any superiour church authority . which is all one , as to suppose that every family may govern it self , because a kingdom is made up of families , without any respect to the laws and constitution of a kingdom . no , saith dr. o. the case is not the same . for god never appointed that there should be no other government but that of families . and where hath he appointed that there should be no other churches but particular congregations ? but god by the light and law of nature , by the ends and use of the creation of man , by express revelation in his word , hath by his own authority , appointed and approved other sorts of civil government . so say i , that god by the light and law of reason , by the ends and use of a christian society , by express institution of the apostolical function in the care and government of many churches did declare , that he did appoint and approve other sorts of church government besides that of particular congregations . for , if god upon the dispersion of the nations after the floud , had appointed twelve princes to have ruled the people in their several dispersions , it had been a plain demonstration he did not intend the several families to have a distinct and independent power within themselves ; but that they ought to be governed according to their appointment ; so in the case of churches ; since christ did appoint twelve apostles to plant , settle and govern churches , and set up rulers in them , but still under their authority , can any thing be plainer , than that these particular churches were not settled with an entire power of governing themselves ? but as in the former case , if we suppose those twelve princes to have led out their several divisions , and to have placed them in convenient seats , and given them general rules for governing themselves in peace and order under such as they should appoint , and as they found themselves decaying , should nominate so many successours as they thought fit for the ruling the several colonies , were they not then obliged to submit to such governours ? without breaking in pieces into so many families , every master governing his family by himself ; which would certainly ruin and destroy them all ; because they could not have strength and union to defend themselves . so it is again in the case of churches , the apostles planted them , and settled such officers in them as were then fit to teach and govern them , still reserving the main care of government to themselves ; but giving excellent rules of charity , peace , obedience and submission to governours ; and as they withdrew from particular churches ( within such a precinct , as crete was ) they appointed some , whom they thought fit to take care of all those churches , and to constitute inferiour officers to teach and rule them ; and therefore in this case , here is no more independency in particular congregations ; than in the other , as to private families ; which is as contrary to the general design of the peace and vnity of christians , and their mutual preservation and defence , as in the former case . in which , we believe the civil government to be from god , although no monarch can now derive his title from such princes at the first dispersion ; and would it not then seem unreasonable to question the succession of bishops from the apostles , when the matter of fact is attested by the most early , knowing , honest and impartial witnesses ? lastly , as in the former case , several of those lesser princes might unite themselves together by joynt-consent for their common interest and security , and become one kingdom : so in the latter case ; several bishops with the churches under them , might for promoting the common ends of christianity , and the peace and establishment of their churches , joyn together under the same common bonds and become one national church : which being intended for the good of the whole so united , and no ways repugnant to the design of the institution , and not usurping upon the rights of others , nor assuming more than can be managed , as an universal pastour must doe ; will appear to be no ways repugnant to any particular command or general rules of the gospel , as the pope's challenge of universal dominion over the church is . which i therefore mention that any one may see , that the force of this reasoning will never justifie the papal vsurpations . but saith dr. o. national provincial churches must first be proved of christ's institution , before they can be allowed to have their power given them by iesus christ. and yet in the case of congregational churches he saith there is no need of any positive rule or direction ; for the nature of the thing it self , and the duty of men with respect to the end of such churches , is sufficient for it . and this is as much as we plead in behalf of national churches , viz. what the nature of a christian society , and the duty of men with respect to the end of it doth require . for , whatever tends to the support of religion , to the preserving peace and vnity among christians , to the preventing dangerous errours and endless confusions , from the very nature of the thing , and the end of a christian society becomes a duty . for the general rules of government lay an obligation upon men to use the best means for advancing the ends of it . it being then taken for granted among all christians , . that christ is the authour or founder of this society which we call the church ; . that he designs the continuance and preservation of it ; . that the best way of its preservation is by an vnion of the members of it ; provided the union be such as doth not overthrow the ends of it : we may reasonably infer , that whatever tends to promote this vnion , and to prevent any notable inconveniencies or mischiefs which may happen to it , is within the design of the first institution ; although it be not contained in express words . sect. . we are now therefore to consider , whether single congregations dispersed and disunited over a nation ; or a combination of them together under some common bonds as to faith , government and worship , be the more likely way to promote religion , to secure the peace and tranquillity of a church . let us then compare these two hypotheses together in point of reason , as to these ends . in the congregational way , there may be as many religions as churches . i do not say there are , but we are arguing now upon what may be , from the nature of the thing . supposing then every congregation to have an entire and unaccountable power within it self ; what hinders but of ten congregations one may be of socinians , another of papists , another of arians , another of quakers , another of anabaptists , &c. and it may be no two of them of the same mind . but if they be , it is meer chance and good hap ; there being no obligation upon them to have any more than mutual forbearance towards each other . let now any rational man judge , whether it appear probable , that so loose and shatter'd a government as this is , should answer the obligation among christians , to use the best and most effectual means to preserve the faith once delivered to the saints , and to uphold peace and vnity among christians ? but supposing all these several congregations united together under such common bonds , that the preacher is accountable to superiours ; that none be admitted but such as own the true faith , and promise obedience ; that publick legal censures take hold upon the disturbers of the churches peace : here we have a far more effectual means according to reason for upholding true religion among us . and that this is no meer theory , appears by the sad experience of this nation , when upon the breaking the bonds of our national church-government , there came such an overpowring inundation of errours and schisms among us , that this age is like to smart under the sad effects of it . and in new-england , two or three men , as williams , gorton and clark discovered the apparent weakness of the independent government : which being very material to this business , i shall give a brief account of it as to one of them . mr. roger williams was the teacher of a congregational church at salem , and a man in very good esteem as appears by mr. cotton's letter to him : he was a great admirer of the purity of the new-england churches ; but being a thinking man , he pursued the principles of that way farther than they thought fit , for he thought it unlawfull to joyn with unregenerate men in prayer , or taking an oath ; and that there ought to be an unlimited toleration of opinions . &c. these doctrines , and some others of his not taking , he proceeded to separation from them , and gathered a new church in opposition to theirs ; this gave such a disturbance to them , that the magistrates sent for him , and the ministers reasoned the case with him . he told them , he went upon their own grounds , and therefore they had no reason to blame him . mr. cotton told him they deserved to be punished who made separation among them ; mr. williams replied , this would return upon themselves ; for had not they done the same as to the churches of old-england ? in short , after their debates , and mr. williams continuing in his principles of separation from their churches , a sentence of banishment is decreed against him by the magistrates , and this sentence approved and justified by their churches . for these are mr. cotton's words , that the increase of concourse of people to him on the lord's days in private , to a neglect or deserting of publick ordinances , and to the spreading of the leaven of his corrupt imaginations , provoked the magistrates , rather than to breed a winters spiritual plague in the country , to put upon him a winters journey out of the country . this mr. williams told them , was falling into the national church way , which they disowned ; or else , saith he , why must he that is banished from the one , be banished from the other also ? and he charges them that they have suppressed churches set up after the parochial way ; and although the persons were otherwise allowed to be godly , to live in the same air with them , if they set up any other church or worship than what themselves practised . which appears by the laws of new england mentioned before : and mr. cobbet one of the teachers of their churches , confesseth that by the laws of the country , none are to be free men , but such as are members of churches . i now appeal to any man , whether these proceedings and these laws do not manifestly discover the apparent weakness and insufficiency of the congregational way for preventing those disorders which they apprehend to be destructive to their churches ? why had not mr. williams his liberty of separation as well as they ? why are no anabaptists or quakers permitted among them ? because these ways would disturb their peace , and distract their people , and in time overthrow their churches . very well : but where is the entireness of the power of every single congregation , the mean while ? why might not the people at salem have the same liberty as those at boston or plymouth ? the plain truth is , they found by experience , this congregational way would not do alone , without civil sanctions , and the interposing of the pastours of other churches . for when williams , and gorton , and clark had begun to make some impressions on their people , they besti●red themselves as much as possible to have their mouths stopt , and their persons banished . this i do onely mention , to shew , that where this way hath prevailed most , they have found it very insufficient to carry on those ends which themselves judged necessary for the preservation of their religion , and of peace and vnity among themselves . and in their synod at boston , , the new-england churches are come to apprehend the necessity of con●eciation of churches , in case of divisions and contentions ; and for the rectifying of male-administrations , and healing of errours and scandals , that are unhealed among themselves : for , christ's care , say they , is for whole churches as well as for particular persons . of which consociation they tell us , that mr. cotton drew a platform before his death . is such a consociation of churches a duty or not , in such cases ? if not , why do they doe any thing relating to church government , for which they have no command in scripture ? if there be a command in scripture , then there is an institution of a power above congregational churches . it is but a slender evasion , which they use , when they call these onely voluntary combinations , for what are all churches else ? onely , the antecedent obligation on men to joyn for the worship of god makes entring into other churches a duty ; and so the obligation lying upon church-officers to use the best means to prevent or heal divisions , will make such consociations a duty too . and therefore in such cases the nature of the thing requires an union and conjunction superiour to that of congregational churches ; which is then most agreeable to scripture and antiquity when the bishops and presbyters joyn together . who agreeing together upon articles of doctrine , and rules of worship and discipline , are the national church representative ; and these being owned and established by the civil power , and received by the body of the nation , and all persons obliged to observe the same in the several congregations for worship ; these congregations so united in these common bonds of religion , make up the compleat national church . sect. . and now i hope i may have leave to consider mr. baxter's subtilties about this matter ; which being spred abroad in abundance of words to the same purpose , i shall reduce to these following heads , wherein the main difficulties lie . . concerning the difference between a national church and a christian kingdom . . concerning the governing power of this national church ; which he calls the constitutive regent part . . concerning the common ties or rules which make this national church . . concerning the difference between a christian kingdom and a national church . a christian kingdom , he saith , they all own , but this is onely equivocally called a church , but , he saith , the christian bishops for years , were far from believing that a prince or civil power was essential to a christian church , or that the church in the common sense was not constituted of another sort of regent part that had the power of the keys . if there be any such christians in the world , that hold a prince an essential part of a christian church , let mr. baxter confute them ; but i am none of them ; for i do believe there were christian churches before christian princes , that there are christian churches under christian princes , and will be such , if there were none left . i do believe the power of the keys to be a distinct thing , from the office of the civil magistrate ; and if he had a mind to write against such an opinion , he should have rather sent it to his learned , sincere , and worthy friend lewis du moulin ; if he had been still living . but if i onely mean a christian kingdom , who denies it ? saith he ; if all this confused stir , be about a christian kingdom , be it known to you that we take such to be of divine command . nay farther , if we mean all the churches of a kingdom associated for concord as equals , we deny it not . what is it then , that is so denied and disputed against , and such a flood of words is poured out about ? it seems at last it is this , that the nation must be one church as united in one saccrdotal head , personal or collective , monarchical or aristocratical . before i answer this question , i hope , i may ask another ; whence comes this zeal now against a national church ? for , when the presbyterians were in power , they were then for national churches , and thought they proved them out of scriptures ; and none of these subtilties about the constitutive regent part did ever perplex , or trouble them . thus the presbyterian london ministers . made no difficulty of owning national churches ; and particularly the church of england ; in these words . and if all the churches in the world are called one church ; let no man be offended if all the congregations in england , be called the church of england . but this you will say , is by association of equal churches . no , they say , it is when the particular congregations of one nation living under one civil government , agreeing in doctrine and worship , are governed by their greater and lesser assemblies , and in this sense , say they , we assert a national church . two things saith mr. hudson are required to make a national church . . national agreement in the same faith and worship . . national union in one ecclesiastical body , in the same community of ecclesiastical government . the old non-conformists had no scruple about owning the church of england , and thought they understood what was meant by it . whence come all these difficulties now to be raised about this matter ? is the thing grown so much darker than formerly ? but some mens understandings are confounded with nice distinctions , and their consciences ensnared by needless scruples . to give therefore a plain answer to the question , what we mean by the national church of england . by that is understood either ( ) the church of england diffusive . or ( ) the church of england representative . . the national church of england diffusive , is , the whole body of christians in this nation , consisting of pastours and people , agreeing in that faith , government and worship , which are established by the laws of this realm . and by this description , any one may see , how easily the church of england is distinguished from the papists on one side , and the dissenters on the other . which makes me continue my wonder at those who so confidently say , they cannot tell what we mean by the church of england . for was there not a church here settled upon the reformation in the time of edward . and queen elizabeth ? hath not the same doctrine , the same government , the same manner of worship , continued in this church ? ( bating onely the interruption given by its enemies . ) how comes it then so hard for men to understand so easy , so plain , so intelligible a thing ? if all the question be , how all the congregations in england make up this one church ? i say , by unity of consent ; as all particular churches make one catholick church . if they ask , how it comes to be one national church ? i say , because it was received by the common consent of the whole nation in parlament , as other laws of the nation are ; and is universally received by all that obey those laws . and t●is i think is sufficient to scatter those mists which some pretend to have before their eyes , that they cannot clearly see what we mean by the church of england . . the representative church of england , is the bishops and presbyters of this church , meeting together according to the laws of this realm , to consult and advise about matters of religion . and this is determin'd by the allowed canons of this church . we do not say , that the convocation at westminster is the representative church of england , as the church of england is a national church ; for that is onely representative of this province , there being another convocation in the other province ; but the consent of both convocations , is the representative national church of england . sect. . and now to answer mr. baxter's grand difficulty , concerning the constitutive regent part of this national church . i say , . it proceeds upon a false supposition . . it is capable of a plain resolution . . that it proceeds upon a false supposition : which is , that whereever there is the true notion of a church , there must be a constitutive regent part , i. e. there must be a standing governing power , which is an essential part of it . which i shall prove to be false from mr. baxter himself . he asserts , that there is one catholick visible church ; and that all particular churches , which are headed by their particular bishops , or pastours , are parts of this vniversal church , as a troop is of an army , or a city of a kingdom . if this doctrine be true , and withall it be necessary that every church must have a constitutive regent part as essential to it , then it unavoidably follows that there must be a catholick visible head , to a catholick visible church . and so mr. baxter ' s constitutive regent part of a church , hath done the pope a wonderfull kindness , and made a very plausible plea for his vniversal pastourship . but there are some men in the world , who do not attend to the advantages they give to popery ; so they may vent their spleen against the church of england . but doth not mr. baxter say , that the universal church is headed by christ himself ? i grant he doth ; but this doth not remove the difficulty ; for the question is about that visible church whereof particular churches are parts ; and they being visible parts do require a visible constitutive regent part as essential to them ; therefore the whole visible church must have likewise a visible constitutive regent part , i. e. a visible head of the church ; as if a troop hath an inferiour officer , an army must have a general ; if a city hath a mayor , a kingdom must have a king , that is equally present and visible as the other is . this is indeed to make a key for catholicks , by the help of which they may enter and take possession . . the plain resolution is , that we deny any necessity of any such constitutive regent part , or one formal ecclesiastical head as essential to a national church . for a national consent is as sufficient to make a national church ; as an vniversal consent to make a catholick church . but if the question be , by what way this national consent is to be declared ? then we answer farther ; that by the constitution of this church , the archbishops , bishops , and presbyters being summoned by the king 's writ are to advise and declare their iudgments in matters of religion ; which being received , allowed and enacted by the king and three estates of the kingdom ; there is as great a national consent as is required to any law. and all bishops , ministers , and people , taken together , who pr●fess the faith so established , and worship god according to the rules so appointed , make up this national church of england : which notion of a national church being thus explained , i see no manner of difficulty remaining in all mr. baxter ' s quaeries and objections about this matter . sect. . . that which looks most like a difficulty is ( . ) concerning the common ties or rules which make this national church . for mr. b. would know , whether by the common rules i mean a divine rule or a meer humane rule . if it be a divine rule , they are of the national church as well as we ; if it be a humane rule , how comes consent in this to make a national church ? how come they not to be of it for not consenting ? how can such a consent appear , when there are differences among our selves ? this is the substance of what he objects . to which i answer ( . ) our church is founded upon a divine rule , viz. the holy scriptures , which we own as the basis and foundation of our faith ; and according to which , all other rules of order and worship are to be agreeable . ( . ) our church requires a conformity to those rules which are appointed by it , as agreeable to the word of god. and so the churches of new-england doe , to the orders of church government among themselves by all that are members of their churches ; and annex civil privileges to them ; and their magistrates impose civil punishments on the breakers and disturbers of them . and although they profess agreement in other things , yet because they do not submit to the orders of their churches , they do not own them as members of their churches . why should it then be thought unreasonable with us , not to account those members of the church of england , who contemn and disobey the orders of it ? ( . ) there is no difference among our selves concerning the lawfulness of the orders of our church , or the duty of submission to them . if there be any other differences , they are not material , as to this business : and i believe are no other than in the manner of explaining some things , which may happen in the best society in the world , without breaking the peace of it . as about the difference of orders ; the sense of some passages in the athanasian creed ; the true explication of one or two articles ; which are the things he mentions . a multitude of such differences will never overthrow such a consent among us , as to make us not to be members of the same national church . sect. . having thus cleared the main difficulties which are objected by my more weighty adversaries , the weaker assaults of the rest in what they differ from these , will admit of a quicker dispatch . mr. a. objects , ( . ) that if national churches have power to reform themselves , then so have congregational ; and therefore i do amiss to charge them with separation . i grant it , if he proves that no congregational church hath any more power over it , than a national church hath : i. e. that there is as much evidence against both episcopal and presbyterial government as there is against the pope's vsurpations . when he doth prove that , he may have a farther answer . ( . ) that national churches destroy the being of other churches under them ; this i utterly deny , and there wants nothing but proof ; as erasmus said one andrelinus was a good poet , onely his verses wanted one syllable and that was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . ( . ) by my description the parlament may be a national church , for they are a society of men united together for their order and government , according to the rules of the christian religion . but did i not immediately before say , that national churches are national societies of christians , under the same laws of government and rules of worship ? from whence it is plain that in the next words , when i went about to prove national churches to be true churches , i used such a general description as was common to any kind of church and not proper to a national church . ( . ) he gives this reason why consent should not make national churches as well as congregational ; because it must be such an agreement as the gospel warrants ; and that is onely for worship , and not to destroy their own being . this is the reasoning of a horse in a mill ; still round about the same thing . and therefore the same answer may serve . ( . ) out come mr. b.'s objections , against a visible head of this national church ; and the manner of union , and the differences among our selves ; as though mr. b. could not manage his own arguments , and therefore he takes them and strips them of their heavy and rusty armour ; and makes them appear again in the field , in another dress , and if they could not stand the field in the former habit , they can much less doe it in this . the authour of the letter saith , i onely prove a national church a possible thing . he clearly mistakes my design ; which was to shew that if there be such a thing as a national church , then no single congregations have such a power in themselves to separate from others in matters of order and decency where there is a consent in the same faith. to prove that there was such a thing , i shewed that if the true notion of a church doth agree to it , then upon the same reason that we own particular churches , and the catholick church , we are to own a national church ; so that the design of that discourse was not barely to prove the possibility of the thing ; but the truth and reality of it . but , saith he , can it be proved that christ hath invested the guides of this church , not chosen by the people , with a power to make laws and decrees , prescribing not onely things necessary for common order and decency , but new federal rites , and teaching signs and symbols , superadded to the whole christian institution ? &c. i answer , that such a church hath power to appoint rules of order and decency not repugnant to the word of god , which on that account others are bound to submit to ; and to take such care of its preservation , as to admit none to its privileges but such as do submit to them ; and if any disturb the peace of this church , the civil magistrate may justly inflict civil penalties upon them for it . all which is no more than any settled church in the world asserts , as well as ours . and i wonder this should be so continually objected against our church , which all societies in the world think just and necessary for their own preservation . as to the guides of the church not being chosen by the people , i shall speak to that afterwards . one objection more he makes , which the others did not , viz. i had said that by whole or national churches , i understood the churches of such nations which upon decay of the roman empire resumed their just right of governing themselves , and upon their owning christianity incorporated into one christian society , under the same common ties and rules of order and government . such churches , i say , have a just right of reforming themselves , and therefore are not liable to the imputation of schism from the roman church . would one think , what unlucky inferences he draws from hence ? ( . ) then all that remain within the empire , were bound to continue in the communion of the roman church . what , if i should deny the continuance of the roman empire ? then all would be safe . but do i any where say , that being in the empire , they were bound to submit to the roman church ? no ; but as the nation resumed its just civil rights , the church might as rightfully recover it self from papal vsurpations ; not laying the force of one upon the other , but paralleling them together : and the advantage of the argument is on the churches side . ( . ) then where princes have not resumed their just rights as to reformation , they are schismaticks that separate from rome . that doth not follow : for in the cases before mentioned separation is lawfull ; but no reformation is so unexceptionable , as when there is a concurrence of the civil power . my last adversary doth not deny a national church from consent in the same articles of religion , and rules of government and order of worship ; but then he saith , such ought to be agreeable to the established rule of holy scriptures . and therein we are all agreed . so that after much tugging , this point is thought fit to be given up . sect. . the next thing to be considered , is , the interest and power of the people as to the choice of their pastours ; for want of which great complaints are made by my adversaries , as a thing injurious to them , and prejudicial to the church , and that we therein go contrary to all antiquity . dr. o. puts the depriving the people of their liberty of choosing their pastours among the causes of separation . mr. baxter is very tragical upon this argument ; and keeps not within tolerable bounds of discretion , in pleading the people's cause , against magistrates and patrons and laws : and he tells me , i go against all the ancient fathers and churches for many hundred years , and am so far a separatist from more than one parish priest ; and therefore my charge of them is schismatical and unjust , and recoileth on my self ; who instead of god's rule , accuse them that walk not by our novel crooked rules , which may make as many modish religions as there are princes . when i first read such passages as these , i wonder'd what i had said , that might give occasion to so much undecent passion , as every where almost discovers it self in his answer : and the more i consider'd the more i wonder'd ; but at last i resolved as mr. a. doth about the assembly , that mr. b. is but a man , as other men are ; and for all that i see , of equal passions , and that upon little or no provocation . for i had not said one word upon this argument . what then ? would mr. b. seek a cause to express his anger against me ? as if i had allowed princes to set up what religions they please . surely , he thought himself writing against hobbs and spinosa then . no : but thus he artificially draws me into this snare . i spake much against separation . how then ? they would never have separated , if they had not been silenced ; therefore my being against their separation , shews i am for their silencing . as though these necessarily followed each other . what is this to princes imposing what religion they please ? thus ▪ then magistrates by their laws may put out nonconformists and put in conformists . but have we not the same religion still ? but , saith mr. baxter , these must be my supposed grounds ; that magistrates may appoint what religion they please , and those are separatists who do not obey them . is not this admirable ingenuity , to rail upon a man , for suppositions of his own making ? however mr. baxter will have it so , let me say what i will. the people's part he will take , and let me take that of the magistrates and laws , if i think good ; and since they are fallen to my lot , i will defend them as well as i can , as to this matter . mr. b. appearing very warm in this business , what doth mr. a. coming after him , but make it the very first and fundamental ground of their separation ? viz. that every particular church upon a due ballance of all circumstances , has an inherent right to choose its own pastour , and every particular christian the same power to chuse his own church . nay then , i thought , we were in a very fair way of settlement ; when the anabaptists in germany never broached a looser principle than this ; nor more contrary to the very possibility of having an established church : for it leads to all manner of schisms and factions in spight of all laws and authority in church or state. the authour of the letter goes upon the same principle too , and saith , the guides of the church are to be chosen by the people , according to scripture and primitive practice . this i perceive is a popular argument , and a fine device to draw in the common people to the dissenting party ; whatever becomes of laws , and mens just and legal rights of patronage , all must yield to the antecedent right of the people . but to bring this matter to a strict debate , we must consider these three things . . what original , or inherent right and power the people had . . how they came to be devested of it . . whether there be sufficient ground to resume it . and from thence we shall understand , whether some of the people's consenting to hear the nonconformists preach , notwithstanding the laws , can excuse them from separation ? for this lies at the bottom of all . . as to the original , inherent right and power of the people . dr. o. supposeth all church-power to be originally in the people ; for to manifest how favourable wise men have been to the congregational way , he quotes a saying of f. paul ; out of a book of his , lately translated into english , that in the beginning , the government of the church had altogether a democratical form ; which is an opinion so absurd and unreasonable , that i could not easily believe such a saying to have come from so learned and judicious a person . for was there not a church to be formed in the beginning ? did not christ appoint apostles and give them commission and authority for that end ? where was the church power then lodged ? was it not in the apostles ? did not they in all places , as they planted churches , appoint officers to teach and govern them ? and did they not give them authority to doe what they had appointed ? were not then the several pastours and teachers invested with a power superiour to that of the people and independent upon them ? and if they had such power and authority over the people , how came their power to be derived from them , as it must be , if the church government then were democratical ? besides , is it reasonable to suppose the people should assemble to choose their officers , and convey the power of the keys to them ; which never were in their hands ? and how could they make choice of men for their fitness and abilities , when their abilities depended so much on the apostles laying on of their hands ? for then the holy ghost was given unto them . but in all the churches planted by the apostles , in all the directions given about the choice of bishops and deacons , no more is required , as to the people , than barely their testimony ; therefore it is said they must be blameless , and men of good report . but , where is it said or intimated that the congregation being the first subject of the power of the keys , must meet together , and choose their pastour , and then convey the ministerial power over themselves , to them ? if it were true that the church government at first was democratical , the apostles have done the people a mighty injury ; for they have said no more of their power in the church , than they have done of the pope's . it is true the brethren were present at the nomination of a new apostle : but were not the women so too ? and is the power of the keys in their hands too ? suppose not , doth this prove that the churches power was then democratical ? then the people made an apostle and gave him his power ; which i do not think any man would say , much less f. paul. as to the election of deacons ; it was no properly church power which they had ; but they were stewards of the common stock ; and was there not then , all the reason in the world , the community should be satisfied in the choice of the men ? when saint peter received cornelius to the faith , he gave an account of it to all the church . and what then ? must he therefore derive his power from it ? do not princes and governours give an account of their proceedings for the satisfaction of their subjects minds ? but here is not all the church mentioned ; onely those of the circumcision at ierusalem had a mind to understand the reason of his receiving a gentile convert . and what is this to the power of the church ? but in the council of jerusalem the people did intervene , and the letters were written in the names of all the three orders , apostles , priests and faithfull brethren . i grant it ; but is it not expresly said , that the question was sent up from the churches , to the apostles and presbyters ? is it not said , that the apostles and presbyters met to debate it ; and that the multitude was silent ? is it not said , that the decrees were passed by the apostles and presbyters , without any mention of the people ? and here was the proper occasion to have declared their power ; but in the other place , it signifies no more than their general consent to the decrees that were then made . in success of time , it is added , when the church increased in number , the faithfull retiring themselves to the affairs of their families , and having left those of the congregation , the government was retained onely in the ministers , and so became aristocratical , saving the election which was popular . which account is neither agreeable to reason , nor to antiquity . for , was not the government of the church aristocratical in the apostles times ? how came it to be changed , from that to a democratical form ? did not the apostles appoint rulers in the several churches , and charged the people to obey them ? and was this an argument the power was then in the people ? it was not then the people's withdrawing ( of which there can be no evidence , if there be so much evidence still left for the people's power , in antiquity ) but the constitution of the church was aristocratical by the appointment of the apostles . sect. . we therefore come now to consider the popular elections , as to which there is so fair a pretence from antiquity ; but yet not such , as to fix any inherent , or unalterable right in the people . as i shall make appear , by these following observations . . that the main ground of the people's interest was founded upon the apostles canon , that a bishop must be blameless and of good report . . that the people upon this assuming the power of elections , caused great disturbances and disorders in the church . . that to prevent these , many bishops were appointed without their choice , and canons made for the better regulating of them . . that when there were christian magistrates , they did interpose as they thought fit , notwithstanding the popular claim ; in a matter of so great consequence to the peace of church and state. . that upon the alteration of the government of christendom the interest of the people was secured by their consent in parlaments , and that by such consent the nomination of bishops was reserved to princes , and the patronage of livings to particular persons . . that things being thus settled by established laws , there is no reasonable ground for the peoples resuming the power of electing their own bishops and ministers in opposition to these laws . if i can make good these observations , i shall give a full answer to all the questions propounded , concerning the right and power of the people , which my adversaries build so much upon . ( . ) that the main ground of the peoples interest was founded upon the apostles canon , that a bishop must be blameless , and of good report . for so the greek scholiast argues from that place in timothy , if a bishop ought to have a good report of them that are without , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , how much rather of the brethren , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith theophylact. and both have it from saint chrysostom . so it is said concerning timothy himself , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , who had a good testimony from the brethren in lystra and iconium . and this is mentioned before saint paul's taking him into the office of an evangelist . so in the choice of the deacons , the apostles bid them find out , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , men of good reputation among them . and there is a very considerable testimony in the epistle of clemens to this purpose ; where he gives an account , how the apostles preaching through cities and countries , did appoint their first-fruits , having made a spiritual trial of them , to be bishops and deacons of those who were to believe . here it is plain , that they were of the apostles appointment , and not of the peoples choice ; and that their authority could not be from them , whom they were appointed first to convert and then to govern ; and although their number was but small at first , yet as they increased , though into many congregations , they were still to be under the government of those , whom the apostles appointed over them . and then he shews how those who had received this power from god came to appoint others : and he brings the instance of moses , when there was an emulation among the tribes , what method he took for putting an end to it , by the blossoming of aarons rod ; which , saith he , moses did on purpose to prevent confusion in israel , and thereby to bring glory to god ; now , saith he , the apostles foresaw the contentions that would be about the name of episcopacy ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) i. e. about the choice of men into that office of ruling the church ; which the sense shews to be his meaning : therefore , foreseeing these things perfectly , they appointed the persons before mentioned , and left the distribution of their offices , with this instruction , that as some died , other approved men should be chosen into their office. those therefore who were appointed by them , or other eminent men , the whole church being therewith well-pleased , discharging their office with humility , quietness , readiness , and unblameableness , being men of a long time of good report , we think such men cannot justly be cast out of their office. it seems , some of the church of corinth were at that time factious against some officers in their church , and endeavoured to throw them out for the sake of one or two more , and made such a disturbance thereby as had brought a great scandal , not onely on themselves , but the christian church ; which made clemens write this epistle to them ; wherein he adviseth those busie men rather to leave the church themselves , than to continue making such a disturbance in it ; and if they were good christians they would do so ; and bring more glory to god by it , than by all their heat and contentions . now by this discourse of clemens it is plain , ( . ) that these officers of the church were not chosen by the people , but appointed by the apostles , or other great men , according to their order ? ( . ) that they took this course on purpose to prevent the contentions that might happen in the church , about those who should bear office in it . ( . ) that all that the people had to doe , was to give testimony , or to express their approbation of those , who were so appointed . for he could not allow their power of choosing , since he saith , the apostles appointed officers on purpose to prevent the contentions that might happen about it . and it seems very probable to me , that this was one great reason of the faction among them ; viz. that those few popular men in that church , who caused all the disturbance , represented this , as a great grievance to them ; that their pastours and officers were appointed by others , and not chosen by themselves . for they had no objection against the presbyters themselves , being allowed to be men of unblameable lives ; yet a contention there was , and that about casting them out ; and such a contention , as the apostles designed to prevent by appointing a succession from such whom themselves ordain●d ; and therefore it is very ●ikely , they challenged this power to themselves to cast out those whom they had not chosen . but it seems , the apostles knowing what contentions would follow in the church , took 〈…〉 them , leaving to the people their testimony concerning those whom they ordained . and this is plain , even from saint cyprian where he discourseth of this matter , in that very epistle concerning basilides and martialis , to which mr. baxter refers me . for , the force of what saint cyprian saith comes at last onely to this giving testimony ; therefore , saith he , god appointed the priest to be appointed before all the people , thereby shewing that ordinations in the christian church ought to be , sub populi assistentis conscientiâ , in the presence of the people : for what reason ? that they might give them power ? no ; that was never done under the law ; nor then imagined , when s. cyprian wrote ; but he gives the account of it himself ; that by their presence , either their faults might be published , or their good acts commended ; that so it may appear to be a just and lawfull ordination , which hath been examined by the suffrage and judgment of all . the people here had a share in the election , but it was in matter of testimony concerning the good or ill behaviour of the person . and therefore , he saith , it was almost a general custom among them , and he thinks came down from divine tradition and apostolical practice , that when any people wanted a bishop , the neighbour bishops met together in that place , and the new bishop was chosen , plebe praesente , the people being present , ( not by the votes of the people ) quae singulorum vitam plenissimè novit , which best understands every mans conversation : and this , he saith , was observed in the consecration of their fellow-bishop sabinus , who was put into the place of basilides . where he doth express the consent of the people , but he requires the iudgment of the bishops ; which being thus performed , he incourages the people to withdraw from basilides and to adhere to sabinus . for , basilides having fallen foully into idolatry , and joyned blasphemy with it , had of his own accord laid down his bishoprick , and desired onely to be received to lay-communion , upon this sabinus was consecrated bishop in his room ; after which basilides goes to rome and there engages the bishop to interpose in his behalf , that he might be restored ; sabinus finding this , makes his application to saint cyprian and the african bishops , who write this epistle to the people to withdraw from basilides , saying that it belonged chiefly to them to choose the good and to refuse the bad . which is the strongest testimony in antiquity for the peoples power ; and yet here we are to consider ( . ) it was in a case where a bishop had voluntarily resigned . ( . ) another bishop was put into his room , not by the power of the people , but by the judgment and ordination of the neighbour bishops . ( . ) they had the judgment of a whole council of african bishops for their deserting him . ( . ) for a notorious matter of fact , viz. idolatry and blasphemy by his own confession . ( . ) all the proof which saint cyprian brings for this , doth amount to no more , than that the people were most concerned to give testimony , as to the good or bad lives of their bishops . this further appears by the words in lampridius concerning alexander severus , who proposed the names of his civil officers to the people , to hear what they had to object against them , and said it was a hard case , when the christians and iews did so about their priests , the same should not be done about governours of provinces , who had mens lives and fortunes in their hands . but no man could ever from hence imagin , that the people had the power to make or unmake the governours of roman provinces . origen saith , the peoples presence was necessary at the consecration of a bishop , that they might all know the worth of him who was made their bishop ; it must be astante populo , the people standing by ; and this is that saint paul meant , when he said , a bishop ought to have a good testimony from those that are without . ( . ) that the people upon this assuming the power of elections caused great disturbances and disorders in the church . eusebius represents the disorders of antioch to have been so great in the city upon the choice of a new bishop , by the divisions of the people , that they were like to have shaken the emperour's kindness to the christians . for , such a flame was kindled by it , that he saith , it was near destroying both the church and the city : and they had certainly drawn swords , if the providence of god , and fear of the emperour had not restrained them . who was forced to send officers and messages to keep them quiet : and after much trouble to the emperour and many meetings of bishops , at last eustathius was chosen . greg. nazianzen sets forth the mighty unruliness of the people of caesarea in the choice of their bishop , saying it came to a dangerous sedition , and not easy to be suppressed : and he saith , the city was very prone to it , on such occasions . and although there was one person of incomparable worth above the rest , yet through the parties and factions that were made , it was a hard matter to carry it for him . he complains so much of the inconveniencies of popular elections , that he wishes them alter'd ; and the elections brought to the clergy ; and he thinks no common-wealth so disorderly as this method of election was . evagrius saith , the sedition at alexandria was intolerable , upon the division of the people between dioscorus and proterius ; the people rising against the magistrates and souldiers who endeavoured to keep them in order : and at last they murthered proterius . such dangerous seditions are described at constantinople , upon the election of paulus and macedonius , by sozomen ; and in the same place after the death of eudoxius , and after the death of atticus by socrates ; and after the deprivation of nestorius . and again at antioch upon the removal of eudoxius ; and about the election of flavianus ; at ephesus by saint chrysostom , at verselles by saint ambrose ; at milan by socrates , and many other places . i shall onely adde a remarkable one at rome on the choice of damasus : which came to bloodshed for several days ; and is particularly related by ammianus marcellinus ; and the preface to faustinus his libellus precum . mr. baxter grants there are inconveniencies in the peoples consenting power , and so there are in all humane affairs . but are these tolerable inconveniencies ? is this power still to be pleaded for , in opposition to laws , as though religion lay at stake ; and onely magistrates were bad men , and the people always good and wise and vertuous ? a man must have great spite against men in power , and unreasonable fondness of the common people that can represent great men as wicked , debauched , and enemies to piety , and at the same time dissemble , and take no notice of the vices of the common people ; besides their ignorance and incapacity of judging in such matters , and their great proneness to fall into sidings and parties and unreasonable contentions on such occasions . but saint chrysostom complains much of the unfitness of the people to judge in such cases . saint hierom saith , they are apt to choose men like themselves : and saith elsewhere , they are much to be feared whom the people choose . origen saith , the people are often moved either for favour or reward . ( . ) that to prevent these inconveniencies many bishops were appointed without the choice of the people , and canons were made for the regulation of elections . in the church of alexandria the election of the bishop belonged to the presbyters ; as saint ierom and others shew . for by the constitution of that church , before the alteration made by alexander , the bishop of alexandria was not onely to be chosen out of the presbyters , but by them . so severus in the life of the alexandrian patriarchs , saith , that after the death of their patriarch , the presbyters met together and prayed , and proceeded to election ; and the first presbyter declared it belonged to them to choose their bishop , and to the other bishops to consecrate him . to which the bishops assented , onely saying , if he were worthy they would consecrate whom they chose , but not otherwise . elmacinus makes this a constitution of saint mark in the first foundation of that church ; and saith it continued to the time of the nicene council : and then as hilarius the deacon saith , the custom was alter'd , by a council among themselves , which determin'd that they might choose the most deserving person , whether of that body or not . and there could be no room for popular elections , whereever that custom obtained , which the counterfeit ambrose speaks of , ut recedente uno sequens ei succederet ; speaking of the bishop dying and the next in course succeeding . but if this be onely a particular conceit of that authour , yet we find the bishops consecrating others in several churches without any mention of choice made by the people . so , when narcissus retired from ierusalem , eusebius saith , the neighbour bishops assembled , and consecrated one dius in his room ; and after him followed germanio and then gordius , in whose time narcissus returned : but being grown very old , alexander was brought in to assist him , by revelation , and a voice from heaven to some of the brethren . severus bishop of milevis in his life-time appointed his successour , and acquainted the clergy with it , but not the people ; great disturbance was feared hereupon ; the clergy sent to saint augustin to come among them , and to settle their new bishop ; who went , and the people received the bishop so appointed very quietly . s. augustin himself declares , the sad effects he had often seen of the churches election of bishops , through the ambition of some , and the contention of others , and therefore he desired to prevent any such disturbance in his city , when he was dead . and for that reason , he acquainted the people that he designed eradius , or as some copies have it , eraclius for his successour . so paulus the novation bishop at constantinople , appointed his successour marcianus to prevent the contentions that might happen after his death ; and got his presbyters to consent to it . the greek canonists are of opinion , that the council of nice took away all power of election of bishops from the people , and gave it to the bishops of the province . and it is apparent from the council of antioch , that bishops were sometimes consecrated in the east , without the consent of the people ; for it doth suppose a bishop after consecration may not be received by his people , which were a vain supposition if their election necessarily went before it . and withall , it puts the case of a bishop that refused to go to his people after consecration ; which shews , that the consecration was not then performed in his own church . gregory subscribed at antioch as bishop of alexandria , before ever he went thither . so saint basil mentions his consecration of euphronius to be bishop of nicopolis , without any consent of the people before ; it being then performed by the metropolitan in his own see ; but he perswades the senate and people to accept of him . if the people did agree upon a person to be bishop , their way then was , to petition the metropolitan and his synod , who had the full power either to allow or to refuse him . and it is evident from the twelfth canon of the council of laodicea , that although all the people chose a bishop , if he intruded himself into the possession of his see without the consent of a provincial synod , he was to be turned out or rejected by them . which shews how much the business of elections was brought into the bishops power in the eastern parts . and by virtue of this canon , bassianus and stephanus were rejected in the council of chalcedon . by the law of iustinian , the common people were excluded from elections of bishops ; and the clergy and better sort of citizens were to nominate three to the metropolitan ; out of which he was to choose one . by the canon of laodicea ▪ the common people were excluded from the power of choosing any into the clergy : for they were wont to raise tumults upon such occasions ; such as saint augustin describes in the case of pinianus ; but some of the greek and latin canonists inlarge the sense of the laodicean canon to the election of bishops too . the second council of nice restrained the election onely to bishop ; which was confirmed by following councils in the greek church ; as can. . concil . constantinopol . against photius ; and the people are there excluded with an anathema . so far were popular elections grown out of request in the eastern church . ( . ) that when there were christian magistrates , they did interpose in this matter as they judged expedient . so constantine did in the church of antioch , when there was great dissension there , upon the deposition of eustathius , he recommended to the synod euphronius of cappadocia , and georgius of arethusa , or whom they should judge fit , without taking any notice of the interest of the people : and they accordingly consecrated euphronius . after the death of alexander bishop of constantinople , the people fell into parties , some were for paulus , and others for macedonius ; the emperour constantius coming thither puts them both by , and appoints eusebius of nicomedia to be bishop there . eusebius being dead , the orthodox party again choose paulus , constantius sends hermogenes to drive him out by force : and was very angry with macedonius for being made bishop without his leave ; although afterwards he placed him in his throne . when athanasius was restored , constantius declared , it was by the decree of the synod , and by his consent . and he by his authority restored likewise paulus and marcellus , asclepas and lucius to their several sees . when gregory nazianzen resigned the bishoprick of constantinople , theodosius commended to the bishops the care of finding out a person , who recommending many to him , the emperour himself pitched upon nectarius , and would have him made bishop , though many of the bishops opposed it . when chrysostom was chosen at constantinople , the royal assent was given by arcadius , the election being made , saith sozomen , by the people and clergy ; but palladius gives a more particular account of it , viz. that upon the death of nectarius many competitours appeared , some making their application to the court , and othes to the people ; in so much that the people began to be tumultuous , ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith palladius ) upon which they importuned the emperour to provide a fit man for them . eutropius being then chief minister of state , recommended chrysostom to the emperour , and immediately an express was sent to the comes orientis , that he should with all privacy , for fear of a tumult at antioch , send him away to constantinople : whither being brought , he was soon after consecrated bishop . so that here was no antecedent election of the people , as sozomen saith , but whatever there was , was subsequent to the emperour's determination . after the death of sisinnius , the emperour declared , that to prevent disturbance they would have none of the clergy of constantinople chosen bishop there ; and so nestorius was brought from antioch . maximianus being dead he gave order that proclus should be made bishop , before the others body was buried . these instances are sufficient to shew , that christian princes did from the first think fit , when just occasion was given , to make use of their authority in this matter . ( . ) upon the alteration of the government of christendom there was greater reason for the magistrates interposing than before . for upon the endowment of churches by the great liberality of the northern princes , it was thought at first very reasonable , that the royal assent should be obtained , though a bishop was chosen by the clergy and people : which at first depended onely on tacit consent ; but after the solemn assemblies of the people came to be much used , these privileges of princes came not onely to be confirmed by the consent of the people , but to be inlarged . for , the princes obtained by degrees not onely the confirmation of the elected , but the liberty of nomination ; with a shadow of election by the clergy and others of the court ; as appears by the formulae of marculphus . this way was not always observed in france where frequently according to the edict of clotharius , the clergy and people chose , the metropolitan consecrated , and the prince gave his royal assent : but in doubtfull or difficult cases , he made use of his prerogative , and nominated the person , and appointed the consecration . afterwards , there arose great contests between the papal and royal power ; which continued for several ages ; and at last among us , the royal power overthrowing the other , reserved the power of nomination of bishops , as part of the prerogative ; which being allowed in frequent parlaments , the consent of the people is swallowed up therein : since their acts do oblige the whole nation . for not onely the statute of edw. . declares , the right of appointing bishops to be in the king ; but edw. . it is likewise declared , that the right of disposing bishopricks was in the king by right of patronage , derived from his ancestours before the freedom of elections was granted . which shews not onely the great antiquity of this right , but the consent of the whole nation to it . and the same is fully related in the epistle of edw. . to clement . where it is said , that the king did dispose of them , jure suo regio , by his royal prerogative ; as his ancestours had done from the first founding of a christian church here . this is likewise owned in the famous statute of carlisle edw. . so that there is no kingdom where this right hath been more fully acknowledged by the general consent of the people , than here in england ; and that from the original planting of a christian church here . as to the inferiour right of patronage ; it is justly thought to bear equal date with the first settlements of christianity in peace and quietness . for when it began to spread into remoter villages and places distant from the cathedral churches , where the bishop resided with his presbyters , as in a college together ; a necessity was soon apprehended of having presbyters fixed among them . for the council of neocaesarea mentions the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the country presbyters , c. . whom the greek canonists interpret to be such as then were fixed in country-cures , and this council was held ten years before the council of nice . in the time of the first council of orange , a. d. . express mention is made of the right of patronage reserved to the first founders of churches , c. . viz. if a bishop built a church on his own land in another bishop's diocese , yet the right of presenting the clerk was reserved to him . and this was confirmed by the second council of arles , c. . a. d. . by the constitution of the emperour zeno. a. d. . the rights of patronage are established , upon the agreements at first made in the endowments of churches . this constitution was confirmed by iustinian , a. d. . and he allows the nomination and presentation of a fit clerk : and the same were settled in the western church ; as appears by the ninth council of toledo , about a. d. . and many canons were made in several councils about regulating the rights of patronage , and the endowments of churches , till at last it obtained by general consent that the patron might transmit the right of presentation to his heirs , and the bishops were to approve of the persons presented , and to give institution to the benefice . the barons of england in the epistle to gregory ix . plead , that their ancestours had the right of patronage , from the first planting of christianity here . for those upon whose lands the churches were built , and at whose cost and charges they were erected , and by whom the parochial churches were endowed , thought they had great reason to reserve the nomination of the clerks to themselves . and this ioh. sarisburiensis saith , was received by a general custom of this whole kingdom . so that the right of patronage was at first built upon a very reasonable consideration ; and hath been ever since received by as universal a consent as any law or custom among us . and the onely questions now remaining are , whether such a consent can be made void by the dissent of some few persons , who plead it to be their inherent right to choose their own pastours ? and supposing , that it might be done , whether it be reasonable so to doe ? and i conclude , that , . things being thus settled by general consent and established laws there is no ground for the people to resume the liberty of elections : ( . ) because it was no unalterable right , but might be passed away ; and hath been by consent of the people upon good considerations , and ( . ) because no such inconveniencies can be alleged against the settled way of disposal of livings , but may be remedied by laws ; far easier , than those which will follow upon the peoples taking this power to themselves , which cannot be done in a divided nation , without throwing all into remediless confusion . ( . ) because other reformed churches have thought this an unreasonable pretence . beza declaims against it , as a thing without any ground in scripture , or any right in antiquity , and subject to infinite disorders . in sweden the archbishop and bishops are appointed by the king : and so are the bishops in denmark ; in other lutheran churches , the superintendents are appointed by the several princes and magistrates : and in these the patrons present before ordination . the synod of dort hath a salvo for the right of patronage , can. eccles. . in france the ministers are chosen by ministers ; at geneva by the council of state , which hath power to depose them . and it would be very strange , if this inherent and unalterable right of the people should onely be discovered here ; where it is as unfit to be practised , as in any part of the christian world . but mr. b. is unsatisfied with any laws that are made in this matter ; for when the objection is put by him , that the people chose the parlament who make the laws which give the patrons power , and therefore they now consent ; he saith , this seemeth a iest ; for , he saith , . it cannot be proved that all the churches or people gave the patrons that power . . they never consented that parlaments should do what they list , and dispose of their souls , or what is necessary to the saving of their souls . . they may as well say , that they consent to be baptized and to receive the sacraments because the parlament consented to it . . their forefathers had no power to represent them by such consenting . . the obligation on the people was personal , and they have not god's consent for the transmutation . so that one would think by mr. b.'s doctrine , all laws about patronage are void in themselves ; and all rights of advowson in the king , or noblemen and gentlemen , or vniversities are meer vsurpations , and things utterly unlawfull among christians , since he makes such a personal obligation to choose their own pastours to lie on the people , that they cannot transfer it by their own act. but upon second thoughts i suppose he will not deny , that the freedom of publick churches and the endowments of them , do lie within the magistrates power , and so binding laws may be made about them ; unless he can prove that the magistrates power doth not extend to those things which the magistrate gives . and if these may be justly settled by laws , then the rights of patronage are as just and legal rights as men have to their estates ; and consequently every minister duly presented hath a legal title to the temple and tithes , as mr. b. calls them . but this doth not , saith he , make a minister for their souls , and the parlament cannot dispose of their souls . the meaning of all which is , if the people be humorsome and factious , they may run after whom they please , and set up what minister they please , in opposition to laws . and so for instance , suppose a parish be divided in their opinions about religion , ( as we know too many are at this day ) all these several parties , viz. anabaptists , quakers , yea and papists too , as well as others , will put in for an equal share in what concerns the care of their souls , and consequently , may choose a several pastour to themselves , and leave the incumbent the bare possession of the temple and tithes . but if there be no other objection , this may be thought sufficient , that he was none of their choosing , being imposed upon them by others , who could not dispose of their souls . by which means , this pretence of taking care for their souls , will be made use of , to justifie the greatest disorder and confusion , which can happen in a church . for , let the person be never so worthy in himself , the people are still to have their liberty of choosing for themselves . and who are these people ? must all have equal votes ? then according to mr. b.'s opinion of our churches , the worst will be soonest chosen ; for why should we not think the worst people will choose their like as well as the worst patrons , and the worst bishops ? but if the profane must be excluded , by what law ? is it because they have no right to the ordinances ? but have they no right to their own souls and to the care of them ? therefore they are equally concerned with others . yet let us suppose all these excluded , as no competent iudges ; shall all the rest be excluded too , who are incompetent iudges ? then i am afraid , there will not be many left . and whatever they pretend , the people wher● they do choose , do trust other mens judgments , as well as where the patrons present ; and to prevent popular tumults , such elections are generally brought by a kind of devolution to a few persons who are entrusted to choose for the rest . but if all the people were left to choose their own pastours , it is not to be imagined , what parties and factions , what mutual hatreds , and perpetual animosities , they would naturally fall into on such occasions . do we not daily see such things to be the fruits of popular elections , where men are concerned for the strength and reputation of their party ? what envying and strife , what evil speaking and backbiting , what tumults and disorders , what unchristian behaviour in general , of men to each other , do commonly accompany such elections ? which being the natural effects of mens passions stirred up by such occasions , and there being so much experience of it in all ages of the christian church , where such things have been ; i am as certain , that christ never gave the people such an unalterable right of choosing their own ministers , as i am , that he designed to have the peace and unity of the church preserved . and of all persons , i do the most wonder at him , who pretends to discover the onely way of unity and concord among christians , that he should so much , so frequently , so earnestly insist upon this ; which if it be not the onely , is one of the most effectual ways to perpetuate disorder and confusion in a broken and divided church . and so much for the plea for separation , taken from the peoples rights to choose their own ministers . sect. . having thus dispatched all the pleas for separation , which relate to the constitution of our church , i come to those which concern the terms of communion with us ; wh●● are said to be unlawfull . one of the chief pleas alledged for separation , by dr. o. and mr. a. is , that many things in the constant total communion of parochial churches are imposed on the consciences and practices of men , which are not according to the mind of christ. these are very general words ; but dr. o. reckons up the particulars , which ( setting aside those already considered ) are , the use of the aëreal sign of the cross , kneeling at the communion , the religious observation of holy-days ; and the constant use of the liturgy in all the publick offices of the church . as to this last , i shall say nothing , it being lately so very well defended by a learned divine of our church . to the other , mr. b. adds , the use of godfathers and godmothers ; and now i am to examine what weight there is in these things , to make men seriously think communion with our church unlawfull . when i found our church thus charged with prescribing unlawfull terms of communion , i expected a particular and distinct proof of such a charge , because the main weight of the cause depended upon it . and this is the method we use in dealing with the church of rome . we do not run upon general charges of unscriptural impositions , and things imposed on mens consciences against the mind of christ ; but we close with them upon the particulars of the charge , as worship of images , invocation of saints , adoration of the host , and we offer to prove by plain scripture , that these are forbidden and therefore unlawfull . but i find no such method taken or pursued by our brethren ; onely we are told over and over , that they judge , they think , they esteem them unlawfull ; and they cannot be satisfied about them ; but for particular arguments to prove them unlawfull i find none ; which makes the whole charge look very suspiciously . for men do not use to remain in generals , when they have any assurance of the goodness of their cause . yet , to let the reader see that i decline nothing that looks like argument in this matter , i shall pick up every thing i can find , which seems to prove these terms of our communion to be unlawfull , or to justify their separation . in the epistle before my sermon i had used this argument against the present separation , that if it be lawfull to separate on a pretence of greater purity , where there is an agreement in doctrine and the substantial parts of worship , as is acknowledged in our case ; then a bare difference of opinion , as to some circumstantials of worship and the best constitution of churches will be sufficient ground to break communion and to set up new churches ; which , considering the great variety of mens fancies about these matters , is to make an infinite divisibility in churches , without any possible stop to further separation . this argument others were willing to pass over , but mr. a. in his preface , undertakes to answer it in all the parts of it ; which being so material to our business , i shall now distinctly consider : and like an able disputant he allows nothing at all in this argument ; for he denies the supposition , viz. that there is any such agreement in doctrine and the substantial parts of worship ; he denies the first consequence ; and as though that were not sufficient , he denies the remoter consequence too . and what argument can stand before a man of such prowesse in disputing ? . he denies an agreement in doctrine , which i have already shewed was allowed by all dissenters before him , from the days of r. brown to mr. a. but we must not mistake him , for as fierce as he seems to be at first , yet let him but have scope to shew some tricks of wit , and trials of his skill in fencing ; and he is as tame and yielding as you would wish him ; for at last he confesses they generally agree with the doctrine contained in the articles ; and but for meer shame , he would have said all ; for i never heard of one before him made any scruple of it . and this is the doctrine established in this church ; and if there be an agreement in this , then this supposition is granted . . as to substantial parts of worship ; he denies an agreement in this too : although dr. o. saith , we are agreed in the substantial parts of religion ; and i hope the parts of worship are allowed to be some of them . but he pretends not to know what we mean by the difference between the parts of worship , making some substantial , and others circumstantial ; and then he offers to prove that our church appoints new substantial parts of worship , and therefore he must know one from the other ; and after he hath spent some leaves in the proof of that , at last he fairly concludes , that there is a difference at least in a circumstantial part of worship . but because this is a weighty charge against our church , i shall take the more pains to consider it , because the main objection against our ceremonies lies under it , and that which most sticks with the more sober nonconformists . mr. a. 's charge about a substantial part of worship being appointed by our church , is thus drawn up . an outward visible sign of an inward invisible grace , whereby a person is dedicated to the profession of , and subjection to the redeemer , is a substantial part of worship . now this he chargeth our church with , but gives no instance ; but the sign of the cross after baptism , is that which he means : which mr. b. calls the transient dedicating image of the cross. for the clearing of this , it will be necessary to shew , . what we mean by a substantial part of worship . . how it appears that the sign of the cross is made no substantial part of worship by our church . . what we mean●●y a substantial part of divine worship . for i have observed , that the want of a clear and distinct notion of this , hath been one of the greatest occasions of the scruples of the most conscientious non-conformists . for being afraid of displeasing god , by using any other parts of worship , than himself hath appointed ; and looking on our ceremonies , as real parts of divine worship , upon this reason they have thought themselves obliged in conscience , at least to forbear the use of them . the great principle they went upon was this , that whatever was any ways intended or designed for the worship of god , was a real and substantial part of his worship ; and when their adversaries told them that divine institution was necessary to make a part of worship ; their answer was , that divine institution did not make that a part of worship which was none , but that to be a part of true worship , which otherwise would be a part of false worship . in the mean time , they did not deny the lawfulness of the application of common circumstances to acts of religious worship , as time and place , &c. but the annexing any other rites , or ceremonies to proper acts of religious worship ( as the sign of the cross to baptism ) they supposed to be the making new substantial parts of divine worship ; and therefore forbidden by all those places of scripture , which imply the scripture it self to be a perfect rule of worship . this as far as i can gather is the strongest plea of the non-conformists side , which i have represented with its full advantage , because my design is , if possible , not so much to confute , as to convince our dissenting brethren . let us then seriously consider this matter , and if we can find out a plain discernible difference between substantial parts of divine worship and mere accidental appendices , this discovery may tend more to disentangle scrupulous minds , than the multiplying of arguments to prove the lawfulness of our ceremonies . and that we may better understand where the difficulty lies , these following things are agreed on both sides . . that besides proper acts of worship there are some circumstances which may be differently used , without setting up new parts of worship . as for instance , adoration is a substantial and proper act of divine worship ; but whether that adoration be performed by prostration , or by bowing , or by kneeling , is in it self indifferent ; and no man will say , that he that makes his adoration kneeling makes another new part of worship , from what he doth who performs it standing or falling on his face . and so , if the ancient eastern church did at certain times forbid kneeling in acts of adoration ; this doth not prove that they differ'd in point of adoration from the western church which requires kneeling in the same offices of divine worship ; because they agreed in the act of adoration , but onely differ'd in the manner of expressing it . . that divine institution makes those to be necessary parts of worship which of themselves are not so . as is plain in the sacraments of the new testament ; which of themselves are no necessary substantial parts of the worship of god ; but onely become so , by being appointed by christ. so under the law , many things meerly ritual and ceremonial in themselves , yet by vertue of divine appointment became substantial parts of divine worship . . that for men to make new parts of divine worship is unlawfull . for that is to suppose the scripture an imperfect rule of worship ; and that superstition is no fault ; and consequently that our saviour , without cause , found fault with the scribes and pharisees for their traditions . . that there are many things which may be done in the worship of god ; which are not forbidden to be done unless they be parts of divine worship . for , if the supposed reason of their prohibition , be their being made parts of divine worship , if it be made appear , that they are not so , then it follows they are not forbidden . . that what is neither forbidden directly , nor by consequence is lawfull and may be practised in the worship of god. for although mr. a. quarrels with me , for saying , they require express commands to make things lawfull in the worship of god ; yet he allows , that what is not required either directly or by consequence is unlawfull ; and by parity of reason , what is not forbidden in the same manner must be lawfull . sect. . it remains now to find out those certain notes and marks of distinction in this matter , as may give satisfaction to the consciences of men , in the difference between innocent ceremonies , and superstitious parts of divine worship . for the difference here doth not lie in supposing some things of divine institution which are not , but in making those to be parts of divine worship which are not . and that may be done these ways . . by supposing them to be so necessary , that the doing them would be a thing pleasing to god , and the omitting of them would be a thing displeasing to god , although there were no humane law which required the doing of them . for , where there is no obligation by vertue of any humane law and yet men suppose they should please god by doing , or displease god by not observing some particular ceremonies ; it is a sign they esteem those to be parts of divine worship . and this was the case of the scribes and pharisees whom our saviour reproved , not so much for their frequent washings , as for supposing that a mans conscience was defiled , if he did not observe them . for they had taken up an opinion among them , ( as h. grotius observes ) that any thing that was touched by a person unclean by the law , did communicate an uncleanness first to their bodies , and then to their souls ; but that this ceremonial washing did purifie both body and soul : upon which supposition , they concluded this washing so necessary a part of god's worship , that the doing of it was a thing very pleasing to god , and the omission of it must be displeasing to him , because it left an inward defilement upon their consciences , which might have been removed by the use of it . but it is lately pleaded by mr. a. that this washing of hands among the iews condemned by our saviour , was just of the nature of our ceremonies , being onely observed as a command of their superiours not repugnant to the law of god , but rather more agreeable to it than our ceremonies are : from whence he infers , that all traditions , canons , injunctions , concerning unnecessary things are contrary to the law of god , and consequently invalid and not obligatory . but i say , the reason of our saviour's opposing the pharisees about this matter , was not because a thing in it self unnecessary , was determined by their superiours , but because of the superstitious opinion which the pharisees had concerning this washing with respect to the consciences of men . and that i shall prove . from the force of our saviour's reasoning . . from the general sense of the iews concerning it . . from the force of our saviour's reasoning : which will appear , by observing what he proves , viz. that they set up their tradition above the law. v. . why do you also transgress the commandment of god by your tradition ? and v. . thus ye have made the commandment of god of none effect by your tradition . v. . full well ye reject the commandment of god , that ye may keep your own tradition . our saviour here proves by a plain and undeniable instance about the vow corban , that they did believe their traditions to have a force superiour to the law ; else it were impossible they should suppose such an arbitrary vow should supersede the obligation of the law , as to the duty which children owe to their parents ; but from hence it appeared that they believed the keeping of this vow to be a thing more pleasing to god , than relieving their parents , and so they esteemed it a more necessary and substantial part of divine worship . the force of his argument then extends to all things which they looked on as things pleasing to god , on the account of the tradition of their elders ; for he argued against the main supposition , the truth of which he proves by a clear instance , where the tradition did contradict the law. and since by this , it appeared , that they thought their tradition to over-rule the law , it was no wonder they set up others equal to it ; and thought mens consciences strictly obliged to observe them . but how doth the argument reach to the present case , viz. because that when their traditions contradicted the law , they were not to be observed ; therefore , not , when agreeable ; unless he rejected all kind of traditions ? i answer , the pharisees did think a man's conscience defiled if he did not observe that tradition , as appears by what follows , when he taught the people upon this occasion , v. . that which entreth into the mouth defileth not a man ; but that which cometh out of the mouth defileth a man. this was the doctrine christ taught the people with respect to this dispute with the pharisees : which signified nothing , unless the opinion among them was , that eating of bread with unwashen hands , did really defile a man's conscience towards god. at which the pharisees were much offended , as the disciples told him , v. . and they were not so very well satisfied , but they desire a further explication of this matter from himself ; which he gives them , v. , , . where he shews that no defilement could come to mens consciences meerly by what they did eat ; but that mens inward lusts were the things which defiled them , for these were the source of those wicked actions , which were most displeasing to god. and so he concludes his discourse , v. . these are the things which defile a man , but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man. from whence it follows , that the main thing in dispute was , whether this ceremony of washing hands could be omitted , without defiling the conscience ? or else our saviour's conclusion doth not reach the question . but if the conclusion was contrary to the pharisees doctrine , then they must look upon this ceremony of washing of hands , as a part of worship equal to the law of god , and which men pleased god by doing , and displeased him by omitting it ; not meerly with respect to the command of superiours , but as they supposed some lesser guilt upon the conscience might be expiated by it , which would remain , if they did not use it . . from the general sense of the iews . even mr. a. himself , in the very same discourse , where he would make this washing of hands like our ceremonies , quotes several passages of the talmudists , to prove that they equalled their traditions with the laws of god ; and sometimes set them above them ; and particularly of this tradition he saith , it is a saying of the talmud , that he that eats bread with unwashen hands , sins as grievously as if he lay with a whore. which is a saying of r. ase in sota ; and abundantly proves , that this was not looked on as an indifferent ceremony , but as a thing , whose omission brought a guilt on the conscience . and i wonder mr. a. did not discern , that by this one saying , he overthrew all the rest of his discourse : but this opinion is not built on the saying of any rabbi , but on a constant tradition among them , which they derive from the days of solomon ; who , they say , appointed it first , when they did eat of sacrifices ; afterwards , the wise men applied it to the terumah , and at last hillel and schammai decreed it ought to be observed for their greater purification , before the eating their common meals . and the pharisees placing the greatest part of their religion in the nice observance of such traditions , thought themselves so much more holy than others , as they did more carefully avoid the defilements of common conversation ; and for that reason they observed this washing especially when they had been in promiscuous company . for they thought themselves defiled by any touch from the ordinary sort of people ; and this , maimonides saith , they looked on , as a peculiar part of sanctity ; and the more strict and punctual they were in this , the more holy they were accounted . therefore in the talmud one iohn the son of gudged is particularly admired for his sanctity , because he exceeded others in the niceness of washing his hands . and they have a saying in the misna to this purpose , the garments of the common people , are a pollution to the pharisees , the garments of the pharisees to those that eat the terumah , and theirs to those that eat of the sacrifices , and theirs to those that touched the water of cleansing . so that they had different degrees of sanctity about this matter of washing , none of which was imposed for the sake of cleanliness , but from the supposition of some inward purification they obtained by it , from the common filthiness of the world . and upon this principle , even the vessels of the temple were to be washed all over , if they were but touched by the common people . in the washing their hands , they put a difference between that before , and that after meat ; the latter they accounted a matter of liberty , or at least onely for health to wash off the dangerous saline particles which they supposed to remain ; but the former was required for inward purification ; which they require so strictly , that if water may be had within four miles , a iew is bound not to eat till he hath washed , no not with a fork ; and in case none can be had , then he is to cover his hands and so eat ; nor can he take meat from another in his mouth , untill his mouth be first washed . if there be no more water than will serve for his drink , he must part with enough of it to wash his hands ; and therefore r. akiba in prison said , he would rather perish with thirst than want water to wash his hands . and they say , whosoever disesteems this custom , deserves not onely excommunication but death too . since all this is evident from the most authentick writers among the iews , i cannot but admire at mr. a.'s design , who would make the world believe , that this was no more than an indifferent ceremony among the iews , that was onely required for order and decency , as our ceremonies are , when those very citations he brings from buxtorf and dr. lightfoot do manifestly prove the contrary . this i thought necessary to be cleared , because this is the chief place in the new testament which they bring to prove the unlawfulness of our ceremonies . from hence it now appears that the reason of christ's condemning that ceremony of washing of hands , was not upon the account of decency , but a superstitious opinion they had concerning it , that it did expiate a lesser kind of guilt and spiritual filthiness which they contracted by the impure touches of men less holy than themselves . and this the pharisees more wondred at in christ's disciples , because it was a rule among them , that the disciples of the wise ought to be more strict in these cases than others , because these things tended to advance the reputation of their holiness , among the people . and where such an opinion prevails , there such ceremonies are made parts of divine worship . sect. . and thus it is in many of the ceremonies of the roman church , which their divines assert to have a purifying and cleansing faculty as to the souls of men ; not for justification of men from mortal sins , but for other spiritual effects , and taking away the guilt of venial sins . for say they , no doubt they are effectual for the ends to which the church appointed them , and of this , there is no dispute among catholicks . and withall , they add , that it is probable that the church hath power to appoint ceremonies in such a manner , that they may produce these effects , ex opere operato , as the sacraments do justification , because christ hath left it in the power of the church to apply his merits for lesser effects , having appointed the sacraments himself for the greater . but bellarmin thinks this latter part disputable concerning the opus operatum of ceremonies ; but as to the former , viz. by way of impetration , he saith , it is past all doubt among catholicks . so , as to the sprinkling of holy water , bellarmin saith , it is no meer significant ceremony ; but it is effectual for the blotting out of venial sins ; and he quotes saint thomas , and dom. à soto , and gratian for it ; who produceth the canon of alex. . whereby it appears it was first instituted ut eâ cuncti aspersi sanctificentur & purificentur ; that all that were sprinkled might be sanctified and purified by it . in the prayer of consecration for the salt to make holy water , one expression is , that it might be wholsome both to body and soul ; and the water is consecrated to drive away the power of the devil . azorius saith , that holy water cleanseth venial sins , ex opere operato , and drives away devils . greg. de valentia agrees in the thing , but is not so peremptory in the manner . but marsilius columna hath written a whole book of the admirable effects of this ceremony . and so for the sign of the cross , bellarmin attributes wonderfull effects to it , for driving away devils and diseases , and sanctifying the things it is applied to : and he saith , it hath power against the devil ex opere operato . pet. thyraeus the iesuit , attributes a proper efficiency to the sign of the cross against the power of the devil . coccius saith it is a terrour to the devils , and very beneficial to mankind . which makes me wonder at dr. ames his disingenuity , when he would go about to make the doctrine of our church about ceremonies not to differ from that of the church of rome . it is true , cassander and some few others , talk at another rate ; and cassander himself saith , the best men on both sides were agreed about these matters . but we are not to take their general sense from such as cassander ; especially when their publick offices speak the sense of their church better than cassander . greg. de valentiâ indeed , saith , it is a lie that they attribute as much to ceremonies as to sacraments : and in truth they do it not ; for they attribute iustification to the sacraments , and the expiation of the remainder of venial sins to the use of ceremonies . however , since they attribute so spiritual effects to them ; it is an argument they look upon them as real parts of divine worship , as much as they do on prayer , with which they compare them in point of efficacy . but with what face can this be objected against our church ; which utterly rejects any such spiritual efficacy , as to the ceremonies that are retained among us ; and declares that they are no otherwise received in our church , than as they are purged from popish superstition and errour . and therefore all opinion of merit and spiritual efficacy is taken from them ; which do make them to be parts of divine worship ; which being removed , they remain onely naked ceremonies , i. e. as cassander well expresses it , words made visible , or teaching actions ; whose design and intention being towards us , and not towards god , they cannot be thought to be made parts of divine worship , although they be used in the performance of them . as if the christians in the east did wear the b●dge of a cross upon their arms , at some solemn days , as on good friday at their devotions , to distinguish them from turks and iews ; would any one say , that they made this badge a part of divine worship ? but when they see the papists on that day using the most solemn postures of adoration to the crucifix , they might well charge them with making this a part of divine worship . so that the distinction between these two , is not so hard to find , if men apply their minds to the consideration of it . . men may make ceremonies to become parts of divine worship if they suppose them unalterable , and obligatory to the consciences of all christians : for this supposes an equal necessity with that of divine institution . if men do assert so great a power in the church , as to appoint things for spiritual effects , and to oblige the consciences of all christians to observe them ; it is all one as to say , the church may make new parts of worship . but this can with no colour be objected against a church which declares as expresly as it is possible , that it looks on the rites and ceremonies used therein , as things in their own nature indifferent and alterable ; and that changes and alterations may be made , as seems necessary or expedient to those in authority ; and that every country is at liberty to use their own ceremonies ; and that they neither condemn others nor prescribe to them what can more express the not making ceremo●● any parts of divine worship than these things d● and thus i have at once shewed , what we mean by substantial parts of divine worship , and that our church doth not make any human ceremonies to be so . sect. . i now come particularly to examin the charge against our church . for mr. a. saith , an outward visible sign of an inward invisible grace , whereby a person is dedicated to the profession of and subjection to the redeemer , is a substantial part of worship . i answer , . an outward visible sign between men representing the duty or engagement of another , is no part of divine worship at all , much less a substantial part of it . there are some visible signs from god to men , representing the effects of his grace to us ; and those we call sacraments ; there are other signs from men to god , to testifie their subjection and dependence , and these are acts of worship ; and there are signs from men to men to represent some other thing besides the bare action ; and these are significant ceremonies , such as the cross in baptism is . for , after the child is baptized and received into the church , the sign of the cross is used in token that hereafter he shall not be ashamed to confess the faith of christ crucified , &c. to whom is this token made ? is it to god ? no certainly . if it were a permanent sign of the cross , would it be for a testimony to god , or to men ? when the primitive christians used the sign of the cross in token they were not ashamed of christ crucified , was this a dedicating sign to god , or a declarative sign to men ? and what if it represents subjection to christ as the redeemer ? must it therefore be such an outward visible sign of inward invisible grace , as the sacraments are ? it represents the duty and not the grace ; the duty is ours and may be represented by us ; but the grace is gods and therefore he must appoint the signs to represent and convey that , because he alone is the giver of it . . the cross in baptism is not intended by our church for a sign of immediate dedication to god , but of obligation on the person . it is true , that in the canon it is said , that this church retains the sign of the cross , following the example of the primitive and apostolical churches ; and accounteth it a lawfull outward ceremony and honourable badge , whereby the infant is dedicated to the service of him who died upon the cross. but for the right understanding thereof , we must consider , that baptism is declared to be compleat before ; so that the sign of the cross adds nothing to the perfection or vertue of it , nor being omitted , takes nothing from it ; as it is there expressed as the sense of this church . this therefore , is no part of the baptismal dedication . and the minister acts in a double capacity , when he doth baptize , and when he signs with the sign of the cross : when he baptizeth , he acts by vertue of authority derived from christ , i baptize thee in the name of the father , &c. which being done , and the child thereby solemnly dedicated to god in baptism ; he then speaks in the name of the church , varying the number ; we receive this child into the congregation of christ 's flock , and do sign him with the sign of the cross , &c. i. e. we christians that are already members of christ's flock do receive him into our number ; and in token of his being obliged to perform the duty belonging to such a one , do make use of this sign of the cross , as the rite of admission into the church , and of his obligation to behave himself , as becomes a christian. and if we consider the sign of the cross in this sense , as no doubt it was so intended , all the difficulties about a dedicating , covenanting , symbolical , sacramental sign , concerning which some have made so great a stir , will soon appear to be of no force . for why may not the church appoint such a rite of admission of one of her members declaring it to be no part of baptism ? let us suppose an adult person to be baptized , and immediately after baptism to be admitted a member of an independent church ; and the ceremony of this admission to be holding up of his hand in token of his owning the church-covenant , i. e. of promising to live as a church-member ought to doe among them ; the pastour of the church then baptizes him , and immediately after , upon the holding up of his hand in token of his owning the church-covenant , he saith in the name of the church , we receive thee into this congregation , and accept of thy holding up of thy hand as a token that thou wilt hereafter behave thy self as a church-member ought to do among us . what harm is there in all this ? and yet is not this a professing , dedicating , covenanting , symbolical , sacramental sign , as much as the sign of the cross is among us ? doth not holding up the hand signify and represent ? is it not therefore a significant and symbolical ceremony ? doth it not import an obligation lying on the person ? is it not therefore dedicating , covenanting , and sacramental , as much as the sign of the cross ? why then should this be scrupled more than the other ? and by this mr. b.'s great mistake appears about this matter ; who supposeth that the minister speaketh in the name of christ when he signs with the sign of the cross ; and as god's officer from him , and so dedicates him by this sign to the service of him that died upon the cross ; whereas the minister in the act speaks in the name of the church , as evidently appears by those words , we receive him into the congregation of christ 's flock ; and then follows , as the solemn rite of admission , and do sign him with the sign of the cross , &c. all publick and solemn admissions into societies , having some peculiar ceremony belonging to them . and so as baptism besides its sacramental efficacy is a rite of admission into christ's catholick church ; so the sign of the cross is into our church of england : in which this ceremony is used , without any prescription to other churchs . sect. . but saith mr. b. though the sign of the cross may be lawfull , as a transient , arbitrary , professing sign ; yet not as a dedicating sign , and as the common professing symbol of baptized persons . if it be lawfull in the former sense , i cannot understand how it should be unlawfull in the latter . yes , saith he , the instituting of the latter belongs to god onely . how doth that appear ? because he hath made two sacraments already for that end . true , but not onely for that end ; but to be the means and instruments of conveying his grace to men ; which none but god himself can doe , and therefore none but he ought to appoint the means for that end . and we account it an unsufferable insolency in the roman churches , for them to take upon them to make application of the merits of christ to rites of their own institution ; which is the onely possible way for a church to make new sacraments ; but if every significant custom in a church must pass for a new sacrament , then sitting at the sacrament is a new sacrament , because we are told it betokens rest and communion with christ ; then putting off the hat in prayer is a new sacrament , because it is a professing sign of reverence ; then laying on the hand , and kissing the book in swearing are new sacraments , because they are publick symbolical rites . but saith mr. b. it belongeth onely to the king to make the common badge or symbol of his own subjects . yet i hope , every nobleman or gentleman may give a distinct livery without treason . and therefore why may not every church appoint its own rite of admission of members into its body ? but the obligation here is to the common duties of christians . and is not every church-member bound to perform these ? that which is peculiar , is the manner of admission by the sign of the cross ; and this rite our church imposes on no others but its own members , i. e. makes it necessary to none else ; and to shew it to be onely a solemn rite of admission , it allows it to be forborn in private baptism . but saith mr. b. christs sacraments or symbols are sufficient , we need not devise more , and accuse his institutions of insufficiency . if it be lawfull , the church is to judge of the expediency ; and not every private person . and to appoint other rites that do not encroach upon the institutions of christ , by challenging any effect peculiar to them , is no charging them with insufficiency . well , saith mr. b. but it is unlawfull on another account , viz. as it is an image used as a medium in god's worship , and so forbidden in the second commandment . he may as well make it unlawfull to use words in god's worship , for are not they images and represent things to our minds , as well as a transient sign of the cross ? nay , doth not mr. b. in the same place make it lawfull to make an image an object or medium of our consideration exciting our minds to worship god ? as he instanceth in a crucifix , or historical image of christ , or some holy man. if any divine of the church of england had said any thing to this purpose , what out-cries of popery had been made against us ? how many advances had we presently made for letting in the grossest idolatry ? how many divines of the church of rome had been quoted , to shew , that they went no further and desired no more than this ? yet the transient sign of the cross , without any respect to worship , is condemned among us , as forbidden by the second commandment ; and that by the same person and in the same page . but it is used as a medium in god's worship . is our worship directed to it ? or , do we kneel before it , as mr. b. allows men may do before a crucifix ? do we declare that we are excited by it to worship god ? no ; all these are rejected by our church . how then is it a medium in god's worship ? why forsooth , it is not a meer circumstance but an outward act of worship . what , as much as kneeling before a crucifix ? and yet that is lawfull according to him , supposing the mind be onely excited by it . suppose then we onely use the sign of the cross to excite mens consideration in the act of worship ; what harm were in it upon mr. b.'s ground ? but our church allows not so much , onely taking it for a lawfull outward ceremony , which hath nothing of worship belonging to it ; how comes it then to be a medium in god's worship ? for mr. b. saith , in the same place , there is a twofold medium in god's worship . . medium excitans , that raises our minds to worship god , as a crucifix , &c. . medium terminans ; or as he calls it terminus , in genere causae finalis , a worshipped medium or the terminus , or the thing which we worship mediately , on pretence of representing god , and that we worship him in it ultimately . and this he takes to be the thing forbidden directly in the second commandment , viz. to worship a creature ( with mind or body ) in the act of divine worship , as representing god , or as the mediate term of our worship , by which we send it unto god , as if it were more acceptable to him . so that it is lawfull , saith he , by the sight of a crucifix to be provoked to worship god , but it 's unlawfull to offer him that worship , by offering it to the crucifix first , as the sign , way , or means of sending it to god. observe here a strange piece of partiality . . it is allowed to be lawfull to pray before a crucifix , as a medium excitans , as an object that stirs up in us a worshipping affection ; and so all those papists are excused from idolatry who profess they use a crucifix for no other end , although they perform all acts of adoration before it ; and it will become a very hard question whether the mind in its consideration , uniting the image with the object may not give the same acts of worship to one as to the other , but in different respects . for the image being allowed to excite the mind to consideration of the object to be worshipped , the object is considered in the mind as represented by the image , and consequently is so worshipped ; and why then may not the worship be as well directed to the image as representing , as to the object represented by the image ; provided , that the act of the mind be still fixed upon the object as represented by the image ? and thus even latria may be performed to a crucifix . is not this a very fair concession to the papists ? but on the other side , . the sign of the cross , even the aëreal sign , as dr. o. calls it , must be made a medium in god's worship , though it be utterly denied by our church ; and there be no colour for it , from his own grounds . for it is neither medium excitans , being not intended by our church for that purpose , a crucifix being much fitter for that purpose ; and our church calls it onely a lawfull ceremony and honourable badge ; much less can it be thought to be any mediate object of our worship , there being nothing like worship performed towards it . but if all his meaning be , that whatever is used in the time of worship that is not a meer circumstance must be a medium of worship , that is so weak a pretence , that i shall consider it no farther . sect. . but suppose it be no medium of worship , yet it cannot out of mr. b. 's head , but that it must be a new sacrament ; for , saith he , if christ had instituted the cross as our church doth ; would you not have called this a sacrament ? and if it want but divine institution and benediction , it wanteth indeed a due efficient , but it is still a human sacrament though not a divine , and therefore an unlawfull sacrament . if christ had instituted it with such promises , as he hath his other sacraments , no doubt it had been one ; but then the use of it had been quite changed , from what it is now . for then its signification had been from god to us ; and the minister had signed in christ's name and not in the churches ; and then it had been in token that christ will not fail of his promise , if we perform our conditions . but here it is quite contrary , as hath already appeared . there is one thing yet remaining in mr. b. about this matter to be considered , viz. that according to the rule of our church , the cross in baptism hath a sacramental efficacy attributed to it ; for , saith he , as the water of baptism worketh morally , by signifying the washing of christ's body ; so the cross is to operate morally , by signifying christ's crucifixion , the benefits of his cross and our duty . and then he adds , that it is the common doctrine of protestants that the sacraments are not instituted to give grace physically , but onely morally ; and that even the wisest papists themselves do maintain onely such moral causality in sacraments . and so by this means he would make the sign of the cross to have the nature of a sacrament with us . but that he hath misrepresented or misapplied both the popish and protestant doctrine about the efficacy of sacraments to serve his purpose , i shall now make appear , . concerning the popish doctrine ; that which overthrows the strength of all that mr. b. saith is , that it is unanimously agreed among them as a matter of faith , that the sacraments do confer grace , ex opere operato , where there is no actual impediment ; and that it is no less than heresie to assert , that they are bare outward professing signs , i. e. that they are meer ceremonies . this not one of them , whom i ever saw , either denies , or disputes ; and it is expresly determin'd in the councils of florence and of trent . but then they have a very nice and subtle question among them about the manner how the sacraments do confer grace , whether physically or morally . by physically , they mean , when a thing by its own immediate action hath influence on producing the effect ; by morally , they mean that which doth effectually concurr to the producing the effect , but after another manner , as by perswasion , by intreaty , &c. as he that runs the sword into anothers bowels , kills him physically ; he that perswades and incourages him effectually to doe it , is as really the cause of his death as the other ; but then they say , he is but a moral and not a physical cause of the murther . they all agree , that the sacraments do effectually convey grace , where there is no obstacle put ; but the onely question is , about the manner of producing it . and as to this they agree , that the sacraments do work as moral causes , not principal but instrumental ; the principal they say is the merit of christ , the instrumental the sacraments as deriving their efficacy from the former ; as the writing from the seal , and the seal from the authority of the person ; or as money from the stamp , and the stamp from the king : but besides this , they question whether there be not a proper efficiency by divine power in the sacraments , to produce at least the character from whence divine grace immediately follows . and about this indeed they are divided . some say , there is no necessity of asserting more than a bare moral causality ; because this is sufficient for the infallible efficacy of the sacraments , sublato obice , as gamachaeus a late professour in the sorbon delivers their doctrine : and of this opinion , he reckons bonaventure , altissidore , scotus , durandus , canus , ledesma , and many others : and with this he closes , because this is sufficient , and the other is to make miracles without cause ; as long as the effect follows certò , infallibiliter & ex opere operato , as he there speaks . and for the same reason card. de lugo yields to it , although he there saith , that a sacrament is signum practicum infallibile gratiae . so that those who do assert onely this moral causality of sacraments , do not suppose any uncertainty in the effect , any more than the others do , but onely differ about the way of producing it . yet ysambertus , another late professour of the sorbon proves the doctrine of a physical efficiency to be much more agreeable to the sense of their church ; and that the argument is of no force against it , because it is so hard to be understood , for then they must quit many other doctrines besides this . ioh. baptista gonet , a late learned thomist not onely contends earnestly for this opinion , but saith , the greater part of their divines assert it , and those of greatest reputation , as ruardus tapper , vega , sayrus , ysambertus , suarez , valentia , bellarmin , reginaldus , moeratius , ripalda and many more . and conquetius , he saith , reckons up fifty three eminent divines who hold the physical causality of the sacrament . so that mr. b. is both very much mistaken in the common doctrine of the roman schools , and in applying the moral causality of the sacraments , as it is asserted by their divines , to the significancy of our ceremonies . . as to the protestant doctrines , he represents that in very ambiguous terms ; for , he saith , that protestants commonly maintain that the sacraments are not instituted to give grace physically , but onely morally . if it be their doctrine , that the sacraments are instituted for the conveying of grace at all , which he seems to yield ; ( and if he did not , might be fully proved from the testimonies of the most eminent reformers abroad , as well as at home ) this is sufficient to shew that the sign of the cross can never be advanced to the dignity of a sacrament among us ; since in no sense it is held to be an instrument appointed for the conveying of grace . and so this phrase of a new sacrament is a thing onely invented to amuse and perplex tender and injudicious persons . there being not the least ground for it , that i can discern ; and yet such pretences as these have served to darken people's minds , and have filled them with strange fears and scruples ; yea , some who have conquer'd their prejudices as to other things , have not been able to get over this mighty stumbling-block ; which i have therefore taken the more pains to remove out of their way . and yet after all , mr. b. declares , that if it be a sin , it is the ministers , and not the person 's who offers the child to be baptized ; and another man's sinfull mode will not justifie the neglect of our duty . and therefore supposing the sign of the cross to be as bad as some make it , yet it can be no pretence for separation . sect. . but mr. a. hath a farther blow at our church , for allowing worshipping towards the altar , the east , and at the sound of the word iesus ; which , he saith , are made the motive of worship , if not something else . the lawfulness of these things , so far , as they are required by our church , i had formerly defended against the papists , and now mr. a. borrows their weapons from them ; although he doth not manage them with that skill and dexterity which t. g. used . i had said , that bowing at the name of iesus , was no more than going to church at the toll of a bell , the worship being not given to the name , but to christ at the sound of his name . why may not , saith he , an image give warning to the eye , when to worship god , as well as a bell to the ear ? i will tell him , since he needs it , because an image is a mighty disparagement to an infinite and invisible being ; it is directly contrary to his law to worship him by an image ; it is against the sense of the christian church in its best and purest ages ; this one would have thought i had proved so much against the papists , that i had little reason to expect such a question from a protestant . but such men do too much discover , whose part they are willing to take against the church of england . he grants the papists go too far in preferring an image higher than to be motivum cultûs , but the question is , whether they do not sin in applying it to this lower use , to make it an ordinary stated motive to worship . when i read this , i began to pity the man , being in some fear lest something had a little disordered his fancy . for where do we ever allow such an use of images in our church ? if he had written against mr. b. who allows a crucifix to be medium excitans , he had some reason to have answered him , but i have none . but he brings it home to us ; for , saith he , if men do sin who make an image an ordinary stated motive of worship , then how shall we excuse our own adorations ? what doth the man mean ? i am yet afraid , all things are not right somewhere . we acknowledge no adorations , but what are due to the divine majesty ; and do these need to be excused ? and what consequence is there from the unlawfulness of the worship of images , against our worshipping of god ? let him first prove , that we give adoration to any besides the divine majesty , before we shall go about to excuse our adorations . but if men do not sin in making an image a stated motive of worship ( whoever said they did not ? i am sure , not our church . but let this pass , what follows ? ) then , saith he , why do we not introduce images into our churches ? ask mr. b. that question , and not us of the church of england . if we allowed the worship of images to be lawfull , this were a pertinent question ; but since we deny it , what makes all this against us ? which if our church-men shall venture upon ; i pray stay till they do , before you charge us with it . are not these men hugely to seek for arguments against our church that talk at this rate ? but , he saith , they may doe it with equal reason . here is something now fit to be proved . we utterly deny that we may worship images on the same reason , that we perform external adoration to god by bowing the body ; or to iesus at the mention of his name . hold now to this , and prove it . instead of that , he shews the difference between going to church at the sound of a bell , and bowing at the name of iesus ; viz. that the bell tolls out of worship to bring them to it ; but the sound of the word iesus is in the middle of worship , when mens minds should be intent on devotion , and not sit listening and watching , as whittington ' s cat watcht the mouse , ( there 't is for you , viz. what he hath laboured for all this while ) for the casual starting of a word , and the dropping of two syllables . but the question is not about the seasonableness of doing this when we are in other acts of devotion and immediate application to god , which no body contends for , that i know of , but about the lawfulness of doing it in the time of divine service , when we hear the name of iesus repeated in the lessons , or the creed ; and the canon which requires it refers to the former custom , and in the injunctions of queen elizabeth , the lessons and sermons are mentioned particularly ; and although it be said , or otherwise in the church pronounced , yet by the manner of shewing this reverence , viz. with lowness of courtesie and uncovering of heads of mankind ; it supposeth them at that time not to be imployed in any other act of devotion . and so it gives no interruption to the intention of it ; nor obliges men to lie at the catch for the coming of the word , as though all our worship consisted in it ; but since our church approves it as a laudable ceremony , we ought not to refuse it at seasonable times ; unless it can be proved unlawfull in it self . which i say , can never be done , as long as the worship is directed to a true object , viz. the person of christ ; and the mention of his name , onely expresses the time , as the tolling the bell doth of going to church . neither doth it signifie any thing to this purpose , whether persons be in the church or out of it , when the bell rings ; for in the same page he mentions the mass-bell ; which sounds to the people in the church as well as out of it ; and if the object of their worship were true , as it is false , that would make him better understand the parallel . but , saith he , if it be a duty to give external reverence to god , when ever the word iesus is mentioned , there is more need of it in our ordinary converses , and the secular affairs of the world ; and so , he addes , this word might do the service of the mass-bell going about the streets , at which all are bound to fall down and worship . now , what a strange piece of crosness is this , to dispute the lawfulness of doing it at church , because we do it not at the market-place ? my business is to defend what our church requires , if he will allow that , and thinks it convenient to do it likewise in common conversation , let him defend his own new invented wayes of reverence ; as for us , we think there are proper seasons for divine worship , and that it is not enough to do what is lawful , unless it be done at its convenient time , but there are some men , who know no mean between doing nothing , and over-doing . but is this becoming a protestant divine to parallel the worship we give to the eternal son of god , as our church declares , can. . and that which the papists give to the host , when it is carried up and down the streets ? at last , he commends the moderation of the canon , . about bowing towards the east or altar , that they which use this rite , despise not them who use it not ; and they who use it not , condemn not those that use it : but he would fain know why the same moderation should not be used in other rites , as the sign of the cr●s● , and kneeling at the lords supper ? it had been much more to his purpose to have proved any thing unlawful which had been required by our church . but the case was not the same as to those things which were required by our church , ever since the reformation ▪ and as to some customes , which although in themselves lawful , yet were never strictly enjoyned , but left indifferent . and therefore the moderation used in the canon , , was very suitable to the principles of our church ; but how doth it follow , that because some things are left at liberty , therefore nothing should be determin'd ; or being determin'd ought not to be obeyed ? it was the great wisdom of our church not to make more things necessary ( as to practice ) than were made so at the settlement of our reformation ; but whether there be sufficient reason to alter those terms of communion which were then settled , for the sake of such whose scruples are groundless and endless , i do not take upon me here to determine . but as far as i can perceive by mr. a. he thinks the apostles rule of forbearance , rom. . to be of equal force in all ages , and as to all things , about which christians have different apprehensions ; and then the papists come in for an equal share in such a toleration . and so those who do not worship the host , or images , or use auricular confession , must not censure those that do , unless he will say , that the papists have no scruple of conscience , as to such things ; but if notwithstanding these scruples , our laws put a just restraint upon them , then the rule of forbearance , rom. . is no obligatory law to christians in all ages ; and consequently , notwithstanding that , our church may justly require the observation of some things , though it leaves others undetermin'd . but he saith , these customes though left indifferent , are still observed among us , and practised by all the leading church-men . and what then ? are they lawful , or are they not ? if not , why are they not proved to be unlawful ? and if that were proved , what is all this to the point of separation , unless they were enjoyned to all people , and made terms of communion ; i. e. that persons were not allowed to joyn in all acts of communion with us , unless they did them . however , he thinks this will prove ( what , that they differ from us in any substantial part of worship ? no , he dares not say that : but what then ? ) that we differ in more than a circumstance , even at least in a circumstantial part of worship , yet we must be supposed to be agreed . to convince the reader , what an admirable faculty of proving this man hath , let him but look on the thing he undertook to prove . i had said , that we were agreed in the substantial parts of worship ; this he undertakes to disprove , for two or three leaves together , and the conclusion is , that at least we differ in a circumstantial part of worship , and his consequence must be , therefore we differ in a substantial , or else it is idle and impertinent talk . t. g. would have been ashamed to have argued after this fashion : but they are to be pittied , they both do as well , as their cause will bear . yet mr. a. cannot give over , for he hath a very good will at proving something against our church , although he hath very ill luck in the doing of it . my argument was , if it be lawful to separate upon pretence of greater purity , where there is an agreement in doctrine , and the substantial parts of worship , then a bare difference in opinion , as to some circumstantials in worship and the best constitution of churches will be a sufficient ground to break communion and to set up new churches . hitherto we have considered his denial of the antecedent ; and the charge he hath brought against our church , about new substantial parts of worship ; we now come to his denying the consequence , viz. that although it be granted that there is an agreement in doctrine and the substantial parts of worship , yet he will not allow it to follow that a bare difference in opinion as to some circumstantials will be sufficient ground to break communion and to set up new churches . to understand the consequence we must suppose , . an agreement in the substantial parts of worship . . a separation , for greater parity of worship . and what then can justifie this separation , but a difference of opinion as to some circumstantials in worship ? hold , saith he , the consequence is not good , for there are certain middle things , between substantial parts of worship and bare circumstances , about which it will be lawful to divide , though otherwise we agree in doctrine , and the substantial parts of worship . so that here a separation is justified ( . ) on the account of such things , which are confessed to be neither substantial nor circumstantial parts of worship , ( . ) although there be an agreement in the substantial parts of worship ; and consequently , although these middle kind of things be not made substantial parts of worship . for that he charged us with in the antecedent ; and now allowing the antecedent and denying the consequence , he must grant , that it is lawful to separate on the account of ceremonies , although they be made no parts of worship at all . for if they be neither substantial nor circumstantial parts of worship , they can be none at all ; and yet he saith , it is lawful to divide about them . and which is more pleasant , when he goes about to prove the lawfulness of separating for the sake of these things , he doth it by undertaking to shew , that they are made substantial parts of worship . for thus he argues , the church of england hath exalted these things , i. e. ceremonies , to a high preferment in worship , to signifie the same things with the sacramental elements , to make them necessary to salvation as far as man can make them ; and therefore they conclude them sinful . if their preferment in worship makes them sinful , then they must be either substantial , or circumstantial parts of worship , and their separation is not upon the account of their being ceremonies , but those ceremonies are supposed to be made parts of worship , which i have answered already . but after all our arguings about these matters , mr. a. saith , the controversie stands still , where it did these hundred years , and more : i utterly deny that , for the nonconformists have advanced more towards separation these last ten years , than they did in a hundred years before ; as appears by the foregoing discourse . however , they are still unsatisfied in conscience about these matters , and so long they cannot joyn with us , and our church excommunicates those who condemn our ceremonies ; so that there appears from hence a necessity of separation ; and if it be necessary it cannot be denied to be lawful . this is the fairest remaining plea for separation , which i shall consider both wayes . ( . ) as it respects the churches censures . ( . ) as it respects the judgement of conscience . . as it respects the churches censures . this mr. b. often insists upon . the canons , saith he , excommucate ipso facto , all that say the imposed conformity is unlawful . if this be unjust , is it separation to be so excommunicated ? and who is the schismatick here ? would you have excommunicate men communicate with you ? and if men be wrongfully excommunicate , are they thereby absolved from all publick worshipping of god ? or do they lose their right to all church-communion ? to this i answer , that the excommunication denounced , is not against such as modestly scruple the lawfulness of things imposed , but against those who obstinately affirm it ? the words of the canon are not , as mr. b. quotes them , if any one do but affirm any thing in the liturgy , ceremonies , &c. to be unlawful are excommunicate , ipso facto ; but whosoever shall affirm the ceremonies of the church of england , established by law , to be impious , anti-christian , or superstitious , let him be excommunicate ipso facto . mr. b.'s words bear quite another sense from those of the canon ; for to say , if any man do but affirm , &c. it implies that a bare single affirmation incurrs excommunication ipso facto ; but when the canon saith , if any shall affirm , &c , it implies , these circumstances which according to the common sense of mankind do deserve excommunication , viz. that it be done publickly and obstinately : ( both which the word affirm will bear . ) for , as s. augustin very well saith , every mans errour is born with , until he either finds an accuser , or he obstinately defends his opinion . tam diu sustinetur peccatum aut error cujus●ibet , donec aut accusatorem inveniat , aut pravam opinionem pertinaci animositate defendat . all excommunication doth suppose precedent admonition , according to the rule , if he will not hear the church , let him be as an heathen , or a publican . therefore general excommunications although they be latae sententiae as the canonists speak , do not affect particular persons , until the evidence be notorious , not only of the bare fact but of the contumacy joyned with it . besides , such excommunications which are de jure & latae sententiae , are rather to be looked on , as comminations , than as formal excommunications . for gerson putting the question , what the effect of such excommunications is ? he answers , that it is no more than this , that there needs no new judicial process , but upon proof or confession the iudge may pronounce the sentence . which , he saith , he learnt from his master , who was pet. de alliaco the famous cardinal of cambray . and if it requires a new sentence , then it doth not actually excommunicate . but of this the learned arch-bishop of spalato hath discoursed coursed at large ; to whom i refer the reader . as to the practice of canon law in england , lyndwood saith , that a declaratory sentence of the judge is necessary , notwithstanding the excommunication ipso facto . and it is a rule in our church , that persons excommunicate are to be publickly denounced excommunicate in a cathedral or parochial church every six months , that others may have notice of them ; and until the sentence be thus declared , i do not know how far particular persons can think themselves obliged to forbear communion on the account of a general sentence of excommunication , though it be said to be ipso facto . for although the sentence seem peremptory , yet ipso facto , doth suppose a fact , and such as deserves excommunication in the sense of the church ; of which there must be evident proof brought , before the sentence can take hold of the person . and to make the sentence valid as to the person , there must be due execution of it ; and the question in this case then is , whether any person knowing himself to be under such qualifications which incur a sentence of excommunication , be bound to execute this sentence upon himself ? which he must do , if he thinks himself bound to separate from our church on the account of this general excommunication . and so mr. b. himself seems to resolve this point ; although , saith he , we are excommunicated ipso facto , yet we are not bound our selves to execute their sentence ; but may stay in communion till they prove the fact , and do the execution on us themselves by refusing us . and so he hath fully answered his own objection . but can those be called schismaticks for not communicating with a church , who are first excommunicated by that church ? yes , in these cases they may ( . ) when there is a just and sufficient cause for that sentence . for , otherwise , no church could condemn any excommunicated persons for schism ; if it declared before hand , that all those who held such doctrines , or condemned such practices , should be excommunicated . to make this plain by instances : suppose the churches of new england declare the sentence of excommunication ipso facto against all that oppose infant-baptism ; r. williams and his company oppose it ; they upon this are actually excommunicated ; may the churches of new england call these men schismaticks or not ? if they are schismaticks notwithstanding the sentence of excommunication ; then the denouncing this sentence before hand doth not excuse them from the guilt of schism . by the constitution of the churches of france , every minister that refuses to subscribe to the orders among them is to be declared a schismatick ; would this make such a one not to be a schismatick , because this amounts to an excommunication , ipso facto ? so in scotland . subscription to the presbyterian discipline was required under pain of excommunication ; if any had been excommunicated on this account , would this excuse them from the charge of schism , in the judgement of the covenanters ? by the constitutions of geneva , any one that opposes , or contemns the authority of that church for a year together , is liable to the sentence of banishment for a whole year ; as calvin himself relates it . suppose this were meerly excommunication for so long ; would not calvin have thought them schismaticks for all that ? for he fully declares his mind in this case , on occasion of a certain non-conformist in an epistle to farell ; where he advises that he should be first summoned before the magistrate ; if that did not prevail , they should proceed to excommunication of a person who by his obstinacy disturbed the order of the church ; which , saith he , is agreeable to ancient councils and the mind of god in scripture ; therefore let him that will not submit to the orders of a society be cast out of it . here we see excommunication justified against such as refuse to obey the orders of a church ; and much more certainly , if they publickly affirm them to be impious , antichristian or superstitious as . canon expresseth : and no church in the world , but will think excommunication reasonable upon the like grounds ; and therefore if there be such a thing as schism , they may be guilty of it still , although excommunication be denounced against them on such accounts . ( . ) if they proceed to form new churches ; as will appear evident to any one that reflects on the former instances ; and let him judge , whether all persons so excommunicated , would not have been condemned much more for schismaticks , if they had set up new churches in opposition to theirs . s. augustin puts the case of good men unjustly excommunicated ; and he saith , they are to bear it with patience , for the peace of the church , and such will still maintain the true faith , sine ullâ conventiculorum segregatione , without running into separate meetings ; although they do believe themselves unjustly excommunicated . such as these , saith he , the father which seeth in secret , will reward and crown in secret . this kind seems very rare , but there want not instances , yea , there are more than can be believed . . as to the judgement of conscience . the author of the letter out of the countrey lays the foundation of the separation upon the force of scruples , mighty scruples , scruples of a long standing , and of a large extent , scruples that there is no hopes to remove , without some very overpowering impression on mens minds . i am so much of another mind , that i think a little impartiality , and due consideration would do the business ; but as long as men read and hear and judge only of one side , and think it a temptation to examine things as they ought to do , and cry out , they are satisfied already , there is not much hopes of doing good upon such , but i think they can have no great comfort in such scruples . men that really scruple things out of tenderness of conscience , are sincerely willing to be better informed , and glad of any light that brings them satisfaction , and do not fly out into rage , and violent passion against those who offer to remove their scruples . hath this been the temper of our scrupulous brethren of late ? let their scruples be touched never so tenderly , they cannot bear it , and take it extremely ill of those who would better inform them . mr. b. freely tells me , that he that thinks his own , or others reasonings will ever change all the truely honest christians in the land ( as to the unlawfulness of the things imposed ) knoweth so little of matters , or of men , or of conscience , as that he is unmeet to be a bishop or a priest. what is the reason of such a severe saying ? where lies the strength and evidence of these scruples ? why may not honest men be cured of their errors and mistakes , as i am perswaded these are such which they call scruples ? is there no hopes to bring the people to a better temper , and more judgement ? for i know nothing more is necessary for the cure of them . here is no depth of learning , no subtilty of reasoning , no endless quotation of fathers necessary about these matters . the dispute lies in a narrow compass , and men may see light if they will. but what if they will not ? then we are to consider , how far a wilfull mistake or error of conscience , will justifie men ? i say it doth not , cannot justifie them in doing evil ; and that i am sure breaking the peace of the church for the sake of such scruples , is . and this i had said in my sermon , which i take to be very material for our scrupulous persons to consider . for suppose they should be mistaken , doth this error of conscience justifie their separation , or not ? if not , they may be in an ill condition , for all their scruples , or their confidence . and so mr. baxter hath long since declared , that if we do through weakness , or perverseness take lawful things to be unlawful , that will not excuse us in our disobedience . our error is our sin , and one sin will not excuse another sin . but mr. a. saith , ( ) that i do ill to put together wilfull error and mistake of conscience , when i say they do not excuse from sin , since there is so great a difference between a wilfull error and a mistake of simple ignorance . what strange cavilling is this ? when any one may see that i join wilfull both to error and mistake . and is not a mistake or error of conscience all one ? if i had said a mistake of simple ignorance doth not excuse from sin , i had contradicted the whole design of that discourse , which is to shew that there must be wilfulness in the error or mistake which doth not excuse . for i say expresly , if the error be wholly involuntary , it doth excuse . this is but a bad beginning in a discourse about conscience . . if no error will excuse from sin , why is the question afterwards put by me , what error will excuse ? i answer , ( . ) it is an exercise of patience , to be troubled with a cavilling adversary . ( . ) do not i say as plainly , as words can express it , that a wilful error doth not excuse from sin ? and the question afterwards put , concerns the same thing ; and the answer i give to it is , if the error be wholly involuntary , it doth excuse , but if it be wilful it doth not . is this mans conscience full of scruples that writes at this rate , with so little regard to the plain meaning and words of him whom he pretends to confute ? . he saith , i put one of the wildest cases that ever was put , viz. if a man think himself bound to divide the church by sinful separation , that separation is nevertheless a sin for his thinking himself bound to do it . for ( . ) it may be justly questioned , whether it be possible for a man in his wits to think himself bound to divide the church by sinful separation . what sophisters arguments are these ? as though we did not commonly speak of the thing as it is , and not as the person apprehends it . s. paul did think himself bound to a sinful persecution , although he did not think it so , when he did it . the iews thought themselves bound to kill the apostles , which was wilful murder , and yet they were men in their wits . the false apostles thought themselves bound to divide the church by a sinful separation . how then comes this to be thought so impossible a case as to the thing it self ? for i was not so foolish to put the case concerning men , who thought themselves bound to commit a sin , knowing it to be a sin . ( . ) he much questions , whether ever any did think himself bound to divide a church , he may possibly think himself bound to avoid it . if he may think himself bound to do that which makes divisions in a church , it is sufficient to my purpose . and did not the false apostles do so , and have not others followed their examples ? and thus , after other trifling cavils to the same purpose , after his manner , he yields all that i say , and saith , it is freely granted by all the world , that wilful error doth not excuse from sin . and after many words about the case of an erroneous conscience , he concludes that i deliver nothing but the common doctrine of all casuists ; only he thinks it not pertinent to the matter in hand . why so ? was not the matter in hand about the duty of complying with an established rule ? and was it not very pertinent to this , to shew how far an erroneous conscience may , or may not excuse from sin ? but mr. a. saith , it should have been about the power of conscience , concerning an established rule of mans making ; and such for which they have neither general nor particular warrant from god so to make . is not this indeed to the purpose ? first to suppose an unlawful rule imposed , and then to enquire what conscience is to do about it . my business was to shew , that men were not in doubtful cases to satisfie themselves with this , that they followed their consciences ; because their consciences might err , and if that error happened to be wilful , being contracted for want of due care , what they did , might not only be sinful in it self , but imputed to them as sins . which all men who pretended any regard to conscience ought to have an eye to : for why do they pretend conscience , but to ●void sin ? and if under a wilful error of 〈◊〉 they may still be guilty of great sins , as the ie●● and s. paul were , then men ought not to satisfie the●selves barely with this pretence , that they do as 〈…〉 direct them . this was the plain 〈◊〉 of that ●art of my sermon ; and i leave any 〈…〉 whether it were not pertinent . but he saith , 〈…〉 , if they be such , are wholl● 〈…〉 invincible ignorance . if 〈…〉 better for them . i hope they have 〈…〉 in their own breasts for it , than what appears in some of their late books ; for neither a peevish , angry , scornful , provoking way of writing about these matters ; nor a light , scurrilous , cavilling , sophistical answer to a serious discourse , are any great signs of such an impartial endeavour after satisfaction , as mr. a. boasts of . i cannot tell how much they have read the scriptures , and studied this controversie ; nor how earnestly they have pray'd for direction ; but i have seen enough of their unfriendly debates , which give me no great satisfaction in this matter . but i leave this to god and their own consciences to judge ; being very willing to hope and believe the best . to return to the author of the letter . the main force of what he saith , lies in this , that those who cannot conquer their scruples as to communion with our church , must either return to the state of paganism , or set up new churches by joyning with the ejected ministers . this is new doctrine , and never heard of in the dayes of the old puritans ; for they supposed men obliged to continue in the communion of this church , although there were some things they scrupled , and could not conquer those scruples . and this they supposed to be far enough from a state of paganism . but they scruple the vse of the sacraments with us ; and much more living under some of our ministers . i never heard this last alledged for a ground of separation till very lately , and it hath been considered already . and it is a very hard case with a church , if people must fly into separation , because all their ministers are not such as they ought to be . but if they do scruple joyning in communion with our church , i would fain know , whether as often as men do scruple joyning with others , their separation be lawful ? if it be , it is a vain thing to talk of any settled constitution of a church ; whether episcopal , presbyterian , or independent ; for this principle overthrows them all . i will instance particularly in the last , as most favourable to such kind of liberty . and i need not suppose a case , since such hath already happened several times in new england . r. williams is one remarkable instance , who scrupled many things in their churches , and therefore could joyn no longer with them ; and thought himself bound to set up a separate congregation among them ; and the people who scrupled as well as he , chose him for their pastor . what is there in this case , but is every whit as justifiable , as the present separation ? but did the churches of new england allow this for a just cause ? so far from it , that r. williams published grievous complaints to the world , of the persecution he underwent for it . mr. baxter mentions another instance since this from the mouth of mr. norton , an eminent minister of new england , viz. of a church that separated from a church , on the account of their preachers having human learning ; and upon all the applications and endeavours that could be used towards them , their answer was , that is your judgement , and this is ours , i. e. they could not conquer their scruples , and therefore must persist in separation , or return to paganism . mr. cobbet of new england mentions a third instance ; one obadiah holmes being unsatisfied with the proceedings of the church of rehoboth , withdraws from their communion , and sets up another assembly in the town ; and upon his obstinate continuance therein , was solemnly excommunicated by them . and what the late differences among them concerning the subject of baptism and consociation of churches may come to , time will discover . i would only know , whether if mr. davenport and the dissenting party there from the determination of their synod , should proceed to separation , whether this separation be justifiable or not ? this is certain , that the dissenters there do charge their brethren with innovation and apostasie from their first principles ; and say , their consciences cannot comply with their decrees : and if they proceed , those churches may be broken in pieces , by these principles of separation . as the separate congregations in the low countreys , most of them were by new scruples , which the people could not conquer ; for the anabaptists commonly raised scruples among their members , and carried away many of them . and so they had done in new england , and dissolved those churches before this time , if this principle had been allowed there , viz. that where people cannot conquer their scruples , they may proceed to separation . no , they tell them , they must preserve the peace of their churches , and if they cannot be quiet among them , the world is wide enough for them . so they sent r. williams and others out of their colonies ; notwithstanding the far greater danger of paganism among the indians . this i only mention , to shew that no settled church doth allow this liberty of separation , because men cannot conquer their scruples . and upon the same ground , not only anabaptists and quakers , but the papists themselves must be allowed the liberty of setting up separate congregations . for , i suppose this gentleman will not deny , but they may have scruples too , many scruples , and of long standing , and among great numbers , and they have priests enough at liberty to attend them . and by that time all these have set up among us , shall we not be in a very hopeful way to preserve the protestant religion ? these consequences do flow so naturally from such principles , that i wonder that none of those who have undertaken to defend the cause of separation , have taken any care to put any stop to it , or to let us know , where we may fix and see an end of it ; what scruples are to be allowed , and what not : and whether it be lawful to separate as long as men can go on in scrupling , and say they cannot conquer their scruples . are there no scruples among us , but only against the sign of the cross , and god-fathers and god-mothers in baptism , and kneeling at the lords supper ? are there none that scruple the lawfulness of infant-baptism among us ? are there none that scruple the very use of baptism and the lords supper , saying they are not to be literally understood ? are there none that scruple giving common respect to others as a sort of idolatry ? are there none that scruple the validity of our ordinations , and say , we can have no true churches , because we renounce communion with the pope ? what is to be done with all these , and many more scruplers , who profess they cannot conquer their scruples no more than others can do theirs about our ceremonies , and such weighty things as the use of god-fathers and god-mothers . this i mention , because this gentleman seems to look on it , as a more dreadful thing than the sign of the cross. for , having spoken of that , he addes , nor is it in it self of less weight ( perhaps 't is of much greater ) that in baptism the parents are not suffered to be sponsors for their children , but others must appear and undertake for them : which he repeats soon after . and yet t. c. who saw as much into these matters , as any that have come after him , in the admonitions declared , that this was a thing arbitrary , and left to the discretion of the church . and in his first answer he saith , for the thing it self , considering that it is so generally received of all the churches , they do not mislike of it . so that , on the same ground it seems , all o●●er protestant churches may be scrupled at , as well as ours ; and yet not only this gentleman , but mr. b. several times mentions this , as one of the grounds of the unlawfulness of the peoples joyning in communion with us : nay , he calls this , his greatest objection ; and yet he confesseth , that if the sponsors do but represent the parents , our baptism is valid and lawful . now where is it , that our church excludes such a representation ? indeed by canon , the parents are not to be compelled to be present , nor suffered to answer , as susceptors for their children ; but the parents are to provide such as are fit to undertake that office. in the bohemian churches , there seems to be an express compact between the parents and the sponsors ; but there is no declaration of our church against such an implicit one , as may be reasonably inferred from the consent of the parties . for the parents desire of the sponsors undertaking such an office for his child is in effect transferring his own right to them ; and so they may be said to represent the parents . if our church had appointed the sponsors without 〈◊〉 against the consent of the parents ; then none cou●● in reason suppose , that there was any implicit compact between them . but since they are of the parents choosing , what they do in that office , is supposed to be with their full consent . if baptism were solemnly celebrated as of old , at some certain seasons only , and indispensable occasions required the parents absence , might not they appoint others to be sponsors for their children upon mutual consent and agreement among themselves ? our churches not permitting the parents themselves to be sponsors is but like such an occasion of absence ; and the intentention of our church is not to supersede the obligation of parents , but to superinduce a farther obligation upon other persons for greater security of performance . if men be negligent in doing their duty , must the church bear the blame , and this be pleaded for a ground of separation from her communion ? but there is something beyond this , which lies at the bottom of this scruple ; viz. that the child 's right to baptism depends on the right of the parents , and therefore if the parents be excluded , and only sponsors admitted , the children so baptized have no right to baptism . for mr. b.'s first question is , which way the child cometh to have right to baptism , any more than all the infidels children in the world ? and his next is , whether the church of england require any ground of title in the infant , besides the sponsion of the fore-described god-fathers , and gods general promise ? i answer , ( . ) the church by requiring sponsors doth not exclude any title to baptism , which the child hath by the right of the parents . for the sponsors may be supposed to appear in a threefold capacity . . as representing the parents in offering up the child to baptism ; and so whatever right the parents have , that is challenged , when the child is brought to be baptized . . as representing the child in the answers that are made in baptism ; which is a very ancient and universal practice of the christian church ; for it was not only observed in the latin churches in s. augustins time ; and in the greek churches in s. chrysostom's ; and hath so continued ever since ; but the aethiopick and armenian churches do still observe it . . in their own capacity ; when they promise to take care of the good education of the child in the principles of the christian faith ; in the charge given to them , after baptism . so that since one of these capacities doth not destroy another , they all succeeding each other , there is no reason to say that the church doth exclude the right which comes by the parents . ( ) if the parents be supposed to have no right , yet upon the sponsion of god-fathers , the church may have right to administer baptism to children . not , as though their sponsion gave the right , but was only intended to make them parties to the covenant in the childs name and sureties for performance . to make this clear , we must consider , that administration of baptism , is one considerable part of the power of the keys , which christ first gave to the apostles , and is ever since continued in the officers of the church . by vertue of this power , they have authority to give admission into the church to capable subjects . the church of christ , as far as we can trace any records of antiquity , hath alwayes allowed children to be capable subjects of admission into the christian church ; but lest the church should fail of its end , and these children not be afterwards well instructed in their duty , it required sponsors for them , who were not only to take care of them for the future but to stand as their sureties to ratifie their part of the covenant which baptism implyes . and the ancient church went no farther as to the right of baptism than this , for since the power of the keys was in the church to give admission to capable subjects ; since the catholick church did alwayes judge infants capable , there seemed to be no more necessary for their admission than the undertaking of sponsors in their name . all this appears from s. augustines epistle , ad bonifacium ; where he saith ( . ) that the childs benefit by baptism doth not depend upon the intention of those that offer him . for boniface put the question to s. augustin about some who offered children to baptism , not for any spiritual benefit , but for corporal health ; notwithstanding this , saith s. augustine , if the due form of baptism be observed , the spiritual effect of it is obtained . ( . ) that the churches right is chiefly concerned in the baptism of infants . for , saith he , the children are offered to baptism and the spiritual grace to be received thereby , not so much by those in whose arms they are carried ( for so the sponsors used to carry them in their right arms ) as by the whole society of the faithful . tota ergo mater ecclesia quae in sanctis est facit , quia tota omnes , tota singulos parit : so that it is by the churches right , that he supposeth them to receive baptism and the benefits by it . ( . ) that there is no necessity , that the parents themselves offer their children . for he calls it a mistake to think that children receive the benefit in baptism , as to the remission of original guilt , or the account of their parents offering them . for many are offered to baptism by strangers , and slaves sometimes by their masters . and when parents are dead , children are offered by such as take pity upon them ; and sometimes children exposed by parents , and sometimes as they are taken up by holy virgins , which neither have children , nor intend to have any . ( . ) that the answers made by the sponsors in baptism in the name of the child are a part of the solemnity of baptism . not as though the child did really believe , yet it is said to believe on the account of the sacrament which supposeth faith . for the sacraments because of the resemblance between them and the things represented by them , do carry the name of the things represented ; as , saith he , the sacrament of christs body after a certain manner is called his body ; and the sacrament of his blood is called his blood , so the sacrament of faith is called faith , i. e. the baptismal covenant supposing believing on one part , the church supplies that part by the sponsors , which cannot be performed by the children . thence he saith , ipsa responsio ad celebrationem pertinet sacramenti , so that then the church looked upon the sponsors answering , as a necessary part of the solemnity of baptism . thence s. augustin elsewhere saith , that the fide-jussores or sureties did in the name of the children renounce the devil and all his pomp and works ; and in another place he declares , that he would not baptize a child without the sponsors answering for the child that he would renounce the devil , and turn to god , and that they believed he was baptized for the remission of sins . ( . ) those who think themselves bound to baptize children only by vertue of the parents right , must run into many perplexing scruples about baptizing children , and be forced to exclude the far greater number of those that are offered . for , ( . ) they are not well agreed , what it is which gives parents a right to have their children baptized ; whether a dogmatical faith be sufficient , or a justifying faith be necessary ? if saving faith be necessary , whether the outward profession of it be sufficient ? whether that ought to be taken for a true profession which is only pretended to be a true sign of the mind , or that only which is really so ? whether profession be required for it self , or as a discovery of something further ? whether seeming seriousness in profession be sufficient , or real serio●sness be required ? what we must judge real seriousness in profession , as distinct from inward sincerity ? what contradiction may be allowed to make a profession not serious ? whether besides a serious profession it be not necessary to be a practical profession ? and what is necessary for the judging a profession to be practical ? whether besides meer practical profession the positive signs of inward grace be not necessary ? and whether besides all these , actual confederation and joyning in church covenant be not necessary ? and if it be , whether the children of confederated parents not being confederated themselves , can convey a right to their children ? about these , and other such like questions , those who go upon the parents right are in perpetual disputes , and can neither give others , nor hardly themselves satisfaction about them . ( . ) the consequence of this is , that they must baptize many with a doubting mind ; and must exclude many more , than they can baptize . for mr. b. saith , if he took a dogmatical faith it self , or any short of justifying for the title and necessary qualifications of them i must admit , i would baptize none , because i cannot know who hath that dogmatical faith , and who not . the like others are as ready to say , of his serious , voluntary , not prevalently contradicted , practical profession ; or at least , that no man can baptize with a good conscience , till he hath upon good evidence throughly weighed the lives of the parents , and is able to pronounce that the actions of their lives do not prevalently contradict their profession . others must reject all those in whose parents they do not see positive signs of grace ; or are not actually confederated with them . and upon all these several bars to the parents right , how few children will be left , that a man can baptize with a safe conscience ? is not this now a more likely way to reduce the far greatest part of christianity to paganism than denying the lawfulness of separation ? thus i have considered this main scruple against the vse of entitling and covenanting godfathers , as mr. b. calls them ; and have shewed how little reason there is to make use of this as so great an objection against our churches , communion . as to kneeling at the communion , i find nothing particularly objected against that deserving consideration , which i have not answered in another place . mr. a. hath one thing yet more to say against the terms of our churches communion , viz. that upon the same reason these are imposed , the church may impose some use of images , circumcision , and the paschal lamb. to which i answer , ( . ) that our question is about separation from the communion of our church on the account of the terms that are imposed ; and is this a reasonable pretence for men not to do what is required , because they do not know what may be required on the same grounds ? a father charges his son to stand with his hat off before him , or else he shall not stay in his house ; at first the son demurrs upon putting off his hat to his father , because he hath some scruples , whether putting off the hat be a lawful ceremony or not ; not meerly on the account of its significancy , but because it seems to him to be giving worship to a creature . this he thinks so weighty a scruple , that he charges his father with tyranny over his conscience for imposing such a condition , on his continuing in his house , and thinks himself sufficiently justified by it in his disobedience and forsaking his fathers house , and drawing away as many of his servants from him , as he can infuse this scruple into . but let us suppose him brought to understand the difference between civil and religious worship , yet he may upon mr. a.'s grounds still justifie his disobedience . for faith he to his father , why do you require me to put off my hat in your presence , and to make this the condition of my staying in your house ? is it not enough that i own my self to be your son , and ask you blessing morning and evening , and am very willing to sit at your table , and depend upon you for my subsistence ? are not these sufficient testimonies that i am your son , but you must expect my obedience in such a trifling ceremony as putting off my hat ? you say , it is a token of respect ; i say for that reason i ought not to do it . for , how do i know when you will have done with your tokens of respect ? it is true , you require no more now , but i consider what you may do , and for all that i know , the next thing you may require me will be to put off my shoos before you , for that is a token of respect in some countries ; next you may require me to kiss your toe , for that is a token of respect used some where ; and who knows what you may come to at last ; and therefore i am resolved to stop at first , and will rather leave your house , than be bound to put off my hat in your presence . let any one judge whether this be a reasonable ground for such an obstinate disobedience to the command of his father . or suppose a law were made to distinguish the several companies in london from each other , that they should have some badge upon their livery gowns , that may represent the trade and company they are of ; would this be thought a just excuse for any mans refusing it , to say , what do i know how far this imposing power may go at last ; it is true , the matter is small at present , but i consider , it is a badge , it is a moral significant ceremony , a dangerous teeming thing , no man knows what it may bring forth at last ; for how can i or any man living tell , but at last i may be required to wear a fools coat . would such an unreasonable jealousie as this justifie such a mans refractoriness , in rather choosing to lose the priviledge of his company , than submitting to wear the badge of it ? so that the fears of what may be required is no ground for actual disobedience to what is required . ( . ) there can be no reasonable suspicion that our church should impose any other ceremonies , than what it hath already done , supposing that it might do it , on the same ground : because the church hath rather retrench●d than increased ceremonies ; as will appear to any one that compares the first and second liturgies of edw. . and since that time no one new ceremony hath been required , as a condition of commmunion . but besides , our church gives a particular reason against the multiplying of ceremonies : because the very number of them , supposing them lawful is a burden ; of which s. augustin complained in his time , and others had much more cause since ; and therefore for that cause many were taken away , and withall , it is declared that christs gospel was not to be a ceremonial law. so that for these reasons there can be no just fears that our church should contradict her own doctrine , which it must do , if it increased our cermonies , so as to make a new argument against them , from the number of them . ( . ) there is not the same reason for introducing the things mentioned by mr. a. as for the ceremonies in vse among us . for , ( . ) as to the vse of images , our church hath fully declared against any religious vse of them , in the homilies about the peril of idolatry ; and that from such reasons , as cannot extend to our ceremonies : viz. from the express law of god , and the general sense of the primitive church ; which allowed and practised the sign of the cross , at the same time when it disputed most vehemently against images . ( . ) for circumcision , which he tells us , may be used as signifying the circumcision of the heart . he knows very well that our church joins significancy and decency together in the matter of ceremonies ; and no man can imagine that such a kind of significancy as that he mentions , should be sufficient to introduce such a practice which is so repugnant to decency among us . besides that s. paul makes it so great a badge of the obligation to the law , that he saith , if ye be circumcised , christ profiteth you nothing : which was never said of any of our ceremonies . and whereas he saith , it is observed in abassia as a mystical ceremony ; he is much mistaken , if their emperour claudius say true ; for he saith , it is only a national custom without any respect to religion , like the cutting of the face in some parts of aethiopia and nubia , and boreing the ear among the indians . and ludolphus proves it to be no other , because it is done by a woman in private , without any witnesses . ( . ) as to his paschal lamb in memory of christ our passeover that is sacrificed for us ; we owe greater reverence to gods own institutions that were intended to typifie christ to come , than to presume to turn them quite another way to represent what is past . especially since christ is become the great sacrifice for the sins of mankind . and he might as well have mentioned the scape-goat and the red heifer as the paschal lamb ; since they were all types of the great sacrifice of propitiation . but why are things never used by the primitive church ( for as to his story of innocent . be it true or false , it is nothing to us ) brought to parallel our ceremonies , when the great reason of our churches retaining any ceremonies was declared from the beginning of the reformation to be out of reverence to the ancient church , which observed the same kind of ceremonies ? the only remaining pretence for the present separation , is , that there is a parity of reason , as to their separating from us , and our separating from the church of rome . for so mr. a. urgeth the argument , we separate from them because they impose doubtful things for certain , false for true , new for old , absurd for reasonable ; then this will hold for themselves because they think so ; and that was all i opposed to t. g. but is it possible for any man that pretends to be a protestant divine to think the case alike ? when ( . ) they confess our doctrine in the articles to be true , we reject all their additional articles , in pius . his creed , not only as false , but some of them as absurd and unreasonable , as men can invent , viz. that of transubstantiation ; which is made by them the great trying and burning point . but what is there , which the most inveterate enemies of our church can charge in her doctrine , as new , as false , as absurd ? nay , they all yield to the antiquity , to the truth , to the reasonableness of our doctrine ; and yet is not mr. a. ashamed to make the case seem parallel . but what new and strong reason doth he bring for it ? you may be sure it is some mighty thing ; for , he saith , presently after it , that my importunity hath drawn them out of their reservedness , and they have hitherto been modest to their prejudice . alas for him , that his modesty should ever hurt him ! but what is this dangerous secret , that they have hitherto kept in , out of meer veneration to the church of england ? let us prepare our selves for this unusual , this killing charge . why , saith mr. a. in the catechism of the church , this doctrine is contained ( it is matter of doctrine then , i see ; although we are confessed to be agreed in the articles , as far as they concern ▪ doctrine . but what is this notorious doctrine ? ) it is , saith he , that infants perform faith and repentance by their sureties . did i not fear , it was some dreadful thing ; some notorious heresie , condemned by one or two at least of the four general councils ? but is it said so , in plain words ? or is it wire-drawn by far-fetched consequences ? no , it is plain enough ; for the question is , what is required of persons to be baptized . answ. repentance whereby they forsake sin ; and faith , whereby they stedfastly believe the promises of god made to them in that sacrament . quest. why then are infants baptized , when by reason of their tender age , they cannot perform them ? answ. because they promise them both by their sureties ; which promise when they come to age themselves are bound to perform . but i pray doth it hence follow , that infants do perform faith and repentance by their sureties ? are not the words express , that they promise both by their sureties ? and is promising and performance all one ? i do not find it so by this instance . for here was a great matter promised , and nothing performed . it is true the catechism saith , faith and repentance are required of them that are to be baptized : which supposeth the persons to be baptized capable of performing these things themselves . and then comes a question , by way of objection ; why then are infants baptized , &c. to which the sense of the answer is , that although by reason of their age they are uncapable of performing the acts of repentance and believing ; yet the church doth allow sureties to enter into covenant for them ; which doth imply a promise on their parts for the children , and an obligation lying on them to perform what was then promised . and now let the reader judge , since this horrible secret is come out , whether this ought to be ranked in an equal degree as to the justifying separation with the monstrous , absurd and unreasonable doctrines of the roman church . and i know nothing can do them greater service , than such parallels as these . ( . ) we charge them with those reasons for separation , which the scripture allows ; such as idolatry , perverting the gospel and institutions of christ , and tyranny over the consciences of men , in making those things necessary to salvation , which christ never made so : but not one of these , can with any appearance of reason be charged on the church of england , since we profess to give religious worship only to god ; we worship no images ; we invocate no sains ; we adore no host ; we creep to no crucifix ; we kiss no relicks . we equal no traditions with the gospel ; we lock it not up from the people in an unknown language ; we preach no other terms of salvation than christ and his apostles did ; we set up no monarchy in the church to undermine christs , and to dispence with his laws and institutions . we mangle no sacraments , nor pretend to know what makes more for the honour of his blood than he did himself . we pretend to no skill in expiating mens sins when they are dead ; nor in turning the bottomless pit into the pains of purgatory by a charm of words and a quick motion of the hand . we do not cheat mens souls with false bills of exchange , called indulgences ; nor give out that we have the treasure of the church in our keeping , which we can apply as we see occasion . we use no pious frauds to delude the people , nor pretend to be infallible , as they do when they have a mind to deceive . these are things which the divines of our church have with great clearness and strength of reason made good against the church of rome ; and since they cannot be objected against our church , with what face , can men suppose the cases of those who separate from each of them to be parallel ? ( . ) as to the ceremonies in the roman church and ours , there are these considerable differences , ( . ) they have a mighty number , as appears by their rituals and ceremonials , and the great volums , written in explication of them ; we , very few , and those so very easie and plain ; that it requires as great skill not to understand ours , as it doth to understand theirs . ( . ) they place great holiness in theirs , as appears by the forms of consecration of their water , oyle , salt , wax , vestments , &c. but we allow none of these , but only the use of certain ceremonies , without any preceding act of the church importing any peculiar holiness attributed to them . ( . ) they suppose great vertue and efficacy to be in them , for the purging away some sorts of sins ; we utterly deny any such thing to belong to our ceremonies , but declare , that they are appointed only for order and deceny . ( . ) they make their ceremonies being appointed by the church to become necessary parts of divine worship ; as i have already proved ; but our church looks upon them , even when determined as things in their own nature indifferent , but only required by vertue of that general obedience which we owe to lawful authority . so that as to ceremonies themselves there is a vast disparity between the roman church and ours ; and no man can pretend otherwise , that is not either grosly ignorant , or doth not wilfully misunderstand the state of the controversie between them and us . thus i have gone through all the pleas for the present separation i could meet with , in the books of my answerers : and i have not concealed the force or strength i saw in any of them . and however mr. a. reproaches me with having a notable talent of misrepresenting my adversaries , ( a thing which i have alwayes abhorred , and never did it wilfully in my life , it appearing to me an act of injustice as well as disingenuity ) yet i do assure him , i have endeavoured to understand them truly , and to represent them fairly , and to judge impartially . and although i make no such appeals to the day of iudgement as others do ; yet i cannot but declare to the world , as one that believes a day of judgement to come , that upon the most diligent search , and careful inquiry i could make into this matter , i cannot find any plea sufficient to justifie in point of conscience , the present separation from the church of england . monseigneur , deux voyages que j'ay été obligè de faire , m'ont empéché de répondre aussi tost que je l'aurois souhaitè a la lettre dont vôtre grandeur m'a fait la grace de m'honorer . comme j'étois sur le point de vous en faire des excuses , monsieur de l' angle est arrivè en ceste ville , quime les a fait encor differer , dans l'esperance , qu' il voudroit bien se charger de ma reponse , & qu' elle pourroit par ce moien vous étre plus fidellement rendue . il est vray , monsieur , que si j'en croyois mon déplaisir , je la remettrois encor a une autre fois ; car je ne peux vous ecrire sans un extreme douleur , quand je songe a la matiere surla quelle vous me commandés de vous dire mon sentiment . ie croy que vous le sçavés dejá bien , et que vous ne me faites pas l'honneur de me le demander comme en ayant quelque sorte de doute ; vous me faites plus de justice que cela ; & vous ne me comprenéz pas au nombre de ceux , qui ont touchant l ' eglise d' angleterre une si mechante opinion . pour moy , je n'en avois pas une si mechante d'aucun veritable anglois , & je ne pouvois pas me persuader qu' il y en eut un seul , qui crût qu'on ne peut éstre dans sa communion sans hasarder son propre salut . pour ceux qui sont engagés dans le parti de l' eglise romaine , j'en jugeois tout autrement . ils ont des maximes particuliers , & agissent par d'autres interests . mais pour ceux qui n'ont aucune liaison avec rome , c'est une chose bien singuliere de les voir passer jusqu ' a cette extremitè que de croire que dans l' eglise anglicane on ne peut faire son salut . c'est n'avoir gueres de conoissance de la confession defoy , que tout le monde protestant a si hautement approuveé , & qui merite en effect les louanges de tout ce qu'il y a de bons chrestiens . car on ne pouvoit rien faire de plus sage que cette confession , & jamais les articles de foy n'ont eté recueillis avec un discernment plus juste , & plus raisonnable que dans cette excellent● piece . on a raison de la garder avec tant de veneration dans la bibliotheque d' oxford , & le grand iuellus pour l'avoir si dignement defendüe , est digne d'une louange immortelle . c'est d'elle dont dieu se servit dans le commencement de la reformation d' angleterre , & si elle n'avoit pas été comme son ouvrage , il ne l'auroit pas benit d'une façon si avantageuse . le succes qu' elle out , devroit fermer la bouche a ceux qui sont les plus animés , & l'avoir veue trionpher de tant d' obstacles devroit faire reconnoitre a tout le monde , que dieu s'est declarè en sa faveur , qu'il est visiblement mélé de son établissement , & qu'elle a la verité & la fermeté de sa parole , a qui elle doibt en effect sa naissance , & son origine . elle est aujourdhuy ce qu'elle ètoit quand elle ●toit formeé , & on ne peut pas reprocher a messieurs les evéques qu'ils y ayent depuis cette terme lá , apporté quelque changement . et comment donc s'imaginer qu'elle ayt changé d'usage ? & peut on rien voir de plus inique , que de dire , qu'un instrument que dieu employa autrefois pour l'instruction de tant de gens de bien , pour le salut de de tant de peuples , pour la consolation tant de fidelles soit aujourdhuy devenüe quelque chose de funeste , & pernicieuse . si votre confession de foy est pure , & innocente , votre service divin l'est aussi car on n'y voit rien de tout qui tende a l'idolatrie ; vous n'adorés que dieu seul ; dans vôtre culte il n'y a rien qui se termine a la creature , & si l'on y trouve quelques ceremonies qui ne se rencontrent pas ailleurs , c'est faire profession d'une terrible theologie , avoir depouillé toute charité , ne sçavoir guere ce que valent les ames , ne conoitre point la nature de choses indifferentes , que decroire qu'elles sont capables de perdre eternellement ceux qui s'y veulent assujettir . c'est avoir une méme dureté que de croire que vôtre discipline ecclesiastique est capable de damner les hommes . car ou a t'on jamais vú que pour des articles de discipline le salut des hommes se trouve interessé , & de choses qui ne regardent que le dehors , & l'ordre de l' eglise , et qui ne sont que comme l'ecorce , & les envelopes de la veritè , peuvent elles causer la mort , & glisser du poison dans une ame ? certes on ne les comprend jamais au nombre de verités essentielles , & comme il n'y a que celles cy qui sauvent , il n'y a qu'elles aussi qui peuvent exclurre du salut . pour le gouvernement episcopal , qu'a t'il qui soit dangereux , & qui puisse raisonnablement alarmer des consciences ? & s'il est capable de priver de la gloire eternelle , & de boucher les avenües du ciel , qui estce qui y est entré l'espace de plus de quinze cents ans ? puisque pendant tout ce temps lá , toutes les eglises du monde n'ont point eu d'autre gouvernement . s'il étoit contraire a la verité & a l'aquisition du bonheur eternel , est il croyable que dieu l'eut si hautement approuvé , & qu'il eut permis que pendant tant de siecles son eglise en eust été tyrannisé ? car qui estce qui l'a gouverné , qui estce qui a composé ses conciles tant generaux que particuliers , qui estce qui a combatu les heresies dont elle a esté de tout temps attaqué ? on t ce pas été les evéques , & n' estce pas a leur sage conduite , que la parcle de dieu est redevable , apres dieu , de ses victoires & de ses triomphes . et sans remonter jusq ' au berceau , & la naissan ce de l' eglise , qui estce qui dans le siecle precedant delivra l' angleterre , de l' erreur dont elle étoit envelopée ? qui estce qui y fit resveiller si miraculeusement la verité ? fut ce pas le zele , & la fermeté des evéques , leur ministere ? degagea t'il pas les anglois de l'oppression sous laquelle ils gemissoient de puis si long temps ; & leur exemple aida't y pas puissamment a la reformation de toute l' europe ? en verité je croy qu'ils en pouvroient vser comme fift autre fois gregoire de nazianze au milieu de constantinople . quand il y arriva , il trouva que l' arrianismey avoit fait de fort grand progres , cependant , son courage , son zele , son sçavoir affoblioent si fort le parti des heretiques , qu'en peu de temps la verité y apparut plus belle que jamais , & il voulut que le temple ou il l'avoit si fortement appuiée portoit le nom d' anastasie , parce qu'il l'y avoit comme deterrée , & degagée de dessous l'erreur , & par ses soins continuels , il y avoit comme fait sortir du tombeau , & glorieusement resusciteé , c'est ce qu'ont fait aussi les evesques d' angleterre . ils voyoient non une verité seulement , mais quasi toutes les verités fondamentales ensevelies sous un nombre espouvantables d' erreurs . ils voyoient le joug de rome plus pesant au milieu d'eux qu'il n'étoit nulle part ailleurs . la difficulté qu'il y avoit a reüssir dans la reformation étoit capable de décourager des personnes d'une capacité , & d'un zele mediocre , & neantmoins rien ne les detourne d'un si gene reux dessein . les ennemis de dehors , ceux de dedans , tous terribles qu'ils parussent , ne les intimident point ; ils entreprenent ce grand ouvrage , et ne l'abandonnent point qu'ils n'en soient venus au bout , & qu'ils n'ayent remis sur le throne la verité resuscitée . en sorte qu'ils pouuoient lusser par tout des monuments de ce miracle & nommer justement toutes leur eglises du nom d' anastasie & de resurrection . mais si ce tiltre manque a leur temples , la chose en soy leur convient , & l'on n'entend ressonner au milieu d'eux que les lessons , & les louanges de la pure verité . ce que doit obliger tous les gens de bien à ne s'en ecarter pas , & a regarder l' eglise anglicane comme une eglise tres orthodoxe . c'est ce qui font les protestants de france , ceux de geneva , ceux de suisse , & d' allemagne , & ceux d' hollande aussi . car ils se firent un fort grand honneur , d'avoir dans leur concile de dordrecht des theologiens d' angleterre , & monstrerent bien qu'ils avoient pour l' eglise anglicane une profonde veneration . et d'oú vient donc , que des anglois mémes en ont aujourdhuy si mechante opinion , & rompre si temerairement comme ils font , avec elle ? estce pas rompre avec toute l' eglise ancienne , avec toutes les eglises orientales , avec toutes les eglises protestantes qui ont toujours fort consideré la pureté de celle d' angleterre ? estce pas une horrible dureté que de l'excommunier sans misericorde , & s'en faire etrangement a croire que de s'imaginer qu'ils soient le seuls en angleterre & méme au milieu de tout le monde chrestien , qui soient destinés au bonheur eternel & a soustenir , comme il faut , le verites necessaires au salut . certes on pourroit faire un parallele fort odieux entre ces docteurs , & le pape victor , qui volut excommunier les eglises d' asie par ce qu'elles ne celebroient le feste de pasque au méme jour que rome le faisoit ; entre eux & les audiens , qui rompoient avec les chrestiens , & ne vouloient point souffrir d' evéques riches . entre eux & le donatistes , qui ne vouloient point de communion avec ceux qui avoient esté ordines par des evéques laches , & qui s'imaginoient que leur societé étoit la veritable eglise , & l'épouse bien aimée qui paissoit son troupeau vers le midi . entre eux & ceux de la communion romaine , qui ont si bonne opinion de leur eglise , que hors d'elle ils ne s'imaginent pas qu'un puisse jamais acquerir le salut . pour moy quelque enclin que je sois a la tolerance , je ne pourois pourtant me persuader qu'il en faille avoir pour ceux qui en ont si peu pour les autres , & que s'ils étoient les maitres feroient assurement un mauvais quartiér a ceux qui dependroient d'eux . ie regarde ces gens lá , comme de perturbateurs de l'estat , & de l'eglise , & qui sont infalliblement animés d'un esprit de sedition . i'ay méme de la paine a croire qu'ils soient justement ce qu'ils disent estre , & je craindrois bien que sous ces docteurs il n'y eust des ennemis tres dangereux qui fussent cachés . des societés composées detelles personnes seroient extrement perilleuses , & on ne les pourroit soufrir sans ouvrir la porte au disordre , & travailler asa propre ruine . ily en a de composées de personnes plus raisonnables . mais j'y voudrois qu'elles le fussent assez , pour ne se point separer de celles qui composent l' eglise anglicane ; particulierement au terme ou nous sommes elles devroient tout faire pour une bonne reconciliation ; & dans le conjuncture des affaires presentes ils devroient bien s'aperçevoir qu'il n'y a qu'une bonne reunion qui puisse prevenir les maux dont l'angleterre est menacée . car pour dire la verité , je ne voi pas que leue meetings soient de fort grande utilité , & qu'on puisse s'y consoler davantage , que dans les eglises episcopales . quand j'estois a londres , il y a bien tost cinq ans , je me trouvay en plusieurs assemblées particulieres pour voir comme on l'y prenoit pour l'instruction du peuple , & la predication de la parole de dieu . mais j'avoue que je ●'en receus aucune edification . i'entendis un de plus fameux non-conformistes . il pre-choit en vn lieu ou il y avoit trois hommes & soissante , ou quatre vingt ●emmes . il avoit choisi un texte touchant le restablissement des ruines de ierusalem , & pour l'expliquer il cita cent fois plinie & vitruve , & n'oublia pas de dire en italien ce proverbe , duro con duro non fa muro . tout cela me parut hors de propos , fort peu a propos pour des femmelettes , & tres eloigné d'un esprit qui ne cherche que la consolation & l'edification de ses auditeurs . se cantonner & faire un schisme pour avoir la liberté de debiter de telles vanit●s est une fort m●●vaise conduite ; & les peuples paroissent bien ●●ibles de quitter leur mutuelles assemblées pour de choses qui m●ritent ●i peu leur estime , & leur preference . ie n'estime pas , qu'on soit en obligation de souffrir ce dereglement . il est vray qu'autrefois on souffroit les assemblées de novatiens á rome & à constantinople , & que le donatistes a voient en la premiere place quelque sorte de liberté . mais c'estoit les estrangers , & cela méme ne dura pas long temps & comme il'y en avoit peu , cela ne tiroit pas en consequence . mais c'est un autre fait en angleterre , & comme le bien de l' estat , & de l' eglise depend absolument de l'union du peuple sur le poinct de la religion , on n'y pourroit trop presser une union universelle . mais il la faut procurer par les bonnes voyes , & comme messieurs les evéques sont de personnes d'une grande experience , d'un scavoir extraordinaire , d'un zele , & d'une bonté , envers leur peuples veritablement paternelle , j'espere qu'ils s'employeront a c●grand o●rage avec toute la prudence & la charitè qui s●nt necess●ires pour faire reüssir une si louable entreprise . t'ous particulierement , monseigneur , dont la moderation & la capacité sont reconnües de tout le m●nde , il semble que 〈◊〉 soit un dessein reservé pour votre grande sag●sse , & 〈◊〉 vous n'y reuscistes pas , apparemment que tous les autres ' y travailleront inutilement . pour mor , je re 〈◊〉 ●●●tribuer d'icy que de vo●us , & que de pr●res ; 〈◊〉 bien protester que j'en fais tous les jours de f●●r sinceres pour la prosperité de 〈…〉 qu'il plaise a dieu faire en sorte , que tous les protestants d'angleterre ne soyent a l'avenir qu'un coeur , & qu'une ame. ie prie vostre grandeur d'en estre bien persuadé , & de croire qu'il n'est pas possible d'estre avec plus de respect que je le suis , a leyden septemb . . monseigneur , votre tres humble & tres obeissant serviteur , le moyne . first letter . a letter from monsieur le moyne , professor of divinity at leyden , to my lord bishop of london , concerning the nature of our present differences , and the unlawfulness of separation from the church of england . my lord , two journeys that i have been obliged to take , have hindered me from answering the letter , with which your lordship did me the favour to honour me , so soon as i could have wished . just as i was about to excuse my self to you for it , monsieur de l' angle came to this town , which made me defer it longer yet , in hopes that he would charge himself with my answer , and that by that means it might be brought unto you more safely . it is true , my lord , that if i should hearken to my own unwillingness , i should put it off still to another time ; for i cannot write unto you without being extreamly grieved , when i think upon the matter , of which you command me to tell you my opinion . i believe that you know it already , and that you do not do me the honour to ask it of me , as if you had any kind of doubt of it . you do me more right than so ; and you do not account me of the number of those that have so ill an opinion of the church of england . for my part i had not so bad a one of any true english-man , and i could not have perswaded my self that there had been so much as one , which had believed that a man could not be of her communion , without hazarding his own salvation . for those that are engaged in the party of the church of rome , i judged quite otherwise of them ; they have particular maxims , and act by other interests . but for those that have no tye to rome , it is a very strange thing to see them come to that extream , as to believe that a man cannot be saved in the church of england . this is not to have much knowledge of that confession of faith , which all the protestant world has so highly approved , and which does really deserve the praises of all good christians that are . for there cannot be any thing made more wise than that confession , and the articles of faith were never collected with a more just and reasonable discretion than in that excellent piece . there is great reason to keep it with so much veneration in the library of oxford ; and the great iewell deserves immortal praise for having so worthily defended it . it was this that god made use of in the beginning of the reformation of england . and if it had not been as it were his work , he had never blessed it in so advantageous a manner . the success that it has had , ought to stop the mouth of those that are the most passionate , and it 's having triumphed over so many obstacles , should make all the world acknowledge , that god has declared himself in favour of it , and that he has been visibly concerned in its establishment ; and that it has the truth and confirmation of his word , to which in effect it owes its birth and original . it is the same at present as it was when it was made , and no one can reproach the bishops for having made any change in it since that time . and how then can it be imagined , that it has changed its use ? and can there be any thing more unjust , than to say , that an instrument which god has heretofore employed for the instruction of so many people , for the consolation of so many good men , for the salvation of so many believers , is now become a destructive and pernicious thing ? if your confession of faith be pure and innocent , your divine service is so too : for no one can discover any thing at all in it that tends to idolatry : you adore nothing but god alone ; in your worship there is nothing that is terminated on the creature : and if there be some ceremonies there , which one shall not meet with in some other places ; this were to make profession of a terrible kind of divinity , to put off all charity , not to know much what souls are worth ; not to understand the nature of things indifferent , to believe that they are able to destroy those eternally , that are willing to submit themselves unto them . it is to have the same hardness to believe that your ecclesiastical discipline can damn any . for where has it been ever seen , that the salvation of men was concerned for articles of discipline , and things that regard but the out-side , and order of the church , and are but as it were the bark and covering of the truth ? can these things cause death , and distill poyson into a soul ? truly these are never accounted in the number of essential truths ; and as there is nothing but these that can save , so there is nothing but these that can exclude men from salvation . for the episcopal government , what is there in it that is dangerous , and may reasonably alarm mens consciences ? and if this be capable of depriving us of eternal glory , and shutting the gates of heaven , who was there that entered there for the space of fifteen hundred years , since that for all that time all the churches of the world had no other kind of government ? if it were contrary to the truth , and the attainment of eternal happiness , is it credible that god had so highly approved it , and permitted his church to be tyrannized over by it for so many ages ? for who was it that did govern it ? who was it that did make up its councils , as well general , as particular ? who was it that combated the heresies with which it has been at all times assaulted ? was it not the bishops ? and is it not to their wise conduct , to which next under god , his word is beholden for its victories and triumphs ? and not to go back so far as the birth and infancy of the church ; who was it that in the last age delivered england from the error in which she was inveloped ? who was it that made the truth to rise so miraculously there again ? was it not the zeal and constancy of the bishops , and their ministry that disengaged the english from that oppression under which they had groaned so long ? and did not their example powerfully help forward the reformation of all europe ? in truth i think they might make the same use of this , as gregory nazianzen did heretofore at constantinople . when he arrived there he found that arrianism had made a very great progress in that place ; but then his courage , his zeal , his learning did so mightily weaken the party of the hereticks that in a little time the truth appeared there again more beautiful than ever ; and the church where he had so stoutly upheld it , he would have to bear the name of anastasia ; because he had brought the truth as it were out of the earth , and cleared it from the error that lay upon it , and by his continual cares had caused it , as it were , to come out of the grave to a glorious resurrection . it is this too that the bishops of england have done ; they saw not only one truth , but almost all the fundamental truths buried under a formidable number of errors ; they saw the yoke of rome heavier among them , than it was any where else : the difficulty that there was of succeeding in the reformation , was enough to discourage persons of an ordinary capacity and zeal . nevertheless nothing turns them from so generous a design ; the enemies without , and those within as terrible as they seem , do not fright them ; they undertake this great work , and do not leave it till they had brought it about , and raised up the truth , and placed it again upon the throne , in such a manner that they might every where have monuments of this miracle , and justly have called all their churches by the name of anastasia or resurrection . but if their churches have not that title , the thing it self belongs unto them ; and you shall hear nothing discoursed of in these , but lectures and praises of the pure truth . which ought to oblige all good men not to separate from it ; but to look upon the church of england , as a very orthodox church . thus all the protestants of france do , those of geneva , those of switzerland and german , and those of holland too ; for they did themselves a very great honour in having some divines of england in their synod of dort , and shewed plainly that they had a profound veneration for the church of england . and from whence does it then come , that some englishmen themselves have so ill an opinion of her at present , and divide rashly from her , as they do ? is not this to divide from all the antient churches , from all the churches of the east , from all the protestant churches , which have alwayes had a very great respect for the purity of that of england ? is it not horrible impudence to excommunicate her without mercy , and to make themselves believe strangely of her , for them to imagine that they are the only men in england , nay , in the christian world , that are predestinated to eternal happiness , and to hold the truths necessary to salvation , as they ought to be held ? indeed one might make a very odious parallel betwixt these teachers and pope victor , that would needs excommunicate the churches of asia , because they did not celebrate the feast of easter the same day they did at rome . betwixt them and the audeans that divided from the christians , and would not endure rich bishops . betwixt them and the donatists , that would have no communion with them that had been ordained by lapsed bishops , and imagined that their society was the true church , and the well beloved spouse , that fed her flock in the south . betwixt them and those of the roman communion , who have so good an opinion of their own church , that out of her they do not imagine that any one can ever be saved . for my part , as much inclined to toleration as i am , i cannot for all this perswade my self , that it ought to be allowed to those that have so little of it for other men ; and who , if they were masters , would certainly give but bad quarter to those that depended upon them . i look upon these men as disturbers of the state and church , and who are doubtlesly animated by a spirit of sedition . nay , i can scarce believe , that they are just such as they say they are ; and i should be something afraid , that very dangerous enemies might be hid under colour of these teachers . societies composed of such persons , would be extream dangerous ; and they could not be suffered without opening the gate to disorder , and advancing towards ones own ruine . there are some of these that are composed of more reasonable men , but i could wish they were reasonable enough not to separate from those of which the church of england is composed . especially in the case we are in , they should do all for a good agreement ; and in the present conjuncture of affairs , they should understand that there is nothing but a good re-union , that can prevent the evils with which england is threatned . for to speak the truth , i do not see that their meetings are of any great use , or that one may be more comforted there , than in the episcopal churches . when i was at london almost five years ago , i went to several of their private assemblies , to see what way they took for the instruction of the people , and the preaching of the word of god. but i profess i was not at all edified by it . i heard one of the most famous non-conformists , he preached in a place where there were three men and three or fourscore women : he had chosen a text about the building up the ruines of ierusalem , and for the explication of it , he cited pliny and vitruvius a hundred times , and did not forget to mention a proverb in italian , duro con duro non fa muro . all this seem'd to me nothing to the purpose , and very improper for the poor women , and very far from a spirit that sought nothing but the comfort and edification of his hearers . to cantonize themselves , and make a schism , to have the liberty to vent such vanities , is very ill conduct , and the people seem very weak to quit their mutual assemblies for things that so little deserve their esteem and preference . i do not think that any one is obliged to suffer this irregularity . it is true , that the assemblies of the novatians were sometimes suffered at rome and constantinople , and that even the donatists had some kind of liberty in the first of these places . but they were only strangers ; and that neither did not indure any long time ; and as there were but few of them , that is not to be drawn into example . but it is another case in england ; and seeing the good of the state and church depends absolutely upon the union of the people in the point of religion , one cannot there press an universal union too much . but it ought to be procured by good means ; and since the bishops are persons of great experience , of an extraordinary knowledge , of a true fatherly zeal and goodness towards their people , i hope that they will employ themselves in this great work with all the prudence and charity that are necessary to the succeeding of such a commendable undertaking . you particularly , my lord , whose moderation and capacity are acknowledged by all the world ; it looks as if it were a design reserved for your great wisdom ; and if you do not succeed , it is clear , that all others will labour in it but in vain . for my part , i can contribute nothing to it where i am , but vowes and prayers ; and of these i can protest that i make very sincere ones every day for the prosperity of the english church ; and that it would please god to order things in such manner , that all the protestants of england for the future , might be of one heart and of one soul. i beg your lordship to be well assured of this and to believe that it is impossible to be with more respect than i am , leyden sept. . . my lord , your most humble and most obedient servant , le moyne . a paris l' . d'octob . monseigneur , rien ne vous a deu paroistre si estrange ny si incivil que mon silence sur la lettre que vous me fîstes l'honneur de m'escrire il y a environ trois mois ; il est pourtant vray que je n'ay rien a me reprocher sur cela , & a fin que vous le croyiez comme moy , vous voulez bien me permettre de vous dire comment la chose s'est passée . quand on m'apporta vostre lettre , j'estois retombé dans une grande & violente fiebvre dont dieu m'a affligé durant quatre ou cinq mois , & qui m'a mené jusqu'a deux doits de la mort . ie priay un de mes amis , qui estoit alors dans ma chambre , de l'ouvrir & de me dire le nom de celuy qui me l'escrivoit , mais il se trouva que vous aviez oublié de la signer , sur quoy je me l'a fis apporter , pour voir si je n'en connoistrois point le caractére ; et ce fut encore inutilement , par ce que jusqu'alors je n' avois rien veu de vostre main : cela me fit croire qu'elle avoit esté escrite par celuy lá mesme qui l'avoit apportée , pour m'attrapper dix ou douze sous de port ; car ce petit stratageme est assez commun en cette ville & aprez cela , je ne me mis pas fort en peine de ce qu'elle deviendroit . elle se conserva pourtant dans mon cabinet par le plus grand hazard du monde , & m'estant heureusement tombée sous la main , il y a deux ou trois jours , je la relus ; & l'aiant trouvée trop sage & trop grave pour avoir esté escrite par un homme tel que je me l'estois imaginé , je la monstray à monsieur claude qui y reconnut d'abord vostre escriture , & qui me dit que vous en estiez l'auteur . ie pense monseigneur que cela suffit pour me justifier auprez de vous d'un silence , qui bien que je n'en sois aucunement coupable , ne laisse pas de me donner quelque espece de confusion . mais pour venir au contenu de vostre lettre , je ne vous puis exprimer avec quelle douleur j'apprens que vos divisions continuent , en un temps auquel il y a des raisons si pressantes de se réünir ; ce que vous me dites sur tout des escrits que l'on publie a cette heure , pour faire croire que la communion avec l' eglise anglicane est illégitime , & que les ministres ne la peuvent permettre aux particuliers sans crime , me paroist une chose si deraisonnable en elle mesme , & si fort à contre-temps , que j'aurois peine a la croire si elle ne m'estoit attestée par une personne de vostre mérite & de vostre poids . vous savez bien monseigneur quels sont & quels on t toujours esté mes sentimens sur cela , & la maniére dont j'en uzay il y a deux ans dans mon voiage d' angleterre , en fréquentant vos assemblées , & en preschant mesme dans un troupeau qui est sous la iurisdiction de l' eglise anglicane , monstre assez que je suis bien éloigné de croire que sa communion soit illégitime ; et cela mesme prouve d'une maniére bien évidente , que mon sentiment a cet égard est celuy de nos eglises , parce qu'il n'est pas imaginable que j'eusse voulu faire , sans nécessité , une chose qui m'eust attiré l'indignation de mes fréres , & qui , a mon retour , m'eust expose à leurs reproches ou a leurs censures . pleust a dieu , monseigneur , que tout ce qu'il y a de chrestiens égarez dans le monde voulussent recevoir vostre réformation , que je répandrois de bon coeur tout ce que j'ay de sang pour leur procurer un si grand bien . et que je suis asseuré de la joye extresme avec laquelle nos eglises entreroient dans leur communion , si en estant dans la pureté de vos sentimens pour les dogmes , ils ne differoient plus d'avec nous que par des surplis , par des cérémonies innocentes , & par quelque diversité d' ordres dans le gouvernement de l' eglise . et cela monseigneur vous fait assez comprendre , ce que j'ay a respondre a vostre seconde question . car puis que l' eglise anglicane est une véritable eglise de nostre seigneur , puis que son culte & ses dogmes sont purs , & n'ont rien de contraire a lu parole de dieu , et puis que quand la reformation y a esté receüe , elle y a esté receüe avec l'episcopat . et en y establissant la liturgie & les cérémonies qui y sont aujourdhuy en uzage , il est sans doute du devoir de tous les réformez de vostre royaume de se tenir inséparablement unis a cette eglise ; et ceux qui ne le font pas , sous ombre qu'ils desireroient , plus de simplicité dans les cérémonies , & moins d'inegálité entre les ministres commettent asseurément un tres grand péché . car le schisme est le plus redoutable mal qui puisse arriver à l' eglise ; et pour l'éviter la charité chrestienne oblige tous les gens de bien a supporter en leurs fréres des choses bien moins supportables que ne le doivent paroistre celles dont il s'agit , aux yeux de ceux lá mesmes qui les ont le plus en aversion : et c'estoit lá si bien le sentiment de nostre grand & excellent calvin que dans son traitté de la necessité de la réformation il ne fait point de difficulté de dire , que s'il se trouvoit des gens assez deraisonnables pour refuser la communion d'une eglise pure dans son culte & dans ses dogmes , & pour ne pas se soumettré avec respect a son gouvernement , sous ombre qu'elle auroit retenu l' episcopat conditionné comme le vostre , il n'y auroit point de censure ny de rigueur de discipline qu'on ne deust exercer contre eux . * talem nobis hierarchiam si exhibeant , in qua sic emineant episcopi ut christo subesse non recusent , ut ab illo tanquam ab unico capite pendeant & ad ipsum referantur , in qua sic inter se fraternam societatem colant ut non alio modo quam ejus veritate sint colligati , tum vero nullo non anathemate dignos fatear , si qui erunt qui non eam revereantur , summaque obedientia observent . et beze mesme , qui n'approuvoit pas en général le gouvernement episcopal , fait une telle distinction du vostre , et est si éloigne de croire que l'on puisse , ou que l'on doive en prendre sujet de se séparer de vostre eglise , qu'il prie dieu ardenment qu'elle puisse toujours de meurer dans l'heureux estate ou elle avoit esté mise et conservée , par le sang , par la pureté de la foy , et par la sage conduite de ses excellens evesques . * quod si nunc anglicana ecclesia instaurata suorum episcoporum & archiepiscoporum authoritate persistat , quemadmodum hoc nostra memoria contigit , ut ejus ordinis homines non tantum insignes dei martyres , sed etiam praestantissimos pastores & doctores habuerit , fruatur sane ista singulari dei beneficentia , quae utinam illi sit perpetua . mais , monseigneur , quoy que les premiers auteurs de la séparation qui vous trouble soient extraordinairement coupables , et que ceux qui la continuent et qui la fortifient par leurs escrits dé raisonnables et emportez le soient aussy extrém●ment , est neanmoins certain que dans la multitude qui les suit , il y a une infinité de bonnes gens dont la foy est pure et la pieté sincére ; et qui ne demeurent cloignez de vous que parce que leur simplicité est surprise , et qu'on les a effrayez par ces grands mots de tyrannie , d' oppression , de supposts de l' antechrist dont on leur bat perpetuellement les oreilles : ie les mets au rang de ces foibles qui disoient qu'ils n'estoient point du corps et dont st. paul dit qu'ils estoient du corps pourtant ; et il me semble que les bons et charitables evesques comme vous , en doivent dire , quoy qu'en un sens un peu différent , ce qu' optat de miléve disoit des donatistes de son temps , si collegium episcopale nolunt nobiscum habere , tamen fratres sunt : au nom de dieu donc monseigneur faites tout ce qui vous sera possible pour les ramencr a leur devoir par la douceur et par la charité qui seule est capable d' opérer de grandes choses en ces occasions . car les hommes qui ont toujeurs de l'orgueil , se soulevent ordinairement contre tout ce qui leur paroist n'agir que par la seule authorité , mais ils ne manquent presque jamais de se rendre au support et a la condescendance , mansuetus homo , cordis est medicus . ie ne pretens pas monseigneur m'ingérer de vous donner la dessus aucun conseil particulier ; vous qui voiez les choses de prez , et qui avez le coeur tout pénetré de la charité chrestienne jugez mieux que personne des remedes qui sont les plus propres a un si grand mal ; et je suis asseuré que s'il ne falloit pour le guérir que s' abstenir de quelques expressions , que quitter quelques cérémonies , et que changer la couleur de quelques habits , vous vous y resouàriez avec grand pla s●r , et a quelque chose de plus difficile . il me semble m●sme avoir leu en quelque endroit des vindiciae de monsieur le doien de winsor que ce furent lá les sentimens charitables que fit paroistre l' eglise anglicane par la bouche de trois ou quatre de ses evesques dans une conférence qui se fit sur les moiens de réunion , en la preniére année du restablissement de sa majesté britannique , et qu'il ne tint qu'a quelques ministres de ceux qu'on appelle presbyteriens que la chose ne passast plus avant . quoy qu'il en soit je prie dieu de tout mon coeur qu'il ouvre les yeux des uns pour leur faire connoistre la foiblesse des raisons sur lesquelles ils fondent une séparation si affligeante , et qu'il conserve et qu'il augmente de plus en plus dans les autres , la piété , le zéle et la charité dont ils ont besoin pour travailler heureusement a une réünion qui réjonira les hommes et les anges , et qui attirera mille bénédictions de la terre et du ciel sur ceux qui y auront le plus contribüé : et je vous avouë monseigneur que je ne servis pas consolable si je voiois qu'on ne fist pas au moins quelque nouvel effort pour réüssir dans un ouvrage si saint et si important dans un temps qui m'y paroist si propre . car outre que les interests de vostre estat et de vostre eglise le demandent extraordinairement , i' apprens que par une admirable bénédiction du ciel , toutes vos chaires episcopales sont maintenant remplies par d' excellens serviteurs de dieu , qui aiment iesus christ et son eglise , et qui ont tous les qualitez de la teste et du coeur qui sont necessaires pour pouvoir et pour vouloir contribuer a cette bonne oeuvre . et a en juger par vous monseigneur , et par monseigneur l' archevesque de canterbery , et monseigneur l' evesque d' oxford que j'ay eu l'honneur de voir durant mon séjour en angleterre , je n'ay pas de peine a me le persuader . mais j'ay peur de vous avoir ennuyé par cette longue lettre , je vous en demande tres humblement pardon , et je vous supplie d'estre bien persuadé que je conserve toujours une extresme reconnoissance de l' amitie dont vous m'honorez , et que je suis avec tout le respect que je vous dois vostre tres humble & tres obeysant serviteur , de l'angle . monseigneur , monsieur claude mon excellent collegue a qui j'ay monstré cette lettre , m'a prié de vous dire , en vous asseurant de son tres humble service , qu'il la souscriroit de bon coeur et qu'il est absolument dans mes sentimens . paris , octob. . . second letter . from monsieur de l' angle one of the present preachers of the reformed church meeting at charenton near paris , upon the same subject . my lord , nothing may seem so strange and so uncivil to you , as my silence upon your letter you did me the honour to write me about three months ago . but yet it is true that in this case i have nothing to blame my self for ; and that you may believe it , as well as i , you will give me leave to tell you how the matter happened . when your letter was brought me , i was relapsed into a great and violent fever , with which god has afflicted me for the space of four or five months , and which has brought me very near the grave ; i prayed one of my friends , which was then in my chamber , to open the letter , and to tell me the name of him that wrote it ; but it chanced that you had forgotten to subscribe it , upon which i made it be brought to me , to see if i did not know the character ; but it was to no purpose , because till then i had not seen any thing of your hand . this made me believe that it had been written by the same man that brought it , to get ten or twelve sons for the carriage ; for that little stratagem is common enough in this town . after this , i did not much trouble my self what became of it ; but yet it was preserved in my cabinet by the greatest chance in the world ; and being happily fallen into my hands two or three days since , i read it over again ; and having found it too prudent and grave to have been written by such a one as i had imagined , i shewed it to monsieur claude , who presently knew your hand , and told me that you were the author of it . i think , my lord , this is enough to excuse me to you , for a silence , for which though i am not any way faulty , yet i cannot choose but be something ashamed . but to come to the contents of your letter ; i cannot express to you with how much grief i understand that your divisions continue , at a time in which there are such pressing reasons for being reunited . above all , that which you tell me of writings that are at this time published , to make men believe that communion with the church of england is unlawful , and that the ministers cannot permit it to private persons without sinning , seems to me a thing so unreasonable in it self , and so very unseasonable now , that i should scarce believe it , if it were not attested by a person of your merit and consideration . my lord , you know well what my sentiments are , and always have been in this matter ; and the way which i used two years ago , when i was in england , in frequenting your assemblies , and preaching too in a congregation that is under the jurisdiction of the church of england , sufficiently shews that i am very far from believing that her communion is unlawful . and this also proves very evidently that my opinion in this matter is the same that is holden by our churches ; because it is not imaginable that i would without any necessity , have done a thing which would have drawn the displeasure of my brethren upon me , and which at my return would have exposed my self to be blamed , if not to be censured by them . my lord , i would to god that all the mistaken christians that are in the world would receive your reformation ; i would with all my heart spend all the blood i have to procure them so great a good . and i am sure with what an exceeding joy our churches would enter into their communion , if being pure in their opinions for doctrine , they differed no more from us , than by surplices , and innocent ceremonies ; and some diversity of orders in the government of the church . and by this , my lord , you may perceive what i have to answer to your second question . for since the church of england is a true church of our lord ; since her worship and doctrines are pure , and have nothing in them contrary to the word of god ; and since that when the reformation was there received , it was received together with episcopacy , and with the establishment of the liturgy , and ceremonies , which are there in use at this day ; it is without doubt the duty of all the reformed of your realm , to keep themselves inseparably united to the church . and those that do not do this , upon pretence that they should desire more simplicity in that ceremonies , and less of inequality among the ministers , do certainly commit a very great sin . for schism is the most formidable evil that can befal the church : and for the avoiding of this , christian charity obliges all good men to bear with their brethren in some things much less tolerable than those , of which the dispute is , ought to seem , even in the eyes of those that have the most aversion for them . and this was so much the opinion of our great and excellent calvin , that in his treatise of the necessity of the reformation he makes no difficulty to say ; that if there should be any so unreasonable as to refuse the communion of a church that was pure in its worship and doctrine , and not to submit himself with respect to its government , under pretence that it had retained an episcopacy qualified as yours is ; there would be no censure nor rigour of discipline that ought not to be exercised upon them . talem nobis hierarchiam si exhibeant , in qua sic emineant episcopi ut christo subesse non recusent , ut ab illo tanquam ab unico capite pendeant , et ad ipsum referantur ; in qua sic inter se fraternam societatem colant , ut non alio modo quam ejus veritate sint colligati ; tum vero nullo non anathemate dignos fatear , si qui erunt ▪ qui non eum revereantur , summaque obedientia observent . and beza himself , who did not in the general approve of the episcopal government , makes such a distinction of yours , and is so far from believing , that one may , or that one ought to take occasion from thence to separate from your church , that he prays earnestly to god that she may always remain in that happy estate in which she had been put and preserved , by the blood , by the purity of the faith , and by the wise conduct of her excellent bishops . quod si nunc anglicana ecclesia instaurata suorum episcoporum et archiepiscoporum authoritate persistat , quemadmodum hoc nostrâ memoriâ contigit , ut ejus ordinis homines , non tantum insignes dei martyres , sed etiam praestantissimos pastores et doctores habuerit , frautur sane istâ singulari dei beneficentiâ , quae utinam illi sit perpetua . but , my lord , although the first authors of the separation , which troubles you , be extraordinarily to blame , and though those that continue it , and strengthen it , by their unreasonable and passionate writings , be extreamly so too ; it is certain yet that among the multitude that follows them , there is a very great number of good-men , whose faith is pure , and whose piety is sincere , and who remain separate from you only because their simplicity is surprized , and because they have been frightned with the bugbear words of tyranny , oppression , limbs of antichrist which are continually beaten into their ears . i rank these with those weak ones who said they were not of the body ; and of whom st. paul said they were of the body for all that . and it seems to me that the good and charitable bishops , such as you , ought to say of them , though in something a different sense , as optatus milevitanus said of the donatists of his time , si collegium episcopale nolunt nobiscum habere , tamen fra●res sunt . in the name of god then , my lord , do all that possibly you can to bring them back to their duty by sweetness and charity , which is only able to do great things on these occasions . for men , who have always something of pride , do commonly oppose every thing that seems to them to act by bare authority only : but they scarce ever fail to yield themselves up to forbearance and condescension . mansuetus homo cordis est medicus . i do not pretend , my lord , to thrust my self in to give you any particular advice in this case ; you that see things near at hand , and that have a heart deeply affected with christian charity , will judge better than any man , what remedies are the most proper for so great an evil ; and i am sure that if there were nothing wanting to cure it , but the a staining from some expressions , the quitting some ceremonies , and the changing the colour of some habits , you would resolve to do that , and something more difficult than that , with great pleasure . and i think i have read in some part of the vindiciae of mr ●ean of windsor , that these were the charitable sentiments which the church of england declared by the mouth of three or four of her bishops , in a conference that was held concerning the means of re-union , the first year that his majesty was restored ; and that nothing hindered the matter from going farther , but some of those ministers they call presbyterians . however it be , i pray god with all my heart , that he would open the eyes of the one to make them see the weakness of the reasons upon which they ground such an afflicting separation ; and that he would preserve , and increase more and more in the other , that piety , that zeal , and that charity which they have need of for the happy proceeding to a re-union , which will rejoice men and angels , and bring down a thousand blessings of heaven and earth upon those that shall contribute the most unto it . and i assure you , my lord , i should be 〈◊〉 ●●mpt at all comfort if i should see that some new 〈◊〉 least were not made for the success of a 〈…〉 so holy , and of such consequence , in a time 〈…〉 to me so proper for it . for besides that the interest of your state , and church do require it in such an extraordinary manner ; i hear that by a wonderful blessing of heaven , all your episcopal sees are filled at this time with excellent servants of god , who love iesus christ and his church and who have all the qualities of the head and the heart , which are necessary to make them able , and willing to contribute to this good work . and to judge of it by you , my lord , and my lord arch-bishop of canterbury , and my lord bishop of oxford , whom i had the honour to see during my stay in england , i am easily perswaded of it . but i am afraid i have tired you with this long letter ; i humbly beg your pardon for it ; and i beseech you to be very well assured that i alwayes preserve a very grateful acknowledgement of the friendship with which you honour me , and that i am with all the respect that i owe my lord , your most humble and most obedient servant , de l' angle . mons. claude my excellent collegue , to whom i have shewed this letter , has prayed me to tell you , with assurance of his most humble service , that he would subscribe this with all his heart , and that he is absolutely of my opinion . the third letter , from monsieur claude , on the same subject . a paris . novemb. stilo novo . monseigneur , monsieur de l' angle m'ayaut rendu la lettre qu'il vous a plû m'écrire , j'ay esté surpris d'y voir que vous m'aviez fait l'honneur de m'en écrire une autre que je n'ay point receüe , & à laquelle je n'eusse pas manquè de faire réponse . vous me faites beaucoup d'honneur de vouloir bien que je vous dise ma pensée sur le different qui vous trouble depuis long-tems , entre ceux qu'on appelle episcopaux , & ceux qu'on nomme presbyteriens . quoy que je m'en sois deja diverses fois expliquè & par des lettres que j'ay faites sur ce sujet à plusieurs personnes , & dans mon livre mesme de la defense de la reformation , où parlant de la distinction de l' evesque & du prestre , j'ay dit formellement que je ne blame pas ceux qui l'observent comme une chose fort ancienne , & que je ne voudrois pas qu'on s'en fist un sujet de querelle dans les lieux où elle se trouve établie , pag. . & quoy que d'ailleurs je me connoisse assez pour ne pas croire que mon sentiment doive estre fort considerè , je ne laisseray pas de vous temoigner dans cette occasion , comme je feray toujours en toute autre , mon estime chretienne , mon respect , & mon obeissance . c'est ce que je feray d'autant plus que je ne vous diray pas simplement ma pensée particuliere , mais le sentiment du general de nos eglises . premierement donc , monseigneur , nous sommes si fort éloignez de croire qu'on ne puisse en bonne conscience vivre sous vostre discipline , & sous vostre gouvernement episcopal , que dans nostre pratique ordinaire nous ne faisons nulle difficultè , ni de donner nos chaires , ni de commettre le soin de nos troupeaux à des ministres receus & ordinez par messieurs vos evesques , comme il se pourroit justifier par un assez grand nombre d'exemples , & anciens , & recens , & depuis peu mr. duplessis ordinè par monsieur l' evesque de lincoln à esté establi , & appellè dans une eglise de cette province , & monsieur wicart , que vous , monseigneur , avez receu au s. ministere nous fit l'honneur il-n'y-a que quelques mois de prescher à charenton à l'edification universelle detout nostre troupeau . ainsi ceux qui nous imputent à cet égard des sentimens éloignez de la paix & de la concorde chretienne , nous font assurement injustice . ie dis la paix & la concorde chretienne , car , monseigneur , nous croyons que l'obligation à conserver cette paix & cette concorde fraternelle , qui fait l'unité exterieure de l'eglise , est d'une necessitè si indispensable que s. paul n'a pas fait difficultè de la joindre avec l'unité interieure d'une mesme foy , & d'une mesme regeneration , non seulement comme deux choses qui ne doivent jamais estre separées , mais aussi comme deux choses dependantes l'une de l'autre , parce que si l'unité exterieure est comme la fille de l'interieure , elle en est aussi la conservatrice . cheminez , dit il ephes. . comme il est convenable à la vocation dont vous estes appellez , avec toute humilitè , & douceur , avec un esprit patient , supportant l'un l'autre en charité . estant soigneux de garder l'unitè de l'esprit par la lien de la paix . d'un cotè il fait dependre cette charitè fraternelle , qui nous joint les uns avec les autres , de nostre commune vocation , & de l'autre il nous enseigne qu'un des principaux moyens de conserner en son entier cette commune vocation qu'il appelle l'unitè de l'esprit , est de garder entre nous la paix . selon la premiere de ces maximes nous ne pouvons avoir de paix , ni de communion ecclesiastique avec ceux qui ont tellement degenerè de la vocation chretienne qu'on ne peut plus reconnoitre en eux une veritable & salutaire foy , principalement lors qu' à des erreurs mortelles ils ajoutent la tyrannie de l'ame , & qu'ils voulent contraindre la conscience , en imposant la necessitè de croire ce qu'ils croyent & de pratiquer ce qu'ils pratiquent . car en ce cas le fondement & la veritable cause de la communion exterieure n'estant plus , la communion exterieure cesse aussi de droit , & il-n'y-en peut plus avoir de legitime . selon la seconde maxime nous ne croyons pas qu'une simple difference de gouvernement , ou de discipline , ni mesme un difference de ceremonies innocentes de leur nature , soient un sujet suffisant pour rompre le sacrè lien de la communion . c'est pourquoy nos eglises ont toûjours regardè & considerè la vostre , non seulement comme une soeur , mais comme une soeur aisuée pour qui nous devons avoir des tendresses accompagnées de respect & de veneration , & pour qui nous présentons sans cesse à dieu des voeux tresardens . nous n'entrons point dans la comparaison de vostre ordre , aver celuy sous lequel nous vivons . nous savons qu'il-n'y-en a , ni n'y-en peut avoir aucun entre les hommes , qui par nostre corruption naturelle , ne soit sujet à des inconveniens , le nostre à les siens comme le vostre , & l'un & l'autre sans doute ayant leurs avantages & leurs desavantages à divers égards , alternis vincut & vincuntur . il nous suffit de savoir que la mesme providence divine qui par une necessitè indispensable , & par la conjoncture des choses , mit au commencement de la reformation nos eglises sous celuy du presbyterat , à mis la vostre sous celuy de l' episcopat , & que comme nous sommes assurez que vous ne meprisez point nostre simplicitè , nous ne devons pas aussi nous élever contre vostre dignitè . ainsi , monseigneur , nous desapprouvons entierement , & voyons avec douleur , de certeines extremitez où se jettent quelques uns de part & d'autre , les uns regardant l' episcopat comme un ordre si absolument necessaire que sans luy il-n'y peut avoir ni de societè ecclesiastique , ni de legitime vocation ni d'esperance de salut , & les autres le regardant avec indignation comme un reste d' antichristianisme . ce sont également des chaleurs & des excés qui ne viennent point de celuy qui nous appelle , & qui pechent contre les loix de la sagesse & de la charité . voylà , monseigneur , nos veritables & sinceres sentimens communs , pour ce qui vous regarde , & puisque vous desirez que je descende un peu plus particulierement à l'état où se trouve vostre propre eglise , par les divisions intestines qui la travaillent , permettez moy que je ne vous dise mes pensées qu'en vous expliquant mes souhaits , & les desirs de mon coeur , sur une chose aussi importante que l'est celle là . ie souhaiterois donc de toute mon ame que ceux qui sont allez jusqu ' à ce point que de songer à rompre les liens exterieurs , & la dependance mutuelle de vos troupeaux , pour donner à chaque eglise particuliere une espece de souveraigntè de gouvernement , considerassent bien si ce qu'ils prétendent faire n'est pas directement contraire à l'esprit du christianisme qui est un esprit d'union , & de societè , & non de division . qu'ils considerassent que sous prétexte que le principe des reformez est d'avoir en horreur la domination humaine sur la foy , & sur la conscience , comme une chose destructive de la religion , il ne faut pourtant pas ni rejetter tout frein de discipline , ni secoüer tout joug de gouvernement , ni se priver des secours que nous pouvous tirer de l'union generale pour nous affermir dans la vraye foy , & dans la vraye pietè . qu'ils considerassent enfin que la mesme raison qui leur fait desirer l' independence des troupeaux , peut estre aussi employée pour établir l' independance des personnes dans chaque troupeau . car un troupeau n'a pas plus de droit de vouloir estre independant des autres troupeaux , qu'une personne en auroit de vouloir estre independante des autres personnes . or ce seroit ' aneantir toute discipline , jetter l' eglise entant qu'en nous seroit dans une horrible confusion ; & exposer l'heritage du seigneur à l'opprobre de ses adversaries . pour ce qui regarde ceux qu'on appelle parmy vous presbyteriens , comme je suis persuadè qu'ils ont de la lumiere , de la sagesse , & du zele , je souhaiterois aussi de tout mon coeur qu'ils gardassent plus de mesure dans le scandale qu'ils croyent avoir autrefois receu de l'ordre episcopal , & qu'ils distinguassent les personnes d'aves le ministere . les personnes qui occupent les charges non seulement ont leurs defauts , mais il peut mesme quelquefois arriver que les plus saintes , & les plus eminentes charges soient possedées par des méchans , & en ce cas la raison & la pietè voulent également qu'on ne confonde pas le ministere avec le ministre . a present que dieu par sa grace a ôtè ce scandale de devant leurs yeux , & qu'il leur a fait voir dans les personnes de messieurs les evesques de la pietè , du zele , & de la fermetè , pour la conservation de la religion , j'espere que cela mesme ne contribuera pas peu à l'adoucissement des esprits . d'ailleurs je souhaiterois qu'il leur plust de considerer que si dans le gouvernement episcopal il-y-à des inconveniens facheux , comme je ne doute pas qu'il-n'y-en-ayt , il-y-en-à aussi & de tres-facheux dans le presbyterien , comme je l'ay deja dit . nul ordre dont l'exercice est entre les mains des hommes n'en est exempt , l'egalitè à ses vices , & ses excés à craindre , de mesme que la superioritè . le plus sur & le plus sage n'est donc pas de voltiger de l'une à l'autre , ni de risquer de faire un ébranlement general , sur l'esperance d'estre mieux , quand mesme on seroit en autoritè & en pouvoir de le faire . la prudence , la justice , & la charitè chretienne ne permettent pas d'en venir à ces éclattantes & dangereuses extremitez , pour une simple difference de gouvernment . le plus sur , & le plus sage est de tacher d'apporter quelque temperament pour éviter , ou pour diminuer autant qu'il se peut les inconveniens qu'on apprehende , & non de recourir à des remedes violens . ie ne craindray pas d'appeller de ce nom celuy de faire des assemblées à part , de se separer des assemblées communes , & de se soustraire de vostre gouvernement . il-n'y-a personne qui ne voye que ce seroit un veritable schisme , qui en luy-mesme & de sa nature ne peut jamais estre qu'odieux à dieu , & aux hommes , & dont les auteurs , & les protecteurs ne sauroient eviter qu'ils ne rendent conte devant le tribunal de nostre commun maitre . quand s. paul nous a defendu de delaisser nostre commune assemblée , il a non seulement condamnè ceux qui ne s'y trouvent point en demeurant dans leur particulier , mais ceux aussi sans doute qui en font d'autres opposees aux communes , car c'est rompre le lien de la charitè chretienne qui ne nous joint pas seulement avec quelques uns de nos freres , mais avec tous nos freres , pour recevoir d'eux de l'edification , & pour leur en donner de nostre part , en vivant ensemble dans une mesme societè . el il ne servirot de rien de pretexter que la conscience resiste à se trouver dans des assemblées qui se font sous un gouvernement qu'on n'approuve pas , & que ce seroit approuver exterieurement , ce que l'on condamne interieurement . car outre qu'il faudroit bien examiner la question si ces resistances ne viennent pas d'une conscience trompée , par un jugement precipitè , puisque les plus gens de bien sont souvent sujets à se former de tels scrupules qui au fond ne sont pas tout à fait legitimes . outre cela , il faut distinguer trois sortes de choses , les unes que la conscience approuve , & recoit , & ausquelles elle acquiesce pleinement , les autres qu'elle regarde comme insupportables , & comme destructives de la gloire de dieu , de la vraye foy , on de la vraye pieté , & de l'esperance du salut , & les autres enfin qui tiennent le milieu , c'est-a-dire qu'on n'approuve pas à la veritè pleinement , mais qu'on ne croit pourtant pas mortelles à la vraye pietè & au salut , en un mot qu'on regarde comme des taches & des infirmitez supportables . i'avoüe que quand on trouve dans des assemblées des choses de ce second ordre , ou que la conscience les juge telles , on ne peut y assister , & toute la question se reduit à savoir , si l'on ne se trompe pas , sur quoy il faut bien prendre garde de ne pas faire de jugemens temeraires . mais de s'imaginer qu'on ne puisse en bonne conscience assister à des assemblées , que lors qu'on y approuve pleinement & generalement toutes choses , c'est assurement ne pas connoitre ni l'usage de la charitè , ni les loix de la societè chretienne . ce principe renverseroit toutes les eglises , car je ne say s'il-y-en a aucune dont le gouvernement , la discipline , la forme exterieure , les usages , & les pratiques soient dans une telle perfection , qu'il-n'y-ayt absolument rien à redire , & quoy qu'il en soit comme les jugemens des hommes sont fort differens , ce seroit ouvrir la porte à des separations continuelles , & abolir les assemblées . il est donc constant que la conscience n'oblige point à se soustraire des assemblées , mais qu'au contraire elle nous oblige de nous y tenir attachez , lors que les choses qui nous y choquent sont supportables , & qu'elles n'empechent pas l'efficace salutaire de la parole , du culte divin , & des sacremens . et c'est à la faveur de ce support de la charitè qu'est couverte l'assistance que nous donnons à des choses que nous n'approuvons pas entierement . voyez ce que s. paul dit à ses philippiens , chap. . si vous sentez quelque chose autrement , dieu vous le revelera aussi . toutefois cheminons en ce à quoy nous sommes pervenus d'une mesme regle , & sentons une mesme chose . cela est bien éloiguè de dire , des que vous aurez le moindre sentiment contraire separez vous , la conscience ne vous permet pas de demeurer ensemble . consilia separationis , dit s. augustin contre parmenian , inania sunt & perniciosa , & plus perturbant infirmos bonos , quàm corrigant animosos malos . quels funestes effets ne produiroit pas une telle separation si elle s'établissoit au milieu de vous ? de la maniere que les esprits des hommes sont faits , on verroit bien-tôt naitre de là la difference des interets , celle des partys , celle des sentimens à l'égard mesme de la societè civile , la hayne mutuelle , & toutes les autres tristes suites que la division , qui n'est plus temperée par la charitè , produit naturellement . ie laisse à part le scandale qu'en recevroient toutes les eglises reformées de l' europe , la joye qu'en auroient leurs adversaires , & les avantages qu'ils en retireroient , qui selon toutes les apparences ne seroient pas petits . i'ay trop bonne opinion de ces messieurs qui croyent que la gouvernement presbyterien est preferable à l' episcopal , pour n'estre pas persuadè qu'ils font de sages & de serieuses reflexions sur toutes ces choses , & sur tant d'autres que leurs lumieres leur fournissent , & que la conscience , & l'amour de la religion protestante les empechera toujours de rien faire , qui puisse estre blamè devant dieu , & devant les hommes . car enfin je ne saurois croire qu'il-y-en-ayt aucun parmy eux , qui regarde ni vostre episcopat , ni vostre discipline , ni quelques ceremonies que vous observez , comme des taches & des erreurs capitales , qui empechent qu'on ne puisse faire son salut , & mesme avec facilitè dans vos assemblées & sous vostre gouvernement . il ne s'agit icy ni de l' esse , ni du bene esse , mais seulement du melius esse , qu'ils disputent avec vous , & cela estant ainsi la justice , la charitè , l'amour de la paix , la prudence , & le zele pour le general de la religion ne consentiront jamais qu'ils se détachent de vous . mais , monseigneur , puisque vous m'avez mis la plume à la main sur ce sujet , pardonnez je vous supplie à ma libertè si elle và jusqu'à vous dire ce que je croy que vous aussi devez faire de vostre part . i'espere donc que dans ces occasions que dieu vous presente vous ferez voir à toute la terre , & en convaincrez les plus incredulez que vous aves de la pietè , du zele , & de la crainte de dieu , & que vous estez de dignes ouvriers , & de dignes serviteurs de iesus christ. c'est deja le temoignage que vous rendent les gens de bien , & que nul quelque mal intentionnè qu'il soit , n'ose contredire , & je ne doute pas que vous ne poussiez vostre vocation jusqu'an bout . mais outre cela , monseigneur , j'espere que vous ne defaudrez point aux devoirs de la charitè , & de l'esprit de paix , & que quand il ne s'agria que de quelques temperamens , ou de quelques ceremonies qui servent d'achoppement , & qui en elles mesmes ne sont rien en comperaison d'une entiere reünion de vostre eglise sous vostre saint ministere , vous ferez voir que vous aymez l'epouse de vostre maitre plus que vous mesmes , & que ce n'est pas tant de vostre grandeur , & de vostre dignitè ecclesiastique que vous desirez tirer vostre gloire & vostre joye , que de vos vertus pastorales , & des soins ardens que vous avez de vos troupeaux . i'espere aussi que ceux que vous avez choisis , & appellez au s. ministere , & ceux que desormais vous y appellerez avec un prudent discernement , reglez non seulement par la donceur , mais aussi par la severitè de la discipline , quand la severitè sera necessaire , marcheront sur vos traces , & suiront heureusement l'exemple que vous leur donnerez , pour estre eux-mesmes en exemple , & en edification aux eglises qui leur sont commises . ie finis , monseigneur , par des prieres tres-ardentes que je présente à dieu de tout mon coeur , afin qu'il luy plaise de vous conserver à jamais le flamebeau de son evangile , de repandre sur tout le corps de vostre ministere , une abondante mesure de son onction & de sa benediction celeste , dont celle de l'ancien aaron n'estoit que l'ombre , afin qu'elle soit non l'embleme & l'image de la concorde fraternelle comme cette ancienne , mais qu'elle en soit la cause & le lien . ie le prie qu'il veu●lle de plus en plus ramener le coeur des enfans aux peres , & des peres aux enfans , afin que vostre eglise soit heuereuse , & agreable comme un eden de dieu . ie le prie enfin qu'il vous conserve , vous , monseigneur , en parfait & longue santè pour sa gloire , & pour le bien & l'avantage de cette grande & considerable pertie de son champ qu'il vous a donnè cultiver , & que vous cultivez si heureusement . ie vous demande aussi le secours de vos saintes prieres , & la continuation de l'honneur de vostre affection , en vous protestant que je seray toute ma vie avec tout le respect que je vous dois , monseigneur , vostre tres-humble & tres-obeissant serviteur & fils en jesus christ , clavde . paris novemb. . stilo novo . my lord , monsieur de l' angle having given me the letter which you have been pleased to write me , i was surprized to see by that , that you had done me the honour to write me another which i have not received , and to which i had not failed to make an answer . you do me a great deal of honour to desire that i should tell you my thoughts of the difference that has troubled you so long , betwixt those they call episcopal , and those they name presbyterians . although i have already explained my self about this divers tims , both by letters which i have written upon this subject to several persons , and in my book too of the defence of the reformation , where speaking of the distinction betwixt the bishop and the priest , i have said expresly , that i do not blame those that observe it as a thing very ancient , and that i would not that any one should make it an occasion of quarrel in those places where it is established , pag. . and though i otherwaies know my self sufficiently not to believe that my opinion should be much considered , i will not forbear to assure you upon this occasion , as i shall always do upon any other , of my christian esteem , my respect , and my obedience . this i shall do the rather because i shall not simply tell you my private thoughts , but the opinion of the generality of our churches . first then , my lord , we are so very far from believing that a man cannot live with a good conscience under your discipline and under your episcopal government , that in our ordinary practice we make no difficulty , neither to bestow our chairs , nor to commit the care of our flocks to ministers received , and ordained by my lords the bishops ; as might be justified by a great number enought of examples both old and new : and a little while since mr. duplessis that was ordained by my lord bishop of lincoln has been established and called in a church of this province . and monsieur wicart , whom you , my lord , received to the holy ministery , did us the honour , but some months agoe , to preach at charenton to the general edification of our flock . so that they who in this respect do impute unto us any opinions distant from peace , and christian concord , do certainly do us wrong . i say peace and christian concord : for , my lord , we believe that the obligation to preserve this peace , and this brotherly concord , which make up the external unity of the church , is of a necessity so indispensable , that st. paul has made no difficulty to join it with the internal unity of the same faith , and the same regeneration ; not onely as two things which ought never to be separated , but likewise as two things depending the one upon the other ; because if the external unity be as it were the daughter of the internal , she is likewise the preserver of it . walk , says he , ephes. . worthy of the calling wherewith ye are called , with all lowliness and meekness , with long-suffering , forbearing one another in love ; endeavouring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace . on the one side he makes this brotherly love , which joins us one with another , to depend upon our common vocation ; and on the other side he teaches us that one of the principal means to preserve our common vocation intire , which he calls the unity of the spirit , is to keep peace among our selves . according to the first of these maximes we cannot have peace , or ecclesiastical communion with those that have so degenerated from the christian vocation , that one cannot perceive in them a true and saving faith ; especially when with mortal errours they join tyranny over the soul , and that they will force the conscience , by imposing a necessity to believe that which they believe , and to practise that which they practise . for in this case the foundation and true cause of external communion being no more , the external communion to its self ceases of right , and there is not any that is lawfull to be had any more with such . according to the second maxime we do not believe that a single difference of government or discipline , nor even a difference of ceremonies innocent in their own nature is a sufficient occasion to break the sacred bond of communion . wherefore our churches have always looked upon and considered yours , not onely as a sister , but as an elder sister , for which we ought to have a kindness accompanied with respect , and veneration , and for which we do present most ardent prayers unto god without ceasing . we do not enter into the comparison of your order , with that under which we live . we know that there is not neither can there be any amongst men , which by reason of our natural corruption is not subject to inconveniencies , ours has hers , as well as yours ; and the one and the other without doubt have their advantages , and disadvantages in divers respects : alternis vincunt , & vincuntur . it is enough for us to know that the same divine providence which by an indispensable necessity , and by the conjuncture of affairs , did at the beginning of the reformation put our churches under that of the presbytery , has put yours under that of the episcopacy ; and as we are assured that you do not despise our simplicity , so neither ought we to oppose our selves against your preeminence . so that , my lord , we utterly disapprove and see with grief , certain extremes whereinto some of the one side , and the other do cast themselves . the one looking upon episcopacy as an order so absolutely necessary , that without it there can be no ecclesiastical society , nor lawfull vocation , nor hope of salvation ; and the other looking upon it with indignation as a rellque of antichristianism . these are equally heats and excesses which do not come from him that calls us , and which do offend against the laws of wisedom and charity . these , my lord , are our true and sincere common opinions . for what concerns you , since you desire that i would descend a little more particularly into the state that your own church is in , by reason of the intestine divisions that trouble it ; give me leave not to tell you my thoughts , without declaring my wishes , and the desires of my heart , upon a matter so important as this is . i could wish then with all my sould that those that are gone so far as this point , to think to break the external bonds , and the mutual dependance of your flocks , to give every particular church a kind of sovereignty of government , would consider well whether that they pretend to doe be not directly contrary to the spirit of christianity , which is a spirit of union , and society , and not of division . that they would consider that under the pretence that the principle of the reformed was to abhor men's domineering over faith , and conscience , as a thing destructive of religion , we ought not for all that to reject the bridle of discipline , nor to shake off the whole yoke of government , nor deprive our selves of the succours we might draw out of a general union , for to strengthen us in the true faith , and in true piety . that they would consider , in fine , that the same reason which makes them desire the independency of the flocks , may be likewise imployed to establish the independency of the persons in every flock . for a flock has no more right to desire to be independent upon other flocks , than a person might have to desire to be independent upon other persons . but this would be to bring all discipline to nothing , to throw the church , as much as in us lies , into a horrible confusion , and to expose the heritage of the lord to the reproach of its adversaries . for what concerns those which amongst you they call presbyterians , as i am perswaded that they have light , and wisedom , and zeal , so i could wish with all my heart , that they would observe more moderation in the scandal they believe they have heretofore received from the episcopal order , and that they would distinguish the persons from the ministry . the persons that possess the places have not onely their faults , but it may happen too sometimes that the most holy , and most eminent places may be possessed by wicked men ; and in that case reason and peity do equally require that we should not confound the ministry with the minister . at present that god by his grace has taken away this scandal from before their eyes , and made them see piety , zeal , and constancy for the preservation of religion in the persons of the bishops , i hope that this will not a little contribute to the sweetning of their spirits . besides , i could wish that they would be pleased to consider that if there be some unpleasant inconveniencies in the episcopal government , as i do not doubt but there are , there are too some very unpleasant ones in the presbyterian , as i have said already . no order whose execution is in the hands of men , is exempt from them ; an equality has its faults and excesses to be feared , as well as a superiority . therefore it is not the most safe and wise way to leap from the one to the other , nor to hazard the making a general concussion , upon the hopes of being better , though one should be in authority and power to doe it . christian prudence , justice and charity do not permit us to proceed to such daring and dangerous extremes , for a single difference of government . it is most safe and wise to indeavour to provide some kind of temper to avoid , or to lessen as much as may be , the inconveniencies that are feared , and not have recourse to violent remedies . i shall not be afraid to give that name to the holding of assemblies apart , and separating from the publick assemblies , and withdrawing themselves from under your government . there is no man that does not see that this would be real schism , which in it self and of its own nature cannot choose but be always odious to god and men , and of which the authours and patrons cannot avoid the rendring an account before the tribunal of our common master . when saint paul forbad us to forsake the assembling of our selves together , he did not onely condemn those that did not come thither , but stayed at home ; but those too without doubt that held other assemblies in opposition to the publick ones . for this is to break the bond of christian charity which does not onely join us with some of our brethren , but with all our brethren , to receive from them , and to give them edification by living together in the same communion . and it would be to no purpose to pretend that our conscience did oppose our being present at those assemblies that are held under a government that we do not approve ; and that that would be to approve outwardly , what we inwardly condemn . for besides that it would be necessary to examin well the question , whether these oppositions do not proceed from a conscience mistaken by a precipitate judgment ; since that the best men are often subject to fram to themselves such scruples , as are not altogether lawfull at the bottom . further than this it is necessary to distingush three kinds of things ; the one those which the conscience approves , and admits of , and in which it does fully acquiesce ; the other which she looks upon as intolerable , and destructive to the glory of god , and the true faith , or true piety , and the hopes of salvation ; and others lastly which are between these , that is to say such as we do not fully approve as to the truth , but yet we do not believe them mortal enemies to true piety and salvation ; in a word such as we look upon as stains , and tolerable infirmities . i affirm that when we find things of this second rank in any assemblies , or those which the conscience judges such , we cannot be present there ; and the whole question will be reduced to this , to know , whether we be not mistaken , where we ought to take good heed that we do not make a rash judgment . but to imagine that we cannot with a good conscience be present at assemblies , but onely when we do fully and generally approve of all things in them , it is certainly not to know neither the use of charity , nor the laws of christian society . this principle would overturn all churches , for i cannot tell whether there be any , whose government , discipline , outward form , usages , and practices be of such perfection , that there is nothing at all in them to blame ; and however it be , as the judgments of men are very different , this would be to open the gate to continual separations , and to abolish all assemblies . it is therefore certain that conscience does not oblige us to withdraw from the assemblies , but on the contrary it obliges us to join with them , when the things that offend us are tolerable , and do not hinder the salutary efficacy of the word , of the divine worship , and of the sacraments . 't is the favour of this charitable patience that justifies our being present at those things which we do not perfectly approve . see what st. paul says to the philippians , chap. . if in any thing ye be otherways minded , god shall reveal even this unto you . nevertheless , whereto we have already attained , let us walk by the same rule , let us mind the same thing . this is very far from saying , as soon as ye have the least contrary sentiment separate your selves , conscience will not allow you to remain together . consilia separationis , says st. augustin against parmenian , inania sunt & perniciosa , & plus perturbant infirmos bonos , quam corrigant animosos malos . what deadly effects would not such a separation produce if it were established amongst you ? as the dispositions of men are , one should quickly see to spring from hence a difference of interests , of parties , of opinions , even in respect of the civil society , mutual hatred , and all the other sad consequences which a division not tempered with charity does naturally produce . i let alone the scandal which all the reformed churches of europe would receive by 〈…〉 which their adversaries would have , and we advantages which they would draw from it , which in all appearance would not be small . i have too good an opinion of those gentlemen who believe that the presbyterian government is to be preferred before the episcopal , not to be perswaded that they make wise and serious reflections upon all these things , and many more which their own knowledge furnishes them with ; and that conscience , and the love of the protestant religion will always hinder them from doing any thing , that may be blamed before god and men . for in fine i cannot believe that there is any one amongst them that looks upon your episcopacy , or your discipline , or certain ceremonies which you observe , as blots , and capital errours , which hinder a man from obtaining salvation , even with facility in your assemblies , and under your government . the question here is not about the esse , or the bene esse , but onely about the melius esse , that they dispute with you ; and this being so , justice , charity , the love of peace , prudence , and zeal for religion in the general will never allow that they should divide themselves from you . but , my lord , since you have put the pen into my hand upon this subject , i beseech you pardon my freedom if it go so far as to tell you what i think you also ought to doe on your part . i hope then that on these opportunities that god presents unto you , you will make all the world see , and convince the most incredulous , that you have piety , zeal , and the fear of god , and that you are worthy labourers , and worthy servants of jesus christ. this is the tetimony which all good men do already give you , and none how spightfull soever he be dares to contradict it , and i do not doubt but that you will carry on your calling to the end . but besides this , my lord , i hope you willnot be wanting in the duties of charity , and the spirit of peace , and that when the dispute shall be onely of some temperaments , or of some ceremonies that are a stumbling-block , and which in themselves are nothing in comparison of an intire reunion of your church under your holy ministry , you will make it seen that you love the spouse of your master more than your selves ; and that it is not so much from your greatness , and your ecclesiastical dignity that you desire to receive your glory , and your joy , as from your pastoral vertues , and the ardent care you take of your flocks . i hope too that those you have chosen and called to the holy ministry , and those which hereafter you shall with a prudent diseretion call unto it , being governed not onely by sweetness , but likewise by severity of discipline , when severity shall be necessary , will tread in your steps , and happily follow the example which you shall give them , that they may be themselves for an example , and edification to the churches that are committed to them . i conclude , my lord , with very earnest prayers which i present to god with all my heart , that it would please him always to preseve unto you the light of his gospel , and to pour out upon the whole body of your ministry , an abundant measure of his unction and heavenly benediction , of which that of the old aaron was but a shadow ; that it may be not the emblem , and image of brotherly concord , like the unction of old , but the cause and bond of it . i pray him that he would more and more bring back the heart of the children to the fathers , and of the fathers to the children , that your church may be happy and pleasant as the paradise of god. lastly i pray that he would preserve you , my lord , in perfect and long health , for his glory , and the good and advantage of that great and considerable part of his field which he has given you to cultivate , and which you do cultivate so happily . i desire too the help of your holy prayers , and the continuance of the honour of your affection , protesting to you that i will be all my life with all the respect that i owe you , my lord , your most humble and most obedient servant and son in iesus christ , claude . finis . a catalogue of some books printed for henry mortclock at the phoenix in st. paul's church-yard . a rational account of the grounds of protestant religion , being a vindication of the lord archbishop of canterburie's relation of a conference , &c. from the pretended answer of t. c. wherein the true grounds of faith are cleared , and the false discovered ; the church of england vindicated from the imputation of schism , and the most important particular controversies between us and those of the church of rome , throughly examined . the second edition corrected , by edw. stillingfleet , d. d. folio . sermons preached upon several occasions , with a discourse annexed concerning the true reason of the sufferings of christ , wherein crellius his answer to grotius is considered , by edw. stillingfleet , d. d. folio . irenicum : a weapon salve for the churches wounds , by edw. stillingfleet , d. d. quarto . a discourse concering the idolatry practised in the church of rome , and the hazard of salvation in the communion of it , in answer to some papers of a revolted protestant , with a particular account of the fanaticism and divisions of that church , by edw. stillingfleet , d. d. octavo . an answer to several late treatises occasioned by a book entituled a discourse concerning the idolatry practised in the church of rome , and the hazard of salvation in the communion of it , by edw. stillingfleet , d. d. the first part , octavo . a second discourse in vindication of the protestant grounds of faith , against the pretence of infallibility in the rom. church , in answer to the guide in controversies , by r. h. protestancy without principles , and reason and religion , or the certain rule of faith , by e. w. with a particular enquiry into the miracles of the roman church , by edw. stillingflect , d. d. octavo . a defence of the discourse concerning the idolatry practised in the church of rome , in answer to a book cutituled catholicks no idolaters , by edw. stillingfleet , d. d. dean of s. paul's , and chaplain in ordinary to his majesty . the end . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e arch-bishop whitgift's defence of the answer to the admonition , p. . life of bishop jewel before his works , n. . vita juelli per hum●red . p. . preface to d vol. of serm. sect. . preface to the first volume , sect. . acts and monuments , tom. . p. . foxes and firebrands . . church history , l. . p. . history of presbyter . l. . p. . annales elizabethae , a. d. . v. thom. à iesu , de natura divinae orationis . defence of the answer , p. . page . fair warning second part printed by h. march. . contzen politic . l. . c. ▪ sect. ▪ sect. . coleman's tr●al , p. ▪ vindiciae libertatis evangelii ; or a iustification of our present indulgence and acceptance of licences , . p. . sacrilegious desertion rebuked ▪ and tolerated preaching vindicated , . answer to sacrileg . desert . p. . . page . page . page . page . preface to the defence of the cure , p. . defence of the cure of divisions , introduction , p. , &c. sacrilegious desertion , p. , . defence of the cure , p. . dr. o. vindication , p. . letter out of the country , p. . pag● . mischief of impos . end of the preface . preface , p. , . page . mischief of imposition preface towards the end . christian direct . cases eccles. p. . defence of cure of divis . introd . p. . ib. & p. . arch-bishop whitgift ' s defence , &c. p. . several conferences , p. , &c. orig. sucr . l. . ch . . p. . orig. sacr. p. , . papers for accommodation , p. . answer to r. williams , p. . irenic . p. . page . page , . page . co. iast . . part. , . notes for div a -e acts and monuments vol. . p. . mischief of impositions preface . fresh suit against ceremonies , p. . pet. martyr , epist. theolog . hoopero , buc. r. script . anglic. p. . acts and mon. vol. . p. . ridiey's articles of visitation , . vindicat. of nonconf . p. . p. . . iacob's answer to iohnson , p. , . iohnson's defence of his ninth reason . bradford's confer . with the b● . acts and mon. vol. . p. . iacob ' s answer , p. . letters of the martyrs , p. . plea for peace , p. ● . page . page . calvin , ep. . ep. . ep. . tr. of fr. p. . page . letters of the martyrs , p. . bonavent . 〈◊〉 ps. . angel. roecha de soll●●i communione summi pontificis , p. . . calvin . epist. ad sadolet . de verâ eccl. reformatione , c. . ●●●olamp . epist. f. . bucer . scri●t . ●●gl . p. . dialogue between a soldier of barwick , and a-english chaplain , p. , . beza epist. . part of a register , p. . beza epist. . p , . gualter . ep. ded . ad hom. in ep. ad c●rinth . zanchii , epist . l. . p. . see his letter in fullers church-history , l. . p. ● . bullinger , ep. ad robert winton ▪ in the appendix to bishop whitgifts first book . parker on the cross ▪ part. . cap. . sect. . vide profane schism of the brownists , ch. . giffords first treatise against the donatists of england , preface . gifford's second treatise . preface . answer to giffords preface . dangerous positions , &c. l. . c. . the second answer for communicating , p. . printed by john windet , a. d. . page . answer to ainsworth , p. . page . preface to the read●r , p. . brownists apology , p. . a. d. . a defence of the churches and ministry of england , middleburgh , p. . a. d. . barrow's observations on gifford's last reply , n. . p. . brownists apol. p. . brownists apology , p . barrow , ib. barrow's refutation of giffard . preface to the reader . sum of the causes of separation . ibid. brownists apology , p. , , . ainsworth's counter-poyson , p. . ib. p. . t. cs. letter to harrison against separation , in defence of the admonition to the followers of brown p. , . page . page . page . counterpoyson , p. . ball against can , p. . giffard's answer to the brownists , p. . grave confutation , &c. p. , , . ●rav●con●utation , &c. ● . , , . ibid. pall against can. part. . p. . giffard's plain declaration , &c. preface . answ. to the brown. p. , . mr. arthur hildershams letter against separation , sect. . highly commended by mr. j. cotton , in his preface before his commentaries , on john. i● . sect. c , , . v. bradshaw's answer to johnson . hildershams letter , sect. . grave confutation , &c. p. . giffard's answer to the ●rownists , p. . grave confutation , &c. p. . acts. , , , . grave confutation , &c. p. . . giffard's answer , p. . , , , . grave confutation , &c. p. . bradshaw's answer to johnson , p. . ed. . page . stephen offwoo● 's adve●tisement to jo●n delecluse and h. may , p. , . defence of the admon . to the followers of brown , p. . page . page . page . page . page . pag. , &c. counterpoyson p. . cotton's answ. to r. will●●ms , p. . offwood's advertisement , p. . cotton's answer to r. williams p. . ib. clifton's advertisement , p. . . way of congregational churches cleared , p. . profane schism of the brownists , p. . ib. ch . . p. . page . offwood's advertisement , p. . schism of the browni●s , p. . way of congregational churches , p. . see smith's reasons in b●nard against br●●nists , ca●led p●ain evidences , p. , , . smith's ep. to the character . cotton's way cleare● , p. . page . page . page . r. williams answer to cotton 's 〈◊〉 . ● . page . page . cotton's answer to williams , p. , . apologet. narrative , p. , . anatomy of independency , p. , , , &c. answer to the antapologia p. . disswasive from the errors of the times , p. ▪ anatomy of independ . p. . anatomy of independ . p. . duply to m. s. p. . arguments of the scotch commiss . p. , . serm. nov. . . serm. before the com. feb. . . serm. before the lord mayor , jan. . . serm. before the parliament , sept. . . observations and annotations on the apologetical narration , p. . sermon at st. paul's , feb. . . p. . narrative of new-england , &c. postscript , p. . baylies disswasive , p. . papers for accommod . p. . baxter's answer , p. . dr. o. p. . mischief of impos . p. , , . ●etter out of the country , p. ● . answ. to my sermon , p. . giffard's answer to the brownists , p. . barrow against giffard , p. . page , . confut. of the brown. p. . page ● ▪ page . the second quaere . answer to letter , p. . vnreasonableness of separation , p. . answer to serm. p. . defence of the cure of divisions , p. . cassand . anglic. p. . page ▪ vindication of non conformists , p. , . page . answ. to serm. p. . defence of the cure of divisions , p. . restor of sutton , p. . page . mischief of imposition . preface . iacob against johnson , p. , , , , , , , , , , , , . bradshaw's answer to johnson's third reason sect. . giffard against brow : p. , , ● . counterpoyson , p. . , , , . letter out of the country , p. . mischief of imposition . preface . rector of sutton , &c. p. . answ. to let. p. . ans. to letter , p . answer to sermon , p. . cure of divis . p. . sacrileg . desertion , p. . &c. first plea , sect. . p. ● . page . answ. to serm p. . plea for peace , p. . letter out of the country , &c. p. . dr. o. vindication , &c. p. . mischief of impositions , &c. p. . mischief of impositions , p. . sacrileg . de ●ertion , p. . defence of the cure of divis. introd . p. . ibid. p. . answ. p. . dr. o. vindicat . p. , christian directory , part . p. , . sacrileg . desert , p. , &c. cure of divis . p. . answ. to my letter ; p. . apology of the brownists , n. . chap. . order of congregational churches , n. . irenic . c. . answ. to letter , p. . sacrileg . desert , p. . answ. p. . answer to my sermon , p. . sacrileg . desert . p. . true way of concord , ch. . answ. p , . plea for peace , p. . brownis●s apology , sect. . mischief of imposit . preface . dr. o's . vindic . p. . answ. p. . plea for peace , p. . cure of divisions , direct . . sacrileg . desert . p. . ball against can , p. , , , &c. pag. , , . trial of new church way , p. . christian direct . part. . p. . answ. p. . cure of divis . p. . answ. p. . answ. p. . plea for peace , p. . sacrileg . desert . p. . answer to serm. p. . plea for peace , p. . , , . answ. to sacril . desertion , p. . answ. p. . answ. p. . answ. p. ● . answ. p. . plea for peace , p. . answ. p. . kings . . mischief of impos . preface . rector of sutton &c. p. . plea , p. . answ. p. . plea , p. , . ibid. answ. p. . plea , p. . preface to defence of his cure , p. . plea , p. . answ. p. . plea , p. . rector of su●to● &c. p. . answ. p. . mischief of impos . p. . tract of schism , p. . mischief of impos . p. , . mischief of impos . p. . answ. p. . , . answ. p. . answ. , , , . answ. p. . answ. p. . page . page . page . mischief of impos . p. . page . page . page . mischief of impos . p. . answ. p. . rom. . . mischief of impos . p. . ibid. plea. p. . mischief of impos . p , . answ. p. . trial of grounds of separation . chap. . p. . robinson's treatise , p. . ainsworth's consider . examin'd , p. . john , , . matt. . . luk. , . vindication of non-conform●ts . p. , . act. . . phil. ▪ . . . act. . . rector of sutton , p. , . gal. . . vindication of non-conformists , p. . page . page , page . ▪ . act. , . page , . letter cut of the country , p. . mischief of imposit . p. , . de baptismo , ●c , donat . l. . c , , . 〈…〉 vindicat. p. . instit. l. . c. . n. . numb . . numb . . numb . , , , . numb . . numb . . cap. . n. , , , , , . numb . , , , . apology , c. . cap. . cap. . cap. . cap. . cap. . de secess . ab eccles. rom. &c , p. . prejuges legitimes contre les calvinistes . claude sa defence de la reformation . . part . pajon examen du livre , &c. . partie . turretini disput . . de necessariâ secessione ab ecclesiâ . rom. sect. . le blanc . theses de reunione . praefat. ad confess . helot . & art . , . consens . polon . p. . confess . august . art . . confess . argent . c. . croc. de ecc●es unit . & schism . c. . ● . . comment . de aug. confess . . c. . p. . c. . page . zanch. . de . re● . p. . amyrald . de secess . ab eccl. rom. deque pace cum evangel . constit . p. . hornbeck de consociat . evang. sect. . n. . sencent . d. daven . p. . iren●c . tract . pror . p. . vindication of non-conf●rmists , p. . . cyprian . ad anton. ep. . n. . euseb. l. . c. . pacian . epist . . ad sempron . cyprian . ep●st . , . 〈◊〉 unit . eccl . de latsis . euseb. l. . c. . theod. haeret , fab , l . . epiph. haer . . cyprian . de vnit. eccl. n. , , &c. epiph. haer . . theod. l. . c. . epiph. haer . . sect. . rector of sutton , &c. p. . cotton 's answer to r. williams p. . mischief of imposit . in the preface . aug. c. ep. parmen . l. . c. . l. . c. , , . l. . c. . de bapt . c. donat. l. . c. crescon . l. . c. . aug. ep. . & . col● at . . carthag . n. . mischief of imposi●ions in the preface . collat. . carthag . n. . aug 〈…〉 ● . c. parmen . l. . c. . l. . c. . cure of divisions , direct . . defence of the cure , p. . christian dire●tory , p. , &c. m●schief of impos . sect. . christian directory , p. . defence of his cure , except . p , . heb. . . act. . . cor. . . cor , . . ephes. . , , . joh● . . iren. l. . c. . chrysost in . eph. . p. ● , cor. . . . st. john . matt. . . cor. . . heb. . . . thess. . . . gal. . . . . tit. . . john . revel . . . . a●t . . . phil. . . rom. . ▪ 〈…〉 , . cor. . . vers. . , 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . p. . serm. p. . vindic p. . cotton's way of congregati●nal churches cleared , p. , . cyprian l. . ep. . in the late edit . ep. . l. . . ep. . l. . ep. . ep. . l. . ep. . ep. . ep. . euseb. l. . c. . phot. nomo-can . tit . . c. . l. . ep. . ep. . l. . . ep. . l. . ep. . ep. . l. . ep. . ep. . l. . ep. . ep. . ep. . ep. . ep. . ep. . ep. . ep. . ep. . ep. . ep. . ep. . ep. . ep. . ep. . ep. . ep. . ep. . ep. . ep. . moses and aaron , p. . vindic. p. . act. . . thess. . . cor. . . act. . . cor. . . gal. . . cor. . . act. . . . cor. . . vindic. p. . p. ● . orig. c. cels. l. . act. . . act. . . s●t . l. . thucyd. l. . & l. . p. . act. . . s●● . l. . eustar . ad il. ● . euseb. l. . c. . epiph. haer . . p. . evangel . love. p. . p. . p. . p. . reasons against the instances , &c. p. . p. . p. . true and onely way of concord . p iii. premonition to the true way of concord . plea for peace , p. . church-history . p. . p. . church-history , p. . answ. to serm. p. . aug. de bapt. l. . c. . cypt. ep. . n. . cypr. ep. . n. , . ep. . n. . ep. . n. . de vnit. eccl. n. , . s. august . ep. . n. e. ep. . collat. carthage . aug. ep. . victor vitens . l. . a aug. serm. . . . de diversis . b serm. . . de diversis . c de divers . . d . de temp. * vict. l. . f . de temp. g . de temp. h . de divers . victor vit. l. . collat. . carthage n. . optat. l. . cod. eccl. afric . c. . c. , . c. . c. . c. . church history , p. . de curd pro mortuis c. . aug. ep. . aug. ep. . ep. . ep. . ep. ad quodvultdeum ante lib. de haeres . s. cyprian . ep. . n. . ep. . n. . ep. . n. . victor vit. l. . epiph. haer . . n. . athanas. ap. p. . . haeres . . n. . . n. . abridgment of chur. hist. p. . athanas. ap. p. . euseb. l. . c. . vetus orbis descript . p. . amm. marc. l. . euseb. l. . c. . athan. apol. p. . theodor. ep. . treatise of episcopacy , p. . critic . sacr. l. . c. . theod. ep. . ep. . sirmond . praef. ad theod. opera . ptolem. l. . c. . strab. l. . plin. l. . c. . amm. marcel . l. . notitiae antiq . append. ad car. à s. paulo , p. . theodor. ep. . theodor. ep. , . ep. . ep. . religios . hist. vit. symeon . p. . ep. . ep. . vita jacobi jun. p. . , &c. , , , , , . treatise of episcopacy , part . p ▪ , . theod. hist. l. . c. . l. . c. . l. . c. . l. . c. . l. . c. ▪ l. . c. . answ. to serm. p. . p. . christian directory . eccles. cases , q. . p. . can. . & . defence of the answer to the admonit . p. . p. . p. . perpetual government of christ's church . ch . . p. . ch . p. . synod of new-england concerning the subject of baptism , &c. . baxter of confirmation , p. . p. , . p. . p. . p. . rubrick before communion . defence of the plea. p. . epist. . post collat . c. donat. c. . spalat . l. . c. . albaspin . l. . c. . defence of the plea. p. , . de t●mp●re serm. ● . of confirmation . p. , &c. his majesties final answer to the divines at newport , n. . calvin . ep. . bez. ep. . codex eccles . afric . c. , , , . c. . c. . p. . p. . plea for peace , p. . answ. serm. socr. l. . c. . soz. l. . c. . serm. p. . vindicat. of non-conform . p. . p. . p. . p. . williams his answer to cotton's letter , p. . cottons answer to r ▪ williams , p. . 〈…〉 p. . cobbet's answer to cla●ks n●rrative , p. , . synod of new-england . p. . defence of the synod , p. ● . answ. p. , . difference between the power of the magistrates and church past●●rs , ●● . p. 〈◊〉 , . 〈…〉 〈…〉 p. , , . hudson of the church . p. . can. . christian directory . eccl. cases q. ● . p. . answer to my sermon , p. . anws . p . p. . mischief of impos . p. . ibid. p. . p. . p. . letter out of the country , p. . p. . p. . part . rect●r of sutton , &c. p. ● . vindication , &c. p. ● . answ. p. , . mischief of 〈◊〉 , preface . letter out of the country , p. . vindicat. p. . tim. . , , . act. l. . act. . , . act. . . act. . . . . . . tim. . , . act. ● . . act. . . clement . epist. p. , , , . answ. p. . cypr. epist. . orig. hom . in levit. euseb. de vit. const. l. . c. . greg. naz. orat. . evagr. l. . c. . socr. l. . c. . soz. l. . c. . socr. l. . c. , . ambros. ep. . socr. l. . c. . soz. l. . c. . socr. l. . c. . l. . c. . amm. marc. l. . answ. p. . de sacerd. l. . hieron . adversus iovin . in ezek. c. . orig in num. hom . . hieron . epist. ad evagr. ecc●ellens . de orig. eccl. alex. c. . ambros. comment . in eph. euseb. l. . c. . c. . aug. ep . . socr. l. . c. . concil . n●cen . c. . concil . antioch . c. . c. . socr. l. . c. . basil. ep. . concil . chalced . act. . novell . justin . , . c. de episc. lex . . can. laod. c. . aug. ep. . conc. nic. . c. . concil . . c. . soz. l. . c. . socr. l. . c. , . c. . c. . c. . soz. l. . c. . l. . c. . socr. l. . c. . pallad . vit. chrys. p. . so●r . l. . c. . concil . aurelian . a. d. . v. concil . tarracon . a. d. . can. . concil . tolet. . c. . & ibi loaisam . grati. dist. . concil . vernense can. . sirmond . append. ad to. . concil . gall. lup. ferrariens . ep. , , . v. grotii piet. p. . walsingh . in edw. . p. . c. si quis . cod de sacros . eccles. nov. . nov. . c. . matt. paris ad a. . joh. saris● . ep. . & . epist. . rittershus . ad novell . p. . c. . n. , . treatise of episcop . p. . p . mischief of impositi●ns , p. . vindic. of non-conf . p. . dr. falkner's vindication of liturgies , . vindication , p. . answ. p. . mischief of impos . p. . matt. . . , . exercit. on matt. . , . p. , . p. . p. . e●ce . pta g●mar . c. . ● . ma●k . . chagiga c. . § ult . erub i● f. . bellarm. de effectu sacra . l. . c. . sect. tertia . bell. de cultu sanct. l. . c. . § nota. benedict . salis ad aquam lustral . pastoral . de sacr. bap. azor. instit. moral . l. . c. . greg. de valent . to. . disp . . q. . puncto . marsil . columnae hydragiologia . bell. de imag. l. . c. . thyrae . de locis infest . p. . c. . thesaur . cathol . to. . l. . art . . fresh suit against cerem . p. . p. . cassand . consult . art . . & . to. . disp . . q. . p. . preface to the common-prayer . can. . preface to common prayer . 〈…〉 plea for peace , p. , . defence of the plea , p. ● . plea 〈…〉 p. . christian directory . ecclesiastical cases , q. . defence of the plea , p. . defence of the plea , p. . concil . florent . decret . vnion . concil . trident. sess. . can. . gamachae sum. theol. to. . qu. . c. . lu●o de sacram . disp . . sect. . n . ysambert . de sacram. ad . qu. . disp . art . . clypeus theolog. thomist . to. . disp . . art . . § . christian directory eccles. cases q. . p. . mischief of imposit . preface . §. . . answer to serm. p. , . plea for peace , p. , . ca● . . aug. 〈◊〉 r●ig . c. ● . 〈…〉 〈…〉 de constit. c. quia incontinent . ipso facto . can. . plea for pea●e p. ●● . dis●ipl . de france , des minist . art . . calvin . epist. 〈◊〉 . p. . p. . 〈…〉 . c. . §. . letter out of the country , p. , , &c. answ. p. . . disputations of church gov. p. ● . mischief of impos . p. . p. . p. . p. . §. . p. . p. . answ. to cotton's letter . bloody tenent . defence of the cure of divis. p . 〈…〉 . to magist●a●es power , ● . 〈◊〉 . first principles of new england by i. mather , . §. . p. . p. . t. c. 's first answer to w●itg . p. ● . answ. p. . plea for peace , p. . ● . defence of his plea. p. . plea for peace , p. . ratio discip. fratr . c. . sect. . def. of the plea. p. . aug. ep . . chrysost. in psal. . tert●l . de baptismo . c. . serm. . de tempore . de peccat . meritis & remiss . l. . c. . preface to right to sacraments . conferen●● first part. §. . mischief of impos . p. , , . 〈…〉 to the 〈…〉 . confe●●o fid●i claudii regis aethiopiae . §. . mischief of 〈…〉 . mischief o● impo● . ● . 〈◊〉 . notes for div a -e * c●lv . edit . amstel . ●om . p. . * bez. contra sarrav . ad cap . art . . pag. ● edit . fran●o● . ann . ● calvin ●pera edit . 〈…〉 . p. ● . 〈…〉 cap. . art . . pag. 〈◊〉 edit . 〈◊〉 anno . a third letter from a gentleman in the country, to his friends in london, upon the subject of the penal laws and tests penn, william, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing p estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a third letter from a gentleman in the country, to his friends in london, upon the subject of the penal laws and tests penn, william, - . p. printed for j.h. and t.s. ..., london : . reproduction of original in harvard university libraries. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng dissenters, religious -- england. church and state -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - mona logarbo sampled and proofread - mona logarbo text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a third letter from a gentleman in the country , to his friends in london , upon the subject of the penal laws and tests . licensed , may the th . london , printed , for j. h. and t. s. and to be had of most booksellers in london and westminster , . my honoured friends , since my last letter was so happy as to please more of the party than my first offended , and that even those are somewhat softened by it , i prevail'd with my self , once more , to give you my thoughts upon the same subject : and though i think the objections you have sent me , are come too far for an answer , yet i will give you mine , with all the plainness , brevity and temper i can ; for they that seek the publick good , are not to be nice in their endeavours for it ; and such who go upon principles , have the advantage of being secured by their sincerity , even where their mistakes cannot be defended . but as i think i am not in the wrong , so i sincerely profess , if i knew i were , no temporal consideration should engage me against my opinion ; for though i am for the liberty of persuing ones own judgment , i abhor the latitude of dissembling it . but to the point before us . you tell me , that the generality of the soberest and wisest of those , that would be esteemed members of the church of england , of your acquaintance , do declare , they have no aversion for liberty of conscience , and that they always liked an indulgence to dissenters , but they are angry at the present manner of it , and with the addresses of thanks the dissenters have made to the king for it. to say nothing then of who they were that made the penal laws , or by whom they were executed , or upon what motives ; and less , what prejudices thereby have followed to the persons and estates of thousands of the kings subjects ( because that history might look harsh , and i resolve to be as healing as i can ) let me ask , why these gentlemen should be offended at the way of the ease the king has graciously given ? 't is certain , that some of them reproach'd the severe conduct he has chang'd , and thought it ill in the government to expose so many useful men in their persons and estates to a pack of lewd informers , that yet now quarrel the stop he has given to those severities . they will , i hope , pardon me if i say ; christ's answer to the pharisees about the breach of the sabboth came in my mind upon reading their objection , what man among you that should have a sheep fall into a pit on the sabboth day , will , not lay hold on it and lift it out ? he excused david and the priests in a case of the like nature , and thought a good deed was to be done at any time , when he healed the poor man. this was he that preferred mercy before sacrifice , and exalted the good nature of the samaritan above the strict priest and levite , that with all their reverence to the law , left the rifled and wounded unregarded . but to turn the stile of the discourse : why should any of the church of england be offended , when it is a less power than has been publickly maintained by the most venerable of their own clergy , in all times since the reformation ? you will find arch-bishop whitgift , in his letter to q. elizabeth , asserting her power in ecclesiastical matters to rest wholly and absolutely in the queen , & that he advises her , by no means to allow the parliament to have the fingering of those things ; and that what cannons were made by the clergy in convocation , by her majesties authority , might be observed or altered at her pleasure . and in another letter to the lords of the council , he tells them , that the queen her own self , had in express words , immediately committed causes ecclesiastical to him , as to one , who was to make answer to god and her majesty in that behalf , and not to their lordships , wherein , as he supposed , he had no judge but her self . arch-bishop laud , and bishop sanderson , dr heylin , dr hicks and several other dignified divines of the church of england , all grave and learned authors , follow the same sentiments touching regal power , in a more extended manner , as you may shortly see by an ingenious hand , who hath exactly transcribed their own writings in this great point . but in general , it is resolved by dr starky , in his assise sermon at st edmonds-bury , concerning the divine obgation of human ordinances , printed by john field , printer to the university of cambridge , . that constitutions , as they had their original and establishment from the reason of the supream magistrate , consulting for the conveniency and good of the society , so the condition of things and state altering , upon their burthen and inconvenience , may , by the authority that established them , be altered , suspended , abrogated , and taken quite away . thus a divine of the church of england ; but to proceed on that lesson , argumentum ad hominem . for what greater injury ( saith he ) canst thou put upon thy careful governour , then when his contrivances and determinations are published for publick good , that his directions should be contemned , and by thy rebellion that thou shouldst suggest to others ( what our disorderly nature is too ready to suspect ) that their rules are the results of erronious and corrupt men , which ought to be lookt upon as the determinations of sacred authority derived from a most wise and just god. but if this were not so , is it the same thing to dispence with a temporary , as a fundamental law ? with that which says , thou shalt not go to a conventicle , as with that which says , thou shalt not kill or steal ? are there not some laws that are of that moral and enduring nature , no time or accident of state can dispense with ? and such laws as are so specially accommodated , that the reason of them may not live three years to an end ? the penal laws about religion were made for fear that divers opinions in one country might endanger the government , & time shows us that nothing hazards it more then their execution . t is plain it puts us in a state of force , and that therefore people fly the kingdom , and trade dwindles to nothing : and since all countrys are greater by their people and forraign commerce , than by their soyle and domestick labour and consumption , whatever lessens them , impoverishes and weakens the kingdom . who will trade where his gettings are none of his own ? or live , where he is not sure of his principle ? which is the case of dissenters in a country using coertion for religion . and when all this is said , the king is pleased to refer the matter to the concurrence of a parliament , and such power for the good of the publick , was never denied by any man of sence , any where , to the wisdom and necessity of government , and it must ever rest with that part of it , which is by the constitution always in the way , which , we all know , our parliaments are not . this declaration seems to me no more than a royal bill without doors , informing the kingdom of his majesties mind , and preparing both houses to make it the subject of their next session : and i don't think i shall ever see a parliament in england break with a king of his justice and valour , upon so reasonable and popular a point . but to be free , it looks ill in any of the sons of the church of england , to scandal this ease with the irregularity of the way of it , when nothing is more evident than that they cannot do it without flying in the face of that loyalty , which made that church so famous in . for as then the distinction of the natural and political capacity of the king , was the great doctrine of the parliament against several acts of state , which in part , gave rise to the misunderstandings and wars that followed . so 't is certain , that the generality of the church of england opposed it as a pernitious principle to the monarchy , and rather than suffer so plebean a notion to take place in the government , drew their swords for the soveraignty of the crown ; and we all know what endeavours have been used , and by whom , since the late kings restoration , to damn that distinction as the very seed of rebellion . this reflection makes me beseech the dissatisfied sons of the church to consider , how much wiser it were to approach the king with all possible candour and decency , and by assuring him , that their concern looks no further , than such a legal and uncoercive security for themselves , as at the same time that others are safe from them , by the repeal of the penal laws , the church may be secure that no one of those interests shall invade her rights and possessions , he may be induced to imbrace the mediums that in such an occasion it were the easiest thing in the world to find , as well as that they might be the most agreeable and honorable in themselves for all our happinesses . let her then betake her self to think of some happy expedients , and rebuke those members of her communion , that run up and down with the falsest , as well as angriest aggravations ; that we may all yet meet in some general and national principle to adjust our several interests upon . for can she take it ill of the king , that he receives the dissenters as near him for his interest , as 't is plain she would take them to her for her security ? the objection she makes against their former disloyalty , vanisheth with their present adherence and her dissent ; for it both shows they are for the government when that is for them , and that even she her self is for it no longer ; nay , it will be said by some , nor so long ; for she is ( say they ) not satisfied to be safe , nor yet to keep the chair , nor will she thank the king for that , unless others may be confounded that cannot offer at her altar ; who , as bad as they are , for this gracious reprieve , think him not only worthy of their thanks , but of their estates and lives when he wants them on so glorious an occasion : and it is not the foolishest thought that may come in her head , that having once lost the king to the side against which she could not maintain his father , her case must be desperate upon the contest , which god forbid . i confess , when i consider the idea we have been taught to have of a popish king , and what persecuting , massacring murdering work was necessarily to attend his raign , i cannot but say , i think the church of england securer , in this raign , upon the kings declaration , than any other worldly support she can flatter her self with ; and not to thank him , for an assurance she desir'd , and that is so generously given for a king of his circumstances , from whom , we were told worse things would have followed , and then too , when too many of her children would indiscreetly have provok'd other resolutions , shows her less christian and civil then i believe she desires to be thought , and i hope , upon the main , she deserves . but you tell me , that this liberty is by divers persons rendered dangerous to the monarchy , in that it strengthens the hands of those people that have always been for a common-wealth : this looks very kind and dutiful to the royal family : but tho no body more affectionately wishes the preservation and just succession of it than my self , i can't forbear to charge the objection wit extream weakness , for it is remov'd with a word ; the king has an army , is that the way to set it up ? and what he leaves , his children will finde . is the love of power first objected , and then a design to make a common-wealth with it ? but they will say , tho it ben't his design , it is consequent upon his measures . but i must tell them , no story shows us , that ever any government was changed , making the people of it easie ; but often t'other way : nor is it to be thought , that folks will plot to loose , what they might be driven to plot to get . let the church think as hardly of dissenters as she will ; they cannot be any longer in pain when they are made easie . besides , what have they further to seek , or which way can they possibly agree it ? while their conscience and property are safe , they have no more to ask , and no body was ever against that , which is for them ; nor any government indanger'd by the people it seeks to preserve . the king has begun to show his inclinations to make us all easie & safe , and it will be her fault if we are not so , quickly and intirely . this is the way to prevent the mischiefs she fears ; and what she would have done in their case , to have prov'd her self a better christian or a better subject i can't tell . but 't is certain that the church , by the power of the monarchy , endeavour'd their ruin : that they fell in with that side that favoured their releif , is as true : were it not better that 't were out of the power of both to do the same thing over again ? one to engage the crown , and t'other to oppose it , for t'other worlds matters ? doubtless it were , and this liberty must be the way . those times , i am sure , have a double instruction to the present church of england ; one , that she be not too stiff against a reasonable accomodation ; the other , that to support her self in it , she falls not into the inconveniencies she has objected against the dissenters , whilest under far less provocation , if any at all . let her remember , 't was her cause that first engaged the kings father , and by consequence , banisht his brother , and nothing else but this kings tenderness , least he should be too early with her in declaring for liberty of conscience , when he came to the crown , gave opportunity for the late western rebellion : for as he hath well observed in his speech to the council , how much the want of it went to promote our civil wars , so 't is certain , that had he declared for liberty of conscience , when he told us of his religion , there had been no rebellion in the west : but the mis-guided duke of monmouth might have had his share at buda , and the unhappy people of his train been alive at their vocations . and if this delay was not for want of an opinion that liberty of conscience was a just , necessary and popular thing , but his regard to the church of england , that had serv'd him well , and might not presently take it the right way , or be prepared to fall in with him upon that interest , 't is certainly the highest proof how greatly he valued her concurrance , and desir'd to rely upon her duty , service and friendship , and consequently , how much she is obliged to his goodness , and those of her sons are in the wrong , that carry a present distance and coldness to his administration . and when all is done , the king in this very point has but persued the sense of a parliament very freely chosen ; for in that last westminster parliament , when the house of commons apprehended their dissolution , and that the black rod was near the door to that purpose , they came to several dying votes , as a legacy of their aversion to the court , and their court to the king , dom , among which , this was not the least . resolv'd , that it is the opinion of this house , that the prosecution of protestant dissenters , upon the penal laws , is at this time grievous to the subject , a weaking of the protestant interest , an encouragement to popery , and dangerous to the peace of the kingdom . if the heat of those times could have left those two angry words out , it had carried the general liberty now desired , and nothing would have hindred it in a time like this , with such a parliament as that . for in the raign of a king of a popish religion , that we laboured so much to disappoint , to desire no more at our hands , after our fears of so much more than a meer liberty of conscience , indifferently fixed to all dissenters , is such a cure of our fears , and an assurance of all we can wish , that , we must be wanting to our selves in wit , as well as to the king in gratitude , if we reject the motion . let her therefore be confident nothing excluded the papists then , but our apprehentions that they strove for all at our cost ; and if we are offer'd to be secur'd against such jealousies , a parliament so chosen , would naturally comprise them . but you tell me , that two things stick yet with divers persons of that church : one , that it is not reasonable the dissenters should expect that they should pluck the thorn out of their foot to put it in their own . the other , that in case the penal laws and tests were removed by this church-parliament , another might be packt that might turn both laws and test upon th● present church . in the first place , t is granted then , that the laws are a thorn in the foot of the dissenters . is it not as just to think it ought to be pluck't out , and if the church of england will do nothing towards it , are they not excusable that endeavour it themselves ? tho when one enquires , first , who put the thorn in , and next , that there is no necessity that she must put it into her own foot , because she plucks it out of theirs ; it should not be so hard to perswade her to pluck it out , and in my opinion , it should be as easie to fling it away , that it may trouble no body else for the future . but that perhaps she thinks is not possible to be done , and that impossibility is given for the reason , why she chuses to leave it where it is ; which naturally introduces my answer to the second objection viz. that if the penal laws and tests were remov'd by this church parliament , another might be packt which might turn both laws and tests upon the present church . in my last letter , said something , that ought in my opinion , to satisfie the most jealous in this particular : for first , all agree it is impossible to repeal the laws and tests without a parliament . secondly , 't is not to be thought that the present parliament will do it , without such a provision as will secure us in the point feared . to say there is none , is ridiculous ; for who can tell , what they may think upon , or from other heads , what may occur to them ? if they won't repeal them , let us suppose an other parliament , as freely chosen at least ; can we imagin that such a representative will be less careful to secure us against our fears , tho they were more inclinable to abolish those laws ? if then both are like to go together , be it by the present , or another parliament , i see no insecurity that is like to follow , either to the church of england , or her protestant dissenters , who in that respect , are equally concerned , with her self . and for packing of a parliament , if that were the business and design at last ; why is it not attempted at first ? certainly it is so easie to be done , that if the king did not seek a more agreeable , and lasting security to his friends , to wit , a national one , there are men enough of no religion to be packt to morrow , that would first conform to the laws and tests , and then mercenarily take them away . i know there are silly people of all parties , for whom no body can answer ; but , t is astonishing , that such a jealousie should have so much room with men of any share of sense , that if this parliament should repeal the laws and tests , the papists in the next , would come into parliament , and then make their religion national at our charges . for , first , it supposes no other expedient , which is easie to be found and obtain'd , or let the other remain . secondly , it supposes that roman catholicks will be chosen , or return'd , tho they are not chosen ; the one 't is certain we don't fear , and methinks they only should be afraid of the other ; for since they cannot be their own security , and this they declare , by seeking a national one ; if the first would do , why don't they begin upon it , and pack a parliament presently , and repeal the laws and tests without any more to do ? and if they don't do this , not because they can't think upon it , but because they don't think it worth trying , why should they attempt by such a way an harder thing ? for no body would take it so ill of them to repeal the laws that vex them by an indirect way , as they would if they went about to make their religion national by it , and if they think it not assuring enough for the lesser , can they be tempted to imbrace it for effecting of the greater point . some of them have read the histories of their own country , and can't but remember , that in times , even of their own religion , parliaments ill chosen came to ill ends. that the twenty first of richard the second repeal'd the acts of the parliament of the eleven of the same king ; and that the first of henry the fourth , repealed the twenty first of richard the second : and that the thirty ninth of henry the sixth , repealed the laws of the th of the same king , & damn'd that parliament , because vnduly elected ; which is the packing meant in the objection : so that 't is not worth while to attempt it . if such a parliament could be immortal , or were able to charm successive raigns , or were not a violation of the constitution of parliaments , and of one of the tenderest points in our government , or did not break faith with mankind , when most obliged to make a straight step , and by all this , treasure up wrath against the day of wrath upon the whole party , which must dawn at the setting of our present king , it were something : but when all this will follow , as certain as the night does the day , to break all bounds of law , and go by open force , were an honest and wise thing to such a wooden invention of law , as this would be to all men living of common sence , and to the ages that shall follow us , who of right , will have the censuring of our actions . what then is left us , but to embrace this gracious tender , and all parties to meet the king in those methods , that are most likely to establish it with the greatest , satisfaction and certainty ? if no other security can be had , i say then , let this that is , remain , if there may be such a thing , why should we not imbrace it ? the church of england disclaims severity and partiality , then let her part with those instruments of both , and not suspect the shaking of the laws of property , for stopping the execution of the laws that undermine it . i leave one consideration with her , and so shall leave you at this time ▪ let nothing that is vnfair , or indirect lie at her door , i beg her , for gods sake . ought she to differ thus with any body ? and less with such a king , upon a point she cannot maintain , and that is better left then kept , take the question , either as to right or prudence ? i will not be very particular , but enough to make way for a fuller discourse on the subject . the tests , the chief , if not the only thing in debate , have they any foundation in our constitution ? should a mans being of any religion , hinder him from serving the country of his birth ? does his going to a conventicle naturally unqualifie him for a constables staff ? or believing transubstantiation , render him uncapable of being a good clark ? it were as reasonable to say , that 't is impossible for a phanatick to be a good shoomaker , or a papist a good tayler . the very notion is comical , and that must ever be the consequence of going out of the way , and serving the publick with such a byass to a party , for that is the softest way of speaking of the error . but when we consider the test in relation to the parliament , where the objection lies strongest against the repeal , it appears not one jot less unreasonable to continue it : for an opinion of religion is made to deprive a peer of the highest right of his peerage : true , he is not totally destroyed , but he 's gelt of his chiefest priviledge . for tho he looses not his title , he has little else left him , can the peers of england to serve a turn , so mutely suffer a president to continue , that shakes their hereditary share in the government , and so essential a part of our ancient & celebrate constitution , and by which 't is made impossible to have an unconcerned house in judgment ? let us but look back to seventy five , and see what was done then , by divers lords , in a case of this nature ; i will but repeat the test and their protest . i a. b. do declare , that it is not lawfull , upon any pretence whatsoever , to take up armes against the king , and that i do abhor that trayterous position of taking arms by his authority against his person , or against those that are commission'd by him in pursuance of such commission ; and i do swear that i will not at any time endeavour the alteration of the government , either in church or state , so help me god. the debate lasted five several days before it was committed to a committee of the whole house , which hardly ever happened to any bill before : the debates , were managed chiefly by the lords , whole names you will find to the following protestation . we whose names are under written being peers of this realm , do according to our rights and the ancient vsage of parliaments , declare that the question having been put , whether the bill ( entituled an act to prevent the danger which may arise from persons disafftected to the government ) doth so far intrench upon the priviledges of this house ; that it ought therefore to be cast out . it being resolved in the negative , we do humbly conceive that any bill which imposeth an oath upon the peers with a penalty , as this doth that upon the refusal of that oath , they shall be made uncapable of sitting and voting in this house , as it is a thing unpresidented in former times , so is it , in our . humble opinion , the highest invasion of the liberties and priviledges of the peerage , that possibly may be , and most destructive of the freedom , which they ought to enjoy as members of parliament , because the priviledge of sitting and voting in parliament , is an honor they have by birth , and a right so inherant in them , and inseparable from them , as that nothing can take it away , but what by the law of the land , must withal , take away their lives , and corrupt their blood ; upon which ground we do here enter our dissent from that vote , and our protestation against it . buckingham bridgwater winchester salisbury bedford dorset aylisbury bristol denbigh pagitt holles peter howard e. of berks mohun stamford hallifax delamer eure shaftsbury clarendon grey roll. say & seal wharton to say nothing here of the matter of the test , 't is plain from the extent of their argument , they were against all tests that depriv'd peers of this fundamental right of peerage , and that nothing could , in their opinion , do it , but such crimes as tainted their blood and took away their lives . i know not if those living are still of that minde , but the honour i have for their understanding and integrity forbid me to doubt it . now pray suffer me to turn the tables , and ask our church-men one question in the language of their fears ; can the king makes lords , and pack an house of commons , that shall first take , and then abolish the test ? why then , it is not so great a security as they imagin ; and it is hardly worth while to be so stiff to support it . but by the same reason that they can repeal this , they may enact another , and if so , may not the house of peers be quickly another set of men ? for that fire that rosts a goose can rost a gander . what tides are these in government ? and what state is safe , or happy , whose foundations float upon such movable measures ? besides , the lords intended to be made the example of our power in this affair , were generally observed to be some of the steadiest and best voters upon all questions that concern'd our publick right . i have done with this . t'other part of my consideration is the other part of our parliament , the house of commons i mean. and here we are taught to believe , the peoples choice is the representatives authority ; and if that be true , it is somewhat hard to imagine which way they can hinder a man from session that the people have freely chosen . i grant , that where competitors have made an election disputable , the final judgment is in the representative body ; but i cannot comprehend how that house can ever make void an undisputed election , and such is a free choice of the people , of any county or borrough ; and yet that is the very business of the test of seventy eight . for if i believe the doctrine of transubstantiation , i cannot possibly fit in parliament , let my election , ability , integrity be what they will. in this matter , let us lay aside prejudice , and look beyond transubstantiation , like english-men , jealous of our rights ; for here seems to be the snake in the grass ; what ! shall opinion give rule to our properties , and ( like daniels king ) change times and laws at pleasure ? there is nothing more miserable in government then that it must alter with religious opinion , which yet we are not assur'd men shall not change , and that often in an age. i say , this does not rest at transubstantiation ( tho if it did , and it were not just , 't were no argument to a good man ) the same power that is assumed in that case , may make a test of what it pleases , and a mans dissent , a reason of exclusion from session in parliament , let not this be . we usually say , no stream rises higher then its fountain , and whether this sort of testing be not an inversion of the natural current of power , may not be amiss for english-men to deliberate : nay , if it be not a breach of that part of the constitution of the government : for if those whom the people chuse , the representatives may reject , for a reason of their own , that in the nature of civil government can be none , the electors and elected must needs be divided , in that the one makes void the power of the other , tho it be that by which the first house of commons sat , and is the natural authority of every house of commons in this kingdom . nothing , in my opinion , can cure this mischief better than a due consideration of the true nature of things : what properly falls under our cognizance , and what not ; and then to adapt proper and sutable means to the just ends we aim at : for if the major vote in things not to be voted , could give any weight or sanction , 't is to be feared the jews were too much in the right , when they cryed , we have a law , and by our law he ought to dye , however , upon these principles , nothing is plainer than that every martyr was felo de se , and dyed a malefactor instead of a saint . let us then be deliver'd of all tests that run not on the side of the old government of england ; and if we must have a test , i shall pray that it may be translated from transubstantiation to persecution . that is to say , that no man shall propose or consent to any thing in government within this kingdom , that may infringe the conscience or property of any man in it ; for upon that ancient policy our government began ; and let the excommunication and anathama of the government pass upon that offender , to his perpetual civil damnation . i shall say no more to you now , what ever i may do at another time , but that you use the utmost of your endeavours , to promote piety and charity : and as on the one hand , with all imaginable softness , you strive to oblige the members of the church of england to an impartial consideration of these things , so on the other hand , you advise all dissenters to govern themselves towards those gentlemen , in the use of this liberty , with a decent and friendly behaviour : who knows , but that conduct , with a little time , may give them that sight of their interest , and dispose them to those compliances , which may end this present mis-understanding in the happiest civil union , that any king and kingdom were ever blest with . god of his infinite mercy grant us this great blessing , and his grace to use it , amen . once more , yours , with all my heart , finis . mr. alsop's speech to king james the ii. at the presenting the presbyterians address, in april, . see london gazette, no. . humbly inscribed to b.b.b.--- as a specimen of sincerity. alsop, vincent, or - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing a estc r this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) mr. alsop's speech to king james the ii. at the presenting the presbyterians address, in april, . see london gazette, no. . humbly inscribed to b.b.b.--- as a specimen of sincerity. alsop, vincent, or - . p. s.n., [london : ] possibly the same speech as his: mr. alsop's speech to the king upon the presenting of an address. reproduction of the original in the british library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng james -- ii, -- king of england, - -- early works to . dissenters, religious -- england -- early works to . great britain -- history -- james ii, - -- early works to . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - mona logarbo sampled and proofread - mona logarbo text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion mr. alsop's speech to king james the ii. at the presenting the presbyterians address , in april , . see london gazette , no. . humbly inscribed to b. b. b. — as a specimen of sincerity . a copy of a speech to king james the ii. by mr. alsop , upon the presenting of an address , as in the london gazette , no. . great sir , we could wish your majesty had a window in our breasts , through which you might discern how our souls embrace your royal clemency with the highest admiration , and yet with the profoundest veneration . for we look upon our selves truly transplanted from a hotter climate , and happily seated under the temperate zone of your majesty's most mild and gentle government , where instead of the scorching beams of severity , which had almost calcined us to ashes , we now feel the cool breezes of your majesty's favour to revive and refresh us . really sir , though we pretend not to any refin'd intellectuals , nor presume to philosophise upon the mysteries of government , neither to pry into the mysteries of state ; which things as they are far above , so they belong not to us at all , yet we make some small pretence to the sense of feeling ; whatever our dullness may be , yet we can easily distinguish between a wound and a plaister ; and know the difference between the smart lashes of some of our fellow-subjects , and the healing clemency of our sovereign . we now , ( dear sir ) silently wait for some happy juncture to give your majesty such essential proofs of our loyalty , and the sincerity of this our humble address ; as may demonstrate that the greatest things , we have been able to express or promise in this poor paper is the least thing we shall chearfully perform for your majesty's service and satisfaction . go on ( great sir ) in this your royal line , ( that is ) your own proper way and method of grace and clemency , that the world may be more fully and further convinced , that you are the best as well as the greatest , and therefore the greatest , because the best of princes , that so if there should remain any seeds of disloyalty in any of your subjects , this transcendent goodness of yours may mortifie and kill them , or if any sparks of duty should be almost smother'd in well-meaning , though mistaken minds , such sovereign grace may awaken and revive them , which above all regalia's , will most gloriously adorn your majesty's imperial throne and diadem . finis . going naked a signe [by] william simpson. simpson, william, ?- . this text is an enriched version of the tcp digital transcription a of text r in the english short title catalog (wing s ). textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. the text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with morphadorner. the annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. this text has not been fully proofread approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page image. earlyprint project evanston,il, notre dame, in, st. louis, mo a wing s estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) going naked a signe [by] william simpson. simpson, william, ?- . sheet ([ ] p.) printed for robert wilson, london : . reproduction of original in: friends' library (london, england) eng church of england -- controversial literature. dissenters, religious -- england. a r (wing s ). civilwar no going naked, a signe. oh church of england! this is unto thee, who live in oppression and cruelty, pride and covetuousnesse; ... simpson, william c the rate of defects per , words puts this text in the c category of texts with between and defects per , words. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - mona logarbo sampled and proofread - mona logarbo text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion going naked , a signe . oh church of england ! this is unto thee , who livest in oppression and cruelty , pride and covetuousnesse ; a day of misery is coming upon thee , thy nakedness and shame is coming upon thee as an armed man , from which no man can hide thee , neither hills nor mountaines shall be able to hide thee in this the day of the lord , neither shall the clefts of the rocks preserve thee from the day of the lords controversy with thee ; thy nakednesse and thy shame is near to come upon thee , from it thou shalt not fly : oppression and cruelty hath been as a staff for thee , but the lord is risen to break thy staff of oppression , and thou shalt be left naked though thou hast seemed to be the glory of the nations with thy deceitful covers , , but now thou shalt be left naked , and nations shall be ashamed of thee : howl and weep ye teachers , for the lord is gathering his people from you , and ye shall devour his flock no more : the day is coming upon you , that none shall buy your wares any more ye merchants of babylon : all your scarlet colour the lord our god is coming to take off : then your nakednesse shall appeare to many nations , and you shall sit as a widdow , and there shall be none to comfort you ; distresse and anguish shall take hold upon you , and pain as a woman in travel , and is not able to bring forth , so shall your misery come upon you : the decree of the lord is gone out against all unrighteousnesse , he will surely reward every one according to their works , for as a troop of robbers lye in wait for a man , so a company of priests by consent lye in wait to murther the innocent lambs of god , and for their sakes the lord is risen in his mighty power to break the bonds of wickednesse , and to set the oppressed free , for the lord hath heard the groaning of his seed , and he is risen to deliver to bring it out of captivity , and from under the taskmasters , where his seed hath been long oppressed by unreasonable men : but the lord will spare no longer , but he will reward the oppressors double into their bosomes , and his seed he will deliver . oh howl and weep your day is far spent , night is coming upon you that you shall not have a vision , and nothing shall be left to cover you : as naked shall you be spiritually , as my body hath been temporally naked in many places in england , as a signe of the nakednesse ▪ and shame that is coming upon the church of england , who liveth in oppression and cruelty , and all who lift up a weapon for her shall fall in the shame with her , which will surely come to passe ; so all sober people consider your wayes , and turne to the light which comes from jesus , that with it you may be gathered unto the lord from the false teachers to the teachings of the lord , from the false worships to the worship of the lord in spirit and in truth ; for a necessity was laid upon me from the lord god of life and power to be a signe : but before i was given up to the thing , it was as death unto me , and i had rather , if it had been the lords will , have dyed then gone on in this service ; but when the word of the lord came unto me saying , go on and prosper , it was sweet unto me , as the honey , and the honey comb. and blessed saith christ are they that heares my word , and keeps it . william simpson . london , printed for robert wilson , at the black-spread-eagle , in martins neer aldersgate , . a word to the well-inclin'd of all perswasions together with a coppy of a letter from william penn to george keith, upon his arbitrary summons and unjust proceedings, at turners-hall, against the people called quakers. story, thomas, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing s estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a word to the well-inclin'd of all perswasions together with a coppy of a letter from william penn to george keith, upon his arbitrary summons and unjust proceedings, at turners-hall, against the people called quakers. story, thomas, - . penn, william, - . p. printed and sold by t. sowle ..., london : . reproduction of original in huntington library. attributed to thomas story. cf. nuc pre- . caption title. signed: t. story. imprint taken from colophon. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng keith, george, ?- . society of friends -- england -- early works to . dissenters, religious -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - tcp staff (michigan) sampled and proofread - tcp staff (michigan) text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a word to the well-inclin'd of all perswasions . together with a coppy of a letter from william penn to george keith , upon his arbitrary summons and unjust proceedings , at turners-hall , against the people called quakers . this following paper is intended for an answer to george keith's notice of another meeting at turners-hall , the . of the month call'd april , . we hope that the wise and judicious of all perswasions , will both approve our past absence from such sort of meetings , and our not bowing to the like proceedings , since their tendency being rather to prophane than to promote piety and charity , which ought to be the chief end of all truly religious assemblies : which being said , as an advertisement to them that read this paper , we now apply our selves to you chiefly , that frequent turners-hall on these occasions ; since 't is for your sakes that we are concern'd , to take this publick notice of what is done there ; that it may appear to you , and such as may yet have a better opinion of g. k. than he deserves , that we are in the right , not to gratifie him in complying with such publick meetings of strife and confusion . and we must tell you freely , if you have any just and serious regard for the honour of religion in general , we cannot see how you can do less than discourage them , instead of censuring us for declining them , and that for these reasons following . . that such meetings are rarely to edification , when even that is intended : but these are manifestly for abuse , and to stir up levity and prejudice against us ; and look more like a bartholomew-fair , or stages of buffoonry , than religious assemblies ; and as such , are understood and disown'd by impartial and sober people . . it is at the instigation of a man , who hath , of late , breathed out revilings and threatnings against us , since his defection from his ancient principles , practice , and society , and is now become , not only ungrateful , but rude and deceitful , as we have manifested in our printed answers to him , unanswered by him . . he began with printing , and there we have followed him from step to step hitherto , leaving nothing material unanswered , which we take to be the fairer , more substantial , and edyfying method . . he is a stray to this day , that no known religious party owns or lays claim to , that we know of ; and therefore not of w●ight enough for our notice , after the long-suffering and kind-treatment we have exprest towards him , the persecution we have suffered from him , and the many books that have been written in answer to his repeated and new-vampt cavils against us . . his offers were not , nor now is , for meeting by agreement of both sides , but for one upon his own terms : he must summons , dictate and impose , time , place , matter , and judges also , or it will not do with him . . there could be no reasonable and just end proposed for such meetings that might induce our compliance , all circumstances considered , since there was no intimation of any persons to be there , whose tender consciences wanted satisfaction from us . and as for the vindication of our selves from such exceptions as are made against us , it hath been fully done already in our printed answers to him . wherefore it must only have been to have gratified the envy and levity of g. k. and a few other prejudicate persons : and we value religion , our publick liberty , and reputations at another rate , than to expose them after such an ill and trival manner . but yet again , that you may farther see what a man g. k. is , and how little reason we have to take any more notice of him , we intreat you weigh these following considerations , &c. . there is no need that we defend our selves against his charges and exceptions , since himself has so often , and so well done it , when made by other enemies . pray see his books , i. e. immediate revelation , &c. those against r. gourdon , scholars of aberdeen , baptists of london , and priests and professors of new-england and others . . and as he hath repeatedly vindicated our doctrines as scriptural , primitive , and christian ; so has he pledged his inward sense to vouch for us as the people of god ; at divers times pleading his inward sense of god's presence with him , in maintaining our religion as christian , and us as true christians , in walking up to it . after which , what is to be said for such a man , or what-more against him , with respect to his present practices ; for what greater evidence of union , satisfaction and concurrence can any man give , than to declare , from an inward sense , given ( as he said ) by the spirit of god , that we are the people of god ; which he hath often affirmed . and what greater levity and enmity , than to run counter to us , and to rally and excite all sorts of enemies against us , for only believing and adhering to the same principles , and preaching the same , and no other doctrines , than such as we believed and preached , when he declared he had that unity with us , and inward evidence for us . . he has endeavoured to render us as a people divided , and as if the better part of us were with him , that he might expose them , the more , he chiefly strikes at , while he is divided from us , for we know not of one in the three kingdoms , that was accounted in unity with us at the time of his coming for england , ( which is now about four years ) that does adhere to him ; notwithstanding the clamour and noise he has made , and the dust he has raised to cloud the reputation of our profession . . he insinuates mighty new discoveries , to vilifie and debase others , and as such his work is entertained and improved by some busie and restless adversaries ; whereas in reality he is chiefly a copy , not an original , in that he says little material , but what has been said already by other publick adversaries , many years ago , and as often particularly answered : so that here is in substance , no new thing , but what our bitter opposers threw at us above twenty years past , and which is now lick'd up by g. k. and again spit out at us to his own shame and confusion . . but it seems the force and credit of this pretended new discovery , has been his antiquity amongst us , which we say is the aggravation of his folly or insincerity : for no man of common sense can think , that one of his pretentions to learning and religion , should be thirty years , in finding out what the quakers were , or whether himself was a quaker : nor is it probable , that any man in his right mind , would imbrace so decry'd , so despis'd , and so suffering a perswasion , as the world knows ours has been , and yet be ignorant of what he ioined with , preached up , writ and suffered for . . the two persons living , whom he mostly vilifies , viz. g. w. and w. p. were his orthodox christians , and dear brethren , about five years past in america , and then and there he urged the orthodoxy of their writings , to justifie himself ; though now he perversly pretends to prove the same g. w. and w. p. antichristian , &c. wonder not therefore , reader , if we think not this man upon equal terms with us , or our selves under the like obligations to him , that we might be towards a fair adversary , who , after our many meetings with him , patience towards him , and pity for him , hath turned the deaf ear , and suffered his pride , passion , and revenge , not only to render fruitless all our christian endeavours towards him , but to become the epitomy and very common-place of all the malice of our preceding adversaries . we pray god almighty , to make him truly sensible of that fearful lapse he is under , and of that mystery of iniquity that has wrought in him , to the overthrow of the good state of mind he once knew amongst us ; and which he hath ( since this grievous revolt ) acknowledged he once enjoyed in fellowship with us , that so he may repent , and receive forgiveness for his foul prevarications , both with god and man. signed on the behalf of those concern'd , by t. story . the sustance of this fore-going paper was delivered in print at his meeting at turners-hall the last year ; and being sensible of the good effect it then had with persons unprejudicate ; it is thought fit to reprint it , adapted to the present occasion . a copy of a letter from william penn. george keith , bristol , the th of the d month , . it is ●●me surprise , thou should'st be unwilling , after thy many summons and challenges , to meet me at a select meeting in my particular case , when thou seemest by thy general letter , to propose a select one for us all , that thou hast summoned to appear at turners-hall . the excuse thou givest , looks to me not so candid as might have been expected from a man of thy pretences , since what injury thou supposest i have done , might by the report of such a meeting have been repaired , as credibly as if a greater number of witnesses . for if thou art only to be righted , as publickly as thou thinkest thou wert wronged , no less number than what was there , if any other persons , or place ought to satisfie thee . but when thou callest to mind how publickly thou hast staged and condemned us , for the worst of hereticks , without any limitation of number , or regard to qualifications of persons , or our consent at all to such a meeting , citing us , arraigning and condemning us not only arbitrarily , but without a copy of our indictment ; naming to us neither the subject of thy exceptions , nor the books out of which thou takest them , and less , the passages attack'd and oppugn'd by thee . but that which augments my wonder , is , that for all the wrongs , thou hast or may'st commit against me , thou thinkest i ought to be satisfied with a select meeting of equal choice , in order to right me . now i cannot understand , why it is not as reasonable for me to propose a select meeting , equally chosen , in order to hear thy exceptions against me , as for thee to propose such an one , after thou hast , in my opinion , injured me , in order to make me satisfaction ? is not prevention better than the difficulty of a cure. but , would'st thou be willing we should chuse arbitrators ( as thou callest them ) for thee , as thou hast done for us ? or , would'st thou think us equal and fair ( if we were to chuse ) to pick out those that have pre-judg'd thy case ? that believe thee erronious , and that are of a church that has persecuted thee , and who are of the sentiment , if not of the charity towards thee , that the rattle-snake man is towards us . but by thy last letter it seems to me , as if thou didst design not to have us present ; and indeed in thy former letters also , by making the conditions so unequal ; or , rather , in allowing us none at all , and so putting us beyond a possibility of complying with thee . for who was ever thought a fair adversary , that refused the persons charged any share about time , place , or auditory ? or , a copy of the matters to be exhibited against them ? should we treat all sorts of adversaries at this rate , and every party of protestants one another , that have differences , and controversies about them ; what a state of confusion and strife , as well as injustice , would the nation be in ? but , i fear , thou car'st not what thou dost , to be revenged upon some of the people called quakers ; and , indeed , upon all of them , and their profession too , for their sakes , because they could not dissemble with their own consciences , in winking at thy proceedings ; so unlike thy former principles and conduct , when thou wert as good a man , and as much thy self , as thou hast been since every jot . o , george keith ! 't is hard for thee to kick against all these pricks ! the lord give thee repentance , that through a deep and effectual sorrow , thou may'st be forgiven thy very heinous offences , and be restored to the flock of god , that thou art so sadly gone astray from , if not too late . this is the fervent desire of ( i think , i may say ) the most evilly entreated of all thy old friends , and yet thy well-wishing friend for all that , william penn. london , printed and sold by t. sowle , next door to the meeting-house in white-hart-court in gracious-street , and at the bible in leaden-hall-street , near the market , . a discourse of the religion of england asserting, that reformed christianity setled in its due latitude, is the stability and advancement of this kingdom. corbet, john, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing c estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a discourse of the religion of england asserting, that reformed christianity setled in its due latitude, is the stability and advancement of this kingdom. corbet, john, - . [ ], p. [s.n.], london : . attributed to john corbet. cf. mcalpin coll. reproduction of original in huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng catholic church -- england. church and state -- england. dissenters, religious -- england. great britain -- church history -- th century. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - emma (leeson) huber sampled and proofread - emma (leeson) huber text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a discourse of the religion of england . asserting , that reformed christianity setled in its due latitude , is the stability and advancement of this kingdom . london , printed in the year m. dc . lx. vii . the preface religion being deeply imprinted in humane nature , and having a great power over it , and being more notably displayed in the present age , is become the grand interest of states , and almost of all men , though not after the same manner , nor upon the same grounds and motives . for this cause , whether it comes in truth , or in shew only , it is found to rule and turn about the great affairs of the world. and though many things of different nature , may have great influence on the state of this kingdom , yet religion and matters of conscience evidently appear to have the greatest . the distinguishing of persons for the favour or disfavour of the times ; yea , the very names of discrimination pass upon the account of religious differences . the active part of all sorts and ranks of men , is hereby chiefly swayed in their motions ; and their affections move more importunately in this one , then in all their other concernments . wherefore if a settlement may be found out , which may accommodate all those parties or perswasions , in which the peace of the nation is bound up , it will prove the undoubted interest of this state. and if such a settlement be likewise found to be the true and sound state of religion , it must needs be acceptable to the faithful servants of christ , and the true lovers of their country . now the adventure of this discourse is to assert , that reformed christianity rightly stated , and setled in its due latitude , is the stability and advancement of the kingdom of england . nothing is here suggested for politick ends , to corrupt the purity , or enervate the power of religion , or to lessen charity ; but the fatherly compassion of rulers , and the mutual brotherly condescention of all christians , required by the law of christ , and some connivence in case of insuperable necessities , and that for the truth 's sake , is here propounded . episcopacy is not undermined , nor any other form of government here insinuated ; only a relaxation of the prescribed uniformity , and some indulgence to dissenters of sound faith , and good life , is submissively offered to the consideration of our superiors . all pragmatical arrogance , presuming to give rules to governours , and to teach them what to do , is carefully avoided ; only the possibility , expediency , and necessity of moderation , is represented . and it is humbly desired , that this honest intention in pursuance of peace , may find a favourable reception . the contents . sect. . the religion of this realm , and three different parties of most important consideration , the protestants of the church of england , the protestant nonconformists , and the papists . sect. . the behaviour and pretension of the popish party in these times . sect. . that popery disposeth subjects to rebellion . sect. . that it persecutes all other religions within its reach . sect. . that where soever it finds encouragement , it is restless , till it bears down all before it , or hath put all in disorder . sect. . the papists pretension of loyalty and merit in the kings cause , examined . sect. . the result of the whole discourse touching the popish party . sect. . that the reformed religion makes good christians , and good subjects . sect. . the reformed religion is the permanent interest of this kingdom . sect. . it is for the behoof of religion and true piety , and for the interest of this state , that reformed christianity be setled in its full extent . sect. . how momentous in the ballance of the nation those protestants are , that dissent from the present ecclesiastical polity . sect. . the extirpation of the dissenters is both difficult anaunprofitable . sect. . the representation of this difficulty is no threatning to rulers , or intimation of rebellion . sect. . the setling of the nation by an established order , a toleration , and a connivence . sect. . of the established order in religion , and the moderation therein required . sect. . whether the dissenters are capable of being brought into such a comprehension . sect. . acquiescence in the widened establishment , is the safety of religion . sect. . of toleration and connivence . sect. . dissenters of narrow and rigid principles , advised to moderation . sect. . this comprehensive state of religion , further considered , with respect to three important interests : first , to that of the king. sect. . secondly , to the interest of the church and clergy . sect. . thirdly , to the interest of the nobility and gentry . sect. . the general security that comes by this latitude . errata . page . line . read in king james his time . p. . l. . r. arts of rome . p. . l. . r. exacted . a discourse of the religion of england . sect . i. the religion of this realm , and three different parties of most important consideration ; the protestants of the church of england , the protestant nonconformists , and the papists . the religion of england considered , not only as established by law , but as rooted in the nation , and generally embraced , is that which is called protestant , and is no other then christianity recovered out of the antichristian apostacy , and reformed from the corruptions of later ages , after the primitive purity ; receiving the holy scriptures as the perfect rule of christian faith and life . how beit , in this realm there be three different parties of most important consideration : the first consists of those protestants that zealously adhere to the english ecclesiastical polity , and call themselves the church of england . the second sort is of those protestants that receive the doctrine of faith contained in the articles of religion , but are dissatisfied in the form of ecclesiastical polity . these by their adversaries have been usually called puritans . the third is of those that utterly reject the reformation , and remain united to the pope as their spiritual head , and call themselves roman-catholicks . hereupon an impartial serious observer , respecting the common good , may be induced to make inquiry , how agreeable or dis-harmonious each of these three are to the publick weal ; as also , what proportion they bear to each other ; and whether those under the legal establishment , or the dissenters , preponderate in the ballance of the nation ; or whether the established preponderate in that degree which is requisite in true reason of government . sect . ii. the behaviour and pretensions of the popish party in these times . the roman-catholicks in england , considered not barely in their number , but in their rank and quality , being rich and powerful , and strong in alliances , are very momentous , and seem to be capable of great designs , especially in conjunction with foreign interests . in these times they have taken much liberty and boldness , with an undisturbed security , and lately have been observed to be more then ordinarily active , jocund and confident of the effect of their mutual correspondencies ; and manifold passages of dangerous appearance have been every where spoken of ; in so much that the nation hath taken an alarm , and the parliament judged the matter worthy of their search , and appointed a committee to receive informations . this party hath high pretensions of merit towards the king , and all that are called royallists ; and they seek apparently more then indulgence and safety , even high power and trust , as if they were the true and sure confidents of this state. such claims as these , challenge a serious debate . for a charge of a high nature ( as themselves have taken notice ) hath been of a long time prosecuted against popery , viz. that it disposeth subjects to rebellion . that it persecutes all other religions within its reach . that wheresoever it finds incouragement , it is restless , till it bear down all , or hath put all in disorder . till they make a better defence then the world hath yet seen , we take the just liberty of insisting upon this charge , and examining first , how benign or safe the influence of popery is upon any state or kingdom whatsoever ; and then how it doth comport with the state of england , whose basis is the protestant religion , setled by law , and by length of time generally spred , and deeply rooted in the nation , and solemnly and constantly avowed by prince and people . sect . iii. that popery disposeth subjects to rebellion . vvhat hath been the constant practice of the popes , who are the head of the roman faith , the universal consent of history bears record . what continual thundering of excommunications hath sounded throughout the christian world in all ages , since the beginning of the papal reign , against kings , emperors , and other princes and states that presumed to dispute their dictates , or cross their designs , to the loosing of subjects from the bonds of allegiance , and the deposing of soveraigns ? what unexampled abasements hath the imperial majesty suffered in the persons of sundry emperors , by prodigious instances of papal pride ; which , though enough to stir up the indignation of mankind , are applauded by famous writers , champions of the court of rome ? the popes temporal dominions began and grew up in rebellion and usurpation , for which cause they have nourished factions , and filled the world with warrs and tumults , and maintained most outragious and tedious conflicts with many emperors , even till they had crippled and broke the back of the empire it self . and these practices are justified by their decretals and canons , and divines of greatest authority , and some of their councils , ascribing to the pope a power of deposing princes that are heretical , or favourers of hereticks . the jesuits doctrine of king-killing , hath made them odious ; and if some passages can be alledged out of their writings against taking away the lives of princes , their declared meaning is , that a king deposed by the pope , becomes tirannus titulo , and is no more a lawful king , and then what follows , is easily understood . those of the church of rome that disavow these things , should mind their contradiction to the faith they own , in leaving their popes , divines and canonists in a point of such importance . but how potent the influence of the court of rome , and the agency of the jesuits is for the diffusing of those principles into the most and chiefest of the roman-catholicks , is not unknown . if the undisturbed government of the emperor , and of the king of spain in later times , be brought forth as an instance of the loyalty of popish subjects , or an argument of the soundness of popish principles ; it must be considered , that the house of austria have made their devotion to the see of rome , their grand and appropriate interest , and that see hath a main dependance on those princes ; and both it and they have the same active votaries throughout christendom , the jesuits and their adherents . as for the kingdom of france , the state of venice , and others acknowledging the popes headship , they have had enough to do , and they would have more , if either themselves were weak , and less formidable to the pope , or the popes lightning and thunder were now as dreadful as in former ages . even in popish countreys the abuses of papal power , and the intrigues and interests of the court of rome are a little better discerned ; therefore those princes and states can make the better terms for themselves ; yet if either the former degree of ignorance and stupid devotion to that see , shall return upon their people , or the like occasions of embroiling or breaking states , shall revive , they must accept the popes conditions , and submit to the former yoke . but if the princes of that profession can in this our more knowing age , with much ado hold their subjects in obedience , against the acts of rome ; yet the question concerning england remains intire , whether a protestant prince can with good reason confide or repose himself in the loyalty of his popish subjects ? and more especially , whether the fore-mentioned popish claims do in any wise comport with the state of england , whose basis is the protestant religion ? no other religion gives the priests such an empire over the conscience , as the popish doth . the principles of that belief , and the order and frame of that church , are directed to this end , and the people are miserably inthralled to the will of their clergy . by auricular confession the priests have a constant inlet into the hearts of men , by injoyning penances and works of devotion , they exercise a spiritual dominion over them . hereby they have dayly opportunity , and advantage enough to excite them to any notable exploits for the catholick cause ; unto which kind of services they fix an opinion of the highest merit , either for discharge from the pains of purgatory , or for the acquest of a greater reward in glory : yea , dissolute persons may be easily drawn to such attempts , in hope of making compensation for a loose and lewd life ; and when they suffer for sedition or treason , they are held to acquire the glory of martyrs and confessors . add hereunto their belluine hatred of hereticks , and vile esteem of their persons : and in all this , their church's supposed infallibility warrants this blind obedience , and brutish confidence . and to make void all the security that can be given between prince and people , the pope under pretence of equity and necessity , undertakes to dispence with oaths , and with all laws both civil and divine . besides all this , there is the jesuits peculiar discipline , most exquisite for blind obedience and resolution , and consequently , for any great and strange attempts . things past may afford prognosticks of thing to come . may englands constant experience be taken for evidence in the case * . the reign of queen elizabeth , after the protestant reformation had gotten the stated possession of this kingdom , was infested with a continued succession and series of treasons , for the re-introducing of popery , carried on by the english papists with an indefatigable and implacable spirit , proceedings from causes peculiar to that religion . during the first ten years , they conformed to the church of england ; but afterwards , to testifie their union with the pope , they became a divided party in this state. for them the queen being found unmoveable , the pope published his declaratory sentence against her , by which all her subjects were absolved from the oath of allengiance , and an anathema denounced against those that thence forth obey her. the popish rebellion in the north breaks out . many horrid attempts of violence upon her majesties person , were plotted one after another for many years together , as that of dr. story , of parry , of arden and somervile , of throgmorton , of babington and his complices , besides the concurrent commotion in ireland * . in these several treasons , many of the seminary priests were forward and active . the great and setled design , was the advancing of the queen of scots , to the crown of england ; wherein were ingaged the pope , and spaniard , and french king , and duke of guise , in conjunction with the english papists , making use of her title to set on foot those many desperate enterprises against the queen . after the death of the queen of scots , they raised a new title to the crown in the house of spain . the memory of eighty eight , will be an everlasting monument of papistical cruelty and treason . cardinal allen the first founder or procurer of the foreign seminaries , a person admired as well by the secular priests , as jesuits , penned a treatise with all the rhetorick he had , to excite the english catholicks to joyn with the spaniards . among the forces in the low-countries prepared for this invasion , were seven hundred english fugitives . after the spanish armado was dissipated , the jesuits had not done . they would have stirred up the earl of derby to assume the title of the kingdom ; they plotted the poysoning of the queen by lopez her physician ; they excited villains to dispatch her by bloody hands , and they never left soliciting the king of spain , till he twice attempted another invasion . in those times parsons his book of titles was famous , wherein he set up divers competitors for the crown , preferring the infanta before all others , and slighting king james his title , as having but few favourers , and little accounted by catholicks . the roman party could be provoked to these mischiefs by no other impulse then the impetuous zeal of their superstition . some of their own did then publsh to the world their important considerations , to move all true catholicks to acknowledg , that the proceedings of her majesty and the state , with them , since the beginning of her reign , had been mild and merciful . in the several times of those mischievous designments , though some priests were executed , yet those that were found moderate in their examinations , obtained mercy , and a great number of them that by law were obnoxious to death , were spared from that extremity , and only banished . it is true , that certain secular priests did impute all those treasons to the jesuits and their adherents , and fully charged them with all the aforefaid matters of fact , in terms of highest aggravation , acquitting all other catholicks . but it must be noted , that the jesuits were in greatest reputation , and had the predominant influence upon the english papists in general , and ( as appears by the seculars loud complaints ) had such a power of disposing the alms collected for their prisoners , and other sufferers , that such as complied not with their purposes , were debarr'd of relief , and pined for want . and by their counsels , the foreign seminaries , those nurseries of disloyalty were wholly swayed . and 't is observable , that the agrieved seculars never published their pretended abhorrency of these treasons , till they were over-past , and themselves , being driven to despair by the jesuits potency , were forced to take shelter under a great prelate of the church of england . the same spirit of disloyalty was as active and vigorous in that kings time , who at his first entrance , found himself excluded from title to the crown , by two papal breves , the ground-work of that infernal plot of matchless villany and cruelty , the gunpowder-treason . after the defeat of which horrid conspiracy , the projects of rome proceeded not in such down-right rebellions , which always miscarried ; but in ways more secretly undermining religion , and as truly destructive to the interest of king and kingdom . sect . iv. that it persecutes all other religions within its reach . the second branch of the charge against popery , is , that it persecutes all other religions within its reach . in the church of rome , for many by-past ages , the meekness of christ , and the dove-like nature of his spouse hath not appeared , but the cruelty of that great whore that was drunken with the blood of the saints , and of the martyrs of jesus . all that cast off her yoke , and disown her pretended infallibility , are with her no better then hereticks , though they intirely own all the articles of the christian faith received by the ancient church . and hereticks are esteemed more vile then dogs ; and it is held meritorious to abuse and torment them . her laws have made their punishment to be the sharpest kind of death , burning alive inexorably inflicted . by this romish wrath and fury were three hundred martyrs sacrificed in queen maries time , for not believing the sacramental bread to be turned into the substance of christs body , against the most clear and distinct perception and reason of all mankind . but can humane nature hear , without horror , the report of that direful consistory , called the holy inquisition , established in those countries where popery is in full sway . doubtless that church whose religious orders in a solemn and sacred judicatory , shall commit such horrid outrages as are indeed acted by those infernal judges , upon pretence of justice and piety , must needs be a school of universal cruelty for all her adherents . the popish hath outgone the pagan cruelty . what treachery and villany hath been acted ! what barbarous indignities have been offered in ways as immodest and shameless , as outragious and merciless , upon pretence of zeal against hereticks ! what varieties of strangely-devised torments have been inflicted upon the servants of christ , without sparing age , sex , or condition ! nor hath such work been done onely in our age or country , but in all ages successively , and countries universally , that were imbued with romish principles : witness the huge slaughters of the waldenses , the persecutions of the bohemian brethren , and of many others throughout christendom in the former ages : and since protestant-reformation , how have the romish zealots filled europe with the slaughters of christians within their reach , in france , germany , spain , italy , england , scotland , the netherlands . in ireland , piedmont and poland , their cruelty is fresh in memory . and the slain cannot be numbred for multitude ; they were killed by thousands , ten thousands , hundred thousands , at one and the same persecution . and the tragedies have been acted where the name of protestant was well known , yea , where protestants were under the shelter of the law. for the jesuits uncessantly stir up the princes to fall upon their people against law , and without provocation given , and after things have been setled , to break their agreements with them . and the pope himself is the contriver or applauder of these mischiefs , and the succesful execution thereof , is received at rome with joy and triumph , as the murtherers in the parisian massacre were highly extolled by the pope , and rewarded with such spiritual graces as his holiness useth to bestow . sect . v. that wheresoever it finds encouragement , it is restless , till it bears down all before it , or hath put all in disorder . may we judg by these things , how a party devoted to the see of rome , are to be trusted and cherished in a protestant nation , who mind the securing of themselves and their posterity , from the sharpest persecutions ; especially considering the third branch of the charge , that in any state , where they find advantage , or fit matter to work upon , they are restless , till they bear down all , or put all in disorder . popery hath its formed combinations , and se●led correspondencies over all christendom , under the supreme direction and government of the congregation at rome , for the propagation of the faith ; which sent over swarms of seminary priests , jesuits , and fryars of all sorts , who made their hives in england . the several parliaments of the later times of king james , represented to the king how the popish recusants had dangerously increased their numbers and insolencies , having great expectation from the treaties with spain , and the interposing of foreign princes for indulgence to them ; how they openly and usually resorted to the churches and chappels of foreign ambassadors , their more then usual concourse to the city , and their frequent conventicles and conferences there ; how their children were educated in many foreign seminaries appropriated to the english fugitives ; what swarms of priests and jesuits came into the land ; many popish and seditious books licentiously printed and dispersed . from which causes , as from bitter roots , most dangerous effects both to church and state would follow . for the popish religion is incompatible with ours ; it draws with it an unavoidable dependance upon foreign princes ; it opens a wide gap for popularity in any who shall draw too great a party ; it hath a restless spirit , and will strive by these gradations . if it once get connivance , it will press for toleration ; if that should be obtained , it must have an equality ; from thence it will aspire to a superiority , and never rest till it hath wrought the subversion of true religion . in the several parliaments of king charles the first , not one publick grievance was more insisted on , then the growth of popery . in the third parliament of that king , at a conference between the lords and commons about popish recusants , one of the principal secretaries of state spake thus : give me leave to tell you what i know , that these now both vaunt at home , and write to their friends abroad , they hope all will be well , and doubt not to prevail , and win ground upon us : and a little to awaken the care and zeal of our learned and grave fathers , it is fit that they take notice of that hierarchy , which is already established in competition with their lordships : for they have already a bishop consecrated by the pope . this bishop hath his subalternate officers of all kinds , as vicars general , arch-deacons , rural deans , apparitors , and such like ; neither are these nominal and titular officers alone , but they all execute their jurisdiction , and make their ordinary visitation throughout the kingdom , keep courts , and determine ecclesiastical causes ; and , which is an argument of more consequence , they keep ordinary intelligence by their agents at rome , and hold correspondencies with the nuncio's and cardinals both at bruxels , and in france . neither are the seculars alone grown to this height , but the regulars are more active and dangerous , and have taken deep root . they have already planted their societies and colledges of both sexes . they have setled revenues , houses , libraries , vestments , and all other necessary provisions to travel , or stay at home ; nay , even at this time they intend to hold a concurrent assembly with this parliament . in ireland a popish clergy far more numerous then the protestant , was in full exercise of all ecclesiastical jurisdiction , by arch-bishops , bishops , vicars , general officiats , and a vicar apostolical . and they had a special cardinal at rome for their protector . among other projects , a consultation and overture of reconciling england and rome , was set on foot . some of eminency in the church of england , gave advantage to the project , by declaring , that only the puritans among the protestants , and the jesuits among the papists , obstructed the peace of christendom . some prime agent of the pope , made a solemn offer of a cardinalship to bishop laud , at the time of his translation to the see of canterbury . sancta clara presumed to dedicate his book to the king , wherein the articles of the church of england were examined by the roman standard , and distorted to the sense of the council of trent . the pope had three nuncio's , panzani , con , and roseti , successively residing in england , to work upon this state by advantage of the project of reconciliation . this faction had many irons in the fire , and many strings to their bow. they had their agents in court , city and country . they had their spyes in the houses of great men , and such as kept continual watch over them that had the chief sway of publick affairs . their work was to raise and foster jealousies between the king and his people , to cast things into the hurry of faction , prejudice and confused motion . and whether the court or popular faction prevailed , they thought it equally advantagious to their designs , which was to unsettle the present state , and work mutations . such incendiaries are the factors of rome , and such busie engineers in the confusions of christendom . can any that considers the foregoing passages , doubt of the powerful and special agency of the court of rome , in the commotions that followed . a venetian agent in england , intimate with nuncio panzani , and privy to all his negotiations , made this observation ; if one may make judgment of things future , by things past , this realm so divided into many factions in matter of religion , and that of the catholick increasing daily , will in time be troubled and torn with civil warrs . sect . vi. the papists pretension of loyalty and merit in the king's cause , examined . the great plea and boasting of the romanists , is , their pretension of merit in the king's cause . the truth is , the papists knew that the parliament was fully bent , and deeply engaged against them , and therefore despaired of any good to themselves by a direct and open compliance with them , whatever undiscerned influence they might have on their counsels : so that necessity made them to serve the king in that warr. and they brought neither success nor reputation to his majesties affairs ; nor did he care to own their assistance more then as justified by the present necessity . and they have little reason to upbraid the protestants with the scandal of that warr ; for whatsoever was alledged in defence thereof , by the parliament and their adherents , as much hath been written by very eminent school-men and doctors of the roman church , for the interest of the people , and the consent of the cities and the peers in defensive arms. which they have written over and above their peculiar principle of the popes universal power of deposing kings that are unfit for government . as for the woful catastrophe of those commotions , it hath been manifested to the world by such as undertook to justifie it , when authority should require : that the year before the kings death , a select number of jesuits being sent from their whole party in england , consulted both the faculty of sorbon , and the conclave at rome , touching the lawfulness and expediency of promoting the change of government , by making away the king , whom they despaired to turn from his heresie : it was debated and concluded in both places , that for the advancement of the catholick cause , it was lawful and expedient to carry on that alteration of state. this determination was effectually pursued by many jesuits that came over , and acted their parts in several disguises . after that execrable fact was perpetrated on the person of our soveraign , if we may believe most credible reports , there were many witnesses of the great joy among the english convents and seminaries , and other companies of papists beyond sea , as having overcome their great enemy , and done their main work . many of their chief ones sought the favour of the usurpers , with offers of doing them service . one of great note among them , in a book entituled , grounds of obedience and government , undertook the solution of the grand case of those times : that if a people be dissolved into the state of anarchy , their promise made to their expelled governour , binds no more ; they are remitted to the force of nature to provide for themselves . that the old magistrates right , stands upon the common peace , and that is transferred to his rival , by the title of quiet possession . conformably to these principles , they address their petition , to the supream authority , the parliament of the commonwealth of england . they affirmed , they had generally taken , and punctually kept the engagement ; and promised , that if they might enjoy their religion , they would be the most quiet and useful subjects . of their actings since his majesties restauration , and the jealousies and rumours about them , let men judg as they find by the evidences that are given . sect . vii . the result of the whole discourse touching the popish party . and now let it be duly weighed , whether the papists of these dominions have in later times changed their former principles and interests , or have only taken another method of greater artifice and subtilty , as the change of times hath given them direction and advantage . the scope of the whole preceding discourse , is to call in question those high pretensions of theirs , and to cross their aims at great power and trust : but it is not directed against the security of their persons or fortunes , or any meet indulgence or clemency towards them . let them have their faith to themselves , without being vexed with snares , or any afflicted ; the state always providing to obviate the forementioned principles and practices of disloyalty , and the diffusing of the leaven of their superstition . the inference of the whole is this , that they be not admitted to a capacity of evil and dangerous influence upon the affairs of the kingdom , or of interrupting and perplexing the course of things that concern the publike . sect . viii . that the reformed religion makes good christians , and good subjects . as true religion is the most noble end , so it is the best foundation of all political government . and it is the felicity of the state of england , to rest upon this basis , even reformed christianity , or the primitive and apostolick religion recovered out of the apostacy of the later times , and severed from that new kind of paganism , or pagano-christianism , under which it lay much oppressed and overwhelmed , but not extinguished . it s wholsome doctrine contained in its publick confessions , makes good christians , and good subjects . it teacheth obedience to civil magistrates , without the controle of any superior or collateral power . nor is it concerned , if dangerous positions fall from the pens of some writers . and notwithstanding the adversaries cavils , the divines of authority and solid reputation in the protestant churches , do with a general consent maintain the rights of princes and soveraign powers , against all disobedience . if any aberration in practice , hath been found in its professors , it is not to be charged therewith , because it condemns it ; but the general practice in this point , hath been conformable to the doctrine . the reformation in england , for its legality and orderliness , is unquestionable . in germany it was setled and defended by princes and free cities , that governed their own signiories and territories , paying only a respect of homage to the emperor . in helvetia it began by the senates of the cantons . it was received in geneva by that republick , after the civil government had been reformed by strong papists . in the provinces of the netherlands it was spread many years before the union against the spaniard ; which union was not made upon the score of religion , but of state. the manner of its beginning in scotland , is by some attributed to a national disposition , the asperity and vehemency thereof , is said to be greater in times of popery , and to be much mitigated by the reformation . for france , we may take the testimony of king james , who was jealous enough for the power of kings . he said , that he never knew yet , that the french protestants took arms against their king. in the first troubles , they stood only upon their defence ; before they took arms , they were burned and massacred every where . the first quarrel did not begin for religion , but because when king francis the second was under age , they had been the refuge of the princes of the blood expelled from the court , who knew not else where to take sanctuary ; and that it shall not be found that they made any other warr. it is not for this discourse to intermeddle with all the actions of protestant subjects towards their princes , that have happened in christendom : let them stand or fall by the laws and polity under which they live . whensoever they have been disloyal , they have swerved from the known and received rules of their profession . through the corruption of mankind , subjects of whatsoever perswasion , are prone to murmurings and mutinies . sometimes oppression makes them mad . sometimes a jealousie of incroachments upon their legal rights and liberties , raiseth distempers and contests . and sometimes an unbridled , wanton affecting of inordinate liberty , makes them insolent and licentious . but over and above these common sources of rebellion , popery hath a peculiar one , and that of the greatest force , the conscience of religious obligations , and the zeal of the catholick faith. protestants have never disowned their king for difference in religion , as the most of the roman catholieks of france dealt with henry the fourth , by the popes instigation . and in their greatest enormities , they have never attempted the stabbing and poysoning of princes that stood in their way , which the jesuits teach their disciples . sect . ix . the reformed religion is the permanent interest of this kingdom . as the protestant or reformed religion , is the true primitive christianity , so it is the stable and permanent interest of england , and the sure foundation of its prosperity . the king of england is the most mighty prince of this profession , and becomes the more potent over christendom , by being the head and chief of the whole protestant party : and it is well known , that by the support and defence of this cause , the nation hath encreased in honour , and wealth , and power . the peoples rooted aversness from popery , is most apparent , and their jealousies work upon any more then usual insolence or confidence of the papists . the royallists as well as others , have been allarm'd , and manifested their zeal against it . and his majesties aversness from it , is so fully declared by his constancy amidst temptations , in the time of his exile , and now since his return , that for his honours sake , it is made very penal for any to suggest that he would introduce it ; the law presuming , that such suggestion must needs proceed from an evil mind . and what prince that hath cast off the popes yoke , would willingly come under it again ? a foreign statesman of the roman profession , hath observed it as a barr against the projected reconciliation between england and rome , that it could not be effected without concessions on both sides , contrary to the maxims of both parties . this realm ( saith he ) is perversly addicted to maintain its own resolute opinion of excluding the popes authority . and the court of rome is more sollicitous to remove whatsoever is contrary to its temporal grandure , then to extirpate such heresies as this realm is infected with . to instance in that one point of the approbation or toleration of the oath of allegiance ; though some catholick doctors had with their tongues and pens maintained the lawfulness of that oath ; yet thereby , and by opening some other points of high consequence , they had so displeased the pope , that could they have been catch't , they were sure to have been burn'd or strangled for it . but what allurement is there to dispose the monarchs of the earth to subject themselves to the sacerdotal empire of rome , or to endeavour an accommodation with it ? hath popery its advantages to dispose subjects to security and blind obedience ? so it hath its advantages to loosen the bonds of allegiance , and foment rebellion in subjects ; when protestancy seasons them with principles of unstained loyalty . a people nuzled in ignorance and superstition , are more easily seduced from their obedience to magistrates , and carried headlong by those that have dominion over their consciences . but understanding and knowledg makes men considerate , and more easily manageable by a just and prudent government . as for the clergy's interest , though the protestant religion doth not affect that excessive pomp and splendor of church-men , which the popish doth ; yet it is taken for granted , that neither conscience nor interest will permit the bishops and clergy of england , to unite to the see of rome . their doctrine is too pure , and their judgment too clear for a full compliance with popery : and they know what it is to come under the papal yoke , to divest themselves , and receive new orders from rome , and to be displaced and set behind the veteran soldiers of the roman camp , whose turns must be first served . sect . x. it is for the behoof of religion and true piety , and for the interest of this state , that reformed christianity be setled in its full extent . if it be resolved , that protestancy is the truth of christianity , and also , the stability of england ; it follows , that this profession must not be streightned and lessened , but inlarged and cherished , according to its true extent ; and the rule and square of the ecclesiastical state , must be commensurate thereunto . it should be the measure of all mens zeal and activity in rites and opinions , whatsoever is necessary to its support and advancement , is constantly to be asserted ; and about things impertinent thereunto , contention should utterly cease . this is to advance the kingdom of god among men , and to encrease the church's glory upon earth . but by needless schisms and factions , to weaken the common interest of reformed christianity , is to dissipate the church of god , and to defeat the great ends of the christian religion , which are , sound and strong faith in christ and his promises , unfeigned devotion , purity of heart , innocence and integrity of life , common charity , brotherly love , humility , mutual forbearance , and condescention , unshaken peace and concord . as this latitude promotes the great designs of christs gospel , so it settles this nation , and is , for matter of religion , its right and sure basis. every good foundation , lyes adequate to the building to be laid thereon : so any polity civil or ecclesiastical , should be proportionate to the people to be governed thereby . the people that are of moment in the ballance of this nation , are , though not universally , yet more generally rooted in protestantism , as it is taken in its due latitude , and not as unduly restrained by the passions and interests of men : for in this they are one , though divided about lesser things . there hath been much discord between men of several perswasions , that throughly accord with each other in the same common faith , as almost to expunge one another out of the list of protestants . surely this is a great error and a disadvantage on all hands , as well to those that stand on the vantage-ground , as to others : for they that carry it after this sort , do weaken the common interest of true religion , and strengthen the common adversary that is irreconcilable , and disparage themselves as a narrow party or faction . that all those who heartily embrace the english reformation established by law , are protestants , will not be questioned by men of temperate spirits . and concerning the residue , let the sober-minded judge , whether they that assent to the doctrine of faith contained in the articles of the church of england , and do worship god according to that faith , have right to be esteemed protestants . now if protestancy taken in its due extent , doth sway the nation , and is able to settle its peace against the competition of any rival ; should it not be encompassed according to that extent , as much as is possible , in the polity of this state ? sect . xi . how momentous in the ballance of the nation , those protestants are , that dissent from the present ecclesiastical polity . vvhether cogent reason speaks for this latitude , be it now considered , how momentous in the ballance of this nation , those protestants are , which are dissatisfied in the present ecclesiastical polity . they are every where spred through city and countrey ; they make no small part of all ranks and sorts of men ; by relations and commerce they are so woven into the nations interest , that it is not easie to sever them , without unravelling the whole . they are not excluded from among the nobility , among the gentry they are not a few ; but none are of more importance then they in the trading part of the people , and those that live by industry , upon whose hands the business of the nation lyes much . it hath been noted , that some who bear them no good will , have said , that the very air of corporations is infected with their contagion . and in whatsoever degree they are , high or low , ordinarily for good understanding , steddiness and soberness , they are not inferior to others of the same rank and quality ; neither do they want the rational courage of english men. as for the ministers of this perswasion , some have called them fools for their inconformity ; others are reported to have said , that the church should not so easily be rid of them , as if their conformity had been dreaded by them . some have pitied them , wishing that they would conform ; and others revile them , saying , conform , or not conform , never trust them . howbeit , they make solemn appeals to the most high god , that they dare not conform , for conscience sake ; and that it is not in the power of their own wills to relieve them . and whatsoever their grounds of dissent be , they hold it out against all hopes of indulgence , whilst many of them live in necessities , and most of them upon the kindness of others . it is now about five years since a full and vigorous act of uniformity . at once cleared the church of the supposed enemies of her polity . all corporations have been new-model'd and changed as to the principles and tempers of persons , for the better securing of the government in church and state. the private meetings for religious worship ( termed conventicles ) are strictly prohibited , deportation being the penalty upon the third conviction . and for the breaking and dissipating of the whole party , it is provided by another law , that the non-conforming ministers be removed five miles distant from the places of their usual supports and influences . such care is taken , and such is the advantage both of law and power , to strengthen the state , and restrain dissenters ▪ nevertheless , the state ecclesiastical hath advanced little in the esteem , acceptance , or acquiescence of people . the dissenters are still the same , and are rather strengthned in their aversness . and those of them that repair to the publick assemblies , retain their principles of reformation ( as they speak ) without seperation . the indifferent sort of men are still indifferent , and it may be have some kindness for the depressed party , and pity them in their sufferings . sect . xii . the extirpation of the dissenters is both difficult and unprofitable . peradventure some think their total extirpation to be the surest way to publick security and peace ; and that great severities will do the work . but violent compulsion and terror , comports not with the nature of christian religion , which is a rational service , and seeks a willing people ; and is not at all in truth , where it is not received with judgment and free choice . besides , the success of such a course may be doubted of , since the protestant spirit is not like the popish , cruel and outragious ; and the nature of english men is not bloody , but generously compassionate . wherefore in this land to execute extremity upon an intelligent , sober and peaceable sort of men , so numerous among all ranks , may prove exceeding difficult , unless it be executed by such instruments as may strike terror into the whole nation . the civil officers in general , may not be found so forward to afflict their quiet and harmless neighbours . moreover , if severity used once for all , could extinguish an opposite party , there might be some plea of policy ; but when severity must still be justified with more severity , without an end , it is like to prove unlucky to the undertakers . nor is the nation like to grow the better by the subversion of this sort , if it were effected . for in them no small part of the nations sobriety , frugality , and industry doth reside . they are not the great wasters , but mostly in the number of getters . in most places the displaceing of them hath not encreased civility and good conversation among men ; and it makes not for their dishonour , that many will swear and be drunk , to declare they are none of them . there is something of more importance . to purge the nation of this people , may be to purge out more of its vitals then the strength of this state can bear . to suppress those that are reckoned among the chief in trading , and whose commerce is so general , may beget a general diffidence and insecurity in traders , and may help to drive away trade it self , and send it to an emulous and encroaching nation . may we mind , without offence , the event of things among us ? the business of the nation hath not proceeded with the current and free passage expected ; nor doth its wealth and glory encrease . trade languisheth , and traders fail in great numbers ; the rents of lands fall ; there is scarcity of money in city and country ; the necessities and difficulties of private estates are common , and complainings are general . and after a continued decay , things are at last fallen and funk much lower in the ruins of the city of london . 't is the nations happiness to be re-established upon the ancient , legal foundations ; but it is the right stating and pursuing of its true interest , by which it comes to a firm consistency , and proportionable growth . but this sort of men are inquisitive , and therefore troublesome to rulers , to whom obedience without disputing , is most acceptable . it is fit indeed they be as humble and modest , as inquisitive . yet these inquiring men stand much by that main principle of protestantism , the judgment of discretion . indeed , the churches infallibility , and the peoples implicite faith , may help against all disputes : but it cannot be so in england , whilst the people read the scriptures , and the established doctrine of faith remains with us : and if no greater latitude can be allowed , then is at present , a race of non-conformists is like to run parallel with the conformists to the worlds end . sect . xiii . the representation of this difficulty , is no threatning to rulers , or intimation of rebellion . such as take this representation for a challenge to the higher powers , and a demand of liberty , and a threatning , if it be not granted , are too far transported with passion . what can be of greater concernment to governors , then to discern and consider the state of their people , as it is indeed ? and why may it not be minded by subjects , and spoken of without any hint or thought of rebellion ? if subjects use arguments of equity and safety to princes , it doth not presently speak a demand : and it is no threatning to say , that rulers themselves must be ruled by reason , or do worse . the truth is , should they whose case is here argued , upon this score meditate rebellion and warr , they were abandoned of their own reason , and would hurry themselves into a precipice of manifest ruin. to rush into ways of violence , evidently destroys their interest , which stands in maintaining such works , and providing such things as are profitable to the commonwealth , that it may be known that the publike good consists by them , as much as by others . to abide in their stations , to have patience under grievances , to sweeten their governors by humility and modesty , is their best security , who stand or fall together with the true interest of the nation . nevertheless , though a peoples discomposure doth not forespeak warrs and tumults , yet it may denounce woe and misery . can nothing undo a kingdom , but rebellion and treason ? was there ever a greater separation from the church of england , then now is ? was there ever less satisfaction among multitudes every where , t●at do yet frequent her assemblies ? a state , that is free from violent convulsive motions , may fall into a paralytick , or hectick distemper , or an atrophy . the current of vital blood may be stopt in its veins . there be sullen mutinies , that make no noise , but may loosen all the joynts and ligaments of policy . sect . xiv . the setling of the nation by an established order , a toleration , and a connivence . if the interest both of reformed christianity , and of this kingdom , require a more comprehensive state of religion , the true extent of that state will be no impertinent or unmeet inquiry . such is the complicated condition of humane affairs , that it is exceeding difficult to devise a rule or model that shall provide for all whom equity will plead for . therefore the prudent and sober will acquiesce in any constitution that is in some good sor ▪ proportionable to the ends of government . all that are thought fit to abide with security in any state , may be reduced to three sorts : first , those that are of the established and approved order . . such as may be tolerated under certain restrictions . . such as may be only connived at . and accordingly the setling of a nation may be made up of an establishment , a limited toleration , and a discreet connivence . to be comprehended within the establishment , it is requisite not only to be of importance in the publick interest , but also of principles congruous to such stated order in the church , as the stability of the commonwealth requires . as for the two later , toleration and connivence , they must be regulated with respect not only to common charity , but also to the safety of the established order . sect . xv. of the established order in religion , and the moderation therein required . as for the established order , we presume not here to intermeddle with the form or species of church-government ; but only to consider the prescribed uniformity of judgment and practice . evident reason speaks , that this be not narrow , but as broad and comprehensive as it is possible , that of it self , by its own force , it may be chief in sway , and controle all dissenting parties . on the other hand , it must not be loose and incoherent , but well compacted , that it may attain the ends of discipline , which are to promote sound doctrine , and godly life , and to keep out idolatry , superstition , and all wicked error and practice that tends to the defeating of the power of christian verity , now these ends do not require a constitution of narrower bounds , then things necessary to christian faith and life , and godly order in the church . these things must be maintained , and clearly stated ; but whatsoever is more then these , may be matter of good intention and devotion to some , but an occasion of stumbling to others . if it be said , who shall judg what things are necessary ? this doubt might soon be resolved , if passion , and prejudice , and private ends were vanquished . but however , let it be put to the reason and conscience of the church of england : why should not the great things of christianity in the hands of wise builders , be a sufficient foundation of church-unity and concord ? what need hath the church to enjoyn more then what is necessary to faith and order ? is not moderation and charity far more excellent , then glorying in opinions , formalities , and petty matters , to the regret of many consciences ? what if those that question her injunctions , should be weak , nice and captious ? it is about matters of divine worship , wherein god hath proclaimed his jealousie ; and therefore if they being over-jealous , do erre , they deserve pity . our eccleasiastical superiors are here earnestly besought , calmly and seriously to review the prescribed uniformity , and to consider how some parts thereof , which at the best are but things indifferent , have been long disputed , and by what manner of men , and what hath been argued for and against them ; and how this difference hath held , and still encreased , from bishop hooper in king edward's time , to the present non-conformists ; and then to judg whether a rational and conscientious man may not possibly dissent from some of these things , or at least doubt of their lawfulness ; and in case of such dissenting or doubting , what he should do , seeing the apostle saith in the case of meats , he that doubts , is damned if he eat , because he eateth not of faith . can a man by subscription and practice , allow those things which his conscience rationally doubts to be sinful ? it is honour and power enough for the church , to be enabled by her authority to inforce gods commandments . she is observed and honoured as a mother indeed , when by her wisdom and care , her children walk orderly according to the christian institution ; and it may suffice her to chastise those of them that walk contrary to christ. though she be of venerable authority , yet she doth not claim an infal●ibility ; and therefore she cannot settle the conscience by her sole warrant , but still leaves room for doubting . and in prescribed forms and rites of religion , the conscience that doth its office , will inevitably interpose and concern it self ; and it being unsatisfied , ●arrs and r●nts will follow . woful experience cryes un●● us ▪ no more of such injunctions then needs must . the indisputable truths of faith , and the indispensable duties of life , are the main object of church-discipline ; therefore an ill choice is made when the vigor of discipline is exercised about lesser and more dispensable things of meer humane determination . the sons of the church of england commend the moderation used in the articles of religion , being formed in words of that extent , that men of different perswasions about the doctrines of predestination , divine grace , and free-will , did alike subscribe them . nevertheless , the present orders and ceremonies inexorably imposed , have been as much disputed among the godly learned , as those different opinions about the doctrines aforesaid ; and yet who can think they are of as much importance to the substance of religion ? moreover , men might more easily agree in the use of these little things , or of some of them , were their internal judgments spared , and subscriptions not injoyned . they may bear with others in the practice of some things , which themselves cannot practice . they may submit to some things , which they cannot approve ; and that not for unworthy ends , but for conscience sake ; and chuse rather to acquiesce in a tolerable state , which for the main is sound and good , rather then to endeavour a total change , which may be mischievous , and at best is full of hazard . wise men know , that by hasty changes they do not come to rest and quietness , but only change their old grievances for new ones . if practice sufficiently uniform , that is to say , without any scandalous difference , may be obtained from men of different perswasions , why should uniformity of judgment be exalted , and men tempted in doubtful points , to set their consciences on the rack ? if any number of dissenters were willing to do their uttermost towards compliance , why should needless choak-pears , which they could not swallow , be forc'd upon them ? if the church's authority be had in reverence , if order and peace be kept , what matter is it from what speculative principles such observance proceeds ? though a man so complying , be not of the same mind with his superiors , yet he may have this honest catholick principle , to promote the common interest of reformed christianity , and to dread the weakning and shattering of it by needless schisms . as for a narrow-bounded uniformity both in opinions , and petty observations , it is no more necessary in the church , then uniformity of complexions and visages in the same civil state ; and is indeed no more attainable , where a generous freedom of judgment is allowed . sect ▪ xvi . whether the dissenters are capable of being brought into such a comprehension . vvhilst reason is urged on their behalf that are left without the lines of the present establishment , some haply may ask , will they themselves hearken to reason ? be it supposed that some among them seem not reducible to a due publick order ; but another sort there are , and those of chiefest moment , whose principles are fit for government ; the stability whereof hath been experimented in those countreys where they have had the effectual concurrence of the civil powers . their way never yet obtained in england , nor were they ever favoured with the magistrates vigorous aid , so much as for an accommodation with the established polity : but their difficulties have still encreased ; and how streight soever the terms imposed on them , were in times before , the after-times have still made them streighter . wherefore if they have been too much addicted to their own opinions , or have committed some errors in the management of their affairs , it is no marvel . it was not easie for them , being destitute of the magistrates influence , and lying under great discouragement and disadvantage , always to keep stable and sure footing in such a slippery place as church-discipline . the asserting of their discipline , is not here intended ; but the inquiry is , whether they be of a judgment and temper that makes them capable of being brought under the magistrates paternal care and conduct , to such a stated order as will comport with this church and kingdom ? this is no undertaking discourse , it presumes only to offer its reason to equal and impartial readers . when a divine of great fame , and of much esteem ▪ with the chiefest of the english clergy , was taxed by the jesuit his adversary , for being no protestant , as refusing to subscribe the nine and thirty articles ; he judged it a sufficient answer to testifie his belief , that the doctrine of this church was so pure and holy , that whosoever lived according to it , should undoubtedly be saved ; & that there was nothing in it that might give just cause to any to forsake the communion , or disturb the peace thereof . who , or what is there almost , that this or the like latitude would not encompass , when hearty endeavours are put forth to gain men ? the same catholick spirit may dwell both in larger and stricter judgments . one that cannot subscribe to all things contained in a volume of doctrines and rules compiled by men subject to error , may be ready to joyn with any church not depraved in the substance of religion , that doth not impose upon his belief or practice , things unsound or doubtful , as the terms of her communion . the presbyterians generally hold the church of england to be a true church , though defective in its order and discipline ; and frequent the worship of god in the publike assemblies . and many of those that press earnestly after further reformation , do yet communicate as well in the sacraments , as the word preached , and prayer . and a way might be opened for many more to do as much , by a safe and easie condescention of those in authority . the ministers of the presbyterian perswasion , in their proposals presented to his majesty , declare , that they do not , nor ever did renounce the true ancient primitive episcopacy , or presidency , as it was ballanced or managed by a due commixtion of presbyters therewith . that they are satisfied in their judgments concerning the lawfulness of a liturgy or form of worship ; and they petition his majesty , that for the setling of the church in unity and peace , some learned , godly , and moderate divines , indifferently chosen , may be employed to compile a form , as much as may be , in scripture-words ; or at least to revise , and effectually reform the old. concerning ceremonies , they profess to hold themselves obliged in every part of divine worship , to do all things decently and in order ; and to be willing therein to be determined by authority , in such things as being meerly circumstantial , are common to humane actions , and are to be ordered by the light of nature , and humane prudence , according to the general rules of gods word . but as for divers ceremonies formerly retained in the church of england , in as much as they contribute nothing to the necessary decency which the apostle required , and draw too near the significancy and moral efficacy of sacraments , and have been rejected together with popery , by many of the reformed churches abroad , and ever since the reformation , have been matter of endless dispute in this church , and an occasion of great seperation , and are at the best , indifferent , and in their own nature mutable , they desire they be not imposed ; and they heartily acknowledg his majesty to be supreme governour over all persons , and over all things and causes in these his dominions . upon these proposals , his majesty in his declaration concerning ecclesiastical affairs , hath thus graciously expressed himself : we must for the honour of all those of either perswasion , with whom we have conferred , declare , that the professions and desires for the advancement of true piety and godliness , are the same ; their professions of zeal for the peace of the church , the same ; of affection and duty to us , the same . they all approve episcopacy ; they all approve a set-form of liturgy ; and they all disapprove and dislike the sin of sacriledg and alienation of the revenues of the church . and if upon these excellent foundations , in submission to which there is such a harmony of affections , any superstructure should be raised to the shaking of these foundations , or the contracting and lessening of the blessed gift of charity , which is a vital part of christian religion , we shall think our selves very unfortunate , and even suspect that we are defective in that administration of government with which god hath intrusted us. after these things , the ministers commissioned for the review of the liturgy , in their account of that business , thus address themselves to his majesty : though the reverend bishops have not had time to consider of our additions to the liturgy , and of our reply ; we humbly crave that it may be considered before a determination be made . though we seem to have laboured in vain , we shall lay this work of reconciliation at your majesties feet . we must believe , that when your majesty took our consent to a liturgy to be a foundation , that would infer our concord ; you meant not , that we should have no concord , but by consenting to this liturgy without any considerable alterations . and when your majesty commanded us by letters patents , to meet about such alterations as were needful , or expedient to give satisfaction to tender consciences , and the restoring and continuing of peace and unity ; we rest assured it was not your majesties sense that those tender consciences should be forced to practice all which they judg unlawful , or not so much as a ceremony should be abated them ; or that our treaty was only to convert either party to the opinion of another ; and that all our hopes of liberty and concord , consisted only in disputing the bishops into non-conformity , or coming in every ceremony to their mind . this is the church's misery , that when any particular interest grows in prosperity and power , and can carry all before it , condescention presently ceaseth on that side . and so the disagreeing parties in the several vicissitudes of publick affairs , tread down one another ▪ and justifie themselves by the like miscarriages of their opposites when time was . by this means the church's distempers and breaches are perpetuated , and religion in general suffers much damage and scorn . but it would be the glory of that party that stands on the vantage-ground , to give a leading example of unconstrained moderation . sect . xvii . acquiescence in the widened establishment , is the safety of religion . if it be said , that a little yeelding doth but make way for further incroachments ; we suppose that governors know how far to trust , and what it is fit to grant , if subjects know not what is fit for them to ask . persons allowed in the publick service , may easily be kept in that dependance on the state , which shall prevent the danger of an anti-clergy . we suppose likewise , that a sound church-government is not so weak and tottering , that the abatement of some rigors in things at best but indifferent , will hazard its overturning . the wiser sort of dissenters , whose conformity , were they gained , would most avail , are weary of these strifes , and consider what is passable in the state of england , and might settle this church . they dread the consequents of changes , the hurrying into other extreams , and the wild excursions of some spirits . they would not be left again to the late uncertainty , and continual vacillations in government ; and they have long since seen the manifold errors committed in the policy of the late times . they know that such unfixed liberty would not secure them . and therefore it may well be thought , they would accept reasonable terms , and rest satisfied therein . but this consideration is taken by the wrong handle , if this sober and steddy part of the non-conformists be slighted and judged the less considerable , because they are cast into one condition as to the law , with others that are of more unmanageable and unstable principles . for who can tell how time may work out things , and frame the spirits of the unsober to a greater soberness , and dispose them to a better consistency among themselves ? but howsoever , can it make for the publick weal , that the more discreet and moderate sort , that might easily be brought in , should be inforced to continue the chief reputation and strength of a divided party ? sect . xviii . of toleration and connivence . let impartial reason judg , whether a swaying , or at least a momentous part of those that close not with the present state ecclesiastical , may not be incompassed in an establishment of such a latitude , as may happily settle this church , and consequently promote the peace , wealth and honour of the civil state. as for others that are of sound belief , and good life , yet have taken in some principles of church-government less congruous to national settlement , i would never be a means of exposing them to oppression , contempt and hatred , but would admit their plea , as far as it will go . for if god hath received them , why should their fellow-servants reject or afflict them causlesly ? every true christian should be tender of all that love the lord jesus in sincerity . nevertheless , their liberty pleaded for , is not to be inordinate , but measured and limited by the safety of true religion in general , and of the publick established order ; which is not unpracticable : for the world wants not an experiment of the safety of a toleration or indulgence so regulated . sect . xix . dissenters of narrow and rigid principles , advised to moderation . as authority may be too prone to err in the severity of imposing ; so subjects may be too wilful in refusing to obey . as an explicit assent and approbation , may by superiors be too rigidly exacted in doubtful things ; so the unreasonable stiffness and harshness of inferiors , may keep them from that compliance in practice , which their conscience ( becalm'd from passion and prejudice ) would not gainsay . a servile , fawning , temporizing spirit , is vile enough ; but that which is sedate , castigate , and subdued to reason , is not only pleasing to governours , but also of great avail for publick peace . every christian should be deeply sensible of the common interest of reformed christianity , which is incomparably more valuable then those private opinions ; and little narrow models , which may have much of his fancy and affection . well-minded persons may easily be deceived touching their private sentiments in religion . they may think they are under the uncontrolable sway of conscience , when indeed they are but bound up by custom , education , complexion , or some other kind of prejudice . for ones own sake , one would gladly be rid of such confinements , and walk more at liberty : but much more should one strive to be as comprehensive as may be , for the common safety , and advancement of true religion , which cannot stand by such uncertainty and multiplicity of petty forms , but requires an ample and well-setled state , to defend and propagate it against the amplitude and potency of the romish interest . the prudent and sober should not easily settle upon such opinions in church-order , as will never settle the nation , but tend rather to infinite perplexity and discomposure . howsoever , i will not bear too hard upon any thing that may fairly pretend to conscience , which , though erroneous , should not be harshly dealt with . nevertheless , if ( when all is said ) some dissatisfaction doth invincibly possess the judgment , in that case christian humility and charity , as well as discretion , adviseth such persons to acquiesce in their private security and freedom , and not to reach after that liberty that may unsettle the publick order , and undermine the common safety . sect . xx. this comprehensive state of religion further considered , with respect to three important interests ; ●irst to that of the king . for the removing of all con●●●ved prejudices , let this desired latitude of religion ▪ be considered with respect to the several interests of the king , of the church and clergy , and of the nobility and gentry . first let it be examined in reference to the interest of regal majesty . the non-conformists , and other inclinable to their way , are by some charged with such principles as detract much from kingly power and dignity , and tend to advance popular faction . it is confessed , they have been eager assertors of legal liberties ; yet herein they were not singular , but in almost all parliaments have had the concurrence of many good patriots that were not touch'd with the least tincture of puritanism . they profess much affection to monarchy , and the royal family ; and think they have made it appear by their hazardous declaring against the designed death of our late soveraign , and their vigorous actings for the restitution of his majesty that now is . they are so well satisfied , as none more , in the ancient fundamental constitution of this kingdom . this arraignment of their supposed principles about government , may haply proceed upon mistake . there is reason enough to think , that the many late disputes about prerogative and liberty , are controversiae ortae non primae , that they had their rise from something else , which lyes at the bottom . both former and present time ▪ do shew , that the anti-puritan interest , when occasion serves , and the urgency of affairs requires , can contest with princes , and pretend conscience too , in crossing their designs . inclinations and interests , more then speculative opinions , will be found to have born the sway , and caused those active motions on the one hand , and the other . these dogmata or problemes about obedience and government , do but little , where mens affections and concernments do not give them spirit and vigor . the practical judgment of inferiors , hath a bias in this case , according to their superiors benignity or asperity towards them . high strains of speech may easily proceed from such as flatter their governors , or know not themselves ; but they are worthy of credit , that speak credible things . the wise man saith , he that repeateth a matter , separateth very friends . a looking back to former discords , marrs the most hopeful redintegration . acts of indempnity , are acts of oblivion also , and must be so observed . let not the way of peace be barr'd by the framing of such tests as may perplex the minds of men , but add no real security to the higher powers . for as some set their wits a work in framing , so do others in evading the designs of such engagements . and of those that devise how to evade them , some may deal seriously , and others perhaps may trifle with conscience ; but the internal judgments of both remain what they were before . the common evasions or violations of such bonds among all parties in our times , do shew , that they are not the way to root out inveterate opinions . but there is a surer way to obviate the evil tendency of such opinions , and to render them ineffectual . for it is not this or that narrow conception or notion , but some greater thing , that rules the actions of humane life . the condition of the dissatisfied , may without damage , or just scandal to any , be made such , that their far greater number shall not long for changes , but gladly embrace present things ; and then the implacably evil-minded would want matter to work upon , and rest without hope of disturbing the publick peace . moreover , all loyal principles are not inclosed in some positions , in which may be much variety and uncertainty of opinion , and in which both theological and political casuists ( and they great assertors of monarchical government ) have written doubtfully . men of different apprehensions in such things , may be indued with the same prudence , soberness , common charity , love of publick tranquility , reverence of regal majesty , conscience of allegiance , and an awful regard of divine and humane laws . men of nicer judgments , may have as loyal hearts as those of greater latitude . and why should the judgments of such men be rack'd , and their spirits vexed with curious scrutinies ? the ancient sacred bonds of fidelity , are not questioned ; and if they do not , what others can oblige and awe the conscience ? the extent of prerogatives royal , of the priviledges of parliaments , and of the peoples immunities , is not matter fit for common disquisition , but requires to be kept among the secrets of government . it might have been far better , if these points had been more gently and warily handled on all sides . the english ( in general ) are an ingenuous and open-hearted people ; and if unlucky accidents discompose them not , they are of themselves disposed to have their kings in great veneration ; and doubtless their satisfaction and good estate , is their soveraigns true repose . sect . xxi . secondly , to the interest of the church and clergy . in the next place , let this comprehensive state be examined , with respect to the interest of the church of england . the doctrine of faith and sacraments by law established , is heartily received by the non-conformists , and it is like to be the basis of their standing in england , as long as protestant religion stands . how far they approve episcopacy and liturgy , hath been above declared . their dissent is in some parts of divine worship ( as they say ) not appointed of god , but devised by men ; also in the frame of the english hierarchy , as it differs from the ancient episcopacy ; and they avow they are under no obligation to extirpate or impeach that ancient form. the ministers of this perswasion are godly and learned , able and apt to teach the people ; and no small part of the congregations in england feel the loss of them . doth the lord of the harvest command that such labourers be thrust out of his service ? and will the chief shepherd at his appearing justifie this usage of his faithful servants ? the bishops and dignified clergy , and those of their perswasion , have the advantage of law and power . but can they believe that the church of god in these nations , is terminated in them alone ? it is hoped that christ hath a larger interest in these realms . shall it be said of the english prelacy , that it cannot stand without the ejection of thousands of orthodox , pious ministers ? or that it dreads a general diffusion of knowledg in the people ? or that this is a maxime thereof , no ceremony , no bishop ; as if the bishop's work were at an end , and his office of no force , if ceremonies were left indifferent ? is an ecclesiastical government , that pleads apostolical institution , and universal reception , so weak and feeble , that godly and peaceable men , preaching only the indubitable truths of christianity , would undermine it ? if any should preach what is schismatical and seditious , they are liable to restraints and censures , according to their demerits . why will the established clergy refuse their brethren , and set them at such a distance ? is it their honour , strength , or safety , that such men should be numbred among their opposites ? the intrinsick and permanent state of prelacy , is not advanced by these present rigors . it is not more rooted in the hearts of people , nor are many gained over that would stick close to it in a time of tryal . the dread , that is of its censures , ariseth from the subsequent temporal penalties . and however it be , its chariot drives but heavily . it cannot measure its strength by the number of conformists , among whom there are many that are a reproach unto it , and many that are very indifferent men ; and there are the latitudinarians , that are accounted but luke-warm conformists ; and many that submit , may not like the imposing ; and men may think divers injunctions ( that are not simply unlawful ) to be burdensome and inconvenient , and would be glad to shake off the yoke . a great prelate before the late warrs , is reported to say , that the conforming puritan was the devil of the times . and of those that zealously affect the established order , there are not a few that disgust the behaviour of church-men , and are ready to upbraid them with the known moderation of many whom they have ejected ; yea , the more considerate sons of the church , do observe and bewail such dangerous miscarriages by simony , pluralities , non-residency , and profaneness , as threaten a second downfall . the world takes notice what men are cast out ; and what is the condition of multitudes that are retained in the service of the church . there are a sort of men of great worth and reputation in the several orders of this kingdom , that indeed affect episcopacy , but see the inconvenience and danger of this severity , and would have things carried with discretion and equity , and are ready to do good offices for the depressed party . if the affairs of the commonwealth should go backwards , can the clergy alone be at rest in their honour , power and wealth ? though of later times it hath been said , no bishop , no king ; yet it is not evident , that the present frame of prelacy hath an immutable interest in the regal name and power . the religion of any state will sink , if it be not held up in its venerable estimation among the people ; and it cannot be long held in reverence , if it hath neither the reality , nor appearance of devotion and sanctity . that which is divested of the disguises and impostures of romish superstition , had need to be spirited with life and power . minds touch'd with devotion , will look either to the way of true and real godliness , or to the popish bodily exercise . it is here sincerely wish't , that the clergy may hold their state in safety and honour ; that they may never be laid low for want of meet revenue or dignity ; that they may always preserve a reverend esteem of their persons and office. but then the bishops must not be the head of such ministers , as for ignorance and lewdness are a scandal and scorn to their neighbours ; nor of such as incourage profaneness , and deprave seriousness and diligence in religion and strictness of life , under the scandal of puritanism , fanaticism , or such like names of reproach . they must so manage their government , that under it the sound knowledg of god may encrease through the land ; that holiness and righteousness may flourish ; that their influence may dispose men to do those things that are honest , and pure , and comely , and vertuous , and praise-worthy . to this may be added the setling of the church in a due extent , that it may incompass so much as may enable it to vanquish whatsoever is inconsistent with it ; and to keep within compass whatsoever may be tollerated under it . the great danger and damage which may be dreaded to ensue this moderation , ( which nevertheless may possibly not ensue it ) is but the cutting off some luxuriances from some in the highest order ; or the sharing among many what was ingrossed by a few . and the church doth not change for the worse , if some diminution of greatness in a very few persons makes way for a more general amplitude , stability and peace ; and the clergy enjoy an estate of power , plenty and honour , with less envy and hazard of undermining . sect . xxii . thirdly , to the interest of the nobility and gentry . there is another interest , that of the nobility and gentry , which is worthy of regard in this inquiry . the latitude and liberty here discoursed , is thought to give too great advantage to the citizens and the commonalty ; as also to make all sorts more knowing , and less servile ; and consequently , less obsequious to the wills of great men . and the doubt is , whether the nobles and gentlemen of england can maintain their authority and splendor , with the freedom of citizens and the common people . surely in the times of their ancestors they were in as much splendor and power , as they have been in the memory of this age ; and yet in those times both citizens and yeomanry were rich and free , brave and worthy in their own rank . and it may be the higher degrees in england would never be so advanced , as some have conceited , if the meaner sort were reduced to the condition of the french peasantry . for there is another spirit in the english people , which peradventure may not be vanquished at less charges then dissipation of the strength and riches , and all the glory of this land ▪ besides , trade which is the life of england , must be managed by a people not of a slavish and sordid condition . and in a trading nation , things do so pass to and fro , and run from one hand to another , that new men by their wealth will be always getting up into the rank of gentlemen , and former gentile families will be decaying . there is a liberty for every native to purchase lands ; and though some of our tenures began in the vassalage of meaner men to great ones , yet they are now by custom of later ages , become so far free , that they are fit for any ingenuous persons to take them up . moreover , the english gentry are commons , according to the main frame of this polity ; and that great convention where they meet in their chiefest power , is the commons house of parliament , in which they represent the universality of the commons of all counties , and cities , and burroughs : and therefore the free estate of the commons , is the true interest of gentlemen . and how groundless and fruitless is all evil emulation between the gentry and citizens , or traders ! for they mutually uphold each other , or both must fall to the ground . many gentile families are the off-spring of former citizens ; and many citizens are the sons of gentlemen . and when the estates of ancient gentry are sinking , their marriage with citizens is an ordinary means of underpropping them . and if traders fail , the revenue of the gentry must fail also ; whose lands did never bear that price , nor yeeld that annual rent that of late they have done , till the nation became great in foreign trade . if emulation of gallantry be any matter of grudg between them , the citizens may leave the gentry to their own garbs , and retain a grave habit to themselves , in which they may sufficiently express their wealth , as their predecessors did before them . for it is generous so to do . and as for the nobility and gentry , their honour lyes in upholding their families , and bearing sway in their countries ; and they do the one by discreet and liberal frugality ; and the other by having and using greater abilities then the vulgar , for their countries service . sect . xxiii . the general security that comes by this latitude . the chief prejudices have been considered ; and these three important interests being known aright , are found not to oppose , but to require this latitude of religion . furthermore , our common security and freedom , earnestly perswades it : for the severities of law against dissenters , may at length come home to them or theirs , who take themselves to be far out of the reach thereof . and the inforcing of those penalties may need such ways and means , as may trouble them who are tender of the lawful rights and liberties of english-men . but the common peace being once firmly setled in this comprehensive state , all necessity of powers and proceedings extraordinary , will disappear , and vanish away . finally , the more pacifick we are at home , the more powerful and formidable shall we be abroad . but our breaches are too well known , and make little for our reputation or advantage in foreign parts . what can it avail , to disturb a people that would settle in peace , and whose peace is accommodated to the publick weal , and bound up together with it ? it must needs be fruitless and unfortunate , and cause perplexities and miscarriages in the chiefest affairs of state. it is a saying of the wisest of kings , he that troubles his own house , shall inherit the wind . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e * in the reign of edward the sixth ▪ a formidab'e rebellion was raised for recovery of the mass. * dr. parry confessed , that having promised at rome to kill the queen , he was troubled in conscience about it , till he had read dr. allen's book , which taught , that princes excommunicate for heresie , were to be deprived of kingdom and life ; which book , he said , did vehemently excite him to prosecute his enterprise . a third defence of the cause of peace proving . the need of our concord, . the impossibility of it, on the terms of the present impositions against the accusations and storms of, viz., mr. john hinckley, a nameless impleader, a nameless reflector, or speculum, &c., mr. john cheny's second accusation, mr. roger l'strange, justice, &c., the dialogue between the pope and a fanatic, j. varney's phanatic prophesie / by richard baxter. baxter, richard, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing b estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a third defence of the cause of peace proving . the need of our concord, . the impossibility of it, on the terms of the present impositions against the accusations and storms of, viz., mr. john hinckley, a nameless impleader, a nameless reflector, or speculum, &c., mr. john cheny's second accusation, mr. roger l'strange, justice, &c., the dialogue between the pope and a fanatic, j. varney's phanatic prophesie / by richard baxter. baxter, richard, - . [ ], , p. printed for jacob sampson ..., london : . reproduction of original in dr. williams' library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng church of england -- controversial literature. clergy -- england. dissenters, religious -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - john latta sampled and proofread - john latta text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a third defence of the cause of peace , proving . the need of our concord . . the impossibility of it , on the terms of the present impositions . against the accusations and storms of , viz. mr. john hinckley . a nameless impleader . a nameless reflector , or speculum , &c. mr. cheney's second accusation . mr. roger l'strange , justice , &c. the dialogue between the pope and a fanatic . varney's phanatic prophesie . by richard baxter . psalm . . . my soul hath long dwelt with him that hateth peace . i am for peace , but when i speak they are for war. rom. . . the way of peace they have not known . london , printed for jacob sampson , next to the wonder tavern in ludgate-street . . readers , if this striving work be unpleasant to you , it must be much more so to me : it is not the least advantage that satan getteth against the church , that by other mens sins he can occasion that to become our duty , which else would be a sinfull loss of time , and against the peace of our selves and others . a multitude of heresies make it our duty , to read abundance of books , and study those languages , and trifling arts , which else were needless : and the multitude of erroneous , malignant , and other adversaries , and the variety of their assaults , maketh many defences , evidences , witnesses , and confutations necessary , which else would signifie that evil contentiousness , which the assaulters manifest . though the servant of the lord must not strive , yet must we contend earnestly for the faith , and must not forsake and betray truth and innocency . and the necessitated defender may do his duty , while the wilfull aggressor doth sinfully militate against truth , charity , and peace . and as we must love our enemies , so we take our selves bound much more , to love our tempted envyous brethren ; and if they use us as joseph , cast us into the pit and sell us as slaves , we will call them brethren still , and hope one day their repentance will render them more lovely than they are . and though some preach christ in envy , strife , and contention , to add to our affliction , and not sincerely , we rejoyce and will rejoyce that christ is preached : and though they would drive us out from the inheritance of the lord , sam. . . we will not venture with david to curse them , but say as he in another pursuit , sam. . . . carry back the ark of god into the city : if i shall find favour in the eyes of the lord , he will bring me again , and shew me both it and his habitation . but if he thus say , i have no delight in thee , behold , here am i , let him do to me as seemeth good to him . in my endeavours for peace these thirty four years , as i have been put to publish many things which i had rather might have been spared , so i have written to satisfie others , the quantity of many volumes , which i cast away as unnecessary to the world. but some men that i have dealt with , will not give me and the reader such an indulgence . mr. dodwell is one who shall have his answer by it self . mr. hinkley is another , to whose last letter i wrote an answer about nine years ago : but he would not so bury his talent , but hath printed my former letters with his answer , and so called and constrained me to publish my last reply . fame reporteth that the impleader is mr. long of exeter , who heretofore wrote an accusing book , of which i gave him a private epistolary animadversion . who the reflector or the author of the speculum is i know not , the subject calleth me to no particular answer . he and mr. roger le strange , who argue in the same mood and figure , make me little work : which concerneth others , they mistook the question , as if it had been , what the world should think of me . in which i leave them to their liberty without much contradiction . but our question is first , whether the concord of protestants being supposed necessary , the silencing , imprisoning , fining , and banishing from corporations , all ministers that take conformity to the present impositions to be a sin , be the way of peace and concord , either probable or possible to attain the end . mr. john cheny , i judge a godly serious man : who being neer me and familiar with me , never told me a word of his exceptions , nor gave me the least touch of a private admonition for all the atheism , infidelity , wickedness , abomination , destroying all religion &c. which he accuseth me of in print : and his book is so dismal a piece of work , in its extraordinary privation of common reason , truth , charity , tenderness and modesty , that i am constrained to think that the honest man is diseasedly melancholly : and i have known some well meaning men in that disease , that are so tenacious of all their own conceptions , that they are still fiercely confident that the grossest things that they hold and say are right , and passionately reject all that is said against them . whom he hath reported to be his instigator , i shall not here proclaim . the dialogue between the pope and a phanatick , and varney's prophesie , i leave the reader to answer himself , as he findeth cause . if any man think it a service to god to accuse me and others , and justifie our silencing and the imposed penalties , i intreat him to remember the ninth commandement , and that god and his church need not lies for their service , but it s he that is both the father of them , and a lyar from the beginning . that was a lying spirit in the mouth of all ahabs prophets , ( even of him that smote mica●ah , for supposing the spirit of god departed from him , ) and whose work on earth against christ and souls , is done by deceit , and wrath , and hurtfulness ; imitating him will disgrace your cause and you : and light will not so easily be hid . great is truth and will finally prevaile . and all the waves do but break themselves , who dash against this impregnable rock . i call this book , a third defence of the cause of peace , with respect to two former , one in answer to the accusation of mr. john cheny , the other in answer to dr. edward stillingfleet , men whom i once thought more unlikely than most other to become our accusers . all mr. gouge's works . political and military observations of the court and camp of france during the late wars in flanders , germany , &c. sacramental meditations upon divers select places of scripture , wherein believers are assisted in preparing their hearts , and exciting their affections and graces , when they draw nigh to god in that most awful solemn ordinance of the lords supper . by john flavel minister of christ , in devon. o. price s. d. a peaceable resolution of conscience touching our present impositions , wherein loyalty and obedience are proposed and settled upon their true foundation in scripture , reason , and constitution of this kingdom against all resistance of the present powers , and with compliance with the laws so far as may be in order to union . with a draught or specimen of a bill for accommodation . octavo , price s. the narrative of rob. bolron of shippon-hall , gent. concerning the late horrid polish plot and conspiracy , for the destruction of his majesty and the protestant religion : wherein is contained , . his informations upon oath before his majesty in council , and before several justices of the peace , of the said design , and the means by which he arrived at the knowledge thereof . . some particular applications made to himself to assist those design'd in the murdering of his majesty ; the persons by whom such applications were made , and the reward promised . . the project of the popish party to erect a nunnery at dolebanck near ripely in yorkshire , together with the names of some nuns , actually design'd for that imployment , and taking the profession upon them : as also an account of a certain estate of l. per annum , given by sir thomas gascoigne to the nunnery for ever . with other remarkable passages relating to the horrid piot . together with an account of the endeavours that were used by the popish party to stifle his evidence . the narrative of lawrence mowbray of leeds in the county of york , gent. concerning the bloody popish conspiracy against the life of his sacred majesty , the government , and the protestant religion : wherein is contained , . his knowledge of the said design from the very first in the year ; with the opportunity he had to be acquainted therewith , and the reasons why he concealed it so long : with the manner of his discovering the said wicked project to his majesty , and his most honourable privy council . . how far sir thomas gascoigne , sir miles stapleton , &c. are ingaged in the design of killing the king , and fireing the city of london and york , for the more speedy setting uppermost the popish religion in england . . an account of the assemblings of many popish priests and jesuits at father rishton's chamber , at sir gascoigue's house at barmebow ; with their , consultations and determinations : with other considerable matters relating to the plot. together with an account of the endeavours that were used to stifle his evidence , by making an attempt upon his life in leicester fields : price d. a memento for the english protestants , &c. with an answer to that part of the compendium which reflects on the bishop of lincoln's late book . quarto : price stitcht d. naked truth , the first part : being the true state of the primitive church . by an humble moderator : price stitcht one shilling . causa dei ; or an apology for god : wherein the perpetuity of insernal torments is evinced , and divine goodness and justice ( that notwithstanding ) defended , &c. by richard burthogge , m. d. tulli's elect orations . gouge's works , octavo . horrid popish plot in a pack of cards a second pack , continuing a representation of their villainous design , from the publication of the first pack to the last sessions of parliament , begun octob. . . an ansvver to m r. hinckley . sir , i have perused yours , ( i think impartially ) and to tell you my judgment of it , i perceive , is like to offend you more . i find it is natural to men to desire to be thought to be in the right , and to have said well , and done well , be it never so ill . it is some honour to truth and goodness , that the names and reputation of them seem desirable to those that cannot endure the things ; yea , that the things are never loathed or opposed formally as such , but for their opposition to somewhat , that is more loved . and it is some help to the depression of falshood and sin , that it is ashamed of its own name , and cannot endure to see its own face , which hath ever inclined it to break the glass ; though to its greater shame , when every piece will shew that ugliness which was shewed but by the whole before . if nothing else had notified it to us , one might have strongly suspected that you are of that tribe , who take themselves to be persecuted when they may not domineer , and when others may but preach and live without their consent ; by your excessive tenderness and impatience , calling it poyson , hornets , and abundance of such smarting angry names , if a man that is cast out of god's vineyard as well as his maintenance among many hundreds more , do but plainly in a private letter speak for himself , and shew the injustice of your printed accusations . o! that you were all but the thousandth part as tender , ( i will not say of your brethrens sufferings ) but of the danger of many thousand perishing starved souls ? i shall only tell you this much in general , that i now perceive you are used but for a temptation to me , to lose my time , by the neglect of better work. and that you do so notoriously bawk the truth , and hide untruth in a heap of confident rhetorical flourishes ; that while you are of this temperament , i will not undertake to prove to you that two and two are four. . my beginning was taken from your ending ; where you wrote [ you will satisfie your self , as little as you will do others ] and what others mind know you better than your own ? and sure that which satisfieth not you , doth you no good as to its proper end , what ever it may do by accident some other way . yet it seems you forgot that you had written this , and that was warrant enough for all your confident impertinencies on that occasion . sandy foundations , light and darkness , hornets nests , rushing into the midst of the pikes , waking dragons , the golden fleece , &c. come all in upon this your oversight : and you seem to think that you have acquit your self well . . you tell me of bringing the controversie to an issue by dint of scripture , whether you sin in conforming . is this fairly done , to pretend that to be the controversie which i never undertook to meddle with ? could you possibly forget , . that you were the plaintiff and accuser in print , not content that your brethren were forbidden to preach christ , and that many of them live in great poverty and want ? you wrote a book of reproachful oratory , with no strength of argument worthy an answer , to make them seem the flagitious causes of their own silence and sufferings : against which , they ( that meddled not with you ) had nothing to do but to justifie themselves . . that in this book you vehemently importune me , who never knew you , nor meddled with you , to give the world the reasons of my non-conformity . . that hereupon the question that i treated about with you , was , how i may have leave to do it . and whether it be ingenious thus publickly to urge me to that which you know i cannot do . this was all the controversie i had with you . i tell you again , i would go on my knees to any bishop in england , to procure but license for my self alone , ( much more my brethren ) to write and print the reasons of our non-conformity , after nine years silence , suffering , and accusation ; that the world and posterity may but once hear us speak for our selves : and i would be engaged to leave out all such plain expressions as now offend you . but to begin such a work , when i know i cannot print it ; or to enter a dispute with you in this rambling way , ( whose books and letters tell me that you will syllogize in aristophanes , or lucian's moods and figures ; and whose logick will take up no greater room among your oratorical diversions , evasions , subterfuges , and flosculi , than a spoonful of wine in a gallon of water , which will leave it water still . i shall not easily be drawn to this , having lost so much time upon you already , as i have done : therefore you here bring in your serpents head and tail and fable , upon a false supposition of the subject of our debates . § . . here first , you would have your book go for innocent ; no wonder : impenitence is no rarity , among those whose office is to preach repentance : and therefore so many of them go without the fruits of it , matth. . , . and he that can write against truth , can defend it by untruth . . you untruly suppose me to undertake the confutation of your book . but who hath so little to do , as to shew particularly of each page and line of a bundle of impotent oratorian revilings , how little logick or truth is in them . . you untruly suppose me not to have opened the faultiness of any page of your book : let the impartial judge . . in all , you shew the strange unacquaintedness with your self , and your own , which you cannot endure to be told of . a calumniating volume of yours is innocent , and affordeth no matter for blame or repentance : but to be told so , is to let fall such drops on you as make you smart ( you say ) as if there had been poyson in them . if we that are forbidden to eat a bit , or wear a rag of the levites portion , or come within five miles of any corporation , or preach christ to the most ignorant miserable souls ; do but think and say , it is hard usage : we add to our guilt , and deserve yet worse , because we do not toto pectore telum recipere : or as camero , unbutton our doublets , and cry , feri miser . but if we tell you of it , when you voluminously play with reproaches upon them , that you are utterly unable to prove guilty and confute ; oh , it maketh you smart like poyson . guilt is always tender , but most in the domineering tribe . they are contemned and scorned , if we take not their strokes for stroakings , and their calumnies for kindness : and to tell them that their slanders are injuries , is to call them to veil their bonnets to us , and we are popular rabbies ( for being against the rabbies ) if the people ( that know them and us , will not ( because they cannot ) believe all the falshoods which such report of us , who find no readier and surer steps for their ascension to their desired heights . § . . first , here you would be my t●●●r in logick , to teach me that the species is no● comprehended in the genus . and that i transgr●ss the laws of discourse , in supposing that what was spoken against the non-conformists , as such , was spoken against the presbyterian non-conformists . this is my inclosing and limiting : as if i had offended by saying , that you say that against man , which you say against an animal as such . and this talk needs a confutation ? but was not the discipline calumniated , which i noted a sufficient explication of your sense . . and here you condensate your untruths : as first , that there were but few who were not then tantum non independants , which the age you live in knows to be false . . that i intimate , that they are all of a sudden become presbyterians , because presbyterians are a part of them : so part and whole are not distinguishable by the logick of the gamaliels , whose instruction i mist of . when i have oft published , that ( besides scotland , lancashire , and london ) i knew no great number of ministers that received the presbyterian model : but almost all those in the county where you live ( worcestershire ) declared , that they agreed to joyn in the practice of so much of church discipline , as the episcopal presbyterians and independents were all agreed in ; and on those grounds to unite for the promoting of the peoples instruction and salvation , without dividing for the controverted parts , or laying a greater stress on them , than there was cause for ; yet here you have occasion to talk of the transmutation of elements , &c. § . . here you want conviction still ! if so , i will not undertake to convince you of any thing in the world which you are unwilling to know . offer the case to an uninterested stranger , and take his judgment . tell him this truth [ eighteen hundred ministers are at once forbidden to preach christ according to their ordination vow : and when upon that dedication they had alienanated themselves from all other ways of employment and livelihood , they and their families are cast upon alms in a time of extraordinary poverty , except some of them that had somewhat of their own : none of all these are put out for ignorance , insufficiency , or any crime or scandal at all ; but for not subscribing assent and consens to all things ( without exception ) in three books written by men that profess that general councils are fallible , even in matters of faith : and for not declaring , that no man ( that vowed it ) is obliged to endeavour in his place and calling , any alteration of the present church government ( which some think the unsworn as much bound to endeavour , as to reform the worst alehouse or tavern in the land : especially whilst lay-men govern by the keys of excommunication and absolution ) and for not swearing and unswearing , &c. as is known , with such like things . these men thus ejected and silenced , are forbidden , upon severe penalties , ecclesiastical and corporal , to speak any thing in depravation of the government of the church , the liturgy or ceremonies , and under the penalty of total ruine in this world : to say that any man is bound by the national vow to endeavour any alteration as aforesaid . a law forbiddeth printers to print any unlicensed book , upon penalty of losing all the copies , paper , and print ; besides , answering for all therein contained . the company in london is called together , and constrained ( as holding their charter by patent ; ) to make laws also among themselves , that any man that printeth an unlicensed book , or leaf , shall lose his freedom , and become uncapable of their trade ( and so be utterly undone . ) a conforming minister ( for ends best known to himself ) writeth a book called a perswasive to conformity , which containeth not the twentieth part of the argument commonly before used by others ; saravia , hammond , downame , bilson , burges , fulwood , &c. ) which the non-conformists are supposed to have studied : but florid oratorical , confident calumnies , most of the book importing ; an ignoratio elenchi : and in this book he vehemently urgeth one man particularly , that never saw him , nor meddled with him ; to publish to the world , an account of the reasons of his non-conformity . this one man tells him , that no licenser will license it : that he hath not printed without license , before his importunity since the act : that some few printers through poverty have ventured on a few sheets , which they could quickly slip out of the way . but now severity having encreased their penalty , he knoweth not of one man that will venture so far : that if they would , it will do him no good , who hath so much to say against conformity , as a few sheets will not contain ; and he knoweth not of that man living that would print : and , that should he do it , he must look for such an imprisonment as is likely to be his death : and therefore he thinketh that his time and life may be more usefully employed ; especially when experience assureth him , that such a writing would passionately displease the prelates of the church , and such as call for it . and therefore that he did not ingenuously that clamoured thus for an account , when he knew that all these manacles were on our hands : yet will not this man be convinced but his clamour was reasonable and innocent , because in a few sheets that accidentally had an advantage to see the light , ( being both for the kings and the churches government ) he met with a few words which he thought were not to be licensed . and if this were published without license , it was most long of himself , since his foresaid urgency , no such thing being done before , nor do i know how to procure the like again . this is the true case ; and now let any sober person , christian , or heathen , judge betwen us , whether any thing could have hardned you into an impossibility of conviction , but the great aversness to humiliation and repentance , and selfish inclination to be righteous in your own eyes ? no wonder if no man be justified as legally innocent , when a bare confession of a deliberate printed sin , as visible as a beam in the eye ( as christ meant it ) is so hardly obtained with some men : and ( because with what measure men meet , it shall be measured to them again . ) wonder not if you meet with auditors like your self : suppose that you whose office is to preach men to repentance , do hear the perjured , the drunkards , blasphemers , the f●rnicators say , this man is a rayler , he drops smarting poyson upon us in his sermons ; when we hear him , we deal with a woolf , and put our hands into a hornets nest ; bitterness and reviling is his dialect ; we are innocent , and all that he saith doth not convince us . what would you say to such returns ? but too many think that it is their work to preach repentance , and other mens to repent . as for magistrates forbidding faithful ministers to preach the christian faith , where there are not enough more to do the work : cannot you be content with the honour , comfort , and reward of approving it , and suffer such to be without it , as refuse it . but when you say [ alas , church censures without the magistrate are but brutum fulmen ] i will presume to tell you ; . that you seem to me to come near to blasphemy , to intimate that christ ordained so vain a discipline : what ? and yet be the infallibe teacher and king of the church . but if you think that he did not institute it , tell us so plainly , and pretend not more to an unalterable divine institution , which all of us must swear never to endeavour an alteration of . or if you think that christ did institute church discipline to be exercised , only when the sword will second it ; say so , that we may know your mind . and then ly , do you not make the apostles and the primitive church for above years , to have abused the world with this brutum fulmen . if you talk of the apostles power of seconding it by miraculous penalties . i answer , . it cannot be proved that they did so ordinarily , but only extraordinarily . . all pastors and churches then had not that power , that yet were obliged to exercise discipline . . the church for years had not that power every where . . and discipline was to operate propria virtute , and not only by miracles . so that you reproach the apostles , and all the ancient churches . . do you not reproach all the ancient councils and canons of those times , as making such a stir in the world about a brutum fulmen . . do you not reproach constantine , and other christian emperors , who for a considerable time adjoyned not the sword at all to the churches keys , except to remove some great patriarch that had influence on the state ; and long after did only force them to a quiet submission to the discipline , without the addition of another penalty , or constraining any to say , they did repent . how long was it before the church took a man to be meet for her communion in the lords supper , that had but rather say , that he repented , than have all taken from him , and lie in prison . . do you not here tell us what you trust to , even the magistrates sword alone : and do you not disgrace your cause and function , in telling the world in plain english , that without the sword , prelatical discipline is but brutum fulmen ? what then would your church be , should the king leave it only to an equal toleration with all other parties . . and do you not highly honour us non-conformists , that desire no greater matters , than bare leave to exercise christs discipline without the sword , on volunteers ; we would have no more . if any have formerly desired more , we disown it . the scots indeed had more , but when cromwell left them but their liberty , their discipline proved not brutum fulmen . and truly i see not how those few among them that are against the supremacy of the king , circa sacra , if there be any such , can expect any further protection or help by his sword , than a bare toleration . let us but preach and use this brutum fulmen , and then enjoy your lordships , honours , and all that is desired . and why are you so greatly afraid of a brutum fulmen in our hands , when you confess it to be no better in your own . § . . if you cannot see your contradictions , repeating them will not open your eyes . as for valentine and orson , and knights errant , i give you the honour of being better acquainted with them , than i am . . and next you teach us , that according to your school , a question may be false . well! so let it be , you shall there have the better also . i knew no more but that some kind of questioning might imply a proposition which is false . but i will not strive with you , if you are wiser . the question was , [ how many of these ministers have little more learning than the english books have taught them . ] if this question be false , false let it be : i cannot make it true , i would i knew what [ how many ] fignifieth . and what could i do more to detect your falshood , than name you many that dwell about you , seven neare you i named . and now ( o the power of innocency and worth ) all those for their gravity , sobriety , learning and peaceableness , you have as much esteem for as i can have ] and really i hope as bad as they , and their adversaries judge each other , were they all better acquainted with each other , the rest would constrain their afflicters themselves to such a praise and approbation , an inconsiderable number only excepted . but who else should i name in the county where you live , and near you , mr. joseph baker , mr. benjamin baxster , mr. george hopkins , mr. waldern , &c. are dead . those living are mr. ambrose sparrey , ( your predecessour at hampton ) mr. andrew tristram , mr. kimberley , mr. osland , mr. badland of worcester , mr. sergeant , dr. richard morton , mr. stephen baxter , mr. richard dowley , mr. cowper , mr. paston , mr. read , i cannot remember all . tell me how many and which of those you mean. the elder about you dead , were on our side , mr. arthur salway , mr. john hall , mr. thomas hall , ( your next neighbour ) mr. smith at dudley , mr. smith at stoke , ( a younger man ) and not far of mr. anthony burgess , mr. blake , &c. which of these mean you ? and what if you can name one unlearned man , in forty or fifty . if he be but a meer nonconformist , and not of some such sect , with whom we have not much more affinity than with the papists ( who conform not , and yet say they are nearer to you than to us ) i doubt , that odd unlearned man , should he but conform , would be a great ornament to your present church . but what course can one better take to silence such calumnies , and to convince posterity of such mens incredibility , than to name the persons round about ? how many hundred worthy men in london , and a few counties of my acquaintance could i name you . and you say , it is a usual stratagem with us , to possess particular persons with an opinion that you detract from them : it is bad arguing syllogizare ex particulari ] excellent logick ! he that condemneth the non-conformists , and the ejected ministers as meer illiterate , doth not condemn the individuals , though it came in with an how many . ] i never said , that you condemn them all ; but i askt you , as you did me , how many . and is this like syllogizing ex particulari . ] do you intimate an accusation against many of them ; and when i name almost all of that county neer you , will you absolve them all ? . next you say [ those i intended have your suffrage ] because i said [ i had rather have a meer english divine , than an hebrew or a syriac sot. it seems you are of another mind : a sot will serve to preach divinity , and seek mens salvation , we feel the judgment of more than you ; and this was enough to set you upon blew aprons , &c. how forgot you tub-preachers ? . and you would fain steal some honour to your self from the universities as a defender of them : o happy advantage ! but who accused them ? i said [ i am grown of late years to take it for no very great honour to our young preachers , that they are acquainted with the universities . ] and you put [ it is ] for [ i take it ] and so i take it still . but late years signifieth not [ always ] nor [ our young preachers ] all [ preachers . doth he that dishonoureth the university , deserve honour for being at the university ? what young ones you have i know not ; but our young ones that i speak of , do not yet go about to change my mind . do you think all those named ( though he did not well ) by the glocester cobler ralph wallis , are an honour to the university , or it to them : i still take it for no very great honour , ( i said not none ) for any ignorant , idle lad , to have been at the university : but sure i obtruded not this judgment on you or any other ! yet here is place for corah's holy congregation , eclipsing the two luminaries , agamemnon , the sodomites , and more such stuff . and shall it be the controversie , whether you or i have written more for learning and universities ; and which of us did more to save them from the anabaptists and other fanaticks when they were endangered ? the visible evidences shall decide the case . you may be more beholden to the universities than i ; but i have done more than wish their prosperity as well as you . but quidvis ex quovis is your way . there went about eleven or twelve out of kederminster parish and school to the university and ministry in my time , and many since : if you please enquire of the difference . . and when you tell me , that i deal no better with the primitive fathers ; i first ask you , how could you make shift to be ignorant how ill you use the ancient presbyters , yea and bishops of the church your self ? were they not mostly blew aprons with you , and such as you disdain for want of hebrew , &c. know you not that the paucity of learned presbyters was the true cause that the few that were such , got the place , and honour , and power of bishops above the rest : and how few philosophers turned christians then ? and how long it was before the christians had many considerable schools , much less universities ? and what men the common presbyters were ; yea , and the bishops for the most part ? alexandria by pantaenus , clemens and origen kept up some competent learning ; basil , nazianzen , nissen , chrysostom , were fain to go to such as libanius , and to athens ; except those forenamed , and justin martyr , and tertullian before them , and hierom after : how few either linguists or philosophers had we : and yet do not you account those holy and worthy men , blew aprons , such as ignatius , polycarpus , irenaeus , yea and cyprian , almost all the bishops of rome , graeg . neocaesar . antonius , ab. pachomius , macarius ; yea epiphanius himself , ephrem syrus , isidore pelesiota , ambrose , philastrius , theoph. alexand , ruffinus , gaudentius , maximus , &c. besides simeon stillita , and all the holy famous monks ; yea augustinus himself , the best rational divine had little enough of the tongues . their writings easily prove all this , with the historical descriptions of others concerning them . i said [ i think it so short a work to read the few brief writers of the three first centuries , as maketh it more a dishonour to be ignorant of them , than any great honour to be acquainted with them . ] instead of this you feign me to say ( it is no great honour to be acquainted with them . ) but is this true ? is a positive and a comparative assertion all one ? ] but it seems you are not of my mind : but take it for a greater honour for a minister to know them , than a dishonour to be ignorant of them : and who vilified them more then you or i ? if i say , that it is a greater dishonour to be ignorant of the alphabet , of the grammar , of the gospel , than honour to be acquainted with them , so as to know what is in them ; and you denied this , who vilified them most ? have you no greater matters than these to exercise your censorious faculty on : you know in how few months all the writers of the three first centuries may be read over . i pray you here leave every one to his liberty of judging : among you it shall be a greater honour to know them , than a dishonour to be ignorant of them : among us it shall be a greater dishonour to be ignorant of them , than an honour to know them . could you endure any to differ from you , this comprimize might serve : but the next time falsifie not my words . as for your intimation of some that cannot read them , do you not believe your self , that its true of ten conformists for one non-conformist : i remember but one nonconformable minister in worcester shire that was not of an university , and i conjecture that he can read the fathers : but by your speeches , what stranger would not take it to be used by you for their ordinary character , which you durst not charge on one by name in all the county that is an ordained minister when i provoked you ? doth not this savour of factious malignity ? as to the prepostecus method of reading late writers before the fa●hers , which you talk of : . papists and protestants in all universities have most usually done so , as far as i can hear . . some take both together . . i suppose that if one book be read this month , and another the next , it is not like to make any great alteration in knowledge which goeth first . . methinks still you cross your own intention , and tell men that those non-conformists honour the fathers more than you ; for the most judicious or necessary authors should be read with greatest judgment , and mature judgment is usually the greatest . if you would have boys learn the fathers at school , as they do tulli's offices before their larger catechisms , they would be lost , as tulli's offices usually is : and that which they have once read , though without judgment , they would think they need not read again . . do you believe that lads that never read any method of theology or catechism , could draw a good catechism or method out of the fathers first : suppose them to have begun at ( lem . romanus , and taken in dionis . areop . and ignatius , yea , and martialis apost . at a venture , true or false , and to have ended at the nicene council , yea or any where short of augustine : what a method think you would they draw up ? yea if they must go further and read all chrysostom , with his enemy epiphanius , and augustine with his hilary , prosper . and fulgentius , how would the lads reconcile their doctrinal disagreements , and then draw one method out of both parties ? . do you not condemn the church of england , which did not send men first to the fathers for a method , but drew them up catechism first , and then a book of articles , or confession , and nowell's catechism is authorised by them , and then an apology , and a book of homilies , &c. and commandeth not subscription to the fathers , but to these : and commanded no commentary of the fathers to be kept in the churches , but erasmus's paraphrase . . and in good sadness , can you that have read both , believe that the writings of the fathers are as methodical , as accurate , as sound , as full , as useful to form a true body of theology in the mind , as the later writers are ? can you believe this ? is there any thing among them to these uses , like melancthon's calvin's inst . polanus , ludov. crocius , georgius , sohnius , amesius , theses salmuenses , synops . theol. leidensium , camero , &c. or if you had rather like arminius , episcopius , dr. hammond , especially like bishop andrews , dr. field , bishop davenant , &c. are the best of their practical writings , even macarius , ephrem syrus , &c. comparable to abundance used now : whether such non-conformists as hildersham , perkins , rogers , burroughs , &c. or such conformists , as sibbes , preston , gurnal , the practice of piety , hammond , &c. do you think that the surest and readiest way for youth to come to understand and believe the doctrine of the trinity , of the godhead of christ and the holy ghost ; of the hypostatical union , of the twofold nature and will of christ , &c. is to read first , all the first writers that say little or nothing of them , and those that say much amiss of some of them ; and then to read all the odious wars at the ephesine council , at the councils of arimin . sermium , and many more . and to read all the contentious writings hereabout , of cyril alexand , theodoret , epiphanius , and down to damascene . is not one joshua placaeus pro deitate christi , worth all that ever was then wrote ? i confess above all their subjects , the times engaged them in the largest defences of the christian religion against the heathens ; in which euseb . in praeparat . & demonstrate . evang. & augustine have done well : but so far short of what is done of late by grotius , du plessis , vander meulin , camero , yea savonarola , vives , and many more ; as that all laid together , i am not for your method . take out but justin , tertullian , and cyprian , in the three first centuries , and basil nazianz. nyssen , hierom , and chrysostom , and augustin after , and i will not tell you what you will leave us . if origen must be taken in , let them first fight it out to decide it whether he be a hererick : for halloix and our conforming originists tell us , that theoph. alexand. and epiphanius , ended not the controversie by the banishment of chrisostom . . and if all the naevi of the ancient fathers , were in our modern divines , which not only scultetus and other protestants have gathered , but even baronius , sixtus senensis , possevine , bellarmine , &c. what would you call them ? what hereticks should we be ? was there ever so great error charged on any one of the ministers for their silencing , as is visible in dionys . constitut . & can. apostol . irenaeus , clem. alex. tatianus , arnebius , lactantius , &c. but i forgat how much dalaeus de usu patr. hath said more on this subject . if we had to do with men that could let men live by them , that obey them not , even in the method of their studies , this much also might compremise this difference . you shall set your pupils first to read all the fathers , and make out of them such a religion as they are able , or perhaps too many : ( but then you must not be their collector as you teach them ; for 't is as good to take a method from a book , as from your mouth : ) and we will teach ours first to understand the catechism , ursine , polanus , amesius , &c. with the scriptures , and to read the fathers in order , when they have judgment to know how to use them , and let the issue shew which is the wiser way . but i pray you while you read the fathers to your scholars , call them not blew aprons , nor tub-preachers , nor fanaticks , as out as you find them to have wanted the languages , or academical education , lest it hinder your success . but i think all this quarrel with the method of our studies , is for the interest of diocesan prelacy ; therefore to save us any more trouble , we will refer all that controversie to your own ignatius alone , ( who determineth , that in every church there is one altar , and one bishop , with his presbyters and deacons ) and with that we are content . in your page , to keep your wont ; . you feign me to say , that which i tell you is objected to me by others . . you falsly feign me to allow the conformists to have some hebrew , chaldee , syriac , and arabic , my very mention of which words you out lay hold on , as an honour granted to your ●●●● : but it is all a false supposition , i never ap●roved hofe words to the conformists : i only told you , that ( valuing matter before words ) i 〈…〉 the church had men that speak sound doctrine in an apt and serious manner , for bringing sinners to repentance in english , than such as can lace an insipid , empty , senceless discourse , with some shreds of chaldee , syriac , or arabic : and though i could wish that all the ministers of christ had all accomplishments fit even for the adorning of their ●acred work ; yet i had rather hear a meer english divine , than an hebrew or a syriac sot. ] you put me to the troublesom repeating of my words , by your falsification . i did not mention conformists at all , nor had any thought of appropriating these passages to them any more than others : but only to tell you , that be he conformist on non-conformist , if like augustine , ambrose , &c. he had sound divinity without the languages now mentioned , i could better bear with him , than with one ( whoever ) that had words for ostentation without sense ; and to free you from all suspicion of injury , i never heard one of the young conformists which i mention , make any ostentation or credible signification of his skill in any one of those tongues : nor do i remember but exceeding few conformists in england of my acquaintance , that i will accuse or suspect of any such skill : but having a lad in my house not long ago come from school , who hath some acquaintance in all these languages , and as many more , who i assure you is too young to be a conformable preacher , or divine , he being next me , suggested the matter of my comparison , when you vilified i know not whom ( some unnamed ) non-conformists , for knowing little more than english books can teach them . one pressick a sadler in leverpool hath written that against some of your sect in english , which all their languages will hardly enable them to confute : and i hear but few of you that in real knowledge , are much more angelical than aquinas , subtle than scotus , profound than bradwardine , &c. when yet they and their scholastick tribe were commonly very sorry linguists . but it s needful that i intreat you , that you affirm me not to have called them all non-conformist● , because i name them in this comparison . as for the loads of dirt that you say i cast , and your saying , that you see ( you should have said feel ) that its difficult to forbear reproach towards them from whom we differ . ] i answer ; . and i see that it s no wonder if that tribe who think themselves persecuted , when they may not persecute and silence others , do also think themselves reproached , when others are justly vindicated from their reproach . . but it s hard , that as transubstantiation must be an article of some mens faith ; so we also must be obliged to believe , that all our senses and experience are deceived : and that he that walketh in the frost is a reproach for saying it is cold , because another affirmeth that the summer is colder , because of now and then a rainy day . alas , are so many great chappelries , and many parish churches in several parts of the land , utterly without any minister at all ; are so many others so supplied ( yea so many hundreds ) as the lovers of souls do groan and weep for ; and must we neither see nor feel it ? but , sir , if we must not feel it to you , let us feel it to god , that we may feelingly and not formally pray him to send forth more and better labourers into his harvest . for my part , i seriously profess , that if the gospel be but better preached , and the souls of all the parishes in the three kingdoms better instructed for their salvation , without us , than with us , i will never more speak for a liberty to preach , much less desire a farthing of the maintenance . but , sir , if you talk in print as you do to me in private letters , you might make strangers of your mind ; but to the people of the present age , that see , that hear , that know the persons , your words will be all vain : you may call them the children of hell for not believing you , but men are so naturally sensible , that your anger will not change them neer london , and in it i think are the worthiest conformists in the land ( proportionably ) and yet how many places not far off it , feel what i say . a worthy learned , judicious , peaceable divine ( bred up in one of the next parishes to you awhile ) mr. john warren , is silenced at a great town , hatfield broadoak in the bishop of london's presentation : thus he hath long lived and done much good , yet since that he was silenced , the place hath been void many years , because the maintenance is small ; and there must be none at all , rather than such a one as he. but you call this casting dirt too : the starved souls must not take on them to feel their case ; and to be past feeling in such cases , is a state that men are prone to of themselves ; and need no preachers to help them to be indifferent in . well! souls must be starved , or not be humble . [ how can we prefer others before our selves ] unless we will be content that those for whom christ died be neglected , and ignorance set up to teach men knowledge , and the ungodly to teach them godliness . but as in natune , so in grace there is a principle that will not suffer men by words to be brought to take famine for food , nor saying a dry lesson , for teaching men the way to heaven : blessed be god that hath possessed all renewed christians with a new nature , which differenceth the chaff from the wheat , and words from real worth and substance . but you heard a preacher say , that he thanked god he never heard a preacher , but he could get something by him . answer , and i also am of mr. herbert's mind , church-porch , p. . [ if all want sense , god takes a text and preacheth patience . ] but for all that , i will not by my approbation contract the guilt of such preachers , nor of those that set them up , and would have others silenced and calumniated , and then plead humility for the valuing of these . every text that is preached on , is eaifying ; and i hope by bare reading it we may be edified : and in muscovy where all preaching is put down for fear of treason , . and yet now by treason they are just between life and death ) they seem to have great advantage in the using of your argument , to tell them that would have preaching , that humility should teach them to esteem the readers labour above their own . and truly basil and chrysostom's sermons which they read , are better than the sermons in very many churches in this land , ( which you that honour the fathers its like will not deny : ) but cheat not your self so as to dream that we are the assailants , when we meddle not with you but by way of comparison , when urged to it in our own defence . but because prejudice , and factious passages , yellow jaundices , a party , &c. are here accused , i could almost find in my heart to send you a copy of some of the sermons that i have lately heard ; but you would but pretend that this were some rare unusual thing . o let the world take heed what history they believe ; i have as much ado to perswade you , that many churches are left in a case which calls for tears , as i have to perswade bagshaw and others on the other extream , that any of them have worthy or tolerable men : when yet many hundred thousand persons have sense , reason , and experience to decide the case . but these ten years experience , and much more , have taught me , not hastily to believe a faction , though in a matter where the common sense is judge : for faction is one of the greatest lyars in the world . but you say [ just so did martin marprelate traduce the regular clergies . answer , just so , is just untruly spoken by you . as well may the papists say to the lutherans , just so did the heriticks of old : rather just so did christ tell some men , that they took away the key of knowledge , and would neither enter , nor suffer others . and just so he told them , that if the blind lead the blind , both will fall into the ditch . one of the last sermons i heard , was on [ servants obey your masters in all things : ] and our own servants being almost wholly past by , it was applied to shew , that we are servants to the bishops , and must obey them in all things : as if subjection without servitude had not been enough . one of the next before it , was to prove , that the church may appoint holy-days , because easter-day ( which is the lords-day ) is a holy-day of the churches appointment : when most of the people had more need to have been taught the cathechistical principles , and , what they did when they were baptized . i can name you the man ( and place ) that from the title of john's epistle [ to the elect lady ] proved undeniably that then there were lord bishops , because an elect lady relateth to an elect lord , and there are no elect lords , but elect lord bishops . and if such as you are pleased to approve of the silencing of many hundreds , yea of such as amesius , cartwright , greenham , hildersham , john rogers , egerton , dod , bradshaw , rob. parker , paget , hering , &c. ( o what men ) and the setting up of such as these , or readers in their stead , all is salved by telling us , that we must think others better than our selves , and that we may profit by all . and if god did work by all alike , sense or non-sence , and made as much use of the ignorant and ungodly to procure knowledge and godliness in the world , i would say as you . i believe with k. james they have an ill spirit , that recount grievances to make themselves popular ; ( i suppose sir edw. sands named by you , was one he meant so ill do your allegations agree ) but i will not therefore consent to their guilt that make grievances , and then declaim against such popularity . they please not god and are contrary to all mens forbidding us to preach to the gentiles that they might be saved , for wrath is come upon them to the uttermost , was this popular declaiming against grievances ? deny your children food and rayment , and then call them such popular declaimers . again you snatch at your former self-deceiving fiction , [ did these hebrew children and ara bick lads , come out of your school , they should have been stroaked for precious youthes ] answer , how pleaseing to you is a selfmade cheat. realy sir , i know not one such lad that is a conformist , your urgency may possibly provoke me to , send you if it please you , some of our homebred fruits , to tell you whence i fetcht my comparison . . ( when you well mourn for your alehouses sots , and yet say , that all our are not free ) your confession on one part is constrained , your accusation on the other side i think is a calumny . . because no one of all the non-conformists was cast out for drunkenness , but many on the other side were cast out uppon accusation of that sin , seconded by oathes , ( how just i must not presume to say ) . i that know the non-conformists better than you , know not one drunkard amongst them all in england . . i challenge you to name one of all the ministers i named to you , or any other in the county of worcester where you live . next , ( page . ) you pretend that i change my judgement in valuing the common prayer and homilies , ] answer , all false still , no change at all . i ever valued the common prayer and homilies much before such preaching as i described to you . and realy i think that the non conformists much more value the homilies , than the conformists do . next , i am glad that you disclaim the proving it of any of our non-conformists in england , that he was silenced for insufficiency . but was this impertinent to one that intimated such charges of unlearnedness as you did . but , you say it is of another nature ( the reason of our silence ) that we do not give security to authority : that we will preach up no more wars , answer , i summon your conscience to justify you silencing of so many and such , in the necessity of so many thousand souls , one moment after death , upon the charge now given us on these reasons , . i told you , and you could not deny it , that if you leave out your oath and subscription to the bishops and chancellors , with the vast assent , and consent , few non-conformists will refuse the renuncation mentioned by you about wars . yet still have you that front to ●ay it upon this . the many that took the oxford oath upon this , and the more that were ready to take it , if judge keeling had not presently and openly declared it to be a renunciation of the national vow . . i again provoke you to prove that there is one non-conformable minister of ten or twenty , that ever was proved , or can be , to have medled with the war against the king , . you read and cite my late writing , wherein i say ( page . differ . of the pow of mag. and past . i ascribe all that power to kings which is given them by any text of scripture or acknowledged by any council general , or provincial , or by any publick authentick confession of any christian church , either protestant , greek , or papist , that ever i yet saw . ) and is all this insufficient to a liberty to preach christ , to ignorant souls , must protestants , greeks , and papists , be all silenced for want of loyalty ? i will subscribe to the utmost , that which any of their confessions give to kings , . the non-conformists , ( as far as i am acquainted with them , have still been ready in express terms to promise never to meddle in any war against the king ; nay to promise to employ their interest , and labour to prvent it . i● this would serve they should not be silenced , are such as hooker and bilson thought worthy of honour , and are these principles of ours so much less security against war , as to leave us on that account uncapable to preach . let but reason and humility be judge of your accusation and cause . and here to shame your self , yet more marchiaement need-hams book , is instanced in . a man that is no minister but a physician : who in those daies wrote against us non-conformists , and against my self by name , when the generality of the now silenced non-conformists , and ( excluding the sectaries ) stood , out refusing for the most part the engagement whom the royalists of my vicinity took it . this man that wrote against me , and since the kings return , hath welcomed him in florid poems : is instanced in to tell men what the nonconformists are , and why they are silenced . truly sir i conjecture you are a stranger to them , ( as abundance of the prelatists are ) though you lived in england , and have dwelt somewhere where you knew but some giddy sectaries , and judge by them of those you knew not . and here ( page . ) i am glad that you deny not , that the worst among us are received , if they do but conforme , which sheweth for what crime we are kept out . and for your exclamation against us that come not in , you would be impatient if i should but describe your dealing , what if you lived under in such a power of usurpers as would say [ if all the ministers in germany holland &c. will under their hands , or delibrately profess , that no one in the kingdom is bound by the oath of supremacy or allegiance , and promise that he will never endeavour the reformation of any corruption in religion , but will assent and consent to every word in the interim , and will use exorcism , &c. they shall have leave to preach else they shall all be silenced and deprived of all ministerial liberty and maintenance . ] and the● cassander should have told them , that they shu● out themselves if they come not in . i say not that our case is the same with this . i know it is not but cassander dealt more candidly than you do is there any thing that could be imposed , that would make you a non-conformist ? if there be , might non any man talk to you at such rates , even tye your legs , and intreat you to go : or blindfold you , and say , read who struck you . § . . what need you more to the present case , when you say that there is never a cherubim to hinder them , than this , that though it be no sin in your opinion , it is a hainous sin in theirs . ? and will your opinion prove it , where we search as diligently as you do to know the truth : if we be not as good as you , you may allow us to love our selves as well . tell me what time of any usurpation had such impositions , which the main body of the present conformists then in being , did not conform or submit to , or which they refused to the cost of all their church maintenance ( for the liberty of preaching , too many of them could easily forego it ) i know that many were turned out by others , that would gladly have conformed , if that would but have been accepted . i knew not three men in the three counties about me , that would not then have conformed , if that would have kept them in their livings . if there were more unknown to me there or elsewhere , i would but have asked those men , whether it was a sin that was imposed on them : and if so , whether it would have prevailed with them if one had done as you , and told them that they kept out themselves , and that no cherubin stood in the way , and how hainously they sinned in forsaking their calling . it seems by your complaint of the tryers ( men that i had nothing to do with ) that either you did conform then ( or would have done , if they had not refused you : ) they say you did conform . i am sure that most of my acquaintance that were sequestred , would have conformed to have kept their livings : but if we be of another mind now , when declarations , subscriptions , oaths , and practices are imposed on us ; which — what would you have us to do ? our manifold interests obligeth us to judge them lawful if we could : we lose as much by not conforming , as most of you get by conforming . must we judge all lawful , because our guides do so ? how far will that hold ? will it hold in italy , or in france , or in denmark ; or formerly in scotland if you had lived there ? he that must take all for good , which another calleth so , must know who it is , that is so far to be trusted on ; especially of those that renounce infallibility . . the irony was palpable enough to have prevented your fancy , that i give up the cause , scil by confessing the crime that we sought to save souls , and that we did eat bread . a little will encourage you sometimes to great conclusions . § . . p. . here you have many things to say , to prove that men that came into sequestrations , either sought not , or procured the good of souls : but o! first remember , that if that were true , yet all those ( or neer all ) were turned out of their sequestrations before the silencing bartholomew day , . . do you think that it had been as consistent with the good of souls , that they had for sixteen years been all untaught , and left without any ministers , or publick worship , rather than any should have succeeded the ejected . . if our preaching did no good to souls , why should you think that yours does any ? if you preach the same gospel , why should you think so well of your own works above other mens ? and if yours also do no good , why do men pay their tythes , and trouble themselves to hear such as do but trouble the world. . do you not conspire with the quakers that falsly cried out that our ministry did not profit men ; and with the levellers , that would have taken down the ministry as unprofitable . . but o! what an attempt you make to prove how little history is credible , to teach men to say , how know we that hegisyppus , that eusebius , that socrates , that epiphanius say true , when such men as should be the preachers of truth , can say what they do of common or notorious matters of fact ; yea and confidently stand to it , to the face of that age which knoweth that they speak falsly . . who are more competent judges , whether men received any good by christs gospel which we preached you or they . do you know the hearts and lives of many hundred thousands better than they do themselves : i know many are deceived with self-flattery , but are you that are a stranger to their hearts and them , the fittest judges . do you better know what faith , hope and love what repentance and obedience the gospel hath produced . to instance among strangers , is the way of darkness or evasion ; i may speak boldliest where i know best . ask the people of kederminster , whether in that time they received any good by the gospel : know you not , that when some such did but preach to them at the rates you now talk , it so alienated their minds from prelacy and conformity , who before were not so averse thereto , as that they have put it past my power to reconcile them so far to them as i am reconciled my self ; and were not my interest very great in them , and their preacher very honest , i should not get them to come to church : such good the spirit of envy and faction doth in the world , while it pretendeth to heal the hurt that others do . . let the effects that are visible be judge ; if places that abounded with rioting , drunkenness , ignorance , and ungodliness , do now search the scriptures and meditate with delight in the law of god , and constantly worship him , and their families call upon his name , if they live soberly , righteously , and godly , forsaking the former lusts of their ignorance , and seek first the kingdom of god and his righteousness , and live in charity and peace ; will it prove that these people are never the better , because faction causeth a stranger to tell them so . but you say [ they were not the souls of every soil , such as did inhabit poor villages , but such as dwell in fattest parsonages , or else in great towns , where these men who were most for the good of souls , might act their parts , &c. ] answer . farwel the credit of all history , if there be no truer historians : ( but how shall posterity know who they are ? ) is there an english-man that can be ignorant that the endeavour then was that no church might be unsupplied . there is no talking a far off , was not mr. cowper at moseley chappel near you , mr. rock at rowley , mr. tristram at clents , mr. walderne at broom , mr. baldwin at chadsley , mr. sergeant at stone , mr. baldwin at wolverley , my assistant at mitton chappel , mr. lovel at alveley , &c. doth not all the country about you know , that this which you say is false : and are you then to be believed in difficult moral cases of duty or sin , who deny publick fact which all the country about you knoweth . go into any one of these churches , and tell them that these men were never their preachers , and try whether you can convert them to believe you . . but that the great towns ( which commonly had least maintenance ) should be first provided for : that tribe of men should not deny , who hold that none but cities of old had churches and bishops , nor should have bishops to this day . nor should they teach enemies to say , these bishops settled themselves only in the great cities to act their parts with most popularity . is that the reason of your remove to hampton . . but what were the parts they had to act ? their work it self is the best evidence of that . let the two printed agreements of the worcestershire ministers , one for discipline , and one for catechising and personal instruction , with my reformed pastor , be a standing witness to posterity , what the countries ministers work was , against all factious calumny : we lived not idle ; not one of a multitude had an hundred pounds a year maintenance , that i could know of . in my great place ( of sequestration ) mine was less , when i was elsewhere oft offered above three hundred pounds ; we preached twice or thrice a week , and rarely meddled with any controversies , except against the quakers , and anabaptists , when they came to trouble the churches : we spent half two clays a week in conference with each family , to catechize them , and help them to understand the catechism , and to prepare them for another world. besides all our labour of discipline ; to bring the scandalous to repentance , and all the other offices of our places . in the last leaf of my [ uiversal concord ] the practice of the church where i lived is recited . this was the part we acted for our selves . . but you add [ what good was done to souls by these intruders , late posterity will find , &c. answer , . i think that the present age that hath the experience may better know than posterity , unless they have truer historians than you . . many thousand souls already in heaven , and many thousand more yet on earth , that were brought to the true knowledge of god and themselves , by the labours of such ministers , will be their witness what good they did . but the stranger meddleth not with their joys . . if you impute to them either the errors or work of sectaries , whom they were the principal means of suppressing , and whom they did much more against than you : or yet the works of the rebellious souldiers , that pulled down powers , and set up themselves ; you will but shew your malignity and unrighteousness : if you do not , your accusation signifieth nothing . if you mean that the people will not be brought to like silencing of prelats better than such preachers ; and this is the breach which the skilfullest of you cannot heal , i am of your mind : and the names of intrusion and schism will not serve to change their minds . as for intrusion , i knew very few such in those days that ever came to a place before they were sought to and intreated ; and i know very few now that are not seekers . . your next , against preaching down authority and plundering other mens livings to save souls , sheweth more what you are , than what they did : when you know that i have provoked you to name one of ten or twenty that ever preached down authority , or meddled with arms ; most coming out of the universities after the wars , and many never meddling with them ( though several conformists did . ) and sure the party is not to be judged or denominated by a tenth or twentieth part . i named many men to you in the former paper , and in this : enquire how few of all those ever meddled with arms. . and those few that did , almost all did it before they came into sequestrations , and many never did so after ; and thought it had been authority which they had stood for : and as he that erreth in medicine upon the judgment of a colledge of physicians , so he that erreth in law upon the judgment of a parliament , is more pardonable than some other men , and may again be capable of preaching the gospel , or else such should not now be readmitted . . and , if eating the bread of preachers be it you call plundring other mens livings , their error if it were one , had these excuses , that they thought that the tythes had been first devoted to god , and that he was the first proprietor , and that they were determinately devoted to him for this use , to maintain a lawful minister there to officiate : and they thought that when the then ruling parliament had cast out some under the notion of insufficient and scandalous , it was lawfull nevertheless for others to keep up a church , and teaching , and worship of god , and therefore to eat the dedicated bread. and as for the turning out of any for the kings cause , that were not utterly insufficient or drunkards , or such like , we printed our judgment against it ; and many would not succeed such men , which gave advantage to some that were sectarians to succeed them ? and what got the people by that scruple ? as for the fifth part , you know it was ordinarily paid , ( and now nothing ) and , mr. lea's book made no alteration . your talk of medling with temporals , in ordine ad spiritualia , is a meer impertinency . but if you ask bishops , and chancellors , whether it be lawfull to meddle with spiritual things , in ordine ad temporalia , ( yea and priests too ) it will be a seasonable question , ( if set home . ) i am glad to read that they did but threaten to silence you . by which i perceived you were not then so scrupulous as to lose all , to escape conformity to those times . and i also was threatned to be silenced as well as you : and virtually sequestred by an ordor against such as would not keep their fasts , and thanksgivings , and that spake against their authority ( which i openly did ) and that would not take the engagement : and yet i was never silenced by them , ( but only as to one assize sermon , ) that work being fitter for men , whose proper office it is , and that jure divino . and my life was frequently threatned by the souldiers , as well as yours . but i must [ tell you truly , should i reassume my chair , would i continue in this courteous mood . ] ans . you have proved already , that a question may be false , may you not as easily prove that it may be malignant , . what is my chair ? had i any but the pulpit , or reading place , at kederminster , . why do you question my courtesie , when i both printed my desires and reasons , against hindring any worthy men from preaching the gospel , upon pretence of the cause of the king or prelacy heretofore , and when i have in three or four books this very year , maintained the same impartiality and principles . yea most of all my writings and preaching for years have been much against faction : and for the union , concord , and concurrence of all ministers and christians , who are agreed but in christianity it self , and the essentials of church communion , in carrying on gods work with mutual forbearance . and when i never had a hand in putting any such men out , and have kept many of your party in : what room after this for such a question ? next you carp at me , for telling you ( in reputation of your calumnies by a comparison ) what ministers were in my time , and in the places where i lived : you [ marvel at my praecox ingenium , that could judge before i was ten years old , who were ignorant , who learned preachers : you fear it is still the greatest part of some mens devotion to censure the parts and gifts of the preacher . ] answer , o what relief are poor souls like to have from such uncompassionate shepherds ! i conjecture you believe me not , i will do what i can to cure you . but remember , i open not my fathers nakedness , while i speak nothing but what congregations saw and heard ; and that to you alone now in secret , and that upon your urgency . i was not bred in wales nor ireland , but first in shropshire . at six and seven years old my first master was a reader , never at university , and preached once a month : i name him not , because he was as●ied to me , and mended . my next master mr. heyward was a lay-man , publickly read the common prayer , but never preached , but proved after an honest lay-man , though no scholar . my next master , mr. cope , read and never preached . my next master , mr. yale , b. d. preached once a month , and drank himself , wife and children , to be stark beggars . these at rowton : and still note that we had no other . i then came to live at eaton constantine ; the vicar of the parish , mr. richard wolley , never preached : the parson of the town , sir william rogers , above fourscore , had two livings , and never preached in his life , as was said : when his eye-sight failed him , he said common prayer by memory ; and john colly a day-labourer , one year , and thomas gaynam a taylor , another year read the scriptures , but none preached . having two places , when he was absent , his curate was first , his son francis rogers , rarely if ever preached ; a famous stage-player : ( one of his sports was on the open stage , to let his pudenda nudata per restem laceratam quasi neglecta se ostentare ad risum populi movendum . his next curate , my master john rogers ( his grand-child ) was unlearned and never preached . his next curate , richard bathoe , was a lawyers clerk , broken by drinking , who was wont , to our smart , to let us know when he was drunk ; and never preached there but once , which was in my hearing when he was drunk , as i told you : if he be not lately dead , he is yet a minister very near you at patshill . in the same village another neighbours son turned priest , mr. thomas rock , who being detected to be vicious , and have forged orders , fled : so much for our parish ( leighton . ) the next eastward , bildwas , had a minister that never preached ; nor could i learn that ever they had before a preacher since the reformation . the next to that was madeley , whose minister preached not , and was as famous for debauchery , as the madmen of madeley for folly. on the other side us , the next church cressage had no preaching . the next kenley , had mr. bennet a reading curate , that preached not . mr. bent at harley ; my kinsman mr. wood , b. d. at cund , seldom : and the same i may say of too many other places round about us . at kederminster mr. dance preached ( as some call'd it ) once a quarter , or half-year : mr. turner at mitton , sometime ( when sober ) once a day , of whom i told you , that i knew by examination , his intollerable ignorance of the creed . at dowles our foresaid sir william rogers was parson . in the two chappels in the rock parish ( which i confess had small maintenance ) one reading curate made ropes for his living , and another cut faggots . i will add no more ; and this is only private to your self : to excuse my self and the poor people , who you think [ place our devotion in judging of the ministers parts . ] alas , poor souls ! into such hands are you fallen : the lord be more merciful to you , than such pastors ; who if for bread , they give you a stone , will reproach you as censurers of your teachers , if you find fault : and when the first work needful to save sinners , is to awaken them to a care of their own souls , and a love to teaching ; some men are angry with them , if they will care whether they are taught or untaught . of all merchandize , i love not making merchandize of souls . but i pray you dream not , that i take all the old ministry for such as these ? i know there are many excellent men : but i think the present non-conformists as fit for the sacred office as these ; ( is that presumption ? ) § . . p. . i thank you for your transitions and purposed brevity : to requite you ; . your first paragraph doth but say in effect , . that you untruly suppose me to meddle with the controversie , which i do but wish for leave to meddle with . . and that you think many things good , which i think to be stark naught . but because you call me so oft to dispute the main controversie , i tell you once , that it is disingeniously done , still in print and writing to call for more , as if we had never done any thing in it , while our printed books lie by you unanswered . answer my fifth dispute of church government , . in the point of prelacy , . of reordination , . of impositions ; and then call out for more when you have done : or if you have more time , answer baine's , diocesanes tryal , robert parker de polit. eccles . & blondel de episcopis , where dr. hammond left at the entrance . one quarter of the reasons of our non-conformity , is contained in these books ; and some are in ames his fresh suit , and nicols and bradshaw ; but the most are upon a new account , which our fathers were not put upon . . i am ashamed to read a preacher , a writer , an accuser of the afflicted , to talk of the dreadfull subject of oaths so poorly as you do . though i tell you , i will not dispute this point with you without a license from authority , i will say , . that when you say [ take an unlawfull oath in what sense you please , and will there be much need of absolution . ] you should not so confusedly have named an unlawfull oath . remember that you have proved against me , that a question may be false . and that an indefinite in renecessariâ , or thus unlimitedly delivered , goeth for an universal : an oath is unlawfull , . quoad actum imponendi , . quoad actum jurandi , . quoad materiam juratam . if the materia jurata be lawfull , do you think that the unlawfulness of the other two , do leave no need of an absolution ? . what if a thief force me to swear allegiance to the king , or to swear to do some duty , doth it not add a second bond ? or what if i vowed without the command of any power ? . what if i sinned in making a vow , or oath , by taking it from a usurper ▪ or without just cause , or unreasonably , or to an ill end , &c. if the matter be good , doth it not then bind me . and de materiâ , what if one article or many be bad and another good , doth the neighbourhood of the bad , disoblige me from the good . if so , it is but inserting some bad clauses , and men may be bound by no oaths or vows , as in the former case . it is but swearing sinfully , to an ill end , &c. and never be obliged . but if this be your divinity about oaths and perjury , you have no cause to censure them so deeply that swear not as quick and deep as you . your next question is , must the sense of an oath be measured by him that receiveth it , or ●rom the authority and intention of those that im●ose it . answer , still worse and worse : what confusion is here ? who knoweth whether by ●easuring the sense , you mean as to the taking of the ●ath , or as to the obligation of it when taken . your must seemeth to speak of both . but . he ●hat taketh an oath from one in lawful authority , ●r from an equal , is bound to take it in the sense ●f the imposer or requirer , whom we would sa●isfie . . he that taketh an oath from a thief ●r murtherer , some casuists say , ( is bound not ●o lie to hide his sense , but ) may take it in a sense ●ifferent from the imposers , when the plain words ●ill bear it without a lie. as if a thief or tray●r should force the king to swear that he will do ●his or that , which hath an equivocal name ; if ●he traytor 's sense be not according to the com●oner use , or defaniosiore analega●o , but the king 's , they think that the king is not bound to wear in his sense , though yet he may be bound ●o swear , to save his life . . but our case is only ●e obligatione juramenti praestandi : if a man that ●as bound to take the oath in a usurpers sense , ●hall either mistake the usurpers sense , or shall ●ke it in another sense , as supposing that he is not ●ound to the usurpers ; i say , that this man if ●e make this a vow to god , and not only an ●ath to man , is bound to keep it in the sense he ●ok it in , if it were materially lawful . if i vow to ●ive so much to a minister of christ , and he that ●rced me to it meant a mass priest , and i mistook ●im , and meant a true minister ; i am bound by ●y vow to give it him . if your confused question suppose the contrary , then a man's vows to god are all null , if he that forced him to it were of another sense . a meer oath to confirm a contract to a man , is to be interpreted by the contract , being but an obligation to perform it ; yea , and may be remitted by the man that will remit his right . but in a vow , god and man are the parties ; and god's sense imposing , and man's sense intending in the vow , are each obliging : so that if ten men use the same words in vowing , in ten several senses , they are ten several vows , and all oblige if materially lawful . and therefore when you say , that the vow was commanded by usurpers , and when i know not the sense of one that vowed , let him that will say of millions , that they are not bound , no not when they vow against schism , and prophaneness . but you cite here a non conformist against me , amesius case consc . to you , p. . to me p. . but . he speaketh not at all of our questions , in what sense an oath bindeth when taken , but only in what sense it ought to be taken . . he speaketh not of a vow , but of a meer oath . . he speaketh only of the case of equivocation ; but he that sweareth in sensu famosiore , to a thief whose mind he is not bound to follow , doth not equivocate . . he himself saith in the next case that the words of an oath must be taken , eo sensu quem audientes concepturos judicamus , id est , regulariter eo sensu quem habent in communi hominum usu . but the audientes and the imposers may be different ; and a man may think sometimes that the imposers sense may be contrary to the usum communem , and his own agreeable to it . but this impertinent question is nothing to us : suppose that the powers were bound to take it in the imposers sense , but did not ; the question is , whether it bind them not in their own sense : ( and in some possible cases in both , and to both . ) you add [ you mention some good things in the covenant ; as the declaration against popery , schism , and prophaneness : but you pass by the second article , &c. ans . so i perceive you would have me conform that i may preach : and what should i preach against but sin ? and will you not give me leave to suppose , that perjury is one of the greatest of all sins ; and that he that is knowingly for perjury , is against humane society , and not capable of trust or credit , and is against the safety of the king ; which dependeth much on the conscience of the oath of allegiance in his subjects ; and that he that would but say , i would declare my self for perjury , that i may preach against all other sins , ●● — . these things being premised , i ask you , are you in good sadness ? what! after such a confident perswasive to conformity ? will you tell your hearers , if you vow to god repentance , obedience , or any good ; this vow bindeth none of you all , if there were but some evil joyned with it . ] and so , if a jesuit would take the oath of allegiance or supremacy , yea or the vow of baptism be taken at our christening , if either ignorance or knavery do but joyn some bad things with it ; nothing of all the rest is obligatory . what cheater then will not foist in some bad thing into his vows , that he may be disobliged from all the rest ? if you dare preach such doctrine , and dare die in the aprobation of it , and dare perswade others to do the like , as their duty to god ; your book 's title , shall make me view s. paul's warning , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . would you have me deliberately undertake to justifie all men from the lawful or good parts of a vow , that i may have leave to preach against sin . you add [ and the power imposing the whole . ] answ . still all alike ; what ? will you tell your hearers , that no oath or vow bindeth them , which powerless man imposed : the want of power in the imposers , proveth indeed that no power of theirs obliged you to take it . but what if you had taken it to save your life from a thief , or within your closet-walls voluntarily , without the command of any power , doth it not oblige to lawful matters ? bishop sanderson would have taught you otherwise to resolve that case . this is a hard way to conformity . you add , [ what was good in it we were obliged to by a former covenant . ] answ . and what then ? is that another doctrine , that conformists must preach , that [ no vow or oath obligeth you to any good that you were obliged to before . ] oh dreadful ! the jesuits morals would abhor such a doctrine : if there may be new vows to the same thing , there may be new or additional obligations to the same thing ; else all the following vows are no vows . what if the oath of allegiance be thrice taken ? doth it oblige only the first time ? then if a man be at baptism obliged to christianity , no after vows at the lords supper , or other time , are obligatory . sir , be not angry with me for telling you , that non-conformists have somewhat in them , that will not permit them to take these for indifferent things : and that the diminution of your glory and mens temptation to separation from you , hath too much occasion and colour from your selves . you add , [ the worst of hereticks maintain some truths . ] answ . and quid inde ? suppose , so the covenant hath some good ? our question is not , whether we are bound to the bad , but to the good : and will you say , that i must receive no truth which a heretick holdeth ; or am bound by it to no good , which is contained in a vow that hath evil with it . § . , , . will any thing convince you of an error or sin , if the visibility of my words and yours , and my reminding you of your visible misreport will not do it ? but still when you see your words and mine , and hear of your mistake ; you will yet go on , yea and falsly add , that [ in one breath i say i did , and i did not retract them . ] this practice , and your fore-going doctrine well agree : when i had askt you [ whether it be all one to say i had expunged all that you accuse me of ( or charge me with ) and that i expunged all that you pervert ] ( or falsly took occasion from for a visible slander . ) this is no stop to you , nor worthy of any answer ; but you go on : yea when you tell me the page you meant , and see that there is no such thing there as you mentioned ; yet all this ( nor my many writings against that same opinion ) are nothing at all to stop your calumny . i am not justifying what i expunged ; but if it were faulty , must it needs contain a doctrine which it never mentioned , which i openly wrote against . this dealing is enough to tell me , to what purpose a disputation of conformity with you would prove , when sense it self will not convince you : and all your justification is , you [ give the sense , though not the words . ] utterly false ; there are no words there ( how bad soever ) of any such sense . the words speak mostly de fine belli , and not of the justifying power , which is ever supposed besides a good end . i never thought that war might be made against authority , for religion sake , what ever i might then think of the subjectum in quo of that authority , though not as hooker did . § . still confusion and untruth twisted : i deny not that i led many ( if you will call convincing reason , leading ) into an association : was that in the question before ? i rejoyce and glory in it , and thank god for it , as much as almost any passage of my life ! i told you before , ( and two printed agreements told the world ) what our associations were for . one was to exercise so much discipline , as all the three parties were agreed in , contradicting none of them in our agreement . the other for catechising and instructing every family at stated days , every week in course . and what 's this to mens present coming to your churches which you talk of . if they conform no more than i , i am not ashamed to be esteemed a promoter of their judgment . if they conform less than i , that they never had that from me , my five disputes of church government , then written , are a visible witness against your rash and heedless calumny . § . . be not offended with me , for judging some conformists honest : and i could wish that you would consider of it , before you teach your people , that [ there are no honest sinners . ] for that 's all one as to say , that the world hath never had one honest man , but christ , and adam and eve a while . though a man be not honest quatenus vel in quantum a sinner : ( nor i think quatenus a conformist ) yet i hope still that there are some honest men in the world ; yea such as have sinned avowedly and deliberately ( when they knew it not to be sin , as most sects that contradict each other do ) yea and some that sin against knowledge too ( as many do in their vain thoughts and words . ) but where is it that i said , that these honest conformists sin avowedly , delaberately , and against knowledge ? make conscience of truth . 't is like that i might sometime say , what it would be in me if i should do it : but is that to say , that it is so in others , whose knowledge i am a stranger-to ; or that it borders on the sin against the holy ghost . as for your invective against these honest conformists ; i ask you , . may not a man be an honest conformist , that taketh conformity for a thing lawful meerly in case of deprivation , as mr. sprint did , though he had rather be excused ? if not , few learned godly divines of my youthful acquaintance were honest men : for all such as pleaded then with me for it , went upon those terms . may not those be honest conformists that heartily and openly wish for abatements , as the bishop of chester doth , and bishop gawden openly upon my demand of his judgment , oft did . may not those be honest conformists who go on bishop reynolds and dr. stillingsteet's grounds , that no form of church-government is of divine institution : or those that had rather all the ceremonies were out of the church , than so many preachers . if they are , you do ill to censure them as dishonest ; if they are not , i shall never be induced to conform : for it would be to give away my honesty , if i do it on those aforesaid principles . thus i perceive that it is not conformity that would satisfie you if we yielded to it , unless we also did it on your principles . but if neither the bishops and clergy of england in abbot's days were any of them honest , saving the few described by heylin that went higher ; or if all the latitudinarians ( that had rather the ceremonies were forborn ) and all the unwilling conformists in england ( that would not do it but to keep their ministry ) be dishonest men , i am not yet ready to fall in with that other sort of men that charge so many of their own society with dishonesty , and that account so few honest , who are accounted honest by the rest of mankind , and appropriate honesty to those , that others can hardliest discern it in . § . . and will you so grosly dispute down non-conformity ? to distinguish between [ meddling with the war ] and entring into the army ] to you is [ a fly , ad populum phalerae ficulnea evasio , a little poor criticism . ] so that it seems you dare affirm or deny that of the one , which you do of the other . durst you swear that none of the lords , or commons , or citizens meddled with the war , but those that entred into the army ? and can you insist on such passages thus against your sight , when your error is detected ? i pray you if ever you be a confessor , resolve not other mens cases of conscience at this rate , as you do your own . § . . it is an unhappiness in you , that so hardly write that which is not errour , and yet so hardly acknowledge any crrour in your writing . the aphorisms recited by the bishop were mentioned by way of accusation : you excepted none , but spake generally of those collected by him ; what can i do more for tryal than to name particulars ? and where should i begin but with the first ? but it 's many more that i can name , which would extort from you the same answer : particularly that which bagshaw ( seeing there ) was tempted to transcribe among his falshoods , as if i had said all that of oliver , which i said of his son , which others also have falsly said of me . § . . it is a troublesom thing to dispute on terms not explained or understood : i thought all this while that presbyterian and episcopal had been terms whose sense we had agreed of , but i was mistaken ; for now you let me know , that an archbishop ( who strove hard for such preferment ) who drew the rest of the bishops into that high protestation , for which some were imprisoned , who forsook the parliament and went to the kings party ; as soon as he saw that they would bring low the bishops , who for self-safety turned to the parliament , when he saw all was almost gone on the other side ; and this but in wales to recover his own house : this man with you was a presbycerian archbishop ; i may understand shortly what a presbyterian signifieth of late in england ! as many episcopal non-conformists are silenced , and go now under the name of presbyterians : so take heed of straining the word too high , lest archbishops and bishops at last be put down as presbyterians too . if he be a presbyterin who is an archbishop , and would continue an archbishop , because he foresaw that the bishops would pull down themselves , and the puritans would prevail . in this sense i should not have denied but that they were presbyterians that first raised that war in england against the king : but your proof is out of rushworth , p. . viz. no other than those two famous men , sir john lamb , and dr. sibthorpe importuned the bishop to prosecute the puritans ; the bishop said , he knew of none , and asked what manner of people they be ? it 's answered by sir john lamb in dr. sibthorp's presence , that they seem to the world to be such as would not swear , whore , nor drink , but yet would lye , cheat , and deceive . that they would frequently hear two sermons a day , and repeat the same too , and afterwards pray , and sometimes fast all day long . then the bishop asked , whether those places where those puritans were ; did lend money freely ( to the king ) upon the loan . to which sir john lamb and dr. sybthorp replyed , that they did generally resolve to lend freely . then said the bishop no man of descretion can say , that that place is a place of puritans : for my part i am not satisfied to give way to proceedings against them . at which dr. sibthorp said , he was troubled to see that the church was no better regarded . very good ; a presbyterian then is a bishop that is not satisfied to persecute such puritans as those . add but what is said by many old conformists , how the word puritan was used with the utmost malice by papists and drunkards , and ungodly persons , against those who were firm protestants , and would not drink , and whore as they did ; as dr. robert abhot , regius professor in oxford , and bishop of salisbury , and bishop downam , ( one that i verily thought had been no presbyterian ) in his spittle sermon , called abraham's tryal , mr. rob. bolton frequently , ( who thinks there was never poor persecuted word used with such bitter malice by the mouth of the serpents seed , as that word puritan was at that day of good people . ) i say take in all this , and let posterity judge of an english presbyterian by it , that he is one that will not persecute and undo such puritans : we had divers such presbyterian bishops , usher , bedle , downam , davenant , hall , &c. and before them grindal , abbots , and the most of our bishops for queen elizabeth's reign . again , i confess that it was some such presbyterians as these that raised the parliaments army in england . the two next sections evincing your errour and calumny you pass by . § . . is of no further use to us ; only about dr. jo. reignolds , you are a most deceived and deceiving historian . . you do not know , &c. but you might have known that there is extant in print his letters to sir francis knowles against prelacy , for a meer moderatorship or presidency . . you say , [ did he not live and die in full conformity with the church of england . ] answ . a known falshood , if a question may be false : what matter of fact shall ever come to posterity by such hands without falsification ? if cartwright and reignolds , the leading non-conformists of england were conformists ; sir , i , and hundreds more have offered long to conform as far to the utmost , as either of these did . and yet we are unworthy to preach the the gospel of christ for want of conformity ; ( it may be , left it prove them to be presbyterians that will not prosecute us : ) learn better whether ever dr. reignolds did subscribe to the liturgy and ceremonies ; whether ever he took the oath of canonical obedience , or was not against the present prelacy ? whether he was for the cross in baptism , &c. but you verily think that were he now alive , he would be as hard a màwl of the schismaticks , and non-conformists , &c. answ . . of the schismaticks no doubt , for he wrote against both prelacy and separation . . wonderful ! what cannot you verily believe , which you are but willing should be true ? that an archbishop is a presbyterian , and that the leading non-conformist would be a mawl of the non-conformists : when . twice as much is now required of conformists as was then . . and dr. reignolds was not a man to do what he did without such reason as would have made him constant . and to requite you with as strong confidence , sir , i do not rashly but soberly and deliberately profess , that were they all alive at this day ( the old religious conformable divines themselves ) such as dr. io. white , dr. willet , dr. challoner , dr. field , mr. whateley , mr. crooks , mr. robert bolton , dr. preston , dr. sibbes , dr. stoughton , dr. taylor , with a thousand more , and a thousand ; yea these that wrote for the old conformity , mr. sprint , mr. paybody , dr. jo. burges , forbes : yea the old bishops themselves , jewell , sands , grindall , abbot , miles smith , &c. i do firmly believe without hesitation , that the generality of them would have been resolved non-conformists at this time , not changing their judgment , but because of the great change of conformity : for i know that cornelius burges , the learned gataker , dr. robert harris , and almost all the late westminster assembly , were formerly such kind of conformists as these were : and i know the same non-conformists now ( though not many ) would have yielded to the old conformity . yea more , i am perswaded that were rogers , bradford , sanders , &c. yea bishop hooper , bishop farrar , and bishop latimer alive now , they would all choose rather to burn at a stake again , than to do what is required of us . say not that i reproach the laws , for i only speak of the matter of fact ; whether they or the present bishops were the wiser , i meddle not . yea more , yet i much doubt , whether all the bishops of england now would conform themselves as ministers do , if they were put to it ? for i suppose you to know , that they are not put to the declarations and subscriptions , as the ministers were , nor to their oaths : but in this i am not confident , but only doubt . but of such old conformists as bolton , whateley , &c. i make no doubt at all . . but your proof is , that he received absolution according to the church of england . answer , is this proving ? so would i do : yea , i do receive the lords supper according to the liturgie . am i therefore a conformist ? doth it follow that he would swear , subscribe , declare , use the image of the cross as a symbole of christianity , &c. § . . your intimated calumny about popery , it 's well you let fall , though you confess it not . § . . we come now to the greatest of our differences , which you call my 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , about a notorious matter of fact , whether they were presbyterians or episcopal and ●rastians , that first raised the armies in england against the king : when in the very age that it was done , such a thing can be so confiuently denied , what credit is there in some mens history ? i thought all these set together , had been proof enough . . that former episcopal parliaments began the business , and left it where those found it . . heylin himself sheweth fully , that the difference was long working between the two sorts of episcopal men , about arminianism , favouring papists , innovations , and propriety . . that such as jewel , bilson , and hooker , gives us the principles on which they did proceed : and sir edward sands that hath written for high conformity , and was hooker's pupill and bosom friend , was one of the chief for the people interest in th●se parliaments . . that h●ylin and rushworth and fuller acquaint us , that abbot was laid by for refusing to license sibthorp's book ; and how the rest did prosecute mainwaring . . that we knew our selves abundance of the parliament-men , who were all of their judgment ; viz. [ that moderate episcopacy was the best government , and that the bishops that followed lawd did by innovation seek to destroy both religion and the subjects liberty ( as they thought ) and that it was necessary to bring down the bishop's power in temporals , and to get better men that would be confined more to spiritual government , and use it better : but that no episcopacy was so necessary , as that the state should be hazarded to support it . ] this was the judgment of almost all them that i could hear or know of . that even to this day . there are yet about threescore of them alive , besides lords , from whom the matter may be known . . that understanding conscionable members of the house yet living , openly profess that presbytery was fearce known among them , and that there was but one known presbyterian then in that house , which was mr. tate of northamptonshire , an honest man. . that when they had raised their army , in their propositions sent to the king at nottingham , they offer the moderating of episcopacy , and not presbytery . that the earl of fssex general , the earl of bedford general of the horse , the earl of peterborough , sir john merick , dolbiere , the earl of stamford , the earl of huntington , the ( now ) earl of denbigh , the lord s. john , the lord roberts , the lord mandevile ( late earl of manchester ) the ( now ) lord hollis , colonel essex , col. goodwins ; colonel grantham , sir henry cholmley ; and so through the rest of the colonels , were no presbyterians ; ( though the lord say , lord brook , and the lord wharton were not episcopal . ) . that except these three last named , all the parliament's lord-lieutenants through england that ever i could hear of , were men accounted episcopal and conformable ; and these three were not accounted presbyterians , but honest godly independents or neither . that their major generals in the several parts of the land were commonly episcopal and conformable men ; yea the earl of stamford , sir william waller , mr. g. brown , mr. g. massey , mr. lawghorn , ferdinando lord fairfax , mr. g. pointz , mr. g. morgan , sir thomas middleton , mr. g. mitton , sir john gell , &c. . that the synod at westminster at first were all conformists , except about nine or ten , ( as doctor hammond telleth them in his answer to the london ministers . ) . that the scots themselves ( as may be seen in a late answer to the bishop of dumblanes accommodation ) do profess , that as england never was presbyterian , so they never supposed that they should immediately be such , but only put into the covenant the general words of [ reforming according to the word of god , and the example of the best reformed churches ] that they might engage them further to enquire what is the reformation which is most agreeable hereunto ; that so in time they might attain it : so that when the said bishop ( now archbishop of glasgoe ( being known to me ) citeth my own words , and other mens , to prove that the assembly or parliament never intended the renunciation of episcopacy , but of the english exorbitant prelacy , the scots presbyterians deny it not , but answer as aforesaid . . that it is a commonly known thing , that the covenant came in , not only after the wars were begun , but when the parliament was brought so low as to seek to the scots for aid . and that presbytery was little known in england , till the scots brought in the knowledge of it . . and it was a notorious thing that the parliament yielded to presbytery and to exclude episcopacy at last , not because they thought that a moderate episcopacy was not lawful and best , but because they had no way to hold up their wars , ( without which they thought they had no way to uphold themselves ) but by the help of the scots and such as were against episcopacy . and because they had seen the prelacy fly so high , and now to be so strong against them that they had no hope of moderating it , but fear'd it would bear down all . insomuch that mr. thomas coleman gave the covenant to the lords with this open profession , that it signified not the renunciation of episcopacy . . and it is a notorious thing , that before the parliament , there were not so many non-conformable ministers in england , ( presbyterians , independents , and anabaptists altogether ) as there were counties in the kingdom . and . it is known that few of those few had any hand in raising or promoting the war : mr. dod in northamptonshire , mr. ball in staffordshire , mr. langley in cheshire , poor mr. barnet of uppington , in shropshire , mr. oliver thomas , and mr. wrath in wales ( that quickly died , as almost all the rest did ) mr. augier in lancashire , mr. slater , mr. root , and a few more in all england . and . it is known , that when necessity had drawn them to please the scots , and take the covenant , the parliament would never be drawn ( though they made ordinances for it ) to appoint any to settle presbytery in the counties in execution of their ordinances . but purposely delayed , and never did it , except in london , lancashire , warwickshire , and a few more places . . and it is known , that the ministers of england themselves were but few of them indeed presbyterians , and therefore were the backwarder to set up that discipline : and therefore our worcestershire agreement ( to concur in all that the three parties are agreed in ) did the more easily and generally take ; and that the people themselves were so generally against presbytery ( except some of the stricter sort ) that they never would submit to it : and so de facto , it was never indeed set up , save in the few places forenamed . . lastly , it is visible , that the reasons of the parliament's war published in their remonstrances and declarations , do suppose their consent to episcopacy , and mention nothing of a change : and that the lawyers of the house ( as judge brown , selden , glin , &c. ) were generally episcopal erastians , that thought episcopacy lawful , as being from the soveraign power , which they thought might appoint church government as he please : ( as dr. stillingfleet's irenic . pleads ; and as the kings late acts in scotland intimate so far , as to determine that all the external government belongs to the king : and i will not believe , though you should swear it , that the king is a presbyterian . i did think that these twenty evidences set together , would have proved to any sober man , that on both sides it was episcopal men , and episcopal erastians that raised the first war in england . but all this evidence notwithstanding , this is to you the strangest paradox in historical transactions that ever saw the light : a serious confutation of it would have shewed you to be in a delirium , &c. answ . you have hit on the best confutation of it in those words that the cause was capable of : for now ignorant strangers and posterity may possibly think , that a man would not so confidently deny a notorious thing , without some ground . but what are those grounds ( for it is almost all one , as to dispute whether the english war was between protestants , or between english-men . ) why . you say , that [ the spirit of presbytery and non-conformity was stirring in those parliaments , though not known by those names . ] answ . nay , then there is no dealing with you in history . we judge of mens hearts by their professions and direct practice , and take him for conformable , that saith he is so , and actually conformeth . but you see deeper into the spirit : so you may say that it was the spirit of socinianism that workt in the arminians , as others say , it was the spirit of popery that workt in a. bishop laud and his party ; and others say , that it is the spirit of democracy that worketh in popular princes , and the spirit of rebellion that workt in hooker , and the spirit of independency that worketh in the presbyterians , and the spirit of anabaptism that worketh in the independents ; and so bagshaw and his brethren say , it is the spirit of conformity that worketh in us . and so whatever errour a man runs not as far from , as frightned , or furious adversaries do , he must be said to have the spirit of that error . as if a pythagorean should tell you that you have the spirit of ajax , thraso , or of some brute . sir , we plain people have hitherto taken a presbyterian to be one that holdeth [ that the church is and ought to be governed by sessions , classes , and synods , the lesser subordinate to the greater , to which there lieth an appeal , and these composed of pastors in parity and ruling elders conjunct , and that not for meer concord , but direct regiment . ] these are presbyterians in the sense of beza and saravia , downam , and gors . bucer , bilson , hooker , and all that have written on it : whom though i differ from , i take to be commonly the most sober , religious , strict , and understanding sort of christians , ( together with the new england moderate independents ) that i know , who make up a party in the world . and i take my self to be under a rational disparagement to differ from them so far as i do , though for truth 〈…〉 will bear that disparagement . but now forsooth , we have ●●●● professing episcopacy and conformity in parliements , that have the spirit of presbytery : and it was archiepiscopal and episcopal presbyt●●ians that began the war. just as among the pa●●sts , the poor jansenists , yea the persecuting ●●●● , are said to have the spirit of the ca●vinist● , ergo , they are calvinists , deny it who dare . . you prove it fully , by saving , did you never hear that when these parliaments we●e in their full cry against the duke of buckinghum ; they secretly moved him to make dr. breston archbishop , and then all complaints should be hushed ] answ . what still untruths ? . produce your credible proof if you are able . . could a parliament which doth all things by the major vote transact such a business secretly . could it have been proved , would not the duke of buckingham have alledged it against his adversaries ? . would heylin himself have silenced such a thing , and emplyed the contrary if it had been true . . would mr. thomas ball that florid full historian , in the life of his tutor dr. preston , have omitted it , when he advanced his reputation as high in outward respects as possible . . but what if all this had been true ? oportuit fuisse memorem ? truth shameth the cunningest and most confident adversaries , doctor preston was conformable . and is it a proof that the parliament had the spirit of presbytery , if they would have had a conformist made archbishop . thus we have still your first description of presbyterians , viz. such conformists as would be archbishops , and such parliaments as would have archbishops . we call archbishops , bishops , and so episcopal ; and you call them presbyterians : and are we not there like to agree well of the thing , that are not agreed of the name . . but he that knoweth that abbot was then archbishop of c. will hardly believe you , that the parliament would have had dr. preston put in , ( though it be nothing to the purpose . ) what you say of the infection from geneva , hath this sense : [ geneva infected the english fugitives with presbyterianism ; ergo the parliament , were presbyterians . ] we deny the consequence . for , . they infected not all england . . nor those individual persons . . they that were infected were non-conformable ministers , who were after silenced or trodden down by the bishops , and had not any votes in parliaments . next when i tell you , that parliament , militia , army , major generals , &c. were no presbyterians : you answer me , that you meddle not with lay-men . answ . and what need we more , were not the parliament lay-men ? and was it not the parliament that raised the militia and the armies , and that gave commissions to major generals &c. and was it not the lay-men that were the commanders and souldiers that fought against the armies of the king. and yet all this was an historical paradox to you . but you say , the dissenting brethren were most guilty in blowing the trumpet . answ . . suppose that were true ; all that you can say were but this , that one episcopal party raised a war against the king , and the other party , because some non-conformists blew the trumpet , or perswaded them . but if episcopal men are so unstable and simple to be drawn into such a war by a few non-conformists , why do you not acknowledge it ? but you question whether there were ●hen so few presbyterians in england , because a thousand subscribed a petition in king jame 's time . answ . this is to write history by conjecture against notorious matter of fact . i named you the men ; i can name you those in the assembly of divines , mr. nie , mr. goodwin , mr. simpson , mr. bridge , mr. boroughs , mr. philips , mr. greenhill , and mr. caryl ( after ) all independents , and mr. ash a presbyterian . name me many more english non-conformists if you can : and name me as many more in the land then i have named , if you can ! but a thousand subscribed the petition . bancroft , and your other such conformists tell you , that it was not so , and that most of them conformed then or soon after : you can believe such men when it serveth your turn . the truth is , many conformed , and the rest were dead and gone . do you think there were many non-conformists alive in , who subscribed that petition when king james came in . if mr. dod were , i suppose not many more . but did they not increase and multiply ? answ . excellent history ! did not we live in the country with them ? should we not have known them ? name them as i do . they were all consumed to the number that i mention , except some that went into new england ; and of these named , divers came back out of holland . death and conformity had almost made an end of them , when they wonderfully revived from among your selves : know you not , that this is the grand hope of your present generation from old experience , that non conformity will be but res unius aetatis . ( but reason , conscience , scripture , duty , and sin will for all that be still the same . ) as to your doubt , whether england infected not scotland ? heylin in his life of land will tell you plainly . they might at last encourage them , but it was not for presbytery , but for that which they called propriety , liberty , and safety from popery . these were the frights of the episcopal great men of those times : but as for any ministers to infect scotland hence with presbytery , when it there prevailed , and here were next to none at all , it is a ridiculous fancy . but now you pretend to speak sence , and tell me , that one of the propositions sent to the king after edge-hill , was to abolish archbishops , bishops , &c. ans . unhappy still ! . but how long since after edge-hill fight ? was it not long after , at the treaty of uxbridge that you mean ? and was that before the raising of the army ? . was not the proposals at nottingham sent by the earl of essex , a little before the raising of the army ? a surer proof against you that then they were not for presbytery , but restrained episcopacy . . even at uxbridge treaty , many thought that another frame of moderate episcopacy would not be well set up , till the present frame was taken down . . and even then they said nothing that i know of for presbytery . . but the truth is , they saw by that time , that they could not stand but by the help of those that were against the bishops , the scots , the independents , and the unwilling conformists that desired a deliverance . but this proveth not that the parliament was presbyterians then , much less that they were so before the wars : but you that meddle not with lay-men , remember that lay-men sent those propasitions . you next tell me of alderman pennington , and the apprentices . answ . . few of those apprentices knew what presbytery was , but were exasperated against episcopacy for the sake of the present bishops ; as the common people be now within these nine years , thinking that it 's they that silence their teachers , and cause all our divisions . but alas little knew they what church-government to desire . but most that were in judgment against episcopacy , were independents and separatists then . and how inconsiderable a number in london were those apprentices . . and our question is not , what party of lads , or apprentices , or women did clamour against bishops , ? but what party it was that raised the war ? did these lads give the earl of essex his commission ? but you find none that said any thing against their petition , but the lord digby . answ . and hath not he forsaken you also ? . where did you seek to find it ? not in the parliament journal sure , else you might have found more . . the truth is , the episcopal parliament themselves perceiving what party they must trust to , opposed not those petitions , because the petitioners might serve their turns , and i doubt were too well contented with them . but as no man must say , that the king had the spirit of popery , because he was willing that the papists should help him : so no man can prove that the episcopal parliament had the spirit of presbytery , or were against episcopacy it self , because they were willing to be helped by all sorts , who on a sudden were fallen out with bishops . the truth is , the suspending and silencing of ministers , and the cropping the ears , and stigmatizing prin with burton and bastwick , had suddenly raised in the london apprentices and others , a great distate of the bishops , though they knew little of any controversies about church-government at all . when you say , that [ episcopacy ( or rather bishops lands ) was the palladium , &c. ] . episcopacy was not so till after the army was raised : it was so , no doubt , in the private designs of some particular men , apprentices and women , in the city and kingdom ; that is , all that were against it desired it should fall : and many that were episcopal desired that it should rather fall , than the abuses of it continue by such men as they thought would else ruine church and state , thinking that there was no other way to save them : ( so far did different apprehensions about propriety , liberty , popery , and arminianism , carry men from one another , who were all for episcopacy . ) but forget not . that it is the major vote of the parliament , and not a few secret designers within or without doors , that is the parliament . . that it was the parliament that raised the militia and armies . . that this parliament was not at that time against episcopacy ; ( therefore your talk of the isle of wight so long after , is liker a jest than serious . besides that you seem ignorant of , the parliament resolved to accept of the kings concessions , ( as prins long printed speech will shew you ) and therefore immediately before they should have voted that closure were pulled out by cromwell , ( who had secret intelligence what they were going to do . ) . and your oblivion caused you by your parenthesis to contradict what you have hitherto said your self : for if it were bishops lands rather than bishops that they would have down , it implyeth that they were not presbyterians , nor against episcopacy . would you make an english-man of this age believe , that none of your own church have an appetite to bishops lands ? try them , and they will confute you more effectually than i can . do you think that of the multitude that now drink and ●rant , and roar , and whore , and rob , there are none whose consciences could be content that bishops fell , that they might have their lands ? you will say perhaps , these are not truly for episcopacy . ridiculous ! must we write histories out of mens secret thoughts and hearts , and call men only what they are conscientiously and in sincerity ? who knoweth another mans sincerity but god ? come into london , or go among these gallants , and tell them that they are not sons of the church if you dare . hearken whether they talk not more for bishops , than for any other sect ? whether they do not curse and damn the presbyterians and fanaticks , and their conventicles , and deride their preaching and praying , and say as bad of them as you can wish them ? though i know that too great abundance since our silencing are fallen off from you to infidelity or atheism , and to make a jest of the sacred scriptures ; and the papists say , that very many thousands are turned to them : yet i speak of those that still call themselves protestants of the church of england . really if you will take none to be of your church that would sell the bishops lands , or none that are not conscientiously for you ; i doubt your church yet will prove invisible , and as little as some of the housed sects . and if that will serve your turn , i pray deal equally , and let the sectaries also have leave to say of any of their party that killed the king , or were guilty of treason , he was not truly one of us . the war was first called bellum episcopale by the parliament-men , because they thought or said that land and his adherents were the causes of it , by seeking to reduce the scots to their will , and to set up altars and other innovations in england . but not because the parliament at that time renounced episcopacy it self . as to the particular members of the armies , i confess i did know them better than you ; i speak not of fairfax or cromwell's army , but of essex's : and it s well that you have so much modesty , as not to deny that they were episcopal or no presbyterians . but you venture to say of those yet living , [ that they were so whilst they assisted in the support of the late cause , i have not so far renounced my reason and experience as to fall in with your account . and if we persevere in this new doctrine , we shall be as distant as the two poles . ] answ . now you are at your strength , your confidence , and resolution to believe ( or say you believe ) as you do , is all the life of your cause . it is now taken for no dishonour to the greatest lords , to say , that they are for episcopacy . there are yet living the earl of bedford , the earl of denbeigh , the earl of stamford , the lord grey of warke , the lord hollis , the lord asthey , the lord roberts , the earl of anglesey ( though he be no souldier ) major general morgan , mr. g. massey , sir john gell , and many more . enquire of themselves , or any that know them , whether they were ever presbyterians , or against a moderate episcopacy . sir william waller was most called a presbyterian ( in your sense ) who died lately , and hath told me ( being my very dear friend ) his own judgment and the parliament's , as i now tell it you . i have in the heat of the wars heard sir thomas middleton , major general mitton , and many others thus give their judgment : yea , these were for the liturgy and full conformity ; and some of them for dr. hammond's highest strain of episcopacy . but it s sufficient to your cause , that though the men who are yet living , are the best witnesses of their own minds , yet you are resolved not to believe either them or me . but let me remember you of one wide-mou●hed witness more , which will almost swallow up your credit : when cromwell and his army , and their secret adherents in the parliament , cast out the eleven members of parliament first , and conquered the city , and pull'd down all the committees , and disbanded all the other forces of massey's army , and all the garrison and county forces : ) yea before that , when they layd by essex and his old officers and army , and abundance of the parliament-men that had command in garrisons , armies , &c. by the self-denying vote ( as it was called . ) all this was done upon insinuations , that they were not men to be trusted , being even then at the heart for the most part episcopal . and if yet you are incredulous , and as distant as the other pole , i will now but intreat you to fetch one argument from the north , to draw you from your north-pole distance ; and tell your self whether major general monk ( and morgan ) and his army which brought in the king , and set up the bishops again , was episcopal or presbyterian ? and yet their long abode in scotland made that army accounted to be more presbyterian than any army that was in england . but as king charles saith in his letter to mr. henderson , no man can so hardly understand as he that would not know . that the war is so odious now as that neither side will own it , is no wonder , when they have learned by so much experience : i would it had been so from the beginning . § . . i must allow you to ease your fancy with the name of [ singularities , strange imaginations , the body of a dead man , &c. ] for want of bettet stuff . but it s more strange to me , that the contention between arminian and calvinian , prelats and prelatists , should be talked of as so incredible ; when your goliah , peter heylin hath made it so much of the substance of his history of the life of a. b. laud. in what you say more of williams , you still confute your self : for what say you , but that selfish carnal motives did make an a. b. fight against the king. but was he therefore no prelatist , and yet an archprelate ; or was he therefore a presbyterian a. b. i again advise you not to cast all out of your church that are ruled by selfishness and worldly interest , least you leave so few as will take away the glory of your magnitude , and leave the sectaries to vie with you for the majority . and i will intreat you but to mark throughout the foresaid history of a. b. laud , how grosly and uglily your foresaid champion describeth laud and the chief of his party , as if preferment and rising were there very scope , and the contriving and seeking it by all friends and means , were their very trade of life and business in this world : so that to a truly heavenly mortified christian , it must needs seem as loathsom a character , as christ giveth the rich man , luke . . if not much more : for he writeth pride , ambition , worldliness , seeking to be greatest ; as it were the very inscription of the picture which he draweth : ( as his own letters in the caball say the same of williams . ) and will you make that to be a mark of no-prelate , which your champion maketh their notorious character . read him impartially , and judge . as for arrius , i had no acquaintance with him , nor have i any business with him : but if all my foresaid twenty evidences fail me , and i cannot know what a parliament was ? what a synod was ? what an army was ? when i was acquainted familiarly with so many of them all ? how should i know whether or no that epiphanius spake truly of the secret heart of arrius who so openly , falsly , and furiously abused and persecuted his superiour chrysostom . you shall believe what you will , and i will believe what i can . but few men have ventured to cast such a slur upon s. hierom as you do , saying , that [ jerom himself was not a jot the better for it , even for missing of a bishoprick : ] medina himself hath not done him so much wrong . what bishoprick was it that he sought and missed of , and when ? though he joyned with chrysostom's adversaries , i find not that he sought his place or any other bishops , though he sowrly over-top augustine in confidence of arguing ; i find not that he sought to be above him in place . it 's well that you are not out of hope of preferment your self , lest you should turn presbyterian : for ( pardon on my smarting sharpness of speech to you ( as you account it ) while i tell you that ) i take you not for a better man than s. jerom ; and therefore think that want of preferment would do more with you , than it did with him . but this is the ordinary judgment of worldlings , who measure other men by themselves . when i am dead , and cannot answer for my self , i doubt not but the same will be said of me , though you were now forced to recede from that censure . but above all impudencies , i must magnifie theirs that charge this on the presbyterians as such , whose denominating opinion lieth in resisting all honours , preferments , precedencies , great riches , &c. in the ministry , save what meer worth or age procureth ; and yet they are said to be discontent because they cannot be bishops , when their doctrine is against them . the dog that is busie about his carrion , snarleth at every one that passeth by , as jealous that he would bereave him of his feast . § . . . when the question is , as whether the parliament of england be english-men , or french-men ? i will take your return of [ round , square , and forked atomes ] for a very moving answer , considering the cause and person . but when i alledge your perversest champion heylin only ad hominem , i will not believe that your allegation of his lies against presbyterians is any more argumentum ad hominem to us , than if you alledged the authority of manesseh ben israel , till you have proved , ( for what cannot you do that you have a mind to do ) that pet. heylin ( as well as the archbishop of york ) was a presbyterian . i thank you for your silence to § . . § . . when our question was of the causers of the late war , and we came to recite the principles of the leaders of the prelatical party , what should i do more than name the men and their books . when the bishop silenced me , and forbid me to preach in his diocess , he commended for my cure the reading of bilson and hooker , and named no others . i now recited the words of bilson and hooker , the first as asserting the principles of the parliament ; the second as going quite beyond them on the principles of them that pull'd down the parliament , i cited page and words at large . to all this i have nothing but that you will cover your fathers nakedness , and not own all that they say : but doth not this yield that this was their doctrine ? what need you disown or cover it , if it were not so ? yet nothing will make some men confess . but still mr. hooker you admire , and so did camden , usher , morton , hales , gawden , king james , king charles . ] i dare not joyn my self to so great names as one of his admirers , lest i seem too much to value my self . i will come far behind them , supposing that a long tedious discourse in him hath as much substance , as one might put into a syllogism of six lines . i said , but that [ it was theirs and such prelatist's principles that led me into what i did and wrote . ] his principles might do it , and not he , as they were managed by other men . but these are niceties to men that heed not what they read or say . what is written line . p. . § . . you seem to defend : and . you say [ what is this more , than some that writ for the kings cause in the late wars professed ? ] answ . and will you defend or own all that then was confessed by them ? have you read the kings answer to the propositions ? do you know that the parliaments adherents drew up a catechism out of that answer , as pretending to justifie all their cause by it ? know you not that in fountains letter answered by dr. steward ; and in sir nethersole's writings for the king , and many others , those things are supposed or asserted , which i would not counsel you now to assert . your instance is , [ that as to making of laws , our kings have not challenged a power without parliaments . ] answer , god be thanked , but that 's none of our question : but what you will not know , you cannot understand . seeing you seem to justifie hooker here , who saith , that laws they are not , which publick approbation hath not made so : ( which i believe of those countries where such publick senates have part in the legislation . ) by this you must say , that in the turks dominions , or any the like , there are no laws . but if you say , that the original grant of the legislative power to one is equivalent to an approbation of his laws : i maintain that hooker's principle is false , [ that by the natural law whereto god hath made all subject , the natural power of making laws to command whole publick societies of men belongeth , so properly to the same entire societies , that for any prince or potentate of what kindsoever upon earth , to exercise the same himself , and not either by express commission immediately and personally received from god , or else by authority derived at first from their consent , upon whose persons they impose laws , it is no better than meer tyranny . how hard a task then do you put kings upon to excuse themselves from tyranny , when ever such prelatists will accuse them of it . for . i hope you will not put them to prove [ that they have their power by an express commission immediately and personally from god ] ( as saul and david had ) shall we obey none but those that fanatically can pretend to a revelation , or immediate personal commission from heaven . and . prove if you can , that the people have regal power to use or to give . i grant that originally their consent may be necessary to the designation of the person or family that shall receive it from god : but it is god that giveth the power , though the people choose the person or family ; no man giveth that which he hath not : the people have not legal or governing power , ergo , they cannot give it . the wife chooseth her husband , but gods institution giveth him his power . if that it be certain ( as doctor hammond hath proved against john goodwin ) that the peoples consent doth give no power , but onely let in the person that shall receive it from god , and not from them ; how dare you thus conclude all kings on earth to be but tyrants , as hooker plainly doth : for no king on earth hath [ an immediate personal commission from heaven ] and no king ( that i know of ) can receive power from the people that never had it to give : ergo , you make all kings to be no kings but tyrants ; but falsly . will you defend this because hooker wrote it ? were not these the levellers and democratists principles , higher than the old parliament owned ? must a clergy of such principles put men upon banishing the non-conformists five miles from a corporation , as men of seditious principles . — terras astraea reliquit . you tell me , i take what is for my purpose , and leave out the rest . ans . semper idem . do i mai many sentence ? do i pervert any ? is the rest contradictory to this ? what in the great hooker ? no , not at all . i suppose the rest . unrighteous man ! if you require me to write out all his book , when ever i transcribe a part ? i own that which you transcribe ? what would you have more . but next you say , that i have found other doctrine in hookers other books . answ . a silly pretence , of which anon . you ask [ was you led aside by hooker , &c. yet you quote passages out of the th book , that came out since . ans . a man that would turn us to conformity , must be able himself to heed what he readeth ; . i said , not that hooker , but such principles led me . . i never said , that i was led by every word that i now cite , but that these words contain the principles which missed me ( that is , so far and so long as i followed those principles . ) do you not see that your heedlesness tempted you to this error ; and yet your [ ex post liminio ] and [ first building the roof ] seemed sence to you , or you would have them seem such at least to me . but it 's well that you disown these three book of hookers also . but . is not this forecited in the first , the very sum of all that you are afraid of . will you so give away the sixth and seventh which say far more for episcopacy than all the rest . will you thus reproach all bishop gauden's triumphant vindication and dedication to the king ? . did he not tell you that the copy was interlined with hookers own hand , as approving it ? what would you have more ? . i again tell you , i can bring you proof of a concordant copy , ( the scribes errates excepted ) . . mr. walton could not deny it . . dr. bernard cited by you confirmeth it . for to say , that a sentence or two were left , doth intimate that the book was his ; and leaving out , is not putting in : and i cited nothing that was left out , nor any thing in it that is maimed for want of it . . any man may see that the th book was imperfect , and that is proved by the matter , manner , and end : but it was nevertheless hooker's , and concordant in style and matter with the first . and have you now vindicated the doctrine of the chief prelatists any better than by disowning them ? and do you take it as incredible , that many episcopal men in parliament should think as bilson and hooker thought , and as the great speakers , sir dudley digs , cook , philips , eliot , and many such in former parliaments did seem to think . § . . did you write against their discipline with such ugly insinuations of treason , before you knew what their discipline was , and then think you are excused by saying , it must not be touched . . did you not know till now , that the nonconformists are not in all things of one mind ? they never pretended to it : how many men are so , whose faith is their own ? are you after so many years to learn , that some that conform not are episcopal , some presbyterians , some independents , and some as we of worcestershire ( and i think most of england ) addicted to no party ; but thinking that each of the three ( and the erastians too ) have somewhat in which they excel the rest , and somewhat in which they erre more than the rest . this is our judgment : and will not old printed writings make you know it , before you first write against it , and then wonder at it , and make a stir about that which you know not , when i'ts told you . you next think that by proving that they flie their habitation , and refuse the oath , you sufficiciently prove — that the chorus sticks at renouncing war against the king. because it is a serious business ; i must profess that you here so cross the common principles of reason , humanity , or christianity , that you do not at all tempt me to conform : when you know ( if you are reasonable ) that if they should take all the oath except the last clause , they are nevertheless to be confined from corporations ? when you know ( if you are reasonable ) that a man may judge the first part , or one part lawful , that thinketh otherwise of the last , and so that he must remove his habitation ! to conclude , yet that the flying of their habitations , and not taking the oath is a proof that they are against the whole , or against that clause that renounceth arms against the king ; and to take this for a demonstration , as going is , that there is motion ; i tell you again , this reasoning beseemeth not a divine , or a man. doth it not imply , that you will take an oath your self , if you judge but one part of it lawful ? and yet before , that vo●doth bind no man to the lawful parts which you said had in it some parts unlawful . thus errors agree amongst themselves . you open your self yet more ; you say , [ this makes me nauseate your principles as much as the former , viz. not swearing , not to endeavour an alteration in the government of the church . ] answ . and indeed , do you loath as much the altering of your church government as the kings , and yet be loyal ? is it as loathsom to turn diocesance into the old episcopacy , or to set up bishop usher's model , which we offered , yea or to take down lay chancellor's power of the keys , as to take down kings . yet this tempts me not unto conformity . yet do you not stick to say next [ yes , by petition , as becomes subjects ( viz. ) we may endeavour alteration . ] answ . what a saying and unsaying is this ? and what a jumble of swearing and unswearing would you have us make ? will men awake believe that petitioning is no endeavouring ? will you preach this doctrine to your flock ? you may lawfully swear that you will not any time endeavour an alteration of the scripture , of the ministry , of the universities , of religion , of monarchy , and yet may endeavour it by petitioning , that oath notwithstanding . ] may a man swear universally , and mean particularly . may he swear that he will not at any time murder his child , and mean [ except by famishing him . ] may he swear that he will never endeavour to defame you , or take away your life or lands , and yet may petition the king or parliament to take them away ? swear with you at these rates that will for me . but by this it appeareth that quoad sensum you are of the nonconformists mind , though not as to the method of swearing : for if they could but stretch their consciences to put your sense upon that clause of the oath , they would take it : and yet do you nauseate their principles and discipline , because they cannot interpret it as you , who would take it were it so interpreted ? see then by how small a matter ( even the meer exposition of the words . ) satan can tempt some men to nauseate the discipline and principles of others that fear an oath . but you think [ in our places and callings ] is , that ministers must preach them down , and souldiers fight them down . ans . . but is not petitioning confest by you to be agreeable to the place and calling of a subject , and therefore allowable . and so you build up what you would pull down . . either it belongeth to the place and calling of a minister to preach for church reformation in the said alteration , or not . if it be , dare you oppose it ? if it be not , this clause restraineth it . . if the king ( who can give souldiers authority ) should commission souldiers to pull down lay chancellors , or alter prelacy , and make a bishop in every market town or parish , would you teach the souldiers to disobey and any to resist him ? what! and yet in the oath swear that it is not lawful to resist any commissioned by him ? but a souldier that is not authorized to do it , doth it not in his place and calling . your talk of changing discipline with rebellion by instances from practices , is but a proceeding in bold calumniation , when you say nothing to the vindications which dr. pet. moulin bishop bilson , king james , and others have given it . and to name no instance but that of prague , is so bad , that i will not name its quality . do you know what discipline they were of at prague ? i suppose you know that the bohemian waldenses were episcopal , as commenius and lascitius treatises will shew you under the name of seniors and conseniors . and the palatine discipline was mostly erastian by magistrates , even long before erastus pleaded for it against beza , even as was and is the discipline of the helvetians . and hath the image of both churches , or some such papist put this into your head , to nauseate magistrates , church-government , for the sake of them of prague , that raised a tumult against the magistrate ( on what cause i leave to just historians . ) when you ask me what i think of those disciplinarian principles . i answer , i think who ever used them they are false , and i think him a shameless calumniator that will charge them on us that conform not , without one syllable or shew of proof : do you mean [ bancroft and heylin charge them on some called disciplinarians in the last age . ergo , i may charge them on the present non-conformists ; yea on the whole chorus , yea on their discipline that desired bishop usher's episcopacy . ] let it be so , that you may be your self : as to what you say against the genevian principles , as against government , &c. i answer , . why did you not name some one of those principles , and try by what consequence it inferreth all the villanies which you name . do not the papists say the same of the protestants . . and next , why did you not prove that we hold those rebellious genevian principles ? were it christian dealing in me , if i should say , [ because prins history of prelates treasons proveth that multitudes of prelates have been traytors therefore our present prelates are such too . ] but we see what instruments the prince of malice and calumny useth . you tell me that you shall the less believe confessions , because the parliaments declarations so differed from their practice . ans . . but will you falsly accuse the part that is good for the part that is evil ? most christians live not according to the christian profession : is the christian profession therefore bad , and the cause of all their villanies ? will you judge fidem ex homine ? will you charge all that upon a mans religion objectively considered , which you find amiss in his life . . do you not know that our question now is not what the men are , but what their principles and discipline , and that it is not the professio profitens , but the professio professa which is to be disputed of . and by what means shall any church or party under heaven defend their religion against such a censurer and disputant as you are ? they will say that they have the true religion ; you will say , no , for you are not true to your religion : they will say , that their articles are true ; you will say , no , they are false , because you live not according to them , ( which implieth that they are true and good , or else what fault were it to contradict them in practice . ) the protestant will say , our religion is sound and agreeable to gods word : you teach the papists to answer , no , it 's false , for there are vicious livers among you . and i pray you , what number of sinners must go to prove a religion , creed , or articles false ? must it be all , or the major part , or will any one serve ? must the kingdom try by the pole , or vote whether the vicious or the vertuous are the greater number among them , before they can prove their religion true ? doth the act go to the essence of the object ? . but if it must needs be so , i pray dispute no more against the non-conformists , or dispute against them better by your lives , than you have done ? will you teach them to argue the xxxix articles , the liturgy , and book of ordination are not true , or to be subscribed , because the conformists live thus or thus . you know foreigners and posterity know not which of the histories of this age are true or false : suppose that they should read mr. white 's centuries of drunkards , &c. ejected from the ministry , and the records of the country committees , saying , so many and so many were upon oath proved scandalous drunkards , &c. and ralph wallis naming so many drunkards and scandalous conformists now . would you have them question the principles and discipline of the church of england , till they can prove these histories false . i profess to you resolvedly , that if i must needs judge that church or party to have the soundest principles and discipline , who have the best lives ; i should far and very far prefer the presbyterians , independents , and much more the conciliators , before the prelatists , and yet not extenuate any of their faults . but all this is nothing to you that go another way to work . [ why tell you of mens professions , when you see their contrary practice ? ] when as it is not the practice only , but the profession that is the principles and discipline that you accused : and so when their principles are in question , why do we talk to you of their principles ? and how silly a shift is all this covered with ? because the parliament promised to make the king the most glorious king , if he would return to them , &c. but . is a promise and disciplinarian principles of the same nature , when we question their truth . the promise is not true , unless it agree with the mind of the promiser , of which god is the iudge till performance shew it . but principles may be true , though he that profess them be never so false . . and i pray remember , that the parliament were pulled to pieces , and conquered by souldiers ( even for resolving to close with the king ) before the king could be cut off . but as for the first war , i have told you the authors of it . to your next ; [ if we must call none episcopal men that are not faithful to their principles ] then i know not indeed whom i may call such : if parties must be notified by their fidelity , we should have agreed thus to sense the word before we had disputed , for other men speak not thus . did you think i cited moulin against philanax to prove that our principles are better than the papists . have you read him all , and understand him no better ? i cited him as fully proving historically that the places now charged with presbyterianism and rebellion , geneva , holland , &c. had changed this government before , or on other accounts ; flanders and brabant joyned with holland in the change , the main body being papists , who after fell off when the prince of orange mentioned liberty of religion . and for geneva , pag. . he faith , [ my business being to vindicate the reformation from the charge of rebellion , i must take from the reformers of geneva that aspersion , that they expelled their bishop , and that they altered the constitution of that state , and both these ascribed to calvin : it is a tradition received in england , as a currant and undoubted truth : ( a fair credit to the prelatists honesty and historical veracity ! ) and upon that ground many fine and judicious inferences are built . but it is like the story of the phoenix , and the singing of swans , never the truer . what credit can be given to histories of things bapned in the indies years ago ? if in things done so lately , and so near us , gross mistakes go for uncontrolable truths . ( you know with whom . ) i say , it is utterly false that calvin was one of the planters of the reformed religion at geneva . false also that he or the reformers at geneva turned their bishop out of doors . and false also that the bishop went away upon the quarrel of religion . the bishop was fled eight months before the reformation , seeing his conspiracy discovered to oppress the liberties of the city by the help of the duke of savoy , for which his secretary was hanged after he was gone ; the said bishop being hated before , for the rape of a virgin , and many adulteries with citizens wives . and it is most to be noted , that they who after his flight reformed the civil government were strong papists , and mainly opposed the reformation of religion . i shall recite no more out of this episcopal doctor , prebend of canterbury , but desire you again to read page , . what changed luther's mind to own the protestants arms against the emperour . and page , . what king james saith to vindicate the french protestants ; [ i never knew yet that the french protestants took arms against their king , &c. ] and that cap. . pag. , to . he cites the confessions of all the churches , the augustane , the french , the belgick , the helvetian , the bohemian , the saxonian , the swevian , the english , as consenting for obedience to their soveraigns . but all this is nothing to you that can say nothing of worth against it : neither the vindication of their principles or practice . but ( unrighteous judge ) i am with you ( partial and unequal . ) . because i told you , that you should not have set down the bare names of t. c. and travers , as a charge , without citing what they say . and is not that true ? is that an unequal expectation ? and what if i had added , that had you proved them guilty , it had not concerned any of us , or our discipline or principles , till you had proved that we had owned the same ? and is that unequal ? o justice ! . because i said , [ i will no further believe bancroft or sir th. aston , then they prove what they say . ] no , nor you neither . must i believe adversaries accusing parties without proof , and such adversaries too ! why must i believe them more than heylin , or more than doctor moulin afore-cited believed the english tradition against geneva ? is this the equality of your way ? § . . it 's tedious disputing with a man that cannot or will not understand what is said , no not the question , no not the subject of it . you cite my words out of the saints rest , that say not any thing to the question . the question is not , what were the final motives of the war ? but , what was the controversie of the warranting cause and foundation , that must decide the case , whether it was lawful or unlawful . the bonum publicum , and the gospel and religion , and mens salvations , are the great moving ends and reasons of a lawful war. but it is not these ends that will serve to prove a war lawful ? could that be the cause or controversie which they were both agreed in ? did not the king profess to be for religion , liberty , &c. as well as they . see yet his shrewsbury half-crowns ( if coin be any evidence with you ) private men may not raise war for religion ; but the king may . the finis and the fundamentum are not the same . i there talkt but of the finis and motives , i now speak of the fundamentum and controversie , which is well known to be , whether the king or parliament then had the power of the militia , rebus sic stantibus ; and whether the parliament had true authority to raise an army against the army commissioned by the king for that defence , and executing the law upon delinquents , which they then pretended to . now i say still , i know no theological controversie herein : i know no scripture but policy and law , and contract , that will tell us , whether the king of spain , or the states , be the rightful governours of the low countries ? or , whether the king of france be absolute ? if you can out of scripture prove that all republicks must have the same form and degree of government , or how forms and degrees must be varied in each land. i resist you not , but only confess my weakness , that so high a performance is beyond my power . had you understood the question , you might have spared your citation of my words . § . . you come again to our swearing conformity ; and you say , [ that it must reasonably be understood of a tumultuous and armed endeavour . ] answ . . and it is publickly known that we are ready to swear against a tumultuous and armed endeavour ( unless by the king's command . ) if you would not endeavour it , even with arms , if the king commanded you , accuse us not of disloyalty for being more loyal than you . if you would , we are of the same judgment as to the thing : and so ( while the thousands of ignorant souls are untaught ) men of the same judgment ( on our part openly professed out ) must some be teachers , and some silenced , some preferred , and some in prison , and banished from corporations , &c. even while they hold the same thing . and why ? because one part of them dare take an oath in a more stretching sence than the others dare : and that , . because they are taught ( not only by amesius where you cite him ) but by all consciencious judicious casuists , that an oath is to be taken strictly and not stretchingly , in the common sense of the words , unless the law-givers will otherwise explain themselves . . and the words are universal [ not endeavour at any time ] without the least limitation or exception of any sort of endeavour . ( i should have broke that oath by this writing to you had i taken it . ) et non est distinguendum aut limitandum fine lege . . the law-makers are to be supposed wise , considerate men , especially the bishops , and able to distinguish between an universal and a particular or limited enunciation , and to express their minds in congruous words . . the law-makers knew before and since that we would take the oath , if ( endeavouring ) had been limited as you do ; and yet they never would limit it by one syllable . . the reasons used for that clause , and our acquaintance with the bishops and other authors of it , leave our consciences perswaded , that their meaning was against all endeavours , and not tumultuous , military , or illegal only ; as in the et caetera oath . it was that [ i will not consent ] which is less than [ endeavouring . ] and we are not ignorant what relation this oath hath to that : and we take it to be a sin to deceive our rulers , by taking an oath in that sence which we believe was not by them intended , and seeming to them to swear what we do not mean. . when twenty london ministers took the oath , because doctor bates told them , that the lord keeper promised him at the giving it , to put in the words [ endeavour by any seditious or unlawful means ] ( or to that sense ) the said limiting words were not only left out , but when old mr. sam. clark said , my lord , we mean only unlawful endeavour : judge keeling asked , will you take the oath as it is offered you , and refused to add any such explication ; and told them when they had done , they had renounced the covenant . . the justices tell us when they offer us the oath , that we must take it according to the plain sense of the words . . the parliament in the act for regulating corporations , in the declaration there imposed , and the oath , doth fully satisfie us what is their sense about this matter . . it is not true ( as far as any london ministers can know ) that ever the judges declared their sense as you say for that limitation : that is , that ever they did by any consultation and concord give any judgment in the case , whatever any single judge ( as the lord keeper ) might say privately , or any one alone , when another may say the contrary . . if they had , it 's a known thing , whatever their judgment may do to make cases in the common law , yet as to statute law , only the law-makers are the law-interpreters , as to any interpretation which shall be as the law it self , a rule universally to the subjects : and that judges and justices ( who here are made the judges ) do only interpret the law , for the decision of particular controversies that come before them . and if all the judges and justices in england should meet and agree of this statute , it would only shew how they resolve in particular judgments to expound it , and not what is the true obliging sense to the subjects conscience : otherwise the judges would be equal to , if not above the king and parliament . for he hath more power who determineth what sense and soul the laws shall have , than they that only make the words and body , which others may put what sense they please on . nor can all the judges make it lawful to take up arms against the king , if they so expounded any law : they have a deciding expositors judgment as to the case before them , but not the regulating universal expounding power at all . . we think that divines that preach against sin , above al● men must not stretch their consciences in so dangerous a point as publick swearing . . and we think that if men be once taught to equivocate , and play fast and loose with the sacred bond of oaths , conscience is quite debauched , no sufficient bar is left to keep out any the greatest sins ; preachers and people become incredible ; humane society is endeavoured to be dissolved , and the king's life ( secured much by his subjects fidelity and conscience of an oath ) is exposed to the wicked wills of men . we charge no others with all this , but we will avoid it our selves though it cost us yet more . you may swear [ not to endeavour ] and mean particularly [ not by tumult or arms , but by some other endeavour ; ] but so cannot we . therefore do you enjoy your liberty , maintenance , and honour , and we will be without them ; and to morrow , at death , we shall be as free and as high as you . but fie , sirs , why will you talk of [ straining oaths , and turning plain oaths into snares , ana● allowing no interpreters ? ] are your ways here equal too ? . what is the plain sense , but an universal sense of an universal enunciation ? if by [ all ] or [ none ] i understand all or none , and you understand not all but some , who is the strainer of the oath ? and i pray you tell me , if once any endeavour shall be excepted , who shall determine how much it must be . the first part of the oath saith [ not on any pretence whatever : ] that is , we must not take up arms against any commissioned by the king. what if a bold limited expositor will here come in , and say , [ except king john deliver up the kingdom to the pope ; or except the king's commissions through the officers fault should be contradictory ] or such exceptions as wil. barclay and grotius make ? should not this man rather be the equivocator and strainer of the oath , than he that thinketh so plain a phrase , as [ not any pretence whatsoever ] is exclusive of any pretence whatsoever ? never trust the man that feareth not an oath . . but why talk you of none being interpreters ? we cannot give the power to whom we please : the law-makers think it best as it is , and will not interpret as you do , when they can , and know all the reasons that you can give them . the justices are made our judges : i told you that the justices when they sent me to the gaol , refused to expound it , and told me i must take it according to the proper sense of the words . yet do you go on , as if none of all this had been said to you . as to what you say of obligation by the covenant , and leaving a gap , &c. i answer , melancholy men by fearing bring the thing feared on themselves : it was the et caetera oath , that forced me ( who else had lived quietly in my ignorance ) to read and study many authors , to know the truth before i swore , who turned me ( not against episcopacy ) but against the italian and diocesan frame . the covenant is not the thing that they are in danger of , but their own diseases ; we firmly believe that the covenant bindeth us to nothing but what we were bound to if we had never taken it , as being not a primary bond to make new duty , but a secondary to bind us to that only which is antecedently a duty ; and that no vow or covenant bindeth us from obeying the king in any thing indifferent , much less a duty before . these are our principles , however you nauseate them . but without respect to any vow or covenant , we hold that we are all bound ( not to any treason , rebellion , or any illegal means ; but ) in our true place and calling to endeavour that those things may be reformed in the discipline , which my first dispute of church government hath proved to be evil ( after which so long unanswered , you need not so loudly have called for my reasons : ) and if this be it that maketh you think my retraction not sincere , think what you please , i never retracted any of this . § . . first , they that exercise the keys of excommunication and absolution in the ordinary open judicatures of the land , are church governours : but lay chancellors exercise the keys of excommunication and absolution , in the ordinary open judicatures of the land ; ergo , lay-chancellors are church-governours . . who doubts but the et caetera included them . if it included none , it was superfluous : if any , how exclude you them . and is it not said , [ as it standeth , and ought to stand . ] but were it but deans and archdeaeons , i would not swear , that if the king commanded me by writing or petition to endeavour some alteration , i will resist or disobey him ; you may do as you will. . it were too long now to tell you , how far i take my conscience obliged to a lay-chancellor , and how far not . . but what 's next ? that [ no learned men so much as maintain in the schools , the lay-chancellors church government . ] and yet have we hot and feaverish heads , if we will not swear to that which no man will maintain . well! let it go for our crime or folly while such men judge . . add p. . the fear of god is the beginning of wisdom ; a good understanding have all they that do them . — fools make a mock of sin . — see that ye walk circumspectly , not as fools , but as wise . to fear an oath is a mark of the fear of god ; and i am sure to play with oaths is a mark of the contrary . god will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain . all things by temptation may go for lawful to him , to whom perjury , deliberate studied perjury seems lawful , yea and a duty . and avoiding the name , is no avoiding of the thing . he that will commit murder , adultery , theft , &c. and then prove it to be no murder , &c. doth not thereby escape the guilt : and he that is not willing to know sin to be sin that he may leave it , is wilful and wicked , as well as he that will not leave it , when he knoweth it . we do search the scripture to know what is perjury as well as we can ; and we are the less likely to be partial , when our judgment loseth us the favour of so many , and our maintenance , and liberty , and in prisons , hazardeth our lives , besides our ministry , the most of all . few men will take this way for the flesh ; yet this is no proof that our cause is good : but let the evidence shew , whether in fearing perjury we fear [ a serpent under every leaf , or a gorgons head in every bush , and bring this woe upon our selves ] or not : if we do , it is not for worldy ends , nor is it by a superstitious fear of things indifferent . if so many in queen maries days were burnt for denying the real presence , &c. shall i not fear perjury ? § . . next p. . you come to the liturgies confession , that our discipline is imperfect , and think that should satisfie me . ans . so it doth satisfie me , not to assent and consent to all things contained in and prescribed by the book of ordination and the liturgie , and not to forswear all lawful endeavours of a reformation ; it seeming unmeet for me ( whatever others do ) to give so plenary assent and consent thus to swear , to that which in the same book is confest imperfect : i can live in communion with a church that hath imperfections , and keep its peace , but not assent , consent , or swear to its imperfections . . an you give me no reason yet , why a confession the imperfection of discipline should satisfie u● that all things in the church government , or all church-government is both lawful and necessary , and unalterable : for if it be alterable by king and parliament , i wil ●●●● swear never to endeavour an alteration , though they command me : nor will i believe you if you say that this case ( of their command ) is excepted , while the terms are universal without exception ; remembring that the long parliament long before the wars , when the lord falkland , lord digby , and the rest joyned with them , did exagitate the et caetera oath , for the word [ not consent ] as establishing prelacy as an unalterable thing ; whereas they knew not but the king and parliament might be brought to see cause for some alteration . and this parliament hath not restored that oath ( and canons , ) ib. § . . my consutation of your horned reasoning , and of the common [ peralium ] i perceive offendeth you , as triumphant . it is natural for men that see plain truth , to be guilty of calling it truth : in this if we cannot be pardoned , we must be patient . truth it self is our reward and satisfaction . the force of my reply you indeed leave intire and untoucht ; for when you say , that you break my chain at the first link , you do but repeat what i replyed to , and put me but to say over again what i said . you say that lay-chancellors excommunicate neither as lay-men , or as clergy-men formally , or by any proper causality , but from the surrogates . ] answ . and were you willing here to be understood ? either they do excommunicate by proper causality , ( without causality no act is done ) or they do not . if you mean that indeed they do not , why would you not say so , and deal plainly ? if you mean they excommunicate but ●●●● by causality , why would you not say so ( which ●●most absurd . ) if they do it , they do it formally as some persons , and in some capacity , and by some power or right whatever it is . that they do excommunicate and absolve decretively , as the stated publick judges , is notorious to the land. that the person in which they do it , is formally lay or clergy , i thought had been past doubt , and the enumeration had been sufficient . but you do dare tertium , find out a third mumber : he is formally neither lay nor clergy , but doth it from the surrogates ; see you not how you change the question , [ in what person he doth it ] into [ from whom he doth it ] or make that [ from ] to signifie a third species , which you could not or would not name : and when i say , that if he do it from the surrogate , yet he doth it either as a lay-man or a clergy-man ; you answer me as neither [ but from the surrogate . ] you might have said as well , as neither , but from the king. but who ever it is from , tell us of what species that man is in acting , who is neither formally a lay-man , nor a clergy-man ; whereas in our present sence , as a clergy-man signifieth , , one in the priesthood or deaconship , dedicated to the sacred church-offices : i easily prove that in the world there is no third sort ; because the terms signifie opposita contradicentia , & contradictio est omnium oppositionum maxima , prima & reliquarum mensura . for to be a lay-man , is to be one that is not devoted and separated as aforesaid . and devotus & non devotus , separatus ad sacra & non separatus , vel persona sacrata & non sacrata , are contradicentia . and if you allow me not to swear or conform till you prove that some men are neither lay nor clergy , you will be no succesful pithanalogist with me . but i desired to know who this surrogate is that you mean , and you will not tell me : if you mean any one that is absent and no member of the court. . the chancellor hath his power from no such man as is notorious . . you might better say , that he had it from the bishop : but still i should ask in what person he acted , and whether as a lay or a clergy-man . but if you mean the priest present who pronounceth the sentence , i never heard that he was called the surrogate till now : but call him how you will ; . it is notorious that he giveth not the chancellor his power at all . . and as notorious that he hath not , nor exerciseth the power himself : but to judge any man to excommunication or absolution , is the chancellors part ; and the present priest is but like the parish priest , who readeth or speaketh ( as a cryer ) what the chancellor judgeth and ordereth : and whether such priest be any member of the court , or constantly used , i leave to your enquiry ; but certainly he is no judge at all , nor doth any thing but pronounce as he is bid . and still my arguing is unanswered : for had this presbyter the power , it would be either as a presbyter , or as a bishop . not as a presbyter , say the prelatists ; for then it will set presbyters too high , or rather take hundreds from that which belongeth to their office , whilst one in the same office exerciseth the keys upon all their people and themselves that are his equals : et par in parem non habet potestatem . not as bishops , for they are not such really , and the episcopacy cannot be delegated , as i proved . you said ( which i am glad of ) that it may be you could wish that excommunication were reduced into a more scriptural , apostolical , and primitive channel as much as my self . but you never look that the church below should be without spot or wrinkle . ] answ . you speak here so well , that it half reconcileth us : if so , then the main difference left is , ( not whether we shall live peaceably in such a church , or promise to do so ; for that i have oft done , yea and did subscribe to the archbishop that now is , ( when he gave me a licence to preach , and i could have had it without subscribing a word ) that i would not preach against the doctrine , liturgy , or ceremonies of the church : but ) whether i may deliberately give my hand and profession that i assent and consent to such a frame , and may swear that i will not any time endeavour an alteration of that government , which runs not in the scriptural , apostolick , primitive channel , nor of its acknowledged spots and wrinkles : that is , to promise or swear that i will not obey god , nor seek the reformation of any such thing in his church , which is acknowledged amiss , no not in my place and calling , and by any lawful means . whereas in my baptism i vowed my self and service to christ as the saviour of his body ; and in my ordination i vowed my self to him as a minister ; and i daily pray for the hallowing of his name , the coming of his kingdom , the doing of his will on earth even as it is done in heaven : and therefore will not by swearing to the contrary , renounce my baptism , ministery , or prayers . ( pardon the description of the sin as it would be to me : i do not say , that it is such in you , or another that seeth not what i see . ) good meanings and latitudes , and stretching expositions , will not make this pass with me among things indifferent . and ( for your own sake , not mine , who stand or fall to a higher tribunal : ) i entreat you to judge of us in this as of men that are dying daily , and neer a world where preferments and wealth , and humane favour signifie nothing ; and who are so unwilling to neglect our undertaken office for mens souls , that we offer our superiours to take it joyfully as a favour to be any way punished for this supposed sin ( of not lying nor being perjur'd ) so it may not hinder us from preaching the gospel of salvation ; even to be punished as deeply as common swearers , drunkards , or adulterers are ; to rid channels , to dig or plow , or to be burnt in the hand as felons are , or our ears bored or cropt as rogues or perjur'd persons are , so we may but preach christ , or see the kingdoms so supplyed , as that our labours may be truly needless to mens salvation . i would take all this thankfully on my knees : much more be denied the levites bread , or ministerial maintenance . but these are too high favours for such as we to hope for in such a time , and from such persons , as experience proveth ; except that the clemency of the king vouchsafeth us some convenience , against the will of such of the clergy as you : nothing but either debauching our consciences , and stretching them so wide , as that any thing will afterward go down ; or else deserting the preaching of christ for mens salvation , will serve with some men that i have talkt with : ( for it is not my superiours now that i am speaking of ; ) i did all that i was able unfeignedly , to have brought all men once to union with the church , upon any other terms than these , when the thing was feasible as to the most : but — was an enemy , and one that deserved shame and ruine for it . but i am gone back : to return . — i am glad also that you say , that the surrogates have the power of the keys ; and indeed so most school-men say , and so spalatensis hath notably and oft proved : but what it will infer against bishops , denying them to all the presbyters in a whole diocess , save one or two , or few : i will not repeat . you say , i did not well to overlook what you said about chancellour's skill in the civil law , &c. ] answ . i did not overlook it , but past it by as an impertinency , supposing we had been agreed : . that the holy scriptures are the universal rule of church discipline as to the essentials , and the laws of the land , and canonical agreements , the subservient rules about circumstances , and adjuncts , and for the execution of the former . . and that ability in scriptures ( much less in the roman laws ) doth give no man authority to the exercise of the spiritual keys without a call , being but his remote capacity . . and that he that is called hereunto is called to be a clergy-man , to whome the keys are proper . i pray you , sir , deny none of this : ( let begging this once go instead of arguing . . and he may be fit to advise and assist a bishop that is himself no clergy man ; but advising and judicial decreeing are several things . . and i am weary with saying , that we submit to chancellors as magistrates , doing that which belongeth to magistrates , according to the sense of the oath of supremacy . but what 's all this to our case in hand ? ] you add , [ tell me , sir , may not a man be said to do that virtually , which he doth not immediately . ] answ . yes , a man may pay a debt by his servant , or deputy ; but not baptize or administer the lords supper , or discipline by another , because christ hath annexed the office to the person , and the office is an obligation and authority to do the work . you add , [ the king doth neither preach , nor administer sacraments , yet hath a supremacy of power in all things belonging to the church . ] answ . now i cannot follow you so far , as to believe that the king doth virtually administer the sacraments per alios : at least i durst not swear it . if you think it is but a gorgons head that affrighteth me ; hear and judge : . christ gave the keys immediately to ministers , and not to kings , and distinguished their offices . . queen elizabeth ' k. iames , and the convocation have publickly disclaimed such a sense of the oath of supremacy , and taken it for the papists slanders , and disclaimed such a power of the keys in the king , and so hath our present king ( wisely ) in my hearing . . some scots are well charged with an injurious refusal of the oath of supremacy , on the account of such a false exposition ; which is the papists case . . almost all the papists and protestants in the world that ever i heard or read , are agreed , that the king hath not the said power of the spiritual keys and sacraments . . and specially the most learned and zealous defenders of monarchy and prelacy : bilson of chest . obed. and perp. gov. and andrews in tortura torti , have most plainly and vehemently renounced it , and shewed their malice or ignorance , that impute such an arrogation to our kings : so also carlton of jurisdic . jewel , whitaker , and who not . . what a king may do virtually by another , i think ( unless inconveniencies hinder the exercise ) he hath power to do himself . but i think the king may not administer sacraments or spiritual discipline himself : which of our kings did it ? or who since uzziah offered sacrifice among the jews . . our kings never yet pretended so much as to ordain ; that is , to invest another in that power ministerially in the name of christ . but as to the supremacy , it 's true , that the king is the supream over physicians , philosophers , &c. but not the supream physician or philosopher : he exerciseth coercive government by the sword over bishops who use spiritual government by the keys and word ; but hath not authority to use this same sort of oversight himself ( unless a clergy-man were king , as some are magistrates . ) as to the proxies of the lords spiritual in parliament , when you have as well proved that christ hath allowed them to preach , administer sacraments , and exercise the keys by proxies , i will yield all that cause : but they will be loath to go to heaven by proxy . page . as to jebosaphats mission , and his nobles teaching ; i answer , . teaching is not so proper to a pastor or clergy-man , as the keys and sacraments : parents have their office or power of teaching , and school-masters and lay catechists have theirs , and magistrates have theirs : judges on the bench do usually teach the people , even religious duties ; so did constantine , and so may any king. but there is a different teaching whith is proper to the clergy ; which is [ by teaching to gather churches , and guide them , and edifie them as pastors , devoted or separated to this as their proper office. ] as there is a difference between the office of a physician and a womans healing a cut finger , or giving a cordial to one that fainteth . but this proper teaching ( which god did not leave in common to others ) no prince can use , no bishop can do by proxy ; nor can he delegate to a lay-man the power of the keys and sacraments . . and the king may no doubt command pastors to do their duty as well as physicians to do theirs . i take none of this to be quarrelling , but plain truth : your telling us that chancellors may direct and advise the surrogates , may signifie something in another land , but not with us : if we had never seen their courts , nor read travers , of the difference between christs discipline and theirs ; yet cousin's tables are in our libraries . you add , [ we are all but the bishops curates in the exercise of it . ] answ . . i ventured to deny that to bag shaw who made it the reason of separation : and i will yet deny it of some others , though not of you . if we are all but the bishops curates ; the italian bishops of trent were not so absurd as they were made in making the bishops the popes curates . how easie should i be , were i a curate , could i believe that i have no more to answer for , than the bishop imposed on me , and that he must answer for all the rest . i suppose that the office of the presbyters or ministers of christ is immediately instituted and described in the scriptures , and that the bishop doth but invest them in it , and that their work is their own , as properly as the bishop's is his own , and that his precminence , maketh not him the communicator of the power to them as from himself , nor them to be his curates . . and while i think that i can prove this very easily , censure us not too deeply for not swearing to the bishops , if the sence of it be , to make us his curates . not that i think my self too good to be a servant to the bishop's coach man , but that i dare not subvert christ's established church orders . as for your [ engine , and wonders , and babel , and lucifer , and trembling ] i have not learning enough to answer them . as to your talk of absolute autocratical , &c. they are but oratorical flowers , that speak against none of our particular doctrines , but are the rant of your magisterial style . and your talk of excommunicating kings , may pass as part of your equal ways , to one that hath written so oft against excommunicating kings , ( when yet bishop andrews and other prelates maintain the refusing them the communion ; and you know in what case chrysostom rather offered to lose hand and life , even then to give the sacrament to the greatest that was unworthy . prove that ever any of the present non-conformists , who were called to present the judgment or desires of the rest , did ever say more than andrews and bilson , or so much . but the lord digby is your author . answ . . were we and our present controversie , ( for the most of us ) in being , and at age when the lord digby spake that ? is not conformity now another thing ? do all or half the non-conformists profess themselves presbyterians ? are presbyterians all for excommunicating kings ? and do not some that are for it , confine it only to such pastors as kings themselves shall commit their souls to , and give leave to exercise that power ? are we , i say , we now living , and silenced , answerable for all that any presbyterian holdeth , any more than you are for what hooker holdeth ? some scots-men refuse the oath of supremacy . are we guilty of that mistake , who take it , and write for it ? or did we spring out of their loins , and must be silenced for such original sin , derived from them that were no kin to us ? . but where did the lord digby say it ? you cite no book or speech of his ; but cite rushworth , p. . where is no syllable of any such matter , nor any where else that i can yet find . . suppose he had ; did he not say in his letter to sir ken. digby printed , that the primitive church government will be found pecking towards presbytery : he was then episcopal , he is now a papist . is not his authority then ad hominem , while he was one of your own , more valued against you than against them that were not of his party or way , and is this good arguing ? [ whatever the lord digby , bancroft , heylin , ( and if you will bellarmine ) charge the presbyterians with , or i know not when or where , all that are the non-conformists , episcopal , presbyterians , independents , and catholick moderators are guilty of in . but the lord digby sometimes said , that the presbyterians would excommunicate kings : ergo , the present nonconformists , even episcopal and all , are guilty of that opinion , even they that write against it . ] but all your ways are just and equal : but i pray you , why was no article about excommunicating kings offered us as a test ? or why was there never any such difference between us and the prelatists pretended ? try us whether we will not subscribe in this to , as much as the prelatists ever did agree on , or ordinarily hold , and lay our liberty upon it , and spare not . but i remember you nibled before at my words in differ . of magist . and pastors power , thes . . p. . as if i had said , that [ unless perhaps in some rare case , kings may not be excommunicated . ] a calumny , when i annexed those words of exception only to the excommunicating of parents . but your ways are still equal ! and i gave even moral reasons against excommunicating kings and parents . but when you in swearing will put ( who knows how many ) exceptions to express universals , must i after all this be at your mercy , unless i will say , that [ in no rare case a pastor may excommunicate his own parents . ] what if the rare case were . that he were but one in a presbytery subject to a bishop , and his parents were as open apostates as julian , and the bishop and the rest of the presbytery required him to concur in their excommunication ? . what if the king command a bishop to excommunicate a magistrate or parent for treason ? must he needs be disobeyed . . what if god should send an angel or prophet with a particular message so to do ? i am sure that case is rare enough , and i durst not disobey . but it s hard pleasing some men . § . . semper idem ? . but will you give it under your hand as a lesson to your flock , that a minister may not gainsay another for slandering christians , who in any thing differ from him that doth gainsay him ; nor may defend the innocency of a presbyterian , unless he be one himself ? and that all men are bound to stand to the opinions of all christians in all other points , whom they seek to vindicate against publick slanders . what a pack of doctrines do the reasonings of these your writings imply if they were but set together . if i write almost twenty years ago , and still against lay elders , a conformist may equally charge that upon me which i write against , if i do but plead against slandering those that hold what i dissent from . yea [ he knoweth not where to have us ] so little do our writings signifie our minds in these mens account . the first epist . to kederm . in the first book that ever i wrote , disclaims them : but that 's nothing to you . and i must be taken for the achilles of the party , and accountable for their opinions ; if i do but say to a printing conformist , [ thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour . ] may i not say so to you for a heathen or a papist . dr. heylin tells us in the life of archbishop laud , that the kings printers were censured sorely for printing the seventh commandment [ thou shalt commit adultery . ] but i never yet met with the ninth commandment so transmuted , to give you any excuse : if you think it lawful to say any thing how unjust soever against a man that is not for your discipline ( which you as much wish amended your self ) i am of another mind . when lamprid . tells us , that alex severus borrowed his motto of the christians , quod tibi fieri non vis , &c. he never said that therefore he was a christian . i had got no lawyer to plead for me at the bar , if they had known that they were accountable for all my opinions . i am sure the lord chief justice when he acquit me , thought fit to declare his different judgment from mine in point of preaching privately : yet here your terms of logick are , [ into how many shapes — and hecatetriformis — fish , flesh , mermaid , episcopal , presbyterian , independent ; yet none of these when you please an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , sometimes in the water , sometimes out ; i wish you were hot or cold . ] all this set together would make a syllogism of a new mood and figure . but . for ought i know most of the nonconformists are such are your bungling description intimateth : and whatever men hold , take it as it is , and feign them not to hold what they do not . do not you in print proclaim men to be flesh or fish , hot or cold , that are not so ? but lay our error where it lieth ( even as i must not take your chancellors for clergy-men or lay-men . ) . and did not all my tedious writings convince you before now ? that i therefore take that for an honour which you take for my disgrace ; because i take that for plain and certain truth , which you reproach , : you could not ( except a catholick christian ) have trulier called me , than an episcopal presbyterian-independent . i have oft enough told the world , that i am very confident that each of the three parties have some truths and some errors appropriate to themselves , or which the rest have not . i never found in scripture any obligation that i must needs be of a faction , in a time when faction hath bred wars , troubled kingdoms , silenced preachers by the hundreds , &c. and when i have seen and felt the effects , and not been always innocent of the cause : nor yet that i must either refuse all the good , or receive all the bad , and feed on the excrements of any faction whatsoever ; i am for no such heats or cold ; i am no such fish or flesh : i will neither persecute as paul did , nor separate as peter did , gal. . nor comply as barnabas did , nor reject the brethren as diotrephes did , nor condemn others as the weak did , nor despise them as the strong did , rom. . , , &c. but be such an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as he that became a jew , a greek , all things to all men that he might win some . when i offended the bishops in conference , i openly told them , i had ever taken kneeling at the sacrament to be lawful , but i never took it to be lawful to cast honest christians out of the communion of the church of christ , that dare not do it . did this prove me to be neither fish nor flesh ? is no man of your religion that is not for excommunication , or prisons , swords or flames , for every child of god that cryeth or wrangleth with the breast . again i will say , were they priscillianists , i am more for martin's spirit than the ithacian bishops . and , sir , that factious fury and uncharitableness keepeth up but a present violent kind of honour ; the instance now once again named may tell you , that when all the bishops thereabouts in their synods did but seek to the magistrate to use the sword against such gross hereticks as the priscillianists , who as severus saith that knew them , were gnosticks , and but one poor ragged unlearned godly bishop martin , ( with one other only in all france ) did dissent from them , reprove them , and separate for it from their synods and communion ( godly people accidentally falling under the vulgars reproach for the hereticks sake , as lately by the word puritans here ) yet this one poor bishop that renounced all their communions for it , is canonized a saint , while hooker himself justly reproacheth ignatius . and it made me marvail to read in bellarmine de scriptor . ecles . pag. . this great lie that ithacius ( whom he falsly makes the same with idacius , who was one of the same synod , and author of the chron. in jos . scaliger de emend temp . ) in eo reprehensus & punitus ab episcopis fuit , quod priscillianum apud seculares judices accusaverit & occidi cur averit . ] whenas . the bishops never punished him for it . . the synod of bishops joyned with him . . martin was despised as an unlearned hypocrite , and favourer of the hereticks that did renounce their way and communion . . ithacius and idacius because of the common odium , would have pretended that they put not on the magistrate hereunto : and that bellarmine one of the tribe that is for burning hereticks , should yet leave this blot on idacius , and seek by untruths to excuse the rest of the bishops of it ; whence is it , but that the memory of the just shall be blessed , and the name of the wicked ( the cruel especially ) shall rot . i digress only to tell you , that the honour of violence will end in shame , and he be odious to posterity , who may be set up as high as gardiner or bonner , to serve the turn in some present execution : and i had rather be luke-warm , than have a destroying or slandering heat . to what you say of beza and selden , i answer , . did i or the present nonconformists ever subscribe to beza or geneva . . is it not palpably against your self , that cry down lay elders , ( though many with ministers have power but in one presbytery or synod ) when our lay chancellor hath the power over hundreds of ministers and churches . you that cry up or keep up lay-mens church discipline , may worse speak against lay-mens church discipline , than we that are against it in all whomsoever . . but beza and geneva do not take them for lay elders , nor the scots neither , but for church elders , and part of the clergy of divine institution ; none of which is pretended for lay chancellors . and is that no difference ? for selden as i know what he saith against the diocesan church , bishops in eutychius alexandr . so i know what he saith against all of us for erastianism de synedriis , better than by any citations out of heylin . and i know he was one of the long parliament that raised the war , whom even now you had possessed with the spirit of presbytery : and you may judge of many of the rest by selden . and must you or i be erastians because selden ( and other lawyers in the parliament ) were so . § . . the quibble in this section is content without an answer . § . . i judged but of your words , and judge you of my motives for refusing a bishoprick no worse than i give you cause . i answer you , it intimated no ingratitude to his majesty , nor did i ever repent : and that i did it not to keep up a party or interest in them , the lord chancellor had evidence ; and my voluntary endeavours against all faction , and casting away my reputation with all such , declareth ; when i could as easily have kept it , as you with yours , and had no outward interest to move me to renounce it . i say this , because you seem suspectingly to talk of my motives . § . . our question is , whether a church of one altar ( as they spake of old ) associated for personal communion , and a church of never so many altars or congregations associated for other ends , and not for personal communion be ejusdem speciei ? and so , whether the word church here signifies but one species ? you hold the affirmative of both , and i the negative . my reason is , . because it being a relative which is in question , [ the ends of the society specifically differing , make the societies specifically to differ , ( the terminus being essential to the relation . ) but here are different sorts of ends : ergo , here are different sorts of relations . i use the word ( ends ) to signifie the nearest end which specifieth , and not the remote . and to avoid the ambiguity of the word [ terminus ] which ( as finis cujus & finis cui are distinguished , so ) they use variously , sometimes for the correlate , and sometimes for the nearest end ; and so i now use it . as a master to teach a grammar-school , and a master to rule a family , or to guide a ship , are relations specifically distinct à fine : and so is a magistrate , and a pastor , and a physician , &c. this is clear . and for the minor , that these churches in question have different nearest ends is evident : for the end of a particular church is personal ●ummunion in god's publick worship and holy living , to their mutual assistance . but the ends of churches that never know each other , but live an or miles asunder . ( they say some of our islands and plantations are parts of some english diocesan church ) can be no such thing , but only a distant communion in the same faith , love and obedience . the end of a single church is the personal communion of christians in that one society . the end of an association of many churches , is the communion of those many churches in distant mental concord , or by delegates or synods sometimes in ●ase of need . and who ever thought that a particular church , a patriarchal church , and a pabal or the universal church , were ejusdem spe●i●i . when they agree only in remote ends , and differ in the terminus vel finis proximus . as a kingdom and a corporation differ ex differentia ●inium ; because though both are societies for ci●il communion and government , and so agree ●n genere , yet the end of one is kingdom government and communion ; and the end of the other is ●ut corporation-government and communion . . where there are different sorts of relates & cor●elates , there are different sorts of relations : but ●● a particular church , and a patriarchal , dioce●n , or other combination of many churches , ●here are different sorts of relates & correlates : ergo , there are different sorts of relations . the ●hing supposed in the major is undeniable , that ●●e relate & correlate enter the definition ; ●●erefore the major is undeniable . the minor●pposeth ●pposeth a church to be constituted of the ●ars dirigens vel regens , and the pars subdita , as relate & correlate , which is undeniable . and ●en it is proved per partes . . the pastor of a ●●gle church , and a patriarch , pope , or dioce●n of a multitude of combined churches , are not the same relate , for they have not the same relation : ( i suppose the relation of a church to be thus constitute of the two complicate relations , as well the church subjectively of the two relates . ) for , . the different work. . and the different correlate , prove these pastors to be two sorts of relation ( however agreeing in●genere . ) . it is not the same sort of works personally to guide a present people in doctrine , worship , and discipline ( under christ as prophet , priest , king , all essential to the office ) as to send others as his curates to do this : ( for the king may send others , ) or to exercise some degree of discipline himself over many churches , where he is none of their teacher , not mouth , nor guide in worship , prayer , praise sacraments , &c. nor is it the same work to be an unusual teacher ( as one may be in another church or school ) and to be the stated ordinary teacher and worshipper of that churrh which is the end of the particular pastors office. . and the correlate proveth the difference : for it i● not the same relation to be a ruler of a family and of a kingdom ; and so here : which bring me to the proof of the minor by the second part and that the correlates are various is evident , no only from the magnitude , but the end also ther included : for the subject of political society ( civitatis vel ecclesiae ) is a community , not an multitude of men : because that which aristat●calleth privatio , and is better called disposu●materiae , is necessary as a kind of principle to th● reception of the form. ( as in physicks , so quianalogum in relations : ) and therefore it must b● a community . now communities themselves are first specified by their various ends : as a company of men combined for merchandize , and a company combined for literature , or for souldiery , &c. are not the same : so a company combined for personal communion and helps in holy worship and living , are not the same with those combined for other ends as aforesaid . therefore neither the pastors nor peoples relation , and consequently the churches , is not of the same sort . . where there are distinct fundamenta vel rationes fundandi , there are distinct relations : but here are distinct fundamenta , &c. the fundamentum is , . principall , which is institution ( divine or humane . ) . subordinate , which is consent : viz. . of a minister to gather churches , consensus duplex dei & ministri . . of a minister to guide churches gathered , consensus triplex & plerumque quadruplex ; viz. . dei. . ordinati . . populi . . plerumque ordinantis . if any of these vary , the fundamentum relations doth so far vary ; were it not tedious i would shew , you how much difference there is in all these . but it is the first reason , that being most edent , i most insist on . now your reason to the contrary ( for your affirmative ) is , that gradus non variat speciem . to which my answer being , that quando variat aut finem proximum , seu terminum , vel fundamentum , vel relatum correlatum , variat relationis speciem . but frequently gradus materiae , variat finem proximum fundamentum , &c. ergo , & speciem . the major needeth no proof ; the minor i cleared by the instance of a ship , a church , a spoon , &c. where magnitude or parvity can make this difference . you tell me relatives do not suscipere magis & minus . answ . the clean contrary is an usual maxim with logicians : but that is so plain that it needs no dispute ; viz. quoad subjectum ( & fundamentum aliquando ) & materiam correlati ; it may be found in divers degrees , but not in degrees of matter uncapable of the end and form : but the forma relativa doth not so vary ; one is not magis vel minus haec relatio , than another . but if you will extend this to the matter of the subject , which is our case , you do but ( though mistakingly ) give away your cause : for then every new member maketh a new church in specie , ( when you say ) [ this is only in respect of quantity ; ] you know that aristotle saith , that quantity non suscipit magis & minus , and so his interpreters say , speaking strictly and not laxly : therefore it 's this you must mean as i do , while you would say something that we may seem to differ . i told you , that different quantities in the subject may change the relations , which i think never man denied that understood what a relation was . and you feign me to say simply [ that magis & minus variant speciem in relatives : ] that you may have occasion to say as i said , under pretence of contradicting the same thing . but to my instances , you say , that it is enough for your purpose that there is not a specifick difference between a little spoon or diocess , and a great one . ] answ . say you so ; our question is , whether different degrees in the subject may vary the species of relations ? either you deny it , or you do not : if you do , common experience and reason will shame your denial . i instanced in a spoon , a church , a troop , regiment , army , a ship , &c. wheresoever the finis proximus ( as in all offices and societies ) is essential to the relation , there no man of logical acquaintance can make a doubt of it , but that certain quantities or degrees in the subject may be so over great or over small , as to be uncapable of that end , and consequently of the relation . i will not censure you to be so ignorant as to doubt of it ; and if i do not , you force me to judge you so heedless or partial as to say something towards the hiding of that truth which you do not doubt of : i say , that degrees in the subject or correlate vary not the species , but when they vary the specifying end : some relations are founded only in actions past ; as pater & filius in generation , creator & creaturae in creation : and there the end following is not essential . but it is otherwise with those relations which consist in an authority , obligation , undertaking of a future work , ( as a teacher , physician , &c. ) where the work as undertaken is the essential end . and you had here no better a shift then to dissemble in silence the other instances ; and to tell me , that [ a great spoon and a little one differ not specie : ] but doth that prove , that it may be in specie a spoon , if if be as big as a ship , or in specie a ship , if it be no bigger than a spoon : since you perceive your own deceit , which is by transferring the question , are ad nomen , and then by choosing instances de nomine , where the name is never used generically , but only for one species . the name of a spoon is never taken for a ship , & contra : and therefore to say , that a little spoon and a greater differ not speeie , is but to say , that the same species is the same , as being found in a capable degree of subject . but a society , a church , yea a diocess , are names ( generical or analogous ) which may be and are applyed to various species . the universal church headed by christ , is no more of the same species with a particular church , than a kingdom , and a corporation in that kingdom are . i use not words to hide things , but to render them intelligible . a thousand schools combined under a general schoolmaster , or an hundred colledges making up one academy , are not of the same species with one school , and one colledge , though in the great remote end they both agree . but you fly to that poor shift of bidding me take heed of absurd and ridiculous suppositions , not argumentative , &c. ] as if you had shewed any absurdity in these suppositions : or as if plain undeniable instances had no place in arguments or answers , but were ridiculous suppositions ; and he that would say , that a kingdom is greater than a family , and the king than a master or major , used a ridiculous supposition . just thus the poor nonconformists are perswaded by your pithonalogy , to subscribe , swear , &c. but i seem ( you say ) to assert this my self , by saying , there is a small difference between bishop usher's model and the present . ] answ . it 's tedious disputing with one that must have still another writing to help him to understand that which he will first confute , yea and seemeth not willing to understand . it is a fallacy , a dicte secundum quid ad dictum simpliciter : i only askt you , what farthing doth it take from their estates ? what title from their honour , power , negative voice : ( even their lordships and parliament places . ) but is this the question ? we then laboured to satisfie the unsatisfied ministers , that not only bishop usher's reduction , but even the king's declaration about ecclesiastical affairs , had changed the very species of prelacy without any of those abatements . if you would know , it is by one word [ consent ] restoring the inferiour pastors and churches , though not to their integrals , yet to their essentials . and we were so inclinable to conformity , that on that supposition we had conformed , had but that declaration stood : ( though some of the sects are of another mind , whom you arguments would confirm : ) for we judge , that a bishop of one only church consisting of five hundred or a thousand chappels or congregations that are strictly no churches ( as having no bishops ) doth specifically differ from a bishop of a thousand churches , which have every one their proper bishop , and so he is truly an archbishop or general bishop . but i am not to trouble you with this . and now how impertinent was it , to bid me [ rub up my philosophy about maximum quod sic & minimum quod non . ] know you not , that the common use of those writers are to intimate the same thing that i am saying against you ; that there is a subjective maximum & minimum , which only are capable of the relative form ? but i am next turned to vossius de invoc . sanct . of which he hath there disputed , and one histor . thes . and i am not told which ( of them ) but the words are in the first thes . . to prove that the saint in heaven and those on earth make one society : [ quare cum nihil obstat quo minus unius civitatis cives dicamur , nec causae quicquam erit , quo minus aeque civilis honos dicatur , qui civibus coelestibus exhibetur , quam qui civibus terrenis : nam grad● quidem honores isti differunt , sed uterque tamen est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . ] and was it possible that you should think that this made for you ? because the world or universe of rationals are one body or society , and so civil honour is the same thing as such in genere to them in heaven as to them on earth : doth it follow that in this universal society there are no kingdoms , cities , or families specifically different ? nor no different species of the civil honour , what not to kings , parents , masters ? what a thing is factions interest ? vossius only proveth generical identity of civil honour , and the specifical difference of it from the honour of religious adoration . the church universal is one ; and the love and honour which we owe to the saints in heaven and earth is generically of the same kind . but do you believe therefore that there are no subordinate species of churches and honour on earth ? what not the honour due to the king , the bishop , the chancellor , the parish curates , the deacons , and the beggars . yet all this with you are premises sufficient to conclude . [ and then it may be you may give leave to — magis & minus non variant speciem , to be a maxim still ] see what evidence it is that must perswade us to nonconformity . are they not worthy to be silenced and branded as you have done , that can resist such light ? but you come to the quick , and say , [ is there no communion but personal ? answ . yes , else they could not be two ends to make two societies . you add , [ many of the kings subjects never saw his face , yet they have many hands and eyes in respect of their subordinate officers , so have diocesans in their curates . ] answ . very true ! and that proveth that a kingdom is one society , and a whole diocess also one : ignoras elenchum . but doth that prove that there are no subordinate societies in these ? which though subordinate in point of power , yet specifically differ . is there no such thing as personal communion in presence , because there is such a thing as distant communion of another sort ? for all that your terms of hands and eyes would hide it , i scarce think you are ignorant , that under the king there are heads as well as hands and eyes : heads of families , schools , colledges , universities , corporations , cities , who are constitutive parts of real societies , which are not of the same species with a kingdom , though in it . and if archbishops be of god's appointment , so it should be with archbishops and bishops , and every church should have a bishop . but if you will not have it so , but we must only have a bishop and curates , and a diocesan church and chappels , you betray our cause to the brownists , who easily prove [ no bishop or pastor , no church in sensu politico : ] and so when you have granted them that we have no true parish churches , there are few of them whose wit is so weak as not to disprove the pretended right of such diocesan churches as consist of the carkasses of many hundred mortified parish churches . § . . my answer i must not repeat , take it how you will : you here come to the very controversie , i will not begin it with you , because i cannot prosecute it : i have so much to say on it , as at these rates may engage you and me in dispute for many years , if we lived so long : which i find no reason allowing me to undertake . get me leave to write and publish it , and i will write you a just volume of it , since it is published : till then i again tell you , i have said enough ( though too negligently ) in my dispute of church government ; ( though one hath nibled at the forms of some arguments in it : ) if you would have more , answer gers . bucer , parker , and ames's fresh suit , to name no other . § . . i shewed the invalidity , . of your [ licitis & honestis . ] . and of former obedience , sub poena anathematis , as nothing to our case in hand ; and do you deny what i said , and disprove it . . i tell you , that so far as bishops or chancellors are the kings officers to govern the church circa sacra by the sword , we will swear and perform obedience to them under the king , in licitis & honestis . but i told you , they that take them for the usurpers of spiritual power , will easily prove it to be lawful to swear obedience to usurpers in licitis & honestis ; will you deny that . . and i told you that it is another oath that is imposed on us to take . but did you well to say , you produced the words of ignatius , to prove the antiquity of swearing to bishops , who saith not a syllable of any such thing ? and untruly say , i took no notice of it , when i told you that ignatius mentioned not oaths , but only actual obedience . this is no notice with you : but do you not know how late it was before swearing obedience to bishops came into the church , and by what sort of men , and to what end and effect . § . . your talk of cartwright confirmeth me of the vanity of the hypocrites reward , the praise of men ; there being nothing so false which may not by some men be said of them with boldest confidence . if cochleus or his like , do but say , that luther learned of the devil ; that calvin was a stigmatized sodomite , &c. all their followers can ever after say , it is in print . so mr. s. p. ( some body ) printed this you say . and heylin saith , he promised . what ? just the same , or to the same sense , as i told you , i voluntarily subscribed , when i might ( by the kings declaration ) have chosen , meerly because i would have them know our minds and peaceable resolutions . i told you why he that can promise to live peaceably , &c. cannot subscribe and swear the approbation of all in that liturgy , government , &c. which he liveth peaceably under . but this is nothing to you ; if cartwright conformed , first , prove it by credible history . . why then could the great earl of leicester procure no more liberty for him , than an hospital in warwick , and no church . . i have lived in coventry , and been oft in warwick , and know by all credible testimony of neighbours , that it 's false , and no such thing as his conformity was there dream'd of , any further than i conform . . why did he never declare it to the world , nor retract his writings . . your heylin's own words intimate the contrary ; ( though i must tell you , i owe as little belief to that book of his , as most histories written by sober protestants . ) but you say much more , [ dr. burges , p. . observed , that cartwright opposed the ceremonies as inconveniences , but not as unlawful , and therefore perswaded men to conform rather than leave their flocks . ] answ . . but the ceremonies are but part , and the lesser part of conformity . . else had all conformity been here included , he was still a conformist : and how could you then say , that at last he wrangled himself into conformity , if he was such at first ? . but if you cite him truly , be judge your self , whether hoylin said true ; and what will be your case if you will report all that you find such men report . . dr. burges's own words are but these , pag. . [ the consideration of this necessity moved mr. cartwright to advise the wearing of the surplice ; and mr. beza to resolve for the use of these ceremonies , rather than the flocks of christ should be forsaken for these . ] and he citeth cart. repl. . so that here is not a word of cartwright's concession in any thing but the surplice , ( kneeling he was for . ) the answer of amesius to his father-in-law burges , is in these words ; ( fresh suit , p. , . ) [ whereas he addeth , that beza and mr. cartwright determined with them in case of the surplice . i answer , . they did not so for the cross . . they did not so for subscription to either . . they did not so but by way of toleration , requiring also that men speak against the imposing of the surplice . . beza was not throughly acquainted with the state of our church . mr. cartwright , as i have been certainly informed by his own son , recalled that passage of his book , and desired that his revoking of it might be made known . ] then followeth the attestation of another to that report . do you see now how credibly s. p. heylin and you report cartwright to have wrangled himself at last into conformity : be warned , and take up false reports no more . § . . i thank you for shortning my trouble . § . . [ waspish , and faltering , and raging , after a tedious journey . ] are your logicks above my skill to answer ? but adrem , . it is a wonder to me that an englishman should be in doubt who they be that drive men from the parish churches ? enquire who drave away the people of kederminster ? did i ? i preach'd , i printed long before . that should the liturgy be restored , it were no sufficient cause , &c , when i was silenced and might not preach in publick , the last sermon that ever i preached to some at my farwel in a private house , was in conclusion to perswade all to keep to the publick churches , where the ministers are not notoriously insufficient as to the very essentials , or notorious hercticks , or malignant opposers ( not of differing parties , but ) of the certain practice of godliness it self . but when i had done my best then , and since by other means , the reading vicar , and one sermon of the bishops , and one of the deans , and many of a lecturers after , and they saw so many hundred ministers silenced , it possessed them with so great a prejudice , that till a good minister came among them , it was past my power to reconcile them to the church ; nor is it done so fully as before i could easily have done . . as to your second questien , when i told you how hardly the people would be driven t● communion in your way : you answered , ha● they not been distracted , distorted , poysoned by other tutors . — but since they have been taught , like wolves not to value the scepter , — like mastiff-dogs they will worry me to pieces . those that are lately perverted any way , are most heady and ●ierce . the revolters are profound to make slaughter : and after the scribes and pharisees compassed sea and land to make a proselyte , when he was made , he was twofold more the child of hell than themselves : ] these are your words : and i thought i had used them very gently , when i only say , [ whether all such dissenters are such children of hell as you describe . ] ( i might have added , such wolves , dogs , &c. ) i shall leave to a more wise and righteous judge , what is in these words ! be impartial one hour before you die , and compare them with your own , and think how he that will say at last , [ inasmuch as you did it not to one of the least of these my brethren , &c. ] will take all these revilings of faithful souls . but how heedlesly do you read ? i said , [ all such dissenters as you described , and were talkt of . ] and you say , [ all dissenters . ] there is no end at this rate of calling you again to read what you write against . i excuse no mans faults : but i will not be one of those nurses that will cast the children out of the house when ever they cry or wrangle , till i find it pleaseth our father , and till i know where to have better enow in their rooms : nor will i call them wolves and dogs , that for fear of sinning against god dare not do as i do , and too precisely wrangle with me when i urge them to it : and if their narrow throats cannot swallow so big morsels as the nurse can , but will cry and strive when it is cram'd down by force , i will not cut their throats to widen the passage ; nor stretch conscience , till like a crakt bladder it will hold nothing : nor with ithacius , get the worst on my side as my flocke , and bring the strictest under suspicion and reproach , because they are angry with me . and what now your calumniare fortiter signifieth , review . § . . the matter of this i have answered . the flowers of [ flood-gates torrents , dragons scum , raca , &c. i leave unanswered , because you would have brevity : but if you would have brevity , you should not make work for prolixity , unless you bespeak me to forbear answering you . but i know not how better to spare your trouble and my own , than to tell you , that i expect or desire no answer from you to all this that i have written ; and if you do send me one , i will not promise you a reply . i like the work as little as you do : and for the matter and manner of my writings , i do ( as one that daily expecteth , ( and long have done ) a speedy passage into a more holy , wise , righteous , and peaceable world ) protest to you , that as i have not been for forty years at least the most negligent searcher after truth , nor the coldest desirer of it ; but have i think impartially laboured to know it , without adhering to any sect , ( at least these years ; ) so i do defend nothing which i am perswaded is the truth ; nor oppose any other mens ways , but what i think my fidelity to god , his church , and truth obligeth me to oppose . if you be in the right and i in the wrong , it is because you have a more blessed understanding , and not because i have been less studious , or desirous to know the truth than you . and i confess my temper and style is sharp ; and verba rebus aptanda , is a motto that quoad dispositionem was born with me , and maketh me oft forbear that pleasing style , which should be fitted to the persons , though unsuitable to the thing . but i write in hast , and suit all my answers just to the matter before me , not considering sufficiently how men can bear it . i justifie none of this ; and i unfeignedly desire you to pardon all passages , which you shall truly find to transgress the rules of christian lenity : for if i be angry i would not sin ; but i am not conscious of wrath or disaffection when i speak most eagerly . but i must needs tell you that had this writing been for the view of the world , i would have forborne most of that freedom which in plainess i have used to you , but being only for your self i remembred l●v. . . which i need not recite : being confident that you have much wronged your bretheren by the book which you have written . which i impute ( with all the rest of our divisions , violences and calamities ) to wa●● of acquaintance and familiarity with each other ; each party conversing familiarly only with those of their own mind , and iudging falsly of their neerest neighbours as of real strangers , by thereports of factious men . for i do not remember that i ever yet had reall acquaintance with any man in my life , that i did not live in love and peace with . but all my reproaches , accusations , and sufferings , have come from men that know me not ( unless by a few publick interviews . ) and i do faithfully endeavour to defend behind their backs , the just honour and reputation of the bishops and conformists , as well as of the nonconformists , being not for factious calumny against either . nor am so sharp in my censures , as your moderate erasmus was against such bishops as he then of london , that would have persecuted dr. colet , ( the bishop being a learned scotist , ) who , as mr. thomas smith translateth him in the life of dr. colet , saith , [ of which sort of men i have known some that i would not call knaves , but i never knew one , whom i could call a christian . there be some that judge just thus of the ( not unwilling conformists , but ) the eager promoters and defenders of it among the clergy , ( that are not our superiours . ) but so do not i , but reprove their censoriousness ; though i must needs confess , while i fear being of a party , i fear not being one that differeth from ungodly formal hypocrites , and that i find very great difference in point of serious piety between parties . and if in my youth i did incline more to one party than another , it was only on the supposition that they were more spiritual , practical , and devoted to god , ( on which account i hope i shall still value them ) though even then schism was , and now much more is , a thing which i abhorr ; but take not those to be the least promoters of it , who most accuse their brethren of it , being just of hales's mind in that treat of schism . and for former complyances , &c. ( you were acquainted at co●sold , sir robert pyes , mr. twisse's , &c. ) consider whether of us it is that needeth no retractation : a word to the wise is enough . having some information of your former life , i may very easily say , that as great a noise as you now make for conformity , and against the late usurpers , i did much more against them than you did in my ministry ; and my danger from them was not a denial of a richer living ( which i never sought ) but for open opposing their usurpation , engagementdaies of thanksgiving for unjust victories , &c. i add this but to mind you that some men by reproaching others , do doubly reproach themselves , and that consciousness of their proper case should make men speak as they would hear . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. look diligently into the scriptures which are the true oracles of the holy ghost : learn that in them is contained nothing unjust , or fained , or counterfeit . for you shall not find that the just were rejected by holy men . the just suffered persecution , but from the ungodly . they were cast into prison , but by the profane ; they were stoned , but by the unrighteous and transgressours of the laws : they were extinct , but by the wicked and such as were pricked with unjust envy against them . clemens . roman . ad corinth . reader , remember that this was written only for mr. hinkleys sight , if he had so pleased . finis . richard baxters second account to mr. john cheney of his judgment , accused by him of atheism , subverting all religion , christianity , the gospel , the church , all government , introducing popery , &c. especially for asserting , . that christ hath instituted one universal church , of which he onely is the head ; and particular churches as parts of it , of which the pastors are subordinate heads or governours , and so formally differenced . . that neither of them is constituted without some signification of consent : which he never before heard one christian deny . chap. i. prefatory . § . contending though defensive , and made necessary by accusers , is an unpleasant work : as i would choose a prison before a defensive war , were it for no greater interest than my own ; so i would choose to be in print proclaimed an heretick , schismatick , atheist , or any thing , rather than be at the unpleasing labour of a confutation of all accusers , were it not for a higher interest than mine : for though we must contend for the faith , yet the servant of the lord must not needlesly strive , tim. . , . and experience tells us , the good seldome answereth the bad effects . § . and there are few that call me to a publick account , that i answer less willingly than mr. cheney : because his accusations are such gross mistakes , that i cannot answer them in the gentlest manner , according to truth , without opening that which will bring him lower in the readers esteem than i desire ; and i much fear , will be to himself a temptation which he will hardly overcome , as i see by this his d book . had he that was my familiar neighbour thought meet to have spoken with me , before his publications , i am past doubt that i could have convinced him of multitudes of untruths and errours , so as to have prevented such a publication of them ; for in private he would easilier have born the detection of them , than in the hearing of the world , ( which he has chosen . ) but whereas some cast away his book , as a fardel of dotage and shameless lyes , i must remember such , that i am confident he wrote no falshoods with a purpose knowingly to deceive ; and therefore they are not strictly lyes , but as rash untruths are such in a larger sense , which ignorant men assert for want of due tryal . it is a great errour to over-value such poor frail ignorant men as we all are : mr. ch. and i have both over-valued one another ; and this errour now we have both escaped , but not laid by our christian love . and as god will not take mens diseases for their sins , his bodily temper is to me a great excuse of his strong confident mistakes . § . the very introductory preface of his books disowning cruelty and uncharitable dividing impositions , enableth me to forgive him the multitude of rash untruths and slanders : and instead of a mentiris , i shall put but a putares or non-putares . i have just such a task in dealing with mr. ch. as with one that is hard of hearing : when i speak to such a one , that heareth but one half , and mis-heareth the rest , he answereth me as he heard : and when i tell him his mistake , his last reply is [ i thought you had said thus and thus : ] but if i should dispute a whole day with such a man , i should be sharply censured if i printed the dispute , and told the world how many hundred times the man mis-heard , and so mistook me . and i fear neither he himself , nor the reader that valueth his time , would thank me for such exercise of my arithmetick with mr. cheney . § . for his preface i thank him : it tells me , that all our accusers do it not in meer malignity : and that he hath a few steps further to tumble , before he come to the bottom of the hill . his book consisteth partly of a handsome considerable discourse for prelacie , and other church-offices of humane invention ; and partly of a new & singular doctrine about church-forms ; & partly in a critical discharge of his fancy , and unpacking his preparations against the independant covenant , and church-form ; and partly in detecting my many atheistical , infidel , impious errours , by which he supposeth i am deceiving the world ; and partly n a multitude of falshoods of me ( and others ) in matter of fact ; and partly ( i hope an ignorant ) plea for the pope . to open all these fully , would tire the reader and me . chap. ii. what the doctrine is which he accuseth of atheism , impiety , &c. § . the reader that hath well perused my writings knoweth it : but i cannot expect that all should do so that read his book . the abstract is this . i. that jesus christ is head over all things to the church , eph. . , . ii. that the mosaical law , as such , never bound other kingdoms , and is ceased , with their commonwealth , and is abrogated by christ , and that he as king of the church , hath established a sufficient law for all that is universally necessary for doctrine , worship , and church-order or government : and was faithful in all his house as moses , and commissioned his apostles to disciple nations , baptizing them and teaching them what christ himself had commanded them , matth. . . iii. that he setled the ministry and church-form before he made any magistrate christian , and that no magistrate hath power to change them . iv. that what his apostles did by his commission and spirit , he did by them . v. that church-forms being so instituted and constituted , he hath not left them so much to the will of man , as he hath done the forms of civil government . vi. that christ hath one universal church , of which he is the onely head and law-giver , and no vicar personal or collective , as one political person or power : of which professed believers and consenters in baptism are the visible members , and sincere believers and consenters the spiritual saved members . vii . that the world and church are not all one ; nor heathens and infidels the same with christians , nor any parts of the church properly called . viii . that christs ministers first work to which they were commissioned , was not on the church or any member of it , but the infidel world to gather them into a church ; and the first baptized person was not baptized into a pre-existent church ; but the church existing , baptism entereth men into it . ix . that the first baptizer was no pastor of such an existent church , but an organical minister to gather a christian church . x. that though at baptism one may enter into the universal and a particular church , yet baptisme qua talis entereth us onely into the universal , being our christening or covenant-uniting to the body of christ . xi . that a pastor in the scripture and usual sense , is a relate to oves the sheep or flock , and not to infidels : and a ministry to infidels , and an episcopacy or pastorship of the flock , are different notions : but if any will use the terms otherwise , we contend not de nomine , though you call him a pastor of infidels , or what else you can devise . xii . to explain my self , when i mention a bishop or pastor , i mean the bishop or pastor of a church : and i take not heathens for the church . xiii . i believe that in this universal church are thousands of particular churches , and this by christs institution . xiv . i believe that there is no particular church or christian on earth , who is not ( respectively as visible or mystical ) a part of the universal church . xv. as every worshipping assembly is a church in a larger sense , so a church in a political sense is essentially constituted of the pastor and people , or the sacerdotal guiding and the guided parts : and of such a church it is that i am speaking . xvi . as such meeting in transitu are an extemporate transient church , so fixed cohabitants ought to be a church accordingly fixed , related to each others as such for longer than the present meeting . xvii . every such political fixed church , should consist of a pastor ( at least ) accordingly fixed , to a cohabiting people , and as their pastor more specially related by obligation and authority to them , than to strangers or neighbour churches . he is not bound to do that for all , as he is for them , nor may go into other pastors churches with equal power , nor officiate where he please . xviii . if there be no church but the universal , than there is neither parochial , diocesan , or national , nor are assemblies churches . nor is our king the royal governour of any church : for of the universal he is not . xix . christian princes must do their best to settle faithful pastors in all churches , that is , according to the laws of christ , but not against them . but as they must do their best that all their subjects may have good phycisians , schoolmasters , wives , or husbands , servants , dyet , cloathing , &c. but yet are not trusted by office to choose all these for every one , and impose them on dissenters , because the same god that made kingly power , did first make personal and paternal power , which kings cannot dissolve : so every man is so nearly concerned for his own salvation , more than for wife , servant , dyet , phycisian , &c. that though he must thankfully accept of all the rulers lawful help , he is still the most obliged chooser . nor is it any part of the office of a king , to choose and impose on every subject a guide or pastor , to whom only he shall trust the pastoral conduct of his soul , any more than a physician or a tutor for him . xx. parish-bounds are not of primitive or divine institution : but cohabitation or propinquity is a needful qualification of setled members , gratia finis : and parish-bounds are a useful humane determination , according to the general rules , do all to edification and in order . xxi . no one is a church-member merely because he dwelleth in the parish ; for unbaptized infidels , heathens , atheists , may dwell there . xxii . nor is a stranger a church-member for coming into the assembly ; for such , as aforesaid , or jews , mahometans , may come in . xxiii . a pastor oweth more care and duty to his flock , than to the rest of the world ( as a physician to his hospital . ) therefore he must know who they are , better than by knowing that they dwell in the parish ; nor may he baptize them , or give them the lords supper , only because he seeth them in the assembly or in the parish : else jews and heathens must have it . xxiv . nor is he to give it to every one that demandeth it : for so may jews and heathens , that take it in scorn , or for by-ends . xxv . yet a christian having a valid certificate that he is such , hath right to transient communion with any church of christ where he cometh : but for order , the antient churches used not to receive them without some certificates from the churches that they came from , lest hereticks and excommunicates , unknown persons , should be every where received . xxvi . no man can be an ( adult ) christian without signified consent : nor a stated member of any particular church , without such consent : no , nor a lawful transient communicant without consent . for so great benefits none but consenters have right to , nor can such relations be otherwise contracted . xxvii . consent not signified nor known , is none to the church . xxviii . a man may be obliged to consent that doth not : but that makes no man a christian or member of the universal church ; else millions of infidels and heathens are christians ; and so it maketh no one a member of a particular church , that he is obliged to be one : nor am i a pastor over any men as a church , because they are obliged to take me for their pastor , no more than that is a husband , wife , servant , who is obliged to be so , and will not . to say that i am a pastor to heathens as a church , is a contradiction : or that i am their pastor as my special christian flock , and particular church-members that consent not . xxix . but the same man that liveth among such , may be to consenting christians a pastor ; and to refusers , infidels , or heathens , a teacher . the church ever distinguished the audientes and catechumene candidates , from the fideles , who were the members of the church . xxx . no pastor or people should impose any covenant on any adult to be christened , but consent to be christians signified by baptism ; nor on any in order to transient communion among strangers , but just notice of their christianity and understanding consent to that communion : nor on any in order to their being the stated members of this or that flock and particular church , but due notice of their christianity , and of their understanding consent to what is essential to such members ; that is , to the relation as essentiated by the correlate and ends . xxxi . no one should be obliged by covenant to continue one year or month in the station of that particular relation : because they know not when gods providence may oblige them to remove or change it . xxxii . though the peoples consent be necessary to their relation , their election of the pastor ( which signifieth the first determination who shall be the man ) is not absolutely necessary , though of old so thought . an after-consent may serve ad esse relationis . xxxiii . much less is it necessary that the people choose who shall be ordained a minister unfixed , and only of the universal church . xxxiv . . mutual consent of the duely qualified ordained and ordainer , determineth who shall be a minister in the church universal ; as consent of the colledge and the candidate do who shall be the licensed physician . . the peoples consent and the ministers instituted , determine who shall be the pastor of this particular flock or church . . the king determineth whom he will tolerate , countenance and maintain . xxxv . though a man may be ordained but once to the ministry unfixed in the universal church , ( to which i said the peoples consent is not necessary ) yet may he be oft removed from one particular church to another , on just cause , to which the peoples consent ( if not election ) is still necessary . though to avoid ambition , the old canons forbad bishops to remove . xxxvi . it 's lawful to be ordained sine titulo only to the ministry in general ; but in settled churches it is usually inconvenient : and he that is ordained to a fixed church , doth at once become a minister in the universal church ( and may act as a minister , and not as a layman , when called elsewhere ) and also a fixed minister of a particular church ; even as he that is baptized into a particular church , is a member of both : though baptism and ordination qua tales enter but into the universal . xxxvii . it is not this or that mode of signification of consent that is necessary to either relation of pastor or flock ; but consent signified intelligibly : where laws and custome order it that actual ordinary attendance in publick worship and communion , and submission to necessary ministration , shall be the signification , all that so do express consent by it . and therefore our ordinary parish-assembling and communion , being express consent to the mutual relation , have that which is necessary ad esse to true churches ; and they slander them that say , they are not such . but ad melius esse more may oft-times be profitable ; . because that is the best means , which is best fitted to the end : but the end of signes being notification , that is , caeteris paribus , the best which is most notifying ; as that is the best language which is most significant and intelligible . why should playing in the dark , or dealing under-board , be preferred in the greatest things ? . it oft falls out , that some that live in the parish are known church-papists , church-atheists & infidels , & will tell in their meetings to their companions , [ i believe not the words of the parish-priest : it is his trade to talk for gain : i will do what the law requires of me , for my safety ; but i will have no more to do with him , nor do i take him for a true pastor , that hath any authority but by law , nor for any pastor to me . ] and . there are many hereticks and schismaticks , engaged members of other churches ; who yet to avoid suffering , will do that in the parish-church , which the law requireth . . and the antient churches used express consent , yea and election . so for the minister ; he is no pastor without his signified consent : but actual ministration may be such a signification . this is enough to reconcile the difference about church-covenants . xxxviii . they that rail against a more express consent in cases truly dubious , as if it were tyranny and destructive to christianity , do suppose that if the king and law commanded such a thing they commanded tyrannically that which destroyeth christianity ; and contradict themselves when they say that rulers may make various orders of church-governours , and determine of undetermined modes . xxxix . as it is not needful and usual to set up a coordinate imperium artificum vel philosophorum in imperio civili ; so it seemeth also of an imperium religiosum . the first question is , whether christ hath instituted such : the second , whether he hath given power to men to make it . there is not in any kingdom that i hear of , ( but somewhat towards it in china ) such a society of physicians , astronomers , navigators , lawyers , schoolmasters , philosophers , &c. who set up a co-ordinate empire or government , that shall have all degrees of self-governing power as a national socity , with one supreme , either monarchical , aristocratical , or democratical head , according to the order of civil-government : nor doth any reproach schools , colledges , hospitals , or any trading societies , that they are confused , independent , and ungoverned , because they have no common governour but god and the king , nor any particular governour , but the principal , or master and fellows of the society ; nor any national association , besides their subjection to one king , and their voluntary correspondence for concord and mutual assistance with one another . and much less is there any co-ordinate , political regiment of any of these through all the world , under one visible humane head , personal or collective . and yet many think that there is such a society and regiment for religion ; national say some , universal say others : that all that will serve god and be saved , must be under one co-ordinate power over all the kingdom , or world , besides christ and the supreme magistrate : and they contend whether this power be monarchical or aristocratical , &c. i am so far independent , as to think that christ hath instituted no such universal or national power and head of religion : but that . his own universal kingdom : . and particular churches under their several bishops and teachers : . and synods for concord and mutual help : . and christian magistrates to rule all by the sword : . with the improvement of mens eminent gifts and opportunities , that these be instituted by christ i doubt not : . and whether some should succeed the apostles ( excepting their extraordinary powers ) in having a visiting , instructing , ordering care of many churches and their bishops and teachers , i confess my self uncertain ; and therefore will never strive against such , nor deny due obedience to them , who shew a true call to such an employment . nay , if christ have made no such institution ; yet . if the christian magistrate , . or the churches by consent , choose some faithful ministers to such a power , onely to direct , instruct , guide , admonish , reprove , exhort the bishops and teachers of the particular churches , without any other force than the apostles used , and not destroying any of their proper power and duty , or that church-order which the apostles setled ; i am no opposer of any such , though my uncertainty disables me from subscribing and swearing to the right of their authority . the scots themselves , even by knox's consent , set up super-intendents over many churches ( john spotswood super-intendent of lothian , and so others . ) and the power of a president , principal or rector of a colledge of physicians , philosophers , or divines , doth not make him of any other order or species of office and profession than the rest . but if any affirm more than this , i will learn , but cannot yet swear or subscribe it . xl. those that are for the obligation of the jewish order , i have fully spoke to in my first plea for peace . those that are only for the power of man to make such several orders or ranks of governours in the church , as are in armies , and kingdoms , . must tell us what sort of power may be given them : . and who must give it . and . no men can institute a power of the same species , or another species from that which we call the sacred ministry , or as the fathers , the sacerdotal , but what is subordinate about the accidentals of religion and the church . . not the same species , because it is instituted by god already : no man can create a creature already created . . not of another supra-ordinate or co-ordinate : for . they can prove no power given them to do it : . and that were to accuse christ of insufficient doing his undertaken work , and being less faithful in his house than moses : . and it will infer mans introduction of a new co-ordinate doctrine , worship , or religious ministration : for the ministration of the word and sacraments , and keys , is already appointed by christ : and the office or order is specified by the work and terminus ; and a new office hath new work . but in the same species of religious ministration , there are abundance of accidentals and circumstances ; and princes or consenting churches may give men power in those accordingly . but not to forbid what christ commanded , nor destroy the works and power of his institution . and if they that are for other superiour or co-ordinate species of church-power , besides what is afore-granted , say that it is a lawful humane ordinance : . those that say , princes only may make it , confess the church had none that was lawful for three hundred years . and they must prove the commission . . those that say the inferiour bishops made it by consent ; . feign inferiours to have power to make a power above their own , ( which is more than for presbyters to ordain their like . ) . why may not archbishops then make patriarks , and they a pope , ad summum ascendendo ? . they must prove their power ; and that they are so far equal to apostles , ( who yet were but to teach the nations what christ commanded them ; which these men know not but by the scripture . ) . what man maketh , man may unmake . and how came we to be less free than our ancestors that made such offices ? xli . in my book of concord where this is granted , yet i say , that let church-patriarchs , metropolitans , primates , archbishops , or diocesans , like ours that have no bishops under them , be never so probably maintained to be lawful , yea , and desirable ; yet the uniting in them by consent and approbation , will never become the terms or way of universal concord , which i have fully proved ; even all that is true and good , will never be the terms of universal concord , nor just christian communion ; much less that which hath so much matter of doubt , and great suspition of evil . but i will live in christian love , peace , and submission my self , on terms uncapable of common concord , or my own approbation of the things as imposed or done by all others . xlii . lay-chancellours may do what belongeth to a magistrate , but not use the church-keyes , nor be the church-judges of mens communion , because christ hath instituted the sacred office for it . xliii . a church is ens politicum ( in the sense in hand ) and the form of it is relative , in the predicament of relation . xliv . the parts of the universal church are similar and dissimilar , more simple or more compound . and the word [ whole ] applyed to a part , disproveth not its being a part of the whole christian world or church . a whole hand , foot , head , &c. is part of a whole body ; and a whole body part of a whole man , and a whole man part of a whole family , and a whole family part of a whole street , and that of a whole city , and that of a whole county or kingdom : a whole colledge of a whole university , &c. all members save souls and atomes , are compounds . xlv . when we call all the christian world [ the catholick church ] and call e. g. hippo [ a or the catholick church ] the word [ catholick ] and [ the ] are not univocal : in the later we mean only [ the church at hippo ] which holds the true catholick faith , and is a true part of the catholick church in the first sense . penuria nominum necessaria reddit aequivoca . xlvi . particular churches are visible in the regent and governed parts : the universal church is visible in the governed part , and in the head only , so far as he was once on earth , and is now visible in heaven ( his court ) and will be visible at last to all , and ruleth by visible laws ; but not as a head now visible on earth : nor is this any deformity to his church , nor any reason why it may not be called visible ; as i have fully proved in two books against w. johnson , alias terret . xlvii . those that deny an universal visible church , differ only de nowine , not de re : they only deny any universal regent power , monarchical , or aristocratical , or democratical , under christ ; but i know no christian that ever denyed the fore-described . xlviii . forma dat esse : divers constitutive forms , or specifying differences , make divers essences . therefore the form of a troop being the captains government , differs from the form of a regiment , which is the colonels governing relation , and both from the forms of the army , which is the generals . the formal essence of a colledge , is divers from that of an university ; and of a family from a corporation , or city ; and that from a kingdom . and as forma dat nomen , they have divers names : a family quatalis , is not a kingdom , &c. reader , forgive the mention of these things , which children know , and till now i never read or heard any man deny or question . in that which followeth , you shall see the reasons that excuse me . chap. iii. what mr. cheyney saith against these things : and . of church-forms and essence . § . though it tempt me not to conformity as the way of concord , where i see the great difference of such as plead for it amongst themselves , yet i must do that right to the conformists , as to tell the world that they must not be judged of by mr. ch 's opinions ; and that i know no other conformist ( or non-conformist ) of his mind about church-forms . § . but i must add , that his case doth increase my conviction against himself and them , that their conformity is so far from being the necessary cement , that it is utterly destructive of it , as so imposed : and that it must be on few plain necessary things , that common concord must be held , or we must have none . mr. ch. thinks me one who may be endured in the ministry , and i think so by him ; and yet how far easier and plainer than our controversies of conformity , are those things in which we differ to the height of his following accusations ? if none should be endured that cannot covenant , swear , subscribe , declare and practice , as is required , how much less can such as he and i be endured in one church , if we differ as he saith we do ? o what pardon and forbearance doth our peace require ! § . of church-forms and essence , hear some of his judgment . pag. . [ the several congregations and assemblies of pastors and people throughout the kingdom , are not limbs and parcels of a church , but they are so many churches — consisting of a pastor governing , and people governed , joyning together in publick worship — it is called [ the church of england ] as all the christian pastors and people throughout the world , are called the universal church — one church , of which christ is the transcendent head — i do not see but it is proper to call all the christian pastors and people of england — one church . — p. . christ is the head of the church of england , — and under christ all the parish-ministers are subordinate guides and rulers of their flocks respectively . — p. . some are as colonels of regiments , others as captains of troops ; the body is but one , the members many . — p. . the new testament saith , — the churches of galatia , gal. . . the churches of judea , asia , — yet one body . — all the faithful make one heavenly city , — one church of the first born ; — so that gods church on earth is many churches , and yet but one church . — ( do you not think now that we are agreed ? but hear him judge himself . ) p. . i will shew one common errour or mistake in multitudes of our able divines , — that those we call particular churches , are counted parts and members of the church universal . this i deny , — mr. baxter makes the church of england , or the churches of england , to be an integral part of the church universal , — as a troop of an army , or a city of a kingdom . so the independents . i overthrow this errour by this argument . one and the same thing cannot be both a body and a member , a whole and a part , a society and one single person . — but that which we call a single or particular church , is not a member but a body ; it is not a limb or part of a church , but a whole and entire church , — it hath a whole within it . — london is not a member of england , but a city and aggregation of members . it 's no less than a flat contradiction in terms , — what dr. ames saith , medul . l. . c. . that a particular church est membrum ex aggregatione variorum membrorum singulorum compositum , contrary to common reason and plain scripture . — p. . a bare member in the body hath no authority , but acteth by mere natural life and appetite , and is not endued with rational authority , nor can be capable of any . — that which we call a single church , is a catholick or universal church . it hath an universal head. to be a christian , is to be of an universal impartial spirit ; — where there is an all , there is an universal . — but every single church hath an all within it , the pastor and all his flock . — the church universal and particular , do only differ as to place and number ; — a church of godly ministers and people in france , holland , — and england , differ but as to place . — every church ( of christians ) must needs be a church universal ; not a limb or member of another church , but a true body , or entire christian society . — p. . christs body is one : not as one is opposed to multitude — but to division , contrariety , and destruction . § . p. . this leads me to shew the unsoundness of another part of mr. baxters doctrine , and some others with him : he saith , [ there are two essentially different policies or forms of church-government of christs institution , never to be altered by man : . the form of the universal church as headed by christ himself , which all christians own as they are christians , in their baptism . . particular churches headed by their particular bishops or pastors , and are parts of the universal , as a troop of an army , or a city of a kingdom . — and he defines the universal church to be , the universality of baptized christians , headed by christ himself . these his sayings contain many errours ; i will first note them out , and then confute and prove them to be errours . . it is an errour in the art of defining , to put in those words , [ headed by christ himself . ] . it is another errour to define the universal church without guides and ministers , as one essential constituent part . . it is another errour to say , that the universal church , and churches particular , differ essentially . . it is an errour in the art of desining to say , — headed by christ himself ] that 's supposed , but need not be in the definition . he finds fault himself with such a defect in the definition of a particular church . grant them to be christians , and you grant they own christ . — . it is an errour to define the universal church without pastors , — so doth the assemblies confession , and mr. hudson — his definition of the church without pastors , is , as if he defined a living healthful man , without a stomach , liver or lungs . — p. . . if there be an essential difference between church and church , what then is the difference between the church and the world ! heaven and hell ! the righteous and the wicked ! — how can any man know which is the right church ? we shall never be able to confute popery nor infidelity by this doctrine : for this doctrine supposeth two essentially different churches : the universal church without pastors , and of this christ is head himself : particular churches , of which christ is no head , but particular pastors are the heads . — by this doctrine the same thing shall be contrary to it self . — christs church in this world is but one ! and can one and the same thing have two different essences , beings , and definitions ? quae conveniunt uno tertio , &c. but the church universal and particular agree in uno tertio . they stand on one foundation , are directed by one rule , quickned by one spirit ; an addition of homogeneous particles makes no essential difference . it will necessarily infer , that god is contrary to himself , and that the essentiating principles of church holiness , order and government , are black and white , darkness and light , — p. . if this opinion stand , religion cannot stand , two essentially different forms of churches , will infer two sorts of holiness , the one repugnant to the other , ( yet ) subordinata non pugnant . if christ set up two repugnant , or essentially different church-forms , he is not the saviour , but the deceiver of the world . ( o dreadful ! ) § . p. . a word more ad hominem of that opinion , that particular churches are parts of the universal , as a troop is of an army , or a city of a kingdom . this is mr. baxters opinion : why then do you blame the turning all the parish-churches into chappels , and making them to be but parts of the diocesan , as a troop is of an army , &c. who sees not that your doctrine doth the same that you condemn , &c. if they are but parts and members of another church , ( the universal ) then they are not churches . — it is not unlikely but you can find somewhat to say in defence of this your self-contradicting doctrine ; but i believe it will match your wit , were it ten times more , and prove too hard for you . look to it ; if your disputations against prelacie stand , down goes this main assertion of yours . if your disputations against prelacie be found to have a hollow and false bottom , then you have made you work for repentance , you have greatly injured the church of god , and particularly the church of england , and have deceived a great many . look what bellarmine maketh the pope to be to all the pastors , churches , and christians through the world , that do you make this which you call the church universal : for you say that particular churches , as headed by their respective bishops and pastors , are parts and members of another church called the church universal : by which assertion you set up an universal head or government over all the pastors , churches , and christians in the world besides christ ; and you say this is of divine institution ; and you lay the concord of all the churches upon it . do but grant the papists this one assertion , that particular churches , as headed by their respective pastors , are parts and members of the universal church , as a city is of a kingdom , and overthrow the popes headship over all if you can . it will follow that there must be , besides christ , an universal ecclesiastical monarch on earth , either personal or collective , who must have the supreme power . p. . but indeed you have gone beyond bellarmine in seting up papal monarchy . your other assertion sets up atheism , by making the holy god the author and founder of two essentially different churches , or church-forms . according to bellarmines assertion for the pope , there would be pastors , &c. but according to your assertion , all the world must be atheists , of no religion at all . — p. , . your division of the church into universal and particular , is plainly against that rule in logick ; membra omnis bonae divisionis debent esse inter se opposita . but in this your division the membra dividentia are not inter se opposita : you oppose the same thing against itself . you make the church at corinth a particular church , — the whole or the universal church at corinth is sound and good . you plainly leave out of your description , the differencing form or token of that which you call a particular church , and that is neighbourhood , or dwelling or abiding in this or that place , — you make a new essential of church-membership and church-communion , and lay the peace of all the churches on it , and say it is divine , sure , harmless , fitted to the interest of all good men . this startles me , i strive to be silent and cannot : the more i strive , the more i am overcome * . mr. cawdrey was lately with me , and we had conference about this point , — suspecting mine own judgment ; i have conferred with divers about your other notions , two churches , or two church-forms differing essentially ; and they cannot apprehend how it can stand ! you make the universal church-form , and the particular church-form to differ essentially , and this by divine law. i prove to you from the nature of the thing it self , and the express word of god , that the universal church of god at corinth , and the particular church of god at corinth , are one and the same . — to oppose the universal and particular church , and say they differ essentially , is to oppose the same thing against itself , and make the lord jesus christ the authour and founder of selfsubverting principles . p. , . as for that other point , of the church particular being part of the church universal , it is to say , that the whole church at corinth is a part of the whole church , which is absurd . reader , i must not transcribe the whole book : the rest is too like this ; exercise your patience in receiving a short answer to the several parts which seemeth needful . chap. iv. a defence against the foresaid accusations . § . what christians heart can choose but mourn for the church of god , and the puzzling confounding temptations of the ignorant , that must hear men charged thus publickly with atheism , and the overthrow of all religion , for that which the christian world agreeth in ; and this by preachers of professed humility , sincerity and zeal ? how shall the unlearned know when they are safe ? yea , what snares are thus laid to rob men of their time , as well as their faith and charity ? i must not give such lines their proper names : but i will say that it remembreth me of isa . . . and it cryeth out unclean , unclean . how few words of truth , and soberness , and soundness , can you number among all these ? had he written and published it in his sleep , as some talk , and walk , it were some excuse ! but for a man , a minister , awake , and after publick admonition , deliberately , on consultation , a second time , to talk at this rate in the press ! — and yet cannot we be endured without their ceremonies , &c. when the friendly debater and mr. shurlocke have compared such books as this with those that they reprehended , perhaps they will say , iliacos intramuros , &c. to begin at the end , i am sorry to read what he saith of the divers he conferred with , &c. . i never till now read or heard papist , protestant , or any christian of his mind : and , alas , are divers of it now ? are conformists come to that ? either they were at manhood , or in breeches at least , or not : if not , he should have chosen other counsellers : if yea , were they laymen or clergymen ? he was to blame if he took up with the former alone in such a case . if the later , he greatly disgraceth them . but we must say somewhat of our atheistical errours . the beginning of his words , which say the same thing which he so abominateth , i will not charge with contradiction in sence from the rest : for if he mean the same thing by [ one and two , a church and no church , a part and no part , yea and nay ] they are no contradictions in sence . and indeed i cannot perceive that he understandeth what he readeth and answereth , nor well what he saith . and therefore i am not sure when i understand him ; but i will review some of the things that his words seem to accuse in order . § i. the universal church , as i defined it , is a true church . proved : where there is a true church-head and a body of all christians on earth , united and subjected to that head by mutual consent and covenant , there is a true universal church : but such is that which i named and defined as the church universal . — ergo. — the major is from the definition to the thing denominated . as to the minor , . that christ is the true head. . and all christians the universal true body , ( visible as baptized , and mystical as heart-covenanters . ) . and that mutual covenanting is a sufficient bond for this church-union , the christian reader will chide me if i stay to prove . § . particular churches existent , are true churches in essence . proved to him : . he oft confesseth this and the former . . a true pars dirigens & pars subdita , necessarily qualified , ad esse , and united in those relations for church-ends , are a true particular church : but such are many existent particular churches ( and all that i defined : ) ergo. . that a true bishop , at least with his presbyters , is a true pars dirigens : . and a qualified flock , a true pars subdita : . and that such are found united in these relations , i will take for granted with the reader , except mr. ch. and the major is the definition . § iii. that the relative union of the governing part , or nearest head to the governed body , is the specifying form . the proof being de ente politico & notione logicâ , is the consent of all politicks , logicks , and use of speech by the professours of both , known to us in the world . i oft enough distinguishing de nomine aequivoco , have told men that it is not every christian assembly that we speak of , but societas politica . and all politicks call the form of the government , the specifying form of the politick society , throughout the known world . so monarchy , aristocracie , democracie , are specifying forms of republicks : and schools , armies , navies , have divers relative forms , specifyed by the union of the various regent relative parts to the rest . § iv. the form is a chief essential part . § v. therefore divers specifying forms , prove divers essences in specie . § vi. it is not the generical form that specifieth . else all things that are ejusdem generis , should be ejusdem speciei . all bodies are not animate , nor all animals men , nor all men bishops or physicians . § vii . the genus denominated without defining it , with the specifying form or difference , makes the definition of the species . else the definition of the species infima , would be confounded by the conjunct definitions of all the superiour genera : he that defineth a king , must not put in it the definition of homo , of animal , of vivens , of corpus and anima , of substantia . § viii . the highest species must be defined by its proper highest form , though not the subordinate species . the king must be put in the definition of a kingdom , but not of a city , country , church , family , school ; he is there supposed in a kingdom . and so of others . § ix . the higher genera must not be named in the definition of the species , but the next , which is the superiour species . therefore mr. ch. mistook his art of defining , when he said i mist it , by naming christ as the head of the church universal , and adding that i blame my self that defining of a particular church . as in relations it is not the ultimate end , but the nearest that must be in the definition ; so is it not the highest but the next genus that must be named . in defining all the lower species , the higher genera are but implyed in the naming of genus proximum , and not named . § x. the relation of jesus christ , and of a humane bishop , are not the same relation , in specie , though both be called heads or rulers . proved : there is not the same subjectum , nor the same fundamentum , vel ratio fundandi , nor the same correlate , ( for all the christian world and a diocese are not the same ) nor the same nearest terminus : ergo , not the same relation . § xi . therefore the universal church headed by christ onely , and a particular church subordinately headed by a bishop or clergy-head , are essentially divers , and two : proved : where the formal specifying head or regent part is two , or divers , and the body divers , &c. there the societies are divers in specie , or essentially : but so it is here : ergo. that one and one are two , i will not undertake to prove to mr. ch. nor think it needful to prove to others , nor yet that christ is one , and a bishop one ; and not the same . that christ is the formal head of the universal church , all christians confess , and therefore to be named in the definition , whether mr. ch. will or not , and not supposed : baptismal union and subjecting to him , maketh us christians , and not supposeth us such ( in visible church-state . ) that christ is not the formal specifying head of a particular church as such , but of the universal , and so the supream head only of the particular , is proved before . . because the specifying forma totius heterogenei , is not the specifying form of the parts . . else all that christ is supreme ruler to , should be such particular political churches : which is false ; it is not true of single persons , of christian armies , troops , markets , parliaments , courts , &c. as such . . christ himself by his apostles hath ordained a subordinate humane species of church-heads or rulers . . from parity of cases : natural and political . the forma animalis , is not forma hominis , nor forma hominis forma oculi , manus , pedis , &c. the general is the formal head of the army , but not of a regiment , but the colonel : nor the colonel of a troop , but the captain ; nor the king of a city , but the maior or other subordinate head : nor the king or maior of a family , school , colledge , but the pater-familias , the master , the rector , &c. depose the subordinate head , and it's part of the kingdom still , but no family , school , colledge , troop , regiment , &c. all mankind that profess dealing in such subjects , ( as far as i know ) are agreed in all this . as to the body related also , a diocess is not all the christian world . § xii . every true particular or single church , is part of the universal , ( which is headed only by christ . ) that it is part of the universal , i know not that ever man denyed till now , that a conformable pious divine maketh this with the former atheistical , making god and christ a deceiver , driving all religion out of the world , popery , worse , &c. proved . quae unita totum constituunt sunt partes : at ecclesiae omnes particulares , cum membris caeteris & christo capite totam seu universam ecclesiam redemptorum constituunt : ergo , sunt ecclesiae universae partes . ecclesia universa constat ex horum unione . ergo , haec omnia sunt ejus partes . again , if the single churches be no parts of the universal , either they are co-ordinate churches with the universal , or there is no universal . if the universal be all without them , than they are none : if not , then it is not universal , if there be other churches which are no parts of it . again , if they be no parts of the church universal , they are no parts of the body or peculiar people or kingdom of christ , ( for that is but one , cor. . eph. . , . & . &c. ) but they are parts of the body of christ . ergo. § xiii . to say that the whole church , e. g. at corinth , and the whole church in the world are the same , and what 's predicated of one is also of the other , is a saying — not to be justly denominated . the subjectum , relatum , correlatum , fundamentum , terminus , proximus , and so the relation are divers . the whole church and its head , and a part and its subordinate head , are not the same . the kingdom and the city , the city and a parish or ward , the university and a colledge , the man and a hand , &c. are not the same . § xiv . to say as he doth , that a family is not a part of the street , or that of the city , and london no member or part of the kingdom , is stuff that — i will not name : an ill foundation for the charge of atheism , blasphemy , and all impiety . but i am out of all fear that he should make one proselyte that 's sani cerebri . if any accuse him of less than denying god and christ , even but of deposing the king from most of his kingdoms , and saying that london , and so of every one city , corporation , &c. is no part of it , i would desire them to allow him his own exposition : for he mcaneth not so ill as he saith . § xv. to say that one whole cannot be a member or part of another whole , is yet , if possible , more — than the former . what , may not corpus politicum be a member of a larger body politick ? is there any part of the universe if this be true ? at least save atomes and spirits : and in what sense an atome , or anima , or spiritus , may be called totum , scaliger , and the schoolmen , and metaphysicks , commonly tell you . are not whole stones part of mountains ? and whole trees of the forrest ? and whole herbs of the whole garden ? and whole fields of the whole countrey ? and whole parishes of the whole diocess and county , and those of the kingdom ? and that of europe ? and that of the world ? is not a whole hand or foot part of a whole man ? is not the mateial universe made up of compounded parts ? what a trick has he found to exempt us all from government ? every man may say , i am a whole man : therefore i am no part of the bishop of londons diocess , or of the parish , or of the family . deny or destroy all such parts , and you deny or destroy the whole . did he think that all noun substantives signified the same thing , which have the same adjective ; and that a whole man , and a whole dog , or world , are all one ? § xvi . it 's little better when he argueth that homogeneal parts make not a new species . as if he could prove that the church is totum homogeneum . are not christ and christians , the king and the subjects of the universal church , partes heterogeneae , in esse politico relativo ? are not bishops and laicks partes heterogeneae ? had he forgot how much of his book is to prove even bishops and presbyters as widely different ? no christian denyeth it of the church universal , nor any of single churches , that denyes not a ministry , and the being of such churches as political . § xvii . while thus he maketh national churches metropolitical , diocesane , parochial , and the very independent , which he most revileth , all one , or of one essential species , it seemeth that he knoweth not how he unsaith most that he said before . § xviii . it is little better that he maketh several churches , viz. at paris and at plimouth , &c. to differ only in number and place . . do not the popish , protestant , episcopal , and presbyterian , differ in the form of government ? . do not those of the same form differ as individuals by their several rulers ? besides abundance of accidental differences ? § xix . and what doctrine is it to say , christs body is one ; not as one is opposed to multitude , but to division and destruction ? hath christ a multitude of bodies univocally so called ? even such a body as we treat of ? hath christ many universal churches containing all christians headed by christ ? § xx. when he had so grosly wronged himself , as to say , it is an errour in the art of defining , to say of the universal church , it is headed by christ himself ; what other head or formal regent part doth he name ? will he have another ? or will he have none in the definition ? is that the art of defining ? § xxi . it 's little better to say , is is an errour to define the universal church without pastors , as the assembly did . what! a better logician than all the assembly too ? alas , how fell the good man under this temptation ? he instanceth in a body defined without liver , stomack , &c. but . i hope he doth not think all is excluded that is not to be named ? . is there no better definition of a man , than animal implume , bipes , &c. or one that hath a liver and stomack , &c. when to the entelechia or anima , he added corpus organicum , aristotle thought he said enough of the body . is not animal rationale a just definition of a man , without naming his liver and spleen , or heart ? is not the genus & differentia enough for a definition ? definitiones debent esse breves ; & nihil otiosum continere : otiosum est quo ablato , definitio reliqua rei essentiam explicat . a kingdom is defined by naming no more than the king and subjects in general , without naming judges , justices , sheriffs , &c. there are no constitutive principles in nature , but mater , materiae dispositio & forma : and the imperfect definitions of accidents , must be as like as may be to those of substances . the specifying form here , is only christ the head so related : though he made christians before ministers , and were all pastors dead , the church were still christs universal body ; yet i grant it is not a just organized body without pastors : but that maketh them but to be the nobler part of the disposed matter : men do not use to play the anatomists in definitions , and instead of animal , or of corpus organicum , to name heart , stomack , lungs , &c. but it is a healthful man that mr. ch. is defining . answ . . but it is not a healthful church , but a true church in essence that i was defining . . if it had been otherwise , the name of the parts need not enter the definition of health . and are these his saving truths ? § xxii . and what an intimation is it , that if there be an essential difference between the universal and particular church , there 's none between the church and the world , the righteous and the wicked , heaven and hell. these things are fitter to be answered by interjections ( which be no words ; but voces non vocabula ) than by speech . if christ and a bishop in esse relationis politicae differ essentially , must good and bad , heaven and hell be all one ? if an army , and a regiment , and a troop , differ in their formal specifying essences , must a subject and a rebel , the court and the gallows therefore be all one . proh ! apage ! § xxiii . next he asks , how can any man know the right church then ? answ . what! no way but by making christ and a bishop formally the head ? we know the universal church by its true definition ; and a true particular church by its true definition and properties . § xxiv . yea , he saith , we shall never be able to confute popery and infidelity by this doctrine . answ . alas , will the good man turn papist or infidel , unless the universal church and a diocesane have the same specifying difference , or formal head ? then what remedy ? § xxv . i have no interjection deep enough for that which followeth , viz. this doctrine supposeth two essentially different churches : the universal church without pastors , ( putares ) and of this christ is head : particular churches , of which christ is no head ] putares ! where said i any such thing ! is this lawful ? as if . there must be no pastors , unless they be the formal head of the universal church . . and as if there must be no christ the supream head , if the bishop be the formal differencing specifying subordinate head : and all but the named parts are denyed : as if he would have more than the genus proximum , and differentia specificans in a definition : yea , even the genus supremum ! and christ shall be the specifying head , or none ! § xxvi . he saith , [ so the same thing shall be contrary to itself . ] as if . christ and a bishop , in formal relation were proved to be the same . . or things subordinate were contrary , ( which he denyeth himself . ) § xxvii . he saith , [ christs church in this world is but one . ] answ . if there be but one particular church , . then numerically the church of london and basil are one : and then if i separate not from the church at basil , i separate not from the church of london . . if de specie there be but one , then a patriarchal , diocesane , parochial , presbyterian , and democratical church are but of one species : and why then did you use so many words to tell us of the need of bishops over bishops , and of the several sorts of supra-ordinate church-rulers ? then a national church and a parish-church are but one . § xxviii . he addeth , [ quae conveniunt uno tertio , conveniunt inter se ; but the church universal and particular agree in uno tertio , &c. ] answ , as if convenientia generica , were convenientia totalis vel specifica ? or , convenientia partialis & totalis , accidentalis & essentialis , were all one ? what pretty logick is here , to prove a king and a constable all one , because they are both men , both christians , and both rulers ? i hope then a bishop and a presbyter are all one , that in your sorry sense agree in uno tertio ? but let us hear the inferred charge against us . § xxix . an addition of homogeneous particles ( saith he ) makes no essential differences . answ . christ and a bishop are heterogeneous : yea , a diocesane and a parish-priest : have you proved that they are not ? or that they are ? § xxx . it will necessarily infer that god is contrary to himself , saith he . answ . o temerity in the dark ! that is , unless his church-relation be the same with the bishops ? as if the king be contrary to himself , if his kingdom and a corporation or school be not of the same species ? § xxxi . he saith , [ if this opinion stand , religion cannot stand . an. do you mean in you or in me , or all others ? do you resolve to cast away all religion , if christ and a bishop be not the same informing regent parts of the church universal and particular ? think better of it first ; for religion is more necessary than so . do you think that the christian world , which hath ever been of the opinion which you detest , had never any religion ? nor hath now any ? which way do churches that are parts of the universal , cast out all religion ? § xxxii . if christ set up two essentially different church-forms , he is not the saviour but the deceiver of the world . answ . and must christ bear such a charge as well as i ? i should sooner have expected it from a turk or jew , than from you . § xxxiii . he saith , [ why then do you blame turning parish-churches into chappels , and making them but parts of a diocesane , as a troop of an army ? ] answ . putide putares . when shall we meet with a true sentence ? it is not for making them parts of a diocesane church as troops of an army , but for making them no political true churches , but disbanding all the troops , by making them no troops , but such parts of a regiment as squadrons are . it is for putting down inferiour bishops , and not for being themselves bishops over them ; yet on this doth he ground his charge of my deceiving men , and wronging god and his church , &c. § xxxiv . he addeth , [ look what bellarmine maketh the pope , &c. that do you , &c. for you say that particular churches , as headed by their respective bishops and pastours , are parts of another church called the church universal . by which assertion you set up an universal head — besides christ , and you say this is of divine institution , and lay the concord of all the churches on it . ] answ . if you are sani cerebri , this is so gross , that your putarem hath no excuse . had you not your self repeated my definition , and carpt at those very words , [ headed only by christ ] and many times your self repeated it as my opinion . . or had you tryed your wrangling wit to have proved , that [ if christ only be asserted to be the head , i thereby assert another head ] or that [ if i make bishops particular specifying heads , i therefore assert a humane universal head , ] you had some cloak for your putarem : but now — if you next print that i said that a dog is a man , i will no more wonder at it than at this . see reader how my church-concord is oppugned , and by what weapons satan doth that work . as if he that saith the king only is the specifying head of the kingdom , and the captain of his troop , or the diocesans of a diocess , were a traytor , and did assert another head of the kingdom than the king. § xxxv . do but grant the papists ( saith he ) this one assertion , that particular churches , as headed by their respective pastors , are parts and members of the universal , as cities of a kingdom , and overthrow the popes headship over all if you can . it will follow , that there must be besides christ , an universal monarch on earth , &c. answ . . affirmanti incumbit probatio . did you think we must take your bare word in so great a case ? do you say one word to prove your affirmation ? must we all turn papists upon your immodest naked saying , it is so ? . but your immodesty is in this excessive to me , that have written two books against johnson , alias terret , and the later but lately and largely , to prove that the church hath no universal head but christ , notwithstanding the particular regency of the bishops ; and for you to give me not a word of answer to them , and bid me now prove it if you can , when i have voluminously proved it ! this is such dealing as i will not name . — . but i am heartily sorry , what ever did it , that you are got so neer to popery . as if you will be a papist , unless all the writers of the christian world are deceived , and if the particular church be a part of the universal , which ●●●● dare boldly swear it is , and sober men doubt not . xxxvi . he adds , [ indeed you have gone be●ond bellarmine , in setting up papal monarchy . your ●ther assertion sets up atheism , by making the holy god the authour and founder of two essential different churches , or church-forms . ] answ . putares . but if all the christian world be of the same mind , do they all set up atheism , and are you only free ? as for tho. hooker whom you cited , though it be twenty four years , or thereabouts , since i read mr. hudson and him , ( and will not tast away my time in perusing them ) my memory doubts not that it was only a universal church made one by one universal humane policie , that he denied ; and that they differed but about words . did ever christian before you , deny particular churches to be distinct policies , and parts of the universal ? have we so many books written of ecclesiastical policie , and is there no such thing ? or no churches that are politick societies ? § xxxvii . he adds , [ according to your assertion , all the world must be atheists , of no religion at all . ] answ . then all the world of christians are so ; for as far as writings notifie , they are generally of this mind . alas , brother , did you shew this to any man before you printed it ? for their honour i must think you did not ; and for your sake i wish you had . § xxxviii . he adds , [ your division of the church into universal and particular , is plainly against that rule in logick , membra omnis bonae divisionis debent esse inter se opposita ] but you oppose the same thing against it self . answ . thus do men humble themselves by forsaking humility ! had it not been better for your to have let your logick alone , than to bewray that which you might have concealed ? are not diversa distinguishable as well as opposita ? and is there no diversity in parte essentiae , ( as in subalternis ) where there is not a diversity in totâ essentia , ( as there is in summis generibus ? ) is there not both diversity and opposition , inter totum & partem , and between the species of an universal and particular society ? are they not relative opposita ? may you not distinguish army , and regiment , and troop , kingdom and city , christ and a bishop ? &c. § xxxix . he adds , [ you make the church at corinth a particular church . ] answ . and do not all christians ? is it all the christian world ? § xl. you plainly ( saith he ) leave out of your description the differing form or token of that which you call a particular church , and that is , neighbourhood , &c. answ . anne putares ? . have i so oft exprest it , and yet will you say so ? . but it was in descriptions indeed , and i was far from your logical belief , that neighbourhood is the differencing form . and i hope no one else is of your mind . . if neighbourhood be the differencing form , then all christian neighbours are particular churches : but that is false : ergo. — . those that dwell together only for trade , are not therefore churches . . those that hold that there are no particular churches or pastors , but that all christians are as priests . . those that hold that the minister of the parish where they live is no true minister , nor the parish a true church . . those that profess themselves members of no particular church . . those that profess to be no members of that church , but of another . . papists and sectaries that stand in opposition to that church . . those that dwell near another parish-church , and many miles from their own , are not members by proximity . . those that are excommunicated , which is de facto all professed non-conformists . . in places where the magistrate tyeth not churches to parish-bounds , persons of the same street and house may be of several churches . . no man that consenteth not is a church-member . . and who knoweth not that proximity is but dispositio materiae , and not the differencing form ? all these singular novelties should have had better proof than these dry assertions , contrary to all christian sense . § xli . [ this startles me : i strive to be silent and cannot , ( saith he ) and the more i strive , the more i am overcome . ] answ . if you are so far gone , i shall hereafter , i think , without any striving with my self , let that which is within you talk on , and not resist you . for who can hold that which will away ? but i wish you the benefit of some stiptick remedy , and a sober mind . § xlii . [ i prove to you ( saith he , when there is nothing like one proving word ) &c. you make the lord jesus the authour and founder of subverting principles . ] answ . read the ninth commandment . i conclude with these requests to him , as my true friend ; viz. to consider : qu. . whether a man so far from persecution , and yet condemning us of atheism , blaspheming , and destroying all religion , &c. be not much more uncharitable , than they that charge no such thing upon us , but trouble us for refusing forms are ceremonies ? or is it not the same spirit ? qu. . whether he justifie not the silencing and ruining of all whom he so accuseth ? should not such impious atheists be silenced ? qu. . if he knew that the generality of the christian world in all ages hold what he thus censureth , what will he call it , to charge all christians so far with atheism , and casting out all religion , and making god and christ a deceiver ? if he knew it not , what will he call it , to venture thus to publish such an accusation , before he knew that which an ordinary inhabitant of the world might so easily have known ? as if he had published [ all that say a city is specified by its subordinate form of government , and is a part of the kingdom , specified by the monarch , are traytors , and depose the king , or make him a deceiver and no king , and deny all obedience . ] what will you call this dealing ? qu. . was it well done to write such a book , while he understood so very little of the very plainest passages which he wrote against ? qu. . was it excusable to confess some errour of the last , and to add far worse , and after warning a second time , so to speak evil of what he understood not ? qu. . was it humility to make ostentation of the logick he understood not . qu. . doth not the extreme bold confidence of the falsest of his own conceptions , shew a very unhumbled overvaluing of his own understanding ? to be ignorant is common to mankind ; yea , and to be much ignorant of our ignorance , and to think that we know more than we do : but to have so little sense of this calamity , and so little suspicion of ones own understanding , as to be confident to such a height of accusation of the grossest falshoods , where a lad of fourteen years old , that had read any thing of logick and politicks , might have better taught him ; ( that i say not , the reason and use of mankind ) this seemeth somewhat beyond the common measure of self-conceitedness . qu. . whether the great number of asserted untruths here , shew not some want of necessary tenderness , or care of writing ? chap. iv. mr. chenies accusations of me about church-covenants , and rigid independencie , and the odiousness hereof , considered . § . when he had said , that [ it leads to two contrary gods , which is to make no true god , p. . ] he proceedeth [ mr. b. hath devised and framed two covenants , the one to make a man a member of the church universal , the other of the particular , p. . i will shew , . that this is the same with the upstart way of the independents : . the unsoundness of it , p. . mr. b. and the independents now , are contrary to their own principle in baptizing the infants of non-confederates , p. . [ i do utterly withstand it as wickedness and abomination in gods church ; i am to die and burn at a stake before i yield to any such thing : this is mr. baxters way : he offers it to bishop morley and bishop gunning , in his preface to his last book of concord , that posterity may see what it is that he would have had , and laboured to set up in all the churches : and accordingly , let both the present and future ages see and know , p. . your way is not so innocent as that of re-baptizing . for the very matter and terms of your church-covenant are unsafe , and plainly schismatical ! as if constables and people of each town must confederate to be a corporation , an independent body having all jurisdiction within themselves , and such as will not enter into this confederacy , must be counted none of the kings subjects . — to say there are no churches in the world but a few independent churches , — were to go beyond brownism : it were rather to teach infidelity : such an opinion would be abhorred by all : now mr. baxter and the independents doctrine saith it . — their errour , should they hold it habitually , predominantly , and practically , would be certainly their damnation . — p. , [ i see not but pagans , gross hereticks , apostates , thieves and robbers might combine together and say , i take thee for my pastor , and i take you for my people : doth not your doctrine infer it ? p. . if i yield to their assertion , i must subvert the office of christ and his apostles , and all his faithful ministers , and all the churches to this day ; which i will not do for fear of the censure of any man living , no nor of a whole council of men , p. . the way that mr. baxter offers , seems to be a worse way , — it is the way of rigid independencie . — indeed mr. b. in all his writings seems to be against the office of lay-elders : but that he is not for them under another notion , as heads and delegates of the people , mutually chosen by the pastor and people , for assistance in discipline , may be doubted . he seems to hint at it , &c. § . how little truth is in all this , and abundance such ? . either it is truth that i am for rigid independency , or not . if not , — if yea , i am glad that the independent way is no worse . i am not much acquainted with them : but , if this man say true , . they are for no covenanting , but consent to the relation signifyed . . they are not for binding any to continue in that relation . . they are not for binding any from a regular use of any other minister , or churches communion . . in places where parishes are divided by law , and the ordinary attendance on the pastors ministration goeth for a sign of consent , they are true churches and members that thus signifie it ; and ad esse it is usually enough , though ad bene esse in doubtful cases the more express , as more intelligible caeteris paribus is best . . they are against an office of lay-elders , distinct from ministers of the word and sacraments , as of gods institution for church-government . . they are against democracie , or the church-governing power of the people . . they take reformed parish-churches for the best order , not taking all for members that are in the parish , but all the capable . . they are against gathering churches out of such parish-churches , without great necessity . . they are greatly against requiring any qualification as necessary to communion in point of holiness , but express consent to the baptismal covenant , or profession of christianity , not disproved . . they make not the peoples election of their pastors necessary ad esse , but meer consent , though the patron or others elect them . . they suppose that the peoples election or consent is not necessary to make a man a minister in the universal church , but only to make him their pastor . as to make a physician , and to make him my physician , differ . . they suppose that a true minister officiateth as such , where ever he doth it . . they suppose that associations or correspondencies of churches for concord and help , and synods to that end , and dependencie on such synods , is usually a duty where it can well be had ; and needless discord a fault . . they refuse not to submit in practice to the instructions or admonitions of any general visiter or overseer of many churches , called by some archbishops . . they refuse not the precedency of one pastor in every particular church over the rest of the presbyters . . they refuse him not the name of the bishop , nor yet to submit to his negative voice as of the quorum ( or the archbishops either ) in ordinations and all great publick matters . . they are for separating from no christians , further than they separate from christ , or would force them to sin ; but are for universal love and concord . . they are for obeying the magistrate in all lawful things belonging to his function . . they take the most extensive love , peace , and concord for the most desirable and best . . it is next their obedience to christ and his sufficient laws ; the great reason why they are against the terms imposed in most places of the christian world , where things unnecessary and suspected are made necessary to communion . reader , mr. ch. is so honest a man , that it were unjust to take him for a deliberate studied lyar. therefore seeing he saith that my way is rigid independency , and oft maketh me a downright independent , i that know my own judgement , and knew not theirs so well as he seems to do , am glad to hear that they are no worse , and that they are wronged by such as accuse them of denying any of those twenty points . § . and supposing that he saith true , and that they hold but my way , as he calls it , i will now try the force and honesty of his charge against them . and first , it savours of a spirit worse than his own , that when he had before used the word [ oath ] as owned by me , and then said , he repented of it , that he still useth the word [ covenant ] here as mine , instead of consent , which is the word which i use , and over and over say , that i own no covenant but any signification of consent to the relation ; onely because i said , that not ad esse , but ad bene esse , plain or express consent in doubtful cases is best . this smells of an ill intention ; and now i will try his arguments against this consent . § . p. . he saith mr. b. acts contrary to his own principles in baptizing the children of no● confederates . the universal and particular church make but one church of god. he that refuseth one essential of church-communion , is no christian , and is to be debarred the priviledges of christians . but according to you , non-confederates refuse one essential of church-communion — i may not baptize you , you are to me a pagan . ans . putares , sed calumniaris . here is fallacia aequivocationis , and so quatuour termini . this parish-church and the universal are not the same . the word church in the major , signifieth one thing , and in the minor another . all is not essential to communion in the church universal , which is essential to communion with this or that , or any particular political church . to the later , there must be , you say , neighbourhood ; and i say , proper pastors and flocks for personal communion . but the eunuch , acts . was baptized into the universal church , and not into any neighbourhood , parish , diocess , assembly , or had any stated pastor . he came into no church-meeting . philip ( the deacon supposed ) was snatcht away from him in the open field , &c. baptism as such , enters us into no particular church . your words [ you are a pagan to me ] are too false for a christian to have used . he that believeth with all his heart is no pagan . i am a minister of christ to the world ; but infidels are not my flock , or a church . catechizers should teach children all this plain truth . § . ii. p. . [ ask mr. baxter ( saith he ) whom do you mean by the word church , and at last he must come to one man the pastor ( as the papist● the pope . ) he that covenanteth first , covenantet● with none but the pastor . you change your terms . what church must he covenant with that was first baptized ? ans . christ was baptized , and his first baptized disciple and he were the embryo of the universal church , if you can prove that one was baptized alone . and as to a particular church , the gatherer at first is onely a minister in the church universal , and authorized to that gathering which shall be the foundation of his future relation : and the first person that consenteth , and he , are not a proper church ; for it is an embryo , and in fieri , as a troop when the captain hath listed the first man. but usually many are made christians first , and then they are materia disposita , and consent maketh the pastors and them to be particular churches , acts . . they ordained them elders in every church . elders of their own , acts . the elders of the church of ephesus , and so of the rest of the churches , are mentioned . and is the captain a troop , or the pastor a church , if he be the gatherer of it ? § . iii. you name not christ , ( saith he ) but the pastor . ans . when we say captain a. b's troop , we name not the general . when we say , the bishop of london 's diocess , the king's dominion , &c. we name not christ , or god : for onely the genus proximum is to be in definitions . the superiour are supposed : they are christians first . § . iv. you say ( saith he ) that before this covenant men are but hewed stones , that is , all the faithful are pagans . ans . putares . to be prepared for baptism is somewhat more than to be pagans : but till consent christians are not members of any particular church . the eunuch was but a hewn stone , as you call it , as to a formed congregation ; but he was no pagan , but a member of the body of christ . § . v. this ( saith he ) makes the most excellent ministers , apostles , &c. mere lay-men , such as go up and down preaching to pagans where christ is not known — plainly subverts the gospel , &c. ans . they are christ's ministers , and not lay-men , while they convert pagans , and yet pagans are no church : and till they are a church , no apostle is a pastor of them as a church . the gospel standeth for all this . § . but ( saith he ) may not a man be a shepherd by calling and occupation , unless he have a flock , as well as a physician ? &c. ans . either you quarrel de re or de nomine . if de re , do you mean any more than that he is authorized to gather and rule a flock ? if more , what is it ? if not , you calumniate if you pretend that i deny this ; but if it be onely de nomine , whether the name of a pastor may be given him that yet hath no flock , or of a captain to him that hath no troop ; i answer , . when you wrangle but about names , try once more to stay that list of laying the overthrow of the gospel on your names . . titles of relation may be given aptitudinally ex intentione de futuro : but if one may be called a pastor by relation to an intended flock , much more to an actual flock , and still it is a relative to such a flock intended . . try in scripture , and councils , and all church-writers , whether the title pastor be not usually given onely to those that have actual flocks . but to avoid your quarrel , call you them by what name you list , if that will ease or please you . § . vi. according to this doctrine , a minister hath no office or authority but just to those of his own charge , he preacheth elsewhere but as a gifted man. ans . still false , as to me , of whom you speak ! what a strange chain of calumnies can you make ? a minister is . christ's officer to the world to convert them . . to gather a church in fieri . . to officiate pro tempore in any other church , as a licensed physician to others ( even to physicians ) doth his office . § . vii . it maketh void ( saith he ) gods ordinance of ordination : for either they are ministers by ordination , or not : if yea , this doctrine is erroneous . ans . unproved : ordination , sine titulo , maketh a man a minister to the world and to the church indefinitely . ordination with institution doth that and more , viz. it tieth a minister to a consenting people . your writings are all stigmatized with the shame of naked affirmations without proof , and then forgetfully you oft say [ i have proved . ] why may not consent , and ordination , and institution , and induction too , be all needful ? is a man and womans consent needless , unless the ministers marrying them be needless ? may not a town , hospital , or person , chuse a physician as theirs if he were licensed be-before ? if a captain have commission to raise a troop , is consent of the listed needless ? so of a major ; a pilot , or any relation which requires consent . § . viii . it inferreth ( saith he ) that the church is before the officers , viz. pagans a church . ans . all fictions as to me to whom he speaks : i said before , they are as the heart to the body ; the punctum saliens is the first organical part to make the rest ; but not a part of the body till the body be made . they are ministers to gather churches , and then pastors of churches onely by consent . and when churches are gathered , and the pastor dead , the people are intentionally a society , but actually but a community , till a pastor related to them make them a politick society : and then relata sunt simul — § . ix . this doctrine puts a new clause into baptism , which christ never put in , and altereth christianity ( saith he . ) before i baptize you , i must have an antecedent covenant or signified consent from you to submit to me ; and you must be baptized in the name of paul , &c. no church-covenant , no church-member , no right to any church-ordinance . ans . confundendo fortiter caluminaris . . the eunuch consented to be a christian of the church universal , but not to be of a particular church ; without that consent he had not been baptized : but this was not needful to it . . the dispute whether lay-mens baptism be valid , i leave to you . but if yea , it is not necessary that i judge the baptizer a minister . if not , then it is necessary , and my consent is necessary to make me a christian , but not him a minister : but mutual consent is necessary to his pastoral relation to a particular church . . an ordinance common to the church universal , and proper to a particular church , should not be confounded , nor so much as the modal ministration . do i adde to baptism , if i say that by the canons and custom of all the churches for one thousand years , a man was not to be taken for the bishop of any church without mutual consent ? what 's this to baptism ? and what temerity is it to feign men to wrong christ by that which was his institution , and so judged and used in all the churches ? § . x. [ saith he ] it maketh the people church-rulers or co-partners in office with the pastors , so that without their consent they can do nothing ; not baptize . ans . of me the calumny hath no excuse , i have written so much to the contrary : yea , the very act calumniated essentially containeth the contrary in it . as he that consenteth to be a servant , consenteth not to be master , but to obey : so they that consent to be lay-members of a pastors flock , consent that he , and not they , shall rule , and that they will be the obeying part . how could you wink so hard , as not to see that your false witness confuteth it self ? and what if he cannot be their governour without their consent , doth this give them any part in governing ? nay what if he cannot baptize a non-consenter , or give him the lords supper , is the refuser a church-governour ? the man had got a heap of notions against the independents in his mind , or his instigator that hath the same disease had thrust them in , and out they must come against he knew not whom or what , upon the word [ consent . ] what work would he make in the church , if he should deny the necessity of this consent , and have the church made a prison where infidels should be cram'd and drencht with the sacrament ? § . xi . [ it sets up ( saith he ) rebaptization by a law — for it requireth of godly baptized ones an antecedent covenant to be members of the particular church : as if a man should covenant to be a godly citizen of london — to be a member of gods church at k. and hold communion therewith : the people are called on to be new christians , as if they had been no christians before ] ans . it is a sin to read such words without grief and indignation . what! is every renewal of the covenant of godliness or christianity a rebaptizing , or supposeth us pagans ? is this made by a minister a heinous sin ? are we not to do it in every partaking of the lords supper ? yea , explicitely or implicitely in every prayer . is mr. allen's book for covenanting , and mr. rawlet's of sacramental covenanting , such unchristening heresies ? is it damnable or sinful to covenant to be a godly servant , or a godly husband or wife , or a godly minister or magistrate ? doth this suppose them ungodly before ? with wat weapons are we assaulted ? § . xii . he addes [ it bindeth people to be dwellers within the precincts of that one church , to hear no other minister , to joyn with no other congregation . ans . concatenated calumnies , as to me : they onely consent to the relation of lay-members till they remove their dwelling or relation . they consent to take that church but as a part of the universal , and therefore to hold just communion with all others , and receive what benefit they can from any other ministers . i abhor a covenant that renounceth communion with the universal church , or any part of it , without necessary cause . putide haec putares . § . xiii . he addes , [ what shall godly strangers , travellers , &c. do ? your doctrine maketh them invaders . ] ans . . if i have no notice of their consent to communicate with us pro tempore , they expect it not : and de ignotis non judicat ecclesia ; and non apparere is equal to non esse . if i have notice of their consent , it supposeth some notice that they are baptized , or christians , and have more right than heathens to communion : and if so , . they consent to be members of the universal church , and as such i shall give them the sacrament and communion , though i were no pastor of any particular stated church . . they consent to a transient temporary communion with me as a minister in the catholick church . and . they consent to transient temporary communion with that particular church , and transient temporary communion i will give them ; yea , and may call them transient members of that church ; but no further any of these than they consent . a christian giving evidence of his christianity , hath right to transient communion in all churches in the world where he cometh : yea , all are not bound to live in stated churches ; some are travellers , some unsetled embassadors , some factors amongst heathens , some of no habitation , beggars , pedlars , tinkers , and such wandring trades ; some live where is no church with whom they may hold lawful communion , &c. now we have a new divine risen up in the end of the world , that seems to make all the setled churches of christ in the world for many hundred years , to be all traitors to christ , because these wanderers must not consent to their special relations , nor enjoy their proper priviledges ; and because they consent themselves to a more setled relation and communion than these wanderers or refusers are capable of . what would all the old church , that made so many canons about their proper communion , have thought of this mans doctrine , if he had come among them at their elections , discipline , distributions to the widows and poor , and said , hold sirs ! you are all destroying baptism and christianity , by consenting to more towards one another than you owe to every unknown wanderer , or refuser of a setled church-state ? as if with our new politician all cities and corporations are traytors , or deny or wrong the king , because all subjects are not citizens , some being vagrants , some in villages , some souldiers , some in odde houses , &c. and because cities consent to a special sort of government which the rest have not . between the anathematizers and these over-wise censurers , there are few christians in the world that are not condemned as no christians for being sound christians . § . xiv . he was aware that we say that every one that may come into the temple is not a part of my special charge as a pastor , which i cannot do for all : and he saith , [ it 's all one to your doctrine if he refuse your church-covenant — the minister all this while is no minister ; the people all this while are no christians . — they are no more lawful pastor and people , than whoremonger and whore going together , and committing acts of filthiness , and living in fornication all their days — ans . continued calumny as to me . is no modesty or tender fear of sinning against the ninth commandment left ? . he that refuseth consent to be a stated member , is none such : but is he therefore no christian ? awake , conscience ! do any independents say that none are christians but their special charge ; yea , or stated members of particular churches ? if there be any such , what 's that to me ? . such persons may be members of the universal church , and i am a pastor in the universal church ; and as such may communicate with them . . if he desire temporary communion , he consents to as much as he desireth , and that he may have : if he desire more , he shall have more . § . but ( saith the accuser ) what speak you of literae communicatoriae , these are nothing to yourcase ; ( he saith it , ergo , he proveth it . ) it shuts him out of all particular churches and congregations under heaven , except , &c. ] ans . putares ! of me it 's thus true or false . . he that consents not to be a stated member of any church , none , because he would be none : and it 's blind self-contradiction , to say that i shut him out , because he will not come in . . he that consenteth to be a member of the universal church shall not be shut out . . he that by literas communicatorias , or any good testimony , sheweth himself a christian , and desireth onely one days temporary communion with a stated particular church , shall not be denied that which he desireth , nor will we urge him to more . § . xv. he adds [ it layeth waste parish-bounds , leaving people to go to what church they will — intimating , that being a godly man and a parishioner , doth not make him a member of the parish-church — teaching people to be disorderly . ] ans . . a quatenus ad omne valet consequentia . i said enough before to prove the falsehood of your church-estate . . then there were no church till there were parish-bounds . then if papists , anabaptists , &c. be godly , and dwell in the parish , they are members against their wills . . and they are members of two particular churches ; one in despight of them , and of the other as consenters . . there are some houses that are in no parish ( that i have known . ) alas , these must be of no church . . some parts of one parish are in the middle of another . the truth is , parish-bounds are ordinarily of good use for order , and order is for edification , and to promote the thing ordered : and he layeth it not waste , . that giveth it no more than its due , as a humane mutable circumstance , and not as essential . . nor he that refuseth it when it is turned against the end and the res ordinanda . § . xvi . he addes , [ then if the pastor set over them be a son of belial — and sinfully tolerated by the magistrate ; the people of the parish who can neither remove him , nor sit under a more edifying minister , must covenant to him , &c. ans . strange ! who would have thought but this was neerer your opinion than theirs ? briefly , if the man be tolerable , they must rather accept of him than have none . if he be intolerable in the ministry , they may use such common gifts as he hath , ( as we read even a cicero ) but they must be of no particular church , till they can be so on lawful terms . even a council of the popes decreed , that till men can have lawful pastors , they must forbear that communion that supposeth such : and who can doubt of it ? § . xvii . next , he quibbles onely with a question [ how long shall it last ? ] answ . how long will you be of the parish-priests or the diocesans flock , or of a physicians hospital ? we cannot secure men from providential changes a day , and therefore would not have them to binde themselves but on such suppositions — he that means to go to morrow to another countrey , should consent but to this days communion . he that intendeth here to dwell , must consent to the relation of a stated member of that flock till he remove , or till god shew him just cause to change that relation : till then , he should know his proper pastors . § . xviii . next , he questioneth , [ who shall degrade them that prove heretical or scandalous ? &c. ] ans . the ordainers made him a minister by investiture , &c. and yet without our consent he was not related to us as our pastor , or we to him as part of that church . and so we may withdraw our consent , and become none of his special church-flock , and leave it to the ordainers to degrade him if he must be degraded , as to the world and church universal . one would think this answer should be undeniable . but he goeth on with his dismal accusations , p. . [ the particular church-covenant is a thing of mans invention , no where required of god ; it is destructive to the church and souls , should it be practised . ] ans . seeing covenanting and known consenting are all one with him , what a dreadful damning sin doth the man make it for to consent to be under our pastors office ? then he that would escape damnation must not consent to the office of the parish-priest , much less of the bishop : much less swear obedience to the bishop : and least of all , say or swear never to endeavour any alteration . we have need to bless us from conformity , if consenting be so damnable . but what meant he to say [ should it be practised ? ] doth he not know that it is practised by them all ? and so that this judge doth damn them all . § . xix . he next answereth two of our pretences . . from the election of ministers by the people : and saith , election is quite another thing ; till they are ordained , they are no men in office — but persons designed — ans . alas , that the man that hath all this while been damning others , should not see that he hath so damned himself ; yea , and quite exceeded my damning errour . this it is to print with the zeal described jam. . before men know what it is that they talk of . note , that he is not against the peoples election ( if he be intelligible ) and yet elsewhere [ they are rebels and no christians ] that stand not to the king and parliaments election . . note , that he talks of one election , ( to the office of the ministry as such ) and i talk of another election , even to be our particular pastor : for this physician to be my physician . . note , that the mans bare word must , against all common use and reason , perswade us that consent which i require is more than election , which is much less . the elector nominateth and first determineth of the person . consent may come after , even in obedience to the elector . the king electeth the bishop , and the patron the incumbent parson . doth every one that after consenteth do more ? or must we lay by our senses in believing such writers against damning errour ? . note , that he quite overgoeth the truth on the popular extream , which he accuseth others of : as if the people must elect a man to the indefinite office of a minister as such , which is false . christ sent out his apostles , and the apostles sent abroad a converting church-gathering ministry without any popular election . the ordainers must chuse who shall be a minister ( by his consent . ) the christian people should chuse [ and must consent at least ] who shall be the special guide of their own souls ; or their pastor in particular . and the magistrate must chuse , . whom he will maintain and encourage . . whom he will tolerate . how came he to think that election is nothing to the case , as if consent were something more ? yet is he at it again , p. . [ they make it another baptism . ] § . xx. next , he answereth our saying that [ no man can be a pastor to a people against their wills . ] and doth he say yea , or nay ? neither plainly , but talks of somewhat else , and saith , [ he is a pastor by office and calling whether the people will or not , and so pastor and people are not simul naturâ . ] as if the equivocating with the word [ pastor ] warranted him to damn his brethren , and confound church-order : as [ a pastor ] signifieth but a minister commissioned to become the actual undertaking guide of a particular church-flock when he is called to it ; so this man may be called a pastor aptitudinal , as a man is a captain that hath commission to raise a troop : but as the word [ pastor ] signifieth one that is actually the overseer of a particular church-flock , he is none till he have a flock ; and in both senses pastor and flocks are relate and correlate , & simul naturâ : that is , in the first , simul in esse cognito & intentionali : in the later , in esse existente . but , saith he , [ god is god whether the people will or no ; and christ is christ , apostles are apostles — and so faithful ordained ministers are pastors . ] ans . this is but the fallacy of the foresaid equivocation of the word [ pastor . ] . god is not made god , nor christ made christ , nor apostles or indefinite ministers such by contract or humane consent : but he that said , come out from amongst them , &c. i will be your god , and you shall be my people , and maketh some a holy nation and peculiar people , &c. is so related to none but consenters . christ is an offered saviour to refusers ; but he is not the saviour and head of any as christians , or a church actually , but consenters : without consent we are not materia disposita receptive of the peculiar relation . a man may be authorized to be a tutor , schoolmaster , physician , captain , master , &c. without my consent : but he is not my tutor , master , &c. till i consent , save aptitudinally , not actually . . and these relations are more dependent on humane contract or consent , than gods being god , &c. but , saith he , [ if all be pagans , the minister lawfully ordained and appointed to convert and baptize and be a pastor to them , is a true , full , and compleat pastor before he have christened one soul of them . ans . true or false as the equivocation is taken : as one decreed to be a husband to a wife that is yet unborn , may by the deceiving improper language of an equivocator be said to be the true , full and compleat husband of her yet unborn or unmarried ; that is , one designed to be a husband hereafter in a proper sense ; so here . but pastor est ovium seu gregis pastor : analogum per se positum stat pro significato famosiore . heathens are no church ; ergo , no man is a pastor of them as a church . is he a compleat pastor of a flock that hath none ? § . xxi . but saith he , [ mark the matter , you are baptized a godly man ; i have nothing against you , onely this , i cannot take you for one of my flock , unless by a voluntary consent , &c. i must shut you out as an apostate , or a pagan . ] ans . calumny and deceit conjunct . . it 's immodest calumny to say , [ as an apostate or a pagan ] i take him for a christian , and on due testimony shall admit him to such communion ( lawful ) as he himself desireth . . whether as a member of the universal church . . or also as a fixed member of another church desiring temporary transient communion here . . it is gross deceit to say [ i put him out ] that refuseth to come in . if i give him no more than he is willing of , what do i put him out from ? if i take him not for a member of my proper stated charge , it is because he desireth it not . i thank god i never was a proper pastor to any people against their wills , nor ever will be , were i capable of more service . § . but , saith he , [ this makes against you — can any man forbid these people from being members of the particular church that are of the universal ? ] ans . self-contradiction ! do we forbid them that are not willing , or do they forbid themselves ? doth the physician forbid them to be his patients that consent not ? do we shut them out that will not come in ? yet he feigneth us to do no less than cast them out of the church universal , as casting them out of all particulars under heaven . ans . calumny hath got such a channel , that his writing runneth commonly that way . . i cast them out of no church under heaven , who will not consent to come in . . were they of no particular church , they may be in the universal , as i before proved , of many sorts . § . he next noteth , that it is but signified consent that i require : but he saith , neither christ nor his apostles mention it , and all the church are without it . ans . let us trie here whether this be true or false , and all his damning and unchristning censures fall not on the holy ghost and all the churches . i. it is certain , that besides ministers unfixed and of general indefinite work , there were by the holy ghost in the apostles time fixed churches of neighbour-christians setled . ii. it is certain that these had fixed pastors of their own , that were related to them specially as their special charge , so as they were not related to all or any other churches . iii. it is certain that these pastors had not equal authority to go into all other mens diocesses or parishes , and say , you are as much my charge as any others , and play the bishops in other mens diocesses ; though when they had a call , they might be ministerial temporary helpers . iv. it is certain that these pastors were specially obliged to many offices for those peculiar flocks , which to other churches they were not so obliged to ( but onely to occasional help . ) dr. hammond nameth many of them , and so do the scripture and canons . . a constant publick teaching them , which they owe not to all others or any . . constant government by the keys . . constant administration of the lords supper . . constant leading them in publick worship , prayer , praise , &c. . a special care of the poor . . ordinary visitation of the sick. . comforting the afflicted , admonishing offenders , watching over all . the canons will tell you much , which every man oweth more to his own charge than to others . v. it is certain that this flock oweth a more special attendance , and account , and obedience to these pastors , than to strangers or others of other churches . . to hear them . . to receive the communion ordinarily of them . . to maintain them ; and so in the rest . v. i. it is certain that none of this was done or can be done without mutual consent . vii . it is certain that this church-state , office , and duty was setled by christ's apostles , and continued by the common consent of the churches on earth from age to age . § . that it was an apostolical establishment is plain in acts . . they ordained them elders in every church . to omit the sence of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which in the most usual sence includeth suffrages , it is evident that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implieth the fixing of the several elders to their several churches , so as to make them the stated elders of those churches as their flock in pepeculiar . acts . . are they called the elders of that church over which , as their flock , the holy ghost had made them overseers to feed the church of god , to imitate paul that taught them publickly and from house to house ; and was this no peculiar pastoral relation ? or were any but consenters members of that church ? tit. . . when titus was to ordain elders in every city , it is equal to every church . and it stated them as their peculiar pastors , even bishops , as gods stewards over them in particular , v. . more than others . jam. . . the sick that must call for the elders of the church , were their proper flock , as is supposed . the angels of the seven churches rev. and . were not equally the angels of other churches . phil. . . the bishops and deacons of the church at philippi had a fixed peculiar relation to them as theirs : archippus had a proper ministry at colosse , col. . . and laodicea had a peculiar church , v. . thess . . , . sheweth the common state of the christian churches : know them which labour among you , and are over you in the lord , and admonish you ; and to esteem them very highly in love for their works sake . and be at peace among your selves . here pastors to labour , and admonish , and be over them , are to be known , owned , esteemed , beloved persons , dwelling among them , and knowing their own flock , and the peoples duty to them and one another laid down . and shall a christian minister say , [ o but do not promise , no nor signifie any consent to do it , for that is to be rebaptized , and is damning to the practisers . ] the bishops and elders that timothy is instructed about , were such as had their proper flocks , and took care of them as the church of god , that were to rule them well , and labour in the word and doctrine ; to preach the word in season and out of season , reprove , rebuke , exhort , with all long-suffering and doctrine , &c. pet. . , , . the elders that peter writeth to were to feed the flock of god which was among them , taking the oversight of them ( more than of all the world ) not by constrain , but willingly , ( and may they not signifie willingness ? ) not as lords , but examples to their flocks , and shepherds under the chief shepherd . heb. . , , . fully expresseth it , obey them that have the rule over you ; they watch for your souls as those that must give account , not of all the world , but of that flock that they oversee . the same church had bishops that had deacons , and some deaconesses , widows , &c. but it was never known that deacons were to be indefinite overseers of the poor of all churches , but they had ever relation to particular churches . this is the ordering of the churches appointed by the holy ghost , tit. . . and yet this man maketh it an abuse or injury against christ , and overthrow of the gospel . § . ii. as for the constant judgement and practice of all churches , i am ashamed that such usage should put me to such a work , as to prove that they ever held and practised that which this man condemneth in me . he knoweth nothing of the churches state , and history , and canons , that knoeth not , . that all churches were societies of christians united under their proper known bishops or pastors , fixed to those flocks by proper relation , though also related to the world and the church universal . . that the people did not onely consent , but chuse their pastors , and he was to be no bishop that had not their consent . . that the laity of other churches promiscuously had no power to chuse them , but onely those whom they were set over . . that the bishops , as ignatius speaks , were to know the particular members of their churches , and see that they came constantly to the assemblies , even to enquire after maids and servants , saith he , by name . . that they made multitudes of canons for exercising particular discipline on each person that needed it , by long suspending some from communion , restoring others , taking care of the poor and of all . . that they took not the catechumens for the church , but candidates , and prepared and tried them before admittance . . that it was not mere baptizing that made them of that flock ; for they preached and baptized in other places . . that it was not mere neighbourhood of christians ; for there were sometime divers churches in one city , as in meletius case at alexandria ; and dr. hammond thinks the jewish and gentile christians at first had several bishops and churches in the same cities ordinarily . and the audians , luciferians , donatists , and others that were of the same religion , had divers churches , besides such as the novatians , that had some little doctrinal differences : and none till now ever thought that these were all the same pastors special flocks , and the same particular churches . yea , i have elsewhere cited that council that decreed that if any bishop neglected to convert the hereticks , &c. he that converted them should have them ( as his flock or church . ) in a word , all church-history and canons describing their particular churches , and their elections , orders , offices , priviledges , discipline , &c. and limiting them that strove for the greatest , from encroaching one on another , tell us so fully that they were so many incorporate christian societies consisting by mutual consent of their proper pastors and flocks , that et pudet & piget , that such a task as the proofs should be thus imposed on me by a minister . § . the same is still continued , even by the conformists . . the ministers are even to swear obedience to the diocesane , and the diocesane promise it to the arch-bishop : and this is a covenant and more . . they are to attend him at visitations , and otherwise to express their consent to his government , which they do not to the bishop of the neighbour-diocesses . . the parishioners signifie their consent to their relation to that particular church and incumbent , by their constant attendance , submission , communion , &c. . the law and canon command their consent ; yea , to keep their own parishes , though the minister preach not at all , suspending neighbour-ministers that receive such to their communion that come from such a reader to them . and the conformists say that men are bound to obey these canons . § . either parishioners are supposed thus to signifie relation-consent to that particular pastor and church , or not : if yea , this accuser falsly supposeth that no church but the independents do so . if not , then he giveth up most of their cause to the brownists , that say the parish-churches are none : for it 's easie proved that non-consenters are none . thus rash men confute themselves . nay we are all silenced for not covenanting to the present frame of diocesane churches , and never to endeavour an alteration . yet saith this man [ it is not in any of the churches , unless independents , neither explicite nor implicite . ] then none should so much as implicitely shew consent to the relation to his diocesane or parish-pastor or church . § . but saith he , ( to me with gross falsehood ) [ your covenant is to this effect , you shall not onely submit to me as your pastor , but binde your self by a particular antecedent covenant so to do : you shall dwell in the parish , and covenant so to do , &c. ] ans . i wish , that though design brought the word covenant infread of consent into his mouth , it might not so long stick there as to choak his conscience , to think that any use of it is lawful . where and when did i engage any to dwell in the parish ? if they dwell there , i never hindred any from removing . . but the consent required is beforehand ! very true . the liturgie bids men come tell the ministers before-hand that they desire the communion : shall i ask them to consent to their duty when it is past ? or can i know who are capable till i know who consenteth ? but , saith he , why not à church-covenant for all other duties ? ans . why not a marriage-covenant to make one a priest ? &c. why not an oath of allegiance to make one a coblar ? &c. consent necessary to the being of a relation , is one thing ; and consent to every duty , is another ; which yet in general all christians should promise sincerely to perform . must we write books against such things as these ? § . to the objection , [ i am not bound to take every one that comes into the parish for one of my charge : he hath no better answer than to tell us of parish-bounds setled by law , and binding me to do my best for all . ] ans . deceitfully confounding [ charge ] the genus with [ church : ] as if heathens , and atheists , and papists , and refusers are of that church , because i have a charge to seek their conversion : or as if i had no special charge of that church . . he did not see that he confuteth himself , implying that we must consent because of the law. . and he forgot the many hundred years before parish-divisions . § . his zeal at last thus swelleth [ p. . i do utterly withstand it , as wickedness and abomination in gods church : i am to die and burn at a stake before i yield to any such thing . you make two churches , two church-forms , as two baptisms — p. . to teach infidelity , — &c. ] ans . let him that thinks he standeth , take heed lest he fall . alas ! for the church , whose guides are no wiser and better men , and tenderer conscienced than he or i , which ever is in the wrong . . you will make me think you are deeply melancholy ! is it so frightful a thing for me to say , i will be no pastor to any that consent not , as to put you into talk of dying and burning at a stake ? had the martyrs been burnt , if men had been of this minde ? did you ever know any put to death or burnt at a stake for your opinion ? which is liker to be the burning party ! they that say [ we will rule none but consenters or volunteers , ] or they that call this wickedness and abomination , and so are for the contrary course ? which party hath killed more for religion ? reader , you see my wickedness and abomination . chap. v. i had thought to have gone thus over the rest of his book ; but it is such stuff , that my reason and conscience bid me spare my own and the readers time . i. he begins with telling me what the church of england is , and all is worse than nothing : instead of telling me what is the constitutive , formal , regent part , he tells me of bishops , pastors , convocation , king , &c. as if he defined a man to be one that hath a head , eyes , liver , stomack , &c. ii. it grieveth me to read what he saith of popery . . his supposition that popery is sound , if the particular church be a part of the universal , having its subordinate form of government under christ's . . his supposition of the emperour of constantinople's turning christian , and becoming the universal prince and bishop of his empire , as a lawful thing . . his supposition of the pope's resigning his place to st. peter , if he were alive , &c. . his note that to claim but st. peter's place is not to claim christ's , with more such , are unwise temptations to strangers to fear lest london-air have done him hurt . iii. his many words about the princes power to chuse pastors for all his subjects , and that if faithful , he is no christian that refuseth to accept them . . is all a bare saying over what he thinketh ; taking little or no notice of my discourse on that subject in my first plea ; where all that 's against us is answered before , and i will not repeat it . . and it shamefully condemneth his foresaid condemnations . is not consent then necessary to the imposed pastor , if not consenting unchristen men ? . it supposeth that the political controversie [ whether the king be authorized by god to chuse what pastoral guide all the subjects shall trust their souls with ? ] ( any more than what tutor , physician , wife , diet , they shall take ) is an essential of christianity , and yet it is not in the creed , &c. when yet it is notorious that all churches for most ages since christ , if not almost all in the world to this day , were and are of the contrary minde , and so are all unchristened by him . . and though i urge him , he will not answer what i said of the question , who shall judge whether the minister be faithful ? . if the patron present a weak ignorant man , that is faithful , but of little use comparatively ; and people that feel their need , and regard eternity , chuse before him such a one as hildersham , rogers , dod , preston , &c. he declareth them not onely sinners , but rebels against christ , and no christians . iv. his recitals of the particular controversies in the end , take so little notice of my former answer to him , and do but pour out much of the same , that i resolve hereafter to take as little notice of what he shall say that ringeth on like a bell , and hath all tongue and no ears . he is full of his own , that must come out , he cannot stop it ; and his oyl increaseth by pouring out : he is fuller than before , and hath no room for the reception of what he greately needeth . there is a law against lying , to which we must conform : or truth pleaded for peace , against the many falshoods of an un-named impleader ; who pretendeth to answer several writings of the author richard baxter . chap. i. prefatory . our accuser's advantages . § . i know when i wrote for christianity , the souls immortality , against popery , perjury , lying , covenanting against reformation ; and when i wrote against antinomianism , anabaptism , schism , that all that i had so written was easily answered by male or female , at age or under age , learned or unleaned : for nature and parents teach mankinde to talk betimes , and we have many schools to teach them to read and write : and i hear by my neighbours when they fall out about interest or words , that without a school or university , they can attain to copious fluent pungent oratory , to describe each other as all that is nought ; and prove all so undeniably by vehement asseveration or oath , that he shall pass for criminal that will not take their words for demonstration . and what an advantage and improvement would it be to this natural promptitude and fluencie , if one were but hired or engaged to the work by an hundred or a thousand pound a year ; yea , and also by the stream and interest of the army or sect , in which he is listed by heart and hand , and by such necessitating interest of reputation ( contrived by the listers ) as that accusing others shall seem a necessary diversion of the charge from himself and of his conscience from disquieting him , like her that is called a continual dropping ? but yet if academical education should train men up to the degree of masters or doctors of the talking and contending trade , what an elevation of the faculty would it be ? and yet all this is little to the pondus of an inbred enmity to the thing first , and consequently to the persons , whom they are to make and prove intolerable . and there i● one that , unseen , can prompt and furnish them with materials of all sorts ; yea , and help their subtlety , vehemency , and most fearless asseve rations . i have heard of a cambridge doctor ●● the chair , that was called , the certain infallible doctor , that was so far from seeming to know what doubting was , that he took him for intolerable that was not of his opinion . and it 's like bonner and gardiner were such , and that it is much of the roman-catholick infallibility : for sure they durst not wrack , burn , and massacre , and ruine all sorts , for that which they did not think themselves certain of ; yea , and certainly necessary to the noble ends of unity , government , and peace . § . to talk it out to the last with these infallible talkers , is a task for one that hath as many tongues as all they , and is as ready a linguist , and that is like to overlive them , and that hath no better work to do , and that thinketh that they will read or hear him without the ferment of tumifying impatient pride : or else that it is necessary to save the endangered people from seduction , to overtalk the seducers in length and number of words , and that souls are still unsafe and loose to the truth , as long as there are any to talk against it . i confess , that if you will hive the swarm aright , it is usually necessary that with a lowder noise you drown the voice of the misleader . but i have no such sounding voice : i am not for the celeusma , cannons and guns , with the shouts of the multitude ; and that on the higher ground can easily silence me , or drown my voice . reason speaketh not so lowd as these . § . i was lately where it was made a question , whether mr. kettleby and such other booksellers , be not enemies to their own trade , by printing such books as the impleaders , mr. hinkley's , mr. cheyney's , &c. the affirmer said , it would make books as contemptible as ballads , and no body would regard and buy them . as when news-books were weighty and credible , most bought them ; but when beggarly forgers took up the trade , you may hear the hawkers cry a book , a book , a book ; news , great news , and no body regard them : this therefore will break the book-sellers at last . the opponent answered , [ set but the supposition right , and you will see how you confute your self . you suppose most men to be wise , than which nothing is more false . if you hear not christ and paul , hear seneca's saying , [ a wise man must be content of few approvers . ] it is the gainfullest way that the book-sellers could have taken : what books sell better than play-books , ballads , and romances , and books of tales , and complement , and jeasts ? what book-sellers break faster than those that confine their trade to rare pieces of antiquity , learning , reason , and serious piety ? do not men pay dearer for a place in a play-house , than in the church ? and i have oft heard some gentile sons of the church of england say , that they can profit more by a play than by a sermon . you think that such books will make the book-sellers-shops , like the toy-shops : and what if they do ? will there not be children and indulgent parents while the world lasteth ? what shops have more trading , or seldomer break , than toy-shops , that sell babies , and puppets , and hobby-horses , and pipes ? &c. and those that sell perriwigs , pide-silks and ribbons ? you think that the book-sellers shops will grow like ale-houses and taverns which sober men will rarely visit . and what if they do ? let those sober men pass by ; do such houses want custome ? the throat will be the throat still , and mirth will be mirth ; and the lightest heads shall be the greatest number . ] and this prevailed . § . i must seriously profess , that i finde in our present controversie , that my opponents and accusers have a great advantage of me , and such as i see no great probability to overcome . i mean in the quality as well as the number of their hearers and readers . . can i expect that men of great wealth , and power , and honour , and who would still fain be greater , should be as willing to believe that those are in the way of truth and righteousness who are by law judged what we are judged , and adjudged to such reproach and punishment ; and that go under the censures , suspitions , and contempt , as we have here long done , and are hunted and laid in jayls with rogues ? . can i expect that men that never were studious or bookish , especially in matters of divinity and holiness , but have been bred up in fulness and pleasure , in courtship and converse with such as themselves , who will take him for a fanatick that doth but talk much and seriously of heaven , or scripture , or things divine , that scarce ever heard what a nonconformist hath to say for himself , nor ever seriously examined the cause , or read a book which openeth their case in all their lives . i say , can i expect that such should be able or willing to understand us ? i mean , not as if all were such ; but it hath been my hard hap to meet with few persons , even of gentile education , who ask me , why do you not conform ? that do not presently shew me in conference , that they are quite out of their element when they meddle with such matters , and talk of things which they never studied or understood ; and indeed do not think it belongeth to them , but to the church : and that is , to those church-men that the king and the patron please to chuse ; which maketh the papists say the laity of the church of england cry down our believing as the church believeth , when they do the same by their own church-men . the question is but whether it be our church-men or theirs that are to be believed ? and when kings were on out side , it was our church-men that were to be believed : and when they are on their side , it is theirs . and mr. hutchinson , alias berry , spake harshly when he said in print , that there was so little of conscionable religion in the people of the church of england , that if one were but toucht with the conscience of religion , he turned puritan o● papist . i shewed him the injury of his speech ; but i would he had much less occasion for it . dr. stillingfleet told me , that there was scarce an● of his hearers or readers , how mean soever ther● capacities were , but could discern the weakness of no evasions . i dwell near the verge of his parish . i have talkt with some of his auditors , and enquired of many others ; and i think verily he is more in the right than i at first believed : for i finde that abundance of his auditors hear him some once , some twice , some thrice a year , and some of them know not whether christ be god or man , or both ; or whether he had a humane soul , or what a man differs from a beast ; nor what is the true sence of many ( if any ) articles of the creed . and i am perswaded these whom he calleth of the meanest capacity , are the likeliest men to discern the weakness of my arguments , i have talked also with divers of his readers , and i found that they understood this much , that dr. stillingfleet wrote his sermon against the nonconformists ; and that he is a dean , and may be greater ; and is a man that can talk with any of us . it may be some that i have not met with know more , as being of a higher form ; and some few i have met with that indeed know more , and those lament the doctor 's undertaking ; and when they have read my answer or account , confess that they cannot justifie his charge . could i but tell how to get most of the church of england to know what religion is , and to be seriously of any religion , and to understand baptism , and the lords supper , the creed , lords prayer , and ten commandments ; how boldly should i expect their christian sense and candour in our cause ? but till then , i confess that the accusers have the advantage of us , and their books unread will do more than ours . § . and it is a great advantage which they have got by the oxford-act of banishing above five miles from cities and corporations all that swear not as is there required . for though the king's wisdome and clemency have let down he floud-gates , and somewhat stopt the impetus of the clergy-stream , yet it was many years before nonconformists durst be openly seen in cities or corporations , much less at court , or among great men ; and modesty and prudence yet obligeth them to abstain from the presence of their superiours , where the law forbids it ; so that the ears of country-nobles , and most of our rulers , hear but what our accusers say , and have no knowledge of our cause , but as described by them , whose descriptions are many of them no more credible than if they said that we are turks . § . and their art hath got us to such a straight , that whether we speak or are silent , we are guilty ; and whatever we do except swearing , saying , and doing as they require , it shall turn to our accusation . for instance , do some think that dr. stillingfleet is in the right , that pronouneeth damnation without repentance against them that prefer not the purest church , and thereupon come not to the parish-assemblies ? against such they cry out [ separatists , schismaticks , preparing for rebellion ; away with them , execute the laws . ] but if others do as i do , who daily joyn with the parish-church in all their worship , and communicate in their sacrament , and oppose separation ; ] some say [ such are like ap● that are the ugliest creatures , though likest unto men while they are not men . ] and others say , [ we know not what to make of mr. b. he is neither flo● nor fish : he is like one that will go one step on one side the hedge , and another on the other side , to avoid uniformity . ] and the men are not altogether mistaken : i profess that i once made it the most earnest action of my life to have prevented the building of a separating wall , or a dividing thorny-hedge in the midst of this part of the vineyard of christ , to separate one part of the faithful ministers and people from the rest : and that i earnestly desire to see that wall or hedge pull'd down , that christ's flock among us may be one : and i will do the best i can whilst i live to get it down , that there may be no such separation . and seeing this is a work above my power , i will go sometime on both sides the hedge , though by so doing i be scratcht , and a thorn in the flesh by a buffetting messenger of satan reprehend me . but reverend doctors hear my reasons : it is not to avoid uniformity , but separation . i am a catholick , and not a sectary : i am for communion with the universal church : if you will hedge in one corner , and the anabaptists another , and the separatists another ; and so other sects that must have their peculiars , and turn christ's house into your several chambers , and his common-field into your little inclosures ; and then say , keep onely in our room , and go into no other ; keep onely in our enclosure , and go not on the other side of the hedge : i shall tell you , that i abhor your separation . i have business on both sides : i believe the holy catholick church and the communion of saints , and not onely your enclosure , and the communion of your conformists : i have some business on your side the hedge , the law and your own expectation will tell you part of it : i see some of my fathers family with you . i have busines , on the other side the hedge : there are as good as you ; and such as i am neerly related to , and commanded to love as my self , and to receive as christ received us ; and not to doubtful disputations , ( to prove or approve all your jurisdictions , assumptions , oaths , covenants , subscriptions , reordinations , formalities and ceremonies . ) your thorn-hedge hath enclosed but one corner of christs vineyard , and i have business in the rest : it hath separated parents from children , husbands from wives , as to church-communion , masters and servants , brethren from brethren , neighbours from neighbours : if they that made the hedge can justifie it , let them do it , it will be tryed before a jealous god ere long ! if those of you that in learned books and sermons exhort us ( with somewhat hissing rhetorick ) to separate from those on the other side the hedge , can prove that themselves are all christs church , and that god would have us separate from all save them , and give over preaching and all publick worship of god , till we can conscionably conform to all their impositions : i say , if all these silencing preachers can make good their accusation of the brethren , and their conclusions , let them that undertake it speed as they perform it : but for my part , i will not separate from father , mother , brother , friend , and all good christians save a domineering sect , because that sect will else call me separatist . i was wont to draw the map of the church universal as one body or field , or vineyard of christ , hedged in indeed round about from infidels , and distributed into thousands of particular churches , as streets and families in one city : but if any will say , hold communion with one street or family , and separate from the rest , and then say that you are a schismatick for not being for that odious schism ; i will hear such , as i do the people that talk through the windows on the west side of moor-fields , when they say that all are mad or schismatical , that are not in their cubs and chains . mr. cheney was never there i think , and yet it was ( per album an atrum nescio ) revealed to him that i am downright for an independant covenant , which hath twenty arguments extant to batter it , and prove it guilty of irreligiousness , or somewhat worse : and they say ( for i am not acquainted much with their practice ) that the independent bind their flock to hold communion with none but their own sect , nor to depart without leave from their particular churches . i am apt to believe that they are slandered ( for whoever falls sick , i will first fear the most epidemical or common disease : ) but if it be no slander , i profess that i will never be of a particular church , which claims to be the universal , and will forbid me communion with all save them . and if in this the prelatists agree with the independents , i am against the separating , sectarian , schismatical presumption of them both . i take the kitching and cole-house to be parts of the house , and i have sometimes business in them both . but i am most in my study and chamber , and i will take both chamber and colehouse for schismticks , if ever i hear either of them say , i am all the house , or [ it is lawful to be in no other room . ] lord pull up the separating schismatical thorn-hedge , which hath cursedly divided thy family and flock . chap. ii. the impleaders truth examined . § . christ saith , that the devil is the father of lies ; and doubtless he hath subtilty to excuse them and improve them : and it is a great advantage to them , that they are so disowned by humane nature , that it is taken for an injury to humanity , to charge any man to be a lyar ; and a ruffian will say it deserveth a challenge or a stab . you will think it a paradox , that natural dislike should be turned to the advantage of a sin . but it is but natural light convincing the understanding , not changing or fortifying the will against it . and therefore it is but pride of reputation and impenitency , that is indeed the fortress of the sin . § . accordingly it hath many times been my hard hap , to have such books written against me , ( and that by men whose reputation is not undervalued by themselves or their followers ) as were to be answered chiefly by a mentiris from end to end , if it would not seem by custom to be uncivil . and to tire the reader by turning a mintiris into a civil long parenthesis , and this as frequently as gross falshoods are openly said or intimated , is tedious , even when necessary . with one i was put to use my arithmetick , and to answer him by numbring the untruths asserted : but i have forborn it with others far more guilty , lest their reverence and power should make truth intolerable , whose passion or interest , or errour , had made gross lies seem true and necessary . § . this impleader hath been taught too much by the same . master ; and had he not spent part of his book on doctrinals , where his errata are but mendae , but been all historical where there are too many mendacia , i might have been put to the way of answering before-mentioned : but be they mendae or mendacia , they need aniendment , and the reader may need an antidote against them . § . some beginning we have on the title-page , [ pretending to shew the reasons of the sinfulness of conformity . ] mend. . i pretend in my plea to shew but the matter of nonconformity , and historical narrative of our judgment and matters of fact , passing by the reasons or arguments that must prove the things unlawful ; though reason may be gathered by the reader , from the matter or history itself . § . the same is repeated p. . [ he pretends to give reasons for the sinfulness of conformity , m. . ] and he overpasseth the chief part of my book , in which i state the case of government and separation , on pretence that it is [ a dark and dirty way in which i have lost my self . m. . and a little will satisfie him , that regards such an easie , dark and dirty answer . § . he guesseth that kneeling at the sacrament [ for that was then discourst of ] was one and the chief of those many heinous sins of conformity : mend. . it seems the man was present . reader , look to thy belief when thou art among such men . . there was not a word spoken then against the lawfulness of kneeling at the sacrament . . i openly declared that i held it lawful , and none of my brethren contradicted . . the thing which we proved unlawful then was , [ casting those faithful christians out of the church-communion in that sacrament , who dare not take it kneeling , for the reasons which cause them to think it sinful . ] § . impl. [ he will not urge the case , but barely mention matters of fact 〈…〉 much less do we here give the reasons of our cause . ] he dare not be so bold yet as to venture to displease us . but this hypocrisie is so thin , that the weakest eye may look through it . ] mend. . answ . . the printer put [ urge ] instead of [ argue ] which he was told in the errata . and he maketh the errour his own , by feigning the words to be mine . . if i have disputed the case by reasons , why did he not cite them , and tell where ? . he alloweth the reader to take him for a calumniator , who will judge the heart which he knoweth not , and bring no proof of the hypocrisie , which he saith the weakest eye may see . — indeed the weakest is liker than the strongest to see as he doth . . i will shew him three reasons , why it is not like to be hypocrisie . . because there are severe laws against all that shall deprave the common-prayer book , or accuse conformity of being sinful , which is excommunication ipso facto , &c. and also printing such a charge , might have cost both printer and writer dear : and the book was written divers years ( as many can witness ) before the act that restrained the press expired . and is it not credible that every man loveth himself , and is unwilling to be ruined ? i knew how easily you are displeased , and i felt a little what you can do when you are displeased , and others felt more . and is it hypocrisie then to say , i feared to displease you ? and verily , i was afraid by it of occasioning your wrath and contentious writings against many others , and making the breach wider , which i desired to heal . . when it 's visible in the book that i avoid argumentation , doth not that prove that i said true ? . the third proof , if god will , is yet to come : when you see my arguments added to the history , you will confess that it was not hypocrisie to tell you , that i used them not before . § . impl. [ for whereas the right reverend and learned bishop of eli had told mr. b. as he confesseth — that he would petition authority , that they might be compelled to give their reasons , he there saith , [ to answer the earnest demand of our reasons by you , the lord bishop of eli , i have published an historical narrative of our case and judgment . ] answ . had he not mentioned weak eyes , you might wonder that he saw not how he here confuteth his own falshood : when in the words cited i profess to give but the historical narrative of our case and judgment , and not the arguments or reasons for it : but he thinketh , [ if the history be given in answer to him that demanded the reasons , then the history containeth those reasons ; ] negatur sequela : the matter of fact must go first . the bishop demanded of me an account of our non-conformity . this is the beginning of an answer . the reasons may come next . § . impl. [ and if he may be believed , they are not only mr. baxter's reasons , ( m. . ) but of many others ( m. . ) for p. . it is said [ we that publish this here , give an account of our own judgment , how far we hold it lawful or unlawful to gather or separate from churches , or to differ from what is established by authority . answ . the man knoweth not the difference between giving an account of our judgment in thesi , and in hypothesi . if i tell you in what cases i hold it lawful or unlawful to separate from churches , or how far humane power may go ( as i have done in the second plea ) is that to tell what i take for sin in our conformity , and the reasons of it ? what if i shew how far lying is unlawful ? doth that say that conformity is lying , &c. § . impl. [ where is that allowance from authority , which he pretends to have so long waited for , and begg'd on his knees ( m. . ) and where is that care not to displease or provoke the conformists , by shewing the many heinous sins in their conformity ( m. . ) when without leave of god ( m. . ) or man , he not only endeavours to displease ( m. . ) but to ruine us . ( m. . ) if any thing may be , this is worse than his hypocrisie , it is mere distraction and rage ( m. . ) when our common adversaries the papists , &c. answ . . it was leave that i desired , but i never said , i begg'd it on my knees : but that i would gladly do it , could that prevail . . i never shewed the heinous sins of the conformists , but over and over professed that i accused not them , nor meddled with their case ; but only said , how heinous a sin it would be to us to conform , till we knew more reason for it than we do ! . that it is without leave of god , that we give a reason of our not conforming , i take for false , while our superiours so long and earnestly commanded it , and it is so necessary to abate the dividing odium raised against us , rom. . . if it be possible , as much as in you lyeth , live peaceably with all men . ] and if we are taken for intollerable malefactors , is not undeceiving our accusers and haters a necessary means of peace ? . it 's false that an endeavour to undeceive the offended , is an endeavour to displease them . . and it is more palpably false , that [ i endeavour their ruine . ] . how false is it then , that [ this is distraction and rage ? ] and what more necessary to unite us against the common adversaries ? what physicians hath this poor nation , that know no way to unite us , but laying us in jails with rogues , till we can believe all to be lawful which they impose ? reader , pitty the case of this poor land ! what hands are we fallen into ? what false doctrine is charged on us ? what is the crime that we have committed ? we are forbidden to preach christ's gospel , though we were solemnly devoted to it by ordination , under the penalties of great mulcts , and imprisonments , and ruine , till we will do that which after our best enquiry we verily judge would be our heinous sin . we forbear many years to tell them so much as what it is which we dare not to do ; till at last , the bishops themselves tell us , they will petition authority to constrein us to it : and parliament-men long askt us , what is that you stick at ? and when after about seventeen or eighteen years silence , i do but tell them what it is , the clergy-men are so displeased , that they tell me , that it is distraction , and rage , and an endeavour to ruine them . when i never moved to put one priest of them out of his benefice , nor bishop , dean , archdeacon , canon , prebend , out of a farthing of his maintenance , nor one bishop from their lordships , or parliament-power ; much less did i ever motion the silencing of any one of them , or making them pay fourty pound a sermon , or laying them in ●ayl , as we are used ; and yet they cry out , that we endeavour to ruine them . the lord pity his poor flock ! what a case are we in , when our pastors seem to think , that they are ruined , if we be but suffered to preach christ's gospel , and to live out of a jayl : and think that if we offer to refel the slanders that render us odious to them , and do but speak for our ministry and liberties , as every malefactor is allowed by the judges to speak for himself , we seek the ruine of our clergy-accusers ? do not heathens abhor such injustice as this ? my purse is less to me than my ministry ; and all that any man can take from me , will be much less than fourty pound a sermon : and yet if any men on the high-way , or in my house , should not only take away all that i had , but afterward prefer a bill against me , as seeking their ruine , because by reason i intreated them to forbear , and that in vain , it would be one of the oddest cases that hath come into westminster-hall . i was once neighbour to a valiant knight , who yet was so gentle , that when the hookers in a moonshine-night were hooking his cloaths and goods through the window , and he lay in bed and saw them , he lay still , and mildly told them , gentlemen , this is not well done , these things are not yours ; if you are taken , you may be hanged for it . and by that time his sermon to them was done , they had got what they came for , and were gone . but i never heard that they entred a suit against him , for seeking to ruine their trade by his reprehension . but if any of you have such a trade , as will not endure the plea of innocent sufferers for peace or mercy , without your ruine , i would some one that you have more regard for , would perswade you quickly to lay by that trade , lest when christ is judge , and saith , inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these , you did it to me , your clergy will not save you from his sentence ; were it but the devouring of widows houses , it is not the longest liturgy that will excuse you by a legit ; nor will you escape with burning in the hand , unless repentance now prevent it . the evil servant that stuffs his guts , and beats his fellows , presuming on his lords delay , you know is threatned with a sharper penalty . § . impl. p. . no person of any note , that i have heard of , in all that party who were in places of trust and publick employment , did on the late test refuse to communicate with the church of england . answ . . how far doth your hearing reach ? . how many of that party have you known in such places of trust ? i suppose you know , when the test in the corporation-act was imposed , that party were then turned out of all corporation-power ? in some places not two of the old staid in : and is it any wonder then , if none of that party be in such power ? . and is communicating in the lords supper all the conformity that is scrupled ? and what 's all this to our controversie ? § . impl. [ when all our united strength is too little to withstand the attempts of our common adversaries ; it is a wonder to me , with what confidence and what designe he should not only proclaim conformity on the ministers part to be impossible , but endeavour also with all his might to withdraw the laity from our communion . ] m. . answ . . is it a truth , that one that holdeth communion with your church , and speaketh and writeth for it , and disswadeth none from it , doth endeavour with all his might to withdraw the laity from it ? can you not forbear this ill custome a few lines together ? . ex ore tuo : see , reader , the man confesses the need of our united strength . hold him to that word : and i repeat , if he and the rest of that tribe do believe , that it was morally possible that the two thousand silenc'd ministers , and all that came after them , should believe all the things which i named in my plea for peace , and all the rest which many scruple , are lawful for them to do ; i wonder not at any confusion , calamity or corruption that shall befal a church that is conducted by such men ! who would have thought that there had been such men among christians , and pastors of a reformed church ? but i do not believe that there are many such , that think it morally possible that we should all believe all conformity lawful ; they would never else have trusted so much to mulcts and jails , as to think their church undone without those helps . they are not such strangers to sence and conscience : it is the wearing out of the present generation of non-conformists , and alluring or affrighting youth from following them , which the men of any brains have trusted to . judge by these evidences of this mans wit and wondering . . by the great number of the things which we judge sinful : they might dispute men into their opinion in some few differences , that cannot in so many . . the sins feared are so heynous , as that conscience will not quickly universally swallow them . . the number of the dissenters : to dispute a few men out of their judgments in difficult cases proveth hard , much more many hundreds or thousands . . consider the quality of the silenced ministers : could they think that such men as anthony burges , sam. hildersham , mr. hughes , dr. manton , dr. seaman , &c. did not consider what they did , neither in their health , nor before their death ? did they never read or hear what might be said for the new-conformity ? had they not learning or wit enough to understand it ? or had they no conscience living or dying ? so many hundreds that after their best enquiries , and hearing all , remain non-conformists , are unlike to be all brought to conform . . judge by old experience : were old hildersham , ames , dod , and hundreds like them , brought to conformity heretofore ? mr. sprint , dr. burges and some others were , but more were not . did not even the westminster-assembly of old conformists forsake it assoon as they could ? . judge by the change of the case , and the writings even of the old conformists : such things are put into the new-conformity , as bilson , hooker , usher , and other old conformists have written against . and would they also repent and change their minds , if they were alive ? i again profess , that i am bound in charity and reason fully to conclude , that had usher , bilson , hooker , jewel , preston , sibbes , whately , bolton , and all such , yea dr. jo. burges , sprint , and such others of their minde that writ for the old conformity bin alive , they would all have bin nonconformists to our new impositions . . judge by the means that are used to convince us : is there any thing said that hath such cogent evidence as to convert so many hundred men to your opinions ? did such men as dr. twisse , mr. herle , mr. gataker , mr. vines , &c. want the instruction of our present lords , to make them wise enough to conform ? when i know none of the conformists writings that have so much as named some of the things that we think worst of . . judge by present experience : why is it not done , if it be morally possible ? have you not had near twenty years trial , by your reasonings , preachings , writings , reproaches , allurements , threatnings , canons , fines , jails , informers , crying out for execution of the laws , &c. and is it yet done ? have there not since more ( of the laity ) turned from you , than have turned to you ? will not experience convince you ? . judge by the great diversity of mens conditions and capacities , which i have elsewhere opened . will ever men of such different capacities , educations , &c. agree in such and so many things ? . judge by the requisites to such a concord . it must be by bringing all the ministry to a higher degree of knowledge , or conscience and honesty than all the nonconformists . for it can be nothing that you think keeps us from conforming , but ignorance or badness . ( dr. asheton undertaketh , as going to the bar of god , to prove that it is pride and covetousness ) and how can you hope to make us all so much wiser and better than we are ? do you believe that the seven thousand that had conformed to the directory , and staid in by conforming to your law , . were so much wiser and better than the two thousand that were cast out ? or that the greater part of your countrey-priests now ( if the lamenting people wrong them not ) do conform , because they know more , or are better men than we ? if it be so , he is unworthy to be a pastor , that knoweth not how hard a matter it is to make all the ministers of a nation so much wiser and better . he is blinde that seeth not that it is fines , jails and death , that our prosecutors trust to . and will true conscience be convinced by such arguments ? would you your selves change your minds in religion , if you were but fined and imprisoned ? if so , you are men of no true religion : if not , why expect you it from us ? § . but what am i doing ? will it not more tire than profit the reader , if i should number abundance more of his untruths ? i will step to his concluding farewel to me , and then see how he justifieth the trade , by pleading for equivocation , pag. . [ you gave several intimations that the king was popishly affected , as bishop bramhal affirms , ] mend. . answ . why did not the man tell where and when ? i have printed the contrary in the time of highest usurpation , that the king was no papist . is he not a calumniator , unless he prove it ? but he saith [ bishop bramhal affirms it . ] answ . a man that never saw me : why did he not cite bishop brambal's proof ? but see what this sort of men are come to ! do they think it enough to warrant their slanders of us , because one of their archbishops hath slandered us before them ? what credit then is to be given to such mens history or reports ? is this it in which the authority of archbishops consisteth , that they must be followed in slanders ? no : it is not their obedience to archbishops , but their conformity to a calumniating spirit : for brambal's predecessor , arch-bishop usher ( a man honoured by all good men that knew him , for learning , piety , and honesty ) was of no such authority with them ; but we are scorned for conforming to his judgment . but you see that a calumniator with you is no singular person . they are not ashamed to tell the world , that their archbishops lead them , and are as bad as they . § . impl. p. . [ you applauded the grand regicide , as one that prudently , piously and faithfully , to his immortal honour , did exercise the government . ] mend. magn . . answ . reader , do not wrong this man so much , as to think he is the father of this . he taketh it up but in conformity to his fathers and brethren that have oft printed it before him : and he must keep company and be conformable . alas ! it is not one or two such men as are the guides of souls in england : but what ? had he no pretence for it ? yes , more than for many of the rest . he that undertook to be a lying spirit in the mouth of all ahab's prophets , never undertook to deceive them without any pretence . i have somewhat else to do than to write the history of my actions in those times , as oft as any such man will tell such a story as this . in short , i thought then that both sides were faulty for beginning the war ; but i thought the bonum publicum , or salus populi , made it my duty to be for the parliament , as defensive against delinquents , and as they profest to be only for king , law and kingdom : when at the new moddle they left out [ for the king ] and changed their cause , i changed from them , and was sent by two assemblies of divines to do my best though to my utmost labour and hazard , to disswade them . cromwel having notice of it , would never let me once come near him or the head-quarters . i continued on all occasions publickly and privately to declare my judgment against him as a rebellious usurper till he died . but being at london a year or two before he died , the lord broghil ( since earl of orery ) would needs bring me to him ; where i dealt so plainly with him , in demanding by what right , against the will of almost all the kingdom , he pull'd down our lawful english monarchy that we were sworn to , and the parliament , as cast him into such passion , as broke out in reviling many of the worthiest parliament-men , that he knew me to be familiar with . the last time the earl of orery saw me , he told me , he had told the king of that conference , and that he should love me the better while he lived , for my faithfulness . he and lambert and thurloe were ( silently ) present . a twelvemonth after , sir francis nethersole would needs dispute me into repentance for being for the parliaments cause , by way of writing : i told him , that the sad effects were enough to make us all suspicious ; but i would give him those reasons that had moved me , with a true desire to know the full truth , that if i had erred , i might not remain through ignorance without repentance : he wrote to me , that in the mean time , seeing i was satisfied against cromwels usurpation , i should go to london to set it upon his conscience to perswade him to restore our present king : i sent him word , that as he took me for his adversary , so his conscience was not so easily perswaded to give up such a prey ; and that this was not now to do ; i had been lately with him , and i and others had tried such perswasions , or the like , in vain . while i was preparing my papers for sir francis nethersole , cometh out mr. harrington's oceana , contriving the settlement of a democracy , which they called a commonwealth ; and sir h. vane was about another model : i wrote somewhat against them , and mr. harrington printed a paper of gibberish , scorning at my ignorance in politicks : against him i wrote my political aphorisms , called a holy common-wealth , in the beginning pleading for the divine universal soveraignty , and next for monarchy as under god ; and next ( seeing they were all on new modelling ) i told them , how piety might be secured and promoted by monarchy ; and to get sir francis nethersoles answer for my fuller satisfaction , i added as to him , as i promised , the reasons that had moved me to be for the parliament . while i had purposed the later part first , oliver died , and his son richard was set up while i was writing the book : before i had finish'd it , the army had pull'd down first his parliament , and next richard himself ; i never had known a parliament more enclined to piety and peace . my deep displeasure against the madness of the army , that had rebelliously pull'd down all power , king , parliaments , and at last him whom they set up themselves , drew me first to write the sad meditations in the end , and then a sharp preface to the army against their rebellions : in which i aggravated their crime in the last instance among the rest , in putting down suddenly richard their protector , whom they had lately courted and set up : and i used these words , [ it was written while the lord protector ( prudently , piously , faithfully , to his immortal honour , how ill soever you have used him ) did exercise the government , ] &c. now so congruous are these mens principles and practice , that they fear not to tell the world in print , and that successively from one another , that i [ said this of the grand regicide ] oliver , whom i so openly and so deerly opposed : and a putarem , or a non putarem , will excuse a volume of such tricks , if the cheat or falschood be discovered . they might easily have seen by the whole scope of that preface , that it was richard , and not oliver , that i spake of . it was not oliver that they misused and pulled down . and i praised him , to shew the evil of their rebellious proceedings . it was not taking the government , which he had no right to , which i praised ; but his short exercise : and i thought him praise-worthy on many accounts . . he never meddled in any war against the king , notwithstanding all his fathers interest and power , but was suspected to be for the king. . we never heard that he sought or expected the government , but it was thrust upon him . . when he was offered help presently to apprehend them that supprest him ; he refused it , and renounced the government at a word , resolving not to shed a drop of blood to keep that which was so thrust upon him . . he set himself by a parliament of pious peaceable men , to have supprest heresie and confusion , and to have restored order , and equity , and peace . . the kings chief friends about us told me , that richard was for the king , and that some were treating with him to restore him : though i confess , i hardly believed that his self-denial was so great . i thought all this had so much laudable , as to aggravate the madness of that army , who when they had destroved the king , and pulled down the parliament , did also put down him whom they had set up and sworn fidelity to themselves . his want of right did not justifie their perfidiousness . thus the conformist grounds his accusation . § . impl. p. . he repeateth a leaf of my own words to mr. bagshaw , against the armies rebellion against king and parliament , and setting up the protector , and the rest of their injuries ; not seeing that he confuteth his own calumny , while to prove that i am for those actions , he proveth that i have condemned them as heinous sin : see here how strongly these men argue ! § . impl. p. . [ his applauding the first boutefeus , as glorious saints in heaven , his vindicating the authority and war of the parliament against the king , his pertinacious adhering to the covenant , crying down the royal martyr as a papist , after he had sealed the sincerity of his heart to the reformed religion with his blood ; and the crying up his murtherer for a prudent , pious and faithful governour : his principles in his holy commonwealth , and his present practices in defending schism , and so sowing sedition , &c. cry aloud for repentance and retraction , &c. ] answ . here are his doctrinal principles exemplified : he hath now got the art of linking and condensing falshoods so close , that i must cease numbring them , while one is made up o● so many . . the first accusation went before , p. , . where he mentions brooke , pym , hampde● , and white , &c. saying , [ what if they are gone to another place ? — you were ashamed to continue them in your ( book ) being left out in your later editions . answ . . i left them out , because the book could not be licensed else : and should i not rather leave out a few names , than cast away the whole book ? had i done it in repentance or to please such as you , you tell me how it would have been taken . . i never spake with one of them ; but i have heard so credible testimony of their conversation , especially of hampden and white , that i am far more confident that they are in heaven than that such as you will ever come thither . impartial men of both sides honoured them ; i heard an antient grave gentleman , that was no phanatick , nor accounted a puritan , but a sober honest man , say , . [ if i might choose what person in all the world i would be , i would be john hampden . ] . it is not only bishop jer. tailor , but politicians commonly that acknowledge , that it hath not pleased god to make politick cases of the degrees and forms of power so easie to us , as that all good christians can decide the controversies about them . it 's commonly agreed , that god hath not forbidden monarchy , aristocracy , democracy , or mixt government ; nor made only one of these to be lawful . and it is past controversie then , that it is national fundamental constituting contracts , laws or customs , and not any express scripture , that must tell us de facto & jure , what is the species of each countreys government . it is not in the creed , lords-prayer , decalogue , or sacraments : therefore the knowledge of it is not of absolute necessity to salvation : i finde it not in the condition of the covenant of grace . methinks they that say heathens may be saved , should grant it of christians that know not when a sinful division falls out between king and parliament ( and that with many difficult circumstances ) which it is that should be then obeyed or defended . christ was drawn by hypocrites to pay tribute to caesar , rather than offend ; but he would not be drawn to justifie his dominion over the jews . paul commands obedience to the higher powers as of god , and as watching for our good : but he would not be drawn to declare , whether it was caesar or the senate which was the higher power , when they came to be divided in their commands . . i have produced too large testimony from antiquity , how ordinarily the bishops of east and west too quickly owned and praised the usurpers of the empire , when once in possession : not only the synods in martius time that owned maximus , but ambrose and theopl . alexand . to eugenius , and gregory the first , and many western bishops , and ordinarily far most of the eastern bishops presently owned usurpers , that came into the empire by the murder or deposition of their predecessors . and are all these fathers and christians damn'd ? . the liturgie requires that when such are buried , they are openly pronounced saved ; that is , that god of his great mercy hath taken to himself their souls out of the miseries of this life , and that we hope to be with them : we must be silenced and imprisoned if we will not say this , and subscribe to it , and reproached if we do : this is the conformity which they would have us yield . . do you not tremble your self , when you question whether they be not gone to a worse place and revile us for the hopes of their salvation ? doth not your conscience ask , if such men be not saved , what will become of me , that deliberately write such volumes of falshoods against god's true servants , and their present serving him , as if they must cease preaching and all church-worship , till they dare conform to all imposed ? o why will you condemn your self in others ! . i finde many of your selves honouring bishop jewel , bishop bilson , and mr. hooker , and such others that held the principles which those men went upon ; and you never yet , that i heard of , reviled any man for hoping that they were saved : no nor grotius , nor barclay , nor the common sort of lawyers , and politick-writers , that have said more of the cases in which kings may be resisted and deposed , than they did , or than i ever said . if such principles may stand with the salvation of grotius , hooker , bilson , althusius , alstedius , willius , &c. why not of theirs that i have mentioned ? . you know , i suppose , that it was mostly episcopal men that began the war ; lords , commons , and souldiers on both sides . ( if you will not know , and can be ignorant when you list , your will hath a freedom which mine hath not . ) and are you sure that your conformists also are damned ? . you hereby teach them that are confident that the laudian clergie were the chief causers of the war , to conclude therefore that they are damned . and so our clergy on both sides will be like gregory the seventh's and the emperour 's in germany , first exciting and encouraging the princes and people of the two sides , and then taking oaths against each other , and lastly damning one another ; till a reverend council of bishops decreed , that all the bishops on the emperours side should be deposed , and the dead digg'd out of their graves and burnt . . you will open the eyes of the people to see what manner of spirit you are of , and that it is no wonder if you cannot endure us to preach and live by you ; who take us for criminal for hoping that men are saved , who otherwise were of most exemplary lives ; but being in point of politiques on the parliaments side , and doing accordingly , while they professed to arm only against subjects , holding the person of the king to be inviolable . i finde not that even in the barons wars , or the wars between the houses of lancaster and york , no nor king stephens , the censures were so high . anselme archbishop of canterbury is sainted , that was against his king. § . the second charge is , my vindicating the parliaments war against the king ] answ . . i believed then that it was not against him , when their commissions were for him . . i proposed my reasons upon a learned knights demand , requesting satisfaction by an answer : and had you or any of you ever since confuted them , it had been more charity than only to recite them and condemn them . but i have over and over publickly declared my revocation of that whole book , ( though not of all that 's in it ) and wisht that i had never written it , for more reasons than i will now name to you . . my judgment about the king's power , and our obedience , i have fully declared in the second plea for peace . § . the third accusation is , [ his pertinacious adhering to the covenant . ] answ . . the man knoweth that i own not the imposing it , specially as a test for the nations concord , it being an engine of division so imposed . . that i own not the taking it so imposed . . that i deny that it obligeth me to any thing that is evil , yea or from any obedience to the king in things lawful , nor to any thing but what i have a former obligation to from god himself . . but i confess that i dare not say , that it obligeth no man to repent of his sin , nor to be against popery , prophaneness or schism , nor to endeavour any amendment of church-government . and i will not deny , but that i take perjury to be no indifferent thing ; which of these is the crime of adherence , he tells me not . . the next accusation is , [ crying down the royal martyr as a papist . ] answ . i have said , till he tell me where , and how he proveth it , i must take him for a gross calumniator , and wonder not that he conformeth . in my key for catholicks he may see where i prove the contrary , that the king was no papist . i will confess that which he knoweth not : , and . when the kings letter in spain to the pope was printed out of mr. de chesne by prynne , i was struck a while with doubt and suspicion ; but i soon considered , . that the words promised but endeavours for unity . . and that it was written in the spaniards power , in a streight . § . the next is , [ crying up his murderer . ] answ . a repeated malicious falshood . § . the next accusation is , [ his principles in his holy commonwealth . ] answ . . i oft told you , the book is revoked long ago . . the principles which i own i have published as aforesaid in the third plea : and he doth not confute them . . of the wars i spake before : what other doth he name ? bishop morley recited many of them ; and the first as i remember was , that i say , [ that pretence to unlimited monarchy is unlawful , or tyranny , because god hath limited all humane power . ] if this be heresie or disloyalty , i hold it still : i mistake much , if any kings have power from god to command all their subjects to blaspheme or deny god or christ , or to renounce his hope of heaven , or to worship the devil , and sell his soul to him , nor to murder father , mother , wife or children . i will venture to dispute this with any conformist . but as to the harder question , whether kings may kill any or all their senators or innocent subjects for nothing , or burn all their cities , or take all their wives , children and estates , i will leave it to statesmen to debate . i am sorry that ever i wrote so much about their matters . § . the next charge is , [ his present practices in defending schism . ] answ . prove it , or number it with your slanders . what is the schism ? is it schism to say , that it is unlawful like atheists to cease all publick worship of god , till conscience can finde it lawful to conform ? others think that the contrary is both schismatical and atheistical . can you prove that i am for silencing faithful ministers , and making partition separating hedges in the vineyard of christ ? my rule is , to go no further from any christian than he goeth from christ , or would force me to sin for his communion . § . the next charge is , sedition ; that is , not giving over god's worship , till i can swear , say and do all that is imposed . where is the proof of all these accusations ? but their method of justice is , first to do execution ( casting out ) and next to justifie it by an accusation behinde our backs , and next to bring their witnesses , when we are dead or forbidden to speak ; and they are one anothers witnesses . this mans proof is , that bishop bramhall of ireland said it : the next mans may be , that this man said it : dr. ashetons proof was , that the debate-maker said it ; and who said it to him i know not . and p. . this man hath an infallible witness , bishop morley then of worcester . and what saith he ? why first , that i did what i could to make the king odious to his people . but where 's his proof ? it 's enough ; the bishop said it . . i sowed the seeds of sedition at kederminster : the proof is the same ; the bishop said it . . the bishop taught him to adde , [ i my self have heard him , in a conference in the savoy , maintain such a position , as was destructive to the legislative power of god and man. ] but what if the bishop spake as falsely , as if he had said that i pleaded for mahomet ? where is your proof then ? i after printed the words with the dispute of the dr's , to which they were an answer : and i have in my second plea , in a disputation of scandal , vindicated them . let any man of brains read both , and believe the bishop and you if he can . but , reader , if such mens renewed accusations cause me yet to print that answer to the bishop's letter , which for peace i cast away ; blame not me , but them that force me to it : i am for peace , but they are for war. § . but what good will it do the reader , to have this mans falshoods detected and numbred ? they are so many and so gross , that it is a troublesome work ; as p. . [ your principles which assert , that the king may be deposed . ] answ . burn any book of mine with scorn , where i ever asserted any such thing : but if it be a forgery , believe such men accordingly . so p. . [ refusing the tests of obedience , which require only the disclaiming of rebellious principles and practices . ] answ . see my profession and renunciation , second plea , chap. , and my confutation of hooker , chr. direct . par. . pag. , . he joyns with those that would bring us into the plot , and fathers his accusation on the acts of parliament against us . pag. . he saith , i have [ a better opinion of the papists , than of the conformists , ] because i say , i had rather be saved from the gallows by a papist , than hang'd by a conformist . so p. . [ to withdraw your avowed communion ] answ . a fiction : witness the parish-assembly . pag. . your practice continueth and encourageth separation from our communion . ] false . ibid. cartwright , after he had written as much as he could against conformity , repented and conformed at last . ] answ . a fiction : no more than i conform . many a time have i been in warwick , where he last lived master of the hospital , and the antient people there and at coventry knew the contrary . if to joyn in the liturgy and sacrament ( and perhaps rather than be silenced , to wear the surplice ) be conforming , you abuse many whom you reproach and silence as nonconformists . pag. . he mentions my positive opposing and hindering their communion . the book is much made up of such untruths in matter of fact. § . his postscript is his ingenuous conjectures , if not proofs , that i am a liar and an hypocrite , in the dating of my prognostication ; and that it was written . answ . should i abuse the reader by a particular answer to them ? that it was not written , many persons that saw them can witness . will his reasonings make me ignorant of such a matter of my own fact ? all that i know of it is this , . as far as i can remember , it was shortly after the savoy-conference , that the first copy was written ; but just the month i do not remember . . finding this copy among my rude neglected papers , i wrote it fair in . and my memory is not so strong , as to be sure that i altered not a word : for i cast away the first rude copy . . after that , i thought it had been lost , not seeing it some years : till mr. matthew silvester told me , that i had long ago lent it him to read : i did not think it worth the publishing . but one of judgment that he shewed it to , thinking otherwise , i added a few lines in the end : this is the truth , and if it be the impleaders interest to believe it to be false , let him use his intellect and pen accordingly , i 'le no more strive against him . chap. iii. his answer to the first plea for peace examined . § . because the great charge against th● non-conformists is , . their not conforming . . and that till they can conform they cease not preaching and all publick worship o● god ( which is to live like atheists , and chus● damnation . ) the first thing that i did in the first , plea , was to declare our judgment about churches , ministry , church-communion and seperation , ( in what cases we hold it sinful or lawful . ) to my great wonder , almost all this i● past over by all my accusing answerers that ●●●● have seen , as if it had bin little to them . and they go on to take it for granted , that we are guilty of schism and sinful separation , or in wondering that we do not grant it . . and as to the second part of our charge , i have seen none yet but mr. cheney and this impleader that pretend to bring proof of the lawfulness of the●● points of conformity which we avoid . and to mr. cheney i gave a reply , which i judged satisfactory ; and this man where they agree repeateth the same things , as if i had not replied ; and therefore i refer him to that reply , rather than write the same over again . but in some things they as much differ from each other as from me . § . pag. . he premiseth , . what are the parts of the book to which we are to declare our assent and consent ? answ . all things contained and prescribed in and by it . are not these words plain ? we are not for equivocation : what he saith of this , is answered to mr. ch. . pag. . he saith , [ it is granted by the non-conformists , that the common-prayer book , as it is now amended and abstracted from the declarations and subscriptions required by the act of uniformity , is better to be assented to , than as it stood before . answ . . i know none of those non-conformists : it 's better in some things ( as the translation of the epistles and gospels ) and worse to them in other . . but what 's this to the case ? . pag. . he saith , [ non-conformists grant , that it is better to submit to the practice of a doubtful small evil , than to forbear a necessary great duty . ] answ . this i answered to mr. ch. i know one of them that grant it . they suppose that a doubtful evil ] is really evil ; and the doubt will not make it lawful ( or better , ) but less evil than a greater : and that no duty should ●e forborn , while duty , nor evil done . but ●e must not forbear duty till we can do it without adherent evil : but we must do our best to ●●rbear all-evil . ibid. he speaketh against over-strict interpre●tions of impositions . answ . i stand to bishop ●anderson's solutions , whom he citeth , which ●e in the end of the first plea for peace . pag. . . he saith , [ practice is the best ezounder of the law : many laws are worded for terrorem iniquum petere , ut quod aequum est ferant ; lex non curat minima . neither the lan of god or man is sollicitous about circumstances and the lesser punctilios . ] answ . . when they either comprehend the least in generals , or name them particularly , we think they extend to them : and that he that breaketh one of the least , and teacheth 〈…〉 all be called least in the kingdome of ●●●● mat. . . the seven thousand ministers ( and more ) that conformed to the new-made law , did not stay till practice expounded it . . and whose practice must it be that is the exposition ? when your practices much much differ ? . i think you abuse the law and lawgivers , by making them first injust , iniquum petendo , and next unintelligible , and lastly opening a door for disobedience . pag. . . he noteth that we are not agreed what is unlawful in conformity . answ . . nor are we agreed of all forbidden in gods laws ; must we therefore forbear no sin ? . we are agreed ( as far as i know ) of all the many particulars enumerated in the plea : deliver us from what we are agreed against . . the bishops of england are not agreed in how many things we must differ from the papists : all are not for so much of theirs as the greeks , or as grotius , or bishop bromhal , or mr. thorndike , or will. forbes of edenborough were for . and what of that ? must not popery be renounced till you are all herein agreed ? . pag. . he noteth what i said of the root of the first difference between the old nonconformists and conformists , one part cleaving to the scripture , and the other being for reteining all that came in before , and common to them with the greeks , [ which ( saith he ) doubtless was the sounder opinion ; so that the foundation of non-conformity was laid on a false principle , and they that built thereon frequently raised sedition , &c. ] answ . . they that thought each mutable circumstance of worship must have a particular command in scripture , erred ; but there were few such , at least of any learning : but those that took the law of god in nature and scripture , for the only and perfect universal law , did not erre . . so many corruptions in doctrine , worship and discipline came in before , and are reteined by the greek church , that we cannot make that the measure of our reformation : if you are for all [ that is common to the papists and greeks ] how prove you that you may silence and imprison all that are not ? . and if this be the rule , you are yet ill reformed . it is more than three and three ceremonies and additions which you yet want , which the papists have : i could name such a catalogue as might make english-men better understand what your conforming principles are , and what must be further expected when you are able . and the council of florence will tell us , when once england is of the greek religion , how possible it is to step over to the pope . but why doth not the church of england conform to the greek church now , if it be so great a duty , as will warrant the silencing and imprisoning of refusers ? i hear but of few that grow in love with their worship , since the greeks had a church in london ; especially scholars that understand them . . but what if the first non-conformists erred ? what 's that to us any more than to you ? we reverence the primitive example more than theirs ; and never took them for the masters of our faith. . your charge of their sedition is much more sharply laid on the protestants in general by pateson , the image of both churches , and by philanax anglicus , and many others , than you lay it on the old non-conformists : and all parties can talk at that rate against others , as pryn doth of prelates treasons . § . pag. . of assent and consent to all things , and subscription that nothing is contrary to the word of god. . he tells us , what men have subscribed . . that we must allow it a just and favourable construction . answ . i grant that worthy men have subscribed , and that as favourable a construction must be made , as will stand with truth and justice . but this doth us no good . § . pag. . impl. [ all lawgivers do leave to the judges and magistrates a power to interpret the doubtful letter of the law , and to mitigate the rigour of its execution , in order to the publick good . ] answ . . i have answered this to mr. cheney : there is an interpretation which giveth us the general obliging sence of the law ; which conscience must judge by , if we will subscribe : and this belongeth only to the lawgivers , as i have proved . and there is an interpretation which only directs the judicial sentence , in this or that mans particular case , as whether he shall be punished as guilty or not ; and this is it that belongeth to the judges : if the judges will put a false sence on the oath of allegiance and supremacy , i may not take them in that sence . their expository power must direct their own sentence , and that the execution ; but if i be put to swear or subscribe my self to any imposed words , no judge can absolve me from taking them in the usual sence , unless the law-givers give another . this is our rule , and we dare not equivocate . . as to your confused talk , that [ magistrates can dispense with the lesser parts of the law , ] it is useless to me : the lawgivers can expound , suspend and change the law : the executive magistrate can suspend his own sentence and execution in some cases ; but not the sence of the law , nor allow my conscience to change the sence . § . impl. [ all that is required by the act , is unfeignedly to assent and consent that there is such a measure of truth and goodness in the book of common prayer , as qualifies it for the publick worship of god. ] answ . . gratis dictum . who authorized you to say that [ assenting and consenting to all things contained and prescribed ] meaneth not as it saith ? but only an useable measure of truth and goodness ? is this the usual sence of [ all things , &c. ] if not , where have the law givers given us another ? if you can think so , why must all be silenced that think otherwise , and dare not be so bold ? § impl. [ the title of the act is the key — if uniformity be observed , the act is satisfied . ] answ . 〈…〉 is not de fine only , but de medio , to secure uniformity , by profest assent , &c. all lawyers know that laws have usually more in the body than is in the title . § . impl. [ they say , . assent implies the truth , and consent the goodness . . all things they say , meaneth all words and expressions . . by [ to the use ] is meant those things that come not into use . . when it 's said , in sensu composito , conteined and prescribed in and by , &c. they extend it to all things that are conteined as well as prescribed . ] answ . i see that wit is useful to many ends : here are so many and rare expository evasions , as escohar or bauny could not have excelled in them . . if assent signifie not judging all to be true , it hath lately got a new signification : consent indeed signifieth oft an object practicable and existent for some good motive of consent . . if the [ all things ] in the books , mean not [ all the words ] but [ things ] distinct from [ words ] i would we could know what they are : sure it is not the paper and ink that the parliament mean. prayers and forms are words . actions or ceremonies that are not words , are but little of the book , or rather none of it , being but the matters commanded by it . . there is no word or part of the book that was not made for some use . if not , how shall we know which words are useless ? . i do not think that there was a man in the parliament when the act was made , that ever thought of this subtle exposition , that any man would take [ all conteined and prescribed ] only in sensu composito ? and so that we profess assent to nothing contained in the book , but that which is prescribed also . if so , is not [ conteined ] an idle word when all men know that all that is prescribed is conteined ? and yet by that time prescribed doctrines , calendars , rules , forms , &c. are taken in , they will prove more than my assent and consent will reach to . § . . whereas the commons brought the lords to agree with them , for not limiting the sense of the declaration of assent and consent to the use of all ; he answereth , . that the bishops then were more our friends than the commons : as if the bishops always went with the major vote of the lords . . he giveth reasons , why it is meet that men approve as well as use what they do . and what else is it that we say , but the using without approving , satisfieth not the imposition ? § . he citeth my words , that we may take an oath , whose words in the plain and proper sense are lawful . but the question is , whether these be such ? § . ii. pag. . he defends the words , [ easter-day on which the rest depend , is always the first sunday after the first full-moon , which happens next after the of march. ] which being oft false , he saith , . being a general rule , it may be allowed to have some exception . answ . and so they say [ always ] and they mean not always , but sometimes . . he proceedeth : [ the rubrick doth not say , [ a rule ! but [ rules ] in the plural : and where the first rule fails , the defect is supplied in the second . ] answ . what may not such a wit prove true and lawful , if the man be willing ? . the rules contained in that section under that title , are only this , and one for advent and other sundays , and none for easter but this . . to say , this is always so , and after to say the contrary , is but to say , one is true , and the other false . always excludeth your acknowledged falshood sometimes . . he saith , the defect never cometh into practice . answ . it 's an useable rule , and so you covenant to practice it , if the use of all things be intended : and so you must keep two easter-days . object . . [ mr. b. might as well have objected against the almanack , which saith february hath days . ] answ . so i should if it had said [ always ] and [ only . ] § . iii. impl. p. . defendeth these words , [ we are fully perswaded in our judgments , and we here profess it to the world , that the book as it stood before established by law , doth not contain any thing contrary to the word of god. ] and . he blameth me for omitting the condition of a just and favourable construction , &c. answ . i undertook not to transcribe the whole book , which is in so many hands : a just construction is still supposed , and as favourable as will stand with truth . i have oft enough told him the rule by which we interpret words , viz. the ordinary sence in which they are understood by men of the profession which they belong to , unless the speakers otherwise expound them . if he thought this rule to be false , he should have disputed that . if on pretence of [ favourable interpretations ] you resolve to put a good meaning on any words which your interest perswadeth you to take , nobis non licet , we cannot do so : else we could take any oath in the world , while all words have divers sences , and are arbitrary signs , which we can put what sence upon that pleases us . § . impl. p. , . [ he well knows our assent to the words there mentioned is not required , nor could be intended . answ . utterly false : i know it not , but verily believe the contrary . impl. for it is only a profession of our superiours that were then in being , what their judgment and belief was , &c. ] answ . so the rubrick and the articless were the judgment of your superiours : but are not they , and that preface , parts of the book ? if not , tell us how we shall know what are parts of it , and to what we must consent ? and must you not assent and consent to all things in it ? i like not those equivocations , which will make oaths and promises to be but what the speaker please . § . impl. [ mr. b. doth very ill to recount those mistranslations in the old book , which are amended in the new , &c. — which mr. b. knows to be false , ( viz. that assent to them is required . ) answ . . how did this bold man know my thoughts ? i know these words to be a deliberate printed falshood , and this man to have so many such , as that to me he is incredible . . when the new book justifieth the old , as having nothing contrary to the word of god , and you must assent to all things in the new one , i think you assent to that justification . if you mean otherwise , tell men your own thoughts ; but if you would any more be believed , speak not falsly of other men , whom you never knew . . the old translation of the psalms is still used , unreformed . do you not assent to that neither ? § . he tells us that [ psal . . . the two translations are not contradictory , they were not obedient to his word , and they rebelled not against his word : because some translaters understood it of the egyptians , and others otherwise . ] answ . and had the text those contrary senses ? if not , is not one of them contrary to the text ? § . impl. p. . [ the same answer will serve the exception against the collects of the old book , which for divers days together used the word [ this day . ] answ . and the same reply will serve : you dare not say that on christmas-day , whitsunday , &c. [ this day ] signifieth not the very particular day , but the week or time of the year . and hath not the same collect the same sense on the next days ? are your words like cyphers , that change their power by such additions ? § . impl. [ little reason have they to object against any words or phrases in the liturgy , who are still fond of singing psalms according to the translation of strenhold and hopkins , &c. ] answ . little reason hath any man to be forward to believe your affirmations , that are so used to falshood . i finde none so willing to use other versions as they that you say are fond of this : many use the scot's version , many barton's , some rous's , and some mr. patrike : and the reason why they no more forsake the old one , is not because they are fond of it , but lest they too much displease the church of england , which hath allowed no other , and those that are apt to turn all reformations and varieties into reproach . § . iv. to what he saith of the apocrypha , i answered already to mr. cheney , and will not now repeat . the objections against the fictions in tobit are bishop barlow's , now of lincoln , in a learned m. s. written to satisfie mr. dodwell . § . v. our great doubt about the abuse of godfathers , and excluding parents from their proper office , he saith nothing to that needs any reply ; but what is in the book which he answers , and in the reply to mr. cheny , he answers as if he understood not the question : and feigns the liturgy to lay that on the parents which it doth not , but excludes them from it , and laies it on uncapable persons . § . impl. p. . [ mr. b. excepts against the rubrick , which saith , it is certain by gods word , that children , which are baptized , dying before they commit actual sin , are undoubtedly saved . ] this being a rubrick , and never coming to use in the publick worship , it cannot reasonably be thought to be imposed as an article of faith on others , but only as the judgement of our superiours . answ . i perceive the parliaments act and declaration is to you a mere nose of wax ; it meaneth what you will , or none can tell what . . are rubricks of no use ? yea those that determine of doctrines , which are not only de fide , but matters of salvation , certain undoubted salvation of all baptized infants ? what is of use if these be not ? . are such doctrines of certain faith no parts of the book ? nor contained in it ? is not your superiour's judgment imposed on you to assent to ? what then is imposed to be believed ? § . but p. . he citeth texts as proving the truth of the article . answ . not a word to the purpose . he seems not to understand that it is not of the salvation of true believers infants that we doubt : but whetherthis be true of all without exception that have such godfathers as ours , that take not the children for their own ; even the children of atheists , infidels , heathens , mahometans , &c. all which the minister is bound by the canon to baptize , if offered . § . vii . impl. . [ mr. b. is the first that hath accused the church of england of instituting a second covenant of grace . ] answ . still more untruths . i have no such accusation : it is but for making and imposing on pain of rejection , &c. another sacrament , or a sign too much sacramental , of the same covenant of grace , which baptism is the sacrament of . . and of this he cannot truely say that i am the first . i proved from the imposed words and ends , that it is appointed to the uses of a sacrament , but indeed not by christ , and therefore is but a humane sacrament ; and i answered his objections to mr. che. which he taketh no notice of . he cites me as saying , that parents may offer their children to baptism , though they cannot have it without the cross , it being the ministers sin , and not theirs . and what then ? is it therefore none of the ministers sin , . to consent to it . . to use it . . to refuse to christen children whose parents dare not submit to it . . nor the bishops to silence ministers that refuse such conformity ? § . p. , . he would explain the rubrick by art. . those that rightly received baptisine , &c. and christian proprietors may offer their children , &c. answ . . the canon forbiddeth the minister to refuse any as aforesaid ; what 's this then to the rest ? . right coram ecclesiâ giveth the church power to receive them : but it must be right coram deo to remission , &c. that must assure their salvation : which we cannot prove that the children of atheists , sadduces , or infidels have . . the conformists are here themselves divided : one part of them give that certain salvation only to all baptized infants , which the other give to all in the world , baptized or unbaptized . see mr. che. and the answer . § . viii . about our refusing children , whose parents refuse the foresaid crossing , and abuse of godfathers , he saith , p. . [ . that in private baptisme , and consequently in other cases of necessity , the church alloweth the omission of cross and godfathers . . that they have a low esteem of the sacrament , that for this withdraw . ] answ . . your consequence is contrary to the canon : and 't is known that the church allows not ministers to forbear them on pretence of such consequences . . much less do they allow the refusal of dissenters for such a necessity . . and it may be no contempt of the sacrament , when men are afraid of a sinful use of it though they mistake . . nor is it such a fault of the receiver or parent , that will warrant a minister to deny them christendome , or a sacrament by your selves judged so necessary to salvation . § . p. . he returneth to the case of crossing , as a transient image in worship , &c. i think few will judge his answer worthy of a reply . § . p. . ix . the next is , [ that no man should come to the sacrament without a full trust i● god's mercy and a quiet conscience . ] i would make nothing worse than it is : i do not think the imposers meant that all men should stay away till they had a full trust and quiet conscience . but that 's the plain importance of the words : here therefore it is more ill words than ill meaning , which i do deny assent and consent to . § . x. pag. . about compelling each communicant to receive thrice a year , he saith , . it is the statute , not the minister . . it is only the duely qualified . answ . . the bishops are statute-makers . . nothing more common with the canoneers , than to call to magistrates to execute such laws . . the canons and liturgy require it . . it is not true , that it 's only the duely qualified : it is all that are not naturally , but morally unfit , that is , that are at age , and have reason and health . if the priest should put away any as unfit , he must accuse them to the chancellor , and they must be excommunicate and lie in jayl while they live , unless they communicate . so that here is a plain exposition . . there are multitudes unfit to communicate , whom the minister cannot put away , that were they not constrained , would keep away themselves ; as secret atheists , infidels , sadduces , socinians , arians , seekers , secret fornicators , thieves , drunkards , &c. that are conscious of their sin and impenitence : but rather than lie in jayl , will all communicate . § . impl. [ what deplorable times are we fallen into , that our highest priviledge should be counted a great grievance , &c. ] answ . still deceit . . is it our highest priviledge to have unfit men constreined to prophane holy things , and profess themselves what they are not ; and the dogs forced in , that should lie without ? is christ's discipline against our highest priviledges ? . who knoweth not that infidels , sadduces and wicked men do account these priviledges to be none : cure them of their contempt , and you need not force them by a jayl . till then , is it the pastors that refuse such till they voluntary seek it , or the contemners of these priviledges , that are to be reproved ? christ giveth pardon and life to none but desirous consenters ; and if you will seal and deliver the promise of it to those that will but prefer it to a jayl , and make up your churches on such terms , we dare not imitate you . the church-keys exercised are , as tertullian speaketh , praejudicium futuri judicii , and should intimate to men , who they be that shall be let into heaven , or shut out : and to say , come all and take christ , pardon and life , who will rather take the sacrament than lye in a jayl , is like another gospel . § . xi . the pronouncing salvation to all that they bury , save the three excepted sorts , ( unbaptized , excommunicate , and self-murderers ) is the next . and . he will not have the words to signifie salvation . the words are [ forasmuch as it hath pleased almighty god , of his great mercy , to take to himself the soul of our dear brother here departed . ] and [ we give thee hearty thanks , for that it hath pleased thee to deliver this our brother out of the miseries of this sinful world . ] and [ that we may rest in him ( christ ) as our hope is this our brother doth . ] if all this signifie not salvation in your judgment , it doth in ours : we accuse not you of deceiving souls , at a time when it will take the deepest impression ; but we only tell you , we dare not assent and consent to that , which to us would be false equivocation , and that in so serious a thing : and if the difference be but grammatical , doth it deserve our silencing and ruine , to believe that those words import salvation ? § . but . he saith , [ christian charity teacheth us to hope the best of all that die in the communion of the church . ] answ . it is not christian charity which is contrary to the christian verity and covenant : nor that which tendeth to undo the living by false hopes : hobbes and such others as oppose fundamentals , deride christianity , or the immortality of the soul , some by writing , some by common talk , do die in the church of england : i have heard preachers lament their numbers , impudence and increase ; but never heard one of them excommunicate , nor brought to publick repentance . all die in the church , that communicate rather than lie in jayl and be ruined ; yea thousands that will not communicate , notwithstanding such severities ; when in a parish of or communicants , no more ( even on a whitsunday ) than about communitate , though the minister be one of the best ; yet the rest are still in your church . we desire the highest degree of charity . but such a judgment of mens future state , though called charitable , seemeth to us so fearfully uncharitable , that it is one of the greatest things in which we seem to differ : and i will not shew the rise , and the import and tendency of it , lest dr. fullwood , and the reflecter on sacril . desert . say again , that i gather too hard consequences from our difference . but nobis non licet , must we be silenced and ruined for want of such charity ? § . xii . silencing such as think the surplice unlawful , is the next , pag. . and he saith , [ if any man , against such authority and arguments , should think the surplice unlawful , it is better he should be silenced , than that the churches peace and order be disturbed , or antient laws abrogated . ] answ . you have owned it : if it be well done , you may partake of the reward ; if ill , of the punishment . qu. whether consenting so to silence ( and if they had not conformed ) will not make your reward greater , than if you had consented and subscribed to the silencing but of one ? his blood be on us and on our children , were the words of factious zeal , that escaped not without punishment . paul that consented to the death of stephen , and hunted others , saith , he was mad , yea exceeding mad against them . christ never laid the order and peace of the church , nor the preaching of the gospel on such things ; nor ever encouraged any to do it . of which see bishop jer. tailor in the words largely cited in my second plea. § . xiii . though athanasius creed as to the damnatory part was that which mr. dodwell scrupled , i will not answer this mans equivocating exposition of it , lest i be thought to tempt others to blame the creed itself , which i honour . where he saith , p. . [ i frequently and falsely accuse the conformists of socinian or antitrinitarian doctrine : let him tell us where , or else i accuse him as a false accuser . but it 's his mode . § . xiv . whereas all must assent and consent to read the common-prayer every day of the year , ( if not specially hindred ) he tells us what reason there is for it : but . will it not necessitate the omission in many places of more necessary works ? . what encouragement have we to embody with that tribe , who all consent to this , and not one of multitudes of them do it ? is such conformity tolerable , and our preaching intolerable without it ? § . xv. pag. . he calls it a calumny that i say the liturgy is defective and disorderly . answ . i did in . draw up a catalogue of the mere defects and disorders , but never offered it , to avoid offending them . he tells us , . of the disorders of the directory . ( and had he proved it , is that a justification of the liturgy ? ) . and also he tells us of the defects and confusions which were in mr baxter's eight days exploit , ( our additionals , or reformed liturgy , . ) when as neither this accuser , nor any of the bishops or dissenters then said one word of particular accusation against it , nor any other that ever i knew of to this day , save an impertinent quarrel of mr. roger le strange , that we used not more imposing words , and such trifles . § . xvi . next comes the profession of the antiquity of three orders in the preface of the book of ordination and elsewhere , p. . and he citeth me , christ . direct . p. . as against my self ; falsly intimating , that i assert three orders , because i am uncertain whether there be not divers degrees in one order . i cited out of spelnian the canons of aelfrike , shewing that the church of england , even in times of popery , took bishops and presbyters to be the same order , as many papists-schoolmen do . and the man should have known , that it is not the bishops of a particular church that i mentioned in my direct . but only such as have the care of many bishops churches . § . xvii . he next defends the scenical call to the people , to [ come forth and shew reason , why the person may not be ordained . ] as if he knew not , that it is not the sence of the words that is questioned ; but that this insignificant ceremony should be set in the place of the ancient demand of their free consent over whom the minister is set , to seem as if they had still that liberty , when it is no such matter ; nor do the people , whose souls he is to have the charge of , know any thing usually of his ordination ; nor at his institution , which sets him over them , have they any call. nor are so much as these shews used at the ordination of bishops , which by the old canons was void without the peoples consent . § . xviii . of the words , receive the holy ghost , &c. he saith less than mr. cheny , whom i have answered . § . xix . so have i there answered ( p. , . ) what he saith for the oaths of obedience to archbishops , bishops , chancellors , &c. . it 's one thing to obey them , and another to assent to the oath of obedience . . and it 's one thing to swear obedience to them , as exerci●ing the power of magistrates under the king ; and another thing as laymen exercising the power of the church-keys , &c. and i have elsewhere cited divers old canons , that condemn such oaths as dangerous . § . xx. in the th chap. to mr. cheny i have abundantly answered what he saith here about keeping men from the sacrament , and informing the ordinary . these be [ the number ] of our exceptions which the impleader could finde , though the rest were as plainly written . § . xxi . as for our objections against the declarations and oaths required by act of parliament , because it is not the sence of the liturgie , but of an act of parliament that we doubt of , he refers us to the executioners of the law for our instruction , ( their natural way of satisfaction : ) the justice and jailor i suppose . did these satisfie him to conform herein ? doth he take such arguments for unanswerable ? why did he pretend to defend the rest , which are imposed in the same act ? these are greater matters than the ceremonies , and need as clear a justification . § . but that you may see the measure of his knowledge , he can tell you , that our mistake is wilful , and an act of pure malice and revenge . answ . our rule oft mentioned is agreed on by casuists , viz. to take such oaths , promises and professions , in the sense of the imposing makers of them , ( if they are our rulers ) and unless they give us another sense , we must take the ordinary sense that those words are used in to be theirs . therefore we take [ on any pretence whatsoever ] and [ those commissioned by him ] and [ any alteration of government in the church ] and [ not at any time endeavour ] and [ no obligation on any other person ] as well as [ assenting and consenting to all things conteined and prescribed ] to have that meaning , which not only our parents that taught us to speak , and our masters and dictionaries , and the use of such as we hear talk , hath taught us to take such words in ; but also in the sense of the lawyers and law-books which we are acquainted with , unless any odde persons differ from the rest . and this sagacious man hath found , that this exposition is a wilful mistake , in malice and revenge . just as others of them can prove before god , that it is through covetousness that we conform not ; viz. two thousand ministers ( england knoweth of what sort , though the accusers do not ) have forsaken all church-maintenance , and their rulers countenance , and put themselves under a law that mulcts them l. a sermon , banisheth them from cities and corporations , lays them in jayl , &c. reproacheth them as seditious ; and all this in covetousness , malice , and revenge . i have seen a child throw away his meat in revenge , but he returned to it in less time than years : i have heard of a woman that cut her throat , and another that drowned herself and children , in a revengeful passion against her drunken cruel husband : but sure , if she had years deliberated , it would have calm'd her passion : but that such ministers should chuse ruining fines , and poverty , and jails , and wilfully damn their own souls by sin , and all to be revenged on parliament or prelates , is somewhat strange ! especially when it is that which that parliament and prelates themselves are pleased with , who chose the terms . what kinde of revenge hath our malice found out , which destroyeth ourselves and pleaseth our afflicters ! § . and here p. . he falls with scorn on my book of concord ; and that his book may be conformable to itself , describeth my terms of concord by downright fiction and falshood ; as if he had thought none would ever open the book to shame his calumny . he tells you , that the result of all is , that every pastor be independent , free from any superiour to controul him , and have an arbitrary power , and arbitrarily exercise the power of the keys without appeal ; to have the power of ordaining who they will , the power of altering the laws in church and state , &c. all which i have expresly written against at large . besides what i have written , . for bishops in each church . . for archbishops or general overseers . . for synods . . had it been no more than what i have written for the magistrates governing of all pastors and churches , it would prove the falshood of this mans assertion . yet that you may see that his charity and his veracity are proportionable , he hence inferrs , p. . [ did ever any bishop aspire to such tyranny as this , the pope only excepted ? is not the king and whole nation greatly culpable not to trust themselves with the ingenuity of this people , &c. ] answ . reader , which is liker to be guilty of tyranny , . we that desire no power but to plead god's law to mens consciences . . and that but with one congregation . and . with no constrained unwilling persons , but only voluntary consenters . . and to rule over none of our fellow-ministers . . and only to be but freemen , as schoolmasters and philosophers be in their schools of volunteers , that we may not against our consciences be the pastors of the unwilling , or such as we judge uncapable according to god's laws , but to use the keys of admission and exclusion as to that particular church . . and to do all under the government of the magistrate , who may punish us as he may do physicians , schoolmasters , or others , for proved mal-administration , and drive us ( not from , but ) to our duty . . and to be ready to give an account of our actions to any synod , or brethren that demand it , and to hear their admonitions and advice . yea , and to live in peaceable submission where archbishops or general-visitors are set over us ; and upon any appeals or complaints , to hear and obey them in any lawful thing belonging to their trust and power . . and if we be judged to have worngfully denied our ministerial help and communion to any , we pretend to no power to hinder any other church or pastor from receiving him . . and if we be by magistrates cast out or afficted for our duty , we shall quietly give up the temples and publick church-maintenance , of which the magistrate may dispose , and without resisting or dishonouring him , endure what he shall inflict upon us , for our obedience to god. this is our odious tyranny . . on the other side , our accusers , . some of them are for power in themselves to force men by the sword , that is , by mulcts and corporal penalties , to be subject to them , or be of their church and communion . . others are for the magistrate thus forcing them , when the bishop excommunicates them . . they thus make the church like a prison , when no man knoweth whether the people be willing members , or only seem so , to escape the jail . . they would be such forcing rulers over many score or hundred parishes . . they would have power to rule , suspend and silence the pastors of all these parishes , when they think meet . . they hinder the pastors of the parish-churches from that exercise of the keys aforesaid in their own parish-churches , which belongs to the pastors office. . they would compel the parish-ministers to admit , absolve , or excommunicate ( at least as declaring other mens sentences ) when it is against their consciences . . they would make ministers swear obedience to them , and bishops swear obedience to archbishops . . some of them are for their power to excommunicate princes and greatest magistrates , though contrary to the fifth commandment , it dishonour them . . some of them say , that if the king command one church-order , or form , or ceremony , and the bishop another , the bishop is to be obeyed before the king : as also if the king bid us preach , and the bishop forbid us , . and they say , that their censures , even clave errante , must be obeyed . . and that he whom a bishop cuts off from one church , is thereby cut off from all , and none may receive him . . and that it is lawful to set up patriarchs , metropolitans , &c. to rule the church , according to the state and distribution of civil government . look over these two cases , and judge which party is liker to church-tyrants ; and then judge what credit is due to such accusers of the non-conformists in this age. § . ii. as to reordination , i have answer'd to mr. cheny what he saith : he deceitfully avoideth determining the first question , whether they intend a reordination or not : whereas i have proved , . that the church of england is against twice ordaining . . that they call it and take it for a true ordination which is to be received from them , by such as presbyters had ordained . . and therefore that they suppose the former null . . and this is much of the reason of mens doubting whether they should receive the second , which is given on such a supposition . but this man is little concerned in the true stating of the case . § . iii. what he saith of the ministers power for discipline , is answered already to mr. cheney that hath the same . § . about the covenant , . he falsly makes me say , that the king took it : whereas ( whether he did or not ) i only say , that he was injuriously and unlawfully drawn to seem to owne it and declare for it . . next he aggravates this injury : and who contradicteth him ? . he pleadeth , that the king is not obliged by it to make any alteration in the government of the church . answ . i will not examine your reasons : the king never made me his confessor , nor put the question to me ; why then should i make my self a judge of it ? and why must my ministry lie on a thing beyond my knowledge ? but am i sure that no parliament-man that took that vow is bound there in his place to endeavour a reforming alteration , when i am past doubt that much is needful ? he would . make it doubtful , whether it was a vow to god ? i think it not worth the labour to prove it to him that doubteth of it after deliberate reading it . . he saith , [ any lawful endeavours are not denied . ] answ . but the obligation to lawful endeavours are denied . are not the words universal ? . he saith , [ the covenant condemned as unlawful , cannot lay an obligation . ] answ . a vow to god unlawfully imposed and taken , may binde to a lawful act. . he calls it [ unnecessary alterations against the law of the land. ] answ . i suppose i shall prove some reforming alteration necessary ; and it is not against law for a subject to petition for it , or a parliament-man to speak for it . yet when the man seems to me to be pleading conscience out of the land , he saith , [ would not this cause the christian religion in a short time to be exploded out of all kingdoms ? ] alas poor people ! what uncertain guides have you ? . he concludes , that the power of reforming being in the king , the vow was null . answ . the regal power of reforming is only in the king : to change laws without him , is usurpation . but parliament-men may speak for it , and subjects petition , and on just causes write and speak for needful reformation : and i speak for no other . § . iv. about not taking arms against those commissioned by the king ; he plainly professeth that we must not distinguish where the law doth not . and if it be an unlimited universal negative , it will quite go beyond mainwaring or sibthorpe : and for all his talk , my ignorance of the law shall suspend my subscription . . king john gave up his kingdom to the pope : i cannot say it had been unlawful for the kingdom to resist such as he should have commissioned to execute it . . nor such as should be commissioned to dispossess the right heir , and settle it on a stranger , or an enemy . . nor such as should be commissioned to seize on all the subjects estates or lives , yea or lay taxes contrary to law , in cases where the law enableth the sheriff by the posse comitatus to resist . . nor if any get the broad-seal to commissions to seize on the king's garrisons , forts , navies , treasures , guards , whereby a traiterous lord-keeper might at any time depose the king. i have told you , that old parliaments popish and protestant , and archbishop abbot , and bishop bilson , &c. were as much nonconformists in this as i am . and so much to the impleaders accusations of the nonconformists , and his reasons for the justifying of their silencing and ruine , and the lawfulness of some of the things which they judge to them unlawful : let the impartial reader try and judge . the rest of my book , which is the far greater part , he answereth by contempt and silence . chap. iv. of his dealing with the second plea for peace . while we hear men , that should be our brethren , go on to call to magistrates for execution of the laws ( which they have got ) against us , and for want of matter of accusation against those that they prosecute , raking up odious criminations from the late wars , which few of the now silenced ministers had any hand in ; and never ceasing to tell men , that the beginners of that war were guilty of the king's death . after or years silence , . i told them , that two parties of the episcopal conformists being the beginners , in england , it 's wonder'd that they see not how they accuse themselves : and why do they not profess repentance first ? . i fully told them what are our principles of government and obedience , and intreated them to shew me , wherein they are disloyal or culpable . and this man is the first that i finde pretending to assault it , and shame lessly passeth over the book itself , and by his silence seemeth to justifie our doctrine . and yet to shew his will , he taketh occasion again to take up the foresaid actions of the evil civil war , as if that were any thing to the present cause ; or as if he were calling the dead to judgment : ( for we have oft offered them thanks , if they will silence only those that had a hand in those wars . ) . he taketh on him to answer my historical preface ; and therein heapeth abundance of untruths , part of which i mentioned in the second chapter , and the rest i have so fully confuted in my answer to mr. hinkley , and in an historical index of those affairs , that i will not waste my own and the readers time , by saying the same things here again . and his accusations of my concord and moral prognostication , i have answered before . it is the manner of the man to name books , and take occasion from somewhat in them , to pour out that which he most abounds with ; and to try , whether men will take this for a confutation . o miserable world ! where the very preachers of holiness , love and peace , go on to the grave , and judgment , and eternity , fighting against holiness , love and peace ; forbidding others to worship god , ( that cannot swallow all their inventions ) and not enduring their brethren to live in peace among them . but 't is letter in the world of holy love and peace . a reflection on the reflecter on a book against sacrilegious desertion of the sacred ministry . § . when the king , being more merciful than the canoneer clergy , had granted licenses to the nonconformists , for the publick worshipping of god in peaceable assemblies , many of the clergy still cryed down such assemblies as schismatical ; when before they seemed to lay the charge of schism on them , for their want of authority : and these are the men , that when it is for their interest , are zealous defenders of the royal power against some parliaments limitations ; but their interest can extol , or at least absolve mr. hooker himself . some of them would have perswaded us to forbear the liberty which the king had granted us , and so to be the silencers of our selves , and to forbear gods publick worship till we dare conform . and no wonder , when they apprehended such dismal consequents to their church from our preaching , as mr. hinkley in his letter-book hath told you . among others , dr. fulwood would have drawn us into half this guilt , on pretence of perswading us to the moderate use of our licenses . on which occasion i wrote a small book , to prove that wilful deserting of our ministry even when it is forbidden unjustly , and yet remaineth notoriously necessary to the ends of the institution ) is downright sacriledge , and worse than alienating church-goods or lands . but i took occasion in it to deal as plainly with those non-conformists who are inclined to unwarrantable separations , as with our accusers . dr. fullwood wrote an answer to this book : i never replyed , partly that they may see that i can give such men the honour of having the last word , and partly to save mine own and the readers time . but now either he , or some other unnamed author that is marked m. a. hath published more useful reflections on that book . he knoweth to what use , and let him use them accordingly . § . i. part of his reflections are citations out of that and other of my books , of such words as seem to be for them , and against the non-conformists and my self . ii. the other part is his descant on the words , which he disliketh , and setteth them to the tune which suits his inclination , and may serve his turn . should i print an answer to such stuff as this , and in many sheets tell men where and how such men speak amiss , the reader might think that satan hath such power on me , as by any of his instruments , at his pleasure , to draw me to cast away my own and other mens precious time . § . all therefore that i shall say to him shall be this , i. as to the first , that . i can reconcile my own words , though he cannot : and as he never desired me to teach him to do it , i am not at leisure to offer him my service : all is not contradiction , which men that understand not words do think so . . readers , you see here when they call for moderation , and would have us come as near them as we can , they do but turn it to reproach . and one that granteth them all that they cite out of my books , and comes as near them as i do , is nevertheless thought unsufferable by them , in the exercise of the ministry and out of jayl . this is the spirit of the men . § . ii. to the other part i only say , the man mistakes all the question ; which is not , whether i be good or bad , learned or unlearned : let this be determined with him as he will. i am so ignorant and bad , that i will not now trouble him with much contradiction . but the question is , . whether the two thousand ministers were justly silenced ? . and whether if they wilfully ( though so silenced ) desert the ministry to which they were devoted and consecrated , they will not be guilty of damnable sacriledge and perfidiousness ? if the man will speak to purpose to this question , it is like that some one will confute his defence of so great a sin , when i am past this unpleasant military work. a note on varney's book against the dissenters from the church of england . instead of confuting it , i commend the reading of it to such as would see which side hath phanaticks . it declareth that j. varney hath by faith pulled down the devils kingdome ; and that king charles . shall be emperour of all nations , by whom christ will govern them ; greater than turk , pope , or french. and the way is , the dissenters from the government of the church of england must be made hewers of wood and drawers of water , and must pay all taxes and payments of the land , to maintain the forces that shall preserve the land against them : like decimation . notes on mr. le strange 's casuist uncased . i have had some gentle touches from this musical band heretofore , which i found not my self obliged to answer . nor shall i now say any more than this : i. that he that fetcheth his chief stings and scorns from a book , and the leaf of another book about twenty years or longer at least revoked and obliterated , sheweth that if with austin we wrote retractations , such men would turn all to reproach . ii. that i make not mr. le strange 's judgment the measure of my repentance or retractations . iii. that i have never had the schooling of him , and so never taught him to understand my writings , and therefore undertake not that things congruous shall not seem contradictions to him . but i can reconcile more than he can . for instance , . my disputation of scandal , plea second , reconcileth what he dreamed was contradiction , about imposing things evil by accident . . i can reconcile the kings having power about the circumstances , yea and substance of religion ; and yet that he hath none but what he had from christ . but i have not leasure for such work as this . iv. mr. le strange quite mistakes the non-conformists question , as the reflecter doth ; as if hissing and stinging were disputing . he seemeth to make the question to be , whether i be not a giddy , mutable , self-contradicting fool and knave : let him in that believe what pleases himself . our question is , whether silencing , fining , imprisoning the non-conformists , be the way of peace , and of the desired concord of protestants ? yea , whether concord be possible on those terms , and they will ever end our sad divisions . notes on a dialogue between the pope and a phanatick . mr. l. strange's dialogue minds me of this , for it is a book not to be forgotten : the scope of it is to shew , that the non-conformists are designing to destroy the king ; that their principles are rebellious ; that they have so far prevailed already , that we must have no king , or no parliament ; which yet being needful , and the genius of the parliament thus corrupted , the king must choose his own councellors , and take the choice from the people ( to this sense ) , and all the loyal subjects must give their hands , and list or engage themselves to defend the king against these conspirators . just the meal-tub plot ! but my second plea was written to answer such as this ; and i leave the fuller answer to those that are more concerned in it . so much against this regiment of accusers . turba gravis paci placidaeque inimica qui●ti . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e * alas ! then there is no remedy ! seasonable advice to protestants shewing the necessity of maintaining the established religion in opposition to popery / by dr. fell ... fell, john, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing f estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) seasonable advice to protestants shewing the necessity of maintaining the established religion in opposition to popery / by dr. fell ... fell, john, - . [ ], p. printed for charles brome ..., london : . reproduction of original in union theological seminary library, new york. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng dissenters, religious -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - jonathan blaney sampled and proofread - jonathan blaney text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion seasonable advice to protestants : shewing the necessity of maintaining the established religion : in opposition to popery . by dr. fell , late lord bishop of oxford . london , printed for charles brome , at the gun , at the vvest-end of st. paul's church-yard . . a seasonable discourse shewing the necessity of maintaining the established religion , in opposition to popery . it is not be doubted , but that the papists ( against whom the penal laws were most sharp ) are and will be watchful to improve to their utmost advantage , his majesties declaration of indulgence ; wherein he grants liberty to all sorts of dissenters from the church of england , to exercise their religions , and suspends the execution of the penal laws in force against them . they will now so much the more industriously set themselves to seduce protestants , since they may securely own and defend their perswasions , and even their priests openly act in all parts their function , which was before no less than capital in any of his majesties subjects . if the industry we expect from them meet not with a proportionable zeal in all true protestants , it will not he hard to conjecture what the success will be , when the attaque is vigorous and industrious , and the defence faint and negligent . and therefore i think it cannot be unseasonable to offer a few motives to the stirring up the zeal , and awakening the prudence of all such protestants as fear god , and love the king , the church , or themselves ; as well as to arm them with some arguments for their own confirmation in the grounds of protestancy , in opposition to popery . ii. the first consideration shall be that of duty to almighty god , who has made us members of a christian church , in which we may assuredly find salvation if we continue in it , and live according to its rules and precepts . this christian church , our holy mother , has no other rule of faith and practice than the holy a scripture , of which , when less was written than we have now in our hands ▪ s. paul b said then , they were able to make men wise unto salvation through faith in christ jesus . it receives for canonical scripture neither less nor more than those books c of whose authority there was never any doubt in the church , yielding herein as much to universal tradition as any church in the world : much more than the roman does , who obtrudes her particular dictates and most notorious innovations for the fundamentals of the catholic faith. it professes the same faith and no more than what all christians have made the badge and symbol of their profession , namely , that which is briefly compris'd in the d apostles creed , explain'd in those others which are called the nicene and athanasian , and proved by the holy-scriptures taken in that sense which is evident in the text to any indifferent judgment , and approved by the consent of the e universal church , the decrees of the first general councils and writings of the fathers . we are members of a church where are used the same f sacraments which christ expresly left in his church , and no other . we worship the only g god , as we are taught to believe in him , and no other . our administration of this worship and of these sacraments is in h language understood by all those that are concerned in them , being performed with such i rites as are agreeable to the word of god , being for decency and order ; and we use them not as necessary in themselves , but in obedience to that authority which god has given to every particular church over its own members . k our discipline likewise is according to the scripture rule , and primitive patterns , as far as the loosness of this age will bear ; and if this has weakned the discipline of our church , we believe it has the same effect even in those of the roman communion , and had no less in the church of corinth in the apostles times . and for the l persons who are employed in the ministry of gods worship and sacraments , and in the feeding and governing of the flock of christ , they are lawfully called to their office and ministry , and are consecrated and ordained according to the scriptures , and canons of the universal church : and we shew the succession of our bishops to the apostles of christ , as fully as it can be shewn in any other church at this day . lastly , we are members of a church , which above all other constitutions in the christian world enforces the great duties of m obedience and submission to the magistrate , and teaches to be subject not only for wrath , but conscience sake . in all these respects our church holds a communion with all true churches of christ that are or have been in the world , and is together with them a true member of that holy catholic apostolic church which was from the beginning , and will be to the end . as we pass not severe censures on other churches , though exceedingly erroneous , and are for that charity unworthily repaid by the most criminal , that of rome : so are we excommunicated by none that we know of , but her ; the pope herein dealing with us as he does with all other christians in the n world , namely , with most of the european churches , and in other parts , except those few whom he has gained of late by his missionaries . the common cause for which we suffer is nothing else but the defence of the o faith which was once delivered to the saints , and of that liberty wherewith christ has made us free ; against those additional articles which he would intrude into the one , and thar anti-christian yoke which he would impose on the other . the difference between our case and that of our fellow christians who suffer with us is only this ; that they are shut out from heaven as far as the popes censures can do it , for they know not what ; many of them , even millions in the remoter parts , having never so much as heard of him , or his pretensions ; whereas we konw them too well by woful experience . it is not so much more than an hundred years since that our ancestors were under his tyranny : which as their fathers had insensibly drawn upon themselves , by their deference to the see of rome , from whence the saxons had partly p their conversion ; so they having endured it as long as they were able , after many fruitless endeavours to make it tolerable , at last with one q consent threw the yoke off their necks . our church being thus freed from the usurpations of rome by them who were deeply r immersed in the errors and corruptions of it ; the best use they could make of their liberty was this , to restore the primitive purity of the christian faith and worship , which ignorance and interest had fatally depraved . indeed , 't was morally impossible that they should pass untained through so many ages of darkness ; when the popes given up to profligate ſ vice seem'd to drive on no other design but for wealth and dominion ; when scarce any in their communion understood the originals of scripture ; when those that governed were so jealous of it , that they would not suffer any t translation , but the latine , which was overgrown the mean while ( as they now confess ) with many thousands of corruptions . iii. having considered the obligation we have to the religion we profess , it may be seasonable next to reflect on the religion to which we are invited . we are invited to one that recals us to the idolatrous practice of the heathen world , to u pray unto our fellow creatures canonized , to saints and heroes to worship images and fall down to the stock of a tree . nay to the worshiping of the consecrated host , which by the confession of x coster , the jesuite , and some others , is a more stupid idolatry than the worst of the heathens were ever guilty of , in case transubstantiation cannot be made out . now that transubstantiation is not real , we have all the evidence that we are capable of the testimony of our reason and our senses . the absurd and monstrous consequences of that doctrine will fill volumes , a great part of which are with great truth and justice drawn together by dr. brevint in his late tract entituled , the depth and mistery of the roman mas. we are invited to a religion that takes from us , half the sacrament of the eucharist , y notwithstanding the institution of christ in express words , and notwithstanding the practice of the primitive church to the contrary . we are invited to a church that revives the heathen persecution of taking away our z bibles ▪ and would involve every lay-man in the guilt of being a * traditor , the next step in the account of the primitive church to apostacy from the christian faith. we are invited to a church , that as it takes away the scriptures and half the communion , robs us likewise of the benefit of the publick prayers , putting the offices in an unknown † tongue ; insomuch that when about thirteen years ago some of the prelates of the church of france had taken care to translate the liturgy and scripture into the vulgar tongue , pope a alexander the seventh damns the attempt , and under pain of excommunication commands all persons to bring in their books to be publickly burnt . we are tempted to a religion , which contrary to the command of trying all things , and holding fast that which is good , and paying to god a reasonable service , enjoyns an b implicite faith and blind obedience : to a religion that instead of the guidance of the word of god , sets up an c infallible judge and arbitrator of all doctrines , the pope of rome : which instead of the faith once delivered to the saints adds d new articles of faith , which instead of that one propitiation made by christ , and the condition thereof faith and repentance , sets remission of sins upon quite other terms , and proposes that gift of god to be bought with money in the vile market of e indulgences ; for instance , f sacriledge is valued at seven grosses , incest at five , simony seven , perjury six , murder five , and so on in the tax of the apostolic chancery . we are invited to a church where we must be schismatics that we may be catholics , and adhere to the g roman in opposition to all other ; that is to the catholic church . 't were endless by retail to reckon up the errors and the guilts to which we are invited ; the fond ridiculous rites , the superstitious , burthensom and heathenish ceremonies , the exorcisms and conjurations , the blasphemies and forged miracles , cheats and pious frauds , the lies and stories stupid and impossible as those of amadis de gaul , the knight of the sun , or the seven champions , witness the golden legend , the lives of the saints , of s. francis , bruno , s. dominick and infinite others , or if we have a mind to a romance of our own , the long tale of a tub which h father serenus cressy has lately put out borrowed from father alford ; the improbable , that is the greater miracles , as he tells us , being omitted because of the unbelief of the heretics ; and yet enow are left to weary the credulity of the most sanguine catholic : wherein also , as he tells us , we may see the faith of our forefathers , and truly we have great reason to thank him for the prospect , which ( as he represents it ) gives us strong inducements in so unequal a competition , to retein our own . notwithstanding all that has been said , there are a sort of pacific writers , who represent the doctrines of the church of rome under a fairer light , and would have us believe they have a better meaning than is usually suggested . and god forbid that we should take things by the worst handle , or make that breach wider , whose closure we should endeavour to make up with a zeal equal to that of the gallant i roman , who threw himself on behalf of his country into the gaping gulf. indeed no price can be too great for peace , but only truth ; the which we may not part with for all the tempting charms of charity and love : and god knows , in the present case 't is evident , that the excuses which are fram'd in the romanists behalf are short and frivolous ; nor besides can any man be esteem'd a roman catholic by admitting the doctrines of that church in his own private or some more probable doctors , but in the public sense . and had these undertakers in the catholic cause power to dispense therein according to that candor which many of them make shew of , we might attend to what is said ; but we are well assur'd , that all these fair words can signifie nothing , but are merely a bait and snare laid to draw in the easie proselyte : for when he 's reconcil'd and brought into the bosom of the church , these painted shews are presently washt off ; and all concessions immediately retracted ; the convert must then learn the colliers creed , believe as the church believes , and st. peter's key which threw the gate open to admit into the church , will shut the prisoner in : and the child which had a piece of money given him to keep him quiet , shall soon after have it call'd for back again , and be aw'd with the rod , if he repine or murmur . so that 't will be a frivolous project to talk of a reconcilement with the church of rome , till she first conform herself to truth ; and a conviction , and much more a reformation must here be impossible , where the grossest errors are joyn'd with an assurance of being free from any ; nay , a persuasion of being infallible . iv. the motive which deserves the next place is the safety of the king's person , and the prerogative of the crown , which hath no higher or more necessary appendent than his supremacy in his dominions in all causes ecclesiastical and secular , according to the powers invested in the k jewish king under the law , and exercised by the first l christian emperours . 't is obviously known how destructive both to itself and the community is the partnership of regal power ; but this must be infinitely mischievous when shared by a foreigner ; whose interests are necessarily contrary to those of our prince and nation , as the popes certainly are . but this mischief stays not within the aforesaid bounds ; for the pope is not content with a bare co-ordination , but demands the preference for his spiritual sword , and claims a power to depose kings and dispose of kingdoms . this we learn at large from m bellarmin , suarez , turrecremata , card. perron , thom. aquin , ledesma , malderius , to pass by innumerable others , all whose works were publisht by authority , and so own'd as consonant to the doctrines of the church , to which may be added the pope's definition , who makes it authentic law in these words we say and define and pronounce that it is absolutely necessary to salvation for every human creature to be subject to the bishop of rome , and this law of pope n boniface the eighth's making , he effectually commented on himself , of whom o platina says , that he made it his busines to gave and take away kingdoms , to expel men and restore them at his pleasure . all which , that it might want no sanction or authority to render it the doctrine of the church , is justified in the third and fourth p lateran council , the council of lions , the council of constance , all which call themselves general , and therefore speak the doctrine of the church . what has been done in this kind since the days of gregory the seventh throughout europe would fill a large volume , in the bare narration , whoever has a mind to see those black annals need not consult protestant writers , but read baronius or platina , and there he will satisfie himself . behold at large the last and greater triumphs of the capitol : crowns and scepters and the necks of emperors and kings trampled upon in great self-denial by christ's humble vicar , their realms and countries taken from them and involv'd in blood by the leiutenant of the prince of peace : subjects discharg'd from their allegiance in the right of him , who himself disown'd the being a divider and a judge , and in a word , the whole world made his kingdom , who pretends his interest deriv'd from our lord jesus , who disclaim'd the having a kingdom of this world. so that it was not said amiss by passavantius , that the devil made tender of all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them to our lord christ , but he refused them ; afterwards he made the same offer to his vicar the pope , and he presently accepted it , with the condition annext of falling down and worshipping . the english reader who desires to be satisfied in matter of fact may please to consult the q history of popish treasons and usurpations not long since written by mr. foulis , to pass by others who have also dealt in that subject . at present i shall only add that although our neighbouring princes have difficulty enough given them by this universal monarch , who like his predecessors in heathen rome , makes it a piece of his prerogative to have kings his vassals , yet they often help themselves by some advantages which our sovereign is not allowed . the most christian king has his capitularies , pragmatic sanctions , concordats , and the privileges of the gallican church to plead upon occasion . and his catholic majesty as the eldest son of the church has several rights of primogeniture , especially in the kingdom of sicily . but the crown of england is not to be treated with such respect : it alas ever since the days of henry the second or at least king john is held in fee of the pope , and we are in hazard to be called unto account for the arrear of markes per annum payable ever since that time : and cardinal r allen has given it for good canon law , that without the approbation of the see apostolic none can be lawful king or queen of england by reason of the antient accord made between alexander the third in the year . and henry the second then king , when he was absolv'd for the death of s. thomas of canterbury : that no man might lawfully take that crown , nor be accounted as king , till he were confirmed by the soveraign pastor of our souls which for the time should be ; this accord being afterwards renewed about the year by king john , who confirmed the same by oath to pandulphus the popes legate at the special request and procurement of the lords and commons as a thing most necessary for the preservation of the realm from the unjust usurpation of tyrants , and avoiding other inconveniences which they had proved , &c. but if this be but the single opinion of a probable doctor , we may have the same asserted by an infallible one , pope ſ innocent the fourth , who before his colledge of cardinals , and therefore in likelihood e cathedra , declares , that the king of england was his vassal , nay , to speak truth , his slave . from hence it is that the succeeding popes have been so free on all occasions of turning out of doors these their tenants upon every displeasure and little pet . not to mention the old mis-adventures of richard the second , king john , &c. hence it was that t paul the third sent against king henry the eighth , in the year . his terrible thundring bull , as the author of the history of the council of trent calls it , such as never was used by his predecessors nor imitated by his successors ; in the punishments to the king were deprivation of his kingdom , and to his adherents of whatsoever they possest , commanding his subjects to deny him obedience , and strangers to have any commerce in that kingdom , and all to take arms against , and to persecute both himself and his followers , granting them their estates and goods for their prey , and their persons for their slaves . upon like terms u paul the fourth would not acknowledge queen elizabeth , because the kingdom was a fee of the papacy , and it was audaciously done of her to assume it without his leave : and therefore x pius the fifth went on , and fairly deposed her by his bull , dated febr. . . but because the stubborn woman would needs be queen for all this , pope y gregory the thirteenth deposes her again , and having two hopeful bastards to provide for , to the one he gives the kingdom of england , to the other that of ireland . nor was she unqueen'd enough by all this , but z sixtus quintus gives away her dominions once more to the king of spain : and after all , when nothing of all this would thrive , * clement the eighth sends two breves for failing into england , one to the laity , the other to the clergy , commanding them not to admit any other but a catholic , though never so near in blood , to the succession ; in plain terms , to exclude the family of our sovereign from the crown . when king james was come in notwithstanding those breves , the gun-powder plot was contrived to throw him out again ; and when that had occasion'd the state for its own security to require the taking of an oath of allegiance , paul v. sent his breves with all speed to forbid the taking of it ; and for fear those might be forgotten in time , in the year . † vrban viii . sends again to forbid his beloved sons , the catholics of england , to take that pernicious and unlawful oath of allegiance . yet more , in the late unnatural rebellion in ireland , the loyal catholicks , as now they call themselves , submitted that unhappy kingdom to his aforesaid holiness pope a vrban , to pass by other offers no less treasonable : and after that , as we are credibly informed , pope innocent the tenth bestowed it as a favour on his dear sister , and much dearer mistris donna olympia . and sure we have all the reason in the world to believe that every thing of this will be done again when the old gentleman at rome is pleased to be angry next , has a mind to gratifie a neighbour prince , or wants a portion for a son , or a favour for a mistris . and as it is , the papists of england have but this one excuse for that mortal sin of obedience to their heretic prince ; b that they are not strong enough to carry a rebellion : and truly 't were great pity these men should be intrusted with more power , who give us so many warnings beforehand how they are bound to use it . but to all this the roman catholics have one short reply , that they are the most loyal subjects of his majesty : and have signally approved their duty by their service and fidelity in the last war. to this i say in short , that as bad as popery is , i do not think it can eradicate in all its votaries their natural conscience ; no plague was ever so fatal as to leave no person uninfected , but always some have scapt ' its fury . the case is fully stated by king c james of famous memory , as on one part , many honest men , seduced with some errors of popery , may yet remain good and faithful subjects ; so on the other part , none of those that truly know and believe the whole grounds and school conclusions of their doctrines , can ever prove either good christians , or good subjects . to speak the plain truth , and what the insolent boasts of papists makes necessary to be told them , whatever was done then , was no trial at all of loyalty . the late rebels found it necessary for the countenancing their cause to make a loud pretence against popery , and to have the benefit of spoiling them : so that the roman catholicks did not so much give assistance to the king , as receive protection from him . when they shall have adher'd to their prince in spight of the commands of their holy father the pope , and defended their sovereign and his rights , when it was not their interest to do it , they will have somewhat worth the boasting : as the case now stands , they had better hold their peace , and remember that the sons of another church served their king as faithfully as they , though they talk less of it . but since they will needs have the world know what good subjects they have been , let them take this short account from the answer to the d apology for the papists , printed an. . in ireland there were whole armies of irish and english that fought against his majesty folely upon the account of your religion . in england it is true some came in voluntarily to assist him , but many more of you were hunted into his garrisons by them that knew you would bring him little help , and much hatred . and of those that fought for him as long as his fortune stood , when that once declined , a great part even of them fell from him . and from that time forward you that were always all deem'd cavaliers where were you ? in all those weak efforts of gasping loyalty what did you ? you complied , and flattered ; and gave sugared words to the rebels then , as you do to the royalists now ; you addressed your petitions to the supreme authority of this nation the parliament of the commonwealth of england . you affirmed that you had generally taken , and punctually kept the engagement . you promised , that if you might but enjoy your religion , you would be the most quiet and useful subjects of england . you prov'd it in these words : the papists of england would be bound by their own interest , the strongest obligation amongst wise men , to live peaceably and thankfully in the private exercise of their conscience , and becoming gainers by such compassions , they could not so reasonably be distrusted as the prelatic party which were losers . if this be not enough to evidence the singular loyalty of papists in the late war , they may hear a great deal more of their vertue celebrated from their petitions and public writings in my e lord orrery 's answers to peter welsh his letter . and because in those writings they are so ready to throw the first stone against the late regicides , they would do well to clear themselves from the guilt of that sacred blood which is charged home upon them by the answerer of f philanax anglicus , who has not yet been controuled for that accusation . v. to this barbarous insolence of excommunicating and deposing kings may succeed the usual consequent of that , but greater prodigy of tyranny , the putting whole nations under interdict , and depriving them of all the offices and comforts of religion , and that generally without any other provocation , than that the prince has insisted on his just rights , or the people performed their necessary duty . history is full of instances hereof . within the compass of one age , i mean the eleventh g century , almost all the nations of europe fell under this discipline , france , england , scotland , spain , and germany ; and some of them several times over ; and so it has gone down in following ages . the nature of the punishment we may learn from h matthew paris , who describing the interdict in the days of king john , which lasted amongst us for six years , three months , and fourteen days , says , there ceased throughout england all ecclesiastical rites , absolution and the eucharist to persons in their last agonies , and the baptizing of infants only excepted : also the bodies of the dead were drag'd out of cities and villages , and buried like the carkasses of dogs in the high-ways and ditches without any prayers or the sacerdotal ministry . one would imagine that he who pretends to hold his empire from the charter of pasce oves , the feeding of christs sheep would find himself concerned no to destroy and starve them , or withhold from them their spiritual food for almost seven years together ; an unusual prescript for abstinence in order unto health . but we may not wonder at all this ; for i pasce oves with a roman comment means all coertion and dominion ; and they who take away the scriptures and half the communion from the layty are not to be controul'd , if they also withhold the other offices of piety . vi. a farther consideration may be the laws of the land , which in case of popery must be content to truckle under the canon law , and occasional bulls of his holiness , or legantine commissions : the proceedings of the courts in westminster veiling to prohibitions and appeals to rome , against which a premunire will be a weak fence in bar to the plenitude of the apostolic power ; and to murmur or dispute any thing will be especially to new converts , interpreted heresie , a word of so sharp an importance , as not to need a comment . there is a tradition that heretofore the gentlemen of the long robe were in that mean estate as to ply at westminster hall gate as now watermen do at the stairs for a fare , let the practicioners in that noble profession consider whether some such thing would not in earnest be the consequent of popery . and the rest of the people of england would do well to think whether they are fitted for a journey to rome , as often as they shall be called thither : i do not mean the divertisement of travel , or devotion of pilgrimage , but the compulsion of citations from that court , where the attendance and expence is not likely to be less than formerly it was , when it occasioned the groans and sad complaints of our fore-fathers ; which though they have escaped , our experimental knowledge sufficiently appear in all our k histories . or should the english law have some quarter given it , and be allowed a little chamber practise , this must be only in reference to the layty . all l ecclesiastics are under a more perfect dispensation , and only accountable to the apostolic see either for their actions or concerns , the benefits of which though the secular priests share in some proportion , the regulars much more liberally enjoy , being owned by the pope m as his souldiers and pretorian bands , listed under the generals of their several orders , maintained indeed at the cost of the countries where they live , but for the service of their sovereign abroad , to whom they owe an entire and blind obedience : and , that they may give no hostages to the state where they reside , are forbid to marry . so that if popery should prevail , we must , besides all charges necessary to secure our selves from forreign enemies both by land and sea , constantly maintain a vast army of possibly an hundred thousand men , for such were the old numbers , to assure our slavery to the roman yoke . nor are these priviledges of the church only personal , the places themselves which these religious men possess are hallowed into sanctuaries , and give protection unto any criminal that treads within their thresholds , the most horrid murther or barbarous villany is to have the benefit of the clergy , and if the malefactor have but time to step into a cloyster , he fears no farther prosecution . vii . but besides the inconvenience of submitting to a foreign law , that certain mark of slavery , and the intolerable burthens that attend its execution , it will be of moment to advise how well our property and interest in our estates will stand secur'd ; and though when princes are upon their good behaviour , to be disseiz'd of their dominions , whenever they offend his holiness of rome , the pesant or the gentleman have no great reason to expect indemnity : yet should the farm or manor-house be too low a mark for the roman thunderer to level at , 't is not to be imagined the lord abbots and the lands of all religious houses will be past by as trifles . the church is ever a minor , and cannot be prescribed against by time , or barr'd in her claims , and our holy father out of his paternal care will find himself concern'd to vindicate the orphan committed to his trust . some perchance who enjoy those lands think they need not apprehend any thing , because they hold under acts of parliament : but they who imagine this , should consider , that the same strength that can repeal those laws that establish protestancy , may also do as much for those which suppress religious houses : and no body can tell what the force and swing of a violent turn , especially in england , may produce , where we seldom proceed with coldness or reserve . acts of resumption are not things unheard of in ours , or in forrein stories . nor is the consent of the pope in queen n maries days a better security ; for in case of a change of religion all those grants will be interpreted a bare permission , and that conditional in order to the great end of reclaiming an heretical kingdom , which not being then accepted of , and finally submitted to , will not be thought obligatory when papists by their own skill or interest have gotten the power into their hands . king charles the first yielded at the isle of o wight that the church lands should be leased out for years , in order to a present peace and settlement of all things , through the interposition of a powerful and violent faction it was not then accepted of : does any man think the obligation of leasing for years remains now ? let our lay-abbots apply this to their case , and then judge whether they upon a revolution will be more secure of their possessions than the late purchasers were ; or whether those purchasers were not as confident of transmitting their acquisitions to their posterity as any possessor of church lands now is or has been . the king of france , not long since has redeemed back to the crown those demesnes which belong'd to it , paying back such summs as were really laid out by the purchasers ; and allowing the mean profits as interest for the money so laid out : which method of procedure has been defended by very considerable arguments to be just and equitable . if the money expended on the church penniworths at the dissolution of religious houses were now refounded , and the advantage of above years profit already received were thrown in to the bargain , though the present proprietaries would have an ill exchange , yet there would be so much plausibleness in the grounds of it , as in the zeal and heat of a turn would not be easily controul'd , especially if it be farther prest , that the first claim from the acts of parliament suppressing church lands appear to be not full and peremptory ; the lands of the first suppression in the . year of henry . not seeming to intend an alienation to common and secular uses , but to have been vested in the king in trust , that the revenues might be employed p to the pleasure of almighty god , and to the honour and profit of this realm , as to the second in year of henry . the act supposes , and is built upon the alienations legally made by the respective religious houses and corporations , who are said q of their own voluntary minds , good wills and assents , without constraint , coaction , or compulsion of any manner of person or persons , by the due order and course of the common laws of this realm of england , and by their sufficient writings , of record under their covent and common seals , &c. now to the verifying of these particulars a great many doubtful circumstances and nice points of law are easily drawn in as requisite , the suggesting whereof in the forementioned cases however slight and frivolous they may be , no body can tell what force they will have when dilated on by a roman catholic advocate , and interpreted by an infallible legislator . that all this is not an idle dream , suggested to make popery odious , will be manifest to any one who will take pains to read what a french marquess of that religion has lately written on this very subject , who having represented us as a r people without friends , without faith , without religion , without probity , without any justice , mistrustful , inconstant to the utmost extremity , cruel , impatient , gurmandizers , proud , audacious , covetous , fit only for handy-strokes and ready execution ; but incapable of managing a war , with discretion . after this friendly character he proceeds to shew by what wayes and methods we are to be destroyed , which are first , to put us to the expences of a war , and by raising of forces create a jealousie between the king and his people . then , to amuse us with fear of invasion . thirdly , to stir up the several parties among us , and to favour one sect against another , especially the catholicks , promising secretly to the benedictines as from the king of england , which they will easily believe , that they shall be restored to all that they formerly possest , according to the monasticon lately printed there : whereupon , sayes this worthy author , the monks will move heaven and earth , and the catholics will declare themselves . it will not be material to transcribe the whole design laid down for our destruction by this bold writer , which with all other machinations , the providence of god , and the prudence of his sacred majesty will wee hope frustrate . this is enough to shew that there are persons in the world , who can yet nourish hopes of destroying the nation , and repossessing the lands of the church , and in printed books make a publick profession of them . but if one general act of resumption should not disseize at one stroke all the lay-possessors of church-lands , 't is plain that in case of popery , by retail they will be all drawn in , for what papist in his last agonies will obtain absolution without satisfaction first made to holy church , for the goods sacrilegiously detained ? or how will he escape the lying in purgatory at least , and frying there for several thousands of years , who instead of having benefit from the indulgences of the church , is solemnly ſ cursed and anathematized with the worst of heretics in the bulla coenae , as also the declaration of the council of trent , upon the score of being robbers of the church , ? 't is not to be hoped they should have any benefit from the spiritual treasure of the church , who , have enrished themselves with that real and material treasure belonging to her , which is the only price that buyes the other . indeed , they who , without the plea of a precedent right , in few centuries gain'd to themselves a fifth part of the whole kingdom , will not doubt in a much shorter time , having the fore-mentioned pretences to recover it again , even the six hundred forty five abbies , whereof twenty seven had their abbots , peers of england : the ninety colleges , two thousand three hundred seventy four chantries and free chapels , and one hundred and ten hospitals , t which ( besides the lesser dissolutions of templars , hospitalers , friers alien , and others that preceded ) fell together under the hands of king henry viii . viii . it would be farther weigh'd in reference to the wealth and flourishing of the kingdom , and what is necessarily required thereto , the preservation of trade , and the value of lands and rents ; that the more popery growes , the more will idleness increase , the more abbey-lubbers , that is , persons exempted from contributing in any kind to the uses of a state either in war or peace , and yet maintain'd as drones on others sweat and labours . the more it increases , the more will celibate or single life prevail ; the more daughters will be sent to nunneries abroad , till they can be fix'd at home , the more men will turn priests and friers , and so less people in the nation which already has too few . and that the numbers in those societies may be sure to be full , it is a known and customary practice to entice and spirit away children from their parents into their covents , from whence they cannot be withdrawn without sacriledge . of this abuse complaint was made long ago in behalf of the english nation , to the pope by u rich. fitz-ralph , called armachanus , anno , though without redress . lay-men , says he , refrain from sending their sons to the vniversities fearing to have them taken away from them , chusing rather to keep their sons at home , and breed them to husbandry , than to lose them by sending them to the schools : in my time there were thirty thousand students in oxford , and now there are not six thousand , and the great cause of this decrease in numbers is the aforesaid circumventing of youth . to this accusation x william widford , a begging frier , makes answer in his apology for his order , by undertaking to prove , that it is very lawful to entice children into their covents without their parents consent . since the reformation , what arts have been used to people the seminaries abroad , is a thing too notorious to need an account , if any desire satisfaction therein he may have it from mr. wadworth's english spanish pilgrim . as by this engaging of the youth in monasteries and nunneries there will be many more idle hands , so by the more holy-days which will be kept there will be the less work done ; consequently what is done will be so much the dearer , an ill expedient for promoting of trade , for four dayes work must perhaps maintain a man and his family seven . the more popery encreases , the less flesh will be eaten , a third part of the year being one way or other fasting days , besides particular penances , as good an expedient for rents , as the former was for trade . to salve this , i expect the papists should tell us , that great numbers of forreiners of that religion will come and live among us , and supply by their numbers the other inconveniences : but the english artificers and merchants are already sensible of the mischiefs which those interloping strangers which are here already do among us , and desire no new colonies : besides , 't is obvious to any common understanding , that if the admission of popery bring in forreiners , the discouragement of protestancy will in greater and more disadvantageous proportions drive out natives : and though it be not certain who will gain by the change ; 't is manifest that the true english interest will be a loser by it . ix . but to proceed , popery will wring out of private persons a vast expence in masses , dirges , mortuaries , penances , commutations , pilgrimages , indulgences , tents , first fruits , appeals , investitures , palls , peter-pence , provisions , exemptions , collations , devolutions , revocations , unions , commendams , tolerations , pardons , jubilees , &c. paid to priests , the pope and his officers ; which upon computation amounted to above three times the kings revenue , a great part thereof carried out of the kingdom in a time when the indies had not filled it with gold and silver . the tyranny was so intolerable , that the whole nation protested against it in their letter to the council of y lyons , anno . wherein among others things they declare , that the italians received hence yearly above sixty thousand marks , besides all other payments to the see of rome , and carried out of the kingdom a greater revnue than the king had , who was tutor to the church and was to support the charge of the state. which complaint yet had no other answer than delays , and a severe example to terrifie them immediately made upon the emperour frederick the second , against whom his holiness innocent the fourth then pope , to use the words of the acts of the council , z pronounced and thundred out the sentence of excommunication , not without the horrour and amazement of all hearers and by-standers , only the annats or first fruits of bishopricks as they were computed in * parliament , anno . in a few years came to an hundred sixty thousand pound sterling ; it would be endless to audit the whole account . as england was by the popes stiled an † inexhaustible pit , so was there no bounds set to the industry of them who attempted to drain it . after a sad complaint of the rapine , avarice , and tyranny of the pope and his officers among us , a matthew paris breaks out in these words , we might there see heart breaking grief , the cheeks of pious persons drown'd in tears , the doleful moan that they made , and the sighs which they multiplied , saying with bleeding groans , it were better for us to die , than behold the calamity of our country and pious people of it . woe to england , who heretofore was princess of provinces , and ruler of nations , the mirrour of excellence , and pattern of piety , is now become tributary , vile persons have trampled upon her , and she is a prey to the ignoble : but our manifold sins have procured these iudgments from god , who in his anger for the iniquity of his people has made a hypocrite and tyrant to rule over them . if almighty god should for the like provocations put us again under the same egyptian task-masters , we need not doubt of the self-same usage . but now , for all this expence , 't is pleasant to examine what is to come back to us in exchange ; even parchments full of benedictions and indulgences , store of leaden seals , beads , and tickets ; medals , agnus-dei's , rosaries , hallowed grains , and wax-candles , such traffique that an indian would scarce barter for ; such pitiful gauds that would hardly bribe a child of a year old ; and yet this is the goodly price they offer for all the wealth of a whole nation . x. after this tyranny over our estates in the particulars rehersed , there is a very remarkable one behind which will well deserve to be considered : it is b auricular confession ; where not to mention its ill aspect upon goverment , as being made an engine of state , and pick-lock of the cabinets of princes , sealing up all things from the notice of the magistrate ; but making liberal discoveries against him ; hereby not only the estate , but soul and conscience of every private man are subjected to the avarice and rapine , and withal the humour and caprice , the insolence and pride , nay , lust and villany of a debauched confessor ; every mortal sin upon pain of damnation must be confessed , and when the penitent after great anxieties has freed himself from this disquiet , he must submit to the penance , however rigorous , or chargeable , or foolish , which the priest enjoyns , he and his family are entirely in the power of this master of their secrets . and if this awe and empire , however grievous , were the whole inconvenience 'twere something tolerable , it being to be hoped , that so severe a remedy would affright from guilt ; but the very contrary happens : the priest takes often benefit of the sin which he absolves from , and having the advantage of these two points , that the person whose confession he has taken has lost modesty , and that he can absolve from the crime , it will be easie to persuade the repetition of that sin , which his breath can easily blow away and render none . i shall not here mention on the other part the perfunctory penances , which seem only imposed to invite to sin again , and those authorized by a most authentic pattern , that of the popes themselves , for what markets may we not expect from a poor priest , when his holiness in his c tax of the apostolic chancery has valued the most horrid crimes at so easie rates as a few grosses , or a julio , and eighteen pence or half a crown compounds for the foulest most abominable guilt . nay , when a visit to a priviledg'd shrine or altar , and the bare recital of a short prayer purchases pardon for , , , dayes : nay , for , , years according to the grants of several popes to be seen for our great comfort and edification in the d horae b. virginis . so that the story of that plump confessor , who for six acts of adultery is said to have enjoyn'd the repetition of six penitential psalms , and when 't was told him that there were seven of them , advised the votary to commit adultery once more , and repeat the whole number , may seem a very severe act of discipline , and ( besides a full atonement for past sins ) supererogation for future ones . so that vice being brought to this easie rate , besides all other mis-adventures , unless we will stand for the honour of being cuckolds , and have our posterity share the title which is proverbial in popish countries , to be fils de prestre ; it will concern us to look about us , while 't is time , and prevent these vile dishonours which are preparing for us . if it shall be said , that 't is not imaginable men should pervert so sacred an action , as the receiving of confessions to those purposes of villany that are suggested . i answer first , that we may without breach of charity suppose that thing possibly to be done , which is notoriously known to have been done : as also , that the horror of the crime is competently allayed by their doctrine , who think only marriage , and not e fornication inconsistent with the dignity of a clergy-man . and therefore the nephews of great clergy-men and popes have in all ages been owned and preferred , and moreover f fornication has been allowed to priests and friers in in compensation for their restraint from marriage , three or four whores as part of their spiritual preferment . i say , all this being put together , there will be little hopes to preserve honour in families , where so many circumstances concur together to betray it . xi . after all this there still remains a farther reason why we should resist the groath of popery , even the most pressing that can be urged , self-preservation , to avoid imprisonment and inquisition , fire and fagot , massacres , racks and gibbets , the known methods by which the romanists support their cause , and propagate their faith. should that sect prevail , the nonconformist shall no longer complain of a bartholomew day ; the parisian vespers , which bore that date , will be resumed again , and silence all complaints of them or us : and as his holiness thought fit to celebrate that barbarous villany , calling together , as g thuanus tells us , his cardinals solemnly to give thanks to almighty god for so great a blessing conferred upon the roman see , and the christian world ; nay , a jubilee was to be proclaimed through the christian world , whereof the cause was expressed to give thanks to god for destroying in france the enemies of the truth and of the church ; there may be found on this side the sea , men who will imitate the princes of the holy league , who upon such encouragements from the see of rome , and for the greater glory of god , will be ready to consecrate their hands in a massacre here with us . it is vulgarly known what was done to the poor albigenses and waldenses : how many hundred thousand of lives the planting of the roman gospel in the indies cost : what cruelties were practised in the low-countires by the duke d' alva , what bloud in this island in the days of queen mary , what designed to be shed in the powder treason , and that by the privity and direction of the pope himself as h delrio informs us in spight of all the palliations that are now suggested : who withal adds , that his holiness clement the viii by his bull a little before that time , gave order that no priest should discover any thing that came to his knowledg in confession to the benefit of the secular government : it seeming safer to these good men to break all the obligations of duty and allegeance , though bound by oaths , than violate the seal of confession , or put a stop to that meritorious work , at one moment to destroy their sovereign with all his royal family , his whole nobility and senate , and subvert the government of their native country . but we need not seek for instances without our own memories , the carriage of the i irish rebellion , where the papists in a few moneths cut the throats of about two hundred thousand innocent protestants of all sexes and ages , cannot be yet forgotten . which act was so meritorious as to deserve from his holiness a most plenary indulgence for all that were concerned in it , k even absolution from excommunication , suspension , and all other ecclesiastical sentences and censures by whomsoever , or for what cause soever pronounced or inflicted upon them , as also from all sins , trespasses , transgressions , crimes and delinquences , how hanious and attrocious soeuer they be , &c. nor let any man be so fond to hope for better terms , or liberty of conscience , if popery should now prevail . let us look into the world , and we shall see on all hands , that nothing is any where suffered to grow either under or near that sect. where protestantism has been so strongly fix'd as not to be batter'd down at once , it has by degrees been perpetually undermin'd : witness the proceedings against them in poland and hungary and several parts of germany , the late persecutions in the vallies of piedmont , and the methods used in france to demolish their temples , and disable them for their employments , and almost exclude them from common trades . i need not enquire what is now done in vtrecht and other acquisitions of the french upon the hollander ; this we are sure of ; whatsoever articles are , or can be made of favour and compliance , 't is somewhat more than a probable l doctrine , that faith is not to be kept with heretics . the jesuited romanist is at large by equivocotions to say any thing , and by directing of intention to do any thing : they can with very good conscience dissemble their own , and pretend to the protestant profession , come to the devotions of heathen idolaters , and that from express licence from his holiness pope clement the eight upon account of which , we may , says m tho. a jesu , be present without any scruple at the rites and divine offices of infidels , heretics and schismatics . nay peter n maffeius makes it his boast , that ignatius loyola imitated the devil in all his tricks , cheats and cunning , to convert souls : and how his followers have transcrib'd that pattern the world does know . yet farther , they , some of them at least , can set up a new gospel , where their is not one word of the cross of christ ; can worship heathen idols with that pitiful reserve of having in their sleeve a crucifix , to which they privately direct their adoration : all which as they are notorious for , being complained of to the o pope , so are they uncontroul'd for ought appears and permitted by him . indeed what conversation can there be with these men who are under no obligations of society , no character of notice or distinction ; who at the same time are priests and hectors , casuists and artificers , presbyterians , anabaptists , quakers , theists , atheists , and amidst all this very good catholics . let any honest sober man judge what kind of religion this is , in it self , and how fit to be encourag'd and submitted to . xii . to close up all that has been said ; from uncontroulable testimonies and proofs , we have seen the influence which popery has either heretofore or may hereafter have amongst us in all the great concerns of our religion , our prince , our laws , our property , our country , our families and lives , and found it evidently destructive unto all : the inference from whence can be no other , but that if we have any love for our religion , any abhorrence of the grossest superstition , error or idolatry ; any regard for the safety of his majesty , any care of our laws or our estates , any concernment for the strength , the wealth or numbers of our nation ; any desire to hold the freedom of our conscience , the virtue and the honour of our families ; and lastly , any care of self-preservation , to escape massacres , and the utmost rage of persecution ; it will behoove us to beware of the prevailing of that sect , in whose successes we have reason to expect to forfeit all these interests , perish our selves , and bequeath idolatry and beggery and servitude to our posterity . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e a art. . b tim. . . c artic. . cousins shol . disc . d ant. . e jewel's apol. f art. . catechism in the lit. g art. . h cor. . , , . i cor. . . preface of cerem . to the litur . k art. . commin . in the litur . l book of ordin . art. . mason de min ang. bramhal ▪ m art. . king charles letter to the prince . n bulla caenae . o jude . gal. . . p ethelbert and some others of the south of england . q an. . of hen. . by the advice of the parliament and convocation r heb. hist . of hen. . speed , baker , &c. ſ guicciard . l. . luitprand . l. . c. . baron ad an. . concil . const . sess ●t . geneb . ad an . t sixt. v. & clem. in the prefaces of their bibles . u concil . trident . sess . . bell. de imag. l. . x coster , enchirid . controvers . c. . de euch. p. . concil . trident . sess . . bell. de euch. y concil . constance , sess . , trid. sess . . bell. de euch. l. . z index lib. probib . reg . . bell. de verbo dei . l. . * optat milevitan . l. . cont. parmen . † missal . rom. approbat . ex decret . conc. trid. & bulla pii v. cherubini bulla● . tom. . p. a extrait du procez verbal des assembl gener . du clerge du fran. tenue a paris , es an. . & . b bell. de rom● pont. l. . c bellar. de eccles . l. . d jude . e bellar. de indulg . l. . f taxa cancel . apost . g bellar. de eccles . l. . h church hist . of britany . i curtius . k david , hezek &c. l const theod. juista &c. m bell. de . rom. pont . l. . suar aud. eud. johan resp . ad caesaub . p . suar. defens . fid cath . l. . turrecrem . sum . ecc l. c. ● . thom. aquin. . quaest . . art. . ledes . theol. mor. tract . . malder . com . in d. thom. . . quaest . . n extravag de majoritate & obedientia c. . unam sanctam . o platin. in vit . innoc. . p concil . later . can . . tom . concil . . p. . concil . lat . . can. . tom. . p. . concil . ludg. . sess . . tom . p. . concil . const sess . . tom . . p. . and . q history of popish treasons and usurpations . r admonish to the nobility : ſ mat. paris , an. : t cherubini bullar . tom. : p. . hist conc. trent . l. . an. . u hist . concil . trent . an . . x cambd. eliz. an. . cherubini bullar . tom. . p. . y thuan. l. . cambd. eliz. an. . z cambd. eliz. an. . * cambd. eliz. an. . † dat. may. . . foulis p. . a lord orrerys answer to peter welsh his letter . b watson's quodlibets . p. . out of bannes , valentia and others . c king james his works . p. . d pag. . e pag , , &c. f pag. . g baron cent . undecim . h an. . i plarina in vita greg vii . k r. hoved. in hen. ii. mat. paris ib. l council . trid , sess . . m hist . concil . trident. l . n and of phil. & mary : o treaty at the isle of wight . p cap. . q cap. . r traitte de la politique de france . c. . p. . concil . trid. ſ sess . . bulla coenae . in bullario cherubin . passim . t hebert hist . of hen. . speed , &c. u sermon preached before the pope and cardinals at avenion . x in defensorio . mat paris hist . anno . y tom. concil . . p. . z pag. . * herb. hist . king hen. . p. . † mat. paris anno . a anno . b concil trid. sess . . c taxa cancel . apost . d horae b. vir. p. , , : , , , . , , &c. e sleid. comm : l. . f corn. agrip. c. de lenocin . g thuan hist . l. . h disq . magic . l. . c. . sect. . i lord orrery p. . k pag . l concil const . myst . jesuitism m de convers . infid p. . n in vit . ignati loyol . o palafox bo. of angelopolis in his letter to pope inoc. x. a mystery of godlinesse and no cabala, or, a sincere account of the non-conformists conversation ... occasioned by a bitter and malitions [sic] paper called the cabala. approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; 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(eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a mystery of godlinesse and no cabala, or, a sincere account of the non-conformists conversation ... occasioned by a bitter and malitions [sic] paper called the cabala. birkenhead, john, sir, - . [ ], p. [s.n.], london : . sometimes ascribed to sir john birkenhead. cf. nuc pre- . reproduction of original in bodleian library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng birkenhead, john, -- sir, - . -- cabala. dissenters, religious -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - emma (leeson) huber sampled and proofread - emma (leeson) huber text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a mystery of godlinesse , and no cabala ; or a sincere account of the non-conformists conversation . from the . of august to this time . for the conviction of adversaries , the instruction of the ignorant , the confirming of the weak , and the satisfaction of all . occasioned by a bitter and malitious paper , called the cabala . london , printed in the year , mdclxiii . a mystery of godlinesse and no cabala ; or a sincere account of the non-conformists conversation . from the . of august to this time . for the conviction of adversaries , the instruction of the ignorant , the confirming of the weak , and the satisfaction of all . occasioned by a bitter and malitious paper , called the cabala . when the fears and jealousies of some concerning us are so restlesse , the malice of others is so implacable , that we suffer not only for what we have done , but for what we may do , and we are not only obnoxious to authority for those miscarriages the world hath seen us guilty of , but unto the tongues and pens of men ; for those likewise the world may imagine us guilty of : to justifie his majesties clemency over us , to give the world a reason of the hope that is in us , to satisfie all sober men , and to to promote tee peace and settlement of our native country , we declare . . that it is true indeed , we cannot come up in all things to their judgement who are over us , as we know they could not come up to ours , when we were advanced over them ; and as we could not allow them any publick employment or encouragement when they could not comply with us , and our laws and constitutions , so we cannot expect any publick employment or encouragement from them , now we dissent from , and cannot close with their laws and constitutions : yet it is true , that we submit patiently to that authority which we cannot obey chearfully ; really we cannot conform in conscience , and really we cannot resist in conscience ; for we must needs be obedient , not only for wrath , but for conscience sake : we suffer , yet we repine not ; we murmur not , we speak no evil of dignities ; we dare not curse the king , no not in our thoughts : we desire to fear god , we desire to honour the king ; and we would not meddle with them that are given to change , or to innovations ; they of us pay tribute from whom tribute is due , custome from whom custome , and fear from whom fear ; and his majesty hath our hearty prayers day and night before the throne of grace for a blessing upon himself and government ; and if we could renounce the whole covenant , yet would we not renounce that part of it , wherein we have promised , sincerely , really , constantly , in our several vocations , to endeavour , with our estates and lives , to preserve and defend the kings majesties person and authority , that the world may bear witnesse with our consciences of our loyalty , and that we have no thoughts or intention to diminish his majesties just power and greatnesse : for indeed we ( whatever the world may think of us ) desire to honour his majesty : . for the lords sake , by whom kings reign , who by a special providence hath set our gracious king over us . . for our own sakes , who though we are not capable of preferment under his majesty , yet owe unto him our lives , which he hath pardoned , our liberties and estates , which he secures to us , and the protection he affords us : it is a mercy that we may live comfortably as christians , though we cannot be employed and preferred as ministers . . it is true we have different apprehensions in many things from other men , and in many things we are otherwise minded ; but we are resolved , in those things , to which we have already attained , to walk by the same rule , to mind the same things , and if we cannot be of one mind , we desire to be of one heart ; and to preserve unity of affections in our differ●●ces of judgement . we desire heartily , that the small things we differ in should not have so much power to divide us , as the great things we agree in should have to unite ; however we beg of the lord heartily , that we may live peaceably with all men ; we desire earnestly to seek truth and peace , and to follow peace and holinesse , without which , we think , we cannot see the lord : we desire to be just in our dealing , harmlesse and innocent in our behaviour and carriage , and to have our conversation honest in the world , that whereas some speak against us as evil doers , they may by our good works , which they shall behold , glorifie god in the day of visitation ; and though we are sorry to hear it , that some think it strange that we run not with them to the same excesse of ryot , speaking evil of us , yet will we sit still , knowing that they shall give an account unto him who judgeth righteous judgement . . without all dangerous , offensive , or suspitious designs or complottings , which we abhor , have , we fince the twenty four of august , held up our private devotions in the apostles doctrine , and fellowship , and breaking bread from house to house , and in prayers , loving as brethren ; at these our meetings we plot nothing but the saving of souls , comforting the weak , reclaiming the erroneous , instructing the ignorant , building poor souls up in their faith , as helpers of their joy , for the perfecting of the saints , the work of the ministry , the edifying of the body of christ , and helping our brethren in the publick ministry , who since our withdrawing have a great burden lying upon them ; some may preach christ out of envy , some out of discontent , but christ is preached , and we dare boldly say , nothing but christ crucified is preached among us : wherefore we rejoyce , and we hope they rejoyce too , ever since we hope without offence we have preached the word , and have been instant in season ▪ and out of season , reproving , rebuking , and exhorting with all long-suffering and doctrine : here have we no thoughts of our king and countrey , but thoughts of peace ; no words of either , but serious exhortations to obedience under the one , and ear●●st prayers for the peace and prosperity of the other : we ●●sire indeed to converse profitably , to improve our time and opportunities usefully , to provoke one another to love and to good works . in obedience to his majesties laws for peace and order , we have no factious conventicles ; in compliance with his majesties good inclination , for serious holinesse , for sober friendship we converse with one another lovingly , we meet at one anothers habitations friendly and neighbourly , we open our doubts one to another sincerely , and endeavour to resolve one another satisfactorily ; we pray unanimously , one reads , another openeth what is read , and presseth home what is so opened ; and so with prayers , and a hymn , and a little refreshment we dismisse one another , and take our leave ▪ the prophets speak , two or three , and the others judge ; if any thing be revealed unto another that sitteth by , the first holdeth his peace , for we all prophecy one by one , that all may learn , and all may be comforted ; but we must needs say , whatever in suggested to the contrary , that among us the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets ; for we own , that god is not the author of confusion , but of peace , as in all the churches of the saints : we hope there is so much of the english genius of friendship and good nature abroad in the world , that none will censure us , either for familiar meetings , which are neighbourly , or for making good use of those meetings which is christian : indeed we were unsufferable , if we set up private meetings in opposition to publick assemblies ; but it s a common observation by this time , that we never go together privately the same hour that others meet publickly ; and indeed we are glad when they say unto us , let us go up to the house of god. one thing we have desired of the lord , that while we seek after , that we may dwell in the house of the lord all the daies of our lives , to behold the beauty of the lord , and to enquire in his temple . and it s seldome that we escape any opportunities of joyning with the publick assemblies , for though we cannot administer in the church , yet we cannot separate from the church : we would not partake with the churches sins , least we be defiled ; we would not remove from the church , least we be nothing : and indeed we desire only in private to set home upon our hearts what we have gained in publick ; we would second the ministers at home , whom we cannot assist abroad : it s true , they of us that fear the lord , speak often one to another , but we dare not speak any thing that is amiss , for we know the lord hearkeneth and heareth us , and a book of remembrance is written before , for them that fear the lord , and think upon his name . . forasmuch as there is no well-affected christian that is not deeply sensible of the unsetledness , division , animosities , prophaneness , decay of trade , and other calamities , whereby our native country is exposed to the pity of neighbours , and the scorn and insultation of enemies ; we do effectually endeavour to work our hearts to a sound humiliation for our own sins , which have contributed too much to the common calamities , seeing we are so unhappy as to add to the measure of publick provocations , we cannot but be so compassionate , as to endeavour to add to the measure of publick prayers , humiliations and intercessions . . to prevail with god the more effectually , we zealously stir up our neighbours and friends to be passionately affected with the present estate of the churches and servants of christ , that as they helped on their miseries by their sins , so they may assist in their recovery , by their tears , sighs and prayers . . we endeavour by all means to gain just notice , and a true account of the estate of our native country ; that as the men of issachar , we may be men understanding the times , and knowing what israel ought to do ; and herein we observe : first , our sins we allow , to the great dishonor of the majesty of the holy god we serve , and the purity of the holy gospel we profess : and secondly , the judgements we lye under , by reason of these sins ; our great design is to root up the greatest evil , that is sin , and draw neer the highest good , that is god , that he would take delight in us to do us good , and would receive us graciously , and love us freely . . we deeply lay to heart , and secretly mourn for the sins of the people , representing them to our thoughts in their heynous nature and circumstances , humbly entreating the lord for their serious repentance of them , and earnestly deprecating the judgements provoked by them ; so that we lay together both the evils we feel , and those we have too just cause to fear , and in a due sense of both , we desire to humble our selves , and others , under the mighty hand of god. . and therefore whensoever we have an opportunity to speak from god to his people in the publick assemblies , we desire to speak a present truth , and to lay open and bewail the sins of the time , and to awake the people with all zealous exhortation to a lively and just sorrow for all the overflowings of wickedness , and to a vehement and godly striving against the stream thereof by their prayers and utmost endeavours , day and night constantly pouring out their hearts in strong cryes and servent prayer to our god , that he will be pleased to visit us in mercy and compassion , and cause the light of his countenance to shine upon us . . and however , privately we set apart one day at least in every week for this holy end and purpose , wherein we humble our selves in private fasting and prayer , till it please our god to return to his in his wonted pity and compassion , and put an end to our sins and miseries , recovering us to that first state of innocence , peace and plenty , which we were happy in before our late miscarriages . . we do restrain our wonted pleasure , not allowing the liberty of that mirth and lawful refreshment which we might formerly make use of , while the hand of god lieth thus heavily upon us . . we do not allow our selves the neglect of any good means of prayer , reading , meditation and conference , whereby the peace and welfare of this church and state may be procured and maintained , and shall carefully avoid all words and actions , ways and means , which may at all tend to the widening of the unhappy breaches , and the encreasing the many and woful differences among us , seeking peace , and ensuing it , studying now in our leisure time , to look into the bottom of controversies , that we may bring differences to as narrow a compass as we can , beget a mutual good understanding and satisfaction among sober men , clearing up things as far as lieth in our power for the reuniting of all honest and faithful hearts in a firm concord of christian love , endeavouring to discover and defeat all the devices and machinations of satan , and his engines , against the peace and welfare of the church in all parts of the world , especially in these wherein we are interested . . and particularly considering our selves , our own miscarriages and infirmities , we shall not as afore fly out upon the weakness , defects , or excesses of our fathers or brethren , aggravating the blame of those their actions or opinions , which may be capable of a gentler or milder construction , resolving to look as charitably upon all their proceedings , who are otherwise minded in matters of an inferiour nature , bending our whole endeavours against known sin , and open prophaness , the great enemies of our peace and settlement : as we have preached , so we desire to live , that charity that suffereth long , and is kind , is not easily provoked , thinketh no evil , beareth all things , believeth all things , hopeth all things , endureth all things . . and to that purpose we have first of all laid aside all our lesser opinions among our selves , and our little separations and divisions , and resolvedly knit our selves together in an entire affection one to another , that by this all men may know that we are christs disciples , because we love one another , and are ready to shew all mutual respects of christian love , and observance to each other upon all occasion loving as brethren : as likewise we shall in all meekness of spirit lovingly converse with , and kindly , affectionate to , and respectful towards all our fathers and brethren in their places , living without offence , and blameless . . we mourn , but not as men without hope ; that our gracious god will find out a way to have mercy upon us , and to chear up his countenance towards all his chosen ones , wiping ( as that holy bishop said ) all tears from their eyes , and all spots from their faces , and answering the holy desires of their hearts , in shewing them sion in perfect beauty , and that not by overturning any part of the government , but by opening our hearts to see our errours , and close one with another , by turning the heart of the father towards the child , and of the child towards the father , least god come and smite the earth with dicurse . . in the mean time we possess our souls in patience , and we keep silence before god , waiting upon him that hideth his face from jacob ; for his spirit of love , unity , peace and concord , resolving to continue thus doing , till we receive an answer from heaven . . it s true , there are many of us whose bodies will not bear that austerity of fasting and humiliation which our cause may require , yet they that cannot fast do pray , and they that cannot spare a day in seven , can spare an hour in twelve , and make up the rest in frequent and servent ejaculations . . whereas some have pretended that we set up a government within a government , and that we have an authority among our selves , we must let the world know we are all equal , and we have no formality or ceremony among us , but a free and voluntary entrance , left open for all comers into this strict course of christian austerity , without any noyse , without the required notice of any , but god and their own conscience , that all may well know and see , that here is no design than meerly spiritual , aiming at nothing but religious transactions , between god and our own souls , and consisting in the performance of the unquestionable exercises of piety and holy devotion . . since we have been uncapable of speaking to the people the things that are of everlasting concernment , we have recommended to them the writings of good men , pious and peaceable , who being dead yet speak , and poor men we know may read a good book , when they cannot hear a good man ; and we our selves teach them from house to house , with tears day and night , as the apostles did , leaving with them such books as mr. baxters call , his now or never , his directions for peace of conscience , his saints everlasting rest , mr bolton , dr. sibbs , mr. perkins , mr. dod , and dr. preston . . we settle mens judgements upon most firm and solid principles , leading to peace and holiness , leading them through that safe and middle way that is equally distant from all the extremes men have run into in their hearts about some points of religion , as particularly in the points now in difference among us , we teach our people , that though we cannot conform to the church without sin , yet they cannot separate from it without sin ; we cannot administer according to the prescribed form , but we and they can hear according to it ; we must joyn with the church in our duties , though we are not guilty of her infirmities ; we teach them that it is one thing to hold communion with a church that is under some miscarriages , and another thing to act those miscarriages ; what we chiefly insist on , are things much comporting and agreeing with the spirit of the scriptures , and things that are most proper to build men up in their most holy faith , and to promote the power of godliness in their hearts and lives . . it s true , we desire to settle our peoples hearts upon all occasions , but always offering them such things as tend to peace and quietness , and godliness of living , dealing as faithfully with them , as those who must give an account ; and if therefore we have any interest with them , we improve for god our soveraign , and the church of christ , for whose distressed members we sometimes solicit them with success , and find them willing above their strength and ability , and we hope the lord will not forget their work and labour of love , and yet we desire not to wrong any minister in his place , for indeed we stated the point of ministers maintenance upon such grounds , that we are perswaded no sober christian , with whom we have any interest , will withdraw any thing that is due from any man that labours in the word and doctrine , and watches for their souls : and though we are otherwise represented , yet our great endeavour is , by a discreet interposition to allay and fix the people to a due temperament ( gently guiding some mens well-meaning zeal by such rules of moderation , as are best to restore and preserve the health and peace of this church and kingdome , much pleasing our selves in that good and firm understanding which would thence grow between his most excellent majesty and his good people , all jealousies being laid aside , our own and our posterities interest lay before us many strong obligations to seek and preserve the peace and welfare of the land of our nativity ; the offence which some mens dangerous medling and over-busie interpositions have contracted upon our profession , we have resolved to expiate by such moderations for the future , as might not only check the excesses of our practise , but of our opinions too , no men having a greater kindness for peace and settlement preserved in truth , unity and order , then our selves , whom it most concerns , whether we consider our consciences ; callings or interests , as knowing , that nothing undermines to much in our authority and calling , as those dangerous dissentions wherein the people learn to shake off both . . it is true , we cannot own that episcopacy now established , so as to undertake it our selves , yet we would submit to it as to every ordinance of man for the lords sake , whether to the king as supreme , or to those who are sent by him , whose great charges and care is like enough to betray them to some errours , and many enemies , whereof they canno but contract good store , while so eminent and so active , they provoke that envy which improved to a popular odium , is able to overcast the highest merit and integrity ; wherefore the bishops have our prayers , pity , and assistance ; and although we cannot in our judgement approve all that they do , driven it may be rather by the ▪ temper of the people and unhappiness of this age , then 〈◊〉 their own disposition to any height and rigour of action ; yet we allow not that their persons or government should be exposed to the malapartness of the loose and irreverent multitude , who take a bold liberty to despise dominions , and to speak evil of dignities , whereas we have always taught , that men should cheerfully submit to the authority , when they cannot in conscience allow all the practises of those that are over them in the lord : indeed , we never met with a more perplexed conjuncture of affairs , then the late business of bishops , when between our unsatisfiedness in conscience under that government , and the woful necessity if we shaked off that of being under none , we run head , long to that which we thought then expedient , rather then we should suffer some inconvenience under that which , well regulated we must ▪ always approve as just , preferring the humour of some particular men , before the reason of the christian world : well experience hath taught us ▪ that we had better live where nothing is lawful , then where all things are so ; that anarchy is the greatest oppression , licentiousness the greatest grievance and an unbounded liberty the greatest slavery ▪ . indeed we allow it for weaker christians , who have not their hearts enlarged with an ability to express their own wants and desires , both lawful and convenient to help themselves in prayer , the use of a prescribed form , wherein they may have their own case and condition more pithily and affectionately then they are able to express it themselves , and if the use of such a form do prove a means to warm the affections , and enkindle their grace , we looking not upon it as any quenching of the spirit , it being not in our apprehension essential to the nature of prayer , that it be either read , or rehearsed by memory , or by immediate suggestion , but rather that it be delivered out of the book , or out of the heart , with understanding and suitable affections , with humility and confidence , and an inward sense of our condition ; nor is there any great difference betwixt repeating by memory , and reading out of a book , the memory being but a kind of invisible book for the register of our thoughts , though in this case it should be especially remembred , that in the use of such prescript forms , to which a man hath been accustomed , he ought to be narrowly watchful over his own heart , for fear of that lip-service and formality which in such cases we are more especially exposed unto ; but yet for any one so to fit and satisfie himself with his prayer-book , as to go no further , this were still to remain in his infancy , and never grow in grace or gifts ; and withall , it s very hard for a man to find a prescribed form that may suit with our several emergencies ; and therefore indeed we do not tye our selves so precisely to any particular form of words , though of our own composing , and fitted to our condition , but that we may either add or alter , according as our emergent occasion , or some new affection suggested shall require : sometimes we feel our hearts more warm , our desires more vigorous , and our expressions more copious and ready : and in this case we suffer not our selves to be streightened or confined to any form , but take our liberty to expatiate more freely , according as we find our inward : in●argements . . amongst all the stratagems of satan , whereby he would undermine religion , and pervert the souls of men , though there cannot be any more unreasonable , yet there was never any more unhappily successful then the raising and cherishing fears and jealousies in the world , that religion in the height and exaltation of it , is an enemy to government ; and that to be a through-paced , a sincere and zealous christian , is to be dangerous to the state : we therefore , as ministers of this religion , are bold in the evidence & truth of the gospel , to say that ( whatever the men of the world judge of us ) we profess christian religion in so harmless and innocent a way , that we have studied and endeavoured to state the rights of civil government upon the clearest and firmest principles , to secure them by the most powerful obligation , and to urge them upon men by the most efficacious motives of rewards and punishments in the world : and we profess sincerely , that we look upon our late miscarriages as most unhappy scandals to our religion , and those ingaged in them so for us , to persist still as enemies to the cross of christ , and men born to bring our holy christian profession into jealousie , suspition , and disgrace with the powers of the earth , and to stir up the kings of the earth to stand up , and the rulers to take counsel together against the lord , and against his christ , that they should break their bonds in sunder , and cast their cords from them : we are so sensible of the original and institution of government , of the end and use of it , in respect of good and evil men , and thereof the necessity of subjection for conscience sake , and of the sin and danger of resisting an ordinance of god , considering that they who resist privately or openly by word or deed , resist to their own damnation ; that we cannot allow any person upon any pretence whatsoever , in any manner whatsoever , to vilifie , despise , murmure against , disparage , undermine , or oppose lawful authority that is set over him , we say upon any pretence whatsoever , either . in respect of the person governing , as errour , heresie , idolatry , harsh administration , or the like , in which cases the servants of god in all ages had no other remedy but patience , and prayer , and crying mightily to the lord , sam . , , , . as they did under tiberius , caligula , claudius and nero , those monsters of mankind . or . in respect of the persons governed , be they never so holy seeing , best of men , yea god and man in this case obeyed unto the death . . in respect of any causes whatsoever , though it be religion , whereof we conceive the magistrate ought to have the greatest care , so that we are perswaded in our consciences , that to them who have imbraced christianity in the true and genuine spirit of it , as we hope we have all done ; and to those who without vile affections , and carnal interests , shall apply themselves to know the mind of god delivered in scripture : as we hope we do with peaceable submission , and patience is a clear duty under any government ; so that though the spirit of the ruler be stirred against them , yet they cannot stir out of their place . . and as we are thus justly affected to soveraignty , as knowing by whom the powers are ordained , as we dare not curse the king in our heart , or revile the ruler of the people , much lesse slander the footsteps of gods anointed ; as we submit for conscience sake to every ordinance of god ; yea to every ordinance of man for the lords sake , not daring to disobey in regard of the oath of god ; and pay custome where custome , and tribute where tribute . so indeed whatever apprehensions men have of us abroad in the world , we desire to fill up every relation conscionably and faithfully according to the rule , and as men that desire to approve our selves to god and men ; as . to our calling , we desire to be faithful , neither suppressing nor corrupting the truth , to take heed to our selves , and to all the flock of god , over which the holy ghost hath made us overseers , to feed the church of god which he hath purchased with his own blood : we desire to speak from the heart to the heart , to feel in our selves what we speak , to others ; that we may serve god with our spirit in the gospel of his son , that we may save our selves and those that hear us ; that we may walk from love to god , to the glory of god , and the salvation of our souls , as able , faithful , resolute , industrious , in preparing for , and exercising of our ministry , and as compassionate of souls , preaching the word purely , plainly , prude●tly , powerfully and sincerely , administring the sacraments carefully , instructing our flocks , advising , admonishing , and comforting them as we see occasion ; being good examples to believers , in words in conversation , in charity , in spirit , in faith , in purity and waiting upon god for success : we desire to be neither too austere in our retiredness , nor too cheap in our sociablenesse , but carrying so even a hand , that our discreet affableness may be free from contempt , and that we may win our people with a loving conversation ; as secondly to our relation , first to our familier , we desire to be the mouth of our people to god by constant prayers , and the mouth of god to our people by wholsome instructions , and holy admonitions , loving , tender , and careful of our nearest relations , devoting them to gods service , and committing them to his care , providing yet for them honest things in the sight of men , and going before them in good examples of piety and holy conversation , and so over-looking them , as they that have more then meer bodies committed to our charge : we desire to be familiar , meek , humble , and courteous towards all , and helpful one way or other to our neighbour , as they that think our selves born to do good , maintaining peace and love at home and abroad . . we think we have fully informed our selves in all the necessary points of religion ; and we are so firmly grounded in those fundamental and saving truths , that we will not be carried about with every wind of doctrine ; as for circumstances , we neither neglect them , nor yet too eagerly pursue after them ; we receive nothing in religion upon trust : nor dare we absolutely follow any guide , but such as we are sure cannot erre ; we have some hours for speculation , but our life is to reduce knowledge to practice , and so much we think we know , as we can live ; where we are convinced we we can submit , where we must dissent we can be silent , and where we dissent from the church , we desire to examine throughly whether we are deceived ; we keep close to those truths which do most promote the glory and grace of god , the reformation of men , and the salvation of souls : whosoever therefore by pride , or faction , or schisme , or ambition , or novel fancies , and arrogance , or ignorance , or sedition , or popularity , or vain-glory , or envy or discontent , or corrospondence , or any other carnal reason shall cause divisions or offences by teaching any other doctrine then what we have received , we look not upon him as the servant of christ . . we desire we may not be judged for our austere conversation and strict life ; for we desire , so to speak , and so to do , as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty : we would our discourse were grave , discreet , pertinent , free from vanity , free from offence : we allow our selves no corrupt or unsavoury communication ; in worldly affairs we desire nothing may fall from us but what is seasonable and well advised ; in spiritual , such as may minister grace to the hearers , and such as is sparing and charitable , allowing neither detraction nor censure ; not meddling with any matters of state ▪ but keeping our selves within compasse , only desiring to understand the times , that we might know what israel ought to do : in word and actions we desire to walk circumspectly , to avoid all appearance of evil ; to walk as in sincerity , as in truth , and as in the sight of god ; exercising our selves to a good conscience , void of offence towards god and towards men ; willing in all things to live honestly , and endeavouring to live without rebuke in the middest of a crooked and perverse generation ; and if we are more earnest and serious then ordinarily , you must know , that we are sensible how short time is , what eternity is , and what are our immortal souls , and what that god is with whom we have to do . our recreation we desire may be safe , inoffensive and moderate in time and measure , such as may refresh a tired body and mind , and not effeminate or debauch them , we would indeed rejoyce , as if we rejoyced not . we allow our selves so far creature-enjoyments , as nature requires , and grace moderates , and our god blesseth : we redeem our time , considering it is not our own improving it to our best advantage ; we know a day or a night well spent , makes way for eternity . we desire to be very observant of our outward conversation , but we look chiefly at our inward frame ; we live by the precepts , we live upon the promises , we affect not singularity , we aim at sincerity , our habits commend us not to god , yet by our habits we would not give offence unto men ; our devotion we desire may be with fear and reverence on the one hand , and with faith and sincerity on the other , we watch unto prayer , and we watch after prayer ; and indeed we desire always to watch and be sober , fearing in adversity , and rejoycing in tribulation , knowing that tribulation provoketh patience , and patience experience , and experience hope , and hope maketh not ashamed . . our indeavours to keep a good understanding at court by our friends and brethren , is loaded by our enemies ( for so some would be still , notwithstanding his majesties endeavours for pacification ) with all the obloquies and exasperations imaginable , and looked upon by some indifferent men with jealousies and fears ; but these men know not the just motives and pregnant grounds with which we think our selves furnished for those undertakings , god knows it is not any interest or party we desire to serve there , but we pursue the peace and good of the kingdome , and endeavour to prevent future dangers , which we may foresee will in all likelihood follow some mens activity ( if not restrained ) by a moderate interest ; not as if we would stop the course of law , or weaken authority , but that we desire heartily , as many honourable persons do , with his majesty and his father of blessed memory , that no party or interest be exasperated ( and the multitude are easier exasperated then appeased ) by crossnesse , and asperity of some mens passions , humours or private opinions , grounded only upon differences in lesser matters , which are but the skirts and subburbs of religion ; wherein ( as his late majesty of renowned memory observed , as an angel of god ) a charitable counivance and christian toleration of sin dissipates their strength , whom rougher opposition fortifieth , and puts the despised and oppressed party into such combinations as may most enable them , yet a full revenge on those they count their persecutors , who are commonly assisted with that vulgar commiseration , which attends all that are said to suffer under the notion of religion . indeed we only desire ( what that famous prince wished ) viz. that solid piety , and those fundamental truths ( which mend both hearts and lives of men ) be kept up and encouraged with equal justice and impartial favour ; and that the outward circumstances and formalities of religion devour not all , or the best encouragement , of learning , industry and piety , but that with an equall eye and impartial hand favours and rewards he distrited among all men , as they are found , for their real goodnesse , both in ability and fidelity worthy and capable of them : this , saith that excellent prince , will be sure to gain the hearts of the most , and the best too , who though they be not good themselves , yet are glad to see the severer wayes of virtue at any time sweetned by temporal rewards . and though it be suggested , that we are not to be trusted about his majesty , although we can make it appear , that since his majesty was restored we have passed three years with so much innocence , and so little compliance with any interest or faction , that not one publick action we did since , but is capable of a fair and equitable plea ; yet since an act of indempnity and religion is passed , we think it our duty so for to comply with his majesties intention in granting that act , as not to mention any thing , how defensible soever , which he hath commanded should be utterly forgotten , but to give our present sence of things , we can sincerely professe , that we have not only a loyal , but a most affectionate esteem for his majesties person and government ; for since , besides the general obligation of subjects , we are bound by our religion to prize gratitude above all things ; we could not be just , should we not most earnestly desire the happinesse of that prince , unto whose single endeavours we owe all our liberty ; for we all acknowledge , that his majesties personal and passionate interposings did confirm our indempnity , and his most pious and unequalled declarations have satisfactorily evidenced , that he is not unwilling to indulge the utmost extent of sober and christian liberty , which , as we have elsewhere professed , are expressions of so much goodness in the midst of so great power , and after somany provocations , that he hath not the heart of a man , much lesse of a christian , that hath not a due sence of them ; we are sure they have so throughly possessed us , that if in any publick action of ours there be any instance that can be wrested to the disparagement of his majesties royal authority and government : we intreat the world to take notice , that we do hereby utterly disown it , as being directly contrary to our professed principles , which lead us to no one point of outward practice more strictly and powerfully then an exact and punctual obedience to his majesties commands , and a chearful submission to his authority . and once for all , now it hath pleased his majesty to enjoyn an outward conformity , to which we cannot in all things subscribe , we are resolved , the lord assisting us , to submit with chearfulnesse , and to suffer with silence , for as there is an active disobedience , which is to resist , so there is a passive disobedience , that is , to repine , neither of which can we by any means approve of ; since whatever we cannot conscienciously do , we think our selves obliged to suffer for , with as much joy , and with as little resistance , as if any other act of obedience were called for from us . we may perhaps be too partial to our selves ; but certainly in general we may pronounce , that whoever is of this temper , whatever his judgement be , as touching things indifferent in their own nature , yet he cannot be supposed incompatible with wayes of publick safety . and over and above all , we are not capable of being dangerous to this government , but by our representatives in parliament , who are now men of such unspotted integrity towards his majesties person and government , that it is a wonder if malice it self can find the least suspition of danger . . it is true ( as some say ) that by our diligence , good husbandry , and the blessing of god upon our endeavours , we have got among us a considerable part of the treasure of this land ; for we are a people that improve our time , and follow our businesse , as whose strict profession forbids us those excesses which swallow up other mens time and estates ; hounds , hawks , games , wine , women , playes , and other vanities , have neither our thoughts nor our purses , which we reserve for higher advantage , which we constantly watch , and as constantly meet with ( so great an advantage hath the sober against the intemperate ) yet out of what we have , are we ready upon all occasions to assist his majesty , and support his government ; yea if , as some would have , it should please his majesty to impose upon us a levy for our former miscarriages , his indulgence to us , and for the peace and tranquillity we enjoy under him , it should be parted with as chearfully as ever we parted with money in the heat of the late trouble ; neither would we so anxiously look upon what is gone of our estate , as we would thankfully take notice of what remains . it is true , we have got estates some of us in the late troubles , and now we have places about the king , and indeed we know not how to expiate former transgression against his late majesty , but by endeavouring to be as capable as we can to serve his son : among our many failings we hoped this would have been none , that we used all means to get into his majesties service , no place escaping us that could be had for love or money ; as we have done amisse , not out of malice , but misinformation , or misapprehension of things , so we hope none shall be more loyal and faithful then we , who , sensible of our errours and our injuries , do feel in our own souls most vehement motives to repentance , and earnest desires to make some repairations for former defects . for his majesties and his fathers faithful souldiers and subjects , who out of conscience sunk in the same ruine with their liege , lord and soveraign , we declare , upon all occasions , when we are called to it , that we think it necessary for publick settlement , that they should be provided for as may be just and expedient ; such valour and gallantry we confesse they have shewed , that we heartily wish we may never want such men to serve our soveraign , to maintain his laws and kingdomes in such a peace , as wherein they may enjoy their share and proportion as much as any men ; and so wish withall , that we did close so unanimously in one common subjection , that there were no note of distinction left , and no quarrel remain but this one , viz. who should be most loyal and faithful : we would have our fellow subjects live as strictly and as warily as we do , and they will see , the very money that is spent upon their vanities would procure them places as well as ours does us : and as for such of them as the iniquity of the times , or their own faults have made poor , our very excesses would support them , and what we throw away idly would relieve them : we are ready to joyn in any expedient that may accommodate all grievances , that if it be possible we may have no more complaining in our streets . in a word , those that are well inclined on all sides are ready to agree , but that there are some crafty and subtle men on both sides , that would keep our distances and animosities to serve their private ends , which they propose sometimes to themselves out of the publick ruine , aggravating all things with the most odious circumstances , and endeavouring to inflame the vulgar to a temper uncapable of restraint or government , that now we are at such a distance , we look upon it as no lesse a providence , that god keeps the people within the bound of law , and the reverence of authority , then that he keeps the sea within its channel , and the waters within their banks . and thus indeed since our seclusion have we endeavoured to approve our selves gods faithful children and servants by honour and dishonour , by evil report and good report , as deceivers , and yet true . . the great discourse of the nation at this time is their taxations , from which some would perswade the world we under our present discontent make some advantage , in reference to which our sense hath been always this : . that all our payments are our advantage , we allow his majesty a part of our estate , to secure the whole ; we support his government , he protects our lives and estates from that rage and rapine which in a few daies may destroy the industry of many years ; we teach men constantly not to be so impertinent , as to complain of any common charge or burthen which seems necessary to the present policy , under which we may have leave to live peaceable and quiet lives , in all godliness and honesty ; no safety to us without the restraint of other mens lust and violence , and no restraint , without a government that is able to raise a constant guard to every man that would live securely under his own vine , and under his own fig-tree . we know that there are four pillars of government and order . . religion , that setleth the heart of men . . justice , that ordereth their lives . . counsel , that may apply the rules of justice and religion to particular occasions . . treasure , which last is so necessary , that without it , officers will be corrupted , counsels betrayed , armies ill paid and disciplined , trade obstructed , and a poor nation will lye open to the dangerous attempts of an untoward people at home , and the unneighbourly encroachments of potent princes abroad . . all payments are of our own imposing , by our consent in parliament . . our late miscarriages occasion our present grievances . . yet we are not now under the eighth part of former payments : we tell our people , that our king affords us christian protection , and therefore we may very well allow him dutiful assistance , by our lives , estates and prayers . . here we thought to have concluded , but that there remains two particulars more , whereof we think fit to give an account , and then we shall set a period to this importunity . the first is this ; viz. why we have been so importunate , both a little before the of august , and ever since , against popery . ans . it s true , that we had verily thought popery had rendred it self justly odious , by its own abominations in doctrine , worship , and bloudy slaughters , and that in these daies of light and knowledge , to imagine a possibility of its return upon the protestant churches , ( which yet hath been the opinion of divers eminent for learning and godliness among us ) was groundless fear , where no fear was : yet really considering : . the vast numbers of popish emissaries , priests and jesuites that swarm among us , english colledges , as we are certified , being much emptied by the reason of multitudes sent hither , whose ways are subtil and close , whose industry is indefatigable , whose influence and efficacy upon all sorts of persons is powerful , whose support from abroad is past finding out . . the printing and vending so many english popish books , which considering the apostasie of some , the indifference of others , distracted by our unhappy divisions , cannot speak less then a great inclination to a revolt to popery . . the toleration of popery publickly by them pleaded for . . the jesuites designs and models of reducing england to romes obedience , followed and promoted by many deluded protestants . . the union of forreign popish power , which how soon the court of rome ( being ever vigilant to improve such occasions for the propagation of its own greatness ) may make use of , for the extirpation of the protestant religion ; we need not divine . . the whole body of popery published by sectaries , especially quakers ; upon these considerations we were awakened , to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints ; having not the least thought of any dangerous intimations to the people , as if our governours or government ( both which we think in our consciences clear in that matter ) had any inclinations for , or were to give any countenance to that mystery of iniquity : and it was therefore that we recommend to our beloved congregations : . the love of the truth in sincerity . . serious endeavours to heal the sad breaches and divisions which are among us . . to read good books . . to make conscience of all family duties . . to attend on publick ordinances . . to be well grounded in the principles of religion , and to watch over their hearts . . it was given out , that we the dissembling party had made an accommodation among our selves , the naked truth whereof is this ; indeed we have endeavoured to follow the things that make for peace , which we have reduced to these heads following . . peace with god ; if our ways please the lord , our enemies will be at peace with us . . of nature in one common grace , wrought in us by one spirit ; if we had all one new nature , we should have all one mind . . of judgement ; . in principles of doctrine which we draw up ; which are . few . . plain . . weighty . . clear. . subservient to godliness . . universally professed . . principles of obedience of worship , of government contained in the ten commandments , the lords prayer , the belief , and the scripture . . of affections ; one heart where there cannot be one mind , kindly affectionate one to another , loving as brethren . . of ends ; they that agree in the end , will in time agree in the means . . unity ; and that scripture . . uniformity ; that every thing be done according to scripture , decency and order , that we be one of one way , and of one mind , and walk by the same rule . . order ; none stirring out of his place , all studying to be quiet , and to follow their own business peaceably and obediently , knowing them that rule over them . . the power of grace and religion , which is a wisdome from above ; first pure , then peaceable , and the power of religion makes for peace . . by subduing lusts , whence come worse . . by working that love that beareth all things , &c. cor. . . by enlightening the mind , difference come from ignorance , if we have grace to practise what we know , god will reveal other things in due time , and we shall all agree . . by subduing that covetousness , ambition , pride , envy , &c. that disturb the world . . the power of grace in us will convince all men , that god is in us of a truth , and so will pacifie the world . the th thing that makes for peace , a great care of weak and wilful ignorance , which is lazy , and will not search for truth ; bashful , and is ashamed to do it ; sullen , and will not understand . . take care of interest private or publick ; keep up a frame of spirit that looks rather what is just , necessary and true , then what is expedient and useful . . be humble and teachable , neither proud nor self-conceited pertinacy , nor think seriously on this obvious truth , a man may erre : put on meekness and long-suffering . . take care of respect of persons , and of prejudice . . be deliberate and sober , proving all things . . have a zeal always guided by knowledge . . let nothing be done through strife , or vain-glory . . prudently suspend your judgement and practise , and if you have faith , have it to thy self . . all lawful condiscention and forbearance one with another , forbearing and receiving one another , and bearing one anothers burden . . wait by prayer on the god of peace , for your selves , for your ministers , for your magistrates . . mark them that cause divisions , and avoid them . . give up your selves to your faithful ministers , whose faith follow , considering the end of their conversation . . be wise unto sobriety , and rather believe then dispute , avoiding all unnecessary questions . . take care of an innovating spirit , stand in the way , ask which is the good way , and walk therein , and you will find rest for your souls . . consider one another , so as to provoke one another to love , and to good works . . let the spirits of the prophets be subject to the prophets . . correct and keep down the rising of our knowledge with humility in our selves , and charity towards others . . so long as there is sound agreement in fundamental truths , and in the simplicity of the gospel , silence all disputes , in matters meerly notional and curious , which have no necessary influence into faith and godly living . . let there be a joynt obedience to the truths wherein all agree , and pursuance of the end which all profess , whereunto we have already attained ; let us walk by the same rule , let us mind the same things , phil. . . . out of a serious and single-hearted love of truth , let us address our selves to the search of holy scriptures . . a mutual and brotherly love , which is a very great means to work upon the judgements of one another , and to take off all impediments as usually arise from personal prejudice in disquisition of truth . . keep your selves to the analogy of faith , the form of sound words : . labour against the inward grounds of contention , as pride , self-love , envy , malice and covetousness , and endeavour after a meek , charitable , yielding , and submissive disposition of heart and frame of spirit , that may let fall private interest for the publick . . meet and converse together for a mutual good , understanding of one another . . wait upon god for further illumination in all truth . . let the grounds of religion be laid by catechising . . suppress the beginning of religious debates , by a fair and amicable communication among your selves . thus we have given a sincere account of our selves , which we beseech the lord to bless , to confirm the weak , to direct the doubtful , to convince gain-sayers , and to gain peaceable and sober men favour with god and men . a solemn vow that we have taken . vve the ministers of the gospel , in the kingdomes of england , scotland , and ireland , living under one king , and being of one reformed religion , having before our eyes the glory of god , and the advancement of the kingdome of our lord and saviour jesus christ , the honour and happiness of the kings majesty , and his posterity , and the true publick liberty , safety , and peace of the kingdomes wherein every ones private condition is included , and calling to mind the treacherous and bloudy plots , conspiracies , attempts , and practises of the enemies of god against the true religion , and professors thereof in all places , especially in these three kingdomes , ever since the reformation of religion , and how much their rage , power , and presumption are of late , and at this time encreased and exercised ; whereof the deplorable estate of the church and kingdome of ireland , the distressed estate of the church and kingdome of england , and the dangerous estate of the church and kingdome of scotland , are present and publick testimonies ; we have now at last , ( after other means of supplication , remonstrance , protestations and sufferings ) for the preservation of our selves and our religion from utter ruine and destruction , according to the commendable practise of these kingdomes in former times , and the example of gods people in other nations ; after mature deliberation resolved and determined to enter into a mutual and solemn league and covenant , wherein we all subscribe , and each one of us for himself with our hands lifted up to the most high god , do swear . and because these kingdoms are guilty of many sins and provocatious against god , and his son jesus christ , as is too manifest by our present distresses and dangers the fruits thereof ; we profess and declare before god and the world , our unfained desire to be humbled for our own sins , and for the sins of these kingdomes , especially that we have not as we ought , valued the inestimable benefit of the gospel , that we have not laboured for the purity and power thereof , and that we have not endeavoured to receive christ in our hearts , nor to walk worthy of him in our lives , which are the causes of other sins and transgressions so much abounding amongst us ; and our true and unfained purpose , desire , and endeavour for our selves , and all others under our power and charge , both in publick and in private , in all duties we owe to god and man , to amend our lives , and each one to go before another in the example of a real reformation , that the lord may turn away his wrath and heavy indignation , and establish these churches and kingdoms in truth and peace . and this covenant we make in the presence of almighty god , the searcher of all hearts , with a true intention to perform the same , as we shall answer at that great day , when the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed . most humbly beseeching the lord to strengthen us by his holy spirit for this end , and to bless our desires and proceedings with such success , as may be deliverance and safety to his people , and encouragement to other christian churches groaning under , or in danger of the yoak of antichristian tyranny , to joyn in the same , or like association and covenant , to the glory of god , the enlargement of the kingdome of jesus christ , and the peace and tranquility of christian kingdomes and commonwealths . bishop hall's holy order of the mourners in sion . forasmuch as there is no well-affected christian , that is not deeply sensible of the woful calamity of this once glorious church , now humbled into the dust of confusion , and exposed to the pity of all those forreign neighbours , which heretofore blessed it as a singular pattern of divine mercy ; and to the scorn and insultation of gath and ascalen : and for as much as it is , and hath been ever the practice of the enemies of our peace , to range themselves into several ranks and files , under various forms , qualities , and denominations ; as on the one side ▪ the society of jesus , the order of the glorious virgin , th● archi-confraternity of the most holy trinity , and the rest of this kind not easie to be numbred : on the other side , seekers , quakers , shakers , dippers , the holy family of love , ranters , and such other prodigies of mis-religion and faction ; and thereby have found advantage several wayes for the promoting of our ruine : why should it not b● found requisite , that we , the professed servants of our lor● jesus christ , orthodox and genuine sons of the church o● england ( whose hearts are moved by the good spirit o● god to a just resentment of our miseries and dangers ) should firmly resolve ( for the countermining of these engineers of hell , and conspirers of our destruction ) to ente● into a safe , warrantable , holy fraternity of mourners i● sion ; whose profession and work shall be a peculiarity o● devotion , striving with servent prayers and tears to obtain from heaven a seasonable redrefse of these our pressing calamities , and a prevention of that utter overthrow and final devastation which threatens this miserable church wherein we do yet live : and for this purpose may it be thought meet to tie ourselves by our secret and silent vows to these rules following . . that without all offensive , tumultuous and suspectible gomplottings and conventions , we shall hold up our private devotions , and perform these our godly undertakings to that premised end . . that there shall be no superiority or subordination in this holy fraternity , nor any soul more interessed in i● then other ; and therefore no formality or ceremony of admittance into it , but a free and voluntary entrance , lest open for all comers into this strict course of christian austerity ; without any noise , without the required notice of any , but god and their own conscience , that the world may well see and know , that here is no other design then meerly spiritual ; aiming at nothing but religious transactions between god and our souls : and consisting in the performance of the unquestionable exercises of piety and holy devotion . . that we shall zealously excite our neighbours and friends to be passionately affected with this sad estate of gods church , and to be liberal of their sighs , and tears , and prayers for the happy recovery of it . . that we will effectually endeavour to work our hearts to a found humiliation for our own sins , which have helpt to contribute to the common stock of our miseries , and daily renue our vows of a more strict and holy obedience , and a more close walking with our god. . that we shall deeply take to heart , and secretly mourn for , and lament the sins of our people , representing them to our thoughts in their haynous nature and quality , humbly begging for their serious repentance of them , and earnestly deprecating the judgements provoked by them . . that for this end we shall do our best indeavour to get just notice of the sad estate of this distracted church of ours , and to be truly apprehensive of the peril wherein it stands , as also of the horrible blasphemies and damnable heresies which have been of late disgoi ged from the mouth of hell amongst us , and those hellish practises which have followed thereupon , to the high dishonour of the majesty of that holy god whom we pretend to serve , to the utter shaming of that blessed gospel which we professe , for as much as we cannot mourn for what we know not , nor mourn enough for what we do not know to be so transcendently sinful . as of the sins , whereby we have moved the fierce anger and wrathfull displeasure of our god against us , so also shall we take full notice of the judgements , whereby we have smarted from his most just hand ; yea ( in a larger comprehension ) of the judgements past , present , eminent ; amongst which , how can we but sorrowfully reckon the mutual effusion of so much christian blood , spilt by the hands of brethren , ( and as the tribes of israel did for benjamin ) bitterly mourn for the slain of our people ; of whom so many on both parts have been swept away from the earth , in the sury of a violent hostility , as might well have served to store a populous nation , or might probably have over-run the professed enemies of christendome : to these we cannot but add the woful disasters and inexpressible miseries which do alwayes inevitably attend an intestine war. but of all judgement , none have cause to make so deep an impression in us as the spiritual ; as knowing , that as our god is terrible in all his inflictions , so most of all where he is least-felt ; when he payes us in our own coin ; when he punisheth us with our sins , making one sin the revenger and executioner of another ; when he repayes our actual rebellion against him with a senslesse obduratenesse , with a plausible security and deadnesse of spirit . when he rewards our neglect and contempt of his ordinances , with giving us up to spiritual delusions , and to the seductions of the spirits of errour , to prodigious whimsies , and spiritual blasphemies . we shall then ( as we have too just reason ) lay together these evils that we feel , with those which we have no lesse cause to fear ; and under the sense of both shall find our hearts pierced with sorrow , and resolved into the just tears of our mourning . . that we shall not fail both by night and day constantly to pour out our hearts in strong eries and fervent prayer to our god , that he will be pleased now at last to visit this miserable and disconsolate church in mercy and compassion , and cause the light of his countenance to shine upon us once again , . that the matter of our prayers shall be the illumination and reduction of those our weak brethren , which ofsend through ignorance , and out of a well-meant zeal are in the simplicity of their hearts miscarried into erroneous wayes , whether of doctrine or practise ; for the merciful conversion of the not-obdured and wilful opposers of the truth ; for the seasonable confusion of the desperately malicious enemies of god and his church ; for the settling of the church of god in righteousnesse , order and peace , for the prevailence and happy successe of the gospel against all schism , heresie , errours in opinion , and wickednesse of life ; for the discovery and defeat of all the devices and machinations of satan , and all his accursed instruments , against the church of christ in all parts of the world , and especially in these disjoynted members of it , wherein we are interessed ; for the incouragement and prosperity of all those that are faithful in the land , and that are hearty well-wishers to our sion ; for the averting of those heavy and desolatory judgements which our sins have thus long and loud called for ; and lastly , for the making up of our deplorable breaches , and reuniting of all honest and faithful hearts in a firm concord and christian love . . that we shall every week set apart one day for this holy purpose ; wherein we shall humble our selves in private fasting and prayer , till it shall please our god to return to us in his wonted compassion , and to put an end to these deadly distractions under which we labour . . that we shall willingly abridge our selves of our wonted pleasure ; not giving our selves leave to enjoy any publick meetings of mirth and jollity ; nor take the liberty of those lawful recreations , which we have formerly made use of , whiles the hand of god lies thus heavily upon this church and nation . . that it shall be the desire of our hearts , that all which shall condescend to joyn together in the profession of this holy fraternity , be knit together in an entire affection to one another , and be ready to show all mutual respects of christian love and observance to each other upon all occasions ; being withall in all mecknesse of spirit charitably affected to , and lovingly conversing with those their brethren and neighbours , which are not yet so sensible of the just cause of their humiliation . . that in the conscience of our own wants and infirmities , we shall make it our care to spend our main censures upon our selves , and our own enormities : not being apt to flie out upon the weaknesses and defects of our brethren ; bearing with those that are otherwise minded in matters of an inferiour nature , not aggravating the blame of those their actions , or opinions , which may be capable of a gentler and milder construction ; and reserving the edge of our zeal for those foul and grosse offences , which carry open guilt in their faces , making head against them by all spiritual resistence and godly endeavours of reclamation . . that whensoever we shall be called to deliver the message of god to his people in publick auditiories , we shall not fail to lay open and bewail the sins of the time , and to rouze up our hearers , with all zealous exhortations , to a lively sense of just sorrow for the universal overflowings of wickednesse , and to a vehement and godly striving against the stream thereof , by their prayers and utmost endeavours . . that we shall heartily labour not to be found defective in the use of all good means , whereby the peace and welfare of gods church may be procured and maintained ; and shall carefully avoid all such wayes and meanes , which may in any sort endanger the widening of the unhappy breaches , and multiplying of the many and miserable distractions thereof . these are the laws , to which we have thought fit in these doleful times to bind our selves , in the presence of that god , who hath graciously wrought in us a feeling compassion of the publique evils ; beseeching him , who is the father of all mercies , to inable us by the powerful operatio of his good spirit , to an effectual performance of all these our holy engagements , that after the short time of our mourning in this vale of tears , we may be admitted to be the blessed partakers of that eternal joy which abides for all his in heaven . christian brethren , of what quality soever ; i cannot fear , lest it will seem too much boldnesse in me to invite you all to take part with me in this holy fraternity ; which you shall highly wrong if you look upon it as mine , or any meerly humane institution : no , the founder of it is in heaven ; it is the charge of the holy ghost himself , by the hand of his chosen vessel , weep with them that weep : if our tears therefore be ( as they are ) most just , ye are bound to add yours to them , and shall offend if ye forbear : neither can you be ignorant that the son of god himself whiles he was visibly here upon earth , did not only own it as well-pleasing to him , but encouraged it with the promise of an assured comfort , and crowned it with no lesse title then blessednesse : and if ye look for a more ancient precedent , even before the lord of life was manifested in the flesh , ye do apparently find this fraternity of singular note in old jerusalem , ye know the man cloathed with white linnen , which had the writers inkhorn by his side , had this charge from the mouth of the lord himself , go through the midst of the city , through the midst of jerusalem , and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh , and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof . lo here , a company of mourners marked out for mercy ; even whiles the sanctuary is contemptuously defiled , and all jerusalem is in blood . shall i now need any other motive to win you into the brotherhood of this sacred order ? know then , that they which sow in tears shall reap in joy ; and he that goeth sorth and weepeth , bearing precious seed , shall doubtlesse come again with rejoycing , bringing his sheaves with him . know that they are not tears , but pearles , that thus fall from your eyes , dearly precious to the almighty , and carefully reserved in his casket , for the decking of your souls to all eternity . know that even the lord of glory was a man of sorrows , and that he bedewed jerusalem with his teares , ere he watered is with his blood. if therefore ye will be moved either with the sweet and unfailable promises of a gracious acceptation , and a blessed remuneration of everlasting comfort , or led by the precept , or the example of that dear saviour , whose name ye professe to bear , refuse not , delay not to enter your selves into this so holy , ancient , and highly priviledged fraternity of mourners in sion . mourn then , my brethren , mourn heartily , but ( as the apostle in another case ) mourn not as men without hope , be not disheartened , o ye faithful mourners in sion , as if ye were hopelesly condemned to a perpetual darknesse , and were doomed to dwell under a cloud of endlesse sorrow . the almighty will find a time to have mercy upon his poor church , and to clear up his countenance towards his chosen ones ; wiping all tears from their eyes , and all spots from their faces , and answering the holy desires of their hearts , in shewing them his sion in her perfect beauty . could we but weep soundly , he would smile upon us , and comfortably shine upon his sanctuary , and make the place of his feet glorious , even an eternal excellency , the joy of many generations : indeed for the present , o our god , thou hast removed our souls far from peace ; thou hast most justly filled us with thine indignation ; for we have deserved that thou shouldst pour out iniquities upon us , and shouldst bring upon us the fruits of our own thoughts , and measure our works into our bosomes ; and cause us to drink at thy hand the cup of thy fury , yea , even to have the dregs of the cup of trembling to be wrung out to us , for we have walked every one after the imagination of his own evil heart ; our transgressions are with us , and are multiplied before thee ; and though we have professed to be humbled under thy mighty hand , we have not cried to thee in our hearts , when we howled upon our beds ; neither have we loathed our selves in our own sight for the evils that we have committed ; so as we do now justly lie down in our shame , and our confusion covereth us , willingly acknowledging that our iniquities have most deservedly turned away thy blessings from us , and drawn thy judgements upon our heads . but , o lord , hast thou so smitten us , that there is no healing for us ? have we put our selves utterly out of the reach of thy boundlesse mercies ? art not thou the god that retainest not thine anger for ever , because thou delightest in mercy ? oh why shouldest thou then be to us as a mighty man that cannot save ? o thou the hope of israel , and the saviour thereof in time of trouble , return , return to thy people in the tender bowels of thine infinite pitty and compassion ; humble our soules throughly under the sense of our many back slidings and grievous provocations of the eyes of thy glory : oh strike thou our heart with an unfeigned repentance of all our evil wayes , and once again speak peace unto thy servants : was there ever a more stiffe-necked and rebellious people , o lord , then thine israel ? more eminent in abused mercies ? more notorious in all kinds of abominable wickednesses ? more exercised with variety of judgements ? yet when they cryed to thee in their distresse thou were still ready to hear , and deliver them , and to renew thy so often forseited blessings upon them , and wouldst not let loose thy vengeance upon them till there was no remedy . behold , we are thy people , though a sinful one ; a second israel both for sins and mercies : now , lord , since it is thy marvellous mercy that we are not yet consumed , be still pleased to magnifie thy infinite goodnesse in thy gracious forbearances and our powerful conversion to thee : and though we cannot but confesse that we are a sinful nation , a people laden with iniquity , a seed of evil doers , yet , lord , thou knowest that thou hast thy secret ones amongst us ; a people that prayeth , and trembleth at thy judgements , and waiteth humbly at the door-posts of thy sanctuary ; a people that defireth to walk close with thee their god , and to be approved of thee in all their wayes ; a people that figheth and mourneth for the abominable sins of the land of their nativity ; oh , for their sakes , be thou intreated to hold off thy revenging hand from this sinful nation , and even yet still provoke us by thy goodnesse to repentance , o thou the righteous and merciful judge of the world , who even for ten righteous persons wouldest have spared a sodome and gomorrah from their fiery execution ; be pleased tenderly to regard the cries of thy many hundred faithful and devout soules , that sue to thee for the stay and removal of thy deserved judgements : oh do thou look down from heaven , and behold from the habitations of thy holinesse and thy glory , the unsaigned humiliation of thy servants , who are prostrate before thee with fasting and weeping , and mourning ; turn away thine heavy displeasure from us , and pitty thy . sanctuary which is desolate ; so shall our mouthes be full of the praises of thy name , and thy saints shall rejoyce and sing new songs unto the god of our salvation . in the mean time we shall in silence and hope wait upon the lord , that hideth his face from jacob , and not cease to pour out our selves in tears and supplications to him that is mighty to save ; neither will we suffer our cheeks to be dry , or our souls to receive comfort , till we shall receive a gracious answer from heaven , and shall see that the lord hath been pleased to shew mercy to his sion . in this condition , we that are sions mourners shall not need to be distinguished ( as other orders are wont ) by colours , devises , abiliments . our qualifications will be easily discerned by our sad faces , wet eyes , deep sighs , mortified carriage , willing neglect of those vanities wherewith others are transported , our holy retirednesse , assiduous devotions , and strict professions of godlinesse , carry your selves thus , dear brethren , and god and his angels shall gladly welcome you into that holy society of mourners , which shall be marked out for preservation here , and for eternal comfort hereafter . lastly , let none of you discourage himself from entring into this sacred fraternity , out of the sense of his bodily infirmity , or the urgent necessity of outward impediments . there is many an holy soul that dwells inconveniently , in a crazy , tottering , ruinous cottage , ready to drop down daily upon his head , not able to endure the substraction of one meales support : there are not a few well-affected christians , whom the necessary exigences at their calling and estate , like so many hard taskmasters hold close to their tale of bricks , not allowing them the leisure of our limited devotion . let all these of both kinds know , that they have no cause hereupon , either to hold off , or to think they shall ( in this case ) need the dispensation of any superiour power ; since their condition doth sufficiently dispense with it self . even the severest casuists of the roman church ( who are wont to be the rigidest exactors of the outward exercises of mortification ) do , in these cases , allow of a just relaxation . my brethren ; if ye cannot fast , yet ye can pray , if your stomacks be weak , yet your zeal may be strong ; ye can mourn though ye pine not ; and if ye cannot spare a day in seven , yet ye may spare an hour in twelve , and make up the rest in your frequent and servent ejaculations : shortly if you have truly mourning souls they will be accepted in the necessary want of the strict termes of bodily exercises . farewell in the lord. finis . the glory of christ's light within expelling darkness being the sum of the controversie between the people called quakers, and some of the non-conformist priests, as manifest at two publick disputes in essex : between george whitehead (called a quaker) and stephen scandret (presbyter) being at the latter dispute assisted with five more of his brethren, the priests, to wit, nathaniel barnard, henry havers, henry coleman, nath. ball, and robert billoes : wherein are several. whitehead, george, ?- . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing w estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) the glory of christ's light within expelling darkness being the sum of the controversie between the people called quakers, and some of the non-conformist priests, as manifest at two publick disputes in essex : between george whitehead (called a quaker) and stephen scandret (presbyter) being at the latter dispute assisted with five more of his brethren, the priests, to wit, nathaniel barnard, henry havers, henry coleman, nath. ball, and robert billoes : wherein are several. whitehead, george, ?- . p. s.n.], [london : . place of publication suggested by wing. imperfect: stained, with print show-through. errata: p. . reproduction of original in the union theological seminary library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng scandrett, stephen, ?- . society of friends -- england. puritans -- england. dissenters, religious -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - john latta sampled and proofread - john latta text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the glory of christ's light within expelling darkness : being the sum of the controversie between the people called quakers , and some of the non-conformist priests , as manifest at two publick disputes in essex ; between george whitehead ( called a quaker ) and stephen scandret ( presbyter ) being at the latter dispute assisted with five more of his brethren , the priests , to wit , nathaniel barnard , henry havers , henry coleman , nath. ball , and robert billoes . wherein are several weighty matters and principles discussed , to inform and undeceive the deceived , that they may know the truth as it is in jesus , which is really desired by us who are lovers of truth , and well-wishers to our enemie's souls , robert ludgater , william allen , john furly , john childes , giles barnadiston , george whetherley whereunto is added a brief and scriptural examination of that private principle of a personal election and reprobation of certain definite numbers from eternity ; wherein that ridged spirit ( that denies grace to be free for all men ) is detected , by g. whitehead . evil men and seducers wax worse and worse . printed in the year , . a narrative to professors and followers of presbyterian priests , and others concerned . although perverse disputes of men of corrupt minds are things neither desirable , nor pleasing to us ; yet when such men do appear with impudence , and open face , against the precious and living truth professed by us , we are necessitated to appear on truth 's behalf , and to stand up for the lord in these weighty matters ; as namely , on the behalf of his universal-love , and free-grace to mankind , therein we bearing witness unto that true light of his , within and the sufficiency of it both as rule and guide in the way to salvation , and in vindication of this true light which enlightens every man coming into the world , as also for the power and work of christ in his restoring and freeing man , perfectly , out of sin and death ; for this ( through his grace ) we are engaged to appear against the devil and darkness , and against all his sinfull agents and messengers , who dispute against the sufficiency of the light of christ that is in every man , and against perfection being attainable in this life , wherein they do but contend for the devil , error , darkness , and the works thereof , and so against god , his truth , free-grace , and his work , whom we desire ever to serve and testifie to . and now , as to the occasion of our having thus to do with this stephen scandret , and some of his brethren ; the two disputes ( as they were deemed ) that were between him and our friend george whitehead , were chiefly occasioned by the said s. s. and some of his hearers and benefactors , both proffering and urging for dispute ; it appears that some of his hearers had in that matter better conceits of him then he deserved , as judging him a man of competent parts and abilities for that purpose ; as also probably supposing that his cause on principles had had such truth in them , that they should have had the more power and prevalency with them to have stood the trial better then they did . as for the first dispute on the th of the th moneth ( ) it was managed with more calmness and moderation on s. s. his part than the latter , excepting that many times he would interrupt when an answer was a giving , and at the latter end he broke off to be gone , in such an abrupt manner , that as he occasioned some disorder , leaving some false insinuations against us , implying , as if we did not own the righteousness of christ for justification , &c. without staying to receive answer thereto , which tended to stir up the ruder sort against us : howbeit , the controversie having been managed before with some moderation , this s. s. ( as no doubt , being then under some conviction ) was forc'd to confess to several truths which g. w. urged : as first , ( after he had asserted the scriptures to be the only rule of life ) he confessed , that the light within was a spiritual light , and the light of the spirit of god , that every one is enlightened with . secondly , that this light many have who have not the scriptures . thirdly , that this light within might , through the blessing of god , with a good improvement , save them that have not the scriptures ; so that to his own confutation , he did herein confess to the light within , as being more universal than the scriptures . and in his confessing this light within to be spiritual , or a light of the spirit of god , he hath flatly contradicted his denying the light within to be saving ; and in divers other things , at the other dispute , he did manifestly contradict himself , and yet would not appear to see or confess his error , when several times urged upon him at the dispute : howbeit , afterwards he writ a paper to g. w. wherein he confessed himself defective in the disputation ; howbeit , ( as appeared upon some of his hearers pressing him for a second disputation , as also being reflected upon by some of the professing party , who reported , that he had given away their cause ) he himself writ , and pressed several times upon g. w. for another dispute , using very smooth words ; as , beloved friend , i am willing again to meet you in a friendly and amicable manner to dispute ; but at this last dispute all his pretended amity and friendship was turned into enmity , railing , interruptions and disorderly proceedings , not at all like a man either serious , or composed in his mind for to mannage a dispute , nor yet moderately to search into matters . to his earnest urging to a second dispute to be on the th or th of march , g. w. could not then lay aside his occasions to attend upon him at that time , but rather endeavoured to perswade this his ( more forward and confident , then prudent ) antagonist to weigh the business a little longer , that he might forbear pressing such a thing , until the lord should order his coming from london into this country ; george proposing these things following to his consideration , in the mean time a little to quiet him , as in his letter to s. s. in these words , ( viz. ) seeing that thou dost appear as one so willing and forward in this case to gratifie the peoples desires , i judge it meet that thou take the matter into more serious consideration , before there be a positive conclusion between us of the time and place for such a meeting ; as first , to mind , that sectaries ( among whom thou and i , with our friends are numbred ) have their present liberty and meetings rather by connivance , then by law or tolleration granted by the present power ; so that if occasion of provocation should be taken at such meeting or meetings , we must consider aforehand what in probability may be the issue . secondly , i have not observed those leaders of the people of thy perswasion to be so forward or ready to suffer imprisonment and exile in stormy times , as many of us , or our friends have done , that now you should seem to be so forward to make a flourish , and perk up so high in a time of calm , unless you were resolved to stand a storm with us ; however , prudence in these matters would become all , &c. howbeit , g. w. did signifie , that he was not unwilling , in the lord's will and time , both to answer the will and desires of moderate people in the case , as also to stand up for god and his truth , as required by him , or necessitated upon such occasions being put upon him , ( withal urging , that s. s. would engage there should be no tumult nor disturbance made against us ) but when s. s. saw that g. w. could not meet him so soon as he desired , he seemed to be the more urgent for a second dispute , and so writ again for that end , probably thinking , either that that might excuse him to his hearers , if george should not meet him ; or else , if he should , that he might amend his matter , and salve up the sore wherein he was defective before ; [ though he has more marred his work , and stained his credit at the last dispute , in the eyes of all moderate people , then ever before ; for his confessing to several truths at the former dispute , though to the breaking the neck of his and his brethrens corrupt cause , was better resented by all indifferent auditors , then his insolently opposing and gainsaying the truth in a most irregular manner at the last dispute , as one resolved both to stop his ears , and shut his eyes against plain demonstration and conviction , as also to hinder the people from hearing the truth , by his frequent interruptions , when answers should have been given ; being , with his assistant nathaniel barnard , resolved to bawl and make a noise when any thing of truth was like to pinch them , or inform the people against their errors and corruptions . ] but notwithstanding all this scandret's pressing for this second dispute , when he was sent to by john childe and joseph-smith , upon g. w. his order , to inform him of george's being in the country , as also of his willingness to meet him for a dispute ; also , george writ several times to him upon his seeming to evade disputing , because that george at first took not notice of his propositions ; [ he having pretended , that it was in love to christ , in love to truth it self , and in good will to souls that he would dispute again ; though he would have shuffled it off when it came to trial ] whereupon he used these words in his letter to george ; ( viz. ) who would come over the threshold to discourse with such a one ? i do still look upon you to deny to dispute with me ; thus he both slighted him , and uttered falshood , for george did not deny to dispute , though he could not joyn with him in prayer , which was one of his main propositions , in these words , i shall still urge , that we begin with solemn prayer , wherein none of us could joyn with him , judging it a very unreasonable thing in him to impose any such thing upon us , while we are so opposite and contrary in our spirits and principles to him and his brethren ; for there cannot be a real joyning in worship , where there is not an union in principle ; though the duty of prayer , it self , we really own , where it is perform'd and brought forth in the spirit of truth , and from its immediate teachings and motions . now when s. s. saw that this proposition could not be assented to , he stood peremtorily upon other two , which were in these words , ( viz. ) that you speedily and expresly consent , under your hand , the dispute shall not hold above five or six hours in a day . secondly , that what question be asked , pertinent to the point in hand , it be answered by affirming or denying of it expresly , if it be capable of such an answer , &c. to which g. w. returned this answer ; ( viz. ) as for thy two demands which thou art so peremtory in ; to the first i say , thou art left to thy liberty to cease disputing when five or six hours are out , provided thou dost not break of abruptly , to a disturbance , as before . to the second , i do intend , according to my understanding , to be as positive and intelligent in my answers to questions pertinent , as i can , and in my answers to signifie an affirmation or denial , if the question be capable of such an answer : upon which the time and place for the meeting ( which was on the first day of the fifth moneth . ) was prefixt in the same answer by g. w. which s. s. could not well evade . as for the manner of this s. scandret , and those his brethren that assisted him , their behaviour and mannagement of the second dispute , on their parts , it was quite contrary to what he proffered and pretended in his letters before ; for he had pretended to meet and dispute in an amicable and friendly manner ; as also , that equal liberty should be granted to each party to explain their sence ; but instead thereof , there were frequent noises , interruptions on his and their parts , when things should have been explained on our parts ; as first , when our friend james parks was exhorting the people to christian moderation and sobriety , which was before this s. s. was come into the meeting to dispute , nathaniel barnard ( priest ) being a proud vapouring fellow , stood up in a frothy scornfull spirit , and interrupted james in his speaking , making a bawling noise , to stop the peoples ears from hearing the truth declared ; and after some little progress was made in the dispute with s. s. his manner also was , to make a noise and a bawling , freequently interrupting g. w. when he should have explained his answers , and sence , frequently using these words to george ( viz. ) a trifle , a trifle , a trifle , you ramble , you ramble , you ramble , &c. when he was neither able to make replication , nor render a reason against what george had urged in his answers ; and it was usual with this s. s. when he could not reply , to keep a noise in that manner ; also using these words , if you dare , if you dare ; as when he had affirmed the scriptures to be the only rule of life , and the full rule to guide us to heaven and glory , he would add , affirm the same of the light within if you dare ; and would be daring often to stop the peoples ears , and to stop an answer from being given , and this was his manner often times ; and when we both durst , and positively did affirm the same of the light of christ within , that it is a sufficient rule , &c. he would continue his bawling , several times , and either say , you dare not , you dare not , or if you dare ; and being willing to pass over the questions about the only rule , and the light that is in every man , he run to his fifth question , about baptism with water , whether it be an ordinance of christ ? but g. w. pressed and desired that the question about the light might be more fully discust , which s. s. refusing , george desired to know first , in what capacity he stood for water baptism ; whether as a popish priest , or an episcopal priest , or as a non conformist presbyterian priest , or a baptist ? seeing that all these pretended water baptism , but differed greatly about it ; some being for sprinkling infants , others for plunging believers ; therefore we urged to know whether he own'd infants or believers to be the subjects of this baptism ; but neither would he or his brethren pitch upon , nor give an answer , though george , many time proffered to dispute either of them , which he would pitch upon , but s. s. durst not stand to either , as a man affraid either to maintain or contradict his own practice , ( viz. ) sprinkling infants ; and instead of being ingenious in this matter , he made a bawling noise , crying out , it s with water , water , water ; and calling out against us , you rebels , rebels , rebels , go baptize you rebels , for many times together , appearing then rather like one of bedlam , then either a minister , or a sober man ; and thus he manifested his deceit and hypocrisie , and breach of promise in railing and reviling us : and now , where was his amity , and friendliness , and the equal liberty he proposed in his letter to g. w. dated from haverill , febr. . ( ) but it was observed how well these priests were furnished with strong liquor , when they were at the dispute , which they often made use of to keep up their spirits for their work ; as when s. s. had spent himself a while , that he must be fain to go to the bottle , then that proud scornfull fellow nathaniel barnard he would stand up , and make a bawling , till he must be fain to get to the bottle also ; and thus they were fain to relieve one another ; this s. s. and n. b. being as the mouthes of the rest , but chiefly s. s. who making such a hidious noise and bawling , and so often crying out water , water , as also using these words , you rebels , you rebels , go baptise you rebels ( and that priest bernard bawling his story over and over , ) ( not like sober or ingenious men , but more like men infatuated ) but henry havers , and the other three , they behaved themselves more soberly then either s. s. or n. b. though they took their part , and all brought shame and disgrace upon themselves by suffering such a shallow bragging and vapouring man as s. s. ( who shewed himself in his ribbonds like a fiddler ) to be their mouth , and to mannage their cause , as if he were their chieftain , and over them all . again , when he stated a question , or read an argument ( for he had his arguments patch'd up aforehand in papers ) which was not capable of a direct answer , by affirming or denying presently , he would not admit of an explanation of it , but would cry , affirm or deny ; and if at any time , in the first place , any thing was affirmed or denied , he would not suffer us further to render a reason , but make a noise to stop the truth ; and when any of us granted to a question , according to truth , he would turn up his eyes and thank god , as if he had wrought some great conviction upon us ; whereas , what we either affirmed or granted , we did not learn of him , but spoke the naked truth , as we had it of the lord before ; as for instance , after this s. s. had affirmed the scriptures , which are the writings , to be our only rule of life , which being denied by us , that the writings abstractivly can be the only rule , because the spirit of truth is said to guide into all truth ; hereupon he confest that it was not the scriptures abstractively that he meant to be the only rule , but the will of god contained , or declared of in the scriptures ; where , though he manifestly contradicted himself , yet , when we granted , that the will of god declared of in the scriptures is the rule , which will is , that we should follow the light within ; hereupon this s. s. would again turn up the white of his eyes , and thank god that we granted to this truth , though it was so apparently contradictory to his error , who went about to set up the scriptures as the only rule , and to cause people to turn their backs upon the light within , telling them , you must follow the scriptures , for they will lead you to heaven and happiness , but you must turn your backs upon the light within as not sufficient ; and yet at another time , again was necessitated to confess , that it is by the spiritual enlightning of the understanding that the scriptures are understood ; so that here the spiritual light in the understanding was the rule to know the scriptures , so by his own confession they could not be the only rule , but the spirit or light that gave them forth , and gives the understanding of them , hath the preserment and preheminence of them . besides , what great hypocrisie and dissimulation for these presbyterian priests thus to pretend the scriptures to be the sole , absolute , or universal rule , when they do not really so own them ; neither are they their rule , while they put their meanings , false interpretations and glosses upon them , many times contrary to the very intent of scripture , when it goes positively against their principle , whereby they will either make themselves the rule over the scriptures , or else tell us that it hath another meaning or signification in the original , and so dare not stick to plain scripture as their rule when they are brought to trial , and this is their course from time to time to keep people in blindness and ignorance , when they set up the writing above the spirit or light written of , and tell people , that immediate teaching , and immediate revelation are ceased in these dayes ; and whither must people go then to ground their faith ? must they pin it upon their sleeves ? must they turn their backs on the light of christ within , to be captivated with the popes and priests darkness , with their dark and implicite faith ? and so be kept ever learning , that they may be always paying and maintaining a company of hypocrites , who were wont to cry against the quakers for creeping into houses , whilst they had cromwell to uphold them , and whilst they counted him the light of their eyes , and breath of their nostrils : but now these presbyterian and independant priests are fain to creep up and down themselves into houses , though it is evident they are no better then blind and dead men , since the light of their eyes and breath of their nostrils is extinguished : howbeit , they have gotten a cunning way to drive a trade now more hiddenly then when they were parish priests , having at their meetings large collections , at some places a great bason or platter held at the door , and at some other places their agents to go from house to house to procure or beg money for them ; and thus many of them ( it is supposed , and credibly reported ) drive a greater trade then many of the parish priests ; and in some places , some of their company have made a cunning bargain with the episcopal parish priests , as allowing them part of the fleece ( or money ) that they take from off their flock , whereupon the episcopal priest is contented to let them drive a trade under his nose . but now you who are the followers , and hearers , and benefactors these cunning creeping priests , you should do well to try them a little , be not too free of your purses to them , lest afterward you repent of it ; for we do not believe that many of them are so consciencious as to scruple conforming to the common-prayer , if they had but a dead trade among you , or were put upon trial ( for now you have fed them so full and fat , that they make such a vapour and blustering against us who have been the sufferers , and whom they know in stormy times have endured the storms , and born the heat , and the blows very much from them , when they have skulkt and crept into holes and corners , and very few of them durst shew their heads in any testimony for god or christ ; but have been ready to run away out at back-doors , or over the houses , rather then be taken prisoners , though now they can in their meetings , houses and barns most unworthily and unjustly rail against , and revile us , called quakers , and grosly pervert and misrepresent our principles , vilifying and reproaching the truth that we profess concerning the light of christ that is in every man , and the sufficiency of it ; but it is set over all their heads , and the truth hath confounded and shattered them , for they were commonly wont to tell people it was but a natural light , the light of a natural conscience , a created light ; but now this their representative ( s. s. hath confest , that it is a spiritual light , yea , a light of the spirit of god that is in every man , so what he hath asserted to the contrary in his declaring it insufficient , and bidding people turn their backs upon it , is all against the spirit of god , and the light of it , wherein his folly and confutation is so signally discovered , that he , and the rest that owned him , have neither cause now to boast , nor yet to urge for any more meetings with any of us , nor we much so regard them , except that we should order some of our women friends to dispute with them , for many of them are able to confute these shatter'd priests , whom the sun is set upon , and the day is become dark , and the lord is delivering many out of their mouthes , and that is their torment , especially , when they are like to lose any of their benefactors , then they are ready to call for disputes with us , and to make a bussle and stir , by which they still lose and are disappointed of their ends ; for at the last dispute when they would not suffer us to explain our selves , or give an answer ; some of the people said , we shall like the quakers never the worse , if you will not give them leave to speak ; and indeed , many were then convinced so far as to see the folly and madness of this s. s. and his assistant priest bernard , who was there proved a manifest lyar , in interrupting g. w. contrary to his plain promise . the questions which we propounded to be disputed on before the first dispute were three ; as first , whether every man be enlightned with a spiritual saving light ? which we affirmed . secondly , whether perfection be attainable in this life ? which we affirmed . thirdly , whether impure persons ( while such ) be justified by the imputation of christ's righteousness ? which we denied . this last question s. s. altered , and stated it thus , whether justification be by the works of the law , or by the righteousness of christ through faith ? which question could not in these general terms so reach the controversie between us , as the question we proposed ; these priests holding , that men are imputatively righteous , and justified when actually sinners ; and we holding the contrary , that men are justified when really and actually righteous , or partakers of the righteousness of faith in christ , wherein they are obedient to the word or spirit of god in their hearts , to which the righteousness of faith requires obedience ; and we further affirm , that it is a false imputation to reckon men righteous or just , whilst they are really or personally unrighteous and unjust ; for the faith that was reckoned to abraham , and by which the believers are justified , is a living faith , that purifieth the heart , and that is accompanied with those works of obedience , which answer the law of faith in the heart . moreover , to these questions before s. s. added three more ; as in the first place , whether the scriptures are not to be our rule of life ? to which we affirmed , not the writings , but the thing written of , to wit , the same that was the saints rule in all ages , or the spirit and light of christ within which gave forth the scriptures , and brings to the right understanding , true use and fulfilling of them , and without which light people cannot truly understand them . then s. s. added , for the two last queries , ( viz. ) whether baptism with water be an ordinance of christ ? which he affirmed , though he durst not tell us whether babes or believers were to be the subjects of it ? or whether he were a true administrator of it ? for when g. w. in a letter would have put him to prove his call to the ministry ; and whether he own'd immediate revelation in these dayes ? he must have george to prove his call first ; thus he shuffled . and then his last question was , whether the lords supper be not an ordinance of christ , binding us ? this question we got not to , to discuss , nor did he explain what he meant by the lords supper : howbeit , he hath told g. w. in a paper , that this light within doth not dictate that baptism by water is gods will , nor that we ought to celebrate the lords supper , &c. so that you the hearers and followers of this s. s. may take notice , that if he does celebrate ( as he popishly saith ) and delivers to you . bread and wine , and tell you it is the lords supper , he is not led to it by the dictates of the light within , which he hath confest to be the light of the spirit of god ; and therefore we may conclude his pretended celebration and ordinance not binding to us , because the light of the spirit of god does not enjoyn us to it ; for we must worship in the newness of the spirit , and we know the spirit of truth leads into all truth ; so that what is of truth the light dictates to us , and therefore we must not follow priest s. s. his darkness for our dictator or guide . secondly , if sprinkling infants be a part of his trade in houses and corners , you may understand that the light of the spirit of god doth not dictate it unto him , and therefore you will be exceeding , blind and dark , if you give your selves to be bound to submit to his darkness , or to any of his impositions , which are neither scriptural nor spiritual ; therefore we caution you not to follow such dark and blind guides , and not to turn your backs upon the light of christ within , lest you be shut up under the chains of these priests darkness and ignorance , who have perverted and deceived you , one while endeavouring to keep you from the light within , another while pretending to pray for god's teaching , as this s. s. hath done , where in his papers he saith , the whole congregation stand in need of gods teaching , and the lord god of heaven lead us into all truth ; thus prayeth ( saith he ) your truly well-wisher in the lord s. scandret . but , we pray you , how should you know and receive gods teachings or leading into all truth , if not by his light within ? are you like to receive his teachings in the darkness ? or by turning your backs on the light ? whereas if god be your teacher , you must know and own his law in your hearts , and his spirit in your inward parts , as he hath promised , and not follow hypocrites , that one while pray to god to teach you , another while say , you must turn your backs on his light within , as insufficient , whereas the light of the spirit of god is to be the only teacher , and is both true , infallible , and a perfect guide to all them that obey and follow it ; therefore reject it not , as you tender your own eternal happiness , and desire to be delivered from under the power of darkness , hell and destruction . we have copies of the disputes more at large , and circumstancially , as they were then taken by several in short-hand , and after compared , which are here abreviated into this method following for plainness to the readers , with some passages added in the answers where we met with interruptions . and if steph. scandret shall undertake to appear in print , in vindication of his own and his brethrens principles , we hope we shall have more opportunity to make them further manifest , then they would allow us at the disputes . sect . i. here followeth some of s. scandret his principles and doctrines , disputed on between him and g. w. at the first dispute , ( on the th of the th moneth . ) with a brief answer and reply . s. scandret affirmed , that the scriptures are the sole universal and most certain rule of life , more full then any other to us , and that they most fully discover and reveal the mind and will of god , which cannot be known but by the scriptures ; therefore we are directed to search them : and if it be certain that the scriptures come from god , as none dare deny , then am i not so certain , if any thing else be dictated to me ( said he ) . answer . although we own the scriptures of truth in their place , yet they are not to be set up above that spirit that gave them forth , as here our opposer hath done ; for it is the spirit of truth that leads into all truth , that reveals the mind and will of god , and it is the inspiration of the almighty that giveth understanding , without which men are ignorant of the scriptures ; and how comes this man to be so certain of the scriptures , whilst his certainty depends not upon the spirit 's guidance ? and whence hath he his certainty , whilst he hath excluded the immediate teachings and guidance of the spirit of truth , which searcheth all things , even the deep things of god ? is he not among them that searched the scriptures to find eternal life in them , but would not come to christ that they might have life ? besides , he doth not rely upon the spirit of truth for certainty , both as the most absolute rule and leader ; we have little cause to believe his spirit , his faith and perswasion being implicite and dark ; and how will he convince them meerly by the scriptures , who question them , or the translation of them , seeing his brother tho. danson hath confessed , that it is but petitio principii , a begging of the question , to bring a testimony of scripture concerning it self , for their conviction that question its authority ? whereby he hath apparently shaken their foundation ; but if the scriptures be the only most certain universal rule , as s. s. affirms , then it seems the course he 'll take to convince papists , jews and turks , who question , or oppose much of the scriptures , is by the scriptures themselves ; and herein he still comes under his brother danson's censure of begging the question , and imposing upon his opposers : but how manifestly did this s. s. contradict himself , when he confessed , that the light of the spirit of god within was more universal then the scriptures , in that many have it , who have not scripture , and to such the light within might through the blessing of god be saving ? as also , if he and his brethren did really own the scriptures to be the sole , and most certain , and full rule of life , what needed they have assemblies in scotland and england to make them a directory , confession of faith , catechisms and covenant , if the scriptures were so full and of such esteem with them as they pretend ? s. s. paul by the light within did , and thought he might do many things contrary to the name of jesus , and so was misled and mistaken by following the light within , &c. answ. this is a gross mistake , it was not by following the light within , but by following his own thoughts and darkness that he was mistaken , wherein he was zealous for traditions more then for light or spirit within ; so that here our opposer hath done no less then put darkness for light ; and what , and where were the pricks that it was hard for him to kick against ? were they not from the light within ? s. s. what is dictated to me within may come from the darkness , and i may take it for light ; but what comes from scripture i am certain is from the spirit of god , there is no darkness in the scriptures ; it is true the spirit of god is a spirit of truth , but in as much as within us there is darkness as well as light , we are not able to discern the one from the other without the scriptures , as paul was subject to mistake by following the light within . answ. here he hath sufficiently manifested himself to be one that understands not the dictates of the light from darkness , as one yet in the blindness of his mind , and in the darkness that comprehends not the light ; and paul when he was mistaken , and thought he might act contrary to jesus , was in the unconverted state , as it plainly appears this priest s. s. is , who discerns not between light and darkness ; and what signifies his saying , there is no darkness in the scriptures ; is he any whit the nearer the understanding of them , whilst he is so full of darkness in himself , that he discerns not the light from it , the god of the world having blinded his mind ? and did not paul when he was saul , and a persecutor own the scriptures of moses and the prophets as his rule , and yet acted contrary , as one out of the light , when he persecuted ? but yet when he was turned to the light and law of god within , then he saw himself and sin to be exceeding sinfull ; and it was the law of the spirit of life in christ , that was inward and spiritual , that made him free , and this was his rule in the converted state , when he was come to serve the lord , not in the oldness of the letter , but in the newness of the spirit : but again , how did this s. s. contradict himself in granting , that the spirit was to give the understanding of scripture , and did as certainly reveal the mind and will of god as the scriptures ? but then again in contradiction to himself , asserted , that the spirit of god must be tried by the scriptures , whereby he still hath ascribed the supremacy to the scriptures , and not the spirit ; absurdly preferring the effect before the cause , as if the spirit of god were not sufficient to manifest it self to them that believe in it , and yet be sufficient to lead into all truth : what gross ignorance , and apparent contradiction is this our opposer involved in ? certainly the spirit of truth is all-sufficient , and must have the preferment among all that are spiritually minded : and seeing it was granted by s. s. that where the scriptures did not come , the light within was to be their rule , and the spirit of god listned unto , and obeyed ( but the scriptures must be our only rule who have them , &c. ) upon this we query , whether yet he will own the spirit of light within to be greater , and preferr'd before scripture ? as doubtless the spirit of truth that gave them forth is the greater ; and then we ask , if the heathen or gentiles , that shewed the work of the law written in their hearts , were led or guided by that which is greater then the guide which the christians now are to rely upon ? or whether or no professed christians in england must be inferiour to the gentiles or heathen ? let these things be seriously considered , for christ is given for a light unto the gentiles , to be salvation to the ends of the earth ; and he said , believe in the light that you may be children of the light ; and he that doth truth cometh to the light , that his deeds may be manifest that they are wrought in god , john . . so that here the light is the rule to manifest and try mens actions , whether they are wrought in god , yes or nay ? sect . ii. s. scandret confest , that it was a spiritual light , and that it was the light of christ that every one was inlightned with ; g. w. asked him what spirit it related to , or was the light of ? for the word that is the primative of the derivative spiritual , is spirit ; to this s. s. answered , that it was the spirit of god which it was a light of , &c. reply , a plain confession , no wit is the light of the spirit of god that is in every man , enough to overthrow all our opposers work to the contrary , and his reason from his own , and the creatures darkness and mistakes against the sufficiency of the light of the spirit of god ; this is the stone and rock that breaks , and will break him and such opposers to pieces . s. s. objection , the light within doth not change all mens hearts ; all do not obey god ; it brings not all to god ; all heard not the joyfull sound ; all had not satisfaction in god ; therefore the light within is not saving . reply , the same he might as well object against the spirit of god , as against the light of it , which he hath confest to before ; for many had the good spirit given to them who rebelled against god , and grieved his holy spirit ; therefore their hearts were not truly changed by it , because of their rebellion ; and they that rebel against the light know not its ways , because they abide not in its paths , job . . and there are many who resist the spirit of god , and reject his counsel until they are given over to hardness and unbelief . now what doth s. s. think that the spirit , or light of the lord , will inevitable , or irresistably inforce a change and salvation upon rebellious gainsaying persons , who hate his light and reject his counsel ; if he suppose this , why is it not inforc'd upon all in the same capacity ? what , doth he render man like a block , or a beast , not to go or act in obedience or subjection , but as he is forc'd or driven ? surely , man hath a better capacity given him of god then so : and seeing s. s. did confess , that the light in its common operations was in the unbelievers ; upon which , we ask , what those common operations are ? and what do they tend to ? and what is the good end of god in affording this light of his spirit to all , and such operations in unbelievers ? surely , if it be to their conviction and reproof for sin and evil , god's good end and will therein is , that they may come to see and hate sin and evil , and so be by degrees drawn out of it , and find mercy , peace and satisfaction with the lord in forsaking sin , and embracing righteousness ; surely the universal love of god in giving light to all , is of this tendance and effect , to all that really accept of his love and good will. s. s. the common light may misguide a man , for it may become darkness ; if the light that is in you be darkness , &c. answ. the light of the spirit of god is infallibly true , and cannot misguide any , neither is it proper or true to call this darkness , for the light in every man is confessed to be the light of the spirit of god ; however , s. s. and such blind-guides , to their own confusion , may put light for darkness , and darkness for light , as such whose minds and eyes are evil do ; and it was such that christ spoke of , who , if they put darkness for light , then , how great was their darkness ; for , to be sure , no light in it self , or in its own being , can properly be called darkness . s. s. object . deut. . . yet the lord hath not given you a heart to perceive , and eyes to see , and ears to hear unto this day ; therefore , &c. reply , there were those who closed their eyes , and stopped their ears , as did the rebellious jews , zach. . , . matth. . . and though these whom moses reproved , did not continue in the tenderness of heart , and true light unto that day , yet it is evident verse . they had seen all that the lord did before their eyes in the land of egypt , and the signs and miracles , verse . as also of the same people an ample testimony is given in nehem. . what great things the lord had done for them ; and how he gave also of his good spirit to instruct them , verse . sect . iii. upon the question about perfection s. s. affirmed , that perfection that is a state free from all sin , is not attainable in this life , but god would take his own time to do it in the other world , after death ; sin shall never be wholly taken away in this life , but in another life , when we come to the spirits of just men made perfect , and to god the judge of all , &c. ans. here he hath spoken both like a stranger from god and just men , and hath taken sathan's part in pleading for his work , which is sin , denying the end of christ's coming and manifestation , and the work and effect of the true ministry , which was given for the perfecting of the saints , ephes. . and christ was manifest to destroy the work of the devil , which was sin , and he that abideth in him sinneth not , see john . and when , and where are believers perfectly freed or clensed from sin in the life to come ? is not this like the pope's doctrine for a purgatory ? but how long it is between death and this time of clensing ? or whether the saints deceased are yet clensed , yes or nay ? and the place where s. s. could not tell . but further , how gross and absurd is it for him to suppose believers not come to the spirits of just men made perfect , or to god the judge of all , till after their decease ? for were the hebrews not alive , nor upon earth , when they were writ to , in these words , ye are come unto mount - sion , to god the judge of all , &c. hebr. . . surely they were then living upon earth . s. s. they were come , that is spiritually , but not corporally , to the spirits of just men , &c. reply , what a strange shuffle is this ; where do the scriptures speak of a corporal perfection , or a joyning to god corporally ? but must not the body be subject to the spirit , seeing believers are to be sanctified throughout , in body , soul and spirit ? and if that which is born of the spirit , which is spirit , have the rule , then the body is brought into subjection , and that which is born of god overcomes the world , john . . upon psalm . , , . s. scandret gave his meaning thus , they do no iniquity , that is , so far as they are regenerated , &c. to this we say , this is his corruption and perversion put upon plain scripture , his meaning implying only thus much ; they do no iniquity , that is , so far as they do no iniquity ; and so according to his meaning , the words are to be read thus , blessed are the undefiled in the way , so far as they are undefiled in the way ; and blessed are they that keep his testimonies , so far as they keep them , &c. whereas the words are plain and positive , without any such exception , blessed are the undefiled in the way , who walk in the law of the lord , &c. as his instance of paul in rom. . . he should also as well have instanced paul's deliverance , and being made free by the law of the spirit of life in christ jesus from the law of sin and death , and his being made more then a conqueror . s. s. the state of perfection is not attainable in this life , because whilst men are in the body , vain thoughts lodge within them ; and job saith , if i say i were perfect , i should not know my own soul. reply , first , victory over vain thoughts through faith in the power of christ is attainable , the thoughts of the righteous are right , prov. . . david waited and travelled , that vain thoughts might not lodge within him ; and also he said , i hate vain thoughts , psalm . . and let the wicked forsake his way , and the unrighteous man his thoughts , and let him return unto the lord , and he will have mercy upon him , &c. isa. . . and it was the rebellious that walked after their own thoughts , chap. . . and , oh jerusalem , wash thine heart from wickedness , that thou mayst be saved ; how long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee ? jer. . . so that it is evident victory over them is attainable . first , because a forsaking of them is required . secondly , because believers waited and prayed for such a victory . thirdly , because it was attained by those whose thoughts were right , and those under the gospel whose thoughts were brought into subjection to christ : and as for job , however he debased himself under his great affliction and trial , yet at that time of temptation , the testimony given of him , was , that he was a perfect and upright man , one that feared god and eschewed evil , job . , . this was god's own testimony of him to satan ; to which satan answered the lord , and said , doth job fear god for nought ? hast not thou made an hedge about him , & c ? now , [ mark ] here satan did more confess to the truth that god said of job , then these priests do who plead for sin and imperfection term of life ; so that they are more ignorant and blind then satan , they shew themselves to be his agents , in pleading for his work , who notwithstanding sought to make job curse god , and so to decline from his perfection . in that of job . , . if i justifie my self my mouth shall condemn me , though i were perfect , yet would i not know my soul , &c. self-justification we do not own , but yet perfection is attainable , see job . , . but he knoweth the way that i take , when he hath tried me , i shall come forth as gold ; my foot hath held his steps , his way have i kept , and not declined so here is perfection , whatever the devil and his instruments either work , or say to the contrary . s. s. that god saw it not good to abolish sin in this life . answ. a strange doctrine , contrary to both god's commands , promises and works ; viz. sin not ; i will make an end of sin , for this purpose is the son of god made manifest to the destroy the works of the devil : can god see the continuance of evil to be good ? or that his commands should be made void ? surely no. s. s. arg. that god is continually purging every branch in christ ; therefore there is something to be purged out . reply , there is a time of purging , and a time of being purged in this life ; he hath washed us from our sins in his own blood , &c. and because every branch in christ , is of the heavenly father's purging , therefore it must be perfectly purged and fitted to bring forth much fruit ; for god's work is perfect , it is not an imperfect work of mans ; and we ask , whether every branch that bringeth forth fruit in the vine , be not of the nature of the vine in which it grows , and hath its vertue ? sect . iv. s. s. we are all lost in adam ; we have all sinned and come short of the glory of god , and we could not redeem our selves ; it is only the blood of christ answers for us at the bar of gods justice , &c. answ. you that plead and contend forsin term of life , are but yet in adam , in your sins , short of the glory of god , not redeemed by the blood of christ , while in your polluted state ; you are not acquited , neither will god's justice pass you by ▪ if you continue without repentance , rejecting his love and good will tendred in christ , who was not an offering only for some presbyterians , or a few as they imagine , but for the whole world , though none do experimentally enjoy the good end of christ's coming , sacrifice and blood , but such as receive him to believe in , follow and obey him as the author of eternal salvation , to as many as obey him . s. s. a justified state is attended with sanctification ; what righteousness is that which justifies ? answ. first , it is a true confession , that a justified state is sanctified , and therefore men are not justified , nor made righteous while unsanctified ; and this confutes much of these mens doctrine for an imputed justification of men in their sins . secondly , the righteousness which justifies , renders true believers both righteous , just and accepted of god , is the righteousness of faith , it is spiritual inwardly , and spiritually received in the obedience of the spirit of holiness , of faith and power of god ; it is an everlasting righteousness , not of self , nor yet imperfect , nor yet an imagination of an imputation to men in sin , but it is inwardly revealed in such in whom the image of god is renewed , and not in them who are in old adam in the fall . s. s. though christ's suffering was temporary , his active and passive obedience was the only thing that redeemed our souls , and that the righteousness within had no hand to exempt us from wrath . answ. what is the tendency of this doctrine , but to shut christ out of doors , and not to suffer him place in his people , whilst his righteousness within is so little valued ; whereas christ is made unto the true believers , wisdom , righteousness , sanctification , and redemption : and know ye not that christ is in you , except you be reprobates ; and did not his active and passive obedience in his person bare witness unto that spirit of holiness and righteousness within , by which he offered up himself ? and though christ's suffering on the cross was temporary , yet the righteousness of faith still remains , and the blessed effect of his suffering and sacrifice is therein enjoyed by true believers , in light ; and we neither go about to establish self-righteousness , nor works of self for justification , as s. s. seemed falsly to insinuate in his preachment at the latter end ▪ to which he would not stay to receive an answer , but gat away in the crowd : and he needed not have told us that god will not acquit the guilty ; it was a doctrine more proper to himself , and his brethren ; for , to be sure , they are deeply guilty , who dispute for sin and imperfection all their dayes , wherein god will not clear nor acquit them . and such who are found in christ , and his righteousness , not having their own , are not found disputing and pleading for the devil's work , as these men are ; nor yet shutting christ , or his righteousness , out of people ; but are really partakers of that everlasting righteousness wherein both redemption , justification , and acceptance with the lord is enjoyed by them that are sanctified by the spirit and power of god , and restored out of the faln state , up to christ , who is made unto us wisdom , righteousness , sanctification and redemption , cor. . . thus far we have in plainness , for the information of the readers , returned an answer to s. s. his chief principles , which were more fully discoursed of at the first dispute , in which you may see how defective he was , as he afterward confessed ; as also , that he hath not amended his matter at the second dispute , but made it worse . here follows some of stephen scandret his principles asserted by him , and owned by the other priests with him , ( at the second dispute , ( which was on the st of the th moneth . ) upon some of the same questions disputed on at the former . i. first , concerning the scriptures and the light within , s. s. said , the main difference between those , called quakers , and us in this , is , as judge , here we set up the scriptures , as the only rule to guide to heaven and glory , they the light within ; they own the scriptures so far as they agree with the light within ; we own the light within so far as it agrees with the scriptures : the scriptures are the only rule , and most pretious , and not the light within ; we are to turn our backs upon the light within ▪ as being insufficient , &c. the scriptures are a full rule , and ●ully sufficient for salvation , let him affirm the same of the light within if he dare : the scriptures are the infallible rule , a trying light , a binding rule , let him affirm the same of the light wi●hin if h● dare answ. here are several affirmations laid down , but no proofs ; remember what thou did'st acknowledge and confess at our last dispute concerning the universallity of the light within , that it might be a rule where the scriptures were not ; and also didst grant , that it was spiritual , the light of the spirit of god ; but now it may be seen plainly , that thou goest about to set up the scriptures above the spirit of god which gave them forth : and now we do affirm , that the light of christ within , is both a certain infallible trying light , and binding rule to all them , the children of the light , and every one that love it both doth , and dare so own it , and confess to it , as that certain manifesting rule and guide , whereby things that are reproved are made manifest ; and they that love it bring their deeds to it , that they may be proved whether they are wrought in god ; and such do not give ( nor own ) such sinful advise to people as to turn their backs on the light , as this blind-guide , who shuts his eyes ( as one opposing plain conviction ) hath done , who after he had so highly asserted the scriptures or writings to be the only rule which leads to salvation , he confessed , that he did not mean the scriptures or writings abstractively to be the rule , but the will of god contained or declared of in them , wherein he contradicted himself , for this alters both the state of the question and assertion ; for whilest he laid all upon the scriptures , this tended to shut out all people under heaven from salvation , life and glory , but such as have the scriptures , which is a sad and prejuditial censure ; but now , seeing it is not the writing , but the matter or thing declared of , that is the rule , the light of christ within must be the standing universal rule , for that is declared of , and referred to by the scriptures ; so that to follow the light ▪ within , in what it dictates , is agreeable , and not repugnant to scripture , as is falsly insinuated by this opposer . moreover , the things declared of , or contained in the scriptures , relating to the will of god , and to life and salvation may be enjoyed where the writings are not ; for there were gentiles instructed by the will or spirit of god , who had not the law outward , as in rom. . therefore this spirit or light of god is greater , or more universal then the scriptures , and contains that which the scriptures contains , and more ; so the tenor and tendance of s. s. his work is to turn people from the greater , wherein they can never truly own the lesser ; for by turning of their backs upon the light within , they oppose and violate the scriptures of truth ; although he could hypocritically pray to god to lead us into all truth ; and also , in contradiction to himself , did grant , that without spiritual illumination , and regeneration he could not come to the excellency and knowledge of the will of god in the scriptures ; so that here the spiritual illumination is the rule preferred before the writings ; and now the question is , whether those gentiles had not a sufficient rule in them , who had not the scriptures , who yet did the things contained , and enjoyed the things declared of ? to this we could not have an answer , but the same thing before asserted of the scriptures over and over , as being the full rule , &c. and that we must turn our backs upon the light within , whereas , people had need turn their hacks upon the darkness and blindness of such at s. s. who notwithstanding , in contradiction to himself , was made to grant , that we have but a part of the scriptures , many things being written , acted and spoken from the spirit of god , which we have not in the bible ; however , we must not turn our backs upon the light of the spirit of god within , nor deny or question its sufficiency , for we have experience of it , and that this spirit is the guide into all truth , without which the scriptures are not truly understood ; the will of god declared of in the scriptures we grant is the full rule ; hereupon the priest interrupted , and said , thanks be to god for this truth they have granted , &c. whereas we still added , that it was the will of god we should follow his light and spirit within , to guide us into all truth ; for this is that which unvails the heart , enlightens the understanding to know the scriptures ; but the jews had the writings of moses and the prophets , yet they understood not what they read , they could not see the end , because their hearts were vailed , even until the apostles dayes ; so their reading the scriptures did not discover life and glory to them , because it did not remove the vail from off their hearts ; but the inspiration of the almighty giveth understanding , the light of the spirit of god within can unvail the hearts , and enlighten the minds , and to this s. s. hath in effect granted , when he said , i did never affirm , that without spiritual illumination we could come to the knowledge of the will of god in the scriptures , &c. to which we further add , that it is the man of god , who is in the faith , being led by his spirit , who truly knows the right use and service of scriptures , they being of use and profitable , as given by divine inspiration ; but the writing or letter , outward , is not of absolute , universal necessity to salvation ; for many may be saved who neither have it , nor can read it ; for , from the light of christ within , they have so much of the instructions , or precepts therein contained , as are necessary to salvation . and christ is the way , the truth and life , and it is by the fathers drawings that men come to him ; and his light is universal , and enlightens every man that cometh into the world , now , it is no where so said of the scriptures ; and if the spirit of truth guide believers into all truth , then the light of this spirit within must needs be a sufficient rule of life , &c. and this s. s. did confess it was a spiritual light , the light of the spirit of god , that is in every man. ii. s. s. grant i did , that it is a light of the spirit of god , but not given to all ; it is only the elect are savingly enlightned , &c. answ. it is given to all ; if god gave his good spirit to wicked and rebellious men , then none are excluded from it ; but god did give his good spirit to rebellious men , nehemiah . , . to this , with several other arguments , our opposer gave no answer , but asserted his old matters over and over ; and added some things , but not material . s. s. this is not a full light , &c. for god created the stars , which are a light ; must they therefore be the full light of the day & c ? answ. we are speaking about the light which is spiritual , and of god , which his instance of the stars makes nothing against ; nor did we ever read that the light of the stars was spiritual ; neither doth it follow that the light of the spirit of god is not a sufficient rule , because it is given by measure , and not in the fulness of it to all ; for however , it is pure and holy , the degrees do not alter the property : to every one of us ( saith the apostle ) is given grace , according to the measure of the gift of christ ; were they then to turn their backs of the measure of grace given , because it was not given in its fulness ? no sure ; for the light within , though manifest by measure , doth gradually lead men out of darkness , and sin , as they take heed unto it ; it is truly spiritual , pure , and universal , though it reveal not all things at once : and the path of the just is a shining light , that shineth more and more until the perfect day : and the more sure word of prophesie is to be taken heed unto , as a light that shineth in a dark place , until the day dawn , and the day-star arise in the hearts ; but it is questionable , whether s. s. or his brethren , will not say , that this is meant the scriptures ; if so , then we ask , are they more sure then what ? and whether the day dawning , and the day-star arising in the hearts be the scriptures ? again , the spirit of truth doth convince the world of sin , and of righteousness , and declares the will of god. s. s. it doth not convince of righteousness ; if it convinceth of sin , then not of the contrary . answ. we will appeal to the people , whether any of them can say , when they are reproved of sin , that they are not convinced of a contrary sta●e ? as namely , of a state of righteousness , which they ought to come into . s. s. no , no , we will appeal to the scriptures . answ. it is no● contrary to the scriptures to appeal to mens consciences ▪ the apostle was manifest in mens conscience in the sight of god ▪ and sure it was the light of christ in them , which he was manifest unto . s. s. i deny that this light within doth convince of chist's righteousness imputed . answ. it being the light of the spirit of god , which both convinceth , and leadeth out of sin , that must needs lead to a state of righteousness , which is no other but christ's righteousness , even that of faith , wherein those gentiles that feared god , and obeyed this light within , were accepted , and in this were they justified , see acts . and rom. . s. s. i deny that the light within reveals christ jesus , prove it . answ. the light was given to believe in , before they were believers , and shined in their hearts to give them the knowledge of the glory of god , in ▪ the face of jesus christ ; therefore it was sufficient to answer the end of its being given , as to bring them into that knowledge , see corinthians . . s. s. this doth not prove that the light doth reveal christ ; is this grace ( that hath appeared to all ) the light in every man ? prove that this grace was the light within : the light in every man never heard , or taught , that the gospel should come by christ , &c. answ. the light shineth in darkness , and the darkness comprehends it not ; but the grace of god which bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men ; therefore it is sufficient : and it hath been confest by s. s. that the light of the spirit of god did appear in every man ; now that this grace which teacheth to deny ungodliness , and worldly lusts , is a spiritual inward light ( and that which reveals christ to believers ) is plain , in that it both teacheth them to live godly , to look for that blessed hope and appearance of that great god and jesus christ , titus . , , , , . therefore this light or grace within is both sufficient to reveal christ and gospel unto salvation , whatever this blind-guide say to the contrary . another priest , with s. s. alledged , that the grace of god appeared to all men , but not not in all . reply , was not its appearance spiritual , how then did it appear to all , and not in all ? surely its appearance to all , was in all , seeing it is spiritual , and spiritually to be seen , though many close their eyes against it . s. s. the light within is not , nor ever was from the foundation of the world a sufficient or full rule : none from adam in innocency , to moses and the prophets ; nor from them to the apostles ; nor any to this day that had a light in them sufficient to be a rule of life , but something was super-added to the light within ; as gods prohibition to adam ; and to the jews the law of ordinances , as circumcision , sacrifices , &c. and to the apostles baptism , and the supper , &c. answ. what a heap of ignorance and darkness is here uttered against the light of the living ! and how is the sufficiency of it in all gods people opposed by this our opposer , who denies the light in adam , in innocency , to be the full rule ; was not god and his light in him ? surely , the scriptures were not adams rule , for they were not written till many hundreds of years after ; and the holy men of god had a rule before they were written ; as abel , enoch , abraham , &c. and what was the rule to the prophets and apostles , which directed them in writing and giving forth the scriptures ? was not their rule within , and the revelation of the things contained in scripture inward , before they were written ? was not the spirit , the law and light of the lord within ? and whatsoever may be known of god , is it not manifest within ? s. s. did not god require more of adam then the light did dictate ? for if there be twenty trees in a garden ( looking about upon the trees in the grove , there , where the dispute was ) how should we know by the light within which of the tree were prohibited , if there were not a super-added command , &c. reply , here all along he manifested his ignorance , both of god , of his law within , which is light , and of the forbidden fruit : and being asked , whether it was outward fruit , and an outward tree that adam was prohihited ●● some of them answered , yes ; still opposing the sufficiency of the light in adam , when they could not deny god to be in him : and as for those laws of ceremonies and shadows to the jews , salvation doth not depend upon them , but upon the light of christ within , who is the substance : and when we urged that christ was the image of the invisible god , and the first-born of every creature ; and that adam was made in the image of god , which image was inward and spiritual ; and that god is not like to corruptible man , it was no ingenious answer for s. s. to cry out , a triffle , a triffle , or to cry , ye ramble , ye ramble , &c. as often he did , when he was baffled and confounded : and being asked , whether the appearance and law of god to adam was inward or outward ? his answer was , i am willing not to be wise above what is written ; i do not know , i am satisfied to be ignorant of it ; and yet he was ready to assert in his ignorance , that the light in adam was insufficient , when he did not know whether the appearance of god to him ▪ was inward or outward ; yet granted , that adam in innocency had the enjoyment of god , and so plainly contradicted himself , as not able to mannage what he had asserted against the light , nor yet his brethren with him ; though when he was put to a nonplus , his brother priest b. to help him , argued in this manner , though to little purpose . priest. viz. if those people , to whom the apostles were sent , did never hear the words of life and salvation , till they came to preach unto them ; then the light in them did not declare the words of life and salvation : but they did never hear the words of life and salvation , until the apostle came to preach to them ; therefore , &c. but this priest being manifest to be but a scornfull vopouring proud fellow , with neither common sobriety , much less any weight or sence of truth upon his spirit , his filly shallow matter was slighted , and the query was put to him , and the other priests , in this manner . query , whether or no wilt thou grant the same thing that s. scandret hath done ; viz ▪ that a light of the spirit of god is in every man ? or will you deny it ? if there be any of the same mind with him let them speak . priests , we do own what steph. scandret hath laid down . reply , then this light of the the spirit of god was able to teach all the words of life and salvation ; and the apostles did not preach to turn peoples backs upon this but to turn them to it , and confirm them in it , as that which taught many before , to fear god and work righteousness , wherein they were accepted ; and this overthrows the argument before , that was so often repeated , and s. s. his vain assertions and totoligies to the contrary ▪ who turned his back on the light within , till he is turned into gross darkness , and would have others do as he hath done . s. s. you dare not say the light within is the full rule . answ. that 's false , we both dare say it , and have affirmed , and proved , that the light of the spirit of god is a full rule to lead to salvation , where it is obeyed , as it was to the saints and true believers of old , who according to their several attainments were to walk by the same rule , and god would reveal to them , phil . and they had attained to divers measures and degrees of the spirit of god : and accordingly their states were written unto in several epistles ; that which was to one state , was not to every particular state and condition among the churches ; neither do we read , that the church at gorinth was to go and make the epistle to the church at rome their rule ; nor that the churches at ephesus , philippi , or thessalonia were to go to the corinthians , for paul's epistles to them , to compare theirs with , and to be their rule ; but that of the spirit or light within , to which they were all directed , and which was the rule of the new creature , whereby the things of god were revealed and made known unto the saints ; who could say , we have not received the spirit of this world , but the spirit which is of god , whereby we know those things that are freely given us of god. iii. s. s. go baptiz● , there is a command for it , the light saith nothing of it ; go teach and baptize , that 's christs command : and then he urged to have us speak to water baptism , but durst not declare who he intended as the subjects of it , whether babes , or believers , which g. w. and some of us often urged to know ; whereupon , if he had told us ingeniously his intention , we proffered fairly to dispute it ; but s. s. and his brethren durst not be plain with us in this matter , but shuffled and evaded , calling out over and over , do ye grant baptism with water ; go baptize with water , water , &c. you rebels , you rebels , go baptize you rebels ; can rebels be saved , &c. thus , and after this manner , he continued bawling and railing for some time , that little fair dealing we could have . answ. go teach all nations baptizing them , cannot intend infants , neither is there water mentioned in the command , matth. . and it was proffered these priests , that if they would stand for baptizing infants , or plunging believers , we would dispute that with them : or if s. s. would be plain , and ingeniously tell us in what capacity he stood in , whether in the capacity of a popish priest , episcopal priest , presbyterian priest , or baptist ? but hereunto we could have no other answer , then his general clamor , as before , for water , water , &c. and therefore g. w. proferred to speak something to both sprinkling infants , and plunging believers , to shew the rise of the one , and the other not to be in force nor continuance under the gospel ; but g. w. was interrupted , as often he was by these priests . s. s. water baptism is gospel ; a dispensation of the gospel was committed to paul , &c. answ. the gospel is everlasting , so is not water-baptism ; and paul said , christ sent me not to baptize , but to preach the gospel , cor . . and surely his commission was as large as the rest of the apostles . s. s. christ sending him not to baptize , but to preach , is meant , not so much to baptize , &c. as in hosea . . it is said , i desired mercy and not sacrifice , &c. reply , this instance doth not prove his meaning , which perverts the apostles words , who thanked god he baptized none of them , but such as he mentioned , corinth . . , . for christ sent him not to baptize , but to preach the gospel , a full reason for his not continuing that then permissive practice of water-baptism ; which if it had been a command in force , surely , he would neither have thanked god , for not obeying it ; nor yet have said , christ sent me not to baptize : and where it is said in hosea . . i desired mercy and not sacrifice , those mentioned verse , . whom he had hewed by his prophets , who transgressed and dealt treacherously against the lord , their sacrifice could not be accepted ; therefore he desired mercy , and not sacrifice , and the knowledge of god more then burnt-offerings ; and indeed , if this mercy and the knowledge of god had born sway among them , there had been no need or occasion for sacrifices , burnt-offerings , or sin-offerings ; the sacrifices of god being a broken spirit , and a contrite heart , psalm . , . s. s. water baptism is necessary to salvation ; ( being affirmed to be gospel , to be binding of necessity , &c. ) answ. what then will become of all them that never came under it : must they all be damned for want of sprinkling or plunging in water ? a sad sentence ; that baptism which saveth , is not the putting away of the filth of the flesh , but the answer of a good conscience , &c. giles barnadiston urged , that there is one faith , one baptism , ephes. . and asked these priests , what baptism it was ? whether that of water , or the baptism of the spirit ? to which s. s. answered . s. s. there is but one baptism , and it consists of two parts ; an inward part , and an outward ; the inward part was with the spirit , and the outward with water . reply , did you ever read or hear such doctrine before ? he makes the baptism of the spirit , and the baptism with outward water , both but one baptism ; and so whereas he hath made such a bawling for water-baptism , now it is but the outward part of baptism ; he should rather have said , as it is in the common-prayer-book , it is the outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace : however , in scripture there is a plain distinction between the baptism of water , and the baptism of the spirit , as there is between john's baptizing with water , and christ's baptizing with the holy ghost and with fire ; but this ignorant opposer s. s. makes them both but one baptism . iv. and further , we add an other instance against him and his brethren , in behalf of the light within , out of the common-prayer-book , in the collect for the third sunday after easter ; viz. almighty god , which sheweth to all men that be in error , the light of thy truth , to the intent that they may return to the way of righteousness , &c. now here is the light of the truth confest unto , both in its general extent , and in its sufficiency , as guide and rule , to lead men into the way of righteousness , which these men have all this while opposed : here is more of truth confest in this particular , in the common-prayer-book , then these men will confess to , who think themselves better reformed with their covenant , directory , confession of faith and catechisms , while yet in their darkness they are opposing the light of truth within ; but it is set over all their heads , and hath manifested their darkness and confusion . v. now concerning justification , the question being asked , what it is ? it was answered , priest , to make righteous ; and s. s. confest , that justification is by the righteousness of christ through faith. answ. that 's true , but men are not justified , that is , made righteous ; nor in the righteousness of faith , without sanctification . s. s. who affirms they are ? we own , that justified persons are sanctified . [ but in contradiction , he again affirmed thus ] we sinners are justified by the righteousness of christ , imputed ; viz. absolved from all our sins from the beginning of our lives to the end . reply , this gives a large liberty to sin , if men may sin all their dayes , and yet think themselves absolved from all ; whereas , that of rom. . . which they instanced , is thus , concerning christ ; viz. whom god hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood , to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past , through the forbearance of god : it is not said , for the remission of sins past , present , and to come ; nor yet of all our sins from the beginning of our lives to the end ; neither is the guilt of sin taken away , while men remain in the act of sin , as falsly was affirmed by s. s. contrary to job . . if i sin , then thou markest me , and thou wilt not acquit me from mine iniquity . and to be sure , men whilst sinners , are not made righteous , nor yet in a sanctified state , while actually sinfull : for while our opposers confess , that justification and sanctification are inseparable ; and that we are not justified without the work of sanctification in us ; how do they break the neck of their own cause , in their pleading , that men are imputatively righteous and justified , and actively sinfull ? this is a pleasant conceit to sooth up hypocrites ; but when they come to see and feel the end of this doctrine to be destruction , they will not be able to sooth themselves up with it in hell ; nor to tell god then , that though they be really in hell , yet they are imputatively in heaven ; this their imagined imputation ( without the living enjoyment of the righteousness of faith within , or the fellowship of christ's sufferings ) will not save them from the sence of anguish and torment , when it comes upon them that live and die in their sins . s. s. i prove that the righteousness by which we are saved is not within , but without ; the saints were arrayed in white robes ; and are not thy garments outward ? ( george ) do we not wear our cl●thes on our bodies ? you do not wear your garments within you , but without you , &c. reply , this is such an argument , as we never heard , nor read of before , because the righteousness of christ is compared to a garment , or to white robes ; he concludes it not within , but without ; it appears he will let sin have a place within , and plead for it , but not christ's righteousness : doth he think it is his garment , while he 'll not receive it within ? surely , he 's gr●sly mistaken : and might he not as well say , that christ , and the armour of god , or light , is not to be within , because to be put on ; and then , after this manner , he may as well say , that neither faith nor salvation , nor the word of god are to be within , but without only , which were gross error and ignorance ; for the meek are clothed with salvation ; the upright put on zeal for a cloak , and righteousness for a garment ; are not these within ? surely , yes , where truth reigns in the heart ▪ vi. here follows some of s. s. his manifest contradictions for the readers to take notice of . contraditions . we are to turn our backs upon the light within , as insufficient , and follow the scriptures as the full rule , &c. it is by the spiritual enlightning of the understanding , that the scriptures are known . [ in his prayer ] grant , o lord , that error , may be burnt up by thy holy spirit , as by fire , &c. contr. the scriptures are the only rule to guide us to heaven , &c. i mean the will of god contained in them , not the writings abstractively . contr. the light that is in every man is not a full rule . yet a light of the spirit of god. contr. we sinners are justified by the righteousness of christ imputed , or absolved from all our sins , from the beginning of our lives to the end . justification is to make righteous ; it is by the righteousness of faith justified persons are sanctified . contr. the guilt of our sins is taken away , not the act of sin . [ his brother priest contradicted him ] viz. men are not actually sinners after justification ; [ contradiction ] yet they sin , &c. contradictions . believers are justified by the passive obedience of christ upon earth , ( that is , by both his outward and inward suffering ) not by his righteousness within . yet we are not justified without the work of sanctification in us — he hath brought in everlasting righteousness — christ's passive obedience or sufferings on earth were temporary . contr. this light that is in every man doth not dictate that justification is by christ's righteousness only . yet it is a light of the spirit of god — — the spirit makes application to us of christ's everlasting righteousness . robert ludgater , william allen , jo. furly , jun. john childe , giles barnadiston , george witherley . a brief and scriptural examination of the doctrine concerning election and reprobation of persons ; as held by presbyterians , and some others . and now concerning that private opinion of personal election and reprobation from all eternity , held by presbyterian priests , and some others related to them ; their principle may be seen in their confession of faith and catechisms , agreed on by the assembly of divines ( so called ) at westminster , and approved by the general assembly of the kirk of scotland , as where they say in their third chapter of their confession , that god from all eternity , did by the most wise and holy counsel of his own will freely and unchangeable ordain whatsoever comes to pass — and that by the decree of god , for the manifestation of his glory , some men and angels are predestinated unto everlasting life , and others fore-ordained unto everlasting death ; and that these angels and men thus predestinated and fore-ordained , are particularly , and unchangeably design'd , and their number so certain and definite , that it cannot be either increased or diminished , &c. and also , upon the same principle , they add in chapter ten , that all those whom god hath predestinated unto life , and those only he is pleased effectually to call by his word and spirit out of the state of sin and death , in which they are by nature , to grace and salvation by jesus christ , enlightning their minds spiritually and savingly to understand the things of god , &c. and in chapter eleven , god did from all eternity decree to justifie all the elected ; and christ did in the fulness of time die for their sins , and rise again for their justification , &c. observe , that it is upon this opinion of a particular personal election and reprobation of such certain designed number of persons , that these priests , and professors do ground their doctrine of saving-grace , or light , being but intended and given to a few , whom ( they suppose ) are designed for salvation , as also , that grace is only free for that few , and that christ died , and satisfied only for that select number , according to their principle ; and that justification by christ's righteousness , imputed , is only designed for that select number ; the rest that they reckon god with-holdeth mercy from , passeth by , as having ordained them to everlasting death and wrath , he withholdeth both saving light and grace from them ; so that they cannot avoid hell and damnation , what ever they do , according to this their principle . answ. the consequences and effects of this doctrine have been very sad ; first , in rendring god the decreer and designer of the destruction of the greater part of man-kind . secondly , it renders him the author of sin and iniquity , which is the cause of destruction , in that they here accuse him , as ordaining what ever comes to pass . thirdly , it renders him both partial and cruel unto his own workmanship . fourthly , it makes void the free extent of god's love and grace to man-kind , and his sending his son into the world ; as also , renders the preaching of the gospel to every creature to be of no use , nor real intent , for the good of the greater part of man-kind ; so that priests of this perswasion might stop their mouthes , and people never spend their money for their preaching any more . fifthly , this their narrow and partial opinion hath been an engine for satan to work upon , to the causing many poor souls to dispair of ever having the benefit of saving-grace , or light , when they have believed death and damnation to be unalterably designed for them . sixthly , it hath pufft up a few conceited professors , as presbyterians , independants , and others , in secret pride , and self-confidence , as being more regarded of god , then all others , supposing themselves from eternity to be elected , and grace and salvation , or the benefits of christ's sufferings and death only to be free for them , when their states and conditions are as sinfull , corrupt and bad ( with pride and covetousness ) as others ; and therefore against them , their narrow spirit , principle , and partial opinion , in this matter , we do in general lay down a few plain scriptures , which , with many more , might be produced for the same purpose , on the behalf of god , and his goodness to man , and how equal his wayes are , and how mans own iniquity and sin being continued in , without repentance , is his ruin . as first , genesis chap. . vers . , . and the lord god commanded the man , saying , of every tree of the garden thou mayst eat , but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil , thou shalt not eat of it ; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die , &c. where note , that god was neither the ordainer , nor author of mans transgression , which brought death , and occasioned his being driven out of paradice , chap. . ver . , . but god gave man a plain prohibition , command and warning to the contrary ; so that god did not secretly design or decree touching man , contrary to his own pure and equal law given to man. gen. . , . and the lord said unto cain , why art thou wroth ? and why is thy countenance faln ? if thou do well , shalt thou not be accepted ? and if thou do not well sin lieth at thy door : so that it is evident here , that god did not particularly design either that cain should do evil , nor yet decree his eternal death from eternity , seeing that in well doing he might have had acceptance ; but his evil doing was the cause of his misery . deut. . , , , , , . see , i have set before thee this day life and good : i call heaven and earth this day to witness against you , that i have set before you life and death , blessing and cursing ; therefore chuse life , &c : and see vers . , . but if thy heart turn away , i denounce unto you this day , that you shall surely perish , &c. where mark , that life and death was set before them , that they might chuse life , and refuse death : but , if god had particularly decreed them for death and destruction , it had been a mockery to bid them chuse life , if they could never have it : and if he had absolutely elected them from eternity for life eternal , why should it be denounced against them , that they should surely perish , if their hearts turned away from the lord ? were it not an impertinent vain thing , to warn persons of such a danger , if they were absolutely secured from being liable to any such danger ? nehem. . , . thou gavest also thy good spirit to instruct them , and with-heldest not thy manna from their mouth ; nevertheless , they were disobedient , and rebelled against thee , and cast thy law behind their backs , and slew thy prophets , &c. where , note , that god gave his good spirit unto them , who rebelled , the persecutors of his prophets ; and if such had the good spirit given them , surely , none are excepted , but all have so much of the true light or spirit of god given them , as shall leave them without excuse . psal. . , . but my people would not hearken to my voice ; nor israel would none of me ; so i gave them up to their own hearts lust , and they walked in their own counsels : see here , they refusing to hearken to the voice of god ; and their refusing him was the cause of his giving them up to their own lusts and evil counsels , and not any partial secret decree concerning them . isa. . . but they rebelled and vexed his holy spirit ; therefore he was turned to be their enemy , and he fought against them : here their rebelling and vexing the holy spirit of god , was the cause of his turning to be their enemy , and warring against them ; surely , then god was their friend before he turned to be their enemy , in that he had befriended them with his own spirit . chron. . . then the spirit of god came upon azariah the son of obed , and he went out to meet asa , and said unto him ; o asa , and all judah and benjamin , hear ye me , the lord is with you , while ye be with him ; if ye seek him , he will be found of you ; but if ye forsake him , he will forsake you : so that it is mens forsaking of god first , for which cause he forsakes them ; and man forsakes the lord before the lord forsake him ; and is not this a falling from grace to forsake the lord. isa. . , . if you be willing and obedient , ye shall eat the good of the land ; but if you refuse and rebel , ye shall be devoured with the sword : and ver . . the destruction of the transgressors and of the sinners shall be together , and they that forsake the lord shall be consumed : where , mark upon what terms god promised good unto them ; and what was the cause of destruction , but rebellion and forsaking the lord : see likewise jer. . . ezek. . . the soul that sinneth , it shall die . verse . have i any pleasure at all that the wicked should die , saith the lord god , &c. verse . hear , o house of israel , is not my way equal ? are not your wayes unequal ? and see verses , , , . again , vers . . repent , and turn your selves from all your trangressions , so iniquity shall not be your ruin . and verse . for i have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth , saith the lord god ; wherefore turn your selves and live ye . and hosea . . oh , israel , thou hast destroyed thy self , but in me is thy help . see how evidently , in these passage , god is cleared , both in warning them , and in that he willeth not , nor hath pleasure in their destruction ; and how iniquity is the ruin of them that continue in it ; and not any secret design or decree of god , contrary to his own testimony given by his holy prophets , concerning his good will for the recovery of man out of iniquity ; as also , see ezek. . , , , , , , . what is the cause of peoples destruction , and how their blood shall be upon their own heads that do not take warning ; and now lets a little take notice of the testimony of christ and his ministers : as first , john . , . for god so loved the world , that he gave his only begotten son ; that whosoever believe in him should not perish , but have everlasting life : for god sent not his son into the world , to condemn the world , but that the world through him might be saved . surely , then god did not from eternity design or decree the destruction of the greater part of the world , for that had contradicted the end of sending his son. john . . i am come a light into the world , that whosoever believe on me should not abide in darkness : so here it is manifest , that christ is freely given a light to those that are in darkness , that whosoever believeth on him ( it is not that a designed or select number of persons only ) should not abide in darkness , but whosoever believeth , &c. and see the testimony given of him john . , that was the the true light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world ; it is not said , which lighteth only a select small number . cor. , . for the love of christ constraineth us , because we thus judge , that if one died for all , then were all dead ; and that he died for all , that they which live , should not henceforth live unto themselves , but unto him which died for them , and rose again . tim. . , . for there is one god , and one mediator between god and man , the man christ jesus , who gave himself a ransom for all , to be testified of in due time . hebr. . . but we see jesus , who is made a little lower then the angels , for the suffering which death , crowned with glory and honour , that he by the grace of god should taste death for every man. john . and he is the propitiation for our sins , and not for ours only , but for the sins of the whole world. in all which passages observe , that the free and universal love , grace , and good-will of god in christ , is testified in the suffering , death or sacrifice of christ , for all that were dead , for every man , for the sins of the whole world ; it is not said , that he died only for a few , or for a small number , elected from eternity , but for all men ; and gave himself a ransom for all , for a testimony in due time : and therefore away with such doctrines and opinions as oppose the free extent of the grace of god and light of christ , which universally is given to all man-kind ; and do not blame or lay the fault upon god any longer , as either decreeing mans destruction , or the cause of it ; but lay it in the right place , upon the rebellious and transgressors , who hate the light and love darkness rather , see john . , . object . but some object , that god loved jacob , and hated esau , before they were born , or had done good or evil . reply , what then did he hate esau for ? for any to suppose he hated him for nothing , or without cause , is to render god cruel and unequal in his wayes ; but those that thus object do both grosly mistake , and misplace the words : for that which was said before the children were born , was , the elder shall serve the younger , ( the mystery whereof is only known , where the two seeds , or two births are known ) rom. . . and then follows , as it is written , jacob have i loved , and esau have i hated ; but where was it written before paul mentioned it , it was not written or spoken to either isaac or rebekah ; but it was written many hundred years after concerning their successors , to wit , those of israel and edom , by the prophet malachi , chap. . and those whom god hated were the same people , that was called , the border of wickedness , the people against whom the lord had indignation for ever ; so that it was because of their wickedness that the indignation of god was against them . object . again , some object , that god hath mercy on whom he will , and whom he will be hardneth ; hath not the potter power over the clay ? &c. reply , god hath concluded them all in unbelief , that he might shew mercy upon all ; it is his universal love and good will in the first place , to tender and shew mercy in his own son unto all both jews and gentiles , but it is his justice to give them up to hardness and unbelief who reject and oppose his free love and tenders of mercy ; for what can be the reason of hardning some , seeing this hardning is a judgment upon them , in time ? not particularly or partially design'd from eternity , ( as to particular persons simply ) for it s no reason for any to say , that he will harden some , because he will hearden them ; but because its just for him so to do , they having provoked him , and grieved his holy spirit in them ; see zachariah . , . but they refuse to hearken , and pull'd away the shoulder , and stopped their ears , that they should not hear ; yea , they made their hearts as an adamant-stone , &c. therefore came a great wrath from the lord of hosts . and as for his having power over the works of his hands , as the potter hath over the clay ; who questions that ? but though he made or formed man , as man , or as his creature , he did not make him , nor ordain him to be a sinfull rebellious man ; god is not his potter , or former , into sin , but the devil ; which , if man continue in , against his maker , without repentance , then his end , which is destruction , is determined : for , wo unto him that striveth with his maker ; let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth ; shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it , what makest thou ? wo unto him that sayeth unto his father , what begettest thou , & c ? isa. . , . surely , god did not make man to strive against himself , nor yet to question , or suppose evil against his workmanship , for he is not the author of sin ; and it is because of iniquity that god hides his face , and consumes people , who are the clay , and he the potter , isa. . , . now , to be sure , god doth not find fault with any thing that is proper to his own workmanship ; nor doth he consume any , meerly as his own workmanship , but because of iniquity ; see also jer. . , , , , , , . by which these partial opinionated professors are absolutely confuted ; besides , it is such as like not to retain god in their knowledge , whom he gives over to a reprobate mind , rom. . , . wherefore we advise all , who tender their own salvation , not to be byassed or prejudiced with private and corrupt opinions of men of corrupt minds , nor yet to reject or dispise the free grace , or light , of jesus , which is freely tendred and given unto all ; but every one wait in it , and mind its appearance in your hearts , that thereby your understandings may be opened , that you may come to know the election in christ , as chosen in him to be holy , and without blame ( this election we own ) and be conformed unto his image , even the image of the son of god , and know him as the first-born among many brethren , as those that are chosen in him , through the sanctification of the spirit , and belief of the truth , to be holy , and without blame before him , which is a high and precious state that many are short of who conceit and pretend themselves to be elect persons , when yet they are polluted , unsanctified , unregenerate , unholy , impure , unfaithfull to god , rejecting the elect seed , the elect and precious stone ; therefore their foundation is sandy , their building shattered , and the lord our god is risen to stain their glory , and the pride of all flesh , and yet more to confound all empty and babilonish professions , that are set in opposition to his glorious appearance in this his day . g. w. the moderate reader is desired to correct some errors that have escaped the press , whether they be words , letters or points , and not impute them to the authors . page . l. . read of these . p. . l. . for affirmed , r. answered . p. . l. . for no wit , r. now it . p. . l. . r. as for . l. . dele yet . p. . l. . for to the , dele the. p. . l. . for bare , r. bear . p. . l. . blot out them . p. . l. . r. trees . p. . l. . r. chap. . p. . understand , or add to the names subscribed ; viz. witnesses that these are the priests contradictions . p. . l. . r. passages . l. . for which , r. and. the end . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e priest. notes for div a -e note . observation . rom. . . an exact collection of farewel sermons preached by the late london-ministers viz. mr. calamy, mr. watson, mr. jacomb, mr. case, mr. sclater, mr. baxter, mr. jenkin, dr. manton, mr. lye, mr. collins : to which is added their prayers before and after sermon as also mr. calamy's sermon for which he was imprisoned in newgate : his sermon at mr. ashe's funeral and dr. horton's and mr. nalton's funeral. approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; 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(eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) an exact collection of farewel sermons preached by the late london-ministers viz. mr. calamy, mr. watson, mr. jacomb, mr. case, mr. sclater, mr. baxter, mr. jenkin, dr. manton, mr. lye, mr. collins : to which is added their prayers before and after sermon as also mr. calamy's sermon for which he was imprisoned in newgate : his sermon at mr. ashe's funeral and dr. horton's and mr. nalton's funeral. calamy, edmund, - . the last edition, being much enlarged and more perfect than any yet extant. [ ], , - p., [ ] leaf of plates : ports. s.n.], [london : . reproduction of original in the harvard university library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng sermons, english -- th century. dissenters, religious -- england -- sermons. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - emma (leeson) huber sampled and proofread - emma (leeson) huber text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the farewell sermons of mr. calamy mr. watson mr. sclater dr. iacomb mr. case mr. baxter mr. ienkins mr. lye dr. manton mr. ashes funerall mr. collins . an exact collection of farewel sermons , preached by the late london-ministers . viz. mr. calamy , mr. watson , dr. iacomb , mr. case , mr. sclater , mr. baxter , mr. ienkin , dr. manton , mr. lye , mr. collins . to which is added , their prayers before and after sermon . as also , mr. calamy's sermon for which he was imprisoned in newgate : his sermon at mr. ashe's funeral : and , dr. horton's at mr. naltons funeral . the last edition , being much enlarged , and more perfect , than any yet extant . sam . . . now these are the last words of david , the sweet singer of israel . printed in the year , . the publishers to the reader . the words of dying men usually are very serious , weighty , and much regarded . the ensuing notes , being the preachers last legacies to their several congregations , a little before their civil , though voluntary , death ; by reason of the great concourse of people that were then assembled in all churches , to hear their dying pastors preach their own funeral sermons whilest they were yet alive ; many being too distant from them , or too much disturbea by the crowd , fell short of their share and portion in them ; others having lost much of what they committed to their memories , addressed themselves to their friends that writ : but it being found too tedious a work to satisfie the desires of all by transcriptions , some who had taken after them as followeth , by the importunity of many , have been prevailed with , for the satisfaction of their friends , to expose their notes to publick view . it is not to be expected ( though all care and faithfulness hath been used ) that the picture should answer the person in all things ; what defects therefore , in any kind , may be found herein , we humbly pray , may not be imputed to the reverend authors , but unto the publishers hereof . we conceive we need not adde any thing to take off that clamour that is cast upon them , as if out of an humour , faction , or which is worse , disobedience to authority , they refused to conform ; enough is said by themselves , to give an account , why they chose to take up their cross and follow christ in a way of conscience and fidelity . reader , we will detain thee no longer from partaking of the fruit we here present thee with ; but conclude , praying that the lives of these worthy ministers hearers , may be their legible epistles , seen and read of all men ; and that their conversations may be such as becomes the gospel of christ , that whether they ( yet again ) come and see them , or else be absent , they may hear of their affairs ; that they stand fast in one spirit , striving together for the faith of the gospel . farewell . mr. calamy's prayer at aldermanbury . oh most holy , and ever ●…lessed lord god! thou fillest heaven and earth with thy presence , we pray thee fill all our hearts with the presence of thy grace , and let it appear that thou art in the midst of us , with that powerful assistance of thy spirit , that we may receive a token of love from thee at this time . it is a singular favour that the doors of thy sanctuary are open to us , and that yet we may meet together in thy name , we pray thee continue it to us , and sanctifie it to us , that every sabbath may add to our statur●… in iesus christ. we confess we have forfeited all our mercies , we have heard much of god , and christ , and heaven with ou●… ears , but there is little of god , christ , and heaven in our hearts . we confess , many of us by hearing sermons , are grown sermon-proof ; we know how to scoff and mock at sermons , but we know not how to live sermons . it is a miracle of free grace , that thou hast not taken thy gospel from us ere this time ; but thou art a merciful god , and though we cannot please thee , yet mercy pleaseth thee ; and we have no argument to bring along with us to beg thy ●…avour , but thy mercy in iesus christ. we pray thee , that thou wilt glorifie thy sovereignty , in being gracious to us , and pardon our many and great transg essions . thou makest use of the malice of men for thy glory , thou killest goliah with his own sword , oh help us to put our trust in thee , thou that canst kill and cure by killing . bless these nations of england , scotland , and ireland , and find out yet a way to save us ; pour down thy blessings upon the head and heart of our sovereign charles by thy grace , king of great britain ; thou hast done great things for him , let him do great things for thee ; bless him in his royal consort , in his royal relations , in his council ; bless the magistrates and ministers o●… this realm ; lord forgive us , for we live as if we had been delivered to work wickedness , we cannot sin at so cheap a rate as others do , we pray thee humble us under our great and grievous sins , give us repentance unto salvation , and a lively faith through the bloud of jesus christ : quicken our graces , forgive our sies , make alive our souls : let us be such as thou wouldst have us to be ; make us christians , not only by an outward profession , but an inward conversation ; that we may live in heaven while we are on earth , and come to heaven when we shall leave the earth . to that purpose , bless thy word un●…o us at this time , and give us all grace , to make conscience what we hear and how we hear ; and all for jesus christ his sake , to whom with thy blessed self and spirit , be all glory and honour ▪ amen . mr. calamy's farewell sermon . august . . sam . . . and david said unto gad , i am in a great strait ; let us fall now into the hand of the lord ( for his mercies are great ) and let me not fall into the hand of man. in which words we have three parts . . davids great perplexity and distress , i am in a great strait . . davids resolution . . affirmative , let us fall into the hand of the lord. . negative , let me not fall into the hand of man. . we have the reason of davids choice , for the mercies of god are great . the mercies of wicked men are cruel : therefore let me not fall into the hands of men . but the mercies of god are many , and great : therefore let u●… now fall into the hands of god. . for the first , that is , davids great distress , wherein we must speak , . to the distress it self : then ●… ▪ to the person thus perplexed : i am in a great strait : david a great man , david a godly man. . in the perplexity it self , we shall consider : . the reality of this perplexity . . the greatness of it . . for the reality of it : after david had sinned in numbring the people , god sends the prophet gad to him , and puts three things to his choice , as you may read in vers . . god was determined to make david smart for numbring the people , but leaves it to davids liberty , whether he would have seven years famine , or three months to flee before his enemies , or three dayes pestilence : this was a posing question , and david had cause to be in a great strait ; for these objects are not amiable in their own nature , they are objects to be avoided and declined ; in the first view of them they seem to be equally miserable , therefore david had cause to say , he was in a great strait . . this perplexity was not only real , but exceeding great : i am in a great strait : and there are two things made it so great . . the greatness of the punishments proposed , famine , sword , and plague : these are the three beesoms with which god sweeps mankind from off the earth : these are gods three iron-whips , by which he chastisetl●… sinful man : these are the three arrows shot out of the quiver of gods wrath , for the punishment of man : they are , as one calleth them , tonsurae humani generis . in r●… . you shall read of four horses , when the four first seals were opened : a white-horse , a red-horse , a black-horse , and a pale horse : after christ had ridden on the white-horse , propagating the gospel , then followes the red-horse , a type of war ; then the black-horse , an hi●…roglyphick of famine : then the pale-horse , the emblem of pestilence . now god was resolved to ride on one of these horses , and david must choose upon which god should ride ; this was a great strait : let me present david , lifting up his eyes to heaven , and speaking to god thus ; o my god , what is this message thou 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thou offerest me three things ; i am in a strait ▪ ●… 〈◊〉 which to refuse , but which to choose i 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the land of cannan , a land flowing with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall this land endure seven years famine , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into a wilderness , and dis-peopled ? and shall i , whose hands thou hast taught to fight , and whose fingers to war , shall i that have subdued all my enemies , shall i in my old age , and all my captains , flie three months before our enemies , and be driven to caves and rocks to hide our selves ? o thou my god , who art my refuge , shall i and my people be a prey to the pestilence that walketh in darkness , and destruction that walketh at noon day ? o my god , i know not what to do , i am in a great strait . . the second reason why this strait was so great , was , because of the guilt of sin that lay on davids spirit : for david knew that this severe message was the fruit of the sin he committed in numbring the people . but you will say , why , was it a sin in david to number the people : moses had often numbred the people : three times , and it was not counted sin iosephus answereth , the sin of david was , because he did not require the half-shekel , which he was to have had from all were numbred , ex. , , . others say , he sinned in numbring all ages , whereas he was to number but from twenty years : but these are but conjectural reasons . i conceive the ●…in of david was because he did it without a lawful cal , and for an unlawful end. sine causa legitima : he sinned in the manner rather then in the matter : for there was no cause for him to number the people , but 〈◊〉 ▪ ●…nd no end , but vain glory : go through all the tribes of israel and number the people , that i may know the number of my people , ver . . davids heart was li●…red ●…p with p●…ide and creature-confidence : he begins to boast of the multitude of his people , and to trust in an arm of flesh ; therefore god sends the prophet to david to p●…ick the bladder of his p●…ide ; as if god should say , i will teach you to number the people by lessening the number of your people . now the burden of his sin did add much to the burden of this heavy message : ver. . after david had numbred the people , his heart smote him : the message smites him , and his heart smites him , and he said , i have sinned greatly in that which i have done : now i beseech thee , take away the iniquity of thy servant , for i have done very foolishly . if david had been to suffer this great punishment out of love to god , or for a good conscience , he would not have been so distressed : there are two sorts of straits in scripture : some , suffered for god and a good conscience : and there are straits , suffered for sin . . there are straits suffered for god and a good conscience , heb. . , . those martyrs there were driven to great straits : but these were straits for god and a good conscience , and these straits were the saints greatest enlargements , they were so sweetned to them by the consolations and supportations of gods spirit ; a prison was a paradise to them , heb. . . they took joyfully the spoiling of their goods , act. . . they departed from the presence of the council , rejoycing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name . straits for a good conscience are great enlargements ; therefore pul gloryeth in this strait , paul a prisoner , &c. . there are straits suffered for sin , and these are envenomed by the guilt of sin : sin puts poyson into all our distresses and perplexities . now such was the strait into which david was now driven : it was a strait caused by sin , and that made it so unwelcome and uncomfortable : so that from hence i gather this observation ; doct. that sin and iniquity brings persons and nations into marvellous labyrinths and perplexities : into true , real , and great molestations : a man free from sin , is free in the midst of straits ; a man guilty of sin , is in a stra●…t in the midst of freedom . after adam had sinned in eating of the forbidden fruit , the whole world was a prison to him : paradise it self was an hell to him , he knew not where to hide himself from the presence of god. after that cain had murdered his brother abel , he was brought into such a strait , that he was afraid that every one that met him would slay him . alas poor cain , how many was there then in the world ? we read but of his father and mother , yet such was his distress , that he cryeth out , every one that met him would slay him , gen. . . into what a strait did sin bring the old world ? the deluge of sin brought a deluge of water to drown them . into what a strait did sin bring sodom and gomorrah ? the fire of lust raigning in sodom and gomorrah , brought down fire from heaven to destroy them . sin brings external , internal , and eternal straits upon persons and nations . . sin brings external straits ; sin brings famine , sword , and plague ; sin brings agues and feavours , gout and stone , and all manner of diseases : yea , sin brings death it self , which is the wages of sin . read levit . and deut. . and you will see a black role of curses , which were the fruit of sin . sin brought sion into babilon ; and when the jews had murdered christ , forty years after they were brought into that distress , when the city was besieged by titus and vespasian , that they did eat one another , the mother did eat her child . and whereas david had a choice which of the three he would have , either famine , plague , or sword ; the poor jews had all three concatenated together in the siege : sin brings all manner of external plagues . . sins bring persons & nations into internal straits : sin brings soul-plagues , which are worse than bodily plagues : sin brings hardness of heart , blindness of mind , a spirit of slumber , a reprobate sense ; sinne brings a spiritual famine upon a land ; it brings a famine of the word , amos . . sin causes god to take away the gospel from a people : sin brings internal plagues : sin awakens conscience , and fills it full of perplexities : into what a strait did sin drive iudas , after he had betrayed christ ? into what a strait did sin drive spira ? saint paul gloryed in his tribulations for god : but when he speaks of his sin , he cryeth out , o miserable man that i am , who shall deliver me from this body of death ? david a valiant man , when he speaks of sin , he saith , they are too heavy a burden for him to bear : awounded conscience who can bear ! saith the wise man. . sin bringeth eternal straits : o the strait that a wicked man shall be brought into , at the great and dreadful day of judgment , when all the world shall be on fire about him ! when he shall call to the mountains to hide him , and to the rocks to cover him from the wrath of god : then will he cry out with david , i am , o lord , in a great strait . and when the wicked shall be condemned to hell , who can express the straits they then shall be in , bind them hand and foot , and cast them into everlasting darkness : matth. . when a wicked man shall be bound with everlasting chains of darkness , then he will cry out , i am in a great strait . consider what dives saith to abraham : he desires that lazarus might but dip the tip of his finger in water , and that he might cool his tongue : not his whole body , but his tongue : but that would not be granted . it is impossible the tongue of man should set out the great straits the damned suffer in hell , both in regard of the greatness and everlastingness of them . this is all i shall say for the explication . use . i chiefly aim at the application : doth sin bring nations and persons into external , internal , and eternal straits ? then this sadly reproves those that choose to commit sin to avoid perplexity . there are thousands in england guilty of this , that , to avoid poverty , will lye , cheat , and cozen , and to gain an estate , will sell god and a good conscience : and to avoid the loss of estate and imprisonment , will do any thing : they will be sure to be of that religion which is uppermost , be it what it will. now give me leave this morning to speak three things to these sorts of men : and , o that my words might prevail with them ! . consider ; it is sin only that makes trouble to deserve the name of trouble ; for , when we suffer for gods sake , or a good conscience , these troubles are so sweetned by the consolations of heaven , that they are no troubles at all : therefore in q. maries days the martyrs wrote to their friends out of prison , if you knew the comforts we have in prison , you would wish to be with us : i am in prison before i am in prison , saith master sanders . famous is the story of the three children : they were in a great strait when cast into the fiery furnace ; bind them hand and foot , and cast them into the furnace ; but when they were there , they were unbound , dan. . . saith nebuchadnezzar , did not we cast three men bound , into the midst of the fire ? and lo , i see four men loose , walking in the midst of the fire , and the form of the fourth is like the son of god. i have often told you , when three are cast into the fire for a good conscience , god will make the fourth : therefore , i say , straits and sufferings for god are not worth the name of straits . david was often driven into straits . sam. . . he was sore distressed , when his town was burnt , and his wives and children taken captive by the amalekites : i , but that was a distress of danger , not of sin : therefore he encourageth himself in the lord his god , iehosaphat was in a great strait , chron. . . we know not what to do , saith he : this was a strait of danger , not caused by his sin , and god quickly delivered him : but the strait that david was in , was caused by his sin , and that made it so bitter . i am loth to enlarge here : st. paul was in a great strait phil. . . but this was a blessed strait , an evangelical strait , saith saint chrysostom , he knew not , whether to die for his own sake , or to live for the churches sake , were best ; he was willing to adjourn his going to heaven for the good of the people of god : nay , christ was in a strait , luk. . . i have a baptism to be baptized withall , and how am i straitned till it be accomplished ? i am to shed my blood for my elect : that is the baptism he speaks of . this was a strait of dear affection to the elect of god : all these were blessed straits : but now , straits caused by sin , these are imbittered and e●…venomed by the guilt of sin and sense of gods wrath. it is sin that maketh straits deserve the name of straits : therefore you are spiritually mad that commit sin to avoid straits . . there is more evil in the least sin , than in the greatest outward calamity whatsoever : this the world will not believe : therefore st. austin saith , that a man ought not to tell a lie , though he might save all the world from hell : for there is more evil in one lie , than there is good in the salvation of all the world . i have often told you the story of saint austin : saith he , if hell were on one side , and ●…in on the other , and i must choose one ; i would choose hell rather then sin : for god is the author of hell , but it is blasphemy to say , he is the author of sin . there is a famous story of charles the ninth , king of france : he sent a message to the prince of condy , a zealous protestant , gives him three things to choose , either to go to mass , or to be put to death , or to suffer banishment all his life long : saith he , primum , deo juvante , nunquam eligam : the first ( god helping ) i will never choose ▪ i abhor the idolatry of the mass : but for the two other , i leave it to the choice of the king 〈◊〉 do 〈◊〉 he pleases : there is more evil in the le●…st sin then the greatest misery . . the third thing i would have you consider , is that whosoever goeth out of god's way to avoid danger , ●…hall certainly meet with greater danger . balaam went out of god's way , numb . . . and god sent an angel with a drawn sword , and he riding upon an ass , vers . . the angel stood in a narrow place , where was no way to go from the right hand or from the left : if his ass had not fallen under him , he had been run through by the sword of the angel. ionah for fear of the king of ni●…veh went out of god's way , but he met with a mighty tempest , he met with a whale : what do you do , when you commit sin ? you make way to be cast into the eternal prison of hell : you destroy your precious souls , to save your perishing bodies . use. . if sin be the father and mother of all perplexity and distresses , then , i beseech you , let us above all things in the world abhor sin : all the curses of the bible are all due only to a sinner ; and all the curses not named in the bible : for that is observable , deut. . . every plague that is not written in the book shall light upon him : there are strange punishments to the workers of iniquity , iob . . is not destruction to the wicked a strange punishment to the workers of iniquity ? sin it bringeth the sinner to little ease : little ease at death , little ease at the day of judgement , and little ease in hell , tribulation and anguish : the word in the greek is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , little ease to every soul that doth iniquity . oh my beloved , will you promise me to look upon sin , and consider it in all its woful consequents , as the father , mother and womb out of which come external , eternal , and internal straits ? more particularly , there are twelve sins i especially command you to take heed of and avoid : . take heed of covetousness : the love of the world will pierce you through with many sorows ; the love of money is the root of all evil ; the love of the world drowns men in perdition . . take heed of the sin of pride : into what woful straits did pride bring haman ! god crossed him in what he most desired : god made him hold the stirrup , while mordecay rode in triumph ; and god hanged him on the gallows which he had made for mordecay . . take heed of drunkenness ; look not on the wine when it gives its colour in the cup , &c. drunkenness will bring you into snares : it will bite like a serpent , and sting like an adder , &c. . take heed of disobedience and rebellion against the commandments of god : it brought ionah to his three nights and three dayes in the whale's belly . . take heed of fornication , and adultery ; and all uncleanness ; this brought sampson to a woful strait : this brought david and solomon into great perplexity . . take heed of oppression , and all acts of injustice : this brought ahab into a great strait , insomuch that the dogs licked his blood . take heed of unnecessary familiarity with wicked men : this brought iehosaphat into a great strait . . take heed of misusing the prophets of god : this made god destroy the children of israel without remedy , chron. . , . . take heed of coming prophanely to the lord's table ; this brought the church of corinth into a great distress , insomuch as the apostle saith , for this cause many among you are sick , and many weak , and many fallen asleep . . take heed of loathing the manna of your souls : this brought the people of israel into woful misery ; that god destroyed all their carcasses in the wilderness , save ioshua and cal●…b . take heed of slighting the gospel : this brought queen mary's persecution , as many learned and godly men that fled for religion's sake out of the land , have confessed : their unthankfulness for , and unfruitfulness under the gospel in king edward the sixth's time , brought the persecution in queen mary's time . . take heed of losing your first love : that makes god threaten to take away his candlestick . . take heed of prophaning the christian sabbath , which is much prophaned every where , a day that christ by his resurrection from the dead hath consecrated , to be kept holy to god : certainly if the jews were so severely punished for breaking the sabbath , which was set apart in memory of the creation ; surely god will severely punish those that break the sabbath set apart in memory of christ's resurrection . may be , some will say , i have committed many of these sins , but am not brought into any strait . remember , it was nine months after david had n●…mbred the people , before he was in this strait : but as sure as god is in heaven , sin will bring straits sooner or later ; though a sinner live au hundred years , yet shall he be accursed : may be , thy prosperity makes way for thy damnation : and this is thy greatest distress , that thou goest on in sin and prosperest . use . if sin bringeth a nation into marvellous labyrinths , learn what great cause we have to fear that god should bring this nation into great distress , because of the great abominations are committed in the midst of it : our king and soveraign was in great straits in the dayes of his banishment , but god hath delivered him : god hath delivered this nation out of great straits ; but alas , we requite god evil for good , and instead of repenting of old sins , we commit new sins . i am told there are new oaths invented , oaths not fit to be named in any place , much less here : certainly the drunkenness and adultery , the oppression and injustice , the bribery and sabbath-breaking , the vain and wicked swearing and for-swearing , this nation is guilty of , must of necessity provoke god to say of us , as he did of them in ieremiah . . shall i not visit for these things , saith the lord ? shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this ? god will not only punish us , but be avenged on us . there is no way to avoid a national desolation but by a national reformation . lastly , learn what cause , you of this congregation and parish , what cause you have to expect that god should bring you into great straits , because of your great unthankfulness and unfruitfulness under the means of grace , you that have so long enjoyed the gospel ; you have had the gospel in this place in great abundance ; doctor taylor he served one apprenticeship in this place ; doctor staughton served another apprenticeship ; and i , through divine mercy , have served three apprenticeships , and half another almost , among you ; you have had the spirit of god seven and thirty years in the faithful ministry of the word , knocking at the door of your hearts , but many of you haue hardened your hearts . are there not some of you , i only put the question , that begin to loath the manna of your souls , and to look back towards egypt again ? are there not some of you have itching ears , and would fain have . preachers that would feed you with dainty phrases , and begin , not to care for a minister that unrips your consciences , speaks to your hearts and souls , and would force you into heaven by frighting you out of your sins ? are there not some of you , that by often hearing sermons are become sermon-proof , that know how to sleep and scoff away sermons . i would be glad to say , there are but few such ; but the lord knoweth there are too ●…oo many that by long preaching get little good by preaching ; insomuch that i have often said it , and say it now again , there is hardly any way to raise the price of the gospel-ministry , but by the want of it : and that , i may not ●…latter you , you have not profited under the means you have enjoyed ; therefore you may justly expect god may bring you into a strait , and take away the gospel from you : god may justly take away your ministers by death or other wayes . h●… you not lost your first love ? why did god take away the gospel from the church of ephesus , but because they lost their first love ? are you not like the church of laodicea , that are neither hot nor cold ? therefore god may justly spew you out of his mouth : what god will do with you , i know not ▪ a few weeks will determine : god can make a great change in a little time : we leave all to god : but in the mean time let me commend one text of scripture to you ▪ ierem. . . give glory to the lord your god , before he cause darkness , and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains , and while you look for light , he turn it into the shadow of death , and make it gross darkness . verse . but if you will not hear , my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride , and mine eyes shall weep sore , and run down with tears , because the lords flock is carried away captive . give glory to god by confessing and repenting of your fins , by humbling your souls before the lord , before darkness come , and who knoweth but this may prevent darkness ? mr. calamy's sermon preached at alderman-bury church , dec. . . for which he was imprisoned in newgate . sam. . . and when he came , lo , ely sate upon a seat by the way side , waiting ; for his heart trembled for the ark of god. that you may the better understand these words you must know that whatsoever god threatn'd against old ely , in the second and third chapters , because he did not restrain hi●… wicked so●… from their lewd courses , is here executed in this chapter ▪ therefore we read , there were four thousand israelites slain by the philistines ; and the elders of israel met together to consult how to repair this great losse ▪ th●… confesse , it was the lord that had smitten them ▪ 〈◊〉 say they , wherefore hath the lord smitten us to day before the philistines : and they conclude , the way to repair this their loss , it was , to fetch the ark of the covenant of the lord from shiloh , and carry it into the 〈◊〉 whereupon they appoint hophni and phinehas to 〈◊〉 it , whereby they imagined that the presence of the a●…k would save them from ruin , but herein they were miserably mistaken ; for , this judgment befel them not because the ark was not in the camp , but because th●… sin was in the camp : the ark of the covenant would not preserve those that had broken covenant with god ▪ and therefore there was a great slaughter of the 〈◊〉 ▪ li●…es , and were slain thirty thousand men , and h●… ▪ and ph●… were slain , and the ark it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . but what was old eli doing ? he was ninety and eight years old , and was not able to go to the battel , but sits upon a seat by the way-side near the battel ; and there he sits , thinking what shall become of the ark : and lo , ely sate upon a seat by the way side , watching : for his heart trembled for the ark of god , for fear lest the ark should be taken : he was not troubled , what should become of his two sons , or what should become of the people of israel , but what should become of the ark of god. in the words are three parts . . old elies solicitousness for the ark. . old elies heart-trembling for fear of the ark. . old elies preferring the safety of the ark before the safety of his two sons , wife , and children . he sate upon a seat by the way-side watching , for his heart trembled for the ark of god. but what was the ark of god ? why should old elies heart tremble for fear of the ark ? i answer : this ark was the holiest of all the things of god ; it was so holy , that it made every place holy where it came , chron. . and solomon brought up the daughter of pharoah , out of the city of david , into the house that he had built for her : for he said , my wife shall not dwell in the house of david king of israel , because the places are holy , whereunto the ark of the lord hath come . this ark was the dwelling place of god , it was the habitation of god , psal. . . the lord reigneth , he sitteth between the cherubims . now these cherubims were placed over the ark : it was the speaking place of god ; he met his people there , and there he gave an answer to them : exod. . , . and thou shalt : put the mercy-seat above upon the ark and in the ark thou shalt put the testimony that i shall give thee : and there will i meet with thee , and i will commune with thee from above ●…he mercy-seat , from between the two cherubims which are ●…pon the ark of the testimony , of all things i shall give thee ●…n commandement unto the children of israel . this ark was gods foot-stool , and all the people of god worshipt before the foot-stool of god , psal. . . exalt ye the lord our god , and worship at his footstool , for he is holy . the ark , it was the glory and the strength of israel , psal. . . and he delivered his strength into captivity , and his glory into his enemies hand ; and it was the terror of the enemies of god : and therefore when the ark came into the battel , the philistines were afraid , and said , wo unto us , for god is come down into the camp : and indeed this ark was called iehovah , num. . . and it came to pass , when the ark set forward , that moses said , rise up , lord , and let thine enemies be scattered : and when it rested , he said , return , o lord , unto the many thousands of israel . in a word , the ark was a pledge , and a visible symptom of gods gracious presence with his people ; as long as the ark was saved , they were saved ; and when the ark was with them , gods presence was with them ; but when the a●…k was gone , god was gone ; his comfor●…ing presence , his protecting presence , and his preserving presence : and therefore no wonder that this good old man sate watching here for fear of the ark. i call him , good old man : many are of opinion that he was not good , because he suffered his sons to be so wicked ; and indeed his fault was great , but surely he was a good man , and i have two reasons to prove it : first , in tha●… he took the punishment of his iniquity so patiently ; it is the lord , let him do what seemeth him good . and secondly , he was a good man , as appears , in the text , by his solicitousness for the ark : he sate trembling , &c. now this ark was a type of three things . first , i●… was a type of jesus christ ; for god spake from the ark : so god speaks to us by christ. secondly , it was a type of the church of christ : for ●…s the ark was the preserver of the two tables of the law , so the church of christ is the preservative of the scriptures . thirdly , the ark was a type of the ordinances of christ : for as god did communicate himself by the ark , so god by his ordinances communicates his counsels , comforts and graces unto his people : the ordinances of christ , they are the oraculum by which he conveys himself unto his people . thus i have shew'd you what the ark was . i shall gather two observations from the words : . that when the ark of god is in danger of being lost , the people of god have thoughtful heads , and trembling hearts . . that a true child of god is more troubled , and more solicitous what shall become of the ark , then what shall become of wife and children or estate . i shall begin with the first . doct. that when the ark of god is in danger of being lost , the people of god have thoughtful heads and trembling hearts . or , if i may put this doctrine into a gospel-dress , take it thus : that when the gospel is in danger of losing , when gospel-ordinances are in danger of being lost , and gospel-ministers in danger of losing ; that then the people of god have trembling heads , and careful and solicitous hearts about it . mark what i say : i say not , when the ark is lost ; for that was death to old ely , that broke his neck : and it cost the life of ely's daughter in law : when the ark of god was taken she took no comfort in her child , though a man-child she regarded : for the glory is departed from israel , the ark of god is taken . i say not when the ark of god is lost : but i say when it is in danger of losing : when the gospel is in danger , the ministers of the gospel in danger , and the ordinances in danger to be lost ; then the people of god have trembling hearts , and careful heads . when god threatned the israelites , that he would not go with them they were troubled for the loss of gods presence , and would not put on their ornaments , exod. . , . i will not go in the midst of thee , for thou art a stiffneck●…d people , lest i consume thee in the way : and when the people heard these evill tidings they mourned and no man did put on his ornaments : sam. . . and it came to pass , while the ark abode in kiriath-jearim , that the time was long , for it was twenty years , and all the house of israel lamented after the lord : that is , after the presence of god , speaking from the ark. sam. . , . david would have had uriah to have gone down to his house and made merry : and uriah said unto david , the ark , and israel , and iudah abide in tents , and my lord ioab , and the servants of my lord are incamped in open fields : shall i then go into mine house to eat and to drink , and to lie with my wife ? as thou liv●…st , and as thy soul liveth , i will not do this thing . king. . . and elijah said i have been very zealous for the lord god of hosts : for the children of israel have forsaken thy covenant , thrown down thine altars , and slain thy prophets with the swerd , and i , even i only am left , and they seek my life to take it away . thus you see when the ark is in danger , the people of god mourn and are sorrowful . and there be four reasons , why the people of god are so much troubled when the ark of god is in danger . reas. . because of the great love they bear to the ark of god ; as god loveth the gates of sion , more then all the dwellings of iacob , psal. . . so the people of god love the ordinances of god , and the faithful ministers of christ , psal. . . lord , i have loved the habitation of thy house , and the place where thine honour dwelleth . psal. . . one thing have i desired of the lord , that i will seek after , that i may dwell in the house of the lord all the days of my life , to behold the beauty of the lord , and to enquire in his temple . now , love stirreth up the affections : as young croesus , though he were dumb , yet seeing his father like to be killed , cryed out , do not kill my father : such is the love of the saints of god to the ark , that they cannot be silent , they cannot but tremble when they see the ark in danger : and for sions sake they cannot hold their peace : and they cannot be silent until the lord make the righteousness thereof go out like brightness , and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth . . the people of god are troubled at this , because of the interest they have in the ark of god : now , interest stirreth up affections , as when another mans house is on fire : as you had a lamentable and sad providence this last week , and it is not to be forgotten , how suddenly in all our feastings , god may dash all our mirth . now consider , how were they affected that had an interest in those that were burned : so the people of god have an interest in the ark : god is the haven of a child of god , the portion and inheritance of a child of god ; and when god begins to forsake them , they cannot but be afflicted and troubled : the ordinances of god are the jewels of a christian , and the treasure of a christian ; and the losse of them cannot but trouble them : and jesus christ is the joy of a christian , and therefore when christ is departing , they cannot bu●… be much afflicted at it . . the people of god are much troubled when th●… ark is in danger , because of the mischiefs that com●… upon a nation when the ark of god is lost : wo be 〈◊〉 that nation when the ark is gone . the heathens ha●… the image of apollo , and they conceived , that as lon●… as that image was preserved amongst them , they coul●… never be worsted , but be preserved ; and the romans had a buckler , upon which they had a tradition , that as long as that buckler was preserved , rome could not be taken . shall i give a hint , and set it out a little in five particulars . . when the ark of god is taken , then the wayes of sion mourn , and none come to the solemn assemblies : it was the complaint of the church , lament . . . that is matter of sadness . . when the ark of god is taken , then the ministers of christ are driven into corners : and that is matter of heart-trembling . . when the ark of god is taken , then the souls of many are in danger : when the gospel is gone , your souls are in hazzard : there is cause of sadness . . then do the enemies of god blaspheme , and are ready to say , where is your god ? then do the enemies of god triumph , psal. . . as with a sword in my bones mine enemies reproach me : while they say dayly unto me , where is thy god ? . then is iesus christ trampled under foot , and the ordinances of god defiled and trampled on ; and then blasphemy and atheism comes in like an armed man. . the people of god must needs tremble when the ark is in danger , because of their accessariness to the losing of the ark ; and this was that which made old ely so much troubled , because he knew it was for his sin that god suffered the ark to be taken : he knew that his not punishing his two sons , was one great cause of that great slaughter the people of israel met withall , and that made him tremble . there is no person here in this congregation , but his heart will tell him , he hath contributed something towards the loss of the ark. none of us so holy but our consciences must accuse us , we have done something that might cause god to take the ark from us : and therefore mr. bradford , that blessed martyr , said in his prayer , lord it was my unthankfulness for the gospel , that brought in popery in queen maries dayes : and my unfruitfulness under the gospel , that was the cause of the untimely death of king edward the sixth : and those that fled in queen maries dayes , sadly complained that they were the cause of gods taking away the gospel from england . o beloved , it is for thy sin and my sin , that the ark of god is in danger ; and therefore the lord give us trembling solicitous hearts , what shall become of the ark. i come now to application . use . if this be the property of a true child of god to be solicitous when the ark of god is in danger , and to have such a trembling heart for fear of the ark , then this is a certain sign there are but few that are the children of god in truth . o where is the man , and where is the woman , that like old ely , sits watching and trembling for fear of the ark ! and that will appear by these reasons . first , in reference to the many sins in this nation ; for let me tell you , there is not one sin for which god ever took away the ark from any people , but it is to be found in england : did the church of ephesus lose the candlestick , because they had lost their first love ? and have not we lost our first love to the gospel , and to the ordinances ? and did the church of laodicea lose the candlestick , because of lukewarmness ? and are not we lukewarm ? did the people of israel , as here in the text , lose the ark , because they abhorred the offering of god ? and do not we do so ? are not the sins of israel amongst us ? the sins of germany , and the sins of all other nations about us ? and can any man here before god this day , in this congregation , that considers the great unthankfulness of this nation , and the great prophanesse and wickednesse of this nation , but they may conclude the ark is in danger , and god may justly take the ark from us ? i might tell you of the drunkennesse , adultery , covetousness , injustice , and uncharitableness , &c. that doth abound amongst us ; and i might tell you of sanctuary sins , prophanation of sabbaths and sacraments , out unthankfulnesse , and unfruitfulnesse , and unworthy walking under the gospel : and you of this place , god may very well take the ark even from you . and indeed it was the great interest i had in you , the which while i live i shall ever own ; and that great affection and respect i had to you , that i would not send you home this day without a sermon , and let you go without a blessing . now , can any of you in this parish , and this congregation ; can any of you say , god may not justly take the gospel from you ? secondly , shall i adde , the discontents and divisions in the nation , as christ saith , a nation divided against it self cannot stand ; but i leave these things to your considerations ; i do believe there is none here but will confesse the ark of god is in danger to be lost . but now where are our old elys , to sit watching and trembling for fear of the ark ? where is phinehas his wife , that would not be comforted , because the ark of god was taken ? where are our moses's ? our elijah's ? our uriah's ? where are they that lay to heart the dangers of the ark ? you complain of taxes , and decay of trading ; of this civil burden , and that civil burden ; but where is the man or the woman that complains of this misery , the losse of the ark ? most of you are like gallio , he cared not for these things ; if it had been a civill m●…ter , then he would have medled with it ; but for religion , he cared not for that : every man is troubled about meum and tuum , about civil concernments ; but who laies to heart , who regards , what shall become of religion ? there is a strange kind of indifferency ▪ and lukewarmnesse upon most peoples spirits ; so they may have their trading go on , and their civill burdens removed , they care not what becomes of the ark. there is a text of scripture , i shall not spend much time in opening it , but i would have you well consider it , hos. . . strangers have devoured his strength , and he knoweth it not : yea gray hairs are here and there upon him , yet 〈◊〉 knoweth not . shall i say , gray hairs are upon the gospel ? i come not hither to prophecy : i say not , the gospel is dying , but i say it hath gray hairs : for you have had the gospel a hundred years and above , and therefore it is in its old age : and i dare challenge any schollar to shew me an example of any nation that hath enjoyed the gospel for a hundred years together . now that gray hairs is at a hundred years , is no wonder : well , gray hairs are here and there , and yet no man layeth it to heart . now shal i spend some time to shew you what a great sin it is , not to be affected with the danger that the ark of god is in : consider but three particulars . first , it is a sign you do not love the gospel : if you had any love to it , you would be troubled more for the danger of the ark , then for any outward danger whatsoever . secondly , it is a sign you have no interest in the gospel , for interest wil stir up your affections : it is a sign you are not concerned in the gospel , for if you were concerned in it , you would be affected with it ; as those that were interessed in those persons in that lamentable fire the last week , it is impossible but they should be affected : ●…nd so it is asign you have no interest in god and christ , if your hearts do not tremble for fear of the loss of the ark. but thirdly , there is a curse of god pronounced against all those that do not lay to heart the afflictions of ioseph , amos . , , , , , . wo be to them that are at ease in sion , and trust in the mountain of samaria : ye that put far away the evil day : that lye upon beds of ivory , and stretch themselves upon their couches : that eat the lambs out of the flock , and the calves out of the midst of the stall : that chant to the sound of the viol , and invent to themselves instruments of musick : that drink wine in bowles , and annoint themselves with the chief ointments : but they are not grieved for the afflictions of ioseph . wo be to you that injoy your fulness of outward things , and make merry therewith , and never consider the afflictions of gods people , and the danger of the ark. use . for exhortation , to beseech you all , that god by a providence hath so unexpectedly brought this day to hear me ; ( and there may be a good providence in it , possibly i may do good herein : ) i say , let me beseech you all , to declare , you are the people of god in deed and in truth , by following the example of old ely , to be very solicitous for the ark of god ; and let me exhort you to five particulars , first , let me perswade you to believe , that the gospel is not entailed upon england : england hath no letters patents of the gospel ; the gospel is removeable : god took away the ark and forsook shilo , and he did not only take away the ark , but the temple also ; he unchurched the iews , he unchurched the seven churches of asia , and we know not how soon he may unchurch us : i know no warrant we have to think that we shall have the gospel another hundred year●… : god knows how to remove his candlestick , but not to destroy it : god doth often remove the church , but doth not destroy it : god removed his church out of the east , as the greek churches were famous churches , but god removed them , and now the turk overspreads that country . secondly i would perswade you , that englands ark is in danger to be lost : were it only for the ●…ins of england , those prodigious iniquities amongst us , and that strange unheard of ingratitude that is in the land : but i will say no more of that , because i would speak nothing but what becomes a sober minister of the gospel . thirdly , i would perswade you , and o that i could raise you up to old elies practise : he sat watching , for his heart trembled for fear of the ark : he had a thoughtful head , and aking heart , for the ark of god that was in danger : and that i might move you to this , consider what a sad condition we are in if the ark be taken : what will your estate do you good ? or what will all your concernments do you good , if the gospel be gone ? wherein doth england exceed other places ? there is more wealth in turkie then in england : and the heathen nations have more of the glory of the world , then any christian king hath : what is the glory of england ? what is the glory of christianity but the gospel ? if the gospel be gone , our glory is gone . pray , remember eli his daughter in law , the wife of phinehas : she hearkened not though a man-child was born , and would receive no comfort , but called his name i●…habod : for the glory is departed from israel , the ark of god is taken : o when the glory is gone , who would desire to live ! i am loath to tell you the story of chrysostom , he was but one man , yet when he was banished constantinople , the people all petitioned for him , and said , they could as well lose the sun out of the firmament as lose chrysostom from among them . fourthly , let me perswade you not to mourn immoderately , neither be discouraged : i would willingly speak something to comfort you before i leave you , i know not by what strange providence i came here this day , and the lord knows when i shall speak to you again : therefore i would not send you home comfortless : o therefore , mourn not as without hope ; for i have four arguments to perswade me , that the ark of god will not be lost , though it be in danger of losing . first , because god hath done great things already for this nation : and i argue like manoahs wife : surely , if god had intended to destroy us , he would not have done that he hath done for us ; he that hath done so much for us , will not now forsake us . and therefore , though our hearts tremble , yet let them not sink within us . secondly , i argue from the abundance of praying-people that are in this nation , there are many that night and day pray unto god that the ark may not be taken : and let me assure you , god did never forsake a praying and reforming people . when god intends to destroy a nation , and take away the ark , he takes away the spirit of prayer , but where god gives the spirit of prayer , there god will continue the ark. you all know , that if there had been but ten good men in those five cities god would have spared them : we have many hundreds that fear god in this nation , that do not give god rest , but night and day pray unto god for this land : and who knows but , for their sakes , god will spare the ark ? thirdly , another ground of comfort is this , that god hath hitherto dealt with england not by way of rule , but by way of prerogative . we have had unchurching sins all the reign of queen elizabeth , and of king iames : and the godly ministers have been threatned ruine , from year to year : but god hath hitherto saved england by way of prerogative . god hath spared us , because he will spare us : according to that text , i will be gracious to whom i will be gracious . god will not be tyed to his own rule : and , who knoweth but god will deliver us ? fourthly , another ground of comfort is , that god is now pouring out his vials upon antichrist , and all this shall end in the ruine of antichrist : god is pouring forth his vials upon the throne of the beast ; and all these transactions shall end in the ruin of antichrist : though some drops of these vials may light upon the reformed churches , and they smart for a while , and god may severely punish them ; yet it will be but for a little while , but the vials shall be poured out , upon antichrist : god may scourge all the reformed churches before these vials be poured o●…t , and persecutions may go through them all , the which i call drops of these vials : but the vials are intended for antichrist , and shall end in the ruin of antichrist : and whatsoever becomes of us , yet our children , and our childrens children shall see the issue of the vials poured out upon the whore of babylon : this i speak for your comfort . fifthly , i am to exhort you , that you would all of you contribute your utmost endeavour , to keep the ark of god from being taken : and here i shall shew you , . what the magistrate should do . . what the minister should do . . what the people should do . first , what the magistrate should do . i shall say but little of them , because i am not now to speak to them . they are to use their authority for the setling of the ark ; for the ark of covenant will be like the ark of noah , always floating upon the waters , until the magistrates settle it . thus david sam. . , . he gathered together all the chosen men of israel , thirty thousand to fetch home the ark. so solomon , he assembleth the elders of israel , and the heads of the tribes , the nobles , the chief of the fathers of the children of israel unto ierusalem , with a great a deal of pomp , to bring up the ark of the covenant of the lord into its place . o that god would incourage our nobles and magistrates , that they might be solicitous to settle the ark : magistrates must not do as the philistines : they had the ark , but what did they do with it ? they set it up in the house of dagon , but dagon and the ark could never agree : where false religion comes in at one door , the true religion goes out at the other ; you must not put the ark and dagon together . secondly , what must the ministers do to keep the ark from losing ? they must endeavour after holiness ; the ark will never stand steddy , nor prosper upon the shoulders of hophni and phinehas . a wicked , prophane , drunken ministry will never settle the ark ; it must be the sober , pious , godly ministers that must do it : how holy must they be , that draw nigh to the god of holiness ? thirdly , what must the people of god do , that the ark may not be lost ? there be five things i shall commend unto you , and then commend you to god. . you must not idolize the ark. . you must not undervalue the ark. . you must not pry into the ark. . you must not meddle with the ark without a lawful cal . . you must keep the covenant of the ark. first , you must not idolize the ark : that was the sin of the people in the text ; they thought the very presence of the ark would excuse them , and keep them safe , and therefore they carryed the ark into the camp : though they reformed not , and repented not , yet they thought the ark would save them . so many there , be that think the ark will save them , though never so wicked : but nothing will secure a nation but repentance and reformation . secondly , do not undervalue the ark : this was michals sin , sam. . , , . when david danced before the ▪ ark , and michal mocked him , and despised him in her heart : but , saith he , it was before the lord , and if this be vile , i will be more vile . some men begin to say , what need we any preaching , will not prayers serve ? others say ▪ what needs so much preaching , will not once a day serve ? now this is to undervalue the ark : therefore let us say , as david , if to preach the word , if to fast and pray for the nation : if this be vile , then i will be more vile . thirdly , we must not pry into the ark : this was the sin of the men of bethshemesh , sam. . . they looked into the ark , and god smote them , and cut off fifty thousand and threescore men . be not too curious in searching where god hath not discovered or revealed ; for example , there be great thoughts of heart , when god will deliver his people , and set his churches at liberty ; and many men talk much of the year . that shall be the year wherein antichrist shall be destroyed : and there are strange impressions upon the hearts of many learned men , as to this year ; some go to the year . and others pitch upon other times ; but truly , if you will have my judgement , and i am glad of this opportunity to tell you , this is to pry too much into the ark : remember the text , act. . . it is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the father hath put in his own power . and thus to conclude upon any particular time , if you find you are deceived , it is the way to make you atheists , and that afterwards you shall believe nothing : and those ministers do no service , or rather ill service to the church of god , that conclude of times and seasons . a popish author saith , that in the year 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , there was a general belief over the christian world , that the day of judgement should be that year ; but when they saw it hapned not , they fell to their old sinning again : and were worse then before , and believed nothing . well gods time is the best , therefore let not us pry too much into the ark. fourthly , you must not meddle with the ark , unless you have a lawful call to meddle with it . this was the sin of uzza , sam. . , . the ark was in danger of falling , and the goodman , meaning no hurt , to keep up the ark , took hold of it ; but he destroyed himself and made a breach , and hindred the carrying of the ark. we had a great disorder heretofore : abundance of well-meaning people usurped upon the ministerial office : they were afraid the ark was falling , and therefore they touched the ark , they laid hold on the ark : but their touching the ark hath undone the ark , and themselves too . o take heed of touching the ark. fifthly , if ever you would preserve the ark , then keep the covenant of the ark , keep the law which the ark preserves : the ark was a place wherein the law was kept , the two tables ; keep the law , and god will keep the ark : but if you break the law , you will forfeit the ark : the ark was called the ark of the covenant ; keep covenant with god , and god will preserve the ark : but if you break the covenant of the ark , the covenant made in baptism , and that covenant often renewed in the sacrament : if you break covenant , god will take away the ark. mr. watson's prayer at walbrook . o lord god , all our springs are in thee . it is good for us to draw ●…igh to thee through iesus christ ; thou art all fulness , the quintessence of all sweetness , the center of all blessedness ; thou art the father of our lord iesus christ , and in him our father , thou art our light , thou givest us these blessed opportunities of enjoying communion with thy self , god blessed for ever . these mercies are forfeited mercies , we have abused the blessings of thy house , we have grieved thy blessed spirit ; therefore it is just with thee to deprive us of these comforts , and to make us know the worth of these mercies by the want of them . lord , we desire to judge our selves , that we may not be condemned with the world ; righteous art thou , o lord , and just in all thy judgements ; we confess , we are unworthy to have any converse with so holy a god ; we are polluted dust and ashes , not worthy to tread thy courts , and it is of thy mercy that we are not consumed . how often have we pluckt fruit from the forbidden tree ? we have sinned presumptnously ; against the clearest light , and the dearest love always have we sinned ; thy footsteps have dropt fatness : thou hast shown mercy to us ; but the better thou hast been to us , the worse we have been to thee : thou hast loaded us with thy mercies , and we have wearied thee with our sins ; when we look into our selves , oh the poison of our natures ; what ever the leper did touch , was unclean ; thus do we by our spiritual leprosi●… infect our holy things ; our prayers had need have pardon , and our tears had need have the blood of sprinkling to wash them ; how vain are our vows ? how sensual are our affections we confess , we are untuned and unstrung for every holy action ; we are never out of tune to sia , but always out of tune to pray : we give the world our male affections , and our strongest desires ; we should use this world as if we used it not , and alas we pray as if we prayed not , and serve thee as if we served thee not ; there is not that reverence , nor that devotion , nor that activeness of saith that there should be . lord , if thou shouldest say , thou woul●…st pardon all our sins to this time , only judge us for this prayer , we unto us : what breathing●… of unbelief and hypocrisie is there now , when we approach unto thee ▪ we pray thee pardon us for christs sake ; who can tell how o●…t he dot●… offend ? we can as well reckon the drops of the ocean , as number 〈◊〉 sins : we have filled the number of the nations sins , but have not fill●… thy bottle with our tears . this is that that doth exceedingly aggravate 〈◊〉 sins , that we cannot mourn for sin ; we can grieve for our losses , but 〈◊〉 cannot mourn for our unkindnesses ; we have crucified the lord of life ; sin has not only defiled us , but hardened us ; nothing can melt us but the love of christ , nothing can soften us but the blood of christ : oh ▪ withold not thy mercies from us , oh help us to eat the passeover with bitter herbs , let us look on christ and weep over him , let us look on a broken christ with broken hearts , and on a bleeding christ , with bleeding hearts : let us mourn for our dis-ingenuity , that we should grieve that god that 〈◊〉 ●…wayes doing us good . oh humble us for our unkindness , and for 〈◊〉 sake blot out our transgressions ; they are more then we can number , 〈◊〉 more than god can pardon . though we have lost the duty of children , thou hast not lost the goodness of a father ; let us be held forth as patterns of mercy , so shall we trumpet forth thy praise to all eternity : whatever afflictions thou layes●… upon our bodies , let not our sins be unpardoned ; let not sin and affliction be together upon us , let there be peace in heaven , and peace in the court of conscience ; we have found this part of thy word true , in the world we shall have trouble ; let us find the other part true , in jesus christ we shall have peace . oh let peace and holiness go together ; make 〈◊〉 new creatures , that we may be glorious creatures ; without faith christ will not profit us ; when we can call nothing in the world ours , let us call christ , ours . lord , draw thine image every day more lively upon us ; a more lively hope , and a more inflamed love to christ. let us have a spirit of courage and resolution , keep us from the fallacies of our own hearts , keep us from the defilements of the times , make us pure in heart that we may see god , that we may have gospel-spirits , humble spirits , meek spirits ; as christ did take our flesh , let us partake of his spirit . why dost thou imbitter the breast of the creature to us , but that we should find the sweetness of the promises ? there is as much in the promises as ever , let us live upon god , let us cast anchor in heaven , and we shall never sink . showr down thy blessings , ( even the choisest of them ) upon the head and heart of our dread soveraign , charles , by thy appointment , of england , scotland , france and ireland king , defender of the faith ; let him see wherein his chiefest interest lies ; let him count those his best subjects , that are christs subjects ; bless him in his royal consort , i●… his royal relations ; the lords of his privy council ; let them be a terror to evil doers , and encouragers of those that do well . bless all thine ordinances to us , make them to be fulness of life to every one before thee ; we are come this day to partake of them , oh pour in wine and oyl into our souls ; let us be as a watred garden ; let this blessed sacrament be a poison to our lust , and nourishment for our grace hear ●…s ▪ be our god , follow us with mercy , crown us with acceptance , and all for christ his sake ; whom not feeing we love , in whom believing we rejoyce ; to christ , with thee , and the holy spirit , be glory , honour , and ●…raise , now and for ever , amen . mr. watson's farewell sermon . cor. . . having these promises , dearly beloved , let us cleanse our selves . it is the title that i intend now , by the help of god , to insist upon , that sweet parenthesis in the text ( dearly beloved ) wherein you have the apostle breathing forth his affections unto this people : he speaks now as a pastor , and he speaks to them as his spiritual children . dearly beloved : where you have . first , the title , beloved . secondly , the exhortation to holiness , let us cleanse our selves . thirdly , the means how we should be cleansed and sanctified , having these promises . it is the first of these that i intend : the title that the apostle gives to his children , dearly beloved . from hence observe this doctrine . that the affections of a right gospel-minister towards his people are very ardent . dearly beloved , there are two things in every minister of christ that are much exercised : his head and his heart ; his head with labour , and his heart with love : his head with labour in the work of the ministry . i●… done aright , it is a work fitter for angels than for men●… it is our work to open the oracles of god , even thos●… sacred profound things that the angels search into and if god did not help us , we might soon sink under the weight of such a burden : and as a minister's head is exercised with labour , so his heart is exercised with love , and it is hard to say which of the two exceeds : his labour or his love. thus is it here in the text , my dearly beloved : in these words , we have saint paul laying siege to these corinthians , and labouring to make a happy victory , to conquer them with kindness , dearly beloved . saint paul's heart was the spring of love , his lips were the pipe , the corinthians were the cistern into which this spring did run . this holy apostle was a mirror and pattern of love , towards the sinning paul's tears did drop towards the praying corinthians , his love did burn : holy panl was a seraphin , his heart did burn in a flame of affection to his people : how many passages do we find scattered in his epistles ? he tells this people , which sometimes he did write to , and sometimes he preached to , he looked after their souls more then their silver , cor. . . we seek not yours but you : as a tender nurse cherisheth her chlld with the breast , so saint paul gave his people the breast-milk of the word , in thes. . . this man of god did not only bestow a sermon upon his people , but was willing to impart his very soul to them , if it might save theirs , thes. . . we were willing to have imparted to you our own souls , because you are dear unto us : such was saint paul's affection to his people , that without a complement he loved them more then his life , phil. . . and if i be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith , i rejoyce with you all : that is , as if he had said , if it be so that my blood be poured forth as a sacrifice , if my death may be any way serviceable unto you , if it may help forward the strengthening and confirming of your faith , i am willing to die , i rejoyce to do it : so full of affections was this apostle , that he could not choose but love his people , though the more he did love , the less he should be loved : in corinth . . . oh how did paul sweeten all his sermons with love , in cor. . . if he reproved sin , yet he was angry in love ; he dipt the pill in sugar , gal. . , , . how turn ye again to weak and beggarly elements ! you observe dayes , and months , and years ; i am afraid of you , lest i have bestowed upon you labour in vain ; brethren , i beseech you , be as i am . see how saint paul chides their sins , and yet at the same time courts their souls : no sooner did he la●…ce the wound , but presently he poured in wine and oyl into it : so did paul love his people , that he would not justly give any offence to the weakest believer . cor. . . if meat make my brother to offend , i will never eat flesh more whilst the world standeth . paul was like some tender mother , who forbears to eat those meats that she might , for fear of hurting the child that she gives suck to . thus you see he was a spiritual father made up of love : and surely , my brethren , this affection in some degree is in all the true ministers of jesus christ , they are full of sympathy and bowels unto those over whom the holy ghost hath made them overseers . i shall only glance at the reasons , why it will be thus , and why it should be thus , that such flaming affections there should be in all christs ministers to their people . it will be thus for these two reasons briefly . first , from that principle within that teacheth love. grace doth not fire the heart with passion , but with compassion . grace in the heart of a minister files-off that ruggedness that is in his spirit , making him loving and courteous . paul once breathed out persecution : but when grace came , this bramble was turned into a spiritual vine , twisting himself about the souls of his people with loving embraces . secondly , there will be this ardent love in a minister heart , from that spiritual relation that is between him and his people : he is a spiritual father : and shall we think him to be without bowels ! cor. . . though you have ten thousand instructors , yet have you not many fathers ; for in christ iesus i have begotten you through the gospel . some he begets unto christ , others he builds up in christ. doth not a father provide chearfully for his children ? can a father see bread taken from his childe and not have his heart affected with it ? is it not a grief to a parent to see his child put out to a dry nurse ? secondly , there should be this ardent love and affection in all gods ministers for this reason , because this is the liveliest way to do most good : knotty and stubborn hearts will soonest be wrought upon with kindness . the fire melteth the hardest metall ; the fire of love with gods blessing will melt the most obdurate ●…inner . a boanerges , a son of consolation , who comes in the spirit of love and meeknesse , is the fittest to do a piece of gospel-chirurgery , to restore and put such an one in joynt again that is overtaken with a fault . gal. . . restore such a one with the spirit of love and weaknesse . thus much in short for the doctrinal part . give me leave now to make some application . and first , here are several inferences that may be drawn from this : as first , see here the right character of a gospel-minister : he is full of love , he exhorts , he comforts , he reproves , and all in love ; he is never angry with his people , but because they will not be saved ? how loth is a minister of christ to see precious souls , like so many jewels , cast over-board into the dead sea of hell ? a conscientious minister would count it an unhappy gain , to gain the world and lose the souls of his people : he saith , as the king of sodome to abraham , give me the persons , and take thou the goods , gen. . . the second branch of information is this ; are true gospel-ministers so full of love ? then how sad is it to have such ministers put upon a people as have no love to souls ? the work of the ministry , it is a labour of love : oh how sad is it to have such in the ministry , that can neither labour nor love ? that are such as are without bowels , that look more at tyths then at souls ? it must needs be sad with a people in any part of the world to have such ministers set over them , as either poyson them with error , or do what in them lies to damn them by their wicked example : how can the devil reprove sin ? how can the minister cry out in the pulpit against drunkenness , that will himself be drunk ? rom. . . thou that teachest , a man should not steal , dost thou steal ? thou that sayest , a man oughtnot to commit adultcry , do●…st thou commit adultery ? we read that the snuffers of the tabernacle were to be made of pure gold , exod. . . those who by their calling are to reprove and snuff off the sins of others , they should be pure gold , holy persons . in the law god did appoint the lip of the leper should be covered ; he ought to have his lip covered , he should not be permitted to speak the oracles of god , who though he be by office an angel , yet by life is a leper . thirdly , see from hence the happiness of a minister who is placed among such a people as give him abundant cause of love : how happy is he that can say to his people from his heart , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 my dearly beloved ! and here let me speak by way of encouragement to you of this parish . i find st. paul commending the good he saw in his people , thess. . , we are bound to thank god alwayes for you , beloved , because your faith grows exceedingly . here paul is commending his people . in imitation of this apostle , let me at this time speak a commendatory word to you ; i have exercised my ministry now among you for almost sixteen years , and i rejoice and bless god that i cannot say , the more i love you , the less i am loved ; i have received many signal demonstrations of love from you : though other parishees have exceeded you for number of houses , yet i think not for strength of affection . i have with much comfort observed your reverent attention to the word preached ; you rejoiced in this light not for a season , but to this day : i have observed your zeal against error , and , as much as could be expected in a critical time , your unity and amity : this is your honour , and if for the future there should be any interruption made in my ministry among you , though i should not be permitted to preach to you , yet i shall not cease to love you , & to pray for you : but why should there be an interruption made ? where is the crime ? some indeed say , that we are disloyal and seditious ? beloved , what my actings and sufferings for his majesty have been , is known not to a few of you : but however , we must go to heaven through good report , and through bad report : and it is well , if we can get to glory , though we pass through the pikes . i shall endeavour that i may still approve the sincerity of my love to you . i will not promise that i shall still preach among you , nor will i say that i shall not ; i desire to be guided by the silver-thread of gods word , and of gods providence : my heart is toward you : there is , you know , an expression in the late act , that we shall be now shortly as if we were naturally dead ; and if i must die , let me leave some legacy with you before i go from you : i cannot but give you some counsel and advice for your souls , and i hope there is no hurt in that : there are , my beloved , these twenty directions , that i desire you to take special notice of , which i would leave as advice and counsel with you about your souls . first , i beseech you , keep your constant hours every day with god : the godly man is a man set apar●… , psal. , . not only because god hath set him apart by election , but because he hath set himself a part by devotion . give god the aur●…rae filium , begin the day with god , visit god in the morning before you make any others visits : wind up your hearts toward heaven in the morning , and they will go the better all the day after . o turn your closets into temples : read the scriptures : the two testaments are the two lips by which god speaks to us ; these will make you wise unto salvation : the scripture is both a glass to shew you your spots , and a laver to wash them away : besiege heaven every day with prayer : thus perfume your houses , and keep a constant intercourse with heaven . secondly , get good books into your houses : when you have not the spring near to you , then get water into your cistern ; so when you have not that wholesome preaching that you desire , good books are cisterns that hold the waters of life in them to refresh you . when davids natural heat was taken away , they covered him with warm clothes , kings . so when you find a chilness upon your souls , and that your former heat begins to abate , ply your selves with warm clothes ; get those good books that may acquaint you with such truths as may warm and affect your hearts . thirdly , have a care of your company : take heed of unnecessary familiarity with sinners : we cannot catch health from another , but we may soon catch a disease : the disease of sin is very catching : i would be as fraid of coming among the wicked , as among those that have the plague , psal . . they were mingled with the heathen and learned their works : if we cannot make others better , let us have a care that they make not us worse . lot was was a miracle , he kept fresh in sodomes salt-water . my beloved , take heed of the occasions of sin : evil company is an occasion of sin . the nazarites in the old law , as they might drink no wine , so they were forbidden grapes , whereof the wine was made , as you read in numb . . to teach us , that all occasions of sin must be avoided : evil company is , ●…ellus animarum , the devils draw-net , by which he draws millions to hell : how many families and how many souls have been ruined and undone in this city by evil company ? many there are that go from a playhous to a whorehous , & from a tavern to tyburn . fourthly , have a care whom ye hear ; it is our saviour christs counsel , mat. . . beware of false prophets , that come to you in sheeps cloathing , but inwardly are ravening wolves . let me tell you , the devil hath his ministers as well as christ : rev. . . the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman : that is , as the learned exponnd it , satan by his ministers and emissaries cast out the flood of arrian doctrine to drown the church . there are some , who by the subtilty of their wit have learned the art to mix error with truth , and to give poyson in a golden cup. take heed , who you hear , and how you hear ; be like those noble beroeans , that searched the scriptures whether the things that they preached were so or not , acts . . your ears must not be like spunges that suck in puddle-water , as wel as wine ; but your ears must be like a fan , that fans out the chaffe , but retains the pure wheat : you must be like those in the parable , mat. . . that gathered the good fish into vessels , but cast the bad away . the saints are called virgins for their wisdom : they will not let every one defile their souls with error ; they have a judicious ear , and a critical palate , that can distinguish betwixt truth and error , and put a difference betwixt meat of gods sending , and the devils cooking . fifthly , study sincerity , psal. . . behold thou desirest truth in the inward part : be what you seem to be : be not like rowers in a barge , that look one way and row another : do not look heaven-ward by your profession , and row hel-ward by your conversation : do not pretend to love god , and not love sin : simulata sanctitas , duplicata iniquitas : counterfeit piety is double iniquity . let your hearts be upright with god : the plainer the diamond is , the richer it is ; and the more plain the heart is , the more doth god value this jewel : a little rusty gold is far better then a great deal of bright brasse : a little true grace , though rusted over with many infirmities , is better then all the glistering shews of hypocrites : a sincere heart is gods currant coin , & he will give it grains of allowance . sixthly , as you love your souls , be not strangers to your selves ; be much and often in the work of self-examination ; among all the books that you read , turn over the book of your own heart ; look into the book of conscience , see what is written there : psal. . . i communed with mine own heart : set up a judgment-seat in your own souls ; examine whether you have grace or not : prove whether you are in the faith : be as much afraid of a painted holiness as you would be afraid of going to a painted heaven : do not think your selves good , because others think so : let the word be the touch-stone , by which you try your hearts : let the word be the looking glass , by which you judge of the complexion of your souls : for want of this self-searching , many live known to others , and die unknown to themselves . seventhly , keep up your spiritual watch , mat. . . what i say unto you i say unto all , watch : if it were the last word i should speak , it should be this word , watch . o what need hath a christian to be ever upon his watch ! the heart is a subtle piece , and will be stealing out to vanity , and if we are not careful it will decoy us into sin : we have a special eye upon such persons as we suspect : thy heart is a supicious person : o have an eye upon it , watch it continually : it is a bosom-traytor . iob set a watch before his eyes ▪ iob . . we must every day keep sentinel : sleep not upon your guard : our sleeping time is the devils tempting time : let not your watch-candle go out . eightly , you that are the people of god , do you often associate together , mal. . . they that feared the lord , spake often one to another . christs doves should flock together : one christian will help to heat another : a single coal of juniper will soon die ; but many coals put together , will keep life one in another . conference sometimes may do as much good as preaching : one christian by good discourse drops holy oyl upon another , that makes the lamp of his grace to shine the brighter . it is great wisdom to keep up the trade in a corporation . christians by meeting often together , setting good discourse on foot , keep up the trade of godliness , that else would decay and soon be lost . is not the communion of saints an article in our creed ? do not then live so asunder , as if thìs article were blotted out . the naturalists observe there is a sympathy in plants ; they say , some plants bear better when they grow near other plants , as the vine and the elm , the olive and the myrtle , thrive best when they grow together : it is true in religion , the saints are trees of righteousness , that thrive best in godliness when they grow together . ninthly , get your hearts screwed up above the world ; set your affections on things above , col. . . we may see the face of the moon in the water , but the moon is fixed above in the firmament : so though a christian walks here below , yet his heart should be fixed above in heaven : in heaven there is our best kindred , and purest joy , our mansion-house ; o let our hearts be above : it is the best and the sweetest kind , of life : the higher the birds flies , the sweeter it sings : and the higher the heart is raised above the world , the sweeter joy it hath . the eagle that flies in the air , is not stung by the serpent : those whose hearts are elevated above the lower region of this world , are not stung with the vexations and disquietments that others are , but are full of joy and contentment . . trade much in the promises : the promises are great supports to faith ; faith lives in a promise as the fish lives in the water : the promises are both comforting and quickning : they are mitralia evangelii , the very breasts of the gospel : as the child by sucking the breasts gets strength ; so faith by sucking the breasts of a promise gets strength and revives . the promises of god are bladders to keep us from sinking when we come into the waters of affliction : the promises are sweet clusters of grapes that grow upon christ the true vine : o trade much in the promises : there is no condition that you can be in , but you have a promise : the promises are like manna , that sute themselves to every christians palate . . all you that hear me , live in a calling . ierome gave his friend this advice , to be ever well employed , that when the devil came to tempt him , he might finde him working in his vineyard . sure i am , the same god that saith , remember the sabbath-day to keep it holy ; saith also , six dayes shalt thou labour . the great god never sealed any warrants to idleness : an idle professour is the shame of his profession , thess. . . i hear there are some , sayes the apostle , that work not at all , but are busi-bodies : such we exhort , by our lord iesus christ , that with quietness they work . solon made laws to punish idleness ; and seneca saith of an idle man , spiritum trahit , non vivit , he draws his breath , but doth not live ; he is not useful : but a good christian acts within the spere of his own calling . . let me intreat you to joyn the first and the second table together : piety to god , and equity to your neigbour : the apostle puts these two words together in one verse , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , titus . . that we should live righteously and godly : righteously , that relates to morality ; godly , that relates to piety and sanctity : alwayes remember this , every command hath the same divine stamp and authority as another command hath . i would try a moral man by the duties of the first table , and i would try a professor by the duties of the second table : some pretend faith , but have no works ; others have works , but they have no faith : some pretend zeal for god , but are not just in their dealings ; others are just in their dealings , but have not one spark of zeal for god. if you would go to heaven , you must turn both sides of the table , the first and second table ; joyn piety and morality together : as we blame the papists for blotting out the second commandment , let not the papists blame us for leaving out the second table . . joyn the serpent and the dove together , innocency and prudence , mat. . . be wise as serpents , and harmless as doves . we must have innocency with our wisdom , else our wisdom is but craftiness ; and we must have wisdom with our innocency , else our innocency is but weakness : we must have the harmlesness of the dove , that we may not wrong others ; and we must have the prudence of the serpent , that others may not abuse and circumvent us . not to wrong the truth by silence , here is the innocency of the dove ; not to betray our selves by rashness , here 's the wisdom of the serpent : how happy is it , where these two are united , the dove and the serpent ? the dove without the serpent is folly , and the serpent without the dove is impiety . . be more afraid of sin than of suffering : a man may be afflicted , and yet have the love of god ; but he cannot sin , but presently god is angry : sin eclipses the light of gods countenance ; in suffering , the conscience may be quiet . when the hail beats upon the tiles , there may be musick in the house ; and when there is suffering in the body , there may be peace and musick in the conscience ; but when a man sinneth wilfully and presumptuous●…y , he loseth all his peace . spira abjured his faith , and he became a terrour to himself , he could not endure himself ; he professed he thought cain and iudas in hell did not feel those terrors and horrors that he felt . he that will commit sin to prevent suffering , is like a man that lets his head be wounded , to save his shield and his helmet . . take heed of idolatry : in ioh. . . little children , keep your selves from idols . idolatry is an image of jealousie to provoke god , it breaks the mariage-knot asunder , and makes the lord disclaim his interest in a people : what kind of religion is popery ? it is the mother of many monsters . what soul-damning doctrines doth it hold forth , as the meriting of salvation by good works , the giving of pardons , the worshipping of angels , popish indulgencies , purgatory , and the like ? it is a soul-damning religion , it is the breeder of ignorance , uncleanness , and murder ; the popish religion is not defended by strength of argumenr , but by force of arms ; keep your selves from idols , and take heed of superstition . that is the gentleman-usher to popery . . think not the worse of godliness because it is reproached and persecuted : wicked men being stirred up by the devil , do maliciously reproach the ways of god ; such were iulian and lucian : though wicked men would be godly on their death-beds , yet in the time of their life they revile and hate godliness ; but think not you the worse of religion because it is reproached by the wicked . suppose a virgin should be reproached for her chastity , yet chastity is never the worse : if a blind man ●…eer the sun , the sun is never the less bright . holiness is a beautiful and glorious thing ; it is the angels glory , and shall we be ashamed of that which makes us like the angels ? there is a time coming when wicked men would be glad of some of that holiness that now they despise ; but they shall be as far then from obtaining it , as they are now from desiring it . . think not the better of sin , because it is in fashion ; think not the better of impiety and ungodliness because most walk in those crooked wayes . multitude is a foolish argument : multitude doth not argue the goodness of a thing ; the devils name is legion , that signifieth a multitude . hell-road is this day full of travellers ; esteem not the better of sin because most go this way ; do we think the better of the plague because it is common ? the plea of a multitude will not hold at gods bar ; when god shall ask you , why did you prophane my sabbath , why were you drunk , why did you break your oaths ? to say then , lord , because most men did so , will be but a poor plea : god will say to you , then seeing you have sinned with the multitude , you shall now go to hell with the multitude . i beseech you as you tender your souls , walk antipodes to the corruptions of the times ; if you are living fish , swim against the stream ; dead fish swim down the stream . ephes. . . have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness , but rather reprove them . . in the business of religion , serve god with all your might , eccl. . . whatsoever thy hand findeth to do , do it with thy might ; for there is no work or device in the grave whither thou goest . this is an argument why we should do all we can for god , serve him with all our strength , because the grave is very near , and there is no praying , no repenting in the grave ; our time is but small , and therefore our zeal for god should be great . david danced with all his might before the ark , and so should we act vigorously for god in the sphere of obedience . rom. . . fervent in spirit , serving the lord. take heed of a dull lazy temper in gods service ; you must not only say a prayer , or read a prayer , but you must pour out your soul in prayer ; not only love god , but be sick of love to god. god in the old law would have the coals put to the incense , lev. . . & why so ? to typifie that the heart must be inflamed in the worship of god ; your prayers must go up with a flame of devotion . i confess hell will be taken without a storm , you may jump into hell with ease ; but it is all up hill to heaven , and therefore you must put forth all your might , mat. . . the violent take heaven by force . heaven is not taken but by storm : do you no see men zealous and very active for the devil , and for their lusts ? and shall they take pains for hell , and will not you take pains for heaven ? . do all the good you can , while you live , to others . god hath made every creature useful for us ; the sun hath not its light for it self , but for us ; the fountain runs freely , and so does the myrrhe drop from the tree ; every creature doth , as it were , deny it self for us ; the beast gives us its labour , the bird gives us its musick , and the silk-worm its silk : now hath god made every thing useful for us ? and shall not we be useful one for the good of another ? o labour to be helpful to the souls of others , and to supply the wants of others : jesus christ was a publique blessing in the world , he went about doing good ; we ate all members of the body politick ; nay , are we not members of the body mystical , and shall not every member be helpful for the good of the body ? that is a dead member that doth not communicate to the good of the body . o labour to be useful to others while you live , that so when you die ▪ there may be a miss of you ; many live so unfruitfully , that truly their life is scarce worth a prayer , nor their death scarce worth a tear . . every day spend some thoughts upon eternity ▪ o eternity , eternity ! all of us here are ere long , it may be some of us within a few days or hours , to lanch forth into the ocean of eternity . eternity is status interminabilis , sayes roetius ; no prospective-glass can see to the end of eternity . eternity is a sum that can never be numbred , a line that can never be measured ; eternity is a condition of everlasting m sery or everlasting happiness . if you are godly , then shall you be for ever happy , you shall be alwayes sunning your selves in the light of gods countenance ; if you are wicked , you shall be alwayes miserable , ever lying in the scalding furnace of the wrath of the almighty . eternity to the godly is a day that hath no sun-setting ; eternity to the wicked is a night that hath no sun-rising . o , i beseech you my brethren , every day spend some time upon the thoughts of eternity . the serious thoughts of an eternal condition would be a great means to promote holiness . . the thoughts of eternity would make us very serious about our souls . o my soul , thou art shortly to flie into eternity , a condition that can never be reversed or altered ; how serious would this make us about our heaven-born souls ? zeuxes being once asked why he was so long in drawing a picture ; answered , aeternitati pingo , i am now painting for eternity . oh how fervently would that man pray , that thinks he is praying for eternity . oh how accurately and circumspectly would that man live , that thinks , upon this moment hangs eternity . . the thoughts of eternity would make us sleight and contemn all the things of this world . what is the world ●…o him that hath eternity alwayes in his eye ? did we ●…hink seriously and solemnly of eternity , we should never over-value the comforts of the world , nor over-grieve the crosses of the world . . we should not over-value the comforts of the world . worldly comforts are very sweet , but they are very swift , they are soon gone ; the pleasures of the world are but for a season ; just like noah's dove that brought an olive branch in her mouth , but she had wings , and so did presently flie from the ark ; so are all outward comforts , they bring an olive branch , but they have wings too , with which they flie away . . the thoughts of eternity would make us not to over-grieve the crosses and sufferings of the world . what are these sufferings to eternity ? our sufferings sayes the apostle , are but for a while , pet. . . what are all the sufferings we can undergo in the world , t●… eternity ? affliction may be lasting , but it is not everlasting . our sufferings here are not worthy to be compared to an eternal weight of glory . and thus , my beloved , i have given you these twenty directions for your precious souls : i beseech yo●… treasure them up as so many jewels in the cabinet o●… your breast : did you carry these directions about you●…●…y would be a most excellent antidote to keep yo●… from sin , and an excellent means to preserve the zeal 〈◊〉 piety flaming upon the altar of your hearts . i have many things yet to say to you , but i know no●… whether god will give me another opportunity ; 〈◊〉 strength is now almost gone : i beseech you , let thes●… things which i have spoken , make deep impressions upon all your souls . consider what hath been said , and th●… lord give you understanding in all things . mr. watson's sermon ▪ at st. clements . isaiah . , . say to the righteous , it shall be well with him ; for they shall eat the fruit of their doings . wo unto the wicked , it shall be ill with him ; for the reward of his hands shall be given him . this text is like to israels pillar of cloud , it hath a light side and a dark side ; it hath a light side to the godly , say to the righteous , it shall be well with him : and it hath a dark side to the wicked , it shall be ill with him . both you see are rewarded , both the righteous and the wicked ; but there 's a vast difference , the one hath a reward of mercy , and the other a reward of justice . i shall begin with the first of these , say ye to the righteous , it shall be well with him . this scripture was written in a very sad and calamitous time , as you may read in the beginning of the chapter , the mighty man , the man of war doth cease , the prudent and the ancient , both the iudge and the prophet shall be taken away . this was a very sad time with the church of god in ierusalem ; if the judge be taken away , where will there be any equity ? and , if the prophet be taken away , where will there be any piety ? the whole body politick was now running to ruine , and almost in the rubbish : now in this sad juncture of time , god would have this text to be written ; and it is , methinks , like a rain-bow in the clouds . god would have his people comforted in the midst of all these afflictions ; say ye to the righteous , it shall be well with him . the proposition that lies in the words , is this : that however things go in the world , it shall be 〈◊〉 with the righteous . this is an oracle from gods own mouth ; and therefore we are not to question or dispute it ; say y●… to the righteous , it shall be well with him ; i might multiply scriptures for the proof of this , but i shall instance but in one , eccles. . . surely , i know that it shall be well with them that fear god. it is a golden maxim , not to be disputed ; i know it shall go well with them that fear god , for the illustration of this , consider two things ; first , what is meant here by the righteous man. secondly , why , however things go , it shall be well with him . first , who is meant here by the righteous man. there is a threefold righteousness . first , a legal righteousness , and so adam in this sense was said to be righteous , when he did wear the robe of innocency ; adam's heart did agree with the law of god exactly , as a well made dial goes with the sun. but this righteousness is lost and forfeited . secondly , there is a moral righteousness , and thus he is said to be righteous , who is , adorned with moral vertues , that is prudent , just , temperate , and the like . thirdly , there is an evangelical righteousness , an●… that is meant here . and this evangelical righteousness is twofold : a righteousness by imputation , and a righteousness by implantation . first , there is a righteousness by imputation , and that is , when christs righteousness is made over to us ; an●… this righteousness , beloved , is as truly ours to justifie 〈◊〉 as it is christs , to bestow upon us . secondly , there is a righteousness by implantation , which is nothing else but gods infusing of the seed and habits of grace into the heart , the planting of holiness in a man , and making him partaker of the divine nature : now this is to be righteous in the sight of god , to have a righteousness of imputation , and a righteousness of implantation . and so much for the first thing . the second thing is to shew you why , however things go in the world , it shall be well with this righteous man ; and it must needs be thus , for two reasons . first , because he that is righteous , hath his greatest evil removed , his sin is pardoned ; and therefore it must needs be well with him . sin is a thorn in a man's conscience ; now when this thorn is pluckt out in forgiveness and remission , then is it well with that man. forgiveness of sin , in scripture , is called , the lifting off of sin ; so it is in the hebrew , iob . lord why dost thou not lift off my sin ? it is a metaphor taken from a weary man that goes under a burthen , ready to sink under it , and another man comes and lifts off this burthen ; so doth the great god , when the burthen of sin is ready to sink the conscience , gods lifteth off this burthen from the conscience , and lays it upon christs shoulders , and he carries it ; now he that hath his burthen thus carryed , it is well for him , however things go . pardon and forgiveness of sin it is a crowning blessing , it is a jewel in a believers crown : pardon of sin is a multiplying mercy , it brings a great many mercies along with it ; whom god pardons , he adopts ; whom god pardons , he invests with holiness and with glory . pardon of sin is such a mercy , that it is enough to make a sick man well , isa. . . the inhabitants shall not say , they are sick , the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity . the sense of pardon takes away the sense of pain ; it must needs then be well with the righteous , his greatest evil is removed . secondly , however things go , it shall be well with the righteous , because god is his portion , psal. . . the lord is the portion of my inheritance , the lines are fallen to me in pleasant places . in god , all things are to be found ; and all that is in god , is engaged for the good of the righteous ; his power is his , to help him ; his wisdom is his , to teach him ; his spirit is his , to sanctifie him ; and his mercy is his , to save him . god is the righteous mans portion ; and can god give a greater gift to us , than to give himself to us ? god is a rich portion , the angels riches ; god is a safe and a sure portion , for his name is a strong tower. he is a portion that can never be spent , for he is infiniteness ; and he is a portion can never be lost ; for he is eternity ; thou art my portion for ever , psal. . . and surely , it is well with them that have god for their portion : is it not well with them that are happy ? why , if god be our portion ▪ we are happy , psal. . . happy is the people whose god is the lord. and so much for the doctrinal part . the application of this point may afford abundanc●… of comfort to every godly man , to every person fearing god in this congregation . god hath sent me this day with a commission to comfort you , o that i might drop in the oil of gladness into every broken and trouble●… sp●…rit ; say to the righteous , it shall be well with him : here'●… good news from heaven , however things are , yet still i●… is well with the righteous . but here 's a great question to be answered , how dot●… it appear that it is well with the righteous ? for we ofte●… see it is worst with him ; he is deprived of his comforts he is made the reproach of the world for christ , ye●… many times he loseth his life ? how then is it well wit●… the righteous ? i answer , yet still is it well with the righteous : thoug●… he meet with trouble in the world , and one wave rise●… upon the neck of another : yet is it well with the righteous , as appears in these following particulars : first , all the troubles that a righteous man meets with , turn to his good , and so it is well with him : that 's a famous scripture , ier. . . whom i have sent out of this place , into the land of the chaldeans , for their good . gods own israel were transported into babylon among their enemies , for their good . the troubles of the righteous are only a means to purge out their sins , and that 's for their good . i have read a story of one peleus , who running at another with a sword to kill him , by accident the sword only run into his impostume , and broke that . thus all the evils and troubles of the righteous , do but serve to cure them of the imposthume of pride , and to make them more humble . when the body of a saint is afflicted , his soul that revives and flourishes in grace ; like two lawrel trees that i have read of , that when one withered , the other flourished ; so , when the body is afflicted , yet grace flourishes . god doth distil out of the bitterest drugs , his glory and our salvation . that that the world looks upon as a punishment , that god makes medicinal , to heal the soul. well then may it be well with the righteous ; the rod of god upon a saint , is but only gods pencil , whereby he draws his image more lively upon the soul. god never stretcheth the strings of his viol , but to make the musick so much the sweeter . secondly , in the midst of , all the troubles that befal the righteous , yet still it is well with them , in regard of those inward heart-revivings that god gives them ; we see a godly man in misery ; but we see not his comforts ; we see his prison grates , but we hear not that sweet musick that he enjoys in his conscience . god sweetens to his people outward troubles with inward peace . it is the title that is given to god , cor. . . the god that comforteth them that are cast down . the bee can gather honey as well from the thi●…tle and bitter herb , as from the sweet flower : and a child of god can gather joy out of his sorrow ; out of the very carcass sometimes he fetcheth honey . when the body is in pain , the soul may be at ease , as when a mans head akes , yet his heart may be well ; thus it is well with the righteous , god gives him inward comforts that revive him , and sweeten his outward pain . . in times of calamity and trouble , yet still is it well with the righteous , because many times god hears his people in the time of trouble ; in a storm god will have a care of his jewels , he will hide them , and suffer them not to be carryed away ; and thus he makes good that scripture literally , psal. . . he shall cover thee with his feathers , and under his wings shalt thou trust , no evil shall touch thee . god oftentimes verifies this scripture literally , he makes his angels to be his peoples life-guard to hide them and to defend them . when a flood was coming on the world , god provided an ark to hide neah in ; when israel was carryed and transported into babylon , god hides ier●…my , and gives him his life for a prey , i●…r . . , . and in this sense the saints of god are called his hidden ones . psal. . . why so ? not only because they are hid in gods decree , and hid in christs wounds , but oftentimes god hides them in time of common danger and calamity ; they are hidden ones ; thus god reserved to himself seven thousand that had not bowed the knee to baal ; the prophet knew not of any , but god knew of seven thousand that he had hid ; and in this sense it is well with the righteous in time of publick misery . but you will say , sometimes it is worse than all this with them ; sometimes the righteous dye and perish , and are carryed away with a tempest ; how is it well with them then ? yes , yet still it is well with the righteous ; though their life be taken away , yet still it is well with them , and that in a two-fold sense . first , many times god takes away the righteous by death in great mercy ; he takes them away that they shall not see the miseries that are coming upon a land ; as virgil the heathen poet said , they were happy that dyed before their countrey , meaning , before they saw the ruins of their countrey . and truly many times god takes away his children in mercy , that they shall not see the miseries that are coming on a land ; you have a pregnant and clear scripture for this , king. . . he only of the house of jeroboam shall come to his grave ; it is spoken of a●…ijah his son , he only shall come to his grave , because in him there was found some good thing towards the lord god of israel . god would put this man into his grave betimes in mercy , because he should not see the evil that was coming upon the land. you have a parallel scripture to this , king. . v. ult . it is spoken of iosiah , i will gather thee to thy fathers , thou shalt be gathered to thy grave in peace , and thine eye shall not see the evil that i will bring upon this place . why , iosiah died in battel : how is it said then , that he went to his grave in peace ? the meaning is this , because iosiah was an holy man , he had made his peace with god , and so went to his grave in peace ; and because he should not see the evil approaching , therefore god gathered him to his grave in peace . ierome speaks thus of nepotian : itseems ierome lived to see some troubles before he died : meeting with some storms ; now ( said he ) how happy is my friend nepotian that sees not these troubles ? happy is he that is gotten 〈◊〉 of the storm , and is in the haven . thus luther died in mercy before the troubles of germany began to break forth . thus it is well with the righteous , though they do die ; god takes them away in mercy , that they may not see approaching evils . secondly , though the righteous do die , are taken away , and perish in astorm , yet is it well with them , because death cannot hurt them ; it can neither hurt their bodies , nor yet their souls ; the body is safe , it doth not perish , though it doth die ; the bodies of the saints are very precious dust in gods account ; the lord locks up these jewels in the grave , as in a cabinet ; the bodies of the saints lie mellowing and ripening in the grave , till a blessed time of resurrection : how precious is the dust of a believer ! though the world mind it not , yet 't is precious to god. the husbandman hath some corn in the barn , and other corn in his ground ; the corn in the ground is as precious to him as that in the barn : why , the bodies of the saints in the grave , are gods corn in the ground , and god makes a very precious account of this corn ; the bodies of the saints shall be more glorious and blessed than ever at the resurrection . tertullian says , the bodies shall be then corpora angelica ; the body shal be angelified , in regard of that beauty and lustre which shall be put upon it : as it is with a piece of silk , or cloth , that is died of a purple scarlet colour , it is made more bright and illustrious than it was before . thus it is with the bodies of the saints , they are dyed of a brighter colour at the resurrection , they are made like christs glorious body , phil. . . thus , shall it be well with the righteous in their bodies ; they shall not perish . secondly , at death it shall be well with the righteous , as to their souls . o it shall be a blessed time ; methinks it is with a saint at the time of death , just as it was with paul in his voyage to rome ; the ship did break into many pieces , but yet he got safe to shore ; so it is with a believer , though the ship of his body may be snap't and broken at death ; yet the passenger is safe , the soul gets safe to shore even to the heavenly ▪ ierusalem ; then surely it is well with the righteous at his death ; the day of a believer's death is the birth-day of his blessedness ; it is his ascension-day to heaven ; his death-day is his mariage-day with jesus christ ; faith doth but contract us here , but at death the nuptials shall be solemnized in glory ; and shall it not be well with the righteous ? they shall see god face to face : and says austin , ipse deus sufficit ad praemium . it will be heaven enough to have the ●…ight of god. the saints shall then enter into joy ; joy now enters into them here , but then they shall enter into joy ; they shall drink of that pure river that runs from god the ever lasting fountain . thus you see it shall go well with the righteous , however things go , though troubles come , though death it self come ; and therefore let those that are the people of god , comfort themselves with these words . to conclude this first point , what encouragement is this to all you that hear me now , to begin to be righteous ! this text may tempt us all to be godly . say to the righteous , it shall be well with him ; when things go never so ill with him ; yet still it shall be well with him : grant that all things are ill with you in your estate , in your relations ; yet then , if you are righteous , all things shall be well with you ; your pardon is sealed , you are an heir of gods promises , all things shall work for good ; you have god for your father , you have heaven in reversion for your inheritance ; and is it not well with you ? how may this make us all in love with godliness , how ▪ may this tempt us to be godly ? for if ever we would enjoy happiness , we must espouse holiness ; say to the righteous , it shall be well with him . and so much for the first proposition . the godly mans comfort in life and death . now if this will not prevail with men to make them leave their sins and become righteous . i must passe in a few words to the next branch of my text , to scare men out of their sins , to affright them out of their wickednesse : wo to the wicked , it shall be ill with him , for the reward of his hands shall be given him . this , my beloved , is ▪ the dark side of the cloud , and it may cause in every ▪ wicked man that hears me , a pa●…pitation and trembling at the heart , wo to the wicked , it shall be ill with him , and so the proposition is this : that when things seem to be well with wicked men , it shall be ill with them at last . though things seem to be well with the wicked , they have more then heart can wish , yet it shall be ill with them at last ; vae improbo ! wo to the wicked ; it shall be ill with them . in eccles. . . it shall not be well with the wicked , nor shall he prolong his days , that are as a shadow , because he feareth not god. the god of truth hath pronounced it , this is as true as god is true , it shall not be well with the wicked . now that i may a little clear this to you , i shall demonstrate it to you in these following particulars : . it is ill with the wicked in this life . . it is ill with him at his death . . it is ill with him at the day of judgement . . it is ill with him after the day of judgement . first , it is ill with the wicked in this life . there 's hardly a wicked man that hears me , that thinks so : when he hath the affluence and confluence of outward comforts , when he eats of the fat , and drinks of the sweet , he will hardly believe that minister that tells him it shall be ill with him ; yea , but it is ill with the wicked even in this life ; foris it not ill with that man that hath a curse , yea the curse of god , entailed upon him ? my text pronounceth a curse against the sinner , vae improbo , wo to the wicked : and can that man thrive that lives under a curse ? clouds of blood & wrath hang over the head of a wicked man ; he is heir to all the plagues that are written in the book of god ; all god's curses are the sinners portion , and if he dies in his sins , he is sure to have the portion paid him . woe to the wicked ; every bit of bread he eateth , he hath it with a curse , like poysoned bread given to a dog ; every drop of wine he drinks , he swallows down a curse with it . wo to the wicked , there is a curse in his cup , there is a curse on his table ; god hath said , wo to him . we read of belshazzar , dan. . , . that when he tasted the wine , he commanded to bring the gold and silver vessels taken out of the temple ; then they brought the gold and silver vessels , and drank wine , and praised the gods of gold and silver . he was very jovial : but in the midst of his cups and joyallity , wo to the wicked ; for in the same hour there came forth the fingers of a mans hand , and wrote over against the candlestick on the wall a curse and wo. wo to the wicked ; let a sinner live till he be a hundred years old , yet still he is accursed , esay . . though a sinner live a hundred years old , yet shall he die accursed ; his gray hairs have a curse upon them . secondly , it shall be ill with the wicked at the hour of death , & that in two respects ; death puts an end to all his comforts , and death is a beginning of all his miseries . first , death puts an end to a sinner's comforts . there shall be no more indulging of the flesh , and pampering of it ; no more cups of wine , and no more musick to be seen or heard then . in rev. . . & . the things that thy soul lusteth after , are departed from thee ; the voyce of the harpers , musicians and trumpeters shall be no more at all in thee ; it is spoken of the destruction of rome . thus may it be said of a wicked man at death , all joy and pleasure is now departed from thee ; no more shalt thou hear the voyce of the harp , organ , or trumpet : no more shall the sinner be cloathed in scarlet robes , or adorned with sparkling diamonds ; now , all oyl and balsome , all joy and gladness , at death shall cease and depart from the sinner . secondly , as death puts a period to a sinners mirth , so it layes a foundation for all his sorrows . usually before death doth close the eye of the sinners body , the eye of his conscience is first opened . every sin at the hour of death stands with a drawn sword in his hand : those sins that delighted the sinner formerly , now terrifie and affright him . all his joy and mirth is turned into sadness . as sometimes you have seen sugar lying in a damp place , dissolve and turn to water : thus all the sugarly joyes of wicked men , at the hour of death turn to water , even the water of tears and sorrow . thirdly , it shall be ill with a wicked man at the day of judgement , when he is cited before gods tribunal , when he shall leave courting his wickedness , and stand at gods barr to answer for it . you read of foelix , that when he heard paul speak of judgement , foelix trembled . iosephus observes that foelix was a wicked man ; and she that then lived with him , her name was drusilla , whom he had enticed away from her husband , and lived in sin with her : now when foelix heard paul speak of judgement , he trembled ; his conscience that check'd him for his sin . now , if foelix trembled at the hearing of judgment , what will sinners do when the day of judgment shall come ; when all mens secret sins shall be made manifest , when all their midnight wickedness shall be written upon their foreheads , as with the point of a diamond ? at the day of judgment , my beloved , there will be two things : . the legal tryal . . the sentence . . the legal tryal . god will call forth sinners by name , and say , stand forth , hear thy charge , let me see what thou canst answer to it ? what canst thou say for all thy sabbath-breaking ? for all thy drunkenness and perjury ? for all thy revenge and malice ? for all thy persecuting of my members ? what canst thou say for all these ? guilty or not guilty ? thou wretch darest not say , not guilty ; for have not i been an eye-witness of all thy wickedness ? do not the books agree , the book of thy conscience , and the book of my omniscience ? and canst thou plead , not guilty ? here the sinner will be amazed with horror , and run into desperation . . after this legal tryal , follows the sentence ; ite maledicti , go ye cursed ; what , ●…o from the presence of christ , in whose presence there is fulness of joy ! and go from christ with a curse ! that word depart , said st. chrysostome , is worse than the torments themselves . and , beloved , remember this ye that go on in a sin ; when once the sentence is past , it can never be reversed ; this is the most supreme court of judicature , from whence there is no appeal . here on earth , men can remove their cause from one court to another , from the common-law to the chancery ; but if once the sentence be past at this judgment-barr , there is no removing your cause this is the highest court , there is no appealing any where else . and thus you see it is ill with the wicked at the day of judgement . fourthly , it shall be ill with the wicked after the day of judgement . oh! then there is but one way , and they would be glad if they might not go that way ; but they must go that way even to prison , yea to hell . luke . , . in hell he lift up his eyes . hell is the very center of misery , the spirits of torments stilled out . the scripture tells us in hell there are three things : . darkness . . fire . . chains . . hell is called a place of darkness . in iude v. . to them is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever ▪ darkness , you know , is the most uncomfortable thing in the world : a man that goes in the dark trembles every step that he goes : hell is a black region ; there is nothing but blackness of darkness : it must needs be a dark place , where there shall be a separation from the light of gods presence . indeed austin thinks , that there shall be some little sulphureous light : but suppose there be , that light shall only serve the damned to behold the tragedy of their own misery , to see themselves tormented . . in hell there is fire ; it is called a ●…urning l●…k ; rev. . . whoso●… was not found written in the bock of life , was cast into the l●…ke of fire . you know , fire is the most torturing element , it makes the most dreadful impression upon the flesh . why , hell is a place of fire . it is disputed among some of the learned , what kind of fire it is : i wish we may never feel what kind of fire it is . austin , peter lumb●…rd , and others affirm , that it is a material fire , but far hotter than any culinary fire ; the fire on your hearths is but painted fire compared to this . but i rather think , the fire of the damned is partly material , and partly spiritual . partly material , to work upon the body ; and partly spiritual , which is the wrath of god to torment the soul : this is that l●…ke of burning fire , oh! who knows the power of gods anger ? who can dwell with these burnings ? it is intolerable to bear these scorchings , and it is impossible for the damned to escape them . . in hell there are chains of darkness : in the . ver . of the epistle of iude , those sinners that would not be bound by any law of god , shall have chains of darkness to bind them . but what is the meaning of this phrase , chains of darkness ? i suppose it may be this , to intimate to us , that the wicked in hell shall not have power to walk up and down ; which , perhaps , would be a little ease to them , though a very little : yea , but they shall not have so much as that little ease , but shall be chained , tyed , and staked fast with chains of darkness , that they shall not stir : and this is very terrible . suppose a man did always lie upon a down-bed , if he might not stir off the place , it would be very painful to him , though on a bed of down ; how terrible then will it be to the damned , that must lie under the scorchings of gods fury , chained down , and not be able to move ? and thus shall it be to the wicked . and to add to the torments of hell , there are two things which shew it shall be ill with the wicked , let them die when they will. . there is the worm . . there is the serpent . . there is the worm , ●…o torture the spirit ; and this is no other but the worm of conscience , mark . . where their worm never dies : how dreadful will it be to have this worm gnawing continually ! melancthon called it , a hellish fury . conscience will be just as if a worm full of poyson were gnawing the heart of a man : those sinners that would never hear the voice of conscience , shall for ever feel the worm of conscience . . there is the serpent , and that is the devil , called , the old serpent , revel . . as there is the biting of the worm , so there is the stinging of the serpent . the damned in hell shall be forced to behold the devil , that damned monster . i remember what anselm saith , i had rather endure all the torments of this life , than see the devil with bodily eyes : but this sight of the devil the wicked shall see whether they will or no ; and not only see , but shall feel the stingings of this old serpent . satan is full of rage against mankind , and he will shew no mercy ; as he puts forth all his subtilty in tempting men , so he puts forth all his cruelty in totmenting men . and this is not all ; there are two things more that aggravate the torments of hell , to shew that it shall be ill with the wicked . . these agonies , these hell-convu●…sions , shall be for ever . rev. . . the smoak of their torment ●…scended for ever and ever , and they shall have no rest day nor night . thus is it in hell ; they would die , but they cannot ; mors sin●… morte , the wicked shall be alwayes dying , yet never dead ; alwayes consuming , yet never consumed ; the smoak of their furnace ascends for ever and ever . oh! who can endure thus to be for ever on the wrack ; this word ever breaks the heart of the wicked : they think a sabbath long , and a sermon long , and a prayer long ; they cry out , when will these be over ? oh! how long then will it be to lie in hell-torments for ever and ever ? after the wicked have lain there millions of years , their torments will be as far from ending as they were the first hour they came there . . the damned in hell shall have none to pity them . it is some comfort and ease , to have friends pity us when we are on our sick beds , or under any affliction ; but the damned shal have none to pity them : mercy will not pity them , that is turned to fury : christ will not pity them , he is no more advocate for them : angels will not pity them , for they rejoyce to see the vengeance ; they insult and glory to see the justice of god executed upon them . oh! how sad is it to lie in the scalding furnace of gods wrath , and to have none to pity us ? gods bowels will be locked up , and his heart will be hardened to damned sinners ; then they shall call and god will laugh at them , prov. . . i will laugh at your calamity . hear this , all you that go on in sin , it will be ill with the wicked : o therefore turn from your sins , lest god tear you in pieces , a●…d there be now to deliver , or help you . for the application of this point . first , what a confounding word is this to all the wicked , that go on desperately in sin , that add drunkenness to thirst ? never was there such an inundation of wickedness , as there is now adayes : men sin , as if they would sin to spight god ; as if they would dare heaven to punish them : men sin so greedily , as if they were afraid , hell-gate would be shut up ere they could get thither . how many are there that sin manfully ? that go to hell stoutly in their wickednes ? as seneca speaks . these are in a sad condition . remember what the text saith , wo to the wicked , it shall be ill with them ; ill with them in life , in death and after death . a wicked man lives cursed , and dies damned . sinners are gods standing mark that he shoots at , and he never misseth the mark . you know what the scripture saith , there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth . it is a saying of latimer , that is very sad fare , where weeping is the first course , and gnashing of teeth is the second . but whence may this gnashing of the teeth come ? . it ariseth from the extremity of the torments that the damned suffer ; this makes them gnash their teeth with horrour , they are not able to bear it , and yet they know not how to avoid it . . the wicked gnash their teeth out of envy , to think that the godly are happy and blessed ; those whom they reproached , hated and persecuted , they are happy in glory , and they themselves are thrown down into hell ; this cuts them to the heart to think of it , and makes them gnash their teeth , luke . there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth , when you shall see abraham , and isaack , and iacob in the kingdom of god , and you your selves thrust out . and this is the first use , shewing the misery of a wicked ●…han ; if all the curses in the bible will make him miserable , he shall be miserable . god will make his arrows drunk with his bloud . secondly , take heed that none of you here be found in the number of the wicked : take heed of being of this black regiment : beware of the devils colours ; fight not under this banner : it shall be ill with the wicked ; the sinner and the furnace shall never ●…e parted . in a word , i beseech you take heed of those sins that bring to hell fire . there are , saith st. bernard , fi●…ry sins that bring men to hell fire . what are these fiery sin ? why , they are the fire of malice , the fire of passion , the fire of lust , the fire of concupiscence , and the fire of revenge : these fiery sins , bring men to fiery plagues , to hell fire . when you are tempted to any ●…in , think with your selves , how can i bear the lying in the fierceness of the wine-press of gods wrath for ever ? i have read a story of a virgi●… , that being tempted by a young man to commit folly ; sayes she to him , if you will grant me but one request , i will do what you desire . what is that ? said he . why , do but hold your finger one hour in this burning candle . no , he would not do that : said she to him , will not you for my s●…ke hold your finger one hour in the candle , and would you have me lay my soul burning in hell for ever , for the satisfying of your lust ? and thus she refuted that temptation . why , doth satan tempt you to wickedness ? hold up this text against the devil , as a shield to quench his fiery darts ; satan , it will go ill with the wicked ; if i embrace thy temptation , i must be under thy tormenting for ever . o therefore learn to be righteous , it shall be well with the righteous : take heed of living and dying in sin , it shall be ill with the wicked : the god of heaven hath said it . i will conclude all , with a saying of austin , sayes he , when a man hath been virtuous , the labour is gone , and the joy remains : when a man hath been wicked , the pleasure i●… gone , and the sting remaineth . dr. iacomb's prayer at st. martin's , ludgate . blessed god , thou art a god blessed for ever ; thou givest mercy to all returning and repenting sinners ; thou art worthy to be praised by all that draw ●…igh unto thee . thou hast vouchsafed to us one sabbath more , oh that we might all of us be in the spirit upon this lord's day ; that , whatever we do , we may do it in the strength of god , that we may offer spiritual sacrifices to god this day , through our mediator the lord iesus . it is a very great condescention , that thou shouldst suffer such as we are to come unto thee ▪ o lord , we are unclean , we are unclean ; from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot , we are overspread with the leprosie of sin ; all the faculties of our souls are defiled ; our understandings are darkned , our wills are corrupted : we have affections , but they are carnal ; we have hearts , but they are impure ; we have consciences , but they are seared . and as our inward man , so our lives are unholy ; as the fountain is , so is the stream : besides that our general guilt that we brought into the world , we are guilty of innumerable actual transgressions against thy holy law. we think , oh lord , there are not greater sinners in the world than we : our sins are attended with many aggravations . we have sinned against prayers , against vows , and promises ; we have had as much light shining before us , as any in the world have had : great is our unbelief . oh that we could ●…ay these things to our hearts ! we do r●…fuse to come to christ , we go about to establish a righteousness of our own , and neglect the righteousness of god by faith in iesus christ : how are our hearts glewed to the present things of this world ! oh what do we do for thy glory ! how u●…reformed are we under all the ways of god that he has taken to make us a holy people ! give us a sight of our sins ; oh lord , we confess , sometimes we do make some formal confession , but we do not find our hearts melted for sin as they should . oh take away from every one of us this heart of stone , and give a heart of flesh ; give us tender hearts , make us sensible of all our departing from thee . oh let us look upon him whom we have pierced , and let us mourn that the water of penitential sorrow may ●…low from us ; we are strangers to our selves ; we do not see what a hell there is in our natures ; oh how should we put our mouths in the dust , and loath our selves , if so be there might be hope ! oh lord , convince us of sin ; give us such a sight of sin as may make us fly to thee ; give us such a sight of our own guilt that may prepare us for the grace of god ; now we are stung with the fiery serpent , help us to come to iesus christ our hrazen serpent ; give us thy holy spirit , to bring us out of the state of nature ; oh let that god that made us creatures , make us new creatures ; oh lord , we are thine own work , but we are dead in tréspasses and sins ; give us grace , and speak a word to them that are dead : put out thine almighty power , and draw some sinner to christ this day : and those that have any breathings after thee , oh thou that gavest them that desire , carry on thine own work in them : where thou hast begun a good work ▪ carry it on : let sin , as the house of saul , grow weaker and weaker , and grace , as the house of david , grow stronger and stronger . oh increase our faith ; oh lord , in this time we do not only stand in need of grace , but of a great measure of grace ; oh help us by faith to relie upon god , that thou mayst help us at last . bless with us all thine , remember thy people from one end of the world unto the other ; thy people are very low ; this is a time of jacob's troubles ; the bush is burning every day , 〈◊〉 thou the hope of israel , and the saviour thereof , shew thy self in mercy to these nations we bless thee for all thy meroies , that thy judgements do not feize upon us every day , that thou dost not sweep us away , that thou dost not rain fire and brimstone on england , as thou didst on sodom ; our sins cry aloud to heaven for vengeance ; god is greatly provoked every day , and it is a miracle of patience that yet thou hast not destroyed us . god can pardon the sins of the nation at once , but we are not fit for pardon ; we d●… not humble our selves , oh lord , humble us . give repentance to england from the highest to the lowest , that we may return unto thee . we desire to bless thee , that our enemies have not had their wills over us ; they said , they would pursue , and overtake , and satisfie their lusts ; but god did blow upon them , and they did sink in the mighty waters ; and thou hast yet preserved thy church : we pray thee do not leave us , nor remove thy gospel , whatsoever thou dost . pour down the best of thy blessings upon thy servant and our soveraign , charles , by thy grace , of england , scotland , france , and ireland king : bless him with the blessings of heaven and earth ; make him a blessing to all of us : bless him in all his relations : the lords of the privy council : look on them that have desired an interest in our prayers : known to thee are all of them , know their souls in this time of adversity ; make their beds in their sickness ; give faith to them that complain of unbelief ; give the spirit of prayer to those that complain they cannot pray . be a counsellor to those that want counsel in their affairs either by sea or land , let thy blessing go with them whereever they go : spare the lives of children , if it be thy will. prepare us for thy good and holy word : let it be a savour of life unto life , and let it come with power unto us . oh let us hear it as thy word : n●…i as the word of a poor man , but as the word of god : and all for the lord christ his sake , for whom we bless thee : to whom with thee and the spirit of grace , be given glory and honour for evermore , amen . dr. iacomb's forenoon sermon . john . . and he that sent me , is with me : the father hath not left me alone : for i do alwayes those things that please him . these are the words of our blessed lord and saviour jesus christ ; they are spoken by himself , & they are spoken of himself ; though yet , in a sober and modest sense , they are applicable to all his members : that which christ here affirms , is , that the presence of god was alwayes with him ; and this is first propounded , he that sent me is with me ; and then it is amplified , and the father hath not left me alone : and then thirdly , the reason of this is annexed ; for i alwayes do those things that please him . i shall speak but very little of the words as they do refer to christ ; he tells us , his father was with him ; he did not leave him alone in all the troubles and difficulties that he met withal in the finishing the great work of man's redemption ; still god was with him : it is true , there was a time when christ was without the sensible manifestation of his father's presence , when he cried out , my god , my god , why hast thou forsaken me ? why , but yet even then in truth and in reality his father did not leave him ; for though he had not the evidences of his father's presence , yet he had the influences of his father's presence . it would take up much time to shew you how in all particulars the the father was present with christ : i will only speak this one word , and instance in this one thing ; god's assisting presence was alwayes with him , both in his active , and also in his passive obedience ; and indeed , he had that work to do , and those miseries to suffer , that , if god had left him , if he had not been mightily assisted by the divine nature , christ as meer man could neither have done , nor have suffered what he did ; but the father was with him , to support him ; isa. . . behold my servant whom i uphold . you shall find that christ did act faith upon this , in isa. . . the lord god will help me , therefore shall i not be confounded . ver. . the lord will help me . so to the same effect is psal. . . and you shall find this made good to him in the scriptures , in his greatest necessities . take a double instance . in the first place ▪ after he had been engaged in that combat with satan , you read of in matth. . ( the strongest combat or due●… that ever was fought ; wherein you have the prince of peace , and the prince of darkness ; the lion of the tribe of iudah , and the roaring lion that seeks how to devour ; both of them putting forth their utmost strength , and endeavouring to overcome each the other : now i say ) in this combat the father did not leave christ , but he helps him ; for he sends an angel for to minister unto him , mat. . . so in christ's bitter agony in the garden , just before his bitter passion and death upon the cross , the father did not leave him alone ; for he sent an angel unto him to strengthen him , mat. . . and so in several other places , and in several other things i might instance ; but i shall pass this by . i but now , why did the father thus stand by christ ? he gives you the reason of it in the text , because he alwayes did the things that pleased him : this i shall open in a double respect . first , christ's undertaking the work of our redemtion : it was very well pleasing unto his father , that poor lost und o●…e sinners should be brought back again unto god , and restored unto his love and favour : i say , the father was infinitely well-pleased with christ in this undertaking , isa. . . the pleasure of the lrrd shall prosper in his hand ; the pleasure of the lord , that is , the work of our redemption ; wherein god the father took great pleasure or delight ; therefore when christ was publiquely in ●…he eye of the world to enter upon this great work , the father sends him out with this witness , this is my beloved son , in whom i am well-pleased . he speaks not only of his well-pleasing to his person , but also to his well-pleasing as to his undertaking . secondly , as the work it self was pleasing unto god , so christ's managing of ●…his work was all along pleasing unto his father : and that doth appear in this , that christ in all things kept to his father's commission , and to his father's command : i say , in all things he kept to his father's commission ; he did nothing here upon earth , but what was within the compass of his commission ; for , saith he , in the verse before the text , i do nothing of my self , but as my father bids me . so also he acted in conformity to his father's will ; that was the rule and square by which christ ordered all his actions ; his eyes was still upon his father's will ; whatever he willed him to do , that he did ▪ whatever he willed him to suffer , that he suffered ; and thus he alwayes did the things that were pleasing to his father . but i do not insist further upon the words , in this reference ; for my design is to bring down the words unto our selves , to those that are the members of christ ; for there is the same disposition of heart in all believers to please god : in all things to please god , this was the frame and temper and carriage of christ : so it is the frame and temper of every true believer ; and this is a part of our likeness unto christ ; as you know there is a blessed resemblance and similitude between christ and his members ; they have the same spirit that christ had , only in a different proportion ; for he had it without measure ; they have the same grace as christ had for substance , though not for degree ; of his fulness we all have received grace for grace ; that is , as many interpret it , grace answerable unto grace : as the print in the wax , answers to the print in the seal ; and as face answers to face : so grace in believers , answers unto that grace that was in christ : they are to shew forth the vertues of christ , pet. . . now this was the grace , & vertue , and holiness of christ ; that he alwayes did the things that pleased his father . why this is in all believers , only with this difference ; it was actual performance in the one , it is but endeavour in the other ; it was perfect in the one ; it is sincere , but imperfect in the other . christ alwayes did the things that pleased god ; a believer endeavours alwayes to do the things that please god ; he doth not alwayes do so ; witness david in the case of his uncleanness , when he displeased the lord , as it is in sam. . the observation i intend to speak to , shall be this : they that please god , and endeavour alwayes to do the things that please god , such god will be with : such the father will not leave alone ; especially in times of suffering and trouble . ( for i will bring it to that case . ) indeed god will not leave such at any time ; for that promise is exceeding full , hebr. . . i will never leave thee , nor forsake thee . i do not know any one promise in all the bible , that is exprest with such an emphasis as that promise is ; such a multiplication of negatives in the original . but especially , god will not leave such in an afflicted and suffering condition . in the prosecuting of this , i will speak to four things : first , i will shew you when a man may be said to do the things that please god. . i will confirm the truth of the doctrine . . i will shew you in what respects god will be with them that desire to please him , in a suffering condition . . i will give you the grounds and reasons of it ; and then i shall come to the application . for the first : we please god in what we do , when we act , . in a suitableness to gods nature : and . in subjection to gods law : for pleasing of god lies in these two things . as that pleases a man which is suitable to his disposition , and is correspondent with his command : we do the things that please god , when we do that which god doth ; and when we do that which god commands : when we hate sin , as god hates sin ; when we are holy , as god is holy . you shall find it in col. . . that you may walk worthy of god , unto all well-pleasing . observe , this walking worthy of god , is walking suitably , or walking answerably to god. mat. . . bring forth fruit worthy of repentance ; or , bring forth fruit answerable to repentance ; so , to walk worthy of god , is to walk suitable to god , to his nature : now then , observe what follows , that you might walk worthy of god to all well-pleasing ; then we please god , when we walk suitably unto god : so also when we act in a blessed conformity to god , to his law ; for nothing can please the good god , but what is good : now the law being the measure and standard of all goodness , nothing can be good , but what bears conformity to this law , which is the will of god. god is well pleased , when his will is observed : as you know , you that are masters , your servants please you when they do your will. that inference of the apostle for this is very apposite , rom. . . so then , they that are in the flesh cannot please god. what is this same inference grounded upon ? because the carnal mind is enmity against god ; for it is not subject to the law of god , neither indeed can ; so that they that are in flesh cannot please god. why ? because there is that principle in them , as carries out a real enmity to the law and will of god ; it is as if the apostle had said , they will not be subject to gods will , nor obedient to gods commands ; there is a principle of enmity in them against these things , and so cannot please god : god is pleased when his will is fulfilled , and his commands observed ; to please god , is , in all things so to act , that whatever we do , we may express a likeness to gods nature , and a blessed subjection to gods revealed will ; and this is the first thing . a second thing is the proof of the doctrin ; they that thus please god , he will be with them , he will not leave them alone ; especially in an hour of tryal : for , my brethren , assure your selves of this , that which the father did for christ , he will do for all his members ; it is true , christs sufferings , being greater than ours possibly can be , and so his relation to god being higher than ours is ; ( he a son by eternal generation , we only by adoption ) he had the presence of god in a more glorious manner then we can expect ; but yet in our sphere according to the measure of our trial , and according to our capacity , we shall as really have the presence of god with us , as christ had with him ; that , as we are partakers of christs sufferings , so we also shall be partakers of christs support ; he that will be present with believers in heaven , as he is with christ , he will be present with believers here on earth , as he was with christ in all his forrows and sufferings . now for the confirming of this comfortable truth , i need not speak much : many promises you have in scrpture for it , and whatever god hath promised , he will certainly make good : turn to that one promise instead of many , isa. . . when thou passest through the water , i will be with thee ; through the rivers , they shall not overflow thee ; when thou walkest through the fire , thou shalt not be burnt , neither shall the flame kindle upon thee . and you shall find too that the saints have experienced it , in all ages god hath made it good . iacob was a man that met with many sharp trials , god exercised him with many troubles ; you shall find that when he was going to padan-aram , and was in a very afflicted condition , gen. . . god comes unto him , and saith , behold i am with thee , gen. . . his father frowned upon him , but the god of his fathers helped him : ioseph , ( gen. . . ) his master took him , put him into prison , a place where the kings prisoners were bound ; he was in the prison , but the lord was with ioseph . the prophet ieremy was thrown into a dungeon , but the scripture saith , god was with him . the three children were thrown into the furnace of fire , but there was a fourth with them , and that was the son of god , dan. . . paul when he was brought to his trial , all men forsook him , but god stood by him , tim. . . so the christians in all their sharp sufferings , cor. . . they were persecuted , but not forsaken ; persecuted by men , but not forsaken by god. god hath abundantly made out this , and doth so still , that he will never leave those alone in a time of suffering , who desire unfeignedly in all things to please god. now the third thing is to shew you in what respects god is with such : why this presence of god is an active presence : god is not meerly with his people , but he is with them in an active way : for this is a certain truth , god is working when the saints are suffering , i will open this in several particulars . first , god is with such in his teaching presence . gods correction , and gods instruction they usually go together ; and where there is the chastening of gods hand , there is also the teaching of gods spirit , psal. . . blessed is the man whom thou chastenest , and whom thou teachest . christ , though he were a son , yet learned obedience by the things that he suffered : god teacheth his upright ones many lessons in a time of adversity , which they never learned in a time of prosperity . for we are like idle boyes , or bad scholars , that learn best when the rod is over us : in a prosperous condition gods speaks to us , and we mind him not , ier. . . i spoke to thee in thy prosperity , but thou wouldest not hear : and this hath been thy manner from thy youth upwards : in prosperity god speaks once and twice , as iob speaks , but we will not hear ; but in the time of adversity god opens the ears : iudg. . . as gideon taught the men of succoth with thorns and briars : so doth god teach his people by afflictions : and oh the many blessed truths that they learn , when they are under the rod. when they want liberty , oh what a mercy is it to have liberty then ! when they have not ordinances as before , what a mercy is it to have ordinances then ! oh what an evill thing is it then for them , that they have departed from god ▪ god teaches them these things then : sin is never so bitter , mercy is never so sweet , as in a time of suffering : oh how vain and empty is the creature then ! oh how sweet is communion with god then ! i say , such things as these god teaches then . secondly , god is with such in his guiding presence , psal. . . thou wilt guide me with thy counsel , and afterwards receive me unto glory . when israel was in the wilderness , then they had the cloud to guide them . it is a blessed thing to live under the conduct and direction of the wise god : we never have so much of this as in an hour of travel : indeed the people of god never flie so much to god for direction as at such a time : as saul , when he was in distress , then he calls for the ephod . and thus it is with us under affliction ; then we look to god. thirdly , god is with them in his preserving and hiding presence : god is the saints hiding-place , their shield , their buckler , their rock , their defence : the scripture-expressions are many to hold out gods protection as to his people : god hath a constant care over them to preserve them and save them ; oh but especially in a time of trouble : as the mariner is never so careful of the ship as under a storm ; so god is never so careful of his church and people as under an affliction . ieremy is in the dungeon , now god saves him : daniel is in the den , now god saves him ; the three children in the fire , now god saves them : peter is in prison , now god saves him : the mother never tends the child so carefully , as when the child is sick ; and providence is never so tender to the people of god , as under a suffering condition . fourthly , god is with them in his comforting presence : cor. . . who comforteth us in all our tribulation : and usually we have most of consolation from god , when we have most of tribulation from without : as our sufferings do abound , so our consolation doth abound much more : the child that is beaten when it is well , is cherished when it is ill : when persons are sick , then you give them cordials : god gives the best of comforts in the worst of times : when the burden is heavy upon the back , then the peace of conscience is great within : the worse it is without , the better it is within : when men discover most of anger , then god discovers most of love . fifthly , god is with such in his strengthening presence , to enable them , and to support them , to undergo whatever he is pleased to call them unto : this is the way of our good and gracious god , he alwayes gives ou●… strength as he lays on affliction : he never leaves his children alone in this respect : he will be with them to support them : though it may be not to deliver , yet he will cerrainly be with them to support ; the rod and the staff they go together , psal. . . the afflicting rod , and the supporting staff : when one hand is upon the saint to afflict , then the other hand is underneath the saint to support : isai. . . i will uphold thee , i will strengthen thee ; fear not , i will help thee ; yea , i will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness . this david found , i cryed unto the lord in my distress , he answered me , and strengthened me in my inward man , psal. . . oh when men afflict , god supports : when men put the children of god into deep waters , then god takes them by the chin , and holds them up , that they shall not sink and be drowned . sixthly , god is with them in his sympathizing presence : oh he hath a tender sense of all the sorrows and calamities of his people ! oh it grieves him when they are grieved ! they that touch them , touch the apple of his eye : in all afflictions he is afflicted , saul , saul , why persecutest thou me ? every blow that is given to them , god bears a part of it himself : as they are sensible of gods dishonour , so god is sensible of their sufferings ; it pains him to the heart to see his children wronged and abused by a malicious world . seventhly , he is with them by his sanctifying presence : all their troubles are to do them good , and to make them good : and therefore the furnace it is but to refine them from their dross : the pruning hook of affliction , is but to cut off their luxuriant branches : god takes the sharp knife into his hand and lances them , but it is only to fetch out their corruption : by this shall the iniquity of iacob be purged , and this is all the fruit to take away his sin . eighthly , god is with them by his quickening presence , to make their prayers more servent , to make their requests to the throne of grace more importunate . the children of god cry most to him when they suffer most from men , and their prayers are best when their condition is worst : prayer shortens affliction , and affliction heightens prayer : god is with them to hear their prayers . oh the prayer of the afflicted that comes up to heaven ! god hears the sighs and g●…ones of his oppressed ones , their tears pierce the heavens , they call upon god in time of trouble , and pour out their sorrows before the lord , and he doth hear them . ninthly , god is with them by his raising presence , to raise up their hearts higher , to elevate their souls , and bring them more near to himself . gods people when they meet with troubles in the world , oh nothing so sweet unto them as the enjoyment of god : then no life so sweet unto them as the life of faith ; then they relish a sweetness in the promise : then every smile of god , oh how welcome is it ! then all the affections of their souls center in god , and run to god : as in winter time all the sap of the tree runs to the root : in summer time it spreads it self in the body , but in the winter it goes to the root : when a man is sick ▪ all the blood goes to the heart : so , in a suffering condition all the affections of the soul go to god. but now what are the reasons why god will not leave his people that thus desire to please him ? why , . god loves them , therefore he will not leave them ; persons we love , we cannot leave : especially when they are in a distressed condition ; and as god hath set his love upon them , so they have set their love upon god , they love god. psal. . . you h●…ve there an expression , because he hath set his love upon m●… , therefore i will deliver him : he shall call upon me , and i will answer him , i will be with him in trouble . god is ●… god of bowels , of great pity and compassion , and therefore he will not leave his people in a time of distress : you know bowels how they stand in you towards them that are in misery ; it goes to the heart of a mercifull man , to leave a person in misery : oh how great are the bowels and compassions of god is ephraim my son , is he a pleasant childe ? oh , my bowels are turned within me , i will have mercy on him . . such as please god shall have his presence under suffering , because now they need god most : if god will not leave his people as to temporal supplies , because they need such and such things ; they need meat , and they need cloathing : surely much more god will not leave his children as to spiritual supplies , under times of distress , because then they need god. oh what can a believer do , or what can a believer suffer when god leaves him ? his strength is in god , his support is in god , his comfort is in god ; his all is in god , and therefore if god now leave him , what will become of him ? he needs god at all times , but never so much as when his condition is dark and troubled what was sampson , that man of so great strength , when his hair was gone ? and what is a believer when his god is gone ? . god loves to see his people chearfull in a time of suffering ▪ and therefore he is with them ; he loves not that they should walk dejectedly . when god is present , paul and silas can sing in prison : the apostles can rejoyce , that god honours them to be reproached for him . when god is present , the people of god are not only che●…rfull under tribulation , but can glory : their cross is their crown : but if god be withdrawn , what can there be ? drooping hearts , and pensive sorrows . . god will not leave them , because they will not leave god : god will not leave them because they suffer for his sake : were they not tender of gods glory , and carefull to please him , they might be free from suffering as well as others ; but it is for gods sake they suffer ; for thy sake , we are killed like sheep all the day long . lastly ▪ it is thus , because god will make it appear to all the world , that he puts a difference between them that desire to please him , and other men : god hath a value for such : do but see how moses argues the case with god ( exod. . . ) and so on , where he comes to god with a great request , that god should shew him his way that he might know it : why saith god to him , my presence shall go with thee . moses said unto him , it is well thou art pleased to promise so great a mercy ; if thy presence go not with me , carry us not hence : for wherein shall it be known that i and thy people have found grace in thy sight ? is it not in this , that thou goest with us ? observe ▪ moses pleads with god , how his favour and love , and mercy , should be with them , unless he were present with them ? and so god , he walks with his people in trouble ; for how should the world see that god regarded them , and did favour them , unless he manifested his presence unto them in a time of trouble and affliction ? dr. iacomb's afternoon sermon . john . . and he that sent me , is with me : the father hath not left me alone : for i do alwayes those things that please him . i was upon these words in the morning ; having spoken something to them as they referre to christ who spake them here of himself : i then brought them down to his members , believers : and so propounded this observation from them , that whoever they are that desire to please god , to do the things that are pleasing to him , god will be with such , end the father will not leave such al●…ne especially in a time of suffering and trouble . in the prosecuting of this point i spake to four things , which i shal not now repeat , but come to the mark which i intend at present ; & that is to make some application . . let me endeavour to prevail with every one of you , so to carry your selves in your several places and capacities , that whatever you do , you may please god. it was a blessed testimony that was given of enoch , before his translation he had this testimony , that he pleased god. oh how happy will they be at the great day of judgement , who shall be singled out by christ , before angels and men ; and christ shall say of them , this was the man , or this was the woman that pleased god! there is a great deal of pleasing in the world , but there are 〈◊〉 very few that make this their business , to please god ; therefore i would have you shun that which is sinfull , and press after that which is matter of duty . . there are some that mind nothing but to please themselves , to promote their own interest , to love their own ease , to indulge themselves in their own carnal delights ; but they never mind the good of others , or the pleasing of god ; the apostle speaks of and against these , rom. . , , . . there are others that look no further than the pleasing of men ; if they can but keep fair with men , and shun the displeasure of men , that is all they aim at : but , my brethren , what a poor thing is it to please man , and displease god ? what a poor thing is it to have man to be our friend , and god to be our enemy ? to have the smiles of a poor dying perishing worm , and to lye under the frowns of the great god ? indeed , there is a good pleasing of men , to please them for their edification , as the apostle speaks , rom. . . and so the apostle speaks of himself , cor. . . even as i please all men in all things , that is , in all things that are of an indifferent nature , not simply civil , nor simply good , in all such things . this apostle was of a yielding and complying spirit , that he might thereby the better insinuate himself into the affections of men , and be more instrumental to the glory of god in the work of the gospel , cor. . . to the weak became i as weak , that i might gain the weak ; i am made all things to all men , that i might by all means save some ; and this i do for the gospel sake . but now in matter of duty , such things as are expresly determined by god , and so are either good or evil ; in these things the apostle would be no pleaser of men : if i should please men , i should not be the servant of christ , gal. . . it is good to please other●… to their edification ; but we must not please others to their own ruine and condemnation ; it is good to please men , when we can so do , and not grieve god. instead of pleasing men , let it be your constant care & best endeavour in all things to please god : my brethren , this is a duty of so great importance , that , was i now to take my leave of you , and should certainly know that i should never speak to you more ▪ as we are come very near to that ; for though i speak to you as a living man , yet i speak to you as a dying minister , this , i say , is a duty of that weight and importance , that i know not what to press upon you more material then this ; consult but two places of scripture , col. . for this cause we do not cease to pray for you : what was the thing the apostle in this his constant prayer did begg of god for them ? it was this , that they might please god ; and when he was taking his leave in the winding up of his epistle to the hebrews , now the god of peace that brought again from the dead our lord iesus , the great shepherd of the sheep , through the blood of the everlasting covenant , make you perfect in every good work to do his will , working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight . i need not go beyond the text for motives to stirre you up to these endeavours : for ( motive . ) first , consider what that god is which i would have you endeavour to please ; he is that god which made heaven and earth ; that god before whom all this world is as nothing , but as a little dust in the ballance , and as a drop of water to the bucket ; that god whom angels adore and worship ; that god who by a word from his mouth is able to bring the whole universe into nothing . will not you study to please this god ? but further consider what this god is to you : he is the fountain of your being ; he is the god of all your mercies ; he is your creator and soveraign ; he is your maker & law-giver . it is he that by a smile can make you happy , and by a frown can make you miserable ; it is he that hath heaven and hell at his disposal , who openeth and none can shut ▪ who shuts and none can open . he that must iudg every one of you either to eternal blessedness , or else ▪ to eternal torments ; it is he in whose hands your breath , your life , your soul , your all is ; will you not endeavour to please this god ? as the prophet argueth in point of fear , isa. . . who art thou that art afraid of a man that shall die , or of the son of man that shall be made as grass , and forgettest the lord thy maker ? oh poor creature , who ar●… thou that goest about to please a mortal dying man , and dost not go about to please the great god , thy creator and soveraign ! . consider that relation wherein you profess your selves to stand to god ; he is your master ; you his servants ; he is your father , you his children ; he is your lord , you his subjects : you know all that are in close relations , will study to please them that are above them , as the servant his master , the child his father , the subject his prince ; all persons that are in a state of inferiority , will study to please their superiours , especially when they do depend upon them . oh! how infinitely is god above those relations ! alas , there is but a very little distance betwixt you and your servants , and yet you expect they should please you ; will you not therefore please god ? especially considering your dependance upon him . . you shall not lose by pleasing god ; that is enough to put us upon this ; he that pleaseth god , profiteth himself ; in that very act wherein we please god , we profit our selves : men can do but little for us , and yet upon what they can do , we study to please them . let me open this in a few particulars : . if you will sincerely endeavour in all things to please god , god will give you a gracious return to all your prayers . oh what a mercy is this for a man to have his prayers answered by god! joh. . . whatever we ask , we receive of him , because we keep his commandements , and do those things that are pleasing in his sight . never expect that god should hear any prayers , if we do not endeavour to do those things that please him . . do you please god , and he will please you ; mercy pleaseth us , and duty pleaseth god. now when we please god in a way of duty , he will please us in a way of mercy : if we order our wayes so as to please god , he will order his wayes so as to please us . . great is the benefit of pleasing god , even as to men ; and this solomon sets before you , prov. . . when a mans wayes please the lord , he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him ; and he hath such another expression , prov. . . he that loveth pureness of heart , the king shall be his friend : the meaning of this scripture is this , when we keep close to god , and walk in complyance with his will , and make it our great design to please him , he will give us to find favour in the eyes of men : he that maketh god his friend , god will make that mans enemies to be his friends . men are possibly full of anger , revenge , and exasperation : be it so ; do you desire to please god ▪ god can turn their hearts towards you ; god can sweeten them in their spirits , and take away that venome that is in them : so you know he did in the case of esau to his brother iacob . . this is the way to heaven and happiness ; god will be pleased before the sinner shal be saved heb. . enoch before his translation had this testimony that he pleased god ; there is no way to heaven but by this way : the child pleaseth the father , and then the father giveth him the inheritance . so it is here . . let me return to the argument in the text ▪ god will never 〈◊〉 them alone , that desire sincerely to please him . 〈◊〉 this should be a very prevailing motive to you ▪ 〈◊〉 now ; please god , and he will never leave you , no not in a time of distress and trouble . here is the great difference betwixt a faithfull god , and a false man. in time of trouble & adversity men leave us & forsake us ; in time of prosperity then they flatter as , and preten●… a great deal of friendship and kindness : but as no man looks upon the dial when the sun is under a cloud ; so these very men that pretend so much of kindness and friendship ; if so be we do but come under a frown , or into trouble , then their friendship and kindness is at an end , as paul said , no man stood by him when he came to be tried before nero ; all men forsook him , but god did not forsake him . the wiseman hath an expression , prov. . . a friend loveth at all times , and a brother is born for adversity ; but where shall we find such a friend ? and indeed where shall we find such a brother ? but now if you will please god , god will stand by you when all men leave you ; when you have the greatest need of god , he will then stand by you ; if you be in a prison , he will be with you ; if you be banished , he will be with you : if sin doth not part god and you , certainly no affliction shall part god and you . study to please god ; oh , is it not a sad thing for god to leave you ? that is the saddest of all ; when we lose god , we lose all , hos. . . wo unto them when i depart from them . what are all your mercies if god leave you ? no more than if a man should have a fair pleasant house , and never see the sun more . oh do the things that alwayes please the lord , and he will never leave you ; under mercies , under afflictions , he will be with you , and then your mercies shall be very sweet , and your afflictions shall not be very bitter ; you know how earnest moses was num. . . with his father in law , hobab the midianite , leave us not i pray thee , forasmuch as thou knowest how we are to encamp in the wilderness , and thou maist be to us as eyes . oh keep god to you , especially when you are entering into the wilderness of trouble , god will be to you instead of eyes ; he will be your counsellor , your comforter , your guide , your treasurer , your portion , your all. i might add one thing more in the last place . study to please god , because he is so easie to be pleased ; this is a motive to us to endeavour to please those persons who are easie to be pleased ; a child that hath a father that is easie to be pleased , a servant that hath a master that is easie to be pleased , will study to please them . sincerity pleaseth god , though in the midst of much infirmity ; he is so gracious and merciful , that whensoever a poor sinner doth but desire to please god , he will accept of those desires ; if we can but please god , it is no great matter whether we please men or not . i shall conclude this branch with thes. . . we beseech you brethren , and exhort you in the lord iesus , that as you have received of us how you ought to walk and please god , that you would abound more and more . use. by way of direction : i should here shew you how you are to please god. i told you in general in the morning this pleasing of god lieth in two things . . in suitableness to his nature . . in subjection to his law. if you would please god in all your actions , look to this , that what you do , may bear some resemblance to his nature , and hold forth obedience to his law. consult the will of god , and in all things act in conformity to that will ; do not allow your selves in the commission of any known sin , for that will certainly displease god ; as it was said of david when he took bathsheba to wife ; but , saith the text , the thing displeased the lord. do not bauk any known duty , for that will displease god. in a word , be holy in all manner of conversation . this being too general , i shall not insist upon it ; only in a word , more particularly , do those things now , make conscience of those duties which now lie upon you , in the doing of which you will certainly please god : and they are such as these : be stedfast in the good wayes of god ; in the midst of a backsliding and apostatizing age , stand fast to the law of god , phil. . . contend for the faith which is delivered to the saints , ( the d. verse of the epistle of iude. ) be not ashamed to own christ before all the world ; if you be ashamed of him on earth , he will be ashamed of you in heaven ; and wo be to that sinner whom christ is ashamed to own . reckon reproaches for the name of christ better than the pleasure of sin that is but for season . when god calleth you to it , assert the purity and spirituality of gospel-worship ; do not place religion in a few shadows where the substance is neglected ; but chiefly mind self-denial , mortification , crucifixion to the world , keeping up close communion with god. love the people of god , whatever the world say or think of thee ; for god is highly pleased when he seeth his children loved . keep up religion in your families , whatever scorn or contempt is cast upon you . oh that you would labour to be of abrahams spirit ; i know , saith god , he will command his children and his houshold after him , and they shall keep the way of the lord , gen. . . i do not know any one better means for the keeping up of religion in this nation , than for masters of families to be consciencious in the discharging of this duty . be good in bad times ; be patterns of good works to those that shall behold you . let no reproach or obloquy make you to abate your exact walking with god ; whatever you meet withall in the wayes of holiness and a strict life , say , if this be to be vile , i will be more vile . make conscience of a strict observation of the lord's day ; take heed of that sacriledge of stealing away holy time ; of prostituting that to common and civil use , which is impropriated and dedicated to the service of god. pray for , and love , all those that have been instrumental for your spiritual good in the work of the ministry , whatever dirt is now thrown in their faces , and though you never get more good by them . forget not to distribute to the necessities of god's people , that are many of them in a low condition ; for this is a sacrifice of a sweet odour , and well-pleasing to him . carry your selves with all patience and christian meekness towards them that wrong you : pray for them that are your enemies ; and when you are reviled , revile not again ; but commit your selves to that god which judgeth righteously . do your duty to superiours , and to those that are in authority . so carry your selves , that it may be with you as it was with daniel ; they had nothing against him , saving in the matter of his god. bauk not any duty for suffering : chuse the greatest of suffering , before the least of sin. in a word , so walk as it becometh the gospel : and finally , i speak to you , as the apostle spake to them , phil. . . holding forth the word of life , that i may rejoyce in the day of christ , that i have not run in vain , nor laboured in vain . the third use is for comfort , to all those that do cónscienciously endeavour in all things to please god ; the comfort lies in this , you may suffer ; but whenever you suffer , the father will not leave you alone ; pleasing of god does not secure a man from suffering from men , sometimes it rather exposes a man to suffer from men : but now , though it does not prevent suffering , yet it takes away the sting and venome of suffering ; it makes it to be like sampson's lion , when it was slain , he found nothing but honey in the belly of it . oh! the presence of god in a time of affliction , is exceeding precious ; it turns gall in honey , thorns into roses . be not troubled into your thoughts , about what you may undergo ; if god be with you , all will be well ; if god comes , when the cross cometh , the weight of it shall never hurt you : what is a prison when god is there ? my brethren , though estate leave you , relations leave you , all your comforts leave you ; so long as god doth not leave you , it will be well ; therefore do not fear , be not dejected or discouraged . isa. . , . fear not , o iac●…b ; why so ? when thou passest through the water , i will be with thee . we have more reason to be afraid of prosperity , with god's absence , than of adversity with god's presence . a good god will make every condition to be good ; it is not a prison but a pallace , where god is : they that do the things that please god , whatever condition they may be brought to , the father will not leave them alone . ministers may leave you , the means of grace and ordinances , in a great measure may leave you ; your creature-enjoyments and comforts may leave you ; but here is a god that will never leave you ; oh bless his holy name . fourthly , is this pleasing of god a duty of so great importance and benefit ? then be tender and charitable in judging of those that do differ from you and others , upon this account , because they dare not displease god. i may seem , in this caution , to aim at my self , and others of my brethren in the work of our ministry ; but i am not here at present to take my last farewel ; i hope i may have a little further opportunity of speaking to you ; but if not , let me require this of you , to pass a charitable interpretation upon our laying down the exercise of our ministry ; there is a greater judge than you , must judge us all at the great day ; and to this judge , we can appeal before angels and men ; that it is not this thing or that thing , that puts us upon this dissent , but it is conscience towards god , and fear of offending him . i censure none that differ from me , as though they displease god ; but yet , as to my self , should i do thus and thus , i should certainly violate the peace of my own conscience , and offend god , which i must not do ; no , not to secure my ministry ; though that either is , or ought to be , dearer to me than my very life ; and how dear it is , god only knoweth . do not add affliction to affliction , be not uncharitable in judging of us , as if through pride , faction , obstinacy , or devotedness to a party , or , which is worse then all , in opposition to authority , we do dissent ; the judge of all hearts knows , it is not so . but it is meerly from those apprehensions which , after prayer , and the use of all means , do yet continue ; that doing thus and thus , we should displease god ; therefore deal charitably with us in this day of our affliction . if we be mistaken , i pray god to convince us : if others be mistaken , whether in a publick or private capacity , i pray god in mercy convince them ; but however things go , god will make good this truth to us ; in this work he will not leave us , and our father will not leave us alone ; for it is the unfained desire of our soul , in all things to please god. mr. case's farewell sermon . revel . . . remember therefore from whence thou art fallen , and repent , and do the first works ; or else i will come unto thee quickly , and will remove the candlestick out of his place , except thou repent . christ here prescribes pretious physick for the healing of this languishing church of ephesus : 't is compounded of a threefold ingredient . . self-reflection , remember from whence , &c. . holy-contrition and humiliation before the lord , repent . . thorough-reformation , do thy first works . i left the last time upon the second of these , namely , repentance ; and that which i did upon this part of christs advice was , not so much to open to you the nature of repentance ( which is not so proper for this place ) as to give in a catalogue or list of such special sins , as christ doth expect that all his people in these three nations should lay to heart , and repent of before the lord. i gave you , in a list , eleven special sins that we should repent of , and humble our selves for , before the lord. as , . omission of duty . prayer , reading the word , meditation , &c. any thing will be for excuse to lay by duties , and we are secretly glad of an excuse . . remisness in duty . in things of the world we are all in all , and all in every part ; a man cannot thrust another thought into us ; but in prayer , how many things are we doing ? . hypocrisie . how unlike are we at home , to what abroad ? and in company , to what in secret ? . pride . in apparel , houses , parts , bloud , birth-right , yea , of grace it self , of humility , ministers , ordinances , &c. . covetousness . never did covetousness invade the professing party as now : the more goods men get , the less good they do . . sensuality . voluptuousness , wantonness : christians let themselves loose to the creature ; lay out their affections on things below , as if that part in the serpents curse ( to lick the dust of the earth ) were the●…r own ss well as his . . anim●…sities and divisions amongst christians : many have been active to kindle , but few to quench divisions . . uncharitable censuring one anoth●…r . . formality in duty . witness . unprepared coming . . unsutableness of spirit to : and . want of reflection after duty , how we have sped , what we have got ; sabbath , sacraments , come and goes , monday morning finds us the same as before . misspent-sablaths . some prophane , others idle away the sabbath , &c. . neglect of our bibles in our 〈◊〉 and closets . i pray god it forego not some great evil coming upon you , as before the massacre in germany it was observed , &c. i proceed . . the want of mutual forlearance among christians alas , christians know not how to bear one with another in the least kind of measure . oh the short-spiritedness amongst christians , they cannot bear one anotherb●…rdens , they cannot bear with one another . 't is very sad , that we that stand in need of so much forbearance , should express so little to our brother : 't is an argument we know not of what spirit we are of ( as christ told his disciples . ) oh! how unlike to are we that god whom we profess to be our god ? he is long-suffering , patient , full of goodness , gentleness , mercy , &c. we can bear nothing , we can suffer nothing one from another . . our great murmuring against reformation and reformers ( god hath heard the voice of our murmuring , exod. . ) as if there had been nothing that would have undone us but reformation : and truly god seems to speak such a word as that was , numb . . . in displeasure and anger , i will make your murmurings to cease : i will take away ▪ the cause of your murmuring : i would have reformed you , and you would not be reformed : as christ to iernsalem , i would , but you would not , mat. . the time may come when we would , and god will not : when we shall cry , other lords have had dominion over us , &c. isa. . . but thou , lord , set up thou thy government : rule thou over us : and god may say , no , 't is too late ▪ i would have healed you , and you would not be healed . . the great neglect of the care of our families . truly 't is not the least sin that threatens the removal of our candlestick . how generally have the duties of religion been let fall in our families ; reading the word , singing psalms , &c. time was , when one could not have come through the streets into london on an evening in thee week-day but we might hear the praises of god , singing of psalms ; now it 's a stranger in the city , even upon the lords own day . oh! how have governours of families cast off the care of the souls that god hath committed to them ? how careless are they of the souls of their yoak-fellows that lie in their bosoms , of their children , the fruit of their loins ; masters of their servants , & c ! and in the mean time are ready to stand up and justifie themselves with the boldness of cain , to say to god , am i my brothers keeper ? am i the keeper of my yoak-fellow , children , servants , souls ? yes , thou art the keeper , &c. god hath put them unto thy trust , and if they perish through thy fault , they may die in their sins , but their bloud shall be required at thy hand . god will say to thee , as he did to cain , thy brothers blood cryeth in my ear . . our indifferences as to matter of faith and doctrine : that we have not been more zealous for the truth of christ , that great trust and depositum which hath been committed to us : we have accounted it no matter of what opinion or judgment men be in these latter times . 't is an universal saying , no matter what judgment men be of , so they be saints : as if truth in the judgment did not go to the making up of a saint , as well as holiness in the will and affections : as if christ had not come into the world to bear witness of the truth , which was his great design : as if it were no matter , if god have the heart , so the devil be in the head : as if no matter , that be full of darkness , so the heart be for god. . the unsutableness of our conversations to the gospel of christ : 't is the only thing the apostle puts the philippians in mind of , and commits to their care , phil. . . and truly , in these unhappy dayes , it hath been the only thing men have neglected and despised . how little care , that our conversations should honour the gospel ? &c. . our living by sense , and not by faith . surely ( my brethren ) among all the sins in england that the people of god have cause to be humbled for , there is not any whereby we have more provoked god , than by that sin of unbelief . murmuring , and infidelity , have been our two great sins , for which , it is the wonder of gods mercy that he hath not caused our carcasses to fall in the wilderness : he may take up that complaint of us , that he did of israel , numb . . . because all those men which have seen my glory and my miracles which i did in egypt and in the wilderness , and have tempted me now these ten times , and have not hearkened to my veice ; surely they shall not see the land , &c. and this is the lamentation we may take up , that truly to this very day we have not faith enough to carry us from one miracle to another , from one deliverance to another , from one salvation to another : let one deliverance pass over our head , and no sooner one wave rises higher than another , but we are ready to cry out with peter , lord save m●… , i perish : and well were it , if our fears did issue into tears and cryes after christ : we rather are ready to cry out , as those in ezek. . . our bones are dryed , and our hope is lost , we are cut off for our parts . we are a people that never knew how to honour god in any distress god hath brought us into ; never learnt to glorifie god by believing : if we cannot see him , we cannot believe him : surely that which god hath done for us , in such a succession of miracles , it might well at least have been food for our faith during our sojourning : in our pilgrimage we might have learned by all that we have seen to believe god : we might have made experience to be the food of our faith : and upon all the providences of divine power , wisdome , and goodness , we might have discoursed our selves into belief , as david , sam. . . the lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion , and of the bear , he will deliver me out of the hand of this philistine . so paul , he hath delivered , and doth deliver ; we trust , he will also deliver . oh my brethren ! we dishonour god , and starve our faith , by forgetting our experiences , while we proclaim by our own unbelief , that we have a god that we dare not trust . if we perish , we may thank our selves for it : surely , if we miscarry , that account may be given for it which we find , mat. . . because of their unbelief . there is a rest of god before us ; if we do not enter in , it is because of our unbelief . . want of sympathy with the bleeding , gasping , groaning , dying churches of iesus christ. they have been in great afflictions round about ; have call'd unto us , pity me ! oh! pity me my friends ! for the hand of god is gone out against me . we cannot look any way , but we see cause of bitter mourning ; but we have not laid the bloud of germany , lithuania , piedmont , &c. to heart ; therefore god may justly lay it to our charge . want of fellow-felling with our brethren in their afflictions , it is a kind of persecution , a kind of being accessary to their sufferings . that we have not mourned , wept , bled with them ; that we have not lyen in the dust , smote on our thighs , &c. god may justly say to us , as amos . , . they shall go captive with the first that go captive ▪ because they are not grieved for the affliction of ioseph . the word in the hebrew signifies , none of them have been sick for the affliction of ioseph : oh my brethren ! when did we go to bed sick for the afflictions of gods people abroad ? when did their miseries cost us an hours sleep ? or a meals-meat ? when did we lie in the dust , and cry out , ah lord ! their glory ? because we have not shed tears for their bloud , god may justly say , the next turn of persecution shall be yours , because you have not been afflicted in the afflictions of my people , &c. . our grievous unsensibleness of gods dishonour . religion never suffered the like , as it hath done ▪ these latter dayes , by the pride and hypocrisie of some pretenders to it ; gods name hath been thereby blasphemed by an evill and hypocritical generation ; the people of god have lien under the greatest reproaches and contempts that ever any did under the heavens ; and yet all this while we have not been concerned in it : carryed our selves as if unconcern'd in the reproaches of religion ; blasphemies reflected upon the name of god. who , in these times of blasphemy ▪ have gone in secret ? lyen in the dust ? and cryed with holy ioshuah , what wilt thou do unto thy great name ? josh. . . we have not laboured to preserve in our own souls , or stir up in our brethren , a holy sense of gods name , as those primitive saints , mal. . . where are they that have been affected with , and afflicted for , the sufferings of the name of god ? oh consider ! how little is god and religion beholden to us for our tears , sighs , or groans ? what is become of that child-like spirit , that was wont to possess the spirits of gods people ? 't is perished , and with it , without special timely repentance , we shall perish also . . that epidemical sin of self-seeking , and self-pleasing . oh my brethreu ! we may revive that complaint of the apostle , all seek their own , not the things which are iesus christs , phil. . . this , this hath been the source of all our miseries . while some had power in their hands to have done great things for god , what did they do , but neglect the interest and trust in their hands , and fell a feathering their own nests , and building to themselves houses , and names , that they thought would continue for ever : and to divide the spoil among themselves , as if their own game they hunted : and others in inferiour stations began to divide , and every one began to snatch , as if the dust of the earth would not serve every one for a handful ; and in the mean time , a sea of errour , like an inundation , hath been ready to overturn us . yea , all men seeking to be pleased , not to please ; whereas our duty is , to study to please , not to be pleased , &c. you see , in all this , i have not mentioned one of those grosse prophanesses that stare heaven in the face , as drunkenness , filthy and abominable whoredome , fornication , poured out in every place ; horrible blasphemy , contempt of god and religion , prophanation of gods sabbath , &c. because i speak now to those that are professers . i have been giving in a catalogue of the sins of those that professe the name of christ , that relate to christ by a special engagement and relation ; these have been the sins of gods family . and if we would have god repent of the evill of punishment , we had need to make haste to repent of the evill of sin : we have been a long time in sinning , we had need be a long time in repenting . i tell you christians , we have been these last years doing nothing else but sinning against god ; and , should god let us live twenty years more , it would be too little to weep for the provocations thereof . learn to lay these and other sins so to heart , that god may never lay them to charge . the third advice christ gives here for the prevention of the removal of her candlestick , is , reformation , [ do the first works . ] reformation , that indeed is a fruit and evidence of sound repentance : repentance is nothing else but the breaking of the heart for and from sin . i have spoken of it merely as it is the contrition of the soul for sin ; i come to speak a word of the other part , as it consists in turning to god , and doing our first works . this is the method god prescribes his people , lam. . . wherefore doth a living man complain , &c. under gods asflicting hand , instead of reforming ? men are prone to fall a complaining , not only naturally , as irrational creatures may under some pinching extremity ; but sinfully , i. e. when their natural grief is let out in a distempered and inordinate manner ; when natural groans are accompanyed with unscriptural affections , which vents it self . . sometimes upon the affliction , as if but one intolerable burden in the world , and god must needs lay that upon them , lam. . . & . . & . . . sometimes of instruments ; thus esau complains of his brother ; is he not rightly called iacob , a supplanter ? of his father , hast thou but one blessing , &c. gen. . , . of any thing rather than of himself ; he doth not say , am i not rightly called esau ? what a wretch am i that have despised and sold my blessing ? mostly , we complain of that which deserves no blame , the guilty of the innocent ; king. . . isa. . . ier. . or we pore too much upon second causes , or complain of instruments ; not of our selves ; or of wicked men , not of wickedness ; of their cruelty , more than of their blasphemy ; of their injuries against us , more than as gods enemies ; or more of revenge in our complaints , than murmuring ; our complaints concerning their afflicting us , not accompanyed with our prayers for their conversion , &c. . sometimes of god himself : not as one of his children , who complains , . to god , not of god ; thus christ , my god , my god , &c. , with a holy considence , my god , my god ; two words of faith , for one word of fear , &c. . in his complaints , is very tender of gods glory ; affraid to think or speak a hard or uncomely thought , or word , of god. . carefully distinguishes between what god doth , and what man doth ; observes and separates the unrighteousness of men from the righteousness of god. . with humble inquiry what cause there may be of this dispensation , iob . . & . . . with a disposition to bring up his will to god ; not that god should bring down his will to him ; if it be possible , let this cuppass ; however , glorifie thy name , provide for thy own glory , and do with me as thou pleasest . but a sinful creature , is sometimes ready to call providence in question , ezra . . or to break forth and charge god foolishly , either of too much severity , ez. . . . or of too long delay , isa. , . or their mournings are turned into murmurings , numb . . . or their complaints are mixed with unbelief , psal. . . or their punishment , not for their sin ; and nothing will satisfie them but deliverance . now this is not the way ; for this way of complaining is , . fruitless ; a house on fire is not quenched with tears ; murmuring will not scatter the clouds . . causeless ; thou hast thy life for a prey , ier. . , . what a living man and complain , and that when 't is for the punishment of his sins ? this kind of complaining is causeless ; if you compare sin and punishment together , there 's no proportion , for sin is a transgression against an infinite god ; punishment but an affliction upon the finite creature : sin is an evil-against god ; punishment an evil against the creature : or , if you consider what sin is in its nature , 't is a contrariety to gods nature●… god is holy ; sin impurity ) a contradictiou to god's will ; ( god saith , do this ; the sinner saith , i will not : god saith ▪ do not this abominable thing which i hate ; the sinner saith ▪ i will : it is the transgression of god's pure and holy law ; nay , it is a practical blaspheming against all the names of god ; the rape of god's mercy , and the dare of god's iustice , the challenge of god's power ; sin gives the lye to god's truth , and the fool to god's wisdom . and what can sin do more than to take away god's good name ? god's being ? and that , sin would do . or , 't is causeless , if you consider against whom sin is , i. e. god himself , who is a jealous god ; now a sinner takes another lover into his bosom before his eyes ; yea , he is a holy , righteous , omnipotent , almighty , living god : thoughts of this may well keep us from complaining . indeed , whatever our affliction be , we have as much cause to give thanks as to mourn ; whether you consider , whatever the punishment be , it might be worse ; or do but look well into it , you will see more mercy than affliction , psal. . . . sinful . there is in it , . unthankfulness ; while we complain of one affliction , we overlook a thousand mercies ; whereas true grace is ingenuous , and can see a little kindness mingled with a great deal of severity . the church of god in captivity comparing her afflictions with her mercies , breaks forth ; it is of the lord's mercy that we are not consumed , lam. . . blessed be god , it is not yet so bad , but it might be worse ; cor. . . we are troubled on every side , yet not distressed : though laid wait for , beset on every side , put to strive aud struggle , yet we escape ; god gives an issue in the temptation : we are perplexed , but not in despair ; we are not so helpless that we know not whither to turn our selves ; we have a god to go to , as bad as things are ; the name of the lord is a strong tower : persecuted , but not forsaken ; we are shaken out , but not to shivers ; persecuted , but not conquered ; our god hath not utterly forsaken us : cast down but not destroyed ; ps. . . we are cast down , but not cast off . thus luther , they may thrust me back ; but they cannot thrust me down ; they may crush me , but they cannot kill me : or , they may kill me , but they cannot hurt me ; they may shew their teeth , but they cannot devour . is it a feaver ? it might have been eternal flames ; is it scarcity ? it might be universal famine ; is it the danger of losing the gospel ? 't is the mercy of god , it is not gone already : are we in captivity ? we might have been in hell ; are we in prison ? it might have been tophet : the lord hath chastened me sore , but he hath not given me over unto death , psal. . . though men have lost their bowels , gods compassions fail not ; god's as faithful as ever ; he hath taken away some of our mercies , but he hath not taken away all ; he hath left us more than he hath taken : they are new , they are renewed every morning ; when old mercies are spent , god sends us new ; he is the father of m●…rcies , begets new mercies every moment . who can number or measure his mercies of one day ? whatever our fears are , oh blessed be god , he loads us with mercies . now the complainer over-looks all these ; there 's much unthankfulness in it , and that 's ▪ a kind of atheism , she knew not that i gave her corn and wine , &c. hos. . . . pride ; only by pride comes contention ; men never quarrel with god about their condition , but 't is long of the pride of their heart . proud man would fain sin , and not hear from god ; would take liberty to sin , but would not have god take liberty to punish , i say . . god must take notice of our duties , not our sin●… . god shall hear of it , if he take not notice of our prayers ; but it shall be by complaining , if he take notice of our sins . a proud man whatever he hath , it is no more than his due ; and whatever he wants , god 's his debtor , hos. . . the want of a complement undoth them in the midst of honour : if we want but one thing our hearts would have , surely nature is proud and ready to pick quarrels with god on the least occasion ; nay , if he will not give that mercy we would , take all , &c. . rebellion ; god strikes him for sin , he strikes against god , ier. . . god draws one way , and he another , &c. . unbelief . he that complains of his punishment , never believed sin to be so great an evil , or god to be such a one as revealed in the word . . interpretative blasphemy . . while we dispute our afflictions , and wrangle with the present dispensation , what is it but to make our selves wiser than god ? we seem to tell god how it might have been better , and so we do as it were give god counsel : when he calls for obedience , is not that blasphemy to set up our wisdom against god's ? . while we complain of punishment , we take sin 's part against god ; we do as it were justifie sin , and judge god : god is unrighteous to punish such a sin as this with such grievous afflictions . . by complaining we do as it were summon god to our bar , to come & give an account of his actions at our tribunal . what poor miserable creatures are we , that in our afflictions are so far from helping our selves , that we commonly add to our own misery ! no affliction is intolerable , till sin come in it . the yoke god hath made easie , we make intolerable , and make god to be our enemy , while he by affliction would become our friend . now this being found , not to be the way ; that which god counsels and advises , is , . self-examination : [ let us search and try our wayes . ] sin and hypocrisie lies close and deep ; therefore we must take pains , dig to the bottom , set up a tribunal in our own conscience , summon , try , judg our selves over ▪ and over , in gods presence : he stands at our close●… doores , to hear what we will say , ier. . . before execution ; what indictments we will bring in against our selves . we can tell what such a drunkard , such an unclean person , &c. hath done ; but no man saith , what have i done ? my pride , my unthankfulness , my unfruitfulness , &c. . reformation : [ and turn again to the lord. ] sin is aversio à deo & conversio ad creaturam , reformation is a turning again from the creature to god. . frequent and fervent prayer : [ let us lift up ] there 's the frequency , let do nothing else but pray ; le ts be continually lifting up our prayers ; make your houses houses of prayer : thus david , thou foughtest against me without a cause ( did he take counsel against princes to be disloyal ? to take up arms ? no. ) but i gave my self unto prayer , psal. . . therefore if you prayed before , now do nothing else ; it notes habitual and constant prayer . [ our hearts with our hands ] to crave , and as it were to pull down mercy , as if we would wrestle with god , and say , nay , i will not let thee go , until thou bless me , gen. . . it notes our fervency : and for our encouragement , it is [ unto god in the heavens . ] which expresses his soveraignty , omnisciency , omnipotency , everlastingness , &c. . judging our selves , or confession of sin [ we have transgressed . ] . aggravating our sins [ and have rebelled ] ▪ i. e. we have turned sin into rebellion ; rebellion hath been the aggravation of our sins ; we have sinned against the clearest light , dearest love , &c. nehem. . ezra . dan. . . fastifying god [ thou hast not pardoned , ] a word , not of murmuring , complaining , or accusing god of hard dealing ; but by way of justifying god ; we have transgressed , therefore thou hast not pardoned : why should'st thou repent of the evil of punishment , when we have not repented of the evil of sin ? thou hast punished us less then our iniquities deserve . so in the text [ do the first works ] . sin is a departure from god ; repentance a coming back again to god. turn thou to him from whom the children of israel have deeply revolted . the soul hath many turnings and windings ; but that 's the best motion of all , when the soul ( with the dove ) returns to god , from whom it came . apostacy is the loss of our first love : repentance is the recovery of it , and reformation is the doing of our first works . i have not time to enlarge , as i desired ; i shall only offer a few things , that may help to quicken you to this great duty . my brethren , we have no great cause to boast of englands first love : never so good as it should be , yet many can remember when england hath been much better then ' t is . time was , when doctrines have been more sound ; discipline more exercised for the suppressing of sin and profaneness ; ordinances kept more pure from sinful mixtures ; when london kept sabbaths better then now ; loved their godly ministers more then now ; honoured them that were set over her , for their works sake ; would have thought nothing too good for a faithful minister ; when christians loved one another with a dear hearty fervent love ; when there was less complement , but more real love and affection among christians ; when christians improved their meetings , converse , christian conferences , and other soul-duties to better purpose then now ; not to foolish disputations , or wanton sensual excesses , but to their mutual edification ; when they improved their time for comparing their evidences , communicating their experiences , and building up one another in their most holy faith ; when there was more industry in professors than now , to bring in converts ; when private christians thought it their duty to be subservient to the work of their ministers , to bring in others to christ , especially their family . time was , when more care of young converts then now ; when none could have looked out after religion , but some or other ready to lend them their hand , and shew them the way , explaining it clearly to them ; but now young converts may be snapt into separations and errour , and none looks after them . time was , when more care of the truly godly poor ; when errour was more odious ; when popery was more hated then now ; when the name of a toleration would have made christians to have trembled ; when christians were better acquainted with their bibles ; when more time spent in secret prayer ; when more tender of one anothers names and honours , would heal one anothers reputations , and would spread the lap of charity over those mis-reports and scandals that might be cast upon them ; when christians rejoyced more in one anothers good , and mourned in one anothers sufferings ; when christians did more earnestly contend for the faith once delivered to the saints , &c. oh do you , not onely your first works , but our fore-fathers first works : be as zealous for god and his truths , as tender , mutually careful of one another , as they . our fears be very great , but truly our provocations be greater ; our dangers are great , but our sins greater : yet here is a word , here is matter of encouragement , that yet there is balm in gilead , physick of christs own composition , for the reviving and healing of a back-sliding people . christians , christ jesus is become your physitian , he hath prescribed you a potion made up of these . ingredients , self-reflection , holy contrition , thorow reformation . christians , now take this receipt , christ advises you , if you will not , there is no way but one , or else i will come unto thee quickly , and will remove thy candlestick . there is yet a means or two i find in scripture for the preventing of threatned ruin that hath been very near , that god hath prescribed for a people or person in great danger , when ready to be cut off and destroyed . now that which i would commend unto you , in reference to what you should beg of god for england , is , first , in your addressing your self to god for that mercy your souls are set upon , and you wrestle with god for , that you would make some special vow to god. i find the saints have done so , when reduced to great straits , not knowing what to do : thus iacob vowed a vow , saying , if god will be with me , and will keep me in this way that i go , and will give me bread to eat , and raiment to put on , so that i come again to my fathers house in peace ; then shall the lord be my god. and this stone which i here set for ●… pillar , shall be gods house , gen. . , , , the specialed thing iacob vow , is , that he would continue in the pure worship of his forefathers , that he would still honour god as his god , in that way he would be worshipped ; the special thing is , that he would build a house for the worship of god ; here he would erect a place of publick worship . and thus israel vowed a vow unto the lord , and said , if thou wilt indeed deliver this people into my hand , then i will utterly destroy their cities . numb . . . they vowed a vow they would not spare any of the enemies of god , it he would deliver them into their hands . thus iepthah , hannah , david , &c. iudg. . . sam. . psal. , , . certainly in times of great distress , 't is not improper or uncomely , but that which god may expect and take well , that you make some special vow , if god would prevent your fears ; if god would continue forfeited mercies , dearer to you then your lives , you would set apart some special thing for god , something for the propagation of the gospel abroad , for the maintenance of a godly ministry at home , for setting up the preaching of the gospel in the dark co●…ners of the kingdom , &c. this must have some cautions with it ; as . we must be sure our vow be of what is in our own power ; we must not make vows of that which is none of our own , i hate robbery for burnt●…offerings . we must not make a vow . to god of that which hath been unjustly or untighteously taken away , or withheld from any . 't is sacriledge instead of a sacrifice . . it must be of things warrantable and justifiable by the word . . it must be of such things that we are not bound to do , before vows , by the standing obligation of religion , and of our profession ; but of something that is in our own choice , that we will voluntarily make a free-will offering to god. . we must take heed that we do not entertain a fupe●…itious thought of our own vows , as if we had merited a mercy at gods hands by our vowes ; god looks for some special vow at our hands , that we may shew how much we prise and value the mercy we would have , that we would be content to part with any thing , though to the half of our estate , for it . . another thing i find , is , that in the mean time we should do something by way of extraordinary bounty and charity to the relief of gods indigent servants . thus the prophet daniel , wherefore , o king●… let my counsel be acceptable to thee ; breakoff thy sins by righteousness , and thine iniquities by shewing mercy to the poor , if it may be a lengthening of thy tranquillity , dan. . . the prophet advises him to break off his sins by righteousness , there 's reformation ; & besides reformation , that he would do something in an extraordinary way to the relief of the poor . mercy to the poor , what 's that ? interpreters conceive , by the poor here , he understands gods poor , i. e. the poor iews , that were now in the babylonian captivity ; he advises he would do something by way of sympathy to the iews , to ease their yoaks and oppressions ; break off thy iniquities by pitying & shewing●… mercy to thy poor captives under thy power now at this time ; take off their yoak , ease their burdens , and restore them to their liberties again . thus do ye to those that have been the instruments of your conversion ▪ or edification , set apart something extraordinary for their relief and supply . the prophet daniel seems to advise this to the king , as it were , by way of satisfaction . the●…e be two things in repentance ; in wrongs we have done there must be confession , and satisfaction or restoration : he seems to advise this to make up compleat repentance ; namely , to make restoration and retribution of what he had injuriously taken from the iewes . oh then ! let me say , without breach of charity , that whatsoever , except it be in this case of extraordinary supplyes for his poor , it will be found but making restitution and satisfaction . it may be upon a two-fold ground . . with some it may be truly restitution and restoration of what he hath taken away by unjust means , god knows how ; that 's between god and their own souls , what unlawfull means hath been used to augment the heap , and swell their estate . if there be any that hears me this day , whose consciences shall tell them , that they have increased their estate by undue and unwarrantable means ; oh restore●… restore , break off your iniquities by shewing mercy , &c. by making reparation as you can ; it will be but like zacheus giving half his goods to the poor , and restoring four ▪ fold , &c. in a liberal contribution to the poor . . it will be restitution in another sense , in reference to an unjust withholding ; some have got injuriously , and i am afraid too too many have kept injuriously : have we not rob'd the poor by an unjust denying of what god hath commanded us to distribute to their necessities ? there is that withholdeth more then is meet , &c. prov. . . & . . it may be god hath given you so much ; there 's god's share , there 's the ministers portion , &c. now all that you have withheld beyond the rule of scripture , is all stoln goods , and , like a wheat-sheaf on fire , will burn down the whole ba●…n of corn. that which i would exhort you to , is , every one to set apart some considerable part of your estate , and account it as a hallowed thing , dedicated to god , as a thing which to touch were sacriledge ; that you may be ready on all occasions in all regular and due wayes , to bring out for the relief of the poor ; you know objects abounding in every place , and you may expect warrantable means for dispensing of what god shall put into your hearts in this matter . mr. sclater's farewell sermon . john . . & ●… . whosoever believeth that iesus is the christ , is born of god ' and every one that loveth him that begat , loveth him also that is begotten of him . little children , keep your selves from idols . this general doctrine i have already delivered unto you from this text , which indeed is the marrow and substance of the whole chapter , that gospel-believing is a duty , which they that really perform , are highly priviledged by , to their greatest advantage●… i have spoken concerning gospel-believing , and that it is a duty , and that they that do really perform it are highly dignified and priviledged by it , as hath been made to appear from the chapter ; that which remains to be done , and shall be , as god enables the work of this morning , is , to make improvement of this doctrine , which is one of the most material and momentous doctrines that can be preached to us . gospel-believing it hath most precious priviledges entailed upon it ; whosoever believeth that jesus is the christ , that jesus is the son of god , that jesus is come in the flesh , is bor●… of god , knows god , and shall be eternally blessed of god , and with god ; surely then , the world runs upon a very great mistake . i have hinted something already to that purpose , but i have left the more full discussion and discovery of the matter untill now . why , who is there among the generality of common professors that is not very pregnant to hold forth this to be their faith ? if so be that it should be put to the question ; friend , what is your faith , what belief are you of ? why , not one in a thousand , i think , but will be apt to say , why truly i will give you this account : there is a gospel which is preached among us , and in the world ; and this gospel doth hold forth this for true doctrine ▪ that iesus , the son of mary , that was born at bethlehem ▪ is the christ , is the messiah which was promised by the father , and which the world did live in expectation of so long ; this iesus , i believe is the son of god , this iesus i verily believe is come in the flesh , and he is come to be the saviour of the world ; this is the belief , and that which is the common profession that is made by the generality of people . why , but will you consider now this text , and other scriptures which speak fully to this purpose , whosoever doth believe this , that iesus is the christ , the son of god & that he is come in the flesh , whosoever believes this , is of god , is born of god. and it doth clearly appear , and may be most convincingly made out , that many thousands that profess their belief concerning these things , yet notwithstanding are not born of god. why certainly , there must needs be a great and gross fallacy in the business ; gospel-faith and believing , it is not so common a thing as many take it to be ; and therefore if this be gospel-faith , and that which doth interest persons in such great and precious priviledges , truly it concerns us to look well to it , that we be not mistaken concerning this belief . now this i would say , there is something in it to be considered with respect to the time wherein christ appeared visibly to the world , and the after-times wherein the apostles did hold forth these great doctrines of the gospel concerning christ. and this we are to say , that in such a time as that was , when this was the critical point , as it were , the discriminating thing ; in such a time for any to make this profession , and to hold forth this to be their faith , and belief , that jesus is the christ , the son of god , it was of high signification , and might very well , as to man , beget a comfortable confidence and hope concerning such persons ; that certainly they were born of god , as to man , and according to rational charity it might be very probable , that in such persons as did thus believe , and professe this to be their faith and belief , there were some blessed beams upon their souls ; for , mark ye , it hath been thus in the world , and among the people of it , concerning matters of god and godliness , that there hath been such and such a truth , that hath been the critical truth , as i said ; that hath been , as i may so say , the shibboleth whereby people are distinguished one from another . i allude to that passage in iudges concerning the gileadites : they made a profession of themselves to be such and such , and they were put to it to pronounce shibboleth ; they that could not speak out the word , and clearly pronounce it , they were not judged to be the persons that they professed themselves to be ; but they that could do it , held their liberty : so , sometimes such and such a doctrine is ordered out to be a distinguishing point , upon the account of the desperate opposition that the world makes against it ; and upon this account the priests and the rulers , and the rest of the world were desperately bent against christ ; they called him jesus , but could not endure him to be called christ the son of god ; it was an act and decree amongst them , that whosoever should confess jesus to be the christ , should be put out of the synagogue , should be excommunicated . now for persons at such time , wherein it was as much as their liberty , it may be their lives were worth , to own that jesus christ was the son of god ; for persons now at such a time to own this jesus , that was in so mean a condition , to be the christ , there is very much in it , infinitely more then for persons now to take up this profession . why ? because this doctrine hath obtained in the world , and it is a doctrine among papists as well as protestants ; there is no such danger now for persons to be of this belief . but shall i say this , that for all that , to believe this really according to the right account , and true genuine interpretation of gospel-believing , the case is the same with them and with us at this day , setting aside the consideration of time and times ; the danger then , and the encouragement now ; the case is the same : gospel-believing of these truths according to a genuine interpretation of gospel-believing , it is the same now as then , and then as now : and therefore we must consider and look further . i would put these few things to your consciences : you profess this to be your faith , you believe that jesus is the christ , the son of god , that he is come in the flesh ; these things you profess to believe , and if you do so indeed , you are highly priviledged people , blessed of god , and shall be to all eternity . but do you not mistake ? do you believe this , that jesus is the christ ? how came you by this belief ? what account can you give of it ? how were you brought over to this belief ? did you not come to this faith and belief by common report ? you were born to this doctrine ; you look upon it as that which is the benefit you have by your being born in a nation , and among a people that profess the name of christ , and this hath been instilled into you by education , and upon this account you take it : did you ever buy this truth ? it is a truth that jesus is the christ , how came it to be yours ? did you ever buy this truth ? buy it ? i say buy it ? for the very truth is , we are never able to make out a good title to any gospel-truth , untill such time as we can say we have bought it : how ? why , by serious meditation ; studying the scriptures , searching into them , seriously pondering and weighing of them , crying mightily to god , that he would manifest them to us , and encountring temptations from without , from within ; being at a point willing to engage liberty and estate , and life , and all , for this truth's sake : can you say , we have pondered , and are so fully satisfied about it , as that if all the world should come in a way of contradiction , and rise up in opposition to us , and come with fire and sword to beat us out of this truth ; yet we are resolved to stick to it ? can you give such an account of your selves , that you have not taken it up on a common report , but are able to say , there hath been an inward revelation made of these things to your souls , that there hath been a sanctified work of the spirit upon your understandings , that you come to see into the mystery of these gospel restimonies ? is there an habitual frame of spirit wrought in you , whereby you are carried out to close with every truth of god , and to close with it upon this account , because of a divine authority stampt upon it ? when we give assent to common truths , but not with a common spirit , but in the strength of an inward conviction , we assent to it upon the account of an unction that we have received from the holy one ; and we assent to this and that truth upon the account of a divine authority which we see to be stampt upon it , and withall we find that there are suitable workings of our heart in the loves and desires and delights of them to these truths ( as there will be a kindly working of the heart , where there is a right assent suitable to the truths assented to ) as , if there be a threatning , the soul assents to it , and will tremble before god : if a promise be made , or a gospel-revelation , it will be accompanied with a holy rejoycing in god , that ever he should make such a promise or revelation ; and then there will be a holy resolution of spirit , come what will come , i will never part with this truth . i have bought the truth , that was my duty ; and having bought it , i will never sell it , that is my duty too : can we give such an account as this ? but then withall let me a little further improve that which i have already spoken from the chapter . you say this is your belief , that jesus is the christ , the son of god ; but , can you give an account of those priviledges that are entailed upon this belief ? for you must know that the priviledges which belong to such , will serve as evidences that they are such . now if you believe , it is your priviledge to be bo●… of god ; and this being born of god must be the evidence of this belief ; can you give an account of you being born of god ? if you are not born of god , you do not believe , that jesus is the christ. can you giv●… an account of your overcomming the world ? are yo●… such as are enabled to stand out in opposition to th●… e●…rors , and heresies , and corrupt doctrines and pract●…ses that are in the world ? can you be●…r up agai●… the lust of the eye , the lust of the flesh , and the pri●… of life ? if you are in slavery to the world , in bondage to the beggarly rudiments of the world , you are mistaken , that jesus is the christ : for he that believeth according to a true interpretation of gospel-believing , that jesus is the christ , doth overcome the world , and by vertue of this belief he is enabled to get a conquest over the world , and over corruptions that are in it through lust . and then again , you profess to believe that jesus is the christ , the son of god : oh! but you are able to give an account that you have believed into this jesus , and upon this jesus ? for that is it the text holds forth ; he that believes that jesus is the christ , doth believe on jesus the christ ▪ are you , by vertue of this believing which you profess , drawn out to a closing with christ ? do you roll your selves upon him ? own him for righteousness and salvation , and are willing to yield your selves up in subjection to him ? you believe , jesus to be the christ ; but do you believe on that jesus whom you profess to be the christ ? now this being thus laid down as a foundation , i would infer thus , and so go on to a farther branch of this application ; either you do really believe with a gospel-believing these truths and doctrines concerning christ , or you do not ; why , they that profess they do , but in truth they do not , there is a clear and manifest contradiction which this profession meets withal , and that upon the accounts i have formerly given : as alas , this profession suffers contradiction generally ; generally , the professors of this faith , that jesus is the christ , do clearly make a flat contradiction ; and i am very confident that there are thousands , that , if they should be put to the trial , will you stick to this truth ? if you do , it shall cost you the loss of your liberty , and estates ; nay , your life shall go for it . oh i am very apt to think that you shall have thousands that will turn their backs upon this profession , renounce this profession . now concerning such , this i would say . first , that the condition of such persons as are not right in gospel-believing , is a most mournful and miserable condition ; however it may be with them in other respects , yet it is sad to think what a condition they are in ; for consider first of all , they that do not perform this great duty of gospel-believing according to the truth and reality of it , i will tell you what they do , they do give god the lye , they do by interpretation tell god to his face , that he is a very lyar ; and what higher blaspheming can there be than to give the lye to the god of truth ! every one will be apt to bless themselves , and say , oh far be it from me , god forbid that i should be charged with such an horrid impiety as this ! oh but , brethren , the very truth is , it is a very common thing , by interpretation to give the lye to god ; and all that do not believe according to that gospel-believing that you have heard , do tell god to his face that he is a lyar. how doth that appear ? why take a little help , such as i am able to give you ; to profess that jesus is the christ , the son of god , that he came to be the saviour of the world , is ordered out to be our righteousness , is sent of god to preach liberty to captives , to heal diseased souls , and to deliver poor creatures from the bondage of the devil ; these things people generally profess to believe ; but mark you now , they never come to christ , nor never set in with him upon this account , and to this purpose ; oh lord thou art the jesus , the annointed of god ; i come to thee for life , i am a poor dead creature , i am in a state of unrighteonsness , and thon art given to be for righteousness ; lord , i fly to thee for it , i am a poor diseased creature ; the plague is upon my soul , and thou art appointed to heal the soul of the plague ; i come to thee for healing . there is not one of thousands that come thus to christ. will you now see how the lye is given to god ? i profess for my part , saith one , i know no such matter ; jesus is the christ , and i profess to believe so , and he is appointed of god for such and such things ; he is sent to preach liberty to the captives ; i know not that there is any such bondage . christ came to save sinners ; alas i know no need of any such salvation by him ; he came to heal diseased souls ; i am well enough , what need have i of christ ? what is this , but to give the lye to god ? he that receiyes not christ , makes god a lyar ; for he doth in effect say , lord thou sayest so and so concerning the world ; i know nothing of all this ; and so the lye is given to god ; and is it nothing , to give the lye to the great god , the god of truth ? and i tell you while you profess this jesus to be the christ , the son of god , and in the mean time flye not to him ; you believe him to be the son of god , and that all authority is given unto him , and you will not subject to his authority , why you give the lye to god , and is this nothing ? . consider the sad condition of such as believe not according to a right gospel-believing ; they are such as are lyable to the dreadfullest touches from the devil that possibly can be ; he that believeth is born of god , overcomes the world , and is enabled to keep himself , that the wicked one doth not touch him with a mortiferous touch ; but i tell thee whatever thou art , that art under the powerof unbelief , thou art in danger of a dreadfull touch from the prince of darkness ; and if thou livest and diest in a state of unbelief , thou wilt fall under the power of condemnation . remember what our saviour speaks , and consider well of it , you stand out in opposition to my doctrine ; but i tell you , except you believe that i am he , you shall dye in your sins ; a dreadful word ! you shall die in your sins , and what then , be damned eternally . this is the condition of all such as are in a state of unbelief : but then , on the other hand , in case we be able to give a good account of our believing that jesus is the christ , the son of god , and of our believing on him concerning whom these testimonies are given , oh what cause have all such to rejoyce in their condition ! the condition of such persons is happy beyond all expression and comprehension , who have owned these truths , owned that jesus of whom the faithful testimonies are given . now all the chapter , according to the account i have given you , comes in to the purpose of comforting and rejoycing the heart of such persons . here is your comfort now ; really believing according to a right interpretation of gospel-believing , this is your priviledge , you are the persons that are born from above , you are the persons that shall be enabled to over come the world , to bear up against all opposition that men and devils can make against you ; you are the persons that have the witness within you , and you shall be able to bear up against all the contradictions of sinners ; you are the persons that have christ , and have eternal life by him : you shall have it ; nay , you have it already . he that believeth on the son of god , hath eternal life ; he hath it in the beginnings of it , and shall have it in the compleat state of it ; being brought over to gospel-believing , you may come with boldness to god in a way of prayer , with holy confidence that whatever else you ask believing , you shall have a good account of it ; god doth not neglect any believing prayer of a believing soul : and all the priviledges of the gospel are entailed upon you , and you are entitled unto them ; and you shall have the benefit of them while you live , and when you die unto all eternity . well may it be said of such a person , blessed is he and she , that hath believed with a gospel-believing gospel-truths and testimonies concerning christ , and on christ , on whom those testimonies are given ; for there shall be a full and perfect accomplishment of whatever god hath spoken with his mouth concerning such . and then lastly , if the grace of god hath brought us over to a closing with christ , of whom these truths and testimonies are given ; why , the last branch of the application is but this , that you would but justifie your believing , and labour to manifest the reality of your believing according to the gospel by a suitable walking ; this is that that shall be the cloling up of this application . oh brethren , let us consider well : our saviour tells us in mat. . wisdom is justified of her children . why , if ever we mean to approve our selves to be wisdom's children , our care must be for to give in our justification of wisdom's sayings , and for to carry it in a congruousness and suitableness unto that gospel-believing which we profess to be by grace brought over to . why , but what is that , you will say ? why , consider the text , and see what remains of the chapter . i shall make it out , give it up to you in this way : why , first of all this is one special duty that lies upon you , that you would study your mercy , and know what god hath been to you , and done for you , and how highly you are dignified , and not to be alwayes in a fluctuating state ; and upon the questioning and disputing point ; but to come to some well grounded confidence ; that you may be able to say , we know that this and that is our condition , and this and that is our dignified priviledge that we are planted under . do but mark how the point in hand doth charge this upon us , in the thirteenth verse of this chapter , these things have i written to you that believe on the name of the son of god , that you may know that you have eternal life . here is your duty according to what the text it self doth charge upon you ; if you be such as by grace are brought over to a gospel-believing , the apostle iohn that did write this epistle , and i , from it , preach unto you into the name of the lord , and by authority from him , tha●… this is your duty , to know that you are persons that have eternal life , that you are such as christ by his blood hath made a purchase of eternal life for ; that he hath by his blood once for all entred into the holy place , that is not made with hands , that he might prepare for you , and that youmight have , the possession of those blessed mansions that he hath made preparation of . eternal life it is yours , and you may be bold to claim it , and you are bound to hope and rejoyce in the expectation of the full enjoyment of it , and not to be alwayes upon the question , and disputing point , but to go on with a holy confidence towards god , according to what the apostle expresses , c●…r . . we know , that when this earthly tabernacle shall be dissolved , we shall have an house not made with hands , &c. but then a second thing that i have to charge upon you , is this ; that you would acknowledge with all thankfulness and enlargedness of heart to god , the riches of his mercy , and grace to you , that hath been pleased to cull you out of an unbelieving world , and bring you over to the gospel , and to the participations that are by christ , according to the gospel : oh! this you should set your hearts upon , by admiring the riches of god's grace ; and say , lord , why shouldst thou manifest thy self to me , and not to the world ! that many thousands should live and die in the total ignorance of christ , and the gospel-mysteries , or else live and die in an empty profession ; and yet that god should be pleased to pitch upon me ! this is that that the text doth hint unto us in the nineteenth verse of this chapter . oh! saith he , in a triumphing manner , we know that we are of god , and that the whole world lies in wickedness : oh! our mercies and the riches of grace that hath appeared to us , while the whole world that lies in wickedness , is put into the malignant evil one , lies in the devil ; for he is the malignant evil one , while the whole world lies in the devil in malignity ! oh! it is a sad condition infinitely more sad than for a man to lie in the most noisomest stinking ditch , or in the loathsomest kennel ; why this is that that heightens the mercy to poor souls that are called by grace according to the purpose of god , that while the whole world lies in wickedness , and so are like to lie ; yea , and to lie in hell to all eternity , that god should please to lay you in the bosom of his son , and to take you into the arms of his mercy ; this is that that should heighten our thankfulness . i may make use of that expression which we find in acts . when . paul and barnabas came unto a company of heathens , and they saw what great things were done by them , and took notice of the gracious spirit that they discovered ; sure ▪ say they , the gods are come among us in the likeness of men . considering the state of times , and what an height of wickedness many at this day are grown up unto , the dreadful swearing , blaspheming of god and his ways : truly , judge of it your selves , whether we may not say , the devils are come among us in the likeness of men . why now , oh ! how should we heighten our love and thankfulness to god , that should please in free grace to bring us over to close with jesus christ ! but then fourthly , as many as are brought over to gospel-believing , this is your duty , to study and endeavour , what you can , your advantages in faith ; and so the apostle gives it in charge here in the chapter in verse . these things have i written to you that believe on the name of the son of god , that you may know that you have eternal life , and that you may believe on the son of god. this is that you should set about . if god hath brought you over to a closing with christ , and an embracing of the testimonies concerning him , believe more and more , labour for your advancement , and let it be your prayer , good lord increase our faith : labour that you may be clear in your apprehensions of gospel-mysteries , and that you may be more strong in your adherence to christ , of whom those gospel-testimonies are given , and that you may not only come to have an adhering-faith , but to an assuring-faith ; that you may not be like waves tossed and tumbled up and down ; but that you may come to be rooted , and established , and grounded in your faith ; that you may not come to be unsetled by ▪ heresie , corrupt doctrines , or the apostacy of others , but that you may be stedfast and unmoveable . yet further , fifthly : this is to be given in charge to such as do believe according to the gospel , that they carry it sutably to a believing state , as in those particulars that i have insisted upon , so in a deportment congruous and sutable to the priviledges which belong to believing : you are born of god ; carry it as men and women that are so indeed : what! born of god , the sons and daughters of god ? what! and not live according to god ? and not study conformity to god ? i remember , what he speaks there concerning amnon , how is it , that thou being the kings son , art lean from day to day ? how is it , that we that profess to be the sons and daughters of god , are lean and lank , not more improved ? that we do not shew forth god , and express christ ? this lies in the beginning of the chapter , if you be born of god , remember that you be born of him that is the god of love ; and therefore you are to manifest this birth , and your believing , and your being born of god , by loving god , and by loving them that are born of god : he that believeth is born of god ; and he that loveth him that begat , loveth him that is begotten of him . the god of love , doth beget a people of love ; a loving god , a loving people : and this is that that you should express your believing by , and your adoption by ; by the love you bear to god , and the children of god. a hatefull spitefull spirit , where it doth discover it self , speaks those persons not to be born of god , but of the devill , carry it as believers , as persons of god , by studying a conformity to god , and by keeping his commandments , subjecting your selves to his authority ; not living according to your own lusts ; but according to the lawes and rules which god hath given you : saith the apostle here , this is the love of god , that we keep his commandements : it is not love in word , and in tongue , but in reality ; a love discovering it self by a consciencious care to hold conformity to all the will of god : and if any should object , this is a hard saying , who can bear it ? saith the apostle ; no such matter , there is never a believing soul will say , the commandements of christ are grievous or burdensome ; no , they are leight to them that are brought over to the faith of the gospel . and the last thing i have to charge upon you , upon the account of your gospel-believing , and being brought over to a closing with christ , it is this , ( and so , upon the matter , i have given you an account of the substance of this precious chapter , having reduced it to that general doctrine i propounded before : ) i say , the last thing is this , that you would walk suitable to a believing state , by being very carefull concerning your worships that you do perform , that they be according to god , and according to the gospel ; and this is that which the apostle closes the chapter withall , in the verse , little children , keep your selves from idols , amen . as i take it , in the former translation , it was babes , babes , keep your selves from idols ; here it is , little children . i observe , in this epistle , the apostle makes a distinction of believers into three ranks , as you shall find in the second chapter , i write unto you little children , i write unto you young men , and i write unto you fathers ; in the close of the epistle , he concludes with this charge , to little children . now , whether he includes all the rest under this title of little children , i forbear to dispute : but sure i am , it is a duty lies upon one and other , whether they be babes , or young men , or aged fathers in christ ; whatever our rank and condition be , i am sure of this , this is a great duty that lies upon all that will approve themselves in godliness , and to be brought over to the faith of the gospel , that they look to their worships , and that they take heed of idols ; as if he should say , he that is born of god , he keeps himself that the wicked one doth not touch him . oh little children , shew forth that spiritual ability that by grace you are furnished withal , by being able to keep your selves from idols . it might be said , what is this to us ? are we in danger of idols ? true , well might the apostle give in such a charge to them in those times , when the greatest part of the world were in a state of heathenism , and in estrangement from christ , and the mysteries of the gospel ; but this i say , it doth really concern christians in gospel-times , that have had the breakings out of the gospel-light , and the knowledge of gospel-mysteries , to be careful of this charge , that they keep themselves from idols . there were the idols of the heathens ; grant it , and so still there are a generation of people that our souls should mourn over to consider their state , that are wrapt up in ignorance of god , know nothing of the true god , and of our lord jesus christ ; and it is the state and condition of the jews at this day ; and what a sad condition are they in ! grant it , that they do not worship idols after the manner of the heathens ; yet they worship not the true god , because they worship not god in christ : for , saith the apostle , whoever sins , and abideth not in the doctrine of christ , he hath not god ; he that abides in the doctrine of the christ , he hath the father and the son : and so the jews at this day , they not abiding , not owning the doctrine of christ , they have not god , because they have not the father and the son ; this is their condition : and thus , i say , there were not only the idols of the heathens , oh! but sadly be it spoken , there are idols among persons pretending to christ , and gospel-faith , and the doctrine concerning grace by jesus christ. how many idols and idolaters are there ? i might tell you , the covetous person 〈◊〉 an idolater , the voluptuous person ; and the self ▪ justit●…ary sets up his own righteousness , and idolizeth that : but i say this , there are idols among christians ; pap●…sts hold forth the name of christ ; but yet what woful idolatry there is among them ? there was the dragon-worship in the time of the heathens , and in the room of that , there is come up the beast-worship , and of that worship the generality of the world runs upon ; and it concerns us to keep from popish idolatry , it being the grossest idolatry that ever was , because there is the fairest pretence of worshipping jesus , and yet they turn him into an idol . what else means their worshipping and bowing to images , their breaden gods , and the like ? oh! therefore it concerns us to keep our selves from idols ; and there is a scripture , if it were but well studied , would cause trembling of heart , and make all that have any care of their souls to look about them ; that scripture i refer you to , it is in revel . . compared with the th . in revel . . . whereas before there was dragon-worship , it is said here , i beheld another beast comming out of the earth , and he had two horns like a lamb , and he spake as a dragon , and he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him , and causeth the earth , and them that dwell therein , to worship the first beast , whose deadly wound was healed : now look at the . verse , saith he , and all the dwellers upon the earth shall worship him , whose names are not written in the book of life , of the lamb slain from the foundation of the world . oh! it is a terrible word , and that that should make us to fear and tremble , lest in any kind we should be drawn into the worship of the beast ; for as many as were not written in the book of life of the lamb , they were drawn into the worship of the beast . this is that that should make us keep our selves from idols , from whatsoever hath but so much as a tincture of superstition and idolatry ; and the rather , considering that other scripture in the th . of the revelation , and the last verse , and whosoever was not found written in the book of life , was cast into the lake of fire ; all that are not written in the lambs book of life , are prevailed to perform the worship with the beast ; and not being writ there , must be tumbled into the lake for ever . this therefore concerns us , to keep from idolatry , from whatsoever hath a tendency that way , and that hath any tincture of superstition upon it ; and consider with your selves , that our duty is in matters of worship , and in things concerning the worship of god , to see to it , that we keep a humble dependance upon god , that we walk not according to the will of men , but according to god ; you were bought with a price , be not servants of men. we are to walk by a line , by a plummet ; and what is not warranted by the word of god , or maintainable by arguments drawn from it , we should not close with . and for the closing up of all , do but consider how this chapter , and the things that i have spoken to you , and preached from it , how they do all influence this exhortation , little children , keep your selves from idols , see to it , that you approve your selves in holy worship to god , and the lord jesus . do but argue thus , you profess to be believers ; and is it not your duty to answer to this profession ? your faith is a pure faith , and an obediential grace ; it is a grace that will tutour you to hang upon christ , and his appointments , and institutions : and therefore , being believers , study to keep your selves from idols , and whatever is not consonant to the will of god concerning worship . you believe that jesus is the christ , the son of god ; keep your selves from idols in this respect ; for he is come into the world , and hath shewed the pattern of his house : and then , you are born of god ; carry it like a people that are born of god , that are high-born , and credit your holy profession , by keeping a dependance upon that god of whom you are born : and then , being believers , you are born of god , and have overcome the world , and therefore shew forth your heroick spirit , by standing out in opposition to idols , and whatever is contrary to sound doctrin , and the power of godliness . you have an unction from the holy one , and this engages you to look to it , that you keep your selves from idols ; and then we know ( saith he ) that the son of god is come , and hath given us an understanding , that we may know him that is true ; and we are in him that is true , even in his son iesus christ. and thereupon he brings in this , little children , keep your selves from idols : as if he should say , this is the true god , god in christ , jesus christ the son of the father , this is the true god , and he hath eternal life with him ; other gods are false gods , and what benefit will you have by following them , and performing worship to them ? nothing but eternal death ; false gods can bestow no eternal life upon you ; but this is the true god , and he can give you eternal life ; and therefore , little children , keep your selves from idols . and now yet one word more . i would not occasion any discomposure of spirit that is not becoming you ; but this i must say , for ought i know , you have the words of a dying man ; and we use to say , that the words of dying men they are 〈◊〉 to take somewhat a deep impression ; i mean , a dying man , not in properness of speech according to nature ; and yet , if it should be so , i hope there would be cause of rejoycing on my part ; but i speak the words of a dying man in respect of ministerial office. i suppose you all know there is an act come forth by supream authority ; and it is not for us to quarrel at all , but to submit to it , and hold correspondency with it , so far as we can with a good conscience ; and there being many injunctions that many , besides my self , cannot comply withall , therefore we are willing to submit to the penalty inflicted . this , i say : you have for many years had the benefit of my poor labours ; i have fulfilled near up towards years , and have performed my service to god , christ , and his people , and i bless his name , not without acceptance and success . my work , so far as i know , in this course , and in the weekly course , is now at an end ; my desire is , that you whose hearts have been inclineable to wait upon god in the way of my ministry , may be kept faithful to god , and that you may have the blessing of the everlasting covenant coming upon your souls , and that you may have the power of this doctrine , held forth in this sermon , put forth upon your hearts ; that as you do believe that jesus is the christ , that jesus is the son of god , that as you profess these things , you may carry it suitably to your profession , that you may walk in love to god , love to christ , and love to one another ; that you may labour to manifest a noble generous spirit in overcoming the world in errors , corruptions , false doctrines , and unwarrantable worship ; that you may in all things labour to approve your selves : and , little children keep your selves from idols . amen . mr. baxter's farewell sermon . coloss. . , . as ye have therefore received christ iesus the lord , so walk in him , rooted and built in him , and stablished in the faith , as ye have been taught , abounding therein with thansgiving . o mitting the division , and in part the opening of the words , the observation is this ; that those that have received christ iesus the lord , must accordingly be rooted , built up in him , and stablished in the faith ; and walk in him as they have been taught , and abound herein with thanksgiving . this receiving of christ signifies to believe in him . it is not only to receive his doctrine or benefits , but to receive his person , to receive him as related to us , for the uses and end for which he came into the world , and for which he offers himself to souls by the preaching of the gospel . sinners have lost and undone themselves ; christ comes to be the physitian of souls ; he will not save the unwilling and despisers of his grace , while they continue in their unwillingness . he will save them by the way of covenant ; while he consents and tenders them his grace , he will have them consent to the terms of his covenant . the consent of the heart exprest by our covenanting with him , is this receiving of jesus christ. he is willing to be our physitian , and when we take him to be so , we receive him . he is willing to save us from the guilt and power of sin , willing to be our lord , head , intercessor with god , justifier , and all unto us ; and if we consent to this , and take him as offered , this is receiving christ ; with whom his benefits are also received , the remission of sins , in-dwelling , renewing , comforting-spirit , title to everlasting life , &c. in the receiving christ , all this is received . receiving of christ contains these two things , or these two things are essentially contain'd to make up the nature of saving faith : i. e. to believe the doctrine of the gospel concerning jesus christ to be true , and to consent that the goodness , that is therein revealed and proposed , shall be ours . to believe what christ is , and what he hath done ; so far to believe it , as here we are resolv'd to venture our souls , ( though there may be some weakness through our faith's imperfection ) and believing this gospel to be the certain word of god. then next , to entertain the christ that is offered in this gospel to be ours , with all the benefits that accompany , and to all the blessed ends to which he is revealed : thus , the water of life is freely tendered to all that are athirst , and there is no more required but , come and drink . then there is two things implyed , that are the immediate products of this saving faith , and inseparable from it : i. e. trusting on him as the redeemer , and obeying him as a lord. to rest upon him as a redeemer , rom. . . and here , as far as the soul feels entertainment and encouragement by christ , overcoming his doubts that christ will reject him , &c. so far he hath quietness of soul in christ , and will trust his soul upon christ. and then , the obeying of him in order to our full recovery , ( as a patient must obey his physitian ) in using his remedies , and means he prescribes for killing our sins , restoreing our souls to gods love , and being with him to eternity . the nature of faith is , to receive christ ; the sincerity of it lies in the suitableness of the act to the object ; that we receive him as he is : now in christ there is something essential to this act ; that he be a saviour , and our saviour , &c. and there is something makes unto the well-being , and fuller attaining of the end ; the first are the objects of faith it self , as 't is of absolute necessity to salvation : the second sort are , the objects of faith , as it is strong , and makes to the well-being of a christian. all that is essential to christ , as a saviour , and redeemer , is to be believed by him , that will approve himself a true believer . and thus to receive christ as the eternal son of god , made man , the redeemer of the world , ruling us upon the right of redemption , justifying us before god , bringing us to god , and interceding for us : and thus christ must be received according to his offices , and as those uses , for which he is given to the soul , do import and and imply . for the application of this point . first , let us begin with those that our business at present doth not mainly lye on . must men walk in christ as they have received him ? what shall we say to those that have not , will not , receive him , that stop us at the door , that we can't bring in the doctrine of christ ; that will not receive the principles of christ ? how can we bring them , and build them up , that will not suffer the foundation to be laid , the seed to be received ? hast thou not received christ ? then thou hast refused christ , been a despiser of the gospel of christ , which will prove thy great condemnation . what is it for thee to bear the name , and not to have the spirit of christ ? do not go upon conjectures : it 's one thing to number thy self with those that are christians , as to outward appearance ; and another thing to open thy heart , and deliver up thy self to christ's government ; and as a lost sinner , to receive him to those ends a saviour must be received . and remember , this was no small work , god's sending christ into the world ; no small thing , to fetch thee from hell and satan , to wash guilty souls from all their sins , and to bring them to everlasting glory . if these great things be rightly understood and believed by thee , if christ be understood well as christ , it must be done with a wakened , humbled , self-resigning heart , making the greatest matter in the world of these things : hath thy soul been seriously taken up about thy own recovery ? and hast thou received christ as a man that was ready to be damned ? as one that had a load on his soul heavier than all the mountains of earth , to ease and deliver him ? as one , that was under the frowns of god , in an estate of enmity , receives reconciliation ? hast thou received christ , as if thou hadst received heaven in him ? believe it , these are great transactions , and will affect thy heart ; and it is not a sleepy or jesting matter thus to receive christ. consider what it is to receive christ. first , if you have received christ , you have received the great reconciler , that binds up the broken-hearted , quiets those that tremble under the threatnings of god , for fear he should forsake , and cast them off for ever . secondly , if thou hast received christ , thou hast received a perfect enmity to all sin , that will never let thee rest in sin , but be perswading thee from it , and conflicting in thee against sin in thy soul : if thou hast received christ , thou hast not received a friend for sin , that will plead for , or give thee leave to commit sin : but one , that though he bear with thee in thy weakness , yet abominates thy sin . if thou hast received him as a lord and master to rule thee , to be consented and subjected to him , and to be ruled by none but in subordination to him , who will break those in pieces that refuse his government . obedience and not verbal profession is the thing he requires . hast thou entertained christ to be the master of thy words , thoughts , and deeds , whose government thou livest under , more than under any in the world ? thirdly , if you have received christ , you have then received the beginning of felicity and full contentment to your souls ; having found none in your sins , you have it discovered to you where it is ; therefore with gladness you go on : and so far as you have hopes of attaining it , so far you have great contentment , &c. fourthly , in a word , if you have received christ , you have fallen out with sin ; subjected pleasures , profits , and honors to him ; and you have received his spirit , and this spirit hath made you new , and maintains a war within you against the flesh , &c. if this be not thy case , oh that thou knewest what a case thou art in ! for then , first , what the better art thou for all his blood shed as yet , if thou wert this day to dye ? what would christs blood do to the cleansing and saving of thy soul ? secondly , how canst thou look thy sins in the face , and think on what thou hast done and art ? how canst thou look inward into thy defiled heart , and not tremble , when thou hast no more shelter from the wrath of god ? thirdly , how canst thou look god in the face , who is a hater of sin ? how canst thou read his attributes , think on his threatnings , &c. fourthly , how canst thou think to have any duty accepted , any prayer heard , or rewarded ? &c. fifthly , how canst thou think on the day of judgement , on the time when thou must receive thy final sentence , if thou hast not received christ ? oh what a thing is a christless heart ! &c. quest. what shall i do that i may receive christ ? answ. first , till christ be thine , and hath brought peace from heaven to thy soul , let no peace be there to keep him out : i do not say , overwhelm thy self with sorrow ; but , let sorrow dwell there , and let holy cares and solicitousness about thy spiritual state be there till christ come , and quiet and reconcile thee to god. secondly , read and believe the gospel ; see there what christ is , and thy necessity of him : believing will open the door to entertaining of him ; assent will procure thy consent . thirdly , keep up no idol in thy heart against him : turn out that that keeps out christ. how dear soever it seems now , at last thou wilt see it more necessary to detest , than keep it . i come now to exhort all poor weak christians , that they would make after confirmation , and grow to a greater measure in grace , as they have received christ. it is not enough to be conceited that you have been converted ; and it will not be enough to the assurance of your conversion , or safety of your souls , that you think you are converted , and sit down there : he that is content with the opinion that he hath grace , and therefore desires to have no more , because the promise of salvation is made to the truth of grace , it 's a sign he never had grace ; strength in grace , is your own felicity , 't is part of your happiness : your eternal happiness will partly consist in your personal perfection ; and without personal perfection , all heavenly glory will not be a perfect felicity . if you have fixed your anchor in gods promises , this engages you to look up , make after , and proceed , &c. take these motives . first , consider , there is the same reason to move thee to grow and proceed , as there was to move thee to thy first believing . why did you become christians , but because of the necessity of the riches and excellencies of christ , and that there was better things in christ , than in the world ? and are they not so still ? is the case changed ? if christianity was reasonable then , it is reasonable now ; if it was necessary to begin , it is necessary to hold on ; and proceed in your race , till you have obtained the crown . secondly , your receiving christ essentially , contains in it an obligation to proceed and go further , actually to trust and obey him , whom you have taken for your lord and saviour from the very offices and relations of christ received . if i be a father , where is my fear ? if i be a master where is my honour ? if i be a saviour , where is your confidence in me , submission to my saving-work , obedience to my healing precepts ? if i be your lord and master , why do not you learn of me as your master , & c ? your first covenant engages you to proceed in fulfilling the things promised in your covenant , &c. better not to have promised to be his people , than to promise and break this promise . the very mercies also you received from him , pardoning your former sin , entertainment in his church , and all the blessings there found , are as so many obligations to proceed . . ever since we came home to christ , we have had an addition of reasons , besides the first reason we had to believe : every day brings in new , &c. certainly , if a little were desirable , more were more desirable : if the people that stood afar off , and never tried what christ and grace is , were bid to come in , those that have tried and tasted , are bound to proceed much more : you have the spirit of god , experiences of his love , tasted the bitterness of sin , have had some trial of the truth of such things of which we speak , when others have eyes , and see not , &c. and will you turn back that have tasted ? &c. . consider how much hath been lost upon many a soul for want of care to take rooting , and to proceed ? how much labour of the ministry , mercies of god , pains and care of their own ? i speak of those that have seemed sincere , not been indeed so ; that have many times comforted the hearts of their ministers and friends , and have had some kind of comfort to themselves in that taste they have had of the good word of god. how many times hath the preacher been gladded to see such a one come to him , seemingly with a broken heart , seeming to set himself in the way of life ? yet the flesh prevailed for want of confirmation . how many years have some spent in duty , in hearing , prayer , gracious society , profession of religion ? yet afterwards the world hath drown'd all . what cause have you to see , you lose not the things you have wrought ? . consider , how much of the work of your own salvation since you are converted , is yet undone . though you are sure your conversion is true , how many temptations to resist , enemies to conquer , duties to perform , and heaven to be taken upon all those terms , as is the tenour of your christianity ! therefore you had need to stand fast , and having done all , to stand ; you had need not only to believe but to wait and be patient in believing , and to proceed in the way you have chosen . . the want of strength and building up , makes the lives of many full of lamentable languishingweaknesses , scandals unto others , pain , calamity , and trouble to themselves . how long in healing ? and how much smart and pain , while the fruit of their own folly is cured ? how easily , and how frequently do temptations prevail ? and hence , as in a wilderness , they are going one step forward , another backward , no evident keeping in god ; and all through the fruit of their own languishing weakness . the fruits of the sins of professors have been such , that it should make you do all you can possibly , to escape the troubles at home , and reproaches abroad . . a life of spiritual weakness is usually a burden unto him that hath it ; it doth not only occasion his falling into sin , and so renews the wounds of his soul , but is a constant burden to him ; not that any measure of grace is troublesome , but that which consists with so great a measure of remaining corruption , this is the burden : sickness is burdensome though there be life . methinks you should not then be reconciled to your fears : you should methinks see so great a difference between the sick and well , that for your own peace-sake you should seek after confirmation : every duty they do is their pain , which is anothers pleasure : prayer , &c. their burden ; sometimes tired , wearied , dull , &c. presently overwhelmed with temptation : every duty is a grievance to them , through the weakness of their grace , and by their corruption . . christians that are weak and not confirmed , lose abundance of the fruit of gods ordinances , that are improved by others : how many a truth that tasts exceeding sweet to others , hath no great relish to them , nor growth by it ! a healthfull man hath more relish in ordinary fare , then a sick person in varieties : the full stomack loaths the honey-comb . . the weak and unconfirmed christian is unprofitable , comparatively unto others : not that the church would wish the weakest member out ; but comparatively , unconfirmed christians are very unprofitable unto others : like little children in the family , that must be looked to , make work for a great many more about them . what doth a sick person ? but the work of others is to feed , support , and be a help to him . the church of god hath need of strong christians that can pray in faith & fervency for others , and you can scarcely pray for your selves . consider when the church needs a great deal of help , will you sit down with low attainments and little things , when so many hundreds about you need so great assistance ? . weak persons are many times the troublers and very dangers of the church ; many calamities have been occasioned by them . the sinnes of professors have occasioned the displeasure of god on the church : their errors hindred truth , and made divisions . when christians have not so much strength as to know truth from error , that hearken to every one that speaks with likeness : what have these christians done in the church ! what mercies have been driven away ? so far , that i think the church of god , since the apostles dayes till now , hath suffered more by the sins of professors , then by the malice of their enemies . and how canst thou expect god will save thy soul , when thou hast set the church on fire , and been so great hinderance to others , that many should perish occasionally by thy example ? &c. the greatest sufferings of the church have come from the miscarriages of the church . . such have been the great dishonourers of christ , and the graces of ancient christians . the glory of their profession , their charity , self-denial , heavenly-mindednesse , patience , &c. preached the gospel to the world more effectually then ever their words could doe . god expects your lives should be a considerable means for the conversion of wicked men : the same god that hath commanded ministers to teach others by their doctrine , hath commanded you should live for the conversion of the world ; that your zeal , humility , patience , charity , self-denial , should win souls to god. and if it be a sin to give over preaching when we may , surely so to give over living , &c. if woe unto me if i preach not the gospel , then wo unto you if by your lives you preach not the gospel . how many sinners have you about you , and how do you wrong and rob the ungodly of that ordinance god hath appointed for their conversion and salvation ? you are persons that take the bread out of their mouths , the means that should save them out of their hands , while you deny them one of the commanded means of salvation , i. e. the eminent example of your lives : and if it be so great a sin to stop preachers mouths , how great a sin to neglect this ordinance ? nay , are you not a dishonour to the church ? is it not because of professors ill lives , that the prophane deride religion , while they see not that glory in it that should over-power an unbelieving and denying soul , and should indeed effectually manifest it's excellency ? are these the professors , that are proud , stubborn , passionate , censorious , self-conceited , as contemptuous , and envious as any others ? i know the world is apt enough to slander , and the servants of god bear a world of unjust reproaches : but oh that there were not this occasion , &c. . those that are not confirmed and established in grace , the devil , when he hath prevailed by a temptation on themselves , can easily make them his instruments to draw and tempt others from their duty , to discourage them in their religion , and to do that mischief in the world he hath done by temptation on their own soul. 't is ordinary for satan to make use of lapsed , distempered christians , to be the instruments of his temptations to those that are better , &c. an honest christian will not so easily hearken to a drunkard , or swearer , as to a professor he had good thoughts of , gal. . . . for want of strength and establishment in grace , poor weak christians are a very great encouragement to the carnal hopes of wicked men . i think , scarce any thing in the world hinders our preaching more then this ; when the wicked see those that make the greatest profession no better then themselves , and in some things worse ; this hardens him against all the convictions that can be brought against him : tell him he cannot be saved without conversion , he looks upon professors , sees them contentious , worldly , peevish , passionate , &c. sees some sin or other ; this makes him think , he is as well as they : must there be so much ado to bring men to this state ? is this the difference ? ( say they ) &c. . methinks it should be some trouble to an honest heart , that yet we must be so like to the children of the wicked one : and the weakest christians , are the likest to the wicked : i do not mean weaknesse in gifts , or knowledge , &c. but a weakness in practical saving knowledge , love of god , self-denial , mortification , heavenly-mindednesse , &c. they that are in these the weakest christians , are the next and likest to the wicked : and doth not this grieve thee , that , though thou art not a child of the devil , thou art so like one ? we should not be conformed to the world , nor like to them in any thing , no not in outward vanities : but to imitate the fashion of the world , as to inward corruptions , to go in their garb when a palpable vanity , to have so much of their pride , peevishness , malice , worldlinesse . oh , look upon thy heart with humiliation . . consider what a dangerous and lamentable standing those have , that be not established , &c. you stand , but it is as unrooted plants or trees that stand shaking in the wind : beholders are alwayes looking when they fall : you stand , but it is as a sick man , wavering , reeling , like lot's wife , looking back , and alwayes upon every occasion ready to repent : you have been believers , little things perplex and trouble you ; little tribulations and afflictions discompose and disturb you ; little temptations make you question the scripture , the providence of god , his love and care of his people , and the great foundations of religion : foundations seem to shake , because you are shaking and tottering , &c. and what is like to become of such a soul ? if thou stands shaking under small temptations for want of confirmation , what wilt thou do when a papist , or quaker , &c. shall so speak concerning religion , which thou art not able to answer ? and so the surest foundation seems nothing when thou hast so weak hold : our greatest afflictions , next to the misery of the ungodly , is , to think of our weak ones , what will become of them : and ●…e ily we do expect a considerable part of our congregations should be carried away : those that are christians and know not why , yet have not humility enough to make use of others , and to keep close to those that should assist them . remember when you see such times when seducers are able to say the worst , shall make the strongest assaults on the weak ones , how many will be like to fall ? again , sichness , death , dying times will come , when you shall find a little grace will not easily do your work ; and though you perish not , yet you may faint , and to your sorrow finde the want of confirmation . you cannot but know how the strongest are put to it in trying hours , or at death . will slack and unsetled hopes of another life , such distempered hearts fight and encounter with such tryals ? never think of dying comfortably , if you follow not after confirming grace . . it should humble you the more , that you have been so long , so many years in the school of christ , and love god , &c. no better : should not you in this appren●…iceship have learned better your religion , and been ●…eachers of others , when perhaps , if in the principles you are assaulted , you will show your weakness as soon as any . may not christ say , have i been so long time with you , and yet have you known , liv'd , &c. no better ? reached no higher ? attained no further ? weaklings still ? nay consider in this time what advantage have you had for growth ? a tree planted on a barren wilderness , may not grow so much as in a fruitfull place : but you have had the plenty and power of the ordinances of god , the choisest of the means and helps of salvation . . consider , the nature of true grace tends to this : will you cross the nature of it ? shall we be such weaklings in religion , which crosse so the nature of grace ? for grace , the more it 's exercised , the more it encreases . . heaven it self is perfection , and the work of a christian is to press towards heaven , and therefore 't is to press towards perfection . you should make towards the end , in a manner and way that is suitable to the end . persons that enjoy so much already , and hope for so much greater , should not put off god with such little things . . little grace shall have but little glory . you know not how great a difference there is between the least and highest in the kingdom of god. nay , 't is not only for a christian to desire to be glorified , but to enjoy the highest degree in glory : to serve god with the best , and improve his talent to the utmost , that his heavenly reward may be according . a christian should not slight it when 't is tendred to him , and in his eye . quest. but how shall i know i have attained this confirming grace ? answ. these signs following shew a christian confirmed and strong in grace , which i will name , that you may know what to aim at , and what to desire . there is not so great a difference between a king and a beggar , between the greatest health and sicklyest man , as between a strong usefull christian , and a poor l●…nguishing so●…l , &c. . a confirmed christian is one that can resist many sub●…il and strong temptations , not only a single temptation , but when satan assaults on every side , with errors on both extremes , with importunities of several parties , with temptations of prosperity offered , of adversity felt or feared ; strong temptations that seem to lay a necessity of yielding on a weakling , that makes him say , i must do it to save my liberty , family , life , &c. a strong christian can say , there is no necessity : he can make light of those temptations that seem to be a necessity to other persons : he can confute a subtil sophister , and deal with a cunning adversary : satan cannot so easily go beyond and out-wit him . . he can do great , excellent , and useful works , is serviceable to god if he have opportunity in business of greatest consequence ; he doth not serve god only in some little and inconsiderable things , but in his place sets himself to the work of god , doth the great work of his majesty faithfully : the service of god to him is more easie and delightful , as to go ten miles is more easie to the healthful , than one to a sickly person ; he can go through god's service with pleasure , ease and delight , without tyring , fainting , siting down , or giving over . . he can digest the hard truths aud providences of god , that are ready to puzzle , perplex , and overset the stomach of a weak christian : he hath laid his foundation , to which he reduces all things of difficulty , and by the help of those great truths he hath received , he can easily see through the difficulties of all that are yet before him . he can tell how to reconcile those things in scripture that seem contradictions : where he meets with a difficulty , he can easily discern the cause is in himself , and that there is an undoubted way of reconciling them , though he hath not attained to it . he can easily quiet his soul under the most difficult providences , and interpret them so as is consistent with the truths of god , which must expound them : he reconciles promise with providence , and providence with scripture : whereas a weak christian is ready to say , a hard saying who can ●…ear this and that ? and it is the difficulty of these kinds of truths , that make so many turn their religion , because not able to digest the hardest . truths of god. cross providences makes them question god's love , & c. . he is one that can exercise various graces without setting one against another , destroying or contradicting one another . he can do many works , believe many truths , perform many duties at once . he can rejoyce and sorrow at once , and make his sorrow an help to his joy , and his joy an help to his sorrow ; and so exercise both , in that nature as will not directly hinder or weaken one another . he can tell how in such a time as we are in , to rejoyce , yet to be humble : to be cast down at god's feet in the sense of the sins we have committed , and of god's displeasure , & c. yet to rejoyce in the mercies we have , and do expect to possess . he doth not look all upon sin , all upon affliction , or all upon mercy : but can eye every thing , and give every thing its part : can exercise graces methodically , gives truths and providences their proper place in his meditations and affections : and this makes his life orderly , beautiful , regular and useful : whereas a weak christian , let him set himself against one temptation , he is taken in another : if he humble himself in soul , he can do nothing but humble , weep , grieve , fear , and be ready to cast away all comfort , all sense of the love of god : if he set himself to the consideration of the grace of christ , he is apt to forget humiliation , and to be puffed up with spiritual pride , & c. thus he hath not skill , strength and ability to carry on all the whole work of grace together . . a strong christian sinks not under those burdens that would press down and overwhelm a weak christian : he can bear heavy burdens , and more easily away with them , making it a recreation to bear some things that another would sink under , and cannot bear . it is thy weaknesse that makes thee make such a stir , when god layes on thee personal , family , publique afflictions ; that makes thee shrink under them : strength of grace would enable to see god and glory in the midst of them , and to say , all shall work for my good : it would enable thee to get advantage , and be bettered by them . hadst thou strength enough to improve them , thou wouldst take comfort from them , and support thy self under them : but when thou hast not strength enough to understand god's meaning , to see the duty then called for , to improve all for god , to do that service to god thou shouldst do in such a condition ; no wonder if thou have not grace to support and comfort thee in that condition . whereas the confirmed christian by strong faith , love , and patience , can carry great burthens , & c. . they are helpful to many , and troublesome unto few . they are the useful persons in the family and place where they live : it is they can counsel others in their doubts , help them in their straits ; that can bear up the weak when ready to sink , that can hold others by the arm when not able to go upright ; that tend god's little ones ; and , if it were not for these , what would god's little ones do ? they are so furnished with patience , which god hath given them for the use of the weak ones in his family , and though they are troublesome , or do that which might be a disturbance to them , they will not thrust them out . it is they that comfort the feeble , support , provide for , strengthen , and confirm the rest ; and , were it not for these , what back-sliding hearts should we have ? & c. and they are comparatively , troublesome to few , ( though , while corruption cleaves to them , they shall sometimes be : ) it is not they that are censuring their brethren , that are stirring up division , and make all that feud , that is in the church : if they might be hearkened unto and regarded , there would be quietness and composure ( for if ever there be peace , it will be by the strong ones : ) but weak ones in grace are the burdens and troublers of the family : you may know they are the weak ones in god's house , in that they are those that are alwayes crying ; complaining , making fire-work in the family , back-biting , censuring their brethren , quarrelling with one or other , & c. these peevish , troublesome souls are the weak ones , & c. . the strongest in grace are the best able to stand , work , and suffer alone . though in duty they should not be alone , when they can have society ; and though they are most humble ) therefore sensible they need of others ) and will not throw away any of their helps , yet if all forsake them , they will stand to it still : they go not to heaven meerly for company sake : they be not christians meerly because such and such are christians : if all the world forsake christ , they will stick to him , unless christ leave them to their own weakness . but the weak christian hath a great deal more need of comfort and support , and lives a more dependent life : they cannot stand , work , suffer alone : if their minister fall , they fall : if their relations change , they change ; if there be not some body at hand to confute an adversary , they yield : if there be not some body to keep life and warmth , they grow cold in every duty : in affliction they can step on no longer then led by the hand , & c. have christians to support , and to quiet , and moderate their passions , and to teach them the doctrine of patience : they can hold up no longer than they are refreshed with cordials : what would become of you , should god let you stand by your selves ? & c. . the strong christian is one that can best live without creatures upon god alone ( and a weak christian is one that hath most need of the creature , and can least live upon god alone ) under the censures of the godly , frowns of the wicked , without riches , honours , pleasures ; can have quietness and contentment in god , whether he have any thing or nothing , where-ever he is , & c. the more necessity thou art in of having something besides god for thy consolation , the more weak thou art : there must be comfortable provision in the family , health , ease , liberty ; there must be supply ; i know not how to be poor , disgraced , & c ! this impatient soul is the feeble soul : impatience is nothing but the fruit of weakness . the strong christian can live upon god alone : therefore if men make as if they were undone , if lost in their estates , 't is a certain sign of a lamentable weakness of a sick soul. . that is the best and strongest christian , and most confirmed in grace , who is most employed and abides in love of god , in love to god : that hath the fear of god , but goes beyond fear , and loves most , and abides most in the love of god : that makes it his great business to feed upon , and study the love of god to him , and to return love to him again . the more god's love is on thy heart , and the more thou livest in the fruit of that love , the stronger christian. but he that lives most by a kind of constraining fear , though he may be sincere , he is but weak : where there is nothing but fear and no love , there is no sincerity ; but where there is some little measure of love , fear is such a tyrant that it will many times cloud it , so that almost all his life seems to be moved and managed by fear : and in this there is much lothness and unwillingness , and they had rather do otherwise then they do : according to the measure of love is the strength of grace . . he is the strongest christian that hath most pure and most universal love to others , that can love all men , even an enemy , with true , unfeigned love , even with such love as belongs to a christian : that can love every christian , and not a party only , with the pure and fervent love which belongs to believers : that can love every child of god , and not those only that are of his own opinion , or have done him good , but all because they are children of god , with a sincere and special hearty love . that is the weak christian that picks and chuses , that is staggering when he comes to loving an enemy : that takes in those that agree with him in judgement , and makes those almost the only object of his love ; that would confine his affections to some narrow society , some little sect , party , or parcel of believers , and cannot love christians as christians : and hence it is , division is the effect of enmity , or of weakness in grace , for want of the universality of love . i would make no question to prognostick the healing of all divisions within this nation , could i but advance all that are concerned in it , to the right temper of christian love . 't is the weak children in christ's family that falls out , when we have not enough love to reach to all , and to love a christian as a christian , &c. quest. what must be done by those that are converted to keep them where they are , to help them unto growth , to make them letter , to further their confirmation , to secure their salvation , that they may after all attain to the crown ? answ. i shall leave with you twenty directions ; and as many as there are , there are not more then you must practise ; and take them as if they were the last directions i should give you ; and take them as practicals , not as notionals , that you must live upon as long as you live . first , see that the foundation be soundly laid in your head and heart in matters of your religion . in your head , i. e. that you well understand what religion is , what the christian religion is : what god is : what it is for god to be yours , in his attributes and relations unto you : what he is , and will be unto you : what you are and must be unto him : what sin is , how odious , wherein its evil consists : what is sin , and what not : what sin hath done in the world , and what state it hath brought transgressors into : what christ is , what he hath done for man's recovery and redemption : what he hath wrought , gives , and offers to the world : the end and design of god in the work of mans redemption : the tender of the gospel-covenant of grace , freeness , largeness , and excellency of the grace of this covenant : the end of our religion : the everlasting glory that is revealed in the gospel , what it is , how sure , and how great . when you understand these things , get a sound and radicated belief concerning the truths of the holy scripture revealing all these things : and think it not enough that the scripture is true , or that you are resolved so to believe , but get the best grounds for your belief , be well established on those grounds : read the scripture much , till you are acquainted with , and relish the matter and language , and feel the power , until all be delightful to your souls in reading . and be not ashamed to understand the fundamentals : look to your catechisms : the fundamentals of religion you must understand and receive . and when you have got them into your head , be sure you get them into your heart , and never think any truth received as it ought , till it hath done some special work on your heart ; till you believe that god is almighty , just , holy , &c. and all the attributes of god have made their holy impression on your heart : that the sanctifying knowledge of god hath warmed your affections , captivated your souls , that god be inthron'd in your hearts , by the belief and knowledge of your minds : know your selves so as to be humble : know christ so as he may be sweet unto you , and exalted by you : set up christ in your souls nearest to your hearts : know sin so as to hate it , &c. 't is the entertainment of the good things of the gospel by the will , that is the principal part of your religion . 't is a matter of lamentable consequence in all your lives , when there is not a sound work at the heart : how little life will there be from any truth in reading or hearing ? the fundamentals of religion must be so received , as not only to have an old heart mended , but a new heart made . thus understand , believe , and give up thy heart to that thou believest and understandest . . know and remember , the work of your salvation must be as long as you live ; and that you have never done , till you have done living . i give this direction , because i find something in christianity , the remainds of carnality is apt to hinder , &c. and some professors , when converted , they are reconciled to god , and safe , &c. but there 's a great deal to be done after , &c. . understand well , wherein it is your confirmation , stability , rootedness , and growth in religion doth consist . the chief part of your growth in grace is not , to know more things then you knew before : but to grow in the knowledge , belief , entertainment , and improvement of the same truths , that at first you did receive : ( not that you may not or should not know more , for the clear knowledge of the fundamentals guide you unavoidably to the sight of many other truths ; which a darker knowledge of those fundamentals will not discover to you . ) 't is not an addition to your former knowledge , but the clearer knowing , sounder believing , heartier entertaining and improving of the truths you knew at first ; as the health of a man consists not in having every day variety of food , but in the partaking and digestion of the same food , that 's fittest for him : get but a more perfect conviction , or concoction of what you knew before , and this is your growth . you may grow in the knowledge of gods attributes by knowing them more clearly , orderly , distinctly , satisfactorily and believingly then before . there is a world of difference in the manner of knowledge , between a dark and a clear knowing of things . grow in greater love to them , and greater skill in entertainment , improvement , and practise of them . . grow downward in humility , and inward in the knowledge of your selves : and above all , maintain a constant abhorrence and jealousie of the sin of pride : grow in humility , and fly from pride ; keep a constant apprehension of your unworthiness and weakness , of the odiousness and danger of the sin of spiritual pride ( so called , because exercised about spiritual things ) of being pufft up with pride of any thing in your selves , of being too confident in your selves . below in own , and expect not , nor desire others good thoughts of you . humility lies not in humility of opinion , speech , garb , or carriage : but in opposition to high thoughts of our own parts , gifts , godliness , when we think of these above their worth : still remember psal. . prov. . . isai. . . ioh. . . as ever you would grow in grace and be confirmed christians , keep a low esteem of your selves ; be mean in your own eyes , be content to be mean in others ; and hearken not to secret flatterers that would puff you up . take heed of any thing that would puff you up , &c. . you must understand that you are disciples in christs school , where ministers are his teachers and guides : the ordinances his means for his peoples good ; and the scripture , the book you must learn : therefore keep in this order : keep under these guides , commit your souls to those that are faithful , and fit for souls to be intrusted with . and when you have done with humble submissiveness to their teaching , keep in this school under those officers in their discipline , and dwell in the catholick church and communion of saints , and understand the duty of pastors and people , heb. . , . thes. . . obey them that have the rule over you . if god had seen the poor christians sufficient to support themselves , he would never have made it the duty of all , to be marshalled and rank'd in several schools , ranks , orders , and all to walk in this order to heaven . if you withdraw from under christ's officers and ordinances , you are in danger of being snatcht up as straglers . quest. what shall we do ? whom shall we take for our guides , if god take them away , & c ? answ. 't is not the denyal of publick liberty that loses that loses that relation between a pastor and his flock , nor any word from man should cause a poor soul to trust it self for guidance of salvation to one that is not able : a man's soul is not to be hazarded upon damnation , by being deprived of the officers and ordinances of christ , and cast upon the conduct of a blind guide , meerly for the pleasuring of a meer man. . be sure you understand the nature of church-union , and necessity of maintaining it , and abhorr all wayes that are truly schismatical , that would rent and divide the church of christ. as you must not , under pretence of avoiding schism , cast your soul upon apparent hazard of damnation ; so you must maintain the necessity of church-union and communion : when christ's members walk in communion with christ's members , supposing that which is singular to the generality of judicious men . take heed of any thing that would withdraw you from the communion of the generality of those that are sound in the faith. take heed of withdrawing from the main body of believers . christ is the head of his church , he will never condemn his church ; walk in those substantials christ's church hath walked in . divisions among christians is a sin god hath described , as odious , and tending to the ruine of christians . be very suspicious of any that would draw you from the main body of believers , and keep communion with the universal church of christ , with the generality of the godly in love and affection , &c. . be sure your own hearts and ways be the matter of your dayly study ; and when hypocrites have their work abroad , let yours be much at home ; while they make it their business to censure this and that man , let the main of your business be in dressing the inward of your own hearts , in keeping all right between god and you . observe your hearts inclinations ; if any inordinate inclination after any thing , set a special guard : mark which way your thoughts go , that you may know your inclinations by your thoughts . in an especial manner , preserve tenderness of conscience , fear of sin , loathfulness to displease god , let truth have the mastery , maintain such a conscience that dares not sin to save your lives ; be sure you sin not willfully , obey the light . . be sure to keep up continually a lively apprehension of the state and place of your everlasting happiness , to live by faith upon the unseen world . know where your happiness lies , and what it is , that you grow not to carnal apprehensions of your happiness . live upon heaven , and let that be it that shall animate your faith to duty : and all that you may still be weary of vexations , and sensible of the vanities here below : let your conversation be above . be confirmed in your apprehensions of the certainty and excellency of eternal blessedness ; grow more in heavenly-mindedness and in satisfaction of soul , in the hopes you have of these things . . understand the nature , method , and power of temptations how to resist them , and live in watchfulness . be not a stranger to satan and his methods of tempting , what you have to watch against and oppose , where you must be armed . understand the nature of christian watchfulness ; keep up a constant resolution and courage in resisting , especially the temptations you carry about with you , of your calling , constitution , company , and of the times ; set them down , remember them , keep a special observation of them all : and say , this and this it is i am in danger of ; and 't is my integrity and salvation that 's in danger , and here place a special guard , and make it your business to resist . the principal cause of christians negligence in this , is the security of their consciences , and love of their sins : did you know your danger , you would better look after your safety , cor. . . . especially understand how much the flesh and carnal self is an enemy to god and your souls : and how much you are engaged by the christian covenant to live in a warfare against your selves , and against your flesh . you must not think the life of self-pleasing is consistent with religion : understand how you are bound to take the flesh for your enemy , to watch against it , and to live in a continual combat with it , col. . . the flesh is your chiefest enemy : the very senses themselves are all grown inordinate , and the work of faith is very much seen in its exercise this way ; if you get an opinion that you may eat , and drink , and cloathe , &c. and do all things to gratifie your selves , &c. then no wonder if you find but little increase in spirituals , while you grow so carnal . understand and practise the duty of self-denial . self is the very heart of sin : humor it not , under pretence of liberty in religion . . give not way to a formal , heartless , seeming religiousness , customariness , without the life : but keep your souls in a continual seriousness and awakedness about god , immortality , and your great concernments . if one duty be dead , take heed lest that incline you to a deadness in another , and so grow to a customary deadness ▪ take heed of spiritual slothfulness , that makes you keep your hands in your bosom , when you should be doing for your souls : stir up to , and in , duty , when you have but little time for life eternal : do not pray as if you prayed not , or hear as though you heard not : but , when upon duty , doing gods service , do it with all the seriousness and vigour you can ; to grow lazie and negligent is the declining way : use such considerations as may stir you up , rom. . . tit. . . . remember alwayes the worth of time , and greatness of your work , and therefore so value time , as not negligently or slothfully to lose a moment : it will quickly be gone , and when you are at the last you will better know its worth : harken to no temptation that will draw you to any trifling , abusing , wasting of your precious time . if thou hast no argument against thy sports , trifling pleasures , &c. but this , it loses my time , take it for a greater argument then if it lose thee thy money , friends , or any thing in the world : especially value the preciousest of your time , your youth , your morning hours , especially the lords day ; lose not any part of it , but improve it with your selves and families : lose not a moment of the lord's-day , nor any of thy precious time thou canst spare and redeem : if thou hast lost any , be humbled for it , and be carefull to redeem the rest : look back , do you approve of the time that is past ? could you not have spent it better ? remember what you have lost , let that quicken you ; look before you , remember what is to be done , and do that first which must be done , and then leave trifles to that time you have to spare . it is ignorance and idleness , and not want of work , that makes any think they have time to spare . eph. . . col. , . . make a careful choice of your company ; you cannot travell well to heaven alone , especially when you may have company : thrust not your selves into every company , eph. . . converse as much as you can with those that will help you , that are warm when you are cold , knowing where you are ignorant , believing when you are doubtfull , &c. especially for your constant companions , live with those that will be a frequent help to you : masters chuse the best servants that fear god : servants , chuse to live with those that will help you in the fear of god : for husbands and wives , make choice of those that will intend upon religion ; take heed of being unequally yoaked , and of thinking to get well to heaven , while you presume to unite your selves with those that with great advantage will hinder , not help your salvation . . keep a constant guard upon the tongue , especially take heed of those common sins that disgrace hath not d●…iven out of the world , but have got some kind of credit amongst some professors : namely idle talk that wastes precious time , makes us unfruitful to one another , backbiting especially , can they put but a religious pretence upon it , or if they backbite those that differ in opinion . remember that terrible passage , pro. . . ●…ia . . . & . , . psal. . & . . avoid idle talk , backbiting , &c. watch over your tongues : and if any are by nature addicted to a laxity of tongue , and multitude of words , there lies a double obligation on you in point of danger and necessity , above all others to keep a careful watch over your tongue , you should rather speak fewer words then others : and if you find your selves inclined to speak against any behind his back , reprehend your selves and avoid it . . learn the holy skill of improving every condition that god shall cast you into ; learn how to live to god in every condition : ●… you have skill and heart , there is advantage to be got by all ; that prosperity may strengthen you in god , encourage you in his service ; that adversity may wean you from the world , help you to repentance , raise you to god , and give you more then it took away . know the danger and duty of every condition , study them before they come upon you , that they do not surprize you : learn to know what 's the danger , duty , and ▪ particular temptation of every condition , and in that condition ▪ you are most likely to expect a fall into : prepare for affliction as the common lott of the saints , take it as no strange thing when it overtakes you : know how to abound and how to want . a great deal of a christians safety and comfort lies in this , to study the temptation and duty of every condition before it come , that so you may have your remedy at hand , and fall to your work and commit your selves to god. . be as conscionable and strict in the duties of your relations , and dealings with men , proportionably as in the duties of holinesse , more directly to be performed to god ; make as much conscience , care , study , diligence , about being just , that you wrong no man in buying or selling , as you do in duties of holinesse , hearing , praying , receiving . in your trading make conscience of justice and faithfulnesse as well as in the worship of god , and in your own personall behaviour ; in your calling be diligent , not slothful in businesse , &c. and so in the duties of your relations : oh that parents knew what a charge lies on them concerning the souls of their children , &c. so masters , look to your servants , and be as conscionable in doing your duty for their souls good ▪ and being faithful to them , and compassionate over them , as in your duty to god : keep up family duties with life , seriousnesse , dilige●…ce and vigor : the life of religion in the world must be kept up very much in families . . make it your study and care to do all the good you can in the world ; let doing good be the principall part of your businesse ; think that the safest and happiest life in which you can do greatest good : suffer not opportunities to slip out of your hands ; take them where you have them , and seek where you may have them . look not only where you may get good , but where you may have opportunities to do good to others : every talent must be answered for ; your knowledge , health , &c. cause it as you will answer for it ; and know 't is one of the greatest mercies in the world , for god to give you hearts in doing good with that he hath given , heb. . . not for applause ; but be good husbands for god , and consider which way you may attain your ends best , by what you give or do . thus , be rich in good works . . live still as before the living god , approve your hearts to him , as knowing you stand or fall unto his judgment . avoid carefully all offences unto men , for the lords sake , and their conscience sake ; take heed of scandal ▪ and receive all the good from ▪ others you can , but stick not too much on mans approbation : disregard not suspitions or reproofs of godly men , but make not mans praise to be any part of your reward ; it is a small thing for me to be judged of men . be not much troubled at it , if you cannot please all : the bawlings of the malicious should not disturb a soul that is quietly housed with god : that soul is not well stablished in faith that can be so disturb'd and distempered by the wrath or words of malicious men . remember , god himself pleases not all ; the most of the world are enemies to their maker upon the acco●…nt of his holiness , justice , &c. and canst thou think to please all ? appeal from the world and your selves unto god , for the consolation of his approbation , and for your felicity : this will save you from hypocrisie , and keep you from the temptations and vexations of the censorious world . . be every day as serious in your preparation for death and judgement , as those that are alwayes certain that it will come , and know not the moment when it will come ( mat. . . ) : use often to think seriously before-hand , what death is ; what thoughts , what trials , death will put a man upon : what temptations usually accompany our approaching death : what you shall most need at such a time as that : what thoughts are likeliest to possess you then : what you are likeliest to wish for , when you must needs die , about spending your time , expending your estate , conversing with others , &c. ask your selves , what will i wish i had done or been , when i come to die ? think what will be most dreadful to a dying man ? for thus you have time to escape his judgement : will it not be sad , to think on a life lost in vanity , drench'd in wordliness , unreconciled to god , or at least in utter uncertainty of his love ? god hath not foreshewed what will be a dying man's terror to torment thee , but to get out that terror ; that which will be most terrible at death , conquer and destroy it presently . they that were ready went in with the bridegroom , and the door was shut , ( mat. . . ) oh happy thou , if while the door is open thou be found ready to go in : woe , if when the door be shut , thou hast thy preparation to make , thy graces to seek . bethink , what you will either wish or fear when you come to dye , and when you will say , this should have been done , &c. let it now be done . . rise speedily after every fall by sound repentance , and a fresh recourse to the blood of christ , covenant of grace , and his intercession . lie not secure in any sin into which thou art lapsed : take heed of delaying and trifling , when thy particular repentance should be exercised . renew thy covenant , and after thy rising , deal faithfully with thy self and god , favour not thy sin , nor flesh , go to the quick , leave no corruption at the bottom ; if called to make restitution , to shame thy self before men by confession , stick not at it ; take the plainest course , that is the way of god : and let not any thought of shame , dishonour , or losse hinder it ; for the more it costs thee to rise from sin , the likelier it is thou art sound in thy conversion , and the more comfort wilt thou have ; otherwise the fears and pains of thy disease will be upon thee , when the through cure would have prevented it ; quarrel not at any man's reproof , though they miscarry in it , have mentioned thy faults with passion , &c. take that which is good and be thankful . and after every fall sit not down in perpetual distress , but , as christ takes the honour of thy cure , take thou the comfort of thy cure , when recovered . see thou art truly risen by repentance , and returned to him whom thou hast dishonoured — . thy care must be to see thou be sincere in thy return , and then walk comfortably . see that satan make thee not to walk so as to rob thee of thy comfort , and god of his honour . thus having given you twenty directions , i shall reduce all to these eight particulars . . do not think , strength of grace will be got with ease : you must do that , that in other things is done for the attaining of strength , increase , and confirmation . a man cannot attain knowledge in law , physick , or any art , without studying , diligence , unwearied labour and patience , through that time that is necessary to attain it . set your selves to the reading of the scripture , and other good books ; study good truths : think not to attain mastery in a day : and if ever such a conceit come into your minds , that you are strong confirmed christians , do not easily entertain it : there must be time , industry , and diligence : ordinarily , suspect the conceit you may have of strength and confirmation ; you must grow by degrees : god's method is , to begin like a grain of mustard-seed : we are not born men . labour in the proper means with patience : infused gifts are given according to the manner of acquiring them : god gives , as if our acquisition did attain it : never think of having this without patience , labour , and diligence . . grow up in the church of god , and under his officers , and ordinances , and among his people : do not transplant your selves from the garden and vineyard of the lord , if you will thrive : no prospering in the commons where weeds will choak , &c. keep within the church of god , in the communion of his people , among his servants , under the guidance of his ministers , for that is the duty of ministers to bring up , train up , and help the weak ones , till they grow to be strong : they are to be god's nurses , and helpers of the weak in the house of god : do not think to prosper by breaking over the hedge , under pretence of any right of holiness whatsoever , following any party that would draw you to seperation . . make it , amongst others , the principal study of your lives , to study the love of god in the redeemer , the nature of the new covenant , and the infinite goodness revealed in the face of a mediator : how it was his design to attract the hearts of men to the love of god , by revealing his infinite love in the redeemer ; unto what end christ came for , even to represent god's goodness in sinners hearts , of their being reconciled to him , and ravishing them with his love . study the glory and ravishing love of god , and unspeakable goodness in a redeemer . . live not by sense , or upon wordly hopes , nor in the exercise of it : see that you live a mortified life : take heed of glutting your selves with creatures , or letting your hearts out to any creature , or letting any creature be too dear to you : live not too much on any sensible thing , or upon any worldly hopes or expectations . shut your eyes to the world ; let not your desires run out to the world , and live as much as you can upon the 〈◊〉 to come . . let 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 - suspition alwayes make you fear●… of temp●… , and keep you out of the devils way : would you keep your standing , grow better and strong in grace ? let not the pride of your hearts , or confidence of your strength , make you to meet among any unlawfull communion , see any enticing spectacle , or thrust your selves upon temptation : you are never safe , if you thrust your selves upon temptation : think with your self , my weakness is great , i must not gaze upon this entising object , lest my heart take fire ; i am not so strong as to be able to stand against such , &c. . when you cannot attain unto that heat of internal affection you should , be sure to walk uprightly with god : sin not wilfully ; keep your garments clean : set his law before your eyes , sin not wilfully for a world : be but found in the way of duty , and god will blesse you , and meet you in that way : be as exact in obedience , as if you had that frame of soul you desire . . in a special manner , keep all your bodily senses and desires in subjection ; mortifie the flesh , keep under your carnal desires in due subjection to the spirit ; let none of your senses take the reins out of your hands : keep a dominion over your senses . . lastly , all your life long be longing to die : let the work of your life be , to learn to dye . consider what necessity to the safety and comfort of death it is to consider frequently , what assaults will be made upon dying men , that you may every day fortifie against it ; to consider what graces and duties will be most needfull and usefull then , that you may be most conversing with , and exercising those graces and duties . he that hath well learn'd to die , is no weak christian. the strength of your grace lies in the exercise of these things , faithfully practise them and you will stand when others fall : you will have comfort , when others cast away their comfort ; you will die in peace , when others die in horrour . mr. jenkins's prayer at christ-church , iuly . . most blessed and holy lord god , thou art infinitely beyond our apprehensions , who wast infinitely ●…ppy before the world was made , and wantest none o●… thy 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 their services 〈◊〉 make thee more excellent , t●…en thou art in thy self : we d●…ily w●…nt thee , thou never wantest us , thou a 〈◊〉 to make use of ordinance●… , ministers , s●…baths , as thy institutions to accomplish 〈◊〉 bring about the great work of thy glory and ma●…s s●…lvation , yet lord thou dost not need them , thy spirit is not made ●…fficacious by these things , but it is that that makes these things 〈◊〉 , though thou art pleased to tye us to them , when we may 〈◊〉 them and duly en●…y them yet thou dost not tye thy self to them : we desire in these our add●…esses t●… eye the happiness of saints that depends ●…on him that depends upon none . we are here in thy presence by thy goodness and grace ? o●… whether should we go but to thee , and how should we come but by thee , o●… strengthen our saith , kill ou●… corruptions inflame our love , give us assurance of thy love to our souls : o●… that god would teach us ●…ow to pray , that we may tast●… and se●… how ●…ood the lord is t i●… day , that ou●… souls may be filled 〈◊〉 with marrow , the we may by ou●… own experience be able to say , it is good fo●… us to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ●…o god , and that a day in thy house is better th●…n a thousand elsewhere : that there may be a comm●…ion between us and god , let there be a di●…union between us and si●… : we confess we brou●…ht sin enough into the world with ●…s , to cause the●… to withdraw thy ble●…ed self from us , and to cast such unprofitable servants as we are into utt●…r dark●…ss , we have bin 〈◊〉 long time in thy school , and ye●… how dull are 〈◊〉 we mig●… have bin teachers of others , but we need our selves be tau●…ht w●…ich a●…e the fi●…st principles of the oracles of god , we l●…ve less ●…en we know , and we do less then we love , we have neither done 〈◊〉 good , nor received that good which we should , or might have done and received : we have been trees that have cumbered the 〈◊〉 i●… thy orchard , but we have brought fo●…th no fruit . ●…o unto us that we have not known the day of our visitation ; many of us have one foot in the grave , and yet we have lived without god in the wo●…ld , we are wise in every thing , but in our own salvation ; we live as if ●…ell were a priviledge : those of us that have some knowledge of thee , have great cause to repent that we have walked so unworthily of god : which of us pray continually , and fervently , or live the life of faith : we confess we n●…ither take our afflictions humbly , nor our mercies thankfully , nor ●…ant our comforts contentedly , nor fill up our relations fruitfully : we live as if hell were a scare-crow , as if all the threatnings of thy word were an empty noise , as if there were a either s●…ess in heaven , nor bitterness in hell . when we come into thy pr●… , 〈◊〉 are our hearts ? what earthly dispositions do w●… 〈◊〉 a●… with 〈◊〉 ? the sins of our prayers cry louder then the supp●… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 prayers , what hypocrisie and formality cleaves unto us . ●…f thou dost not look upon the iniquities of our holy things with an eye of pitty , w●…t 〈◊〉 ●…ecome of us ? o lord be pleased to smell a sw●…t ●…avour of ●…est and peace through thy dear son. o lord , it is onely his precious 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 can sprinkle our hearts ▪ and quiet our consciences , and no other thing : we do renounce all our own works , and we cry in our selves , un●…one , undone . it is through thy beloved son that we are accepted , and therefore to that end bring us to him by a saving operation on thy part , and by our lively trust through the covenant of thy grace on our part : let there be such a unity between christ and us , that all the power of bell may not be able to separate us from thee : speak peace to our hearts , sti●…l our consciences , 〈◊〉 i have received a sacrifice for you , i shall bef●…iend y●…u : i will be just and faithful to ●…or ●…ive your sins , my lawis ●…elly fulfilled by another , though broken by you : my justice is fully satisfied ●…y another , though provoked by y●…u ; my wrath is ceased by the means of another , though ince●…sed by you . oh lord , what a cordial would this be ●… ca●…st not thou amongst this great multitude of people espy some that through the spirit of thy son would worship thee in ●…ine ow●… way : speak peace to every such soul. is there any soul before thee o lord to whom thou hast given the grace of desire ▪ o lord give them grace according to their desire : and thou which di●…t regard us when we were running from the●… : do not reject us now we are drawing near th●…e , and thou which bidst us believe by the command of thy ●…ord , help us to believe by the operation of thy spirit , draw us that we may be able to follow thee : thy loving kindness is better then life . some do say who will shew us any good ? but lord , lif●… thou up the light of thy countenance upon us , and that will glad our hearts more then in the time when increaseth corn , or wine , or oyl let it be s●…ir above head when it is dirty below : l●…t us see one contrary in another , let us confute an eye of sense with an eye of ●…aith , and when we come to see nothing here that can gratifie our senses , let us have something to quiet our souls . we would ●…ain be at war with sin that we may be at peace with thee : though we cannot return as much as we have received , yet help us to return as much as we can : give us repentance unto life , repentance from dead works : a mourning far greater for the remembrance of sin then we had pleasure in the committing of sin , those secret distempers in our souls , that no eye sees but thine , let us cry out , wretched men that we are , who shall deliver us from this body of sin and as the fear ●…f condemnation doth decrease , so let the fear of transgression in crease : and because o lord that thou hast not made us to ble●… with thy greatness o lord make us to blush with thy goodness ; let us as truly desire that heaven would enter into us in the way of holiness here , as we desire to enter into heaven in the way of happiness hereafter . let us see that our kindness to sin is cruelty to our saviour , let not that live quietly one minute with us that would not let christ live : let us see there is nothing small , by which th●… great god is 〈◊〉 , and an immortal soul is damned : we are to be in the w●…rld but ●…r a while , to take a 〈◊〉 or two and b●… go●… : oh that we mi●…ht make it the business of our life to get into christ , though it be the scorn of men and burdensom●… to nature , yet this is that which will 〈◊〉 us p●…ace at the la●… : let us be what we profess our selves to be , let us love christ and evangelically keep his commandements , let us live by faith , let us keep thy commandements , let us be above t●…e wo●…ld in the would , above the love of life , and above the fear of death , let n●…t t●…e smil●… of the wo●…ld allure us , nor the frowns thereof affright us from thee , but in all these things let us ●…e more then conquerours th●…ough iesus christ. let us love him much whom we cannot love too much ; ●…elp us to be above the power of hell , let us ev●…r say , my soul it is go●…d for me to draw nigh to god. let us ●…e willing rather to be saved with a few than go to hell in a crowd , let us live as if eternity were long , and life but sho●…t : let us thrive in holiness , and be brought 〈◊〉 to t●…y self by every dispensation ; let us in t●…i our day ●…w the 〈◊〉 that concern our peace , before they be hid f●…om ou●…●…s , and know the time of our visitation : and though god suffer l●…ng , he will strike at last . o●… lord , bow the heavens , and come down among us at this time , and be with the unwo●…thiest of thy servants , and g●…e unto i●… a door of utterance , and to this great people a door of ●…t a●…e , and let them be all ●…aught of god , and let them mo●…e truly finde that t●…e great god is teaching to the heart , whe●… that a weak worm it speaking to the ear , let all the work be done by thee , an●… let all th●… praise redound unto thee , and let ●…im that is with us , be grea●… the●… he that is in the world , behold us in the son of thy love ; smell a swee●… savour of rest , on these our poor prayers , speak peace t●…●…ur consciences ▪ rebuke the tempter , t●…d him under our ●…eet shortly , ●…aise us up to newness of life , let us ●…emember wh●…n that whic●… is perfect is come , that which is imperfect shall be done away : he●…r us , an●…●…elp us , through our dear redee●… : let us live for him here , and ●…ith him hereafter , and all for his sake , whom not seeing we love , in whom believing we rejoyce with joy unspeakable , and full of glory : to whom with thee , and thy spirit , be glory and honour , now and for ever . amen . mr. jenkins's forenoon sermon . heb. . . part of that verse . of whom the world was not worthy . the apostle in this excellent chapter , that by some is deservedly called a little book of martyrs , doth discover to us the triumph of faith : the noble victory of this excellent grace against all the difficulties , oppositions it meets withall , therein sets down a threefold excellency of faith , one is , that it doth assent unto truth , though never so improbable . . that it doth put men upon duties , though never so irrational , or against carnal interest . . that it enables us to suffering , though never so afflicting and difficult ; and this third part is that which my text speaks of . these worthy men of god they overcame all the bitterness of the world , as well as the sweetness of it . now in these verses the apostle doth these two things . . he here sets down the greatness and the smartness of their sufferings , which are by some learned men reduced to three heads . . those sufferings that were to tempt them and to drive them from god , and their holy profession by those pains and tortures they were to undergo . . those sufferings they underwent in dying , and the cruelty of those deaths that were laid upon them . . their sufferings in reference to their wandring and leaving of their worldly comforts rather then they would loose god. but we need not be so curious in the distribution of their sufferings it may suffice us that they were steadfast in the midst of all , and would never be brought to forsake god and his truths for any of them . . you have here the ex●…cies of the sufferers , and that is here in that expression which i shall , god willing , make the subject of my discourse this morning , that these men , these persons when they were under all the distresses and troubles that they were under from the world , yet they were such of whom the world was not worthy . brethren , this excellency of these saints and servants of god under their trouble is considerable in my text two ways , that we may proceed clearly and distinctly . . in reference unto the world , unto the wicked , and so it is said their excellency was so great , that the world was not worthy of them . . it is discovered from that estimation that judgement that the apostle doth here pass upon them , who tells us that he accounted them to be such as though they were under all these troubles and distresses , yet they were a people of whom the world was not worthy . i shall pass by the former of these , and onely mention it as it falls in with the latter , and that is this . the due estimate that this blessed apostle doth raise upon this holy persecuted company of saints , when they were under all their troubles , yet this holy man of god who was enlightned by the spirit of god , and so was able to pass a right estimate , and due judgement upon things and persons , he tells us the world was not worthy of th●…m , and then from the second i draw this observation . that a godly man ▪ one truly regenerated , doth see an extraordinary beauty , worth , and excellency in the people of god in the bitterest of all persecutions and troubles that doth b●…fall th●…m , or that a godly man , a gracious heart , one that hath spiritual spectacles doth see an excellency and worth in the people of god in the midst of all trouble and persecution that can hefall them . i know you judge this to be both a necessary and seasonable point ▪ in the prosecution of it , i shall first handle it doctrinally , and then come to those profitable and useful improvements of it , by way of application , that the point deserves . . for the doctrinal explication of it , two things must be spoken to . . wherein the high esteem of a gracious heart doth appear , wherein it doth discover it self to the saints and people of god in their sufferings . . whence it is , and how it comes to passe , that godly men have this high and honourable esteem of ▪ the saints and people of god in this trouble and distress of theirs . for the first of these wherein it doth appear that they have so high and excellent an estimation of them ▪ i shall give it you in five or six particulars . . it doth appear in this , in that they are not ashamed of them in their troubles ; they are not ashamed to own either their persons , or the faith that they do professe in their troubles : the s●…ciery of the people of god , and the fellowship of their very faith ▪ and their professio●… , is that ●…hat is highly respected by a gracious heart , let the saints lie under never so great distresse : you shall seé this concerning moses in the . and verses of this chapter , th●…t he ch●…se rather to suffer affliction with the pe●…ple of god , then to enjoy the 〈◊〉 of si●… for a season : the meaning is this , he rather chose to be looked upon as an israelite , and with them to be afflicted as an israelite , then to enjoy all the pleasures of pharaohs court. the profession of the true god , and the owning of the true faith that israel was to stand up for and to own , this was that that moses could not desert ; and thence it was that he would not desert their persons and society ; and therefore you may re●…d it at large in the story of exodus , that he went and visited his brethren when they were in their afflictions , and their brick kills : so that there is the first thing ; they are not ashamed of their faith or society . a second discovery , wherein they show so great a valuation and estimation of the saints and people of god , is this , they sympathize with them , and have a fell wfeeling with them in their sufferings : if it goes ill with the church and people of god , all the comforts they have are as nothing to them , if one member suffers all the rest suffers ; and if i●… goes well with the church of god , it goes well with them . you have an excellent example of this in nehemiah , in the first and second chapters of his book , that when that holy man had the greatest favour of one of the greatest princes then upon earth , yet he looks with a s●…d countenance , because of the afflictions of the people of god. i might give you many instances of this ; that is a famous one in psalm verse . if i forget thee , oh ierus●…lem , let my right hand forget her cunning : a common resembance of this is very good : as it is with two strings in an instrument that are tuned together if one be struck at the other trembles : so if one servant of christ be in a suffering condition , another suffers with him ; and this , as one saith , is the damp of all a believers worldly delights , he suffers with him , if not by him , he transfers their troubles to his own soul. . herein is discovered the high valuation that the people of god have of suffering saints , in that they can plead for them , and take their parts , when they are never so much despised , dispraised , abused , and out of favour . that i may give you some clear instances of this , you may see it in the case of ionathan , how he pleads for good david before his cruel father saul , though saul by reason thereof , calls him a cursed son , and fell foul on his mother , telling him he was the son of a wicked woman . so you shall see it in the case of ●…sther , that though it was death for her to go in to the king , and plead for her people , nay it was death by a law , yet saith she , if i perish i perish ; i am resolved , let what will come of it , in i will go , and speak a good word for the people of god , i can but die , but i cannot be silent . . herein is discovered the high valuation that the people of god have of suffering saints , in that they will relieve them , and help them , and supply them with all those needful good things that they can ; and if they cannot do for them what they would and should do , yet they will do what they are able to do . you have a famous instance of this in ebed-melech , in ieremiah . verse . and so on ; that when the king and his princes was so angry with ieremiah , as that they had thrown him into a dungeon , this good man doth nor only go to plead with the king for him , but would never leave him until he had gott●…n him some enlargement : and at verse . he took with him thirty men , and went into the house of the king , under the treasury , and took thence old cast clout●… , and old rotten rags , and let them down by cords into the dungeon to ieremiah . and ebed-melech the ethi●…pian said unto ieremiah , put now these old cast clouts , and rotten rags , under thine arm-holes , under the cords . mark how witty this good man was in his loving contrivances , for fear the cords should hurt the arm-holes of this good man , he lines them with rags , though indeed they were lined more with love than with rags , but these ro●…en rags was not fo●…tten by god , and therefore god pro●…ises that he should have a merciful deliverance , and that he should not partake of the sword , and those other miseries that were to fall upon that people for abusing of jeremiah : you have another instance of obadiah in kings . king ahab was a great persecutor of the saints and people of god , now at the . verse , when jezabel cut off the prophets of the lord , obadiah took an hundred prophets and hid them by fi●…ty in a cave , and fed them with bread and water : i will not undertake to prophesie to you this day , but it may come to that , bread and water may be very good commons for an honest prophet , and faithful servant of iesus christ : for this was their condition , while the false prophets and idol priests was feasting at iezabels table : here note the gracious disposition of good obadiah , as well as the providence of god in this act. i will name you one instance more , and it is a most excellent one that will make all the people in the world in love with gods saints , especially gods ministers above all the rest , it is in tim. . , , . you sh●…ll there finde that blessed paul , the excellentest servant that ever christ had , one of them in the world , he was thrown into bonds and imp●…isonments , all forsook him , but saith he a●… verse . the lord give mercy to the house of onesiphorus , for he oft refreshed me , and was not ashamed of my chain : ●…ow did he shew it ? why at ver . . when he was at rome ( which was the place where paul died , and where the cruellest nero ( as some conceive ) then ruled ) yet notwithstanding , nero was my enemy , and cesar resolved my death , and all men were against me , this good man sought me out : [ he did not meet me in a by ▪ lane , or a narrow corner , where he could not misse me ] but he sought me out , and was troubled until he could find me , now saith paul , the lord grant unto him that he may finde mercy of the lord in that day : i profess sirs , i had rather have the prayers of paul , then all the preferments of pharaohs court : it is the greatest treasure thou canst have in all thy house ▪ to have the prayers of gods people ; it is more then to have all the preferments that thou canst possibly have in the world : and you that have shewed your great and liberal love in the late collection to some of gods servants , i do from my soul blesse god for it , and pray that you that have been willing to part with pebbles for christ , may receive pearls from him ; truly sirs , y●…a , that whatever you have done for his , may be ten thousand times made up by him , mercy in that day , and that you may have that will be something worth . shall i adde another discovery of the love of the people of god to other saints in their troubles and sufferings , and that is their great and deep supplication to god for them , never do they go to pray unto god , but zion is in their thoughts : i am confident it is so with some , and am perswaded it is so with all , they never pray that god would give them their daily bread , but they pray likewise that his kingdom may come : david was a man under great trouble , as in the reading of the . psalm ; i believe you will finde he was under the greatest and forest troubles that ever was , under trouble of conscience , soul-trouble , which is the soul of trouble , and yet they could not make him forget zion , as you may see at the . verse of that psalm , do good in thy good pleasure unto zion : and though they sit in cieled houses , yet so long as it is ill with the people of god , they must pray , and if they cannot overcome men with their prayers ( which yet they must endeavour ) yet they will endeavour to overcome god with their prayers , and ierusalem is never out of their thoughts when they come to pray to god : and therefore as one observes , though the sufferings of the people of god be precious in his sight , so also in the sight of his saints too . i come now to open the second thing , to shew you whence it is that there is this high estimation in the people of god , of the people of god , when they lie under their troubles , and there are two heads of reasons for it . first in regard of those people of god that do behold their troubles , and them under their troubles : and , secondly , in regard of those people of god that are under their troubles , and thus beheld by them . first , in regard of those people of god that are thus , that do behold those that are under these troubles and distresses , in regard of themselves , they have this high valuation of them , and that in these three regards . . the people of god that look upon others in the time of their trouble , they are such as though differenced from them in regard of their outward estate , they may be honourable themselves , and well themselves , yet they have an interest in the same head , and belong to the same body that they do , they are not wooden legs , not glasse eyes of that body , but they are real , and true members , they are not in christ by way of visible profession , but by way of invisible implantation ; now , if so , saith the apostle , if one member suffers , another doth , so that now they are interested in the same common saviour , and belong to the same common head , and therefore christ tells you he is called the saviour of the body , and the head of the whole : and faith that lays hold upon christ , is called the like precious faith , because the faith of one believer doth as truly lay hold upon christ , though not so strongly as the strongest faith doth , and in this regard it is that they set such a high valuation upon the people of god : outward disproportion as to their birth , and education , and preferment puts no difference in a spiritual sense between believer and believer . a king and a beggar ▪ all one in christ ; a iew , or a greek ; a great schollar , or a poor ignorant man , as to their spiritual state all one , all made happy the same way : all are of the same head , as to their spiritual relation and condition , they are all under one 〈◊〉 of happiness , though may be on shall have a greater and another a lesser degree , yet they are , as to the kind of it , all m●…de partakers of one salvation . and then another thing is this , because they look at spiritual excellencies , and 〈◊〉 able to discern spiritual excellencies : they have a renewed judgement , and a new eye , as they look upon their old sins with new eyes , so they look upon their company with new eyes ; those waies and practices that they looked upon before as lovely and excellent , now they look upon as vile and base , prov. . . and those that they looked upon as vile and base , they look upon as lovely and excellent : those that they cared not for their company , they look upon as more excellent then their neighbour , as david saith , in psalm . my goodness , lord , extendeth not to thee , but to the saints that are in the earth , and to the excellent , in whom is my deligh●… : here was now the renewed estimation that god bestowed upon davids judgement , to see these the excellent ones of the world , which worldlings despised : a carnal eye sees no glory , but in carnal objects and persons ; worldly men see no beauty , but in worldly men , they bless the covetous whom the lord abhors , and they will speak well of a man when he doth good to himself , when he is in his worldly grandeur and glory , but now a spiritual eye , he discerns spiritual excellency in the meanest saint . brethren , observe this notion , it is an easie thing for a man to discern glory and lustre in a picture , or the like , but not so easie for a men to understand true work : now a skilful eye discerns a great deal of curiosity in the holiness of the lives and wayes of gracious hearts , but wicked men want this way of discerning ; there is a workmanship in the people of god. you are his workmanship , s●…ith the apostle , now this workmanship of god , so far as it is expressed in the life , a godly man is very much taken withal , not with the worldly grandeur and gaudiness of a child of god , but with the workmanship , the spiritual excellency that is in him : a beast can see the shining of a diamond , but knows not the worth of it , it will rather lick up a lock of hay then a diamond , though of never so great a value : a wicked man wants a spirit of discerning : the four monarchs of the earth are expressed by four beasts , which shews their cruelty , not their curiosity , in observing that of god which may be observed : as a child is taken with the gayness of his lesson , but a learned man is taken with the learning of his lesson : so a wicked man is taken with the gayness and trappings of religion , but a godly man is taken with the spiritual excellency that is in religion . thirdly , a child of god is one that imitates god , he esteems and judges of the people of god as god judges of them : as a childe you shall see , he esteems as his father esteems , if the father cannot endure to have such a one come to his house , if the child sees that man come , he will not love him , and so if the father loves such a man , the childe will love him too : as now the courtiers , they follow the example of a king , and whom the king favours they honour and cringe too ; why so whom god favours , a godly man favours , god doth not judge of men as men do , by his gay apparel , or gold ring , or great birth , alas , he that wants bread is more highly esteemed of in gods sight then such , and so he is in a godly mans account : a godly man is conformable to god , and a follower of god as a dear child ; now you shall see what an estimate god puts upon his people : god is more taken with one humble broken hearted sinner , and one humble contrite breathing of a soul , then with all the gold and silver in solomons temple , not many noble , not many mighty doth god set his heart upon , but where he sees his image ; he who hath the image of god , he hath the love of god ; there is the first reason in regard of the people of god , that are beholders of others . a second reason is taken from the people of god that are beheld : and here i shall name you five or six considerations . . the people of god , they that are truly such in the midst of all their present distresses , let them be what they will , yet their end shall be happy : now men do not regard men according to what they have in present possession , but according to what they shall have ; the poorest man here in the world that is rich in faith , he shall be rich in glory and honour , the people of god are heirs of glory , and therefore they are said to be heirs of god , and co-h●…irs with christ , john . . beloved , now are we the sons of god , and it doth not yet appear what we shall be ; the people of god are to be looked upon according to what they shall be , not what they are , here they are princes , though under a disguise , they are coming , though not come to their crown , those , saith a saint , that are now scorned , reproached and buffeted , and libell'd , shall shine in heaven , when christ shall appear , they shall appear with him in glory , they are heires born to great estates . the second reason is this , they are for the present very useful and beneficial to the world , they are those for whose sake the world was made , & they are the very pillars of the world , to hold it from shattering about your ears ; they are the great common blessings of the world , as the sun and stars are the common blessings of the world , and fire and water , so these are the common blessing●… of mankind for which he will spare the world , those that are pulled down by the world , are they that keep the world from being pulled down ; they are the soul of the world , the wicked are but the carcass of it ; and if god had gathered in all the world of his people once , the world should not continue one hour , as sodom was destroyed when lot was taken out . third reason is , the highness and excellency of their performances , and of all the good things they do ; there is a worth in every holy work , in every supernatural employment , in every holy prayer , in every thing a godly man doth there is such a goodness in the work , that all the wealth in the indies cannot recompence ; and therefore saith luther , i had ratber do the least truly good work then obtain all the conquests and victo●…ies of cesar and alexander . now if their good works shine so before men , is it possible a gracious heart should see it and not be taken with it ? there is nothing doth so much take with holy men as holy performances : and therefore as a man that is learned , when he sees another learned man make a learned oration , he wishes he could do so too ; so a godly man , when he sees another man can pray and live holily . oh , saith he , that i could do so too , and be so holy as he is . . a fourth reason is , the present priviledges of the people of god , not only what they have in reversion , but their present priviledges : why but are the priviledges of the people of god so great ? yea ▪ the very present enjoyments of the saints and people of god , the explanation of them would deserve many sermons ; they shall be freed from all evil , there shall nothing hurt them ; their lusts may be destroyed , but their souls shall never be destroyed . what a priviledge is this for a man to be shot-free ; do with him what you will you can never hurt him ; you may disgrace him , you may torture him , kill him , but yet you cannot hurt him ; whatever befals them turns to their benefit ; they may be afflicted , but not hurt by affliction ; the greatest hurt the world doth to them tends to their greatest good : worldlings may take away their head , but they cannot take away their crown : there is nothing of evil can be evil to him that hath a good god : this a child of god hath for the present , and not only so , but there is the real communication of a saving interest in all that is good ; all that god is , all that he hath , and all that he doth is theirs : is not this a glorious priviledge ? the power of god is his to protect him , his love his , so as to be set upon him ; the righteousness of god his , so as to acquit him from his sins ; the very righteousness of god is a very great blessing and happiness to the children of god , and they may not only appeal to the bowels of gods mercy , but to the bar of his justice . so that now i say , all that god is , is his ; the faithfulness of god is his , in keeping his promises ; the care of god , in defending and protecting of him , and so all the providences of god , all that he doth shall tend to the good of his people : as he saith , all is yours , life is yours , and death is yours , and all these things shall do you good : psalm . . that is a rare scripture , all the wayes of god are mercy [ oh sweet ] and truth [ oh very comfortable ] to them that are in covenant with him . mercy , so that they are enough , gods providences shall do them good : and truth , so as that they shall certainly do them good . in one word , earth , heaven , and god and all shall be laid out to do them good ; is not this a great priviledge ? in this world they may go to god and tell him wherein they are troubled and pained , or afflicted , and they are never so welcome to god in their petitions , as when they ask most from him ; when they come to ask riches , and the like , god will give them to them so far as they may be for their good , but so great is the priviledge of a believer , that god doth delight in him most , when he doth ask most from him , and he will give him whatever he desires that may make them good , or do them good , and may be for his good . god is exceedingly taken with them when they ask peace , and pardon ; peace of conscience , and pardon of sin , strength against sin , power to overcome their l●…sts , and to withstand temptation : the people of god may have from him all that they want , or can regularly wish for . . here is something more considerable , these people that lye under troubles and distresses , they are such now as have an incomparable near and dear relation unto god , they are the elect of god set apart for him , and though god hath a common propriety in , and relation to all the world , yet he hath a peculiar relation to his people , and therefore they are called his jewels , his house , his garden , and his portion ▪ and indeed , as god is his peoples portion , so his people are his portion , they are those that god hath laid out a great deal for , and that he hath been at a great deal of cost to purchase . in one word they are the glory of god , they are his spouse , children , house , treasure , portion vineyard , garden , they are his all , can we look upon these now , and not look upon them as excellent . lastly , they are such as have the image of god set upon them , imprinted upon them , and all the good they do , it is an immanation or ray from that incomparable holiness that seed of god that is in them , you read concerning righteousness and holiness that we are renewed in it according to his image , now i remember one observes excellently upon this portion of scripture an image doth not represent any under excellency in a man , but it doth represent something that is eminent about his body . if you were to take the picture of a man , you would not take the picture of his back , or of his feet , or hands , but of his face : the people of god they discover gods bounty indeed , in some regards as they are men , and have wit , and wealth , and worldly dignity , but this is not the image of god , the image of god is that which is the representation of 〈◊〉 excellency , as the power of god is the hand of god , and the wisdom●… of god is the eye of god : so the holiness of god that is the 〈◊〉 of god , now the people of god ●…re his beauty , in 〈◊〉 they are the representation of his holiness , 〈◊〉 . . be ye holy as your heavenly 〈◊〉 is hol●… . rom . . 〈◊〉 likeness to god is a likeness to him in the 〈◊〉 of his excellency , in having the divine nature , in having ●…he life of ●…od , in having the glo●…y of god which is grace , and there is more of god in grace then in all the works that ever god did in the world , there is much of god seen in the making of the sun , moon , and stars , but in giving a man a new nature , in changing his heart , and sanctifying of him , and giving him a principle of regeneration , and the making of him become a blessed saint , and from a cursed nature to sit him for heaven ; god shews more the excellency of his name in this , then if he should have made ten thousand suck visible transient w●…rlds as we look upon . thus i have given you the doctrinal explication of the words , now give me leave to make some little application , and i would raise these following inferences . . what excellency shall there be seen in the people of god in heaven at the day of judgement , if there be now such a beauty upon them , are they now so amiable when they are in their rags , what shall they be then in their robes , are they now so amiable upon a dunghill , what shall they then be upon a throne ; and therefore saith he , the lo●…d jesus christ shall be admir'd in all them that believe , as a house keeper is admir'd in his entertainment , so at the day of judgement the lord jesus will so cloath this people with glory , that he shall be wondred at . oh what a head is he that hath such members , that are so beautifull ! what a lord is he that hath such attendance ; and therefore remember , the next world is the day of the people of gods appearance , here they are in their non appearance , it doth not yet appear what they shall be , the very wicked themselves shall admire them . . i gather from hence what we are to 〈◊〉 of those that have no regard either for religion or religious ones , either for godly men or godliness any further then it is adorn'd with outward beauty , and 〈◊〉 ornament , there are some that if religion and the ways of god be persecuted , and frown'd upon by the great men of the world , and be not lookt upon with a favourably eye from authority , farewell religion then , these love the childe for the nurses sake . when religion is in fa●…hion , then they can come to gods people , and ●…ringe to them , and the like . but as the shot deer when i●… hath the arrow sticking in its side , all the rest will run from it : so when godly men have an arrow in their side , and are under persecution and oppression , then farewell religion . what is this but to look upon religion as inferiour to worldly grandeur , and dignity . if i love religion for prosperity , and for the countenance of authority , it is certain i love these things more their religion . all that i shall say is this , thou shalt never 〈◊〉 communion with those in their glory , whom thou dost undervalue for their grace , if religion here be your contempt , happiness shall never be your reward , and if the people of god be too bad for you here , they shall be too 〈◊〉 for you 〈◊〉 . . i would note the excellency of holiness , and religion , and godliness above all worldly excellencies whatsoever . if a man be in reproaches and persecutions , he is never the better for all his worldly endowments , these all leave him , but now holiness , the excellency of it lyes in this , that it draws forth an admiration for its excellency notwithstanding all opposition . set a gyant in a valley , he is a gyant still ; a pearl is a pearl though on a dunghill ; and a holy man is a holy man , though never so much disgraced and contemned by men . but now let a wicked man be never so high and honourable , this man is a base man in the account of god , and in the sight of gods people . dan. . . it is said of antiochus epiphanes , who was accounted the admir'd great prince of his time , yet he is called a vile person . and that iohn the baptist who had a jeathern girdle , and locusts and wilde honey was his food , yet christ saith of him he was the honourablest man born of women ; and on the other side , when herod was cried up , the voice of god and not of man , what was he in the account of god and the spirit , why he is struck dead , and made meat for worms . there is a silent majesty and dignity in reproached piety , when there is a silent ignominy and baseness in advanced wickedness ; a poor minister of jesus christ when he is cast out by the world , and thinks he shall be counted the scum of the world , yet let him not be troubled ; as it was with christ , it is with the servants of christ , the lord jesus when he was here upon earth , no man under so much ignominy , and reproach , and persecution , yet all this while jesus christ had a secret glory that shined through all these ignominies and disgraces , you read he was laid in a manger ; but then he was worshipped , sometimes you shall read he had no money , but yet then he could command that a fish should be caught , and he could have money , somtimes a weary , and yet at that very time converts a woman . look through the whole course of his life , there was a secret glory under all his ignominy , when he was brought before his enemies , yet then they fell down before him ; take heed of dishonouring god. thus it is with the people of god , they are in distress and poverty , but there is a secret dignity that beams forth ; as the apostle saith , the spirit of god and glory rest upon you ; if you be persecuted for righteousness sake blessed are you ; on the other side , when rich men are in high esteem is there not a secret disgrace to be in a high place , and yet to be a swearer , a drunkard , a whoremaster . . you see the way of it , how a man may get a good name : would you be as those holy men are said to be that obtained a good report through faith ? i will tell thee the way , be a holy man , take heed of sinning , take heed of dishonouring god , this will make thee that thy name shall never rot , and god will have thee in everlasting remembrance . . i note from hence the certain happiness of those beholders that do see this excellency and worth in the people of god under worldly contempt , and under worldly ignominy and disgrace : for the comfort of these let me tell them , if there be any thing in the world a sign of a gracious heart it is this , to love holiness , for holiness sake when it is advanced is good : but to love holiness when it is upon a dunghil , and is spit upon and persecuted , that man shows the truth of grace , and the strength of grace too : it is a sign not only of a true sight , but of a strong sight , to pierce so as to see a godly man beautiful in sufferings , and remember this for certain , the lord will have an eye to thee . there is a great deal of comfort may come to thy soul in all thy distresses , here is a ground of comfort . first , in thy infirmities : dost thou love holiness when it is compassed about with sorrows , and troubles , and persecutions ? certainly christ will see the truth of thy grace in the midst of all thy infirmities , and he will know a little of his own in the midst of a great deal of ours ; but then in our outward trouble there is comfort ▪ do you think if you regard not gods people in their sufferings , that he will regard you in your sufferings ? if you remember the godly poor , god will make your bed in your sickness , god will remember what you did at such a time , such a visit thou gavest to such a one of mine in pri●…on ▪ and such a time tho●… didst so ●…nd ●…o ; those that have k●…pt close to ●…od in their outward highness ▪ he will never c●…st them off for their lowne●…s ; you ●…an see nothing of grace in our selves , nothing but hypocrisie ; yet c●…st ●…ou say , lord , i love thee in thy image , i love the lord j●…s christ in his wo●…st 〈◊〉 , i love him in his members ; this hath brought many a servant of god comfort in the ●…wangs of his conscience : but then there is abundant comfort to the people of god at the last day , when they shall appear before all the world , when they that have persecuted christ , and his church , and ●…eople , do fear and tremble , yet then mayest thou say , remember , lord , what i have done , it is a token i am one that thou in●…endest good too , because thou hast kept me faithful to thee and thy cause : do you think a judge will condemn that man that hath saved the life of his dear w●…fe ? but when you shall appear before the judgement seat at the great day , and every pot of water , and every rag that thou h●…st given to the spouse of christ , shall be remembred , do you think he will not reward it . to conclude all , let me note but this one thing ▪ that now the people of god from hence should learn , and that is , not to be discouraged in any outward re●…roach or trouble that can befal them in this world ; remember at that very time god hath a good opinion of you , though you be never so mean and low in 〈◊〉 account of the world ; yet the saints of god , who are the only wise men in the world , these have a good opinion of you , and love you , and pray for you , and pitty you . i profess the love of one saint is that that makes amends to a gracious heart , for all the hatred and persecution that he endures from all the sinners in the world : and then remember , that even the wicked themselves will have a good opinion of you , when you do not comply with thei●… superstitious wayes and practises ; and if all this will not comfor●… you , remember your own consciences , which is as a thousand witnesses , will one day comfort you , and though you are under disgrace ▪ and contempt , and reproach from wicked men , yet remember , no man is a miserable man for any opinion another hath of him : so long as god keeps thee close and faithful to him , either thy conscience doth comfort thee , or it shall , and it is a good conscience that will give the best acquittance . and then to conclude all for thee , to have the whole number of god●… people to look upon thee to be an unworthy and vile man , i look upon it to be a greater disgrace , then to have all the ignominy and disgrace that the world can lay upon you ; remember , when godly men are ●…fraid of you , you have very much cause to be afraid of your self ; and remember , there is much reason for you to put you upon the looking and narrow enquiry into your own hearts and wayes ▪ when the people of god , that god hath given his spirit too , stands at a distance from you , and are afraid to come nigh you . mr. jenkins's afternoon sermon . exod. . , , , . and the angel of the lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush ; and he looked , and behold the bush burned with fire , and the bush was not consumed . and moses said , i will now turn aside and see this great sight , why the bush is not burnt . and when the lord saw that he turned aside to see , god called unto him out of the midst of the bush , and said , moses , moses , and he said , here am i , and he said , draw not nigh hither ; put off thy shooes from off thy feet , for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground . let us take a short view of the foregoing verses ; and that this may be the more useful and profitable ●…o us , we may take notice , that as in the former chapter ther●… is described moses's preservation to his future employment ; so in this chapter there is described his preparation , ●…nd his sitting for that employment , i. e. by a vision , or ra●…her a suitable apparition , in which god discovered unto moses his care of the people , of whom moses was to be a speedy deliverer . you have here in the word●… read unto you , the preparation afforded to moses for the great work , of being called to be israels deliverer , and in this preparation you may take notice of these three principal parts . . an apparition that is here presented to the view of moses , a burning , though not a consumed bush. . moses care to observe it , i will turn aside and see this great sight , why the bush is not burned . and then , . gods monitory precept , or admonition , which he afforded unto moses , when he was drawing near to see this wonder , in which we have principally considerable two parts . . this precept propounded , . negatively , that be should not draw near . . affirmatively , that he should put off his shooes from off his feet . . you have considerable the reason or argument , whereby god doth back this precept or admonition , i. e. because that place whereon he stood was holy ground , the time would fail me if i should go over all these parts , we shall only touch on the two former , the apparition which moses saw , and moses's desire to observe it , of which i shall only speak transitorily , and insist on the latter more fully which i chiefly intend . . for the apparition , or emblematical discovery of the estate of the church in the burning , and yet unconsumed bush. and herein take notice of three things . . the lowness and weakness of the church , represented by a bush . . the cruelties of the churches enemies signified and represented by fire . . the eminency of its preservation , though in the fire , yet unconsumed . and in this only take notice , that the church is compared to a bush for two reasons : ▪ in regard of its deformity , and blacknesse , and uncomlinesse . . in regard of its weaknesse and brittleness . the church is uncomly in regard of sin , and weak in regard of suffering , and god see●… it best that it should be thus with them to humble them , and to shew his goodnesse to accept them , and to love them , and make them long for their future beauty , and hereby god makes them more conformable to their head , hereby he makes them endeavour to look after inward beauty and glory , hereby he puts them on a life of faith , and takes them off from living by sense , and creature comforts , and from being entangled with creature comfort , and hereby he shows how little he regards the beauty and glory of this life , which he denies to the best of his people : and hereby he shows , that there is a better state of appearance and glory approaching ; and therefore the people of god are not to be censured under their blackness and deformity , either in regard of sin or suffering ; their happinesse is not to be judg'd by its outward appearance , because this life is but the obscurity of the church ; we see them like the tents of kedar , but we do not see how like the curtains of solomon they shall be . . the people of god should take heed of expecting that glory of this world , which is not promised to them , and to set their hearts on heaven . and you may see the reason , why wicked men stumble so much at the outside of god's worship because there is no outward bravery and beauty to allure them to the true worship . . the church is compared to a bush , in regard of its weaknesse and brittlenesse ▪ note , that it is not compar'd to a strong sturdy oke , but to a weak brittle bush. god loves to bring his church into a low and weak estate and condition ; as it is here compared to a bush , so other ▪ where to a vine , a dove , a lamb and a sheep , all weak creatures ▪ somtimes the church is said to be fatherless and destitute ; and as our lord jesus christ , the head of the church , was said to be weak , a worm and no man ; and as the apostle said , suffered through weaknesse . and this makes them to trust in god , and puts them to rest on his strength ; when we are weak , then are we strong , outward weaknesse will make us look the more to christ for spiritual strength ; the weaknesse of our state doth shew the spiritual strength god gives to his people for the upholding of them . and this weaknesse of his church doth exceedingly confound his enemies , when so weak a company shall be delivered not only against , but by the strength of men ; and hereby god doth gain to himselfe the greater glory in their deliverance , for remembering them in their weak estate . hereby the people of god , a●…e made the more thankfull , both for their preservation in , and deliverence from their powerfull adversaries . you ●…ee , here is a large field opened unto me , for the discoursing upon the church's weaknesse , which whether it be more sutable to the text , or to the times , i leave to you to judge . but , . consider the cruelty of their opposition : that is set forth and ●…epresented by the fire that burned in the bush. afflictions , and especially persecuting o●…es , are in scriptu●…e f●…equently set out by fire , as , the fiery tryal , the fire of affliction . this doth not onely discover the rage and cruelty of men , but also the benefit and utility that comes to the church by affliction ; for the afflictions of the church are not as consuming , but trying fire ; as the fire in a furnace is to gold , it only takes away the dross ; nor like the fire of hel , which hath heat without light , but the school of persecution hath light as well as heat , the school of affliction is the school ▪ of teaching , god teacheth his saints excellent lessons by the light of that fire , but i passe by that , i might now insist upon the third thing . — . consider the eminence of their preservation , it was not consumed ; the church of god was hot , but not altogether and wholly consumed ; let the fire be never so hot and spreading , the church of god shall have a being ; if the church be lesse in one place it will be greater in another ; what it loses in one place it gets in another ; and god will have a name among his people on earth ; a man may as well attempt to blow out the light of the sun with a pair of bellows , or batter it with snow-balls , as to root the church out of the world ; for it is impossible to root christ's church out of the world ▪ and if you take notice of particular believers , it is not consumed , in a way of hurting and destroying them ; and consider , their graces are not consumed , their welfare is not destroyed ; this fire cannot burn them up , though it burn upon them : but as he will mittigate and allay the fire , so as that it shall not decrease their strength , so he will cleanse his people by the fire , so as that it shall burn up nothing but their drosse , and what makes them offensive unto god , and what may make them hurtful one to another . but i passe it by , these things to the second general part , viz . moses care to observe god's admonition , that he would turn aside and see this great sight , why the bush was not burnt . moses was an excellent naturalist , and yet here he was posed ; he could see no reason in nature by all the learning of the egyptians , how this thing should come to passe that a flaming fire should be in a brittle bush , and yet the bush not consumed ; and yet i do not conceive ( as some jesuitical expositors upon the place do ) that moses did turn aside so much out of curiosity , as to understand what it was that god did intend by it , and would have him to learn by it . and doubtless when gods works are great , our observations should not be small ; when his providence is eminently lifted up , we should no be cast dawn ; when the hand of god is upon us , we must not shut our eyes , i am very far from being a phanatique , and to give credit or be led by unscriptural revelation ; but let me tell you , the times wherein we live are strange times , in regard of strange sights and apparitions , and i question if there have not bin some as wonderfull as this in our times , but i shall not now mention them ; though it be a forfeiture of your modesty to give a reason for them , yet they do portend some strange things ; the hand of god is not to be neglected , though it cannot be perfectly conceived ; and it is the nature of a wicked man to have gods works far out of his sight ; be sure to lay them up in your hearts , and thus far you may take notice of them , to trust that god that hath all the elementary meteors in his power , and at his command ; and this learn to tremble and dread before that god that hath you in his power , and can do with you and all other things as he pleases . . you have here considerable the admonition of god , or the monitory precept god lays down to moses , i. e. he forbids him to draw nigher , and then bids him to pull off his shoes : the reason of the former will be easily understood in the opening of the latter ; i shall therfore in it briefly take notice of two things . . an injunction , put off thy shoes . . the argument whereby he doth back this , because the place wheron he stood was holy ground . for the opening of the former , the injunction , put off thy shoes , i shall not give the divers glosses and divers interpretations which men , with more wit then weight , have endeavoured to make of this scripture ; he plain meaning is this , which is given us by thed●…et , put off thy shoes , god's scope , and drift , and i●…ent he●…eby was , to require of moses reverence , when he was to receive a message of very great concernment and importance about his church ; the design of god was in this to prepare him to obedience , therefore god requires that of him then , which servants were wo●…t to do when they came to their lord and master , to shew their reverence to them , servants used to come barefoot to their masters , to testifie reverence to the commands of them on whom they waited : nudare pedes signum reverentiae . and the putting on the shoes is in scripture , as well as among other writers , held as a token of domination or masterly power . hence some conceive , iohn spake of christ as one that had his shoes on ; and of himself , as one hat was unworth●… to unty his shoes . and the p●…phet isaiah , by a sign of putting off his shoes , is commanded by god to put off his shoes from off his feet , and to walk naked and bare-foot ; and he did so , isa. . : which denoteth the servility of the people , in token that god's people were to be in a low condition in captivity . so we read of mour●…ners in ezekiel , chap . . that were of a low spirit , they are said to go without shoes , or unshod . and , my brethen , on the other side , when god would show the freedom of his people , and their deliverance from servitude , he is said to put shoes on their feet , ezech. . . and the reception of the prodigal into his fathers house , and the freedom and priviledge his father intended him , ( acording to some learned men , intended by that expression in luk. . . ) is set forth by putting on shoes upon his feet . so that i take the meaning of this command to be so much ; shew by this thy reverence , thy humility , thy due submissiveness , thy subjection of spirit , together with thy servile readiness to do whatsoever i shall command thee . calvin hath this note upon the text , if so excellent a servant of god as moses had need to be quickened to reverence and obedience by such a ceremony , certainly we that are more backward to hu●…ility and obedience , should by our reverent behaviour , when we come into the presence of god ; signifie 〈◊〉 the reverence of our souls by our outward expressions , and likewise quicken and fortifie the inward graces of our souls by the outward gestures of the body , ( especially in prayer ) as kneeling , and lifting up the hands , uncovering of the head , and the like ; for the presence of god is great , and it 's the presence of the great god indeed ; we that are not only by the law of creation so infinitely below him , but also in regard of that illegal law of sin , so much against him , should testifie our humility before him , and subjection to him , when he calls for it by our reverence . . the reason by which this is b●…ckt , because the place wheron moses di●… stand was holy ground . the meaning i take to be this . i●… is holy in regard of that visible and miraculous taken , symbol , and sign of my presence that is here discovered in this place , not because the place was ( as i ●…o not understand how any place is ) of its own na●…re holy , but god did testifie , that that place being the place of his special presence , had thereby a holinesse , there being now a sign given by god to moses , that he was extraordinarily and miraculously there . and thus i have opened the second branch , whereon this injunction was backt ; this place was holy ; so it was then . now i do not understand how i can discourse of this so profitably unto you , concerning the holiness of places , unless we take notice of the holiness of places now in the time of the gospel , and consider , whether , and how , in these times , one place may be said to be holy or holier then another . and truly i am not put on this employment willingly , nor the handling of this subject ; and if it were not extorted from me by something , i do not say that i have seen , but that i have read , that was written by men , and those none of the meanest neither , the learnedst of the papists , i should not now have chosen to have entred upon this task , concerning the holiness of places , in opposition to whom , i have entred upon this discourse : i will give you two expressions , which one of the devoutest , and the other of the learnedst of them hath ; the learnedst of them , accounted so at least ( though , blessed be god , his weapons have not been formidable to the church ) is bellarmine , his words are these , templum consecrandum merito venerabile & divina virtute praeditum est , the temple consecrated is deservedly holy , and venerable in worship , and endowed with divine virtue and efficacy , the temple ought to be looked upon as honourable and venerable . and for the other , durandus , he tells us , so great is the religion and holiness of churches , that those things should be , and may be forbidden to be done in them ( he means perpetually , or else he saith nothing , for we grant as much ) which in other places may duly and lawfully be done . in the handling of this question , how we are to judge and conceive of the holiness of places in the times of the gospel ? i shall endeavour , first , to explain it , and then faithfully and truly endeavour to resolve and determine the same . first then , for explanation , i shall here endeavour to open these two things to you ; first , what it is for a place to be holy , or wherein the nature of the holinesse of places consists : secondly , what that is that is the foundation or cause of the holiness of places , and both these must in our discourse , and likewise apprehension , be accurately distinguish'd . i. what it is for a place to be holy , this is two wayes to be considered : . generally ; . more particularly . . more generally , the holiness of a place doth consist in the separation thereof , the setting it apart , the distinction and discrimination in the way of some excellent preheminence , or the exa●…ting of it before and above all other places : thus the notion of the holiness of places is taken in scripture , exod. . , , . you shall there read , that the lord tells them in the . verse , concerning the oyntment that he prescribed , and likewise the composition of it for his service , this shall be an holy anointing ●…yl unto me throughout your generations . now see how god doth discover this to be holy , on mans flesh it shall not be poured , neither shall you make any other like it after the composition of it . here was a discrimination as well to the using of it , as to the making and composition of it ; as none was to 〈◊〉 such an oyntment as this was , so none was to use it in their ordinary and common employment : so that now the holiness thereof did consist in the distinction and disc●…imination of it from other uses , and likewise from all other oyntments . and this is further expressed concerning the holy perfumes in the . and . verses , there was to be a difference between this and other perfumes ; and this was the holiness thereof . and so you shall find it , not only concerning holy things but likewise concernig holy persons , levit. . . . i am the lord your god , which have separated you from other people ; you shall therefore put a difference between clean beasts , and unclean . 〈◊〉 , herein is the holiness of the people , that they were a diffe●…ced and severèd people . and hence it is you read in deuteronomy , chap. . , . that god is there said to avouch his people , openly to discover himself to assert it that they are his people ; their holiness was a discrimination , a separation from the rest of the people . and in deut. . . and . . you have there the very same things described and discovered to you . and now for this i shall desire you to take notice of comparing two places of scripture , which discovers the holiness of places , in deut. . , . thou shalt separate three cities for thee in the midst of thy land , which the lord thy god giveth thee to possesse it . and at the seventh verse , wherefore i command thee , saying , thou shalt separate three cities for thee . now you shall have this again propounded to you in ioshua . chap. . . and they sanctified kedesh in galilee in napthaly , and sechem in mount ephraim , and kiriath-arba ( which is hebron ) in the mountain of iudah . mark the scripture , that that was called separation in deut. . . . is here called sanctification ; therefore the word in the hebrew is , and you shall sanctifie , or , make holy these places ; that is , holy , by the separation or them unto that employment that i shall appoint . hence a thing is said to be unholy in scripture when it is common , is not separated and set apart to holy employments and services , and from every thing that is of a civil concernment . and hence you read in acts . . in the vision that peter had , god bids peter kill and eat . but peter said , not so lord , for i have never eaten anything that is common or unclean . that that is unclean and unholy , in a way of legal unholiness , is said to be common , not set apart . heb. . . you shall there read this notion clearly discovered to you in the new testament , of how much sorer punishment , suppose ye , shall he be thought worthy , who hath trodden under foot the son of god , and hath counted the blood of the covenant , wherewith he was sanctified , an unholy thing . an unholy thing is a common thing . so that now what is sanctification in the former part of the verse , is called commonness and uncleanness in the latter part . but not to give you any more instances of this nature , the general nature of holiness is discrimination , or separation . . to answer it more particularly , this setting apart , or discrimination , or separation of places for holy uses , must have these two properties . . a place that is holy , it must have such a separation from other places , as that it must be alienated from all uses but holy uses , it must not at all be employed to civil uses , for the employing of it unto civil uses must be looked upon as sinful and unlawful . thus in the scripture , when times , things , or persons are reputed as holy , they are to be exempted from common employment ; the sabbath day , a holy day , in it thou must not do any manner of work . the vessels and utensils of the temple were holy , and therefore were not to be used to ordinary uses ; and this , as some think , was the great sin of belshazar , that he would offer to drink in the vessels of the temple . and so the garments of the priests were holy , and not to be used by secular persons . and the tabernacle and the temple were holy , and not to be used in civil employments . . more particularly , concerning this holiness , i desire to shew you what it is , by shewing you , it must be such a holinesse and separation , as that the service done to god in those places must be accounted and looked upon as a better service , and more accepteble , then if so be it had been done elsewhere , more acceptable to god , and advantagious to our selves . now as places are said to be holy , in regard they are only to be for holy services , so , . holy in regard that holy services are only to be done there , with acceptation or advantage , at least with so great acceptation . and therefore i desire you to take notice , that places in scripture were said to be holy , which did sanctifie the worship which was done in them , and sanctifie the worshippers , and so the very places are part of worship : and so not only places in which god was worshipped , but by which god was worshipped . and thus the sabbath was sanctified , and so the performance of gods worship therein , made gods service more acceptable and sanctified . and so the altar , when it was holy , it made the gift the more holy and sanctified , and so the more acceptable , the altar sanctified the gift , m●…t . . , . and so the incense was acceptable to god , as being put into such a censor . and so the service done to god in such garments was more acceptable , because done in them which god had instituted and appointed for aaron and his sons to wear . and so i have opened the first thing in the explanation , and that is to shew you , wherein ho●…iness consists , and how it is that places or things may be said to be holy ; and i think i have sufficiently cleared the notion to you . . to shew , what the cause or the foundation of this holinese is ; for this , my brethren , i shall desire you also to take notice of it more generally , and then more particularly . . more generally , that the cause and the foundation of a place , or any other things holiness , it is its belonging to god , gods peculiar relation to it , and propriety in it , declared as he shall please : and therefore to be holy , and to be gods , are words of the like importance , or equivolent , its being gods , and his having a relation to it , is the foundation and cause of its holiness . and therefore if you look into exodus . . you shall there find god commands , that they should sanctifie unto him all the first-born , it is mine ; there now is that which is the cause , and reason , and ground of its being sanctified , or holy , it is god himself , god hath a propriety in it . and therefore i desire you to look into luke . . it will open this notion to you ; there you shall see , that this command is again repeated , but yet in other words , and therefore ye saith , as it is written in the law of the lord , every male that openeth the womb shall be called holy to the lord ; that which is said in one place to be sanctified or separated , is here said to be holy ; and therefore holy , because separated to god , levit. . . all the tithes of the land is the lord●… , it is holy unto the lord ; it is holy , and therefore holy because because it is the lords . so that here is the general answer . this is the foundation , ground and cause of its holiness , gods peculiar propriety in it , it is the lords . . more particularly , that the declared propriety that god hath in any place , or his relation to a place , or its belonging unto god , that is the foundation of its holiness . this belonging unto god , or gods propriety in it , is declared two wayes . it s belonging unto god is declared . . from his presence . . from his precept . . by his presence . now the presence of god that was the foundation of the holiness of a place , was twofold . . extraordinary . . ordinary . . the extraordinary presence of god was by his miraculous apparitions . and discovering himself by some miraculous token , vision , sign , or manifestation of his presence , as now here in this burning , and not co●…sumed ●…ush ; here was a miraculous ●…oken of gods presence . we shall and in the fifth of ioshua , ●…nd the last verse , god commands ioshua to put off his shooes , loose thy shooes from off thy feet , for the place whe●…eon thou standest is holy ground . and ioshua did so . and therefore , as i conceive , hence it is , the mountain in which christ was transfigured is called , the holy mountain , pet. . . and this voyce which came from heaven we heard when we were with him in the holy mount. why holy ? not as if it were holy at that time when the apostle writ that epistle , but it were manifest , there was an extraordinary manifestation and sign of gods presence , and so long as this extraordinary manifestation of gods presence continued it was called holy . and this miraculous manifestation of the gloriousness of christs godhead ceasing , the holiness of that place ceased also . and remember this place now , of gods extraordinary miraculous manifestation of himself in the bush , was holy for that time , and no longer , wherein he did manifest himself ; for otherwise , in the time of the law , it were unholy to offer up sacrifice there . . as the presence of god was extraordinary , so it is ordinary , which is two fold . . the presence of his standing residence in a place , by some visible or external symbole ; or else , . the presence of god is a spiritual presence , in the religious services and performances of his people , in the place of their meetings and assemblies . now concerning the first of these . . the presence of god , by the more visible and lasting tokens of his presence , which was chiefly afforded in the time of the levitical pedagogue ; so the altar , temple , ark , and mercy-seat , were symbols of gods presence among that people , by them god signified his presence ▪ he recorded his name there by those visible tokens of his presence ; and therefore the ark was said to be gods face : and when the ark was lifted up , it was said , let god arise ▪ and let his enemies be scattered . hence they so much rejoyced when the ark came int●… the city of david , because it was the sign of gods presence , and mourned when it was taken away captive . and god is said to deliver his glory into captivity ; that is , the token of his glorious presence : and as long as this continued , god was looked upon as there present ; and thither the people went to pray , and offer sacrifice . and thus god more fixedly declared his durable relation to a place by these tokens , and while these continued in a place , he was looked upon to be there . . gods ordinary presence is considerable in the religious services of his people , and this i call the rather the more spiritual presence of god ; this is that presence of god in the ordinances , which we have , we hope , this day , and which christ did promise , mat. . . where ever two or three are met together in my name , there am i present in the midst of them ; not in the midst of the place , but of them , when they do perform holy and institute worship . this spiritual presence of god is that that is afforded in the use of those ordinances of praying , hearing , and administration of sacraments ; his presence is there to accept of these , and to bless them , and make them operative , and to assist in these , and to enable both minister and people to go through their duty by his own power . nor can gods presence be ordinarily expected , but in this his own way . now then , . you must know , that as the presence of god is the foundation of a places sanctity , and as it is several , so you must know , gods propriety in , and relation to a place is declared by his precept ; the precept of god is gods propriety in a place , as well as his presence ; thus it belongs to him by command to make it holy , he may do what he will , and choose out what places he will to be holy . he to whom all things belong , surely may have some places and things more proper to himself and peculiar ; so the temple of old , and the tabernacle , those places of levitical and ceremonial worship , was separated and set apart by god , by divine institution . hence we have many commands . . god commands , th●…t such a house , and such a tabernacle shall be built , and this had been unlawfull to do , had it not been commanded . . he directs the manner , and the mode , and that all things should exactly be done according to the pattern in the mount. and , . god doth command it should be in such a place , in the thrashing floor of arumnah the jebusite , and that place that himself had chosen . . he commands that he will be served in these places peculiarly , rather then in any other place , he would not have these places changed for others . herein this place typifi'd christ , one that is onely able to make our services acceptable ▪ hence it is said , ex. . . three times in the year all the m●…ies shall appear before the lord. and act. the eunuch there went unto that place that god had commanded . . he doth command , that he would have these places reverenced , and no civil employments used there when the holy service was doing , and that after the service was done , at that very time the place should be only for god. . and lastly , he annexed a promise unto that place , that he would accept of a duty done there rather then in any other place , even because it was done there ; hence they prayed in the temple , rather then in their private houses , lu. . and when they could not be present , by reason of gods providence , in the temple , if they do but look to the city and the temple god accepted of their duty , kin. . so that god did promise , that that place that he had instituted for his worship and service , that the service performed there should be more acceptable to him then elsewhere . this shews the reason and foundation of a places holiness the precept of god , & the promise & presence of god. and thus i have open'd to you the second thing . now having thus explained and opened the question to you . . i come to resolve the question , according to what i think in my conscience to be the truth of god ; and this i shall do two ways . . by granting that which must not be denied . . by denying what must not be granted . . by granting what must not be denied ; and here i grant willingly these four things . . that in the time of the gospel , it is not only lawful , but it is often very commendable and necessary , to design and dedicate places unto god. now when i say , it is lawful to design them , and to dedicate them . i pray you bear me witness , i do not say it is lawfull to consecrate them , or to sanctif●…e them ; and say , it is lawfull to design and dedicate them . now for this take not●…ce , that between . the designing and appointing of a place ; . the dedication of a place : and . the consecrating of a place , there are these differences . . concerning the designation of a place ; then is a place designed , when it is appointed to be made use of for the most convenient for such a service , as tuesday and wednesday may be appointed for lecture-dayes , not consecrated . now you must know , that this designation of a day may be altered , and so may a place ; if such a place be designed , it is in our power to make use of it , so as to leave off the use of it when weplease . . as to dedication , i mean so lawfully to dedicate a place , which is of our own right to dispose of ; so to dedicate it , as not again to be able to revoke it , or call it back from such a use and purpose . it is lawfull and commendable for a rich man , to dedicate so much ground or money , for building a house for a free-school , or for the poor , and to give it away from our selves , and from our own right and power ; and if so be that a man hath power or propriety over a place or thing , it is lawful for a man to alienate such a thing . and yet this you must know by the way , that this dedication that now is in the time of the gospel , doth very much differ from that dedication of free-will-offering unto god in the time of the law ; for they were dedicated to god in the time of the law immediately , that is , to his immediate worship ; it was part of gods worship , it was a part of religion to do that thing : whereas it is not now dedicated to the immediate worship of god , but it is dedicated immediately to such a parish , or minister , or place , or company of people , that we have a good will to gratifie ; and so it more remotely redounds to god's glory , not immediately : for god hath not declared in his word the same acceptation in the gospel of things done in an immediate way , as he had in the time of the law , of which acceptation now we have no such promise . and therefore it is observable , as one speaks concerning that benefactor in the gospel to the iews , he hath loved our nation , and builded us a synagogue , it is not said , for god ; but for us ; this man out of love to us hath bestowed these things to god ; which , though a giving our selves out of our own power , yet it doth differ from the free-will-offering in the time of the law. ay , but now , sirs , ye must know , that sanctification , or consecration , that is a great deal more ; when we sanctifie a thing , or consecrate a thing , this thing that is so consecrated , it is so holy , that there must nothing at all of unholiness , or of a civil or secular employment and concernment be done in it . now we do not dedicate a thing , but there may be secular things in an ordinary and civil way done in them ; and our services are not more acceptable for the place , nor the places less holy because of those civil employments . there is the first concession , that in the time of the gospel there may be a designment and dedicating of places , and it is not onely lawfull but commendable . . i grant , that in times of the gospel , some places are to have religious services performed in them , rather then in other places ; i mean , places of natural conveniency and fitness for the meeting of people together , whereby they may be free from disturbance , from the violence of enemies , and from tempestuous weather . as publick meetings , whereby we have the society of gods people , their examples to stir us up to zeal , and their joynt help in prayer and holy performances , to go along with us , that we may joyn our forces together and with a great force wrestle with god , and overcome him which is invincible . and therefore , my brethren , i desire you to bear me witness this day , that i plead for publick ordinances , and for the purity of gods ordinances to be administred in publick places , rather then other places , so that i do here profess , that i do avowedly and openly declare my judgement to be for publick meetings in publick places , and the purity of god's ordinances , if they may be enjoyed without humane mixture , which may hurt and pollute them . . i grant , that in the time of holy service , we are not then to use secular employments at that time in those places , as eating , drinking , and talking , it being unsuitable to the work in hand , and howsoever they may be lawfull at another time , yet unlawfull then , because against the apostles command , let all things be done in decency , and in order ; and that which is unsuitable to the commands of god , the taking his name in vain . my brethren , i will go further with you , we are to abstain from all other religious services , when not in season ; and therefore when the minister is in preaching , we must not run into our places and kneel down , as some people do , and fall a praying . and i cannot but wonder , that they that do so much cry up uniformity and sanctity of places , that yet they should confute their judgement by their practice , that they should pray secretly when the whole congregation is a praying vocally ; and it may be the congregation is singing a psalm , or the minister preaching , and then they go to their prayers ; i pray where is the uniformity , decency , and order they so much stand for . lastly , i grant , that after the performances of holy duties , in places wherein we meet for the worship and service of god , it is our duty to abstain , not onely from filthy and indecent actions of a natural or moral filthiness , unseemly , as looked upon by men against god's law ; but from all those civil , moral , lawfull actions , at other times , that may reflect any dishonour upon the work that hath been done , or upon the work that shall be done , or that may render the place unmeet for religious services afterwards : and this is that that one calls a negative , or a privative reverence , a reverence , or not doing something , not because the place is more holy , but for decency and order , considering the religious duties performed in that place . so that things subservient to religion call for a negative reverence , and are not so to be used , as that the religious services which are there performed and transacted , should be made disgracefull and dishonourable ; as the bread of the sacrament , after the sacrament is done , is not lawfull to be cast unto unreasonable creatures , because it reflects dishonour upon the religious service which we were before doing ; so , dirty water is not to be put into the communion cup , not that the cup is holy , but because it is a reflection of disgrace upon that holy service wherein that cup is made use of ; and that cup is not to be made use of to drunkenness . but in all this bear me witness that i say , all this is but a civil reverence , and so due to any place where there is any honourable convention , as in the parliament-house , or presence-chamber , or the like . having yielded this . . i must come now to deny what must not be granted ; and i likewise deny four things . . it is not now in the times of the gospel in any mans power to set apart a place for religious duties , so as that it should be unlawful upon a due occasion to use it for civil imployments , or that it should be alwaies unlawful to alienate to other uses , besides those uses that are divine ; the bread and wine sanctified by gods own institution by the minister , after the publick use and administration of them in the ordinance , are not only holy but they may be eaten in a civil use and way as our ordinary and common food : the synagogues among the jews were as holy as our churches , they were for holy duties , as prayer , preaching and the like , and dedicated to gods worship , and yet you must know there are civil imployments used in those places after the religious worship was done ; and therefore in matth. . . saith our saviour , some of them you shall scourge in your synagogues . hence we use to keep courts and consistories in churches amongst us , and some of them none of the best , and and we use here among us in this city constantly in our churches , ( and i doubt not but it is lawful ) for an alderman in his ward to meet about secular business , as to choose common-council-men , or the like . but where there hath been a dedication of a place to gods worship , it is only god that can make it so holy , as that it should be sinful to employ it to other uses , and if the governours of the church upon due occasion and reason shall substitute other places more fit then the former for divine worship , then the former places may return to their former proper uses ; but it is not so in things consecrated by god : if the font , table , or pulpit wax old , they may be laid aside and looked upon as common things , and may be used for other imployments ; and suppose the surplisse be a lawful garment in gods worship , ( which yet i am perswaded none of you believe ) doubtless it is not to be burned when it is old and past wearing , and the ashes put into a pot or some such like thing , and be buried under the altar , but it may be used as other linnen may . and so the common utensils , as the cup and the like , when they are come to be old , they may be used to other imployments without fear of sin . and therefore it is an excellent speech of one , saith he , so to consecrate moveable or immoveable goods , as that it should be a sin for the church to use them in any secular imployments , it is an execrable and abominable superstition : god hath not consecrated any thing in the gospel so , as that it is a sin to use it otherwise . it was a sin in them to make use of the cups in the temple in any secular way , but it is not so for us : the reason is , because those things were set apart by gods own institution : but there can be nothing so consecrated by men , as that it may not be made use of in secular things without sin . . a second thing i deny is , that no place now in the time of the gospel hath such an holiness either from the institution or use , as to sanctifie or make more acceptable or effectual the services therein performed : this is not in the time of the gospel : god is present at places of religious performances , not with respect unto the place , but the performance by him instituted and injoyned ; and therefore he doth not say , where two or three are met together i will be in the midst of that place , but among them . god will be present in the place for the duties sake , not among them for the places sake , but the duties sake in the place , to bless the ordinance for his own institutions sake ▪ prayers and other duties in the ceremonial law were regarded for the places sake , but now we must abhor this piece of iudaism ! for a man to set a place apart by consecration , that this place makes the duty any thing the more excellent or acceptable to god , this is to make the traditions of men equal to the institution of god. the temple sanctified the duty , but not the synagogue , and the altar did sanctifie the gift , and the person , and service , because it was by gods institution , and so the temple and altar did add efficacy and worth to the work ; but for men to consecrate the church , it is to make the appointment of men equal with the institution of god. our churches and meeting-places are not holy ( if they be holy at all ) without relation to the duties performed , but our duties are holy without relation to the church or the place . none but god can consecrate a place to be an effectual means of worship : the jews worshipped god by the temple , but we worship god in the church ; as the place doth afford a natural conveniency for our meeting together ; the place then hath no influence at all upon our duties , and if any of you should think so , you erre exceedingly : it is but only a physical act of duty , or a natural adjunct of duty , which is but at most helpful to the bodies conveniency . . the third thing i deny is this , that there is no place so holy as to exclude another place from being as holy in a way of proper sanctity and holiness , which we have been now opening . god now makes not one place properly more holy then another ; there is not now properly any religious difference of places . we have not now the precept of god to sanctifie and separate one place from another , to prefer one place before another ; we have not now the miraculous presence of god , his appearing as at the bush . god hath not given us under the gospel those symbols of his standing presence and residency , as by the ark , and mercy-seat , and altar of old he gave unto his people . and as for his ordinances , if they make a place holy in regard of performance of duty to god there , and his spiritual presence in that place , then my parlour , chamber , or closet are holy where i use to pray , and where god doth afford his assisting blessing and comforting presence : so that if you make the spiritual presence of god to make a thing holy , in regard of gods spiritual presence going along with those services , then your houses are holy , and the field is holy where you walk when you meditate , and praying by the river side makes it holy ; humane consecration makes no place truly holy . if the spiriturl presence of christ makes one place more holy then another , then the communion-table and font are more holy then another place in the temple . and so when gods presence hath been enjoyed at the font , that is more holy then the communion-table , and so when the presence of god hath been enjoyed at the communion-table , that is more holy then the font , and so you must bring in iudaisme . if the presence of god makes a thing holy ; a new communion-table upon which the sacrament was never administred ▪ cannot be so holy as the old table . nay , by this the mouths of the communicants are holy , having eaten the bread and drank the wine which was dedicated to an holy use , and so it will be finful for you to eat any other food . i conclude all with this , that the difference and holinesse of religious places in the times of the gospel , is not given but taken away by the gospel . tim. . . i will therefore that men pray every where , lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting . you may pray , and that with as much acceptableness to god in one place as in another . john . . christ saith , the time comes when you shall neither in this mounta●…n , nor yet at ierusalem , worship the father : that is , gods worship and service shall not he confined and limited to those places , as if others were not as good and holy as they . cor. . . to them that are sanctified in christ iesus , called to be saints , with all that in every place call upon the name of iesus christ our lord , both theirs and ours . one place for the calling upon christ is as good as another , and therefore , where two or three are gathered together , i will be in the midst of them . and this is foretold in zeph. . . and in mal. . . so that this is the sum of all , gods institution makes the sabbath holy : and the bread and the wine set apart by gods own institution , after the duty , may be used in secular uses . but lastly , to name no more , no place is so sanctified by god , as that after the ceasing of that presence of god , any holiness should belong unto it ; as now , when the signs of gods presence ceased and was gone , the holiness of that place was gone , and then it was lawful for moses to put on his shooes . and so when gods presence ceased in the ark , the altar , and mercy-seat , the places became no other then secular and civil . and now for us to go about ( as the papists do ) a pilgrimage to ierusalem , as if that place had any more holiness then others , is a foolish and abominable thing : how many bloudy battels have been fought , to the disgrace , as well as losse of christianity , for the re-gaining of the holy-land . nay let me add , those places where the presence of god hath been formerly , when it hath been taken away and those places have been used to idolatry , they are the worse , and the more unholy ; for this is turning the house of god into vanity . the conclusion of all is this : whatever places are in holy duties , out of them they loose and leave all their ●…oliness , and therefore i say , it is boldness for us to go about to tye gods presence to a place where god hath ●…ever tyed it , i cannot but wonder how it is possible for 〈◊〉 of reason and learning to be so blind , as to hold ▪ 〈◊〉 the lords day ( which was set apart by god for the sabbath , as you may see in the fourth commandment , and afterwards by christ and his apostles which doth amount to no lesse then an institution ) is not holy after the service or sermon is ended , but then you may go to play at foot-ball , and cudgels , and drinking , and what not , and yet that they should say , that the place of performing religious duties in , is so holy after religious performances , as that you cannot come into it without bowing the knee , and putting off the hat , and bowing to the altar and communion-table , and the like ; this i cannot apprehend how it should be , and i wish any of you that are of this mind would in private give me your reasons for it , why it should be so . now having explained the point , and given you a resolution of the question , in these prrticulars , give me leave to wind up all wich some uses . first , we infer the great difference that is between sanctity of places under the old testament , and sanctity and holiness of places under the new testament : they under the old testament had the immediate presence of god , the standing symbols and visible signs of his presence , so long as these lasted : which was set apart by gods special commandment , and so they were holy , though they were not employed in a way of worship , but you cannot say so now , our places for performance of holy duties have no such holiness , places now differ from places then . secondly , by way of inference , i note the great goodness of god to give us such a sweet and gracious indulgent dispensation in the time of the gospel under the new testament , as that he doth not tye us to ceremonies or places , he doth not bind us as he did the jews , to go three times in the year to the furthermost part of the nation to worship : no my brethren , no land , 〈◊〉 ground is now unholy , as famous old dr. raynolds said , every place is now a iudea , no coast but is a iudea , every house is a ierusalem , every congregation is now a zion : see here the goodness of god in indulging of us so far as to take any service done by us in a solemn and real manner , as if it had been done in those places which were formerly appointed for it to be done in . thirdly , i infer hence , there are several persons to be reproved . we find hereby that all the holiness of reliques of saints doth fall to the ground : and we see the folly of those that make pilgrimages unto saints and reliques as the papists do : there was a time ( say they ) when such a saints reliques were laid up in such a place , and these are more holy then other places : so that this you see falls to the ground in it self : i might tell you concerning their lying about their reliques , as one aid , that there were as many reliques as would fill an hundred carts : but supposing so , all that would not make the place the more holy . . hence the superstition of those is to be reproved , which put holiness in places of burial ▪ and make it more holy to be buried in one place then in another : it is more holy ( say they ) to be buried in the church then in the church-yard , and more holy under the communion-table then any other part of the church . . this reproves them which cannot pray any where but in the temple , and they that use private prayer in churches : if you have houses and rooms at home , what is the reason that if pauls ▪ or any other church , stand open , you must run in thither , and drop down behind a pillar to say your prayers ? . this reproves them that have reverence towards any place more then another , as if they did deserve more holinesse in one part then in another , as bowing to the altar or communion table , or the like . . it reproves those that have reverence for scituation of these places , they must stand east and west , and why not north and south ? all these things fall off like fig leaves ; if what i have said be true , that there is no holiness in places , and this i have made known to you not only as my judgement , but as my duty . now for exhortation , i shall desire you to take notice of four things , and i have done , and shall leave you to god , and commit you to the word of his grace . if this be so , that there is no holiness in places , then first of all be the more encouraged to serve god in your families , in those places where god hath set you , where god is as well pleased with your service as in publick places ▪ serve god upon your knees with devotion , humility and reverence . and therefore , though i am against superstition , and popish practises , and those wicked cursed traps of innovations , that the men of the world have disturbed the church of god with : yet i am against putting on your hats in prayer , and sitting in prayer . those that are for holiness of places , do not , with abraham , in every place they come build god an altar . but let us in every closet and room build god an altar ; let no morning nor evening go without a prayer in thy family , pray often , and pray continually , let your houses be as so many churches , as you read in rom. . . likewise greet the church that is in their house : and in the second verse of philemon's epistle , to the church that is in thy house ; there the houses of the saints are called churches . this will bring a blessing upon your families : and if you be not willing to have that curse denounced against you , ( in ier. . . pour out thy fury upon the heathen that know thee not , and upon the families that call not upon thy name ) then neglect not family prayers ; be much in prayer , and pray with frequency and encouragement , because god binds you to no place . the second exhortation is this , labour to promote personal holiness , as well as family devotion : i am against local holiness : as one said ( that i heard once when i was a youth ) happy are those garments that can carry away any of the dust of the temple ; but they think not that many of their garments are unclean in wallowing in the mire of sin . but i say , do you labour to promote holiness in your lives , in your hearts and conversations : the holy ghost saith , unless you be pure in heart , you shall not see god. and therefore put away sin , for if you regard iniquity , god will not hear your prayers : it is not your ducking , or bowing , or cringing , never so much or your going with your hat off through the church , that will make god hear your prayers ; these will but dishonour you , because you live not accordingly . . love the holiness of the living members , be not so much in love with the holiness of wood and timber , bricks and stones ; but wheresoever you see the image of christ , be in love with that soul ; whereever the presence of god shines , and whereever thou seest one that gives up himself to god in holy duties , do thou say , oh! my soul , delight to come into the company of these men . the righteous is more excellent then his neighbour . if there be a heaven upon earth , i tell you it is in the company of godly men . i remember a famous man hath this expression , saith he , when i was in the company of the saints and people of god , i was as a living coal ; but when i was separated from them , and was among the wicked , swearers and drunkards , me-thoughts there was a spiritual coldness and frozenness went over my soul. though the people of god are best companie in heaven , yet they are very good companie here on earth : and christians should stir up one another , and be provoking one another to love and good works ; and where ever you have grace , be sure to impart it . endeavour to love the holiness of saints , and be willing to impart your experiences to others , for this is your duty . do not make a monopoly of holiness , but carry company with you to heaven . lastly , to name no more , labour to preserve the holiness of gods true institutions , those things which are of a divine consecration . what is humane consecration without divine institution ? the sabbath day is of divine institution , labour to keep it holy ; this is a holy-day indeed , and this labour to keep your families from profaning of ; but for other holy dayes and holy things , they are much alike for holiness : the lords day is a holy day indeed , and for shame do not let your children gad abroad on this day . truly , i do verily believe , that though here be a great company of people in the congregation , yet they are but a handful in comparison of what are drinking in ale-houses , and whoring , and walking in the field , that one can hardly get home to their house for the crowd of people that are going thither . for shame let not this be told in gath , nor published in askelon . what! shall we stand up for the holiness of places , and yet oppose the holiness of the lords day , which god hath enjoyned and instituted ? oh! that the magistrates of london ; o●… ! that englands king ; oh! that englands parliament would do something for the reformation of this to oppose wickedness and prophanesse , which will otherwise bring upon us the judgement of sodom and gomorrah , and make us guilty and worthy of a thousand punishments . and labour by prayer in your families to overcome that flood of prophanesse , which you cannot by your strength prevent . and then for the sacraments of christ , baptisme and the lords s●…pper , these are ordinances of gods appointment , they are holy , and therefore should not be given to those that are unholy ; and yet those who are so much for the holinesse of places , do not care who come to the sacrament , if they have but a nose on their face , they shall come and partake of the ordinances , let them be what they will ; this is to prefer mans institution before gods institution . and then for the lords message and word , that is a holy thing , and therefore love his messengers : the messengers of god ▪ delivering his message with fear and reverence , you are to hear them with the same fear and reverence , and resolution to be holy , as if christ were present . and for the word of god , it is not enough for you to have a choice sentence written upon the walls of your churches , but let gods law be written in your hearts and consciences , and practised in your lives , that all the world may see you live as men dedicated to the true god , in all the duties of his wayes and obedience . many of these things might have been inlarged . what i have given you with the right hand , i pray you , christians , do not take with the left , for if you do ; you will make your selves guilty of a double sin . first , because you do not obey the truth you hear . and secondly , for putting a wrong construction upon it . but i have better hopes of you , my beloved hearers , and hope that the lord will be better unto your souls then his ministers , word , or any thing else can be . god blesse you and his ordinances , and discover his mind and will at this time to you . mr. jenkins's prayer after sermon . o lord our god thou art never weary of doing us good , if we either consider the mercies thou givest to us , or the miseries that thou keepest from us , that yet we have another opportunity of drawing nigh to thee ; we beseech thee , o lord , let not our mis-interpreting of such opportunities as these are , cause thee to take them from us , or thy self from them ; if thou dost lord , we cannot but justifie thee , and abase our selves , and lie low before thee because we have sinned against thee ; o lord we bless thee , that we are yet alive to bless thee , that yet we have not sinned our bodies into a cold grave , nor our souls into a scorching hell : thou givest us our beings , if thou withdraw thy self , we cease to be , and shall return to our first nothingness , from whence we came : the living , the living they praise thee ; as if we know our own hearts , we desire to do at this time . praised be god for iesus christ , that he died and rose again , and is now a pleading at thy right hand for poor sinners . praised be god that he is offered to us , for his sake , o god pardon all our sins : let our lusts die , that would not let the lord of life live ; let not any one of them live one quiet moment in these hearts of ours ; let us give up our selves , and all that we are or can do to the purpose of thy praise : we beseech thee prepare us for a blessed eternity , that we may not be ashamed before thee , nor ashamed of thee nor thy wayes , in the midst of a crooked , perverse , unclean , idolatrous generation : dear father , we most humbly pray thee prepare us for communion with thy self ; assist us in the ensuing duties of this day , let all the work be done by thee , let all the praise redound unto thee : prepare us by hearing , for prayer , by both , for practice , by all , for glory ; lord set up thy truth , ruine babylon , build up sion , delight yet to dwell in the midst of us ; and do us good , though we are a sinful , back-sliding , god-provoking nation : mayest thou not say of us as of old , what couldst thou have done more for us then thou hast done ? yet how ill have we requited thee for all thy benefits . poure down the richest showers of thy choicest blessings , upon the head and heart of our dread soverain charles the second , by thy especial grace of england , scotland , france , and ireland , king , as follows in his royal title , inrich his noble soul with all the graces of thy most holy spirit , the lord make him as holy , as high , that he may as much exceed in goodness as in greatnesse : o lord , give him a spirit of wisdom to know how to go in and out before this great people , and be able to discern between friends and flatterers : o that he may be a true friend to thy friends , and a real enemy to thy enemies ; the lord make him the most glorious instrument for promotion of the power of godliness that ever sway'd the scepter in these lands , that under him we may live a peaceable and holy life in all godliness and honesty . o lord , bless him in his royal consort queen katharine ▪ the illustrious james duke of york ; the lords of his majesties most honourable privy council , the god of all grace give them graces suitable to that high and honourable imployment thou hast intrusted them with ▪ do thou rule our rulers , and teach our senators wisdom ; any that are in authority over us , give them to improve their power for thee : blesse the nurseries of learning , cambridge and oxford ; dear father , bless all thy faithful ministers , thou that art the lord of the harvest , send forth labourers , and keep out loyterers , preserve those that are , that they may be faithful to thee , and to those over whom thou hast made them overseers , that they may neither be ashamed of thee , nor thy ways , truths , worship , however stiled and disowned by men . o remember thy ancient people the iews , call in the fulness of the gentiles , that we may be all one sheepfold under thee the great shepherd of souls . in mercy look down upon this great city , bless the governour and government thereof , that thy sabbath may be more strictly observed , that piety may be more encouraged , and profanes●… discouraged in the midst of us . blesse this great congregation , let them be all taught of god , and more truly find that thou wert speaking to the heart , when that a poor worm was speaking to the ear ; bless them in their basket and their store , but especially in their souls , let them grow heaven-ward ; every one that hath spread a bill before us , do thou read them over , and be a present help according to their several wants and necessities . o god pardon all our sins , bottle our tears , rebuke the tempter , reform our lives , and save our souls ; that by all these enjoyments , we may be the more fitted for an immediate un-interrupted enjoyment of thy self in glory , whereas there shall be no more tears in our eyes , neither shall there be any more sin in our souls ; these and whetever else thou in thy wisdom sees necessary and good for us , we most humbly beg in the name and for the sake of our dear and blessed redeemer iesus christ the righteous , for whom we bless thee ; to him together with thy self , and god the holy and ever blessed spirit the comforter , we desire to be inabled to render as we acknowledge to be most due , all honour , praise , power , might , majesty and dominion from us and all thine now and for evermore , amen . dr. manton's prayer at covent-garden . oh lord god , all that we can do , is-nothing of our selves , we can do nothing , oh let us have the gracious assistance of thy spirit at this time , let thy love constrain us , say unto us , thou art our salvation . do not say , that we shall fill up the measure of our iniquities , and there shall be no hope for us . oh lord , we are ashamed that we have waited so long in thine ordinances , and have got no more profit to our poor souls : but we have given up our heart to the pleasures and vanities of this world , that are but for a season : even those that thou hast drawn out after thee , do not walk worthy of thee , answerable to that blessed hope of future happiness , in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation . iesus christ is to many of us become a stumbling-block , and a rock of offence , while our hearts are carried out after the world with such strong affections . oh when shall we carry our selves so , as those that profess themselves to be seekers of a better life ? we come into thy presence now for strength , do thou manifest thy self to us , thou hast promised to pour out thy spirit upon all flesh , oh let it be unto us according to thy promise . oh lord , our hearts naturally are averse to thee , so that of our selves we shall never be able to do any thing that may be well pleasing to thee ; but do thou regulate us by thy blessed spirit , that we may observe thy statutes , and do them , and that thy commands may not be grievous to us , that it may not be burdensom to us to do the work of god ; o lord , when shall our hearts be made sound in thy statutes ? we wait upon thee in the use of thine ordinances , that we may have a new supply from thee , that at length we may come to see that thou art at work with us to save our souls ; o help us to be followers of them , who with faith and patience do follow thee , and to do nothing unbecoming our holy call ; suffer us not to swerve from thy commandments , but let us have a constant and earnest desire after thee . let the choicest of thy mercies come down upon our soveraign charles , king of england , scotland , france and ireland , let his heart be guided by thee , and let him alwaies set thee before his eyes , that under the shadow of his government , we may have peace in all godliness and honesty . blese him in his relations , in his councels ; teach our senators wisdom ; bewith all thy faithful magistrates and ministers , let them be a terror to evil doers , and an encouragement to them that do well . be with us in the way of thy worship , we are here met together to hear and handle thy holy word , oh do thou command it to light upon all our hearts , let it come in the evidence and demonstration of thy spirit ; and all for christ his sake , for whom we bless thee , to him , with thee and thy holy spirit , be praise & glory for evermore . dr. manton's farewell sermon . heb. . . therefore seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses , let us lay aside every weight , and the sin which doth so easily beset us , and let us run with patience the race that is set before us . in the former chapter you have a spiritual chronicle , or a catalogue of the lord's worthies , and all the emi●…ent effects of their faith , and now the apostle comes to make use of this history that he had produced through ●…o many successions of ages , of all the holy men of god ●…at excelled in faith : wherefore seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses , &c. the text is wholly hortatory . in it observe : . the premisses or principle the apostle worketh upon , seeing we are compassed , &c. . the practical inferences which are deduced from ●…ence , and they are two . . one concerning the privative part of our duty , ●…et us lay aside every weight , &c. there is something external and without , like to clog us in our way to heaven - ●…very weight ; and something within that will hinder and ●…ouble us within ; therefore he saith , and the sin which ●…h so easily beset us . . here is the positive part , let us run with patience 〈◊〉 race that is set before us . there 's motion [ run ] the manner [ with patience ] the stage or way [ the race that is set before us . ] my purpose is to give you some brief thoughts upon this usefull and practical inference of the apostle , from the histories of the faithfull before recorded . therefore i will sum up the whole text in this point . doct. the people of god that have such a multitude of examples of holy men and women set before them , should prepare themselves to run the spiritual race with more patience and chearfulness . there are two things in this doctrine ; the encouragement and the duty . i shall open both with respect to the circumstances of the text. first , the encouragement , a multitude of examples , or as in the text , seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses : mark , here are witnesses , a great cloud of witnesses , and these compassing us round about . first , here are witnesses ; by that term we are to understand those worthy saints mentioned and reckoned up in the former chapter , abel , enoch , noah , abraham , moses , &c. all the saints of god that have had experience of the goodness of his providence to them , and the fulfilling of his promises ; they are all called witnesses ; why ? because they depose a testimony for god , and speak to future generations to be constant , as they did , that they might receive the like reward . this witness was partly in their faith , and partly in the fruit of their faith . . they witnessed by their faith ( iohn . . ) he that hath received his testimony , hath set to his seal that god is true . a man that hath soundly digested the promises , that expresses his faith by chearfulness and patience under all difficulties , troubles , delaies , and those sundry trials that he meets with , he gives it under hand and seal , proclaims it to the world that he hath to do with the true god. and , . they witnessed in the fruits of their faith , as they give us an instance of gods fidelity towards them that faithfully adhere to , and firmly believe in his prom●… , so it is said ( heb. . . ) be not sloathfull , but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promise : let faith but set patience a work , do but hold out a little while with god , and you may learn by the example of all those holy men we shall inherit the promises ; they shall be made good to a tittle , and not one thing fail of all that the lord hath spoken ; as these holy men were exercised and tossed to and fro , but it succeeded well with them at the last . oh! then let us hearken to the deposition of these worthy witnesses that are recorded in the scripture , and with such an invincible resolution as theirs was , let us hold on our course towards true happiness : if we do not , they that are now propounded as witnesses to us , will at the day of judgement be produced as witnesses against us . and pray also let us remember that we are to continue and keep afoot that testimony to succeeding generations ; for not onely the prophets and holy men of god , were witnesses , but all gods people also are his witnesses ; ( isa. . . ) by their faith , patience , diligence , constancy , and a chearfulness under afflictions , they are to give it under hand and seal to the world , that god is a true and faithfull god. but now , if we either by our sinfull walking , or by our drooping discouragements , discredit christ and his profession , then we are witnesses against him ; we deny that religion which we would seem to profess ; and cry up ( tit. . . ) they profess they know god , but in works they deny him : and the more dangerous , because deeds are more deliberate then words , and so a greater evidence of what we think in our hearts . if we by drooping discouragements and sinfull walking discredit religion , we deny it , and do in effect put the lie upon christ. therefore let us remember they were witnesses , and so must we . by a figurative speech they are called a cloud , [ hav●… a cloud of witnesses ] why so ? i might trouble you with many conceits interpreters have had of this word cloud ; say some , because of the raisedness of their spirits , because clouds fly aloft : clouds for the fruitfulness of their doctrine , as clouds send down fruitfull showers upon the earth ; and clouds , because they cool and cover us from the heat : so some would gloss for our comfort : others with more judgement say , a cloud with allusion to the pillar of cloud which conducted the israelites to canaan ; yet neither doth this come up fully to the scope of the apostle ; for the apostle speaks not of a cloud that goes before us , but of a cloud that compasses us round about , and therefore a cloudy ; the reason why 't is called so , is the number and multitude of those witnesses , as a cloud is made up of a multitude of vapors gathered together , and condensed into one body ; and so the expression is often used , ( ezek. . . ) thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land , &c. noting the increase of the people when god would restore them , the multitude of converts : and so in profane authors , livie hath such an expression , an army of men is called a cloud ; but this is enough to shew the intent of this expression , that there are a multitude , a very great number : though the godly comparatively , and with respect to the wicked are a few , yet considered in themselves they are a great number ; for if the martyrs , and those glorious instances of heroick faith , and that under the old testament , when god's interest was more confin'd to one people , if there were such a church then , of so great a number ; what will the whole church of the old and new testament be when we shall meet together in heaven ? we are often discouraged with the paucity of professors , and are apt to think our selves to be left alone , kin. . . but let us remember there is a cloud of witnesses ; we are not solitary now , and certainly we shall not want company when we come to heaven , to the innumerable company of , &c. again , it meets with an ordinary and strong temptation which satan suggests to the hearts of the godly , that they are singular , and matchless in their afflictions , that none of the people of god have ever undergone such difficulties as they are expos'd unto ; and this makes them question their father's affections , and put themselves out of the number of his children . i but all these things are accomplished in the saints of god before you ; here is a cloud of witnesses that have been exercised and tried to purpose , ( pet. . . ) they are troubled with a busie devil , a naughty world , a corrupt heart , all have had their trial from god's correcting hand ; the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world . so that we have many fellows ; our lot is no harder then the saints of god that have gone before us , for there is a cloud of witnesses . . observe the apostle calls it a cloud ; compasses us round about ; i. e. we have instances for every trial , temptation , duty that we are put upon : here we have examples of those that have fulfilled the commands of christ on this side with an undaunted courage ; and the examples of those that have borne the cross of christ with an invincible patience : here we have examples of those that have conquered right-hand temptations , that have despised the delights of the world , and there of those that have conquered left-hand temptations , that have not been broken and affrighted with the terrors of the world , all the saints of god have trodden that way , the same paths wherein we are to walk after them ; we cannot look this way or that way , but we have instances of faith , confidence in god , and patience , we are compassed about , &c. in short , here lies the encouragement that christians should propound to themselves . . that there are examples ; christians of later times have more to answer for their infidelity , than those of former ages ; they that first believed the promises , believed without such a cloud of witnesses , or multitude of examples ; many have gone before us that have broken the ice , and that found good success from their own experience ; they have commended god to us as a true and faithfull god , and will not you go on ? when ionathan and his armour bearer climbed up the rocks of the philistins , then the people were encouraged to go up after ; so here are some that are gone before you , and it hath succeeded well with them . . these examples are many ; not one or two that might be supposed to be singularly assisted , and to have eminent prerogatives above the rest of their brethren , but many in every age , a whole cloud of them . . there are examples of many rare and excellent men , the best that ever lived under heaven . take ( my brethren ) the prophets for an example , &c. jam. . . . they are propounded to us , not for their words only , and for their profession , but for their deeds , for their bitter sufferings ; and they abundantly manifest to us , that there is nothing impossible in our duty , or any thing so difficult but may be overcome through christ's strength enabling us : they all had the same nature we have ; they were of the like passions with us , flesh and blood as we are , of the same relations and concernments ; and then on the other side , we have the same cause with them , the same recompence of reward to encourage us , the same god and saviour to recompence us , he suffered for us as well as for them ; therefore we should follow in their steps , and hold fast our confidence to the end , for they have shewed us , that poverty , reproaches , death it self , and all those things that would look harsh , and with a ghastly aspect upon the eyes of the world , are no such evils but that a believer may rejoyce in them , and triumph over them . i say , they have shew'd the blandishments of the world have not such a charm , but they may be renounced without any loss of considerable joy and contentment ; and that the duties of christianity are not so hard , but that a little waiting upon god will bring in grace enough to perform them : therefore saith the apostle , seeing we have a cloud of witnesses , let us lay aside , &c. and so i come to the encouragement , to the second thing , and that is the duty here pressed . . here is the privative . . the positive part of our duty : here is mortification and vivification ; mortification , let us lay aside , &c. vivification , let us run with patience , &c. in both the branches he alludes to terms proper to races : in a race you know men strip themselves of their cloaths , and whatever is burdensome and heavy , that they may be the more light of foot ; and so the apostle bids us lay aside every weight ; and they did withall diet themselves , that they might have no clog from within , cor. . every man that striveth for the mastery , is temperate in all things &c. they took care that they did not clog and indispose themselves for the race they were to run ; but they verily run onely for a corruptible crown ; we for a crown that is incorruptible and glorious ; so according to this double practice of racers , we are to cast aside every weight from without , &c. so here 's a double object , laying aside every weight , and of sin ; there 's onus externum , the weight without , that presseth us down , and hinders our speed ; and then there 's impedimentum internum , there 's sin , that which weakens within : by reason of the former , we make little speed ; by reason of the latter we are often interrupted , and therefore we must do as they , that they might be swift and expedite , lay aside every weight , and be more temperate in all things . herein a runner in a race differs from a traveller ; a traveller strengthens himself for his journey as well as he can , his clothes on , sometimes carries a great burthen with him ; but a runner of a race makes himself as light as he can . but to come more particularly to the words . first , lay aside every weight : by weight is meant those things that burden the soul , and make our heavenly progress more tedious and cumbersome ; and by weight is meant ( i think ) the delights and cares of the world , the multitude of secular business , all our earthly contentments and affairs , so far as they are a burden to us , hinder us in our way to heaven ; these must all be put off , lu. . , . saith christ , take heed to your selves , lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness , and cares of this life , &c. the heart that is deprest cannot be so free for god , and the offices of our heavenly calling , when we give way to surfeiting , drunkenness , cares of this world. . the heart may be overcharged with the delights of the world ; surfeiting and drunkenness must not be taken in the gross notion ; you must not think of spewing , reeling , vomiting , as if to avoid these were a full compliance with christs direction ; the heart may be overcharged when the stomach is not ; there is a dry drunkenness , and a more refined surfeiting , and that is when the heart grows heavy , unfit for prayer , relishes not the things of the spirit ; when the delights of the flesh clog the wheel , abate that vigor and chearfulness that we should shew forth in the worship of god , and holy actions , when the delights●… the flesh withdraw us from that watchfulness and diligence that is necessary in taking care for our souls , then the heart is overcharged : voluptuous living is a great sin , it 〈◊〉 the seeds of piety so soon as planted in the heart , so that they can bring nothing to perfection ; it brings a brawn and a deadness upon the conscience and affections , there is nothing that hardens the heart so much , as the softness of carnal pleasure , iud. . sensual , having not the spirit . sensuality quenches our natural bravery and briskness of spirit that becomes a man ; much more doth it hinder the sublime operations of the spirit of god. well then , remember christians , you are not only travellers by the way ; but runners in a race : if we were to speak to you only under the notion of travellers in a way , this were enough to wean you from the delights of the flesh . pet. . . as strangers and pilgrims abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. the more you indulge these fleshly lusts , the more you hearten & strengthen the great enemy of your souls , and starve the better part ; but you are as runners in a race ; by this metaphor the duty is more bound upon you , much more should you beat down the body , and keep it in subjection ; the apostle hath a notable word , cor. . . i keep under my body , and bring it in subjection , &c. i beat down my body ; you must either keep under pleasures , or pleasures will keep you under ; for a man is soon brought under the power , dominion and tyranny of evil customs , and some bruitish pleasure , by indulging the lusts of the flesh , cor. . . be but a little addicted to any one thing , and you are brought under the power of it . the flesh waxes wanton and imperious and slavery grows upon you by degrees , the more you conquer carnal affections , the more they increase upon you ; and therefore you must hold the reins hard , exercise a powerfull restraint . solomon in his penitentials gives us an account of his own 〈◊〉 , and how fearfnlly he was corrupted this way , eccl. 〈◊〉 . . whatsoever mine eyes desired , i kept not from 〈◊〉 ; i with-held not my heart from any joy , &c. 〈◊〉 was that which brought him to such a lawless excess , and at length to fall off from god. when we give nature the full swing , and use pleasure with too free a license , the heart is insensibly corrupted , and the necessities of life are turned into diseases ; and all that you do , 't is but in compliance with your lusts ; your eating and drinking is but a meat-offering and drink-offering to lusts and carnal appetite , i remember solomon saith ( prov. . . ) he that delicately bringeth up his servant from a childe , shall have him become his son at length , i. e. allow a servant too much liberty , and he will no more know his condition , but grow contemptuous , bold and troublesome ; so it is here : we are all the worse for license , natural desires , unless they feel fetters and prudent restraints , grow unruly and excessive ; and therefore it is good to abate the liberty of the flesh , that the body may be a servant and not a master ; when you deny your selves in nothing , but satisfy every vain appetite , a custom grows upon the soul , and intemperance proves a trade and an habituated distemper , so that you cannot when you would , upon prudent and pious respects , refrain and command your desires : and therefore 't is good sometimes to thwart and vex the flesh , as david poured out the water of bethlem that he longed for , sam. . . not to deny our selves in what we affect and covet ; lust grows into a wanton , and bold and imperious ; and so prescribes upon us , and we are brought under the power of these things . . the businesse and cares of this world : for these immoderately followed , and not in obedience to god , are a sore burden , and makes the soul heavie , and allows no time and strength for god and his service , and those happy opportunities of private communion with him ; when we are incumbred with much service , we neglect that one thing necessary , luke . . and therefore christians must take heed that the lean kine do not devour the fat ; that sarah be not thrown out of doors in stead of hagar ; that religion be not thrust to the walls , which should be our prime and chief businesse , while every businesse hath its time and course . the scriptures knowing the pronenesse of our hearts to temporal things , deals with us as we do with a crooked stick , we bend it so much the other way , and therefore sometimes they forbid necessary labour , john . . labour not for the meat which perisheth , &c. the meaning is , not chiefly ; but it bends the stick another way , set not your affections on things on the earth : a man must have some kind of affection to his work here below ; but we had need to be bent the other way : we may gather this from this precept , 't is better to incroach upon the world , then the world should encroach upon godliness . in short , things are a burden and clog to us , according as our delight and scope is : if the pomp and encrease of the world be our end and scope , then religion will be looked upon as a burden : that will be a weight , and all duties of godlinesse as a melancholy interruption , as they , ( amos . . when will the sabbath be over ? the exercise of godlinesse will be a troublesome thing , and we shall go about the work of religion as if we went about it not : but , on the other side , if heaven and heavenly things be our scope , then the world is a burden , and then we shall use it in the way , but not abusing , as taking up our rest here , cor. . , . man hath a body and a soul , and he doth provide for both , but for one in subordination ; the soul is the chief , and therefore we must not so look after the interests and concernments of the bodily life , as to forget the interests of the soul , or to neglect them . many will not so grosly idolize present things , so as to renounce things to come : i , but they so often follow the things of the world , that they neglect their eternal concernments . the happinesse of a people lies in communion with god ; and therefore that must be looked after ; we must take heed that the cares of the world have not such a hand and power over us , as either to divert us from , or unfit us for these higher and nobler pursuits , the enjoyment of god in christ. this is the first thing the apostle speaks to these spiritual ra●…ers , to lay aside every weight , i. e. the delights of the flesh , and the cares of the world . secondly , the next thing to be laid aside is sin , which doth so easily beset us . as we must guard against things without , so we must mortifie our corrupt inclinations within , or else it will soon make us weary of our heavenly race , or faint in it . sin you know is twofold , original and actual ; actual sin is not meant primarily , for that is not peccatum agens , sin that easily besets us , but peccatum transiens , the sin that passes from us ; and original sin is that which is emphatically called sin , rom. . . now this original corruption may be considered as meerly native , or as acquired and improved into evil customes and habits ; for according to mens tempers and constitutions , as they are severally disposed , so by the corruption of nature they are inclin'd to one sin more then another ; as the channel is cut , so corrupt nature finds a vent and issue ; in every man there is some predominant sin ; and in every regenerate person some relicks of that sin , from whence is the greatest danger of his soul ; thus david speaks of his iniquity , psalm . . well then , this is that sin that doth easily beset us : original sin improved into some tyranny or evil custome , which doth encrease and prevail upon us more and more ; now this is said [ easily to beset us ] for three reasons : partly because it hath a great power and restraint over us , and implies the whole man ; the members of the body , the faculties of the soul ; so great an interest hath it acquired in our affections , it doth easily beset us , it hath great power and command over us . partly , because it sticks so close that we cannot by our own strength lay it aside . ier. . . can the ethtopian change his skin , or the leopard his spots , & c ? a man can as ●…oon change his skin , as lay aside his customes , that are so deeply engraven as the blackness of an ethiopian , or the spots of the leopard . and partly , because it mingles it self with all our motions and actions , rom. . &c. it easily besets us , 't is present with us , it impels us , and solicites us , and draws us to sin further and further , and make us negligent in what is gods : we cannot do or speak any thing , but it will infest us in all our duties of piety , charity , justice ; on every side it is interposing , vexing , thwarting the motions of the spirit , and so abates our strength , vigour , and agility , and retards our course towards heaven and glory ; therefore lay aside , as every weight , so every sin , &c. quest. now what is it to [ lay aside ] or how can we lay aside , since sin sticks so close to us , and is engraven in our natures ? ans. certainly something may be done by us ; for this is every where pressed as our duty , ephes. . . . put off the old man ; and pet. . . we may put it off more and more , though we cannot lay it aside . then we are said to lay aside the sin that so easily besets us , when we prevent and break the dominion of it , that it shall not raign over us , rom. . let not sin reign , &c. though it dwells in us , lives in us , and works in us , yet it should not overcome us , and bring us into bondage , and so it will not be imputed to our condemnation ; and at length , when the soul shall be separated from the body , we shall be wholly free from it . quest. i , but what must we do that we may so repress it ? ( the question returns ) that we may break the domonion of it ? ans. i answer , this is the work of the spirit of god ; but we must know , the spirit of god doth work the work of mortification two wayes : by regeneration , and after regeneration ; by regeneration , and so he doth immediately without any co-operation of ours , mortifie the deeds of sin , gives sin its death-wound : that which is left is as a thing mortified , it is broken ; the scripture often speaks of this first work of regeneration , rom. . . col. . . first , when we are planted into christ , then we put off the body of sin ; and though it doth not presently dye , yet it is weakened , that it cannot reign , though it be not destroyed . . after regeneration the spirit doth more and more destroy sin , the reliques of sin , this crucified body of sin , till it dieth wholly away ; this he doth in us , but not without us , rom. . . through the spirit mortifie the deeds of the body : not the spirit without us , nor we without the spirit , but ye through the spirit , what is then required of us ? . seriously purpose not to sin , and promise to god to yield him unfeigned obedience . especially should we make this promise in the use of those solemn rights , by which the covenant between god and us is confirmed . take up a solemn purpose not to grieve the spirit , nor to break his law , psal. . . i have sworn , and i will perform it , that i will keep thy righteous iudgements : this purpose of heart is the root of all good actions : therefore in the confidence of gods help , in the sence of thy own weakness , psalm . . we cannot lay wagers upon our own strength , yet it is our duty to engage our hearts to god : to sin against the light of our own conscience , and illumination of the spirit and the chastening and instruction of our own reins , that aggravates our sin ; but to sin against , and besides our fixed purpose of not sinning , that lightens sin , for then it is a sin of weaknesse and infirmity , not of wilfulness and malice ; and then we can say as paul , rom. . . when the heart is fixedly bent towards god , the evil which i would not that do i. two wayes may we be said to sin against purpose , either when we are over-born besides our purpose , our purpose still remains to please god : as when the water breaks over the bank , the bank remaining ; in such a case the fault is not in the bank , but in the violence of the flood . or secondly , when we break off our purpose , or consent to do evil ; as when we cut through the bank , the water may easily make through . there is a great deal of difference between sin dwelling in us , and sin entertained by us , between sin remaining , and sin reserved ; and when you have a firm purpose against all sin , there is sin remaining ; but it is not reserved , but it is not kept and allowed . . watch over thy self with a holy self-suspition , because thou hast sin within thee that doth easily beset thee ; therefore consider thy wayes , psal. . . guard thy sences , iob . . but above all , keep thy heart , prov. . . conscience must stand porter at the door , and examine what comes in , and what goes out ; watch over the stratagems of satan , and seducing motions of thy own heart . . resist and oppose strongly against the first risings of the flesh , and the tickling and pleasing motions of sin that doth easily beset us , when it doth intice us away from god , or do any thing that is unseemly and contrary unto the duties of our heavenly calling . oh! remember we are not debtors to the flesh , rom. . . thou art tyed to the lord by all obligations and indulgence : therefore break the force of sin by a serious resistance ; check it , and let thy soul rise up in indignation against it , my businesse is not to pleasure the flesh , but to please the lord. . bewail the involuntary lapses and falls with penitential teares , as peter went out and wept bitterly , mat. . . godly sorrow is of great use for laying aside of sin , as salt potions kill wormes ; when children are troubled with worms we give them salt potions ; so these bitter penitential tears are the means god hath appointed to mortifie sin ; that is the reason the apostle saith , cor. . . godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation , not to be repented of : 't is not only a part of repentance , but worketh persevering durable resolutions , a walking closely with god ; 't is a means god hath blessed to this end and purpose . . recover from thy falls , renew thy combate ; as israel , when they were overcome in battel , they would try it again and again , iudges . . take heed of ceasing for the present ; for though thy enemy seems to prevail , though the flesh seems to prevail against the spirit in the battel , yet thou shalt have the best of it in the war ; by the power of grace thou shalt have the victory . thus i have gone over the privative part of our duty , let us lay aside every weight , and the sin that doth so easily beset us : i should have come to the positive , let us run with patience the race that is set before us ; there is the duty , let us run the race that is set before us ; and there is the manner of the duty , let us run with patience . i should have shown you , that a christian-life is like a race from earth to heaven , in a way of holiness , and exercise of grace . this race it continues as long as we continue in the world , from our nativity to our death ; after death the strife is ended . now in this race we must run , and so run , that we may obtain the crown , cor. . . running is a motion , and a speedy motion ; there is no lying , sitting , or standing , but still there must be running : we must make a further progress in the way to heaven , forgetting those things which are behind , and reaching forth unto those things which are before . phil. . . . the runner was not to enquire how much of the way already was past , but to strain himself to overcome what was yet behind : and so should we consider what sins are yet to be mortified ; what duties yet untouched , almost untouched ; what hard conflicts are yet to be undergone , and still to hold on our way without twining aside , or halting because of difficulties , discouragements , stumbling-blocks . and there are fellows and co-partners with us that run this race , with whom we may strive , in a holy emulation , who should go forwardest , who should be most forward in the course of pleasing god : oh christians ! there are many contentions amongst us , but when shall we have this holy contention ? heb. . . in a race there is the agonotheta , the judge of the sports ; so here god observes all ; no matter what the standers by say , the judge of the sports must decide who must have the crown , cor. . , . and then , at the end of the race there is the crown , tim. . , . i have fought a good fight , i have finished my course , i have kept the faith , henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness , &c. in a race there are spectators , so there are here , god , angels , and men , cor. . . we are a spectacle to the world , to angels , and to men , &c. thus for the similitude of our race in our way to heaven . now wherein it differs . this is a race , not undertaken out of wantonness , but out of necessity : god hath called us to this course ; and if we run not in this race , we are undone for ever . and in other races , but one had the crown ; here all are crowned , tim. . . though they be not so eminent as the apostle ; here all are crowned that run in the manner god hath required ; henceforth is laid up for me a crown of righteousness , which the lord , the righteous iudge , shall give me at that day , and not to me only , but to them that love his appearing . . for the manner [ with patience ] let us run with patience . patience is necessary . . partly because of the length of the race , and the distance between us and the promised reward : our race cannot be ended but after some degrees of time ; long waiting is troublesome to the flesh , and therefore we have need of patience . . because we meet with many impediments , troubles and temptations by the way ; there are spiritual adversaries with whom we must fight ; for we go on , we not only run , but fight , therefore run with patience , &c. . because the spectators will be ready to discourage us ; we are set forth , not only as a spectacle to god and angels , but to the world , and they will be ready to deride , scorn and oppose us for o●…r zeal to god , and our forwardness in the wayes of god , to discourage us by bitter mockings , &c. therefore let us run with patience the race that is set before us . mr lye's prayer iuly . . at allhallows lombard-street . o lord , our great god , thou canst do all things , for thou dost dispose and govern all the wayes , and works , and words of thy creatures to thine own praise ; we thy poor creatures , the workmanship of thy hands , the price and purchase of thy sons blood , do desire this morning to fall down and humble our selves at the throne of thy grace ; we desire to lift up an eye of faith to thee , that thou mayst dart an eye of love to us : since thou hast commanded us to come unto thee , o bless us now we come . let it not be in vain for any of us , from the highest to the lowest , from the richest to the poorest , that we have sought t●…y face this morning . blessed father , pour down a spirit of prayer , a spirit of preaching , a spirit of rejoycing , a spirit of practising in the midst of us , let us not only be enabled to know what to do , but to do what we know . thou that didst cure the eyes of the blind with clay and spittle , oh heal that natural dimness that is in the best of us : thy rod in the hand of moses brought water out of the rock ; oh do thou strike upon these rocky hearts , that our adamantine hearts being softened , may gush out into rivers of tears . o drown our sins in the red sea of our saviours blood ; help us to sinite upon our thigh , and to ask our selves what we have been , and what we have done , and humble us under the omission of any commanded duty , and the commission of any forbidden sin , sins of thoughts , words , and deed , sins against the law , against the gospel , of youth , manhood , and old age : sins before , under , and since conversion : sins against prayers , vows , promises , covenants and oaths . o lord , if thou didst prefer thy bill against us , we could not stand ; if we were weighed in the ballance of the sanctuary we should be sound too light . but holy father , remember not against us our former sin , ●…t rather have mercy upon us according to thy loving kindness ; cross and blot out our iniquitres , blot them out so fully and wholly , that it may be to us as to judah in the promise , that the sins of judah should be sought for and not found . oh bathe our souls in that fountain that was set open for judah and jerusalem ; though our sins have been as scarlet , let them be as white as snow ; though they be red like crimson , let them be like wool . we have read , that a flood of sin brought down a deluge of water , that they covered the tops of the mountains . o let thy deluge of mercy cover the tops of the mountains of our sins . it is the glory of a god to pardon great sins ; we desire to turn unto thee with our whole hearts ; do thou subdue our iniquities , let us be not only cleansed , but let us have the efficacy of the spirit of christ to wish us from the guilt of sin , because we boast we are not under the law , but under grace , be gracious to our soveraign lord charles , king of england , scotland , france , and ireland , it is thy promise , that kings shall be nursing fathers to thy children ; grant that under the shadow of his majesty thy people may be protected , that we may live a quiet and peaceable life , in all godliness and honesty ; oh let thy people possess the land , from dan to bersheba ; oh give us scripture-magistrates , and gospel-ministers as long as the sun and moon endures . let thy word be sanctified to us , let it not be only as water to get out our spots , but as a refiners fire to purge our dross , & take away our tin . and holy father , where thou hast begun a good work , do thou go on , and bring it to perfection ; let not the light that is in us , be like the glimmering light of the evening , but as the light of the morning , that shineth more and more to the day . let our best wine be kept till the last ; let the end of our lives be the end of sinning . thou hast cast our lot in the midst of temptations of all sorts ; thou hast brought many of us through the red sea , but yet we are in the wilderness with zeba and z●…lmunna and those that dwell at tyre , the children of ammon , moab , and mount seir , and all the forces that hell can make against us ; oh put upon us all the whole armour of god. now in these dayes of error , gird us with the girdle of truth ; oh now in these dayes of falsily give us a ●…etmet of hope . now the devil darts at us , give us the shield of faith : oh give us the sword of the spirit , of the word of god , that it may enable us to confute the gain sayings of foolish men . oh help us to pray with all manner of prayer , constantly , servently , faithfully , feelingly , that we may stand and not fall , and that not in our strength , but in gods. to this end be with us upon this thine own day ; our manna falls every day , and is doubled upon the lords day ; oh let us be as thy servant john , in the spirit upon thine own day ; let god by his spirit come into our spirits , understandings , consciences , wills , memories , and affections , that all our conversations without , and affections within , may be obedient to thy word . enable thy servant to deliver thy word faithfully ; god forbid thy servant should stand upon so sandy a foundation as the wisdom of man , one iota of thy word has more wisdom in it , then all men and angels have . good father , give thy people a hearing ear , it is too much they have played by the light of thy candle , and slighted thy manna so long : oh now therefore to day give us to hear , and know ; and believe , and do the things that concern our everlasting peace ; hear us for christ his sake , to whom with thy blessed self , and spirit , be glory now and for ever . mr. lye's forenoon sermon . phil. . . therefore my brethren , dearly beloved and longed for , my joy and crown , so stand fast in the lord , my dearly beloved . my beloved , i do very well remember , that upon the four and twentieth day of this instant month . i was then under the sentence of banishment ; and that very day did i preach my farewell sermon to my people from whom i was banished , because i would not swear against my king , having sworn to maintain his just power , honour and greatness ; and now behold a second tryal : then i could not forswear my self , the god of heaven keep me that i never may . i am apt to think i could do any thing for this loving congregation , only i cannot sin . but since , beloved , there is a sentance gone out against us , that we that cannot subscribe , must not subsist ; this is the last day that is prefixed to us to preach ; i shall now speak to you ( god assisting me ) if my passion will give me leave , just as if i would speak if i were immediately to die , therefore hearken my brethren , dearly beloved and longed for , my ioy and crown , so stand fast in the lord , my dearly beloved . paul was now a prisoner at rome for the gospel of christ , it was his second imprisonment ; and he was not far from being offered up a sacrifice for the gospel he had preached . this gospel the philippians had heard him preach ; and the godly philippians having heard of his imprisonment , they sent from philippi to rome to visit him , and to supply his wants ; a gracious temper , which , i hope the eternal god hath given the saints in london , and for which , if for any thing , god hath a blessing in store for them . paul is not so much concerned in his own bands , as in the philippians estate . epaphroditus tells him , that there were heresies and false doctrines got in amongst them , but yet the philippians stood fast ; and herein paul rejoyces , writes this epistle , bids them go on , stand fast , keep their ground , and to be sure not to give an inch , but to stand fast , knowing that at a long run their labour should not be in vain in the lord. a most melting compellation , and a most serious exhor●… . . a melting compellation , my brethren , dearly beloved , &c. . a serious exhortation , and in it . the matter of the duty , stand , and stand it out , and stand fast . . the manner , . so , stand so as you have stood , stand fast : . in the lord , stand so , and stand in the lord , in the lords strength , and in the lords cause ; to stand in your own strength , would be the ready way to fall , and to stand in your own cause , for your own fancy , would be the ready way to expose your selves to all manner of temptations : therefore my brethren , dearly beloved in the lord , stand , and so stand fast in the lord , my dearly beloved . in the next place , by way of observation from the words ; and if there be any wicked catchers here , let them know , that i shall speak no more then i shall draw from , and is the mind of my text ; i would not give occasion to be a greater sufferer then i am like to be . but for the words . first , for the melting compellation , my brethren , my dearly beloved . paul was an apostle , and an high officer in the church of god , and he writ unto the philippians , to all the philippians , to the poorest of them , and see how he bespeaks himself unto them , my brethren : from hence take this observation , that the highest officers in the church of christ , though they are indeed by office rulers over them , yet by relation they are no more then brethren to the meanest saint . here we have no such rabbies to whom we must swear , because they say we must swear it . paul calls them brethren , and so writes to them , col. . . and iames , a scriptural-officer , one of the highest apostles christ ever made , saith , hearken my beloved brethren , iam. . . so peter an apostle of christ , wherefore the rather brethren ; and iohn the beloved disciple , brethren , i write no new commandment , &c. joh. 〈◊〉 . well then . . if this be so that the highest officer in the church of christ , such as christ approves of , are but brethren to the meanest saint : then certainly they are but brethren to their fellow-officers : if no more relation to the toe in the body , then no more to the eyes . if there be any of a light spirit will bear rule , that love to have the preheminence , i would desire them to read two scriptures ; the first is luke . . the second mat. . , . doth christ say , whosoever will be chief among you , let him be one that will domineer over your estates , over your persons , over your consciences , doth not christ say so ? no , but whosoever will be chief among you , let him be your minister , — let him be your servant . even as the son of man came not to be ministred unto , but to minister , and to give his life a ransom for many . you have this also , luke . . and he said unto them , the kings of the gentiles exercise lordship over them , i. e. over their slaves , over their vassals , but ye shall not be so , but he that is greatest among you , let him be as the younger , and he that is chief , as he that doth serve . sure if paul be but a brother to philip , then he is no more to timothy . . if the highest officers in the church of christ be but brethren to the meanest saint , then it is not for those brethren to lord it over their fellow-brethren , lord it over gods heritage : remember , 't is gods heritage . i hope your consciences will bear me witness , that i have laboured as much as in me lies , to be a helper of your joy , not to lord it over your faith , cor. . to presse or cause you in believe this or that because i believe it : if this be allow'd then may i turn papist tomorrow . saith christ to him that would have had him speak to his brother to divide the inheritance with him , man , who made me a iudge over 〈◊〉 , luke . . so say i , man who made thee a tyrant , a lord over thy fellow-brethren , pet. . . neither as be●… lords over gods heritage , &c. . if the highest officers in the church of christ be but brethren , and no more , then there should be no discord between those brethren , behold how good and pleasont it is for brethren to dwell together in 〈◊〉 . and truly i may comfortably speak that , and it is one of the greatest comsorts i have in the world . i hope we have lived together in love , blessed be god : let us not fall out , saith abrahim the elder , to let his younger cousin , for we are brethren . beloved , the discords between pastor and people have made the best musick in the ears of the jesuits . . are pastors , nay the highest officers that jesus christ hath , and doth own in his church , but brethren ? oh! then let those brethren , if they will appear before the bar of their father in heaven with comfort , take care of offending the souls of their brethren ; for at the hand of every brother god will require the soul of his brother ; ezek , . . his blood will i require at the watchmans hand . we that are called by some the dogs of the flock , what shall we prove dumb dogs ? what a comfort will it be to my dying brethren this day , if they can but say , lord , we are clear from the blood of our brethren ? the officers of christ should never behave themselves so , that they should give their people occasion to say , we are brethren to dragons . but ier. . . take ye heed every one of his neighbour , &c. i would commend one scripture to all my brethren in the ministry , cor. . . a scripture that i would have writ in letters of gold on the lintel-posts of all ministers doors : wherefore if meat make my brother to offend , i will eat no flesh while the world stands , left i make my brother to offend . rather then to endanger his soul , i 'le away with all these toys and gew-gaws . from the terms of dearest affection , dearly beloved , longed for , &c. take this observation , that , it becomes the highest ministers , much more the lowest , to bear a most tender , vehement , ardent , strong melting affection , towards that st●…ck or people that god hath committed to their change . thus paul to the philippians in the text , my brethen , dearly beloved , &c. you shall find paul in all his epistles in a thawing frame to his people , melting in love unto them : the corinthi●…ns were so in his heart , no●… only to live with them , but if god called him , to die for them , so abundantly did he love them , cor. . . that he would very gladly spend and be spent for them , carried them in his heart , and longed after them all . as for the thessalonians thess . . he , as a nurse , tendreth and nourisheth them as children , and is so affectionately desirous of them , that he is willing to impart them , not only the gospel , but his own soul , because they were dear to him . then , . is this so , ought the pastors so to love their people ? give me leave to bespeak you in the words of iob ( in respect of those hundreds of ministers that are to be plucked from their people : ) have pity upon me , have pity upon me , oh●…ye my friends , for the hand of god hath touched me , iob . . what will nothing serve but plucking out our very eyes ? our very heart , ( being so much the objects of the peoples love . ) how sad is it for the father to be plucked from the childe , the shepherd from the flock , the nurse from the childe , this is a lamentation , and ought to be for a lamentation : that there must be a parting between david and 〈◊〉 , who loved one another as their own souls , this cuts them unto their very heart . and this i may say with respect to my self , i blesse god , i cannot say , as she of her husband , a bloody husband hast thou been unto me , but a loving congregation have you been unto me . i know none of you have desired my destruction , nor to taint my name ; never did i hear three in this congregation speak of pressing any thing against me , that was contrary to my conscience : nor can i say , that there are four in this parish that did ever deny to pay me my legal dues , blessed be god for such a people , you have not encroached upon my conscience , as i hope i have not upon yours . pastors must love their people , do not blame them if their hearts be almost broken , when they are to part with such a people . . must the pastor love his people ? then the people must love their pastor . 't is true , it lies in the power of man to seperate the pastor and people , but not to separate their hearts ; i hope there will never be a separation of love , but that will still continue : if we do not see one another , yet we may love one another and pray for one another ; i hope a husband doth not cease from loving his wife because she is absent from him . but oh ! for my brethren , hundreds of them think that you are undone , though you cannot see as far as other men , you may live in love , and keep your consciences quiet . . must pastors love their people ? then you see from hence , what should be the grand object of the pastors affection , i. e. the people ; not what the people have ; this is great inquiry , what is the benefice worth ? what 's the preferment ? do they pay well , &c. whereas we should not seek so much the fleece as the flock , we should not take oversight of a congregation for love of their pay , but of their souls ; nor , 't is an excellent good living , as one said i have heard of , let me have their tythes , and let their souls go to the devil ; but as the apostle , i seek not yours , but you , cor. . . and i hope there be many hundreds can say , it hath been the peoples souls they have more loved and affected , than any thing what the people had . . once more ; we must love them , and love them tenderly , why , and yet leave them ? yes my beloved , we are so to love our people , as to venture any thing for them but our own damnation . i come not here to throw firebrands . i bless god i have a most tender affection for all my brethren in the ministry ; and though i am not satisfied my self , yet i condemn no man , i believe there be many of them do as conscienciously subscribe , as deny to subscribe . i protest in the fear of god i cannot subscribe ; perhaps it is because i have not that light as others have ; for he that doubts ( saith the apostle ) is damned : my beloved , i hope you would not have us sin against god and our consciences . it is not my living that i desire , but my office to serve my lord and master , but if we should ( to keep communion with you ) lose our communion with god ; this is the ready way to have all our labour and pains lost ; but as david said ( and oh that i could speak it with as good hopes as david ) zadok , carry back the ark of god , if i shall find favour in the eyes of the lord , he will bring me again , and shew me both it and his habitation : but if he thus say , i have no delight in thee , behold here am i , let him do to me as seemeth good unto him , sam. . . brethren , i could do very much for the love i bear to you but i dare not sin ? i know they will tell you , this is pride and peevishness in us , and that we have preacht against it , and are tender of our reputation , and we would fain all be bishops , and forty things more : but the lord be witness between them and us in this . beloved , i prefer my wife and children before a blast of air of peoples talk : i am very sensible what it is to be reduced to a morsel of bread : let the god of heaven and earth do what he will with me , if i could have subscribed with a good conscience , i would , i would do any thing to keep my self in the work of god , but to sin against my god , i dare not do it . . my joy and crown , therefore my dearly beloved and longed for , my joy and crown , my present joy and future crown : my joy which i value more then a crown , my principal joy . hence observe this doctrine , that , the fixed , standing , flourishing growth of saints in gospel-practice and gospel-obedience , is , or ought to be matter of transcendent joy to their pastors . it was so to the apostle paul ; paul heard how they stood : though there was a plague amongst them , yet they were not infected ; and though he was in the gaol ready to be beheaded , yet this was his joy and crown , that his people did stand , and i hope , my brethren , it will be our joy and crown to he●…r of your standing and growth in gospel ▪ knowledge , and gospel-profession . and . if this be so , as iohn said , i rejoyced greatly that i found of thy children walking in the truth : it should be the prayers and endeavours of all pastors really to love the souls of their people , and to pray for them : that when they cannot look after the souls of their children , yet that good nurses may be looked out for them . what a joy was it that moses mother was made his nurse ? and who can tell , it may be thought , not out of any merit of ours , yet of their own clemency , our governours may give us to be nurses over our own children : but if i cannot nurse my childe my self , i will wish it well , and as good a nurse as i can : far be it , that those that are to succeed should not prosper : lord , it shall be the prayere of thy servant , that those that are to succeed may have a double and treble portion of thy spirit , that he may be both painful and faithfull , &c. . if the peoples growth in grace and knowledge be matter of joy to a faithful pastour ? then what do you think of those that hinder their thriving . i shall give you two scriptures , iohn . . the pharisees therefore said among themselves , ( they durst not speak publickly ; but who was it against ? why , it was against christ ) perceive ye how ye prevail nothing , behold the world is gone after him . but we will order him for that , we will be sure to lesson his congregation ; if we cannot do that , we will shut the doors against him ; see matth. . . woe unto you scribes and pharisees , hypocrites , for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men : what! shut up the kingdome of heaven against men ? what the pharisees ! that pretended they had the keys of heaven , and to be the guides ? i , that is it . because there is nor room enough in heaven for us and them too ? no , saith christ , there is no such matter ; for ye neither go in your selves , neither suffer ye them that are entring to go in . i dare not tell you at this time what it is to shut up the kingdome of heaven against men , you may better imagine it t●…en i can speak it ; but this did the pharisees they would not go in themselves , nor suffer them that wer●… 〈◊〉 to go in . i remember , when i was a childe , we h●…d ●…uch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that would one lords-day preach up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 next lords-day would preach against the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . and now , my 〈◊〉 , i am come in the next place to speak to ●…he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 stand fast ; and because i see a hurricane a 〈◊〉 ●…eep your ground , stand fast , and live in the lord here , that you may live with him hereafter . mr. lye's afternoon sermon . phil. . . therefore my brethren , dearly beloved and longed for , my joy and crown , so stand fast in the lord , my dearly beloved . from this scripture you have had these . doctrines : . that the highest officers of the church of christ , though they are rulers of them , yet they are but brethren to the meanest saint . . that it becomes a true scriptural minister of christ , to have a most veh●…ment , ardent , strong , melting , tender affection to that flock or people which the providence of god hath committed to his charge . . that the fixed , standing , flourishing , and thriving of that flock in the profession and practice of gospel-knowledge and obedience , is matter of transcendent joy and triumph to such a godly pastor . the fourth , which is that i would now prosecute , is this , that it is the grand and indispensible duty of all sincere saints , in the most black and shaking seasons , to stand fast , fixed and stedfast in the lord. this is the grand thing st. paul had to say to his philippians when he was ready to have his head cut off , for so it was , he was beheaded for the testimony of jesus : this is all he had to say when in jayle , when in bonds , and that under heathen romans ; you are now my joy , you are now my crown , oh ! do but stand , and my joy , which is but two notes above gamut , will get to ela. oh! do but stand , and my crown 's studded with diamonds : we live if you stand , though we die when you stand . it is the great and indispensible duty , &c. whether these are black and shaking seasons , i have nothing to say , but i am wholly now upon your duty , beloved ; and for god's sake let the words of a civilly dying minister prevail with you . there is a kind of a maxim among some , that in case a person dye seemingly , and revive again , that the last words that was heard of that person when in a rational temper , are the only things that that person will remember when brought to life again . it is most probable beloved , whatever others may think , but in my opinion ( god may work wonders ) neither you nor i shall ever see the faces of , or have a word more to speak to one another till the day of judgement . therefore i beseech you hear me , as those that would and may live with me to eternity . mark your duty ; i have spoken something concerning the pastors duty in the morning ; now for the peoples : it is the indispensible duty of all sincere saints , to stand fast , &c. i confess , i have a love for the whole auditory , i have a mess for them ; but my benjamin's mess is for those i once called my own people ; you are my benjamins , i wish i had a greater than a fifth for you . this proposition i shall . prove , and then . improve . in the worst of times , in the most shaking seasons , and if i do not greatly mistake , there is an hour of temptation threatned by god , now beginning to be inflicted ; if ever you would stand , stand now , and for your comfort , let me but hint , that a christian may stand comfortably , when he falls sadly ; that is , he may stand by god when he falls by man. i knew that a great many years ago . first then , 't is your duty to stand . there be scriptures more then enough to prove this to be your duty , col. . stand perfect & compleat in all the will of god ph. . only let your conversation be as becometh the gospel of christ , that whether i come and see you , alas poor paul ! thou come & see them ! thou wast beheaded before thou couldst come & see them ; but ( or else be absent , i may hear of your affair●… , that ye may stand fast in one spirit , with one m●…nd , striving together ( not to pluck out one anothers throats , no more of that ; but striving together , not against one another , but ) for the faith of the gospel . so cor. . . therefore my brethren , be steadfast , unmoveable , always abounding in the work of the lord , forasmuch is you know that your labour is not in vain in the lord. 't is our duty to stand . but. secondly , wherein must we stand steadfast ? i have no new doctrine to preach now , i shall but mind you of what i have formerly spoken when you would not believe . i confess i do not begin to be of a new judgement now ; and should i be continued in the ministry , ( a mercy i can hardly hope for ) i should be of the same judgement , and preach this doctrine , stand fast . god will certainly bring the people of god in england to his own terms , or else ●…are them well for ever . what 's that we should be steadfast in ? i would advise to a steadfastness . . of iudgement . . to steadfastness of resolution . . to a steadfastness of faith. . to a steadfastness of conscience . so stand fast in the lord in your iudgement , in your resolution , in your faith , in your conscience . . i would advise to a steadfastness of iudgement . strange doctrines are the greatest fetters that do assault a sound judgement ; they are like waves , if they do split , they will shake the ship to purpose : therefore your way is , to cast anchor well , to stand firm on the rock of truth , i had almost said all in a word , protestant truth ; though the market may rise somewhat high , yet stand firmly there while strange doctrines like so many impetuous waves , are beating upon you , break themselves in pieces they may , but if you stand , can never hurt you , i am not now to begin to warn you against p●…pery , not that i have the least reflection on any thing in the world , but on the scriptures . i am apt to think the wound of the beast must be healed : however , do not you spread a plaister for the beast to heal his wound : be no more children tossed to and fro , carried about with every wind of doctrine , with every wind , or windy doctrine , by the slight of men , and cunning craftiness , that can cog the die , notable gamesters there are in the world , but you must stand steady in judgement , you must be firm to your principles : i would have you stars , not meteors , for meteors are carried about with every blast of wind. i hope better things of you ; i shall pray god would make you steadfast in iudgement : . be sure to get good principles ; and secondly , be sure to stand in those good principles that you have got . and though i cannot say but some tares are sown among this parish , ye●… i bless the lord for the generality , i hope i may say , i have an orthodox ministry . . 't is not enough to stand i●…●…udgement , but we must be steadfast to our 〈◊〉 ; 〈◊〉 . . be steadfast ▪ immoveable , such as stand firm on some basis and foundation , that doth not totter and stagger : if they find you staggering , to be sure the next moment they look upon you as falling . be as they say of one or both of the poles of the heavens , though all the world turns , the poles are immoveable . if i mistake not , you may see a great turn in the world ; ●…nd behold at this day , the greatest turn that ever was in england ; but yet you must not move , you must not stir , be true to your resolutions , be just to your first love , go on in the lords work , let nothing take you off . if i have preached any false doctrine among you , witness against me at the day of judgement ; but if the things i have preached be true , stand to the truths , if you do not witness against my doctrine ( mine 't is not ) but rather witnesse for it , remember , if you leave it , that very doctrine will witnesse against you at the day of judgement . oh! that excellent heroe , queen hester , thus and thus i will do , and if i perish , i perish . you cannot imagine against how many thousand temptations a stadfast resolution will guard you . . there 's a steadfastnesse of faith too , when we so believe as that we do not waver , or do not hesitate . will you give me leave to propose to you ( my dear friends , though my congregation i cannot call you ) that question which our saviour did unto the jews . ( whom he hated , though i love you ) the baptism of iohn , whence was it ? from heaven , or of men . the doctrines you have heard , have they been from heaven or from men ? answer me , if from men abhor them ; man is a false creature , man would make merchandize of your faith and souls , but if from heaven , why then should you not believe them ? i blesse the lord , my conscience bears me witnesse , i never did so far propose a doctrine to you , i would have you believe without scripture . if the doctrines have been from god believe them , if not , abhor them , and any of those that shall dare to bring a doctrine , but dare not bring the authority of the scripture to warrant them . you may not be like those in iam. . . that mavereth like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed . the most godly man may stumble in his way , i. e. tread awry , but a wavering minded man is never settled concerning his way . blessed be god i am not now ( on this day that looks as like my dying day as can be in the world ) to begin to fix upon a religion , to fix upon my way , i know my way , if god will but keep 〈◊〉 steps , and guide me in that way . if god be 〈◊〉 ( i appeal to your consciences ) worship him ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 god , worship him ; do not stand disputing and doubting , do not , say shall i ? shall i ? if the ways you have found be the ways of god , follow them ; god hath but one way to heaven , there is but one truth ; if baal be god follow baal , do not stand wavering ; do not consult with flesh and bloud ; 't is an infinite mercie that god will give any of us to leave relations , estates , congregations , any thing for christ : 't is an infinite mercy we do not split upon a rock . be sure to be either for god or baal : a godly man many time , halts in his way , but never halts between two opinions . . steadfastness of conscience . indeed the genius of my ministry hath lyen this way : and here i could easily launch out , but i must be short . i would speak a word in season to those that are weak , it becomes you to be steadfast in conscience ; then have a god decreeing , a christ redeeming , a spirit quickning , a gospel promising , a heaven prepared , a god infinitely more ready to save him , then he can possibly be desirous to be saved by him . be steadfast in conscience against the guilt , the filth of sin , against the temptations of satan , &c. let us draw near , with full assurance of faith ; you can never believe gods love so much , as gods love doth engage you to believe , &c. i might adde . . you must be steadfast in conversation : 't is not the running well , but the running out ; 't is not the sighing but the conquering that gives you title to the reward : for you to give a great deal of milk , and to throw it down all at length with your foot , may argue you to have a good dug , but a bad foot . never give those be●…sts of babylon occasion to say , that a man may be a child of god in the morning , and a child of the devil at night ; that we contradict that doctrine by our conversation , that we assert in our profession . but why must we be stedfast ? alas ▪ why ; would you have me marshal up all the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 me count the stars , or number the sands on 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . there is no●… an attribute in god , not a precept , 〈◊〉 , or 〈◊〉 in the word , not an ordinance ▪ 〈◊〉 a 〈◊〉 ; there is nothing in god , or 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 , or ourselves , but all would give a con●…ribution of 〈◊〉 to prove the saints 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i must but h●…nt at a few things . first , i would argue from iesu christ. believers you love christ , and therefore you love the honour of christ , now the honour of christ is highly engaged in your stedfastness . we never cast a deeper blot on the honour of christ , then when we grow unstedfast : i need not tell you so , the jesuits , those me●…k papists will tell you so , those that delight in nothing more then in the milk of the virgin mary , and in the bloud of saints : they have enough : if you be unsteady . . you dishonour christ in his sufferings : pray tell me believers , why did christ swear bloud ? why did he dye ? why did he undergo what the wrath of devils could inflict , but for this end , to make you steady , to give you the conquest of all spiritual enemies , and to make you stand in that conquest triumphing . thus i remember as ioshuah . jos. . . come , put your feet upon the necks of these k●…ngs , and they came near , and put their feet upon the necks of them . so , christ hath dy'd , that you might live , that you might stand ; and what dishonour to the eternal saviour of the world , to a dying sav●…ur , to see a flying christian. 't was never heard of , that souldiers should ●…lye before a conquered enemy , whose legs were cut off , whose arms were broken , whose sword taken from them . . 't is a dishonour to the spirit of christ : the same spirit that was with christ in all his agonies , this very spirit he hath given to believers that he might bring them through with some victory ; therefore , when we stand not , 't is a high dishonour to christ's spirit . . 't is a dishonour to christ's truth : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what a dishonour doth it bring ●…o the truth ▪ 〈◊〉 but thought of some late experiments of poor 〈◊〉 that i h●…ve he●…rd of , carried about in triumph , look here 's the man , here 's the man that hath done this , that , and t●…other thing , and now look here 's his — i cannot excuse noah from his drunkenness , yet me thinks 't is the part of a cham to shew his fathers nakedness . i remember that one hath told me , ( 't is a great truth ) that religion never s●…ffers greater wounds , then by the hands of her professed friends ; oh? what advantage have the wicked papists taken against us by the falls of english professors , both in principles and practice . . ' i is a very great dishonour to christs all-sufficiency . tell me man , is thy christ able to protect thee against all evil ? and is he able to supply thee with all good ? or is he not ? if he be not , then deny him , and whatever thou hast said concerning him , if he be , then stand close to him , in the mount he will be seen . ly . i would argue from saints , the infinite advantage that at a long run ( i do not say presently ) will redound to those that are steady in judgment , in resolution ; in faith , in conscience , in practice , so far as all these are conformable to the word of god , and no further . the greatest advantage appears upon these four grounds . . whatever thou thinkest , a steady condition is the safest condition . . the fullest condition . . the strongest condition , . the freest condition . oh! that i could beat this into my heart , as well as ●…tis in my head . the safest condition in the midst of dangers ; the fullest condition in the mids●… of wants ; the strongest condition in the midst of assauts , and the freest condition in the midst of straights . i profess in the presence of god , i have felt these things , and knew them to be true many years ago . . it is the safest condition : never do the saints take hurt , but by declining , moving from their center : while at their center the devil cannot touch them ; departing thence , is like the poor bird from her nest , every one hath a fling at them . remember this , let but a man once leave his scriptural station , and what temptation is he able to stand against : it is just like a man thrown down from the top of an house , no stopping till he come to the bottom . joh . . he that is begotten of god keepeth himself , and the wicked one toucheth him not . . it is the fullest condition . oh! my brethren , saints living steadfastly on their foundation , are continually supplied by god , as the fountain doth continually issue out it self into the streams . i know 't is best living upon a single god. how many thousands be there yet living in england , that can tell you , they never enjoyed more of god , then when they enjoyed least of the creature . some have professed to me their prison was to them as a palace , that were troubled more with these things then ever you were , and the god of heaven grant you never may . . 't is the strongest condition . a man that stands steadfast , is like a man on a rock , the waters come , they may dash themselves in pieces , but never shall be able to dash him in pieces , he is fixed on a rock , and therefore stands . a man that stands steady to his scriptural principles , is like sanpson with his locks about him , let all the philistines come , what cares he , he is able to conquer them all . . 't is the freeest condition . a man that deserts his principles , is a slave to every condition , afraid of every humour , of every aspine leaf in the world , thinks all those are informers that converse with him , is afraid of some promooter or other . but he that stands fast , where the spirit of god is , there is liberty and freedome ; such a man in chains , as paul at rome , is in a far freer condition then others not in that restraint . well then , 't is rational that you stand , but it may be your l●…st and interest can hardly swallow these things : if we stand we shall not fall ; nay if you do not stand , be sure you shall fall at last . the next thing i would do is to apply this truth . is it the most important duty of all sincere professors , in the most shaking seasons , to stand stedfast in the lord ? then first , by way of lamentation , and that . over our own souls . . over hundreds of congregatio●…s . lord , must , do we say hundreds , nay thousands of congregations that are this day , though they do not accompany us in person , yet mingling tears with us , and especially as i hear , on the west of england . . over our own hearts . we must stand ; that 's our duty : oh ! how should it cause us to lie low , by reason of the instability of our hearts , and their cursed declining from the true foundation every day . alas , beloved , this is that that god complains of , they are a generation whose spirit is not stedfast with god ; and therefore we have very much reason to complain of it : oh ! that this sin might be forgiven : oh , what an unsetled people have we been ! to day we have been apt to cry hosanna , hosanna to the son of david , to morrow our note is changed , crucifie him , crucifie him , give us barabbas ▪ to day the lord is god , to morrow baal ; any thing is god , provided we may keep our estates . oh lord ! what w●…lt thou do with such a people as this ? certainly it is a lamentation , and ▪ ought ●…o be a lamentation . believe it beloved , i can now count seven years , if not something more , wherein i have most clearly expected the daies i now see : no way , but the severest waies to be taken with such a false people as we have been . judge in your own thoughts , whether we have been true to god or man , to saints or sinners , to the churches of god at home , or abroad : whether or no this be not matter of lamentation . . with respect to our congregations . ( 't is not against the law yet to call them our congregations . ) this i confess , i can rather weep then speak to , i cannot speak , my heart is too big for my head here . lord , is it the duty of people , of saints , to stand , to be stedfast ? how then should we mourn over those poor souls , that because their pillers are taken away , must needs for ought we know fall , unless thou dost support them ? what , lord , dost thou complain of a flock of sheep that are scattered ? oh ! there 's no wonder in it , their shepherd is gone . do you look on it as a strange thing , to see a poor ship to be tossed here and there in the sea , when their pilot is destroyed ? why mother , is it a strange thing for your children to fall and knock their arms , legs , their brains out ? why their mother is taken from them oh poor people ! good god provide for this congregation , i , and this city , that ( let defacing , abominable wretches say what they will ) is certainly one of the best cities god hath in the world , and therefore they hate it so desperately because god loves it , and because they hate that god that loves it . i bless god , i can speak of my own people , they are not a mad pestiserous people , for the most of them . how many thousands have their hearts at their mouthes now at this time before god in england : alas , alas , that we should ever have our seers carried away from us ! but what think you , when poor people shall be exposed to greater temptations , to an ulcer in the very kidneys , to a plague in the very heart , or head : you now fear it , but when you feel it , what then ? . by way of exhortation : beloved , i remember good iacob , when he was come into egypt , and ready to die , calls his children together , and before he dies blesseth his children . i cannot say you are my children , but i can truly say in the strength of god , you are dearer to me then the children of my own bowels : i remember what poor esau said , hast thou but one blessing , my father ? bless me , even me also , oh my father . oh! beloved , i have a few blessings for you , i have a few words of exhortation for you : and for gods sake take them as if they dropt from my lips when dying ; 't is very probable we shall never meet more while the day of judgement , what ever others think , i am utterly against all irregular waies . i 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bless the lord ) never had a hand in any change of government in all my life : i am for prayers , ears , quietness , submission , and meekness , and let god do his work , and thi●… will be the best done when he doth it . therefore be exhorted to stand f●…st in the lord : my own people , hear me now , though you should never hear me more ; be exhorted to stand fast in the lord ; you are not a schismatical , heretical people , i do not know the lesst person among you enclining to pope●…y : therefore be exhorted , as ye have been a people that have waited upon the ordinances of god , that have not persecuted your poor , minister : that have made it your design and business to live lovingly , quietly and as it becomes christians , ( i am confident a minister may live as comfortably among you , as among any people in england . ) so be ye stedfast , unmovable , alwaies abounding in the work of the lord , for as much as you know that your lahour shall not be in vain in the lord. here i had prepared , i confess , several arguments to have moved you to this stedfastness . . i could have told you , that with drawing of any one of you back , you will meet with great temptations which will very much unfit you for heaven . if any man or woman draw back , my soul ( saith god ) shall have no pleasure in him : i could have urged you with examples from the heathens ; alexander being in india bid them tell him the greatest rarity in their countrey : sir , go tell them , say they , when you come to greece , there are many here that cannot be forced by the prowess of alexander , to change their minds . i know there are some here that cannot be easily perswaded to change their religion . saith lactantius , our very women torment their tormentors . i would never desire a more able disputant , than a woman against a monk. . i could tell you of those enjoyments god hath put on you , our miseries have been great , but our mercies have been greater : i could tell you of six troubles , and of seven ; of six wherein god hath stood by , and of seven wherein he hath not forsaken , and the truth is , he cannot forsake his people ; he may forsake them as for comfort , he will never forsake them as for support : let him lay on a burden , he will be sure to strengthen the back . . i hope 't is not dangerous if i tell you you are ingaged to god : there are vows upon you , baptismal vows , to say no more , you have sworn to god , you have lifted up your hands : you are those that have undertaken that you would be true to god to your lives end : if these vows have been any way strengthened , oh! remember zedekiahs case , ezr. . . . seeing he despised the oath by beeaking the covenant ( when lo he had given his hand ) and hath done all these things , he shall not escape : therefore thus saith the lord god , as i live , surely mine oath that he hath despised , and my covenant that h●… hath broken , even it will i recompence upon his own head . remember it , you may play fast and loose with man , you must not think ever to carry it away by playing fast and loose with god. . if you should not stand , you loose all you have wrought ; all your prayers , tears , professions , practises , sufferings are all gone if you give out at last , &c. . while you stand by god , god hath promised to stand with you : and the truth is , if i have but one god , 't is no great matter for all the tyles in worms . there be a devils , but all those devils are in one chain , and the end of that chain is in the hand of one god : oh ! god will shew himself strong , cor. . . for the eyes of the lord run too and fro●…through the whole earth , to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect towards him . quest. but what shall i do to stand ? ans. . if ever you would stand , if ever you would be firm standing christians indeed , take heed you be not light and proud christians : a feather will never stand against a whirlwind , errour and prophaneness are most apt to breed in proud hearts . the proud and blasphemers are put together , ( tim. . . ) be but humble christians , that 's the way to be standing steady christians : if ever you would be steady in your stations , you must be low in your own eyes : do not you go and judge . and now , we shall have another kind of religion come up , as we have had it a great while ; such a man cannot be an honest man , alas , he is a presbyterian , he 's an independant , he 's an anabaptist , &c. now , all our great business will be , such a man cannot be a good , an honest man , for he doth not conform ; on the other side , he cannot be an honest man , for he doth conform : these are poor things : i bless god , i lay not the stress of my salvation upon these : t is true , i cannot in conscience conform , but i do not lay the stress of salvation on it as i did not lay the stress of my salvation on my being a presbyterian ; i confess i am so , & have been ; it hath been my unhappiness to be alwaies on the sinking side ; yet i lay not the stress of my salvation upon it . 't is my conscience , but it may be i have not so much light as another man ; and i profess in the presence of god , could i conform without sin to my own 〈◊〉 , i would ; if i should do any thing against my conscience , i should sin , and break my peace , and conscience , and all , and never see good day : do not then spend the strength of your zeal for your religion in censuring others . that man that is most busie in censuring others , is alwayes least employed in examining himself . remember good iohn bradford , he would not censure bonner nor gardiner , but saith he , they called i. bradford , the hypocritical i. bradford , &c. i do not speak this , as though i can , or did in conscience approve of those things for which i must suffer , that i cannot approve of them , but to take off people from those things that are so far from the foundation . look you but to the main things , and look but into your own hearts , examine them , and then you need not be much perswaded to look about to others . . you must take heed you be not loose christians : will you remember one thing from me ( the god of heaven grant you never live to see it verified ) a loose protestant is one of the fittest persons in the world to make a strict papist . tell not me of his protestantisme , being a drunkard , it is because his king o●… countrey are protestants where they live . there is no religion in a loose liver , if ungodliness be in the heart , it is no difficult thing for error to get into the head . a loose heart can best comply with loose principles , see if they will not be of any religion in the world that is uppermost ; let the turk●… prevail , they would soon be of his religion . . take heed of being worldly christians : oh ! this is the david that hath ●…lain his ten thousands . a worldly heart will be bought and sold upon every turn to serve th●… devils turn . come to a worldly heart , and but promise him thirty pieces of silver he will betray his saviour . the temptations of the world are great upon us at this time , you that are husbands and parents know it ; the world is a 〈◊〉 temptation , but if we be overcome by the world , and the world not overcome by us , we shall never be able to overcome any one temptation that is offered to us . therefore that 's an admirable support . in the world you shall have tribulation , but be of good cheer , i have overcome the world : i have overcome the world for you , and likewise i have overcome the world in you . oh lord , if thou wilt but overcome the love and the fear of the world , if thou wilt but arm us against the smiles of the world , then come what will , we shall stand stedfast . . take heed you be not hypoeritical christians , i ▪ e. take heed you do not receive the truth , and only receive the truth , and not receive the truth in the love of that truth , thess. . . you have received truth , but have you received the truth in the love of that truth which you have received ; want of this is that damnable occasion to popery ; and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish because they received not the love of the truth , that they might be saved ; and for this cause god shall send them strong delusions , that they shall believe a lye , that they all might be damned , who believed not the truth . 't is just with god they should fall into errours , whose hearts did never love real truths . better never receive the truth , then to receive it , and not in the love of it . take heed of being venturous , and god tempting christians : what 's that ? when do i tempt god ? i tempt god when i do run into a pest-house , and say , god will preserve me from the plague . take heed of running upon temptations to sin , whether it be in principles or in practice . i could tell you of two spiritual pest-houses in england if i had time , for principles one , and for practices another , i do not say that i mean play-houses on the one hand , or mass-houses on the other hand : certainly bret●…ren , i read of iulian that wicked bloudy apostate , that he sunk into that his apostacy first , by going to hear libanius preach , mistake me not , i am not against your hearing the ministers of christ , for a man may be a true minister , though he be a bad man ; all the world can never answer the instance of iudas , who was a true minister , though a bad man ; while i plead for the truth of his ministry , i do not spread a skirt over the wickedness of his life . the scribes and pharisees sit in moses chair , hear them . but that which i mainly aim at , is this , do not you go , and run , and venture your selves upon temptations : you have heard of superstitious or idolatrous worship , you have a months mind to see this , and what if so be when you are found in satans way , satan should lay his ●…aw on you , and claim to you , what do you there in satan's ground . would you be found when you come to die in a play-house , or in such a place where the true god is id●…latrously worshipped ? 't is a great truth , if you would not be found in the devils power , do not be found in the devils pound . brethren , we must know , satan is b●…sie enough to tempt us , we need not go to tempt him : eve lost all that she had by hearing one sermon , but 't was from the devil . therefore , if you would not have your pockets pickt , do not trade amongst cheaters : tim. . , . if any man ●…each otherwise , &c. ( then that ye have received , and we preached ) from such withdraw thy self ; that 's a good , honest , laudable separation , from such withdraw thy self . . where god doth not find a mouth to speak , do not you find an ear to hear , nor an heart to believe . [ pray mind it , this i am sure is of concernment ] this is one of the grand points in my card or compass , on which i hope i shall venture all if any man come with a doctrine not according to the word of god , let him carry it whither he will , what have i to do with it ? either you come from god , or no , if you do , shew me his word , and i 'le believe it ? if not , open your pack where you please , &c. where god doth not find a mouth to speak , where you have not a precept , promise , threatning or example in the word of god , let them talk their hearts out , 't is nothing to me , to my religion , to my salvation . object . but what ground have you for this ? ans. iesuit . i will tell you my ground : this is my great hold i have against popery . could they convince me of this , that i must believe with an implicite faith , because they say it , i think it would not be long before i turn'd papist . quest. but why must i not believe it with an implicite faith ? ans. look you into those three great scriptures , mat. . . why do thy disciples transgresse the traditions of the elders ? the jewes come and tell christ he was not a true son of the church of the jewes , he was disobedient to the church of the jewes ; why ? thou hast disciples that walk not as they ought ; what do they do ? they commit an unpardonable sin , they transgresse the traditions of the elders , they break one of the greatest commandements . what 's that tradition ? they wash not their hands when they eat bread : this was the great sin , and they charge it on him , eat with unwashen hands : why ? why bring you in this tradition ? what have you to say for it ? what 's that to the purpose ? prove iesus christ that there is any thing in the word of god that is against 〈◊〉 ? but , prove you out of the word of god where they are bound to wash before they eat ? if you will give out your imposition , make out your institution ; and let me tell you , you talk of tradition , but first you set up an altar god never thought of , and secondly , you pull down gods altar : why do you also transgress the commandment of god by your tradition ? for god commanded , saying , honour thy father and mother ; and he that curseth father or mother , let him dye the death : but ye say , whosoever shall say to his father or mother , it is a gift by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me , and honour not his father and mother , he shall be free ; thus have ye made the commandement of god of none effect by your traditions : ye hypocrites , you are told of it long ago ; well did esaias prophesie of you , saying , this people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth , and honoureth me with their lips , but their heart is far from me . they draw near , wash their hands , wash their cups , and have filthy souls ! they honour me with their lips , &c. but though their principles , their heart is bad , their worship is good , is it not ? no , in vain they do worship me , teaching for doctrines the commandments of men . so then , my brethren , remember , all those that teach for doctrines the precepts of men , in vain do they worship god ; here 's an innocent command , you must wash before you eat ; if you do not wash , you do transgress the traditions of the elders ; but let you starve father and mother , if you give but to the church , to a nunnery , friery , &c. 't is all one ; so that all those that will for doctrines teach the traditions of men , will render the commandments of god of none effect ; in vain do they worship me . look therefore , whereever god doth not find a tongue to speak , do not you find an ear to hear , nor an heart to believe . christians , if you expect christs benediction , always call aloud for christs institution ; so col. . , . one of the greatest steps you have against popery , let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary h●…mility , and worshipping of angels , intruding into those things which he hath not seen , vainly puft up by his fleshly mind , &c deut. . . what thing soever i command you , observe to do it , thou shalt not add thereto , nor ●…minish from it . there are no wens in the body of gods precepts , therefore none of them to be cut off . you must not deal with gods ordinances , as that tyrant proc●…st●… did with men if they were too long for his bed , he would cut them shorter ; if too short , he would pull their limbs out of joynt to make them longer never think your selves in conscience bound to lend an ear to that which god doth not find a mouth to speak . . would you stand fast , beware of shaking doctrines : what are those ? there are a great many of such doctrines that are shakings ; give me leave to instance in three or four . . as you love your souls , beware of all doctrines that tend to , and preach up licentiousness , loosness , and prophaneness . should any tell you , you may lawfully violate and prophane the sabbath , do not believe it ; the doctrine of the gospel is a doctrine of godliness ; it teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts , and to live soberly , righteously , and godly in this present world ; therefore if you find any doctrine at any time that should have the least tendency to incourage you in any sin , know , 't is a doctrine against the gospel . . whereever you find any doctrine that shall tend to the lifting up of mans free-will , and debasing of gods free grace , know , 't is a wicked doctrine , and against the genius of the gospel . perhaps the papists will tell you , we are aliv●… ; paul tells you , we are dead . they say that we can do any thing many things that we talk to the world we cannot do ; they say , that we can save our selves , and those with christ if we will ; whereas the apostle tells you , cor. . . the natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of god , for they are foolishness unto him , neither can be know them ▪ because they are spiritually discerned . it may be they will tell you , a natural man may love god with his heart , really as so , & savingly ; whereas the apostle tels you . rom. . . the carnal mind is enmity against god , for it is not subject unto the law of god , neither indeed can be . remember it , in all those doctrines wherein we do agree with those whom we call pelagians , and their brood the arminians , so far we agree with the iesuits , and the worst of papists . . as you would avoid hell , avoid all those doctrines that would lift up self-righteousness , and debase the righteousness of christ. i fear i shall never be in that capacity that i would , to stand you in stead in this particular . i confess i am against forty things in popery , but my whole soul is here ingaged : if that doctrine be a truth , i never expect salvation by god : either i must be saved by christ alone , or else i must not be saved by christ at all : though christ will never save me without sanctification , yet christ never intended my sanctification should merit his salvation . be as holy as you can , as if there were no gospel to save ; yet when you are as holy as you can , you must believe in christ , as if there were no law at all to condemn you . come and tell me of the merit of saints , &c. i will believe that truth , when i believe the whore of babylon to be christs spouse . see phil. . . cor. . . . would you stand ? you must be praying christians . i confess when most of my strings are broken , there is yet one holds , there is a spirit of prayer ( remember atheis●… ) among the saints of god , i can pray yet : and i had rather stand against the canons of the wicked , than against the prayers of the righteous . oh! pray that you enter not into temptation ; or , if we enter into temptation , lord , let not the temptation enter into us . pray , if possible , let this cup pass from me ; but , if not , let it not poyson me , but let me be bettered by it , and in due time deliver me from it . i believe it would be a great temptation to you , if it should be said to you , you shall trade with no man any more , &c. you have enjoyed these and these comforts , bid them 〈◊〉 for ever , you shall have no more to do with them , this would be a temptation . temptations and trials are great , and certainly where they are so , prayer should be strong . there 's no relief to be expected on earth , all our relief is to be expected from god , and that is to be obtained by prayer . pray , that god would be pleased above all things in the world to make you sincere ; would you be stedfast in your profession , you must be sincere in your practice : to him that hath shall be given , that is a comfort ; to him that hath but truth of grace , to him shall be given growth of grace . . would you be steady christians , then make it your great work to attend the ordinances that god hath prescribed to make you steady christians : you were told of this many years ago concerning attending the ordinances of god. quest. pray what are those ? ans. . there are secret ordinances . it may be thou canst not be so much in the pulpit as thou wouldst : oh! be more in thy closet : it may be thou shalt not have so many opportunities to hear so many lectures , be more consciencious in thy meditations in secret ; it may be thou shalt not have that freedom with god in publick , be more earnest with god in private . . mind your families more then ever ; you have your children and servants call aloud upon you . how many grave faces do i see at this time , that can tell me , sir , i remember some twenty or thirty years ago , you could not pass the streets , but here was one family repeating the word of god ▪ another singing the praises of god , another praying to god , another conferring concerning the things of god ; at that time we had not so many foolish absurd excursions into streets and fields as now . o for the lords sake begin to take them up now : let the amorite , perizite and iebusite do what they will ; but oh ! for you and your children , and your servants , do you serve the lord ; up again with those godly exercises ; when we cannot hear a sermon , then read a sermon ; if we cannot hear a sermon well preach'd , our godly parents would engage us to read sermons well penn'd ; if nothing new , let the word be repeated and meditated , call to mind what you have heard ; oh ! reduce your selves to your christian frame : let the debauched athiests know , they have something among you that is to be feared , that is your prayers ; let them know , that though you have not those opportunities you have had , yet you will improve those you have . and you masters of this parish , for gods sake keep in your servants on this day more then ever ; you are to be accountable for their souls , and they will give you a thousand thanks when they come to age , especially at the day of judgement ▪ oh then , blessed be god i had such a master , blessed be god i had such a mistress , blessed be god i had such parents . quest. but then for publick ordinances , what would you have us do ? ans. . wherever christ doth find a tongue to speak , i am bound to find an ear to hear , and an heart to believe . i would not be mistaken ; i bless the lord i am not turned out of my ministry for being a schismatick . i know schism is a sin , nor know i any of my brethren that are so , do not mistake us , therefore do not go and tell the iesuits we are schismaticks , for we are none ; but this i would advise , ( i speak as though i were dying ) do whatsoever lies in your power , to hear such whom you think to be godly ; beg of god , be earnest with him , that he would give pastors after his own heart , and whom god hath sent ; not such as may daub with untempered morter , and not such as may prophesie lies in the name of the lord ; not such as may be clouds without water , but such as may be guides of the blind , burning and shining lights , faithful stewards . what shall you do ! what did you do twenty or thirty years ago ? what did the good old puritans do ? they were not schismaticks . but as much as lies in you possible , hear them , whom in your conscience you judge god doth hear : oh! then expect the word of god should come to your hearts when you have ground to believe that it comes from your pastors heart : i must confess i intend to do the fame , when put into the same condition with you . i acknowledge i am bound in conscience to hear the word of god , but i must take care whom i hear ; hear those by whom god speaks ; i hope god will grant several such . take but this advice more , and i have no more to say , whatever abuse you find either in pastor or people , or where-ever you find it , do not you go , as your old use hath been , to rail , calumniate , back-bite , and speak behind their backs ; this is wicked and ungodly , but do every one according as god prescribes us that are members of any visible church ; what is that ? if i know any thing against my brother , do not go and make a sputter and noise , and back-bite , but take the rule of christ , if thy brother shall trespass against thee , go and tell him of his fault between him and thee alone ; if he shall hear thee , thou hast gained thy brother ; but if he will not hear thee , then take with thee one or two more ; and if he neglect to hear them , tell it to the church , and leave the blood at their door ; thou hast freed thine own soul. i hope by gods grace i shall do so . thus i have spoken something from this scripture : i cannot speak what i desire ; for besides the exhausting of my spirits , there is something to be done after , viz. a funeral sermon . i shall say no more but only this , the god of heaven be pleased to make you mind these plain things ; i can truly say this , i have not spoken one word ( that i remember ) which i would not have said to you if i had been just a dying , and been going to god as soon as gone out of the pulpit ; and the god of peace ●…e with you ; only mind that one thing , when god doth not find a tongue to speak , do not you find an ear to hear , nor an heart to believe . mr. collin's farewell sermon . jude . v. . contend earnestly for the faith , &c. these words contain two parts : . a duty exhorted to . . the manner of the management of that duty . the duty exhorted to , is , to retain the faith delivered to the saints : the manner of its management is , that we should earnestly contend to keep it . i opened the termes , what 's meant by faith ? it is not so much the grace of faith , but the doctrine of faith ; not special faith , whereby we apprehend special mercy upon a promise made to the elect , but the fides quae creditur , the whole substance of the doctrine of christ as to things that are to be believed , and duties that are to be practised . but why is it said , the faith that was once delivered ? ( that is ) invariably , irrevocably , once for all ? delivered , respects the priviledge the saints of god had in the faith that god had left : it is the faith of the gospel , committed as a treasure : and the church is called a candlestick , not only to hold out the light , but to hold the light : whence the church is called the pillar , or the ground of truth : not that they are to make doctrines , but to hold forth the doctrines of christ even as tables and pillars , upon which proclamations are hung and held forth to be made publique : so is the church of christ , it is that in which the truths of the lord jesus are kept , and will be kept from one age to another . but what is the import of the word [ earnestly contend ? ] it is a word used only once in the new testament in the composition : the word in the root is frequently used , and imports a strugling with might and mair , as those that use to run at games . it is used for iesus christ in his sufferings , he was in an agony ; the same word from whence this word is compounded . the apostle would imply such a contention , such a struggling to keep the faith of the gospel , as one word in the english is not able to express it , and interpreters very much differ what is the import : the best center in this , that we should so contend for the faith , as men that would contend to keep their very lives . the proposition is this , that it is the duty of the saints of god to maintain an earnest contention , to struggle for , and to keep the faith that was betrusted with them . wherein this contention doth cons●…st . . it is not a carnal contention ; the weapons of our warfare are not carnal , but spiritual ; the saints are not called to contend for the faith with carnal weapons , with carnal power and force : ( not by might and power , but by the spirit of god ) force , and power , and a fleshly arme , prisons , pillories , and chains , and taking away of mens comforts and estates upon the account of the faith of the gospel , hath been the usual way of errors defending it self : prayers and tears are the churches weapons . . 't is not a contention of uncharitableness : this contention allows no murthering either of the bodies or souls of men : christians are so to contend against error and sinful practice , as to love their persons , and pitty those they contend with . there are some opinions , that there is no way to shew a holy way of zeal against , nor be able to destroy them , but by a holy separating from the persons : there were such to whom it was not lawful to say , god speed , or receive them into their houses : but yet this is in order to the saving the soul : saving some , plucking them as brands out of the fire . but positively , this holy contention it consists in these four things . . in managing the sword of the spirit , the word of god , against error and sinful practices , to be able to confute them mightily , as apollos did , out of the scriptures , shewing the jewes that jesus is the christ. . by prayer : for to pray down sinful opinions and practices . that we mean when we pray , thy kingdome come , that the gospel may run on and be glorified : that these nights of darknesse may be dispelled : that truth may shine to the perfect day . . by holy practising against them : by holding forth the word of life in your conversation : by striving together by a mutual provocation for the faith of the gospel in respect of holy walking . . by being able to suffer for them ▪ the reasons of the point i gave you . i shall now sum up all in a word of exhortation , to presse every one that bears the name of a saint , to take up this exhortation of the apostle , earnestly to contend for the faith that was once delivered ●…o the saints the sum of all is , to beg that you would be vali●…nt for th●… truth of christ ; that whatever hath been delivered to you consonant to the truth , agreeable to the saith delivered to us , that you would struggle might and main by all christian courage , by argument , practice , prayer , by suffering , rather then let go those truths that god hath taught you by his faithful ministers : that christ that hath been preached to you . those scriptures you have in your hands : those doctrines you have learned by experience , by prayer , by searching the word : those wayes of worship god hath taught you : those patterns of his house , and out-goings , and returnings there that he hath taught you : be exhorted to hold them fast , and not to let them go : ( contend earnestly for the faith , &c. ) it is to be lamented , that there is so sad a spirit of indifferency among christians , as we find at this day . many do so carry it , as if there were nothing in the gospel of christ that were worthy the owning by practising , or worthy the owning by suffering . this luke-warm indifferent temper hath done the church of god a great deal of mischief formerly ; and if admitted now , will do you as much mischief again . it hath been one of the sins which the lord at this day is judging and punishing his poor people for , that our zeal hath been so hot against one another for meer circumstances , and so cold when we are like to lose the substance : that our contentions rise so high in matters hardly of any moment , and our spirits work so low when they are to gain the great things for which christ suffered , and which he delivered to us . it is my work therefore to beg you , that you would put on a holy resolution , that there may be no contention among us ( for we are brethren ) but only that contention , who may most retain , and evidently witnesse the faith that is delivered to us : it is the trust god hath committed , and he doth expect and look ●…ow we will manage it with courage and confidence , to keep the faith of the gospel . there are very great oppositions against you , and there ought to be great resolutions of christians to maintain themselvs against such oppositions . it is a very sad thing that christians should see the faith and the wayes of the gospel of god , as it were taken from them at any time , and they have not one word to speak , nor any thing at all for to venture in suffering for the wayes and truths of jesus christ : moses had such a holy zeal , that when aaron was an example to the people to lead them to idolatry , he contended with him earnestly to his face . the zeal of gods servants is so small now , that though balaam be about the work , we have not a word to speak ; though the false ▪ prophets of antichrist be about the businesse , yet no christian hath courage to speak . the holy apostle paul , when peter walked with an uneven foot , and began to iudaise , he tells us he did resist him to his face : shall paul resist simon-peter , and shall not the saints of god resist simon-magus ? shall they resist hymenaeus and philetus ▪ and shall we not contend with alexander the copper-smith ? 't is but sutable to what god expects ; and the exhortation here given us , that we should maintain it with might and main , as that which is our treasure , which we will not let go , the faith once delivered to the saints . to put you upon this , i might encourage you with several things : all the reasons mentioned as are so many motives to this holy spiritual contention : shall i tell you of three words further ? . the mercy of gods delivering the truth to you , should engage you to this holy contention : 't is such a mercy as is a non-such mercy , psalm . the two last verses , he that hath given his iudgements to iacob , and his statutes to israel : he hath not dealt s●… with every nation . how many of the greatest part of those that we call christians , in the world , are put like sampson to grinde among the philistims ? superstition , popery , idolatry , will-worship , such things as jesus christ never delivered to his saints , having both their eyes out ; the scripture ▪ light that should have shewed them the truth taken from them ; and their consciences that should teach them , carried in the pocket of some base priest , that dare not think any other then what he will tell them . how many are there , even of the very reformed of the world , who onely get upon some broken plank of ship-wrackt truth , whereby they swim to the lord jesus ! but god does not deal thus with us : you have had the whole counsel of god revealed to you , a glorious light set up in the nation for a hundred of years past , which hath been like the light of seven dayes : for these twenty years past the running to & fro of men hath increast knowledge : you have learned the truth from gods faithful ministers : you have received it with much affliction , with many temptations : it hath cost jesus christ dear to send it , it hath cost you dear to receive it , and will you let it go ? your sin above all others will be most provoking to the lord jesus . . i might tell you that 't is a time , wherein many let go the faith ; and methinks the lord jesus does by his poor unworthy messenger speak to this great congregation , as sometime he did to his apostles , will ye also go away ? there are many that have been forward and eminent professors of the faith delivered to the saints , that have made ship-wrack of faith and good conscience ; will you split upon the same rock ? god hath kept the truth for you , and kept you in the truth hitherto , and is coming to see whether you will leave it , and keep it or no. we have been sucking at the breasts of the ordinances , and dandled upon the knees of providence , and gone on in a smooth way of profession ; but what will you do now when you must come possibly to suffer persecution for it ? to keep the faith , you may lose your liberty , life , estate . and there 's a great deal of hazard upon this account , because it hath pleased god so to dispose it , as that those that should be your guides into truth , the lord is removing them into corners . possibly while they have been with you , you have kept the faith ; but what will you do when they are gone ? while moses was with the people , they cleaved to the lord ; when once he was gone into the mount , they fell to their idolatry , and worshipped a calf . while paul was at ephesus , the flock was kept pure , but ( saith he ) i know after my departure , grievous wolves shall break in , not sparing the flock , &c. so while you have heard of god , who sends voices and warnings to scare away the wolves and foxes from you , possibly you may keep the faith ; but what will you do when god removes them ? . god hath ever had in all ages of his church , a word of his patience to be kept to try his saints , and therefore it does concern you for to be valiant for the truth . in all the series of gods dispensations with his church , there hath been something or other of the faith of christ , that hath cost them resisting to blood , to sacrifice their lives , to lay down all that they have for it by suffering : now even as they , so we ; if not in the same thing , yet in the same faith : we have still some word or other of gods patience to keep ; therefore we need to have on the armour of light ; you must wrestle with the fierie tryal , for there is some jewel that jesus christ puts upon you to wear , that persecutours , persecutions , 〈◊〉 , hereticks will scratch at , which you must hold out with lo●…s of life to keep ; and this must be till the latter part of the rage and reign of antichrist is out ; and even as you keep that , so will god keep you , rev. . . as you honour the word of gods patience , so god will honour you ; as you are faithfull to him , so will he give you the crown , and no otherwise : hence therefore it concerns us all to be armed with a holy confidence and resolution , as to this spiritual warfare , in contending for the faith delivered to us . but the great thing i shall speak to , is , wherein may christians be helped in this holy strugling and conten●…ion ? i shall onely mention five or six things , some to fit you for it , others to help you in the management of it : i shall name them mixtly , and not distinct . rule . first , bring all doctrines that are offered you to believe , and all practices that are put upon you to practise , to the scriptures ▪ the word of god : try them there whether they be to be retained , or to be rejected : you will have this double advantage by it : . to discover what is right and what is wrong . . to have on the best part of your armour , whereby to contend against it . . to discover what is right , and what is wrong ; for the scripture alone is the touchstone of doctrines , and the tryal of spirits : the scripture does discover it self , and doth discover all things that are contrary to it : when you are bidden to try all things , 't is not by practising all things , as some poor giddy-headed christians of late dayes have done , who have made the practising every opinion to be their trying of it , till they have run themselves into all opinions ; but 't is by the scripture you are first to try , and then to practise ; who are like the noble bereans , that were more noble then those of thessalonica , because they searched the scripture . to bring the truths that have or shall be taught you , or the doctrines that shall be imposed upon you , to the word of god ; to see whether they be according to the truth , or no : for false doctrines , and false worship , of all things they hate the scripture most : they are like fal●…e coyn , or false jewels , which go best in the night : false coyn will not endure the touchstone , nor false jewels the day : no more will false doctrines the scripture , therefore it will be a great way to discover them . . it will be a great way to vanquish them , eph. . above all take the sword of the spirit ; the word of god is the sword of the spirit , by which we slay heretical doctrines , and by which we are to slay sinful practises : all those stones that the davids of god have flung at the geliah's of error , they have been taken out of the brook of the scriptures : therefore reduce all doctrines offered you to believe , all worships that are taught you to practise , to the word of god. . all doctrines that are taught you to believe , reduce them thither ; there 's no profession of faith to be built , but the stones must be fetched from that mountain : if you believe divine truths , but not because the scripture propounds them , your faith is but humane : if you believe any thing the scripture doth not speak , your faith is diabolical : the word of god and your faith must run parallel : all that is written , you must believe , and you must believe nothing but what is written : this was the rule of the old testament : isa. . . to the law and to the testimony ; to the law ( that is ) to moses : and to the testimony ( that is ) to the prophets : if they speak not according to these , there 's no light in them . when any thing was offered to christ by way of enquiry , his common answer was , how readest thou ? luke . . how is it written ? when the holy apostle paul would redresse the abuse of the lords supper , he does not carry the corinthians to these and these fathers , to this and that use and custome , but brings that , how it was delivered from the lord : he reduces them to the institution . what i have received from the lord , that i have delivered to you , the word of god is perfect , in respect of doctrine , and in respect of worship . so that whatsoever is offered you to believe , you must try it by the perfect rule ; for 't is given by divine institution to make the man of god perfect and wise to salvation : it is such a canon about doctrines to be received , as nothing must be added nor taken from it : rev. . therefore it 's called a testament ; now no man dares add to another man's last will and testament : who shall dare to add a faith to the faith of gods elect , to that which christ hath delivered ? i will give you this as a certain observation , that there never was any thing of false doctrine brought into the church , or any thing of false worship imposed upon the church , but either it was by neglecting the scripture , or by introducing something above the scripture . . bring hither all practice of worship , as well as doctrines to be believed : try the wayes and forms of christs house , by the word of christ : he shews us the patterns thereof , the outgoings and returnings thereof : he was faithful in all his house , even as moses was who did not leave a pin of the tabernacle , but did appoint it . there is nothing decent and comely in the church , which is so much pleaded for , but what comes in by christs institution . whatever you worship without a warrant from the word of god , or by whatever means you worship without a warrant from the word of god , you worship you know not what , ioh. . ) . 't is will-worship : and by the same rule you receive one will-worship , you may receive twenty : 't is vain worship , it will never reach the end of your communion with god : ( for he is a spirit , and seeks such worshippers ) it will never bring you to the enjoyment of god : therefore in point of worship , bring it to the word of god , and as to faith and worship say , hitherto my faith and my worship shalt thou go , and no further . this rule rightly improved , it will dis-intangle you from the hooks , and take you off from the baits of those cunning fowlers ( for to such the apostle doth compare them in the new testament ) who seek to betray souls from the simplicity of gospel-faith . never any did invent false doctrine , but to put up them , they put down the scripture , and they put out the eyes of christians to make them bend to it : before they use other means to compel them , their great work is to darken the light of the truth , and in the room of the scripture to be your rule , they set up other rules : which , because there are three marvellous popular , i desire to mention them in opposition to this rule i have given you . there 's a three-fold rule men would set up to deceive poor souls : the name of a church : ancient customes : the generality of those where they live . . the specious name of a church , to make that a rule to doctrine and to worship . it was the plea of the popish party in the marion daies , what ? will you not believe the church ? hath not the church power to make institutions and canons about this , and that , and the other ? will you not believe the church ? will you go out from the true church ? thus do men that go about to deceive ; nothing like it as to the catching and deluding many poor souls , by making the church their rule . it was the way of of the popish party of old , and if antichrist ever hath power again over the church of christ in that measure and degree it has had , you must expect it again : therefore let me caution you against it . can we enquire who this church was ? it was only the decree of the proud church , antichrist of old , and the antichristian clergy , who ( as you may read in their stories ) would lord it over the faith of gods heritage . i must tell you , the name , and custome , and way of the churches of christ , is a reverend holy thing , even of that that is a true church : 't is a weighty argument , when the apostle saith , we have no such custome , nor the churches of christ : and therefore i do fully close with him that said , no sober man will go against reason : no christian against the scripture : and no peaceable minded man against the church : but then the church must shine by a divine scripture light : if that be a rule it must be ruled by the scripture ; the churches power is not authoritative , as to give laws against the laws of christ ; it 's only ministerial : we do believe the scripture for it self , and not because of the church ; we receive the scripture by the church : hence therefore when we set up the name of a church , let us see whether that church walks in the way of christ , whether she be his spouse or no , whether she doth act according to his institutions , whether they bring his light , yea or no ; then submit : for it is not what a church practises , but what they are warranted to practise : not what they hold for a truth , but what they are warranted to hold as the word of truth : the word was written afte the church ; but as it is the word of god , it s before it . this therefore will break the snare if you be set upon by the specious name of the church ; look that the church hath warrant from scripture institution , and then submit to church institution . a second rule i observe men would set up to betray poor souls from the faith once delivered to them , is ancient custome : ( our fathers worshipped in this mountain ) when they would hold forth that which the scripture is short in , they will send us to such and such customes , of so many hundred years standing . it is to be bewailed that the date , the standing of false doctrines and false worships is so ancient ; for though at first they were but invocations , yet to succeeding generations they become old : and 't is a very great truth , that that is the most ancient , is the most true , and therefore there lies a great snare in this . therefore when antiquity is pretended , if you find not their hoary heads in the way of righteousness , there is little reason for you to reverence them , or comply with them ; no more then there was reason so suddenly to be taken with the gibeonites mouldy bread , and clouted shooes : when matters of antiquity are pretended , say as ignatius , iesus christus est mea antiquitas , jesus christ is my antiquity ; so say , truth is my antiquity : for though an opinion have been practised a thousand years , yet men may have the word of truth in their hearts that is ancienter then all . a third rule that men would set up , is , the general course of the world , or place , the generality of those where they live : this was that the popish party did often mention to the witnesses of jesus christ ; what ? will you be wiser then others ? can't you do as others do ? must you be singular ? and this is a taking rule for to make you conformable to those things possibly the word of god will not warrant , if you bring not this custome to the word of god : 't is not what the most do , but what we may do : 't is not what is the practise of all in general , but what ought to be the singular care , and strict holiness of christians in particular , that the word of god will allow : christians are not to be conformable to the present world , rom. . . the word will tell you it is no more safe to follow a multitude to do evil , then it will be sweeter to be in hell with a great company : the word will let you know the secrets of the lord are with a very few , and those them that fear him : as for the whole world , it lies in wickedness : the word will tell you , the waies of jesus christ , and the profession of jesus christ , is commonly called a sect ; it is every where spoken against , and men hate it every where : therefore set up this rule in your hearts , in your houses , in your meditations , in your practise . rule . be very well rooted and established in the faith that hath been delivered to you . i observe it 's one of the great reasons why christians so easily let go the profession they have made , is , because they were never well built upon it , nor established in it . there are many christians that through their own itching ears , heaping up teachers to themselves , have never been rooted or established in the truth ; the lord pity them and keep them this day : many christians that have attended to establishing means , yet never seriously considered , nor laid things to their heart , but are like those the apostle speaks of , heb. . . that had need to learn the first oracles of god. how many among us profess with the highest , but have little ground for their faith ? only ( with the jews ) the traditions of the elders , the custome of the place , education , and because such a party of men say so , because no body denies it , because ministers commonly preached it ; but to take any solid and serious ground , they are yet to seek . 't is not wi●…h the things of god as with other arts , as logick , rhetorick , astronomy ; in these arts the principle is presupposed to be proved ; no man goes about to prove there is reason , that there is number , that there are heavenly bodies , because sense and experience shews it : but 't is quite otherwise in the things of god : for you are not only to run away with the notion , that there is a god , that this god is one , and that these are his word and his works ; but you are to know this by experience ▪ because the knowledge of these things comes in by infusion , by faith , by a belief that god is : for by faith we believe the worlds were made by the word of god , heb. . , . it is that therefore i would press you to , that you would labour for an established spirit : do not only hear the things of god , but see them ; the first will but blind you , or at best leave you at great uncertainties ; the last will settle you . what was the reason of the holy apostles zeal when they were under the greatest threatnings of the high priests ; and were forbid to speak in the name of christ , and to speak of justification by faith , and the resurrection of christ from the dead , and forgiveness of sins by him ? ( things that are furthest remote from sense and reason ) the apostle will tell you , act. . . we cannot but speak the things we have seen and heard . hence it is that poor silly women , that in respect of their imbecility and infirmity of sex , the terrours of the fire and faggot , might have been such to have brought them to apostacy , yet they confounded the great doctors and rabbies when they were brought before them ; they were able to burn , though they could not dispute , they beheld things that were invisible . it is an excellent thing not to take up the word upon notion , upon opinion , but to have an established heart through grace . i shall direct you in two words . . get the lord by prayer to teach you every truth what jesus christ teaches once , is everlastingly taught ; no word is abiding but what the lord jesus teaches himself . look as it is with satan , when he comes to seduce men from the truth , he will present such a fine notion without , and commonly he darts in some dazling light within , so that you never knew a heretick take up a false opinion , but it was with a marvellous deal of sweetness and comfort : so when the lord christ teacheth by his spirit , he comes with that light , that sweetness , savour , and relish of truth , as will be impossible for you to let it go : hence when christ would confute the pharises , that had the witness of his ●…ather in his works , he saith , ioh. . . ye have neither ●…ard his voyce at any time , nor seen his shape : it 's an excellent thing to see the shape , and hear the voyce of god. . be well rooted upon christ , or else you will never be established in any truth of christ : if you misse the lord jesus by the grace of faith , you will never hold fast the doctrine of faith : you are built upon the doctrine of the apostles , ( not their persons ) upon which the lord jesus is the corner-stone : he that does not know jesus christ himself , will certainly lose his faith : what is the reason the stony ground in time of persecution fell away ? why they had not root , they were not planted upon the lord jesus . rule . thirdly , those truths that god hath taught you , and those wayes of worship god hath committed to you , love them as your lives , love them above your lives , for no man will ever contend to hold them , if he do not love them ; things of low price and esteem are presently let go ; he that loves the word above his life , will let life go rather then the word : if you receive not the word out of love , every impostor and false prophet , every fear and terror of men will rob you of it : hide the word in thy heart , saith solomon , love the truth dearly . it was a great speech of calvin , never did any one apostatize from the truths of iesus christ , but it was because he did not love the truth : and i add this , that never did any apostatize from the wayes and truth of jesus christ , but it was because they did not receive them in love , or else they have lost their love , for there is a decay of affection , as well as having no affection : if you love them , what will you not suffer for them ? ( but more of that by and by . ) rule . fourthly , guard all the truths of god , and those wayes of god that have been taught you ; guard them strongly , especially truths that are most material and fundamental : for leading truths are like captains of armies , if they be routed , the whole rout follows them . there is great opposition that will be made against your faith . the whole power of darkness , of antichrist , of his seducing spirits , likely and probably enough , will over-spread the whole face of christianity once more , that she must sit as a lady , before she be desolate and forsaken for ever . the apostle bids you beware of dogs , beware of the concision , beware of evil-workers , guard your selves against them , guard the truths you have learned by argument , by scripture , by reason , that you may have wherewithall to confute them by the word of truth mightily , out of the scripture , as the apostles did . three things you are to guard against . . your own deceitfulness , especially in a rash and sudden forsaking of those waies that have been taught , and the profession you have taken up ; for christians would never be so mad to apostatize , were they but seriously deliberate about the weight of them , gal. . . o foolish galathians , who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the truth ? &c. i marvel what ailed you , that you are so soon turned away to another gospel : one would have thought they might have spoken with paul first , and sent to him , and reasoned the case with him : there 's a marvellous bewitching in false doctrines , and false worship , to take men presently , who are not watchful over themselves . it is in disputations and practising truth , as it is in contentions : if you make a judgement before you hear both parties speak , you judge unrighteously : if you forsake the waies and truths of jesus christ , before you hear what can be said for them , you do unrighteously . . guard them against the lusts of your own hearts . the great work of a christian is contention ; it is not so much against antichrist ; those that are without him , as that that is within him . if all heretical doctrines and waies were rooted out of the world , not only the being , but the memory , the heart is bad enough in one day to set them all on foot again ; therefore guard the truth : men of corrupt minds will presently grow reprobate , as to the faith , tim. . . such doctrines and worships as shall sute with our lusts , as shall sute with exalting it self , and laying christ low , as shall sute with an easie way to heaven , when the scripture saith , straight is the gate ; as shall sute with self-preservation : so i might secure my estate , my liberty : i would suspect such doctrines as these , before i take them up for the waies of christ. . guard the truth against false teachers , such as shall come among you in sheeps-cloathing , yet are wolves in heart ; men that creep in at unawares among you , to subver●… souls : i will not here describe them , you know them well enough by their fruits : only this let me tell you in opposition to those ; though you cannot come at the publick ministry , or those god hath set over you , yet make conscience for to take fences , to take defences from them , as you may by their counsel , prayer , help and assistance , for to guard you against false teachers . when the church of christ is in the wilderness , you will finde this is that the holy ghost advises them to , gant. . . you are to guard your selves by communion one with another ; as to go forth by the footsteps of the flock , so also you are to go and feed your kids besides the shepherds tents ; for though 't is not the work that god calls for , to pin your faith upon their sleeves , yet 't is your duty to enquire of the lord by them ; for he is the messenger of the lord to you . rule . arm your selves with resolutions to suffer for the faith of the gospel , and for the wayes of jesus christ ; as you should love the truth above your lives , so labour to be made willing for to part with life , estate , liberty , any thing for to keep the ways of jesus christ. it is not the honour of the gospel of christ , to hear christians to break out into murmurings , passions , discontent , contentions that are carnal and sinful : your work is humbly , meekly , and patiently to lie under the hand of god , and under the hand of man too , that becomes christians : suffering is that that will restore the glory of religion , that will keep the truth delivered to you , that will honour the cause of christ best of all : follow the example of blessed paul ; his expression is worthy of consideration , tim. . . he gives a charge of keeping and propagating one of the most glorious truths , ( that iesus christ was risen from the dead ) yet a thing that is farthest off from sense and reason , ( wherein i suffer trouble ) mark , paul does not say , wherin i make trouble , no , but wherein i suffer trouble as an evil doer unto bonds , but the word of god is not bound : if this blessed and glorious apostle would have had the faith of god bound , and have contented himself with sinful silence , and not propagated the gospel , paul might have been free ; but paul would not have the word of god bound , therefore paul would suffer for it : shall we go higher a great deal then this ? you have the glorious commendation of the lord jesus christ upon this account , that he gave a free and full account of the doctrine of his father , and of his glorious person , before pontius pilate , a bloody persecutor : it was not by saying to his disciples , fight , nor by saying , my kingdom is not of this world , but that he gave a glorious confession before the face of pilate of the righteousnesse of his truth , doctrine , gospel , and of his person . fear to ensnare the freedom of the truth with your own liberty ; do not ensnare it to your own lusts , nor to the will of any man ! o that we could study , and improve these scriptures more ! it would make us fear god more , & man lesse ; this is that that would make us say as holy david , ps. . . princes have persecuted me without a cause , but my heart standeth in awe of thy words : for he that hath the most fear fear on you , and upon you , you will be more afraid to fall into his hands . it is a childish thing for a christian , to tread down the belief of any doctrine , or practice any worship for fear of man , who hath no more power to hurt us , then we give him our selves by our fear ; fear not him that can but kill the body , &c. it was the way of gods people formerly , that they came to divide between duty commanded by god and commanded by man , you may read in all the dayes of antichrists persecution , from the beginning they came to divide in matter of obedience to god and his truth , and worship and obedience to man. christians , nothing but a suffering spirit will help you to this , for there is no other way of obedience in this case to authority , but to suffer under it meekly ; patiently , as lambs : this made the three children to divide between the command of god : what sayes nebuchadnezzer ? every knee that bows not , shall be cast into the furnace : very well , as for that matter say they , o king , we are not carefull to answer thee ; for we will not bow down , &c. what , will they not obey him ? yet they will obey him by suffering , as becomes christians , as is the example of christ ( as if they should say ) truly we are terrified with hell too : we are terrified by the threats of the great king : and we are likewise terrified by the threats of the great god : he is able to deliver us out of your torments : you are not able to deliver us from his torments : so in the case of daniel : arm your selves with this resolution of suffering and lying down patiently and meekly under those things that you cannot do , so that god may be honoured by your holy resolution upon this account : for truly you never do contend successfully for the faith of the gospel , till you contend by suffering , for it is said , they overcame by the blood of the lamb : you never make religion your businesse till the world see you can let such great things go , as life , estate , liberty , to keep it : then wisedome is justified of her children : you never glorify the truths of god so much by practice , or writing , as by suffering for them . those glorious truths against popish justification , mixing of works with faith ; transubstantiation , purgatory , idol-worship , against all those things that were superadded contrarie to gods justification , there is such a glory upon the truths that it is hard for the popish power ever to darken them again , because we see them written in the honourable and blessed scars of the witnesses , and burnings of those glorious martyrs . if you would take one another by the hand when god takes away our faithfull guides , and say , brethren , sisters , friends , come let us hold together , there 's no way in the world to hold on together like suffering for the gospel really would get more advantage by the holy , humble sufferings of one gracious saint , meerly for the word of righteousnesse , then by ten thousand arguments used against hereticks , and false worship . compare phil. . , , . with the , , and . verses , how is paul's bonds a furtherance of the gospel ? paul no doubt was called an evil doer , one that sowed heresie , and was hated every where , ( saith he ) many of the brethren of the lord waxed confident by my bands , and were much more bold to speak the word without fear . here 's the great encouragement : and then he comes to give you a precept , and that 's in the . verse , and he speaks it as one that was leaving of them , onely let your conversation be as becometh the gospel of christ , that you may stand fast in one spirit , with one mind , striving together for the faith of the gospel , and in nothing terrified by your adversaries ; for unto you it is given , not onely to believe , but also to suffer , &c. it is given to you as a duty , given to you as a priviledge . o that you would confirm one another , and in slippery times hold up one another by the hand ; do it in going after gods call , and in this way , suffering for those truths you cannot otherwise hold and maintain . truly christians , you had need be armed with resolution ; for the world is alwaies counting the things gods people have suffered , for very little , and they count it prudence not to meddle therein . those men that have easie , soft terms to comply , that they have a latitude to do any thing , i believe some christians are of that opinion ▪ that they would even think the saints of god were ill advised , to venture their all upon those truths they see others died and suffered for . it 's a sad thing , many christians study to draw out the lines of obedience as far as the honesty of the times will give them leave , but no farther : that they would go on with the lord jesus to the high priests h●…ll , and there deny him : or that would be willing to do anything for christ , but are willing to suffer nothing for christ : you very little honour jesus christ in this , and you will very little honour your selves at the last . it is upon this account that christians if they see even against plain conviction of conscience , and the word , that there are super-instituted things broke in , as in conscience they cannot submit to , yet they can comply , why ? they may be used lawfully , though not superstitiously : but saith the apostle paul , do i yet strive to please men ? gal. . . am i then the servant of christ ? you cannot be the servants of christ , if you strive to please men : wo be to you that please men , and displease god : he that would be my disciple , let him deny himself , and take up his cross , &c. ( what 's that ? ) deny wife , children , learning , relations , comforts , he must be willing to go out of all : those duties the lord jesus christ is most glorified in , they are either those your slothful hearts are most unwilling to do ; or that our fearful hearts are most unwilling to suffer for : therefore arm your selves with resolutions to suffer . i intended to have taken up four appearances and coverings that saints usually take up for to hide themselves , as under a covert , to beat down the gospel warrants and commands , to suffer for the faith delivered . . the notion that a christian hath of indifferency of things , that they are but toyes and trifles , that they may be done or not done . it is not my work to tell you what is indifferent , or name any thing in particular . as i remember , in the book of martyrs the usual argument was , why cannot you worship the idol ? why cannot you bow down as well as others ? it's a small matter : cannot you shew your outward reverence , and keep your heart to your self ? indeed if there were any thing that 's indifferent , a christian hath a marvellous latitude in point of doctrine , in point of worship : i would caution you therefore . the term of indifferent , i suppose 't is devised as a pillar to rest the conscience on , which otherwise would startle , and look with a broad face upon them : things that come under this notion , had need well to be weighed and considered : if they tell you plainly they came out of rome , and had the plague of popery upon them , they ●…ame from hell , were hatched there , and the curse of god is upon them ; no body would entertain them . they must pretend they came from the church , from the apostles , descended from the scriptures ; and hence they are entertained with that freedome and willingness , as that most christians take no notice , but fall down under them ; and so the very power and life of religion and holy practise is eaten out . the devil hath three waies whereby he makes men seek after him . . commonly he doth cover holiness with other names ▪ ly . he perswades that sins are but little . ly . that they may repent hereafter . the first is suitable to my purpose , that vertue or grace is covered with other names : therefore if a man be holy , he is called precise ; if zealous , he is said to be rash ; and if it be really a sin , it shall come under the name of indifferency , a toy , a trifle , and things of that nature : therefore you had need be cautious ; for 't is no matter what name the sin is , what title it goes under , as what it is really . as to things of doctrine and worship , i know there is no medium ; every man must give an account to the lord of what he does , therefore i do not tell you what is indifferent , and what not ; but search the scripture , take heed what you receive for indifferent . the second thing christians will say , is , i hope without danger i may comply with them , considering i bear them as my burthens . this is very like the young man in the gospel ; he came to christ , and would have him come up to his terms ; and when christ told him , yet he lacked one thing , go sell all , &c. he went away sorrowful : so , many christians they would follow christ , but they cannot , because there is not such security in it , but they will go away sorrowful : thou hypocrite , art ●…hou willing to forsake all for christ , yet cannot leave life , liberty , and some of these small things ? will you wound the name of christ , and pretend to be sorrowful for it ? i conclude , thy pretence shall not excuse thee ; for so was pilate loth to crucifie christ ; and as a means and expedient , he calls for water and washes his hands , saying , i am innocent from the bloud of this just man : but do you think god excused pilate ? no more will he you : whatever is brought to you , is either forbidden , or commanded by god : if forbidden by god , why do you meddle with it ? if commanded of the lord , why are you burdened with it ? why do you it heavily ? for the lord loves one that is chearful in his service : neither man nor god is pleased with such . a third thing it is which satisfies many , that they may follow in some things the opinions of wise men , holy men , and good men ; that they may do as they do . i shall say but these two words . first , many men are reputed good , wise , and honest , that are not so . a man may be accounted an honest man , that yet may be covetous : he may be accounted a very good man , yet be really corrupt in heart , and in his lusts ; therefore 't is good to try men : i dare not trust mine own heart , ( unless god give strength of grace , and assistance every moment ) least i should betray the truth of christ upon some advantage : when the devil would set abroach an evil opinion or practise , it 's his common way to tun it up in some clean vessel , men of civil honesty and goodness . you read the old prophet drew the young one in , though expresly forbidden by god himself : when you do not fear a young christian , it may be the example of an old minister shall draw you ; therefore 't is good to mind who you follow . secondly , grant they are all good and real , they are men fearing god , ( as there are some ) yet god will not let his people know all his mind . there are some that would , but cannot know all his mind and will ; the lord is free and voluntary , he reveals things necessary to salvation ; but for o●…her things he withholds . but what is your rule ? call no man master : you are to follow no man further then he follows christ : and indeed for a man to follow the example of others , wherein they sin and do not know it , it is just like the case of holy noah ( who was a gracious man ) and knew not the strength of the grape ) he was drunk with his own vineyard : but what is the fruit of it ? his son cham saw his nakedness and discovered it : if good and holy men taste of the intoxicated wine that is too strong for them , and know it not , will you sip after them ? unlesse you will discover your nakedness , and proclaim it from generation to generation , and make your selves chams , not sons of the prophet : therefore i know not what warrant you have to follow such examples . the fourth thing is this ; christians usually they do no good by standing out . answ. whether we get , or do good or no we are to do our duty . the lord will honour you for suffering for the truth , thes. . , , . and by suffering you shall confirm the saints , and bear testimony , you shall witness against all false doctrines , and false worship , before the whole world . by your humility and patience , when you suffer not as evil doers , but as those that suffer for the word of righteousness , the word of truth , for holding fast the lord jesus and his faith , that is more precious then heaven and earth , then any created thing : this will make your name as a sweet savour to all generations ; when those that apostatize , persecute and oppose jesus christ , their memories shall be left as a curse to the people of god. mr. calamy's sermon at mr. ashes funeral . esay . . the righteous perisheth , and no man layeth it to heart , and merciful men are taken away , none considering , that the righteous are taken away from the evil to come . we are here met this evening to perform the last office of love for an eminent and ancient servant of jesus christ , and excellent minister of the gospel , mr. simeon ash , one who hath formerly performed this office for many other ministers , and now we are met to perform this office for him ; and it is not long before others will meet to perform the same office for us , so frail , so brittle , and so uncertain is the life of man. now the text that i have chosen , is suitable for this occasion ; for this reverend minister was first a righteous man ; he was righteous in an evangelical sence , he was one that was justified and sanctified . secondly ; he was a merciful man both in an active and passive sence ; he was one that shewed mercy to the distressed members of jesus christ , and he was one to whom god shewed mercy ; this righteous and merciful man is now perished as to his outward condition , not as to his everlasting condition ; but as to his outward bodily condition he is perished , and he is taken away : the word in the hebrew is very emphatical ; merciful men , colliguntur , are gatheted ; it is the same word that is used concerning iosiah , king , . ▪ thou shalt be gathered to thy fathers , and go to thy grave in peace , and shalt not see the evil that i will bring upon this nation . this godly and righteous man is now gathered as ripe corn in the barn of heaven he is taken away from the evil that is to come , from the beholding that evil that is coming upon the sinful world he is taken away in mercy , that he may not be troubled with the troubles that are coming upon many ; he is taken away from the evil to come . and thus you see how suitable the text is to the occasion ; there is only one particular that i desire may prove unsuitable ; for the righteous and merciful man , in the text , perisheth , and no man considers , nor layes it to heart ▪ these words are verba commentantis & objurgantis ; the words of the prophet bemoaning the spiritual security of the people of israel , chiding and reproving them for their spiritual lethargy . now i desire that this part may not prove suitable , but that all of you may lay to heart the death of this ancient , merciful , righteous man the observations from the words are these six . first , that the righteous man must perish as well as th●… unrighteous . secondly , that the perishing of a righteous man is nothing but his gathering to god , christ , and the blessed company of saints and angels . thirdly , that a righteous man as long as he liveth is the preservative of a nation , and the supporter of a kingdome , the chariots and horsemen of a nation . fourthly , the death of a righteous man is a warning-piece from heaven , a beacon set on fire to give notice of evi●… approaching . fifthly , that god doth on purpose take away righteous men , that they may not see the evil that is coming on a nation . sixthly , that it is a great and common sin not to consider and lay to heart the death of a righteous man. first , it is a common sin , and therefore it is set down in the greatest latitude ; the righteous perisheth , and no man layes it to heart ; that is , very few : and merciful men are taken away , no man considering ; that is , very few . secondly , it is a great sin , and therefore the prophet ieremy in the former chapter calls to all the beasts of the field to devour , that is , all the enemies of the church to destroy the children of israel , because they drank strong drink , filling themselves with merriment , and promised themselves happy dayes , but did not consider that the righteous were taken away from the evil to come . i shall begin with the first , that the righteous perish as well as the unrighteous . how is it that the righteous perish ? not in their soul , they cannot perish so ; nay , the truth is , they cannot perish properly in their bodies ; for the bodies of the saints never totally and finally perish ; for the very dust of the saints in the grave is precious in gods sight , and they are asleep in jesus , and by the power of jesus christ they shall be raised again glorious bodies : nothing perisheth of a righteous man by death totally and finally but sin , and therefore the meaning of the word is , as musculus and iustin martyr observe perit , perisheth , that is , not according to the truth of the thing , but according to the opinion of the world ; and the proper language of this expression is this , the righteous perish , that is , the righteous must die and go down to the house of rottenness as well as others , and that upon a four-fold account . first , because the righteous are included within the statute of death as well as the unrighteous ; statutum est , heb. . . it is appointed for all men once to die , the righteous as well as the unrighteous . indeed it is true , jesus christ hath taken away the hurt of death , but not death it self ; jesus christ hath disarmed death , made death like the viper that fastened upon paul's hand , but did not hurt him ; he hath made it like the brazen serpent that hath no sting , but a healing power in it ; christ hath sanctified death , conquered and sweetned death ; at present we are all under the statute of death , but at last this enemy shall be destroyed , cor. . latter end . secondly , the righteous consist of perishing principles as well as the unrighteous ; the righteous are earthly vessels , made of dust , their foundation is in the dust ; their lives are a vapour as well as the lives of the unrighteous . thirdly , the righteous must die as well as others , because they have a body of sin that they carry about with them ; for there is no man so wise , that lives and sins not , eccl. . . wherefore there is that which deserves death in a righteous man. lastly , and especially , the righteous must perish upon a peculiar account ; for if we had hope only in this life ( saith the apostle ) we are of all men most miserable ; and therefore they must perish to keep them from perishing ; they must say as themistocles , periissem nisi periissem ; they must die , that they may rest from their labour , for hera is not our rest , mich. . . there remaineth a rest for the people of god ; there is no rest in this world ; the word [ quiet ] wants the plural number . secondly , the righteous must die , that they may have their reward , their crown of glory that god hath laid up for them ; they must first fight the good fight , and finish their course , and then they shall receive a crown of glory . thirdly , they must die , that they may be free from sin ; for they shall never put off the body of sin , till they put off the body of flesh . fourthly , they must die , that mortality may be swallowed up of life , that corruption may put on incorruption . fifthly , they must die , that they may be perfect in grace . lastly , they must die , that they may see god face to ●…ce , and be for ever with the lord , which they cannot do till they die ▪ therefore blessed be god that the righteous must perish . if a man should bring news to a righteous man , that he should alwayes live on earth , alwayes be young , rich , and healthful , it would be unwelcome news ; for while we are in the body we are absent from the lord , and subject to sin ; and therefore when peter asked christ what should be done with iohn , christ ●…ells him , if i will that he tarry till i come , what is that to ●…ee ? from henceforth there went a report abroad that iohn should not die , iohn . . now the apostle himself was much displeased with this report , & looked upon 〈◊〉 as a geeat affliction that he should not die , and therefore ●…e himself confutes it , but yet iesus ( said he ) said not ●…hat he should not die ; as if he had said , god forbid that ●… should not die . before i come to the application of this point , give me leave to speak something to the second point , and ●…o i shall apply them both together . the second doctrine is this , that the perishing of a righteous man , is nothing but a gathering of him to god , christ , and the blessed society of saints and angels in heaven . this is contained in the second expression , merciful men are taken away ; the word in the hebrew is colliguntur , they are gathered , it is exegetical of the former ; ●…hey did not perish , but they are gathered to god and christ ; there is a great deal of excellency , and a maga●…ine of sweetness in this expression , they are gathered : it ●…mplies two things , first , that the righteous are in a scattered condition while they are in this world , and that three wayes . first , they are scattered among the wicked and ungodly of the world , as sheep among wolves , as limbs among lions , rent and torn in pieces , forced to wander up and down in sheep-skins , and goat-skins . secondly , the righteous are scattered in the world one from another , and that two wayes : . they are scattered by their different habitations ; for the godly are forced to separate one from another , as lot from abraham . . they are scattered one from another by the cruel persecution of wicked men ; and therefore you read acts . that at that time when there was a persecution against the church at ierusalem , that they were all scattered abroad . thirdly , the godly are scattered in this life from the glorious presence of god in heaven ; indeed they are never scattered from the gracious presence of god , but sometimes they are scattered from the comforting presence of god , and as long as we live in this world we shall be scattered from the glorious presence of god ; for while we are in the body , we are absent from the lord. secondly , this implies a bringing of gods people out of this scattered condition ; it is a gathering of the righteous out of this world into another , from a sinful persecuted world into a sinlesse glorious world , from diversity of dwelling on earth , to dwell altogother in one heaven ▪ it is a gathering them out of the reach of men and devils : a gathering them not only to the gracious , but to the glorious presence of god and christ , and to the souls of just men made perfect , and to the general assembly of the first-born , and to the city of the living god , the heavenly ierusalem , where they shall live together , never to be scattered again . to understand this the better , let me offer three things to you , shewing you that the godly are gathered to god three wayes : in this life , at death , and at the day of judgement . first , the righteous are gathered to god in this life , and that is at their first conversion ; for by nature we are all aliens and strangers to god , scattered from any union or communion with god ; not only scattered from the glorious , but from the gracious presence of god. god made man at first to enjoy communion with himself ; but adam lost this by his sin , and now we are all cains and vagabonds , scattered from the love of god , and from union and communion with god ; but when god converts any of the elect , he gathers them home to himself ; for conversion is nothing but gods gathering them to himself in the second adam , that were scattered from him in the first adam ; the first adam was a root of scattering , a root of separation from god ; but the second adam was a root of union and conjunction . christ is the head , and all the elect are all gathered together in him , ephes. . . that he might gather together in one all things in christ ; so that conversion is nothing but a gathering of the elect of god to christ by faith , and a gathering to one another by love and charity . secondly , gods people are gathered at death ; here they are gathered to christ by grace , but at death they are gathered to christ in glory ; here they are gathered to god by hope , but at death by fruition ; here christ is gathered to us , he comes down and dwells with us , but at death we shall be gathered to him , we shall go up , and ●…e joyned with him . there is a great deal of difference between esse cum christo , and esse in christo ; esse cum christo , to be one with christ is a christians great security ; but esse in christo , to be one in christ , it is a christians great felicity : in this life we are gathered to god by ●…aith , but at death by vision . lastly , we shall be gathered to god at the day of judgement , it is called the day of the gathering of the saints together ; a day when all the saints that are , have been , or shall be , shall all be gathered together . thes. . . i beseech you brethren , by the coming of our lord iesus christ , and by our gathering together unto him at the great day : at the day of judgement we shall all be gathered together , and shall be all taken up to heaven , i mean all the righteous , and be ever with the lord : and so much for the opening of the doctrine . but here it may be objected , are not the unrighteous gathered by death as well as the righteous ? i answer , it is true , the unrighteous are scattered in this life , and gathered by death as well as the righteous , but with a great deal of difference . first , the wicked are scattered in this life , but they are scattered from god ; but the godly are scattered for god , and for a good conscience many times , as they at ierusalem were scattered . the godly are scattered from the glorious presence of god in heaven , but the wicked are scattered from the gracious presence of god on earth . again , the scattering of the wicked is a curse to them , and it is threatned as a curse , levit. . . i will scatter you among the heathen , and draw out my sword after you : and wherever the wicked come , in what part soever of the world the wicked are scattered , they bring the curse of god with them , and they bring the judgements of god on towns or cities where they are , as plague , famine , and sword , and all miseries . but the godly when they are scattered , they are scattered as a blessing , into what countrey or town soever they come , they come as a blessing , they come like a ship laden with corn , to a town ready to perish with famine ▪ they come as a blessing four wayes . first , by their prayers , to pray down a blessing on the place where they come . secondly , they come as a blessing by their holy life and conversation ; that is a loadstone to draw others to holiness . thirdly , they come as a blessing by their holy advice and counsel that they give to the place where they come . nay fourthly , their very presence is a blessing : as long as lot was in sodom , sodom could not be destroyed : so long as paul was in the ship , the three hundred could not be drowned . so that the godly come as a blessing where-ever they are scattered , but the wicked are as chaffe scattered by the wind , and they are scattered as the dust of the earth . you know when the dust is scattered it gets into mens eyes , and blinds them , and falls upon their clothes , and sullies and defiles them ; so the wicked wherever they are scattered , they defile the place where they are scattered . the godly are as planets , that wander and move from one part of heaven to another , carrying light to the world . secondly , as the wicked are scattered while they live , so when they die they are gathered ; it is true . but how ? not to god , and christ , and his angels , but they are gathered to the devil and his angels , and to damned spirits ; not as bundles of wheat into the barn of heaven , but as bundles of tares to be burned for ever in everlasting fire . now , if the righteous perish as well as others , and if their perishing be nothing but a gathering to god and christ : then first , learn hence the preciousness of every righteous man ; the great god will not gather things of no value : great men do not use to gather chaffe and straw ; and therefore when god saith of iosiah , i will gather thee to thy fathers , it was a sign he was a precious pearl , worth the gathering , and of a high value and account in the sight of god ; and so is every true childe of god ▪ s right dear and precious are they in the sight of god , both living and dying ; they are bought with a great price , not with gold and silver , and other corruptible things , but they are bought with the precious blood of the son of god : they are as precious to god as the apple of his eye ; so precious , that he hath given christ for them , and to them ; so precious , that he called them his jewels , his peculiar treasure , his iedidiahs , and therefore god will not suffer them to perish , but gather them to himself before the evil day come , as the husbandman gathers in the corn before the beasts go out into the field . secondly , learn here what reason we have to be comforted in the death of a righteous man or woman ▪ because their death is not a perishing , but a gathering to god , and christ , and the society of saints and angels . the death of a righteous man is no more , then if a merchant that hath abundance of jewels in a far countrey , he should send for them home . why death to a righteous man is nothing but gods sending for his jewels home . such a phrase there is in mal. . . in the day that i make up my iewels they shall be mine . in this life they are imperfect jewels ; they are like gold in the oar mingled with a great deal of drosse , and death is nothing but a perfecting of these jewels ; death is nothing more ; and god doth nothing by death , but , as a gold-finder , gather up all his ends of gold and silver : it is nothing but just as if a father should send for his son home that had been a long while absent from him to his own house ; it is a carrying us to our fathers house : and therefore let us be comforted when our righteous friends die ; though their death be matter of sorrow to us , in regard of the losse that we sustain by their death ; and because their death is a warning-piece of evil to come ; yet in regard of them we have no cause to mourn . i speak this to those that are related to the righteous when they die : did you ever see a husbandman that mourned for the carrying of corn into the barn ? or a jeweller mourn for making up of his jewels ? let us mourn rather that we are left scattered among the wicked of the earth , and from the glorious presence of god and christ : and let us mourn for those that are scattered from christ , and from grace ; and for those , that whilest they live are scattered , and when they die are gathered to the devil and his angels . let us not mourn for those that die in christ , but let us mourn for those that live out of christ ; let us not mourn over the body that the soul hath left , but let us mourn over the soul that god hath left . the third use is of consolation to all the people of god , in reference to evil times that are coming upon us , or to the evil of times . whatever befals a child of god in this life , though he be scattered by wicked men from england into forreign countries , though be wander up and down in desarts and wildernesses , though he be scattered from house to prison , yet there will be a gathering time shortly , there will a time come when all the saints shall be gathered to christ , and to one another , never to part any more . the death of gods people is not a perishing , but a gathering ; comfort your selves therefore with these words against the fear of death , look upon death as a gathering , as a gathering to christ : you are here as daniel in the lyons den , as ieremiah in the dungeon ; yet there will come a gathering ; and if you dye in a good cause , you shall not perish , but be gathered to christ , to his saints and angels . but you will say , if i were sure when i die , that i should be gathered to christ , to live for ever with him , this would be matter of great consolation to me ; but you told me , the wicked are gathered by death as well as the godly ; how shall i know whether ( when i come to dye ) i shall be gathered to the devil and his angels , or to christ and his angels ? how shall i know whether i shall be gathered at death as a bundle of tares to be burned in hell , or as a bundle of wheat to be carried up into the barn of heaven ? i answer , you may know it by four things . first , if you are righteous , then you shall be gathered to christ at death ; for the righteous shall go into everlasting life : heaven is entailed upon righteous men ; by righteousness i mean the imputed righteousness , and the imparted righteousness of jesus christ : i wave the explication of them , because time will not give leave . know you not ( saith the apostle ) that no unrighteous man shall inherit the kingdome of god ? damnation is entailed upon unrighteous men . secondly , if you are merciful ; the merciful man shall be gathered to christ : if you are one that is full of bowels of compassion to the distressed members of jesus christ , for christ hath said it , blessed are the merciful , for they shall obtainmercy . now if you are hard-hearted , covetous , worldly-minded , remember that text , he shall have judgement without mercy , that shews no mercy . thirdly , he that is gathered to the second adam by faith in this world , shall certainly be gathered unto christ by vision in the other world ; christ jesus will save all his members ; and you must know , that faith is a transplanting grace ; it is not only a heart-purifying , but a world overcoming grace , it takes a man out of the old adam , and puts him into the new adam , it takes a man out of the root of scattering , and puts him into the root of union and conjunction : wherefore you that are now joined to christ by faith here , shall be joyned to christ in glory hereafter : but now you that are vagabonds , cains and aliens from the life of god , and from the life of grace : you that are wooden members , wooden legs in christs body , that have no real conjunction with christ , you shall not be gathered to him in glory . lastly , if you are gathered here to the saints by love , then you shall be gathered to the saints in heaven , and to the everlasting enjoyment of god with them to all eternity . consider this ; every man shall be gathered ( when he dies ) to those whom he delights , and chooseth to keep company with while he lives in the world : if you are gathered to the wicked in love and affection here , you shall be gathered to them at death in hell and destruction ; for it's pity companions should be parted : wheat must to wheat , and tares to tares ; for wheat and tares shall not be bound together at the last day . the last use is of exhortation : if the righteous must perish , and if their death be nothing but a gathering , then take this threefold exhortation . first , let us labour to make the best use we can of our godly friends and ministers before they are gathered , let us do as elisha did ; he was told that his master elijah was to be taken up to heaven , and therefore he would never leave him till he had got the spirit of elijah doubled upon him : if elisha had not thought that elijah would have been taken up that day , he would never have followed him so punctually and inseparably as he did . o beloved , did you believe that text , zach. . . of which we have often had experience , your fathers where are they ? and the prophets , do they live for ever ? indeed if they did live for ever , we might get good from them when we please , because we are sure never to lose them ; but they live not for ever , but must perish , and be taken up to heaven : and therefore whilest we have them , let us make what use we can of them , before they be taken away from us . it is a great fault among the people of god , that they make no more use of their godly friends und ministers . i have known many that have godly relations that have died , that it hath been the greatest burthen on their consciences , that they got no more good by those godly relations while they lived . many of us deal with our ministers as we do with a strange sight that is to be seen near our doors , we are not much ; we are not much solicitous when we see it ; but a stranger that comes from a far countrey , is curious and very careful presently to see it . so do we in this city especially ; i have had experience of it by being here many years , strangers that come out of the country , many times get that good by a minister , that his own people do not , because they think their minister is continually with them : but a stranger knows he is there but for a day , and he hears so , that he carries christ home with him , and a great deal of consolation also . beloved , this is a great fault ; i beseech you remember , the righteous must be gathered ; let us therefore do with them as we do with books that are borrowed ; if a man borro vs a book , he knows he must keep it but for a day or two , and therefore he will be sure to read it over ; whereas if the book be a mans own , he laies it aside , because he knows he can read it at any time . remember , your ministers are but lent you , they are not your own , and you know not but god may take your elijahs from you this night : therefore make what use you can of them , while you have them . dly . must the righteous be taken away ? then let the righteous make conscience of doing what good they can before they are taken away . beloved ; if it were possible for the godly to grieve in heaven , this would be their greatest sorrow , that they have done god no more service here upon earth . be wise for god , o ye righteous ; do as old men do that have rich places and offices ; they labour to buy the reversion of their places for their children ; so must you to whom god hath given great gifts and graces , labour to propagate your gifts and graces , that there may be no loss by your death . observe the c●…re of s. paul the aged in his exhortations to timothy , tim. . , . watch thou in all things , endure afflictions , do the work of an evangelist , make full proof of thy ministry ; why so ? for i am now ready to be offered , and the time of my departure is at hand ; and therefore work thou , see that thou endure affliction , preach the gospel as becomes a minister of the gospel , that there may be no loss by my departure , so in tim. . . the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses , the same commit thou to saithful men , that shall be able to teach others also . hath god committed any thing to you ? a treasure of learning or grace ; commit it to young ministers , that they may commit it to others , that so there may be a succession of gifts and graces . do as physicians do , that labour to communicate their skill to their children and to others ; so should we , that so there may be a succession of godly ones , that godliness may be entailed upon us and our relations . thirdly and lastly , let us all labour to be such , that when we dye , when we come to be gathered , we may be gathered to christ and his angels , and not to the devil and his angels . and for that purpose , let us labour to be merciful and righteous , and let us be gathered to christ by faith , and to one another by love and dear affection , and then we shall be gathered at the great day to christ , and the blessed company of saints and angels . there are four observations yet behind , but i must wave them at this time . i have now another sermon to preach , and i cannot without injury to you that are alive , and without wrong to the memory of my dearly beloved brother , but speak something of him at whose funeral we are met this evening , not so much for his commendation , he needs it not , but for our imitation ; it is pitty , great pitty something should not be said , that this reverend minister , though dead , may yet preach this night ; and i have so much to say of him , that i know not where to begin ; and when i have begun , i hardly know how to make an end . i must confesse , the little time allotted me for the providing for this solemn work , and the necessary avocations in this little time , have hindered me from informing my self about his breeding and manner of education at emanuel colledge under mr. stooker , and his excellent carriage and converse with mr. hildersam , mr. dod , mr. ball , mr. langley , and other ministers famous in their generations ; and the many pressures and hardships that he suffered in those parts and times , for the keeping of his conscience pure from that which he counted sin , and therefore i must draw a vail over that part of his life , and confine my discourse onely to the time since his coming to live with us in london , which is about the space of twenty two , or three & twenty years ; all which time , i have had the happinesse to be intimately acquainted with him , insomuch as that i can freely and clearly professe , and that with a sad heart , that i , and many others , have lost a real , wise , and godly friend , brother , and fellow-labourer in the lord j the church hath lost an eminent member , and choice pillar : and this city hath lost an ancient , faithfull , and painfull minister , who by his prayers and holy life , did seek to keep off the judgements of god from falling upon us ; and the lesse sensible the city is of this losse , the greater is the losse . i fear we may too truly repeat the words in the text , the righteous perisheth , and no man layes it to-heart ; and mercifull men are taken away , none considering that the righteous are taken away from the evil to come . i have read of philo the iew , and by chance met with the same in the life of s. ambrose , that when they came to any city or town , and heard of the death of any godly man , though never so poor , they would both of them mourn exceedingly , because of the great losse that place had by the death of that godly man , and because it was a warning-piece from god of evil approaching . but we have had many godly men , and godly ministers , taken away of late , and yet i fear me , but few lay it to heart ; and therefore as i said , the loss is the greater to this city , because it is so little sensible of it . it is a great loss also to his relations ; his wife hath lost a dear and loving husband , his sister a dear brother , his parish and congregation a faithful pastour . the ministerial excellencies of many ministers were collected and concentred in one simeon ash ; he was a bezaleel in gods tabernacle , a master-builder , an old disciple , a polycarp , a christian of long standing in the school of christ , a burning and a shining light , one whom many ministers and other good christians called father , insomuch that it was a common proverb in this city , father ash ; and i believe , many experimentally lament over him , as the king did over the prophet elisha ; my father , my father , the chariots of israel and the horsemen thereof ! for he lived desired , and died lamented ; not only in the city , but i believe in very many places in the countrey where he was known . but more particularly , there were twelve excellencies that i observed in this reverend minister , and my dear brother , that were as twelve jewels or precious pearls in that crown with which god had crowned him : i shall name them for your imitation and benefit , he needs them not , for he is above our eulogy . the first and chief jewel that did beautifie and adorn this our brother , was his sincerity and uprightness of heart , which indeed is not a single grace , but the soul of all grace , and the interlineary that must run through all grace : for what is faith if it be not unfeigned ? what will love to god profit you if it be not without dissimulation ? what is repentance worth if it be not in truth ? as the body without the soul is a rotten carkass , so is all grace without sincerity ; this is the soul of all grace , this is the girdle of truth . sincerity is that which girts all our spiritual armour together , and makes them useful ; what advantage is it to have the brest-plate of righteousness , the shield of faith , the helmet of hope , if they be but painted things ? it is the girdle of sincerity that makes all the other parts of our armour useful . now this excellent grace of sincerity was eminent in this our dear brother ; he was a true nathanael , in whom there was no guile ; i mean , no allowed hypocrisie ; and this was that which carried him throuoh the pangs of death with a great deal of comfort ; for he was able to say with hezekiah , remember , o lord , how i have walked before thee in truth , and with a perfect heart . he could say with paul , this is my rejoycing , the testimony of my conscience , that in simplicity and godly sincerity , i have had my conversation in the world . secondly , another jewel was his humility ; this is a grace that he was cloathed withall , and it is a rare grace ; for god dwels with the humble ; he resists the proud , but he gives grace to the humble . this reverend minister was low in his own eyes , and therefore very high in gods eyes ; he had a mean esteem of himself , and therefore he was in high esteem with god. he was as iacob said of himself , less then the least of gods mercies , and therefore he was made partaker of the best of gods mercies . he was like an ear of corn full of fruit , bowing down in thankfulness to god. thirdly , another jewel was the fruitfulness of his discourse , for it may be said of him , as it was of christ , he went about doing good ; wherever he went he scattered his goodness ; this all that knew him , know to be true . he was full of good discourse wherever he came . when i was with him in his sicknesse , he took occasion to complain much , and not without just cause ( god grant his complaint may make impression upon our hearts ) he complained that it was a great fault among ministers , that when they met together , they discoursed no more of christ , of heaven , and of the concernments of the other world ; and professed , that if god should restore him , he would be more careful in his discourse , and more fruitful then ever yet he had been . fourthly , another jewel that beautified this righteous man , was his mercifulnesse : he was a merciful man , which he manifested , not only in his charity to the members of jesus christ , but in his frequent visiting of sick persons , and persons that needed his spiritual physick . i know not any minister in the city more careful in visiting the sick , then he was . fifthly , another jewel was his prudence and spiritual wisdome ; he was not only a pious and godly , but a wise and prudent minister , that had zeal for god , but knew how to mingle his zeal with discretion ; discretion indeed without zeal is nothing but carnal policy ; but zeal without discretion is nothing but frantick fury ; discretion without zeal will quickly eat out the heart of religion , and eat religion out of the heart . zeal without discretion is not a coal from the altar , but a coal kindled by the wild fire of passion , that is able to set a nation on fire ; but this reverend minister had zeal sweetly tempered with discretion . sixthly , another jewel was his patience ; god 〈◊〉 pleased to exercise him with long and great afflictions by reason of the gout , that did often , especially of late years affix him to his bed , and afflict him with great pain ; but god was pleased to put his everlasting arms underneath him , supporting him under all his pains , and giving him a great measure of patience , insomuch that in patience he did possesse his soul , and patience had its perfect work in him . the seventh jewel was his high valuation of jesus christ ; a written copy for us to follow ; and for you his people also . being with him in his last sicknesse , he exhorted me and other ministers to preach much of jesus christ , and to speak to him of jesus christ ; and he said , when i consider my best duties , i sink , i die , i despair ; but when i think of christ , i have enough , he is all and in all . i think these were his very words . i desire ( said he ) to know nothing but iesus christ , and him crucified : i account all things dung and dross that i may be found in christ. to this effect he spake in the morning before the evening in which he died , speaking much of jesus christ. eighthly , another jewel was his diligence in preaching the gospel in season and out of season ; in the time of his health he was a painful , laborious preacher ; one that did not preach to tickle the ear , to wound the heart ; not to please , but to profit ; not seeking the applause of the people , but the salvation of their souls : this all know to be true . ninthly , another jewel that did beautifie and adorn this reverend minister , was his excellent gift in prayer , and herein he was very eminent , and did exceed many , nay i may say most of his brethren : as apollos was mighty in the scriptures , so was he ( as you all know ) mighty in prayer ; he was a iacob , very skilful in wrestling with god , like moses he often stood in the gap , and at ●…ost fasts in the time of his health , he was the mini●…r that was chosen to conclude with prayer ; and this ●…rightens the losse that we sustain by the death of this godly minister , because we have lost the benefit of his prayers , which is an invaluable losse ; for though i doubt not but he prays in heaven for the church in general , yet i believe he prays not for any in particular , as not knowing what our condition is , for abraham knows us not , for the saints in heaven know not what is done upon earth . the losse therefore is the greater , because we have lost not only a preaching , but a praying minister : and give me leave to add , that this excellency in this minister , is sufficient to prove , . that there is a gift of prayer , which some against all reason do deny . . that conceived prayers when uttered by one that hath the gift of prayer , are not vain to●…tologies , or empty repetitions , and a rate of non-sence ; as some unjustly charge men with ; but they are the breathings of gods spirit , that pierce not only into the ears and hearts of the hearers , but into the ears and heart of god himself . tenthly , the next jewel was , he had great acquaintance and communion with god ; for he was of a long standing in the school of christ , and a good proficient in that school . much acquaintance he had with god , he was often in the mount with god , and came down with his face shining , though he in his modesty did not see it ; and when he came to die , he was able to say as dr. preston did when he lay a dying , i shall change my place , but not my company . eleventhly , another jewel was his comfortable passage out of this world , dying with a great deal of calmnesse and serenity upon his conscience ; the morning before he died , i heard him say these words , it is one thing to speak of christ , and of heaven , and another thing to feel the consolations of christ and of heaven as i do , clapping his hand on his breast . another time i heard him say , the comforts of a holy life are real , soul-supporting , and that he felt the reallity of those comforts , and that by him we might know it was not in vain to serve god. and i cannot forget his speech the morning before he died , i am a little strained , but i care no more for my life , then i do for this fillip : that which was said of old simeon , luke . may be said of this reverend minister , mr. simeon ash , who was a simeon , a just and devout man , an old servant of . iesus christ , one that waited for the consolation of israel ; one that dyed , though not with christ in his bodily arms , yet with christ in the arms of his faith : and when he died , could say as it is there , now lord , lettest thou thy servant depart in peace , for mine eyes have seen thy salvation . lastly , another jewel was his constancy and perseverance ; he was not a reed shaken with every wind , but as firm as a rock , an immovable pillar in gods house : he was unchangeable in changeable times ; in religion he was a house built on a rock , not on the sand : and as he lived , so he dyed holily , even as the ancient patriarks that dyed in the faith , and endured faithfully unto the death . now this excellent minister of christ thus beautified with these jewels , is now perished as to his outward man , gathered to god to christ , and the blessed company of saints and angels . the application that i shall make of this discourse is this , . to us ministers . . to you of this parish and congregation . first to us ministers . god hath of late years taken to himself many famous men : seven of the lecturers of cornhill are dead , mr. burroughs , dr. bolton , mr. sedg●…wick , mr. whitaker , mr. cranford , mr. vines , and now mr. ash. i might name many other excellent ministers that are dead , as dr. gouge , mr. walker , mr. gataker , mr. marshal , mr. robinson , and lately mr. cook , with many more : now all these are warning-pieces from heaven of judgements approaching ; for the righteous perish , and no man lays it to heart ; and merciful men are taken away , none considering that the righteous are taken away from the evil to come . thus methuselah dyed a year before the flood : now methuselah in hebrew signifies a messenger of death . thus austin dyed a little before hippo was taken ; and pareus a little before hiddleburge was taken , and luther a little before the wars in germany began the death of the godly is like the separating of the israelites from the tents of corah and his company , like the taking of lot out of sodom . when the israelites departed from corah and his company , the earth swallowed them up : and when lot departed out of sodom , god rained down fire , and brimstone upon them . let the thoughts of these things cause us to provide our arks , to get our zoar's . let it teach young samuels to rise up in the room of old elyes ; young elisha's in the room of old elijahs : and young timothies in the room of paul the aged ; that there may be a succession of gospel ministers to hold forth the word of life to this nation . and let us labour to be inheritors of of these twelve excellencies , that beautified this our reverend brother . secondly , let me speak a few words to you of this parish , the auditors of this worthy minister . there is scarce one man of a hundred that understands the tie and obligation that is betwixt a minister and his people . o the love and affection that ought to be betwixt them ! paul●…ells ●…ells the galatians , that they could a pluckt out their eyes for him if need were . chrysostom tells us , that when mile●… was taken away by death from his people , their hearts sunk with sorrow ; and such love had they to him , that they called all their children by his name , and got his picture engraven on their rings . and i have read of chrysostome , that when he was banished from his people , there was not a corner in the city , but was full of people weeping and lamenting . the losse of a godly minister is a publick losse , therefore there ought to be publick mourning ; it is a soul-losse , and therefore , methinks , every one of you should weep and mourn ; you have lost your common father ; you of this congregation have lost your spiritual father , your spiritual shepherd ; you have lost your eyes , your guide ; and indeed it is you that are his flock that must commend your minister , by practising that which he preached : said the apostle , cor. . . do we again begin to commend our selves , or need we , as some others , epistles of commendation to you , or letters of commendation from you ? ye are our epistles written in our hearts , known and read of all men . as if the apostle should say , do we need letters of commendation ? is it necessary that we should spend time in commending our ministry ; you are out letters of commendation , your holiness and piety commends a minister above all other things . as when a man comes into an orchard or vineyard , said chrysostome , and sees every thing skilfully handled , and neatly ●…fimmed , he need not spend time in commending the vine-dresser , or carpenter , the work it self commends them . so ought it to be among you : when we preach the funeral sermons of ministers , we must look into his parish or congregation , and see what letters of commendation there are ; whether the proficiency of the auditors commend their ministers . i grant , it is not alwayes true , god doth not alwayes give successe to a godly minister , but the worst is yours ; i had almost said the curse is yours , but i will speak modestly , the worst is yours . tell me how many of you are able to say , i blesse god that ever such a minister was sent among us ; blessed be god that ever we heard him preach ; what seal of his ministry is there here among you ? he was in another , and another place in this city , and it may be here are people from all places that have been his auditors ; what seal of his ministry is there now to be found among you ? how many souls hath he pluckt out of the snares of the devil ? how many of you have gone away weeping from a sermon , knocking your breasts and pricked at the hearts for sin , crying out , men and brethren , what shall we do to be saved ? your tears and mourning for sin , these are the auditors that commend your ministers . go home now , and think with your selves , what can i remember of all the sermons that i have heard from mr. ash ! and give me leave to tell you , woe be to you , if as your minister be dead , so all the sermons that he made die with him : for as abel being dead yet speaketh , so shall the sermons of this worthy minister , at the great day speak for you , or against you , for they are spiritual talents that god hath betrusted you with , and you must be accountable , both he and you shall appear before the tribunal of god ; your minister shall be examined how he can free himself from the guilt of soul-blood , and you shall be examined , what fruit you have brought forth , answerable to the means that you have enjoyed ; and if it appear that you have been unprofitable and unfruitful hearers , ch●…ist will say , cast the unprofitable servant into utter darkness . but i hope better things of you , and things that accompany salvation . whatever was good in this reverend minister , let it live in you ; and though he be dead , yet let not his sermons that he preached die with you , but let them be in you , that at the great day , when he and you appear before god , he may be able say , here am i , and the children that thou hast given me . dr. horton's sermon at mr. nalton's funeral . rich treasure in earthen vessels , &c. cor . . but we have this treasure in earthen vessels , that the excellency of the power may be of god , and not of us . there is nothing so excellent or compleat in this world , but hath its diminishment and qualifications , and something that doth disparage it , and abates of the excellency thereof ; not the things of this world only , but spiritual things in some sort , as to enjoy them , and partake of them in this life , have their inconveniences and disparagement annext , and are mingled with something that abates of their worth : an instance of which we have here in this present scripture , which the apostle paul signifies to us concerning the enjoyment of the ministry of the gospel of christ. he had in the verse before the text , told us the great priviledge that both ministers and others had in having the glorious gospel : viz. the light of the knowledge of the glory of god in the face of iesus christ , shining into our hearts , the consideration of which is of great encouragement to us : yet adds this as a qualification of it , viz. but we have this treasure in earthen vessels , &c. that which doth qualifie it , is , that this excellent treasure hath its conveyances through weak and mean persons , men of frailty and mortality . in the words there are two main parts . i. the dispensation it self . ii. the account of it . i. the dispensation it self , this treasure we have in earthen vessels , &c. ii. the account of it , that the excellency of the power may be of god , and not of us . i shall begin with the first , the dispensation it self , which hath two branches . . the depositum , the thing laid up . . the repository in which this treasure is laid up . first , the depositum , or thing laid up , which is a treasure ; and what is this treasure , but the gospel of jesus christ ? the gospel is a treasure according to a twofold consideration : in respect of the . matter of it . . ministry of it . both make up a treasure . the matter of it , the things of the gospel are rich things , and the conveyances of it ; the ministerial gifts and ability , by which the gospel is administred , do make up the treasure : 't is a treasure in both respects . . in respect of the matter of it : therefore it is we read of the riches of christ , of the riches of the gospel . the scripture makes mention of three things wherein the gospel is agreeable to a treasure . . a treasure is a thing of dignity and worth , it is not a company of pebbles ( though many ) that will make up a treasure : a treasure consists of things of worth and dignity : and thus is the gospel : in it are contained excellent and admirable truths , the mysteries of salvation by christ : the doctrine of the gospel brings glad tidings of peace and reconciliation with god in christ : there we have the gifts and graces of god , there we have glory and immortality , &c. and those things in the gospel gospel are administred to us : there is no science in the world brings such treasure as this . . the gospel is a treasure for variety , abundance , and plurality . 't is not one thing of worth , but many that makes up a treasure : if few , yet much worth must be comprehended in them ; so in the gospel we have the manifold wisdome of god , the rich treasures of wisdome and knowledge . the gospel , though it be but one for substance , yet 't is many for improvements ; 't is a chain of many links , one saith , but divers articles of it ; so it is a treasure in that respect . . 't is a treasure for its closeness ; we do not open a treasure to every one , but it is kept close , the gospel is a secret mystery , hidden not revealed to every one : it is not discovered to carnal worldly men , though it may be revealed to them in the outward proposition , yet not in the spirituality of it . but where shall wisdome be found ? and where is the place of understanding ? saith i●…b ch . . v. . the peace of the gospel is a treasure hid in the field , not found by every one . . the gospel is a treasure in respect of the ministry of it ; so the apostle hints , 't is not only light , but a shining light , which hath shining into our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of god , &c. 't is a treasure in this respect , viz. in the discovery and shining of it , the conveyances , the several gifts and graces of the ministery , by which the gospel is conveyed to us , makes up a treasure , and as the ministry is a treasure , so the opportunities and advantages thereof are . thus the gospel and the ministry thereof is precious , and ought to be esteemed and made use of by us . we should highly account of the gospel , and put a high value on it , for it is a treasure ; yea , it is a treasure in the want of other treasures , they are rich that are made partakers of it : silver and gold have i none , ( saith st. peter to the cripple ) but such as i have i give it thee : this is the priviledge of ministers ; though it may be , poor in respect of themselves , yet are rich to others . these excellent riches are committed to us , and accordingly we must not only make use of them our selves , but make them known to others ; the gospel is a treasure not for us to keep , but to discover , reveal and manifest to others : to give the light of the glory of god , &c. this is the work of the ministry , we have indeed this treasure , but not for our selves only but for others : so we are to keep it , to preserve and maintain it , but so as to be diligent to impart what is committed to us for the edification of others : every scribe instructed in the kingdome of heaven as a good house-holder , bringeth forth things new and old . the gospel is a treasure , therefore we ought to carry our selves answerable to it : as . we must labour for it , be diligent in the search of it , dig for it as for hidden treasur●…s . lift up thy voice for understanding , &c. prov. , . , , . dig for it : you know there is a great deal of pains taken , and labour used to get worldly treasure . wh●…t would not men venture for it ? they will go over sea and land , go through fire and water , expose themselves to all dangers for earthly treasure , make unto themselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness , pass away a great deal of time , and take a great deal of care for it . . esteem this treasure , this heavenly wisdome , this evangelical knowledge , even the gospel of christ : labour to understand it , and have the efficacy of it wroug●… it upon your hearts . . rejoyce in it ; how do men rejoyce in earthly treasure : so should we , as the merchant in the gospel when he had found the pearl of price , rejoyced exceedingly ; so we ought , as being made partakers thereof . i rejoyced at thy word , even as one that had found great spo●…ls . ( saith david ) so should we rejoyce alwaies in this treasure . 't is said of those that sate under iohn baptists ministry , that they rejoyced but for a while , and that is the condition and misery of many . the city of samaria when they had received the gospel , 't is said they had great joy , act. . . . be careful to keep and preserve it , for it is a treasure , and therefore we must treasure it up in our hearts ; and the rather because it will keep us . it keeps ( as chrysostome sath ) the house where it is ; 〈◊〉 treasures cannot secure themselves , but if we keep this treasure it will secure us . discretion shall preserve thee , and understanding shall keep thee , prov. . . thus you see the excellency of this spiritual wisdome . so much for the first thing considerable in the first branch , viz. the depositum , the treasure . the second thing considerable is , the repository , i. e. earthen vessels , or vessels of earth , earthen pitchers : these are the repository , but we have this treasure in earthen vessels , &c. earth is a word of diminution , and disparagement , and that in three regards ; . in regard of its meanness and baseness . . in regard of its fulness and pollution . . in regard of its frailty and transitoriness . 't is passing away in all respects ; these earthen vessels in the text , is to be understood , the apostles and ministers of jesus christ , in regard of their outward man are so called , and are so according to this threefold notion . i. in regard of their meanness ; their outside is mean , either for person , or sometimes for estate of body , and outward deportment . this was the condition ( you know ) of the first ministers of christ , mean and ordinary persons outwardly god made use of . nay our master , our blessed lord and saviour was mean 〈◊〉 regard of his humane birth , and reckoned of by most men according to his birth and parentage . so it is with the servants of christ , they are in their persons generally base , mean , low , ●…nd accordingly rendred despicable to the eyes of the world. ii. in regard of foulness and pollution ; ministers are called earthen vessels , they have many weaknesses , they are men subject to the like passions as others . 't is true the ministers of christ have greater advantages then others , in regard of their education , knowledge , gifts , and employments , being more free from those defilements and snares that others are intangled in : yet through the remainders of the flesh in them , they have many infirmities : so satan watches them more then o●…hers , lays more snares for them in regard of their parts and imployments ; so that they are more subject to his temptations then others . satan hath a desire to sift them ( as the apostle peter ) as ▪ wheat , because he knows they will draw many after them : so that they must needs be subject to many weaknesses and infirmities . sometimes god makes use of the worst sort of men , even the most vicious and malicious ; first he changeth them , and then makes use of them as instruments of glory . the apostle paul was a vessel of election to carry the name of christ unto the gentiles : yet in times past a great persecutor . so it pleaseth god to make use of such , that the excellency of the power may be of god , &c. iii. ministers are called earthen vessels in regard of the frailty & mortality of their persons , and earthen vessels are soon crackt and broken . ministers are subject to many infirmities of body : this heavenly light of the gospel shineth often through lanthorns of glasse , which are soon broken . ministers have weak and frail bodies ; timothy had his bodily infirmities , and trophimus was left sick at miletum , tim. . . and epaphroditus was sick nigh unto death , phil. . . and paul had need of luke the physician , probably in regard of his weakness ▪ thus the servants of god are subject to many infirmities . besides the reason in the text , there are other reasons why god will have it so . . that they may be more compassionate , and more sensible of the weaknesses of others ; for likeness of condition breeds sympathy in affection . men are apt to pity those in the like condition with themselves ; so our lord took our nature upon him , that he might pity us ▪ he took flesh and bloud upon him , he was tempted in all things like unto us , but without sin , that so he might succour those that are tempted . so his servants many of them are much tempted , which may breed in them a sympathy of affection to others that are in such a condition . . god will have it so , that ministers may have the more experience of the truths they preach to others concerning an afflicted condition ; those that have had no sicknesse or other affliction , cannot preach from experience of such truths that concern such a condition ; they cannot preach so feelingly and savoury as others ; when they have been under affliction , they will know what affliction is , both in the nature of it , and the comforts of it , and gods gracious assistance therein , and so they may speak comfortably , and be enabled to comfort others , as the apostle paul speaks . . god is pleased so to order it , sometimes for their humiliation , to keep them low , that so they may not be lifted up by reason of extraordinary manifestations and impartments , thus st. paul had given him a thorn in the flesh , that mess●…nger of satan to buffet him , lest he should be exalted above measure , cor. . . a thorn was given him , &c. ( 't is twice repeated , both in the beginning and end of the verse ) that so this thorn in the flesh might keep out pride in the heart , that so they may have a more low , meek , and humble frame of spirit , and thereby fitted and prepared for greater services . and : that they may be also more conformable to those they have to deal with . israel desires moses to speak to them ( and not god ) why ? because he was like unto them , and would therefore compassionate them ; from whom they therefore desired to receive the commands of god. thus it pleaseth god to deal with his servants , that as they may pity those they have to deal with , so likewise to draw the affections of their people unto them , to make them more loving , and the more to attend on their ministry , seeing they are so fleeting , and going away ; it pleased god that epaphroditus should be sick even to death , to endear the philippians more to him , chap. . , . that their love and tenderness may be drawn forth the more by the discovery of his frailty , let us improve this . use . first , as to ministers , see how the condition is with us in our calling , we are earthen vessels , taken out of dust . we should often consider our frailty , to make us more humble , more meek , and more compassionate to others , more diligent in doing good , that we may make amends for our frailty and natural weaknesses that are upon us : we must not think much of it , it being no more then in former times ▪ it was the condition of the apostles themselves , they were earthen vessels , they had such weakn●…sses , men subject to the like passions as we . use . secondly , as for the people , this may improve in all the notions and considerations of an earthen vessel . first , in regard of the meanness ; you must not esteem the gospel according to the vessel , according to the disparagement of the vessel a vessel of dishonour in respect of its matter , may be a vessel of honour in regard of the gold that is in it ; those members of the body that are weak , and in themselves lesse honourable , we afford a great deal of honour upon them , in decking and cloathing them . so the ministers work and employment , and the doctrines they bring , are excellent and of great use ; when all is done , we have that we serve for : according to the employment we are put to , we are honourable , though outwardly mean. wicked and base men are called fil●…i terrae , they are sons of the earth , iob . . children of fools , yea children of base men ; they are viler then the earth , i. e. men of no account ( as one saith ) the earth groans under such ingracious persons , but gracious persons are vessels of honour ; as it was said of the giants of old , so it may be said of these , they are men of renown , and so we should esteem of them . worldly men look at the outside , and so esteem of them ; so was christ dealt with , is not this the carpenters son ? so those teachers in corinth , endeavoured to render st. paul his presence weak , and his speech contemptible , cor. . . that so they might make his ministry contemptible also . but this glorious treasure is in earthen vessels ; you know ( saith st. paul ) gal. . that through infirmity of the flesh i preached the gospel unto you at first . this was their commendation , v. . but my temptation which was in my flesh , you despised not , nor rejected , but received me as an angel of god , even as iesus christ. all his weaknesses , and whatever was matter of discouragement , they did not despise , but honourably entertained him even as christ himself . so it was the commendation of the thessalonians , thess. . . that they received not the word as the word of man , but ( as it is in truth ) the word of god , looking to the mighty god to make it effectual : so should all others do upon this consideration . . seeing ministers are earthen vessels in tegard of moral infirmities which adhere to them : in respct of their corruptions and weaknesses judge of them as men : but esteem of what is righteous in them ; though they have great advantages against sin , and be very carefull against sin , yet notwithstanding they are not totally exempted and freed from sin ; as they are ministers , so they are men . . in regard that ministers are earthen vessels in respect of their frailty . seeing then they are so ●…rail and transitory , therefore accordingly you should make use of them , deal kindly and affectionately with them , in that they are quickly broken . what is sooner broken then a glasse , or an earthen vessel ? ministers are quickly taken away , and therefore you should be tender of them while you have them . where are all the fathers . do the prophets live for ever , the word of the lord indeed endureth for ever , but the preacher of it doth not ; the gospel is eternal , but the dispenser is mortal : the calling is lasting but the minister is transitory : and therefore you should carry your selves with all tendernesse and respect to them : take heed of grieving their spirits , seeing they are so soon broken . endeavour also to improve by them , and to get as much good as you can by them . it is a great argument to work while it is day , because the night comes when no man can work : whilst god affords means and opportunities , make use of them , we are but passengers ; therefore this is a great ground for you to endeavour to get all the good you can by your ministers , seeing they are frail . lastly , by way of improvement : take notice of the wayes of god , as different from man ; god pnts excellent treasure into earthen vessels : we keep treasure in strong holds , in the strongest repositories . gods ways are not as our ways , he goes another way then we doe ; he makes use of the poorest , meanest , and most frail creatures sometimes ; he layes aside many times men of greater abilities , parts , and quality , and makes use of weaker to do this great work. chrysostome makes and expostulation , if it be excellent t●…easure , why in earthen vessels ? therefore it is a vessel of earth , because an excellent treasure . thus gods waies are unsearchable . this is the improvement . now besides this interpretation given of it , there is another that will not be impertinent . some understand by earthen vessels , the expressions , words , and phrases of the ministry , through which the doctrines and truths of the gospel ate conveyed ; this is agreeable to what went before : some false teachers in corinth pleased themselves with eloquent and enticing words of worldly wisdome , and so endeavoured to render pauls preaching despicable , in regard of the plainnesse of it ; therefore ( saith the apostle ) we have this treasure in earthen vessels , i. e. familiar conveyances , that so we may easily understand it . thus i have explained this earthen vessel , and so have done with the first considerable part , viz. the dispensation it self , this treasure we have in earthen vessels : and come now to the second , viz. ii. the account of this dispensation , that the excellency of the power may be of god , and not of us . which words may be considered two waies . . either absolutely , as lying in themselves . or , . connexively , to the words before going . . take them absolutely as they lie in themselves , and two things are exhibited . . the excellency of the gospel and ministry it self , called power . . the author and original of it , laid down two waies , positively , of god ; and negatively , not of 〈◊〉 . . the excellency of the gospel and ministry thereof , called power : there is a great deal of power and efficacy in the gospel , it is in its nature powerful and efficacious ; so the ministry of it , romans . . i am not ashamed of the gospel of christ , for it is the power of god unto salvation to every one that believeth . see cor. . . paul's preaching was in the demonstration of the spirit , and of power , &c. 't is called the arm of gods power , the sword of the spirit , ephes. . . 't is quick and powerful , and sharper then any two-edged sword , piercing even to the dividing asunder of the soul and spirit , &c. heb. . . and many other places . we may conceive it to be so according to the various effects and consequences of it , viz. as to . conviction . . conversion . . consolation . . 't is powerful in regard of conviction , it is a word of conviction ; and one part of the work of the ministry is ( by the spirits co-operation ) to convince the world of sin , to open mens eyes to shew them the vilenesse of their wayes , to discover such courses to be sinful : the conscience is awakened by the spirit in the ministry of the word , herein it is powerful and efficacacious . there are divers instances in scripture , how powerful the word hath been in point of conviction : in foelix , the apostle paul preached to him of righteousness and judgement to come , &c. he trembles : the judge on the bench trembleth at the word delivered by the prisoner at the bar : so powerful is the ministry of the word , as to discover our sinfulness . so the disciples going to emaus , their hearts burnt within them when our saviour opened to them the prophets , &c. so it was with st. peters auditors , acts . they were pricked in the heart when they heard this : he did preach to them in the power and demonstration of the spirit , and plainly discovered that sin that they were more especially guilty of , and when they heard that , they were pricked in the heart , &c. . it is a word of conversion also ; conviction is one thing , and conversion is another . sometimes men may be convinced , but yet have no change wrought in them ; therefore conversion is another work , it is a turning men from darkness to light , from the power of satan to god , &c. to receive an inheritance among them that are sanctified . herein is the word powerful , viz. in regeneration , i have begotten you ( by the word ) to a lively hope , &c. of his own will hath he begotten you &c. . it is a word of comfort and consolation , it is a powerful word , and able to comfort the heart : and the ministry is very effectual herein ( when set on by the spirit ) to quiet , satisfie , and pacifie the consciences of men , which declareth the remission of sin , and whosoevers sins are forgiven , must needs be comforted . indeed it is not in the power of men to forgive sins ; yet they can speak a word of comfort in season , by the administration of the promises ( the spirit of god going along with them ) and then they are not only declarative , but operative . where ( i say ) it pleaseth god to blesse and sanctifie the word , it is effectual for quieting of the mind , for pacifying of the conscience , and setling of the troubled soul. thus you see how powerful the ministry is ; and seeing it is so , this should teach us how to behave our selves under it ; it is powerful in it self , and powerful in its dispensation , and hath none of that weaknesse ( mentioned before ) of the dispenser of it , i was with you ( saith st. paul ) in much weaknesse , and in fear , and in trembling , cor. . , . and my speech — was in demonstration of the spirit , and of power . these may seem to be contradictory ; but 't is answered , the word is powerful in the demonstration of the spirit , though delivered by one of humane weakness , as before is declared . this spiritual power we should look at , and labour after ; which power doth not consist in matter of elocution , the inticing words of mans wisdome , nor in matter of voice , which indeed is a good thing , and sutable to the nature of the matter ! a quick and powerfull delivery is of great efficacy , and power , for the setting home of truths . yet this doth not make a powerfull ministry ; for a whisper in the ear may cause a thunder-bolt in the conscience ; the power lyes first in the nature of the matter ; the matter consists in the nature and condition of mankind , the certainty of judgement the necessity of christ , the covenant of grace , and the graces and priviledges thereof , &c. these carry a great deale of power and efficacy with them , when they are carefully and frequently dispensed , and gods spirit going along with them , so they become powerfull ; for the ministry consists not in empty notions and speculations that will onely tickle the fancy , but never reach the conscience . morall discourses , though they be of great use , yet if we rest in them , they leave us as they found us . evangelical truths ( which are manifold ) are to be delivered in the ministry . now as the matter of the ministry must be powerfull , so the expressions must be powerfull ; there should be sutablenesse of expression to the matter , h. e. with gravity , sobriety , and affection , &c. strong lines make but weak preaching , and take away the efficacy : but delivering truths in the demonstration of the spirit and in power , that is most effectual : when we speak feelingly and from our hearts , it comes then ( through the blessing of the lord with it ) with power . this is then to learn us of the ministry , viz. . use. let us be careful that the matter of our ministry be powerful , so that the handling and dispensing thereof be powerful , that so it may come home to the conscience ; thus we should deale with all : the words of the wise are as good , and as nails , fastned by the masters of assemblies , &c. eccle. . . so our words should have a force and power in them . this as the apostle sayes , is mighty and powerful to the beating down of strong holds , &c. use . secondly in reference to hearers ; seeing the ministry is powerful , you must then submit your selves to the power of it . many people are sermon-proof , and think to stand it out against the power of the word ; but if it comes in power to the conscience , they will not be able to resist it ; as it is said of them in the gospel , they were not able to resist the spirit by which he spake ( viz. steven ) and for those that desire the conversion of others , what course should be taken by them for that end ? but by good counsel , instruction , prayer , and good example , to endeavour to convince them , and more especially to bring them to the word and administrations thereof , which god hath sanctified for this end . so much for the excellency of the gospel , viz. the excellency of the power , &c. i come to the second . . the author of it . . positively , it is of god. and . negatively , it is not of us . first , positively , it is of god , and that in all the considerations of it , in the full extent of it , it is of god. so the ministerial gifts , the performances of it , and the success of it , are all from god. first , ministerial gifts are from god ; it is lie that makes us able ministers of the new-testament ; there are ( saith the apostle paul ) diversity of gifts : to one is given the word of wisdome , to another the word of knowledge by the same spirit , &c. cor. . , , . it is god that bestows every good gift . secondly , the performance also is from god ; his grace concurs and assists therein : the habit and the act are both from him ; god gives gifts to men , and he enables them to dispence them . ministerial employments are not onely for generall , but particular applications , and so need not onely general , but particular assistances ; that i might be enabled ( saith st. paul ) to fulfill the work , &c. the lord stood by me and strengthened me , that my preaching might be fully accomplished . it is god that makes the work powerful , efficacious and successful : alas ! when we have used our best endeavours , all the success is from him , he must make it effectual ; it is said , our saviour went about doing good , for god was with him , enclineing him to the work , and assisting him therein : so he is with all his servants : their gifts , employments , and successe thereof , are all of god , not of us . object . but it may be objected , is all from god , and nothing from us ? are we not said to concur with him ? and is not then the power partly ours ? ans. i answer , no : 't is of god , and not of us : we are indeed subjects of the ministry , the recipients thereof , persons employed in the work , and therefore are said to be workers together with god , cor. . . but the power and efficacy thereof is from god alone : paul and apollo are but ministers , 't is god that giveth the blessing ; 't is not of us in two respects . . 't is not merited by us , 't is not of our deserving , nor of our procuring ; . 't is not of our deserving ; the best and most accomplisht do not merit it : i receive a mercy ( saith paul ) to be faithful : he accounted it a mercy to be employed , and to be faithful therein . . 't is not of our procuring , we do not obtain it by our own power , as peter said in the recovery of the lame man , it is not by any power and holinesse of ours , that this man is restored , &c. and so it is not our gifts and industry onely , that will make our ministry powerful ; and therefore in this work let us be looking up to god , and desire him to assist us , as moses said , if thou goest not , o lord , up with us , wherefore should we go hence ? so say i , if the presence of god be not with us , what can we doe ? and further , when we do partake of any measure of ability , see where we must determine it : not unto us lord , not unto us , but unto thy name be all the glory : we must not sacrifice to our own net , nor give the honour to our own industry , but wholly give the praise to god , because the excellency is of god. . but in the second place , if you look upon the words reflexively , or as having their connexion to the words going before , and so they will agree and hold together , and thus you may read them : therefore is this treasure in earthen vessels , that the excellency of the power may be acknowledg'd to of god , and not of us : if it were in angels , or had we never so strong bodies , yet the excellency of the power of god would not be so cleerly seen , as it is now , being laid up in poor , fraile vessels : here 's the power of god , here 's the lustre and glory of god most manifested ; for so much the more apparently it will be seen to be from god , by so much the weaker the instrument is , that is employed by god : therefore if any thing doth act beyond it's own power , it must have some foraigne powers for the producing such and such acts ; therefore when we see any greater matter done by poor , fraile and contemptible persons of earthen vessels , this doth plainly shew the excellency of the power to be of god , and not of men , therefore look from man to god , it is god that doth these things ; we should over-look earthen vessels ; we should ( i say ) over-look men that are these earthen vessels , and look to god that makes the ministry powerful in such conveyances as these . furthermore , it may satisfie us of the ministry , in that we are vessels , viz. men of frailty , &c. we are apt to be discouraged , and to think hardly that we are followed with so many weaknesses , that we have a hard matter , that when we have taken such pains in the work of the ministry , we should be thus rewarded ; but this should satisfie us , the more weaknesse in us , the greater honour will come to christ : this treasure we have in earthen vessels , that the excellency of the power may be of god , and not of us . the weaker the vessell , the more honour will redound to christ. furthermore , this may take of the servants of christ from unwillingnesse unto those works and performances which god calls them unto , by reason of their weakness : thus it is when god calls to any work or employment , the servants of god are apt to plead their own inability ; moses sayes he is not eloquent ; ieremiah sayes he is a child ; ionah sayes he is a man of unclean lips . thus we have their delayes , their excuses , whereby they endeavour to discharge themselves from that work that god calls them unto , by their own weakness , &c. but god refuses such excuses ; for who makes the blind to see , the dumb to speak , but god ? it is he that toucheth isaiah's lips , it is he that said to ieremiah , do not say thou art a child , for i have sent thee , &c. this i say then is a consideration may encourage ministers in their work , that the weaker they are , the honour and glory will redound to christ ; far he said unto me ( saith the apostle ) my grace is sufficient for thee , for my strength it made perfect in weaknesse : not that it is encouragement or argument for any to take upon them the great work of the ministry , without sufficient qualifications and abilities : but where there is not that degree of ability as is desired , where there is a true sensibleness of their weakness , this may be an encouragement to them , that god delighteth to shew his power in them , that by so much the more they are weak , so much honour he will gaine . for a conclusion , it comes to this , viz. that we lay no stresse upon any outward things . there is no stresse or happinesse in these outward things ; those that seem to be of some concernment , as strength of body , and other outward qualifications that are of remark ; yet consider , they are fading and transitory ; this should teach us in the enjoyments of outward things , a great deal of humility : though we are vessels of gold in regard of the treasure and improvement , yet in regard of our selves we are vessels of earth , and so should be in respect of humility . let us look upon all these things as given to us of god even for this very end , that we may be more serviceable to him and his people . so i have done with the two general parts of the words , and so with the whole verse , viz. we have this treasure in earthen vessels , that the excellency of the power may be of god , and not of us . do we begin again to commend our selves ? ( saith the apostle paul , cor. . . ) or need we epistles of commendation to you ? ye are our epistle in our hearts , &c. but this is applicable to the present sad occasion now before us . this reverend and blessed man of god , mr. iames nalton , was a person of great note and ●…enency among us , one well known in this city , and in this place , where he spent his labour and pains many years . i could give large accounts and testimonies of him ( if need were ) from my own knowledge of him , having been acquainted with him many years . he was not onely a minister , but the son of a minister , his birth and education suiting together . he lookt upon it not onely as an honour , but as an engagement to be carefull to walk in those steps set before him , and to continue the work of the ministry begun by his religious father . certainly the children of godly and holy parents cannot come off so cheap in their carriages as others ; they have greater accounts to make , as having greater examples set before them , greater advantages of prayer , exhortation , &c. and so greater engagements ; this was thought on , and observed by him . and as he was the son of a minister , so when he came to years and was fitted , he took upon him the ministry : as he was one of great abilities , so accordingly he discharged them faithfully and conscienciously . he was a spirituall , powerfull , consciencious preacher , he preached by his life ; for ( as erasmus saith ) we should not onely love to speak truths , but we should digest truths on our own hearts before we commend them to others , and so they will be the more effectual . he was a man of a very meek , sweet , and humble spirit ; a man of great humility and of great meekness in the midst of great abilities , which was a great ornament in him ; a man full of tenderness and condescension to others ; a man of a very yeilding and melting fram of spirit , soon dissolved into tears . it was the saying of one , that a good man is full of tears : so this good man was full of tears , not affected , but very real , and hearty , drawn from the fullnesse of his spirit , as the apostle paul saith , he served the lord in much humility and many tears . this was remarkable , that in these times our reverend brother was full of tears in delivering his doctrine , which was sutable to the age we live in , being full of sin and calamity ; there is much need of a bewailing spirit to bewaile the iniquities and miseries of the times ; they that cannot bewaile themselves , need the tears of others . he was a man of great integrity , and single-heartednesse ; in his exhortations he had much of the simplicity of christ , as the apostle paul speaks . in reference to the ministry , he had no worldly and base affections , he had no carnall designes therein ; but his chief design was to bring souls home to christ , that was his chief businesse . as the apostle saith of himself , may also be said of him , that in simplicity and godly sincerity , he had his conversation in the world , not walking in craftinesse , nor handling the word of god deceitfully , but by the manifestation of the truth ▪ commending himself to every mans conscience in the sight of god , cor. . . he was a man that had ability to speak a word in season , he was very compassionate to a wounded spirit , he himselfe having been much afflicted . he was a man much in communion with god , and had much acquaintance with god , and was carefull in improvement therein : he was a iacob in wrestling with god , a moses that stood in the gap , an elijah that prayed earnestly : the whole land was the better for such a person , being much with god ; he made many addresses to him , and had much holy familiarity with him . and as in his publick performances he was very faithful and beneficial , so in his family and private he was very fruitful and serious . in a word ( not to multiply much in this kind , you need it lesse in this auditory , but onely by way of grateful memorial ) there was much of god and christ in him , and he was a great example to his fellow-servants ; there was much of his treasure ( spoken of in the text ) in this earthen vessel ; as in the matter of it , he was one of a gospel spirit ; and in the conveyances of it , he had great abilities for the work of the ministry , and discharged it with a great deale of successe . as he had this treasure in an earthen vessel , so his vessel , his fraile body was no disparagement to him , but the advancement of the treasure , in setting forth the power to be of god ; his outward man was much weak and worn away , but his inward man was upheld by the grace of god. his first work in the ministry was in that place where my self have relation to ; he was an assistant to my predecessor ( being then past labour ) mr. richard couder , and performed the work so well , that he was exceedingly beloved of mr. couder , and well beloved of the parish , and other places . he left a good impression behind , and i found good effects by the foundation there laid . the apostle paul indeed desired not to work there where another had laid the foundation , but i thought it a great advantage that the foundation was laid by such a master-builder . he was called into the country to rugby in warwick-shire , there he continued very fruitfull , and did much good . for some occasion he removed and returned into the city , and came into this place , where he continued about . or . years , discharged the work of the lord carefully . i need not say much of his carriage in this place , i appeal to your own consciences . i may say of this servant of christ , as the apostle paul said of himself , thes. . , . ye are his witnesses , and god also , how holily , and justly , and unblameable he behaved himself among you , as you know how he exhorted , and comforted , and charged every one of you ( as a father doth his children ) that ye would walk worthy of god , who hath called you unto his kingdome and glory . therefore there lies an engagement upon you to walk answerable to the truths he delivered , and to follow his steps , considering the end of his conversation , i shut up all in the words of the apostle paul to the phillippians , ch. . . those things which ye have both learned , and received , and heard , and seen in him , do : and the god of peace shall be with you . mr. nalton's prayer , iuly . . at foster-lane . eternal , most mighty , and most glorious lord god. thou a●…t god alone , and besides thee there is no saviour or helper ; our strength stands in thy name , who hast made both heaven and earth : of our selves we are able to do nothing that is pleasing in thy sight : we can pollute thy name , but we cannot honor thy name : we can run away from thee , but we cannot run unto thee , unlesse thou dost powerfully draw us by thy spirit : we can grieve thy spirit , but we cannot grieve for grieving of thy spirit . oh let thy strength be manifested in our weaknesse , look upon us with the favour thou bearest to thy children . enter not into judgement with thy servants , for we cannot answer thee one of a thousand , not one thought of a thousand thoughts , not one word of a thousand words . most of our actions have been reproveable , and the best of our services have been improfitable : our omissions , commissions , and presumptions have been multiplyed intolerably . oh ▪ how often have we taken thy name in vain , while we have been confessing our sins ? how often have we run from confessing our sins , to the committing of sin ? and from committing sins , to the confessing sin again ? as if we had but mocked thy sacred majesty : though we know thy favour is better then life , we have parted with it upon easie terms . oh! the pride and stubbornnesse that is in our hearts ; all the mercie●… thou hast bestowed upon us , have not melted us into teares for our unkindnesse ; and all those blows that have fallen upon our backs , have not beat folly out of our hearts : we have been unprofitable all our dayes , some have done thee more service in one year then we in all our time ; we have forgotten thee in the day of prosperity , and sung a ●…ullaby to our own souls : oh that we could speak these things with broken and bleeding hearts : but as in the time of our ignorance , we could sin without reluctancy , so now we can sin without repentance : oh that thou wouldst sm●…te the rock , that there may flow out teares . we can do nothing by way of expiation , if we could weep out our eyes , nothing but the blood of christ can take away our guilt ; o that there might be a spring of that blood upon our souls at th●… time : oh that that blood may at this time bring a report of love , and a message of mercy to us . do we beg any more then thou hast promised ? oh hast not thou accepted of that satisfaction that christ hath made in his own person ? if we had suffered the torments of hell , it could not have made that satisfaction that christ has made : give us the witness of the spirit and thy love , and we will say we have enough ; give us hearts of flesh , crush the head of the serpent in our soules . o lord christ , thou camest into the world to destroy the works of the devill in our hearts , and to build up the kingdome of the spirit in us : oh when shall we see the old man decay in us , and the old man to live more and more . oh , be wisdome to guide us , and righteousnesse to cleanse us from guilt and redemption to deliver us from the wages of sin : let us be nothing in our selves , that we may be all in thee our saviour : oh honour us so far , that we may honour thee . we pray thee strengthen our weak faith , quiet our consciences , we would not live a day longer , then that we may honour thee ; tread satan under our feet , sit us for our places and employments , let not our conditions be so low , but that our hearts may be lower : we are p●…sting to death , oh let sin dye before we die : let us know our names are written in the book of life , before thou take away our life . look upon thy servant our dread sovereign , charles , of great brittain , france , and ireland , king : oh inrich his royall heart with all those saving graces of thy spirit , in order to a wise and happy government of these kingdomes . look upon his royall consort , his royall relations , the lords of his privy councill , and make them blessing to this nation . oh sanctifie thy good word , oh give thy gracious assistance to us , both in speaking and hearing : let us hear it as that word by which we must be judged , that we may be convinced by it , and say it is the power of god to salvation to every soul of us . let our meeting ●…e for the better to all of us , that we may be built up in the most holy faith : and let us know we have not sought thy face in vain , for iesus christ his sake our dear saviour , for whom we blesse thy majesty , to whom with thee and the spirit , be praise for ever , amen dr. anesleye's prayer at giles-cripplegate . holy and great god of heaven and earth , such is the condes●…nsion of thy grace , that thou art pleased to manifest thy speciall presence to thy poor creatures , though thou hatest sin with a perfect hatred , yet thou lovest sinners with an infinite love , though thou art of purer eyes then to behold iniquitie , yet thou art pleased to manifest thy love to sinners that approach to thy service , o lord , when shall we admire enough thy grace and love , how thou art pleased to communicate thy self to a poor man. dear father raise and fix our hearts , help us ●…o mind the business that we come about and ●…o deal very faithfully with our own souls , in the matters of eternall moment , o that we could pray , so that our prayers through grace might be returned upon us with a blessing , o that we could wait upon thee to hear thy word as the oracles of god , let us hear what christ will discover to us for our spiritual benefit : lord grant that our soules may know what it is to be in the spirit upon the lords day , dear father , thou canst deal with such hearts as ours , for the curing of them we pray thee to do i●… ; we must needs acknowledge , had'st not thou laid help upon one that is mighty , that is able to save to the uttermost , we must have perished to all eternity , for we do not know any upon the earth more vile then our selves . the very aggravations of our sins , do render us monstrously abominable , the means of grace we have afforded us , the stirring of thy spirit in us , the patience and goodnesse of god towards us makes it a wonder that our hearts do remain so blockish but dear lord , we do find by experience , that our immortal souls are much debased , all the faculties of our souls are out of tune , our understandings are so dark our conceptions of god are so low , our consciences are so benummed that the stirrings of them are scarce discerned or perceived , our affections are spentupon the creature , that we cannot gather them up again , our wills are perverse , our memories are apt to retain the dros●… , and let out all that is good , we pray thee for christs sake make an experiment upon our soules , what thou canst do , what sinners christ can save , what corruptions the spirit of god can subdue in our soules , teach all our hearts , do not stand behind the wall , and look through the ●…attice , do so much as may leave us without excuse , but good lord put in thy hand in at the whole of the door , and let thy fingers drop hony upon the handle of the lord. and , oh set open these everlasting doores , that the king of glory may enter in , subdue us intirely to thy self , do not ask our wills whether we ●…e willing or no ? but make us willing : do not ask us what we would have , but give us what thou knowest is good for us . dear lord we pray thee deliver us from sin , according to thy batred of it : and pour out thy grace upon us , according to thy love of grace , that our souls may be refreshed , that we may find thy thoughts are above ours , as high as heaven is above the earth . dear father , it is thy promise , that those that wait upon thee , shall renew their strengths : we have no might ; the devill b●…ffles us , our own hearts are treacherous to us ; the world int●…ces us to sin against god : oh! deliver us from all these enemies , and especially from the plagues of our hearts , that we may perfect holyness in the fear of god ; give us spiritual blessings , whatsoever thou givest us or whatsoever thou denyest us : thou knowest thou artrather willing to give us spirituall blessings , then any other mercies , and we want spiritual mercies most , oh give us spiritual mercies , that we may say , this is the way of god in his sanctuary . where grace is not wrought work it ? where it is begun encrease it . dear father convince those that are yet not convinced : make thy word a quickning word , an ingraf●…ed word , to the saving of our souls , help us to hear , as for our lives , and as those that long after god , hear prayers for the king , blesse him in his royal relations , and grant under him we may live a quiet life in all godlinesse and honesty . bless the magistrates , and help them to remember , that causes one day must be heard over again , help thy ministers to keep close to thee in wayes that are well pleasing . be with us at this time , lord assist the meanest of thy servants , let our souls now find , that thou dost magnifie thy word above all thy name : do us good , rec●…ive us , quicken us , that we may live in heaven upon earth , that we may know what it is to be filled with the fulnesse of god , and know the heighth , breadth , depth , and length of thy love , that passeth knowledge . communicate thy selfe to us , as thou usest to do to thy people ; let us feel thy presence , let us not think of any thing , but the business we are about , let us with singlenesse of he●…t , set our selves to mind the concernments of our immortal souls : and all we beg for christ his sake who has taught us thus to pray , our father which art in heaven , &c. mr. cradockt's prayer , at saint sepulchres , august . . most glorious , and most gracious lord god. who art god , and father of our lord iesus christ , who hast put thine own name and stamp upon this day , wilt thou be pleased to appear now and prepare and dispose ●…r unprepared , and indisposed souls , for holy observation of this thine own holy day : will the lord vouchsafe us the incomes of his spirit , and influences of his grace ▪ whereby we may be unabled to offer up spiritual sacrifices , which may be acceptable to iesus christ. lord , thou requ●…rest praying hearts , but thou hast not commanded us to use prayer-books , and if thou wilt give us the spirit of prayer , we shall not need them . lord give us praying hearts at this time , let us find by experience that thy sub●…ath is a day of souls opportunity , that thine ordinances are full of marrow , that thou hast not said unto thy children , the seed of jacob seek my face in vain . we acknowledge we are unworthy to lift up our eyes to heaven , we have cause enough to cry out , god be mercifull to us sinners , undeserving , ill-deserving men and women , we acknowledge our natures are blots of all wickednesses , we are by nature enemies to thy majesty , heirs of d●…ath , children of darknesse , slaves to sin ; captives to lust , dead to sins and trespasses , how are our understandings darkned and our hearts hardned : what are our hearts but a store-house of ●…licious thoughts ? a brothel-house of adultery ? a pallace of pride ? we are by nature wholly flesh , totally opposite to the holy lawes of thy majesty , and were it not for thy renewing or restra●…ning grace we should break forth into as vile abominations as the vilest of men . our lives have been a continual piece of rebellion against god , who didst make us , and dost feed and cloath us ; all thy paths have been paths of mercy to us , but we have requited thee evil for thy good , and hatred for thy love : o foolish men and women that we have bin , we acknowledge our gospel sins are of a deep eye ; thou hast not bin a wildernesse or a land of darknesse to us , we have been exalted to heaven in the meanes of salvation , but oh how short do we come of knowledge to the time and meanes we have enjoyed , and our obedience comes short of our knowledge : we have not walked up to that light which thou hast given us . we desire to lay our selves low before thee , oh do thou open our eyes , and presentus to our selves , shew us the vilenes●…e of our lives : blessed be thy name , that thou hast laid help up●… 〈◊〉 that is mighty , to save all that come to thy majesty by him ? and thou hast promised all that beleive on him shall not perish but have everlasting life . oh help us to receive him in all his offices in our hearts , help us to give him the keyes of our hearts , and help us to live and die to him that dyed for us , and let our soules be united to thee by him , that his death may be ours , and his life ours , and his intercession ours : oh let our unity to christ be demonstrated to us by our communion with him , and conformity to him in grace and holiness . and we pray thee , dearest lord , pardon our sins in the court of heaven , and in the court of our own consciences , besprinkle our consciences in the blood of christ , and say to all before thee at this time that desire to fear thee more , and serve thee better : sons and daughters be of good cheer , your sins are forgiven you . and do not only justifie us but sanctifie us , purge our consciences from dead workes , informe our understandings , conforme our wills to thine holy will , let our hearts and lives be conformed to the image of thy sonne , that beholding thereof , we may be changed from glory to glory , and let us have more knowledge of thy will , that we may do thy will , and suffer thy will with more patience , and be filled with the fruits of righteousnesse , which are to the glory of god. let us not be empty vines that bring forth fruit to themselves , but let us bring forth fruit to god whereby thou mayest be glorified , oh plant that great grace of selfe-denyal in our souls , and let us take the crosse of iesus christ and follow him wheresoever he goes . remember all thine , extend thy favour to those thou hast cast on beds of sicknesse , and let there be a saving change wrought in them before that change by death shall come . and that are drawing nigh their time of travel , let the arms of the all-sufficient god be under them , and be better to them th●…s their faith or our prayer . and look graciously upon poor children , intitle them to an inheritance that fadeth not away , make them a blessing in themselves , and a blessing to their parents . and those that desire the conversion of relations that walk in wayes of per●…ition , do not let them find peace in any way against thy majesty , and let them know that sin will be bitter in the latter end . look upon us that are before thee at this time , before we go hence , and shall be here no more , make thy face to shine upon us , let our coming together be for the better and not for the worse to any of us , let thy poor servant be able to deliver thy message plainly and powerfully , and give thy people hearing ears & obedient hearts , and let us rejoyce that we did wait upon thee in thy worship this day and all for christ his sake , in whose name and words we call upon thee . our father , &c. finis : an apology for private preaching in which those formes are warranted or rather justified, which the maligannt sect contemne and daily by prophane pamphlets make ridiculous : viz. preaching in a tub : teaching against the backe of a chaire : instructing at a tables end : revealing in a basket : exhorting over a buttery hatch : reforming on a bad side or, indeed, any place according to inspiration, since it is knowne, the spirit moves in sundry places : whereunto is annexed, or rather conjoyned or furthermore united, or moreover knit the spirituall postures, alluding to that of musket and pike / by t.j. taylor, john, - . this text is an enriched version of the tcp digital transcription a of text r in the english short title catalog (wing t ). textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. the text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with morphadorner. the annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. this text has not been fully proofread approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. earlyprint project evanston,il, notre dame, in, st. louis, mo a wing t estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; :e , no ) an apology for private preaching in which those formes are warranted or rather justified, which the maligannt sect contemne and daily by prophane pamphlets make ridiculous : viz. preaching in a tub : teaching against the backe of a chaire : instructing at a tables end : revealing in a basket : exhorting over a buttery hatch : reforming on a bad side or, indeed, any place according to inspiration, since it is knowne, the spirit moves in sundry places : whereunto is annexed, or rather conjoyned or furthermore united, or moreover knit the spirituall postures, alluding to that of musket and pike / by t.j. taylor, john, - . [ ] p. ... printed for r. wood, t. wilson, and e. christopher, [london] : jun. [ ] attributed to john taylor. cf. nuc pre . reproduction of original in thomason collection, british library. eng dissenters, religious -- england. a r (wing t ). civilwar no an apology for private preaching. in which those formes are warranted, or rather justified, which the maligannt sect contemne, and daily by taylor, john b the rate of defects per , words puts this text in the b category of texts with fewer than defects per , words. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - john latta sampled and proofread - john latta text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion an apology for private preaching . in which those formes are warranted , or rather justified , which the malignant sect contemne , and daily by prophane pamphlets make ridiculous . ( viz. ) preaching in a tub. teaching against the backe of a chaire , instructing at a tables end . revealing in a basket . exhorting over a buttery hatch . reforming on a bed side . or ( indeed ) any place , according to inspiration ( since it is knowne ) the spirit moves in sundry places . ) whereunto is annexed , or rather conjoyned , or furthermore united , or moreover knit , the spirituall postures , alluding to that of musket and pike . by t. j. jun. . printed for r. wood , t. wilson , and e. christopher . to you the sanctified , elected , purified , mundified , justified , and separated brethren , i make this worthy and acceptable ( although not learned ) apology . it is not unkown to you how often we have beene vilified by the name of puritans , brownists , separatists , familists , and ( at last ) censur'd with the detestable name of round-heads and prickeares ; that wee are so 't is confest , but why should we be tearmed so in the way of disgrace , or villification , the manner of speaking makes the difference , i have knowne one man call another sir in anger , likewise a woman beat her maid by the name of gentlewoman , termes in themselves gracious and acceptable , but according to sinister construction , the parties so termed appeare scandalized and rediculous : next they abuse our doctrine of inspiration , and tell us it proceeds from the spirit of contradiction , but little do they imagine our contradiction is begot by inspiration : for unlesse our bodies be haunted with sanctified spirits , how is it possible we should reveale the word , since most of us scarce know a word of the booke , and that is the reason that we can preach as well without a booke as with it , but if we can continue and confide as wee have begun ( which i shrewdly doubt ) it shall bee lawfull for every elder and every select brother to use a horn-booke ( provided he be married ) for i have heard a little reading will do a man no hurt , let him be learned past the graces and the sacraments , and ( for ought i know ) hee may bee as fit to teach as the best on 's , and go roundly on with his businesse , according to his own head , and in conclusion gain the prick and praise , agreeing with his auditors eares , which are long enough to make asses of those that write our names backwards , and fix them before libellous sermons , saying they do not rvb , when they do rub , and rub the skin of to , wofull experience has made it manifest , but thogh we desire to have our heads rounded , we not care to have them rounded so close ; there ought to be a mean in all things , but now i le proceed to my apologie which must prove how necessary it is for a tradesman of any degree , to preach in a tub , reach against the back of a chaire , instruct at a tables end , exhorting over a buttery hatch , revealing in a basket , reforming on a bed-side : i shall begin with the first , and produce you the sacred antiquity of tubs , in the days of dido and richard the third , there lived an honest , religious , and fair spoken man called diogenes , a round-dealing man , and was so inspired with the spirit of oposition , that he boldly durst affront the king , and bid him stand from betwixt him and the sun ; and beleeve it there was some mistery in those words : this man ( to make short of my tale ) lived in a tub , and he being a devout man , we must of necessity have this argument allowed , that if he lived in a tub , he preached also in a tub , so that at last hee reformed the king , who would daily leave his palace to hear his worthy and religious tub lectures , i wish our times would not be more proud then the former , hee was a man of good life and conversation , and the squares went round with him , and when hee was smitten in age , the king gave him the title of elder every day with which he continued till the houre of his death , and so much for this piece of antiquity . in the dayes of king arthur of bradley , and his four hundred forty sixe elders of the round table , the first men that ever wore round-robins , there lived a pastor whose fame ( you all have had a spice of ) called cornelius , a sickly man , and did all in a tub with very good ordure , and one that was inspired with the spirit of repentance , and a man whose zeal to the sister-hood hath caused him in one lecture to sweat six hours by the clock , where it was his fate by the heat of overmuch devotion , to conclude his dayes , and preach his own funerall sermon . and so much testification i think may stand to justifie the lawfulnesse of the aforesaid tub , whose spirituall hoopes i hope vvill never fayle . the back of a chaire is so far from having priority of the tvb , that it is much inferiour to it , and is never provided , but vvhen the good wife hath employed the tvb about some other businesse , the body must as vvell be eased as the mind , but most commonly it is a vvicker chair , vvhich though it bee not altogether round , is halfe round , and doth almost agree as well with the spirituall groane as the tub , and in case of necessity may serve as well ( take top and bottome ) as the tubbe ; but we doe not boldly ( as that arch square head of prophanenesse the pope doth ) tearme our chaire st. peters chaire , though wee have much more reason , and so it being needlesse to justifie with stronger arguments the benefit of the chaire , it being toward noon , i will draw neere the tables end , where i doubt not but i shall picke out many wholesome arguments , and enough to satisfie any reasonable man without that prophane porridge the service-book , and in this piece of doctrine ( by your favour ) will be my owne carver : this table being finished with substance to worke upon will allow a sweete savour , and not strengthen but advance the spirit , and maintaine it when it is up , then if this place be not fit that alloweth both forme and matter , i le stand to the censure of the veriest epicure , who i beleeve would sooner swallow this doctrine than a great many that seeme to make a more religious profession : and now i have satisfied at the tables end , i will make no more apologie for it , since apparant truths are rather hindered then helped with tedious arguments . i will now set forward to my revelation in a basket , which hath beene held sacred because it was given at the cost and charges of our inspired basket maker , a man inspired with much charity , and got all his reliefe by the basket , it was by himselfe dedicated to the sheriffes , and by them well furnished for the full edification of the poore , needy , and imprisoned brethren , who have suffered for the conforming and tearing off of surplices ; and why may not a man piously and zealously confirm the aged , and enstruct the youth in a basket , as well as in a pulpit : the tables end lecture being ended for the rich , the basket lecture for the poor and needy , let us proceed to the buttery hatch , which is the fittest place in my opinion to administer the liquor of life and spiritual drops of comfort , where some zealous men of our brother-hood have so overtyred themselves with earnestnesse in this doctrine , that they have growne uncensible , not able to stand on their legs , or give a ready word , that even with maudlin sorrow perceiving their weaknesse to proceed no further , they have wept with very griefe , being supported home with expectation of next mornings remedy . but he whole strength of brain and power of spirit will preserve to hold out this buttery hatch lecture , may with much ease administer reformation on a bed-side , where inspired with the spirit of vnity , we constantly conclude , and joyn in a copulative love without the unnecessary assistance of any light , but the flame of our own zeal , with which i doubt not , but that we are equally furnished , proceeding from the pretious coals of devotion : and inflamed by the provoking administry of the last doctrine . i hope these arguments will suffice sufficiently to ●nform you of the necessary and profitable causes we have to vindicate and appologize for the dignity of private preaching in so many forms and according to this method i shal now march on to the spiritual postures , which have allusion to those for pike and musket , in which i will not prove tedious . it is not unknown to you my beloved round-heads that there may be a spirituall warfare , in which you are not particularly exercised in the postures of your doctrine you will goe neere to suffer , and all the select of us ; the first i will instruct you in shall be that alluding to pike . round heads stand to your armes . when authority is absent , — disorder your doctrine . when present , — order your doctrine . if absent againe , — as you were . if you conceive you shall have the better on 't , shoulder your doctrine and march . if authority bee too strong , then ( round-heads ) as you were . if authority appeare weake . advance your doctrine . if strong , — as you were . if you get stronger in faction , — charge to the you . but if authority come in full power , — faces about . prick-eares , stand to your armes . now authority is gone , — make ready your zeale . if authority appeare not yet , — charge your zeale . if you expect the victory — ioyn your zeale and rest together blow your zeale . prime your zeale . blow off your loose zeale . if authority come not yet , for out sisters sake cock your zeale , guard your zeale . blow the coale of your zeale now if you thinke to overcome authoritie , present your zeale to the left , and give fire to the right . but if you be vanquishd betwixt this and paddington , faces about . finis . a discourse concerning conscience wherein an account is given of the nature and rule and obligation of it : and the case of those who separate from the communion of the church of england as by law established, upon this pretence, that it is against their conscience to join in it, is stated and discussed. sharp, john, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; 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(eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a discourse concerning conscience wherein an account is given of the nature and rule and obligation of it : and the case of those who separate from the communion of the church of england as by law established, upon this pretence, that it is against their conscience to join in it, is stated and discussed. sharp, john, - . [ ], p. printed for walter kettilby ..., london : . attributed to john sharp. cf. nuc pre- . reproduction of original in huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng conscience -- religious aspects -- church of england -- early works to . dissenters, religious -- england -- early works to . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - john latta sampled and proofread - john latta text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a discourse concerning conscience ; wherein an account is given of the nature , and rule , and obligation , of it . and the case of those who separate from the communion of the church of england as by law established , upon this pretence , that it is against their conscience to jo●n in it , is stated and discussed . london , printed for walter kettilby at the bishops head in st. pauls church-yard . . a discourse of conscience : with respect to those that separate from the communion of the church of england upon the pretence of it , &c. there is nothing more in our mouths than conscience ; and yet there are few things we have generally taken less pains to understand . we sit down too often with this , that it is something within us , we do not know what , which we are to obey in all that it suggests to us , and we trouble our selves no further about it . by which means , it frequently comes to pass ; that though we have espoused very dangerous errors , or happen to be ingaged in very sinful practices ; yet believing , and acting , as we say , according to our conscience ; we do not only think our selves perfectly right and safe , while we continue in this state ; but are effectually armed against all sorts of arguments , and endeavours that can be used for the bringing us to a better mind . this is too visible in many cases ; but in none more than in the case of those that at this day separate from the communion of the church as it is established among us . though the laws of the land both ecclesiastical , and civil , do oblige them to joyn in our communion ; though many arguments are offer'd to convince them , not only that they lawfully may , but that they are bound to do it : though they themselves are sensible , that many-fold , and grievous mischiefs , and dangers , do ensue from this breach of communion , and these unnatural divisions , both to the christian religion in general , and to our reformed religion in particular , yet if to all these things , a man can reply , that he is satisfied in his conscience that he doth well in refusing his obedience to the laws ; or that he is not satisfied , in his conscience that he ought to joyn with us upon such terms as are required ; this single pretence shall be often thought a sufficient answer , both to laws , and arguments . a strange thing this is ; that conscience , which among other ends , was given to mankind for a preservative , and security of the publick peace ; for the more effectually obliging men to unity , and obedience to laws ; yet should often be a means of setting them at distance , and prove a shelter for disobedience , and disorder : that god should command us to obey our governours in all lawful things for conscience sake , and yet that we should disobey them in lawful things for conscience sake too . it is the design of this discourse to examine what there is in this plea , that is so often made by our dissenters for their not complying with the laws , viz. that it is against their conscience so to do ; and to shew in what cases this plea is justly made , and in what cases not ; and where it is justly made , how far it will justify any mans separation , and how far it will not . and all this in order to the possessing those who are concerned , with a sense of the great necessity that lyes upon them , of using their most serious endeavours to inform their conscience aright in these matters , before they presume to think they can separate from us with a good conscience , which is all we desire of them ; for it is not our business to perswade any man to conform against his conscience ; but to convince every man how dangerous it may be to follow a misinformed conscience . but before i enter upon this disquisition , it will be necessary in the first place , to prepare my way by laying down the grounds , and principles , i mean to proceed upon . and here that i may take in all things , that are needful to be known before-hand , about this matter , i shall treat distinctly of these five heads . of the nature of conscience . of the rule of conscience . and under that , of the power of humane laws to oblige the conscience . and particularly in the instance of church communion . of the authority of conscience ; or how far a man is obliged to be guided by his conscience in his actions . i. and first , as for the nature of conscience , the truest way to find out that will be , not so much to enquire into the signification of the word conscience or the several scholastical definitions of it ; as to consider what every man doth really mean by that word when he has occasion to make use of it ; for if it do appear that all men do agree in their notions , and sense , about this matter ; that without doubt , which they all thus agree in , is the true notion , and sense of conscience . now as to this , we may observe in the first place , that a man never speaks of his conscience , but with respect to his own actions , or to something that hath the nature of an action which is done or omitted by him , or is to be done or omitted , matters of meer knowledg , and speculation , we do not concern our conscience with ; as neither with those things in which we are purely passive ; as neither with actions , if they be not our own . we do not for instance , make it a point of conscience one way or other , whether a thing be true or false ; or whether this or the other accident that befals us , be prosperous or unfortunate ; or whether another man hath done good or bad actions , in which we are no way concerned . these kind of things may indeed prove matters of great satisfaction or disquiet ; of joy or grief to us : but we do not take our conscience to be affected with them . that word never comes in , but with respect to something willingly done or left undone by us ; or which we may do or may forbear . secondly , we may observe that in common speech , we do not neither use this word conscience about our actions , but only , so far as those actions fall under a moral consideration ; that is , as they have the nature of duties or sins , or as they are lawful or vnlawful . always when we speak of conscience in our actions , we have respect to some law or rule , by which those actions are to be directed , and govern'd , and by their agreeableness or disagreeableness with which they become morally good or evil. thirdly , this being so ; the only thing remaining to be enquired into for the finding out what conscience is , is , what can be reasonably thought to be our sense , and meaning , when we use the word conscience , with such application to our actions as we have now said . now for that i desire it may be considered ; that when we talk of our actions as we concern our conscience in them , they can but fall under these two heads of distinction , that is to say , in the first place , we either consider our actions as already done or omitted : or we consider them as yet not done , but as we are deliberating about them . and then secondly , whether we consider them as done or not done ; as past , or future ; yet we rank them under one of these three notions . we either look upon them as commanded by god , and so to be duties ; or as forbidden by god , and so to be sins ; or as neither commanded nor forbidden , and so to be indifferent actions . ( with these last actions indeed conscience is not properly or directly concerned , but only by accident , to wit , as those indifferent actions do approach to the nature of duties or sins : ) our actions , i say , do not touch our conscience , but as they fall under some of these heads . now in all these respects we have indeed different ways of bringing in conscience but yet as it will appear , we mean the same thing by it in them all . first of all when we are considering an action as yet not done ; if we look upon it as commanded by god ; we say we are bound in conscience to do it ; if we look upon it as a sinful action , we say it is against our conscience to do it ; if we look upon it as an indifferent thing , we say we may do it or not do it with a safe conscience . now i pray , what do we mean by these expressions ? i desire that every one would consult his own mind , and deny if he can , that this is the sense of his words . if he saith he is bound in conscience to do this or the other thing , whether he doth not mean this ? that he verily thinks it is his duty to do that action . if he saith that it is against his conscience to do such an action ; whether he means any more than this ? that he is perswaded in his judgment that to do such an action is an offence against god. if he saith that he can do it with a safe conscience whether he hath any other meaning than this ? that to the best of his knowledg , and judgment , the action may be done without transgressing any law of god. this is now undeniably , the sense that every man in the world hath , when he makes mention of conscience as to actions that are not yet done , but only proposed to his consideration . so that taking conscience as it respects our actions to be done or omitted , and as it is to govern , and conduct them ( in which sense we call conscience a guide or a monitor , and sometimes , though very improperly , a rule of our actions ) it can be nothing else in the sense of all men that use that word , but a mans judgment concerning the goodness or badness ; the lawfulness or unlawfulness of actions in order to the conduct of his own life . but secondly if we speak of our actions that are done and past , and consider conscience with reference to them ; here indeed we do a little vary the expression about conscience , but the notion of it is the same we have now given . as for instance , when we talk of peace of conscience , or trouble of conscience , with reference to some action we have done or omitted ; when we say my conscience bears me witness , that i have acted rightly , and honestly in this affair ; or my conscience acquits me from blame , as to this or the other action , or i am troubled in conscience for doing what i have done : if we turn these phrases into other words , we shall find that there is nothing more at the bottom of them than this ; that reflecting upon our own actions , we find that in this or the other instance , we have either acted or omitted , as we are convinced in our judgment we ought to do ; and the remembrance of this is some pleasure , and satisfaction to us : or we have done or forborn something contrary to what we take to be our duty ; and the remembrance of this affects us with grief and trouble . but still , in both these instances of expression , that which we mean by conscience is the same thing , as in the former cases , viz. it is our iudgment and perswasion concerning what we ought to do , or ought not to do , or lawfully may do ; only here we add to it this consideration , that the action which we are perswaded to be good , or bad , or indifferent , is now done or omitted by us , and we do remember it . in the former case , conscience was considered as the guide of our actions . in the latter case it is considered as the witness of our actions . but in both cases , conscience is the judge , and consequently in both cases the notion of it is the same , only with this difference , that in the former it was a mans mind , making a judgment what he ought to do or not to do ; in the latter it is a mans mind reflecting upon what he hath done or not done , and judging whether he be innocent or culpable in the matter he reflects upon . i do not know how to give a clearer account of the nature of conscience in general than this i have now given . this i believe is the natural notion that all men have of it , and there is no expression in scripture about it but what doth confirm this notion . if indeed we put epithites to conscience , and talk of a good conscience or an evil conscience ; a tender conscience or a seared conscience or the like . then it includes more , both in scripture , and in common language , than i have now mentioned . but to give an account of those things i am not now concerned , as being without the limits of our present enquiry . ii. and now we are sufficiently prepared for our second general point which is touching the rule of conscience ; if indeed after what we have already said it be not superfluous to insist upon that . it appears plainly by what i have represented , that conscience must always have a rule which it is to follow , and by which it is to be govern'd . for since conscience is nothing else but a mans iudgment concerning actions , as good , or bad , or indifferent ; it is certain that a man must have some measures to proceed by in order to the framing such a judgment about actions ; that is to say , there must be something distinct from the man himself that makes actions to be good , or bad , or indifferent ; and from which , by applying particular actions to it , or comparing them with it , a man may be able to judge whether they be of the one sort or the other . now this , whatever it be , is that which we call the rule of conscience ; and so much it is its rule , that conscience can be no farther a safe guide than as it follows that rule . if now it be asked what this rule of conscience is , or what that is which makes a difference between actions , as to the moral goodness or badness of them ; the answer to it is obvious to every body : that it can be nothing else but the law of god. for nothing can be a duty but what gods law hath made so ; and nothing can be a sin but what gods law hath forbidden ( the very notion of sin being , that it is a transgression of the law ; ) and lastly we call a thing lawful or indifferent upon this very account , that there is no law of god either commanding or forbidding it ; and where there is no law , there is no transgression . so that undeniably the great , nay i say , the only rule by which conscience is to be governed is the law of god , considered either as it commands actions , or forbids them , or as it neither commands them nor forbids them . but in order to the giving a more distinct account , of this rule of conscience , there is this needful to be enquired into , viz. in what sense we take , or what we mean by the law of god ; when we say it is the rule of conscience . now to this our answer is , that by the law of god , we here understand gods will , for the government of mens actions , in what way soever that will is declared to them . now the will of god is declared to men two ways ; either by nature , or by revelation ; so that the just , and , adequate rule of conscience is made up of two parts the law of nature , and gods revealed law. by the law of nature , we mean those principles of good and evil , just and unjust , which god hath stamp'd upon the minds of all men , in the very constitution of their natures . there are some things eternally good in themselves ; such as to worship god , to honour our parents , to stand to our covenants , to live peaceably in the government , from which we receive protection ; and the contrary to these will be eternally evil ; the heads of all which things thus good in themselves , are writ so plainly , and legibly , in the minds of mankind , that there is no man who is come to the use of his reason , but must of necessity be convinced , that to practice these things will alway be his duty , and not to practice them , will always be evil , and a sin. now all these heads , and principles put together , is that we call the law of nature , and this is all the rule of conscience , that mankind had , before god was pleased to discover his will by more particular revelation . and this is that law , which the apostle speaks of when he saith that the gentiles , who had not the law of moses yet had a law written in their hearts ; by their acting according to which , or contrary to which their conscience did bear witness to them , and did either accuse them , or excuse them . but then secondly , to us christians , god to this law of nature hath superadded a revealed law , which is contained in the books of holy scriptures . which revealed law yet , is not wholly of a different kind from the former , nor doth it at all void the obligation of it . but only thus ; god hath in his revealed law , declared the precepts of the law of nature , more certainly , and accurately than before ; he hath given greater force , and strength to them , than they had before , by the sanctions of greater rewards , and punishments : he hath likewise herein perfected the law of nature , and hath obliged us , in point of duty , to more and higher instances of vertue , than nature did strictly oblige us to : and lastly , he hath added some positive laws for us to observe which were not at all contained in the law of nature , as for instance , to believe in iesus christ , in order to salvation , to make all our applications to god , in the name of that mediatour christ iesus ; to enter into a christian society , by baptism , and to exercise communion with that society , by partaking of the lords supper . and this is that law , which we christians are obliged to , as well as to the law of our natures , and which as it is a summary of all the laws of nature , so indeed is it a summary of all our duty . so that if any man will call it the great , or only rule of christian conscience , i shall not much oppose him , provided that this be always remembred , that , in the third place , when we say that the natural and revealed law of god , is the just rule , by which we are to govern our conscience , or when we say that the law of god , as revealed , and contained in the bible , is to us christians , the just rule . we are so to understand this proposition as to take into it , not only all that is directly , and expresly commanded , or forbidden by either of those laws : but also all that by plain collection of right reason in applying generals to particulars , or comparing one thing with another doth appear to be commanded or forbidden by them . so that by the law of nature , as it is a rule of conscience , we are not only to understand the prime heads , and most general dictates of it , ( which are but a few ) but also all the necessary deductions from those heads . and by the law of scripture , as it is the rule of conscience , we are not only to understand the express commands , and prohibitions , we meet with there , in the letter of the text ; but all the things likewise , that by unavoidable consequence do follow from those commands , or prohibitions . in a word , when we are deliberating with our selves , concerning the goodness , or badness ; the lawfulness , or unlawfulness of this , or the other particular action : we are not only to look upon the letter of the law , but to attend further to what that law may be supposed by a rational man to contain in it . and if we be convinced , that the action we are deliberating about , is commanded , or forbidden , by direct inference , or by parity of reason ; we ought to look upon it as a duty , or a sin , though it be not expresly commanded , or forbidden , by the law , in the letter of it . and if neither by the letter of the law ; nor by consequence from it ; nor by parity of reason ; the action before us , appear either to be commanded , or forbidden : in that case , we are to look upon it , as an indifferent action ; which we may do , or let alone , with a safe conscience ; or , to express the thing more properly , we are to look upon it as an action in which our conscience is not so much concerned as our prudence . iii. having thus given an account of the rule of conscience , that which naturally follows next to be considered , with reference to our present design , is , what share humane laws have in this rule of conscience ? whether they be a part of this rule , and do really bind a mans conscience to the observance of them or no ? which is our third general head. now as to this , our answer is , that though the laws of god be the great , and indeed the only rule of conscience , yet the laws of men , generally speaking , do also bind the conscience , and are a part of its rule in a secondary sense , that is , by vertue of , and in subordination to the laws of god. i shall briefly explain the meaning of this , in the four following propositions . first , there is nothing more certain than that the law of god , as it is declared both by nature , and scripture doth command us , to obey the laws of men. there is no one dictate of nature , more obvious to us , than this , that we are to obey the government we live under , in all honest , and just things . for this is indeed the principal law , and foundation of all society . and it would be impossible , either for kingdoms , or states ; for citys , or families to subsist ; or at least to maintain themselves in any tolerable degree of peace , and happiness , if this be not acknowledged a duty . and then , as for the laws of god in scripture , there is nothing more plainly declared there , than , that it is gods will , and our duty to obey them that have the rule over us ; and to submit our selves to every ordinance of man , for the lords sake , and to be subject not only for wrath but for conscience sake . so that no man can doubt that he is really bound in duty to obey the laws of men that are made by just , and sufficient authority . and consequently no man can doubt that humane laws do really bind the conscience , and are one part of the rule by which it is to be directed , and governed . but then having said this , we add this farther in the second place , that humane laws do not bind the conscience , by any vertue in themselves ; but meerly by vertue of gods law , who has commanded that we should in all things be subject to our lawful governours , not only for wrath , but for conscience sake . conscience is not properly concerned with any being in the world , save god alone , it hath no superiour but him : for the very notion of it , as i have often said , is no other than our iudgment , of what things we are bound to do by gods law ; & what things we are forbidden to do by gods law. so that all the men in the world , cannot bind any mans conscience , by vertue of any power , or authority , that is in them : but now god having made it an everlasting law , both by nature , and scripture , that we should obey those who are set over us , whether they be our parents , or our masters ; and much more our princes , and the soveraign legislative power , under whom we live ; by vertue of this command of god , and this only ; we are for ever bound in conscience , to govern our actions , by the commands , that they impose upon us ; and those commands of theirs are a rule , ( though a consequential , or a secondary rule , ) by which we are to govern our conscience , because they are the instances of our obedience to the laws of god. but then in the third place , this is also to be remembered ; that humane laws do no farther bind the conscience , and are a rule of it , than as they are agreeable to the laws of god. if any law , or command of man , do clash with any law of god ; that is , if it be either evil in it self , or contradictory to the duty of christians , as laid down in the scriptures ; in that case , that law or command , by what humane authority soever it was made or given , doth not bind our conscience , nor is any rule of our actions . on the contrary we are not at any rate to yield obedience to it ; but we are here reduced to the apostles case , and must act as they did ; that is , we must obey god , rather than men , and we sin , if we do not . for since god only hath proper , and direct authority over our conscience , and humane power , only , by delegation from him : and since god hath not given any commission to the most soveraign princes upon earth , to alter his laws , or to impose any thing upon his subjects , that is inconsistent with them . it follows by necessary consequence , that no man can be obliged to obey any laws of men , farther than they are agreeable to , and consistent with the laws of god. there is yet a fourth thing , necessary to be taken in for the clearing the point we are upon , and that is this , that though humane laws , generally speaking , may be said to bind the conscience , and to be a part of its rule : yet we do not assert that every humane law , ( though it doth not interfere with any of gods laws ) doth at all times , and in all cases , oblige every mans conscience to active obedience to it ; so as that he sins against god , if he transgress it . no , it would be a very hard thing to affirm this ; and i do not know what man among us , upon these terms , would be innocent . thus much i believe we may safely lay down as a truth ; that where either the matter of the law is of such a nature ; that the publick , or some private person shall suffer damage , or inconvenience , by our not observing it . or secondly , though the law , as to the matter of it be never so trifling ; nay , though perhaps all things considered , it be an inconvenient law ; yet if the manner of our not obeying it , be such , as gives offence to our superiours , or to any others ; that is , either argues a contempt of authority , or sets an ill example before our fellow subjects : i say in either of these cases , the transgression of a humane law , renders a man guilty of a fault , as well as obnoxious to the penalty of that law. but out of these two cases , i must confess , i do not see , how a purely humane law doth oblige the conscience ; or how the transgression of it , doth make a man guilty of sin , before god. for it is certain if we secure these two points ; that is to say , the good of the publick , and of private persons ; and with all the sacredness , and respect , which is due to authority , ( which is likewise in order to the publick good : ) we answer all the ends , for which the power of making laws , or laying commands upon inferiours , was committed by god to mankind . so that though it be true , that humane laws do oblige the conscience , yet it is also true that a great many cases may , and do happen , in which a man may act contrary to a purely humane law , and yet not be a sinner before god. always supposing ( as i said , ) there be no contempt , or refractoryness expressed towards the governours : nor , no scandal , or ill . example given to others , by the action . for if there be either of these in the case ; i dare not acquit the man , from being a transgressour of gods law , in the instance , wherein he transgresseth the laws of men. for this is that which we insist upon ; that the authority of our governours ought to be held , and esteemed very sacred , both because the laws of god , and the publick good require it should be so . and herefore , wherever they do peremptorily lay their commands upon us , we are bound in conscience so far to comply , as not to contest the matter with them ; nor to seem to do it . and though their commands , as to the matter of them , be never so slight ; nay , though they should prove really inconvenient , either to our selves , or the publick . yet if they stand upon them , if they persist in requiring our obedience to them ; we must yield , we must obey ; always supposing they be not against gods laws . for we are at no hand either to affront their authority our selves ; or to encourage others , by our example , to do it . for to do either of these things is a greater evil to the publ●ck , than our obedience to an inconvenient law can easily be . iv. and now it is time for us to apply what hath been said in general , concerning the rule of conscience , and the obligation of humane laws ; to the particular matter here before us ; that is , the business of church communion ; the obligation of conscience to which , in such manner as the laws have appointed , is the fourth general head we are to consider . this point of the obligation to communion with the church , as by law established , hath been largely handled by several learned men of our church , and particularly it is the argument of one of those discourses which have lately been writ for the sake of our dissenters . thither therefore i refer the reader for full satisfaction about this matter being only just to touch upon it here , as one of the principles we take for granted , and shall proceed upon in the following discourse . and here the proposition we lay down is this , that it is every mans duty , and consequently every man is bound in conscience to joyn in communion with that church , which is established by law in the place where he lives ; so long as that church is a true , sound part of the catholick church , and there is nothing imposed or required as a condition of communicating with it , that is repugn●nt to the laws of god , or the appointments of iesus christ. this proposition is evident , not only because it necessarily follows from the foregoing principle ; which was , that every man is bound in conscience to obey the laws of men that are not contrary to the laws of god ; and therefore consequently a man is bound to obey in ecclesiastical matters , as well as civil ; ( unless it can be shew'd that christ hath forbid all humane authority , whether ecclesiastical or civil , to make any laws or orders about religion ; which i believe never was or can be shew'd : ) but it is evident upon another account , which i desire may be considered . we are all really bound by the laws of iesus christ , and the nature of his religion to preserve as much as in us lyes the vnity of the church : which vnity doth consist not only in professing the same faith , but joyning together with our brethren under common governours in the same religious communion of worship , and sacraments . and therefore whoever breaks this vnity of the church , by withdrawing his obedience from those church governours , which god hath set over him in the place where he lives ; and separating from the established religious assemblies of christians under those governours ; doth really transgress the laws of iesus christ , and is guilty of that sin of schism , which is so very much cautioned against , and so highly condemned in the scriptures of the new testament : unless in the mean time it doth appear to the man , who thus withdraws , and separates , that there is something required of him in those assemblies , and by those governours , and that as a term , and condition of holding communion with them , which he cannot submit to without sin. and this point i do heartily wish was well considered by our dissenting brethren . they do seem often to look upon this business of coming to church , and joyning with us in prayers and sacraments , no otherwise to bind their conscience than other purely humane laws . they think they owe no obedience to the laws in these matters , different from that which they yield to any common act of parliament . and therefore no wonder they often make so slight a business of them . but this is a great mistake , there is much more in these things than this comes to . the withdrawing our communion from the church carrys a far greater guilt in it , than the violating any law , that is purely humane . for though we do readily grant that all the circumstances of publick worship enjoyned in the church , as for instance , the times , the gestures , the forms of prayer , the methods of reading the scripture , and administring the sacraments ; as also the habits of the ministers that are to officiate ; be all of humane institution , and may be altered , and varyed at the discretion of our governours : yet the publick worship it self under publick lawful governours is of divine appointment , and no man can renounce it without sinning against iesus christ , as well as offending against the ecclesiastical laws . a humane law grounded upon a divine , or to speak more properly , a divine law modify'd or clothed with several circumstances of mans appointment , doth create another kind of obligation upon every subject , than a law that is purely humane ; that is to say a law , the matter of which is neither good nor evil in it self , but perfectly indifferent . in the former case , we must yield obedience to the law , as to the law of god ; however it comes clothed with circumstances of mans appointment . in the other case we only yield obedience , as to the command of man ; and for no other reason , than that god in general hath obliged us to obey our superiors . to make this a little plainer , let us for instance take the business of paying tribute , and custom in this nation , in which case there is a complication of a divine law , with a humane , as it is in the case we are now upon . that every subject should pay tribute to whom tribute is due ; custom to whom custom is due ; is a law of god ; as being a branch both of natural and christian justice : but out of what goods we should pay tribute or custom , or what proportion of those goods should be paid , this is not defined either by the law of nature or the law of the gospel , but is left to the determination of the municipal laws of every kingdom . but now , because humane authority doth interpose in this affair , and settles what every man is to pay to the king , and out of what commodities ; doth it therefore follow , that if a man can by fraud or concealment detain the kings right from him , that he incurs no other guilt for this , but only the transgressing of an act of parliament , and the being obnoxious to the penalties , in case he be detected ? no certainly ; for all that the customs in that manner , and form be settled upon the king by humane law only ; yet the matter of that law being a point of natural justice between man and man ; the man that is thus guilty , ought to look upon himself as an offender against the divine law ; as an unjust person before god. and his willingness to submit to the forfeiture of his goods , will not render him less unjust , or more excuseable . the case is much the same as to the matter we have now before us . it is not a meer humane law , or act of parliament that obligeth us to keep the unity of the church ; to bring our children to be made christians by baptisme ; to meet together at solemn times for the profession of our faith , for the worshipping god , for the commemorating the death of our saviour in the sacrament of his supper . all this is tyed upon us by the laws of christ. these things are as much required of us by god , as christians ; as it is required that we should pay the king , and every man , what is due to them , if we would not be dishonest & unjust . it is true that the particular forms , and modes , and circumstances of doing these things , are not commanded , nor prescribed , by the laws of christ , in this instance of church communion , no more than they are prescribed by the laws of god in the other instance i gave : but they are left intirely to the prudence , and discretion of the governours that god hath set over us in ecclesiastical matters ; just as they are in the other . but in the mean time these things thus clothed by humane authority , as to their circumstances : yet being for the matter of them bound upon us by christ himself , we can no more deny our obedience to the publick laws about them , than we can in the other instance i have named . and that man may as well for instance , purge himself from the imputation of knavery before god , that will contrive a way of his own , for the paying his just debts contrary to what the law of the land hath declared to be just and honest : as any man can acquit himself from the sin of schism before god , that will chuse a way of his own for the publick worship , different from , and in opposition to what the laws of the church have prescribed ; always supposing , that the worship established be commanded by just authority , and there be nothing required in it as a condition of communion that is against the laws of iesus christ. the sum of all this is , that it is every mans duty by the laws of christ , as well as the laws of man , to worship god in the way of the church ; so long as there is nothing required in that worship , that can justly offend the conscience of a wise and good christian . and therefore there is more in departing from the communion of the church , when we can lawfully hold it , than meerly the violation of a statute , or a humane law , for we cannot do it without breaking the law of god. nay so much is it against the law of god to do this , that i think no authority upon earth can warrant it . so that even if there was a law made , which should ordain that wilful , causless separation from the established church should be allowed and tolerated , and no man should be called to an account for it : yet nevertheless such a separation would still be a schism , would still be a sin against god ; for no humane law can make that lawful which gods law hath forbid . there now only remains our last general head about conscience to be spoken to , and then we have done with our preliminary points : and that is concerning the authority of conscience , or how far a man is obliged to follow or be guided by his conscience in his actions . when we speak of the obligation of conscience , or of being bound in conscience to do or not to do an action , it sufficiently appears from what hath been said , that we can mean no more by these phrases than this , that we are convinced in our judgment that it is our duty to do this or the other action , because we believe that god hath commanded it . or we are perswaded in our judgment that we ought to forbear this or the other action , because we believe that god hath forbidden it . this now being that which we mean by the obligation of conscience , here we come to inquire how far this perswasion or judgment of ours , concerning what is our duty , and what is sinful , hath authority over us , how far it doth oblige us to act or not act , according to it . now in order to the resolving of this we must take notice , that our judgment concerning what god hath commanded , or forbidden , or left indifferent , is either true or false . we either make a right judgment of our duty , or we make a wrong one . in the former case we call our judgment a right conscience ; in the latter we call it an erroneous conscience . as for those cases where we doubt and hesitate , and know not well how to make any judgment at all ( which is that we call a doubting conscience , but indeed is properly no conscience , unless by accident , ) we have nothing here to do with them , but shall reserve them to another place . here we suppose , that we do make a judgment of the thing ; that is , we are perswaded in our minds , concerning the goodness , or badness of this , or the other action : and that which we are to inquire into , is , how far that judgment binds us to act according to it . now if our conscience be a right conscience ; that is , if we have truly informed our judgment according to the rule of gods law : it is beyond all question , and acknowledged by all the world , that we are in that case perpetually bound to act according to our judgment . it is for ever our duty so to do ; and there can no blame , no guilt fall upon us , for so doing , let the consequence of our acting , or not acting , be what it will. so that as to a right conscience , or a well informed judgment , there is no dispute among any sort of men. but the great thing to be inquired into , is , what obligation a man is under to act according to his judgment , supposing it be false , supposing he hath not rightly informed his conscience , but hath taken up false measures of what god hath commanded , or forbidden . now for the resolution of this , i lay down these three propositions , which i think will take in all that is needful , for the giving satisfaction to every one , concerning this point . first , where a man is mistaken in his iudgment , even in that case it is always a sin to act against it . be our conscience never so ill instructed , as to what is good , or evil , though we should take that for a duty , which is really a sin ; and on the contrary , that for a sin which is really a duty : yet so long as we are thus persuaded , it will be highly criminal in us , to act in contradiction to this persuasion ; and the reason of this is evident , because , by so doing , we wilfully act against the best light , which at present we have , for the direction of our actions ; and consequently our will is as faulty , and as wicked , in consenting to such actions , as if we had had truer notions of things . we are to remember , that the rule of our duty , whatever it be in it self , cannot touch or affect our actions , but by the mediation of our conscience ; that is , no farther than as it is apprehended by us , or as we do understand and remember it . so that when all is done , the immediate guide of our actions , can be nothing but our conscience ; our judgment and perswasion , concerning the goodness , or badness , or indifferency , of things . it is true in all those instances where we are mistaken , our conscience proves but a very bad and unsafe guide ; because it hath it self lost its way , in not following its rule as it should have done : but however our guide still it is , and we have no other guide of our actions but that . and if we may lawfully refuse to be guided by it in one in●●ance , we may with as much reason reject its guidance in all . what is the notion that any of us hath of a wilful sin , or a sin against knowledg , but this ? that we have done otherwise than we were convinced to be our duty , at the same time that we did so . and what other measures have we of any mans sincerity or hypocrisie ? but only this ; that he acts according to the best of his judgment , or that he doth not act according to what he pretends to believe . we do not indeed say , that every one is a good man , that acts according to his judgment ; or that he is to be commended for all actions that are done in pursuance of his perswasion : no , we measure vertue and vice by the rule , according to which , a man ought to act ; as well as by the mans intention in acting . but however we all agree that that man is a knave , that in any instance acts contrary to that which he took to be his duty . and in passing this sentence we have no regard to this ; whether the man was right or mistaken in his judgment , for be his judgment right or wrong , true or false ; it is all one as to his honesty , in acting or not acting according to it . he that hath a false perswasion of things ; so long as that perswasion continues , is often as well satisfied that he is in the right , as if his perswasion was true . that is , he is oftentimes as confident when he is in an error , as when he is in the right . and therefore we cannot but conclude , that he , who being under a mistake , will be tempted to act contrary to his judgment ; would certainly upon the same temptation act contrary to it , was his judgment never so well informed and therefore his will being as bad in the one case , as in the other , he is equally a sinner as to the wilfulness of the crime , tho indeed in other respects there will be a great difference in the cases . this i believe is the sense of all men in this matter . if a man for instance , should of a iew become a christian ; while yet in his heart he believeth that the messiah is not yet come , and that our lord iesus was an impostor . or if a papist should to serve some private ends , renounce the communion of the roman church , and joyn with ours ; while yet he is perswaded that the roman church is the only catholick church ; and that our reformed churches are heretical or schismatical : though now there is none of us will deny that the men in both these cases have made a good change ; as having changed a false religion for a true one : yet for all that , i dare say , we should all agree , they were both of them great villains and hypocrites , for making that change ; because they made it not upon honest principles , and in pursuance of their judgment , but in direct contradiction to both . nay i dare say we should all of us think better of an ignorant well meaning protestant ; that being seduced by the perswasions and artifices of a cunning popish factor , did really out of conscience , abandon our communion , and go over to the romanists ; as thinking theirs to be the safest : i say we should all of us entertain a more favourable opinion of such a man in such a case ; though really here the change is made from a true keligion to a false one ; than we should of either of the other men i have before named . all this put together is abundantly sufficient to shew that no man can in any case act against his judgment or perswasion , but he is guilty of sin in so doing , but then , our second proposition is this , the mistake of a mans iudgment may be of such a nature , that as it will be a sin to act against his iudgment , so it will likewise be a sin to act according to it . for what authority soever a mans conscience has over him , it can never bear him out , if he do an evil thing in compliance with it . my judgment is ( as we have said ) the guide of my actions ; but it may through my negligence be so far misguided it self ; as that if i follow it , it will lead me into the most horrid crimes in the world. and will it be a sufficient excuse or justification of my action in such a case to say ; that indeed herein i did but act according to my perswasion ? no verily ; i may as certainly be damn'd without repentance , for acting according to my judgment , in some cases , where it is mistaken , as i shall be , for acting contrary to it in other cases where it is rightly informed . and the reason of this is very plain . it is not my judgment or perswasion that makes good or evil , right or wrong , iustice or injustice , vertue or vice. but it is the nature of things themselves ; and the law of god , ( and of men under that ) commanding or forbidding things , that makes them so . if the moral goodness , or badness of actions was to be measured by mens opinions , and perswasions ; then good and evil , duty and sin , would be the most various , uncertain things in the world. they would change their natures as often as men change their opinions ; and that which to day is a vertue , to morrow would be a crime ; and that which in one man , would be a heroically good action , would in another man be a prodigious piece of villany ; though yet there was no difference in the action it self , or in the circumstances of the man that did it , save only the difference of opinion . but such consequences as these are intolerable , nor indeed do men either talk or think after this manner . every man when he speaks of good or evil , lawful or unlawful , means some certain fixed thing which it is not in his power to alter the nature and property of . that action is good , and a duty , which is either so in it self , or made so by some positive law of god. and that action is evil , and a sin , that is forbid by god in either of these ways . so that unless it was in our power to change the nature of things ; or to alter the laws of god : it will unavoidably follow ; that we shall be for ever obliged to do some actions , and to forbear others , whatever our judgment concerning them , is : and consequently we may be guilty of sin , if in these instances we act contrary to this obligation ; though at the same time it should happen that we are firmly perswaded that we ought so to do . and thus is our proposition fully proved ; but then for the further clearing of it , i desire it may be taken notice of : that we do not thus lay it down , that every mistake of judgment about good or evil , doth involve a man in sin , if he act according to that mistake : but only thus , the mistake of a mans judgment may be of such a nature , that as it will be a a sin in him to act against it , so it will likewise be sin to act according to it . it is not every error in morals that brings a man under the necessity of sinning , if he pursues it in his actions . a mans conscience may mistake its rule in a hundred instances , and yet he may safely enough act according to it . and the reason is because a man may entertain a great many mistakes , mistakes , and false notions of his duty , and act according to them too ; and yet in such actions he shall not transgress any law of god. now this that i say , holds chiefly in these two instances . for example in the first place , if a man believe a thing to be commanded by god which yet indeed is not ; but neither is it forbidden : as if a man should think himself obliged to retire himself from his business , seven times or three times a day , for the purpose of devotion ; or to give half of his yearly income to pious , and charitable uses , if he can do it without prejudice to his family . now in this case he is certainly mistaken in his duty ; for the law of god hath not bound him up to such measures in either of these instances : but yet because god hath not on the other hand laid any commands upon him to the contrary ; it is certain he may in both these instances act according to this mistake , without any guilt in the world ; nay , so long as that mistake continues , he is bound to act accordingly . again in the second place , if a man believe a thing to be forbidden by gods law , which yet is not ; but neither is it commanded : as for instance , if a man think that he ought by vertue of a divine command to abstain from all meats that are strangled or have bloud in them ; or if he believe it unlawful to play at cards or dice ; or that it is forbidden by gods word to let out money at interest : why in all these cases he may follow his opinion , though it be a false one , without sin ; nay , he is bound to follow it , because it is the dictate of his conscience , however his conscience be mistaken . and the reason is plain , because though he be mistaken in his judgment about these matters , yet since god hath not by any law , forbid these things ; there is no transgression follows upon acting according to such a mistake . but then in other cases where a mans mistake happens to be of such a nature , as that he cannot act according to his conscience , but he transgresseth some law of god ; by which conscience ought to be governed : as for instance , when a man looks upon that as a lawful action , or as a duty , which god hath forbidden ; or looks upon that as a sin , or at least an indifferent action , which god hath commanded ; here it is that the mistake becomes dangerous . and in such cases the man is brought into that sad dilemma we have been representing , viz. that if he act according to his perswasion he transgresseth gods law , and so is a sinner upon that account : if he acts against his perswasion , then he is self condemned , and very guilty before god upon that account . well , but is there no avoiding of this ? must it be laid down as a constant universal truth ; that in all cases where a mans judgment happens to be contrary to the rule of his duty , commanding , or forbidding an action ; he must of necessity sin ; whether he act , or not act , according to that judgment ? if indeed he act against his conscience , it is readily granted he sins ; but it seems very hard , that he should be under a necessity of sinning when he acts according to it ; especially when he is perfectly ignorant of , or mistaken in the law against which he offends . this is indeed the great difficulty that occurs in this matter ; and for the untying it , i lay down this third general proposition , viz. that the great thing to be attended to in this case of a mans following a mistaken iudgment , is the culpableness or inculpableness ; the faultiness or innocence of the mistake , upon which he acts ; for according as this is ; so will his guilt in acting according to it be either greater , or less , or none at all . we do not say that a man is always guilty of a sin before god , when upon a misinformation of judgment he omits that which gods law hath commanded ; or doth that which gods law hath forbidden . no though these omissions or actions may be said to be sins in themselves ; that is , as to the matter of them ; as being transgressions of gods law : yet before we affirm that they will be imputed to a man as such ; that is prove formally sins to him ; we first consider the nature of the action , and the circumstances of the man. if we find upon examination that the instance wherein gods law is transgressed , is such an instance as even an honest minded man may well be supposed to mistake in : and if we find likewise that the man had not sufficient means for the informing himself aright as to this matter ; and that he hath done all that he could do in his circumstances to understand his duty : if in such a case as this he be mistaken in his duty ; and act upon that mistake ; yet we do not say that the man is properly guilty of any sin in that action , however that action is indeed contrary to the law of god. on the contrary we believe him to be innocent as to this matter ; nor will god ever call him to an account for what he hath done or omitted in these circumstances . and the reasons and grounds upon which we affirm this are plain , and evident at the first hearing . no man can be obliged to do more then what is in his power to do . and what ever a man is not obliged to do , it is no sin in him if he do it not . so that if a man do all that one in his circumstances can , or should do ; for the right understanding of his duty : if he happens to be mistaken , that mistake cannot be imputed to him as a sin ; because he was not obliged to understand better . and if his mistake be no sin , it is certain to act according to that mistake can be no sin neither . so that the whole point of sinning , or not sinning , in following an erroneous conscience , lies here . whether the man that is thus mispersuaded , is to be blamed , or not blamed , for his mispersuasion . if the error he hath taken up do not proceed from his own fault and negligence ; but was the pure unavoidable effects of the circumstances , in which he is placed ; ( which circumstances we suppose he contributed nothing to , but he was put into them by the disposition of divine providence : ) then of what nature soever the error be ; he doth not contract any guilt by any action which he doth in pursuance of that error . but if it was in his power to rectifie that error ; if he had means and opportunities to inform his conscience better ; and the nature of the action was such , that it was his duty so to do : so that he must be accounted guilty of a gross and criminal neglect in not doing it : in this case the man is a transgressor , and accountable unto god , as such , for all the actions that he doth , or omits , contrary to gods law ; while he acts under that mistake , or in pursuance of it . and accordingly as this neglect or carelesness is greater or less ; so is the sinfulness of the action which he doth in pursuance of it , greater or less likewise . and this is a plain account of this matter . so that we see there is no fatal unavoidable necessity laid upon any man to commit a sin by acting according to his conscience . but if at any time he be brought under those sad circumstances , he brings that necessity upon himself . god never put any man into such a condition , but that he might do that duty which was required of him ; and be able to give a good account of his actions . but here is the thing ; men by their vice and wickedness ; by neglecting the means of instruction , that are afforded them ; and not using their reason and understanding as they should do ; may suffer themselves to be brought under the bondage of such false and evil principles ; that they shall so long as they hold those principles , fall into sin , whether they act according to their conscience , or act against it . i have done with the general points concerning conscience , which i thought needful to be premised , as the grounds and principles of our following discourse . i now come to that which i at first proposed ; and for the sake of which all this is intended ; that is , to speak to the case of those that separate from the communion of the church of england , upon this pretence ; that it is against their conscience to join with us in it . now all that i conceive needful to be done , in order to a full discussion of this case , and giving satisfaction about it , are these two things , first , to separate the pretences of conscience that are truly and justly made , in this matter , from the false ones : or to shew who those are that can rightly plead conscience for their nonconformity ; and who those are that cannot . secondly , to inquire how far this plea of conscience , when it is truly made , will iustifie any dissenter that continnes in separation from the church , as established among us ; and what is to be done by such a person , in order to his acting with a safe and good conscience in this affair . our first inquiry is what is required in order to any mans truly pleading conscience for his refusing to joyn in communion with the established church . or who those persons are that can with justice make that plea for themselves . i think it very convenient to begin my disquisition here , because by removing all the false pretences to conscience ; the controversy will be brought into a much less compass ; and the difficulties that arise will be more easily untyed . the truth is , if the thing be examined , i believe it will be found , that the pretence to conscience in the matter we are talking of , is , as in many other cases , extended much farther than it ought to be . my meaning is , that of all those who think fit to withdraw from our communion , and to live in disobedience to the known laws of the church , and pretend conscience for so doing ; in a great many of them it is not conscience , but some other thing mistaken for conscience , which is the principle they act upon . so that if the true plea of conscience be separated from those counterfeit ones , which usually usurp that name ; we shall not find either the persons to be so many that refuse communion with us , upon the account of conscience truly so called ; nor the cases to be so many in which they do refuse it upon that account . now in order to the making such a separation or distinction between conscience truly so called , and the several pretences to it , in this business of not conforming to the established worship , i lay down this general proposition ; that , if the principles i have laid down about conscience be admitted ; then it is certainly true , that no man among us can justly plead conscience for his separation from the church of england ; or can say that it is against his conscience to joyn in communion with it ; but only such a one , as is perswaded in his own mind , that he cannot communicate with us without sinning against god in so doing . for since , as we have said , conscience is nothing else but a mans judgment concerning actions , whether they be duties , or sins , or indifferent : and since the law of god commanding or forbidding actions ; or neither commanding them , nor forbidding them ; is the only rule by which a man can judg what actions are duties , and what are sins , and what are indifferent : it plainly follows ; that as a man cannot be bound in conscience to do any action which it doth not appear to him that gods law hath some way or other commanded , and made a duty : so neither can it go against a mans conscience , to do any action which he is not convinced that gods law hath some way or other forbidden , and so made a sin. and therefore in our present case . that man only can justly plead conscience for his nonconformity that can truly say he is perswaded in his judgment that conformity is forbidden by some law of god : or which is the same thing ; no man can say , it is against his conscience to joyn in our communion , but only such a one as really believes he shall sin against some law of god , if he do joyn with us , if against this it be excepted ; that it is very possible for a man to be well satisfied that there is nothing directly sinful in our worship ; but yet for all that it may be against his conscience to joyn with us in it : as for instance , in the case where a man takes it really to be his duty to hold constant communion with some other congregation , where he believes he can be more edified , or to which he is related by some church covenant : to this i answer , that in this case , i grant , conscience is rightly pleaded for separation ( though how justifiably i do not now examine : ) but then i say this plea proceeds upon the same grounds i just now laid down . for if the man ( as is supposed in the case ) be convinced that it is his duty by gods law , ( as there is no other measure of duty ) to hold communion with others , and not with us ; then he must at the same time be convinced that he cannot without transgression of gods law , ( that is , without sin , ) joyn with us ; and that is the same account which we give , of its being against any mans conscience to hold communion with us . further , if it be urged against our proposition , that not only in the case where a man is perswaded of the unlawfulness of our communion , but also in the case where he only doubts of the lawfulness of it , a man may justly plead conscience for his nonconformity , so long as those doubts remain : and therefore it is not truly said of us , that in order to the pleading conscience for nonconformity , one must be perswaded in his own mind , that conformity is forbidden by some law of god. i answer , that if the man who thus doubts of the lawfulness of conformity , hath really entertain'd this principle , that it is a sin to do any thing with a doubting conscience ; i grant that it must go against his conscience to conform so long as he doubts . but then , this is but the same thing we are contending for ; for therefore it goes against his conscience to communicate with us , doubting as he doth ; because he believes he shall sin against god if he should . but if the man we are speaking of , do not think it a breach of gods law , to act with a doubting conscience ; then i do not see how it can in the least go against his conscience to communicate with us upon that pretence . so that notwithstanding these two exceptions ; which are all i can think of ; it will still remain true , that no man can justly plead conscience for his separation from the church , but he that is perswaded that he cannot joyn with it without sinning against god. now if this proposition be true , as certainly it is ; then how many mens pretences to conscience for their separating from us , are hereby cut off : and indeed how few ( in comparison of the multitude of dissenters among us ) will be left , that can be able with truth to say that it is against their conscience to communicate with us in our prayers , and in our sacraments . in the first place , it is evident that all those who separate from us upon account of any private grudge or pique ; because they have been disobliged , or have received some disappointment in the way of our church , or by the men that are favourers of it ; and therefore out of a pet will joyn themselves to another communion . all those that think they can serve their own turns more effectually , by being of another way ; as for instance , they can thereby better please a relation from whom they have expectances ; they can better advance their trade , or increase their fortunes ; they can better procure a reputation , or regain one that is sunk . in a word , all those that to serve any ends of pride , or interest , or passion , or out of any other wordly consideration , do refuse us their company in the worship of god , i say , all such are certainly excluded from pleading conscience for their separation . in the second place , all those lay people who refuse our communion upon account that the pastors , and teachers , whom they most love , and reverence , are not permitted to exercise their function among us ; whose pretence it is , that if these good men were allowed to teach in our churches , they would come to our congregations ; but so long as that is refused , they will hear them where they can : i say , all these are likewise excluded from pleading conscience for their separation . for , however it may really and truly be against the conscience of their ministers to conform , ( there being other things required of them , than of ordinary people , ) yet it is not against their conscience so to do ; for they know no ill in conformity , but only that so many good men are silenced . in the third place , all those that refuse our communion upon a meer dislike of several things in our church offices : they do not for instance , like a form of prayer in general , and they have several things to object against our form in particular ; they do not like our ceremonies , they do not like the surplice , or the cross in baptism ; and sundry other things they find fault with : not that they have any thing to say against the lawfulness of these things ; but only they have an aversion to them : all these men likewise are cut off from pleading conscience for their separation . for they do not pretend that it is unlawful , or a sin against god to joyn with us in our service ( which is the only thing wherein their conscience can be concerned ; ) but only they are not pleased with many things in our service ; as fancying them not to be so decent , or convenient , or not to be so prudently order'd as they would have them . but what of all this ? admit the things to be so as they fancy them ; yet still so long as they do not think there is any sin in them , it cannot go against their conscience to joyn with any assembly in which they are practised . because conscience as we have often said is not touched , is not affected where no law of god is transgressed . in the fourth place , all those that are kept from our communion , purely upon the account of education , or acquaintance with persons that are of another perswasion . those that have nothing to say against our worship ; but only that they were bred in another way ; or those that would joyn with us in it , but that they know a great many religious godly persons that do condemn it , and therefore they dare not come at us . these now may be very well meaning men , but yet they cannot reasonably plead conscience upon this account for their separation . for it is not a mans education , or the example , or opinion of other men , that makes any action to be a duty , or a sin , but the law of god commanding or forbidding that action . and therefore before i can say that this , or the other action , is against my conscience , i must believe that gods law hath either in general , or in particular ; either directly , or by consequence , made that action unlawful . i grant the opinions of other men , especially those that are learned , and pious are always to be listned to in doubtful cases . but then , no mans opinion can be the rule of my conscience ; nor am i at all concerned in conscience to follow it , any farther than i am convinced that it declares gods law to me . and therefore sure in this case of church communion , i can be but very little concerned to follow any mans opinion ; when , both there are so many persons , and those as learned and as pious as any others , that are of another opinion ; and when also the publick law , which has much more authority than any private opinion , hath determined what i am to do in the case . so that it is great weakness , & sillyness ; & not conscience , that prevails with these men i am speaking of , to live in disobedience to the laws . if indeed they be really perswaded in their own minds , that our way of worshipping god , is in any part or instance of it unlawful or forbidden , ( let that perswasion be upon what grounds it will , ) then they may truly say it is against their conscience to joyn with us . but if they be not convinced of this ; i do not see how the example , or the advice of their friends and acquaintance , can in the least give them a title to plead conscience for their refusing our communion . fifthly , those that withdraw from the church upon this account , that our governours in their laws and prescriptions about gods worship , have not rightly used the power which they are intrusted with , but have exceeded their bounds ; have made perhaps too great encroachments upon christian liberty ; or laid more stress than was meet upon indifferent things : these likewise are excluded by the former rule from pleading conscience for their separation . for admit the law-givers have been to blame in the exercise of their power in these matters , ( which yet is sooner said then proved , ) and have really done more then they can answer to god for ; yet what is this to them ? the conscience of the governours is indeed deeply concerned about these things ; and they must give an account to god for the abuse of their authority if there be any . but how this doth concern the conscience of the subject , is not easily understood : so long as what is commanded or enjoyned , doth not appear to interfere with any law of god. but having said this ; i fear there is too much reason to add ; that those who so much stand up for christian liberty , and would be thought the great patrons of it ; do by their endless scruples about indifferent things , and refusing to obey authority in such matters , in all appearance , take the most effectuall course to destroy all christian liberty , in the true notion of it ; and to bring in a religion that shall consist of touch not , tast not , handle not ; and such other uncommanded things . sixthly , and lastly , ( to name no more instances ) all those that can communicate occasionally with us , in our prayers and sacraments : as for instance , those that when they have a turn to be served , when there is an office or some such thing in the case ; can come to church , and receive the communion , but at other times they do not afford us their presence : these are also excluded from pretending to conscience , for their not constantly joyning in communion with us . for if indeed they did believe , it was a sin in them to joyn with us in our prayers and sacraments ; with what conscience dare they do it at all ? they ought not for any worldly good , to venture upon such an action as they do believe to be forbidden by gods laws ; but if they do not believe that to joyn in our communion is a sinful thing , ( as i dare say none of these persons do ) then i will be bold to make the inference ; that it cannot be more against their conscience to do it thrice , than to do it once ; and do it constantly than to do it thrice . but let us leave the false pretenders to conscience , and come to the case of those who can justly plead conscience for their separation ; or that can truly say it is against their conscience to joyn in our communion . of this sort are all such , and none but such , as do really believe that our communion is unlawful , or that they cannot communicate with us without sin , as i have before proved . as for those that only doubt of the lawfulness of our communion , but are not perswaded that it is unlawful ; i do not here consider them ; because they cannot say that it is against their conscience to communicate with us ; any more than they can say , that they are bound in conscience to communicate with us : for they are uncertain as to both these things , and are not determined either way . but however because these men may justly plead conscience upon this account ; that they think it is a sin to joyn with us so long as they doubt of the lawfulness of our communion : i shall consider their case afterwards in a particular discourse upon that argument . those that i am now concerned with , are such , as do believe , or are perswaded , that there is some thing in our worship which they cannot comply with without sinning against god. and my business is to examine whether such a belief or perswasion of the vnlawfulness of our communion will justifie any mans separation from us ? or how far it will do it ? and what is to be done by such persons , in order , either to their communicating , or not communicating with us , with a safe conscience ? this is our second point , and i apply my self to it . there are a great many among us , that would with all their hearts ( as they say ) obey the laws of the church , and joyn in our worship and sacraments ; but they are really perswaded that they cannot do it without sin : for there are some things required of them as conditions of communicating with us , which are forbidden by the laws of god. as for instance , it is against the commands of christ to appoint , or to use any thing in the worship of god , which god himself hath not appointed . for this is to add to the word of god , and to teach for doctrines the commandments and traditions of men. it is against the commands of iesus christ to stint the spirit in prayer ; which all those that use a form of prayer , must necessarily do . it is against the commands of iesus christ to use any significant ceremony in religion : as for instance , the cross in baptism , for that is to make new sacraments . it is against the commands of iesus christ to kneel at the lords supper , for that is directly to contradict our saviours example in his institution of that sacrament , and savours besides of popish idolatry . since therefore there are these sinful things in our worship ; and those too imposed as terms of communion ; how can we blame them , if they withdraw themselves from us ? would we have them joyn with us in these practices which they verily believe to be sins ? where then was their conscience ? they might perhaps by this means shew how much they were the servants of men : but what would become of their fidelity to iesus christ. what now shall we say to this ? they themselves are so well satisfi'd with their own doings in these matters , that they do not think they are in the least to be blamed for refusing us their communion , so long as things stand thus with them . they are sure they herein follow their own conscience ; and therefore they cannot doubt but they are in a safe condition ; and may justifie their proceedings to god , and to all the world ; let us say what we please . this is the case . now in answer to it , we must grant them these two things . first of all , that if indeed they be right in their judgment ; and those things which they except against in our communion be really unlawful , and forbidden by iesus christ ; then they are not at all to be blamed for their not communicating with us . for in that case , separation is not a sin but a duty : we being for ever bound to obey god rather than men. and secondly , supposing they be mistaken in their judgment , and think that to be unlawful , and forbidden by god which is not really so : yet so long as this perswasion continues ( though it be a false one ) we think they cannot without sin joyn in our communion . for even an erroneous conscience ( as we have shewed ) binds thus far , that a man cannot without sin act in contradiction to it . these two things i say we grant them , and let them make the best advantage of them . but then this is the point we stand upon , and which if it be true , will render this whole plea for nonconformity upon account of conscience , as i have now opened it , wholly insufficient , viz. if it should prove that our dissenters are mistaken in their judgment ; and that our governours do indeed require nothing of them in the matter of church communion , but what they may comply with , without breach of gods law : then i say it will not acquit them from being guilty of sin before god in withdrawing from our communion ; to say , that they really believed our communion to be unlawful ; and upon that account they durst not joyn with us . it is not my province here to answer all their objections against our forms of prayer , our ceremonies , our orders and rules , in administring sacraments , and other things that concern our communion : this hath been done several times ; and of late by several persons which have treated of all these particular matters ; and who have shewed with great clearness and strength , that there is nothing required in our church appointments , which is in the least inconsistent with , or forbidden by any law of iesus christ : but on the contrary , the establishments of our church , are for gravity , decency , purity , and agreeableness with the primitive christianity ; the most approvable , and the least exceptionable of any church constitutions at this day in the world. these things therefore i meddle not with , but this is the point i am concerned in : whether , supposing it be every mans duty to joyn in communion with the established church ; and there be nothing required in that communion , but what may be lawfully practised ? i say , supposing these two things ; whether it will be sufficient to acquit any man from sin , that withdraws from that communion , upon this account , that through his mistake , he believes he cannot joyn with us without sin ? or thus , whether will any mans perswasion that there are sinful terms required in our communion ( when yet there are not any ) justifie his separation from us . this is the general question truly put ; and this i give as the answer to it : that in general speaking a mans erroneous perswasion doth not dissolve the obligation of gods law , or justifie any mans transgression of his duty . so that if gods law doth command me to hold communion with the church where i have no just cause to break it : and i have no just cause to break it in this particular case , but only i think i have : my misperswasion in this matter doth not discharge me from my obligation to keep the communion of the church ; or acquit me from sin before god if i break it . the truth and reason of this i have fully shewed before , in what i have said about the authority of conscience . i shall now only by way of further confirmation ask this question : was st. paul guilty of sin or no , when he persecuted the christians ; being verily perswaded in his own mind that he ought so to do , and that he sinned if he did not ? if any will say that st. paul did not sin in this , because he did but act according to his conscience ; they contradict his own express words . for he acknowledgeth himself to be the greatest of sinners , and that for this very reason because he persecuted the church of christ. if they say that he did sin in doing this : then they must at the same time acknowledg , that a mans perswasion that a thing is a duty , will not excuse him from guilt in practising it ; if really and indeed it be against gods law : and on the other side , by the same reason , that a mans perswasion that a thing is unlawful , will not excuse him from guilt in not practising it ; if indeed gods law hath made it a duty . so that it infinitely concerns all our dissenting brethren to consider very well what they do , when they withdraw from our communion . schism undoubtedly is a great and crying sin. a sin , against which , there are as many hard things said in the discourses of our lord and his apostles ; and in the writings of the ancient christians ; as against any other sin whatsoever . and therefore let those that forsake our communion ; and set up , or joyn with other assemblies in opposition to ours : i say , let them look to it that they be not involved in the guilt of this dreadful sin. they must be sure that their separation proceeds upon good grounds , if they would free themselves from the imputation of it . it is not always enough to excuse them ; that they do believe there are sinful conditions imposed in our communion , and consequently it is their duty to withdraw . for unless the thing be so indeed ; their believing so will not cancel their obligation to our church communion ; or make it cease to be schism to withdraw themselves from it . this may perhaps at the first hearing seem very strange doctrine to many , but yet it is true for all that ; and will appear a little more evident , if we put the case in another instance , wherein we are not so nearly concerned . here is one of the roman-catholick perswasion , ( as they call it , ) that hath been trained up in popery ; and heartily believes it to be true religion , and the only one , wherein salvation is to be had ; and therefore in obedience to the laws and customs of that church , doth pay religious worship to images ; doth pray to saints and angels ; doth give divine adoration to the consecrated bread in the sacrament ; as really believing it to be turned into the body of christ , to which his soul , and deity is personally united . is now such a person as this guilty of idolatry in these practices or is he not ? he doth verily believe that he is not . he would abhor these practices , if he did in the least believe , that god had forbid them as idolatrous . nay he is so far from believing that they are forbid , that on the contrary he hath been taught to believe that they are necessary duties ; and he cannot be a good catholick , unless he thus worship images , and saints , and the bread of the host. well , now the point is , whether such a man , believing as he doth , be upon that account acquitted from the sin of idolatry ? we all grant , that if he had such clear information about these things as we protestants have ; he would certainly be an idolater if he should contitinue in these practices : but whether his belief , and opinion , and perswasion concerning these things , do not excuse him ; and make that cease to be idolatry , that would otherwise be so ; this i say is the question . but yet none of us make any great question of it . for we do charge the papists indiscriminately , with idolatry in their worship ; notwithstanding their disclaiming it ; notwithstanding their profession to worship god , no otherwise than according to his own will ; notwithstanding they do really take themselves obliged in conscience to give divine worship to the consecrated elements , and those other objects . and we charge them rightly in this . for if it be really idolatry by gods word , to do these things ; then it will be idolatry in any man to do them , let his opinion about them be what it will. a mans ignorance , or mistake , or false opinion doth not alter the nature of things ; it can neither make that cease to be a duty , which god hath commanded , nor that cease to be a sin which god hath forbidden . all that it will do , is , that according to the nature and circumstances of it , it may more or less extenuate the transgression that is committed upon the account thereof . and the case is just the same in the matter before us . for any man to withdraw his communion from that church , with which he ought , and with which he may lawfully communicate ; that is as properly the sin of schism , as it is the sin of idolatry to give divine worship to that which is not god. for any man , therefore , to break the unity of the church ; though it be upon this very account , that he doth believe it is his duty so to do ; or that he cannot communicate with that church without sin : yet if this perswasion of his be false , and erroneous ; he is no less a schismatick for all this ; than the other man is an idolater that thinks it his duty to adore images , and those other undue objects of divine worship among the romanists . it is true , the mans ignorance or misperswasion will according to the greater or less culpability of it ; more or less excuse the mans person before god , as it doth in the other case . but it cannot in the least make that which god hath made to be schism to be no schism ; no more than in the other case , it makes that to be no idolatry which gods word hath declared to be idolatry . well now admitting all this ; here comes the pinch of the thing . it will be said , what , would you have a man do in this case ? he cannot conform with a safe conscience ; and yet he is a transgressor if he do not . if he comply against his conscience , you grant he is guilty of sin in so doing : if he doth not comply ; then you say he is a schismatick ; and so is a sinner upon that account . why to this i say , that both these things are often true ; and here is that dilemma , which men by suffering their minds to be abused with evil principles , and perswasions , do frequently run themselves into . they are reduced to that extremity that they can neither act , nor forbear acting : they can neither obey , nor disobey without sin. but what is to be done in this case ? i know nothing but this : that all imaginable care is to be taken that the error and false principles which misled the man be deposed ; and that his judgment be better informed ; and then he may both do his duty which gods law requireth of him , and avoid sinning against his conscience . but how is this to be done ? why no other way , but by using conscientiously all those means which common prudence will recommend to a man , for the gaining instruction and information to himself about any point that he desires throughly to understand . that is to say , freeing his mind from all pride , and passion , and interest , and all other carnal prepossessions ; and applying himself seriously and impartially to the getting right notions and sentiments about his duty in these matters : considering without prejudice what can be said on both sides : calling in the best assistance of the ablest and wisest men that he can come by : and above all things seriously endeavouring to understand the nature and spirit of the christian religion ; and to practice all that he is undoubtedly convinced to be his duty : and for the matters in question , most earnestly imploring the assistance of gods spirit to guide and direct him . well , but supposing a man has endeavoured to inform his judgment as well as he can , and hath used all those prudent means that were in his power , to satisfie himself of the lawfulness of our communion ; but yet after all , he is of the same perswasion that he was , viz. that he cannot joyn in our worship without sin : what will we say to such a man as this ? will we still say that this man must either conform , though against his conscience ; or he is a schismatick before god ? this is the great difficulty , and i have two things to say to it . in the first place , we do heartily wish that this was the case of all , or of the most of our dissenters , ( viz. that they had done what they can , to satisfie themselves about our communion . ) for if it was , i do verily perswade my self that there would presently be an end of all those much to be lamented schisms , and divisions , which do now give so much scandal to all good men , and threaten the ruin of our reformed religion ; and this poor church of england , which hath so long laboured and groaned , under the furious attacques that have been made upon her , by enemies without , and enemies within her own bowels , would in a little time , be perfectly set free from all apprehension of danger , at the least from the one sort of her adversaries . if all our brethren of the separation would most seriously follow after the things that make for peace , and walk by the same rule as far as they were able , and in things where they were otherwise minded , would religiously apply themselves to god for direction ; and to the use of prudent means for satisfaction : i doubt not but the face of things would presently be changed among us ; and we should hear no more of any division or schism in our nation , that was either dangerous to the church , or to the salvation of the men that were concerned in it . but alas , we fear we have too great reason to say , that the generality of our dissenting brethren , even those of them that plead conscience for their separation ; have not done their duty in this matter ; have not heartily endeavoured to satisfie their minds about the lawfulness of conformity in those points which they stick at . if they had ; one would think that after all their endeavours they should , before they pronounced conformity to be unlawful , be able to produce some one plain text of scripture for the proving it so , either in the whole or in any part of it ; but this they are not able to do . they do indeed produce some texts of scripture which they think do make for them : but really they are such , that if they had not supinely taken up their meaning upon trust ; but would have been at the pains of carefully examining them ; aud using such helps as they have every where at hand for the understanding them : it would have been somewhat difficult for them , to have expounded those texts in such a sense as would infer the unlawfulness of our communion . but further i say , it is not probable that the generality of our dissenters , who condemn our communion as unlawful , have ever anxiously applied themselves to the considering the point , or gaining satisfaction about it ; because they do not seem to have much consulted their own teachers in this affair , and much less those of our way . if they had , they would have been disposed to think better of our communion ; than they do : for not to mention what the churchmen do teach & press in this matter ; the most eminent of their own ministers , are ready thus far to give their testimony to our communion . that there is nothing required in it , but what a lay-person may honestly and lawfully comply with ; though there may be some things inconvenient , and which they wish were amended . nay they themselves are ready upon occasion to afford us their company , in all the instances of lay-communion . but i desire not to enlarge upon this argument , because it is an invidious one . all that i say is , that we wish it was not too apparent by many evidences , that most of those who separate from us , are so far from having done all they can to bring themselves to a complyance with our church constitutions ; that they have done little or nothing at all towards it : but have taken up their opinions , hand over head , without much thinking or enquiring ; and having once taken up an opinion , they adhere to it , without scarce so much as once thinking , that it is possible for them to be in the wrong . if you speak of a man that may with reason be said to have done his endeavour to satisfie himself about the points of his duty in this matter : give us such a one ; as hath no end , no interest to serve by his religion , but only to please god , and to go to heaven ; and who in the choice of the way that leads thither , hath the indifference of a traveller ; to whom it is all one , whether his way light on the right hand , or on the left ; being only concerned that it be the way which leads to his journeys end . give us a man , that concerns himself as little as you please , in the speculative disputes , and controversies of religion : but yet is wonderfully solicitous about the practice of his duty ; and therefore will refuse no pains or trouble that may give him a right understanding of that . give us a man , that in the midst of the great heats , and divisions , and different communions of the church ; is yet modest , and humble , and docible : that believes he may be mistaken , and that his private friends may be mistaken too , and hath such an esteem and reverence for the wisdom of his governours in church or state ; as to admit that it is probable they may see farther into matters of state and religion , than he doth : and that therefore every tenent , and opinion that was inbibed in his education ; that was infused by private men of his acquaintance ; or that was espoused upon a very few thoughts , and little consideration ; ought not to be so stifly maintained ; as to control , or to be set in opposition to the publick establishments of authority . lastly , give us a man , that where the publick laws do run counter to his private sentiments ; and he is at a loss to reconcile his duty to men , with his duty to god : yet doth not presently upon this , set up a flag of defiance to authority ; but rather applies himself with all the indifference , and honesty he can , to get a true information of these matters : and to that end he prays to god continually for his assistance , he calls in the best helps , and consults the best guides he can ; his ears are open to what both sides can say for themselves ; and he is as willing to read a book which is writ against his opinion , as one that defends it : in a word if he be prejudiced , or biassed any way ; it is on the side of authority ; being rather desirous to find himself mistaken , and his governours in the right ; than himself in the right , and his governours mistaken . i say shew us such a man as this ; and we readily grant , you have produced a person , that doth sincerely use his endeavours to satisfie himself about the lawfulness of our communion . but then we must say this also ; that as the case stands between the church of england , and the dissenters ; we can hardly believe , that such a man will long continue in separation from the church ; but will in a little time gain the satisfaction of seeing , not only that he may lawfully joyn with us , but also that it is his duty so to do . but let us admit , that a man may have endeavoured to inform his judgment as well as he can ; and yet be so far from being convinced that it is his duty to joyn with us in our worship ; that he is still of opinion that it is his duty to separate from us : what will we say of such a man ? will we still brand him for a schismatick , notwithstanding he hath done all he can , to bring himself over to us ; but cannot ? to this i answer in the second place , according to the principles i have before laid down , that if such a case do ever happen ; though the man cannot be excused from schism , as to the matter of it ( because wherever there is an actual separation from a church , with which we ought , and with which we may , lawfully communicate ; there is an actual schism commenced ; let the pretence for the separation be what it will : ) yet i trust he shall not be charged before god , with the formal guilt of the schism ; any farther than the error that led him into it , was contracted by his own fault . though schism in it self ( as we have said ) be a great sin : yet we do not say that all those who are engaged in the same schism , are equally guilty before god. in the first place , those that separate from the church , to serve any private secular turn ; these are most horribly guilty of schism , and there is nothing to be said in their excuse . in the second place , those who separate from the church , through misperswasions , and mistakes of judgment , which they groundlessly , and foolishly took up ; and might have avoided ; and would yet still certainly correct in themselves , if they were but so careful , and conscientious about their duty as they ought to be : these men , have indeed far more to say for themselves , than the former ; but yet they are very blameable , and are bound as they love their souls , to take more care of informing their conscience aright ; that so they may leave that sin they are engaged in . but thirdly , those that separate from the church of god , because they know no better , nor never had means to know better : or those that have sincerely endeavoured to understand their duty as much as could be expected from one in their circumstances ; yet through weakness of understanding , or want of opportunity , light into wrong paths : in a word , those that are unhappily engaged in a schism ; but god almighty who searcheth the hearts , knoweth , that it is not through the fault of their wills , but the misfortune of their circumstances : i say , if there be any man among us that is in this condition ; though he be a schismatick materially ; yet he is innocently , at least , pittiably so . and if he be as free from blame in the other parts of his life ; be may be a good christian for all that . and god almighty we hope who judgeth of men by their inward sincerity , and not by their outward circumstances ; will impute that schism ( which in others perhaps is a wilful crime ) to this man , no otherwise then as a pure sin of ignorance , which shall not ( upon a general repentance for all sins known and unknown , ) be accounted for at the last day . especially if this innocently mistaken man we speak of , do to the other regularities of his life , add a diligent care in these four following points . first , that he be not obstinate , and pertinacious in his way , but that he keep his mind readily prepared and disposed to receive any conviction , which god by any means or instruments shall offer to him . secondly , that he separate no farther from the church , of which he ought to be a member , than he needs must ; but do chearfully comply with the publick laws , and establishments in all those instances , where he is satisfied he may do it with a safe conscience . thirdly , that where he cannot give active obedience to the laws ; he do in those instances patiently , and christianly , submit to the penalties , which those laws inflict : neither exclaiming against his governours , or the magistrates , as persecutors ; for enacting , or executing those laws : nor using any undue , illegal means to get himself more ease and liberty : but in all things behaving himself as a quiet and peaceable subject to the government he lives under . and fourthly , and lastly , that he shew himself a good neighbour as well as a good subject ; in avoiding all peevish and bitter censures of those that differ in opinion , and perswasion from him ; and exercising humanity , and friendliness , and charity to all his fellow christians . whosoever i say , of our brethren , of the separation make good these points : that is to say , are in the first place , very sincere in their endeavours , to inform their conscience aright in the matter of our communion : and in the next place , when they cannot satisfie their conscience about our way ; do yet in their dissent from us , observe the four particulars i have now named : i should be loth for my part to censure them either as ill men , or ill subjects , or ill christians . but then all that i have said in this matter , doth no more justifie the sin of schism , or extenuate the hainousness of it in its own nature ; than it would serve to justifie or extenuate the sin of idolatry ; if all that i have now said , was applied to the case of an ignorant , well meaning , devout papist . for i do verily believe that what i have now represented by way of apology for an innocent mistaken separatist ; will hold true , mutatis mutandis , in the case of a deluded romanist , who is invincibly , and without any fault of his , intangled in the practice of their idolatries . but i-believe for all that , the sin of idolatry is in it self a most grievous sin , and so i believe is the sin of schism and therefore notwithstanding all that may be said ; ; concerning the innocence , or excuseableness of some mens mistakes about these matters ; yet nevertheless , it infinitely concerns every person , to have a care how he be engaged , either in the one , or the other . to come to a conclusion , that which i would most seriously press from what hath been said is this . it appears from the foregoing discourse , how absolutely necessary it is ; that every man should endeavour to inform his judgment aright in the matters that offend his conscience ; before he withdraw his obedience from his lawful governours , and his communion from those that worship god in publick under them . it appears likewise that it is not enough to justifie a mans separation ; that this or the other thing in our worship , is really against his conscience ; for he may be a great sinner notwithstanding that , for leaving our assemblies , if it should prove at last that he is mistaken in his notions . what therefore should every dissenter among us do , that hath any regard to his duty , and would preserve a good conscience ? i say , what is there that more concerns him to do ? than presently to set about the true informing of his judgment in the points where he is now dissatisfi'd ; for fear he be found to live in a grievous sin all the time he separates from us . and therefore , let no man that lives out of our communion , satisfie himself with such frivolous pretences as these : that as for all the substantials of religion , the matters of faith and good life , they do agree with us ; and that as for the other matters which concern ceremonies and discipline ; these are nice , controverted points ; points disputed pro and contra amongst the divines : and therefore why should they trouble their heads about them ; nay perhaps if they should , they have neither abilities nor opportunities to understand them . it must be confessed that something of this is true ; but yet it is nothing to their purpose . it is very well , that we all agree in the rule of faith , and manners ; and it would be happy if all the christian world did so too : but still schism is a dreadful sin : and a man may as certainly , without repentance , be damned for that , as for being an heretick in his opinion , or a drunkard , for instance , in his manners . sure i am , the ancient christian fathers thought so . it is true likewise , that the business of church government and discipline , and other points of ecclesiastical conformity , is a matter of dispute , and controversy among us : but who is it that made it so ? the church of england without doubt , would have been very well pleased , if there had been no dust raised , no dispute or contentions moved in these matters ; but that every member would have done his duty peaceably , and quietly in his station : or that if any controversy had arose ; it should have been debated among learned men ; and never have proceeded to separation from the communion . we do not pretend to lay any stress upon skill , and knowledg about these matters , in order to a mans salvation . we believe , and teach that a man may be a very good christian , and go to heaven ; that never understood how to justifie the cross in baptism , or to defend the common prayer book against all the exceptions that are made against it . all that we say is , that if any man will scruple , and except against the use of these things ; it lyes upon him , nay he is bound as he would keep a good conscience , to use the best means he possibly can , to get satisfaction about them : or if he do not ; at his own peril be it , nay even at the peril of his salvation , if he breaks the churches peace , and communion upon that account . and as for those that pretend , that these are subtil points , and above their reach , and capacity ; and they have not understanding , and wit enough to dive into them : why , in gods name , who desires them ? we say that they might innocently enough , and with a good conscience , comply with their governours in these points , as they do in a hundred others , without ever diving into them ; but since , it seems , they have wit , and vnderstanding enough , to cavil and find fault with these things , and upon that account , to deny their obedience to those lawful powers , which god hath set over them : one would think they should at the same time have so much honesty , as seriously to endeavour to give themselves satisfaction as to those things they find fault with : and this is all we desire of them : and it is for their own sakes too ; as well as ours , that we desire it . for otherwise they will never be able to answer either to god or man , for the horrible inconveniences , and mischiefs , that arise to the church of christ , by the division , and separation which they are engaged in . to conclude , if in any instance , that famous precept of the apostle , of proving all things , and holding fast that which is good , do oblige christians ; it doth especially in this . if ever it be a mans duty to satisfie himself , about the goodness , and lawfulness of a thing , that he is apt to doubt of ; it is certainly in the case , where his superiours have laid their commands upon him : for there he cannot disobey without sin ; unless he can assure himself that he hath done all that he can , to reconcile their commands with his duty to god ; but upon the best means he hath used , he finds them irreconcileable . for a man to disobey till he has done this , is an unwarrantable thing , and in the case that i now speak of , it is no less than the sin of formal criminal schism . finis . the old apostolical way of preaching, or, peters last legacy to all his true successors in the ministry and faith of the gospel being an awakening word from a dying-preacher to his dying-hearers in a sermon preached on the death of mr. edward west, late minister of the gospel in london / by thomas cole ... cole, thomas, ?- . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; 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(eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) the old apostolical way of preaching, or, peters last legacy to all his true successors in the ministry and faith of the gospel being an awakening word from a dying-preacher to his dying-hearers in a sermon preached on the death of mr. edward west, late minister of the gospel in london / by thomas cole ... cole, thomas, ?- . [ ], - p. printed for thomas cockeril ..., london, . t.p. enclosed in mourning border. imperfect: stained. reproduction of original in bodleian library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng bible. -- n.t. -- peter, nd, i, - -- sermons. sermons, english -- th century. dissenters, religious -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - mona logarbo sampled and proofread - mona logarbo text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the old apostolical way of preaching , or , peters last legacy to all his true successors in the ministry and faith of the gospel . being an awakening word from a dying-preacher to his dying-hearers . in a sermon preached on the death of mr. edward west , late minister of the gospel in london . by thomas cole , preacher of the gospel . london , printed for thomas cockeril , at the atlas in cornhil , . the old apostolick way of preaching . pet. . , , , . wherefore i will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things , though you know them , and be established in the present truth . yea , i think it meet , as long as i am in this tabernacle , to stir you up , by putting you in remembrance : knowing that shortly i must put off this my tabernacle , even as our lord iesus christ hath shewed me . moreover , i will endeavour that you may be able after my decease , to have these things always in remembrance . i do not so much intend a funeral elegie for the dead , as a plain practical sermon for the living . the dead know not any thing , neither are they any more concerned in the things that are done under the sun. yet we may draw arguments from their graves , to quicken us to our duty . 't is evident that this great apostle had death in his eye , when he wrote these words ; whether those to whom he wrote were under the like consideration of their own mortality , is uncertain . peter being so solicitous here to put them in remembrance , seems tacitly to charge them , with a careless , negligent , forgetful frame of spirit ; and those who do not bear in their minds the great truths of the gospel , that shew the consequents of death , and so make it weighty and considerable in our thoughts , can never seriously prepare for it . he tells them he is but a sojourner amongst them , in a tent and tabernacle , intimating that they themselves dwelt under as thin a roof , that might suddenly let in death upon them , which he foresaw was not far off from himself ; this stirred him up to a more diligent and vigorous performance of his duty . he is very desirous to finish and perfect his work before the night comes upon him , that he might not run in vain , nor labour in vain , but throughly fix those truths upon the hearts and consciences of his people , which he had preached to them , that they might remember them when he was dead and gone . the text is , an awakening word from a dying preacher , to his dying hearers . i know i am engaged in a funeral sermon , but it is upon the death of a minister , and to a congregation , who by this sad providence , are called to the choice of a new preacher : and therefore , if in the former part of my discourse , i say something of the nature of preaching of the old apostolick way , which god did so wonderfully own in the primitive times , and unto which we must certainly return , before we can expect the like success in our ministry . i hope if i do insist a little upon this , you will not judg it wide of the occasion , or altogether unseasonable : — but if any do , let them know that the circumstance of the season , must give place and yield a little to the substance of the text , which by and by will sute that also . therefore i must crave a little time to shew you the general scope and design of the apostle in these words , afterwards i shall more particularly speak to the th verse , which will bring me nearer to the present occasion . — and because many particulars in a sermon do usually run out into new matter , carrying the speaker sometimes both beyond the text and his own intentions : to avoid this i shall cast my whole discourse into this method , and couch all i have to say under these two general heads , which i will insist upon . . the old apostolick way of preaching that was so much upon the heart of peter just before his death . . his last legacy to all his true successors in the ministry and faith of the gospel . the shortness of time both to prepare and deliver what i have now to say , must excuse that want of method and exactness that suddain things are usually defective in . i begin with the first , ( viz. ) the old apostolick way of preaching , in laying down the plain fundamental truths of the gospel , proving them by scripture , and frequently minding the people of them by way of remembrance : this was christ's method , luke . , , . 't is the method of the holy ghost to bring things to our remembrance ; and for this very end was the holy spirit promised to the church , john . . but the comforter , which is the holy ghost , whom the father will send in my name , he shall teach you all things , and bring all things to your remembrance , whatsoever i have said unto you . 't was iohn's method , john . . i have not written unto you , because you know not the truth : i but because you know it , and that no lie is of the truth . i must tell you what you know already , that is the way to know more : 't was paul's method , phil. . . to write the same things to you , to me indeed is not grievous , but for you it is safe . 't was that he advises timothy to , tim. . , . if thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things , thou shalt be a good minister of iesus christ , nourished up in the words of faith , and of good doctrine , whereunto thou hast attained . but refuse profane and old wives fables , and exercise thy self rather unto godliness . tim. . , , . of these things put them in remembrance , charging them before the lord , that they strive not about words to no profit , but to the subverting of the hearers . study to shew thy self approved unto god , a workman that needeth not to be ashamed , rightly dividing the word of truth . but shun profane and vain bablings , for they will encrease unto more ungodliness . 't was the desire of those gentiles , which paul and barnabas complyed with , with very great success , acts . . to hear the same words preached to them the next sabbath . 't was peters design in his epistles , pet. . , . this second epistle , beloved , i now write unto you , in both which i stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance ; that ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets , and of the commandment of us the apostles of the lord and saviour . as appears , also in the words of the text. the first sermon that was preached after the coming down of the holy ghost upon the apostles was by peter , act. . and three thousand souls were converted by it , to shew the mighty efficacy of the spirit of god , and the power of a plain gospel-sermon ; for it was no other , but a plain narration of those things that concern the power and coming of jesus christ. pet. . . for we have not followed cunningly devised fables , when we made known unto you the power and coming of our lord iesus christ , but were eye-witnesses of his majesty . the effect of this sermon made deep impression upon peter , he was greatly affected with it , he never forgot it to his dying-day ; and being now going out of the world , he would fain preach over that sermon again , putting them in remembrance again and again , he mentions it thrice over , vers. , , , q. d. remember , remember , remember the things that i have told you concerning the power and coming of our lord and saviour jesus christ ; and for all humane inventions , and cunningly devised fables , and stories of i know not what , that men may tell you in the pulpit , to set out themselves and their own parts and learning , away with them . if ever you be converted it must be from that testimony the spirit gives in your hearts to those fundamental truths of the gospel concerning jesus christ , and hence do's certainly arise the conversion of all the sinners that are ever brought home to christ. you may think that the doctrine of the miserable state of man by nature , of the only way of redemption by christ , the doctrine of faith , repentance , and self-denyal , are all of them but common things , which you have heard over again and again , and are cloy'd with the very sound of them ; i say these and such like truths are the only converting truths , and we must hold men to them , till god doth work by them upon their hearts : they are indeed easy words , but they are hard things to receive and practise . when god brings our souls under the power of these truths , how wonderful are they then ? how full of matter ? those who are converted do admire those truths most which before they looked upon as common and ordinary ; but now they think they can never hear too much of the way of believing in christ , and laying hold upon him as their righteousness and life : these truths do find them work enough now , though before they were unconcerned in them , and these are the things which we must insist upon . you see the old apostolick way of preaching was in all plainness and simplicity to propound gospel-truths in the name of god to the people , and to commend them to their belief upon the bear credit of divine testimony , till faith came by hearing ; they knew the word had all its weight from that stamp of divine authority that is upon it , and from the efficacy of the spirit accompanying it to the hearts of believers : these things they often inculcated , and kept in their remembrance , telling them what was to be done upon the belief of such principles , and this was the application they made , and here is scope enough for exhortation to the people : but now a-days too too many do lay aside their best argument , which is to ground the truth of the written word upon divine testimony , and the whole efficacy of the word preached upon the promises of a divine concurrence , which god has made to this ordinance ; here lieth the strength and vertue of this ordinance , it would signifie nothing without this ; go ( says christ ) teach all nations ; lo i am with you alway even unto the end of the world. we that are ministers should take this promise up into our pulpits every time we preach , and leave the whole matter with god , who works as he pleases by our ministry ; but instead of this , men take up these weapons of our spiritual-warfare , [ which are mighty only through god ] into the hand of carnal reason , and think to set a further edge upon them that way . what hath man to do to give his reasons of gospel-mysteries , since there is no other way of knowing them , but by believing , comparing scripture with scripture , till we are satisfied that things are so set down in the bible , as they are reported to us out of the pulpit ? act. . . naked truth is far more venerable in its own simplicity than in that artificial dress which the self-admirers of this age , to please themselves and to delude and amuse others , have put upon the back of abused truth , that labours greatly , even almost under a total eclipse , by the interposition of such gross terrene matter between the heavenly light of the gospel and this sinful world , upon whom this sun is risen , and would shine out in more brightness , were these clouds and mists , the empty vapours of a human brain , more throughly scattered . the further we go in our own reasonings about spiritual things , the less we discern them ; 't is not in our own light , but in his that we see light ; yet how do many please themselves with a meer humane knowledg of divine things ? disputing all things , rather than believing any thing , heaping up distinctions and terms of art , and all by way of explication ; as if the subtilties of logick and metaphysicks were of the essence of saving faith , and that a proficiency even to the highest form in the schools of humane literature , were as absolutely necessary to make a christian , as a divine , though something else is required to both . thus they would engross all religion to the gown , leaving nothing to those of a lower capacity but a blind implicit faith ; as if gospel-principles were unintelligible to all but scholars , when god who causes the foolish things of this world to confound the wise , hath declared to the contrary . logick alone may speak natural reason , but seldom good divinity : therefore after all disputes about the polemical part of divinity , give me the sincere unlearned mans religion , who hath no more in his head , than he hath in his heart ; whose reason doth not out-run his faith and experience ; he lives in what he believes , and knows more of the nature of faith by one act of faith , than others do by reading of an hundred books , and discourses of men about it : a down-right plain-hearted christian who hath but one notion of things , ( i mean of any one truth ) but that is a right one , he keeps to it without any variation in his conceptions about it , and walks evenly and uprightly with god all his days according to his light : what a great place in heaven will such a one have , who is faithful over a little , and is what he is by the grace of god ? whereas others of larger heads , abounding too much in their own sense , keep not their hearts so close to the plain fundamentals of the gospel , their reason out-runs their faith , and insensibly winds them off from the power of the gospel , into many labyrinths of error , or at least into empty airy speculations : thus losing themselves in their own thoughts , they become vain in their imaginations ; and framing some curious notions in their heads , they presently grow fond of them , and must find some place in religion for them . they go back to their faith , to justifie their reason in its late rare inventions , and if that cannot be , rather than fail , they will offer violence to their first received principles , and shape the very fundamentals of the gospel to a subserviency to their own notions , that they may have somewhat to ground their new devised superstruction upon . i am perswaded many unorthodox antivangelical opinions have had their rise from hence : some men are run down by their own reason , and see it not , their proud rebellious thoughts not being yet brought into captivity to the obedience of christ. i might enlarge upon this , and shew you that most of the errors that are crept into the church , were bred in the schools , and have been the cursed off-spring of unsanctified natural abilities : 't is time then to return to the simplicity of the gospel , and to begin the bible again , that we may take in the sincere milk of the word , without any humane mixtures , drawing pure streams from the fountain of truth ; and keeping up a constant remembrance , especially of the prime grand truths of the gospel , from whence we must derive our life , strength , and comfort , in an evil day of terrour and darkness , we must return then to plain gospel-principles : 't is not school-subtilties and nice-reasonings that will relieve us , but down-right faith. — christians could never die in peace , if they had not next their hearts some plain comfortable word to relie upon ; as that christ died for sinners , to reconcile us to god by his blood , that through faith in him we might be justified and sanctified . you 'll say , we have all this in our catechisms , we learned it when we were children : well ▪ we must go back to our catechisms again ; here lies all our salvation , therefore meditate upon these things and remember them : do not think you can be too often minded of them , they are truths you must live upon all your days , and be continually feeding upon . 't is not doubtful disputations , but clear undeniable gospel-maximes , that a trembling soul flies to and argues from . — therefore i say again , that preaching doth not consist so much in variety of notion , as in a plain proposal and powerful application of those things that are revealed in scripture . gospel-truths do not work upon us by the strength of mans reason , but by a secret divine virtue going along with them , they become the power of god unto salvation . ministers are to publish the contents of the bible , and so to open the scriptures , that their hearers may attain to a true historical knowledg of what is there written ; which saving-faith doth always presuppose , and include . this is that preaching by which god doth insensibly and secretly turn the hearts of his elect : as many as were ordained to eternal life , believed , acts . . 't is not said as many as were learned men , skill'd in arts and sciences , of good natural parts , and quick apprehensions : — but as many as were ordained , &c. though never so unlearned , of never such mean and ordinary capacities ; yet such by the power of the gospel plainly preached , are made wise unto salvation , god working faith in them ; which implies the knowledg of all things necessary to salvation . the spirit of god supplies all the defects in nature , and brings a new nature along with it , sufficiently furnished for all the works and actions that are proper and peculiar to the new creature ; and all men are in an equal natural capacity for this change , i mean passively capable of it . when god takes this clay into his hands , he can form what vessels of honour he pleases out of it ; none can foresee the way , manner , and method of the word and spirit of god in working faith in us : some sit long under the word and are not stirred , yet 't is good to keep our hearts under the historical light and knowledg of the gospel , hearing in a daily expectation of the coming of faith , subjecting our selves to god's ordinance , waiting for the effects of it , often revolving and considering in our minds what we have heard : to remember , is to look back upon former things , to chew the cud , going over in our thoughts again and again what we have been taught ; but some have such itchin ears , they are all for novelties , something that they knew not and have not heard before , some fine-spun notion that may buz a while in the head , though it never reach the heart ; 't is but as the tinkling of a cymbal , a meer transient apparition that vanisheth away with its own sound ; yet these are the rarities that many look after , they can relish nothing else : when they are put in remembrance of former things , they are so far from being pleased that they nausiate the thoughts of hearing over again what they knew before , they put up their pen and ink , shut their books , and stop their ears , are quite taken off from any due attention , they carry as if they had long since done with all plain downright gospel-truths , they have nothing to say to them now : ay but they may have something to say to you that they never told you yet ; god may let them down further into your souls , and cause them to make deeper impressions upon your hearts than ever heretofore . . i now come to speak of the th verse : i shall still prosecute the same point , but in a nearer relation to the present occasion than has been yet done . i call this peters last legacy to all his true successors in the ministry and faith of the gospel . i don't see any mention here , or any where else in scripture , of that large patrimony which the see of rome lays claim to by an hereditary right from peter : if you read over his inventory here , you 'l find no triple-crown or miter , no cross-keys , no roquet , camad and cloath , no slippers and pantofles , or any such pontifical habiliments which are now reckoned among the regalia of their spiritual monarchy : but what doth peter bequeath us ? for the words have vim testimenti ( calv. ) they are in the nature of a testament or last will , in which he commends to us after his decease , the frequent consideration and remembrance of those plain solid fundamental truths contained in the scriptures ; by which is made known unto us the power and coming of our lord jesus christ ; peter himself being an eye-witness of his majesty when he was with him upon the holy mount. but his pretended successor at rome , thinking there is not variety enough in religion , as 't is drawn up and stated by christ ; therefore the better to entertain the fancies of men in an outward sensitive way of worship , has made a supplemental addition of his own , teaching for doctrines the commandments of men , obtruding upon us cunningly devised fables , quite contrary to the express mind of peter , ver . . what this apostle gives us in charge is plainly this : observ. that it it the duty of all congregations , all hearers , who out-live their ministers , to keep in remembrance those precious truths which they formerly heard from them . let me press this upon you of this congregation , the text looks directly upon you , and therefore fail not to come up to the duty that is here required : and now after the decease of your minister , keep those truths fresh in your memories , and warm upon your hearts , which he delivered to you in his life-time . let me urge this upon you from these following considerations . . you lie under a very great obligation to god and conscience , to live up to what you have heard ; the word heard , neglected , and forgotten , hath a dreadful influence upon us many times ; prov. . . to the end of that chapter ; so rom. . , . have they not heard ? yes verily ; which was a great aggravation of their disobedience . if it should be so with any of you , let me tell you , there is a witness now gone to heaven against you , to testifie at the last day before god , angels , and men , what truths he preached unto you , and earnestly pressed upon you . god takes notice what means , what ministers , what messengers have been sent to every congregation ; how early , how often , how many , all my servants the prophets , jer. . , , , . rising up early , and sending them , q. d. i did nothing else for a long time , from morning to evening , but send unto this people : what could i have done more that i have not done ? let them speak ; let any judg between me and my vineyard ; i appeal to heaven and earth ; i 'le refer my self to the whole world ; therefore god stiles them the generation of his wrath , rejected and forsaken of the lord , ver. . 't is a dangerous thing to have sermons by you , that are not to be found in your hearts and lives ; it signifies little to have them in your books : how inexcusable will they be , who go to hell with directions to heaven in their hands , and will not vouchsafe to read them ? may not god say , i told you which was the way , you took it from the mouth of your minister , and noted it down , i have it under your hands to shew ? . the oftner you draw any gospel-truth through your hearts , by calling it into your remembrance , the deeper impression it makes ; it seeds in the heart , and leaves a fresh fructifying vertue behind it upon the soul : you 'l find something new in every old truth you take up into your thoughts , if not in notion , yet in power , which is the best of all ; fresh mixtures of faith make the same words exceeding profitable to us every day ; faith is never cloy'd with the word , but finds it sweeter and sweeter still ; faith comes at one time to a promise , that it might know the way the better the next time ; faith has never done with the word in this world , but has more and more business , every day with the same promise , with the same word ; 't is hid in the heart , psal. . . it dwells there ; 't is never out , a constant in-mate . . the word is eternal ; all flesh is grass ; the fathers , where are they ? and prophets , do they live for ever ? zach. . . the prophets may die , but their prophesies live . the word of our god shall stand for ever , isa. . . 't is still in force , 't is of eternal concernment . . 't is the greatest honour you can do to the name and memory of your worthy deceased minister , to keep his sermons alive upon your hearts ; 〈◊〉 you keep life in them , and they will keep life in you ▪ as the word quickneth faith , so faith quickens the word , joyning the spirit and the letter together : god hath taken him away , you have all of him , and from him , that ever you are like to have in this world ; make much of those precious remains ; he is now silent in the grave , never to be seen , or heard more in the land of the living , till he stand in his lot at the end of days ; but if you keep in mind the instructions he formerly gave you , though he be dead , he yet speaketh , and you may yet hear him : the sermons you so remember , and think upon , you are as it were continually hearing , they are well pleasing to god , very profitable to your own souls , and the greatest argument imaginable of your high esteem of , and sincere love to that faithful shepherd of this flock , whom god hath now smitten and taken from you : this is more than to build sepulchers , and adorn the tombs of the prophets ; you will erect for him an everlasting monument in your hearts , by holding forth the seal of his effectual ministry among you . when you can say the word of god that came by the mouth of such a one , now in his grave , was to me a saving word , a sanctifying word , a healing , strengthning word ? what spices , what perfume's so sweet an embalming as this ? me thinks i smell these spiritual odours already , and i hope the sent will be stronger and stronger every day . let me add a word of advice to you of this congregation : god hath made a great change among you , and a change there must be , and you will find it more and more every day ; 't is one end that god aim's at in such dispensations , to vary his course towards you , even in the means of grace ; he doth all things wisely , he hath variety of work , and variety of workmen ; the word reaches from top to bottom in the soul , and works here and there as god appoints it , who knows best where our weakness lies ; what though he lay down a sharper , and take up a blunter tool , be not discouraged , the nature of the work may require this sometimes ; as god hath top-stones to lay , so he hath foundations to examine , he hath variety of instruments , diversly qualified , for such and such special services in the church ; he knows when to set on , and when to take off his workmen ; he changes hands , sometimes by death , and sometimes by a providential removal . i am not against a fixed ministry , yet i think a more interchangeable course in our ministry sometimes , would tend much to the encrease of love and union among professors , and to the mutual edification of all ; we should have a taste of the spirits of men , and of the variety of gifts , that may not be exactly the same in any two in the world. some are suns of thunder , some of consolation ; you may and ought to covet the best gifts in your choice now ; but still know your faith consists not in the wisdom of man , but in the power of god ; therefore leave it by an act of faith to the great shepheard of the sheep , to provide for you , to direct you in all your endeavours that way , and submit after all to the lords disposition of this lot , wherever it shall fall ; though you do , as i told you but now you would , find a difference between former and future means , yet suffer the lord , which doth all the work , to make choice of the workman , and then whether paul , apollo , or cephas , all things are yours , and shall be blest to you , while you live in such a dependance upon the god of all grace . you may expect i should say something of your worthy minister , and my most beloved brother , and fellow-labourer in the gospel , who very lately step'd out of this pulpit into the grave ; this is not a day nor a place to speak of man , no not of the best of men , further then we may gather arguments from any eminency in gifts and grace in them , to stir up our selves and others to our duty , and upon this account only i shall say something that may add some further weight and strength to the obligation that lyes upon you , to keep those truths always in remembrance that have been delivered to you by so skilful a hand . i shall not suffer his name to slip into oblivion without some memorable remark upon it ; i confess , what i have to say might better come from another mouth than mine , considering my relation to him in his younger years : but i am not ashamed to own , that i had some hand in planting fruit that was ripe before me , and is now gathered ; though this forward increase , is , under god , to be ascribed rather to the goodness and fertility of the soil , than to the skill of the husbandman : he was one for endowments of mind , both as a man , and a christian , far beyond his years ; he died young , but lived long : he was a man betimes , and which is more , an early christian . he came into the vineyard the first hour of the day , did his days-work by noon , and god hath given him the preference over us all , in taking him to heaven before us . therefore i say again , see that now after his decease you have those things always in remembrance which you have been taught by so able a misnister of the new testament , that it may never be said , you buried your preacher and his sermons too in the same grave . i had thoughts of taking more liberty in the press than was fit for the pulpit , in giving the world a further character of this worthy person deceased ; but considering that what i might say in his just praise and commendation , is no news to them that knew him , and may seem altogether incredible to those who knew him not , i shall spare my pains , leaving his friends to their own knowledg of him ▪ and strangers to what enquiries they please to make concerning him , being confident they will meet with that good report of him from the mouths of many , that will go beyond the testimony of my single pen , and greatly endear his name to posterity , finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e eccles. . . psal. . . mat. . , . cor. . . an ansvver to the author of humble thanks for his majesties gracious declaration for liberty of conscience. y. z. approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page image. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). b wing z interim tract supplement guide c. .f. [ ] interim tract supplement guide c. .f. [ ] estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. b ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books; tract supplement ; a : [ ]; a : [ ]) an ansvver to the author of humble thanks for his majesties gracious declaration for liberty of conscience. y. z. sheet ([ ] p.). printed for j. edwin at the three roses in ludgate-street, london, : . signed: y.z. verse: "'twixt heaven and thee, how sprung these fatal jars ..." a reply to the work by robert wild, with reference to charles ii's declaration of march . "with allowance, may . ." reproduction of original in the british library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng wild, robert, - . -- dr wild's humble thanks for his majesties gracious declaration for liberty of conscience -- early works to . england and wales. -- sovereign ( - : charles ii) -- poetry -- early works to . dissenters, religious -- england -- poetry -- early works to . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - mona logarbo sampled and proofread - mona logarbo text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion an answer to the author of humble thanks for his majesties gracious declaration for liberty of conscience . 'twixt heaven and thee , how sprung these fatal jars , that thou ( poor robin ) rail'st against the stars ? to thee what have their influences done , with so much zeal to bark against the moon ? on heavens tables if thou knew'st what 's writ as well as on the earthly what is set , we would allow thou might'st the feud maintain , enabled by the belly not thy brain : these things , alas , transcend thy scrutiny , their language is but arabick to thee ; thou that could'st never yet higher advance , then dod , and cleaver , and the concordance . thou know'st not that the square of mercury to mars afflicts a punner's brain , yet we find it alas , to be too true in thee . we know what saturn did at barthol'mew , and some are of opinion so do you : in those dog-days had been the fittest time to curse thy stars ( poor robin ) in lewd time ; mount ano for parnassus then had gone , thou might'st have made with tears an helicon , and fetch'd a pegasus from abingdon . but now to rave , when a propitious ray has shin'd on thee , and turn'd thy night to day ; now that the claret-dispensation's come , and thou may'st vie for toe with him at rome ; assum'd the pristine rubies of thy beauty , and art made capable of being gouty : what is it less then when no foe was near us , with so much heat to cry out , curse ye meroz ! what have those reverend prelates done to thee thus to blaspheme their pious memory ? gloc'ster , and learned darham's name shall live , when thine in grubstreet hardly shall survive . unmanner'd man ! in stars , and men , ill read , to trample on the ashes of the dead ! well! since the royal clemency has given each man his leave to choose his way to heaven , clean , and unclean beasts into one ark driven : since pressing i' th' church-militant disappears , and all men now are gospel volunteers ; since we are all united , let 's agree , think you no worse of us , then of you , we ; for by your foul reflections we 'r afraid , you write the good old cause in masquerade . instead of bonds and persecution , wherewith you us'd to make the pulpit groan , thank our kind prince who with compassionate eyes look'd down and pittied your infirmities . this may be done without or rope , or bell , and thus dear dogg'rel , heartily farewel . from the star in ●olemanstreet , london . sir , yours , y. z. with allowance , may . . london , printed for j. edwin at the three roses in ludgate-street , . a proclamation, against keeping of conventicles. edinburgh, the third day of august, one thousand six hundred and sixty nine. scotland. privy council. approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page image. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). b wing s estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. b ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a proclamation, against keeping of conventicles. edinburgh, the third day of august, one thousand six hundred and sixty nine. scotland. privy council. gibson, alexander, sir, d. . scotland. sovereign ( - : charles ii) sheet ([ ] p.) printed by evan tyler, printer to his the king's excellent majesty, edinburgh : . caption title. text in black letter. signed: al. gibson, cls. sti. concilii. imperfect: stained with slight loss of text. reproduction of the original in the national library of scotland. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng dissenters, religious -- legal status, laws, etc. -- scotland -- early works to . assembly, right of -- scotland -- early works to . broadsides -- scotland -- th century. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - scott lepisto sampled and proofread - scott lepisto text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion royal blazon or coat of arms c r 〈…〉 a proclamation , against keeping of conventicles . edinburgh , the third day of august , one thousand six hundred and sixty nine . charles , by the grace of god , king of great britain , france and ireland , defender of the faith ; to _____ macers or messengers at armes , our sheriffs in that part conjunctly and severally specially constitute , greeting . forasmuch , as from our tender care and great zeal for preserving the peace and quiet of this church and kingdom , by our former proclamations we have prohibited and discharged all private meetings and conventicles , under the pretext of religious exercise and worship : and yet nevertheless , in divers places of this kingdom , some outed ministers and others take upon them to preach and exercise the functions of the ministery , in meetings of our subjects not warranted by law , to the high contempt of our authority and government , and disquiet of the peace of this church and kingdom . therefore , we , with advice of the lords of our privy council , ( but derogation in any sort from our said former proclamations or pains therein contained ) do command all heretors timeously to delate any , who within there bounds shall take upon them to preach or carry on worship in such unwarranted meetings and assemblies , and make their names known to sheriffs , stewarts , lords and ba●…s of regalities and their deputes , barons , magistrates of burghs , justices of peace , and officers and commissioners of the militia within whose bounds and jurisdictions they may be apprehended . and do hereby authorize and command the sheriffs and others foresaids , that ( after intimation made to them that the persons foresaids are within their respective bounds ) they make exact search and enquiry after them , and if they be found , that they apprehend and incarcerate their persons , and acquaint the lords of our privy council of their imprisonment ; and requires the magistrates of burghs to receive and detain them prisoners until further order ; and that this they do , as they wi●… answerable under all highest pain . likeas we will , that all our good subjects be hereby advertised , that we are resolved in the future to put our laws , acts , statutes and proclamations , vigorously in execution , against with-drawers from the publick worship in their own paroch churches . and ordains these presents to be printed , and published at the mercat-crosse of edinburgh and other head burghs of shires within this kingdom , that none pretend ignorance . al. gibson , cls. s ti concilii . edinbvrgh , printed by evan tyler , printer to the king 's most excellent majesty , . a short examination of a discourse concerning edification, by dr. hascard where it is inquired, how well the author of the said discourse hath proved that it is not lawful for a man to go from his parish church to meetings, that he might be better edifie [sic] / in a letter to a friend. hody, humphrey, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing h estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a short examination of a discourse concerning edification, by dr. hascard where it is inquired, how well the author of the said discourse hath proved that it is not lawful for a man to go from his parish church to meetings, that he might be better edifie [sic] / in a letter to a friend. hody, humphrey, - . [ ], p. printed and are to be sold by a. baldwin, london : . attributed by wing to humphry hody. reproduction of original in the harvard university library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng hascard, gregory. -- a discourse about edification. dissenters, religious -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - judith siefring sampled and proofread - judith siefring text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a short examination of a discourse concerning edification . by dr. hascard . where it is inquired , how well the author of the said discourse hath proved , that it is not lawful for a man to go from his parish church to meetings , that he might better edifie . in a letter to a friend . cor. . . but we do all things ( dearly beloved ! ) for your edifying . london , printed : and are to be sold by a. baldwin , near the oxford-arms inn , in warwick-lane . . advertisement , there is lately published , a letter of advice to the churches of the nonconformists in the english nation : endeavouring their satisfaction in that point , who are the true church of england ? short animadversions upon dr. calamy 's discourse ( in the conformists cases against dissenters ) concerning a scrupulous conscience . an answer to dr. scot's cases against dissenters , concerning forms of prayer . and the fallacy of the story of commin plainly discovered . a short examination of a discourse concerning edification . honoured sir , i have received your exceeding civil letter , with the discourse that you favoured me to send along with it , which was doubly acceptable to me . first , as a new book , few of which come to us ( living at such a distance from your metropolis . ) secondly , with respect to the argument of it . a discourse concerning edification , must be acceptable to every one who knoweth it to be his duty , pet. . . to grow in grace , and in the knowledge of our lord and saviour jesus christ. which is in english edification . you desire my thoughts concerning it , which i shall freely give you . whether it is lawful for any man to forsake the communion of the church of england , and to go to the seperate meetings , because he can better edifie there . this he saith is unlawful , and to make it plain , he saith two things must be first considered . . what sort of person this is that asketh this question . . what he meaneth by edification . as to the first , he supposeth the person , not to judge any thing unlawful in the communion . this sir will make his question to concern very few ( not one of an hundred amongst dissenters . ) by edification , he means , he saith , an improvement of his spiritual condition in the full latitude of it . these are words large enough , comprehending knowledge in the understanding , faith and obedience respecting the will , and warmth , or zeal , in the affections , we agree that edification indeed is nothing else . the apostle calls us gods temple , his building ; and edification signifies nothing else , but a building up in christ , in faith , and love , in zeal and h●●iness ; and is the same thing with what st. john calls the souls prospering , john . . an increasing with the increase of god , col. . . ( sir ) i cannot understand , how it should be unlawful for a man to do any thing for this end ; for his soul can never prosper , nor increase , nor grow by any sinful act without doubt : i do conceive therefore , the author hath mistaken his question , which should have been of what is lawful to do , not for better edifying , but upon pretence of it ; for there is no doubt , but any thing is lawful for better edifying , god can be by nothing more glorified , nor can any thing more tend to the saving of our own souls ( which are the two great ends of a christian. ) but sir , to state this one question , he hath begged two others . . that dissenters meetings are separate meetings . suppose sir , people meet together in the church of st. andrews in holborn , and another congregation meet at st. giles in the fields , a third in cheapside , and that none of these people ever go to any but their own church , are they therefore separate meetings , when they all hear the same scriptures read , sing the same psalms , hear the same doctrine ( though in other words ) and worship god by the same acts of worship , prayer , praise , preaching and hearing , administring and receiving the same sacraments ; how are they separate meetings ? did ever any call the dutch , and french churches meeting oft-times in the parish of broad-street , separate meetings , because they go not to hear the minister in broadstreet ? . he also assumes , that they forsake the communion of the church of england ; how doth that appear , many of them oft-times come to the parish churches , and join with the congregation in prayer , praise , hearing , receiving the sacrament , those that do not , yet holding the same faith , and performing the same specifical , though not the same numerical acts of worship , that the parochial churches do ; do no more forsake the communion of the church of england , than the parishioners of st. andrews holborn forsake the communion of the church of england , because they never are at bow-church , or that at ludgate . but ( sir ) we will for once admit , that the meetings the people go to are separate meetings . . that they wholly for sake the church of england , yet if they do it , because they can edisie there better , i do think it not lawful only , but necessary also ; for that man doth not believe there is a god , or doth not know he hath a soul ; or doth not know his chief end is to glorifie god , and that his souls interest is his most valuable interest , that doth not believe he may separate from any particular church , that he may better edifie elsewhere . i must confess sir , when i read the question , as it is stated by the author , i was quite startled at his negative determination of it , and very desirous to see the arguments by which he could prove it . but when i came to consider them , p. . i was satisfied ; for his first reason is , because there is no better edification to be had in the separate meetings , than in the communion of the church of england . this he proveth , . because her articles of faith are those which our dissenters themselves allow : upon this he enlargeth , page , . . because she laies a necessity upon a good life , p. , . . because she is fitly constituted to excite devotion , p. , . . because she hath an excellent order , and discipline , p. , . but sir , all this will not do , nor will prove more than half a reason . but page . he adds , this constitution is used , and managed in the best way by the pastors of our church to edifie the souls of men. this he proves . . because the pastors of our church have strict commands laid upon them so to do , p. . . that these commands are obeyed by the pastors of our church , and they do all things in it to edification , p. , . before i come to speak to this distinctly , &c. we must consider , what communion it is with the church of england , which is required ; and for the withdrawing of which dissenters are stigmatized with the unintelligible names of schismaticks and separatists . is it for their not agreeing with the doctrines of faith expressed in the thirty nine articles ? or because the doctrine of our church presseth a necessity of an holy life in order to salvation ? or because she is fully constituted for devotion ? &c. there is nothing less true . do they separate so as they will have no communion with any of the ministers of the church of england , in praying or hearing , &c neither is any thing of that true , as to multitudes of 〈◊〉 ? but the communion required , is a communion with the parish minister in all ordinances ; if they will not , they are counted schismaticks and fanaticks . so that admit all he saith to be true , as to the sirst head , yet if every parish minister doth not pray , preach , administer sacraments , manage his pastoral charge , &c. to the best edification , his argument holds no more , than if one should argue , that because a carpenter lives in a parish , hath admirable timber laid by him , therefore i am bound to use him and no other , to build my house , whether he knows how to use it yea or no , yea though i plainly see he doth not . . again sir , they that know any thing of souls , know that though they be equal , as to their faculties yet they are not so as to their improved capacities and abilities ; one minister may be the fittest to improve me in knowledge , faith , love , &c. that is the most unfit man in the world to improve another , the apostle hath taught us , that some need milk , others strong meat . a learned man may be the fittest to improve another mans soul in knowledge ( which by the way is the foundation of faith , love , obedience , orderly zeal ) who is as learned as himself , that may be the most unfit to improve a poor countrey mans soul , that cannot apprehend his depth of reasoning , nor his latinized stile , ●or his concealed method , nor is able to carry away three lines of his discourse . so as this author hath a very hard task to prove ; viz. that every parish minister , obeyeth the commands of the church , and doeth a● things in prayer , preaching , &c. to the edification of all the parishioners . but sir , i shall not prejud●●e him , this is only to tell you , what we must expect from the author , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to prove his great undertaking , this being premise● , let me now go back to his third and fourth page . . i said sir before , that we own all the doctrines of faith , contained in our creed and thirty nine articles ; we grant them short and plain , but that they are so fully explained , that nothing can be done further , to make them intelligible to the meanest souls . i cannot say , if you look sir into the systeme of confessions , you will scarce find any so short as ours is . the people had need have a very able , and painful minister , that shall improve sufficiently in knowledge by them . . we like very well sir , of what our church determineth , as to good works in the eleventh , and twelfth , and thirteenth of her articles of the thirty nine , in these words , art . . we are accounted righteous before god , only for the merit of our lord and saviour jesus christ by faith , and not for our own works and deservings . wherefore , that we are justified by faith only , is a most wholesome doctrine and very full of comfort , as more largely is expressed in the homily of justification . art . . albeit good works , which are the fruits of faith cannot put away our sins , and indure the severity of gods judgments , yet are they pleasing and acceptable to god in christ , and do spring out necessarily of a true , lively , faith , insomuch that by them , a lively faith may be as evidently known as a tree discerned by the fruit. art . . works done before the grace of christ , and the inspiration of his spirit , are not pleasant to god , for as much as they spring not of faith in jesus christ , neither do they make men meet to receive grace , or ( as the school-authors say ) deserve grace of congruity . yea rather , for that they are not done , as god willed , and commanded them to be done , we doubt not but they have the nature of sin. sir , i think it not worth my time , to examine how well what the author saith , p. , , . agrees with this , here is not a word of vertue , but the grace of christ , and the inspiration of the spirit ; and what makes some men so fond to change the old term of grace into the newer term of vertue ( hardly four times mention'd by the apostles ) i cannot tell , unless it be to let us know , they mean no other things by good works , but such things as may be done by common graces . in the articles is not a word of good works being the soul of our faith , the articles say , they are only the daughters , and inseparable fruit of our faith ; and calls none good , done before the grace of christ , and inspiration of the spirit . but sir , we do agree , that our articles speak our hearts as to good works , and we hope we may withdraw from such as teach otherwise than these articles , and yet hold communion with the church of england ; because such sons have themselves no communion with her in that matter . . neither do we say , but that our church is constituted fitly enough to excite devotion . nor shall i say here any thing about her order , and discipline ; because all that is said under this head signifies nothing , if the second thing be not made good , viz. that this constitution is used , and managed in the best way by the pastors of our church to edifie the souls of men. for sir , you will easily understand , that the building of a soul in knowledge , faith , love , zeal , doth not so much depend upon the articles of a church , its rubricks or rules for worship and canons , as the gifts which god hath given his ministers , by which they press the doctrines of faith , and rules of holy life contained in the scripture , and pour out prayers for people suited to all their necessities ; their diligent and constant practice in instructing people , and their putting in execution such rules as are given for the ordering of people in their church s●●●eties ; neither will what the author saith , p . make good his proposition . that there are strict commands under great penalties laid upon the pastors of our church to do this . what of all this . so that all lies upon his second particular , p. . that all these commands are obeyed by the pastors of our church , and they do all things to such edification , he should have added what was in his proposition , p. . that there is no better in the separate meetings , than in the communion of the church of england . so that sir , if you observe , he must prove , . that every parish minister preacheth as diligently , and profitably ; for the generality of his hearers improvement in the knowledge of god , in faith , love , holiness , zeal , &c. as the ministers do in their meetings . or else sir , he concludes no more than this . that it is not lawful for meer edification-sake , for any parishioners to separate from the communion with his parish minister , if he doth preach as soundly , intelligibly , and profitably , for peoples remembrance in order to their knowledge , faith , love , holiness , zeal , as ministers do in private meetings . indeed sir , i am of his mind , for i am for a nearness of members of the same church in cohabitation , where it can be , without a prejudice to edification ; but if christians cannot ordinarily communicate in all ordinances with their parish ministers , and be equally instructed in the truths of god , or hear what they understand , or in such methods as they can remember or so confirm'd in scripture , that they can search the scriptures and find , that truth which they say , or cannot hear the whole counsel of god , or be warmly pressed by arguments to a truly , holy life in all conversation , as they can at another meeting . i think it is worth their while , and no sin against god to go where they may . the saving and edifying souls is of more consequence than keeping the limits of parishes . now as to this sir , it is matter of demonstration , that every one must judge for himself ; for who preacheth most profitably for one , must be determined of by him who knows the capacity of the hearer , which i am sure none doth but himself ; we need not judge of the learning and abilities of any person . for he that preacheth most learnedly , usually preacheth least to the capacity of three parts of his hearers ; and to a learned auditory , the plain preacher preacheth most unprofitably as to his improvement in knowledge . i remember sir , a story out of chrysostome , who tells us , that he heard a christian and an heathen disputing ridiculously . the matter in debate was , whether paul or plato was the best schollar . the christian maintain'd paul was , the heathen maintained plato was . thus saith chrysostom , the christian stood to prove what was the pagans part , and the pagan undertook to prove the christians part , for the christian might have said , if plato were the best schollar , it is no wonder he had more disciples then paul , and the heathen might have said , if paul were so much the best schollar , it is no wonder he made the gospel abound so far . the excellency of a preacher , or his fitness to edifie souls , is not to be determined from his learning , but from his pains , and diligence , and eye to the end of his work , as to those people ( or the generality of them ) to whom he preacheth and his wise accommodating means fit for his end. this requireth the knowledge of the circumstances of the generality of his auditory , and none but the particular person can judge of him , who preacheth most to his particular edification , plain scriptural , practical preaching is undoubtedly for most general edification ; because nine parts of ten of the most auditories are unlearned , and understand not rational deductions unless made easie , nor scholastical niceties , or criticisms , and for those few that can , they are more edified by them in their head , than in their heart ; but he that preacheth solidly , plainly , scripturally , and practically , may edifie the best hearers in their faith , love , and obedience , and zeal , which is the best edification ; for men may have a great deal of notion , and yet perish eternally . sir , that there is generally in our parish-churches , more solid , plain , scriptural , and practical preaching , fitted for the capacity and remembrance of the generality of men and women that come to hear , than there is in the nonconformists meetings , will not easily be allowed by any that commonly heareth both . let , sir , men be never so learned , if in popular discourses , where they are speaking to five hundred men , will speak to five ; that is , to the understanding of a very few : i do not believe , but the rest may go away and hear such as they understand better , and remember what they say . but there need no more words in this case , it is most apparent , that he must know another very well , that can know what discourse will edifie him best , and that no body can possibly understand , or judge that , but himself ; so as this argument is at its length . sir , he cometh p. . to what he calls his second argument to prove this proposition , p. . that it is unlawsul for any men to forsake the communion of the church of england , and go to the separate meetings , because he can better edifie there . because that those who usually make this pretence for separation , do commonly mistake better edification . this is , sir , a way of reasoning , which i cannot understand . i cannot imagine how any person should ever be able to prove , that a man may not go to another church that he may better edifie . because some , or many mistake the nature of edification , doth it follow , sir , that because some mistake it , therefore none knoweth it , or none can know it , or none that truly know the nature of it may pursue it ? but really sir , the author of that discourse seemeth to know it so well , that i think we may all take his own notion of it , and agree with him , p. . that it is an improvement of our spiritual condition in its full latitude . let us build a little , sir , upon so good a foundation . the edification of a soul , sir , is , as a noble , so a very large building , and comprehends an increase in faith , love , obedience to the will of god , with an increase in holy affections , &c. the foundation of this large building must be knowledge , a knowledge of the will of god revealed in scripture , both as to things to be believed , and to be done . hence the wise man , prov. . . tells us , that the soul should be without knowledge , is not good . the apostle saith , rom. . . how shall they call upon him in whom they have not believed ? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard ? and col. . . he tells us , the new man is renewed in knowledge . and col. . the apostle prayeth , that men may be filled with the knowledge of the will of god in all wisdom , and spiritual understanding . and this to that end , that they may walk worthy of the lord unto all pleasing , being fruitful in every good work , and increasing in the knowledge of god. and we are commanded in pet. . . to grow in grace , and in the knowledge of our lord and saviour jesus christ. how , sir , men should mistake an increase in knowledge , ( which is the first stone in this spiritual building ) for an healing of fancy , and a stirring of humours , i leave to you , sir , to judge : it is as bad a mistake as that of an apple for an oyster . in his thirteenth page he seemeth to think , that the duty of keeping an ordinary communion with the parish-minister , ( for that , or nothing , he must mean by his phrase of our church-communion ) is a plainer and greater duty , than attending our edification , because he thinks that is disputable , doubtful , &c. of this , sir , i hope he shall never perswade me , nor you , until he hath perswaded us , that it is better for us to keep to a piece of civil order , than to look after the salvation of our own souls ; and if this were true , an easie exchange might be made for a soul. in his , , , , , he hints us of three mistakes men may have as to edification . : when they take nice and speculative notions , for great edifying truths : such as conjectural notions about the situation of paradise of old , or hell now ; or about the length of the sword that guarded paradise ; or how the spirits above spend their time , of behemo● , wranglings of the schools , &c. to make this business short , sir , go to your parish-church a-while , and to the next meeting as long , and let this be the test ; conclude , that where you hear most of these discourses , there your soul is least edified . what this author saith here , is a great truth , where there is most of these disquisitions , there is least edification . . a second mistake he thinks is , when men take the opinions of parties , for undoubted truths , essential to salvation . what here the author means , i cannot imagine : certainly there is no truth necessary to salvation , but what is the opinion of some party or other . if no truth be necessary to salvation , but what is agreed by all parties , i am afraid we shall find nothing at all necessary , or very little . possibly the doctrine of the trinity ( if we shut out the socinians from the number of christians ) hardly any thing else . but , sir , to make this business also short , our author saith , p. . that the notion or explication of faith and spirit , church and grace , justification , regeneration , conversion , adoption , and other things of like nature , are generally deficient in our church , from those of the separation . and indeed he saith true , that these are the doctrines wherein ministers that preach at meetings , differ from many of those that preach in parish-churches , ( yet not from all , but the most of them ) but not from the church of england . ( sir ) again , make your ears your judges , read over distinctly the articles , and the irish articles , and our homilies , particularly those about justification , and good works , and images , then hear minsters on both sides , and conclude , that those are to be preferred as to edification , that most truly and faithfully preach according to those articles and homilies , we will abide by that test. his last mistake is , . in taking sudden heats and warmths for edification : as to that , let them answer that are concerned , p. . that whole page is but reflexive , and upon so false a foundation , as i am not willing to trouble my self with considering it , or to foul my fingers with such a dunghill of meere words . in his th page he comes to what he calls a third argument to prove it unlawful for persons to leave their parish-churches for better edification : because ( as he pretends ) it will cause endless divisions . here , sir , we must examine , . the truth of the thing . . the proper cause of the effect , 〈…〉 uch an effect will certainly follow . admit , sir , that in the same family , several persons should find it better for the improvements of their souls in knowledge , faith , love , obedience , holy zeal , to go to several parishes to hear their ministers , or to several meetings , what division is here ? it is this day done in a thousand families , all the members of which yet live in a perfect unity one with another ; the wife dearly loves the husband , and he again his wife ; the children truly honour the parents , and the parents as truly love their children ; the servants honour and obey their masters , they are as tender of their servants . i pray , sir , as to this point , let your eyes again here be your judges : see what families are more decently united , than those in which you will observe this different motion when they go to hear . and , sir , there is obvious reason for it ; it speaks men to use some conscience and reason of their own , when they cannot be guided by the meer dictates and examples of others ; and it is most certain , that those who live most up to the rule of scripture , and square of reason , make the best correlates in any relation ; and those the worst , who are led by humour , or the meer dictates and wills of others . but admit , sir , division be the consequent of persons ( in the same parish ) going to hear in several places , for better edification ( as we see it is ) will this prove it unlawful for people to go ? just as much as it argueth , christ's coming into the world ( necessary for the salvation of mankind ) unlawful , because himself tells us , mat. . , . that he came not to send peace , but a sword : for i am come to set a man at variance against his father , and the daughter against her mother , and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law . suppose a few particular persons in a parish , ( who tho' themselves blind , yet will undertake to judge of colours ) through their peevishness or ill-nature , or their pride and ignorance , will have all men to be of their last , and to do as they do , or they will quarrel with them , nick-name them , pursue them in all courts of judicature , never let them be quiet , &c. doth this conclude , that those who are thus hunted , do any sinful thing ? it will rather be a presumption of the contrary . division is no necessary consequent of peoples not going to their parish-church . what hath my neighbour to do with my soul , further than to admonish me , if he seeth sin upon me ? must every man cut his hair , or beard , in the same fashion , because else his neighbour will call him prick-ear , or roundhead , and strike him over the face : or if he doth not , must he sin ? i am not to be charged with a sinful effect of my action , ( or consequent rather ) which floweth from the malice and corruption of another's heart , upon my doing what i believe to be my duty . i cannot , sir , but i must observe to you , that strange passage of his , p. . where he calls it a fatal day , when — liberty should be given to every man to choose his pastor . a thing he knows so evident in scripture , so plain in all the practice of the primitive church , and so consonant to all reason and religion , as nothing can be more . it is an argument that men and women are debauched into a lamentable opinion of their souls , that can possibly think , that they ought not to have as much liberty to chuse pastors for themselves , as they will challenge for a shooe-maker to fit their feet with shooes , or for a taylor to fit their bodies with a suit of cloaths . . sir , the author's last argument is fetched from the discouragement this would give to an honest , truly christian minister . this , sir , supposeth , that all who inhabit within such a parish , are properly that ministers flock , who preacheth in that parish-church . how is that proved ? nor can it be true , 'till the right of another be proved , to choose a pastor for my soul. but , sir , i have been young , and now am old ; i never yet knew a faithful and profitable preacher , want an auditory . i have indeed known many a learned and honest man , want the company of his own parishioners , but his church hath been filled up with others . i have also known many a learned and good man , who wanting elocution , or an happy method , or being weak in preaching parts , hath wanted an auditory , but let a man be conformist , or nonconformist , if he were a man sound in matters of doctrine , holy in his life , and but of tolerable preaching parts and abilities , i never knew him want an auditory . i dare say , no such person this day wants , none especially that is chosen by the people ; either by a first election , or an after submission . there ever was , and while this world stands there will ever be difference in the ministers auditories , 'till god makes all ministers equal in gifts and abilities . neither do i much understand the discouragement of a small flock ( supposing the minister to have a livelihood ) the fewer souls a minister hath under his charge , the lesser his account will be at the day of judgment : to whom many souls are entrusted , of him will many be required . but ( saith our author ) what if our pastor be idle , or remiss in his duty , or corrupt in the faith , and teacheth error instead of sound doctrine , and we have no means of edification : what must we do ? must we take in poison instead of food , or not be fed at all ? a very considerable question ; to which might have been added : what if he be of an unholy life , who builds with one hand , and destroyeth with the other ? to whom people are ready to say when he reproveth one , physitian heal thy self . how can we think you believe , as you speak , when we see you do not live as you speak ? but to the questions as formed by himself , ( sir ) the author replies , to be sure you must not run into schismatical separation . it is more tolerable to go to other congregations of our communion , that may be irregular , but it is not schismatical . what doth he mean by a schismatical separation ? shall the following words expound him ? it is more tolerable to go to other churches of our communion . what is the meaning of that ? are not all congregations , where the same doctrine is preached , and the same worship , i mean acts of worship , performed , of the same communion ? doth the difference in the ministers habits , and words in prayer , make a different communion ? but is it lawful to go to other parish-churches ? no , saith our author , that is irregular ; and if it were not so , surely men should not be made such deep sufferers for that venial sin. but he thanks god , we have a government , which upon a just and modest complaint , will quicken the lazy and negligent , correct the heretical pastor , and restore to you true edification . i have not a word , sir , to say against this : judge as you see what is true or false in these things , is matter of demonstration , and therefore there need no words about it . the author , sir , concludes his discourse with the recommendation of two things to us . . that if we fancy any defects in our government , we should not hence conclude , that we have not sufficient edification in the church to save our souls . i know , sir , you cannot but observe , . how the author hath forgot his question , which he , p. . stated concerning better edification . sir , i do not think any sober dissenter will deny , that men and women may be saved in the church of england . i know many of them do think , that many will be saved in the popish communion , where they have no better light to make use of , than they have in spain and italy , and live up to their light ; doth it therefore follow , that they must not withdraw communion from rome ? i do not here compare the church of england with the romish synagogue , i only bring this as an instance , that a sufficiency of the means of grace to bring men to heaven , is not enough for pious souls to look after ; if it were , there needed no exhortations to grow in grace . how comes the question to be altered here , p. . or this to be used as an argument not to seek for further edifying ; that in the church of england there is sufficient edification , ( means of edification , i presume he means ) to save souls , have christians no more to do , doth this author think , than to look just to get to heaven ? surely their business is in the first place to glorifie god ; and that can be no otherwise , than by bringing forth much fruit ; john . . herein , saith our saviour , is my father glorified , if you bear much fruit. there are some whose work shall be burnt , and they shall suffer loss , but yet they themselves shall be saved ; yet so as by fire , cor. . . every good christian will think himself concerned so to live , so to walk as he may most glorifie god , and be saved , yet not so , as by fire . he goeth on , if upon a nice search , and critical enquiry , they think they have found some little flaws and defects , improper phrases , doubtful sentences , and some small omissions in the matter of our prayers and discipline ; yet let them not conclude , that these can weigh in the ballance against the black sin of schism and separation ; and all its sad consequents , which is excused by nothing else , but terms of communion plainly sinful . sir , we must give them leave to load practices , they do not like hard names , when they are not able to convince the authors of them of any sin. i could wish , that we could hear more of the black sins of drunkenness and whoredom , and prophane cursing , and swearing ; but they can never name schism and separations , but they must represent that as a black sin , yet they will never tell us in any intelligible dialect , what this same sin unto death is ? wherein it lies ? which of the ten commandments it opposeth , & c ? let them first tell us , what the church is , and open how we ever were united to it , and then shew as plainly , how we are separated from it , and we will cry peccavimus , if we cannot shew them , that the terms upon which we must have had communion with it , were such as we had just reason to believe sinful . but sir , when dissenters plead separation lawful for better edification , it is not so much with respect to the worship , and government , as to the preaching most ordinary in it ; not that there are not excellent preachers that do conform to the church of england ; but with all there are others , many of which also may be very learned and good men ; but yet not have the gift of preaching . edification is much more concerned in the doctrine and preaching , which men ordinarily hear and attend , than it is in the form of a churches government , and in the prayers used there ( though they also influence it ) in a much lower degree doth , for a knowledge of the things of god , being the foundation of all faith , love , obedience , or any sanctified affection ; that ordinance which most contributes to that , must necessarily most contribute to edification . it is therefore the preaching in most parish churches , which people look at , as less tending to edification , than what they hear elsewhere , being less fitted to their understandings , and memories ; less awakening and operative upon their affections ; if any of them assign any thing in the publick worship , or the government of the church , as giving them cause to withdraw their presence from the former , or concurrence with the latter ; it is ordinarily of another nature , not for further edification meerly . whereas sir , our author saith , p. . that he doth not understand , what it is to be better saved , or more saved ? we cannot help that , the apostle cor. . . will teach him what he pretends to be so unintelligible . his next councel is p. . let edification be placed in the substantial parts of religion . sir , we have our religion yet to seek , if faith and holiness , be not the substantial parts of it . there is none that denieth , that a right faith , and an honest conversation is taught in our church . the question is , whether they be ordinarily taught in all parish churches in the best manner for peoples understanding either , or improvement in either ? they are certainly taught in the best manner with reference to edification , when they are taught so plainly as all the hearers may understand them ; and what is said , is so proved and justified from holy writ ; that their faith ( whose object , 't is not possible should be any thing , but a divine revelation ) can be founded not in the wisdom of mens fine words , or fallible ratiocinations ; but in the power of god , and in the wisdom of the divine will revealed in his word . if the author sir means , that these things are taught in our thirty nine articles , and in some particular churches , all that he can infer is , that it is not lawful for us to divide our selves from the doctrine of faith in those articles ; nor from such places where we dwell , where those doctrines are so preached , if ever we were united to them . if he means , that in all parish churches , faith , and holiness are so pressed , and preached ; he will find it denied by many , and impossible by himself to be proved . i see sir , nothing more in all the book you sent me ( unless words . ) to draw up all in short sir. if all the ministers and christians on the earth ( not apostatized to idolatry ) be but one church , her doctrine , and worship , one and the same ; how is it possible , that any should separate from it , who adhereth to the doctrine of it , and lives in the performance of the same acts of worship , that god is honoured by in every part of it ? for it is certain , that all such persons as are members of it , neither do , nor ever did worship god in the same place , nor by the same numerical acts ; nor are under the same external form of church-government , and order : so as there is no pretence of separation from the catholick visible church . i know no other church , but the particular church of which an individual person is a member . let us consider that , as signifying the whole body of christians wherein we live ( upon which account we sometimes speak of a national church ) how can a person more separate from that , than from the catholick church ( sir ) who adhereth to the doctrine of faith owned in it , and serveth god in any part , or corner of it by the same specifical acts of worship , that whole body of people serveth god by , and in ? for neither do all the people in any nation meet in the same place to worship god ; nor do the ministers use the same words , in all their prayers , or sermons , nor do people use the same habits and postures in their acts of worship : do they mean the particular congregation of which men are members ? it is impossible a man should separate from a church in that sense who never was a member of it , and as impossible that any should sinfully withdraw communion from a church in that lowest notion , that cannot without sin , have communion with it , in that , or those acts in which he withdraweth his communion . neither is he to be called a separatist , that only withdraweth his communion from it as to an human tradition , and is yet ready to have communion with it in every divine institution . it is most certain that christ did so , as to the jews , and also kept a communion distinct from them , though he did not wholly cast off communion with them . john baptist kept a communion with the jewish church , yet sufficiently reflected on the corruptions of it ; and neither restrained his preaching , nor baptizing to the synagogues or temple . this same thing so clamour'd on , under the notion of the black sin of schism and separation , if it signifieth any thing more , than a withdrawing frome some rites , and ceremonies of no divine institution , no necessity , the imposition of which , and a compliance with which some persons judge sinful ; i must profefs my self not in the least degree to understand it , and if it signifies no more , which of the ten commandments it is opposed to . i cannot understand , nor how to excuse him from it , who did the like , yet was holy , undefiled , separate from sinners . but sir , as to what is said in this discourse , that it is sinful for a man ( agreeing in all the points of faith , in all the substantial parts and acts of worship with all christians in the world , and more especially with all those in the nation , or in the parish wherein he lives ) not ordinarily to join in those numerical acts of worship which the rest of the parishioners , or many of them join in ; because the preaching and praying , or other administrations of holy things in that place , is not such , as he by experience findeth most conducive to the profit of his soul , either to convey to him the knowledge of the things of god , or to affect his heart with love to , and zeal for god. it is of all things , that which i least understand , and ( sir ) i hope it is the last thing any shall beat into my head. if any hath a design upon me ( sir ) let him attempt if he can to prove , that i have soul , or if any , yet that soul ( or thing called so ) is but the cr●sis of my body , no distinct being from it , but shall with it die and putrifie , and never with it rise more , to hear of what i have done in the flesh. or let him attempt , if he can to perswade me , that i am not with this soul to endeavour to my utmost to glorifie god. but i hope he shall never , so long as i believe that there is a god , or that i have an immortal being within me , with which i ought to glorifie this god ( the eternal concern of which i am above all things to mind ) and in order to it , to obey god by doing his will. perswade me , that it is sinful for me to leave my parish church , and go to hear the word of god , and join in his holy institutions in another place , that i may more build up my soul in the knowledge of god , in the faith of god , or love to him . nor indeed ( to give this author his due ) ( though in his first lines he pretended to do some such thing ) hath he in his book at all pursued it ; but only proved , that i ought not to go from my parish church that i may edifie more ; when as there is no place i can go to , where it is possible i should edifie more ; and suggested that we do not know what edification meaneth , having therefore as to the latter satisfied him , that if himself knows what edification means , we also do ; for we understand the same thing by it , that he means ; i hope he will give us leave to judge of the former , as being the most competent judge of what we best understand , and feel the best effects of ; and no more pretend to know better , what preaching i best understand , and is most suited to my soul , than he can pretend to know what food best agreeth with my stomack , and digestion , and serveth best for my nourishment . as to this business of edification , what is said of the physitian , is true of the divine , as the one gives physick , so the other preacheth , non ad bominem , sed ad socratem , the same matter , and method , and phrase , and stile , is not for the same edification of all that may go to hear . and this , sir , is enough , i think , to have spoken of this matter : for it is certain , that all things spoken now-a-days edifie not , nor do all things which may in some degree edifie some , in the same , or indeed in any degree edifie others . let therefore us have the favour that daniel obtained of matzar , dan. . . let us have that pulse to eat , and that water to drink , which we find best agreeing with our stomachs , concoction , and digestion ; and let it either be judged by god at the end of the world , or by any reasonable man , after a determinate number of years , whether those who are fed with the king's meat , or we that have been fed with that pulse and water , be more full of the knowledge of the things of god , more full of love to god , more pious in our acts of devotion , more full of acts of justice and charity , more exercised in a good conscience both towards god and man , from whence this edification will be best concluded . the sum of all which this author hath said , lies in four things . . what is impossible to be had , is unlawful to be attempted . by this medium , he proves , going to meetings for further edification unlawful . but , sir , did ever any man before him reason from impossibility , to unlawfulness of endeavour ? i always thought the question , ( as stated by him ) supposed the possibility of such a thing , as further edifying : besides , that there are many things lawful enough to be endeavoured , which yet cannot be obtained . secondly , if it be not lawful to go to meetings for mistaken edification , then it is not lawful to go thither , for true and real edification . this is the sum of his reasoning , p. , , , , , , . thirdly , that which will cause endless divisions is not lawful : which is no further true , than those divisions necessarily arise out of the pretended cause . the gospel hath caused divisions , ever since it was preached , now more than years ; and , for ought i see , is like to do so still : yet , i hope , it is neither unlawful to preach it , nor to live up to the rule of it . this is his argumentation , p. , . fourthly , that which is a discouragement to an honest and truly christian ministry , is unlawful . if he means by an honest christian ministry , all ministers , or many such ministers as the apostle speaks of , that live well , being examples to the flock of christ , such as are described , tim. . , . and titus , , , . ( and such the apostle saith ministers must be , tim. , . ) and such as rule well , shewing it first in the government of their own families , tim. , , . labouring in the word and doctrine . he speaks true , for the apostle saith , such are worthy of double honour , and to discourage such , is unquestionably sinful : but if he means others , it is far easier to prove it sinful to countenance and incourage , than to discourage them . by this time , sir , i need not tell you my thoughts , that the hypothesis of this author , had need of better arguments than what he hath brought to prove it , and you may be judge of the truth , of what can be no better proved . finis . the history of conformity, or, a proof of the mischief of impositions from the experience of more than years collinges, john, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing c estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) the history of conformity, or, a proof of the mischief of impositions from the experience of more than years collinges, john, - . [ ], , [i.e. ] p. printed by a. maxwell and r. roberts, london : . reproduction of original in the university of illinois (urbana-champaign campus). library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng freedom of religion -- england -- history. dissenters, religious -- history. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - robyn anspach sampled and proofread - robyn anspach text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the history of conformity : or a proof of the mischief of impositions , from the experience of more than one hundred years . london : printed by a. maxwell , and r. roberts , . to the reader by way of introduction . christian reader ! what was in a great measure proved before the committee of parliament in the year , that london was burned by the treachery of papists , and hath withal been suspected a long time by our wise and discerning patriots , that a plot was by them laid to subvert the government of the nation , and introduce the popish religion , hath been so fully proved by a variety of evidence before the greatest courts of judicature in england , since the first discovery of the late hellish plot , and that with this advantage ( to convince us of the villany and danger of that party ) , that they had upon it grafted a design for the hastening of the other to assassinate his most sacred majesty , and several eminent peers , and by a popish army to massacre all protestants , as none can deny it with any degree of modesty . and if any had any inclinations to it , the murther of sir edmondbury godfrey , and assassination of mr. arnold , the manifold lyes , perjuries , subornations , which have been proved against them , the device of the meal-tub plot , &c. to spoil the credit of the manifold proofs against them , have been such convictions as none hath been able to outface , unless such as have dreamed of a liberty , yea and a merit too , for , and in doing any thing for the reputation of the catholick church , as they nickname the synagogue of rome . it is as evident that the design of the popish faction was to have cast the odium of these actions upon the protestants . the odium of sir edmondbury godfreys death should have been cast upon debauches of that religion , had it not been unluckily discovered that he was murthered within the walls of sommerset house . but that of the kings death ( could they have effected it ) should have been thrown on the presbyterians , ( a name under which of late they have comprehended all dissenters . ) this should have engaged our credulous and furious men to have helped them to have destroyed the dissenters , while they should have got their catholick army in a capacity at last to have destroyed them also . this restless party having had this long in their design , no doubt wonderfully influenced some to procure such a settlement of religion upon his majesties restauration as should produce dissenters enough ; nor is it reasonable to think that all the latter severe acts against dissenters were not the fruits of their counsels , considering how conducive they were to make a great number of protestants willing for their own ease to have had an vniversal toleration , which ( though nothing is or can be more contrary to popish principles ) would admirably have served their design , giving an undisturbed liberty to their priests and jesuits ( who can never have an abode in any place without contriving the ruin of those they call hereticks ) in our own bowels to have contrived our ruin . or if this failed ( as indeed it did ) yet they knew that this way they should employ all our courts of judicature against protestants , so as they should not look after them ; and besides , raise a mighty odium and prejudice in the hearts of protestants one against another , so as whatever villany they should have effected , it would have been easie to have charged it upon dissenters , and there had been a party of protestants in name ready prepared to give credit to it . it is now evident to all who will not wilfully shut their eyes , how near they were to have accomplished their design . but god in infinite mercy hath prevented the accomplishment . after all this one would reasonably think that there should not be one protestant in england , who should not think it high time for our superiors to unite all protestants . a thing the more easie and reasonable , because it is apparent that it may be done without the least offence to god , or scandal to the generality of reformed churches ; and by the abatement only of some things which being abated , we shall be much more like all reformed churches , than we are . but against this some make a mighty outcry , ( out of what design god knoweth ) for it is a little mysterious , that those men who all along have been great pleaders for a reconciliation betwixt us and the church of rome , and the true disciples of those bishops , who to prevent the offence of that church , took upon them in the time of king charles the first to expunge passage out of the common-prayer-book , and to bring us as near as possible to them , erected altars , brought in tapers , and twenty things more ; should , now that they see the effect of those endeavours for , and favours to papists , not be willing for the reconciling of all protestants to abate those things which themselves own no where specially commanded by god ; and this too at a time when the popish bloody knives are at all our throats . especially considering that the true cause of retaining our ceremonies at the first , and forming our common-prayer-book in the method it is , was originally a desire so far to commend our worship to the papists ( whose religion lyes all in ceremonies and set-forms ) that they might be proselyted to us ; and the effects we have seen after an hundred years and upwards , is but the hardning of papists , and the alienating infinite numbers of protestants from us . i am aware that a late author in his book call'd , the vnreasonableness of separation , hath given us an account of three other reasons of the first imposition of the ceremonies upon the reformation . . a due reverence to antiquity . . to manifest the justice and equity of the reformation , by letting the papists see we did not break communion with them for things meerly indifferent . . to shew our consent with other protestant churches . but he had better have said nothing . for will some say , how have we reverenced antiquity in retaining three of their ceremonies , and leaving out twenty more of greater antiquity ( if we may believe the books we have ) than the surplice and kneeling at the sacrament , two of the three we have retained can pretend unto ? besides that , all the account we have of antiquity is from books printed within years ( for printing is very little older ) , from manuscripts , which if they bear date three hundred years after christ , must be years old when they were printed . if we stretch antiquity to years after christ , they must be years old , and all that time generally kept in the hands of the known depravers of all books that ever came in their hands where was any thing not for the purposes of their church . now what reverence is due to any such worm-eaten records of antiquity , let any men of sense judg . his second reason is as invalid ; for what need was there of our keeping two or three ceremonies to testifie we did not differ from them for meer matters of indifferency , when so many books , so many disputations , testified we differed from them because of their idolatry in many things , and their doctrine of justification by works , &c. the last is yet of all the most weak ; for how did we by it shew our consent with other protestant churches ? in the year which was the last of king edward ; in the year , which was the first of queen elizabeth , there were no protestant churches but the luther an churches , the suitzerland churches , and that of geneva , besides some in germany , which followed the reformation of suitzerland and geneva . in retaining these ceremonies we shewed a dissent to the reformed churches in suitzerland , and at geneva , and all those who followed their order , and shewed our consent only with the lutheran churches so imperfectly reformed , that in the synod at dōrt the messengers of all reformed churches there met , made a difficulty to afford them the name of protestants , though i think the name protestant better agreed to them than that of evangelici , which was the name the reformed were known by for the ten first years after the reformation began . besides , that for kneeling at the sacrament , the saxon churches retain it upon their peculiar notion , wherein they differ from all other reformed churches , viz. the corporeal presence of christ in and with that ordinance . for the retaining of some ceremonies in the saxon churches , a double account is to be given . luther and ambsdorfius were great zealots for them , partly to quiet the people , who had so lately been papists ; and it may be partly in opposition to zuinglius , and specicially to carolostadius , who had made himself the author of abolishing some , during luther's absence , when he was hid for fear of a decree at worms . melancthon ( a very learned man ) being of a more so●t ductile spirit , with justus jonas , and some others , took luther's part . carolostadius was run down ; both zuinglius and carolostadius saw that the retaining any of the popish ceremonies would have no desired effect , but rather scandalize their friends , and harden the papists ; and the taking them away afterward , would be called a refining upon a refining ; they therefore , though they bare with much some few years , yet took the first opportunity to throw them all out where they had to do . the case was much the same with us in england ; our ceremonies were retain'd upon no such pretences as were before expressed . there was no reverence in it shewed to antiquity . no consent shewed with the most or best reformed churches at that time . but our best and most eminent ministers had been papists , used their missal , practiced all their ceremonies . at that time to have receded from the papists in all things fit to have been receded from , might have been oddly lookt upon by the people . besides that the people in times of popery were much strangers to any thing of religion but ceremonies , and hearing mass ; hence ( as may be seen in the first edition of the common prayer ) many things were put in , which were left out by the bishops in the d edn. of it in k. edw. time . and had it pleased god after q. maries time to have continued us such bishops as cranmer , hooper , latimer , coverdale , &c. there is little doubt but these controversies had long since been at an end . but our bishops many of them were such moderate men as could abide here all queen maries time ; others of them were such as indeed had been beyond sea , but very zealous there to keep up the book , in the framing of which themselves had an hand ( amongst these was dr. cox ) , the same reason held as in k. edw. the . time , for humouring the people ; thus the ceremonies came at first to be established . for the forms of prayer , there was not the same reason for establishing some forms at present in that state of the church ; there could scarce have been any praying or preaching without some forms both of prayers and sermons ; there were twenty reading ministers for one who had any competent abilities either to pray or preach . but the reason was the very same for the establishing so many of the old forms , and keeping methods agreeing to none of any reformed church . i offer it to any knowing persons to judg whether ( whatever be said by some ) this was not the true reason of the first establishment ; and they were no invaluable reasons for the continuance of them for some few years until people were brought off more from their old superstitions . i find that in most places of germany at first , the reformation was gradual , some ceremonies and superstitious usages were cast out one year , some the next , some several years after the gospel was first preached in those places . but why these should be continued after twenty years , when it was seen that the continuance of them had no effect to bring in papists , but gave a great scandal to , and made a great division amongst protestants and when people were further enlightned , and their first heats for their old ways of worship were abated , is a much greater mystery ; yet we shall find that in the , , years of queen elizabeth , there was a more severe urging these things than ever before . i am loth to think any rancor against those at that time called puritans , was the original cause ; but do believe that an imployment for those who managed the ecclesiastical courts , without using their power against the papists , or moral debauchees , might be no little argument in the cause , and a design driven by the papists and atheists in the nation to that purpose . such considerations as these could never affect an english parliament so as to make a first establishment of them . but the succeeding parliaments and princes found them in possession ( that we say is nine parts of a law ) and some zealots in the church strained their wits to make them appear lawful , and so within the power of the superiour , and for many of them several good : men had not then light enough to discern their unlawfulness . ●● as there were very few that wrote to purpose on that argument ( dr. ames was almost the only man in his age . ) indeed the ceremonies , the reading the old translation of the scripture , and the apocryphal books , the subscription , that there was nothing in the common prayer book , and book of ordaining priests and deacons , but what was agreeable to gods word , were an hundred year since argued against as unlawful , as i could prove by several writings of the nonconformists of those times ( i have seen an ancient manuscript of them big enough for a just folio ) , some things were not then practised , non required to be put in ure , though they were in the queens injunctions , &c. ( some of them at least . ) in all the cases of nonconformists in queen elizabeths time , i find not a minister complaining for being inforced to receive , or to administer the sacrament to people kneeling ; i find nothing of any suffering for not bowing at the name of jesus , not ralling in the communion-table , not setting it altarwise , not reading the second service at it , with many more such things which were brought into practice by archbishop laud , bishop wren , and others . one great pretence of keeping up many of these things , was to avoid the scandal of the papists , and to intice them to our religion , &c. we have now seen the effects of this in the experience of an hundred years , which have been too sad to particularize ; it were easie to make a book of acts and monuments twice as big as mr. foxes , with the sufferings of holy and good men , upon these accounts in that time . what manner of persons the dissenters are , the experience of twenty years since his majesties restauration , hath sufficiently informed the world . what have the most fiery of their adversaries to object against them except in the matters of their god ? what kind of friend the popish party hath been , hath been also made sufficiently evident . i humbly leave it to the judgment of his most excellent maejesty and his parliament , whether seeing ( confessedly ) it may be without offence to the divine majesty , the taking away of those things which alone make the partition-wall betwixt protestants and protestants , be not as politick as pious , considering the history of conformity from the first unto this very day , which might possibly have appeared more reasonable if i would have inserted the lamentable stories of the sufferings of good men on this account , ( of which i have a plenty ) but i had rather they should be forgotten , most of the authors of them before this time have given up their account , and know whether they did good or evil ; and if any be alive , i hope all good men will say , father forgive them , for they knew not what they did . only let it be the religious care of our superiors to prevent any further complaints of this nature in our streets , for the lord most certainly heareth the crys of the innocent and oppressed . the history of conformity : or a proof of the mischief of impositions , from the experience of an hundred years . the notion of conformity with us in england , hath always signified a compliance with , and obedience to such commands of superiors in matters of doctrine , worship , and government of the church , as are no where expresly originated in the word of god , but supposed to be there left to liberty ; and being neither there commanded , nor forbidden , are presumed to be matter of superiors just commands . the power of superiors to command in things which the parties commanded do agree indifferent , was never yet disputed by the generality of nonconformists . but there being many things which superiors call indifferent , which the inferiors verily believe to be unlawful , the difference hath chiefly been about these , and still is so to this day . upon the reformation of this nation from popery in the days of k. edw. the th , in the year , ( which was edw. th ) there were articles of faith agreed on ; and in the . & edw. . cap. . & . & edw. . cap. . two acts were made referring to two common-prayer-books made in the short reign of that excellent prince . it must be known , that before this time in the time of k. hen. . there were great foundations for reformation laid , in the suppression of monasteries , taking away the popes supremacy destruction of appeals to rome , printing the bible in english ; but there was no reformation in doctrine , worship , or discipline . for the doctrine , it appeareth to have been popish by the six articles ; the first of which yet was so penned , as though it established a corporal presence of christ in the supper , yet it seemed to leave it indefinite , whether in the popish or lutheran sense , which possibly gave archbishop cranmer ( who as well as latimer and other good men at that time were lutherans ) a latitude to be an agent in lamberts condemnation . the other five articles against giving the cup to the laity , and for private masses , and monkish vows , auricular confession , and priests marriages , were perfectly popish . so as in that time no nonconformist appear'd , but as to doctrine , of which lambert the martyr was one , and so were all those that suffered upon the account of the six articles , together with multitudes who fled into other countries to avoid that persecution . the worship of those days was the mass , only some parts of it were in english . the government of the church was also in the same method ; for though three acts had been made to authorize k. h. . to call together persons to make a book of new canons ; yet for ought appeareth to us , it was not done . and possibly a due consideration , that several of our greatest reformers were lutherans at first , may satisfie us as to the first establishment of our liturgy in the method it was , and retaining of some ceremonies ; the saxon churches having before reformed in that method , keeping as much as they could both of the old prayers and ceremonies . and it is very likely that when after queen maries time the reformation came to be re-setled , some of those who had a great hand in it , were possessed of the lutheran principles , as to the corporal presence , forms and ceremonies , or at least had a very great reverence for cranmer , latimer and others ( who were then dead as martyrs ) , and chose to fix things according to their sentiments in these matters , without so due weighing things as the matter required , or having not so early a prospect of the evils which experience hath since let us see following thereupon . in the first parliament of king edw. . the first statute tells us , that before that time ( in the times of popery ) they had several forms , one used at sarum , another at bangor , &c. and the whole ministry of the nation were just come out of popery , and neither fit to pray nor preach , which was the reason both of that establishment , and also of the book of homilies , and of the original cause of that imposition on the ministry , not to preach without license . for the truth is , hardly one of an hundred of the priests newly proselyted from popery , were fit to preach at all , which made our rulers restrain preaching only to such as should be licensed . besides , that there was just reason to fear that those priests but for such a law , and such a book , would have returned to their former mass-service . to prevent which , the book was provided , , edw. . and corrected , edw. . and all ministers injoin'd by statute to read those prayers , and all the people to bear them . there was before that time no nonconformist to direct the act against , only papists . but upon the second edition of the common-prayer there appeared a considerable party , who opposed themselves to it . three years before , bishop hooper and mr. rogers had declared themselves against some rites and ceremonies but the last year of edw. . was the first time we read of any opposition to the common prayer , and the contest was quickly at an end by the coming in of q. mary . the business of church-government as to the rules of it , was left by king edward undetermined ; for he died before he had given his royal sanction to that systeme of ecclesiastical laws which was drawn up by archbishop cranmer and others , by vertue of his commission directed to them in the fifth year of his reign . in all his time no subscription was required by statute or canon ( that i can find ) established by his authority under the broad seal , either to the articles of faith , or to the book of common-prayer , &c. nor do i read of one minister silenced , or suspended upon any such account , or any people vexed for nonconformity . our prudent reformers knowing they had to do with a people who were papists the other day , in their first common prayer book varied as little as they could from the popish missal , and kept as many of the ceremonies as they conceived were consistent with any degree of reformation . in the second common-prayer-book they varied more ; but yet we are assured by dr. fuller in his church history , lib. . that the party now disaffected to the liturgy became very considerable . this was in the very beginning of the reformation , anno . queen mary succeeding , put an end to all these contests in england for the whole time of her reign , which was but five years . to avoid her persecution , multitudes fled beyond the seas , fixing some at basil , some at geneva , some at strasburgh , some at embden , some at francfort , and other places . we have no account , that i know , how those governed themselves as to religious matters , who fixed at any of those places , save only at francfort and geneva ; those at geneva followed the order of that church , so did those at francfort , using the order at geneva from june , , to mar. . , when dr. cox ( one of those who had compiled our english common prayer book , and was mightily in love with his own labours ) came over with a new party from england , and by his arts got admission into the church at francfort , and brought in the english book amongst them ; nor did this satisfie him , but he must also turn out their pastor mr. knox , and that not from his charge only , but out of francfort , procuring him ( by some of his party ) to be accused to the senate for a sermon he had two years before preached in bucking hamshire here in england , in which he had some passages reflecting upon the emperour of germany as an idolater , &c. which made some of the senate advise him to leave the city , because the imperial court was then at ausburgh ; and if this malicious party had carried an accusation against him thither , and the emperour should require the city to deliver him as a traytor to him , they could not refuse him . which made mr. knox and a considerable party of that church remove to geneva . this was the first fruits of the conformable mens kindness to poor dissenters , though at that time they were both parties voluntary exiles in a strange land for the common cause of religion . so that dr. cox , who was afterward bishop of ely ; and horne , who was afterwards made bishop of winchester ; were left in possession of that church , and there performed their devotions by the english common-prayer-book , which at that time had had but the establishment of one year before it was thrown out for the mass in england . queen elizabeth came to the crown three years after this , in the year . upon which , the banished from all parts returned , both those who had fled from king hen . persecution , for the six articles , who if any of them returned before , were driven back again ; and those who fled from queen maries persecution , from . to . these ( if we may believe bishop bancroft and dr. fuller ) having beyond sea sucked in the protestant principles for worship as well as discipline , were the fathers of nonconformity in england . but these were either many more than i could ever find registred , or else under both persecutions multitudes must lye hid in england . and indeed some make the cause of the different apprehensions in protestants at that time to lye here ; that those most favourable to conformity , and promoters of it , were such as had never been abroad , but during both those persecutions , weathered the storm in england ; and the nonconformists , such as had been abroad , and seen the worship , order and discipline of the churches in suitzerland , and germany , and at geneva . but this is not universally true ; for both dr. cox. and mr. horne were at francfurt , yet high en ough for our conformity , both during their abode there , and after their return into england . in the first year of queen elizabeth several acts passed , which revived the reformation , uniting the ecclesiastical jurisdiction to the crown , repealing queen maries act of repeal , and reviving several statutes for the reformation made in the time of hen. . and edw. . establishing vniformity of prayers . and it is to be noted , that these acts passed without the assent of one bishop : there were at this time but fourteen present , and they were all papists , and notorious dissenters from all acts of this nature . this by the way may let my reader understand the popish design of a party amongst us , for whom it is not enough that the clergy be owned as one of the three estates of the realm ( of which the king is the head ) but they will also have them to be one of the three states in parliament ; which if they be , no law can be of force that wants the consent of some of them . so that if that notion were yeilded , all our acts for reformation must be concluded nullities . it was the second year of the queen before we had a set of protestant bishops . it was her majesties interest at that time , so to govern her self , as to caray an equal hand to all protestants ; accordingly she fill'd up the bishopricks , partly with men that during the late persecutions had staid in england ; partly of such as had fled beyond the seas . . mathew parker , archbishop of canterbury — he had lived a private life in england . these , if no more , had been exiles . . edward grindall , bishop of london . . robert horne , bishop of winchester . . richard cox , bishop of ely. . edward sands , bishop of worcester . . john jewel , bishop of salisbury . . tho. beatham , b of coventry and litchfield . . john parkhurst , bishop of norwish . whether these had been beyond sea , during the persecution , i cannot tell . . rowland mecreek , bishop of bangor , . nicholas bullingham , bishop of lincoln . . thomas young , bishop of st. davids . . richard davyes , bishop of asaph . . gilbert barclay , bishop of bath and wells . . edmond guest , bishop of rochester . . william alley bishop of exeter . . edmond seamler , bishop of peterborough . . richard cheyney , bishop of glocester . . thomas young , archbishop of york . . james pilkington , bishop of durham . . john best , bishop of carlisle . . george downham , bishop of chester . the other bishopricks were either detained in the queens hands , or held in commendam . these men were all of them conformists , but some of them knew the heart of sufferers for their consciences towards god , for themselves had been such ; indeed they generally had been so , though in different degrees . this temper of these bishops gave that party much quiet for several years , who could not agree to the liturgy and ceremonies . i find a very large petition presented by multitudes to the queen , anno. . which was the third year of her reign , in three or four sheets m. s. where they complain of insufficient and scandalous ministers , of pluralists , and non-residents , and lawyers being ministers , but i find not the least complaint of any suspended , deprived , &c. yet even at the first i find mr. coverdale refusing to be restored to his bishoprick of exeter , and reverend gilpen refusing the bishoprick of carlisle . but no subscription was yet required to any thing , by any legal authority ; nor was the use of all the common-prayer-book , or an exact observance of the ceremonies , generally urged . this kept all in quiet some years : the people enjoyed the labours of their godly ministers : the ministers at that time scrupled not to use some parts of the common-prayer : the bishops did not exact their use of the more offensive parts of it , nor of the ceremonies : some particular officials were a little busie ; and some few , very few men were sufferers by them : but the body of the nonconforming ministers and people were much quiet , until not only arch-bishop parker was dead , but bishop grindall also , who succeeded him in that , who died about . about the th of the queen . in the year . dr. john whitgift came to be archbishop of canterbury . the first i read of , as to subscriptions and nonconformity , was when the subscription to the . articles , which were made by the convocation . but not confirmed by parliament until the year . ( which was the th eliz. ) and then only required to be subscribed by such as were to be admitted to livings : and ; that no further than so far as concerned matters of faith and the doctrine of the sacraments , was exacted from all ministers . after the agreement in them by the convocation , . several bishops without any authority from parliament , imposed a subscription to the whole number of them upon all ministers in their diocesces ; the refusal of which caused the sufferings of seveaal particular men . john fox being required to subscribe , pulled out his greek testament , and plainly told the archbishop , he would subscribe to nothing but that ; but yet such was the gravity of the man , such his eminency for his service to the church , that he was let alone . the famous laurence humfry , and anthony gilby , and some others appeared nanconformists . betwixt . and . also ( especially in the latter part of that time ) the bishops began to press a subscription to two articles more , the one to acknowledg the queens supremacy : that none denied , or as good as none : the other was , that the common-prayer-book , the books of homilies , and the book of ordering bishops , priests and deacons , contained in them nothing contrary to the word of god. to this day there is no book of canons confirmed by parliament that requireth any such thing : but i cannot find that there was any canon about these things , that had king edward's , or queen elizabeths assent notified under the broad seal , so as it could pretend to any legal establishment . but the bishops of that age were adventuring to establish these things upon their own authority , directly contrary to the statute . henry . which restrained them from putting any canons in use , to be made after that time , unless they first had the kings assent . the oath of supremacy was indeed established by act st . eliz. but a subscription was not . the use of the common-prayer was commanded by an act st eliz. but a subscription , that that there was nothing in it , nor in the homilies , nor in the book of ordering bishops , priests and deacons , contrary to the word of god , under a penalty of suspension or deprivation , was not . and the question so often put to them by the bishops , will you use that which you will not subscribe to , that it contains nothing repugnant to gods word ? is easily answered : there was a great part of the book ( viz. the rubricks ) that were not to be used in god's worship . nor did they use it all , but some part of it , which was not offensive to them and other good people . but altho' many suffered upon this new imposition after whitgift came to be a considerable figure in the church ; yet the great shock was after that he came ( upon the death of grindal ) to be arch-bishop of canterbury , which was about the year . and the first considerable nonconformity of ministers in england is to be dated from this time . some separation there was before this time : for bishop bancroft in his dangerous positions tells us , that within the ten or eleven first years of the queens reign , many of the people separated , meeting in woods and fields . but their numbers were not valuable , nor their persons much considerable ; they were generally as sheep without a shepherd , few or no ministers being amongst them , at least of any note or authority , to give them any great name or repute . the author of the book entituled , the unlawful practices of the prelates , which was wrote about that time , tells us , that as to protestant dissenters , the queen had a most peaceable government for the first twenty four years of her reign . towards some particular good men , some hard dealings were shewed here and there , by the instigation of some ignorant and half popish persons , for lack of judgment and knowledg . that which possibly gave occasion to this activity of the bishops , were two sorts of dissenters which they observed amongst the ministers . some who only dissented as to the common-prayer-book and ceremonies , of which number were mr. field , mr. wilcox , mr. standon , mr. boxham , mr. saintcloe , mr. clare , mr. edmonds . others that were also for the reformation of discipline , amongst whom were mr. clark , mr. travers , mr. barber , mr. gardner , mr. chestou , mr. crook , mr. egerton , who were all betrayed by one mr. johnson who was wont to meet with them , and many of them most miserably treated in the high commission upon it . a great noise was made of the election of a presbytery at wandsworth in surry , the meaning of which was no more than this . the queens and the bishops orders extending no further to the trial and fitness of communicants , than if they could say the creed , the lords prayer , and the ten commandments ( all which might be done by one so ignorant , that no minister who regarded what he did , could administer the lords supper unto ) some ministers did agree of a stricter examination , and the people made choice of ten or eleven persons to be present at that action . possibly it had been less exposed to scandal , if instead of them , two or three ministers had so joined , and the end as well obtained ; but surely this was a far lesser evil , than the admitting of all to the sacrament that could but rehearse the creed , lords prayer , and ten commandments ; there was nothing in this action , but any pious ministers who are the stewards of the mysteries of god , might answer with a safe conscience ; for of stewards it is required that they should be faithful , saith the apostle ; and i believe any bishop would have judged his steward unfaithful , if he had dealt out his master's goods contrary to his master's order . the ministers master's order is plain enough , that the holy sacrament belongs not either to ignorant or scandalous persons . all the churches of god in all ages agree this , our own church in her principles agreeth it ; yet in practice , all ministers were tyed to give the sacrament ( as in times of popery ) to all such as could but rehearse the creed , the pater noster , and the ten commandments ; and confessed in lent ; those eminent persons who were commissionated by edw. . to draw up a new body of ecclesiastical laws ( though that excellent prince lived not long enough to set his hand and seal to it , so as what they had done had no legal force ) had expresly determined , tit. de sacramentis , cap. . we will have none admitted to the table of the lord , until in the church he hath made profession of his faith . what should good ministers do in this case ? they could act but precariously ; it seems at wandsworth in surry , there was a people that voluntarily submitted to this ; what harm was this to the bishops ? but the truth is , this business of discipline came into very little debate before . after that subscription had been so fatally imposed . in several diocesses i perceive there were some circumstantial variations in the forms of subscriptions . to let my reader therefore know what it was , i will give it him as it lieth in the th canon , . when it first received any thing like a legal confirmation , which was at least . or . years after it was first devised , and full . years after it was so rigorously pressed . . art. that the queens majesty , under god , is thē supreme governour of this realm , and of all other her highnesses dominions , and territories , as well in all spiritual or ecclesiastical things or causes , as temporal ; and that no forreign prince , person , state or potentate , hath , or ought to have any jurisdiction , power , superiority , or preheminence , or authority , ecclesiastical or spiritual , within her majesties realms , dominions or countries . . art. that he alloweth the book of articles , agreed on by the archbishops and bishops of both provinces , and the whole clergy , in the convocation holden at london , . and that he acknowledgeth all and every the articles therein , being in number . besides the ratification , to be agreeable to the word of god. . art. that the book of common-prayer , and of ordering bishops , priests and deacons , containeth in it nothing contrary to the word of god , and that it may lawfully be used . and that he himself will use the form in the said book , prescribed in publick prayer and administration of the sacraments , and no other . this engine was first formed by the archbishop whitgift , and was one of those . proposals he offered to the queen , for the setling of the church ( a copy of which in m. s. with two answers to them , i have read , ) some little difference there was in the arch-bishops form : his first article was , . art. that the authority which is given her majesty , in causes ecclesiastical , by the laws of the land , is lawful , and according to the word of god. the second article was his third , andran thus : . art. that he allowed the book of articles of religion , agreed on by the archbishops and bishops of both provinces , and the whole clergy in the convocation holden at london . and set forth by her majesties authority , and that he agreeth the articles therein contained , to be agreeable to the word of god. . art. ( which was the archbishops second ) was word for word the same . this motion of the archbishops put the queen upon adding force to the imposition , which indeed had been by some bishops began before , but now in most diocesses it was rigorously pressed . the issue of this is told us by the author of the unlawful practices of prelates in these words : whatsoever was required in civil causes , either that concerned her majesty ; or the state , was by the ministers embraced wholly and freely in ecclesiastical causes also , whatsoever concerned doctrine , or otherwise , was expresly required by statute for subscription . thus far at the first all men with protestation offered , but to yeild to this thing , so strange and new , without any law in streighter sort than ever was required . that all things were agreeable to gods word , and not against it ; not only tollerable but allowable , both in the book of common prayer , and in the book of ordering bishops , priests and deacons . this was refused , divers of the ministers were suspended , multitudes were thrust out how many godly , able , painful ministers were outed all over england , i cannot tell , but ex ungue leonem , i have seen a m. s. which gives an account of the names of sixty odd in suffolk , twenty one in lincolnshire , sixty four in norfolk , thirty eight in essex ; which though they seem comparatively few , yet are a great many when we consider that in essex , at that time , there was an account given of . ministers that never preach'd , only read prayers and homilies , and . more , pluralists , non residents , or persons most notoriously debaucht . this was the first fruit of that archbishops preferment , and a fair offer at the rooting out of the reformed religion as soon as planted , which never did , nor ever will live and flourish in any place , under the conduct of an ignorant , debauched , unpreaching ministry ; such a ministry , much better serving popish than protestant purposes . what the ministers that were suspended , or deprived did , to prevent their misery ; or to get this severity a little mitigated and allayed at this time , in the years , , . i shall inform the world from the worthy author of the book aforementioned , wrote at that very time , and often quoted by bishop bancroft . his words are these : the cause was general , means were made , ministers presented doubts , protestations , supplications ; they were repulsed , reviled , threatned ; the ministers did indure , sustained with a good conscience ; but their miserable flocks were subject to all disorders , spoils , havock : good men mourned , evil men prevailed , license possessed all places , nothing was reserved whole to civil and modest life . these things gentlemen of all sorts took to heart , they lamented their own estate , and the estate of the people , they pitied their ministers , their wives and children ; gods cause moved them , the honour of the gospel drew them , yea the safety of her majesty in these dangerous times compelled them , their own offices of justice , which by the word was so well aided , and which without it they could not steer in a storm of so great confusion , drew them to sue in all humble sort to the archbishop , testifying the wholesome doctrine , together with the honest life of their pastors , declaring the breaches , waste and wrecks of their country , the present evil , the dangers to come ; finally craving , that in regard of the souls of the people , and their own , he would accept such a subscription as the law expresly appointed [ . eliz. c. . ] and restore the poor men both to their preaching and livings . this second means prevail'd with him [ archbishbp whitgift ] no more than the first . the third was attempted . this refuge was to the honourable senate of her majesties privy-council . there it was in like manner sought , and declared , the proceedings before used with the archbishop . the inconveniency by this new dealing sprang up in the church and commonwealth , was shewed , and witnessed by subscribed hands . these supplications , with letters of favour were sent to the archbishop , in the behalf of preachers ; did he yet any thing relent ? surely no , nay , i would he had not been more indurate . six or eight months were thus spent , the country devoid of preaching , the calamities of some shires increased , testimonies , informations , multiplied . at the length , such were the complaints , that her majesties most honourable council dealt very feelingly in the case lest any should traduce that book as giving a false account , i could out of a ms. in my hands , fill a competent volume with copies of supplications of this nature . it shall suffice to give an instance or two . . of the ministers applications to archbishop whitgift . . the peoples , and several gentlemens applications and supplications to the archbishop ; then . to the council . letters from noblemen and privy-councellors to the archbishop , &c. that of the ministers of the diocess of ely , is one of the shortest , i shall therefore transcribe that for a specimen of applications to the archbishop . whereas two canonical admonitions upon our obedience , are already past ( most r●verend father in god ) and suspension ready to proceed against us for not subscribing to some things we know not , and others that we greatly doubt of : we having received good hope upon our own knowledg of your lordships wonted hatred of sin , and love of true religion and godliness , are bold to offer our humble supplication unto you , as well to shew our obedience to all superiority over us in the lord , as also to crave your lordships lawful favour for larger space of time to be granted to us , considering how carefully we have used our ministry to the building of the church , endeavouring with all our hearts to keep the good peace thereof , which we daily pray for : wherefore if it shall please your lordship to deal so graciously with us , as either to free us from all subscriptions , saving to her majesties authority , and the articles of the christian religion , which the law requireth ; or to give us so long time , as divers treatises may be perused by us , that either we may be satisfied in our persuasions to subscribe , or ( if there be no remedy ) quietly to give place to the peace of the church . in the mean time we judg them not that have subscribed , as we desire not to be judged in this our staying . thus if it shall please almighty god to move your lordship to take compassion on our troubled consciences , that we may feel our burden lighter by your good favour , we shall praise god for the same , and shew our thank fulness to your lordship , which we pray god to preserve and keep to the good and benefit of his church , and to your own comfort . . march . your graces most humble , robert garret bowter . martin . henry dickenson . mat. chapman . edw. brain . christopher jackson . thomas brain . many supplications of this nature were in that and in the two following years presented to the archbishop , to particular bishops of diocesses , &c. which i forbear to transcribe , the matter being much the same . these not finding their due effect , the gentlemen of several counties petitioned the archbishop . i could insert several copies ; i shall only insert that of the gentlemen in cambridgshire to the archbishop , bearing date the . of april , . may it please your lordship , that under your good favour we whose 〈…〉 en ●●y be acceptable suitors on the behalf of divers godly ministers with in this county of cambridg , whose names are set down in a schedule herewith sent unto you , concerning the manner of subscribing to the articles lately published , the execution whereof towards our ministers , we fear would be to the displacing of them , as some are already ; whereby we think great inconvenience must follow in these parts , by reason that both the sufficiency and good conversation of these already placed , with the good success and blessing on their labours , is evidently known unto us , and we are persuaded that they continue their places by bond in conscience , for that hitherto we have not heard of any contentiousness in religion , or disquietness and disorder in any of them or their people : wherefore altho in your wise and fatherly care , your desire is to make choice of a good supply if these fail ; yet if it should seem good unto your wisdom , we should acknowledg our selves much bound unto your lordship in the continuance of these men , being known unto us already ; the other hereafter to come being unknown what they shall be ; and so much the rather , because of the bare livings which some of them have , whereby it is to be feared it will be no easie matter to place sufficient men in their stead . thus trusting , and nothing doubting but that they may find your honourable favour so far forth as you may grant , not contrary to the law of this realm ; and most humbly beseeching , that we may enjoy them in their rooms as long as any others in other places , whereof we and they hope so much the more , for that it pleased god once to make your lordship a special member in this county for a time , whereby as you gave and bestowed a great cause of love , so you reaped much good will ; which as it remaineth in us and them to stand you in any stead to our powers , so we trust that we and they shall find this latter fruit of it , to our great comfort and benefit : and thus we humbly take our leave . your graces assured , john cutts . fr. hind . john hutton . fitzralph chamblein . thomas wendy . thomas chickly . anthony cage . some others there were of this nature ; but it seemed ●●●h by what followed , and also by what the author of the book aforementioned saith , that the archbishops ear was deaf to all supplications of this nature , and has resolved to carry his subscription through . the poor ministers in this distress , together also with the gentlemen of several counties , and the people of several places , addressed themselves by petition to the queen , and to particular lords of the council , then to the queen and the whole council . particularly , dunmow in essex sent a supplication to my lord rich. the parishioners of aldermary in london , to the earl of leicester . the ministers of the diocess of peterborough , to another lord. many addressed to the whole council , viz. the gentlemen of norfolk , the ministers in norfolk , the ministers of essex , the ministers of lincolnshire . essex , oxfordshire , the isle of ely , and many other counties and places . i have by me all the copies ; i shall only transcribe that of the ministers of lincolnshire . the supplication of the ministers of lincolnshire to the lords of the council . forasmuch ( right honourable ) as the lord of heaven and earth hath substituted your honours next under her majesty , to procure passage to his gospel , beauty to his church , and glory to his kingdom ; in which business of the lord , to the great joy of all those which pray heartily for the peace of jerusalem , hitherto you have happily proceeded : we whose names are underwritten , whom the same lord hath in mercy placed over some of his people here in lincolnshire , as pastors and preachers to feed them with the word of truth , do humbly beseech your honours to regard the pitiful and woful estate of our congregations and people in these parts , which being destitute of our ministry by the means of a subscription generally and strictly urged now of late by the bishops officers , do mourn and lament . it is well known to all your lordships , that an absolute subscription is required throughout the whole province of canterbury to three articles . the first concerning her majesties supreme authority . the second to the book of common-prayer , with that of consecrating bishops , and ordering priests and deacons . the third concerning the book of articles . as touching the first , we offer our sevles to a full subscription , as always heretofore we have done ; as also to the articles of religion [ i presume here must be meant , as in the rest generally is exprest , so far as they concern matters of faith , and the doctrine of the sacraments , ] and cannot be accepted herein , without an absolute subscribing to the other , unto which we dare not condescend , being as yet many of us not fully acquainted with the book of confecrating bishops , and ordering priests and deacons ; and all of us unresolved , and unsatisfied in our consciences , in many points of the common-prayer . may it please your lordships also , favourably to consider , that in refusing an absolute subscription , we do it not out of any arrogance , or singularity , but only for that we have no sufficient resolution , which we have earnestly desired of some doubts , about divers weighty matters , and points in the same book ; which requests of ours , sith we could not obtain , we desired , that at the least in our subscription , we might make exceptions of the things whereof we doubted , which they have utterly denied us , for which causes ( right honourable ! ) we fearing to subscribe so absolutely as we were urged , we are all suspended from executing the function of our ministry amongst our people , to the great danger of their souls , and danger of losing the fruit of our former poor labours , which we have by gods grace imployed upon them : wherefore we humbly crave of your honours ( our cause being , as we are perswaded , the lords own cause , and his churches ) that it may be considered : and that since we can neither be impeached of false doctrine , nor of contempt of her majesties laws , nor of refusing of the exercising of the book of common-prayer in our charges , nor of breeding contention and sedition in the church : and again , that papists , her majesties enemies , with atheists , to the corrupting of religion in doctrine and manners , do daily multiply and increase , we may be restored to our flocks and people , in such sort , as with all peace of conscience we may go forward with the lords work in building up his house in several places . thomas fulkeck . hugh tuke . john daniel . richard allen. anthony hunt. reinold grome . thomas tripler . shepheard . henry nelson . mat. tomson . thomas bradly . joseph gibson . james worship . charles bingam . john munning . humfrid travers . john pryer . john summerscales . john wintle . richard holdsworth . richard kellet . these are enough for specimens of several sorts of supplications . there were others more particularly directed to the queen , and to some great persons , all much to the same sense . this last means had some little effect : of which the author of the book called the unlawful practices of prelates , giveth us this account , c. . hence became the subscription to be somewhat more tolerable , and further time was granted unto divers in divers countreys , and retaining that which pertained to the civil state , and in the ecclesiastical that which concerned doctrine , with protestation to use the book of common-prayer , the archbishop suffered himself to be entreated to require no more of many . to this many were drawn : the peace of the church , the compassion of their flocks , the weariness of turmoils , brought many to it , that yet did it , some with tears , some with so great heaviness of conscience long after , as they were never quiet till their dying day . so great a desire of unity was in sundry men that stood herein . others satisfying themselves with a protestation of an holy and godly resolution by the archbishop , and other of the bishops , in certain points ( as they supposed ) by the example of certain learned men in the like case , did not refuse to subscribe , as the ministers of sussex , and such like . again , some other special men were admitted in divers places with more favour , as the ministers of leicestershire , buckinghamshire , and somt other places , and some such others ( chiefly such whose authority would have brought discredit to their too too severe proceedings ) without any subscription at all . hence , of the multitude that held out , at first seemed not so great ( tho in truth in respect of the men , and the times , they were too too many ) and their subscription laid with their sundry exceptions in a manner no subscription at all . but with the credit of these , shewing only the subscriptions in one paper , and retaining their protestation in another , many were drawn also as unawares birds into the net , by the chirping of birds first taken . from the colour of these last forms of subscriptions , sprang bruits , as tho all things were well in the orders and liturgy of the church of england ; all things subscribed unto ; that all had yielded ; that whosoever mouths were open , had subscribed . but how far these differ frow that which was at first tendered , i suppose no man is ignorant . as again , how little difference there is between the latter , and that which all men did freely and frankly offer at the first . nothing that did pertain to her excellent majesty was struck at ; nothing that concerned doctrine , or the substance of our faith . nothing that in the statutes was set down touching subscription . the most that was excepted against at first , and that generally , were the ceremonies , the reading the apocryphal books , the ill translation of the scriptures used , the rubricks , very many things in the book of ordaining bishops , priests , and deacons , and several passages in the prayers . the number was not many , who refused to use a set-form of prayer to be constantly used in their ministry . it was but twenty five years since the whole nation came out of popery , where they knew nothing else ; and it could not be expected that in that time should be a discovery of all that was truly blameable in worship , or government of the church . yet there were some that in those days refused this . bishop bancroft in his dangerous positions , p. tells us , that mr. field in a letter to mr. asker , . ap. . tells him : i preach every sabbath-day , ( if no other that cometh by chance doth supply the place ) having nothing to do at all with the former book of common-prayer , &c. this was the first division of godly ministers into such as were purely nonconformists . . conforming nonconformists . the latter were the greater number , who had subscribed to use the common-prayer , but not to read it fully and in all parts ; and this with protestations , that their subscriptions should not oblige them to do any thing contrary to the word of god , &c. there were several forms of it . twenty ministers of the diocess of chichester thus subscribed , with exception to all the rubricks , the book of ordination , and i know not how many limitations . here the great and infinite wisdom of god was seen , governing the failers of his servants to his own wise ends and glory . by this means a preaching ministry was preserved in england , which had the bishop kept to his first severity , and all the ministers that at first refused , absolutely persisted in their refusal , had before the reformation was . years old , been destroyed throughout england , at least the greatest part of it . but ( saith our saviour ) he that will save his life shall lose it . very many of these good men were afterwards suspended , deprived , indited , imprisoned , wearied out of their lives by troubles in the high commission ; though not for not subscribing ( for which was no law ) yet for not wearing the surplice , not using the cross in baptism , not keeping holydays , not reading all the prayers , or some such like things . thus was our state from . till . when king james came to the crown . hitherto i have shewed my reader the first impositions in england , and the woful mischief wrought by them , not only to multitudes of particular families , but to the interest of the gospel and reformation in general . i shall now proceed to a second period , which will take up the whole time of king james his reign , from . to . whitgift was in the beginning archbishop , and bancroft bishop of london . their writings sufficiently testifie how zealous both of them were against nonconformists . the convocation this year established the three articles ( which years before had made such a confusion ) by a canon ; it is their canon : which canons were confirmed by king james , but never since brought to a parliament , or confirmed by them . i am not concerned to enquire how valid they are as laws obligatory to the subject , till confirmed by parliament ( that belongeth to lawyers to argue , and dependeth upon the kings prerogative , and the terms used in the act of hen. . ) i am only concerned to note how conformity improved upon these canons , and also what the effect of these new impositions was . for the first , let the canons themselves speak . subscription to the three articles was now enjoined by canon . bowing at the name of jesus was enjoined can . bidding of prayer , by another canon , with a multitude of other things too long to be here recited ; for which i refer my reader to the book of canons . the first fruit of this was a petition with a thousand ministers hands , presentad to the king , . saith dr. fuller . indeed dr. fuller saith , the hands were but . i believe he taketh his intelligence from the abridgment of that book , which the ministers of lincoln diocess , delivered to his majesty , . december , . i find them there mentioned to be . out of . counties . dr. fuller saith , . which are but half the counties of england and wales , hardly so much . their numbers are thus countd . oxfordshire . stafordshire . dorsetshire . nottinghamshire . surry . norfolk . wiltshire . buckinghamshire . sussex . leicestershire . essex . cheshire . bedsordshire . somersetshire . darbyshire . lancashire . kent . london . lincolnshire . warwickshire . devon and cornwall . northampton . suffolk . these make : here are none reckoned of any county in wales , nor any of yorkshire , barkshire , and many others . i know no reason any hath to doubt , but that there were a . hands to this petition ; the petitioners in the body of their petition say , they were more than a thousand , and they would not have told a lye to a king , which so little labour as counting them would have proved to be such . but the matter of the petition is very considerable , to let my reader know both to what height impositions were grown . years since , and what oppositions they met with from our fore-fathers . dr. fuller in his church-history assures us , he has got the true copy , i will therefore transcribe it from him , as i find it in the th book , p. . most gracious and dread soveraign ! seeing it hath pleased the divine majesty , to the great comfort of all good christians , to advance your highness , according to your just title , to the peaceable government of this church , and common-wealth of england : we , the ministers of the gospel in this land , neither as factious men , affecting a popular parity in the church , nor as schismaticks , aiming at the dissolution of the state ecclesiastical , but as the faithful servants of christ , and loyal subjects to your majesty , desiring , and longing for a redress of divers abuses of the church , could do no less in our obedience to god , service to your majesty , love to his church , than acquaint your majesty with our particular griefs , for as your princely pen writeth t● the king , as a good physician , must first know what peccant humours his patient naturally is most subject unto , before he can begin his cure : and although divers of us that s●● for reformation , subscribe to the book , some upon protestation , some upon exposition given them , some with condition , rather than the church should have been deprived of their labour and ministry ; yet now we to the number of more than a thousand of your majesties subjects and ministers , all groaning as under a common burden of humane rites and ceremonies do with one joint consent humble our selves at your majesties feet , to be cased and relieved in this behalf . our humble suit then unto your majesty is , that these offences following , some of them may be removed , some amended , some qualified . . in the church service , that the cross in baptism , interrogatories ministred to infants , confirmation ( as superfluous ) may be taken away , baptism not to be administred by women , and so explained . the cap and surplice not urged . that examination may go before the communion . that it may be administred with a sermon . that divers terms of priests , absolution , and some others used , with the ring in marriage , and other such like in the book , might be corrected . the longsomeness of service abridged . church-songs and musick moderated to better edification . that the lords day be not profaned . the rest upon holidays not so strictly urged . that there may be an vniformity of doctrine prescribed , no popish opinion any more taught or defended . no ministers charged to teach the people to bow at the name of jesus . that the canonical scriptures only be read in the church . . concerning church ministers : that none hereafter be admited into the ministry but able and sufficient men , and those to preach diligently , and especially upon the lords day . that such as be already entred , and cannot preach , may either be removed , and some charitable course taken for their relief , or else to be forced according to the value of their livings to maintain preachers . that non-residency be not permitted . that king edwards statute for the lawfulness of ministers marriages may be revived . that ministers be not urged to subscribe , but according to the law , to the articles of religion , and the kings supremacy only . . for church-livings , and maintenance : that bishops leave their commendams , some holding prebends , some parsonages , some vicarages with their bishopricks . that double beneficed men be not suffered to hold , some two , some three benefices with cure , and some two three or four dignities besides . that impropriations annexed to bishopricks and colledges , be demised only to preachers incumbent , for the old rent . that the impropriations of lay-mens fees may be charged with a sixth or seventh part of the worth to the maintenance of the ●reaching ministers . . for church-discipline : that the discipline and excommunication may be administred according to christs institution , or at the least that enormities may be redressed , as namely , that excommunication come not forth under the names of chancellors , lay-persons , officials , &c. that men be not excommunicated for trifles , twelve peny matters , that none be ecommunicated without consent of his pastor . that the officers be not suffered to extort unreasonable fees . that none having jurisdiction or registers places , put out the same to farm . that divers popish canons as for restraint of marriage at certain times be reversed . that the longsomeness of suits in ecclesiastical courts which hang sometimes , , , , , years , may be restrained . that the oath ex officio , by which men are forced to accuse themselves , be more sparingly used . that licenses for marriage without banes asked , be more cautiously granted . these with such other abuses yet remaining , and practised in the church of england , we are able to shew to be not agreeable to the scriptures , if it shall please your highness further to hear us , or more at large to be informed , or by conference amongst the learned to be resolved . and yet we doubt not but that your majesty without further process , of whose christian judgment we have received so good a taste already , is able of your self to judg of the equity of this cause ; god we trust hath appointed your highness our physician to heal these diseases ; and we say with mordecai to esther , who knoweth but you are come to the kingdom for such a time ? thus your majesty shall do that which we are perswaded shall be acceptable to god , honourable to your majesty in all succeeding ages , profitable to his church , which shall be thereby increased , comfortable to your ministers , which shall be no more suspended , silenced , disgraced , imprisoned for mens traditions ; and prejudicial unto none , but those who seek their own credit , quiet and profit in the world . thus with all dutiful submission referring our selves to your majesties pleasure for your gracious answer , as god shall direct you , we most humbly recommend your highness to the divine majesty , whom we beseech for christ his sake to do herein what shall be for his glory , the good of his church , and your endless comfort . your majesties most humble subjects , the ministers of the gospel , who desire not a disorderly innovation , but a due and godly reformation . how his majesty resented this petition , is variously reported . but sure it is ( saith fuller ) it ran the gantlop through all the prelatical party , every one giving it a lash , some with their pens , more with their tongues , and the dumb ministers as they term it found their speech most vocal against it . how many the number of those was who joined in this , and several other petitions at the same time , and were suspended , deprived , imprisoned , &c. i cannot tell ; but a great division arose , which held during the archbishop bancrofts time . bishop abbot who succeeded him in the archbishoprick of canterbury , was much calmer . several books were wrote at this time against the nonconformist , by mr. hutton , mr. rogers , dr. lovel , and dr. spark , ( who had himself been a dissenter ) ; but in the year , & , they were learnedly answered by a book of three parts , call'd , a defence of the ministers reasons for refusal of subscription . the first part was concerning the holy scriptures ; the ill translation of several texts . the second concerning the holy scriptures and apocrypha . the third was about kneeling at the sacrament . several able ministers left the nation , many others with their families were undone in it . thus conformity stood till the time of king charles the first ; some bishops being more , some less rigid in pressing the canons . but when archbishop laud came to be archbishop of canterbury , ( who succeeded abbot ) he made a new edition of impositions , to which he required conformity , saying second service at the table , setting that at the east end of the church altarwise , commanding the communion . table to be railed in , and all people to come up thither to receive the communion kneeling ; enforcing the bowing at the name of jesus . forbidding lectures , and afternoon-sermons . pressing the book of sports on the lords day . not injoining but commending bowing toward the east-end , &c. and twenty more things . what havock hese things made , is yet within the memory of many ; and what disturbance bishop wren made in suffolk , and other places , as several other bishops that were his creatures did in other diocesses , many alive know ; multitudes of ministers were again deprived and suspended . many undone in the high commission . at last in the convocation , an oath with &c. was devised , which had perfected the business in rooting out all puritan preachers , had not a parliament came and spoil'd that design . scarce any is ignorant what numbers of godly ministers and people left the nation upon this account , betwixt . and . so many as to make one of the noblest colonies at this day in the world ( that , i mean , of new-england ) besides those who fled into holland and ireland . many staid at home , and were miserably treated by courts . some lived privately , others in some quiet parts of the nation kept their station . how little the conformable interest gained by this ( though that party ruined multitudes of godly people and their families ) quickly appeared in the year . when the parliament began to espouse their cause , and give them liberty . the number of ministers , favouring nonconformity , presently appeared far greater than ever before ; so as their adversaries had a little satisfied their lusts , and malice , but not in the least promoved their cause . the people were more imbitter'd against them , and more enamoured upon painful godly ministers . and the bishops restraint of preaching , did but inflame people with the desire of it . several noblemen and worthy gentlemen in all parts of england began to be awakened , as may appear by many of their excellent speeches in the beginning of the parliament . they plainly saw , that through these extravagant actings , we lost many of our eminent ministers , multitudes of our most sober people were removed into other countries . the trade of the nation was altered , much of it carried elsewhere ; the people in many places turned ignorant brutes for want of preaching ; many turned papists , many doctrines of popery were published , colledges were fixed for romish priests , and nuns fixed , &c. a plot laid by them against the king and nation ; they judged it high time to put an end to those practices , which had caused those disorders ; and had this advantage to do it , because their conformity , whether old or new , had no further statutable authority , than was given it by the act of conformity , eliz. and the stat. eliz. c. . about the articles of faith. upon his majesties happy restauration , anno . all promised themselves a freedom from these evils which had troubled the church very near . years , from the eliz. to the year . though indeed in no great degree from the th to the th of eliz. but for about . years of queen elizabeths reign , and the whole time of king james his reign ( which was . years ) , and . years of king charles his reign , these impositions were the cause almost of all the evils under which this nation groaned . we had reason to promise our selves this immunity from his majesties declaration at bredah , and his first declaration about ecclesiastical affairs , in the year . whether the wisdom of his majesty , or that party of the house of commons , who then opposed the passing of it into an act , were greater , let the experience now of twenty years more determine , which for the most part have been years of confusion and disorder ; as to matters of religion . that failing , impositions were augmented . upon this last attempt for settlement , ministers were not only left to the bishops power to have exacted upon them , . a subscription to the . articles in the th canon . . the oath of canonical obedience , which though ancient , as established by canons in times of popery , yet we read not of , all the time of queen eliz. but . they must be ordained by bishops , though before ordained according to the ordination of all other reformed churches ( which in queen eliz. time , the statute eliz. cap. . dispensed with , and made needless . . they must assent and consent to all and every thing in the common-prayer , as now printed . . they must declare , renounce , and abjure : all this over and above , being tyed to the personal reading of the common-prayer , and use of the ceremonies , &c. the effect was , the laying aside of more than . ministers . besides the congregations which depended on these good mens ministry ; the number of quakers , who had no ministers , and of pastors of congregational churches , who had no livings , but were maintained by their people , together with the people that depended on them , and the antipaedobaptists , were not small , who all had an equal , if , not a greater prejudice to the common-prayer-book and ceremonies , &c. what could by any wise men be expected , but what we have seen , that in all places people should gather into separate congregations ? could it be expected , that such a vast number of ministers , not half of which had any thing to live on but their labours to maintain themselves , wives and families , should quietly have sate still and never preached ( if they could have imagined , that this humane law could have discharged them from any previous obligation to god ) , especially being importuned by the people whom god had committed to them ? if any had such fancies , they were very wild ones . in publick temples they must not preach ; what remained , but their own or others hired houses . what would be the event of this , was quickly seen , and an act provided against conventicles , making the punishment , fines , imprisonment , banishment , &c. what a stir this made , is sufficiently known . this commenced . and being a temporary act , determined , or . soon after this , . passed the act prohibiting noncon . ministers to inhabit in corporations . and the act about conventicles being expired , another act was made , which took place , anno . how many sober ministers and people in eight years time had been undone , by proceedings against them in the ecclesiastical courts , indictments at sessions and assizes , and by putting the first act against conventicles in execution , is sufficiently known , and too large , and sad a story to relate . the new act against conventicles ( and such a one as never before passed a parliament of england with respect to magna charta , and the fundamental liberties of the subject ) passed about . ministers and people were again prosecuted to incredible degrees , almost in all places , until his majesty gave a writ of ease by his declaration of indulgence , . that lasted but two years ; and in . the storm began again , as fierce as ever , but gradually abated till the year . about which time the parliament began to have a scent of a plot to bring in popery ; indeed they scented it first in . our worthy patriots from that time stood upon their watch , something they discerned to be in hand , and that the project was deeply laid , but on what persons to charge it they knew not , and were wholly in the dark as to the methods and particulars of it , till god , in the year . inclined dr. oates to do that ( never to be forgotten ) service to his country , at one time saving the life of his soveraign , the government of the nation , and the protestant religion , from a total extirpation , and all good protestants from a massacre . the eyes of all sober persons are at length opened to see , that an vnion of protestants is necessary . the question is , which way it shall be effected ? for my own part , i should say , any way , by which it is practicable . there are but two that can fall within the comprehension of any man of sense . . the first is by continuance of the impositions on ministers and people , rooting out all private meetings , enforcing people to come to hear the common-prayer , and to conform to the ceremonies , and hear their parish-ministers , and receive the sacrament with them . . the second is by taking off these impositione , which all agree to be of things not in their own nature necessary , but such as the magistrate may if he pleaseth relax . for the first method to unite us , it is a strange one , it aims only at uniting by destroying ; and purchases such a church-vnity as the papists boast of , who by destroying of hundred thousands of righteous men , at last made all of one mind in appearance . the experience of more then years hath taught us , that multitudes are neither to be argued , nor cudgelled into their conformity . the multitude of nonconformists hath increased all a long , in stead of abateing , even from the first beginning of the difference at francfurt , to this day ; and he is very ignorant that knoweth not , that since the fire of london , they have been almost doubled to what they were before . nor hath the warmth of many clergymen of late , in decrying the plot , or lessening it , and indeavouring to make people believe it was a nonconformist plot , a little contributed to let the world know what they are , and would be at . would any have these impositions still inforced ? what can they pursue , but the old design of reconciling us and the church of rome , in which the papists will listen to them , till they have ripen'd a design to cut their throats , as well as other mens ; but those are mightily ignorant of popish principles , that can so much as fancy a possibility of reconciliation with them , so long as we maintain the kings supremacy , or a married clergy ; so that in truth a reconciliation to the church of rome , is a thing not to be thought on by a married clergyman , ( unless he be weary of his wife and children ) nor by a loyal subject that understands sense . the vnion must therefore be effected by taking off these impositions , which now for an hundred years have produced so ill effects in this nation . it is easy to see how great the good of this would be . we should all then be known by the single name of protestants , and be hearty as one man in opposition to all popish designs . our civil , and ecolesiastical courts might possibly then be at leisure to execute the power with which they are betrusted , against papists and profane persons . sober and industrious men would be encouraged to push out in trading to their utmost . there would be no complaining in our streets for want of the ordinances of god so administred , as that concientious people might freely partake of them , without so much as a fancy that might make them call out , death is in the pot , and sit at the lords feasts without so much as a jealousy of a divine sword hanging over their heads , spoiling their spiritual appetite . in short , it would restore us to one of the greatest pieces of christian liberty , to serve the lord without fear , either of offending god whom they know in matters of worship to be a jealous god , or of being undone in their temporal concerns for the exercise of a tender conscience towards god. all good men should rejoice under the shadow of the king and parliament , and unite their prayers with chearfulness for both . what would be the evil of it ? the foundations of archbishop whitgift , and archbishop laud , and my lord chancellor hide ( the buildings upon which , hath hitherto been kept up with no less guard than the trouble of all the courts of judicature in england ) would be something shaken , and our foundations laid upon the word of god , which surely is far better ; the credit of some men , who have laid all the stress of religion upon a common-prayer-book and some ceremonies , would be thought a little impaired ; the magistrate should do nothing displeasing to god , who never required the imposition of these things at his hands : and doubtless hath been highly displeased at a great deal of force used , which hath not been good for the enforcing of them . it is , as i have said before , more than an hundred years since these impositions have been the cause of so much evil in these nations , and that not only to particular families and persons , but even to the whole nation . though our civil wars were bottomed upon questions and grievances of a civil nature : yet it is hardly imaginable the common people should have been so inflamed , had they not before been wounded in so tender a part as that of their consciences towards god. by reason of these contests , papists have been connived at , and gained a great deal of reputation , so much ( that till within these years ) it was dangerous for protestants to vie with them , for loyalty or religion . we see the issue , while they have been thus neglected , yea credited , they have been hatching the most hellish plot that was ever heard of , hardly to be parallel'd by any story . the plot hath in the bowels of it been discovered so full of blood , and cruelty and ingratude , to his most sacred majesty ; and in the defence of themselves from the imputation of it , they have been found guilty of so many lies , so much perjury and subornation , so much ungodliness and unrighteousness , that they cannot but see their catholick cause is wounded under the fifth rib , and their pretended religion not like to recover its reputation , until there be none left of this geration . they have nothing to do , but to wait a time when they may fight out their way with some probable hope of prevailing . it is certainly now high time to restore all protestants ( be their persuasions what they will ) to a just liberty in the things of god , than the want of which nothing can more dispirit good men in their duty as to a common watchfulness and defence ; for what spirit can be in them who know they shall be ruin'd by one hand or another ? i surther offer it to the consideration of our grave senators , who come up from the several parts of the nation , and must best know the complexion of it , whether those who are most against the taking of these impositions , be not ( i do not say all , but forty for one ) the persons whom several proclamations of his majesty , and several votes of two parliaments declaring it , and the several judgments upon some of the traytors given by our courts of justice , have not been able to convince , that there is any popish plot ; but in all their converse they have made it their business to deny , or lessen the plot , to defame and vilify the kings evidence , to impose upon people that it was a plot of the nonconformists , to make the dying words of the jesuits creditable . in short , by all manner of ways to turn the whole popish plot into ridicule . i do know some few ( very few others ) zealous for these impositions , have born a testimony against the papists , and freely declare their judgments about the plot , to the sense of the king , the parliament and the judges ; but as to the generality , let observation be made , and judgment accordingly given . if it be found to be that party , they are fit only to be regarded by those who pray for the good success of that execrable design , to which the continuance of these things , and a vigorous proceeding accordingly against nonconformists , will as potently conduce , as it is possible any thing should . from this short , and true account of the rise , and growth , and effects of these impositions , a good account may be given of a late authors history of separation , the smalness of it at first , and the further increase and improvements of it , which indeed did much vary , according as impositions varied , and multiplyed . those congregations which he calls separate congregations , were from the first of reformation ; but the numbers of them , and of the persons in them , was much increased after . when whitgift first brought in subscriptions to articles , and imposed them universally ; and increased yet more in . and further in bishop lauds time , and were greatest in : when the greatest number of ministers was thrown out and forbidden to preach in any publick temples . till that time nonconformist ministers might preach publickly , and most of them did so in the years , . to : which is the true reason that in those years there were so few private meetings , the people could in publick temples hear their ministers as lecturers , yet in those times there were private meetings ; and notwithstanding all the fury some bishops used , i remember bishop hall in a speech made to the parliament or . complain'd of an hundred such meetings to be in london alone . nor is it any wonder if in near forty years time , good people have gained a little more light in matters of worship and discipline , and discerned the unlawfulness of some things in both , which were not at that time discerned . the questions relating to both , have been more ventilated since the year . than ever they were before , since the reformation . so as a telling of the world , how few dissenters were at first , and in how few things they dissented , is very insignificant to any purpose but the loading of present dissenters with an odium from those ignorant and passionate persons who do not understand , that they had not half so much reason to dissent then , as they have had since , and now have ; and that the present conformity required of ministers , is twice more than was formerly required . and for the people , their nonconformity in a greater degree must also be attributed to the further light they have gained as to matters of worship and discipline , the true nature and order of churches , together with the outing of their pastors , they being no such notions as all can swallow , that the forbidding godly ministers to preach by an humane law , dissolves the pastoral relation of pastors to their churches . or , that all within the bounds of a parish , are obliged to be members of the church in that place ; or are therefore so , because they dwell within the bounds of such places . some observe , that most men have some opportunities in their life-time offered them by the providence of god , which if they lay hold of , they make them happy in the good things of this life . the like fate possibly attends nations . we had one opportunity offered us in q elizabeths time , when reformation might have been settled without these ingrateful impositions . this was lost through the fiery zeal of the then archbishp , and brought us into near years troubles . we had a second in the beginning of king james his time ; but the same man , and his successor archbishop bancroft &c. again hindred our seeing what concerned our peace . we had a third opportunity upon his majesties restauration ; by whose means it was then hindred , all know . we have since met with years trouble more , or very nigh . we have a fourth before us at this time , upon the discovery of this execrable popish plot. when god calleth us under the penalty of all that is dear unto us , to seek peace amongst our selves , ( for our saviour hath told us , a kingdom divided against it self cannot stand ) . all other proposals for union , but the abating those impositions which divide us , are meer idle toys and vanities . good men cannot love peace so well , as to purchase it by submission to things which they judge sinful . if we should lose this also , i shall only say , the interpretation be to those that hate us , and to the enemies of our god. we may look for good , but no good will come . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e see the troubles at francfort , p. , . this makes it evident , that the conference at hampton-court , this year , was not in the name of all nonconformists , but only the personal act of or men noncon . a disswasive from conformity to the world as also god's severity against impenitent sinners : with a farewel sermon lately preached to a congregation in london / by henry stubs. stubbes, henry, ?- . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; 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(eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a disswasive from conformity to the world as also god's severity against impenitent sinners : with a farewel sermon lately preached to a congregation in london / by henry stubs. stubbes, henry, ?- . [ ], p. printed and are to be sold by john hancock senior and junior, london : . reproduction of original in the bodleian library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng dissenters, religious -- england. liberty of conscience. god -- wrath. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - rachel losh sampled and proofread - rachel losh text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a disswasive from conformity to the world. as also god's severity against impenitent sinners . with a farewel sermon lately preached to a congregation in london . by henry stubs minister of the gospel . psalm . . let the righteous smite me , it shall be a kindness ; and let him retrove me , it shall be an excellent oyl , which shall not break my head ; for yet my prayer also shall be in their calamity . london , printed and are to be sold by john hancock senior and junior , at the sign of the three bibles in popes-head alley , . to the professors of this age . do you not know that you ought to be followers of god , and christ , and the saints , ephes. . . matth. . . heb. . . and not the multitude , exod. . . not the world , rom. . . and dare you yet to set up them to be your patterns , and to follow their examples , who are not at all esteemed in the church ? i speak it to your shame , is there not a holy christ to be your pattern , and a holy word to be your rule ; but professors of religion must needs be as the irreligious of the world , taking example from them , who will take no example from christ ? now therefore there is utterly a fault amongst you , because you conform so much to this world , contrary to that express prohibition , rom. . . be not conformed to this world ; and because you have so much fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness ; contrary to that word , eph. . . why are ye not rather reprovers of the world , and condemners of it , as noah was , heb. . . by your walking as christ walked , john . . and according to rule ? gal. . . why do you not rather suffer your selves to be derided and despised ? know you not that the world you conform to lies in wickedness ? john . . and that the unrighteous world shall not inherit the kingdom of god ? cor. . . you know it . and you know also that eyes are upon you , observers you have many , god , angels , and men ; you had need look well to your wayes : you have a rule to talk and walk by . 't is not for you to say , we will be as the heathen , ezek. . . we will be as others , contrary to eph. . . which forbids you to walk as others , in the vanity of your minds : remember the words of christ to his disciples , luke . . ye shall not be so : you must walk as christ walked he has left you an example , pet. . . if you shall walk as others , you will by so doing give great occasion to the enemies of god to blaspheme , sam. . . and be stumbling blocks to the world : and if offences come by you unto the world , woe unto you , matth. . . remember david , and what god told him , the child that is born to thee shall surely dye ; verily the name of god is blasphemed among the prophane through you ; rom. . . you should adorn the doctrine of god our saviour in all things ; mark in all things , tit. . . and be very tender of the name of god and his doctrine , that it be not blasphemed through you , tim. . 〈◊〉 . if it be , be sure god will be as good as his word , amos . . you only have i known , therefore i will punish you christ has somewhat against you already , because you have left your first love . remember therefore from whence you are fallen , and repent , and do your first works , or else i will come unto you quickly , and will remove your candlestick out of its place , except you repent , rev. . , . would i could say of you as it follows , vers . . with a little alteration , but this you have , that you hate conformity to the world which christ also hateth . brethren , be ye followers of christ , and mark them which walk so , as that ye have christ for an ensample . for many walk , of whom i have told you often , and now tell you even weeping , that they are the enemies of the cross of christ : whose end is destruction , whose god is their back and belly , whose glory is in their shame , who mind earthly things , phil. . , , . but let your conversation be in heaven , as was pauls and the saints at phillippi , phil. . . seek you the things which are above , where christ sitteth at the right hand of god. set your affections on things above , and not on things on the earth ; for you profess your selves to be dead , and your life is hid with christ in god. when christ , who is your life , shall appear , then shall you appear with him in glory . mortifie therefore your members which are upon the earth ; col. . , , , . i beseech you by the mercies of god , the meekness of christ , and by your appearing before his judgment seat ; hear counsel and receive instruction , that you may be wise at length , prov. . . if you will not hear counsel and receive instruction , read jer. . . and consider and tremble . that you may is the prayer of one who wisheth above all things that your souls may prosper , and be adorned as your bodies do and are . non-conformity to this world . rom. . . and be not conformed to this world . in this and the foregoing verse we have an exhortation to holiness , branched out into three particulars . . that we present our bodies , a living sacrifice , holy , acceptable to god. . and not be conformed to this world . . but to be transformed by the renewing of our mind . i beseech you : though i might be bold in christ to enjoyn you , yet for love sake , i rather beseech you , pray and intreat you . therefore , seeing you have received so much mercy from god through christ. brethren , being all the children of god through faith in christ. gal. . . by the mercies of god , bestowed on you . gods mercy is one , but the effects and fruits of it are many ; election , redemption , justification . that you present your bodies ; not your souls onely , but your bodies also : god will have the body conformed to his will , and not to the world , as well as the soul ; for the body is for the lord , for the service of the lord , and the lord for the body , cor. . . our bodies being his , and bought with a price , cor. . , . our bodies being the members of christ , cor. . . and therefore also must we glorifie god with our bodies , cor. . . the apostle praying for the thessalonians , prayes that their bodies , as well as their souls , might be sanctified , thes. . . i note this the rather , because many think they may do what they will with , and make what use they will of their bodies ; but they are greatly deceived , for the body is not for fornication , cor. . . no not for ostentation , to make a shew with it . read , rom. . , . that you present them ; . that you offer and consecrate them to god as a sacrifice of thankfulness ; as heb. . . a living sacrifice , dead indeed unto sin , but alive to god , rom. . . being quickned by his spirit , that we might not live to our selves , but to him who died for us , cor. . . holy , not regarding , but hating iniquity in our hearts ; for if iniquity be regarded , we cannot be accepted : psalm . . acceptable to god , well pleasing to him through jesus christ , pet. . . through faith in him , without which we cannot please god , heb. . . which is your reasonable service . . your service of god , which consists not in the offering up of unreasonable beasts , as heretofore , but in the offering up of your reasonable selves . or , your service , which is agreeable to the rules of true reason . and be not conformed : . take not upon you the form or fashion of this wicked world , make not the manners and pleasures of worldly men your rule to walk by . but be ye transformed , changed , altered . . more and more . by the renewing of your mind , understanding , will and affections . that ye may prove . . discern , understand . . approve . . give proof by a godly life that you do understand and approve . that good , acceptable and perfect will of god. . good , which teacheth , and leadeth to that which is good , and makes good . . acceptable , nothing being acceptable to god but what is according to his will. . perfect , comprehending all things necessary to salvation , tim. . . these words , and be not conformed to this world , are a dehortation : wherein , . the persons dehorting , paul a servant of jesus christ , called to be an apostle , one that well understood the mind of his lord and master , and would give nothing in charge but what he had received , cor. . . . the persons dehorted , the believing romans , beloved of god , called to be saints , rom. . . yea , eminent saints , rom. . . such as had obeyed from the heart , rom. . . . the thing they are dehorted from , viz. conformity to this world , which you , who are saints , and called to the kingdom and glory of god , should look upon with contempt , and trample under foot . . the mode of the dehortation , t is in a beseeching way ; i beseech you . . the motive ; by the mercies of god. doct. 't is the will of the most holy god , that they who are called to be saints should not conform to sinners . they that are called out of the world must not be conformed to this world . i shall shew you , . what is meant by the world. . what meant by conformed . . what of the world must not be conformed unto . . that it is so . . why. . the use. first , what is meant by the world ? by the world understand the men of the world , psal. . . worldly minded men and women , who have their hearts , inheritance , and happiness here , their portion in this life . the wicked of the world , joh. . . these are called the world , . because they are ruled by the god of this world , cor. . . eph. . . . because they have received onely the spirit of the world , that spirit which teacheth worldly things , and placeth its happiness in worldly things , cor. . . . because they are satisfied and contented with the things of this world , psal. . . & . . phil. . . . because they are the major part of world . secondly , what meant by conformed ? by conforming to the world understand , fashioning our selves according to it ; resembling the world , and being like to it ; making the men of the world our pattern , our example , and copy to write after . when we approve , imitate and follow the sinful fashions and practices of this world , then we conform to it . now , not to be conformed to this world , is not to approve , not to imitate , not to follow the sinful , vain , foolish fashions and practices of this world . not to put on their form and shape in our behaviour . thirdly , what of the world it is wherein we must not be conformed unto it . . not in that wickedness the world lies in , joh. . . not in that unrighteousness it is filled with : a catalogue whereof is set down , rom. . , , . not in those works of darkness it delights in , rom. . , . not in those works of the flesh , set down gal. . , , . not in the walk of the gentiles , ephes. . , , . pet. . . not in its lustings , joh. . . we must not be conformed 〈…〉 in it s sinful customs , dispositions , practices . we must not be conformed to the practice of worldly men , in natural , civil , and religious actions . we must not eat and drink as they do , for they feed themselves without fear ; jude . we must not buy and sell as they do , for therein they walk not by that rule mat. . . we must not carry our selves in religious matters as they do . we must not hear as they do , for they hear without preparation before hearing , attention at hearing . affection at hearing . application at hearing . practice after hearing . see ezek. . . we must not pray as they do : for . they make light of prayer , job . . . they pray with the lip onely , and not with the heart , isa. . . mat. . . . they continue not in prayer , they grow weary . . they think to be heard for their much speaking , matth. . . . they turn away their ear from heari● 〈…〉 whom they pray , prov. . . . they aim amiss in prayer , jam. . . we must not come to the lords table as they do , for they come unpreparedly . nor observe sabbaths as they do , for they trifle them away . nor sing psalms as they do , for they sing not with the heart , but voice onely . nor fast as they do , for they abstain onely from food , not from sin . fourthly , that it is so , that saints must not conform to sinners . thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil , exod. . . after the doing of the land of egypt and canaan shall ye not do , neither shall ye walk in their ordinances : levit. . . thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of the nations : deut. . . walk not in the way of sinners , refrain thy foot from their path : prov. . . enter not into the path of the wicked , go not in the way of evil men : avoid it , pass not by it , turn from it , and pass away : prov. . , . if sinners entice thee , consent thou not : prov. . . thus saith the lord , learn not the way of the heathen : jer. . . though israel play the harlot , yet let not judah offend : hos. . . this i say therefore , and testifie in the lord , that ye henceforth walk not as other gentiles walk , in the vanity of their mind : ephes. . . have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness , but rather reprove them : ephes. . . ye are children of the light , and of the day ; not of the night , nor of darkness : therefore let us not sleep , as do others ; but let us watch and be sober : thes. . , . the kings of the gentiles do so and so● but ye shall not be so : luke . , . st. peter speaks of some converts that would not run with the world in their sinful fashions and courses , though they were wonder'd at and evil spoken of therefore ; pet. . fifthly , why. . from the world. . from themselves . . from christ. . from the things themselves wherein conformity to the world is practiced . first , from this world. . because satan is the god and prince of it , cor. . . joh. . . & . . & . . . because 't is an evil world , gal. . . and lyes in wickedness , john . . see its description , psal. . , to . & rom. . , &c. & . . ephes. . , . . because this evil world must give account , even for those things wherein we are so prone to follow it , pet. . . . because the end of it is destruction , phil. . . you would not suffer with it , and will you sin with it ? secondly , from themselves , who by profession are saints , christians . . because they are not of the world , but are called out of it ; joh. . . god hath seperated you from others to be his own peculiar ; levit. . . exod. . . hence , for this cause , as well as others , 't was that god was displeased with his people of old , for desiring a king , that they might be like the nations , sam. . . viz. because god hath severed them from other people that they should be his : levit. . . . because they have better principles , then the world has , viz. tim. . . a pure heart , good conscience , faith unfeigned , they have christ in them , as a principle of their life , gal. . . and the spirit of god , john . . cor. . . the principles of the world are , an impure heart , a bad conscience , real unbelief . yea satan , ephes. . . pet. 〈◊〉 . and the spirit of the world , cor. . . now is not this a good reason why the people of god should not conform to this world ? for should they of better principles conform to them of worse ? should they that have a pure heart , good conscience , and faith unfeigned , conform to those that have an impure heart , a bad conscience , and real unbelief ? should they who have christ and the spirit of god in them , conform to them who have satan and the spirit of the world in them ? . because they have better patterns to conform to , then the world is , viz. . god , pet. . , . . christ , col. . . john . . . saints , heb. . . phil. . . mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample : so as ye have the servants of christ , not the world for your example . . angels and glorified saints . we must study so to do the will of god on earth , as 't is done in heaven : matth. . . now , judge in your own consciences , should they who have such excellent patterns , conform to the pattern of a base world ? . because they are bound by their baptism to the contrary , viz. to renounce the world , the pomps and vanities thereof , and not to follow , or to be led by it . now should we do that which is a breach of our baptismal covenant . . because you that are saints are born to great matters , even to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled , &c. pet. . , . and should you , persons that are new born to so great an estate , should you please your selves in a conformity to the poor things of this world ? . because you are grown up to maturity , to years of discretion ; so that it is time for you to put away childish things : whilst you were children 't was more tollerable , but now that you are grown up to be men , to be so childish and foolish is intollerable . see cor. . . . because you are more excellent then your neighbour , prov. . . and therefore must not conform to them . for shall the more noble conform to the more ignoble ? ye are gods treasure , psal. . . and shall gods treasure conform to the refuse of this world ? you are priests of god , pet. . . and shall the priests of god conform to common people ? the priests of old were not to touch any unclean thing . . because you have not so learned christ , ephes. . . q. d. the doctrine of christ in which you are instructed , and which you have learned , requires another manner of life from you , then that which the gentiles lead , therefore you should not imitate them . christ hath taught you otherwise , the grace of god which bringeth salvation , teacheth you to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts , and to live righteously , soberly , and godly in this present world ; and not to conform to its unrighteous , intemperate and ungodly life , tit. . . . because you are now within sight of home , your fathers house ; and your salvation is nearer , and therefore must cast off the works of darkness , and walk honestly as in the day , not in rioting , drunkenness , not in chambering and wantonness , not in strife and envying : as the world does . rom. . , . your thoughts should now be so taken up and pleased with what you have in view , the great things which are to come , and so near to come , that all the toyes and trifles this world is so much pleased with , should be looked upon by you with disdain . . because you shall now very speedily be separated from this world , and distinguished from it , and delivered from that wrath which they shall suffer for ever and for ever ; and will you conform to them now , in those things for which they shall suffer the vengeance of eternal fire ? would you have your souls gathered hereafter with those you conform to here , and whose fashions you have learned here ? david would not , psal. . . thirdly , from christ. . because christ designedly gave himself to deliver us from this present evil world according to the will of god and our father , gal. . . to what he gave himself , see isa. . . & . . his back to smiters , his checks to them that plucked off the hair , his face to shame and spitting . consider this you proud men and women , whose backs , faces , heads , necks , brests , and armes , shew the pride of your hearts . did christ give himself to suffer all this , that he might separate and deliver you from conformity to this world ? and is not this a good reason why you should not conform unto it , in hair , habit , and nakedness . . because christ and his kingdom is not of this world . . christ is not of it , joh. . . . his kingdom is not of it , joh. . . not onely in respect of the subjects , but in opposition to worldly kingdoms , which come with external pomp and observation . but christ's kingdom is not so , luke . , . fourthly , from the things themselves wherein conformity to the world is practiced . . because these things are not of the father , but of the devil , and the world , joh. . . . because the love of these will not consist with the love of god , joh. . . . because these things pass away , cor. . . joh. . . sixthly , the use. . of information . then the best are prone to conformity to this world , so far as they are carnal ; what need else of this prohibition , be not conformed to this world . even joseph was found guilty of conformity to pharaohs courtiers in swearing by the life of pharaoh , gen. . , . . use of reproof , of such as profess themselves to be saints , and to be called to fellowship with christ , and yet have fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness ; who profess themselves to be called out of the world , and yet conform unto it ; who profess themselves to be saints , and yet live like sinners . god finds fault with this , and is much displeased that his people should learn the works of the heathen , psal. . . and think you it doth not displease him that we should learn the fashions of the world , and serve their idols , psal. . . do not they whose fashions you learn , make idols of their hair , skin , and habit ? and will you serve their idols ? pray god they prove not a snare unto you . read , king. . . king. . . chron. . . & . , . may we not well say to such as conform to this world , as jehu the prophet said to jehosaphat , chron. . . should you conform to the ungodly , and love and like the practices of them that hate the lord ! pray god wrath may not come upon you for this . hezekiah a good man was proud of his fine things , chron. . , . with king. . . but wrath came upon him for it . read , ezek. . . . use of examination . do not we conform to this world ? even we who in some things are non-conformists ? do not many , who in some things separate from the world , in other things conform unto it ? do not many that separate from their worship , conform to their works ? have not many fellowship with the world in the unfruitful works of darkness , that will have no fellowship with them in worship ? the world is for rioting , drunkenness , chambering and wantonness , strife and envying , rom. . . would professors were not so too ? the world is for lasciviousness , lusts , excess of wine , revellings , banquetings , pet. . . would professors were not so too ? all that is in the world , is the lust of the flesh , the lust of the eye , and the pride of life , joh. . . now i beseech you let 's deal truly with our selves , do not we conform to this world in these ? in lusting after pleasure , profit , and preferment ; are not ▪ these in too great account with us ? do not we love , desire , and seek after these ? would you that are professors could wash your hands from voluptuousness , covetousness , pride and vain glory . take a view of the world , and then take a view of your selves , and then judge whether you do not conform unto it . the world is , atheistical , without god in the world , psal. . . eph. . . are not we so too , or very near it ? see isa. . . & . . psal. . . blasphemous , psal. . . and are not we guilty of this too much ? see rom. . . covetous , pet. . . and are not professors so too ? judas a professor , and demas a professor were so ; tim. . . defrauding , rom. . . and do not professors the same ? see cor. . . envious , gal. . . and are not professors so too ? see cor. . . fearful of suffering for religion ; of these read , rev. . . and are not professors so too ? see matth. . . even peter was too fearful . god-distrusting , psal. . . jer. . . and are not professors so too ? see isa. . . haughty , rom. . . and are not professors so too ? see tim. ▪ , with . did not the disciples of christ affect superiority ? idle , sloathful , ezek. . . and are not professors so too ? thes. . . tim. . . matth. . . kain-like , brother hating ; joh. . . prov. . . joh. . , . and are not professors so too ? see jude . lukewarme , indifferent , king. . . and are not professors so too ? see rev. . . murmuring , king. . . rev. . , . isa. . . and are not professors so too ? see cor. . . negligent , neglects duty to god and man. . to god , psal. . . . to man , ezek. . . and are not professors so too ? offence-giving , matth. . . do not professors do so too ? they did in pauls time , rom. . passionate , froward , ●retful ; as nabal , sam. . . are not professors so too ? see jonah . . quarrelsom , contentious ; are not professors so too ? see cor. . . & . . revengeful ; are not professors so too ? see luke . . secure , like laish , judg. . . are not professors so too ? see jer. . , . hos. . . treacherous ; are not professors so too ? mic. . , . uncharitable ; mat. . , . are not professors so too ? see jam. . , . job . . wavering , unbelieving ; joh. . . & . . joh. . , . and are not professors so too ? see joh. . , , . yea , see luke . . joh. . . . use of dehortation . be not conformed to this world . that i may the better disswade you from conformity to this world , i shall shew you , . what they are called to whom you are beseeched not to conform . . what those things are called wherein you are desired not to conform . . what you your selves are called , who are disswaded from conformity to this world . . how god is affected and carries towards this world which you are beseeched not to conform to . . how the world is affected and carries towards you who are disswaded from this conformity . first , what they are called , to whom you are beseeched not to conform . they are called , . men of this world , psal. . whose portion is in this life . now shall those who have god to be their portion , psal. . . conform to these ? . the children of this world , luke . . who are well pleased with the rattles , toyes and trifles of this world . now shall those who are born of god , to an inheritance incorruptible , &c. pet. . . conform to these ? . the disputers of this world : the enquirers of this age , so the dutch , cor. . . now shall those who have the scriptures to search . joh. . . conform to these ? . the fornicators of this world , cor. . . now shall the chaste virgins of christ , cor. . . conform to these ? . the friends of this world , jam. . . who are the enemies of god. now shall the friends of god , joh. . , . conform to these ? . the rich in this world , who are apt to be high minded , tim. . . now shall the humble and contrite , with whom the high and lofty one vouchsafes to dwell , isa. . . conform to these ? secondly , what those things are called wherein you are desired not to conform to this world . . the darkness of this world , eph. . . now shall they that are light in the lord , eph. . . conform to the world in its darkness ? . the wisdom of this world , cor. . . & . . which descendeth not from above , but is earthly , sensual , devilish , james . . now shall a wise man endued with wisdom from above , jam. . , . conform to this earthly , sensual , devilish wisdom of the world ? . the cares of this world , mat. . . now shall they who have a father in heaven , who knoweth their needs , and careth for them , mat. . . pet. . . care as the world doth ? . the course of this world , eph. . . now shall they who are called out of the world , and now are not of the world , joh. . . and whom the world hates , run the course of this world ? . the fashion of this world which passeth away , cor. . . now shall they who have in heaven a better and more enduring substance , heb. . . fall in love with the fashions of this world ? . the lusts of men , pet. . . now shall they who have gods law written in their hearts , heb. . . live according to the lusts of men ? thirdly , what you your selves are called , who are diswaded from conformity to this world . . adopted sons , gal. . . sons and daughters , cor. . . others , the ungodly , men of the world are called bastards , heb. . . now shall the sons and daughters of god conform to the bastards of this world ? . alive to god , rom. . . others are dead in sin , ephes. . . luke . . now shall they who are a live to god , conform to those who are dead in sin ? i say as paul in a like case , cor. . . god forbid . . believers , act. . . the men of the world are called unbelievers , cor. . . now shall believers conform to , and yoke with unbelievers ? god forbid . . blessed of the lord , gen. . . psal. . . the wicked are the cursed of the lord , psal. . . now shall the blessed of the lord , conform to the curfed of the lord ? god forbid . . children of god , joh. . . the wicked are called children of the devil , joh. . . now shall the children of god conform to the children of the devil ? god forbid . . children of light , luk. . . thes. . . the men of the world are called children of darkness , thes. . . now shall the children of light conform to the children of darkness ? god forbid . . children of wisdom , matth. . . the wicked are called sottish children , that have no understanding , jer. . . now shall the children of wisdom conform to the sots of this world ? god forbid . . children of the free woman , gal. . , . the wicked are called the children of the bond woman , ibid. now shall the children of the free woman conform to the children of the bond ? god forbid . . children of sion , psal. . . babilon also has children , for she is the mother of harlots and abominations , rev. . . now shall the children of sion conform to the children of babilon ? god forbid . . children of the highest , luke . . who dwels in the high and holy place , isa. . . the wicked are called the children of this world , luke . . and inhabiters of the earth , rev. . . now shall the children of the highest conform to the children of this low world ? god forbid . . christians , act. . . some crucifie him afresh , heb. . . as they do who reckon of him and reject him , as the jews did who crucified him . now shall christians conform to the crucifiers of christ ? god forbid . . christs brother , sister , and mother , matth. . . the wicked are aliens from the church of christ , and strangers from the covenants of promise , ephes. . . now shall christs brother , sister , and mother , conform to strangers ? god forbid . . crown of glory , royal diadem , isa. . . the wicked are christs footstool , psal. . . now shall crowns of glory , and royal diadems conform to foot-stools ? god forbid . . devout , act. . . act. . the wicked are without god , eph. . . now shall the devout conform to those who are without god in the world ? god forbid . . discreet , who guide their affairs with discretion , psal. . . the wicked are void of counsel , deut. . . and oft-times their counsels , such as they are , are carried headlong , job . . now shall they who do or should guide their affairs with discretion , conform to those who are void of counsel , or whole counsel is carried headlong ? god forbid . . elect of god , col. . . the wicked are rejected of god , jer. . . now shall the elected of god , conform to the rejected of god ? god forbid . . espoused of christ , cor. . . hos. . . the wicked are called adulterers and adulteresses , jam. . . now shall the espoused of christ conform to the adulterers and adulteresses of this world ? god forbid . . friends of christ , joh. . , . the wicked are called his enemies , luke . . now shall the friends of christ , conform to the enemies of christ ? god forbid . . faithful servants , matth. . . & . . the wicked are called sloathful servants , matth. . . now shall faithful servants conform to sloathful servants ? god forbid . . good , matth. . . the wicked are called evil , ibid. and naught , prov. . . now shall the good conform to the evil ? god forbid . . godly , psal. . . the wicked are called ungodly , psal. . . now shall the godly conform to the ungodly ? god forbid . . gold , job . . the wicked are likened to dross , psal. . . now shall gods gold conform to the dross of this world ? god forbid . . happy , psal. . . the wicked are miserable , rev. . . now shall the happy conform to the miserable ? god forbid . . heavenly , having their conversation in heaven , phil. . . the wicked are earthly , minding earthly things , phil. . . men of the earth , psal. . . now shall the heavenly conform to the earthly ? god forbid . . houshold of god , eph. . . and houshold of faith , gal. . . the wicked are the houshold of satan , cor. . . the devils work-house , ephes. . . now shall the houshold of god conform to the houshold of satan ? god forbid . . jewels , gods jewels , mal. . . the wicked are worthless , prov. . . now shall jewels of great price , conform to the worthless things of this world ? god forbid . . innocent , job . . jer. . . the wicked are hurtful , bryars and thorns , isa. . . now shall the innocent conform to the hurtful ? god forbid . . kings and priests , rev. . . the wicked are called common and unclean , act. . . now shall kings and priests conform to the common and unclean ? god forbid . . lambs , joh. . . isa. . . the wicked are lions , wolves , mat. . . now shall sheep and lambs conform to lions and wolves ? god forbid . . lords freemen , cor. . . the wicked are satans bondmen , tim. . . now shall , &c. god forbid . . meek of the earth , zeph. . . psal. . . the wicked are raging waves of the sea foaming out their own shame , jude . now shall , &c. god forbid . . members of christ , cor. . . eph. . . some wicked are members of an harlot , ibid. limbs of satan . now shall , &c. god forbid . . men of wisdom , micah . . the wicked are mad , eccles. . . act. . . not themselves , luke . . now shall , &c. god forbid . . merciful , matth. . . psal. . . the wicked are unmerciful and cruel , matth. . , . now shall , &c. god forbid . . mourners , matth. . . the wicked are all for mirth , carnal mirth , isa. . . amos . , . now shall , &c. god forbid . . new creatures , cor. . . the wicked are old in sin ; of some 't is said they were old in adulteries , ezek. . . corrupt nature in them is called the old man , ephes. . . now shall , &c. god forbid . . old disciples , so some are called , act. . . and fathers , joh. . . some are young , raw , unexperienced professors . and shall old disciples conform to th●se ? god forbid . obed●ent , rom. . . the wicked are called disobedient , tit. . . tim. . . now shall , &c. god forbid . precious , jer. . . isa. . . excellent , psal. . . precious so●s of sion , lam. . . the wicked are vile , jer. . . the wicked are called vile persons , psal. . . dan. . . now shall , &c. god forbid . . quiet , psal. . . according to the injunction given , thes. . . the wicked are unquiet like the troubled sea which cannot rest , isa. . . given to change , prov . . and busie bodies in other mens matters , . pet. . . thes. . . now shall , &c. god forbid . . righteous , matth. . . isa. . . matth. . . the wicked are unrighteous , cor. . . enemies of righteousness , act. . . now shall , &c. god forbid . . redeemed of the lord , isa. . . the wicked are forsaken , left in bondage , ibid. and reprobate silver , rejected of god , jer. . . now shall , &c. god forbid . . sanctified in christ , cor. . . saints , saints of the most high , dan. . , . the holy people , isa. . . a holy nation , . pet. . . the wicked are unholy and profane , . tim. . . tim. . . bruit beasts , pet. . . swine , matth. . . now shall , &c. god forbid . . ●ervants of the most high god , dan , . . act. . . the wicked are the servants of sin , rom. . . and of divers lusts , tit. . . and shall , &c. god forbid . . spiritual men , cor. . . the wicked , natural men , cor. . . and shall , &c. god forbid . springs , a fountain sealed , cant. . . the wicked are wells without water , pet. . and shall , &c. god forbid . . treasure , yea gods peculiar treasure , psal. . . the wicked are called dross , psal. . . now shall , &c. god forbid . . trees planted by the water side which bring forth fruit , psal. . . the wicked are trees without fruit , twice dead , &c. iude . and shall , &c. god forbid . . temples of god , wherein god , christ , and his spirit dwels . . god , joh. . . , . . christ , ephes. . . . the spirit , rom. . . the wicked are the synagogue of satan , rev. . . & . . wherein the devil rules , eph. . . and shall , &c. god forbid . . vessels of gold and silver , tim. . . the wicked are called vessels of wood and earth , ibid. and shall , &c. god forbid . . vines , noble vines , jer. . . the wicked are called dege●erate plants , ibid. and shall , &c. god forbid . . undefiled , psal. . . pure in heart , matth. . the wicked are filthy , rev. . . now shall , &c. god forbid . . wheat ▪ matth. . . the wicked are chaff , matth. . . zeph. . . and tares , matth. . . now shall , &c. god forbid . . wise in heart , prov. . . the wicked are prating fools , prov. . . now shall , &c. god forbid . . wise virgins , matth. . , , . the wicked called foolish virgins , ibid. now shall , &c. god forbid . . workmanship of god , ephes. . . the wicked are the workmanship of the devil , john . . now shall , &c. god forbid . fourthly , how god is affected and carries towards this world , which you are beseeched not to conform to . . his soul hates them , psal. . . . he is angry with them every day , psal. . . . he resisteth them , jam. . . pet. . . . he hides his face from them , and will not hear them ▪ isa. . . jer. . . . he puts them away like dross , psal. . . . he will consume them , jer. . . rain saares , fire and brimstone upon them , psal. . . destroy them , psal. . . turn them into hell , psal. . . now will you who profess your selves to be the people of god , and to be beloved of god , conform to those whom gods soul hates ; with whom he is angry every day ; whom he resisteth , &c. will you conform to those towards whom he thus carries himself ? god forbid . fifthly , how the world carries , and is affected towards you who are disswaded from this conformity . . they hate and abhor you , joh. . . prov. . . according to that antient sentence , gen. . . . they scorn you , psal. . . & . . job . . . they scoff at you , gen. . . lam. . . . they make songs upon you , job . , . . they speak evil of you , pet. . . . they seperate from you , and will not conform to you in gods wayes . and will you conform to these ? what to those that hate you , scorn you , scoff at you , make songs upon you , speak evil of you , and separate from you in gods ways ? will you conform to these in the devils ways ? god forbid . o sirs let them return to you , but do not you return to them , ier. . . three sorts make up this evil world : the voluptuous . covetous . proud. be not conformed to either , . i beseech you by the mercies of god be not conformed to the voluptuous of this world . there are that , attire , adorn , dress and habit themselves to draw the eyes of others to behold them , after the example of tamar , gen. . . who put off her widdows garment , and put on something the better to allure her father in law. see prov. . . but i beseech you who make profession of religion , by the mercies of god , be not conformed to such . there are that , burn in lust one toward another , men with men , working that which is unseemly , rom. . . abusing themselves with mankind , cor. . . these shall not inherit the kingdom of god. wherefore i beseech you by the mercies of god , be not conformed to these . there are that , cast their eyes on beautiful objects , after the example of iosephs mistriss , gen. . . but i beseech you by the mercies of god be not conformed to such . feed not your eyes with such objects . give not your eyes leave to look , for that may prove very dangerous . as 't is said in another case , remember lots wise ; so i say in this , remember david , what his looking on a beautiful woman cost him , sam. . . with psal. . and sampson , ●udg . . , . & . . what his looks cost him : yea and our grandmother eve , what l●oking on the forbidden fruit cost her , gen. . . pray therefore as david , psal. . . turn away mine ●yes from b●holding vanity . and do as job , chap. . . make a covenant with your eyes . there are that , drink waters out of their own cesterns , as they are allowed , prov. . . but they drink immoderately , and unseasonably out of their own , cor. . . and onely to please themselves , not that they may be the fitter to serve god thereby . but i beseech you by the mercies of god be not conformed to these . there are that , eat and drink too much ; too much for their health , estates , reason , work , and imployment . for their health , impairing that thereby , prov. . . for their estates , wasting them thereby , prov. . , . for their reason , weakning that thereby . for their work and imployment , hindering that thereby . these must look for woe and sorrow , read prov. . . to end , & cor. . . wherefore i beseech you that make profession , by the mercies of god , be not conformed to such . there are that , frequent stage-plaies . there are that , gaze on wanton pictures , which provokes to lust . see ezek. . , to . hearken to wanton songs and ballats . idle out their time . this was sodoms sin , ezek. . . and davids too , when joab was besieging rabba , sam. . . and an occasion of his uncleanness . other evils of it see , prov. . . eccles. . . wherefore i beseech you be not conformed to these . keep company with suspected persons , contrary to the charge , prov. . , , , . remove thy way far from her , and come not near the door of her house . but i beseech you that make profession be not conformed to these ; but do as joseph , gen. . . who would not be with his mistriss . there are that , love pleasures more then god , tim. . . such shall be poor , prov. . . wherefore be not conformed to these . but seeing some pleasures and recreations are lawful , wherein does the world offend in and about them ? answer , they offend in and about them in respect of the matter , time , and end of them . first , in respect of the matter . the world makes that the matter of sport and recreation , which should be the matter of devotion and humiliation . . that which should be the matter of devotion , as scripture , lots . first , scripture phraze and story . this is a taking of gods name i● vain , which god will not suffer to go unpunished , exod. . to have the scripture is a rich mercy , psal. . , . rom. . , . & . . wherefore i beseech you by this mercy of god , be not conformed to the world in sporting your selves with scripture . secondly , lots . a lot is a religious ordinance of god , because it is an ap●ealing to divine providence , what ever the matter be about which 't is conversant , prov. . . and therefore that distinction of ▪ lots into religious , civil , and indifferent , will not salve the business , as some divines think ; all lots being religious as they are an appealing to divine providence . quest. if the question should be asked whither card-playing , and dice-playing be a sin ? answ. i answer , that as carding and dicing are commonly used , it is sin ; and i think i have good ground so to answer ; for as 't is commonly used , 't is a swerving from scripture rules . to instance in some known rules . first , whatsoever is not of faith is sin , rom. . . now will any say that carding and dicing as commonly used is done in faith , with assurance that it is pleasing to god in christ. secondly , whatsoever ye do in word or deed , do all in the name of the lord jesus , giving thanks to god and the father by him , col. . . now who can say that carding and dicing as commonly used is thus done . thirdly , whether ye eat or drink , or whatsoever else ye do , do all to the glory of god , cor. . . now do you think in your consciences that carding and dicing , as commonly used , is done to the glory of god ? fourthly , in every thing , by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving , let your requests be made known to god , phil. . . now is it thus used , and if not , is it according to the rule ? fifthly , give no offence to jew or gentile , or the church of god , cor. . . is no offence given by it ? sixthly , whatsoever is of good report think of and do , phil. . . is carding and dicing of good report ? seventhly , abstain from all appearance of e●il , thes. . . sure carding and dicing hath the appearance of evil . eighthly , avoid all occasions of sin , prov. . . & . , . & . doubtless 't is the occasion of much sin . ninthly , thou shalt not covet any thing that is thy neighbours , exod. . . now as commonly used , sure there is covering in it . tenthly , thou shalt not go beyond or defraud thy brother in any matter , thes. . . as 't is commonly used , 't is a breach of this rule also . secondly , that which should be the matter of humiliation , the world makes matter of sport and recreation , viz. sin , and the judgments of god. first , sin : as , . mens living without a calling , to make sport . . mens wearing womens apparel . . mens playing the fool and acting to make sport , as if they had no understanding . thus to do is sin , and sin is matter of sorrow and humiliation ; and to take pleasure in that which is matter of sorrow , must needs be sin . secondly , the judgments of god : as , . foolishness and madness , sam. . , . . the enmity between the creatures caused by mans sin . now to take pleasure in these , is to take pleasure in those things which are matter of sorrow and humiliation . now i beseech you that are professors , by the mercies of god , be not you conformed to the world in these things . thus you see the world offends in and about pleasures and recreations , in respect of the matter . . the world offends in and about them in respect of time , too much being spent in and about them , viz. whole dayes and nights , contrary to ephes. . . . in respect of the end , gods glory not being aimed at , as it should be in every thing , cor. . . there are that , mince as they go , isa. . . so as to be taken notice of , and to take carnal affections : see matth. . . but i beseech you that profess religion be not conformed to such . neigh after others wives , jer. . . & . . this is abomination , ezek . . and such persons god will judge heb. . . wherefore i beseech you be not conformed to such . open their feet to them that passeth by , ezek . . yea their breasts , which is more tempting . this king james called opening the shop windows , as if they had a mind to sell. but be not conformed to such . pouder , patch , and paint ; after the example of jezabel , king. . . and those ier. . . ezek. . . but god threatens ●o send stench instead of sweet smell , isa. . . therefore be not conformed to such . practice or are present at dancings , condemned , iob . , . isa. . . matth. . . be not conformed to such . there are that , quit all shame and modesty , like those , ier. . . but i beseech you professors , by the mercies of god , be not conformed to them . read ill books , play-books , &c. words and , matters which corrupt good manners , cor. . . and is not convenient , eph. . . see the rule● ephes. . . and be not conformed 〈◊〉 〈…〉 h. seek mixt wine , prov. . . tarry long at the wine , prov. . . but i beseech you be not conformed to these . use their christian liberty for occasion to the flesh , gal. . . that take occasion from the doctrine of christian liberty , to become licentious ; using their liberty as a cloak of naughtiness , pet. . . but be not conformed to such . wander or walk too much in fields or streets , after the example of dina , gen. . . and the strange woman , prov. . . but i beseech you professors , by the mercies of god , be not conformed to such . let such as have temptations to incontinence , or unclean practices , consider these scriptures . prov. . , . & . , , , , , to . & . , , . & . . to the end . & . . & . . & . . eccles. . . cor. . . & . , . rev. . . & . . no whoremonger , nor unclean person hath any inheritance in the kingdom of christ and of god , ephes. . . wherefore let no man deceive you with vain words ; for because of these things cometh the wrath of god upon the ●●●ldren of disobedience , ephes. . . diswasives from sensual pleasures . . they war against the soul , pet. . . . they hinder the knowledge of the truth , tim. . , . . they eat out all pleasure in and love of god , tim. . . . they choke the seed of the word , luke . . . they keep from coming to the great supper , luke . . . they take away the heart from all that is good , hos. . . . they are but for a season , heb. . . . they end in sorrow , prov. . . & . . adams pleasurable eating forbidden fruit , ended in ejection out of paradice . esau's broth , ended in the loss of his birthright . jonathans honey , in the hazard of his life . judas his sop , in the devils entring into him . babilons golden cup , in her downfall . . they are madness and folly , eccles. . . & . . . the love of them speaks the power of godliness wanting , tim. . . wherefore i again beseech you , be not conformed to this world in the loving of sensual pleasures . i wish you such a sight as moses had of the heavenly recompence , and then i am sure you would love them no more then he did , heb. . , . secondly , conform not to the covetous world . you read of covetous practices , pet. . . i beseech you , by the mercies of god , be not conformed to the world in them . this dehortation to you that make profession of religion , is not without need ; for , . professors have been deeply guilty of covetousness ; as ezekiels hearers , ezek. . , . the scribes and pharisees who fasted oft , prayed long , and gave much almes , matth. . : judas . . christ warns his own disciples against it , luke . . & . . . saint john writes to those that were fathers in christs school , to take heed of it , joh. . . and have you not need to be dehorted from it ? sure you have . i shall therefore in a beseeching way apply my self unto you . there are some that , . abound in wealth , have abundance of all good things , and want nothing , and yet have not power to eat thereof , eccles. . , . but are cruel to themselves , denying themselves meat , drink , apparel , rest and sleep ; and cruel to their families , denying them things convenient . these sure are a part of the covetous world ; and i beseech you by the mercies of god , be not conformed to them . . build by unrighteousness and wrong , jer. . . wherein see the latter part of the vers . and jam. . . but i beseech you , &c. be not conformed to these . . cumber themselves about the many things of the world , so that they cannot spare time for the service of god in the closet or family , luke . . these also are part of this covetous world ; and i beseech you by the mercies of god be not conformed to them . . devise covetous things and practices , isa. . . pet. . . but i beseech , &c. be not conformed to these . . deal falsely , jer. . . using false words , lying to get gain , which is , &c. prov. . . and false weights , which are abomination to the lord , prov. . . & . . and false oathes which god hates , zech. . . and false accusation , a way of getting which some take . 't is like zacheus was guilty of it , for saith he , luke . . if , &c. . whose eyes and heart are not but for their covetousness , and for oppression and violence to do it , watching opportunities ; as when men are in distress and necessity , they work upon mens necessities , to get what bargains they please , jer. . . but i beseech you , &c. be not conformed to those . . forget to do good , and communicate ; though charged not to forget it , heb. . . or if they do any thing this way , 't is sparingly , grudgingly ; contrary to the charge , cor. , , . too like him , sam. . , , . forsake the poor , job . . but i beseech you , &c. be not conformed to these . do any forget to sow their land , at seed time ? . some are given to covetousness , jer. . . greedy of gain , prov. . . tim. . . are immoderate in their desires after riches , thirsting like the horsleech ; ever crying give , give , prov. . . and in their joy and grief also . in their joy , in the enjoying of them , as he , luke . . in their grief , in parting with them , as that young man , matth. . , . but i beseech you , &c. be not conformed to these . . hard men , reaping where they have not sown , and gathering where they have not strawed ; matth. . . but i beseech you , &c. be not conformable to these . . joyn house to house , isa. . . . keep bad company to get gain , prov. . , , . contrary to the counsel of the holy ghost : here and prov. . , . some plead they shall have no trade unless they do so . but i beseech you , &c. be not conformable to these . . lade themselves with thick clay or mire , burden , pollute , and entangle themselves , in taking , raking , and ransaking for riches , habak . . . some lade their carts so much , that they either stick , or break all . but i beseech you , &c. be not you conformed . . make gold their hope , job . . their strong city , prov. . . trusting in their abundance , psalm . . contrary to the charge , tim. . . and to their ruine , prov. . . therefore i beseech you , &c. . mind earthly things , phil. . . heavenly things are not in all their thoughts . but i beseech you , &c. be not conformable , &c. . never are satisfied . though he have neither child nor brother , &c. yet there is no end of his labour , nor is his eye satisfied with riches , eccles. . . but i beseech you , &c. be not conformed , &c. . over reach , go beyond , and defraud one another in dealing and barganing ; this is prohibited , thes. . . therefore i beseech you , &c. be not conformed to these . . plead poverty , deb . s and family expences , when any thing is desired or required for a pious , charitable or righteous use , though there be enough for pleasure and pride . but i , &c. be not conformable , &c. . are querulous , complainers , jud. . never content with their condition , with what they have ; contrary to the charge given us , heb. . . but i beseech you , &c. be not conformable , &c. . run greedily after the error of baalam , for reward , jud. . adulterating or corrupting the doctrine of truth for filthy lucre ; unlike to paul , cor. . . but i , &c. be not conformable , &c. . speak mostly of the world , joh. . . and of the earth , joh. . . whose language is , who will shew us any good , psal. . . who will shew us how we may get goods and riches ? but i beseech , &c. be not conformable , &c. . serve mammon , matth. . . but i , &c. be not , &c. . study gain more then godliness , being godly only for the sake of gain , tim. . . but i , &c. be not , &c. . turn aside after lucre , sam. . . contrary to the charge , deut. . . take away the right from the poor , isa. . , . but i beseech , &c. be not you , &c. . venture the salvation of their souls for this present world , as demas did , tim. . . but i , &c. be not , &c. . wish the sabbath over , that they may be getting something of the world , amos . , , . but i , &c. be not , &c. . will be rich , tim. . , . though they fall into , &c. but i , &c. be not , &c. diswasives from conformity to this covetous world . . they that do , and are covetous like the world , are hated , abhorred of god , psal. . . . sorely threatned , isa. . . isa. . . . job . , , . & . , , . . the word will do you no good whiles such , matth. . . ezek. . . mark. , . . you are in gods account idolater , col. . . eph. . . . you will be troublers of your house , prov. . . . no sin will be strained at , if you give way to be covetous , for covetousness is the root of all evil , tim. . . thou maist be a judas , matth. . . a● ananias , act. . . . thy heart is in danger to be hardned ; covetous men seldom repent , jer. . . thes. . . . saints must have no fellowship with you , cor. . . . you must not go to heaven , cor. . . thirdly , conform not to this proud world . corrupt and sinful man is a proud creature , proud all over . proud , first , in speech , psal. . . speaking proudly . . against god , daen. . . rev. . . and with pharaoh saying , who is the lord ? . against his people , psal. . . speaking grievous things proudly against them . secondly , in heart , psal. . . isa. . . prov. . . stout , stiff , unyielding . these are abomination to the lord , prov. . . thirdly , in spirit , high minded , eccl. . . fourthly , in look , prov. . . & . . fifthly , in gesture , isa. . . sixthly , in deed , psal. . . exod. . . be not conformed to the world herein . this dehortation is not without need to you professors . the best have been and are prone to it . josephs brethren , gen. . . . aaron and miriam , num. . , . david , sam. . , . . uzzia , chron. . , . . hezekiab , chron. . . . the apostles of christ , mark . . there are that , affect high places , uppermost rooms in th● synagogues , matth. . . christs own disciples were contending about this , matth. . . & . , . luke . , , . contrary to the charge , gal. . . but i beseech you that profess religion , by the mercies of god , be not conformed to these . bo●st themselves , isa. . , . & . , to . psal. . . amos . . dan. . . luke . ; . contrary to prov. . , . some boast of their will , the arminian● ▪ some of their reason , the socinians . some of their revelations , the anabaptists . some of perfection and sufferings , the quakers . some of traditions and miracles , the papists . some of gifts and priviledges , rom. . , &c. joh. . , . but i beseech you , &c. build with hewen stone , when , &c. isa. . , . q. d. that are so far from repenting when corrected , that they harden their hearts more and more ; so mal. . . but i beseech you , &c. covet to be seen of men in what they do , matth. . . contrary to matth. . , , ; . but i beseech you , &c. displeased with the praise of others , matth. . . despise others , luke . . but i beseech you , &c. establish their own righteousness , rom. . . luke . . but i beseech you , &c. fortifie themselves in the rocks , &c. obad. . . flatter themselves with outward advantages and accommodations . but i beseech you , &c. give not god the glory , but themselves , act. . . but consider his end . and your duty is●l . . . wherefore i beseech you , &c. haughty scorners who deal in proud wrath , prov. . . casting aside admonitions , with disdain and contempt . but i beseech you , &c. hearts listed up because of their riches , &c. chron. . , . contrary to the caution , deut. . . the uprightness of such hearts may be questioned , habak . . . wherefore i beseech you , &c. intrude into things they have not seen , col. . . either , . in the scriptures . . with their bodily eyes . . by the light of sound reason . yet venture upon it , as they upon the worshipping of angels . but i beseech you , &c. korahs that set themselves against gods messengers , numb . . . but i , &c. lean to their own understandings . contrary to the rule , prov. . , . paul would have such to become fools that they might be wise , cor. . . wherefore i beseech you , &c. lovers of praise and applause , mat. . . lovers of preheminence , ep. joh. . lofty high lookers , prov. . . such was not david , psal. . . nor would he suffer such , psal. . . but i beseech you , &c. magnifie themselves , luke . , . contrary to phil. . . but i beseech you , &c. never think to be moved , like her , viz. babilon , isa. . . good men too prone to this ; as david , psal. . . and job , chap. . , . wherefore i beseech you , &c. offended with those that are not at their beck and command , num. . but i beseech you , &c. offer violence to the lords prophets , king. . , . but i beseech you , &c. persecute the poor , psal. . . hiding snares for them , psal. . . puft up by their fleshly mind ; . unsanctified mind : . gifts of the mind , as wit , knowledge , eloquence , memory , col. . . pure in their own eyes , prov. . . isa. . . but i beseech you , &c. quarrel and contend , ever stirring up strife , prov. . . but i beseech you , &c. reject the lord as pharaoh , exod. . . and those , luke . . rise up against his people , psal. . , . but i beseech you , &c. seek and search their own glory ; contrary to prov. . . shew their fine things , king. . . smite the lords prophets , chron. . . that scorn and contemn , psal. . . but i beseech you , &c. think of themselves more highly then they ought . think themselves to be something when they are nothing , gal. . . contrary to rom. . . trust in their treasures , jer. . . but i beseech you , &c. usurp the priests office ; as chron. . . but i beseech you , &c. walk with stretched out necks , isa. . . will not seek after god , psal. . . but i beseech you , &c. hear and give ear , and be not proud ; for the lord hath spoken , jer. . . what , see v. , &c. therefore give glory to god. . acknowledge his judgments and threats to be righteous , and heartily turn to god ; otherwise god will mar your pride . disswasives from pride . first , it s not alone , it has very bad companions : as , . naughtiness of heart , sam. . . . a froward mouth ; prov. . . . idleness , ezek. . . . unmercifulness , ezek. . . . contention , prov. . . . hardned mind , dan. . . . an evil eye , mark . . . blasphemy , mark . . more , see prov. . , &c. secondly , god knows them afar off , has no respect for them , will have no communion with them , psal. . . thirdly , god hates and abominates pride , prov. . , . & . . fourthly , the proud err from gods commandments , and are cursed , psal. . . fifthly , god resisteth them , jam. . . pet. . . gods resistance supposes mans assault , and did ever any harden themselves against god and prosper ? job . . what , will you strive with your maker ? wo to such , isa. . . sirs , sirs , see ezek. . . god will do to them that which he asks job whither he could do , job . , . god is able to abase them , dan. . . and will be above them , exod. . . and bring them down , psal. . . and low , prov. . . to destruction , prov. . . & . . see also , isa. . , to . beloved , would i could fright you from this cursed pride ! what shall i say to you ? it turned , angels into devils . sodom into ashes . pharaoh into the deep . haman off the gallows . nebuchadnezar a grazing with beasts . achitophel out of the world. because pride of hair and habit abounds , i shall close this discourse with some disswasives from it . . are not our cloathes memorials of our sin and shame ? before our first parents had sinned , they were both naked and were not ashamed , gen. . . but when they had sinned , they were ashamed , and sewed fig-leaves together to cover their nakedness , gen. . . but god made them coats of skins , ver . . . are they not all borrowed things ? and that from poor despicable creatures , your servants ? as , woollen from the sheep . linnen from the earth . cotten from the trees . silks and velvets from the worms . hats from beavers and other poor creatures . hair from i know not whom . now suppose a man to have many servants , and he borrows a hat of one , a coat or cloak of another , and shoes and stockins of another , &c. and then goes strutting up and down the streets in these borrowed things , what would you think of him ? . are not your cloaths , for the materials of them , much baser then yourselves ? and will you be proud of what is inferior to your selves ? . what are your bodies which you thus dress up and adorn ? are they not vile , loathsom , stinking , foul , diseased bodies , which must dye and turn to corruption ? . do cloaths commend you to god , or to wise and sober men ? nay , onely to men of vain minds they commend you . . does not dressing , decking and adorning of our selves in such a way as is usual , discover the vanity of our own minds ? . are not such dressings , &c. temptations , snares , enticements and occasions of sin to others ? . is not much of our cloathing waste and lost , and so a slighting of christs counsel , joh. . . if the disciples of christ had indignation at the pouring of ointment on the head of christ ; and if they said , to what purpose is this waste ? matth. . . how much more may christ say , when he looks on the heads , necks , and backs , and feet of many professors ; to what purpose is this waste ? might not the money given for these things have been saved and given to the poor ? matth. . . . do not many poor want that which you put on for pride ? . what will you do in the day when god shall come to deal with you , and reckon with you about your layings out upon your pride ? and conscience shall witness against you : so much laid out upon my proud lust . for strange and needless apparrel twenty pound , but for naked poor not twenty shillings . for costly new fashioned lace , as one says , ten pound , but for food for the hungry not ten shillings . for dressings and trimmings three , four , or five pounds , but for sick poor not five shillings . for toyes and fancies twenty shillings , but for the relief of the needy not twenty pence . for hair i know not what , but for a pious or charitable use not any thing considerable . to take you off from conformity to this world , give me leave to expostulate with you . i shall do it for memory sake alphabetically : alluding to gods expostulating with them , isa. . , . is this , this conformity to the world , is this , to abstain from fleshly lusts , which , &c. or is this your abstaining , &c. as you are earnestly beseeched , pet. . , . to abstain from all appearance of evil ; as we are charged , thes. . . or is this your abstaining from , &c. and so your abstaining , &c. in all the following expostulations . . to bring the body in subjection , as pauls practice was , cor. . . . to bring forth fruits meet for repentance , as we must if we will escape the wrath to come , matth. . , . and those from cor. . . is this to have indignation against our selves , to be zealous , to take revenge upon our selves ? what work would indignation , zeal , and revenge , make upon your heads , faces , necks , and backs , if you had these . . to be blameless as the sons of god without rebuke , &c. phil. . . . to crucifie the flesh with the affections and lusts , as they that are christs have , gal. . . . is this to condemn the world , as noah did , heb. . . nay is it not to commend the world , and say you do well to be proud , covetous , wanton , &c. is this to be converted , and become as little children ? what to strive for state , to seek for preheminence over one another ; to be greatest , highest , bravest , finest ? a little child does not so . even the disciples of christ were too worldly , minding worldly greatness and preheminence ; which moved them to put the question , matth. . . who is to be greatest in the kingdom of heaven ? . the church ; they dreamed of a worldly pompous state of it ; for mar. . . they had disputed among themselves which should be greatest . see act. . . matth. . , . and christs answer , ver . , to . now is this conformity to the world , to be turned from pride , &c. without which , christ says , we shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven , matth. . , , , . . is this to be consumed with zeal , because gods words are forgotten , psal. . . is this to deny our selves ; as they who will be christs disciples must do , matth . . is this to enter in at the straight gate , and to strive so to do as we are counselled by christ , luke . . to be examples as we are bound to be , specially ministers , tim. . . & . . pet. . . to escape the corruption that i● i● the world through lust , pet. . . is this to follow christ our pattern , w 〈…〉 hath left us an example that we should f●●low his steps , pet. . . see matt 〈…〉 . . joh. . . is this to learn of christ ? matth. . . is this to be as god is in this world ? joh. . . to glorifie god with our bodies ? as we are bound by the price paid for us , cor. . . is this to humble our selves under gods mighty hand ? as we are directed by god himself in order to our exaltation , pet. . . is this to judge our selves ? as we must if we will not be judged and condemned with the world , cor. . , . is this to keep our selves from our iniquity ? as we must do if we will approve our selves upright , psal. . . is this to lay to heart the afflictions of joseph ? who many of them are cloathed with rags : see amos . , , . is this to mourn for the sins of the time , as those that are marked out for deliverance in a common calamity , do ? see ezek. . . is this , not to lift up our souls to vanity ? as they that will ascend into gods holy hill , and stand in his holy place , must not : psal. . , . is this to note those that obey not the gospel , and to have no company with them , that they may be ashamed ? thes. . . nay is it not to harden them in their sinful wayes and fashions ? is this to order our steps in gods word , as david prayed he might ? psal. . . and so to order our conversations aright as they must do who will see the salvation of god , psal. . . is this to put off the old man , which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts ? eph. . . and to put on the new man , which after god , is created in righteousness and true holiness ? eph. . . is this to put off your ornaments from you , that god may know what to do unto you ? exod. . . is this to present your bodies a living sacrifice , holy , acceptable to god ; as you are by the mercies of god beseeched to do ? rom. . . is this your quenching the fiery darts of satan ? eph. . now sirs , as st. paul tells the corinthians , concerning their manner of communicating , this is not to eat the lords supper , cor. . . so let me tell you concerning your conformity to this world , this is not to abstain from , &c. this is not to bring your bodies in subjection . this is not to be converted . this , &c. in all the rest of the letters . and as he says , vers . , . what shall i say to you ? shall i praise you in this ? i praise you not . for i have received of the lord that which i have delivered unto you . that you who are called out of this world , which is the devils chappel , into the church , which is the house of the living god ; should not be conformed to this world . but should abstain from , &c. bring your bodies into subjection , &c. is this your reproving your unfruitful works of darkness ? as you are required , ephes. . . levit. . . redeeming of time , to spend so many hours in making provision for the flesh ? time is to be redeemed , not trifled away , eph. . . is this your striving against sin , as your duty is to do ? heb. . . your shining as lights , &c. phil. . . to be transformed by the renewing of your minds ? rom. . . no , for t is set in opposition to being conformed to this world . is this your using the world as not abusing it ? cor. . . is this your walking worthy of your high , holy , and heavenly calling ? as you are required , eph. . . winning others by your conversation ? pet. . , , , . working out your salvation with fear and trembling ? phil. . . being without offence ? &c. phil. . . nay , is not this your conformity to the world ; is not this , . to justifie the worl● ? ezek. . , . . is not this to be a comfort to the wicked world ? ezek. . . . is this not to harden them in their sinful course ? their pride , &c. . is not this to have fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness ? forbidden , e●hes . . . . is not this to take the members of christ , and to make them the members of a harlot ? cor. . . . is not this to learn the works of the heathen , and to serve their idols , psal. . , . which may prove a snare . . is not this to give offence , contrary to cor. . . and to be an occasion of stumbling , which gods people should not be , joh. . . . is not this to call men on earth , our father , master ? see matth. . . helps against conformity to this world . first , understand well wherein you are not to conform to this world . sure not in any thing which is a swerving from the rule , the written word of god. not in any thing which is a transgression of a known law. take some instances of known rules . . abstain from all appearances of evil , thes. . . this is one rule . now in any thing that is or has the appearance of evil , we must not conform to the world . . avoid all occasions of evil of sin , to our selves or others . all snares , traps and temptati 〈…〉 s to our selves or others to sin ; prov. . & . , . & . . now in any thing which is an occasion of sin to our selves or others , we must not conform to the world . . give no offence , &c. cor. . . phil. . . joh. . . . those things think upon and do which are of good report , phil. . . and this you must have a care of lest you fall into reproach , and the snare of the devil ; tim. . now those things which are not of good report , we must not conform to the world in . . do all in the name of christ , col. . . giving thanks , &c. now if the world do any thing which cannot be said to be done in the name of christ , therein you are not to conform to the world . . follow others as they follow christ , cor. . . now in those things wherein the world does not follow christ , we are not to conform to them . . whatsoever you would that men should do to you , do you the same to them , matth. . . now if the world do those things to others which they would not have done to themselves , therein we must not conform to them . . let all things be done for edifying , cor. . . in knowledge , faith , love , and holy obedience . now if the world do any thing that tends to building up of others in unholiness , and disobedience , pride and wantonness ; we must not conform to the world therein , for all must be done to edifying . . let nothing be done through strife or vainglory , phil. . . now if the world do , &c. . look not every man on his own , but on the things of others , phil. . . now if the world be all for it self , with the neglect of others , we must not therein conform to the world . . redeem the time because the days are evil , eph. . . now if the world trifle away time , on lords dayes and other dayes , we must not therein conform to the world . . whether ye eat or drink , or whatsoever else ye do , do all to the glory of god , cor. . . now if the world do that which can have no tendency to the glory of god , we must not conform to the world therein . secondly , be convinced that 't is a sin to be conformed to this world in such matters before mentioned ; gods prohibition makes it a sin , rom. . . when a man is sure a thing is sinful , he will resist it the more easily ; but if he be in doubt whether it be sin or no , he will the more easily venture upon it , to commit it . the devils business is to make men believe that sin is not sin , that they may commit it . for this end he raiseth up one prophet or another , to say as to ahab , go up and prosper ; or to say , there is no hurt in this ; or to dispute for it , or practice it himself , and then the devil has gotten ground . for when a thing is come to be a controversie , and some that are wise and learned , holy and religious , are on one side , and some of another ; then the hypocrite , as one sayes , hath a cloak for his sin , and a dose of opium for his conscience . thirdly , get the fear of the lord , this will restrain from sin , neh. . . fourthly , make a covenant with your eyes , gaze not on the fashions of others ; see ezek. . . fifthly , set upon the work of mortification , look upon it as a duty of absolute necessity , col. . . rom. . . sixthly , get to be crucified to the world ; and for this end make use of the cross of christ , gal. . . seventhly , have your conversations in heaven , and your affections on things above , phil. . col. . mind things not seen . eighthly , set god alwayes before you , psal. . gen. . . ninthly , think much of death and judgment , and what thoughts you will then have of conformity to this world . and now in conclusion let me again beseech you , be not conformed to this world . i beseech you by the mercies of god , be not conformed to , &c. and by me god himself beseeches you , cor. . . now suppose a mother should beseech her child , by the womb that bare him . by the paps that gave him suck . by the knees that dandled him . and by all her care of and kindness to him : what would you think of him , if he should not in a lawful thing yield unto her ? would you not think him to be of a flinty heart ? in like manner when god by his ministers shall beseech you by the multitude of his tender mercies ; whereby , . he begat you to a lively hope of an inheritance incorruptible , &c. pet. . , . . he hath quickned us together with christ , and raised us up together , and made us sit together in heavenly places in christ jesus , eph. . , , . . he hath pardoned us , psal. . . . he hath called us , tim. . . . justified us , rom. . . adopted us , joh. . . he hath renewed and saved us , tit. . . what stony hearts have they that will not yield when god thus beseeches by his mercies bestowed on them ? hear me you professors , let me expostulate . . why sirs shall god loose and miss of the main end of bestowing his mercies on you ? our obedience is the main end of his bestowing mercies on us . see psal. . . luke . , . psalm . . to end . . is it not to you that god applies himself in this beseeching way , even to you who have received mercy to be begotten again , quickned , pardoned , called , renewed and saved ? t is to you he comes and beseeches by all his mercies , be not conformed to this world . others that have not received these mercies , he cannot beseech by them . . had others received the mercies you have , and being beseeched by them , would they not , think you , be perswaded ? . will you hazard and endanger your selves by conforming to , and keeping company with the men of this world ? jehosaphat did so , chron. . , . and wrath was upon him therefore . josiah did so , king. . . his forwardness to pleasure the king of assiria cost him his life . the israelites conformed to egypt in idolatry , exod. . , , . and gods wrath waxes hot against them , v. . and to the moabites in adultery , numb . . , . and the anger of the lord was kindled against them . if you live after the manner of wicked men , you are like to be judged after their manner , ezek. . , . if the assirian or others will persecute after the manner of egypt , they shall be punished after the manner of egypt , isa. . , . . doth not god find fault with doing after the manner of others ? see king. . . chron. . . . is not that which is highly esteemed among men , abominable in the sight of god ? luke . . that course of life which is most contrary to the fashions of the world , is most commendable and acceptable to god. the further we go from the world in our speech , gesture , attire , works , and actions , the nearer we come to true godliness , jam. . . gods severity against man for iniquity . ezek. . , . in thy filthiness is lewdness : because i have purged thee , and thou wast not purged , thou shalt not be purged from thy filthiness any more , till i have caused my fury to rest upon thee . i the lord have spoken it , &c. hath he said it , and shall he not do it ? hath he spoken , and shall he not make it good ? numb . . . did he not make it good against the jews , his own peculiar people ? king. . begin . jer. . , &c. jer. . , and if god spared not them , the natural branches , rom. . . will he spare us ? take heed england , take heed london , lest he also spare not thee : if god have brought evil upon the city , which was called by his name , should ye be utterly unpunished ? ye shall not be unpunished : see jer. . . if they whose judgment was not to drink of the cup , who might rather have expected favour , then you . if these have assuredly drunk , are you those that shall go altogether unpunished ? you shall not go unpunished , but shall surely drink : see jer. . . nay if god spared not the angels , nor a whole world , will he spare us , pet. . . i would hope , that god will not make a full end of us , but will correct us in measure , yet sure he will not leave us wholly unpunished , jer. . . but if there be lewdness in our filthiness , and we will not be purged , god will cause his fury not only to creep , but to rest upon us as it has done upon others . in these two verses ( not to speak of the context , for time will not give leave ) we have a heavy judgment threatned , with the cause and certainty of it . . the judgment threatned , thou shalt not be purged , &c. till , &c. . the cause of it , in thy filthiness is lewdness : because i would have purged thee , and thou wast not purged . . the certainty of it , i the lord have spoken it , &c. in thy filthiness , in thy sin which is filthiness : sin so called , cor. . . in thy idolatry , covetousness , pride , prophaneness , hypocrisie , oppression . is lewdness , obstinacy ( for she would not be purged from it ) and rejoycing , jer. . . because i have purged thee , i have sought to purge thee , by admonitions . exhortations . counsels . threatnings . reproofs . corrections . and thou wast not ●urged , all labour was in vain and fruitless : as for the word of the lord they would not hearken to it , jer. . . zech. . . thou shalt not be purged from thy filthiness any more : thou shalt be warned , exhorted , counselled , threatned , reproved no more ; but shall be left to perish in thy sins , as desperate and incurable . till i have caused my fury to rest upon thee : till i have satiated , satisfied my wrath , and eased my self of my adversaries , and avenged me of mine enemies , isa. . . till i have purged them in hell fire sayes one , which will be ever doing , but never be done . doct. god will at last cause his fury to rest upon a people that will not be purged from their filthiness . god will , and this will of his is , . most just ; because god has offered them mercy and they would none of it . thus , a subject commits high treason against his prince , for which he is condemned : his prince out of pitty sends him a pardon , which he rejects , tears and tramples under foot . if the prince resolve this man shall dye for it , is not his resolution just ? see ezra . . dan. . . lam. . . . most unchangeable , for numb . . . at last ; he is not hasty , but slow to anger . he being god and not man , hos. . . can bear long , and does , yet will not alwayes , but at last will punish , isa. . . & . . and here in the text. cause his fury , anger , indignation , wrath. fury is an anger never at rest till it has taken revenge . to rest , to abide ; fury has come and gone , judgments have come and gone , have been sent and called back again , laid on and taken off , for a considerable time ; but at last they shall rest . upon a people , though professing , and called by the name of the lord ; though known and formerly saved by the lord. that will not ; i say , will not , because the highest does so often lay the blame there , jer. . . their will was against purging , they loved their filthiness : they loved to wander , jer. . & . . & . . when thou doest evil then thou rejoycest . see jer. . . be purged from their filthiness . by any means , whether fair or foul , whether warnings , exhortations , counsells , threats , reproofs , sabbaths , sacrifices , mercies , judgments . whose filth , scum , rust , remains . their filth , notwithstanding all the floods they have been in . their s●um and dross notwithstanding all the fires they have been in . their rust notwithstanding all the filings they have had . i might heap scriptures for proof hereof , but i shall confine my self to this prophet , ez●k . . . & . , , . & . , . & . . you may read , deut. . . chron. . , with . jer. . . & . ▪ & . . & . . & . , . psal. . . & . , . & . . reason . gods honour , holiness , justice and truth , requires it . . gods honour , if god spare such , it will be thought that he favours them , psalm . . mat. . . . his holiness , habak . . . . his justice , zeph. . . psal. , ult . justice must render to every one according to &c. . his truth . see jer. . . use . sad then is the case of such as will not be purged from their filthiness . is it not sad when god will cause his fury to rest upon them , when he is so resolved as you see , v. . this people , in the text , might think , and so possibly may you , god would not be so severe , as the prophet had told them ; they might say or think , jeremiah this is but your saying , and you may speak it out of humor and discontent . nay sayes god , i the lord have spoken it ; i jehovah who can and will give being and life to my threats , to what i have spoken . they might say , but saying and doing are two things , it may never come to pass though god has spoken it . nay sayes god , it shall come to pass , as certainly as i have spoken it . they might say , you threaten us with nebuchadnezar ; but nebuchadnezar and his forces are but men , and may fail , and never be able to perform their enterprize . but sayes god , i will do it , and i am not man , but god. they might say , but sure god will not lay waste hierusalem his own city , where his temple and worship is . to this god answers , true. but thy scum is in thee , and thy filthiness , and in thy filthiness is lewdness , obstinacy , therefore i will not go back from my word of threatening . thou doest not retract , and therefore i will not . thou hast gone backward , jer. . ▪ therefore i will not go back . see also jer ▪ . . they might say , but god is pittiful , and his compassions fail not . but sayes god , i will not pitty , n● spare , nor have mercy , jer. . . they might say , but god will repent of the evil threatned ; according to jer. . ezek. . . , , , , . no sayes god , neither will i repen● ; you repent not , therefore i will not repent : see jer. . . they might say then , surely god will deal hardly with us . no sayes god , i deal justly , according to thy wayes i will judge thee . what then is there no avoiding of this fury ? no ; they shall not be able to escape , jer. . . evil shall hunt you , psal. . . and find you out , numb . . . as the blood hound the thief , as sure as he sets his foot on the ground . nor no resisting ? no ; can stubble resist fire . why then , i hope , i shall be able to bear it . no , it will be intollerable , ezek. . . can thy heart endure ? no. why then , i hope , it will have an end . no neither , if you dye in your filthiness , it shall rest upon you ; 't will be everlasting fire and burning , isa. . . why then , i hope , if it will have no end , it will be long before it have a beginning . no , it may have a beginning before you are aware . 't is to be feared that your iniquities are near full and ripe , for we are come to that pass now , . that , i think , we are shameless in sinning ; and if so , see jer. . . & . . . graceless in profession , and luke-warm in religion ; and if so , see tim. . , to . rev. . , . & . , . amos . , , . . regardless of christ , nay abusive of christs gospel and ministers ; and if so , see matth. . , , , . luke . , . chron. . . king. . . with . . chron. . . . fruitless under the means of grace ; and if so , see matth. . . luke . , to . act. . , . isa. . begin . heb. . . . incorrigible under the rod ; and if so , see isa. . , . amos . , , , , , . . fearless of punishment ; as they , jer. . . that said , where is the word of the lord ? let it come now . and as they that said , isa. . . let him make speed and hasten his work , that we may see it ; and let the counsel of the holy one of israel draw nigh and come , that we may know it . and this is but according to what was foretold by our saviour , luke . , . and as it was in the dayes of noe ; so shall it be also in the dayes of the son of man. they did eat , they drank , they married wives , &c. till the flood came . and by st. peter , pet. . . there shall come in the last dayes scoffers , walking after their own lusts ( and sure they are come ) saying , where is the promise of his coming ? things continue as they were . but when we put far away the evil day , amos . . and say peace and safety , then sudden destruction cometh , as travel upon a woman with child , and we shall not escape , thes. . . god will punish the men that are setled upon the lees , that say in their hearts , the lord will not do good , neither will he do evil ; zeph. . . god grant our goods may not become a booty ; god grant our houses may not become a desolation ; god grant that they who have built houses , may inhabit them ; and that they who have planted vi●eyards , may drink the wine thereof but sure if in our filthiness there shall be lewdness , if we shall continue unpurged , notwithstanding all the means used for our purging : the great day of the lord is near , it is near , and hasteth greatly , even the voyce of the day of the lord : the mighty man shall cry there bitterly : that day is a day of wrath , a day of trouble and distress , a day of wasteness and desolation , a day of darkness and gloominess , a day of clouds and thick darkness ; a day of the trumpet and alarm , against the fenced cities , and against the high towers god will bring distress upon men , that they shall walk like blind men , because they have sinned against the lord , and their blood shall be poured out as the dust , and their flesh as the dung . neither their silve nor their gold shall be able to deliver them is the day of gods wrath ; but the whole la 〈…〉 shall be devoured , by the fire of his jealous 〈…〉 for he shall make even a speedy riddance of a 〈…〉 them that dwell in the land , zeph. . , ▪ , , , . this is the rejoycing city that dwelt carelesly , that said in her heart , i am , a 〈…〉 there is none beside me : how is she become 〈◊〉 desolation , a place for beasts to lye down in 〈…〉 every one that passeth by her , shall hiss an● wag the hand ; zeph. . . this is spoken of nineveh , ver . . and if we sin as nineveh did , may not we expect to suffer as she suffered . yet i fear we have many that say as babilon , i shall be a lady for ever , isa. . . therefore hear now this , thou that art given to pleasures , that dwellest carelesly , that sayest in thy heart , i am , and none else besides me , i shall not sit as a widdow , neither shall i know the loss of children . therefore shall evil come upon thee , thou shalt not know from whence it riseth : and mischief shall fall upon thee , thou shalt not be able to put it off : and desolation shall come upon thee suddenly which thou shalt not know , isa. . . rise up ye woman that are at ease : hear my voice ye careless daughters , give ear unto my speech . many dayes and years shall ye be troubled ye careless women : for the vintage shall fail , the gathering shall not come . tremble ye women that are at ease : be troubled ye careless ones , strip you , and make you bare , and gird sackcloth on your loins . because the palaces shall be for saken , the multitude of the city shall be left , the forts and towers shall be for dens for ever , a joy of wild asses , a pasture of flocks ; isa. . , , , . see also jer. . , , , , . these are terrible threats , but who trembles at the reading or hearing of them ? the people in ezra's time trembled at the words of the god of israel , ezra . . josiah when he heard the words of the law against jerusalem and the inhabitants thereof , rent his cloathes and wept , chron. . , . habakkuk hears gods speech and is afraid , chap. . . yea , his belly trembled ; his lips quivered ; rottenness entred into his bones . chap. . . variety of expressions are used by him , to shew how sensible he was of gods threatned judgments . but oh i fear we are past feeling . jeremy also cries out , jer. . . m 〈…〉 bowels ; nay b●ls●●zz●r trembled d 〈…〉 . . . when he saw the hand writing 〈◊〉 the wall ; but we see and read what 〈◊〉 written against us , and ne●er tremble . and felix trembled when he heard pa 〈…〉 reasoning of righteousness , temperance , a●●●udgment to come , act. . . but ho● often are you reasoned with about the 〈…〉 things , and never tremble ? the devils tremble , jam. . . an● cannot we ? oh our atheism and infidelity ! our not fearing gods threatning in his word , is a manifest token of it . the god of glory thundereth in the heavens , and thou tremblest ; but when 〈◊〉 thunders in the scripture , thou tremble 〈…〉 not : hear how he thunders , nahum ▪ , , , , , , , . pray take your bible and read this scripture before yo● read any further . the lion roars and the beasts tremble ▪ but god roars , threatens most terribly amos . . but who fears ? a storm , a tempest , will make yo 〈…〉 tremble ; and will not that storm , th 〈…〉 tempest threatned , psal. . . make thee ●remble ? upon the wicked ( and art n 〈…〉 thou wicked ) he shall rain snares , fire and brimsto●e , and an horrible tempest : this shall be the portion of their cu● . well , sirs , god would have purged us , and we would not be purged ; what then remains , but a certain fearful looking for of judgment , and fiery indignation , which shall devour the adversaries , h b. . . . hath not god warned and told thee of the evil and danger of thy sinful course ? thou canst not say as paul , act. . . i wist not . i wist not that sin was so great an evil , that it had so much filth and fire in it . you cannot say i did not know that sin , that pride , worldliness , rioting , drunkenness , chambering , wantonness , str●fe , envying , were transgressions of the holy , just , and good law of god , and provocations of him to your own and others hurt : you cannot say you knew not this . . hath not god begged and beseeched you to abstain from these fleshly lusts which war against your souls , pet. . . . hath not god reproved you , and said to you , as to them , judg. . . why have you done this ? . hath not god threatned you , that except you repent you shall perish , luke . , . and told you , that if you live after the flesh you shall dye , rom. . . . hath not god corrected and afflicted you , and may we not complain as the prophet , jer. . . o lord , thou hast stricken them , but they have not grieved : thou hast consumed them , but they have refused to receive correction : they have made their faces harder then a rock , they have refused to return . see also , dan. . , . . hath not god said to you as to him , joh. . . sin no more lest a worse thing come unto you . and told you , that if ye will not be reformed by those things , that have come upon you , but will walk contrary to him ; that he will then walk contrary to you , and will punish you yet seven times for your sins ; levit. . , . . hath not god after all this said , return unto me , and i will not cause mine anger to fall upon you ; for i am merciful , and will not keep anger for ever ; jer. . , , . hath he not said , w●sh ye , make ye 〈…〉 an , &c. though your sins be as scarlet , they shall be white as s●ow , isa. , . . hath not god sworn that he desires not your death ; saying , as i live , i have ●o pleasure in the death of the wicked , but that he turn from his way and live , ezek. . . . hath not god after this expostulated with you , and said , turn ye , turn ye , why will ye dye ? ezek. . . and jer. . . wilt thou not be made clean ? when shall it once be ? . hath he not waited to be gracious to thee , isa. . . hath he not been long-suffering to you ward , not willing that you should perish , but that you should come to repentance , pet. . . and now sinner , tell me , would not god have purged thee : and if thou wouldest not , if thou wouldest not take warning , when warning was given thee ; nor be prevailed with to abstain from fleshly lusts , when thou wast beseeched ; nor be reformed when thou wast reproved ; nor return when thou wast smitten ; nor regard when expostulated with ; nor come to repentance when so long waited for : may not god say to thee , as to the woman , gen. . . what is this that thou hast done ? and as to adam , gen. . . hast thou ●aten of the tree , whereof i commanded that thou shouldst not eat ? so , sinner what is this that thou hast done ? hast thou set at nought all my counsel , and wouldst thou none of my reproof ? prov. . . oh what is this that thou hast done ? doest thou know what thou hast done ? canst thou conceive the dishonour thou hast brought to god , and the misery thou hast brought upon thy self , and the hurt thou hast done to church and state ? art thou not in danger of the resting of gods fury upon thee ; when gods anger is kindled but a lit●le , you are in danger of perishing , psal. . . in what case then will you be , when his fury shall rest upon you . and god will watch to bring it upon you , jer. . . behold i will watch over them for evil , and not for good ; as one that purposly watcheth and lieth in wait to do mischief , psal. . god has been wo 〈…〉 when provoked , to watch over people , to pluck up and break down , jer. . . and daniel , chap. . , ▪ confesses , that because god had p 〈…〉 shed them , and they had not made their prayer before the lord their god , that they might ●urn from their iniquities and understand the truth ; therefore the lord 〈◊〉 watched upon the evil , and brought it upon them . and he gives the reason , for the lord our god is righteous in all his works , for we obeyed not his voice . use . if all this be so , then consider we ▪ our selves , are we purged from our filthiness ? is england ? is london ? are we ? is our s●um gone out ? our rust gotten off ? our filth done away ? our dross separated from us ? our chaffe scattered and burnt ? . let me ask you a few questions . . have you been con●inced of your natural and contracted filthiness ? si●s were you clean born , shaped in holiness ? read , ioh . . psal. . . and see whether you were or no. have you lived wi●hout defiling your selves ? see psal. . . mark . . what were your hearts , and hands ? if you cannot tell , see jer. . . jam. 〈◊〉 . . mark . , , . what were your heads , ears , eyes , and tongues ? if you be ignorant , s 〈…〉 john . . act. . . jer. . . pe● . . . matth. . . james . . ephes . . i fear many are not yet convinced of their filthiness ; and if so , sure not yet purged from it . some will not believe that to be filthiness which ged sayes is so ; all that is in the world is either the lust of the eye , &c. john . ▪ and these are not of the pure and holy god , but of the dirty sinful world which lies in wickedness . . the lust of the eye ; covetousness , which you call by another name ▪ viz. good hu●bandry , is ●●lthine●s , peter 〈◊〉 . . . the lust of the flesh ; rio●ing , drunkenn 〈…〉 ▪ chambering , wantonness ; which you call good fellowship , courtship , courteousness : this is filthiness , but you ●o not know it , or will not know it ; for your better information , see thes. . . ephes. . , . ro● . . . . pride of life ; this also is filthiness , though you call it fineness , neatness , ●omliness : but see what god calls it , isa. . . he calls it filth , ordure , or excrements , the word imports all ; all such filth , or excrement , as come● forth from the body , either upward , as isa. . . pet. . . or downward , as deut. . . ezek . . the filth of the daughters of zion ; whose pride , vanity , wantonness , and other excesses , had no small hand in pulling down gods judgments . see isa. . , . had it been the daughters of moab , numb . . . or the daughters of the philistines , judg. . , . that had been so filthy it would not have provoked so much ; their filth would not have stunk so bad , nor have been so loathsom in the sight of god. but for the daughters of zion , and the daughters of jerusalem , and the daughters of israel and judah , of professors , to be so filthily proud , provoked greatly . had it been only the daughters of men , gen. . . or the daughters of a strange god , mal. . . or the daughters of the uncircumcised , san. . . it had not been so much ; but for the daughters of god , deut . . to go thus , and do thus , and 〈◊〉 thus , he could not bear it . their gates , and garbs , and courses , and carriages , that they prided themselves in , and accounted their bravery , isa. . . were filth ; and such as made them odious , loathsom , and abominable in gods eye ; saith one whose judgment ; i think , is not to be contemned , ●ataker in loc . and see , saith he , the contrary required , tim. . , . pet. . , . so that i believe , that which you call fineness now , will be found to be filthiness another day ; that which you call 〈…〉 nery , will be found to be fil●hery . those fine heads , fine faces , fine necks , fine back and breast , fine armes and shoulders , will be found , i believe , to be filthy , heads , faces , necks , backs and breasts , armes and shoulders . wherefore let me be speak you , as daniel did n●buchadnezar , dan. . . wherefore o fine dames , let my counsel be acceptable to you ; break off your pride by humility , and your shamelesness by shamefastness . and get ye quickly to the fountain opened for sin and uncleanness , zech. . . and wash your selves . say to christ , as peter , when christ told him , if he washt not his feet he should have no part in me : o lord , said he , not my feet onely , but my hands and head also . you have need to say , not my feet onely , but my face , neck , back , breast , armes and shoulders also . quest. . has the word , the pure word of god , ( so called , psal. . . psalm . . ) been instrumental in your purging , psal. . . psal. . . joh. . . quest. . has time been spent about it ? have you had your washing , scowring and purging days for your souls , as you-have had for the cleaning of your cloathes , brass and pew●er , and for preservation of the health of your bodies . some wash their linnen once a month , and scowr their vessels once a quarter , and purge their bodies spring and fall. deal truly , what time have you set a part for the washing and purging of your heads , hearts , and hands ? have you your monthly , quarterly , and half-yearly washing and purging dayes for your souls ? will not linnen , brass and pewter vessels be made clean , nor bodies be purged without allowing time ? and will hearts and souls be purged from their filthiness without allowing time ? quest. . has pains been taken about it ? has this purging of your selves cost you prayers and tears before 't was done ? that which is foul will not be made clean without pains-taking . naaman was at the pains of taking a long journey , to be cleansed from his leprosie , king. . quest. . have you made your applica●ion to christ about your cleansing and purging , as once naaman did to the prophet , king. . . naaman knew himself to be a leper . . naaman hearing of a prophet that could cure him , comes to him , king. . , . to his door . . receives direction what to do for his cure , and though averse at first to use that means , yet upon his servants entreaties , resolves to make trial of the means , king. . , . . he does and practices accordingly , goes down into the river and dips himself seven times therein , king. . . . he returns , being cured , to shew his thankfulness , king. . . and to testifie his great respect to the prophet , as the instrument of his cure ; as did the tenth leper , luke . . . he acknowledges the god of israel to be the only true god , and his cure to be wrought by him , king. . . . he resolves upon the worshipping and serving of the true god , renouncing all other gods , king. . . in like manner , . have you known your selves to be leprous and unclean ; and said as isaiah , chap. . . . having heard of christ , and the efficacy of his blood to cleanse you , have you come to his door and waited for direction , what to do that you might be cleansed ? have you waited dayly at the posts of his doors ? prov. . . have you sate at jesus's feet , and heard his word , luke . . as mary did ? . having heard counsel and direction what to do to be cured , viz. to go into the jordan of christs blood , and to bathe your selves therein ; have you resolved , upon the entreaties of gods ministers , who are are your servants , cor. . . to make trial of this jordan ? and with esther , to go into king jesus , come of it what will : saying , i will go in , and if i perish , i perish , esth. . . and have you resolved with the prodigal , luke . to go unto christ the everlasting father , isa. . . have you done accordingly ? have you dipped your selves in this bloody jordan seven times ? have you-gone into king jesus , as esther into king ahasueru● ? and as the prodigal , to his father ? have you been at the fountain opened for sin and uncleanness ? zech. . . have you rested upon this blood of christ which cleanseth from all sin , joh. . . for your cleansing , and expected it according to the promise ? ez●k . . . do you find your hearts stirred up to be thankful , for this jordan of chri●ts blood , and the blessings we have thereby ? can you do as peter and paul ? as peter , pet. . . as paul , ephes. . . . do you give christ the glory of being the alone fountain for cleansing , and acknowledge all your cleansing to be from him ; there being no salvation from the filthiness of sin in any other ? act. . . . do you resolve upon serving god in righteousness and holiness all your days , as they that are delivered from their filthiness are bound to do ? luke . , . quest. . are you careful to keep your selves clean ? do you shun all defilements by persons or things ? is it your care to keep your self unspotted , as pure religion binds you to do ? jam. . . do you hate the garment spotted by the flesh ? jude . and abstain from all appearance of evil , thes. . . quest. . are you companions of those that are purged ? david , psal. . . was a companion of all them that feared god , and of them that kept his precepts . are you so too ? davids delight was in them , psal. . . is your delight in them too ? birds of a feather will flock together . use . of exhortation , if it be so as you have heard , then continue no longer in your filthiness . wash ye , make ye clean , lay a part all filthiness and supersiuity of naughtiness , james . . cleanse your selves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit , cor. . . cast it away , and say unto it , get thee hence , isa. . . motives . . 't is filthiness ; will a man continue in filth , in dirt and mire : in the filth of the lust of the eye , the lust of the flesh , and the pride of life ? . god would that you should be purged ; for , first , he calls upon you , wash , as you have heard . secondly , god has prepared a fountain to wash in , zech. . . thirdly , god expostulates with you about it , jer. . . wilt thou not be made clean ? fourthly , god thinks it long , till you be purged , jer. . . how long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within th●e ? and jerem. . . when shall it once be ? . when you are purged , washed , god will take delight in you , and have fellowship with you , isa. . , . means . . take the glass of the law , and view your selves therein , that will shew you your filthiness : i had not known sin but by the law , said paul , rom. . . . know the power of gods anger , psal. . . you may see it in his terrible threats , and the judgments which he executeth , psal. . . . assent to the truths of gods threatnings . say often to thy own soul , it will be as god hath said : fury will rest , settle upon me , if i continue unpurged from my filthiness . . confess your natural and contracted filthiness , as did david , psal. . . and then see , . john . . . pray , purge me , wash me , cleanse me , create in me a clean heart , as david did psal. . . above all getting , get faith , for 't is faith that purifies the heart , act. . . first , hear for it , for it comes by hearing , rom. . secondly , give god no rest till he has given it you . . act faith in the cleansing blood of christ : it cleanseth away all sin , being sprinkled and applied , john . . pet. . . go to the fountain opened for sin and uncleanness , zech. . . say to thine own soul. . i am filthy , even filthiness ; my mind and conscience is d filed , tit. . . i am a person of u clean lips , isa. . . for how can he be clean who is born of a woman ? job . . who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean ? job . . behold i am shapen in iniquity , and in sia did my mother conceive me , psal. . . besides , how aboninable and filthy am i , who have drank iniquity like water ? job . . oh wretched man that i am , who shall deliver me from the body of this death ? rom. . . . the body of sin , rom. . . called a body , because it hath many members , col. . . a body of death , because it tends to death , and threaten ▪ death . . say to thy own soul , christs blood was shed to cleanse from this filthiness of sin . and that , first , by gods own appointment , act. . . pet. . . secondly , for this very purpose , zech. . . joh. . , . isa. . . . say to thy own soul , jesus christ in the ministry and preaching of the gospel , has been evidently set forth crucified before mine eyes , gal. . . god has set him forth to be a propitiation threugh 〈…〉 i th in his blood , rom. . . not only in his eternal counsel , and afterward in the execution of the same in the fullness of time , but by the preaching of the gospel , tim. . , . & pet. . . he was manifested in these last times for us , not only in respect of his incarnation , but in respect of the revelation of him in the preaching of the gospel , since his incarnation : so also god hath set him forth to be a bath to wash us from our filthiness , rev. . . . say to thy soul , this blood of christ is precious blood . pet. . . powerful and effcacious to effect that for which 't was shed , viz. the cleansing away of sin . though the blood of bulls and goats could not take away sin , yet this precious blood of the lamb of god can ; see heb. . , , , , , , , . . say to thy self , this blood of christ is the only bath , for the soul ; there 's no other fountain , no other name , no way else to be cleansed , act. . . tim. . . . say to thy own soul , i must wash in this bath or else be for ever unclean , and unpurged , and so never enter into heaven ; f●r there shall in no wise enter in any thing that defileth , rev. . . but gods wrath and fury will rest and abid● upon me for ever , joh. . . . say to thy own soul , i am invited to bathe in this blood of christ , to apply it by faith , for my cleansing : 't is offered to me , isa. . . act. . . to him give all the prophets witness , that through his name , whosoever believeth on him shall receive remission of sins : and rev. . . whosoever will , let him take of this water of life freely . . say to thy own soul , i am commanded to accept of the offer , to bathe in this fountain , to rest on christ for cleansing ; to look unto him to be saved from my filthiness , isa. . so that , as soul as i am , it will be no presumption in me to come and wash in this jordan : christ calls me , matth. . . come unto me all ye that are heavy laden with dirt and filth . say to thy own soul , i am promised by him who is true and faithful ; even the true god , and eternal life , john . . that if i come to him for cleansing , i shall in no wise be cast out , refused , john . . why then should i not obey this command , and believe and rest on christ for my cleansing ? . yet once more , that you may act faith in the blood of christ for cleansing ; say to thy own soul , was not i baptized for the remission of sins , act. . . repent and be baptized , in the name of christ , for the remission of sins : . for assurance that your sins are forgiven you for christs sake : so act. . . arise and be baptized , and wash away thy sins ( according to the du●ch annotations ) for a sign and seal that thy sins are washed away , by the blood and spirit of christ. to improve thy baptism in order to thy cleansing , . say to thy self , does not water in baptism signifie and seal by divine institution ? is it not an ordinance of jesus christ ? matth. . , , . . say to thy self , does not water in baptism signifie and seal the cleansing blood of christ , and our justification and sanctification thereby ? knowest then not o my soul , that they who are baptized into jesus christ , are baptized into his death ? rom. . . . to partake of the benefits of his death . . say to thy self , was not this water applied to me ? and that , in the name of the father , son , and holy ghost ? . was it not applied to me in a solem● way , in the presence of the holy trinity , with a declaration of the institution of baptism by christ , and with prayer to god in the name of christ , that his blood represented by the water might cleanse me . . say to thy self , is not my baptism my bond , obliging me to apply that blood of christ to my soul , which was represented by the water which was applied to my body ? . say again have i applied it , and am i cleanfed from my filthiness ? . if not , say to thy soul , is not my case as bad as the case of unbaptized infidels ? see jer. . , . . and if so , say to thy soul , how can my conscience be quiet , and let me alone in such a case ? wherefore lay a charge upon thy self , to believe , to receive , and rest upon christ for cleansing , as he is offered in the gospel . say , believe o my soul , go to the fountain , wilt thou dye in thy filth , and under the fury of the almighty god ? gods severity against man for iniquity . isa. . . behold , it is written before me : i will rot keep silence , but will recompence , even 〈…〉 compence into their boson . behold , observe , take notice of it ; it is written before me : it is written : first , what ? secondly , where ? first , what ? your iniquities , vers . . sin , jer. . . your rejecting christ. secondly , where ? in gods book ; we enter in books such matters as we would not have forgotten . thus ezra . , . & . . esth. . . so god also has books of remembrance , not only of what , . is done for him , mal. . . psal. . . . but against him , deut. . . hos. . . the meaning is , god keeps it in mind as well as if it were booked down . before me ; it lieth before my face , that it may not be forgotten . q. d. their wicked doings are upon record with me , and this record alwayes lies open before my face . they did it , isa. . . to my face , or in my sight , as deut. . . psalm . and it remains still before him . i will not keep silence ; i. e. i will no longer forbear as i have hitherto done . but will recompence , even recompence into their bosom ; or will repay , yea repay into their lap . . certainly , undoubtedly ; therefore is the threat doubled , to put it out of doubt . . abundantly , largely , as repaying into their bosom or lap signifies ; he will recompence and repay them , not by tail , measure , or weight ; but by pouring forth into the receivers lap without any regard how much . doct. though god delay the execution of vengeance for some time , yet at length he will undoubtedly and abundantly pour out his wrath upon impenitent sinners . first , god delayes to execute vengeance for a time . secondly , at length he will take vengeance . . god delayes for a time to take vengeance , psal. . . isa. . . thus god did bear long with the old world , pet. . . he will avenge at last though he bear long , luke . . after a long time the lord of those servants cometh and reckoneth , mat. . . though god keep silence for a time , yet he will speak at last . see habak . . . reasons . negatively , not because god is slack , as we are too apt to conceive , psal. . ● . no , not as if god were slack , backward through weakness , forgetfulness or fickleness and inconstancy , pet. . . they are not slack that are long ere they come , but they that come not at the due and appointed time . now god never stayes beyond that time , heb. . . habak . . . so then this is not the reason : but , affirmatively , . because god is long-suffering , ●et . . . willing that we should have time and means to repent , and so not perish . see rom. . . . to leave sinners at last without excuse , as prov. . , , . . because he has an eternity wherein to be revenged on them . . at length god will take vengeance , &c. he will do it , psal. . , . isa. . . ezek. . , . consider we a little , first , who it is that will recompence ? secondly , how he will do it . thirdly , when. fourthly , why. first , who it is ? he to whom it belongeth , and who claims a propriety in it ; deut. . . rom. . . who this is ? see jer. . , . nah. . . jer. . . secondly , he will do it , . abundantly , plentifully , psal. . . sevenfold , seven times more , and seven times more , levit. . , . he poures it out , nah. . . . terribly , joel . , . isa. . . what terrible things did he do by the red sea ? psal. . . see nah. . . so terribly that the ears of those that hear shall tingle , sam. . . king. . . jer. . . shall have his ears stricken with horror and astonishment , at the report of it , though he see it not . see also , psalm . , . ezek . . thirdly , certainly , surely , jer. . . and therefore is the threat , . doubled in the text , and isa. . . . sworn to ; god swears he will do it , dent. . , . . written down , exod. . . & . . or thus , god will do it : for , . he has said it . . said it again and again in the text , ezek. . . . sworn it , deur . . , . . set his hand to it , written it , exod. . . . sealed it , deut. . . thirdly , when ? in due time , deut. . , . joel . . when 〈◊〉 is ripe , gen. . . their iniquities were , execrable idolatry . grievous oppression . prodigious lust. these were not yet full , not at their growth . sin comes to it by degrees , jer. . . dan. . . matth. . . fourthly , why ? because gods holiness , justice , truth , and honour requires it . . his holiness ; which is such , that he cannot away with iniquity , hab. . . see isa. . . . his justice ; he must render to every one according to his doings , how else can he be just , rom. . , . jerem. . . . his truth , and oath requires it ; he hath said it , and doubled it ; and sworn it , and caused it to be written , as you have heard . . his honour ; see mal. . . . their enmity to god and his people requires it , psal. . , to . . gods soveraignty over all requires it , psalm . . with the foregoing verses . use. first , of admonition . . be not hardned in your sins , because sentence is not presently executed ; see eccles. . . for god , you hear , will punish at length . . be not mockers and scoffers as they , pet. . . for god will punish at length . nor like them , isa. . . ●er . . . psal. . . but let such read , isa. . . . secondly , use of exhortation . . fear and tremble sinners , for god will punish at length if you persist . be affected as david was , psal. . , . he thought god was to be feared , psal. . god will , in general , avenge himself of you , isa. . . abase you , job . . dan. . . affright you , deut. . , . break you with a rod of iron , psal. . . cast you off , chron. . . cut off all your horns , psal. . . cause your children to behave themselves proudly , isa. . . destroy and devour you at once , isa. . . execute vengeance on you in anger , and f 〈…〉 ry , micah . . ezek. . . fill your faces with shame , psal. . . give your substance and treasures to the spoil , jer. . . heap mischief on you , deut. . . impoverish you , judg. . . jer. . . psal. . . margin . keep wrath for you , nah. . . lead you forth with the workers of iniquity , psal. . . make you si●k in smiting you , micah . . not acquit you , nah. . . not spare you , deut. . . ordain arrows against you , psal. . . overthrow you house , prov. . . prepare instruments of death for you , psal. . . pour out wrath upon you , psal. . . punish you seven times more , levit. . persecute you with his storm , psal. . . quench you as tow or flax , or the wick of a candle , by casting it into the water , isa. . . rain upon you fire , &c. psal. . . separate you unto evil , deut. . . s●●te you with a scab , isa. . . t●ke away your bravery , isa. . . tear you in pieces , psal. . . v 〈…〉 x you in his , &c. psal. . . w●●ste you in the sight of passers by ; ezek . . isa. . . w 〈…〉 e your mountains and hills , and dry up your herbs , rivers , and pools , isa. . . . prepare to meet the lord , amos . . . by serious consideration , hag. . . psalm . . psálm . . jerem. . . . by sincere confession of your sins , jer. . , . . by deep humiliation , chron. . , . . by quiet submission , judg. . . levit. . . . by earnest supplication , judg. . . chron. . . job . . . by believing , application to god by christ , dan. . . eph. . . allude to act. . . see zech. . , to . . by thorow reformation , ezr. . . chron. . . judg. . . . by firm resolution to cleave to the lord for the future ; covenanting so to do , chron. . . nehem. . . otherwise ▪ if you take not this course , though you ▪ be professors , worshippers , and servants of god in profession ; if you be no more , nor no better , what has befallen other professors , may befall you . you may be , afflicted , psal. . . abborred greatly , psal. . . & , . appointed to dy● , psal. . . your blood may be shed like water , psalm . . . broken in pieces , psal. . . cast off and put to shame , psal. . . cut down and burnt with fire , psalm . . your dayes may be consumed in vanity , and your years in trouble , psalm . . devoured , and your dwelling place laid waste , psalm . . enemies may laugh at you , psal. . . familiar friends may lift up their heel against you , psal. . . fowls of heaven , and beasts of the field may feed upon your flesh , psal. . . god may be angry against your prayer , psal. . . and forsake your tabernacle , psal. . , . and be wroth with them , psal. . , , . your hedge may be broken dawn , psalm . . haters of you may rule over you , psalm . . jealousie of god may burn like fire against you , psal. . . killed all the day long , psal. . . low brought , psalm . . made a by-word to your neighbour , psalm . . a by-word and shaking of the head , psalm . . none may bury you , psalm . . oppressors may seek after your soul , psalm . . punished severely , amos . . your priests may fall by the sword , psalm . . scattered , psalm . . scorned and derided by them about you , psal. . . tears may be given you to drink in great measure , psal. . . vile accounted , &c. lam. . . even as a scum , cor. . . wild beasts and boars out of the wood may waste you , &c. psal. . . seeing this is so , will you take the course prescribed , that if possible none of these things may come upon you ; or if they should , that your eternal estate may be secured . first , what can you object against it ? . is it not the course that god hath prescribed . that it is , has been proved before ; therefore you can't object , 't is not required ; you cannot say , who hath required this ; for you have heard that god does . . is there any unreasonableness or unrighteousness in the prescribing of it ? can you object against it as being unreasonable and unrighteous ? nay is it not most reasonable and righteous , that having sinned and provoked god , you should consider , confess , humble , &c. . is it not that course that others with success have used ? as nineveh , and chron. . , . can you object , and say , others have taken this course to no purpose ? ahabs external humiliation was not without some success ? the judgment was deferred upon it , king. . . . have not others perished for want of taking this course : see chron. . . of zed●ki● to . dan. . , to . of bel●hazar . can you now object , and say , others have neglected this course and done well enough ? thus you see you cannot object against this course . secondly , can you think of a better , a safer course ? can you , or you , or you , &c. speak if you can ; by your silence i take it for granted that you cannot . thirdly , if you cannot , are you resolved upon this ? to consider , confess , &c. fourthly , if you be not resolved on this course as yet ; must i dismiss you unresolved and desperate as they , jer. . will you say as they , ver . . & . . finis . gods gracious presence , the saints great priviledge . thes. . . now the lord of peace , himself give you peace alwayes , by all means . the lord be with you all . you have peace ( blessed be god ) long may it last ; it is not like to be long-lived , unless god work wonderfully . application therefore should be made to him , that he who is the god of peace would be pleased to give it alwayes , and by all means . the close of the verse is that which i intend to say something unto , as the lord shall enable me . the lord be with you all. this is pauls valediction to the thessalonians , and shall be mine to you . in this valediction you have , . pauls wish and desire , the lord be with you . . the extent of it , the lord be with you all. he leaves out none of them , he wisheth well to them all ; and that which he wisheth is the presence of the lord with them , all their welfare standing therein . the lord , god the father , god the son , and god the holy ghost ; we must not leave out any of the three , for we cannot be without the presence of any one of them ; nor can you have the presence of the one without the presence of the other , for these three are one , and where one is all are . of the fathers , and of the sons , and of the holy ghosts coming to be with his people . you read joh. . jesus said , if a man love me , he will keep my words , and my father will love him , and we will come unto him , and make our abode with him . o for faith to believe this ! that the father and the son will come and make their abode with such . whosoever goes from you , you may be sure the father and son will come , if you love him and keep his words , see verse . and for the coming of the holy ghost see joh. . . i will pray the father , saith christ ( here 's a praying friend , and praying friends we use to say are our best friends ) and he shall give you another comforter , that he may abide with you for ever , even the spirit of truth , verse . that he may abide with you for ever , mark that ; when he comes , he will not be like a wayfaring man that comes for a night , and then is gon , but he will abide for ever : when i came down from heaven , i came with a purpose to return again , when i had done my work here , but this comforter , my spirit , shall abide with you for ever . well then the lord be with you , the father son and holy spirit be with you , the eternal jehovah , who hath his being of himself , and gives being to all things else , even the being of performance to his promises ; this lord be with you , be with your whole man , this lord be with your bodies , this lord be with your souls , this lord be with every part of your bodies , and with every power of your souls . the apostle in his former epistle , praying for these thessalonians . thes. . . prayes thus , the very god of peace sanctify you wholly , and i pray god your whole spirit , and soul and body be preserved blameless , unto the coming of the lord jesus christ. so then the apostle would have the lord ●o be with their whole man , not with a part of it , not with their souls and spirits only , or bodies only , but with their spirit soul and body : and the same apostle praying for timothy , prayes , the lord jesus christ be with thy spirit , tim. . . it matters not who are absent , so christ be present ; his presence is more , then the presence of the nearest and dearest relations . the lord be with you all , not only with a part of you , i know not which of you to leave out of my prayers : for you all have need of gods presence , whether you be saints or sinners . if sinners , you have need of the lord to be with you , to convince you and convert you . and as for those that are saints , i know none that have so much grace that they need no more , the lord therefore be with them , to establish , confirm , and encrease grace in them ; the lord be with you at all times . if god be absent at any time , we know not what to do . some of you have had experience , that when god hath withdrawn never so little , your case hath been bad enough . the lord be with you in all places . we can be secure and safe in no place without his presence . the lord be with you in all conditions , in all estates ; for if you be in the most prosperous estate , you cannot tell how to be without god. jehosaphat thought so , . chron. . . in the fulness of a mans sufficiency he may be in straights . job . . you cannot be any where , in any estate , a minute without him . you believe it to be a truth , that in him you live , move , and have your being , act. . . not naturally only , but spiritually too . the lord therefore be with you at all times , in all conditions , in sickness and in health , in peace and in trouble , in all adversity and in all prosperity . the lord be with you with all kind of aids , helps , and assistances , variety of aids and assistances we need . this is the sence and meaning of this vale dictory prayer , the lord be with you all . the observation that i shall commend to you , is this , doct. god with us is a priviledge greatly to be desired , and much to be prayed for . the apostle makes this prayer for the thessalonians whom he dearly loved , who were his hope and joy , and crown of rejoycing , thes. . . could he have thought of a greater mercy , he would have wisht it to them . in speaking to this great truth , i shall shew , . that there is a presence of god with his people . . that this presence of god is a great priviledge . . that this great priviledge is much to be desired and prayed for . . the reasons of it . . and after this apply it . . there is a presence of god with his people . i speak not of the general presence of god , whereby he is not far from every one of us , act. . . for in him we live , move , and have our being : v. . not only as we had our being from him at first , but we have our being in him , as the beam has its being in the sun. of this presence of god you read psal. . from which there is no fleeing , v. . he is every where , v. , , i fill heaven and earth saith the lord , jer. . . and isa. . . thus saith the lord , heaven is my throne , and the earth my foot stool . this general presence of god , if seriously considered , and believingly apprehended , would be of great use . but 't is the special presence of god that i am to speak to , his favourable and gracious presence , such as that wished and desired by aaron and his sons of old , num. . , , . the lord bless thee , and keep thee , the lord make his face shine upon thee , and be gracious unto thee , the lord lift up his countenance upon thee , and give thee peace . this blessing is saith ainsworth , expounded by the apostle cor. . . the grace of our lord jesus christ , and the love of god , and the communion of the holy ghost be with you all . thus the first branch of the blessing v. . the lord bless thee and keep thee , implieth the love of the father . the second branch v. . the lord make his face shine upon thee , and be gracious unto thee , implieth the grace of the son. and the third branch , the lord lift up his countenance upon thee , and give thee peace , implieth the communion with the holy ghost . now this loving , gracious , communicative presence of jehovah , father son a 〈…〉 holy ghost , is that presence of the lord which is so great a priviledge , and so much to be desired . the lords presence with us to bless us , with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in christ. eph. . . and to keep us from evil , joh. . . and to make his face shine upon us , that we may be saved . psal. . . , . and to be gracious to us through christ jesus , eph. . . and to lift up his countenance upon us , that gladness may be in our hearts . psal. . . and to give us peace , that peace which passeth all understanding , and that which may guard our hearts and minds through christ jesus . phil. . . this , this is the presence of god which is so desireable , and of which i am to treat . that there is such a presence of god with his people , appears thus . . god asserts it . . promises it . . hath evidenced it . . gods people have acknowledged it . . god asserts that there is such a presence of his with his people . isa. . . fear thou not , saith god , for i am with thee . and ezek. . . the name of the city from that day shall be , the lord is there . . god hath promised it , ezek. . , . i will set my tabernacle among you , and my soul shall not abhor you . and i will walk among you , and will be your god , and ye shall be my people . . god hath evidenced it , by preservations , assistances , deliverances and su●cesses vouchsafed to his people . what a mighty , gracious , pardoning presence o● god , was with moses and the children of israel , in bringing them out of egypt , through the red sea , and through the wilderness into canaan . read the story of it in the book of exodus , especially the song of moses , exod. . what a presence of god was with david , spi●iting , prospering and preserving him , when hunted like a partridge upon the mountains : whence was it that he was not caught ? there were skilful hunters , yet he escaped the snare , for the lord was with him . what a mighty presence of god was there with daniel ! he will pray , that he will , though he be torn in pieces for it . he will not cease to make his supplications to god three times a day , though there were a law made against it . daniel would not fail to be with god , and god would not fail to be with daniel . vvhat ! would daniel be with god to the hazard of his life ? yes . and was not god with him for his preservation ? daniel is cast into the den of lions : was he torn or hurt by them ? no , the lions were muzled , their mouths were shut , god shut them , dan. . . my god , saith daniel , hath sent his angel , and hath shut the lions mouthes that they shall not hurt me . though men will not be obedient , yet lions will : touch not my servant daniel , saith god to the lions , and they are as quiet as lambs . touch not mine anointed , saith god to men , and do my prophets no harm : yet men will not obey . what a presence of god was there with those three noble jews when threatned , if they would not bow , they should burn ! they will bow to none but god , dan . , . they will not loose their interest in god , to gain an interest in the greatest . then the king commanded that they should be bound and cast into the fiery furnace , v. . being cast into it , the fire burned their executioners , and the bonds wherewith they were bound , but had no power on their bodies , nor was there a hair of their head singed , neither were their coats changed , nor had the smell of fire passed on them , dan. . . and how came this to pass ? god was with them . what a presence of god had paul with him ? at my first answer , saith he , no man stood with me , but all men forsook me , i pray god that it may not be laid to their charge : notwithstanding the lord stood with me and strengthened me , and i was delivered out of the mouth of the lion , tim. . , . what a presence of god was there with those that had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings , of bonds and imprisonments , of stoning , and sawing asunder , of wandering , wants , afflictions and torments , and yet accepted not deliverance upon unwarrantable terms . heb. . , , . . this presence of god hath been acknowledged by his people . behold , saith abijah to jeroboam and all israel , god himself is with us for our captain : ye be a great multitude , and there be with you golden calves which jeroboam hath made you for gods , you have idol gods with you ; but god himself is with us , chron. . . . this presence of god was also acknowledged by hezekiah , chron. . , speaking of sennacherib and his army , with him is an arm of flesh , but with us is the lord our god , to help us and to fight our battels . god was with them , not as an idle spectator , but as a powerful assister and helper . it was also acknowledged by jeremie . the lord is with me as a mighty terrible one , herefore my persecutors shall stumble , and they shall not prevail , they shall be greatly a●amed , ●er . . . and by the church , psal. . . the lord of hosts is with us , the god of jacob is our refuge . so isa. . . take counsel together , saith the lord by the prophet to the adversaries of the people , and it shall come to nought , for god is with us . the lord is on my side , i will not fear what can man do unto me . psal. . , . you see how great a truth this is , that there is a special presence of god with his people . god asserts it , promiseth it , evidenceth it , and his people have acknowledged it . the next thing i premised to shew you , is that . this presence of god with his people is a great priviledge , 't is a token of sin ding grace in his sight , exod. . . and it god be with us , . he is with us as a father with his children , cor. . . . as a husband with his wife . isa. . . jer. . . . as one friend with another . isa. . . . as a shepherd with his flock , psal. . . . as a captain with his company . behold god himself is with us for our captain , chron. . . when joshua was by jerico , there stood a man over against him , with his sword drawn in his hand , and joshua said unto him , art thou for us or for our adversaries ? and he said , nay , but as captain of the host of the lord an i now come , josh. . , . . as the lord of hosts , as a general with his armies . the lord of hosts is with us , psal. . . the lord of armies , of all the armies of heaven and earth , and hell too . devils are subject unto him , luk. . . the devil could do nothing against job , till he had commission from this lord of hosts , job . . . and . . a legion of devils could not resist christs word of command , mark. . , . nor could they enter into the swine without commission , v. , . o for faith to believe what we read and hear● what do we lose for want of the exercise of faith . you have it may be the habit of faith , but if it comes not forth into act , you have no the comfort of it . . if god be with us , he is with us as a king with his subjects . num. . . the shout of a king is among them : he is stiled the king of jacob , isa. . . the king of israel , isa. . . and the king of saints , rev. . . and this king is a great king , mal. . . an everlasting king , jer. . . and king of kings , rev. . . and prince of the kings of th● earth , rev. . . by whom kings reign , and in whose hand is their breath and life . now to have god with us as a father , as a husband , as a friend , as a shepherd , as a captain , as a lord of hosts , and as a king of kings , must needs be a great priviledge . . once more , if god be with us , he is with us as god in covenant with us , to do all that for us which belongs to a god in covenant to do . the lord his god is with him , num. . . so the lord our god is with us to help us . chron. . . how sweet and comfortable are these monosyllables his , and our . the lord his god , the lord our god is with us . that god with us , is a very great priviledge , will further appear , if we consider for what ends , intents and purposes , he is presen . for what ends i shall shew you , . in general . . in particular . . in general , god is present with his people to bless them , gen. . . i am with thee said god to isaac , and will bless thee . to deal well with them . god tells jacob that he would be with him , gen. . . and afterwards when jacob pleads this promise , he thus interprets it , o god of my father abraham , and god of my father isaac , the lord which saidst unto me , i will deal well with thee , gen. . . now to have god with us , and to deal well with us , sure is no mean priviledge . . in particular , god is with his people for these gracious ends and purposes . . to hear their prayers . notable is that place deut. . . for what nation is there so great who hath god so nigh them , as the lord our god is , in all things that we call upon him for . god is with us to hear our prayers and complaints , to grant our suits , and to do whatsoever we shall according to his will desire of him . joh. . . what have you for god to do ? god is ready to do it if you desire it . . to guide and lead us . the lord was with the people of israel . num. . . and went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud to lead them the way , and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light , to go by day and night . exod. . . god is the same god that he was then , and his presence is as much with his people now , as it was then , though he go not before them in such visible tokens , now , as then . i will , sayes god psal. . . instruct th●e , a●d teach thee in the way which thou shalt go : i will guide thee . god is with us to direct , and guide us , to shew us the way and make it plain . all the journyings of isr●el were ordered by god. t is very remarkable what you read concerning their travels , num. . . to the end of the chapter , according to the command of god they journied , and rested . . god is with his people to give them rest . he knows they are in a vvorld full of trouble , and that in the vvorld they shall have tribulation , and that it cannot be avoided . joh. . . he knows , that they will be injured , oppressed , and persecuted , and therefore will be with them to give them rest . my presence shall go with thee , said god to moses exod. . . and i will give thee rest. now thou art travelling , journying and wandering up and down , but i will give thee rest . . to provide for them , to observe what they want , and to provide it ; if they want food , or water , to provide it ; or if they want rayment , to provide it . as the father is with his children , and as the nurse is with the infant , so the lord is with his people . the lord is my shepherd , i shall not want , psal. . . he hath pasture enough for his sheep , he makes them lye down in green pastur●s , he leads them by the still waters : yea though i walk through the valley of the shadow of death , saith david psal. . i will not fear , for thou art with me . sirs , who layes the cloth , who spreads the table , who sends in provision ? thou preparest a table before me , psal. . . god provides , and if their be none else to do it , he can command ravens to do it . see kings . . , . if provision cannot be had in an ordinary , he will send it in an extraordinary way . he clave the rock in the wilderness , and gave them drink as out of the great depths . psal. . . he commanded the clouds of the wind , and gave them bread and flesh also . psal. . , , , . so that they lacked nothing . deut. . . . god is with his people to preserve them from trouble , if it be best . but it may be better to be in trouble then out of it . a prison may be better then a pallace , restraint may be better then liberty , sickness better then health , and poverty better then plenty . prosperity may s●ay , pro. . . adversity may profit . heb. . . and preserve . the lord is with us to deliver from trouble , if it be best to be preserved from it . the lord is in the midst of his people , psal. . . therefore they shall not be moved . surely there is no inchantment against jacob , there is no divination against israel . num. . . i am with thee , sayes god to paul , and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee , act. . . as birds flying , so will the lord of hosts defend jerusalem , defending also he will deliver it , and passing over he will preserve it . isa. . . what shall we say to these things ? if god be for us , who can be against us ? rom. . . if evil be coming , he prevents it . g●deon thought if god had been with them evil could have not befallen them . o my lord , saith he , if the lord be with us , why is all this be fallen us ? judg. . . vve live in the midst of dangers , in the midst of snares , in every place evil attends us . it s a wonder that we are preserved : if god were not with us , how much evil would dayly befal us ! . god is with his people to save from harm in trouble , if it come , to save from burning in the fire , and from drowning in the water . isa. . . remember daniel saved from hurt in the lions den , and the three princes saved from hurt in the fiery-furnace , and jonah from hurt in the whales belly , because god was with them . . god is with his people to disappoint enemies when they associate themselves , and take counsel together , laying their heads together , and laying their counsels deep , that none may see them , yet then god is with his people to blast the plots of their enemies . isa. . . associate your selves , and ye shall be broken in pieces , take counsel together , and it shall come to nought , speak the word , and it shall not stand , for god is with us . . god is with his people to overthrowtheir enemies when they pursue them , and will not be stopt , when they take up pharaoh-like resolutions . exod. . . the enemy said , i will pursue , i will overtake , i will divide the spoil , my lust shall be satisfied upon them , i will draw my sword , and my hand shall destroy them . here was resolution enough : but pray mark what follows , v. . thou didst blow with thy wind , the sea covered them , they sank as lead in the mighty waters . thus the lord overthrew them . exod. . . i will be with thee , said god to gideon , judg. . . and thou shalt smite the midianites as one man. so god tells david sam. . . i was with thee whithersoever thou wentest , and have cut off all thy enemies out of thy sight . what a promise is that , isa. . . i will feed them that oppress thee , with their own flesh ; and they shall be drunken with their own blood , as with sweet wine , and all flesh shall know that i the lord am with the● , thy saviour and thy redeemer , the mighty one of jacob. the lord is with his people to deliver them out of trouble in due time . thus god was with jeremie when he sent him , and enemies threatned him , i will be with thee , saith the lord , to deliver thee , jer. . . we are troubled on every side , saith the apostle , but not distressed ; perplexed , but not in despair ; persecuted , but not for saken . no , god was with them . cor. . , . god was with joseph and delivered him out of all his afflictions , act. . . . according to that promise , psal. . . i will be with him in trouble , and deliver him . . god is with his people to assist and strengthen them in their work . act. . . it is said , our lord jesus christ went about doing good , the lord being with him . fear not , saith the lord , isa. . . for i am with thee , i will strengthen thee , yea i will keep thee , yea i will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness . again v. . i will help thee , and again , v. . i will help thee . . the lord is with his people to comfort them . thy r●d and thy staff they comfort me . gods rod , like aarons , blossometh , and like jonathans hath honey at the end of it . psal. . . in all our tribulation god is present to comfort u● . cor. . . o for faith to believe it ! . to animate and hearten them against fears . fear not , for i am with thee , isa. . . fear not , when thou passest through the waters i will be with thee , isa. . , . be strong and of good courage , said god to joshua , for the lord thy god is with thee whithersoever thou goest . josh. . . be strong o zerubbabel , saith the lord , and be strong o joshua , and be strong all ye people , saith the lord , and work , for i am with you the lord of hosts . hag. . . joshua and caleb , to hearten and encourage the people , num. . . to go up against their enemies , thus bespeaks them , the lord is with us , fear them not . so moses tells the same people , if thou shalt say in thy heart , these nations are more then i , how can i dispossess them ? deut. . . thou shalt not be affrighted at them , saith he v. . for the lord thy god is among you , a mighty god and terrible . and again , deut. . . when thou goest out to battel against thine enemies , and seest horses and chariots and a people more then thou , be not affraid of them , for the lord thy god is with thee , which brought thee out of the land of egypt . once more moses encourageth the people and joshua . deut. . , . the lord , he it is that doth go before thee , he will be with thee , he will not fail thee nor for sake thee , fear not , neither be dismayed . . god is with his people sometimes to make them greater and greater , as he was with david . chron. . . so david waxed greater and greater ; for the lord of hosts was with him . but what if we wax not greater and greater in the world , if we wax greater and greater in goodness , in knowledge , faith and other graces , will it not be much better ? and this we shall do if god be with us . . god is with his people to correct them . but you will say perhaps , is it a priviledge to be corrected ? a greater priviledge it may be then all the rest . sirs , such is our state here that we need correction : we are sanctified but in part . we have dross , and dirt , and rust , and filth in and about us , god knoweth . if you had no dross , you would need no fire . if you had no dirt , you would need no washing . if no rust , you would need no file , and if no chaff you would need no flail . if no folly , you would need no rod. but seeing you have dross , dirt , rust and chaff not a little , is it not best for the gold to be refined , and best for the dirt and filth to be washed out , and for the chaff to be fann'd away , and for the rust to be scoured off ? and if so , is i● not a priviledge to be corrected ? correction is our melting , washing , fanning , ●iling . if the child offend in the fathers ●bsence , he scapes a scouring ; but if the father be at home he will not think to scape so . if we offend , and be faulty , god is with us to correct us . and he will correct ; yet as a father , in measure ; he will stay his rough wind in the day of his east wind. isa. . . fear thou not o jacob my servant , saith the lord , for i am with thee , i will not make a full end of thee , as of others , but correct thee in measure , yet will i not leave thee wholly unpunished . jer. . . and . . david blessed god for his correction . before i was afflicted i went astray , but now have i kept thy word , psal. . . and v. . it is good for me that i have been afflicted , that i might learn thy statutes . and v. . i know o lord that thy judgements are righ● , and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me . . god is with his people to encline their hearts to himself to walk in his wayes . king. . , . the lord our god is with us ; let him not leave us , nor forsake us , that we may encline our hearts unto him to walk in all his wayes , and to keep his commandments . . to enable them to finish work begun . the lord god , even my god will be with thee , said david to his son solomon , he will not fail thee nor forsake thee , un●il thou hast finished all the work for the service of the house of the lord. chron. . . . to give wisdom and understanding . david prayes , the lord be with thee my son , and give wisdom and understanding , chron. . , . and to give him a wise behaviour , david behaved himself wisely in all his wayes , and the lord was with him . sam. . . . god is with his people to effect difficult undertakings . moses thought that going to pharaoh , and bringing the children of israel out of egypt , was a work too great and difficult for him , and therefore desired to be excused , saying , who am i that i should take such a work in hand . exod. . . i am not eloquent , i am of slow speech , and of a slow tongue , exod. . . t is no matter for that saith god ; go and i will be with thy mouth , and i will teach ●hee what thou shalt say , exod. . . certainly i will be with thee , exod. . . and thou shalt bring them out of egypt . and joshua should bring them into canaan , as hard a work as it was , for god will be with him . deut. . . . to hold them . i am continually with thee , thou hast holden me by thy right hand , psal. . . thou hast holden me fast , so ainsworth , and kept me from falling , so isa. . . i am with thee , i will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness . god is with us to hold us by our right hand with his right hand ; this is a great priviledge , seeing god is greater then all , and none is able to pluck them out of his hand . joh. . . he is with us to keep us by his power through faith unto salvation , pet. . . . god is with his people to separate them and others . exod. . . to make a difference between them that serve him , and them that serve him not . mal. . . and . . , . see an instance , dan. . , . in those that were cast into the fiery furnace , and those that cast them in . see also to this purpose , exod. . . & . . . & . . . & . . . . when some are seperated to evil , deut. . . god is with his people to separate them unto good . . i come now to the third general , to shew that this priviledge of gods gracious presence is much to be desired and prayed for . paul desired it for these thessalonians . thes. . and for timothy , tim. . . moses desired it for himself , and the people , exod. . . & . . . if i have found grace in thy sight , o lord , let my lord i pray thee go amongst us . so did jabez , chron. . . jabez called on god saying , oh that thou wouldst bless me , and that thine hand might be with me . david also desired it for solomon . chron. . , . my son , the lord be with thee . v. . arise and be doing , and the lord be with thee , v. . jonathan also prayes thus for david . the lord be with thee , sam. . . and thus prayes solomon for himself , ●nd for his people , king. . . the lord our god be with us , let him not leave us , nor forsake us , that we may encline our ●earts unto him to walk in all his wayes . . now for the ground and reasons of this doctrine , why gods presence is so much to be desired and prayed for . . rea. because god is so excellent and admirable in all perfections . there is nothing wanting in god , god is all. how excellent is that name of his , exod. . . the lord , the lord god , merciful and gracious , long suffering , and aboundant in goodness and truth ; keeping mercy for thousands , forgiving iniquity , transgression and sin . again mic. . . who is a god like unto thee that pardoneth iniquity , and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage : he retaineth not his anger for ever , because he delighteth in mercy . . rea. because he is so sutable to our condition , therefore is his presence so much to be desired . we are in misery , we are unworthy , we are weak , and yet provoking ; and doth god suit with such ? with such as are in misery ? yes , for he is merciful : and with such as are unworthy ? yes , for he is gracious : and with the weak ? yes , for he is strong . doth he suit with such as are provoking too ? yes , for he is long suffering , and with backslider● ? yes , for he is a god that healeth backslidings . and doth he suit with such as have neither money nor price ? yes , he will love them freely . surely mercy and misery do well agree , and so doth graciousness and unworthiness , strength and weakness . now hence it is , because no person or thing in all the world suits so well with our condition as god doth , that his presence is so much to be desired and prayed for . . rea. because god is so useful for us , therefore his presence is so much to be desired . vvhat say you to a portion , is not that of use ? vvhat say you to an inheritance , is not that of use ? vvhat say you to the light , is not that of use ? vvhat say you to a shield in battel , is not that of use ? vvhat say you to a shelter in a storm 〈◊〉 not that of use ? vvhat say you to a refuge , a rock , a tower , when you are pursued , is not that of use ? god is all this : the lord is my portion saith my soul , lam. . . the lora is their inheritance . ezek. . . psal. . . the lord is my light. psal. . . the lord is a sun and a shield . psal. . . the god of jacob is ou● refuge . psal. . . the lord is my rock , my fortress , and my deliverer , my god , my strength in whom i will trust , my buckler , the horn of my salvation , and my high tower . psal. . . now , no wonder , the presence of god is so desirable , because he is so excellent and so sutable a good and so useful for us . . rea. because god is so lasting a good . there are many things that may 〈◊〉 well with us , and be very useful to us , but they may be of little continuance , they may he short lived . husbands & wives whom god hath so suited , that none could possibly be suited better must part . husbands do not live for ever with their wives , and parents do not live for ever with their children , nor one friend with another . but god is a lasting good . the everlasti 〈…〉 g god. isa. . . hast thou not known , hast thou not heard , 〈…〉 at the everlasting god , the lord , the creator of the e●ds of the earth fainteth not , neither is weary . . reas. because all other good will do us no good without him . the creature , nay all the creatures are but cyphers without him . the creature is not bread , you mistake if you think so , why do you spend money for that which is not bread , and your labour for that which satisfieth not ? ●sa . . . the creatures name is vanity , vanity of vanities , saith the preacher , vanity of vanities , all is vanity . eccles. . . the 〈…〉 is a thing of nought . amos. . 〈…〉 it is not . prov. . . wilt thou 〈…〉 thine eyes upon that which is not . sirs , how many things is there , that have been in your possession , of which you must now say they are not : my vvife is not , my husband is not , my father is not , my mother is not . but will it ever be said god is not ? christ is not ? the holy spirit is not ? no , no. hence 't is also that the presence of god is so much to be desired above all other things ; because all other things will do us no good without him . jehosaphat a prince , a potent prince , whose militia was eleven hundred and threescore thousand , besides what he had in garrisons , chron. . , &c. 't is said , he waxed great exceedingly ; yet sayes he , chron. . . we have no might , neither know we what to do . but our eyes are unto thee . this he speaks in reference to god , without whom indeed they had no might at all . he looked upon all the forces he had , as nothing without god. and so are riches , and so are relations : alas ! they are nothing without god. reas. because god alone is enough , he is enough without any thing else . god needs not the creature to supply us , to support us , to refresh , revive and comfort us ; he needs not the creature to direct or counsel us . it pleaseth him to make use of the creature , and to afford it most times ; but if he deny it , he can do it without the creature . it was an excellent saying of that martyr , if you take away my food , god will t 〈…〉 e away my hunger . truly sirs god hath made a little serve the turn many times , when others with their much have been in want . in the midst of their sufficiency they have been in straights , job . . remember that of habakkuk , i wish the same frame of heart to you that he had , habak . . , . although the fig●ree shall not blossom , neither shall fruit be in the vines ; the labor of the olive shall fail ; and the fields shall yield no meat , the slock shall be cut off from the fold , and there shall be no heard in the stalls : ( how then would he be able to live ! ) yet i will rejoyce in the lord , i will joy in the god of my salvation . when there is no meat in the fields or stalls ; there is yet a god in heaven : and he knows how 't is with us , and that we have need of these things , matth. . . and if the father know that his child wants bread , he shall not want it long , if his father be able to relieve him ; what ever you want , if you want not faith , it will be well enough : o for the skill of living by faith ! it is nothing with thee to help , sayes asa , in his prayer to god , whether with many , or with them that have no power : chron. . . god with us is more then all besides , chron. . , . i come now to the application , if the gracious presence of god be so grea a priviledge , and therefore so much to be desired . then hence be informed , . happy are they that have god graciously present with them . take your bible and read , deut. . . & . . sam. . . lev. . , . happy the congregations and habitations that have this name , the lord is there , ezek. . . and that may be called the throne of god , jer. . . this is matter of rejoycing , sing and rejoyce o daughters of zion , for lo i come , and i will dwell in the midst of thee , saith the lord , zech. . , . see also rev. . . . miserable are they with whom god is not , that want his gracious presence . how was saul distressed for want of gods presence , sam. . , . wo , wo to such from whom god departs , hos. . . use . is god with us so great a priviledge , and so much to be desired ? then examine , is god with us ? are we priviledged with his presence ? to know , take these signs of gods gracious presence . first , a praying frame of heart is a sign of gods favourable presence . god is a god hearing prayer , psal. . . and prepares the heart to pray where ever he is , psal. . . and pour's out a spirit of prayer , z●ch . . . jerem. . . which spirit helps our infirmities , and prayes in us , rom. . . god sets them with whom he is , a praying . . in all places , in the closet and family , yea and in the field , ruth . . the lord be with you , said boaz , to his reapers in the field . . at all times , in the evening and morning , at noon , and at midnight , psal. . . & . . god was with moses , david and daniel , and they pray ; with jabez , and he prayes ; chron. . . with ephraim , jerem. . . and he prayes ; with paul , and he prayes ; act. . . and when with us , we shall pray also ; psal. . . secondly , a penitent frame of heart ; where god is , there is weeping and mourning for sinning against him . how wer● joseph's guilty brethren troubled at h 〈…〉 presence , gen. . . so shall guilty w● be at the presence of god , we shall lo●k on him whom we have pierced , and mou●● ; z●ch . . . & j●r . . , , . where you have an instance of a mourning frame of heart , when god vouchsafed his presence . thirdly , an humble frame of heart ; god dwells with such , and none but such , sa . . . fourthly , an obedient frame of heart inclined to god , to walk in all his wayes . if the lord our god be with us , he will incli●e our hearts to keep his testimonies , kings . , . where he comes , he puts his spiri● into them , and causeth them to walk in his statutes , ezek. . . see joh. . . fifthly , strength in the soul , psal. . . whom god is with , he strengthens ; isa. . . both to do and suffer ; to do business , and bear burdens , psalm . . sixthly , warm affections , heat and life in the service of god ; whilst christ was with , and talked with his disciples , their hearts burned within them , luke . . seventhly , a spirit stirred up to promote the worship , and service of god. i am with you saith the lord , hag. . . and the lord stirred up their spirits , and they came and did work in the house of the lord of hosts their god , v. . eighthly , preservation from evil , from the evil of sin especially . oh that thou wouldst be with me , and keep me from evil ; was the request of jabez , chr● . . . where god is he delivers from every evil work , tim. . . ninthly , victory over enemies ; surely , i will be with thee , saith god to gideon , judg. . . and thou shalt smite the midianites as one man. if god be with us , enemies will be subdued , chron. . . world f●esh and devil too will be subdued ; through the spirit , the deeds of the flesh will be mortif●●d , rom. . . tenthly , profiting by afflictions , h●b ▪ . . eleventhly , fruitfulness , under means of grace : if the spirit come and blow upon our garden , the spices thereof will flow out ; cant. . . if christ be in us , and abide in us , we shall bring forth much fruit , joh. . . twelfthly , fixedness , unmoveableness from god , and his truth : god is in the midst of her , she shall not be moved ; psal. . . because he is at my right hand , i shall not be moved ; psal. . . because he is with us , the gates of hell shall never prevail against us . christ our sampson ( as one sayes ) hath flung them off their hinges . we shall not be greatly moved , psal. . . use . of exhortation . sirs , get god to be with you . gods gracious presence is the principal thing , therefore with all thy getting , get it . gold in the purse or coffer will not stead or avail you , like god with you . god answers more then money . wealth when gotten , moth and rust may corrupt it , thieves may break through and steal it . but god is out of the reach of all , there is no fear or danger of loosing him , when once you have gotten him : he therefore is worth the getting . some have found by experience that such and such things have not been worth their getting , not worth their sitting up late , and rising betimes for them , not worth their running and riding and venturing for them . how earnest have some been to be possessed of , and to enjoy such and such persons and things , and having obtained them , have they not found them by wofui experience , not worth the cost and pains laid out for them ? but god will over and above make amends for what is laid out for him . a shadow is not worth the following , but substance is . chaff is not worth heaping up , but corn is . dross is not worth the seeking , but gold is , and god much more then gold. and farther , you may seek the creature , and never be able to get it : you may seek , and not find : you may wish , o that i had wealth , and yet never have it , and o that i had credit and repute in the world , and possibly never have it . but who ever sought god and found him not ? who ever sought the presence of god ; and was denied it ? shall any soul , ever have cause to say , lord i did desire thy presence , but could not have it ; i did chuse to have thee with me , rather then to have all the world with me , and yet i could not have thee with me ? do you think there will ever be cause for such a reflection upon god , the god of love ? shall it ever be said , this poor soul would have had the presence of god , but god would not afford it ? o no! shall any person be ever able to say , i would have had god to be my god , and to be with me as a father , friend , and husband , but he would not ? or shall ever any person be able to say , i would have had jesus christ , to be with me as a prophet , priest and king , but he would not ? i would have had him to be my mediator , advocate , surety and saviour , but he would not ; i would have had his righteousness imputed to me , and his spirit imparted to me , but could not have it ? or shall any person be ever able to say , i would have had the holy spirit to be with me , to convince me of my sin and misery , to enlighten me in the knowledge of christ and to renew my will , and to perswade and enable me to imbrace christ jesus freely offered to me , but he would not be with me to do any of those things for me ; no , for then how should god be the faithful god , as he is stiled , deut. . . isa. . . cor. . . & . . . thes. . . tim. . . heb. . . & . . . and a faithful creator , pet. . . if we confess our sins he is faithful ( because he hath promised ) to forgive them joh. . . so if we ask , seek and knock , he is faithful to give , to be found , and to open : if we desire his presence , he is faithful to afford it . he that hath promised , jer. . . that we shall find him when we shall search for him with all our heart , is faithful to perform it . and how should jesus christ be a merciful and faithful high priest ? as he is stiled . heb. . . and how should the holy ghost be the spirit of truth ? as he is called , joh. . . but i fear god will have cause to say of many , i would have been with you , but you regarded not my presence ; you said to me depart , joh. . . i would have been your god , but you would none of me , psal. ● . . i would have been your portion , but you made light of me ; i would have been a father and a friend to you , and a husband too , but you would not carry your selves like children to me , nor friendly to me , nor spouse-ike to me . and christ i fear , will have cause to say of many , i would have been with you as a prophet to teach you , but you desired not the knowledge of my wayes . joh. . . i would have been with you as a priest to have offered 〈◊〉 incense with your prayers , and to have made your spiritual sacrifices acceptable to god , but you would not yray , nor offer up any spiritual sacrifice unto god : you would not come unto me , joh. . . nor unto god by me . i would have covered you with my righteousness , but you would not put it on ; you went about to establish your own righteousness , and would not submit to gods , rom. . . i would have given my spirit , but you would not receive it , you would needs quench , grieve , and resist it . act. . . i would have been with you as a king , but you would not that i should reign over you , luke . . and the holy spirit i fear will have cause to say , i would have convinced you of sin and misery , but you would not see , but would flatter your selves , that you were rich and encreased with goods and wanted nothing , rev. . . i would have enlightned your minds in the knowledge of christ , and you shut your eyes , and loved darkness rather then light , joh. . . i would have renewed your wills , but you would have your own wills , and would chuse your own wayes , isa. . . and delight in your abominations . i would have perswaded you to embrace christ jesus freely offered to you in the gospel , but you would not receive him , joh. . . i would have perswaded you to rejoyce in christ jesus , but you would rejoyce in a thing of nought , amos . what further shall i say to move and perswade you to get god to be with you ; to get god the father , and god the son , and god the holy ghost to be with you ? ( for there is a presence of each ; of the father , cor. . . john . . of the son , matth. . . john . . and of the holy ghost , john . , . ) . enemies will be with you whether you will or no : you have many enemies , and therefore need one friend . do not think your warfare will be at an end while you live here . assure your selves you will be set upon , and if you have not a god with you , you will certainly be overcome , you will be snared and taken , and carried away captive . first , the devil is with you , and he is with you as a roaring lion , pet. . . ready to tear you in pieces , and none but god can deliver you : what will you do when the devil is with you , if god be not with you to help you ? whither will the devil drive you , if god do not stop him ? if god do not stand in the way , and hedge up the way with thornes ? how did the swine run when the devil did enter into them , they stopt not till they were choaked and drowned in the sea. what work will the devil make , if god be not with us to deliver us ? what work did he make with our first parents , gen. . . and with david , chron. . . and with judas , john . , . such work will he make with us if god be not with us . therefore what ever you do , get god to be with you : secondly , the world is with you , and 't is a bewitching , ensnaring , and mischeiving world ? they that follow after mischief , draw nigh , psal. . . and when they draw nigh , what will you do if god be not nigh too . the world was with demas , and for want of gods presence with him , what work it made with him you may see , tim. . . it made him apostatize . it was also with the young man in the gospel , and what work it made with him , see , matth. . . it made him turn his back upon christ and eternal life . it was with gehazi , and what work it made with him , see king. . . it made him tell lye upon lye : and all this for want of gods presence with them . the world with its three great commanders , the lust of the eye , the lust of the flesh , and the pride of life , was with joseph , and moses ; and set upon them , but could not harm them , because god was with them . the lust of the flesh , viz. carnal pleasure , could not harm joseph because god was with them , gen. . , . the lust of the eye , and the pride of life , could not harm moses , because god was with him , 〈◊〉 heb. . , , , . thirdly , corrupt nature , that great evil is alwayes present with you , rom. . . world and devil could not harm us were it not for this . this made paul cry out , oh wretched man , rom. . . had it not been for jesus christ , he had been overcome by it . . motive , god is ready at a call to be with you , psal. . . call upon me and i will deliver thee . as ready to be with you , as jonathan's armor-bearer was to be with him , sam. . . behold , saith he to jonathan , i am with thee according to thy heart : so will god say much more , if thou desire it , behold i am with thee according to thy hearts desire ; as ready to be with you in your war with the world , sin and the devil , as ever jehosaphat was to be with ahab in his war ▪ with the king of syria : i am as thou art , said jehosaphat to ahab , and i will be with thee in the war , chron. . . so will god say to thee , if thou say to hi , as ahab said to jehosaphat ; wilt thou go with me to ramoth gilead ? so if thou say to god , lord wilt thou go with me against the world , flesh , and devil . the lord will answer , i am as thou art in this matter , and i will be with thee in this war ; and if he be with us ▪ he will go forth as a mighty man , he will stir up jealousie like a man of war , he will cry yea roar , he will prevail against his enemies , isa. . . and as ready as the people were to be with ezra in the reformation ; arise , say they to him , be of good courage and do it , ezr. . . we also will be with thee . so saith god to you , arise , resist the devil ; pe● . . . s●rive against sin , heb. . . be of good courage and do it , i also will be with you . this readiness of god to be with you , methinks should strongly perswade you to desire and endeavour his presence . motive . lovers and friends may be far off ; my lovers and my friends stand ●●oof off from my sore , and my kinsmen stand a far off , psal. . . i looked on my right hand , and behold there was no man that would know me ; refuge failed me , no man cared for my soul , psal. . . no man stood with me , but all men forsook me , said paul ; tim. . . now sirs , when all shall forsake you , if you shall not be able to say with paul , the lord stands by me , what will you do ? so when refuge shall fail you , if you shall not be able to say with david , the lord is my refuge , psal. . . what will you do ? motive . in the absence or want of some creatures , you comfort your selves with the presence of others . you comfort your selves with the presence of friends and relations in the want of other things ; and you say , though this be gone , and that be gone , though this be lost , and that be lost and taken away , yet my husband is with me , or my father is with me , or my brother and sister are with me . thus you comfort your selves in the want of some things , with the presence of some other . how much more will it be a comfort to be able to say , though this and that be wanting , yet god is with me ; though father and mother be not with me , yet god is with me ; though brother and sister be gone from me , yet god is with me . this , this will be the comfort . motive . nothing will be done acceptably without this gracious presence of god , joh. . . no duty or service that you can perform . motive . nothing will succeed and prosper well without it , neither temporals nor spirituals , but all prospers with it . . temporals , see an instance in potiphars possessions , what he had in his house , in his field ; all prospered upon the account of god's presence with joseph , gen. . , , . another instance you have in labans goods , gods promise to be with jacob , see gen. . . i am with thee , i will not leave thee . now laban sayes , gen. . . i have learned by experience , that the lord hath blessed me for thy sake . god with us makes all to prosper , deut. . . the lord thy god hath blessed thee in all the works of thy hands , these forty years the lord thy god hath been with thee , thou hast lacked nothing . go , do all that is in thy heart , said nathan to david , sam. . . for the lord is with thee , q. d. go and prosper for the lord is with thee . motive . god with us will make men afraid of us , and willing to comply and be at peace with us : we read sam. . . that saul was affraid of david , because the lord was with him . abimilech , ahuzza , and phicol , come to isaac , and desire to make a league , agreement , and covenant with him ; and they render this as the reason , we saw certainly that the lord was with thee , sam. . . see also isa. . . motive . god with us makes enemies and opposers to fall before us , josh. . . there shall not any man be able to stand before thee ; i will be with thee . motive . god with us makes others to fall to us . when israel saw that god was with asa , they fell to him in great abundance chron. . . quest. but what is to be done that we may have god to be with us ? what direction can you give us ? answ. take these . . pray the lord earnestly to be with you . pray as solomon , king. . . the lord our god be with us , let him not leave us nor forsake us : and as jeremiah in the name of the church , jer. . . we are called by thy name , leave us not . and as the apostle in the text , the lord be with you ; so do you pray for your selves , the lord be with me . when you go about any natural , civil , or religious action , say , the lord be with me . when you go to your table , there 's a snare ; and when to the shop , there 's a snare ; and when to your beds , there 's a snare ; therefore whensoever you go to your table , shop , or bed , pray , the lord be with me . there are snares every where , and therefore every where you have need to pray , the lord be with me . desire gods presence , and you shall not be denied it . name the person if you can that ever was denied gods presence , if he prayed for it ? 't is true , god may seem to be absent , but he is really present with his , when seemingly absent : he is but behind the curtain , on the other side of the wall . how near may the mother be , when the child thinks her lost , and falls a crying ? and all this while the mother is but in the next room . thus it is between god and his people ; christ withdraws from his spouse , yet is really present ; for by vertue of his presence she seeks after him till she has found him ; if he had not been present , she could not have sought him : for if he draw not , there is no running after him . draw me , and we will run after thee , cant. . . pray then for the presence of god , let god see that you will not be satisfied without him : how unsatisfied are some without persons and things ? they must enjoy such a person , such a thing , or they cannot be satisfied : they cannot live , they shall dye without them . let god see that you cannot live without his presence . if you long for it , you shall not long be without it . . hearken to the voice of them , that give you counsel for your real good . hearken unto my voice , said jethro to moses , exod. . . i will give thee counsel , and god shall be with thee . be instructed , sayes god , jer. . . least my soul depart from thee . . be with god. if you be with him , he will not fail to draw nigh to you : draw nigh to god , and he will draw nigh to you , jam. . . the lord is with you , whilst you are with him , chron. . . be much with god then . be with him in your thoughts : let your hearts and affections be with him . when you awake be still with him , psal. . . when you arise , be with him ; when you go to duty be with him , and draw night to him with your hearts , as well as your lips . when you go about your work and business , be with him ; when you go forth , and when you return , be still with him . be with the lord continually , set him at your right hand , and fear not : you shall then find him with you , holding your right hand , psal. . . nevertheless , i am continually with thee , thou hast holden me by my right hand . when you eat , do not eat without thoughts of god that feeds you ; when you put on your cloathes , be not without thoughts of god that cloatheth you ; when you are in company , and when you are alone , still be with him . this is the way to have god be with you . be much with god. you know , 't is no difficult thing to be with those that are a thousand miles from us . cannot the wife be with her husband in her affections and desires though he be beyond the sea ? and cannot the father be with the child that is many miles distant from him ? and why cannot we be thus with god ? be with god also in his ordinances and appointments , in them he will meet you , and speak unto you , exod. . . & . . . there you shall find him , prov. . , . watch dayly therefore at his gates : wait at the posts of the dores . whilst you are with him , he will be with you . whilst you carry your selves , as in his presence , fearing serving and honouring him , he will be with you . vvell then , be with god. . vvake with him , psal. . . . vvalk with him , as enoch and noah did . . vvork with him . 't is said that jonathan wrought with god , sam. . . and ministers are workers together with god , cor. . . and all of us must work with him : work out your salvation with fear &c. for it is god that worketh in you , to will and to do , philip. . , . he worketh all our works in us , isa. . . sit not still therefore when he works . vvar with god , the lamb wars , rev. . . and they that are called and chosen , and faithful , they war with him : they side with him , and take his part . he that is not with me , is against me , saith christ mat. . . vvith these god will side , and will take part with them . psal. . , . direct . . love god and keep his commandments , and then i can promise you his presence . sirs , would you have his company , whom you have no love for ? would you have him , whom you do not love to come unto you ? love him , and he will come , else he will be at a distance from you : and shew your love to him by keeping his commandments , then he will come and make his abode with you , joh. . . if a man love me , he will keep my words , and my father will love him , and we will come and make our abode with him . vvhat a promise did god make to jeroboam by abijah the prophet , king. , . if thou wilt hearken to all that i command thee , and wilt walk in my wayes , and do that which is right in my sight , i will be with thee . he that feareth god , and worketh righteousness , is accepted with him , act. . such god will meet in grace and mercy , isa. . . jacob went on his way , the way that god had commanded him , and the angels of god met him , gen. . . direct . . if you would have god to be with you , keep your selves clean : do not defile and pollute your selves with sin , which is the greatest filthiness . it is sin that sets god at a distance from you . 't is your iniquities that separate between you and your god , isa. . . stand in awe therefore , and sin not , psal. . . a law was given , of old , to gods people , that when ever they did ease themselves abroad they should turn about , and with a paddle cover that which came from them , that no filthiness might be seen among them , deut. . the reason is given , v. . for the lord thy god walketh in the midst of the camp , therefore shall thy camp be holy , that he see no unclean thing in thee , and turn away from thee . this outward cleanness here required , was to teach them their duty to god and their neighbour . chiefly to god , that in regard of his presence among them , they ought to keep themselves clean from all spiritual pollutions . next to their neighbour , that they ought to do nothing that might offend or annoy him . sirs , god is of purer eyes then to behold evil , and cannot look upon iniquity without detestation , habak . . . you your selves turn away from filthy creatures ; and will not god much more turn away from filthy sinners ? when god sees filthy pride , and filthy lucre , filthy ryoting , and filthy drunkenness , filthy chambering , and filthy wantonness , filthy strife , and filthy envying , these works of darkness , rom. . , . god he turns away ; for what communion hath light with darkness ? cor. . . god will not be with us , unless we destroy sin , that accursed thing . see josh. . , . the throne of iniquity shall have no fellowship with him , psal. . . let not sin be with you ; if you would have god to be with you , keep a strict watch against sin . and when at any time you do sin , ( for there is no man that sinneth not ) turn back and cover it , that god may not behold it : set faith and repentance a work immediately , and cover thy sin with the righteousness of christ , and the waters of godly sorrow : let faith in jesus christ , and repentance towards god be thy paddle to cover that filthiness of sin which comes from thee : so shall you have the presence of god with you . direct . . please god. that 's the way to have god with you . he that hath sent me is with me ( saith our saviour ) the father hath not left me alone , for i do alwayes those things that please him ; john . . i do the works of him that sent me ; john . . i am ever about my fathers business ; luke . . and therefore the father hath not left me alone . nor will he leave us alone , but will be nigh unto us in all that we call upon him for ; if we do those things that are pleasing in his sight ; john . . quest. how shall we do to please god ? answ. get out of the flesh ; for we are in it , rom. . . as a man in the water covered over head and ears with it ; or as a man in bonds , act. . . and snares , tim. . . fast bound and hamperd in them . now they that are in the flesh cannot please god. rom. . . they that are in their natural estate , still remaining such as they were by adams fall , and such as they were born into the world , without any change of nature , heart or life , cannot please god. if the powers of their souls and parts of their bodies be still the same , if their understandings be as dark as ever , if their wills be as stubborn as ever , if their affections be as carnal and eart●ly as ever ; if their eyes , ears , tongues , hands , and feet be as forward to sin as ever , they cannot please god : if therefore you would please god , you must not rest satisfied in that estate wherein you were born , and wherein you were bred , and wherein you have li●ed . you must get out of the flesh , out of your natural estate . you must be born again , and be renewed . you must be quite another person , and be able to say , i am not i. i was darkness , but now i am light in the lord , ephes. . . i was dead , but now i am quickned , ephes. . . i was such and such , but now i am washed , cor. . . you must put off the old man , and put on the new , ephes. . , . you must put off bad , and put on better , if you will please god , col. . , , . old things must pass away , and all things must become new , cor. . . you must be new creatures , else you cannot be god-pleasers . . get into christ. we are accepted only in the beloved , ephes. . . 't is in christ that god is pleased with any , mat. . . accept of christ for your prophet , priest and king ▪ and god will accept of you for his children , spouse , friends . direct . . prize christ and use him . . prize christ. leave all and cleave to him , see psal. . , . christs spouse must shave her head , pair her nails , and bewail her father and mother : . her natural inbred evils and corruptions for christs sake , and then she will please , see deut. . , , . you must part with your hair and nails , and fathers house , if you will so please christ as to be his spouse . you must rejoyce in christ , and have no confidence in the flesh , phil. . . and say as , isa. . . in the lord i have righteousness and strength , if you will please god. count all things but loss and dung in comparison of christ. phil. . . if christ be not precious in your eyes , you will be but vile in gods ; but if christ be prized , god will be pleased . sell all you have , and buy this pearl . mat. . this will please god. . use christ. it hath pleased the father , that in him all fulness should dwell col. . . for our use . that of his fulness we might receive what we want , job . . . seeing god has made christ for use , you cannot please god unless you make use of christ. the ark by noah was made for use , and so was the brasen serpent by moses ; had neither been made use of , god would not have been well pleased . to make use of christ for the end and purposes for which god has made him , is the way to please him . god has made christ unto us wisdo● , righteousness , sanctification , and redemption , cor. . . now to go to christ to be cured of our folly , to be cleared from our guilt , to be cleansed from our filth , to be redeemed out of bondage , is the way to please god ; but if christ be made light of , and not made use of , god will be displeased not a little , matth. . , . christ is meat and d 〈…〉 rk , john . . feed on him by faith ; christ is rayment , put him on , rom. . . christ is the foundati●n , cor. . . build upon him ; christ is the rock , cor. . . secure your selves in the cles●s of it , cant. . . christ is the fountain opened for sin , and for uncleanness , zech. . . wath your selves in it . christ is the true light , john . come to it , and follow it . christ is an apple tree , cant. . . sit under the shadow of it with delight , and eat of the fruit thereof . this will please god to see his son so much honoured by being so much used , john . . direct . . live by faith , habak . . . walk by faith and not by sight , cor. . . look to the things not seen , cor. . . this will please god. enoch had this testimony , that he pleased god , heb. . . and 't was by faith , for heb. . . without faith 't is impossible to please god. act faith in the power of god , as abraham did , rom. . . heb. . . and in the faithfulness of god , as sarah did , heb. . . this will please god. be fully perswaded that what god hath promised , he is able and faithful to perform ; this will please god. trust in god at all times , psal. . . cast your burden upon him , psal. . . thy care on him , pet. . . be careful for nothing , phil. . . but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving , let your requests be made known to god ; this will please god. see what a blessing god has promised to such , jer. . . . direct . . labour to be like god and christ , if you would please him : for liking , is founded in likeness ; and complacency , in conformity : what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness ? or what communion hath light with darkness ? cor. . . be ye holy as god is holy ▪ pet. . . and mercifull as he is , luke ▪ . direct . . be not like the world . come out from among them , and i will receive you , and be so well pleased with you , that i will be a father to you , and you shall be my sons and daughters , cor. . , . come thou , and all thy house , sayes god to noah , gen. . . into the ark , i am well pleased with thee , and i will take care of thee , and gives this for the reason ; for thee have i seen righteous in this generation , called by st. peter , the world of the ungodly , pet. . . this noah found grace in the eyes of the lord , gen. . . god saved him , pet. . . to be blameless and harmless without rebuke , in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation ; and to shine as lights among them , this will please god , phil. . . walk not as other gen●iles walk in the vanity of their minds , eph. . . sleep not as do others , thes. . . conform not to this world , rom. . . have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness , but rather reprove them , eph. . . this will be acceptable to the lord. what care god took of lot , who was righteous , in wicked sodom , see gen. . , . dir. . be mourners for your own sins , and the sins of others . the sacrifices of god are a broken spirit , wounded for sin ; a broken and a contrite heart , o god , thou wilt not despise , but accept , psal. . . god will restore comfort to his mourners , isa. . . these mourners in zion , and for zion , isa. . . & . . who mou●n for the desolation of zion , and for their own sins and the sins of others , as the procuring causes thereof , these are the persons that please god , so that he takes double care of them in evil times , ezek. . , ▪ and pronounces them blessed , and promises that they shall be comforted , mat. . . dir. . walk uprightly , order your conversation aright , without guile and hypocrisie ; in simplicity and godly sincerity have your conversations , doing all your duties , to please god , and not for by-respects : with this god will be so well pleased , that he will be to you a sun and a shield , that he will give you grace and glory , that he will with-hold no good thing from you , psal. . . prov. . . he will shew you his salvation , psal. . . god will give him a prospect of heaven here , and hereafter a full fruition of it ; and no w●●der , for you are his delight , prov. . . such as are upright in their way are his delight : and what will not a man do for such in whom he delights ? read esther . . dir. . make the christian sabbath your delight ; be glad and rejoyce in it . this will so please the lord , that he will cause you to ride upon the high places of the earth ; yea , upon the heights of heaven , where thou shalt keep an everlasting sabbath ; and feed you with the heritage of jacob your father ; not only with the good things of the earthly canaan , but with the good things of the heavenly , of which the earthly was a type ; with heavenly manna , such food as eye hath not seen , ear heard , or mouth of natural man ever tasted . this you may build upon , for the mouth of the lord hath spoken it , isa. . , . if you keep the sabbath , and chuse the things that please god , isa. . . god will be so well pleased , as to give you , . a place in his house : v. . and a door-keepers place in gods house is worth the having , psal. . . a place in gods house , is that one thing which david was so earnest for , psal. . . . a name better then of sons and daughters of princes ; even prerogative royal , that heavenly honour to be the sons and daughters of god , cor. . . john . . and so to be called . john . to have both the comfort and the credit of it ; for if sons , then heirs , rom. . , . . and make them joyful in his house of prayer , ver . . by their free access unto him , and good success in all their suits . . and accept their sacrifices , ver . . their sacrifices of prayer , praise , alms and obedience , shall be accepted through christ , who is the true altar that sanctifieth all that is offered on it , heb. . , . rev. . . dir. . watch at wisdoms gates daily ; wait at the posts of her doors , prov. . , . and there you ▪ shall find life , isa. . . and obtain the favour of god , which is better then life . there the lord will meet you , and bless you , exod. . . there he will teach you , isa. . . and there he will accept you , ezek. . . there you give him your loves , cant. . . and there he will give you his loves . if he sup with you , you shall sup with him , rev. . . there you may get faith more precious then gold , rom. . . there you may have a call to the obtaining of the glory of our lord jesus christ , thes. . . dir. . pray continually . this pleases god. the prayer of the upright is his delight , prov. . . 't is sweet unto him , cant. . . he will be nigh to them that call upon him in truth , psal. . . daniel's praying pleased god ; as appears by the event . prayers come up for a me norial before god , acts . . god is so well pleased with prayer , that he will never turn it away , psal. . . dir. . meditate on gods law day and night . shew thy love to god and it thereby , as david did , psal. . . o how i love thy law , it is my meditation all the day . let it be yours also , and god will make you like a tree planted by the rivers of water , that bringeth forth his fruit in his season , and whose leaf shall not wither , and whatsoever you do shall prosper , psal. . , . dir. . worship god in spirit and in truth : sure this is pleasing to him ; for the father seeketh such to worship him , joh , . . he is greatly delighted with such worship . god loveth the gates of zion more then all the dwellings of jacob , psal. . . the gates of zion , the place of his worship , which he had chosen to dwell in , more then all the towns and cities else which he had given jacob to dwell in . 't is not all worship that god is so delighted with ; some worship is an abomination to him . god complains of those that draw nigh to him with their mouths , when their hearts are far from him , isa. . . mat. . . 't is the heart god calls for , prov. . . and truth in the inward parts , that god desires , psal. . . 't is worship in spirit and truth that pleases god. dir. . love god heartily , and seek him early . god loves them that love him , prov. . . and will shew it , john . , . he that hath my commandments , and keepeth them , he it is that loveth me ; and he that loveth me , shall be loved of my father , and i will love him , and will manifest my self to him , and we will come and make our abode with him . obedience to this first and great command of loving god , is more then all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices , mark . . therefore for certain it pleases god. delight thy self in the lord , and he will give thee the desires of thy heart , psal. . . and let the desire of thy soul be to his name , and to the remembrance of him . with thy spirit seek him early , isa. . , . and he will be found of thee , jer. . . dir. . fear god greatly , as obadiah did , kings . . on such the sun of righteousness will shine , mal. . . the lord will fulfil the desires of them that fear him ; he also will hear their cry , and will save them , psal. . . dir. . chuse to suffer rather then to sin . this was moses's choice , heb. . . rather to suffer affliction with the people of god , then to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season . this pleaseth god highly . those three servants of the most high god , dan. . who did chuse to burn to ashes , rather then to bow to an image , god was so well pleased with , that he restrained the fire from burning of them . daniel chuses to be torn to pieces , rather then not to pray , dan. . and god was so well pleased with his choice , that he shuts the mouths of the lions , that they hurt him not , v. . god also was so well ' pleased with the martyrs choyce of sufferings rather then of sinning , that he so wrought for many of them ; that they felt little or no pain . baynam ; one of our english martyrs , in the midst of flames , with arms and legs half consumed , uttered these words ; o ye papists ! behold , ye look for miracles ; here now ye may see a miracle : for in this fire i feel no more pain , then if i were in a bed of down ; but it is to me as a bed of roses . dir. . get a meek and a quiet spirit : this is in the sight of god an ornament of great price , pet. . . but a froward heart is an abomination to god , prov. . . moses had this commendation , that he was very meek above all the men which were upon the face of the earth , numb . . . god takes his part , and appears for him , num. . , . moses . is deaf and dumb , but god hears and calls suddenly about the wrong done to moses . and what a good end did god make with patient job ? jam. . . dir. . be zealous , hot , fervent in spirit , serving the lord , rom. . . god cannot away with lukewarmness : luke-warm laodicea he loaths , rev. . . but zealous phineas he loves , num. . , , . psal. . . be fervent in prayer , swift to hear , strict in the observation of the sabbath ; be strong in faith , weep bitterly for sin . this heat in duty , will please god. do justly . this pleases god , mic. . . more then thousands of rams . to do judgment and justice , to judge the cause of the poor and needy , is the way to have it be well with us , jer. . , . the just and rtghteous god hates injustice , zech. . . doing justice and judgment , is the way of the lord , gen. . . and sure he is well pleased with those that walk in his way . dir. . love mercy . this also pleases god. to do good and communicate , forget not ; for with such sacrifice god is well pleased , heb. . . 't is an odour of a sweet smell , a sacrifice acceptable , well pleasing to god , phil. . . christ is so well pleased with it , that he takes it as done to himself , mat. . , , . and the contrary , shewing no mercy , he takes so ill , that he threatens , jam. . . he shall have judgment without mercy , that hath shewed no mercy . dir. . walk humbly . to such an one god will look , isa. . . yea , god will dwell with the humble , and revive the humble , isa. . . god resisteth the proud , but giveth grace to the humble , jam. . . and if he give them grace , sure he will give them glory . dir. . be fruitful in every good work . this pleases god. the earth that brings forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed , receiveth blessing from god , heb. . . i am come into my garden , my sister , my spouse : now there is such pleasant fruit there , i cannot keep away . he is so well pleased with the fruit he finds , that he gathers , eats and drinks , cant. . . a fruitful vine pleaseth the dresser . a fruitful tree the planter . a fruitful field the husbandman . and a fruitful christian pleaseth god much more . dir. . be thankful . this pleaseth the lord , psal. . , . i will praise the name of the lord with a song , and will magnifie him with thanksgiving . v. . this also shall please the lord better then an oxe or bullock that hath horns and hoofs . v. . this rendring the calves of our lips , hos. . . is very pleasing to god , when offered up by christ. by him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to god continually , that is the fruit of our lips , giving thanks to his name , heb. . . he that offereth praise , glorifieth me , saies god , psal . alwaies provided that the praise be cordial and real , as well as oral ; provided that there be estimation of benefits , and retribution for them , as well as recognition of them . and now beloved , i must take my leave of you , and what more or better can i wish or desire for you then this gracious presence of god. the lord be with you all . the lord be with you little children , and incline your hearts to learn solomons lesson which his father taught him , chron. . . viz. to know the god of your fathers , and to serve him with a perfect heart , and a willing mind : for the lord searcheth all hearts , and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts , if you seek him , he will be found of you , but if you forsake him , he will cast you off for ever : and for this end , the lord be with you , and incline your hearts whilst you are children , to know , as timothy did from a child , the holy scriptures , which are able to make you wise unto salvation through faith which is in christ jesus , tim. . . and perswade you to continue in the things which you have learned , and have been assured of , knowing of whom you have learned them , tim. . . the lord be with you young men , and incline your hearts to remember your creatour in the dayes of your youth , as you are commanded , eccles. . . and to be kind to him in your youth , jer. . . that he may another day say to you , i remember the kindness of your youth . the lord be with you to be the guide of your youth , jer. . . and to teach you from your youth , as he did david , psal. . . the lord be with you , that you may with obadiah fear the lord from your youth , king. . . and that you may flee youthful lusts , as you are commanded , tim. . . the lord be with you , and be your hope and trust from your youth , as he was davids , psal. . . and make you sober minded , as you are exhorted to be , tit. . . the lord be with you , and cause you to grow up as plants in your youth , psal. . . that you may never complain , as job chap. . . thou hast made me possess the sins of my youth . and that you may not be forced to pray as david , remember not against me the sins of my youth , psal. . . nor lie down in shame because of the sins of your youth , as they , jer. . . and that in your age , you may not find your bones full of the sins of your youth , job . . the lord be with you aged men , to make you sober , grave , temperate , to make you sound in the faith , sound in charity , in patience , as you are taught to be , tit. . . the lord be with you young women , to make you such as you are taught to be , tit. . . viz. sober , and to love your husbands , and your children , and to be discreet , chaste , keepers at home , good , obedient to your own husbands , that the word of god be not blasphemed , and that your husbands beholding your chaste conversation coupled with fear , may be won by it , pet. . , . the lord be with you and deliver you from all unchaste thoughts , words , and actions , and make you careful to preserve your own and your neighbours chastity in heart , speech , and behaviour . this prayer for you is not without need ; too much unchaste behaviour is to be seen in our congregations . i cannot think that the exposing of your naked backs and breasts to the view of all , can consist with chastity of heart . i wish that some or other would do that office for you , that shem and japheth did for their father , gen. . . and cast at least a scarf or handkerchief over your naked necks , backs and breasts . the lord be with you aged women , that you may be such as you are required to be , tit. . . that you may be in behaviour as becometh holiness , not false accusers , not given to much wine , teachers of good things . the lord be with you widowes , to cause you to trust in god , as 't is your duty , jer. . . and continue in prayer and supplications night and day , tim. . . the lord be with you parents , that you may bring up your children in the nurture and admonition of the lord , ephes. . . and that you may not provoke them to anger lest they be discouraged , col. . . the lord be with you children , that you may obey your parents in the lord , and honour them , that it may be well with you , and that you may live long in the earth , ephes. . , , . the lord be with you masters , that you may give unto your servants , that which is just and equal , col. . . and forbear threatning , knowing that your master also is in heaven , neither is there respect of persons with him , ephes. . . the lord be with you servants , that you may be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh , with fear and trembling , in singleness of heart , as unto christ , not with eye-service as men-pleasers , but as the servants of christ , doing the will of god from the heart , ephes. . , . knowing that of the lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance , for ye serve the lord christ , col. . . yea , the lord be with you , that you may be subject not only to the good and gentle , but also to the froward : for this is thank-worthy , if for conscience towards god , you endure grief , suffering wrong fully ; and acceptable with god , if when you do well , and suffer for it , you take it patiently , pet. . , , . the lord be with you husbands , that you may love your wives , and not be bitter against them , col. . . and that you may dwell with them according to knowledge , giving honour unto them , as unto the weaker vessels , and as being heirs together of the grace of life , that your prayers be not hindred , pet. . . the lord be with you wives , that you may be in subjection to your own husbands ; that if any obey not the word , they may be won by your conversation , while they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear ; and that your adornin̄g may not be with outward adorning , of plaiting the hair , and of wearing of gold , or of putting on of apparel , but that it may be the hidden man of the heart , in that which is not corruptible , even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit , which in the sight of god is of great price , pet. . , , , . the lord be with you poor : ( and my request for you is double . ) . that you may be poor in spirit , and so blessed , that yours may be the kingdom of heaven , mat. . . . that you may be rich in faith , jam. . . by which god has promised the just shall live , hab. . . the lord be with you rich , that you may not be high-minded , nor trust in uncertain riches , but in the living god , who giveth us richly all things to enjoy , tim. . . the lord be with you , that you may do good , that you may be rich in good works , ready to distribute , willing to communicate , that you may lay up in store for your selves , a good foundation , against the time to come , that you may lay hold on eternal life , tim. . , . the lord be with you young disciples , that having put your hands to the plough you may not look back , lest you prove not fit for the kingdom of god , luk. . . the lord be with you old disciples , that you may bring forth much good fruit , and be fat and flourishing , psal. . . the lord be with you all , to deal well with you , to hear your prayers , to direct your steps , to give you rest , to provide you necessaries , to protect your persons , to prevent trouble , or to deliver out of it . to assist in work , to support under burdens , to disappoint enemies , to animate against fear , to comfort in tribulation , to correct if need be , to encline your hearts to god , to give you wisdom , to help you to finish your works , and to effect difficult undertakings , to hold you by your right hand , to put a difference between you , and toose that serve him not . the lord be with you all , . with all of all of you . . with your hearts . . to circumcise them , deut. . . . to write his law in them , heb. . . . to new make them , ezek. . . . to soften them , ezek. . . . to strengthen them , psal. . . acchrding to his promise . . to unite them , psal. . . . to enlarge them , psal. . . . to encline them to him and his testimonies , king. . . psal. . . . to create them clean , psal. . . . to put gladness into them , psal. 〈…〉 . . with your heads , . to lift them up , psal. . . . to make them waters , jer. . . . with your eyes , . to open them that you may behold wonderous things out of gods law , psal. . . . to turn them away from beholding vanity , psal. . . . with your ears , . to open them , psal. . . . to cause them to hear the word behind them , isa. . . . with your mouthes . . to satisfie them with good things , psal. . . . that a deceitful tongue may not be found in them , zeph. . . . with your hands , to hold them , isa. . . & . . . with your feet , to keep them , sam. . . . the lord be with you all , . at all times . . in the morning , when you awake that you may awake with god , psal. . . psal. . . . at noon , when you go to meat , psal. . . . at evening , when you go to bed , psal. . . this was davids practice : evening , and morning , and at noon will i pray and cry aloud , and not in vain , for it followes , and he shall hear my voice . . the lord be with you even at midnight , and in the night watches , that even then you may meditate on gods word and give thanks after the example of david , psal. . . & . . . . . on the week dayes , that you may do your work , and all your work on them , as you are commanded , exod. . . . on the lords day , that you may keep it holy , and call it a delight . the holy of the lord , honourable ; not doing your own wayes , nor finding your own pleasure , nor speaking your own words , isa. . , . the lord be with you all , . in all places . in the closet , in the family . in the shop , in the field , in bed , at board . in the closet , to make you serious . in the family , to make you profitable . in the shop , to awe you . in the field , to preserve you . in bed , to refresh you . at board , to satisfie you . the lord be with you all. . in all estates and conditions , in adversity and prosperity , in sickness and health , in poverty , and riches . in adversity , that you may consider , eccles. . . in prosperity , that you may rejoyce , eccles. . . in sickness , to make your bed , psal. . . in health , to make you thankful , psal. . . in poverty , to make you contented , heb. . . tim. . . in riches , to make you lowly minded , trusters in god , rich in good works , ready to distribute , willing to communicate , tim. . , . the lord be with you all , . in all duties of religion and holy ordinances , in praying , reading , hearing , meditating , conferring , instructing , admonishing , exhorting , reproving , comforting . in praying , that you may pray fervently , jam. . , . in reading , that you may read understandingly , act. . . in hearing , that you may hear believingly , heb. . . in meditating , that you may have soul-satisfaction , psal. ● . , . in conferring , that you do it with aff●ct●on . in instructing , that you may do it convincingly . in admonishing , that you may do it compass●onately , jude . in exhorting , that you may do it earnestly , heb. . . in reproving that you may do it wisely . in comforting , that you may do it mercifully . in observing , the sabbath , that you may observe it more strictly . in receiving the supper , that you may receive it more worthily . in fasting , that you may do it soul-afflictingly , soul-chasteningly , levit. . . psal. . . and life-reformingly . the lord be with you all , . in all your civil imployments and lawful undertakings , that in all you do you may make gods word your rule , gods glory your end , and the credit of the gospel and christian religion your care. the lord be with you , in your trading and dealing , that you may do as you would be done unto , ma● . . . in buying and selling , that you may set god before you , buying and selling as in his presence , psal. . . in working and sitting still , that you may be heavenly minded , phil. . . in your journeying , and travelling , that you may be preserved and prospered , gen. . . finally beloved , the lord be with you to sanctifie you wholly , and i pray god your whole spirit , and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the c●min● of our lord jesus christ. amen ▪ and amen . finis . a catalogue of books printed and are to be sold by john hancock , at the sign of the three bibles . in popes-head alley . twelve books published by mr. thomas brooks . . precious remedies against satans devices . . heaven upon earth . . the unsearchable riches of christ. . apples of gold. . string of pearls . . the male christian. . an ark for gods noahs . . the privey key of heaven . . a heavenly cordial . . a cabinet of choice jewels . . lo●●ons lamentations . mr. c●ll●my's godly man 's ark. christs communion with his church millitant , by nicholas lock●er . sin the plague of plagues , by ralph venning . the accurate accomptant , or london merchant , being instructions for keeping merchants . accounts , by thomas brown accountant . short-writing , the most easie , exact , lineal , and speedy method that hath ever yet been obtained , by thomas metcalf . also a book , called a school-master to it , explaining the rules thereof . a copy book of the newest and most useful hands . bridges remains , being . choice sermon 's , by that reverend divine mr. william bridge , heretofore minister at yarmouth . a discourse of christ's coming , by theophilus gale. king james ▪ his counterblast to tobacco . a brief description of new york . the shepherds legacy , or forty years experience of the weather . venning's remains , or christ's school , consisting of four classis of christians , viz. babes , children , young-men , and fathers ; being the ●ubstance of many sermons , by ralph verning : prepared for the press by himself before his death . a dis●wasive from conformity to the world ; as also gods severity against impenitent sinners ; with a farewel sermon , by henry stu●s minister of the gospel . toleration discuss'd, in two dialogues i. betwixt a conformist, and a non-conformist ... ii. betwixt a presbyterian, and an independent ... l'estrange, roger, sir, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing l estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online text creation partnership. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) toleration discuss'd, in two dialogues i. betwixt a conformist, and a non-conformist ... ii. betwixt a presbyterian, and an independent ... l'estrange, roger, sir, - . [ ], p. printed by e.c. and a.c. for henry brome ..., london : . reproduction of original in union theological seminary library, newyork. table of contents: p. [ ]-[ ] attributed to roger l'estrange. cf. nuc pre- . created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng dissenters, religious -- england. toleration. freedom of religion -- great britain. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - rina kor sampled and proofread - rina kor text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion toleration discuss'd ; in two dialogues . i. betwixt a conformist , and a non-conformist ; laying open the impiety , and danger of a general liberty . ii. betwixt a presbyterian , and an independent ; concluding , upon an impartial examination of their respective practises , and opinions , in favour of the independent . vaevobis , hypocritae ! london , printed by e. c. and a. c. for henry brome at the gun in ludgate-street , at the west end of st. paul's . . to the reader . the contents . section i. universal toleration too wide , and unlawful . page sect . ii. limited toleration too narrow , and disobliging to the excluded party . sect . iii. no toleration to be admitted , but with the allowance of the chief magistrate . sect . iv. the bounds of toleration . and the error of making fundamentals and non fundamentals to be the measure of it . sect . v. the common arguments for toleration , examined . sect . vi. toleration undermines the law , and causes confusion both in church , and state. page sect . vii . the non-conformist's plea for toleration , upon reason of state . sect . viii . the non-conformist's plea for toleration , from the merits of the party . sect . ix . the non-conformist's plea for toleration , from the innocence , and modesty of their opinions and practises . sect . x. the non-conformists demand a toleration , which is neither intelligible in the whole , nor practicable so far as it may be understood . sect . xi . the non-conformists demand a toleration , for no body knows whom , or what . sect . xii . the conjunct importunity of the non-conformists for a toleration , is not grounded upon matter of conscience . sect . xiii . the conjunct importunity of the non-conformists for a toleration , is a manifest confederacy . sect . xiv . the non-conformists joynt-pretenses for a toleration , overthrown , by the evidence of their joynt-arguments , professions , and practises against it . sect . xv. the non-conformists joynt complaints of hard measure , and persecution , confronted with their own joynt-proceedings . sect . xvi . the non-conformists tell us , that liberty of conscience is the common interest of this kingdom ; but reason and experience tell us the contrary . sect . xvii . this kingdom has been still the worse for indulging the non-conformists , and the party never the better . which evinces , that uniformity is the true interest of this government , and not toleration . sect . xviii . the party of scrupulous , and conscientious non-conformists , is neither numerous , nor dangerous . pag. sect . xix . the non-conformists appeal , from the government , and discipline of the church of england , to the judgment , and practise of the reformed churches beyond the seas ; examined , and submitted to censure . sect . xx. the non-confotmists exceptions to our publique way of worship , found guilty of great impiety , and error . sect . xxi . whatsoever god hath left indifferent , is the subject of humane power . sect . xxii . no end of controversie , without a final and unaccomptable judge , from whose sentence there shall be no appeal . sect . xxiii . the three great judges of mankind , are god , magistrates , and conscience . sect . xxiv . the church of england charges the non-conformists with schism , and the non-conformists charge those of the church with scandal . the matter is taken into debate . page toleration discuss'd , betwixt a presbyterian , and an independent . sect . xxv . an enquiry , upon a short , and impartial survey of the rise , progress , and issue of the war , raised by the two houses in . whether were more criminal , the presbyterians , or the independents . sect . xxvi . what party soever demands a toleration , and yet mainteins , that it is destructive both of church , and state , to grant one , is an enemy to both . sect . xxvii . in case of a toleration , or indulgence to be granted , whether has the fairer preten se to it ; the classical way of the presbyterians , or the congregational way of the independents ; in respect of their form of government ? page sect . xxviii . whether may be better tolerated in this kingdom , the presbyterians , or the independents ; in respect of their principles , and ordinary proceedings ? debated , first , with relation to his majesties person , and authority . sect . xxix . the question of toleration , betwixt presbytery , and independency ; debated , with regard to the foundation , and execution of the law . sect . xxx . the question of toleration , betwixt presbytery , and independency , debated , with a regard to the rights , liberties , and advantages of the people . toleration discuss'd , by way of dialogue betwixt a conformist , and a non-conformist . conformist . liberty of conscience , or , no liberty of conscience , is the question . what is conscience ? non-conformist . conscience is a iudicium hominis de semetipso , prout subjicitur iudicio dei. b the judgment that a man makes of himself and his actions , with reference to the future judgment of god. or otherwise , c it is an ability in the understanding of man , by a reflex act to judge of himself in all he does , as to his acceptance , or rejection with god. rutherford makes it to be d a power of the practical understanding , according to which the man is obliged and directed to give judgment of himself ; that is , of his state and condition , and of all his actions , inclinations , thoughts , and words . c. if this be conscience , then liberty of conscience is a liberty of a man's iudging of himself , and his actions , with reference to the future iudgment of god. n. c. right : but then he is bound likewise to practise according to that judgment , and to worship god according to the light and understanding which he hath , of what is that worship which is acceptable with him , in matter and manner , and not otherwise . c. so that your liberty of conscience is now come to liberty of practise . indeed i could wish that the advocates for liberty would be a little more candid in this business . they take wonderful pains ( many of them ) to prove , that conscience cannot be forc'd ; it is out of the reach of humane power ; god never appointed any iudge of it ; shall any man pretend to make me believe , that which i cannot believe ? ( and the like ) pressing the argument , as if that were the very pinch of the case , which is just nothing at all to the point in controversie . it is obvious to common reason , that this suggestion cannot but create very dangerous and unquiet thoughts in the people : for if they be denied liberty of conscience ( in the plain and honest english of it ) they suffer under the most barbarous , and ridiculous persecution , that ever yet appear'd upon the face of the earth . but on the other side , if their claim be stretch't to liberty of practise , it seems not only unreasonable , but utterly inconsistent , both with christianity it self , and the publique peace . section i. universal toleration too wide , and unlawful . c. liberty of conscience ( as you have stated it ) is an universal toleration for people to say and do what they please , under the warrant and pretext of conscience . n. c. that is to say , in matters properly the subject of conscience , with reference to the future judgment of god. c. by this rule , pagans are to be tolerated as well as christians : for they have consciences as well as we : they are convinc'd , that there is a god ; and that that god ought to be worship't ; and may plead for the same freedom , in the way and manner of their proceeding . n. c. but paganism is not within the pale of the question . c. why then , no more is conscience . if you say , they are in the wrong , and so debar them the exercise of their opinion , because of the error of it , your exception lies to the error , n●…t to the conscience ; and may be turn'd upon your selves : for they say as much of you ; and have as much right to condemn you , as you them : neither have you any more right to be judges in your own case , then they in theirs . n. c. well , but we have a law to iudge our selves by . c. and so have they too : for , they without a law , do by nature the things contained in the law , and are a law unto themselves . n. c. but how can that law-have any regard to the future judgment of god , when they deny the immortality of the soul : c. there is a future iudgment of god in this life , as well as in the next : and the conscience that hath no light at all of another world , is not yet without apprehensions of divine vengeance in this. raro antecedentem scelestum deseruit pede poena claudo . you 'l be as much to seek now , if you restrain your argument to christianity ; for you must either prove , that there are no erroneous consciences among christinas ; or , that error of conscience is no sin ; or else , that sin may be tolerated . n. c. there is no doubt but there are erroneous consciences ; and it is as clear that sin is not to be tolerated : but i do not take every error of conscience to be a sin ( understand me of consciences labouring under an invincible ignorance . ) c. it is very true , that as to the formality of sin , which is the obliquity of the will , an error of conscience under an invincible ignorance is no sin : but sin materially considered , is the transgression of the divine law ; and conscience it self becomes sinful , when it dictates against that law. n. c. can there be any sin without assent ; or any assent without knowledge ; or any knowledge in a case of invincible ignorance ? the transgression of the law implies the knowledg of it , or at least the possibility of knowing it ; without which , it has not the nature of a law , as to me . [ the conditions requisite to a rule are these : it must be certain ; and it must be known . if it be not certain , it is no rule ; if it be not known , it is no rule to us. ] i had not known sin , but by the law ( says the text ) and in another place , where there is no law , there is no transgression . from whence the deduction is clear , that sin is not barely the transgression of a law , but the transgression of a known law ; the inconformity of the will to the understanding . c. the perversness of the will being a sin , does not hinder the enormity of the iudgment to be so too . [ until the law , sin was in the world ; but sin is not imputed , when there is no law. ] in few words , the word of god is the rule of truth , and all disproportion to that rule is error : god's revealed will is the measure of righteousness ; and all disproportion to that measure is sin. now the question is not , whether imputed , or no ; but , whether a sin , or no : and you cannot make error of conscience to be no sin , without making the word of god to be no rule . n. c. i do not deny , but it is a sin as to the law ; but it is none as to the person ; it is none constructively , with him that accepts the will for the deed. c. can you imagine that any condition in the delinquent can operate upon the force and equity of the law ? because god spares the offender , shall man therefore tolerate the offence ? david was pronounced a man after god's own heart ; shall authority therefore grant a license to murder and adultery ? n. c. what is david's case to ours ? you instance in sins of presumpt●…on , and the question is touching sins of ignorance . c. i was a blasphemer , a persecutor , and injurious ( says st. paul ) but i obtain'd mercy ( he does not say approbation ) because i did it in ignorance and unbeleif . again , the magistrate has a conscience , as well as the subject . it may be ignorance in him that commits the sin , and yet presumption in him that suffers it . briefly , in pleading for all opinions , you plead for all heresies , and for the establishment of wickedness by a law. what swarms of anabaptists , brownists , familists , antinomians , anti-scripturists , anti-trinitarians , enthusiasts ( and what not ? ) have started up even in our days , under the protection of liberty of conscience ? what blasphemous and desperate opinions , to the subversion both of faith and government ! where 's the authority of the scriptures , and the reverence of religion , when every man shall make a bible of his conscience , divide the holy ghost against it self , and dash one text upon another ? he that has a mind to rake further in this puddle , let him read edwards his gangraena , bayly's disswasive , paget's haeresiography , &c. to pass now from opinions , to practices . the liberty you challenge , opens a door to all sorts of villany and outrage imaginable ; to rapine , murder , rebellion , king-killing . n. c. as if any man that has a conscience of his own , or knows what conscience is , could give entertainment to so fond an imagination , as to suppose , that god at the last day will approve of murders , seditions , and the like evils : since what is evil in it self , and against the light of nature , there is no direction unto it , no approbation of it from conscience in the least . c. but what will this amount to ? when , first , every man's word shall be taken for his own conscience : and secondly , that conscience pleaded in defence of his actions . that which you stile murther , and sedition , he 'll tell you is only a gospel-reformation , the destroying of the hittites and the amorites , &c. so that you are never the better for tying a man up to the light of nature in his actions , if you leave him at liberty in his creed : for there is not that impiety in the world , but he 'll give you a text for it . the adversaries of god , that refuse to enter into a holy covenant with the lord , and submit themselves to christ's scepter , may be sequestred and plundered , without the imputation of rapine ; for it is written , the meek shall inherit the earth : and it is no more then god's people the israelites did to the egyptians . nay , if they be refractary , they may be put to death too , without murder , [ those mine enemies , which would not that i should reign over them , bring hither , and slay them before me . ] if any man has a spight at the church , it is but calling it antichristian , and mr. case shall give him a commission to take this agag , and hew it in pieces before the lord. taking up arms against the government , is helping the lord against the mighty . and king-killing it self , is justified by the example of ehud to eglon. n. c. but do you believe any man so mad , as to take these extravagances for impulses of conscience ? c. or rather , is not he madder that doubts it ? considering the evidences we have both from story and experience , and the very authority of scripture it self , in favour of believing it . does not our saviour foretell us of false christs , and false prophets , that shall arise and deceive many ; yea , if it were possible , the very elect ? parties are engag'd in all sorts of abomination , under the masque of conscience . those of the league in flanders , . under maximilian , bound themselves by oath , to cast off the yoke of government , and to kill and slay all opposers ; but with such regard to religion ( i warrant ye ) that every member of that confederacy was to say five ave maryes and pater nosters daily , for a blessing upon the undertaking . the holy league at peronne , under henry the third of france , was for the glory of god too , and the preservation of the king : what horrible effects it produced , i need not tell you . sleydan reckons upon fifty thousand slain in one summer , in the boores rebellion in germany , . and charges the tumult upon seditious preachers , whereof muncer was chief . i shall not need to mind you of the damned villanies that were acted by muncer , phifer , ( beold , or ) iohn of leyden , rottman , knipperdolling , kippenbroke , iohn matthias , and the rest of that gang , under the imposture of inspiration , and conscience : their sacking and burning of towns , rapes , and massacres : and all this under the pretense of god's command , and the direction of his holy spirit . nay , so strongly was the deluded multitude possest with the doctrine and ways of their false prophets , that the muncerians , upon the charge of the landtzgrave of hesse , stood stone still , without striking a blow ; calling upon the holy ghost to their succour ( as muncer had promised them ) till they were all routed and cut off . was it not a holy father , and the prior of the convent ( one of the heads of the league ) that confirm'd clement in his purpose of murthering harry the third of france ? for his encouragement , they assur'd him , that if he out-liv'd the fact , he should be a cardinal ; if he dy'd , a saint . what was it again that originally disposed this monster to that cursed act ? stimolato dalle predicationi , che giournallmente sentiva fare contra henrico di valois , nominato il persecutore della fede , & il tyranno . seditious sermons against the king , as a persecutor of the faith , and a tyrant . see in the same author , the confession of iohn castle , concerning his attempt upon harry the great . he had been brought up in the jesuites school , and instructed , that it was not only lawful , but meritorious , to destroy harry of bourbon , that revolted heretique , and persecutor of the holy church . [ esaminato con le solite forme , confesso liberamente , &c. ] what was it that animated ravillac to his hellish practise upon that brave prince ? but ( by his own confession ) a discourse of mariana's , de rege , & regis institutione . it was a divine instinct too , that mov'd balthasar gerard to murther the prince of aurange . [ divino tantùm instinctu , id à se patratum constanter affirmabat , diu tortus . ] to conclude now with that fresh and execrable instance here at home , upon the person of the late king : it was the pulpit that started the quarrel ; the pulpit that enflam'd it ; the pulpit that christen'd it god's cause ; the pulpit that conjur'd the people into a covenant to defend it ; the pulpit that blasted the king , that pursu'd him , that prest the putting of him to death ; and the pulpit that applauded it when it was done . and how was all this effected ? ( i beseech ye ) but by imposing upon the weak and inconsiderate multitude , errors for truths ; by perverting of scriptures ; and by these arts , moulding the passions and the consciences of the people to the interest of a tumultuary design . these are the fruits of the toleration you demand . reflect soberly upon what has been said ; and tell me , do you think such a toleration either fit for you to ask , or for authority to grant ? n. c. the truth is , in this latitude there may be great inconveniences : and yet methinks , 't is pitty ( in cases of some honest mistakes ) that a good man should be punished for not being a wise man. c. and were it not a greater pitty , do ye think , for a state to keep no check upon crafty knaves , for fear of disobliging some well-meaning fools ? as to the sparing of the man , i wish it could be done , even where it were impious to give quarter to the opinion : but how shall we separate the errour from the person , so as to make a general law take notice of it ? it were irreligious to tolerate both , and it seems to me impossible to sever them . if you your self now can either prove the former to be lawful ( that is , to do evil , that good may come of it ) or the latter to be practicable , i 'le agree with you for a general toleration : if not , i hope you 'l joyn with me against it . n. c. i am not for a toleration ( as i told you ) against the light of nature ; nor would i have any pretense of conscience admitted , that leads to the destruction of the magistrate , and the disturbance of the government . c. that is to say , you will content your self with a limited toleration : which , i fear , upon the debate , will prove as much too narrow for you , as the other was too wide . sect . ii. limited toleration too narrow , and disobliging to the excluded party . c. by a limited toleration we may understand a legal grant of freedom and immunity , in matters of religion , to persons of such and such perswasions , and to no others . n. c. or , if you please , an exemption from the lash of the act of uniformity . c. you say something , if this would do the work. but to dissolve a solemn law , for the satisfaction of some particulars , and at last leave the people worse then we found them , were certainly a gross oversight . however , what 's your quarrel to it ? n. c. i think it a great cruelty to confine a multitude of differing judgments to the same rule , and to punish a consciencious people for those disagreements , which they can neither avoid , nor relinquish . c. why will you practise that cruelty your selves then , which you condemn in others ? for limited toleration , is an act of uniformity to those that are excluded . they that are within the comprehension , will be well enough : but what will become of them that are left out ? who have consciences as well as their fellows , and as good a title to an indulgence , as those that are taken in . upon a fair view of the matter , you can neither admit all , without offence to your conscience ; nor leave out any , without a cheque to your argument . n. c. and yet i am perswaded a limited toleration would give abundant satisfaction . c. suppose you had it , and your self one of the rejected party : are not you as well now , without any toleration at all , as you would be then , without receiving any benefit by it ? n. c. to deal freely , i would not willingly be excluded . c. and is not that every man's case , as well as yours ? a limited toleration must exclude some , and why not you , as well as another ? or indeed , why should not all be tolerated , as well as any ? they can no more abandon their opinions , then you yours : and your ways are just the same grievances to them , which ( if you may be credited ) ours are to you. so that most undeniably , the plea of the nonconformists upon the point of conscience , is all alike : and since none of them have more right to an indulgence , one then another , why should any party of them expect more favour ; to the exclusion and disobligation of the rest ? n. c. but are not some opinions more tolerable then others ? do you put no difference betwixt truth and errour ? betwixt points fundamental and non-fundamental ? betwixt the very basis of christianity , and the superstructure ? in fine , betwixt such principles as affect order and publique agreement , and others that flow naturally into loosness and confusion ? c. without dispute , some opinions and principles are more allowable then others : but where lieth the right of allowing , or rejrcting ? let this be first examined , and then we 'l advise upon the opinions , and principles themselves , what may be allow'd , and what not. sect . iii. no toleration to be admitted but with the allowance of the chief magistrate . c. we are agreed , first , that an universal toleration ( implying a license to all sorts of wickedness ) is not upon any terms to be admitted . secondly , that a limited toleration ( being a grant of favour to some , and exclusive of others ) must needs lay a disobligation upon the excluded party . the next point will be , where to place the power of permitting , or refusing ; and from thence we shall pass to an inquiry into the bounds and limits of such a toleration as may be warrantable : which being once settled , we are to see how far the pretenses and qualifications of the parties concern'd will suit with those measures . n. c. grant us but an indulgence to dissenters of sound faith , and good life ; we ask no more . let nothing be imposed upon us that is grievous to our consciences on the one hand , and we shall never desire a toleration of any thing that is justly offensive to church or state on the other . c. but what if the dissenters shall call that sound doctrine , which the church defines heresie ? what if the subject shall account that imposition grievous , which the magistrate thinks n●…cessary ? or , that liberty consciencious , which the governour esteems unlawful ? who shall over-rule ? if the subject , it follows then , that the magistrate is obliged to toler●…te whatsoever the subject shall judge himself obliged to do : and this carries us back into a general toleration . if the magistrate over-rule , your plea of conscience is out of doors : and it is at his choice , what sorts of dissenters to indulge ; and , whether any , or none , at his pleasure . n. c. the world , you know , is as much divided about the power of the civil magistrate in matters of religion , as about any other part ( perchance ) of our debate . c. we shall discourse that more at large elsewhere . but however , as to this particular , let us come to a present settlement , that we may clear our way as we go . if you make the people judges of what is fit to be tolerated , first , ( as i said before ) you are upon the old rock of universal toleration ; for ( right or wrong ) every man will stick to the freedom of his own way . secondly , you lay the foundation of a quarrel never to be reconciled . you shall have as many factions , as men ; as many religions , as fancies ; and every dissenter shall be both a party , and a iudge . to imagine an agreement betwixt the magistrate and the multitude , by the common consent of both ; were to suppose an accommodation betwixt heaven and hell , betwixt light and darkness ; which are every jot as capable of it , as several of the differences now before us . and for an umpire in the case , you can pretend to none . n. c. pardon me : we have the word of god to repair to , in what concerns sound faith ; and the light of nature for our guide , in the duties of good life . c. this is to ●…e that which was the ground of the first controversie , the umpire of the second . for what is the original of all our grand disagreements , but ( as st. augustine has it ) ●…onae scripturae male-intellectae ; good scriptures ill understood ? and we are never the nearer an accord for the reading of them , without another moderator to set us right in the meaning of them. neither is the light of nature any more exempt from false glosses and misconstructions , then the bible . upon the whole matter , you see the absurdities and inconveniences that follow upon placing the judgment and direction of ordering these matters of difference , any where else then in the magistrate : whose duty and interest it is , both as a christian and as a ruler , to put an end to these impious contentions , by such rules and establishments as may secure the foundations both of religion and government . n c. this would do well , if men were agreed upon those rules : but several men , we see , have uarious apprehensions of the self same thing ; and that which one man takes for a rule , another counts an error . c. you are at your ●…niversal toleration again : but pray mark the consequences of this way of reasoning : be●…ause the multitude cannot agree upon a rule , there shall be none at all . pursue this argument , and there shall be no lair , no religion , no scripture , no truth , left in the world. because men differ , which is the true religion . they disagree about the doctrine of the bible . that which is truth to one man , is heresie to another . and never was there any law that pleased all people . authority says , worship thus , or so : the libertine cries , no , 't is a confinement of the spirit ; an invention of man ; a making of that necessary which god left free ; a scandal to tender consciences , &c. and here is authority concluded as to the manner of worship . so for the time. how do they know when christ was born , crucified , or raised from the dead . the churches fasting-days they make their iubile's . videas hodie quosdam ( says calvin ) quibus sua libertas non videtur consistere , nisi per esum carnium die veneris in ejus possessionem venerint . we have many now adays , that would look upon their liberty as good as forfeited , if they should not maintain their title to it , by eating flesh on fasting-days . 't is the same thing as to the place . command them to church , they will tell you , there is no inherent holiness in the walls : the hearts of the saints are the temples of the lord : is not god to be found in a parlour , as well as in a steeple-house ? finally , what have they to say for all this , but that this is one man's judgment , that another's ? this or that may be indifferent to you , but not to me . to conclude , what one man urges , all may ; and in all cases , as well as in any : which has brought us once again to an indeterminable liberty ; the last resort of all the champions of your cause , if they be followed home . now if you can assign any other arbitrator of this matter then the civil power , do it : if you cannot , let us proceed . n. c. go forward then . sect . iv. th●… bounds of toleration . and the error of making fundamentals and non-fundamentals to be the measure of it . c. in the question of toleration ( says a learned prelate ) the foundation of faith , good life , and government is to be secured : wherein is comprised a provision and care , that we may live as christians toward god , as members of a community toward one another , and as loyal subjects toward our sovereign . if you 'l take this for the standard of your toleration , we have no more to do , but to apply matters in controversie to the rules of christianity , good manners , and government ; and to entertein or reject all pretensions , thereafter as we find them agreeable , or repugnant , to religion , morality , and society . n. c. uery well stated truly , i think . c. all the danger is , the falling to pieces again , when we come to bring this and that to the test. for if we differ at last upon the application of particular points , and actions , to the general heads of faith , and government already laid down and agreed upon , we shall yet lose our selves in uncertainty , and confusion . n. c. there will be no fear of that , if we tye up our selves to fundamentals . c. what do you mean by fundamentals ? n. c. there are fundamentals of faith , that bind us as we are christians ; and there are fundamentals of practice , that oblige us as we are members of a community . from these fundamentals there lies no appeal to conscience . in other matters ( which we look upon as non-fundamental ) we think it reasonable to desire a toleration . c. this distinction has a fair appearance ; but there is no trusting to it . first , it proposes a thing neither practicable , nor reasonable ; which is , the uniting of all people under one common bond of fundamentals . what possibility is there of attaining such an agreement , among so many insuperable diversities of judgment , as reign in mankind ? insomuch , that what is a fundamental truth to one , is a fundamental error to another ; and every man is ready to abide the faggot for his own opinion . it is also very unreasonable to exact it . god almighty does not require the same fundamentals from all men alike ; but much from him to whom much is given , and little from him , to whom little : and from all , according to their differing degrees , and measures , of grace , and knowledg . you will likewise find your self under great uncertainty about the stating of your fundamentals : for divers circumstances , of little , or no value in themselves , become fundamental in respect of their consequences . as for instance ; that christ died for sinners , i presume shall be one article of your faith : but whether upon mount calvary , or some other part of the neighbourhood , seems of no great moment , as to the main of our salvation . and yet he that denies , that our saviour suffer'd upon mount calvary , puts as great an affront upon the veracity of the holy ghost in the gospel , as he which denies that he suffer'd upon the cross. n. c. i give it for granted , that from some , more is required ; from others , less : in proportion to their differing gifts and graces . but then there are some principles , so essential to christianity , and so clear in themselves , as to admit of no dispute . c. saving that grand foundation of our faith , that iesus christ is come in the flesh ; and that whosoever confesses , that iesus christ is the son of god , god dwelleth in him , and he in god. ( saving ( i say ) that radical principle , which if we disbelieve , we are no longer christians ) there is scarce one point that has not been subjected to a controversie . if you reduce your fundamentals to this scantling , your creed will lie in a very narrow compass : but your toleration will be large enough , if you are at liberty for the rest . touching the clearness of them , i do not comprehend it : for supernatural truths hold no proportion at all with the ordinary motions of humane reason . if they be so clear , tell us , what they are ; where we shall look for them ; and how we shall know them when we have found them . n c. where should we look for the foundation of our faith , but in the new-testament of jesus christ ? c. but still we do not all read the bible with the same spectacles . to draw to an issue ; generals conclude nothing , so long as we are left at freedom to wrangle about particulars ; and you will find much surer footing upon the foundations of establish'd law , then upon the whimseys of popular speculation . to my thinking , the doctrine and discipline of the church of england , as it is settled by acts of parliament , with other legal constitutions , for the peace , and order of the government , are every whit as competent a provision for the good of the publique , as your new fundamentals . n. c. the point is not ( as you seem to understand it ) a competition between our fundamentals of notion , and yours of law : but an inquiry concerning the limits of a iustistable toleration . c. very good : and you refer us to your distinction of fundamentals and non-fundamentals , as to a rule , how far we are at liberty , and wherein we are bounded . but this will not do the work ; and i have spent the more words about it , because i find this distinction the ordinary retreat of your party . the truth of it is , there 's not one of a hundred of you , but takes this question by the wrong handle . you make it a question of conscience , and religion , what may be tolerated , and what not : whereas the thing falls properly under a consideration of state. in matters not to be tolerated ( as in articles of religion ) the magistrate is positively bound up ; in other cases , he may chuse , whether he will tolerate , or restrain ; that is to say , with a perpetual regard to the q●…iet , and security of the publique . where particulars may be relieved , without inconvenience to communities , it is well : but otherwise , private consciences weigh little in the scale against political societies : and toleration is only so far allowable , as it complies with the necessities , and ends of government . n. c. that is to say ( according to your first resolution ) the foundation of faith , good life , and government is to be secured : whe●…ein i am content to close with you ; though there are some , that believe the right of toleration may be defended without any restrictions . c. for discourse sake , pray try , what you can make on 't , either with , or without . sect . v. the common arguments for toleration , examined . n. c. no man under the gospel ought to be compell'd to believe anything ; and if not to believe , then not to practise . c. rutherford says well to this point : that the magistrate is not to force men positively to external worship ; but negatively , to punish acts of false worship , and omissions of external performances of worship , as of ill example to others : not commanding outward performances , as service to god ; but forbidding omissions of them , as destructive to m●…n . n. c. it is a strange absurdity to force men , against their own light , to be guided by others , unless we are sure , we cannot mistake . c. but were it not a stranger absurdity , to leave every man at liberty to set up a new light of his own ; and then to subject the united light of the nation ( which is the law ) to the scatter'd lights of private persons ? n. c. but does not one man see that sometimes , which a thousand may miss ? c. and because this is possible , is the odds therefore upon one against a thousand ? or if so , why may not the church be in the right against the people , as well as any particular of the people , against the church , and the rest ? this is most certain , that of a thousand differing opinions , there can be but one right : and a toleration upon your supposal , is sure to set up nine hundred ninety nine errors : which is the ready way to bring people to cutting of throats for opinions . n. c. if a magistrate may punish all that his conscience says are in the wrong , then all persecutors are in the right . c. men are not punish't for their consciences , but for their actions : and if a magistrate may not restrain liberty of action , then all rebellions are in the right . n. c. the magistrate is appointed to see that executed which christ hath appointed in religion ; and punctually ty'd up , neither to add , nor to diminish , either in the matter , or in the manner . the manner christ hath appointed , being as positively obliging as the matter . c. if it be the magistrate's duty to see christ's appointments in religion executed , in matter , and manner , without adding , or diminishing : first , you must allow him to be a competent judge of what christ hath appointed ; ( for otherwise his commission directs him to do he knows no : what. ) secondly , according to your argument , there is but one way of worship , warrantable ; which puts a bar unto any sort of toleration whatsoever . n. c. if the magistrate has any power over the consciences of his people , how came he by it ? for he that hath no other , then the light of nature , hath as much power , as if he were christian ; and by becoming christian hath no addition of power to what he had before . c. it is true , that christianity ( as you put the case ) does not confer upon the magistrate any new power ; but it lays upon him an additional obligation of duty . while his conscience was pagan , he took his measures only from humane prudence , and the light of nature . but upon his conversion , he falls under the dictate of a conscience that is further , and otherwise enlighten'd : and b●…comes answerable , as well for the establishing , securing , and promoting of christianity , as for the political conservation of his people , and government . n. c. persecution may make hypocrites , but not converts . c. you may say the same thing of the law , in other cases . that makes many men honest in appearance , for fear of punishment ; that are yet rotten at heart . nay , i am further perswaded , that where severity makes one hypocrite , it cures a hundred . for so long as there is either profit , or credit to be got , by th●… disguise of religion , all men of corrupt principles , and designs will flow into the party . but when that temptation to hypocrisie shall be removed ; and that they find nothing to be gotten by the imposture , but punishment , and disgrace , they will soon betake themselves to a more regular station in the government . many a counterfeit cripple has been cured with a dog-whip . n. c. are heresies to be extirpated , and truth to be propagated by the sword , or by the word ? c. if it be the penalty you oppose ; where the word will not do , you your selves fly to censures , and excommunications , which are punishments , as well as corporal , and pecuniary inflictions ; and as little instructive . but you are upon a mistake : the civil power does not so much pretend to the recovery of those that are out of the way , as to the saving of the rest : nor does it properly punish any man , as an heretic , but as a seducer . do you but let the king's subjects alone , and he 'l never trouble himself to impose upon your consciences . if it reaches not wickedness in the heart , it provides yet against the infection of it , and the scandal ; by keeping the hands , and tongues of licentious people in order . n. c. i do not deny , but that a rigorous law may have some profitable influence upon the looser sort : yet still it falls heavy upon the innocent , as well as upon the guilty . to know , believe , or profess are not in our power : and shall a man be punish't for want of grace , or understanding ? c. though it is not in our power to know , and believe , as we please ; yet to forbear publishing of our thoughts , and acting in relation to them , is unquestionably in our power . neither is any man to be punish't for want of grace , or understanding : but yet it will be ill , if those defects may pass for an excuse . all manner of impiety should then go scot-free : for without doubt , let fools be priviledged , and all knaves shall pretend ignorance . n. c. no man can call iesus the christ , but by the holy ghost : will you punish any man for not having the holy ghost ? c. no man that hath the holy ghost , will deny iesus to be the christ : will you punish any man for denying iesus to be christ ; that is to say , for not having the holy ghost ? n. c. he that acts against his conscience , sins . c. and so does he that acts by it , if in error . n. c. every man is true to god , that is true to his conscience , though it be erroneous . c. will it not then follow , that a man may worship the sun , or the moon , and yet be true to god , if that worship be according to his conscience ? to clear this point ; some consciences are erroneous upon the score of invincible ignorance ; and that insuperable frailty is a fair excuse : but some consciences again are erroneous for want of due care , search , and enquiry ; others , out of pertinacy : and there is no plea to be admitted for these consciences . n. c. how do you know , but you may persecute god , in the conscience of a true believer , as st. paul did , before his conversion ? c. if i may turn your own reason against your self , i may do it , and yet be true to god ; if in so doing , i am true to my conscience . but still you confound conscience , and practise ; whereas the civil magistrate pretends to no sort of authority , or dominion over the conscience . and your objection is of as little force any other way : for the magistrate is no more infallible in one case , then in another ; and may as well dread the persecuting of god , in the conscience of a murderer , or any other criminal , as in that of an heretick . n. c. i think we have enough : but it may be , this toleration will please us better in the exercise , then it does in the speculation . c. what hinders then , but we may try it that way too ? sect . vi. toleration undermines the law , and causes confusion both in church and state. n. c. why may not a toleration do as well here , as in france ? c. how do you mean ? would you have his majesty of great-britain , tolerate roman-catholicks here , as his most christian majesty does protestants in france ? n. c. you speak as if none were to be tolerated but papists . c. not i truly : but so it must be , if you 'l have your toleration after the french fashion . can you shew me that any non-conforming roman catholicks are tolerated there ? nay ; or that those of the religion do subdivide , or break communion among themselves ? such an instance might stand you in some stead . n. c. but is it not more , to tolerate a forreign r●…ligion , then to indulge your own ? to permit freedom of worship to those you repute hereticks , then to relate a little towards your orthodox friends ? c. the question is not , in matter of religion , whether to favour sound faith , or heresie ; but in reason of state , whether is more advisable , to tolerate the exercise of quite a different religion ; or a separation from the church-order establish't . alas ! in several religions ( and especially where the professors are divided by mutual prejudice , and principles of strong opposition , ( as in this case too much they are ) there 's no great fear of gathering , and engaging parties , to the disturbance of the publick peace . there is a great gulf ( as he says ) betwixt them . and men do not usually start from one extreme to another , at a leap ; but to tolerate one church within another , is to authorize a dissolution of the government both ecclesiastical , and civil . and the defection is the more dangerous , because it is almost insensible . as many as will leave you , may ; and every dissenter is double : one lost , to the government ; another gain'd , to the schism : which will quickly bring down authority to the mercy of the people . in fine , by toleration , a kingdom is divided against ie self , and c●…nnot stand . n. c. when you have taken breath , do me the favour to make out what you say . c. the demand of a toleration , is in it self , the condemnation of an establish't law ; and not without hard reflexions neither , both upon the equity , and prudence of the law makers . so that , at first dash , here is the law unhing'd : for if any one law may le question'd by the multitude , the consequence reaches to all the rest. n. c. we do not question , either the prudence of the law-makers ; or the general equity of the constitution . only where god hath not given us consciences suitable to the rule , we humbly desire such a rule , as may comply with our consciences . c. would you have a law that shall comply with all consciences ? god almighty himself never made a law that pleased all people . n. c. it would be well then , that you should bring all men to the same mind , before you force them to the same rule . c. but it would be ill , if there should be no rule at all , till we had found out one that all people should say amen to . n. c. we do not ask the vacating of a law , but the widening of it . c. why then you ask a worse thing ; for it were much better for the publique , totally to vacate a good law , then to suffer a contempt , even upon a bad one. if the reason of such or such a law be gone , repeal the law. but to let the obligation fall , and the law stand , seems to be a soloecism in government . you should consider , that laws are not made for particulars ; but framed with a regard to the community : and they ought to stand firm , and inexorable . if once they come to hearken to popular expostulations , and to side with by-interests , the reverence of government is shaken . n. c. but where 's the danger of receding from that inexorable strictness ? c. here it lies . it implies an assent , both to the equity of the complaint , and to the reason of the opinion in question : ( if not also a submission to importunity , and clamor . ) and among many ill consequences , it draws this after it , for one. if any one sort of people may be allow'd to challenge any one law ; all other sorts have an equal right of complaining against all , or any of the rest. so that a toleration , thus extorted , does not only unsettle the law ; but ministers argument to the pretense of popular reformation . to say nothing of the credit it gives to the disobedient , and discouragement to those that keep their stations : beside what may be reflected upon the magistrate , for instability of counsels . another exception may be this : how shall we distinguish betwixt faction , and conscience ? if it prove to be the former , a toleration does the business to their hand . nay , suppose it the latter ; and that , hitherto , there is nothing but pure conscience in the case ; what security have we , that it shall not yet embroil us in mutiny , and sedition ? will not the tolerated party become a sanctuary for all the turbulent spirits in the nation ? shall they not have their meetings , and consultations , without controul ? and when they shall see the law prostituted to the lusts of the multitude ; the order of the government dissolved ; and the government it self left naked , and supportless ; what can we expect shall be the end of these things , but misery , and confusion ? nor is it all , that a toleration is of manifest hazard to us : but it is that too , without any sort of benefit in return . shall we be the quieter for it ? no. one grant shall become a president for another ; and so shall one importunity for another , till we are brought in the end , either to a general license ; or to a general tumult . ( no matter which ) the rejected party will be sure to mind you , that they are as good subjects , and have as good claims as others , that are tolerated ; upon which disobliging score , there falls an odium , and envy upon the government . i think a man shall not need the spirit of prophesie , to foretel these events . for a toleration does naturally evirtuate the law , and lead to a total dissolution of ecclesiastical order ; and consequently , to a confusion , both in church , and state. n. c. i do not find my self much press'd by any thing now offer'd : if a toleration unhinges the law , 't is but making the law a little wider , and then that block is removed . and so is the fear likewise of bringing present importunities into president : for all tolerable liberties may be comprehended within that latitude . and as to the matter of imposing faction for conscience , such a probiston secures you , as well , as the act for uniformity . c. i have spoken as much as needs to this point : if you think you have any right to a toleration , make it out ; and approve your selves for a generation of people , to whom , the king may with honour , and safety , extend a bounty . sect . vii . the non-conformist's plea for toleration , upon reason of state . c. the ordinary motives to indulgence , are these three . . reason of state. . the merits of the party . . the innocence , and modesty of their practises , and opinions . what have you to say now for a toleration upon reason of state ? n. c. the non-conformists are the king's subjects ; and what 's a king without his people ? c. by birth , and obligation , they are the king's subjects ; but if they be not so in practise , and obedience , they have no longer any title to the benefit of his protection ; and such subjects are the worst of enemies . n. c. you will not deny them however to be a numerous party ; and a people of conduct , and unity : which puts the government under some kind of prudential necessity , to oblige so considerable an interest . c. if they be consequently dangerous , because they are numerous ; the greater the number is , the greater is the hazard : and therefore because they are many already , and will encrease if they be suffer'd , they are not to be tolerated . n. c. but men will be much more peaceable when they are indulged , then when they are persecuted . c. now i am perswaded , that the multitude will be much quieter without a power to do mischief , then with it . but what is your opinion of the honesty of the party ? n. c. i do seriously believe the non-conformists to be an honest , consciencious sort of people . c. but they must be knaves , to make good your argument : for if they be honest , they 'l be quiet without a toleration : if they be dishonest , they 'l be dangerous with it . consider again ; if there be any hazard , it lies not in the number , but in the confederacy . a million of men without agreement , are but as one single person . now they must consult , before they can agree ; and they must meet , before they can consult . so that barely to hinder the assembling of these multitudes , frustrates the danger of them. whereas , on the other side , to tolerate separate meetings , is to countenance a combination . n. c. mistake me not ; i do not say , 't is likely they will be troublesome , in respect of their temper , and iudgments ; but that they are considerable enough to be so , in regard of their quality and number . c. whether do you take to be the greater number ; those that singly wish to be discharg'd from the act of uniformety ; or those that would have no law at all ? those that are troubled because they may not worship according to their fancy : or those that are displeased because they cannot live , and rule according to their appetite ? the truytor would have one law discharg'd : the schismatick , another : the idolater , a third : the sacrilegious person , a fourth : the profane swearer , a fifth : the false swearer , a sixth : the murderer , a seventh : the seducer , an eighth : and in sine ; not one of a thousand , but had rather command , then obey . shall the king therefore dissolve the law , because there are so many criminals ? that were to raise an argument against authority , from the very reason of its constitution . shall the people be left to do what they list , because a world of them have a mind to do what they should not ? shall his majesty give up his government , for fear of some millions ( perchance ) in his dominions , that had rather be kings , then subjects ? less forcible , beyond question , is the necessity of the king 's granting a toleration , ( if you reckon upon numbers ) then that of renouncing his sovereignty . for doubtless , where there is one man that is truly scrupulous , there are hundreds of avaricious , ambitious , and otherwise irreligious persons . n. c. tell me , i beseech you ; do not you believe that there are more n●…n-conformists now , then there were at the beginning of the late war ? c. yes , i do verily believe , three to one. n. c. why then 't is at least three to one against you : for at that time , the third part of this number was the predominant interest of the nation . c. that does not follow ; for you may remember , that at the beginning of the late war , the party were masters of the tower , the navy , of all considerable forts , towns , and magazins : they had a great part of the crown and church revenues under their command , and london at their beck : beside the plunder of malignants , and the bountiful contributions of the well-affected . scotland was already confederate with them in one rebellion ; and they had made sure of another in ireland ( by persecuting the earl of strafford , who was the only person capable of keeping them quiet . ) which they further assisted , by a gross opposition of his majesties proposals , and resolutions to suppress it . [ see the king's speech of decemb. . . and the following petition concerning the same . ] finally , for the better countenance of their usurpations , the house of commons was drawn down into a close committee , and the votes of that iunto were impos'd upon the nation as the acts of a regular , and complete authority . this was their condition formerly ; but blessed be god , it is not so at present . the three kingdoms are now at peace ; and we have a parliament that is no friend to the faction . the king is possest of a considerable guard , which his royal father wanted . the militia is in safe hands . his majesty is likewise possest of his regal power , and revenue : and his capital city firm in its obedience : to all which may be added , that although divers particulars are as wealthy as pillage , and pardon , can make them ; yet they want a common stock to carry on a common cause . the thimbles , and the bedkins fail ; and the comfortable in-comes of a irish adventures ; b moneys and plate upon the propositions ; c confiscated estates ; d twentieth parts ; and e weekly assessments ; and a hundred other pecuniary stratagems are departed from them . if it be so , that these people have none of these advantages now remaining , by virtue whereof , they did so much mischief before ; what necessity of tolerating for fear of disobliging them ? n. c. however ; it is not for your credit , to say , these people want conduct , by whom your selves have been worsted . c. the men that worsted us , were a sort of people , that voted down bishops on the wrong side of the parliament-house door ; that cry'd , they would have no more porter's lodge at whitehall ; and told his sacred majesty in a publique declaration [ august . . ] that the pretence that his person was there in danger , was a suggestion as false as the father of lies could invent . — that seiz'd the tower , the navy , the king's towns , forts , magazins , friends , and revenues : that levy'd war against , and imprison'd his sacred person ; usurped his sovereign authority ; imbrued their hands in his royal blood ; and in the very pulpit , animated , and avowed the unexampled murder . if these be the people which you plead for , under the notion of non-conformists , never trouble your selves to go nine mile about , for a toleration : but come roundly up to the point , and desire his majesty to deliver up his crown . if it be otherwise , you have overshot your self in your challenge ; and it does not appear , that you are the numerous , politick , and united party we took you for . if the non-conformists were the principal conducters in that design , they are not honest enough to be trusted ; and i see no reason of state , to dispose the king to gratifie the murderers of his father . if they were not so , it was none of their conduct that did the work. n. c. if societies , and professions , shall be made answerable for the failings of particulars , all communities , and fellowships will be found blameable alike ; for there is no order , or way , without corrupt pretenders to 't : and it is not enough to say , there were non-conformists in the party unless you probe , that what those non-conformists did , was acted upon a principle , common to dissenters and that they did it , as non-conformists . ; ; c. this is a defence , instead of an answer ; as if i had now charg'd the combination upon the non-conformists , when i only ask , if they were the managers of it , or no ? this , you neither confess , nor deny ; and there let it rest : since the dilemma lies indifferently against you , whether they were , or not . ( as does already appear ) touching the unity you boast of , ( i must confess ) it is as eminent against your superiours , as your disagreements are among your selves . and take all together , i see nothing made out as yet , to prove , that the kingdom is likely to be either the better for granting a toleration , or the worse for refusing it . moreover , we are not unacquainted with your false musters . nine presbyteries , of fifty , made up one of your general assemblies . and upon the conference at hampton-court , in . of above nine thousand ministers , there were but forty nine upon the r●…ll , that stood out , and were deposed : such a noise ( says spotswood ) will a few disturbers cause , in any society where they are tolerated . but what if a man should allow the non-conformists to be as valuable as you represent them ? it is but a kind of pagan argument , to urge the worshipping of them ( as the indians do the devil ) for fear they should hurt us . n. c. they that have a power to do hurt , have commonly a power to do good and no doubt of it , the non-conformists , under the obligation of an indulgence , would shew themselves as serviceable to the common good , as any sort of people whatsoever . ; c. what they will do , is uncertain ; what they have done , is upon record , in characters of blood. give me but one instance , even since the reformation , where england , or scotland was ever the better for them ( any otherwise , then by god's extraordinary working of good out of evil , and take the cause . n. c. i would it were put upon that issue . sect . viii . the non-conformists plea for toleration , from the merits of the party . c. what has your party merited from the publique , that an exception to a general rule should be granted in your favour ? n. c. many of us ventur'd all , to save the life of the late king. c. and yet ye ventur'd more to take it away : for ye did but talk for the one ; and ye fought for the other . n. c. we ever abominated the thought of murdering him . c. you should have abominated the money too , for which ye sold him. n. c. who sold him ? c. the presbyterians sold him ; and the independents were the purchasers . n. c. did not the presbyterians uote his majesties concessions a ground for a ●…reaty ? c. yes ; but it was upon conditions , worse then death it self . they deliver'd him up too , when they might have preserved him : and they stickled for him , when they knew they could do him no good. n. c. what end could they have in that ? c. the very same end in — , which they had in — : to make a party by it , and set up a presbyterian interest in the king's name . n. c. all the world knows , that we were so much afflicted for his sacred majesties distress , that we had many solemn days of humiliation for it . c. so ye had for his successes ( when time was ) for fear he should get the better of ye : and you had your days of thanksgiving too , for his disasters . n. c. pray'e let me ask you one question now : who brought in this king ? c. they that would not suffer you to keep him out : that party , which , by a restless , and incessant loyalty , hindred your establishment . n. c. and what do you think of the secluded members ? c. we 'l speak to that point in another place . but can you tell me what was the ground of the quarrel ? i suppose i need not tell you what was the event of it . n. c. religion , and liberty . c. of which side were the tender consciences ? for the king ; or against him ? n. c. we were ever for the king ; witness our petitions , declarations , and , in a most signal manner , our solemn league and covenant . c. now i thought you had been against him : because you took away his revenue , authority , and life : unless you mean that you were for him in your words , as you were against him in your actions . n. c. there were many of us , that lov'd the king as well as any of those about him. c. according to the covenant ( that is . ) and does not your party love this king , as well as they did the last ? i do not think but you love the bishops too . n. c. truly when they are out of their fooleries , i have no quarrel to the men. but what makes you couple the crown , and the mitre still ? as if no man could be a good subject , that is disaffected to prelacy . c. why truly , i think you can h●…rdly shew me any one non-conformist that ever struck stroke for the king ; or any true son of the episcopal order of the church , that ever bore arms against him. n. c. are not you your self satisfied , that even cromwel himself , and divers of his principal officers , when the late king was at hampton-court , had deliberations , and intentions to save him ? and that there were thousands in the army , that had no unkindness for his majesty ? c. i do absolutely believe , both the one , and the other ; and that the folly , and heedlesness of the common-souldier contributed , in a high measure , to the general fate : nay , that his late majesty was oppress'd , even by those , that thought they fought for him , before they understood what they did . but yet let me commend to your observation , that these relenting intervals in the heads of the army , did manifestly vary , according to the pulse of their affairs . which evinces , that it was a deliberation , upon the matter of convenience , rather then upon a point of conscience . but thus far however we are agreed ; that many of the non-conformists were engaged ; whether upon ignorance , interest , or faction , take your choice . that is to say , upon which of these three you will found the merits of your party . we are next to enquire , how far your principles , and actions , will comport with the duties of society , and the ends of government . sect . ix . the non-conformists plea for toleration , from the innocence , and modesty of their opinions and practises . c. in the question of government , and obedience , there are many points , wherein the non-conformists agree : many more , wherein they differ : and not a few , wherein they are altogether fluctuant , and uncertain . we have nothing to do ( in this place ) with their disagreements , or uncertainties ; save only in those matters wherein they are united by common consent : and to determine what those are , will be a new difficulty ; unless you tell us before-hand , what authorities we may depend upon . your principles must be known , or they cannot be examined . wherefore , pray'e direct us where we may find them . n. c. why truly in the history of the reformation ; for this controversie has been on foot from the very beginning of it , to this day . c. if you speak of the reformation beyond the seas , i do not find any thing there , that comes neer our purpose . here is , first , pretended , a reformation of a reformation ; secondly , a conjunction of several parties , and perswasions , at utter enmity one with another , in a confederacy against the order of the government : whereas in the great turn of affairs abroad , i see little more then a defection from the church of rome ; and people setling themselves in some other way , as well as they could . muncer's party in germany , had ( i confess ) some resemblance of the tumults here in england , that usher'd in the late war ; both for the medly , and for the rabble . in scotland indeed , there was a contest , for the reforming of a reformation ; and it went high . but it was only a struggle , for the geneva-discipline : which humour was brought over to us too , and driven on , for a while , under q elizabeth , with much contumacy , and bitterness . but our case ( in short ) was never known in the christian world , till the late troubles ; and thither it is , that we must resort for satisfaction to our present enquiry . now whether you 'l be tried by the declarations , votes , orders , and ordinances of that pretended parliament that carry'd on the quarrel ; or by the undeniable doctrines , and positions of your own divines ; ( and those the very idols of your party ) is left at your election . n. c. as for the parliament , let them answer for themselves : we had no hand in their proceedings . and for our ministers , they were but men , and may have their failings as well as other people . if you would know our principles ; we are for worshipping according to the light of our consciences , for obeying god rather then man ; and for yielding all due obedience to the civil magistrate . c. all this comes to nothing . for you may make that light what you please ; and qualifie that due obedience as you list . what does all this evasion , and obscurity signifie ; but that there is somewhat in the bottom , more then you are willing to own ? there are a sort of people , that tell us , the war raised in — , in the name of king and parliament , was lawful . and that the soveraignty was lodg'd in the two houses , ( nay in the people ) in case of necessity . that kings are but the peoples trustees ; their power , fiduciary ; and the duty of subjects only conditional . that princes may be depos'd ; nay , and put to death , in case of tyranny : and that their persons may be resisted , but not their authority . that the king is singulis major , universis minor : and that the people may enter into covenant , for the reformation of religion , without the consent of the chief magistrate ; nay , against his authority ; and propagate religion by the sword. they make their appeals , from the literal construction of law , to the equitable ; from the law written , to the law of nature , and necessity . a man might ply you with fresh instances upon this subject , till to morrow morning ; but here we 'l stop : and pray'e speak your opinion now , of granting a toleration , to a party that professes , and teaches , these principles ; and acts accordingly . n. c. what is all this to the non-conformists ? who are already come to an agreement ; that , in the question of toleration , the foundation of faith , good life , and government , is to be secured . c. very good. so that what party soever shall be found guilty of the positions aforesaid , and of actions answerable thereunto , cannot reasonably pretend to a toleration , from the innocency of their opinions and practises . now to particulars . the positions of divers eminent non-conformists . i. the war raised by the two houses in the name of king and parliament , . was lawful . [ i cannot see , that i was mistaken in the main cause , nor dare i repent of it , nor forbear the same , if it were to do again , in the same state of things . — and my iudgment tells me , that if i should do otherwise , i should be guilty of treason , or disloyalty , against the soveraign power of the land. pag. . a king , abusing his power , to the overthrow of religion , laws , and liberties , may be controuled , and opposed . this may serve to justifie the proceedings of this kingdom against the late king , who in a hostile way set himself to overthrow religion , parliaments , laws , and liberties . p. . the righteousness of the parliament's cause , is as clear , as the sun at noon-day . and , like the law of god it self , in these excellent qualifications of it ; that it is holy , just , and good. p. . ii. the lords , and commons are the supreme power ; nay the people , in case of necessity . parliaments may judge of publique necessity , without the king ; ( if deserted by the king ) and are to be accompted , by virtue of representation , as the whole body of the state. p. . whensoever a king , or other superior authority , creates an inferior ; they invest it with a legitimacy of magistratical power to punish themselves also , in case they prove evil-doers . p. . england is a mixt monarchy , and governed by the major part of the three estates assembled in parliament . p. . the houses are not only requisite to the acting of the power of making laws ; but co-ordinate with his majesty , in the very power of acting . p. . when as a part of the legislative power resides in the two houses ; as also a power to redress grievances , and to call into question all ministers of state , and justice , and all subjects , of whatsoever degree , in case of delinquency ; it may be thought , that a part of the supreme power doth reside in them , though they have not the honorary title : and this part of the supreme power , is indeed capable of doing wrong : yet how it might be guilty of rebellion , is more difficult to conceive . p. . the delegates of the people , in the house of commons , and the commissioners on the king's behalf , in the house of peers , concurring ; do very far bind the king , if not wholly . p. . and when these cannot agree , but break , one from another , the commons in parliament assembled , are ex officio , the keepers of the liberties of the nation , and righteous possessors , and defenders of it , against all usurpers , and usurpations whatsoever . p. . iii. kings are but the peoples trustees ; their power , fiduciary ; and the duty of subjects , conditional . [ the king , is but the servant of the people ; and his royalty is only a virtual emanation from them ; and in them , radically , as in the first subject . ] so rutherford , parker , goodwin , bridges , milton , &c. the people can give no other power , then such as god has given them : and god has never given a moral power to do evil. all fiduciary power , abused , may be repealed ; and parliamentary power is no other : which , if it be abused , the people may repeal it ; and resist them ; annulling their commissions ; rescinding their acts ; and denuding them of their fiduciary power : even as the king himself may be denuded of the same power by the three estates . p. . princes derive their power , and prerogative from the people ; and have their investitures , meerly for the peoples benefit . p. . it is the king's duty to pass all such laws , as both houses shall judge good for the kingdom : upon a supposition , that they are good , which by them are judg'd such . if the prince fail in his promise , the people are exempt frm their obedience ; the contract is made void , and the right of obligation is of no force . — it is therefore permitted to the officers of a kingdom , either all , or some good number of them , to suppress a tyrant . p. , . iv. princes may be deposed , and put to death , in case of tyranny . every worthy man , in parliament , may , for the publique good , be thought a fit peer , and judge of the king. p. . where there is no opportunity for the interposure of other judges , the law of nature , and the law of nations allow every man to judge in his own gase . p. . if a prince wants such understanding , goodness , or power , as the people judge necessary to the ends of government ; in the first place ; he is capable of the name , but not of the government . in the second ; he deposes himself . in the third ; the want of power , deposes him . theses , , . it is lawful for any , who have the power , to call to accompt , a tyrant , or wicked king ; and after due conviction , to depose , and put him to death , if the ordinary magistrate have neglected , or deny'd to do it . it is not impossible , for a king , regis personam exuere ; in a natural , or moral madness or frenzy to turn tyrant , yea beast , waiving his royal place , violently , extrajudicially , extramagisterially to assault his subjects , as saul did david . in this case , men think nature doth dictate it ; and scripture doth justifie a man , se defendendo vim vi repellere . p. . the real soveraignty among us , was in king , lords , and commons ; and if the king raise war against such a parliament : the king may not only be resisted , but ceaseth to be a king. thesis . the lord rent the kingdom from saul , for sparing one agag ; and for want of thorough extirpation of all the accurs●…d things , he lost both thanks for what he had done , and kingdom also . p. . let no law hinder ye : if law be to be broken , it is for a crown ; and therefore , for religion . — ye are set over kingdoms , to root out , pull down , destroy , and throw down : do it quickly , do it thorougly . by what rule of conscience , or god , is a state bound to sacrifice religion , laws , and liberties , rather then endure , that the princes life should come into any possibilities of hazard , by defending them , against those that in his name are bent to su●…due them ? if he will needs thrust himself upon the hazard , when he needs not , whose fault is that ? there never was a greater harmony of the laws of nature , reason , prudence , and necessity , to warrant any act , then may be found , and discern'd in that act of justice on the late king. p. . touching the righteousness of the sentence past upon the king ; doubtless never was any person under heaven , sentenc'd with death , upon more equitable , and just grounds . p. . praised be god , who hath delivered us from the impositions of prelatical innovacions , altar-genu-flections , and cringings , with crossings , and all that popish trash and trumpery . and truly ( i speak no more then what i have often thought , and said ) the removal of those insupportable burdens , countervails for the blood and creasure shed and spent in these late distractions ▪ nor did i ever as yet hear of any godly men that desired , were it possible , to purchase their friends , or money again , at so dear a ra●…e , as with the return of these : to have those soul-burdening , antichristian yokes re-imposed upon us. and if any such there be , i am sure , that d●…sire is no part of their godliness ; and i profess my self , in that , to be none of the number . p. . v. the persons of princes may be resisted , though not their authority . the man who is king , may be resisted , but not the royal office : the king in concreto , but not the king in abstracto . p. . [ he may be resisted in a pitch't battel , and with swords , and guns . . that is ; his private will may be resisted , not his legal will. . neither is he in the field , as a king , but as ●…n unjust invader , and grassator . . if he chance to be slain , 't is but an accident ; and who can help it ? . he is guilty of his own death ; or let them answer for 't that brought him thither , the contrary party is innocent . . ] the king's authority is with the two houses , though the person of charles stuart be not there . his capacity was at westminster , when his body was upon the scaffold at whitehall , &c. p. . vi. the king is singulis major , universis minor . the king is in dignity inferior to the people . p. . the soveraign power is eminently ; fontaliter ; originally , and radically in the people . . detrahere indigno magistratum etsi privati non debeant , populus tamen universus quin possit , nemo , opinor , dubitabit . it is not for private persons to depose a wicked governour : but that the universality of the people may lawfully do it , i think no body questions . fixum ratúmque habeatur , populi semper esse debere supremam majestatem . p. . vii . the people may enter into a covenant for reformation , without the consent of the chief magistrate . there is much sin in making a covenant on sinful grounds , and there is more sin in keeping it ; but when the preservation of true religion , and the vindication of just liberties meet in the ground , ye may swear , and not repent ; yea , if ye swear , ye must not repent . p. . not only is that covenant which god hath made with us , founded in the blood of christ ; but that also , which we make with god. p. . the breach of the national covenant is a greater sin , then a sin against a commandment , or against an ordinance . . — a sin of so high a nature , that god cannot in honour but be avenged upon 't . . viii . religion may be propagated by the sword . the question in england is , whether christ , or anti-christ , shall be lord , or king ? go on therefore couragiously : never can ye lay out your blood in such a quarrel . christ shed all his blood to save you from hell. venture all yours , to set him upon his throne p. . cursed be he that withholdeth his sword from blood ; that spares , when god saith strike ; that suffers those to escape , whom god has appointed to destruction . p. . in the of numbers , you shall read that there were two silver trumpets ; and as there were priests appointed for the convocation of their assemblies , so there were priests to sound the silver trumpets to proclaim the war. and likewise in the of deuteronomy , you shall find there , that when the children of israel would go out to war , the sons of levi ( one of the priests ) was to make a speech to encourage them . and certainly , if this were the way of god in the old testament ; certainly , much more in such a cause as this , in which cause , religion is so entwin'd , and indeed so enterlac'd , that religion , and this cause , are like hippocrates his twins , they must live , and dye together . you have vowed in this covenant to assist the forces raised by the parliament , according to your power , and vocation ; and not to assist the forces raised by the king , neither directly , nor indirectly . p. . now let me exhort you , not only to chuse to serve god , and to serve his church , and his cause , in this most iust defensive war , &c. . in vain shall you in your fasts , with josua , ly on your faces , unless you lay your achans on their backs ; in vain are the high praises of god in your mouthes , without a two-edged sword in your hands . p. . the execution of iudgment is the lords work , and they shall be cursed that do it negligently ; and cursed shall they be that keep back their sword from blood in this cause . you know the story of gods message unto ahab , for letting benhadad go upon composition . p. . whensoever you shall behold the hand of god , in the fall of babylon , say ; ●…rue ; here is a babylonish priest crying out , alas ! alas ! my living ; i have wife and children to maintein . i : but all this is to perform the iudgment of the lord. p. . though as little ones , they call for pitty , yet as babylonish , they call for iustice , even to blood. ix . there lies an appeal from the letter of the law , to the equity of it : and from the law written , to the law of nature . the commander going against the equity of the law , gives liberty to the commanded , to refuse obedience to the letter of it . there is a court of necessity , no less then a court of justice ; and the fundamental laws must then speak : and it is with a people , in this extremity , as if they had no ruler . p. . the people have given the politique power to the king ; and the natural power they reserve to themselves . . all humane laws and constitutions are made with knees , to bend to the law of nature and necessity . p. . here is more then enough said already ; and to go on as far as the matter would carry us , there would be no end on 't . you are now at ●…berty , either to deny these to be the positions of the non-con●… ; or to justifie the positions themselves ; or to lay down your plea for toleration , upon the innocency of their principles . n. c. i am no friend to these positions : neither can i yet quit my clai●… , unless you make it out , that these are the principles of the party , which i take to be only the errours of individuals . c. shew me the party , and let me alone to prove these to be their principles . but if you will not acknowledge a party , they are ( as you say ) but the errours of individuals ; though all the non-conformists in the three kingdoms should own them under their hands . you call your selves non-confermists , and so were they , that both began , and carried on the late war. great apprehensions they had of the designs of the popish party . [ so have you . ] mightily offended they were at the immoderate power of the bishops . [ you again . ] petitioners for the taking away such oppressions in religion , church government , and discipline , as had been brought in , and fomented by them . [ your very picture still . ] and for uniting all such together , as joyn in the same fundamental truths against the papists : ●…hy removing some oppressions , and unnecessary ceremonies , by which , divers weak consciences have been scrupled , and seem to be divided from the rest . [ the very platform of your comprehension . ] thus far you march hand in hand : i need not tell you what followed upon 't ; but your parts are so much alike , that it looks as if we were now again upon the first seene of the same tragedy . for a conclusion , conformity , or in-conformity , seem'd at first to be the sum of the question ; and the discipline of the church was made the ground of the quarrel . the ru●…ing party in the pretended parliament , were non-conformists ; the army , non-conformists ; the pre●…ended assembly of divines were non conformists ; the city-ministers , and lecturers , non-conformists ; and by the sol●…mn league and covenant , every man that took it , was to be a non-conformist , upon pain of damnation . now take your choice , ( since non-conformists you are ) whether you 'l range your selves under the parliament ; your army ; your assembly ; your city-ministers ; or your solemn league and covenant : and let me bear the blame , if i make it not as clear as the day , that the principles charg'd upon you , are the principles of your party . as to your practises , they haue been suitable to your positions ; and all those violences have been exercised upon the government , that were first dictated in the pulpit . the lawfulness of popular insurrections ; of deposing , and putting kings to death , under the cloak of reformation , has been vented as the doctrine of iesus christ , even by the oracles of your cause : nay ; and several of them ( at present ) eager asserters of the equity of a toleration . and what has been the fruit of these unchristian-lectures ; but the subversion both of church , and state : and the murder of a pio●… , and gracious prince , under pretence of doing god and the kingdom good service ? n. c. these are actions ( i confess ) not to be warranted . but yet my charity perswades me , that a great part of the mischief they did , proceeded rather from necessity , then inclination . c. will ye see then what they did afterward , when they were at liberty to do what they listed ? they had no sooner murdered the father , but immediately a they made it death to proclaim the son. b they abolish't kingly government . c sold the crown-lands . d declared it treason to deny the supremacy of the commons . e nulled all honours and titles granted by the king since — . f made scotland one commonwealth with england , &c. have they now kept any better touch with the liberty and property of the subjects ? let their proceedings witness for them ; a as their tax upon the fifth and twentieth part. b excise upon flesh , victuals , and salt. c a new excise upon allom , copperas , monmouth-caps , hops , saffron , starch , &c. d a loan of l. s. d. for supply of the scots . e an assessment for the maint●…nance of the army . f the house of peers abolish't ; and a monethly tax of l. for the army . g a monthly tax of l. h an imposition upon coal . i a monthly assessment of l. not to clog the discourse with over many particulars : we 'l see next , what they have done , toward the moderating of the power of bishops , and the removal of unnecessary ceremoni●…s . k the arch-bishop of canterbury suspend●…d , and his t●…mporalties sequestred . l monuments of superstition demolish't ; ( that is , in short , an ordinance for sacriledge ) m the book of common-prayer laid aside , and the directory commanded instead of it . n arch-bishops and bishops abolish't , and their lands settled in trustees . o their lands exposed to sale. p festivals abolish't . q deans and chapters , &c. abolish't : and their lands to be sold. this is your way , of moderating the power of bishops , and of removing unnecessary ceremonies . and this is the history ( in little ) of the opinions , and practises of your party : drawn from matter of fact ; provable to a syllable ; and deliver'd without any amplification of the matter . n c. ill things have been done , there 's no question on 't ; but they have been done by ill men : and 't is not a toleration of faction that we pretend to , but a toleration of conscience . c , which toleration ( upon farther search ) will be found to be a meer utopian project , or w●…rse . sect . x. the non-conformists demand a toleration , which is neither intelligible in the whole , nor practicable , so far as it may be understood . c. it makes a great noise in the world , the out-cry of the non-conformists , for toleration , indalgence , liberty of conscience , comprehension , &c. let them but set it down in a clear , practicable , and intelligible proposition , and i dare say , they shall have it for the asking . n. c. we do propound , that reformed christianity may be settled in its due latitude . c. by reformed christianity , i suppose you intend the protestant religion : but your due latitude is of a suspicious intimation . do not you remember a declaration of the two houses ( april . . ) for a due , and necessary reformation of the government , and liturgy of the church : and nothing to be taken away , either in the one , or in the other , but what should be found evil , and justly offensive ; or , at the least , unnecessary , and burdensom ? this due reformation ended ( as you may remember ) in a total extirpation of both liturgy and government : and we see nothing to the contrary , but your due latitude may signifie the very same thing with their due reformation . pray be a little clearer . n. c. then to put all out of doubt ; i would , in the first place , have an establish't order : secondly ; a limited toleration : thirdly , a discreet connivence . the parties comprehended in the establishment , to be of importance in the publique interest ; and of principles congruous to such stated order in the church , as the stability of the commonwealth requires . i would have the toleration , to extend to those that are of sound belief , and go●…d life ; yet have taken in some principles of church-government less congruous to national settlem●…nt . and for connivence ; it is to be remitted to discretion . c. what is all this now , but an universal toleration , in a disguise ? some to be comprehended within the establishment ; others to be tolerated ; and the rest to be connived at . again ; your establishment is to be of a latitude , to take in several sorts of dissenters , under such and such qualifications . they must be of importance in the publique interest ; and of principles congruous to such stated order in the church , as the stability of the commonwealth requires . ask the dissenters themselves concerning their own qualifications , and they 'l tell you . that they are all of them , of important interests , and of congruou●… principles : so that this way , you are still upon an universal toleration . but on the other side , if you consult authority about your comprehension , the preface to the act for uniformity will tell you , that the establishment is as wide already as the peace of the nation will well bear . if you 'l acquiesce in this iudgment , the case is determined to our hand : if you appeal from it , you cast your selves out of the pale of your own project , because of your principles incongruous to the reason of government . n. c. but it appears to us , that the stated order of the church may be widen'd , without any check to the stability of government . c. and what will this avail you , if it appears otherwise to the governours themselves ? if they may be iudges , the strife is at an end ; but if you think to help your selves by translating the iudgment to the people ; after that day , let us never expect any other law , then the dictate of the rabble . it removes the very foundations of the government , and carries us headlong into anarchy , and confusion , without redemption . if a man should ask you now , about your importance in publique interest ; first ; as to the interest it self , whether you mean an interest of raising men , and moneys ; or what other ? next ; as to the degree , and measure of your importance ; how many regiments of the one , and how many millions of the other , makes up that importance ? would you not take time for an answer ? and then , we are as much at a loss about your [ such stated order in the church as the stability of the common-wealth requires ] you give us no satisfaction at all , wherein the stability of the commonwealth consists ; or what stated order in the church that stability requires : but here is a kind of a moot-point cast in , betwixt authority , and the people , which of the two shall determine , upon that congruity , and convenience . your limited toleration too stands or falls upon the same bottem , with your comprehension : that is to say , who shall iudge of the sound belief , and good life , of the pretendents to that indulgence . as to your connivence , you say nothing of it your self ; and i shall reflect as little upon it . let me only observe upon the whole ; that if you had really a mind to set us right , methinks , you should not trifle us with these ambiguities , and amusements : but rather endeavour by some pertinent , intelligible , and practicable proposition , to bring us to a better understanding . say , what injunctions you would have abated ; name the parties you would recommend for their importance of interests , congruity of principles , sound faith , and good life . teach us how to know these qualities , where to look for them , and who shall iudge of them. let it be made out , that the present sollicitors for tender consciences , are duly authorized , and commission'd to act as the trustees of the respective parties . do this ; and matters may be brought yet to a comfortable issue : but so long as you place the conditions of your indulgence out of the reach of ordinary proof , and indeed , of humane knowledg , every man that is excluded , shall dispute his title to the comprehension , without any possibility of being confuted ; to the scandal of religion , and to the perpetual trouble , both of king , and people . n. c. to set forth the propounded latitude , in the particular limits thereof , were presumptuous , both in reference to superiors , and to the party concerned in it . c. as if it were not a greater presumption , to alienate the affections of the people from their superiors , by reflectings upon the iniquity of the government , then by the tender of some rational medium of accord , to dispose the hearts of superiors to a compliance with the prayers , and necessities of the people . but there is more in these generalities , and r●…serves then the multitude are well aware of ; and i am afraid , it will be as hard a matter , to bring you to an agreement about the p●…rticular parties to be tol●…rated , as about the model it self . sect . xi . the non-conformists demand a toleration , for no body knows whom , or what . c. the non-conformists are the party that desire a toleration ; pray let me ask ye , what are their opinions ? what are their names ? for , i presume , you will not expect a toleration , for no body knows what , or whom . are they all of a mind ? if they were tolerated themselves , would they tolerate one another ? are they come to any resolution upon articles ? are they agreed upon any model of accommodation ? do they know what they would be at ? or is it in the wit of man , to contrive a common expedient to oblige them ? n. c. there 's no body says , that they are all of a mind ; or that it is p●…ssible to please them all ; or reasonable to end●…avour it . there are divers among them , whose principles will never endure any order either in church , or state. but what is the sober part the worse for these extravagants ? those , i mean , who are ready to iustifie themselves ; even according to the strictness of your own measures . c. if you are for such a toleration , as shall exclude the wild , and ungovernable sects of dissenters ; how comes it , that , in your writings , and argumentations , you still plead the general cause of non-conformists , without any exception , or distinction ? n. c. you are not to fasten a charge of this quality upon us ; that have already submitted our selves , not only to the moderation of a limited indulgence , but to your own conditions also , under that very limitation . c. this you have done , i must confess , in general terms ; but still i say , as to particulars , your discourses are of such a frame and biass , as to give credit , and encouragement , to every sect of the whole party . n. c. i am of a perswasion , but not of a party : and whatsoever my perswasion be , it is moderate , catholick , and pacifick . c. and so is every man's , if his own word may be taken for his own perswasion . but why a●…e ye so nic●… , and cautious , in the owning of a particular way , and profession ; and yet so frank , and open , in a clamor for the whole party ? you complain that you are persecuted , and yet obstruct the means of your own relief . some , ye say , are to be indulged ; others , not. how shall authority distinguish of which number you your selves are ; so long as you remain under this concealment ? are you for the presbyterians ? n. c. i am not ashamed of their company , that are commonly called by that name : yet i have no ple●…sure in such n●…mes of distinction . neither my design , nor my principles , engage me to maintein the presbyterial government . c. are you in●…endent then ? n. c. neither . but yet i am ( as i told you ) for tolerating th●…se of sound faith , and good life , that have taken up s●…me principles of church-government l●…ss congruous to national settlement . c. what do you think of the anabaptists , brownists , quakers , & c ? n c. why truly , so it is , that prudent , and pious men may be of exceeding narrow principles , about church-order , and fellowship : toward whom , christian charity pleadeth for indulgence ; and , we hope , political prudence doth not gainsay it . c. so that you are for all parties , but not of any . which gen●…rality gives to understand , that your business , is rather a confederacy , then a scruple . n. c. make that good if you can . sect . xii . the conjunct importunity of the non-conformists for a toleration , is not grounded upon matter of conscience . n. c. you are the first person certainly that ever undertook to make proof of a conscience . c. and yet our saviour tells us , ( in this very case of hypocrisie ) that the tree may be known by its fruits : but however ; the best way of proving a thing feasible , is the doing of it . the non-conformists refuse communion with the church : what is it they boggle at ? n. c. a they do esteem the ceremonies an excess in the worship of god. pag. . b [ and dissent from the present establishment of religion , only in things relating to outward order , and worship . pa. c about the choice of some peculiar ways of worship . pa. . d but as to the english reformation , established by law , they heartily embrace it , and assent to the doctrine of faith conteined in the articles of the church of england . pa. . e they have no new faith to declare : no new doctrine to teach ; no private opinions to divulge ; no point , or truth to profess , which hath not been declared , taught , divulged , and esteem●…d , as the common doctrine of the church of england , ever since the reformation . pa. . f they come up to a full agreement , in all material things , with them , from whom they dissent . pa. . c. if they agree in all material things , it follows , that they divide about matters inconsiderable ; and break the order , peace , and unity of the church for trifles . ( things indifferent , and relating to outward order , and worship . ) n. c. in prescribed forms , and rites of religion , the conscience will interpose , and concern it self ; and cannot resign it self to the dictates of men , in the points of divine worship . and those injunctions , which to the imposers , are indifferent ; in the consciences of the dissenters , are unlawful . and what humane authority can warrant any one to put in practice , an unlawful , or suspected action ? pa. . c. if this be , really , conscience ; you will be found as cautious in venturing , deliberately , upon a suspected action , in all other cases , as you are in this. but what if it shall appear , that this fit of tenderness only takes you , when you are to pay an obedience to the law ; and that you are as bold as lions , when you come to oppose it ? will you not allow us to think it possible , that there may be somewhat more , in the importunities , and pretences of the non-conformists , then matter of conscience ? 't is a suspected action to kneel at the sacrament ; but none , to hold up your hands at the covenant . you make a conscience of disclaiming the obligation of that covenant , in order to the security of the government : but none at all , of leaguing your selves in a conspiracy , for the subversion of it . where was your tenderness , in suspected cases , when , to encourage rapine , sacriledge , and rebellion , was the common business of your counsels , and pulpits ? when it was safer to deny the trinity , then to refuse the covenant . when the same persons , that started at a ceremony , made no scruple at all , of engaging the kingdom in blood ; and laying violent hands upon their sovereign . is not this , streining at a gnat , and swallowing a camel ? n. c. the non-conformists , i know , are charged with principles , that detract from kingly power ; and tend to advance popular faction . it is true , they have been eager asserters of legal liberties . pag. . but these are things gone and past , and nothing to our present purpose . the wise man says , he that repeateth a matter , separateth very friends . a looking back to former discords , mars the most hopeful redi●…egration . acts of indemnity , are acts of oblivion also , and must be so observed . pa. . c. the non-conformists ( the sole actors in the late war ) were only eager asserters ( it seems ) of legal liberties : you do not deal so gingerly with the bishops , in the point of ceremonies , as to let them come off , with the character of eager assertors of legal authorities . so that herein also , your consciences stumble at straws , and leap over blocks . now , whereas you will have it , that a reflection upon former discords , is a violation of the act of indemnity ; and impertinent to our purpose : my answer is ; first , that i do not revive the memory of former discords as a reproach ; but i make use of some instances out of former passages , to make good my assertion : that your conjunct imp●…rtunity for a toleration , is not grounded upon conscience . and to shew you , that your practises , and professions grin one upon another . for conscience is all of a pi●…ce ; not tender , and delicate on the one side , and callous , and unfeeling , on the other . secondly , suppose we should make a little bold with the act of oblivion : i think we have as much right to do it , as you have to fall foul upon the act of uniformity . unless you conceive , that the mercy you have received by one law , gives you a privilege of invading all the rest . as to authority ; it is one and the same in both ; and if there were any place for complaint against the equity of a legal establishment , it would lie much fairer against the act of indemnity . on the behalf of the royallists , ( that have ruined their estates and families in the defence of the law ; and yet after all , are thereby condemned to sit down in silence , and despair ) then against the act of uniformity , on the behalf of the non-conformists ; who by the one law , are secured in the profits of their late disobedience ; and by the other , are taken into the arms of the church , according to the ancient , and common rule , with the rest of his majesties protestant subjects : the same rule , i say ; saying where it is moderated with abatements , and allowances , in favour of pretended scruples . n. c. whereas you make the non-conformists the sole actors in our late confusions , you run your self upon a great mistake : for — it hath been manifested to the world , by such as undertook to iustifie it , when authority should require , [ that the year before the king's death , a select number of iesui●…s being sent from their whole party in england , consulted both the faculty of sorbonne , and the pope's council at rome , touching the lawfulness and expediency , of promoting the change of government , by making away the king , whom they despaired to turn from his hereste : it was debated , and concluded , in both places , that for the advancement of the catholick cause , it was lawful , and expedient to carry on that alteration of state. this determination was effectually pursued by many iesuits , that came over , and acted their parts in several disguises . pag. . c. if this be true , and proveable ; ( as you affirm it is ) you cannot do the protestant cause a more important service , then to make it out to the parliament : who ( you know ) have judg'd the mat●…er worthy of their search , and have appointed a committee to receive informations . pa. . nay , which is more , you are a betrayer of the cause if you do it not . the whole party in england , do you say ? prove out this , and you kill the whole popish party at a blow . this was the year before the king's death , it seems : whas not that within the retrospect of the act of indemnity ? if so , tell me i beseech you , why may not we take the same freedom with the non-conformists , that you do with the papists ? n. c. we shall never have done , if you lash out thus upon digressions . pray keep to the question . c. as close as you please . what if a man should shew you a considerable number , of the eminent , and active instruments in the late war , to be now in the head of the present outcry for toleration ? ( take this into your supposition too , that these very persons promoted our troubles , this very way ; and proceeded from the reformation of discipline , to the dissolution of government ) are we bound in charity to take all their pretensions of scruple for real tenderness of conscience ? n. c. beyond all question ; unless you can either evidence their errour to be unpardonable , or the men themselves , impenitent . c. why then let amesius determine betwixt us. [ peccata illa , quae publicè fuerunt nota , debent etiam confessione publicâ damnari ; quià ad quos malum ipsum exempli contagione pervenerat , ad eos etiam poenitentiae , ac emendationis documentum , si fieri possit , delet transmitti . ] publique sins require publique confession ; to the end , that as many as were mis●…ed by the example , may be set right again by the retraction , and repentance . this conclusion pronounces all those of the old stamp , that abused the people formerly , under colour of conscience ; and are now at work again , upon the same pretext , without a publique recantation , to be in a state of impenitency : and gives us reasonably to presume , that if their consciences can swallow , and digest a rebellion , there is no great danger of their being choak'd with a ceremony . another thing is this ; you do not plead for particular iudgments ; ( in which case , a plea of conscience may be allowed ) but every man urges the equity ( in effect ) of a toleration for all the rest. in which number , you your selves do , severally , and jointly , acknowledge , that there are a great many people of insociable and intolerable principles ; such as in conscience are not to be admitted . and yet herein also , you profess to be guided by impulses of tenderness , and piety ; although in opposition to the whole course of your former declarations , and proceedings , that rise up in judgment against you. n. c. if you grant , that there may be a plea for particulars , i shall not much trouble my self about generals . c. that point shall come on in due time . but let us look a little further yet , into the general cause ; for if it be not conscience , it is confederacy . sect . xiii . the conjunct importunity of the non-conformists for a toleration , is a manifest confederacy . c. this appears , first , from the method of their proceedings ; secondly , from the natural prospect , and tendency of that method ; thirdly , from the nature , and quality of their demands , and arguments ; fourthly ; from the way , and manner of their addresses , and applications ; lastly ; from their agreement in matters of dangero●…s consequence upon the peace of the government . as to their method ; the non-conformists of this age ●…read in the very steps of their predecessors : and this you may observe throughout the whole history of them ; even from the first time that ever the pretence of popular reformation set foot in his majesties dominions unto this instant . this is not a place for a deduction of particulars at length ; but a touch from point to point , will not be much amiss . wherefore , if you please , give me a brief accompt of the non-conformists . first , what kind of people they are ; secondly , what it is they would have ; thirdly , what will the kingdom be the better for granting their desires ? fourthly , what are their grievances , as the case stands with them at present ? fifthly , what are they for number , and resolution ? n. c. they are a people zealous of religion , pa. . an intelligent , sober sort of m●…n , and numerous among all ranks , p. . * peaceable , and useful in the commonwealth ; sound in the faith ; men of conscience ; evident opposers of all errors pernicious to the souls of men , and of an evil aspect upon the publique peace . c. very good : and were not the conspirators that seiz'd king iames , at ruthnen , ( . ) as much as all this amounts to ? if you will believe either themselves , or the assembly at edinburgh in their behalf . the reforming non-conformists under queen elizabeth were unreprovable before all men ; her majesties most loyal subjects , and god's faithful servants : [ most worthy , faithful , and peinful ministers ; modest , watchful , knowing in the scriptures , and of honest conversation ; ( learned , and godly ; says the admonitioner , pa. . and martin senior calls them , the strength of our land , and the sinew of her majesties government . the scotch covenanters , in . out-did all this , for zeal to his majesties person , and authority : the true religion , liberties , and laws of the kingdom . and the two houses at westminster , in . come not behind . them , in their professions , for the defence , and maintenance of the true religion ; the king's person , honour , and estate , and the iust rights , and li●…erties of the subject . here 's your character : now to your d●…mands , what is it you would have ? n. c. a a reformation of church-government , liturgy , and ceremonies . b a bearing with weak consciences : c and a relaxation of the prescribed uniformity . c. and this you will find to have been the constant pretence of the non-conformists , if you consult their story , from one end to the other . [ not to let loose the golden reins of discipline , and government in the church ; but to unburthen the consciences of men , of needless , and superstitious ceremonies , suppress innovations , and settle a preaching ministry , &c. put the case now , that you had your asking ; what would the kingdom be the better for it ? n. c. it will be the better for the king , church , nobility , and gentry . [ and there is no nation under heaven , wherein such an indulgence , or toleration as is desired , would be more welcome , us●…ful , acceptable ; or more subservient to tranquillity , trade , wealth , and peace . c. reformation no enemy to her maj●…sty and the state , is the very title of a desperate libel , printed . against both. and the humble motioner tells you , that it is for the advantage of the queen , clergy , nobility , and commonalty ; that the wealth and honour of the realm will be encreased by it , &c. this was the stile too of our reformers , in . the securing of the publique peace , safety and happiness of the realm ; and the laying the foundation , of more honour , and happiness , to his majesty , then ever was enjoy'd by any of his royal predecessors . — now speak your grievances . n. c. we are excommunicated , outlawed , imprison'd . our families starved , and begg●…r'd . p. . proceeded against with outward punishments , pecuniary , and corporal , nay death it self . p. . [ and all this while trade languishes , rents fall , money scarce . p. . never a greater separation ; never a more general dissatisfaction . p. . c. pray'e say : was it ever better , since non-conformists came into the world ? was not king iames , a favourer of the enemies of god's truth , and of dissolute persons ? a discountenancer of godly ministers ? a promise-breaker to the church ; and a perverter of the laws ; insomuch that no man could be assured of his lands , and life ? was it any better even under the celebrated government of queen elizabeth ? a there were citations , degradings , and deprivations . b some in the marshalsey ; some in the white-lion ; some in the gate●…house at westminster ; others in the counter , or in the clinke , or in bride-well , or in newgate . [ how many good mens deaths have the bishops been the cause of ? how many have they driven to leave the ministry , and live by physique ? or to leave their countrey ? [ poor men have been miserably handled , with revilings , deprivations , imprisonments , banishments : and out of this realm , they have all the best reformed churches through christendom against them . [ if this persecution be not provided for , great trouble will come of it . how your party demean'd themselves toward the late king , of blessed memory , in the matter of calumny , and reproach , you may read at large in that grand , and infamous libel ; the remonstrance of the state of the kingdom , decemb. . . but after all this ; what are these people , for number , and resolution , that make such a clutter ? n. c. thousands of the upright of the land. petition for peace , pag. . ] multitudes ▪ dissent , and resolve to continue so doing ; whatever they suffer for it . pa. . and to forego the u●…most of their earthly concernments , rather then to live and die in an open rebellion to the commanding light of god in their consciences . — to ruine men in their substantials of body , and life , for ceremonies ; is a severity , which englishmen will not , long time , by any means , give countenance unto . pa. . [ to execute extremity upon an intelligent , sober , and peaceable sort of men , so numerous among all ranks , may prove exceeding difficult , unless it be executed by such instruments as may strik ●…errour into the whole nation . p. . c. was not queen elizabeth told of thousands , and hundreds of thousands , that sighed for the holy discipline ? and that since neither parliament , nor convocation-house would take it into consideration , they might blame themselves , if it came in by such means , as would make all their hearts ake ? the truth will prevail ( says the demonstrator ) in spight of your teeth , and all the adversaries of it . the most unnatural , ca●…eless , and horrible rebellion , that this , or ( perhaps ) any other age in the world hath been acqu●…nted with ( to borrow the words of his late majesty ) was profaced with a petition in the name of all the men , women , children , and servants , of edinburgh , against the service-book : and another , in the name of the noblemen , gentry , ministers , and burgesses , against the service-book , and book of canons ; ●…rotesting afterwards , that if any inconvenience should fall out , by reason of pressing those-innovations , it was not to be imputed to them , that sought all things to be reformed by order . this commotion in scotland , led the way to our succeeding broils in england ; which were promoted by the like artifices . great numbers of his majesties subjects , opprest by fines , imprisonments , stig●…atizings ; and many thousands of tradesmen , and artificers , empoverish't by a generality , and multiplicity of vexations . [ great numbers of learned , and pious ministers suspended , deprived , and degraded . in fine , from pamphlets , they advanced to petitions ; from petitions , to tumults ; and from thence , into a formal state of war. n. c. so that from this agreement in method , you will pretend to infer a conformity of design . c. from this agreement in method ; and from the natural tendency of this method , i think a man may honestly conclude , it can be nothing else : and i doubt not , but upon a sober examination of the matter , i shall find you of the same opinion . the most sacred of all bonds is that of government , next to that of religion ; and the reverence which we owe to humane authority , is only inferior to that which we owe to god himself . this being duly weighed , and that the lesser obligation must give place to the greater . ( as for instance ) reason of state , to matter of religion , and humane laws to the law divine : what has any man more to do , for the embroyling of a nation , but first to puzzle the peoples heads with doubts , and scruples , about their respective duties to god , and man ; and then , to possess them , that this , or that political constitution , has no foundation in the holy scriptures ? to bid them stand fast in the liberty wherewith christ hath made them free , galat. . . and finally , to engage the name of god , and the credit of religion in the quarrel ? n. c. and do not you your self believe it better to obey god , then man ? c. yes ; but i think it best of all to obey both : to obey god , for himself , in spirituals ; and man , for god's sake , in temporals , as he is god's commissioner . but tell me ; are you not convinced , that the most likely way in the world to stir up subjects against their prince , is to proclaim the iniquity of his laws , and then to preach damnation upon obedience ? n. c. what if it be ? does it follow , because religion may be made a cloak for a rebellion , that , therefore , it is never to be pleaded for a reformation ? c. truly i have seldom known a conscientio●… reformation , accompanied with the circumstances of our case . here is , first , a character of the non-conformists , drawn by their own hand ; and set off with such flourishes of purity , and perfection , as if the scribes and pharisees themselves had sit for their picture . in the second place , you demand , partly , a reformation ; partly , a toleration : and in the third , you assure us , that all england shall be the better for 't . ( of these two points hereafter . ) in the fourth , you enlarge upon your grievances ; and instead of applying to the government , on the behalf of the people , you are clearly upon the strein of appeal to the people from the rigour of the government . your text is liberty of conscience ; but the stress of your discourse lies upon the liberty of the subject : the decay of trade , scarcity of money , fall of rents , the substantials of body , and life , imprisonment , &c. upon the whole ; your writings want nothing but form , of a direct indictment of king and parliament for persecution , and tyranny ; and would very well bear the translation of their being led on by the instigation of the devil , not having the fear of the lord before their eyes . if you can defend this manner of proceeding , pray do it . n. c. what can be of greater concernment to governours ; then to discern , and consider the state of their people , as it is indeed ? and why may it not be minded of subjects , and spoken of , without any hint , or thought of ●…ebellion ? pag. . c. but what can be of greater mischief to governours , then under colour of remonstrating to them , the state of their people , at the same time , to disaffect the people , by an odious accompt of the errors , misfortunes , and calamities of the government ? governours are not to be told their faults in the market-place ; neither are ministers of the gospel , by your own rules , to be admitted for privy-counsellors . this is spoken as to the good office of your information . as to the intention of it , i am not so bold , as to judge your thoughts : but if you had any drift at all in it , and consider'd what you did , i do not see , how you can acquit your self of evil meaning . suppose the whole invective true ; and that you suffer for righteousness . ( to make the fairest of it ) what effect do you expect these discourses may have upon the people ? and waat upon the magistrate ? will not every man conclude , that the english are the wretched'st slaves upon the face of the earth ? neither liberty of religion , nor of person , for any man that makes a conscience of his ways : the whole nation , groaning under beggery , and bondage . now see what effects these impressions may reasonably produce ; and those effects are a●… reasonably to be taken for the scope of your intention . turn now to the magistrate , and say ; what proportion do you find betwixt these rude disobligations upon the government , and the returns of grace , and favour you desire so earnestly from it ? on the other side ; if your report be false , your design appears still to be the same ; only with the aggravations , of more animosity , and malice in pursuance of it . but true , or false , it is nothing at all to the business of toleration , but a palpable transition from matter of conscience , to matter of state. this is the course , in general , of our advocates for toleration ; and by the desperate sallies , they make , from religion , to government , in their pamphlets , a man may guess what it is they would be at in their pulpits . n. c. oppression makes a wiseman mad ; and 't is not generous to descant upon every thing , that is bolted in heat , and passion , as if it were a formed discourse , upon deliberation , and counsel . c. but is it not a strange thing ( my good friend ) for so many men to be mad at a time ; and to be mad the same way too ? if you will have it , that they mean just nothing at all , i am content ; but if they mean any thing , and all agree in the same meaning ; it can be nothing else but a confederacy . the next point makes it yet more evident ; that is to say , the marshalling of their numbers , and their thousands ; the boast of their interest , in all parties , and of the difficulty to suppress them : the proclamation of their resolution to live and die in defence of their opinions , with an innu●…ndo of the magistrates meddling with them at their peril . what can be the end of this rhodomontade ; but to startle the government , on the one side , and to animate the multitude , on the other ? it is no argument at all for an indulgence , that they are many , powerful , and resolute ; but point blank against it : unless they can approve themselves to be regular , governable , and honest . to sum up all ; here are faults found in the government ; and the people tamper'd into a dislike of it ; so that here 's a disposition to a change , wrought already . no sooner is the multitude perswaded of the necessity of a reformation ; but behold the manner of it ; it must be either by a thorough-alteration , a comprehension , a toleration , or a connivence . and for the principal undertakers , you may put your lives in their hands ; for ( if they do not slander themselves ) they are as godly , an intelligent sort of people , as a man shall see in a summers day . now , for the introducing of this reformation , there is no way , but to set up the word of god , against the law of the land : by the un-bishopping of timothy , and titus ; and giving the people a sight of the iewish sanhed●…m , and gamaliel's dilemma , through a pair of reforming spectacles ; by which , they discover the divine right of presbytery , with one eye ; and that of universal toleration with the other ; and so become one in the common cause of maintaining gospel worship , against humane inventions . the next care is , to gratifie the common people ; for there 's nothing to be done , till they come ; and there is no reason in the world , that the poor wretches should venture soul , life , and estate , gratis ! this is effected , by the doctrine of liberty of conscience . for grant but every man a right , of acting , according to the dictate of his conscience , and he has consequently , a liberty of doing whatsoever he shall pretend to be according to that dictate ; and of refusing to do , whatsoever he shall say is against it : by which invention , the laws of the kingdom are subjected to the pretended consciences of the people ; and the multitude are made the iudges of the controversie . now comes in the ioynt-struggle of the non-conformists for a toleration . this , if it may be obtain'd , puts them in a capacity of doing the rest , themselves . but in case of opposition , their last resort is to a muster of their forces ; a computation of their strength , and interests ; which is the very same thing , as if they should say , in so many syllables ; gentlemen ; you see the parliament does not regard us : we have a good cause , and hands enow to do the work , in spight of their hearts : ●…p and be doing . after this ; there wants nothing , but the word , the sword of the lord , and of gideon , to crown the enterprize . if this be not a conspiracy , tell me what is. n. c. you say , it is ; and we deny it . c. there are strong presumptions also of a confederacy , to be gathered from the nature , and quality of your demands . you desire a comprehension , a toleration ; but then you place the conditions of it , out of the reach of ordinary proof , and indeed , of humane cognizance . ( as is shew'd already ) so that no body knows , who are to be comprehended , and who left out . this looks , as if your business were rather to enflame the difference , then to compose it . and then , when you are prest to name , and specifie the parties you plead for ; ( since by your own confession , several are to be excluded ) you fly still to the generalities , of important interests , and congruous principles , and so leave the matter utterly uncapable of any clear , and logical result ; unless you will allow governours the inspection of their subjects hearts : or teach us how to reduce wild , and uncertain notions , under the prospect of a steady law. but the reason of your dealing thus in the dark , i suppose may be this : your design is to be carry'd on under the countenance of the common cause , wherein , all those persons are united against the government , that would otherwise spend their animosities , one upon another , and break into a thousand pieces among themselves . now for you to declare for any one party , were virtually , to declare against all the rest , and dissolve the combination . touching the manner of their addresses , i shall only add , ( to what is past ) that they are invectives , against those that cannot relieve them , without any formal application to those that can : and tend naturally to the tumultuating of the people , without any colour of contributing to their ben●…fit . of their agreement in matters of dangerous consequence , enough is spoken already , to put it past all contradiction , that their conjunct importunity for a toleration , is a manifest confederacy . wherefore let us now proceed from the drift , and design of their pretensions , to the morality , and reason of them. sect . xiv . the non-conformists joynt pretences for a toleration , overthrown , by the evidence of their joynt-arguments , professions , and practises against it . c. do as you would be done by , is the precept , both of gospel , and nature . with what face then , can you ask a toleration from that government , which of all others , your selves refused to tolerate ? from that prince , to whose blessed father ( in the depth of his agonies ) you cruelly deny'd the use , and service of his own chaplains ? [ a greater ●…igour , and barbarity , then is ever used by christians to the me●…nest prisoners , and greatest malefactors . but they that envy my being a king , are loth i should be a h●…istian while they seek to deprive me of all things else , they are afraid i should save my soul. ; these are the words or that pious prince in his last extremity . n. c. that rigour was the barbarism of a faction , not the principles of the party . c. hear your party speak then . [ it is much , that our brethren should separate from the church ; but that they should endeavour to get a warrant , to authorize their separation from it , and to have liberty ( by drawing members out of it ) to weaken , and diminish it , till , ( so far as lies in them ) they have brought it to nothing ; this we think to be plainly unlawfuf . toleration would be the putting the sword in a madman's hand ; a proclaiming liberty to the wolves , to come into christ's flock to prey upon his lambs . extirpate all achans , with babylonish garments , orders , ceremonies , gestures ; let them be rooted out from among us. you of the honourable house , up ; for the matter belongs to you. we , even all the godly ministers of the countrey , will be with you. toleration makes the scripture a nose of wax : a rule of faith to all religions . liberty of conscience , and toleration of all , or any religion , is so prodigious an impiety , that this religious parli●…ment cannot but abhor the very naming of it . such a toleration is utterly repugnant to , and inconsistent with the solemn league and covenant for reformation . it is unreasonable ( says the defender of the london ministers letter to the assembly ) that independents should desire that toleration of presbyters , which they would not give to presbyters . for with what face can i destre a courtesse from him , to whom i do onenly prosess , 〈◊〉 would deny the same courtesse ? does not this hold as well for us , as it did for you ? n. c. you must not impose the iudgments of particular persons upon us , as instances of publique authority . c. what do ye think then of your national covenant ? was that an act of authority ? wherein you bind your selves by an oath , to settle an uniform presbytery , to the exclusion of all other forms of church-order , or government what soever ; ( under the notion of schism ) and of prel●…cy by name ? are your consciences for toleration now , that were so much against it then ? nay ; there are many among you , that ●…eckon your selves under an obligation , to pursue the ends of that covenant , even to this very day : and do you think it reasonable , for a government to grant privileges , and advantages of power , and credit , to a party , that owns it self under an oath of confederacy to endeavour the extirpation of it ? n. c. you mean i suppose of church-government . c. i mean of both church , and state. was it not the test of the king's enemies , as well as of the bishops ? was it not made death without mercy , for any man , having taken the solemn league and covenant , to adhere to his majesty ? the league and covenant ( says rutherford ) was the first foundation of the ruine of the malignant party in england . and whoever refuses to disclaim it , must be rationally understood , still to drive on the intent of it . so that to tolerate the non-conformists , is to tolerate the sworn adversaries , both of royal , and episcopal authority : nay , to tolerate those that have sworn to persist in that opposition , all the days of their lives ; over and above the tolerating of those upon pretence of conscience for a toleration , that deny to tolerate all other people , upon as strong a pretence of conscience against it . where was this spirit of moderation toward the weak brethren , in the total suppression of the book of common prayer ; and the imposing of the directory , to be o●…served in all the churches within this kingdom ? [ no ruling elders , but such as have taken the national covenant . no electors of elders neither , ( by the ordinance of march . . ) but such as have taken the national covenant . [ no ordination , without a testimonial of having taken the covenant of the three kingdoms . none to be admitted , or entertained in the universities , without taking the solemn league and covenant , and the negative oath ; and upon conditions of submission , and conformity to the discipline , and directory . nay further : you will find in the four bills , and propositions sent to his majesty in the isle of wight , ( march . ) when the two parties , presbyterian , and independent were upon so hard a tugg ; that the presbyterian government , and directory seem'd to be resolv'd upon in one line , and unsettled again , in the very next . by a provision : that no persons whatsoever should be liable to any question , or penalty , for non conformity to the form of government , and divine service appointed in the ordinances ; ( then in force ) but be at liberty to meet for the worship of god ; so as nothing might be done to the disturbance of the peace of the kingdom . yet in this crisis of affairs ; they could clap in another stabbing proviso against us , upon the neck of that : i. e. that this indulgence shall not extend to tolerate the use of the book of common-prayer , in any place whatsoever . and at this rate , you treated the episcopal party , throughout the whole course of your power . n. c. and good cause for it . were not they the most likely of all others to disappoint our settlement ? c. agreed . but as to the matter of conscience ; did you well , or ill in 't ? or rather , was there any thing of conscience in the case ? n. c. certainly it was very fit for the civil power to look to it self : and the power ecclesiastical was no less concern'd to exact a consormity to the laws , and ordinances of christ. c. how can you say this , and consider what you say , without blushing ? if you did well , in refusing to tolerate the episcopal way , because you thought it not right ; the reason is as strong for our way , that have the same opinion of yours . if you did well on the other side , out of a political regard to the publique peace , so do we now , upon that very sc●…re . so that you must either confess , that you did ill , then , in refusing a toleration to us ; or otherwise allow , that authority does well , now , in not permitting it to you. n. c. there might be some plea for a little strictness more then ordinary , in the heat of an eager , and publique contention : but methinks a persecution in cold blood , does not savour of the spirit of our profession . sect . xv. the non-conformists joyntcomplaints of hard measure , and persecution , confronted with their own joynt-proceedings . c. what is it that you call hard measure , and persecution ? n. c. your unmerciful impositions , upon tender consciences , by subscriptions , declarations , &c. there are few nations under the heavens of god ( as far as i can learn ) that have more able , holy , faithful , laborious , and truly peaceable preachers of the gospel , ( proportionably ) then those that are now cast out in england , and are like in england , scotland , and ireland to be cast out , if the old conformity be still urged . ours is not a wicked , prophane , drunken ministry . c. that is , by interpretation : god we thank thee , that we are not as other men are . — nor even as these publicans . but to the matter . these people that you speak of , are set aside for not obeying the law : but what do you think of those , that were turn'd out of their livings , because they would not oppose it ? and they were dispossest too , by some of the present complainants themselves : who first came in at the window , and now are turn'd out at the door . no less then a hundred and fifteen were ejected here in london , within the bills of mortality ( besides paul's and westminster ) and the rest of the kingdom throughout , was purged after that proportion . nor was it thought enough to sequester , unless they starv'd them too ; for they were not allow'd to take the employment , either of school-masters , or chaplains , but under heavy penalties . in south wales , the gospel was as well persecuted , as the ministry : the churches shut up , and the people let loose to the lusts and corruptions of unbridled nature . the only pretence of iustification that the reformers had , was that unchristian , and unmanly libel , white' 's centuries of scandalous ministers ; wherein , without any respect , either to truth , or modesty , they have exposed so many reverend names , to infamy , and dishonour , for the better colour of their own sacrilegious usurpations . but take this along with you , that loyalty in those days past for a punishable , and notorious scandal . n. c. these were acts of policy , and let statesmen answer for them . but to have men cast out of the church , because they will not subscribe , and declare , contrary to their consciences , is doubtless a most unconscionable severity . c. and what is it in the subsciption ( i beseech you ) that you stumble at ? as to the acknowledgment of his majesties supremacy , i suppose , you would not be thought to stick at that . and in matters of doctrine , you make profession to joyn with us : so that about the lawfulness of using the book of common-prayer , and your own submission to the use of it , is the only question . your exceptions likewise to the declarations seem to be very weakly grounded , unless you make a scruple of declaring your selves for the uniformity of the church , or for the peace of the civil government : in which cases you cannot fairly pretend to be trusted in either . but not to extravagate . you are against the imposing of subscriptions , and declarations , you say . n. c. i am against the very imposition it self , upon any terms ; but when they are prest upon grievous penalties ; they are utterly intolerable . c. and yet when the common-prayer was abolish't , there was a penalty , of five pound , for the first offence ; ten for the second ; and a years imprisonment , without bail or mainprize , for the third offence , upon any man that should use it . so that here was an interdiction of our way of worship upon a penalty ; and no notice taken of invading the liberty of our consciences . by the same ordinance , of august . . was also commanded the exercise and order of the directory ; and that upon a forfeiture too : with a penalty , from five pound to fifty , upon any man , that should preach , write , or print any thing to the derogation of it . now here was rigor , you see , on both sides : but no clamor , upon the matter of conscience in this case neither . how many of our ministers were poyson'd in peter-house , and other prisons , either for worshipping according to their consciences , or refusing to act against them ! no man was admitted to his composition without swearing ; no man to live in the parliaments quarters without swearing . neither were we only debarr'd the common rights of subjects , and the benefits of society : but the comforts of religion were denied us ; and an anathema pronounced upon us for our fidelity . the general assembly in scotland ordain'd , that known compliers with the rebells , and such as procured protections from the enemy ; or kept correspondence , or intelligence with him , should be suspended from the lo●…d's supper , till they manifested their repentance before the congregation . [ ●…illespy's useful cases of conscience , pag. , . ] his late majesty , in his large declaration of the affairs of scotland , pag. . tells you , that men were beaten , turn'd out of their livings , reviled , excommunicated , process'd , for not subscribing the covenant . and again , pa. . that there was an oath given at a communion at f●…fe , not to take the king's covenant , nor any other , but their own . now , hear the commissioners of the general assembly , iuly . . his majestie 's concessions , and offers , from the isle of wight , are to be by the parliament declared unsatisfactory ; unless his majesty give assurance by solemn oath , under his hand , and seal , for settling religion according to the covenant ; before his r●…stitution to his royal power , but that i am loth to overcharge you , i could give you the history of the spiritting several persons of honour for slaves ; the sale of three or four score gentlemen to the barbadoes ; beside plunders , decimations , and infinite other outrages , both publique , and private . give me leave to mind you now a little●… of some few of your general provisions for the destruction of the king's party , and the extirpation of that family , and government to which providence has once again subjected you . a an ordinance for sequestration of delinquents estates . b delinquents disabled to bear any office , or have any vote in election of any major , &c. here 's estate , and legal freedom gone already : now follows banishment from one place , and confinement to another . c delinquents must be removed from london and westminster , and confined within five m●…es of their own dwelling . d correspondency with charles stuart , or his par●…y , prohibited , under pain of high treason ; and e death to any man , that shall attempt the revival of his glaim , or that shall be aiding , assisting , comforting , or abetting , unto any person endeavouring to set up the title of any of the issue●… of the late king. where were the able , holy , faithful , laborious , and truly peaceable preachers of the gospel , with the tender consciences you talk of , when these things were a doing ? truly , neither better nor worse , then up to the very ears , a great many of them , in the main action . some , preaching up the conscience of the war ; others , wheedling the city out of their money to maintain it ; and calling for more blood in prosecution of it . till in the conclusion , the king , and the government , fell in the quarrel : and the pulpits all this while at hand , to patronize the reformation . n. c. this ripping up of old stories , does but widen the breach , without doing any good at all . c. if you would not hear of these things again , you should not do them again . n. c. then it seems the whole must suffer for some particulars . c. no , not so . but neither must the whole go scot-free for some particulars . would you have me open my door to a troop of thieves , because there are four or five honest men in the company ? that there are divers conscientious , and well-minded men among the non-conformists , i make no question . but i am yet positive in this , that the non-conformists ; in conjunction , are in a direct conspiracy ; and that when they come once to agree in a publique complaint , it is no longer conscience , but faction . this by the by. — now to the matter before us ; i have given you a breviate of your own proceedings , in the very case of your present complaints . lay your hand upon your heart , and bethink your self , who are the persecutors . n. c. let the persecution rest where it will ; i am fully perswaded , that there is no settling of this kingdom in a state of security , peace , and plenty , without an indulgence , or toleration . sect . xvi . the non-conformists tell us , that liberty of conscience is the common interest of this kingdom : but reason , and experience tell us the contrary . c. that we may not spend our selves in repetition , cavil , or confusion ; take notice , that 't is the general cause of the non conformists , which is coming under d●…bate . for that toleration which the whole party desires , must needs be a toleration of the whole party : and that i oppose ; in confidence , that i have reason , and experience on my side . we have spoken already , as to the unlawfulness ; and somewhat likewise ; to the dangerous consequences of it : together with the unruly opinions , and practices of several of the pretenders to it . we are now to look a little further into it , with a more immediate regard to the common interest of the kingdom , which we may place in the concernments of religion , government , peace , and plenty . to begin with religion : i do not understand , how that which delights in unity , shall be advantaged by division , and fraction . n. c. as if there could be no unity of doctrine , without uniformity of discipline . the precept is ; one lord , one faith , one baptism : and not one way , one form of worship . c. i might tell you , that it is of ancient , and unreprovable practice ; for every national church to appoint its own platform of service , and ceremonies ; and to require obedience , and conformity to that model , and to those rites respectively , from all its members . but this i shall not insist upon . there is no precept ( you say ) for any one way , or form. but can you shew me , that an uniformity of service , and rituals is any where forbidden ? n. c. not in particular : but in the general prohibition of all uncommanded worship , pag. . c. the matter in short is this. either we have a rule in the gospel for the manner of our worship ; or we have none . if there be no way of commanded worship , left us , by christ , and his apostles ; and all uncommanded worship be ( as you say ) forbidden , there must be no appointed worship at all ; and then , every man is at liberty , not only to worship after what manner he pleases , but ( effectually ) to chuse , whether he 'l worship , or no : which brings in all sorts of heresies , and blasphemies ; and countenances even atheism it self . now , on the other hand ; if there be any particular manner of worship prescribed in the word of god ; from that particular manner , we must not presume to vary , by a toleration of any other way then that ; or of more , then one. besides , that it undermines the foundation of all communities , to deny the civil authority a right of interposing in such cases , as are neither commanded , nor forbidden , by god. let us next consider the probable effects of a toleration , in respect of the parties pretending to it . which are , either presbyterian ; or ( in a sense of contradistinction ) independent . the former are for a subordination in churches . the other for an independency : ( according to their denomination ) these are for gather'd congregations ; the other , for parochial . i will not trouble you with the argumentative part of the differences betwixt them ; about the subordination , or co-ordination of churches ; the redundance , or defect of church-officers ; the receptacle of the power of the keys , and the like : but nakedly , and briefly , shew you the kindness they have for one another ; the regards they have for christian charity , in the menage of the quarrel ; and then leave you your self to judge , what may be the event of such a toleration , as to religion . the sectaries ( says edwards in his gangraena ) agree with iulian the apostate , p. . ] they are libertines , and atheists , p. . ] unclean , incestuous , p. . ] drunkards , p. . ] sabbath-breakers , deceivers , p. . ] guilty of gross lying , slandering , iuggling , falsifying their words and promises : excessive pride , and boasting , p. . ] insufferable insolences , horrible affronts to authority , p. . ] there never was a more hypocritical , false , dissembling , cunning generation in england , then many of the grandees of those sectaries . — they encourage , protect , and cry up for saints , sons of belial , and the vilest of men , p. . gangraena's second part , . — see now the other party doe as much for the presbyterians . the presbyterian government is anti-christian , tyrannical , lordly , cruel , a worse bondage then under the prel●…tes ; a bondage under task-masters , as the israelites in aegypt : a presumptu●…us , irregular consistory , which hath no ground in the word of god. barrow , p. . ] a vexatious , briery , thorny , persecuting pre●…ytery . [ pulpit incendiary , p. . ] f●…rmidable to states , and free kingdoms . [ mr. nye . ] the assembly is antichristian , romis●… , 〈◊〉 , the plague ▪ s , and p●…sts of the kingdom ; baal's priests . [ gangraena's second part , . ] the seed of god in this nation has had two capital enemies , the romish papacy , and the scotch presbytery . [ sterry's england's deliverance , p. . ] an anabaptist said , that he hoped to see heaven and earth on fire , before presbytery should be settled ; [ edwards his gangraena . ] barrow calls the consistorians , dangerous , and pestilent seducers ; ravening wolves , which come to us in sheeps cloathing . ] this is enough to shew you the mutual , and implacable enmity , and opposition of the two grand parties , which , you are now perswading your self , might be gratified , by a common indulgence . let me further mind you , that the strife ended not there neither , but proceeded to blood : and that , so soon , as they had master'd the government , in a combination , under the masque of reformation , and conscience ; they parted interests , and upon the very same pretext , engaged in a second war ; and fell foul , one upon the other . wherein they sufficiently manifested to the world , that they fought , not for forms , and ceremonies ; but for booty , and dominion . no less to the scandal of the religion of england , then to the ruine of the monarchy . n. c. you are not to stop my mouth with instances of tumults , and factions , in a peaceable plea for religion , and conscience . c. do not you know , that toleration is as good , as an issue in a government ? all the vicious humours in the whole body flow that way . but suppose it conscience ; are the dissenters ever to be reconciled ? shall we not have nem , and monstrous opinions propagated daily ? and will it not be every man's business , to advance the credit , and authority of his own party ? where is the bond of peace , in this exercise , and latitude of dissention ? the unity of the church , in this multiplicity of professions ? which is the true religion , among so many divided , and contradictory pretenses to it ? or rather ; is there any religion at all , where there is neither christian charity , stability of principles , reverence , or agreement , in god's worship ? n. c. i hope you will not deny the protestant interest to be the interest of the true religion : and undoubtedly , the bringing of the protestants into an union among themselves , is the advantage of every protestant state , ] and of protestancy it self . c. past all dispute ; and an uniformity of worship brings them into that union ; which is never to be attained , while the world endures , by a liberty of conscience . how was the protestant interest ( i beseech you ) united in the late dissolution of government ; when every man did that which was right in his own eyes ? examine the story well , and you will find reason to believe , that the church of rome has gain'd more upon us , since that unsettlement of ecclesiastical order , then perchance from the first hour of the reformation , even unto that very day . for liberty of conscience , did no less bring a civil war upon the protestant religion , then the pretended liberty of the subject did upon the state. it turned every man's hand against his brother . every man had a religi●…n to himself , and every man's conscience ( as i told you ) was his bible ; and we are still to presume , that like causes will produce like effects . it is also remarquable , that the lowdest , and boldest declamers against the orders of the church , proved likewise , the most pragmatical , and audacious invaders of the civil peace ; the antecedent schism serving only for a prologue to the ensuing sedition . n. c. this arraignment of their supposed principles , about government , may haply proceed upon mistake . there is reason to think , that the many late disputes , about prerogative , and liberty , are controversiae ortae , non primae ; that they had their rise from something else , which lies at the bottom . c. this is but peradventure i , peradventure no. for if a man may haply be in a mistake , he may haply too be in the right . i will grant ye likewise , that the disputes about prerogative , and liberty , had their rise from somewhat else , which lay at the bottom . that is to say ; it was not purity of religion , reformation of the liturgie , retrenching the exorbitant power of bishops , or scruple of conscience , ( as pretended ) that wrought the subversion of church , and state ; but it was the design , which lay at the bottom , of carrying on the great work of overturning the government , under countenance of that plausible imposture , and disguise . n. c. inclinations , and interests , more then speculative opinions , will be found to have born the sway , and caused those active motions , on the one hand , and the other . these dogmata , or problems about obedience , and government , do but little , where mens affections , and concernments do not give them spirit , and uigor . c. it is most certain , that problems draw no blood ; and we do not read , that ever any man's throat was cut , with a speculation , or a syllogism ; but yet , inclinations , and interests ( you allow ) may do much , towards mischief : so that , i have what i desire , if i am but able to make it out , that liberty of conscience will , most indubitably , beget strong inclinations in the people , to shake off the yoke of government ; and that they will not want specious appearances of interest so to do. first ; the servants of iesus christ ( as the non-conformists peculiarly stile themselves ) have this advantage of the subjects of temporal princes ; that they serve the better master : and the dignity of their spiritual profession supersedes the duty of their political allegeance . ( so often , as they shall think good , to stand upon that privilege ) by virtue of which prerogative , they do not only claim an exemption from the obligation , and reach of humane laws ; but a commission also , and authority , to reform those laws , ( in case of error , and corruption ) according to the standard of the gospel . now to this principle , and doctrine , do but add liberty of conscience ; and the people have law , and magistracy at their mercy already . for first ; they reckon themselves no further answerable either to the one , or to the other , then as they find them warranted in , and grounded upon the word of god. and secondly ; they may chuse whether or no , they will find any law , or magistrate , whatsoever , to be so warranted , or grounded ; and consequently , whether there shall be any government , or no. one man's conscience cannot allow this , or that injunction to be according to god's word : it may be lawful to another , but it is not so to him ; and hee calls for indulgence , and moderation . another man's conscience swears by the most high god , that it is point-blank against it ; and nothing will serve him , but utter extirpation . and whatsoever they call conscience , must pass for current . every man is to govern himself by his own opinion ; not by another bodies . it is no longer liberty of conscience , if a man shall be run down , and concluded , by prescription , authority , consent of fathers , scripture , reason , and the like , without being convinc'd . n. c. i thought you would have shewed me in what manner , or by what means liberty of conscience comes to turn the hearts , and interests of subjects against their superiors , as you said you would . c. a little patience , and i 'le be as good as my word . it has brought us to this pass , already , you see , that it has cast the government upon the good nature of the multitude , and made it purely dependent upon the breath of the people , whether it shall stand , or fall. so that ( in short ) the matter in question , falls under these two considerations . first ; whether a people , left to themselves , either to be under the restrient of laws , or not , will not rather agree to cast off a government , then to defend it . secondly ; whether they will not , likewise , find a very fair appearance of interest , and advantage , in so doing . the former , i think , will easily be granted , by any man that does but advise either with the common practises of the world , or with humane frailty : taking the world , either in individuals , or in parties . what says the artificer , the tradesman , the farmer ? why should we be put upon extremities of hard labour , course fare , rising early , and going to bed late ? ( and all little enough to keep our families from starving ) any more then such , and such ; that lie wallowing in ease , abundance , luxury , and riot ? but this we may thank the law for ; that has appropriated those possessions to particulars , which god almighty gave us in common . why should we be the drudges of the kingdom ? ( says the day-labourer ) the law is their enemy too , because it keeps them in awe , that they dare not steal . it is the same case , with traytors , felons , vagabonds , and all criminals . and so it is with factions , and associated parties ; we might set up this government , or this church ; and we , t'other , ( say they ) if it were not for those accursed laws , that make it death to endeavour such an alteration . this is a true , and naked accompt of the peoples thoughts , and reasonings , in the point of liberty , and obedience : and a sufficient proof of their inclination ( not against this , or that ; but ) against any establishment : it being the main end of government , to secure the community against the encroachments , and attempts of particulars : though to the very great damage , and ruine , ( many times ) of private persons , and parties . if you be satisfied now , that the people do not naturally love government , you need not doubt but they will judge it their interest to remove it : every male-content , enterteining himself with hopes of mending his condition upon the change. but alas ! this is not an undertaking for single persons , small parties , or petty factions , by themselves apart ; but some common medium must be found out , for the uniting of them all ; which , indeed , is amply provided for , in the project of liberty of conscience : and does not only facilitate the work , by drawing the disaffected into a body ; but it does also countenance , and encourage it , by authorising the separation . n. c. but to me , it seems , on the contrary , that an indulgence would set the peoples minds at liberty from fears and contrivances , for the avoidance of impendent dangers ; and encourage them to engage the utmost of their endeavours and abilities , in the businesses of peace , and security . ] c. as to the security , and peace of the publique , if enough be not already said , you may repair to the history of our late broils , for the rest : where you will also find the condition of particulars , to have been every jote as distracted , and unquiet ( in proportion ) as that of the government . you are to expect schisms in corporations , companies , families ; as well as in religious congregations : divisions , as well betwixt parents , and children ; masters , and servants ; as betwixt rulers , and subjects : feuds betwixt man , and wife ; betwixt brethren , kinred , friends ; and all these differences , variously influenced , according to the benignity , or malignity of their divided opinions . nor will it be any wonder , ( upon admittance of this liberty ) to have as many religions in a house , as persons : where the husband draws one way , the wife , another ; and the rest of the family have their ways by themselves , too . and this goes on , ( to the utter extermination of order , duty , and quiet ) till they have throughly wearied themselves , with tossing , and tumbling from one sect , or profession , to another . and then , when they are at their wits end , they commonly take up in the church of rome , with an implicite faith , in the conclusion . now if what i have said , may be of force sufficient to prove , that liberty of conscience , is destructive , both of religion , and government ; and of the peace of the kingdom , as well private , as publique . i cannot see how it should advance us , ( as is earnestly suggested ) in the business of trade , and plenty . n. c. we shall never have a flourishing trade without it : because the pressure in these things falls generally more upon the trading sort of men , then any in the nation . we may see it in the great city , and in all corporations : it makes many give over trading , and retire ; it makes others remove into holland , and other forreign parts ; as it did heretofore from norwich , to the irrecoverable prejudice of our cloathing trade , upon the like occasion ; and it certainly prevents all protestant strangers to come to live , and trade among us . c. the pressure ( you say ) falls most upon traders : i answer , that you begin with a non constat ; for the thing it self does not appear . and then , you make traders more scrupulous then the rest of the nation , who are not generally understood to be more conscientious ; as having divers temptations in the way of their employments , to strein a point of conscience now and then ; and they are but men , as well as their neighbours . if your observation be right ; we may thank the nonconforming ministers , who have had the handling of them . your urging , that want of liberty makes many give over trading , and retire , does not agree with their observation , that place their wonder on the other side , that so many hold ; considering the circumstances of a long , and expensive war with the french , and dutch. ( the most expensive that ever this kingdom undertook ) and two of the most dreadful , and destroying iudgments that ever almighty god laid upon this nation , i. e. pestilence , and fire , one upon the neck of another . you object , the removal of others into holland , as formerly . indeed it is not for the credit of your cause to mind us of those that formerly left us . take the peins to read bayly's disswasive , pa. . and there you shall see what work they made in holland : even such , that peters himself was scandalized at it ; quitted his congregation , and went to new-england . bridg , sympson , and ward , renounc'd their english ordination , and took ordination again from the people . the people , after this , deposed mr. ward ; and the schism betwixt sympson's church , and bridg his , was so fierce , that their ministers were fain to quit their stations ; and the dutch magistrate forc'd to interpose the civil authority to quiet them . in new england , their humour , and behaviour not much better ( according to the report of the same author , pag. , . ) of forty thousand souls , not a third part would be of any church ; and such heresies started , as a man would tremble to recite . if only such as these forsake us , the land has a good riddance . further ; if it was to the prejudice of our cloathing trade , ( this separation ) who can help it ? it was their fault to betray the interest of their country , by teaching the mystery to forreigners ; but no blame at all can be reflected upon the government , for refusing toleration to such lawless , and unruly libertines . now , as to the hindring of protestant strangers from coming over to us , and trading with us , it is a clear mistake , to imagine the church of england to be such a bugbear to those of the reformation abroad , as is pretended . ( which shall hereafter be made appear ) it is not the act of uniformity that hinders strangers , but the want of an act of endenisation ; which , perchance , the wisdom of future times will find convenient , for the supply , and repair of that depopulation which is brought upon us by our colonies . but to come to an issue . how was it with trade , when conscience took the full swinge ? it brought on a war ; and so it must again , or a standing army to prevent it . how many families were ruin'd , on the one side , with pure benevolence to the cause , in contributions , and enterteinments to the devourers of widows houses , and the captivaters of silly women ? and on the other side , as many were undone with taxes , and plunder . how went trading on , when all business was neglected , but gallopping up and down to lectures , to hear news , and sedition ? when prentices robb'd their masters , and took sanctuary in the service ? when publique faith was a tradesmans best security ; and the whole nation held life , and estate , at the good pleasure of a close committee ? n. c. let liberty of conscience be once fitly given , and the root of all mens hopes , and pretensions , that desire publique mischief , is pull'd up . c. fitly , will be well indeed ; but ( with your favour ) what is the meaning of fitly ? how shall we agree upon the dos ? unless you intend , that the magistrate is to continue giving , till the subject shall leave asking . and that must be : for , if ever he thinks of holding his hand sooner , he had better have done nothing . n. c. but what colour will there be for any further exception ? c. the very same they have now . new scruples will bolt new demands : and beside ; i should be glad if you would furnish me with any one instance , where the non-conformists were ever the better for indulgence . sect . xvii . this kingdom has been still the worse for indulging the non-conformists , and the party never the better . which evinces , that uniformity is the true interest of this government , and not toleration . c. upon queen elizabeth's coming to the crown , those non-conformists , that fled , in queen mary's days , and separating from the english congregation at francfort , went off to geneva , came back again for england : and with their libels , clamours , private consultations , and meetings , gave trouble enough to the government for the ten first years of her majesties reign ; who was , at that time , so beset , with the roman catholiques , on the one hand ; and the puritans , on the other , that she thought it well , upon that pinch , to save her self , without exercising rigor , and severity upon either party . this impunity gave them the confidence , a while after , to declare themselves for the geneva discipline , and ( in the fourteenth of her reign ) by an audacious pamphlet ( under the title of an admonition ) to press the parliament to a reformation . the principal abetters of this libel were discover'd , and clapt up ; and soon after , out comes a second admonition ; telling the parliament , in plain english , that , if authority would not , they must set it up themselves . and it was not long , ere they were as good as their words , by erecting several formal presbyteries up and down the kingdom . ( as appeared , upon undeniable proof , and confession of parties to the combination ) they had their synods ; their classical , and provincial conferences ; pronounc'd their decrees : concurring in the main against bishops , ceremonies , and common prayer . they had their agents throughout the kingdom , upon a strict survey of the value of every benefice ; the number of parishioners ; their quality , manner of life , and conversation . their book of discipline was long upon the anvile ; but at length , ( about . ) it was finished , communicated , and subscribed : with a promise , to observe it themselves , and to use all lawful , and convenient means to further , and advance it . in conclusion ; the whole matter came to be detected ; cartwright , snape , and several of the ringleaders , were examin'd , and committed : whereupon , coppinger , arthington , hacket , wigginton , &c. entred into a conspiracy for their deliverance ; and to have the blood of every man that should dare to give his vote against them , in the star-chamber ; nay , to depose the queen her self , in case of her refusal to promote the reformation . and all this , not without the privity , and tacit approbation of the most considerable ministers of the party . this was the blessed fruit of lenity , and forbearance under queen elizabeth ; the law iustled out by a faction ; a plot upon the life of the queen , and counsel , carried on , under colour of religion , and reformation . n. c. still i perceive , you pick out the foulest cases , and instances you can lay hold on , to match with ours . c. is it not rather your misfortune , to write after the foulest copies ? but to the business : what would you say , if his majesty now in being , had queen elizabeth's game to play ? apprehensions of his life , from iesuits , both protestant , and papist ? the whole generation of the non-conformists united against his person , and government , as well in iudgment , as in faction ? ( which are here divided into a thousand disagreements ) you would ( beyond all peradventure ) give the government for lost , without an immediate recourse to an act of indulgence , and accommodation , to preserve it . but the policy of those times made choice rather of another course ; some were imprison'd ; others , put to death ; according to the demerit of the offence . n. c. are you for punishing inconformity with death then ? c. no , by no means ; hacket , you know , was not put to death for inconformity , but for treason . and pray let me give you a brief of his story , as cambden delivers it . he was born at oundle in northamptonshire ; a poor , insolent , ill-natured , and illiterate fellow . he married a widow , spent her fortune in riot ; and when he had nothing else to trust to , betook himself to the imposture of religion , and an affectation of the geneva discipline : so far ingratiating himself with several of the prime zealots of that profession , that they did him the honour to make him of their council , in their grand design , ( to the execution whereof , he also pretended an extraordinary call , and commission from above ) he was ( in conclusion ) apprehended , charged with treason , found guilty , condemn'd , and executed . now to shew you the devil himself , in the shape of an angel of light , this hacket , as he was upon the hurdle , in the way to his execution , never left calling upon almighty god , with hideous outcries : and now behold ( says he ) the heavens are open , and the son of the most high coming down to deliver me . when he was come to the place of execution , he prosecuted his blaspemies , with more horrid , and furious exclamations : [ heavenly , and almighty god ; thou that art the alpha , and omega ; lord of lords , and king of kings ; thou eternal god ; that knowest me to be the true jehovah , that thou hast sent ; shew some miracle from heaven , for the conversion of these infidels ; and save me from my enemies ; or if thou dost not , i 'le set the heavens on fire , and with these very hands cast thee out of thy throne . i should have scrupled the bare recital of these blasphemies , were it not for the desire i have , to possess you with a due consideration of those execrable abuses , that are frequently imposed upon the world , under the visor of religion . the condition of the kingdom was doubtless very sad , that had such turbulent spirits to deal withal ; and yet we find , that by one severe law ( of the th of the queen's reign ) her majesty gave her self , and her people , quiet , as to that particular , for the whole remainder of her life . the penalties ( as i remember ) were these ▪ imprisonment without bail or main-prize , for being present at unla●…ul conve●…ricles ; the offender to be discharged , if within three months he made his open submission , and acknowledgment , in the form by the said statute appointed . but in case of recusancy to conform within that time , he was required to abjure the realm . and in case of refusing to abjure ; or of not departing within a limited lime ; or of returning without licence , to be proceeded against as a felon , without benefit of clergy . n. c. and yet you see , for all your new-modelling of corporations ; prohibiting of conventicles , removing non-conformists five miles from the place of their usual supports , and influences : nevertheless , the state ecclesiastical hath advanced little in the esteem , acceptance , or acquiescence of the people . c. this is very true ; and if other laws for the prevention of capital crimes , were no better executed , then that for uniformity , your argument would lie as fair every jot , for the toleration of murder , as it does now for schism . but however , it succeeded well with queen elizabeth ; and not worse with king iames , as appears by the story . his majesty ( under twelve years old ) took the government of scotland into his hand . the year following , the ministers presented a form of church-policy , to the parliament then sitting ; and upon the debate , matters were agreed , as far as possible , without prejudice to the king's authority , and the liberty of the subject : and these points were either referr'd to further consideration , or pass'd over in silence . the assembly took snuff at this d●…latory way of proceeding , and , without more adoe , pass'd a vote , for doing their own business , without asking the parliament leave . they began with the arch-bishop of glasgow : and presently fell upon the whole order , requiring them to renounce their temporal titles , their civil iurisdiction ; to decline their votes in parliament , and to submit themselves to a retrenchment of their episcopal revenues . their next step , was the demolishing of the cathedral at glasgow : but when the quarriers were just entring upon the work , the tradesmen of the town , in an uproar , threaten'd the undertake●…s , and so they quitted it : but not without a complaint to the council , of the insolence of the mutineers ; which came to this issue , his majesty justifi'd the tradesmen , and forbad the ministers any further meddling in the destroying of churches . and this was all the cheque they had for so lewd an outrage . in , the king wrote to the ministers , not to prejudge the decisions of the parliament , then approaching , by the conclusions of their assembly ; and to forbear the practice of any innovations , till their meeting . whereupon , instead of complying , they proceeded to a positive resolution of adhering to their former conclusions ; question'd the arch-bishop of st. andrews , for giving his voice in parliament ; and soon after , by an act of assembly , they commanded the bishops , under pain of excommunication , not to exercise the office of pastors , in any sort whatsoever , without licence from the general assembly ; and further directing , the patrimony of the church to be so disposed of , as they should judg reasonable at their next convention : thus , by degrees , growing bolder and bolder , upon forbearance . the particulars of their usurpations would be too tedious ; i could otherwise tell you of their iustification of the treasonous seizure of the king at ruthuen ; their propositions , and compleints in , with the king 's gentle return ; their covenants , and seditious practices , even to the encouraging ; and avowing of open rebellion . and still the more plyant , and easie his majesty was , the more contumacious , and untractable were these people . in the end ; what with the tumult at edinburgh , in ; and the ministers band of confederacy , immediately upon it ; the king was forced upon a resolution of rigor , and severity ; and ( as spotswood observes ) he received little or no opposition thereafter . at his majesties entry upon the government of england , the ceremonies of his first reception , and inauguration were scarce over , but he was assaulted with petitions , and importunities about the reformation of the government , and liturgie of the church : in the name of thousands of godly , learned , and conscientious men , that could not conform : whereupon , a proclamation was issued for a conference to be held at hampton-court , in ianuary , . so many bishops , and deans appointed for the church ; and for the petitioners , there appeared , dr. reynolds , dr. sparkes , mr. knewstubb , and mr. chadderton . the points in controversie , were particularly , and solemnly debated ; and in the end , such satisfaction given even to the plaintiffs themselves , that they all promis'd obedience ; and dr. sparkes became , afterward , an advocate for the orders of the church , and wrote a treatise for conformity . knewstubb indeed boggled a little , and desired to know , how far an ordinance of the church was binding , without offence to christian liberty ? upon which general question , the king turn'd short , and answer'd him ; le roy●…s ' avisera : let us have no more of those questions , how far you are bound to obey , what the church has once ordeined : but conform at your peril . while the business was fresh , they made a faint pretense of appealing to another conference : but upon second thoughts , they let it totally fall , and never gave the king any further trouble upon that subject . thus far , you see , the government has been preserv'd by strictness of order , and uniformity . we come now to those fatalities of tenderness , and relaxation that destroy'd us . n. c. you never consider , that the non-conformists are more numerous , and powerful now then formerly they were , by many degrees : and that the dissenters cause has got ground upon the church-interest , ever since . but follow your discourse . c. in the first of the late king ; was exhibited , in parliament , a petition , ( among other matters ) for the propagation of the gospel , and the restoring of silenc'd ministers ; to which , his majesty , return'd a gracious , and yielding answer , which produc'd a remonstrance of miscarriages in government ; insomuch , that his majesty was forced to dissolve that parliament . in the second year of his reign ; he call'd another parliament , which pursu'd the same method , and went a little higher then the former : so that the king was fain to dissolve that too . in the year following ; the king call'd another ; and upon their meeting , went somewhat a quicker way to work with them : minding them , in a short , and pertinent speech , of their past failings ; advising them to steer a more peaceable course for the future , and not to put him upon extremities , to provide for the safety of his people . this change of stile , and resolution , in his majesty , drew immediately from the commons , a grant of five subsidies . the king was too generous , and candid to take that present for a bait ; and relapsing into his former temper of charity , and softness , was presently accosted with the petition of right ; which , after some difficulty , and demur , his majesty passes : and after this , followed a petition , remonstrance , and protestation , which put an end also to that convention . look now a little into the scotch affairs , and observe the growth of the non-conformists demands , from one thing to another ; till in the end , by virtue of what the king granted them , they possest themselves of all the rest. in their tumults ( says his majesty ) they complein'd only of the service book . in their petition exhibited to the counsel ; they complein'd of the service-book , and canons . in their covenant they complein of , and abjure the five articles of perth . ( although establish't , first by a general assembly , and then by parliament ) after this , they complein of the high commission ; and then , of prelates sitting in civil judicatories . hereupon , his majesty commissions marquis hamilton , with full power , and authority , to conclude , and determine all such things as should be found for the good , quietness , and peace of that kingdom : directing him also to take the mildest course that might be , for the calming of those commotions . and what effect had this peaceable inclination of his majesty , upon the covenanters , but to blow them up into more seditious , and bolder practises , against the king's authority , and the publique peace ? they pursue their demands , and clamour for a free general assembly , and a parliament . his majesty gives them all their askings : indicts a free general assembly , and a parliament ; disch●…rges the service-book , the canons ; high-commission ; the ur●…ing of the five articles of perth : commands the subscribing of the confession of faith , and the band thereto annexed ; in the very form which they pretended to impose ; and offers them an act of indemnity for what was past . in all which condescentions , the king's patience , and mercy only served to heighten , and confirm those men in their undertaking , and to expose his royal dignity , to contempt . in the conclusion , the king had so far gratified their importunities , that they had nothing left to quarrel upon , but his majesties refusal to abolish episcopacy , and to admit the authority of their lay-elders . from hence , they brake out into open rebellion ; and ( when the king had them directly at his mercy ) upon the interview of the two armies near berwick , such was his tenderness , that upon their supplication for a treaty , he trusted them again , and concluded a pacification ; whereof the covenanters observ'd not so much as one article . upon his return to london , his majesty ( as is elswhere observed ) passes the triennial bill ; abolishes the star-chamber , and high commission court : passes an act for the continuance of the parliament . not to insist upon the several other concessions , concerning ship-money , forests , and stannary courts ; tunnage and poundage , knighthood , &c. now in requital of these benefits , the faction claps up , and prosecutes his majesties friends ; prefers , and enlarges his enemies ; rewards the scots ; entertains their commissioners ; votes them their dear brethren , for invading us ; calls in all books , and proclamations against them . they take away the bishops votes ; impose a protestation upon the people ; take away the earl of strafford's life ; charge twelve of the bishops with treason ; declare the king's proclamations to be false , scandalous , and illegal ; keep his majesty out of his own towns ; and seize his arms , and ammunition . they present him with nineteen propositions for the resignation of his royal authority . they vote a general , and raise an army against him . they usurp the power of the militia , and give the king battel ; levy moneys ; and declare the queen guilty of treason . after all these usurpations upon the civil power , they are put to 't to bring the cause of religion once again upon the stage : they enter into a covenant ; and call in the scots again ; they abolish the common-prayer ; secure the person of the king ; share the revenues of the church , and crown . they sequester , banish , and imprison his majesties adherents ; and in the conclusion , sell , depose , and murder their soveraign . this was the fruit of that pious , and unfortunate prince his clemency , and indulgence . now to bring the instance home to the present times : what could be more pious , gracious , or obliging , then his majesties declaration concerning ecclesiastical affairs , in favour of the non-conformists ? all that was possible for the king to do , in consistence with conscience , honour , and the peace of his dominions , his majesty has therein given them a frank assurance of . ( with their lives , and estates , over and above , in the act of oblivion ) and are they one jote the quieter for all this ? no , but the worse : for no sooner was the king's tenderness , in that particular , made publique , but the generality ( even of those that had lately entred into a regular , and dutiful compliance with the orders of the church ) started into a new revolt : which proves sufficiently , the benefit , and necessity of a strict rule , and the hazzard of a toleration : for rather then abide the penalty of the act , they could conform ; but upon the least glimpse of a dispensation , they rel●…pse into a schism . neither do i find , that they were less troublesom , before the act of uniformity , when they preach'd at randome , then they have been since ; nor , to say the truth , that they have much more cause of compleint , now , then they had then. for what are they the worse , for a penalty , that is never executed ? but if you will have a true measure of their moderation , and good nature : i pray'e take notice of their proceedings upon his majesties commission , for the review of the book of common-prayer . we will appoint ( says his majesty , in his declaration concerning ecclesiastical affairs ) an equal number of learned divines of both perswasions , to review the * same , and to make such alterations as shall be thought most necessary . so that the alterations were to be agreed upon by both parties , and found likewise to be necessary . now instead of alterations , joyntly agreed upon , they publish a complete liturgy of their own ; indeed a new directory ; but under the title of the reformation of the liturgie . ( which in all their books , signifies abolition ) give me the favour , next , to observe upon some of their necessary alterations . they have turn'd wedded wife , into married . doest thou believe ? into do you believe ? all this i stedfastly believe , into all this i unfeignedly believe . these are some of the important scruples , that are cast into the balance , against the unity of the church , and the peace of the kingdom . what is this , but to make sport with authority , and conscience ? laws must be suspended ; princes , vilified and importun'd ; because , forsooth , the godly party may not be govern'd by laws of their own making : nay , by words of their own chusing too ; so that we are like to have a schism , for syllables , as well as for ceremonies . for what is the difference betwixt wedded , and married , but that the one wears the stamp of the law-makers , and the other , of the law-menders ? is it not now evident , that they are the worse for good usage ? and that they have ever been so ? you see the effects of keeping to a rule , in queen elizabeth , and king iames : and we have since felt , to our cost , the effects of a relaxation : which abundantly satisfies me , that uniformity is the true interest of this government , and not toleration . n. c. uniformity is the interest of this kingdom , as it is of any other , where there is any fair possibility of procuring it . but the principles of dissent have taken such root in this land , that you may as well think of depopulating the nation , as of uniting it , upon the points in question . c. but i am otherwise perswaded ; and that the party of non-conformists is not so considerable , as you make it . sect . xviii . the party of scrupulous , and conscientious non-conformists , is neither numerous , nor dangerous . c. i am apt to believe that party is not so numerous as you represent it , for many reasons , first ; i take english mens consciences , and their neighbours , to be much of a make : and i do not find the subject of our controversie , to be made matter of conscience , by any other sort of christians whatsoever , out of his majesties dominions . n. c. 't is well we have good authority to the contrary . the preface to the directory assures us , that the liturgy used in the church of england , hath proved an offence , not only to the godly at home ; but also to the reformed churches abroad . and smectymnuus tells the parliament , ( pag. . ) that there is such a vast difference between it , and the liturgies of all other reformed churches as that it keeps them at a distance from us . c. we 'l talk of that anon ; and in the mean time ( with your good leave ) pursue what we have now before us . another thing that peswades me the conscientious number of dissenters cannot be very great , is this. the law has made an ample provision for their relief : leaving every houshold , with four more , at liberty to worship according to their own way . so that the laity has no pretense of compleint ; especially , those that plead for the ordination of their own ministers , and maintein , that seven persons make a full , ministerial , and completely organiz'd church . a man might make an exception to your accompt too , upon the score of old reckonings ; for you have ever had the faculty of multiplication . your thousands at hampton-court , came to a matter of nine and forty : and we remember very well , your old way of personating petitions , from multitudes of the godly , and well-affected , in both city , and country ; when , effectually , the poor innocent papers never travell'd farther , then from the close committee , to the lobby . n. c. if you will not credit report , believe your eyes . do you not find our meetings thronged , and many of your churches empty ? c. somewhat , of both , i must confess : but yet i am likewise inform'd , that you shew divers of these meetings , as peters did his rings , and bodkins , at several places , several times over and over , to make a noise , ond increase the reputation of your party . to contract the discourse . there is a loud clamour , and the ministers make it . and these too , that stickle in the cause , none of the most conscientious neither , unless they have a gospel we never heard of ; to iustifie disobedience in themselves ; the provoking of it in others ; the disturbing of the publique peace , and the sowing of dissention betwixt prince , and people : which is manifestly the scope of their writings , and designs . n. c. that undertaking goes somewhat too far , to pronounce upon their designs . do you pretend to know their hearts then ? c. yes ; and with very good authority , if a man may be allow'd to judge what reasonable men aim at , from deliberate words , and actions , that lead naturally , to such and such certain ends. and this humour ( i tell ye ) of aspersing the government , and teizing the multitude , runs through all their papers . i durst appeal to your own soul , whether you your self can imagine , that a twentieth part of the present plaintiffs in matter of conscience , are truly acted , and possest with that scrupulosity they pretend to . alas ! alas ! you talk of conscience : 't is not what every man thinks , or says , that is presently conscience . we are impos'd upon , by phansie , artifice , or delusion . some deceive themselves , and others cousen us. in one word ; whatsoever is not of conscience , in this medly , is faction : and undoubtedly , the conscientious party has but a slender share in the mixture . as that party is not numerous , so neither is it dangerous : upon a principle of honesty , and religion . no man of conscience , can either desire to embroyl the kingdom , or expect to be the better for 't . but still have a care how ye take every thing for gold , that glisters . conscience was the subject of the last quarrel ; religion , the pretext ; popery the bug-bear ; and the issue of it was dreadful . consider with your selves ; you have many of the same persons to lead you on ; and they have the very same matter too , to work upon . you meant no hurt to the last king , you say ; and yet you ruin'd him : you may perchance intend as little harm to this , and yet do him as much . and what amends is it , when the government is laid again in dust , and desolation , to cry , you were overseen ? if you had thought it should ever have come to this , you would have cut off your hands , or tongues ; and i know not what . look back ; and tremble at the course you are now upon ; for you are , questionless , in the very track of the late rebellion . and one may , without breach of charity , conclude , that no man that was an active instrument in the last war , can acquit himself of a most prodigious impiety , and ingratitude , in reviving , and prosecuting the same interest , and method now against the son , by which , he notoriously contributed toward the death of the father . sect . xix . the non-conformists appeal , from the government , and discipline of the church of england , to the judgment , and practise of the reformed churches beyond the seas ; examined , and submitted to censure . c. it is observable , that throughout the whole quarrel against the orders , and government of the church of england , the non-conformists still fly for countenance to the iudgment of the reformed churches , abroad : and so likewise in the question of toleration , they insist much upon the practise , and tenderness of other churches : as if the ecclesiastical state of this kingdom , were as singular , for tyranny , and corruption , as , in truth , the litigants themselves are for contumacy , and disobedience . in the answer of the two houses to the scots declaration , ●… . this government , by arch-bishops , bishops , &c. is declared to be evil , justly offensive , and burdensom to the kingdom ; a great impediment to the reformation , and growth of religion : and resolved it is , that it shall be taken away : with a regard to the introducing of another government , more apt to procure an union , with the church of scotland , and other reformed churches abroad . and the ministers , in the petition for peace , sing the same note too : if men ( say they ) must be cast out of the church , and ministry , because they are not wiser then the pastors of most of the reformed churches , &c. as who should say ; the church of england is the only protestant church in the christian world , that pretends to this way of proceeding ; and the protestants abroad , are all of the non-conformists side . let this matter be fairly examin'd , i beseech you , and we shall quickly see where the fault lies . in the first place ; what is the judgment of the reformed churches abroad , touching the english episcopacy ? n. c. you may read their , iudgments in their practises ; or 't is but looking into the reformation , in france , holland , and the neighbourhood , and you may resolve your self , in that point . c. truly i find nothing at all to your advantage , which way soever i look ; luther himself distinguishes betwixt popish tyrants , and true bishops , and professes to condemn them as popish , not as bishops . the authors of the augustane confession profess ; that they would willingly preserve the ecclesiastical , and canonical politie , if the bishops would cease to tyrannize over their churches . bucer declares himself wholly , for bishops , and metropolitans : and melancthon to luther ; you would not imagine ( says he ) how some people are nettled , to see church-polity restor'd : as if it were the romish sovereignty again . ita de regno suo , non de evangelio , dimicant socii nostri . as if the quarrel were dominion , not religion . calvin acknowledges , that the ancient government , by arch-bishops , and bishops ; and the nicene constitution of patriarchs , was for orders sake , and good government . and delivers himself to cardinal sadolet , with an anathema upon the opposers of that hierarchy , which submits it self to jesus christ. zanchie ( the compiler of the gallican confession ) observes a change of name , rather then of office , throughout most of the german churches : as super-intendents , and general-super intendents , in the place of bishops , and arch-bishops : acknowledging that by the consent of histories , counsels , and the ancient fathers , those orders have been generally allowed by all christian societies . where they are in exercise , let them continue ; and where , by the iniquity of the times , they have been abolish'd , they ought to be restor'd . beza ( the rigid successor of calvin ) in excuse to the arch-bishop of canterbury , for meddling beyond his sphere : — we do not charge ( says he ) all arch-bishops , and bishops , with tyranny . — the church of england hath offorded many learned men , and many glorious martyrs of that function . if that authority be there still , may a perpetual blessing go along with it . this , in the name of the whole church of geneva , and addressed , to the primate of all england . totius angliae primati . saravia , arguing for the hierarchy out of the apostles canons , beza returns him this answer . this is no more , then what we wish might be restor'd to all churches . [ quid aliud hic statuitur , quam quod in omnibus locis , ecclesiis restitutum cupimus ? the three kingdoms of swede , denmark , and norway ( as mr. durell observes ) retein the order still , of bishops , and arch-bishops . in the protestant cantons of switzerland , there is also a subordination of ministers . and so in the palatinate ; in hessen ; the duke of brandenburgh's territories ; anhalt , bremen , poland , lithuania , &c. come we now into france , holland , and geneva . and first hear mr. du bosc of the reformed church of caen. well-ordered episcopacy hath most important , and considerable utilities , which cannot be found in the presbyterian discipline . mr. gaches , one of the ministers of charenton . the best men in our churches ( says he ) have honour'd the prelates of england . — the name of schism may do more harm to the church in one year ; then the exc●…ss of episcopal authority can do in an age. and again : sin hath brought in the necessity of government ; and the failings of ministers make the order of bishops necessary . mr. le moyn , of rouen , pronounces it to be want of prudence , and charity , if any seek the ruine of bishops . [ i trust that his majesty will be sure to re-establish the authority of the english church , and use his power for a perfect re-union of all the reformed churches ; which that be may effect , his majesty must preserve his bishops . i hold it impossible ( says mr. gayon of bourdeaux ) that england can ever be quiet , and flourish , but under the episcopal government . in holland , bogermannus , ( the president of the synod at dort ) upon a suggestion from the bishop of landaff , how fit a remedy episcopacy would be for the suppression of heresies , and schism , made this reply ; domine , non sumus adeò foelices ] we are not so happy , my lord. and for geneva , we have the voices of the principals of that church also , for the authority , and advantage of episcopal government . so that if you be no better seconded against our ceremonies , then you are against our bishops , you have the whole stream of protestant divines against you . this is according to what i have formerly had occasion to deliver , upon this subject . n. c. we do dissent , upon just reasons , from the ecclessastical hierarchy , 〈◊〉 prelacy , ( disclaimed in covenant ) as it was stated , and exercised in these kingdoms ; yet do 〈◊〉 , nor ever did renounce the true , ancient , primitive episcopacy , as it was balanced , or menaged by a due commixtion of presbyters therewith . c. we are not here to debate the qualifications , and limits of the episcopacy you pretend to : but to proceed , having made it appear , that the hierarchy , which , ( under colour of reduction , or commixtion ) you formerly rooted out , and are now again undermining ; is that very hierarchy , which you have now heard reverenced , and recommended by so many venerable testimonies . or , if after all this , you can but produce one publick act of any protestant church , beyond the seas , in favour of your claim , do it ; and save your party the credit , of not being single , and particular in your schism . what have you next to say against our ceremonies ? n. c. all the best reformed churches of christ , ( who only are competent iudges in this case , and to whose iudgment , and example , we ought rather to conform our selves , in ceremonies , then to the synagague of anti-christ ) do esteem those ceremonies , needless , inexpedient , and fit to be abolished : how the churches of other countries approve of them , may appear sufficiently by this , that they have banished the use of them out of their assemblies . c. are they only needless , inexpedient , and fit to be abolish'd then ? i thought you would have found them absolutely unlawful , idolatrous , and upon pein of damnation , not to be reteined . according to this measure , what will become of the whole frame of our government , if it shall take you in the head , to say the same thing of every law , and constitution of the land ? ceremonies will not down with you , because they are needless , inexpedient , &c. i beseech you , shew me the needfulness of killing , and plundring , or the expedience of dissolving publique laws , and depopulating kingdoms : and yet these are matters you can swallow , even without chewing . needless ? and inexpedient ? so●…ly , i beseech you ; you are for teaching your governours more wit , as well as more religion , and conscience . n. c. ●…eep to your text i pray'e ; for we are not now upon the lawfulness of the english ceremonies ; but upon an enquiry , what enterteinment they receive in the judgment , and practise of other reformed churches : without engaging our selves in any other consideration of their reason , and convenience . i say , they are banish'd out of their assemblies , and you are at liberty ( if you can ) to prove the contrary . c. let us first see how far we agree upon the allowance of any ceremonies at all , and where to place the right , and authority of imposing them . the church of england thinks it convenient , that every country should use such ceremonies as they shall think best , to the setting forth of god's honour , and glory , &c. which is according to the sense of other reformed churches , as appears by their several confessions . with us agrees , first , the church of helvetia . [ churches have always used their liberty in rites , as being things indifferent . which we also do at this day . that of bohemia likewise : [ humane traditions . and ceremonies , brought in by a good custom , are with an uniform consent to be reteined in the ecclesiastical assemblies of christian people , at the common service of god. the gallican ; [ every place may have their peculiar constitutions , as it shall seem meet for them . the belgique ; [ we receive those laws that are fit , either to cherish or maintein concord , or to keep us in the obedience of god. that of auspurgh ; [ ecclesiastical rites , which are ordein'd by man's authority , and tend to quietness , and good order in the church , are to be observed . that of saxony ; [ for order sake , there must be some decent , and seemly ceremonies . that of swethland ; sueh traditions of men , as agree with the scriptures , and were ordeined for good manners . and the profit of men , are worthily to be accounted rather of god then of man. n. c. the question is not , about an agreement in ceremonies that may be exercised without offence , either to god , or man ; ( according to your instances ) but about their liking , or dislike , of those in practise among us : as the surplice ; kneeling at the communion ; the cross in baptism , and the like . c. as to the surplice ; mr. durell tells you , that the churches that conform to the confession of augsburgh , have the very same ceremonies with the church of england : and surplices in many places . and further ; that a national assembly at charenton , anno . hath declared , that there is neither idolatry , nor superstition in that worship . the protestant ministers also in bohemia , lithuania , prussia , make no scruple at all of preaching in surplices , whensoever they are called upon to preach where surplices are used . nay , calvin himself , does not approve of hooper ' s violent inconformity in that point . [ de pileo , & veste linea , maluissem ( ut illa etiam non probem ) non usque adeo ipsum pugnare : idque nuper suadebam . and let mr. baxter pin the basket. some decent garment is necessary ; either the magistrate , or minister himself , or the associated pastors must determine what . if the magistrate or synod tie all to one habit , ( suppose it indeoent ) yet this is but an imprudent use of power , and the thing it self being lawful , i would obey , and use that garment . n. c. you only make mention , where it has been used , and permitted ; but you take no notice where it has been rejected . and then the personal authorities you cite , in favour of it , declare their iudgments to be still against it . c. but only so against it , as not to allow of a separation , upon that scruple . now whereas you object the refusal , or rejection of it , elsewhere : it does not follow , that every church disallows , what it does not practise : and it shall content me , to find the practise of so many churches for us , and none , against us . as to kneeling at the communion ; the bohemian churches use that posture , and so do the churches of poland . with whom , the french , and dutch do so far agree , as in hoc ritu , suam cuique ecclesiae libertatatem salvam relinquere . to leave every church at its own freedom , in that particular . ] mr. baxter in his five disputations , does also profess , that rather then disturb the peace of the church , he would kneel too ; how hardly soever he may think of the imposition . so that in the case of kneeling , likewise , we have several of the reformed churches that joyn with us in the practise of it , and not so much as any one of them , that appears in our condemnation . touching the use of the cross in baptism ; ( beside the undeniable antiquity of the custom ) you may hear from mr. durell , that the reformed churches of the confession of augsburgh , do for the most part , use it ; and that at paris , many children of the church of charenton , have been baptized in the chappels of the english embassadours there , according to the rites of the church of england . and moreover , that only the nonconforming english , and scotch oppose it . i could enlarge my self , upon very good authority , to the justification of our way of worship , throughout , in every particular of your exceptions ; but i will rather chuse to encounter all your objections at once ; by proving , that the protestant churches , abroad , have as great a reverence for the authority , rites , and ceremonies of the church of england , in the whole frame of the constitution , as they have a kindness for the several parts of it , which they do severally exercise among themselves . i must still be beholden to the industry of the reverend durell , who has much obliged us with a clear , and methodical manifestation of the agreement of the church of england , ( as it is now established by the act of uniformity ) with other reformed churches beyond the seas . sir iohn colladon ( one of his majesties physicians in ordinary ) had the honour to congratulate his majesties restauration , from the city and church of geneva , and from the protestant cantons in switzerland . upon his departure , he put this quaere to the rulers of the said church ; whether he might lawfully joyn with the church of england , in publique worship , and receive the holy sacrament according to the usual rites thereof ? it was answer'd , that he might ; and that it was not to be question'd . here is also , a whole french reformed congregation , that hath conformed to the rites , and ceremonies of the church of england , to the great satisfaction of the divines of rouen , paris , geneva , bourdeaux , &c. and since the establishment of this church , divers ministers have come over , from geneva , france , germany , poland , lithuania , piemont ; students , elders , private persons : and none of them ever yet refused , either to assist , or to conform . mr. de laune , minister of the wallons church at norwich ; and mr. calendrin , one of the ministers of the dutch church in london , have divers times officiated in english congregations , according to the book of common prayer of the church of england ] without any scandal , either given or taken . nay , so far are they from disowning us , that the french divines hold them for schismatiques , and punishable , that refuse communion with us . * bucer thanks god with all his soul , to see the english ceremonies so pure . n. c. and have they , i beseech you , their set forms ? their peremptory impositions ? their declarations , and subscriptions ? c. yes , yes : all this , and more . for set forms , methinks you should rather tell me any one reformed church that wants a set form , then put me to the trouble of naming all that have . calvin , and beza are positive for them . geneva , much more severe for the observance of them , then we are here ; inconformity there , is cause of banishment for a year : and the gallican church makes it a matter of excommunication . in geneva ; calvin establish'd his discipline by an oath , both upon people , and pastors , to observe that form for ever after . the ministers take an oath of canonical obedience , in hungary ; and the french divines are not admitted , without subscription . there 's no imposing upon publique laws , with private scruples : no bandying allow'd , betwixt conscience , and authority : he that will not submit to the orders of a community , away with him . ( says calvin ) it is not enough to take cheque at the constitutions of the church , under colour of a weak conscience ( or so pretended ) but you must be fully satisfied , that the constitution is wicked in it self . nay , calvin carries it further . suppose it really ministers matter of offence ; ( says he ) that will not serve to vacate the obligation , unless it be also found to be simply , and in it self repugnant to the word of god. [ quia tamen verbo dei perse non repugnat , concedi potest . to provide against evil consequences , is the magistrates duty , not the subjects . n. c. the worship of god , is in it self pure , and perfect , and decent , without having any such ceremonies affixed thereunto ; [ and many faithful servants of the lord , knowing his word to be a perfect rule of faith , and worship , have ever been exceeding fearful of uarying from his will , and of the danger of displeasing him , by additions , or detractions , in such duties . c. you will hardly find any honest president for this nicety . ( calvin would have given it a worse name ) testatum velim ( says he ) me non de ceremoniis litigare , quae decoro tantum , & ordini serviant : vel etiam symbola sunt , & incitamenta ejus quam deo deferimus reverentiae . he declares himself , you see , not only for ceremonies , of order , and decency ; but for ceremonies of significancy , and incitement to reverence and devotion . and in another place , ergone ( inquies ) nihil ceremoniarum rudioribus dabitur , ad juvandam eorum imperitiam ? id ego non dico ; omnino enim utile illis esse sentio , hoc genus adminiculi . ] will you allow of no ceremonies then at all , ( you 'l say ) for the instruction of the vulgar ? you do not hear me say so ; for i am clearly of opinion ; that they are of very great use , and service to the people . upon the main ; the english non-conformists , ( as mr. durell well observes ) are a sort of people by themselves : and non-conformists , at geneva , and francfort , as well as at canterbury , or london . n. c. but still , methinks , whatever our consciences are as to the way of publick worship , we might yet be indulged with an allowance of ●…erving god among our selves . why should a toleration do worse here , then in holland ? c. i might answer you with another question . why should a commonwealth do worse here , then in holland ? or why should a standing army do worse here , then in holland ? beside ; if you look narrowly into it , you will find the dissenters from the settlement there , to be rather strangers , then natives . english , french , high-dutch , that flowed in to them upon the general revolt from the church of rome : lutherans , and anabaptists , out of germany ; calvinists out of france ; separatists , and semiseparatists out of england , in the days of queen mary , and independents , since ; all which were entertein'd , more out of regard to policy , then conscience ; their business being at that time to shake off the yoke of spain , and change the government : to which end , these several parties contributed effectually , by preparing the people for the alteration intended ; and inuring them to new principles , both of religion , and state. and yet you are not to understand theirs to be a perfect toleration neither . for you see , they would not , upon any terms , allow that freedom to the arminians , which they did to others ; but conven'd a synod , and exterminated the sect. the reason was , they had a jealousie of the arminians , for barnevelt's sake , the head of that party . you are to take notice also of the great difference betwixt the interest , and condition , of our ministers , and theirs . our clergy have a freehold in their benefices for term of life ; and if they be factiously disposed , they may evade the law , and do a mischief , without making a forfeiture . whereas theirs preach upon good behaviour ; live upon the states pay ; and upon the least colour of offence , may be turn'd off at pleasure . i need not tell you what havock , peters , bridges , sympson , ward , made in holland : but what they did abroad , the same thing they would have done at home , if they had been tolerated . n. c. what do ye think of poland then ? c. i think , that story speaks little to your advantage : take it either in respect of their frequent seditions , or in regard of their prodigious , and heretical opinions : and yet they live under the strongest obligation in nature to keep them quiet ; the tartar , and other powerful neighbours , lying hard upon them ; which makes their case to be rather an agreement against a common enemy , then among themselves . n. c. now take all at the worst ; it is but athanasius against the world , and the world against athanasius . number and truth , are not always of a side . c. and yet your multitudes make up a great part of your argument . this however let me speak for you ; there has no industry been wanting to propagate your profession . in the year . the scotch discipline was presented to the synod at dort , for their approbation : but they would not meddle with it . anno . upon the reprinting ( at geneva ) of a collection of the several confessions of faith , received in all the reformed churches of europe ; under the title of , corpus , & syntag●…a confessionum fidei , &c. it was moved that the thirty nine articles of the church of england , might be left out , and the assembly mens confession , put in the place : but the motion was totally rejected ; the thirty nine articles inserted , and not a word of the directory . they had no better luck with their covenant neither , then with their discipline . [ the ministers , and others of the consistory at charenton , and of other reformed churches in france ; as also the professours , ministers , and consistory of geneva , and of other neighbouring reformed churches in those parts , were so scandalized with this prodigious covenant , as that they were afraid of nothing more , then this , that it would bring an indeleble scandal upon the reformed churches , and alienate the minds of all the princes of christendom , from ever enterteining a good thought of their religion . the venerable assembly of english divines , and scotch commissioners ( as they stiled themselves ) sent the copy of their covenant , and a solemn invitation to seventeen reformed churches beyond the seas to ioyn with them . their letter should have been latin ; but so it was , that they left it a measuring cast , whether they were the better christians , casuists , subjects , or grammarians . their skill was most employ'd , in exhorting the french protestants to follow their example , and cast off the yoke of antichrist ; ( that is to say , of obedience ) and in calumniating their sovereign , as a confederate with the popish interest , to destroy the protestancy . which design , was only to be obviated , by a holy league . this was the drift of the address ; but we never heard syllable of the answer . there needs no more be said to prove the judgment of the reformed churches strong , and unanimous against you ; and you had best make a trial , if you can supply by reason , and argument , what you want in countenance , and authority . sect . xx. the non-conformists exceptions to o●… publique way of worship , found guilty of great impiety , and errour . c. what are your exceptions to our way of worship ? are they general ; or particular ? is it th●… imposition it self , or the thing imposed , that displeases you ? n. c. why truly both. the one takes away my christian liberty ; and the other , the liberty of my conscience . the greatest part of my trouble , i●… the act of uniformity . c. is it the model , or the uniformity you stick at ? n. c. both alike ; for neither is the particular act fram'd to my satisfaction ; nor is it possible that any one form of worship should suit all iudgments . c. will toleration suite all iudgments , any better then uniformity ? but , i perceive , you do not accompt the sanction of any one form whatsoever to be lawful . n. c. indeed i do not think it lawful for a magistrate to enjoyn any thing upon a penalty , which a private person may not conscienciously obey him in ; nor do i think it warrantable , for a man to obey any humane command , against the dictate of his conscience . c. put this together now . first , it is not possible that any one form of worship should suit all judgments : and then , it is not lawful to enjoyn any thing upon a penalty , which does not suit all judgments . what is this , but a meer trifling of government ; to suppose a law , without an obligation ? again ; if the magistrate cannot impose , neither can he tolerate ; unless you 'l suppose him a more competent judge of four conscience , then of his own : for you allow him to understand what he may tolerate , and deny him the knowledge of what he may impose . so that either he has no power , or no reason to favour you : no power , as you state his capacity ; and no reason , as you disclaim his authority . but you were saying , that the imposition , takes away your christian liberty . as how , i beseech ye ? n. c. in making those things necessary , which christ left free. for wherein does christian liberty more concern it self , then in the free use 〈◊〉 indifferent , or the forbear●…nce of doubtful things , which we are bound entirely 〈◊〉 preserve ; and whereof , by your ecclesiastical injunctions , we stand depriv'd ? c. if the king be ty'd up , in matte●… that are either commanded , or forbidden ; and the people left at liberty , in things indifferent : i would fain know what authority has to work upon . but thi●… point will fall in of it self by and by : though enough be said already , to prove your position utterly destructive of order , and society . for there is but good , bad , and indifferent , in nature : what we are bound to do ; what we are bound not to do ; and what we may either do , or let alone . ( that is to say , without the interposal of some incidental obligation to determi●… that indifference ) the asserters of this doctrine , fetch their warrant for it , out of st. paul 〈◊〉 the galatians . . stand fast in the liberty wherewith christ hath made us free. upon this text they ground their exemption . but here they prudently st●… too ; for the context would have spoil'd all : and they might as well have argu'd against the efficacy of christ's death , from the latter part of the second verse , as for christian immunity , ( in the latitude they understand it ) from the former part of the first . the apostle goes on in these words ; and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage . 〈◊〉 behold ; i paul say unto you , that if ye be circumcised , christ shall profit you nothing . for i testifie again to every man that is circumcised , that he is a debtor to do the whole law. the case , briefly , was this. by the coming of our blessed saviour , the iewish ceremonies were abolish'd : some that had a mind to continue them , and keep the people still under the yoke of the law , stood for the doctrine of the circumcision . ( which was here the very matter in q●…estion ) the apostle cautions the galatians against it ; and not to be entangled again with the bondage of the law. which amounts only to a discharge from the bondage of that law to which they were before subjected ; without extending that liberty , to the prejudging of authoritative laws , and impositions for the time to come . as if the apostle had preached one thing to the galatians , and the contrary to the romans , obedience , at pleasure , in one place ; and obedience under pein of damnation , in another . in the second , and third verses , st. paul ( you see ) clears , and presses it further . as if he had said ; be circumcised at your peril . for that single point of the law , makes you answerable for the performance of every title of it . we are not ( says calvin ) ( perperam ad peliticum ordinem ) perversly to apply the doctrine of spiritual liberty , to political order , as if christians were to be ever the less subject to external government by humane laws , because their consciences are set at liberty before god. nay , says he , in another place ; si ecclesiae incolumitati benè prospectum volumus ] the church can never be safe , without st. paul's decency and order . but in regard of the diversity of customs ; and the variety of mens minds , and opinions ; it is not possible to secure any polity , without the authority of certain laws ; or to preserve any order , without some stated form. now so far am i from condemning any laws conducing to this end , [ ut his ablatis , dissolvi suis nervis ecclesias , totasque deformari , & dissipari contendamus ] that i look upon the removal of them , as the dissolution of the very sinews of the church , and expect nothing after it , but deformity , and dissipation . nor is it to be imagin'd , that all things should be done decently , and in order , ( after the apostles precept ) but by the mediation of certain rules , and observations , which may serve as so many bonds for the regulation of that decency , and order . always provided , that those ceremonies be not imposed as necessary to salvation , or essential to god's worship . from your plea for christian liberty , ( which is a proposition , in it self , destructive of all communities ) let us now move to your next exception , in the matter of scruple : wich i am afraid will be found no less intolerable in religion , then the other was in government ; and dangerous enough in both. it would take a man an age to run through all the quirks , and niceties of the question ; and to trace every particular , in dispute , from the original of its practice , or institution . and beside ; it were but actum agere ; for the lawfulness , and the antiquity of bishops , liturgies , and ceremonies , with all the minutes , sion : i am perswaded , it would pose the ●…est conveyancers in this kingdom , to draw up a deed of trust , to that purpose , without a flaw in 't . that is to say : a commission from the diffusive body of the people , must be directed to such and such ministers , as commissioners for tender consciences . from heaven it never came neither , i do verily believe . for most certainly christ , and his apostles , never issued out any commission , for the distracting of consciences , and societies . we read indeed of confirming the weak , but not a syllable , of staggering them . and for the extraordinary ways , of vision , and revelation , they are not so much as mention'd . n. c. if you would have given me leave , i should have told you , e'en now , that they are warranted by a sense , and impression of conscience , in the discharge of their pastoral duty : which obliges them , [ to watch over their flock ; to preserve them from errours , heresies , divisions ; to defend the truth , confute gainsayers , and seducers , instruct the ignorant , excite the negligent , encourage the despondent , comfort the afflicted , confirm the weak , rebuke , and admonish the disorderly , and scandalous . c. here 's much against you , and no●…●…ne word in your favour . instead of preserving their flocks from heresies , and divisions , your pastors demand a down-right toleration of them . and instead of encouraging the despondent , comforting the afflicted , and confirming the weak ; they tell the distressed , ( for their comfort ) that if they do any thing with doubting , they shall be damn'd ; and never go further , to deliver them from those doubts ; but there they very fairly leave them , surrounded with in●…xtricable scruples ; and their very souls , broken , and confounded with agony , and horrour . whether they do well , or ill , now be you your self the iudge . my opinion is , that they have as little to say for the conscience of their proceedings , as any way else . first , their very preaching , and writing , ( by reason of their legal incapacity ) is a transgression of the law. secondly , in the matter it self , they are to blame ; for it is of very evil consequence , both upon the publique , and upon particulars . to sa●… nothing of their undertaking for other mens consciences , which is a privilege belonging only to god himself . that they do ill , in disobeying the law , and in troubling the government , i suppose you will not deny ; and yet am i perswaded , that the very foundation of their plea for separation , and dissent , is the greatest part of the mischief . we have laws ecclesi●…l , for the ordering of the church ; and you refuse to obey them ▪ for what reason , i beseech you ? n. c. the best guide in the case of impositions , and obedience , i take to be the word of god and our doubtings sure are very reasonable , concerning god's worship ▪ where the scripture gives no direction . shew us where they are comma●…ded in the gospel , and we are ready to obey them . ; c. the scripture is the rule of our faith , not of our outward actions , and practise . 〈◊〉 whatsoever , to make up the doctrine of man's salvation , is added , as in supply of the scriptures insufficiency , we reject it . but does it therefore follow , that all things lawful to be done , are comprehended in the scripture ? admit . this , and god in delivering scripture to his church , should clear have abrogated amongst them , the law of nature , which is , an infallible knowledge imprinted in the minds of all the children of men , directing us in the choice of good and evil , in the daily affairs of this life . admit this ; and what shall the scripture be , but a snare , and a torment to weak consciences , filling them with infinite perplexities , scrupulosities , doubts insoluble , and extreme despairs . not●… that the scripture it self doth cause any such thing , but the necessities of this life , urging men to do that which the light of nature , common discretion , and judgment of it self directeth men unto : on the other side , this doctrine teaching them that so to do , wire to sin against their souls ; and that they put forth their hands to iniquity , whatsoever they go about , and have not first the sacred scripture of god for their direction . how can it chuse but bring the simple a thousand times to their wit●… end ? how can it chuse but v●…x and amaze them ; to be obliged in every action of common life , to find out some sentence of scripture , clearly , and infallibly setting forth , what we ought to do ? admit this , and it shall not be with masters , as it was with him in the gospel ; but servants being commanded to go , shall stand still , till they have their errand warranted unto them by scriptures . thus far the learned hooker : in agreement with mr. calvin , ( the oracle of the other party ) in his chapter of christian liberty , who writes to this effect . let every man have a care not to make things indifferent , matters of religion ; for nothing can be more necessary then the right understanding of that liberty ; without which , we shall never have any peace of conscience , and there will be no end of superstition . [ quae si aberit , nulla conscientiis nostris futura est quies ; nullus superstitionum finis ] he that scruples the lawfulness of eating , or drinking delicacies , will by degrees , let his scruple fall to meats and drinks l●…ss delicats , and so from one thing , to another , lower , and lower ; ( and all this while , in a perpetual anxiety of conscience ) till he comes at last to satisfie himself , that what he takes , both for quantity , and quality , is but just sufficient to entertein the absolute necessities of nature . he must have a text for every thing he does ; and not step over a straw , without consulting scripture first : and every common action is made a case of conscience . from this miserable perplexity of mind , what can be expected , but despair , and confusion ? hanging , drowning , cutting of throats , and all the wretched extremities of violence , which those poor creatures exercise upon themselves , as their last retreat , to avoid the fury of a tormenting conscience . this is the fruit of the doctrine of christian liberty ; a dangerous , and an impious position ; and can have no other aim , ( in truth , scarce any other issue ) than the vacating of humane laws ; and the extermination of all principles of duty , and subjection out of the hearts of the people . but to be as short as may be , you see the effects of your scruples ; pray'e speak a little to the grounds of them . what exceptions have you to our common prayer ? and see if you do not from one end to the other , fall foul upon your arguments . n. c. it is devised by men. c. so are your ministers prayers ; and ●…l prayers whatsoever , scripture-forms excepted . n. c. it is imposed upon the minister , and people , of necessity . c. the imposition of the directory was yet more general , strict , and peremptory . there was no dispensation for a family , and four more , which , as it might be improv'd , takes in well nigh the whole kingdom . n. c. but your common prayer is stinted , both in matter , and words , to be used without variation : and so was not the directory . c. why may not the church impose a stinted form upon the minister , as well as the minister , ( if he so pleases ) upon the people ? for if the minister be left at liberty either to keep to one form , or to vary , at his own election , the congregation is at his mercy , whether they shall have a stinted form , or no. smectymnuus is so gracious as to allow of a stinted form , himself ; in case the minister shall be found insufficient to discharge the duty of prayer in a conceived way : but then it is to be imposed on him as a punishment : to use set forms , and no other . so that it is not the unlawfulness it seems , of a set form , nor the imposition , but the inexpedience you stumble at : and the world is at a fine pass sure , when the parliament of england shall not presume to make laws , without asking the si●…c'd ministers opinions first , about the expedience of them . the directory , as to the matter of it , is as well a stinting of the spirit , as the common prayer . for in the sulstance , and scope of the prayer , the minister is limited ; only for the wording of it , he is at his own freedom : and if he may but turn almighty and most merciful father , into omnipotent and most gracious lord god , the peace is concluded . otherwise we are to look for nothing but fire and sword : lives , laws , and liberties , must be hazzarded i●… the quarrel . n. c. do you make no difference between imposing set forms , upon a few insufficient ministers , and upon a multitude of others , in common , that have the gift of prayer ? c. no , none at all , as to the exemption of any man from the general rule . beside ; what security can any man give , that he shall continue in the right exercise of his reason ? put case your gifted minister should be taken with some distemper that seizes the brain , and disorders , ( or but clouds ) his understanding : nay , let it be only some faint , drowsie indisposition of body , or heaviness of mind ; what becomes of the assembly , under so languid , spiritless , ( and perchance extravagant ) a dispensation ? further : the right , and the reason too , of imposing upon one minister , extends to all. again : if a set form may be admitted , where the minister is not good at extempore ; what becomes of your argument , i beseech ye , for the consciences of the congregation ? unless you understand the weakness of the minister to be a dispensation for the scruples of the people ; in which case , it may be lawful for the king and parliament to impose a service-book . and yet again : over and above the vanity , and the arrogance of the undertaking ; do me but the favour to consider , what an irreverence , what a prophanation of gods holy worship , and ordinances , must needs ensue upon it . the desk is turn'd into an oratory , as well for the tryal of gifts , and faculties , as for the exercise of them : and half the business the congregation has at church , is to hear men talk to god almighty , upon their probation : which is done too , ( god knows it , even at the best ) not without great imperfections , and failings ; witness their [ affectations , emptiness , impertinency , rudeness , con fusion , flatness , levity , o●…scurity , vain , and ridiculous repetitions , their sensl●…ss , and oft-times blasphemous expressions : ] which are but helps at a plunge , either to gain time for the recovery of their lost matter , or to stop gaps , and fill up broken sentences . now where 's the life , and power ( as you call it ) of devotion , all this while ; when the whole man is taken up , ( and all little enough too ) about words , and periods ; and the ministers chief care diverted from the saving of souls , to the saving of his own credit ? hence proceeds that agreement of tone , and emphasis , in all their exclamations , acted passions , and vain repetitions , with now and then a groan drawn out to a most doleful length for a parenthesis . for they are all sick of the same disease , and these interjections give them a little breath , and respit , for recollection . now in this loss of sense , ●…nd order , how is it possible for the affections of the congregation , to keep company with the minister in all his wandrings , doubtings , and circumlocutions ? the one half of their intention is spent in divining ( before-hand ) what he drives at ; and the other , in unriddling his meaning , when he has deliver'd it . whereas in set-forms , both minister and people are freed from these distractions , and totally intent upon the duty of the worship : and there is a greater harmony , and union of affections , when they pray all at the same time , in the same words , and for the same thing . i might insist upon the inconvenience of leaving ministers at liberty , for fear of disturbing the publique : and tell you over and over , that in our stinted forms we do but joyn in the common privilege of other churches : but more then enough is spoken already . let me hear now what you have to say against our ceremonies . n. c. whereas kneeling is imposed , in the act of receiving the lord's supper , we desire that none may be troubled for receiving it standing , or sitting . c. you have quitted your hold , i perceive , of scriptural direction , and president . for neither standing , nor sitting was the tricliniary posture . but why not kneeling , as well as either sitting , or standing ? n. c. because it is a novelty ; contrary to the decrees , and practise of the church , for many hundred years after the apostles . and it has been forbidden by general councils . and it is not good also to shew a needless countenance of adoring the bread of god. c. can you shew me that kneeling at the lord's supper has been forbidden , where kneeling at other parts of publique worship has been allow'd ? now you your selves allow of , and practise kneeling in other cases , which is every jote as contrary to the ancient custom , as our kneeling at the sacrament . but we must not kneel , you say , for fear of countenanceing the adoration of the breaden god. to which i answer , that first , the doctrine of our church speaks directly to the contrary . secondly , the rubrick directs kneeling at the confession ; and the people continue kneeling , at the receiving . n. c. but with your favour , the rubrick does afresh enjoyn kneeling : and order the communion to be delivered into the peoples hands kneeling . c. right . and now take your choice , whether we shall rather run the hazzard of being suspected to adore the breed , because we receive it after the english gesture of worshipping , which is kneeling ; or incur the same censure , by changing posture , and taking it after the ancient way of worshipping , which is standing ? if you can make appear , that where the custom was to worship standing , they received , kneeling ; you say something toward the perswading of us that worship kneeling , to receive stànding . your exceptions throughout , are much of a quality ; negatively imposing upon authority , because you will not be positively bound up your selves . for , you shall not do this , or that , is an imposition , as well as you shall . another humour you have gotten , of scrupling at ceremonies , because they are made as necessary to salvation , as the word it self , and the sacraments . ( this is the suggestion of the petition for peace , pa. . ) whereas it has been , and still it is the constant care of the imposers themselves , by an express solemnity of explanation , to satisfie the whole world to the contrary . give us leave only for one word more , and that out of calvin's institutions , concerning scandal ; ( lib. . cap. . ) which you make one part of your compleint . there is ( says he ) a scandal given , and taken . the one is the scandal of the weak ; the other , of the pharisees ; who out of a p●…rverse malignity of spirit , turn every thing to the worse . there is no yielding to this sort of men ; no enduring , no hearing of them : [ qui quum in mille impietatis formas duces se praebent , sic sibi agendum fingunt , ne proximo sint offendiculo . who , under colour of tenderness in the matter of scandal , make no conscience at all of a thousand gross impieties . this is his iudgment , and our case : and there is no remedy , but by concluding upon a final , and unaccomptable iudge . sect . xxi . whatsoever god hath left indifferent , is the subject of humane power . c. as reasonable nature consists of soul , and body ; so is the authority that governs it , divine , and humane : god , eminently over all , and princes ministerially , under him , and as his substitutes . the dominion of our souls , god reserves peculiarly to himself , committing that of our bodies to the care of the magistrate . now if power be a divine ordinance , so consequently is subjection ; for to imagine the one , without the other , were to destroy the reason of relatives . a strict , and accurate disquisition of this matter , would save us much trouble that arises about the bounds , and limits of our duty ; how far religion binds us , and how far allegeance . that they are severable , we are not to doubt , since truth it self has said it . give unto caesar the things that are caesar ' s ; and unto god , the things that are god's . but that they are only so severable , as never to become inconsistent , is founded upon the same immovable rock ; let every soul be subject , &c. a precept , of a perpetual , and universal operation , and limited neither to time , place , not persons . n. c. your deduction of government , and subjection , from divine institution , is well enough ; and that we are to obey the magistrate for god's sake , and in subordination to god , is easily prov'd , and granted : but i hear nothing yet of the particular bounds , and terms of humane iurisdiction ; what 't is belongs to god , and what to caesar. c. and that , i confess , is the pinch of the question : for one duty comes up so close to the other , that 't is not for every common eye to pass between them . effectually , they touch ; but in what point , is of a nice decision . the nearest way to the knowledge of our duty , is to apply it to the laws , and powers of the authority : for a man must first know the rule , before he can observe it . we are then to consider , that the almighty wisdom has invested kings with an unlimimited power of commanding , or forbidding , in all matters , which god himself has not either commanded , or forbidden : which proposition resolves it self into this conclusion . whatsoever god has left indifferent , is the subject of humane power . n. c. does not that opinion destroy christian liberty ? c. no : but the denial of it destroys magistracy . if kings have not this power , they have none at all : and it implies a contradiction , to suppose any authority in nature without it . n. c. but may not a prince tye himself up , in a thing otherwise indifferent ? c. i speak of power according to the institution , not of power limited by p●…ction . n. c. may not the same thing be indifferent to one , and not to another ? c. very good : and will not every thing imaginable . appear non-indifferent to some or other ; if nothing may be commanded , but what upon such a phansie may be disobey'd ? n. c. pardon me : i do not speak of matters of civil concern , but of matters of religion . c. that 's all a case ; for you cannot instance in any one civil action , that may not be made relative to religion . but we are now upon the extent of humane power . that there is such a power , and that , authoriz'd too by god himself , you have already granted . let me but understand now , upon what subject shall that power be exercis'd ; if you exclude things indifferent ? one man may have a real scruple , and all the rest , pretend one . who shall distinguish ? so that the rule holding from one to all , the sacred authority of the prince becomes dependent upon the pleasure of the subject ; and the validity of a divine , and unchangeable ordinance , is subjected to the mutable iudgment , and construction of the people . n. c. and you expect , the magistrate should as well have the authority of iudging what 's indifferent , as of restreining it . c. you may be sure i do ; for i am but where i was , if i make you the judge . is it not all one , as to the magistrate , whether you refuse , upon pretense that the thing is not indifferent , or upon pretense , that he cannot restrein a thing indifferent ? the crime indeed is differing in the subject : for the one way , 't is an usurpation of authority ; and the other way , 't is a denial of it . n. c. why then it seems , i am to believe every thing indifferent , which the magistrate tells me is so , be it never so wicked . c. no ; there you are bound up , by a superiour law. n. c. have you so soon forgot your self ? you would not allow me to be a iudge , just now ; and here , you make me one . c. right . to your self , you are one , but not to the publique ; you are a judge of your own thought , but not of the law. n. c. and does not this way of arguing as much endanger authority , as the other ? for all may iudge thus , as well as one. c. 't is possible they may . nay we 'l suppose an imposition foul enough to move them all to do so ; and yet there 's a large difference : for diversity of iudgment does not shake the foundation of authority ; and a man may disobey a sinful command , with great reverence to the power that imposes it . n c. you were saying e'en now , that my duty to god , and to the king , could never be inconsistent . how shall i behave my self , i pray'e , if the king command one thing , and god another ? i cannot observe the law , without violence to my conscience , nor discharge my conscience , without offence to the law. what course shall i take , to avoid enterfering ? c. demea●… your self as a christian , toward the law of god , one the one hand , and as a subject , toward the ordinance of god , on the other : as considering , that you are discharg'd of your obedience in that particular , but not of your subjection in the general . n. c. put case the supreme magistrate , should by a law , establish a false worship . c. he 's nevertheless your prince , and even in this complication , you may acquit your self both to god , and to caesar. though the worship be amiss , the magistrate is yet to be reverenc'd ; and you are to divide the one from the other ; in such manner , as still both to fear god , and honour the king. this loyal , and religious separation of our duties , will set us right in the main controversie . where do ye find that kings reign , upon condition of ruling righteously ? or that we owe them less , after misgovernment , then we did before ? n. c. but do you say , we are bound to honour an idolatrous prince ? this is not according to the doctrine of many of our grave divines . c. they are never the better divines for that doctrine . the prince , i tell ye , you are bound to honour , though not as an idolater . shall the vice , or errour of the person , degrade the order ? by that rule , the world must continue without a government , till we can find men without failings . n. c. so that , when it makes for your turn , you can allow ( i see ) of distinguishing betwixt the person , and the office . c. betwixt the frailty of the one , and the sacredness of the other , i do : for kings command , as gods , though they iudge , as men. but i do no more approve of dividing the person of a prince , from his authority , then of dividing his soul from his body . n. c. and i beseech you , what is that , which you call authority ? c. it is the will , and power of a multitude , deliver'd up by common consent , to some one person , or more , for the good , and safety of the whole : and this representative acts for all. now on the other side , the disposition of such , or such a number of persons , into an order of commanding , and obeying , is that which we call a society . n. c. what is the duty of the supreme magistrate ? c. to procure the welfare of the people ; or , according to the apostle , he is the minister of god , for a comfort to those that do well , and for a terrour to evil doers . n. c. how far are his laws binding upon his subjects ? c. so far , as they that parted with their power , had a right over themselves . n. c. whence was the original of power ? and what form of government was first ; regal , or popular ? c. power was ordein'd of god , but specifi'd by man : and beyond doubt , the first form of government was monarchique . n. c. but i should rather think the popular form was first : for how could there be a king , without a people ? c : so was the son before the father , you may say , for how could there be a father without a son ? but the q●…estion is ; first : was the world ever without a government , since the creation of m●…n ? secondly ; whether was there first in the world , one man , or more ? but we are not here upon the form of government , but upon the latitude of humane iurisdiction ; be the sovereignty where it will. and my assertion is , that it extends to whatsoever god has left indifferent . if you deny this , you overthrow all government . n. c , and what are you the better , if i should grant it ; unless we could all come to an agreement , about what is indifferent , and what not ? c. which must be procured by the allowance of some iudicial authority to dec●…de it . sect . xxii . no end of controversie , without a final and unaccomptable judge , from whose sentence there shall be no appeal . c. when subjects come once to dispute laws , the war is already declar'd against the government . for it is not the equity or iniquity of the matter of the law , that is the question ; but the authority of the law-maker ; under the countenance indeed of somewhat that might be mended in the law it self . and the business comes immediately to this issue ; whether the king , or the people , shall determine , in what concerns the good of the community ? that is to say ; whether the government shall stand , or fall ? whether or no we shall submit our selves quietly to be over-ruled in all controversies , by a definitive sentence of law ; ( according to the end , and intention of government , in its first institution ) or otherwise , by receding from that common , peaceable , and impartial arbitrator of all our differences ; from our faith given ; our oaths , and contracts : throw our selves back again into a state of nature , and dissolution ; and for want of a moderator , leave all our disagreements to be decided by the sword ? ( the certain event of all popular appeals , from laws , to multitudes ) this was tbe ruine of us , in our late confusions . the faction , you saw , could do nothing , upon the suggestions of right , or wrong ; convenience , or inconvenience ; till they came to make themselves the iudges of it : and no sooner were they possest of that pretension , but all went presently head-long to destruction . from questioning the legal power of the king , they proceeded to the exercise of an arbitrary power , themselves : from asserting the subjects liberties , to the invading of them : and from the reformation of abuses , to the extirpation of the government . the two houses led the dance , and outed the king ; the commons did as much for the lords ; and the people , as much for the commons : which comes to no more , then what was reasonably to be expected , upon turning the course of publick affairs into a wrong channel ; and subjecting the indisputable rights of sovereign authority , to the censures , and expostulations of the rabble . n. c. what are those indisputable rights , i beseech ye ? c. i reckon ( among others ) the power of making laws ; and likewise of enforcing the execution of them ; without admitting any sort of demur , or contradiction : for let the people break in once upon any one law , and they will hardly quit their hold , till they have worm'd out , or unsettled all the rest. in short ; i do esteem it a matter of absolute necessity , to the peace , and the very beeing of all government , to have some unaccomptable iudge ; some unquestionable expedient of law , or authority , for the ending of controversies : the determination to be final , and decisive : no appealing from it , and no contending beyond it . n. c. what not in case of errour ? i could be well enough content with a iudge ; and with indispu●…able laws , if you could but assure me of infallible law-makers . but i should be sorry to see a roman-infallibility set up in england . c. so that rather then a fallible iudge , you will have none at all . you could be content with a iudge , you say ; but then that iudge must be questionable , in case of errour ; so that another iudge is to judge him ; and the very iudge of this iudge , is himself questionable ; and so is his iudge , and his iudges iudge ; ( in infinitum ) in case of errour : which case of errour may be alledg'd , wheresoever there is no infallibility ; and if there be no infallibility in nature , then by your rule , there can be no iudge in nature . n. c. i do not say but a man may iudge certainly in some cases , though not infallibly in all : and all i ask , is only a free exercise of my iudgment at discretion , without being ty'd up to an implicit resignation . there is but a right , and a wrong ; and the one i must embrace , and reject the other . how shall i know this from that , without enquiry ? and what am i the better for that enquiry , if when i have learn'd my duty , i am debarr'd the liberty to practise it ? c. you turn the question , from the necessity of a judg , to his infallibility . 't is all one to me , whether you make him infallible , or credible , or what you make him , or where you place him ; provided that he be acknowledg'd necessary , and unac●…omptable . that he is necessary , i presume you will easily afford me : for there can be no peace without him , every man being at liberty to wrangle , where no man is authoris'd to take up the strife . but would you have him unaccomptable , or no ? n. c. what greater encouragement is there in the world , to tyranny , then the opinion of an unaccomptable sovereignty ? c. what is it rather ( you should have said ) that excites sedition , and depopulates kingdoms , so much as the contrary ? and doubtless , the fiercest tyranny is much more supportable , then the mildest rebellion . n. c. truly , as to the convenience of a definitive sentence . i should be glad to see it ; without the hazzard of a d●…finitive injustice . c. you mistake your self , if you oppose a possible injury on the one side , to a certain wrangle ; and confusion on the other . if infallibility you cannot find , why may not the fairest probability content you ? n. c. but would you have that probability govern by unquestionable , and authoritative conclusions ? c. by any means ; you do nothing else : for where controversies are inevitable , and concord ( if it may be had ) necessary ; what can be more reasonable , then to chuse the most competent iudge of the matter in controversie , for the concluding umpire of the controversie it self ? n. c. but a man may iudge probably in one case , and improbably in another : suppose the determination to be manifest errour , or injustice ; would you have the same submission paid to it , as if it were equity , and truth ? c. yes : to the determination , though not to the errour : you are to stand to the authority of the sentence , without contesting the equity of it : for right , or wrong , 't is a decision . the principal scope , and sure end of a reference , is peace : the hopeful event , and issue of it , is righteous iudgment . is it not well then , to be sure of the one , and in so fair a likelihood of the other ? put it to the worst ; you are not bound to be of the iudge his opinion , but to be over-rul'd by his authority : neither do you undertake that he shall judge critically , as to the subject of the question ; but that he shall judge effectually , as to the purpose of the reference . n. c. this resignation may do well , in cases of ●…ivil interest : but it will hardly hold in matters of conscience . who shall pretend to iudge of my conscience , beside god , and my self ? c. the scripture , which is the rule of all consciences , shall be the iudge of yours . but the question is not , what the conscience is , but what it ought to be : not what your private iudgment says , but what the scripture means ; and the thing i strive for , is a judge of that : a iudge of the rule of faith ; which i take to be all out as necessary , as a iudge of a political law. you cannot but allow , that there are diversities of opinions , as well in religion , as concerning secular affairs : and such is our corruption , that we draw poyson , even from the fountain of life ; and the word of god it self , is made the warrant of all crimes , and the foundation of all heresies . look behind ye , and you may see a prince murther'd by his subjects : authority beheaded by a pretended law , and all this defended by a text. the church devour'd by a divided ministry ; the government overturn'd by a solemn league and covenant to support it : an arbitrary power introduc'd by the patrons of liberty : the lord's prayer cashier'd , to make way for the motions of the holy ghost ; and charity it self extinguish'd for the advancement of the gospel . we have liv'd to see as many heresies , as congregations ; and a consistorian scrutiny , prest beyond the rigour of a spanish inquisition . we have seen some that a abhor idols , committing sacrilege : christ's kingdom cry'd up , till his b divinity is deny'd . strictness of life inculcated , till the very rule of it c ( the decalogue it self ) is rejected : and blasphemy hunted out of the tavern , into the pulpit . in fine ; what sin , and misery have we not known , and felt , since under the form of liberty of conscience , this freedom of a private spirit came in vogue ? nor are we ever to expect better from it , till all men shall conspire to do the same thing , where every man is left to his own gust , to do what he pleases . and whence flows all this mischief , and confusion , but from a license of wandring from the rule ? methinks these practises should put you , and your cause out of countenance . n. c. i am no advocate for anarchy , though no friend to uniformity : and i know 't is with non conformists , as with other people there are good and bad of all sorts . but to go with the moderate : would you have all mens consciences gobern'd by the same rule ? ; c. better particulars suffer for incompliance with the publique , then the publique suffer for complying with particulars . uniformity is the ciment of both christian , and civil societies : take that away , and the parts drop from the body ; one piece falls from another . the magistrate ( for orders sake ) requires uniformity ; you , and your associates oppose it , upon a plea of conscience . the question is ; whether he shall over-rule your opinions , or you over-rule his authority ? this dispute begets a war , for want of a iudge ; and to prevent that consequence , i offer that a iudge is necessary . or put it thus : you , and i differ ; and possibly we are both in the wrong ; but most certainly we are not both in the right ; and yet neither of us but thinks well enough of his own opinion . what 's to be done in this case ? shall we wrangle eternally ? n. c. no , we 'l rather put the matter to arbitration . c. well ; but the arbiter himself is fallible ; and may mistake too : or let him have the wisdom of an angel , he cannot please us both : for that which seems right to the one , will appear wrong to the other . shall we stand to his award whatever it be ? if not , take into your thought these consequences . you refuse to submit , because it is wrong ; and i may refuse , by the same reason , though it be right : ( for , every man's reason is of equal force , where there is no common , and representative reason to bind all. ) so that by your reckoning , every man is in the right to himself , and in the wrong to all the world besides : ( for i perswade my self , that nature never produc'd two persons , in all points , of the same judgment . ) now , if you can neither deny confusion to be the natural effect of this liberty of iudgment ; nor the want of a regulating , and decretory sentence , to be the cause of this confusion , i hope you 'l grant me the necessity of an unaccomptable iudge . n. c. is not the word of god a sufficient iudge ? c. no : that 's no iudge , but [ a rule for christians to iudge by ] and the great danger lies upon the meaning of that rule . witness those swarms of heresies , that have over-spread this land , since the bible has been deliver'd up to the interpretation of private spirits . n. c. you say well , if you could direct me to a iudge that we might all rely upon . c. and you say something too , if you could make appear , that none at all is better then the best we have : or that popular errours , numberless , and inevitable , ( with the dissolution of societies to boot ) are to be preferr'd to the few , and only possible failings of authority , attended however with peace , and agreement . the question , briefly , is this. whether will you rather have ; one fallible iudge , or a million of damnable heresies ? n. c. truly , as you have reduc'd it , to a certainty of peace the one way , and to as great a certainty of discord , the other ; to a certainty of many errours , without a iudg , and to a bare possibility of some few , with one : i think a final iudge may be convenient , if not necessary . c. if you find it so in the church , sure you will not dispute it in the state ; especially against an experience too , the most forcible of all reasons . we were never troubled with constructive necessities ; with cavils about the receptacle of power , and the limits of obedience : with distinctions betwixt the political , and the natural right of the people ; the legal , and the personal will of the prince ; and betwixt the equity , and the letter of the law : till judgment was forc'd from its proper course , and the decision of political controversies , committed to the frivolous , and tumultuary arbitrations of the people . n. c. nay , i am as much for a iudge , as you ; but not for one iudge to all purposes : nor indeed , for any iudge so absolute as you would have him . c. i tell ye again , a iudge , and no absolute iudge , is no judge : and you shall as soon find the end of a circle , as of a controversie , by such a iudge . nor is it yet my intention , that one iudge should serve for all purposes . n. c. divide your matter then , and assign to every iudicable point its proper iudge . c. you have reason ; for truly i do not take the magistrate to be any more a iudge of my conscience , then i am of his. n. c. no doubt of it ; and it were an encroachment upon the prerogative of god himself , for the magistrate to challenge it . c. how comes it now , that we , that accord so well in the end , should differ so much in the way to 't ? but i hope the clearing of the next point will set all right : for after the acknowledgment of the general necessity of a iudge , we have nothing further to do , but to agree upon the iudge , and so submit . sect . xxiii . the three great judges of mankind , are god , magistrates , and conscience . some things we do as men ; other things , as men in society ; and some again , as christians . in the first place , we are acted by the law of individuals ; which law , in the second place , is subjected to that of government ; and both these laws are , in the third place , subordinate to that of religion ; i. e. the law of god's revealed will. so that the three great iudges of mankind are , god , magistrates , and conscience . man as consisting of soul , and body , may be again subdivided within himself . take him in his lower capacity , and he is sway'd by the general law of animal nature , but in his divine part , you will find him govern'd by the nobler law of refined reason ; which reason , in some cases , we call prudence , and in others , conscience , according as it is variously exercised . the things which we do purely as men , ( abstracted from any ingredients of policy , or regulated religion ) are either natural actions , prudential , or moral . of the first sort , are those actions to which we are prompted by a natural impulse , in order to the conservation of life , and being . of the third sort , are such actions as we perform in obedience to moral principles . ( which are no other , then the divine will , as it is couched under the dictate of humane reason ) and betwixt these two , lies the region of middle actions : that is , of such actions , as although not of simple , and strict necessity , either to life , or virtue , are notwithstanding useful , and commodious , for the guidance , and comfort of the one , and for the practice of the other . the accurate disquisition of this interest clears the main difficulty of the question ; for nothing has embroyl'd us more , then the mistaken rights , and privileges of individuals : which mistakes being once made manifest , by laying open the subordination of several claims , and powers , every man may take a distinct view of his own province . n. c. if you will proceed regularly , you are to state these subordinations as you go . c. agreed ; and we are now upon the right of individuals : in which naked simplicity of considering man , without any regard to the ordinary motions of providence , in the order , and regiment of the world , we shall yet find a natural subordination within himself , and the law of sense , under the dominion of the law of reason , in the same subj●…ct . these are the laws which the apostle calls the law of his members , and the law of his will. the former law ( and the less excellent ) is the law sensitive ; which is no other , then the law of self-preservation . ( the supreme law of animal beings , as it is of rationals the lowest ) this law sensitive , is no other than the manifestation of god in the creature : for what sense does , nature does ; and what nature does , god does . n. c. but what is that power all this while , which you call nature ? c. it is the ordinary working of god in all his creatures ; by virtue of which divine impression , and influence , every thing is moved to seek the utmost perfection whereof it is capable . as for the purpose ; the perfection of man is the congruity of his actions with his reason ; which is nothing else , but that which we call virtue . the perfection of beasts lies a degree lower : for they are only mov'd by a sensual impulse , towards what is convenient for them ; and when they have it , they rest. n. c. when people are gravell'd , they fly to their impulses , and occu●…t qualities . where lies the difference ; i beseech you , between their impulse , and our choice ? c. their impulse carries them on through a sensitive search , not any d●…liberative discourse ; and there is no e●…ection neither at last : but only the simple prosecution of a determinate appetite , without imagining any proportion betwixt the means , and the end. n. c. but still we find , that there is a proportion : and the motion appears to us according to the method of reason : and a very orderly proceeding from a question , to a resolution . c. is it reason , think ye , that makes a dog follow his nose , and hunt for meat , when he is hungry ? or will you call it choice , if he leaves a turfe for a bone ? now if you ask how this comes about : he is guided by instinct toward the end ; and sense carries him thorough the means . n. c. but why should the same process of means , and the same application of causes , be ascribed only to instinct , in brutes , and to reason , in man ? c. you are to take notice , that all natur●…l operations are regular , and ordinate , by what means soever performed : but it does not follow , because the method is according to reason , that therefore the instrument must be reasonable . but to mind what we are upon . the law of self-preservation , is a law common to beasts with men ; but not of equal force , and obligation : for their sovereign interest is life ; ours is virtue : and therefore your late argument for defensive arms , under pretense of that extremity , was but a brutish plea : for if the consideration of virtue be not above that of life , where lies the advantage of our reason ? n. c. but when the death is certain , and the virtue doubtful , who shall decide the point ? c. in a case abstracted from the ties , and duties of religion , and government , every man's reason sits as iudge upon his own life . as for instance ; you are in the hands of thieves , and only this choice offer'd you , either to take a false oath , or to lose your life . your conscience tells you , that you must rather perish , then forswear your self : but if you can preserve your self , without violence to a superiour duty , you are your own murderer if you do not . thus far i think we are safe , and i suppose agreed , that every individual is to govern himself by his natural conscience . but when the several particulars come to be bundled up in one community , the case is otherwise . n. c. i am sorry to hear you say that . why should not every man be govern'd by his own conscience , as well in consort , as in solitude , as well in company , as by himself ? or will you have it , that our duty to god ceases in the act of becoming subjects to a civil power ? c. as to your conscience , you are as free now , as you were before : but your body is no longer your own , after you are once enrolled a member of a society . and here 's the difference ; you were your own servant before , and now you are the king 's . ( for what is government , but the wisedom , resolve , and force of every particular , gather'd into one under standing , will , and body ? ) and this comes up to what i have already deliverd , that , whatsoever god has left indifferent , is the subject of humane power . n. c. but who shall be iudge of what 's indifferent ? c. let that be examined the very next thing we do . you are already satisfied , that an auth●…rized iudge is absolutely necessary , in order to the pe●…ce of church , and state , and to the ending of all publique differences : but we are not yet resolv'd about our iudges ; or if we were , yet in regard they are but men , and so may erre , [ infallibility being departed with christ and his apostles ; in lieu of which living , and infallible guides , god has in providence given us a plain , and infallible rule ] we are now to make enquiry , how far a private judge may be allow'd to oppose , or differ from a publique , in case of a reluctant conscience , and in some sort to iudge his iudge ? n. c. you say very well ; for place the ultimate decision where you will , it is ( as you said before ) an infallible determination as to the strife ; but not so , as to the truth ; and comes at last to this , that every man ( in some degree ) re-judges his iudge . if i be fully convinc't , either , that the command is sinful in it self , or the opinion wicked ; i am neither to obey the one , nor to embrace the other ; as being tied up by a general obligation of rather obeying , and believing god , then man. nay more ; if in obedience to the magistrate , i commit a sin against god , and do it ignorantly too , that very act in ignorance is crimin●…l : ( if i had the means of being better inform'd : ) for no humane respect c●…n justifie an offence against god. now if i am bound to do nothing that is ill ; i am likewise bound , before i do any thing , to satisfie my self , whether it be ill , or no : for otherwise , i may follow a false religion for a true , and be damned in the end , for not minding what i did . this do i take for proof sufficient , that no man is so implicitely obliged to rely upon other mens eyes , as totally to abandon the direction of his own ; or so unconditionally to swear obedience to other mens laws , and perswasions , as to hold no intelligence at all with that sacred law , and faithful counsell●…r which he carries in his own b●…som . c. i am so far from advising you to reneunce your reason , that , on the contrary , i would have you absolutely guided , and concluded by it ; and only to obey for quiet sake , so far as you can possibly obey in conscience . n. c. what if a single person hit that truth , which a general council misses ? which will you have him follow ; truth , or authority ? c. i would have him follow truth with his soul , and authority with his body . but it is not for so remote a possibility as this is , to bring the fansies and imaginations of a private spirit into a competition with resolutions of law , and yet for the possibility sake , we 'l take the very supposition likewise into consideration , and word the whole matter as plainly as we can . the church says , ye may do ; and the law says , you must do , that which your conscience says , you ought not to do. how will you reconcile your duty , and your conscience , in this case ? n. c. uery well : for i think it my duty to obey my conscience , upon this principle , that conscience is god's substitute over individuals . c. keep to that , and answer me once again ; is not the civil magistrate god's substitute too ? if he be , how comes your conscience to take place of his authority ? they are both commission'd alike , and consequently , both to be obey'd alike : which is impossible , where their commands are inconsistent . n. c. the magistrate is a publique minister , and his commission does not reach to particular consciences . c. and on the other side , you are a private person , and there is as little reason for your opinion to operate upon a publique law. so that if i mistake you not , we are upon accord thus far ; that every particular is to look to one , and the king to the whole . now if you would deal as candidly with me , about the ecclesiastical power , as you have done in the civil , we might make short work of this question . i hope you will not deny that the church is as well a authorized to teach , and instruct in all the external acts of worship , as b the magistrate is to compel to those external acts. n. c. there is no doubt , c the church ( as the church ) has a ministerial power ( ex officio ) to define controversies , according to the word of god ; and that d a syn●…d lawfully conven'd , is a limited , ministerial , and bounded visible iudge , and to be believed in , so far as they fellow christ , the peremptory and supreme iudge , speaking in his own word . c. this will not do our business yet ; for to say , that a synod is to be believed in , so far as it follows christ , seems to make those the iudges of that act , that are to be concluded by it ; and leaves the credit of the authority , dependent upon the conscience , fancy , or humour of the believer . for 't is but any man's saying , that the synod does not follow christ , and that he trusts in it so far as it does follow him. and this is enough to keep the controversie afoot , without any hope of decision . n. c. we are indeed to believe truths determined by synods , to be infallible , and never again liable to retraction , or discussion ; not because [ so says the synod , ] but because [ so says the lord. ] c. still you are short ; for 't is not in our power to dis●…elieve what we acknowledge to be a truth : but that which is truth at the fountain , may be corrupted in the passage ; or at least appear so to me , and what then ? n. c. it must be look't upon as an errour of the conscience ; which is no discharge at all of your obedience : from which errour you are to be reclaimed , either by instruction , or censure . for the people are obliged to obey those that are over them in the lord , who watch for their souls , as those who must give an accompt ; ] and not oblig'd to stand to , and obey the ministerial and official iudgment of the people . he that heareth you ( ministers of the gospel , not the people ) heareth me ; and he that despiseth you , despiseth me. c. why should not we two shake hands now , and join in the act for uniformity ? you cannot say , that it wants any thing of the full complement of a binding law ; either in regard of the civil , or of the ecclesiastical authority . here is first , the iudgment of the church duely conven'd , touching the meetness , and conveniency of the rites , and forms therein conteined . you have next , the royal sanction , approving , and authorizing those rites , and forms ; and requiring your exact obedience to them . now so it is , that you can neither decline the authority of your iudges , nor the acknowledgment of your duties ; what is it then that hinders your obedience ? n. c. that which to me is more then all the world , it goes against my conscience . c. only that point then , and we have done with this subject . we have already concluded , that god is the iudge of the world ; that the church is the iudge of what properly concerns religion ; that the civil magistrate is iudge of what belongs to publique order , and peace ; and that every man's conscience is the iudge of what concerns his own soul. the remaining difficulty is this ; how i am to behave my self in a case , where the law bids me do one thing , and my conscience , another . to take a true estimate of this matter , we are first to ballance the two interests , that meet in competition ; the one , for the law , and the other , against it . there is , in favour , and for the execution of the law ( meaning that of uniformity ) . the personal conscience , and . the political conscience of the king. there is moreover , for the equity of it , the solemn and deliberate iudgment of the church ; which is , effectually , the publique conscience ; and lastly , for the observance of it , there is the duty of the subject , which , if it be withdrawn , does not only invalidate this particular act , but it loosens the sinews of sovereign authority ; and which is more , it destroys even a divine ordinance ; for take away obedience , and government lapses into confusion . now for the counterpoise ; against this law , and thus supported , appears your naked conscience . nay , that 's the fairest on 't ; it may be worse , and in truth , any thing that 's ill , under that name . n. c. but what 's the world to me , in the scale against my soul ? c. you have great reason sure , and 't is no more then every man may challenge : that is , to stand , or fall , to his own conscience : is that your principle ? n. c. yes , out of doubt ; 't is mine , and yours , and any man's that's honest. c. well ; hold ye a little ▪ your conscience will not down with this law ; and this law will as little down with your conscience . weigh now the good against the bad ; what if it stands ? what if it yields ? make the case worse then it is ; as bad as bad may be , in your own favour . you cannot comply with the law ; and the law will not stoop to you. what follows upon it ? n. c. the ruine of many godly people , that desire to worship god , according to his word . c. that plea wrought little upon you from us ; but let that pass . what sort of ruine do you mean ? ruine of liberty , or estate ? ( for this law draws no blood ) state your misfortunes , i beseech ye . n. c. no man must hold a benefice , or teach a school , but upon terms of such subscription , or acknowledgment , as many an honest man would rather die then consent to : so that we are distrest , not only for our selves , as being deprived of the comfort of all spiritual , and heavenly freedoms ; but our poor infants are exposed to be undone , wanting the means of a religious education . c. if this be all , never trouble your selves ; for many an honest man has out-liv'd more then this comes to . in short ; there 's a huge clamour ; but ( god knows ) with little reason . some particulars will possibly suffer for want of a toleration : and who are they ; but the profest opposers of the law ? and on the other side , all the friends of the government will suffer by it . if you would see the event of granting what you ask , turn but your face toward — , and then blush , and repent . besides ; you 're not aware , that in contesting with the law , you quarrel with your self : there' 's your own vote against you ; and all this muttering , is no other then your factious will , wrangling with your political consent . and yet i say , stick to your conscience : let us now put the case of a real distance , betwixt this act , and your conscience . how will you divide your duty ? n. c. i 'le follow your advice , and stick to my conscience . c. now change hands , and make your self the supreme magistrate . he has a double conscience ; one that concerns himself , the other , his people . what his majesties personal iudgment is , has been declared abundantly ; what his prudential iudgment may dispose him to , lies in his royal brest . but be that as heaven shall order it . here 's the partition of your rights : the king's prerogative has nothing to do with your conscience ; and your conscience has as little to do with his majesties prerogative . the king is accomptable to god for the welfare of his people ; and you are only accomptable to god for the good of your little particular . if you cannot obey the law , do not : but abide the penalty . if the sovereign cannot relax the law , he 's as free to execute it . your conscience requires liberty , and your governour 's conscience requires order . now why you should expect , that your sovereign should bring down his conscience to yours , when you find upon experiment , that you cannot perswade your own to come up to his , is to me a mystery . to conclude , keep your self , within your sphere ; and where you cannot consent , as a christian , submit , as a subject ; that we may at last hope for some respite from the calamities of sedition , and schism . n. c. and why not scandal , and profaneness too ? for the edge of your severity might be directed to much better purpose that way . sect . xxiv . the church of england charges the non-conformists with schism , and the non-conformists charge those of the church with scandal . the matter is taken into debate . n. c. your position is , that no toleration is to be admitted , to the hazzard of religion , good life , and government . keep to that standard , and you will find that the conformists have as little pretense to a toleration as their neighbours : and that the notorious scandal on the one side , outweighs the objected schism on the other . c. this will scarce hold , if you come to be try'd by your own laws : which make it a matter of scandal , by writing , preaching , or otherwise , to publish a disaffection to the present government . but explain your self . n. c. by scandal , i mean habitual prophaneness , sensuality , dissolution of manners , &c. as by schism , i suppose you intend our incompliances with your church-discipline . weigh these two now , one against the other , and do you your self hold the balance . set up your tavern-clubs against our conventicles oppose your combinations against god himself , to our plots against the government . for you must not take it ill , if i tell ye , that atheism is become the sport , and salt of your most celebrated enterteinments . and when you have dash'd the bible out of countenance , with the story of the three grand impostors , or some such lashing piece of drollery , the questioning of god's over-ruling wisdom , by solemn arguments , and the placing of fortune in the throne of providence , is that which commonly crowns your conversations . ; c. you should not charge personal crimes upon a party , unless you can prove them to be rationally consequent to the tenets , and actings of that party . now if you can shew me any affinity betwixt our principles , and these impieties , you say something : but if you cannot , the dust of your argument puts out your own eyes . i do not wonder , i must confess , to see a nation over-run with atheism , that has been so many years under your tuition : or to find the brat of a conventicle laid at the church-door . n. c. may not we charge personal extravagancies upon your party , as well as you do upon ours ? c. yes : if you can prove the same agreement against us , betwixt the faults of the one , and the principles of the other , which we are able to justifie against you. the episcopal party , you know , stood for the king ; and it is undeniable , that the king , and church had the same cause , and fate . it is as unquestionable on the other side , that the non-conformists destroy'd both the one , and the other : not by accident neither , but by a form'd , and excogitated design , wrap'd up , and couch'd in the very mystery , and foundation of the schism : your separation from a communion with the church , resolving naturally into a combination against the entire frame of the government ; till in the end , by the help of a peinful , and well-effected ministry , the generality of the people were preach'd into this division , [ i. e. ] those that could not reach the cheat , were taught to scruple at every thing ; and those that went along with it , to make a conscience of nothing . and this is it , that has brought us to be so pester'd with enthusiasts , and atheists . n. c. but let me tell ye again , the atheists are of the other party . c. and let me enform you too , that your proceedings have made atheists , more ways then one. first : the meer quality of your cause has made atheism the interest of a great many of your partakers ; who , to put off the thought of a divine vengeance attending them , if there be a god , endeavour ( for their own quiet ) to perswade themselves that there is no god at all . secondly : the work has been carried on under the masque of holiness ; and the most desperate atheist is nothing else but a crusted hypocrite . i speak of your religious atheist , who has this odds of the profane , and scoffing wretch , that he abuses god to his face , and in his own house . the great atheists , indeed , are hypocrites ( says sir francis bacon ) which are ever bandling holy things , but without feeling ; so as they must needs be cauteriz'd in the end. it is remarquable ( as i have elsewhere recommended to your observation ) that in the holy scripture there are not so many woes pronounc'd , nor so many cautions inculcated , against any sort of people , as against hypocrites . you shall there find , that god has given the grace of repentance to persecutors , idolaters , murtherers , adulterers , &c. but i am mistaken if the whole bible yields any one instance of a converted hypocrite . thirdly : you have done more in your practises , toward the vindication of atheism , then all that ever went before ye : and he that overlooks our story , from , to , will find matter , not only to stagger a weak christian , but to put a wiseman to a second thought , and make him exclaim with the prophet ; [ lo , these are the ungodly , these prosper in the world , and these have riches in possession . then have i cleansed my heart in vain , and washed my hands in innocency , to see the same men , swearing to day , with their hands lifted up unto the lord , in a holy covenant , to defend , and preserve his majesties person : and a while after , with the same consecrated lips , blessing that cursed vote , that manifestly led to his destruction . ( the vote of non-addresses ) to see ministers , like so many pulpit-weather-cocks , shifting from party to party , till they have run through every point of the compass : swearing , and counter-swearing : and when the city was split into more factions , then parishes , still to maintein , that the whole schism was acted by the holy ghost . to find the pulpit trading only in dark , and oraculous delusions , instead of plain , and saving truths ; and the pretended messengers of peace , turn'd agents for blood : to hear , and see all this , and more , and the cause prosper too , what could the invention of man add more to this temptation to apostacy ? lastly ; your necessitated toleration , ( necessitated , i say ; for you could never have crush'd the government without it ) started so many lewd opinions , that it was some degree of modesty , for fear of a worse choice , e'en to be of no religion at all : and without dispute , many people finding it left to indifferent , of what religion they were , became themselves as indifferent , whether they were of any , or no. so that the scandal which you would spitefully fasten upon the persons of some of our party , is found to be radical , and constitutional , in the very elements of yours . neither is it all , that your imputation is misplaced ; but i am afraid you 'l find your self in another mistake . which of the two , do you account the more tolerable ; scandal , or schism ? n. c. if by schism you mean a refusal to joyn with that church , where i cannot communicate without sin ; and if by scandal , you intend such actions as are of evil example , and minister occasion to our neighbour , of falling : i think 't is easily determin'd , that the one is not to be suffer'd , and the other not to be condemn'd . c. i do not speak of this or that sort , or degree of schism , and scandal ; but in the just latitude , both of the one , and the other . that is to say , ( without more circumstance ) which do you take for the more tolerable mischief of the two ? n. c. truly , betwixt a perverse separati●…n , and a notori●…us scandal , i think the choice is hard ; but i rather incline against the scandal . c. now , if ye will believe sir francis bacon , schism is both ; [ heresies , and schisms ( says he ) are of all others , the greatest scandals ; yea more then corruption of manners . ] consider it , as it stands in opposition to unity . ( which is the bond both of religion , and society ) what can be more scandalous , then that which renders religion , ridiculous ? and that 's the effect of schism . to see so many sects , grinning one upon another , and yet all pretending to the same one , and infallible spirit . beside , that schism seldome or never goes alone ; and in truth , it is but sedition , in a disguise : for we find , that our scrupulous dissenters , can with much ease , and unity , agree in a war , though not in a ceremony . n. c. and may there not be conspiracies in scandal , as well as in schism ? there , with an evident design to bring contempt upon religion : whereas here , we find at least a colour , and pretense to uphold it . further ; the sins which i accompt scandalous , are many of them lebell'd at the prerogative of god himself ; and in short , the question is not , properly , and simply , betwixt schism , and scandal ; but betwixt schism , and all other sins whatsoever , that may be propagated by conversation , ( for that 's the latitude of scandal . ) again , let me observe from your own mouth , that heresies are scandals : and several heresies you know , both by the laws of god , and man , are punish'd with death : he that blasphemeth the name of the lord , shall be put to death . from whence you may gather some difference sure , betwixt the heinousness of the on ; and of the other . c. you will proceed by a very uncertain rule , to measure the sin by the punishment : for political laws regard rather publique conveniences , then particular cases of conscience . a man shall lose his life for picking a pocket , and but hazzard his ears for a false oath . but if you 'l refer the matter to the iust , and infallible iudge of all the wo●…ld , to god himself ; look but into that dreadful judgment upon the schism of korah . korah , dathan , &c. rose against moses , with two hun●…red and fifty captains of the assembly , famous in the congregation , and said unto them , ye take too much upon you , since all the congregation is holy , even every one of them , and the lord is among them . wherefore then lift ye your selves above the congregation of the lord ? [ and what follow'd ? ] the earth open'd her mouth , and swallow'd them up with their families , and all the men that were with korah , &c. a fire came out from the lord , and consumed the two hundred ●…nd fifty men that offer'd the incense . this set the multitude a muttering against moses , and aaron ; saying , ye have killed the people of the lord. see now , what came of this muttering too : fourteen thousand seven hundred of them were consumed by a plague . you have here , not only a dreadful instance of god's wrath against schism ; but against a schism also , carry'd on , in the stile of our present non-conformists : two hundred and fifty captains of the assembly , famous in the congregation ; which our english translation renders , an intelligent , sober sort of men , numerous among all ranks , &c. these rose against moses , and aaron , and said unto them , ye take too much upon you. the congregation is holy , and the lord is among them. wherefore do ye lift your selves above the congregation of the lord ? what is this , but the language of our age , the common objection against the bishops , for lording it over god's heritage . the consequences i leave before you . n. c. give me leave now to pass an observation upon your whole discourse . you seem to have been very punctual , and methodical in the distribution of the parts of it . a toleration , or no toleration , was the question . an universal toleration you found too wide ; a limited toleration too narrow ; and yet after all this , your opinion was , that a toleration under such and such modifications , and restrictions might be admitted : upon which terms , i was content to come to an issue with you. now , since this lender of a compliance , you have not proceeded , methinks , with that candour which i expected from you. but the main stress of your argument lies against the whole party of the non-conformists ; and ( in effect ) against any toleration at all : with little or no regard to those accommodable points , that might have brought the matter in difference to some sort of composure . c. it is very true , that i am utterly against tolerating the whole party , as a thing of certain inconvenience , to religion , and government ; and to the ruine , no less of your selves , then of the publique . will presbytery ever satisfie , the independents conscience ? or will liberty any better suit with the presbyterians ? and yet you could both of you joyn with the directory , against the common prayer ; with the authority of the pretended assembly , against that of the church ; wherein you have given proof to the world , that you were not united upon any consideration of conscience , but with a design upon a common booty . ye overturn'd the government , divided the spoil , enrich't your selves , embroiled every thing , and settled nothing . and yet in those days there was no act of uniformity to hinder you . this is enough to make evident , that the non-conformists are intolerable , in conjunction : but if you think fit to make a tryal , how far any sort of them may agree with our standard of toleration , apart , plead you the cause of the presbyterians , and let your brother independent here , ( that has been a witness to our whole debate ) take up the cudgels for his own party ; not forgetting , that in the question of toleration , the foundation of faith , good life , and government is to be secur'd . n. c. according to what latitude are we to understand that which you call the foundation of faith ? c. according to the latitude of the apostles creed ; wherein are conteined all the articles of simple faith , which are necessary to be explicitly believed . ] and whatsoever was found by them , to be necessary , and sufficient to salvation , continues so still , and ought to be so received , and acknowledged by us : without insisting upon deductions , and consequences , as points of prime , and fundamental necessity ; though occasionally , and obliquely , they become necessary too . this is the word of faith which we preach , that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the lord iesus , and shalt believe in thy heart , that god hath raised him from the dead , thou shalt be saved . here 's the foundation of faith : and in that of good life , respect is to be had to morality , that nothing be tolerated to the encouragement of loosness , sensuality , and dissolution of manners . as there is an absolute necessity of providing against doctrines and opinions of this quality ; so i think there will be no great difficulty , either of discovering , or of suppressing them : for they are of a condition so notorious , that they ly open to all people : and then so odious they are , by reason of the gross impiety , and scandal ; that they have no friends upon the face of the earth , ( for their own sakes , i mean ) but the profest enemies christianity , and nature . ( it is another case , when they are made use of in subserviency to a faction . ) so that you may save your selves the trouble of catechising your brethren upon these two points , and rather spend your time upon the remaining caution , for securing the government : which will be much more to our purpose ; for the matter we are now upon , is a question , rather of policy , then of religion . toleration discuss'd , betwixt a presbyterian , and an independent . sect . xxv . an enquiry , upon a short , and impartial survey of the rise , progress , and issue of the war , raised by the two houses in . whether were more criminal , the presbyterians , or the independents . presb. in all our arguments , and pleas for toleration , we are still hit in the teeth , ( as in bar to our demands ) with dangerous practises , and opinions the murther of the late king the over-turning of the government and that we have a mind to serve the son , as we did the father . now forasmuch as the fact is undeniable and truly the exception but reasonable , as to those that did it ; we are first to clear our selves of that execrable fact ; wherein i am content to become an undertaker for the presbyterians ) and to speak afterward , to the iustification of our principles , and opinions . ; ; ; ; indep . give me leave then to plead the cause of the independents ; and to observe to you , in the first place , that the scotch non-conformists under king iames were totally presbyterian : and so were the english puritans under queen elizabeth . presb. were the anabaptists , familists , and brownists , that started up in those days , presbyterians ? indep . some dutch anabaptists came over indeed in ; but one proclamation scatter'd them immediately . and then for the familists , and brownists , you speak of ; alas ! they gave the executioner more trouble then the government , and were supprest as soon as detected . but the formal , and united confederacy was still presbyterian ; and you must overthrow all the memorials , and records of those times to gainsay it . briesly ; if you look forward , you will find the presbyterians again under king iames , at hampton court ; the presbyterians again , in the several parliaments under king charles the first ; and so the same hand still , to the beginning of the scottish broils in . which was but the midwifry of the plot , they had been so long a hammering . presb. you make nothing , it seems , of the turbulent independents , that went away to new england , holland , and other parts beyond the seas , with all the clamour , and ●…ancour imaginable against the government . indep . not to justifie them in their clamour ; i must yet recommend their departure , as a fair testimony that they withdrew upon conscience . for by this secession , they put themselves out of condition to carry on a faction : whereas the presbyterians , that had a further design in prospect , stood their ground , watch'd their advantages , and gain'd their end. presb. all this is but talk , without proof . indep . it will be granted , i suppose , that the scottish tumults in . and the r●…bel ion upon the neck of them , in were advanc'd upon a presbyterian accompt : and consequently , that those were of the same leven , that voted them good subjects , and money for their peins , and adopted them their dear brethren , for so doing . were not the principals of the faction in the long parliament , every man of them presbyterian ? were not the army , and ass●…mbly , presbyterian ; and all their votes , actions , and conclusions influenc'd accordingly ? who were they that invited the scots into england the second time ; ( nov . ●… . ) that imposed the covenant ; prosecuted the war , under the countenance of it ; and made it the test of discrimination , betwixt the malignant , and well affected parties : that settled the directory , nay the presbytery it self ? were not these , presbyterians ? who were they , but presbyterians , that stripp't the king of his regalities , and revenues ; commission'd an army against him ; fought him , pursu'd him ; and in fine , brought him to utter ruine ? presb. you will find the late king of another opinion , in his grand declaration , of aug. . . where he complains of the tumultuous assemblies of brownists , anabaptists , and other sectaries . indep . but still you will find in the same page , that these very people were animated , and countenanced , by presbyterians ; and acted , as the creatures , and servants , of that interest . presb. can you say that the english , or scottish preshyters did ever go about to dissolve monarchy ? indep . yes : and i do aver , that the nineteen propositions of iune . . were as much a dissolution of kingly government , as the very act it self ( of march . . ) for abolishing it . and the uxbridge propositions were to the same purpose . presb. you know very well , that after the new-modelling of the army , the presbyterians were able to do nothing ; and this was a good while before the king went to the scots . indep . let us see then how the presbyterians behaved themselves , after his majesty cast himself into the protection of the scotch army before newark , in may , . notice was immediately given of it , to the two houses , by the commissioners of the army ; importing their adherence to the covenant , and treaty ; and that they had no fore-knowledge of his majesties coming . the english army presently march'd with horse , and 〈◊〉 , toward newark ; and our brethren fairly retreated with the prey in the foot toward newcastle . after this , both parties stood at gaze for several months ; but not without a world of tedious papers , betwixt the scotch commissioners , and the two houses , touching their ioynt right in disposing of the person of the king. but in the conclusion , the presbyterians compounded the controversie for the sum of l in may they took their sovereign into their protection ; in the december following , they sold him ; and in february they deliver'd him up ; and all this , according to their covenant . presb. they must needs deliver him up , when they could keep him no longer . indep . they had at that time the city of london to friend ; a balancing vote in the house of commons ; a considerable mixture in the army ; scotland behind them ; ( entire , if ever the kings interest came in play ) and at least ten thousand men in a body . ( the royal party over and above . ) so that here was no visible force to over-awe them : and lowdon himself acknowledged as much , at a conference ( octob. . . ) if any such course shall be taken ( says he ) or any demand made for rendring of his person , which cannot stand with his honour , and safety ; or which cannot consist with our duty , allegeance , and covenant ; nor with the honour of that army , to whom ( in time of his extreme danger ) he had his recourse for safety : it cannot be expected that we can be capable of so base an act : and if ( to shun this , and avoid occasion of quarrelling between the kingdoms ) he shall go to scotland , and resent his expulsion out of england ; and crave the assistance of that kingdom for recovery of his right to this crown : he may in a short time , raise such forces in scotland , and ireland , as with the assistance of forreign princes , these kingdoms may be made a field of blood , &c. by this , it appears evidently , that they were under no necessity of delivering the king : and you may now see their opinion of the action it self . [ if it be contrary ( say the scotch commissioners ) to the law , and common practise of nations , to deliv●…r up the meanest subject fled to them , though it be for the greatest crimes ; how much more would the world abroad condemn our army , for a base , dishonourable act , if they should deliver up their head , and sovereign , ( having cast himself into their hands ) to be disposed of at the arbitr●…ment of another nation ! presb. but yet you saw that they condition'd for his honour , freedom , and safety . indep . that 's a shuffle : for upon such terms did they render him , that they might have cast a sheep into a herd of wolves , with as much confidence , and likelihood of safety . you are here to distinguish the f●…ction of scotland , from the nation : no country affording greater instances of honour , and loyalty . nay , i have heard ( even on this occasion ) that upon the kings earnest desire to go for scotland , it was carried in the negative but by two voices . presb. can you imagine , that if they had apprehended any danger to his r●…yal person , they would not have ventur'd their libes a thousand time●… over , to have sav'd him ? indep . no , no : but on the contrary ; they foresaw the danger , debated it ; and yet expos'd him : nay , which is still worse , they reserv'd him for it . were not his majesties friends kept from him , by a strict order , at newcastle ? was he not spied , and guarded , for fear of an escape ? and upon information , that he intended one , was not a narrower watch set over him ? that they foresaw the danger , is confest by the chancellor himself . lest we should walk in the dark , ( says he ) upon obscurity of ambiguous words , i shall desire , that the word of disposing of the kings person , may be rightly understood . for dolus versatur in universalibus . for to dispose of the person of the king , as both houses , or both kingdoms shall think fit , may in some sense be to depose , or worse . and in a speech to his majesty , he goes yet further . if your majesty ( says he ) shall refuse to assent to the propositions ; ( which god forbid ) you will lose all your friends , lose the city , and the country ; and all england will joyn against you as one man : and ( when all hope of reconciliation is past ) it is to be feared they will process , and depose you , and set up another government . upon your majesties refusing the propositions , both kingdoms will be constreined ( for their mutual safety ) to agree , and settle religion , and peace without you : which ( to our unspeakable grief ) will ruine your majesty , and your posterity . and if your majesty reject our faithful advice , and lose england by your wilfulness , your majesty will not be permitted to come and ruine scotland . pres●… . these propositions , i suppose were of absolute necessity to the well-being of the publique ; they would never have been brought in competition else with the kings freedom , life , and d●…gnity ) . indep . the king was first , to iustifie the pr●…ceedings of the two houses , and to deliver up to death , beggery , and infamy his whole party . . to settle the militia of england , and ireland , in the hands of the parliament , for twenty years ; giving them authority to raise men , and moneys . . to make v●…id all honours since ; and no peers admitted for the future , to sit ●…nd vote in parliament , but by consen●… of both houses : who were likewise to dispose of all great places , and offices of honour , in england , and ireland . . his majesty was to swear , and sign the covenant , and command the taking of it throughout the three kingdoms ; abolishing episcopacy , and settling religion as both houses should agree . upon his majesties refusal to sign these propositions , the scotch declaration of ian. . . tells us , that there would be a ioynt course taken by both kingdoms concerning the disposal of his majesties person . — with respect had to the safety , and preservation of his royal person , in the preservation , and defence of the true religion , and liberties of the kingdoms — according to the covenant . and according to the covenant , his majesties person was disposed of . presb. and do you believe that the two houses would have used the king any better , if he had gone to them ? they made it treason immediately , and death without mercy , for any man to harbour , and conceal the kings person ; upon a supposition , that his majesty was then in london . this was the fourth of may ; and on the sixth , the commons uoted him to warwick castle ▪ which was unvoted again upon the ninth . in ●…une , the kings going to the scots , was uoted a design to prolong the war. and this was as much the action of the independents , as the other was of the presbyterians . indep . pardon me there , i beseech ye . you see by the voting back and forward , that the house of commons was upon a hard tug , but the scottish party was totally presbyterian . but will you hear the kirk speak for it self , after the putting of the king into english hands ? they exhort their covenanted brethren , ( the assembly at westminster ) to hold fast their solemn league and covenant : to entertein a brotherhood , and unity between the nations , ( feb. . . ) ( but not a syllable of the king ) again , ( iune . . ) the general assembly of the kirk , presses the two houses to a speedy establishment of the presbytery : ( but not a word again of his majesty . ) and in truth , their silence is a favour , considering how they order him , when they speak of him : as you may observe in a resolve of theirs , upon a question debated at edinburgh . if the king be excluded from government in england , for not granting the propositions concerning religion , and the covenant ; and for not giving a satisfactory answer to the remanent propositions : whether in that case it be lawful for this kingdom to assist him , for the recovery of the government , or whether it be not lawful ? being put to it , we cannot but answer , in regard of the engagement of this kingdom , by covenant , and treaty , negative . resolved upon the question , . that the kingdom of scotland , shall be governed as it hath been these last five years ; all means being used , that the king might take the covenant , and pass the propositions . . that the taking of the scots covenant , and passing some of the propositions , doth not give warrant to assist him against england . . that upon bare taking the national covenant , we may not receive him . . that the clause in the covenant , for defence of the kings person , is to be understood , in defence , and safety of the kingdoms . . that the king shall not execute any power in the kingdom of scotland , until such time that he hath granted the propositions concerning religion , and the covenant ; and given a satisfactory answer to both kingdoms in the rest of the propositions , presented to him by both kingdoms at newcastle . . that if his majesty refuse to pass the propositions , he shall be disposed of according to the covenant , and treaty . . that the union be firmly kept between the kingdoms , according to the covenant , and the treaties . here 's presbyterian loyalty : if the king would have consented to give up his crown ; blast his conscience ; betray his trust , and sacrifice his friends ; he might perchance have been allow'd the pageantry of a court , and some mock-properties of royalty : but upon other terms , the kirk you see gives him no quarter . the king is now under the care of his new governours ; holdenby is his prison ; the question is matter of church-government ; and his majesty is prest to an alteration . some two months are spent in the fruitless desires , and expectations of his chaplains , for his advice , and comfort : and any two ( of twelve in nomination ) would satisfie his majesty . but that could not be ; ( they said ) no , not a common-prayer-book for his own private use. these were the presbyterians still . upon the fourth of iune . co●…not ioyce , with a party of horse took the king from holdenby ; under colour of preventing other secret designs upon the person of his majesty . the next day , at a rendezvouz near newmarket , was read , and signed the armies engagement : compleining of the two houses , and in particular , of a vote they had past for disbanding the army . ( where note , that the houses were still presbyterian ) the sum of their engagement was : that they would disband , upon full satisfaction received , and not without it . this liberty was menag'd all this while , with much formality of duty , and respect : the houses at every turn advertis'd concerning the king's motions : and ( iune the th ) consulted how further to dispose of his majesty . some three days after , the army drew toward london , and alarm'd the city : ( contrary to an express order of the houses , the very day before ) a months pay was their errand , and to save carriage , they made a step from royston to st. albans to receive it . on iune the , out comes a terrible representation , with desires from the army , against all arbitrary powers , and interests whatsoever : pleading the presbyterian presidents , and the principles of the two houses in their iustification . the parliament ( say they ) hath declar'd it no resisting of magistracy , to side with the iust principles , and law of nature , and nations , ( being that law upon which we have assisted you ) and that the souldiery may lawfully hold the hands of the general , who will turn his cannon upon his army , on purpose to destroy them . they demanded , the purging of the houses ; and retrenching the power of committees ; an accompt for publique moneys ; a period of the present session , and limits for the future , &c. it could not chuse but gall the two houses , to see their throats cut with their own weapons : but still they kept up their greatness of pretense , and stile ; and by an order as imperative as ever , they commanded the placing of his majesty at richmond ; in order to a treaty , forsooth , for a safe , and well-grounded peace , but the army had another game to play ; however , what the presbyterians would have done upon that occasion , may be seen in what they did afterward , at the isle of wight , in his majesties last distress , and extremity . presb. you are willing , i find , to pass over the barbarism of the independents toward his majesty , while they had him at h●…mpton-court but there is enough yet behind , to make that faction odious to all eternity . ; indep . truly no : but i would not spin out a debate to the length of a history . as to the barbarisms you speak of , let his majesty himself be heard . colonel whaley , i have been so civilly used by you , and major huntington , that i cannot but by this parting farewell , acknowledge it under my hand . nov. . . and again ; from carisbrook castle to the general , nov. . . the free liberty which you willingly afforded us to have of the use of our own chaplains , makes us at this time not only to acknowledge your former civilities , but , &c. so that his majesties condition appears to have been somewhat more easie at hampton-court , then before it was at holdenby . nay , most certain it is , that the presbyterians , even at that very time , did the deadly thing that brought the king to the seaffold . presb. how could that be ; when the two houses , by purging , and modelling , were subjected absolutely to the devotion of the army ? indep . thus they did it . his majesty was at that time , upon fair terms with cromwel , and ireton ; and not without large hopes of a final accommodation . ( the author of the history of independency , ( pa. . ) is positive , as to their treating with the king ) while this was in agitation , the presbyterians were at work on the other hand , to break the king's confidence in the army ; by imputations of treachery , and levity : to divert his majesty to the seeking of relief elswhere ; with particular undertakings of great matters from scotland , and the city of london . this way of tampering might very well put the king to a stand : which cromwel no sooner perceived , but he immediately betook himself to a course of extremity : irritated ( over and above , as is credibly affirmed ) by an advise foom argyle , in confirmation of his jealousie . his majesties next remove was to the isle of wight : where , for ceremonies sake , he was presented with four bills ; and upon his refusal to pass them , followed the vote of non-addresses . in passing these bills , his majesty had not only divested himself , and his successors , of all sovereignty ; but subjected his people to the basest , and most absolute tyranny that ever was excrcis'd upon mortals . presb. you will not call this the act of the presbyterians , i hope . indep . no , i will not : but yet i must tell you , that the presbyterians , upon this juncture , did every jote as much as this amounts to . so soon as the parliament of scotland was thoroughly inform'd of the distress , and danger of the king's condition , the matter was presently debated ; and a resolution taken to raise an army for his majesties relief . in which proceeding , they were violently opposed by the genral assembly , without any regard at all to the king's life , at that time in q●…estion . see the humble desires of the commissioners of the general assembly to the parliament , pag. . ( we desire that his majesties late concessions , and offers concerning religion , as they have been by the church , so may be by the parliament declared unsatisfactory . ( march . . ) and afterward : ( ian. . . ) that his majesties late concessions , and offers concerning religion , may by your lordships , directly , and positively , be declared unsatisfactory to this present parliament . and that there shall be no engagement for restoring his majesty to one of his houses , with honour , freedom , and safety , before security , and assurance be had from his majesty , by his solemn oath , under his hand , and seal , that ●…e shall for himself , and his successors , consent , and agree to acts of parliament , enjoyning the league and covenant , and fully establishing presbyterian government , directory of worship , and confession of faith in all his majesties dominions : and that his majesty shall never make opposition to any of these , or endeavour any change thereof . this is rivetted with a mischief . and pray'e shew me now the material difference , between precluding his majesty by a vote of no address , or by a resolution of no agreement : his honour , and conscience being equally at stake on either side . to give you the sum of all in short . the presbyterians began the war ; pursu'd it ; made the king a prisoner ; sold him ; and in the depth of his calamity , presented him with templation , instead of comfort . no composition would be heard of , but the forfeiture of his soul , for the saving of his life . presb. but the independents however , crown'd the wickedness with his blood. indep . suppose it so : they did only execute the sentence , but the presbyterians pronounc'd it . neither did they execute it , as independents ; or under colour of any impulse of religion , or conscience , but upon civil , and political pretexts . he was adjudged to be put to death as a tyrant , traytor , murtherer , and publique enemy : not for refusing to enter into a church-covenant , or establish liberty of conscience ; but upon a pestilent motive of diabolical policy , and state. whereas , the presbyterians persecuted him as presbyterians ; and depriv'd him of his royal support , dignity , friends , freedom , ( in effect ) life and all , because he would not renounce his reason , and conscience , in favour of their government . and i am verily perswaded , that you will have as little to say for your principles , as for your actions . sect . xxvi . what party soever demands a toleration , and yet mainteins , that it is destructive both of church , and state , to grant one , is an enemy to both . indep . as to the point in question ; it lies naturally before us to speak first to the thing , in it self ; and we may afterward consider it in the consequences . in the desire of a toleration , the independents ask no more then they would be ready to allow ; i wish the presbyterians could say the like . presb. in the large sense of allowing all sorts of libertines , and heretiques , as the late independent government did , i do confess you have out-done the presbyterians . indep . and yet those very libertines , and heretiques , were your white-boys , and favourites , so long as they serv'd your ends. they had none of this language from you , when they tumulted against bishops , and common-prayer ; ceremonies , and popish lords . while they were the instruments of your ambition , they were the godly , well-affected party : so that heretiques , it seems , will down well enough with your politiques , though not with your consciences : provided they will content themselves to be damn'd , and let the presbyterians alone to govern. presb. the independents made sweet work in holland , did they not ? and where was your spirit of toleration , and forbearance , i beseech you , in new-england ? indep . you cannot say that we gave any trouble in holland to the state ; or that we fell foul there upon different iudgments . in new-england , 't is true , we excluded the gortonists , familists , seekers , antinomians , anabaptists ; and subjected them to the censure of the civil power , as people of dangerous principles , in respect both of good life , and government . which proceeding of our●… methinks might serve to disabuse those that call independency the genus generalissimum of all errours , heresies , blasphemies , and schisms : and take the church way of new-england , for that sort of independency . they did also exclude papacy , and prelacy ; the latter , perchance , more out of regard to a temporary convenience , then upon any rooted principle of implacable severity . and i perswade my self , the episcopal party will witness thus much on our behalfs ; that as to the freedom of their meetings , and way of worship , in the late revolutions , they had much better quarter from the independents , then ever they had from the presbyterians : there was no persecuting of men for covenants , and directories : so that thus far , the independents have made their professions of liberty good , by their practise . presb. and are not the classical presbyterians as much for a lawful liberty , as the congregationals ? [ l●…t there be a toleration in religion , excepting to blasphemy , treason , or gross errours . ] bear with the weak ; tolerate the tolerable , and for the intolerable , we beg not your toleration . ●…ere's the sense and destre of the presbyterian divines that were commission'd about the review of the service-book . indep . this is only a new song , to an old tune . the presbyterians have just the same need of the independents at this day , that they had some nine and twenty years ago . the author of the discourse of religion has many good remarques upon the papists , that may be very well applied to the presbyterians ; and this for one. [ things past ( says he ) may afford prognostiques of things to come . so that we are to gather what you intend now , from what you did , after saying the same things before . or if you had rather come to a tryal , upon the evidence of your own manifestos , and declarations , then upon the history of your practises ; i shall make use of no other testimony against you . the presbyterians press the demand of a toleration , as a very reasonable request ; and yet they themselves have pronounc'd judgment against it , as a thing against conscience , destructive of publique order both in church , and state , and of the peace of common society . toleration ( says mr. edwards ) cannot be condescended to , without a breach of oath , and covenant . [ it is the depth of satan , this design of a toleration . he does not move for a toleration of heresies , and gross errours ; but an allowance of a latitude in some lesser differences with peaceableness . this is candidus ille diabolus , that white devil , &c. the london ministers letter to the assembly , in . declares it repugnant to the solemn league and covenant . the commissioners of the kirk of scotland , do protest , and declare against it , as inconsistent with , and repugnant to the word of god. as to the influence of a toleration upon church , and state ; mr. edwards tells us , that the party tolerated will never rest working , till they get the upper hand , and suppress the other . rutherford is positive , that such opinions , and practises as make an evident schism in a church , and set up two distinct churches , of different forms , and government , are not to be tolerated . for by their principles they labour , each the destruction of the other ; and this toleration destroys peace , and unity . again , the london ministers are of opinion , that it will produce causless , and unjust revolts from the ministry , and congregations . the peoples minds will be troubled , and in danger to be subverted . heart-burnings will be fomented , and perpetuated to posterity . the godly , peinful , and orthodox ministers will be discouraged , and despis'd . the life and power of godliness will be eaten up by frivolous disputes , and ianglings . and the whole church of england , in short time , will be swallowed up with distraction , and confusion . the kingdom will be wofully weakned also , by scandals , and divisions : the power of the magistrate will not be only weakned , but utterly overthrown , by the anti-magistratical principles , and practises of the independents : and the whole course of religion in private families , will be interrupted , and undermined . not to multiply authorities more then necessary , this has been the strein of all your proceedings : imperiously , and inexorably strict , and rigorous in imposing upon others ; and as shamelesly importune , and clamorous for liberty to your selves . but what have i more to do , then to pass sentence upon you , out of your own mouths ? you cannot in conscience desire a toleration , if you understand it to be against conscience to grant it . and the very asking of that which you believe would draw a destruction upon church and state , is ground enough for a strong presumption that you intend it . presb. that which was a reasonable cause of refusal , from the presbyterians to the independents , will not hold good from the church of england to the presbyterians : either in respect of the stability of our government , or of the sobriety of our principles . sect . xxvii . in case of a toleration , or indulgence to be granted , whether has the fairer pretense to it ; the classical way of the presbyterians , or the congregational way of the independents ; in respect of their form of government . indep . the presbyterians ( you say ) are rather to be tolerated then the independents , in regard of the stability of their government , and the sobriety of their principles , to speak in this place to the matter of their government ; i think your argument is very ill grounded . for in deliberations of this nature , the cautions that occur to all magistrates are chiefly these two. first , in case of an indulgence , that it may be placed upon a party , which in probability , would not disturb the publique if they could ; but secondly , to make sure however , ( for fear of the worst ) that they shall not be able to do it , if they would . so that whether a stable , and united , or a loose , and distracted interest may with more security be indulged , is the question . presb. you may as well ask , whether order , or confusion be more tolerable in a government . indep . that order which is necessary in the government it self , is dangerous in the enemies of it . but deliver your exceptions to the toleration of those which you call independents , in regard of their way of government . presb. you have already , in a good part , sav'd me that labour . but a man shall not need to go further for an exception , then to the very denomination of them ; which imports an exemption from all iurisdiction , both eclesiastical , and civil . indep . but what will become of that exception , when i shall tell you , that those people are no more independent , then the presbyterians ? [ we depend upon the magistrate for civil government , and protection ; and upon christ , and his word , for the rule of our administrations . nay , we insist upon it , that the congregational way , is the only true , original presbytery , which is peculiar to every particular church of christ. but if you call us independent , as in distinction to subordinate , we are not only ready , as such independents , to defend our selves ; but by virtue of that very independency , we pretend to claim an advantage over the presbyterians . presb. i could tell ye of your church-covenants , and defensive leagues , against the commands of authority . indep . but i could speak homer to you , of your national leagues and covenants ; which all the world knows , are the grand engines to disjoynt communities , and remove the foundations of government . and i do not much wonder at it , where the act of a general assembly , influences the consciences of a whole nation . as to any covenants , and leagues against the magistrate ; neither do the independents practise them , nor would they stand them in any stead , if they had a mind to play the villeins ; for want of an orderly dependence , to unite , and to oblige them . presb. and for that reason , you imagine , the independents may be better tolerated , then the presbyterians . indep . truly for that main reason , with twenty great ones more in the belly of it . it were a wild thing for a man to apprehend any danger to a government , from a faction that is divided , and distracted within it self ; and without any common tye of agreement to unite it . and this do i take to be the condition of the independents , ( which for discourse sake , we will suppose to be a faction . ) their congregations are generally small ; the members of them , gather'd up here and there , and so scattered , and intermix'd with people of other perswasions , that they have neither opportunity , nor encouragement to joyn in a conspiracy . besides that in respect of their church-parity , they want that ordinary medium of superiority , and subjection , to link them together in a combination , upon the point of common interest . another difficulty will arise from the affections of the pastors themselves ; who are not without their touches of disgust , and emulation , to see themselves either out-vied , or deserted : the one , by fuller congregations ; and the other , by the removal of their members from one church to another . presb. if i am not mistaken , you have provided against the inconvenience of breaking in one upon another ; by an obligation at your entrance into any church , not to forsake it without leave . but proceed . indep . there remains yet behind , another obstacle , equal to all the rest : which is ; that the independents have no men that are eminent for popularity , interest , great fortunes , and abilities , to head them . now how it is possible for a party under all these disadvantages , to work any mischief to the state , i am not wise enough to imagine . if you object , that the late independent government had many persons at the helm , that were qualified with these circumstances . i must answer you , that whatever they were , they did not set up originally for independency . presb. so that upon the result , to save your party from appearing dangerous , you have made it contemptible . and your argument would have run very well in these words . the independents may better be tolerated then the presbyterians : for no body that has either brains , or reputation , will own independency . indep . as an interest ( you should have said ) whereupon to work any change of government . ( and this would have been point-blank to the question , and your period never the worse for 't . ) now if my reason be good on the behalf of the independents , that they may be tolerated without any risque to the commonwealth , upon the considerations before mentioned : it will hold as good against the presbyterians ; because of the very contrary circumstances in their government , and case . that is to say , they are at great agreement in the orderly reduction , and connexion of their polity ; and they have commonly found great friends to uphold them in their pretenses . my first exception to presbytery is , that it is a national church-government . and methinks two national church-governments in the same kingdom , looks like a sharing of the sovereignty , and the setting up of christs vicar against gods vice gerent . and what will the people say in the matter , but either that the government thinks them in the right , or else that 't is affraid of them ? the former supposition draws the simple into the party upon conscience ; and the latter engages the crafty upon interest . to take it now in the constitutive parts of it ; the scale of the presbytery rises thus : from parochial inspection , to classical ; from classical to provincial ; and from provincial , to national : which extensive latitude , and comprehension , does plainly discover , that there was a design of sole , and sovereign dominion in the very institution of the discipline . to say nothing in this place of the absolute , and independent authority claimed , and exercised by the general assembly ; i shall only observe this to you : that they have the best security in the world , for their subjects obedience to all their acts , and conclusions whatsoever . for life , fortune , soul , and all lies at stake : they fine , punish , degrade , excommunicate at pleasure . and this is the true reason , that from time to time , the presbyterial discipline has had the countenance of so many popular advocates , and abetters . for certainly , it is the best foundation for an alteration of state , that ever was yet laid upon the face of the earth ; and their work is three quarters done to their hand , in the very disposition of the model . only one observation more , and i have done . and that is , the provident commixture of laity , and clergy in all their counsels ; these to attaque the church , the other , the state ; by which means , they may the more commodiously carry on schism , and sedition in their proper seasons : and leave a door of preferment , and advantage , open to all comers . i will not say yet , that it is absolutely impossible for a protestant monarchy , and this double refin'd presbytery to prosper in the same soil : but if i had money in my pocket , i would not give any prince in christendom above eighteen months purchase for his crown , that should put it to the venture . for he has nothing in the world to trust to , but miracles : the gratitude , faith , good nature , and pure integrity of the party . sect . xxviii . whether may be better tolerated in this kingdom , the presbyterians , or the independents ; in respect of their principles , and ordinary proceedings . debated , first , with relation to his majesties person , and authority . indep . the government of england is monarchique ; but so attemper'd with legal provisions ▪ for the comfort , and benefit of the people , that every englishman has his interest in the preservation of the law ; as that which intitles him to the free enjoyment of his life and fortune : so that we are to frame our discourse with a regard to his majesties person , and royal authority ; the foundation , and execution of the law ; the rights , and just liberties of the people : utterly excluding from the limits of our toleration , all power or pretense whatsoever , that shall presume to usurp upon any of these particulars . now to begin with the first . what do you find in the independent way , that may endanger his majesty , either in his person , or in his prerogative ? presb. the princes of germany would answer you , that your proceedings are sangu●…nary , and violent : not only against your actual opposers , but against the very ordinance of magistracy it self . indep . what are the furies of the anabaptists to us , that have declared against them , as well as you ? but if you can fasten upon those of the congregational way , any antimonarchical opinions , or practises , which are either wrap't up in the bowell of that profession , or naturally issuing from thence : and make good your assertion , by proving what you say , to have been the formal act of any one of our churches by it self , or more of them in combination , i will never open my mouth after it , in a plea for the independents . presb. it were a hard matter indeed to fasten any thing upon the principles ●…f a party , that professes to have no principles , but still refers it self to the guidance of a further light. indep . and yet you can blame us for our principles , though by your own confession , you know not what they are . now for the reserve of acting according to a further light ; it is exprest , in the ordinary form of our church covenant , that it is to be reach'd unto us out of the word ; which most assuredly will not lead us into any evil. if this be all you have to say against the independents , i would gladly hear what defence you are able to make for the presbyterians : either simply , and in themselves ; or else comparatively with any other sort of people . nay , i should not much care if you took the iesuits themselves for your foil . presb. how can you say this ? considering , [ that thundring of excommunication , which has sounded in all ages , since the beginning of the papal reign , against kings , emperours , &c. and these practises iustified by their decretals , and canons ; divines of greatest authority , and some of their councils : ascribing to the pope a power of deposing princes that are heretical●… or favourers of heretiques . the iesuits doctrine of king-killing hath made them odious , &c. indep . do you tell us of papalexcommunications , justified by canons , divines , councils ; deposing of kings for heresie ; and the iesuits doctrine of king-killing , & c ? the disciple should speak reverently of his master : for i assure you , a iesuits cloak sits exceedingly well upon the shoulders of a presbyterian . to discipline , must all the states within the realm be subject , as well the rulers , a●… the ruled . ( according to the discipline of the kirk of scotland , printed in london , . the person of the magistrate ought to be subject to the kirk , spiritually , and in ecclesiastical government : submitting himself to the discipline of the kirk , if he transgress in matters of conscience , and religion . beza , buchanan , ( and in truth , the whole brotherhood ) are for the excommunication of princes . so that there 's presbyterial excommunication you see , as well as papal . and in case of superstition , and idolatry , the presbyter can depose too , as well as the pope , in case of heresie . was not the queen-regent in scotland ( . ) deposed , upon the encouragement , and with the approbation of willock , knox , and their fellows ? as not doing her duty to the subjects ; and as a vehement mainteiner of superstition , and idolatry ? did not the commissioners of the kirk ( in . ) threaten an open protestation against king iames , and his council , in case of either pardoning , or restoring the popish lords that were at that time under banishment ? as to the iesuits doctrine of king-killing ; we are able not only to match , but to out-doe it , out of the school of the consistory . there is no doubt but the iesuits are guilty of delivering doctrine that naturally leads to king-killing conclusions . but do ye find that ever they said in plain terms ; it is lawful for subjects to take up arms against their sovereign , in case of religion ; or that ever they publiquely applauded the murther of a prince , after the fact was committed ? certainly , in this particular , the consistorian copy goes beyond the papal original . upon a dangerous uproar that was raised by the ministers , in edinburgh , ( . ) the king by proclamation , discharged all iudicatories from sitting there . whereupon the ministers prest a bond of association , upon the noblemen , and barons ; and sent a letter ( drawn by robert bruce , and walter balcanquel ) to the lord hamilton to head them : for by the motion of god's spirit , and animated by the word , the people had gone to arms , in defence of the church , &c. not to trouble you with a rabble of unnecessary instances : in the ninth section , there has been said more than enough upon this subject already . you shall now see the veneration they have for the persons of princes . gibson , in the pulpit , denounced that curse against king iames , that fell upon ieroboam : that he should die childless , and be the last of the race . ( an. . ) which words , by the assembly , ( with much a do , and after declining the question , were found to be scandalous . david blake preached , that all kings were the devils barns , and his majesty had detected the treachery of his heart . for which he was cited before king and council , and appeal'd to the presbytery , who by their commissioners moved his majesty for a surcease of the process , with a charge , in case of refusal , to protest against the proceedings of the counsel . quasi pulpita ( sayes cambden ) a regum authoritate essent exempta . as if pulpits were priviledged from the authority of princes . iohn welch , at the high church in edinburgh , preached , that the king was possest with a devil , and that the people might rise lawfully , and take the sword out of his hand . but what is all this , in comparison with the license of the late times here at home , when the two houses , and assembly were daily entertained with sermons and pamphlets of this quality , for which the authors had their thanks , and imprimanturs ? but i shall rather confine my self now , to the arbitrary excesses of the scottish presbytery , as the model of the covenanted and blessed reformation . to come now to their usurpation upon the civil power . king iames was surpriz'd at ruthuen ( . ) under pretext of religion , and kept months a prisoner . this act was publiquely justified by the assembly at edinburgh , as done for the preservation of the kings person and religion . in the case of andrew melvil : it was insisted upon , that treason in the pulpit , fell under the cognition of the presbytery , and that neither king nor counsel , primâ instantiâ , ought to meddle with it . but it is a much easier matter to find what a prince may not do , ( under the inspection of a presbytery ) then what he may . he must not a receive an embassader , nor b pardon an offender , without the approbation of the kirk . nor so much as chuse his own guards ; c court-officers , or counsellers , nor issue out any proclamations or decrees . they are to direct him d what forfeitures to take , and how to dispose of them : when to arme , and whom to trust. if the king has a a mind to feast an embassader , they presenly indict a fast e ; and curse the magistrates almost to excommunication , for not observing it . nay so little power had king iames with these people , that f when his mother was under a sentence of death , he could not get them so much as to pray for her , that god would illuminate her with the light of his truth , and save her from the apparent danger she was in . on the other side ; they claim to themselves the power of warr , and peace ; of calling and dissolving assemblies ; and whensoever they shall think fit to say , that the good of the church ; the glory of god ; or any spiritual end is concerned , they make no scruple in the world , of levying armes , men , monies ; seizing of castles , and forts ; issuing out of warrants for members of parliament . a they impose oaths and covenants against the king himself ; b encounter proclamations with anti protests ; c rescind acts of counsels , &c. and what 's the colour for all this haughtiness and state ? the ministers ( forsooth ) are christs deputies ; and their acts are christ's ordinances ; whereas iudges , counsellers , and parliaments are but the king's substitutes , and their laws only humane . presb. you are not any more to conclude against the presbyterial government , from the president of some factious assemblies , than against the constitution of parliaments , from the president of some seditious compositions and elections . indep . neither do i charge these imposing usurpations upon the confederacy of a cabal , or a faction , but upon the original scope , and mystery of the discipline ; for i find them rooted in the very foundation of their policy . their pragmatical intermedling in civil affairs , and matters of state , is warranted by their book of government ; where it is said , that the minister handleth external things , only for conscience cause : now i would fa●…n know that notion which may not some way or other , be made relative to conscience . for limiting the magistrate in the exercise of his power , they have this plea ; that though the ministers do not exerce the civil iurisdiction , they teach the magistrate how it should be exercised , according to the word . so that the prince is put to schoole to the masterships of his parish , to learn every point and circumstance of his duty . now for the absolute , and boundless iurisdiction of their general assemblies : they tell us , not only that the kirk is to appoint times and places convenient for their meeting ; but that as well magistrates , as inferiours , are to be subiect to the iudgment of the same ; in ecclesiastical causes , without any reclamations or appeal , to any iudge civil or ecclesiastical . is not this a dethroning of majesty , to set princes , and peasants upon the same level in point of subjection to their resolutions and decrees ? presb. not at all ; for the magistrate is to assist , and maintein the discipline of the kirk ; and punish them civilly that will not obey the censure of the same . indep . in truth it is a goodly office , you have allotted the chief magistrate ; to set him cheek by iowle with the beadle of the parish : you are to direct the punishment , and he is to execute it . but what if he should prove refractary , and dispute yo●…r authority ? in case of contumacy , he is as liable to censure ( you say ) as another person . and then you have no more to do , but to resort to your ordinary method of calling in the noblemen , barons , gentlemen , burgesses , and commons to your assistance against him . let me now marque to you , two passages in your discipline , that make two shrewd discoveries . [ a minister ( you say ) must not frequent , and commonly haunt the court , unless either sent by the kirk , or called upon by authority for his counsel , and iudgment in civil affairs . and afterwards , you say , that , ministers may and should assist their princes , when required , in all things agreeable to the word ; whether it be in counsel , or pariament , or otherwise . provided , that through flattery of princes , they hurt not the publique state of the church . whence it appears ; first , that simple presbyters may do well enough in parliaments , or councils ; though bishops are excluded : were it not secondly , for the danger of creating a kindness betwixt the king , and the kirk ; which in consequence would frustrate the main design . for the prime end of this church policy is the overtopping and subjecting of the secular power : and it was wisely done to temper the very foundation of it with principles of opposition to the order , and well being of civil government . sect . xxix . the question of toleration , ●…etwixt presbytery , and independency ; debated , with regard to the foundation , and execution of the law . presb. what if you had put the question betwixt a peaceable , and obedient sort of people , and a generation of men that cannot live out of contention . indep . the m●…n of contention , i suppose you would have me understand to be the independents . what 's the quarrel to them upon the matter now before us ? presb. only this : that they are intolerable in any government . how many plots have they had upon this kingdom , since his majesties return ? there was venner's rising ; a conspiracy in the north ; another in ireland . indep , and all this while , y●…u forget the rebellion in scotland , which was professedly presbyterian ; beside that , these disorders which you speak of , were nothing at all to the independents : but ( one way or other ) these instances are to no purpose without some authoritative allowance ; and pray'e let us agree upon it , that only the conclusions of the kirk , on the one hand , and of the church on the other , may be insisted upon , as the acts of either party . presb. i do not find that the independent churches ▪ come to any resolutions at all . indep . you have the less to say then against their principles ; and i wish the indep●…ents could say the same thing for the presbyterians . how far , i beseech you , are humane laws binding ? presb. ●…o far forth as they are agreeable to the word of god. indep . and who shall determine what laws and constitutions are agreeable to god's word ? presb. the church lawfully constitute ; which all godly princes , and magistrates ought to hear , and to obey their voice , and reverence the majesty of the son of god speaking in them . indep . i need not ask what church that is ; for iohn m●…rellius was excommunicate , for mainteyning in a certain treatise , that tell the church , did not belong to the consist●…ry , and the book was burnt . but to the poynt . if the word of god be the rule for humane laws ; and the presbytery , the sole expounders of the word of god ; the law of the nation is at the mercy of the kirk already : for 't is but saying , that this or that law is not agreeable to the word of god , and there 's an end on 't . presb. the kirk has power to abrogate and abolish all statutes , a●… ordinances concerning ecclesiastical matter●… , that are found n●…ysome , and unpro●…table , and agree not with the ●…ime , or are abused by the people . indep . if the kirk has this power , the pope himself pretends to nothing beyond it . are not your determinations as pere●…ptory ; and your orders as imperious ? but i am speaking here , as to the latitude of your pretended iurisdiction . you may abrogate all statutes ( you say ) concerning ecclesiastical matters . and i say , on the other side , that you may upon that ground , abrogate all the statutes in the christian world : for i defie the whole race of mankind , to shew me any one law extant , or the very supposition of a law possible ▪ which may not some way or other ▪ be said to concern ecclesiastical matters . presb. you take no notice , how this power is clogg'd with limitations . if they be found unprofitable , unseasonable , or to be abused by the people . indep . very good : and if the kirk shall think fit to find them so or so ; pray'e what remedy ? b●…t their own avowed actions , and declarations , are the best comments upon their own principles . under king iames in scotland , nothing was more ordinary , then over-ruling acts of parliament by the acts of the assembly : did they not erect a counsel of the church in edenborough , . and take upon them to convene , examine , and censure at pleasure such as they suspected to hold any correspondence with certein excommunicate lords ? did they not also appoint to meet in armes , at the tryal of them ? nor did they think it enough , to rescind ▪ or supersede acts of parli●…ment and general ass●…mblies : but people must be qu●…stion'd too for yielding obedience to acts of parliament , and of general counsels under colour of unjust laws . wee 'l close this particular with the judgment of the commissioners of the general assembly of scotland , of may . . the authority of parliament is one thing ; an act of parliament another thing . we do still acknowledg their authority , when we obey not this or that act. and whatsoever be the treason of impugning the authority of parliamen●… , it can be no treason to obey god rather then man : neither did the general assembly of glasgow , . and such as were active for the covenant at that time , commit any treason , when they impugned episcopacy , and p●…rch articles , although ratify'd , and strengthen'd by acts of parliament , and standing laws then unrepealed . presb. when we have once gotten power into our hands , we are all too apt to abuse it . but i cannot yet perswade my self that the root of these practises is to be found in their principles . their books of discipline are publick ; and no government would ever entertein it , if there were such danger in it . indep . how was the covenant entertein'd ? or who would have dream'd of any harm in a league for the preservation and defence of the king's majestie 's person and authority ? and yet the presbyterian interpretation , and salvo of subordinating his majesties safety and preservation , to the defence of the true religion ( immediately following ) and the kirks assuming to themselves the judgment of that religion , brought both king and church to destruction . nor can you choose but observe the holy discipline , and covenant , to be both of a stile , and both of a design : their claim concerning ecclesiastical matters , hooks in all laws ; and in the defence of the true religion , they usurp an authority over all magistrates . this discipline ( at the best ) is but a worm at the root of civil government : wheresoever it comes , the secular power hangs the head , and droops upon it , and never thrives after . but to sovereign princes , a man might say of it , as god said to adam , of the apple : in the day you eat thereof , you shall dye the death . now as it is manifestly destructive of law in the very foundations of it , to carry an appeal from all temporal governours and constitutions , to the scepter and sentence of christ , sitting upon his tribunal in the presbytery ( the language of beza himself ) so likewise have they their preparatory artifices for obstructing the execution of law , and for the weakening , and distracting of a government before they enter upon the great work of dissolving it . and this is effected by the trojan horse ( as one calls it ) of their excommunication , that carries all the instruments and engines of publique ruine , and confusion in the belly of it . by virtue of this device , they do not only impose upon all ministers , and courts of justice ; but they may , when they please ( as hooker observes ) send out their writs of surcease ; and fetch in the whole business of westminster-hall , to the bar of the consistory . or at the fairest , ( according to beza's distinction ) if they allow the civil iudg to try the fact ( as mere civile ) yet de iure controverso , ecclesiasticum syn●…drium constat respondisse : the church was to determine in matter of law , and the civil magistrate after that , to pronounce sentence , according to that decision . briefly , beza gives the presbytery the same power under the gospel , which was exercised by the synagogue under the law. but now to the point of your excommunication ; and to shew you in what manner it is apply'd , to hinder the execution of law ; and to obstruct civil iustice. by one clause of your discipline , you may abrogate what laws you please , concerning ecclesiastical matters : and by another ; the minister is authorized to handle external things , for conscience cause : so that your authorit●… is without controul in ecclesiastical matters ; and so is your liberty of handling civil matters as ecclesiastical . upon which bottom was founded an assertion not long since mainteined at the savoy , i. e. that the command of a most lawful act is sinful , if that act commanded may prove to any one a sin per accidens , now if the kirk shall think fit to abrogate a law ( as nothing more frequent ) whoever shall presume to execute that law , is sure to be excommunicate : and the supreme magistrate himself is no less lyable to church censure , for not executing that sentence , then the inferior magistrate was for his original disobedience . the bishop of st. andrews ( in ) was excommunicate for advising king iames to a declaration against certein fugitive ministers that were denounced rebels ; and contriving the statutes of ( . ) touching the kings authority in ecclesiastical causes . knox is for excommunication in all crimes , that are capital by the law of god ; and in effect , for the churches tryal of the very fact. it was not for nothing that the two houses held the assembly so long in play , upon this point ; and in despight of all importunities to the contrary , kept the staffe still in their own hands ; and reserved to themselves the ultimate appeal , in cases of excommunication . presb , was it not rather the work of the independents ? who ( to say the truth ) were as much against any settlement at all as against that ; and against the very convening of the assembly it self . indep . and they had done the state a good office , if they had totally hindred it . but this is beside our business . we have said enough as to the dangerous influence of presbytery , upon the security of his majesty and the law. it remains now to be considered , with a respect to the rights , and liberties of the people . sect . xxx . the question of toleration , betwixt presbytery , and independency , debated , with a regard to the rights , liberties , and advantages of the people . indep . you see how it is with kings , parliaments , and laws , under the dominion of presbytery . we are now to look into the condition of the nobility , gentry , commonalty , and of the presbyterial clergy it self , under that discipline : which will best appear , by a view of the powers which the presbytery claims , and exercises . but let me commend one note to you as previous to that examination . this party has constantly screw'd it self into the world , by an oath of mutual defence : which oath they apply as well to the ruine and extirpation of their opponents , as to their own preservation ; by making it a test of good affection to that interest ; and excluding all people whatsoever from any office , or benefit ecclesiastical , or civil , without subscribing it . you cannot deny but this oath in the very institution of it , is a violence both upon law , and conscience ; and consequently , that the imposition falls heaviest upon those that make an honourable , and religious scruple of their actions . so that here is already exposed the most considerable part of the nation , for the subject of their displeasure ; with their lives , liberties , and fortunes at mercy ; as you will find upon a further consideration of their usurped authority , and iurisdiction . presb. leave this way of general discourse , and come to particular instances . where is it , that you find this exorbitant power that you talk of ? indep . in the very declaration of the commission of the general assembly of scotland , . page . [ the duties of the second table as well as of the first : as namely , the duties between king , and subject ; parents , and children ; husbands , and wives ; masters , and servants , and the like ; being conteined in , and to be taught and cleared from the word of god , are in that respect , and so far as concerneth the point of conscience , a subject of ministerial doctrine , and in difficult cases , a subject of cognizance and iudgment to the assembly of the kirk . the dispute here was about the assemblies authority , in the question of war or peace . is not this at one blow to destroy the order of all relations , political , natural , and moral ? princes must not presume to make war or peace ; to enact laws , or abrogate ; to spare or punish , without ecclesiastical licence . the subject must go to the masters of the parish , to know whether , he shall obey authority , or resist it . and after the same manner it fares with parents , and children ; husbands , and wives ; masters , and servants ; so that there is not any person , either publique , or private ; or any action , or office , of regard to community , family , or alliance , that scapes their pragmatical scrutiny , and inspection . presb. so far as these duties are matter of conscience , there is no doubt , but they are of ecclesiastical cognisance ; and further then so , they make no pretension . indep . but you must give me leave to tell you then , that their consciences are larger then other peoples . the old nonconformist ( as au expedient for the settling ecclesiastical affairs ( page . ) proposes the setting up of work-houses for the poor ; the carrying on of the fishing trade ; the taking off of protections ; that none may be imprison'd but according to law : and the abatement of taxes . the assembly at glasgow . passed an act concerning salmon fishing , and another about salt pans . and all this i warrant ye , so far as they concerned point of conscience . but if you would see , what the consistory calls conscience , in the full extent , we must repair for satisfaction , to their direction , and practises in the matter of conscience , and excommunication . the kirk proceeds to excommunication in all capital crimes , where the offender that deserv'd to dye , is suffer'd to live . and in cases of fornication , drunkenness , swearing , cursing , sab●…ath-breaking , wanton words , contempt of the orders of the church ; oppression of the poor ; deceipt in buying and selling , by wrong mete and measure . presb. well ; and what hurt 's in all this ? indep . none at all : but let me proceed . they censure also excess in apparel , meat , or drink , uncomely gestures ; contentiousnes , without reasonable cause ; chiding , brawling , vainwords ; every fault that tendeth to the hurt of a man's neighbour , or to the hindrance of the glory of god : whether by force , or fraud ; word , or deed ; manifestly , or secretly ; purposely , or ignorantly : and the judgment of the whole is left to the discretion of the church . so that your very thoughts are not free . [ the spiritual ruler ( says the book of discipline ) iudgeth both inward affections , and external actions in respect of conscience , by the word of god. upon which ground they take upon them to censure the very suspicion of avarice , and pride : superfluity or riotousness , in chear or rayment . but upon dancers , robin hoods , and all games that brings loss , they have no mercy . these particulars are extracted to a syllable out of the most authentical records they have to shew for the warrant of the scottish discipline - ( our blessed model . ) but many people perchance will make it a matter of nothing to be excommunicate upon a supposition that the anathema is the uttermost spite of the censure . they never dream of car●…ings , iogges , pillories , shaving their beards , and cutting half the hair of their heads . banishments , pecuniary mu●…cts , close imprisonments , and all sorts of studied defamations . nay , if any man refuse to subscribe their confession of faith , rule of government , and manner of worship , he is forthwith excommunicate ; and upon remonstrance of a commissioner from the presbytery to the civil iudg , a warrant granted , commanding him to conform by a day certein , or to be outlawed . if he conform not within that time , his estate move able is forfeited ; and if not within a year and a day , he loses his whole revenue for his life . after this , at the further instance of the churches commissioner , out go letters of caption , for apprehending of his person , and committing him as a rebel . and if he be not to be found ; these are follow'd with letters of inter-communing , forbidding all men either personally to confer with him , or by letter , or interposed person to correspond with him , upon pein of the inter-communers being iudged and reputed a rebel of the same guiltiness . as to the general rule of excommunication ; no person ( wife and family excepted ) is to have any communication with the excommunicate ; be it in eating or drinking ; buying or selling ; yea in saluting or talking with him : unless at commandment or license of the ministry for his conversion . his children begotten and born after that sentence not to be admitted to baptism , till of age to require it ; unless the mother or some special friends , members of the kirk , offer and present the child , damning the iniquity and contempt of the impenitent . there are that do not allow husbands to accompany with their wives in the state of excommuni cation . now upon what has been deliver'd , let any man consider the unchristian rigor of this disciplinary inquisition ; not only in the actual tyranny of it , but in the more miserable consequences . first as it scandalizes the gospel , and makes the death of christ seem to be no effect , by imposing upon us such conditions of salvation , as if the blessed angels should descend , and indue humane shapes , they were not able to perform . for it is not what christ and his apostles say , that will do a man's business here , without the urim and thummim of the parochial session , and the defects of the written word , are to be supplyed by unwritten traditions out of the repository of the presbyterial cabale . in this case it is that we are to have recourse to the apostles precept ; of standing fast in the liberty wherewith christ hath made us free , and not to be intangled again in the yoke of bondage . ( a yoke much more intolerable then that of the law ; ) for the iews had their lesson before their eyes , and knew what they were to do . but here , it matters not what either scripture or conscience says , without the subsequent concurrence of the presbytery : to whose supreme , and infallible judgment ( and not to our own ) we are to stand or fall either to heaven , or hell. the rigor of this discipline is m●…st un-christian also , as it crucifies weak consciences with needless , infinite , and incurable scruples ; with scruples that haunt , dog , and torment us in the most necessary , and ordinary actions of humane life . at the church ; at the table ; at the market ; at home , and abroad . at all times , in all places , and upon all occasions , in our words , thoughts , and deeds . as to excess in eating . it is censurable either in the quantity , or in the quality . so that in the first place the eldership is to provide one common gage for the stomachs of the whole parish , for fear of a mouthful too much . and in the second p●…ace , it is made a matter of salvation , or damnation , whether a man eats beef , or venison . and so , for excess in apparel . one inch more , then to cover your shame , is a sup●…rfluity ; and one peny more , in the pound , then the allowance of the presbytery , is made as much as a man's soul is worth . it is the same thing for vain words . a nurse shall not dare to still her child but with a psalm ; and you must not presume so much as to ask what a clock it is , without a text ; to prove that the question tends to edification . but the hardest case of all is , that of suspicion . the very suspicion of avarice , or pride , you say , makes a man lyable to censure . this , methinks , is very severe , for a man to be delivered over to sathan , because the brotherhood suspects him to be proud , or covetous ; whether he be so , or no. presb. 't is to be presumed , that the church will proceed according to a iudgment of charity , and discretion . indep . did not the kirk excommunicate the whole multitude for a robin-hood ? nay at st. iohnstons , they cursed not only the men , that should take part with the king , but the very horses , and spears . ( here 's an excommunication by way of advance ) upon the action of duke hamilton in . the whole party were excommunicate ( even after the defeat : ( as appears by the scotch act for renewing the covenant . ) in some cases again , they are as tender and cautelous . andrew hunter ( a prime stickler for the discipline ) attended bothwel as his chaplain , in a rebellion , . but king iames could not prevail with the assembly to excommunicate him for it ; ( though no doubt was made of the fact ) nay , on the contrary , they would not be quiet , till they had got bothwell's pardon . and upon gowry's attempt ( in the year . ) his majesty required the ministers of edenburgh to give god thanks in their churches for his deliverance , and they refused it . but to the point we were upon . as nothing can be more contrary to the temper and dictate of the holy gospel then the claim of this arbitrary and censorious iurisdiction : it seems to me to stand in an equal degree of opposition to the rules of society , humanity , and reason . the king is upon his good behaviour to the elders , and deacons ( who are iudges of others manners ) as well as the meanest man in the parish . he is indeed ( as is observ'd by the author of presbytery displayd ) the chief member of the general assembly ; but they allow him no negative voice ; and if he has the fortune to be out-voted , he must cause the sentence to be executed , whatever it be , under pein of censure , and consequently of deprivation . of acts of parliament , and inferiour magistrates , enough is spoken already . as to the state of the nobility , and gentry , they are either conformists to the government , or dissenters ; and must take their lot in it , to be either sovereigns , or slaves : ( for that 's the distribution of it . ) upon the mayn these domini dominantium challenge by their commission to be no respecters of persons ; and so lay upon all sorts , and conditions of men in general at their good pleasure certein common impositions , importing their servility , and subjection , and whose livery they wear . i must not omit one peculiar obligation , the nobility , and gentry have to these their gracious masters : which is the easing them of their patronages , and presentations to benefices , because these things fl●…wed from the pope , and the corruption of the canon law only , and are contrary to the word of god , and the peoples liberty of electing their own ministers . [ for ( say they ) this is altogether to be avoided , that any man be violently intruded , or thrust in upon any congregation . but this liberty , with all care , must be reserved to every several church , to have their votes , and suffrages in election of their ministers . observe now , i beseech you , the peoples liberty , in this choice . violent intrusion we call it not , when the counsel of the church , in the fear of god , and for the salvation of the people , ●…ffereth unto them a sufficient man , to instruct them . if his doctrine be found wholesome , and able to instruct the simple , and if the church justly can reprehend nothing in his life , doctrine , nor ut●…erance , then we judg the church unreasonable , if they refuse him , whom the church did offer ; and they should be compelled by the censure of the counsel , and church , to receive the person appointed . here 's liberty upon compulsion ; and it is most palpable , that your whole design is the interest of a party . now to the men of ordinary business , and traffick . the presbytery will put an end to all their disputes , about free trade , priviledges , and matter of commerce , with a wet finger . did they not by an act of assembly at dundy . prohibit the scots trading with any of the king of spains dominions , under pein of excommunication ? and his majesty refusing to comply with them , ( at the iustance of the spanish merchants ) did they not proceed to censure the merchants ? so that there shall be no trading , but where they please : and no markets neither but upon their good liking too . did they not by their proper authority discharge the munday-market in edinburgh ? but the shoo-makers indeed were too hard for the elders this bout , and told them plainly , they would turn out all their ministers by head and shoulders first , before they parted with their market . upon which menace they were quiet . the author of presbytery display'd , gives you some instances of the presbyteries interposal , in actions of debt , and menacing landlords , and creditors , with excommunication , unless they laid down the precess : upon pretense forsooth , that though it was in a civil cause , it had yet a spiritual prospect : withdrew people from their callings , and hindred the progress of the gospel . and this is no more , then any man will reasonably expect , that looks but with half an eye upon the very frame , and provision of the discipline . is not he a mad man , that thinks to recover a debt at common law , against any member , or members friend of the presbytery , when ' ●…is but flying to the canon of the consistory , to silence the dispute , and telling him , that he is contentious without a reasonable cause ? cannot the church put an end to strife among brethren , as well as the civil magistrate ? it is a matter of evil example , and tends to the hurt of our neighbour . if the creditor be obstinate , and will not take good counsel , out flyes an excommunication against him , for refusing to obey the orders of the church . i would now fain understand , what it is that sets so many of the ministers a gog upon this platform ; for certeinly , they are of all mortals the most contemptible : ( the iunto , and some few of the select ones excepted . ) their discipline divides the church patrimony into four parts one for the pa stor ; another for the elders , deacons , and other kirk-officers ; their doctors , and schools . a third for charitable uses : and the rest for repairing of churches , and other incidental charges . so that the clergy is strip'd already of . parts of of their legal maintenance , and then for the poor pittance that is left ; so much as will keep life and soul together , they are allow'd in meal , and mault ; and totally dependent upon the mercy of the church for the rest . and yet for this pittiful stipend , they are to be call'd to accompt how they spend it ; and their wives , and children , to be thrown at last upon the charge of the parish . in their preaching , they are limited by the direction , and design of their leaders : only tenants at will in their cures ; and lyable to be removed , suspended , or deposed at pleasure . this arbitrary dominion , together with the shameful condition of their bondage , has proved so great a discouragement to the ministry , that they have found themselves forc'd to press ministers into the service , as they would do souldiers . and where they find men of abilities for their purpose , the civil magistrate is call'd upon , to compel them to the ministry . nay rather than fail , the nobility and gentry must bring up their children , to the service , and good liking of the kirk , under pein of church-censure . a jurisdiction exercised according to the latitude of this discipline , one would think , might satisfie any reasonable sort of people . but alas ! if they do not as much exceed their own bounds , in their practise , as they exceed all other models in their pretensions , they reckon it as good as nothing . they can cite people out of a remote iurisdiction . deprive whole presbyterys for dissent . ( kings declaration , page ) call nine presbyters of fifty , a general assembly . ( spotswood , p. . ) demolish churches ( . ) and dispose of the patrimony ( . ) and what not ? more needs not be said , as to the empire they exercise over king , lords , and commons , severally , and in divers respects : we come now to their usurpations upon the common rights , and priviledges of mankind . chiding ( as i told you ) they have drawn within the compass of ecclesiastical censure . so that masters shall not reprove their servants , nor parents their children ; without leave of the eldership , ( to the utter dissolution of the order and discipline of private families . ) nay , they have taken in brawling too , and made every billingsgate quarrel , every brabble betwixt a butter-whore and an oysterwench , a subject of consistorial cognizance . under the censure of lewd customs are comprized all sorts of publique sports , exercises , and recreations , that have been long in use ; upon the worshipful pretense ( forsooth ) that they had their original from the times of paganism , or popery : as comedies , interludes , wrastlings , foot-ball-play , may-games , whitson-ales , morrice-dances , bear-baitings ; nay the poor rosemary , and bayes , and christmas-pye , is made an abomination . presb. and are not the independents as much against these fooleries as the presbyterians ? indep . no , we take our own freedom , to forbear what we dislike our selves ; and allow other people their liberty , to practise what pleases them . but to proceed . all games that bring loss are prohibited , tennis , bowles , billiards ; not so much as a game at stool-ball for a tansy , or a cross and pyle for the odd penny of a reckoning , upon pein of damnation . — shortly , boys shall not play at span-counter , or blow-point , but shall pay tell to some presbyter . — what do you think now of uncomely gestures ? that a man shall be given to the devil , for lolling upon his elbow , or set●…ing on his back-side , in the presence of the deacon of the parish . and the like for excess in eating , or apparel . every bit we put into our mouths , and every rag we put upon our backs , becomes a snare to us. it may be either too much , or too costly : and what reformation soever the kirk shall think fit to order , either in our clothes , or dyet , must be observ'd , with the same degree of submission , and obedience , as if the matter in question were an article of our creed . their censure of vain words is yet more rigorous , and reaches for ought we know , to the honestest endearments , and familiarities of friendship , and conversation , even to the exclusion of common decency , and civility . but let our words be what they will , we are still dependent upon the good pleasure of the eldership , whether they will pronounce them vain , or edifying . but why should a man expect to scape for words , where thought it self is censurable ? suspicion of avarice , pride , &c. ( as you have heard ) he that sues to recover a debt , shall be suspected of avarice . he that refuses to crouch like the asse under the burthen , shall be suspected of pride . and for a man and a woman to be only seen together , shall be ground enough for a suspicion of incontinency . nay , they shall be cited , interrogated , close-committed , and put to bread and water upon it ; and compell'd to swear in propriam turpitudinem . after all this , and that no proof appears , and that they purge themselves upon oath : it shall be yet enacted by the assembly , that if ever these two shall be seen again in company together , unless at church , or market , they shall be taken pro confesso for guilty . a whole volume ( says the author of presbytery display'd ) might be written of young women by these courses , disgraced , and defamed : of many families divided , and scatter'd ; whereas before there was never any jealousie betwixt the man and the wife . presb. these are objections rather of passion , and extravagance , then of argument . indep . they are no other then such conclusions , as the premisses will very well bear . presb. i have heard indeed of several wild , and sensless scruples charg'd upon the independents : as that they have made it a matter of religion to piss abed , and ride hobby-horses , because it is said , except ye become as little children , ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven , matth. . . indep . pray give me leave to requite you with three or four presbyterian scruples : out of bancrofts survey of the pretended holy discipline , page . move mr. cartwright , and some other our reverend brethren to deliver their iudgments , whether all laying out of hair be forbidden to all women : especicially at their repair to the publick meetings of the church ? a question riseth in my mind , whether one that professeth christ truly , may , according to the same profession , delight in , and use hawking , and hun●…ing ; so no unchristian behaviour otherwise be joyned therewith . let me know your iudgment particularly : whether it be in any respect tolerable for women , that profess religion , and the reformation , to wear dublets , little hats with ●…eathers : great gowns after the french , and outlandish fashion : great ruffes , and hair , either cu●…led , or frisled , or set out upon wires , and such like devices . i would be glad to have your iudgment in the fourth commandment : whether the strict prohibition of not kindling fire on the sabbath , be of the substance of the moral precept . in the same author you will find a catalogue of pleasant names too . the lord is near. more tryal . reformation . discipline . ioy again . sufficient . from above . free gifts . more fruit. dust. and in the next page , he tells you of one snape that proceeded toward the baptizing of a child , till they came to name it , richard , and then brake off , for fear it would not have prov'd a christian , if he had so baptized it . i cannot pass from these phantastical absurdities in your practises , without some reflection upon those in your constitution , to say nothing of your disagreements among your selves , about your officers , and discipline . what can be more ridiculous than to authorize a cobler to correct majesty , mechanicks to determine in points of faith ? are not your elders joyn'd in commission with your ministers , for the examination of the person that offers himself to the ministry , in all the chief points in controvorsie betwixt us and the papists , anabaptists , arrians , & c ? are not the elders , and deacons fit persons ( think ye ) to be made iudges of theological niceties ; and to admonish , and reprove a minister , that propones not faithful doctrine ? has not your general assembly , rather the face of a council of state , then of a counsel of the church ? ( and in truth the business too . ) behold the composition ( i beseech ye ) of the pretended assembly at glasgow , . seven earls , ten lords , forty gentlemen , and one and fifty burgesses , to determine of faith , and church censures . now to take a brief view of the whole . what greater slavery in the world , can be imagined , then to live in subjection to a government ; where you shall have , neither freedom of conscience , law , person , or fortune ? where you shall not speak , look , move , eat , drink , dress your self ; nay , not so much as entertein a thought , but at your peril ? and to be in this bondage too unto the meanest , and most insolent of your fellows ? for none but such will ever engage themselves in the exercise of so inhumane a tyranny . and for a further aggravation of the shame , and guilt of the faction : let me desire you , but to cast an eye upon their proceedings , under king iames in scotland , and here under queen elizabeth ; where you shall find that they were never so impetuous , and bold , as when they found the king , and the state in distress , upon the apprehension of forreign dangers . and so for the queen , upon the business of eighty eight : whereas the independents never so confined themselves to the prosecution of their private interests , as to hazard the betraying of their countrey to forreigners : and particularly , in the late engagements at sea , against the french , and dutch , many of them have given signal testimony , and proof of their fidelity , and valour . i should not have engross'd this whole discourse to my self , but in persuance of a point , wherein you have confest before-hand , that you had nothing further to oppose : that is to say , concerning the principles of the parties in question . neither is any thing i have hitherto deliver'd , to be taken as a challenge , and claim of a toleration , of such a quality , as to enter into a competition with the peace and security , of the publique : but this i pr●…mise my self , that if it shall appear reasonable to authority , to allow of any relaxation , the independents plea , upon all considerations of common equity , and safety , will stand good against that of the presbyterians , from whose triple-crown'd consistory ; that lords it over souls , bodies , and estates ; over kings , nobles , and commons ; over laws , magistrates , and all sorts , and ranks of men , and interests ; that turns gospel into law ; communities into deserts ; men into beasts ; good lord deliver us . the end . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e a amesius de consci . b indulg . & toler . p. . c liberty of conscience upon its true and proper grounds , p . d free disputation , p. . indulg . & toler . p. . rom. . . laud against fisher , p. . rom. . . rom. . . rom. . . tim. . . indulg . & toler . p. , . mat. . . luke . . * in his book of the covenant . mat. . sleydan's comment . l. . davila delle guer. civ . di fran. l. . ibid. lib. . strada de bello belgieo , l. . liberty of consc. upon its true and proper grounds , p. . disc. of relig. preface . institur . de libertate christiana . joh. . . ●… . lib. of consc. p. . lib. of consc. p. . li●… . of consc. p. . lib. of consc. p. , . lib. of consc. p. . lib. of consc. p. . ex. coll. p. . . a ex. coll. p . b p. . c p. . d p. . e p . ex. coll. p. . p. . spotswood . hist. scotl. p. . ibid. p mr. baxter's holy common-wealth . printed . robert douglass his serm. preach't at scoone , ian. . . printed . i. goodwin's anti-cavalerism . the observator . right and might well met , anno . parliament , physick . ahab's fall. interest of england in the matter of religion . . the peoples cause stated . an. . lex rex . an. . ius populi . declarat . touching the bills march . . vi●…dicia contra tyrannos . printed . tenure of kings . . goodwin's defence of the king's sentence . mr. baxter's holy common-wealth . tenure of kings . . a survey of the grand case . printed . mr. baxter's holy common-wealth . mr. faircloth before the commons . mr. sympson . scripture and reason for defensive arms. . english 〈◊〉 ●…he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . ●…nce of ●…'s ●…ce . 〈◊〉 good●… . 〈◊〉 poli●… of p. in●… . lex rex . mr. war'●… analysis of the covenant . english translation . lex rex . de monarchin absolutâ . mr. cary●… at taking the covenant . . the phaenix . e. c. marshall's sacred panegy●…ique . mr. case before the commons . . mr. cala●…'s sp●…ech at guild-hall . . mr. cala●…y's n●…bleman's p●… . mr. herle before the house of lords . . mr. strickland on a thanksgiving . . m. bridges ▪ on revel . . . ex. coll. p. . an. . lex r●…x . ibid. right and might . ex. coll. pa . ibid. i●…d . scobell act●… . &c. a part . p. . b p. . c p. . d p. . e p. . f p. . a scobell acts , &c. p. . b p. . c p. . d p. . e p. . f p. . pat . g p. . h p. . i p. . k p. . l p. . m p. . n p. . o p. . p p. . q part . p. . disc. of relig. title pag. ex. coll. p. . disc. of relig. par. . p. . disc. of relig. par. . p. . disc. of relig. par. . p. . d●…sc . of relig. par. . p. . disc. of relig par. . p. . disc. of relig. par. . p. . ibid. a disc. of relig. pars . b peace offering . c indulg . & toler . d disc. of relig. pars . e peace offering . f indul. & toler . disc of r●…lig . pars . disc. of relig. pars . ibid. disc. of relig. pa●…s . disc. of relig. pars . de conscientiâ , lib. 〈◊〉 . cap. . disc. of relig. pars . * indulg . & toler . p. . sp●…swoods hist. scotl. p , . petition to the queen , p. . gilby . king 's large declar . p. . ex. coll. 〈◊〉 p. . a two papers of proposals , pa. . b petition for peace , p. . c d●…sc . of relig. preface . ex. col. . disc. of relig. indulg . & toler . p. . ex. coll. pa . ibid. . in●…ulg . & tolr . disc. of relig. s●…otswoods h●…st . scotl. p. . a petition to her majesty , p. . b second admon●… . p. . ibid. p. . first admonit . p. . second admonit . p . ex. c●…ll . p. . indulg . & tolerat . disc. of relig. pars . large declaration , p. . ibid. p , , . ibid. p. . ex coll. p. . ibid. p . matth. . v. , . disc. of relig. acts . . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , p. . london ministers letter to the assembly , ian. ▪ . harmony of the lancashire ministers . p. . mr. faircloth , on iosh. . ●… . rutherford's free disp. p. . bayly's dissw●…sive epist ded. . sion-house to the assembly , . anti-toleration , p. . ☞ the ki●…ks testimony against toleration p. . acts and ordinances , part . p . ibid. . ibid. . pa. , . ☞ petition for peace , p. . , mr. calamy , of the ark , p. . a scob. acts , pars . p . b p. . c pars . p. . d p. . e p. . disc. of relig. pars . liberty of consc. p. . disc. of relig par. . p. . dise . of relig. par. . p. . indulg . & toler . p. liberty of consc. p. ●… . 〈◊〉 . liberty of conscience , p. . cambden ' s eliz. . cambden ' s eliz. . ibid. d●…sc . of relig. par. . p. . ann●… king 's large dec. p. . large declar . p. . ib. p. . * the liturgy . ex. coll. p. . p. . apol. conf. p. . de reform . advers . eccles . p. . beza cont . sarav . p. . view of the government , p. . ibid. p. . ibid. p. . ibid. p. ibid. . ibid. . ibid. . ibid. . petition for peace , p. . the old non-con formist , p. . cap . cap. . art. . art. . art. . art. . cap. . view of the government , p. . ibid. p. . . ep. bullingero , fol. baxter's five disputations , disp . . cap. . sect . . view of the government , p. . view of the gover. p. . ibid. p. . ibid. p. . ibid. p. . ibid. . ib. , . * scripta anglican . p. . hooker's eccles. pol. preface . two papers of proposals , p. , . institut . lib. . ca. . sect . . spotswoods hist. scotl. p. . mr. durells view of the government , p. . the late kingslarge declarat . p. . calv. inst. li. . ca. . sect . . ibid. lib . ca. . sect . . petit. for peace , p. . hooker's eccl. pol. li. . sect . . ibid. ibid. calv. inst. ca. . sect . tryal of the engl. liturgy . p. . ibid. p. . page . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , p. . proposals to his majesty , p. . ibid. p. . a rom. . . b by the familists . c by the antinomians . chillingworths safe way . p. rom. . . chillingworth's safe way , &c. p. . a rut●…erford's due right of presbyt . p. . b ibid. p. . c ibid. p. . d ibid. p. . rutherf . free disp. p. . ibid. p. . scobel's acts , part . p. . essay of atheism . psalm . v. . essay of unity of religion . numb . . numb . . . vers. . verse . verse . verse . verse . disc. of relig. p chillingworth's safe way , &c. p. . rom. . notes for div a -e ex. coll. p. . ex coll. p. . interest of engl. p. . ex. coll. p. . scobel's acts , part . pa. . answer to the vote of sept. . . ☞ ☞ ibid. p. . old non-conf . p. . petit. for peace , p. . par. . p. . gangraena part . p. . ibid. . ☞ rutherf . free disp. p. . gangraena , p. . free disp. p. . cotton's way , p. . burton's vind. p. disc of relig. part . p . ibid. p. . scotch discipline , p. . ibid. p. . p. . hist. of reform . printed . p. . spotsw . hist. p. ibid. p. . ☞ spotsw . hist. pa. . ibid. . ibid. : ibid. ibid. . ibid. . ibid. . a ibid. . b . c . d . e . f . king 's large declaration , p. . a ibid. . b . c pag. . scotch discipline p. . ibid. p. . ibid. p . ibid. p. . ibid. . ibid. . ad . book of disc. p. . d . book of disc. p. 〈◊〉 . s●…tsw . hist. p. . ib. p. kings large declaration , p. . declar. of the commission . p . and . spotsw hist. p. . page . . presbytery display'd . p. . ibid. p . book of discipline . p. . ibid. p . spotsw . hist. p. . unchristian rigor . excess in eating censurable . apparel . vain words . suspicion of pride . spotsw . history . p. . ibid. . book of discipline . p. bo●…k of discipl . p. . book of discipl . p. . ibid. p. . spotsw . hist. p●… . . ibid. . p. . book of disc. p. . book of discipl . p. . ibid. . ibid. p. ibid. p. . ibid. p. . presb. display'd . p. . pig to field , . ed. brow. to field . walker to field . cholm to field . dangerous positions , p. . book of discipl . p. . ibid. . kings large declaration , p. . ☞ the nonconformists plea for peace, or, an account of their judgment in certain things in which they are misunderstood written to reconcile and pacifie such as by mistaking them hinder love and concord / by richard baxter. baxter, richard, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing b estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) the nonconformists plea for peace, or, an account of their judgment in certain things in which they are misunderstood written to reconcile and pacifie such as by mistaking them hinder love and concord / by richard baxter. baxter, richard, - . [ ], , [ ] p. printed for benj. alsop ..., london : . the second part of the non-conformists plea for peace was first published in . cf. nuc pre- . pages - are torn in the filmed copy. pages - photographed from british library copy and inserted at the end. errata: p. [ ] at end. advertisements: p. [ ] at end. reproduction of original in harvard university libraries. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng dissenters, religious -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - john latta sampled and proofread - john latta text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the nonconformists plea for peace : or an account of their judgment . in certain things in which they are misunderstood : written to reconcile and pacifie such as by mistaking them hinder love and concord . exhort . in the liturgy before the communion . if any of you be — an hinderer , or slanderer of god's word , — or be in malice or envy , — repent of your sins , or else come not to the holy table , lest after the taking of that sacrament , the devil enter into you as he did into judas , and fill you full of all iniquities , and bring you to destruction both of body and soul . by richard baxter . london , printed for beni . alsop at the angel and bible over against the stocks-market . . to the reverend conforming clergy . reverend fathers and brethren , it is now seventeen years since neer two thousand ministers of christ were by law forbidden the exercise of their office , unless they did conform to subscriptions , covenants , declarations and practices , which we durst not do , because we feared god : foreseeing what this would do to the destroying of love and concord , and of mens sou●s , weakning the land , encouraging popery , heresie and schism , we did our best betime by reason , & submissive petitioning the bishops , to have prevented it ; but in vain : we never made one motion for presbytery , or against liturgies , nor to abate any of the bishops wealth , or honour , nor any thing as to church-government , but arch bishop ushers model of the primitive way : and we thankfully accepted of much less , exprest in his majesties gracious declaration about ecclesiastical affairs ▪ which , we hoped , would have ended all our discords . the reasons of the great change , and new impositions , it is god , and not we , that must have an account of from the convocation , &c. and of the consequents . since then , as we foresaw , contrary interests have increased contrariety : the laws against our preaching to more than four , the penalties of forty pound a sermon , and long imprisonment in common gaols , and driving us five miles from corporations , and places where we lately preacht , and the reasons given are not unknown to you : many books are written , and sermons preached , earnestly pressing magistrates to execute these laws against us : and though , when demanded , we gave in a catalogue of divers things in the old impositions , which we under●ook to prove to be great sins ; and in our petition for peace , protested that nothing but avoiding sin should hinder our conformity , and we had never call or leave to give our reasons against the new conformity ; i my self have been reported to my superiours , to be one that confesseth the lawfulness of all , save the renouncing of a rebellious covenant : and while the law and canons imprison , and excommunicate us ipso fact● , if we do but give the reasons of our nonconformity ; and i have offered to reverend bishops and others , to beg leave to do it on my knees , and nothing more grieved me , than that i might not so endeavour to save men from the damning sins of hating , false accusing , and ruining their brethren , and sacrilegious hindering the preaching of gods word ; yet have i been called on to tell them what it is that we would have , and told that our superiours judge us not sincere , but meer factious schismaticks , that will neither conform , nor tell them why we do not ▪ vehement letters of accusation are sent me : many books charge us with heinous schism , even as wilfully done against our consciences : yea that covetousness and pride , and not conscience , cause our nonconformity ; that we are the worst men alive , and unfit for humane society , &c. while we are made their scorn , and many want bread , and many of us preach for nothing , save the spiritual benefits and rewards . and those of us that have bread , know of so many that have families , and nothing but alms to maintain them , that we are glad to give them all that our necessities can spare : and we suppose our accusers would not think that if they chose beggery and scorn , or lived only on mens charity , it would prove them to be covetous or proud . i have read the books of bishop morley , mr. s●ileman , mr. fulwood , mr. durel , mr. fowlis , mr. falkener , mr. nanfen , dr. borem●● , dr. parker , dr. tomkins , the friendly debate , dr. ashton , mr. hollingworth , dr. good , mr. hinkley , the counterminer , mr. l'estrange , mr. long , and many more . and as my flesh is no more in love with poverty and scorn than yours , nor was i more uncapable of such a lot as yours ; so i here testifie that no man is more inexcusable than i , that have dwelt so long in pain , so neer the grave , if i have been so mad as to silence my self , and chose a gaol among malefactors ( where i have lain ) and bitter accusations and prosecutions , for any thing of this world that i could hope for , or for any thing less than my salvation . and either i am an utter stranger to my self , or else i was willing to know the truth : and liberty and wealth is liker to be a byas , than that which the law decreeth against us . but if i be so unhappy as to be uncapable of understanding the lawfulness of all that is made necessary to the ministry , you should better think of it before you beg the ruine of all that are as ignorant as i ▪ had you told us how to come to your measure of knowledge , we would thank you : when i askt bishop morley such a question , he advised me to read bilson and hooker , where i found more than i approved for resisting or restraining kings : and had long before read them and saravia , bishop downam , spalatensis , petavius , sancta clara , dr. hammond , and abundance more for prelacy , &c. he is not worthy the name of a man that would not know that truth , which maketh both for his temporal and eternal welfare under these accusations my conscience urged me to acquaint the accusing clergy with our case , believing it be uncharitable to impute all their false report to malignity , or diabolism , but that it was strangeness to our case , while wrath and cross interest kept them from hearing us : but my prudent friends perswaded me silently to leave all to god , assuring me it would but more exasperate , till they called us themselves to speak . twice we were since invited to a tryal for concord , and both times came to an agreement with the moderate and eminent persons that we treated with : but it was buried in privacy ; and still we are called on , to give the reasons of our dissent . having long forborn for fear of offending them that require it , at last i have here adventured , not so far as to urge the case , but only to state it , and tell you barely what it is that i dare not do : if i find that you can bear this , if i have leave from god and man , i shall venture on more , and give you my reasons : this unarmed account is easily trampled on . i doubt not but it will meet with such usage as i have had already : but i must say , that if such as the counterminer will say that to fear such sin as i have here named , by one that is not willing to be damned , is treason , rebellion , schism , faction , pride , obstinacy ; this will not pass with me for convincing argument , on which i may venture my salvation . jul scaliger exercit . tells us , that in france our bicott , the learned schoolman , was envied by another for his auditors in philosophy , and his crafty adversary told the king , that bicott was a peripatetick , and aristotle was against monarchy : there needed no more , and bicott was cast down . as for them that think that to name the late wars is a confutation of nonconformists , as if they knew not that they were raised on both sides by conformists ( heylin in lauds life will tell them who . ) i now only repeat , [ silence all that had a hand in those wars ( except the conformists ) and no more , and i and thousands will give you thanks : ] i plead not for my self : the years are past in which i might have better served the church , had i been thought tolerable . i am almost uncapable now of your kindness , or of any great hurt that you can do me . a torrent of reproaching scornful words may ease some mens minds , and serve some mens ends , but will not satisfie my conscience , nor heal the land. i write not this as accusing conformists , or the law-makers , but as answering their loud and long accusations and demands . if telling what i fear , seem a telling what others are guilty of , it is a consequent which i cannot avoid ; but to avoid it and such like , have seventeen years been herein silent . so far am i from desiring the weakening of the church , that i had not written this , but to prevent it . though i with saint martin renounce communion with ithacius and idacius , i go not so far as he in separating from the synods of bishops ; nor will i separate from any christians , further than they separate from christ , or expel me : church-order i love ; church tyranny and schism i love not : i am for more bishops , and not for fewer : if parish-oratories , or chapels were made parish-churches , at least in each corporation antiently called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : yea if the parish-ministers might be pastors , episcopigregis , and not forced by strangers to excommunicate , absolve and receive to communion against their knowledge and consciences , nor to profess , promise or practice sin against god , nor omit their known ministerial duty , far be it from me to be against conformity . i doubt not but he that will preserve religion here in its due advantages , must endeavour to preserve the soundness , concord and honour of the parish-churches . and as the truly wise and honest judge hale hath said to me , it must be a new act of uniformity that must heal us , if ever we be healed . i am of the mind of old mr. dod , who , for the peoples sake , thanked god that there were so many worthy conformists , and for truth and conscience sake , thanked god that there were so many nonconformists . i love and honour the reverend , solid , worthy preachers which i hear in most churches in london , where i come ; and i endeavour to have all others honour them : and though i am by the canon ipso facto excommunicate , they shall put me out from them before i will depart . but for the church , and kingdom , and their consciences sake , i beg of the clergy , that before they any more render odious those whom they never heard , and urge rulers to execute the laws against them , that is , to confine , imprison , excommunicate , silence and undo them , they would be sure what manner of spirit they are of ; and that this is acceptable to god , and profitable to the land , or to themselves , and that which the churches experience commendeth . my honest friend , whom i once perswaded from anabaptistry , writing against separation , saith , that when he saw here●a leg , and there an arm in the way , it was time for him to stop . but in church-history i have had a sadder sight , even the carkasses of thousands , streams of blood , and turnults in the chief cities and churches of the world , the crowns of emperours & kings , the loss of the eastern empire , the generation of the papacie , the reproach of christianity , and that by clergie-domination , and contention , striving who should be greatest and seem wisest . some say , if we take in a few moderate men like you , what the better are we ? ans . more than you dream of , are far better than i : i hope few are worse ; bishop morley bid ab uno disce omnes : shall london have no clocks unless they will all strike at once ? shall none be tolerated but the perfect ? are you such your selves ? do you differ in nothing ? how then shall we have communion with you when we differ in all the things here described ? pardon me for saying , i think that mr. tombs hath said more like truth for anabaptistry , the late hungarian for polygamy , many for drunkenness , stealing and lying , in cases of necessity , than ever i yet read for the lawfulness of all that i have here described . and what is it that some men cannot copiously and confidently talk for ? and what wretched reasons be they that have hindred englands unity and peace ? and how fully hath rom. . and . and our common interest and notorious experience confuted them ! i have long wondered what powerful cause it is , that with such men and so many , could so long prevail against such evidence and light . if you will not hear , those will whom god will use to the healing of his churches : and blessed are the peacemakers for ( though you call them otherwise ) they shall be called the children of god. i have prefixed the words of some as our admonition ; and i have written with this a fuller treatise of the only true terms of the concord of all christian churches , and of the false terms which they never will unite in , but are the causes of schism . i commitall with my self living and dying , to him that is the lord of the dead and living , and will shortly judge us all in righteousness . come lord jesus ; and prepare us for thy coming . amen . the contents . . the reasons of this writing and the sense of the word church . . the various opinions of such as we have to do with . . what churches we hold to be instituted of god and what not ▪ . what princes and pastors may do in such matters . . what separation and what assembling or gathering churches is unlawful and what lawful . . matters of fact to be known preparatory to our case . . matters required of us for conformity , & first of ●ay-men . . secondly , matters imposed on ministers : and i. of assent , consent , approbation , and canonical subscription , that nothing is contrary to the word of god. ii. . the second part of the matter of conformity : reordination . iii. . the third part of the matter of conformity ; of swearing or covenanting never to endeavour any alteration of church government . vi. . the fourth part of the matter ; to declare that neither i nor any other person is obliged by the vow to endeavour any such alteration of church government . v. . the fifth part of the matter ; the declaration and oath ( as not understood ) of not resisting any commissioned . vi. . the sixth part of the matter : to cease preaching and administring sacraments till we conform ( at least not to preach to more than a family and four persons . ) vii . . the seventh part consequential , not to come within five miles of any city or corporation which sendeth burgesses to parliament , or of any place where we have preached to more than aforesaid since the act of oblivion . . the adjuncts , and the other matters agreed on which affright the nonconformists . the case and practice of the ministers since they were silenced . additions occasioned by mr. l. fresh suit , and some others , about national churches . the question stated § , &c. whether we are obliged by or to the jewish national polity ? § , &c. or by scripture to a national limitation of them ? whether a national church-form be lawful , § , & c ? whether it be a prudential desirable form § , & c ? the resolution of this by a short history of prelacie and councils . § , &c. obj. from the necessity of appeals , § , &c. obj. shall all gather churches that will. ib. obj. the apostles have successours . ib. q. whether the king or who is the national church head § . , & c ? a christian kingdom what § ? q. must real holyness in the judgment of rational charity be required in all church members . § ? q. what covenanting is necessary to particular church relation ? § , &c. the spirit maketh ministrs , how ? i. the epistle of an african council ( in cyprian ep. . p. . ) to felix a presbyter and the laity at legio and asturica ; and to laelius the deacon and the laity at emerita , concerning their bishops bafilides and martial , worthy to be read as to our present controversies . ii. the letter of rob. grosthead , the good bishop of lincoln to pope innocent containing the reason of his nonconformity ▪ and shewing that hindring preaching is the greatest sin next divelism and antichristianism : out of mat. par● an. . p. . . iii. an extract from bishop saunderson de juramento . sect . i. the reasons of this writing , and the sense of the word [ church . ] it was the saying of acute and holy augustine ( though we call him not with fromondus omnisc●um ) [ that no man ought to be patient under an accusation of heresie . ] he meaneth by patience , a silent neglect of his own just vindication : not that we must be like hectoring duellers , that would kill or hurt others in revenge , or in a sinful way of vindication : but by silence , those that slander men may be encouraged in their sin to their own destruction , and those that value the slandered persons may be tempted to think too well of heresie for their sakes : and the honour of god , and his truth , and our own good names , so far as they are serviceable , are none of them to be disregarded . we have with grieved souls beheld the land of our nativity distracted by divisions ; and much , if not most about religion , ( we wish it were not against religion , by some that indeed have no true religion : ) teachers against teachers , in discourses , sermons , books , rendring each other despicable , and unlovely , and some calling out aloud to rulers to draw the sword against their brethren ; so learnedly and industriously pleading the cause against each other with the laity , high and low , as if the destroying of their love , and kindling wrath and hatred , were the evangelical necessary work ; and without this zeal , and skill , and diligence hard to be accomplished . no wonder then if we have people against people , families divided , and all confounded ; and this grievous schism carryed on , by crying out against each other as schismaticks , and implacably causing it while we loudly inveigh against it . the case is lamentable , that distraction should be thus expressed and promoted ; and when god hath warned us by the mischiefs of an odious civil war , and hath tryed us again with peace with all nations about us , when most of them are involved in grievous wars , that yet we will not give peace to one another , but live as if peace were the plague which we most desire to escape . yet as it is the good providence of god , that the names of wisdom , godliness , truth , justice , mercy , honesty and vertue , are all still honourable even among those that hate and oppose them ; and the names of folly , ungodliness , lying , unjustice , unmercifulness , dishonesty and vice , are all dishonourable where the things themselves are followed and prevail ; so love , peace and concord , are names that are by most commended ; when if most were for the things indeed , we were in a hopeful way of recovery : and malice , schism and discord , are cryed down by those , whom no intreaty will prevail with to forbear them , or to accept any remedy against them . yet we are thus far prepared for peace , that if we be not false hypocrites , if we did but know which is the true way of love , peace and concord we would follow it : and if we knew what is schism indeed , we would avoid it . and its pity that men that think themselves wise should yet not know the way of love and peace : especially that the learned preachers of the gospel of love and peace , should still be the incendiaries , and stir up the laity that would be more peaceable , against each other . and that after so many volumes of history have these thirteen hundred years at least , asperst the clergy with the reproach of being the contentious troublers of the world . and yet must we despair of a cure of so odious a disease ? the thing that books , sermons , and discourses , cry out against those called non conformists for , is humorous , obstinate schism , and disobedience , in preaching , when forbidders , and keeping up assemblies not allowed , and gathering churches out of churches , & separating from the parish-communion , and church of england . if we can find out the schismatick , we hope he will be condemned by us all . but that the cause may be heard at least in some part , before it is judged , we that publish this , here give an account of our own judgment , and those that we are best acquainted with , how far we hold it lawful or unlawful to gather churches , or to separate from churches , or to differ from what is established by authority : but the application to our particular case , and our arguments thereabout , we must not here presume to publish . they that accuse others as schismaticks , and separatists , for deserting churches , or gathering churches out of churches , and will not tell us what they mean by the word church , nor give us leave to tell them what we mean , but judge in confusion , and despise explication , and necessary distinction , are men that we can neither be edified by , nor edifie , in this way . sect . ii. the various opinions of such us we have to do with . sect. i. because men will judge of such causes according to their several principles , and presuppositions , we must take notice of some of the divers principles of those whose censure we must expect : ( though not of inconsiderable sects . ) sect. ii. and . some say that no humane form of church government , and of churches , as governed , is of god's institution ( or as they say , jure divino , ) but that it is left to humane prudence . sect. iii. . some hold only an universal church ( governed by a pope , say some of them , or by a general council while sitting , and a pope in the intervals , say others , or by a pope and council agreeing while it sits , and a pope in the intervals , say others ) to be jure divino , and all particular . church-forms as subordinate , left to the prudence of this universal governour as supreme ; as inferiour officers in kingdoms are made by the king. sect. iv. . some hold that this universal church-form , and also diocesan , and no other , are instituted of god. sect. v. . some hold that the universal , patriarchal metropolitical ( or provincial ) diocesan , and parochial , are jure divino , or instituted by christ and his apostles . sect. vi. . some hold that only diocesan churches , and metropolitical or provincial , are jure divino , and not the universal : and of these some take diocesan churches , for those only that contain many fixed assemblies , and some for such as have one bishop , whether over one congregation , or over multitudes . saith the very learned dr. hamond , in tim. . [ the church of the living god , was every such regular assembly of christians under a bishop ( such as timothy was ) an oeconomus set over them by christ : such again every larger circuit under the metropolitane , who as timothy had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ordination and jurisdiction over the whole province . and such all the particular churches of the whole world , considered together under the supreme head christ jesus , dispensing them all by himself , and administring them severally , not by any one oeconomus , but by the several bishops as inferiour heads of unity to the several bodies , so constituted by the several apostles in their plantations , each of them having an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a several distinct commission from christ immediately and subordinate to none , but the supreme donor or plenipotentiary . he here supposeth ( as he elsewhere sheweth ) that de facto , episcopal churches were in scripture-times but single congregations ; but that after it was otherwise : and whether then the new form of congregations were jure divino , when they became but parts of a bishops church , we leave to the readers conjecture ; as also of the new form of a diocesan church . sect. vii . . some hold that national churches , that is , christian kingdoms , as governed by the soveraign , secular power , are instituted by god , and that all church-forms else within that kingdom , are jure humano , at the pleasure of the king , so be it that worshiping-assemblies be kept up , and bishops and priests placed as it shall please the king. sect. viii . . some think that diocesans ( or bishops whether over one congregation or many ) are instituted by god ( and some say also archbishops ; ) and that these have power by consent or contract among themselves , to make patriarchal and national churches : and so that these national and patriarchal churches are jure divino mediato , but jure humano immediato , and are rather made by the consent of bishops , than by kings : and so under heathen kings the churches may be national . sect. ix . . some think that parochial churches ( consisting of christians distinguished by the circuit of ground ) and combinations of these into synods less and greater , classical , national , are jure divino , and no other lawful . sect. x. . some think that only parochial churches ordinarily , and single congregations of any neighbour christians , when parish order cannot be observed , are jure divino . sect. xi . . and some think that only such single congregations of christians , with their chosen pastors , without any necessary respect to parish bounds , are properly called churches of divine institution , though these churches may and should hold such associations , as correspondence and mutual help require . sect. xii . there being so many sorts of churches in the world , ( as universal , national , patriarchal , provincial , or metropolitical , diocesan , classical , parochial , congregational ) it is hard to give a just decision of the question , from which of these , and when it is a sin to separate ; till it be first known which of these is divine , and which of humane institution , and which humane churches are necessary , which lawful , and which sinful . and it must be known of which the question is . and while there is so signal a diversity of judgment , about the several forms , the nature of schism will be hardlier opened . sect . iii. what churches we hold to be instituted by god , and what not . sect. i. our own judgment we shall plainly express in this following order : . we shall shew what church we judge to be of god's institution , and what not . . what about churches the magistrates or pastors may institute by god's authority or allowance : and what they may not institute . . in what cases it is lawful to gather churches where churches are : in what cases it is lawful to separate from churches ; and in what cases neither of these last is lawful . sect. ii. . all christians are agreed that christ is the author of the universal church , ( considered both as baptized , or externally covenanting and professing , called visible , and as regenera●e and sincerely covenanting , called mystical ) as it is headed by christ himself , and called his body , and his special kingdom . sect. iii. . we doubt not but christ hath instituted the office of the sacred ministry , to be under him as the teacher , ruler , and high priest of the church , in teaching , guiding , and worshiping : and that he hath instituted holy assemblies and societies for these things to be exercised in : and that [ a society of neighbour christians associated with such a pastor or pastors , for personal communion herein , even in such doctrine , discipline and wo●s●●p ] is a church-form of divine institution . sect. iv. if they be not [ christians ] by baptism , or visible profession , they be not visible materials for a church . if they be not [ neighbours ] that is , within reach of each other , so as to be capable of such communion , they are not matter that hath the necessary extrinsecal disposition . if they be not [ associated ] explicitely or implicitely , by some signification of consent , they may be an accidental assembly , but not a proper christian church . if they be not associated [ for this holy communion ] they may be a civil society , but not a church . if they be not associated [ for personal communion ] at some due seasons , but only for communion at distance by delegates , messengers or letters , they are not a particular church of this species now defined , though they may be members of larger associations , national , diocesan , &c. if they are not associate with one or more pastors , they may be a community of christians , but not a political church , which we now define . if they are not joyned with a pastor that hath all the foresaid powers , of teaching , ruling by the word and keys , and going before them in worship ; and if they consent not to his relation as such , they may make a school , or an oratory , but not a proper particular church simpliciter , so called [ but only a church secundum quid , or as to some part ; ] for an essential part is wanting . but it is not the defect of exercise that unchurcheth them , while there is the power , and that consented to ( for men cannot be pastors or churches against their wills . ) sect. v. . as all christians grant that the apostles had a general commission to call infidels to christ , and to plant churches with their particular pastors as aforesaid , and to take care that their pastor and they do the duties , ( not compelling them by their sword , but by the word , ) so we are far from denying that yet some ministers of christ may , and should seek the conversion of infidels , and plant churches of the converted , ordaining pastors over them by their consent , and taking due care by their grave advise that such churches walk in the obedience of christ , as far as they can procure it ; and such seniors which have so planted these churches and pastors by gods blessing on their labours , should be much reverenced by the churches which they have planted , and their just advise , exhortations and admonitions should be heard by the people and the pastors whom they ordained , and all their juniors : and though the apostles have no successours in their extraordinaries , yet that some should in this ordinary work succeed them , we deny not , because . we find that it is a work still necessary to be done : . and others as well as apostles did it in those times ; as silas , luke , apollo , timothy , titus , &c. and since , all such as have planted the gospel among infidels . . because christ promised to be with them that did this work to the end of the world , mat. . . but whether such men be of a different office or order from the junior pastors ; whether any true presbyter that hath ability , opportunity and invitation , may not do the same work with infidels ; and by his success , and seniority may not so ordain pastors over the churches which he gathered ; and have an answerable right to reverence and regard from those that he so planteth , and ordaineth ; are controversies which we presume not now to decide . and we cannot prove that this maketh a distinct form of a church , no not in the apostles time and case : for we cannot prove that they distributed the countrys into provinces or dioceses peculiar to each apostle ; and had any churches which they supposed to be peculiarly under this or that apostles government so as that any of the rest might not with apostolical power have come , resided , preacht and governed in the same : no scripture tells us of such limits & provinces . nay , the scripture tells us , that many of them were as apostles at once in the same places : as at jerusalem oft . paul and john had apostolical power at ephesus : peter and paul ( as is commonly held ) at rome : and its probable that as christ sent forth his disciples by two and two , so the apostles went in company , as paul and barnabas did : so that such appropriate settlement of provincial or diocesan churches , we cannot see proved ; though such a generall ministry is easily proved ; and we doubt not but by consent they might have distributed their provinces , had they seen cause , and that actually they did so distribute their labours as their work and ends required : but if they had become proper provincial bishops over several districts or provinces , it seemeth strange to us that no history telleth us which were the twelve or thirteen provinces , and how limited ; and that they continued not longer ; and that instead of three patriarchs first , and four after , and five next , we had not twelve or thirteen apostles or patriarchs seated over all the world , with their known divisions ; and that men seek not now to reduce the churches to this primitive state , rather than to the said imperial constitution ; and rather to subject us all to the apostolical seats , than to five patriarchs in the dominions of another prince , and now mostly subject to an infidel . yea it is strange to us that the first seat ( rome ) should derive its pretended power from two apostles ( as if our church might have two bishops ) and the second ( alexandria ) from saint mark , who was no apostle , and the third ( antioch ) from the same apostle that rome did , ( as if one bishop might have two such dioceses , ) and the fourth ( ierusalem ) from st. james , commonly said to be no apostle ; and the last ( which became the second or the first ) from no apostle , nor make any such pretence ; if thirteen apostolick provinces were then known . but we easily acknowledge , that as apostles having planted many churches staid a while in each , when they had setled it , and some time visited it again ; so they are by some historians called the first bishops of those churches , being indeed the transient governours of them : in which sense one church might at once have two or many bishops , and one bishop many churches , and he be bishop of one church this week , who was bishop of another where he came the next . sect. vi. christian community , ( prepared to be a polity ) and a christian family , and a christian kingdom , we doubt not may all prove their divine right ; and if any will call these churches , let us agree of the definition , and we will not strive about the name . sect. vii . we know not of any proof that ever was produced , that many churches of the first rank , must ( of duty ) make one fixed greater compound church , by association , whether classical , diocesan , provincial , patriarchal , or national : and that god hath instituted any such form : and we find the greatest defenders of prelacy , affirming that classes , provincial , patriarchal , and national churches , are but humane institutions ; of which more anon . sect. viii . we find no proof that ever god determined the churches should necessarily be individuated by parish-bounds or limits of ground ; and that men in the same limits might not have divers bishops , and be of divers particular churches . sect. ix . we never saw any satisfactory proof that ever christ or his apostles did institute any particular church ( taken in a political sense as organized , and not meerly for a community ) without a bishop or pastor , who had the power of teaching them , ruling them by the word and power of the church-keys , and leading them in publick worship . sect. x. nor did we ever see it proved , that any one church of this first rank ( which was not an association of churches ) consisted in scripture-times of many ( much less many score or hundred ) such fixed churches or congregations : or that any one bishop of the first rank ( that was not an apostle , or a bishop of bishops ) of whom we now speak not , had more than one of such fixed societies or churches under him : or might have more stated members of his church , than were capable of personal communion , and mutual assistance at due seasons , in holy doctrine , discipline and worship : though we doubt not but as now , there are many chapels in some parishes , where the aged , weak , children , and all in soul weather , or by other hinderances may hear , and pray , and occasionally communicate , whose proximity and relation to the parish-churches do make them capable of personal communion in due seasons with the whole parish ( at least per vices ) in those churches , and in their conversation : and as a single congregation may prudently in persecution , or foul weather , meet oft-times in several houses ; so the great church of jerusalem ( though it cannot be proved a quarter so big as some of our parishes ) might in those times when they had no temples , hold their publick meetings oft at the same time in divers houses ; and yet be capable of personal communion , as it is before described . sect. ii. it is not inconsiderable to our confirmation , that so worthy a man as dr. hamond doth over and over , in his dissertations against blondell , and in his learned annotations on the new testament , assert all the matter of fact which we are pleading for , viz. that the word [ presbyter ] and [ pastor ] in the new testament is ever taken for a bishop : that it belonged to the bishops office to be the preacher to his church , to visit all the sick , to take care of all the poor , and to take charge of the churches stock , to administer the sacrament , &c. and ( as he saith on acts . . ) that although this title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , elders , have been also extended to a second order in the church , and is now only in use for them , under the name of presbyters , yet in the scripture-time it belonged principally , if not alone , to bishops , there being no evidence that any of that second order were then instituted , though soon after before the writing of ignatius's epistles , there were such instituted in all churches . ] sect. xii . by this it followeth , that . the office of a subject presbyter that was no bishop was not in being ( that can be proved ) in scripture-times . . that no bishop had more than one worshiping assembly at once : for all christians assembled for worship on the lords dayes , and their worship still included somewhat which none but a minister of christ might do , and when there was no other minister in being but bishops , and a bishop can be but in one place at once , a bishop could have but one assembly . though for our parts we think that we have just reason to believe , that churches then had more ministers than one , when we read how paul was put to restrain and regulate their publick officiating at corinth , cor. . sect. xiii . and it further confirmeth us , that the said doctor tells us , that for ought he knoweth , the most of the church then were of his mind : and franciscus a sancta clara de episcop tells us , that this opinion came from scot●● : and petavius , that learned jesuit , was the man that brought it in , in our times , viz. that the apostles placed only bishops with deacons in the churches , and that it is only these bishops that are called presbyters in scripture . so that the matter of fact , for the whole scripture-times , is granted us by all these learned men . sect. xiv . it being the divine institution of the office of this second order of presbyters , which we are unsatisfied about ; and these reverend men confessing that de facto they were not in being ( as can be proved by any evidence ) in scripture-times , and those times extending to about the hundredth or ninety ninth year after christs nativity ( when st. john wrote the revelation ) we must confess that we know not how that order or office can be proved then to be of god's institution . . as to the efficient ; who should do it as the certain authorized instruments of god. . or how it shall be certainly proved to us to be of god , when scripture telleth it not to us ; and what records of it are infallible ; and whether such pretended proofs of tradition as a supplement to scripture , be not that which the papacy is built on , and will not serve their turn as well as this . sect. xv. and whereas it is said that the bishops made in scripture-times had authority given them to make afterward that second office or order of presbyters : . we cannot but marvel then that in such great churches , as that at jerusalem , ephesus , corinth , &c. they should never use their power in all the scripture-times . and when they had so many elders at jerusalem , so many prophets and teachers at antioch and corinth , that paul was fain to restrain their exercises , and bid them prophesie but one by one ; and one said , i am of paul , and another , i am of apollo , &c. there should yet in that age be none found meet for bishops to ordain to this second sort of presbyters , as well asmen to make deacons of . . but we never yet saw the proof produced , that indeed the bishops had power given them to institute this other species of elders . sure it belonged to the founders of the churches ( christ and his apostles ) to institute the species of ecclesiastical officers , though the bishops might make the individuals afterwards . and where is the proof that the apostles did institute it ? if ecclesiastical generation imitate natural , the bishops would beget but their like : men beget men ; so physicians make physicians , and so bishops may beget bishops : but he that saith they could morally first beget this other species , must prove it . sect xvi . when presbyters were first distinct from bishops , we see no proof that it was as a distinct office or order in specie , and not only as a distinct degree and priviledge of men in the same office : nor hath the church of rome it self thought meet to determine this as de fide but suffereth its doctors to hold the contrary . sect. xvii . it much confirmeth us in our judgment , that no mere bishop then had more churches than one ( as afore described ) when we find that ignatius ( whose authority dr. hamond dissert . cont ▪ blondel : laieth so much of the cause upon , and whom bishop pierson hath lately so industriously vindicated ) doth expresly make one altar , and one bishop with the presbyters and deacons , to be the note of a church unity and individuation . and that by one altar is meant one table of communion , or place where that table stood , is past doubt with the judicious and impartial . whence learned mr. joseph mede doth argue as certain that then a bishops church was no other than such as usually communicated in one place . yea , saith ignatius , the bishop must take notice and account of each person , even of man-servants and maids ( that they come to the church ) . and this was the bishop of a seat , that after was patriarchal : such bishops we do not oppose . sect. xviii . we find proof thar ordinarily churches were first planted in cities ( there being not then in the villages christians enough to make churches : ) but we find no proof that when there are christians enough to constitute churches , they may not be planted in villages also : nor yet that there may not be more churches than one in the same city : for so grotius saith , there were even then when christians were comparatively but few , and that they were as the jewish synagogues in this respect . and dr. hamond largely asserteth that peter had a church of jews , and paul another of gentiles at rome , and that so it was in other cities . sect. xix . much less is it by divine institution , that bishops , and their churches or seats , be only in such as we now call cities , which by their priviledges are distinct from other great towns and corporations , whenas the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then signified a great town or corporation , such as our market-towns and corporations now are . sect. xx. but it is the law of god that all things about churches and church-affairs which he hath left to humane prudence , should be done according to such general rules as he hath prescribed for their regulation . sect . iv what princes and pastors may do in such matters . i. these foresaid general laws of god , do both give the rulers their power for determining things committed to them , and also limit their power therein . ii. these general laws are , that all things be done to edification , ( the circumstances fitted to the end , the glory of god , and the publick good , the promoting of truth and godliness ; ) that all be done in love , to the promoting of love and unity ; and that all be done in order and decently , and as may avoid offence or scandal to all , both those without , and those within . gal. . , . phil. . , . cor. . , , . . . rom. . . & . . cor. . . ephes . , , , . cor. . . & . . & . . cor. . . iii. therefore no rulers , civil or ecclesiastical , have their power to scandalize and destroy , but only to edifie , being the ministers of god for good , rom. . , , . cor. . . & . . iv. the great dispute is ( handled excellently against the papists for kings by bishop bilson of christian obedience , bishop andrews tortura torti , bishop buckeridge , spalatensis , and many more ) whether the kings of christian kingdoms have not the same power about church-matters , as the kings of israel and judah had ( david , solomon , hezekiah , josiah , &c. ) which cannot be answered by an only yea or nay , without a more particular consideration of the compared cases . v. we suppose it certain that christian kings have no lesser power than the kings of israel , except . what any such king had as a prophet , or in peculiar , by an extraordinary grant . . and what alteration is made by alteration of church-offices , laws , and worship , which may make a difference ; of which hereafter . vi. and . it must be remembred that god then reserved the legislation to himself , which he exercised by revelation , and by special prophets : and so the prophet moses delivered them that law , which no king had power to abrogate , suspend , or alter by adding or diminishing , deut. . . jos . . but they had a mandatory power , and of making some subordinate by-laws , as cities and corporations have from and under the king. vii . . yea great and special mandates were oft sent from god by prophets , against which the kings of israel had no power . viii . . the executive or judicial power was divided : part was in the kings and magistrates ; and part was in the priests and levites , which the king could not usurp himself ( as appeareth in uzziahs offering incense , ) nor yet forbid the priests to use it , according to god's law ; nor change or abrogate their office . for he and they were subject to god's laws . ix . . god himself settled the high priesthood on the line of aaron , and all the priesthood on the tribe of levi ; and it was not in the power of the king to alter it . x. . god stated the high priesthood on the priests during life , numb . . , . jos . , , &c. which law the kings had no power to violate . xi . . there are more particular laws made by god for the duty of the priests , describing their office and work , than for any other particular case , as many hundred texts will tell us : and none of these laws might be altered , or suspended by the kings of israel : nor those by which god stated some of the judicial power in the congregation , num. . . to . xii . . solomon's putting out abiathar , and putting in zadok , is not contrary to any of this : for ( supposing the words king. , . to be not only a history of the bare matter of fact , but a justification of it de jure . ) . it poseth learned men to resolve how zadok and abiathar are oft said to be both high priests before , and zadok still put before abiathar . . it is certain that zadok had the right both of inheritance and especial promise , numb . . , , . chron. . , , &c. and what solomon did was that the word of the lord might be fulfilled . how the possession came into the hands of the line of ithamar , expositors cannot find : it is like it was by occasion of the confusions of their oft captivity and anarchy in the interspace of the judges . . even the priests were the king's subjects , and might be punished for their crimes , so it were according to god's laws . and if abiathar forfeited his life , he forfeited his office . xiii . . the priesthood then depended not on the institution or will of the king or people : he might not put out a lawful priest , that had not forfeited his life or office : he might not have put any one in his place that had not right from god , or that was unqualified : he might not have forbid the priests the work appointed them by god : but yet if he had injurio●sl● deposed one abiathar , and put in a zadok , the loss had been little to the church : but if he had deposed so great a number of the priests and levites , as that a great part of god's commanded work must needs thereby have been lest undone , and religion so far destroyed , or had as jeroboam , put of the basest of the people ( or uncapable persons ) into the priesthood , the loss had been greater , and the thing unwarrantable , and such as he had not power from god to do . xiv . and the quality of moses law and its works , as different from the laws of christ , and the works thereof , must be considered , that we may discern the difference of the cases . a man that did attempt to draw the people to idolatry , was then to be put to death ; yea , the city to be destroyed that concealed him , deut. ch . ● so were they that blasphemed , and such as committed other heinous crimes against religion ; yea those that would not enter into , or renew their covenant with god , were by asa's command to be put to death : but christ will have mens atheism , irreligiousness , idolatry and i●fidelity , cured by the preaching of the truth , which therefore requireth that the preachers for number and qualification be answerable to their work : especially seeing they are things so mysterious and supernaturally revealed , which men are to believe : and the works of moses's law lay very much in ceremony and outward actions , which a man of mean qualifications might easily do : but the great work of the gospel is to bring life and immortality to light , and to preach christ , by whom came grace and truth , and more notably than the law of moses did , to call men to mortification , self-denial , cross-bearing , contempt of the world , by faith and hope and love of a better world , and to bring them to a heavenly mind and life : and mens salvation is laid on this . if it were but to offer sacrifices , and do over the task of outward ceremonies , a mass-priests qualifications might serve the turn : and if it were but to put men to death that will not be jews , and take their covenant , and that draw any from their religion , neither so many nor so excellent ministers were necessary : but we are under a better covenant , even a law of love which is more eminently become the first and last , the great and new commandment , and the regent principle in souls and churches ; and the number and quality of the preachers of it must be answerable . xv. as moses was god's ministerial law-giver to the israelites , and was faithful in all his trust ; so christ is the great prophet like unto him , as typified by him , whom god hath raised up to his church , whom they that hear not , shall be cut off by god , and from that church as he hath appointed : the legislation universal is now the work of christ by himself , and by the holy ghost , which he promised and gave for that use to his apostles , that they might infallibly understand his will , and remember what he had commanded them to teach the world . xvi . kings or pastors may not now alter or suspend any of these laws of christ , any more than the jewish kings or priests might alter or suspend the laws of moses . xvii . christ hath instituted a ministry to be for ever stablished in the world , to preach his gospel , to convert volunteers unto faith and holiness , and to gather by baptism all consenters into his covenant and church , and to teach them all that he hath commanded them . and this none have power to overthrow . xviii . he hath stated on the pastors of such churches , the power afore described , of teaching assemblies and particular persons , of leading them in publick worship , and sacraments , and of judging by the power of the keys , whom to receive into their communion by baptism , and profession of faith , and whom to admonish , and for obstinate impenitence to reject : and this institution none may alter . xix . he hath instituted ordinary assemblies , and stated particular churches , as is aforesaid , for these holy exercises , and forbad all christians to forsake them ; and he and his apostles have appointed and separated the lord's day hereunto . none therefore may abrogate or suspend these laws . all this is proved , matth. . , . & . . & . , . joh. . . luk. . , . mat. . . & . , , &c. & . , . heb. . , , act. . . cor. . ephes . . . to . thes . . , . heb. . , . tit. . , , &c. tim. . act. . . act. . cor. . , &c. xx. christs laws empower and oblige the bishops or senior pastors to ordain others for this ministerial service of the church , and so to propagate their order to the end of the world : by which ordination , . they are judges of the persons qualifications , whether he be such as christs laws admit into his ministry . . and they solemnly invest him in the office . but the power with which they ministerially invest him ( delivering him possession as christ appointed ) resulteth directly from the law or donation of christ ; as the power of a mayor from the charter of the king , and not from the electors or investers . none therefore have power given them by christ , to hinder such ordination and propagation of such a ministry , act. . . tit. . . xxi . so exceeding great are the benefits and priviledges of being members of christ , and his church universal and particular , that no unwilling person is immediately capable of it : nor is it possible ex natura rei , for any ( adult ) person that consenteth not to be a christian , or a member of any particular church . he cannot be a just communicant against his will ; nor pray and praise god with the church ; nor take a man for his pastor , or use him as a pastor , against his will : and god hath laid mens salvation or damnation on the choice or refusal of their wills . therefore no man can be the bishop or pastor of a church , either de jure , or truly de facto , against the church or peoples will , or without their consent . and as the nature of the thing proveth this , so doth the sacred scripture , act. . . & . , . joh. . . mat. . . and so doth the judgment and practice of christ's church , for many hundred years ; which is so fully proved by blondell , de jure plebis , and confessed by the papists themselves , and so express in all antiquity , that we need not add the proof . therefore no power may change this law of nature , and of christ ; nor can they by any law , mandate , choice , ordination , institution , imposition , or other act , make any man a real pastor to that people that consent not to the relation . nor are they any true particular churches , where pastor and people do not consent . no more than the relation of husband and wife , master and servant , tutor and scholars , can be without consent . xxii . christ and his spirit have commanded his ministers to preach the word , to be instant in season and out of season ; to reprove , rebuke and exhort , tim. . , . and having put their hand to christ's plough , not to look back ; and none hath power to alter this law of christ , or to suspend it . his ministers by his authority preached against the will of princes for above three hundred years ; and since then against the wills of erroneous princes who professed christianity . xxiii . if church-history be not to be believed , the pleas thence used for prelacy must cease : if it be to be believed , god hath wrought miracles to justifie those that would not cease preaching , when princes , yea christian-princes , have forbidden them : and the church hath honoured their fidelity herein : the case of athanasius , basil , meletius , and abundance more , evince the later : and for the former , we will now instance but in the case of the bishops of africa , whose tongues were cut out by the king's command ; and they spake freely by miracle after they were cut out ; as is testified by aeneas gaze● , and by victor uticensis , who saw and spake with , and heard the persons when this miracle was wrought upon them ; and by procopius . xxiv . it will be objected that constantius , valeus , gensericus , hunnericus , &c were arrians , and the later conquering usurpers . answ . . even heathen emperours and kings are our governours , though they want due aptitude to their duty ( as also do many wicked christian princes : ) and we owe them obedience when their laws or mandates are not against the laws of god. we must not say as bellarmine , that christians should not tolerate such princes , and that the ancient christians suffered for want of power to resist . . let the emperours called arrians be made no worse than they were : some were for concord and toleration of both parties , and so are more suspected than proved to be arrians : and arrians themselves , ( though unexcusably erroneous ) were not like the socinians , that utterly deny christ's deity : they subscribed to all the nicene creed , save the the word [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ] they would say that christ was [ light of light , very god of very god , begotten not made , &c. ] they thought that as the sun-beams or light are its immediate emanation , but not its substance ( as commonly philosophers say they are not , how true we say not ) so christ was an immediate emanation from the father , before and above angels , by whom all things else were made . and how dangerously justin , and most of the ancientest doctors before the nicene council speak hereabout , and how certainly eusebius and other great bishops were arrians , and how lamentably the council at ariminum endeavoured an uniting reconciliation , by laying by the word [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ] and even old osius by their cruelty yielded to them ; as liberius subscribed to them , we need not send any men to philostorgius nor sondius for proof , it being so largely proved by d● ▪ petavius de trinitate , who fully citeth their dangerous words . and if the heterodoxies of the prince shall be made the reason of the subjects disobeying him , in a matter lawful in it self ( as some that we speak to now suppose ) we shall hardly know where to stop , nor what bounds to set the subjects when they are made judges of the princes errours ; and what examination of cognisance of it , they must have . . constantine that banished athanasius ( who kept in while he could against the emperours will ) is not proved an arrian : nor valentinian , who commanded ambrose , ( not to cease prenching himself , nor to forsake his church , nor to subscribe to arrianism , but only ) to tolerate the arrians to meet in one spare church , which was in millan , as an act of moderation : but ambrose resolutely disobeyed the emperour ( we justifie not the manner ) because he thought that god's law made it his office as bishop , so to do . . and as to gensericus and hunnericus's usurpation , it was then ordinary with the bishops even of rome , to submit to men that had no better title ; and alas , how few of many of the old roman emperours had any better ( at least , at first . ) xxv . we doubt not at all but that kings are the governours of bishops , and churches , by coercive power , as truly as of physicians , or other professions : and though they have no authority to abrogate or suspend the laws of christ , yet they have a power of legislation , under christ , as corporations for by-laws have under them : which power is only about those things which god hath left to their determination ; and not either above christ , against christ , or in coordination with christ , but only in such subordination to him , and to his laws . xxvi . how far rulers have power ( or not ) to command things indifferent , and how far things scandalous and evil by accident , some of us have opened already distinctly , and need not here repeat . xxvii . and we have there shewed , that as they may regulate physicians by general and cautionary laws , but not overthrow their calling on that pretence , by prescribing to the physician all the medicines which he shall use , to this or that patient , at this or that time , &c. so they may make such general and cautionary laws , circa sacra , . as shall drive bishops and pastors on to do their certain duties : . and as shall duely restrain them from sin and doing hurt : . and they may punish them by the sword or force , for such crimes as deserve that punishment . and a king of england may depose , or put to death a traiterous bishop , priest or deacon , as lawfully as solomon deposed abiathar . xxviii . and as we have there said , we suppose that there are some circumstances of the ministers work , which it belongeth to his own office to determine of , and are a true part of his ministerial works : but there are others , which it is meet should be universally determined of , for the concord of all the churches in a kingdom . these the pastors and churches by consent may agree in without a law , it kings leave it to them . and kings ( by the advise of such as best understand church cases ) may well by their own laws make such determinations . as for instance in what scripture translations , what versions and metres of psalms , the churches shall agree . much more may they determine of the publick maintenance of ministers , and the temples and such other extrinsick accidents . xxix . princes and rulers may forbid atheists , infidels , hereticks and malignant opposers of necessary truth and godlyness , and all that preach rebellion and sedition , that propagate such wicked doctrine , and may punish them if they do it . and may hinder the incorrigible ▪ and all that provedly or notoriously are such whose preaching will do more hurt to men than good , from exercising the ministry or preaching in their jurisdiction or dominions : for such have not any power from christ so to preach , but serve the enemy of christ and man. xxx . princes and rulers may for order sake distribute their christian kingdoms into parishes , which shall be the ordinary bounds of particular churches : and such distribution is very congruous to the ends of the ministry and churches , and conduceth to orderly settlement and peace : and experience hath shewed us that such parish churches where the pastors are faithfull and fit , may live as christians should do to their mutuall comfort in piety , love and peace : and such parish-order we desire . xxxi . but no rulers may hence conclude , . that parishes are distributed by god immediately , or that he hath commanded such a distribution as a thing of absolute necessity to a church ; but the generall rules of order , and edification do ordinarily in christian kingdomes require it . nor may any make a parish , as such to be a church ; and all to be church members that are in the parish , as such : for atheists , infidels , hereticks , & impenitent rebels may live in the parish ; and many that consent not to be members of that or any church : and not only in worse lands but in ireland and in england , ( as part of lancashire , ) the far greatest part of the parishioners are papists , ( who renounce the protestant churches ) in some places . xxxii . neither dwelling in the parish , nor the law of the land , makes any christian a member of that parish church , without or before his own consent : but proximity is part of his extrinsick aptitude and the law of man or command of his prince may make it his duty to consent , and thereby to become a member when greater reasons mollify not that obligation . xxxiii . parish bounds and such other humane distributions for conveniency , may be altered by men ; and they bind not against any of christs own laws and predeterminations ; nor when any changes turn them against the good ends for which they are made ; of which more afterward , when we speak of separation . xxxiiii . and about these humane church-laws the general case must be well considered , how far they are obligatory to conscience , and in what cases they cease to bind . sayrus , fragoso and other the most learned and moderate casuists of the papists , ordinarily conclude , that humane laws bind not , when they are not for the common good . we had rather say , that when they are notoriously against the laws of christ , or against the common good , or are made by usurpation without authority thereto , they bind not to formal obedience in that particular , ( though sometime other reasons , especially the honour of our rulers , may bind us to material obedience , when the matter is indifferent ; and though still our subjection and loyalty must be maintained . but of this before , and more largely by one of us , christian directory , part. . chap. . tit. . &c. the council of toletum . decreed that their decrees shall bind none ad culpam but only ad poenam see bin. inoc. th . sect. xxxv . kings and magistrates should see that their kingdoms be well provided of publick preachers and catechists , to convert infidels and impious men where there are such , and to prepare such for baptisme , and church priviledges and communion , as are not yet baptized , but are catechumens : and they may by due means compel the ignorant to hear and learn what christianity is , though not to become christians ( for that is impossible ) nor to prosess that which is not true , nor to take church-priviledges , to which they have no right , and of which at present they are uncapable . but they may grant those rewards and civil priviledges to christians and churches for their encouragement , which they are not bound to give to others , and which may make a moving difference , without unrighteous constraint . xxxvi . christ and his apostles having ( as is aforesaid ) settled the right of ordination on the senior pastors or bishops and the right of consenting in the people , ( and this continued long even under christian emperours ) princes or patrons may not deprive either party of their right , but preserving such rights , they may . offer meet pastors to the ordainers and consenters to be accepted , when there is just cause for their interposition : . they may hinder both ordainers and people from introducing intollerable men : . they may , when a peoples ignorance , faction or wilfulness maketh them refuse all that are truly fit for them , urge them to accept the best ; and may possess such of the temples , and publick maintenance , and make it consequently to become the peoples duty to consent , as is aforesaid ; so also when they are divided . xxxvii . princes ought to be preservers of peace and charity among the churches ; and to hinder preachers from unrighteous and uncharitable reviling each other , and their unpeaceable controversies and contentions . xxxviii . christ himself hath instituted the baptismal covenant to be the title of visible members of his church , and the symbol by which they shall be notified : and he hath commanded all the baptized as christians , to love each other as themselves ; and though weak in the faith , to receive one another , as christ receiveth us , but not to doubtful disputations ; and so far as they have obtained to walk by the same rule , of love , and peace , and not to despise or judge each other for tolerable differences ( much less to hate , revile , or destroy each other ; ) and it seemed good to the holy ghost , and the apostles , to lay no greater burden on the churches , even of the ceremonies which god had once commanded , but necessary things , act. . . and these terms of church-union and concord which christ hath made , no mortal man hath power to abrogate . all things therefore of inferiour nature , though verities and good , must be no otherwise imposed by rulers , than as may stand with these universal laws of christ , which are the true way to prevent church-schisms . xxxix . princes by their laws , or pastors by consent where princes leave it to them , may so associate many particular churches for orderly correspondencie and concord , and appoint such times and places for synods , and such orders in them , as are agreable to gods aforesaid generall laws , of doing all in love , to edification and in order ; and how far , if rulers should miss this generall rule , they are yet to be obeyed , we have opened elsewhere . xl. as we have there also said that princes may make their own officers to execute their magistratical power circa sacra ( which we acknowledge in our king in our oath of supremacy ; ) and if such be called , eclesiastical , and their courts and laws so called also , that ambiguous name doth not intimate them to be of the same species as christs ordained ecclesiastical ministers , or as his churches and laws are ; so now we add that if princes shall authorize any particular bishops or pastors to excercise any such visiting , conventing , ordering , moderating , admonishing , or governing power as it belongeth to the prince to give , not contrary to christs laws , or the duties by him commanded , and priviledges by him granted to particular churches , we judge that subjects should obey all such , even for conscience sake : however , our consideration of christs decision of his disciples controversie , who should be the greatest and our certain knowledge how necessary , love , and lowliness , and how pernicious , wrath and lordly-pride are in those that must win souls to christ , and imitate him in bearing ( not making ) the cross , together with the sad history of the churches distractions and corruption by clergy-pride and worldliness ( lamented by nazianzene , basil , hilary pictavus , socrates , sozomen , isidore pelusiot , bernard , and multitudes more , yea by some popes themselves ) these and other reasons we say doe make us wish , that the clergy had never been trusted with the sword , or any degree of forcing power , or secular pomp ; yet if princes judge otherwise , we must obediently submit to all their officers . xli . it seemeth by the phrase of his maiesties declaration about ecclesiastical affairs , in which ( after consultation with his reverend bishops ) the pastoral way of perswasion , reproofs and admonitions are granted to the presbyters that a distinction is intended between this pastoral and the prelatical government , and we must , with very great concern , profess that if the churches of the lowest sort ( parochial ) be but indeed made true churches , such as christ by his apostles instituted , and not only parts of a diocesan church as if that were the lowest ra●k ; and if these particular churches have but pastors that have the power of the keys in those churches , and all that the scripture maketh essential to the offic●r which was then set over eve●y such particular church ; and if the discipline instituted by christ himself , be but made possible and seasible in such parochiall churches , yea if we that were trusted by our calling with the mysteries of god , may not be forced our selves , to administer the sacraments against our own knowledge & consciences , and against our consciences and knowledge of mens cases to pronounce men absolved , or excommunicate upon other mens decrees , or to pronounce the notoriously wicked to be saved , and to deny worthy christians the seal of christs covenant , nor their infants their visible christianity by baptism ; we say , might we but have this much , we should be so far from using the controversie about the divine kight of episc●pacy as a distinct order from presbyters , to any schism , or injury to the church , that we should thankf●lly contribute our best endeavours to the concord , safety , peace and prosperity thereof . and might we but also be freed from swearing , subscribing , declaring , and covenanting unnecessary things ( which we take not to be true ) against our consciences , and from some few unnecessary practices which we cannot justifie , we should joyfully serve the church in our publick ministry , though it were in poverty and rags . but of so great a mercy experience hath made our hopes from men to be very small : and the reason of the thing maketh our hopes as small of the happiness of the church of england , till god shall unite us on these necessary terms . sect . vi. . what separation , and what gathering of assemblies or churches is unlawful , and what lawful . i. though some mens abuse of the word [ schism ] and calling mens duty to god by that name , hath proved a great temptation to many , to take it but for a word of passion , or of no certain or odious signification ( even as the papists abuse of the word [ heresie ] and [ heretick ] hath been to others ) yet the evill of true shism and the odium that god layeth on it in the scripture , should move all christians , to fear the thing and use the name with the disgrace that it truely importeth ( without misapplication , ) and to avoid all guilt of so great a sin . ii. there are several sorts and degrees of schism , which greatly differ from each other its one thing to divide from a church , and another to cause divisions or factions in it . it s one thing to divide our selves from it , and another to cause others to divide . it s one thing to draw men away by words , and another to drive them away by laws or execution , by unjust excommunication or by violent persecution . it s one thing to tempt away or drive away a single person , or a few ; and another thing to draw or drive away multitudes . it s one thing to separate from the universal-church , and another from a particular church , or a few only . it s one thing to separate from the species of particular churches , and another from some individuals only . it s one thing to separate from the churches of christs institution , and another to separate only from those of mens institution . it s one thing to separate from such as men make lawfully , and another from such only as they make without authority , and sinfully . and here separating from one whose sinful constitution is traiterous against christs prerogative ( as the papal universal usurpation ) much differeth from separating from one whose constitution though sinful , is of no such perniciousness . it is one thing to deny total communion , and another to separate but secundum quid for some act or part ; and that is either a great and necessary part or some small or indifferent thing or ceremony . it is one thing to separate locally by bodily absence , and another mentally by schismaticall principles . it is one thing to separate from a church as accusing it to be no church of christ , and another to separate from it only as a true church but so corrupted as not to be communicated with . it s one thing to judge its communion absolutely unlawful , and another only to forsake it for a better which is preferred : it s one thing to depart willfully , and another to be unwillingly cast out . it s one thing to depart rashly and in hast , and another to depart after due patience , when reformation appeareth hopeless . it is one thing to remove upon religious reasons , and another upon civil or domestical , or corporal . it is easy for a confounded head to pass over all such distinctions , and with unjust and confounding censures to reproach others as schismaticks in the dark , before he knoweth what schism is , being guilty of schism in his very accusations . but sober christians must be discerners , and know that confusion is an enemy to truth and love and justice . iii. i the union of the church universal is in the seven things mentioned by paul eph. . . , . . viz. one body , one spirit ( of faith and love ) one hope ( of glory ) one lord , one faith ( or creed , ) one baptismal covenant , one god and father of all . he that separateth from this church directly , is an apostate ; uisibly , if from its essential profession , and invisibly if only from the inward sincerity of faith , consent and love. this is damning separation . and if he separate but from some one essentiall article of faith or duty , it is that which is most usually and strictly called heresie ; of which we are now to speak no further . iv. . to make factions , parties , contentions , and mutinies in a true church of christ , or in any community of christians , yea or but in families , in the universal church is a great sin , in all that are the true culpable causes of it , and are not only the involuntary occasions by unavoidable accidents . v. . to separate from all the particular churches in the world , as if they were no true political churches of christ ( as those called seekers do , who say that the ministry , scripture and churches , are lost in the wilderness , ) is a very heinous sin , though such as do so , renounce not their baptism , or the church universal . vi. . to separate from most , or many churches by so unchurching them , is far worse than to separate from few or one ; it being a greater wrong to christ and men . vii . . to separate from one upon a reason that is known to be common to all , or most , or many , is virtually to separate from all , or most , or many . viii . to separate from a true church , accusing it to be no true church , is a greater injury and sin ( caeteris paribu● ) than to separate from it only on an unjust accusation or culpability consistent with a true church : because the charge is more odious and injurious , and tendeth more to destroy love. ix . . to accuse a church ( its doctrine , ministry worship or discipline ) falsly , as guilty of such corruption which maketh it unlawful for any christians to have communion with it , or falsly to pretend such faults for his own and others separation from it , is a great sin , though not so great as to unchurch it . x. . to hold that every error in the doctrine , worship , discipline , pastors or people of that church , yea though settled and continued , and foreknown , not forced on us to consent to or practice , is sufficient cause to make communion with the church unlawful , is to hold a principle which would infer separation from all the known churches in this world . xi . . to draw others to such separation by such false accusations or opinions , is worse than to do it silently ones self ; and the more the worse . xii . . the more such accusations strike at the heart of christian love , which is the life of holy societies , and of holiness it self ; and the more they draw men from piety , and to hate , and abuse , and wrong each other , the greater is the sin . xiii . . when men erroneously and causlesly gather separated members from true churches where they should continue , into antichurches , or societies , where their business is to make others unjustly odious that differ from them ; this is to gather schismatical societies : and if they pretend themselves wiser than the generality of the true orthodox churches in the world , and so separate from them , they were for this called hereticks at first : but if it be but upon a quarrel with some particular neighbour church or pastor it was called a schism . xiv . . if any proud , or passionate , or erroneous person do , as diotrephes , cast out the brethren undeservedly , by unjust suspensions , silencings , or excommunications , it is tyrannical schism , what better name soever cloak it . xv. . if any should make sinful terms of communion , by laws , or mandates , imposing things forbidden by god , on those that will have communion with them , and expelling those that will not so sin , this were heinous schism : and the further those laws extend , and the more ministers or people are cast out by them , the greater is the schism . xvi . . if any should not only excommunicate such persons for not complying with them in sin , but also prosecute them with mulcts , imprisonments , banishments , or other prosecution , to force them to transgress , this were yet more heinously aggravated schism . xvii . . all those would be deeply guilty of such schism who by talk , writing , or preaching , justifie it , and cry it up , and draw others into the guilt , and reproach the innocent as schismaticks , for not offending god. xviii . . if any should corrupt such a church , or its doctrine , worship , or discipline in the very essentials by setting up forbidden officers , and worship , or casting out the officers , worship or discipline instituted by christ , and then prosecute others for not communicating with them ; this would be yet the more heinous schism . xix . . if either of the last named sorts , would not be content with mens communion with them , but would also silence and prosecute such as will not own , justifie , and consent to all that they do , by subscriptions , declarations , covenants , promises , or oaths ; this would yet be a more aggravated schism . xx. . if the men that do this should be mere obtruders and usurpers , that have no true pastoral power over those whom they persecute ( as the pope over other kingdoms and churches ) this were yet more aggravated schisme . xxi . . if such usurpers will claim a dominion or monarchy over all the world , and unchurch , degrade and unchristen all that will not be their subjects , or will impose sinful termes of vnion upon all the christian world , and declare all hereticks or schismaticks , that receive them not , and so cast out most of the christians on earth , and all the sounder churches , this is one of the most heynous sorts of schism , that the mind of man can think of . which is the grand schism of the roman papacy , worse than all their interior schisms when they had many popes at once . xxii . . if such shall send agents and emissaries into the dominions of christians princes or states , to draw the subjects to that schisme , and make them believe that princes are by right the subjects of the pope , and that men shall be damned if they will not take him for the bishop or vice-christ of all the world and keep up a rich and numerous clergie in christian kingdomes for this use , and make decrees to exterminate or burn christians , and to depose temporal lords that will not obey them and execute their lawes , this is to maintain and prosecute a schisme against religious and civill peace , by open hostility to princes and people , and to mankind . xxiii . . if , because the roman emperours and clergie setled five patriarchs in the roman empire , of which the roman bishop was the first , and by councils called general of that empire , did make church laws to bind the subjects , any therefore will teach that these patriarchs , ( and the pope as principi●m unitatis ) must be rulers in the dominions of other princes , and that such councils must govern them by their decrees and that the universal church must be united in any one mortal head , whether personal or collective ( such as general councils , ) and so would bring christian princes and people under the laws and government of forreigners , and brand those as schismaticks that will not fall in with such an universal church policie , this were also a very heinous sort of schism . for the universal church never did , nor will be united on such termes ; and therefore to make such terms of its unity , is to make an engine to divide it , and tear it all into pieces . xxiv . . if any will confine the power or exercise of the church keyes into so few hands as shall make the exercise of christs discipline impossible ( as by laying that work on one , which multitudes are too few to do ; ) or shall make churches so great , and pastors so few , as that the most of the people must needs be without true pastoral oversight , teaching and publick worship , and then will forbid those people to commit the care of their souls to any others that will be pastors indeed , and so would compel them to be without christs ordinances , true church communion and pastoral help , this would be schismatical , and much worse . xxv . . if any pastors will deny baptism , which is their investiture in the christian church , to the adult that refuse to receive the transient image of the crucifix ( or any thing equal to it ) as a dedicating means to consecrate them to god , and to signifie their covenant engagement to christ , and as a badge and symbol of the christian religion , it seemeth to us to be schismaticall , when christ himself instituted baptism without such a covenanting image , to be the test and bond of his churches unity : but if those pastors hold baptism necessary also to salvation , and yet will so deny it to such , this seemeth a great aggravation . the same we say of such pastors as reject from baptism and the church , the infants of true christians on the aforesaid account : as also of those that reject them from baptism , because the parents will not offer them to it , unless they may themselves be the covenanters in their own childrens names , and the express dedicaters of them to god , and because they either cannot get credible godfathers , or will not put others to promise the christian education of their children , who they have no reason to believe do at all intend it , or will ever do it , we can excuse no such rejection of christian infants from christs church , from schism . xxvi . . if some christians be of opinion that christs example bindeth them to receive the lords supper in a table gesture , or that the tradition of the universal church and the canon th of the nicene councill is obligatory to them , which forbad men to adore kneeling on any lords day in the year , or on any week day between easter and whitsuntide ( which no other general council revoked , but continued till meer usage by degrees wore it out , saith dr. heylin of the sabbath , above years after christ . ) or if the said persons should think that to receive kneeling were such a scandalous appearance of the papists bread-worship , as the bowing before an image forbidden by the d . commandement was a scandalous appearance of idol-worship , though these persons did in this mistake , we could not excuse our selves from schism , if we should therefore refuse them sacramental-communion : nor if we should assent and consent to the rejection of men for so small an errour , seeing christs spirit , rom. . , &c. commanded both pastors and people to receive him that is weak in the saith , but not to doubtful disputations ; and to live in love and union with those that have greater weaknesses than this . xxvii . . it may be schismatical to cast men out of the church for that which yet may be schismatical in the person so ejected : if he depart from the church though schismatically only in some accident , circumstance , or some one act or thing of no necessity to communion or salvation ; we think he may not be excommunicated , e. g. for not paying fees at the chancellours court , or such like . for as god departeth not from sinners first , or further than they depart from him ; so we humbly conceive the church should imitate him ; remembring how christ that came not to destroy mens lives , but to save them , rebuked the sons of thunder that would have had him destroy those that refused to receive him , telling them , that they knew not what manner of spirit they were of . on the other side , it may be schism to separate from a church that hath some schismatical principles , practices , and persons , if those be not such or so great as to necessitate our departure from them : for alas , it is too few churches that are so happy as to have nothing , and do nothing which is schismatical . xxviii . . gathering new churches by way of separation from others , or gathering assemblies without the consent of the lawful pastors , who had the charge of the people of those assemblies , is a sin and schism in all these cases following . . in general , when the laws , practices , or persons of the church which they separate from , give them no sufficient cause of a departure . . in general , when in the judgment of true reason , according to the notable evidence of the case , the said assemblies are like to do more hurt than good . . when such assemblies are gathered in opposition to some truth which the separaters would thereby disown ( e. g. infant-baptism , the lawfulness of set-forms of praise or prayer , or any sound doctrine ; ) or for the profession and propagation of some heresie or error ( as antinomianism , popery , &c. ) . when such churches are gathered by men that have no true fitness and calling for the sacred ministry , or the work which they undertake . . when they are gathered by the pride of the ministers , that would thereby unduly set up themselves , and draw away disciples after them ; or by their covetousness , seeking not the good of the flock , but the fleece ; not them , but theirs ; not serving the lord jesus , but their own bellies : or when gathered , by the pride of the people , that unjustly think those that they separate from , men unworthy of their communion , and say to them , come not near to us , we are holier than you , isa . . . . when they are gathered by a quarrelsom passion , falling out with the pastors and people whom they separate from . the parting of paul and barnabas had some evil in it . . when they are gathered to encourage and strengthen a sinful faction or party , or when men separate from others for fear of being censured by such a party , as peter did withdraw from the gentile christians , lest he should displease the erroneous lewes gal. . . when it is done out of a proud overvaluing of mens own opinions , or some odd singularity , whereby men cannot bear those that are not of their mind , or whereby they would fain be be more conspicuous as more orthodox and wise than others . . when it is done mistakingly to set up some wrong course of church government or worship ( as that the people may have the power of the keyes , or of examining and judging all admitted members , or that papal government or the mass may be introduced enthusiastical disorderly talking by pretended inspiration , by ignorant uncalled men , or to introduce such traditions and superstitions , as the papists use , &c. ) . when it is done upon a false conceit that a mans presence with any church that hath known errour or saults in doctrines or worship , is a guilty approving of them , and therefore that they must separate from all such . . when they separate out of an unruliness of spirit , because they will not be governed by their lawful pastors in lawful things , as time , place , order , &c. or because a minor part in elections is overvoted by the major part , and cannot have their wills . . when they separate out of a prophaneness of mind , not enduring the power of the preachers doctrine , or the holiness and discipline of the church , but would be licentious , while they would be called religious . all these are unlawful separations , and assemblings . ● . yet that which is unlawful as to the principle , end and manner , secundum quid , is not alwaies unlawful simply , and in the thing it self , for a proud , covetous turbulent person may sinfully do a lawful thing . xxix . . when pastors by concord , or magistrates by laws have setled lawful circumstances or accidents of church order or worship , or discipline , though they be in particular but humane institutions , it is sinful disobedience to violate them without necessary reason . e. g. parochial order , associations , times , places , ministers , maintenance , scripture-translations , &c. xxx . . when able faithful pastors are lawfully set over the assemblies , by just election and ordination , if any will causelesly , and without right silence them , and command the people to desert them , and to take others for their pastors in their stead , of whom they have no such knowledge as may encourage them to such a change , we cannot defend this from the charge of schism , which puts a congregation on so hard a means of concord , as to judge whether they are bound to that pastor that was set over them as christ appointed , or must renounce him and take the other when they are commanded . so cyprian in the case of novatian sayes that he could be no bishop because another was rightfull bishop before . xxxi . . in england it belongeth . to the patron to present , . to the bishop to ordain and institute and therefore to approve and invest . to the people jure divino to be free consenters , . and to the magistrate to protect and to judge who shall be protected or tolerated under him : if now these four parties be for four ministers or for three , or two several men , and cannot agree in one , the culpable dissenters will be the causes of the schism . xxxii . . if a church have more presbyters than one , and will be for one way of worship , discipline or doctrine and another for another , ( as at frankford , dr. cox. mr. horn and others were for the liturgie , and others against it ) so that the people cannot possibly accord , it is the culpable party , which ever it be , that must answer for the schism . so much of enumerated schisms . xxxiii . on the negative , we suppose that none of these following are schisms in a culpable sense . . all are agreed that it is no schism for the christian church to separate from the ancient jewish , or from the infidel heathen world. xxxiv . . all protestants are agreed that it is no schism to deny obedience to the roman pope ; nor to deny that communion with them , which they will not have without obedience : to separate from other churches , is to deny them meer communion ; but to separate from the roman as papal , is but to deny them subjection ▪ to deny any other christian church to be a true church is schismatical , if they have the essentials of a church : but to deny the papal church or monarchy to be a true church of christ's institution , is true , just and necessary , though they be christians ; because we mean only the papal church form , as it is an universal ecclesiastical monarchy of the whole christian world , which no other church but that doth claim . xxxv . . it is no schism to deny subjection to pope , councils or patriarchs , of other kingdom● , or to any forein power by what names or titles soever called . xxxvi . . it is no schism to deny that christ hath any such visible church on earth as is one by union with any universal head , personal or collective , besides himself . xxxvii . . it is no schism to preach , and gather churches , and elect and ordain pastors and assemble for god's worship , against the laws and will of heathen , nahometan , or infidel princes that forbid it . for thus did the christians for years . and if there be the same cause and need , it is no more schism to do it against the laws and will of a christian prince . because , . christ's laws are equally obligatory ; . souls equally precious . . the gospel and gods worship equally necessary , . and his christianity enableth him not to do more hurt than a pagan may do , but more good . if therefore either out of ungodly enmity to his own profession , or for fear of displeasing his wicked or insidel subjects , he should forbid christian churches , he is not to be therein obeyed . xxxviii . . if a prince , heathen , infidel or christian , forbid gods commanded worship , and any commanded part of the pastors office , ( as in papists kingdoms prayer in a known tongue , and the cup in the lords supper is forbidden , and as they say , all preaching save the reading of liturgies and homilies is forbidden in moscovie , and as the use of the keyes is elsewhere forbidden ; ) it is no schism to disobey such laws , ( what prudence may pro hic & nunc require of any single person we now determine not . ) xxxix . . if any prince would turn his kingdom , or a whole province , diocess or county into one only church and thereby overthrow all the first order of churches of christs institution , which are associated for personal present communion , allowing them no pastors that have the power of the keyes , and all essential to their office ; though he should allow parochial oratories or chappels , which should be no true churches , but parts of a church , it were no schism to gather churches within such a church against the laws of such a prince . many write that there is but one bishop in abassia ( though some say that others have episcopal power under him : ) some that read the old canons , which confine bishops to cities , and take not the word as then it was taken , for any great town or corporation , but for such priviledged towns only as are called cities in england , hence gather that as the king may disfranchise cities and reduce them to ten , two or one in a kingdom , he may by consequence do so by churches that have bishops ; which if it be spoken but of episcopi episcoporum we resist not ; but if of episcopi gregis of the first order of churches called [ particular ] we suppose that out of such a kingdom-church provincial or diocesan-church , it is no schism to gather particular parochial churches though forbidden . and the same reason will prove that if in a lesser circuit , the same things be done though in a lower degree , viz , were it but three , four or ten particular churches of the largest size capable of personal communions turned into one which is capable only of distant communion per alios it is lawful to gather particular churches out of that larger sort of church . if the bishop of rome , alexandria , antioch , cesarea , heraclea , carthage , &c. should have put down the bishops of ten , twenty , an hundred or many hundred churches about them , and set up only oratories and catechists in their stead making them all but part of their own churches , it would have been lawful to have gathered churches in their churches : for god never made them proper judges whether christ should have churches according to his laws , nor whether god should be worshipped , and souls be saved , or his own nstitutions of churches be observed . xl. . if bishops would ordain presbyters by limiting words , restraining them from any essential or integral part of the office or power as instituted by christ , and yet profess that they ordain them to the office which christ hath instituted , it is no schism for those presbyters afterward to claim ( and execute in season ) all the power which by christ's institution belongeth to their office , though against the bishops wills. because the bishops are not the authors or donors of the office power , but only the ministerial deliverers and investers ; and therefore it is christ and not they , that must describe it . xli . no prince or prelate hath power from christ to set over , or impose upon any church or christian people , any person as a pastor who through ignorance , heresie , malignant opposition to piety , or utter defect of ministerial ability , is uncapable of the office or unfit to be trusted by the people with the pastoral care and conduct of their soules . nor is it schism in them to refuse to commit their soules to such , nor to chuse and use better ; when they may do it , without greater hurt to others then their gain will compensate . xlii . . princes or other magistrates are not appointed by god to be the ordinary electters and imposers of pastors on all the churches ; and the people bound to consent to whomsoever they elect . but christ hath given the bishops the power of free ordaining , and the people the power of free consenting , and made magistrates the go●ernours of them that have this power . even as he hath not given power to princes to chuse wives or husbands , servants or masters , tutors or pupils , physicians or patients , for all their subjects , but hath antecedently given such subjects power to chuse for themselves , and to princes to be civil rulers of such as have this choice , by which governing power they may regulate their choice in subordination to christs universal laws , and may punish them for gross misdoing : therefore it is no schism for pastors to ordain , or people to chuse the overseers of their souls , without or against a magistrates will or command as such ( submitting to his government . ) xliii . . when faithful pastors truly ordained and elected , or consented to , are in possession , if a lawful magistrate cast them out ( not only of the temples and tithes , but also of their pastoral relation and oversight , and put others in their places of untried and suspected parts and fidelity ; . the princes imposition maketh not such the true pastors of that church before and without the peoples consent : . nor will it alwaies bind the people to consent , and to forsake their former pastors , nor prove them schismaticks because they do it not . for . god in nature and scripture hath given them that consenting power antecedent to the princes determination , which none can take from them . as he hath in nature given men the choice ( or consent at least ) with what physician they will trust their lives : god hath not put all sick mens lives so far in the princes power as to bind them to trust and use whomsoever he shall chuse : for men are nearest to themselves , and their lives are at their own wills in the first instance , before they are at anothers : and mens souls and everlasting happiness are preciouser to them than their lives , and it is first under god their own wills by which they shall live or die ; though all their friends should do their best to make them willing of what is best . . they are supposed related duely to their tryed pastors , in the bond of fidelity , which they may not unnecessarily violate . . otherwise one roman emperor might have undone all the churches and souls in the empire in a great degree ; by imposing on them insufficient , heretical , or malignant pastors : where it must be noted , . that god doth ordinarily work on souls according to the quality of the means : to say that he can do otherwise , is impertinent , while we see that he doth not , nor hath promised it . we see that heathens and infidels are not converted without preachers ; we see that heretical preachers make hereticks , and schismatical ones make schismaticks , and ignorant ones leave the people ignorant : in several countries the people are greeks , papists , lutherans , &c. as they are taught . we see that one clear , convincing , experienced , serious preacher , turneth more souls among us from ignorance , errour , fleshly lust , and worldly wicked hearts and lives , than abundance of raw young readers or preachers , that ignorantly say over a dry prepared speech in a school-boys mode and tone . it is not every preacher of whom it can be said as dr. ames doth of old mr. midsley , a nonconformist of lancashire , that he was the means of converting many thousand souls , ( from popery , ignorance , and a wicked life : nor whose labours are blest , as mr. dods , mr. john rogers , mr. thomas hookers ( nonconformists ) or mr. william fenners ( a conformist ) and such others were . even as we see by experience that a few skilful , prudent , experienced physicians cure more than abundance of young beginners , who too oft kill more than they cure . we see that the abassian , armenian , greek , and most popish countries are lamentably ignorant ( and usually proportionably vicious ) for want of a learned , pious , skilful , and laborious ministery , history tells us , that the kingdom of nubia forsook christianity for want of competent teachers : the industry of the jesuits and friars in china , japan , congo , and other countries , telleth us how much they laid on the diligent use of means . jos . acosta tells us how much the west-indies suffer in religion by the ignorance and wickedness of the priests . how barbarous and sad a state the empire of moscovy is in for want of able , faithful pastors , while the emperours put down preaching , and confine them to liturgies and homilies , as is affirmed commonly without contradiction . how miserable a state the roman church ; yea , the papacy was in , in the ninth and tenth ages , even baronius , genebrard , and the greatest flatterers of the pope lament ; and this for want of able , faithful pastors and teachers among them . . no man hath his power to destruction , but to edification . the bonum publicum is the end of government : therefore it is not schism in subjects , not to cast their souls on notorious peril of damnation , in obedience to any mortal man. . every man , ( especially experienced christians ) have more sense and knowledge of what is profitable and congruous to them , than standers by have , how learned soever : as ignorance maketh a few , short , plain , oft repeated words , in a familiar style , more profitable to low-bred persons , than an accurate learned discourse would be ; so mens several tempers and vices maketh that matter and manner of preaching profitable to them , which to others seemeth otherwise : and as a nice lady must not tie her family of labouring persons , to the matter and measure of her diet , nor revile them as gluttons or fools if they like it not ; no more must learned men confine plain people to wordy orations , ( whether learned or pedantick ) and say , this is best for them : much less must they silence causlesly such teachers as truly profit them , or tie them to homilies or liturgies only , and say , here is as much as is necessary to salvation : nor is it any schism in the people , if they refuse to be so confined by them , and denied such helps to their salvation as god hath sent them , and made their due . . order is an excellent means of edification , and of preserving truth , charity and peace : but it is but a means to the ends of the things ordered , and the publick good : therefore if order should be made the advantage of heresie , church-tyranny or iniquity , and be turned against the good of church and souls , ( as it is in the policy of the roman church , and in well ordered armies of rebels , or such as have unlawful wars ) this would make it no schism or sin ●o break such order . these notices interposed , we add , . that it hath been the judgement of the most honoured ages of the church , that it is no schism in the forementioned cases , to cleave to the faithful pastors that were duly ordained and consented to , and to refuse subjection to such as lawful princes have imposed in their steads . . that even in the jewish state the kings had not the election of all the priests and levites ( much less the prophets ) is before proved ; though they had the government of them according to god's laws . . that the apostles sent by christ performed their office against the will of the roman and jewish rulers , is not denied . . and because some think that this was proper only to apostles or men sent immediately by christ , we add , that it is not denied that this was the case of others in that age : as timothy , ( who is charged before god and angels to preach in season and out of season , tim. . , . ) titus , apollo , silas , and such others ; and of all the setled elders of the churches , act. . v. . tit. . . thes . . , . heb. . , &c. . and it is not denied that this was the case of all the ordinary pastors for the first three hundred years , under the unbelieving emperors . and as is aforesaid , even these were governours of the christian pastors and churches ( who are commanded rom. . to obey them . ) and they wanted not governing power , though in part they wanted aptitude to use it well ; so that christians were to obey even heathen governours in lawful things . . and it is undeniable that this was the judgment and case of the fathers and people of the church under the christian emper ours that were arrians , or favoured the arrians : and as is aforesaid , the arrians would have subscribed to all the nicene creed , ( that christ is light of light , god of god , very god of very god , begotten , not made , till they came to that one word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . yea , eusebius subscribed to that also , and to the whole , who yet ( notwithstanding socrates's charitable excuse ) is by his own epistle from that council to his people , plainly proved to be an arrian , as petavius hath fully manifested : and yet how the churches of the east did commonly cleave to their pastors when constantius and valens ejected them ; and how they resolutely refused the imposed bishops , some as arrians , and some but as suspected , saying , we have lawful bishops already , and how stifly they refused to forbear their forbidden meetings , and publick worship with their former pastors , church-history puts us out of doubt . athanasius oft stayed with his flock till banished by violence by constantine , constantius and valens : eustathius bishop of antioch did the like yea came to the imperial city constantinople , and there lived in secret to confirm the people and presumed to ordain a patriarch of that city chosen against the emperours will : for when eudoxius was dead , the orthodox people chose evagrius , a man of their own judgement , and refused demophilus , socr. l. . c. . both the consecrator and the consecrated bishop stayed with them till the emperour sent souldiers from nicomedia to master the people , and banished them both into several countries , and at once put fourscore priests to death ( burning them in a ship at sea , ) to whom the people adhered , who came to petition him for justice and forbearance . saith socr. cap. . when the emperour at edessa gave the lieutenant a blow with his fist because he had not scattered the conventicles , as he had charged him , the lieutenant , for all this great disgrace , set himself , though unwillingly to obey the emperours wrath and displeasure ; but gave notice secretly of it to the people ( for it was far from his mind to fall a murthering so many godly citizens , ) that none should shew his face in the temple , that none should be found raising of any conventicle : but not one made account of his advice , nor regarded his threats , for the day following all flocked in great companies to the temple . then followeth the mention of a woman that with her little child hastned through the crowd to the meeting hoping to die with the rest . the citizens of cyzicum banished eunomius from their city , whom eudoxius had preferred to that bishoprick , not so much for his errours as for his arrogant and insolent manner of preaching , with logical tricks and sophisms which they could not bear , and so they drove him to constantinople where he layd by his bishops office id. c. . and when eleusius repenting of his sin in a forced subscribing to the ariminum faith would have had them have chosen another bishop , they would have or acknowledg no other but him ; being the undoubted chusers of their own bishop ib. c. . the city of antioch sell into two parties of the orthodox , besides the arrians , and chose two bishops paulinus and meletirs ; though it was then contrary to the canons that one city should have two bishops , none questioned the peoples right to chuse , nor denied either of them to be true bishops : and though the emperour forbore paulinus for his rare parts and virtues , and banished only meletius , the people would not obey his orders , but still assembled as before . we are not ignorant what tumults popular elections of bishops have oft caused : but two things all acquainted with antiquity know which much serve to counterballance this objection : . that where emperours and synods of bishops have made themselves the electors , the tumults or confusions , or at least the consequent evills were not less but greater : . and when they did thus assume the election ( which was for the most part but in a few great seats and not of ordinary bishops ) still they suppose a necessity of the peoples consent . when the emperour chose the patriarchs , what one emperour did another undid : and the peoples dissent undid it sooner : and the ruling bishops so oft disagreed , that their synods and churches were lamentably militant . by the favour of the emperour , dioscorus was the strongest at ephesus having the souldiers and rulers on his side , and by them the major vote of the bishops : but it was more theodosius and his officers that carryed it than equity ; even to the condemning of eusebius and such others , and the beating of fl●vianus the patriarch of const . unto death : and when by the emperour and prevailing bishops will , new bishops were placed ( anat●l●us at const . maximus at antioch , nonus at edessa , athanasius for savinian &c , ) saith liberatus in breviaro cap. schisma factum est inter eos quale antea nunquam contigerat . aegypti , thraces & palestini episcopi dioscorum sequebantur , orientales , ponticis & asiani sanctae memoriae flavianum : quod schisma permansit usque ad obitum theodosii principis . but when martian was made emperour , all was undon again : that went for heresie , which before went for the right belief , dioscorus was banished , proterius was chosen ; and how chosen : saith liberatus c. . ut cum omnium civium volunt ate eligerint ordinandum episcopum , sacris ob hoc literis praecedentibus , ad theodorum tun● augustalem collecti sunt ergo nobiles civitatis , ut eum qui esset vita & sermone pontificatu dignus , eligerint : hoc enim & imperialibus sanctionibus jubebatur , n. b. yet all this quieted not the people because diosc●rus was still by the most taken for their true bishop ; so that proterius was fain to live under the guard of souldiers among them : timothy aelurus , and peter moggus keeping separate congregations , would not communicate with proterius ; and no sooner did they hear of martians death , but the people in tumult murdered proterius in the church , mangled him , cast out , and burnt his carcass , and scattered his ashes in the wind , and made timothy aelurus their bishop : and thenceforward alexandria had two bishops : and both sides petitioning the new emperour leo to be for them , he commanded ( upon examination ) his general to cast out timothy , & alium decreto populi qui synodum calced . vindicaret , inthronizare , this st●la the captain performeth , and another timothy salophaciolus is chosen : but when after leo's death basiliscus usurped the empire against zeno , this timothy is cast out again , and the other restored ; and other bisops changed accordingly in opposition to the council of calcedon . and no sooner was zeno restored , but all was returned back again , and aelurus poisoned himself to escape worse : yet did his party make peter moggus their bishop ; and the emperour commanded anthimius to cast him out , and set up timothy saloph . again : but while the emperours chose who should have the publick authority and temples , they left the people to joyn in the choice , and the dissenters kept up their own bishops and schism . and thus the matter went on uncured : and very ordinarily it was the pulcheria's , theodora's , eudoxia's , and such other women , the empresses , that by historians are said to dispose of these matters , and make such patriarchs and bishops : and these courses still increased schisms : of the joannites at constantinople we spake before . what a calamitous schism was that at alexandria between the party that held christ's body incorruptible , called by the other the phantasiastae , and those that held it corruptible called the corrupticolae , one part taking gaianus for the bishop , and the other theodosius ; and the secular power , setting up one , the soldiers and the city sought it out . abundance on both sides being slain , and yet the soldiers had the worst , and theophilus was forced away . in justinians time when paulus an orthodox man was made patriarch , he could not hold his seat without such plots , as occasioned rhodo the augustalis to murder psoius the deacon , which cost rhodo and arsenius their lives , and paulus his contemptuous deposition , by the emperours justice . should we but run over the history of other great churches , especially rome , constantinople , antioch , ephesus , cesa●ea , alas how sadly would it shew that neither emperours nor synods assuming the power did end such schismes , but increase them , where the bishopricks were so great as to seem a very desirable prey : but where they were small and poor● , there was far greater peace and quietness , though the people commonly had their choice , and every where their consent was judged necessary ; the proofs of which might fill a volume . see in synodo romano quarto sub symmacho ( in binnio vol. . p. . ) &c. the claim of odoacer that no bishop of rome should be made without the consent of the king of italy ; and the bishops speeches against it . even in the daies of gregor . . rom. you may see how things went , by the constant tradition of the church ; epist . . ( in bin. vol. . p. . recitat ) [ natalem salonitanae ecclesiae scatrem & coepiscopum nostrum ob●●sse discurrens in partibus istis sama vulgavit : q●od si verum esti experientia tua om●i instantia omnique solicitudine clerum & populum ejusdem civitatis admonere festinet , quatenus uno consensu ad ordinandum sibi debeant eligere sacerdotem ; factoque in personam quae suerit clecta decreto , ad nos transmittere studebis , ut cum nostro consensu sicut priscis suit temporibus ordinetur . illud prae omnibus tibi curae sit ut in hac electione nec datio quibusque modis interveniat praemiorum , nec quarumlibet personarum patrocinia convalescant ; nam si quorundam patrocinio fuerit quisquam electus , volunt atibus eor●m cum fuerit ordinatus obedire , reverentia exigente compellitur — talem ergo te admonente personam debent eligere , quae nullius incongruae voluntati deserviat , sed vita & moribus decorata , tanto ordine digna valeat inveniri . and at the council paris . . in the daies of pope john . and k. childebert , when kings were forbidden to make bishops , it was ordained can. . that [ nullus civibus invitis ordinetur episcopus ; nisi quem populi & clericorum electio plenissima quasierit voluntate , non principis imperio . and the bishops are forbidden to receive him into their number , who is made by kings . at the council of calcedon , act. . it was determined , that neither of the two bishops of ephesus , bassianus , or stephanus , could be bishops , because not duly elected , but a third to be chosen . see also for the peoples unanimous election of their bishop greg. . epist . . in bin. vol. . p. . we need not bid the learned enquire whether gregory naeoces . basil , ambrose , martin , damasus , ( and so of the rest ) ordinarily were bishops without the consent of the people over whom they were placed : and though sometimes the peoples choice have ( many hundred years only after christs time , but not in the primitive church ) been restrained , so was not their consenting voice denied . i have translated and adjoyned the epistle of cyprian and an africane council with him ( where were then the best ordered churches in the world ; as farr as i can learn ) in which they counsel the churches of basilides and martial to forsake them because they were libellatiks in persecution , proving from scripture that uncapable persons cannot be pastors , and that such scandalous sinners and bad men were uncapable persons ( forma non recipitur in matcriam indispositam ; ) charging it upon their consciences as from gods word ; shewing them that els they will be guilty of their sins because the chief power is in the people both of chusing the worthy , and forsaking the unworthy . and yet these two bishops lived beyond the seas in another country , and the bishops of their own country and the bishop of rome had dealt more gently with them , and adjudged communion to them . and the africans pretended to no authority over them , but by counsell told them of gods own law , which no man had power to invalidate . they charge the people as heinous sinners if they forsake not a wicked unmeet bishop or pastor . what libellaticks were i supposed the reader to know ( viz , such as to save their lives in persecution , had permitted another to put their names by subscription to a false profession that favoured idolatry or infidelity ) obj. . but cyprian and the african councils were mistaken in the point of rebaptizing those baptized by hereticks ; and so they might be here . ) ans . . the council of nice decreed the rebaptizing of those that were baptized by some hereticks , though not by all : and if the africans did not confine the word to such , they erred only in not sufficiently distinguishing of hereticks . . if we are excused from receiving the testimony of such fathers and councils as had any errour , or as great an errour as that , you may see what will follow . . we do not cit● cyprian and the african council as infallible , nor as having more governing power over us than the present rulers , but as being to us ( i say to us ) of more credit and authority in telling us what is jure devino than those bishops or others that now condemn us as schismaticks . . c●p●●an and the african councill were not forbidden for this judgment of theirs to preach christs gospel , nor cast out of the churches , no● sent to goals , nor called and used as rogues and schismaticks , and farr worse then drunkards , adulterers , yea or the atheists and infidels among us . ( nor were the people that obeyed their councill so used . ) but t●e names of these holy men are venerable to this day . obj. . there were then no christian magistrates , and therefore the peoples power must be used in their stead . ans . church power was the same before and after . the lawes of christ concerning it altered not . the pastors were then the guides of the people by divine right : and the power of the keyes was no less forcible or effectual as used by the bishops and presbyters , than when the power of the sword was added to them ( if not much more . ) and the peoples power of choosing and refusing bishops continued many hundred years after magistrates were christians , confirmed even by popes and councills . obj. . this would cast all into confusion , and there would be no church government , if the people be judges when a minister is bad , and then ma● full him down or forsake him , and choose another . answ . this is after further answered . i now only say . the people may not touch his person , by violence , nor deprive him of his benefice or temple , nor yet degrade him : as they that change their physician or lawyer do no such thing , but simply choose one that they can trust . no man will win more by my salvation than i shall , nor would suffer more than i by it if i were damned : who is more than i concerned what becometh of my soul ? am i not to have more care of it than of my estate or health of body ? who can easily believe those men that send us to goales and ruin us for trusting our soules with such guides as to the best of our understandings we think meetest , or at least for avoiding such as we cannot so farr trust , and then tell us that they do it because they love our souls better than we love our selves , and therefore will not trust them to our choice . . what confusion doth it cause that every man now chooseth his owne tutor in philosophy , his own master , his own lawyer and physician , and every woman at age her own husband . . doth not the church of england ( as is said ) allow every man his choice , when no man is forbidden to forsake any bishop or pastor and choose another by removing his habitation when he pleases ? so that all this is but about parish bounds , which is confessed to be of humane alterable constitution . and how ordinarily do many gentlemen of the church of england go from their own parishes in london ? . you may see by philip nyes printed papers , and mr. tombs his , that even those called independents and some anabaptists are for hearing such parish-teachers as their rulers shall appoint , so they may but commit the pastoral care of their souls to such as they can better trust , and have sacraments and special church communion free . . what great confusion doth it breed in london that the french and dutch churches thus differ from the rest , and have their proper modes and government ? yea or that the nonconformists by the favour of his majesties licenses had their choice and several meetings . let not envy and animosity seign greater confusion than there is , and the matter will appear much otherwise than it is represented , even that the discords and confusions were incomparably less ( on that occasion ) than they were under the bishops in the better times of the churches , even from an. to , of which more in due place . . they that will condemn all that hath inconveniences , shall condemn all things in this world : but the greatest must be noted and avoided first . shall the people have any judgment of discerning or not ? if yea , the bounds of it must be shewed , and not the thing denyed as if it must bring in all confusion . if usurpers claim the crown , the subjects must judge which is their true king , and must defend his right . will you say , if the people be judges , they may set up usurpers , and put down the king ? they are but discerners of that which is before their duty . they have no right to erre , nor to alter the law or right : but if it be otherwise , they are to be ruled as brutes : and so must not judge so much as whom they must obey . is there any christian that dare say , that bishops or princes are in all things to be obeyed , lest the people be made judges ? and so that under heathen , mahometan , papist , heretical rulers , they must be all of their religion , as to the external professing and practising part ? none dare for shame say so , save an infidel . is not this a greater confusion or michief than that which is now disputed against : therefore the bounds must be set on both sides , which are not difficult to discern : as the people have property in their limbs , children and liberties , and acquisitions antecedently to humane government , which is to order these , and not to destroy them ; so have all men greater interest in the safety of their own souls , which no man can take from them ; no nor is it in their just power to put it into the hands of others from themselves . if hereticks , blind guides , o●●faithless men , or insufficient , be made pastors of the flocks , and all men commanded to hear no better , nor trust the pastoral conduct of their souls into any wiser or safer hands , satan will be more gratified by it , than by the disorder of the peoples chusing their own spiritual councillors , tutors and physicians . and when church-communion is due to none but voluntary accepters , men should not be used so as to take it still against their wills , and to be as it were crammed and drencht with sacred mysteries , & driven to take them against their consciences and wills from such as they think they cannot communicate with , without being guilty of their sin : when some councils have owned pope nicholas's decree , that no man ought to hear the mass from a fornicating priest ; much less from men that are far more liable to exceptions . to this i may add , that as in divers cases the canons and decrees forbad hearing some priests , and allowed several churches in the same ground , so they seem to give that pastor a right to the conduct of the people , who was the chief converter of them from infidelity or heresie : and hence was the popes controversie with the greeks about the bulgarians , and his claim to the church of england , and many others , because he said his missionaries converted them . i shall specially note here , that the old canons sent by adrian to carolus mag. reci●ed by canisius and binius , say , [ that no one must pray with hereticks or schismaticks ] and so not with papist-bishops that are the greatest schismaticks by dividing impositions [ that if a bishop six months after admonition of other bishops neglect to make catholicks of the people ( multitudes then being heathens and hereticks ) belonging to his seat , any other shall obtain them that shall deliver them from their heresie . ] yet the bishop is not deposed , but another bishop and church of the new converts set up in his precincts , and so a church gathered in the precincts of another church and bishop . and so gregory nazianzen did long preach as their pastor in a small church in constantinople , before he had possession of the cathedral ; the people claiming him for their prositing by his teaching ; and theodosius gave him the cathedral as merited by his success . and in the said old canons , c. . it s said , that dioceses ( which then were every corporation and the suburbs or villages ) which want bishops receive none without the consent of the bishop who hitherto held them ( so be it ) not proudly : for if he over-hold them , affecting to sit over the people , and despising his fellow-bishops , he is not only to be driven from the retained dioc se , but also from his own church . and ex con. sard. . [ a bishop that by ambition changeth his seat ( which was then forbidden by the canons ) shal not have ( so much as ) lay-communion , ( no not ) at the end ( his death . ) even old clemens romanus , ad corinth . tells them that they ought not to cast out these ministers that live unblameably , having been constituted by the apostles or deinceps ab aliis viris celebribus , cum consensu universae ecclesiae . but i find the roman and tyrannical spirit much insisting uppon this , that the christian religion was but in the shell or embryo in the apostles dayes ; and under christian emperours is grown up to the maturity of papacie , riches , pomp , and grandeur , and that great power which the christian emperours gave the patriarchs and prelates of their times . but this hypothesis must be better proved before we can receive it : we confess that for extent and number the church was there in its minority : but if it was so as to infallibility of doctrine & perfection of laws , and exemplary lives , then the pope is better than christ and his apostles and their contemptible decretals and firebrand councills are better than the sacred scriptures , and their degenerate clergie and people better than the ancient holy peaceable christians , & their blood-shedders better than the martyrs , and the cross-makers better than the cross-bearers ; which are things that the worldly sort may believe more easily than mortified and heavenly christians . one testimony more we will add for the antiquity , and the estimation of many that are against us . and that is the apostolicall constitutions , lib , . cap. . de ordinationibus , ( having said before cap. . that episcopus ignorantia aut malo animo oppletus , episcopus non est . sed falsus episcopus , non a deo sed ab hominibus promotus , ) they here say that a bishop must be one that [ a cuncto populo ex optimis quibusque electus est . quo nominato & placente , populus in unum congregatus ( not a thousand churches but one ) una cum presbyteris , atque episcopis praesentibus die dominico consentiat . qui vero inter reliquos princeps episcopus est , percontetur presbyteros & populum an ipse sit quem praeesse petant ? & illis annuentibus rursus percontetur an tribuunt ei omnes testimonium quod dignus sit hoc magno & illustri munere praesidend● ? an quae ad pietatem erga deum pertinent recte peregerit ? an jura adversus homines servarit ? an domum suam résque domesticas recte administraverit , & an vita ei peromnia honeste & laudate act a suerit ? cum vero omnes simul , non secundum opinionem praejudicatam , sed secundum veritatem testificati suerint , talem esse eum , tanquam in conspectu j●dicis dei & christi , praesente etiam spiritu sancto , atque omnibus sanctis & administratoriis spiritibus , rursus tertio interrogent , utrum sit dignus ministerio , ut in ore duo●um vel trium stet omne verbum : et cum tertiò annuerint , et dignum esse assensi suerint , petatur ab omnibus ut praebeant signum assensus : et libenter praebentes audiantur ] we urge not this as of apostolicall authority , but as of great antiquity , and agreeing with the primitive practise . this course much differeth from the ordaining of a bishop at an hundred miles distance from his church ; yea ordaining him , not in or to a particular church , but to many hundred churches when the people neither know him nor are present , and yet the question 's askt as if they were . and as the people had ever a chusing or a free consenting voice , so they oft received bishops and presbyters who were ordained by such as were out-casts , nonconformists , and banished both by emperours and synods ; as in many more instances might be proved : as also that they adhered to the pastors so chosen , notwithstanding their ejections by the imperial power ; yea and by such councils as they thought to be unjust ; as the sad divisions by the displacings , restorings , and changes of bishops by the councils of constantinople , . ephesus , . & calcedon , and by the emperours in those times , do fully prove , the people following some one , and some another ; though fear oft prevailed for conformity with the greater part . ( and no wonder when so many bishops at the council of calcedon professed that for fear they had judged against flavianus for eutichus against their consciences , and even old osius , and many more at ariminum did the like ; and when the powers changed , cryed , omnes peccavimus ; and when under theodosius d . so many went one way , who under martian went another way , even in point of heresie . when mavia the saracen queen chose moses a monk to be her bishop , as the condition of her peace with the roman empire , moses would not be ordained by lucius ; not because he was an arrian , but because he was a persecutor , and hurtful to other men for religion , and so he would be ordained priest by some that were banished to a certain mountain , socr. l. . c. . when the emperour was gone from antioch ( where in person he went to disperse their meetings , and yet they held on ) the people thrust out lucius whom he had set up , and set up peter again whom the emperour had banished . but such instances are too many to be recited . yea under orthodox princes , the people would cleave to their injured pastors , though against the emperours will , as they of miliane did to ambrose ; and the joannites to chrysostom , who even long after his death separated from the bishop , and kept up their separate meetings against the will of prince and prelates , till milder bishops instead of persecuting them , restored chrysostom's bones and name to honour , and reconciled them . it will still be objected , as before , that most of these instances were but the peoples rejection of arrians : but again , we answer . in other instances , they usually chose their pastors , and cleaved to them , though prohibited . . these arrians were such as subscribed the ariminum creed , which was so ambiguously compiled , that abundance that renounced arius , did think that for obedience and peace they might put a fair sense on the words , and so subscribe them : and we meet with persons in our times , that think words imposed on them by superiours , may and must endure stretching to a sense as far from their usual acceptation , as the foresaid words were stretched by the ariminum subscribers . . they that never accused and convicted the refused bishops of arrianism , yet adhered to their former bishops . . it seemeth then that the people are left judges ( as to the guiding of their own practice ) what bishops to refuse as heterodox , and whom to own as orthodox . and indeed the saying of cyprian is well known , that [ the people have the greatest power both to chuse a worthy priest , and to refuse or forsake the unworthy . ] . all protestants believe that it is no schism in france , or other papist countries , to chuse pastors , and meet for the worship of god , though forbidden by the civil and ecclesiastick governors of the place . obj. that is because that the princes are papists . ans . a papist king is to be obeyed in lawful things : what protestant denieth that ? obj. but it is because that the churches and worship in those countries is such as it is not lawful to be present at . ans . . this objection granteth , that when the commanded assemblies or worship are such as it is not lawful to be present at ; . the people are discerning judges ; . and may lawfully meet else where under pastors of their own choice . . but let the question be , ( not whether we may be present in their churches , but ) whether we may set up other churches , when we are necessarily kept from those established by publick power ? and it will go far . . when the form of worship and concord called the interim , was by charles the th . imposed on the german protestants , ( being drawn up by julius pflug , sidonius , and islebius agricola , men pretending to moderation , as not imposing the mass , &c. the protestants judged it lawful to gather assemblies , and keep up churches contrary to such an edict of the emperour : one half of them held on their former way , till banishment or other violence hindred them . melancthon and the others that thought the things commanded not utterly unlawful , conformed only to prevent the utter desolation of the churches ; but not in conscionable obedience to the emperours edict , as if it had been any schism to do otherwise if they could have been endured : as may be seen in melancthon's own words in his epistles , and elsewhere . . the most of protestants at this day hold , that it is no schism to keep up churches of their several parties , against their princes will and prohibition . those called arminians in belgia so think . episcopius writeth at large , that if ministers be forbid to preach , and people to assemble ( in their case ) they must go on , though they suffer death for it ( saving that prudence may direct them sometime to avoid a present storm . ) the churches under the duke of brandenburgh are generally contrary to his judgment in religion : and should the princes of saxony , brunswick , hassia , &c. or the kings of sweden , or denmark turn calvinists , their clergy would be far from thinking it their duty to cease their assemblies of the lutheran profession and worship . bishop andrews is so far from tying all ministers to the kings will , that he saith [ cohibeat regem diaconus , si cum indignus sit idque palam constet , accedat tamen ad sacramentum . ] i. e. let ( even ) a deacon restrain the king , if he come to the sacrament being unworthy , and that be openly manifest . ] bishop bilson of subjection p. . saith , [ the election of bishops in those daies belonged to the people and not to the prince : and though valens by plain force placed lucius there , yet might the people lawfully reject him as no bishop and cleave to peter their right pastor . ] mark that he layeth it not on his error , but on his entrance without the peoples election , and that they might reject him as no bishop . we see here the full concurrence of such english bishops as were the most learned and zealous defenders of episcopacy and loyalty . the same bishop ibid. p. . saith more plainly , [ princes have no right to call or confirm preachers , but to receive such as be sent of god and give them liberty for their preaching and security for their persons : and if princes refuse so to do , gods labourers must go forward with that which is commanded them from heaven ; not by disturbing princes from their thrones , nor invading their realms as your father doth , and defendeth he may do ; but by mildly submitting themselves to the powers on earth and meekly suffering ▪ for the defence of the truth , what they shall inflict . ] this is the summ of all that we here intend . so pag. . he saith [ we grant that they must rather hazard their lives than baptize princes which beleive not , or distribute the lords mysteries to them that repent not , but give willful and open signification of impiety , &c. ] so beda hist . eccl , l. . c. . tells us that melitus bishop of london ( with justus ) was banished by the heirs of king sabba●eth , because he would not give them the sacrament of the lords supper , which they would have had before they were baptized . yet all this is no justification of causeless disobedience to magistrates that circumstantiate sacred things according to their office ; nor will it justifie any schismatical societies : vespae habent favos , & marcionitae ecclesias saith tertullian . xliv . . if any persons shall pretend to have the power of governing the churches and inferior pastors as their bishops , ▪ who are obtruded on those churches without the election or consent of the people or inferior pastors , and these bishops shall by lawes or mandates forbid such assembling , preaching or worship as otherwise would be lawful and a duty , it is no schism to disobey such laws or mandates as such ; nor do such disobey their pastors , they being truly no bishops of theirs till they do consent ( however in some cases the advantages of some imposed persons may make it an act of prudence , and so a duty to consent , as is aforesaid , ) it was no schism for the people of antioch , alexandria , cesarea , constantinople &c ▪ to refuse ecclesiastical obedience to the ill bishops set over them by the emperour to whom they did not consent ; but the schism was theirs who complied with the imposed usurpers . here it must be noted , that church history hath constrained all that understand it to confess ( both papists , greeks , and protestants , that the ordination of bishops and presbyters was in the power of the bishops and the election in the power of the people , not only the first years under heathen emperours , but for many hundred years after under christian emperours and princes . . that this was taken for their right given them by god. to cite more proofs , for this would expose us to the readers censure , as unnecessary tediousness : many papists largely prove it ; as doth david blondel beyond exception , de jure plebis in regimine ecclesiastico , with more . . that yet we here plead not for the necessity of so much as the peoples election as it signifieth the first nomination of the person , but only for the necessity of consent , either explicitly or implicitly exprest . if the senior pastors have the first nomination , or , if it be the magistrate , or patrons , as with us , we quarrel not against it , if the flock do but consent . parents may chuse husbands and wives for their children ; but they are not such at all till mutual consent . xlv . . the consent of a few of the church , is not the consent of the church ; nor is it schism for the major part to differ from their choice or determinations ( as . such . ) in government , the will of the sovereign is the publick will ; but in contracts , and consent of a community , where unity is the thing intended , and voting the means , the major part is denominatively the society , ( unless they have made others their trustees or delegates in electing , consenting themselves to what they do , ) such societies are not denominated from the minor , or a small part , as contradistinct from the rest . if a diocess have a thousand , or , or parish pastors , and a hundred thousand or a million of people ( or or as you will suppose ) and if only a dozen or twenty presbyters , and a thousand people ( or none ) chuse the bishop , this is not the election or consent of the diocesan church ; nor is it schism for to go against the votes of . xlvi . . if bishops that have no better a foundation of their relative power over that particular flock , shall impose inferior pastors or presbyters on the parish-churches ; & command the peoples acceptance & obedience , the people are not bound to accept and obey them by any authority that is in that command as such : nor is it schism to disobey it , no more than it is treason to reject the usurper of a kingdom . xlvii . . whilest such obtruded parish pastors have no consent of the flock ( explicite or implicite ) that parish is no parish church , in the proper political organized sense , as we now speak of a church , as constituted by the governing and governed parts , for that which wanteth an essential part , wanteth the essence , and therefore it is no schism to pronounce it no such church , and to deny it the communion proper to such a church . though yet as the word [ church ] doth signifie an ungoverned society in potentia proxima to receive government , they may be improperly called a church as they are in a vacancy . xlviii . . if they that make a diocess the lowest proper church ( which hath a bishop , and none under him ) and a parish to be but a part of the diocesan church , and no proper church of it self , as having no episcopus gregis , shall accuse those as separating from the church , who separate not from the bishop , and keep to any parish in the diocess , they contradict themselves : though such forsake many presbyters and parishes . xlix . . if princes or prelates shall unjustly silence or depose so great a number of faithful pastors or preachers , as shall leave people destitute of a necessary preaching and pastoral help , it is no schism , but a great duty , for such ministers to preach , and pastorally guide such people ; otherwise by the same reason , one man might put down christianity in an empire at his pleasure ; or dissolve the churches . l. if it be said , that it 's true , if he put down all , but not if he silence but a minor part . we answer , that the reason is the same to those to whom the ministry is necessary , if he put down ministers to them . the supply of the churches , e. g. in one city of a kingdom , is no supply to the other cities : and if a parish have , or , or , or souls , it s no supply to all the rest if of these have the benefit of a preacher and pastor . the same power which may deny a pastor to ten parts of a parish , may deny him to the eleventh part , that is , to all . so if competent pastors be set over half the parishes in a kingdom , and the other half hath incompetent men ; or if nine parts of a kingdom were competently supplied , and but the tenth part had not such to whom the people may lawfully commit the pastoral care of their souls , it is no schism , but a duty for those that are destitute , to get the best supply they can ; and it is no schism , but a duty , for faithful ministers , though forbidden by superiours , to perform their office to such people that desire it . their general ordination , with the peoples necessity and consent added to god's general commands to all his ministers to be faithful and diligent , are a sufficient obliging call to such ministration , without the will of ( prohibiting ) superiours ; yea against it . for . else it were at the will of a man whether souls shall be saved or damned , ( for how shall they believe unless they hear ? and how shall they hear without a preacher ? ) and whether christ shall have a church ; and god be publickly worshiped , or not . . our ordination consecrateth us to our office , during life : and it is sacriledge and covenant-breaking with god to cast it off and alienate our selves . . god hath described the office and the work in his word , and charged his servants to give the children their bread in due season , and adjured them before god and the lord jesus christ , who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing , and his kingdom , to preach the word , & be instant , in season , & out of season , &c. . the indispensible law of nature obligeth every man according to his place and calling , his ability , and his opportunities , to do his best to propagate christ's gospel , and to save mens souls , as much and more than to seed mens bodies , and save their lives : but our calling is to do it as ministers of christ , thereto devoted . and we did not receive this calling to be altered , or forborn at the will of man , but to be performed according to the word of god : men being not the makers of the office , nor of god's law under which we execute it ; nor the donors or limiters of the power , but only . the electors of the persons that shall receive it ; . and the investers of them in it by ministerial delivery ; . and the governours of us in the exercise of it , according to god's laws , by which they may punish us for male administration , but cannot dissolve the laws obligation to those that are indeed commanded by it . li. obj. . if there be able preachers in one part of the parishes , and the other part have such as deliver all that is necessary to salvation intelligibly , it is unlawful to preach against the will of the prince or prelates in such a country . ans . we deny this unproved assertion . . indeed it will follow that such persons are justly condemned by god , if they repent not though they had but a reader . . and that they should be thankful for so much , and gladly accept it in such churches when they can have no better , but not . that it is in the power of any man justly to forbid them better , when god provideth it , . nor that they must obey such a prohibition , as such . ( though prudence may discern forbearance to be a duty by accident , when the hurt would be greater than the good . ) there is no doctrine objectively of absolute necessity to salvation , but the doctrine of the baptismal covenant which is expounded in the creed , lords prayer and decalogue . but there is much doctrinal and active means necessary to make men understand , believe , love , and practise , this necessary covenant doctrine . and the doctrine or articles of faith , will save none that do not understand , believe , love , and practise it , and that sincerely preferring the things revealed before all the pleasures , riches and honours of this world. a parrot shall not be a saint for saying the creed . lii . these following matters of fact are presupposed to the answer of this objection , and in them all sober protestants are ( as we suppose ) agreed . . that this aforesaid sincerity of faith , rep●ntance , h●pe , love , and obedience , is made by god of necess●●y to salvation . . that as it will not profit a man to win all the world and lose his soul , so neither will doctrinal formality , or obedience to superiours that hinder sound preachers , recompence him for the loss of his soul ; and that god would not have mens government maintained by mens damnation , nor will the ungodly be the best members of church or kingdoms : order is a means to save men , and not damn them , some few heathens offer to devils a sacrifice of mans flesh , and blood : but if a man should offer to god ( the lover , saviour , and sanctifyer of souls ) a sacrifice of the souls of thousands , and say , all these are to be kept in ignorance and ungodlyness and so to be damned , to please god who will have them obey their superiours , at that rate ; this were a dishonour to god of unexpressible iniquity and errour . christ that hath taught men to seek first his kingdom , and to take up the cross , and to forsake father and mother and life and all to serve him in the saving of their souls , and had planted inseparably self love into our natures , surely did not mean so contra●●ly as that we must forsake christ , heaven , and salvation , to obey men . . that certain experience putteth us past doubt , that ignorance , sensuality , worldliness , profaneness are far more common , and a holy heavenly mind and life , and all serious christianity and obedience , far , very far more rare , in those kingdoms and parishes which have no plain , convincing , serious , lively and exemplary preachers , than in those that have , although they be baptized , and have the creed , lords prayer and decalogue in their liturgie . and yet here are all things of absolute objective necessity to salvation . what a case the moscovites are in , that have only liturgies and homilies read , we mentioned before : and how sad the case is among the greeks , armenians , abassins , and most papists , for want of better preachers . bishop usher could say of the irish , that more perished by not knowing what we are on both sides agreed in , than by their popish errours ; and what a case the scottish highlanders , too many of the welsh , and most parishes in england were in , as to serious piety , which had heretofore but readers , or preachers that did less than read a homilie , experience constraineth us to know : as also what difference there is yet to be seen as to serious faith and godliness , between the fruits of a clear , serious , holy , diligent preacher , and of raw youths that say over a pedantik lifeless speech , and out of the pulpit little differ in speech or life , from carnal worldlings or formal hypocrites . though we know that all that profess to be seriously religious , are not so , yet none are so that do not profess it as they have opportunity . as we are not able to deny this experience of the different fruits of different teaching ( when all have the creed ; ) nor dare deny the necessity of serious faith , repentance and holiness to salvation ( lest we renounce the gospel , ) nor yet that no men ( much less most men or many thousands ) may as an act of obedience to man , refuse those helps which god provideth them , and without which few comparatively are truely converted from a carnal life and saved ; so therefore we dare not think or say , that humane lawes or orders are arguments of sufficient weight to move them hereunto . liii . obj. . but the hurt of the peoples chusing teachers and assemblies without or against the rulers will , is greater than the hurt that cometh by the want of better teachers . ans . . the peoples choice doth hurt by accident , in those countries , where the rulers put down necessary helps , and where the people are erroneous , heretical , and unruly , and so where the people would choose unsufferable men , supposing still that no church is constituted without mutual consent of the pastor and the flock and that the rulers alter not or violate not christs laws by which he hath appointed the ordering of assemblies ; therefore it is the rulers office to hinder the people from doing mischief , without hindering them from their duty and from doing well ; to govern them in their work , and not to forbid it . . if the gospel be hid ( from the mind though not from the ear ) it is hid to them that are lost . cor. . . and without holiness none shall see god heb. , . christ will come in flaming fire to render vengeance to them that know not god and obey not the gospel , . thes . . . . all they shall be damned that obey not the truth but have pleasure in unrighteousness . thes . . . . they that live after the flesh shall die , and they that have not the spirit of christ are none of his , rom. . . . it is not then easie to think of a greatet hurt , than to forbid men such means , without which experience assureth us that few comparatively are thus inlightened and renewed to god , and with which more comparatively are renewed . to say that god can bless to us an ignorant heartless , carnal teacher , is no answer , while experience certifieth us that comparatively he doth not do it . if the people would chuse such pastors , rulers must do their best to change their minds , and to provide better for them . but that 's not the case that we are now speaking to . if people would run into sects and heresies , rulers may punish and restrain false teachers that dangerously corrupt the christian doctrine and seduce the peoples souls ; but they may not therefore silence the faithful ministers of christ , and adhereing to such ministers , doth not any hurt of it self : nor any way tend to the furthering of so much hurt , as the contrary would do . . for who knoweth where to bound his obedience to such silencers as aforesaid , if a thousand or two thousand faithful ministers , must cease preaching when so forbidden , why not , why not ? if half a kingdom ; can you satisfie the consciences of the other half that they must not do so too , and so all christian kingdoms conform to moscovie when the prince commandeth it . and if or or parishes must choose the apparent hazard of their souls and refuse such helps as experience certifieth us they greatly need , in obedience to man , why must not the rest of the parishes do so also ? may i give away the needfull helps to my salvation , because others have them , as if their salvation might satisfie me instead of my own ? . we acknowledge it a very great mercy of god , to have a christian prince , and that every kingdom should be christian , and that princes must do what they can to accomplish it ; and that they are the governours of pa●tors as well as of physicians , ( as is aforesaid ) and that it is most desireable that the church and kingdom should be commensurate , and none in their kingdoms reject the gospel . and that pastor or people who will do any thing contrary to this , or will not further it with all their power are great transgressours . but yet the old saying is true ( owned even by the papists , vid. pet. de marc● , de eccl. const . ) that ecclesia est in impe rio : and none but prosessed consenters are christians : and the temple is a prison and not a church as men are there forcibly driven against their wills , so far is it from saving the souls of any . yet constraining the ignorant and heretical to hear sound teachers , we are far from opposing . but when paul hath said [ not a novice , ] if rulers will silence better teachers , and set up novices , that are unskilful in that great and sacred work , and never felt that work of faith , love , and heavenlyness , on their own souls which they must preach to others , this will do more hurt , than the peoples choice of better men . . yea if men of such doctrine could once make princes and people believe , that the people ought to receive only such pastors as princes choose for them , it may do more harm than all our sects do : for sects cannot cast out religion at once ; nay usually they perish themselves by their own divisions and shame before they can ruine the church . but princes might change religion as oft as the moon changeth . and if good princes were but the tenth part as rare , as they thought that said [ in uno annulo ] &c. what then would become of religion in the world ? liv. and though we profess our great detestation of church-schisms , and our lamentation for the sad case of these nations , and the christian world , by reason of them , believeing that schism should be odious to all christians ; yet we are past doubt that aggravating some differences and breaches passionately by odious names , hath been schismatical , by makeing the distance seem much greater than it was , and rendering dissenters odious to others , and teaching adversaries and ignorant persons , to reproach men as guilty of more schism than they are guilty of indeed . among the papists , if they unite in the pope , they pass not for schismaticks or hereticks , who differ in all those many and great points , which h. fowlis , montaltus , the jesuits morals , mr. clarkson , &c. ree●●e , viz. about murder , adultery , fornication , king killing , seldom loving god , &c. and among us , a man that doth but scruple certain oaths , subscriptions , covenants , declarations , or a ceremony , is charged by some with schism . lv. the distance of doctrines or objective religion must be distinguished from the passion and peevishness , of subjective distance of mens minds , e. g. suppose grammarians differ about a criticism ( whether vergilius or virgilius ) be the truer spelling ; and philosophers differ de vacuo , de definitione spatii , temporis , &c. de causa motus projectorum , &c. and divines differ of the translation of a text , of the antiquity of the hebrew points , of the time of easter day , of a ceremony , or form of prayer , of the lawfulness of a lay-chancellors use of the church-keys ; would not an impartial stranger say , how concordant and happy are these men , that differ in no greater matters ? and if they all fall together by the ears about such things as these , it is an aggravated subjective schism , and a shame to such wranglers , who deserve the remedy of scolds : but sure they that peaceably and calmly differ about the aforesaid things , viz. whether we are bound to love god once a year ? whether the pope may excommunicate and depose kings , that will not extirpate all protestants . whether an excommunicate king may be murdered as no king , & c ? these are far more distant really in point of religion , than the other . lvi . and we must lament that we find in church-history , and by too much experience , that there hath been , and is in too many pastors , such a selfishness and high esteem of their own judgments , and so little sense of the common weakness of mankind , and the lowness of our highest degrees of knowledge , and so little love to others as to themselves , that by envy and impatience , they raise or increase schisms in the church , by making a causless outcry against schism , or making little differences seem great : they that cannot bear with persons and congregations , who in little matters differ from them , because they prefer some other teacher before them , and say somewhat against their opinions or ways , do condemn themselves while they cry down schismaticks , and seem not to know what manner of spirit they are of : the wisdom from above is first pure , and then peaceable , and gentle , and easie to be entreated , full of mercy and good fruits , without partiality and hypocrisie ; and the fruit of righteousness is sowen in peace by peace-makers : but if there be envying and strife , it is infernal wisdom , earthly , sensual and devilish , introducing confusion , and every evil work , whether it be found in factions , contentions , antichurches and hereticks , or in those that can bear with no dissenters , nor receive them that are weak in the faith , but make things unnecessary , and their own conceits and wills the measure of mens liberties and their censures . he that would pursue all as rebels in a kingdom , who interpret not every law alike , would more divide the kingdom , than all mens different expositions now do . lvii . we do with sorrow confess that the discords of the people about chusing their bishops , hath been a great scandal to infidels , and a great dishonour to the church , and hath caused many lamentable schisms , not only under christian emperours , but heathen . but it hath been greatest about the greatest prelates , especially the bishops of rome , alexandria , constantinople , a●●ioch , &c. since d●masus got that seat by conquest in the church , a multitude of schisms have fallen out even when princes challenged the choice . a long time two at once , sometimes three , and once five or six popes living that were and had been popes . the schism of the donatists was so caused by bishop set up against bishop ; so was that of the i●anites at constantinople , and of dioscorus at alexandria , and many more . but it must be noted , . that the electing bishops-priests and magistrates , have occasioned these schisms as much , if not far more than the electing people have done . that yet princes for many hundred years after constantines time , did not think it meet to prevent such schisms by depriving the people or presbyters of their electing-power ( much less of consent . ) . that the cure must not be by altering christ's institution , and the churches practice continued , if not years , and with most or many to this day ; nor by overthrowing the very constitution of churches , and the law of nature it self ; nor by introducing a greater evil ; as it would be to teach all people to receive all and only such pastors as princes every where shall set over them , and all ministers of christ to cease their office when men forbid it them . lviii . obj. . but if ministers themselves must be judges , whether a magistrate do justly silence them , then none will take themselves to be silenced justly ; and so all hereticks will preach on . it is the rulers that must judge . ans . . when we hear , and read , how the papists deceive the ignorant , by repeating the question , who must be the judge , it grieveth us to find some protestants so unskilful in answering it , when the answer is so easy , that when opened we hope few ●●ber protestants differ in it . judgement is publik or private : publik judgement is either antecedent by a lawgiver judging what shall be commanded and made the subjects ▪ duty ; or consequent by a judge so strictly called , judging of titles , and crimes ( in order to punishment ) according to law ; private judgement is either by arbitrators , or private censurers , or by every mans conscience discerning and judging what is his duty , and what is sin . . the sovereign of the world , is the only judge , by legislation what shall be the duty of all mankind , by the law which he maketh to bind high and low , which none may alter or suspend . . and he is the only fountain of power to his creatures . . and he is the only final , absolute , infallible judge . . the sovereigns of kingdoms and common wealths , and masters in their families , are judges antecedently what shall be their subjects duty , by their laws subservient to gods : and they and their officers receiving power from them are the judges consequently , by decision , who shall be punished as criminal and who not , and who shall be protected in his propriety or estate , by the sword of iustice . . the true bishops or pastors of the church , are guides to the people according to christs laws , in the matters of their office , and decisive iudges , who shall be taken in , or put out of communion , in the respective churches . . every mans conscience is that private discerning judge of his own duty and sin . ( of arbitrators or censurers we need not speak . ) this all of us are agreed in : and the question [ who shall judge ] is still urged by some , as if they thought that some man or men must needs in all cases ( of religion ) be taken for such absolute judges that what ever they judge , all subjects must obey it . and on this pernicious supposition is built the popes pretended infallibility , because they think that religion is fallible ( that is , gods law ) if the judge ( that is an ignorant man , or men ) be fallible . but all protestants ( at least ) are agreed , that all men are gods subjects ; and that all humane power of legislation , judgement and execution is limited ; and that no man may judge against god or his laws : and that men should know gods laws , and justifie them and judge by them , and condemn all that is against them ; but no man hath power to condemn or contradict gods law it self . no man hath power to judge that there is no god , no life to come , no christ , or that one word of god is false , or to forbid one thing which god commandeth , or command one thing which god forbiddeth , no man hath power to judge that souls shall be deprived of such needful teaching and sacraments , and publick worshiping of god , as god hath provided , and commanded them to use ; nor to forbid christs faithful ministers causelesly to preach his word , and worship him in the churches , and administer his sacraments ; nor causelesly to silence , or punish them for so doing : therefore in this case our consciences would not be bound though still we profess that gods law bindeth us not to rebel , or take up arms against their injuries , but patiently to bear them , and pray for our persecutors . lix . obj. you say that rulers may not causelesly silence or punish such : but still they are judges whether there be cause . ans . they are so : for it is about their proper work . but they are judges subject to god , to whom they shall answer it if they disobey him . and the subjects are p●ivate discerning judges , whether the laws of men contradict gods laws so far as concerneth their obeying or not obeying them . we must still repeat , that the esse is before the scire ; and the being of the case and truth , before the judging of it : either the preacher deserveth silencing or not , before you come to judge the case : if he ought to be silent the rulers ought ●o judge so , and do well : if not , but he be innocent , or one that ought not to be forbidden his office , no man hath power from god to judge contrary and causelesly to forbid him ; and his conscience is not formerly bound by that prohibition ; though he must still keep his loyalty and subjection , and his care of the publick peace and welfare . lx. we conclude again , that seeing we meet with none that will say that rulers may judge that we shall not worship god , or that the gospel shall not be preached , or that men must obediently forsake christ , or go to hell ; nor with any christian that will say that without faith and holiness we may be saved , we dread the consequence of such arguing , as taketh this up as the last defence , that [ those people that visibly live in sensuality , drunkenness , fornication , coveteousness , pride , ungodlyness or gross ignorance , are indeed in a safe condition for salvation , and therefore that preaching which should bring them to repentance is not necessary ; but that its safer to continue ignorant and ungodly , than to joyn with the religious for fear of schism : for we cannot deny that they that have no other medium to defend their assertion , that [ the lifeless unskilful ministry of novices , which maketh very few seriously religious , doth more good than the contrary , which hath contrary success , if it be by men forbidden ] do too plainly perswade us from our christianity it self , that is , from the chiefest evidence of its truth and glory : for if there were no better christians in the world , than such unholy persons before described ; and if christ had not a holy peculiar people , of heavenly minds and lives , and zealous of good works , we could never prove ( or believe ) him to be the christ that came to save his people from their sins . he is not the physician whom we can trust , that doth not cure men . and if they will resolve the case into the question of fact , whether such different ministers have usually different success ? and serious christianity be not much more rare under reading novices , and unexperienced lifeless men , than under skilful serious godly pastors , we are unable to doubt of it , against all experience . lxi . obj. . but if every man that is proud and heretical may set up as a preacher when he will , and when any people will chuse him , religion will be corrupted , and the church confounded . answ . true ; therefore that must not be : . there are some previous qualifications so essentially necessary to the ministry , that without them no man is owned as his minister by christ , nor should be by men . . the ordainers are to be judges whether men have these qualifications . . the people are discerning judges which qualified ordained man ( or to be ordained ) is meet for them ; so far as it is necessary to their mutual consent . . if a heretick or other intollerable person must set up a preacher ; or if any turn heretick , the orthodox churches are ( after due admonition ) to renounce him as unacceptable of their communion ; that he may be shamed and avoided . . if yet he continue obstinate , and do more harm than good , the magistrate is ruler , and must restrain him , and deny him leave so to preach in his dominions ; so he do it not by penalties unsuitable to the offence : ( dis franchising , discountenancing and shame , do usually more against heresies than cruelties . ) but necessary faithful teachers may not on these pretences be cast out . lxii . . if the people conscious of their great necessity of pastoral over-sight and help , and of christ's command to use it , do live in a parish or countrey where they cannot have it from those that the magistrate alloweth , either because they cannot perform it for them , or because they will not ; it is no schism for such to seek and use it , from worthy though prohibited men . we before spake of the schisms of teachers , and now of hearers . in this case men may justly thus argue : [ our necessity requireth pastoral oversight , and christ commandeth us to use it , when we may have it : but from this publick minister we cannot have it : therefore we must seek it where we can . that most men have need of pastoral oversight , is certain ; else christ would not have instituted it for them : and every man should be conscious of his own need . that christ hath commanded us the use of it is certain ; . in all those texts which command the pastors their general and particular duties to the people , to preach and be instant in season and out , to reprove , rebuke , exhort , to comfort the feeble minded , to visit the sick , to convince the erroneous , to administer the sacraments , to pray and worship god publickly with them , &c. . in all those texts that command the people to hear , submit to , obey , and imitate such guides , and use such ordinances . in several cases the people may possibly be deprived of this at home , as from the allowed minister : . when publick pastors are at so great a distance from them , as that such pastors cannot come to them , nor they and their families go so far , without such inconvenience and trouble , as will frustrate the end of their endeavours : as in france where the protestants must go twenty miles , or ten , to a church ; which the weak , children and aged cannot do , nor the rest of the family without such cost and pains , and loss of time as will deprive them of the benefit . obj. but yet the protestants there do not set up unlicensed churches . ans . that is not as an act of formal obedience , as if they took it to be unlawful because prohibited ; but in prudence , because the persecution , should they do it , would frustrate their attempt : in such cases the old christians met in secret . . where parishes are so great that the allowed pastors cannot preach to half or a fourth or tenth part of the people ; and cannot visit half the sick , and baptize , and administer the lords supper as is necessary ; and have not time , if the ignorant , and doubting , and troubled persons should come to them for counsel , resolution or comfort , to speak duely to one of twenty of them . in a parish of or , or or or soules , how few is it that one or two ministers can perform all the offices to , publick and private which the gospel requireth pastors to perform . . where the allowed pastors are so slothful or proud that they will not condescend to these offices , of personal help to many thousands , especially of the poor . . where they are young raw men , or ignorant of such matters , unable to counsel people as their necessities require , in order to their salvation ; and perhaps to do it tolerably in a publick sermon . . where they are so prophane and malignant , that if poor people come to them with cases of conscience , or for counsel what they must do to be saved , they will but deride them as scrupulous and precise , and make them believe that to be solicitous about salvation , and afraid of sinning , and seriously godly , is but to be hypocrites , melancholy or mad ; and perhaps bend their preaching the same way . . when they are heretical and not to be trusted in point of faith . . and when they are so factious and schismatical , as that their preaching and conference tendeth to render other good christians odious , and stir up men to hate , persecute , or separate from them , and so to destroy true love and concord . in any of these cases when the people or part of them are deprived of that pastoral helps which their necessity requireth , and god commandeth , they may seek it where they can best have it . lxiii . in all these cases it is an unsatisfactory answer to tell them that religion is kept up in the land , and that other persons or parishes have what they want , or that order and obedience must be preferred to their supply , or that god can save them without a pastor , &c. for so god can save the heathen world without the gospel preached if he please : and so you might perswade the poor to famish , rather than against law to beg ; because if thousands of them dye of famine , yet other people are supplied , and have plenty : or you might tell men that they must use no physician , though they dye for it , if they have no tolerable one allowed them by the magistrate , because others have physicians though they dye for want of them . what if the parish priest could baptize but one of many ( or not all : ) must the rest be content to be unbaptized ? if not , why must they be content without all publick preaching and worshipping of god , and the lords supper , and personal helps of pastors which they need ? paul thanketh god that he baptized none of the corinthians save some few , and saith , that god sent him not to baptize , but to preach the gospel . and can any man prove then , that if the parish minister cannot or will not baptize his children he must get another to do it , yea a prohibited minister rather then they should be unbaptized ; and yet that if the parish church cannot receive him , or the pastor cannot or will not do the office of a pastor for him , he must be without preaching , worshipping god , and pastoral oversight ? lxiv . yet here we must declare . that in such necessity people must caeteris paribus , first seek their supply in that way that is most for peace , and most for publick good , and least scandalous or dividing , and that is most agreable to the rulers will and honour . . that for some short season in which his soul is not apparently hazarded ; as also in the tolerable loss , of some measures of pastoral help , a man must submit his own personal advantage to publick interest . and may hope that god will make it up . as also when it tendeth to his probable greater advantage afterward , by putting by some present storm : but not statedly , to be without christs instituted ordinances and helps ; e. g. parish order is desireable and is the rulers will : if therefore supply can be had in a neighbour parish for them that want it in their own , and by an allowed minister rather than a disallowed , it should be chosen , unless the disparity be so great as to weigh down the contrary inconveniences . and if for a time any be constrained to another way , they should do it but as an extroardinary necessity for the present time , till they can be supplied in the allowed parochial way ; and avoid as much as possibly they can all waies , though lawful , that encourage true schisms . . and we must profess , that if any preachers or people , shall out of self conceitedness , pretend necessity when there is none , their pretence is no justification of their disorder or disobedience . magistrates may regulate us in the circumstances of those duties , which the law of nature or the gospel do command : but if on such pretence of regulating circumstances , they will violate or contradict either the law of nature , or the gospel , and destroy the duty it self , or its end , we are not bound in such cases to obey them , but mu●● pariently suffer . lxv . . if the church laws do exclude those christians that have right , from the communion of the church , and their children from baptism , and do decree that they shall be excommunicate , and then laid in gaols , it seemeth to us no schism in those persons , to have no such communion with that church which is denyed them by the laws of the church ; nor yet to join themselves with another church : that will receive them . and as we say of the papists , that they unjustly call those men schismat●●● , whom they first cast out themselves by unjust excommunication , so may we of any others ; especially when either for that which is a duty , or for some small mistake which it is not in the persons power to rectifie , no greater than most good christians are guilty of , the church law saith that he shall be excommunicate ipso facto , by which he is cast out antecedently to any sentence , or no place left for his pardon or forbearance by the favour of the ordinary . he that is so cast out , is not the wilful sparatist : nor is he bound to continue without church communion , and pastoral oversight . lxvi . . if those that live in a parish where the incumbent by utter insufficiency , heresie , usurpation , malignity or wickedness , is such as men may not lawfully own , or commit the pastoral conduct and care of their souls to , shall desire the pastoral care of the next parish-minister , and communion in that parish-church , and may not be admitted , but all other parish-ministers are by canon commanded to refuse them , and to turn them home to their own parish-priests and churches , so that they must either commit their souls to such uncapable persons , and own them as christ's ministers , or have none at all , we dare not charge those persons with schism , if they commit the care of their souls to worthy ordained men , though not allowed but prohibited by the magistrate : for the reasons before given . yea if they know that church-laws forbid all other parish-priests to receive them , we see not that they are first bound to offer themselves to such as profess obedience to those laws . obj. . but some take a meer reader for uncapable that cannot preach , or one that cannot pray without book , or a young man that is not able to resolve doubts , or cases of conscience : but our canon . saith , that the sacraments are equally effectual , whether they be administred by a preacher or no preacher . ans . . by an uncapable person we mean such as is utterly unable to perform the pastoral duties which christ hath commanded , and mens souls greatly need ( which among others dr. hammond in his annotat hath well described . ) if bare reading were sufficient ability , every boy or artificer were sufficient that can read . bare reading will encourage no man to take any one for his physician , or lawyer ; and soulconduct is a matter of greater importance , and needeth as much skill and honesty . . it is not the validity of the sacrament that is all that is to be looked at : quod factum valet saepe fieri non debuit . men must avoid sin as well as nullities in sacraments : we take it to be a sin to own a man as christ's minister who is none , through utter incapacity : yet we know that reading is a sort of preaching , and that all presbyters , where one church had many , did not publickly and constantly preach in the antient churches : but they were godly men capable of other ministerial offices to the people , to pray , counsel and direct them , which must be regarded as well as sacraments . he that can administer a sacrament that 's valid , may be unfit for men to take for their pastors or guides . . there is a double work of sacraments to which they may be called effectual : one is god 's own collation of our covenant-right to the promised benefits , viz. pardon and salvation : to this we believe that the sacrament is effectual to meet receivers , when it is so delivered as to be no nullity ; and so many heretofore thought that baptism delivered by a lay-man is effectual , that is , not null , but investeth the person in his covenant relation ; and yet that it is unlawful for a lay-man to administer it , or others to desire it of him : the other work of the sacrament is on the peoples hearts , to which the manner of administring much contributeth , as experience proveth . obj. but sacraments operate not as lawyers and physicians do by the skill of the minister , but by god's grace and blessing . ans . . but god's grace useth to work according to the aptitude of means morally , as constant experience proveth : and the word which is used in the sacramental administration , must be regarded , and so must other waies of teaching as well as by sacraments . . and we cannot expect god's blessing ▪ in a way of sin , when we own one for our pastor whom we ought not . obj. but some take a man to be uncapable if he be but a sinner worse than ordinary , as a drunkard , fornicator , swearer , perjured , a scorner at diligence in religion , &c. whereas the ministers sin depriveth not the people of the benefit of god's ordinances . ans . . he that not knowing the minister to be such a one , or by true necessity useth such a one , yea or by ignorance thinketh that he should not avoid him , if he be himself a true believer , may have god's covenant sealed to him by the sacrament , which such a one delivereth : yea , by an usurper or meer lay-man that is in possession , and mistaken for a minister : if a man forge his orders , or intrude uncalled , or be an obtruded usurping bishop , the people cannot alwaies detect it : nor do they lose their right to god's sacraments , because the man hath ( unknown to them ) no right to administer them : but if they know such an one , they should not own him as a minister of christ , so far as to trust their souls with him as their pastor , ( at least when they may have a better . ) and he that so withdraweth himself from the communion of notorious wicked pastors whom he hath no power to cast out , not separating causlesly from others or the church-state , seemeth to us to have all the following reasons to excuse him from the guilt of schism . god hath commanded his servants to beware of false or pretended prophets , and told us how to know them , by the hurtful fruits of thorns and thistles : and paul adviseth the galatians , colossians , &c. earnestly to beware of unsound teachers ; and the churches that had those that taught people to eat things offered to idols , &c. are threatned : and god commendeth those that tryed false apostles , and found them lyars : therefore the people in such cases as those have a trying judgment , in order to their practice . and paul warneth the romans to mark those that cause divisions and offences ( or scandals ) and avoid them as not serving jesus christ but their bellies ; and the forenamed crimes are scandals . . god hath commanded men to know , love , and imitate godly pastors , heb. . , . . thes . ▪ , . tim ▪ . , &c. and he hath given no man power to set such criminals over them as their pastors , and so far to deprive them of the means of salvation as to confine them to them . . though the apostles charge [ with such no not to eat ] enable not private men to exercise governing discipline on bad pastors , it seemeth to us to bind them , when the case is notorious , to disown them . . cyprians conclusion before mentioned is known , inviting the people to forsake a bad pastor , plebs maximam habet potestatem &c. and he convinceth the people that if they forsake not such they are guilty . . the christian churches have formerly practised it . . the law or canon forbiddeth it to no man in england , to desert men , sobeit they will but remove their dwelling into another parish . which is an extrinsick circumstance of humane order . . even pope nicolas in his decretals , saith , that [ priests that commit fornication , cannot have the honour of priesthood . yea [ let no man hear mass of a priest whom he certainly knoweth to have a concubine or woman introduced ] and we hope we may be herein as clean as papists . yea of popes he saith [ he that by money , or the favour of men , or popular , or military tumults , is intruded into the apostolical seat , without the concordant and canonical election of the cardinals , and the following religious clergie , let him not be taken for a pope or apostolical , but apostatical ] caran . . p. . . . gildas saith of the british wicked priests , that they were traytors and not ministers of christ , and that he was not eximius christianus , that would call them ministers . . isidore pelusiota in many epistles to zosimus , and other wicked priests , hath much to the like purpose . . st. martin , would not come to the synods of the bishops about him , nor communicate with them at all , because they were some of them , rash , bad men , and had instigated maximus to subdue the priscillian gnosticks by the sword , and thereby brought religious people that were strict , into suspicion of priscillianism ; but especially he holding that heresie was not to be so punished : and when to save some mens lives , he vielded to maximus once to communicate with the bishops , an angel in his way corrected him , and his working of miracles was diminished by it , and he forbore their communion after to the death . either this history is true or not : if not , when it is written by his own disciple and acquaintance , sulpitius severus and one of the most godly and learned of all the ancient historians , and by others ; and when martin is canonized for one of the greatest saints upon supposition that the history of his life and miracles is true , what church-history ( even that for bishops ) can we then believe ? but if it be true , then one of the holiest workers of miracles since the apostles , hath assured us , that his separation from communion with these bishops ( though cruel to hereticks , so gross ) was confirmed by vision , and by an angel from heaven , and he forbidden their communion for the time to come . we again mention this , as not yet having heard any answer to it . . our own canons forbid the people to communicate with ministers for lesser faults ( as private preaching , sacraments , fasts , conventicles , or out of their own parishes , &c. . moses the monk aforementioned , is commended by historians , because he would not be ordained by lucius ; not because erroneous , but because he had persecuted others by the countenance of valens the emperour : though his persecution extended not to the silencing of thousands , or hundreds , or very many that we read of : and as is aforesaid , he chose to be ordained by banished men . . especially if men have no obligation to that insufficient , heretical , or ungodly priest , but humane , because a patron presented him , or a magistrate imposed him , or because parish-order ( which is a humane thing of meer convenience ) will else seem violated : when as the avoiding of the danger of a false pastor , and the guilt of his sin , which by owning him may be incurred , and escaping the great loss of a faithful pastor's guidance , when we are conscious that we greatly need it , are things of greater importance , and of moral and evangelical divine obligation : in this case we cannot prove it schism to avoid a wicked priest : the bishops hold it a duty to avoid a nonconformist that hath not their license : but such a one as is foredescribed , hath not christ's license , and is a nonconformist to his laws . again , let it be noted . that even under the jewish law , magistrates were not the chusers of the priests , but god chose them by setling the priesthood on one line . . that christ hath by his spirit in the apostles altered the priesthood , and the way of their calling and entrance under the gospel . . that the church neer a thousand years was in possession of that way , and many hundred of those years the possession was universal in all the churches . . that the chusing of bishops or priests by magistrates or lay-patrons was none of that way which christ appointed . therefore seeing it is not the chusing or making , but the governing of bishops or priests that is committed to princes , and christ's law is the first by which they must govern , it seemeth to us that they cannot oblige the subjects to take up with wicked pastors , when better are prohibited , and are to be had . lxvii . . in those times and countries where the allowed bishops are corrupted by ignorance , heresie , ungodliness or faction , and set themselves to bring in an unconscionable corrupt sort of ministers into the churches , and will not ordain fit and conscionable men , or by snares divide the churches , and cast out the most worthy ; and impose sinful conditions on all whom they will ordain , it seemeth to us to be no schism to seek ordination from other bishops , and in case of necessity at least , to be ordained by such presbyters as are either the sole , or chief , or equal pastors in parochial churches , ( especially in cities ) and to perform the office of presbyters without such bishops consent . we here suppose such bishops had themselves been duely elected and ordained , yet . they have their power to edification , and not to destruction . . we are more obliged to christ's interest , and the churches safety , than to them . god will have mercy , rather than sacrifice , and preferreth mens salvation to ceremony or church laws . . so the o●●●odox forsook the arrian and other wicked bishops : malignity and wickedness is poison in the clergy as well as heresie and schism : so as is aforesaid , moses and martin disowned the bad bishops that were neer them ; so the protestants disowned the papist bishops ; and bugenhagius pomeranus a presbyter reformed and ordained bishops in denmark . bishop vsher himself told one of us , that being asked by his sovereign whether he found that ever presbyters ordained presbyters ? he answered , i can shew your majesty more , even where presbyters made bishops , citing the alexandrian custom out of jerom to evagrius . the judgment of english bishops and divines for the validity of such ordination by presbyters , and of the ordination in the reformed churches abroad , some of us have proved heretofore at large . . christ having made a law which conferreth the pastoral power on him that is made a due receiver ( as the king's charter doth the power of the lord mayor on him that is duly chosen to it ) it followeth that no more is absolutely necessary to such reception of that power , but that the person be duly qualified , and have consent and opportunity , and the best investiture which the time and place will afford : of which voetius de desperata causa papatus , and one of us in a dispute of ordination , have long ago said that which we suppose will never be well answered . . and grotius de imperio summ . potest . circa sacra ( an excellent book ) hath shewed , that he that is the sole pastor of a church , is in effect a bishop . and indeed dr. hammond ( as is said ) in his disser ▪ and annotations asserteth de sacto , that in scriptures one bishop without any presbyter under him was setled in each church ; so that every pastor of a particular church then was a bishop ( as far as can be proved : ) and if that was the apostolical institution that every church have a bishop , and that there was no sole pastor ( at least ) but bishops , then he that is ordained the pastor , ( at least sole or chief ) of a particular church is ordained a bishop : the reason is , because his office and power followeth the law and charter of christ that made it , and not of the investing ministerial ordainer if he would alter it , or pronounce it otherwise . lxvi . . not to obey lay-chancellours where they govern the church by the power of the keys , decreeing excommunications and absolutions , and performing the work of exploration and admonition belonging to bishops in order thereto , we take to be no schism ; nor to refuse subscribing or swearing to such a government . lxvii . . not sacrilegiously to desert the sacred ministry when vowed and consecrated thereto , is no schism . lxviii . . where such sins are made the condition of ministration by men in power , as that all the whole ministry of a kingdom are bound in conscience to deny consent and conformity thereto , it is the duty of all the ministry in primo instante , to forbear their ministerial office or none ; for the reason is the same to all : for example ; if ten or twenty untrue or unrighteous forbidden things , must be subscribed , declared , covenanted , or sworn , or as many sins practised ; yea were it but one , no doubt but the whole ministry is bound to deny conformity to any one such thing . now if all these must forbear or lay down their office , because forbidden by men to exercise it then it is in the power of a prince to cast out christianity when he pleaseth , and to deny god all publick worship ; and we must ask leave of rulers that christ may be christ , and souls may be saved ; as if the keys of heaven and hell were theirs . none that we write for , protestants or papists , will assert this . but if all must not lay down their ministry , why must a thousand or two thousand do it rather than all the rest ? we suppose it will be said , that if a thousand should refuse conformity , all might continue their forbidden ministry ; but if two thousand only of ten thousand should deny conformity , these two thousand must lay down , because the rest are a competent supply to the churches . answ . but these be but unproved words . . how shall we be sure that other mens sinning will absolve the two thousand innocent from their duty ? if in the first instant it be confessedly the equal duty of all , how will the weakness and sin of one part change the obligation of all the rest ? . if the churches be somehow supplied by mens sin , will it follow that truth and righteousness in sounder blameless men will not mend their supply ? but must be cast out by others sin ? . and where can the wit of man ever set bounds to such power of sinners ? it will here be granted us , that if the most in france conform to popery , it will not disoblige all others from the exercise of their ministry : and who then can say , what those untruths and sins are which a weak and erring ministry may be guilty of , which shall serve to disoblige the rest ? no man here can set us any certain measure . . would it have an honest sound if it should be said to the people , the greater part of the ministers by sin ( yea gross deliberate sin unrepented of ) have procured the liberty of their ministry ; and they are enow for you , and therefore you must hear none of those that refused so to sin , and are cast out , e. g. suppose it were the subscribing of the covenant against p●elaey that were made the condition of our preaching here by law : or subscribing to the divine right of unordained elders and their power in presbyterian-classes : if most of the ministers take that covenant , doth that prove that all the rest if forbidden to preach must be silent ? this were an easie way to introduce any errour , by forbidding any but the defenders of it to preach ? if julian might not thus have put down the gospel , nor valens have put down the homoousians ( as they called the orthodox , ) nor the papists so put down the protestants , why may calvinists or lutherans so put down one another ? as if i were bound to be a minister only till other men will sin ! obj. but suppose that the sin be on the silenced ministers part , and the other be in the truth . ans . . then the silenced ministers are not guiltless of the schism . . but if it be so ▪ if their errour be in a small and difficult matter , not deserving silencing ( as theirs rom. . about meats and daies &c ) it may be far greater schism in the silencers , then in them . obj. but suppose it a doubtful case , and one party take consenting to be a sin , and the other part and the greater take it to be none , if you may preach on because you think that you are in the right , then no heretick should be silenced . ans . this was answered before . if men will still thus confound the scire and the esse , or put the scire before the esse , they may go on in errour , and no reason can silence them . the thing is realy first true or false , before it is known or thought so to be ; if it be true , then he that thinketh it false is the delinquent . if it be a sin , it is not mens taking it for no sin , that will make it so , nor disoblige the orthodox from their ministry . but if it be no sin that is commanded the nonconsenters are in the fault . and if it be a heresie which they stand for , may be s●lenced . and yet we will not deny , but if the generality of the ministry obtain their liberty by some small tollerable sin or errour and the sounder part be few and unnecessary in that country , ●rudence obligeth them to go to some other place that needeth them , and never to excercise their ministry where in true reason it is like to do more hurt than good . lxix . . where under any of the foresaid unjust prohibitions the silenced ministers and people shall gather no distinct churches , but only auditories or chappels as parts of the parish churches , and that only where there is ( through the bigness of the parish , or distance from the parish church , or paucity , or insufficiency , or unfaithfulness of parish priests a true necessity , not unchurching or separating from the parish church , but owning it and holding communion with it , and promoting the reputation of the true parish ▪ minister and communion , and perswading others to the like , we cannot see that this is any schism ; but rather their practise who fire and divide mens minds by envious clamours against the innocent , and proudly calling others schismaticks . lxx . . we have greatly lamented the true schismatical disposition of some religiously affected persons , who make their singularities or little differences , the occasions of unchristening ; unchurching or degrading those that are wiser than themselves , and running away from one another on pretence of discipline , and avoiding sin . but yet we hold that gentle forbearing tolerable differences , even in distinct churches , guilty of schism , so they be kept from unpeaceable reviling of others , is a meeter way to avoid the mischiefs , than with prison , sword or fire to exasperate them . it is noted that nestorius the heretick was the first sharp persecutor of the novatians : but most of the better bishops tolerated them , as did the emperours : and two prudent gentle bishops of constantinople , atticus and proclus , reduced the joannites , and lenified other divided parties , which the flercer men had made and kept up by their violence . sect . vii . some matters of fact preparatory to the true application of what is before laid down . we must crave that justice of the reader as to note , that hither to we have spoken but of the doctrinal part about schism , not applying it to england or any others : nor shall we now any otherwise apply it , than to lay down some little part of the matters of fact , which the nonconformists are considering to help others to apply it without mistake , as they shall see cause . we intend not , in this , the determination of the points in matter of right ; nor do we here tell men ( unless on the by in the stating of some few questions , ) what it is that we account good or evil , much less do we here give the proofs or reasons of our cause : that is the thing for which we greatly desire the allowance of our superiours ; but must not unnecessarily presume to do it , lest we displease them ; though we hear that some of them take us as not sincere , for keeping up a difference , and giving no more reasons of it : the thing which we so greatly desire leave to do , but dare not be so bold yet as to venture by it to displease them , who condemn us for not doing it , lest their anger would be sharper to us if we do it : so great is our difficulty between this soylla and charybdis . but we hope we may adventure to open some part of the matter of fact , which conformity and nonconformity are concerned in , that so men may conjecture at the case themselves ; which will be no reflexion on the government ( barely to tell what they command , ) nor a challenging any of our superiours to a disputation , nor a charging them as faulty that cannot bear it . . matters of fact to be foreknown , to the true understanding of the cause . . the root of the difference between the old nonconformists and the conformists , was that one sort thought they should stick to the meer scripture rule and simplicity , and go far from all additions which were found invented or abused by the papists , in doctrine , worship and government ; and the other side thought that they should shew more reverence to the customs of the ancient church , and retain that which was not forbidden in the scripture , which was introduced before the ripeness of the papacy , or before the year at least , and which was found lawful in the roman church , and common to them with the greek , that we might not seem singular , odd and humorous , or to go further from the papists than reason and necessity drave us . and the laity seemed no where so sensible of the difference , as between the way of ceremony , and unceremonious simplicity , and the way of our many short liturgick prayers and offices , and the way of free-praying from the present sense and habits of the speaker ; while pacificators thought both seasonably good . . the sad eruption of this difference among the exiles at frankford while dr. cox and mr. horn and their party , strove for the english liturgie , and the other party strove against it for the freer way , is at large reported in a book called the troubles at frankford . . queen elizabeth and king james discountenancing and suppressing the nonconformists , they attempted in northamtonshire and warwickshire a little while to have set and kept up private churches and governed them in the presbyterian way ; but that attempt was soon broken and frustrate by the industry of bishop whitguift and banctoft : and the nonconformists lived according to their various opportunities : some of them conformed : some were by connivence permitted in peculiars and small impropriate places , or chappels that had little maintenance , in the publick ministry , which kept them from gathering secret churches : some of them had this liberty a great part of their lives , as mr. hildersham , mr. dod , mr. hering , mr. paget , mr. midsley senior and junior , mr. langley , mr. slater , and mr. ash at bremicham mr. tailor , mr. pateman , mr. paul bayne , mr. fox of tewksbury , john fox , and many more . some had this liberty all their lives , as mr. knewstubs , dr. chadderton , dr. reignolds dr. humphrey , mr. perkins , mr. john ball , mr. barnet , mr. geeree , mr. root , mr. atkins mr. gilpin , john rogers and many others : some were fain to shift up and down by hiding themselves , and by flight , and these preached sometimes secretly in the houses where they were , and sometime publickly for a day and away , where they could be admitted : so did mr. parker , mr. bradshaw , mr. nicols , mr. brightman , mr. brumskil , mr. humphrey fen , mr. sutchff , mr. thomas , and many more ; and after their silencing mr ▪ cotton , mr. hooker , and many more that went to america , mr. cartwright was permitted in the hospital at warwick , mr. harvey , and mr. hind at bunbery in cheshire , and many more kept in ( having small maintenance ) being in peculiar or priviledged places : mr. rathband , mr. angier , mr. johnson , mr. gee , mr. hancock , and many others oft silenced , had after liberty by fits . mr. bowrne of manchester , mr. broxholm in darbyshire mr. cooper of huntingtonshire ( at elton ) and many others suffered more , and laboured more privately . dr. ames was invited to franekera , some were further alienated from the english prelacie , and separated from their churches , and some of them called brownists , were so hot at home , that they were put to death ; mr. ainsworth , johnson , robinson and others fled beyond seas , and there gathered churches of those that followed them ; and broke by divisions among themselves . the old nonconformists being most dead , and the later gone most to america , we cannot learn that in there were many more nonconformist ministers in england , than there be counties , if so many . . the conformists shortly fell into dissension among themselves , especially about three things , arminianism ( as it was called ) and conciliation with the church of rome , and prerogative : dr. heylin in the life of archbishop laud doth fully open all these differences , and tells us that archbishop abbot was the head of one party , and in point of antiarminianism even archbishop whitgist before him , with whitaker and others had made the lambeth articles , driven the arminians from cambridge : king james had discountenanced them in holland , and sent six divines to the synod of dort , who owned and helpt to form those articles : and he tells us that bishop laud had no bishops on his side but bishop neale , bishop buckeridge , bishop corbet , and bishop howson , and after bishop mountague , and thought it not safe to trust his cause to a convocation ; the major part called then the church of england , . cryed down arminianism as dangerous doctrine ; . cryed down any neerer approach to the papists , and the toleration of them ; . and were much for the law against absoluteness in the king ; and dr. heylins and rushworth's collect. will tell you the full story of manwaring & sibthorp , and archbishop abbots refusing to license sibthorp's book , and the consequents of all . thus these two parties grew into jealousies , the old church-men accusing the new on these three accounts , and the new ones striving , as dr. heylin describeth them , to get into power and overturn the old. . in this contention the parliaments also involved themselves and the majority still clave to the majority of the bishops and clergy ( then called the church of england : ) and in all or most parliaments cried up religion , law and propriety and the liberty of subjects , and cried down arminianism , monopolies , connivence and favouring of papists , and their increase thereby ; expressing by speeches , and remonstrances , their jealousies in all these points , till they were dissolved . . the writings of bishop jewel , and much more bishop bilson , and most of all mr. richard hooker , and such as were of their mind , shew us what principles there , and then were by the laiety that followed them , received . we will not recite their words , lest our intent be misunderstood ; neither bishop bilsons instances in what cases kings may be resisted by armes nor mr. hookers that maketh legislation the natural right of the body politick , and governing power to be thence derived , to depend upon the body , and to returne to it by escheats , when heirs fail , and that the king is singulis major and universis minor , &c. ( his eighth book was in print long before bishop gauden published it , who yet vindicateth it to be hookers own . ) . in , , . a. bishop land useing more severity against dissenters than had been used of late before , and the visitations more enquiring after private fasts and meetings and going out of mens own parishes to hear , and such like , and also the book for sports on the lords daies being necessarily to be read by all the conformable ministers in the churches , and altars , railes and bowing towards them being brought in , and in many places afternoon sermons and lectures put down , the minds of men before filled with the aforementioned jealousies , were made much more jealous than before . and after the imprisonment of some , the stigmatizing of some , and the removall of many beyond the seas , and the death of more , the nonconformable ministers were reduced to the paucity before mentioned ; but the minds of many people were more alienated from the later set of bishops , and the old sort of conformists more jealous of them , and more afraid of popery , &c. than before . . the new liturgy then imposed on the scots , with the other changes there attempted , the designes charged on the marq. of hamilton , the fear of the lords losing the tyths , &c. which dr. heylin mentioneth as the causes or occasions of their arming there , with the progress thereof , and their entring into england , and the advantage thence taken by some english lords , to advise the king to call a parliament once and again , and the discontents and proceedings of that parliament against the two ministers of the king ; for former things with such other matters we had rather the reader took from others , than from us . we are unwilling to be the mentioners of any more than concerneth our present cause , and the things are very commonly known . . on the . of october , . the irish suddenly rose , and murdered no less than two hundred thousand persons , and dublin narrowly escaped them , of which we refer the reader to the examinations published by dr. henry jones , since a bishop in ireland , and to the history of sir john temple , and to the earl of orery's answer to mr. welsh . . the dreadfulness of this massacre ( so far exceeding the french ) & the news sent over that the irish said that they had the kings commission and the foregoing jealousies of the people and the parliaments declarations , raised in multitudes of the people a fear that the irish when they had ended their work there would come over hither and do the like ; and that they had partakers in england of whom we were in danger , and that there was no way of safety but to adhere to the parliament for their own defence , or else it would quickly be too late to complain . . in . the lamentable civil warr brake out : at which time as far as ever we could learn by acquaintance with some of them and report of others , excepting an inconsiderable number , the houses of lords and commons consisted of those that had still lived in conformity to the church of england and the episcopal government and were such conformists as dr. heylin describeth archbishop abbot and the clergy and parliaments of his times to have been , crying out of the danger of a new partie , that said they would shake our religion , liberties and property . and such were they when the war began , presbytery being then little known among them . . their fear of being overpowred by the party of whom they seemed to think themselves in sudden danger , caused some of them to countenance such petitionings and clamours of the londoners , apprentices , and others , as we think disorders and provocation of the king. . the first open beginning was about the militia : and whether the lord lieutenants whom the parliament chose , were not almost all episcopal conformists , we intreat the reader but to peruse the catalogue in the ordinance for that militia , and to ask any that well knew them ( as some of us did many of them ) and he may certainly be satisfied . . the same we say . of the far greatest part of the general officers , collonels , lieutenant-collonels , and majors of the earl of essex's army . . and of the sea-captains . . and of the major generals of brigades , and counties through the land. . when the parliament's armies were worsted and weakened by the king , and they found themselves in danger of being overcome , they intreated help from the scots , who taking the advantage of their straits , brought in the covenant as the condition of their help ; which the parliament rather accepted than they would lose them , which at first was imposed on none by force : but ( to pass by all other considerations ) was judged by many wise men , to be an occasion of division , as making the opposition to prelacy , to be the terms of the kingdoms unity and concord , when they might know that the king and a great , if not the greatest part of the kingdom , were of the contrary mind , and so it was thought to be ( as the papal terms of unity ) a means of unavoidable division : but others thought that because it tied them to no endeavours , but in their places and callings , they might take it . . the assembly of divines at westminster were men that had lived in conformity , except about eight or nine of them and the scots : but being such as thought conformity lawful in case of deprivation , but the things imposed to be a snare , which should be removed if it could be lawfully done , they also received the covenant , but were divided about the sense of the word [ prelacy , ] many professing their judgment to be for moderate episcopacy ; whereupon the describing additions [ archbishops , bishops , deans , archdeacons ] were added . and upon such a profession that it disclaimed not all episcopacy , mr. coleman is said to have given the covenant to the house of lords . and they complained of the parliament which tied them to meddle with nothing but what they offered to them . . this covenant and vow was taken by the parliament , and by their garrisons and souldiers that would volunrarily take it , as a test whom they would trust ; the rest being had in suspension : and after the wars ; by such as were ordained ministers , and by the kings adherents when they made their compositions ; so far was it afterward imposed . but many ministers and gentlemen refused it , and so did cromwel's souldiers , and in many counties few did take it . . how far the parliament was from being presbyterians , may partly be seen in the propositions sent from them by the earl of essex to the king at nottingham , and partly by their defeating all the desires and endeavours of those that would have presbytery setled through the land : we know of no places but london and lancashire where it was commonly taken up , and some little of it at coventry , and some few such places . and that was only as a tolerated or commended thing , without any imposition that ever we knew of : and accordingly it came to nothing in a short time . . till their new modelling their army , the parliament had given out all commissions to their souldiers to fight for [ king and parliament . ] but then the king's name was lest out ; which seeming to many thousands an utter change of the cause , from that time many did desert them : and thereupon the party called sectaries flowing in to cromwel , and his army conquering , the power fell into their hands , who imprisoned the king , accused and drove away eleven members of the parliament , and afterward imprisoned and excluded the major part of the remaining house , and with the rest cut off the king , cast down the house of lords , pretended a while to set up a commonwealth ( as they called it ) imposed an engagement to that commonwealth as established without king and house of lords ; ordered the sequestration of the ministers that refused it , and of those that kept not their daies of fasting and thanksgiving , for the scotish wars which then they made . after which they cast out with scorn that remnant of the commons that had joyned with them ; and chose themselves some men called a parliament , who attempting to put down all parish-ministers , tythes and universities ( the first put to the vote , and carried but by a few against them ) they were broke up by delivering up their commission to oliver , who was made protector , and had the honour designed of saving the ministry , tythes and universities from the sectaries ; even from that danger into which he had brought them . . from the time of these new causes and changes , especially the destroying the king , violating and casting out the parliament men , imposing the engagement &c. the ministers called presbyterian in england , some few compliers excepted ( many of whom since conform ) declared themselves against all this , and were lookt upon as enemies ; though kindness was offered to reconcile them . some were imprisoned , many cast out of their places in the universities , some sequestred , and mr. love and mr. gibbons ( a gentleman ) beheaded . mr. gee with the lancashire ministers , with some of us , wrote against these proceedings of the then power : many preacht against them , so that the sober religious people of the land grew commonly disaffected to them : and what the scots did and how they were conquered , we need not here relate . . the ministers who were then in possession of the parish churches were of many minds about church government . . many were for the old episcopacy and liturgie . many were for a reformed episcopacy : . many were for presbytery ( that is , church government by presbyteries , classes and national assemblies , of teaching and of governing unordained elders conjunct , as jure divino ) . some were for that which is called independency . . some thought that no form of church government was jure divino . but the most of our acquaintance were peaceable , moderate men that thought several parties had somewhat of the right , and that the points of difference were so few and small , that they might well live in peace and love , and that none of the parties was so right as that in all things they should be followed , and others trod down to set them up : and many of these were young men that , being at the schools , had not been engaged in the first quarrels , and desired not to side with any dividing parties , and modestly professed that they had not maturity enough to study themselves to any great confidence in the controversies . . this last sort of men beginning in worcest : - shire set on foot a work of reconciling association , in which the episcopal , presbyterians and independants , agreed to practise so much of church government and ministration as they were all agreed in , with mutual love and assisting concord , and to forbear one another in the rest , till god should bring us neerer . ( and after they added another agreement , to catechise every person in their parishes old and young , that would come to them , or receive them thereto ; and personally to instruct and exhort them about the practicals of religion , and preparation for death and the life to come ) this example was presently followed by the ministers in cumberland and westmorland , wiltshire , dorsetshire , essex , and going on in other counties , till the confusions interrupted it , and the return of the prelacie ended it and many such endeavours . . when oliver was dead , many sorts of government were set up in one year : first his son richard ( who having never been in arms , and being famed to be for the king , many thought he would have been ready , when he could , to resign the kingdom to him , and spoke him fair on that account , and others because they thought he would quiet the violent , and keep out utter confusion : ) after his ejection the remnant of the commons called the commonwealth was restored . after this they were cast out again , and a council of state chosen by the army ; till the kingdom grew to scorn them all , and was weary and ashamed of the confusions , and revived their designs to restore the king. . the first open attempt of united endeavours against the army , to restore the king , was by the cheshire , lancashire , and northwales men , under sr. georg booth ( now lord de lamere ) and sir t●o . middle●on , who had been commanders for the parliament ; and was broken by the armies conquering them . mr. cook , mr. harrison , mr. kirby , mr. seddan , sent up prisoners , and in danger of death , and other ministers , who since are silenced and ruined by those they helpt . . but the attempts being renewed , at the same time , the division of the opposers ( the army and the commonwealth members ) shook them all to pieces , and ruined them , and the new closure of the old parliamentarians , and the royalists , and the presbyterians , and other ministers with the episcopal , strengthened them , and restored the king : the presbyterian officers and souldiers of general monk's army concurring with the rest , and sir thomas allen then lord mayor ( many london ministers on their part counselling him thereto ) with the aldermen and others , inviting general monk to joyn with the city herein against the opposers ; from which very day , the scales were turned , and all went on without any considerable stop , and the old ejected members of parliament first , and the council setled protempore after , prepared for his majesties return ; and dr. gauden , mr. calamy , and mr. b●xter preaching at the fast of the next parliament , ( as their printed sermons shew ) the king the next morning was voted to return , and to be invited to his fathers throne . . in preparation for this , some ministers now silenced , had trcated with some gentlemen firm to the king , and with bishop usher , bishop browrig , dr. hammond , and others , who all encouraged them ( though some much more , than others ) by prosessing moderate , healing principles and intentions● : and in london , and several counties , the noblemen , knights , and gentlemen that had still adhered to the king , profest and published their peaceable desires of concord , and resolution against revenge ; and letters were written from france to divers here , to take off all the unjust suspicions that some had raised about the kings religion ; all which promoted the concord that accomplished the change. . those that saw the marvelous success of this reconciliation and concord , and knew that the clergies distance was most likely , if any thing , to hinder the happy perfection and settlement of a full desired peace , did presently attempt an agreement among them : and upon the motion of some of the since silenced ministers , the earl of manchester , and the earl of orery mentioning it to the king , they told us , that it was well pleasing to his majesty : whereupon his majesty vouchsafing them audience , and great encouragement , several persons on each side were appointed to treat of the necessary terms of setled concord and to yield to each other as far as they could , and offer their mutual concessions : what was done in this is not now to be mentioned , save that part of it was published by some body , which declareth it , and the first part being about church government and worship , issued in the publication of his majesties gracious declaration about ecclesiastical affairs , by which all our breaches seemed at the present to be almost healed , and the house of commons gave his majesty publick thanks . at this time the lord chancellor as a token of his majesties gracious favour and acceptance , offered bishopricks to three that then treated for reconciliation , and deanries to two or three of them . of the three first , one did the next day save one refuse it , but in a letter to him professing his gratitude , and that he was so rejoiced in his majesties gracious declaration , that if it might but be setled by law , he resolved to use his utmost endeavours to perswade all men to conformity on those terms , and therefore would not disable himself thereto by taking a bishoprick , and making men think that it was not for just concord , but his own interest that he wrote or pleaded : another of them soon accepted : the third and the two or three that had deanries offered them , only suspended till they saw whether his majesties declaration would live or dye . . what was done in the next attempt upon his majesties commission to agree on such alterations of the liturgie as were necessary to tender consciences , &c. we are to make no further mention of , then is made by the writings given , in which some body shortly after ( in part and with many false printings ) published ; an addition to the liturgie , a reply to some former papers of the bishops , and an earnest petition to them for the churches peace , which were given in and never answered by them ( that we know of ) some one printed . and being in writing required by a right reverend bishop then in the chair , as from superiours to lay by meer inconveniences , and to give in those points which we took to be flat sin , we gave in eight particulars the next day as part ; and by that time but one of our arguments about one of them was half handled , and the rest of the arguments untouched , and the rest of the controverted instances not medled with , our commission was expired : and the bishops argumentation as opponents , afterward , on another occasion printed . . shortly after the convocation of the clergie setled the liturgie as now it is setled : the kings declaration dyed : the parliament made the act of vniformity , by which many ministers for not conforming to that law were on august . . ejected and silenced , on severe penalties . about eighteen hundred of their names from several counties were shewed mr. calamy and others ; and some say about were omitted , and that they were in all above . . they that had treated for reconciliation foresaw what sad divisions were like to follow , if we were not healed and united ; and therefore in their petition made a solemn protestation that nothing but the fear of sin and gods displeasure should hinder them from conformity , deprecating the woful effects of the division , which could not possibly be otherwise avoided , than by some necessary abatements of the impositions : and fore telling much that hath since come to pass , which common understanding might easily see in the causes . . the persons that were silenced were not of one mind and measure about all the things imposed on them . . some of them were episcopal , and for as much as richard hooker writeth for , and were against the covenant ( and never took it ) and the parliaments war , and were for the liturgie and ceremonies and had conformed had these been all that had been imposed , who yet were cast out of fellowships and ministry : yea some had suffered for the king , and been ruined in their patrimony , some imprisoned for him , and some had been in arms for him . . besides these , and other episcopal nonconformists , some and very many , and we think the greatest part of any one , were such disengaged pacificators as we before mentioned about associations : . some were for the presbyterian government , and . some for that called independent , which were comparatively but few . also some were ( as heretofore dr. john reynolds , dr. humpbrey , mr. perkins , mr. paul bayn , &c. for some part of conformity ( kneeling and lit●rgie , and some for the surplice ) & against other parts : many would have come in to all the old conformity , had it not been for that one sentence in the canon-subscription [ nothing contrary to the word of god ] ( which kept out mr. chil●ingworth himself , as is reported , till some dispensation let him in . but the new conformity was such as satisfied them all against it . many purposed to have yielded to prelacy , liturgie and ceremonies , and gone to the utmost that conscience would tolerate , rather than lay by their ministry . but when they saw the new act for uniformity , their deliberations were at an end . . their interest , honour or somewhat else led many persons of those times , when they had made the name of presbyterians odious , to call all the nonconformists that were episcopal or neutral , by the name of presbyterians , even those that had declared themselves against the presbyterian frame , so they were not independents . and they continue that practice to serve their ends to this day . . the elder sort of the nonconformists were ordained by diocesan bishops : the younger sort were ordained by assemblies of the parish pastors of cities and countries , no other ordination being then allowed by those in power . . as to the late civil wars which some most lowdly charge on the nonconformists , this is the truth , that the several parties charge the beginning of that war on one another : one party saith that the presbyterians begun it in england : another party lay it on the old church of england men that followed archbishop abbot , and such like : both these accused parties laid the beginning on archbishop laud as an innovator , and those that followed him : and some think that every side had too much hand in it , and were to be blamed . the truth is , . that more by far of the nonconformists than of the late sort of the prelatists were for the parliament in those times : . that some that were sectaries , and some that were hot for the parliament did conform : . that some few that had been in the king's army or cause , and that were sufferers for him , and were against the covenant and the parliaments war , were nonconformists : . that many more of the old episcopal comformists , than of the later sort of them were for the parliament : . that the archbishop of york ( williams ) who had some time been lord keeper , was one of the parliaments commanders in north-wales ( as it is reported without denial . ) . that most ministers are dead that were in that war. . that the westminster assembly , as is said , came thither almost all conformists . . that so small is the number of the present silenced ministers who had any hand in those wars , that if no other were ejected and silenced but they , the case would be judged comparatively very easie , and it would be thankfully accepted , as hath oft been told . for most were then youths at school , and in the universities , and many lived in the king's quarters and garrisons , and many other never medled with wars at all ; it being now about thirty four , or five years since the war began . . that all the wars that have been since their opposition to the parliament and violence done to the person of the king , were far from being owned by the common sort of the now nonconformists , as was said . . the doctrine of bilson , hooker , and such like , containing such principles as parliament men then usually professed is before mentioned , though not fully recited , and is commonly known ; and that the main body of the parliament , assembly , army , commanders , lord lieutenants , m●jor generals of bragades , and sea-captains , were professed conformists of the church of england . . lastly , we had hoped that his m●jesties prudence had by the act of oblivion long since ended this part of the contention ; but we find still some conformable ministers whom in other respects we much esteem and love , who ( as if truth , charity , justice and humanity had been forgotten by them ) affirm in print that all the nonconformists were guilty of the king's death ; passing over what is aforesaid of the conformists ; and others of them crying out to magistrates to execute the laws on us , by the urged motive of their late sequestrations and sufferings : as if they knew not , or would not have others to know , how few nonconformists in parliament or militia there were at the beginning of the war in comparison of the conformists ; and how much the second , third and following causes , parties , and tragedies in that war , were disliked by the now episcopal and presbyterian nonconformists . . the people who now adhere to the nonconformists , who were at age before the wars ( whom we that write this were acquainted with ) had very hard thoughts of the bishops persons , and some of episcopacy it self , because of the foresaid silencing of ministers , and ruining of honest men , about sunday-sports , reading that book , and other such things , besides nonconformity : but when the ministers that guided them , began to seem more reconciled to the episcopal party , and upon the reports and promises which they had heard , had put them in hope that the next bishops would prove more moderate , peaceable and pious , than the former , and would by experience avoid divisions and persecution , the said people began to be enclined to more reverent and favourable thoughts of episcopacy and the bishops ; and were , upon experience of the late confusions , in a far fairer way to union & submission to them than before . but when they saw their teachers taken from them , and some such set over them against their wills , who were better known to them than to the obtruders ; and when they heard of about silenced at once , this so much alienated them from the bishops , that it was never since in our power to bring them to so much esteem of them , and reverence to them , as might have been ; but multitudes by this were driven further from conformity than the silenced ministers . . the silenced were not a quarter of the ministers of england , who were in possession before the return of the bishops : so that it is evident , that above three fourth parts of the ministers that kept in under the parliament and protector ( notwithstanding covenant , directory and all ) did prove conformists . . the new-altered liturgy was not printed and published till august . or near it , when the ministers were to be silenced that subscribed not , and consented not : so that we must needs suppose that they were but few ministers in england in comparison of the rest , who ever saw and read ( much less long considered ) that book before they declared their assent and consent to all things in it . sure we are , that we that lived in london , who had it at the first publishing , found the time past , or so short to examine all things in it with due deliberation , that had it been blameless , we must have been silenced , unless we had consented upon an implicit faith . . since we were silenced , his majesties declaration for more liberty in religion came out . but soon died : and since then we have been called to many attempts for unity , in which we have twice come to an agreement with those honest , peaceable , pious and learned divines of the church of england , who were appointed to treat of it with us . but that signified nothing as to our healing , while reasons unknown to us , or ineffable prevailed . . yet still we have been called on to tell what we s●●ck at , and what we desired , and what would satisfie us , ( who desire nothing but leave to excercise the ministry to which we were ordained ) and the cant still goeth on among the ignorant at least , as if we had never told them to this day ; or as if since the new conformity we had ever been called or had leave to tell them , or as if the same men would endure us to tell them our case of , dissent and the reasons of it to this day . but the judg is at the door . sect . viii . the matters of fact , as to what is required of us , by laws and canon , to which we must conform ; and first of lay-men . i. of laymen that will have any government or trust in any city or corporation , is necessarily required the taking of the following oath and declaration by a law. i swear that it is not lawful upon any pretence whatsoever to take arms against the king : and that i abhor that trayterous position that arms may be taken by his authority against his person , or against those that are commissioned by him ] and the declaration is [ that there is no obligation upon me or any other person , from the oath commonly called the solemn league and covenant . . by this oath and this declaration the government and trust of all the cities and corporations of england are constituted or qualified . . part of this vow and covenant is [ against popery , superstition , and profaneness and all that is against sound doctrine and godlyness : that we will repent of our sins , unfeignedly , and amend our lives , &c , ] which the nonconformists take to be lawful and necessary things . . thousands of people lived in the kings garrisons , or quarters , and thousands were then unborn or children , who never took this vow or covenant , nor ever heard or read it , or know what is in it . . the parliament that imposed it on others took it voluntarily themselves , as did many thousand more . . many thousands took it that never saw the faces of each other , nor know in what sense , or with what mind all others took it : the sense being doubtful , all took it not in on sense : and many thought themselves not bound to take it in the imposers sence , where the words might bear another ; and so , its like , thought the royal party of the nobility and gentry , who took it at their composition . . it was a vow to god , as well as a covenant with men ( as the words shew . ) . the controversie is not , . whether it was lawfully imposed , . or whether it was lawfully taken , . or whether it bind as a league , . nor whether it bind to any unlawful thing ( which all renounce ) but , . whether as a vow made to god , it bind to things necessary ( as against schism , profaneness , popery : to repent , &c. ) to which men were before bound by other obligations . nor whether they that took it not be bound by it to repent , &c. but whether no one person in the three kingdoms , who took it , be so bound : and that since the scots drew his majesty to seem to own it ( which we judge they did unlawfully . ) ii. all parents who will have their children baptized , must submit them to the sign of the cross , as it is after described . and so must all that are to be baptized at age submit themselves to it . iii. all persons that have children to be baptized must conform as followeth . they must procure three persons to be godfathers and godmother , who must personally present the child to be baptized , and must promise and vow to god in the childs name the duties of the covenant , and must in the name of the child say [ that he renounceth the devil and all his works , the vain pomp and glory of the world &c , and that he stedfastly believeth all the articles of faith , that he will he baptized and that he will obediently keep gods holy will and commandments , &c. ] not that they believe , consent &c , but that he ( the child ) doth believe , desire , &c. and it is not a meer promise for the future [ i will believe and renounce , &c. ] but a profession for the present time [ i do believe stedfastly and i do renounce ] and in the catechism it is said that [ repentance whereby they forsake sin , and faith whereby they stedfastly believe &c , are required of persons to be baptized ( and not only that have been baptized ) and yet that infants that cannot do this are to be baptized , because [ they promise them by their sureties , ] and it is not said because they profess to do them at present by their sureties . . the child is baptized upon the undertaking of these persons as sponsors or covenanters , whose parts and duties are thus expressed , [ to see that this infant be taught so soon as he shall be able to learn , what a solemn vow , promise and profession he hath here made by you ; and that he may know these things the better , ye shall call upon him to hear sermons , and chiefly ye shall provide that he may learn the creed , the lords prayer , and the ten commandements , in the vulgar tongue , and all other things which a christian ought to know and believe to his souls health ; and that this child may be brought up to lead a godly and a christian life . ] . the conformists here are not agreed themselves , what that subjective individual faith , renu●ciation and desire are which the infant at present professeth by his sureties : it is not that the infant doth actually believe himself for the catechism confesseth that he doth not . nor is there any probability that he doth , unless by miracle unknown . and if it be any ones faith else that the infant then professeth which is imputatively his own , it is not agreed whose faith that is or must be ; whether the godfathers , or the churches , and what churches ; whether that congregations , or the diocesan churches , or the national churches , or the universal church ? or whether it must be the parents , adopters or owners of the child . . though the godfathers be not by words to promise their parts , yet standing purposely there as undertakers of it , and hearing the minister expresly tell them what their part and duty is , their coming and standing in that relation , is a plain signification of consent , and rendereth them obliged covenanters or sponsors . . these sponsors are not obliged to profess that the child is theirs by adoption or any propriety : and so far is any such adopting or owning from their purposes , that we never in all our lives knew any godfather or godmother as such , ( not having before taken the child as theirs on other reasons ) that ever became a sponsor with such a signified intent . . in most country parishes that we have known , a great part of the communicants , seem ignorant themselves of what is to be undertaken for the baptized , ( as we judge by our tryal where we have lived , and the credible report of other pastors : ) and too many notoriously live themselves in a course of life contrary to what is to be undertaken for the child . . in all our lives we never knew one person that undertook this office of godfather or godmother who beforehand gave the parents any credible promise or signification , that they had any purpose at all to perform , what the church chargeth on them , and they there undertake as their parts and duties . . nor did we ever know one in all our lives that as a godfather or godmother did perform it ; viz. [ to see themselves that the child be taught his c●venant as soon as he is able to learn , and to provide that he be taught all before recited , his creed , &c. and all things which a christian ought to know and believe to his souls health ; and that he b●vir●uo●sly brought up to lead a godly and a christian life : but they leave them to the parents . . no man can compel another to be godfather or godmother . . all such undertakers that we have known have been of some of these following sorts : . either g●orant persons that knew not , or careless that considered not what they did : . or persons that mist●●k the sense of the church , and thought that they were but the representers of the parents , and that what they promised , it was not th●y ▪ but the parents that were bound to perform : . or nonconformists ( in this point ) who purposed before hand to be but the parents r●p●esentatives , and that the promise and obligation should all be devolved from them on the parents , though they knew the church meant otherwise ; and that they were not bound to the churches sense ; and therefore their standing to hear [ this is your part ] was no consent to take it for their part . and none of all these do answer the churches sense in their undertaking : and if we are commonly baptized and made christians in a way of false vowing or covenanting of such persons , or of ●●lus●●y equ●vocation , it is not well . . we know not where parents can procure any to undertake this office as the church imposeth it , that cred●●ly signifie themselves able and willing to perform●● : we could not do it our selves were we never so desirous : perhaps some rich men might hire others to take their children into their care and education , as must be promised ; but who would do so for the poor ? yea for all the poor of england ? and the nonconformists are not satisfied that it is lawful to engage any in a perfidious covenanting before god , when before-hand they have no credible signification of any purpose to perform it . nay , when the parent resolveth to educate his own child , and not to trust him to the provision or care of others . . the minister covenanting [ to use the form in the book of common prayer prescribed in administration of the sacraments , and no other ] can. . no parent may speak a word in the name of his own child , nor to enter him there into the covenant of god , nor profess that he offereth him to baptism by virtue of , and in confidence in the promise [ i will be thy god , and the god of thy seed in their generations ; ] nor to promise himself what the godfathers are to promise : the words also of the can. . are these ; [ no parent shall be urged to be present , nor be admitted to answer as godfather for his own child : nor any godfather or godmother shall be suffered to make any other answer or speech than by the book of common prayer is prescribed in that behalf . . it is the godfathers work also ( by the liturgy ) to take care that the child be brought to the bishop to be confirmed by him ( in the manner of the church of england ) as soon as he can say the creed , lords prayer , and ten commandments , and be further instructed in the church catechism ; which godfathers use not at all to perform ; nor do the parents use to expect it : nor doth one child of a multitude understand what the baptismal covenant is , of many a year after they have learned to say the said catechism . . that the godfathers stand not there as the representers of the parents is evident ( according to the sense of the church ) because the parent himself is not suffered to do it , or speak one covenanting word ; nor must be urged to be present ; nor are they to speak in the parents name in any of their undertakings ; nor is there the least intimation that the church taketh the sponsor for the parents representative . . the parents are to be admonished not to defer the baptism of their children longer than the first or second sunday , unless upon a great and reasonable cause to be approved by the curate ( whether they can get understanding , credible godfathers or not : ) these are the matters of fact. here note . that there is no controversie between the conformists and nonconformists , whether christians infants should be baptized : . nor whether a conformists baptizing be valid : . nor whether the parents presence be absolutely necessary , and another may not speak in his name : . nor whether adopters , or any proprieters may not covenant for the child : . nor whether the old sponsors be lawful , who . witnessed the credibility of the parent ; . and undertook the christian education of the child , if the parents should either die or apostatize : the nonconformists are against no such sponsors , though they think that their children have right to baptism without such . . nor do they deny that baptism in the parish ▪ churches is valid and lawful as to the parents and godfathers , if they do but agree on the nonconformists way , that the sponsors shall but represent the parents , and that they be not bound by the contrary judgment of the authors of the liturgy to the contrary . but the questions are . whether a christians child , whose parents have no way forfeited their credit , have not right to baptism , without other godfathers . . whether the parent should not solemnly enter his own child into the covenant of god ( as well as in times of circumcision . ) and whether any parent should be forbidden it , viz. to appear and speak as the representer of the child , or undertaker for him , and promiser of his education . . whether that child must profess by another , that he himself believeth , renounceth , repenteth and desireth baptism : and it be not rather to be prosessed that he is the seed of a believing , penitent parent , whose will is as his will , and is under god's promise [ i will he thy god , and the god of thy seed . ] . whether a christian parent may consent to the persidious undertaking of any godfathers , who give him not the least reason to believe that they intend that provision for the children which they undertake : or else may let his child be unbaptized till he can get such a credible undertaker ; which is never like to be with most , or many . . whether the children of heathens , or infidels , or atheists , have right to baptism upon the presentation of any godfather , who never adopteth them , or taketh them for his own , nor giveth any credible notice that he really intendeth to educate those children as pro forma he seemeth to undertake : or whether such children are truly said to believe , because the godfather , or minister , or congregation , or diocess , or nation , or catholick church believe . iii. the nonconformists are not of one mind about receiving the lords supper kneeling ; many judge it lawful , though neither necessary nor most eligible were they free ; some judge it also most eligible : and some judge it , as things stand , unlawful : their reasons are . . in doubtful cases duty lieth on the surest side : but this to them is a doubtful case on one side , and to imitate christs institution by such sitting as men use to do at meat , is certainly lawful . . because they think this kneeling violateth the reasons of the second commandment , being used where , by whole countries of papists round about us , and many among us it signifieth bread-worship or idolatry by the same action at the same season used . for they suppose that the second commandment forbiddeth images , as being external , corporal , idolatry , and symbolizing scandalously with idolators though the mind intend the worshiping of the true god alone . and such they think this kneeling is , and that it encourageth the papists ( as is instanced in a story in the life of bishop hall. ) . because they think that the tradition and custom of the catholick church and the c●nons of the greatest general councils not repealed by any other ( as nic. . can. . & can. trull . &c , ) are of stronger obligation than the canons of our convocation . and those canons , customs and tradition prohibite all adoration by gen●flection on any lords day in the year , and on any week day els between easter and whits●●tide ; and this custom continued years as the tradition of the universal church ; and was never repealed but charged by degrees by contrary practice : they that think not that they are bound by these canons or customs at all , yet think that they are enough to nullifie a contrary canon of a lower power ; or ad hominem may excu●e them . yea the constitutions called the apostles , seem to command all the people to receive the sacrament standing and to go for it lib. . cap. . having prescribed the order of worship ( that after the old scriptures read , they sing a psalm and then read the acts and epistles and the gospels , and then that the presbyters one by one exhort the people first and the bishop last ( for in those time every church that had an altar had a bishop ) he concludeth [ postea vero fiat sacrificium , cuncto populo stante & silent●o precant● , & oblatione facta , quisque ordo sco● sim corpus domini & preciosum sanguinem sumat , accedentes ordine cum pudore & reverentia ut ad corpus regis . i●em mulieres operto capite , ut ordiaem earum decet , acc dant that is [ after let the sacrifice be made , all the people standing and praying in silence : and the oblation being mad● let every order apart take the body of christ and his precious bl●od : coming to it in order with modesty and reverence as to the body of the king. and let the women approach with covered heads as becometh their order . ] for such reasons as these set together , some nonconformists , ( lay and clergy ) take this kne●ling ( while papists about us by the same gesture adore the bread ) to be unlawful , who yet profess as great reverence to christ and the eucharist as any others . but other nonconformists say that they can answer all these arguments . but that they truly render the scruples of the dissenters tollerable , and the persons unmeet to be therefore excommunicate . . by the canon and rubrick , no one of these dissenters must be admitted to the holy communion , can. . saith [ no minister when he celebrateth the communion shall wittingly administer the same to any , but to such as kneel , under pain of suspension ▪ ] and the ministers covenant to use no form of administring the sacraments but according to the liturgie . v. the rubrick after confirmation saith [ there shall none be admitted to the holy communion , till such time as he be confirmed , or be ready and desirous to be confirmed . so that desire of confirmation in the english way , is made a necessary condition of communion . . the publick owning of the baptismal covenant , is that which the nonconformists are so far from being against , that they take it with a serious confirmation thereupon to be the meet way of transition from the infant state of church-membership , into that of the adult : and the most congruous means of uniting dissenters about church discipline , and of preventing anabaptistry that can be found out . but many sober christians are unsatisfied with the english way of confirmation , . because they find it so like to that confirmation which the papists have made a sacrament , and which very many beyond-sea protestants have written against : vide dallaeum de confirmat . ▪ because it is made the proper work of a diocesan , and wholly denyed to the parochial pastors ; and because those diocesans know not ordinarily whether the persons be meet or unmeet to be confirmed , being strangers to them ; for how can they know all the persons , men , women and such children of so many parishes as a diocess doth contain : ( some diocesses having above a thousand parishes others many hundred : one above miles in length , and others , very great ) ? it s true , that the minister of the parish is bid to catechise them , and to bring or send in writing the names of such as he thinks fit for confirmation . but . this is not ordinarily done : but children in our time have used to run together to a bishop when he came into the country on that work , without the ministers certificate or godfathers ; and none , that ever we knew of , that came for confirmation in this manner , was refused : and as the bishop never saw or knew one of the multitude whom he confirmeth , so he taketh not time so far to examine them as to give him rational satisfaction of their fitness : nor indeed can he possibly do it for one of a multitude of so large diocesses , when most great parishes are too big for a present minister who is acquainted with them better than a strange diocesan can be : how can a man that hath so many other employments as diocesans have find leisure , were he never so willing , to examine so many hundred thousands as are in this diocess ? or so many score thousands as are in many others ? . and as the ministers rarely certifie according to the canon , so the bishop is not tyed to take his consent , but may thus impose confirmed persons on his communion , though he know them to be never so ignorant or unmeet . and it is children that are thus to be confirmed , who rarely ever come so young to own with any tolerable understanding and seriousness , their baptismal covenant . few of us by experience can say , that we did it of many years after that we had learned the lords prayer &c. . and no other qualification is necessary , but that he learn the creed , lords-prayer , decalogue , and church catech●sm , the bare words of which are learnt by rote by multitudes of children , who understand little or nothing of what they say : we do not find , that if persons stay unconfirmed till they are adult , that any heresie or wickedness of life , is a bar to their confirmation ; much less are they required to bring any testimony , that they live according to their b●ptismal covenant . . and as far as we can learn , it is but a very small part of this kingdom in comparison of the rest , that ever were confirmed . . nor know we many ministers that ever examined their people generally , whether they were ready and willing to be confirmed . vi. the nonconformable laity are ejected from the communion of the church , and their children ( that are disposed of by them ) from baptism ▪ christendom and christian burial , if not from salvation , as far as in the church lyeth ; and those that affirm themselves to be nonconformists are by the church laws excommunicated ipso facto , though they should desire communion . . that no minister is to admit them to the sacramental communion is before shewed from can. . and also that their children are not to be baptized , unless they will submit them to the dedicating sign of the cross ; no nor to be buried with christian burial ( of which more afterward . ) . if they have a minister in their own parish that never preacheth , or so bad as that they dare not commit the pastoral care of their souls to him , they must not be admitted to communion , in any other neighbour parishes , can. . that they are ipso facto excommunicated , shall be anon shewed . sect . ix . the matters of fact that concern the conformity and nonconformity of the ministers : and . of ass●nt , consent and subscription that nothing is contrary to god's word . . the canon to be subscribed ( th ) willingly and ex animo is that the book of common-prayer , and of ordaining of bishops , priests and deacons , containeth in it nothing contrary to the word of god ; and that he himself will use the form in the said book prescribed in publick prayers and administration of the sacraments , and none other . . the meaning of this subscription is not agreed of by the conformists that take it : as to the first clause , some say that by [ nothing contrary to the word ] is meant as it is spoken , [ nothing ] indeed . others say by [ nothing ] is meant [ nothing which i have discerned so to be : or [ nothing , except such failings as all humane writings are lyable to . ] and by [ contrary ] some say [ contrary in the common sense of the word ] is meant : but others say that by [ contrary ] is meant [ so far contrary as should drive us from communion with the church ] or [ contrary to any great doctrine or precept of the word of god. and the nonconformists interpret it as the first sort do , according to the usual and proper meaning of the words . . so the later clause , [ that he himself will use that form in publick prayer and administration of the sacraments and none other ; ] dr. heylin and very many others suppose is meant properly as is spoken viz. that by the form is meant all the words and orders , and that by publick prayer is meant as is spoken , all publick prayer used by a minister in the publick assemblies ] and that by [ none other ] is meant [ neither , wholly nor in part . ] but others think that by [ form ] is meant only [ the form of words , and not the orders ] and that by [ none other ] is meant only [ no other book of common-prayer or set liturgie . ] or [ no other entire form and order excluding this ; ] and that it doth not mean [ no other form before or after sermon in the pulpit , or in some parts of worship , so it be of our own composure : ] nor yet that we may not use sometime some other order than is prescribed in the rubricks , viz. . sometime read other chapters than the calender prescribeth , because that liberty is expressed in the preface to the second book of homilies : . sometimes to give the sacrament to some that kneel not : . to baptize some without the cross , &c. ( of which more hereafter ) because the rubrick saith only [ you shall do thus ] but saith not [ you shall do no otherwise . ] but to this the former sort answer . that if any universal negative ( none other ) may be particularly or limitedly interpreted upon our own surmises , no laws , covenants or promises signifie any thing , and no words are intelligible : . that we subscribe strictly to this article ( to use no other form , ) but not so to the book of homilies , but only that we take it for wholsom doctrine : . that if the rubrick for crossing , kneeling , &c. exclude not all other inconsistent forms of administration , it signifieth nothing , but leaveth every man to his own will. . it is yet a greater doubt with the conformists themselves , whether these words be not at least a covenant that they will use no other printed prescribed liturgy . and so some think that it plainly obligeth them not to use those printed forms which the archbishops and bishops have used to draw up and impose , for several publick fasts , thanksgivings , and particular occasions . but others think that it doth not bind them to disobey the bishops therein : but that such exceptions were intended though not exprest , or at least had been inserted if not forgotten . ii. the act of uniformity requireth that every minister that officiates [ do openly and publickly before the congregation there assembled , declare his unseigned assent and consent to the use of all things in the book contained and prescribed , in these words and no other [ i a. b. do here declare my unfeigned assent and consent to all and every thing contained and prescribed , in and by the book eat●tuled , the book of common-prayer , & administration of the sacraments and other r●tes and ceremonies of the church , according to the use of the church of england ; together with the ps●●ter or psalms of david pointed as they are to be sung or said in churches , and the form or m●●●er of making , ordaining and consecrating of bishops , priests and deacons . ] and page . [ he shall declare his unfeigned assent and consent unto , and approbation of the said book , and to the use of all the prayers , rites and ceremonies , forms and orders therein contained and prescribed according to the form aforesaid . ] . the conformists themselves are not agreed of the meaning of these plain words , one party expounding them as the nonconformists do , according to the properest and ordinary use of the words , and the other party otherwise . the former hold that as many acts of parliament contein more in the body of the act than in the title , and make the means more extensive than the end , so here the assent and consent to the use of the book is the end in the first clause , and approbation also in the second : and that the declaring that form of words is the means to that end : that assent signifieth assent to the truth ] and [ consent and approbation ] relate to the goodness , rectitude and use ] and that this is not only of the prayers and other parts which the subscriber is to read to the people but as is exprest [ of all things ( without exception ] conteined in and prescribed by it ; particularly ▪ to all the prayers , rites , ceremonies , forms and orders ; ] without collusion or equivocation . the other part hold , that all this signifieth no more , but that [ i assent that i may lawfully use , and i consent to use , so much as belongeth to my place , and that i will not unpeaceably oppose it . ] their argument is , because [ to the use , ] is mentioned before the form of words . to which the other answer as before , that . that approbation is mentioned after as well as use . . that the means are larger than the end : as in the corporation act , the end is the preventing of rebellion ; but the means is declaring that [ there is no obligation on me or any-other from that oath . ] . that without gross violence assent can be judged to mean no less than [ assenting that it is true . ] . that there is not a'word in the book which was not intended for some use : and therefore , to assent , approve and consent to the use , is more than meerly to assent to the truth : the preface hath its use ; and the calendar its use , and the rubrick its uses , and the rest of the parts their several uses ; but did we believe it to be false , how could we approve it , or of what use would it be ? . to put all out of doubt the parliament-men long ago told us ( none contradicting it to us ) that into another bill , the house of lords added a proviso that the declaration in the act of vniformity should be understood but as obliging men to the use of it ; and that the house of commons refusing , at a conference about it , they gave in such reasons against that sense and proviso to the lords , upon which they did acquiesce , and cast it out . iii. by this general declaration we are obliged to assent to ( as true ) to approve and to use these words after the calender , [ rules to know when the moveable feasts and holydaies begin . easter-day ( on which the rest depend ) is alwaies the first sunday after the first full moon , which happens next after the one and twentieth day of march. ] . this rule is false : as . every almanack will shew : . the table following to find out easter-day for ever : . and the practice of our church , that keepeth easter on another day . . to consent to use this , is to consent to keep easter-day , contrary to all christian churches , and contrary to another rule in the same book ; and to consent to use both rules , is to consent to keep two easter-days in one year ; and so of easter term. . hereupon some conformists say , that [ assenting to , approving of , and consenting to all things contained and prescribed . ] signifieth but [ as to humane , fallible writings , so far as there is no mistake ] or [ assenting and consenting to be peaceable . ] but others say that it is but [ to assent that it is true where it is not false , and appr●ve it as good where it is not bad ; and to consent to use it where i have no cause to the contrary . ] and they ask , . whether this be the usual or proper signification of such words ? . whether any nonconformists would refuse it in that sense . . whether they will give leave to the papists and all other subjects to take the oath of allegiance in such a kind of sense and exposition . but there is one that hath defended this as true , and tells us that by the [ full moon ] is not meant that which we call the full moon , or the same that 's meant in the other parts of the book , but by the full moon is meant [ the mean conjunction ] and [ the fourth of april that year . or [ daies after the ancient new moon found by the golden number the th day of the ecclesiastical cylclic month ] for an old mass book saith [ post veris aequinoctium quaere plenilunium & dominica proxima sacrum celebra pascha : non v●rius inveneris si mille legas codices . ] quest . . are we sure this mass book meant not pleniluniam as we do properly ? quest . . and are we sure they erred not that wrote this ? quest . . and yet are you sure what they meant ? quest . . would you perswade us that our convocation now borrowed their direction from this mass book ? quest . . are you sure that this mass book should be our rule herein of speaking or interpreting ? quest . . and yet not in the calendar and other passages in our liturgy ? quest . . did the the convocation intend that we should not here understand [ the full moon ] properly , nor as in all the rest of the book ? quest . . if this defender be in the right , was there ever a plainer way made to bring all men to an implicit faith , to believe as the convocation believeth , even in calendars , when we know not what they believe themselves . for my part i must confess that after all this dr. ( pell they say ) hath said of another sense of the word [ full moon ] i know not yet what he meaneth . qu. whether the convocation meant that none should preach christs gospel that understood not this strange sense of the [ full moon ] that is [ no full moon ] and yet would not by one line expound it to us , to keep us from being cast out and ruined ? or whether they meant that all men should be forced and taught to subscribe or declare assent to that which they never understood ? when i had never yet the advantage of speaking with one bishop or conformable dr. that understood the word [ full moon ] as this doctor taught them ( whether in good earnest i know not . ) and if our conformity must be thus performed , by equivocation implicitly , contrary to the common sense of mankind , we shall yet suspend it , till we know how much further we have to go , if it be blindfold that we must be led ; and refer all to god our final judge , whose judgment we are near . . we assent to , approve of and consent to , these words in the preface [ we are fully perswaded in our judgements ( and we here profess it to the world ) that the book as it stood before established by law ; doth not contein in it any thing contrary to the word of god , or to sound doctrine , or which a godly man may not with a good conscience use and submit unto , or which is not fairly defensible against any that shall oppose the same , &c. ] . psal . . . the words in the liturgy and old translation are [ they were not obedient to his word ] and the new translation according to the hebrew is [ they rebelled not against his word ] clear contrary : therefore the nonconformists think that one of them is contrary to the word of god ( and this old translation is continued still in the church . ) . in the old book in the gospels these texts are thus translated rom. . . epist . to . sunday after epiph. [ be ye changed in your shape : ] the new translation is [ be transformed by the renewing of your mind ] phil. . . epist . for sunday next before easter [ found in his apparel as a man : ] in the new translation it is ( was made in the likeness of men . ] gal. . ep. to th sunday in lent , it is [ mount sinai is agar in arabia and bordereth on the city which is now called jerusalem . ] in the new translation it is [ for this agar was mount sinai in arabia , and answereth to jerusalem which now is . ] mathews day ep. . cor. . the old book has it [ we go not out of kind . ] the new is [ we faint not . ] john. . for third sunday in lent [ when men be drunk ] is the old books translation : but the new is [ when men have well drunk ] luke . for third sunday in lent , the old book hath [ when one house doth fall upon another ] the new hath [ a house divided against an house falleth . ] luke . for the annunciation ; the old book sayeth [ this is the sixth month which was called barren ] in the new translation it is [ this is the sixth mouth with her who was called barren . if one of these be god's word , the nonconformists think that the other is contrary to it . . in the old book in the psalms there are whole verses left out , which are in the hebrew text , and our new translation ▪ and divers translated in a quite different sense the former following the septuagint . . the rubrick for christmas day is [ then shall follow the collect of the nativity , which shall be said continually unto new-years day . ] and the collect for all these several daies is [ a●mighty god , which hast given us thine only begotten son to take our nature upon him , and this day to be born of a pure virgin. so the collect on whitsunday is [ god which upon this day , &c. ] the rubrick is , [ the same collect to be read munday and teesday . ] so on christmas day , and seven daies after [ because thou hast given jesus christ thine only son to be born as on this day for us , &c. ] and on whitsunday , and six daies after [ according to whose most true promise the holy ghost came down this day from heaven . ] these things , and such other we must approve in the foresaid approbation of all things in the old common-prayer-book . v. we must assent , approve , and consent to all the mis-translations in the present liturgy , as well as to justifie the old edition : that before-cited psal . . . is in the present book , and so are the rest of the omissions and differences in the psalms before mentioned , which are many . different translations which have all the same sense , may be all called god's word , because their sense is so : but where they have different senses , so far one of them is contrary to god's word : for god's word is one and true , and not contrary to it self . the question is not whether these faulty translations were not a good work , and a great mercy to the church , till we had a better ? nor whether they may not be lawfully used where there is no better ? yea or where there is a better , if the command of governours , or concord , make it best for that time and place . but it is , whether all the faults of the translation may be assented , approved and consented to ? we commit some failings and sins every day , but we may not approve of them , and profess that we consent so to do . . some conformists here think that the declaration is to be taken properly , without any force or distorting , and they say that both translations are justifiable , because one followeth the hebrew , and the other the septuagint , and christ and his apostles have justified both by using them . but others of them hold that this instance proveth that by [ all things ] assented and consented to , must be meant only [ all things that are not by humane frailty mistaken , or erroneous ] or els , that by assenting and approving must be meant no more than assenting that they may be used : and so they consent with the nonconformists in the matter , but not in the exposition of the words . and to the former they say , . that there are other mistranslations , besides those that follow the septuagint . . that christ and the apostles by citing some texts according to the septuagint , do not thereby approve of all the rest ; for they cite others otherwise . . that by citing them , they justifie not alwaies the translation , but only the sense so far as it is cited for , it being that scripture which the people then commonly used . . and they say that if this objection should hinder mens assenting to the liturgy , it might as well hinder their assenting to the bible in our translations . and indeed we know no nonconformist who would declare or subscribe that he doth assent to , approve and consent to all things contained in the bible according to any translation , but only all things contained in the bible as it was delivered by the sacred writers , and in all translations so far as they truly signifie or express that to us . but if they might but say , as one part expounds the declaration , [ we assent , &c. to all things contained , &c. that are not by humane frailty mistaken ] they would soon conform herein . . the calendar in the common prayer appointeth the publick reading of the books called apocrypha beginning september . and so continuing to november . every day of the week , except the proper lessons interposed . part of the apocrypha to be read are the book of tobit , judith , bell , and the dragon &c. . learned bishops and divines of the church of england have written to prove that these books are not only aprocryphal but fabulous , and have manifest untruths ; as that the intralls of a fish will drive away all devils and keep them from returning : when christ saith [ this kind goeth not out but by fasting and prayer ] and when the angel saith that he was the son of ananias of the tribe of napthali , ] &c. . these books are to be read just in the place and order as the sacred scriptures are ; and under the same title of the [ first lesson ] only called apocrypha in the bibles . but . it is not appointed that the priest tell the people so : . if it were , they understand not commonly what [ apocrypha ] signifieth : . if they were sometime told it , they forget it ; and apply not that name to every lesson that they thence hear . . it is not denyed that the sounder books that are apocrypha may be read in the church as a homily may be with due notice of their difference from the canonical books : but the question is whether not only they , but the books proved fabulous by many protestants , may be there read , and that instead of so much of the holy scripture then omitted , and that without any better notice given to the common people of the difference . . and the chief doubt is , whether this may not only be done , but also the calendar as so appointing it , may be approved of and consented to by us all . it hath been before opened , that no parent is permitted to be godfather to his own child ; or to speak one word at his baptizing , to enter him into the covenant of god , or dedicate him to him , nor to promise in his name , nor to undertake any part of his christian education , nor so much as to be urged to be present . nor is there a word to intimate that the godfathers represent the parent , or speak in his name or stead , but the contrary is implyed . [ though the parents are to procure these god fathers . . it hath also been before shewed how great a controversie it is , whether infants right to gods promises and church state , be not by that covenant [ i will be thy god and the god of thy seed ; ] implyed in . cor. . . [ els were your children unclean but now are they holy . ] and so whether infants have any right upon a godfathers words there , who never took them for , his own ; if on the parents account they have no right . and whether such godfathers act be truly the child 's in gods account ; . and it was before enquired , in what sense this godfather doth ( not promise only that the child shall believe at age , but ) in the childs name profess that he doth at present believe : and whether it be not enough [ and much more necessary then the godfathers faith ) that he be the child of a believing parent , dedicating him to god. . and it hath been shewed that godfathers promise themselves partly to teach the child , and partly to provide that he be taught all that a christian should learn as necessary to his souls health . . and that these godfathers never ordinarily , give the parents the least reason to believe that they have any purpose to do any such thing as they undertake : which is perfidiousness in the weightiest business : and . also that ( as such ) they are no adopters or owners of the child . . and also how hard it is for any parents ever to get better , seeing wiser and better will not undertake it in the foresaid conformable sence . . the sence and use of godfathers is partly known by the practise of princes and great men , ( who must be supposed to know best , and be most righteous and exemplary ) who usually by a proxie are godfathers to the children of foreign princes , or great men , ( perhaps papists ) whom they never saw nor ever are like to see their children . . ministers must assent approve of and consent to , all this exclusion of the parents , and presentation , profession , undertaking and promise of the godfathers , which the liturgy mentioneth ; . conformists are not agreed themselves , of the true office and undertaking of these godfathers , nor of the parents part , nor by whose right it is that one child rather than others is to be baptized , and whether any at all should be refused by whomsoever ( that is a christian ) offered thereunto . . the rubrick to which we must declare our assent , approbation and consent , hath this article of faith . [ it is certain by gods word , that children which are baptized , dying before they commit actual sin are undoubtedly saved . ] and the rubrick at buryal , excepteth all the unbaptized from christian burial , according to the office. . the canon and , suspendeth any minister who shall refuse or delay to christen any child without exception which is brought to the church on sundays or holydays to be christned , according to the form in the common-prayer ; or if in case of danger he be desired to do it privately . neither rubrick nor canon here except from baptism and certainty of salvation , any children of turks , infidels , heathens , and atheists , or those whose parents renounce christianity , and consent not to their childrens baptism ; so be it any godfathers as aforesaid bring them . . the conformists agree not of the sence of this article of faith : some hold that the word [ children here meaneth not [ all children that are baptized ] but some such only : but others affirm that this exposition is false , and contrary to the plain importance of the words , for it is an indefinite , say they , in re necessaria , in the sense of the book . and if the meaning be not [ children that are baptized , qua tales ] it hath no intelligible sense , the certainty of their salvation being asserted as from scripture , and not any other reason of it given . but if this be the meaning ( as it is ) then a quatenus ad omnes valet consequentia ; unless any exception had been added , which is not . . some say that it is implied that children that had no right to baptism are excepted . but others say . that ubi lex non distinguit non est distinguendum . the church could have excepted if they would . . and that quod fieri non debet factum valet . . yea that all children have right to baptism , if any christians offer them to it . . some confound the ministers right to baptize them , and the infants right to be baptized ; and this right as only in foro ecclesiae , and as in foro caeli ; as if all baptized upon any of these rights were undoubtedly saved . but others distinguish these , and say , . that the minister may have right to baptize one if offered , that yet ought not to have been offered ; which will not save an uncapable subject : . that the children of hypocrites have right coram ecclesia , and that their baptism ascertaineth to them no more than external or common priviledges ; . and that only the children of true believers have such a right coram deo as certainly saveth them . but others say that both the last sort are saved . . some of them hold that all infants in the world baptized or not , are saved by universal redemption , if they dye before actual sin : and that the article therefore affirmeth it of the baptized . but others say , this cannot be the sence : for . to say [ all baptized ] and mean [ all unbaptized ] or any [ not as baptized ] were not intelligible nor candid . . and the burial rubrick excepting the unbaptized from that christian burial , sheweth the meaning of the church in this article . . also about the [ undoubted certainty ] they differ ; some think that the subscriber or declarer doth not by these words , profess that he himself is [ undoubtedly certain ] of the salvation of all dying baptized infants ; but only that the thing is certainly revealed to be so in gods word . but others say , that both objective and subjective ( or personal ) certainty must needs be meant : and that it were too hard an imputation to say that the church commandeth uncertain , doubting men to profess that the thing is certain and undoubted of ; for how can they tell that it is so ? and if they know it not to be so why should they declare it to be so ? the meaning is not [ i declare that the convocation saith it is certain ; ] for that were but the part of a cryer or reader : nor is it i declare that it is certain to others , though not to me . ] for no man knoweth anothers certainty ; therefore it must mean that [ i am certain and past doubt by the word of god ] or [ i see ascertaining evidence in gods word putting it past doubt . ] so that no uncertain or doubting person can truly thus declare or subscribe . . divers of those divines who are furthest from the nonconformists , hold that by the scripture alone we cannot prove that infants are at all to be baptized ; and the jns baptismi must be proved before the salvation of the baptized as such : others think it hard for that man to be certain by the word of god that all baptized dying infants are saved , who is not certain by that word that any insants should be baptized . . many of the most rash or self conceited , ignorant men are readier to profess [ undoubted certainty ] than they that are more humble , and know much more than they . and it is not he that hith most certainty who is now capable of the ministry , but he that dare profess most , whether he have it or not . . they that shew less learning , especially less knowledge in the scripture , far than many that dare not profess this undoubted certainty , are not like to be more certain then they in this particular article of faith . . we take it for arrogance and fanaticism in the pope and his council to pretend infallible certainty by a peculiar priviledge , in those points in which they are unstudyed and unlearned , as if they knew them by prophetical inspiration . and when young unstudyed men have in this point attained to an [ undoubted certainty ] which their wiser seniors cannot attain , it behoveth them to convince us of the truth of their inspiration or special endowments , either by a proportionable excellency above us in other things , or by some miracles or testimonies from heaven . . there is no one word of god cited in the rubrick which tells us that it is certain by the word of god. . among christian divines there are all these various opinions about the salvation of infants . . some hold that the covenant being to the faithful and their seed , and their children being holy , all the children of sincere christians are certainly in a state of salvation , being by the parents intentionally dedicated to god , before or without baptism : and that baptism is but their so lemn investiture in that state which was theirs by right before . . others think that this right to salvation belongeth to the children of all professed christians godly and ungodly , others think that it belongeth to all infants in the world . . others think that it belongeth only to sincere believers children that are baptized . . others , that it belongeth to sound and unsound christians baptized infants . . others that it belongeth to all baptized infants whose soever . . others hold that it belongeth also to the children of sincere adopters or proprieters . . others that it belongeth to such as even bad christians adopt or own . . others that they that have sincere godfathers , though not proprieters , are saved . . others that even unfound or hypocritical christian godfathers , may suffice to their salvation . . others that the ministers or the churches sincere ( or professed ) faith is hereto sufficient . . and others think that only the elect are saved , of whom some are baptized , and some unbaptized , but no man knoweth who they are . out of all these opinions the convocation hath chosen one , as an article of faith of undoubted certainty by the word of god. . the nonconformists know of no word of god which ascertaineth salvation to any known determinate infants , but the great covenant of grace , [ i will be thy god , and the god of thy seed ; ] which seed god useth as if they were parts of the parents , exod. . , . and second commandment : and saith to believers [ else were your children unclean ; but now , &c. . many divines say , that faith it self hath not evidence ; ( though we think that it hath evidence of the truth of the revelation , though the thing revealed be not visible or evident in it self : ) and more confess that [ undoubted certainty ] is not essential to the saving belief of christ , and of a life to come : and that true faith may be saving , though weak : and that christ silenced not his disciples when he reproved the weakness of their faith : and that to doubt of this article about infants is not so dangerous as to doubt of christ or heaven . ix . all ministers must deny baptism to those infants that have no such godfathers and godmothers as aforesaid , though their parents be true christians , and offer them to baptism . for this is the only order or form of baptizing there described , all other is forbidden , and we subscribe to use no other form in administration of the sacraments . . yet some conformists say , that the book bindeth them to do thus , but not to omit it , and baptize no otherwise . but others of them say , . that the rubrick determineth that [ for every child to be baptized , there shall be three as godfathers and godmothers ] and that the whole office respecteth them as parties , and speaketh to them , and admitteth no parent to speak ; and that if assenting to , approving and consenting to this form and rubrick , and subscribing a covenant to use no other form , signifie not that we will use no other , no words can bind such equivocators . . in the sense of the liturgy , to put infants from baptism , is to deny them christendom , membership of christ , to be children of god , and to be heirs of heaven : for the catechism saith , that we are made such in baptism , which with the rubrick which denyeth them christian burial , and that last mentioned which affirmeth the undoubted salvation of the baptized , import a denying salvation to all that have not such godfathers , without parents sponsion : or at least a denying them [ certainty of undoubted salvation ] when it was in the power of the convocation or priest to have given them such certainty . . the conformists do not affirm ( that we know of ) that any word of god doth institute or command the use of such godfathers , or the foredescribed exclusion of the parents , much less both : and least of all that it maketh these necessary to christendom and salvation , yea or church-reception : but it is used as a tradition or law of men . . the nonconformists therefore dare neither assent to , approve , consent to , covenant , or practice the resusal of the children of true christians from baptism , the church and salvation , on such a cause as this . . the anabaptists hence are hardened , and say , that if infants may be denied baptism , till they have such godfathers as god never instituted they have no right to it at all , and they may deny it them till we prove god's institution of godfathers ; especially where their title is laid upon such godfathers . some say that it is not the minister that refuseth them , but the church which maketh the law : but others say , that it is both the lawmakers , and the minister , unless we could prove that baptizing and judging whom to baptize is none of the ministers office , no nor the bishops ; but that the priest is to baptize all , and only such as the law or convocation bids him baptize , as a meer executioner , and the bishop also such as he is appointed by the same law. that else the same rule would hold for his preaching , praying , &c. x. the like proofs ( which we need not repeat ) will shew , that no minister must baptize any person , infant or adult , without the transient image of a cross , and that to this we must assent and consent , and subscribe to baptize in no other form . . and the same reasons aforegiven shew how great a penalty this is , as excluding them from christendom and salvation in the churches judgment , or from certainty at least . . some conformists say here also , that they assent only to baptize with the cross , but not to baptize no otherwise : but others of them reprove this exposition from the rubrick , and the aforecited canonical subscription , as that which would leave the priest at liberty to do almost what he list , when the church thinks that they have obliged him , and his subscription hath secured his obedience . . and some of them say , that it is not the priest that refuseth them , for he would baptize them ( with the cross ) if the parent sent the child or the adult person came . but we need not strive about the word : the thing we are agreed of , viz. that the priest consenteth not to baptize them , who dare not receive it with the use of the cross : whether this be to be called a rejecting them , or denying them baptism , unless they will be so crossed , we need not call for extraordinaty accurateness to judge . . no conformists do pretend that this use of this image of the cross , is of divine institution : but all confess that baptism is of divine institution ; and that christ hath commanded math. . . . that they that are discipled should be baptized ; and that one may be a disciple of christ , without the image of the cross : . some of the nonconformists hold their use of the cross it self here unlawful : but others that would venture to use it rather than be silenced , yet fear the guilt of denying baptism , christendom and certain salvation ( as the church judgeth ) to all that dare not receive it , or present their children to receive it ; believing that murdering natural life is a less hurt than undoing souls . . but covenanting by deliberate subscription and declaration to do it , how oft soever , they fear more than the actual doing of it rarely ; not daring to do their part to damn the children of all that are against baptizing with the cross , nor all the unbaptized adult that are of that opinion . xi . and as they fear rejecting such as will not be so crost , from baptism : so they much fear the english use of the cross themselves ; and that much more than crossing our selves on ordinary occasions , or setting up crosses on our doors or churches or by the high waies ; and yet much more than they fear such using of the cross as augustine de civ . dei , and other ancients mention , as an open indication to heathens that we are not ashamed of a crucified christ : much less are they against civil uses of a cross . . the name [ sacrament ] signifying primarily any solemnization of a covenant by oath and ceremony ( as the sacramentum militare among the romans ) especially a covenant which engageth one in a new relation , and more largely any sacred mystical ceremony , the question here is whether the cross be not made ( not only a sacrament in a larger sense , as ordination and matrimony may be called sacraments ) but even a sacrament of the covenant of grace , or so very neer it as to have the greatest part of that sacramental nature . . the church catechism defineth a divine sacrament thus , ( an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace given to us , ordained by christ himself as a means whereby we receive the same , and a pledge to assure us thereof . . that it be ordained by christ himself is not essential to a sacrament in genere , but to a sacrament of gods making in specie as distinct from one that 's made by man ; as is evident in the reason of the name . . the true nature of this crossing is known by the liturgy , . and the canon . . the liturgy appointeth it to be used at baptism , not as a part of our baptism , but as a thing added , immediately after the words [ i baptize thee &c. ] even in our covenanting with god : . it thus describeth and appointeth it , [ we receive this child into the congregation of christs flock , ( here the priest shall make a cross upon the forehead ) and do sign him with the sign of the cross , in token that hereafter he shall not be ashamed to confess the faith of christ crucified , and manfully to fight under his banner , against sin , the world and the devil : and to continue christs faithful servant and souldier unto his lives end , amen . . the rubrick to which we assent and consent , referreth us to the th canon , as giving us the true explication thereof , and the just reasons , &c. the canon saith [ christians signed their children therewith when they were christned , to dedicate them by that badge to his service , whose benefits bestowed on them in baptism the name of the cross did represent . ] the church of england accounteth it a lawful outward ceremony , and honourable badge , whereby the infant is dedicated to the service of him that dyed on the cross , as by the words used in the common prayer it may appear . . the liturgy's preface of ceremonies saith [ that they serve to a godly discipline , and are such as be apt to stir up the dull mind of man , to the remembrance of his duty to god by some notable and special signification , whereby he might be edifyed . ] , we suppose that here . the sign is the transient image of the cross used in gods service . . the particular service in which it is used , is our baptismal covenanting with god : . the thing signified by the sign it self is the cross , and passion of christ . . the thing signified by the receiving of it is , that we do as covenanters profess and oblige our selves not to be ashamed to confess the faith of christ crucified , and manfully to fight under his banner against sin , the world and the devil , and to continue christs faithful servants and souldiers to our lives end . and that by this we are dedicated to god ; and that we take it as an honourable badge hereof . . note that the minister speaketh as gods officer from him , and doth not represent the child , nor speak as in his name ; that being the part assigned to the godfathers ; and the thing signified by him in his using this sign is , that he doth as christs minister dedicate him by this sign , to the service of him that dyed on the cross , the name whereof represents the benefits bestowed on him in baptism , ( which are all the benefits of that covenant ) and to oblige him to this end , not to be ashamed to confess the faith of christ crucified , and manfully to fight under his banner ( as aforesaid ; ) and that this be a badge or symbol of his christian profession . . the great fear of the nonconformists is , lest this be a second sacrament of the covenant of graee made by man added to baptism , or at least have most of the nature and uses of it ; and lest christ will take it as an invasion of his prerogative so to use it , and to make a new badge or symbol of our christianity ; as the king would take it ill of one that would without him , make a badge or symbol for his subjects as subjects , or of the order of the knights of the garter as such . and the rather , because it is the use of an image , ( though transient ) in gods worship , and to such high ends . xii . the rubrick which we must assent , approve and consent to , saith , that [ there shall none be admitted to the holy communion , till such time as he be confirmed , or be ready and desirous to be confirmed , ] that is , in the manner prescribed by the liturgy . this , as it concerneth the conformity of the lay-receiver , is spoken of before . but now as it concerneth the ministers assent and consent . . some that take this for a very useful passage , as it enableth them to hold back some uncapable persons , dare not approve it , and consent to it , as it denieth the church communion which christ giveth & commandeth , to persons of unblemished uprightness and piety , if they will not profess themselves willing to be confirmed by our bishops in the manner before described ; though they are willing to own their baptismal covenant ; and few in most places are confirmed . xiii . the liturgy saith , that [ no man should come to the holy communion but with a full trust in god's mercy , and a quiet conscience . ] to which we must declare assent , approbation and consent . . the sense of these words remaineth dubious , whether it speak de necessitate praecepti , v●l medii : some think that the meaning is , that it is the duty of all that come to the communion , to have a full trust , and a quiet conscience : others think that the meaning is only , that all should seek these : others think that tht meaning is , that they should not come without them . their reasons are , . from the plain signification of the words : [ no man should come but with , &c. ] which must differ from [ they that come ought to be such ] . because the necessit as praecepti may be affirmed of perfect obedience since our use of reason : it is every mans duty not to sin at all : and it is every mans duty to believe , and love god , not only sincerely , but with a stronger faith and love ; and it s every mans duty to seek after perfection : and yet no man will say that we should not come to the communion , but with high degrees of grace , or with perfection . . and the words are not that they should seek it , but that they should not come without it . . the nonconformists confess that all men ought to have a full trust , and a quiet conscience : but they think that many good christians have but a weak faith or trust , and an unquiet conscience : and that the eucharist is a confirming and comforting sacrament , and that those that have a weak trust , and unquiet conscience , should come for strengthening and comfort , and be encouraged to come . . therefore seeing no entreaty will prevail with the imposers after so many years time to explain these , and many other such words , they think that the usual sense of such words must be the measure of their exposition ; and therefore they dare not profess assent , and approbation , and consent , till they are better explained to them . xiv . the liturgy requireth that the priest deliver the communion to the people into their hands , all meekly kneeling . . the th . canon saith , [ no minister shall wittingly administer the same to any , but to such as kneel under pain of suspension . . the conformists differ among themselves about the sense of the liturgy herein , viz. whether [ all kneeling ] include a prohibition to deliver it to any that kneel not : some say no : that it only bids them give it to such as kneel , but not to deny it others , though the canon do . others say , yea that it requireth us to give it to no others . their reasons are . because else the precept signified nothing , if men were after it left at liberty . . because [ all ] plainly excludeth others . . because the canon being the decrees of the same church , expoundeth the liturgy ; and it is absurd to say that their rubrick leaveth the minister at liberty to do that same thing for which the canon suspendeth him . . because we must also subscribe that we will use no other form of administration , but that of the liturgy ; which reasons we judge to be cogent . . the nonconformists differ among themselves about kneeling ; some taking it to be sinfully scandalous on the reasons before given ; and some taking it for lawful . but they commonly hold that it is sinfull , cruelty and schism for them as ministers to cast any true christians out of christ's church and communion of saints , and to deny them the body and blood of christ , which he hath commanded his church to deliver and receive , on so small a reason as this not kneeling : . considering the three reasons which are before mentioned as the cause of their doubt . . and that the holy ghost rom. . commandeth both pastors and people to bear with , and receive each other , notwithstanding such kind of differences : . and that good mens judgments in such cases are not in their own power : . and that to tie communion to such doubtful circumstances will certainly cause schism ; and such doings have long distracted christ's churches through the world . . and christ hath commanded all his true disciples to live in loving concord and communion : but kneelers and not kneelers are his true disciples : . and men must not be cast out of the churches communion even for gross and heinous sins , unless they add obstinate impenitency . therefore they dare not assent , approve , consent to , or practice , this rejecting of godly christians for not kneeling in the act of receiving , from those priviledges which christ by his testament hath given them . xv. by the liturgy every parishioner is to communicate twice a year , and by the canon and statute to be compelled so to do : and the churchwarden to present them that do not . and those that do not in a certain time , are to be excommunicated , and after laid in gaol during life , unless they conform . to the liturgies imposition we must profess assent , &c. . not every parishioner ( yea in our experience not one of many ) hath a full trust in god's mercy , and a quiet conscience , without both which they are not to come . . many good christians have so great a sense of their sins and unworthiness , that they dare not communicate till they are fitter : and some are so timerous and melancholy , that hearing the liturgy threaten men to be given up to the devil , and eat and drink their own damnation , if they eat and drink unworthily , it would drive them by fear into distraction should they take it , till they have better thoughts of their title and preparations ; so that their dilemma is sad , when they are either to go to bedlam , or to the common gaol . . to say that all these doubting and timerous people should be otherwise minded , and that this is their errour , is true , but as impertinent , as it is to tell all men that they should never sin or all ignorant carnall ungodly men that they should be wise and godly : but to conclude that men should receive the sacrament , because they ought to be prepared , though they are not prepared , is somewhat like telling the sick that they should work and eat , as they ought to have done if by intemperance they had not disabled themselves . . there are many among us who are conscious of infidelity , atheism , sadduceism and heresie , and some of many secret heinous sins : some of these in their hearts deride christianity and the sacrament ; and the other are afraid of increasing their damnation : but yet do not make known their sin : but it is notorious that abundance of such there be : and the doubt is whether these should be compelled to the sacrament thrice a year . . the nonconformists hold , that to deliver a man , that sacrament , is to deliver him the body and blood of christ , and therewith a sealed pardon of sin , and guift of life eternal ; and they think that the terms on which these are to be received , are [ wholly devoting our selves to christ , denying all , and taking up our cross and following him . and therefore that to say [ receive the sacrament , or he in a gaol ] seemeth much to alter the terms of the gospel , which saith [ if thou canst not suffer a gaol for christ , thou art unworthy of him . it is he that can forsake all for christ , that is fit for the sacrament , and not he that would not communicate without the fear of a prison or other punishment . to give the sacrament , is to give more than all the riches of the world , which none but volunteers and desirers are fit for . . the ancient churches made delinquents long beg for such great priviledges and gifts , knowing that to give them to those that are unwilling , is to subvert the gospel . but they never said [ receive them or go to gaol . ] . were it but granted in england that the great gift of christs body and blood , and holy communion should be administred and received freely , that is , only given by and to voluntary agents and receivers , it would heal almost all the english differences , between episcopal , presbyterians and independents . . yet the nonconformists are not against the encouraging of communicants by special favours , nor the prudent compelling of ignorant men to hear the truth , nor the hindering of pernicious heresies moderately . but the foresaid compulsion of all parishioners they dare not approve . xvi ▪ the minister according to the liturgy is himself to give the eucharist to many , to whom the nonconformists dare not give it : for they must give it thrice a year to all the parishioners , except such as are proved ( to him that hath no power to examine them or witnesses ) to be in malice towards others , or to be in any scandalous sin , and that but for that time , till they are accused and acquit , or still permitted , viz. . they must give it to many that consent not to be any part of their charge , nor take them for their pastors , but bid them deny them the sacrament if they dare , though they consent not to the relation . . they must give it to multitudes of the grosly ignorant , who know not the essentials of christianity or the sacrament , nor will come to them to be taught : when by fame , yea or personal knowledge , they know them to be such , yet without proof ( nor we think with proof ) they cannot refuse them . . it is known that infidels and deriders of scripture and mans immortal state , do swarm more among us . and yet they must all communicate till we can bring proof of it against particular persons : when few men that report it will accuse their neighbours and prove the accusation for fear of their displeasure : . we must give it to all the ungodly that are dismist by a lay-chancellour after accusation , . we must give it to all that are unwilling to receive it , sobeit they had rather take it than lie in a gaol and be undone . . on these terms the nonconformists dare not assent , consent to and approve the giving of it as is prescribed . . it is confessed that compelled receiving is not commanded by christ , nor was used by the church , for many hundred years , even after emperours were christians . xvii . the liturgy requireth ministers at burial , to use these words , importing the salvation of the person : [ forasmuch as it hath pleased almighty god of his great mercy , to take to himself the soul of our dear brother , here departed ] and [ we give thee hearty thanks for that it hath pleased thee to deliver this our brother out of the miseries of this sinful world ] and [ that we may rest in him as our hope is this our brother doth . ] . the conformists are not agreed of the sense of these words : one sort of them say , that all these words import not the salvation of the person : but the rest have more ingenuity , and confess that else the words are not intelligible , and that such equivocation is not tolerable . . some of them say that these passages are good , supposing discipline well exercised ; which if it be not , it is not the fault of the liturgy . but others consider that . we know that discipline is not so exercised as they suppose : . and that these passages are not to be approved and used whether discipline be so exercised or not : the meaning is not [ i approve of this where discipline is well exercised . ] . it is known that the bishops will not have every priest to be judge . . the canon ( which is the work of the same church ) thus expoundeth the churches meaning ; can. . [ all ministers shall observe the orders , rites and ceremonies prescribed in the book of common-prayer , as well in reading the holy scriptures , and saying of prayers , as in administration of the sacraments , without either diminishing in regard of preaching , or in any other respect ; or adding any thing in the matter or form thereof . ] ( this also concerneth most of the cases before instanced in , as expositions of the churches meaning . ) . and can. . it s said [ no minister shall refuse or delay to bury any corps that is brought — in such manner and form as is prescribed in the book of common-prayer : and if he shall refuse — to bury such , except the party deceased were denounced excommunicated majori excommunicatione , for some grievous and notorious crime , and no man able to testifie of his repentance , he shall be suspended by the bishop . . the new edition of the liturgy increaseth the exceptions thus [ the office ensuing is not to be used for any that die unbaptized , or excommunicate , or that have laid violent hands on themselves . ] . note . that many children of good christians by surprize die unbaptized : . many godly sober persons are excommunicated for some point of nonconformity : . some upright christians in phrensies , melancholies and distractions make away themselves . . note , that atheists , infidels , sadduces , blasphemers , whoremongers , &c. swarm now among us , and we rarely hear of any one of these multitudes that are excommunicated ; so that they are not excepted . . it cannot be denyed , that exceptio firmat regulam in non exceptis : so that no other must be excepted . . it is known that all england consists of all the individuals , and all the people are all england . . we commonly preach that without faith and holiness none shall see god ; and that whoremongers , drunkards , &c. cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven . . therefore either we consent to pronounce almost all such to be saved ( at a time when our words take the deepest impression , ) or else more exceptions must be made . . some say that the excommunicable are included in the excommunicated ; but the canon and the express words of the liturgy , and the churches ▪ abhorrence that the priest shall be judge , do so notoriously confute this bold assertion , that by such stretches almost any thing may be said or sworn , and it shall not be known by authority , when , or how far any subject is obliged by covenants or oaths . xviii . the liturgy requireth [ that such ornaments of the church and of the ministers thereof at all times of their ministration , shall be retained and in use , as were in this church of england by the authority of parliament in the d . tear of ed. . . the canon of the same church expoundeth their meaning cap. . thus [ every minister saying the publick prayers or ministring the sacraments or other rites of the church , shall wear a decent and comely surplice &c. . we suppose in the d . of king ed. . the cope , alb and other vestments were in use , which seem forbidden by the common-prayer book in the th . and th . of ed. . . the conformists agree not of the sense of this rubrick , . whether all these are hereby reduced or not . . whether it forbid all ministers to officiate without a surplice , or only command the use of it , without an implyed penalty : but the words , and the forecited canons shew that the church intended an exclusion of all that will not use it : and we must subscribe to administer in no other form . . the nonconformists differ about the surplice ; some taking it to be lawful , and others to be unlawful : but they commonly hold that preaching christs gospel is commanded by god , and that ministers by their ordination are obliged to do the work of that office , and that surplices are not commanded by god ; and therefore , if a man mistakingly should take the use of the surplice to be sinful , he should not therefore be ejected and silenced : and therefore they dare not declare approbation and consent to the rubrick or subscribed form in the canon which implyeth this restraint . xix . the damnatory sentences in the creed called athanasius's , are to be assented , approved and consented to . . if they referred but to the doctrine of the trinity , and not to the particulars of that explication , it would not be excepted against : but some r. reverend conformists do profess that those sentences are untrue , and not to be approved . . but such think that the churches meaning is not to require us to assent or approve them as true , but only to consent to use them : and they prove it , because the same church requireth us to read the books of tobit , &c. which have palpable untruths , and not to believe them to be true . . but that reason seemeth null and vain ; . because the apocrypha is no part of the book to which we must profess assent , approbation and consent , nor to which by the canon we must ex animo subscribe , that there is nothing in it contrary to the word of god. but athanasius's creed , with those damnatory sentences , are part of that book . indeed the liturgy requireth us to read those apocryphal untruths , but they are no part of the book : . and it being not the sense of the liturgy , but of a statute of parliament , which we here doubt of , it seemeth insufficient , if not impertinent , to tell us what is taken for the sense of the church ; for the doubt is what is the sense of the parliament , which we can no otherwise know but by the plain words , till they will otherwise declare their meaning . . and indeed if the passages in tobit , which some reverend bishops call lies ( about the angel's saying that he was the son of ananias , of the tribe of napthali , and the fishes driving away all devils , that they shall never return ) were but to be read , we know not how to approve of that law , calendar or rubrick , that commandeth such reading of them . but yet that is much less than the assent required to athanasius's creed ; which yet we take ( save those damnatory sentences ) to be the best explication of the mystery of the sacred trinity , which in so short a summe is extant in the church . xx. the liturgy saith [ all priests and deacons are to say daily the morning and evening prayer , either privately or openly , not being let by sickness , or some other urgent cause . and the curate that ministreth in every parish-church or chapel , being at home , and not being otherwise reasonably hindred , shall say the same in the parish-church or chapel where he ministreth , &c. . the conformists agree not of the sense of this ; some think that the ordinary incommodities of such a commanded use , may pass as those hinderances or urgent causes mentioned in the exceptions : but the more plain and ingenuous dealers hold , that the urgent causes and hinderances here mentioned , must be somewhat extraordinary , and not any thing which is the usual case of most ministers . . cathedrals and some other churches have many priests and deacons of whom one only can daily ossiciate in publick . and many are chaplains in such mens houses as will have other free prayers used . and most ministers have great and necessary work to do , which must all be left undone , while the common prayer is said over by them twice a day . they have sermons to study , many books to read , that they may be furnished with necessary knowledge for their work : they have abundance of ignorant parishioners to instruct , exhort or comfort ; they have the sick to visit , the dead to bury , the sacraments to administer , families to govern , instruct and provide for . and many find free prayer from the immediate sense of their case and wants , to be so profitable to them that they cannot spare it : all which and more require the the strictest improvement of every minute of their time : and if the liturgy be read over by every priest and deacon twice a day , it is certain that much of these aforesaid must be omitted . and it is a great part of our christian duty , when two good things come together , to choose that which hic et nunc is the greater ; to choose the lesser then being a sin . . therefore the nonconformists dare not assent , approve and consent to the tying of every priest and deacon ordinarily to read over the liturgy twice every day . and they are the more averse to such approbation , by seeing so very few conformists , comparatively , to practice this themselves ; which sheweth that they take it to be unlawful ; seeing it is their judgement that our rulers must be obeyed in all things which are lawful to be so done . and if they that make such declarations of approbation think it unlawful ordinarily to keep them , we may doubt whether it be lawful so to make them , as is required of us . . if god ask us why we did not teach our families , visit the sick , instruct ignorant neighbours , study better for to discharge our ministerial work , that we might be men of knowledge , and such like , the doubt is whether it will pass for a good answer to say , we had not time , because we must twice a day read the common-prayer . xxi . assenting , approving and consenting to all things , even to all forms , orders , &c. includeth the order of the liturgy . two rules of the order of prayer are commonly acknowledged . the nature and order of the matter to be expressed . . the lords prayer us a directory delivered by christ . . the nonconformists that think that for the main there is nothing but good contained in most of the prayers of the liturgy ; yet think that they are greatly disordered and defective ; neither formed according to the order of matter , nor of the lords prayer , but like an immethodical sermon , which is unsuitable to the high subjects and honourable work of holy worship . . they have oft offered , whenever it will be well taken , to give in a catalogue of the disorders and defects of the liturgy : which yet they think it lawful to use , in obedience , or for unity , or when no better may be used : but not to approve of such disorder ; as we do not approve of the failings of any of our own duties , though we are daily guilty of them unwillingly . xxii . the preface to the book of ordination saith , that [ it is evident to all men diligently reading holy scriptures and ancient authors , that from the apostles time there have been these orders in christ's church , bishops , priests and deacons , as several offices ; which are repeated oft in the collects at ordination : to this all must assent and consent . . some of us are conscious that we have diligently read the holy scriptures and ancient authors , and yet three orders and offices are not evident to us . . we have great reason to believe that calvin , beza , and many more reformers , blondell , salmatius , robert parker , gersom , bucer , calderwood , cartwright , john reynolds , ames , ainsworth , and multitudes of such protestants , did diligently read both scriptures and ancients : as also dr. s●illingfleet , bishop edw. reynolds , and many such , who thought that scripture instituted no particular forms of government : as also armachanus , and many other papists , who think that bishops and priests do not differ ordine , but gradu , which the r. reverend archbishop usher ordinarily professed : we cannot assert that none of these diligently read scripture or ancient authors . . but especially when we find that even the ancient church of england was of another mind , as is legible in the canons of aelfrick to wulfine in spelman , pag. . . which conclude that ( in the old large sense ) there were but seven ecclesiastical orders or degrees , and that the bishops and presbyters are not two , but one : hand pluris interest inter missalem presbyterum & episcopum , quam quod episcopus constitutus sit ad ordinationes conferendas , & ad visitandum seu inspiciendum curandumque ea quae ad deum pertinent , quod nimiae crederetur multitudini si omnis presbyter hoc idem faceret . ambo siquidem unum tenent eundemque ordinem , quamvis dignior sit illa pars episcopi . ] . non est alius ordo constitutus in ecclesiasticis ministeriis , &c. et leg. canuti , p. . pastores vocamus episcopos & sacerdotes , quorum partes sunt eruditione at que doctrina gregem domini speculari ac desendere , &c. . and dr. stillingsleet hath proved by sufficient evidence , that the same was the judgment of archbishop cranmer , and other reformers of the church of england . and it is the judgment of some of our bishops and conformists now . all which we speak not to shew which side we think to be in the right ; but that the state of the question is , whether we can assent to this as true , and approve and consent that it be used , as is appointed , [ that it 's evident to all men diligently reading , &c. that de facto there were three orders and offices from the apostles times . xxiii . the ordering of priests requireth the bishop to speak to the people at the ordination of priests , calling them [ to come forth in the name of god , and shew what crime or impediment they know in the persons to be ordained , &c. ] in imitation of the ancient churches , when the congregation over which they were set , had their voice in his election or reception . . the doubt is , whether such a solemn invitation , as in god's name , be not too vain to be assented , and approved , and consented to , in a church , where the people over whom he is set , never use to be present , nor invited to it , nor have any notice of it , or any call to meddle therein ; being usually many miles , and often many score miles distant ; nor any other people called to that work ; and rarely any people there that have any knowledge of the man and his conversation . xxiv . the ordaining of priests , and the consecration of bishops both use these words as concerning the office [ receive the holy ghost for the office and work of a priest , of a bishop , &c. ] . it is not doubted but that the holy ghost must set pastors over the flocks ; . by qualifying men for the office , and making them desirous of it : both grace , ability and willingness are of him : . by giving the ordainers a discerning skill to know whom to ordain : . by giving the flock a discerning and a willing mind . we yet know not of any other collation of the holy ghost , which ordination can make . nor know we that in any of these senses these words can be well understood : for . grace , gifts and willingness , are the dispositio recipient is presupposed : we see not how it can be lawful to ordain him that seemeth not before to have them ▪ what else are they examined about ? nor know we that god hath given any power to the ordainers now , by the laying on of hands , to make an ungodly man godly , or an unlearned or ignorant man to be learned or wise , or a man of ill utterance to have a better tongue , or an unwilling man to be willing . the apostles had a miraculous power of giving the holy ghost for extraordinary works , and for abilities suddenly infused ; and they did it : we never knew of any in our age that did it ; and therefore suppose that they have no promise or power so to do . . and to give a discerning skill to the ordainers ; . or to give a discerning or willing mind to the people , are neither of them a giving the holy ghost to the priest . the doubt is , whether this be not an abuse of the words which christ himself or his apostles used , and so not to be assented to , approved and consented to . . yet is it not denyed , but that ministerial authority is given by the ordainers as ministers , deliverers or investers : but authority is not the holy ghost so called . . nor is it denyed but that as father , son , and holy ghost do enter into covenant with us as christians in our baptism so do they with ministers , as such , in their ordination-covenant : but such a relation to the holy ghost as the ministers future helper in his work , cannot well be supposed to be all that is meant by the words [ receive the holy ghost , ] both scripture and common use , taking them in another sense . xxv . this oath in the consecration of bishops is to be taken by every bishop [ in the name of god amen . i. n. chosen bishop of the church and see of n. do profess and promise all due reverence and obedience to the arch bishop , and to the metropolitical church of n. and to their successours , so help me god through jesus christ . . it is not pretended that any such oaths of obedience were instituted by christ or his apostles ; or were used in the churches for many hundred years , nor till the papacy was rising , which was furthered by such oaths . . they that suppose bishops to be successours of the apostles , cannot make them subjects to any other ecclesiastical rulers , without asserting that the apostles were governours over one another ; which we find not that they do . . it was many hundred years before arch-bishops had any governing power over bishops , or exacted any obedience from them ; being not episcopi episcoporum ( as the carthage fathers in cyprian professed . ) but were only such as had the first seats and voices in the synods . . the question therefore is , whether such oaths , as necessary to a bishops consecration , be to be approved and consented to ? xxvi . an oath of canonical obedience also is put upon all that are made priests and deacons : and priests at their ordination must make this covenant , that they [ will reverently obey their ordinary , and other chief ministers , unto whom is committed the charge and government over them . ] . the ordinary is not only the bishop , but also the chancellour , officials , surrogates , comissaries , arch-deacons , and all that are judges ' in the ecclesiastical courts . . to obey them that are thus de facto set over us , is no less than to obey them in the excercise of that power which is given them as so set over us . . the doubt is , whether they that take any of them to be usurpers of an ecclesiastical power , which indeed they have not ( and can prove it to be so ) should swear or covenant obedience to them as such . e. g. it is commonly confessed by the conformists that the true power of the keys , of excommunication and absolution is appropriated by christ to the clergy : and yet our chancellours being lay men , do decretively excercise that power . the question is , may we swear or covenant to obey them ? . and seeing christ never gave one presbyter the government of others , as archdeacons , surrogates , officials , &c. whether all the rest may swear obedience to them , or approve of and consent to the use of such oaths ? and divers councils have condemned it as a dangerous practice for bishops to tle subject presbyters to them by oaths . xxvii . ministers that live among the people have greatest advantage to know the penitent from the impenitent . . but it is the foresaid lay chancellours , who usually know nothing of them but by reports , that excommunicate and absolve them . and the parish-minister must ( as a cryer readeth a proclamation or sentence of a judge ) openly read these excommunications and absolutions . . these excommunications must pass according to the canons , against all that shall affirm that [ there is any thing in the book of common-prayer r●pugnant to the scripture or any of the articles ●rroneous , or any of the rites and ceremonies such as he may not with a good conscience subscribe to , or that the government by arch-bishops , bishops , deans , arch-deacons and the rest that bear office in the church of england , is repugnant to the word of god , or that any thing in the form and manner of making & consecrating bishops , priests or deacons is repugnant to the word of god , &c. ] . the present doubt is whether a minister who knoweth such of his parish to be godly , peaceable men , whom the chancellour decretively excommunicateth , may both openly read and declare such excommunications and also swear or covenant so to do , in obedience to the ordinary . and whether when he knoweth that a wicked impenitent man is absolved , he may pronounce such absolutions . xxviii . the oath of canonical obedience seemeth to mean obedience according to the canons : and he that covenanteth to obey his ordinary , must be supposed to mean no less than [ according to the canon laws by which he is known to govern , ] and as government thereby is excercised : . and if so , then there are more things in the canons and present government , which the nonconformists dare not swear or covenant to obey ( besides those already named , ) than we will now stand to enumerate . xxix . the rubrick saith that [ the minister who repelleth any from the sacrament , shall be obliged to give an account of the same to the ordinary within daies after , at the furthest . . if all that by gross ignorance , atheism , infidelity , sadducism , heresie , schism , drunkenness , whoredom , stealing , malice , &c. are uncapable of the communion be presented to the ordinary within daies , no charity that is guided by knowledge of the common state of the people , can think , that in london diocess there would be fewer than many score thousands presented at once . and in other diocesses many score hundreds at least , . some ministers dwell a hundred miles or neer from the bishops . and the bishops are divers of them so much at london or abroad , as that it cannot be expected that all these must be presented to the bishop himself , but to the chancellours court , as is usual . . the chancellours court is so far from most ministers in the land , and the prosecuting so many when proof is demanded , will be so chargeable and take up so much time , as that it will undo many poor ministers , that have scarce enough to maintain their families ; and it will take up the time which they should use in the necessary labours for their flocks . . the chancellour is a lay man to whom they must be presented : and the issue will be but a lay mans excommunicating them , if obstinate ; or absolving them : which is not justified by the bishops themselves . . at the said chancellours court things are managed as at a civil judicature : there is not that endeavour to convince sinners by scripture , and to draw them to true repentance , by humbling evidence , intreaties and prayers for them , as should be for the saving of a soul from sin : but the charges of the court fees , and the fears of a prison after excommunication , maketh it an unacceptable and as unlikely means to convert men as the stocks . . therefore for a minister to present all his parishioners to such courts , whom he is bound to deny the sacrament to , were but to make him seem their greatest and cruellest enemy , and to render him uncapable of ever ( probably ) profiting them by his ministry any more ; and consequently , greatly to promote their damnation and make them almost hopeless as to recovery . and if by this terrour they tell the chancellour that they repent , how little satisfaction is that to the minister , that never saw , himself , any signs of their repentance . . the doubt is then , whether the use of this rubrick may be approved and consented to . . especially considering that all the parish who receive not thrice a year , ( of which easter must be one for them all ) must be presented to the said ordinary , and also all that come not to church ; by which means divers parishes about london must have some , some , some , some , or , that have no room in the church , all presented if this law were executed . xxx . we have reason to doubt whether the act of uniformity it self be not part of the books which we must subscribe assent and consent to ; because it is so said in the book it self : the contents of the book are first named in general , and then this act named among the contents . either it is part of the contents , or it is not ; if it be not , we must not assent and consent to that falshood ( that it is ; ) if it be , o far be it from us that believe a god , a judgment , and a life to come , and the sacred scriptures , to assent and consent to that act with all its penalties , silencing and ruining such as conform not . one of us that was oft with the great , wise , just lord chief justice hales , hath heard him lamenting the schisms and discords of the clergy , seriously say , that [ there was no right way to heal us , but by a new act of uniformity . ] ( and hath his late writings against laying concord or religion upon mens unnecessary additions . ) and the reporter taketh not himself to be wiser than him , nor meet to assent and consent to such a law , considering the experience of these seventeen years , and the consequents on mens divided and exasperated minds , upon the congregations , upon ministers and families , and upon the state and security of the christian religion , and the protestant cause , &c. as to them that say that the act nameth the book as distinct from it self ; we answer , . so do the titles of acts of parliament name the act it self as distinct from the title , and yet we suppose that title part of the act. . the book nameth the act as part of its contents , as is aforesaid . if we should by mistake think some of these passages to be unlawful that are not , or to have a worse sense than indeed they have , let these things be considered . . we judge as well as we are able ; and whatever sense another takes them in , we that so understand them cannot take them . . we judge of the sense by the plain words ; the force and stretch is not by us but by those that conform and contradict our sense . . the law-givers will not otherwise expound their own words , after years waiting for it under compulsive executions : certainly if they would have us understand their words contrary to common use , they would rather tell us so after seventeen years time , than ruine us , and forbear so easie a means to heal the churches . . some of us so highly value the excellent praelections of bishop sanderson de juramento , and his judgment , against taking and expounding oaths ( and consequently professions and promises ) in a stretched or a doubtful sense , and his counsel to refuse them , when the sense is doubtful , if the rulers or imposers will not expound them ( though they should bid us take them in our own sense ; ) with much more which he hath excellently said to such purposes , that we thankfully acknowledge that he hath much helpt for to fortifie us against the guilt of perjury , and falshood , and prophaning the holy name of god , and deceiving our governours by equivocations and false expositions , and scandalously tempting others to perjury , lying , or such other sins . we take an understanding , serious ( and if it may be publick ) owning of the baptismal covenant in age to be of so great moment to the reviting of true christianity and the honour of baptism and cure of anabaptism , that it greatly grieveth us that we must despair of its effectual practise , when we meet with few that seem not to approve it . the words of a very learned and great conformist mr elder field of baptism pag. . marg . we think worthy our recital . upon score of like reason ( saith he ) whereto , and for such after tryal , may have been taken up in the christian church , that examination which did sift the constancy or rather consistency of those that had been taken in young , to their presumed grounds , that if they wavered they might be known and discharged , or if they remained constant , they might by imposition of hands receive what the commoner name of that ceremony did import , of their faith ( at least a sign of ) confirmation . vasquez hath from erasmus ( in the preface to his paraphrase on the gospels ) a word of most wholsom grave and prudent advise , that those who were baptized young , when they begin to write man , should be examined , an ratum habeant id quod in catechismo ipsorum nomine promissum : quod si ratum non habeant , ab ecclisiae jurisdictione liberos manere ; in . p. thom. disp . . to. . c. . sect . . if they did then stand to what their sureties promised for them . if not they should be discarded . most necessary ! and of unimaginable benefit ! such a scrutiny would shake off thousands of rotten hypocrites , and purge the church of many such inside ! believers or professours , upon whose dirty faces a little holy water was sprinkled when they knew not what it was ; but they no more mind the true sanctification appertaining than the turks or saracens ( who shall rise up in judgement against their washed filthiness , ) or than those of whom st. peter [ it is hapned to them according to the true proverb : the dog to his vomit , and the washed swine to wallow in the mire . ] such discipline of a wakened reason is that the world groans for ; that men would become christians . o that the truth of faith , and power of true christian belief might be seen in those that knowingly put the neck in christs yoak . ] so far he . see also dr. patrick of baptism . and of our selves mr. hanmer and baxter have written treatises only on this subject , to shew that such true confirmation would be the most excellent means to heal most of our enormities and divisions . and shall such jesuits as vasquez , such moderators as erasmus , and protestant conformists , and nonconformists , all thus speak for it , and yet no hope ? no wonder if a word or ceremony that we disagree in , can make our wound so sad as we have self , when that which we in words agree for , and that not as a thing indifferent , but so necessary , cannot yet be obtained though we perish . dead images of all good things , is but the last and most effectual means of destroying the life and real good : dead shews and images of good , are hypocrisie ; sincerity is reality , seriousness and life . we take our baptism to be our christening , or the summe of the christian religion : and it is but for men to do that seriously at age , which they did in infancy by others authorized ( or others for them ) which is the conversion which we daily preach : and it grieveth us to see what multitudes , when aged , never seriously think either what they did or received in their infancy ; and how many hate such a life as they have vowed , and yet think that they stand to their baptismal covenant . and till the pastors of the church make a serious work of it , to bring all their parishes to a serious understanding and consideration of their baptism , and a serious owning it , and renewing of that covenant , we cannot hope that the people will be serious christians ; or that men will not think that serious anabaptists are better than hypocrites that contemn their baptism . sect . ii. the second part of the matter of conformity . the first part de facto , being contained in the canonical subscription , and the declaration , hath been opened : the second part is the case of reordination . either they that require episcopal ordination for all that were otherwise ordained when bishops were put out , do intend it a second ordination or not . if yea , then it is a thing condemned by the ancient churches , by the canons called the apostles , &c. and by gregory m. and others likened to anabaptistry . if not , then they take such mens former ordination to be null , and consequently no ministers to be true ministers that are so ordained , and not by diocesans ; and consequently all such churches to be no true churches ( while they take the roman ordination to be valid . ) to speak of the consequences of this as to the nullity of baptizings and consecration of the lords supper , &c. and of the taking of god's name in vain in the office if it prove evil , would be to go further than the matter of fact. sect . xi . the third part of conformity . the third part of conformity is the subscribing against the obligation from the vow [ to endeavour any change or alteration of government in the church , ] with the oxford oath [ that we will never endeavour any alteration ; ] and the articles for our prelacy ; and the ordination-promise , and oath of canonical obedience before-mentioned , as to this point together . . even those nonconformists that are for the lawfulness , yea the need and desirableness of bishops , and archbishops , have so much against this subscription , as that to avoid prolixity , we will forbear reciting the particulars , any further than to tell you , that while a thousand or many hundred parish-churches are all without any particular appropriate bishops ( great towns and villages ) when in ignatius's daies the unity of each church was known by having one altar , and one bishop , with the presbyters and deacons . and jerom defineth a church to be plebs unita episcopo ; and consequently they are without the discipline and pastoral oversight of such bishops ; and while all these parishes are in the old sense become no churches ( for ubi episcopus , ibi ecclesia ) but only parts of a diocesan church : and while the old form of churches , presbyters and bishops is thus changed : and while one bishop hath now more work of discipline ( besides confirming and all his other work ) than an hundred of the ablest and best men can do ; and so such discipline is necessarily undone : and while the case is as if the bishop of carthage had put down six hundred neighbour-bishops , and become the sole bishop of all their churches ; or as if all the schools in a diocess have but one governing school-master , who had power to judge what scholar to receive , or to refuse : and while the keys are to be exercised by lay-men , these will be unsatisfying things . . the conformists are not agreed of the meaning of these subscriptions and oaths ; some think that they covenant only to submit to them ( though they dislike them : ) but others think that it is also to approve the government . some think that it is only bishops that they are bound to : but others say , that the word ordinary certainly signifieth more than bishops , even lay-chancellours . and that the for●cited canon expresly nameth many others , even with an & catera , [ the rest that bear office ] and [ any alteration ] must needs mean more : as [ any alteration in state ] sure ext●nleth to more than not endeavouring to [ change monarchy or the king himself . ] some say that by [ n●t endeavouring ] is m●ant only [ not unlawfully endeavouring ] but not that all endeavours are forbidden , viz. not petitioning , speaking when called , &c. others say that if exceptions had been allowed , the law makers would have made us know it , and not have spoken universally : and that if you expound it of [ unlawful endeavours ] you leave all men at liberty to judge what is unlawful , and all schismaticks will take the oath or subscription , because they hold their endeavours to extirpate prelacy to be lawful . some say that one may endeavour in his place and calling , to take the church-keys out of the hands of lay-chancellours , notwithstanding this subscription and oath . but others more ingenuously say , that the very actual government or keys being in the hands of lay-chancellours , if it bind us not against endeavouring to change these , it binds us to nothing that can be understood : and that if subjects thus take liberty after universal oaths and promises to make such exceptions , they reproach the law-makers , as if in such tremendous things as these they knew not how to put their laws in words intelligible , and of common sense : and they relax all such sacred bonds . some say that in [ not endeavouring ] is excepted [ unless the king commission or command us : ] but others say , that if the law-givers would have had such exceptions , they had wit enough to have put them in : and that if you leave it to men to except from universals , you cannot tell them where to stop : and that the use of the oath and subscription is , that the church-government be taken for unalterable . sect . xii . the fourth part of conformity . iv. the fourth part of conformity is the subscription against the obligation of the oath called the solemn vow and covenant . corporations are constituted by declaring , that there is no obligation from it to any one without exception : but ministers must only subscribe that there is no obligation on me , or on any other person , from the oath , — to endeavour any change or alteration of government in the church . ] . it is none of the controversie here , . whether that vow was lawfully imposed or contrived , . nor whether it were lawfuly taken . . nor whether part of the matter was unlawful . but supposing all these unlawful , . whether all alteration of church government be unlawful ? whether it be not in the power of the king and parliament , to set a bishop in every market town : or to take the use of the keys from laymen : or to take down archdeacons , officials , commissaries . surrogates , & c ? whether all reformation be out of the power of the king , or not to be desired by the people ? . whether that which is lawful may not be done by the law makers , and be endeavoured by speech in parliament , or by petition by the people ; especially if the king command it ? . whether men be not bound by a vow to that which is lawful : much more to that which is antecedently a duty ? . the conformists are here disagreed among themselves ; some say that the vow bindeth not because it was unlawfully imposed : but other● better say , that this proveth no more , but that the imposers could not bind me to take it by any authority of theirs ; and that if i had taken it in secret without imposition , i had been bound by it : els no private vow should bind . some say that it binds not because it was sinfully taken : but others truly say that if oaths bind not wherever men take them sinfully , no wicked man should ever be bound by oaths or vows , because they usually make them sinfully by an ill end and intention , wrong motives , or ill principles or manner : or at least a bad man might choose whether ever he will be obliged : but all good casuists agree , that if the matter be lawful the unlawful taking hinders not the obligation . a man that is baptized with ill motives or intentions , is yet obliged by his baptismal vow . some say that it binds not because the matter it self is unlawful . but it s granted that it bindeth to no unlawful matter : others therefore truly say that he that voweth six things whereof three are sinful , is not disobliged by the conjunction of these from the other three that are lawful : els a knave may keep himself disobliged as to all vows , by putting in some unlawful thing . some say that it binds not because we were antecedently bound to all that is good by other bonds , and therefore not by this . but others truly say , that this is a most intollerable reason and would nullifie our baptismal vow , and all our sacramental vows renewed ; and all covenants that ever man can make to god of any duty . for gods own laws first bind us to every duty : but for all that our own vows , covenants and promises secondarily bind us also : and a man may have many obligations to one duty ; yea indeed the covenanters ordinarily profess that they think not that a man should vow any thing to god but what god first hath made his duty . and they are against the papists for making religions and duties to themselves which god never made : and therefore they profess that if some things in the covenant were not their duty before , they would not think that they are bound to it now : and they profess that if they had never taken that vow they had been bound to all that by it they are bound to : and therefore condemning that vow doth no whit secure the government of the church ( e. g. lay chancellours use of the keys , or the destruction of discipline ) from their lawful endeavours to alter it . and they profess that seeing the king hath power to command them lawful things , if they had vowed any thing meerly indifferent it would not have bound them against the kings commands ; because it is not in subjects power , by vows to withdraw themselves from their obedience to authority . some say that the proclamation of king charles the first against the covenant null'd the obligation . but others truly say , . that it could null no more than the imposition to take it , and not the obligation when it 's taken , in necessary things : . that this is nothing to all them that took it afterward , and that when charles ii. had ( though injuriously ) been drawn to declare for it . some say that it binds not because men took it unwillingly . but others truly say , . that this would leave it in the power of a bad man to nullifie all vows and contracts , by saying that he did them unwillingly : . that man hath f●ee will and cannot be compelled : and a vow of a thing lawful to save ones life bindeth : men must rather die than lie . . this would teach subjects to say that they take all oaths of alegiance to the king unwillingly and therefore are not bound . . it s true that no man that forceth another injuriously to a promise can claim to himself any right from that which was not free but procured by his own injurious violence or fraud ; but god wrongeth none , and a vow to god bindeth though procured by sinful force by men . some say that it was only a league and covenant with men , and not a vow , and therefore ceaseth c●ssante occasione , and by the consent of parliament● , &c. ans . there is no place for the belief of this objection to any that knoweth a vow otherwise than by the name : indeed an oath that is but an appeal to god , that i will faithfully perform my covenant with a man , obligeth me not when that man hath discharged me from any obligation to him . but this in question was primarily a promise or covenant made to god ( which is a vow , ) and a league and covenant of men with one another that they will perform it ; as is notorious to any man that readeth it with common understanding . ii. the second thing questioned about that vow ( and the main ) is , whether every minister must or may become the judge of all other mens consciences and obligations in three kingdoms , even of many thousands whom they never saw nor heard of , and that so far as to absolve or justifie them from all obligations by that vow to endeavour any church reformation . . it is here supposed . that though men ought to take an oath in the sence of a lawful governour so far as they know it , yet that they are not bound beyond the plain meaning of the words to the sense of usurpers : therefore they know not but the king and lords , &c. might take the same words in another meaning than the obtruders did intend ; e. g , to reform according to gods word and the example of the best reformed churches might signifie to them an opposition to presbytery . that if men mistake the sence of the imposers , they are bound to keep an oath in the lawful sence in which they took it . and then how knoweth every minister in what sense every man in the three kingdoms took it ? and how is he able to say that no one man of them all is obliged by it to endeavour a lawful and necessary reformation ? . and as to the former argument that men were forced to it , many of the old parliament are yet living , and many others , that then forced others to it , and were not forced to it themselves . and if the present parliament-men could ( upon what compulsion soever ) vow to reform , e. g. scandalous ministers , swearing , drunkenness , popery , &c. and then would command all ministers on pain of silencing to subscribe that no man is bound to perform that vow , this would not do them any service , but involve each subscriber in the guilt of a multitudes perfidiousness . sect . xiii . v. the fifth part of conformity . . the the fifth part of conformity is the subscribing of the said declaration , and taking the oxford oath , as it concerneth civil government , viz. [ it is not lawful on any pretence whatsoever to take arms against the king ; and that i do abhor that traiterous position of taking arms by his authority against his person , or against those that are commissioned by him . ] in pursuance of that commission . . here the question is not of the first clause , of taking arms against the king ; but only of the last [ against those that are commissioned by him ] the ministers being mostly ignorant of law , and not knowing what is called a commission , and what seal maketh it such : for as they are satisfied that no true legal commission of the king may be resisted , so while the unexpounded words have no limitation or exception , they dare not think that a lord chancellour or keeper hath power at his pleasure to depose the king , by sealing commissions to any to seize on his forts , garrisons , magazines , treasure , navies or guards ; nor yet to destroy the kingdoms , cities , laws and judgments , and seize at pleasure on all mens estates or lives . and they dare not swear or subscribe that which the generality of learned men , heathens , papists and protestants , politicians , lawyers , and divines are commonly against , it being too great presuming on their own wits to say or swear , that almost all the world are in the wrong ( even men in their own profession ) and that yet they are wiser than all these . an oath therefore being to be taken understandingly , their not understanding this , causeth their refusal ; and it pleaseth not the law givers to explain it to them . . but though this be a very important business , we are so unwilling to meddle with matters of our rulers power , as being less pertinent to our function , and the late debates in the house of lords ( as some body hath published them ) have said so much in this case , that we think it best to say no more of it . sect . xiv . vi. the sixth part of conformity or obedience consequently required of ministers . . the sixth part of obedience required of us consequently is , that till we can do all aforesaid , we must desert our former flocks , though they desire us to continue our care of them , and that we give over our preaching the gospel of salvation to any but our families , or four more ; and that no man not ordained by diocesans administer the lords supper , &c. ] . the question is not whether we should give up the temples and tythes , and all publick maintenance when ever it is required of us : though st. ambrose would not obey the emperour valentinian , in giving up one temple which he could spare , to the arrians ; yet the nonconformists are of another judgment , and think them all in the magistrates power : but it is the office , relation and work , that they dare not renounce or cease from , without a better discharge . . yet they judge , that where truly there is no necessity of their labours , or they should do more hurt than good by preaching , it is their duty , when forbidden , to forbear : but not because any will say , we are judges , and it is so , when notoriously it is not so . . but this requireth a larger disquisition than we may here stay to make . sect . xv. vii . the seventh part of required obedience . . the seventh part of the obedience required of us , is that we come not within five miles of any city or corporation which sendeth burgesses to parliament , or to any other place whatever , where we have ever preached since the act of oblivion ; except on the rode or summoned . . many ministers have their friends , houses , and all that they have , in those forbidden places . . the greatest places being most populous have most need of preachers , many souls being more precious than few , and the publick teachers that have many thousands , needing more help than they that have but little charges . . few ministers are rich enough to be able to sell their houses and goods at loss ( when perhaps none will take them , ) and to take houses in other countries . . a great part of the land is seated so neer corporations , that it is hard to find a place that is above five miles off them ; and some ministers have preached about in so many places , that it is hard to find a place within their reach , above five miles from the places which they have preached in : and in such places , it is rare to find empty houses , and landlords that will let them on terms which they are capable of : so hard to them is this confinement . . they think that men can no more disoblige them from preaching to many in cities and corporations , than to four or five in villages ; seeing the churches of old were planted most in cities , and christ saith not , [ forsake all the souls in cities if they bid you , ] but [ when you are persecucuted in one city fly to another . ] . though we live not to eat , we must eat to live ; and when ministers that have nothing , are like to beg or famish among strangers in poor villages , and bigger places do more call for help , and will allow them bread , they think it no sin to eat bread any more than to give bread to others that are in want . . the former laws send them when they are in beggery , to be kept by the parishes where they last lived ; and this law forbids them to come within five miles of them . sect . xvi . the adjuncts and other matters agreed on , which affright the nonconformists . i. as there are some sins far greater , and more terrible to conscience than others , so aggravating adjuncts oft make them such : and these here seem very frightful . we are not now charging any others with sin , nor proving the unlawfulness of what we fear , but expressing the matter of fact agreed on , which doth affright us . i. both sides agree , that it is a great aggravation of sin to be done by a minister of christ , a person consecrated to holy work , to preach truth and holiness , and serve at the altar : for our doctrine will be the less regarded , and men will be tempted to follow our bad example , who are bound to be to them patterns of purity and obedience to god : and christian and protestant religion is most injured by ministers sins . ii. it is agreed that our ministorial sins , which we do as if they were part of our office in the publick assemblies , have a special aggravation differing from mens secret personal crimes . iii. it is agreed that lying and perjury are sins of so heinous a nature , as that they tend to overthrow humane trust and converse , and all societies , and deprive princes of part of the security due to them for their lives and crowns : and that in a preacher of the gospel they are intollerable , tending to tempt the hearers to believe nothing that we say . iv. it is agreed that by assertion to absolve thousands of persons known or unknown , and justifie them , if they should prove guilty of such a crime , and so to draw on our selves the guilt of many thousand perjuries , would be a sin of as heinous a nature as most we can imagine . v. it is agreed by protestants , that all oaths , covenants and laws , must be understood according to the plain and usual sense of the words , unless our rulers otherwise expound them , and tell us that they mean somewhat else . vi. it is agreed that though judges must determine of the sence of laws , so far as to decide the cases that are brought to them ; yet none can make an universal obligatory exposition of a law , to bind the subjects conscience in understanding it ▪ but the sovereign and lawgivers themselves : else a judge might become a legislator and frustrate the kings laws by his expositions . if judgements be the expositors and preservers of common unwritten laws which are customs , it is because it is the law-makers or sovereigns will that it shall be so . vii . it is agreed by all protestants that stretching the words of laws , oaths and promises to meanings quite differing from the common use of the words , without the direction of the law-makers to to do , and taking such oaths or covenants with eqnivocations and mental reservations on pretence of charitable interpretation , for our own ends and interests , is more suitable to atheists than sincere christians , and would overthrow humane trust , and the end of laws and princes safety , as well as other sorts of perjury . for instance , if one take the subscribed declarations that [ its unlawful on any pretence whatsoever to take arms against the king and so on ] and will thus equivocate , as they say some do ; viz. [ it is unlawful ] that is , against the law of the land but not against gods law ; [ to take arms against the king ] that is , as king ; but saith sua●ez , and such others , when he is excommunicate by the pope he is no king ; [ on any pretence ] that is , say they , [ unjust pretence ] [ by his authority against his person , and souldiers ] that is , say the equivocaters , [ its well said that we may not do it by his authority , but we may do it by the law of nature and so by gods authority whose law that is ; [ against any commissioned by him ] that is , say they , lawfully commissioned , and we are judges when his commissions are unlawful : so [ we will not endeavour any alteration of government in church or state ] that is say they , . not of monarchy , or the king , but we may yet disturb any of his officers : . not of the essentials of episcopacy ; but we may seek to take down their wealth and lordships , and reduce them from diocesans to parochial or corporation bishops : . not by unlawful means ; but we take not that to be unlawful which they do . what good will oaths or covenants taken with such latitude or equivocation do ? do they secure any of the ends of governments ? rulers should abhor such equivocations and stretching latitudes as these . viii . it is agreed on both sides , that if we might go on this supposition , that our rulers can require nothing that is unjust or impious , or against the law or common good or their own interest , and therefore that no exposition is to be put on their laws or impositions which is of any such importance , by this rule any oath or covenant or promise in the world which governours shall impose upon us , may be taken : for we must put a good sense upon them all : and the sense is the oath or covenant . ix . it is commonly agreed that a man may not deliberately tell one lie to save his life , or his ministerial liberty : and that if any one only of all the things imposed on us be a sin , it is the duty of all the ministers of england rather to suffer any thing , or to dye than to commit it . and that if it be one mans duty to be silent in such a case , it would be the duty of all the ministers in the land , if the things be sin . x. and all are agreed that to silence all the ministers of the nation , is a thing that god hath not given any man authority to do , because of the necessity of their ministry ; and consequently not to silence any necessary ministry at all . xi . it is agreed that satan would fain corrupt states and churches with the most heinous sins , to expose them to gods judgements and the enemies scorn : and that common perjury or perfidiousness is one of those greatest sins : and that as the belief of the truth is the beginning of christianity , so satan is a lyer and the father of lies : and he that thinketh that satan is endeavouring to stigmatiz● persons , churches or kingdomes with his brand of per should the more carefully avoid the receiving of that mark . xii . it is agreed that god hath within these fourteen years excercised very grievous chastisements on cities and corporations , by such a plague ( on london and many corporations ) and such fires on london , southwark and many corporations ) and such increase of poverty , ( though we have more liberty at sea and land for trade , than almost any nation neer us ) as that the like hath not been known in our forefathers daies : and that if this should be the voice of christ , as a reproof of our perfidiousness , and perjuries , saying ( except ye repent , ye shall all likewise perish , ) it would leave the impenitent without all just excuse . xiii . it is agreed by us all , that god will not hold him guiltless who taketh his name in vain ; especially by perjury or false vows or covenants ; and that for oaths ( broken ) the land may mourn : and that he is the grand enemy of church or kingdomes , who would by such sin bring them under the judgments of god : and , as achan , bring in an accursed thing . xiv . none can deny that it is better to cherish honesty and conscience , especially about oaths and covenants which secure converse and the lives of princes , than to teach men to stretch conscience in such matters ; and to make every seared conscience capable of the holy ministry , preferment and honour ; and a fear of such sin , to be the way to silence and ruine . xv. we agree that when jesuites and other papists have contracted the shame of equivocation and perfidiousness , protestants should not partake with them , and take the shame on their religion , xvi . it is agreed that when the scots covenant is so greatly decryed , and the violation of the oaths of allegiance and other oaths and covenants was found necessary to the killing of the king , and other late confusions and iniquities , we should not after such warning either insnare men in unnecessary oaths & covenants , nor harden such men against repentance , by doing any such thing our selves , much less by commanding it . xvii we are agreed that to commit a sin by passion or sudden surprize , is not so wicked as to do it on deliberation : nor is the doing it only so bad , as undertaking to justifie it , and encourage others to do the like . xviii . we are agreed that god is jealous about holy things , and that wilful corrupting his church , worship or discipline , to the disgrace of religion and encouragement of wickedness is a heinous sin : especially to approve such things . xix . we are agreed that to make a deliberate covenant that i will sin against god , and to subscribe and declare this , is a heinous aggravation of the sin : e. g. when the high places were kept up in judea if any had covenanted to keep them up , and purposed to transgress , the wilfulness had been the greatness and dangerous signification of such sinning . xx. we are agreed that repentance is gods condition of forgiveness ; and that for a man to resolve and covenant to sin and to profess it openly to all the church , and that oft times , and so to renounce repentance , is — alas — xxi . most sober christians are agreed that christians should be united upon the terms which christ himself hath made in the baptismal covenant , and in their obedience to his laws ; and that papall usurpations and imposing of things unnecessary as necessary to union , communion or ministration , hath been the great cause of schisms through the christian world , for about years at least : and that they who will still obey such dividing imposers , do continue schisms in the world by encouraging the causes of them . xxii . we are on both sides agreed , that it were heinous hypocrisie , and prophaneness , if we should make our sacred ministerial work the pretended reason for our sinning , and should swear , declare or subscribe that which we take to be false , and do that which we take to be sin , that we may have leave to preach against sin in others ; and so offer god a sacrifice of iniquity , and put a beam into our own eye that we may have leave to preach against the mote that is in our brothers eye . xxiii . we are afraid of making separatists and anabaptists and tempting men to avoid us , as scandalous men . xxiv . we are afraid lest by such wilful sin , we should by a carnal interest , to defend what we have once done , be tempted to impenitence , and to persecute the just . xxv . we are agreed that they that will run into willful heinous sin , as they deserve to be forsaken of god , so they cannot expect such a blessing on their ministry , as conscionable upright men may do . xxvi . it is agreed that the ancient christian pasters preached against the will of princes for years ; and after that against the will of christian princes ( constartius , valens , theodosius junior , vaientinian , &c. ) and not only apostles said , that god was to be obeyed rather than men , but such as timothy who was ordained by man , were charged before god and the lord jesus christ who will judge the living and dead at his appearing and kingdom , to preach the gospel and be instant , in season ; &c. xxvii . we are agreed that the children of christians , when they grow up , know no more of god , of heaven , of christ , without teaching , than the children of heathens do : and therefore that the opening and applying the gospel is needful in england as well as in america . xxviii . it is so far from saving unbelievers or ungodly persons , that they are the children of christians , and in the visible church . that it maketh their case more miserable ; if not worse than that of sodom and gomorrah . xxix . as of old every single church had usually many presbyters and deasons with the bishop , so it is undeniable that many of our parishes have work enough for many ministers , and only want of maintenance is pretended for our present paucity ( with the want of worthy men . ) xxx . it is granted us , that to alienate consecrated persons from the holy ministry causlesly , is greater sacriledge than to alienate consecrated lands , goods or temples , which are but means to the use of the said ministry . we are not here accusing our silencers of this heinous sacriledge : their righteous judge and ours , will quickly pass the final sentence : but we dare not , we will not sacrilegiously silence and alienate our selves , lest we forsake our lord , and betray mens souls , and be doomed as the slothful servant that hid his talent , mat. . and bring down more plagues upon the land : we fear when we read thes . . , . the signs that wrath was come to the utmost on the jews ; even their forbidding men to preach the gospel of salvation , lest we should contribute to such a dreadful desertion of this land. sect . xvii . the case of the ministers since they were silenced , and their practice ( with the peoples . ) we humbly crave of those narrow seers , who venture to censure the generality , for somewhat which they dislike in some persons that are neerest to themselves , that they would truly understand the case and practice of their brethren , before they any further in sermons and writings provoke the magistrate to execute the laws upon them , as schi●maticks , seditious , or what accusation is readiest at hand . i. that the elder sort of the nonconformists are ordained by bishops , and most of the rest by such pastors of churches , of cities , corporations and other parishes associate , as the times then allowed ; and that in this ordination ( be the ceremonious part right or wrong ) they are all by consent or covenant devoted to the sacred ministry , and that not for a time , as hirelings , but for life : this is denied by none that we know of . ii. it is known to all faithful ministers and others , who converse with the common sort of men , that a great part of the people of england are ignorant of the very essentials of christianity , and a great part dull and worldly neglecters of all serious religiousness ; and a great part sen●ual , drowned in filthy fleshly sins : besides the ignorance , weakness , and unwarrantable opinions and passions of many that are more seriously religious than the rest . and that it is a hard work to cure one ignorant , erroneous , vitious soul : and each one is precious , and not to to be left in sin as desperate ; considering the everlasting consequents . iii. it is certain that most great parishes , especially in cities and great towns , have more souls which call for ministerial help , than conformists and nonconformists , if they lovingly joyned , are able well to afford necessary help to . iv. the ministers that dwell in cities or corporations , when they were cast out , did quietly surrender temples and tythes : but many of their people claimed the continuance of their relation and ministry ; and many professed that they could not trust their souls to the pastoral guidance and care of many of those who were placed in the temples in their stead ; and charged the neglect of their souls on such as refused . v. the bills of mortality shew us that the parishes within the walls of london are not the seventh part of the whole , including all the outer parishes : and of the there were very few churches left unburned ; and there are but few that are yet built up ; and instead of many , there are small tabernacles , and instead of others nothing : and the outer parishes are mostly so great , as that the temples will hold but a small part of the people : it is conjectured by the inhabitants , that in martins parish are about threescore thousand souls , and in stepney and giles's cripplegate , each about fifty thousand , and in giles's in the fields between and , and in clements danes , margarets westminster , andrews holborn , sepulchres , and the churches in southwark , at aldgate , white-chappel , shoreditch , and divers others , there are in some six times the number that can hear in the temples , in some more , and in others not much less . and in most churches the preachers voice will not extend to above two thousand , if more can come in . so that take one with another , and it is conjectured that it is not above the seventh or eight part of the inhabitants that can come to hear in the outer parishes : and if the other six or seven parts should seek for room in the emptier churches of other parished within the walls , it cannot be supposed that above one part of these six or seven would find room : so that all set together , there is supposed to be place but for about the fifth , or fourth part at most , of all the people within and without the walls : and london is to be denominated rather from three , four or five parts , than from one of these : and we all agree , that the famousest and happiest city for religion in the world should not be left to turn infidels , pagans , atheists , or to be kept from all publick worship of god. and it must be considered that the great parishes where one of twenty cannot hear , are far off from the churches that have room ; and that such persons cannot easily know before-hand what churches have room , and where to seek it : and that those that have most need , have least desire , and when they cannot be taught near home , will rather stay at home , or in the streets , or ale houses , than go far to seek room in the alleys of other churches . and it 's known that by this means papists have got opportunity of seducing multitudes , and many get them to baptize their children . and whereas it is said that some may go one day , and some another ; it is answered , . that if they did go half the families by turns , still the greater part would be shut out . . it is all , that are bound by god constantly to hear and worship him . . and those that most value it will still croud in , and keep out the rest , and will not bargain away their own duties and benefits for other mens sakes : nor can parishes come to agree upon such a bargain . vi. experience assureth us that men are not usually brought to knowledge , repentance , faith and holiness , by the gospel ex opere operato , or as by a charm ; but as an apt morall cause ; and that the preaching of judicious , convincing , serious , affectionate ministers hath incomparably more success , than the affected language , or dull reading speeches of injudicious novices or wordly formalists or hypocrites : god usually worketh according to the morall aptitude of the means ( though not alwaies . ) vii . it cannot be denyed but that the number of raw cold , dry , yea and scand●lous ministers , in many counties of this kingdom is too great : and the more ignorant and bad the people are , the abler ministers , and more diligent do they need : and those people who feel what profiteth their souls , will not take up with cold , uneffectual teaching , if they can have better . viii . he that hath no preacher but a reader in his parish , is by the church laws forbidden to refuse his ministry , and all such are forbidden frequent going to other parishes , communicating in them : what want soever they have at home . ix . the nonconformists that do but affirm any thing in the liturgy , ceremonies , articles , government , &c. to be unlawful , and such as they may not subscribe to , are by the church laws excommunicate ipso facto : and all that dare not take the sacrament kneeling , are to be denyed the communion of the church ; and all that dare not submit their children to be baptized by the foredescribed undertaking of godfathers , and to receive the cross as a dedicating badg of christianity , must not have their children christened ; and all that dare not commit their souls to the pastoral guidance of ignorant readers , or other men whom they think by their unskilfulness , unsoundness , aversness to a holy life , strangers to intimate cases of conscience , or notorious negligence and sloth , or non-residence , to be unmeet for them to trust themselves to , in so great a matter , in which their salvation is so much concerned , and so dare not take the sacrament from such as their pastors , all these are forbidden communion with any other parish churches by the canon , and all ministers forbidden to receive them . and if they dare not say that they are willing to be co●firmed ( in the english mode ) they must no where be admitted to communion : and being excommunicate , must not be buryed according to the church-office when they are dead ; so that they are cast out of the church , before they congregate in other assemblies . x. in this case the nonconformists are not agreed what to do : one part and the far greatest say , . we will forbear affirming the unlawfulness of any of the foresaid impositions , till we are called to speak out : and because the case of these times calls us often to it , we will do it as privately and modestly as we can : . and though we are excommunicated ipso facto , yet we are not bound our selves to execute their sentence ; but may stay in communion till they prove the fact and do the execution on us themselves by refusing us : and this we take to be the most peaceable way : but others say , that though in some cases for peace this way may be taken , yet ordinarily we are not bound to seek and expect communion with that church which hath already thus excommunicated us ; especially when all the ministry subscribe and declare their conformity to the church orders , and swear canonical obedience to the ordinaries , and are themselves to be suspended if they give us the communion : we must not , say they , strive against their laws , nor seek that ministers should be perjured , false to their promises and professions to admit us to communion against their laws : nor can any church that first excommunicateth us , call us schismaticks for not communicating with them , unless they prove that we give them just cause to excommunicate us . here it is supposed that the reader understandeth that [ to be excommunicated ipso facto , ] is sine sententia , without any need of a judges sentence , to be actually excommunicate upon our fact done , so that the bare proof and notice of the fact is enough to warrant the execution ( though a judge may also pass a sentence if he see cause , ) vid. calv. lexic . jurid . and others commonly . there are some others that go further , and think it unlawful to have communion with the parish churches , because they thus excommunicate us first , without more cause , and because they take the pastors to be scandalous by the foresaid oaths , declarations and subscriptions , and those that have not the peoples consent , to be no true pastors . but these are herein disowned by the most ; and very few ministers are of their mind that we know of , though many of the people much incline to it ; especially they that live where the priests are ignorant , scandalous , slothful , or malignant ; because pa●l saith , [ w●●h s●c● , no not to eat ] but others tell them that . it is not the parish-ministers that made the excommunicating laws : . and if they sin themselves , it is ignorantly : . and we have not a call and opportunity to hear and judge them . xi . even those called independents hold ( if mr. ph. nyes manuscript to that end may tell us their minds ) that it is lawful to hear the publick parish ministers , because the magistrate may set teachers over the people , and require them to hear them : though they hold that the people should choose their pastors , and that the sacraments should be administred and received freely , and not by force . yea such anabaptists as mr. tombes ( as is visible in his book ) hold that communion with the parish-church is lawful , in the word ▪ prayer , and lords supper . xii . we commonly hold that men unjastly excommunicated , are not thereby disobliged from publick worshiping of god , and living under pastoral oversight and church discipline , nor are bound to endanger their own salvation by neglecting such duties , and losing such helps and priviledges ; and therefore must be of such churches as they can , if they cannot be of such as they would , or as are allowed by the magistrate . xiii . it is not in the power of our selves to escape such excommunications : for we are not able to change our own understandings , so far as to hold every thing before named , to be lawful : some of us are able to say that we have with a willingness to see the truth , studied the case of the old conformity above forty years , and the case of the new-conformity now above seventeen years , and read almost all that hath been written for them , which we thought might add to our information , and prayed earnestly that god would not suffer us to erre ; and the longer we study it , the more we are confirmed : in this case we suffer publick and private obloquy and reproach , and not only these seventeen years the loss of all ministerial maintenance , but the danger of l. a sermon , and imprisonment in common gaols , and the ruine of our estates and health : and in reason it s as easie to think that they that hold their opinion on such terms , are like to be as impartial in their studies , as they whose way leadeth to preferment , wealth and honour ; of which we were capable of a part : we say therefore again , that to cons●●m , or prevent the canons excommunication ipso facto , is not in our power . and they that say , god will not condemn men for that which they were not able to avoid or help , should not do otherwise themselves . xiv . when the or ministers were silenced , the far greatest part of them forbore all publick preaching , and only taught some few in private at such hours as hindered not the publick assemblies , and many of them lived as private men . xv. to this day it is so with many of the nonconformists : those that live where they find small need of their preaching , or else have no call or opportunity , and cannot remove their dwellings , do hold no assemblies , but as other men content themselves to be auditors . those that live where are godly and peaceable ministers in publick , who yet need help , do lead the people constantly to the parish-churches , and teach them themselves at other hours , and help them from house to house : this is ordinary in the countries , and even in london , with many ministers that hold no assemblies ; yea many that were ejected out of city parish-churches . xvi . those called independents do keep up such churches as they had gathered before ; when none of our present oaths , declarations , subscriptions or practices were imposed on them ; which is not therefore to be taken as new . xvii . as to the rest , it was the great and terrible plague in . which made this change in their assembling and ministration . when the publick ministers forsook the city , and the rich left the poor to misery and death , and people lookt every day for their last ; when they that heard a sermon one day , were buried the next ; when death had awakened the people to repentance , and a regard of their everlasting state , divers nonconformable ministers resolved to stay with them ; they begg'd money out of the countries for the poor , and relieved them : they got into the empty pulpits , and preached to them : and when preachers and hearers lookt every day for their last , it is easie to conceive that there was serious preaching , and serious hearing : by this many that died were helpt in their preparations ; and through god's great mercies , multitudes that survived , repented and became the serious seekers of a better world . the men that did this were mostly unmarried , and could easilier venture their own lives , than such as had families ; and some of them that had families , yet trusted god , and most did scape . we know but of one ( pious germane minister that died of the plague in the city ( and one of another disease , if not through want ) and two that fled from it in the country . ) and when god had blest these mens faithful labours with the conversion of many souls ( especially apprentices and young people , ) the experience so engaged their mutual affections , that the ministers resolved that they would live and die in such service as god had so blessed and preserved them in ; and their hearers resolved that they would not forsake their teachers : and thus the dreadful plague began that which so much now offendeth men , as a dangerous schism . xviii . and when some men out of excessive caution , were ready to think that when that plague was ceased ( having killed about an hundred thousand ) the ministers should lay by that publick work , and retire again into secret corners , god confuted them by his next dreadful judgement , burning down the city the next year , : so that there were neither churches to go to , nor ministers in the parishes to preach , nor rich men to maintain them : and could any soul that hated not christ and mens salvation , have wished the nonconformists then to desert the miserable people . when they newly came from under the terrour of such a dreadful plague , and when success and gods protection had so greatly encouraged them , and when presently they were deprived of their worldly treasure , and had not houses , or goods , or mony , but thousands utterly ruined in the world , and crept into holes and lived in poverty , when it was a wonder that they dyed not by hundreds of famine , and when such a sight as london in its ruines was before mens eyes , ( which he that saw sure can never forget , ) if then men , because that the bishops or parliament forbad them , should have refused to preach the gospel of christ , and to teach men to lay up a treasure in heaven , and to comfort such a ruined city , what excuse would such unfaithfull servants have had at the bar of their great judge ? xix . these two great and notorious necessities succeeding in those two dreadful years . calling the nonconformable ministers out of their retirements , and latitant and silent state , resolved them to serve god more diligently and openly than they had done , whatever it cost them : and many country ministers were awakened to the like by the examples of those in london : though yet a great number who are in places of less need , or not called out as aforesaid , still lie much silent . xx. while the dreadful fire was wasting london and other corporations , the parliament and bishops were at oxford making an oath to drive all nonconformists above five miles from all cities and corporations that send burgesses to parliament , and all other places where ever they had preached since the act of oblivion . so that , had they obeyed the laws , london had been deserted in the plague and in the ruines , and few people suffered publickly to worship god : at the mention of which the heart of the writer of this trembleth ; especially to think how much further the bishops went in this then the synod of ithacius and idacius went , from which martin separated to the death by gods miraculous instruction . xxi . the plague , fire , poverty , which have seized not only on london , but on many other corporations of england , more than other places , and more than hath been known in our forefathers daies , make many wish that the corporation-oath and declaration might be reviewed and that gods judgments as a t●empet sounding repent o england were heard by all the corporations of the land , before we hear that time is past : and that it might be considered whether either an unlawful imposing , or an unlawful taking , or the neighbourhood of any vnlawful particulars , can warrant any man to declare that neither he nor any other person , is obliged by that vow , to repent of his sin , or to oppose prophaneness , popery or schism , or any thing contrary to sound doctrine and godliness . and to enquire in what countrey or age of the world , christian , mahometan , or heathen , there was ever such a law before . it was that age of the church in which hell ruled most on earth , even in the wars between pope gregory th . and the emperour , when the pope swore them on one side , and the emperour on the other ; and men swore , and unswore , and forswore , as the powers that they were under bid them ; which made abbas ursperg●nsi● ; chron p. . say [ ut omnis homo jam sit perjurus & praedictis facinoribus implicatus , ut vix excusari possit quin sit in his , sicut pop●lus sic & sacerdos . and that pleasant man ( who knoweth his own name ) who merrily derideth his adversaries , for gathering a doubt of our fundamentals from our differences , may more feelingly know one day that god will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain : and may consider that it was no more precise a man than cotta in c●cero ( de nat. deor. l. . ) that would prove men did not believe that there was a god , because they durst be perjured ; instancing in perjured and ungodly carbo : it was not a sign of schismaticks , but of very charitable moderate men , that could hear and regard such a perjured ministry , as urspergensis saith was then in the roman church , especially in germany , where the temptation lay . xxii . a little after the plague and fire , some nonconformable ministers about london , met , to consider whether our actuall forbearance to joyn with the parish churches in the sacrament , might not tend to deceive men and make them believe that we were for separation from them , and took their communion to be unlawful : and upon the reasons given in , they agreed that such communion was lawful and meet , when it would not do more harm than good : but because at that time a storm was coming on men , from the act against conventicles , and their judgment was against ruining those that in this were not of their minds ( on the reasons aforesaid ) and being credibly informed that their communicating at such an unseasonable time would not only perswade men that force compelled them , but also draw them to ruine others that durst not imitate them , they resolved to delay for a fitter opportunity , because god will have mercy and not sacrifice ; and our liberty is not alwaies our duty , nor must be used to other mens destruction . thus violence crosseth the authors ends . xxiii . shortly after , when such thoughts returned , and many thought it meet to joyn in the publick assemblies , the oxford oath and act of confinement was put in execution , and drove them all away : for the reasons aforesaid had satisfied them not to desert the souls in all cities , corporations and places where they had preached ; and so they were fain to hide themselves to avoid six months imprisonment in the common gaols ( whither some of us were sent ; ) so that if they had come to the parish-churches , to common-prayer or sacraments , they had exposed themselves to multitudes of witnesses , and so to certain imprisonment : except in some odd corners of the country where they were strangers ( about five miles from corporations or acquaintance ) where their example would have wrought little on any in the cities , or that had known them : so that the oxford act most effectually forbad them coming to church , or holding communion with any parish-churches within five miles of any such city , corporation or village where they had preached since the act of oblivion : this they could not avoid . xxiv . yet many ministers were afraid of introducing unwarrantable separations , by avoiding the severities of the law and bishops ; and many that did retire to country-villages five miles distant , as confined , did there constantly joyn with the parish-churches in liturgy and sacrament : but this being far from cities , and not in the sight of the people that were most disaffected to the prelates and liturgy , did little with them ; and so they were disabled by the bishops or rulers to do what they desired against other mens extreams . xxv . before this , many ministers had offered thankfully to accept the liberty of preaching in the parish churches where the liturgy is used , and being present at it : and some to this day that live in the country , where they can get so much favour , preach in the parish-churches , and joyn in the liturgy , and draw others to it , and go from place to place thus to avoid being taken . xxvi . many , seeing how we were thus driven not only from preaching , but such parish-communion , were tempted to hard thoughts of such affairs , as if it came from the papists , who would have equalled , and mass'd us up with themselves . xxvii . shortly after this , the kings clemency saw cause to make an alteration and to give us his gracious indulgence by his licenses for places and persons ; upon this , ministers boldly set up chappels under the parish churches ; and in all the time of this their liberty , when there were witnesses enough , if they had offended , we remember not that any were ever convict of any word of seditious or unsound doctrine , or any unpeaceable attempts . but while they had this leave to preach themselves , they thought best to take it at the same convenient hours that the parish churches meet at : other times being so inconvenient , as that families cannot observe them without hurt . and they could not preach , and hear in the parish-churches at once . xxviii . all this while , though they had the kings authority for their assemblies , some clergy men ceased not to accuse them of schism ; shewing that it is the want of something else rather than the kings authority on which they ground their accusation . xxix . some nonconformists have these years forborn to baptize or administer the lords supper , or to be pastors of any churches , but only preached occasionally where the parishes were so great , that one of ten or twenty had no room in the church ; and where some of many years had heard no publick worship of god : and they have published to the people that they assembled them not to separate from the parish churches or their worship , but for their meer necessity , perswading none to come to hear them , but such as cannot come into the parish churches to hear : yet are they accused for drawing men from the church . xxx . these ministers in these places have been prosecuted more severely than the rest , by imprisonments , fines and guards against their meetings ; which induced others to preach in the city where there seemed less need , because they found quietness no where else , and because some out of the remoter needy parishes might come thither to them . xxxi . though they have lost all ministerial maintenance , and are lyable to pay l. the first sermon , and l. the rest , and l. for the ground for all that they preach , besides six months imprisonment in the common goals , and poverty disableth city and countrey to maintain them ; and some with wives and children have long lived on little besides brown rye bread and water ; and others , that can live of their own , expend all in the charges of the places and adjuncts where they preach for nothing ; and some never took any pay , from the first these years , but patiently serve god and wast their strength under mens obloquy and reproach ; yet are there not wanting persons of the clergy , who represent their greatest and dearest services as their greatest sins , and accuse them as enemies of the churches peace , and the leaders of schism , and in pulpit and print provoke authority to execute the laws more severely on them ; though the execution hath cost some excellent men their lives already , and they may know that no execution short of death or utter disablement will make the most conscionable forsake their duty , and sacrilegiously desert the office to which they were dedicated and ordained : ( as the late case of the hungarian ministers declareth : ) and such courses never ended in the honour of those of the clergy that procured them : yea some as going to the bar of god , have undertaken to prove , that it is through pride and covetousness that we conform not . and because some churches called independent withdraw not their maintenance from their pastors , and some few others have maintenance of their own , or friends that will not see them want , they would make strangers believe that the common sort of nonconformists , whose families live in sufferings and wants , are gainers by their nonconformity though themselves that have the most and richest on their side , would be loth to take up with such maintenance , and often preach , how sad a case the church would be in , if ministers were left to the peoples charity : while they live in fulness thus they envy their poor brethren , who that they may finish their course , would be glad of leave to labour for nothing , and live on alms , taking gods favour for their reward . xxxii . and to compleat all , some blush not to accuse them , as the bringers in of popery , by desiring liberty ; as if preaching the gospel did not do more to keep out popery , than the ignorance of untaught people : as if our earnest requests eighteen years ago , that we might not be mass'd up with the papists , nor a door opened to them by our divisions and sufferings , were all forgotten : as if the nonconformists were neerer popery than they that would have the pope to be principium unitatis to the universal church : as if their printed morning lectures against popery , and many other writings , did not sufficiently shew their distance from it : as if the papists desired the liberty , rather than the silencing of the nonconformists ; or desired any thing more than that so many hundred adversaries to popery , and all the protestants of england who adhere to them , might be cast out , and brought as low as themselves , and put into the same condition , that they might stand or fall together . nay , what if on such necessity they should accept of favour from any papists that would save them ? if one party would bring men to such a pass that they must be hanged , imprisoned , ruined , or worse , unless the favour of the papists deliver them ; and the other party had rather be saved by papists , than be hanged or ruined by protestants , which of these were more to be suspected of popery ? especially if the same men that give us the alarm that popery is coming in , undertook the sole teaching of those by whom they suspect its entrance , and yet would not abate a needless oath , or covenant or ceremony to keep it out , or strengthen the protestants by the union , for which we have so long patiently begg'd and waited . xxxiii . the most of our acquaintance take it for their duty to do their best to keep up the reputation of the publick conformable ministry , that it may further love and concord , and the success of their labours with the people ; and they profess to take their own assemblies but as chapels , and not as distinct , much less as separated churches : and those of them who do administer the sacraments , and do that which is like the separatists way , yet do it nor on their principles , but pro tempore , till god shall give them opportunity to serve him in the established way ( if ever it may be hoped for : ) it being reformed or well ordered parish-churches under the government and countenance of the christian magistrates , which are most agreeable to their desires . xxxiv . when we go into the parish-churches , we find those that have able godly ministers usually to be as full as will consist with the peoples hearing the voice ( which in many places will not reach to a great part of the congregation : ) we find such preachers , whether conformable , or nonconformable , every where almost crouded after ; which shews that it is not meer faction that moveth the hearers ; and that worthy men have no cause of discouragement : and if none of either side be valued much above their worth ( for the bare office sake ) we cannot help it ; nor would it be helped if there were no nonconformists : some of us well remembring the time ( . till . ) when we were troubled or threatned also for going out of our own parishes to hear worthy , able men that were very conformable . xxxv . it is very ordinary with gentlemen and others that are zealous for the present church state in london , to go from their own parishes , though the canon be against it : so that it is not , sure , the breach of the canon that they stick at . xxxvi . we shall never disswade men from making the strictest laws to punish any nonconformist that shall be proved guilty of sedition , disloyalty , drunkenness , fornication , swearing , and any other immorality ; but we know of none of them that was silenced , ejected , or punished on any such account : nay , if they preach against their church government , liturgy , or ceremonies , we must expect that they should be restrained . our earnest desire is , that the magistrate would keep up peace and order in the church , that popish clergy men may not think that it belongeth to them alone to do it . xxxvii . whereas there is a sort of ignorant or ill meaning men , that still say [ we know not what the nonconformists would have , and why will they not tell us what would satisfie them , ] while we offer to beg on our knees for leave to do it ; we humbly intreat them to weary men awake no more with that canting . . as long as the kings declaration about ecclesiastical affairs is visible . . and as long as our reply and our reformed additions to the liturgy , and our petition for peace which respected the old conformity remain unanswered by those to whom in we did present them : . and till we are once called or allowed to speak for our selves against the new conformity ; a favour which the justice of old romane heathens , yea and splenetick jews did grant to all that were accused before they punished them , but since popery prevailed in the world is become a thing among them not to be expected . . and as long as men know that bishop wilkins and dr. burton appointed by the lord keeper bridgman to treat with some of us of the terms of union , ( saying it was his majesties pleasure , ) did come to a full agreement with us in terminis , which was drawn up into the form of an act by no worse a man than that pillar of justice the excellent judge hale , and the parliament presently voted that no such act should be brought in and offered . dear brethren , god is the father of lights and with him is no darkness : men may be mocked , but god is not mocked : if the day that will bring works of darkness to light , and finally clear the innocent , be not the object of certain faith and hope , let our cause be bad , and let us as fools be judged such as have forsaken our best hopes : but that it is otherwise we believe , and therefore appeal to a righteous god from an unrighteous world . xxxviii . what harm our preaching the doctrine of salvation can do to the bishops or people of the land ( while they may punish us for any word that we speak amiss : ) and why we should not rather speak openly ( where men may bear witness of our errours , ) than in secret ( where men are tempted to too much boldness : ) and what but a spirit of envy , or a carnal interest cross to the interest of christ and mens salvation , should grudge at such preaching , while we are responsible for all that we say or do amiss , we cannot tell . xxxix . nor can we tell , if our not swearing , or not entering into the bishops national covenant , be as great a crime as our penalties import , why no other mulct or penalty will serve turn to expiate such crimes , but our ceasing to preach the gospel of salvation , while we are willing to do it under the strictest laws of peace and order . xl. it is visible that the parish-churches of those ministers ( caeteris paribus ) are fullest of auditors , who are most willing that the nonconformists help them in due time and place , and desire to live with them in love and concord : for all that have the spirit of holy love and peace , do love those that have the same spirit : and such serious , holy conformists as bolton , whately , fenner , preston , sibbs , stoughton , gouge , and such other , were formerly as much crouded after as nonconformists : but it is those that preach against holy love and concord , and wrangle with the most religious sort whom they should encourage , whose congregations are thinest ( usually ) through the tepidity of their followers , and the distaste of others . xli . when we read in the council of calced . the egyptian bishops crying so long miseremini , miserimini , lying prostrate on the earth , even when they could say , non dissentimus , and beging of their fellow bishops for their lives and consciences , and their brethren crying against all [ away with them , they are hereticks ] while they professed the same faith ; while the men that with such out-crys were condemning those of their own confession , had newly cryed , omnes peccavimus , for condemning flavianus , and the truth , and saying , that they did it for fear , and owned that eutychianism , which yet these egyptian bishops now disowned , it mindeth us that even bishops had need to be remembred ; that while the wheel is turning , the upper side should not tempt men to forget what side will be uppermost shortly and for ever . additions : more particularly of national churches . § . there are some worthy persons who plead more specially for national churches as of divine institution , whose doctrine calls us to a special consideration of it . but though some of us have oft desired it , we have not hitherto obtained any satisfaction what they mean by a national church , or any true definition which they agree in : some of them deride us for doubting and asking the question , and some answer it to the increase of our doubt . § . it must be presupposed that we speak not of a meer community that hath no pastors , but strictly of a society called by some political , by others organized , constituted of pastors and people mutually related ; which is the ordinary sense of the word [ church . ] and we must premise what being commonly agreed on , is none of our doubt or question . § . the question is not whether any , or all nations and kingdoms should be christians , and so be the kingdoms of christ : that 's past doubt . . nor is it whether in such kingdoms the king be the head , as to the power of the sword ; that is , a christian civil governour of a christian people that are his subjects . we daily pray that the kingdoms of the world may all be christian ; and we believe that their kings are the governours by the sword , of all the clergy , as well as others . . nor is the question whether kings may call all their kingdoms into a holy covenant with god ( by lawful means ) giving them an example first themselves . . nor do we contend about an equivocal name , whether a christian kingdom , as such , may be called a national church . . no nor whether a christian nation , governed by a heathen or mahometan king , may be called a christian church or kingdom ; or a protestant nation ruled by a papist king , is to be called a protestant kingdom or church : for this is but about bare names . . nor do we question whether a christian king may make such accidental disparity between the pastors , as we have before described . . nor yet whether the pastors of one kingdom may associate and hold synods for unity and counsel , and be named a national church , as they are such associations , obliged to concord . § . but our doubts are these ; . whether it be in it self specially instituted by god , that every kingdom or nation of christians shall have [ one summam potestatem essentialiter ecclesiasticam , or one priest-head , ( whether a single person , or an aristocracy , or a common synod ) as a constitutive part of the national church . . whether this priest-head ( whether high-priest , or council , ) stand in subordination to the king , as part of the same formal church , as a general , or a vicerov , that maketh not a distinct kingdom , ( though he may make a distinct subordinate society as an army , city , &c ) or is he head of a coordinate different species , so as that the same kingdom shall be two policies formally , viz. a christian kingdom or royal church , and a priestly church ; each being supream in their proper species , and both made coordinate by christ ; and so they are formally two churches national . about the jews the controversie is made by dissenters ( e. g. galaspie , coleman , selden , &c. ) exceeding difficult . . whether the very jewish church policy be established by christ for the christian church , or be repealed ? whether the said ecclesiastical head must be one as the high priest , or an aristocracy of many , or a synod of the whole clergy ? or whether it be left indifferent which ? . or whether god hath ordained such a national church-form , only by the general command of doing all things in order and unity and to edification ? . which is the priestly-head , or highest governour of the church of england , which is a constitutive part , as a king in a kingdom ? . who is it that chooseth or authorizeth the national priestly head , that we may know when we have a lawful chief pastor , and when an usurper ? . whether the king or he , is to be obeyed in circumstances , or matters ecclesiastical , if they differ , and make contrary laws ? without the solution of these questions , the name of a national church will not be understood , nor of any practical importance . our own thoughts of them are as followeth . § . it is certain , that the mosaical law made for the jews peculiar republick , as such , is abrogate ; not only the ceremonial part , but all : all that was not then made for all the world , is ceased ; . because the common-wealth is ceased for which it was made : . the holy ghost expresly and frequently determineth it so ; even of that law that was written in stone , as such , cor. . , , , , . heb. . . . gal. . , & o. . . the natural part , and that which was instituted positively long before for perpetuity , were both of them god's laws before moses's time , and as such , obliged other nations , and so do still : the matter written in stone ( except some few mutable particulars , as the seventh day sabbath , &c. ) is such as we are still obliged to , . by nature , . by christ : but not as it was part of the jews peculiar mosaical law. much less doth it bind all the world to its policy . § . if the jewish law , either as such , or as stablished by christ for his kingdom , did bind all the world to this day , then it would bind them to their civil policy , as much at least as to their ecclesiastical . but few christians think that it binds them to their civil policy . for if it did , then , . all nations that have varied from it to this day , have sinned : . no diversity of governments could be lawful : . then it would perplex men , to be sure , whether it be the old mosaical form by judges , or the later regal form that bindeth : . then such a civil council or sanhedrim as was appointed the jews , would be a divine establishment , and not variable at the will of kings or people . many other things would follow , which kings would not easily believe . § . there may be much more said for the continuance of the jews civil policy than for their ecclesiastical : for there is much more forbidden of the latter , than of the former ; though all nations be not bound to their civil policie , they may set it up if they please ; they are not prohibited : for christ hath not made new laws for civil states as such ; but he hath made new church laws , and thereby altered , yea prohibited much of the old . § . we know no more reason why the jewish form should bind us , than that which was before the jews : and particularily melchezedeks , who was a king and priest : god owned both and commandeth us neither , at least as in conformity to them . § . the holy ghost saith expresly heb. . . . that perfection was not by the levitical priesthood , and that the priesthood being changed , there is made of necessity a change of the law , which is called , the law of a carnal cammandment , verse . and that there is a disanulling of the commandement going before for the weakness and unprofitableness of it ; for the law made nothing perfect , v. , . the covenant or law being not faultless a new one doth succeed it v. . . . . the first tabernacle is not standing which had their ordinances of divine service and a worldly sanctuary : heb. . . . he taketh away the first law and priesthood , that he may establish the second , heb. . , . . , &c. § . whilest it is agreed on , that the essentials of the work or office of the jewish priests is ceased , ( as heb. . and , , and shew , ) and their title by birth , and the appropriation to one tribe , &c. it followeth that the jewish priesthood is ceased . but yet we confess that christ , if he had pleased , might have setled a high priest and council like theirs in every nation for his own work . but if the old form bind us not , we are left only to enquire what new one is setled by christ , and whether he have done so or not . § . we justly maintain against the anabaptists , that infants relation to the covenant , and the universal church ( as members ) was not repealed by christ , because it was not founded only on the law of moses : which if it had , it were as such repealed § . the holy ghost by the apostles acts . hath declared to all the churches of the gentiles that they are not bound to keep the law of moses , and hath absolved us from all , saving things antecedently , and on other reasons necessary . verse . . § if the jews form of government be ours , then the high-priest must have the power of the sword , or sit in judgment for life or death , as deut. . , . and other places shew : but many papists and protestants are agreed that the clergy have no power of the sword , or force , unless the king make them also magistrates . § . it is a matter of so great importance to the church to know whom we must obey , that it is not to be thought that any way is made necessary by christ , which he hath not made intelligible and certain to be indeed his will : especially when the apostles strove who should be the chief , and two of them made it their request ; and when the corinthians and others were ready to set up one before another , and say i am of cephas , &c. § . yea christ on this occasion expresly forbad them to seek to be one above another , and told them that though kings exercise authority , and have magnifying titles , with them it should not be so , but their preeminence should consist , as that of a servant , in humility and service unto others luk. . which will not stand ( as we suppose ) with establishing the jewish order . § . and pauls reproof of their making a church head of cephas , paul , or apollo , or taking them to be other than helps of their faith , ( and not lords of it ) and ministers by whom they believed , even then when schisms made it necessary to have known to whom they must appeal and adhere , if that had been the way , doth further confirm what we say . § . the argument that some worthy persons bring , from the prophesies that nations should be converted unto christ ; and that the kingdom should be taken from the jews , and given to a nation that would bring forth the fruits of it matth. . . and that the kingdomes of the world are made the kingdoms of christ , and that egypt and assyria should be converted and equalled with the jews , &c. do ineeed shew that there should be christian kings and kingdoms ; which the apostles were sent to endeavour , mat. . . to convert nations : but here is nothing , that we can perceive , to prove that these christian nations must have the jewish church policy . § . nay contrary , the church is said to be built on the foundation of the prophets and apostles , eph. . . and not of the mosaical policy of priesthood , rev. . . it hath twelve foundations . § . it is said , zech. . . many nations shall be joyned to the lord , and shall be my people . so zech. . . isa . . . rom. . . isa . . . & . . hos . . . isa . . . & . . but not a word in all this , of the old form of policy or priesthood , but contrarily , that the law should come out of zion , and a new covenant should be made : and it is certain that so large a history as we have of christ's performances , is a far clearer light than obscure prophecies ; and darker texts must be explained by the plainer , and not contrarily . § . we see not how the synod act. . maketh any thing for a national high priest or sanedrim , or any like policy : for . it appeareth to be no act of proper national government , but did bind other churches as well as those within the empire . . it was an arbitration at the request of doubting persons ; and it was not the relation of the arbitrators to one seat of national power ( as the metropolis ) that was respected , but the quality of the persons sent to , who would have been equally obeyed had they dwelt in the least village of another land. . there were the apostles that had the promise of the holy ghost : . there were many ▪ whom the people must needs more confide in than in one ; especially whose power was questioned by gainsayers . . both apostles , elders and brethren there were such as had seen , or were neer to christ and his works , and therefore likeliest to know his mind . . they were jews themselves , and therefore most impartial judges in the point that jewish teachers troubled them about , so far as that they might well acquiesce when jews themselves resolved them . and when the apostles were dispersed , we find not any more jerusalem-councils governing the imperial churches . § . if that councils authority were properly national , and arose from the prerogative of jerusalem , then . all the apostles , when scattered , would have been subject to james , the first bishop of jerusalem , ( thought to be no apostle : ) . then jerusalem might have after claimed the supremacy as of divine right , before alexandria , antioch or rome . but it is certain by experience that the whole church was of another mind , when jerusalem had not so much as the fifth or lowest patriarchate , till long after by another grant . but if the power was not fixed to the place , but the itinerant apostles , then it is nothing to prove any governing church over others , as being affixed to such a place : nor shall we easily find the apostles itinerant successours in that power . § . ii. it is certain that christ chose twelve apostles ( besides paul ) who had a preeminence before other ministers ; and that he joyned with them some prophets and evangelists , appointing them all to gather churches through the world , discipling and baptizing nations , and teaching them all things that he commanded ( a work to be still done , and to which he promised his presence to the end of the world : ) and that these having gathered converts , set over them fixed bishops ( or pastors or elders ) to be their constant guides , in teaching , publick worship , and discipline , under christ the great prophet , priest and king of the church . and that to the apostles first , and by them to others , he gave them the keys ( that is , the judging power of reception , and rejection , and the official power of pronouncing god's reception or rejection of them according to his word . ) § . there is not the least evidence that these apostles did affix a superiour power over the other churches to any particular seats , patriarchal or metropolitan , much less national ; or that any of them exercised government over the rest ; or that they themselves did fix themselves as bishops to any twelve or thirteen cities in the world ; much less to twelve kingdoms . § . there is no notice in church history of any one national church-power ( priest or synod ) setled , asserted or exercised under heaven , of above three hundred years . egypt and assyria that were prophesied to be christian nations , never were distinct christian kingdoms , but parts of the empire ; nor had a national church or head ( being but parts of such a church : ) nay , when rome got the national primacy , it had not such a priestly governing soveraignty as the jews high-priest had . § . though there was no christian king for three hundred years ( unless he of edessa , or lucius of england , of whom we have little certainty ; but it 's like that both were subjects to others ) yet if a supream church-power had been necessary , the apostles would have before erected it ; which they never did : for even rome pretendeth to be by them made the ruler of the whole world , and not a meer national head ( which constantinople claimed , but not as of apostolical institution . ) § . the question whether the jews , had they believed , should have continued their high-priest and church policy , is vain as to our purpose ; . it being certain to christ that they would be dissolved by unbelief : and . he having setled another way , and changed theirs : . and if their priesthood and law ( except as it typified spiritual things ) had stood , yet it would not have bound the gentile christians in other nations . § . when emperours became christians , they did not set up the jewish policy , nor thought themselves bound to it ; no nor any setled priestly supremacy for national government : for councils were called but on rare accidents by the emperours themselves , and to decide particular cases about heresies : and the pope had but the first voice in such councils . § . but if every nation must have the jewish policy , then the whole empire must then have one high priest , and then the pope hath a fair pretence to his claim of a divine institution , as the church soveraign of the whole empire , which , it 's like , was then seven parts in eight of the whole christian world at least , ( unless abassia were then generally christians , as now . ) but then his power would change with the empire , and fall when it falleth . § . iii. but if the question be only whether a national priestly soveraignty be lawful ? or whether god's general rules ( for concord , order , edification ) do bind the churches prudentially to erect such a form ? to this they sayas followeth . . we will first lay hold on certainties , and not prefer uncertainties before them . we are sure that such a power of apostles and pastors as is before mentioned , was established ; and that the junior pastors were as sons to the seniors , ordained by them : whether the power of ordaining and governing ministers was by apostolical establishment appropriated to men of a superiour degree in the sacred ministry , seemeth to us very dark . . we are past doubt that all particular churches , by apostolical order , had bishops ; and that a church was , as hierom saith , plebs episcopo adunata , and as ignatius , the unity of every church was notified by this , that to every church there was one altar and one bishop ( at that time ) and as cyprian , ubi episcopus , ibi ecclesia . . and we are satisfied , that every presbyter is episcopus gregis , whoever claim to be episcopi episcoporum ( which the carthage council in cyprian renounced . ) . and we are satisfied that no church-superiours have authority to destroy the particular church form , ministry , doctrine , worship or discipline , which were setled by the holy ghost in the apostles ; and that the priviledges and duties of these single particular churches , being plainest and surest in scripture , they must be continued whatever canons or commands of any superiour priests should be against them . . nor can they force any man to sin : . nor have any priests a forcing power , by the sword or violence , but only the power of the word and keys , that is , of taking in , or putting out of the church , where they have power , and binding men over , on just cause , to the judgment of god. the power that they have is from christ , and for him , and not against him ; and for the churches edisication , and not destruction ; and what is pretended contrary to this , is none . they cannot dispense with the laws of god , but preach and execute them . . and these things being thus secured , though in our doubts we dare not swear or subscribe that national , patriarchal , provincial , or metropolitical powers are of god's institution ; yet we resolve to live in all christian peaceableness and submission , when such are over us . § . and we must profess that when we find how anciently and commonly one presbyter in each church was peculiarly called the bishop , without whom there was no ( ordinary ) ordinations , and against whom in matters of his power none was to resist , and also how generally the churches in the roman empire conformed themselves to an imitation of the civil power ( as to their limits ) in all the official part ( being all subject to the emperour , who set up no ecclesiastical peer , ) we are not so singular or void of reverence to those churches , as not by such notices to be much the more inclined to the aforesaid submission and peaceableness under such a power ; nor are we so bold or rash as to reproach it or condemn the churches and excellent persons that have practised it . § . nay we have already said , that securing the state , worship , doctrine and true discipline of the inferiour particular ( parish ) churches , there are some of us that much incline to think that archbishops , that is , bishops that have some oversight of many churches with their pastors , are lawful successours of the apostles in the ordinary part of their work . and such of us have long ago said , that the episcopal government of the bohemian waldenses described by commenius and lascitius , is most agreable to our judgment of any that we know excercised : therefore that which we humbly offered for our concord in england at his majesties restauration , was archbishop ushers form of the primitive church government , not attempting any diminution of the power , wealth or honour of the diocesanes or archbishops , but only a restauration of the presbyters to their proper office-work , and some tolerable discipline to the particular parish churches . § . but we must ever much difference , so much of church order and government as god himself hath instituted , and is purely divine and unchangeable , from those accidentals which men ordain though according to gods general rules : for these are often various and mutable , and are means to the former , and never to be used against them . and of these accidentals of government we say as they that say no such form is fixed by god. concord , order & decency and edification are alwaies necessary , but oft times it may be indifferent whether concord , order and decency be expressed by this accidental way or that . and that which is most congruous for order , decency , edification and concord in one countrey , church or time , may be incongruous in another . therefore if the question be but how far the giving one bishop or pastor power over others , or making disparity of cities in conformity to the state , be prudently to be chosen ; we only say , so that gods establishment be not violated , whatever we might think best , we presume not herein to give laws to the lawgivers , nor to obtrude our counsel uncalled , on our superiours , much less seditiously to oppose their lawful institutions . § . but to those that think that gods foresaid general laws ( of order , concord , edification ) do make such a policy ordinarily necessary in the churches , as imitateth the jews , or the civil form of government , we humbly offer to their consideration ; . if so , then it would have been the matter of an vniversal law , ( with its due exceptions ; ) and then christ the only vniversal lawgiver would have made it : for if he have not made all necessary vniversal laws , his laws are imperfect ; and then there should be some other vniversal lawgiver to supply that defect : but there is no other upon earth ( whether pope or council , ) . it is contrary to the nature of undetermined circumstances to be alwaies the same , and so to be fit matter of such vniversal or fixed laws : the cases will vary , and then so will the duty ; . there will be great diversity of the interest , and ingeny of the judges of the case in several countries and ages : and therefore though some think the said imitation of the civil state alwaies best , vet others will not . § . but if such a settlement were certainly best , let it be remembred , . that the jews had not under the chief high-priest , one in every city or tribe like diocesane bishops . . that their synagogues had discipline within themselves ; ever where there was but a village of ten persons , there was a presbyter that had the power of judging offenders . § . what man doth prudently set up , man may prudently alter as there is cause . greg. nazianzen earnestly wisheth that there were no difference of place or seats among the pastors of the church . and therefore he neither thought their government of each other to be of divine right , nor of prudential necessity or use : else he would have been against it . and the whole greek church did , and still doth take the seats of preeminence to be but of mans appointment , or else they would never have changed them , and set constantinople so high as they did : and the council of calcedon expresly determineth , that rome was by the fathers made the chief seat because it was the seat of the emperour ; which was mutable . § . the councils in those daies were about popes or patriarchs , and could depose them : and yet it is most evident to any man considerately reading such history , that all the councils , called before christian emperours gave them more power and conjoyned their authority , did meet only for acts of agreement and not of regiment over each other : many such synods are mentioned by eusebius : and the right reverend arch-bishop usher declared his judgment so in general that councils had but an agreeing power , and not a regent power over the particular bishops . yet these two things must be supposed , . that the pastors in a synod are still rectors of their slocks , and their canons to them may be more authoritative than a single pastors words : . that gods law bindeth us to keep love and concord , and the agreements of councils may determine of the matter in alterable points ; and so even absent and present bishops may , concordiae gratiâ , be obliged by gods law to keep such canons as are made for concord , and so they may be the matter of our duty . but seeing the church for years , judged councils to have no proper governing power over particular pastors ; and bishops , or patriarchs singly had ever less power than councils , it followeth that then a churches government of disparity and supraordinate bishops like the civil , or like the jews , was not then taken to be of divine right , nor then of any right at all . § . and as to the doubt [ whether it began after years to be a prudential duty or at least most desirable ] when we hear what is said on both sides we think it not easie to judge , either how much in such a case christ hath left to humane prudence , nor which way the scales of prudence herein will ordinarily turn . on one side it is said . that it is absurd that there should be no appeals for injured persons to a superiour power ; . and that the dissensions of the church else will be remediless , and all will be broken into heresies and sects ; . and that apostolical men of a higher rank than meer presbyters will else have no convenient opportunity to excercise their governing power , if it be not tyed to fixed seats . § . on the other side they plead ; . that it is safer for the church to have religion in the power of many bishops or pastors , than that one high priest or patriarch should have power to corrupt it , or silence the faithful preachers , or persecute the people when ever he proveth a bad man : yea they say it must be rare if he be not bad , seeing it is certain that the most proud and worldly men ( which are the worst ) will be the most earnest seekers of rich and honourable places ; and he that seeketh will usually find . . they say christ directly forbad this to his apostles luk. . that which they strove for was it that he forbad them : but that which they strove for was who should be the chief or greatest ( and not who should tyrannize ) . they say that all church history assureth us that there have been more schisms and scandalous contentions about the great superiour bishopricks far , than any of the rest : it is a doleful thing to read the history of the churches of alexandria , antioch , constantinople , and rome : gregory nazianzen giveth it as the reason , why the contention at cesarea was so lamentable , because it was so high an archbishoprick . the whole christian world hath been scandalized , torn and distracted by the strife of bishops of and for the highest seats . their famous general councils which we justly honour for their function and that which they did well , were shamefully militant : even the first and most honoured council at nice , was with great difficulty kept in peace by the personal presence , wisdom and authority of constantine , preaching peace to the preachers of peace , burning their libels of mutual accusation , & silencing their contentious wranglings , and constreining them to accord . nazianzens descriptions of the ignorance and insolence , and naughtiness of the clergy , orat . and of the shameful state of the bishops , orat. . must make the readers heart to grieve , the people he describeth as contentious at constantinople yet as endued with the love of god , though their zeal wanted knowledge , pag , . but ( the courtiers , as whether true to the emperours he knew not , but for the greatest part perfidious to god : and the bishops as fitting on adverse thrones , and feeding adverse opposite flocks , drawn by them into factions , like the clefts that earthquakes make , and the pestilent diseases that infect all about , and distracting and dividing all the world , separating the east from the west , by the noise , of meus et tuus , antiquus et novus ; nobilior aut ignobilior ; multitudine opulentior aut tenuior ; raging like furious horses in battel , and like madmen casting dust into the air , and under their heads fulfilling their own contentions and becoming the determiners of wicked ambition and magnificence , and unrighteousness and absurd judges of matters : the same men ( saith he ) are to day of the same throne ( or side ) and judgement , as we are , if so our leaders and chief men carry them : to morrow if the wind do but turn , they are for the contrary seat , and judgement . names ( or votes ) follow hatred or friendship : and which is most grievous , we blush not to say contrary things to the very same hearers ; nor are we constant to our selves , being changed up and down by contention ; you would say we are tossed like the waving euripus : therefore he professeth it unseemly for him to joyn with them , as he would not leave his studies and peace , to go play with the lads in the streets , pag. . the like he hath in his poems de vita sua , pag. , , , . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. " etenim magistri plebis atque antistites , " sancti datores spiritus , & qui thronis " fundunt ab alt is verba queis patitur salus , " cunctisque pacem jugiter qui praedicant , " in aede media vocibus clarissimis , " tanto surore se petunt sibi invicem " tumultuando , contrahendo copias , " carpendo sese mutuo linguâ efferâ , " saliendo , mentis ut solent sanae impotes " praedando quos quis ante praedari queat " rabida imperandi dum tenet mente sit is ; " ( quinam ista verbis , & quibus digne eloquar ? ) " orbem universum prorsus ut divulserint , " ortumque jam & hesperum scindit magis " ardens simultas , quam loci vel climata ; " namque illa si non sinis , & media uniunt ; " at hos ligare vinculum nullum potest : " non causa , pietas , ( bilis hoc excogitat " ad mentiendum prona , sed lis ob thronos : " quidnam hoc vocarim ? praesules ? non praesules . [ * some say that gregory himself forsook the place ; but it was when he saw that they would put him out : some say that it was not the same council that put him in , but it is an errour . when melecius was dead , more bishops came from egypt and turned the stream . and they named many to suceed him , [ to the emperour ' out of whom he chose an unbaptized layman nectarius niceph. l. . c. . so that the emperour then chose the bishop in that manner . ] are not these doleful narratives and characters of those primitive bishops ( even in those happy daies of good theodosius ? but all this is yet little to what the same man saith of bishops in his last oration de episcopis , vol. . too sharp and large to recite . perhaps it will be said , that it was the macedonian or arrian bishops that he meant : so one papist was not ashamed to answer me , when the whole scope of his writing speaketh the contrary , that he spake of the council at constantinople , and other such , and expresly saith in his epist . . to sophronius , pag. . si eos inveneritis non ob sidei doctrinam , sed ob privatas simultates inter se distractos & divulsos , quod quidem ipse observavi . but some will say that he was wrongfully cast out by that council of constantinople , and he speaketh but of that , or that injury made him satyrical by exasperation . but . the places cited shew that he speaketh not of that council only : and epist . . procopio pag. . he saith ( refusing to come to a council ) ego si vera scribere oportet hoc apimo sum , ut omnem episcoporum conventum sugiam : quoniam nullius concilii sinem laetum & faustum vidi , nec quod depulsionem malorum potius quam accessionem & incrementum habuerit : pertinaces enim contentiones & dominandi capiditates ( ne me quaeso gravem & molestum existimes haec scribentem ) ne ullis quidem verbis explicari queant , citiusque aliquis improbitatem arcessetur , dum aliis judicem se praebet , quam ut aliorum improbitatem comprimat . ] and that injury made gregory injurious is an injurious conjecture , seeing all his endeavours in these businesses were for piety and peace : and it was partly for his speaking for the peace of the church of antioch , ( which had long had two bishops , paulinus and meletius , and flavianus , who had taken an oath not to be their bishop while either of them lived , intruded by perjuries and the bishops wills ) that this council turned against gregory ; ( and because they chose him not . ) and for peace he quit his place ; and many and earnest epistles he wrote after to the civil magistrates , to keep the bishops in peace at the next councils , lest religion should be quite shamed and weakened by them . and was not the contention at the two councils of ephesus more stigmatized by historians than this that gregory so lamenteth ? when they seemed rather to fight , than peaceably to seek for truth ; in the latter of which flavianus received his deaths hurt , and the history of the better of them between cyril , and nostorius , and johan . antiochenus , is sad to read . the very controversie with its consequence was lamentable when one council of bishops at constantinople had cast out excellent gregory ; another neer cast out : excellent chrysostom , his free speech and strict life being not endured , and chose an old useless man arsacius ; atticus , and sisinius that succeeded him being dead , the people did so dislike all the clergy of constantinople , that they would have one like chrysostom of a monastery by antioch ; nestorius a man of study , retirement , a poor garb , a strict life , abhorring publick contentions , and loving quietness , but of a pievish zeal against dissenters called hereticks , as enemies to the churches unity and peace ; so that he presently persecuted many of them even the novatians themselves , and stirred up the emperour to root them all out , and by gods just judgement received such measure as he had measured . a quarrel arose whether saint mary should be called the mother or parent of man , or that parent of god : nestorius , to the end the controversie , was against both , and would have her called , the parent of christ who was god and man ( but not of god : ) some startled at this ; and cyril of alexandria ( a man of great parts , spirit and power , the head of a turbulent people , the first bishop , saith socrates , that assumed the sword ) wrote letters of reproof to him ; and celestine , bishop of rome seconded him : yea cyril followeth it with writing upon writing , to prove that s. mary must be called the parent of god ; with so great a number of words , and so many anathematisms , as made the noise and slame great , but ambiguity made it seem dangerous to many ; so that it grew to a great and open controversie , whether nestorius or cyril was a damnable heretick ; some so calling one , and some the other ; so that the emperour theod. . was fain to call a general council at ephesus , to prevent the utter confusion of the churches : there nestorius came first , and once only appeared ; and being charged with the heresie of denying mary to be the parent of god , he told them , that he would not say that god was two or three months old , and so departed . to cyrils large writings , he returned a short letter , professing , that he was for the distinction of natures only in the unity of person ; but at large proveth that christs godhead had no beginning , that it could not suffer , or die , nor rise again ; and therefore that those things which were said of the manhood , must not be said of the godhead , that it was begotten , dyed , &c. unless they would be hereticks or pagans . read their confession brought into the council against them by charysius and their anathemata's after ; and i think you will see , that the errour of nestorius lay in his want of skill in speaking , and that one side spoke of a phrase de abstracto , and the other of the concrete ; and if so , both meant the same thing , though cyril was judged to use the most skilful words : cyril denyed not but that the deity was not begotten or crucified , but said that god was begotten and crucified , and was passible ; nestorius denyed not that he who was god in one person with the manhood , was begotten , crucified and passible , but not the deity . but cyril said that the phrase [ god was born , crucified , &c. ] was good ; yea necessary , and not ( without anathematized heresie ) to be denyed , because in one person the titles and actions are communicable : nestorius said , that it was wicked to communicate the infirmities of humanity to the deity , as to say , god did grow bigger , and was afraid , and was hungry , and needed help from angels , and died . ) for he thought this phrase applied it to the deity : ( let any man that 's impartial , judge whether this controversie were not about words rather than matter . ) theodoret was a greater scholar than nestorius , and he became the champion of his cause , supposing that locutio formalis est maximo propria ; and therefore that he that saith god had a beginning , increase , death , passions , must be supposed to mean it , qua deus , as he is god : and so two saints , st. cyril and st. theodoret , fell at large to prove each other damnable hereticks . john , patriarch of antioch , being far off , was long in coming to the synod . memnon , bishop of ephesus , joyning with cyril , before he 〈…〉 bishops came , beg●n and condemned , and deposed nostorius as a heretick . nestorius let them all alone , and medled little himself , alledging that candidianus comes for bad him to appear . but when john of ant. came , he took nestorius's part , and gathered a council with himself , and candidianus the emperours officer took his part . john's council condemned and deposed cyril and memnon , as they had done nestorius : and thus two councils at ephesus sate damning one another . the emperour knew not what to do with them , but requireth each party to send some of their bishops to him : when they came , he permitted them not long to come neerer than calcedon , for fear of tumults : while they were there , the people of constantinople flocked to them , and most of the people being for nestorius , and most of the courtiers , clergy and monks against him , they fell into dissention to the stoning of some about their meetings , for preaching to the people . theodoret and his associates prosecuted it against cyril , as those that declared their resolution to die rather than yield to his heresies ( as they called them ) and accused him as if he had been the most proud , unquiet troubler of the world . the other side answerably accused them of dangerous blasphemy and heresie . at last the emperour thought it the best way for peace , to send johan . comes largitionum with power and commission to depose the leaders that each party had deposed , viz. nestorius , and cyril and memnon : but john wrote an epistle to the emperour , how furious they were against each other , and how cyril's party would not hear the emperour's letters , because nestorius was there , and how they raged and sell to fighting ( a doleful story . ) but at last the emperour seeing that cyril had the stronger ( and the orthodox ) side , and the court and clergy being against nestorius , and yet being loth to divide joh. antioch . and the oriental bishops from the rest , thought it the most healing way to depose nestorius alone , and restore cyril and memnon , and to charge ( magnâ cum severitate jubet , saith bin. notes ) joh. ant. to be reconciled with cyril ; and to unite ; so that joh. and theodoret , and the oriental bishops moved with fear , and desiring peace , sent their confession to cyril , and cyril said , it was the same that he meant ; and so they were suddenly made all orthodox , that had not understood it but by the rod : but nestorius returned to his monastery by antioch ( chrysostom's place ) and there liv'd four years in great peace and reputation ; but then he was no longer to be there endured , but banished into forein countries , driven about in sufferings , in which he died . and theodoret , it seems , was not well reconciled , when , hearing of the death of cyril , he wrote to joh. antioch . that now there was hope the churches might have peace , the great enemy of all peace being gone to the place where such men cease to trouble , &c. but so great was the rupture thus made , that to this day it is not healed , great part of the east adhering then to nestorius , and those country-christians being called nestorian hereticks and out of the church by the papists to disgrace them , because they will not own their pope . nestorius being thus condemned , eutyches thought he would be far enough from his heresie , and said , that the union of christ's two natures made them to be but one : this heresie one council at constant . under flavian , condemned . another after by the countenance of the emperour acquit him : the emperour theod. . commandeth a general council again at eph●sus , and maketh dioscorus president ; who being cyril's successor , though he had held to his doctrine against nestorius ▪ for the unitive predication ; and though he professed that the synod medled not de side , but about matter of justice between flavian and eutyches , yet countenanced by the emperour , he domineered , and by threatning got all the general council save the popes legates to subscribe against flavian , and he was beaten , and died of the hurt , saith bin. notes , in hoc tam horrendo episcoporum suffragio sola naviculd petri incolum●s emergens , salvatur . the whole council went against the pope , and the right : but sure christ's united natures are in several sens●s both two and one ; but two in the primary and most proper sense . thus you see what unhappiness even this national government of bishops in those good times was lyable to . it was by bishops striving who should be chief that the donatists set up against the catholicks , and the very novat●ans were not free ; much less the appolinarians , and most others that caused the schisms of those times , in which the bishops were almost ever the chief cause . even such worthy men as theophilus , alex and epiphanius could not endure chrysostom ; such men ejected him once and again , as th●odoret saith he purposely forbeareth t● name for reverence of their virtues . and if you come to the fourth great general council at calcedon you will find the same cause of lamentation , and that even worthy men in such temptations are frail , when a new emperour martian was on the other side , ( the right ; ) when dioscorus had professed that he was neither for transmutation , division , nor confusion of christs natures ( and therefore was for distinction ; ) when the egyptian bishops professed their consent with the synod , only craying that they might not be put to anathematize dioscorus till they had another patriarch , but so long to delay ; when they professed that if they did , they were sure to be killed when they came home , and falling on the earth cryed to their brethren miseremini miseremini spare us or kill us here ; yet they cry out hereticks , hereticks , away with them , till the civil judges rescued them : and how many of these had but lately subscribed against flavianus at ephesus , ( & here were in one point for leo , and in another against him ? ) leo's epistle which was for their cause against dioscorus they cryed up ; and condemned dioscorus for excommunicating the pope ; but the canon for exalting constantinople , they maintained against leo's will , and contemptuously cryed out qui aliter sentiunt roman ambulent ; he that readeth the clamours at this council , and how the same bishops that had lately subscribed the condemnation of flavianus with dioscorus were zealous here on the other side , and cryed out omnes peccavimus , excusing it by their fear of threatnings and souldiers , when a poor christian woman could have suffered martyrdom rather than sin ; and he that readeth how after all this they were so ready to anathematize others , and to contemn the prostrate egyptian bishops , will think that he seeth the first council of constantinople as described by nazianzen here exemplified , notwithstanding the honour that is due to them for their orthodoxness . you see in this much how the great bishops at the first five general councils ( nic. . const . . eph. . & . and calced . ) did carry i● . but when they were asunder were they setled , & did they keep the churches in concord by these councils ? let us but , for one instance consider what followed this excellent council of calcedon ; . leo the bishop of rome approved it against dioscorus , but abhorred the th canon , which set up constantinople with equal priviledges , and that above alexandria and antioch : so that the pope rested not in this council . . what sedition there was at alexandria upon the change made by this council all the daies of martian , and of the murder of proterius presently after , liberatus in breviario , and many other tell at large . . in palestine the monks that had been at the council , returned lamenting that the faith was there betraved , and stird up their fraternity to rescind the acts : they expelled juvenal bishop of jerusalem ; the empress eudocia took their part : they killed severianus bishop of scythopolis : they compelled men to communicate with them : they murdered athanasius a deacon at jerusalem for contradicting them , and gave his flesh to dogs ; they compelled dorotheus the emperours lieutenant to joyn with them , till after months juvenal was restored niceph. l. . c. . and in many countries this contention followed ; and the women eudocia and pulcheria had no small hand in all , till pulcheria procured eudocias conversion to approve the council . . when leo came to reign , the sedition revived at alexandria between the murderers of proterius : timothy elurus made bishop by the councils enemies , deposed by leo , and timothy , salophaciolus put in his place and all was in confusion . the egyptian bishops write to the emperour against the eutychians ; the emperour sends forth his circular letters for the council ; niceph. l. . c. . . . . at antioch , petrus , c●apheus ambitious of the bishoprick , got into martyrius place by leo's help , and anathematized all that would not say that god was crucified and suffered , and tore that church in pieces : martirius , when he could do no good , forsook them , with these words [ clero rebelli et populo inobedienti & ecclesiae contaminatae nuncium remitto : ] cnapheus reviled the council : leo for this banished him : stephanus , a friend of the council , succeeded him ; him boyes killed with sharp quils and cast him into the river for favouring the council : and calendion succeeding him , made them anathematize the aforesaid cnaphous . leo being dead , dissolute zeno reigned , basiliscus taking advantage of his lewd life , usurped the empire , and made use of the schisms to promote his ends : and first publisheth his circular against the council of calcedon ; to this saith niceph. l. . c. . besides the three patriarchs no less than five hundred bishops subscribed , and renounced the council . but acacius of constantin . and dav. columella perswaded basiliscus quickly to write clean contrary letters for the council , seeing that this was like to prove the stronger side . and when zeno was restored , who was for the council , the asian bishops turned again , and wrote to acasius to be pardoned , saying that they subscribed to basiliscus first letters , not voluntarily , but through fear nceph . l. . c. . then things were turned back again ; till zeno thought it the best way to write his henoticon or a conciliatory edict , that none should be forced to profess themselves either for or against the council , perceiving that the bishops would never come to agreement , either as for it or against it : but this ended not the divisions ; but at antioch calendion was cast out . and pet. cnapheus got in again : and at alexandria between peter moggus and john striving who should hold the place , all was in confusion . yea the schism reached to rome also ; for moggus at alexandria anathematizing the council , and persecuting dissenters , the emperour seeks to reconcile them ; felix at rome condemneth acasius at constantinople , for communicating with moggus : acasius condemneth felix , blotting his name out of the sacred albe . acasius dyeth , and the emperour found it so hard to choose a patriarch , that should cause no sedition , that he will have god choose one ; and to that end puts a blanck-paper on the altar , and another requesting god that an angel might write there the name of the patriarch that should possess the place : the doors are lock't , and forty daies fasting and prayer commanded to prevail with god : one flavitas bribeth the key-keeper , who was the emperours lord chamberlain , and he writeth , flavitas name in the paper and sealeth up the door again , and so there was a patriarch chosen by an angel ; but dyed suddenly within four months : but before he dyed , he joyned with peter of alexandria by synodal letters to anathematize the council of calcedon and yet wrote to the bishop of rome that he renounced communion with peter , and he wrote to peter that he renounced communion with the bishop of rome . euphemius succeeded him , and he rased peters name out of the book , and joyned with the roman bishop . peter and euphemius as generals were gathering synodical armies against each other , and peter dyeth . athanasius that succeeded him , would fain have reconciled his church but could not : palladius succeeded peter cnapheus at antioch : both these patriarchs joyn together to curse the council of calcedon ; they die : john succeeded at alexandria and flavianus at antioch : these also joyn to curse the council , while the patriarchs of rome and constantinople are for it , and curse them . zeno dieth , and anastasius dicorus is chosen emperour . he ( saith niceph. l. . c. ) being a man of peace , and desiring the ceasing of all contention , left all to their liberty to thank of the council of calceaon as they pleased : hereupon the bishops fell into three parties , some fervent for every word of the council ; some cursed it ; and some were for zeno's henoticon , or silence , or suspension : these renounced communion accordingly with one another ; the east was one way ; the west another ; and libya another : nay , the eastern bishops among themselves ; the western among themselves , and the lybian among themselves , renounced communion with each other ( niceph. c. ) tanta confusio ment iumque caligo ( saith the historia● ) orbem universum incessit . the emperour having resolved to keep peace , and make no change , was forced to fall upon those of both sides that were most turbulent . at constantinople he put out euphemius ( or for dislike of him . ) this emperour , before his inthroning , had given under his hand to euphemius , a promise to stand for the council : he demanded his writing again ; euphemius denied him , and was cast out : macedonius succeeded him : he had the same writing : the emperour demanded it of him : he also denied him : the emperour would have put him out : the people rise up in sedition , and cryed , it is a time of martyrdom : let us a●l st●●k to the bishop : and they reviled the emperour , calling him a manichee , unworthy the empire . the emperour was fain to submit to macedonius , who sharply rebuked him as the churches enemy ; but in time he remembred this , and cast out macedonius , and burnt the councils acts , and put timothy in his place , who presently pull'd down the image of macedonius : the patriarchs also of alex. antioch , & bishop of jerusalem , were all cast out , even those that were against the council . pet. cnapheus had made one xena●as a persian servant & unbaptized , bishop of hierapolis : he was against images , and brought a troop of monks to antioch , to force flavianus the bishop to curse the council : flavianus denied it : the people stuck to the bishop , and so unanswerably disputed down the monks , that so great a multitude of them were slain , as that they threw their bodies into the river orontes , to save them labour of burying of them . ( nicep . c. . ) but this was not all ; another troop of monks of caelosrria , that were of flavianus side , hearing of the tumult , flockt to antioch , and made another slaughter as great as the former ( saith the historian . ) for this the emperour banished flavianus , whose followers thought his punishment too great after all these murders . peter being dead , the bishops of alexandria , egypt and lybia , fell in pieces among themselves ; each having their separate conventions : the rest of the east also separated from the west , because the west would not communicate with them , unless they would curse nestorius , eutyches , dioscorus , moggus , and acacius . and yet ( saith niceph. l. . c. ● . ) qui germani dioscori & eutychetis sectatores suere , ad maximam paucitatem redacti sunt . xenaias bringeth to flavian the names of theodore , theodorite , ibas , and others , as nestorians , and tells him , if he anothemarize not all these , he is a nestorian , whatever he say to the contrary : flavian was unwilling , but his timerous fellow-bishops perswading him , he wrote his curse against them , and sent it to the emperour . xenaias then went further , and required him to curse the council : they prevailed with the isaurian bishops to consent , and all renounced the refusers as nestorians : and thus the council having ( in name ) condemned the nestorians and eutychians , the eutychians called all nestorians that cursed not the council , and got many cast out . after flavian , sever●s got in at antioch : the first day he cursed the council ( though it 's said that he swore to the emperour before that he would not ) nicep . c. . in palestine there were renewed the like confusions about the condemnation of flavian and macedonius : about antioch severus letters frightened many bishops to curse the council , and those that held two natures : some bishops revoked their sentence , and said they did it for fear : some stood out : and the isaurian bishops , when they repented , condemned severus himself , that drove them to subscribe : and some bishops fled from their churches for fear . cosmas and severianus sent a condemnation to severus : the emperour hearing of it , sent his procurator to cast them out of their bishopricks for presuming to condemn their patriarchs . the procurator found the people so resolute , that he sent word to the emperour , that these two bishops could not be cast out without blood-shed : the emperour answered ; that he would not have a drop of blood shed for the business . helias bishop of jerusalem , found all the other churches in such confusion , condemning one another , that he would communicate with none of them but euphemius at const . nic●p . c. . and that you may see how people then were moved , a monk or abbot theodosius gathering an assembly , loudly cryed out in the pulpit , [ if any man equal not the four councils with the four evangelests , let him be anathema . ] this voice of their captain resolved them all , and they took it as a law , that the four councils should be [ sacris libris accensenda ] and wrote to the emperour certamen se de eis ad sanguinem usque subituros . ( this was then the submission to princes by the adherents to the councils of the bishops . and they went about to the cities to bring them to joyn with them . the emperour wrote to helias to reform this : he rejecting his letters , souldiers were sent to compel them . the orthodox monks gathered by the bishops , tumultuously cast the emperours souldiers out of the church : ( c. ) after another conflux they anathematized those that adhered to severus . the emperour provoked , sent olympius with a band of souldiers to conquer them . he came and cast out helias , and put in john : the monks gather again , and the souldiers being gone , they cause john to engage himself to be against severus , and stand for the council , though unto blood ; which , contrary to his word to olympius , he did . the emperour deposed olympius , and sent another captain anastasius , who put the bishop in prison , and commanded him to despise the council ; consulting with another bishop , he promised to obey him , if he would but let him out of prison two daies before , that it might not seem a forced act : this being done , the bishop contrarily to the congregation in the pulpit , before the captain cryeth out [ if any assent to eutyches and nestorius ( contraries ) and severus and soterichus caesar , let him be anathema : if any follow not the opinions of the four universal synods , let him be anathema . ] the captain thus deluded , fled from the multitude , and was glad to save himself : the emperour being offended at this , the bishops write to him that at jerusalem , the fountain of doctrine , they were not now to learn the truth , and they would defend the traditions , if need be , even to blood . ] nic●p . c. . timothy bishop of constantinople took the man-pleasing way , and one while was for the calcedon council , another while he cursed it . being to choose an abbat , the abbat refused his election , unless he consented to the council of calcedon . timothy cursed those presently that received not the council : his archdeacon hearing him , reproached him that like euripus , roled every way : the emperour hearing it , rebuked him , and timot●y washt away the charge and presently cursed every one that received the council . niceph. c. . yet rome though now under another king ( theodorick an arria goth ) had a part in the schism : festus a roman senator was sent from theodorick to the emperour on an emb●ssie : which when he had done , he desired that constantinople would keep holy daies for peter and paul as rome did , and he prevailed : and he secretly assured the emperour that anastasius bishop of rome would receive the henoticon ( to suspend the consent to the calcedon council ) and would subscribe it . but when the embassadour came home , the pope was dead : to make good his word , he got a party to choose laurentius pope , that would do it : the people ( that then had the chief choice ) chose symmachus so there were two popes : and the sedition continued three years not without slaughters , rapines and other calamities ( niceph. c. . ) till theodorick an a●rian more righteous than the popes , called a synod and confirmed symmachus : but laurentius stirred up the people to sedition and was quite degraded . the emperour favouring the addition [ qui crucifixus est pro nobis ] the people seditiously cut off a monks head and set it up on a pole inscribing it an enemy to the trinity : the emperour overcome with their confusion and orthodox rebellions , called an assembly and offered to resign his crown , desiring them to choose another ; which ●note them with such remorse , that they desired him to reassume his crown and promised to forbear sedition : but lie dyed shortly after . but i must not transcribe historical volumes . justin succeeded anastasius in the empire , and justinian him : these were for the synod : but theodora justinians wife was against it : some thought by compact , that each part might have a head , which was indeed but one ( niceph. l. . c. . ) should i tell you in their reigns how the ecclesiastical war continued , how pope agathon munus imposuit menae constant . quod antea nunquam factum est , niceph. c. ; how menas and the pope excommunicated one another , and how justinian used vigilius the pope , &c. it would be over tedious to tell . i have wrote this much to shew you how far the patriarchal seats conduced to the churches peace , and how far the four first councils of bishops caused christian love and concord : no such things can be said of the arabians , and novatian phrygians and others that had bishops in the villages : should i but now turn to rome and tell you what was done there , all this confusion , blood and misery is but a jeast to it : but i have said enough of that in many treatises against popery ; and particularly of the above years schism when they had or popes at once ; and of the above popes that baronius and genebrard themselves call apostatical , put in by whores and poyson , men not to be named , save to keep a reckoning of the times ; many damned by councils as horrid adulterers , murderers , simonists , hereticks , or infidels : nor will i recite how in the many wars between the popes and emperours , the bishops swore , and unswore , and forswore as the upper side compelled them , as urspergensis complaineth . nor will i stand to tell you , how the pope and patriarch of constantinople ( to whom adhere those of antioch , alexandria and jerusalem ) have these thousand years almost , divided and distracted the christian world , by striving which should be the greatest , when christ had so fully decided the case . but what now if after so many hundred years confusion it should prove , that all this stir was in the dark , and that nestorius eutyches , and dioscorus were of the same mind except in words : can the tongue of man then sufficiently express the bishops guilt ? a rare french divine and philosopher david derodon hath written a treatise de supposito , copiously proving that nestorius was orthodox , and cyril an heretick , and all the first ephesin council that adhered to him ; that eutyches and dioscorus taught but the same heresie that cyril did ; that the council of calcedon ignorantly condemned nestorius and truly stablished his opinion ; and cryed up cyril and damned his doctrine : and he citeth abundant passages out of cyril where he expresly denyeth two natures in christ , ( as ep. . ad success . in christo duas natur as unit as asserimus : post unionem vero ademptâ jam in duas divisione , unam esse credimus naturam filii incarnati : ) and that nestorius expresly assureth that there are two natures and but one person : the citations are numerous and undeniable . but i think that cyril , eutyches and dioscorus ( who were all of one mind ) did mean that the natures were but one in opposition to division , but not in opposition to distinction . and that nestorius said they were two as distinguished but not as divided , and all this blood , separation and confusion was between men of one mind , for want of skill in the explication of words , and through worldly designs . i know some will say , were all these councils of bishops such fools in comparison of you ? but can a man deny notorious truth in reverence to bishops ? if so , which part of the bishops must i believe if they say the snow is black : the arrians , and eutychians were far the greater number . and now as the best philosophers think that experiments de facto must be premised to the theory , so we think this touch of history must be considered by them that think jewish high priesthood , or national , patriarchal or metropolitical superiority is the necessary means of the churches concord : let them compare the dissentions caused by little village bishops and synods for meer concord , yea or by separating heady people , with these which patriarchall and metropolitical seats have caused , and they will appear to be to them but as a scuffle at billinsgate to the french wars : and yet we have instanced but in the best times of dominion , in comparison of which councils , prelates and later times have been a meer hurricane . in a word , they that think that the mischiefs of superiour seats are greater than the benefits , do appeal to all church history , whether they have not been the true and principal causes of the distractions of the christian world , and of the long division of the east and west , and of many civil and grievous wars . § . and to the objections they say , i. as to appeals and government of inferiors , . that the last appeals have ever been made to general councils : and how they went when ever the prince did but countenance errour , ( as in the daies of constantius and valens , many great councils that were for the arrians , and in theodosius juniors time , for the eutychians &c. ) is too sad to think on . and is it not far more dangerous for many hundred in a council to bear down a whole empire or kingdom , and raise persecution , and there be no appeal from them , than for a poor priest to put a man from the sacrament in his own parish church ? how many councils have been against images in churches , and how many for them , condemning one anothers acts ? what good will appeals do to such , . in doctrinal cases the consent of many tends to concord : but in cases of personal practice , are they fit judges to appeal to , that dwell many hundred miles off , and know none of the persons ; suppose a poor man in england is put from the communion by a parish-priest ( yea , perhaps an hundred or many hundred in some parishes ) because he findeth some to be utterly ignorant some to be drunkards , fornicators , heretical , &c. if these appeal but to a diocesan which dwelleth . miles from some , , or , or miles from others , the remedy is worse than the disease : for if the priest must travel so far , and bring his witnesses and plead the cause with men that never saw the party before , ( where neighbourhood giveth a surer knowledge than any such examination of strangers can do , and a strange chancelor or diocesan knoweth not which witnesses are most credible ) and all this while his pastoral charge ( perhaps many thousand souls ) must be neglected , while the minister is prosecuting these appealing sinners ; will not the evil of this be greater than the benefit ? but how much more if every sinner must appeal to a patriarch many hundred miles off ? a sober mind will be ashamed to think of the process of such a suit . if you say that it is not in the case of such sinners as these whereof every parish abounds , that you would have appeals , at least not to patriarchs , so far off ; i answer , . then answer your own objection : what remedy shall they have if the bishop wrong them ? . what is the case than that you suppose such supraordinations of power necessary for ? if you say , if ministers themselves should be excommunicate , it is answered , that none but bishops or other superior powers pretend authoritatively as rectors to excommunicate pastors ; therefore this is nothing to them that are against all such superiority of pastors ; where none such are , none such can excommunicate , or be injurious . and if there must be a higher bishop to deliver men from the injuries of a lower , who should deliver us from him , who may injure kingdoms ? obj. but it is supposed that patriarchs are wiser and better men than metropolitans , and those than bishops , and those than priests : and that a meer priest is not to be trusted with the power of the keys . ans . . the power of the keys of his particular church is essential to his office ; . they that will make priests of raw lads and naughty fellows , and then plead that such must not be trusted with the office which they themselves ordained them to , do condemn themselves by such allegations , . the old church government was , for every particular church , no more numerous than our parishes , to have a bishop and presbyters : and these were thought sufficient to judge who was fit for their own communion , . hierom was but a priest , &c. and macedonius , nestorius , dioseorus , timothy elurus , peter moggus , gregory alex. lucius al. joh. al. theodosius al. eulalius antioch . euphronius ant. placitus ant. stephanus ant. leontius ant. eudoxius ant. euzoius ant. all hereticks were all patriarchs ; and to reckon the enormities of the roman high priests , is a needless work . is it to be supposed then , that these were better than priests ? doth christ say that it is as hard for a rich man to enter into heaven as for a camel to go through a needles eye , and shall we that are christians say , that it is to be supposed that the rich clergie are better men than the poor ▪ when greg. nazianz. saith that such great places use to make bishops worse than they were before , all history tells us what striving there was for such places ? when euschius refused antioch , two priests were presently at constantines elbow to beg that place , and he was fain to mention them ( though they were not chosen . ) what a stir did maximus make at constantinople , egypt , and with the emperour to have got gregories place at constantinople ? and so with others . and is it not a fleshly , proud and wordly mind ( which is the work of the devil ) which is the importunate seeker ? and must we needs appeal to such ? . but to come neerer , what need is there of any such appeal or such a government , if , . a bishop with-his presbyters be over every particular church ( associated for personal communion in holy doctrine , worship and conversation ? ) . and if these churches associate for meer concord and mutual help ( and not for governing bishops ? ) . and if the magistrate govern them all as he doth philosophers , physicians , &c. for . if a bishop of a particular church deny one the sacrament or excommunicate him , he doth it justly or unjustly : if justly , the person must submit : if unjustly , he may be received by a neighbour bishop who is not bound to reject those whom upon trial he findeth to have been wrongfully excommunicated : all neighbour churches must refuse those that are by any one excommunicated justly ; but not all that are wrongfully cast out . some say that he that doth excommunicate doth cast a man out of the whole church , and therefore no one else may receive him : but unexplained words must not serve to confound truth , souls and congregations . every minister is a minister in the universal church ( as every physician and schoolmaster is in and to the kingdom ( indefinitely not universally ) but his work and power are commensurate ; his power being only to and for his work . therefore the bishop or pastor of one particular church or parish , is bound to confine his ordinary labour to them , though occasionally he may help others . and accordingly his power is to use the keys ordinarily for his own church only , as to the direct effect : though extraordinarily he may use it in other churches when called thereto ; and by consequence it may reach further : for few bishops will think if another bishop come into their diocesses or parishes and excommunicate divers of their flocks , that they and all others are bound to stand to such mens sentence , and to hold such excommunicate . that which a pastor doth in ordinary excommunicating , is to declare ( after proof ) that this person is by his sin and impenitency made uncapable of communion with the church , and therefore to require him to forbear it , and the people to avoid communion with him ; and to pronounce him unpardoned before god , till he repent . now if this be done by one known to be heretical with whom the other churches have no communion , those other churches are not bound to deny that man communion . nor yet if he offer himself to their communion , and they examine the matter , and find him wronged . it is concord in good , and not in evil , that we are bound to by the command of god : therefore if any man be wrongfully put out of this church , the next may and should receive him : and what necessity is there then , of going a thousand or an hundred miles to a pope , or patriarch , or diocesan , to right him ? and whoever thought that there was need of an universal physician , or schoolmaster , or a general council of such to receive appeals from patients and scholars that are wrongfully turned out of the hospital or school ? the caviller will here tell you of disparities in the cases ; but the question is , whether the disrities be such as alter the reason of the conclusion . what man of conscience will be a physician , schoolmaster or pastor , that hath not power to judge whom to receive for his patient , scholar , or part of his flock , but must take all that some other man shall send to him , or command him to receive , and give them what others command him to give ? an apothecary may do so , but not a physician . what if a man had no other scandal , but to say , i will not take you for my pastor , nor take my self obliged to answer you , speak with you , give you any account of my self , nor be questioned by you on any accusation , must i be constrained to suppose this man to be one of my flock in despite of his own denyal ? if the freedom of consent be not mutual , but i must be constrained to take those for my charge as christians , that renounce such a relation , or will not own it ; a pastor is not a free man , nor hath any power of the church-keys , but is as an irrational slave , a cryer , or executioner , that must but execute another mans commands . . but if there be need of appeals , and our own actions must not be free , why will not the synods of neighbour-pastors met only for counsel and concord ( and not to command the pastors ) suffice for such persons to appeal to ? and what if i turn a servant out of my house , or from his meat , and he may take another master when he will , must there be an universal judge of all family cases , that shall force me to keep my servant against my will ? is it not enough that i know why i am unwilling to keep him , who am no way more bound to him than to others , but by my own consent ? what if ( as nazianzen left sasimis , constantinople , and nazianzum at last ) i should give up my whole charge and bishoprick , and say , i will be a pastor to none of them any more , ( upon sufficient reasons , as latimer did : ) is it not better for the people to take another , than to accuse me at rome , or canterbury , as wronging them ? . but if all this serve not ( neither the sufficiency of pastors for one single parish , nor yet the counsel of all the neighbour-pastors or bishops , ) what is there more to be done , which the authority of princes and magistrates may not do ? all christians confess ( almost ) that no bishops or pastors , as such , have from christ any forcing power over the flocks ; that belongeth to the magistrates only ; and they are to keep peace , and force us to our certain duty . and i would ask the contrary-minded , whether if bishops , patriarchs and councils had no forcing power , but only to excommunicate by the application of gods word , and leaving all men to their consciences , would this sort of government serve their turn , and keep out heresies , or maintain order and unity ? they say no , themselves : and next , whether it be not certain , and confessed , that the pastors have no other power , but the magistrates only ? obj. but shall all men gather churches , and teach heresie , and do what they will ? answ . . the power of popes , patriarchs or councils , did not prevent it , when there were all the heresies that fill epiphanius volumns : and when the far greatest part of the clergy was long arrian : and when the nestorians and futychians so greatly multiplied after the condemnation of the councils : and when the novatians lived so many years in reputation : and when the donatists nor they were not diminished by prelates or councils censures , till the sword dispersed them . and cannot the sword be drawn without such as have no power of it ? . and as to the last ( and greatest ) reason , that the apostles have successors who must orderly exercise their government ; it is answered . the common doctrine of the church was , that all bishops are their successors so far as they have successions ; and every church of one altar had a bishop in the daies of ignatius , and long after . . the council of carthage said , none of us calleth himself bishop of bishops . . but if any be set as the bishop of many bishops and churches , so be it they use no violence , but govern volunteers as all the old bishops did , and sorbid them nothing commanded of god , nor command them any thing which god forbiddeth , and destroy not the order , doctrine , worship or discipline of the lesser particular churches , we have before said , that we shall submit to such . § . iv. as to the question , whether the government setled by christ in national churches be ( as to the clergy from all parts , monarchical ) aristocratical or democratical , and who must have the summam potestatem ? the disagreement of the persons that we have herein to do with , puts us into utter despair of any solution . and what good will it do us to believe that some must be obeyed , if we cannot be certain who it is . § . v. and to the question , whether the king be the formal , or only the accidental church-head ? we find no more agreement . . some think that the king , as melchizedek , is a mixt person , secular and clergy , and hath both offices to use and communicate , as they say , the princes before aaron had . . others say , that this is not so , but that the clergy-jurisdiction , distinct from the priestly common power , is a branch of the christian magistrates power , and so derived from the king. . others say that the church , formally , is distinct from the civil state , though not alwaies materially : and that the king as king , is but an accidental civil head , as he is over physicians and schoolmasters , being neither himself ; and that the national church must have a formal clergy-head , ( personal or collective ) which shall in suo genere , be the highest , though under the magisttates civil government , as physicians are . . the papists say , that all national churches are under the pope as universal pastor , who may alter them as he seeth cause . . some moderate men say , that only diocesan ( and metropolitical ) churches are jure divino , and that they are called national , only improperly from one king , or concording association as ab accidente , and not properly from any formal clergy-head . § . vi. lastly , which is the formal head of the church of england , and so what that church is , we are left as much uncertain . . if it be only a civil head that denominateth it one , then it is but a christian kingdom , which we never questioned . and dr. rich. cosins , in his tables of the english church-policy , saith [ that the king hath administrationem supremam magisque absolutam , quae dicitur primatus regius . and tho. crompton in his dedication of it to k. james , saith [ ecclesiastica jurisdictio plane regia est , coronae & dignitatis vestrae regiae prima , praecipua , indivisibilis pars : ecclesiasticae leges regiae sunt , neque alibi oriuntur , aut aliunde sustentantur , aut fulciuntur : penes ecclesiasticos judices per archiepiscopos & episcopos , derivata a rege potestate , jurisdictio ecclesiastica consist it : and yet our kings and church explaining the oath of allegiance , declare that the king pretendeth not to the priesthood , or power to administer the word and sacraments ; but , as crompton adds from constantine , is extra ecclesiam constitutus a deo episcopus ; alii intra ecclesiam episcopi . this is plain : if they hold to this , and claim no power in the english-policy , but as the kings officers , in that part which belongeth to christian magistrates , who will oppose them ? but this reacheth not to the keys , preaching or sacraments . . some say that the king is partly a clergy man , as melchizedek , and so that he is the formal head , and might perform the priestly office if he would : but this our kings have themselves renounced . . some say that the archbishop of canterbury is the formal head ; but that cannot be , because he is no governour over the arch-bishop of york , or his province . . most say that the convocation is the formal church-head , which makes it one political church . but . if so , then why saith the canon that the convocation [ is the true church of england by representation ] and those excommunicate that deny it ? we enquire after the church-head or governour : and that which is but the church it self by representation , is not its head , unless the head and body be the same , and the church govern it self , and so it be democratical : the governed and governours , sure , are not the same . . and the supream power is supposed , by those that take episcopacy for a distinct order , to be in the supream order only : but the far greater part of the convocation are not of the supream order : nay , thus the presbyters should be partly the chief governours of the bishops while they make canons for them . . when we did but motion that according to arch-bishop ushers form of the primitive episcopacy , presbyters might joyn with the bishops in proper executive church-government instead of lay-chancellors , and such like , they decryed it as presbytery , and call us presbyterians ever since : and if they say that the presbyters have so great a part in the supream government it self , which obligeth all the nation , how much more would they be themselves presbyterians , which they so abhor ? § . having oft said that we desire christian kingdoms as the great blessing of the world , we mean not either that . all in a kingdom should be forced to be baptized , or profess themselves christians , whether they are so or not : for lying will not save men , nor please god ; and even the papists are against this : . nor that all should be supposed to be christians that are in the kingdom . but that the kings be christians , and the laws countenance christianity , and the most or ruling part of the kingdom be christians , and all just endeavours used to make all the rest so : the ancient churches continued them catechumens till they were fit for baptism ; and though they were for infant-baptism , they compelled none to be baptized in infancy , or at age , but left it to free choice . they baptized but twice a year ordinarily . they kept many offenders many years from communion . and if crabs roman council sub silvest be true , they at rome admitted not penitents till fourty years ( understand it as you see cause : ) the true elibertine canons kept many out so many years , and many till death , and many absolutely , as shewed that they were far from taking all the nation into the church . and the christian emperours compelled none . it was long before the greatest part of the empire were christians . in the daies of valens , the bishops were some of them banished into places that had few christians , if any . in france it self , even in st. martin's daies , the christians of his flock were not the most , but he wrought miracles to convince the heathens that raged against christianity , where he dwelt , &c. § . there are two appendent controversies handled by some , that write for national churches ; which need but a brief solution : the first is , whether it be not an independent errour to expect real holiness in church-members , as necessary in the judgment of charity ? the second , whether it be not such an errour to require the bond of a covenant beside the baptismal covenant ? § . to the first we say , that so much is written on this point by one of us in a treatise called disputations of right to sacraments , &c. that we think meet to say no more : the opponents now confess that it must be saving faith and consent to the baptismal covenant that must be professed : and papists and protestants agree with all the ancient church , that baptism putteth the true consenter into a state of certain pardon and title to life : and god maketh not known lying , a condition of church-communion : he that believeth , and is baptized , shall be saved . it is true , that god hath not made ministers arbitrary judges of mens secret thoughts , but hath limited them in judging to take their tongues that profess faith and consent to be the indices of their minds : but sure the power of the keys containeth a power of judging according to christ's law , who is to be taken into the church by baptism , and who not : if only the seeker be made judge , it will be a new way of church-government , and a bad . and then the question is , . whether he that accepts ones profession seemingly serious , of faith and consent , and that de praesente , is not bound to hope in charity that such a one doth not lie or dissemble ? . whether a baptized person , as such , have no right to our special love which we owe to those that we hope are true believers , and sanctified ; but only to our common love and kindness , which belongeth to those also that are the heirs of hell ? some friends that are gone from extream to extream , and in remembrance of their ancient schisms , can look but one way with impartial sense , and that have made their repentance the passage to a greater errour and sin , should better bethink them them what they do . they did well to stand still in the way of schism , when they saw here a leg , and there a hand , and there an arm in their way ; and who but a mad-man indeed would not : but if they have impartially read church-history , and the works of such fathers as give us historical notices , and ever since constantine made a bishoprick a bait to a proud and worldly mind ; even such as nazianzen , basil , chrysostom , isidore pelusiota , hilary pictav . and the over-orthodox disputations of cyril , and the epistles of theodoret rejoycing at his death , and abundance of such like ; had they seen in the way of church-pride and tyranny , not here a leg , and there an arm , but here a hundred carkasses , and there a thousand ; here two thousand godly faithful preachers silenced , and many thousand dry vines planted in their rooms , and there whole kingdoms interdicted , and their churches shut up ; here churches and kingdoms turned into confusions about a word , or about the interest of prolates , striving which should be the chief , and have their will and rule the rest ; and there hundred thousands murdered in the name of christ , for obeying him , and bloody wars managed by the clergy against christian emperours , and kings stabbed one after another ; and most of the christian world , roman , greek , moscovites , armenians , abassines , degenerated into doleful ignorance and dead formality under the government of great high-priests , and millions of the vulgar bred up in ignorance and senslesness of spiritual and eternal things ; this should stop them , ( at least from serving the master of such designs ) as much as a leg , or an arm in the way . . at least we would intreat them to hate that mistake , which will pretend to do all this for charity , unity and the churches good ; and to believe that it is no sign of charity , . to believe that charity should not be exercised in judging that men professing saving faith do speak the truth , and have the faith that they profess : . nor to teach all christs church , that a baptized church member as such is to be lookt on but as a man in a state of damnation ; and no man is bound to love him as a true christian with a special love : . and that to prove that a man is not to be taken for a true christian , but to be admitted into church communion as one that shall have a greater damnation than heathens , without a further renovation , is a great act of charity , contrary to the uncharitable narrowness of others . these are too great recesses from anabaptistry , but not from real schism . § . as for those that will not take the intelligent serious profession of true faith , and covenant-consent for a credible sign of the sincerity of the professor , till they can sufficiently disprove it , but will be the arbitrary judges of mens hearts , either as pretended heart-searchers , or by self-devised , or uncertain signs , not taking up with this profession , we are no patrons of such mens presumption and uncharitableness . § . there are various degrees of credibility in mens professions ; some give us so much as is next to certainty ; some but small hopes : but yet till we can disprove them , we are to take their professions as credible in some degree . and if they prove false , it is they that will have the loss . § . ii. the second case about church covenants deserveth no longer a discussion . he that will put any article unnecessary into any such covenant , sinfully corrupteth the order of the church : as if he would bind the people to be church governours , or never to depart from that particular church but by the consent of the pastor , or the flock , or any such like : and he mistaketh that will make a more explicite contract to be more necessary than it is . but it seemeth strange to us that any understanding christian should deny , that consent is absolutely necessary to the being of an adult member both of the universal , and each particular church respectively . what bindeth a man to consent is another question , but if he be any member of the church till he profess consent ; we know not what a christian or church member is . an explicite covenant is necessary to our relation to the universal church for it must be solemnized sacramentally : that we express it by writings or words is not of necessity to our membership of a particular church : but consent is necessary ; and mutual consent expressed satisfactorily , is a contract or covenant : if the pastor say all th● at consent , hold up your hand , or stand up ; or stay here while the rest depart , &c. these are significations of consent : and if it be notified that all that appear at the solemn assemblies , and attend the pastors ministry , shall be taken for consenters , their presence and attendance is a profession of consent indeed , and so a covenanting . but though the most explicit be not necessary ad esse , no man can give a reason why it should not be best ad bene esse , seeing the most intelligent and plain dealing in the great things of god , are most suitable to the work , and fittest to attain the end : why should we not deal openly and above board ? § . it is certain that to be a christian maketh no man a member of any mans particular flock or charge . and it is certain that none can be such without consent . and it is certain that the pastor is not to take every atheist , jew , infidel , papist , heretick , &c. in his parish for a member of the universal , or of that particular church . therefore he must know whom to take for such . and it is certain that the consent must be mutual , so far is the pastor from being a slave , and bound to every mans desires , that he is entrusted with the church keys himself . § . a worthy person on this subject maketh these six things sufficient to such church relation : . that they be baptized christians ; . neighbours bound to mutual love ; . and apt to neighbourly duty ; . that providence make us such neighbours ; . scripture churches took their name from cohabitation : . the command of authority , that so it shall be . fresh suit . pag. . ans . by making these six the sufficient proof of parish churches , our friend unhappily would consequently unchurch them all : for if this were all , certainly they were none at all . for all these ( which he maketh more than they are ) are but the dispositio materiae , antecedent to any reception of the form , . for all that he inferreth or can infer from them all is obligation to consent and to other duties after consent . but obligation maketh not the relation of a member : all that are obliged to be christians are not christians : all that are obliged to be pastors are not pastors : nor all that are obliged to consent first and to do the duty of pastors after : even as all that are obliged to consent to be subjects , husbands , wives , masters , servants , tutors , scholars , &c. are not such : if meer obligation serve to one relation , why not to others ? . else a man might be a true pastor unchosen , unordained and against his will. for he may by his qualifications be obliged to be ordained and to become a pastor . . and so the people may be the flock of one that was obliged to be their pastor , when another is set over them and in possession , because it was the first that was obliged , and they to choose him : and so utter confusion will come in : and if a man can prove that another mans wife and servant was obliged to be his , he may take them as his indeed . . by this rule all the papists , seekers , quakers , &c. that renounce our churches , should yet be members of them , because they live in the parish , and are commanded to be members : which who believeth ? . a member of a church hath right to communion and ministerial vigilancie and help : but so hath not every baptized person that is commanded to be a member , and obeyeth not that command . if a man say to a pastor , i will be none of your flock , or church , but yet i require you to do the office of a pastor to me , though i renounce your relation to me , and the people to use me as a member of the flock , because i am commanded to be a member , this were a strange claim . . if this did hold , then no man that liveth in the parish could be a proper separatist , so as to break off himself from that church , nor become a member of another , unless he apostatized from christ : for he would be still under the magistrates command and obligation : but the consequent is absud : why do the same men speak so much against schismatical rending mens selves from the true churches , and gathering other churches , if there be no such thing ? the laws change not , which oblige them . . they that are against schism and singularity , should be against this opinion , because ( as it is utterly absurd , so ) it is notoriously contrary to the judgment of all the christian world in all ages to this day , as acquaintance with church history may fully inform them . they have ever taken mutual consent between the pastors and the flock to be necessary to the being of a particular church ; and that whatever they were obliged to , they were not actually related to each other as pastor and flock till they consented : and therefore have noted schismatical churches in the same cities that have been no parts of the church which they disowned . § . but it is objected , that this unchurcheth our parish-churches , and all the churches in the world . ans . not one : but the contrary would . our parish churches are associated by mutual consent : the pastor expresseth his consent openly at his institution , induction and officiating : the flocks shew their consent by actual submitting to his ministerial office : they hear him , and communicate ordinarily with him , and seek ministerial help from him ; though all that are in the parish do not so , those do it that are indeed his flock , or church . they do not perhaps by word or writing covenant to submit to him as their pastor , but they do it by actual signification of consent to the relation . and the bishops in consecration enter into a covenant to watch over the flock ( as do the priests ) and the priests promise ( if not swear , in england ) to obey them : this is a covenant . § . it is objected that this is a disparagement to baptism , which is the only church-making covenant . ans . baptism only , as such , maketh us members of the universal church ; but is not enough to make us of any ministers special flock : i am not a member of the church of york , norwich , bristol , &c. because i am baptized : nor am i a member of the parish church now where i was baptized . consent to be a christian is one thing , and consent to be a member of this particular church , and to take this man more than all the rest about us , for the guide of my soul , is another . § . and if a man would say , i will be a member of this parish church , and you shall perform so much of your office as i desire , and no more ; i will hear and receive the sacrament but when i please , and i will not admit you to catechize or instruct any of my family , nor visit the sick , nor will i be responsible to you for any thing that i hold , or say , or do ; nor have any thing to do with you , but in the church ; is a minister bound to do his office to men , or take them for his special flock on these terms ? the ancient churches had abundance of strict canons ; if the people should have chosen a bishop , and said we will obey none of these canons , nor you but you shall be our bishop on our terms , was he bound to have consented , and to have been such a bishop ? this is really the case of no small part of england , though they say it not openly by words . § . it is objected that as apostles , so ordained ministers have their authority before the consent of the people and receive it not from them . ans . . who ever questioneth it , that is considerate , as to an indefinite charge in the church universal ? but what 's that to the question ? are all the ministers in the world bound to be the pastors of this parish or diocess ? our question is what constituteth the relations between a pastor and his particular flock ? doth not the ordainer here say , take thou authority to preach the word of god , &c. when thou art thereto lawfully called ? because a man is a licensed physician without me , doth it follow that he is my physician without my consent ? . are all those church-members that ministers are authorized to preach to ? then all the heathen-world are church-members . . they receive not authority from the people ; but their consent is necessary to make themselves capable receivers of the relation and right of church-members . god , and not the wife , giveth the husband the superiority ; but he is no such husband to any that consenteth not . § . god hath laid mens rights and benefits on their wills , so that no man can have them against his will. it is a great priviledge to have right to communion with a particular church , and to this or that faithful pastors oversight : and its new doctrine to say , that unwilling persons have this right , because they are willing of something else , viz. to be members of the church universal . § . we conclude therefore that both extreams here are false ; . that men can be adult members of a particular church that consent not , or taken for such that no way signifie their consent , and that it is not useful ad bene esse , that this consent be intelligent and express , and that the offices consented to be truly understood . . that a written , or verbal covenant is of absolute necessity ; or that men should tie themselves to any thing doubtful , or unnecessary , but only to the relation and duties of members ( as of the universal so ) of that particular church . both these extreams we do renounce . mr. zachary cawdry , a conformist , hath shewed in a particular treatise for church covenanting , how far he is from the mind of those objectors ; for he would have the people engaged by covenant to their bishops and priests . § . to conclude , though we renounce fanatick enthusiasts , yet serious consideration maketh some of us think , that too little notice is taken of the holy ghost setting pastors over the flocks , which the scripture mentioneth : and though none on pretence of the spirit must reject order or ordination , nor make themselves the sole judges of their own sufficiency ; yet . the due qualification of men with wisdom , faith , love , and heavenly zeal , and ability , is the most excellent part of our calling to the ministry . . ex quovis ligno non fit mercurius ; without necessary fitness no man is a true pastor having not dispositionem rec●ptivam : and without eminent fitness , few are eminently serviceable . . experience assureth us , that though the office hath supernumeraries , yet of worthy men god never yet raised up supernumeraries , but the scarcity is lamentably great . . all therefore that are duly qualified , and have opportunity , should be chosen , ordained , accepted , and accept the call , if not offer themselves , iu case they cannot otherwise enter . . the ordainer doth but ministerially invest him with the power , whom the spirit of god hath qualified for it , by the inward call. . in case the ordainers by envy , or malignity , or faction , refuse such , where there is true necessity , and opportunity , we conceive that mutual consent of the people and themselves , may suffice to the orderly admittance into the office , much more if the magistrate also consent : of which see voetius de desparata causa papatus , and a dispute of ordination , by r. b. three venerable monitors to nonconformists . i. an epistle of an african council , ( in cyprian . p. . ) to faelix a presbyter , and the laity at legio and asturica : and to laelius the deacon , and the laity at emerita , concerning their bishops basilides and martial who were libellaticks * . when we were met together , most beloved brethren , we read your letters , which for ( or ●● ) the integrity of your faith , and the fear of god you wrote to us by our bishops , falix and sabin●●s , signifying that basilides and martial being blotted ( or d●fil●a ) with libels of idolatry , and guilty of heinous crimes , ought not to exercise the office of bishops , and administer the priesthood of god : and you desired us to write back to you hereof , and that your necessary sollicitude might be eased either by the comfort , or the help of our judgment or sentence . but to this your desire , not so much our connsels as gods precepts give an answer , in ( or by ) which it is long ago ( or already ) by the heavenly voice commanded , and by the law of god prescribed , who , and what sort of men must serve at the altar , and celebrate the divine sacrifices . for in exodus god speaketh to moses , and warneth him , saying , let the priests who draw neer to the lord god be sanctified , lest god forsake them ; and when they come neer to minister at the altar of the holy , let them not bring themselves into sin , lest they die . and in leviticus god commandeth and saith , let not the man that hath a blemish or vice draw neer to offer gifts to god. . which things being already spoken and manifest to us , it is necessary that our obedience attend to god's commands : neither may mans indulgence accept the person , or grant any thing to any one in such things where god's prescription , intercedeth and giveth a law. for we must not forget what god by the propet esaias saith to the jews , reproving them , and angry with them , that contemning the commands of god , they followed the doctrines of men . this people , saith he , honoureth me with their lips , but their heart is far separated from me ; and in vain do they worship me , teaching the commands and doctrines of men : which the lord also in the gospel repeateth and saith , ye reject the command of god , that you may establish your own tradition . having these things before our eyes , and carefully and religiously considering them , in the ordinations of priests , we ought to chuse no bishops but men unspotted and entire , who holily and worthily offering the sacrisices to god , may be heard in the prayers which they make for the safety of the people of god ; seeing it is written , that god heareth not a sinner , but if any man worship god , and do his will , him he heareth . . for which reason with full diligence , and sincere tryal , those men must be chosen to the priesthood , whom it is manifest god doth hear . and let not the lay people slatter themselves , as if they could be free from the couragion of the crime , when they communicate with a sinful priest , and give their consent to the unjust and unlawful episcopacy of their governour , seeing by the prophet hos●● god's censure threatneth , and saith , their sacrifices are as the bread of sorrow ; all that eat of it shall be defiled●● teaching and shewing that all they do sin who are defiled by the sacrifice of a prophene and unjust priest ; which we find also manifested in numbers , where corah , dathan and abiram challenged to themselves against aaron the license of sacrificing . the lord there by moses commandeth that the people be separated from them , lest being joyning to the offenders , they be guilty of their crimes . be separated , saith he , from the tents of those obdurate men , and touch nothing which is theirs , lest ve perish with them in their sins . . wherefore the lay people , obeying the lords commands , and fearing god , must separate themselves ( a peccatore praeposito ) from a sinful prelate ( or pastor ) and must not mix themselves at the sacrifices of a sacrilegious priest ; because they chiefly have the power either to chuse priests that are worthy , or to refuse those that are unworthy : which very thing , we see , descendeth from divine authority , that the priest , the lay-people being present , be chosen under the eyes of all , and by the publick judgment and testimony be approved worthy and meet : as in numbers the lord commanded moses saying , take aaron thy brother , and eleazer his son , and set them before all the congregation on the mount , and take off aarons stole , and put it on eleazer his son , and let aaron die there . god commandeth that the priest be made before all the congregation ; that is , he instructeth us , and sheweth that the priestly ordinations should not be done , but under the conscience of the assisting people , that the lay-people being present , either the crimes of bad men may be detected , or the deserts of good men predicated ; that so that ordination may be just and legitimate , which hath been examined by the judgment and suffrage of all. . which thing is after observed according to the divine magisteries in the acts of the apostles , when peter spake to the lay-people about ordaining a bishop in the place of judas , peter , saith the text , stood up in the midst of the disciples , for the multitude was together in one . and it was not only in the ordinations of bishops and priests , but of deacons also , that we note the apostles to have observed this . of which also in their acts it is written , and the twelve , saith tbe text , called together the whole laity of the disciples , and said to them . and the whole business is managed thus diligently and cautelously , the whole laity being convocate , lest any unworthy person should creep into the ministry of the altar , or the place of priesthood . for god himself manifesteth by the prophet o see , saying , they have made themselves a king , but not by me ; that unworthy men are sometimes ordained by mans presumption , and that these things are displeasing to god , which come not of a legitimate and just ordination . . for which cause it is diligently to be observed and held as of divine tradition , and apostolical observation , which is held also with us , and in a manner ( or almost ) through all the provinces , that to the right celebrating of ordinations , all the next bishops of the province come together to the lay-people to whom the bishop ( praepositus ) is ordained , and that a bishop be made , the lay-people being present , who most fully know every mans life , and discern every mans acting by his conversation ; which we see done also with your selves in the ordination of our colleague sabinus , that by the suffrage of the whole fraternity , and by the judgment of the bishops , who at the present met , and who wrote letters of it to you , the episcopacy should be delivered to him , and hands should be laid on him instead of basilides . nor can it rescind the ordination which was rightly perfected , that basilides , after his crimes detected , and his conscience laid bare by his own confession , going to rome , deceived our colleague stephen , who lived far off , and was ignorant of the matter of fact , and of the silenced truth , that he might compass to be unjustly replaced in his bishoprick , from which he had been justly deposed . . the effect of this is , that the offences of basilides are not so much abolished , as cumulate , that to his former sins , the crime of deceit and circumvention is added . for he is not so much to be blamed , that was negligently deceived , as he to be execrated that fraudulently deceived him . but if basilides can deceive men , he cannot deceive god. for it is written , god is not mocked . nor will fallacy profit martial to keep him who is involved in great offences , from a rightful losing of his bishoprick . seeing the apostle warneth us , and saith , a bishop must be without crime as the steward of god : wherefore , seeing ( as you wrote , beloved brethren , and as faelix and sabinus our colleagues assevere , and as another faelix of caesar augusta , an honourer of the faith , and a defender of the truth , signifieth by his letters ) basilides and martial are contaminated by a wicked libel of idolatry . and basilides , besides the blot of this libel , when he lay sick blasphemed god , and confessed that he blasphemed , and because of the wound of his conscience voluntarily deposing his episcopacy , turned himself to a repentence , begging pardon of god , and being satisfied , if he might but communicate as a lay man. and martial , besides the filthy and dirty feasts of the gentiles , and the oft frequenting of their colledges , and the deposing his sons in the same colledge after the manner of the exterior nations , in prophane sepulchres , and burying them with aliens , did also by publick acts with the ducenary procurator , testifie that he obeyed idolatry : and seeing there are many other and great offences in which basilides and martial are held guilty ; in vain do such men endeavour to usurp to themselves the office of bishops , when it is manifest that such kind of men may neither be guides of the church of christ , nor ought to offer sacrifices to god : especially when cornelius also our colleague , a pacifick and just priest , and honoured by god's vouchsafement with martyrdom , did with us , and all the bishops settled in the whole world , decree , that such men be not admitted to repentance , but that they be prohibited from clergy ordination , and priestly honour . . and let not this move you , most beloved brethren , if with some in the last times , their slippery faith do nod , and their irreligious fear of god do shake , or pacisick concord persevere not : it was foretold that these things would be towards the end of the world ; and by the joyntwitness of the apostles it was foretold , that the world declining , and antichrist drawing near , all good things would fail ( or decay ) and evil and adverse things increase ( or prosper . ) and yet , though it be in the last times , neither is evangelical vigor so fallen in the church of god , or doth the strength of christian virtue or faith so languish , but that there remaineth a portion of priests , which yields not to these ruines of things , and shipwrack of faith , but as strong and stable do with observation of fear maintain the honour of the divine majesty , and the priestly dignity . we remember and hold , that when the rest did yield and fall , mathatias did valiantly defend the law of god : and that when the jews failed and departed from divine religion , elias stood and strove sublimely : that daniel , neither deterred by the solitude of a strange country , nor by the infestation of daily persecution , did frequently and valiantly give glorious testimonies ( or martyrdoms ) and that the three young men , neither broken with years , nor threats , did faithfully stand out against the babylonian fires , and even in their captivity conquered the conquering king. . the number ( or party ) of prevaricators or trayors that now rise up in the church against the church , and have begun to spoil both faith and verity , shall see it ; that yet with the most there remaineth a sincere mind , and entire religion , a soul devoted to none but their lord and god ; and that other mens perfidiousness doth not depress the christian faith to ruine , but doth more excite it , and exalt it unto glory . even as the blessed apostle paul exhorteth and saith , what if some of them have fallen from faith ? shall their unbelief make void the saith of god ? god is true , and every man a lyar : and if every man be a lyar , and god only be true , what else should we , gods sevants , do , and specially his priests , but relinquish the errours and lies of men , and keeping the lords commands , remain in the truth of god ? . therefore , most beloved brethren , though there have been some of our colleagues , who think that the divine discipline should be neglected , and do rashly communicate with basilides and martial , that ought not to trouble our faith , seeing the holy ghost in the psalms doth threaten such , saying , thou hatedst discipline , and hast cast my words behind thee : if thou sawest a thief , thou concurredst with him , and didst place thy portion with adulterers . it sheweth that they are made consorts and partakers of other mens sins , who have been coupled with the sinners . and paul the apostle writeth the same thing , and saith [ whisperers , detractors , haters of god , injurious , proud , boasters of themselves , inventers of evil things ; who when they knew the judgment of god , they understood not that they that do such things are worthy of death ; not only they that do them , but they that consent to them that do them . he saith , that they that do such things are worthy of death . he manifesteth and averreth that not only they are worthy of death , and come to punishment who do the evils , but they also who consent to them that do such things , who while by unlawful communication they are mingled with bad men , and sinners , and impenitent persons , they are polluted by the contact of the guilty ; and while they are joyned in the fault , they are not separated in the punishment . wherefore , most beloved brethren , we both praise and approve the religious care of our integrity and faith ; and as far as we are able by our letters , exhort you , that you do not by sacrilegious communion mingle your selves with prophane and blotted priests ( or bishops ; ) but in religious fear do keep entire and sincere the firmness of your faith. i wish , most dear brethren , your continual welfare . ii. a letter of the famously learned and holy robert grosthead , bishop of lincoln , to pope innocent the fourth , and his cardinals , containing the reasons of his nonconformity to their commands ; translated out of matth. paris , an. . pag. , . saith m. paris , in these daies when the lord pope innocent the th . had signified by his apostolick writings , commanding the bishop of lincoln that he should do somewhat which he took to be unjust , and dissonant to reason , as he frequently did to him and other english ▪ prelates ; he wrote back to him in these words [ be it known to your discretion , that i devoutly and reverently , with filial affection , obey the apostolical precepts : and being zealous of the paternal honour , i am against and resist the things which are against the apostolical mandates for i am bound to both by gods commands : for the apostolick mandates , neither are , nor can be any other , than consonant and conform to the apostles doctrine , and to the doctrine of our lord jesus christ himself , the master and lord of the apostles , whose type and person the lord pope chiefly beareth in the hierarchy of the church * . for our lord jesus christ himself saith , he that is not with me , is against me . but the most divine sanctity of the apostolical seat , is not , nor cannot possibly be against him ( jesus christ ) therefore the tenor of the foresaid letter is not consonant to the apostolick sanctity ; but very much absonant and discordant : first , because of the super acoumulated non obstante of that letter , and such like , that are dispersed far and wide , not brought in by any necessity of observing the law of nature ; whence a deluge of inconstancy , audaciousness , and procacity , immodesty , lying , deceiving , hardly believing or trusting any doth arise : and from these a deluge of innumerable vices , moving and troubling the purity of the ghristian religion , and the tranquility of social humane conversation . moreover , next after the sin of lucifer , which in the later times will be also the sin of antichrist the son of perdition , which the lord will destroy with the spirit of his mouth , there neither is , nor can be any other kind of sin so adverse and contrary to the apostles and the evangelical doctrine , and so hateful , detestable and abominable to our lord jesus christ himself , as to kill and destroy souls by defrauding them of the care of the pastoral office and ministry : which sin they are by most evident testimonies of sacred scripture known to commit , who being placed in the power of pastoral care , do get the salary of the pastoral office and ministry , from the milk and fleece of the sheep of christ , who are to be made alive and saved , but administer not their dues . for the very not administring of the pastoral ministeries , is , by the scripture testimony , the killing and destroying of the sheep . and that these two sorts of sins ( though with disparity ) are the worst , and inestimably superexceeding every other sort of sin , is manifest by this , in that they are ( though with disparity and dissimilitude ) directly contrary to the two said existent things that are best : for that is the worst thing that is contrary to the best : and as much as lieth in the said sinners . one of these sins is the destruction of the very deity , which is superessentially , and supernaturally best ; the other is the destroying of the deiformity and deification , which is best essentially and naturally by the gracious participations of the beams of the deity . and because , as in good things , the cause of good is better than its eflect ; so also in evils , the cause of evil is worse than its effect . and it is manifest that the introducers of such most evil murderers of this deiformity and deification in the sheep of christ , in the church of god , are worse than these most evil murderers themselves , and neerest to lucifer and antichrist ; and in this pejority they are gradually the worst , by how much they superexcel , sw●o were more obliged to exclude and extirpate such destroyers from the church of god , by the greater and diviner power , given them by god for edification , and not for destruction . it cannot be therefore that a most holy apostolick seat ( to which by our most holy lord jesus christ , all power is given , as the apostle witnesseth , for edification , and not for destruction ) should ever command , bid , or any way endeavour any such thing , or any thing verging towards such a sin , so odious , detestable and abominable to our lord jesus christ , and so utterly pernieious to mankind . for this were either a defection , or a corruption , or an abuse of his evidently most holy and full power , or an utter elongation from the throne of the glory of our lord jesus christ , and the nearest coassession in the chair of pestilence , to the two foresaid princes of darkness , and of the pains of hell. no one that in immaculate and sincere obedience is subject and faithful to the same seat , and not by schism cut off from the body of christ , and the same holy seat , can obey ( such ) mandates or precepts , or any endeavours whatever , whencesoever they flow , though it were from the supream order of angels * , but must necessarily with his whole power contradict them and rebel : wherefore , reverend lords , from the duty of obedience and sidelity , which i owe to the parent of the holy apostolical seat , and out of the love of union in the body of christ with it , i do alone ( unice ) filially and obediently disobey , contradict and rebel against the things contained in the foresaid letter , and especially as is before touched , they most evidently verge towards the sin which is most abominable to our lord jesus christ , and most pernicious to mankind , and are altogether adverse to the sanctity of the apostolical seat , and are contrary to the catholick faith. nor may your discretion therefore determine any thing hard against me , because all my contradiction and action in this cause is not indeed contradiction or rebellion , but a filial honouring of gods command due to a father , and of you . briefly recollecting all ; i say , that the holiness of the apostolick seat can do ( or hath power to do ) nothing but that which tendeth to edification , and not to destruction * : for this is the plenitude of power , to have power , to do all to edification . but these that they call [ provisions ] are not for edification , but for most manifest destruction : therefore the apostolick seat cannot accept them , because flesh and blood , which shall not possess the kingdom of god , hath revealed them , a ●● not the father of our lord jesus christ , who is in heaven . iii. bishop sanderson in his oxford praelections de juramento , saith , as followeth , ( the reader is desired to see his whole words , that he say not they are mangled , or any thing omitted which he would have had put in ; and to consider how far the case of oaths , and covenants , promises or professions is the same . ) page , . . simplicity above all things beseeineth an oath : that is , the nature and obligation of an oath is such , that whoever shall bind himself by so sacred a bond to do any thing , he may be altogether held by the religion of an oath , and seriously from his heart intend , and as much as in him lyeth , diligently endeavour faithfully to do all that which he hath promised to do , without all craft , fraud , or ill deceit or dissimulation . ( see the rest there ) page , , . contrary to this simplicity of an oath , are two sorts of simulation ; one as to the foregoing part , which is either antecedent or concomitant with the act of swearing : of which , though the former be the worser , yet neither of them is free from perjury . david seemeth to comprehend both in psal . . and . [ he that sweareth not deceitfully , that is , with a mind to deceive — and he that sweareth to his own hurt , and changeth not ] that is , who when he hath bound himself by an oath , will rather , even to his own great loss , perform that which he incommodiously swore , than for any temporal commodity violate his faith . — these things the greater part of men now in being , seem to me not to think of , or not seriously ; who fear not to swear without any ambage prolixly , and in the very words , whatsoever is proposed to them , by such as have power to do them hurt : yea and think themselves the only wise men , and disdainfully deride their simplicity and vain fear , who , lest they hurt their consciences , forsooth , do seek a knot in a rush , and vex ( or sollicit ) the forms prescribed by such as can proscribe them : and they securely free themselves from all crime and fear of perjury , and think they have well cared for themselves and their consciences , if when they swear , like the jesuits , they can but any how defend themselves , by tacite equivocations , or mental reservations , or subtle forced interpretations , and quite allen from the words : or else after they have sworn , can find out some artificial evasion , as a hole to get out by , as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , by which so to defraud the oath , that taking the words , yet the sense may be eluded by some sophism , and all the force of it wholly be enervated . the old christians received not this theology : the sounder heathens received not this moral philosophy : much otherwise out of them , saith augustine [ they are perjured who keeping the words ; deceive the expectation of them that they swear to ] and otherwise , saith cicero , [ that is to be kept which is so sworn as the mind of the imposen conceived it should be done . ] read the proofs , p. , &c. . from many texts of scripture : . from god's own example : . from the nature of truth : . from the end of an oath , p. . which is the confirmation of a doubtful matter ; that is , that of things otherwise uncertain and depending on humane credit , there should be had such certainty as humane affairs require . for an oath was instituted by god , by force of the light of natue , for a remedy of humane defects about truth ; that among mortals it should be truths last garrison , as oft as all other kinds of proof do fail . but this end would be wholly overthrown , and there could be no certain credit among men , if it were free for the swearer , at his own arbiterment , what he speaketh in words to cause belief , by some tacite ambiguity in swearing , or after he hath sworn , by finding out some new , and as it were , posthumous comment so to disable it , as that it shall lose all its force , and be utterly ineffectual . if either of these were lawful an oath should not be the end of strife , but the beginning , and should rather give occasion for new contradictions and strifes , than end the old ones . open but this window once , and then what can be thought of so false , for the defence whereof some eff●ge or lurking-hole may not he devised , whereby it may be freed from being a lie . in the mean time , what perverseness , is it that that should by dishonest men be turned into an instrument of deceiving , which was instituted by the most wise god to be a help to credit ( or mens belief of one another ? ) verily , unless one will rather use god's sacred institution to another purpose , than that to which it was instituted ( which a godly man will not easily do ) that which is the end of an oath , the same ought to be the end of the swearer : and that is , so to make the hearer to believe , that he may become more certain and secure of the truth of that which before was doubtful . but he that dissembleth , studieth to breed a false belief in the hearers , and so doth not only suffer another to be deceived ( which yet is contrary to charity when he may and ought to hinder it ; ) but also intendeth to deceive ; which is not only against all justice and honesty , but it is also conjoyned with the greatest wrong to god , and contempt of his name . and verily to me scarce any other sort of perjury doth more diametrically seem to be against either the scope of the third commandment , or the very words ( of not taking the name of god in vain ) than that which ariseth from this dissimulation . for as the word vanity doth properly and adequately comprehend all that which is any way false ; so in a certain peculiar sort , and most properly , that which is so false as yet to bear a shew of truth . ( see the rest . ) the second which pertaineth to the interpretation of an oath , is this , the obligation of an oath is of strict right — that is of so just an interpretation of right , that the words of the law may not be drawn further than is meet for the sake or favour of any party ; nor constrained to serve any mans fact or commodity . in a word , strict right , is not here taken so as to exclude an interpretation tempered with equity , but to exclude an interpretation of law ( or right ) corrupted by favour ( or for any ones sake ) — the extreams are a rigid interpretation , and a favourable — a just interpretation is the mean between both , which searcheth after the true and genuine sense of the law , without respect at all to persons , out of natural equity and justice , and from the words themselves , as they agree with equity and justice . and if this may be plainly made out in the words themselves , that it is in every case simply to be retained . — see the rest . p. . when i say that an oath is of strict right , it is so to be understood , that the meaning of the oath , which is plain enough in the words , is alwaies to be held . but where the sense is doubtful , every one must take great heed , lest we too much indulge our selves , and our own affections ; and lest we grant our selves too liberal and lax a license of interpreting , that we may the easilier get our selves out of the bond of the oath which we are tyed by ; and lest we fasten ( or seign ) any sense on the oath taken , or on any part of it , for our own commodity or profits sake , which any other pious and prudent man , of a freer judgment as not interessed in the cause , would not easily draw from the very words themselves . the reason is twofold ; one in respect to others , for fear of scandal , lest any that is weak , drawn by our example , think he may do that which he seeth us do , though unacquainted with those subtitues , by which only we use to defend our selves from the crime of perjury . the other in respect of our selves , for sear of perjury ; which most grievous crime undoubtedly we commit , if that more benig● interpretation chance to deceive us , which made us bold to take the oath . this reason resteth on that general , and most profitable rule , which bids us [ in doubtful cases take the safe● side : ] but it is the safer not to swear , when the words of the proposed oath , according to the common and obvious sense of the words , seem to contain somewhat unlawful in them ; rather than by a lax interpretation so to soften them for our own use ▪ that we may the more securely swear them : seeing we know that such an oath may be refused without danger of perjury , but we know not that it can be taken without danger or fear of it . p. , , . yet we must take heed that this strict interpretation turn not into a rigid one — of common right these exceptions and conditions ( of promissory oaths ) are ever understood : [ . if god permit : . saving the right of others . and , as far as is lawful ; saving the right of superiours : . things standing as they do , or in the same state : as far as i am able , &c. ] p. . but if any admit more dubious exceptions ▪ he boldly and rashly removeth god's boundaries of an oath , and openeth a wide door to all kind of perjury . p. : the third case is , when one imposeth an oath of an ambiguous sense , only requiring that those words be sworn , permitting the swearer to understand the words in what sense he will : i say , it must deservedly be suspected that an oath offered on such a condition hath some latent ill deceit , and therefore is to be refused by a pious and prudent man ; & to me seemeth to be disallowed , for three causes : . in respect to the oath it self , in which truth is first required : but a speech of indefinite and ambiguous sense before distinction made , is no true proposition ; yea , no proposition at all ; when a proposition , as boys know , should signifie truth or falshood without ambiguity . . in respect of him to whom we swear : for the proper end of an oath is , that he to whom it is made have some certainty of a thing before uncertain . . in respect to the swearer himself , who if he take an oath in such condition , prepareth either a scandal for his neighbour , or a snare for himself . for such collusion cannot be imagined to look any other way , than either to draw others by our example to take the same oath ( though with a reluctant conscience ) which is to scandalize our neigbour : or that somewhat else he after required of us to be done by virtue of that oath , which is either unlawful , or incommodious ; which is to lay a snare for our selves . let a wise man therefore take heed that he suffer not himself to be imposed on by these arts ; or lest he so much value the favour or fear of any other man , as to swallow the bait when he knoweth that the hook is under it . verily , that all may be rightly done when you swear , it is expedient that all parties be clearly agreed of the sense of the words that are interessed in the matter ; which by the antients was called [ liquido jurare ] scis tamen , & liquido juratus dicere posses . and in the old form , he that imposed the oath was wont to say to the swearer [ qua de ra pe●o liquido jures ] ( that is , [ of which i require thee to swear plainly . ] p. , ▪ the question , whether this or that oath be lawful ? much differeth from this [ whether this or that oath bind● ] for though it be certain that we ought not to take the oath , which we know that we ought not to keep ; yet it may come to pass , and often doth , that we ought to perform that which we ought not to have taken joshuas covenant with the gibeonites , is a most clean example of this . — an oath may be said to be unlawful two waies ; either as to the matter sworn , or as to the act of swearing . an oath unlawful as to the matter sworn , bindeth not at all . an oath unlawful in respect to the act of swearing , bindeth , unless otherwaies hindered . p. , . a thing lawful in it self may be unlawful by accident ; — as by the errour of the swearer , or the ill effect of the thing sworn . the third case is , when one promiseth by an oath to do somewhat perhaps lawful in it self , which yet he thinketh unlawful , or at least seareth lest it be not lawful : as if any one before these times , admitted to an ecclesiastical benefice , had promised to observe in publick worship all the rites commanded by the ecclesiastical laws , as the surplice , the sign of the cross at the sacred font , kneeling in receiving the sacrament , and such like , which yet by some light prejudice he thought were superstitious and popish . the question is , what obligation there is in this case ? i say , . such an oath cannot be taken during such errour , without grievous sin . for he sinneth grievously that sinneth against his conscience , though erroneous . for when the judgment of the intellect is every ones nearest rule of action , the will , if it follow not , that judgment failing from its rule , must needs be carried into sin . it 's a common saying , [ he that doth against his conscience , buildeth to hell. ] verily he that sweareth what he thinketh unlawful , would swear if it were indeed unlawful ; & that becometh unlawful to him that is lawful to another ; as the apostle judgeth , rom. . — . i say , such an oath doth not bind — because an oath cannot take away a former obligation , nor induce another obligation contrary to it . but that oath which is taken against the dictate of conscience , had a former obligation arising from that dictate . for the dictate of conscience , whether right or erroneous , alwaies obligeth , at least not to act against it . but a following oath cannot remove that obligation , but is it self invalid , and loseth its obliging force . . but if the swearer after better taught , do see and correct his errour , the oath which bound him not before , beginneth then to bind him : p. . other cases there are of things by accident unlawful , by reason of ill effects of the thing it self ; as it may be a hinderer of a greater good , or a cause , at least an occasion of evil . — the fourth case is , when the thing sworn seemeth unlawful , as hindering the effect of some antecedent good , as of a vow or promise made before : as if one that had before-hand bound himself to some work of piety or charity , after take an oath that hindereth the fulfilling of the former vow . as if one that vowed to give half his gain weekly to the poor , shall after swear to give it all to the war : — this case hath no difficulty ; i plainly answer , — such an oath is neither lawful nor obligatory , because that the former obligation , whencesoever contracted , whether by covenant or by vow , or by bare promise , or by meer office ( or duty ) remaineth valid , and puts a bar to every following contrary act . — ( read , prael . . § , , , , . what he saith for the obligation , . of spontaneous oaths ; . of oaths caused by fraud ; . or by fear extorted ; . even of oaths to robbers . ) p. . . he that taketh an oath imposed by one that had no just authority , but not otherwise vicious , is bound to perform what he swore . ( read p. , &c. what he saith at large against equivocation , stretching reservations , as opening the door to all lying and perjury , and frustrating the end , of oaths . ) p. . of the latitude and extent of an oath , how far the senso is to be measured by the scope * as when the cause of the oath was particular , but the words are general , e. g. the popes usurpation was the cause of the oath of the kings supremacy ; — but the words of the oath so assert the kings supremacy , as exclude all others as well as the pope , from exercising supreme power in this kingdom : answ . such an oath obligeth as to the words themselves in their utmost latitude : the reason is , because the intention of the law , though made on a particular occasion , is general , to hinder all incommodities of the same kind for the future . — as lawyers fetch not the sense of laws from the proem , but from the body of the statute , so we must judge of the just interpretation of an oath , not by the promised recognition , or other preface , but by the body of the oath it self . p. . he is alwaies perjured that intendeth not what he promised : but he is not alwaies perjured that performeth not what he promised . ( the bond being dissolved . ) p. . vows made to god , as a party , cannot be relaxed by man ( though men may give away their own . ) if you swear for the sake of another , as to his honour , obedience , profit , or other good , the oath bindeth not , unless he for whom you swear , take it as acceptable and firm . p. . concl. . it is a grievous sin to impose an oath unduly , on another . as . an oath not stablished by law or custom , &c. . an oath that is repugnant , or in the sense that the words hold forth in the common use of speaking , seemeth repugnant to any oath by him formerly lawfully taken . . they that constrain men to swear to a thing unlawful , as against our duty to god , or our superiours , or the laws of the kingdom , or against good manners , or that which is otherwise dishonest , and may not be kept . . he who imposeth an oath of ambiguous sense , or any way captious ; to ensnare the conscience , life , liberty or fortune of his neighbour . . he that without necessity , by fear compelleth , or by authority impelleth , or by counsel , example , fraud , or other artifice or reason induceth another to swear , who he knoweth will swear against the judgment of his conscience . i would all men in great power would remember how filthy a character jeroboam branded his own conscience , fame and name with , that made israel to sin : and how greatly they provoke god's great wrath against themselves , that abuse their power to other mens ruine , which god gave them for edification , and not for destruction . p. . concl. . an offered oath is not to be taken with a reluctant or doubting conscience : . because what is not of faith is sin . . because we must swear in judgment , which he doth not that sweareth against his consciences judgment . . because this is done for some temporal commodity , or to avoid some loss , or obtain some gain , or to get some mans favour , or such like : but how unworthy of a christian is it , to set god behind the world , heaven behind earth , the soul behind the body , eternal joy behind temporal gain , the hope of the life to come behind present ease , inward peace behind outward ! . because he that so sweareth evidently exposeth himself to the danger of perjury ( a most heinous sin . ) for he that for hope or fear of any temporal commodity or discommodity can be induced to swear that which he ought not , it is scarce credible but he may by the like hope or fear be drawn from doing what he swore . and perjury was by the very heathens accounted one of those most heinous sins , which they believed would bring the wrath of the gods not only on the guilty , but on their posterity , yea on whole nations , much more is it to be feared of us , who worship that one true god , who hath solemnly professed that he will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain . lest , while which way ever we look we see such a great and luxuriant crop of oaths and perjury even already white to the harvest , god the most righteous judge should quickly put in the sickle , utterly to cut down so perfidious and profane a nation . we have long felt that our most merciful father is angry , and that the infinite patience of god is turned into fury , being infinitely wronged , and ( if i may so say ) overcome . it is not easy to say , for which sins this chiefly is , when all sins are very great . but verily he that will seriously think , since god hath begun to scourge us by a neerer rod , how we have not grieved for these grievous sins of swearing and perjury , yea how greatly on one side is increased , the unbridled and unpunished licence of swearing and blaspheming , and on the other side the soul hypocrisie of forswearing on pretence of religion ; it can scarce be , but that of jeremy will come into his mind , because of oaths the land mourneth . these things being to neer , fathers and brethren , we that are here and all others that wish well to the publick peace of the kingdom and church and the private peace of their own hearts and consciences , must be intreated that they first carefully beware of the name of god , and the crime of violated fidelity , and wholly avoid unnecessary oaths , and constantly refuse those that are unduely imposed ( or offered ) by others ; and fulfill those faithfully that are duly and rightly taken by our selves ; and then that as much as we are able , we strenuously restrain the liberty of sinning in others ; and that we pray to our most good and great god continually that , being taught by his scourge , and admonished , and humbled under his mighty hand , we fly to his mercy , acknowledge his justice , implore his grace , for the pardon of our sins , the amendment of our lives , and the safety of our souls , by and for the merits of our lord jesus christ : to whom with the father , and the spirit , the three one-omnipotent god be kingdom , power , and glory for ever . amen . it 's like dr. sanderson had some special eye to the scots covenant ; but doubtless he made not any new or singular doctrine for that end , which will not hold true in all cases by him described . mr. rich. hollingworth in a late plea for the church of england , vehemently urging the execution of the laws against nonconformists , saith page . [ . thereby ( by perjury ) the conscience of the minister is debauched , and he thereby made very unfit to give those instructions , and wholsom counsel to the people that otherwise he might do : for all wilful sins , especially such a notorious one as perjury , hardens a mans mind , and divests him , till repented of , of all the necessary and useful influences and assistances of gods good spirit , and maketh him careless , as of his own , so of the souls of others : and a man so easily ensnared by such a sin , is easily induced by any temptation to a neglect of those duties which his office calls for , and a remiss performance of those ordinances which were designed and commanded on purpose to reform and instruct the people . and page . [ they must be accountable at the last day , not only for their own sin , but for that very sin of perjury , which the vicious priest is guilty of : for he that inviteth a man to a sin , is reckoned as if he had committed the sin himself . ] what then would become of me , if i undertook to justifie the perjury of multitudes ? — yea , if also i did by press and preaching , earnestly press magistrates to execute the laws upon many hundreds of christs ministers , because they dare not venture on that which they fear ( on such reasons as are here rendred ) to be a participation of many thousand perjuries , nor on the heinous sacriledge of deserting their sacred function , and encouraging neer two thousand silenced ministers to do the like by my example , besides many other feared sins . if i were the man that for this did plead and beg that they might be laid in gaols with rogues , and pay fourty pound a sermon and be banished five miles from all corporations &c. and all this as necessary to the church and as for god , fathering it all on him who is the god of truth and love ; and pretending that there is no need of their ministry , because that i and such as i , do better perform all that office against ignorance , ungodliness and popery without them , &c. how could i expect regard when i preached against the sins of others ? or with what face could i do it ? when my sin shall be opened to me , must i not with origen after his fall , instead of preaching , shut the book , and weep , remembring psal . . , . and the dreadful third commandment ; and tremble when i thought of death and judgment ? for a judas in christs family sinneth at a dearer rate than strangers , and will quickly find his gain too hot to hold , and those that hired him to be woful comforters , who will turn him off with a [ see thou to that . ] obj. fewer words might serve . ans . nondum satis dicitur , dum non satis discitur . nec paucis dicendum est , quod paucis non discendum est . [ while i long wondered that i could not see what satisfied both all the learned convocation , and the parliament , for the truth of the rule in the liturgy to find out easter-day for ever , which is contrary to our almanacks , and we must all be silenced ( and ruined for preaching ) unless we profess that we assent to it , i met with no conformist that gave me any other satisfaction , than to refer me to dr. pells book : and meeting him happily , i craved his information ; and the grave , learned , honest doctor was so far from making me a conformist , that he professed the passage now is indefensible . ] i was lately assaulted with this , as the strongest argument for conformity [ deliberate lying is no sin , but a duty when it doth no harm but a necessary good ; as by a physician to save his patient , or to save a mans life much more to save souls by preaching . ans . this case requireth a longer answer than i have here room for : briefly . . god best knoweth : who is wisest and meetest to govern the world , for the good of all ; and he forbids it . . this principle believed would make all men untrusty to each other , while every man would think he had reason to lie , when his interest required it ; and untrustiness overthroweth all humane polities , societies and converse , and so would do a thousand fold more harm to kings , subjects and all , than the saving of a mans life would compensate . . it s hypocrisie to sin my self that i may preach against sin in others , . the church of god is against this doctrine , & fathers ; and the best casuists have copiously confuted it , though some jesuites are more lax , and use to serve their interest by it . . at least , me thinks that where jesnites lying is cryed down , men should not judge my fearing a lie , a crime that rendreth me intolerable in the ministry , and my preaching without it to deserve a gaol and utter ruine ; and the same to neer others ; the silencing of whom will one day prove no indifferent thing : and they that think it harmless publickly , ministerially upon deliberation to profess a falshood , may shortly think it a duty to swear it : but i believe that god will not hold that person , church or kingdom guiltless , which taketh his name in vain : see dr. hammends catechism on the . commandment . finis . errata's reader , the smaller literary mistakes are left to thy own in genuity , the grosser errours of the press , thou art desired thus to correct . epist . p. . l. . for urge , r. argue , p. . for prefixed , r. affixed , p. . l. . for our , r. one , l. . r. a christiau , p. . l. . for mollifie , r. nullifie , p. . l. . r. one will , p. . l. . r. communion , p. . l. . r. pontici , p. . l. . r. theodosius , p. . l. . for there , r. then , p. . l. . r. put not , p. . l. . r. formally , p. . l. . for an acceptable , r. uncapable , p. . l. . r. help , p. . l. . for considering , r. concerned in , p. . l. . r. said they , p. . l. . for suspension , r. suspicion , p. : l. . for his , r. their , p. . l. . for any , r. an , p. . l. . dele that , p. . l. . r. that this is , p. . l. . r. we must , p. . l. . r. fame , l. . dele more , p. . l. . r. hale , p. . from we take , and , and . are all misplaced , p. . l. last , for swarming , r. swearing , p. . l. . r. . p. . for fire , r. plague , p. . l. . r. would not , l. . for about , r. above , p. . l. . for hoc , r. hos , p. . l. . for that , r. the , l. . dele the , p. . l. . for yet , r. yea , p. . l. . for assureth , r. asserteth , p. . l. . r. plenilunium , p. . l. . for , r. . p. . l. . r. domination , p. . l. . r. regia , p. . l. penult . r. premised . many more are left to the readers ingenuity . a catalogue of books printed for , or sold by benj. alsop , at the angel and bible over against the stocks-market . . the compleat english scholar , is spelling , reading and writing ; by e. young , schoolmaster of london . . jacobs ladder : or the devout souls ascension to heaven ; by jo ▪ hall , late bishop of norwich . . divine consolations against the fear of death ; by john gerrard , author of the meditations . . divine love : or the willingness of jesus christ to save sinners ; by v. p. . the nonconformists plea for peace : or an account of their judgment ; by r. baxter . . melius inquirendum : or an answer to the sober enquiry . . the ladies delight . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e * when persecution was hot , some that would not offer incense at idols altars , nor renounce christ , yet to save their lives did , through fear , in secret , hire another to subscribe their names to a sinful profession ; and these were called libellatic● ; and it troubled the churches whether , and when they should be received to communion upon their repentance . * it must be known that this bishop lived in the depth of popery , and acknowledgeth the popes power , as men do now the bishops . * or anglorum , for its a various lection . * but a papist will say , who shall be judge ? as if all men were not to be discerning judges of truth & duty . * as of assent and consent to the use of the liturgy , &c. a serious and compassionate inquiry into the causes of the present neglect and contempt of the protestant religion and church of england with several seasonable considerations offer'd to all english protestants, tending to perswade them to a complyance with and conformity to the religion and government of this church as it is established by the laws of the kingdom. goodman, john, or - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; 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(eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a serious and compassionate inquiry into the causes of the present neglect and contempt of the protestant religion and church of england with several seasonable considerations offer'd to all english protestants, tending to perswade them to a complyance with and conformity to the religion and government of this church as it is established by the laws of the kingdom. goodman, john, or - . [ ], p. printed by robert white for richard royston, london : . has engraved half-title page. reproduction of original in the union theological seminary library, new york. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng church of england. christian ethics. dissenters, religious -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - judith siefring sampled and proofread - judith siefring text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion an enquiry into y e causes of the present separation from the church of england hic verus est cultus , in quo mens colentis , seipsam deo immaculatam victimam sistit . lact. a serious and compassionate inquiry into the causes of the present neglect and contempt of the protestant religion and church of england : with several seasonable considerations offer'd to all english protestants , tending to perswade them to a complyance with and conformity to the religion and government of this church as it is established by the laws of the kingdom . tertual . scorpiac . adv . gnostic . non in occasione frustrandi martyrii jubet te ( apostolus , scil . ) subjici magistratibus , sed in provocatione bene vivendi sine ira & studio , quorum causas procul habeo . tacit. ann. . london , printed by robert white for richard royston , bookseller to his most sacred majesty , at the angel in amen-corner . mdclxxiv . instead of an epistle to the reader , as the manner is , i humbly submit the ensuing discourse to the censure of my superiours in the church of england , and to the consideration of all the non-conformists of whatsoever sect or denomination : hoping the former will pardon the defects of it ; and that the latter may ( by gods blessing ) reap some benefit by it . the contents . the introduction . wherein the antient estate of christianity in general is compared with the present ; and the condition of the reformed religion in this kingdom in the first times of it , is compared with that of the present age ; and the change lamented . part i. an enquiry into the causes and origin of the separation from and contempt of the english reformed church . chap. i. wherein are represented several things that are pretended , but are not the true causes of our distractions and dissatisfactions ; viz. . corruption in doctrine ; . the too near approach of this church to the roman ; . the scandalousness of the clergy : all which are disproved . pag. . chap. ii. of the more remote and less observed causes of the infelicity of this church ; such as . the reign of queen mary and return of popery under her in the infancy of the reformation . . the bad provision for ministers in corporations , &c. . frequent wars . . the liberty in religion that trade seems to require . . the secret designs of atheists and papists . p. . chap. iii. of the more immediate causes of the distractions of the church of england ; such as , . rashness of popular judgement . . judaism . . prejudice . . want of true christian zeal , in the generality of its members . p. . part ii. wherein several serious considerations are propounded , tending to perswade all english protestants to comply with , and conform to , the religion and government of this church , as it is established by law. chap. i. a reflection upon divers wayes or methods for the prevention and cure of church-divisions . p. . chap. ii. of the true notion of schism , the sin and mischievous consequents of it . p. . chap. iii. of the nature and importance of those things that are scrupled , or objected against in this church ; and that they are such as may without sin be sacrificed to peace , and therefore cannot excuse us from sin in separating from the church upon their account . p. . chap. iv. the those that find fault with the constitution of this church , will never be able to find out or agree upon a better . p. . chap. v. that god layes very little stress upon circumstantials in religion . p. . chap. vi. that the magistrate hath authority to determine such externals of religion as are the matters of our disputes , and what deportment is due from christians towards him . p. . chap. vii . wherein christian liberty consists ; and that it doth not discharge us from obedience to laws . p. . chap. viii . of a tender conscience , what it is , and its priviledges . p. . chap. ix . the great dishonour that disobedience to laws and magistrates and the distractions of government do to any profession of religion whatsoever . p. . chap. x. the danger by our distractions and divisions . p. . the conclusion . p. . the introduction . wherein the antient estate of christianity in general is compared with the present ; and the condition of the reformed religion in this kingdom in the first times of it , is compared with that of the present age ; and the change lamented . whosoever seriously considers the certainty and excellency of the christian religion in its own nature , and withal observes with how just veneration it was received , with what ardour imbraced , with what courage and constancy maintained and practised , then , when all the powers on earth sought to suppress it , when the wit and malice of the world was combined against it , and when to be a christian , was the plain way to ruine , and the loss of whatsoever uses to be dear to men in this world ; and shall compare herewith , the present state of christendome , now since the offence of the cross is ceased , and the faith of christ as is become the profession of kings and princes , and ( besides all other either arguments of its truth , or inducements to embrace it ) is confirmed by the successive suffrages of so many ages , and the concurrent votes of so great a part of mankind : he , i say , that shall take the little pains to make this comparison , cannot choose but be astonished at the contrary face of things , and be ready to say with linacer , aut hoc non est evangelium , aut nos non sumus evangelici , either christian religion is not what it was , or men are not what they were wont to be . for besides the palpable contradiction of the lives of the generality of christians now , to the rules of their religion , laid down in the writings of the new testament , which is such , as would make an indifferent man suspect that they believed those books to contain absolute impossibilities , or at least , not the things that are necessary to salvation ; since so few take the rule of their lives , or the measures of their actions thence : besides this , i say , he that shall observe how the primitive christians for several ages after our saviour are reported to have lived , and how far short the latter ages fall of those examples , will be tempted either to pronounce the histories of those times meer romances ; or the men of these times to be any thing , rather than what they call themselves . such a general declension there hath been , that the complaint of tully , concerning the philosophers of his time , may justly be applyed to the christians of ours , that they made disciplinam suam , ostentationem scientiae , non legem vitae ; non obtemperant sibi ipsis , sed in eo peccant , cujus profitentur scientiam . that whereas christian religion was calculated for no other meridian , designed to no other purpose , than the bettering and improving the tempers and lives of men , it is perverted rather to an apology for our loosness , than applyed to the cure of our disorders . i cannot please my self with so odious a comparison as the case in hand would admit of ; nor will i trouble the reader with long stories of the admirable conversation of those early christians , which whoso will take the pains , may find in justin martyr , a thenagoras , tertullian , origen and others : and he that is willing to decline that trouble , may find nearer hand in the collections of a judicious and faithful writer , in his book called , primitive christianity . but it may not be unuseful to remark some few particulars . of old to be a christian , was to be all that is holy , just and good , to be adorned with all those virtues that can render a man acceptable to god , or lovely amongst men . whereever this religion came , it was a principle of purity in mens hearts , of honesty in their lives , and of peace in kingdoms and societies . it raised mens minds to a contemplation and pursuit of another world , and inabled them both to despise the present , and to be a blessing to it . it did not teach men to speak great swelling words , but to live , to do and to suffer admirably ; that the very pagans ( their mortal enemies , ) were astonished at them ; and some of them gave them this testimony , hi sunt qui vivunt ut loquuntur , & loquuntur ut vivunt ; these are the men that are as good as their word , and live as high and generously as others talk . the christian faith was not then a meer trick of wit , nor a bone of contention ; but a principle of sincere honesty , which guided men into the knowledge of their duty , and inspired them with courage and resolution to perform it . give me , saith lactantius , a fierce and contentious man , and if he will but apply himself to the grace and institutions of the gospel , he shall become as mild as a lamb : give me a drunkard or a lascivious person , with this doctrine i will make him chaste and sober : let a covetous man hearken to this doctrine , and he shall presently dispense his money as charitably , as before he raked it together fordidly : give me a timorous and cowardly person , this religion shall presently make him valiant and despise death and danger . and so he goes on . in those dayes believing was not an excuse for disobedience , or a commutation for a holy life ; but a foundation of obedience to all the laws of god and man. then all the professors of christianity bad one heart and one lip , and then they built towards heaven in a good sense ; but since , distraction of mind , alienation of affections , and confusion of language hath made a babel of a church . there was then but one division of men , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were the only sects the world was divided by ; all good men were of one way , and evil men of another . but now there are almost as many opinions as men , as many parties as opinions , and as many religions as either . time was , when men sacrificed their lives in testimony to their faith , as frankly , as since they have done to their passions , revenge or ambition . then was charity counted as essential a part of religion , as censoriousness is now with too many . brotherly love and mutual dearness was a characteristical note of those then , that now may be as well known by their distractions and animosities . st. gregory nazianzen said of those times , that if one christian took notice of the error , sin or failing of another , it was to bewail it , to heal it , to cover his shame , and cure his wound , and prevent a scandal to his profession ; but he observed , that after-times made triumphs of mens weakness and follies ; and men learnt to justifie their own wickedness by the miscarriages , of their brethren ; and that he that would prove himself of the highest form of christians , set himself down in the seat of the scorner . nothing was then thought too good or costly for the service of god or religion : men would not content themselves to serve god with that which cost them nothing . it was only julian , or such another , that envyed the costly vessels , wherewith christ was served . works of piety and mercy and charity cost them as much as luxury and contention now a dayes . when the gentiles in tertullian's time , upbraided the christians , that they made choice of a cheap religion , and renounced the pagan sacrifices , because they would not undergo the charge of them ; and complained that the frugality of the christian worship caused a decay of trade for the eastern gumms and spices , that used to be spent in the service of the gods , and that by this means the customs of the emperors were also diminished : to all this he makes this answer : we christians spend more in the relief of the poor , than you gentiles do upon your gods : and though we use not gumms and spices for incense , yet we as much promote trade by the vast proportions of those commodities we spend in the imbalming our dead . and lastly , if it should happen that the emperors exchequer should lose any thing , either by the temperance of our lives , or the nature of our religion , yet we make it up another way ; for we make conscience of paying him his just dues : whereas you cheat and defraud him of more than the proportion of your expences above ours would amount to . in those early times the christian assemblies drained and emptied the roman theatres , and the multitude thronged into the church , as earnestly as now they crowd out ; coimus in coetum ut ad deum quasi manu factâ precationibus ambiamus orantes , said the forementioned tertullian . the confluence to the publick worship was in those dayes so great , and the consent of heart and voice so universal , that st. jerome said , the hallelujahs of the church was like the noise of many waters , and the amen like thunder ; heaven and earth then answered each other in a glorious antiphone , and made up one blessed chorus : there was joy in heaven , and peace on earth : the hymn sung by the angel at our saviours nativity , was verified in those first ages of his religion , glory to god on high , on earth peace , and good-will amongst men . the holy men of those times that approached our saviour , had as it were some rayes of his divinity shed upon them , and their faces shone like moses's , when he came down from the holy mount. a christian church was a colledge of holy and good men , and the glory of god filled the place where they assembled ; and fire came down from heaven too , but not to set the world in combustion , but to exhale and lift up the odours of pious and devout prayers . but since those times zeal hath decayed , as if it had not been the intrinsick excellency of religion but the fires of pagan persecution that kindled that heat in the breasts of christians . and the church so divided and broken in pieces , as if it was not one lord , one faith , one baptism that united them , but a common enemy . dry opinions have been taken for faith , and zeal of a party hath gone for holiness of life ; men have been busie in making new creeds , and have forgotten to practise the old one . and since the empire hath been divided into east , and west , churches have been at defiance , and as opposite to each other as those points are . in short , the once famous greek churches are now over-run with so squalid a barbarism , that little but the name of christianity is left amongst them : and the roman church , whose faith was famous and spoken of through all the world , is now as infamous for usurpation , superstition and cruelty , and so deformed with pagan rites and mundane policies , that christianity is the least part of her . what shall we take to be the reason of this general defection ? was it only novelty and not its intrinsick goodness and reasonableness that commended this religion to the world , that the longer it lasts , the less it signifies ? or are the principles of christianity effete ( like the causes of the gentile oracles , as plutarch discourses ) that all the motives of virtue and holiness have now so little influence upon mens tempers and lives ? or is it true that was said of old , religio peperit divitias , & filia devoravit matrem , since churches have been endowed , men have espoused only the fortune , and not the faith ? or is the true reason , that of old , christianity was deeply rooted in the hearts of men , and brought forth the fruits of good works in their lives : whereas now it is only a barren notion in mens heads , and is productive of nothing but leaves of opinion and profession ? then it was the employment of mens hearts in meditation , of their knees in devotion , of their hands in distribution and beneficence : now it is become the entertainment of mens ears in hearing novelty , of their tongues and lips in censuring and disputing . but whatever the causes have been , such is the condition of religion generally in the greek and latin churches ; and i doubt if we come nearer home , we shall not find things much better . this island of britain had the glory not only to be the native countrey of constantine the first christian emperour , but a far greater , that under lucius it received the christian faith first of any great kingdom in the world . britannorum loca , romanis inaccessa , christo verò subdita , saith tertullian , the cross made a more effectual as well as a more happy conquest here , than all the roman powers could do . and this northern climate was not only thus early enlightned with the beams of the sun of righteousness , but had life and warmth proportionably . an evidence whereof we have , in that we find british bishops at the council of arles which was held before the nicene : and at the time of the nicene council britian was counted one of the six dioceses of the western empire . and for the zeal of the british christians , the martyrdom of st. albane , amphilochius and others are great and glorious instances . but to descend to lower times . the inhabitants of this island have not been more famous for martial prowess against their enemies , hospitality to strangers , and good nature towards all mankind , ( which three things have been , and , i hope , are still their peculiar glories , ) than for sincere piety and devotion . polydore virgil an italian , and erasmus a dutchman , both of the roman communion , and competent witnesses , do affirm , that there was more true devotion and sincerity of religion in this church and kingdom of england , than in any one place of the world besides . what was said of sparta , that ibi senes sunt maximè senes , might be applyed to this purpose , that here christians were so the most heartily and truly of any people in the world . the universal pastor ( as he would be called ) i mean the bishop of rome , observed the sheep of england to bear such good fleeces , and so patiently to submit to the shearer , that he kept a watchful eye over this flock , and his vigilancy was rewarded with the golden fleece . he and his emissaries found such large hearts and devout minds here , that we are inabled to understand the reason of their great concern for our going astray since , and their earnest and unwearied endeavours to reduce us back again to that fold . yet what by being oftner shorn than fed , ( and then not with the best pastures neither , ) what by the ill examples of others , ( but especially of their guides , ) and what by length of time ; corruption overspread this church too : but then , as it happens in bodies of a strong and vivacious constitution , when they chance by ill diet or other accident , to be stuft with crudities and bad humours , they critically evacuate them by meer strength of nature : so this church gave certain proof that it had sana principia , and a true sense of the reality of christianity , that one of the first in christendom it returned to it self and a just temperament by a reformation . and the reformation of this church , which the romanists , for their own ends , so much detest , and some others unreasonably slight , was as much the emulation of other nations , as glorious in it self . for , . it was the most orderly and best becoming christianity ; it was not brought in with tumult and sedition , as most changes are , but by laws and the supream magistrate . there was no noise of axes and hammers in this building , but the several parts of this fabrick fell in together with a kind of harmony , as the jews say of the temple of salomon . . it was the most moderate and temperate , as being the result of deliberation and reason , not of blind passion or an humour of innovation . our reformers did not purge out the good , because formerly it had been abused ( as the humour of some men is to do ) but vindicated what was useful , from the abuse : they neither countenanced what was evil by the good was to be found , nor rejected the good for the casual adherence of evil . they did not abolish a venerable order or office in the church for the ill manners of some that had born it ; but took care to put better men in the rooms of such . they were not of opinion , that the church could not arrive at primitive purity , unless it was reduced to primitive poverty ; nor because they found some ceremonies then used that were superstitious and dangerous , and thought too many were but densome , therefore concluded all decency in the service of god was popish . and in short , they did not depart farther from the church of rome by reformation , than she had departed from the truth and her self by degeneracy and corruption . by all which they demonstrated , that the change they made , was not for the sake of humour and faction , but necessity and publick good . the church of rome reproaches us with the sinister ends of the prince and several of those that sate at the helm of this great affair : but who knows not , that it is the usual method of almighty god to bring about his own designs , and accomplish the greatest benefits to mankind , by making the sinister intentions of men co-operate towards them ? he made use of the unnatural cruelty of joseph's brethren towards him , to the preservation of the whole family of jacob , sending joseph into aegypt as an harbinger and nurse to provide for them in a famine . and in respect hereof joseph tells them , it was not they , but god sent him thither . the cruelty of pharaoh , who sought by severities to break and wear out the israelites , harden'd them and prepared them for all the difficulties they were afterwards to encounter . the obstinacy and incredulity of the jews , proved to be the riches of the gentiles . the persecution of the apostles at jerusalem made way for the spreading of the gospel into all other countreys . instances of this kind are innumerable ; or if they were not , yet were it very unsafe for those of the church of rome to make this objection , lest they provoke us to say what cannot be either denyed or justified , that the barbarous tyrant and usurper phocas brought in the universal pastorship of the bishop of rome , and that the most bloody and rapacious princes have ordinarily been the great patrons and indowers of their church ; thinking , it seems , to hallow their own villanies , and legitimate their unjust acquisitions , by dividing the spoil with the bishop and church of rome . . the english reformation was the most compleat and perfect in its kind , as retaining the most antient doctrine and soundest confession of faith , founded upon the holy scriptures , and agreeable to the first general councils , the most primitive church-government , and a liturgy the best accommodate to reconcile and unite mens devotions : such a liturgy , as mr. fox the author of the martyrologie is not afraid to say was indited by the holy ghost ; but certainly had a great testimony in the unspeakable joy and contentment holy men took in it in king edward the sixths dayes , their zeal for the maintenance of it , longing for the restitution of it , and sealing it with their blood in queen maries dayes , and the universal triumphs and acclamations at the restoring of it in queen elizabeths reign . and admirable it is to consider how happy this church and nation then was ; in what glory and majesty the prince reigned , in what peace and concord the subjects lived ; but especially it is remarkable , how devout and pious an age that was , as is scarce perhaps to be parallel'd since the time that christianity flourisht under constantine the great . what reverence was then yielded to the ministers of religion ? what devotion to the publick worship ? how general an acquiescence of hearts and minds in it ? which the greater it was , the more just is our wonder , and the more reasonable our inquiry , what should be the cause that in the same church , and amongst devout and honest-minded englishmen , such a zeal should terminate in so cold an indifferency , as may now be observed ; or rather that such a blessed harmony should degenerate into so much discord , as is now too discernable amongst us . we read ezra . that when the second temple at jerusalem was building , the young men rejoyced at the reviving glory of their nation and religion , but the old men that had beheld the far greater splendour and more stately majesty of the former temple built by salomon , they wept , as contemplating how far this came short of that : so that it was hard to say , whether the shouts of the young men or the lamentations of the elder were the more loud . and truly when we consider in how low a condition the church of england was some few years since , till it had a happy resurrection with the return of our gracious soveraign , will see cause to rejoyce and thank god that we are in no worse condition than we are ; but he that understands and considers what was the felicity of the first age of our reformation , and compares it with the present condition of our affairs , will have just cause to lament the difference . for in those dayes so venerable was the society of the church , that to be cast out of it by excommunication was as dreadful as to be thunder-smitten ; that sentence was like proscription amongst the romans , which they counted a civil death , and dreaded as much as a natural . but now it is become a matter of ambition with some , and a piece of glory ; and to be cast out of the church , is as good as letters testimonial or recommendatory to other assemblies . there were few or none then that did not constantly frequent the church ; now the church is become the conventicle in many places , and the conventicle the church , in respect of the fulness and frequency of the one and the unfrequentedness and destitution of the other . aristonicus came to a certain city in greece where he observed many temples , but few men that would hear him . he therefore instead of the usual phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , cryes out , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , hear o ye stone-walls , less hard than the hearts of men . the application is too easie in our case . in that time we speak of , the liturgy and publick prayers were counted a principal part of gods worship ; now they are not only nothing without a sermon , but in danger to desecrate the sermon too by their conjunction . the bible is scarce canonical , if it have the prayers bound up in the same cover ; and so extreamly offensive are they grown to some , that they will rather totally neglect the publick worship of god , and never receive the communion whilest they live , than have to do with the common prayers . heretofore there were but few things scrupled in the establisht religion , and those were very few that made use of any such pretence or scruple ; but now it is become the great point of sanctity to scruple every thing . there was one indeed , and he a great man , that said , there were tolerabiles ineptiae in our liturgy ; and the most favourable return he met with , was , that he had his tolerabiles morositates . now the title of ineptiae is counted too mild an expression ; whatever suits not the present humour , is either jewish , popish or superstitious . this change is sadly lamentable , that good laws should be thus trampled upon , the best church in the world thus despised , and the best minded people thus abused . now my business is therefore in the first place , to enquire from what causes this hath come to pass . part i. an enquiry into the causes and origin of the separation from and contempt of the english reformed church . chap. i. wherein are represented several things that are pretended , but are not the true causes of our distractions and dissatisfactions ; viz. . corruption in doctrine ; . the too near approach of this church to the roman ; . the scandalousness of the clergy : all which are disproved . we have a proverbial saying amongst us , that every one that is forty years old , is either a fool or a physician : but without a proverb to justifie the undertaking , there are but few that ( at what age soever ) do not think themselves at years of discretion enough , to pass a judgement upon , and prescribe to the body politick , whether church or state. though it usually happens , that such empiricks , either to shew their wit ( suspecting distempers where there are none ) make them ; or whilest they rashly adventure quiet a movere , and like englishmen will be alwayes mending , they make work for better skill than their own ; or lastly , if they discover some small matter amiss , mistaking the cause of it , not only lose their time and labour ( which would be easily pardonable ) but exhaust the spirits of the patient with improper medicines , and purge out the good and useful juices as noxious humours , and so the physician becomes far the greater disease of the two . that our church is of a sound and healthful constitution , and might have continued so , had it not met with this fortune , i think i have sufficiently , though briefly manifested in the foregoing introduction : but some men either loving to be alwayes reforming , or having first separated from it , that they may either commend their own skill , or justifie their own fact , must accuse the church . we read of brutus , that having killed caesar , he was alwayes after inveighing against him as a tyrant , ità enim facto ejus expediebat , saith the historian , it was expedient he should call caesar tyrant , for otherwise himself must be a notorious traytor . so these men , though the greatest disorders of the church be but what themselves have made , must find faults , that they may not seem to have raised all the dust , and withdrawn themselves and others from it without cause . . and in the first place the doctrine of this church is blamed ; though thanks be to god , there are but few that are of so little discretion as to bring in this charge , and those that are , will never be able to prove it . the main ( if not the only ) thing excepted against in this kind , is , that the thirty nine articles are not so punctual in defining the five points debated at the synod of dort as they could wish . but this though it neither needs nor deserves an answer , yet i shall reply these two things to it . first , that it is not so with the doctrine of christianity as with common arts and sciences , which depend upon humane wit and invention , and consequently are capable of daily improvements : for the mind of man having not an intuitive knowledge , but proceeding by way of discourse , discovers one thing by another , and infers things from one another ; so that there is not a nè plus ultrà in those things , but daily new discoveries , & dies diem docet . whereto accords the saying of wise men , antiquitas saeculi , est juventus mundi , that which we call the old world , is but indeed the infancy of knowledge , and the latter times must needs have as much the advantage of truth as they have of deliberation and experiment . but it is quite otherwise with christianity , for that depending solely upon divine revelation , can admit of no new discoveries ; time may obscure it , and the busie wit of man may perplex and confound it with its inventions , but can never discover any thing new , or bring to light any truth that was not so from the beginning . for if we admit of new revelations , we lose the old and our religion together , we accuse our saviour and his apostles as if they had not sufficiently revealed gods mind to the world , and we incurr st. paul's anathema which he denounces against him ( whosoever it shall be , nay , if an anger from heaven ) that shall preach any other doctrine than what had been received . and st. jude hath told us the faith was once , that is either at once , or once for all delivered to or by the saints . but if we shall pretend a private spirit or revelation to discover and interpret what was before delivered , we do as bad ; we suppose christ and his apostles not to be able to deliver the mind of god , and we open a gap for all impostures and delusions perpetually to infest and corrupt christian doctrine . the consequence of these premises is , that ( contrary to what i affirmed before of other sciences ) the elder any doctrine of christianity can be proved to be , it must needs be the truer , and accordingly deserve the greater veneration from us , as coming nearer the fountain of evangelical truth , divine revelation : and that he that talks of more clear light of the latter times , and clearer discoveries in religion , talks as foolishly as he that should affirm he could discern things better at a miles distance , than the man that hath as good eyes as himself , and yet stood close by the object . this being so , it must needs be the excellency and great commendation of this church , that her articles of doctrine agree better with the first times of christianity than the last age ; and is an irrefragable argument that she derived it not from any lake or lower streams troubled and mudded with mens passions and disputes , but from the fountain of the holy scripture , and from those who certainly had best advantage of understanding it in its own simplicity , the primitive church . that no one father or writer of the church , whether greek or latin , before st. austin's time agreed in doctrine with the determination of the synod of dort is so notoriously plain that it needs no proof , nor can be denyed . and if he ( i mean st. austin ) agrees therewith , yet it is certain that in so doing he disagrees as much with himself as he doth with us of the church of england . and what if st. austin , a devout good man , ( but whose piety was far more commendable than his reason , ) being hard put to it by the manichees on one hand , and the pelagians on the other , was not able to extricate himself , who can help it ? shall his opinion , and that which he was rather forced into by disputation than made choice of , but especially shall the determination of a few divines at dort vye with the constant doctrine of the primitive church , or make that an imputation upon our church , which is really amongst its glories ? must a novel dutch synod prescribe doctrine to the church of england , and outweigh all antiquity ? shall those that knew not how god could be just , unless he was cruel , nor great , unless he decreed to damn the greatest part of mankind ; that could not tell how man should be kept humble , unless they made him not a man but a stock or stone : shall , i say , such men and such opinions confront the antient catholick apostolick faith , held forth in the church of england ? secondly , the articles of the doctrine of this church do with such admirable prudence and wariness handle these points we are now speaking of , as if particular respect was had to these men , and care taken that they might abundare suo sensu , enjoy their own judgements , and yet without check subscribe to these articles . and accordingly it is well known , that not many years since , when the dort opinions were very predominant amongst many divines of this church , they used ( it may be ) a little more scholastick subtilty to reconcile their own opinions with these articles , but never condemned the latter for the sake of the former . and at this day divers good men are in the service of this church that are in their private judgements of the dort perswasion , and yet never thought their subscription to these articles did any violence to their consciences or judgements : therefore this can be no cause of our troubles , nor ground of separation from the church . a second pretence against this church is , that it is not sufficiently purged from the dross of popish superstitions , that it comes too near the church of rome , and so the communion of it is dangerous . popery is an odious name in this nation , and god be thanked that it is so , for it deserves no less : but as constantine when he condemned the arrians and decreed their books should be burnt , appointed that they should be called porphyrians , a name sufficiently detested by the generality of christians : so those men that have a mind to reproach the church , know no more effectual way of affixing an ignominy upon it , than by laying the imputation of popery to it . and indeed if the charge were as true as it is false , or if it were as probable as it is malicious , it would not only serve to exasperate the vulgar against the church , but to justifie their secession from it . but it is hard to say whether the unreasonableness or the uncharitableness be greater in this suggestion . for , . it is certain there hath been little or no alteration made in either the doctrine , discipline or liturgy since the first reformation ; and therefore if either of them incline too much that way , they did so from the beginning . now that which i inquire into , is , what should be the causes of the late revolt and separation from this church , or what should make that discernable change in mens affections towards it , from what was in the former age ? and he that tells me it was popishly constituted at first , gives indeed a reason ( if it was true ) why this reformation should not have been entertained at first , but doth not assign a cause why those should depart from it now , that had imbraced it with so much zeal formerly . he therefore that would speak home to this case , must shew that this church hath lost its first love , and hath warped towards the old corruptions from which it was once purged . but this is so far from being possible to be shewn , that it is certain on the contrary , that all the change that hath been made of late years , hath been meerly in complyance with and condescension to those that object this against it ; and a man would reasonably expect , they would easily pardon such innovations . but in truth the main quarrel is , that we are not alwayes reforming , but keep to the old matron-like dress , the queen elizabeth fashion . if the governours of the church would comply with the curiosity of this wanton age , our religion would quickly have the fortune of apelles's picture according to the known story . he to deride the conceited folly of the age , exposes to publick view a master-piece of his work : and as it usually happens , that every body pretends to skill in reforming ( by the incouragement of the proverb that saith , facile est inventu addere ) scarcely any person that past by , but spent their verdict upon the picture ; all commend it in the general , yet to give some special instance of their skill , every one finds some fault or other : one would have had more shadow , another less ; one commends the eye , but blames a lip , &c. the subtil artist observes all , and still as any passenger had shot his bolt , alters the picture accordingly . the result was , that at last by so many reformations it became so deformed and monstrous a piece , that not only wiser men , but these vulgar reformers themselves wondered at it , and could now discern nothing worthy so famed an artist . he on the other hand , to right himself , produces another piece of the same beauty and art , which he had hitherto kept up by him , and had escaped their censure , and upbraids them thus , hanc ego feci , istam populus , this latter is my work , the other is a monster of your own making . this is our case ; christian religion was by holy and wise men our reformers , devested of those gaudy and meretricious accoutrements the romanists had drest her up in , and habited according to primitive simplicity ; but this would not please every body , every sect and party would have something or other added or altered according to their several phancies and hypotheses , which if it should be allowed ( the opinions of men are so contrary one to another as well as to truth ) the true lineaments of christianity would quite be lost . upon this consideration hath not this church been very fond of alterations . but to all this it is likely it will be replyed , that now we have more light and discover blemishes and deformities , which ( though they were before , yet ) we could not discern when our selves came out of the dark den of popery . at first , like the man under cure of his blindness , mark . . we saw men as trees walking , we discovered only some more palpable errors , but now we discern though lesser yet not tolerable deformities . . to this therefore i answer in the second place , that it is certain all is not to be esteemed popery , that is held or practised by the church of rome , and it cannot be our duty ( as i have said before ) to depart further from her than she hath departed from the truth : for then it would be our duty to forsake christianity it self in detestation of popery . to reform is not surely to cast away every thing that was in use before , unless barbarism be the only through reformation . the historian observes of those that spoil provinces and ransack kingdoms ubi solitudinem fecere pacem appellant , when they had converted a flourishing countrey into a desolate wilderness , they called this a profound peace . but sure to reform is not to destroy and lay waste , but to amend . unless therefore it can be proved against the church of england that she holds or practises any thing false or sinful , it will little avail them that object against her , and as little be any blemish to her constitution , that in some things she concurs with the roman . nor is it reasonable to say , such a thing is received from the church of rome , meerly because there it is to be found , unless it be to be found no where else : for though it be true that many things are the same in both churches , ( in as much as it is impossible they should be churches of christ at all else , ) yet it is as true that those things wherein they agree are such ( and no other ) as were received generally by all christian churches , and by the roman before it lay under any ill character . but that this church doth not so syncretize with that of rome , as to make its communion unsafe or sinful , i suppose the following considerations will give sufficient security to an unprejudiced mind . in the mean time let me intreat him that hath entertained any suspicions of that kind against her , to give an ingenuous answer of these two or three queries . . if there be such a dangerous affinity betwixt the church of england and the romish , how came it to pass that the blessed instruments of our reformation , such as a. bishop cranmer , ridley , latimer and others , laid down their lives in testimony to this against that ? for if those of the church of rome could have been so barbarous as cruelly to murder those excellent persons for some slight innovations , or for differing from them in circumstantials ; yet certainly such wise and good men would not have been so prodigal of their own blood , nor weary of their lives as to cast them away upon trifles . it is probable at least therefore that those of the church of rome thought the english reformation to be essentially different from them ; and it is more than probable that those holy men aforesaid thought so , and did not offer to god the sacrifice of fools . . or how comes it to pass that all those of the roman communion withdraw themselves from ours , and are commanded so to do by the head of their church under peril of damnation ? and on the other side the true protestants of the church of england , think it their duty to absent themselves from the roman worship , lest they should defile their consciences with their superstitions ? i say how comes this distance and apprehension of sin and danger reciprocally , if the differences between them be inconsiderable ? . whence comes it to pass , that the bigots of the romish church have more spite against our church , than against any sect or party whatsoever ? but that they take us not only for enemies , but the most mortal and formidable of all those they have to do with . or lastly , if both the church and church-men of england are not far enough removed from any participation with that of rome , how comes it to pass that they of all men most zealously and constantly upon all occasions stand in the gap and oppose the return of popery into england , when other men either slight the danger , or are so fond of their own private sentiments , as apparently to run the hazard of this for the sake of them ? any reasonable man would think those men have not really such an abhorrence of popery as they pretend , and that there might easily be found terms of accommodation between them , when he shall observe them more fond of every petty opinion , than concern'd for the publick security against that common enemy ; and that they will rather venture the danger of that breaking in upon them , than forgo the least fancy or opinion ; nay , will be instrumental in procuring a toleration and suspension of the publick laws for that , which they are so jealous others should have any kindness for . and for proof of this , i call to witness the transactions of the last year , when those very men that would be thought the atlas's and only supporters of protestant religion , and would give out as if their zeal was the only bulwark against popery , had by their separation from , and enmity to this church , weakned the common interest , and by their restless importunities and unlimited desires of liberty , in a manner extorted a suspension of the laws touching religion . had not his majesty and his parliament timely foreseen the consequence , and the whole nation been awakned into an apprehension of the danger by the serious and constant admonitions of the episcopal clergy , popery might have come in like a landflood upon us , notwithstanding those quicksighted watchmen that can spy popery so far off . i say had not the church-men especially bestirred themselves , and shewed both a better courage and zeal against popery , and also a better skill in that warfare than their accusers , the so much dreaded enemy had ere this time been in fair hopes of attaining his desires . this was a passage of so much glory to the true church-men , and so great and illustrious an instance of their integrity , that i am in hope whilest it shall remain in memory , malice it self will be ashamed to lay any imputation of inclining to popery either upon the church or church-men of england . i shall not need to add to all this , that there are as understanding men in religion , persons of as holy lives , and of as comfortable consciences , of this churches education , as are any where to be found in the world besides . which three things together fully acquit any church of participation with popery . for that degeneracy of christianity is for nothing more truly hateful , nor by nothing more discoverable than by its blind devotion , principles of immorality , and the bad security it gives to the consciences of men ; which who so acquits any church of , ( as every considerate man must needs do this church ) he shall after that , very unreasonably leave any ill character upon her , at least of that nature we now are speaking of . . but there is a terrible charge yet to come , and that is against the sufficiency , but especially the sanctity of the clergy and ministry of the church of england ; as if they , like the sons of eli , sam. . . made men to abhor the offerings of the lord. and this is made the pretence of resorting to conventicles , and forsaking the church . now if this was as true as it is horribly false , it might be an objection perhaps fit for a papist to make , who is taught that the efficacy of all divine offices depends upon the intention and condition of him that administers ; but no protestant without contradicting his own principles can make use of it to justifie his recession from the church : for if the efficacy of all divine ordinances depend upon the divine institution and the concurrence of gods grace with my use of them , what can it prejudice me , that he that administers is an evil or unlearned man , so long as i prepare my self to receive benefit immediately from god in the use of the means appointed by him ? this therefore may serve for a malicious stone to cast at us from whom they are departed ; but no argument in the cause , nor excuse for themselves . yet i confess nevertheless , this way of arguing ( for we must be forced to call hard word by that name ) is of great prevalence with injudicious persons , and able to prejudice them against the best constitutions in the world . for they not understanding the reason of things , give reception and entertainment to any proposition in proportion to the opinion or reverence they have for the person that recommends it . it is a known story , how well the spartans were aware of this ; and therefore if in their council , a man of a bad life had propounded excellent counsel , they would not suffer him , but suborn some other person of great sanctity to be the author of it : amongst other reasons , lest the ill opinion that was generally conceived of the person , should derogate from the weight and value of the counsel and advice . therefore the more extreamly to blame are those that acknowledging the truth and excellency of the doctrine of the church of england , can yet find in their hearts to undermine the success of it by sowing suspicions and in raising scandals against them , that are to propagate it . it will be to the immortal glory of the great constantine , that when at the nicene council the bishops and clergy had exhibited to him a great bundle of libels one against another , he burnt them all together before their faces , as thinking them fitter for the fire than the light . and protested he had so great a zeal for the reputation of church-men , and such a sense of the concern and consequence of their good same and reputation , that if he should see one of them in the most scandalous commission , he would cover such a mans shame with his own purple . but as i doubt in these dayes there is little of the spirit and charity of constantine , so thanks be to god , there is little need of it in this case ; for i doubt not to convince this suggestion against the church-men of as much falshood , as the former against the church of frivolousness . for though there want not those in these dayes that are so quick-sighted as to discover spots in the sun it self : though i say , there be both those that have great skill in all the methods of uncharitableness , such as can insinuate little whispers and jealousies first , and then foment and hatch them up to a story , and then aggravate the fact , and lastly make the folly of some one man , be the scandal of the whole order ; and also those atheistical persons whose interest it is ( in order to the extenuating their own villanies , ) as much as may be to render the persons of those that reprove them as ridiculous as they can , and to that purpose are become great proficients of late in a scurrilous kind of drollery , whereby they can sublimate their own vices and debaucheries into a kind of vapour , a meer frolick and gentile humour , and on the other side aggravate the meer humane infirmities of graver men into great deformities : yet all their combined wit and malice will never be able to affix any scandal upon the body of the present english clergy . . for their learning and ability : if the preaching of the present age be not better than that of former , i would fain know the reason why the homilies are in no greater reputation , and should expect to see the people desire their pastors to read them in the congregation , and save the labour of their own compositions . if the sermons of foreign divines be better than those of the english , what is then the reason that all protestants abroad admire the english way of preaching , insomuch that some foreign congregations ( as i am credibly informed ) defray the charges of the travails of their pastor into england , as well as dispense with their absence , that they may return to them instructed in the method of english preaching . whether the preaching in the church of rome be to be preferred before ours , he that hath not a mind to travail into those parts , may yet indifferently well resolve himself , if he take but the pains to read a book written by erasmus of the art of preaching : which whosoever hath done or shall do , i verily perswade my self , he shall quickly be able to reckon up more follies and ridiculous passages , than all those gathered together by the author of the inquiry into the causes of the contempt of the clergy . lastly , he that shall take the pains or have the curiosity to compare the preachings generally in our churches with those ordinarily in the conventicles , will either find them very unequally matcht , or else if he hath any reason at all , he hath reason to suspect himself intolerably prejudicate . for on the one side , he shall find sound theology , strength of argument , gravity of expression and distinctiness of method ; on the other side nothing more frequent than puerile and flat , oft-times rude , and sometimes blasphemous expressions , similitudes instead of arguments , and either apish gestures , or tragical vociferations instead of eloquence . besides , a wise man may in great measure take an estimate of the wisdom and abilities of a preacher or writer by the very subject he chooses to discourse on , and not only by the manner of handling it . and he that shall impartially apply himself to this little trouble , may easily observe the sermons and tractates of the non-conformists generally , to be either about . predestination , which ( besides the danger of it amongst the people for mistakes ) nothing but unskilfulness could make any man confident enough to undertake the unfolding of ; or about union with god and christ , which themselves confess to be unintelligible , and they help to make it so ; or the sweetness , beauty and loveliness of christ's person , which is seldome handled with any better effect , than the stirring up some sensual passion or other in the fond auditors , as i have seen verified by experience . god forbid that i should charge all the non-conformists with such indecencies as these ; but it is manifest it is such kind of discourses as i have intimated , that are the most taking and ravishing amongst them . but then on the other side , you shall hear discourses of the nature and attributes of god , and the reason of religion deduced thence ; of the divine providence , and arguments of contentment , reverence and submission inferred therefrom ; of the eternal reasons of good and evil , and indispensable obligations to virtue , as the consequence of that principle laid upon the consciences of men ; of the nature of faith , the necessity of holiness , of charity , of obedience to governours : all which are good and profitable , and of great weight and importance . if we now compare the writings of both parties , the difference will yet be more legible . although it hath been observed of old by a wise and great man , that generally the ablest of men have not been most given to writing of books , as being loth to make themselves themes for fools to comment upon ; but a middle sort of men are most disposed , and usually have best success that way , whose genius is more adequate to vulgar capacities : yet let any man of competent judgement lay passion and prejudice aside , and say , if the writings of the divines of this church , both in the controversies of religion and most other parts of learning , have not matcht any other profession , any other church , but extreamly overmatcht their opponents ? it were easie to name men and writings , but i conceive it needless in so clear a case . . but then for the lives of church-men ; though i will not render evil for evil , nor retaliate the reproaches cast upon the sons of the church , by ripping up the miscarriages of the other perswasions : for ( besides that i have not so leaned christ , ) i have observed so much of the world , that such uncharitable recriminations have not only made an apology for the atheism and profaneness of the age , but afford a pleasant spectacle to all evil men , to behold divines coming upon the stage like gladiators , and wounding and murdering one anothers reputation . to which add , that i verily hope the lives , of the generality at least , of the clergy of england are so unblameable and commendable in themselves , that they need not the soil of other mens deformities to set them off or recommend them . yet i will say these two two things further in the case . . if a man be a male-content with the government , and forsaking the church resort to private assemblies , or if being a clergy-man and continuing in the church , he shall debauch his office and undermine the church which he should uphold ; such a man may then debauch his life too , and yet have a very charitable construction amongst the generality of dissenters . and on the other side , if a man be of singular sanctity and the most holy conversation , but withal zealous of the interest of the church and his own duty in it , this man shall have worse quarter and be more maligned by the fiery zealots of other parties , than one that is both of a more loose life and meaner abilities . whence it plainly appears , that the bad lives of clergy-men ( if it were true ) is but a pretext , not the true cause of quarrel with the church . . if impertinent and phantastical talking of religion be religion , if endless scrupulosity and straining at gnats , if censoriousness and rash judging our betters and superiours , if melancholy sighing and complaining be true christianity , if going from sermon to sermon , without allowing our selves time to mediate on what we hear , or leisure to instruct our families ; if these , and such as these , are the main points of true godliness , then i must confess , the sons of the church of england are not generally the most holy men , and the non-conformists are . but if a reverent sense of god , and conscience of keeping all his express laws , if justice , mercy , contentment , humility , patience , peaceableness and obedience to governours , be the principal ingredients of a good life ; as doubtless they are , if we take our measures either from our saviour , the apostles or prophets : then i do not despair but the church-men may be good christians , and of far more holy lives than their accusers , notwithstanding all the contempt cast upon them . for upon this issue i dare challenge malice it self to be able to fasten any brand of bad life upon the generality or body of the clergy . i know this age is not without some of the brood of cham , who will take the impudence to uncover their fathers nakedness , and expose those deformities , which they ought , not only out of charity or reverence , but wisdom also to conceal . and it is not to be expected that such a body of men , made of the same flesh and blood , and solicited with the same temptations with other men , should be altogether without spot or blemish : yet i do really believe , those are extream few of that number that justly deserve any scandalous character , and also very inconsiderable in respect of the whole . and he that shall for the miscarriages of a few , reflect dishonour upon the clergy in general , shall do as unrighteously , as he that shall take a downright honest man , and omitting his many and great vertues and innumerable good actions , only rake up and represent in an odious catalogue all the follies of his youth and errors of his life . by the which artifice , the best man in the world , much more the best society of men may be rendred odious enough . it is well enough known , that the healthfullest body is not without some humours , which if they were all drawn together , into some one part or member , would make an ill and dangerous spectacle : but whilest they lye dispersed in the whole mass of blood , where there is a vast predominancy of the good , or else are lockt up in their private cells , glandulae or other receptacles , till they shall be critically evacuated , do in the mean time , little or nothing indanger or deform such a body . i need not apply this to the case in hand . to conclude therefore ; were there but either so much charity and humanity as ought to be in men and christians , or so much unprejudicacy as becomes wise and good men , used in this matter ; we should instead of reproaching the failings or miscarriages of a few , heartily thank god for that remarkable holiness , humility and charity that is yet alive and warm in the breasts of so many of the divines of this church in this cold and degenerate age. and for the rest we should think of that saying of tacitus , vitia erunt donec homines , sed neque haec continua , & meliorum interventu pensantur . chap. ii. of the more remote and less observed causes of the infelicity of this church ; such as . the reign of queen mary and return of popery under her in the infancy of the reformation . . the bad provision for ministers in corporations , &c. . frequent wars . . the liberty in religion that trade seems to require . . the secret designs of atheists and papists . hitherto i have only noted and refuted the scandals and contumelies cast upon this church , which how groundless and unreasonable soever they are , yet do not a little mischief when they are whispered in corners , and insinuated in conventicles . i might have reckoned up some more of the same nature , and as easily have disproved them ; but they are either reducible to those we have touched , or will fall under consideration in due time . i now proceed from those imaginary , to inquire into and consider of the true and real causes of the present disaffection to the english reformation , and they will be found to be of several kinds ; but i will not trouble my self curiously to distinguish them into exact classes , contenting my self faithfully to relate them , and represent their peculiar malignant influences . and in this chapter i will bring into view these five following . . it was the misfortune , and is the great disadvantage of this church , that it was not well confirmed and swadled in its infancy . it is the observation of wise men , that it greatly contributes to the duration and longevity of any society , to have a good time of peace in its minority , and not to have been put upon difficulties and tryals till its limbs and joints were setled and confirmed , that is , till the people were competently inured to the laws , and the constitutions by time digested into customs and made natural to them . the state of sparta remained intire without any considerable change in its constitution or laws the longest of any society we have read of : and lycurgus the law-giver and founder of that common-wealth , is thought to have taken an effectual course to make it so durable by this stratagem . when he had framed the body of their laws , he pretends occasion of travail to consult the oracle at delphos about their affairs , but first takes an oath of all the lacedemonians to preserve the laws in being inviolable till his return . which having done , he resolvedly never returns to them again . by this means whilest the people were by the religion of their oath and a long expectation of his delayed return , for a long time used to the constitutions he had established , they grew so well practised in them , that at last custom had habituated and even naturalized them to them , that they became unchangeable . agreeable hereunto is the observation of our own lawyers , that the common law , as they call it , is never grievous to the people , and seldome repealed , whatever defects are in it , as statute-laws frequently are ; because long custom and use hath fitted either that to the men or the men to it , that all things run easily and naturally that way . it is observed also by divines , that when god almighty gave a peculiar body of laws to the people of israel , he took not only the opportunity of their straits and adversities at their coming out of aegypt , that his institutions might the more easily be received ; but also kept them fourty years under the continual education in and exercise of those laws , and that in the wilderness , where they were not likely to take in any other impressions , nor have other examples before their eyes to tempt or corrupt them . and besides all this , in a wonderful providence he so ordered it , that all those men that came out of aegypt ( except caleb and joshua ) and had observed other customs and laws , and so might be likely to give beginning to innovation , should all dye before they came into the land of canaan . that by all these means , the laws he gave them might take the deeper root , and so remain unalterable to all generations . i cannot choose but observe one thing more to this purpose , that when our blessed saviour had by himself and his apostles planted his religion in the world , though it was such a law as sufficiently recommended it self to the minds of men by its own goodness , easiness and reasonableness , and therefore was likely to be an everlasting religion ( or righteousness ) as the prophet daniel calls it ; yet for more security , it pleased the divine providence to restrain the rage of pagans and jews for a good while , and to give the christians above sixty years of peace , before any considerable persecution broke in upon them ; that in that warm sun it might spread its roots , and get some considerable strength and footing in the world . but it was the will of god , that the strength of this new-born church of england should be early tryed . and that it might give proof of its divine extraction , it must , like hercules , conslict with serpents in its cradle , and undergo a severe persecution , the good king edward the sixth dying immaturely , and queen mary succeeding him in the throne . by which means it came to pass , that as this infant-reformation gave egregious proof of its intrinsick truth and reasonableness , many fealing it with their blood ; so it had this disadvantage ( that we are all this while representing ) namely , that by reason of this persecution a great number of the ministers and other members of this church , were driven into other countreys for refuge and shelter from the storm ; and there , were ( as it 's easie to imagine ) tempted with novelty , and distracted with variety of rites and customs , before they were well instructed in the reasons , or habituated to the practice of their own . and hereupon ( as it is usually observed of english travailers ) brought home with them those foreign fashions , the fond singularity of which is still very taking with too many to this day . i say , thus it came to pass , that those that went out from us , returned not again to us when they did return , in regard that before they were well inured to the english reformation , they became inamoured of the rites of other churches , not much considering whether they were better , so long as they were fresher and newer , nor minding that there are oft-times reasons that make one form necessary to be established in one place or people , and not in another , when otherwise it is possible they may be both indifferent in themselves , but not equally fit to the humour and custome of the people , or consonant to the civil constitutions ; nor yet observing that many things were taken up and brought into use in other churches not upon choice but necessity , not because they were absolutely better in themselves , but the state of affairs so requiring . as for instance ; where the reformation had not at first the countenance of the civil government , there the reformers were constrained to enter into particular confederations with one another ; from whence presbyterian government seems to have taken its rise . i say , these exiled english protestants not entring into so deep a search into the special causes or occasions of those different rites and forms they found in the places whither they fled for succour , as to discover whether they were strictly religious or meerly political : but observing some pretexts of scripture to be made for them , and in process of time , during their abode in those parts being used to them , and by use confirmed in them ; they at last , when they might with safety return to england again , came home laden with these foreign commodities , and crying them up with a good grace , found too many chapmen for such novelties . thus as the children of israel , even then when they had bread from heaven , angels food , longed for the onions and garlike of aegypt , remembring how sweet those were to them under their bitter bondage , and had upon all occasions , and upon every pet or disgust , a mind to return thither : so these men retained as long as they lived a lingring after those entertainments which they found then very pleasant when other was denyed them ; and so much the more , in that , as i said before , they received a tincture of these before they had well imbibed or sufficiently understood the reasons of the church of england . and though these men are now dead , yet the childrens teeth are still set on edge with the sowre grapes their fathers have eaten . for those persons being considerable for their zeal against popery , and very much recommended to the esteem of people at their return , by the travail and hardship they had underwent for the protestant profession , were easily able with great advantage to communicate their sentiments and propagate their prejudices amongst the members of this church . here therefore i think we may justly lay the first scene of the distractions of this church . a second cause may be reckoned the bad and incompetent provision for a learned and able ministry in the corporations and generality of great parishes in england . it is easie to observe , that the multitudes of opinions that deform and trouble this church , are generally hatcht and nursed up in the corporations , market-towns , and other great places ; whereas the lesser countrey villages are for the most part quiet , and peaceably comply with establish't orders . and if i should say , that not only the dissatisfaction with the rites and government of the church , but also the convulsions and confusions of state , took their origin from the bad humours of those greater societies or congregations of people , i suppose i should say no more than what the observation of every considerative man will allow and confirm . now he that searching for a reason of this difference shall impute it either to the ease , fulness and luxury of the former , whereby they have leisure and curiosity to excogitate novelties , and spirit and confidence to maintain and abett them , whilest the latter tired with hard labour , neither trouble themselves nor others , but apply themselves to till the ground , and earn their bread with the sweat of their brows : or to the multitude and great concourse of people in the former , amongst whom notions are more easily started , better protected , and parties sooner formed for the defence and dissemination of them . he , i say , that discourses thus , gives a true account for so much , but searches not far enough to the bottom . for had there been an able learned orthodox clergy setled in such places , they by their wisdome and vigilance , would in a great measure have obvated all beginnings of these disorders ; partly by principling the minds of men with sound doctrine , partly convincing gain-sayers , and especially rendring the government of the church lovely and venerable by their wise deportment . in order therefore hereunto , there ought to have been the most liberal maintenance and ingenuous encouragement setled upon such important places . that where the work was greatest , and the importance most considerable , the motives to undertake it might be so too . to the intent that the most able and judicious clergy-men might have been invited to , and setled upon those places that most needed them . but contrariwise it is most visible , that in those places where most skill is to be exercised and most labour to be undertaken , there is little revenue to encourage the workman . in a little obscure parish or country village often-times there is a well endowed church , but in these great ones , generally , where the flock is great , the fleece is shorn to the shepherds hands , and so pittiful a pittance left to the curate or minister , that he can scarce afford himself books to study , nor perhaps bread to eat , without too servile a dependance upon the benevolence of his richer neighbours ; by which means either his spirit is broken with adversity , or the dignity of his office obscured in the meanness of his condition , or his influence and authority evacuated , having neither wherewith to live charitably nor hospitably ; or all these together : nay , it is well , if , to help himself under these pressures , he is not tempted to a sordid connivance at , or complyance with all those follies and irregularities he should correct and remedy . and so like esau , sell his birthright ( the dignity of the priesthood ) for a mess of pottage . now how this comes to pass , that the greatest cures have generally the least maintenance , is easily found ; for it is well enough known that in those times when the popes had a paramount power in england , a great part of the tythes and revenues of churches were by their extravagant authority ravisht from them , and applyed to the abbies and monasteries , and this like an ostracisme fell commonly upon the greatest parishes , as having the best revenues ( and consequently the more desirable booty to those hungry caterpillers ) and so the issue was , that the richest churches were made the poorest , in many such places little more than the perquisites and easter-offerings being left to those that shall discharge the cure. and then though afterwards these superstitious societies were dissolved , yet the tythes being not thought fit to be restored to their respective churches , the consequence is , that those places which ought for the good both of church and state to be well provided for , are too often supplyed by the most inconsiderable clergy-men , or those men made so by the places they supply . my meaning is , that by reason of the incompetent legal maintenance provided for such ministers , the people have it in their power either to corrupt an easie and necessitous man , or to starve out a worthy and inflexible one ; and so whatever the humour of the place shall be , it is uncontroulable and incurable . to remedy these inconveniencies , it hath of late pleased his majesty and the parliament , to make some provision so far as concerns the city of london , and it is hoped the same wisdom will in time take like care of other great places in the same condition ; for till some such course be taken , it will be in vain to expect that the church of england or the best laws of religion that can be devised , should either obtain just veneration or due effect . . i account the late wars another cause of the bad estate of the church and religion amongst us . which may perhaps seem the more strange , since when men put their lives most in danger , one would think they should then take the most care to put their souls out of danger . besides it hath been the wisdom of most nations to desire the countenance and incouragement of religion in all their martial undertakings . the romans made great scruple of enterprizing any thing of that nature , till either their priests ( from inspection of the sacrifice ) or some other of their pagan oracles had given them the signal . and the turkish mufti or high-priest must give the prime visier his blessing before he enters upon the business . whether it be that men indeed believe god almighty to be the lord of hosts , and to give victory to those that stand best approved with him ; or whether it be only that they apprehend that the opinion of being under gods favour , gives reputation to their arms , inspires their men with valour and resolution , and disheartens their enemies ; or upon whatsoever consideration : it is certain the matter of fact is true , and that religion is of great efficacy in warlike exploits . it may , i say , therefore seem the more strange , that war should be injurious to that which it seeks to for countenance and encouragement . but most strange of all , that enemies abroad should make men quarrel with their friends at home ; that iron and steel , wounds and blows should make men tender-conscienced ; that those who can find in their hearts to shed the blood of men , of christians , and of their brethren without remorse , should be so queasie stomached as to scruple every punctilio and nicety in ecclesiastick matters . and yet he that narrowly considers the rise and progress of our disorders , will find that the distractions of the church have kept pace with those of the state ; and as before the war our religious disputes and dissentions were but few to what they came to afterwards , so by every war , they have sensibly increased and grown upon us . for the proof of which i will desire the reader to look no further back than to either of the wars between this kingdom and the states of the low countreys ; and if he do not observe the contempt of religion to be greater , and the state of the church worse at the end of each of them than at the beginning , i will confess my self too servere an interpreter of the effects of war. how war should so much debauch the spirit of a nation is not my business to inquire ; yet these four things following seem to give some light into it . . there are certain doctrines and opinions found to be very useful in war , and to animate men in encounters , that are utterly contrary both to truth and peace . such as that of the fatal necessity of all things ; which in the natural consequence of it is destructive of all virtue . yet however , the turks find it of great consequence in their wars , and it serve to animate their janizaries to run desperately upon the very mouths of canons . and this same perswasion , or one very like it , was highly cryed up and found serviceable to all bad purposes of our late civil wars . . those that have occasion to use mens courage , are forced to be content to wink at their debaucheries , for fear they should emasculate the spirits of those they imploy , and turn the edge of their mettle . so drunkenness , whoring , swearing and blasphemy ordinarily pass under a very easie censure amongst souldiers . men whose hearts are eagerly set upon a war are apt to permit those whose hearts and hands they use in it , to be afraid of nothing , that so they may be fearless of the enemy . and when the war is over , these extravagancies are not laid down with their arms : for when lewdness hath gotten a habit , and mens foreheads are brazen in their wickedness , they will not receive a check from disarmed religion ; but rather harden themselves against it , and account that their enemy which they are sure will not give countenance to the vices they are now setled in . in short ; war le ts loose the reins and incourages men to sin ; and when the war is over , these men are turned over to the church for cure of their souls , as to the hospital for their bodily wounds . but no man will wonder if these men have no great kindness to the church , which forbids them the liberty and pleasure the camp allowed them ; especially if it also prescribe them a severe course , and make their consciences smart for the sins they have formerly practised with pleasure , and have yet a mind to . . war hath its peculiar laws different vastly from those of the church and of every well ordered common-wealth too . the hazards and necessities of war make many things lawful there , that are otherwise abominable ; as to make no difference betwixt things sacred and prophane , to pull down churches , and do other such horrid things as nothing but war can palliate . and from hence it is too ordinary for men to be led on by custome , so as in time they forget the differences of things altogether ; and the church and the stable , the priest and the peasant are all one to them . . the meer disuse of religion and its offices antiquates the obligations of it with many . when men have long heard the noise of drums and trumpets , they are deaf to the still voice of the gospel ; and after long conversation with iron and steel , the weapons of the spiritual warfare are of no force with them . then , instead of prayers men learn to curse and swear , and by disuse of religion grow to forget it and slight it ; and from not going to church for a time ( upon necessity ) grow to plead a priviledge not to come at it at all . since then the sword doth so much prejudice to the gown , and the camp to the church , it is no wonder when we have been so often ingaged of late in the one , that the other hath been and is in no better condition . . i would in the next place , might i do it without offence , take the boldness to say , that the vast increase of trade doth usually reflect some inconvenience upon ecclesiastical affairs . i mean no hurt either to any mens persons or interest , i envy no mens prosperity and wealth ; it is far from my thoughts to wish the tide of trade dammed up : for i confess it is hugely advantageous to the publick , as well as to private persons in many respects . it much raises the parts and sharpens the wits of a nation by foreign conversation , to which some apply that passage of the prophet daniel , chap. . . many shall pass to and fro , and knowledge shall be increased . it opens a passage to the discovery of other countreys , and of the works of god and man , of nature and of art. it is the great incentive and the great instrument of humane society ; it makes all mankind of one body , and by mutual intercourse to serve the occasions , supply the needs , and minister to the delight and entertainment one of another . it inlarges the minds of men as well as their fortunes ; insomuch that any nation is unpolite , unbred , and half barbarous without it . it inures men to hardship and danger , and instructs them in subtilty and all the arts of living , and self-security . it adds much to the beauty , power and strength of a nation , and to the riches and revenue of the prince . yet all this notwithstanding , i must crave leave to say , that the inlargement of trade hath usually been attended with as much latitude of conscience , and the heat of that with as much coldness and indifferency in religion . it is commonly observed to introduce great diversity of opinions , and consequently to abate of mens zeal for , and reverence of , an uniformity in what was before establisht . for men by conversing much abroad or with strangers , get a tincture of the humours and perswasions , of the customs and sentiments of those persons with whom , and places where , they have to do . and this is most remarkably true of the english , whose temper is not so stubborn and inflexible as that of some other people , nor so fastuose and contemptuous of other mens opinions and practices . their good nature prompts to look and think favourably upon such things as they see in request with others ; and from hence they proceed to admiration , and at last to affect the novelty ; and then they bring over with them and set to sale at home many a new fangle amongst other vendible commodities . the wise law-giver of the lacedemonians , of whom i have had heretofore occasion to speak , in contemplation of this danger , and that the laws and government might not be disturbed with novelty , absolutely forbad trade or traffick , and so much as travailing into other countreys , lest the citizens should barter away their own laws and customs for those of other cities . but thanks be to god , there is no necessity of having recourse to such a violent remedy ; the laws of our religion do both admit of , and direct and govern commerce , and the reasonableness of our christian religion in general , and of the english reformation in particular is such , as that it may be well hoped they may rather gain than lose proselytes by being confronted with any other institutions , and allure considerate men to the embracing of them , whilest some lighter and incogitant persons may be betrayed by their curiosity . all the use therefore that i make of this observation concerning trade is , that since there is some danger to religion thereby , all those that do not make a god of the world , and take gain for godliness , will think these three things following to be reasonable . . that since it is plain , the same means will not preserve uniformity in religion , nor conserve the reverence and happiness of the church in a nation vastly addicted to foreign commerce , as would do where the more simple way of agriculture was attended to ( as it was amongst the spartans and this nation formerly ) that therefore there may be such laws provided , and such care taken as that the one be not discouraged , nor the other corrupted . . that every man will not only take care to inform himself in the grounds of his own profession of religion , but also have so much charity towards the governours of his own countrey and this church , as to think them both as wise and as honest as in other places ; that by both these his reason may be instructed , and his affections somewhat composed against every assault of novelty from other mens opinions or practices . . that at least we will not think it just to impute all the distractions of mens minds and quarrels against the church to the badness of its constitution , since this point of trade hath such influence as we see both in the nature of the thing and in the visible effects of it . . it must not be omitted that both papist and atheist , though upon several grounds , combine their malice against this church , and use all their several interests and endeavours to render it as contemptible as they can . for the former , manet altâ mente repôstum judicium paridis , spretaeque injuria formae . we know they remember the slur we gave then in our reformation ; they are well aware that the decent order , the dignity and antient gravity of this church , reproves and shames the pageantry of theirs . they forget not how often the eminent abilities of our church-men have baffled theirs ; therefore they are to be reckoned upon as immortal enemies . they know , nothing stands so much in the way of their designs as the church of england . this hath the countenance of the laws , the support of reason , the favour of antiquity , the recommendation of decency . they therefore can easily frame themselves to a complaisance towards all other sects , because they despise them ; but here oderunt dum metuunt : their fears and danger by this , provoke their endeavours , inflame their anger , and suffer them not so much as to dissemble their spite against it . it is well enough known , how under the disguise of quakers and other names , they have undermined its reputation and given it what disturbance they can how by their insinuations into some loose o● weaker persons they seek to weaken is powers and draw off her numbers ; how they have furnished others with arguments to impugn it , and subaided all unquiet spirits against her . they that scruple nothing themselves , nor will suffer any to scruple any thing in their own communion , can teach people to be very nice and squeamish in the church of england . they that are altogether for a blind obedience at home , preach up tenderness of conscience abroad ; and when an implicite faith will do well enough in spain or italy , &c. yet in england nothing must content men but infallible certainty , and that in the most circumstantial and inconsiderable matters . then for the atheists ; they conscious of the odiousness of their pretences ( though of late arrived at greater impudence than formerly ) think it not safe to laugh at all religions at once , though they equally abhor all . therefore lest they should ingage too many enemies at once , they deal by retail , and expose to scorn the several parties of christians one after another . but to be sure , the better any perswasion is , the more industriously they set themselves to depress it ; as knowing well , if they can bring that into contempt , they may be secure of the other , which must one time or other fall of themselves by reason of the unsoundness of their foundations . besides it seems something below them to set their wit against a fanatick , they must have higher game , and their jests go off more piquantly when they gratifie the popular envy , by being level'd against that which hath a great stock of reputation , and the countenance of publick laws . these blind beetles that rose out of filth and excrement , and now buz about the world , hope , not only to cover their shame , but to increase their party daily by the divisions of christians ; and therefore labour to inflame the causes , to provoke mens passions and exasperate their minds one against another . they scurilously traduce all that is serious , and study religion only to find out flaws in it . and what they cannot do by manly discourse , they endeavour by buffoonry . in short ; it is their manner to dress the best religion in the world in a phantastical and ridiculous habit , that boyes may laugh at it , and weak people brought out of conceit with it , and their worships made merry with the comedy . now since the church of england is beset with all these enemies and under the aforesaid disadvantages , it is no wonder if the felicity and success of it be not a little disturbed . it was noted amongst the felicities of old rome , as that which gave it the opportunity of growing up to so vast a greatness , that till it had by degrees subdued all its neighbours , and was now match for all the world , it had never but one enemy at once to encounter . whilest this church in its first times had only those of the church of rome to confiict with , it easily triumphed over them and maintained its peace and dignity at home : but that now under the circumstances i have represented in the five foregoing particulars it bears up so well as it doth , is an illustrions argument of its strength and soundness of constitution ; and they are very severe and uncharitable persons that reckon its enemies and misfortunes in the number of its vices or faults . chap. iii. of the more immediate causes of the distractions of the church of england ; such as , . rashness of popular judgement . . judaism . . prejudice . . want of true christian zeal , in the generality of its members . coming now in this chapter to enquire into the immediate causes of the evils we groan under , i do not see how it is possible to be avoided , but that in touching this sore i must make some body or other smart . and therefore i bespeak so much candour of the reader that he will believe it is not any delight i take to rake in the wounds of my brethren and fellow-christians ; but that it is meer compassion to the souls of men , and good will to the publick peace , and nothing else , that prompts me to this undertaking . for had any other ends swayed with me , i could better have pursued them in silence and privacy , or at least in the choice of some other subject than this which is so tender and ticklish . but conscious of my own sincerity in the undertaking , and in confidence of a benign interpretation , i proceed . . and first , i perswade my self that it will be manifest to any considerative and impartial person , that a great part of the aversation to the church of england , arises from that which is the constant and known adversary of every thing that is generous and excellent , namely popular rashness and injudiciousness . when weak persons judge of the determinations and counsels of wiser men , and those that pierce no further than the meer surface of things , pass a verdict upon those whose reasons are profound and deep ; there can be no good issue expected . it is certain there are many men of honest hearts , who yet have not senses exercised ( as the phrase of the apostle is ) whose intellectuals are either clouded by an unhappy constitution of body , or were never well opened and enlarged by education and study . those generally not being sensible of their own infirmity , nor knowing how little that which they understand is , compared with what they are ignorant of , are ready to think there is no larger sphere of knowledge than that which themselves move in ; and by reason that they do ad pauca respicere , facilè pronunciant , not foreseeing the difficulties , easily come to a conclusion , and censure all that complyes not with their own measures . it 's easie to observe men hugging their own phancies , and entertaining with scorn and contempt things above their capacity , or out of the rode of their meditations . i by no means commend the zeal of that bishop , virgilius by name , who became a martyr for the opinion that there were antipodes , though it was demonstrably true , and the contrary impossible . but i observe thence , how severe and rash a bolt folly will discharge . and i little doubt , but that if a man should assert the mobility of the earth , or some other such opinion ( which yet the generality of the learned are agreed in , ) and do it with the like constancy that virgilius did , ( if he had the people for his judges ) he would be in danger of the same fate . but to come nearer my purpose ; it is an observation , not more antient than true , that the same thing seldome pleases the many and the few ; wise men generally take middle counsels , as finding by experience , not only peace but truth for the most part to be there placed . the vulgar contrariwise are altogether for extreams , and when one extream disgusts them , run violently to the other without stop or stay . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , said the historian , the middle opinion is condemned by both extreams , and those that stand by it , ( like those that go about to part a fray ) receive blows from both sides . erasmus , the glory of his time and countrey , for the sagacity of his wit and simplicity of his temper , because he came not up to the height of either of the then contending parties ( though he was admired by the wiser ) was mortally hated , reproached and persecuted by the vulgar of both parties . it is not much to the honour of mr. calvin , that he is said to have written to bucer who was employed in the english reformation , that he should take care to avoid moderate counsels in religion . in which advice he complyed but too much with the humor of the vulgar , especially of this nation ; at least if the observation of a witty writer of the last age be well taken . but perhaps it is not the levity , but the spirit and vigor and natural courage of the people , that middle counsels are not acceptable to them : but however , it is easie to remember , that when in the late times some disgusts were taken at the publick management of affairs , no proposition or expedient would at one the fault , or propitiate the people , but the utter subversion of the government . when popery displeases , we think our selves never safe till we are run as far the other way ; and again when those that have been at the highest pitch of fanaticism , suspect their standing , and have a new qualm come over them , there is then no remedy , no safety , no ark but the church of rome . now the church of england cutting by a thred ( as it were ) between both these extreams , escapes not a severe censure on either hand . those of the church of rome cannot but confess , that all is good in our liturgy , only they say it is defective in many things that they have a great value for ; protestants on the other side generally acknowledge the main to be good , but some things they account redundancies , which they would have taken away : and so between them both they give a glorious testimony to this church as guilty of the faults of neither extream , whilest yet she is accused of both . but that which i chiefly intend is this ; that a great part of men have not their minds elevated above the horizon of their bodies , nor take an estimate of any thing , but by its impression upon their senses . from whence it must needs follow , that whatever most powerfully strikes them , must also be most admired by such persons , and nothing else . now the liturgy of our church being composed plainly , gravely and modestly , no turgid or swelling expressions , no novelty of phrase or method , no luxuriancy of wit or phancy , seems therefore dull and flat to such mens apprehensions . and on the other side , such prayers as are occasionally conceived and uttered by men of hot tempers ( like themselves ) with a torrent of words , and in a melting tone , strike them with great admiration , and almost transport them . insomuch that they are ready to conclude ( without more ado ) the former to be a cold formal service , but these latter to be the very dictates and impulses , the breathings of the holy spirit . and so for preaching ; those divines that deliver themselves gravely and considerately , that take care to speak the words of truth and soberness , that endeavour calmly and modestly to inlighten the minds of their hearers , seem to such people heavy and unedifying . but if there be a sort of heady and incogitant preachers , that have more heat than light , that thunder in mens ears with a stentorian noise , and make use of such dreadful expressions as raise the humours and passions of the body , or such soft similitudes as demulce and mitigate them , or such mystical representations as transport their imaginations and confound them ; those seem mighty-powerful-soul-saving-preachers . who sees not that this must needs be a mighty disadvantage to the church of england , when devotions shall be esteemed by their noise and not by their weight , and sermons tryed not by their light but heat ? but if to all this , truth and falshood also , and that in the most sublime points , and , which is more , expediency it self must be decided at vulgar tribunals , so that there shall not be that doctrine so profound or nice , which every man will not take upon him to determine , nor that reason so subtle , which the crassest minds shall not pretend to understand , nor that rule or art of government , which shall not fall under vulgar cognizance ; if every mans mind become the standard and touchstone of every truth : it is impossible ( upon the suppositions before laid ) but there must be dissentions , disputes and distractions in such a church , and yet neither the doctrine , discipline , liturgy , nor ministers thereof be to blame . for unless the reformers of such a society be no wiser than the vulgar , and the clergy and governours and all learned men have the same sentiments with the people ; unless , i say , all could be alike wise or alike weak , ( where all will be alike judges ) it is absolutely impossible it should be otherwise . those therefore of the church of rome have a cure for this ; they appropriate all judgement to the clergy , and deal with the rest of mankind as sots and ideots , not permitting them to read the scriptures in the vulgar tongue , lest they should grow too wise to be governed ; nay , they will not allow them to be masters of common sense , but requre them to believe the most contradictory propositions , and make that an article of faith which a man may confute by his fingers ends . this is an admirable way to wean them from their own understanding , to unlearn them disputes , and to exercise them to believe in and obey their rulers . this way makes the people sheep indeed , but silly ones god-wot . but the church of england hath no such antidote of disputes and divisions as this is . she makes not her self the mistris of mens faith , nor imposes upon their understandings ; she teacheth that our saviour hath delivered the mind of god touching the points of necessary belief or essential to salvation fully , and plainly to the capacity of every considering man that will use the means ; and in other lesser matters debatable amongst christians , she allows a judgement of discretion . only since the peace of the church often depends upon such points as salvation doth not , and since in many of those , every man is not a competent judge , but must either be in danger of being deceived himself and of troubling others , or of necessity must trust some body else wiser than himself : she recommends in such a case as the safer way for such private persons to comply with publick determinations , and in so advising , she jointly consults the peace of the church and the quiet of mens consciences . so all that she challenges is a reverence , not a blind obedience . and if after all this , some people will be foolish , and proud , and contentious , she hath no further remedy , than to declare them guilty of sin and contumacy , and that not sufficing , to cast them out of her communion . but when all this is done , men may be peevish and wilful , and render the state of that church unhappy , whose constitution is neither guilty of tyranny nor remisness . now if it shall be objected to this discourse , that this cause from the consideration of the folly and injudiciousness of men is too general , and will equally extend to all other reformed churches as well as our own , and especially that this might have brought forth all the evil we complain of , and impute to it , in the former age as well as now , for as much as the generality of people were not much wiser then , than now . to this i answer in two points . . if other reformed churches have not found the effects of ignorance and arrogance joyned together as well as we ( which doubtless they have done more or less ) it is not to be ascribed to the happiness of their constitutions , but to the unhappiness of their outward circumstances . their poverty , oppression , persecution , or being surrounded with common enemies , hath probably prevailed upon them to lay aside or smother their private opinions , and to check their animosities , more than our gratitude to the almighty for our ease and peace and plenty and liberty hath done , upon us . who knoweth not that the church of corinth first needed the severe check of an apostle for their wantonness and divisions , that one was of paul , another of apollos , &c. and who can give a more probable account of this their luxuriancy , than from the riches , ease , plenty and liberty of that city ? or who hath not observed , that whilest the primitive christians were in adversity surrounded with enemies and under pagan persecuting emperours , so long they had one heart and mind , they submitted their private phancies and peculiar sentiments to publick safety ; but the same constituted churches quickly broke out into quarrels and factions , as soon as a warm sun of prosperity shone upon them ? we have reason accordingly not to charge our unhappiness upon our religion , nor our troubles upon our prosperity , but to lay them at the right door , of our folly and weakness . . that these evils broke not out in our church sooner , since the seeds of them were sown long ago , is due to the joy and contentment that men generally took at their first emerging out of the darkness and superstitions of the church of rome by the reformation , which was proportionable to the deliverance ; and so great , that for a time it suffered them not to be very solicitous about little disputes or scrupulosities . like the people of greece when the romans at the isthmian games by a publick herald pronounced them and their countrey free , they forgat the contentions they came together about , and used to be infinitely taken with . but when the novelty of this great blessing was over , protestants forgat the great and intolerable burdens they had escaped , and then began scrupulously to weigh every petty inconvenience ; and ( by the goodness of god ) not having a publick enemy to unite them , quarrel amongst themselves . this therefore may be admitted as one cause of our unhappiness . . that which i would assign as a second cause , i know not well what name to give to it : but for want of a better expression , i will adventure to say , that a great part of this nation having been leavened with jewish superstition or jewish traditions , hath thereby been indisposed to an uniform reception of , and perseverance in the reformation of religion held forth by this church . how this sowre leaven should get in amongst us is not very easie to determine : some stories would incline a man to think that it had been in the veins of this countrey , ever since it first received the christian faith ; for the greatest difficulty austin the monk found here , was to bring the inhabitants from the observation of easter , and some other rites according to the manner of the jewish and eastern churches , to that of the roman and western ; and the doing it ( as the story tells us ) cost the lives of twelve hundred monks , who it seems stubbornly opposed his innovation . which ( by the way ) is a good argument that this church owes not its first christianity to the church of rome or this monastick apostle , as they would perswade us ; since it is plain by this passage , that he made our ancestors only romanists , but found them christians before , and perhaps of a better and more generous race of religion than that he ingraffed upon the old stock . but i will make no use of this ; for perhaps we may find the rise of this judaism nearer hand , if we observe that the great patriarchs of the non-conformity , such as cartwright , ainsworth , h. broughton and others , were great students of the rabbinical writings , and the main of their learning lay that way ; and as by this sort of study ( which was rare in those dayes , ) they got the reputation of great rabbies , so perhaps they might not only by this means be bewitched with the jewish fancies themselves , but propagate their unhappy sentiments through their followers to this generation . but howsoever it came to pass , the matter of fact will appear undeniably true , that a vein of judaism runs through the whole body of the dissenters from the church of england . of which i will give some instances . and the first shall be their grand hypothesis , that nothing is lawful in the service of god , but what is expresly prescribed in scripture . this is the characteristical doctrine of that party , and in confidence of the truth of which , they cry out of us for uncommanded rites , and humane inventions and little less than idolatry . now whosoever well considers this tenet , will find it so irrational in it self , so servile and destructive of all christian liberty , and making so ill reflections upon the goodness of god , ( as i shall have occasion to shew hereafter ) that it is not to be imagined how it should enter into the minds of men , much less find such entertainment and so zealous patronage , amongst so many honest and devout men , were it not , that they studied the old testament better than the new , and graffed their christianity upon the stock of judaism . and the case must be after this manner . they considering and observing how punctually god prescribed some very little matters touching the temple and national worship of the jews in the law of moses , carry this notion along with them to the new testament , and thence infer , that christ jesus must needs have also as punctually determined all the rituals of the christian worship : otherwise he is not faithful in his house as moses was in his , ( for that scripture is brought to prove it ) . that all absolutely necessaries are so determined by our saviour we readily grant them , and that all those rites that are prescribed by him are necessary to be observed , we will yield them ; but that nothing is lawful but what is to be found so prescribed , we utterly deny , and they will never be able to prove . nor indeed would they ever have been led by any principle of reason to think of or expect such a thing , had it not been by the aforesaid prejudice . but having gotten that notion into their heads , they will fancy the new testament to comply with it , or writhe it to their sense , though with never so much violence . of affinity with the former is another notion of theirs , that all princes and law-givers are bound to conform the municipal laws of their several dominions to the institutions of moses ; and where this is not done , sc . where princes make other decisions of cases , or appoint other punishments than that law allows , they are in danger to have their constitutions declared null , and themselves irreligious . this is a mistake as wide as the former , highly injurious to soveraign princes and dangerous to kingdoms and states , in a great measure disannulling the publick laws , and stripping the governours of all proper legislative power . but that which i consider now in this mistake , is not the consequence and effects , but the rise and causes of it , which seems to be no other than the fondness the jews had to their laws , and which they express in their writings , as if those laws god gave them by moses , were not only best for them , but best in themselves also . the foundation of which error is both detected and confuted by this consideration , that god was not only the god , but the temporal prince of the jews in a peculiar manner , so as he is not of any other people in the world ; he calls himself their king , appoints his lieutenants and vicegerents , divides his subjects their inheritance , gives them laws , takes up a residence amongst them , appoints their way of address to him for judgement and resolution of weighty and extraordinary cases , and reserves many cases to himself , and sometimes inflicts punishments by his own hand . any man that considers these things well , will never go about to make those laws oblige other nations , or require necessarily all princes to conform their policies to that of judaea , till he can perswade himself that every nation hath the peculiar priviledge of the jews , and its government to be a theocracy . a third instance shall be their notion of excommunication , which they hold must be denounced by a synod or presbytery , and the prince as well as the people must be subject to the sentence . and this against all rules of government , the prerogatives of princes and the peace of kingdoms . but because it was thus amongst the jews , or at least some of the writers of that nation say so , ( whether true or false is not well considered ) therefore this is the only gospel way . i must by no means omit their superstition about the lords day , which must be called a sabbath too , though such name is no where given it either in the new testament or in any antient writer that i know of ; but contrariwise alwayes opposed to it . but that 's the least matter . the lords day with these men must have all the nicety of observation that the jewish sabbath had ; and which is yet worse , such observation thereof made one of the principal parts of religion . and because god appointed the sabbath amongst the jews to be a sign between him and them , and to distinguish them from all other people , therefore in the new testament the superstitious observation of the lords day must be the principal character of a godly man. he that considers well this matter can find no original of it but perfect judaism introduced into christianity . and methinks any unprejudiced man should be convinced of this by this one observation , that this kind of observation of the lords day distinguishes this sort of english protestants from all other protestants and christians in the whole world besides ; it being in no church or countrey observed with that punctuality and in that sabbatical manner , as by those persons . whence it 's plain , that such observation thereof could neither be derived from christianity in general , nor from protestantism as such , but meerly from a jewish tincture these persons have received . a fifth instance shall be their doctrine of absolute predestination . which though it be not peculiar to these men , yet is so universally and ardently embraced by the men of that way , as is scarce to be parallel'd . and he that seeks the source of so odd an opinion , can in my opinion pitch no where more probably , than upon the absolute decree of god to favour the posterity of abraham for his sake . it pleased god to bestow the good land of canaan upon the descendents of that good man , and he resolved and declared he would do it without respect to their deserts : now this is made a sufficient ground to conclude , that accordingly as he disposed in this temporal affair , so he will proceed by the same way of prerogative in determining the eternal doom of men. i will add but one more , which is their superstitious observation and interpretation of prodigies . to this a great number of this party are so addicted , that every unusual accident , every new appearance in the world , be it in heaven above or in the earth below , is presently commented upon , and applications made of the errand of it : though for the most part with folly as manifest as is the uncharitableness ; yet with confidence as if it were undoubtedly true , that god governed the affairs of the world by as visible a providence now , as he did heretofore in the land of judaea ; and the remembrance of what he did then , seems to be the only imaginable account of this conceit of theirs now . many other instances might be given of this kind , but i have made choice of these , because they contain the principal doctrines and most characteristical practices of the non-conformists ; and these carrying so plainly the marks of judaism upon them , and being no otherwise accountable than upon those principles , i think i said not improperly , when i called judaism the second cause of our unhappiness ; since any man may easily see , that such notions and principles as these are , must needs indispose those that are leavened with them , to conformity to , or perseverance in , the church of england . . but if the weakness of judgement or bad instruction only obstructed the prosperity of this church , it were not very difficult to find a remedy : but alas ! the minds of a great number of men are under such prejudices as have barricado'd them up and rendred them almost inaccessible ; and that i reckon as a third cause of our distractions . prejudice is so great an evil that it is able to render the best discourses insignificant , the most powerful arguments and convictive evidence ineffectual ; this stops mens ears against the voice of the charmer , charm he never so wisely . this alone was able to seal up the eyes of the gentile world against the sun of righteousness when he shone upon them in his brightest glory , and to confirm them in their blind idolatries , when the god that made heaven and earth gave the fullest discoveries of himself that it was fit for mankind to expect . upon the account of this the jews rejected that messias they had so long expected , and gloried in before he came , though he exactly answered all the characters of time , place , lineage , doctrine and miracles that their own writings had described him by . nay , 't was prejudice abused the honest minds of the disciples themselves , so that they could not for a long time believe those things christ jesus told them from the scripture must come to pass , only because they were against the grain of their education , and were cross to the perswasions they had received in common with the rest of the jews . no wonder then if the church of england suffer under prejudice amongst those , that have not only seen it stigmatized with the odious marks of popery and superstition , and had been drawn into a solemn league and covenant against it , as if it had been an act of the highest religion to defie and execrate it , and so had both their credits and their consciences engaged against it ; but also had lived to see it proscribed for near twenty years by a prevailing faction . few have that generosity and strength of mind to bear up against the torrent of times , or confidence enough to oppose the impetuousness of common vogue and prevailing opinion : there are not many have the sagacity to discern the true images of things through those thick mists that cunning politicians cast about them . it is very ordinary to take the condemnation of any person or party for a sufficient proof of the accusation , and to think the indictment proved , if the sentence be past with common consent . it was enough both with the jews and gentiles against our saviour , that he was condemned as a malefactor , the ignominy of his cross was a greater argument against him , with the generality , than the excellency of his doctrine or evidence of his miracles was for him . this church was dealt with like the great lord strafford , run down by common fame , opprest by necessity , not by law or reason , and made a sacrifice to the inraged multitude . the arguments against it were not weighed , but numbered : as that great lords impeachment was of accumulative treason , so was the churches of popery ; there was more in the conclusion , than could be made out by the premises ; and in the summ total , than in the particulars of which it consisted : for though no one point of popery or superstition could be proved against it , yet it must be so upon the whole . this being agreed , the cry then is , crucifige , destroy it root and branch . and now was the church seemingly dead , and ( as i said before ) buried too for near twenty years ; but when by the wonderful providence of god it was raised again , as it was matter of equal joy and wonder to all such as were not too far under the power of these prejudices , so it could not be expected otherwise but that weak and timerous persons should run from it as from a ghost or spectre . to all which add , that it was the corrupt interest of some to deceive others into an ill opinion of it ; partly as being inraged that by the churches unexpected revival , they lost its inheritance which they had divided amongst themselves , partly being conscious to themselves that by reason of their no more than vulgar abilities , they could be fit to fill no extraordinary place in the church , and yet were not able to content themselves with any ordinary one , and therefore chose to set up a party against it , and become leaders of a faction , since they might not be governours of a church . and when it is come to that pass that by this craft we get our livings , like the silver-smiths at ephesus , no wonder if apostolical doctrine and government be cryed down , and the great diana be cryed up . the summ is this ; some men were blindly led by their education , others by their interest , a third sort by their reputation , to make good what they had ingaged themselves and others in ; and these three things are able to form a great party against the church . . the fourth and last cause , ( and i wish it be not the greatest ) of the distractions and ill estate of this church , is the want of true christian zeal , and of a deep and serious sense of piety ; in defect of which hath succeeded that wantonness , curiosity , novelty , scrupulosity and contention we complain of . what was it made the primitive church so unanimous , that it was not crumbled into parties , nor mouldered away in divisions , nor quarrelled about opinions , nor separated one part from another upon occasion of little scruples ? how came it to pass , ( as i observed in the introduction to this discourse ) that all good men were of one way , and all evil men of another , that those that travailed to the same city the heavenly jerusalem , kept the same rode and parted not company ? it could not be that they should be without different apprehensions , for mens parts were no more alike , nor their educations more equal in those times than now . there were then several rites and ceremonies that might have afforded matter of scruple ( if the christians had been so disposed ) as well as now : and i think both more in number , and as lyable to exception as any thing now in use . there was then bowing towards the east , observation of lent and other dayes , distinction of garments , and innumerable other observations in the early dayes of tertullian ; and yet neither any scripture brought to prove them , nor any such proof thought necessary , and yet they were observed without suspicion on one side , or objection on the other . harum & aliarum ejusmodi disciplinarum , si legem expostules scripturarum , nullam invenies , sed traditio praetenditur auctrix , consuetudo conservatrix & fides observatrix , saith he in his book de corona militis . st. austin saith , in his time the number and burden of ceremonies was grown as great as under the law of moses , and therefore wishes for a reformation thereof , in his epistles to januarius ; yet never thought these things a sufficient ground of separation from the church . there was then some diversity of expression in which the governours and pastors of several churches delivered themselves , yet did they not dispute themselves hereupon into parties , nor accuse one another of false doctrine , or either side make the division of the church the evidence of its orthodoxy , or the trophy of its victory . the true reason then of the different event of the same causes then and now , seems to be this , that in those dayes men were sincerely good and devout , and set their hearts upon the main ; the huge consequence and concern of which easily prevailed with those holy men to overlook their private satisfactions . they were intent upon that wherein the power of godliness consisted , and upon which the salvation of souls depended ; and so all that was secure , they were not so superstitiously concerned for rituals , nor so unreasonably fond of opinions , as to play away the peace of the church and the honour of religion against trifles and meer tricks of wit and fancy . they considered that they all had one god , one faith , one baptism , one lord jesus christ , in which they all agreed ; and these great matters were able to unite them in lesser . they , good men , found enough to do to mortifie their passions , to their burdens of affliction and persecution , to withstand the temptations of the devil , and the contagion of evil examples from the world , and had not leisure for those little disputes that now imploy the minds of men , and vex the church . they spent their heat and zeal another way , and so their spirits were not easily inflammable with every petty controversie . but when men grow cold and indifferent about great things , then they become servent about the lesser . when they give over to mind a holy life , and heavenly conversation , then they grow great disputers , and mightily scrupulous about a ceremony . when they cease to study their own hearts , then they become censorious of other men ; then they have both the leisure and the confidence to raise sarmises and jealousies , and to find fault with their superiours . in short , then and not till then , do the little appendages of religion , grow great and mighty matters in mens esteem , when the essentials , the great and weighty matters are become little and inconsiderable . and that this is the case with us in this nation is too evident to require further proof , and too lamentable a subject for any good christian to take pleasure in dilating upon . i conclude therefore , in this point lyes a great part of the unhappiness of this church and kingdom . part ii. wherein several serious considerations are propounded , tending to perswade all english protestants to comply with , and conform to , the religion and government of this church , as it is established by law. chap. . a reflection upon divers wayes or methods for the prevention and cure of church-divisions . having in the former part of this discourse , diligently enquired into , and faithfully recited the principal causes of the discontents with , and secession from this church ; it would now ill beseem christian charity to rest here ; for ( god knows ) neither the evils nor the causes afford any pleasant speculation . it was a bad state of things at rome which the historian reports in these words , nec morbos nec remedia pati possumus , that they were come to so ill a pass that they could neither indure their distempers , nor admit of the remedies . but i perswade my self , though the condition of our affairs be bad enough , yet that it is not so deplorable as to discourage all endeavours of a cure . and in this hope i take the courage to propound the following considerations ; wherein if i be deceived and miss of my aim , i shall notwithstanding have that of quintilian to comfort my self withal , prohabilis est cupiditas honestorum , & vel tutioris est audaciae tentare ea , quibus est paratior venia . it hath not been the single unhappiness of this church alone , to be molested with disputes , loaden with objections , and dishonoured by separation . nor can it be hoped that where the business is religion , and the concern eternal life , that men should incuriously swallow every thing without moving any question or stirring any dispute . and therefore all churches must of necessity more or less have conflicted with the same difficulties we complain of . and consequently the disease being so common , it cannot be but that many and divers remedies have been tryed and made use of . and out of that store we will in this chapter make election of such as seem best to fit the condition of the patient and are most practicable in the case . and in the first place , they of the church of rome , ( as many and great schisms as they have laboured under formerly , yet ) now glorying in their unity and peace , and upbraiding all others with their respective distractions , may seem to have arrived at some remarkable skill , and to be fit to be advised withal ; and they attribute an admirable efficacy to the following method . first , by way of prevention , they prescribe that the people be kept in profound ignorance , and then they suppose , they will never trouble the church with disputes , nor themselves with scruples . let them but be blind enough , and they will swallow many a flye that others strain and boggle at : keep them up in the dark like birds or wild beasts , and you will render them tame and manageable . they affirm pictures to be books good enough for the laity , and say , those are the best sheep that know nothing but their own fold . the priests lips , they confess should preserve knowledge ; but so they preserve it from the people , it is no great matter whether they have it themselves or no. this opiate or stupefactive ignorance these empiricks mightily cry up ; and for proof of the virtue of it , go but over into spain or italy , and you shall observe what strange cures it hath done . it hath made as sagacious people as any in the world naturally , so far from disputes in religion , that they scarce know what it means . administer but a large dose of this , and it shall have the same effect the plague of darkness had in aegypt , that suffered no man to stir out of his place . but this advice how successful soever it hath been in other places , will not be admitted in england for two reasons . . if it were commendable in it self , yet it comes too late ; for the people of england know so much already that the only way to cure the inconveniences of that , is to let them know more . and as an excellent person hath well observed concerning atheism , that a little smattering in philosophy disposes men to it , by intangling them in second causes which they cannot explicate , but a through insight into it leads them through that perplexed maze to the discovery of the first cause of all things . so 't is only superficial knowledge in christianity that gives occasion to our troubles , when men think they know , but do not ; or because they know a little , conceit they understand all that is knowable , and hereupon refuse instruction , and oppose their private opinions to the publick wisdom . whereas did these men see further into things , they would then discover a reason of many things they are now dissatisfied with , or at least distrust their own understandings and grow modest and peaceable . . besides , if this advice came timely , yet we take the remedy to be worse than the disease ; for we esteem it better ( if one be necessary ) to erre like men , than to be driven like beasts , or acted like puppets . the gospel church is frequently called in scripture the kingdom of heaven , and the kingdom of light ; but by this course of blind devotion and stupid ignorance , it would become more like hell , which they say hath heat without light . god in the gospel requires a reasonable service , and it can never be consistent that those that pretend christ jesus is risen upon them as a sun of righteousness , should think to worship this sun by turning their backs upon him , or shutting their eyes against his light . if it were or could be so , then this proposition would be true , that the way to become good christians , is to cease to be men. . secondly , they direct us to an infallible judge of all controversies . and this they so much magnifie and represent as absolutely necessary to peace , that they tell us we shall labour in vain , in the use of all other expedients , and only roll up a weight with infinite pains , that will with the greater violence return upon us again , till we make use of this remedy . but it is so mountebank-like to pretend to infallible cures , that we desire to be resolved of these two or three things before we can comply with the advice . . we would fain know how it came to pass , that so important a point as this is ( of an infallible judge of controversies ) which it is pretended would secure the peace of all states , preserve the concord and the dignity of all churches , stop the mouths of all atheists , prevent the sin and the damnation of many souls , is no more plainly asserted in scripture , nor proved by reason , nor better agreed of amongst themselves , that thus recommend it ? a man would reasonably expect that a business of this nature , ( which is therefore of more value than any one article of faith , in as much as that it hereupon depends what shall be so , ) should have been more clear and evident than those things that depend upon it : but contrariwise , we find that no man ever yet could perswade by reason , that one certain man in the world was more than a man , and all the rest less . and then for scripture , that plainly tells us , that all men are lyars ; i. e. such as may deceive , or be deceived ; and most undoubtedly would never have made such a distinction of christians , as strong men and babes in christ , nor made it our duty to consider one anothers weakness , and practise mutual forbearance , if it had intended any where to direct us to such an umpire as should have ended all disputes , and made all men equally certain . but then for agreement amongst themselves , where to lodge this infallibility , whether in the pope alone , or in the pope and consistory , or in a general council , or in all these together , or in something else , is , for ought i see , a question that needs an infallible judge to determine . . how comes it to pass that all controversies are not determined and disputes ended long ago , if this were true that is pretended ? whether there be any infallible judge to resort to now , is the point in question ; but it is certain there was such a thing in the apostles times : they had the assistance of the holy spirit in such a manner as to guide them into all truth , and gave miraculous proofs that they had so ; and yet this would not cure all the schisms , nor resolve all scruples , nor silence all disputes then . and how infallibility in a pope or any other person , ( if it were there to be found ) should have better success now than it had in those more sincere and simple times of christianity , i think is not very reasonably expected . besides , we find manifestly that those that glory so much of this remedy , have not found such benefit by it , as that they commend it to us for . for it is well enough known , that the romanists have their disputes as well as we ; the franciscans against the dominicans , and the jansenists against the molinists , and their several perswasions managed with as much heat as any of our controversies ; saving that indeed they all agree in uno tertio the supremacy of the pope . therefore we say , medice cura teipsum . let us see all their own difficulties decided and disputes ended , and then , and to be sure not till then , shall we be encouraged to make use of the remedy . . thirdly , they have another remedy which i must needs confess hath done strange things and been very successful amongst themselves , and i will transcribe the receipt of it out of an ingenious book called europae speculum , pag. . of the edition at the hague , . in these words : the particular wayes they hold to ravish all affections and fit each humour , are well nigh infinite ; there being not any thing either sacred or prophane , no virtue nor vice almost , nothing of how contrary condition soever , which they make not in some sort to serve that turn , that each phancy may be satisfied . whatever wealth can sway with the lovers , or voluntary poverty with the despisers of the world ; what honour with the ambitious , what obediene with the humble ; what great employment with stirring and active spirits , what perpetual quiet with heavy and restive bodies ; what content the pleasant nature can take in pastimes and jollity , what contrariwise the austere mind in discipline and rigour ; what love either chastity can raise in the pure , or voluptuousness in the dissolute , &c. what change of vows with the rash , or of estate with the unconstant ; what pardons with the faulty , or supplyes with the defective ; what miracles with the credulous , or visions with the phantastical ; what gorgeousness of shews with the vulgar and simple , what multitude of ceremonies with the superstitious , what prayers with the devout ; and in summ , whatsoever can prevail with any man , either for himself to pursue , or to love and reverence in another , the same is found with them . — on the one side of the steet a cloyster of virgins , on the other a stye of courtezans , with publick toleration . this day all in masks with loosness and foolery , to morrow all in processions , whipping themselves till the blood follow . to conclude , never state , never government in the world , so strangely compacted of infinite contrarieties , all tending to the entertainment of the several humours of men . now no wonder that this course should keep them generally contented , since it is in effect an universal toleration , a permitting men to be and do what they list , so they cast but some garb of religion or other over it . in the united provinces , it is commonly said , there is an allowance of all opinions ; but the truth is no more but this , that that state being made up of a combination of several free cities , he that finds not his opinion countenanced in one city so much as he desires , may retire to another where it is publickly profest . so in the church of rome , he that likes not the debaucheries of the court , may enjoy severities in a monastery , he that is offended with one order , may make choice of another ; a man may be a good catholick as they call it , without being a good christian ; he may perfectly accommodate his own humour , if he have but the wit to make a right choice for himself ; he need not be at the self-denyal to conform his humour to his profession , but may fit his inclination with a way of religion , if he have not prevented himself by an imprudent election . he may almost do any thing , provided , as erasmus observes , he let but two things alone , which are the only dangerous points , that is to say , that he meddle not with the popes crown , nor the monks bellies . but we of this church are not of opinion , that such a tenet as this is , is worth the prostitution of religion , and the debauching of mens minds and consciences ; and have too much simplicity and sincerity of devotion , to make use of this remedy , to put an end to our distractions . . fourthly , but the great and infallible remedy is yet to come , and is that which others express by several words , axes , halters , racks , fire and faggot ; but they by one word that signifies as much as all those , viz. the holy inquisition . this is that engine that stretches all mens intellectuals to the proportion of the priests , or cuts them off to the publick standard ; this decides all controversies , silences all disputes , resolves all scruples , and makes perfect peace where-ever it comes . but , though we grant all this , yet will not this down with englishmen . for besides that our gospel is not like ( what they say of ) the laws of draco , written in blood , nor have we any rubrick , to kill men for quietness sake ; besides this , i say , the genius of this nation is both too couragious and too compassionate , to be this way governed . no people in the world are less moved by the apprehension of death and danger than they , and no people are more tender of the lives of others than they . for generally these two virtues are inseparable , and the most generous tempers are commonly the most merciful . the english will be led like men , but not driven like beasts . they have great minds that will be moved by example , and wrought upon by kindness , and melted by good nature ; but will sooner suffer themselves to be broken in pieces , than that cruelty shall force them , or fear and danger prevail over them . it is generally observable here , that no laws so soon grow in desuetude , and are rendered unpracticable , as those that are too severe . it is counted a butcherly way of chirurgerie with us , for every slight wound to cut off the member . and the exercise of so much cruelty upon the account of religion , by those blood-letters in queen maries time , hath ( thanks be to god ) made that profession detestable to this day ; and it looked so ill in the romanists , that we shall never be perswaded to practise it our selves . therefore none of the romanists expedients will work the cure we desire in this church . let us see then what other courses there are to be taken , and there remain yet these three to be considered of . . universal toleration . . comprehension . . instruction and consideration . . universal toleration . this is highly commended by some as the most christian remedy , to let all grow together till the harvest . we are told , that it was it made the primitive church so happy , and we may observe that this the christians pleaded for under persecuting emperours , affirming , that it was every mans natural right to serve what god , and use what religion he thought good . this the great constantine declared at his first entrance upon the empire , and they say that every prince is bound to do so too . besides , it is affirmed , that this is the best way of propagating truth and giving it reputation , and making its triumphs conspicuous , by setting it upon even ground , and giving it no advantage in the encounter of error . and that the minds of men will be as open to truth as falshood , when they are delivered from the prejudice . that it is power and interest make men of such or such opinions . that this is the only way to make a learned clergy , when they shall have a necessity upon them to be able to prove substantially whatever they expect should be received ; and in fine , that the only way to make peaceable subjects , a rich countrey and a happy prince is to open a pantheon , to give liberty to all religions . but two things would be considered of in this point . first , that whatsoever fine things are said of this or whatever collateral advantage may be reaped by it , they are of no other force , than to incline the magistrate prudentially in some cases to use indulgence ; for it never was nor will be proved , that it is the express duty of a christian magistrate to tolerate all opinions whatsoever ; for some are such as destroy all religion which he is to protect , others subvert all civil societie which he is to maintain : therefore it can never be his duty to carry an indifferent hand in religion . and though it be true , that the primitive christians used such general expressions as are above-specified , and constantine made such a declaration , yet both he and they limited and interpreted themselves afterwards . and indeed it cannot be shewn de facto that any government in the whole christian world doth tolerate all opinions whatsoever . for should they do so , it must be supposed , that the magistrate is to have no conscience or religion himself , that other men may have no check in theirs whatever it be . . but if it were true , that the magistrate might ( if he would ) indulge all sects and opinions , and also were disposed so to do ; yet besides the inconveniencies that would follow , this very thing would be very unacceptable to the people of this nation ; amongst whom there is so much sincerity and heartiness in religion . it might go down perhaps amongst such as have a great indifferency and lukewarmness in religion , with such people whose god is their gain , and whose religion is their trade or interest . but devout and serious people had rather suffer some hardship themselves upon the account of their consciences , than buy their own quiet at the price of gods dishonour . and whatever kindness they may have to some dissenters , or fondness to some by-path themselves , yet rather than open so wide a gap as that popery and atheism it self should enter in by it , they would deny themselves and think it the duty of all other good christians to do so too . . comprehension ; whereby , i suppose , is meant the making the terms of communion more free and easie , an opening the arms of the church to receive more into her bosome , thereby to enlarge both the society and interest of the church . this is highly recommended by some good men as the most proper expedient for a protestant church in our condition , as by means whereof it may be both better strengthened and secured against its enemies abroad , and enjoy peace and contentment at home . and truly for my part , if such a course please our governours , i have no mind to oppose any thing to it ; but only i desire it may be considered , that there are many things that look very probably in the general notion and speculation , and that would flatter one into a great opinion of them , and expectation from them , which when they come to be tryed , they are no wayes answerable to . many difficulties occurr in the reducing things of this nature to practice that were not foreseen in the theory , and nothing more common , than for mens minds to deceive them , or their constancy to fail them , so as that they shall take no great pleasure in the enjoyment of that which they languisht with desire of , whilest it was sweetned to them by the poinant sauces of hope and fear . besides , this is not yet done , nor do we know when it will be set about , and it's pity the wounds of the church should bleed so long as till that can be effected , especially if there be any balm in gilead , any way of binding them up in the mean time . and there seems to me to remain no other but that of the third consideration , which is the course i have pitched upon to recommend in the following chapters . by which i mean nothing else but an endeavour of better informing the minds of men , in the nature of those things which are the matter of our disputes , and occasions of our disturbances , together with the unhappy consequences of sin and danger in persevering in our present case . which if it can be done , we may hope to see the church recover its antient felicity and peace , and shall not need for cure of our distempers , to resort either to such severities as are abhorrent to all englishmen , or to such arts as deform christianity in general , or to be alwayes changing and altering to the great dishonour of protestant religion in particular . and this i do not despair may be obtained , if those protestants of this church and kingdom that at present differ from the church in some particulars , will impartially consider the following propositions . chap. ii. of the true notion of schism , the sin and mischievous consequents of it . though the will of man deservedly bear the blame of his miscarriages , as being neither under fatal necessity , nor subject to violence and compulsion , but that it may suspend its own act till it be rightly informed ; yet i have so much charity to humane nature , as to think that most of its irregularities proceed not meerly from stubborn perversion , but mistake of the object . and that therefore mankind is very pittyable in its errors , having not that clearness of perception , nor presence of mind that higher and more immaterial spirits have . and perhaps upon this account , it pleased the divine goodness to afford men that which he denyed to the fallen angels , secundam tabulam postnaufragium , and to open to them a door of hope by repentance and retrival of their faults . and accordingly i observe , that those that cruelly murdered our saviour , he prayes for them in this form , father , forgive them , they know not what they do . and that it was not only the silly multitude that was so overseen , but also the wisest of his persecutors , st. peter bears witness , acts . . i wot that ye did it ignorantly , as also did your rulers . so that i am neither destitute of reason nor example for my charity , if i think in the present case , concerning the greatest part of those that are guilty of the distractions of this church , that did they rightly understand the nature of schism and wherein it consists , or the guilt and mischiefs that attend it , they would easily be induced to change their course . this therefore i shall first offer to consideration . touching the sin of dividing the church , that it is of the deepest dye and greatest guilt , i suppose we shall easily agree ; for indeed no body can well doubt of that , who considers what care our saviour took to prevent it , what pains he took with his apostles , that they might be throughly instructed , and not differ in the delivery of his mind to the world , and with what extraordinary ardour he prayed for them upon this very account , john . . and the apostles themselves answered their masters care with their own diligence and circumspection . he that observes how industrious they were to resist all beginnings of schism in every church , to heal all breaches , to take away all occasions of division , to unite all hearts and reconcile all minds ; how they taught people to detest this distemper as the bane of christianity , charging them to use the greatest caution against it , to mark and avoid all those men that inclined that way , as persons of a contagious breath and infectious society ; what odious names they give it , as carnality , the work of the flesh and of the devil : he , i say , that observes all this , cannot but be apprehensive of the greatness of this sin . but he that shall trace the sense of the church a little farther , will find the primitive christians hating it in such detestation , that they thought it equal to the most notorious sins , idolatry , murder and sacriledge . st. cyprian amongst the rest affirms it to be of so horrible a guilt , that martyrdom was not a sufficient expiation of it ; that to dye for christ the head , would not wash out the stain of having divided the church his body . and all this was no more than the case deserved , for had the christian church been broken into factions and parties in those times , as it hath been since , it is not easie to imagine , how it could have resisted the whole world that was united against it : or if yet it could have subsisted in its several divided parties , the mischief would have been little less ; for then those of after-times would have had the several opinions and distinct and peculiar sentiments of those divided parties , delivered down to them with equal heat and earnestness , so that it would have proved impossible to have distinguisht the truth of god from the opinions of men , and the common faith from the shiboleth and cognizances of the several sects and parties . and for this cause it pleased god that his church should rather in those early dayes be harassed with persecutions , which made it unite it self the closer , and ( paring off all superfluities ) keep to the necessary and essential doctrines delivered to it , than to be softened and made wanton by ease , and so to corrupt the simplicity of the gospel . nor is the importance of unity much less in these latter dayes of christianity , forasmuch as all divisions in all times destroy that beauty and loveliness , which would otherwise attract all mens admiration and affection . beauty properly is nothing but order and harmony of parts ; the excellency of any fabrick consists not so much in the quality of the materials , as in the curious method they are digested into , and the good respect and correspondence one part hath with another . it is not the sublimity of christian doctrine , nor the gloriousness of the hopes it propounds , that will so recommend it to the opinion and esteem of beholders , as when it shall be said , ecce ut christiani amant , when they shall observe the love , concord and unanimity amongst the professors of it . and the want of this hardens the hearts of jews and turks and pagans more against it , than all the reasons and proofs we can give for it , will soften them ; and instead of opening their ears and hearts to entertain it , opens their mouths in contempt and blasphemy against it . but besides the disadvantage christianity is exposed to by its divisions , in respect of those that are without , it suffers unspeakably within its own territories . for who will be perswaded patiently to hear , attentively to consider , or impartially to judge of the discourses of him against whom he hath an animosity ? every thing the truer it is , the more it is for its advantage to be calmly considered : and by how much of the more importance it is , by so much is he that would have his proposition successful , bound in wisdome to take care that the minds of men be not by passion and prejudice indisposed to receive it . livy observes , that prodigious stories , lyes and fables find best entertainment in troublesome times , quia tutius finguntur & facilius creduntur ; men are not then at leisure to consider strictly what is true and false , and so truth loses its advantage-ground , and error succeeds in it . our saviour therefore chose to come into the world in a time of the most profound peace , not only because such a season became the prince of peace , but especially for this advantage of his doctrine we are speaking of , namely , that he might find men in calm thoughts and at leisure to consider the reasonableness of his propositions . for who can maturely weigh things when all is in hurry and tumult ? who can discern exactly the difference of things , when all is in motion ? especially who is there that is willing either to do good to , or to receive good from him , against whom he hath an exulcerate mind ? in short then , and to speak summarily , from schisms and divisions amongst christians , comes that prejudice upon the minds of people that discourages the indeavours , and frustrates the labours of the ministers of religion . from thence come all the suspicions , jealousies , whisperings , backbitings and all other instances of uncharitableness . these hinder the fervour of mens prayers , and abate the edge of their devotions . these evaporate the true spirit and life of religion in impertinent disputes , so that men lose the substance , whilest they contend for the shadow . by these the sinews of all society are dissolved ; for when the church is disturbed , it seldome rests here , but the state is concerned too ; and schism in the former , proves sedition in the latter . and this consideration is able to provoke the magistrate to keep a jealous eye upon the church and religion . all these things are so true in themselves , and withal so generally acknowledged by all parties , that a man might justly wonder , how any christian should be guilty of schism , which all so much abominate . were it not that we may observe too , that some have found pleasure to get that child , they would by no means have laid at their own door . schism is so mishapen as well as ill-begotten a brat , that no body is willing to father it . it was the early proof solomon gave of his wisdom , in discovering the true mother of the living child , to which both the litigants laid equal claim . it is a matter of no less importance , and some think of equal difficulty , to make discovery , who the distractions of the church are justly to be imputed to . but as that wise prince discerned the true mother by the tenderness of her bowels towards the infant , so we perhaps may discover the true children of the church by their respect and tenderness , and consequently the schismaticks by their irreverence and unnaturalness towards her . in order to which , i will therefore briefly and plainly describe the true notion of schism ; in hopes that when men shall understand , wherein the guilt of it lyes , they will avoid the evil as well as abominate the consequence . schism is a voluntary departure or separation of ones self without just cause given , from that christian church whereof he was once a member ; or , schism is a breach of that communion wherein a man might have continued without sin . first , i call it a departure or separation from the society of the church , to distinguish it from other sins , which though they are breaches of the laws of our religion , and consequently of the church , yet are not a renunciation of the society . for as there may be a sickly , infirm , nay , an ulcerous member , and yet a member of the body : so there may be such a person , who for his wickedness deserves well to be cast out of the church , as being a scandal and dishonour to it , yet neither separating himself , nor being cast out of the society , remains still a member of it . now what it is that imports a mans separation of himself or departure from the church , we shall easily understand ; for it is no more but this , when a man shall either expresly declare that he doth renounce such a society , or shall refuse to joyn in the acts and exercises of religion used by such a society , and to submit to its authority . so he separates that refuses baptism , the lord supper , or to submit unto the censures of a church , and sufficiently declares that he owns himself no longer of it . secondly , i call it a voluntary separation , to distinguish sin from punishment , or schism from excommunication . for though the last makes a man no member of a church , yet it is supposed involuntary , and he doth not make himself so . thirdly , i call it a departure from a particular church of christ , or from a part of the visible church , to distinguish it from apostasie , which is a casting off of the whole religion , the name and profession of christianity , and not only the particular society : but the schismatick is he that , retaining the religion in general , or at least a pretence of it , changes his society , associates himself with , or makes up some other body in opposition to that whereof he formerly was . fourthly , i add those words whereof he was a member , because schism imports division and making two of that which was but one before . and so turks , pagans , jews cannot be called schismaticks , having never been of the church . these things i suppose are all generally agreed of ; the only difficulty is in that which i subjoyn in these words , an unnecessary separation , or without just cause , or to separate from that society wherein i may continue without sin . and here we meet with opposition on both sides , some defining too strictly , and others extending too far , the causes of separation . of the first sort are the zealots of the church of rome , who scarcely allow any thing as a sufficient cause of separation ; for being conscious of so many and great corruptions in their church , they know they can scarce allow any thing as a just cause of separation , that will not be in danger to be used against themselves , and justifie the recession of all protestants from them . but on the other side , some protestants make the causes of separation as many and as light as the jews did of divorce , almost for any matter whatsoever . josephus put away his wife ( as himself tells us ) because she was not mannerly enough ; another his , because he saw a handsomer than she ; a third his , because she drest not his dinner well . as these jews did by their wives , so do many christians by the church ; one likes not her dress , another thinks her too costly in her ornaments , a third phansies some german beauty or other that he hath seen in his travails , and all ( to make way for new amours ) upon very slender pretences repudiate their former choice . but as our saviour when the case was put , found out a middle way betwixt allowing divorce for no cause at all , and for every cause ; so ought it to be done in this business of schism . to hit this mark therefore , i say , that then , and then only , is there just cause of separation , when perseverance in the communion of such a church cannot be without sin ; that is , when she shall impose such laws and terms of society , as cannot be submitted to without apparent breach of the divine law. and upon this foundation , i doubt not but we shall quit our selves well on both sides ; that is , both justifie our recession from the church of rome , and demonstrate the unwarrantableness of this separation of the protestants of this kingdom from the communion of the church of england . for it 's plain on the one hand , that it cannot be sin to separate , when it is sin to communicate , since no laws of men can abrogate or dissolve the obligation of the express laws of god. and on the other it is as plain , that schism being so great a sin , and of so extream bad consequence , that which must acquit me of the guilt of it in my separation , can be nothing less than equal danger on the other hand , and that when i may persevere without sin , it must of necessity be a sin to separate upon inferiour dislikes . this methinks is so plain , that i wonder any doubt should be admitted of in the case . notwithstanding because i observe some men think to wash their hands of the imputation of schism upon other terms ; as namely , although a church shall not require or impose such conditions of communion as are expresly sinful , yet if she shall require indifferent unnecessary , or at most suspected things ; that in this case there is enough to excuse the person that shall separate , from a participation of this sin . and also because this opinion bears it self up by the great name of mr. hales , as his declared judgement in a little tract of schism now very much in the hands of men , i will therefore for the clearing of this matter say these three things . . i willingly acknowledge , that such a church as shall studiously or carelesly clog her communion with unnecessary , burdensome and suspected conditions , is very highly to blame ; yet is it neither burdensomness nor every light suspicion of sin , but a plain necessity or certainty of sin in complyance , that can justifie my separation ; forasmuch as i cannot be discharged from a plain duty , but by an equal plainness of the sin . and for this phrase suspected , it is so loose and uncertain , that there is no hold of it ; men will easily suspect what they have no mind to : and suspicion having this priviledge , we shall quickly evacute every uneasie duty , and instead of guiding our selves by gods word and sound reasoning , we shall give our selves up to the conduct of passion , melancholy and secular interest . . if the non-necessity of some of the terms of communion be a warrant of separation , then there can be no such sin as schism at all , forasmuch as there never was , nor probably ever will be , such a church as required nothing of those in her communion , but things strictly and absolutely necessary ; as i have shewed partly in the introduction , and could easily make appear at large through all ages . and then may the author of the tract about schism securely , as he doth somewhat too lightly , call it only a theological scarcrow . . it will be manifest to any considering person , that some things are necessary to the constitution and administration of a particular church , that are not in themselves necessary absolutely considered . and of this i will give two instances . the first in the apostles times ; the abstaining from things strangled and blood , was by the council at jerusalem adjudged and declared necessary to be observed by the gentiles in order to an accomodation betwixt them and the jews ( of which i shall say more hereafter ) and yet i suppose scarce any body thinks the observation of that abstinence so enjoyned , necessary in it self . the second instance shall be church-government . whatever disputes there are about the several forms of it , as whether it ought to be monarchical or aristocratical . episcopal or consistorial , and whatever zeal for opinion may transport men to say in favour of either of them , yet i suppose few or none will affirm , that either of these forms is absolutely necessary ; for if one be of absolute necessity , the other must be absolutely unlawful : and not only so , but then also those that do not receive that absolutely necessary form , can be no churches , for that society which is defective in absolutely necessaries , can be no christian church . notwithstanding it is not only lawful to determine and define this unnecessary point , but it is necessary to the constitution of every particular church , that it be defined one way or other , i mean so far as concerns that church ; for if this be left indifferent in this particular church ( as perhaps it is in it self in the general ) it is manifest there can be no superiour nor inferiour , no governour nor governed , no order , and consequently a meer rout and no church . therefore some things not necessary in themselves not only may , but must be defined in a particular church ; and consequently it will be no just exception against a church , nor excuse from schism , if we separate from that communion , because such definitions are made in it . chap. iii. of the nature and importance of those things that are scrupled , or objected against in this church ; and that they are such as may without sin be sacrificed to peace , and therefore cannot excuse us from sin in separating from the church upon their account . it is the custome of those that have a mind to quarrel , to aggravate and heighten the causes of discontent , to the end that the ensuing mischief may not be imputed to the frowardness of their temper , but to the greatness of the provocation . and passion is such a magnifying-glass as is able to extend a mole-hill to a mountain . the way of peace therefore is to take just measures of things ; and as upon the account of truth we must not make the matters of our dispute less than they are , so for the sake of both truth and peace we ought not to make them greater . wherefore if men would be perswaded to set aside passion , and calmly consider the nature and just value of those things that we in this church are divided upon , we should then be so far from seeing reason to perpetuate our distance and animosities , that we should on the contrary , be seized with wonder and indignation , that we have hitherto been imposed upon so far , as to take those things for great deformities , which upon mature consideration are really nothing worse than moles , which may be upon the most beautiful face . to this purpose therefore , having in the former chapter represented the nature of schism , and the guilt and mischiefs attending it , i proceed now to shew the unreasonableness of the temptations to it , i mean the littleness and small importance of the objections against this church ; and that neither any of them single , nor all of them together can countervail the blessing of peace or the evil of division . in order hereto , i will first shew that the causes of dissensions amongst us are not like those upon which we separated from the roman communion . . that something must be given for peace by them that will have it . . that all the scruples and objections against this church , are not too great a price to pay for it . . touching the first , it is said by some in heat and passion , that there is as much cause for secession from this church now , as there was from the roman in the time of our ancestors : but with no more reason , than if the arguments and discourses written against a notorious tyrant and usurper , should be turned against a good and lawful prince . as will easily be manifest if we consider the just state of the case on either hand . we could not continue in the roman church upon any better conditions than nahash propounded to the men of jabesh gilead , sam. . to put out our right eyes that we might be fit for her blind devotion . we must for the sake of peace have denyed the faith , renounced our reason , and contradicted our very senses . that church instead of instructing men in knowledge , professes to nurse them up in ignorance ; in lieu of the scriptures , it gives them traditions , and instead of such things as were from the beginning , and the faith once delivered to the saints , it prescribes those things that had their beginning from private interests and secular advantages . they make seven secraments , five more than christ ever intended for such , and take away from the people the half of one of those he expresly instituted and enjoyned . they teach men to pray to saints instead of god , and to use a language in their devotions which he that pronounces , understands no more than the saint , he prayes to , doth his needs and requests . nay , they give divine honour to a piece of bread , and must swallow idolatry in spite of their teeth ; herein little better than the aegyptians who worshipt that for a god which they put into their bellies . they have taken away one of the ten commandments and have arts of evacuating allthe rest , for they elude the necessity of a true and serious repentance , and subvert the principles of holy life . in short , they have brought in pageantry instead of piety and devotion , effaced the true lineaments of christianity , and instead thereof recommended and obtruded upon the world the dictates of ambition , the artifices of gain , and a colluvies of almost all the superstitions , errors and corruptions of former ages , and this must be received and swallowed by all those that will continue in that communion . these things could not be submitted to without grievous sin and manifest danger of damnation ; therefore there was just ground for our recession : for , as i said , it could not be sin to depart when it was so to continue . and it is a very reasonable choice rather to be condemned by them of singularity , than to be damned for company . but now it is quite otherwise in the church of england . no man here parts with his faith upon his conformity , no man is bound to give away his reason and common sense for quietness sake . no man needs to hazard the peace of a good and well instructed conscience , for the peace of the church . no man is tempted to renounce his integrity , but may be as good and holy a man as he will , and the more of that the better church-man . this church keeps none of her children in an uncomfortable estate of darkness , but teaches the true knowledge of god and christ sincerely and very advantageously . she hath no half communions , nor debarrs any of her members of the priviledge and comfort of christs institutions . she recommends the same faith and the same scriptures that all protestants are agreed in . the same god , and only he , is worshipped , the same rules of holy life are propounded , as well as the same hopes and happiness expected . by this brief representation the difference between the church of rome and the protestants , appears so wide and vast , that they agree neither in their creed , nor object of worship , nor sacraments , nor rules of life . on the other side , the agreements of protestants with the church of england is so full and perfect , that they have not only the same god and christ , but the same object of worship , the same way of devotion in a known tongue , the same sacraments and same rule of life , which certainly are all the great things that the consciences of men are concerned in . a man might therefore justly wonder , ( these things being so ) what should make a breach , and what place there is for contention ; or what can remain considerable enough to occasion the dissatisfaction , to provoke the animosity , to countenance that distance that is between us . and i verily believe it would be hard for a stranger to this church and nation , that understood the state of the case thus far , to guess what should be the bone of contention amongst us . i will now as well as i can both saithfully and briefly recite the matters of difference . and i must needs confess , if we number them only , they are many ; but if we weigh them ( not only against the things we are agreed in , but against peace and agreement it self ) i perswade my self they will be very light . but that i must leave to the judgement of the reader . the things themselves are these and such as these . whether such prayers shall make up the body of the publick liturgy , as have been conceived by the governours of the church , and used ever since the reformation ; or such as shall pro re nata be occasionally indited by every private minister ? or , which perhaps is much the same , whether such words , expressions and phrases shall be continued in the publick service , as are by long use grown familiar to , and intelligible by vulgar people , or such shall come in their room , as are more modern and grateful to nicer ears ? about the several postures of standing , kneeling and sitting ; and whether some one of these be more decorous and accommodate to some part of gods worship than another , and which to which ? about observation of dayes and times ; as whether the anniversaries of the birth , death and resurrection of our saviour and other great passages of the gospel be of use , and fit to be observed ? and whether some special time of abstinence and mortification in conformity to the primitive church , may now be retained or not ? about habits and garments , such as gown , surplice , &c. whether the habit used in ministration in the time of king edward , be not now as lawful as any other ? about the ceremony of the cross in baptism , whether ( whilest it is declared not essential to baptism ) it may not upon other considerations be used in that sacrament ? or lastly ( which i think is as important as any of the rest ) whether subordinacy of the clergy in the episcopal way , or co-ordinacy and parity in the presbyterian , be rather to be preferred ? most of the disputes we have amongst us , are either upon these questions , or reducible to these , or at least of like nature with these . now how inconsiderable these things are in themselves , and how fit to be made a sacrifice to peace , i forbear to say , till i have in the second place shewn , as i promised , that something must be forgone for it . . it was a worthy and memorable saying of erasmus , mihi sanè adeò invisa est discordia , ut veritas etiam displiceat seditiosa . he did not only suspect that proposition was not true , that was not also peaceable , but he thought peace not too dear at the price of some truth . and he that pretends so high a value for the latter , as to have no esteem for the former , neither understands the one nor the other . greg. nazianz. puts this question , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; and answers , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that peace is not only the most beautiful flower in the garden of christianity , but also the most soveraign and useful . though it be commonly dealt with as some famed beauty , admired and courted , but not espoused . the apostle , when rom. . . he so passionately exhorts , if it be possible , and as far as in you lyes , have peace with all men , surely did not mean , that we should only accept of peace when it is offered us for nothing , or be quiet till we can pick a quarrel ; but that we should be at some cost to purchase it , and part with something for it , and deny our selves something which ( but upon that account ) we might lawfully have enjoyed . it is true we may buy gold too dear , and so we must have done our peace , if we sought it at the hands of those hucksters of the church of rome , as i shewed before . but that we cannot reasonably expect it for nothing in any society in the world , i think is demonstratively evident by this one consideration , that there are scarcely any intellectual menaechmi , i mean hardly any two persons perfectly of the same apprehension or stature of understanding in the whole world . so much difference there is in mens constitutions , such diversity of education , such variety of interests and customs , and from hence so many kinds of prejudices and various conceptions of things , that he that resolves to yield to no body , can agree with no body , and consequently cannot be happy in any church or society on this side of heaven . there indeed some think mens minds shall be all of one capacity , but whatever be the truth in that particular , i much doubt , whether those persons will ever make up that society of the church triumphant , that think themselves bound to disturb the state of the church militant , unless all things fall in with their own humour . for every peaceable man sees he must either go out of the world , or set it all in flames , if he will not subdue his own passion , and castigate his heat ; that he must suffer shipwrack in the tempestuous seas of dispute and contentions , if he will not , both take in his sails , and lighten the ship by casting over-board the fardles of his private phancies and opinions . he that will require all other men should assent to what he thinks , and will conceal nothing he is perswaded of , and yet expect to live in peace , must either have very little wit or extraordinary fortune . and he that will bear nothing that god hath not expresly imposed upon him , nor part with any thing he may lawfully keep , nor offer any sacrifice to those touchy deities , received custome and vulgar opinion , must expect often to feel the effects of their rage and power . in summ , he that will sacrifice nothing to publick tranquillity , must be sure to live in perpetual flames here , whatsoever become of him hereafter . the apostle was not , certainly , of this stubborn humour , who declares of himself that he became all things to all men , that he might gain some . to the jews he became as a jew , to gain the jews ; to them that were without law , as without law ; to them that were weak he became as weak too , cor. . . he was now no longer a starcht inflexible pharisee , but a complaisant christian , or as some perhaps would have called him , a latitudinarian apostle . when a whole council of the apostles at jerusalem , acts . ( which is a passage i have often occasion to mention , and well deserves to be studied by every peaceable christian ) when i say they decreed that the gentiles should abstain from things strangled and from blood , they deprived them of a great part of their christian liberty meerly to conciliate the jews to them , and required that to be done for peace , that no law of god otherwise required at their hands . st. greg. nazianzen affirms of st. basil that he dissembled the coessentiality of the holy spirit , and delivered himself in ambiguous terms on that great point , lest he should offend and lose the weak ; which neither would that holy man have done , nor much less his especial friend and admirer have told of him , if either of them had thought it to have been too great a price for the purchase . but we need no other , and can have no greater , instance in this case than our saviour himself , who when he came into the world complyed with the rites and customs he found , and condescended to the very humours of that stubborn people amongst whom he was ; he used their phrase in all his discourses , he observed their feasts , he made his own institutions of baptism and the lords supper as consonant to their customs as it was possible ; to the end that he might not disturb them with novelty , but ingratiate himself and his doctrine by these complyances . when a certain tribute was demanded of him , he first proves that he was not obliged to pay it , yet lest he should offend them , determines to pay it , and works a miracle to make peter to do it , mat. . . what shall we say to all this ? are these instances only to trace out an example of condescension in magistrates and governours to their inferiours ? or are they not most certainly as land-marks to all of what degree or condition soever to direct them how to steer their course , and behave themselves in order to peace ? let me appeal to the consciences of men , is it not plain from hence , that although i be perswaded such a certain rite is less commendable in it self , yet if it appear to be an instrument of accommodation , that it is therefore in that case best upon that account ? and that such things as are indifferent , or have no essential goodness of their own , become not indifferent but good , as they are useful or necessary to that end ? or if i am perswaded , that such an opinion is more true than that which is publickly received ( so long as the main doctrine of christianity is not in dispute ) i may not for all this conceal it , rather than disturb the church ? this was the counsel of the famous constantine for the preventing and silencing disputes at the council of nice , though the things in controversie there , were of a higher nature than ours are . but if any man be not satisfied with the judgement of so great and good a prince , let him go and learn what that of st. paul , rom. . . means , hast thou faith ? have it to thy self , and that before god. in short therefore , it will be no hypocritical tergiversation , no wrong either to our religion or to our consciences , if when the case shall so require , we change any phrase of speech , how fit soever in our apprehension , for one less fit , but more acceptable and current ; any rite or ceremony that we have a great kindness for , for one more grateful to others ; and that we may comply with the laws in being , so they be not palpably contrary to the scriptures or common reason , though we think better might be made in their room . and that according to the saying of the lord bacon , we may take counsel of the elder times what is best , but of the present times , for what as fittest . and in a word , that we part with all that which is no essential point of our religion , for charity , which is . . let us now for a conclusion of this chapter reflect back upon the aforementioned catalogue of things in difference , and see if they will not all appear to be of such a nature as we have hitherto supposed them , that is , such as may be fit to become a peace-offering , and sacrificed to the magistrate , the laws and the church . and that we shall be easily able to resolve of , by the help of these five following remarques . . that the things now scrupled in this church are such as were heretofore submitted to by the most leading men of those that now hereupon depart from it ; and if those things were in themselves lawful then , they cannot change their nature by time , and become unlawful now . it will not be replyed , that then they made no conscience of what they did , lest it should be suspected they do but pretend it now ; for he that confesses a guilt of the same kind , strengthens the suspicion of that whereof he is accused . but if it be said , they did it ignorantly then , and now having more light , cannot outface it : to this it will be as easie to answer , that the ingagements of interest and prejudice are as lyable to be suspected now , as ignorance heretofore ; especially if we consider , that there was no appearance of any extraordinary light breaking in , when our troubles and divisions broke out , but as soon as opportunity offered , and occasion invited , that is , when laws were laid asleep , and authority taken up with other cares , then presently without further deliberation , all these objections start up , and new models set up for themselves , which if they had been the effect of light and knowledge must have proceeded gradually in proportion to that , and increased by time and deliberation ; but this is so far from being the case , that it is scarce ( if at all ) possible to find any objection that is not much elder than he that makes it . . thanks be to god , some non-conformists daily come over to the church , and those not of the meanest character for ability or piety ; but let them bragg of any one if they can find him , that hath since the resetlement of the church at his majesties restauration apostatized to them . now they must be horribly uncharitable that can conclude , either all those that continue in the church ignorant , or those that return to it hypocritical ; and if they do not judge so , they confess the matters in difference to be not certainly evil , but that prejudice hath made them seem so . . that there are men of as clear understanding , as good life and as comfortable consciences in the society of this church as are any where else to be found ; and if so ( which impudence it self hath not the face to deny ) then there is no capital error in its constitution , since those three answer to the whole design of christianity ; and it can never be , that there should be danger that neither troubles the conscience with fears , nor displayes it self in a bad life , nor is discoverable by an honest heart and sound understanding . . the things objected against this church are but at most disputable matters , because all wise and good men are not agreed upon them . but that which is sub judice , and yet under dispute , cannot be called evil till the dispute is ended , and the decision made against it . . and lastly , the things scrupled in this church , are such as the like may be found and complained of in any church of the whole world , at least since the apostles times . now if these things be true , as i am confident they will appear upon impartial consideration , then are the matters of our difference such as i have supposed , namely , of no greater value , than that we may forgo our private opinion , phancy and custome in and concerning them , for the peace of the church . and if we resolve not to unite our selves to the church whilest there is any thing of this nature to discontent us , it is too much to be feared that peace will for ever be hid from our eyes . but to prevent that , let me here prevent my self in one thing that will fall in more opportunely hereafter , viz. that since there is no grand matter of religion concerned in the controversies between us , nor any violation of the laws of god in our complying with the laws of this society , and since either mahomet must go the mountain , or the mountain must come to mahomet , i. e. one side or other must yield , we will be perswaded to think it reasonable , that the subject should submit to the governour , and opinion give place to antient custome , and novelty to the laws in being . chap. iv. that those that find fault with the constitution of this church , will never be able to find out or agree upon a better . it was seasonable advice which a member of the long parliament is said to have propounded then when all were for pulling down , and desolation was called reformation ; that they should do well to let the old building stand till they had materials in readiness , and were agreed upon a model of a fabrick to be set up in the stead of what they destroyed . and not unlike was the gloss of the lord bacon upon the words of the prophet jeremy , chap. . . stand upon the wayes and inquire for the good way , &c. that is , saith he , inquire for a better way , but stand upon the old wayes till you have discovered it . and agreeably mr. selden , accuratius circumspiciendae viae omnes , de semitis antiquis consulendum , quae vero sit optima seligenda . and these sayings are not more valuable for their weight or elegancy , nor for the reputation of their authors , than considerable in our case . we confess generally the old way of the church of england to be right for the main , but certain circumstantials are uneasie to some of us , and they , till those are redrest , will proceed no further . but it 's reasonable then we should be able to agree upon and produce a better model , lest instead of having a new church , we have no church at all . for , first , it can never be thought by wise men that such a society as a church , can be conserved without some rites or other , forasmuch as no petty corporation or company can ; nor that god can be worshipped without all circumstance , at least by men , that have bodies , and are bound to glorifie him with their bodies as well as souls . . it is as plain , that neither any society can continue , or any publick worship be performed , if all ceremonies and circumstances , such as of time , place , persons and the like , be left indefinite and undetermined ; for who shall know whom to obey , whom to hear , where to assemble , or where to meet , if these be not defined ? . if therefore there must be some determination in circumstantials , it must be made either by god or man ; and whether god hath made any such determination in the case we will now consider ; and the rather because this is made a popular theme to declaim upon against the church , and jus divinum is boldly instamped upon those models that have been designed to supplant it . indeed in the old testament , so far as concerned the temple at jerusalem and the worship there to be performed , god was very particular in his directions . and we ( blind as we are ) may discern plain reason for so doing ; because both the one and the other , i mean the temple and the worship to be performed thereat , were mystical and figurative , and designed by typical representations to lead that people into some apprehension of those things that were not then plainly revealed , but were afterwards to be exhibited in the times of the gospel . now if it had been lawful for the jews to have innovated or made alterations in those things whereof they understood not the reasons , they must of necessity have mis-guided themselves , and god had lost the principal end of those institutions . for since ( as i said ) they had no sufficient and clear knowledge of the things typified , the change in the rites , ( which people ( so in the dark ) were likely to make , ) must of necessity have led them further beside the mark god aimed at ; as a copy the more removes it is from the original draught , is likely to have less of the life : and so the effect would have been , that by those alterations they would not have left themselves so much as the shadow to guide them to the knowledge of the substance or body . but in their synagogue worship it is very observable , that they had no such limits set them , nor no such punctual directions given them by divine revelation , but were wholly governed by prudence and the general reasons of religion ; insomuch that neither the very building of synagogues , nor any part of the worship there performed , had any divine law concerning it , in all the old testament : nor indeed was it needful there should , here being nothing symbolical ( as in the former ) but natural religion , which the notions they had of god , and the common sense of mankind was sufficient to guide them in . or at least , if those common rules should fall short in any respect , yet by any error of that kind , they could not deprive themselves of any farther advantage or discovery god intended them , as in the temple worship they might . now thus it is in the gospel ; the christian religion being a plain , easie , intelligible and rational way of serving god , it was not necessary that our saviour or his apostles should curiously order , or minutely describe what rites and circumstances should be used in it , but might safely enough leave those to prudence and expediency ; the general reason of so plain and natural a religion , being sufficient to secure the church against any capital mistake . and therefore he that reads the gospel without coloured spectacles , will find that our saviour made it his business to expound the law , to vindicate it from the corrupt glosses of the jews , to prescribe men the rules of true holiness and righteousness , to raise them to a noble and generous pitch , and set them an excellent copy of the divine life , and to encourage their endeavours after it , by revealing and demonstrating the judgement to come , and the rewards in another world ; and never went about the composure of laws either of civil or ecclesiastical policy . and for his apostles , they preached the gospel of the kingdom , and gave certain directions suited to the conditions of the times and places and people respectively , but never composed a standing ritual for all after-times ; which will be put beyond all dispute by this one observation , that several things instituted by the apostles in the primitive churches , and given in command in their sacred writings , their epistles , were intendded and so construed to be obliging only so long as circumstances should stand as then they did , and no longer . of this nature were the feasts of love , the holy kiss , the order of deaconesses ; which things with several other are no where , that i know of , now observed , nor is any man scrupled about the abrogation of them . which is a plain evidence , that the generality of christians ( where passion and prejudice do not mis-guide them ) acknowledge it to have been no design of the apostles to have strictly obliged men to a certain form of rituals . but besides all this , the religion god instituted amongst the jews , was only fitted to that people , and appropriate to that place and countrey , and intended to oblige no body else . it was contrived on purpose to distinguish them from all other people in the world , and therefore is called by the apostle the middle wall of partition , eph. . . and to the end that such separation and distance might last , the boundaries of their rituals must be immoveable . but the christian religion was to throw down all inclosures , to unite all the world under one head , and make of all nations one people , and therefore must be left with that freedome as to circumstantials , as that all nations , notwithstanding their several limits , divers customs and forms of government , might be capable of receiving it . for as our saviour tells us , his kingdom was not of this world , so he never intended that his religion should alter the bounds , or change the customes , or disturb the governments of people ; but only principle the hearts of men with true holiness and goodness , and so leave them to their distinct policies . and indeed it was one of the singular advantages of the christian religion , and that which made it fit to be the catholick religion ( that is , of all times , countreys and people ) that the external policy of it being undetermined , it reconciled it self to the condition and state of things where it came , as well as recommended it self to the minds of men by its reasonableness and goodness . hereto agrees the known saying of optatus millevitanus , respublica non est in ecclesia , sed ecclesia est in republica , that the church being contained in the civil society , conforms it self as to externals , to that which contains it . upon all which it is exceedingly evident , that it is very unreasonable to expect , that every ceremony made use of by christians should be found prescribed in the scripture or proved thence , and therefore those that expect to find such definitions in the new testament , do ( as they do too often in other cases , as i have noted heretofore ) bring an old testament spirit to the writings of the new , and jewish prejudices to the christian doctrine . and those that can be so fond as to perswade themselves they can find such prescriptions there , it is hard to say whether humour or weakness doth more betray it self in such pretence ; for they catch hold of such weak twigs as no body would do , but in desperation of other help , and they plead such obscure passages , as it is a wonder if prejudice it self can be contented with them . and in short , they can as little agree amongst themselves either in the proofs or the things to be proved , as they do with us . . if then there must be some determination of circumstance or no society , and god hath made no such determination , what remains , but that men must ? and then who fitter than our governours who best understand the civil policy , and what will suit therewith , and with the customs and inclinations of the people under their charge ? and when such determination is made , what should hinder us from obedience and conformity thereto , especially when the particulars so determined , ( as they are not enjoyned by scripture , so ) are not contrary to it , or forbidden by it ? i conclude therefore , whosoever shall go about to disturb a setled order , concluded on by good 〈◊〉 men , reverenced and admired by others , incorporated into the laws of the land , rivetted by custome , and that hath now given proof of it self by above an hundred years experience , for the sake of new and unpracticable notions , shall little consult the real advantage of the present generation , and less their own reputation for discretion with posterity . this occasion brings to my mind , the famous story of pacuvius calavius of capua : the people were all in a rage against their senate ; and would needs in a hurry have them all deposed , and have used other outrages to their persons . this wise plebeian shuts up the senators all together , and puts a guard upon them , and then coming to the people , tells them , all was in their power now , advises them to determine their several faces according to their demerits one by one . this they very readily hearkened to . but as they past a doom upon any one , he approves the sentence , but before the execution perswades them , to bethink themselves of another and better man to be in his room , since a senate they could not be without . but here the business stuck , as he had foreseen it would , the people who agreed unanimously against the old senator , could by no means accord who should succeed , one named this person and another that , but whosoever was named by one party , was rejected by another ; that in conclusion , as great a pique as they had conceived against the old senate , for want of agreement in better men to fill their places , they were constrained to continue them in . i only make this application of the story , that it is easie and obvious to find fault with things present , but not so to find better for the future . and till that can be done , 't is neither just to call any thing evil that is the best of its kind , nor done like wise men , to quarrel with a church for some infirmities which we know the worst of by long experience , lest thereby we come to have either none at all , or such an one as may give us cause sadly to repent our choice . chap. v. that god layes very little stress upon circumstantials in religion . to make that which we have hitherto discoursed the more clear and convictive , and to ease the minds of men of their scrupulosities and superstitious fears , let it be considered in the next place , that even then when god almighty did with the most punctuality prescribe the ceremonies and circumstantials of religion , he never laid such stress upon them , but that so long as the main of religion was provided for , and the substance of his institutions observed , alterations might be and were made in those lesser matters without his offence . and if this be made appear , it will tend to beget in men better notions of god , and better measures of religion , as well as dispose them to conformity to the church of england . for they will have no reason to think of god as a captious deity that watches advantages against his creatures , nor make religion a piece of nice scrupulosity , and consequently will neither swallow camels , nor strain at gnats , but serve god with the generosity of a free and a comfortable mind . now to this purpose it will not be unuseful , to take notice of a distinction mentioned by maimonides , that the jews acknowledge some things in their law to be primae intentionis , and some things secundae ; that there were some things god required for themselves , as being intrinsecally good , and that other things were only required for the sake of , and in order to , the former . the first kind that were essentially good , were also absolutely necessary , and never could be otherwise , such as we call moral duties . the latter kind were of so indifferent a nature , as that not only they might not have been commanded , but also having been commanded , they may in some cases not be a duty ; an instance whereof ( though the jews were a great while before they understood it , and soundly smarted for their ignorance ) is that maxim they have now generally received , periculum vitae dissolvit sabbatum . but the fullest instance of the kind , is that which is remembred by mr. selden in his book de jure naturali gentium , lib. . cap. . that in case of sickness a jew might not only eat such meats as were otherwise forbidden , but ( say they ) for the recovery of his health , or avoidance of any great danger , he might break any precept , save only those three great ones against idolatry , murder and incest . but these things come not home to my purpose , only i note them , to shew that that superstitious people had some general notice , that god did not so precisely animadvert in little matters , so the great were minded . that which i choose to insist upon for the evidencing of this observation , is the passeover , which was a great sacrament instituted by god himself upon weighty reasons , made a statute for ever throughout their generations , and the soul that observed it not was to be cut off from among his people , exod. . and in the eleventh verse of that chapter the most minute circumstances are defined , amongst other that they should eat the passeover with staves in their hands , shoos on their feet , and their loins girt ; by which expressions is plainly intimated ( and accordingly they understood and practised ) that they should eat it in the posture of standing . nevertheless it is well known , that when they were come into the land of canaan to setled habitations , they eat it sitting or lying according to the usual custome of feasting in those countreys . and this change continued all along till the times of our saviour , without any reproof from god , and our saviour himself conforms to them herein , and in the same posture eats the passeover with his disciples . now this is the rather observable , because whenas the posture enjoyned by god , was symbolical of the haste in which they went out of aegypt , they in the change aforesaid instituted a ceremony which was symbolical too , but quite of another matter , namely , of the rest and peace god had now given them in the good land of canaan . and all this alteration made upon prudential considerations , and the reason of the thing , without any warrant from god for their direction , or check for the change . let us take another instance ; though god had so carefully described the circumstances of the temple-worship ( as i have shewed before , and the especial reasons of so doing ) yet we find david distributing the priests into orders for the conveniency of their ministration , which might have been called an innovation in religion : but besides that , he institutes instrumental musick to be used in the worship of god without any commission from god ( that appears ) . and yet this novelty also was so far from incurring any reprehension , that it was thenceforward constantly retained and made use of . i might for the fuller evidence of this notion observe , that though god had with great solemnity instituted sacrifices as the means of propitiating his divine majesty towards sinful men , and had with great accuracy prescribed the laws thereof , yet he puts a great slight upon all of that nature , as a thing he regarded not in comparison with the substantial points of virtue and obedience . particularly , psal . . v. . i will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices , &c. v. . offer to god the sacrifices of righteousness . as if he had said , let me have these latter , and i shall not much complain for defect of the former . but especially micah . . will the lord be pleased with thousands of rams , or ten thousands of rivers of oyl , &c. but he hath shewed thee o man what is good , and what doth the lord thy god require of thee but to do justly , to love mercy , and to walk humbly with thy god. for a full explication of all which and several other passages of scripture to the same purpose , that aphorism so frequently made use of by our saviour upon several occasions will be very considerable , i will have mercy and not sacrifice . particularly matth. . when the pharisees who were mighty curious of little things , censured the disciples of our lord for violating the sabbath in their rubbing the ears of corn as they went through the fields and were hungry on that day , our saviour answers , that david did also break one of the ceremonial precepts in eating the shewbread , and v. . tells them , if they had known what that meaneth , i will have mercy and not sacrifice , they would not have condemned the innocent . where though it be sure enough , that god did not repeal his law of sacrificing by enjoyning mercy , yet it is sufficiently intimated , that god doth not only preser moral acts before ceremonial , but also doth make great allowances , limitations and exceptions in the one case and not in the other . for it is as if our saviour had said , had you censorious pharisees , understood either god or religion as ye might and ought to have done , ye would have known that so long as there is not contumacy and contempt in the neglect of those rituals , but the excuse of a just necessity , or the rational consideration of a greater good to preponderate the omission , god doth not impute it for a sin . and if this was the case and condition of things in the old testament , where god seemed so punctual in his prescriptions , so rigorous in his animadversions , and where the danger of erring capitally from the design of those institutions , by the least deviation from the line of divine revelation , was so great , as i have shewed before ; then certainly in the new testament , where the divine wisdom hath exprest far less concern for such little points , may the minds of men be secure from such superstitious fears . but i will give one instance out of the new testament also . when circumcision was abolished ( the distinction betwixt jew and gentile being taken away ) and all believers become the children of abraham ) and when the apostle st. paul had vehemently declaimed against the necessity , and proclaimed the danger of circumcision , as is obvious to any one that reads his epistles ; yet this same apostle , acts . . circumcises timothy , to the intent that thereby he might render himself and his ministry more acceptable to the jews . in which carriage of his he hath beyond all exception demonstrated to us , that all ceremonial appendages are perfectly subordinate , and ought to yield to the designs of peace , charity and edification , as the greater good . i will conclude this point with what the apostle concludes his discourse about eating or not eating of meats sacrificed to idols , rom. . which created as much dispute and scruple amongst weak christians then , as ceremonies do now . v. . he sayes , the kingdom of god , that is , the gospel , is not meat and drink , that is , consists not or layes little stress upon those nice and perplexing matters , but in righteousness , peace and joy : all the weight is laid upon the more substantial observances of a righteous and holy life , and a peaceable spirit and conversation . and adds a proof , v. . for he that in these things serveth christ is approved of god and accepted of men . chap. vi. that the magistrate hath authority to determine such externals of religion as are the matters of our disputes , and what deportment is due from christians towards him . having shewed in the former chapters , that god hath neither made any exact definition of religious circumstances , nor is , very curious about them , further than to secure the great things of christianity ; it follows , that then either those lesser must be determined by men , or not at all . it will therefore now be seasonable to inquire what authority and interest the magistrate hath in this affair . and although there want not those that chameleon like live upon the air of vulgar applause , and get themselves a reputation of extraordinary zeal by daring to censure the actions , and asperse the persons of magistrates , and with such persons , he that shall vindicate the just rights and authority of his superiours , shall hardly escape the reproach of flattery and time-serving ; yet being conscious both of the truth and importance of what i am to say , and of the sincerity of my intentions in so doing , i will deliver my self freely in these two points . . that the magistrate exceeds not his commission when he interposes for the determination of the circumstantials of religion . . that common prudence , christian charity and humility do all require of us to presume of the wisdom and reasonableness of such his determinations . the result of which two things will be , that it is much more our duty peaceably to comply with and obey them . . the former of these hath been so fully and substantially proved by the incomparable hugo grotius in a just discourse , and by a late eminent divine of this church , that it is enough to refer the reader to them ; yet because some person may perhaps read these papers , that will not take the pains , or hath not opportunity to read those larger discourses ( that yet would better compensate his labour ) i will therefore say these three things . . it is certain , the magistrate had once a power in the circumstantials of religion , and that in the old testament . david ( as i have shewed before ) altered some things and instituted others even in the temple-service it self . hezekiah without a scripture for it , broke the brazen serpent to pieces , though it was a symbolical ceremony of gods own institution : but besides this , he caused the passeover to be kept by all judah and israel on the second moneth , though it was not according to divine institution , but done by the advice of his council upon pious and prudential considerations , chron. . . he appointed also the levites to kill the passeover , v. . which by gods appointment was to have been performed by the people themselves . and chap. . v. . he prefers the levites to assist the priests in killing the other sacrifices , which never before they were admitted to . many other instances might be brought out of the old testament to this purpose , but these sufficiently make it appear , that the best princes did not think they exceeded their own bounds , or intrenched upon god , when they prudently ordered such particulars ; and they are so far from having any blot laid upon their memories for these things , that they are recorded to their immortal honour . now since magistrates had once such a power , how came they to lose it , or be divested of it ? is it that god is more curious and jealous of every punctilio in his worship now , than he was heretofore ? that would be the most absurd supposition in the world , as we have sufficiently demonstrated . and he that without evident proof shall go about to deny them what christianity found them in possession of , shall do very bad offices to the religion he pretends such zeal for . for it would be a small encouragement to princes to entertain and countenance the christian religion , if it was told them , that the power which god had allowed them in the old testament , was now found too exorbitant , and therefore he had retrencht it in the gospel . would it not mightily move kings and princes to become nursing fathers to the church to hear this doctrine preached to them ? . the new testament is frequent in asserting the power of princes and magistrates , and requires all to be subject to them and obey them of what quality or condition soever , and no where excepts the case of religion ; therefore undoubtedly that is under their power , ( so far i mean as circumstantials and those things that god himself hath not defined ) for when god hath made them a general commission and made no exception of this kind , who shall put it upon them ? if they have not power in such matters of religion as we speak of , it 's manifest they have no magistracy or legislative power in religion at all . and then one would have expected the text should not have run absolutely and in general terms , let every soul be subject to the higher powers , but with this limitation , in things civil only ; or at least that some other scripture should have as plainly restrained them , as this and other impowers them . which since it is no where done , we wrong both our selves and them , to abridge them herein . besides that , when our saviour tells us , his kingdom is not of this world , he sufficiently intimates , that it was neither necessary that he should , and that consequently he had no intention to alter the forms of government , or revoke the authority governours were in possession of . . it is generally acknowledged ( and accordingly practised ) that fathers and governours of families have authority in matters of religion within their own families , at least so far as the case in hand . who doubts but the father or head of a family may prescribe what chapters shall be read , what prayers used , what times shall be set apart for devotion , what postures , whether kneeling or standing , and being uncovered , who shall officiate in his family , and in what habit , with innumerable others of a like nature ? do the children or servants use to require of him an express scripture to authorize his commands , and to warrant their conformity , or else they will not obey ? and if he in his private capacity and narrow sphere hath this authority , with what colour of reason , or with what modesty , can every private man deny his prince what he arrogates to himself ? one would reasonably think , that as civil government arose out of paternal , it should by inheritance challenge that authority it was born to ; and besides that , as it hath a larger sphere and a greater concern , so it should have due to it proportionably a greater latitude of authority . . if the magistrate may determine those matters , then not only christian charity and humility , but also common prudence require us to presume of the wisdom and reasonableness of his determinations , and much more to obey them . it is enough to warrant and require our obedience , that a thing is the command of our superiour , and not beyond the sphere of his authority ; but if he have not only law but reason on his side too , then it is both a sin and a shame to disobey . now humility requiring that we think meanly and modestly of our own reasons , charity that we judge favourably of anothers , and prudence that we think best of the magistrates ; all these together make it our duty not only to obey , but to do it with all chearfulness imaginable . it is as great as it is a common mistake , to think charity and compassion only due from governours to their inferiours in the frame and composure of their laws ; for it is also as due from inferiours towards them , and that they reciprocally make a fair and candid interpretation of their injunctions , and that they indispose not themselves nor others to obedience by irreverent censures of the abilities , and suspicions and jealousies of the ends and intentions of the law-makers . it was a saying of greg. nazianzen , well worthy of so wise and peceable a man , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that any man the more conscious he is to himself of his own honesty and invincible integrity , so much the less prone he is to entertain sinister suspicions of the intentions of others . christian simplicity , as it means no hurt , so it doth not easily suspect any ; and humility and modesty require , that men think others intend as wisely and as honestly as themselves . charity , ( saith the apostle ) hopeth all things , believeth all things , beareth all things . but it is the genius of an evil man to suspect every man means mischief , because he doth so himself : whereas a good man supposes every man intends well ( at least till the contrary appear ) because consulting his own breast he finds that he doth so . for its natural for all men to take measures by themselves , nor is it more reasonable that men should do as they would be done unto , than it is common and usual for men to presume that of others which they are privy to in their own bosoms . it was an ingenious repartee , that tertullian made to the pagans in his apology ; they accused the christians that in their nocturnal assemblies , they took a little child and sealed their confederacy by eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the harmless infant : but saith he , since you only suspect and never saw this done , either you could do such a horrid thing your selves , and then you are monstrously unnatural ; or you could not , and then you are as unreasonable to suspect that done by others , which you do not think possible to be done by your selves . there is nothing more frequent than for a silly man to suppose there are no other nor better reasons of things , than what obviously appear , because if there be other or better , he cannot reach them . on the contrary , a wise man , when the surface of things is weak and mean , alwayes imagines there is some better foundation at the bottom , because he knows that he himself would not be led by such weak confiderations as those are that appear . if therefore we would approve our selves either humble , or charitable , or wise , or good , there is no better argument to demonstrate any of these by , than the censures we make upon the actions and intentions of others . and if any where it be of importance to give such a testimony of our selves , and to proceed by such measures , it is in the case of the magistrate , not only for the common equity , but also upon the account of the dignity of his place as gods minister , and the usefulness and necessity of his office and ministry . is it fit , saith elihu , chap. . . to be said unto princes , ye are ungodly , or to rulers , ye are wicked ? is it tolerable to repute our governours dolts and ideots ? to suspect they have no sense of their duty , or to reproach their sanctions as tyrannical , superstitious or antichristian ? if i must put the best construction the case will bear , upon the actions of my equal or inferiour , will it become me to make the harshest interpretation of publick laws and the actions of my superiours ? it was an unhappy slip of a great and worthy person , whose name i will conceal , for the reverence i bear to his profession and worth , when reflecting upon the statute of the fifth year of queen elizabeth concering the jejunium cecilianum , or the wednesday-fast ; he calls it a law and no law , a meer contradiction , a piece of nonsence . that it must bind the conscience if it be a law , but the law-makers ( saith he ) declare it shall not bind the conscience , and so it is no law : with a great deal more to that purpose . now the words of the statute are these ; it is declared penal , if any man shall say , that this fast is injoyned upon any necessity for the saving of the soul or the service of god , otherwise than other political laws be . had that excellent person read and considered these words , they would have afforded him no colour for the aforesaid imputation ; for the law-makers do not declare , that this law shall not bind the conscience , but the contrary , that it shall as other political laws do : but they take care that the end and reason of the law may be understood , which was not religious but political ( for the maintenance of the wars ) i say that clause in the statute had not the least intention of limiting or declaring the obligation of the law , but only of preventing rumours of superstitious designs in the end and intentions of the law-makers . nor is there any other the least passage in the law that gives countenance to the reflections he makes either upon the law it self or the law-makers . and i note it only for this end , that we may observe how much more prone men are to pass censures , than to consider to the bottom , the true state of the things we pass sentence upon . but to let pass that as a meer over-sight , it is intolerable to hear the immodest clamours that are raised upon meer mistakes and surmises . men , it seems , think to recommend themselves as persons both of more than ordinary sagacity and also of singular purity of conscience by finding faults of this kind . whereas did they indeed consider either the divine image born by magistrates , or the great consequence of publick peace , and well weighed how much that depends upon publick reputation and reverence , they would certainly choose some other subject to serve those little ends by . the scripture calls the magistrates , masters of restraint , judges . . ( see the hebrew ) and as such they must needs be an eye-sore and grievance to all loose and exorbitant persons , and consequently it is mightily to their wish , that authority should lose its force , and laws their veneration , and thereby the sinews of all society be loosened , that so their extravagancies may be uncontrolled , and their vices indemnified . therefore by how much it is the interest of all evil men to have magistracy and laws in contempt , by so much is it the wisdom and concern of all sober and virtuous men to strengthen those hands that others would enfeeble , and support that reputation they would infringe and violate . and those that consider this , will not out of levity , wantonness or rashness , controll laws , or dispute with magistrates about smaller matters , lest they thereby render them unable to protect them in their greater and more important concerns . nos ipsius dei imperium in imperatoribus suspicimus , said tertullian in the name of the christians in his time . they then made their interpretation of authority and laws in favour of obedience and of the governour ; they did not , as st. james expresses it , instead of being doers of the law , make themselves judges of the law , and law-makers too . nor will it be either a foolish charity or a blind obedience , to permit our selves to the conduct of our superiours in those little matters we discourse of , since we have great reason to perswade our selves , that as those that stand higher than we , may see further , so those that are concerned for the whole may give a better judgement , than those that respect but a part . and that we our selves may as easily lye under prejudice as they ; and be as much transported with consideration of ease and liberty , as they may probably be suspected to be with ambition . for why may not they have a reason for their actions which either we cannot reach , or are not come to the knowledge of ? especially since that may be best for the whole , that is less commodious to us in particular ; and by being so , it is not made unlawful for him ( that hath the charge and oversight of the whole ) to command , nor warrantable for us to disobey . nulla lex satis commoda omnibus , id modò quaeritur si majori parti & in summum prodest , said cato in livy . besides ( as i have intimated before ) there are no less different capacities of mind than constitutions of body , and as great a difference in mens outward circumstances as in either of the former ; therefore neither can the reasons of laws be equally understood , nor the matter of laws or the things imposed be equally easie and accommodate to the practice of all men . and consequently those that would have the laws exactly fitted to their own humour , without respect to other men , imitate the barbarous custome of the infamous procrustes , who is said to have either rackt all those persons that fell into his hands , and stretcht them to his own size if they were too short , or cut them off to his own proportion , if they were too long : so these men would exercise the same cruelty themselves ; which they forbid the magistrate , and lay down a principle of equal severity towards others , as of fondness and indulgence to themselves . till we can reconcile the divers constitutions ( i say ) of mind and body , the several humours and contrary interests of all men to one standard , it will be impossible that the wisest constitutions imaginable , should prevent all scruple , or be alike acceptable to all parties . either therefore there must be no laws made , which must be the ruine of the whole , or one of the parties must be content upon the account of publick good , that their private interests or opinions be less complyed with : that is , since the laws cannot be fitted to every man , some men must fit and accommodate themselves to the laws . and this being resolved on , the only question remaining will be , on which of the parties this shall fall ; that is , which shall bend to the law. and the decision of this will be very easie ; for though on the one side self-love and favour to our own perswasion incline us to contend for the case and incouragement of our own way , yet christian charity on the other side , requires as great a condescension to our brethren . and if now the scales seem even , then certainly the consideration of the magistrate and laws in being will be of weight enough to turn the balance , and that humility and obedience our religion teaches will prevail with us to leave it to publick wisdom to decide between both parties . and then the result of all will be , that instead of prescribing to the magistrate what he shall determine , or disputing what he hath concluded on ; we shall compose our minds and order our circumstances to the more easie and cheerful complyance therewith . and call to mind the saying of paulus aemilius , who when several of his souldiers would be suggesting to him , their several models of management , vos gladios acuite , bids them whet their swords and be ready to execute what should be commanded them , but leave the management of affairs to him their general . chap. vii . wherein christian liberty consists ; and that it doth not discharge us from obedience to laws . all that we have hitherto discoursed of the power of the magistrate , some think may be avoided by pleading the magna charta of christian liberty contained in the gospel . it will therefore be necessary in the next place to consider the true notion and extent of that . that there is such a charter is out of doubt , the new testament frequently making mention of it , putting of us in mind of the gratitude we owe to him that purchased it for us , of the price it cost him , and requiring us to stand fast in the liberty wherewith christ hath made us free , gal. . . but what are the contents of it , is not so well agreed on ; and indeed it is too evident that few of those that contend so much for it , and plead it upon all occasions , know what it is , or wherein it consists . it was a smart answer of a spartan captive , who being exposed to sale in the market , and there askt ( as the manner was ) by one that came to buy slaves , quid sciret , what he was good for , what business he understood : answered , scio quid sit liberum esse , i know what belongs to freedom . had christian liberty been all along as well understood as talked of , the religion had obtained more reputation , the church more peace , states and kingdoms more security , and more souls had gone to heaven : but for want of this , men have committed as gross errors as that tully complains of clodius for , that he set up simulacrum meretricis tanagraeae , the image of a famous harlot for that of liberty . the gnosticks about the apostles times pleaded christian liberty , both on the behalf of their cowardly revolts from christianity in times of persecutition , and of their sensual debaucheries : as if the knowledge of the truth gave a priviledge neither to profess nor practise it , when either the one proved too incommodious to their secular interests , or the other too disgustful to their sensual inclinations . others , and they also in the first times of christianity , thought christian liberty had been a civil infranchisement , and had extended so far as to cancell all bonds of peoples subjection to their princes , or of servants to their masters ; and hereupon like the pretence of zeal amongst the jews ( in their degenerate times ) christian liberty was the passport of fugitive servants , and the pretext for outrages and rebellions . and this made it necessary for the apostles almost in all their writings to press obedience to superiours . a third sort of men have mistaken this gospel liberty to be a discharge from the obligation of the moral law , and have been so prodigiously absurd as to take the gospel to contain nothing else properly , but a publication of gods promises or decrees rather , and to require only a bare assent to them or belief of them , and that those promises are absolute and without any condition of our obedience , save only as that should reciprocally become us by way of gratitude , not that justification or salvation depended upon it . this is the doctrine of the antinomians or modern libertines , and is a perswasion fit to debauch the whole world , were it not that few men can be so unreasonable as to believe it , though they would . but it is so contrary to the very name and nature of a covenant , which the gospel is styled to be , so expresly contrary to the whole design of christian doctrine , and goes so cross to the very sense of every honest mind , that i shall not spend any more time or words about it . there is a fourth mistake , which ( though i will not say it is equally dangerous with any of the former , yet ) is mischievous enough and equally false . that though the bonds of civil subjection are not quite dissolved by the gospel , yet that all christians are discharged from the interpositions of the magistrate in affairs of religion , and that there he ought no further to intermeddle , than he can produce express warrant from scripture for his particular injunctions . but if notwithstanding the governour shall arrogate to himself a larger sphere of authority , and make any definitions in religion , or especially the matters of the first table , it is then and in that case not only lawful for a good christian to refuse obedience , but that it is his duty so to do , to withstand an invasion of his christian liberty , and an incorachment upon the prerogative of god. this is the mistake that is most rife amongst us , and which hath given occasion to much of the unhappiness of this age. it is not my work laboriously to confute this opinion , nor do i think many words necessary in the case , yet of the many absurd consequences let us note these following . . this opinion makes all civil government the most ticklish and uncertain , and the condition of magistrates the most servile and precarious , that can well be imagined ; forasmuch as there is scarcely any thing can fall under their care and cognizance , or capable to be made matter of law or injunction , but hath such affinity to , or connexion with religion , as to be sufficient ( upon this principle ) to raise a dispute of jurisdiction . so that the case between the civil laws and religion will be like the condition of affairs that often happens in those places where the supremacy of the pope and court of rome is received , there is a perpetual contention about bounds and limits of jurisdiction between the civil and ecclesiastical courts ; for whilest the civil judge goes about to take cognizance of the cause , the ecclesiastical will ( it may be ) challenge the person as belonging to his jurisdiction : or if the person be laick and alieni fort , yet it will go hard but the cause shall be found to have some connexion with religion , and so the ecclesiastical court either directly or in ordine ad spiritualia draws all matters to it . and not unlike was the state of affairs a long while together in the kingdom and church of scotland by virtue of this very perswasion : the prince or the state could enact nothing almost but the kirk-men found themselves grieved and religion concerned , and excommunication is denounced : the kirk on the other side make their decrees , and the civil power declares them null , and grants prohibitions , &c. he that will satisfie himself of the truth of these things and thereby convince himself of the mischief of the principle we are speaking of , let him read the judicious history of the church of scotland written by the most reverend arch-bishop spot swood : and he shall find that this unhappy notion raised and maintained for many years a bellum limitaneum , and that it is like the marches or bateable ground betwixt two bordering potentates , a scene of contention and a field of blood . whereas did we agree of certain limits , and make the magistrates power and province extend to all that which god hath not taken in by express law , both gods glory and the magistrates authority would be kept entire , and there would be neither cause nor room for controversie . . this opinion at once condemns all the states and kingdoms in the whole world of impiety and irreligion , forasmuch as there neither is , nor ever hath been any such constitution , as hath not had some laws of religion that could not be deduced particularly from the scriptures . and so he that is of this perswasion and will be true to it , is bound in conscience to be a rebel where-ever he lives . . it is an unreasonable fear , a meer melancholy jealousie , and express superstition instead of religion , to suspect that either the magistrate can offend in making , or the people in obeying such laws as ( though they are not expresly warranted , yet ) are no where forbidden by the scripture . for it is a supposition that a man may be a sinner , when yet he breaks no law , contrary to the express words of st. john , ep. . . who defineth sin to be a transgression of a law. and as is the usual genius of all superstition , it mis-represents god as cruel and tyrannical , that can condemn men ex post sacto , for doing of that against which there was no law in being . but , . which is most observable , this doctrine instead of asserting christian liberty , in truth subverts it , and layes far more severe bonds upon the consciences of men than the very law of moses did . that was a yoke ( say the apostles , acts . . ) which neither we nor our fathers were able to bear , upon this account , especially , because it injoyned a great number of little observances , which by their multitude were hard to be remembred , by their nicety difficult to be observed , and by their meer positive nature , and having no essential goodness in themselves , had less power upon the consciences of men to awaken their care and diligence about them . it is manifest that law contained no precept that was in it self impossible to be performed , but because it is hard for the mind of man to attend to many things at once , especially if also the things in which his care and obedience is required be such , as are not enacted in his conscience , and when he can see no other reason of , or advantage by his obedience , but meerly his obedience , therefore was that law called impossible . now if a man were bound by the gospel to avoid all those particulars that were commanded by moses , it is plain , the servitude and the difficulty would be the same ; but if not only so , but he be also bound to avoid all that which the scripture is silent in , his obligation is infinite , and his servitude intolerable . for positives are determinate and definite , and so fall more easily within our care and attention : but negatives are infinite , and therefore such a yoke must be properly impossible . these mistakes therefore being removed , the true notion of christian liberty will best be understood , if we consider , that in the times of the old testament , the visible church of god was inclosed within a narrow pale , and none could be members of it , without submission to circumscision and the other rites of judaism . whence it came to pass , that at the first publication of the gospel , it was a riddle and an astonishment to the very apostles themselves , that the gentiles were to be taken into it . and when the effecting this was taken in hand , acts . . the jewish christians stood upon their priviledge , and would not admit the gentile converts into society , nor become of one body with them , unless they would be circumcised and keep the law. hereupon a council is called , and there the apostles find out a temper and middle way for both parts to meet in for the present , which was that the gentile converts should submit to the terms of proselytism at large or the precepts given to the sons of noah , as some understand the passage , or ( as is indubitable ) that they should comply with the jews in these three things , of abstaining from fornication , from things strangled , and from blood . and on the other side , the jewish converts should abate of their rigor , and not require of the gentiles the strict terms of compleat judaism . at which decision the gentile christians were transported with joy , rejoyced at the consolation , v. . for ( as i said ) till then , none could be of the same body with the jews in respect of visible church society , without circumcision and universal submission to the law of moses . this therefore was an expedient for the present , till the jews should be by degrees better instructed in the liberty of that christian religion they had lately received . but when the gospel was fully published , then the aforesaid inclosure is laid open , and all nations invited into the society of the church upon equal terms , neither party being bound to those nice laws of moses , nor any other but those plain and reasonable ones contained in the gospel , and such other ( not contradictory to them ) as publick wisdom , peace and charity should dictate and recommend . and to this purpose is the observation of eusebius in his praepaeratio evangelica , that christianity is nothing else but the old patriarchal religion revived , a restitution of that primitive simplicity and liberty that was before the law of moses , and that now there lyes no more bonds upon the consciences of christians , than did upon the antient patriarchs , saving those improvements our saviour hath made upon the law of nature , and those few positive institutions of his expresly set down in the gospel . and that men obeying these are at liberty to conform to whatsoever common reason and equity , or publick authority shall impose . and this discourse of eusebius is in effect the same with that of the apostle , rom. . and gal. . especially v. . where he puts this question , wherefore then served the law ? he answers , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it was added , &c. it was a kind of interim , or like a parenthesis , which when it shall be left out , the former and latter parts joyn together again , without any interruption of the sence . that is , when this interim or temporary provision of the law shall be taken away , the primitive patriarchal religion and that brought in by our saviour shall seem to be of one piece , the latter beginning where the former ended . the contents then of the great charter purchased for us , and brought in by our lord jesus , are these ; that beside the freeing of us from the power and dominion of sin , which the law of moses could not do , and from the tyranny of sathan which the gentile world lay under till christ came ; i say , besides these ( which are no matters of our present dispute ) our christian infranchisement discharges us not only from a necessity of observing the mosaick law and rites of judaism , but further and especially sets our consciences at liberty to pursue our own reason , and to obey any laws of men that shall not contradict the express laws of the gospel . that we are as perfectly free as those were that lived before any scripture was written , as to all those things that are not determined in those scriptures ; and that within all that sphere we may without guilt or burden upon our consciences , serve all the interests of peace and order in the world . and consequently , that neither the magistrate need to fetch a particular warrant from the scripture to authorize his prescriptions , nor we an express licence thence to legitimate our respective obedience ; but the former may freely consult his own reason , common prudence and the interest of his government , and the latter their own peace and tranquillity . this is true and real freedom , when with a good and a quiet conscience we may conform our selves to the wisdom of our superiours , and the interests of society ; when i have a power in utramque , and may do or leave undone all those matters that are not defined in scripture , according as publick laws and the ends of all society shall require . and that this is the true notion of christian liberty will appear further by this , that the apostle in several of his epistles , but especially that to the romans , injoyns the christians in their scruples about eating or not eating of certain meats , and in the conduct of themselves in all such matters , to consult charity towards their weak brethren , the peace of the church , and their own edification ; that is , such principles of resolving scruples as before i described , and bids them not to apply themselves to any scripture , or to expect a determination of such questions thence . see rom. . , , , , , . and chap. . v. , &c. from whence these two things follow . . that christian liberty doth consist in a freedom in utramque , that is , that antecedently to the considerations of prudence , peace and charity , it is equally in the power of a christian to do or not do any or all those things that are not expresly forbidden by the holy scriptures : and that where the scripture is silent the conscience is free in the general , and only to be determined by those considerations . . that it is no infringement , but an exercise of this liberty , actually to be determined to that side towards which prudence or charity shall incline , though in the mean time the other side be in the general as lawful as that . hence it is that we find liberty and condescension or self-denyal joyned together by st. paul , gal. . . ye have been called unto liberty , only use not liberty as an occasion to the flesh , but by love serve one another ; and by st. peter , ep. . . as free , yet not using your liberty as a cloke of maliciousness , but as the servants of god. which two places are so clear in themselves , as no commentary can make them more so , and so full to our purpose , that nothing further can reasonably be desired . and so these two points thus gained , will give abundant foundation for a third to be inferred from them , viz. that whatsoever is so free to me that i may do it or not do it , according as i shall be inclined by the consideration of brotherly charity and compassion , must of necessity be also as free to me to obey the magistrate and serve publick peace and order in , without either prostitution of my liberty , or violation of gods right and prerogative . for whatsoever i may do in compassion to my brothers infirmity , surely that i may much more do in reverence to gods ordinance , the lawful magistrate ; which is the point we have all this while drove at . chap. viii . of a tender conscience , what it is , and its priviledges . if pleading our charter of christian liberty will not give us a discharge from obedience to our superiours , whether in things sacred or civil , as i have proved it cannot , yet possibly the plea of a tender conscience may . this is thought to have not only a priviledge , but a kind of prerogative , to carry with it an exemption from all humane laws whatsoever , but especially ecclesiastical . it pretends to be gods peculiar , and exempt from any inferiour cognizance , like the monastick orders in the church of rome , which are immediately and only subject to the pope , so this to gods tribunal and none else : nay , it looks like a dictatorian authority , and seem to be legibus soluta . this ( they would make us believe ) can limit the magistrate , null laws , forbid execution , and which is yet more , change the very nature of things , and make that good and holy which was wicked and rebellious before . this can canonize any opinion , legitimate any action , warrant any extravagancy in the person that owns it . the man of a tender conscience may pass all guards ; all mounds and barrs that are set to confine others , must be open to him . he is a righteous man , and for him there is no law , no controllment , no punishment . the tenderness of his conscience is an inviolable sanctuary , and he that meddles with such a man , is a fighter against god. make use of the best arguments to convince him , discourse to him with the greatest evidence , he is not bound to hear you , his conscience is his priest , prophet and king too , he hangs and draws and all within himself ( as we say ; ) whatsoever he thinks can be no heresie , and whatsover he does can be no sin . unless therefore we can pull down this usurper , we must look for no magistracy , and except we discover the weakness and absurdity of this pretension , all endeavours of restoring uniformity in the church will be vain and useless . let us . therefore consider what conscience is in general , and then we shall better come to understand the grounds and strength of this mighty pretender : . what a tender conscience is ; . what priviledges or exemptions it may lay claim to . . what conscience is . and indeed the original of the mistake in this matter seems to lye here ; some have given such pompous and romantick descriptions of conscience , that they have beguiled men into an apprehension that it is far a mightier potentate than indeed it is . i have read of a vulgar person , who first having heard himself resembled to the prince for stature and complexion , and afterwards heightned up into the conceit by the flatteries of some and arts of others that had ends to serve by him , came at last to conceit himself to be the prince indeed , and gave sufficient trouble to the king in possession . men have spoken so magnificently of conscience , that divers have grown into a belief , that it was some ghost or spirit , and little thought it was nothing but their own inconsiderable selves . it is called a tutelar genius , a familiar , a domestick deity , a god within men , and at least gods vicegerent inthroned in our bosoms . now under these disguises men have been ready to fall down and worship themselves , and like the pagans , have given divine honours to their own passions ; but the least that could follow from such premises , was that the magistrate must strike sail to this admired numen . hence probably quakerism took its rise , the men of which way are generally a stubborn and incurable generation : bring scripture or reason or any authority against them , they slight all , and only appeal to the light within them , that mighty deity , that internal christ , their conscience . hence also it 's probable , that mischievous principle arose , that it is lawful to do evil that good may come of it , in spite of the apostle : and it is believed that for a good cause , and under a good intention ( that is , the perswasion of our conscience , ( especially if providence also smile upon our undertakings , and incourage us with hopes of success , ) that it is lawful for any man of what quality soever to set up for a reformer and turn the world upside down . nay ; so far have some been bewildred by these cloudy and misty descriptions , that whatsoever humour hath been predominant in their bodies , whatever passion of their mind , whatever prejudice of education , or interest , or profit , all this hath past for conscience , and under that name been uncontrollable . but now if such men would consider , and loved plain english , and to understand what they say , conscience is neither god , nor angel , nor spirit , nor any thing that will bear all that weight is thus laid upon it . but is plainly this and no more ; namely , it is a mans own mind or understanding under the distinct consideration of reflecting upon himself , his own actions and duty . when we take notice of things that do not concern us morally , then this notice is called understanding only , or mind , or opinion , or science , or some such name ; but when we consider whether a thing be good or evil morally , lawful or unlawful , that is , whether it be agreeable to such a rule of action or suitable to the end of eternal happiness , then we call this notice or reflection of our mind , conscience . now when we speak thus plainly , a great part of the aforesaid legendary conceits vanish ; for scarcely any man that sayes his conscience is incontrollable , will say his own opinion or reason is the ultimate rule of his actions : but will confess he may as a man err and be mistaken , and therefore hath need of a guid , or some law or light to direct him . therefore it is plain , that men deceive themselves with metaphors , with words and phrases . some man perhaps will say , that allowing conscience to be nothing but the mind of man as aforesaid , yet even so it is subject to no humane laws , forasmuch as no man can force me to think otherwise than i do , nor compell me to be of his opinion in the inward sence of my mind : my mind therefore or conscience is only obnoxious to god. but the answer to this is easie , that though it be true , that neither men can know my thoughts , nor put any constraint upon the free actings of my mind ; yet for all this , since my mind is not infallible , i may and must needs have something to guide my mind , in its judgement and determinations , and that is it which we call law ; and though this cannot force me to follow its direction , yet it morally obliges me , that is , it will be my sin if i do not . in short ; the most that mind or conscience can pretend to , is to be a judge , yet is it but such a judge as is subject to the laws , and they must guide it , as that guides the man , or otherwise its petty soveraignty that it pretends to , will not secure it from the wrath of the great soveraign of the world , by whom kings reign . but if it be further objected , that we are notwithstanding bound to obey the dictates of our mind or conscience before any law or command of any humane authority whatsoever , if they happen to interfere . i answer , it is true in things notoriously and plainly evil , and the reason is , ( not because my mind or conscience supersedes the law of the magistrate , but ) because some higher law of god or reason by which my conscience is guided , hath in that case made a nullity in the law of the magistrate ; for if my conscience have not the direction and warranty of such superiour law , the meer opinion of my mind or conscience will afford me no security , for where those are silent , there the law of the magistrate is the immediate rule of my conscience ; and then to oppose or contradict that , is to affront the publick tribunal with a private consistory , and to set my own opinion against gods institution . if yet it be further urged , that if after all my consideration of the reason of publick laws , i cannot satisfie my self of the lawfulness of the thing commanded , i must then govern my self by my conscience , and not by the law. i reply , that if the unlawfulness of the thing commanded is not as plain and visible , as the command of god for obeying authority is , my opinion or conscience will be no excuse to me , because i forsake a certain rule to follow an uncertain . but if after all endeavours of satisfying my self to obey the humane law , yet the thing commanded by the magistrate ( however innocent it may be in it self ) seems to me as plainly unlawful , as obedience is plainly a duty , i say this case is pittyable , and will make some abatement of the sin of disobedience , but doth not totally excuse it , much less make a nullity of the law. it cannot make the law null ; for that depends upon its own reasonableness and the authority enacting it , and not upon the conceptions of men . nor can it totally excuse from sin , for sin is the transgression of a law , according to the definition of the apostle . all therefore that can be allowed in the case is , that by reason of such a mans unhappy circumstances , his disobedience will then be only a sin of infirmity , which is pittyable amongst men upon consideration of common humanity , and is pardonable with god as other errors are upon a general repentance . . now let us proceed to consider what a tender conscience is , and how that will alter the case . and it is no more easie to find out what men mean by tenderness , than what they meant by conscience . doubtless when men speak of a tender conscience , they do not mean such an one as will endure no check or restraint , that like an unbroken horse will admit of no rein of government : nor yet a nice and phantastical conscience , that can brook nothing contrary to its own humour . these at the first view are plainly vitious and most of all need and deserve the restraint of laws , and to be inured to that they so stubbornly decline . nor yet on the other side , can tenderness be taken in the same latitude with a good conscience . every good man hath such a tenderness as to be afraid of sin , and to decline the occasions and temptations to it ; and it would be too arrogant and presumptuous for those that plead the tenderness of their consciences , to suppose themselves the only men that make conscience of what they do ; for then the contrary to a tender conscience must be a brawny and obdurate or stupid conscience : which it would be too contumelious to reproach all other men but themselves with . it remains then , that that which is meant by tenderness , is something betwixt these two ; namely , neither a steady well instructed , nor yet a sturdy and rebellious conscience , but a weak , unsetled and timorous one . and now having before resolved conscience in general to be nothing but the mind or practical understanding , a tender conscience will be nothing but either an ignorant or uninstructed mind , or a sickly , melancholy and superstitious understanding . and then to speak plainly , a man of a tender conscience is such a person , as being right and honest for the main , yet either through the weakness of his intellectuals or prejudices of his education , or through the melancholy of his constitution , doth not rightly understand his duty , and consequently is apt to doubt and scruple and fear where no fear is ; and by this mistake ( from the causes aforesaid ) renders those things evil to himself that are not so in themselves . now this being so , that a tender conscience is this and no more , a man will justly wonder whence it should come to pass , that either the pretence of such a conscience should be a matter of ambition as we see it is with some , and much more that it should be thought fit to give laws to the world as it seems to be the mind of others . however we grant it pittyable , but before we shew what priviledges it may claim , we will a little unfold more particularly the qualifications it must have to be able to sue out its priviledges . and in general i have said already , that such a person must be right and sincerely honest for the main . now of that he that pleads tender conscience , must give proof in these following instances . . he that pleads for compassion upon the account of his weakness , must be so ingenuous as willingly to submit himself to instruction , for he that scorns it , and thinks himself wiser than all the world besides , of all men hath the least right to make this plea. i do not see how he that hath the confidence to be a preacher to others , or a disputer for opinions , can pretend to the priviledges of that tenderness we speak of . for either a man owns himself an ignorant or a knowing man ; if he be an ignorant man , he ought not to take upon him to teach others , but to learn ; if he be a knowing man , he ought not to scruple , but to obey . . he that pretends tenderness of conscience , must make good his claim by being uniformly conscientious ; that is , making as much conscience in other things , as that he pleads exemption from . otherwise it will be but pharisaism , to strain at a gnat and swallow a camel. davids heart smote him when he cut off the skirt of saul 's garment , but it would never have been called tenderness of conscience in david , if at another time he should have attempted the life of saul . st. austin speaks of some that prescribed to themselves stricter limits of matrimony than the laws did , per mores non fiebat quod per leges licebat , & factum horrebatur licitum , ob vicinitatem illiciti . but then , they were severly holy men in all their conversation , otherwise this would have deserved no better esteem than superstition in them or worse . he that shall scruple a ceremony , and neglects an institution of christ , that dares not kneel at the sacrament , but dares neglect the communion , that scruples the observation of lent , but scruples not sensuality or lust , drunkenness or gluttony , that is afraid to eat blood , but not afraid to shed the blood of men , that will abstain from things strangled , but not from fornication : let such a man pretend what he will , he neither hath nor can plead the priviledges of a tender conscience . . he that is truly tender , if he cannot do all that he is commanded , will yet do all that he can . he will not make the breach wider , nor the distance greater than needs must , lest he should betray more of humour and stomach than conscience . he that cannot bow at the name of jesus , yet perhaps can stand up at the creed ; or if not that neither , yet probably he can be present at it . he that cannot kneel when he is required , may express so much reverence as to stand ; and he that is not satisfied in all the parts of the publick prayers , may possibly be able to come to church ; or if none of these , yet at least . he that cannot perform what the laws require of him , may forbear judging and censuring those that do . his conscience is a rule to himself , but doth not oblige him to pass severe censures upon all other men . it is a very proud conscience that will transcend its own province , and prescribe to all the world besides . if he be weak and ignorant , it is very unsuitable that he should carry himself as the only sagacious man , and make his mind the publick standard of truth and falshood , of good and evil . for in so doing he contradicts himself , pleads ignorance and pretends knowledge , would be dealt with as the most weak , but deals by others as if he was the most strong and skilful . the man of a tender conscience finds it enough to rule and judge his own actions , but leaves other men to their own masters . he is so modest upon the sense of his own defects , and consequently so charitable as to think other men may know a reason of that he is not satisfied in . but they that must erect a judicature for all those that differ from them , and arraign them of superstition or popery , that are not of their own mind , shall sooner convict themselves of pride and pragmaticalness , than give proof of any true tenderness of conscience . . the truly tender conscience will freely part with money and whatever else uses to be valuable of that kind to preserve its own innocency and peace , and is far from the humour of pretending conscience to advance his gain , or excuse his purse . if such a man cannot conform to the laws , yet he can pay the penalty ; if he cannot go to church , he can pay his tythes : otherwise it is his money he is tender of , and not his conscience ; his god is his gain , and his profit his conscience . he that comes up to these five points of honesty , may be heard in his plea of tenderness , and no man else . and now i will in the last place shew what consideration is to be had of such a case , and that in these three particulars . . every private christian is bound in charity and compassion towards such a man , to deny himself of some part of his liberty , to please and to gain him . that is , in those things that are the matter of no law , but left free and undeterminate , there the rule of the apostle takes place , rom. . , . we that are strong , ought to bear the infirmities of the weak , and not to please our selves . and let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification . i say , in such things as are not the matter of any law , for i may not do evil that good may come of it ; i must not break either the laws of god or man out of an humour of complaisance to my brother , for this were as we say , to rob peter to pay paul , or to commit theft or sacriledge , that i may give alms. but in such things , as both the laws of god and man have left me at liberty , and at my own dispose , i may then justly and ought in charity to consider his weakness , rather than use my own strength ; and ought not to walk over rocks and precipices , where i know the infirmity of others is such that they cannot follow me . for though my own strength would bear me up , yet it were very charitable to descend from that height which i know others cannot climb up to without giddiness . to do all that i may do without danger to my self , and not at all to regard what othes can comply with , or to use my own liberty to the offence of others , is to be unchristian and uncharitable . it is to surfeit of my own abundance when my brother is in want . and in this sense only are we to understand all these discourses of the apostle about scandal and offence . in those times the magistrate being pagan , took no care of the church , nor had passed any laws concerning the manage of the christian religion ; therefore whatsoever god had left free and undetermined , was so still : so that the christians had a great deal of scope and room for mutual condescension , and accordingly the apostle exhorts them , that in all that materia libera , they should by love serve one another . and with great equity ; for he that will provoke his brother to sin , by doing that which he himself can omit without sin , is guilty of sin in so doing . but the case is quite otherwise when there is a law in being ; for if my brother will be offended , unless i break a law to comply with him , in that case charity begins at home , as we say , i must look to my self first , and if he take offence , he doth take it where it is not given , for i do but my duty . and as i may and must give alms of what is my own , and what i can spare from my own occasions , but am neither bound to deprive my self of necessaries , that i may serve any mans needs , nor much less to rob another of his right , that i may furnish him that wants ; so the same charity requires that in all those cases where no law of god or man hath restrained my liberty , i there consider the infirmity of a another , rather than the pleasing of my self . and that this is it which st. paul meant in all those passages , appears by consideration of the instance he gives in himself , and wherewith he concludes the argument , cor. . . wherefore if meat make my brother to offend , i will eat no flesh while the world stands . the eating of flesh was under no law , and consequently he should not offend if he forbore it , therefore he resolves that he would abridge himself of his own liberty , rather than offend another . . it becomes the wisdom and compassion of a christian magistrate so far to consider the satisfaction of peoples minds as well as the peace and safety of his dominions , as not to make those things the matter of his laws which he foresees mens weakness will make them boggle at : unless there be weighty reasons on the other hand to counterballance that consideration . such as , that the things which some scruple , are nevertheless necessary to government , or grateful to a greater or more considerable part of his subjects . if without these considerations he shall however constitute such laws , i will not say such laws are therefore null , ( for the weakness of people doth not take away his power ) but i will say they are unkind and ungracious . but those considerations being supposed , that is , if such constitutions as are apt to be scrupled by some , be yet either necessary to government , or very grateful to the more considerable part of his subjects , he hath then no obligation upon him to consider the offence of a few , but the good and safety of the whole . yet when those interests are secured , there is great scope for his compassion , and consequently it is the duty of a good magistrate ( as of a good shepherd ) to drive as the cattle can go . . if it shall be found necessary upon the considerations before intimated , or any the like , to make such things matter of law that were before indifferent in themselves , and which being so made , are likely to be scrupled by those who ought to obey ; it becomes a christian magistrate who considers he governs men and not beasts , to afford means of instruction to such weak and scrupulous persons , and competent time for those instructions to take place , and in the mean time to suspend rigorous executions . for it is not in mens power to believe what they list , much less what others would have them : and it hath alwayes been found that force without instruction hath been prevalent only upon the worst of men , and set the more conscientious farther off by prejudice . but after such instruction afforded and time allowed , if then such persons be not rightly informed and satisfied , yet the magistrate is unblameable , for he commands but what is reasonable in it self , and he hath done what lay in him , that mens judgements might be convinced , and conscience quieted . it is very observable that in the council held by the apostles at jerusalem , acts . of which i have sometimes made mention , whilst there was hopes of gaining the jews to christianity , and until they had time to be sufficiently instructed in it if they would , for so long time the apostles used them with great tenderness , and as it appears made that decree in complyance with them , whereby they abridged the gentiles of the exercise of a considerable part of their christian liberty in meer condescension to the jews : but after such time as the jews might have been sufficiently instructed , but remained incurable and obstinate , then this indulgence grew into desuetude , and the gentiles resumed their due liberty . from the same consideration was it that st. paul ( as i also observed before ) practised circumcision in the case of timothy , which he otherwise declared useless and dangerous . and again upon the same grounds did the apostolical canons enjoyn the observation of the jewish sabbath as well as the lords day , and several other things were both acted by private christians , and decreed by the authority of councils in favour of the jews , till they appeared no longer pittiably weak and ignorant , but contumacious and intractable . and as the elder christians did by the jews , so seems the great constantine to have done by the pagans ; he considered that those that had beèn all their life-time kept in the darkness of gentilism , could not presently bear so great a light as christianity . therefore though he zealously recommended it , yet he did not presently make it penal not to be a christian , but for a time gave every one leave to be of what religion he would , to choose his own god and his own way of worship . in the mean time care was taken , that all should have opportunity of understanding the truth if they would , which when they had enjoyed for a competent time , he then requires all the roman empire to imbrace christianity . this last instance i confess fits not the very matter we have in hand , which is touching things in their own nature indifferent : but it agrees with the general reason of proceeding , which is sufficient to my purpose . but now after all this , if people will not be instructed , but shall be so ridiculous as to pride themselves in their folly , and glory to continue weak , when they may be strong , that is , will affect ignorance , to countenance disobedience , i see no obligation upon the magistrate either to forbear to make or execute such laws as he apprehends for the good of his government , as i said before . and so i hope i have cleared this point , that though a tender conscience hath its priviledges , yet it hath not such a prerogative as to null the laws , or suspend the power of the magistrate in the sphere of religion . and therefore this pretence will be no longer an excuse for mens non-conformity to the laws and church of england . chap. ix . the great dishonour that disobedience to laws and magistrates , and the distractions of government do to any profession of religion whatsoever . having , as i think , sufficiently demonstrated the sin and mischiefs of schism , and evacuated all the excuses and palliations of it from the plea of christian liberty or the pretence of tender conscience , i cannot see what should remain able to perpetuate our distractions , unless it be a point of honour , that some think themselves obliged to persevere , because they have begun : a humour like that tull notes and taxes in the stoicks , that when arguments failed them , constancy supplyed that defect , and that they were not deserted of their courage , when they were destitute of reason . it is , i confess , too common with men , to the intent that they may not seem to have had a bad and indefensible cause at first , they will indeavour to give it reputation by the courage and constancy of the defendants , whereby they hope to gain one of these points , that either by victory they shall have it adjudged to them , or at least extort honourable conditions to lay down arms , which is a kind of parting stakes . hereupon it is far more easie to convince men , than to satisfie them , because at last it comes to be a contention of honour and spirit , and not a debate of truth . they say , nothing subdues english spirits but cession and condescension ; yield them a little , and they will in bravery and generosity , give you up all the rest : but if you continue to contend , they will fight , not because it 's either hopeful or necessary , neither because they can reasonably hope to obtain the victory , nor because they must be ruined if they do not , but because they cannot brook the dishonour of being vanquisht . honour is a kind of gentile conscience , and tender like that too . and i confess , though it be a very virtuous , yet it is no very easie thing , to come about perfectly , to change ones course , and to proclaim ones self to have been in the wrong before , to forgo a mans opinion and his reputation together , wholly to yield up the cause we have long contended for , without any conditions to salve our honour , without abatement , qualification or comprehension . for though wise men will censure our obstinacy if we persist , yet the multitude will reproach us with levity and cowardize if we retreat . and though many a man could contentedly give up himself to the instruction of the few , yet to be exposed to the contumelies of the vulgar is harsh and uneasie . this consideration hath , i acknowledge , a great deal of rhetorick , and i doubt prevails with not a few in our present case . i will therefore endeavour to shew the unreasonableness of it in these two points . . i affirm , that it is no real dishonour , but a manly generosity and a christian virtue to change our minds upon mature deliberation , and the evidence of better reason . indeed to change we know not why , or meerly because we are weary of old things , is a vitious levity ; or upon new interests to espouse new perswasions , is base and unworthy either of a christian or a man : yet on the other side , obstinately to maintain whatever we have asserted , is as far from christian stability and perseverance , as it is from ingenuity . that very temper which our saviour requires in his disciples , and which is the preparatory disposition to the entertainment of christianity , especially consists in a simplicity of mind ; and an indifferency to comply with whatsoever shall best recommend it self to our faculties . and whosoever is not of this disposition , it was meerly by chance that he became a christian ; or whatsoever opinions he hath better than any other man , nothing is owing to his virtue , but his fortune ; and he is not the better man , but had the happier education . for since no man is infallible , nor hath an intuitive knowledge of things , he must either make himself a meer machine to be filled and moved by others , and receive without discrimination whatsoever is instilled into him by others , that doth not think it becomes him to leave room for better reasons , and further light in all such matters as we speak of , and where almighty god hath not once for all expresly delivered himself . and those are not only the most ingenuous men , but ordinarily the most useful also , that are what they are , not by instinct and the prejudices of education , but by conviction and argument . in short , he that resolves never to change his opinion , nor hopes to be wiser than he is , either will be alwayes a fool , or hath the fortune of such an one , or both . now then , he that seeing reason to incline him to take new measures , shall yet upon secular considerations think fit not to own a change , may have the reputation of a cunning man , but never of an honest , and shall lose more in the judgement of wise men , than he shall gain with the vulgar . . epecially let it be considered , how much the honour of our religion is of more value than our personal reputation , and how much that is concerned in the peaceable and obedient temper of all those that pretend to it ; and withal , what it suffers in defect of this : and surely a due sense of these things will have such weight with all those that are sincerely christian , as to depress and keep down the turgency of our phancy and vain glory . it was an effectual course haman took , esther . . ( and he had wit in his malice , ) when he designing to ruine the whole church of the jews , first undermines the reputation of their profession , delates their religion as not fit for the protection of the prince , and that it contained laws contrary to all people , and that they would not obey the kings laws . there is nothing casts so indeleble a blemish upon religion as when the professors of it are turbulent , unperswadable , ungovernable . when that which should strengthen the hands of the magistrate , shall weaken them , when that which should ease his care and save the labour of his animadversions , shall it self awaken and raise his jealousie ; when that which should enact his laws in the very consciences of men , shall pretend to abrogate or dispense with them ; when men shall smite and break the two tables one against another , and put other limitations and conditions upon princes than god hath , and pretend a revocation of the broad seal of civil authority by the privy signet of religion : whereever this is done , that prince or magistrate had need be a very devout man indeed , that casts a benign aspect upon that profession which hath so malignant an influence upon his government . and all considering men will with great reason doubt , whether that religion be of god that gives such trouble to his vicegerent , and whether that will carry men to heaven hereafter , that makes tumults , confusions and a hell upon earth . but i have said so much to this business heretofore , when i considered the mischiefs of schism , that i shall need to say the less now . only let me observe , that the more raised and elevated any religion pretends to be , the more it professes a contempt of this world , the more it speaks of patience , contentation , humility , and the more it glories in the hopes of another world , still the more horribly absurd and contradictious will it be , that this should give countenance to disobedience and disturbance of government . i have also noted before , that it was the great advantage christianity had for the planting it self in the world , that it disturbed no setled form , made no noise or commotion , but fell like the dew of heaven upon a fleece of wooll . our saviour himself was so careful of giving offence , that he not only gave no jealousie to those in possession of the government , but also abridged his own liberty , rather than he would seem to retrench their power . st. paul when he was accused by an eloquent orator tertullus , acts . . as a mover of sedition , doth with equal eloquence disprove the charge , and detest the crime . and that the generality of christians were of the same temper and spirit , tertullian gives ample testimony . externi sumus , & vestra omnia implevimus , urbes , insulas , castella , municipia , castra ipsa , tribus , decurias , palatium , senatum , forum , &c. cui bello non idenei , &c. apol. c. . we want , saith he , neither numbers , nor leaders , nor spirit , to inable us for any attempt ; but that we have learnt to suffer ill , and not to do it , to obey and submit , not to contend with our rulers . and ammianus marcellinus , a pagan souldier in julian's army , and therefore the more undeniable witness in the case , gives this short description of the christian religion , nil nisi justum suadet & lene : it is , saith he , compounded of nothing but mildness and innocency . it makes men just and honest , it fills mens hearts with virtuous principles , but not their heads with troublesome niceties ; it teaches men not to be troublers of the world , but to go quietly and inoffensively through it , with as little noise and provocation as is possible , and so to arrive at eternal rest and peace in heaven . and as this is the known glory of christianity in general , so it was peculiarly of the english reformation in particular , as i shewed before . it was brought in by the prince , not by the rout of people ; it was establisht orderly by law , did not force its way by popular tumult , and was truly what it ought to be , a revival of primitive purity and simplicity . and it is infinite pity , that its glory should afterwards be stained by the insolence and impatience of those that pretend to it . it is a great blot in the writings of mr. calvin , that after he had discoursed rarely well of the power of princes and the duty of subjects , in the last chapter of his institutions and the one and thirtieth paragraph , he undoes all again with an unhappy exception , in these words , de privatis hominibus semper loquor : a passage of that ill aspect upon government , that it is suspected by some , and not altogether without cause , that most of the confusions of kingdoms which have happened since , and especially the troubles of this nation , have received incouragement , if not taken rise from thence . but whether that be so or no , it is certain that it hath furnisht the papists with a recrimination upon the protestant doctrine , when we have charged theirs as blowing a trumpet to sedition and rebellion . and though the true protestant doctrine be as innocent , as theirs is guilty in this kind , yet if it can be objected against us , that our churches are alwayes infested with divisions , and the states under which we live , imbroyled in troubles , we have reason to be concerned , forasmuch as we have no reason to expect that our adversaries will be so just or charitable , as to distinguish betwixt the faults of the doctrine and the miscarriages of those that profess it , but will be sure to involve both in the dishonour . for it cannot be , but that either the seed must be very bad , that brings forth such fruit , or the soil very corrupt , that makes good seed so degenerate ; that is , either the religion must be very faulty , that fills men generally with so bad principles , or at least , the men must be extreamly evil , that debauch good doctrine . and whether soever of these two things be concluded on , ( as it is certain one must and both may ) we ill consult either for our selves or our profession that by our divisions , disputes , turbulencies and disobedience , make the aforesaid dilemma inevitable . and all the wit and courage we shew in defending our private opinions , and maintaining our several parties , when the common cause and interest is by this means rendred odious and contemptible , is but like the foolish sollicitude of him that shall be adorning his private cabin , when the ship is sinking . and those men have little cause to triumph in their particular successes , who lose to a common enemy whatever they gain upon one another . chap. x. the danger by our distractions and divisions . if neither the consideration of the sin of schism , nor of the dishonour to our religion by our divisions will prevail to unite us , yet perhaps the apprehension of danger may . it was observed of old , that the conquest of this island by the romans was facilitated by the intestine divisions of the inhabitants , and said , dum singuli pugnant universi vincuntur ; whereas had they consulted in common , and made a joynt defence , they had doubtless either preserved their liberty , or at least sold it at a dearer rate . and we have too great cause to fear the religions interests of this nation now , may be endangered upon the same point that the civil were lost then ; i mean , that whilest we contend with one another , and with our rulers about little things , we lose the main , and by the opportunity of our divisions and subdivisions , a common enemy break in upon us . it is certain , that no advantage can more encourage the attempt or befriend the designs of our adversaries , than the present condition of our affairs ; and therefore unless we could be so fond as to perswade our selves we have no enemies , or so mad as to think them as secure and supine as our selves , it must be unreasonable presumption to think our selves safe in this distracted condition . but because it is observed of englishmen , that they generally ( as conscious to themselves of their own undaunted courage in encounting dangers ) are less vigilant against the approaches of them , i shall therefore for a conclusion , rather hazard the being accounted timorous my self , than that others should be secure and so surprized , and endeavour to unite the minds of all true protestants of this kingdom , by representing the joynt danger by a threefold enemy ready to attacque them , viz. atheism , popery , fanaticism . . atheism . he that hath not observed the prodigious growth and progress of this monster in this last age , and what confidence it is arrived at above the proportion of former times , either hath lived to little purpose , having made no observation of what hath past by him , or is intolerably overweening to some private opinion . heretofore it was only the fool that said there was no god ; but now this name atheist , speaks a wit and a man of more than ordinary sagacity : and those that were either so foolish or so abandoned of all reason and goodness as to doubt whether there was a god or no , yet were not so immodest as to profess their infidelity , as the psalmist expresses it , they said in their heart there was no god , but made it not an hypothesis or a profest tenet . time was , that only some hated villain , some man of abject-spirit and desperate fortunes was thought capable of such black impressions , and that nothing but the brawniness of mens consciences or the hopelesness of their condition could betray them to but the suspicious of such a thing ; and those that had any taint of it , the light , and were only to be found in gaols and brothel-houses : now the atheist is become a gallant , an hector , and this uncircumcised philistin appears armed , and defies the armies of israel . the general contempt that such men lay under was such , that heretofore they were not thought fit to live in a common-wealth , but now they have gotten such heart as to think themselves the only fit persons to prescribe laws and models of government . it is not uneasie to unfold all the causes that have concurred to the unhappy growth of this extream evil ; nor is it necessary that i should now undertake it : yet i presume i shall easily obtain the readers pardon if i gratifie my own and his curiosity so far as to make a little digression to observe the motion of so unusual and prodigious a phaenomenon . and in the first place it is an observation of the lord bacon's , that superstition in the foregoing age , usually becomes atheism in the succeeding generation . and so it is likely the seeds were sown in the late times , though the unhappy fruit appears but now . for when witty men shall observe that the generality of those that pretend to the highest pitch of religion , do either represent god almighty so incredibly and contrary to the natural notions men have of him , or religion so apishly and ridiculously ( as is the genius of superstition to do ) it will be very ready and easie to them to conclude , there is no reality either in the one or the other : especially if those happen to make the observation , whose vicious and desperate courses have made it become their interest that there should be no such things . when men shall see the most absurd propositions , and such as they are sure cannot be true , received with the same credulity , and recommended and contended for with the same zeal that the most certain and most essential points of religion are or should be , what can be more natural , than to think those things alike true , that are alike imbraced and have equal stress laid upon them ? and then the result is plain , that seeing some are notoriously false , therefore it seems more than probable to them that the rest are so too . it is in this case as in the hearing of civil causes , when it appears to the judges , that there is false play made use of and some suborned witnesses brought to give evidence , they are hereby prejudiced against the rest . and ( which is further considerable ) it is very probable that those very men that were formerly sunk into the mire of the aforesaid superstitions , may afterwards when they happen to emerge out of their delusions , make up a considerable part of the atheists themselves . for by the same reason we gave before , these men finding themselves cheated and imposed upon even in these very points that they were as confident of , as of the articles of the creed , grow hence to suspect even them too , forasmuch as with them it hath no better foundation than the things that now are apparently false : and thus from too large and prodigious a creed they come to have no faith at all . when they discover that they believed many things without ground , they think now they have ground to believe nothing , and from fierce and hot bigots , become cold scepticks and atheists . in the second place i suspect the lewd practices that have gone under the cloak and countenance of religion , have had a great hand in this mischief also . that not only the prodigious faith , but the monstrous life of some great pretenders to religion hath made men scorn and abhorr the very notion of it . when not only mens ridiculous follies , but also their vices , their pride , and passion , and rancour shall be father'd upon the spirit of god ( as we know when and where such things have been done ) when men shall seek god for all the villanies they are resolved to commit , when they make long prayers to devour widows houses , and proclaim a fast that they may kill and take possession ; when religion shall be prostituted to all bad designs , and in nomine domini incipit omne malum : when , i say , the most specious profession is a cloke for the vilest knavery ; it cannot be much wondered if such men as i described before , be inclined by these things to think there is no reality in any of the discourses of god and religion . for as , if a man were to observe whether the sun was risen upon the hemisphere , he would direct his eyes to the tops of mountains , expecting to see him displaying his beams first upon them that are nearest heaven : so a man would think if there were any such thing as religion and a sense of divinity amongst men , it should be found amongst those that have alwayes god in their mouths , and such a garb of religion upon them . but if he find himself disappointed here , and that these men that pretend so high , have as great sensualities , passions , covetousness , malice as other men , he will despair of finding it any where , and conclude with brutus , o virtus , quaesivi te ut rem , sed tantùm merum nomen es , that there is no such thing at all . . to the aforesaid causes we may well add the perpetual janglings and disputes between professors of religion , as not only making religion unlovely , but even calling it wholly into question . when so many shall tell us there is such a place and state as heaven and a world to come , but every one tells us a several way thither ; witty men who know that all cannot be true , but all may be false , think it not comporting with their discretion to take the pains of the journey , till the guides shall be agreed of the way . the disagreement of the two rank elders in their testimony against susannah's chastity , whilest one said the fault was done under one kind of tree and the other under another , discovered her innocency and their hypocrisie . it is true indeed , there may and must be diversities of apprehensions in several points of christianity , whilest men are of different capacities , and this need not , nor if things be modestly carryed , will give any just advantage to the atheist . but when every private opinion is made necessary to salvation , and men pronounce damnation against one another upon every little diversity , when they make as many religions as there are opinions , and as many wayes to heaven , as there are notions amongst men , it cannot be hoped , but that the cold sceptick should be incouraged in his neutrality . . but if to all these we consider with what rancour and malice the several parties prosecute one another , what odious and defamatory libels , and bitter invectives they write one against another , wherein all the secret follies of each party are blazed and published , all the errors aggravated , all the opinions racked to confess blasphemy in their owners and defenders ; one party said to make god a tyrant , the other to deny his wisdom , or soveraignty ; the one side accused of idolatry , the other of rebellion : he , i say , that considers how usual all this is , and how ready all those that have no good mind to religion are to catch up the darts that each of the parties cast at each other , and make use of them against both , and with what seeming reason they conclude , that the confession of the parties against each other , and their mutual impeachments of each other should argue the guilt of both , and observes that all the defamatory sermons and libels that men write in heat and passion against each other , ( wherein they charge folly , blasphemy and nonsense upon each other reciprocally ) at last rebound or are retorted upon the wheel of religion , cannot be altogether to seek of the rise of the atheism of this age. but whether these be the principal causes of the great appearance which atheism makes in this age above the proportion of other times , or whether there be other of a more latent and malignant influence , i shall not further enquire at present , since it is manifest , that the matter of fact is true , and that being so , the danger to religion cannot be obscure . we have reason therefore better to govern our passions and lay aside our animosities for the future , and to unite our forces in an uniform order of religion against this common enemy , lest the gravity and piety of this nation end in buffoonry , and our best heat and spirits being spent upon one another , or against our governours , the mortal symptome of a cold clammy stupid atheism succeed . . popery , is another hannibal ad portas , an enemy that watches but till our divisions shall open the gates to him . i hope i need not exaggerate the formidableness of popery to those that remember either eighteen thousand souls dispatcht out of the world by the hands of the common hangman in about three years time in the low countreyes under the government of the duke of alva , or the french massacre , or queen maries reign in england , or the gunpowder treason . there was a clause in our litany in henry the eighths and edward the sixths time , from the tyranny of the bishop of rome and his detestable enormities , good lord deliver us ; and upon what reasons soever it was since left out , it was not certainly , because either their errors are less enormous , or their spirits less cruel ; but god forbid , that because they at present hide their teeth , we should think they cannot or will not bite , for if we should be so good natur'd as to warm this snake in our bosomes that now pretends to have neither power nor will to hurt us , i doubt we should quickly find it to resume its malice and poison together with its warmth and strength . if any one shall be so hardy as to apprehend there is no danger of its return in this nation , i pray god his foresight be as great as his courage ; but he that considers the following circumstances will think it adviseable not to be over secure . for , . it is not with this party as with any other sect whatsoever , these have a forreign head and great interests abroad , the pope and all the popish princes to unite , to direct , to animate and imploy them , which must needs render them very dangerous to any state that is inclined to middle counsels , that is , that doth not either effectually please them , or effectually disable them . and upon this account the turkish sultan ( who hath scarcely any need to learn reason of state from any body ) uses the latin christians with greater caution and severity under his dominion than the greek , because he accounts the former alwayes dangerous upon account of their forreign head and alliance . . we cannot but observe how diligent they have been of late , how full of projects , and how erect their minds with expectation of some success . they heretofore walked in masquerade , disguised themselves sometimes in the habit of one sect and sometimes of another ; but of late they have had the confidence to lay off their disguise and play a more open game : and such are the numbers of their emissaries , so desperate and daring are the bigots of that party , and so close and crafty are their insinuations , that we have little reason to think our selves out of danger , especially whilest we have such divisions and distractions amongst our selves as at once both incourage them to attempt upon us , and also furnish them with a very popular argument to use with soft-minded and weakly principled protestants to draw them off from us , namely , the consideration of the divisions in our church , and the perfect unity in theirs . for prevention of all which , there seems no way so effectual as that we learn , if not to submit our private quarrels to the publick magistrate , yet to publick safety , lest whilest the gamesters quarrell , those that sit by sweep the stakes . and certainly it's more adviseable to sacrifice our opinions to our safety , than our religion and liberty to our humours and opinions . and although blessed be god , we have now a prince to whom the protestant religion came sealed with his fathers blood , and who in his own unhappy exile had however this advantage to be well aware of the cheats and impostures , as well as the designs of that faction : yet if ever it should be our fortune to have a prince indifferent in religion , and who preferred his own quiet before the civil or spiritual interests of his people ; the unreasonable petulancies we betray , our untractableness by fair means , and our endless disputes and unnecessary scrupulosities would tempt such a prince ( growing weary of the burden of our unquietness , and despairing otherwise of bringing us to obedience ) to put us under the insolence of that hard-hearted pharaoh , whose little finger would prove heavier than the loyns of all our present governours , and set aegyptian task-masters over us to break our spirits by bitter bondage ; which gods mercy and our wisdom for the future will i hope prevent . but if we should escape both these dangers , yet our divisions and distractions continuing , there is a third danger that i do not see how it is avoidable . and that is , . fanaticism . for it is not imaginable , but that the church growing into contempt , and laws into daily neglect , that things can long stand at this pass , but some change or other must ensue ; and if popery come not in to chastize our follies , nor atheism ( that damp of the bottomless pit ) come over us and stifle all our life and warmth of religion , but that we must ( the aforesaid causes remaining and daily increasing ) fall into a religious phrensie , or that raging calenture i last named . what that is , and what the insufferable mischiefs of it are , i need not represent . it is , in short , instead of church government to have a spiritual anarchy , where the hottest head is made the highest governour ; where pride and impudence are the only qualifications of a preacher ; where humour is called conscience , and novelty religion . this , for ought i can see , is like to be our condition , if neither the atheist nor papist succeed in their projects . but if any man shall be so fond as to hope we shall not fall thus low , but may stay in presbytery , i shall say but this , let such person consider how few and inconsiderable that party is , compared with the vast numbers of quakers , ranters , fifth-monarchy-men , anabaptists , antinomians , &c. and how little acceptable the presbyterian way or interest is to any of those factions , and therefore how unlikly to be set up by their means : but especially let it be remembred that when that party had the ball at their soot , they were not able to keep it , but lost it and the goal too , to those more numerous and adventurous gamesters . i therefore say again , i cannot apprehend , but that there must be a better union and complyance with the church of england , or i do not see it possible , but we must fall into one or other of the aforesaid dangers . and the calamity will then be so great which way soever we fall , that i protest i think every honest minded protestant ought to be inclined to bear with cheerfulness whatsoever burdens our superiours can be suspected capable of imposing upon us , rather than make experiment of the danger . conclusion . i have now adventured to stretch forth my hand to stay the tottering of the ark , and to cast in my mite to the publick treasury for the service of the church , which i hope god and good men will accept of . of what efficacy the foregoing considerations shall be , is at the mercy of the reader . but if it please almighty god to give him such candour and so unprejudicate a mind in the reading , as i call him to witness i have been sensible of in the writing , i do not then despair but they will prevail with all englishmen that love the protestant religion better than their own humour , to conform to the church and laws establisht ; or at least that they shall seem of such weight , as that a few scruples shall not be thought a counter-ballance to them . yet the more to assure this so desirable an issue , i will crave leave for a conclusion , humbly to recommend these following particulars . . that all those that are zealous of the honour and interest of the church of england , will ( the more effectually to demonstrate the excellency of it , and to stop the mouth of slander , ) oblige themselves to a singular holiness of life . let us be ashamed that since we pretend to have , and have really , a better way of religion , not to have so much better lives as we have better principles . let us disdain that any petty sect whatsoever should outgo us in that which is the great end of church society . when those that bring prejudice to our publick worship , reproach it as a cold service , let us labour to have our hearts invigorated with such a sense of devotion by it , as may not only consute the slander , but maintain a spiritual heat and life of godliness in all our conversation . for let us assure our selves , this is that the credit of any profession depends upon , when we have used all the arguments , and the best vindications of our selves and our church , it is holiness of life is the best and most prevalent apology . . that since for the bringing others to conformity , we must perswade them to for go some part of their natural liberties , forasmuch as otherwise they can come under no government whatsoever , but must be either outlaws or absolute princes : to the end , i say , that we may prevail with them to deny themselves in some things for the publick good , we should do well to give them example in our own self-denyal and abridging our own liberty in condescension to them in such things as are not the matter of law. and that we will not outrun the laws to contradict and vex them , but comply with them in what we may without sin . this is that charity and avoiding scandal the apostle so earnestly recommends , of which i have spoken in the considerations . and the consequence is plain ; if it be their duty to restrain themselves in the use of that liberty god hath left them , in complyance with the laws and magistrate , and for the sake of publick peace and order ; then it is our duty to restrain our selves in the use of that liberty the laws of god and man have left us , for the sake of the same peace and in charity to our brethren . besides that nothing works upon mens ingenuity like cession and yielding , and peculiarly with englishmen , as i have heretofore observed . . that we use no provocation or exasperation towards dissenters , nor countenance those inconsiderable persons that have no other way to shew their zeal to the church , but by reviling and vexing those that differ from it . it were good all governours of the church did ( and i hope they do ) imitate memnon the general for darius against alexander , who when he found one of his souldiers instead of darts casting scoffs at the enemy , tells him , you are not entertained ut maledicas sed ut pugnes . for besides that this carriage where ever it is , is but counted a strong argument of a weak cause , it stirs up the mud of mens passions , clouds their understandings , and by representing men worse than they are , tempts them to be worse than they would be : and if i see i shall be alwayes nosed with my former ignorance and folly , i am deprived of one of the greatest encouragements to forsake it . . though i have as i hope sufficiently proved in the foregoing discourse , that there is no absolute necessity of making any abatement of the legal terms of communion with this church , forasmuch as nothing is required or imposed by the constitution thereof , but what may be submitted to without in ; and therefore i will not be guilty of the presumption to prescribe to my superiours either one way or other in that matter : yet i humbly suggest , that if any such thing shall be thought fit to be done out of condescension to the non-conformists , and to gain them to the church , it may be done freely and spontaneously , nor as extorted either by their importunity or the necessity of affairs . for whatsoever is gotten the latter way , is not accounted yielded , but won , nec amicos parat , nec inimicos tollit , it passes no obligation upon men , but rather incourages their importunity , and confirms their obstinacy . and there is nothing that wise men do or ought to resent more , than the miscarriage of their favours , since thereby they lose not only what they grant , but their reputation too . the council of trent therefore would hearken to no terms nor propositions on the behalf of the protestants , lest they should by some few drops of concession , increase their thirst of more . but had they had as much of the innocency of the dove as of the subtilty of the serpent , or been as sincere as they were wise in their generation , they should have prevented all importunities by a liberal grant of what was fit and just , and by such an act of goodness and charity they might either have wrought upon the ingenuity and moderated the heat of the other party , or at least , having done what became them , they should then have had good ground peremptorily to have refused whatsoever should have been arrogantly demanded . but they ( as i have said ) wisely enough in their way , considering that if they once came to acknowledge any thing due to the protestants , must be forced upon the same terms to yield them more than they were willing to part with , and indeed little less than the whole , resolved therefore to yield nothing at all . but as the case of our church is not like theirs , so there is no necessity we should make use of the same politicks ; for where there is nothing sinful in the constitution , nothing can be required to be abated but upon the terms of prudence and compassion ; and if it shall happen that those arguments be thought fit to be heard , it is great pitty in that case that the resolution should not be so carried , as that it may be evident to all , that those causes only had influence upon the effect . if these things be considered by those that favour the church , and the foregoing considerations be impartially weighed by the protestant dissenters from it , i for my part shall conceive good hope that the clergy of england shall recover its antient and due veneration , our churches be better filled than the conventicles , a blessed symphony in our publick prayers , and an universal peace , love and good-will be restored in this divided and distracted church and nation . which god of his infinite mercy grant , &c. finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e lib. . . cap. de false sap . orat. . rom. . . acts . . mr. calv. notes for div a -e ep. , . notes for div a -e cor. . . de unitati eccles . the path of the just cleared, and cruelty and tyranny laid open, or, a few words to you priests, and magistrates of this nation, (who say we deny the scriptures, and that we are antichrists and deceivers, and that we deny the word of god) wherein your oppression and tyranny is laid open, which by you is unjustly acted against the servants of the living god, who by the world which hate the light of christ, are in derision called quakers : wherein also is something declared both to judges and justices ... : also the ground and cause of the imprisonment of george whitehead and john harwood ... / from the spirit of the living god in me, whose name in the flesh is george whitehead ... ; also a paper against the sin of idleness ... whitehead, george, ?- . this text is an enriched version of the tcp digital transcription a of text r in the english short title catalog (wing w ). textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. the text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with morphadorner. the annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. this text has not been fully proofread approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. earlyprint project evanston,il, notre dame, in, st. louis, mo a wing w estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) the path of the just cleared, and cruelty and tyranny laid open, or, a few words to you priests, and magistrates of this nation, (who say we deny the scriptures, and that we are antichrists and deceivers, and that we deny the word of god) wherein your oppression and tyranny is laid open, which by you is unjustly acted against the servants of the living god, who by the world which hate the light of christ, are in derision called quakers : wherein also is something declared both to judges and justices ... : also the ground and cause of the imprisonment of george whitehead and john harwood ... / from the spirit of the living god in me, whose name in the flesh is george whitehead ... ; also a paper against the sin of idleness ... whitehead, george, ?- . harwood, john. to all you rulers, gentry, priests, and people. p. printed for giles calvert ..., london : . "to all you rulers, gentry, priests, and people ..." signed: john harwood, p. - . reproduction of original in the union theological seminary library. eng society of friends -- england -- apologetic works. dissenters, religious -- england. persecution -- england. a r (wing w ). civilwar no the path of the just cleared; and cruelty and tyranny laid open. or a few words to you priests, and magistrates of this nation, (who say we whitehead, george c the rate of defects per , words puts this text in the c category of texts with between and defects per , words. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - mona logarbo sampled and proofread - mona logarbo text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the path of the just cleared ; and cruelty and tyranny laid open . or a few words to you priests , and magistrates of this nation , ( who say we deny the scriptures , and that we are antichrists and deceivers , and that we deny the word of god , ) wherein your oppression and tyranny is laid open , which by you is unjustly acted against the servants of the living god , who by the world which hate the light of christ , are in derision called quakers . wherein also is something declared both to judges and justices so called , concerning contempt of authority . also the ground and cause of the imprisonment of george whitehead and john harwood , who are sufferers for the innocent truths sake , in the goal of bury in suffolk . also a copy of a paper , which a servant of the lord called richard clayton , was moved to set upon a steeple-house door at bury in suffolk , for which he was caused to be whipped by one thomas waldegrave , justice of peace in the said county . but though hand joyn in hand , the wicked shall not be unpunished ; but the seed of the righteous shall be delivered , prov. . . from the spirit of the living god in me , whose name in the flesh is george whitehead , who for sions sake cannot hold my peace , but testifie against her oppressors : who am a sufferer as aforesaid , the . day of the . month . . also , a paper against the sin of idleness , which we declare against , and live out of ; and are diligent serving the lord , though that sin be cast upon us , yet it we deny , with all other sins and ungodlinesse , which is contrary to the gospel of christ . london , printed for giles calvert , at the black-spread-eagle , near the west end of pauls , . the path of the jvst cleared : and cruelty and tyranny laid open . see what christ we own , and who are antichrists . that christ we owne and witness , and are partakers of his sufferings , who was promised for a covenant unto the people , for a light unto the gentils , to open the blind eyes , this is he who was before abraham was ; who said , before abraham was , i am ; who was in the beginning which was the word , by which all things was made , which word became flesh , and dwelt among the disciples , and suffered at jerusalem , and witnessed a good confession before ponce pilate ; whom pilate delivered up to the jews , and the chief priests and elders , whom they mocked and despitefully used , & put to death concerning the flesh ; but is raised up by the spirit , and ascended into glory , which glory he prayed for , even that glory whereby he was at first with his father glorified in , wherein he is glorified in his saints , and is god over all , god blessed for ever ; and he that hath him , hath the father also , and hath life ; and he that hath not the son , hath not life ; for he is the light of the world and in him is no darknesse ; and he is the way the truth and the life ; and he that followeth him shall not abidein darknesse , but shall receive the light of life . and this is the true light , which lighteth every man that cometh into the world , which iohn who was a man sent from god was a witnesse of , and we are witnesses of , and do not deny the word , nor the scriptures ; but they who persecuted him even the scribes and pharises , and the chiefe priests and elders of the people , who had a profession of the scriptures , of moses words , and the prophets words : they did deny the scriptures , even moses who wrote of christ , so did not beleive christ , and so denyed him who was the word which became flesh . and so his word did not take place in them , because they did not believe that he was the christ , but looked for another christ to come in pompe like themselves , but against their pride he did cry , and said , woe unto the scribes and pharises , who were called of men masters , stood praying in the synagogues , had the chiefest places in the assemblies and greeting in the markets : and laid heavy burthens upon the people . but he said to his disciples , be not ye called masters : and when he sent them forth he forbad them to take money or bag or scrip : but freely ye have received , freely give : and many of them had no certaine dwelling place , but suffered persecution and hunger and nakednesse and prison and stripes and perils , and were chargeable to no man : but where they had sown spiritual things they said , if we sow to you spiritual things , it is a smal thing if we reap of you carnal things . but these were not the world , for the world was persecuters and revilers , and haled them out of the synagogues ; and such as christ sent we owne , and the scriptures we own , and christ come in the flesh we owne and witnesse ; but you magistrates and you priests of this nation who are upholden by such as persecute and hale out of the synagogues , and imprison , and whip , & despitefully now use such as are sent freely to witnes forth the truth , and for that christ , and against antichrist , and deceivers , such as christ cryed wo against : here , you priests of this nation , who are found in their steps which christ cryed woe against , even the steps of the scribes & pharises , & you magistrates , justices , judges , & rulers , who uphold such , and persecute , imprison & cause to be whipped : and fine such as are sent to bear witness against them that are found in scribes and pharises steps ; who lay heavy burthens upon the people , and are called of men masters , stands praying in the synagogues , and have the cheifest places in the assemblies : you are filling up the measure of their iniquities , who persecuted christ , & upheld them which christ cryed wo unto , and them who persecuted the true prophets , who was sent to cry out against the false prophets , these cryed against such as sought for their gain from their quarters , & such as were hirlings , & such as bare rule by their means , and taught lyes , who said they were sent of god ; when god never sent them but man , before they were sent : and these were the prophets who cryed against the false , who said ; thus said the lord , and heare the word of the lord . but god never spake to them : but jeremiah who cryed against such was not a proud man , nor a covetous man , as the priests of england are now , who are in these steps before mentioned , which the false prophets were in . but jeremiah was mocked , & they were stoned & some killed , and jeremy was set in the stocks for witnessing forth the truth against the false prophets ; and put into adungeon and here we are witnessed by the true prophets , christ , & his apostles , who ever witnessed against deceivers , and such as lived in pride and coveteousness : and amos who was a true witness for god , witnessed against the abomination of rulers , and people ; he was not made a minister by the will of man , nor upheld by a carnal weapon , nor an outward law ▪ but when he prophesied against the house of jeraboam , then amaziah , the priest of bethel complained to jeroboam the king against amos ; and said , the land was not able to bear his words , and bad him flee away into the land of judah , and prophesie no more at bethel ; for he said it was the kings chappel , and the kings court , as you may read , amos , , and ●o you priests of england complain : moreover many of you do swear to the magistrates against us , who are witnessed by christ , the true prophets , and apostles : both in our sufferings , and testimony w●ich is against all deceit and deceivers ; ●o you priests and magistrates cause us to suffer , because we are offended at the truth , which witnesses against all deceit , without respect of persons , whereof they that are sent of god were witnesses : and so by you some suffer imprisonment , some whipping , some stocking , and some you imprison and fine , or , or , marks , and they that stone & hale out of the synagogues , their hands you strengthen against the innocent , and execute your law upon them , who are redeemed from that which the law takes hold upon , who do witnesse against transgression , where ever it is by the truth which respects no mans person . and here the end for which you are brought forth , is to witness for god & to the establishment of judgment , and mercy , & righteousnesse & peace , which takes away all occasion of outward punishment , and carnal weapons , where it comes to be established , and set up in the hearts of people ; and this they who come to witness set up in them which they that own the light of christ are witnesses of , dare not act in their own wills , in tyranny , and cruelty , against the innocent who are freely sent to witnes forth the truth against all deceit & cruelty , & oppression which is acted in this generation , even among you priests & magistrates , both judges justices & rulers , whose ears are open to heare the complaints of these proud and co●ou●s priests , who make great petitioning and complaints against us , who suffer by the cruelty of you , who cause su to be sent to prison , when you can charge su with the breach of no known law , and cause some to be whipped , & some to be fined , as aforesaid , and the priests that complain for the help of magistrates , to have this people , called quakers , suppressed because they are affraid that their tythes and maintenance should faile them , and they come to lose their gifts , and rewards ; because we cry against such as isaiah cryed against , who seek for their gain from their quarters ; as you may read , isa. , , and against such as beare rule by their means , which ieremiah cryed against ; ier. . and such teach for hire , and divine for money ; which micah cryed against , mica . . and against such as christ cryed woe against , as you may read , matt. . and we cry against such as go in cains way and balaams , which iude cryed woe against iude. . and here they are affraid that their riches and honour should faile them , whose riches is earthly , and honor is earthly : and here you magistrates uphold such as the prophets , christ , and his apostles cryed against , and causes the innocent to suffer by your wills , contrary to the law of justice ▪ and equity ; and so are filling up the measure of your iniquities , who persecuted the true prophets of christ and his apostles ; and you may consider by the light in your consciences , what reformation and just government is established by you , who have long professed liberty , justice , and equity ; when now this is the end of your profession , and praying , and your fasting , and your dayes of thanksgiving , even persecution , and oppression , and strengthening the hands of evil doers against the innocent , and so neglect the fast which the lord requires , read isa. . . is not this the fast that i have chosen , saith the lord , to loose the bands of wickedness , to undoe the heavy burthens , and to let the oppressed goe free , and that ye break every yoak , but instead of this , ye strengthen the bands of wickedness , and goes on in your cruelty , and oppression . ah wo , word , is the end of your profession , who are so acting in your cruelty , and tyranny ; against them who for conscience sake cannot bow to your wills , but witness against the deceit which is acted in this nation , both among the priests and people : therefore among you ruand magistrates is this scripture fulfilled . the rulers take counsell together against the lord , and his annointed ; and the blood of the saints shall be required , at your hands who persecute , even the blood of all the holy men of god , who suffered , from abel until this generation . oh , be ashamed of your profession , and you fair pretences of reformation , since the bishops were cut off , who now are acting in the same cruelty that they acted in , and yet you can speak against them , and their tyranny , and you found in the same ; oh fear and dread the living god of heaven and earth , whose judgment and wrath and fiery indignation slumbers not , for these things : oh the blood of the righteous cryes in the ears of the lord of hosts , for vengeance against you persecuters ; your prayers and pretences , of serving the lord , is abomination unto him , and your sacrifices is wearisome unto the lord , and grievous unto him , as the sacrifices and oblations of the rulers , of sodome , and people of gomorrah was , which the prophet isai cryed against , who said unto them your new moones and your sabbaths , and your calling assemblies i cannot away with : it is iniquity , even your solemn meetings saith the lord ; your new moons and appointed feasts my soul hateth , they are a trouble to me , i am weary to bear them when you spread forth your hands , i will hid mine eyes from you , yea when you make many prayers , i will not heare , your hands are full of blood , isa. . . therefore all you that act in persecution , and cruelty , and oppression , read your selues both priests and rulers , to be in that generation which isai and the rest of the prophets did cry against , and are partakers of their sins ; and now you live at ease in pride & fullnes of bread , as sodom & gomorrah did , and the end of your profession liberty and freedom is oppression and tyranny , as was in the bishops time , to those that cannot stoop to your wills , when as you ought to have judged the cause of the oppressed , and to have undone the heavy burthens , and to have let the oppressed goe free . therefore hear the word of the lord , ye rulers of this nation , who joyne with the priests , who goe in the way of cain to envy , and run greedily after the error of balaam for gifts and rewards ; you joyne with them who go in the steps of the false prophets ; and of them which christ cryed woe against , who are called of men masters , stand praying in the synagogues , have the cheifest places in the assemblies , and the greetings in the markets , and lay heavy burthens upon the people , and devour widdows houses ; and so here the cause of the widdows , and opressed you do not judg : therfore the lord may justly say of you as he said of that people , which he had set in a fruitful place , when i looked for judgment behold oppression , therefore repetn of your cruelty , and undo the heavy burthens , and let the oppressed goe free : for if you still refuse , and rebel against the lord , which is a god of truth and equity , he will cut you off , and give you your portion among all the oppressors and persecuters , whom the lord in his indignation cut off , the lord of hosts hath spoken it , and what will ye do in the end of your persecution , when the lord calls you to an account ; will not the lord avenge his quarrel upon sions oppressors , and ease him of his enemies ? therefore , remember you are warned , lest you are pertakers of the plagues , who go on in persecution and oppression , who pervert true judgment , and despise equity , and so have your portion with the workers of iniquity . so to the light in all your consciences i speak , which loves equity and true judgment , and is the condemnation of all the practices before mentioned , which are contrary to it . and the condemnation of all them , that live in them , by which light are witnessed who walk in the light , and to it we are manifest , whether you heare or forbear ▪ a few words to you both judges and justices so called , that say we contemne magistracy , and are not subiect to authority , and government , because we cannot put off our hats , nor bow to you when we are called before you . the powers that are ordained of god , who are sent of him , for the punishment of transgressors , and for the encouragment of them that do well , these we own , and are subiect to them for conscience sake ; knowing that such are not a terror to good works , but to evil ; for such execute the law in righteousnes , upon them who are guilty of the transgression of it , for because of trangression the law is added & there the law is executed in its place , and in righteousness ; and so those that execute the law in its place , they are for the establishment of righteousness and peace ; and , contrary to the law of justice , & equity , dare not act in their own wills , nor for their own ends : and herein they seek not themselves , nor their own glory , nor honour , but the glory and honour of god , who is honoured and glorified among them who act in truth and righteousnesse , and love the lord ; and to them our souls are subject . but you who act in cruelty and persecution as before mentioned , who execute your law upon the innocent , you do not encourage them that do well , but encourage them that do ill , and strengthen the hands of evil doers , and make strong the bands of wickedness , who indite , and fine , and imprison those who cannot for conscience sake bow to your wills , nor put off their hats , to satisfie your corrupt wills : wherein you are seeking your own honour , and not the honour of god : and because that many cannot for conscience sake , act these heathenish customs , to satisfie your vain minds , and your fleshly exaltations , wherein you act in pride and high-mindedness , therfore by you many are fined , and endited , and imprisoned contrary to any just law , and contrary to the law of the nation : and no such vain custome can you prove that ever any of the saints did act , when they were brought from vanities to serve the living god ; but the world and the conformities and fashions of the world they were brought to deny , and by the same spirit are we brought to deny all these heathenish practices , and to witness against the world who live in them ; and because we witness against the world , that the deeds thereof are evil , therefore we are hated , and by the world suffer : and here ye magistrates who plead for these things , and cause the innocent to suffer , for denying them , you act in the costumes of the world contrary to the light of christ , which condemns the world with its deeds and sayes that we contemn magistracy and authority because we cannot stoop to your wills , in these customes ; here you falsly accuse us , for authority we do not contemn , for by the spirit of the living god , whereby we are transformed , by the renuing of our minds , we do deny the conformities of the world as the apostle said ; be not ye conformed unto this world , and the same apostle did not contemn authority , but said , let every soule be subject to the higher powers , and , rulers are not a terror to good workes but to evil , but he speakes not of pulling off the hat , nor bowing , neither gives he liberty to any of you to persecute and imprison them who cannot , for conscience sake , bow to your wills , nor put off their hatts ; for he was imprisoned , and persecuted , and did suffer by that generation you are in , who suffered stripes , tumults and imprisonment , and many perils , & of his sufferings are we pertakers : and the cloak that you have for these vanities , will not hide you : for you say that though you have no written law of the nation , for puling off hats , nor scripture to prove it , yet you say that it is the custome of the nation ; as bowing &c and that the very heathens do bow , and that the egyptians bowed ; i answer , so is drunkenness , and lying , and swearing , persecution , and fighting , and quarreling , accustomed in this nation , which many that act in , go unpunished , which the righteous law of god takes hold upon : but the righteous law of god speaks not of puting off a hat , therefore be ashamed of your actings , and be ashamed of your customs , who makes a custome a law , to act in envy and cruelty , against the servants of the lord . and when you alledge , that jacob bowed to esau , and called him lord , and that abraham bowed to seth , who was a heathen . i answer , that which was acted by them , when they bowed , was not a command to you and that you might seek honour one of another , who profess your selvs to be believers and christians , to imitate these heathenish customs , though for a time jacob and abraham bowed , and jacob called esau lord , who was the elder , but when the elder was made to serve the younger , he was not lord , but servant : and so out of esaus state , and the heathenish nature , we are redeemed , and the one lord , who is the true god , we witness : so out of the many gods , and many lords , which are in the world , vve are redeemed , and hovv can ye believe and seek honour one of another , for the true god is no respecter of persons ; and he that respects persons , commits sin : and so by you that seek eye-service , and honour one another , is not the lord honoured . but ye seek that to your selves , which belongs to god ; and this is he , vvho reigns over the house of iacob , and is greater then abraham . let the heathens bovv to him , vvho hath redeemed us out of the heathenish nature , for he wil break the limits of the heathen , and dash them to peices , and all your limits , who live in envy , and rage in the heathenish nature ; and plead for their customs , and would limit the righteous to walk in their steps , and to bow to your proud flesh , : for as i live , saith the lord , every knee shall bow to me , and every tongue shall confess unto god ; as you may read , rom. . . isai. . . phil. . . therefore bow to the lord of hosts , and let proud flesh stoop before him , who seeks honour to your selves , which belongs to god , fear before the lord , and tremble , at which name every knee shall bow , and every tongue confess to the glory of god . then examine what will be the end of your earthly glory , whose honour must be laid in the dust : who seeks your own glory , and not the glory of god : whose honour and glory we seek , and not the honor of man : and therfore we cannot stoop nor bow to your pride , nor conform to your vanities , which are acted in your wills , contrary to the pure law of god ; which respects no mans person : and here you act for your own ends , and punish the servants of the lord , who for his sake cannot submit to your deceit , and heathenish vanities ; you act contrary to the law of god , and the law of the nation , and for the lords sake act not , neither were you sent of god to this end , therefore accuse us not for contempt of authority , neither say that we are not subject to every ordinance of man , for the lords sake : for to every ordinance of man , which are for the lords sake , we are subject : whether it be to supream , or unto ▪ governors , as unto them that are sent by him , for the punishment of evil-doers , and for the praise of them that do well . but you who are sent to judge of causes , between man and man , according to the truth , and equity , by an outward law , which takes hold upon transgression , and now execute power upon them , who by the law of the spirit of life are made free from the law of sin , and death , and so would usurp authority over the consciences of the people of the lord , whose consciences is exercised by the light of christ , which condemns the world with its deeds , and so you go beyond your limits , to judg in things pertaining to god , who is judge , and law-giver : and so here you act in frowardness , contrary to the light of christ in you , and so would lord it over gods heritage : and here let the rulers among the heathen , which christ spoke of , condemn your practices , who said , the kings of the gentiles exercised authority over them , but ye would exercise lordship over us , who are not heathens , but christians . therefore , ye magistrates of this nation , see whom you are acting for , and what order is set up by you , and whose glory it is you seek , and who it is that you seek to exercise authority over : for when the judgments of god comes upon you for acting in your wills , and in your cruelty , against the innocent , you will witness them to be just by that of god in your consciences , and your just reward . and know that in as much as you persecute them , whom christ hath sent , you persecute christ : therefore now while the lord doth not speedily execute his judgments upon you , consider your wayes , and see what you act , and whom you act for , as you will it eternally answer . the ground of john harwoods & my imprisonment ; that innocency may be cleared , and the wicked bear their burthens . upon the day of the th month , being the d day of the week , i & my two bretheren , jo : harwood , & richard clayton , , passing through a town called bury , in suffolk , about miles from halstead , in essex , where we were at a meeting the firstday before , in the feare and service of the lord , and passing by the steeple house , in the said bury , richard clayton , was moved to set up a paper upon the steeple house door , and john harwood ▪ & i passing on a litle before , and seeing some people of the said bury , coming to richard clayton , where he was seting up the paper , and so we passed back to them , who stayed him , and were about him reading the paper ; who could find nothing contrary to scriprure in it : so john harwood , and i , being to speake a few words to the people there present in the name of the lord , exhorted them to turne to the lord from the vanities , & wickednesses they lived , in , which several of them was made to confess the truth of which was declared to them , and the mouths of many who were in rage , were stopped , and so we passing from the people there present there came a constable ▪ called richard hum , who stayed us , and said , he had a warrant to stay us : so we demanded to see his warrant , but he had none to shew , but said he had order from the justice , & so carried us two before harbert pellam , called justice of peace , in the said bury , whose office is for essex : so first i was carried before him , and he examined me , & then john harwood , of our names , and country , and abode , where we had been , and what money we had when we came out of our own countryes : which we answered as we were moved , and had freedom ; and many other vain questions he asked in his b●sie vain light mind , which were not worth mentioning : and when i was moved to speak a few words , concerning his rage ▪ & filthiness , which he uttered forth , he said , he sent not for me to preach : but he could lay no transgression , nor the breach of any known law to our charge : but in his fury , & rage , sent us by the constable & some others with him , to one thomas walgrave , who is called justice of peace at smalbridg in suffolk , about half a mile from the said bury , whose office is for suffolk : so when we came before the said walgrave , we were carried into the house , & they first examined richard clayton , of his name , and country , and where he had been , and what was the cause of his coming into that country , and who sent him , which he answered as he was moved ; and some other vain questions were asked him : & when he had examined him he then examined me of my name & country , and where i was born : and how long i had been acquainted with richard clayton ; and where i first met with him , which i answered according to my freedom , & some other vain needless questions were asked not worth mentioning ; so he could lay nothing to our charge , concerning the breach of any law : we being free born english men , and not chargeable to any ; so then john harwood was brought before him : and richard clayton , & i , commanded to go out of doors with a keeper , so the said waldegrave , asked john harwood , if he would answer him all the questions that he should demand of him . but jo. denyed to be limited to his will , but as he had moving : so the said harbert pellam , being there present , who before had examined us , and had our examination in writing : john harwood told walgrave , that pellam had his examination in writing , and bad him , if he had any thing to accuse us of , to declare what he had against us : so then the said waldegrave being in a great rage , would not suffer him to speak , but caused him to be haled out of doors : so he and the said pellam , consulted a great vvhile together : so after a time , walgrave came forth , and spoke to john harwood , and in a fury put off his hat , and cast it dovvn , and asked him his name , and country , vvhich questions john ansvvered : so he came to me , and asked me if i would work at hay : so i denyed to be bound to such task-masters : for i was in that calling whereunto god hath called me , wherein i was chargable to no man : for he had nothing to do , to lay any task upon any of us , who was brought out of egypt , from under pharoahs task-masters ; so he went in , and sent out a warrant to imprison john harwood , and another : to have richard clayton whipped at bury , and sent from constable to constable , till he came at his outward being : so he charged the constable , to keep me that week , till another justice came from the assizes at bury ; so we demanded of him what law we had transgressed . but he would shew us none , neither declared unto us any transgression that we had acted . but called the paper that richard clayton set upon the steeple-house door , a seditious paper , and non-sence , which he could not prove , nor shew any thing in it , contrary to the scripture . but he would scarce suffer us to speak , but did stamp , and rage , and caused us to be haled out of doors , so we were had back again to the said bury , and according to the warrant , richard hum , the said constable , the same night in the open street , whipping richard clayton , he being stript naked to the midle about the wast , so presently after he had whipped him , he sent him away that nighr , according to the warrant : and john harwood , and i was kept at an inn in the same town that night , and early in the morning , john was sent with . men to the prison of bury , st. edmonds in suffolk , about . miles from the said bures , so until the next day , under the constables custody i remained , so in the morning there came a warrant , from the said waldegrave , to the constable , to send me to the said prison of bury : so accordingly i was sent the same day , where we remaine in bonds by the cruelty of these called justices , to wit , harbert pellam and thomas waldgrave , and are not convinced of the breach of any known law , of the nation . but in patience we suffer , and in our sufferings , have peace ; our bonds being unjustly laid upon us , by them who profess justice : but here they , and their profession is seen , and with the light of christ condemned to be contrary to the law , justice , and equity . therefore let the supreme , and governors , who are in authority , consider for all your professing liberty to tender consciences and religion , what liberty by you is brought forth : when as we , who are sent of the lord , to bear witness unto pure religion , and to witnesse forth a good conscience , and our labour and travel is , that justice and equity might be set up , and deceit confounded : and also we being free born english men , may not have freedom , to passe the high-way about our lawful calling . but have such bonds , and snares , laid upon us both contrary to the law of god , and the law of the nation ; and contrary to that liberty which hath been promised to them professing godlinesse by the supreme of this nation . as in the act for the government of england , scotland , and ireland , in article , . that to the publike profession held forth none shall be compelled by penalities , or otherwise , but that endeavours be made to win them by sound doctrine , and the examples of a good conversation . article . . that such as profess faith in god by jesus christ , though differing in judgment , from the doctrin , worship or discipline publickly held forth , shall not be restrained from : but shall be protected in the profession of the faith , and exercise of their religion , so as they abuse not this liberty to the civill injury of others and to the actuall disturbance of the publique peace on their part ; provided that this liberty be not extended to popery or prelacy , nor to such who under the profession of christ hold forth and practise licentiousnesse . article : that all lawes , statutes , ordinances and clauses in any law , statute , and ordinance to the contrary of the aforesaid liberty , shall be esteemed nul and ●oyde . now let the supreme , and magistrates , see and examine what performance there is acted by you , of these solemne promises which hath beene promised for the liberty of godlinesse in this nation , when such injustice is winked at , and acted by you who professe justice , and are set in authority to act according to the law of justice and to remove unjust causes : when now both contrary to the law of god , and contrary to your own law , you cause the servants of the lord to suffer whipping and imprisoning , them which you cannot charge which the breach of any law : here be ashamed of your unjust actings , ye oppressors and persecutors of the innocent , and know that at your cruelty the lord will not winke , but though you joyne hand in hand you shall not go unpunished , and the very heathens may condemn you that whip and act contrary to your own law , against them , whom the law condemnes not : for when they were ready to whip paul , he said to the centurion , is it lawfull for you , to scourge a man that is a roman and uncondemned , and said he was free borne , and so both the centurion and the chiefe captaine , who bound paul were afraid , after they knew that he was a roman , and caused him to be loosed : but though we be free-borne english men and uncondemned by the law , you are not ashamed to whip and act in cruelty against us , therefore see what equity is owned by you , and see whethe● you do as ye would be don by , yea or nay : and let al● people who have any feare of god in them , see you● shame and envy , you utter forth and have acted againe the innocent . for they who are authorised to beare this sword of justice , ought not to be a terrour to good work-but to the evill , and saith the lord by his prophet david he that ruleth over men must be just , ruling in the feare of god , and such who rule in the feare of god , are not persecutors of the innocent , but doth defend and preserve , such as these men before mentioned whip and persecute . for the law which because of transgression is added , doth not take hold upon the innocent , which no law hath transgressed . so ye who have acted your cruelty upon the innocent , who in the sight of god , are free from the breach of any known law , who according to your own law , by you ought to be protected ; here you are found transgressors of the law , which because of transgression is added , and with it are condemned , and with the light of christ you are seene to be the magistrates , which beares the sword in vaine , who turnes the edge of the sword against the righteous seed , which you ought to turne against the wicked , that the land might be emptyed of transgressors and evill doers : for the law was not made for the righteous , but for the lawless and disobedient ; which law is witnessed by us , ( to be good in its place ▪ ) who suffer by the wills of unreasonable men , contrary to the law of god and the law of the nation : for we who professe faith in god , by jesus christ , and through faith hath victory obtained over that nature , which leads into the transgression of the law , ought according to your own law , to be protected in the exercising of our religion , but you instead of protecting us , whip and imprison us . and here let your own law be a witnesse against you , and be ashamed of your unjust actings , but the lord of god of heaven and earth , ( who is our protector ) who is righteous , who beares not the sword in vaine , who will execute the judgment upon the transgressor , who will reward you according to your works , before him you shall not be able to stand in judgment , in the day of your account , therefore come downe to the light in your consciences , which calls for justice and equity , and awake to righteousnesse , all ye that li●e in your pride and presumption , and therein act against the innocent , for the day hastens wherein you will be found out by the righteous judgments of god : for the cry of the innocent , which is oppressed by you , hath entred into the eares of the lord of sabbath , who will come quickly and reward every one of you according to your deeds . therefore repent of your cruelty before the evill day come , least you be found guilty of the blood of the innocent , when the lord calls you to an account : for know this that when the lord comes to plead with you , that of god in all your consciences , will witnesse for god in his righteous judgments ; therefore by that light which is pure in your consciences learne your condemnation , and own it upon those things before mentioned , which are contrary to the light , that peradventure you may be hid in the day of the lords wrath . from us who are sufferers in outward bonds , for the testimony of a good conscience , for the innocent truth sake , which shall stand for ever a witnesse against all cruelty , and bloody persecutors , in which truth we have assurance and peace in our sufferings , who are counted by the world deceivers yet true , persecuted but not destroyed . our names according to the flesh are george whitehead , iohn harwood &c. from bury gaol this of the month , a true coppy of the paper which richard clayton was moved to set upon bures steeple-house doore , for which he the said thomas waldgrave , called iustice of peace caused him to be whipped which he the said thomas waldegrave called a seditious paper and non-sence . if you do set up such ministers as seeke for their gaine from their quarters , you do set up such as the prophet disapproves , isa. . : and if you do set up such as do beare rule by their meanes , you do set up such as the prophet jeremiah , and the lord disapproves , jer. . and you that set up such as seeks for the wool , and make a prey upon the people , you set up such as the prophet ezekiel disapproves , ezek. : and you that set up hirelings , set up such as micah disapproves , mica . . and you that set up such as are called of men masters , stands praying in the synagogues , and have the chiefest places in the assemblies , you set up such as christ disapproved math. : and you that set up such as are given to filthy lucre , you set up such as the apostle disapproves pet. . . and you that set up such as persecute , and cause people to be sent to prison for speaking the truth in the synagogues , you set up such as goe in cains way jude . , and you that set up such as receives guifts and rewards , the wages of unrighteousnesse , you set up such as minde earthly things , whose god is their belly , which the apostle disapproves ; phil. . . and you that set up such as strives to keep out gods labourers out of his vineyard and keep up such which christ and the apostles disapproves ; and you that set up such as would not suffer another to speake that stands by , when any thing is revealed , but sends him to prison if he do , you set up a persecuting spirit , full of disorder , and are judged by the apostles life and doctrine , ( who was a minister of christ ) both you that set up , and them you do set up , ( who said they might speake one by one ) and so you all by this spirit are judged to be in the spirit of errour , and to be such as would quench the holy spirit , and would limit the spirit of god , and despise prophecying and dare not try all things , manifesting your selves to be haters of the light , and disapproved , with the prophets and apostles , and their practices and life : and you that sets up such as gives people , davids quakings , tremblings , cryings , roarings , and tears , and prophecyes , and prayers and praises , in meeter mixt together , you set up such as have not the spirit of understanding to sing with the spirit and with understanding , which spirit brings to know the time of praising , praying , groaning , and crying , and trembling , and quaking , and prophesying : the spirit of understanding witnesseth , these things in their places , but you give scoffers , and scorners , and drunkards , and swearers , and threatners , and persecuters , davids conditions to sing , for he was scoft at when he was in such conditions , and these do so now at these that are in such conditions . and if you set up such as takes tythes , you set up such as the apostle denied , for the apostle said , the preisthood was changed , and the law was changed also , heb. . and if you set up such as is before mentioned , you set up such as are contrary to scriptures , and plants no vineyard , nor labours in the vineyard ; for first they must plant a vineyard , before they eat of it . to all you-rulers , gentry , priests , and people in the nation , who accuse us , you call quakers , for idleness ; take notice of your envy , you have against gods labourers . whereas by many of the magistrates , priests , and people of this nation , we are accused of idleness , who are sent by the lord of the harvest into his vineyard to dresse it ( as the disciples of christ ever were ) and are faithful and diligent in his work , who hath called us , ( as the true ministers , sent forth by christ , were in all ages ) and are not idle , but do ( as they did ) by the same spirit , bear witness against all such as live in idleness , and prophanenesse , as the most part of these people do , who accuse us : such , as live in pride and wantonness , who work not at all with their hands , accuse us of idleness , who have a cloud of witnesses for our practice ; for the holy men of god travelled from place to place , ( as we do ) as they were moved of the lord , and they were sent ( as we are ) by the lord ; to testifie against such ungodly practices , as the people of the world live in ; and the same generation in nature , hated and persecuted them , as do hate and persecute us ; and by the same holy spirit , ye are tryed and found to be the idle persons , who accuse the servants of the lord of idlenesse , who are in the work of the lord , labouring in his vineyard . you magistrates , gentry , priests and people , who sport your selves in the day-time , and wantonly lives upon the earth , feeding your selves with dainty dishes , dives-like , wasting the creatures of god upon your lusts , devouring the creation , decking your selves in gorgeous attire , that you may be set up and esteemed of , above your poor brethren , & so are found gentils in nature , exercising lordship over your brethren persecuting & imprisoning them , who are redeemed out of that nature you live in , who cannot bow and worship you ( as the heathen do ; ) but know this , you gentiles , priests and people , who lives in these practices , ( in envy , pride , idleness , and fulness of bread . ) the day drawes nigh , wherein you an account must give to the creator , for your envy and cruelty , and for the creatures which you have wasted , and do waste and devoure , upon your ungodly lusts ; and in the day of account , you will houle and lament , for the misery which will upon you come ; for , to the mighty god of heaven and earth , the creatour of all things , you an account must give , for your pride and idleness , fulness and gluttony , which you have lived in , and do live in , and your reward you must receive , according to your deeds and practices , your outside formal profession will not at all avail you , in the day of the lord : and you shall then know , who have lived in idleness , whether you who are found in the sins of sodom alive , or we whom the lord sends amongst you , to declare against such practices , and to forewarn you of the evil , which is to come upon you , who are found in these practices and doth in life and word bear true testimony against you , who live in , and practise such things daily , as is before mentioned . and many of you are grown so dainty , and so curious in your dyet , and apparrel , that you scarce know what to eat , what to drink , or what to put on ; and so causes the whole creation , to groan under the weight and burthen of your corruptions : who lives in idleness , whose belly is your god , who glory in your shame : and here both priests and gentry , who accuses others of idleness , are caught in their own snares : you who accuse us for idleness , who are in the work of the lord , or you your selves , who are found in the work of the enemy of god , let the honest hearted judge , who live in idleness : you who are enemies to the servants of god , which labours to have such practices destroyed , as causes the wr●●h of god to remain upon such as act in these things before mentioned . all your coverings which you can make , will not hide you ; for the righteous judge , who will plead the cause of the innocent , will finde you out , in the day of his fierce wrath , which is comming upon you , which you cannot avoid , nor escape : your high thoughts , nor your greatness will not save you though you esteem never so highly of your selves , and scorn and der●de your poor fellow-creatures , counting them inferiour to you . and many of you think us not worthy to live upon the earth : we seem so vile and base in your scornful eyes . but know this , you proud , high minded , self-conceited ones that god is no respecter of persons , who hath chosen the ( despised ) poor of this world , to be heirs of eternall salvation and hath left you for utter destruction , except you speedily repent ; for wo will come upon all you that are covered , and not with the spirit of the lord : therefore now be you warned , and while you have time , prize it ; for the mighty terrible day of the lord draweth nigh : therefore repent , and forsake the evil of your doings , ( you sodomites ) before the evil which is determined against you , come upon you : the day of your calamity hastens , the lord is righteous in his judgements , who a short work will make upon the earth , and he will reward you according to your works : you who are workers of iniquity , must depart from his presence , and into utter darkness must be cast ; for the living dreadful god of life and glory , is of purer eyes , then to behold iniquity : therefore cease , cease , from your pride and vain glory , ye high-minded self-conceited ones , and sit down in dust and ashes , lest the door of mercy be for ever shut against you , and you perish eternally . remember you are warned in your life time , from edmonds bury goal , the . day of the th moneth , . by a servant of the lord in outward bonds for the truthsake , in scorn by the prophane world , called quaker , whose name in the flesh is , john harwood . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a e- isa. . . & ▪ joh. . jhon . joh. . joh. . . joh. . ● . joh. . . & . . joh. . . joh. . . joh. , . & . . mat. . & . . . cor. . , , & . . heb. . , . joh. . . mark . . . math. . isa. . . mica . . ●er . . ezek. . . je. . . amos. . . psalm . . . rev. . . isa. . . ezek. . . mat. . isa. . . is. ia . v . answer . rom. . , . ro● . . . john . . . jam. . . psal. . . cor. . . the nonconformists vindication, or, a testimony given against the indulged assembly of separatists wherein the false calumnies and aspersions cast upon the suffering presbyterians, are answered and confuted : also, the heads and causes of separation are opened and explained, together with an illustration of the erastian state of the present church. grant, patrick, th/ th cent. approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; 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(eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) the nonconformists vindication, or, a testimony given against the indulged assembly of separatists wherein the false calumnies and aspersions cast upon the suffering presbyterians, are answered and confuted : also, the heads and causes of separation are opened and explained, together with an illustration of the erastian state of the present church. grant, patrick, th/ th cent. p. s.n.], [edinburgh? : . attributed to patrick grant. cf. bm. place of publication from bm. reproduction of original in british library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng church of scotland -- apologetic works. dissenters, religious -- scotland. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - emma (leeson) huber sampled and proofread - emma (leeson) huber text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the nonconformists vindication , or a testimony given against the indulged assembly of separatists : wherein the false calumnies , and aspersions cast upon the suffering presbyterians , are answered and confuted . also the heads and causes of separation are opened and explained , together with an illustration of the erastian state of the present chvrch . john . . but he that doth the truth cometh to the light , that his deeds may be made manifest , that they are wrought in god. ezek. . . thou son of man , shew the house to the house of israel : that they may be ashamed of their iniquities , and let them measure the patern . truth and reason are no treason . libera gens . libera mens . printed in the year . mock verses put forth ( in room of confutation ) against the au●● . by mr. thomas black , indulged preacher at perth ▪ to die obscure , most be a dismal fate , since mortals purchase fame at such a rate . as burning cities razing regal seats , destroying temples overturning states . but meaner spirits whom destinie contracts , not to aspire unto such glorious acts. yet phaetons in conceit will be content , ere fame be wanting to be fools in print . the authors answer sin to reprove does much some men offend , when worldly interest is their chiefest end , the bramble shade shall be one day brought low ▪ when your erastian church will get it 's fatal blow . both fools and wise shall known be or long , tho now you say your mountain standeth strong , at your poetrie i need not furder hint , who sit's above knows who are fools in print . the nonconformists vindication . prov ▪ . . he that answereth a matter , before he heareth , it is folly and shame unto him . man is a sociable creature by nature ( as said the philosopher ) end therefore desires company which way so ever he tends , be it to he●ven or be it to hell , he is loath to go alone . no wonder then to see union and love so common a plant , growing almost in every garden , amongst the bad as well as among the good. true it is among the godlie it is a dutie commanded , as in john , and also commended psal . . . likewise it is the propertie of a church well constitute ; also it is the dutie of all believers to seek for unity and love : yet this mark is not inseperable , for it can be among unbelievers , as in rev. , these shall have one mind , and shall give their strength and power to the beast : and this also can be among professors going on in a course of defection , as we have the example of israel exod . who with one consent , said , these be thy gods o israel . and no wonder it be so , if we consider that sin is a work of darkness , and therefore cannot abide the light , as in john . for every one that doth evil hateth the light ; and so cannot endure that there should be any light or witness against themselves or sins ; which witness makes them ready to cast foul aspersions and accusations on the faithful , who will not go on with them in their sins ; like to josephs mistris who did falslie accuse him of her sin , by raising the hue and cry after him , as in gen. , . even so is the case this day with the faithful of the land , who will not , neither dare go on , in defection and separation ( from the princ●pals and practises of the church of scotland ) with the erastian , indulged in their backsliding courses of perjurie by unity & concord . so that when they cannot obtain their desire , they most bitterlie cast their sins upon us , accusing us of separation and division ; we acknowledge , that union and love are to be sought with endeavou● by all that professeth truth , but it must be in the lord , and not in aniething sinful : otherways our happiness should be of no better stamp than israel's was exod . when the people with one consent did say . these be thy gods o israel . now we acknowledge , union to be good in it self , when righdie exercised , and cannot but praise you ●or these pertinent places and passages of scripture you urge for the obtaining of it : acknowledging your doctrine to be sound in the abstract . but indeed in the application we disagree . for there is no command in scripture to unite our selves to sin , and obstinat defenders thereof . i mean such as have made defection from the principals and practises of the church of scotland , by turning to erastianism ; and that not onlie in one simple act , but persevering therein from one step to an other . but i shall not insist on general assertions , but shall procced to plain and particular probation ; and in order thereto , i shall confider the heads of the controversie ( contained in your seasonable admonition as you call it ) as they are set down in order . where first , we have the description given of the church in her doctrine , to which we well agree in the theo●e and speculative part . but differs in practise and application . now first you say , you own the confession of faith and catechism so do we acknowledge the confession of faith in the whole heads and articles thereof . but it objected by malignants , that the confession of faith is contradictory to the covenants and coronation oath . in that it is said in the chap infidelity and difference in religion doth not make void the magistrats just and legal authority : and therefore by consequence papists or intid●ls may be our lawful rulers . answer on such consequence may be drawen from the word infideliry , this being the abstract name and an infidel the concret . so that the difference is great : for infidelitie pointe●h onlie at personal faillings such , as sins of deadness and infirmitie acting indifferendie from simplicitie ( but not obstinat to faithful warning ) from which faillings , it is said in the following part eccle●iasticall persons are not free as in chap : . sect. , rev. . . chapters ▪ so that from this it is concluded that faults and faillings such as formerly mentioned doth not non magistrat a ruler or depose a minister from the exercise of his office , so that this is the true and genuine meaning of this place . do . we do likewise believe and own , that jesus christ is ●he only head and king of his church , and that he hath instituted in his church officers and o●dinances , o●der and government , and not left it to the will of man ; magistrat or church to alter it at their pleasure , either by a sinful limited indulgence or yet by a bastard toleration , contrair to the sound principals of presbyterian government and our lands engagments . tio we own likewise order in discipline , conform to the word of god , in admission of persons to offices and priviledges in the church . we own no other rules than the institutions of jesus christ , and the example of the prophets and apostles , for censure or reproof either in doctrine or discipline . and we own that persons of all ranks , are to be censured and reproved without partiality , according to the degree of their of●ence . moreover we acknowledge prudence to be required in the exercise thereof , and that conform to the word of god , that the transgressor be dealt with by the spirit of meekness and love , and in such a way as may most advance the good and edification of the church we own , that it is the mercy of our land that we are a land in covenant with god , and we desire to lament for the breaches thereof in some , by turning to poperie and in many to prelacle , and manie now by erastianism and separation : and particularlie by continuance therein , going on from one step to another adding sin to sin . we bless god tho' the land hath dealt treacherouslie with him , yet he hath not forsaken us , but ha●h keeped some faith●ul in the midst of all these defections , who hath nor complied with these abominations , which is the glorie of the land , altho' by backsliders it is acknowledged a shame . now having set down our judgment , what we own as our principals . therefore i shall in the next place , speak to that great controversie , which is so much agitated by backsliders , viz. separation and i most say , to me it is a thing very strange , to see men professing conscience , endued with reason , qualified with learning ; so wilfully ●o precipitat in judging and censuring others , who are innocent of that sin that they themselves are guiltie of ; seing the sin may be easily found out , and who they are that are guilty thereof , if we would take the right method of seeking , which is described by learned men for finding out the solution of a contraversie , which consists in an accurat defining of the subject , and of the predicat ; that so it may appear if there be any connection to be found betwixt the two , and then it shall appear , whether separation is to be ascribed to you or us . ● . therefore i shall consider in the first place , wherein separation consists . i say separation imports a change ; which change must consist either in defection from truth , or else in excess beyond truth . now ( ) in defection . let it be impartiallie considered , by the para●king and receiving of that sinful act of indemnity , after bothwel , in the year or by that toleration suplicat and petitioned , under your late king : and also this bastard toleration , now under your present king ( which neither doth , nor yet can run in a channal of a covenant o● reformation ) whether you who have complyed with these , or we who have refused them , be most guiltie of de●ection and change , from the principals of presbyterian government , our covenants , coronation oath , & fundamental laws . certain●ie where the defection and change is ; there must be the separation . but i shall have occasion afterward to speak to this , when i come to the sins and accusations led against you : therefore i will not insist upon it at this time bat on the other hand , if in excess you can lay any thing to our charge ( since your separation from us ) we are willing to cast our courses into scanning , by examing the matter ▪ and likewise for the present , we shall take your premisses to consideration , which you lay out against us , by the writings of these two famous godlie learned men , viz. mr. rutherford and mr. durham , whom you led out as witnesses against us ; judging that we will be found within the compass of rigid separatist ; who in excess do separat from the church without any sufficient ground . therefore i shall consider the instances you insist upon . . first you say , was there not as great defects and faults in some of the churches of christ mentioned in scripture : as in corinth , galatia , and some of the churches of asia ▪ and yet no warrand to withdraw from them . ans , in respect of it's extent , it cannot be so said of all these churches , that they had sinned totallie and universallie as on man as we charge you ; or if by some of these churches it may be said , that they were under an universal decay and deadness , as to the exercise of disciplin ; yet from scripture it cannot be said ; that they were obstinat , wil●ul defenders and denyers of their sin , as ye are ; who by consequence are disorderly walkers , from which the apostle gives command to withdraw thes : , . and if we are warranted to withdraw from the di●orderlie brother , t●en may i argue ( by way of induction ) also from a disorderlie assembl●e . who are perseve●ing in their sin , so that in this our singularitie doth not appear , neither from scripture ; nor yet from your own concession as in page you say if anie church profess or pract●●e what is sin on the matter , we ought to withdraw , which is the case of the present controversie , as i shall afterward make it appear . furder you con●i●ue ●o amplifie the ab●urd●tie of our singulari●ie , by interrogating , while we seperat from you : what church is there on earth with which we would communicat and join in worship with ? to which i answer , what if it were yeilded in thesi ? that there were no church on earth with which we could join with , no more than with you ; would this be any thing absurd ? or against which of all the atri●utes of god ( either communicable or incommunicable ) would this take up a con●radiction ? true it is the lord ha●h d●creed to have a church ; but whether to preserve or keep them faithful , as to few or manie ; is left to the freedom of his own h●lie will & pleasure . whether to include them within the familie of an noah , or to limit them to the familie of an ioshua , is all one with the lord i mean ( for a smal j●nctur of time ) in that degre● of faithfulness , which is agreeable to god's word . but this is not our case , we can join with other churche abroad , altho' we dare not join with you , we acknowledge that the corruptions are great in manie things , which now to insert all wer● tedi●us , we acknowledge that t●ey are lying under an erastia● deadness and infirmity , which sin differs far from your erastian obstin●● defection ; 〈…〉 shall afterward make ie appear . but how ever we 〈◊〉 join with them in so far as they are reformed , and not involve our selv●● in breach of covenant ; they not being under our covenant engagments , our covenants not engageing us to reform without land ; except in our personal practise neither can we charge them with these things ; that we can charge you with , can we charge them with breach of covenant , who were never under it ? or can we ●ccuse them of the erastian indulgence and toleration ? which overthroweth the principals , and practises of pres●y●erian government ; or can we accuse them of the backsl●●ing perjured actings of this bastard toleration , under this present revolution ▪ who never had the tentations , nor tryals of the lik● sin 's as ye have had , who hath made separation fr●m us , by such de●ections . so that in th●● , ●o absu●dity doth appear in our not joining with you , and yet with others . que●t : why will you join with others , in so far as they are reformed ? and not join with us , in so far as we are reformed : resp . our joining is not to ●e understood a constituting of our selves with them : but only an approving of their doctrine , in so far as it is agreeable to the word o● god ; and the constitu●ions of the reformed church of scotland likewise we can approve of your doctrine to be sound , when considered in the abstract , as it may be distinguished from you : but subjective●ie considered in you as to practise , and application , in this we differ , as i shall afterward make it appear when i come to the impurity and unlawfulness of your worship . quest what is the difference betwixt these chu●ches in holland , geneva , garmany : and the present e●astian church . res : the churches abroad are under an ●m●erfection in that they are not come to the hight of reformation requi●ed of in the word of god , such as the constitutions and covenanted engagments of the church of scotland and therefore they are under the lords wrath and fatherly anger ( being under an e●astian deadness and infirmity ) ever and while they reform as in rev . s●rengthen the things which remain and are ready to die : fo● i have not found thy works perfect before god now seing the lord req●ires per●ection in reformation , in it's sincere endeavour ; then ought we not to constitut our selves in assisting anie church in war , until they come to our reformation ( either in practise or promise ) let us not be pleased , where god is angrie . but on the other hand the lord deal●th , as an angrie judge towards a church going on obstinatlie in defection : and therefore , they are diametrically opposite one to another , as in heb. . if any man draw back , my soul shall have no pleasure in him . so that when all this is considered , then it will appear , that the difference is very great betwixt an imperfection and a defection , and that both in practise and doctrine . now we declare , that we dare not join with you in your worship : and that because it is contrair to our faith and conscience . . first , in respect of your mission , by reason of the changing of your holding , in taking your power and liberty , ( as you call it ) ( ) from the bloody magistrat charles the second ( in the year ) by that sinful act of indemnity after bothwel , where ye left the fields , & came eo the houses ; and likewise did endeavour to observe the limitations contained in that act : and also did acknowledge him to be your lawful king ( in prayer before god ) altho' a declared tyrant , and stated enemy to the work of reformation ; for which tyranny , you ought at that time to have joined with the suffering party , in casting him off ; rather than to have hearkened to that sinful act : the end of which , was to break the church ( this you did contrair to the advice of the wise man , pro. , eat not the bread of him who hath an evil eye : neither be desirous of his dainties , for they are deceitful meat ) ( ) and now ye have taken your constitution from the corrupt tolerating magistrat , who neither hath taken the covenants , coronation oath ; nor yet can take it , as he is now circumstantiated ; being cloathed with prelacy : and therefore your assemblies , and ordinances , are bastard and evil begotten , because they neither do , nor yet can run in the channal of a covenant of reformation . so that in this , the foundation and being of your church , is not consonant to the state of our church , in the dayes of our ancestors ; and therefore from the consideration of this , we dare not in conscience acknowledge your power and mission . . as to the effects , i mean the power of conversion . which you ascribe unto your selves in converting , in this we differ , and that because , it is condemned in scripture , ae in jer. . but if they had stood in my counsil , and caused my people to hear my words : then should they have turned them from the evil of their ways , and from the evil of their doings . we acknowledge , that you may beg●t children of your own kind , to believe and practise with your selves , in your era stian backsliding courses , by puting on a naked external profession of presbytrie , with natural and morall piety , flowing from a natural conscience , making them fit stones for your erastian building : but to make them fit stones for the lords church , by leting them see the lands sins and de●ections ; and the perjured actings of covenant-breaking that you are guilty of , both as to time past and now present ; this you will not do your selves : and therefore will not suffer others , like to these spoken of . mat. . obj. but it is objected , that this too hard a sentence ; will we condemn all ? how prove we , that conversion is not be ascribed to the present church ? ans . far be it from us to condemn anie , but these whom the holy ghost condemneth , and describeth for wicked and ungodlie men ; see for proof of this , psal , and . and consider i● , and then you will see who is the christian , psal , . . and who are christs church , psal . , i say the godly man is said , not to sit in the counfel of the u●godly , nor yet to stand in the way of sinners , which cannot be said of vo● , who has taken the indulgence and toleration , under your late kings and has given no testimonie against them ( the which defect , is a silent consenting and approving of the thing ) but on the other hand ( in prayer besore god ) did acknowledge them to be your law●ul k●ngs , which was a sitting in the counsel of the ungodly , by approving that the persons elected to the throne were lawful , and these who did elect them , were , the true and lawful sons of the state , in whom the power was , which to affirm is false , for both of them had devested themselves of that power that belonged to them , as men and christians , by stateing themselves enemies to god and godliness ; as was to be seen in their setting up of prelacie and supremacie , and in sheding the blood of the godlie . now when all this is considered , doth it not appear that you belong to the categorie of ungodlie men , described here in this psal . but in the next place , i say conversion is a leaving of sin , and turning to god ; now to ascribe this to you , were to affirm a contradiction , that is , that a man may be godlie and ungodlie ; simul et semel , that is to say , once and together , in that he may serve two opposites , viz. christ , and the idol of supremacy , which to affirm is false for the lord will not dwell under the idols roof ; as in cor. . moreover psal . , you see who are christs church . i say they are these who owns jesus christ as king and head of his church , and maintains his laws , doctrine and discipline , whose opposite wicked men are , for they will not submit to church discipline , nor incorporat themselves under christs banner , as in vers . . but this indulged church declares the contrair , in that they cotporat themselves with these who are not under christs bands ( i mean discipline ) and ●or all this , continue the church of christ , altho clearly condemned in this psal . but how rightly this is applyed ; let any tender conscience judge , . we differ from you , as to the extent , because your preaching doth not reach to all sins and deffections ; i mean not sins unknown , and never preached against by our church in former times : but only these sins , i say that were inanimously condemned by all the ministrie , i instance the late unlawful confederacie in joining with idolatars , contrair to the writings of faithful mr , gilhespie ▪ also these black articles contained in that confederacie , drawn up by your king and his confederats , where liberty of conscience was proposed as the end thereof , and then falsly calling it the work of god , &c. with many other steps of of backslidings formerly mentioned . so that in this your worship is impure , being limited ; and therefore noways agreeable , or consonant to the gospel , in the dayes of our ancestors ; and therefore we cannot in faith and conscience join with it . . fourthly the impurety of your doctrine appears , in that your religious fasts , ( as you call them ) petitions and prayers , are both sinful on the matter , and also contradictory to scripture , oh! how contradictorie is this to the command of god ? and the example of the godly to pray for a blessing , on that work which the lord hath pronounced a curse , viz. associating and joining in war with idolaters such as papists , who are the enem●es of god , and subjects of antichrist , and was not this your case in this late war. how manie fasts had ye● in order for humiliation ( as ye said ) for a blessing upon the war , altho , clearly condemned , in the example of jehosaphats joining with ahab in war , who was an idolator : and if the lord powred out his judgment on him for his sinful association , as in the kings and chro. , then how could the great assembly pray for a blessing on this late association ? doth not such prayers draw to a blasphemous consequence ? which would have the lord to declare himself changeable in his nature , to bless that which he hath declared in his word , that he will curse ; he being in his nature holy , and of purer eyes , than to behold iniquitie , hab. , oh! how monstrous is this practise , and abhored of by malignants , who can spie such sins with the eye of malice and envie , that the great praying assemblie cannot do , nor will not do ; alas ! that men professing conscience , should walk so contrair to hight : or that they should be permitted of god ; to do that which the wicked sorcerer balaam would not do , num. . behold i have received a commandment to bless , and he hath blessed : and i cannot reverse it : but you are walking contrair unto god , by seeking a blessing on the cursed thing . now let anie unbyassed unprejudged persons judge , how dear bought your deliverance is ; with no less price , than price o● conscience ; for without this wickedness , you could not have your present temporal prosperitie : now when all this is considered , may it not be said , that none of tender conscience dare join with you in your worship . obj. but some will object and say , if there were two robbers fighting , and the one were strong and cruel ; and the other weak ; were it not a dutie , to help the weak against the cruel one ? and the reason is if the strong robber prevail , he will next fall upon us . ans . we must not help a robber in an act of robberie , for this is contrair to scripture , as in tim , , . [ be not partakers of other mens sins ] and peter . : [ be not abussie bodie in other mens matters , ] that is in mens privat intrests , in an action wherein the glory of god , and the good of the kingdom is not seen ; which is the case this day betwixt the king of france and the emperour ; they are fighting for the cown of spain in order to set up a popish . king to murder the souls of the poor subjects , by their damnable doctrine . now i think no christian this day in scotland considering our fundamental laws , and engagements ; which are that no popish king shall reign over us , and if not over us ? then why should we consent , that they should be over others , contrair to axiom or carmen . quod tibi fieri non vis , alteri ne feceris , that 's to say that which you would not have done to your selves , do not so to others . now as to the second branch of your objection viz. that you join with the emperour in order to bring down the king of france ▪ answer you should not do evil that good may come of it rom , . for in so doing you make god your enimie , when you take unlawfull means : so that in this you rather make that cruell tyrrant strong , than weak for sure i am unlawfull means , will always bring furth judgements , as i have already held out in israels case . but fiftly the impurity of your doctrine appears in the misapplying of it , and that falsly both as to mercies and judgements . ( ) as to mercies let it be considered what you were a people laying in sin , enjoying the benefit of your sinfull toleration , under your late king , and acknowledging him to be your lawfull king in prayer before god ; altho' afterwards in a printed declaration in the year the crown was acknowledged to be vaccant , by reason that he was a papist , and had had not taken the coronation oath ; but formerly you did acknowledge , that he was an instrument to open the do ot of libertie to your gospel ( as you called it ) so that in this you acknowledge your deliverance to be begun , and him to be instrumental in it ; and if this was then how you could cast him off ? & be so unthankful for your mercies . but if you own that declaration of the states , in the year ; then you must acknowledge your sin in owning of him anie manner of way : and that either by addressing of him for your libertie ; or yet confessing him to be an instrument of deliverance , otherwayes you cannot date your deliverance , nor yet point out the instrument of it , seing it cannot be ascribed to two opposit instruments , viz. the present and late king. so that in this you mercies are contradictorie , both as to the instruments , and also the time of deliverance ; and by consequence one way or other , according to your own confession , and practise , must be misapplied . so that in this , no tender conscience dare join with you . but furder let it be considered , who are the object of mercie ; & then it will appear , to whom the deliverance belongeth , i say doth not mercie belong to these that are in miserie ; i mean these who seeth and confeffessess themselves so to be , as in chro. . if my people which are called by my name , shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face , and turn from their wicked wayes : then will i hear from heaven and will forgive their sins , and heall their land. so that it appears , from this that deliverance belongeth only to a penitent people . also in the book of the judges , it is said of israel , that they cryed unto the lord ; that is by repentance and confession of sin ( for no other prayers are heard of god jo. ) and he sent them a deliverer : so that from this you see that the object of mercie , is only the penitent , that confesses their sin : which cannot be said of you , who hitherto hath never acknowledged your erastian courses of defection , in the matter of the indulgence and toleration , contrair to the example of the people of god in former times , who were plain and particular ▪ as in ezera . the strange marriages are confessed : but no confession to be seen of the strange marriages , that hath been made with the enemies of god , by you in the forenamed sins . alas ▪ then how can you apply deliverance , seing ye have no warrand from scripture so to do ; when all circumstances are considered , and whatever you have done or may do in this ; yet be asured that your application of deliverance is not of any other nature than that spoken of in jer. . a false vision and divination and , the deceit of your own heart . now this being your state and condition , then is your present temporal prosperity , not anie other thing , but an judgment , like to that spoken of jer. , verses , viz. fair flourishing providen●es in answering you according to the idols of your own hearts , and then bringing a battle upon the back of it . now seeing mercies and judgments are misplaced , and that by calling evil good , and good evil ; then may we refuse such worship : for it is not the voice of christ : but the voice of strangers ; which voice we ought not hear joh. . moreover in the next place , you furder proceed to ampli●ie our alleged sin , by affirming that our practise is altogether contradictorie , by reason that it it stricketh against our selves ; in that we are subject to failing , for you say , can we affirm , that we are pure ? might not there be recriminations against you , but these things doth not make for peace nor edifie . to which i answer , i yeald there is sins amongst us , committed by some and remonstrat by others : but what altho we were all guiltie , would that blot out yours : or will two blacks make a white , or will our fallings warrand us to walk contrair to light , by laying aside our testimony against you . but you say these things make no● for peace nor edifie . ans . this i deny , for to search ou● sin , a●d to examine our practise by the line and rule of gods word , is a dutie both commanded and commended in scripture , and is good in it self , that is bonum perse ; and that which is good in it self ●●th alwise good effects ; and if anie bad consequence or even● follow upon this dutie . it flows accidentally from the corruptions of men ▪ i mean from some rough unpolished stone , that doth not answer line and level ▪ for the same is ascribed to the gospel , as in luke . it is said to bring peace on earth and good will towards men , this is in in it's own nature ▪ but accidentallie it is said chap. , suppose ye that i am come to send peace on earth ; i tell you nay : but rather division . so that this slows from the corruptions of men. furder you say , you will forbear these things . ans . we dare not do so ; but most follow the mark and character given by our saviour , john . but he that doth the truth cometh to the light , that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in god. indeed you would have our alleged sins buried , in order that you may get your backsliding courses of defection buried , but we will not do so : and therefore desires to be foremost in ripping up of our sins , and in examining of our actionts by the word of god : otherwise our zeall will be of a bastard kind , if it be not ▪ universal against all sin : so that in this we will not pass by one action ( that ever hath been done ▪ since your separation from us ) without trying it by the word of god , and the approven practises of our ancestors . now in the first place , if we have done any thing that we are not bound and engaged both from the word of god , and our covenants , expreslie to do : them we shall take with our guilt . secondly , if anie thing be done , that an absolute necessitie or indispensabilitie , did not calll for . thirdly , if the mercies or deliverance of the church , hereafter for the time to come , shall run in anie other channel : than what we have espoused ; then shall we acknowledge our selves transgressors . so that we are willing to reason the matter , and to put our courses into scanning ; that it may appear , clearly to the world , who are in the wrong ye , or we , now we say , we will not pass by one action , that has been done since your s●paration from us , without trying it by the word of god , and the approve● practises of our ancestors . therefore i shall in the first place confider the seperation , in it's rise and progress , as to the time when it first began , and that was in the year and , this erastian weed , did then appear in that presbytrie at edinburgh & dunscore , where mr , richard cameron was censured for his preaching against the supremacy and the indulged ministers ( who received the indulgencie after pentland , in the year , and when accused besor them , he declared that his accusations did prove him to be a presbyterian , for he had done nothing , but what was agreeable to gods word , and the constitutions of the church of scotland : and therefore he would decline anie such presbytrie as lawful , who would so accuse the innocent of guil● ; which they could not prove . i say at that time the twins began to struggle in the church womb ; as did appear by the malice , clamour , and reproach , that these ministers did vent against mr. cameron for his declining of them , they thought this was a sin of a deep dye . but alas ! no lamenting for truth , that was wronged by the indulgence , and the defence thereof , as appeared by their giving by names to all these who were against the supremacy and indulgency , calling them cameronions . now as this erastian weed did still grow among these : so likewise the faithful did still adhere to truth ; as did appear at bothwell , by their casting off the tyrrants interest , declaring a war against him , & all the men of his practise , as stated enemies to the church of christ . but the other party who favoured the indulgencie and supremacie , emitted a declaration contrair to the former , taking in the tyrrants interest , acknowledging him to be their lawful king , notwithstanding of all the tyrranie that had been done by him against the work of reformatson , from the year to the year . where he did appear in war , against the interest of christ . so that you see that it was a contradiction to them , to say that they would defend the interest of christ , and the interest of his enemies , they being opposit , the one to the other , alas ! this was the cursed achan in the camp ' for which israel could not stand before the eumie ; as in josh . . so that from this you see , that the separation was materialie begun before bothwell ; but not formallie brought forth ( in all it's circumstances ) until the act of indemnity afterward was proclaimed ; which proclamation the indulged did willinglie accept , at which time they separated from the faithful . from which time we are willing to examine our actions , ever since the year . and that because in your national fast in the ●ear , ye accuse us of dangerous principles , and undiscreat zeal . therefore we are willing to cast our courses into scanning , by examining the matter . as . first , if we have done any thing , that we are not bound and engaged , both from the word of god and our covenants to do ; then we shall take with our guilt . now i shall give a narration and account of our proceedings , in that sad day of the church calamitie , under the indulgencie in the year , it 's said job vpright men shall be astoni●hed at this , and the innooent shall stir up himself against the hypocrite . the righteous shall hold on his way , and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger . that is shall add strength : now this was the case of the faithful , who were keeping clean hands ; they did bestir themselves against hypocritical backsliders , by shewing their love to the crown and interest of christ , and to the land , in cleaving to our covenant● and lands engagments . judging that altho others had imbraced the tyrrants interest . and had corporat themselves under his banner : yet they were engaged to perfect the thing begun , viz. to cast off that tyrrant and declare a war against him , and all these of his practise . and this they did in as legal a way , as the present circumstances could permit . for the faithful , who were adhearing to the laws and liberties of the church and nation , did call a representative , and did invest themselves with authority ; by vertue of which they did emit a declaration at sanquhar , which is as follows , the declaration and testimony of the true presbyterians , antiprelatick ▪ antier astian persecuted party in scotland , published at sauquhar june . it is not amongst the smallest of the lords mercies to this poor land , that there hath alwayes been some who have given their testimony against everie course of defection , we were guiltie of ; which is a token for good , that he doth not intend to cast us of all together , but that he will leave remnant in whom he will be gracious , if they throw his grace keep themselves clean , and walk in his ways and methods , as they have been walked in , and owned by predecessors of trulie worthy memory ; in their carrying on of our noble work of reformation , in the several steps thereof , both from popery and prelacie : and likewise from erastian supremacy , so much usurped by him ( who , it is true so far as we know ) is descended from the race of our kings : yet he has so far deboared from what he ought to have been ; by his perjurie , and his usurping in church matters , and tyrrany in matters civil , as is known by the whole land ; that we have just reason to account it amongst the lords great contraversies against us , that we had not disowned him , and the men of his practises ( whether inferior magistrats or any other ) as enemies to our lord jesus , his crown and true protestant and presbyterian interest in these lands , our lords espoused bride and church . therefore tho' we be for government and governours , such as the word of god and our covenants allows : yet we for our selves and all that will adhere unto us the representatives of the true presbyterian church , and covenanted nation of scotland ; considering the great hazard of lying under sin any longer . do by thi● presents diso●n charles stuart , who has been reigning ( or rather we say tyr●anizing ) on the throne of britain , as having any right , title , or interest ●o , or in the said crown of scotland or government , as forefaulted several years since , by his perjurie and breach of covenant with god and his church , and u●urpation of his crown , and royal prerogatives : and many other breaches in matters ecclesiastick , and by his tyrannie and breaches in the very leges regn●ndi , in matters civell ▪ for which reasons , we declare that several years since , he should have been denuded , of being king , ruler or magistrat , or haveing any power , or to be obeyed as ●●ch as also we under the banner of our lord jesus christ the captain of salvation ; do declare a war with such a tyrant and usurper , and all the men of these practises , as enimies to our lord jesus christ , and his cause and and covenant , and against all such as have any way strenthened him , in his usurpation and tyrannie civell and ecclesiacstick , yea and against all such as shall any way strengthen , side with or acnowledge any other in the like usurpation and tyrannie : far more against such as would betray , or deliver up our free : reformed church , into the boundage of antichrist the pope of rome ; by this we homologat our testimony at rutherglen the tuentie nynth of may . and all the fai●hfull testimones of these that have gone before us : as also we do disclaim that declaration published at hamiltoun the day of june , chiefly because it takes in the kings intrest which we are several years since loused from : as also because of the foresaids reasons and others ; that we may after this ; if the lord will , publish , as also we disown , and resent the reception of the duke of york a professed papist , as repugnant to our principales , and vows to the most high god : and as that which is the great tho alas ! the just reproach of our church . we also by this protest against his succeeding to the crown ; as against what ever hath been done ; or any are essaying to do , in this land , given to the lord , in prejudice to our work of reformation . and to conclude we hope after this , none will blame us , or offend at our rewarding of these that are against us , as they have done to us , as the lord gives the opportunity . this is not to exclude any who hath declined , if they be willing to give satisfaction , according to the degree of offence . now the lawfulness of this proceeding , being denyed by some , upon the matter ; and the authority thereof questioned by others : it was acknowledged to be a dutie indispensi●le in the year ) to ratifie and approve all that was done at sanquhar : ( considering the parliament that then was , where the duke of york sat commissioner ) and likewise to testifie against the unlawfulness of that parliament ; and all others preceeding , since the year , did publish a declaration at lanerk , which is as follows , the act and apologetick declaration of the true presbyterians of the church of scotland . january . altho we ought to take in good part , whatever god in his infinte wisdom , hath for the punishment of our sins carved out unto us , and eye and acknowledge him alone in it , and altho we alwise ought to acknowledge government , and governours as ordained by him , in so far as they rule and govern according to the rules , set down by him in his word , and constitutive laws of the nation , and ought to cast the mantle of love on the lesser errors of governours , and give the best countenance to their administration , that the naure of their actions will bear . yet when all these laws , both of god and the kingdom conditional and constitutive of the government , are cassed & anuled by pretended law ; & the highest of usurpation , & an inexplicable prerogative in matters ecclesiastical , and arbitary government in matters civil is arrogat , when a banner of impiety , prophanness , and atheism is avowedly displayed against the heavens , and a door opened to abominations , of all sorts and sizes , and the remedy thereof still denyed by him , who should be as a sun and shield to the people : when the parliaments who ought to be the grand trusties of the kingdom to whom it belongs in such a case , to secure the civil and spiritual interests , are so prelimited by law , as no true son of the state , and church hath liberty to sit and vote there . so that the parliamen●s and all places of publick trust , and offices of the kingdom from the highest to the lowest , are made up of none , but these who are corrupted , oyerawed , overuled and bribbed ; what shall the people do in such an extremity ? should they give up their reason as men ? their consciences as christians ? and resign their liberties , fortunes , reason , religion , and that all to the inexorable obstinacy , incurable wilfulness , and malice of these who in spite of god and man. and notwithstanding of their many oaths , and vows , both to god and his people , are resolved to make their own will the absolute and soveraign rule of their actions , and their strained indulgencie , the measure of the subjects hope and hapiness . shal the end of government be lost throw the weakness , tyrrany , and wickedness of governours ? and must the people by an implicit submission and deplorable stupidity , destroy themselves ? and betray their posterity ; and become objects of reproach , to the present generation , and pity and contempt to the future . have not they in such an extremity , good ground to make use of that natural and radical power they have ? to shake o●f that yoke , which neither we nor our fathers were able to bear . which accordingly the lord honour'd us , in a generall and unprelimited convention of the states and several shires of scotland to do : a convention of unperlimitted members . aconvention of men who had only the glory of god ; the good of the common wealth before their eyes . the like whereof the present reigning tyrant , could never since his home comeing pretend to . at which convention he was most legally and by general consent cast off ; by the declaration afterward published at sanqubair , by speciall warrand from the said convention . but that we may not seem to have done that ; or yet to do the like , upon no grounds or yet upon few or small grounds , we shall hint at some few of the many thousands of the misdemaners of the now cast off tyrant , in his overturning of our church and state . and first at his very entrie , as if he had attained to neros desire at one blow in his first parilament , he cut of the neck of that noble constitution of church and state ; which our noble and worthy auccstors had made , and not thinking it enough , treacherously and falslie to perjure himself ; he made consitutions and laws ( if it be not an abuse of language to call them so ) as none but fouls of his own feathers , and such as would run with him to the same excess of riot should have access to the very meanest place or office in the kingdom , and tho' that in it self is enough ; yet not the thousand part of what he , hath done secondly did he not take to himself a licentious sphear exceeding all measure divine and humane tyrannicall obtruding his will for a law , both in matters civell and eccelesiastick makeing us a lawghing stock to the neighbouring nations , who imagined that what he was doing ( however tyrrannious in it self ) to be consonant to our laws , blaming the badness of our laws , instead of the badness of the governours , whereas there is nothing less cousonant to the tenor and end of ours and all others , divine and humane . for we have reason to praise the lord , who so eminently assisted our ancestors in framing our laws ; so that we may upon good grounds say , that there is no nation ( in civilibus ) has beter , and ( in ecclesiasticis ) so good as we , having by gods great providence attained unto a more excellent reformation than any nition . the observing of which laws , was the very constitutive and absolute condition , whereupon he was admitted to the royal office , and without which , he was not to have the exercise of his power ; and to which he was most deeply and solemnly sworn , oftner than once , with his hands lifted up to the most high god , himself declaring the subjects ●y no longer to remain or continue , than the ends and constitutions of these governments were pursued , and preserved by him : all which are contrair to his engagments foresaid , by his pretended , ( and as soresaid constitute parliaments ) cassed and annuled and these laws no more made their rule , but his own will , by his letters : so that we are made the reproach of the nations ; who say only that we have the law letters , instead of the letter of the law. thirdly , hath it not been his constant method to adjourn and dissolve parliaments at his pleasure , when they ( tho his own creatures ) were so sensible of his misdemanors , as that they began to question , & when questioned by them ; ye may easily conjecture what they were ▪ fourthly hath he not stated himself as supream head over all persons in all causes civil and ecclesiastick ; and by vertue of that arrogantly arrogated power , fabricated a chimerick government peagantry in the church , with such ludibrious eminence , pompious power and pride , through the vanity of mens deprived imaginations , the grievous and misterious abyses , from whence have eshewed all the calamities and woes , all the languishing sorrows and confounding shames , and reproach , which in this day of blackness and darkness , hath involved , polluted and pestered the church and kingdom , and thus have approven himself to be defender of the faith , under which the godly party true sons of the church and nation , have been groaning these twentie years bygone , and great numbers murdered and slain in the fields , and led as lambs to the slaughter upon scaffolds , ●mprisoned , keeped in irons , and with exquisite torters tormented , exilled , badished , and sold as slaves amongst savages ; all which they endured most patiently a long time , or ever they offered to appear in publict arms against them . and all this they have met with as a reward ; first upon the lords part , tho unjust and ungreat as to his part , for their too great and inordinat love wherewith they prevented him , in the day of his distress , being the first and only beginning of his unhappy restauration . fifthly , time would faill us to narrate what exorbitant impossings , taxings , cessings , and every way impoverizing of the subjects , & grinding of the faces of the poor , delapidating the rights and revenues of the crown , for no other end , but to imploy them for keeping of a bordel rather than a court : since there is no court in the world , has attained to suc● a height in debauchry , and deprivedness , as that court by his example has done . for the whole nation follows the kings example . r●gis ad exemplum totus componitut orbis ▪ sixthly , as it had not been enough to exercise , such a tyrranical & arbitary power himself ; he by a la●e parliament such as the former ; intends that his cruelty and tyrrany shall not dye with himself , but that he shall in his own time instal such an one ( if not worse ) than himself contrair to all law , reason , & religion . and in that parliament to unhing very protestanism it self by framing a test , such as no protestant ( how corrupt so ever ) can take , and so ridiculous , as that it is made the laughing stock even of enemies themselves ; is it then any wonder considering such dealings ( and many thousand● moe ) that true scots men ( tho we have been alwayes , & even to the extremity sometimes loyal to our kings ) should after twentie years tyrranny , break out at last , as we have done , and put in practise , that power that god and nature has given us , and we having reserved to our selves , all our engagments , with our princes ; having been alwise conditional , as all other kingdoms are implicitly , but ours explicitly : let none therefore object against the legality , either of what we have done , or are doing , for observe how inconsiderable so ever we are said to be , to prove our selves to have done nothing against our ancient laws , civil or ecclesiastick , against any laws or divine● whatsoever , our ancient laws beinp judges , and we having safety to pass and repass , if the publick faith after so many breaches , can be trusted for that effect . so then let no foraign kingdom or churches throw misinformation or false copies ( as they are many ) of what we act or do , because we have not access to the press , as they , we say let them not take up a wrong opinion of us or our proceedings . for we are only endeavouring to extricat our selves from under a tyrrannical yoak , and to reduce our church and state to what they were in the year . . therefore we here conveened in our name and authority ratifies and approves , what has been done by the rutherglen and sanquhar declarations . and by their presents rescinds and annnles , and makes void whatsoever has been done by charles stuart and his accomplices in prejudice to our ancient laws and liberties . in all the prelimited parliaments and conventions ; since the year , and particularly the late parliament holden at elinburgh the day of july ( by a com●issioner professedly popish , and for villany exilled his native land ) with all the acts and laws there statued and enacted , as that abominable , riduculous , and unparalel●ed soul perjuring test and the rest , we therefore command and charges you to pass to the mercat cross of lanerk , and in our name and authority , to publish this our act and declaration , as ye will be answerable . dated the of december . let king jesus reign and all his enemies be scattered . now considering the miseries the land was in at that time , by reason of that cruel and intolerable bondage , which was exercised over the subjects , by their laws ; which was , that none should have their lives or lioerties : but these who would sell soul and conscience , and either comply or connive at their abominations , or else suffer death . now in such a case , i think no man of reason , but will acknowledge that we have done nothing , but what we are bound to do from the word of god , and our covenants , which is to preserve and defend king and rulers , in the defence and preservation of the true religion : but no furder as is abundantly proven in our declarations . now if any shall raise objection against the manner of our proceedings , as. first , that the representative powr of rejecting tyrannie belongeth not to privat persons ; but only to the optimates regni , that is to say , to the peers of the land such as nobles barons burgesies and therefore they are custodes legis , the keepers of the law ; who are to see to the laws and saftie of the kingdom in defending the rights and liberties of the subjects . answer . indeed it would become them best but they failing in this . by their defection and complyance , silence and connivance at the tyrannie commited in this case , it becomes the subjects ( altho' privat persons ) to assume to themselves that power of defending the laws and kingdom , which they have forefaulted . as for example , if a city were besieged by an enemie , and the magistrats and these who had the power would conspire in one , with the enemy to destroy the citizens , were it not their duty , to take the power ( which they have abused ) and defend themselves their lives and liberties . now this being our case , then no reasonable man , i think will condemn what we have done , considering the grounds and reasons abovementioned . now this representative power was firmly owned and avowed , by all the nonconformists in the year . , and . but in the year , they began to faint the eminent godly , in whom the life and substance of this dut●e was , were in a great part taken away , by suffering in fields and scaffolds ; and the remaing partie who were faithful protested against these failings , but were not heard : so that at length , they denyed that they acted authoritatively in these declarations above mentioned , where the judicious reader may discern the contrair , by such congruous expressions , as is used for expressing the nature of the action . but now this hopeless party of nonconformists , has turned their testimonies to protestations ; that when kings and queens comes to the throne , they enter a protestation against them : but what is that to the purpose ? what if all the shires in scotland would send a thousand arm'd men to the chief city of every shire , to declare against them ? and there rest on their protestations , would thus effectuat any thing ? certainly no , the only duty is to call a representative , and put on authority and take to them that power which they have forfaulted , and by vertue of that power they may proceed against them , with the sword of justice ; and this power belongs only to the faithful of of the land , who are the true sons of the church and state. alas ! this fainting did arise from the weakness of their love and faith ; they thinking , this was a work too hard for them ( who were so few ) to carrie on against so great a generation of malignants , and backsliders . likewise that it was mocked at by wicked men and carnal proffessors ; as a thing desperat , that would bring forth much blood and confusion : whereas a dutie is still absolute and indispensible ; and therefore to be gone about in faith , trusting to the alsuffiency and faithfulness of god , for throwbearing . faith being the same now , that it was in the days of noah : and therefore we ought to obey the command of god , whatever the effects may be : for surely that which is duty , will bring forth good effects , when waited for with patience . and sure i am these testimonies abovementioned , has foughten the throne of britain , more than three hundred thousand armed nobles could have done ; both as to the present and pastime , and likewise will be for the time to come ( however insignificant the actors may seem to be ) and the reason is because they are agreeable to gods word : and therefore have the promise of the lords presence , and if god be with us who can be against us ? but this shall more appear in the , following head , which is that if any thing be done , that an indispensability or absolute necessity did not not call for ? then shall we acknowledge our selves transgressors ; and this i endeavour to prove by several arguments ; as ( ) from the nature of the ordinance , magistrats being servants , to the common wealth , and nourishing fathers to the church ; so that they are made for the peoples good , as in rom : . and not the people for their tyrannicall lust and use . ergo from the nature of the ordinance it is a dutie indispensiable to cast off tyrannie . d● . secondly from the holiness of god , god is holy in the heav●ns , holy in the earth , holy in his chu●ch , ho●y in his civ●l ordinances . ergo , by consequence we are to have his ordinances holy ; because we are commanded so lev. . . ye shall be holy for i the lord your god i am holy if we be not for keeping gods ordinances holy how can we pray , that his will be done on earth as in heaven . . the magistrat has the sword of justice put in his hand , and is to judge for god , being gods minister and vicegerant ; and therefore no tyrant as in the sam : . he that rules over men must be just in ruleing in the fear of the lord. ergo its an indspensible dutie to opose tyrannie , this being agreeable to gods will and word . . but secondly the abselute necessity flows from the inevitable judgments of god upon the neglect of this dutie , of reforming and repareing this broken down hedge as in ezek. . . i sought for a man among them that should make up the hedge , and stand in the gap before me for the land , that i should not destroy it ; but i found none and ver● . therefore have i powered out my indignation upon them i have consumed them with the fire of my wrath : so that from this you see that where their is no testimony against sin , the judgment of god will come , and this is aboundantly confirmed in that pertinent passage sam. . i have told him that i would judge his house for ever , for the in iquiy which he knoweth because his sons made themselves vile & he restrained them not eli did give ●esti●ony against his sons cap. . . . but it was not such as the lord required or as the nature of his office did call for as a high preist he ought to have cast them out of their office and to have deposed them and cut them off from the congregation of the lord for their sin. . as a judge he ought to have punished them with the sword of justice ( according to the law of god ) for their adultery . all this they deserved , so that you see that the testimony must always be proportionable to the o●tence , otherwise we must partake of their sin , and consequently of their judgment . now let the judicious reader consider this , and then he will see , that we have done nothing , but what is just and right and agre●●ble to gods will and word , in our casting off of him ; who had manifestly cast off god , as you see by what is said above . so that when all this is considered : i think the lawfulness of the dutie is sufficiently proven from its essential atributes , which is indispensability and absolute necessity . now i shall in the next place speak to the third head , which is that if the mercies and deliverance of the church hereafter , for the time to come , shall run in any other channel : than what we have espoused , then shall we acknowledge our selves transgressors . . now this i prove , first from the mercies of god , in that they do not extend towards unbelievers , such as the impenitent . ( i mean fatherly mercies ) but only towards the faithful , who are keeping covenant with god , and adhearing to their vows and engagments : such the lord has promised to be with , as in chro. . the lord is with you while ye be with him . . secondly , to repair and build a civil state ( that 's defaced and ruined by reason of tyrannie ) is a work of gods mercie and love , & doth terminat only in believers , so that they are the instruments in and by whom the lord will build this work , they being led by his word & spirit , and the promise belonging only to such , as in zach. not by might nor by power , but by my spirit saith the lord of hosts . now seing they are the instruments ; then let none carp at the manner of this dutie , for we have done nothing but what is agreeable to gods word and will. as i have clearly held out . but on the other hand let these who condemn this dutie , consider that what we have done , will not fall to the ground , or be buried . for certainly there is no action , but must either be sin or dutie . i say there is no action situat in individuo , that 's to say , considered subjectively as to its rise , progress , object and end , but must be morally good , or else morrally evil ( indifferences layes in certain degrees or circumstances ) then by consequence this action , must be either put among the sins of the fathers or else among the duties of the fa●hers ; for certainly one of the two must be . and i think it is impossible to make this action a lands sin , considering the invincible grounds and reasons given above . now having held out the lawfulness of our rejecting , and casting tyrany off , and that the mercies and deliverance of the church , cannot run in any other channel . i shall in the next place , speak to the manner of government , and governours , that we contend for : which is found in that covenant , drawn up by mr. cargill , in the year , where we do declare that we shall set up over our selves , and over what god shall give us power of government ( and governours according to the word of god , and especially to that word exod. ) viz. that we shall no more commit the government of our selvs to one single person , or lineal succession , that is monarchy government : but the government we incline to is a common wealth ; but whether aristocratical or democratical or a mixture of both , we will not at present determine : we seing that monarchie is very lyable to incoveniences , and apt to degen●rat into tyranny , as long and sad experience has taught us , this flowing from the natures , humours , and inclinations of the people , and especially the nobility , who hitherto has driven kings to tyarnnie , insinuating themselves in their favours , by their makeing a sacra●ice of the lands rights and liberties to them , that thereby they may partake of the spoill of the poor subjects , of which we can give innumerable and sure inflances ▪ but that we may see that if their be any thing that stands in our way ? of changeing rhis goverment . there are but two things that seemeth to have weight . first if the deed and obligation of our ancestors ? can bind us to monarchie government by lineall or hereditary succession . secondly , if it be in the power of people to choise any form or kind of government ? that they please . now as to the first i say the contract and obligation of the fathers ( simply considered as an obligation of the fathers ) can never bind the posterity ; and that because a contract or covenant is called by polititians , vinculum pe●sonarum , that 's to say , a bond of persons . now the children not yet existing , cannot be said to be agents in this bond neither can it bind them ▪ seeing all men are born free : that is to say , with the free exercise of reason , to choise that which is good , and to refuse what is evil . i say all our o●ligation flows ex natura rei , that 's to say from the nature of the thing . in so far , as that obligation tends to the glory of god , and saftie of the kingdom , in preserving maintaing , and carrying on of religion and vertue in the land , in this we are bound , this being the chief and principle end of all our actions . but on the other hand , when this end cannot be obtained : then are we free from the contract and obligation of the fathers ; this contract being conditional , so that now it is loosed , and that ex natura rei . secondly , if it be in the power of the people , to choise any form or kind of government that they please ? that 's most for the good of the land , and safety of the kingdom . it is affirmed . first , the reason is , because we are not bound to monarchy government , and lineal succession , by a divine precept , as the hebrews were : for this was typical of christ , and promised to them from gen. . . the scepter shall not depart from juda , nor a lawgiver , from between his feet until shiloh come . now from their example , it cannot be proven that we are tyed , to that particular kind of government . otherwise , if by their example this had been , then should it have ●yed every individual kingdom , to this kind of government : but the contrair is seen , and also taught by all found jurists : for people are to choise any kind of government , that they see most convenient for the nature of the people , and saftie of the kingdom , in which religion and vertue may most flourish and grow . secondly , all sound polititians acknowledges , that under the yoak of tytanny , the people may either change the government or the family . now the family is only to be changed , where monarchy suits well with the kingdom . but alas ! by sad experience , the contrair has been seen in scotland ( ye● unto this day ) how that kings , has been encouraged , and driven on to absolute power and tyranny , by corrupt noblemen : i mean such as pensioners , who partake with them in the spoil of the poor subjects : so that from this experienced misery , it is most convenient to change the government , according to the judgment of all sound polititians ▪ . moreover in the next place we declare , that these governours , that we contend for , shall be able men , such as fear god men of truth , hating covetousness , as in exod ilay their qualifications , principally are contained in these three things . that they be men of sound principles . . that they be such as exercise themselves in g●dliness , viz. in praying and meditating on gods word , seeking counsel and direction from him ; otherwise they will never be fit for government . . that they be free of scandal , that 's to say , that they be lying under no known sin , without repentance . and that these men whom we shall set over us , shall be engaged to govern us principally by that civil and judicial law ( we mean not that law which is ceremonial and typical ) given by god to his people israel , and that we shall be governed by that law , in matters of life and death , and in all other things al●o , so far as they reach , and are consisting with our christian liberty , established in all christindom , &c. moreover as to the electing of these governours or judges , that are invested with the qualifications abovementioned , who are to be put in principal places , of great and weighty business in the land , such we say are to be chosen by lots : and to be gone about by prayer and fasting , as our manner was in the year ▪ for no other way can better remove envy , ambition and contention among a people , then this way can do , now i think from the grounds and reasons abovementioned , it will appear , that the government we have chosen , is the only ●itest government ; and likewise that the qualifications of the governours are agreeable to gods word , and consequently to his will ; and therefore to be embraced by all these who desires the safetie and wellbeing of the kingdom . therefore i shall lay down three considerations ( as motives ) flowing from the miseries of choising any other kind of government , or governours , than what we have espoused . first , i say to these who contends to have one king with england , let such consider the miseries that will follow upon this choise , and let these be grounds and motives to diswade any wellwisher to the kingdom from embracing of them . . as to matters of religion , consider the corruptions of that kingdom , by reason of the prevailing power of prelacie , rooted in that land ▪ and the small inclination that the presbyterian partie hath to a lands reformation , by covenant vows and engagments , in order to cast out prelacie : so that by this neglect the prelatick partie are strong in power , which makes their kings jeroboam like comply with them , thinking they cannot possess the crown and kingdom , if they do not so . now scotland having cast off prelacie , and sworn against it ; can never embrace and receive that king who complyes with prelacie ; and invests himself therewith ; neither can a king serve two masters at once : for this were to build and destroy simul & semel , which is a compleat contradiction . therefore none godly , whose consciences are not byassed and prejudged , will ever subject themselves to such a king , altho they should suffer the utmost of cruelty . secondly , as to vertue and exercise of trade , how much is this land opposed , hindred , and imprisoned by that nation of england ( as sad experience has taught us ) they having the seat of the throne and sitting at the helm , advising and counselling their kings , not to countenance nor assist scotland in the exercise of trade . but on the ot●er hand to declare enmitie againg them , of which we have had a late instance . but i will not insist upon this head , seing both noblemen & ●everal others , has spoken learnedly and reasonably upon this head : and i think it is approven by the whole land ; except only by these few , who are by assed , prejudged , and bought for self interest , to the selling and betraying of their nation . now from the consideration of what is abovementioned , i think we may be moved to reject that king : and if we may refuse and reject him upon the account of prelacy : then much more may we refuse that popish prince ( who pretends to a heredetarie succession , contrair to the lands engagements and laws ) upon the account of popery , whose intention without doubt , is to pollu●e and d●si●e the land with idolatrie ; and therefore to be resisted and oppo●ed , to the outmost of our power by all the inhabitants of the land. . there is a second di●siculty that do occur to these , who would be for the continuing of mon●rchy government , and for choi●ing a king from among our selves . the difficulty is this , the mould of kingly government is lost , by that unlawful and intolerable priviledge and prerogative that is given to kings , which is a negative voice , which is not proper to kings ; but to the parliament , as learned buchannan , and mr. rutherfo●d , gives an account in his rex lex , concerning the power of parliaments , where he gives instances , that under the days of peagantry , the parliament had the negative voice : and downward under the christian faith , yea to the days of our reformation : so that it is out of late crept in , bu● how unlawful this negative voice is , let men of understanding judge ; for by that they call and raise parliaments , and not any thing can pass in act , but what they please , likewise in matters of life and death , and this is done contrair to the law ; and cons●quently to a faithful parliament ; for the law and faithful parliamenters d●th not distinguish : that whoso opposes the one opposes the other . and this usurped prerogative is so in use in the land , and h●s been dispensed with silence and connivance : so that now it is difficult to find the mould of kingly government or to perswade m●n to imbrace it : and therefore easier to change the government , than to set it up . i have spoken this in a politick way by manner of civil policie . . there remains now only this on mean to make use of in order to set up government in the land , viz. a common wealth , and this must be done by counsel and direction from gods word : otherways the building will be in vain psal . . except the lord build the house , they labour in vain that build it . now you must either build on the foundation already laid , or else you must make it unlawful , and disagreeable to gods word . but this will not be , as is aboundantly proven from the invincible grounds and reasons given above . for surely what we have done , must either be approven , or disapproven , for as i have already told you , that there is no action situate in individue , but must be either good or evil , that is , it must be either rancked up among the sins of the fathers , or else among the duties of the fathers . and i think when this is faithfully done , it shall appear that the mercies and deliverance of the church , shall not run in any other channel than what we have espoused so that in this i think i have brought this contraversie to a point . now let this generation play their game as they will : yet surely this deserted cause will arise coast what it will ; and hath the lord been at such pains ( if so i dare speak ) to keep his church in the fu●nace of affliction near twenty years , from the year to the year , inorder to oring forth this duty . then c●rtainly he will bring them to the same wilderness , and plead with them there , as in hosea . i will go and return to my place till they acknowledge their offence , and seek my face : in their affliction they will seek me early . hath the lords church been under the feet of cruel boody tyrants ( in scotland ) already . i fear there is worse dayes coming , in which this land shall be brought under the feet of cruel bloody papifts . and then backsliders shall be robbed of their idols of erastian indulgence ; and it may be burried , convictions will arise , though more than twenty five years in the grave , and that with josephs brethren some will say , as in gen. . . we are verily guilty concerning our brother , &c. now you have thought that such a duty a● this , would have brought furth much blood and confusion in the land : but it will be found , that the neglect and omission shall bring furth greater : but none believeth nor seeth judgments , but these who sees sins . now having commented at large upon these three heads , because in them , the most material and substantial part of the contraversie did lay : i shall in the next place , proceed to consider the premisses , that you lay out against us ( in your phamphlet called the seasonable admonition ) taken from the writings of mr. durham concerning scandalous divisions , which premisses , i shall speak to in order as they lay . ye say we may and ought to endeavour union , though there be many things defective : this likewise i acknowledge , for no perfection is to be obtained heir on earth . . but first you say . though there be differences of judgments in many things , namely in such things as are consistent with the foundation and edification . it may be interrogat what sins can consist with the foundation ▪ i answer . personal sins , sins of ignorance , infirmity , deadness in wanting zeal and courage : but no wilful deliberat contented sin , that 's obstinatly defended nourished and maintained can be said to consist with the foundation ; and that because the attribut● and properties of dutie are given unto it , which properly belongs to the foundation . so that here , durham understands sins of ignorance of duty , because he saith , mens understandings are not perfect , nor of equal reach . now ignorance or simple infirmity , can never be cause of seperation : seing separation consists , either in defect or else in excess . now it cannot be said , that a man in ignorance has made defection ; because he never knew no better , nor yet was ever furder reformed ; and therefore no ground there is to withdraw from him , nor yet from any church that owns him as a member . so long as his ignorance is not obstinat and wilful , and that in opposition to all warning : but this do●h not touch our controversie , it being about truth , revealed , and receaved by the church of scotland , and therefore not sins of ignorance or simple infirmity . . but secondly , you say though there be dissatisfaction with many persons , whether officers or members ? to which i ans . personal sins , can never make any separat from a true church , who doth not aid and assist them in their sin , nor yet from the guilty persons themselves , unless they be obstinat desenders thereof : but indeed if they shall refuse ●o be reproved and warned of their sin , and if the church shall benjamin-like espouse their quarrel , then may we withdraw from them : but we acknowledge that a church is not to be separat from , so long as there are any remonstrators in it ▪ yea if it were but one ; for so long ●● there is one remonstrator in it , god and christ hath not left that church , and therefore man should not leave it . . thirdly he saith union may be consistent with many particular failings and defects in the exercise of govrnment , as spareing some corrupt members and censuring others unjustly . to which i answer , it would be interrogat , if the assembly understands these defects ? in sparing of some , from the rod of discipline to be simple deference flowing from the sin of infirmity and deadness , not obstinat ; but subject to faith full warning , if this be ? then their ought not to be sepration but when the exercise of discipline is not only defered , and delayed out deneyed , and the deney all thereof becometh an essential pillar of the building : so that the free exercise of discipline is inconsistent with the being thereof , which is the case of your church this day , and therefore when this is , then their is cause of separation ; so the contraversie is not about defering of discipline but the denaying and laying aside of it in its free exercise as to all persons and ranks without exception , which is your case this day . moreover we acknowledge that no church can be without failings and faults , for no perfection is to obtained in the church militant here on earth but however the endeavour of dutie , is not to be laid aside , for we ought to seek perfection , withall christian sincerity and prudence , altho' we may faill and come short therein . furder you say there was in the primitive churches a tollerating iezabel and the nicolaitans to which i answer : it cannot be denayed but it was so : however , was it not in them a defect and sin ? and was it not displeasing in the sight of god , as in revelation , chap , , and doth not the lord highly praise and commend the faithfull exercise of discipline in the primitive church ? as in rev. i know thy works and thy labour and thy patience , and how thou canst not bear them ? which are evill and thou hast tryed them which say they are apostles and are not , and hast found them liars what shal i say then in this ? doth the great assembly glory in the defects and sins of the primitive churches ; endeavouring to like them in evill , or say you that your case , and theirs is one , if this ye say , then i do deny . their sin was not obstinat and maliciou●ly desperat in opposition to all warrning and admonition as yours was and is , have not you sitten twentie years warning ( some of you ) of the faithfull whose sufferings and blood ( with heads and hands ) are crying to you to deliver up that bloody church renting , land destroying , soul murdering , sin of indulgency and errastianism , unto the sword of ecclesiastical discipline , and yet ye will not do it , but renders us evil for good , in crying out against us , charging us with separation : because we will not consent to your sin ; and can we exercise any greater act of love towards you ? than to testifie against your sin , by our withdrawing from your destroying courses . oh! how miserable would this ●●nd be ? if we were all jointly going on in sin , and resting satisfied with our deadness and toleration : can ye say then that the sins of the primitive churches were in opposition to all warning , i mean after that the holy apostles did write unto them ; and if this you cannot do ; then ye ought not to defend the state of your church , from their example . but . can it be said that the exercise of discipline , in the primitive churches was inconsistent with their being and foundation , certainly it was not , for they could extend the exercise of discipline towards all that were baptized and receaved into the church , without respect of persons , as all faithful churches may and ought to do : but the exercise of discipline is inconsistent with your being and foundation ; by reason that you dare not censure and reprove the sins of all ranks of such as are baptized , which sins and persons , i shali have occasion afterwards to speak more particularly , when i come to the sins and accusations led against you . . fourthly , ye insist furder and says , that such defects as do not make communion in a church , and in its ordinances sinful , will not warrand a separation . ans , these def●●●s that doth not warrand a separation are personal defects ; or the defects formerly mentioned , but the defects we charge you with are totall and universal , we charge you whollie as one man to be guiltie and that both as to your foundation , and application , and also with obstinate perseverance therein . now this rule ye speak of in pag. , viz. when men may unit● without personal guillt or accession to the guilt of others there may and ought to be union . this i say , doth coincidat with the following objection annent the incestous person : therefore i shall leave it while afterward . moreover in pag. . ye say if a man be put to condemne anything he thinks laufwll in his own practise , or the practise of others . or . if he be put to approve the deed or parctise of others , which he counted sinfull , or affirme that to be truth , which he counteth error , these ye say may hinder union , this is likeways personal sins . now consider the nature of the sin wha● the man is to condemn ye say that which he thinks lawfull in himself or , others , or to approve that which he thinks unlawful in others . i say no privat man can separat from any particular person upon alleadged offence without revaling the case to the representatives of the church and if the offence be clearly decided already to be sin by the church : then the church is to act faithfully in it ; and the accuser ha●h exonered himself ; but if it be some particular light in the accuser , or speculation of new reformation , then he is to communicat it to the church , that it may be jointly gone on in , and not by separation from the person accuesed . secondly , ye instance mr. rutherford who speaks of them who have the pure word of god preached , and the sacraments duly administred , what if many of them led a life contrair to what they profess ? and yet the governours use not the rod of discipline to censure them ; then whether should the members separat from that church , yea or no ? answer , a contrair practise can never be said to subsist in exercise ( if strickly taken ) without a contrair profession , when tryed and examined : for the will must be active either in choising or refusing , or approving , or defending ; or else dissapproving . now when sin is defended , then a man doth join his profession to it by the defence of his practise , declaring that his sin , and he is friends , so that his former profession is nothing else , but a shadow , because i● wants the practise , from which the man is to be defined : for man is no more than he practises , neither will get any other testimony a● the last day as in matth. , . but however it is acknowledged here , ●hat it is a duty to censure such ; and the omission is a sin. the question then is , what shall the dissatisfied do , whether separat or no ? answer when duty is neglected , in such a case , they are to use all christian means and prudence in the first place , to awaken them out of that neglect and deadness : and that by admonition again and again , by holding out the burden , that is on their conscience by reason of that neglect . all this must be done , before they separat : for seperation can not be , but where sin is obstinatly defended , nourished and maintained ; and that not only by a part , but by the whole . for certainly the governours must either approve or disapprove this neglect ; if they approve the neglect and abuse of discipline , received and owned of them formerly : then they fall in defection from their first love , which is a sin that the lord hath threatned to punish , with no less than his leaving and departing , as in rev. . . and when the lord leaves the house , why should man abide in it ? furder it is urged , that the incestuous mans sin not censured infected the church , the infected church infecteth the worship . ans . this objection is most subtile , being hung up in the abstract a part from exercise ; but hower let us first consider the ●ncestuous person by describing and desining him as he is in his sin. i say the incestuous person obstinatly defending and impenitently persevering in his sin , belongs materially ( though not formally cast out ) to that body and corporation , of which satan is the head , the church not consenting , nor approving ; but hating and abhoring the sin , belongs to that body of which christ jesus is the head . now let them be cast into a categorical mould ▪ what form shall come forth ? only two pure negatives or two particulars , between which there is no connexion , that 's to say , the incestuous person is not of the church ; and again the church hath no affinity with the incestuous person , and if no connexion ? then consequently , no conclusion can be drawen , the sin being personal , and therefore no just cause of separation from the whole . now we are confident , that what is said anent these premisses , drawn from these two learned pious men , viz. mr. rutherford and mr. durham , concerning the practise of riged separatists ; it may appear to any that are not byassed and prejudged , that we do not come within the compass of riged separatists , seing we do acknowledge , that separation is not to be stated , but where sin is obstinatly maintained , nourished and defended , and that not only by a part ; but by the whole ; and that in opposition to all warning as yours is . so that from this you shall never defend your selves by the example of the churches of corinth , galatia , philadephia , ephesus , thytira , sardis and laodecia ▪ unless ye can prove , that they did resist all warning by defending their fin ; and so were still to be the spouse of christ . oh! doth not the lord threaten to remove his candlestick from among them ; except they repent , as in rev. . think ●e that the lord will dwell where sin is obstinatly defended , is he not of purer eyes than to behold iniquity , as in hab. . . cor. . , . what concord hath christ with belial ? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel ? or what agreement hath the temple of god with idols ? now i shall in the next place proceed to the complaints and sins led against you . where first it is said we complain of ministers conversations , that some are light and frothy . answer . this complaint is unpertinent to the present contraversie ; our contraversie not being about personal sins , but about your foundation and being . i say personal accusation , belongs to a church right in its constitution , and pertaineth to the well being of it ; so that we are not to think that any church ever was , or ever will be ( though never so pure ) without personal guilt , so long as the church millitant is upon earth . therefore i do reject this complaint , as being unfit for the present contraversie . secondly , ye say there is many complaints of the exercise of discipline and government , such as it is much neglected , or but partially exercised : insufficient ministers admitted , and scandalous elders . ans● , this complaint is rash and evil concocted , being a remonstrance belonging to a true church , right in its foundation and constitution , and nowayes belonging to an erastian church . as for the neglect and partiality of discipline . i shall speak to it , when i come to illustrat the present state of this erastian church , by shewing , that neglect and partiality are the essential pillars and props , on which this church stands ; and that the faithful exercise of discipline , is inconsistent with the being thereof . as to the admitting of insufficient ministers and scandalous elders . i answer , this is a circulating in affirming , that scandal admitteth of scandal . now yield , that ministers and elders were sufficient , and free of all scandal , dot not their joining with the present church ? make them scandalous , and doth not our practise in withdrawing from them ? declare it so to be , by our not hearing nor owning them as lawful ministers . but i hope this rash confounding , of remonstration , will be acknowledged to be wrong after consideration , and so will be amended by my brethren . as for receiving of currats , and not excommunicating the prelats . answer , this same remonstrance is genuine with the former ; for who can lawfully excommunicat ; but the faithful , i mean these that has not changed their head christ jesus : for i● this church might excommunicat the prelats ; and the excommunicating of them were a valid duty in the sight of god , and coun●inanced of him ; then should all of us be present at the hearing of this duty . but take head brethren what our lord says , luke . . first cast the beam out of thine own eye ; and then shalt thou see clearly , to pull out the mote that is in thy brothers eye . so i say , let the ministers of this erastian church , first cast out the sin of the erastian indulgence and toleration ( under their late kings ) by humble acknowledgment of the guilt thereof , in its high aggra●ating circumstances : and then they shall be in case for excommunicating the prelats , and when this shall be , then let us give our presence to the action with heart and hand . thirdly ▪ you say the instances we chiefly insist upon , are the accepting of the indulgence and toleration , that these are either justified , or not confessed and condemned . your answer . is ( ) you say that it is undenyable , that there were different sentiments and practises annent these things , amongst them that were reputed , learned and pious , and had suffered for their cleaving to the government of this church . answer . i wonder that the great assembly , who professeth to have so much gospel purity and simplicity ; should so jugle and shuffle over such a great contraversie with such ambiguity and boutgates as to speak of different sentiments without specefieing the sentances . what doth the assembly mean by their sentiments ? if they do understand inconveniences and incommodities , about certain degrees and circumstances : then may i say , no action ever was , since there were plurality of persons in the world ; but had different sentiments : some sees more inconveniences , some less ; and how oft doth it run that length ? quot capita tot sententiae , that 's to say . how many heads , so many sentances ; so that every one almost hath their peculiar and proper speculations . now on the other hand if ye understand these different sentiments to be about the sinfulness of the indulgence and toleration : then why have ye not been plain and particular on the matter ; by holding out the hainous aggravating nature thereof , in order to the satisfying of our consciences . certainly the spirit of god ( who knows all things , and the burden that is on us by reason of that sin ) never led you to such ambiguity as to speak of different sentiments . you say that is not the controversie of our day , there is no matter nor occasion of debate annent them now , nor any practise annent them now , that may be an offence to any ministers are no where now setled by indulgence or toleration . answer , this i deny , for still the contraversie remains ay & while the sin be confessed and forsaken . true it is the indulgence is over ; but what change is come in its roum , not a change from sin to duty , but from one sin to another , from one erastian toleration to another ( as i shall make it appear afterward ) still ye are going on in the same sin , which is an argument sufficient in place of all other arguments , to prove the indulgency and toleration to be a sin ; because ye are deserted of god by reason of the guilt thereof , as in isa . . . so that ye are never in favour with god , nor honoured of him to own duty , but still goes on in the same sin : for what can obstinat sinners do ? but sin , seing the lord is not present with them , to lead them by his spirit . furder i would interrogat the great assemby , how they parted with the indulgency and toleration ? that 's to say , whether they parted with it as enemies to it ; or as friend● , you have parted as enemies to it : then surely you have particulared both the enemy and the enmity , by holding out the high aggravating nature and circumstances thereof , as a man uses to do , with his enemy , he will ever say the most and worst , he can so should ye be particular about your sin , according to the example of true penitents in scripture , as in psal . . . deliver me from blood guiltiness , and in ezera . . . the strange marriages are confessed , but no confession of the indulgency and toleration ; neither in your national fast and humiliation , in the year , you have not so much as once named the sin . true it is ye speak in scripture language , but they are general scriptures , and general confessions , & binds your selves to them , and so burieth the sins in contraversie : yea and in this present testimony , you cover & hids this sin with boutgats and ambiguity , by speaking of your different sentiments : so that when all this is considered , then it may appear that the assembly hath not parted with the indulgency and toleration , as enemies to it , but as friends : and therefore by consequence the contraversie betwixt us remains . thirdly , you say when pious and peaceable divines treat of the peace and unity of the church , they advise to forbear the reviving the debates of former times among the godly , or engaging to declare men sentiments annent them ; as being con●rair to the peace and edification of the church , when present duty is not concerned : or when it is not about a fundamental truth or necessar duty : and the forbearance doth not mar any duty , that the church in general is concerned in , or in danger the salvation of souls , throw the want of clearness therein . ans . when debates are not about a fundamental truth and necessar duty ? then it is not to be revieved : but our contraversie is about a fundamental truth and necessar duty , being about the kingly authority of christ jesus , that he is the only king and head of his church ; & so by consequence the bloody persecuting magistrat hath no power to prescribe and give a limited indulgency or toleration . for . i say consider the church in her ●ssential parts , consisting in authority and obedience . i mean the head and members , which is one body . how then can this body admit of two distinct authorities , or how can obedience consist with it ? i say can the church which is christs body , serve two heads ? would not this make the church a monster ? to admit of two distinct authorities , and doth not this overturn the nature and vows of baptism ? we being receaved into the church as members , and subjects to become obedient to the doctrine , discipline , and kingly government of christ jesus , how then can any of the subjects become a head contrair to baptism ? or how can any within the church ? give obedience to that head , or can their obedience ( though under great pretences of liberty ) be called any thing , but sin and bondage , because that so long as this authority is retained and keeped ; still there is limits set to the doctrine and discipline of the church ; by reason that although the discipline were exercised towards all ; yet it can-cannot reach this head : and therefore at best the liberty is but a bondage , and then by consequence this liberty , ( as they call it ) is inconsistent with the free , and faithful exercise of presbyterian government , and doth overturn the foundation thereof , which is the case of the great assembly in the matter of the indulgence , and the late and present toleration . obj but some will object and say , why may not a liberty be taken from a persecuting enemy ; as for example , if the king of france would proclaim a liberty to all the banished protestants , were it not duty to them to imbrace the offer ? ans , this i deny , and the reason is , that this he must do either as an enemy or absolute master over the church , or else as a friend and subject to the crown and kingdom of christ . now as an enemy retaining and adhearing to his popish idolatrie , without repenting of his cruel bloody tyrranny formerly committed , in this he cannot give a liberty to the gospel ; because it involveth a contradiction , by reason that he cannot serue two opposites , viz. the gospel of christ jesus , and his popish idolatry : for this were to build and destroy simul & semel , that 's to say once and together , which is a compleat contradiction according to our saviours words matth. . . no man can serve two masters : for either he will hate the one and love the other : or else he will hold to the one and despise the other . that 's to say , he cannot with full d●ligence ▪ single love , and fidelitie , serve them both ( they being opposites ) for love and fidelity terminates only in one single object ; so that from this you see , that as an enemy he can never give libertie to the gospel . secondly , as a friend and subject to the crown and kingdom of christ , he cannot retain an authoritie over the church , that is supra sacra , by prescribing bounds and limites to the doctrine , discip●ine , and kingly government of christ jesus . but on the other hand as a subject , he is to exercise his power circa sacra , that is that the power of doctrine and discipline be faithfully exercised ( in the land ) by these to whom the power is committed , and that according to gods word without partiality , and respect of persons . and when this or shall be , then he declares himself to be guilty of death , by reason of his former sins , in sheding the blood of innocent persons , by reason that the law of god requires that such shall die , as in num. , . ye shall take no satisfaction for the life of a murderer , which is guilty of death : but he shall he surely put to death . and verse . the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein , but by the blood of him that shed it . now if the king of france act as a friend and subject , then he will acknowledge his subjection to the kingdom of christ ▪ and then by consequence will deny any authoritative superioritie over the gospel . moreover in the next place , protestants can never imbrace that liberty ( as they call it ) and the reason is . . it sets limits to the extent of the ●ospel in its doctrine , which is to go throw all nations ( and consequ●ntly all places of the kingdom ) and teach them to observe all things whatsoever , i have commanded you , matth. . . now if they shall declare this command faithfully , viz. that popish idolatry is to be rooted out of the land , and not to be permitted , and tyrrannie to be cast out , and that the throne and state are to be reformed , and that men of truth fearing god and hating covetousness , are to be invested with the present power , that justice may be execute on the guilty without respect of persons . now i think this will overturn their liberty , and make it null : and no otherwayes can they faithfully do , if they observe all that is given them in commission as faith●ul ambassadors ( in the name of god and christ ) who are to declare the whole will of god unto the people . so that from this you see , that a sinful indulgence is inconsistent with a gospel liberty : and therefore nowayes to be imbraced , by any that professes jesus christ to be king and head of his church , and that by reason that it cuts off the doctrine , discipline and kingly government of christ jesus , by their su●jecting to ●hat government , which distinguishes from the government of christ , so that in this they are the servants of men. obj. but some will object and say , if a heathen king would proclaim a liberty to the gospel , were it not a duty to imbrace it . ans . a ●●athen hath no law : and therefore we are not to proceed in law against him , either for his past or present practise ; for the scripture says where is no lw there is no transgression , rom , . . that 's to say ●hey cannot be accused of defection from that law which they never receaved , and consequently cannot be punished ( whatever judgements the lord may inflect upon them for their ignorance and miserie ) now papests or malignants professes the name of christ and pretends to be under law : therefore we are to see to the right maner and exercise of that law ; that it be according to the will and word of the lawgiver . moreover as to a heathens proclaming of liberty , in this we are not to give eare . for belivers hes this in commission allready to go throw all nations : also it is christs right and prerogative psal . , i shall give thee the heathen for thin inherietance now all that belivers are to do in this , is that the occasion and encouragement is the stronger ▪ but but not their commission . moreover in the next place you say there are three doctrinal mistaks that occasion our divisions ( ) because we think a thing to be duty therefore it is to be done at all seasons , and we consider not that a thing may be good on the matter , which is not to be done at all times . i ans . we acknowledge prudence is to be exercised in going about duty ; but however it hath a time , which time we fear you would deny if put to it , or if ye should go about this duty i fear according to your former practise it would be unseasonable , as for exemple in the matter of your late king , ye did never cry out against his sin so long as he was in power commiting them but when his back was at the wall , and the lords judgements powering down upon him ; then ye did give witness , which witness was unseasonable , by reason of your unfaithfulness . the other is ●hat we cannot maintaine union with any that differs from us , and cometh not up to our minde in all things . ans . we denay to have any proper or peculiar judgement or mind but what hath been received , owned and avowed by our ancestors in the confession of faith , and covenants and if there be any new step of reformation started by you or us , for the time here after , we desire it may be prudently and tenderly carried on and not by division . the third is , that where we apprehend persons guilty of sins we cannot have communion with them unless they explicitly and publickly confesse the same . answer : we denaie likewaies to have anie peculiar apprehension of guilt ▪ but onlie what the scripture condemns , and the acts and constitutions of our church : and is not agreeable to scripture that sins publickly committed , are to be publickly confessed , as in cor. , . , tim. , . them that sin rebuke before all , that others also may fear . i hope the learned assembly will acknowledge that sin must be confessed and forsaken or else the lord cannot in justice forgive , and that because the promise belongs only to such , as in prov. . , he that hideth his sin shall not prosper : but whos● confesses and forsakes them shall find mercy . indeed if any transgressor shall find mercy of god , and be honoured of him in the way of duty : then ought we not to stick precisly on the maner of his confession ; for assuredly the lord has blotted out his sin , and therefore let not man again set it on the score . furder we charge you with three mistakes , which are the rocks on which our church hitherto has spli●ed . the first is , that you acknowledge a thing to be duty in it self , such as fidelity in doctrine and discipline : but the exercise of it most not come within doors ; but must be shouldered to the door with carnal prudence , and indulged exigences , because as in page . you say the church will have more prejudice by the exercise thereof ; than benefire . now whether obedience to please god , or obedience to please men , bringeth most loss or benefite to the church , let any tender conscience judge . the second is , more tenderness towards transgressors , than toward● the truths of god : so that truth shall be dashed in pieces , rather than the bulk of professors should be broken . alas ! this sin has been epidemick in this land to the ●uine of the church . the third is , confident trusting and relaying on mercies and deliverance , without repentance and confession of sin ; forge●ing that threatning , ezek. . shall he prosper , shall he escape that doth such things , or shall he break the covenant and be delivered . moreover you say , you ●ind among our g●ievances , yet two more heavy accusations . the first is that there is corruption in the constitution as it is now established , being under the bondage of an erastian yoak submited to . i answer ▪ for investigating of a more ●nited harmonie and concatination of the controversie . i shall translate the handling of this grievance to the posterior place : and therefore shall first speak to the oath of allegiance . where i shall speak to the oath of allegiance in the abstract from the present contraversie . i say the oath of allegiance when lawfull , is cordially to be taken by the subjects ; and is a piece of a religious work , and becomes ministers well to take qua subjects , and tends nowayes to their qualifications qua ministers ; but only as subjects : therefore we do nowayes carp at an oath of allegiance when lawfull . now the question is , whether the oath of allegiance to the present king be lawful , yea or no. the assembly affirmeth but we deny . and that . because the person on the throne , did at his first entry to britain invest and cloath himself with prelacy , and that contrair to his former practise and education . and this was done by the english prelats who were the principal moving instruments in this revolution , in bringing him to the throne ? so that as they did countinance him to his upseting ; so likewise he did countinance them to their defending and maintaining . as is to be seen in his present and past practise , how he hath owned that antichristian party , by erecting some to bishopricks , which is a thing very clear , that his setting up of such , and also his hearing and communicating with them in worship , declares that he hath invested himself with prelacy ; and so has devested himself of the qualifications of a lawful king according to our national covenant , solemn league and covenant , and coronation oath , where kings are engaged to swear , to maintain presbyterian government , and to the utmost of their power to oppose antichristian prelacy and all fals religion . now seing that he hath invested himself with prelacy ; then how can any faithful subject acknowledge him as their king ; or swear allegiance to him : without being guiltie of the sin of prelacie by their consenting to set it upon the throne . is not thi● breach of covenant and perjure in the subjects to elect a person to the throne , who has not the elective properties , such as the qualifications contained in our fundamental laws . for at best his qualifications are but exercised indifferently , either toward● prelacy in england , or this supposed presbytrie in scotland , and therefore doth not leave to the one , more than to the other , but invests himself with both , according to the inclinations of the people : which practise is contradictory , for how can one serve two masters ? and therefore no godlie faithful subject can in conscience elect and choise that which is contradictorie ; seing the elective properties are wanting ; and so by consequence no oath of allegiance can be given without sin and perjurie . the second reason is , because he did not take the covenant at his entrie to the throne . now according to the practise of our ancestors who in the crowning of their k●ngs ; did first cause them swear to the national covenant , the solemn league and covenant . i instance the maner of the coronation at seoon in the year . where charles the second did take the covenants ; and likewise did swear and engage to endeavour the reformation of religion ●n the other two kingdoms ; that when it should please the lord to restore him to his government there ▪ that he was bound to endeavour the establishment of the work of reformation there , as well as to maintain it here . but nothing of this hath ever yet been : i say the entrie to the crown hath not come throw the channal of a covenant of reformation : and therefore how can any subject swear to be loyal to him who has not sworn to be loyal and faithful to the crown and interest of jesus christ . certainly our obedience and loyalty to kings must be in the lord ; and not in ma●ters sinful and unlawful , either as to the burieing , or yet as to the bearing down the covenanted work of reformation , which our ancestors did make a principal mark of a lawful king anointed and qualified of god ; for ruling in righteousness . certainlie where this is either wanting , or yet denyed in a king : then the oath of allegiance in the subjects is sinful and unlawful according to our fundamental laws . a third reason is , because the persons who did elect him ▪ did not take the covenant , and therefore were not the lawful representatives of this covenanted land : and seing we may refuse a king upon his not taking the covenant , then by consequence we may refuse these representatives . as for example , this the present generation holds good in thesi . as to the maner ; for they acknowledge that the present ministers hath no right to their stipends ; unless the persons who elect them be qualified , with the oath of allegiance . now if i may argue from their concession as to the maner : then much more may i argue from the matter and ground above mentioned , that king and people ; ought in such a great work to qualifie themselves by entring ●n covenant with god , according to ●he example of the lords people in former times , as in kings . . and jehojada made a covenant between the lord and the king : and the people , that they should be the lords people . so that from this you see , that a covenanted land , ought to renew their covenant with god , in such a work as this . i say both king and people , if they expect the lords presence , and bles●ing : but if otherwayes they do not this ; then may they expect that chalenge in hose● . . they have set up kings , but not by me , they have mude princes and i knew it not . that is not by my direction and approbation : as if the lord had said , ye never sought my council in this , neither did come before me with confession of sin , and humiliation for your defection : in order to leave your sin , and cleave to a covenanted work of r●formation : and therefore saith the lord i know it not , that 's to say , i have no affection to it so as to approve it ; and when the lord disproves , why should man approve ? for certainly where there is no just right or title to a crown , then it may be expected , that , that government and these governours , are full of misery and of short continuance , according to that triplicat threatning ezek , i will overturn , overturn , overturn it , and it shall be no more until he come whose right it is , and i will give it him . so i say we cannot acknowledge these rulers to be lawful , or yet lawfully chosen , so long as the covenant is laid aside : and therefore from the consideration of this , the oath of allegiance must be unlawful , and that both according to scripture and our fundamental laws . the fourth reason is , because he cannot take the coronation oath , as he is now stated , being invested with prelacy ; according to our fundamental laws , kings are to swear to maintain the true religion of christ jesus ; the which religion is presbyterian government , in it's power and purity : and also shall gainstand and abolish all false religion contrair to the same ; under which false religion , antichristian prelacy is comprehended , which i think the great assembly will not deny : true it is in the year ● . the coronation oath was proposed to the person on the throne ( being sent by the hand of a privat person ) to take , but whether or no taken it may be doubted , seing he walks contrair thereto , by denying all practical obedience . but however the sin is greater in breach thereof ; both by the taker and proposers of this oath , than it had never been , and that i prove from scripture , eccles . . . better is it that thou shouldest not vow , than that thou shouldest vow and not pay. now in the breach of this oath , there is a silent contended resting thereon by both parties , without exhortation or admonition from the one ; or endeavour after obedience in the other . is not an lawful oath seriously to be performed , seing that the the taker finds it to be a duty : and therefore to be gone about , as in eccles . . . whatsoever thine hand findeth to do , do it with thy might now if he shall with full power and might maintain presbyterian government , then prelacy shall get no aid nor assistance . and i hope the assembly will acknowledge , that prelacie is no where to be entertained ; and that the maintainers thereof , are enemies to the crown and kingdom of christ ; so that it is not enough to countinance presbytrie now in its shadow ; or yet i say in its substance in scotland , unless that it be countinanced both in england and ireland , according to the tenor of the coronation oath , which is to abolish and gainstand all false religion ; and therefore popery is no where to be tolerated . but in this revolution , there is a toleration of false religion ; and therefore the present person on the throne , can neither be owned as a lawful king ; nor yet be looked upon as a faithful instrument of reformation : seing he sends out contrair streams from the same fountain to thir kingdoms . now according to the judgment of the assembly , if it shall be yealded ? that this is a deliverance and libertie , yet it is contradictorie to scripture as in james . : doth a fountain at the same place send forth sweet water and bitter . this the apostle denys , so i say can streams of liberty and blessedness proceed from your king to scotland and bondage and thraldom to england and ireland . certainly no , our liberty can never be purchassed with our brethrens and neighbours thraldom . and now let this liberty be never so large in this land , yet if it be not universall throughout the whole kingdoms , in its sincere endeavour , to the maintaing of presbytrie , & to the abolishing of all false religion contrair to the same , then it cannot be said , that the coronation oath is in the least observed to one more than to another , for all comes under his toleration ; and so by consequence this oath is made null ; and therefore no subject neither minister nor people can swear allegiance to him , without involving themselves in perjurie and breach of the fundamental laws . but some will object and say , that the covenants and coronation oath , doth not engage us to reform without the kingdom . answer ▪ yeild it be so , yet it binds us to reform our selves and king. . our selves , in that we are not to suffer any prelatick person , or favourer thereof o● conniver at any false religion , to be set upon the throne , without being guilty either of direct or indirect complyance therewith . i say direct complyance , when there is a consenting and an aiding him in his upsetting , without evident signs , and qualifications for the authority . . indirectly , when there is a neglect of a faithful testimony against the sin , which sin will ( if not prevented ) destroy the soul , because it is rebellion and enmity against jesus christ to entertain antichristian prelacy and popery . for what can one be said to be , who owns presbytrie ( if so it may be said ) in the one kingdom , and antichristianism in the other , but half loyal to the crown and kingdom of christ , and a person half loyal is but at best an enemy ; and so consequently becomes lyable to the wrath and justice of god , and therefore it is the duty of a faithful assembly to forwarn the forementioned guilty person of his sin , in order to make out of the way of wrath ▪ otherwise they will be guilty , as in ezek. . . when i say unto the wicked man thou shall surely die , if thou doest not speak to warn the wicked from his way , that wicked man shall die in his iniquity ; but his blood will i require at thine hand , so i say unless that there be faithful warning given , and that in doctrine , both as to admonition and exhortation , and likewise to the highest degree of censure and discipline in case of obstinacie : otherwayes we cannot be free of this guilt ? nor yet be innocent from perjurie , seing that the king ( according to the faith and practise of the present professing generation ) is a lawful king and nourishing father to the church , and so by consequence is a member of the church , and therefore subject to the laws thereof , which i think the assembly will not deny , considering that his mercies comes under their inspection as is to be seen , by their praying for prosperity and a blessing to his undertakings : and why should not his sin , and miserie , llikewayes be marked and testified against , or else we shall never reform our selves . but some will object and say , that the king has owned and countinanced presbytrie in scotland and declared enmity against prelacy . answer . this he hath done by way of an erastian toleration ; and that from self interest ; as is to be seen : because they tolerat his sin , and beco●es obedi●nt to his corrupt unlawful commands , by keeping of sinful fast dayes , and thansgiving days and the like . and that both contrair to scripture and the principals of presbytrie , which the prelatick party out of wilfulness will not do ; so that from this his faithfulness doth not appear , unless that his zeal were universal against all the prelatick party . i say in other places as well as here . for certainly it is to be followed with zeal and hatred in the other kingdoms , as well as here , it being evil in it self and according to that true axiom quod malum est per se non mutatur a circumstantjis , that 's to say , that which is evil in it se●f cannot be changed from circumstances of place , so i say unless that this zeal be universal , it can noways be sound and reall . but it may be furder objected that there was good reforming kings in judah who did not take away the high places : and why may n●t our king be owned , as a lawful reforming king , although prelacy be not altogether abolished . answer . the difference is very great , as ( ) the reforming kings of judah were never anointted or brought to the throne by the priests of the high places : but your king was brought to the throne of britan , principaly by the english prelats , the lords spritwall as they were called ( ) the priests of the high places , were never in court , or near to the th●one with the reforming king of judah : but the english prelats are ( ) the kings of judah never bult the high places , in the time of their reformation but your king hes set up prelats in england since his coming to the throne . i instance mr gilbert burnet , ( ) we never read that the kings of judab sacrificed in the high places in the time of their reformation but your king heares and communicats with the prelatick party in worship ( ) the reforming kings of judah did never swear to defend the high places , in the time of their reformation ; by opposing and hindering these that would have destroyed them : but your king has defended the high places , for the past and present time , from these that would have destroyed them . so that from this you see , that your kings practise doth nowayes quadrat with the practise of the reforming kings of judah ▪ and that because in them it was a sin of deadness and infirmity : but in him a willful deliberat contented sin , as is to be seen by the laying aside the endeavour of the duty ; and much more the perfection thereof in its sincerity . furder you say , do we not think him our lawful king and is he not a blessed instrument in gods hand , to work so great deliverance for you and us . answer , this we have clearly denyed from the forementioned grounds and objections , and we think any single eye , that is not by assed and prejudged will assent to what we have said . and if any be of that judgment ( which i am not ) viz , that it might please the lord for a time to continue kingly government in this land , and to raise up a king to rule in righteousness ; for the good of his church and people . i say , then it might be expected , that he should be set upon the throne with cleaner hands , than blood shedors , test-takers , and eras●●an indulged proffessors , who hath never yet acknowledged their sin : nor yet prepared themselves for mercy . and whatever you may think of this revolution , in calling it a deliverance : yet far be it from us to think so , as to let such dreams or delusions enter into our heads or hearts , seing there is no promise from the word to believe so . now from what is said above , i think it shall appear that the oath of allegiance , cannot not be given to the present person on the throne , nor yet to any successor who shall walk in his steps : for what is applicable to the one , shall still be applicable to any other of the same practise . now i shall in the next place proceed to the grievance given against you ; which is ●hat there is corruption in the constitution , as it is now established , being under the bondage of an erastian yoak submitted to . which charge you deny as false : and then interrogates , if we know what erastianism is . it is likely you say , few of us do ▪ ans some of us knows as much of erastianism , as can be said by some of the most famous learned divines in europe . and i think our faithful ancestors hath not le●t this contraversie in the dark , as is to be seen by learned mr. gilhespie in his aarons rod , where he penteth out erastianism so full , as that the capacities of the vulgar may understand . furder you say , do we no● consider , how sinful and highly uncharitable it is to accuse , judge and censure the godly ministers of this church . who formerly wrestled against erastianism , as so contradictorie to themselves and treacherous to their master , as to betray his interest and the church priviledges to an erastian yoak . ans . this is no argument to prove , that they are now faithful , because that they once were so . are not the best of men subject to sin and fallings ? and can do nothing of our selves , without the lords assistance , and the help of his holy spirit ? and hath not some of the godlie kings of judah , built again that which formerly they destroyed , as solomon , asa , joash , and hath not many professors in our days walked contrair to their profession ? they who once were remonstrators formerly against erastianism , were seen publiklie to appear in the street of edinburgh in the parliament closs to the derision o● many hundreds , puting up an address and supplication to a po●ish king , for an erastian toleration , and lioertie ( as they called it ) now this was the sin of a great many , which sin hath been benjamin like espoussed by the whole assembly . first in their complying with the benefite ( as they called it ) and then being passed over with silence & connivance , which should have been confessed ; yea and in a well constitute church should have been censured and punished , with the sword of ecclesiastical discipline . but with you there is no testimonie given against the sin , proportionable to the offence ; for at best your testimonie hath been , but like to that of eli to his sons sam. , , . which testimonie will never be approven of god for faithfulness , as in chap. . . because his sons made themselves vile , and he restrained them not , so that now you see , we charge you with erastianism upon sufficient grounds ; although the indulgence and present toleration had never committed ? but when all is considered ; then how great is the ground of accusation against your erastian practise . but furder you say , what are the instances brought to prove so grievous an accusation . ans . for proof of your erastian constitution . i shall first lay out to your your consideration the being of your church , as it is founded on the oath of allegiance to an unlawful king , who walketh contrair to our covenants , coronation oath , and fundamental laws ▪ and therefore doth distinguish from a lawful king and faithful subject , to the crown and kingdom of christ , who should be a nourishing father to the church , and terror to evil doers ; but according to the forementioned ground and objections ; there is a contrair walking ; so that obedience and subjection to him is not subordination to the lord , as to a magistrat that exerciseth his power circa sacrat and therefore no minister nor subject can swear to him without being guilty of changing their head , christ jesus : and also of making a sacrafice of the rights and liberties of the church , by burieing our covenanted engagments ; and giving up the fundamental laws unto the will and lust of man : so that your present state , and liberty , is , not any thing else ▪ but a sinful toleration purchassed by price of conscience founded on a mutual tolerating of one another ; which makes a joint conspiracie against christ and his cause , by making , i say a sacrafice of the doctrine and discipline of the church ; by your partiality and silence at the sins of the throne ( ) i say in government the intrinsical power of the tolerating magistrat doth appear , in that the will , awe , and fear of the magistrat , rings , rules , and principalie is followed in your assembly by that negative voice of your king , in that you dare not act or do any thing , though lawful and necessar , until the tolerating magistrat think fit to tolerat ▪ i mean in things external and easie , which doth not strick against the sins of the throne . yea how oft hath the assembly meet together and goten little or nothing done , and all for want of the will of the magistrat to preceed and draw them . but secondly , the intrinsical power of the present magistrat appears in doctrine , in your infidelity , in burieing the sins of the throne , as . in tolerating prelacy and popery throughout the kingdoms . . the black articles contained in the late war by joining with the popish party , contrair to the writing of mr. gilhespie , which was owned and approven by the church in the dayes of our ancestors . . the wasting and impoverishing of the land in time of peace by cesses , and impositions , spending these exactions in pride and lust : bestowing a great part of them on corrupt members of parliament in order to make them ●ervicable instruments for carrieing on those sinful actings . . the change that 's in doctrine , prayer and practise by the command of the magistrat , as to the desisting and leaving of the warr with the king of f●ance in the year and . now let it be yealded that the war was lawful on the matter : which cannot be denyed , he being an oppressing tyrant and stated enemy to god and godliness : and therefore the necessar causes and circumstances of war being found in him ; which is aggression on the lives and liberties of the subjects , which was compleated on them ; though ●ot perfected on us : from which aggression the absolute necessity , and indispensability of militating did flow . now this being , then the causes of war was good and valide on the matter , the end being the glory of god and saftie of the subjects and kingdom : then why should it not have been proceeded in a right manner by seeking the lords power and presence , and by refusing sinful association : either with protestants who were not willing to come up to the height of our reformation : or yet with papists or malignants who were enemies to it . also in a good action there should be perseverance therein : seing there is more diligence required in the end of an action ; than in its beginning ▪ there being no change in the enemy , he being the same now if not worse ; than in the time of war : for still he persecuteth the protestants ; therefore peace , should not have been made with the enemy , although there might be sad loss ; according to the example of israel in the matter of benjamin , who after they had fallen twice enquired of the lord the causes thereof , by weeping and fasting , and searching out their fin ; so ought you to have done : but both matter and maner are abussed and layed aside by the command , fear and awe of the magistrat , so that he whose overthrow ( in prayer you sought , and tyrrannie you confessed , must now be passed over with silence and connivance : allthough he be the same now that he was then . and all this is done by the command of the tolerating magistrat , whose servants ye are tossed with the wind of their powre : like to these spoken of in psal . . much of this obedience is to be seen in your fast days , and thanks giving days ; which manifasts the intrinscicall power that the magistrat hath in makeing you obey contrair to the word . but thirdly the intrinscicall power of the tolerating magistrat : appears in the neglect of discipline in that you dare not do any thing in the assembly in order to the censuring . confessing and setting of days of humiliation a part for the sins of the throne : such as manifest perjurie in the breach of the coronation oath ; the joining in war with the popish party , the sad oppressions in the land , by cesses and impositions , the tolerating of poperie and prelacie throughout the kingdoms . now in a well constitute church , all these sins ought to be confessed , and in case of obstinacy to be censured and punished with the sword of ecclesiastical discipline , to ●he height , even to excommunication ; seing that the assembly acknowledgeth that there should not be partialitie in ministers : and therefore without respect of persons they are to reprove kings ; as well as other men , they being subjects to christ ; and receaved into the church by the vows of baptism : but all this is laid aside , through fear and awe of the magistrat ; by your obedience to the supremacy ; they ruling intrinsically in you , as to matter of practise : as is to be seen in your assemblies , how that your king has the negative voice , which declares that the supremacie is yet infit in this land ( although not screwed up to that height in all its formalities that it was in the year . . and downward ) for your kings commissioner hath so far the ascendant power , that nothing shall pass in act in your assemblies ; but what he pleaseth : and no otherwayes can you enjoy them . so that from this it doth appear . that neglect and partiality of discipline , is not a sin of deadness and infirmity ; but a deliberat contented omission and neglect : and therefore partialitie and infidelity are made the pillar of prudence and essential prop , on which your erastian church stands : now when all this is considered , may it not be said upon grounds that your church is erastian and not presbyterian ▪ obj. but it may be objected by some , that the present ministers doth preach sound doctrine ; and that both learnedly and ela●o●aily , and doth noways teach erastian principles . answer , the difference is as great betwixt preaching and practise , as betwixt true piety , and painted hypocrisie : for a man may preach and profess sound doctrine , and yet be a stated enemy to the practise thereof ; like to the foolish builder spoken of by our saviour , matth. . . and every one that heareth these sayings of mine and doth them not , shall be likened to a foolish man , which built his house upon the sand. now by hearing , these sayings are to be understood a believing and an understanding of them so that by this it doth appear that men may be well qualifed with the art and skill of building , so as to make a comely form and structur of an bulding and likeways to have it seemingly well decored within ; so that , it may be pleasing and takeing to the eyes of the beholders ; and yet for all this not deserve the name of a bulding , the foundation being wanting , ffor their is not any thing that our saviour ch●lenneth , but the foundation , which presuposeth that all things for art and ornamen● might , be in this house . for without doubt if any other thing had been wanting , our savour had not omitted . so that from this you see that gods sacrafices must be on gods altar , gods word in gods house and therefore not in the jdols temple : for you cannot worship and obey god and the idole of supremacie at once i say such hath no right to gods word : who are walking obstinatly on in sin as in psal : . . but unto the wicked god sayes , what hast thou to do to declare my statutes ? or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth , seing thou ●atest inst●uction &c. that 's to say it doth not become such to propose gods word ; neither can they apply it , but falsly : and therefore not to be owned as the chast bride and spouse of christ . but on the other hand as false builders and teachers , whose building is wi●hin the flood ma●k of the wrath of god , and will one day be swept away with judgments : and therefore it is the duty of all believers , to come out from among them ; least they be partakers of their sins , and consequently of their p●angs , as in rev. . furder you say graut there were encroachments on the churches rights and no testimony against it ; that is weakness and want of courage ; but is not just ground of separation from worship in a true church . answer , this overturns the faith of the great assembly ; and that because an universal deadness and infirmity cannot be found , but in a church dead and deserted ; or else dying or declinning , dead and deserted the assembly will not acknowledge ▪ seing they are receaved into mercie ( as they say ) being delivered from their former bondage and miserie : and therefore by consequence has obtained the favourable presence of god , which giveth courage and zeal . . dying and declining this cannot be the assembly , being flowrishing in the bud of their reformation ; and therefore cannot so suddenlie lay aside their zeal , as to be overcome with an universal deadness ; so as to suffer encroachments on the church rights , without the least testimonie of remonstration . it would be expected that reciprocal duties were to be found in such a church : i mean in love and zeal for the kindness and mercie you have receaved and found , in being delivered ( as you say ) but however we acknowledge that deadness and infirmitie , deference & delay of dutie cannot because of separation . but the question is if faithfulness , courage and zeal in the exercise of duty in maintaining the churches rights can consist with the state of your church , yea or no. so that the contraversie is not abou● deadness and infirmity , deference and delay : but if the faithful exercise of zeal can consist with the present and future state of your church . now therefore in c●lm blood and from conscience we pose you , as in the sight of god , the judge of quick and dead , before whom you and we must stand and give an account of our words and actions ; that yôu take to consideration the accusa●ions led against you ; and that you may vindicat● y●ur selves if it be possible with the standing of your church ; by execising faithfulness in doctrine and di●cipline , that it may be manifest before god and the world ; that you are not guilty of e●astianism . and for p●oof hereof in order to your vindicating , we desire you may satisfie us in the●e following premisses and proposition● which we shall lay down ; for trying of your faithfulness and soundness as to the state of your church . experiment , as first we desire an particular answer anent the indulgence , in that you would either approve or disapprove of it : if it may stand with the being of your church : seing that it is a necessar duty in a faithful church to make a separation betwixt the clean and unclean , the holy and prophain the neglect of this being sadly reproved and threatned with judgments , as in ezek. . . they have put no difference between the holy and prophain : neither have they shewed difference between the unclean and the clean , and verse the . therefore have i poured out mine indignation upon tbem , i have consumed them with the fire of my wrath. now therefore take warning of this threatning , and jugle no more with god , by speaking of your different sentiments ; but be particular in specifieing the contraversie , that so it may be manifest to the world , whether you approve of it as a duty , or disapproves of it as it is a sin . experiment . we desire the like answer annent the late toleration under your late king : if that address and supplication ( given in to the popish chancellor ) by a great part of your ministers , be lawful , yea or no , or whether or no you did partake of that liberty and benefite ( as they called it ) or hitherto hath benjamin like espoused the quarrel of these transgressors ; by denying that the like act deserves to be censured and punished with the sword of ecclesiastical discipline ; or else as publickly to be confessed before god and the world , in it's high aggravating circumstances as it was committed . experiment . . if it can consist with the state of your church , to walk in the steps of your ancestors , that you and your king ( or any successor hereafter whatsoever ) may enter in covenant with god ; by renewing the national covenant , the solemn league and covenant ; that it may be manifest to the world , that you deliverance is not bastard and evil begotten , but can run through the channal of a covenant of reformation : and indeed we shall not carp much at the deference of it ; if there shall be any possibility for the time to come to accomplish this work . experiment . fourthly , we desire if it may stand with the being of your church : that the sins of the throne may be confessed , and particularlie acknowledged , and faithfully reproved in doctrine , censured by discipline , and punished with the ecclesiastical sword in case of obstinacy . particularly these forementioned sins , namelie ▪ ( ) the manifest perjurie in breach of the coronation oath in countinancing & tolerating of poperie and prelacie throughout the kingdoms . . the black articles contained in the late confederacie , where liberty of conscience was proposed as the end ; and the persons confederat with were idola●rous papists , which is contrair to scripture and the testimonies of our ancestors to join with such in war. . the impowerishing of the land by cesses and impositions in time of peace . now we think the consideration of these propositions cannot in conscience be denyed ; seing they are agreeable to scripture , and consonant to the judgment of all sound divines : that sins of all sorts of persons , both high and lo kings as well as the meanest subjects ; are faithfullie to be reproved and censured by discipline : or else the church cannot be obedient and loyal to christ jesus , who is king of kings , and lord of lords ; and has given command unto his messengers to teach all things whatsoever he hath commanded them as in matth. . . and jer. . . for thou shall go to all that i will send thee , and whatsoever i command thee thou shalt speak . and doth not this command reach the sins of kings , as well as other men ; the word being sent unto them . i hope the learned assembly will acknowledge that p●r●iality is to be avoided being reproved of god , as in mal. . . and therefore let none stumble at the faithful reproving , and censuring of these ●ins mentioned ; seing that it is a duty commanded of god : and commened by the example of the holy prop●ers , who faithfullie reproved kings without partialitie ; then let the assem●lie , if they be what they profess imi●ate the p●actise of the holie prophets by laying aside par●ialitie ; and the slavi●h fear of men : that it may be manifest to the world that your church is built upon the foundation of the prophets and apostles , jesus ch●ist being the chief corner stone , ephes ▪ . if otherwise ●ou shall refuse this dut●e and wilful●●e out of carnal prudence l●y aside z●al courage and fidelitie ; then sha●l 〈◊〉 be guiltie of erastianism by declaring your selves to be the servan●s , and slaves of en . but some will object and say , if the sins of the throne may be so marked reproved and censured : then it would 〈◊〉 that pre●by●●●●an government cannot agree with monarchie , i answer ▪ the lawful 〈…〉 and exercise of kingly government , can well agree with presbyterie : but not the abuse and unlawful exercise thereof , and that because it brings the lords wrath and judgment , both on the throne & church , in case of silence and connivance thereat . therefore we desire that you would consider impartially , and without prejudice the accusations , grounds and objections led against you ; that so it may appear , how hateful and abhoring a sinful union is ? oh! what sin is more reproved and forbidden than union in iniquity , as in eph. , . have no sellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness : but rather reprove them , and in cor. . , , . what fellowship hath righteousness with vnrighteousness , and what communion hath light with darkness ? and what concord hath christ with belial ? or what part hath he that believeth with an unbeliever ? or what agreement hath the temple of god with idols ? and verse . wherefore come out from among them and be separat saith the lord ; and touch not the unclean thing and i will receave you . moreover hath not the lord declared the imposibility of union with sinners by the mouth of his prophets , as in amos . . can two walk together except they be agreed . oh ▪ can union be in sin and defection ? or would you be in a happy condition if you obtained it ? alas ! no more , than israel was in their defection , exod. . when with on consent they did say , these be thy gods o israel which brought thee up out of the land of egypt . and doth not an universal sinning bring universal judgments on a land and people : therefore consider this and lay to heart your defection , and be awakned with the judgments of god upon the land , by the plague of famine , that has been these years bygone , and now present and seek out your sins , and the causes of the lords wrath ; why he thus contends with the land , according to the example of the godly in former times , as in sam. . and there was a famine in the days of david three years , year after year , and david enquired of the lord ; and the lord answered and said , it is for saul and for his bloody house : because he slew the gibionites . so that you see , the causes of the famine was breach of covenant and bloodsheding , which certainly is the causes of this famine : and did david enquire after the causes while there was three years famine , then let the assembly and all of us enquire after the causes : now while there hath been six years famine . and i think the causes thereof will be found to be the same ; that it was in the days of david , viz. breach of covenat and bloodshed , which the assembly are deeplie guiltie of by their past and present practise ; as i have plainlie held out in the forementioned grounds and accusations led against you . therefore examine your selves and consider what you have done , and are doing by your going on in breach of covenant & perjurie , and by your trampling on the blood of the saints and martyres , in condemning and burieing their testimonies , and maliciously and falsly accusing the faithful of separation , because they will not go on with you , in your soul murdering courses , to the ruine of the land and their own souls . but in the next place we desire you to consider , what it is you have to justisie before god and the world in defence of your continued defection , in going on in your erastian courses . have you this to say that you are in judgment sound presbyterians and professes sound principles ? whereas in practise you deny it , by subjecting to the fear , awe and unlawful commands of the tolerating magistrat : like 〈◊〉 these spoken of , isa . , . this people draw near to me with their mouth and with their lips d● honour me : but have removed their heart far from me , and their fear towards me are taught by the precepts of men . or like to these kings . . who feared the lord and served their own gods or what more have you to boast of by your learning and external form of piety ? or yet by elabourat painful preaching : when in practise you are despisers of the building ; like to these jewish doctors ' who could learnedly hold out the signs , tokens , and marks of the messias ; yet when they did see him to whom their own signs did agree , they would have none of him . oh then ! shall it so be with you ? will you still go on in a wilful malicious despite against the cause of christ , and the followers thereof ? i say , beware lest your wilful hearted of truth arising from envie , bring some in the end to fall into the sin unpardonable , as did these jewish doctors . . we desise you to consider , who it is you have to deall with in your contending , i say it is god , not man that you have to deall with ; therefore take head what was spoken to paul. acts . , . it is hard for you to kick against the pricks ▪ i say truth maintainer is omnipotent and cannot sin ; and therefore will see to the cause of the afflicted and right of the poor , psal . . . and will teach his truths doctrinallie by his judgments on backsliders , i● walking contrair unto them ▪ while they walk contrair unto him , as in lev. , . and will get himself honour upon your idols , by overthrowing them , and by destroying the bramble ▪ under which backsliders are sheltering , as in judges . . and seing the lord will be glorious in his judgments ? then do not build , that which he will destroy : neither insult confidentlie over the desolations of his house and people , thinking now the witnesses are dead and buried ; and now you have go ten the victorie , consider that place of scripture , sam . ● the lord kill●th and he makes alive , he bringeth down to the grave , and he bringeth up . therefore we exhort you in the sight of god to lay aside these weapons of war , by which you cover , and defends your sins and defections , viz. these four painted complexions , namelie personal sins , sins of infirmitie , deadness , want of courage and zeal , and lay to heart your sins , by confessing and forsaking of them ; seing the lord is willing and readie to receave you , and is not the suffering remanent readie to imbrace union and communion with you upon repentantance and confession ? but if you shall refuse this , and continue obstinat in defending of your sin , and will not hear ; then let us spread out your case before the lord , seeking his assistance to mourn over them , that our hearts may be affected with grief , and our souls made to weep in secret places for your pride , and our eyes made to weep sore and run down tears for all the abominaations done in the land. so let all thine enemies perish , o lord : but let them tha● love him , be as the sun , when he goeth forth in his might . judges , , . finis . something offered to the consideration of all those who have had a hand in putting the late made act, (entituled, an act to prevent and suppress seditious conventicles) in execution for the sake of such who have any tenderness towards the innocent; and also for the information of all others, who have had, shall or may have, a hand in putting in execution the said act, i shall offer something to shew, whom and what exercises of religion are concerned in and by the said act, and what not, according to the most true natural genuine litteral sense and meaning thereof, and no other wise. gibson, thomas, quaker. approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing g estc r this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) something offered to the consideration of all those who have had a hand in putting the late made act, (entituled, an act to prevent and suppress seditious conventicles) in execution for the sake of such who have any tenderness towards the innocent; and also for the information of all others, who have had, shall or may have, a hand in putting in execution the said act, i shall offer something to shew, whom and what exercises of religion are concerned in and by the said act, and what not, according to the most true natural genuine litteral sense and meaning thereof, and no other wise. gibson, thomas, quaker. p. s.n., [london : ] caption title. signed and dated at end: written in the first month, . by thomas gibson, prisoner in newgate, .. imprint from wing. reproduction of the original in the friends house library, london. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng public general acts. . car.ii.c. -- early works to . dissenters, religious -- england -- law and legislation -- early works to . quakers -- england -- early works to . great britain -- history -- charles ii, - -- early works to . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - mona logarbo sampled and proofread - mona logarbo text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion something offered to the consideration of all those who have a hand in putting the late made act , ( entituled , an act to prevent and suppress seditious conventicles ) in execution . for the sake of such who have any tenderness towards the innocent ; and also for the information of all others , who have had , shall or may have , a hand in putting in execution the said act , i shall offer something to shew , whom and what exercises of religion are concerned in and by the said act , and what not , according to the most true natural genuine litteral sense and meaning thereof , and no otherwise . i shall begin with the title and preamble of the said act , and then come to the body of it . this act is entituled , an act to prevent and suppress seditious conventicles . it seems , there is , or may be , several sorts of conventicles , as the word conventicle doth import , which is a conveening of several persons together for some end and purpose or other . now there may be a convening of persons together for good ends , as there may be a convening of persons together for evil ends . there may be a convening of persons together honestly , and justifiably , upon a religious account ; as there may be a convening of persons together in order to the sowing or spreading of sedition : which latter , this act , by the title of it , seems to be made to prevent & suppress , as appears by joyning the explanatory word seditious to conventicle , viz. an act to prevent & suppress [ seditious conventicles . ] and this doth further appear by comparing therewith the preamble or reason of the act , which runs thus : for providing therefore of further and more speedy remedies against the growing and dangerous practices of [ seditious sectaries ] and other disloyal persons , &c. here the word [ seditious ] is used again , and joyned to sectaries and other disloyal persons . now the word sectary , as it is generally accepted , doth import persons of several opinions or practices in matters of religion , differing from the established religion of nations , and such as for conscience-sake cannot conform thereunto . these , as truly such , † seem not to be the persons intended in this act , but such , and only such , as are seditious sectaries , and under pretence of tender consciences , do at their meetings contrive insurrections , or sow sedition among the people ; so that both by the title and preamble this act doth pretend at least to be made to punish seditious sectaries , and to suppress their meetings , and not to punish the truly consciencious , nor suppress the meetings of those who meet together not under any colour , but really and truly to worship god as he doth require and perswade them in their own hearts and consciences . but as if the title and preamble were only specious pretences of a law against seditious and disloyal persons , to colour over foul intentions in the body of the act , which seems to look a quite contrary way , and is so made use of , and runs thus ; be it enacted , &c. that if any person , &c. shall be present at any assembly , conventicle or meeting , under [ colour or pretence ] of any exercise of religion [ in other manner than is allowed , &c. ] the words [ under colour or pretence ] seem to relate to the preamble of the act. but then the matter of fact , or that which makes the meeting unlawful , so as the being present at it becomes an offence , ought to have been expressed to be the plotting or contriving insurrections , or the doing of some action or other , that might render the meeting [ a seditious meeting , under the colour or pretence of religious exercise ] which would then have held proportion with the title and preamble or reason of the act ; and might have been counted a reasonable law , as all laws ought to be : for right reason , according to the law of god , is ( or ought to be ) the ground or foundation of all law. and that law that hath not right reason for its foundation , is null and void in it self ; and will never be of , nor bear any authority over sober and reasonable men , nor answer to the witness of god in the consciences of the transgressors . but this not being such , nor so to be understood , as the judges and executors of the law do declare , both by word and practice . it seems to be an unnatural , unreasonable and unequal law , and not at all like what it pretends it self to be , namely , an act to prevent and suppress [ seditious conventicles ] or to prevent the growing and dangerous practices of [ seditious sectaries ] and other disloyal persons , who under pretence of tender consciences , do at their meetings contrive insurrections , &c. i say , as interpreted and made use of by our reasonless judges , justices and executors of the law , it is so far from being what it pretends it self to be , to wit , a law to punish the guilty , such as pretend to one thing and do another , that it 's made use of to punish the innocent ; ( to wit ) such as are really , and do truly what they pretend themselves to be and do , that is , are truly tender in conscience , and do meet ( not only under pretence of religious exercise , but ) really and truly to worship god in a peaceable quiet manner , ( or , to use the kings own words in the aforementioned declaration ) do modestly and without scandal perform their devotion in their own way . but it seems that principally which makes the meeting unlawful , is , the exercise of religion , being [ in other manner than is allowed by the lyturgie or practice of the church of england , &c. ] if it be so that the religious exercise it self is that which the law is made against , and that , because in the manner of it , it may not be allowed by the lyturgy or practice of the church of england ; then this doth make it further appear to be an unnatural and unreasonable law : for , as there is no reason rendred , so there is no reason to be rendred , for the making of a law to limit or restrain all people in their religious exercises to the allowance of the lyturgy or practice of the church of england . for the lyturgy , upon which the practice of the church of england in this case seems to be grounded , hath at most but the ordering , direction and prescription of humane authority for its establishment ; but the true religion , and religious exercise , that god accepts , as well to the manner as to the matter of it , must be performed according to the ordering , direction , prescription and assistance of the spirit of god ; and cannot ( neither is there any reason why it should ) be limited to the allowance or prescription of the lyturgy , or any humane practice or invention whatsoever , especially if it be true : as it was said by some judges and executioners of this law , viz. that to worship god in spirit and truth , is to worship god in other manner than is allowed by the lyturgie or practice of the church of england . and if it be so , that the lyturgy and practice of the church of england is so far degenerated from the spirit of truth , that neither the one nor the other doth so much as allow of worshipping god in spirit and in truth , as these men say , o how can they blame those that separate from such a church , as from an harlot or menstruous woman , that a man cannot touch but he must be defiled ! if the manner of the religious exercise be that which makes the meeting lawful or unlawful , then it seems the chief force of the act is in these words ( viz. ) shall be present at any assembly , conventicle or meeting , under [ colour or pretence ] of any exercise of religion , in other manner than is allowed , &c. and then the words [ colour or pretence ] in this place is not to be understood to look back to those mentioned in the preamble , who under pretence of tender consciences do at their meetings contrive insurrections , &c. but to look forward to the manner of the religious exercise , and then the word colour is improper in this place , which can no otherwise be understood , but to make the pretence of religious exercise to be a colour for some evil action intended : but to take the word pretence apart from colour , and then it may be understood to intend no more than that which is beforehand declared or foreshewn of the intention of the meeting ; and in this sence i am willing to understand and make use of the word pretence in what follows : and then it is clear that the principal offence in the law is , the religious exercise it self , and that in the manner of it . there are several qualifications which must concur to make the persons present at meetings , offenders against this act ; they are as followeth . . the meeting must be under pretence of some exercise of religion . . that exercise of religion must be in other manner than is allowed by the lyturgy or practice of the church of england . . there must be five persons present , over and above the persons of the family . . the persons present must be of the age of sixteen years or more , and subjects of this realm . it seems this act is not against all meetings , but only against such meetings as are under pretence of some exercise of religion ; neither is it against all meetings under pretence of exercise of religion , but only such as are in private families , and within the forementioned qualifications : for , . if the meeting be under pretence of religious exercise , yet if the religious exercise be in no other manner than is allowed , &c. this meeting is not within the act , although there be five persons or more present besides the persons of the family . . if the religious exercise used , be in other manner than is allowed ; if there be not five persons or more present , of the age of sixteen years , and subjects of this realm , this meeting is not within the said act. quer. what meetings then are those within the act ? answ . such meetings as are within all the qualifications , the principal of which are the two first , viz. the meeting being under pretence of religious exercise in other manner than is allowed , &c. then it seems the manner of the religious exercise is the principal qualification that makes the meeting either lawful or unlawful ; and that as it is either allowed or disallowed by the lyturgy and practice of the church of england . then the question is , what exercises of religion , as to the manner of them , are , and what are not allowed by the lyturgie or practice of the church of england ? answ . such exercises of religion as have prescript forms or manners for the exercise thereof , and no other forms or manners are allowed of ; such exercises of religion , if not performed in the same form or manner as is prescribed , are in other manner than is allowed , &c. but all such exercises of religion as have no prescript forms nor manners but the practice of the church of england , is , to leave all persons to use their own forms or manners , such exercises of religion cannot be performed , in other manner than is allowed , &c. those exercises of religion used in private families which have prescript forms , are baptism , the visitation of the sick , and administration of the communion ( as they call it ) to the sick person , and others with him . now if any of these exercises of religion , or any other that have prescript forms , be performed in any other manner than is prescribed , at any meeting where there shall be five persons or more present , over and above the persons of the family , this meeting is within the act , and the persons present , if within the other qualifications , may be punished by it . those exercises of religion that have no prescript forms , are these , viz. preaching , prayer out of churches ( so called ) and conference or the like . there is no prescript form of preaching , no prescript form of prayer in private ( except as is before exprest ) no prescript form of conference , but every man is left to use his own form or manner in all these exercises of religion ; so that these exercises of religion cannot be performed in other manner than is allowed , &c. and then where-ever these exercises of religion , or such like , are used , and no other , that have prescript forms , though there be five persons or more present over and above the persons of the family , yet this meeting is not within the said act. if it be the practice of the church of england to allow all persons to use their own forms or manners in such exercises of religion to which no forms or manners are prescribed , then i query to all you judges , justices & executors of the law , what exercises of religion have been performed in the meetings of those peaceable people , in scorn called quakers , whom you have so violently persecuted under pretence of the said act , that hath been in other manner than is allowed by the lyturgy [ or ] practice of the church of england ? i say , shew us and the nation what they are , and how they have been performed in other manner than is allowed , &c. and if you do not ( as sure you cannot ) then will not the nation , as well as we , see that you make the law but a meer pretence and colour , under which you execute your own wrath , enmity and prejudice against the innocent . and then it is time for you to cease your false and opprobrious language of rebellion , stubbornness and disobedience to the laws , to those who are made subject in their spirits , not only to the law of god , but also to all just and equal laws of men , and see your selves to be those stubborn , disobedient and stiffnecked persons , not only against the law of god in your selves and others , but also against the justice , equity and truth of the laws of this nation ; and also the very letter of the law , under pretence of which you have injured , wronged and spoiled so many hundreds , not only in their liberties and estates , but very many of their lives also . oh surely the lord will yet again , as in dayes past , arise and plead the cause of the innocent and oppressed , and raise up the spirit of justice and true judgment in this nation ; and then in that day how will you be able to answer or make satisfaction for the hundredth part of that dammage and spoil you have made upon the innocent ! o therefore that you might hear and fear , repent and do no more so , that the judgment threatned you might escape . but to return . i shall take it for granted , till it be denied , that it is the practice of the church of england , to allow all persons to use their own forms or manners in such exercises of religion as have no forms or manners prescribed : and then i say , first , to you in commission for the peace , or chief magistrates of corporations , that unless it doth appear or be proved to you , that there are private meetings , where there is some exercise of religion or other used , that have prescript forms , and are used in other manner than is prescribed , it is not lawful for you to find or commit the persons , present at such meetings , to prison , for refusing to pay fines wrongfully imposed on them ; but rather protect and defend the peaceable and quiet meetings of such , who at their meetings use no other manner of exercise of religion but such as is allowed by the lyturgy [ or ] practice of the church of england . dly . you of the grand jury , who have sworn to make your presentments free from fear , favour or reward , and to present the truth , the whole truth , and nothing but the truth , how can you with good conscience present any for being present at an assembly , conventicle or meeting , under colour and pretence of exercise of religion [ in other manner than is allowed , &c. ] when nothing of the religious exercise , or manner of it , hath been proved to you ; and if it hath , then ought you not to express the particular exercise of religion , with the manner of it , in the bill of presentment , that it may appear to others , as well as to your selves , that it was in other manner than is allowed by the lyturgy or practice of the church of england ? dly . i shall say somehing to you of the petty jury , in whom the final judgment in this matter doth reside : you take this oath following ; viz. you shall well and truly try , and true deliverance make , between our soveraign lord the king , and the prisoners at the bar ( whom you shall have in charge ) according to your evidence . so help you god. it seems you are sole judges between the king and the prisoners at the bar , as to the matter of fact , and this you are to do truly , according to your evidence . now when indictments come before you upon the said act , you are warily to consider the indictment , which ought to express the particular exercise of religion used at such meetings ; but if it run only in general terms , as hitherto they have done , that the persons named were present at such a time , in such a place , at an assembly , conventicle or meeting , under colour or pretence of exercise of religion [ in other manner than is allowed by the lyturgie or practice of the church of england . ] you being sworn to go according to your evidence , you ought to have clear and sufficient evidence in all the afore-mentioned particular qualifications ; also , that these very persons have been twice before convicted of the like offence before two justices of the peace , or the chief magistrate of such corporation where there is not two justices of the peace , in due manner , and according to the form of the statute in that case made and provided ; which must appear upon record under their hands and seals : which record ought to express the matter of fact , with all plainness and clearness ; not in general terms , for that is not sufficient , but ought to express the particular exercise of religion , with the manner of it , that it may appear to you , the persons were duly convicted as the law requires . and this you are to consider , that the matter of fact , which ought to be proved to you , is twofold ; the first and principal is , that the exercise of religion used at such meetings was in other manner than is allowed , &c. else the second matter of fact , to wit , the being present at the meeting , can be no offence : which must be proved by shewing , that the religious exercise used was some exercise of religion to which the church of england hath prescribed a particular form , and notwithstanding was performed in other manner than is prescribed , else it cannot be in other manner than is allowed , &c. as is before expressed . if these things cannot be proved , you are perjured men that shall give in your verdict , that the prisoners are guilty in manner and form as they stand indicted , when the principal part of the matter of fact is not proved unto you . if the judge shall say , as he useth to do , that having proved that the persons mentioned were at the meeting , and that the meeting was upon a religious account : here is the matter of fact clearly proved , and there needs no more to find the persons guilty . i say , and am ready to maintain it , that such evidence is not sufficient to prove the indictment : for though this is matter of fact , yet it is not all the matter of fact ; nay , it 's but the least part : for the principal matter of fact is the religious exercise , being in other manner than is allowed , &c. and if this be not proved , though the other be proved never so clear , yet you cannot with good conscience , according to your oaths , bring the persons in guilty in manner and form as they stand indicted : for consider , the indictment doth not only say , that the persons mentioned were present in such a place at a meeting , under colour or pretence of exercise of religion , but also under colour or pretence of exercise of religion in other manner than is allowed by the lyturgy or practice of the church of england : and so saith the act : but on the contrary , ought to acquit or bring in the prisoner not guilty of the indictment , lest the judgement and severity of god ( to whom alone in point of conscience you are accountable in this matter ) take hold of you , as it hath done of some , who through fear have , contrary to their consciences , consented , with others , to the bringing-in the innocent guilty , in manner and form as they stood indicted : witness thomas leader his acknowledgment , in a paper in print under his own name , entituled , the wounded-heart , or the jury-mans offence declared , &c. what i have written , i shall commit and commend to the witness of god in the consciences of all concerned , especially you that may serve of this jury , that so you may see your own work more plain and clear before you , and be left without excuse . written in the first month , . by thomas gibson , prisoner in newgate , under the unjust sentence of transportation to jamaica . the end . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e † for to such all the king's promises of indulgence are renewed in his declaration of the th of decemb. . which see more at large . some sober and weighty reasons against prosecuting protestant dissenters for difference of opinion in matters of religion humbly offered to the consideration of all in authority. penn, william, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing p estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) some sober and weighty reasons against prosecuting protestant dissenters for difference of opinion in matters of religion humbly offered to the consideration of all in authority. penn, william, - . sheet ([ ] p.) printed by g. larkin ..., london : . caption title. attributed by wing and nuc pre- imprints to penn. imprint from colophon. reproduction of original in the harvard university library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng freedom of religion -- england. liberty of conscience -- england. dissenters, religious -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - jonathan blaney sampled and proofread - jonathan blaney text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion some sober and weighty reasons against prosecuting protestant dissenters , for difference of opinion in matters of religion . humbly offered to the consideration of all in authority . . reas . because the great and mighty god , who is king of kings and lord of lords , hath not imposed matters of religion upon the consciences of men and women by any outward force : god hath not appointed death , nor bannishment , nor imprisonment , nor loss of goods , as a means to bring persons to conform to the way of his worship ; but god hath given his word , and favoured the world with such as can preach it , whose work is to invite , intreat , perswade ; and not in a lordly way to domineer over the consciences of men and women , whether they be rich or poor . . reason , because all sorts of mankind are fallable in some divine matters , even in all countreys ; the princes , the priests , and the people , are yet short of infallabillity in many matters of divinity ; yea the most eminent ministers of the gospel in the primitive time confessed they saw but in part , and they knew but in part ; and said to their fellow christians , that they would not lord or domineer over them , but be helpers of their joy. . reason , because all sorts of persons do desire this as a great good for themselves , even those that are for distressing of , and imposing upon others , would not be so dealt with themselves , but would account it hard measure , yea cruelty , to be forced to such things in religion as are against their consciences , or else to suffer in their purse or persons . as for instance , the episcopal protestant would doom it great persecution to be punished if he would not turn presbyterian , independant , baptist , or quaker ; and why then should the episcopal protestant take pleasure in punishing of , and so force any of the others to be of his mind ? and therefore great and good reason it is to walk by that blessed rule christ hath given , do unto others as you would they should do unto you , and what you would not others should do unto you , do not to them . . reason , because forcing the conscience is the ready way to make men hypocrites ; for if persons conform to any way of worship unwillingly , they cannot serve god acceptably , though the matter and form of worship be never so right , because the heart of the worshippers is not right , the service being performed by by mans compulsion ; god requireth that his service should be performed with a perfect heart , and with a willing mind ; but he that conforms by compulsion , in stead of being gods servant , he is but mans slave : and the conformity is to man , and not to god. . reason , because his majesty did sollemnly promise liberty of conscience in matters of religion , when he was at breda , just upon his restauration to his throne and kingdoms , in april . in these words : we do declare a liberty to tender consciences and that no man shall be disquieted , or called in question for differences of opinion in matters of religion , which doe not disturb the peace of the kingdom ; & that we shall be ready to consent to such an act of parliament as upon mature deliberation shall be offered to us , for the full granting that indulgence . . reason , because the prosecuting the protestant dessenters for matters of conscience , is a great disquieting of the minds of great numbers of his majesties good subjects , and a great hinderance to the trade of the kingdom , the dissenters being a great part of the trading people of this kingdom ; and some thing of this his majesty was gratiously pleased to take into his princely consideration , when he put forth his indulging declaration , by the advice of his privy councel , in march , . after a violent prosecution of that act against conventicles , in these very words : but it being evident by the sad experience of twelve years , that there is very little fruit of all those . forceable courses : we think our self obliged to make use of that supream power in ecclesiastical matters , which is not only inherent in us but hath been declared and recognized to be so by several statutes and acts of parliament ; and therefore we do now accordingly issue this our declaration , as well for the quieting of the minds of our good subjects in these points , for inviting of strangers in this conjuncture to come and liue under us , and for the better incouragement of all to a cheerful following of their trade and callings , from whence we hope by the blessing of god to have many good and happy advantages to our government . . reason , because the lords and commons assembled in parliament , sence those declarations have upon mature deliberation considered the ill consequences of prosecuting the protestant dissenters by the penal laws , and have shewed their willingness to a toleration , and prohibiting of a prosecution of protestants for matters of conscience . . reason , because the french protestants , who are the dissenters from the established worship of that kingdom , are gratiously received by the king , and kindly received and succoured by the people of england , and the french king is highly blamed for persecuting his peaceable subjects ; and therefore much more reason that protestants should not persecute one another , for it is to do the same things that is condemned in others : therefore let the words of the apostle paul be well considered , rom. . . thou art inexcusable , o man , whoever thou art , that judgest another , thou condemnest thy self , for thou that judgest doest the same things thy self ; verse . and thinkest thou , o man , that judgest them which do such things , and doest the same , that thou shalt escape the judgment of god ? . reason , there is a good and great agreement between the conforming , and non-conforming protestants , in the chief things of the protestant religion : as for instance ; . both parties believe in the holy trinity , viz. the father , son , and holy ghost : . that jesus christ is very god and very man , and the only saviour of sinners : . that salvation doth depend upon the miraculous birth , the holy life , the painful death , the wonderful resurection , the joyful ascention , the constant intercession , and the second coming of jesus christ : . both parties believe that the worship of god , and the conversations of men , ought to be according to the holy scriptures , and not according to the inventions of any sort of mankind : . both parties do deny all mediators but only jesus christ , and abhor praying to deceased saints : . both parties deny a purgatory , and do believe and profess a heaven of eternal joy for the godly , and a hell of eternal woe for the wicked . all these things more largely and plainly are made manifest in confessions of faith , printed by the dissenting protestants as well as by the conforming protestants . now the matters wherein they differ from each other being smaller then the former things , and yet such as each partty cannot conform unto without wronging their conscience , and so sinning against god , therefore they ought not to be forced . . reason , because persecution for matters of conscience is a breach of the good rules of humanity , and common civility among all sorts of men , which is carefully observed in smaller matters : as for instance , among the many creatures of god that are food for mens bodies , some things that are very pleasing and comfortable food for some men , the same things are very destructive to the health of other men ; now in this case there is such civility among all sorts of men that they hate and scorn to force one anothers stomacks , looking upon it to be an inhumane practise ; and therefore do friendly , say to each other , pray eat that which will best go down , and agree with your stomack . now for as much as conscience is greater then stomack , and the hurt of the soul greater then the hurt of the body , how much more should persons , especially protestants , be thus friendly one to another in matters of conscience ? . reason , because all protestants ought to behave themselves towards each other as brethren , there being so good and great agreement between them in the chief things of religion ; especially they being all in a like danger of the bloody papists , who if ever the government should fall into their bloody hands , ( which god of his mercy prevent ) then the same miseries that may befal the protestant dissenters , will certainly befal the conforming protestants ; if they prove true to their protestant principles , they will all be deemed hereticks , and must suffer as much in their estates and persons ; and therefore instead of persecuting one another , they should love each other , and pray for each other , and say as abraham said to lot , let there be no strife between me and thee , for we are brethren : and more especially because the popish cannonite and perrizite are now too much in the land. . reason , because the protestant dissenters do not belong to any forraign power , but do abhor , detest , and protest against all forreign power or jurisdiction over the king , the kingdom , or any of his majesties subjects ; neither are they covetous of preferment in church or state , but willingly leave that to his majesties wisdom , and desire only that they may live a peaceable life in all godliness and honesty under authority , as gods word doth direct . london : printed by g. larkin , in scalding-alley in the poultry , . an appeal of all the non-conformists in england to god and all the protestants of europe in order to manifest their sincerity in point of obedience to god and the king to which is added a sober and unpassionate reply to the author of the lively picture of lewis du moulin / by dr. lewis du moulin ... du moulin, lewis, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; 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(eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) an appeal of all the non-conformists in england to god and all the protestants of europe in order to manifest their sincerity in point of obedience to god and the king to which is added a sober and unpassionate reply to the author of the lively picture of lewis du moulin / by dr. lewis du moulin ... du moulin, lewis, - . [ ], [i.e. ] p. printed for richard janeway ..., london : mdclxxxi [ ] "a sober and unpassionate reply to the author of the lively pictureof lewis du moulin has special t.p. dated . contains numerous errors in pagination. reproduction of original in the huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng daillé, jean, - . -- lively picture of lewis du moulin. dissenters, religious -- england. great britain -- church history -- th century. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - jonathan blaney sampled and proofread - jonathan blaney text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion an appeal of all the non-conformists in england to god , and all the protestants of europe , in order to manifest their sincerity in point of obedience to god and the king. to which is added a sober and vnpassionate reply to the author of the lively picture of lewis du moulin . by dr. lewis du movlin , late history professor of oxford . london , printed for richard janeway in queens-head-ally in pater-noster-row . mdclxxxi . a notice to the reader , although these papers to thee are posthumous , ( the author of them departing this life three or four days since , ) yet the doctor himself both saw , and corrected all the sheets save one before his sickness . october ▪ , . pag. . line read conformist for non-conformist . an appeal of all the non-conformists in england to god , and all the protestants of europe , in order to manifest their sincerity to god and the king . having in some late treatises given a short account of the advances of the church of england towards popery , from the beginning of the reformation , i am obliged to mention some particulars over again , which leads me to some other considerations very material for the design in hand . . that the first reformers in the dayes of e. . though of several judgments about the external part of the government , were all of honest principles and sentiments in their doctrine ; and had the same mind and design to purge the then present church of its idolatry , superstitions , and gross errours , and to bring in the same pure doctrine that was professed by calvin , and the reformed churches in france , and which hath been and is still retained by the non-conformists that were and are now . . that the said first reformers being divided in their opinions about retaining that which was good , and taking away whatsoever was amiss in the romish church , as to the outward governmnt , the opinion that the reformation could not be thoroughly done for matter of government and externals , as it was possible for matter of doctrine , prevailed so far with bishop hooper , rogers , and others that wisht it had been otherwise , as to make them forbear any further urging of a compleat reformation , in hopes that when the people that were instructed in the true , saving doctrine , should be more numerous , the opposition to a through reformation in all points would be less . . that this rude draught of reformation , suitable to that time , had very bad success ; because the conformable party prevailed still with the soveraign , and the grandees of the realm , to have it a standing law , that was not to be repealed nor altered , and which drawing along with it non-residency , plurality of livings , a meer form and garb of religion and piety , outward pomp and grandeur , best suited with a worldly interest ; whilest the other party , who were then puritans , and whom we now call non-conformists , retained , and do still to our days , a desire , and longing after a thorow reformation , and they have endeavoured by conferences , remonstrances , and writings , to have it introduced . . that yet the conformists were not all of one mind , there being still a party among them very peaceable and orthodox , and at less distance from the non-conformists , especially among the gentry , that were no courtiers , and in great towns , cities , and corporations ; whilest the other party , made up of conformists , grew corrupt , and so far from hearkening to a further reformation , that they made nearer advances towards rome . . that jealousies and apprehensions daily encreasing , and fears of inclining to popery , and the troubles in scotland intervening in the years , and ; and the discontents rising up in england , the king was forced to call a parliament , which began in . . that that parliament , both lords and commons , was most , if not all , composed of such peaceable , orthodox church of england men i have but now mentioned , and all conforming to the rites , ceremonies of episcopacy and hierarchy , but yet greatly averse to popery , tyranny , and the corrupt party of the church of england that inclined towards rome ; witness the many speeches in parliament they made , as of the lord faulckland , sir benjamin rudyer , digby , and others , with whom good and honest bishops joyned . . that the ground and rise of the civil war in , and , was in opposition to such as bishop laud , and other bad instruments . . that the lords and commons in , and , were all in perfect conformity to the church of england ; so was the army too that they raised ; for the general , the main body of the army , the officers and captains both by land and sea , were all conformable to the church of england , and none of them puritans , presbyterians , independents , anabaptists , sectaries , or conventiclers . . that likewise , the assembly of divines in westminster , chosen by the parliament , were all conformists , and none of them silenced ministers , except . or , and scots . . that the first intentions of the parliament was so far from subverting the government of church and state , established by law , and from taking away the house of lords and bishops root and branch ; that it was only to reform the abuses of both , and to settle such a model of church government as was recommended by the pious and learned bishops , vsher , and hall , and which did not much differ from that which our gracious soveraign that now is , recommended to his parliament in his declaration . about ecclesiastical affairs . . that the parliament had no thoughts of bringing in the covenant into england , had not the necessity of their affairs forced them to joyn with the scots . . that no man was obliged by it to take away bishops , but only as they are in conjunction with the english hierarchy . . neither was it the intention of the lords and commons , at first , to take away deans and chapters , but to make them more serviceable and useful , to take away pluralities , non-residencies , and to settle a more proportionable maintenance for ministers . . that the change , or subversion of government , the taking away the lords house , and with them the bishops , and excluding the greatest part of the house of commons , and last of all , the taking away the king , and all the confusions , and disorders , that happened thereupon , did arise from a third party , viz. the army , that was neither for the king , nor parliament ; neither for conformists , nor for non-conformists , but was an enemy to them all , and sought their absolute ruine and destruction . . that the non-conformists , who usually now go by the name of presbyterians , fanaticks , independents , rebels , sons of belial , &c. by the corrupt church-party , that have been always making advances towards popery , were so far from being the first in arms in opposition to the king , our late blessed martyr ; and being contrivers of his death , and of taking away monarchy ; that on the contrary , it was the only party ( while the others of the king's friends sate still ) that appeared before , and since , in his behalf , to the hazard of their lives ( witness mr. love , ) and that in , had a chief hand in restoring our gracious soveraign charles the ii. to his throne ; for which never enough to be valued benefit and kindness , although it was but duty , no party has been more severely persecuted by the corrupt-party of the church of england ; but of this , more anon . . that the declaration of the king , mentioned in the tenth consideration , was a confirmation of another former declaration . . that whereas , when the king came over from the hague , there was a great expectation that his printed declaration for ecclesiastical affairs , would be sufficient to compose all differences and heats , and unite all parties , by taking away the stumbling block of subscribing to those ceremonies that were not warranted by the word of god ; but just on the contrary , the clamours of the corrupt party of the church of england at length prevail'd for restoring of those ceremonies . all which good bishop brownrig foretold , a little before his death , in saying , that there would continue the same confusions and animosities , that were before ; and , with them , the same spirit of persecution which the corrupt church-party before , was the cause of . . that the zeal and fervour of the prevailing corrupt church-party in england at this present juncture of time , in writing so many books against the papists , and standing up , so stoutly against the horid attempt upon the king 's most sacred life , and introducing of popery , and hearkening to some terms of reconciliation with the non-conformists , to make the opposition the stronger against papists , does no way seem to be the effect of a christian moderation , but a meer worldly interest , like the zeal of jehu , the union of aristides , and themistocles , two mortal foes against the common enemy : or like that of augustus , brutus , and cassius , against antony : 't is the goodness of a stubborn boy , just so long as the rod is over his back ; for had another spirit moved the corrupt party of the church of england , than a worldly one , it would have appeared above these years ; when ( alas ! ) no such attempts were made by the papists against their lives , and livings , when a hundred remonstrances were made to them , with prayers and tears , for the removing of the offending rites and ceremonies ; and of the great inclination they had for popery , in depopulating england , by driving men away to colonies abroad : but could never be heard . . things being thus stated , one may rationally and strongly conclude , that it is a most horrid untruth , and calumnie to make the presbyterians and conventiclers , or non-conformists , not only the first authors , and abettors of the civil wars , and of the first taking up of arms in opposition to the evil counsellors about the king in and , but also the murtherers of king charles the first ; when as they have been , and still are the great preservers of the king's person , life , honours , dignities , and prerogatives ; the best christians , the best reformed , and the best subjects of the king. . and the false and unworthy stiling of these restorers of the king , rebels , fanaticks , sms of belial , &c. doth carry along with it the same devillish malice ; which makes it now become a common proverb in the mouths of this corrupt church of england-party , that they had rather be papists , than presbyterians ; and that were there a turn of state , ( as god forbid ) they would sooner turn papists , than presbyterians . . besides , the idle , foolish , senceless , but also malicious mistake , to make the holiest of the non-conformists to pass for presbyterians , who , though they love their persons , and the holiness of their doctrine , and lives , yet either they are wholly averse to the presbyterian government , or else they do not very well know what it means ; since the well-affected follow their preaching , and imitate their lives , but yet by no means upon any account of their government . . that the worst thing in the carriage of the conformists towards the non-conformists , is their rash , uncharitable , and unchristian judging of the hearts and insides of men , ( which are only known to god almighty , who is the searcher of hearts , ) as if they were made up of deceit and hipocrisie ; and alike construing their unblameable behaviour and carriage , as if it were but formal , and extrinsecal , and of the pure , orthodox doctrine of their sermons and writings , though never so much summed up in scripture phrases , as if all was but cant and tone , and taking of god's name in vain ; when they make a quite different judgment of the conformists , both of their lives and doctrines , and when they make use of the same scripture terms as the others do ; for in their esteem they are looked upon as true ; sincere , and holy christians , though their outward deportment do somewhat differ from that of the other . this i intend , by god's assistance , to make clear to you in a larger discourse , from the testimony of dr. patrick , who doubtless cannot , in handling of the nature of justification by faith , but agree with the non-conformists , in making use of the same scripture-expressions , and commend such as bishop davenant , downam , usher , hall , and hooker , all conformists , for doing the like , and who will tell us , that this justification by faith is a recumbency of a poor sinner upon the lord jesus christ ; a casting of our selves upon him , relying on his merits , laying hold on him , closing with him , going to him , and shrowding our selves under the robes of his righteousness : most of which are scripture phrases : but yet for all this , the very same expressions , being uttered by such non-conformists , as mr. baxter , dr. owen , manton , annesly , jacomb , bates , mr. jenkins , alsop , cradock , silvester , watson , and others , for the better setting out the nature of justification by faith , are looked upon by dr. patrick , as meer imposters , charms , incantations , artificial jugglings , terms of modish and courtly faith , by which this doctor makes good the saying of pliny the younger , epist. . multum interest quid à quoque ; fiat , eadem enim facta claritate aut obscuritate facientium , aut tolluntur altissimè , aut humillimè deprimuntur . that such a prejudice against the generation of god's children , that make it their grand design to get an assurance of heaven and of eternity , as are , not only many of the peaceable and moderate conformists , but such as they miscall and nick-name puritans , presbyterians , independents , rebels , sons of belial , and worse than papists . that such a prejudice , i say , is the great distemper of that corrupt-party of the church of england , who have for these years been making their advances towards popery . i shall insist very particularly upon some very considerable inferences and conclusions which i shall draw from some hypotheses that i have already taken notice of , but which cannot be too often inculcated ; the truth of which is known sufficiently by those that are most eminent in piety and holiness of living , and in learning , of the church of england , by the bishops hooper , smith , rudd , carleton , grindall , the two abbots , usher , hall , and by other doctors that were as conformable as those bishops . . that though the first reformation in the time of edward the th , was extremely pure as to its doctrine , it was notwithstanding very defective and imperfect as to the exterior government , because it was adjusted to that present time where the papists were twenty , for one , that was reformed in england . . that the first reformers imagined , that when the people , converted to the true faith , should be more numerous , and more disposed to receive a more perfect reformation , the successors of the first reformers would apply themselves to it with more earnestness and zeal . . but it never came into their thoughts , that their successors would be guilty of so great a fault , as to act the quite contrary to such a good project and design , in persuading both princes and parliaments to bring the first rude draught of reformation into a standing law : but only to have it established for a certain time , untill they themselves should see they were able to effect a more perfect reformation . . that the practice of these successors of the first reformers hath been unreasonable , wicked , impious , and cruel ; in the imposition of several things , which they themselves have owned not to be necessary , and at best but indifferent , under pain of deprivation ab officio & beneficio ; although all the conformists have not been equally guilty , for some among them have approved of these measures they have taken towards the non-conformists , but yet have connived at them either by their submission , or their silence , and have not vigorously enough set themselves against the corruption that so much prevailed . from all these hypotheses , i gather these conclusions , which naturally follow the aforesaid premises . . that several bishops and doctors of the church of england , as dr. floyd , dr. tillotson , dr. stillingfleet , dr. patrick , that are acknowledged by the non-conformists to be persons of great learning , worth , and piety , but who are extreme admirers of the episcopacy of england , and all its consequences , and who have also preferred its government to all other establishments in europe , have by an unlucky accident , contributed more towards the reputation of the english hierarchie , and its practises , and towards the perpetuating the feuds and quarrels between the conformists , and non-conformists , than it has been possible for any other corrupted party to do by all their irregularities , and advances towards rome . . that it may be said of these good bishops and doctors before mentioned , what the politique sages have observed of anselme , bernard , thomas aquinas , john of salisbury , and gerson , that by their great repute of piety , and learning , they have contributed more to the strengthening of the pope's tyranny , and religion , in the minds of the people , than a hundred such as gregory the vii , and boniface the viii . were able to effect by their tyranny , and the wickedness and impurity of their lives , for the discrediting of the pope and his religion . . that it is not to be believed how much the non-conformists of england suffer in the esteem of our great men of the protestant party in europe ; who , hearing people talk of the learning and piety of so many english bishops and doctors , all conformists , and who resemble those four doctors i have just before named , say aloud , that the non-conformists must needs be very unreasonable , and of a very nice and fantastical piety , for refusing to conform to the church of england , after the example of those four doctors . . that how good soever the intentions of some of the bishops and doctors of the church of england may be , that are of the same temper of spirit with these four doctors , and what kindness soever they may have for the non-conformists ; it is impossible they should ever come over to them , and consent to terms of reconciliation and moderation , so long as they remain in this judgment and opinion , that of all the established ecclesiastical governments in europe , that of the church of england is the most excellent , and the most apostolical , and that there is nothing of defect in it ; and so long as the multitude of their benefices , and the great honour they are in , in the world , blinds their judgment , there being no likelihood , nor hopes , that those , who are raised so high , and that live in honour and abundance , richly , and fatly , ( unless they will imitate good dr. floyd , who bestowes most of his church-revenues on the poor , ) will diminish any thing of their greatness , both as to their retinue , or their kitchin , and will descend from high to low ; and that a bishop , who now goes before the barons , will quit his place , to be only a poor simple moderator , and watchman over a small company of priests , such as were st. cyprian , and st. austin : for this eminence of fortune and dignity does absolutely shut up the door to all the overtures of reformation , which we learn from mounsieur claude in his defence of the reformation of the churches of france , where he tells us , that the cardinal du prat , for this very reason , was the most violent of all men , and the most inraged against luther's reformation , because he was provided of five bishopricks , and i know not how many other good and fat benefices . that for these reasons , methinks , it might be expected from these good bishops and doctors , that by a christian condescention , they would endeavour to incline their brethren the non-conformists , to abate something of their heat and vigorousness against the non-conformists ; but so long as they themselves are neither sensible of any error or defect in their church , it is not to be expected , or hoped for from them , that they should go about the doing of any such good work , how great and eminent soever they be , no more than it ought to be expected from the romish doctors , so long as they do look upon , and verily believe , their church to be infallible . and therefore it cannot be considerately imagined , that the perfect day of hope , of the church of england's reformation , and of the reconciliation of the conformists to the non-conformists , should break forth from these good bishops and doctors , nor from any of the clergy , but from kings , and the princes of the people , whose hearts are in god's hands , and who holds them as the rivers of waters . . as for the odium that is cast upon the congregational way , and those who are called independents , as being the more immediate authors and abettors of the king's murther , and of taking away monarchy , it can be easily wiped off , and made out , that oliver cromwell's army , like that of king david's in the wilderness , was a medley or a collection of all parties that were discontented , as some courtiers , some episcoparians , few of any sect , but most of none , or else of the religion of thomas hobbes , and dr. scarborough , not mentioning the papists , who had the greatest hand in the death of king charles the first ; the success of which made them so daring and impious , as to contrive another most damnable and hellish plot to cut off the life of his sacred majesty that now is , his royal son , and our most gracious soveraign . . that since the non-conformists were a generation of men , either of the first date ( as it is most likely , ) or , at least , that rose in england at the same time as the conformists did ; and since they were for number and quality , as great , or rather greater , and more considerate than the other , and who , in their judgment , came nearer , as to the outward government , and purity of worship , not only to the first reformers , zuinglius , luther , and calvin , but also to the apostolical practice ; and who , indeed were the true protestants , most conformable to that party in germany , who so stiled themselves protestants , in opposition to the imperial edicts of worms and spire , it must needs be a great wickedness and cruelty too in the conformists , because they had all the while the countenance of princes , and the longest sword , to persecute the non-conformists , and to deprive them of the liberty of setting up purer ordinances in conventicles , and of sharing in the publick maintenance for the ministers . . that it is a most barbarous , improper , uncharitable , and unchristian language in the corrupt-party of the church of england , to stile themselves the only true , and properly so called , protestants , and to discard all others in europe , from the right to that name , for want of such episcopal ordinations as are in england : as if that men possessing the three parts of the church-revenues in england , should better deserve to be called protestants , than the first so called in germany ; whereas what ever bishop bilson , andrews , dr. floyd , dr. tillotson , and dr. stillingfleet , could say in the behalf of the government of the church of england , ( as being the most apostolical and primitive , ) there is none more opposite , not only to that of the first protestants , but also to scripture , reason , and antiquity . . these being the material heads , or a summary idea of the whole , to be more largely and particularly handled hereafter , ( if god giveth life and time to the author , ) i shall excerpt much from the scrinia of the reverend and learned divine mr. richard baxter , but yet so , as to take the liberty to follow my own method and genius , as to the menage of it . . so then the main design of the subsequent book , whereof this is a brief , but full specimen , shall be to shew , prove , and make clear to you , the unreasonableness , unconscionableness , and consequently the ungodliness of retaining , urging , and pressing the things in debate between the conformists and the non-conformists , and of persecuting those , that refuse to submit to them , or at least to approve of them . . that dissenters could not , cannot , ought not , neither in reason , nor in conscience , to submit to them , at least for the assenting , and consenting to them , and the approving of them . . that those conformists , whom i call peaceable , and orthodox men , such as were the members of the parliament of , and those of westminster assembled , and their predecessors , and all others , however otherwise , most upright , sincere , orthodox , holy , and well-minded persons , since the first reformation in king edward the sixth's dayes , and lovers of the non-conformists , that have hitherto been conformists , were all guilty of prevarication , and of a-sinful yielding , complying , assenting , and subscribing to a church-way , which doubtless is sinful . . and therefore , that the non-conformists , who ever since king edward's dayes , in conformity to the true doctrine of those of the best sort of conformists , kept gathered churches , and meetings out of the parishes , had right reason , and scripture on their side , and walked with a purer conscience , were the best reformed from popery , and those that preserved the true apostolical doctrine , worship and government , and conveyed it to posterity . . the author may incidently speak of the nature of the church , synods , associations , and fraternities by a confederate discipline , but cannot by any means hear of a national church-tribunal , independant on the magistrate , to whom only he allows the setting up of a national worship , by persuasion and commendation , but not in the least by forcing men to it , by penal lawes , except they be papists , or disturbers of the publick peace . finis . a sober and unpassionate reply to the author of the lively picture of lewis dv movlin . gal. . vers . . am i therefore become your enemy , because i tell you the truth ? london , printed for richard janeway , . a sober and unpassionate reply , &c. i am very sensible , that my late book , viz. a short and true account of the several advances the church of england hath made towards rome , &c. hath raised up very great and fierce tempests against me , as well from some of my friends , as from those that are most otherwise to me ; especially from those who can very calmly , sedately , patiently , and without any disturbance in the world , see the publication of mr. hobbes's books , and such others that are much what of the same stuff with them , that are good for nothing but to instruct people either in atheism , or , at best , in an indifferency as to matters of religion ; but who are highly provoked , if any one comes but near their noli me tangere , either to make a seasonable discovery , or , in love and friendship , to bring them the wholesome application of remedies ; such as is this truth , that the papists would never have been ingaged in such a design as to introduce popery into england , by massacres , and other wayes of the highest cruelty ; if they had not been very well assured , that , though the corrupt-party of the church of england , who are the most prevailing now , be not in a disposition to give their consent to such massacres , ( the thoughts of which are alone sufficient to strike a horrour into the worst of them , ) yet , they are all of them , ( i mean the corrupt party ) pretty inclinable to , or ( which is not a jott less ) not very much against , embracing the religion of rome . i will begin with the heat and passion of my friends against me , and with the judgment which they make upon my short and true account , &c. they say , that that book is altogether now unseasonable , when as persons of great learning , piety , and merit , and who , at the bottom , are very sincere and upright in the church of england , such as dr. floyd , dr. tillotson , dr. stillingfleet , and dr. patrick , to whom i might joyn professor burnett , are making it their business , as they think it their duty , to re-unite the two parties , the conformists , and the non-conformists , and when they are most industriously imployed in reducing to practice the means of peace and concord , according to mr. richard baxter's model ; and that instead of lending them my helping hand , and assisting them in so good a work , i am doing what i can to divide both parties , and to exasperate and imbitter them one against the other . but , methinks , these gentlemen either have not read my book at all , or else have no mind to understand the design of it , which is to dis-ingage , and free all honest persons , such as are the above-mentioned doctors , from the corrupt party of their church , to joyn and confederate themselves with that of the non-conformists , that so those two parties might consolidate in one , and consequently , ( for vis vnita fortior , ) be more capable to act with greater zeal and vigour against the third party , that are making their advances towards rome . also my design in that book is , to make those honest persons and doctors understand , who , on one hand , do perfectly agree with the non-conformists in matters of faith and doctrine ; and , on the other , with that corrupt-party of the church of england , in matters of government and ceremonies ; my design , i say , is , to make them understand the truth of these following corollaries . that seeing this former agreement ought to be much otherwise the foundation of the communion of saints , and the cause which should ingage and bind their hearts , affections , and interests together , than the latter ; those good and honest doctors are incomparably the more obliged in conscience to adhere to the non conformists , who agree with them in matter of faith , than to those who do only agree with them in matter of ceremonies : and they will find that they are obliged to it so much the more , if they will but take upon them the trouble of insisting upon some obstacles , which have , for above these hundred years , hindered , and , as i may say , staved off the re-union of the conformists with the non-conformists . the first obstacle , is , the aversion which the conformists , as well the good as the bad , have alwayes had , even in , and since the time of edward vi. down to our dayes , untill the conformists were awakened by this last most damnable and hellish plott of the papists , to take away the life of our sacred soveraign , charles the second , to subvert the government , and utterly to abolish the protestant religion and name among christians ; the aversion , i say , they had to hearken to any terms of reconciliation . that this aversion has especially appeared in the corrupt-party of the church of england , who have evermore turned a deaf ear to the cryes , clamours , and remonstrances , which the non-conformists ( whereof the chief was bishop hooper , ) have made , to be freed and discharged from the heavy yoke of ceremonies , and to persuade and bring over these obstinate and restive men , to pass on , from that first but rude draught of reformation made in the time of king edward vi. which ( that so much contemptible and despised man now a days by them , but , i say , honest ) mr. calvin calls tolerabiles ineptias , to a more perfect establishment , according to what the last mentioned great man , calvin , ( for i cannot speak his name but with a becoming reverence ) expresses of it , sic ergò à talibus rudimentis incipere licuit , ut doctos , probosque ; et graves christi ministros ultrà eniti , et aliquid limatius et purius quoerere consentaneum foret . epistola ad anglos francofurtenses , that these obstinate men of the corrupt-party of the church of england , have been always so remote from hearkning to , and answering the requests of the non-conformists , that they have been just the contrary ; and they are so much the more violent and inflexible , as they have been making their continual advances towards the doctrines and ceremonies of the church of rome . buxt i find , that the greatest obstacle to the re-union comes from these honest , upright , and sincere persons whom i mentioned before , and from whom we ought to expect , that they should come over three parts of four of the way to this reconciliation ; but from which they are , and will be , very remote , so long as they do openly and loudly maintain , that that first establishment of government in the time of edward vi. is not a rude draught , and , much less , as calvin would needs have it , tolerabiles ineptioe ; but that it is a model of government in the last perfection , a master-piece that cannot be made better , and which , of all the governments that are in the world , comes nearest to that of the apostles . that so long as the government which the non-conformists would have , hath no agreement or affinity with that of the church of england , it is not to be hoped , that two parties , who both do verily believe themselves to be in the right , can ever be persuaded to come to any agreement of a middle way , which cannot be , at least in their accounts , but wrong and vitious ; though , according to the belief which i have of , and the esteem i bear to them both , they do each lye under errour , and a gross and vitious extremity , i do not at all question , if they would each of them be willing to abate something of their pretended right , but that both parties might meet in a just middle , and an equal temperament which somewhat resembles that vertue , that keeps the ballance even between two vices , and the good and handsome husbandry , which is the medium between avarice and prodigality . that all these obstacles hindering and keeping off the re-union of the conformists with the non-conformists , it would be therefore a most excellent and christian design , and a blessed work , to labour to undeceive all honest persons , as well episcopal , as presbyterian , of those mighty great , and unaccomptable prejudices , which each of them are prepossessed with , and which makes them so hugely stand up for the pretended excellency of their government ; without ▪ which good work , this desired reconciliation is not feasible , it being , as jesus christ sayes , impossible , that those who think themselves whole , should ever be cured of their disease . but of all my friends who treat me ruggedly , there is one especially , that violently carries himself out against me , for having condemned the manner of dr. patrick's usage of the non-conformists , upon the justification by faith ; which , he sayes , i have done meerly from a spirit of malice and revenge , for his having denyed to give me the sacrament in his church in covent-garden , because i relused to take it kneeling : but i protest before almighty god , ( who is the searcher of hearts , and knows that i speak the truth , ) that i have not the least ill resentment of it , nor indeed can i make any tolerable handsome pretence to have one , because , after he had so denyed me , that doctor came to my lodging , and desired my excuse , and made me a very obliging and extream satisfaction : but it is the cause of god , which carries me forth to repel the wrong and injury he does to the honestest persons in the world ; which yet , methinks , might be pardonable , if he was not so — hardy , as to put himself in the place and stead of god , in judging of their inward intentions , as when he assures us , that all those expressions ( of downham , davenant , and r. hooker , which are those of the holy scripture , upon the subject of justification by faith , and which without doubt he highly approves of in the mouths of the holy apostles , and of those three doctors , ) are the words of a false and hypocritical heart , when they are spoken by the non-conformists . as for the down-right thames-street way of railing against me , which , i am sure , none of my friends would use , and all others , of any improved civility , or good manners , do nauscate and abhor ; ( but pure streams cannot flow from an impure fountain ; and so i am satisfied . ) i do not value them , nor can they prejudice any , but the persons from whom they issue : they that will be flinging up dirt , do manifestly show themselves of a dirty humour , and much good may do them , whosoever they are , with such their beloved nastiness : but , methinks , they are greatly like those of the lawyer , whom suetonius speaks of , that thought he had very solidly basfled , and overthrown the cause of his adversary , because his lawyer had committed a gross soloecisme in his plea. all the arguments of that insignificant rayler , that has drawn the lively picture of lewis du moulin , as he thinks , to the worst and beastliest advantage , and it may be therefore conceals his name , because he is ashamed to own the ugliness of his daubing ; i say , all the arguments of that insignificant railer resemble those of that oratour , who would needs have the cause of vatinius to be the worst , because he had crooked leggs ; or are like to origen's enemies , who finding themselves unable to refute those pretended errors , thought , to be sure , they should acquit themselves bravely , by running him down with the judgments that other people made of his person and writings ; for , without ever entring into the merits of the cause , he alledges mounsieur daille , and mr. baxter , speaking to my disadvantage . he might also , if it had but once come into his unthinking , but rash head , have added the testimony of dr. stillingfleet , who calls me wretch , and wicked , and blackens me after a strange and unworthy manner , only because i have said of him , ( and i believe , did i but sincerely appeal to his conscience , it could not upbraid me with a lye ) that the judgment which he makes at this day of the church of england , when it lavishly pours upon him i know not how many great ecclesiastical preferments , is quite contrary to that opinion he was of concerning it about twenty years ago , when he was not so well provided and lined with them : except he be somewhat nettled , because i have so plainly laid open the weakness of his argument , to make out the unreasonableness of the non-conformists for denying , viz , that all things that are not expresly forbidden in the word of god , are sufficient to justifie those who submit to them , when th● command of the magistrate intervenes . such great men as he , and as mounsieur daille was , are oftentimes like to rivers , that raise themselves to so vast a height , that they overflow their banks , and the bounds of decent moderation : such was once mounsieur daille , when he flew out against me in such violent heats for having taken it ill , because he unhandsomely and ungenerously treated my father . as to what this author of the lively picture , &c. sayes of mr. baxter , and of the sinister judgment he makes of me ; he is much gone astray ( like a lost sheep ) from the truth ; for not many years ago , did this same mr. baxter dedicate a book to me in these words , * to my learned , sincere , and worthy friend , lewis du moulin . to be short , the way which the author of the lively picture takes , to expose a person to the laughter , and scorn of all the world , and to make him pass for an ignorant noddy-peeks , a lyer , and a most impertinent scribler , who knows neither what he sayes , nor what he writes , very well , ought not to be that of alledging the judgment which such persons as mounsieur daille , and the dean of windsor make of him ; but he should , if he had been able , have quoted those writings , and sentences , wherein he might convince the world , that they were the product of a man , that had neither brains to make a judgment ; nor learning , nor stile , nor that had any thing of truth in him . as to the celevsma , of which he makes me the author , i absolutely deny it : but if i were so , i might , ( what he will never have any occasion to do ) without vanity , boast , that i had made one of the best pieces that ever had yet been extant in the world ; i mean , in the behalf of the non-conformists , and where there is neither truth , nor judgment , nor learning , nor good language , nor any thing else wanting that is requisite to give a book applause . if i was of his humour , i might wire-draw upon him substantially far beyond his length ; but i had rather speak a great deal of truth in a few pithy words , than to be , like him , scandalously false , tedious , and railing , and never know in reason when to come to a finis . the reader is desired to take notice , that the author since the printing of the appeal , would needs have this added as a supplement to it . note that , when they that are loose in their profession of christianity , do persecute those that outwardly and formally prosess it with great exactness , without any certain knowledg whether or no the inward disposition and sincerity be answerable ; they have certainly a secret hatred to all religion and piety , and wish that there were neither a god , nor a life to come , nor an immortality of the soul : for were they sure that none of these were , they would be induced rather to pity and commiserate these strict professors , than hate and persecute them . to this i may add , that the persecuting pirit of those men , that , either in pretence , or in reality , do profess an exact practise of piety and devotion , comes from a secret kind of atheisme and aversion to all manner of religion ; when the purest is the greatest eye-sore to such spirits ; as is so much the more apparent and manifest , by how much it is evident that they would not be seen to act against profaneness , debauched courses , drunkenness , or popery ; because those disorderly ways and courses have a great sympothy and agreeableness with the profane spirits of the world. dr. sands , first bishop of london , and afterwards arch-bishop of york , was , in his life-time , so much for tolleration , and a dispensation of rigour and subscription , that he would needs have it set down in his will : he also expressed in the same will , that the intention of the first reformers was to suite and accommodate the reformation to the posture of things at that present time , when papists were numerous , and the protestants but few ; and that it was not possible then to make a thorow reformation . there may be laws to keep men out of the church , but there are none to compel them in . the violent pressing of ceremonies hath been , i humbly conceive , a great hindrance to many in their embracing of them : men fearing the intention therin to be far worse than really they are , and therefore they abhor them . we are not to communicate with a persecuting church , how orthodox soever it be in faith. martyn , the bishop of tours , would not communicate with orthodox men that persecuted hereticks ; much more would he have refused to communicate with those that persecute good men . the people of constantinople refused to communicate with the expellers of chyrsostome , and with the bishop placed by endoxia . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e * mr. baxter's difference between the powers of magistrates and church pastors , &c. an honest ansvver to the late published apologie for private preaching wherein is justly refuted their mad forms of doctrine, as, preaching in a tub, teaching against the backe of a chaire, instructing at a tables end, revealing in a basket, exhorting over a buttery hatch, reforming on a bed side : with an objection to their common plea of divine inspiration, directly, without passion, proving there is but nice distinction betwixt the brownists and papists who have bin equall disturbers of the state yet in continuall controversie one against the other : with an argument against round-heads / by t. j. taylor, john, - . this text is an enriched version of the tcp digital transcription a of text r in the english short title catalog (wing t ). textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. the text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with morphadorner. the annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. this text has not been fully proofread approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. earlyprint project evanston,il, notre dame, in, st. louis, mo a wing t estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; :e , no ) an honest ansvver to the late published apologie for private preaching wherein is justly refuted their mad forms of doctrine, as, preaching in a tub, teaching against the backe of a chaire, instructing at a tables end, revealing in a basket, exhorting over a buttery hatch, reforming on a bed side : with an objection to their common plea of divine inspiration, directly, without passion, proving there is but nice distinction betwixt the brownists and papists who have bin equall disturbers of the state yet in continuall controversie one against the other : with an argument against round-heads / by t. j. taylor, john, - . [ ] p. ... printed for r. wood, t. wilson, and e. christopher, [london] : july [ ] attributed to john taylor. cf. bm. reproduction of original in thomason collection, british library. eng taylor, john, - . -- apology for private preaching. roundheads. dissenters, religious -- england. a r (wing t ). civilwar no an honest ansvver to the late published apologie for private preaching. wherein, is justly refuted their mad forms of doctrine: (as.) preach taylor, john c the rate of defects per , words puts this text in the c category of texts with between and defects per , words. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - judith siefring sampled and proofread - judith siefring text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion an honest answer to the late published apologie for private preaching . wherein , is justly refuted their mad forms of doctrine : ( as. ) preaching in a tub. teaching against the backe of a chaire . instructing at a tables end . revealing in a basket . exhorting over a buttery hatch . reforming on a bed side . with an objection to their common plea of divine inspiration , directly ( without passion ) proving there is but nice distinction betwixt the brownists and papists , who have bin equall disturbers of the state yet in continuall controversie one against the other . with an argument against round heads . levit. chap. , verse . thou shalt not round the corners of thy head , neither shalt thou marr● the tufts of thy beard . by t. j. july . . printed for r. wood , t. wilson , and e. christopher . an honest answer to the late published apologie for private preaching . to you whose ambition ( not conformity ) aimes to be the elect ) i write this answer to your late printed apology ; with the confidence of democritus i can as justly laugh at you , as hee did at the egregious crimes of the athenians , and ( since you have with serious folly and devout ignorance ) made your selves ridiculous , i hold it altogether unnecessary to write or speake of you but in the way of mirth , which if your large eares will attend , you shall have so to the purpose , that if you were wise enough , you should laugh at your selves , at least at your follies . i commend your wisdome in forsaking churches , for ( as you have wisely chose it ) a stable is fitter for you ; and ( to speake truth ) a tub is more necessary for a cobler then a pulpit , thus farre i hold with your apologie ; but , notwithstanding , if i prove you not all mad men and fooles , to maintaine the proverbe , i will give you leave to ride me ; the wisest man thinkes hee hath no knowledge , because there is so much to know : there were some hope of your reformation , if you were but wise enough to know you are fooles : first , i will prove you mad men ; i shall make fooles of you hereafter : ( and that you 'l say is impossible . ) in the first place ( according to my observation of the times ; let a fellow come amongst you with some humourous pamphlet , wherein round-heads are mentioned , though there be neither name nor trade specified , nor no mans private reputation wrong'd , without law or reason by a crew of men he knowes not , he must be beaten or kicked ( as the spirit moves you ) from the place ; and if such unlawfull violence have any relation to religion i am an heretick , all actions that tend to the maintenance of true piety are performed by order ; the elements observe their centers ; the sunne , moon , and starres keepe their direct motions , ( creatures onely by nature instructed ) but zeale in a round-head is like fire given to a granado , the strange materials in disordered flight , hazzard both friend and foe . your desires and hopefull intentions to alter the government of this glorious kingdome , with the lawes and liberties of king and subject , long since begun , advanced , confirmed and established by many pious princes , will appeare like some curious and transcendent well erected pallace , whom ignorance would race in hope to raise it better ; but beware lest whilst you are delving in the foundation , the loftie structure fall not heavie on you ; to you and none but you , whose unhallowed throats have belch'd profanenesse to the lords anointed doe i direct this language ; to you that are uncircumscribed men , yet would confine a monarch ; what order rule , edict , or act of parliament had you for your tumultuous confluence at westminster ? when men of all sorts and sizes that bore disorder in their expedition in a confused march were arm'd with hasty weapons of such various formes , as if they had newly come from the valiant robbery of some old magazine ? when as i passed by them muffled in my cloake unarmed ( fearing no danger , cause i meant none ) i heard them aske each other , whether or to what purpose they were going , which question could scarce be resolved by one amongst ten ; what was all this but madnesse , and what hath the effect of it beene but desolation ever since to all his majesties loyall and filiall fearing subjects ? but i am too serious ; i have spoke so honestly , that i feare you understand me not : i shall now begin to refute your apologie . must knowing wel-bred men whose sacred houres have beene spent with much industry in the search of holy fathers for their comments on the old and new testament , be now ( by ridiculous counsaile ) brought to heare the doctrine of an inspired cobler , because he is reported to be at the mending hand , and brings his worke to good ends : or a weaver , becaus mans life is compared to a shuttle ; or a tallow-chandler , because our lives goe out like a snuffe . then againe , is there no difference betwixt churches and tavernes , ale-houses , private chambers , stables , and such like places , is the church lesse sacred , which is made odoriferous with the perfume of prayer and penitentiall balme of sinners teares , accepted sighs and sacramentall vowes ; when our saviour said , my house is called the house of prayer , but you have made it a den of theeves : hee spoke neither of a taverne , nor an ale-house , but a temple , consecrate to his divinitie : what a ridiculous thing is it to see a fellow with a starcht face scrue his body into twenty postures , sitting in a tub , as if hee were moulding of cockle-bread , yet is as zealous in this serious folly , as if hee thought he should goe quick to heaven in elishaes chariot ; but let me tell you that know not , this word zeale doth not signifie religion , but an ardencie to any thing ; i remember two lines of my old friend , mr. tho. randolph , who sayes thus in a well-penn'd poem of his : — where heresie gets in , zeale's but a coale to kindle greater sinne . such zeale is theirs , i 'le not beleeve every man that dyes in the confirmation of his profession departeth truly religious , because i see men daily more violent in the maintenance of unjust actions , then men religious , whose patience is sufficient fortitude , and can gaine a conquest without fury . i will now answer their plea of divine inspiration . they manifest to the world , that any lay-man may be inspired by the holy ghost to preach and teach , and no man must be this sanctified temple but a trades-man ; they hold it almost impossible for a scholler , indued with coelestiall knowledge , acquainted with the sacred lives of saints , delivered to him by the pretious benefit of study , in which the arts assist him , to have the endowment of this divine inspiration , yet they are sure on 't , that they dare judge and justifie ; which rather shewes them fill'd with spirits diabolicall ; since the sacred hand of the eternall maker hath rrevocably set downe , iudge not lest you be judged ; let any honest man inform me what affinity there is with divine inspiration and these following actions : iames . . shew mee thy faith by thy workes , libelling against the king and his authority . defacing churches . disturbing divine service . making the house of god a place for ri●● . laying violent hands on preachers , and taring off their vestments . profaning the blessed sacrament of baptisme , by bringing puppets to the font to be christened . with many great ills more , too tedious to relate , because to grievous too hear ; if any man wil maintain these to be righteous actions , my reason is in a laborinth , and i shall be engaged to him for any light to lead me out of it . now i shall as well and as briefly as i can shew you the nice distinction between a papist and a brownist . . neither of them will take the oath of allegeance and supremacy , there methinks they might agree like traytors , and hang together . . they have both the trick of wresting scripture to their own use . . a fryar is cut as round as a round-head , and hath as much souse at each side of it . . if the papist set up the picturcs of s. augustine , s. bernard , s. chrisostome . the brownists wil set up st. b. st. ba. st. p. marry he will not come to auricular confession , as the papist doth ; because of an old proverb , confesse , &c. i would the land were clear of both , we might live all in peace , and in the true fear and worship of god , and observation of the kings lawes ; for to speak indifferently , they are equall disturbers of the state , and a great injury to the weak and ignorant who are so distracted betwixt them both , they know not which side to hold with : so that some are to chuse their religion , when they should be established , and confirmed in it , and able to instruct others ? i will now conclude with a comment on these lines , which are in leviticus , in the administration of the old law . levit. . . thou shalt not round the corners of thy head , neither shalt thou marr the tufts of thy beard . you may understand that have a mind to it , how contemptible a round-head was at the beginning of the world , and joyn'd with no lesse commandements then those against murther , adulterie , fornication , sorcery , incest ; and by that consequence as much to be observed ; we must needs , according to nature and reason , allow that adam in his glorious state of innocence wore his haire long and lovely ; and no question being of the great makers making , the lord saw that it was good , the very same words he expresseth upon all h●s works : this is a plain argument that god never made a round-head , but man hath made himself one , contrary to the law of god , which saith , thou shalt not round the corners of thy head &c. nature hath bin ever counted provident , not superfluous ; he that made each limbe you have , made every hair of your head , and by that sequell it is no sin to wear it ; no question but man appeared very beautifull in his long haire that god would give command he should not round it . what a strange contradiction is this age guilty of , that is so far from the observation of this law , that contrarily they conceive a man to be a ruffiian or reprobate that wears long haire . i do not ( though ) make any great apologie for long or short , for i could wish that haire might make no difference in religion , for my part hee that cuts his haire off let him cuts head off if he will , it shall not trouble me . i le only sing one short sonnet which i will title the round-heads funerall , and so conclude till further occasion . the song . to the tune of , turn again whittington . down fall those beetle-brains , who have expounded false doctrine in their tubs , and truth confounded , the glorious peace we had by them lies wounded , no men in thoughts so bad ever abounded : that i could wish they were all hang'd or drownded . we might say ther 's an end of a right round-head . finis . toleration discuss'd by roger l'estrange. l'estrange, roger, sir, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; 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ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng dissenters, religious -- england. toleration. freedom of religion -- great britain. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - olivia bottum sampled and proofread - olivia bottum text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion imprimatur , geo. stradling . s. t. p. rev. in christo pat. d. gilb. episc. lond. à sac. domest . aed . sab. 〈◊〉 . . . toleration discuss'd . by roger l'estrange . ferre quam sortem patiuntur omnes , nemo recuset . sen. troas . london , printed for henry brome at the gun in ivie-lane , . the praeface . i am not so vain , as to expect , that any man will be either the better , or the wiser , for what i write ; and yet , when i consider , that god himself , is pleas'd with free-will offerings ( though ne're the richer for them ) i make that thought my measure : and how incapable-soever of doing the publique a service , i think my self ; yet honestly oblig'd to offer it a duty ; and this poor little is my all. the subject i treat of , is , toleration ; wherein ( with modesty ) i have not ventur'd beyond my reach : for , upon the ventilation of the question , it seems to mee , that it is one of the hardest things in the world , for the non-conformists to say what they would have ; and one of the easiest ( on the other side ) to overthrow all they can say . to give the reader a clear , distinct , and impartial prospect of the matter , i have layd the debate before him in colloquy ; and under the names of conformity , zeal , and scruple , are represented the three grand partyes , orthodox , presbyterian , and independent . that which first put mee upon this theme , was the great and irregular earnestness , that was not long stnce employ'd , toward the procurement of a toleration . concerning which , i found my self at a double loss : first , touching the proposition it self ; and secondly , about the manner of promoting it . as to the former , me'thought toleration in gross , was of something a mysterious latitude ; but upon the taking it in pieces , i perceive , that nothing can be plainer than the meaning of it ; and the truth is , it means [ not to be understood ] that they may be sure to make something on 't , whether it hitts or misses . the one way , they may do what they please ; and the other way , there 's a ground for a compleynt . a second thing that surpriz'd me not a little , was the manner of introducing it ; for , it was usher'd in by all the querulous wayes of compleynt and aggravation , imaginable : which i presume , they would have forborn , had they but been acquainted with the iustices opinions ( in the d of king james ) upon that very point . it was demanded by chancellor ellesmere , whether it were an offence punishable , and what punishment they deserved , who framed petitions , and collected a multitude of hands thereto , to prefer to the king , in a publique cause , as the puritans had done , with an intimation to the king , that if he deny'd their suit , many thousands of his subjects would be discontented ? whereto all the iustices answer'd , that it was an offence finable at discretion , and very near to treason and felony , in the punishment , for they tended to the raising of sedition , rebellion , and discontent among the people . upon the rejection of their suit , the business was husht , till of late ; when the revival of their pretensions , together with the dispersing of divers virulent libells , mov'd me to gather up my thoughts , which i here submit to the fate of my other weaknesses . i might say twenty things , to excuse the slips of my distracted leisures ; but i shall rather recommend what 's worth the reading , than trifle away a complement for that which is not . i caus'd a little tract lately to be re-printed , under the title of presbytery display'd : who was the author of it , i know not ; but it is certainly , a iudicious , and well-order'd draught of their government ; and may serve to stop any presbyterian's mouth that opens for a toleration , which how formidable - soever it may appear in a petition , is certainly a most pitifull thing in an argument . the contents are to be found at the end of the book . toleration discuss'd . introduction . zeal and conformity , and to them scruple . zeal . good morrow to ye , conformity . conform . welcome , zeal . is this your eight a clock ? as sure as i live , a presbyterian forfeits his charter that keeps touch with a son of the church . zeal . 't is late i confess , but i could not possibly get away sooner . conf. and i beseech ye ( if a body may ask ) what mighty business hinder'd ye ? zeal . guess . conf. why then , my head to a nut-shell , thou hast either been breathing thy girles at some prohibited lecture ; or getting hands against the act for uniformity . go to , speak truth , what made you and your ladies so early abroad this morning ? ( for i saw ye at the back-gate as soon as ye could well find the way to it ) zeal . suppose i should tell ye , that we went to a religious meeting . conf. then would i tell you again that 't is well your wife is my kinswoman . ze. what 's your conceit for that ? conf. i should suspect she might be tempted else to make your head ake : for those assemblies which you call religious meetings ; what are they , but close appointments , where the men meet to cuckold authority : and the women ( if they please ) to do as much for their husbands ? without fooling , i look upon conventicling , but as a graver kind of catter-wawling ; and in fine , 't is not good to wont our selves to stoln pleasures . ze. you will be bitter . conf. no no , i will not . raillery apart , your wife 's a very good lass. but where have you been in earnest ? ze. to tell you the very truth , i have been , with my wife and my daughter , to ioy mr. calamy of his enlargement . conf. bless me ! is he at liberty then ? ze. yes , he is at liberty . do ye wonder at it ? conf. no , not much . but , prethee why was he clapt up ? ze. for preaching . is not that crime enough ? conf. that 's according as the sermon is ; for so as a man may order the matter in a pulpit , i think he may with a better conscience deliver poyson in the sacrament ; for the one does but destroy the body , t'other the soul. this , poysons only the congregation ; that , the whole kingdome . ze. i sent ye his sermon last night , have ye overlookt it ? conf. yes : and i have weigh'd every syllable in 't . ze. well , and how do ye find it ? conf. only a plague-plaister , that 's made publique for the good of his majesties liege-people . find it say ye ? if ever i live to be king of utopia , i 'le hang him up that prints the fellow on 't within my dominions . zeal . and what shall become of him that preaches it , i beseech ye ? conf. perhaps i 'le spare him for his industry ; for a presbyterian that preaches sedition , do's but labour in 's calling . ze. come leave your lashing , and tell me soberly ; what hurt do you find in 't ? conf. that hurt that brought the late king to the scaffold . and ( in a word ) which will unsettle the best establisht government in the world , with a very small encouragement ; that hurt do i find in 't . ze. truly , my eyes can discover no such matter . conf. it may be you 'll see better with my spectacles . but where 's your brother-scruple ? he was not with you at mr. calamy's , i hope . ze. no , ye know hee 's of another way ; i think hee 'll call upon me here by and by ; for we are to go into the city together about business . conf. what ever the matter is , i have a strange itch to day to know your business . prethee is't a secret ? ze. 't is a secret , to you , if you don't know 't . but what if i should long as much now to know what 't is that makes you so inquisitive ? conf. i 'de save your longing ; nay , and for fear of the worst , i 'le prevent it . they say that you and your brother are gathering hands to a petition against the act for uniformity . ze. put case we were , what then ? conf. in the day that you offer that petition , will i and my friends prefer another against the act of indempnity . ze. sure ye do not take it for the same case . have you read the kings late declaration of december ? conf. yes ; and i see nothing there , but that his majesty finds himself oblig'd to preserve both alike . ze. do ye remember what he says concerning his promises from breda ? conf. oh very well ; and i would advise you as a friend not to mind him too much of them : for first , his majesty has done his part in consenting to the mature and deliberate offers of his parliament . . you have ( many of ye ) fail'd of yours in not complying with the conditions of his royal mercy . but to the point i am to speak with you about . ze. do so , what is 't ? look ye ; here 's scruple come already . conf. so much the better , for i have somewhat to say to ye both. come , scruple , i think i may thank your brother here for this visit. scrup. truly if it were thankworthy , so you might ; for i am only come to call him away about business into the city . conf. nay never talk of business into the city before dinner ; for , to my knowledge , the afternoon is time enough for your business . scrup. in good truth , we are engag'd upon an appointment . conf. i know ye are , and that 's the reason i desir'd to speak with your brother this morning . you two are to be at town-ditch this morning , if it be possible ; or however , sometime to day . is 't not so ? ze. pray'e where have you your intelligence ? conf. i have a certain familiar that tells tales out of school . come , come , resolve upon the afternoon , 't is but reprieving bishops a matter of two hours longer . ze. well , since you 'll have it so , it shall be so : but let me tell ye , your devil deceives ye ; for we have no design at all upon episcopacy . conf. y'intend to petition the parliament ; do ye not ? ze. it may be we do . conf. in good time ; and what 's the scope of your petition ? ze. that we may be left at liberty to worship god according to our consciences . conf. have you well consider'd what will be the fruit of granting that liberty ? ze. it will exalt the kings honour , establish the peace of the nation , promote all honest interests ; and satisfie all good men. conf. make that good , and ye shall have my hand to your petition . scrup. and if we do not make it good , wee 'll renounce our claim . conf. come gentlemen , there 's a fire in my study , and we have two hours good to dinner . let 's make use of our time. sect . i. liberty of conscience stated . conf. if i do not mistake ye , my masters , the thing ye contend for is a toleration . scrup. it is so . ze. and that we may not be enjoyn'd ( upon a penalty ) to do that which we think we ought not to do . conf. your pardon , my friend ; that 's not the question , i do not ask ye what ye would not have , but what ye would : not what y' are against , but what y' are for. i know well enough that the act for uniformity displeases ye ; but i would fain know when that 's gon , what will please ye , that we may not destroy a law to no purpose . ze. allow us but a freedome to worship god , according to the rule of his own word , and that freedom shall content us . scrup. in short , the thing we desire is liberty of conscience . conf. liberty of conscience ? what mortal can pretend to take it from ye ? ze. do's not the act for uniformity debar us of it ? conf. not at all ; your actions indeed are limited , but your thoughts are free ; what do's this or that garment , or gesture concern the conscience ? ze. but if i believe it unlawfull to worship thus , or so : whatsoever is not of faith , is sin : conf. at this rate , for ought that i know , ye may believe it unlawfull to worship at all : for ye may as well except to every mode which is not commanded , as to that which is. ( but we are upon the merits of the cause , before we state the question . ) liberty of conscience ( according to my books ) is a liberty of iudging , not of acting ; but i perceive the liberty which you claym , is a liberty of practice . ze. no matter for the word , so long as we agree upon the meaning . conf. nay , by your favour , zeal , we are not as yet agreed upon either ; for that which you seem to ask in one sense , you resolve to take in another : that is , ye ask leave to think what ye will , and ye take leave to do what ye will ; so that the liberty you demand , is rather matter of state , then of religion : and to ask , that ye may govern your selves by your own consciences , is the same thing with asking to be no longer govern'd by the kings laws . scrup. cannot liberty of conscience then consist with civil obedience ? conf. yes , liberty of conscience may , but not liberty of action ; if liberty of conscience will content ye , disclaim liberty of practice ; but if ye must needs have liberty of practice , speak out , and do not call it liberty of conscience . scrup. give it what name you please ; the liberty i desire , is a liberty towards god in matters of religion ▪ conf. but what do ye mean by those matters of religion ? zeal . whatsoever has the honour of god for it's direct and immediate end , under which head , may be comprised [ ceremonies properly sacred and significant by humane institution ] [ religious mystical habits ] [ canonical subscription , ] [ holy-dayes ] — and in fine , such inventions of worship as are not warranted by gods word . conf. so that upon the whole matter , the liberty you demand , is a liberty of practice , in such matters of religion , as have the honour of god for their direct and immediate end. all which , in one word , amounts to a toleration , and so much for the state of the question . sect . ii. universal toleration unlawfull . conf. if a toleration you would have , it must be either absolute , and generall , or limited and partial . scrup. let it be generall then , for doubtless if a man be oblig'd to worship , it supposes him free to do 't in such manner as he finds himself bound to do 't . conf. this argument of yours takes in pagans , as well as christians , for they have consciences as well as wee , and they are convinc'd that there is a god , and that that god ought to be worship'd ; so that to grant a general license , is to tolerate paganisme . zeal . but paganisme is not within the pale of the question . conf. why then no more is conscience ; for if you exclude pagans , upon what accompt is 't ? they perswade themselves they are in the right , you think them in the wrong , and because of the error of their way , deny them the exercise of their opinions ; so that your exception lyes to the error , not to the conscience . scrup. but their consciences are erroneous . conf. they are so , if you may be iudges of them , and so are yours too , when you come to be iudg'd by us. now tell me , what right have you to be judges in your own case , any more then they in theirs ? ze. we have a law to judge our selves by . conf. and , they , even without a law , do by nature the things contained in the law , and are a law to themselves : but to look nearer home , 't is it seems among christians only , that you would have a generall toleration ; and that in my opinion helps ye not much ; for to uphold your claim , you must either maintain that there are no erroneous consciences among christians , or that errour of conscience is no sin , or else that sin may be tolerated . scrup. that there are erroneous consciences , and that sin is not to be tolerated , i grant ye ; but i do not take every error of conscience to be a sin ( understand me , of consciences labouring under an invincible ignorance . ) conf. 't is very true , the formality of sin is the obliquity of the will ; but sin , materially consider'd , is the transgression of the divine law : and conscience it self becomes sinfull , when it dictates against that law. scrup. can there be any sin without consent ? or any consent without knowledge ? or any knowledge in a case of invincible ignorance ? the transgression of the law implies the knowledge of it , or at least the possibility of knowing it ; without which , it has not the nature of a law , as to mee . [ the conditions requisite to a rule , are these , it must be certain ; and it must be known : if it be not certain , 't is no rule ; if it be not known , 't is no rule to us. ] i had not known sin ( sayes the apostle ) but by the law ; and in another place , [ where there is no law , there is no transgression : ] from whence the deduction is clear , that sin is not barely the transgression of a law , but the transgression of a known law ; the inconformity of the will to the understanding . conf. the perversness of the will being a sin ▪ does not hinder the enormity of the judgment to be so too , [ untill the law ( says your own st. paul ) sin was in the world , but sin is not imputed when there is no law. ] briefly ; the word of god is the rule of truth , and all disproportion to that rule is errour ; god's revealed will is the measure of righteousness , and all disproportion to that measure is sin . now the question is not , whether imputed or not , but whether a sin or no ? and you cannot make errour of conscience to be no sin , without making the word of god to be no rule . scrup. i do not deny , but it is a fin as to the law ; but it is none as to the person : it is none constructively , with him that accepts the will for the deed. conf. can you imagine , that any condition in the delinquent can operate upon the force , and equity of the law ? because god spares the offender , shall man therefore tolerate the offence ? david was pronounc'd a man after god's own heart ; shall authority therefore grant a license to murther and adultery ? scrup. what 's david's case to ours ? you instance in sins of presumption , and the question is touching sins of ignorance . conf. your patience , i beseech you : it may be ignorance in him that commits the sin , and yet presumption in him that suffers it : you cannot comprehend it , perhaps ; but the magistrate does ; and wherein you doubt , authority is certain : i could lead you now by a thred , from the toleration of all opinions , to the toleration of all practices ; and shew you the execrable effects of giving way to the impulses of deluded conscience ; but what needs that , when two words will dispatch this controversie ? in pleading for all opinions , you plead for all heresies , and for the establishment of wickedness by a law. do ye think such a toleration as this , either fit for you to ask , or for authority to grant ? ze. but is it not pity , ( considering our duty is obedience , and not wisedom ) that a good man should be punished for not being a wise man ? conf. and do not you think we should have fine work , if a state were bound to make no provision against crafty knaves , for fear of dis-obliging honest fools : you 'l set no trapps for foxes , for fear of catching your lambs ; and hunt no wolves for fear some of your currs should stumble upon a sheep . in short , the honest will obey good laws , and let not the unwise pretend to mend them . as to the sparing of the man , ( even where 't were impious to give quarter to the opinion ) i wish it could be done ; but how shall we separate the errour from the person ; so as to make a general law take notice of it ? to tolerate both were irreligious , and it seems to mee impossible to sever them . if you your self now can either prove the former to be lawfull , ( that is , to do evil , that good may come of it ) or the latter to be practicable , i 'le agree with you for a general toleration : if otherwise , i hope you 'l joyn with me , against it . ze. the truth is , i am not yet resolv'd to burn for this opinion ; but what do ye think of a limited , or partial toleration ? conf. i fear , you 'l find that , as much too narrow for your conscience , as the other is too wide : but wee 'l try't however . sect . iii. limited toleration does not answer liberty of conscience . conf. wee are already agreed , that a toleration of all opinions , is a toleration of all wickedness , and consequently unlawfull . come now to your limited , or partial toleration , which i take to be a legal grant of freedom , or immunity , to such or such a sect , or way , and to no other . will a toleration of this latitude content ye ? scrup. i see no other choyce . conf. would ye have it granted in favour of the conscience that desires it , or in allowance of the tolerated opinion ? scrup. with an eye to both ; that nothing , which is grievous may be impos'd on the one hand , nor any thing which is unlawfull tolerated on the other . conf. but what if the subject shall accompt that imposition grievous which the magistrate thinks necessary ? or that liberty conscientious which the magistrate believes unlawful ? whether of the two shall over-rule ? if the subject , then is the magistrate oblig'd to tolerate whatsoever the subject shall think himself oblig'd to doe ; and this carries us back into a general toleration ; if the magistrate over-rule , ( as certainly 't is his right , for no man can be properly said to suffer , what he has not a power to hinder ) your plea of conscience , is out of doors . scrup. by your leave , conformity ; i would not have either of them govern absolutely and severally in the case ▪ for if the magistrate be left to himself , he may either set up a false religion , or suppress the right , at pleasure ; and the people by themselves , may as well mistake as the magistrate : whereas together , the one looks to the other . but tell me , i beseech ye , would you have no toleration at all ? conf. upon my word , scruple ; no man is a greater friend to toleration then i am , if i could but hit upon such a measure as agrees with piety , and political convenience : with such a model as would probably answer the end you seem to aim at : but to dissolve a solemn law for the satisfaction of some particulars , and at last to leave the people more unsatisfi'd then ye found them , were a course ( i think ) not very suitable to the ordinary method either of government , or of discretion ; and that i fear would be the event of satisfying your desires in this particular . pray'e try your skill , if you can contrive it otherwise , and say what 't is would please ye . ze. an exemption from the lash of the act of uniformity . conf. well! what 's your quarrel to 't ? ze. i think it a great cruelty to confine a multitude of differing iudgments to the same rule , and to punish a conscientious people for those disagreements which they can neither reconcile , nor relinquish . conf. why do ye then press that cruelty your selves , which you condemn in others . for your limited toleration is an act of uniformity to those that are excluded . they that are taken in will possibly be well enough pleased ; but you never think of those that are left out : whereas you are to consider that they that are out , have consciences as well as those that are in ; and those that are in , have no more priviledge , then they that are out . so that , upon a fair view of the matter , you can neither admit all , nor leave out any , without a check either to your conscience or to your argument . for put case , the king should grant ye a limited toleration ; would that quiet ye ? ze. yes , beyond doubt it would . conf. imagine it then , and your self one of the rejected party . are not you as well , now , without any toleration at all ; as you will be then without the benefit of it ? scrup. to deal freely , i would not willingly be excluded . conf. and is not that every mans case as well as yours ? a limited toleration must exclude some ; and why not you , as well as another ? what prerogative have you above your fellows ? or why should not all be tolerated as well as any ? they can no more abandon their opinions , then you yours , and your waies are to them , just the same grievances ; which ( if ye may be credited ) ours are to you. scrup. but are not some opinions more tolerable then others ? do ye put no difference betwixt points fundamentally necessary , and but accidentally so ? betwixt the very basis of christianity , and the superstructure ? conf. ye persue a shadow . who shall define , which are fundamentals , and which not ? if both parties , ( according to your former hint ) there 's only a confusion of law , and subjection , without any clear , or certain result . if the diffusive body of the people , your limited dispensation , runs into an indeterminable liberty . if the supreme magistrate , your claim of conscience falls to nothing , so that , step where ye will , you 'll find no footing upon this bottom . now to the fundamentals you speak of ; bate but that grand foundation of our faith , that iesus christ is come in the flesh ; and that whosoever confesses that iesus christ is the son of god , god dwelleth in him , and hee in god. — abating ( i say ) that radical principle ( which if we disbelieve , we are no longer christians ) there 's scarce one point that has not been subjected to a controversie . in a word , the reason of your proposal requires either an universal toleration , or none at all : unless you can find out an expedient to oblige all by gratifying some . i do not press this , as an utter enemy to all indulgence ; but i would not have it extorted by importunity and struggling ; nor granted in such a manner as to look liker a composition then a favour . if you should ask me indeed whether a prince , upon special grace , and meer motion , may not grant a toleration of some certain opinions ; 't is past dispute , he may ; but the same freedome granted upon a popular claim , is quite another thing , and neither safe , nor lawful . scrup. pray'e make me understand the difference . conf. 't is only this ; if it be the subject's due , 't is none of the king 's : so that the people are supreme , the one way , and the prince the other . now whether it be either safe for a prince to submit his regality to the claim of the people ; or lawful for him , to devest himself of that authority , wherewith god has entrusted him ; lay this under your pillow , and advise upon 't . sect . iv. the non-conformists plea for toleration upon reason of state. conf. since you are not able to make out your claim to a toleration , from the equity of the thing ; nay , since it appears ( on the contrary ) that all indulgences of that quality are totally dependent upon the will , and iudgment of the magistrate ; you should do well do leave complaining , as if the government did ye an injury , ( where effectually you have no right at all ) and rather labour fairly to possess the world , that you are a sort of people to whom the king may with honour and safety extend a bounty . the ordinary inducements to indulgence , are these three . . reason of state , wherein is propos'd either the gaining of an advantage , or the shunning of an inconvenience . . the singular merits of the party : and here , gratitude takes place . . the innocence , and modesty , of their practises and opinions : which is a strong motive ; when particulars may be oblig'd without any hazard to the publique . to begin with the first . what reason of state can you now produce that may move his majesty to grant the non-conformists a toleration ? scrup. if you had put the contrary question , y 'had pos'd me : are not the non-conformists the kings subjects ? and what 's a king without his people ? conf. the non-conformists are , by birth , and obligation , the kings subjects , but they are not so in practice , and obedience . they renounce the law , and in so doing , they cast themselves out of the pale of subjection . ze. i suppose you will not deny them however to be a numerous party , and some experience you have had likewise of their conduct , unity , and resolution ; which moves me to look upon his majesty , as ( in some measure ) under a prudential necessity of obliging so considerable an interest . conf. so far am i from admitting any political necessity of yielding , that , to my judgment , the necessity appears strong , and clear against it . ze. wee 'll waive the general question , if you please , and speak to the convenience of this iuncture . are not the non-conformists numerous ? conf. upon the poll , they are so ; and more now too , then they were when his majesty came in ; and so long as they are suffer'd , 't is to be expected they shall encrease daily . but you say , they are numerous : if they be , consequently dangerous ; the greater the number is , the greater is the hazard ; and therefore , because they are many already , and will be more , if they be suffer'd , they are not to be tolerated . ze. but will not people be much more peaceable , when they are oblig'd , than when they are persecuted ? conf. believe me , matters are at an ill pass , when the prince lies at the mercy of the people ; and certainly the multitude will be much quieter without a power to do mischief , then with it . but why do ye say , persecuted ? they persecute the law , and then you cry the law persecutes them. i would you 'd deal frankly with me : what is ( really ) your opinion of the honesty of your party ? ze. i do seriously believe the non-conformists to be an honest , conscientious sort of people . conf. but they must be knaves to make your argument good : for , if they be honest , they 'll be quiet without a toleration . if they be dishonest , they 'll be dangerous with it . consider again ; if there be any hazard , wherein does it consist ? not in the multitude , but in the confoederacy . a million of men without agreement , are but as one single person . now they must consult , before they can agree ; and they must meet before they can consult ▪ so that , barely to hinder the assembling of these multitudes , defeats the danger of them . whereas , on the other side , to permit separate meetings , is to tolerate a combination . ze. right ; but those meetings and consultations are pass'd already ; for sure the non-conformists have been long enough acquainted to understand one another . conf. so much the more need to look after them ; and the less cause to tolerate them : and for their agreement in a general disaffection ; that signifies little , without the means of joyning in a particular plot. again ; as 't is an advantage on the one side , that the faction know one another ; so is it an equal advantage on the other side , that the king knows the faction : which renders his majesty at any time master of it ; when his royal wisdome shall direct him to suppress the heads of it . ze. mistake me not . i do not say 't is likely they will be troublesome , in respect of their judgments ; but that it is possible for them to be so , in regard of their number . conf. he that fears all possibilities , lives in a cold sweat. but i beseech ye , whether do you take to be the greater number ? those that singly wish to be discharg'd from the act of uniformity ; or those that would have no law at all ? those that are troubled because they may not worship according to their phansie ; or those that are displeas'd because they cannot live and rule , according to their appetite ? the traytor would have one law discharg'd ; the schismatique another ; the idolater a third ; the sacrilegious person a fourth ; the drunkard a fifth ; the conventicler a sixt ; the prophane swearer a seventh ; the false-swearer an eighth ; the murtherer a ninth ; the seducer a tenth : and in fine ; not one of a thousand , but had rather command , then obey . shall the king therefore dissolve the law , because there are so many criminals ? that were to raise an argument against authority , from the very reason of its constitution . shall the people be left to do what they list , because a great many of them , would do what they should not ? shall his majesty give up his government , for fear of some millions possibly in his dominions , that had rather be kings than subjects . less forcible , beyond question , is the necessity of the kings granting a toleration , than that of renouncing his sovereignty ; for , doubtless , where there 's one man that is truly scrupulous , there are a hundred avaritious , ambitious , and , in fine , irreligious persons . zeal . i think we may better decide this question from experiment , and matter of fact , than by speculative reasonings . look back to the beginning of the late warr , and tell me ; do not you believe that there are more non-conformists now , then there were then ? conf. yes , i do verily believe that there are three , now , for one , then. ze. why then , the odds are three to one against you : for the third part of this number , was then the predominant interest of the nation . conf. i could allow you even treble that number too , and the reason of my assertion would yet bear it , upon the greater odds of strength betwixt the faction then , and now . as for instance : at the beginning of the late warr , they were masters of the tower , the navy ; of all considerable towns , forts , and magazines : they had a great part of the crown , and church-revenues under their command , and london at their beck ; beside the plunder of malignants , and the bountiful contributions of the well-affected . scotland was already confoederate with them , in one rebellion ; and they had made sure of another in ireland , ( by persecuting , and with-holding the only person capable to keep them quiet : the earl of strafford ) which broyle they further assisted , by manifest opposals of his majesty's resolutions to suppress it . [ see the kings speech of decem . . , and the following petition concerning the same ] finally ; for the better countenance of their usurpations , they had drawn down the representative of the people into a close-committee , and the arbitrary votes of this seditious conventicle , passed with the vulgar , for the acts of a regular , and complete authority . this was the condition of the non-conformists power formerly , but ( blessed be god ) they are not at present so formidable . the three kingdomes are now at peace ; and we have a parliament that 's no friend to the faction . the king is possest of a considerable guard , which his royal father wanted : and the sword is in the wrong hand for their business . his majesty is master likewise of his rights , both of power , and revenue ; and his capital-city stands right in its obedience . to all which may be added , that although several particulars of the party are as rich , as pillage and pardon can make them ; yet they want a common stock to carry on a common cause : the thimbles , and the bodkins fail ; and the comfortable in-comes of [ a ] irish adventures ; [ b ] moneys and plate upon the propositions ; [ c ] confiscated estates ; [ d ] twentieth parts ; and [ e ] weekly assessments ; and a hundred other pecuniary stratagems ( for the ease of the subject ) are departed from them . if it be so , that these people have none of those advantages now remaining ; by virtue whereof they did so much mischief before ; what necessity can any mortal imagine of tolerating these naked , and supportless creatures , for fear of dis-obliging them ? ze. are they more naked and supportless , now , than they were before the long parliament ? does it follow that they have no power , because they do not exercise it ? certainly , if they be more in number now , than they were then , those abilities that rais'd them formerly , may secure them at . present , from being thought contemptible . conf. 't is true , before our late troubles they were as they are now ( for matter of power ) and out of that nothing they made themselves considerable : yet still i cleave to my opinion , that the same abilities will not now produce the same effects ; for the world will not be twice cousen'd with the same trick ; and as the case stands , there is as little danger from their conduct , as from their number . zeal . this is a little strange , me thinks , to grant the means , and deny the end. the two first principles of power ( men and moneys ) you have allow'd them ; and it is not for your credit to say that these people want conduct , by whom you your selves have been worsted . if you have found them considerable upon experience , do not make them so despicable in your argument . conf. have a care , friend : for the men that worsted us , were a sort of people , that voted down bishops on the wrong side of the parliament door ; that cry'd , they would have no more porters-lodge at white-hall ; and told his sacred majesty in a publique declaration [ aug. . . ] that the pretence that his person was there in danger , was a suggestion as false as the father of lies could invent — that seiz'd the tower , the navy , the kings towns , forts , magazines , friends and revenues ; that levied war against , and imprison'd his sacred person , usurp'd his soveraign authority ; embrew'd their hands in his royal bloud , and , in the very pulpit , animated and avow'd the unexampled murder . these were the men that worsted us , and these are the people which you plead for , under the mask of non-conformists . your patience yet a little further . the non-conformists are many , beyond question , ( for the whole seditious party lurks under that denomination ) but so long as they are neither in order , nor in office , they are not valuable . they are wealthy too ; but so long as that wealth lies in particular coffers , there 's not much fear of it , as to the publique . now let them be as wise as you imagine them , that policy which over-threw the late king , signifies nothing to the hazzard of this : nay more , that which was then , policy , would be now , direct folly. ze. this is but discourse : my opinion is , that if they had the same will , and purpose to do mischief which you suppose they have , they do not want conduct to their number , to make the necessity of complying with this interest , to appear evident , past contradiction . conf. now touching their conduct . they must either do the same thing over again , or steer another course : and their method is too notorious to succeed the one way , as their persons are too well known to do any good the other . scrup. i do not well understand what you mean by their method ; for wisdom , i suppose , does not confine her self to any certain and prescript manner of working ; but shapes the method to the occasion . conf. i am neither totally with you , nor against you , in this poynt : for as in the menage of publique affairs , there is much left to habitual prudence , and discretion , without need of directing every little circumstance , or tracing every line ; so are there certain general rules ; certain dispositive means , which all wise men conclude to be of absolute necessity to such certain ends. scrup. the question in hand is this ; whether the nonconformists be not an intelligent , as : well as a numerous and wealthy party ? and how far reason of state may prevail for the toleration of a sort of people in so many respects considerable ? pray speak to this. conf. if they be very wise , and very many , they had need be very honest too , there may be danger else ; for if they be not honest , 't is unsafe , and consequently imprudent to indulge them . i think , the best measure both of their honesty , and wisdom , may be taken from the rise , and menage of the late warr : wherein , i must confess , there wanted neither craft in the packing of the cards , nor conduct in the playing of them . but what if i should ask you now , who were the prime conductors in that enterprize ? if you say , the non-conformists ; then they are not honest enough to be trusted ; ( would you have the king gratifie the murtherers of his father ? ) if you say otherwise ; then 't was not their conduct that did the work , and they are not wise enough to be fear'd . in short , ( to give them their due , and no more . ) that which destroy'd us then , was the conjuncture of the most perfidious of subjects , with the most pious and charitable of princes : the king , in fine , was ruin'd by his own goodnesse . first , without the pacification at berwick , in . the rebellion had been blasted in the bud ; and secondly , his majestye's signing of the bill for the perpetual parliament , put the english in a capacity of seconding their scottish brethren . these were the two capital concessions that kill'd the royal interest ; the latter whereof , his majesty ( of ever blessed memory ) reflects upon , as [ no sin of his will , though an errour of too charitable a iudgement , ] and confesses that , [ he did not thereby intend to shut himself out of dores , as some men had then requited him. ] there was likewise a fatal concurrence of sedition and popular ignorance , to facilitate the design . alas ! the late king was oppress'd even by those that thought they fought for him , before ever they knew what they did ; and the folly of the common souldier contributed no less to the general fate , then the skill and malice of their leaders . ( beside some unhappy why-not's and mistakes in the kings armyes , which are not at all pertinent to our discourse . ) ze. admitting what you say , still it was some degree of conduct to procure those grants , and to improve those means . conf. alas ! if iudas his betraying his master with a kisse ; if the enflaming of the people by false , and scurrilous invectives against their soveraign ; — if the erecting of a prerogative conventicle by the force of tumults , and then giving it the name of a parliament ; — if the calling of god to attest the sanction of perjury and treason ; or if to engage the people by a sacramental vow to defend the king , and then hang them up for adhering to him ; — if this ( i say ) be conduct : let no man presume to dispute their title to 't . but if by conduct , you intend a course of honourable wisdom , you 'l hardly find any foot-steps of that conduct , throughout the whole transaction ▪ yet let this pass for conduct , and let the men that govern'd the design , be allow'd for politicians ; still i maintain , that this party , though endu'd with the wisdom of angels , cannot in this iuncture ; no not in this age , pretend again to be considerable . ze. that 's sooner said , then prov'd . conf. truly , i think not much ; in regard that both their wayes , and their persons are too well known , to be either suffer'd , or credited . in order to the late warr , the party had two games to play ; for they were to make an interest both with the king , and with the people , wherein their master-piece was shew'd imprevailing with both king , and people , to contribute to their own undoing ; to which end , they first , acquainted themselves with his majesties dearest inclinations ; and next , with the niceties , and distresses of his government , and fortune : of which discovery they made such use , as enabled them to overturn the order both of church and state , and to perfect their long-projected reformation : for the late king 's predominant affection being piety , and compassion , and his most dangerous distress being want of money , the politicks of the faction appear'd in nothing more , than in working upon his majestye's goodness , and necessities . their practices upon the people were chiefly employ'd upon the two things , which of all others they do the least understand , and the most furiously pursue , to wit , religion and liberty ; wherein the ministers were the prime instruments , and alaham ( in the words of the excellent lord brook ) was their instructor . preach you with fiery tongue , distinguish might ; tyrants from kings , duties in question bring 'twixt god and man ; where power infinite compar'd , makes finite power a scornfull thing . safely so craft may with the truth give light , to iudge of crowns without enammelling ; and bring contempt upon the monarchs state ; where straight unhallowed power hath peoples hate . glaunce at prerogatives indefinite , tax customs , warrs , and lawes all gathering ; censure kings faults , their spies , and favourites , holiness hath a priviledge to sting . men be not wise ; bitterness from zeal of spirit , is hardly iudg'd ; the envy of a king makes people like reproof of majesty . where god seems great in priests audacity — and when mens minds thus tun'd and tempted are to change , with arguments 'gainst present times , then hope awakes , and man's ambition climes . this was the artifice , by which the faction skrew'd themselves formerly into an interest ; but alas , what would the same thing over again avail them now ? when his majesty ha's but to look behind him upon the sad fate of his royal father , to secure himself against all possibility of another imposture . and for the multitude , they must be worse than brutes , in case of any new attempt , ever to engage against this king , upon any man's credit , that had his hand in the death of the last ; so that we are both wiser and surer at present , then we were twenty years agoe , upon a double accompt ; first , the calamityes of the last warr are still fresh in our remembrance , and i do not find the people generally so sanctifi'd by their . experience , but they had rather lye still for their real profit , then fight it over again for the sound of religion . secondly , we are pre-acquainted with the most likely instruments and pretences of raising any new troubles . as for the unity ye boast of , 't is very true ; that the non-conformists agreed against the publique , till they found it impossible for them any longer to agree among themselves ; and there 's the utmost of their unity . their resolution indeed i cannot deny but it comes up to that in th' epigram , that , he that dares be damn'd , dares more than fight . scrup. wee shall do our cause an injury to press too farr upon reason of state in matter of religion . conf. indeed , i think you 'l find it a hard task , to make it out to any man of reason , that the kingdom will be either the better for granting you a toleration , or the worse for refusing it : but 't is to be hop'd that your merits will plead better for you then your politicks . sect . v. the non-conformists plea for toleration , from the merits of the party . conf. what ha's your party ( gentlemen ) merited from the publique , that an exception to a general rule , should be granted in your favour ? name your services . ze. wee ventur'd all to save the life of the late king. conf. and yet ye ventur'd more to take it away : for , ye did but talk for the one , and ye fought for the other . ze. we ever abominated the thought of murthering him . conf. you should have abominated the money too , for which ye sold him . scrup. did wee sell him ? conf. no , you were the purchasers . ze. did not the presbyterians vote his majesties concessions a ground for a treaty ? conf. yes : but withall they held him up to conditions worse than death it self ; and , in short , they deliver'd him up , when they might have preserv'd him ; and they stickled for him , when they knew they could do him no good. ze. what design could they have in that ? conf. they might have the same design in - . which they had in - . for ought that i know . to make a party by 't ; and set up a presbyterian interest in the kings name . ze. all the world knowes , that we were so much afflicted for his sacred majesties distress , that we had many solemn dayes of humiliation for it . conf. so ye had for his successes , for fear he should get the better of ye ; and you had your dayes of thanksgiving too , for his dysasters . ze. what do ye think of preston-fight ? was that a iuggle too ? conf. i think ye should do well to let that action sleep , for the honour of the kirk : for though the cavaliers found it great earnest , 't is shrewdly suspected that there was foul play among the brethren . ze. pray'e let mee ask you one question : who brought in this king ? conf. they that would not suffer . you to keep him out : that party that by a restless , and incessant loyalty , hinder'd your establishments . ze. and what do ye think of the sccluded members ? conf. i think , a new choyce would have done the kings business every jot as well ; and matters were then at that pass , that one of the two was unavoydable . in fine , 't is allow'd at all hands , that the prime single instrument of his majestyes restauration was the duke of albemarle . but if you come to partyes , the very fact appears against ye : for , though all possible industry was employ'd to make the next choyce totally presbyterian , by disabling all such persons , and their sons , as ( in effect ) had serv'd the king since - . without manifesting their repentance for it since ; yet , so strong was the general vote of the people , for the kings true interest , and against all factions , that all endeavour was too little to leaven the next convention , as was design'd . if ye have no more to say for the merits of your party , wee 'l pass on to the merits of your cause : ze. do so , and wee 'l give you the hearing . sect . vi. the non-conformists plea for toleration , from the innocence of their practices and opinions . conf. concerning the innocency of your practices and opinions , must be our next enquiry ; and how farr your actions and principles comport with the duties of society , and with the ends of government . if authority find them regular and modest , it will be a fair motive to his majesty to grant ye an indulgence , upon so fair a presumption that you will not abuse it . ze. and we shall willingly cast our selves upon that tryal . conf. go to then . but i must ask ye some untoward questions by the way . what 's your opinion ( gentlemen ) of the warr rais'd in — . was it a rebellion , or no ? ze. 't is a point we dare not meddle with . conf. nay , then you falter ; for if you thought it one , you 'ld answer me ; and if ye think it none , you 'd think the same thing , over again , to be none too . suffice it , that in fact there was a warr , and such a warr as no honest english man can reflect upon , but with grief , shame , horrour , and indignation : can ye tell me what was the ground of the quarrel ? ze. i think you were in the right your self , when ye said , it was religion and liberty . conf. i suppose , i shall not need to tell ye the event of it ; but of which side were the tender consciences , for the king , or against him ? ze. we were ever for the king : witness our petitions , declarations , and in a most signal manner , our solemn league and covenant . conf. now i thought ye had been against him , because ye seiz'd his revenues , levy'd a war , hunted and imprison'd his person , and at last took away his life . but the truth on 't is , ye were both : ye were for him in your words , and against him in your actions . ze. there were many in our party that lov'd the king as well as any of you that were about him. conf. that is , according to your covenant : and i do not think but that your party loves this king just as they did the last . scrup. i would his majesty had no worse enemies . conf. and i say , god send him better friends . you love the bishops too i hope , do ye not ? scrup. truly when they are out of their fooleries , i have no quarrel to the men. ze. and to deal plainly , i am not yet convinc'd of their lordships prerogative ; nor that there 's any inherent holiness in a cope or a surplice . but why do you couple the crown and the miter so , as if no man could be a good subject , that 's disaffected to prelacy . conf. to be free with ye , that 's my opinion , and i 'm the stiffer in 't , because i think you can hardly shew me , any one non-conformist , that upon a voluntary and clear accompt ever struck stroke for the king ; nor any true son of the episcopal order of the church , that ever bore arms against him. ze. what will you forfeit if i shew you hundreds ? conf. either my head , or the cause , which you please . ze. what do ye think of the papists then ▪ ( but it may be you and they are all one , and so you w'ont reckon them for non-conformists ) conf. to say the truth , we were all one in loyalty to his majesty , and to your eternal reproach be it spoken , [ that the papists should have a greater sense of their allegeance than many protestant professors ] ze. nay i believe a machiavellian jesuit shall ha'your good word , sooner then a conscientious puritan . conf. truly no ; for a presbyterian papist , and a presbyterian puritan are both alike to mee ; and i confess , i had rather be preserv'd by a man of another religion , than ha' my throat out by one of my own. but , my good brother of the consistory , no slipping your neck out of the col ar : i was speaking of the non-conformists ; by which term is properly meant , such persons as refuse to obey the orders of the church , whereof they acknowledge themselves to be members ; so that the point in debate , has no coherence at all with your digression . to mind you of it , the question 's this : whether or no the practises of the non-conformists have been such , as may probably dispose his majesty towards the granting of a toleration . and now to hold you to the question [ by whom was the war in scotland begun ? ] by the non-conformists . ze. by whom i beseech ye was the rebellion in ireland begun ? conf. by the presbyterian papists , but it was provok'd , and pre-dispos'd by the presbyterian puritans ; [ so that , next to the sin of those , who begun that rebellion , theirs must needs be , who either hindred the speedy suppressing of it , by domestique dissentions , or diverted the aids , or exasperated the rebels , to the most desperate resolutions and actions , by threatning all extremities , not only to the known heads and chief incendiaries ; but even to the whole community of that nation , resolving to destroy root and branch , men , women , and children ; without any regard to those usual pleas for mercy , which conquerours , not wholly barbarous , are wont to hear from their own breasts , in behalf of those , whose oppressive fears , rather than their malice , engag'd them ; or whose imbecillity for sex and age was such , as they could neither lift up a hand against them , nor distinguish between their right hand and their left . ] these are the words of that evangelical prince , that dy'd a martyr for that religion , and liberty , which he was calumniated to have betray'd . by whom i beseech ye , was he persecuted , divested of all his regalities , assaulted , immur'd , depos'd , and murder'd , but by your party , gentlemen ? by whom , was episcopacy destroy'd , root and branch ; the law trampled upon ; our churches prophan'd ; monarchy subverted ; the free-born people of england pillag'd , and enslav'd ; the nation engag'd in bloud and beggery ; but by the non-conformists ? ze. why do ye charge those exorbitancies upon the whole party , that were the crimes only of some particular and ambitious men ? do you believe , that it should ever have gone so far , if we two could have hinder'd it ? conf. no , indeed do i not ; and i do believe that there were thousands in the party that intended it as little as your selves . now , me thinks , this experience should deterre ye , from the project you are at this instant upon ; especially considering that you are upon the very steps that led to the late rebellion . the method , was petitioning ; the argument , was liberty of conscience ; and the pretext , religion ▪ popery , was the bug-bear ; and the multitude , were the umpires of the controversie . ▪ nay , you have the very same persons to lead ye on ; and they , the very same matter to work upon . bethink your selves ; ye meant no hurt ( ye say ) to the last king , and yet ye ruin'd him : ye may perchance intend as little harm to this king , and yet do him as much . not that the matter is in your power ; but i would not have it in your will , and endeavour . but enough is said touching the innocency of your practices : that of your opinions , follows ; and i am mistaken , if your principles prove not altogether as intolerable as your practices ( by intolerable , i mean , inconsistent with the publique peace ) ze. sure you 'll send me to my catechism again . conf. nay , marque me ; i will make it so clear to ye , that you your selves shall confess , that sedition flowes as naturally from your ordinary , and receiv'd opinions , as corrupt waters from a poyson'd fountain ; and not as an accident neither , attendant upon your separation , but as a form'd and excogitated design , wrapt up , and coucht in the very mystery of your profession . ze. ' wou'd you 'd be pleas'd to unvail the mystery you speak of . conf. in obedience , i 'll endeavour it . the most sacred of all bonds , is that of government , next to that of religion ; and the reverence which we owe to humane authority , is only inferiour to that which we owe to god himself . yet , such is the deprav'd state of nature , that every man is touch'd with an ambition ( more or less ) to gain to himself some share in the command of the whole : and from hence proceed those struglings of particular persons , which we so frequently meet with in opposition to the general lawes , and ends of order and society . so soon as this private humour has emprov'd , and ripen'd it self into a design , the first maxim which appears in favour of it , is this ; that the less obligation must give way to the greater ; as ( for instance ) reason of state must give place to matter of religion , and humane lawes to the law divine : which being duly weigh'd , what has any man more to do in order to the embroyling of a nation , but to perswade the people that this or that political law has no foundation in the word of god ; to bid them stand fast in the liberty wherewith christ has made them free : and finally to engage the name of god , and the voyce of religion in the quarrel ? ze. and do not you your self believe it better to obey god then man ? conf. yes , but i think it best of all to obey both : to obey god , for himself , in spirituals ; and man for god's sake in temporals , as he is god's commissioner . but let me proceed . are not you convinc'd , that the most likely way in the world to stir up subjects against their prince , is to proclaim the iniquity of his laws ? to tell them ( in effect ) that they 'll be damn'd , if they obey ; and ( in a word ) to make the rabble judges of their governours ? ze. well , but what 's this to us , or our opinions ? conf. i wish it were not ; but to couch the whole in a little , shew me , if you can , where ever your opinions yet gain'd footing in the world without violence , and bloud : shew me again , any one sermon or discourse ( authoris'd by a non-conformist ) from . to this instant , that presses obedience to the magistrate , unless where the faction was uppermost ; which shrew'dly intimates , that your principles are inconsistent with your duties , and that the very grounds of your government are destructive of any other . ze. make that appear if you can . conf. i will so , and i think we shall not need to travail out of his majesty's dominions to prove it . come , zeal ; you 're of the classical way ; and you , scruple , of the independent ; produce your doctors ; ( but let them be the pillars of your cause ) such persons , as upon whose judgment , and integrity , you 'll venture the sum of the dispute . ze. soft and fair , i beseech ye ; what is 't you undertake to do ? conf. i do undertake to prove that the opinions of the non-conformists , ( to say no worse ) will very hardly admit a toleration : and , now , by whom will ye be try'd ? ze. what do ye think of rutherford ? conf. i suppose you mean the divinity-professour of st. andrews . ( iohn goodwin , i remember , calls him , the chariot of presbytery , and the horsemen thereof ) in truth you have pitch'd upon the atlas of your cause . but hear the rabbi in his own words , [ a ] the power of the - king is but fiduciary . [ b ] the soveraign power is eminently , fontal●ter , originally , and radically in the people . [ c ] the king is in dignity inferiour to the people . [ d ] there is a court of necessity , no less than a court of iustice , and the fundamental laws must then speak ; and it is with the people , in this extremity , as if they had no ruler . ze. well : but rutherford is but one man , i believe you 'll find gillespy of another opinion . conf. assure your self , friend mine , they all sing the same song [ e ] [ let not the pretence of peace and unity cool your fervour , or make you spare to oppose your selves unto these idle and idolized ceremonies , against which we dispute ] for [ f ] whensoever you may omit that which princes enjoyn , without violating the law of charity , you are not holden to obey them , for the majesty of princely authority . are not these sons of zeal worthy of encouragement , think ye ? you 'll say perhaps , gillespy is but one man neither . come , come , i could shew ye hundreds of them ; and if you 'll but read spottswood's history of the church of scotland , and his late majesty's large declaration , printed in . ye shall need go no further for satisfaction . to pass over the desperate opinions and contrivances of particulars ; as willock , knox , melvil , gibson , &c. let us look a little into their more solemn actions , and read the temper of the kirk in their general assemblies . . an assembly is independant , either from king or parliament in matters ecclesiastical . . an assembly may abrogate an act of parliament , if it any way reflect upon the business of the church . . it is lawful for subjects to make a covenant and combination without the king , and to enter into a bond of mutual defence against him. . the major part of the kingdome ( especially being met in a representative assembly ) may do any thing which they take to be conducing to the glory of god , and to the good of the church ; not only without the royal authority , but expresly against it . were 't not a thousand pitties now , to refuse this tender sort of christians a toleration ? ze. nay ; in good truth , i never lik't the extreme rigour of the scottish discipline . conf. and yet 't was that you leagu'd and covenanted to make your pattern ; but where do you expect to mend your self , under that form of government ? ze. truly , i take our english divines of that iudgment to be very pious , moderate persons . conf. never a barrel better herring ; that is , if they come once to dip into the controversie . ze. do not you take mr. — for a very sober well-weigh'd person ? conf. take you the measure of him , from his own hand . [ if a people bound by oath shall dispossess their prince , and chuse , and covenant with another ; they may be oblig'd by the latter , notwithstanding their former covenant . ] the real soveraignty among us , was , in king , lords and commons ; and if the king raise war against such a parliament , in that case , the king may not only be resisted , but ceaseth to be a king. hear now the file-leader of smectymnuus . [ the quection in england , is whether christ or antichrist shall be lord , or king : go on therefore couragiously : never can ye lay out your bloud in such a quarrel ; christ shed all his bloud to save you from hell , venture all yours to set him upon his throne . ( that is to say , down with episcopacy , and up with presbytery ) this is the language of one of your seraphique doctors ; and the sermon both preach'd by command , and printed by order . take notice of his auditory too : no less then the two houses , general , lord-mayor , assembly , and scotch commissioners , ian. . . scrup. you will not deny mr. john goodwyn ( i hope ) to be a reverend divine . conf. at the rate of your divinity , indeed i cannot deny it , touching the righteousness of the sentence passed upon the king ; doubtless ( says he ) never was there any person under heaven sentenc'd with death upon more equitable , and just grounds , in respect of guilt and demerit . mr. ienkins is of the same opinion , and so is parker , milton ; and , in fine , the whole tribe of medling non-conformists are of the same leven . now , to shew ye that this agreement comes not by chance , you are to observe , that whatsoever is first expos'd and blown abroad ( by the hirelings of the faction ) from the press , and pulpit , is still seconded ( at least , if the people relish it ) with the approbation of the counsel : so that the main use of sermons , and pamphlets , is only to dispose the multitude for votes , and ordinances . if you doubt this ; do but compare the doctrines of the one , with the practices of the other ; and you must be blind , not to discern that they act by consent , and intelligence . in case of false-worship ( says the pulpit ) and ( says the press ) in case of tyranny , defensive arms are lawful . if the people swallow this ; the next news ye hear , is a vote for putting that position in practice . resolved upon the question that the king ( seduced by wicked counsel ) intends to make war , &c. [ may . . ] resolved upon the question , that an army shall be forthwith raised , &c. [ iuly . . ze. will ye make the parliament then , and the synod , confederate with the rabble ? conf. tush , tush ; turbam , tam chlamydatos , quàm coronam voco . i speak of a faction , not of an anthority ; i do not meddle with parliaments : yet since you have such a kindness for the very names these people acted under , let me offer ye a word or two to consider upon , touching that thing , which you call a synod . first , the men were neither legally conven'd , nor did they act in the name of all the clergy of england : so that no matter what they did , as to the validity of any thing they could pretend to do . secondly , what was their employment , but to advise upon the cleanliest way of shifting the government , and to do as much for the bishops , as the house did for his majesty ? will ye have the truth on 't ? they clear'd their conscience abundantly to both. first ; in their letter to reformed churches abroad , they charge the king as the patron of the irish rebellion [ pa. . ] and , in short , throughout the whole tenor of it as the most insupportable tyrant in nature . secondly , let that ( not only unchristian but inhumane ) collection of white 's scandalous ministers bear witness against them. wherein , without any respect either to truth , or modesty , they have expos'd so many reverend names to infamy , and dishonour , for the better colour of their own wickedness in robbing them of their livings . i have here laid before you , the merits , practices , and opinions of the party you plead for . if i have told ye truth , think on 't ; if otherwise , disprove it . ze. i will not deny , but ill things have been done : shall all therefore be condemn'd , for the faults of some ? conf. and i will not deny neither , but there are good people in the mixture ; shall all therefore be indulg'd for the honesty of some ? try your skill , my masters ; and if you can contrive such an expedient , as may relieve particulars , without hazzard , or dammage to the whole , ye shall have my vote for such a toleration . but before ye propound it , give me leave to offer ye such other reasons of my own , against it , as have not been yet touch'd upon , and then you are at liberty to speak to all at once . sect . vii . toleration , causes confusion both in church and state. conf. gentlemen , to come quick to the business ; my exceptions to your proposal of toleration , shall be reduc'd to four heads : my first exception arises from the very nature of the thing it self ; my second , from this iuncture of time wherein it is desired ; my third , from the consideration of the partyes that desire it ; and my last exception , proceeds from the reverence i bear to the authority that is to grant it . now , if you please , wee 'l begin with the first , and pass to the rest in order . my first argument against toleration , is this : it is ( in those that press it ) a tacit condemnation of an establisht law , and not without some reflection upon the supreme authority it self . if there was reason for the making of it , there is yet more for the observing of it ; by how much an universal obedience is more profitable to the publique , than any particular constitution . scrup. it would be well , if you would bring all people to the same mind , before ye force them to the same rule . conf. but it would be ill if you should admit of no rule at all , till you had found out one , that all the world should be pleas'd with . scrup. we do not ask the vacating of a law , but the relaxing of it . conf. why then , you ask a worse thing ; for it were much better for the publique , utterly to vacate a good law , then to suffer the withdrawing of that reverence which is due even to a bad one . if the reason of such or such a law be gone , repeal the law ; but to let the obligation fall , and the law stand , is , not only to introduce , but to proclaim a disorder in the government . the law , in fine , is , an act of publique , and impartial justice , not made for this , or that particular , but for a common good. my second exception to tolcration , is , because it implyes a kind of assent ( let me not say submission ) both to the equity of the subjects complaint , and to the reason of the tolerated opinion , which , in some degree , seems to authorise a separation . now let it be once admitted , that any one law may be question'd by the multitude ; the consequence reaches to all the rest : let it be admitted , either , that any one sort of people may be allowed to challenge any one law , all other opinions have the same right of compleyning . scrup. but we do not question either the prudence of the law-makers , or the general equity of the constitution ; only where god has not given us consciences suitable to the rule , we do humbly begg of his majesty to bestow upon us a rule that may comply with our consciences . conf. would you have a law made that shall comply with all consciences ? ye demand an impossibility . god himself never made a law that pleased all people . oh! but the imposition under a penalty troubles ye . take a-away the sanction , and what signifies the law ? well , but you would be exempt i perceive from the general obligation ; so would every man else , and then there 's no law at all : in short , ye cannot say what ye would have . would ye have a particular indulgence ? where 's the equity of it as to those that are excluded ? will ye have it generall ? where 's the conscience of it , when all heresies are entertain'd . you should consider , that lawes are fram'd with a regard to the community ; and they ought to stand firm and inexorable : if once they come to hearken to particular clamours , and to side with particular interests , the reverence of government is shaken . ze. you have speculated here some airy inconveniences ; but where 's the real hazard of receding from that inexorable strictness ? ( as you call it . ) conf. first , the magistrate makes himself of a party with those that he tolerates , against those that he rejects , which drawes an envy upon the government . secondly , the tolerated party becomes a sanctuary for all the seditious persons in the kingdom . it was well said of one ( whom i esteem more for his wit than his honesty ) speaking of a thin house of commons ; it looks ( says he ) like a parish church that borders upon a conventicle . and the very truth of it is , a schismatical lecturer , is as bad as a rosted dogg in a dove-house , he tolls away all the pigeons i' th countrey . not that the people throng to him for the excellency of the man , or of the way , but they meet to proclaim themselves masters of the law , and to count how many thousand souls there are , even in this sinfull nation , that will not bow the knee to baal . let them go on , and within a while , the king perhaps shall sue to them , for the same toleration they now begg from him , and go without it ; that is , unless his majesty has better luck then his father ( which god send him , for he has several of the very same persons to deal withall . ) another objection may be this ; if there be any reason for granting a toleration , 't is probable the reason will be stronger for continuing it ; so that , in time , the people shall challenge that as a right , which they now only demand as a favour ; and the next motion is into a popular reformation . let me add to what i have said , that a toleration does not only evirtuate the law , but it naturally produces a total dissolution of ecclesiastical order , and consequently begets a confusion both in church and state. ze. you speak as if there were no such thing as a toleration in nature . conf. of that in place convenient . sect . viii . the danger of toleration in this iuncture . conf. i need not tell ye ( gentlemen ) that i am no great friend to toleration at any time : but i must confess to ye , that at this time i like it worse then i have done at any other . scrup. when , to my thinking , there never was more need of it , nor more hope of the fruit of it , then is at this instant . are not the people ready to tumult for want of it ? conf. indeed a very proper reason why they should have it , that they may be encouraged to tumult again , for what they have a mind to next . how long do you believe that government would stand , where the multitude should take notice that their rulers are afraid of them ? are they ready to tumult ? then they are not conscientious ; and if it be not conscience that moves them , 't is sedition . scrup. i 'm very confident , an indulgence would quiet them . conf. can you remember the steps of the last warr , and be of that opinion ? what was it but that which was given to quiet the faction that enabled them to take all the rest ? to give you a fresh instance ; what could be more pious , gracious , or obliging , then his majesties late declaration , in favour of the non-conformists ? all that was possible for the king to doe , in consistence with conscience , honour , and the peace of his dominions , his majesty has there frankly assur'd them of : and what 's the effect of all ? are they one jot the quieter for 't ? no , but the worse ; for no sooner was his majesties tenderness ( in that particular ) made publique , but the generality ( even of those that had lately entred into a regular and dutifull complyance with the orders of the church ) started into a new revolt ; which demonstrates , that the true ground of their separation is not conscience , but faction , and proves sufficiently the benefit , and necessity , of a strict rule , and the hazard of a relaxation : for you see , that rather then abide the penalty of the act , they could conform ; but upon the least glimpse of an indulgence , they relapse into a schism . come , brother zeal ; your friend of — shall pin the basket. that sermon of his that you wote of , ( at least if his it be , and several impressions of it have pass'd as his , without any contradiction ) that sermon do i take to be one of the lewdest requitals of the kings mercy and goodness that ever — but no more , hee 's a son of the kirk . take him first , as a person whom his majesty has pardon'd , although a leading , and pragmatical instrument toward the ruine of his royal father . consider him secondly , as one that has been taken nibbling at sedition , since his majesty's return before now , and yet been wink'd at . thirdly , take notice of the very point of time he has chosen for his purpose . his contempt meets the kings mercy just in the face , and his majesty's arms are no sooner open to receive him , then he takes that very nick of opportunity to stabb him in . ze. and all this amplifying , and passion , for preaching , forsooth , without a licence . conf. the least thing in my thought , i assure ye ; for i speak to the dangerous scope and application of his sermon , without any concern at all whether he did well , or ill , as to the act of uniformity . ze. i will not justifie his prudence , but in my conscience the man never meant any hurt , either to this king , or to his father , i should abhorre him , if i thought he did . conf. wee 'l handle that point at leasure : but to bring what we are now upon , to a period . i look upon mr. calamy as the mouth of the party , and ye see with what a seditious confidence they own his actions , and avow his disobedience : so that from mr. calamy's single case , we are to take the measure of the main question : and now i ask ye ; whether , or no , do you hold it convenient to dispense with a law , in favour of that party , which at the same time both challenges , and defies that law , and despises that mercy ? ze. when you have made out the fact , as you have layd it , i 'le tell ye my opinion . conf. again , we are perpetually alarm'd with plotts , ye see ; now what better means then a toleration , to draw the conspirators into a body ? in truth ; to gratifie a party that thus outfaces authority , and to do it too in the very crisis of the contest , is a policy that i can't reach the bottom of . this thred might be drawn finer ; but i have something to say concerning the party , as well as the time. sect . ix . arguments against toleration , in respect of the party that desires it ; with , animadversions upon a certain pamphlet , entituled , a sermon preached at aldermanbury-church , decemb. . . &c. conf. we are now entring into a large field , gentlemen , and that we may not lose our selves , let us move orderly toward the question . your party desires a toleration , is 't not so ? scrup. it is so . conf. and what is your party , i beseech ye ? where do they dwell ? what are their names ? their opinions , &c. — for to tolerate , no body knowes whom , or what , would be a little with the largest , i think ; would it not ? scrup. truly i think it would . but to answer your queynt question ; our party is a certain number of godly and conscientious men , that desire a freedom to worship god in their own way . conf. but now you must tell me your way too . scrup. our way must be such a way as is agreeable to gods word . conf. do ye mean , that it must be expressly mark'd out , and commanded there ; or will it serve the turn , if it be only not prohibited ? ze. god forbid , that any sober christian should imagine that our saviour left his church without a rule , and certainly the lord's discipline is the best pattern , so that we are to stick to the ordinance of jesus christ , without adding or diminishing . conf. scruple , what say you to this ? for if it be so , there is but one way of worshipping , lawfull ; and consequently , but one way tolerable . scrup. in truth , i am content to venture my soul among those that serve the lord according to the light that he has given them . conf. so that i perceive 't is utterly impossible to please ye both ; for you are for several wayes , and your brother zeal but for one. how comes it now that you two , that can never agree betwixt your selves , should yet joyn in a petition against us ? scrup. we agree in this , that neither of us would be limited . conf. do not you find your self foul now upon the old rock of universal toleration again ? i would , you 'd be but so honest once , as to yield , when y' are convinc'd . can you either name those opinions , which you would have indulg'd ; or can you expect a toleration for all opinions at a venture ? scrup. provided they be not contrary to gods word . conf. but who shall be iudg of that ? if each individual , you must admit right and wrong , promiscuously , for no man will condemn himself ; if authority , you are concluded by an ecclesiastical law. have a care now of your old distinction of fundamentals , and non-fundamentals , for then your very foundation fails ye , and ye renounce the most plausible part of your plea , to wit , your title of conscience . a word now to your brother . you are for the holy discipline , zeal ; for that way , and for no other . ze. we are for that way which is prescrib'd in the word . conf. of which way , either the people or the governours must be the judges . if you say the people , the independent has the better of ye ; if the governours , you must submit to the resolutions of the church : in fine , if ye cannot say what ye would have , never complain that ye cannot obtain what ye ask ; and that 's my first reason against tolerating the non-conformists . they are a sort of people that would have they know not what . in which , particular experience bears witness against them : for , what have they done since — . but overturn'd the government , divided the spoyl , enrich'd themselves , embroyl'd every thing , and setled nothing ? and yet my masters there was no act of uniformity to hinder ye . ze. you cannot imagine sure that all these hurli-burlies and confusions , were design'd . conf. not all perhaps , for i believe ye thought to do your business with less trouble : but that the subversion of the government was design'd is plain , and certain ; and truly that it is now design'd over again , is scarce less evident : upon which special consideration , i ground my second exception . scrup. but that would be hard , to ruine so many people of god for an uncharitable surmise . conf. go to scruple ; if that be not the scope of your monstrous earnestness for a toleration , pray'e tell me what is ? if ye have no end at all in 't , 't is frivolous ; if this be your end , 't is impious ; if ye have any other end , make it appear . scrup. 't will satisfie our consciences . conf. heaven and earth shall be sooner brought together then your two consciences ; will the establishment of presbytery satisfie your conscience , or the allowance of liberty satisfie your brothers ? if it be the uniformity ye dislike ; how come ye to joyn with the directory , against the common-prayer ; with that of the assembly , against that of the church ? in short , your disagreements among your selves , are almost as notorious as your conjunction against us , and ye have given proof to the world , that it is not possible for any thing else to unite you , but a common booty ; witness the contentious papers and disputes , betwixt calamy , and burton , edwards , and goodwin , and others , not to be number'd , concerning the very point of toleration . [ the desires of the independents for a toleration ( say the london-ministers ) are unreasonable , and unequal , and many mischiefs will follow upon 't both to church and common-wealth . ] now on the other side , hear what sterry sayes , [ lord thou hast done graciously , and wonderfully , in saving us from the bloudy design of the egyptian papacy : but this last mercy by which thou hast sav'd us from the black plotts , and bloudy powers of the northern presbytery , has excell'd them all. ] rutherford tells ye that [ such opinions and practices , as make an evident schisme in a church , and set up two distinct churches , of different forms , and government , &c. cannot be tolerated . ] milton again , will have the presbyterians to be [ ministers of sedition , not ministers of the gospel . ] with what face now can those people appear to claim a toleration from the publique , whose principles are so cross , that they cannot afford it one to another ? scrup. well , but supposing these unhappy clashings among themselves , how does that prove them in confoederacy against the publique ? conf. their very agreement against the government , and in nothing else , makes it evident enough : but if you 'd have it clearer , look thorough their proceedings . in a petition that accompanyed their black remonstrance of dec. . — . you may find the points chiefly insisted upon to be these . the honour of the king , the liberty , and property of the subject ; the moderating of the bishops power ; and the removal of some unnecessary ceremonies , for the ease of tender consciences : nay , so far were they from any purpose or desire , to let loose the golden reins of discipline and government in the church , that they held it requisite to maintain a conformity throughout the kingdom , to that order , which the lawes enjoyn'd ; and took it very unkindly that the malignant party should infuse into the people , that they meant to abolish all church-government ; and leave every man to his own fancy , for the service and worship of god , absolving him of that obedience which he owes under god unto his majesty , whom they knew to be entrusted with the ecclesiastical law , as well as with the temporal , &c. — they confess indeed their intention of reducing within bounds that exorbitant power which the prelates had assum'd unto themselves so contrary both to the word of god , and to the lawes of the land. to which end they pass'd the bill for removing them from their temporal power and employments , that so the better they might with meekness apply themselves to the discharge of their functions . will ye now see the correspondence betwixt these gentlemens words , and their actions ? and first concerning the honour of the king ; wherein this word shall suffice , that they omitted nothing , in order to the destroying both of his soul , body , and reputation , which either craft , violence , or calumny could contribute , and not to rob either of the two factions of their deserved fame , and interest , in the ruine of that glorious prince . i shall conclude with parkers decision of the case , the presbyterians pass'd the sentence of condemnation , and the independents executed it . ze. i shall not pretend to iustifie all their actions ; but in truth my charity perswades me , that a great part of the mischief they did , proceeded rather from necessity then inclination . conf. will yee see then what they did afterward when they were at liberty to do what they listed ? they had no sooner murther'd the father , but immediately [ a ] they made it death to proclaime the son. [ b ] they abolisht kingly government . [ c ] sold the crown lands . [ d ] declar'd it treason to deny the supremacy of the commons . [ e ] null'd all honours and titles granted by the king since . [ f ] made scotland one common-wealth with england , &c. have they now kept any better touch with the liberty and property of the subject ? let their proceedings witness for them , [ a ] as their tax upon the fifth and twentieth part. [ b ] excise upon flesh , victuals , and salt. [ c ] a new excise upon allom , copper as , monmouth-caps , hoppes , saffron , starch , &c. [ d ] a loane of l. s. d. for supply of the scots . [ e ] an assessement for the maintenance of the army . [ f ] the house of peeres abolisht , and a monthly tax of l. for the army . [ g ] a monthly tax of l. [ h ] an imposition upon coal . [ i ] a monthly assessement of l. not to clogge the discourse with overmany particulars : wee 'll see next , what they have done toward the moderating of the power of bishops , and the removal of unnecessary ceremonies ? [ k ] the archbishop of canterbury suspended , and his temporalties sequestred . [ l monuments of superstition demolisht ( that is in short an ordinance for sacriledge ) [ m ] the book of common prayer laid aside , and the directory commanded in stead of it . [ n ] archbishops and bishops abolisht , and their lands setled in trustees . [ o ] their lands expos'd to sale. [ p ] festivals abolisht . [ q ] deans and chapters &c. abolisht , and their lands to be sold. this is your way , my masters , of moderating the power of bishops , and of removing unnecessary ceremonies ; and at the same rate you have provided for tender consciences , witness your penalties [ r ] for using the book of common prayer , and your forfeitures for not using the directory . zea. conformity ; you should do better , not to rip up these old stories again . conf. and if you would not hear of them again , you should leave doing them again . zea. then it seems the whole number must suffer for the misdemeanours of particulars . conf. no ; nor the whole party scape because of some particulars neither . would you ha' me open my door to a troop of thieves , because two or three of my honest friends are in the company ? and that 's the case . besides : you must permit me to distinguish betwixt particulars and the party ; for the party of non-conformists , are in a direct confederacy against the law ; whereas there may be divers particulars , that are mov'd only upon a principle of conscience . and those that are truly conscientious , will be known by this ; their'll endeavour their own satisfaction without any importunities upon the publique : for when they come once to joyn in a complaint against the law , 't is no longer conscience , but faction . and the question is not here , concerning the integrity of certain individuals , but how far a toleration belongs to the party , without any consideration of persons . zea. let us suppose then that the party may have done amiss ; i hope 't is no sin against the holy ghost . conf. truly , with reverence to charity , i take it to be next a-kin to 't , in very many of them . for , first ; they sinn'd against an evident light , as appears from their several doublings , and contradictory proceedings . next , there was a malice , notorious ; only i hope it went no further than god's vicegerent . but i 'le comply with the utmost of your argument : you would have those indulg'd that repent . with all my heart , if that will content ye . for still upon that condition , not a soul must be admitted that refuses to abjure the covenant : and there lies the very pinch of the question . for what the covenant meant , every body knows , from the express practice , and explication of them that made it . the league and covenant ( says rutherford ) was the first foundation of the ruine of the malignant party in england . and they that impos'd it , voted it death for any man , having taken it , to serve his majesty : so that whosoever refuses to disown the covenant , must be rationally supposed still to pursue the ends of it . which ends are , the subjection of the royal authoricy to the conclave of the kirk , and ( in terminis ) the abolition of episcopacy ; ( which his majesty has solemnly vow'd , and resolv'd to preserve ) from whence it arises undeniably , that , to tolerate the non-conformists that still adhere to the covenant , is to tolerate the sworn enemies both of royal , and episcopal authority , and of the peace of the nation : and in fine , to tolerate those that have sworn to persist in that opposition all the daies of their lives . from what is already said , it appears , first , that the non-conformists are not yet agreed what they would have , and i dare engage my self to be his slave that clears the proposition , farther , then that they would have this government unsetled , and they know not what in the place on 't . secondly , it is manifest , that impossible it is to please them any longer , then while they are united in a common design upon us : for next to publique order , they are the deadliest enemies one to another , as being govern'd by inconsistent principles . thirdly , it is past dispute , that by virtue of that favour which they now aske , and under colour of those pretences which they now hold forth , they have render'd themselves the instruments of all our late miseries , and the masters of the three kingdomes . fourthly , it is not more plain what they have done , then what they are now about to do ; and , that they have the same design upon the publique , at this instant , which they had in , is past all controversie . zea. conformity , you out-run the constable . will you pretend to enter into mens thoughts ? conf. no , i will not ; but if i should see a man throwing wild-fire into a magazine ▪ and he tells me that he does it to warm his fingers ; would not you take me for an asse , if i should believe him ? no , no , my fair friends . when ye see a wise man , frequently , and deliberately , doing things that manifestly lead to evil consequences , i think a very good christian may suspect that wise man's honesty . zea. come ; no more of your high-flown notions , but out with 't in good honest english : where 's the wild-fire , and the magazine that you would give us so learnedly to understand ? conf. where is it not rather ; to any man that will but look about him , without winking ? is not that sermon think ye that you sent me last night a pretty squib to cast into a populous ▪ town , that 's preach'd half to gunpowder already ? zea. and yet ye said e'en now , there was no danger . conf. i say the same thing still ; that is , without a toleration . zea. but where 's the mischief of that sermon i beseech ye ? conf. the book lies there upon the table , and 't is marqu'd to your hand : but i 'm ▪ not ready for 't yet ; if you please , wee 'll look it over by and by ; and speak a word in the mean time to the ius talionis , to the do as you would be done by of the matter . you would be tolerated by that government , which of all others , you your selves refus'd to tolerate ; stick now to your own rule , and tell me , with what face can ye demand a toleration , or for what sort of people ? begin with your clergy ; would you have them indulg'd ? zea. yes , as they are ministers of gods word , they ought to be indulg'd . conf. that can be no plea for them that persecuted gods ministers themselves . charity indeed is a general duty , but it is an argument that belongs only to them that practise it ; for , they that never spar'd any , cannot reasonably desire to be spar'd themselves . they are in the second place not to be tolerated ; upon the point of scandal : for , [ such are declar'd scandalous , as by writing , preaching , or otherwise , publish their disaffection to the present government ] 't is their own law , gentlemen ; and upon that score of disaffection , was introduc'd the most barbarous persecution of a gospel-ministry , that ever was heard of among christians . i could instance the particulars of the havock they made in london , the two universities , and finally throughout the kingdome . particularly , in south-wales ; where they did not only persecute the ministry , but the very gospel , by shutting up their churches , and condemning the people to the dictates and corruptions of unbridl'd nature . nor was it enough to sequester , unless they starv'd them too ; for they were not permitted , to live either as school-masters or chaplains , but upon severe penalties : a committee of middlesex indeed , told mr. lance ( a reverend , and a sequester'd minister ) that he might hedge and ditch for his living ( and that was the utmost of the liberty they could afford them. ) i could tell ye of the ministers that were poyson'd in peter-house , &c. but i shall make ye sick , and weary ; asham'd i hope ye are already , to plead for a toleration of those people against the law , that were thus mercyless toward their brethren that acted and suffer'd for it . but to seal up all with an authority : gillespy tells ye , that [ the general assembly hath ordain'd , that known complyers with the rebels , and such as did procure protections from the enemy , or keep correspondence and intelligence with him , shall be suspended from the lords supper , till they manifest their repentance before the congregation ] so that ye see we were not only debarr'd the common rights of subjects , and benefits of society ; but the very comforts of our religion were taken from us , and an anathema pronounc'd upon us for our loyalty ; and yet these people think it high reason to be tolerated themselves , and have the confidence to importune it from his most sacred majesty , to whose blessed father ( and that in the depth , and bitterness of his agonies ) they cruelly deny'd the use , and service of his own chaplains . [ a greater rigour , and barbarity then is ever us'd by christians to the meanest prisoners and greatest malefactors ] but ( continues that pious prince ) [ they that envy my being a king , are loth i should be a christian ; while they seek to deprive me of all things else ; they are afraid i should save my soul. ] a word now to the obligations we have to your civil authorities , as to the freedome of our persons and estates . visit but your own acts , and be your own iudges , ( but take the crime along with ye ; obedience to god , to the king , and to the law ) not to enumerate your particular , and personal outrages , as the clapping of so many honourable persons abord , and designing then for slaves , because they would not rebel ; the barbarous treatment of betwixt three and fourscore worthy and loyal gentlemen in the business of salisbury , that were shipp'd away and sold ( by an honest man ) to the barbados . nor to insist upon it , how many honourable persons have been smother'd , and starv'd in gaoles ; how much noble bloud hath been spilt both in the field , and upon the scaffold , &c. — i shall rather confine my self to some few of your general provisions for securing the royal party , and for the extirpation both of that line , and government , to which , providence has now again subjected ye : which ( to run over them in short ) shall be these [ a ] an ordinance for sequestration of delinquents estates . [ b ] delinquents disabled to bear any office , or have any vote in election of any maior , &c. here 's , estate , and legal freedome , gone already : now follows banishment from one place , and confinement to another . [ c ] delinquents must be remov'd from london and westminster , and confin'd within five miles of their own dwelling . [ d ] correspondency with charles stuart or his party prohibited under pain of high treason ] and [ e ] death to any man that shall attempt the revival of his claim , or that shall be aiding , assisting , comforting , or abetting unto any person endevouring to set up the title of any of the issue of the late king. these were the conditions of your favours , gentlemen , and the tryals of our faith. if ye are not yet convinc'd pray'e tell me , what was the reason , that throughout the whole course of your power , ye treated the episcopal party still worse then all the rest ? zea. because they were the most likely of all others to disturb our settlement . conf. very good , and what do ye think as to matter of conscience ? did ye do well , or ill in 't ? or rather , was there any thing of conscience in the case ? zea. truly i wish much of the severity had been abated ; but certainly , as 't was very fit for the civil power to secure the peace of the nation ; so was the power ecclesiastical no less concern'd to exact a conformity to the lawes and ordinances of christ. conf. can you say this , and not blush to deny the force of your own argument ? if ye did well in refusing to tolerate the episcopal way , because ye thought it not right ; the reason is as strong on the other side , that have the same opinion concerning yours . if ye did well o' th' other side , out of a political regard to the publique peace , the same reason lies as strong against ye that way too : so that you must either confess , that you did ill then , in refusing a toleration to us , or allow that authority does well now , in not permitting it to you. do not mistake me . i am as much as any man ( to borrow his sacred majesty's words ) for [ those that cannot conform , through scruple , and tenderness of misguided conscience : and for dissenters that demean themselves peaceably and modestly under the government . and that shall appear by and by , when we come to handle that question . zea. wee 're agreed then , if that be your opinion : and pray'e let 's forward to my friends sermon now . ( a person whom i take to be within the limit of your profess'd kindness ) conf. a match ; and if you please , i 'le glosse upon him to you . lo : eli sate upon a seat by the way side , waiting : for his heart trembled for the ark of god , sam. . . there 's his text ; from whence he gathers two observations . first , when the ark of god is in danger to be lost , the people of god have thoughtful heads , and trembling hearts . ( or , to put this doctrine into a gospel-dress ) when the gospel is in danger of losing , when gospel-ordinances are in danger of being lost , and gospel-ministers in danger of losing , then the people of god have trembling heads , and careful and solicitous hearts about it . secondly , a true child of god is more troubled , and more solicitous what shall become of the ark , then what shall become of wife and children , or estate . he gives you in the next place , four reasons , why the people of god are so much troubled when the ark of god is in danger . first , for the great love they bear to the ordinances of god , and to the faithfull ministers of christ. they cannot be silent ; they cannot but tremble when they see the ark of god in danger . secondly , they are troubled , because of the interest they have in the ark. the ordinances of god are the iewels of a christian , and the treasures of a christian , and the loss of them cannot but trouble them . and iesus christ is the ioy of a christian , and therefore when christ is departing , they cannot but be much afflicted at it . thirdly , they are troubled because of their accessariness to the losing of the ark. fourthly , the people of god are troubled because of the mischiefs that come upon a nation , when the ark of god is lost. the tongue of man is not able to express the misery of that nation where the ark of god is taken . first , when the ark of god is taken , then the wayes of sion mourn , and none come to the solemn assemblies ; it was the complaint of the church , lam. . . that is matter of sadness . secondly , the ministers of christ are then driven into corners . and that is matter of heart-trembling . thirdly , the souls of many are then in danger , when the gospel is gone , your souls are in hazard : there is cause of sadness . fourthly , the enemies of god blaspheme , and are ready to say , where is your god ? then do the enemies of god triumph . fifthly , then is jesus christ trampled under foot , and the ordinances of god defiled and trampled on , and then blasphemy and atheism comes in like an armed man. zea. very good , and what can you make out of all this ; but that the loss of the gospel is a dreadfull iudgment : the very fear of losing it , a dismal apprehension ; and that all other interests are as nothing in competition with iesus christ ? conf. agreed , thus far all 's right , and as it should be ; but come now to his application . the ark of god is ( at this instant ) in danger of being lost , d' ye see ? here is no less then all at stake , the very first dash. ask him now , where the danger lies ? he answers ye , that we have lost our first love to the gospel , and to the ordinances . is not this to charge the church of england with apostacy ? hear him again ; and set his vanity against his sedition . more particularly , aldermanbury may truly fear the loss of the ark , and be unchurched ; for want of a faithfull minister to go in and out before them . that is to say , famous mr. calamy ( for that epithete he bestowes upon himself ) is remov'd , and consequently the candlestick . another thing that makes him fear the loss of the ark , is , the abundance of priests , and iesuits , that are in the midst of us , and the preaching of popery amongst us , and the proneness of people to run headlong to the garlick and onions of egypt again . but where are our old eli's now , to sit watching and trembling for fear of the ark ? where are our moses ' s , our elijah ' s ? our uriahs , &c. observe this paragraph well . here 's first , an open and express endeavour to startle the people with a fear of popery , which was the very artifice by which this very person promoted our late troubles . secondly , here 's a direct arraignment of the king , and of his ministers . where are our moses's , &c. — what is this but to say , beloved , ye see , iesus christ is departing , idolatry is breaking in upon us , and our moses ' s , our ely's , never look after it . pray'e lay it a little more to heart , your selves . you can complain ( says he ) of taxes , and decay of trading ; of this civil burden , and that civil burden : but where 's the man or woman that complains of this misery . the loss of the ark ? who lays to heart , who regards what shall become of religion ? there is a strange kind of indifferency , and lukewarmness upon most peoples spirits : so they may have their trading go on , and their civil burdens remov'd , they care not what becomes of the ark. what is this , but to bring authority to the barr , and set the subject upon the bench ? what is it , but in plain terms , to sollicit the multitude to a tumult ? for mr. calamy knowes very well , that they have no other way in the world to do him a service in this case , but by sedition . and for fear of mistakes , note , i beseech ye , with what care the good man leads them to his meaning : they can complain of taxes he sayes , but hee would have them complain for the loss of the ark ; that is , in honest english , he would have them clamour against the government of the church . the very truth is , this gentleman speaks both upon experience , and foresight ; for no man knowes better , both what it has done , and what it may do . first , as to his foresight , rebellion can never be made god's cause , but by taking the ark into the quarrel . next , to his experience . this person was one of the five that menag'd the cause of the rabble against bishops , some twenty years agoe . there was compleyning for fear of the ark too : and what ensu'd upon it , but the dissolution of the government , the scandal of religion , and the murder of the king ? he blames the people next for their lukewarmness ; pray mark me ; they have been once in arms already since the king came in . they make no scruple at all of affronting the law : they have enter'd into several plotts upon the very person of his sacred majesty , and all this , for fear of the ark , as the poor wretches miserably imagine . if this zeal be not sufficient , i wonder what temper it is that our religious salamander would perswade them to : now take the whole matter in complication , and you have first , a prohibited minister preaching publiquely in despite of a solemn law. secondly , the sermon it self is within the reach of the act for the king's safety , where it is enacted , that what person soever , shall maliciously and advisedly publish or affirm the king to be an heretick or a papist , or that he endeavours to introduce popery ; or shall maliciously and advisedly , by writing , printing , preaching ; or other speaking , express , publish , utter or declare , any words , sentences , or other thing or things , to incite or stirr up the people to hatred or dislike of the person of his maiesty , or the established government ; then every such person and persons being thereof legally convicted , shall be disabled to have or enioy , and is hereby disabled and made incapable of having , holding , enioying , or exercising any place , office , or promotion ecclesiastical , civil , or military , or any other imployment in church or state , other than that of his peerage , &c. thirdly , here 's not only a reproche cast upon the government , but an appeal offer'd to the people , for the redress of it . now to proceed ; you have him here , charging upon the peoples consciences , the sin of not being sufficiently affected with the danger that the ark of god is in . it is a sign you do not love the gospel ; if you had any love to it , you would be troubled more for the danger of the ark , then for any outward danger whatsoever . is not this , the very style and scope of — . ( i spare his former hortatives to the warr , even for the credit of the function , ) the glory of god ( he sayes ) is imbark'd in the same ship which this cause is in . again , [ when you are derided for hazarding lives and estates in this cause , you must reply , it is for god , and his religion . and what was this cause , i beseech ye , but the foulest conspiracy that ever appear'd under that masque ? ( and those are of all others , certainly , the foulest . ) religion was then in danger , it seems : that is , the presbyterian was not as yet sure in the saddle ; nor would that obstinate and implacable faction ever be quiet , till they forc'd their soveraign to confute the imposture with his bloud . we have it now from the same hand , that the ark is in danger , and what 's that but the good old cause over again , only a little vary'd in the dress ? by the ark , he has already explain'd himself to intend , the interest of the ejected clergy [ pa. . ] ; and what he means by pressing so deep a concern for the danger of it , let any sober man imagine . he tells them first , that the ark is in danger , and then conjures them , as they love the gospel , not to regard any outward danger whatsoever to save it . if this be not to invite , provoke , and warrant any violence imaginable , either upon the person of the king , or upon the authority of the law , or wherever else the multitude shall think fit to fasten the quarrel ; let me suffer the shame that belongs to him that 's guilty of such an offence . nor shall the project want hammering , for hee 's over with it again and again , [ let me beseech ye all to declare you are the people of god in deed , and in truth , by following the example of old eli , to be very solicitous for the ark of god — [ consider what a sad condition we are in , if the ark be taken ; what will your estates doe ye good , or all your concernments do ye good , if the gospel be gone ? — what is the glory of england ; what is the glory of christianity but the gospel ? if the gospel be gone , our glory is gone . — oh! when the glory is gone , who would desire to live ? he goes on , [ i am loth to tell you the story of chrysostom ; he was but one man , yet when he was banish'd constantinople , the people all petitioned for him , and said , they could as well lose the sun out of the firmament , as lose chrysostome from among them . oh the sad , and lamentable , and woful condition we are in , if the ark of god be taken ! without any force to his meaning , take his sense in few words . what will your lives , or estates avail ye , without the gospel ? petition for your chrysostome again . ( good gentleman ! as if the sole receptacle of the holy ghost were mr. calamy's night-cap ) now to what end this tends , let any man look that is not blind . no man runs the risque either of his life , or fortune , for a petition ; so that his enforcing so much , the contempt of outward dangers , and of all other concernments , in comparison with the safety of the ark , ( which is now in hazard ) cannot rationally be apply'd to an action that carries along with it no danger at all . wherefore you must of necessity , grant , that your friend either meant nothing , or worse ; and that his pressing , and disposing the multitude to so great a contempt of their lives , and fortunes , was but a tacit encouragement of them to some action that might bring those interests in question . zea. i perceive , a presbyterian is well helpt up that has you for his interpreter . conf. can you your self acquit him ? zea. i must confess , i think he might have worded it with more caution . conf. and then his horrible , unchristian , bitterness against the government , — you have seen smectymnuus i suppose . zea. yes , yes ; he is a little eager in his way . conf. come , zeal ; i 'le disabuse ye : what will you say , if i bring you to a person , that shall averre to mr. calamy's face , that since his majesty's return , he has declar'd himself not unsatisfy'd with the government , and discipline of the church of england , and that only the importunity of his parishioners diverted him from accepting a bishoprick ? you will the less wonder at this when ye consider , how absolutely he was for the church , till he found it more beneficial to be against it . zea. all that i shall say , is this ; let every man speak as he finds : and so , if you please , wee 'll leave him to take his fortune . sect . x. arguments against toleration in respect of the authority that is to grant it . conf. come gentlemen , i have yet one exception more to your toleration , and that is upon the accompt of the authority that is to grant it . from whom do ye expect it ? zea. from the parliament . conf. but what is 't you call a parliament ? for , one while the king and the two houses in co-ordination are a parliament ; and when ye have screw'd out the kings negative voyce , the lords and commons are a parliament ; and then down go the lords , and the commons alone are a parliament ; and at last , out with them too , for the fountain of dominion is in the people . this is the scale of your politicks . but to the point in hand ; you apply to the parliament , and your grievance is matter of conscience ; do ye make the civil power a judge of conscience ? zea. no , under favour , my desire that the parliament will relieve my conscience , does not consequently make it a judge of it . conf. and with your pardon too , how shall the magistrate know whether your conscience is opprest , or no , if he be no judge of it ? one of these two rules he is to proceed by ; either that of his own particular , or the general rule of all consciences . if he measure your conscience by the former , there 's no oppression in the case ; for his conscience is very well satisfy'd in that which will not down with yours . if by the latter , all other consciences would be concern'd as well as yours , in the violation of a general rule : so that evidently , your scruples are singular , and if you cannot bring them within his cognizance , you must subject them to his authority ; and first teach him to know when your conscience is troubled , before ye complain because 't is not eas'd . scrup. for that , every man tells his owne tale best , and may best be credited in that which no body knows but himself . conf. and under that colour , so many men as make no conscience at all of an imposture , shall pretend to make one of a ceremony . peruse the tragedies of our holy leagues , covenants , and reformations : what crime so execrable that has not been committed under the motto of gods cause , and patronage of conscience ? what act so horrid , that has not past for a divine impulse ; and ( if it hit ) the author of it for an inspired instrument of iustice ? nay more ; not one notorious practice of a hundred , upon the person of a prince , but under a religious vernish ; and commonly , a priest at the one end of it , and an impulse at the other . was it not a holy father and the prior of the covent ( one of the heads of the league ) that confirm'd clement in his purpose of murdering harry the third of france ? for his encouragement ; they assur'd him , that if he out-liv'd the fact , he should be a cardinal ; if he dy'd , a saint : and this was it that fixt him in his determination . what was it again , that originally dispos'd this monster to that direful villany ; but principally seditious sermons against the king as a persecuting tyrant ? [ stimolato dalle predicationi , the giornalmente sentiva fare contra henrico di valois , nomi nato il persecutore della fede , & il tiranno , &c. ] see in the same author , the confession of iohn castle , concerning his attempt upon harry the great , which was , that he had been brought up in the jesuites school , and instructed , that it was not only lawful , but meritorious to destroy harry of bourbon , that revolted heretick and persecutor of the holy church [ esaminato con le solite forme , confesso liberamento , &c. ] what was it that animated ravillac to his damn'd practice upon that brave prince , but ( by his own confession ) a discourse of mariana's , de rege , & regis institutione ? 't was a divine instinct too , that mov'd balthasar gerard to destroy the prince of aurange [ divine tantum instinctu id à se patratum constanter affirmabat , diu tortus , &c. to conclude with that fresh and horrible instance here at home ; acted upon the sacred person of the late king. what was it , but the operation of that poyson in the people , which was instill'd into them by their ministers ? how inconsistent then is the liberty of the pulpit , with the safety of the government ? and how great a madness were it to expect , that the same persons should establish this prince by virtue of the same liberty by which they ruin'd the last ? you cannot certainly but confess the hazard to his sacred majesty of granting a toleration ; take a little notice now , of the indignity in proposing it . that grace which were an ample reward even for the most meritorious services , and loyalty , do these people mutinously demand as a requital for the contrary . scrup. will ye oppose the exercise of a charity , because it may be abus'd . conf. no , but i shall oppose the encouragement of a confidence that presses to be requited for an injury : and in truth , your petition properly taken , is rather a mockery then a request . as for the purpose , what is 't ye stick at ? scrup. the act for uniformity . conf. is it the model , or the uniformity that troubles you ? scrup. why truly i except to both ; for neither is the particular act fram'd to my satisfaction , nor is it possible , that any one form of worship should suit all judgments . conf. will toleration suit all judgments any better then uniformity ? or do ye accompt the sanction of any one form whatsoever , to be lawfull ? scrup. indeed i do not think it lawfull for a magistrate to enjoyn any thing upon a penalty , which a private person may not lawfully obey him in ; nor do i think it warrantable for a man to obey any humane command against his conscience . conf. now lay together what you have said ; first , it is not possible , that any one form of worship should suit all iudgments ; and then it is not lawfull to enjoyn any thing upon a penalty , which does not suit all iudgments . what is this but a meer trifling of government , to suppose a law without an obligation ? again ; if the magistrate cannot impose , neither can he tolerate ; unless you 'l suppose him a more competent judge of your conscience , then of his own : for you allow him the cognisance of what he may tolerate , and deny him the knowledge of what he may impose . in fine , your arguments , and opinions , duely weigh'd , his majesty has either no power , or no reason to permit you a toleration ; no power , as you state his capacity , and no reason as you disclaim his supremacie . scrup. i do not oppose the coactive power of the civil magistrate , in matters of civil concernment ; but i take the case in question to be of another quality , and out of the verge of the secular iurisdiction . conf. i think it will become you then , not to importune his majesty for the dissolving of an ecclesiastical law , before you acknowledge him vested with the right of making it . ze. if you think fit ; let that point be the next question . conf. agreed ; it shall . sect . xi . the proper subject and extent of humane power . conf. as reasonable nature consists of soul , and body ; so is the authority that governs it , divine and humane ; god , eminently over all , and princes ministerially under him , and as his substitutes . the dominion of our souls god reserves peculiarly to himself , committing that of our bodyes to the care of the magistrate . now if power be a. divine ordinance , so consequently is subjection ; for , to imagine the one without the other , were to destroy the ratio of relatives . a sober disquisition of this matter , would save much trouble that arises about the bounds and limits of our duty ; how far religion binds us , and how far allegeance . that they are severable , we must not doubt , for truth it self hath said it ; give unto caesar the things that are caesar's , and unto god the things that are god's : but that they are only so severable , as never to become inconsistent , is founded upon the same immovable rock , let every soul be subject , &c. — a precept of a perpetual , and universal operation , and limited neither to time , place , nor persons . ze. your deduction of government , and subjection from divine institution , is well enough coucht , and that we are to obey the magistrate for god's sake , and in subordination to god , is easily prov'd , and granted ; but i hear nothing yet of the particular bounds and terms of humane jurisrisdiction , what 't is belongs to god , and what to caesar . conf. that i confess , is the pinch of the question ; for one duty comes up so close to the other , that 't is not for every common eye to passe between them . effectually , they touch ; but , in what point , is of a nice decision . the readyest way in my opinion , to the strict knowledge of our duty , is by the lawes and powers of the authority ; for , 't is requisite that a man know the rule , before he can observe it . wee are then to consider , that the almighty wisdom has invested kings with an unlimited power of commanding , or forbidding , in all matters which god himself has not either commanded , or forbidden ; which proposition resolves it self into this conclusion , whatsoever god has left indifferent , is the subject of humane power . scrup. does not that opinion destroy christian liberty ? conf. no : but the denyal of it destroyes magistracy . if kings have not this power , they have none at all ; and it implyes a contradiction , to suppose any authority in nature without it . scrup. but may not a prince tye himself up in a thing otherwise indifferent ? conf. i speak of power according to the institution , not of power limited by paction . scrup. may not the same thing be indifferent to one , and not so to another ? conf. granted ; and i pray'e follow it a little further . may not every thing imaginable appear non-indifferent to some or other ; if nothing can be commanded , but what upon such a phansy may be disobey'd ? scrup. pardon me , i do not speak of matters of civil concern , but of matters of religion . conf. that 's all a case ; for you cannot instance in any one civil action , that may not be made relative to religion . but stick to the mark ; we are upon the extent of humane power : that there is such a power ; and that authoris'd too by god himself , you have already granted : now tell me , upon what shall that power be exercis'd , if you exclude things indifferent ? one man may have a reall scruple ; and all the rest , pretend one ; who shall distinguish ? so that the rule holding from one , to all , the sacred authority of the prince becomes dependent upon the pleasure of the subject , and the validity of a divine and unchangeable ordinance , is subjected to the mutable judgement and construction of the people . scrup. it may be you expect the magistrate should as well have a power of judging what 's indifferent , as of restreyning it . conf. you may be sure , i do ; for otherwise i 'm where i was , if i make you the judge : is 't not all one , as to the magistrate , whether you refuse upon pretense that the thing is not indifferent , or upon pretense that he cannot restreyn a thing indifferent ? the crime indeed is differing in the subject ; for the one way 't is an usurpation of authority , and the other way , 't is a denyall of it . scrup. why then it seems , i am to believe any thing indifferent , which the magistrate tells me is so , be it never so wicked . conf. no ; there you 're bound up by a superiour law. scrup. have you forgot your self so soon ? 't was but just now , you would not allow me to be a iudge , and here you make me one. conf. right ; to your self you are , but not to the publique : a judge of your own thought , but not of the law. scrup. at your rate of arguing now from one to all ; authority , methinks , should be as much endanger'd this way , as the other ; for all may iudge thus , as well as one. conf. 't is possible they may ; nay wee 'll suppose an imposition foul enough to move them all to do so ; and yet there 's a large difference ; for , diversity of iudgment does not shake the foundation of authority ; and a man may disobey a sinful command with great reverence to the power that imposes it . scrup. you were saying even now , that my duty to god , and to the king , could never be inconsistent : pray'e , how shall i behave my self , if the prince commands one thing , and god , another ? i cannot observe the law , without violence to my conscience , nor discharge my conscience , without offence to the law ; what course shall i take to avoid enterfering ? conf. demean your self as a christian toward the law of god , on the one hand ; and as a subject , toward the ordinance of god on the other : as considering that you are discharg'd of your obedience , but not of your subjection . scrup. suppose the supreme magistrate should by a law establish a false worship . conf. hee 's still your prince , and even in this complication , you may acquit your self both to god , and caesar. divide the worship from the magistrate , and in so doing , you both fear god , and honour the king ; and it is only this loyal and religious separation of our duties , that must set us right in the main controversie . where do ye find that kings reign upon condition of ruling righteously ? or that we owe them less after misgovernment , than we did before ? scrup. but do ye say , we are bound to honour an idolatrous prince ? conf. yes , yes : the prince you are bound to honour , though not as an idolater . shall the vice or error of the person , blemish the faultless dignity of the order ? by that rule , the world must continue without a government , till we can find men without failings . scrup. so that you allow i perceive of distinguishing betwixt the person and the office. conf. betwixt the frailty of the one , and the sacredness of the other , i do : for kings command as gods , though they iudge as men : but i do no more allow of dividing the person of a prince from his authority , then of dividing his soul from his body . scrup. and , i beseech ye , what is that which you call authority ? conf. to tell ye only that it is gods ordinance , falls short , i believe , of the scope of your ▪ question . wherefore take this in surplusage . it is the will and power of a multitude , deliver'd up by common consent to one person or more , for the good and safety of the whole : and this single or plural representative acts for all. take this along with ye too . the disposition of such or such a number of persons into an order of commanding and obeying is that which we call a society . scrup. what is the duty of the supreme magistrate ? conf. to procure the welfare of the people , or , according to the apostle ; he is the minister of god , for a comfort to those that do well , and for a terrour to evill-doers . scrup. how far are his lawes binding upon his subjects ? conf. so far as they that parted with their power had a right over themselves . scrup. whence was the original of power , and what form of government was first , regal , or popular ? conf. power was ordain'd of god , but specify'd by man ; and beyond doubt , the first form of goverment was monarchique . scrup. nay , certainly the popular form was first , for how could there be a king without a people ? conf. so was the son before the father ( you 'll say ) for how could there be a father without a son. but the question is first , was the world ever without a government , since the creation of man ? secondly , whether was first in the world , one man , or more ? i see well enough what 'tis you 'd be at ; you would fain advance the popular form above the regal : which if ye could , 't were nothing to our purpose ; for we are not upon the form of government , but upon the latitude of humaene iurisdiction , be the sovereignty where it will ; and that it extends to whatsoever god has left indifferent , is my assertion . if you deny this , you overthrow all government , ( as is already prov'd ) and if you grant it , we are at liberty for the next enquiry which is concerning , sect . xii . the bounds of toleration ; with some reflections upon schism , and scandal . conf. it is already agreed , that government is a divine ordinance ; and order ( according to the reverend hooker ) is only , a manifestation of the eternal law of god. so that i think , a man may safely pronounce ( upon this allowance ) first , that what principle soever is manifestly destructive of government , or but rationally tending to confusion , cannot le of god. secondly , every man is to content himself in his station as being no farther accomptable , than for what 's committed to his charge . under these two heads will be found ( if i mistake not ) whatsoever belongs to the political part of our debate . we are here to enquire , not how far toleration may be convenient , or otherwise ; but how far warrantable and lawful : and i find it ( by a reverend , and learned prelate ) brought to this standard , [ in the question of toleration , the foundation of faith , good life , and government is to be secur'd . ] wherein is compris'd a provision and care , that we may live as christians toward god ; as members of a community toward one another ; and as loyal subjects toward our sovereign . now if you 'll admit opinions to be only so far tolerable as they consist with these duties of religion , morality , and society , we have no more to do , but to apply matters in controversie to the rules of piety , and good manners , and to the ends of government . scrup. ' t is true ; were men agreed upon those rules : but we see several men have various apprehensions of the same thing ; and that which one man takes for a rule , another counts an errour . conf. by your argument , we shall have no religion , because men differ about the right ; no bible , because men disagree about the meaning of it : no rule , in fine , at all to square our actions by , till truth , and reason shall be establisht by a popular vote . the law says worship thus , or so ; use this form , that ceremony , posture , habit , &c. — the libertine cries no , 't is a confinement of the spirit ; an invention of man ; a making of that necessary which god left free ; a scandal to tender consciences , &c. — and here 's authority concluded , as to the manner of worship . so for the time. how do they know when christ was born , or crucify'd ? nay , they have much adoe to call to mind when the late king was murder'd : but the relief of taunton , and the repulse they gave the cavaliers at lyme : this they can very well remember , and celebrate those daies of mercy with a most superstitious gravity , and form. the churches fasting-daies , they make their iubilees ; and still it happens , that their consciences and the law , run counter . 't is the same thing , as to the place ; command them to church ; they 'll tell ye , there 's no inherent holiness in the walls ; the hearts of the saints , are the temples of the lord. is not god to be found in a parlour , as well as in a steeple-house ? in fine , what 's their plea for all this ; but that , this is one mans iudgment , that , anothers : this or that may be indifferent to you , but not to mee . what 's indifference to christianity ? this sickly humour opens a door to as many controversies as there are men ; it leaves authority , naked ; and exposes the law to any mans scorn , that shall think fit to scruple his obedience . to conclude ; this lawless liberty , razes the very foundation of government ; it creates as many religions , as there are several phansies ; and , briefly , the assertors of this liberty are of the number of those that are not upon any terms to be admitted within the pale of a toleration . scrup. shall the magistrate make me act against my conscience ? conf. shall the subject make him tolerate against his ? but to proceed ; there are that place [ a ] the soveraignty in the diffusive body of the people , that hold it lawfull for the subjects to enter into leagues and covenants , not only without the soveraign's consent , but against his authority ; that call upon the people in the pulpit , [ b ] to assist the forces raised by the parliament , according to their power and vocation , and not to assist the forces raised by the king , neither directly nor indirectly : that proclaym [ c ] the breach of the national covenant , to be a greater sin , then a sin against a command'ment , or against an ordinance — a sin of so high a nature , that god cannot in honour but be aveng'd upon 't . these are a people likewise , whose principles stand in no consistence either with piety or with government ; and can as little pretend to the benefit of a toleration as the former . there are that asfirm , [ d ] reformation of religion to be the people's duty no less then the king 's : [ e ] and that the pastors of the land are oblig'd to reform themselves and religion without the king ; nay , though the king command the contrary . there are that print [ f ] the english episcopal clergy to be sons of belial ; that press the cutting of them off ; that scandalously charge them with drunkennesse , prophanesse , superstition , popishness : to the dishonour of that government which his majesty has sworn to maintain , and to the hazard of the publique peace . these also do i take to be a people , whose practices and opinions threaten a certain and swift destruction both to church and state , wherever they are tolerated . what security can a prince expect , where his mistakes are made the common theme of the pulpit , and where his regalities are subjected , to the good pleasure of his subjects . ze. you do not think it lawfull then i perceive , to tolerate the non-conformists . conf. till they renounce their seditious , and anti-monarchical wayes , i must confess i do not . ze. and which are those i beseech ye ? conf. their inconformity to the law ; their doctrine of conditional obedience : their erecting an ecclesiastical supremacy to overtop the prerogative royall ; to say no more , their declaring the magistrate accomptable to the people . scrup. conformity , you have spoken some sharp truths , and it is to be presum'd that you 'l allow the liberty you take . whether do you believe scandal to be any more tolerable , than schism ? or , are not the sons of the church ( as ye call them ) as guilty of the one , as the non-conformists are of the other . conf. scandal , my good friend , is a general term ; especially as you frequently apply it : and 't is but reason for me to ask your meaning , before i give you my answer . to say , that the sons of the church are guilty of scandal , when , eo nomine , they appear to you scandalous , is no more then to say , that the sons of the church are the sons of the church : for , the church it self , the government , and the rites of it , are all , scandalous to you. wherefore i beseech ye , be a little more particular , that i may understand what scandal you intend , and be as plain , as playn may be . scrup. nay , you shall have it then , and as plainly too as your heart can wish . your position is , that no toleration can warrantably be granted to the hazard of religion , good life , and government . according to that standard , you 'ld find , that the conformists have as little right to a toleration , as their neighbours ; and that the notorious scandal on the one side , out-weighs the pretended schism on the other . but , to make my self understood ; by scandal , i mean publique and habitual prophaneness , sensuality , dissolution of manners , &c. — as , by schism and sedition , i suppose you intend our incomplyances with your church-discipline : our preaching up the power of godliness , against the form of it , ( which you interpret to be a decrying of your ceremonies ) and our exhortings , rather to obey god than man , ( which you are apt to take for an affront to your master's prerogagative . ) 't is true ; we cannot bring up our consciences to your ceremonies , and , for refusing to doe , what we cannot iustifie the doing of , we are baptiz'd , schismatiques . this extermination of us from the publique assembly , puts us upon the necessity of private meetings ; and there we are charg'd with plotts ; and practices upon the state. take it all at the worst , it is but doing that which the whole world agrees must necessarily be done ▪ after such a manner as some people imagine we ought not to do it . so much for the schism of the non-conformists . now put the scandal of the adverse party into the other scale , and you your self shall hold the ballance . set but your tavern-clubs against our conventicles , and ( since you will have it so ) oppose our plotts against the government in the one , to your combinations against god himself in the other ; ( for atheism is become the sport , and wit ; the salt of your most celebrated enterteinments . ) in your own words , [ the eternal verity is made a fable ; religion but a scar-crow , ( the sour impression of a superstitious melancholy , ) nor , is't enough to abandon heaven , unless ye invade it too ; and in the throne of providence , set up the empire , and divinity , of fortune . when you have dash'd the bible out of countenance , with the conceit of the three grand impostors , or some such tart piece of drollery , ( and all this enterlarded with execrable , and study'd blasphemyes ) the man must be cast off , as well as the christian ; and there 's the upshot of your familiar conversations . if such people as these may be tolerated , where 's your ▪ foundation of faith , good life , and government ? conf. we are fallen , i must confess into a lewd age ; and yet truly , when i consider , that this nation has been twenty years under your tuition , 't is a greater wonder to me ; that it is not quite overspread with atheism , than to find it only teinted and infected with it . the reproche and load of this impiety , you have cast upon the episcopal party : but when we come to trace the monster to his den , i 'm afraid we shall bring the footsteps of him up to your own dore. that there are exorbitants in all perswasions , is a thing not to be doubted ; and that there are in ours as well as in others , i will not deny ; but to asperse the cause for personal misdemeanours , is , to my thinking , very disingenuous . if ye will charge personal crimes upon the accompt of a party , you should be sure to make out those crimes to be rationally consequent to the tenents , or actings , of that party . now if you can shew me any affinity betwixt our principles , and those villanyes , you say something ; but if ye cannot , the dust of your argument puts out your own eyes . scrup. you forget that you condemn your own practice ; for why may not i charge personal extravagancies upon your party , as well as you do it upon ours ? conf. only because there is not that affinity ( as i said but now ) betwixt the principles of the party , and the faults of the persons ; on the one side , which i find on the other . to make this as clear as the day , wee 'l open it thus. the episcopal party was for the king , and 't is undenyable , that the king , and the church , had both the same cause , and the same fate . the nonconformists were against the king ; and it is there as unquestionable , that they were the men that destroy'd both church , and state. so that the issue lies within this compass ; whether the soveraignty be in the king , or in the people ? if in the king , the rebellion was on your side ; if in the people , the guilt of the warr lyes upon us . now place the power where ye please ; do ye own the kings authority , or do ye disclaim it ? if ye disclaim it , why do ye petition to your inferiour ? or why should the king favour his competitours ? if ye acknowledge it , wee 'l proceed upon this grant , that the non-conformists were in a rebellion ; and prove that all the transcendent abominations which you compleyn of , are but the proper , and natural fruits , that have proceeded from that root . ze. you know there have been several popular tracts written upon this subject ; as — some-bodyes soveraign power of parliaments . rutherford's lex rex , &c. that never were answer'd yet . conf. well said old true-penny . i think the assemblyes letter to the reformed churches , was never answer'd neither . but , to be serious . there are indeed many dangerous , and seditious treatises that lye unanswer'd ( the more 's the shame , and pity . ) if no body were wiser then my self ; the sum of them all should be confuted in one just volume , and the origina's committed to the fire , for the security of the future . scrup. but you were about to tell us how rebellion begets atheism . conf. well remembred ; and i pray'e observe . there are but two sorts of people that are capable of being drawn into a rebellion , the weak and the wicked ; those that do not understand what they doe , and those that care not what they doe . the ordinary stale , is religion ; the scene of this spiritual imposture is the pulpit , and the arbitrators of the cause are the preachers ; by the benefit of which conjuncture , ( to wit ) of the weight of the matter in question ; [ religion ] with the authority appoynted to determine it ; [ god 's ministers ] it is no hard business for a peinfull and well-affected ministry ( that is , painfull , and well-affected in , and to the design ) to preach the generality of the people into this division : [ i. e. ] those that cannot reach the cheat to scruple at every thing ; and those that go along with it , to make a conscience of nothing : and hence it comes , that this kingdome is so pester'd with enthusiasts , and atheists . zea. but i tell ye again ; the atheists are on the wrong side : the atheists are against us . conf. let me enform ye then , that your proceedings have made atheists , more waies then one. first , the meer quality of your cause , has made atheism the interest of many of your partakers ; who to put off that horrour which attends them if there be a god , endeavour to perswade themselves that there is no god at all . secondly , the work has been carried on under the masque of holiness ; and the most desperate atheist , is nothing else but a crusted hypocrite . i speak of your religious atheist , who has this odds of the prophane , and scoffing wretch , that he abuses god to his face , and in his own house . the great atheists , indeed , are hypocrites ( sayes sir francis bacon ) which are ever handling holy things , but without feeling ; so as they must needs be cauteriz'd in the end. it is remarquable , ( as i have elsewhere observ'd ) that in the holy scripture there are not so many woes pronounc'd , nor so many cautions inculcated , against any sort of people as against hypocrites . you shall there find that god has given the grace of repentance to persecutors , idolaters , murtherers , adulterers , &c. but i 'm mistaken if the whole bible yields any one instance of a converted hypocrite . thirdly , let me tell ye , for the honour of your practises , that as to the defence of atheism , you have done more then all that ever went before ye ; upon that noble argument . your people were not [ a wicked , prophane , drunken ministry ( they would never have setled the ark ) but sober , pious , godly ministers , that did the feat : — a praying , and reforming people . indeed a people that would seize a brother's benefice with more reverence , then any of our prelates gives a charity . zea. be not severe , conformity . conf. then bid your brethren leave their gibbrish , and their iugling ; and wee 'll to our atheism again . answer me soberly , what if a state should grant a toleration , for all men to talk of god-almighty as they please ? scrup. a horrid , impious proposition ! conf. thou art the man , scruple ; that which you ask is more and worse ; for the liberty is the same , and the danger infinitely greater . in earnest , he that looks narrowly through our late troubles , from to . will find matter not only to stagger a weak christian , but to put a wiseman to a second thought ; and to make him exclaim with the prophet , [ lo , these are the ungodly , these prosper in the world , and these have riches in possession — then have i cleansed my heart in vain , and washed my hands in innocency . to see nye , and marshall with their hands lifted up un-the lord in a holy covenant ; swearing to day to defend and preserve the king's majesty's person , &c. and a while after with the same consecrated lips , blessing that cursed vote , that manifestly led to his destruction ( the vote of non-addresses ) which was no more then saying grace to the kings bloud . to see a gang of pulpit-weather-cocks shifting from party to party , till they have run through every point of the compass , swearing , and counter-swearing ; and when the city was split into more factions , then parishes , still to mainteyn , that the whole schism was acted by the holy-ghost . to find the pulpit in stead of plain and saving truths trading only in dark and oraculous delusions , and the pretended messengers of peace , turn'd agents for bloud — to hear and see all this , and more , and the cause prosper too . what could the wit of man add more to this temptation to apostacy ? lastly , i must impute much of that iniquity which now reigns , to your necessitated toleration : i call it necessitated , for you could never have crush't the government without it . that toleration started so many lewd opinions , that it was some degree of modesty , for fear of a worse choyce , to be of no religion at all ; and beyond question , many people finding it left so indifferent of what religion they were ; became themselves as indifferent , whether they were of any religion or no. you have forc'd me here , in my own defence , to be a little sharper then i intended ; and truly since we are in thus far , and that the schismatiques think it so mighty a matter to hit the prelatical party i' th' teeth at every turn , with the imputation of scandal ; i beseech ye tell me , which o' the two do you count the more tolerable , scandal , or schism ? scrup. if by schism you mean , a refusal to joyn with that church where i cannot communicate without sin : and if you intend by scandal , such actions as are of ill example , and administer occasion to your neighbour of falling , i think 't is easily determin'd , that the one is not to be suffer'd , and the other not to be condemn'd . conf. when i speak of schism , and scandal , let not me be understood , to speak of this or that sort , or degree of either ; but in the just latitude both of the one , and the other : that is ; without more circumstance , which do you take for the more tolerable mischief of the two ? scrup. truly betwixt a perverse-separation , and a notorious scandal , i think the choyce is hard : but i rather incline against the scandal . conf. then let me tell ye , schism is both ; and if ye will believe sir francis bacon , [ heresies and schisms , are of all others the greatest scandals ; yea more then corruption of manners . ] consider it first , as it stands in opposition to unity , ( which is the bond both of religion , and society ) what can be more scandalous then that which renders religion it self , ridiculous ? and that 's the effect of schism . to see so many several factions grinning one upon another , and yet all pretending to the same one , and infallible spirit ! to bring it homer , how great a shame and trouble is this to those that are within us ! how great a discouragement to such as are without us ; and how great a subject of rejoycing is it to those that are against us ! how many ( in fine ) has it driven from us ; and how many more has it hinder'd from coming to us ! again ; 't is seldome , ( i think i might say , never ) seen , that schism goes alone : and in effect , it is but sedition in a disguise . for we find that our scrupulous dissenters , can with great ease , and unity , agree in a war , though not in a ceremony . scrup. and may there not be conspiracies in scandal , as well as in schism ? there , with an evident design to bring contempt upon religion : whereas here , we find at least a colour , and pretence to uphold it . beside ; the sins which i accompt scandalous , are , many of them , levell'd at the prerogative of god himself ; and , in short , the question is not properly , and simply , betwixt schism , and scandal , but betwixt schism , and ail other sins whatsoever that may be propagated by conversation ; ( for that 's the latitude of scandal ) zea. again , let me observe from your own mouth , that heresies are scandals , and several heresies you know , both by the laws of god and man , are punish'd with death . he that blasphemeth the name of the lord , shall be put to death . and from hence you may gather some difference sure , betwixt the heynousness of the one , and of the other . conf. if you will measure the sin by the punishment , you 'll proceed by a very uncertain rule : for political laws regard rather publique conveniences , than particular cases of conscience . a man shall lose his life for picking a pocket , and but hazard his ears for a false oath . but if you 'll refer the matter to the just and infallible judge of all the world , ●● god himself ; look but into that dreadful judgement upon the schism of korah . korah , dathan , &c. rose against moses with two hundred and fifty captains of the assembly , famous in the congregation , and said unto them , ye take too much upon you , since all the congregation is holy , every one of them , and the lord is among them . wherefore then lift ye your selves above the congregation of the lord. [ and what follow'd ? ] the earth open'd her mouth , and swallow'd them up with their families , and all the men that were with korah , &c. a fire came out from the lord , and consum'd the two hundred and fifty men that offer'd the incense . this set the multitude a muttering against moses and aaron ; saying ye have kill'd the people of the lord. see now what came of this muttring too : fourteen thousand seven hundred of them were consum'd by a plague . zea. well! but what if you 'll understand that to be schism , which i know to be conscience ? conf. then have you the same freedome to be even with me , upon the point of scandal ; and so the controversie must be endless for want of a judge to decide it . sect . xiii . the necessity of a final , and unaccomptable judge . conf. what 's your opinion of the necessity of a iudge ? ze. i 'm clearly for a judge ; that is , for a iudge furnish'd as well with a competency of understanding to determine aright , as with a power and commission to determine . conf. a iudge supposes one competency , as well as the other ; but the determination must be final , and decisive ; no appeal from it , and no contending beyond it . ze. what not in case of errour ? i should be sorry to see a roman infallibility set up in england . conf. how you start now from the shadow of an infallible judge , into the inconvenience of none at all ! you would have a judge you say : but then , that judg must be questionable , in case of errour ; so that another judg is to judg him , and the very judg of this judg is himself questionable ; and so is his judg , and his judges judg ; - ( to the end of the chapter ) in case of errour : which case of errour may be alledg'd , wheresoever there 's no infallibility ; and if there be no infallibility in nature , then by your rule , there can be no iudg in nature . ze. i do not say but a man may iudg certainly in some cases , though not infallibly in all ; and my demand is only the free exercise of my iudgment of discretion , without being ty'd up to an implicit resignation . there is ( in short ) but a right , and a wrong ; and the one i must embrace , and reject the other . how shall i know this from that , without enquiry ? and what am i the better for that enquiry , if when i have learn'd my duty , i am debar'd the liberty to practise it ? conf. you turn the question here from the necessity of a judge , to his infallibility . 't is not a half-penny to me , whether you make him infallible , or credible , or probable ; or what you make him , or where you place him , provided that he be acknowledg'd ▪ necessary , and unaccomptable . necessary , i suppose you will not stick at : for there can be no peace without him , every man being at liberty to wrangle , where no man is authoris'd to determine . zea. what is it that either invites tyranny , or upholds it , but the opinion of an unaccomptable-sovereignty ? conf. what is it rather ( you should have said ) that excites sedition , and depopulates kingdomes , but the contrary ? and the fiercest tyranny , is much more supportable then the mildest rebellion . zea. i shall readily allow you the convenience of a definitive judgment , if you will but secure me from the danger of a definitive injustice . conf. you mistake your self , if you oppose a possible injury on the one side , to a certain strife and confusion on the other . if infallibility you cannot find , why may not the the fairest probability content you ? zea. but would you have that probability , govern by unquestionable , and authoritative conclusions ? conf. by any means ; ye do nothing , else ; for where controversies are inevitable , and concord necessary ; what can be more reasonable , than to chuse the most competent iudge of the matter in controversie , for the concluding umpire of the controversie it self ? scrup. but a man may iudge probably in one case , and improbably in another . suppose the determination to be manifest errour , or injustice ; would you have the same submission pay'd to 't , as if it were equity , and truth ? conf. yes ; to the determination , though not to the errour : you are to stand to the authority of the sentence , without contesting the equity of it : for right or wrong , 't is a decision . the principal scope , and sure end of a reference , is peace : the hopeful event , and issue of it , is , righteous judgment . is it not well then , to be sure of the one , and in so fair hopes of the other ? put it to the worst : you are not bound to be of the judge his opinion , but to be over-rul'd by his authority : neither do you undertake that he shall judge wisely as to the subject of the question , but that he shall judge effectually , as to the purpose of the reference . scrup. this resignation may do well , in cases of civil interest : but it will hardly hold in matters of conscience . who shall pretend to iudge of my conscience , beside god , and my self ? conf. the scripture , which is the rule of all consciences , shall be the iudge of yours . but the question is not , what your conscience is , but what it ought to be : not what your private judgment says , but what the scripture means : and the thing i strive for , is a judge of that ; a iudge of the rule of faith ; which i take to be all out as necessary as a iudge of a political law. you cannot but allow , that there are diversities of opinions , as well in religion , as concerning secular affairs : and such is our corruption , that we draw poyson even from the fountain of life , and the word of god it self , is made the warrant of all crimes , and the foundation of all heresies . look behind ye , and you may see a prince murther'd by his subjects , authority beheaded by a pretended law , and all this defended by a text. the church dovour'd by a divided ministry ; the government overturn'd by a solemn league and covenant , to support it . an arbitrary power introduc'd by the patrons of liberty , and charity it self extinguish'd for the advancement of the gospel . we have liv'd to see as many haeresies , as congregations ; and among those of the classical way , a consistorian sarutiny exercised beyond the rigour of a spanish inquisition . we have seen some that a abhor idols , committing sacriledge ; christ's kingdome cry'd up , till his b divinity is deny'd : strictness of life inculcated , till the very rule of it ( the c decalogue it self ) is rejected . and blasphemy hunted out of the tavern , into the pulpit . in short ; what sin , and misery have we not known , and felt , since under the form of liberty of conscience , this freedome of a private spirit came in vogue ? nor are we ever to expect better from it , till all men shall conspire to do the same thing , where every man is left to his own gust , to do what he pleases : and whence flowes all this mischief , and confusion , but from a licence of wandring from the rule ? shew the people a written law ; they 'll tell you of a law of nature ; and distinguish betwixt [ the d politique power they have given the king , and the natural power which they reserve to themselves . ] bid them reverence the king as the supreme governour : they 'll answer you , no : hee 's but the servant , and vassal of the people : his royalty is only a virtual emanation from them ; and in them radically , as in the first subject . ( according to rutherford , parker , goodwin , bridges , milton , and a hundred more ) come to the point of non-resistence , and you shall hear , that a wheresoever a king , or other supreme authority creates an inferiour , they invest it with a legitimacy of magistratical power , to punish themselves also , in case they prove evil-doers : yea , and to act any other thing , requisite for the praise and encouragement of the good. if it be demanded in what capacity the king may be resisted ? hear rutherford again b the man who is king may be resisted , but not the royal office ; the king in concreto , may be resisted ; but not the king in abstracto . ] . but in what manner may he be resisted ; and by what means . c he may be resisted in a pitch'd battel , and with swords and guns . that is ; his d private will may be resisted , not his legal will ; neither is he present in the field as a e king , but as an injust invader , and grassator . if he chance to be slain : 't is but an f accident ; and who can help it ? g hee 's guilty of his own death ; or h let them answer for 't that brought him thither . i the contrary party is innocent . but this resistence , is only justifiable ( i hope ) in magistrates , or authoritative assemblies ; as parliaments , &c. rutherford sayes nay to that . all powers must be serv'd with the same sauce , if they abuse their trust. k [ the people can give no other power , then such as god has given them ; and god has never given a moral power to do ill. ] l [ all fiduciary power , abus'd , may be repeal'd ; and parliamentary power is no other : which , if it be abus'd , the people may repeal it ; and resist them ; annulling their commissions ; rescinding their acts , and denuding them of their fiduciary power : even as the king himself may be denuded of the same power , by the three estates ] and goodwin tells us , in little ; that a all humane lawes , and constitutions , are made with knees to bend to the law of nature and necessity . well ; but suppose the prince has the good hap to scape gun-shot ; and only to become a prisoner ; you have no law to try him by , he has no peers , what course will you take with him ? milton's opinion is that b every worthy man in parliament , might , for the publique geod , be thought a fit peer , and iudge of the king ; ] and goodwin dogmatizes , that c [ where there is no opportunity , for the interposure of other iudges , the law of nature , and of nations allows every man to iudge in his own case . ] parker comes homer yet d there never was ( says he ) a greater harmony of the lawes of nature , reason , prudence , and necessity to warrant any act , then may be found , and discern'd in that act of iustice on the late king ; ] now if you 'll see a piece of treason crown'd with blasphemy , carry your eve four pages farther . e god himself had eclips'd , yea lost the brightest beam of his divine glory , that ever shin'd on this lower world , if he had not some way or other , brought that person to some eminent , and praeter-natural punishment . ] me thinks these practices should put you , and your cause out of countenance . scrup. you must understand , that though my reason lies against uniformity , yet i 'm no advocate for anarchy : and 't is with non-conformists as with other people ; there are good and bad , of all sorts . but to go with the moderate : would you have all mens consciences govern'd by the same rule , when 't is impossible to bring them all to the same mind ? conf. better , particulars suffer for incompliance with the publique , than the publique suffer for complying with particulars . uniformity is the ciment of both christian , and civil societies : take that away , and the parts drop from the body ; one piece falls from another . the magistrate , ( for order's sake ) requires uniformity ; you , and your associates oppose it upon a plea of conscience ; and the question is , whether he shall over-rule your opinions ; or you over-rule his authority ? this dispute begets a war , for want of a iudge , and to prevent that mischief , i offer that a iudge is necessary . or put it thus : you and i differ , and possibly we are both of us in the wrong ; but most certainly , we are not both in the right : and yet neither of us but thinks well enough of his own opinion . what 's to be done in this case ? shall we wrangle eternally ? scrup. no ; wee 'll rather put the matter to arbitration . conf. well! but the arbiter himself is fallible , and may mistake too ; or let him have the wisdome of an angel , he cannot please us both : for that which seems right to the one will appear wrong to the other . shall we stand to his award what ever it be ? if not ; take into your thought these consequences . you refuse to submit because 't is wrong : i may refuse , by the same reason , though it be right : ( for every man's reason is of equal force , where there is no common , and representative reason to bind all ) so that by your reckoning ; every man is in the right to himself , and in the wrong to all the world beside ; every man's hand is against his brother , and his brother 's against him. ( at least if i deceive not my self , in my perswasion , that nature never produc'd two persons , in all points , of the same judgment . ) now , if you can neither deny confusion to be the natural effect of this liberty of judgment ; nor the want of a regulating , and decretory sentence , to be the manifest cause of this confusion , i hope you 'll grant me the necessity of an unaccomptable judge . scru. is not the word of god a sufficient iudge ? conf. no ; that 's no iudge , but [ a rule for christians to iudge by ] and the great hazard lies upon the meaning of that rule . what swarms of heresies have over-spread this land , since the bible has been deliver'd up to the interpretation of private spirits ? scrup. you say well , if you could direct me to a iudge that we might all relie upon . conf. and you say something too , if you could make appear , that none at all , is better then the best we have : or that popular errours , numberless and inevitable ( with the dissolution of communities to boot ) are to be preferr'd to the few , and only possible , failings of authority , attended with peace , and agreement . but to come to the short of the question ; this is it : whether will you rather have , one fallible iudge ; or , a million of damnable heresies ? scrup. truly , as you have reduc'd it , to a certainty of peace the one way , and to as great a certainty of discord the other ; to a certainty of many errours without a iudge , and to a bare possibility of some few , with one ; i am content in this particular , to think a final iudge necessary . conf. if you find it so in the church , sure you will not dispute it in the state , especially against an experience too , the most forcible of all reasons . we were never troubled with constructive necessities ; with cavils about the receptacle of power , and the limits of obedience : with distinctions betwixt the political , and the natural right of the people ; the legal , and personal will of the prince ; and betwixt the equity and letter of the law ; till judgment was forc'd from its proper course , and channel , and the decision of right and wrong , committed to the frivolous and arbitrary determinations of the multitude . scrup. pray'e by your leave . i am as much for a iudge , as you ; but not for one judge to all purposes ; nor , i confess , for any iudge so absolute as you would have him . conf. i tell ye again ; a iudge , and no absolute judge , is no judge : and you shall as soon find the end of a circle , as of a controversie , by such a iudge . nor is it my meaning , that one iudge should serve for all purposes . scrup. will you divide your matter then , and assign to every judicable point , his proper judge ? conf. you say well ; for truly i do not take the magistrate to be any more a judge of my conscience , than i am of his. scrup. 't is very right ; and it were an encrochement upon the prerogative of god himself , for him to challenge it . conf. how comes it now , that we that agree so well i' the end , should differ so much ' i th' way to 't ? but i hope , the clearing of the next point will set us through-right : for after the setling of the iudge , we have nothing further to do but to submit ; and so wee 'll forward . sect . xiv . the three great iudges of mankind , are , god , magistrates , and conscience . conf. some things we do as men ; other things as men in society ; and some again as christians . in the first place , we are acted by the law of individuals ; which law is , in the second place , subjected to that of government ; and both these lawes are , in the third place , subordinate to that of religion ; i. e. the law of god's reveal'd will. so that the three great judges of mankind , are , god , magistrates , and conscience . man , as consisting of soul , and body , may be again subdivided within himself . take him in his lower capacity , and hee 's sway'd by the general law of animal nature ; but in his divine part , you 'll find him govern'd by the nobler law of refin'd reason : which reason , in some respects , may be call'd prudence ; and in others , conscience ; according as 't is variously exercis'd . the things which we do purely as men , ( abstracted from any ingredients of policy , or regulated religion ) are either natural actions , prudential , or moral . of the first sort , are those actions to which we are prompted by a natural impulse , in order to the conservation of life , and beeing . of the third sort , are such actions as we perform in obedience to moral principles ; ( which are no other than the divine will veil'd under the dictate of humane reason ) and betwixt these two , lies the region of middle actions ; that is , of such actions , as although not of simple and strict necessity , either to life , or virtue , are notwithstanding useful , and commodious , for the guidance , and comfort of the one , and for the practice of the other . the accurate disquisition of this interest , laies the axe to the root of the question ; for nothing has embroyl'd us more , then the mistaken rights of individuals ; which mistakes being once clear'd , by laying open the subordination of several claims , and powers , every man may take a distinct view of his own province . zea. proceed regularly n●●● , and state these subordinations as you go . conf. content ; and we are now upon the right of individuals ; in which naked simplicity of considering man ▪ without any regard to the ordinary motions of providence , in the order , and regiment of the world , we shall yet find a manifest subordination within himself , and the law of sense , under the dominion of the law of reason in the same subject . these are the laws which the apostle calls , the law of his members , and the law of his will. the former ( and the less excellent ) law , is the law sensitive ; which is no other than the law of self-preservation , ( indeed , the supreme law of animal beings , as of rationals , the lowest ; ) this law sensitive is ( effectually ) the manifestation of god , in the creature . ( for what sense does , nature does ; and what nature does , god does ) zea. but what is that power which you call nature ? conf. it is the ordinary working of god in all his creatures ; by virtue of which divine influence , every thing is mov'd to seek the utmost perfection whereof it is capable . as for the purpose . the perfection of man , is the congruity of his actions , with his reason , which is nothing else but that which we call virtue . the perfection of beasts , is a degree lower ; they are mov'd only by a sensual impulse , toward what 's convenient for them , and when they have it , they rest. scrup. i can but laugh , when people are gravell'd , to see how they run to their impulses , and occult qualities ; which is but a more learned way of saying , [ they don't know what ] pray'e spare me a word ; what difference is there betwixt their impulse , and our choyce ? conf. pre'thee be quiet , unless thou hast a mind to have a toleration for thy dog. their impulse carries them on through a sensitive search , not any deliberative discourse : and no election neither at last ; but only the simple prosecution of a determinate appetite , without imagining any proportion , betwixt the means , and the end. scrup. but still we find that there is a proportion ; and the motion appears to us , according to the method of reason , and orderly proceeding from question to resolution . conf. is it reason think ye , that makes a dog follow his nose , and hunt for meat when hee 's hungry ? or will ye call it choyce , if he leaves a turfe for a bone ? in short ; hee 's mov'd by instinct , toward the end ; and sense carries him through the means . scrup. but why should the same process of means , and the same application of causes , be ascrib'd only to instinct in brutes , and to reason in man ? conf. you must take notice , that all natural operations , are regular and ordinate , by what means soever perform'd ; but it does not follow , because the method is according to reason , that therefore the instrument must be reasonable . but to mind our business . the law of self-preservation , is a law common to beasts with men ; but not of equal force : for their sovereign interest is life , ours is virtue ; and therefore your argument for defensive arms , upon pretext of that extremity , was but a brutish plea ; for , if the consideration of virtue be not above that of life , where lies the advantage of our reason ? scrup. but when the death is certain , and the virtue doubtfull , who shall decide the question ? conf. in a case abstracted from the tyes , and duties of religion , and government ; every mans reason sits as iudge upon his own life . as for instance ; you 're in the hands of thieves ; and upon this condition , either to take a false oath , or to lose your life . your conscience tells ye , you must rather perish . but if without violence to a superiour duty , you can preserve your self , you 're your own murderer , if you do not . thus far i think wee 're safe , and i suppose agreed ; that every individual is to govern himself by his natural conscience ; but when the several particulars come to be bundled up in one community , the case is otherwise . scrup. i am sorry to hear ye say that . why should not every man be govern'd by his own conscience , as well in consort , as in solitude ? or , will ye have it , that our duty to god ceases , in the act of becoming subjects to a civil magistrate ? conf. not so quick , and you shall have it . as to your conscience , you are as free now , as you were before ; but your body is no longer your own , after you 're once admitted a member of a society ; and there 's the difference . you were your own servant before , and now you are the king 's : ( for what is government , but the wisdom , resolve , and force of every particular , gather'd into one understanding , will , and body ? ) and this comes up to what i have already deliver'd ; that , whatsoever god has left indifferent , is the subject of humane power . scrup. but who shall be judg of what 's indifferent ? conf. wee 'l scan that , the very next thing we doe . you are already satisfi'd , that an authoris'd iudg is absolutely necessary , in order to the peace of church and state ; and to the ending of all publique differences : but we are not yet agreed upon our judges , or , if we were , yet in regard our judges are but men , and so may erre , [ infallibility being departed with christ and his apostles , in lieu of which living and infallible guides , god has in providence given us a plain and infallible rule ] it may withall be taken into thought , how far a private judge may be allow'd to opine against a publique , in case of a reluctant conscience , and ( in some sort ) to judge his iudg. scrup. you say very well ; for , place the ultimate decision where you will , 't is ( as you said before ) an infallible determination as to the strife , but not so , as to the truth ; and it comes to this at last , that every man , in some degree , re-judges his judge . if i am fully convinc'd , either that the command is sinfull in it self , or the opinion wicked ; i am neither to obey the one , nor to embrace the other ; as being ty'd up by the general obligation , of rather obeying , and believing god , then man. nay more ; if in obedience to the magistrate , i commit a sin against god ; and that ignorantly too ; that very act , in ignorance , is criminal , if i had the means of being better enform'd : for certainly , no humane respect , can justifie an offence against god ; now if i am bound to do nothing that is ill , i am likewise bound , before i do anything , to satisfie my self whether it be ill or no : for otherwise , i may swallow a false religion for a true , and be damn'd at last , for not minding what i did ; which i take to be proof sufficient , that no man is so implicitly oblig'd to rely upon other mens eyes , as totally to abandon the direction of his own ; or so unconditionally to swear obedience to other mens lawes , and perswasions , as to hold no intelligence at all , with that sacred law , and faithfull counsellor , which he carryes in his own bosom . conf. forgive me , if you imagine that i would have ye renounce your reason . no , but on the contrary , i would have ye to be guided , and concluded by 't , and only to obey for quiet 's sake , so far as you can possibly obey in conscience . scrup. what if a single person hitts that truth which a general council misses ? which will you have him follow ? truth , or authority ? conf. why truly both ; truth with his soul , and authority with his body : but so remote a possibility must not presume to bolster up the thinkings of a private spirit against the resolutions of authority ; yet for the very possibility's sake , wee 'l take that supposition likewise into our care , and word the sum of the whole matter plainly thus : the church says , ye may do ; and the law says , ye must do , that which your conscience says , you ought not to do. how will you reconcile your duty , and your conscience , in this case ? scrup. very well ; for i think it my duty to obey my conscience , upon this principle , that conscience is god's substitute over individuals . conf. keep to that ; and answer me again . is not the civil magistrate god's substitute too ? if he bee , how comes your conscience to take place of his authority ? they are both commission'd alike , and consequently , they are both to bee obey'd alike ; which is impossible , where their commands are inconsistent . scrup. the magistrate is a publique minister , and his commission does not reach to particular consciences . conf. 't is very right ; and on the other side , my friend scruple is a private person , and there 's as little reason to pretend that his opinion should operate upon a publique law. so that if i mistake ye not , wee are agreed thus far , that every particular is to look to one , and the king to the whole . scrup. i do not much oppose it . conf. if your brother zeal , would deal as candidly , with me now about the ecclesiastical power , as you have done in the civill , we might make short work of this question ; and i hope he will not deny , that the church is as well [ a ] authoris'd to teach , and instruct in all the external acts of worship , as [ b ] the magistrate is to compell to those external acts. ze. there is no doubt , but [ c ] the church , [ as the church ] has a ministerial power , ex officio , to define controversies according to the word of god ; and that [ d ] a synod ▪ lawfully conven'd , is a limited , ministerial , and bounded visible judg , and to be believed in , so far as they follow christ , the peremptory and supreme judg , speaking in his own word . conf. this will not do our business yet ; for , if a synod be but to be believed in so far as it followes christ ; &c. they that ought to be concluded by that act , are left the iudges of it , and the credit of the authority , rests upon the conscience , ( or , if you please , the phansy or humour ) of the believer : and so there 's no decision . ze. [ e ] the truth is , we are to believe truths determin'd by synods , to be infallible , and never again lyable to retraction or discussion ; nor because [ so sayes the synod ] but because [ so sayes the lord ▪ ] conf. still y' are short ; for 't is not in our power to disbelieve what we acknowledge to be a truth ; but that which is truth at the fountain , may become errour in the passage ; or at least appear so to me ; and what then ? ze. it must be look'd upon as an errour of the conscience , which is no discharge at all of your obedience : from which errour , you are to be reclaym'd , either by instruction , or censure . for , the people are oblig'd to [ obey those that are over them in the lord , who watch for their souls , as those who must give an accompt ; ] and not oblig'd to stand to , and obey the ministerial , and official judgement of the people , [ he that heareth you ( ministers of the gospel , not the people ) heareth mee , and he that despiseth you , despiseth mee . ] conf. then i find we shall shake hands . you two , gentlemen , are joyntly engag'd against the act for uniformity ; and yet ye cannot say , that it wants any thing to give it the full complement of a binding law : whether ye regard either the civil , or the ecclesiastical authority . here 's first , the judgment of the church duely conven'd , touching the meetness , and convenience of the rites and forms therein conteyn'd . you have next , the royal sanction , approving , and authorising those rites , and forms , and requiring your exact obedience to them. now so it is , that you can neither decline the authority of your iudges , nor the subjection of your dutyes ; what is it then that hinders your obedience ? scrup. that which to me is more then all the world ; it goes against my conscience . conf. only that point then , and no more upon this subject . that god is the iudg of the world ; that the church is the iudg of what properly concerns religion ; that the civil magistrate is the iudg of what concerns the publique peace ; and that every mans conscience is the iudg of what concerns his own soul ; is already clear'd : the remaining difficulty is this , how i am to behave my self in a case , where the law bids me do one thing , and my conscience , another . to take a true estimate of what 's before us , we must first ballance the two interests that meet in competition . there is in favour , and for the execution of the law , ( meaning that of uniformity , ) . the personal conscience , and . the political conscience of the king. there is likewise for the equity of it , the solemn and deliberate iudgment of the church : which is , effectually , the publique conscience ; and lastly , for the observance of it ▪ there is the duty of the subject , ( which , if it be withdrawn , does not only invalidate this particular act , but it loosens the sinews of sovereign authority ; and , which is more , it destroyes even a divine ordinance ; for , take away obedience , and government lapses into confusion . ) now for the counterpoize ; against this law , and thus supported , appears your naked conscience . nay , that 's the fairest on 't , it may be worse , and in truth , any thing that 's ill , under that name . scrup. but what 's the world to mee , in the scale against my soul ? conf. you have great reason sure , and 't is no more than every man may challenge : that is , to stand , or fall , to his own conscience : is that your principle ? scrup. yes , out of doubt ; 't is mine , and yours , and his , and any man's that's honest. conf. well , hold ye a little : your conscience will not down with this law , it seems ; and this law will as little down with your conscience . weigh now the good against the bad ; what if it stands ? what if it yields ? make the case worse then 't is ; as bad as bad may be , in your own favour , you cannot comply with the law ; and the law will not stoop to you. what follows upon 't ? scrup. the ruine of many godly people that desire to worship god according to his word . conf. that plea wrought little upon you from us ; but let that pass . what sort of ruine do ye mean ? ruine of liberty ? or estate ? ( for this law draws no bloud ) state your misfortunes i beseech ye . scrup. no man must hold a benefice , or teach a school , but upon terms of such subscription , or acknowledgement , as many an honest man would rather dye , then consent to : so that we are distrest , not only for our selves , as being depriv'd of the comfort of all spiritual , and heavenly freedomes ; but our poor infants are expos'd to be undone , wanting the means of a religious education . conf. if this be all , never trouble your selves ; for many an honest man has out-liv'd more than this comes to . in short , there 's a huge clamour ; but ( god knows ) with very little reason . some particulars will possibly suffer for want of a toleration : and who are they ; but ( most of them ) the actual enemies of the king ; and all of them , the profest opposers of the law ? if you would see the event of granting what you ask ; turn but your face toward — , and then blush , and repent . do so ; and thank his majesty for your heads , without troubling him with your consciences . beside ; you 're not aware , that in contesting with the law , you quarrel with your self : there 's your own vote against ye ; and all this muttering is no other then your factious will , wrangling with your political consent . yet still i say , stick to your conscience . scrup. your raillery is ill plac'd . conf. then 't is the better for my earnest : and 't is in very , very great earnest that i speak it . wee 'll come now to the push , and , without what 's , or why 's , lay down for granted , that there is a real distance betwixt this act , and your conscience . how will you divide your duty ? scrup. i 'll follow your advice , and stick to my conscience . conf. you do the better : now , change hands ; and phansie your self the supreme magistrate . he has a double conscience . one , that concerns himself , th' other his people . what his majesty's personal iudgement is , has been declar'd abundantly ; what his prudential iudgment may dispose him to , lies in his royal brest . but be that as heaven shall order it , here 's the partition of your rights . the king's prerogative has nothing to do with your conscience , and your conscience , has as little to do with his majesty's prerogative . the king is accomptable to god for the welfare of his people , and you are only accomptable to god for the good of your little particular . if you cannot obey the law ; do not : but abide the penalty . if the sovereign cannot relax the law , he 's as free to execute it . your conscience requires liberty ; and your governour 's conscience requires order , and the very ground of your demand , is the reason of his refusal . now why you should expect that your sovereign should bring down his conscience to yours , when you find , upon experiment , that you cannot perswade your own up to his , is to me a mystery . to conclude ; keep your self within your sphere , and where you cannot consent as a christian , submit as a subject . scrup. i cannot much deny the colour of your argument , and yet me thinks there 's so much to be said too , for toleration , that i 'm affraid you 'll leave me as you found me . conf. i 'll sterve thee first ; for thou shalt eat no meat till thou' rt my convert : wherefore go on , and do thy worst . sect . xv. the toleration , which the non-conformists desire , has neither ground nor president . scrup. 't is a most horrible kind of persecution . conf. why then government 's a most horrible ord'nance . for the punishment of evil-doers , is the one half of the magistrates commission : and what 's an evil-doer , but the transgressour of a law ? scrup. but , what do ye think , when the making of one law is the transgression of another ? conf. i think , such a law is better broken then kept . but remember the iudge , my friend ; and know , that laws are made for the community , not for particulars ; and good , or bad , they 're laws still . suppose them cruel ; y 'had as good say , the king 's a tyrant , as call them so ; for the law is no other than the king 's written will. now to your persecution again ; say what ye will , y' are safe . scrup. do not you take the persecuting party to be generally in the wrong ? conf. i was of that opinion three or four year agoe . but if it be so , the persecuted have the less reason to compleyn , having so comfortable a marque of being in the right . scrup. but what can justifie the very constitution of a persecuting law ? conf. you should rather have asked , what can justifie the toleration of a troublesome people ? the law stands fixt , and immovable ; and yet upon a guard too . you attaque that , and then ye cry , that ( or the magistrate ) hurts you : which is thereabout , as if you should throw your self upon the point of a sword , and then curse the cutler . scrup. christians ' will not persecute pagans for conscience , and yet they worry one another . conf. and in some cases they may have reason : for an infidel is less dangerous to the publique than an apostate . and beside : the one is but giving quarter to a fair , and open enemy ; the other is to take a snake into your bosome . the one , in fine , denies but your opinion ; the other , your authority . pray'e take notice by the by , that which you call persecution , i translate uniformity . scrup. how shall the magistrate distinguish , whom he should punish , and whom not ? conf. better a great deal , whom he should punish , than whom he should spare . they act ; and then he brings those actions to a rule , and that shews him whether they are streight , or crooked . scrup. how do you know but you may persecute god himself , in a right conscience ? conf. i tell ye , you are not punish'd for your thoughts , but for your actions : and you 'd inferr , that because ( for ought i know ) any man may be in the right , no man must therefore be presum'd to be in the wrong ; that were to grant a sanctuary to wickedness , and to confound sin with conscience . scrup. does not god command , that the tares should be let alone till the harvest ? conf. but if that were meant of practical impieties , how should governours be a terrour to evil-doers ; when all malefactors must be let alone till the day of judgement ? scrup. alas ! alas ! severity , at best , does but make hypocrites . conf. but , by your leave , forbearance does it much more : for those that come in for fear , never went off for conscience , and so were hypocrites before : and then you never consider those infinite swarms of seditious spirits that throw themselves into the tolerated party under the veile of sanctity . in fine ; 't is much more advisable to take away the liberty of some , then to grant a liberty to all. for betwixt those that are not wise , where is great hazard of errour ; and those that are not honest , where is great danger of design ( with your leave , gentlemen ) you 'll find well nigh the computation of your party . but why do i stand fencing in a case , where all that 's good for ought , even in the favour'd party , runs nigh an equal perill ? is any honest man the better for the last war ? ( i mean , save those that are forgiven ) scrup. then you presume a war. conf. or what is equal to 't ; a standing army , upon necessity to keep them quiet . for in this town , a toleration of religion is cousin-german to a licence for rebellion : and at the best , 't is but one ill that procreates another . scrup. and can you imagine that so many restless humours , and disturb'd consciences , will ever be quiet without it ? conf. you talk of conscience . shew me a conscience , make proof of a conscience . i 'll shew ye a thousand things like consciences : but alas ! narrowly look'd into , what are they but meere phansie , artifice , or delusion ? a company of people thus divided ; the one half of them deceive us , and the other half of them deceive themselves ; for 't is not what every man thinks , that is presently conscience ; but what every body thinks , in congruity with the word of god ; and of that word , the church is the best judge . if conscience alone be sufficient , the bible is superfluous : nay if conscience , joyn'd with the bible , be sufficient , what becomes of the apostles commission ; [ go , and teach all nations ? ] we shall undertake to teach them , whom our saviour has appointed to teach us . but this is a little beside our business ; for the stress of the question , in order to a toleration , does not bear so much upon this point , whether your opinions be true or false ; as whether safe or dangerous . there are a sort of people that reason by one principle , and act by another ; that begin with liberty of conscience , and end with the liberty of the subject : if you be of that number , there 's death in the pot , and no enduring of ye . further , liberty of conscience turns naturally into liberty of government , and therefore not to be endur'd ; especially in a monarchy ; and to say truth , 't is commonly the method of embroyling kingdoms ; and but the embryo of sedition . than which , nothing lyes opener to him that will only attend these two particulars : first , in those times , when there is generally the least care of religion , you shall observe commonly , the most talk of it ; and that too , among such as least understand it . if this impulse be not acted by conscience , 't is from a worse principle , and by no means to be encourag'd ; for the mass of the people is already in a distemper ; and those out-cryes and transports for toleration , are but the convulsions of a sick government . secondly , ecclesiastical and civil affairs are so twisted and enterwoven , that what party soever clayms a right of freedom to the former , may be fairly suspected to have a design likewise upon the latter : for the threds are so enterlayd , that both interests make , effectually , but one piece ; so that the state that allowes the people a freedom to choose their religion , is reasonably to expect that they will take a freedom likewise to choose their government . scrup. but why should a toleration do worse here than in holland ? conf. i would y 'had found a better instance . but , not to dispute how they came thither ; let it suffice , that where they are , a toleration would bring us . scrup. what do ye think of poland then ? conf. i think , that story speaks little in your favour , either in respect of their frequent seditions , or in regard of their prodigious and heretical opinions ; and yet they lye under the strongest obligation in nature to keep them quiet ; the turk being their neighbour ; which makes their case to be an agreement rather against a common enemy , than among themselves . but back to holland , theirs is no perfect toleration : for , ye see , in the case of arminius ; finding barnevelt in the head of the party , ( of whose intendments , the states were at that time jealous ) they would not upon any terms allow that freedom to the arminians , which they did to others ; but conven'd a synod , and exterminated the sect. there 's a great difference too betwixt the interest , and condition , of their ministers , and ours . theirs preach but upon good-behaviour ; they live upon the states-pay ; and upon the least colour of offence , they may be turn'd off at pleasure ; whereas our clergy have a free-hold in their benefices for term of life ; and if they be factiously dispos'd , they may evade the law to do a mischief , without making a forfeiture . consider next , that their case , was in some sort your own , only a common cause kept ye united . in fine , nothing but the fear of a common enemy can withhold a libertine-nation from falling foul upon it self . if ye would see what work peters , bridges sympson , and ward , made in holland , read bayly's dissuasive , pa. . and be asham'd of owning such a party . scrup. you see the fruit then of driving men to the extremity of flying their country for religion . conf. you see rather , in what they did abroad , what they would have done at home , if they had been tolerated ; and particularly , observe their proceedings in new-england , where they acted at liberty , and govern'd themselves , by their own lawes . bayly reports ( from people upon the place ) that of forty thousand persons , three parts of four , were not admitted to be in any church . if you have a mind to know any more concerning their heresies , their cruelty , their sedition , their hypocrisie , &c. look into his dissuasive again , pa. . scrup. but ye see the french allow a toleration . conf. they do so ; but not a toleration of several sorts of roman-catholiques ; neither do those of the religion admit of any sub-division among themselves ; nay , they have been often press'd to 't , and refus'd it . step into germany next , and see the deplorable effects of this phanatical persuasion there : but above all , where ever the beauteous discipline has set her holy foot , all other iudgements suffer a daily martyrdome . to conclude , toleration was that which queen elizabeth , in all her distresses , could never be perswaded to . firm to this resolution ( says sir francis bacon ) not to suffer the state of her kingdome to be ruin'd , under pretence of conscience and religion . yet shee conniv'd so long , and the unthankful faction made such use of her favours , that shee was forc't upon the rigour of a strict uniformity , to help her self , and that preserv'd her. to say no more , the sentence of the late king was given in the pulpit , though the blow was struck upon the scaffold . zea. not by the presbyterians , i hope . scrup. truly by them , if by any . conf. well gentlemen , while you debate that point , i 'le call for dinner . sect . xvi . at whose door lyes the bloud of king charles the martyr ? zea. and why by them , if by any , i beseech ye ? was peters a presbyterian ? scrup. yes surely was he , as much as marshall was an independent . zea. go to , let us spare names , and fall to the matter . scrup. the question is , upon whom the guilt of the kings bloud lyes ? you charge it upon us ; and i , upon you. [ the presbyterians spoyl'd him as a king , before others executed him as a private man ] [ have they not hunted and persu'd him with sword , and fire ? have they not formerly deny'd to treat with him , and their now recanting ministers preach't against him , as a reprobate incurable ; an enemy to god , and his church ? marqu'd for destruction ? &c. ] [ the covenanting-ministers , with their party clearly depos'd the king , when they acknowledg'd and submitted unto a power , as superiour unto his ; levy'd war against him , as against a traytor , rebel , and enemy to the kingdome , &c. ] [ the scots had proceeded so far as to imprison the kings person , and to sequester all his royal power , which is a temporary dethroning , and deposing . ] nay hear what some of your rabbies have not stuck to say in my iustification [ the removal of prelatical innovations , altar-genuflexions and cringings , with crossings , and all that popish trash and trumpery , countervails for the bloud and treasure shed and spent in these late distractions ] ( and this was in — . ) once more and you shall take your turn . [ this may serve to justifie the proceedings of this kingdome against the late king , who in a hostile way set himself to overthrow religion , parliaments , laws , and liberties . ] zea. i could afford you two , for one , and pay you in your own coyne . [ his capacity ( says parker ) was at westminster when his body was upon the scaffold at whitehall paying unto justice for his misgovernment , and tyranny ] [ think not to save your selves ( sayes one of your ministers to the commons , about a month before the king suffer'd ) think not to save your selves ( says he ) by an unrighteous saving them who are the lord's and the peoples known enemies , for certainly if ye act not like gods in this particular against men truly obnoxious to justice , they will be like devils against you — benhadad's life was once in ahab's hand , and he ventur'd god's displeasure to let him go . but see how bernhadad rewards him for it . fight neither with small nor great , but with the king of israel ] conf. come gentlemen , your dinner 's ready ; but first i charge ye , by that love ye bear to truth , and honesty ; deal freely with me ; what 's your opinion of your cause ? zea. wee 'll take time to consider of it . conf. and of your petition too , i beseech ye . go to ; i dare swear , there 's neither of ye will dye at stake for 't . scrup. but still i 'm where i was , as to the favouring of tender consciences . conf. and truly so am i ; where it is possible to separate the errour , from the person : but to permit a pullique inconvenience for the satisfaction of a private scruple , were ( upon very weak pretence ) to unhinge the law , and consequently to dissolve the government . det ille veniam facilè , cui veniâ est opus . sen. agamem . the end . the contents . introduction , pag. sect . . liberty of conscience stated , p. sect . . universal toleration unlawful , p. sect . . limited toleration , does not answer liberty of conscience , p. sect . . the non-conformists plea for toleration , upon reason of state , p. sect . . the non-conformists plea for toleration , from the merits of the party , p. sect . . the non-conformists plea for toleration , from the innocence of their practices and opinions , p. sect . . toleration causes confusion both in church and state , p. sect . . the danger of toleration in this iuncture , pag. ● sect . . arguments against toleration in respect of the party ihat desires it ; with animadversions upon a certain pamplet , entituled , a sermon preached at aldermanbury-church , decemb. . . p. sect . . arguments against toleration , in respect of the authority that is to grant it , p. sect . . the proper subject and extent of humane power , p. sect . . the bounds of toleration , with some reflections upon schism and scandal , p. sect . . the necessity of a final and unaccomptable judge , p. sect . . the three great iudges of mankind , are god , magistrates and conscience , p. sect . . the toleration , which the non-conformists desire , has neither ground , nor president , p. sect . . at whose door lies the bloud of king charles the martyr ? p. the end . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e crooks reports pars . pa. . notes for div a -e interest of engl. pa . p. . . . . the non-conformists demand . rom. . . laud against fisher. pa. . rom. . . rom. . . rom. . . joh. . , . ex. coll. p. . & . a ex. coll. p. . b p. . c p. . d p. . e p. . ex. coll. p. . p. . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . p. . & . lord brook , alaham , pa. . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . p. . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. . gal. . . a lex rex p. . b . c . d . e gillespy p. . engl. pop. cerem . f . kings declar. p. . p. ● . p. . p. . a sacred panegyrick . p. defence of the honourable sentence passed upon the late king. pa. . ex coll. pa. ▪ ex. coll. pa. . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pa. . the non-conformists would have they know not what . letter to the assembl . ian. . . pag. . engl. deliv . pa. . fresh disput. pa. . tenure of kings pa. . ex. coll. pa. . remonstr . ex. coll. pa. . ☜ ibid. the false brother . a part. . pag. . b pag. . scobel acts , &c. c pag. . d pag. . e pag. . f pag. . a scobels acts , &c. pag. . b pag. . c pag. . d pag. . e pag. . f pag. . part . g pag. . h pag. . i pag. . k pag. . l pag. . m pag. . n pag. . o pag. . p pag. . q part. . pag. . r part. . pag. . ibid. the kirks testimony against toleration . pag. . scobell's acts pars. . pa. . useful case of conscience , pa. , & . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . p. . ibid. a scob. acts pars. . pa. . b pa. . c pars. . pa. . d pa. . e pa. . kings declar. decemb. . . pa. . his majesty's speech to both houses , feb. . . pa. . ibid. pa. . pa. . ibid. pa. . pa. . pa. . pa. . pa. . pa. . ibid. pa. . pa. . ibid. pa. . ibid. sermon , iu● . . — . pag. , & . pa. . pa. . pa. , & . ☞ davila delle guer. civ . di f●an . lib. . ibid. lib. . strada de bello belgico lib. . the subject of humane power . eccles. polit ▪ lib. . pa. . a parker , goodwin , rutherford , milton , &c. b e. cal. noble-mans pattern , pa. . c e. c. phoenix , pa. , & . d rutherfords due right of presbyteryee , pa. . e ibid. p. . f mr. manion's smectymnuus , publisht since his majesties return , pa. . ☜ essay of atheism . e. calaus . serm. dec. . . pa. . pa. . psal. . v. . essay of unity of religion . numb . . . numb . . . v. . v. . v. . v. . v. . a rom. . . b by the familists . c by the antinomians . d rutherford , lex . rex p. ● . a goodwins right and might , pa. . b lex rex pa. . c lex . rex pa. . d pa. . e pa. . f pa. . g pa. . h ibid. i ibid. k lex . rex pa. . l ibid. a right and might . b tenūre of kings , pa. . c defence of the kings sentence , p. . d english translation of the scottish declaration , pa. . e pa. . printed for francis tyton , who has published as much since the king came in . chillingsworths safe way , pa. . rom. . . chilling● . safe way , p. . a rutherfords due right of presbyt . p. . b ibid. p. . c ibid p . d ibid. p. . [ d ] ruth . free disp. pag. . ruth . free disp. pa. . resuscitatio pa. . common-wealth stated , p. . milton's tenur . p. . goodwin's defence of the king's sentence , p. . parker's scotlands holy war , p. . policy of princes , p. . robert douglass sermon in and in the phoenix , p. . english translat . p. . flesh expiring , &c. p. . remarks upon a pamphlet stiled, a letter to a dissenter, &c. in another letter to the same dissenter. halifax, george savile, marquis of, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing h estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) remarks upon a pamphlet stiled, a letter to a dissenter, &c. in another letter to the same dissenter. halifax, george savile, marquis of, - . p. s.n., [s.l. : ] reproduction of original in huntington library. attributed to george savile halifax. cf. nuc pre- . caption title. dated: septemb. , . created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng halifax, george savile, -- marquis of, - . -- letter to a dissenter. dissenters, religious -- great britain. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - olivia bottum sampled and proofread - olivia bottum text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion remarkes upon a pamphlet stiled , a letter to a dissenter , &c. in another letter to the same dissenter . sir , an highly applauded pamphlet fell into my hand , at that instant when i was sealing my last letter to you , relating to the penal laws and ●ests , i then purposed to tell you my thoughts thereof in a postscript , but being diverted till the post was gone , and yours of the th instant mentioning the thing , this comes to tell you , that i have slightly run it over , and do perceive the wordy author designs thereby to allure the dissenters to a contempt and rejection of the kings benigne purpose to them . it s title , and another circumstance , your early notice of it , inclines me to conclude that it was wrote to you ; whether so or not ; i shall briefly remarque upon it . the great man sets out floridly ; as a modish person , he accosts the poor dissenter by way of address . the courtship seems to me sudden and surprizing , and i suspect the design , for i take it to be something iudas-like , for one of the epistlers figure and spirit , to approach a mechanick , and a schismatick to boot , in the humble way of hat and knee . but he doubts not of kind reception , provided that his dissenter will take his word , when he affirms , that he is neither a coward , nor a designing or freetfull man. i wish he had put his name to his letter , because some will have it , that the author is a person so transcendently haughty and ambitious , that he little regards what , or whom he sacrifices , may he but become head of a party . but , if he gains not the point , by the glorious character which he ascribes to himself , his reasons must undoubtedly ( as he conceits ) win him the day ; his friendship commanding you to allow them to pass muster , for he pledges his word , that the time of day , disposes him to charity , therefore in this nick of time , you are neither to call into question his wisdom , honesty , or affection ; a most lucky period . in confidence that i have at least an equal title to your friendship , his being but newly contracted , and ours what storms hath tryed ; i shall , in my old plain-dealing way with you , observe , that the gentlemans stock both of charity and truth is very suddenly exhausted , for he instantly charges to his dissenters account both the exclusion and rebellion : were the fact so , and the brat laid at the right door ; why should this high pretender to loyalty , check in any delinquent , a graetful resentment of his majesties forgiveness ? but , should the fanatick ( to avoid wrangling with the church of england ) agree to make an equal partition with her , of the mentioned crimes , and their deserved shame ? the half would far exceed his due share : then will it be consistent , with her breeding , and superlative vertue , to yeild him the honour of all the repentance and confession . in the next place your friend craves audience , and passing the complement , that he yet hopes you in your wits , he bids you beware of new friends ( a very pertinent caution , your friendship with him being yet in the blossom ) and he bespeakes you to be a prudent christian , and not to hazard the publick safety , by the desire of ease or revenge . good again . to enforce the first ( viz. ) that you are to suspect new friends , he insinuates , that you are not to be carried over , by smooth language now put on to engage you , by the way , the expression intending to insinuate a cheating design , had been as well worded ( words ( with abundance of spite ) being mainly what fills the paper now before me ) had it said , putting off of smooth language , or making what is gilded over , to pass as current coyn ; but whether off or on be best , in this place ; in the next , the gentleman doffing his clothes , personates an enraged slighted mistress ( or rival ) and tells you , that she ( for to follow our amorous author , we must for a time change the sex ) had the the first offer , and you have ouly the coy ladies leavings . it is then evident ( and shall be anon further made out ) that she held a parl ; with your new lover , ay , but if you will credit her , she saw his deformity , and therefore rejected him . i doubt you will get little by enquiring of the sqeamish dame , whether punctillios of honour , hopes of higher terms , or the devils pride and envy , did not occasion her rash refusal , and whether she doth not too late repent it ? for questions of this kind do rarely receive direct and honest answers . i shall therefore according to my wonted freedom , exhort you to stand upon your guard , that she may not play you a trick , and then reproach you . he now ( for the aggressor in love , must be concluded to wear breeches ) makes court to you , examine carefully , i beseech you , whether you are his choice , and not his refuge , if the last , it will be your wisdom to make sure terms with him , and allowing the gentleman to mean as he would be taken , you have his own advice , that you are not to yeild over hastily to new friends upon their bespeaking you fairly . he tells you , that you cannot reasonably flatter your self that there is ( with your lover ) any inclination to you : i incline to think as he doth , if he takes it , that beding together is to be the next thing in the case , ( then 't is probable that no love is lost ) but i have heard , that a person disappointed in his first amour , is ever after cold , and indifferent , in affection ; and therefore since the church of england affirms , that she refused to strike up a bargain , i will believe , that a chast dissenter , may live in the same kingdom , with the romanist , without the hazard of a rape . they ( the papists , saith the letter ) never pretended to allow you any quarter , but to usher in liberty to themselves , under that shelter . well then , you are out of danger of being put to the sword , you may have quarter , a grace refused you by the church of england . ay , may you say , but what are the terms ? why , such as are very equall , and highly reasonable , both parties have been long and sorely galled by the canon of the church of england . the papists will now help to dismount them , and they call for your aid ; i pray what harm in all this , and why so much noise against it ? and it proceeds ; nay , at this very hour they can hardly forbear in the height of their courtship , to let fall hard words of you , so little is nature to be restrained . the gentleman may well say , pudet haec opprobria nobis , et dici potuisse , & non potuisse refelli . you and i do know , at this very hour , and so doth he , the names of dignified sons of the church of england , who declare , that the devil will have both papist and dissenter . this i'm sure is none of the softest language . but you are told in the next paragraph , that liberty and infallibility are the two most contrary things in the world. i affirm , that it is beyond contradiction true , that our errable church of england has run to the arguments of that church , which claims infallibility ; to justifie her self , in her attempts , to extirpate dissenters ; and ( right or wrong ) they had been ruined , had not the present kings clemency rescued them . but the principles of the roman church allow not liberty to hereticks . nor do those of the english church to schismaticks ; such she esteems her dissenters , and as such , she ( when in power ) constantly treats , and labours to destroy them . if so , the argument of present hugging , in order to the better squeezing hereafter , vanishes ; and the seting up bills , and offering plaisters for tender consciences ; may deserve as great regard from the romish , as from the lambeth church , and in our present conjuncture much more . the gentleman goes on to tell you . the other day you were sons of belial , now you are angels of light. and he asserts , that to come so quick , from one extream to another , is such unnatural a motion , that you are to look to your self . pray do so , and in doing it , remember , that in the word of a king there is power ; and that the church of england , which now hath none , to hurt or save ( till her present exigence extorted a complement ) stiled you a child of darkness . in the next place the men of taunton and tiverton ( for sound or jingle sake , no doubt ) are hook'd in , and their loyalty ridiculed : notwithstanding in this our church-mans opinion , that renders them vile , it would not offend a good subject , to see others imitate them , and tho h. ( at this day ) non est litera ; methinks hull and hallifax o a northern-man , should chime every whit as well as t. and t. of the west ; wherefore , pray prevail with your new friend ( who will not break with you in trifles ) to write a second letter northward , and if your intrigue with him continues till the return of the general post , ( for we are admonished to have a very tender regard to horses ) i doubt not but he will be obliged to tell you that the worthy inhabitants of those places , have the courage to vre loraliy with any of his majesties subjects . if i mistake them , libera me . now our valiant author ( the west being vanquished ) points southward , and picks a quarrel with the poor quakers . this may well surprise you , i 'm sure it did me at first sight ; for you and i believe they will not draw the sword , much less encounter a goliah ; therefore you may say , certainly no fear of them to a fearless man ; ay , but the gentleman now handling them , resolves to spoil an english proverb , and to his courage would monopolize wit , and the quaker he says has learn'd to speak sence , and which is worse , he becomes mannerly , to such a degree , that this your new friend ( who grumbles for a place at court ) begins to suspect himself in some danger of being post-posed ; for the quaker having given the king decent thanks for his protection , may , for ought he knows , become courtier . ( sir ) you are now to believe the gentleman has spit his poyson , for he tells you , that no sharpness is to be mingled where healing only is intended ; and he promises hereafter to say nothing to expose particular m●n , how strong soever the temptation may be , or how clear the proofs to make it out ; he might as well have said , now gentlemen dissenters look to your hits , we have been complicens , provoke me not to detect our rogueries ; please me or all shall out , ( but begging his pardon ) he shall speak for himself , and see what follows ; 't is in friendship this ; for arguments sake , and to promote the proposed healing , the honest well-meaning man , ( not willing to tell tales ) bearly whispers you , poor deluded dissenter , in the ear ; that to his knowledg there is death in the pot , your minister is a knave , you are sold , the money is paid , and you are most certainly betrayed . is not this said like a church of england worthy , not tied or confined to this or that subdivision of protestants , like one estranged from sharpness , and who affects and intends healing ? can hell it self furnish a more inveterate and malicious insinuation ? we remember the time , when some men talk'd of pensioners in parliament ; they obliged the world with a list of those who were reputed such , and if i mistake not , with the name of him , who they said , hired and paid them . the dissenter now addressed to , for his own safety , ought to challeng this his new suiter , for the names of such ministers as have made the bargain and sale suggested , and methinks his charity , and the warmth of his affection , should dispose him to gratifie such a modest and necessary request ; if it be refused i must conclude my friend so far gone in his passion , that he has wholly lost his understanding , should this gentlemans courtship , any longer impress , or influence him . now our author falls with down right blows upon the addressers , and bestows bitter invectives upon them , and upon the government to boot ; that part of his libel deserves and probably will be reckoned for in westminster hall , therefore i shall shun the danger of becoming his accessary by transcribing him . then he betakes himself to flattery , and tells you , that if you had to do with those riged prelates who made it a matter of conscience to give you the least indulgence , but kept you at an uncharitable distance , and even to your more reasonable scruples continued stiffe an inexorable , the argument might be fairer on your side . i conclude then , that your argument to accept of liberty from the king , is no way enervated : is here any sort of proof , that prelacy has changed its thoughts , and put on tenderness to you ; you may not trust this undertaker in a thing so valuable as is that , now discussed , the church of england cannot intend well , or use you so , ( without incurring the guilt of perjury as i have heard her say ) till she gives up her laws of force , and you see that her zeal to uphold them occasions this great concussion in the kingdom , wherefore , i doubt she is not right ; and your only sure way of dealing with her , seems to me to be , to disarm her by act of parliament , of every weapon which the gospel did not put into her hand , then i 'm sure she can do no mischief . reverend mr baxter's expectation was raised about twenty six years since , by the same pretence , as now yours is to be , but after the then prelacy ( which i am confident the present will not disown ) had long triffled with him and his worthy brethren , about healing , in the savoy conferences ; they found themselves disappointed and shamd : if the church be as skilful in chirurgery as our author would perswade , she was the more to blame to hold the patient so long in hand , as then she did , and in fine to leave or make the wound worse then she found it . ( honesty i do find is absolutely necessary to a good chirurgion ) the same spirit still lives in our church-men , or it may in time to come return again , and possess them ; you have then no other way to conjure down the evil spirit of persecution , but by a repeal of the penal laws , that only can assure you , that a rigid prelacy shall not hereafter destroy you ; and you have reason to take the alarum at your woers next harangue , ( nescit nox missa reverti ) . she or he ( no matter which ) has enchantment in her face , and can instantly put your nose out of joynt with your new friend , nay look you dead ; for you are told , that at this very hour and in the heat and glare of your present sun-shine , the church of england can in a moment bring clouds again , and turn the royal thunder upon your heads , blow you off the stage with a breath ; if she would give but a smile or a kind word , the least glimpse of her compliance would throw you back into the state of suffering and draw upon you all the arrears of severity which have accrued during the time of this kindness to you . this is in truth ( my good friend ) plain dealing , look to your self therefore , and make your peace with her , or you perish , ( if you believe her ) for clouds , thunder and tempests a wait , ( and as she saith ) are at her command ; she can at pleasure take you into her power , add to your yoke , and chastice you with scorpions , and that 's not all ; she can bring you to an aster-reckoning , lash you for playing truant , and exact what you have run in arrear ( this last discovery will undoubtedly porcure the gentleman an address of thanks from doctors commons , for the city dissenters are near two years reut run , there ) nay , and to compleat your misery ( after all the reckonings paid ) she can by her excommunication , throw you , with a quick hand to satan . you may demand , what shall poor i do in this my great strait ? why , as you love your life keep out of her clutches , defy her , and attone our english iupiter , that he may not entrust his thunderbolts in this mad hand . be true , i beseech you , to your interest , and deport your self so to the king , that your new conciliated friendship , which she upbraids , and envies , may not be endangered . i shall now give you a reason or two , why you may justly suspect this gentleman , now making love to you in the name of the church . i find his letter stuffed with malitious and false infinuations against dissenting ministers ( amongst whom i never found a knave ) i will therefore hope that my telling you truth , tho' to his disparagement , will not be taken as a breach of the rules of good manners . if the church of england's commissioners in the present treaty with you , have been tampering with those of the roman communion , and offering terms for the life of their dearly beloved penal laws : if they , to come a little closer , have proposed , that if the roman catholicks will not joyn with you , for the repeal of those laws , they shall be secured against any imaginary danger from the test-penalties , in a succeeding reign , by a mortgage of the honours and estates also , of som great men driving that bargain . i say , should this be true , there 's certainly mischief in her heart , and she will reveng your runing her into this incumbrance , by teaching you hereafter , ( as gideon did the men of succoth ) with briers and thorns . if she hath her ambassadors at this very hour , treating an alliance with the papists , and proposing to yield them liberty by act of parliament , with exception of the fanatick . if these , or any others , should at this time , prate and bu● , fears and iealousies in your ears , you are obliged to be deaf ; upon pain of all the mischief they intend you . the church seems to t●emble the bloody tyrant , and seeing her power reduced , she would be content for a time , to turn pedagogue , and whip-boys , to keep her hand in●ure . the church plenipotentiary , towards the close of his letter , points his wrath towards the king and his government : and with you , he seems to descend to calm ( but very wickedly intended ) reasoning . it is with regret that he beholds you disposed to quarrel the church of england now she is upon the brink of suffering : 't is very unkind in you , for she never persecuted the dissenters , but by direction , and as she was set on : a bad excuse , you know , is better than none . the gentleman further insinuates ( and you are to believe him if you will ) that the taking away the penal laws and tests ( the bane of religion , and of liberty ) will put you under a tyranny , and absolutely destroy you . in truth ( sir ) were i in the east indies , the sight of this lamentable complaint would greatly move me , for i should doubt the case of the church of england to be very deplorable , but 't is a great blessing that all this is misrepresentation , and soul slander . the king's promise secures her of peace and plenty , and that act of parliament which shall secure you out of her paws , may give her further security if she wants it . this her grim faced representative , seems to take his short and angry turns , like the tower-lyon , and ever and anon roares ; but 't is not want , but a ravenous appetite to rend and tear , that occasions all this wrath and rage : nature will be nature . therefore you may tell the church in your excuse ( for a reason of your doings ought something to appease her toward you ) in the language of the lepers : ( my distress is great . ) if i still sit here , i dye , if the syrians save me alive i shall live ; if they kill me i shall but dye . to cokes and work you off , from getting liberty of conscience , from the only hand which can dispense it : you are told that some of the church of england were trimmers for enduring you , and the maxim was , it is impossible for a dissenter , not to be a rebel . this gentleman certainly thinks that you have forgot , who gave those moderate men that name of reproach , therefore you may tell him , that to your knowledg the church esteemed them but spurious sons , and could not endure them , becaufe they gave you a good look ; you need not go to gloucester to make this out ; but if you should let me engage you to take salisbury in your way , and enquire there how the church treated a protestant reconciler . if you do so , pray use your interest with her , and try whether in this height of her caresses , she will demonstrate the sincerity of her affection to you , by recomending it to that doctor to recant his recantation . as to the maxim cited , it is impossible for a dissenter not to be a rebel . i am certain it was delivered from a pulpit , nearer to ludgate then that of limestreet . so much for the gentleman 's angry and whedling part ; now i bring you to his politicks : and the dissenters are meer fools , if they trust not to his most wise conduct , for he saith you ( silly soul ) act very unskilfully against your visible interest ; this were to purpose indeed , if made out , but the mischief of it is , the powerful argument of interest turns against him ; the dissenters liberty may nowbe certainly established , but , saith the church , i see my halcyon days at hand , put on a little patience , and then you and i will treat about the matter . were you in the extremity of the stone , and sure of receiving present ease by an infallible chirurgion , your next neighbour , who tells you his price , and ever made good his word ; how would you entertain that friend's counsel , who should say , let me advise you to wait a little , for i hear that germans excell all others in this case , and about six months hence i may bring you one from vienna to try his skill : but to be plain with you , when he comes , he will leave you as he finds you , if you break with him for terms ; but i do think he will not be unreasonable , for he hath a very good character : i know you have an answer at hand , therefore ( without leading you ) i pray transmit it to this your counsellor . a word or two more , and i have done ; he passes his word , that the church of england is convinced of its error , in being severe to you . i know not how this will pass with you , but being too much a stranger to this author , and to the nature of his commission , i should be glad to see her put out her own declaration of repentance ; for should this person have authority to speak for her ( tho of old , true penitents spoke for themselves ) he doth it so ukwardly in this paper ; that , to be plain , i suspect 't is insincere ; for he contends , and that with the height of passion , to uphold her penal laws , and i have no other quarrel with her , but about thunderbolts . he proceeds , the parliament , when ever it meeteth , is sure to be gentle to you : 't is the first thing we agree in , and it grieves me that we could not hit upon it sooner ; i do hope and believe , he is at length in the right , but that i may not be cheated ; if you find him in good humor , when you see him ; let him know from me , ( with my service ) that my suffrage shall never help him , or any of his spirit and principle into the house of commons ; he admonishes you not to misapply your anger , allow another friend to exhort you , not to misplace your voice , when the king shall please to call a parliament , and you will oblige your self and me . setemb . . adieu , yours affectionately , t. w. finis . the mysticall vvolfe. set forth in a sermon preached in the church of edmond the king, in lombard-street. / by e.p. pagitt, ephraim, or - . this text is an enriched version of the tcp digital transcription a of text r in the english short title catalog (thomason e _ ). textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. the text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with morphadorner. the annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. this text has not been fully proofread approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. earlyprint project evanston,il, notre dame, in, st. louis, mo a wing p thomason e _ estc r this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (thomason tracts ; :e [ ]) the mysticall vvolfe. set forth in a sermon preached in the church of edmond the king, in lombard-street. / by e.p. pagitt, ephraim, or - . [ ], , [ ] p. printed by marie okes, and are to be sold by robert trot, at his shop under the church of edmond the king, london : . dedication signed: ephraim pagitt. annotation on thomason copy: the in imprint date is crossed out and altered to ; "feb: d". reproduction of the original in the british library. eng bible. -- n.t. -- matthew vii, -- sermons -- early works to . dissenters, religious -- england -- sermons -- early works to . sermons, english -- th century. a r (thomason e _ ). civilwar no the mysticall vvolfe.: set forth in a sermon preached in the church of edmond the king, in lombard-street. / by e.p. pagitt, ephraim f the rate of defects per , words puts this text in the f category of texts with or more defects per , words. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - john latta sampled and proofread - john latta text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the mysticall vvolfe . set forth in a sermon preached in the church of edmond the king , in lombard-street . by e. p. london , printed by marie okes , and are to be sold by robert trot , at his shop under the church of edmond the king. . to the right vvorshipfull sir nicholas raynton , knight , and alderman of london : and to mr. william gibbs , alderman , and sher●ffe of the said city , and to all his loving friends who have been church wardens assisting him . as to the right vvorshipfull mr. walter rogers ▪ mr. robert smith , mr. samuel bridge , mr. thomas soane , mr. henrie geirie , mr. thomas ●aton , mr. iohn bludworth , mr. nicholas cook , mr. anthony crosse , mr. ambrose brumskill , m● . tobias dixon , mr. iohn niclas , mr. iaspar clayton , mr. andrew h●de , mr. george denham , mr. iohn rogers , mr. spencer vincent , mr. ●ohn smith , mr. richard kimble , mr. francis pat●s , mr. peter worster , mr. william dev●nsh●re , and to all his other loving parishioners , and to his loving friends , and fellow labourers , mr. iohn hopkins , and mr. iohn davis . old ephraim pagitt , recto● of edmonds the king in lomb. wisheth all happinesse . munster writeth that there are no wolves in england , which is a great blessing , and in a manner peculiar to our kingdome , in which our shepheards may securely feed their flocks without dread of those ravenous beasts , who are to sheepe most mischievous : the like might i have said of mysticall wolves , for . year and more of my pastoral charge in which i had no dread of them : but now i live to see ( with griefe of heart ) grievous wolves broken in among us , not sparing the flocke . therefore the counsell that st. paul gave to the presbyters of ephesus , i will put you in remembrance of ( that is ▪ to take heed to our selves and to the flock whereof the holy ghost hath made us over-seers . it is reported concerning the mother of gregory nazianzen , that she dreamed when she was conceived of that worthy light of the church , that shee had in her womb a white mastiffe , which by his barking should drive the wolves from the sheep-fold : and whereas some of you with many other pious citizens , have erected sundry lectures in this city ▪ in which divers nazianzens now preach , who i hope with the assistance of our religious patriots assembled in parliament , will drive away , not only the romish , but all other ravening wolves from the sheep ▪ fold of our lord jesus christ . for my owne part , although by reason of my age , i cannot barke loud ▪ much lesse bite . yet whereas about . yeares agoe , i published in print . sermons of lavaterus upon ruth ▪ now not knowing how soon i shall put off this my tabernacle , i publish this sermon of my own , preached among you , when the plague of heresie first began among us , and this i dedicate to you , to whom i conf●sse my selfe much obliged : most humbly entreating almighty god to blesse you with abundance of all gifts and graces in this world , and eternall glory in the world to come . your old pastor , ephraim pagitt . the mystical vvolfe . beware of false prophets , which come to you in sheepes cloathing , but inwardly they are ravening vvolves , math. . . in the former two verses , our lord telleth his disciples of two waies , in which all mankind walke . the one a broad way that leadeth to destruction , in which many walke . the other a narrow way which leadeth unto life , which few finde . in this verse , like a most loving kind friend , he forewarneth his disciples of the chiefe impediments hindering in the way ( viz. ) false prophets . the journey of the israelites to the earthly canaan , was a type of our journey to the heavenly . and did not one false prophet balaam do them more mischiefe in their journey , then og the gyant , king of bashan , sehon king of the amorites , and all their enemies beside ? yea , could the devil himselfe in his owne likenesse , have beene more noxious and hurtfull to the church of god , then some hereticks have been ? as one hereticke arrius denying the deity of christ , in a manner infected the whole christian world : the like did another false prophet called eutyches , denying his humanity , ( affirming the immensity of christs divine nature to have swallowed up his humane , ) now if christ had not been man , how could he have dyed for us sinners ? and if not god , how could hee have wrought the salvation of mankind ? time will not serve me to relate what mischief false prophets have done by the instigation of the devill , neither need i . our poore church hath sence enough of it , groaning under the burthen of them at this present , and especially they that have cure of soules , may with great griefe of heart complaine , of infants not brought to the sacrament of baptisme , of multitudes refusing to receive the holy communion , of the accounting of the lords prayer abhominable , and the apostles creed defective , and banishing the ten commandements out of many of our churches . the miseries of this time are infinite , and who layeth hand to help ? is not our help only in the name of the lord : upon whom our mother the church hath taught us to call , from all false doctrine and herisie , from hardnesse of heart and contempt of thy word and commandements , good lord deliver us . these words are part of our lords holy sermon in the mount , which containeth ; a premonition , in which there is a caution in this word {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} a description of them whom wee are to beware of , whom hee . describeth generally , by their title , ealse prophets . . particularly , by their externall shew , they shall inward disposition , being ravening wolves . . intrude themselves . . insinuate . . dissemble . and of these , as god shall enable me , & i pray god that this text may be as profitable to you as fitting . and first i purpose to speake of false prophets , how dangerous they are , and of the caveat in the last place , which will be then more acceptable to you , you seeing the great danger that you are in by them {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} of false prophets . the word prophet is used in scriptures , first , for a fore-teller of things to come , derived from the word {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} , which signifieth to divine or fore-tell . secondly , in a larger sense for all ministers and teachers . our lord biddeth us beware , not of prophets , but of false prophets , or such as pretend themselves to bee prophets . the word signifieth lying prophets . saint peter termeth them {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} ▪ lying teachers , who privily shal bring in damnableheresies . st. paul calleth them {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} , speaking lies in hypocrisie . take heed of such also as pretend that they speake immediatly from god by revelation , as the illuminated anabaptists , familists and other enthusiasts ( make their proselytes beleeve : ) or from the oracle of gods word by an especiall insight given them from above , to interpret gods word . again , from such as turne the truth of god into a lye . the fryers of old erected their kingdome by lyes . walsingham reporteth that they were so famous for lying , that it was accounted a good argument , hee is a fryer ergo a lyer . do not our lying prophets goe beyond them , they tell lyes , they write lies , they preach lyes , they print lyes , as if god needed lyes : thou wilt destroy all them that speake leasing , saith the prophet . here i would observe two things . . that there have beene , and always shall be false prophets in the church . . why god suffereth them . for the first , that there have been , and always shall be , false prophets in the church . there shal arise ( saith our lord ) false prophets , and if it were possible , they shall deceive the very elect . i know ( saith st. paul ) that after my departing , grievous wolves shall enter in among you . again , the spirit speaketh evidently , that in the latter times , some shall depart from the faith , and shall give heed to the spirit of error , and doctrines of devills , which speake lyes through hypocris●● . likewise st. peter affirmeth ; but there were false prophets among the people , and there shal be also false teachers among you which privily shal bring in damnable hesies , even denying the lord that bought them , & bring upon themselves swift damnation . for example sake , wee read of the devill the archfalse prophet , deceiving our first parents in paradice : of iamnes and iambres , withstanding moses , and resisting the truth : in eliahs time of many false prophets deceiving the people : yea , in this very time when our lord preached upon the earth . the church was annoyed with divers pernicious sects : as with the pharisees , who like the papists held justification by works : with the saduces , who held with the atheists of our time , that there is no resurrection : with the essens , who like the anabaptists of our time , thought themselves free from all humane authority . i might set down the hereticks that sprang up in the most pure ages of the church , viz. in the first . yeares after christ , collected by st. agustine out of eusebius and epiphanius . the apostles and holy men seldome planted any churches , but the devill with his false prophets went about to subvert them . heare what st. paul saith to the galatians . o ye foolish galatians who hath bewitched you ▪ that you should not obey the truth ? again , to the corinthians , i fear , lest as the serpent beguiled eve through his subtilty , so you should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in christ . the noble churches of antioch , ephesus , alexandria , and constantinople , were poisoned by false prophets . in ephesus were the nicholaitans , in alexandria , arrius , in antioch , samosatenus ; in constantinople , eutyches and nestorius ; and i● britany , pelagius , called in welch , morgan : but how christian princes , & holy bishops , and learned men bestir'd themselves to save their flocks from those wolves , and in the very beginning to suppresse them , you may perceive by the ancient councels , in some one of which . year , . bishops conve●ed , and ran together , yea among us , to damne pelagius heresie ; bishops came from beyond the seas , as germanus and lupus out of france , st. augustine also bishop of hippo in africa , was assisting to us against him , as appeareth by his writings extant among us : our histories report that our welch arch-bishop davie was a great meanes to extirpate his heresie , who wrote a booke against it . as sorreign bishops were ayding to us in suppressing the hereticks that rose among us , so were we assisting to them , as eborius of york , restitutus of londō , adel●ius of colchester , with other brittish and learned men , subscribed the councell of arles . also some of our bishops were at the councell of nice and sardis , and with others damned the arrian heresie , and absolved athanasius . our poor church is at this time oppressed with false prophets , not only with iesuites and other romish emissaries , but also with unpure familists , who blasphemously pretend to be godified like god , whereas indeed they are devillified like their father the devill , who would be like the most high . with illuminated anabaptists , who blaspheme the baptisme of children , and these hereticks , whom in time past we burned , wee may heare now in our pul●its ●educing the people . we have also donatistical brownists , who like the pharisees of old , separate themselves from other men , counting all men prophane that are not of their conventicles . we have also independants , who dream that they have a perfect model● of church-government , which almighty god kept secret from the patriarks , priests , prophets , apostles , and doctors of the church , and now lately revealed unto them . we have also antinomians , who , whereas the papists leave out one commandement of the ten , they null the whole law , not allowing it to be a rule of life . this opinion simple people swallow down , having , as they suppose , found a new way to heaven . we have arminians , an after-brood of pelagius . we have sabbatarianss , who affirme the old jewish sabbath to be kept ; and not the lords day . we have also antisabbatarians , who would have no speciall sabboth day at all , affirming every day to be a sabbath to a christian man . we have traskites , who affirme many jewish ceremonies to be observed by christians . we have arrians , who deny the deity of christ . we have antitrinitarians , who blaspheme the holy trinity . we have millenaries , who dream that wee must live with christ . yeares here in earth before the resurrection . we have hetheringtonians , who hold a hodg-podg of many heresies . we have an atheisticall sect , who affirm that mens soules sleep with their bodies . we have socinians , who teach that christ dyed , not to satisfie for our sins , but to give us an example of patience , with other abho●inable errours . alas , what heresie have we not ? and most of these are subdivided into many sects : as there are about twenty sorts of anabaptists , fourteen set downe by alstedius , and the rest by bullinger ; sundry sorts of familists , brownists , and of others : every day begets a new opinion , it faring with them , as with the ancient hereticks , who having once forsaken the truth , wandred from one errour to another ; they agreeing onely in this one thing , to doe mischiefe to the church of god . the old fable may have relation to our times of an overture of peace tendred by the wolves to the sheep , but upon condition that they would put away their dogs , that were malignant to them : and doth not all this follow upon the suspension of church government ? alas , our church is oppressed by false prophets , and we have no government to helpe . the city of god is on fire , and who goeth about to quench it ? the plague of heresie is among us , and we have no power to keep the sick from the whole : the wolves that were wont to lye in the woods , dare come into our sheep-folds , and roar in our holy congregations . o thou shepheard of israel , why hast thou broken downe the hedges of this thy vineyard , which thy right had had plantted ? the boare out of the wood , and the wilde beast out of the field doth devour : oh remember not against us our former iniquities , let thy tender mercies prevent us , for we are brought very low . . why god suffereth false prophets in his church . resp. . for the punishment of the ungodly , as st. paul affirmeth : because they received not the love of the truth , that they might be saved : therefore god shall send them strong delusions , that they should believe a lye . {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} that all might be damned that believed not the truth . st. basil hath a contemplation why the devill hath so many servants , who is the enemy of mankinde , and god so few , who hath created us and redeemed us , &c. the reason he saith , is not because the devill hath spoyled god of his kingdome , but because men loved not the truth , god gave them over to be slaves to the devill . were it possible that men should be so carryed away to believe lyes and fooleries , but that they are given over to a reprobate sence ? . god suffereth false prophets in the church , for the tryall of the godly . there must be ( saith st. paul ) heresies among you , that they which are approved may be knowne . the lord proveth you , ( saith moses ) whether you love the lord your god . the uses that we should make of this is , first in these distractions to bee more diligent to seek after the truth . if arrius had not so wickedly denyed the deity of christ , the deep mysteries of the holy trinity had never beene so accurately determined by athanasius , and other learned doctors . if the manichees had not so shamefully railed upon the old testament , the learned doctor , st. augustine had never taken so much paines in answering their lewd objections . if the brownists , and other sectaries had not so imp●dently disgorged their malice upon our church , calling her whore of babylon , &c. the learned men of our age had never by their writings so sufficiently cleared her innocencie in the hearts of understanding men . the second use is , that the shepheards should use double diligence , taking heed to themselves and to the fl●cke , over which christ hath made them overseers , and to double & treble our prayers to the great shepheard of soules , that he would lead us in the paths of righteousnesse for his names sake . let no man slight prayer which is the armour of the church , & of great force : one onely example i will cite out of theodoret , who reporteth that alexanders prayers prevailed more against the arrians , then athanasius profound learning . when the arrian bishops with the emperours power , threatned to bring in arrius into alexanders church , the next day hee prayed all night after this manner ; o lord , if it be thy will to bring arrius into my church , then let thy servant depart in peace ; but if thou wilt be favourable to thy church , of which i am sure , then turn thine eye upon the arrians : the next day when the arrians came with great p●mp to have taken possession of his church : arrius going aside , his bowels brake asunder like iudasses . let us earnestly pray to god to keep these hereticks out of our churches , let us call upon him with david , how long lord wilt thou be angry with thy people that pray ? and thus much what false prophets are , and why god suffereth them . their outward description in which he setteth downe their intrusion . insinuation . dissimulation . {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} their intrusion , they come , they have no calling , these false prophets are not sent : paul asketh how they can preach except they besent . and this standeth with good reason , every true minister standeth in gods room , being the lords embassadour to deliver his wil , who dare do this unsent ? this did the devil in paradise , and the heretick arrius as the alexandrian synod affirmeth : no man taketh this honour to himself but he that is called of god , saith the author to the hebrewes . they come ! but whence come they , from the schools of the prophets ? no , but many of them from mechanick trades : as one from a stable from currying his horses , another from his stal from cobling his shooes , and these fit them downe in moses chaire to mend all , as embassadors of jesus christ , as heralds of the most high god . these take upon them to reveal the secrets of the most high , to open and shut heaven , to save soules . you may reade of such priests that jeroboam provided , but they were for his calves , fit for calves . as for the lords priests , the majesty of the king and dignity of the priest hood concurred in one person ( viz. in the first borne ) from the beginning to moses : in the gospel christ preferreth st. iohn baptist before all the priests and levites before him : and st. paul commandeth them to have double honour : and so they have b●en esteemed in all ages either christian or prophane , in whom there hath beene any religion at all . but to returne to my text , to heare these base fellows to discourse of the holy trinity , of gods eternal decree , and other deep points of divinity , you may hear the mad men in bedlam to prate as wisely as they , & are not they that run after such men as mad as they ? may not almighty god say to these prophets , what hast thou to doe to declare my statutes , or that thou shouldst take my covenant into thy mouth , seing thou hatest instruction ? but they will aske why they may not preach aswel as peter who was a fisherman , and paul a tent-maker , &c. to these i answer , that these were immediatly called by our lord , and enabled with gifts fit for so high a calling , as to heale the sicke , to cleanse leapers , to cast out devills ; the holy ghost came upon them , and they spake divers languages : they had all manner of learning both humane and divine . neither hath almighty god alwayes left such presumptuous wretches unpunished : korah , dathan , ond abiram , and the . princes , who would take upon them to sacrifice with strange fire , the earth opened & swallowed some of them , and fire from heaven consumed the rest . elimas going about to turne the deputy from the faith was stricken with blindnesse . arrius dyed in a jakes , voyding his bowels with his excrements as theodoret recordeth . manes was excoriated by the persian king . montanus and his two mad prophetesses hanged themselves . nestorius tongue was eaten up with wor●es . anastasius the emperour , a great defender of the eutychian heresie was smitten with a thunder-bolt . nicomedia a place where the arrians were appointed to meet , was swallowed up with an earth-quake : and antioch , a nursery of faction and heresies , was shaken with an earth-quake , and afterwards burnt with fire from heaven . and of late dayes iohn of leiden , king of the anabaptists with knipperdolling and crechting , had upon a scaffold their flesh torne apeices with hot irons ? and servetus was burnt for his abhominable blasphemies at geneva . examples are infinite , although seducers may escape punishment in this world , yet how can they escape the damnation of hell . to you . to you that are my disciples , {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} no word in vaine [ to you ] daily experience sheweth us , whom the anabaptists , brownists & familists , goe about to seduce , viz. not drankard● , adulterers , swearers , gamesters , and such like , but such as desire to know the right way to heaven : st. paul telleth us , that they leade captive silly women , ever learning that are desir●us to learne . {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} : they come not , {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} but to you , not as enemies but as friends , in●inuating themselves into you , as councellors under the colour of giving good councell , they seduce . this did the devill in paradice , councelling our first parents to eate of the forbidden fruit , hee promised to make them like god . and tempting christ in the wildernesse , promised to give him all the kingdomes of the world , and the glory of them ; thus all seducers promise great matters , yea the kingdome of heaven , and the glory of it . the wolfe ( saith a learned man ) when he taketh a sheepe at the first , layeth him gently upon his backe , carrying it away with little hurt to the place where he meaneth to worrie it . the anabaptists and other sectaries do the same , when they take sheepe out of our folds , they pretend to carry them unto zion , whereas indeed they take them out of the church to strangle their soules in their prophane conventicles . sweetely singeth the bird-catcher when hee would catch the foul : these seducers have their several cals o● notes . come out of babylon cryeth one , christ must raigne saith another , come to the holy communalty saith another , &c. every one have their severall calls , wherewith they do inchaunt silly soules . that you may the better avoid their inchantments , i will set down to you the method that these seducers use in deceiving simple people . in the first place they go about to separate the sheep from their shepheards , and this they endeavour to do by disgracing them that have cure for their soules , & bringing them into contempt with their people : affirming them to be unprofitable , unpowerfull , calling them baals priests , caini●es , taxing their conversations as prophane , and their doctrine as erroneous , colouring their malice with crying out for reformation ( which god grant ) for our infirmities ; which they malitiously cry up , we must confesse that we ar● men , and weak men : but for our doctrine , which they also scandal , it is gods truth ; would to god ou● lives were as pure as our doctrine . our infirmitie● are our owne ; the doctrine we preach is yours ; refuse not for their c●amours , and our infirmities , the golden treasure of salvation , which we bring unt● you in our earthen vessells . thus they smi●in● your shepheards with their tongues , the sheep ar● scatt●ered and surprised by these ravenous wolves . the devill in paradise spake ill of god himselfe , and so deceived our first parents , perswading them tha● he loved them no● , in forbidding them to eat of the fruit which would make them like god . the use that we should make of this , is to teach all true professors , that are christs sheep , to take heed that they forsake not their shepheards , and with itching eares run after seducers , who have faire outsides , and pretend much love . in sheeps cloathing . in these words hee setteth downe their dissimulation : our saviour may seem here to allude to the wolfe in the fable , concerning whom the mythologist speaketh . a wolfe on a time , putting on a sheepes skin , immi●gled himselfe amongst the flock , and so every day strangled one of the sheep : which when the shepheard perceived , hee took the wolfe and hung him upon a high tree : at which , the other shepheards wondred , being ignorant of the cause , what he meant to be so cruell , to hang up a ●illy harmesse sheep : he answered , his skin you see is a sheeps skin , but his workes are the workes of a wolfe . here we may observe , that it is not the manner of seducers , to shew themselves as they are within : if a wolfe within , yet a lambe without : if a wolfe should come in his owne likenesse into the fold , the shepheard would resist him , and hunt him away with his dogs : but comming in a sheeps skin he findeth entertainment , and they shun him not . even so seducers , if they should come in their owne likenesse , the magistrates and ministers would withstand them : but comming like zealous and holy christians , they finde entertainment . tertullian doth ask , qu●nam sunt istae pelles ovium ▪ st. paul telleth us , {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} having forme , or shew of godlinesse , viz. outward sanctimo●ny , counterfeit holinesse . for example , the devill transformed himselfe into an angel of light . baals priests used long prayers , they prayed from morning to noon , they cryed aloud , and cut themselves with knives and lancers , till the bloud gushed ●ut upon them . the blasphem●us arrians , as st. basil reporteth were easily believed because of their counterfeit holinesse . saint augustine writeth the same of the manichees . the romish seducers have many fasts , long prayers , they whip themselves ; yea , the begging friars befool'd the christian world with their pretended holinesse , with which they varnished their lewd lives . generally seducers come with outward sanctimony , with a seeming contempt of the world , with long prayers , as the pharisees , to devoure widdows houses , fastings , tears , almes-deeds , seeming zeale , seeming humility , seeming harmlessenesse . they can cry , weep , &c. and this you may see in the anabaptists who at their first comming into munster , seemed to be very holy men . their talke was altogether of mortification , and holinesse . their apparrell was modest and simple : they forbad the wearing of rings , pearles , and lace : they made a great shew of piety , mercy , and charity : they affirmed , that it was not lawfull to put any man to death , no not for the magistrate in case of justice ; but when their number increased , and that they had surprised the city , they became of all hereticks most unpure , and unclean , having not only many wives , for which they pretended to have a speciall command from god , but also making the women of their sect common , casting aside all lawes of honesty and pudicity . and for their apparell , their prophet iohn of leiden arrayed himselfe , his wives , and followers , like princes , assuming to themselves glorious titles , as the foresaid iohn the taylor stiled himselfe ▪ king of syon , and king of righteousnesse ▪ and in stead of mercy and much pi●ty before pretended , they not onely rob'd rich men , but also most cruelly murthered many , beheading some , and impaling others upon stakes : yea one of the articles of their religion was to kill all the wicked . ( that is , all them that were not of their sect ) and to destroy all the kings of the earth , and to make their prophet iohn king of the universe . in the history of the anabaptists of germany , you may read what faire pretences they made before they surprized the city . the use that we should make of this , is to be very wary of these hereticks , who are of the best conversations ; whose lives , saith origem , are possibly directed not of god , but by the devill . secondlie , this their sheeps cloathing may be their palliating ▪ their errours with the testimony of holy scriptures . i read that the monster arrius pretended to have . places of scripture , to prove that christ was a meere man , and not god ; and this the seducers learnt of their father the devill , who cited the word to the word himselfe , tempting ▪ him to cast himselfe downe from the pinacle of the temple , viz. he cited part of the . psalme , he hath given his angels charge over thee , they shall heare thee up in their hands , lest thou shouldest dash thy foot against ▪ a stone , leaving out part of the text , viz. to keep thee in thy wayes . the devill fitted it for his purpose . this do hereticks , as among others , the anabaptists , to maintaine their uncleannesse in their spirituall marriages , cite , or rather abuse the holy scriptures , viz. that christians must forsake those things that are most deare unto them , for chrsts sake , and therefore women must renounce their beloved honesties . quidam etiam liberi fratres , impuri nebulones persuadebant levibas mulier culis , ●on posse ips●s salvari ▪ nisi suam pudi●itam ▪ prostituerent .   abutebantur autem non absque blasphemia ver●is domini . nisi quis deser●erit & spreverit quaecu●que chara habeat , ●●● posse salvari . . that publicans and harlots shall enter heaven before the pharisee ▪ therefore their spirituall sisters must prostitute their bodies to enter heaven , before honest matrons . item christi ●omi●e o●nes co●tumeli●s ●erendas esse . . for christs sake wee must undergoe all manner of infamy . praeterea● cum christus dixerit : meretrices & publicanos praececisse justitiarios in regne coelorum , debere mulieres meretrices fieri , & s●am pudicitiam prostituere ; ●u● fore in regne coelorū majores probis & honestis matronis . hen. bull . adver. anab. lib. . cap. . fol. . againe , as christians are one spirit , so they must be one bodie : such scripture they quote .   the use that you should make of this , is , advise with your learned pastors : and double and treble your prayers to almighty god to keepe you , and to bring into the way of truth all such as do erre , and are deceived . but inwardly they are ravening wolves . {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} , wolves . whatsoever they pretend , they are wolves : as wolves are to the sheep , so are false prophets to christs flock . st. paul calleth them , {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} , grievous wolves , our lord setteth downe their outward shew , and their inward disposition : what outward shew soever they make . {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} , wolves in divers respects . . as the biting of a wolfe is venomous , like the biting of a mad dog , making them that are bitten by them , mad : so false prophets venome men , causing them to goe out of their wits . . as the wolves destroy more sheep by craft , then by might ; so doe false prophets ▪ of whom saint paul speaketh of some carrryed away {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} by the cogging of men , and with craftinesse , by which they lye in wait to deceive . . as wolves are dull-sighted in the day , and quick ▪ sighted in the night : so false prophets are very accute and sharpe witted to defend their errors ; but very dull and blinde to see the truth . make a garment , saith plutarth , of the haire of a wolfe , & it will prove odious , being lousie , and breeding vern●●e upon him that weareth it . so all the profit you shall get by false prophets , will be noxious to you . {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} which signifieth dilanio ▪ to teare asunder {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} of {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} to rend asunder ▪ as one wolf may destroy a flock , so one hereticke a congregation . ● . lupus quasi leopus , followeth the lyon hunting for his prey ; and what the lyon spareth , the wolfe devoureth . so false prophets follow their father the devill , the roaring lyon , seeking whom they may devoure . wolves play with little children , as aristotle reporteth , and sometimes spareth them ▪ as wee read of ro●ulus brought up by a wolf ; and of late days i read of a man brought up among the wolves , and ra●●e about with them , and preyed as they did ▪ but being taken by hunters , and chained up , he howl'd like a wolfe ; and continuing among men , and having gotten his speech and understanding ▪ he would complaine , that he lived more carefully among men , than among wolves . i never read that a false prophet spared any man whom he could seduce : and it is not so dangerous to live among wolves in the fields , as with false prophets in a strong city . ravening wolves they are by reason of their rapacitie , taking away truth from our understandings , charity from our affections , and holinesse from our action . {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} , grievous wolves , cruell wolves : a wolfe delighteth in bloud : so these mysticall wolves : of the cruelty of these ravening wolves you may read ▪ hebr. . . by them the saints of god were stoned , they were sawne asunder , they were tempted , they were slaine with the sword , &c. in the primi●ive persecutions , they opened the bellies of holy men and virgin● , and filling them full of corne exposed them to be eaten of swine . cyril of hierapolis had his breast opened , and his liver taken out , and chewed by these ravenous wolves . in cruelty the romish wolves excell . call but to minde the martyrdom of our holy men in queen maries dayes , which holy men delivered our nation from idoll worship , bread-worship , invocation of saints and angels , and translated the holy bible into english , who restored to us the cup in the sacrament , the symboll of christs bloud , who sealed their confession with their bloud . their blessed remembrance shall remaine for ever . in the massacre of the protestants in france you may see their wolvish cruelty . the papists being not able to quell the protestants in battaile , they put on sheepes cloathing , made a league with them confirmed by oathes , and a publike edict . and that the protestants might the better confide in them , the protestant king of navar , our queens father , was to marry the sister of the then french king . to the which marriage the protestant princes & nobles resorted , invited with great joy and expectation of future happinesse . the marriage was solemnized ; but in the night time the wolvish papists fell upon their guests , and worried them against the law of hospitality , promises , and oathes . the noble prince , the admirall ( among others ) was murthered in his chamber , was drawne to the gallowes , and hanged up by the heeles . and to consummate this abhominable treacherie , the pope ( hearing of this their mass●cring the p●o●●stant ) went in procession with his cardinals , and sang te deum . but what need i forraigne examples ? call to minde our powder-plot , a cruelty superlative , in a moment to destroy our king , queen , prince , nobles , bishops , and patriots . what devill could have devised such a plot , and this to be done , not in open rebellion , but to be blowne up with gunpowder , sitting in the house of peace , making the parliament-house like mount sinai , tonitru & fumo , with thunder and smoake . the can bee no agreement between wolves and sheep : strings made of wolves guts , and sheeps guts , can never agree in an instrument . i might also relate of the cruelty of the anabaptists in munster , and papists in ireland ; but this shall suffice . there are divers kindes of wolves . . there are wolves called cervari , unsatiable creatures . . a wolfe called glanos , {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} , which seeks to prey upon men . : a wolfe called cirucs , who when the mountains are covered with snow , will venture into cities . . in ethiopia , wolves that have maines like lions . . in india wolves that have three rowes of teeth , feet like a lion , a face like a man , and voyce like a trumpet , taile like a scorpion , swift as a hart , a like fierce and cruell . it is not so dangerous to live among those vvolves in a wood , as among our mysticall wolves in a strong city : as wee have none of these wolves in england , so lord deliver us from these mysticall wolves . o god thou hast not cast us off for ever . thine enemies roar in the midst of thy congregation . they have cast fire into thy sanctuary ▪ o god , how long shall the adversaries reproach us ? shal the enemy blaspheme thy name for ever ? o deliver not the soule of thy turtle dove to the multitude of the wicked . arise , o lord , and pleade thy owne cause . mr. calvin that admirable man of god , whose name is yet terrible in the kingdom of popery , setteth downe certaine characters of these impostors , taken out of st. augustine . . great boasters making ostentation of their own worth , like simon magus who bewitched the people , saying , that he himselfe waa some great man , like the gnostiks who had a high conceit of their own knowledge , as if they were the only knowing men of the whole world , & , as eliah , left alone for their faculty to expound scripture : yea , among us some trades-men have a high conceit of their deep learning . as a shoomaker being demanded by one of his neighbours whether hee could preach better then the doctor his parson , answered with indignation , that he should be very sorrowfull if he could not preach better then he . . superbia tumidi , blowen up with pride . it is reported by bede , that when austin the monke came into brittany , and that the brittish bishops were in doubt of receiving him , an old man gave them advice to observe whether hee were humble or no , and that by his humility they should know whether he were of god or no : by their pride you may know them , their talke , being commonly in commendation of themselves , and casting dirt and vilifying others . this overweening of heritickes hath bred much distraction in the church : in the primitive times marcion the heretique , having not that preferment that he expected and thought himselfe worthy of , demanded what was the meaning of those words . no man pleceth an old garment with a piece of new cloath , for that that should fil up taketh away from the garment , and the breach is worse . they gave him the true sense of christs words ; but the proud heretick applyed the parable to himselfe , & avouched that he should make a remediles breach among them . thereupon he broached his heresie , viz. that there were two gods , the one the author of good , the other the author of evill ; which errour cost st. augustine more pains in confuting it then many other . aerius being denyed a bishopricke , wrote against the whole order . and among us many proud spirits having not these preferments which they thought themselves worthy of , have forsaken our church , & gone to rome and amsterdam . calumniis insidiosi , deceitfully slanderous , and in this faculty of all others the brownists excell ; they fill their sermons , books , and communication with scandalous imputations : they spare neither government nor church ; like cursed children tearing their mother a pieces ; which when they have done , they may confesse with nero , who , when he had ript open his mothers belly , affirmed that he never thought his mother had bin so fair : the jesuits are not so bitter against our church as the separatists , compare their writings : michael the arch-angel durst not give the devil such cursed speaking , nor raile upon him as they doe upon us . treacherously seditious , not preaching peace , as christ commanded his disciples to doe , but division : yea the brownists arrogate to themselves the name of separatists , which well they may , being separated from their mother church , from all the reformed churches and malitiously divided among themselves . read mr. whites discovery of brownisme , who setteth down among other what a fiery contention was among the iohnsons , the younger brother becomming a libeller , and loading his elder brother with reproaches of shame and infamie , and that in print , and the other separated himselfe , and brake fellowship with his brother and father , & cursed him with all the curses in gods booke , which he confirmed with the sentence of excommunication , giving his brother and father to the devill . lest they should seeme to be destitute of the light of truth , they arrogate to themselves the shadow of austerity , a shew of holinesse . the substance of holinesse is charity , which they want , cor. . without which they are nothing : having a shew of godlinesse , but denying the power thereof , from such turne away . sacrilegious , what the appetite of all schismaticks hath been this way is notorious , caring not for the ruine of the whole church , upon condition that they might get some-what . they have so taught , that some thinke that there is no such sin as sacriledge a● all . for whereas sacriledge may be committed , . against holy persons , viz against gods ministers , as the wrong done to zacharias the priest was punished , not only in the king and people that did it , but upon the jewes that lived many hundred yeares after . . against holy places ; yee shall keep my sabbaths , and reverence my sanctuarie . . against holy things : ye have robbed m● , saith the lord , in detention of tythes and offerings . . now for holy persons , some affirme there to be none now : men making no difference between a minister and a cobler . . for holy places : they impute no more holinesse to a church than to a stable . . for holy things : as holy dayes , as sabbaths , every day alike ; and for tythes , they thinke they are repealed : never by christ , but as the work continueth , and the service of god ; so also the main●ainance : indeed i finde them forbidden by muntzer the anabaptist , who also forbade paying rent to landlords , with other things . it must needs follow , if there be no holy persons , places , nor things , that there can be no sacriledge . wha● ? have we lost a sinne ? is that law abrogated ? happy it were for many sacrilegious persons ( among us ) if it were so , to avoyd this curse . if there were no such sinne in the gospell , why doth st. peter so curstly rebuke ananias for it ? ananias , why hath the devill filled thy heart to lye to the holy ghost , and keepe away part ? if the devill were in him , and he and his wife stricken dead , who kept back but halfe that hee himselfe had offered ? what shall become of them ? & what devill is in them , that take away all , no● which they themselves had given , but which their forefathers with great piety and devotion had offered unto almighty god ? st. paul●quaileth or preferreth sacriledge before idolatry . thou that abhorrest idols , committest thou sacriledge ? an idolater may have some religion , but the sacrilegious person none at all : an atheist is worse than the devill himselfe . . madly obstinate , convincere ●●s possum , saith st. augustine , convertere ve●ò non possum , he could convince them , but could not convert them , they being given over to a repr●bate sense . from hardnesse of heart good lord deliver us . {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} . having before spoken of the description of false prophets , and how dangerous they are , i come now to the caveat , take heed . the word is taken in a double sense . . in the sense of attending . peter . ▪ {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} , to which you doe well that you doe attend : so we read in the vulgar , attendite à falsis prophetis . . it is taken in the sense of bewaring , mat. . take heed : so it is to be taken in this place . in the syrian translation , which tongue our lord preached in , to be forewarned . beware , is the word of a friend : yea the counsell of our lord and saviour , who is our best friend : beware , as if he should say , i know my deare , that you hearing of the narrow way that leadeth unto life , will be very desirous to enquire of every one , but especially of those that seeme to be prophets , concerning this way , for your better direction : but let me forewarne you above all others , to beware of false prophets ; for they instead of directing you , will set you out of the way . this caution he gave his disciples whom he loved , mat. . . take heed that no man deceive you . again , take heed of the leaven of the pharisees . let our lords counsell be acceptable unto you : beware usually precedeth some danger . this doubling , some great danger . poyson is very dangerous , but no poyson so dangerous to the body , as false doctrine to the soule . beware of false prophets , more dangerous than men infected with the plague . the plague is of all diseases most infectious to the body ; heresie is as infectious to the soule . this city is much more to be pittied at this time swarming with false prophets , then when there dyed in it . a week of the plague . then we lamented the dead bodies of our friends departed , whose souls god had taken to himselfe ; but now we may lament the soules of our people who are departed from god . they are not onely in danger of infection , but grievously infected . one poore soule cryeth out , no set prayers ; another no sabbath ; another , no lords prayer ; another , no law for a rule of life : and for them that goe about to cure these infected persons , they are in as much danger as they that goe to visit men sick of the pestilence : they being not much unlike those swine and dogs , of whom our lord forewarneth his disciples , give not holy things unto dogs , nor pearles unto wine , lest they tread them under their feet , and turne againe , and rend you . we are in danger of them in our houses , yea , cordolio i speak it , they enter irreverently into our churches : some tear our books , and have beene ready to lay violent hands upon us at the lords table , administring the holy communion . they are worse than murtherers ; a murtherer may kill a man , but one fa●se prophet may destroy a whole city , or c●untrey ; a murtherer destroyeth onely the body , but a false prophet both body and soule . the curses that were to be denounced upon mount eball , may in part be pronounced against these seduce●s . cursed be he that causeth the blinde to goe out of the way . yea , more cursed are they that seduce ignorant w●ll-meaning people , from the simplicity of gods truth . cursed be he that removeth the marke of his neighbors land . yea , more cursed are they thac remove and take away the markes of christianity from among us ▪ cursed be he that setteth light by his father and mother . yea , more cursed be they that blaspheme their mother the church , in which they were begotten , & made members of i●sus christ . o almighty , which stillest the raging of the sea , and madnesse of the pe●ple , in mercy looke upon these p●ore soules , and give thy people grace to avoyd the infections of the devill , and with pure heart and mind to follow thee the only god , through our lord jesus christ . {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} to whom o●lord giveth this cavea● , not to his desciples only , but to all men : the word is plurall . . to us ministers , who are the lords watchmen , and are to give an account , not onely for our selves , but also for the people comitted to our charge . take heed , saith s. paul , unto your selves , and to the flock , over which the lord hath made you overseers to feed the church of god , which he hath purchased with his owne bloud ; for i know that after my departure grievous wolves will enter , not sparing the flocke . againe , i charge thee before god , and the lord iesus christ , who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing , preach the word , be instant in season , out of season , reprove , &c. for the time will come that they shall have itching eares , and after their owne lusts get them a heap of teachers , and turne their eares from the truth , and be given unto fables . and againe , in meeknesse instructing them that oppose themselves : if peradventure god will give them repentance to acknowledge the truth , that they may recover themselves from the snare of the devill , who are taken captive by him at his will . magistrates , who as they are nursing fathers and mothers to the church , so they should make good lawes to be as wals to the church , and also put them in execution . they are called shepheards ( as , cyrus my shepheard ) and are to yeeld an account to almighty god for the sheep committed to their charge ; which through their negligence shal be devoured by these ravening wolves . a question may be asked , in that our lord biddeth us to take heed , whether it be not lawful for the magistrate {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} . to put false prophets to death : in which question wee are to note whom we are to account false prophets , viz. not every one that differeth from our church in opinion , or have some naevous opinions . but by false prophets we understand such as hold fundamental errors , and persist therein , after all means used for their conviction ; yea not onely persist , but also endeavour to disperse their pernicious errours , to the perverting of others . again , such whose doctrines are blasphemous , as the arrians are dangerous to the destruction of the government under which they live ▪ and where all these concur they deserve death , because they corrupt the faith : if such as corrupt and poyson fountains of water , at which men and beasts drink , do deserve capitall punishment : how much more they , who as much as in them lyeth do poyson mens soules ? againe , we have divers examples of this lawfull severity executed upon idolaters : first , in eliah's time , commanding all the prophets of baal to bee slaine . secondly , in iehu , giving the like commandement . thirdly , in all the inhabi●ants of the land of iudah , who destroyed all the houses of baal , and slew mattan he priest before the altar . furthermore , we have examples in ecclesiasticall histories ; as first in constantine , that fam●us christian emperour , who enacted , that if any man did offer sacrifice upon the altars , gladio ultore sterneretur , he sh●u●d be pu● to d●ath , and his goods confiscated . the like als● was en●cte b●theodosius , valentinianus , and martianus , as mr. bullinger reporteth . the ground and warrant of this is g●d himselfe , that prophet , or dreamer of dreames , &c. shall be put to death . if any man object , that this was a judiciall law ; i answer , if it were so ; yet the equity of that judiciall law remaineth to all . st. augustine saith , that there is a punishing mercy , and a sparing cruelty . for it is a punishing mercy , when governours doe punish dangerous seducers for safety of the whole : and it were a sparing cruelty , to let them goe unpunished : for , looke how much mercy is shewed to the wolf , so much cruelty is done to the sheep . this may serve for the reproofe of such magistrates , who , when they have danger●us wolves discovered unto them , wil not lend their helping hands to suppres them . to conclude this poynt : the romish seducers are severely punished among us , & kept from our folds , and why not all other false prophets , who blaspheme god & seduce our people ? what ? shall we punish them only that attribute too much to the sacrament of baptisme , affirming infants un-baptized not to enter heaven ? and suffer anabaptists who wil not baptize them at all , but blaspheme the baptisme of children , calling it the marke of the beast , affirming that it came from anti-christ and the devill ? and suffer them to publish books in defence of this and other their abhominable errors ? shall we punish them only that attribute too much to the element of bread in the holy communion , accounting him no good christian that will not call it his lord god ? and suffer such men who mocke and sc●ffe at the sacrament of the lords supper , calling it a two-peny banque● ? shall we punish them that give too much reverence to the blessed virgin , holy apostles , and saints departed , and suffer them that blaspheme the holy virgin , whom all nations should call blessed ? shall we blame the papists for saying too many pater-nosters , and tolerate the brownists and other sectaries who will not say the lords prayer at all ? some of them affirming it to be an abhominab●e idol , although it be commanded to be said by our lord himself ? shall we punish them that not only keep the lords day , but also many holy-dayes , and suffer them that will neither keep holy-daies nor the lords day , as the familists and antisabbata●ians ? shall we punish them that confesse their sins , and suppose that they cannot enter heaven without a particular confession of them ? and tolerate them that will not con●esse their sinnes at all , and affirme that god can see no sin in them ? as the antinomians . shall we punish them that worship god in trinity , and trinity in unity ? and tolerate them that blaspheme the holy trinity ? as the arrians , and antitrinitarians . i hope that our governors wil drive these also from our folds , as they doe the popish emissaries : {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} , it is fit for us that are christ●ans to avoyd all those who speak against christ , and hate them as the enemies of god , and corrupters of soules . this caveat of our lords belongeth to every christian man . we are not to keep company with them . it was eves fault to admit conference with the devill . in these false prophets there is such a malignant spirit , that the devill cannot doe more hurt out of them , then in them . st. paul counselleth the romans , to marke them diligently that make divisions , and to avoyd them . if we must avoyd schismaticks that make divisions , how much more hereticks ? st. iohn in his epistle to the elect lady , forbids all society with them : if there come any to you , and bring not this doctrine , receive him not into your house , nor bid him , god speed . according to his doctring , so was his practice , he would not bath with cerinthus the heretick , nor abide under the same roofe with him , but leaped out of the roome , and perswaded others so to doe . polycarp , st. iohns schollar , meeting marcion the heretick , would not salute him : marcion asking him whether he knew him or no ? was answered by him , yes , i know thee well to be the first borne of the devill . would any man entertaine into his family a man infected with the plague ? how much lesse an heretick , who , without the great mercy of god , may be the undoing of him and his family . this caveat should keep men from hearing those seducers : my sheep , saith our lord , will not heare the voyce of a stranger . yet such is the folly or madnesse of these times , and men have such itching eares , that if the devill himself should preach among us , i feare that he would have too many hearers . {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} but whereas they pretend to be led by the spirit , i beseech you , saith st. paul , by the comming of the lord iesus christ , that you be not so soone shaken in minde , neither by spirit ( that is by pretence of the spirit ) for as there is a holy spirit , by whom the prophets & apostles inspired , spake : so you may read of a lying spirit in the mouths of false prophets . therefore st. iohn commandeth us not to believe every spirit , but to search and try the spirits , whether they be of god , or no . how shall i know gods spirit , but by his word ? such spirits as speak against gods word , are the devils spirits , and not gods . i have read that in a synod in britain held by dunstan , archbish. . of canterbury , who would have had a decree passe against ministers marriage , a strange voyce was heard out of an image in the church for confirmation thereof . but the british bishop cryed out , that that voyce was the voyce of the devill , and not of god : for god would not speak against his word : and indeed st. paul calleth forbidding of marriage the doctrine of devills . we should try all these new doctrines pretended to come from the spirit , whether they be against gods word , or no ▪ as for example , whereas the romish prelates forbid the laity the reading of the holy scriptures ( in the vulgar ) which god commands , and the holy ghost commends : is this their prohibition from god , or from the devill ? and whereas they command communion under one kinde , contrary to christs institution ; whose spirit is in them , gods , or the devills ? and whereas other false prophets forbid the saying of the lords prayer , with other things commanded in holy scriptures : those are lying prophets , who have not gods spirit , but the devills : for god will not speake against his word . o yee foolish galatians , who hath bewitched you ? saith st. paul . o yee foolish galatians : wee see how carefull men are of being deceived in any thing of weight ; in buying land they advise with the best counsell they can get : for health they advise with the learnedest physitians : in receiving money , if they doubt , they will go to the gold-smith and weigh it and touch it at the stone : let us not be carelesse only for our soules ▪ nay , who hath bewitched you , saith the apostle ? it is the fashion of witches , as some report , when they covenant with the devill , to renounce their baptisme ▪ were it possible for a man , except hee were bewitched indeed , to be perswaded to renounce his baptisme ? were it possible for any man , except he were bewitched , to forsake the church of god , and to dream of a new one , and that almighty god never had a true church , untill some fanatick persons at this time had framed o●e ? how could all this their holy frame escape all the patriarks , prophets , holy apostles , and doctors , and be revealed onely to browne , who lik't it so ill , that h●e returned againe to his mother church . the like antiquitie have the etonites , and others of our sectaries . our lord sending forth his disciples , as sheep among wolves , giveth them this counsell , beye wise ●● serpe●ts , and harmlesse as doves . and why wise as serpents ? like the deafe adder , that stoppeth her eare , which wil not hearken to the voyce of the charmer , charm he never so wisely ▪ it is written of the aspe , that to avoyd charming , shee layeth one eare close to the ground , and stoppeth the other with her tayle . thu● the ancient christians were wont to stop their eares , and not heare christs truth adulterated . it is recorded by theodoret , that when lucius the arrian bishop came and preached among the anti●●hians , broaching his damnable heresies , the people forsooke the church , and would not heare him , lib. . eccles. histor. cap. . m. histor. tripart . but now they tha● beare the name of christians ▪ & would be accounted professors , r●n a if they were mad to be charmed , to heare the false prophets of our time : beye wise as serpents , saith our lord , and harmlesse a● doves . the dove as shee is innocent , and harmlesse , so swift winged to avoyd the danger shee may receive from vultures , and other ravenous birds . o that i had wings like a dove , ( saith the prophet ) then would i flye away , and be at rest . our soules are win●ed ▪ our prayers are our wings : let us fly to the rock where we shall finde rest . you have heard of two wayes , the one leading to life , the the other to destruction : and that it is a difficult thing to find heaven , and that because of fals● prophets , who goe about to lead us out of the way : you have heard also what these false prophets are , viz. lying prophets , falsifying gods word ; and why god suffereth them , viz. for the punishment of the ungodly , and for the tryall of the godly ; and that they come unsent , without any calling , in sheepes cloathing , counterfeiting holinesse , pretending scripture ; being indeed ravening wolves : and as wolves destroy the body , so doe they the soule . our lord biddeth beware of them : and whereas they pretend the spirit , try the spirits , as st. iohn counselleth you , whether they be of god , or no ; and being not of god to avoyd them , being wise as serpen●s , who stop their eares , and will not heare the voyce of the charmer . let us be innocent as the dove and mount heaven with our prayers , and praying , say with david , sew me thy wayes , o lord , and teach me thy pathes : open thou my eyes , that i may see the wonders of thy law . lead me forth in thy truth , and guide me , thou art the god of my salvation . and whereas the suffering of these false prophets may be one of the causes of gods heavy hand upon us , and of the unnaturall war among us , let us use all meanes to suppresse them in our callings , and so remove this cursed thing from us . all you that are the sonnes of peace , friends of peace and servants to the god of peace , double and treble your prayers , that some mediator may stand in the gap , to divert gods judgements from us : and if almighty god hath otherwise decreed , let every one of us make his owne peace with god , commending our soules into his hands who is our faithfull creator , keeping faith & a good conscience , of which take heed that you do not make shipwrack ; which if you keep , you need not feare neither false prophets , nor devills , fire , nor sword , nothing shall hurt you : although they kill you , they shall but deliver your soules out of the prison of your bodyes , to enjoy everlasting peace ; which i intreat almighty god to bring us all , for his sonne jesus christs sake , to whom with the holy ghost , three persons , and one god , be all glory , prayse , honour , and donion , &c. finis . perlegi concionem hanc de pseudo-prophetis , in qua nihil reperio quo minus utiliter imprimatur . ia. cranford . nov. . . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a e- 〈…〉 〈…〉 ▪ false prophets . a falsis prophetis . {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} peter . . rom. . . in vita rich. psalme . ●alse prophets alwayes in the church . matthew . acts . . ● tim. . . pet . , tim. . lib. de haeresibus . galat. . . cor. . . an ●● . jesuites and other rom●sh ●m●●s●●ies . f●●●lists . anabaptists ▪ brownists . i●ded●●●● . antinomians . arminian● . sabbatarians . antisabbatarians . traskites ▪ arrians . antitrinitarians . millenaries . soules sleepe . in indi●e po●●m . bulling ▪ ●dver . an●b●● . psal. ● . . why god suffereth false prophets . thes. . . cor. . ● . use . vse . lib. . cap. . psa●m● . ▪ which come , ●u● veniunt . {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} intrusion . rom. . . hebr. . whence come they . kings psalm . . acts . . numb. . acts , . lib. . eccles. histor : cap : hierom catal. scriptor . niceph. cal. hist. lib. . cap : . melanct. lib. chron. theod. lib. . cap. . paulus diacon . lib. . sl●id . com . l. . ●ol . . to you , ad vos . {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} subspecie consulendi ●gunt nego●ium seducendi greg. mag. lib. . mor. cap. lupus cum ovem rapuerit dentibus eam non laedit , sed super dorsum suum ●am sua . viter jacere facit vincent in specul. nat. lib. . cap. . ephesians . . {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} vse . in sheeps cloathing . vestimen●is ovium . {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} their insinua●tion . lupus ovis pelle indutus ovium se immisc●it gregi , quotidieque aliquam ex ●is ●ccidebat ; quod cum pastor animadvertisset illum altissimo arbore suspendit : interrogantibus autem caeteris pastoribus cur ovem suspendisset ; aiebat , pellis quidem ut videtis est ovis , opera autem lupidae . a shew of godlinesse . tim. . . king. . bull . adver. anab● fol. . lib. . cap. . initio humiles & demissi fuerunt : nihil splendoris & magnificentiae habebant ; clamabant & invehebantur in omnem excellentiam , fastum & magnificentiā , item adversus gladiū & potestatem magistratuū . opes & honores erant illis ( ita simulabant ) nausea . nihil loquebantur quam de mortificatione veteris hominis , de renovatione spiritûs , de separata & deo commissa a● dicata vita , mundum & cuncta quae in ipso sunt plane fassidi●bant . solli●●●● caveamus h●r●ticos qui ●●nve●sa●●o●is of timae sunt , quorum ●●rte vitam non tam deu● quam diabo●●s ▪ lost ▪ ●xit b●m ▪ : in ezek. . testi●o●●●s of scripture . psal. ● . i●tre sec●s ●●tem lupi ra●a●●s . {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} inward disposition . acts . . arist. lib. ● . ●ph . i●terdi o●●a●i●● nocte ●lari●s . ●ide● gis●●r lib ● ▪ ● ▪ quadrup . arist. lib. n. animal . {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} acts . cruelty of these mystical wolves . hebr. . romish wolves ▪ martyrs in q. m●●ie● time . massacre in ●●a●ce . ●o●der 〈…〉 barthol de propr . plin. l . ●●t ▪ hist. ari● lib ▪ s : cap. ▪ gisn ▪ isod . lib ▪ . asist. lib. characters . lib . in perm . lib. . in stit . cap. . ●● . . acts ● . . epiphan. cont ▪ heres. mat. . . calumniis inst. di si . brownists goe beyond all other ●ect●ri●s in rayling . treacherously seditious . ● tim. . sacrilegious . mat. . ▪ mal. . acts . rom . m●dly obstinate . mat. . beware precedeth danger . poyson dangerous , heresie worse . mat. . cordolio . worse then murtherers . cu●ses of mount eball ▪ d●ut. . to whom ▪ min●sters ▪ ezek. a●●s ● tim. ● . tim. . magistrates . isa . whether lawful to put false prophets to death . examples . king kin●s . kings . b●llirg . ●ecad . ●●rm . . 〈…〉 . sicut ●st m●sere●ordia puniens , i●a est crud●lita● p●r●e●s . epi. . ma●e●icta ●it caro mariae . act ● n●●l n●c p●rt ap●● cyz●z●● . to every christian ▪ not to keep co●p●ny with t●en . rom. . ioh. iohn . led by the spirit . iohn . ● tim. ▪ gal. ▪ mat. . psal. ● ▪ 〈…〉 . ● . a discourse of schism address'd to those dissenters who conform'd before the toleration, and have since withdrawn themselves from the communion of the church of england / by robert burscough ... burscough, robert, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - 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(eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a discourse of schism address'd to those dissenters who conform'd before the toleration, and have since withdrawn themselves from the communion of the church of england / by robert burscough ... burscough, robert, - . , [ ] p. printed for tho. bennet ... and charles yeo ..., london : . errata: p. 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ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng dissenters, religious -- england. schism -- early works to . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - ali jakobson sampled and proofread - ali jakobson text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a discourse of schism : address'd to those dissenters , who conform'd before the toleration , and have since withdrawn themselves from the communion of the church of england . by robert bvrscovgh , m. a. london , printed for tho. bennet , at the half-moon in st. paul's church-yard : and charles yeo ; bookseller in exeter . . a discourse of schism : address'd to those dissenters , who conform'd before the toleration , and have since withdrawn themselves from the communion of the church of england . the introdvction . having compos'd this discourse , with a design to do you what good i am able : i may reasonably desire that you would afford it an impartial and candid perusal , and read it with a resolution not to condemn any thing in it , without a due examination . this , indeed , is more than i can expect from those amongst you , who are byass'd with prejudice , or mov'd with a false zeal , or a worldly interest . but there are many of you , whom i consider under another character ; and who , i believe , may be ready to abandon their mistakes , upon better information . you may remember who it was that said , that which i see not , teach thou me ▪ if i have done iniquity , i will do no more . and if you think it no reproach to follow so laudable an example , but are willing to receive instruction ; i assure my self , that what i shall here offer to you , may contribute something to your satisfaction . you are like to find nothing here , that may give you any just cause of offence : nothing , but what proceeds from a spirit of charity . and if this , instead of convincing you , should only raise your indignation ; i shall be sorry for your sakes ; and yet have no cause to repent , that i have endeavour'd with meekness to bring you into the right way . and , i hope , that god , who knows the sincerity of my intentions , and measures them not by the event , will graciously accept of them . upon what terms the rigid separatists receiv'd you again , as members of their congregations , i know not . but since they have been wont to accuse our way of worship in the churches , of popery and antichristianism , of idolatry and superstition , they must needs look on you that once conform'd , as partakers then in the same crimes . and if you resolve to do the like again , upon the like or other occasions ; they cannot but esteem you as persons that would reconcile christ and belial ; or that make it an indifferent thing , either to come out of babylon , or to remain in it . and , according to their own principles , they may fitly speak to you , in these words of elijah ; how long halt ye between two opinions ? if the lord be god , follow him : but if baal , then follow him . if you will vindicate your own proceedings , you are as much concern'd as the conformists themselves , to refute the charge , and answer the objections of those men , against our liturgy , and ceremonies . but that work is well done already by dr. falkner , and others , to whom i refer the inquisitive reader . my business at present is chiefly with you , who think you may lawfully conform with us ; and yet have deserted our communion : a thing , indeed , that is very agreeable to flesh and blood , and which may make several turns of affairs more easy to you : but wise and good men would suspect an opinion and practice , which are so much on the side of the world ; and not like the truth the worse , because of the disadvantages that sometimes may attend it . it is to lead you to the truth , from which you seem to be at a great distance , that i publish this treatise of schism ; in which i consider your case , and bring it to a fair tryal . but to prepare my way for this , i thought it requisite to say something of church-union ; of which schism is a breach : for these two things being compar'd together , may give some light to one another . sect . i. that all christians ought to be united together , is very plain from the holy scriptures ; and it is a matter of such importance , that we find our blessed saviour repeating the same petition four several times within the compass of three verses , that his followers might be one. it is also observable , that he pray'd , that they might be made perfect in one ; that they might be one , as the father and himself are one. and nothing less can be understood by these words , than that he was desirous they should be one , in the highest and strictest manner of which they were capable , or that was possible for a society of men. st. paul describes the christian church as a building fitly fram'd together , growing into a holy temple in the lord : and as a body fitly joyn'd together , and compacted by that which every joynt supplieth . he saith also to the ephesians , and in them to all the professors of christianity , i beseech you , that ye walk worthy of the vocation , wherewith ye are called ; with all lowliness , and meekness , with long suffering , forbearing one another in love , endeavouring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace . there is one body and one spirit , even as ye are called in one hope of your calling : one lord , one faith , one baptism , one god , and father of all , who is above all , and through all , and in you all . the same apostle writes thus to the philippians , if there be any consolation in christ , if any comfort of love , if any fellowship of the spirit , if any bowels and mercies ; fulfil ye my joy , that ye be like-minded , having the same love , being of one accord , of one mind . how pathetick , how moving is his language here ? how admirably does it set forth the great care and concern of his soul , for those things which are the matter of his exhortation ! i must transcribe a great part of his epistles , should i produce all that they afford , pertinent to my present purpose . but you grant , i suppose , in general , that the unity of the church ought to be preserv'd ; and all the question being , wherein it does consist , or in what things it ought to be maintain'd : to this i answer , that all christians ought to be united , i. in faith , ii. in love , iii. in outward worship and communion . i shall but just touch on the two former of these ; but more largely insist on the last , in which the controversy between us is chiefly concern'd . i. all christians ought to be united in the same faith. for there is but one faith ; and we are obliged to contend earnestly for the faith , which was once deliver'd to the saints . the christian doctrine is not calculated , only for some particular times and places : nor is it to be vary'd by them , but ought to be kept entire , and free from impure mixtures . and when it is so , it must needs be the same in all places , and upon all occasions : the same in all the climates under heaven ; and under persecuting tyrants , the same as under nursing fathers and mothers : the same in the heart , and the same in the profession of all christians ; for as we ought to think , so we are oblig'd to speak the same thing . ii. they ought all to be united , or , as st. paul speaks , knit together in love. notwithstanding they are call'd to liberty , yet they are bound to serve one another by love : to be kindly affectionate to one another in brotherly love , and in honour to prefer one another . a new commandment , says our saviour christ , i give unto you , that ye love one another . and whether he calls this commandment new , because of its excellence , as the word is thought to signify , where we read of a new name , and a new song : or whether he styles it so , because he requires it in greater measure than formerly ; urging his followers by his own example , when he was about to suffer death for them ; to love one another as he had loved them ; manifest it is , that the thing which he here enjoyns , is most acceptable to him. but there is something more to be understood by these words , than is commonly apprehended , which is , that our lord having before taught his disciples , to love their neighbour , and even their enemies . he now gives them a new commandment , to love one another , as they were his disciples . he had before instructed them to love all mankind ; but now it was matter of a new and a distinct precept , that they should love one another , with a higher degree of affection , as being fellow-christians , and testifie it all possible ways , even to the hazard of their lives . our lord did not pray for the world , as he did for those that were given him out of the world : nor is it his will that we should be alike affected to both . we must exercise charity towards all , but with a particular regard to the members of his church . as we have opportunity , we must do good to all men ; but especially to them who are of the houshold of faith. iii. they ought to be united in outward worship and communion . and to this they are obliged both by their faith and love : it being one of the fruits , which both ought to bring forth , as worthy of them ; and which they must produce , if they are sincere . . faith ought to shew forth it self in good works ; of which one is the maintenance of christian concord . and this is so much the effect of it , or hath such connexion with it , that the christians church is represented in scripture as a houshold of faith. they also that liv'd in full communion with the church , are , by the ancients , call'd the faithful , and distinguish'd by that title , from the penitents , the hearers and others , who did in some degree belong to it ; but not being compleat members of it , they were not admitted to all the prayers , nor to the lord's table . . the love of the faithful being duly exercis'd , supposes them to live in outward communion , and keeps them in it . it is the duty of every one of them to love the brotherhood ; and of them all , to love as brethren : that is , they must love as persons that are visibly of the same family , or society , under the same lord. thus is the title of brethren to be understood in many places of scripture : and in an apology of justin martyr , as also in other writings of the fathers , it is apply'd as a name of distinction to such as were perfect communicants . but not to insist upon the limitation of it to that sense ; certain it is , that the word was of such frequent use amongst christians , who signified by it their spiritual affinity , or the near relation which they stood in to one another , that they were much noted , and variously censur'd for it by their enemies . lucian says , their law-giver perswaded them , that they were all brethren : and , caecilius suggests , that by some secret marks they knew one another to be of the fraternity . calumnies and invectives may be grounded on some truth , or be mingled with it : and the truth is , our saviour said to his followers , by this shall all men know that ye are my disciples , if ye have love one to another . and this could not be a meer inward love , for that was not capable of being a publick badge of their profession . nor could it be such a love as would permit them to be broken into various sects and factions : for it could not be gather'd from thence , that they had the same teacher . but then only could they demonstrate to the world by their practice , that they were under the discipline of the same master , in matters of religion ; when dispers'd , as they were , over the face of the earth , they frequented assemblies that were held in his name ; every where professing the same faith , and communicating in the ordinances which were of his institution . when he pray'd that they might be one , it was for this purpose , that the world might believe that the father had sent him. but the world would have discover'd no such thing , if they had been divided into many parties , not enduring to have communion with one another . the world would then have been ready to conclude , that if they had the same instructer , he had taught them different religions , or given them contrary precepts ; and consequently that he was inconsistent with himself , and not much to be regarded . but when they liv'd as members of the same body , making it manifest that they were affected towards one another with the tenderest charity , and unanimously joyning together in the same acts of worship ; they then took the most proper way to raise in the adversaries an esteem of christianity ; and to convince them that the author of it , who had such an influence on the conversation of his proselytes , was from heaven . for my part , i see not what just cause there can be , that they should be divided in worship , who are united in faith and love. on the contrary , it seems to me most reasonable , and i am sure it is agreeable to scripture , that they who are of one soul , should be of one body ; that they who are obliged to be of the same heart and mind , should speak and do the same things , and so keep the vnity of the spirit in the bond of peace . to confirm this , and to proceed , in what i design'd , i shall prove that the church is a visible and regular society ; and then shew , that however it be dispers'd in the world , it is one political body . and if i make these things clear , it will be easy to infer from thence , that our communion with it ought to be visible and regular , or suitable to our station ; and that the unity of the whole , as well as of every part , ought to be asserted and preserv'd . i. the church is a visible society ; and persons are admitted into it , continued in it , expell'd from it , and restor'd to it , in a visible manner : such things being openly transacted in this , as in other communities . . persons are visibly admitted into the church by baptism . they are baptized into christ ; and at the same time they are baptized into one body . the same thing makes them members of christ , and of his body , and entitles them to all the benefits of the covenant of grace . . they that are admitted into the church , are continued in it in a visible manner . in the several places where they reside , they are oblig'd to meet together , for the celebration of divine worship : and accordingly we read of some of the first believers , whose example others ought to follow , that they continued stedfastly in the apostles doctrine and fellowship , and in breaking bread , and prayers . the christians in the apostles days , as well as afterwards , made use of several outward rites , by which they testify'd their mutual agreement . such were their feasts of charity , a at which the rich and poor did eat together as brethren ; and the holy kiss , or the kiss of peace , as tertullian calls it , a with which they saluted one another . b this indeed may seem a thing of little moment , yet was it the subject of an apostolical precept ; and in the primitive times it was not esteemed a small matter to neglect a ceremony c which was then in use amongst the faithful , as a sign of their union . this union is much more eminently set forth in the sacrament of the lords supper , which is to be continued till his coming to judgment , and so must remain a visible mark and constant pledge of christian concord . we being many , says st. paul , are one bread ; that is , we are as that one loaf , which we see at the lords table , and which is d made up of many grains of flower . he adds , that we are one body ; and he proves it from hence , that we are all partakers of that one bread. it is plain then , that our partaking of the same bread is a manifest sign of our being one body . but , as st. austin says very well , a whosoever receives the sacrament of unity , and does not keep the bond of peace , he receives not the sacrament for himself , or his own advantage , but that which is a testimony against himself . it is here to be consider'd , that as by one visible rite , which is baptism , we were admitted into the church , and made members of christ ; so by another , which is the eucharist , we do not only communicate with our brethren , but also with christ himself . for as they that did partake of the table of devils had fellowship with devils ; so on the contrary , they that partake of the table of christ , have fellowship with christ . the things , says st. paul , which the gentiles sacrifice , they sacrifice to devils , and not to god ; and i would not that ye should have fellowship with devils . ye cannot drink the cup of the lord , and the cup of devils : ye cannot be partakers of the lords table , and the table of devils . and says the same apostle , the cup of blessing which we bless , is it not the communion of the blood of christ ? the bread which we break , is it not the communion of the body of christ ? certainly it is , as the words import ; nor is this to be doubted by any christian . . offenders were expell'd from the church in as visible a manner as other criminals are disfranchis'd or depriv'd of the freedom of a city . the church dismissing them , mourn'd for them as dead . a and the persons ejected , as well as others , were sensible of this , that they were no longer members , nor intitled to the priviledges of the society , from which they were expell'd . if they repented of their enormities , they were far from believing , that their condition was the same that it was before the fall . they esteem'd the sentence pass'd upon them , as indeed it was , a sad anticipation of the future judgment . they b spent the day in lamentation , and the night in watching and sorrow . they put on the habit of mourners , and with tears and grievous cries they bewail'd their , own folly . they humbled themselves in sackcloth and ashes , and mortified their bodies with rigorous fastings . they threw themselves at the feet of those that went into the christian assemblies , begging them with great importunity to intercede for them , that they might be restor'd to the peace of the church , without which they did not think themselves safe , notwithstanding they knew the sincerity , of their own repentance . . the penitents were restor'd to the peace of the church in as visible a manner as they have been expell'd from it . when st. paul had given order to the corinthians to put away the incestuous person from amongst them , he afterwards directed them to forgive him , and exhorted them to confirm their love to him ; that is , to ratifie it publickly by their reception of him , upon his repentance , into their society . in the succeeding ages , the lapsed , or such as fell into grievous sins , were obliged to pass through several degrees of a severe discipline , in order to their a recovery : but being approv'd after a long tryal , the bishop and his clergy laid their hands on them , a and solemnly admitted them again to the communion of the faithful . you have seen that the church is a visible society ; and the profess'd enemies of it sometimes saw this but too well . for when associations , or ●raternities b were forbidden by the roman edicts , c the heathens thereupon persecuted the christians as coming under that prohibition . and the apolo-gifts for the sufferers deny'd not , that they were a corporation , but allowing this , pleaded their innocence . we are a body , says tertullian , d by the consent of religion , the vnity of discipline , and the covenant of hope . he confesses , that if their meeting together were like those seditious conventions which were punish'd by law , it would justly come under the same condemnation . but says he , e we are the same being assembled , as when we are dispers'd . we are the same altogether , as when we are taken singly and apart ; hurting no man , grieving no man. and when vertuous and good men meet ; when the holy and chast are assembled ; it is not to be call'd a faction but a court. ii. the church is a regular society . it is not a confused or scattered multitude , but a body fitly joyn'd together : a body consisting of many members , of which all have not the same office. some are call'd to preside and govern , and others to be under their inspection and authority ; and for the good of the whole , both ought to be exercis'd in the proper duties of their places and vocations . clemens romanus , endavouring to cure the corinthians of their schi●● , put them in mind , a that the high-priests , and the priests , the levites and the people , had each their peculiar work allotted to them : and lest christians should think themselves unconcerned in that instance , he presently adds , b let every one of you , my brethren , within his own station , be thankful to god ; not transgressing the canon , or rule which limits his service . after this he shews , c that however death was the punishment of such as did break the mosaical constitutions , yet as we are honoured with greater knowledge than the jews had been , so we are liable to greater danger : that is , if we pass our bounds , and raise disturbances , as they did . order therefore is still to be preserv'd in the church , and that more carefully than it was in the time of the aaronical priesthood . in the new testament we find that our lord gave some apostles , and some prophets , and some evangelists , and some pastors and teachers . he gave them for the perfecting of the saints , or as the word may well be rendred , a for the compacting or joyning them together . he did it for the work of the ministry , for the edifying of the body of christ . and some such officers are always necessary , and must be continu'd , till we all come in the vnity of the faith , and of the knowledge of the son of god , unto a perfect man , unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of christ . amongst the officers of christ , the apostles are reckoned as the first , and were the chief : and since all the power that is purely ecclesiastical , and which ought still to remain in the church , pass'd through their hands , it may be very fit to consider , what authority they received from him ; for from thence we may gather , what they transmitted down to posterity for the government of his kingdom . now we find , that the apostles were the stewards of the mysteries of god , and had the keys of the kingdom of heaven . they were the representatives of christ on earth , and acted in his name , and in his stead . they were his ambassadors , and employ'd by him to reconcile mankind unto god , upon the terms of the new covenant . as the father sent him , so he sent them into the world ; and accordingly having so high a commission , they went about and labour'd to bring all nations under his discipline . when their work increas'd , they appointed some to serve tables , or to provide things necessary for the sustenance of the meaner proselytes . others they constituted not only to be teachers , but rulers of the churches . and if they rul'd well , especially if they labour'd in the word and doctrine , they were to be accounted worthy of double honour , or a double share out of the common stock . and thus a government distinct from that of the secular magistrate , and a long time oppos'd by it , was establish'd in all places where-ever christianity did prevail . there is , no need that i should here discourse of the form of church-government , having prov'd in another treatise , that this government from the beginning , was episcopal , and that the bishops were successors to the apostles . and this i have done by such arguments , as , i verily believe , cannot be answer'd , if it be but granted , that there is any such thing as an evangelical ministry , i had almost said as a christian , remaining in the world : and with those that would dispute or deny so evident a truth , whether scepticks or deists , or whatever else they are , i am not at present concern'd . but were all apostles , or bishops ? were all pastors and teachers ? no , certainly ; but there was a faithful people distinct from them , and under their care and charge ; and what the duty of the people was , may be gather'd from these places of scripture . we beseech you brethren , says st. paul , to know them which labour among you , and are over you in the lord , and admonish you , and to esteem them very highly in love for their works sake , thess . . , . agreeable to which are these words in the epistle to the hebrews , remember them which have the rule over you , which have spoken to you the word of god — obey them that have the rule over you , and submit your selves , for they watch for your souls , heb. . , . men are generally averse from enduring any thing of subjection ; but we are to consider that the obedience which is prescrib'd in the texts of scripture which i have cited , is to be paid by the faithful to those that are over them in the lord : over them for his sake , and on his account . the apostles , or bishops of the churches are said to be the glory of christ : that is , they are his representatives in governing such parts of his kingdom as are assign'd to their charge . the ground of this interpretation i have mention'd in another place , a and taken from cor. . . where we read , that man is the image and glory of god ; which words , in the judgment of theodoret , b are not to be understood with respect either to the body of the man , or his soul , but to the domion that he hath from god over the creatures . in the same verse we read , that the woman is the glory of the man : the wife is the glory of her husband . she is , says theodoret , as it were the image of that image , and as such , she hath power over the rest of the family . it follows , that bishops being the delegates of jesus christ , the observance that is paid to them as bearing that character , is graciously accepted as done to himself , who hath said , he that receiveth whomsoever i send , receiveth me ; and he that receiveth me , receiveth him that sent me . we have seen , that the church is a body consisting of governing parts , and such as are subordinate to them . and as on this account , it is regular in its constitution , so it ought to be in its practice . for this reason , the spirits of prophets were subject to prophets : either to the prophets that had them , or , as i rather think , to superior a prophets . but certain it is , that even extraordinary gifts were to be submitted to the rule of peace and discipline ; and men that could speak by divine inspiration , might not exercise that power any farther , than was consistent with the precept of doing all things decently and in order . the word which is rendred order , often signifies a regular disposition of things ; or a due proportion of parts , with respect to the whole , and to one another . and in this , a so much of the beauty and strength of things consists , that st. paul had great reason to rejoyce as he did , when he beheld the order that was amongst the colossians . for he knew very well , that when they invaded not one another's work , but were employ'd in their own : when they , whose office it was to teach , waited on teaching ; and they that rul'd , did it with diligence ; when they that were under authority were submissive to it , and ready to receive instruction ; by such a happy concurrence they would adorn their religion , and fortifie it against the assaults of adversaries : they would do what was most beneficial to themselves , and acceptable to god , who is the author of peace , and not of confusion . iii. the church , however dispers'd over the world , is one political body . for it is the vniversal church that is said in scripture to be one body ; and it is compar'd to an organical body , because of the close connexion of the parts , and that due subordination , which , as i have shew'd , there is amongst them . this may seem evident enough , and yet the question about catholick vnity hath been so intangled with various disputes , that i shall endeavour to set it in its proper light : and for this purpose i observe . . that the church is not said to be one , meerly as professing a subjection to one invisible head , which is jesus christ ; but also because all the faithful are united and compacted , as in one body . for , says the apostle , as we have many members in one body , and all the members , have not the same office : so we being many are one body , and every one members one of another : all being knit together , and fitly dispos'd for the benefit of the whole . as there is but one root , so there is but one stock , from which indeed some branches were broken off , but many others were ingrafted into it , and it is still the same . the falling off of the jews would have left an empty space , but the complement , a or fulness of the gentiles , coming in , it abundantly supplies the vacancy . and the society , which is represented by the good 〈◊〉 - tree , is still the same , notwithstanding it hath been under various circumstances and dispensations . as there is but one lord or master , so there is but one spiritual 〈◊〉 or houshold . as there is but one foundations of faith , so all the 〈…〉 and the whole building , must be 〈◊〉 fram'd together , that it may grew up into a holy temple in the lord. as there is one shepherd , so there is but one flock ; and all that 〈◊〉 his voice must be of the 〈…〉 . as there is but one captain of salvation , so there is but one army that is said to be terrible with banners ; and which is never so formidable , as when all that serve in it keep their ranks , and unanimously discharge their duties in their several a stations . as there is but one governour , so there is but one holy city : and as there is but one king of saints , so there is but one kingdom ; and all must be fellow-citizens , or fellow-subjects that own his dominion , or sovereign power . as there is one prince of peace , so he would have all his followers to have peace with one another , mark . . that is , he would have them live , not only as persons that have charitable inclinations , but in an outward and visible agreement and communion together ; as the word signifies frequently in the holy scriptures , and in the 〈◊〉 of the fathers . b to the 〈◊〉 effect , i suppose it is , that he requires them to have salt in , or amongst c themselves . for salt being sprinkled on the sacrifices , and offer'd with them , was a sign of a covenant with god ; 〈◊〉 a being us'd amongst men at their entertainments , it was also a pledge , or symbol of their concord and friendship : and our lord , probably alluding to such practices , would have his disciples live as persons that are united to himself , and to one another in a firm league ; and a league that none may break , and expect happiness from him , who hath drawn them into so strict a confederacy . in this confederacy all the faithful , of wh● nation soever they ●●e , are alike concern'd ; for jesus christ , who 〈◊〉 said to be our peace 〈…〉 to th●se that were 〈…〉 and 〈◊〉 th●se that were nigh . he hath brought together 〈…〉 and gentiles , and 〈…〉 that was between them he made them one : of the two , he made one new man. so that they who were strangers and forreigners , are 〈…〉 with the saints , and of the 〈◊〉 of god. they that were at a great distance , are now reconcil'd to god in one body . but no longer than they are of this body can they claim this benefit of that reconciliation : nor may they hope for spiritual nourishment from the head , but as it is ministr●● by the joynts and bands , by which the body , being knit together , increaseth with the increase of god. . to maintain a catholick vnity , it is not necessary , that there should be a visible and catholick monarch or vicar of christ , with jurisdiction over all churches and their several pastors : for christ hath appointed no such deputy ; nor hath he left any instructions to inform us , that there should be one● on the contrary● the apostles , 〈◊〉 have shew'd , a who receiv'd their commission immediately from him , were of equal authority , and so were their successors . none of us , ( says st. 〈◊〉 , b ma●●s himself a bishop of bishops , or by a ●yrannical terro●● compels his collegues into a necessity of obedience . this he spake in a council at carthage , and with reflection probably on stephen bishop of rome , who injuriously invaded the rights and liberties of his brethren , as in succeeding times many others have done , who were possess'd of the papal throne . but a just account of their usurpations would fill many volumes and belongs not to this place . . neither to maintain a catholick communion , is it necessary , that there should be a standing court for the administration of the government of the catholick church . it is decreed by us all , says s. ●●prian , a and it is fit and just , that every one's cause should be heard where the crime was committed . so far was he and his collegues from approving the appeals of offenders to any 〈◊〉 country , or forreign 〈◊〉 't is true in some cases , the ancient canons allow'd , that appeals might be made from a bishop to a provincial synod ; and such a synod might well decide matters in debate within the bounds of a province : but beyond them , it had not the same authority . and as for general councils , they were only summon'd upon extraordinary occasions , and having done their work they were dissolved . but that a general council should always be continued , for the ending of differences , and the exercise of discipline ; that there should be such a perpetual● council establish'd in any place , and that the last resort should be made to it from all the parts of the christian world , is not , i suppose , asserted by any . it can neither be expedient in it self , nor hath it any foundation in the holy scriptures . but since the catholick church was not to be govern'd by a visible monarch , nor by a fixed senate ; since it is distinguish'd into many particular societies , the governours of which are of equal authority , and not subject to one another , the difficulty still remains , how it can be one as a political body . for resolution of which , i shall shew , first , that the government of it is one. secondly , that the people under it , are one also . but what i say of both , is to be understood of them , so far as they agree to christ's institution : for we can form no good idea of church-government from the present broken state of christendom . i. the government of the universal church is one. according to st. cyprian , a who understood this matter perfectly , there is but one epis●●●acy . and this is possess'd by the bishops in such a manner , that they are all legally one , and every one of them is vertually all . but both these propositions may require some explication . . all the bishops of the universal church are legally one ! that is , as a college in law is one person ; so they being a college , in the sense of the ancients , b are one also . they 〈◊〉 the person of christ , and if christ be not divided , neither are they . they are not divided , i mean , so far as they act according to his will and the rules of their order . c but i meddle not with the particular faults of any , nor am i accountable for their irregularities . . every bishop is vertually all ; or hath vertually the power of the whole episcopal order : and so united he is with the other bishops in the administration of the government , that what he does in several cases , which i shall mention , is as obligatory to all the rest , and of as much force , as if it had been done by their actual consent and approbation . for example . . a bishop ordaining presbyters , does it as effectually , as if all other bishops had assisted at it , and his act is as obligatory to them all . for the persons so ordain'd do not part with their office when they change climates , but ought to be receiv'd in all churches as bearing the same character , a and be employ'd accordinly , if there be occasion , in the work of their ministry , without a new imposition of hands . this , i know , is contrary to the opinion of some of your brethren , who are persuaded , that a minister is only so to his own congregation ; and that if he preaches to another , he doth it not as a pastor , but as a b gifted man : and consequently , if he takes a new charge upon him , he must have a new a ordination ; and this i consess is agreeable enough to their own system : for their minister being a creature of their own , and claiming his 〈◊〉 to the ministry , from their election of him , and upon such terms as they prescrib'd to him , all the supposed vertue of that choice must cease , when he is gone from them , and cannot bind another congregation that hath no dependence on them . but how ever this is suitable to th●●● own principles , it hath no ground in scripture , or the practice of antiquity . amongst the hereticks indeed , in tertullian's b time , there was something like it : for with them a person was the day a priest , and the next a laym●● : but in the church the standing officers were so for life , 〈◊〉 in all places kept their station , unless they were depos'd for their crimes , or advanced to a higher dignity . the words of a judi●ious nonconfor , mist , which i shall here c cite , are very pertinent to my purpose : if a minister , says he , be only so to his own congregation , and not in other churches , then are not the churches of god one , nor the ministry one , nor the flock which they feed one , nor the communion one which they had each with others . and i add , that if a minister as such , be related to the catholick church , if he may be remov'd from one part of it , and take on him the peculiar charge of another , without a new ordination , as the presbyterians generally asse●● , then are the churches one , the ministry one , the flock which they feed one , and the communion is one , as that of a visible and political society . . if a bishop , or other minister appointed by him , confers baptism on persons fit to receive it , it is as effectual every where , as if all the spiritual pasters upon earth , had concurr'd in that act. it is that one baptism , which never ought to be repeated , nor is there any need that it should ; for the ●ame being every where of the same vertue , it both qualifies us alike in all places for christian communion , and gives us a right to demand it in any part of the world. but of this more hereafter . . when a bishop excommunicates oftenders , they are thereby cut off from the communion of the whole church . we have been told by a dissenter , that whosoever will erect a stated , national , governing church in england , 〈◊〉 find us an officer cloathed with authority to excommunicate from michael ' s ●mount in cornwall , to carlile and berwick . but there is no need of such a discovery to prove more than he demands . to prove the vnity of the catholick church , it is enough , that when a bishop excommunicates any criminals of his own diocese , the effect of his sentence reaches every where ; and at the greatest distance , it is obligatory to his collegues , who being duly inform'd of it , are ●o regulate their practice by it , and not admit those to communion whom he hath expell'd from a it , unless it be by his , c●●●ent , either expresly given , or vertually contain'd in 〈…〉 of the church . and anciently it was a great part of the business o● episcopal letters , to declare what offenders were excommunicate , that they might every where be avoided or treated as persons that were ejected out of the christian society . this way of proceeding with them is a plain argument , that in the sense of these times , ecclesiastical , government , was one , however the administration of it was in many hands : and it is also agreeable to the holy scripture , which will not suffer us to believe , that they who are cut off from the body of christ in one country , are members of it in another . they can gain no such advantage by shifting places : nor can it be thought , that they are kept bound and loos'd on earth● unless they may be absolv'd and condemn'd in heaven , at the same time . . it follows , that when a bishop absolves the offenders of his , diocese from the ecclesiastical censures , under which he had put them , he thereby rest●●es them to the peace of the universal church . thus it was generally thought 〈◊〉 the primitive times ; and the persons to absolv'd , having obtain'd from their bishop his communicatory a letters , were then as much qualified for full communion in worship with other christians , in all parts of the world , as if they had 〈◊〉 been condemn'd . all other bishops to whom they apply'd themselves , were obliged to r●●●●ve them into the number of the faithful , and to act by the sentence of 〈◊〉 collegue , as if it had been their own . and this they did sometimes , and thought it expedient , when they were not well satisfied with his a proceedings . 't is true , the sentence of a bishop , either for condemnation or absolution , might be revers'd or declared void by a synod ; and it was fit that it should , if it was unjust , or sometimes , if it was only irregular . if it was otherwise he might withdraw it , or he concluded , by the votes of the synod ; and it was ●●ch better in such cases , that one should submit to the judgment of many , who were assembled by mutual agreement for the administration of discipline , than that the great benefit of synods should be lost . but when 〈◊〉 began to make himself a bishop of bishops : when he took it upon him to be their judge , and to exercise a jurisdiction over them , this gave a new turn to the affairs of the church , and alter'd them much for the worse : it made a mighty breach upon the antient discipli●● and was the foundation of the papul 〈◊〉 . i have suppos'd all along , that however a bishop is by his office a pastor of the catholick church , yet it is but some part of it that is allotted to his special care , as it was most expedient for the benefit of the whole . but the further consideration of this matter being of great use , it may be requ●●●●e to trace it to the beginning , and to observe , that the apostles , who of all the officers of christ were most at liberty , being sent to disciple all nations , might all have gone to one nation , and le●t others destitute of help : but to prevent this , they distributed their work in such a manner , as might be most for the publick good , and best answer the ends of their commission . i need not inquire , what countries , or cities fell to the charge of this or that apostle : and indeed our knowledge of that is very imperfect : but this you find in scripture , that st. paul , with whom the other apostles doubtless agreed , would not build upon anothers foundation : he would not stretch himself beyond his measure , nor boast in another man's line of things made ready to his hand . as the apostles employ'd themselves with great prudence to carry on the work of conversion , so they dispos'd and settled things in an excellent order , and some light it may give into them , that when there is mention in scripture of a province or country where the gospel was received , we read of the churches of it . thus we read of the churches of j●dea , of the churches of macedonia , of the churches of galatia , and of the churches of asia . these several churches then were distinct societies , under their proper governours ; who yet were united in such a manner as i have describ'd ; and the nearer they liv'd to one another , the better opportunity they had of meeting together for mutual advice and assistance , and for the decision of ecclesiastical matters . but when the discourse is of the christians of a city , which is to be understood as taking in its a territory , then the style is alter'd , and we read of the church in jerusalem , in antioch , in corinth ; of the church in pergamus , in thyatira , in sardis , in philadelphia ; of the ephesine church , of the church of ●●●●●naeans , of the laodiceans , and of the thessalonians if you will but be at the pains to consult the places to which i have refer'd you , you will certainly find the matter as i have related it : and from hence the presbyterians strongly argue , a that how great soever the number of christians was in any city , and notwithstanding they made up many congregations , as they needs must in some of the cities , yet they were constantly call'd a church , as being under the same particular government . i differ from them in this , that i believe the government was episcopal : for as there is mention of seven churches of asia , so there were just so many angels , or supream pastors of those churches , and the like may be said of others . but this i have more fully handled in another treatise , to which i have refer'd you before for satisfaction . 't is true , the extent of diocesses is not always the same , nor is there any certain rule for it in the holy scripture ; but since it appears necessary from the scripture , and the nature of the thing , that some limits be fixed ; and since the diocesan , and parochial divisions in this kingdom , are confirm'd by all the authority that the church and 〈◊〉 could give them private persons ●●ght to submit to it . for however there may be some inequality in such distributions , that being hardly avoidable , no disturbances ought to be rais'd about them ; it being certain , that such inconveniences can never be mended by confusion . ii. the faithful people , under their lawful pastors , make up one body . this may be gather'd from what went 〈◊〉 ; but i shall farther make it evident . . from their duty . . from their rights . from both it will be manifest , that they are fellow-citizens , or visible members of the same community . i. to begin with their duty . . they are obliged , as you have seen , to honour 〈◊〉 obey their spiritual rulers ; to adhere to those that are over them in the lord , and hereby they maintain an union with all other pastors of the church , that are one in government . for if they are one with any of those that are one amongst themselves , they must needs be all a one 〈◊〉 . it is their duty to joyn together in publick acts of worship , with that company of christians , which they find established under a lawful pastor , where they reside , which may happen to be in england , or america , or at different times in the most distant places , as they remove from one to another . and from hence it appears , that all those companies make but one society , or catholick church , and are members of it . for otherwise by passing from one country to another , and consequently from the congregation to another , a person would lose his former title and benefit of being a visible member of christ and his church , and gain others in their stead ; and this might happen as often as he changed climates . but this is too absurd to need a consutation . ii. that the faithful make up one body appears from their rights , which are the same every where . in one sense they a●● every where strangers on earth ; but in another they are at home in all a places . the priviledges which belong to them as christians , are the same in every country , and they may as justly challenge them , as the natives of it . some cities who were associated together , did so value themselves for it , and receiv'd such mutual benefits and honours from their concord , and from their being of one community , that they express'd these things upon their coins , and other monuments of antiquity , b which are yet remaining . but the vnity of the christian church is of greater extent , and takes in the faithful of all nations . this vnity is founded on a divine institution , and the baptismal covenant , in which they are all alike engaged , and not on a formal positive league amongst themselves . nor does it so much resemble the union of the confederate cities , as that of a city in its self ; which may consist of many corporations . for all the members of it are a fellow-citizens , and as such they have the same prerogatives in all the parts of the world. but more particularly . . according to scripture , and the sence of the primitive b times , a christian travelling into any remote parts of the world , was intitled to the rights of hospitality amongst other christians : rights which anciently were held great and c sacred , and in times of persecution , were very useful and necessary : he need but produce the usual testimonials , d by which he might be known to be a christian , and to have liv'd in conformity with the church , from whence he came , and he was to be receiv'd and entertain'd by the faithful in all places with such tenderness and liberality , as if he had been a guest of the most intimate friendship and long acquaintance : a thing that julian the apostate could not see without envy and a admiration . if a christian suffer'd want , other christians were to consider him , and provide for him as one that was of the houshold of faith , or of the same family with themselves : and whether he was a hebrew or greek , or of what nation soever he was , it was the same thing ; he was not to be neglected in such ministrations . it was also the same whether he was of this particular church or another ; for if one church was in distress , and not sufficient for the maintenance of its own poor , others were obliged to assist it out of their collections ; still remembring , that as they were of the same body , so they were also members one of another . lucian in his usual way scoffing at the christians , represents them flocking to his peregrinus in prison , moving every stone , that they might free him , performing diligently for him all offices of kindness , and sending messengers to him joyntly from the cities of asia , to support and comfort him under his sufferings . it is incredible a ( says he ) what expedition they shew , when such a thing is publickly known : but to be short , they spare nothing on such occasions . and whosoever is meant by this peregrinus , the truth is , that if a christian brother was in distress , they gave him what assistance they were able ; if he was imprison'd , or in chains for righteousness sake , they were not asham'd of his bonds , but openly own'd his cause , and chearfully ministred to his necessities , even when it expos'd them to the greatest dangers . this they did not as a matter of choice , which they might have omitted , but as a necessary duty ; and they did it so often , and that without any regard to nearness of blood , or habitation in the sufferers , that their union was visible to the eye of the world , and the heathens who were astonish'd at it , did then make no doubt , whatever men do now , but that they were of the same community . it is farther observable , that their contributing to the support of one another , is never in the epistles of the new testament call'd , a a giving of alms , but communion , or communication : and i take the reason of it to be this , that the faithful had , thus far at least , all things in common , that the wants of some were to be supply'd out of the plenty of others , as out of a common stock , or treasury , in which they had a share , as being members of the same society . . the faithful have every where a just title to all the common ordinances and priviledges of b christianity . for instance , are they here admitted to visible communion in publick acts of worship ? so they ought to be , if they come to the remotest churches upon earth . st. peter said of the gentile converts , can any man forbid water , that these should not be baptized ? and so may we say concerning those who are baptized , and have done nothing to deserve excommunication ; can any man forbid them the publick prayers , that they should not put up their requests joyntly with other christians , in any part of the world ? can any man forbid them to partake of the lord's supper , when their demand of it is regular ? now , as st. paul , when he pleaded at jerusalem , that he was a roman , gave a sufficient indication , if it had not been otherwise known , that he was within the bounds of the roman empire : so if a true christian , in all churches where-ever he comes , hath a right to communion with them , and may plead that right , 't is manifest that they all make up but one vniversal church , and are members of one body . diogenes the cynick , refus'd to be admitted into some of the heathen mysteries , because in order to it , he must have been made a citizen of athens , which did not seem agreeable with his profession , of being a citizen of the a world. and indeed if a christian could only partake of the holy mystery , as the lord's supper is sometimes call'd , in a particular congregation ; i know not how it could be said , that he were a member of the catholick church , or that in strictness of speech , there is any such thing . but since in all the nations under heaven , where christianity is establish'd , he hath a right to communicate at the lord's table , as well as in other parts of worship ; this is a plain argument , that the christian society is the same every where , and is not to be multiplied according to the number of the places where it is dispers'd . jesus christ hath broken down the wall of partition which was between the jews and gentiles , and permits not any thing amongst his followers like the distinction which there was between the proselytes , and the native israelites . there is nothing in his gospel like that inscription which forbad the aliens to enter into the inner court of the a temple , nor doth he esteem any to be such that submit themselves to his discipline : he gathers his subjects out of all nations , governs them by the same laws , and gives them the same charter ; the benefit of which they may alike enjoy in samaria , or jerusalem , or in any other place as well as either . this shews , that living in a way suitable to the dignity of their profession , they are in all places of the same community . and according to st. peter , where he speaks of them as distinct from the world , and with respect to it ; they are a chosen generation , a royal priesthood , an holy nation , a peculiar people , the people of god ; as israel was formerly the lot of his inheritance . . any of the faithful that are personally qualified to bear an office in the christian church , are capable of it or of being ordain'd to it , in all churches ; and this also proves , that they are all united in one community . the cumani and others a were but imperfectly united to the romans , when they could only serve in the roman armies , but might have no command in them , and neither had any voice in the choice of magistrates , nor might themselves be chosen . but according to aristotle , b it is a principal mark of a citizen , that he doth or may partake of the judicature and government of the city . and since every christian who is otherwise fit for it , proceeding regularly , may be advanced to a sacred function , in any country where he is a stranger , as well as if he were a native of it : from hence it follows , that both strangers and natives are alike of the same political body . and this reasoning must be good , if aristotle had the true notion of a city , who is generally allow'd to write of such things with great exactness . what hath been said , sufficiently shews , how the catholick church , however dispers'd , is one. but it will appear with the greater force , if you please to compare it with the case of independent and separate societies , in which you find nothing like it . you may bear office in one of these societies , but have no title to it , nor have any of your acts esteem'd valid in another . you may be members of one , and justly excluded from another . you may enjoy the priviledges of one , and want those of another . you may be banish'd from one , and made denizons of another . acts of state bind only the subjects of the state , and oblige not forreigners that are under another dominion . but this demonstrates the vnity of the catholick church , that what is done by one governour , or bishop , is valid amongst all the rest ; and taht a private christian who hath an obligation on him , and a right to an actual and full communion with a particular church , hath the like with all other churches , where he happens to reside . having prov'd , that the vniversal church is one body , i shall only add , what gives us great encouragement to preserve the unity of it , and affords us a most delightful contemplation , that it is now the same body that it was from the beginning . for as a city may remain the same for a thousand years , or even to the end of the world , and is therefore said by some ancient writers to be a immortal : so is the church the same that it was from the first foundation of it . and from hence it is that if we communicate with those who derive their ministry by succession from the apostles , and with such professors of christianity as adhere to that ministry , we do it vertually , or by interpretation , with the apostles themselves , and with the saints , confessors , and martyrs , that rest from their labours , and are now in happiness , waiting for a glorious resurrection . to this effect tertullian a says , that from the apostolical churches , all other churches borrowed the branch of faith , and seeds of doctrine ; and from them it is daily that churches become such , and so are esteem'd apostolical , as being the off-spring of the apostolical churches . every thing must be reckon'd with its original ; and therefore so many great churches are as the one first church constituted by the apostles , and from which all are descended . so all are first and apostolical , whilst they alike approve the vnity : whilst there is amongst them the communication of peace , the title of brotherhood , the covenant of hospitality ; the rights of which nothing preserves , but the tradition of the same sacrament , or mystery . but this is not all : for being in communion with the apostles , we are so with the father and the son. that which we have seen and heard , declare we unto you , says st. john , that you also may have fellowship with us ; and truly our fellowship is with the father , and with his son jesus christ . the father will take care of us as his peculiar people , and the son will influence and govern us as our head ; a head that hath such a tenderness for his church , that he is represented in scripture , as making up one person with it : for , says the apostle , as the body is one , and hath many members , and all the members of that one body , being many , are one body : so also is christ . and being of his church , we are assur'd , that he will nourish and cherish us as members of his body , of his flesh , and of his bones . sect . ii. vve have seen that all christians ought to be united in faith , love , and in outward worship and communion : and if you grant this , you must also acknowledge , that a breach of union in any of these things , where-ever the fault is , must needs be sinful . for it is plain , i. that if there be but one faith delivered to the saints , for which they must earnestly contend , they grievously offend who add new articles to it , or take away from it such as are already reveald , or otherwise deprave it by a mixture of falshood . and so far as they do so , we ought to depart from them , and not betray or deny the truth in compliance with them . ii. if all the faithful must be firmly link'd together in love , this must condemn all discord and malice , all envying and strife amongst them , as being directly against the spirit of charity . and indeed where these things are , there is confusion and every evil work. iii. if all the faithful are obliged to live in outward communion , as visible members of the same body , then such a division in the body as is a breach of that communion , must be criminal ; a thing , i know , that many of you are unwilling to hear of : but mr. baxter a has suggested a reason of it , which i hope , does not reach you all . whence is it , says he , but for want of self-denial , that men that know that whoredom , and drunkenness and these are sins , can be ignorant in the midst of light , that discord and church-divisions are sins ? and that they hear him with heart-rising enmity , or suspicion , that doth declaim against them ? as if vniting were become the work of satan , and dividing were become the work of christ ! these words i would recommend to your serious thoughts ; and being now come to that which is the chief subject of our debate , i desire you sincerely to consider , that not only modern writers , but the fathers , who were no parties in our present controversies , speak of schism as a most horrid crime . st. optatus a mentions it as a mighty wickedness ; and argues , that it is worse than murder and idolatry . and st. chrysostom b affirms , that nothing equally provokes god , as the division of his church . he makes it equal to the crucifying of christ : which , he says , was for the good of the world , however not intended ; but this , continues he , affords no benefit , but the greatest mischief . to mention no more at this time , st. irenaeus c says , that god will judge the schismaticks , who having not the love of god , but being intent on their own profit , rather than the peace of the church , for small matters , or for any , divide the great and glorious body of christ , and do what in them lies to kill it , speaking . peace , but making war ; straining indeed at a gnat , and swallowing a camel. you need not think it strange , that these excellent men , who had seen the sad effects of church-divisions , express'd such an abhorrence of them . st. paul himself reckons seditions and heresies with adultery , fornication , vncleanness , lasciviousness , idolatry , withchcraft , and other works of the flesh ; of which he says , that they that practise such things , shall not enter into the kingdom of god , gal. . , , . the word rendred seditions a signifies schisms , and it is us'd for dissentions about matters ecclesiastical ; and heresies in this place are sects and factions . the various sects of orators b and philosophers c were called heresies : and st. austin d speaks the language of more ancient authors ; where he says , that aristotle , even in the time of his master , drew very many into his heresie : but the christians living conformable to the precepts of jesus christ , were judged by their enemies to be one heresie ; and they were indeed of one way . he gave them all the same rule , and as long as they are followers of that , there cannot be such differences amongst them , as are usual amongst those that are of usual amongst those that are of separate schools , and under opposite masters , but they must all appear unanimous in the matters of faith and worship . 't is true , that many professing christianity , became irregular , and departing from their duty , did break the unity of the church . such were the corinthians , to whom st. paul says , i hear that there are divisions among you , and i partly believe it ; at which he did not wonder , considering their temper ; for , he adds , there must be also heresies among you , that those who are approved , may be made manifest . by hereses we are not here to understand false doctrines , or obstinate errors in the fundamental articles of religion , but such contentions and making of parties as disturb'd the peace at corinth . the apostle intimates , that such there would certainly be , by reason of the pravity of mens minds ; but he condemns them as carnal , and speaks of them as things that are avoided by all that are approved . and according to this interpretation , a man that is a heretick , and who is to be rejected , is the sectary , who draws disciples after him , or is of the number of those that are seduced by him . it becomes not me to pass judgment on particular persons , whom we see engaged in church-divisions , nor to determine what their final state will be . to their own master they must stand or fall : and he only knows what merciful allowances he will make for their mistakes , for the prejudices of their education , or the like . this hidden thing belongs to him , and therefore cannot be the rule of our actions but since it appears from what he hath revealed , that schism is a sin , a hainous sin , a sin that , without pardoning mercy , as certainly leads to perdition as any other ; i thought the greatest piece of charity i can do you , would be , not to flatter you in your way , which , i verily believe , is schismatical ; but to shew you the great danger of it , and do what lies in me , to rescue you from the wrath to come . in order to this , i shall shew you , i. what is the nature of schism . ii. what grounds i have to apprehend that you are deeply concerned in it . iii. examine the arguments that have been offer'd on your part , to excuse you from the guilt of it . iv. i shall represent to you the said consequences of it ; and so proceed to the conclusion . and may almighty god inlighten your minds , and dispose your hearts to an attentive perusal of what i write for your advantage . i. schism , in the notion of it that we are now upon , is a causless breach of outward ecclesiastical communion . not but that it is sinful before it breaks out into action , when it is only form'd in the heart , or is only in design ; but that we cannot take cognizance , or judge of it , before it appears abroad in opposition to the visible church ; and when it does so , there are several degrees of it . . sometimes there is a schism within a church . . sometimes from a church . . sometimes it proceeds to set up opposte churches and officers . . sometimes it goes yet further , and constitutes pastors without any lawful authority , or ordination . i know not how it can go higher ; but all these particulars may be aggravated with many circumstances , which do not come under our present consideration . . sometimes there is a schism within a church ; when its outward communion is in some measure continued , but shatter'd and broken , so that it appears not with the beauty and strength of a regular society . thus it was amongst the corinthians , to whom st. paul says , when ye come together in the church , i hear that there are divisions among you . being very contentious , they brought great disorders into their assemblies . being factious , and much given to sideing and making parties , one said , i am of paul ; another , i am of apollos . the apostle therefore reproves them as carnal ; and beseeches them by the lord jesus christ , that they would all speak the same thing , and that there should be no divisions among them . and in another place he puts them in mind , that there should be no schism in the body , but the members should have the same care one of another . but whereas dr. owen a contends , that the notion of schism is only to be taken from the instances of it at corinth , and consequently that schism is only a division in a particular church , but not from it ; it may seem very strange , and is , i believe , of his own invention . he declares , that he went out of the common road ; and would persuade us , that he made considerable discoveries . what a flood of abominations , b says he , doth this business of schism seem to be , as rolling down to us through the writings of cyprian , austin , and optatus of old ; the schoolmen , decrees of popish councils , with the contrivances of some among our selves concern'd to keep up the swell'd notion of it ! but he pretends to have traced it to its fountain , and compares it to a dribling c gutter . and whereas protestants had been apt to impute it to one another , he intimates , that , upon irrefragable evidence , he would acquit them all from their several concernments in the charge of a it : that , as he speaks , the whole guilt of this crime might be put into an ephah , and carried to build it an house in the land of shinar . he confesses , that in the management of this work , he had the prejudice of many ages , the interest of most christians , and mutual consent of parties at variance , to contend withal . yet hath his project been approv'd by many : and lewis du moulin says , as in a rapture of admiration , that the whole christian world , from the apostles times , never knew such a notion of the nature of schism , till the dr. taught it them : which , i suppose , is very true : but he might have added , as another dissenter thinks , b that neither was it known to the apostles themselves . but is schism a sin ? is it a thing , even in the confession of dr. owen himself , that being unrepented of , will ruine a man's eternal c condition ? and did no body knew wherein it did consist ? were all christians careful to avoid it under the peril of their souls ? and did none of them discover what it was ? did the ancient fathers speak such terrible things against it , and none of them understand what they said ? did they make no doubt to lay it to the charge of the novations and donatists ? and might these be innocent all the while ? are the scriptures so plain in their directions about things that are necessary either to be done or avoided ? and are they so obscure in this , that for the space of about sixteen hundred years , neither the learned , nor unlearned could find out what they meant , till in this present age one arose , who made the discovery ? but in this case the novelty of his 〈◊〉 once it is a sufficient argument against it ; and it is in effect , an acknowledgment , that the independents wanted some new thing for the vindication of their practice , which , i am sure , cannot be defended by the common receiv'd principles of christianity . but because the doctor is of no small reputation amongst dissenters , let us consider a little the force of his reasoning : the schism at corinth , was a disorder in a church ; and from hence he infers , that a separation from a church , is not schism ; and that for the separatist to be a schismatick , is a impossible . but can you really believe , that one would do you wrong , if he made a small rent in your garment , and none if he should tear it in pieces ? that he would be injurious if be wounded your hand , and innocent if he cut it off ? can you imagine , that a mutiny begun in a camp , or kingdom , is seditious ; and that an open revolt is not so ? but as well may you be persuaded of all this , as that faction and disorder in a church , is a sinful division , and to desert it , as unworthy of communion , is none . whether such a desertion be expresly stiled schism in scripture , is not material , if it be a greater division than that which is call'd by that name . for , as i have always thought , when any thing is forbidden as sinful , others that are worse , but of the same kind , come under the same prohibition . otherwise things that for their filthiness , are not fit to be nam'd , may be very fit to be done ; and holiness may be consistent with the most detestable pollutions . . a farther degree of schism , is a causeless separation from the church : for it is worse in its own nature , to renounce a society with which one is obliged to live in communion , and ordinarily more tends to the dissolution of it , than it does to create some disturbances in it , as it also gives more scandal in the eye of the world. 't is true , the disturbances may sometimes be so great , that the desertion of those that raise or keep them up , may be more desirable , or a less evil to the church , than their continuance in it ; but to the offenders themselves , it can be of no advantage , but is rather an addition to their guilt and misery . i would , says st. paul to the galatians , that they were even cut off , which trouble you ; a or that unsettle , or move you from your stations : and to be cut off , doubtless he esteem'd a very great judgment . and yet under this , the sectary brings himself , of whom the same apostle says , that he is self-condemn'd : not that the sectary confess'd his fault ; nor that he had secret convictions for it ; for these could not have been ground of his rejection , or of proceedings against him ; but by wilfully departing from the unity of the church , he in effect inflicted on himself the punishment which the church useth to the greatest malefactors , and so was broken off from the body of christ . i need not here enter upon the debate , whether episcopal ordinations and baptism confer'd in schism , are valid , it being sufficient for my present purpose , that according to the rule of catholick vnity , which is grounded on the scripture , and was universally receiv'd by the faithful in the purest ages , schismaticks persisting in their separation , can do nothing that can qualifie them for communion with any part of the catholick church ; and therefore in that state they must be excluded from the whole : being wilfully divided from some , they cannot be united to the rest of the christian society , which are one amongst themselves , and all members one of another . if they are not of the body , i do not see how they can be united to the head. break off a bough from the tree , says s. cyprian , a and it blossoms no more . divide a river from the fountain , and it will be dried up . and this in his judgment sets forth the condition of those that cut off themselves from the christian church . he adds a little after , if a person could escape , who was out of the ark of noah , then shall one escape also , who is out of the church : but , says our lord , he that is not with me , is against me ; and he that gathereth not with me , scattereth : and he that breaks the peace and concord which christ hath established , acts against christ himself . in like manner st. ignatius , a disciple of st. john , and glorious martyr of jesus christ , tells us , that he that is not in the sanctuary is depriv'd of the bread of a god. and of a person that comes not to the publick assemblies , he says , b that he is proud , and hath condemn'd himself . for it is written , god resisteth the proud : let us therefore not resist the bishop , that we may be the subjects of god. if you search the scriptures you will find , that to forsake the christian community , was in effect to renounce all the priviledges of it , and openly to disown christianity it self . they went out from us , says st. john , but they were not of us : for if they had been of us , they would no doubt have continued with us ; but they went out , that they might be made manifest , that they were not all of us . st. jude represents such men under a very ill character , as being mockers , and w●●king after their own vngodly lusts : and says he , these are they who separate themselves , sensual , having not the spirit . they pretended to greater perfection than others , but their deserting the christian assemblies , together with a vicious conversation , discover'd them to be carnal , and to be govern'd by no higher principle than that of the animal life . they that are truly spiritual , are of another temper , and as they walk in the light , so they also think themselves obliged to cause their light to shine before men , and to keep up the face of a church , not only when their affairs are prosperous , but also in times of difficulty . for then it is , that they are more especially requir'd , to consider and provoke one another unto love , and unto good works ; not to forsake the assembling of themselves together , as the manner of some is , but to exhort one another ; and so much the more as they see the day approaching . . schism sometimes proceeds beyond a separation , and the persons engaged in it , set up opposite churches and officers , or joyn with them . this is a degree of the sin much worse than separation , considering it only as such , without the addition of immorality , false doctrine , or apostacy , which are often mingled with it . you are not to expect , that i should give you examples out of scripture of schismatical churches drawn from churches , and establish'd under separate pastors ; for i do not find from thence , that schism had made so great a progress , as to form regular societies , opposite to the deserted churches . but if the vniversal church , according to christ's institution , be one body , to set up another body in opposition to it , or any sound part of it , must needs be very criminal . this , we find , some were attempting in the apostles days , and some directions that are given by st. paul , are very useful on this occasion . he advises titus , as you have seen , to reject a heretick , or sectary , after one or two admonitions : and he writes thus to the romans ; i beseech you brethren , mark them which cause divisions and offences , contrary to the doctrine which you have learn'd , and avoid them . st. ignatius , who was instructed by the apostles , tells the philadelphians , that if any one be a follower of the schismatick , he shall not inherit the kingdom of a god. he also admonishes the church of smyrna , that nothing in church-matters should be done without the b bishop ; and declares , that the eucharist is then to be esteem'd valid , when it is celebrated by the bishop , or a person appointed by him . but without the bishop , he says , it is not lawful to baptize , or to keep the feast of love : and he adds a little after , c that he that doth any thing in a clandestine manner , without the bishop's knowledge , d serves the devil . st. cyprian , who flourish'd in the next age , and also died a martyr , as ignatius had done , says , e that he that adheres not to his bishop , is not in the church ; and that they flatter themselves in vain , who not being at peace with the priests of god , creep about , and think , they may privately communicate with certain persons , when the church , which is one catholick society , is not in it self out or divided , but connected every where by the vnion of the bishops . the same author says , a that one altar may not be erected against another ; and that a new priesthood cannot be rais'd . he that gathereth elsewhere , scattereth . whatsoever is appointed by humane fury , that the order of god may be violated , is impious ; it is adulterous and sacrilegious . . a yet higher degree of schism is , when they that are engaged in it , constitute officers without authority ; or take to themselves pastors that have no lawful mission , or real ordination . such pastors may pretend to a commission from god ; but having none , and seeming to do his publick work without a warrant , in the judgment of presbyterian writers , b they mock him to serve their own turns : they profane the sacred function , and make a trifle of the sin : they are troublers of the people , and the subverters of souls ; they take away the distinction between the shepherd and the flock , and arevsurpers of the broad seal of heaven : they bring all to confusion , and like so many phaetons , burn up the spiritual world , by presuming to govern the chariot of the sun. according to dr. owen himself , they that act in the stead of christ , and not by express patent from him , are plain a impostors . but he more fully expresses his thoughts on this subject in these words ; all power and authority , ( says he ) b whether in things spiritual , or temporal , which is not either founded in the law of nature , or collated by divine ordination , is vsurpation and tyranny ; no man can of himself take either sword. to invade an office which includes power over others , is to disturb all right , natural , divine and civil . that such an authority is included in the pastoral office is evident , . from the names ascrib'd to them in whom it is vested , as pastors , bishops , elders , rulers ; all of them requiring it . . from the work prescrib'd to them , which is feeding by rule and teaching . . from the execution of church-power in discipline , or the exercise of the keys of the kingdom of heaven committed to them . . from the commands given for obedience to them , which respect authority . . from their appointment to be means and instruments of exerting the authority of christ in the church , which can be done no other way . he farther shews , that the whole flock , the ministry it self , the truths of the gospel , as to the preservation of them , are committed to the pastors of the church , who must give an account for them . and nothing , continues he , can be more wicked and foolish , than for a man to intrude himself into a trust , which is not committed to him . they are branded as profligately wicked , who attempt any such things among men , which cannot be done without impudent falsification . and what shall he be esteem'd , who intrudes himself into the highest trust that any creature is capable of , in the name of christ ? whoever therefore takes upon him the pastoral office without a lawful outward call , doth take unto himself power and authority without any divine warranty ; which interests him in an accountable trust , no way committed unto him , hath no promise of assistance in , or reward for his work ; but engageth in that which is destructive of all church-order , and consequently of the very being of the church it self . these are his words , and you may do well to bear them in mind till a farther occasion . in the mean time i desire you to consider , how tender the almighty is of his own constitutions and what punishments he hath inflicted on those ▪ who made invasions on them . vzzah incurr'd his displeasure for taking hold of the ark , when he saw it shake , and therefore might seem to be justified by a good intention . but being no priest a or levite , on this account his action , which otherwise might have been laudable became sinful in a person not qualified for it . and however it had some appearance of necessity , and proceeded from a good end , yet this could not excuse him , but he suffer'd present death for his transgression . if he was an upright man , as he seems to have been , we need not doubt but that he met with favour and happiness in another world : but in this , god made him an example of his justice and severity , that he might guard the discipline of his church from the assaults of others ; and that he might teach posterity , says a palladius , to abstain from the like rashness . long before this , korah with a high hand affronted the divine authority , and made bitter invectives against the government and officers which were appointed by god himself . it was envy and ambition that first push'd this man into an action so impious , and would not afterwards suffer him to retreat . being guided and mov'd by such restless furies , he revolted from his superiors , and he was divided , says the chaldee paraphrast , b or he divided himself ; that is , he became a separatist , that he might make himself the head of a party , and drew such vast numbers after him , that josephus c speaking of their conspiracy , thus represents it : we have not known , says he , such a sedition either among greeks , or barbarians . korah pretended to have a great concern for the liberties of the people , and that he might gain the priesthood to himself , suggested that it was a grievance to the nation . but god that knew his hypocrisie , and the schismatical and seditious temper , both of him and his confederates , made both of them monuments of his indignation . by an early and dreadful judgment on these offenders , he confirm'd his own institution : and he commanded , that broad plates for the covering of the ark , should be made of their censers , that in succeeding times others might remember , what these men suffer'd , and be mindful , that no stranger who was not of the seed of aaron , might come near to offer incense before the lord , lest they should be as korah and his company . it is plain that not only the leaders of the faction , but their followers also , were involv'd in the same ruine . and this being written for our instruction , it may teach us to avoid such practices as brought upon them so terrible a judgment , lest , as some have done even in the times of the gospel , we also perish in the gain-saying of korah . 't is true , an end is put to the aaronical priesthood ; but christ , who is the head of the church , hath his representatives on earth for the government of it ; and to despise them , is to despise him : to usurp their authority , is to invade his prerogative . and if we are not principals in such actions against him , but yet support and assist those that are so , we partake with them in grievous sins . you your selves must needs see , if you will judge impartially , what intolerable presumption it is , not only to expel the stewards of his houshold , but to substitute others in their places , and new-model his family , not only to affront and reject his ambassadors , but to assign him others , whom he hath not sent : not only to lay aside his officers as unfit to govern , but to appoint him such as have no commission from him . such proceedings manifestly tend to the destruction of his visible kingdom , and the persons guilty of them do in effect declare , that they will not have him to reign over them . aristotle a argues , that when the form of the government of a city is changed , the city it self ceases to be the same that it was before : and whatever exceptions this may be liable to , as being affirm'd of a secular community ; it may be truly said of ecclesiastical societies , that when they have excluded their lawful pastors , and advanced others into their places , who have no right to the ministry , they cannot remain the same under such alterations . they are no longer the churches of christ ; nor are their teachers the ministers of christ . they may deceive men indeed , by acting under a false character ; but god will not be mocked . he will not be impos'd on , by the boldness and juggles of his feigned stewards , or by the pageantry of his pretended ambassadors . it was for such , and their confederates that he created a new thing ; causing the earth to open her mouth and swallow them up . and however such instances of his anger are not repeated ; yet this that i have mention'd , ought to be a lasting terrour to those , that without a lawful call take to themselves the honour of priesthood , or are associates in such profanations . sect . iii. i am now come to your case , and give me leave to tell you , that it very nearly concerns you to enquire . i. whether you have not contracted the guilt of schism in your separation from the church of england . ii. whether you have not increased this guilt by setting up opposite churches and officers , or joyning with them . iii. whether your pastors have any just title to the ministry . i. it concerns you to enquire , whether you have not contracted the guilt of schism by your separation from the church of england . was your communion with it lately lawful , and have any new terms been added , to make it cease to be so ? or was conformity then a duty , and is it now become a sin ? it is not long since we took sweet counsel together , and walked to the house of god as friends : with many of you we did partake of the lord's supper , and thereby solemnly testified . that we were all as one bread , all members of the same body . and hath any just cause been given you of breaking off your selves from it ? are you not self-condemn'd by such contrary practices ? or can the divisions which you have made proceed from that one spirit , whose unity is to be kept in the bond of peace ? deal but impartially with your selves in considering what i have offer'd to your thoughts , and i doubt not but you will be convinced that you have broken that bond ; and that your present separation is a schism , if ever there was any such thing in the world. ii. you may enquire , whether you have not added to your sin , by setting up opposite churches and officers , or joyning with them ; and whether this hath not more alienated your minds from those whom you had unjustly forsaken . this , i suppose , is generally your case ; and from hence it is , that in abundance of towns in this kingdom , we hear of an old church , and a new church ; the latter labouring to establish it self on the ruines of the former . but do you find any such language , or any such thing in scripture ? have not the presbyterians inform'd you right , that however there were such great numbers of christians in one city as made up many congregations ; yet they were all one church , and are constantly call'd a church , because they were all under one government ? what right can you then have to establish independent congregations , or to set up one congregation against another , in the same city ? is not this a plain breach of the apostolical rule ? and must it not be pernicious to christ's visible kingdom ? if some part of the christians in a city may shake off the authority of their lawful pastors , and form themselves into an independent body , under their proper officers , may not a third body in like manner be form'd out of that , and out of the third fourth , and so on : and would there be any end of confusions at this rate ? would such a practice be tolerable any where ? or , would it not be destructive of any society whatsoever ? deal 〈◊〉 now with your consciences , and reflect , i pray you , on what has been said , with the same freedom of thought , as if you had not been at all concern'd in the controversie ; and i am persuaded , you will be convinced , that it is not unjustly that you have been charged with a high degree of schism . iii. you may enquire , whether the pastors you have chosen , have any lawful call to the ministry . some of the dissenters , i know , do not think themselves much concern'd about this : for they tell us , it is the duty of every gifted man , as such , to exercise his gifts ; that if he has receiv'd gifts to teach publickly , he must exercise them publickly ; and that he himself may be the judge of his own gifts . but says mr. pool , a a learned nonconformist , what can be expected , but that this doctrine should be a trojan horse , whence the adversaries of truth , may break out and destroy the city of god ? a pandora's box , from whence all sorts of mischievous and foul poysoning opinions may fly out , and that without remedy ? and say the assembly of divines , a this opinion , that any who suppose themselves gifted men , may preach the word and administer the sacraments , we judge to be the highway to all disorder and confusion , and inlet to errors and heresies , and a door open'd for priests and jesuits , to broach their popish and antichristian doctrine . there are some , b it seems , lately risen up amongst us , that are in expectation of new priests and prophets , who will be alter'd , they say , by such a visible appearance of majesty in their very countenance , as may be call'd the writing of the father's name upon their foreheads , as it was with moses when he came from conversing with god , and with our blessed lord himself , when the clouds of glory overshadowed him . and this at present may be thought a harmless opinion , however there be no foundation for it : but the patrons of it , we see , can adventure upon predictions , and new revelations , without any such splendor upon them as they describe ; and how much farther they may proceed , we know not . as for your selves , i suppose , that there are few , if any , of you , that ascribe the call of your pastors , or their distinction from other men , to a miracle , but you generally believe , that to constitute them in their office , some ordination is necessary , or expedient at least , whether it be perform'd by a bishop , or by presbyters , or by the people : for there are those amongst you , who lay claim to their ministry these several ways . . some of them , i confess , had episcopal ordination . but since these must have solemnly promis'd , that they would obey their ordinary , i would have you consider , how the blessing of heaven can be expected on their work , as now it is managed , when it is a continual breach of that engagement . yet if they had made no such engagement , their separation from their bishops to whom they owe obedience , and from the church to which they ought to be united ; their passing beyond their line , and their drawing disciples after them , which belong not to them ; their gathering churches out of sound churches , and opposite to them ; and their administring the sacraments , which are the bond of vnion , in a dividing way ; are things highly schismatical . and however such men may be eminent for their personal abilities , yet in their exercise of them , if we may believe . st. ignatius , they serve the a devil . before i come to examine other pretences of your teachers to the ministry , give me leave to put you in mind , that the elders and messengers of the congregational way , who met at the b savoy , confess'd , that in respect of the publick and open profession , either of presbytery or independency , this nation hath been a stranger to each way , it 's possible , ever since it hath been christian : and the like they might have said of all other christian nations . the truth is , neither of those sects were anciently in being , and then we are not like to hear of their ordinations . it is but of late that they appear'd , and therefore we have the more reason to enquire , whether there be any ground for their establishment , or what right they have to make such changes in the church , as they every where attempt . if a person should now profess , that he was sent to dethrone all kings , and to new-model all governments , he would have no cause to be angry , if we propos'd these questions to him : by what authority doest thou these things ? and who gave thee this authority ? and if men will be now endeavouring to depose , or degrade all bishops , to abrogate their office and overthrow their chairs , and to set up a discipline which was unknown to all the churches upon earth , they may not be offended , if we desire a sight of their commission . the prophet jeremiah was set over the nations , and over kingdoms , to root out , and to pull down , to build and to plant : that is , he was not to make these great turns of affairs himself , but only to prophesy of them ; and to do this it was manifest , that he was appointed of god. but some would perswade us , that they may act as great matters as he was to foretell : that they may destroy that sort of government which hath been transmitted down to us from the apostles , throughout all succeeding ages , and was established in all christian nations ; and that they may introduce another that was unknown to antiquity , and for above a thousand years after christ , not receiv'd by any church in the world. we have therefore reason to demand of them a sight of such credentials as make it plain , that they are sent of god. and since they have been so forward to make invasions on an order of men which hath been in possession of ecclesiastical authority for above sixteen hundred years , they must pardon us , if we question their own title to it , or say to them as optatus a did to the donatists , who are ye , and from whence did ye come ? i have nothing here to do with forreign protestants , whose call , they say b to the pastoral office , was extraordinary . but my business at present is with your teachers , who pretend to no such thing , or , if they do , may be easily refuted . they have taken upon them the sacred function in a new way , a way that was never approv'd in ancient times ; and therefore we may demand a sight of the patent , by which they would justifie their innovations . h. amongst the innovatom , i doubt we shall find the second 〈◊〉 of your teachers , which i have mention'd , and these are they who claim a title to the ministry , as being ordain'd by presbyters . they would be thought , i know , to be of very antient extraction ; and for this , quote these words of st. 〈◊〉 to timothy , neglect not the gift that is in thee , which is given unto thee by prephecy , with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery . and this text of seripture they take to be so evident are their fide , that they urge it frequently , and to comply with their interpretation of it , they wrest other , passages , which make directly against them . so that on this one place the whole fabrick of their cause seems to depend . yet is this place so far from plainly asserting the thing for which they contend , that calvin himself , a who was the father of their discipline , could find in it no such matter . for he thought that presbytery here signifies the office of a presbyter ; and then the meaning would be , that timothy should not neglect , but be careful to exercise that presbyterial office , or power , which was committed to him by laying on of hands . so that if the greatest patron of presbytery , and one that had sagacity enough to discover what might be advantagious to it , was not mistaken , this passage of scripture affords it no support . mr. selden a favours the interpretation of calvin , and confirms it with citations from the story of susanna , from josephus , from eusebius , and from the council of ancyra . yet remaining something doubtful of the true meaning of the word , he censures those , b who from this single place of the new testament , and that of an vncertain reading and sense , form'd such strange notions of the jurisdiction of a christian presbytery , as if it had been then founded on a divine institution . nevertheless , let us suppose that by the presbytery we are to understand the persons that did bear the office ; we are not certain from the expression it self , who are here intended by it . for it is a name of dignity , not always taken in its limited sense , but sometimes attributed to ecclesiastical officers of the highest rank . st. john twice calls himself a presbyter in his epistles ; and st. peter assumes the same title , where he says , the elders which are among you i exhort , who am also an elder . and now the question is , whether the supream , or inferiour presbyters , ordained timothy ? that is , whether they did it , who had power to ordain him ; or they , who , as far as we can find , never had any such authority . and this , i think , admits of an easie resolution . we do not find in scripture , that to mere presbyters any such authority was ever committed ; nor are there any footsteps of it in antiquity . but if they must be thought to have quitted it presently after the apostles days , there were never men that at such a vast distance of place , so universally , and all on a suddain conspir'd to degrade themselves , and to yield up their rights tamely , without any complaint . yet with so much artifice must they be imagin'd to have betray'd their trust and cover'd their shame , that no discovery was made of it for fifteen hundred years . we hear of no claim of any such power made by any presbyters before the fourth century , when aerius and others oppos'd episcopacy : but they were expell'd from the churches , a and could no where gain an establishment ; nor are they of such a character as may give reputation to any cause . yet if mere presbyters might constiture others of their own character , it doth not follow that they could ordain timothy , who was a bishop , and had jurisdiction over them , as i have shew'd in another place . they could not give what they never had , nor communicate a power which they had never receiv'd . thus the fathers argue in the case . and on another occasion , salmasius himself asserts , b that such reasoning is good concerning the conveyance of an authority which is of divine institution ; as that is , which is now in question . the dissenters , i know , contend , that timothy was not a bishop , but an evangelist ; and evangelists , say they , were extraordinary officers ; they were companions of the apostles , and of a higher rank than pastors . but if this be admitted , doth it at all mend the matter ? who ever saw , or read , says salmasius , a that they who were to have extraordinary power , were delegated by those who had no more than ordinary ? can you imagine that mere presbyters can ordain an evangelist , whose office was so much exalted above their own ? can you really believe , when there is no revelation for it , no ground for any such thing , that the private ministers of a congregation appointed collegues for the apostles ? surely it is more probable at least , if it could not otherwise be discover'd , that the apostles made choice of their own fellow-labourers , to whom , as there was opportunity , they committed the government of the churches . yet to prevent all c●villing as much as possible , let us suppose , what i do not grant , that the persons in the text were mere presbyters , it does not prove that others , who at this time assume that title , have the power of ordaining presbyters ; and if they attempt it , there is nothing in the text , that may be for their vindication . to make this appear . . it is to be observ'd , that st. paul himself ordain'd timothy , and says to him on that occasion , i put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of god which is in thee , by the putting on of my hands . and if he condescended to call to his assistance some inferiour officers for the greater solemnity of the action , it does not follow that they could do it of themselves without him ; and much less , that they could do it in opposition to him , or any other that should be in the same station . . if mere presbyters had the power of ordination , when they are suppos'd to have confer'd it on timothy , it may well be thought to have been some personal priviledge which died with them ; for we find no marks of it in succeeding times . st. jerome , a who of all the fathers , is the greatest favourite of the presbyterians , says , that originally , a presbyter was the same as a bishop ; and that at first , the churches were govern'd by the common council of priests , till by the instigation of the devil , divisions did arise ; and one said , i am of paul , and another said , i am of apollos , or i of cephas ; and then it was decreed all over the world , that one chosen out of the presbytery , should be placed over the rest , that to him the whole care of the church might be committed , and so the seeds of schism be extirpated . and if he has truly related the matter , this change must have been made when many of the apostles were alive , and transacted by themselves . and we need not doubt , but when the new prelates were constituted , they were distinguish'd from all inferiour officers , by the power of ordination . certain it is , that afterwards this power was every where thought peculiar to the bishops ; and when they had been in possession of it , much above a thousand years , common equity requires , that we should judge them to have had it by right , unless the contrary do appear . but there is no ground to believe that they were usurpers of it : no probability that they would ingross it to themselves , especially in the early times , when they were generally such mighty instances of humility and meekness , of patience and self-denial . there is not the least complaint le●t us of any such thing ; nor is it at all credible , that they should so universally attempt it ; or , if they did , that they should have the same success in all the churches upon earth . it follows , that they who take upon them the power to ordain , having never receiv'd it from those that were vested with it , do it in the wrong of the lawful possessors , who alone could convey it ; and having np just title to it , they can no more constitute a minister of christ , than they can make dead bones live . . the office which timothy had , was given him by prophecy , tim. . . or , according to the prophecies that went before of him , tim. . . his ordination therefore , if the way of arguing much us'd amongst dissen●●rs be good , must have been an extraordinary thing , and is not to be drawn into precedent , except in parallel cases . but your pastors , i suppose , do not pretend , that they were markt out by prophecy , or distinguish'd by a particular revelation , and therefore they cannot here find any defence of their pretences to the ministry . . the dissenters , by affirming that timothy was an extraordinary officer , and evangelist , cut off all the succour which they would draw from this place , for the vindication of their ordinations : for according to their own opinion , here is no example of presbyters constituting a presbyter , or a fixed pastor of a church ; and then certainly there is none to be found in the bible . i know not what they can reply to this , unless they would shift their principles , and confess , that we have in timothy an instance of episcopal government , or standing prelacy ; and if they would advance thus far towards us , i may refer them to what i said before , to prove that his ordainers must have had apostolical , or episcopal authority . iii. others claim their title to the ministry , as being ordain'd by the people . a but what divine precept , what rule have they for this ? what example have they for it , either in scripture , or out of scripture , in any part of the catholick church ? if they have discover'd in it so much as one pastor of their way for above a thousand years after the day of the apostles ; i would demand , as st. austin a did in another case , out of what earth did he spring ? out of what sea did he arise ? from which of the heavens was he dropt ? for my own part , after all the research that i have been able to make , i can find no such person ; not so much as an instance of one in all antiquity . 't is true , st. paul did foretell , that the time would come , when men would not endure sound doctrine : but having itching ears , would heap to themselves teachers after their own lusts . and tertullian b informs us of some hereticks , who impos'd on private persons the office or peculiar work of the priesthood . but your ministers , i suppose , will not insist upon such passages as these for their vindication ; and yet i know no other that can support their cause . the assembly of divines , who have been the oracles of the presbyterians , write with great assurance of this matter . for , say they , a we challenge any man to shew any one text in all the new testament , for the justification of a popular ordination . to what purpose , add they , did paul aud barnabas 〈◊〉 from place to place to ordain elders ? why was titus left in crete , to appoint elders in every city ? might not the people say , what need paul leave titus to do that which we can do our selves ? if this doctrine were true , the apostles needed only to have preach'd , and to have converted the people to the faith ; and when they had done , to have said , we have now done our work : you may 〈◊〉 elect and ordain your officers your selves ▪ the power of these things belongs to you . but the apostles did quite contrary , &c. they afterwards complain b of a generation of men then risen up amongst them , who disclaim'd all ordination from ministers , asvnwarrantable and antichristian , and took it up from the people as the only way of the gospel : whereas , they tell us , it hath not the least ●ooting in the new testament , nor in antiquity ; but is in effect a renouncing of 〈◊〉 ordinance of christ as antichristian , and of all the ministers and churches in the christian world : a thing that would engage men to be seekers , and to forsake all church-communion , as many , they say did , in those vnhappy days . salmasius , who was on the side of the assembly , and otherwise a man of prodigious learning , declares , a that the people have power to impose over themselves a king , which may be true in some cases , but they had never any to elect and ordain presbyters and bishops . calvin also affirms , b that not the multitude of believers , but the pastors only impos'd hands on their ministers . and that they only ought to do so , is so much the common opinion of the reform'd , that in the judgment of blondel , c that work was not ascrib'd to laymen by any protestant . our separatis●s , i know , are divided about this matter : and however the● that call themselves the vnited ministers a &c. agree in this , that it is requ●site that a person who is chosen to the ministerial office , be duly ordain'd they do not declare by whom , or 〈◊〉 what manner , he is to be so . nor could they declare it , but they must have discover'd their divisions , which 〈◊〉 much art they endeavour'd to conce●● and now that i am upon this subject i cannot but take notice , that when the heads of their agreement were sent from the city into the country to gather subscriptions : amongst other articles of that union , it was asserted , that ordination was to be perform'd 〈◊〉 imposition of hands ; but this was afterwards left out in the printed copy , to the great surprize of many subscribers that had approv'd it . and leaving you to judge of the sincerity of the managers of this affair , i shall think it no great digression to make this remark , that there is amongst the separatists , a prevailing party , who would say aside a ceremony which is of divine , or apostolical institution , and which has been of constant use in all churches . but whether they reject it as sinful , or whether they are sensible that their ordainers have no right to it , or what other inducement they had to discharge it , i pretend not to determine . i only urge them to prove by any good authority , that a congregation may ordain their own pastor , either without that rite , or with it . if they are not able to do this , it may easily be decided , whether they have imitated the pattern in the mount , which they would be thought to follow with so much exactness ; or whether they have not forsaken it in a matter of the greatest moment , that they might establish their own inventions . i have now enquir'd what title your pastors have to the ministry ; whether they pretend to it , as being ordain'd by presbyters , or by the people , and can find nothing of validity in it . if they can demonstrate it to be good , let them produce their strong reasons for it . but if no just defence can be made of it ; then , according to the doctrine of their brethren , express'd in the last section . they mock god , to serve their own turns : they profane the sacred function , and make a trifle of the sin : they are the ●roublers of the people , and the subverters of souls : they are 〈◊〉 impostors and vsurpers of the broad 〈◊〉 of heaven : they are the disturbe●● all right , and the pha●ton's that burn 〈◊〉 the spiritual world : they 〈◊〉 themselves into a trust , even the 〈◊〉 trust , which was not committed to 〈◊〉 and therefore are to be reckon'd among●● those that are branded as 〈…〉 wicked , and guilty of impudent ●●●cation . if this sounds harsh , i hope you will remember that it is the language of your brethren : and if your pastors would make fit reflections on it , i might hope that they would not esteem 〈◊〉 their enemy for dealing plainly with them , but rather be thankful for my endeavours to save them with fear 〈◊〉 by a faithful representation of their condition to bring them to repentance . i doubt many of them are hindred from this by their numerous followers ; and therefore charity does the more ●●●strain me to warn you , not to be partakers with them any longer in dividing the church ; not to assist or encourage them in giving such deep wounds , as they do , to the body of christ . there may be other cases of schism which are perplex'd and difficult , but ●●urs is not of that number . for to sum up all , . you have forsaken a church to which , by your own confession , your conformity was lawful . you have abandon'd the whole episcopal communion , and thereby in effect you renounced all right to the ministry and sacraments . . you have not only deserted those who by your own acknowledgment are lawful pastors , but to their great disturbance , and a farther breach of unity , you have brought within their line , and in opposition to them , other guides of your own chusing . . these , for the most part , are such as had no episcopal , or real ordination . so that you have exceeded the novatians , donatists , and meletians , who had their proper bishops ; and these , upon their repentance of their irregularities , were received by the church into the same station which they possess'd before in the time of their separation . but no part of the ancient church ever admitted of a pastor of your way . none ever approv'd your presbyterian and popular ordinations . when one of the former sort did first appear , it was condemn'd as null and a void , by the third council of b alexandria . and the other , till of late , was never heard of in the christian world. thus have i laid before you a just account of your state , as you are divided from us ; and to clear it , i have given you the true character of your preachers ; i mean as they are such , and bear their part in the schism : it is only on this occasion that i have modled with them , and now exhort you with all earnestness , to depart from the tents of those men , left ye be consumed in their sins . sect . iv. having shew'd what grounds i have to apprehend that you are deeply engaged in schism , i come now to examine the arguments that have been offer'd on your part to excuse you from the guilt of it , and i shall set them down in this method . i. it has been said , that notwithstanding your present separation from us , yet you are one with us , because we both adhere to the same doctrine . ii. that in the apostles days there were independent and seperate churches planted in the same city . iii. that jesus christ hath declar'd , that when two or three are gather'd together in his name , there he is in the midst of them ; and that you assemble in this manner , and are therefore assur'd of his favourable presence . iv. that paul rejoyced that christ was preach'd even by those men who did it out of envy and strife ; and if the case of your teachers were as bad as this , you have no reason to be solicitous about their call , nor we to be offended about their work. v. that you are only return'd to those whom you had forsaken before , and that you might do this since you had the indulgence , or the liberty granted to you by the law. vi. that the use which you make of this liberty , is not only lawful , but your duty : and that having your freedom , you ought to make choice of the way of the dissenters , because you conceive it to be better than that of the church , and to be prefer'd before it ; as enjoying purer ordinances ; as affording communion with a better people ; and as most conducing to your edification . this i think is the sum of what has been said in your defence , and whether it may sufficiently clear you from the imputation of schism , is the subject of our present enquiry . i. it hath been said , that notwithstanding , your present separation from us , yet ye are one with us , because we both adhere to the same doctrine : and i know nothing hath been more commonly urged of late in your vindication . so that we may seem to have gain'd this by your late conformity , that we are now treated with softer language than formerly we were . yet the rude assaults which before were so frequently made upon the conformists by the adversaries that call'd them babylonish and antichristian , and thereby expos'd their own malice or folly , did less hurt to the church , than this seeming compliance , which would make communion with it an indifferent thing , and so dissolve its government , as i shall shew hereafter . how far you are at an agreement with us in doctrine , i know not . but if the same be taught in your meetings ; that is , published by many of your party in their printed books , and even in their catechisms , i think it is liable to great exceptions . yet if it were every way pure and apostolical , and the very same with that of the conformists , can this be a reason for your desertion of them ? or may not the same reason bring you back to them ? but i fear it is only to serve a turn , and to be laid aside on other occasions . if you please to consult your teachers , and demand of them , whether you may : not return to us ? since , as 't is thought , your doctrine is the same with ours , doubtless they would press you to remain where you are : they would thunder against schism , as others have done ; and terrifie you with the great evil of separation , notwithstanding it lies at their own door . i am sure the independants , who made so light of schism , when they were drawing congregations out of congregations , did afterwards endeavour to secure to themselves their own proselites . for they declare , a that when a person was admitted into any of their churches , he might not remove from it to another church , without the consent of the former first sought and obtain'd . but if that was deny'd , and yet he would depart , they would not detain him by violence , nor make their church a prison to him . however they would look on him as a heathen and publican : they would condemn him as a breaker of the everlasting covenant , or as one that like annanias and saphira , lyed against the holy ghost . and in the heads of agreement subscrib'd by your ministers of different sects , they assert , a that a visible professor , joyn'd to a particular church , ought to continue stedfastly with the said church , and not forsake the ministry and ordinances without an orderly seeking a recommendation to another church . and say they in another place , b we ought not to admit any one to be a member of our respective congregations , that hath joyn'd himself to another , without endeavours of mutual satisfaction of the congregations concern'd . here they give you some useful hints , which may intimate how requisite it is to review their actions and your own . for this may afford you matter of great humiliation , and be a means of your conviction , when you reflect how you did forsake our churches , without any permission granted by them , or requested of them ; and how your pastors receiv'd you , without giving any satisfaction to those whom ye had deserted . what your teachers will say to this ; i know not ; but it seems they would have you believe , that an agreement with us in faith is sufficient , but an union with them in worship is necessary . you may forsake us without any permission , but not depart from them without their consent . the liberty they allow you in one case , they take away in another , and reject it as a thing not to be endured , when it touches their own constitution ▪ but not to insist farther on the opinions and practices of these men , i shall shew you what st. cyprian and st. chrysostom , thought of the pretence for church-divisions , which is now under consideration : for they speak as home to it as if they had been directed by a prophetick spirit : but the reason is , because the schismaticks in their days excus'd themselves in the same manner as some of you have done . and the same plea being us'd by both , you equally come under the same confutation . st. cyprian speaking of the novatians , says , a it could not help them at all that they acknowledge god the father , the son and holy spirit , as we do : for korah , dathan , and abiram own'd the same god , the only true god ; and as to the law and religion , were on equal terms with moses and aaron ; yet being unmindful of their place , and transgressing their bounds , they challenged to themselves the power of sacrificing ; and then by a stroke from heaven they suffered the punishment due to their unlawful attempts . — and that it may be better understood , what the divine judgment was against such presumption , we find that not only the captains and leaders in wickedness , but also such as were partakers with them in it , were condemn'd to suffer , if they did not separate themselves from the society of those criminals . — by which example it appears , that all must be guilty and liable to punishment , who with a profane rashness joyn themselves with schismaticks , against their bishops and priests . as the holy spirit testifies by the prophet hosea , saying , b their sacrifices shall be as the bread of mourning : all that 〈◊〉 thereof shall be polluted : hereby teaching us , that all who have been defil'd i● sin with their leaders , must be their companions also in the sufferings inflicted on them . st. chrysostome speaks more fully on this subject , and discourses of it to this effect : a a certain holy man said , what seems very bold , and yet he said it ; and it is , that even the blood of martyrdom cannot wash away this sin of schism . for tell me , i pray you , wherefore would you suffer martyrdom ? is it not for the glory of christ ? but if you would lay down your life for christ , wherefore do ye lay waste the church for which christ died ? hear what paul speaks . i am not meet to be call'd an apostle , because i persecuted the church of god. but persecution gives a greater lustre to the church , whereas schism exposes it to shame amongst its enemies . this i speak to such as indifferently yield up themselves to the conduct of those that divide the church — know ye not what korah , dathan , and abiram suffered ? or can ye be ignorant that they also perished that were with them ? wherefore then do you say their faith is the same with ours , and they are orthodox ? for if that be so , why are they not with us ? if their affairs succeed well , ours must be in a bad posture ; and if ours prosper , theirs must be calamitous — and can you imagine , i pray you , it is sufficient to say , that they are orthodox , if the rights of ordination be wanting or destroy'd ? what profit is there of other things , if due care be not taken for this ? we ought to contend for it , as we do for the faith it self . for if it be lawful for any that will , to fill their own hands , as the ancients speak , a or to make themselves priests ; in vain was this altar built , in vain is this full assembly , and this company of sacred ministers is in vain also — if any one make light of these matters , let him look to it — how shall we bear the derision of the vnbelieving greeks ? if they upbraid us with heresies , what will they not speak of these things ? if , say they , these men have the same opinions ; if they have the same mysteries , why does one thus leap into the place of another ? do not ye see , how all the affairs of the christians are fill'd with vain-glory ? how ambition and deceit dwell amongst them ? but take away the multitude from them , and they are nothing . thus far that excellent father , who hath more to the same purpose . what i shall add , will be farther to prove , . that it is most absurd to affirm , that you are one with us , being divided from us , as you are . . that the pretence , that unity of doctrine is sufficient to make us all one , is inconsistent with church-government , and would be destructive of the church it self . . that it is inconsistent with the notion of schism , as express'd in the holy scripture . . that it would take away the distinction which the scripture makes between the schismaticks , and those that are approved . . it is most absurd to affirm , that you are one with us , being divided from us , as you are . i have proved , that the universal church is a political body ; and that a particular church is so , i think , is generally granted . and then if a company withdraw themselves from it , and shake off all dependance on it , and communion with it , they cannot be of the same body which they deserted ; but being associated together by themselves , they become another . the empire of persia , was one body under darius ; but it was not so , when it was divided into several kingdoms under the successors of alexander . a city is one body , yet if it sends out colonies , which afterwards are formed into cities , living by their own laws , having full jurisdiction in themselves , they are no longer the same with the metropolis from which they a came . and much less can it be said , that some part of the citizens shaking off their obedience to their governours , and advancing others into their places , are united to those from whom they made the revolt . now a church hath this common with a city , and with all corporations , that if some of its members withdraw themselves from it , and make up a separate congregation , according to your model , they are not then of the community which they have deserted . it is evident , that they are of a society which is opposite 〈◊〉 it ; and to say that they are one , when the contrary is so visible to every eye , is to renounce the use of words , and to affront the common sense of mankind . . the pretence that the unity 〈◊〉 doctrine is sufficient to make us all 〈◊〉 notwithstanding ye are so divided from us , is inconsistent with church-government ; and being admitted , would be destructive of the church it self . pretences like that , would never be wanting , if they might justifie the seditious , and it is easie to perceive what sad effects they would produce . if such as are mutinous in an army should lay aside their officers , and put into then places , others of their own chusing , they might say in their own vindication , that under their present commanders , they acted according to the same military rules as they did before , and therefore 't is all one , which they obey'd . if in a kingdom , or common-wealth , some of the subjects , upon any discontent , should depose their magistrates , and elect others in their stead out of their own company , they might make the like defence and say , that they had still the same laws as before the change , and lived according to the ancient customs ; only the administration of affairs was put into other hands , which was not material . if in a house some of the children and servants should conspire against the father and master of the family , and take into it another person to be their governour , they might also plead for themselves , that they receiv'd the same direction for business as they had before , and that their work was still the same , and therefore it was all one to whom they paid their submission . but 't is obvious that such an army must be put into miserable confusions , that such a kingdom would be brought to desolation , that such a house cannot stand . and 't is no less manifest , that if the people may forsake their lawful pastors , and at their pleasure heap to themselves other teachers ; if some members of a sound church may make a causeless separation from it , and joyn together in opposition it , this would make all church-government a precarious and useless thing ; it would soon weaken the church , and push it on to destruction . and it will be a vain excuse for men to say , that they are at an agreement with the church in doctrine , when by their divisions they are tearing the church in pieces . . the pretence that you are free from the guilt of schism , because you are of the same faith with the conformists , is inconsistent with the notion of schism , as it is express'd in the holy scripture . it is plain from the scripture , and it is granted on all hands , that there was a schism at corinth : but this was not about an article of faith , or matter of doctrine . what was laid to the charge of the dividers here , is , that every one said , i am of paul , or i of apollos , or i of cephas . there is no doubt but all these three did teach the same doctrine , but the people were schismatical , and made use of those great names to give reputation to their several parties . it may seem strange , that some are censur'd for saying . they were of christ : but i take the meaning to be this ; they profess'd themselves to be followers of christ , but it was in opposition to his ministers ; as some may pretend to be for the king , when they affront those that are in authority under him ; or they would be for him as the head of their own faction . but all these are condemned as carnal , and as dividers of christ . and this may let you see , that their offence was great , notwithstanding the plausible things , that on the account of the excellent yeachers to which they laid claim , might be said in their defence . clemens roman●● , a fellow-labourer with st. paul , makes such use of this passage as is very proper for your consideration : for , says he , in an epistle to the corinthians , a take into your hands the epistle of the blessed paul the apostle . what is it that he first wrote to you in the beginning of his gospel . b of a truth he spiritually admonish'd you , that there were then factions among you cancerning himself , and cephas , and apoll●s . but siding , or making a party in that case , was a less sin ; for your inclinations were towards apostles of known 〈◊〉 , and a man approved of them . but now consider who they are that perverted , and diminished the venerable esteem of your brotherly love , which was commended every where . shameful , brethren , very shameful is the report , and unworthy of the christian conversation , that the most firm and ancient church of corinth , for the sake of one or two persons , should be seditions against their priests . and the fame of this is 〈…〉 come amongst us , but amongst those that are otherwise affected . so that because of your madness the lord's name is blasphemed , and great danger is created to your selves . . the pretence that you are free from the guilt of schism , because you are of the same faith with the con●●●mists , takes away the distinction of the schismatick from the approved ; as will appear by considering the case of both , as it is represented in the holy scripture . . it is evident from scripture , that the approved , who are the beloved of god , add this to the practice of other duties , that they live in conformity to the church , and are of a regular behaviour in it . there must be heresies amongst you , says the apostle , that they which are approved may be made manifest among you . that is , as i noted before , as long as mens minds are deprav'd there will be divisions , as there were at corinth , about matters of discipline ; and the almighty permits this for the tryal of his servants , that by the avoiding those things their sincerity may be known ; that having this mark of distinction upon them , it might appear to all with whom they were conversant , that they were of the number of the faithful . . from hence it is plain , that the dividers and disturbers of the church , however they agree with it in doctrine , are not to be reckon'd amongst the approved : but it will yet be plainer , if they proceed to a separation from those that are so . these words of st. john , which i also cited before , are remarkable and pertinent to our purpose : they went out from us , says he , but they were not of us : for if they had been of us , they would no doubt have continued with us : but they went out , that they might be made manifest , that they were not all of us . but had they been of the opinion of your advocates , they might have reply'd : our desertion can never make it manifest that we were not of you . indeed we went out from you , and did forsake your assemblies ; but notwithstanding this , we may be all one with you . but we do not find that they had the confidence to make such an apology . ii. it has been said , that in the apostles days there were independent and separate churches planted in the same city . and for this the testimony of a very learned conformist a has been cited by some , who at other times express little regard for it . and it is true , he tells us , that as st. peter was the apostle of the circumcision , and st. paul of the gentiles , so whensoever these two great apostles came to the same city , the one constantly applied himself to the jews , received disciples of such , form'd them into a church , left them , when he departed that region , to be govern'd by some bishop of his own assignation ; and the other in like manner did the same to the gentiles . to prove this he urges from ancient writers , that the church of antioch was founded and instructed by st. peter and st. paul , and consequently that the jewish part of it was converted and rul'd by one , and the gentile by the other : that the decrees of the council at jerusalem were peculiarly sent , and inscrib'd , to the brethren at antioch , &c. — those of the gentiles , that is separately from the jewish church in that city , &c. that it appears from the apostolical constitutions that euodius , and ignatius , at the same time sate bishops of antioch ; the one succeeding st. peter , the other st. paul , one in the jewish , the other in the gentile congregation . that the separation continued till both parties were joyn'd , and united together under ignatius : that from hence it is , that by origen and eusebius , he is called the second , and by st. jerome the third bishop of antioch ; and yet he is as truly said by athanasius , to be constituted bishop after the apostles : that at rome the two apostles met again , and each of them there erected and managed a church , st. peter of the jews , and st. paul of the gentiles : that as linus and clemens were deacons , the one of st. paul , and the other of st. peter ; so both afterwards succeeded them in the episcopal chair , linus being constituted bishop of the gentiles , clemens the jewish christians there : and that from hence unquestionably grows that variety and difference observ'd amongst writers , some making st. peter , others st. paul , the founder of that church , but others both of them : some making clemens , others linus , the first bishop after the apostles ; both affirmers speaking the truth , with this scholion to interpret them : linus was the first bishop of the gentile christians after st. paul ; clemens the first of the jewish after st. peter . this is the sum of the most material things that he has said on this subject ; but it seems all too infirm to support his opinion ; which yet out of the respect that is due to the authority of so great a man , i shall not reject without giving the reasons of my dissent from him . and they are these that follow . i. however the work of the apostles was so distributed by consent that the care of the jews was especially committed to st. peter , and that of the gentiles to st. paul ; yet they were not limited to either . for , . st. peter being sent for by cornelius a gentile , instructed him and those that were come together at his house , in the christian faith ; and when they had received it , he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the lord : and after this he declar'd in the council of jerusalem , that god had chosen him for this purpose , that the gentiles , by his mouth , should hear the gospel , and believe . . st. paul preach'd in the synagogues of the jews at salamis and antioch : and at corinth he reason'd in the synagogue every sabbath , and persuaded both jews and greeks . at rome also he expounded and testified to the jews , the kingdom of god , persuading them out of the law of moses , and out of the prophets , from morning till nighs , and some believed the things that were spoken , tho' some believed not . now as it cannot be thought that when he had converted jews and gentiles together , he divided them into separate congregations , so neither is it probable that when st. peter and he were in the same city , matters were so nicely managed between them , that the one pickt out the jews , as belonging to his province , and gather'd them into a church by themselves , and that the other did the like for the gentiles . no such thing , i am sure can be gather'd from the scripture . ii. both these apostles might be founders of the church of antioch , as also of that of rome , and yet neither of these churches be divided into separate societies . rome it self had two founders , and yet it was but one city . and manifest it is by many other examples , that different persons acting as one , may constitute a corporation , either ecclesiastical or civil , which is united in all its parts . iii. the inscription of the epistle to the brethren of the gentiles that were at antioch , &c. does only suppose them to have been chiefly concern'd in the contents of it , and not that they were of a church distinct from the jewish christians . it may rather seem , if they had been so , that the zealots who came from judea , would not have press'd them to be circumcis'd after the manner of moses , but left them to enjoy their own way , as a separate body . but the council having decided the matter in debate between them , remov'd from both sides all pretences of division . iv. the writer of the apostolick constitutions no where affirms , that euodius and ignatins sate at the same time bishops of antioch . he only introduces peter , saying , that one of them was ordain'd by him , and the other by a paul , which might be afterwards at a great distance of time . malata informs b us , that after the death of euodius , peter being then at antioch , ignatius receiv'd the episcopal dignity ; and if this be so , it may help to put an end to the dispute about the order in which he was advanced to that office. v. that linus and clemens were at the same time bishops of rome , hath no better ground than the testimony of ruffinus , which signifies but little when oppos'd , as it is in this case , by the whole stream of antiquity . there are indeed differences amongst the fathers concerning the line of succession in that see ; but they are accounted for by an excellent a hand : and if they were not , nor would admit of any reconciliation , they would be too weak a foundation for the establishment of separate churches under their proper pastors b in the same city . yet do i not reject this opinion , merely because it hath no good foundation : i shall produce such arguments against it , as being duly consider'd may help to determine this controversie . . my first argument is taken from the design of christ ; for that was , to unite both jews and gentiles in one body , and to make of the two , one new man. and accordingly , he made of both one people ; prescrib'd to them the same law , and confer'd on them equal priviledges . it is not therefore to be imagin'd , that the jewish converts were to be drawn out from amongst the believers of the gentiles , and gather'd into churches apart by themselves ; churches that excluded all christians from their communion , who submitted not to the law of moses . for this had been to divide those whom our lord had made one , and to revive the enmity which he had slain : it had been to treat those as forreigners , whom he would have to be fellow-citizens , and to expel them as aliens , who are his domesticks , and of the houshold of faith : it had been to cast those out as ismaelites , whom he had call'd to be heirs of promise , and to rebuild the wall of partition , which he had broken down . . according to the mind of christ , st. paul labour'd to restore peace and conformity between the judaizers and other christians , that they might live together as members , one of another . and to this purpose , when some believed that they might eat all things , and others being weak did eat herbs ; he shews that this difference should be no cause of a breach of communion amongst them . for , says he to the strong , who were apt to despise others , him that is weak in faith receive to you , rom. . . that is , notwithstanding the scruples of such a person about meats and drinks , and other things of that nature , admit him into the congregation as a brother . he is not fit indeed to hear doubtful disputations , or to be engaged in them , but he ought to joyn with you in the publick worship . the apostle himself leads us to this interpretation in the following chapter , where having put up his request for those that dissented about the mosaical rites , that they might with one mind , and one mouth , glorifie god , even the father of our lord jesus christ ; he presently addresses his discourse to them , and says , wherefore receive ye one another ? for what end was it that they must receive one another ? he himself has given a sufficient intimation of it . it was that they might glorifie god with one mind , and with one mouth . the thing then requir'd of them was , that both the weak and strong , both the jewish and gentile converts , should meet together in the same assemblies , and unanimously joyn in the same prayers and praises , as if they had been animated by one soul. . however the apostle us'd great tenderness towards the dissenting parties , whether they understood their christian liberty , and did eat things forbidden by the mosaical law , or whether they did not : yet when the judaizers withdrew themselves from the communion of those that would not come up to their rigours , and labour'd to seduce as many as they could into the way of separation ; he then treated them in another style . he represented them as persons that corrupted the gospel , and pronounced an anathema against them . speaking of them to the philippians , he says , beware of those dogs ; beware of evil-workers ; beware of the concision ; that is , of those that cut the church in pieces . and to the romans he says , i beseech you brethren , mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learn'd , and avoid them . so far was this apostle from approving or allowing of their separate congregations . . we may gain farther light into this matter , and what i have said of it , may be confirm'd from a remarkable transaction , which the same apostle relates in these words ; when peter , says he was come to antioch , i withstood him to the face , because he was to be blam'd : for before certain came from james , he did ea● with the gentiles ; but when they were come , he withdrew , and separated himself , fearing them which were of the circumcision . and the other jews dissembled likewise with him ; insomuch that barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation . but when i saw that they walked not uprightly , according to the truth of the gospel , i said unto peter before them all ; if thou , being a jew , livest after the manner of the gentiles , and not as do the jews , why compellest thou the gentiles to live as do the jews ? from hence it is plain . . that peter liv'd at antioch after the manner of the believing gentiles ; using the same christian liberty as they did ; and not withdrawing himself from them , before the judaizers came thither from jerusalem . . when he struck in with the judaizers , it is not to be imagin'd , that they had alter'd his judgment , or that he had received any new illumination to direct him ; but the change he shew'd , proceeded from his fear ; a fear , as we may well suppose , that if he yielded not to those obstinate men , they would renounce the christian faith. . the jewish converts at antioch , were not of a distinct church by themselves , separate from the gentiles . certainly they were not so before the coming of the zealots , with whom they comply'd , not out of conscience , but dissimulation . . with their dissimulation barnabas was carried away ; and this intimates , that his concurrence with the dividers , was a new thing to him , or a departure from his former practice . upon the whole , he and the rest , whom he follow'd in this action , may seem to have had a good intention , which was not to provoke those of the circumcision ; but to do what they were able to preserve them from apostacy . yet in their conduct there was more of the policy of the world , than of true christian wisdom and sincerity . wherefore st. paul , seeing that they walked not uprightly , according to the truth of the gospel , withstood peter to the face , because he was to be blam'd , and reprov'd him before all , that they might see their error , who had been drawn into it by his example . and if paul was so much against separation , when st. peter himself was at the head of it , and when barnabas , an apostle also , together with the multitude , was engaged in it ; if he oppos'd it when it came with so strong a torrent , doubtless he resisted it with like courage wherever he met it , in any part of the world. . the jewish and gentile christians , together at antioch , are stiled a church , and so are they that resided at rome . but to call them so , if in the same city they had been divided into several independent congregations , is not agreeable to the language of that age. nor could they with any propriety of speech be mention'd as one society , or body , if they were separate , and had no communion with one another . . in the time when this division is suppos'd to have been between the jewish and gentile converts , single persons successively govern'd the church of a antioch ; and the like may be said of that of rome ; as the fathers inform b us , who liv'd near that age. and it is well known , that c cyprian , d cornelim , and others did much insist upon this that of one church , or di●●ese , there could be but one bishop ; and we need not doubt but the novatians , against whom they argued , would have reply'd , that according to apostolical institution , the christians living in one city , might have several bishops over them , had this been then believ'd . but what was the sense of this matter on both sides , may be gathered from the roman confessors , who had been for both , but repenting of the schism , profess'd that they could not charge themselves with the ignorance of this , e that as there is one god , one christ , one holy spirit , so there ought , to be but one bishop of a catholick church . iii. it hath been said , that jesus christ hath declar'd , that when two or three are gathered together in his name , he is in the midst of them ; and that you assemble in this manner , and are therefore assur'd of his favourable presence . but to this i need return no other answer , but what was given by st. cyprian to the novatians a who objected the same thing . these corrupters of the gospel , and false interpreters , says cyprian , only lay held on the end of a discourse , and omit what went before . part they remember , and part they craftily conceal . as they are cut off from the church , so they would cut in pieces a passage of scripture . they forget , that when our lord would persuade his own disciples to vnanimity and peace ; he said to them , if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask , it shall be done for them of my father which is in heaven — and this he spake concerning his church ; and to those that are in the church he says , that if they are of one heart , if according to his command and admonition , but two or three of them are gathered together , and pray unanimously , they may obtain what they ask of the divine majesty . where two or three , says he , are gathered together in my name , i am with theme : that is , with the sincere and peaceable , with those that fear god , and keep his precepts — so that he that founded and made the church , doth not divide men from it ; but upbraiding the perfid●●us with their discord , and commending peace to the faithful , he shews that he is rather with two or three that pray in concerd , than with the many that are at strife — but what peace do they promise themselves , who are enemies of the brethren ? what sacrifices do they believe , they offer , when they contend with the priests ? can they imagine that christ is with them , when they are assembled out of his church ? no , tho' such men were slain confessing his name , the blemish of schism would not be wash'd off with their blood. iv. it hath been said , that paul rejoyced that christ was preach'd , even by those men who did it out of envy and strife , and if the case of your teachers were as bad as this , as long as they preach christ , you have no reason to be solicitous about their call , nor we to be offended at their work. but to this i reply ; . that it does not appear that they who preach'd christ out of envy and strife , did take on them the work of the ministry without a call to that office . and if they were lawfully admitted into it , it only proves that ill men may be so , and yet be useful to others ; but not that any may usurp the sacred function ; and how far this concerns your teachers and their followers , i have shew'd before . . neither doth it appear that they preach'd christ to any other than the infidels ; and this can never justifie your pastors for gathering disciples out of sound churches ; or your selves for breaking the bond of peace , in compliance with them . it is one thing to add members to a church , taken out of the unbelieving world , and for members to withdraw themselves from it , and joyn together in an opposite society . . what the apostle rejoyced at was the good that his envyers did , beside their intention : the benefit that did spring from the evil they design'd , and not the evil that set them on work. so that notwithstanding this example , envy and strife are as hateful as ever , and so are church-divisions , and all things else condemn'd in the gospel . . what they acted out of envy and strife , did no hurt to any but themselves . 't is true , they were guilty of great inhumanity and cruelty towards st. paul , yet their malice had no ill effect on him , but rested on their own heads . how it was that they suppos'd that they should add affliction to his bonds , is not so clear , but that it hath given occasion to several conjectures . but to me it seems most probable that they emulated the glory which he had acquir'd by many conversions ; and judging of him by themselves , they imagin'd , it would be a grievous thing to him to hear , that they shar'd with him in that honour , the faith being prop●●gated by their diligence . whereas i● was great satisfaction to him , that when he was under confinement , they carried on the work in which he himself should have been employ'd , had he been at liberty . indeed their manner of doing it did exercise his patience and self denial , yet even that was for his advantage ; and he was assur'd that their preaching would turn to his salvation . and as it was beneficial to him , so it was also to the church , as being a means of gaining proselytes , and both to jews and gentiles , as an instrument of their conversion . but on the contrary , church-divisions are prejudicial to all sorts of persons ; to the pastors of the church , and to the flock : to those that are within the church , and to those that are without . this i might fully prove , but i refer it to a more proper place , and shall only here set down the words of the lord chancellor bacon , who says in his essays , a that heresies and schisms are of all others the greatest scandals ; yea , more than corruption of manners . for as in the natural body , wound , or solution of continuity , is 〈◊〉 than a corrupt humour , so in the spiritual . so that nothing doth so much keep me●● out of the church , and drive men out of the church , as breach of vnity . v. it hath been said , that you are only return'd to those whom you had forsaken before ; and that you might do this , since you had the indulgence , or the liberty granted to you by the law. but if your separation was sinful before you conform'd , your return to it must be so too : for the law hath not alter'd the case , nor done any thing that can make it innocent . . we are therefore to enquire in the first place , whether your separation before you conform'd , was not sinful ; and this may easily be resolv'd , for it is clear from what went before , that it was causeless , and consequently schismatical . perhaps it may be objected , that many of you had never been members of the church of england , and therefore could not be deserters of it . but to this i reply , that if you only joyn'd with the society that made the revolt from it , you were partakers in the offence . they that went before you were as a corrupt fountain , and you 〈◊〉 the streams that issued from it ; and the fame malignant quality hath tainted both . the conformists in the reign of queen elizabeth , might say of the brownists , or your first separatists , as st. cyprian a did of the novatians , we departed not from them , but they departed from us . and to you that by education were brought into the community of those that divided the church , we may say as optatas did to the donatists , a your ancestors committed that crime , and you labour to walk in their wicked steps ; that what your predecessors had done in the matter of schism , you may appear long since to have acted , and still to act . they in their days did break the peace , and you do now banish vnity . to your parents and your selves these words may fitly be applied , if the blind lead the blind , they both fell into the ditch . when manasses , the brother of jaddus ; withdrew , himself from jerusalem , and officiated as high-priest in the temple as garizin , which was built for him by sanba●et ; both he and they of his own nation that concur'd with him , acted what was highly criminal . but the matter did not ●●st here ; for their posterity grievously offended in keeping up the defection which their predecessors had begun ; and their cause was condemn'd upon a fair tryal before ptolemaeus b philometer . and thus not only they that are first in a schism , but their followers , and such as come into it in succeeding times , contract the guilt of it . the new members that are added to the former schismaticks , are , together with them , of one body ; as they that from time to time are added to the church , are of another . one thing on which the dispute between the advocates for the temple at jerusalem , and for that at garizin , did mainly turn , was the question , on which side was the ancient succession of priests ? but this was easily determin'd for the former . and now if the whole issue of the controversiae between the conformists and dissenters were put upon this ; whether of them have the best title to a succession of lawful pastors , it would not be difficult to decide it : for you grant , i suppose , and it is otherwise evident , that such a succession is continued with us : but it appears from what has been said , that in your way of separation , you neither had , nor can have any such thing . indeed many of the separatists had episeopal ordination , but some of them renounced it ; and , as in mockery , ordain'd one another : others made no such abdication as the former ; yet withdrawing themselves from their bishops , they exercis'd their office in such a manner as is directly against their own solemn promise , and sacramental engagement . but none of them had power to constitute other presbyters , or in the language of a epiphanius , to give fathers to the church . as for the rest of your teachers , they are meer laymen , and act under a false character in matters of the highest importance to the souls of men. so that you could be followers of none of the dissenting guides , without schism , and a breach of obedience where it was due ; but with some of them you could not communicate without bearing a part in their impostures . . if your former separation was sinful , your return to it must be sinful also . it must be so in a higher degree , because a relapse into sin after reformation , is a greater offence than the first commission of it . it had been better therefore that you had not known the way of peace , than after you had experience of it , to forsake it : better that you had not come into the unity of the church , than to break it again . you are now become more inexcusable than you were before , and thus far your latter end is worse than your beginning . . if your separation was otherwise sinful , the law hath not alter'd 〈◊〉 case , or done any thing that can mak●● it innocent . i need say nothing of the toleration which was granted to you by the dispensing power , and drew you into the snare : for i suppose you ground your present liberty on the act of parliament . but if you 〈◊〉 not within the intent of that act , it leaves you where it found you ; and can a●ford nothing for your justification the act it self will best satisfie you of this , and upon perusal of it you will find , that it was only design'd to give ease to tender consciences ; but yours are not of that number . indeed we cannot penetrate into your hearts , but charity obliges us to believe , that you did not come to our churches with doubts and fears upon you , that your conformity was unlawful , but were generally well assur'd , that it was consistent with your duty , and agreeable to the holy scriptures . but this is the very thing which cuts you off from the indulgence which you claim by the law ; that being design'd only for per●●ns of another character . but what hath the law done for the scrupulous ? hath it approv'd their several ways , or set them all in the right ▪ that cannot be ; for they are inconsistent and contradict one another . it only tolerates them ; and we may tolerate pain and sickness and other evils , from which we have a great aversion . but they remain evils still ; and so must church-divisions under any dispensation whatsoever . the law says this for the scrupulous , that upon the conditions to be performed by them , they shall not be liable to any pains , penalties , or forfeitures laid on them by some former acts ; nor shall they be prosecuted in any ecclesiastical court for their nonconforming to the church of england . but this can never justifie their nonconformity : for if the punishments against profaning the lord's day , and common swearing , and other things of that nature , were taken off , they would still be criminal as they were before ; and the like may be said of schism . as long as it is condemn'd in scripture , no humane allowance or permission ; can make it lawful . if heresie and schism were enjoyn'd by a law , which is more than an allowance or toleration of them , they would not be freed from their malignity , or cease to be sinful . but to the imposers of things so contrary to divine revelation and institution , we should have reason to say , whether it be right in the sight of god to hearken unto you more than unto god , judge ye . i am far from derogating from the authority of secular princes , but i am sure i do them no wrong in asserting , that they cannot make schism to be ecclesiastical vnion , or vnion to be schism , or either of them to be a thing indifferent . they cannot make falshood to be truth , or truth falshood , but each of these must remain the same that it was , be their edicts for it , or against it . they may not call evil good , and good evil : they may not put darkness for light , and light for darkness . vi. it hath been said , that the use which you make of the liberty which is now granted , is not only lawful , but your duty 〈◊〉 : and that having your freedom , you ought to make choice of the way of the dissenters , because you conceive it to be better than that of the church , and to be prefer'd before it . but the foundation of this is already remov'd , for i have prov'd that the law hath granted you no such immunities as you imagine ; and notwithstanding you are now possess'd of them , yet is your separation sinful , as it was before . it ought not therefore to be matter of your choice upon the prospect of any advantages whatsoever . we ought indeed to desire and seek after the most excellent things , but we must do it in a suitable way . what we are infinitely to value above other things , is the favour of god : but we may not speak wickedly for god , nor talk deceitfully for him . we may not do evil that good may come . nor may any real good be expected from evil , which can bring forth no such fruit. in such cases the end cannot sanctifie the means , but the means would pollute the whole action , and not only frustrate our hopes , but bring on us a just condemnation . i come now to the reasons mention'd before , which some have given for preferring the way of the separation , before that of the church . they tell us , i. that you enjoy it in purer ordinances . ii. that is affords you communion with a better people . iii. that it most conduces to your edification . all which pretences are cut off by the sinfulness of the separation it self , to which those priviledges are ascrib'd , and therefore i might dismiss them without farther consideration . but so much is built upon them , that i thought fit to bring them under a distinct examination . i. it hath been said , that in the way of separation you enjoy purer ordinances : ordinances that are freer from ceremony , and the addition of things not commanded ; that set you at a greater distance from popery , and are therefore the more to be esteem'd . but the weakness of this way of arguing , will appear ; if you reflect on the absurdities which they fall into , who would exclude from religion all things not commanded , and make the greatest distance from the church of rome , the standard of the best reformation . these men tell us , a that the churches built before the reformation , ought to be level'd with the ground , as monuments of idolatry : that they can never be purged till they are laid in heaps , as their younger sisters the abbacies were : that they are idol-temples , nay idols themselves ; execrable things to be demolish'd , or avoided : unclean things not to be touch'd : the mark of the beast not to be receiv'd : that the bells are to be broken as popish reliques , and to be detested as abominable idols which the law of god devotes to destruction : that catechisms were to be rejected as apocryphal things ; and that psalms in meter were to be rank'd with pleasant ballads , and that being song out of a book , either in verse or prose , they are idolatry : that books and writings are of the nature of pictures and images , and that therefore the holy scriptures are not to be retain'd before the eyes in the time of spiritual worship : that book-prayer in that worship is man's invention , and a breach of the second commandment : and that prayer-books , and stinted prayers are indeed idols . th●● to look on the book in the time of singing and preaching is idolatrous ; and that if our litta●● were the best that ever was devis'd by mortal man , yet being brought into the church , yea , even into a private house , and read out of a book , it would be as an abominable sacrifice in the sight of god , and even as a dead dog : that they that use the lord's prayer at the close of their own , are gross idolaters ; and that they that uncover their heads at the lord's supper , are idolaters also , and joyn their own posts and thresholds with the lord's : and lastly , that idolaters are to be put to death according to the judicial 〈◊〉 of moses ; which , they say , still binds all the nations of the world : so that the greatest potentates on earth cannot dispense with it ; but ought to execute the will of god according to his word . these are some of the assertions of the more rigid separatists , which i have not produc'd with an intent to reproach you , who , i believe , abhot them ; but only to let you see , that as those sectaries were deluded by this false principle , that whatsoever in the worship of god is not commanded by himself , especially if it has been abus'd by the pipists , is sinful and execrable ; so you are in danger of being led into grievous mistakes , if you entertain a perswasion , that that is the purest church , or society , which hath the lowest ceremonies not enjoyn'd in scripture . this may easily be gather'd from the influences already mention'd ; but i leave them to your own application . 't is true , and it is generally acknowledg'd by the conformists , that nothing is to be receiv'd as an article of faith , that is not reveal'd in scripture : nor is any thing to be admitted as an essential part of divine worship , that is not the subject of a divine precept : but external rites and circumstances of worship , are of another nature , and being not forbidden of god expresly , or by consequence , are not sinful : for where there is no law , there is no transgression . but about this , i suppose , we are agreed : and if you thought our ceremonies , which are innocent in themselves , so great a burthen for their number , that to ease your seves of it , you must desert our communion , as soon as you had opportunity , i intreat you to consider , how very few were required of you as private men , and how impossible it would be to preserve peace and order in the church , if , for such things , it may be divided and all be put into confusion . in the primitive church as many ceremonies were used , as now are required by the church of england ; and if they are now sufficient to excuse your desertion , they would have justified a separation from the best christians in the purest ages . even in the apostles days several things were appointed and practis'd , and for some time were not to be neglected or omitted , which yet were only temporary institutions , and not design'd to be of perpetual obligation . such were the feasts of charity , and the kiss of peace ; as also the womans veil , by which her head and face were cover'd in sign of her subjection . and if the church had power to lay aside such rites , so it hath power also to appoint others of the like nature , and is obliged to do so upon emergent occasions , as christian prudence may direct . particular ceremonies are liable to such alterations , that when they have been expressive of respect in one age or country , they become instances of the contrary in another : but there are rules about them that are constant and certain in all times and places . . it is certain that the publick worship of god ought to be celebrated with such ceremonies as are suitable to the dignity and solemnity of the work , and agreeable to the general directions of the holy scripture . . according to the holy scripture the ceremonies that are us'd in the church , ought to be expressive of some duty . so were they that i produced from scripture ; such were also the smiting on the breast , the lifting up the hands in prayer , kneeling on the same occasion , and the putting on some new garment at the time of baptism : all which things are recommended or alluded to as things approved in scripture . and one of these was a visible sign of contrition and indignation against sin ; another , of the elevation of the mind to heaven ; the third , of humiliation ; the fourth of putting on christ , or the new man. this may shew , how weak the objection is against our rites , that they are symbolical ; for if they were otherwise ; they would be disagreeble to the holy scripture ; and signifying nothing , they would be good for nothing , but were fit to be rejected as useless and impertinent . . the holy scripture directs us in general to do all things decently and in order ; to distinguish between our own houses and the churches of god : to glorifie him with our bodies , as well as our spirits ; and particularly it requires us to worship , and fall down , and kneel before the lord our maker . . that external rites be significant and decent , there ought to be some conformity between them and the end for which they were appointed . yet for those that use them it is not always necessary to know the reasonableness of their instituion . they may take an oath safely by kissing the book , who know nothing of the original of that ceremony , nor are satisfied of the fitness of it . whatsoever it had at first , custome hath now impress'd a fitness on it ; and it signifies a solemn appeal to god the searcher of hearts , as much as words could do , and is by the law prefer'd before them . . the significancy of ceremonies , and the measures of decency are to be taken from custome , which gives rules not only for speaking , but also for actions , habits , and gestures . thus as by custome the putting off the hat , bowing and kneeling are marks of reverence amongst men , so they are in our addresses to god. indeed the uncovering of the head was formerly a badge of authority . but custome hath quite alter'd that signification , and yet hath made it fit to be retain'd for another , and i think you have no exception against our using of it at present , as a sign of our veneration and subjection to the almighty . . the more early that a ceremony was us'd , and the longer it hath remain'd ; the more universally it hath been receiv'd and approv'd , especially by good men , and the greater good it is expressive of , the fitter it is for continuance . and this may be said for the sign of the cross , which hath been much oppos'd by the separatists , that in the next age after the apostles , if not in their days , it was every where in use amongst the christians , who testified by it to the world , that they were not asham'd of the cross of christ , but rather gloried in it , and were ready to suffer for it . so that it was a compendious confession of their faith , or a visible creed in which they declar'd to the eye the same truth , and their resolution to adhere to it , that by words they profess'd to the ear. and if this last way ought to be approved , the other may not be condemn'd ; nor was it by any but the infidels , or open enemies of the gospel . from the primitive church it was transmitted down to our own , and being freed by our reformers from the abuses which superstition had added to it by the way , it is prescrib'd in our liturgy , in the office of baptism , as signifying the dedication of the baptized to him that died on the cross for them . we have good reason therefore not to lay aside a ceremony that is come to us thus recommended , and is so suitable to the end for which it was employ'd . as for those that cast it out as an idol , they must excuse us , that we cannot comply with them in reproaching , as idolaters , innumerable saints and martyrs that are now with god : and that being no enemies to the cross of christ , we do not abhor the sign of it . . it follows from what went before , that when things indifferent are against custome , they are also against decency , and to be avoided . for a man to wear long hair , had no moral evil in it , nor had the scripture decided any thing about it , yet the apostle condemn'd it as shameful , and against the dictate of nature . not as if it was forbidden by any law of nature , strictly so call'd ; but the meaning is , it was against custome , which is a law in such cases . it is no small matter then to oppose the customs that have been universally receiv'd , and long continued in the churches , as the separatists have done , whilst they have been labouring to advance their own discipline ; which , till of late , was never heard of in any part of the world. charity would teach them not to behave themselves so unseemly : but if they will not learn that lesson , nor cease to be contentious , but obtrude on us their own novelties , it may be sufficient for us to say , that we have no such customs , neither the churches of god. . it also follows from what was said before , that things which , according to custome , are signs of irreverence amongst men , are marks of prophaneness and contempt when they are us'd towards the almighty . if ye offer the blind for sacrifice , is it not evil ? and if ye offer the lame and sick , is it not evil ? offer it now to thy governour , will he be pleased with thee , or accept thy person ? saith the lord amighty , mal. . . and this may afford us very useful advice ; for from hence it is clear , that if we rudely rush into his presence without any thing of ceremony ; if we refuse him all outward respect when he speaks to us in the assemblies of his people , and will not bow the knee when we put up our prayers to him , but call on him in the same posture as we would talk to our servants , we affront him in such a behaviour as we would not offer to our governour , and may justly fear that he will punish our insolence and presumption . if you lay these things together , you may find , that what you call the purity of your ordinances , is their defect : that you have acted against the known rules of christianity , in rejecting the laudable customs of antiquity , and of the church which you have deserted ; and that the way which you have forsaken , expressing much more reverence to the almighty than that in which ye are now engaged , is , for that reason , to be prefer'd before it . as for outward bodily worship , it is particularly forbidden by the directory at one time , and never so much as recommended at any time , a nor do i find that it is as much as permitted in any part of the publick service . i know not whether kneeling be at all used in your meetings ; but i have reason to think , it is not much . and yet you cannot be ignorant , that it is a fit gesture for prayer , and i suppose in your family-prayers you do not reject it . but if this be so , it may seem strange , that you should think the house of your publick worship the only place wherein you would shew irreverence to the divine majesty . i need not here treat of all the particulars in debate between us ; but one thing i will not omit , because it demonstrates to the separatists the weakness of their exceptions against the ceremonies of the church , and shews the irreverence that is us'd in your meetings , in a thing of very great moment . what i mean is the lord's supper , which in your way is appointed to be received sitting . but is there any precept for this in scripture ? or if none can be found , is it not against the second commandment ? is it not an idol ? that is the way of reasoning us'd by many dissenters , and this instance may shew them the folly of it . to make up this matter , mr. cotton a gives us a reason for sitting at the sacrament ; which is , that it is of symbolical use to teach the church their majority over their ministers , who if they be their true pastors , are over them in the lord. he also tells us , that christ administred it to his disciples sitting ; but the learned amongst you will inform you , that this is a mistake . others contend that a table-gesture is to be us'd , but neither hath this any ground in scripture . it is certain the matter is not decided there ; and if it were not determin'd by our superiours , the best way would be to enquire which gesture would be most expedient for so great a solemnity . now your table-gesture being the same that you use at home in your own houses , seems very unfit for a religious feast , at which we are entertain'd by the almighty king , the lord of men and angels . it argues a great piece of familiarity with him , which he hath no where approv'd . he hath no where requir'd you to sit down , but ye will do it without his call. and if this seems decent and respectful , offer the like to your governour : will he be pleased with it , or accept your persons ? the publican , that would not so much as lift up their eyes to heaven , but smote upon their breast , did that which was suitable to his condition : but your behaviour at the sacrament , is very different ; for rejecting the several gestures which are expressive of reverehce , you only admit of that which hath nothing in it of respect ; and which you would not presume to use before a governour , without his express command , or invitation . as for the gesture of kneeling , i think it is very proper for this occasion . it is fit that we should be then in a posture of praying , when we joyn with the minister in the petition , that the body and blood of christ , may preserve our bodies and souls unto eternal life . and since christ is to be worshipped , surely it is very fit that we pay him our adoration , when he comes to consign over to us , the inestimable benefits of his cross and passion . and now i leave you to judge , with which of us this ordinance is celebrated with greater reverence , or in a way more suitable to the dignity of so venerable a mystery ? or which of us does most appear to discern the lord's body ? ii. it hath been said , that the way of the separation affords you communion with a better people than those which you have deserted . and not to enquire how justly this comparison is made partial , as it appears , but to make as short work as may be , i think we may agree in this ; that the conforming churches consist of a mixture of good and bad men. and since the last are not excluded , the question is , whether this justifies your separation ? for if that be sinful , the pretence of your joyning with a better people , must fall to the ground . and so i might dismiss this debate , having said enough for the decision of it before . yet to set the present case in a clearer light , i shall further shew , . that for private persons to withdraw themselves from a church , because ill men are tolerated in it , and that they may form a purer congregation , consisting only of visible saints , as they call them , is not according to scripture , but directly against it . . if it were admitted , it would be attended with great evils . . it is not according to scripture , which indeed gives us an account of the corruptions , and want of discipline in many churches , yet says not a word to justifie a separation from them , but much for the condemnation of it ; whatsoever might be pleaded in its defence . to give an instance out of many : in the church at corinth , the incestuous man who had committed a crime that was not so mnch as nam'd among the gentiles , was tolerated ; and they mourned not that he might have been taken away from among them . besides him , there were many others that were guilty of great immoralities ; and the apostle was afraid that he should have cause to bewail them , as not having repented of the vncleanness , fornication and lasciviousness which they had committed . he complains of their going to law before the vnjust : brother with brother , before the vnbelievers . he complains of their irregularities in their assemblies , and disorders in their feasts of love. one , he says , was hungry , and another was drunken . and such were their miscarriages even at their meetings for religious worship , that he declares , their coming together was not for the better , but for the worse . now here was a very sad face of affairs : and what remedy doth the apostle apply on this occasion ? doth he say , that their constitution was dissolv'd , and they were no longer a church ? or doth he say , that the better part should desert the worse , and make up a church by themselves , consisting only of visible saints ? no such matter : he considers them all together as a society gather'd out of the world , and consecrated to god , and addresses his first epistle to them in this style ; to the church of god which is at corinth , to them that are sanctified in christ jesus , called to be saints : and he directs the second in like manner ; supposing them to have a federal holiness as a church , when of inherent piety there was so great a defect among them , and when so many of them were guilty of great enormities . he labours to inform them , and for that purpose he charges them to expel the incestuous man from their communion . he reproves the vicious , and threatens them with ecclesiastical censures . he admonishes the litigious to submit their differences about things pertaining to this life , to the decision of some arbitrator chosen amongst themselves . he commands them to do all things decently , and in order ; and warns them not to come irreverently to the lord's supper , but to examine , or approve themselves , before they did partake of it . all this while , he says not a word that might encourage any of them to forsake the publick assemblies on the account of the scandals that were given . but on the contrary , he requires them all to be compacted , or a knit together . he puts them in mind that they were members of the same community , and that there ought to be no schism in the body . and says he to them , with great tenderness and affection , i beseech you , brethren , by the name of our lord jesus christ , that ye all speak the same thing , and that there be no divisions among you , but that ye be perfectly joyned together in the same mind , and in the same judgment . . the pretence of separating from the church , because wicked men are tolerated , being admitted , it would be attended with great evils . what they are , will better appear when i come to treat of the consequence of schism , but the consideration of some that relate to our present case , may not here be omitted . . if this pretence were allow'd , it would lay a foundation for perpetual divisions . for then any party professing greater sanctity , how unjustly soever , might withdraw themselves from the church , and say , stand from us , for we are more holier than you . and then others might say the like to the first dividers , and a third sort to the second , and so on , as long as it was possible to make any farther subdivision . an eminent nonconformist a has given us this account of a person , who would reform his bible in such a manner , that he cut out the contents , titles , and every thing else but the text it self , believing them to be humane devices , and consequently idolatrous . and agreeable to this action was the rest of his conversation . for he would come at no man , nor suffer any man to come at him . but having shut up himself and his children in his house , sustenance was brought to them , and put in at some hole , or window ; but he suffered no man to come and minister unto them ; no , not when he and they lay sick , and in great misery . and when , by order , his house was broken open , two of his children were found dead ; and one of them had been so long unburied , that the body was corrupted , and it did annoy the room . this man lived up to his principles , and pursued them as far as they would go . and his example may teach us , that if we think our selves obliged , when the law permits us , to forsake the church , because it admits of a mixt communion , and that we may joyn with a better people , we should soon see the like occasion to desert these also . and then we must seek out other company , and so go on till we are pent up within so narrow a compass that we could move no farther . . this pretente being admitted , men professing much religion , when they have little of the sense or power of it , would be encouraged to raise and keep up such disturbances as might serve the designs of their , ambition , or other worldly ends. and whilst the meek and lowly would study to be quiet , and do their own business , the assuming and arrogant would be new-modelling the churches . a mr. baxter , a man of great experience , says , that he never saw one schism made , in which pride conjunct with ignorance , was not the cause ; and that , to his remembrance , he never knew one person forward in a schism , but pride was discernably his disease . pride is so active a principle , that only by it cometh contention . and if it meets with great encouragement , as it does too often , there is no doubt to be made of its readiness to furnish the world with reformers in all societies and governments : reformers , i mean , that would condemn miscarriages abroad , and bestow bitter invectives on them at a distance , but cherish them at home . such reformers were korah and absalom , and many others who , to make themselves heads of faction , or considerable in it , have not spar'd to speak evil of dignities , and to cast reproach on the best of men that stood in their way , whilst in the mean time , with good words , and fair speeches , they have deceiv'd the hearts of the simple . not long after the death of st. paul , there was amongst the corinthians a grievous schism , a wicked and impious sedition , as clemens romanus a calls it : and this was kindled , as he informs us , b by one or two mean persons , who were rash and confident , such as had a high opinion of themselves , and despised others . and the incendiaries that have come after them , have so constantly been of that temper , that to say any thing in their vindication . when their cause will admit of no defence , is to put fire into the hands of those who would burn up the houses of god in the land. . this pretence for separation being admitted , it would put men upon a work , for which they are no way fit , which is the judging one another before the time. and in this , the uncharitable , and censorious , the envious , and malicious , would have so great a stroke , that it could not be expected but that they would be forward to condemn others that are better than themselves ; and that they would be most busie in gathering new churches , who were fit to be members of none . you pretend in vain , says st. austin a to the donatists , that before the time of harvest , you fly from the tares , which , you say , are mixt amongst us ; whereas you your selves are the tares : for if you were the good grain , you would bear with that mixture , and not separate your selves from the corn of christ . . separation from a church , upon a pretence of joyning with a better people , casts a reproach upon the deserted . and if it be an offence to treat a private person contumeliously , or diminish his just reputation , it must be a greater , when the same is done to a community . you have need therefore to be very sure that you were in the right , when you did forsake the church of england , as unworthy of your communion , and prefer'd before it , the dissenting congregations . it will not be sufficient for you to say , that amongst the conformists many were guilty of great immoralities ; for it would be easie for them to recriminate , and the truth is , there have been and are on both sides , great numbers of men notoriously vicious , but we must leave them to bear their own burthen . offences will come , and such there were in the apostles days , in the churches at corinth and philippi , in the churches of the galatians , and in all the seven churches of asia . yet on that occasion , no allowance was given to any of the faithful to withdraw themselves from the publick assemblies . it is therefore to be suppos'd that you can prove some very hainous thing , not only against particular persons , who profess themselves conformists , but against the conforming churches as such ; some great thing , for which they ought to be forsaken , or you are very injurious to them in your desertion of them : for by this you do what in you lies , to dishonour them ; and to fix a publick disgrace , or infamy upon them , in the eye of the world. it is now your business to exalt the societies with which you are at present in communion , as well as to depress those which you have deserted ; a thing very usual in such cases . but that you may state the account aright , when you are comparing the old churches with the new , as they are call'd , you ought carefully to examine , whether the last be churches in reality , or in name only : whether any of your pastors have right to exercise their office in the separate way ; and whether the far greater part of them are not meer usurpers , that have no just title to the ministry , and the administration of the sacraments . all these are things of great weight ; and what i said before , may help you in your enquiries into them , and convince you , if you please to consider it attentively , that you have been mistaken about them ; and that where you thought your selves safe , you are in great danger . you have seen some of the sad effects of your separation , upon a pretence of joyning with a better people . yet i have the charity to believe , that you expected much good fruit from it : but had you consulted a mr. baxter , he would have instructed you better ; for he says , that to reform the church by dividing it , is no wiser than to cut out the liver , or spleen , or gall , to cleanse them from the filth that doth obstruct them , and hinder them in their office : you may indeed thus cleanse them , but it will be a mortal cure. as he that should divide the kingdom into two kingdoms , dissolveth the old kingdom , or part of it at least , to erect two new ones : so he that would divide the catholick church into two , must thereby destroy it , if he could succeed , or destroy that part which divideth it self from the rest . can a member live that is cut off from the body , or a branch that is separated from the tree ? and to these questions i shall leave you to reply . iii. it hath been said , that the way of the separatists conduces more to your edification ; and that if you would provide what is best for your bodies , you ought more especially to do so for your souls : that you are more edified by the dissenting ministers , than by the conforming clergy , and think it requisite to be hearers of those by whom you profit most . and this , i confess , is popular , and affords a very ready answer , such as it is , to the strongest arguments that can be produced against you . but that you may not be too confident of it , the assembly of divines tell you , a that the gathering of churches out of churches , hath no footsteps in scripture , is contrary to apostolical practice , is the scattering of churches , the daughter of schism , the mother of confusion , but the step-mother to edification . mr. baxter also says , b that divisions among christians do greatly hinder the edification of the members of the church : while they are possess'd of envyings and distast of one another , they lose all the benefit of each others gifts , and of that holy communion which they should have with one another . and they are possess'd with that zeal and wisdom , which james calleth earthly , sensual , and devilish ; which corrupteth all their affections ▪ and turneth their food to the nourishment of their disease , and maheth their very worshipping of god to become the increase of their sin. where divisions and contentions are , the members that should grow up in humility , meekness , self-denial , holiness and love , do grow in pride and perverse disputings , and passionate strivings , and envious wranglings . the spirit of god departeth from them , and an evil spirit of malice and vexation taketh place ; though in their passion they know not what spirit they are of . whereas if they be of one mind , and live in peace , the god of love and peace will be with them . to speak more distinctly to this matter , i shall enquire , i. what is the true notion of edification . ii. what you understand by it , and whether you rightly judge , how it is best promoted . iii. whether according to your sense of it , it be a good rule , that you may , or ought to follow those teachers , by whom you can most be edified . iv. whether this may justifie your present separation . i. i am first to enquire , what is the true notion of edification . and to clear this , it is to be consider'd , that the word which is literally render'd building , is often in the holy scripture applied to spiritual matters ; and being taken in a good sense , as commonly it is , it signifies the advancement of persons in some spiritual good : and to edifie them , is to do that work of charity whereby we become beneficial to their souls . knowledge puffeth , saith the apostle , but charity edifieth , cor. . . comfort your selves together , and edifie one another , thes . . . let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth , but that which is good to the use of edifying , that it may minister grace to the hearers , ephes . . . let us follow after things which make for peace , and things wherewith one may edifie another , rom. . . let every one please his neighbour for his good to edification , rom. . . in which places , it is the edifying of our neighbours that is required of us ; and that of our selves is never enjoyn'd under this expression , nor can it well be sought but in conjunction with the publick good . 't is true st. paul tells us , that he that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth himself , cor. . . but this is mention'd but as a mean use of his gift ; and one that prophefied and instructed others , was for this reason prefer'd before him . for , says the apostle , greater is he that prophesieth , than he that speaketh with tongues , except he interpret , that the church may receive edifying , cor. . . it is certain that the business of edification duly managed , hath a principal regard to the church . and by how much more any thing is beneficial to that , by so much more it ought to be esteem'd . forasmuch , says the apostle , as ye are zealous of spiritual gifts , seek that ye may excel to the edifying of the church , cor. . . there is no doubt to be made , but the use of this word edification is taken from another metaphor , which signifies the church . for the church being in scripture call'd a house , and the members of it being said to be living stones , the adding to it such materials , and the polishing and perfecting those that are in it , are the edification of it . this house is already built and established upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets , jesus christ himself being the chief corner-stone . but it is not as yet finish'd , nor will it compleatly be so till the end of the world. and we shall be reckon'd amongst the builders , or edifiers of it , if we repair its breaches ; if we enlarge it , or raise it higher , or contribute any thing to its strength , or splendor : that is , if we bring new proselytes into the church , or confirm those that are in it ; if we are instrumental in the conversion of some , or in advancing any in knowledge and piety , in faith and practice . without practice there is no true edification , but all that are duly exercis'd in holiness , are perfected by it , and others are invited and drawn into the church by their example . the churches , says st. luke , had rest throughout all judea , and galilee , and samaria , and were edified , and walking in the fear of the lord , and the comfort of the holy ghost , were multiplied , acts . . the church , in many respects , may be compar'd to a house , but more especially for the vnity and order of building . but on both these i have treated before ; and what i shall add , will only be farther to explain what is meant by edification , and to remove the mistakes about it . . vnity is required in this spiritual house , and all the parts of it ought to be compacted , like those of an artificial building , or a natural body . the more they are so , the better they are prepar'd for edification and improvement in things divine . they are call'd to peace in one body , and being knit together in it , they increase with the increase of god , coloss . . . as divisions are the cause of weakness and deformity in this body ; so on the contrary , vnion helps to strengthen and adorn it . thus when the schism , which i mention'd before , was broken out amongst the corinthians . the vile , or ignoble , on that occasion , rose up against the honourable ; persons of no reputation against those that were highly esteem'd ; the foolish against the wise , and young men against the aged . for which cause justice and peace were far from them . every one did forsake the fear of god , and in his faith became blind . none of them lived according to the rule of his precepts , or walked worthy of christ . but they all followed their own depraved lusts , having taken up an unjust and impious envy , by which death entred into the world. this is the account that clemens romanus a gives of them : but he also acquaints us , that when they were united , their piety was wonderful , their hospitality magnificent , and their knowledge perfect : that they were all of an humble mind , boasting of nothing ; more willing to be subject than to govern , and to give , rather than receive : that they were content with the portion which god had allotted to them , and carefully attending to his word : that they had hearts enlarged b with mercy , and that before their eyes they had the sufferings of christ : that a profound and advantageous peace being given to them , they had an insatiable desire of doing good , and that then there was upon them all a plentiful effusion of the holy spirit : that being fill'd with holy purposes , they did with chearfulness , and a pious confidence , stretch forth their hands to almighty god , beseeching him to be merciful to them , if unwillingly they sinned against him : that their care was day and night for the whole brotherhood ; that through the mercy of god , and a good conscience , the elect might be saved : that they were sincere and inoffensive , and forgetful of injuries , and that all sedition and all schism was then abominable to them : that they lamented the faults of their neighbours , and esteem'd the wants of others as their own. that they were firm and steady a in doing good , and forward to every good work : that they were adorn'd with a conversation altogether vertuous and venerable , and did all things in the fear of god , whose commandments were written upon the tables of their heart . by this , and many other examples , it appears , that the unity of the christians is highly beneficial to them . and we may add , that it also promotes the edification of the church , by the strong inducement it affords to those that are without , to embrace the christian faith , and become members of the same community . they will see , says mr. b baxter , that the design and doctrine of christianity , is good and excellent , beseeming god , and desirable to man , when they see it does produce such good effects , as the love , and vnity , and concord of manknd . and it is an exceeding great and powerful help to the conversion of the world in this respect , because it is a thing so conspicuous in their sight , and so intelligible to them , and so approved by them . they are little wrought on by the doctrine of christ alone , because it is visible , or audible but to few , and understood by fewer , and containeth many things which nature doth distaste . but the holy concord of believers , is a thing that they are more able to discern and judge of , and do more generally approve . the holy concord of christians , must be the conversion of the unbelieving world , if god have so great a mercy for the world ; which is a consideration that should not only deter us from division , but make us zealously study and labour with all our interest and might , for the healing of the lamentable divisions amongst christians , if we have the hearts of christians , and any sense of the interest of christ . . the church resembles a house in order : and order is to be observ'd in all our endeavours for the edification of it . this living building resting upon christ , and being fitly framed together , groweth unto one holy temple in the lord. and as an organical body , being fitly joyned together and computed by every ministring joynt , supplying something according to its power , in proportion to the other parts , it increaseth , to the edifying of it self in love. mr. baxter says very well , a that enemies , both spiritual and corporal , are deterred from assaulting the church , or any of its members , while they see us walk in our military vnity and order . in this posture every man is a blessing and defence unto his neighbour . as every soldier hath the benefit of all the conduct , wisdom and valour of the whole army , while he keepeth in his place ; so every weak christian hath the use and benefit of all the learning , the wisdom and gifts of the church . the hand , the eye , the ear , the foot , and every member of the body , is as ready to help , or serve the whole , and every other particular member as its self . but if it be cut off , it is neither helpful , nor helped . o what a mercy is it for every christian , that is unable to help himself , to have the help of all the church of god ? their directiont , their exhortations , their love , their prayers , their liberality , and compassion , according to their several abilities and opportunities ? as infants and 〈…〉 have the help of all the rest of the ●●ises that are in health . ii. i am now to enquire , what you understand by edification , and whether you rightly judge , how it is best promoted . now as far as i can learn from those that pretend to it for the defence of their separation ; you take that to be edifying that 〈◊〉 in you some sensible devotion , that excites in you some religious affections , such as love , joy , fear , or the like . other things might be added , but i suppose , you have these chiefly in view , when you prefer the service in your meetings , before that of our churches . the way of praying in your assemblies , we are told , is more edifying , because you can be warmer , or more servent in it , than in the use of the prescribed forms . the preaching amongst you is more edifying and powerful than that of the conforming clergy , because you feel the working of it more upon your hearts ; and to argue against this , i● to dispute against your own experience . nevertheless , i shall examine , whether there are such advantages in your way as are pretended ; and whether the things on which you fix so high an estimate , deserve the preference which you have given them . . to begin with the way of praying us'd in your meetings , give me leave to tell you , that it may be , the effects of it are not of such a nature as you conceive , nor any argument of its excellency . it cannot well be thought , that a person should commonly make better choice of the matter of prayer , or express it better , or in fitter terms , when he speaks with little deliberation , or none at all , than he himself , or wiser and better men , can in a form of words , when they have long meditated on the subject , and employ'd many and serious thoughts about it . it must be therefore the novelty of of his expressions , and probably something in the tone of his voice , which makes his performance so agreeable , and has such an influence upon you . but you are not to think , that god is at all wrought upon by the variation of phrases , or the modulations of them . nor are these things apt to make any deep impressions on the nobler faculties of the soul ; but having done their work in the fancy , or imagination , they seldom rise higher ; nor can they do it by any thing of vertue in themselves . extempore prayers may have more power than forms to produce in some ill men a kind of extempore devotion ; some appearances of religious love , and fear , and joy. but these being rais'd by surprize , when the surprize is over , they are gone . and yet there are many that put great confidence in such vanishing things : many that live comfortably on the reflection on those delightful dreams , esteeming them realities , and clear evidences of their sanctification . many have been famous for what they call the gift of prayer . who have miserably deceiv'd themselves , and been only as sounding brass , when they were esteem'd as oracles . and many that have thought themselves much edified by hearing the extempore prayers of other men , have been under the same delusion . in such cases i doubt not but both speakers and hearers feel such motions within them , as bear a resemblance of true devotion : and these they do not impute to natural causes , as a little philosophy would teach them , but to inspiration , or the effectual working of sanctifying grace : and so they grow up into a strong opinion , that they are the favourites of heaven , when they allow themselves in the practice of injustice , of cruelty , and oppression , and other grievous sins . i deny not , that some persons , who have the gift of elocution , may , upon occasion , express the matter of prayer in suitable terms : nor do i question but to hear them , when they do so , may be of benefit to others . yet if they put too high a value upon this , and if it brings them into a contempt of all liturgies , what they took to be a peculiar priviledge , becomes a dangerous snare to them ; and instead of promoting , cannot but hinder their edification . for my own part , i think a well composed liturgy , has much the advantage of your way of praying , and is much fitter , in publick assemblies . it best secures the honour of religion in the solemnities of worship , and affords us the greatest help in the part that we bear in it . in the use of it we have no occasion to be in pain , or fear , about the next words that may fall from the minister , however he be a person of mean abilities ; nor have we cause to condemn those that before came from him , or any need to revolve them in our minds , as being uncertain whether we may say amen to them . having approv'd of all before , we have nothing to do but to keep our minds intent on the matter , as it comes before us , and to exercise our devotion as it directs us , and then we may have a comfortable assurance , that we perform a service that is acceptable to god , and agreeable to his will. as for our own liturgy , the learned dr. beveridge hath very well shew'd the excellency of it , and its usefulness for edification . and could i prevail with you to persue the sermon a attentively , wherein he treats of this subject , i should hope it would give you much satisfaction . what i shall say more of our liturgy is taken from a great authority , and express'd in these words : the book of common prayer , was compil'd in the times of the reformation , by the most pious and learned men of that age , and defended and confirm'd by the martyrdom of many ; and was first established by act of parliament in the time of king edward vi , and never repeal'd , or laid aside , save only in the short time of queen mary's reign , upon the return of popery and superstition : and in the first year of queen elizabeth it was again reviv'd , and established by act of parliament , and the repeal of it then declar'd by the whole parliament , to have been to the great decay of the due honour of god , and discomfort of the true professors of the truth of christ's religion : and ever since it hath been us'd and observ'd in the best times of peace and plenty that ever this kingdom enjoy'd , and contains in it an excellent form of worship and service of god , grounded upon the holy scriptures , and is a singular means and help to devotion . . it hath been said , that the way of preaching in your meetings , is more edifying than that which you heard in the conforming churches . and i confess , there would be no denying of this , if we may believe some of your teachers , who have pretended , that till they had their liberty to preach , the gospel was imprison'd , or the nation depriv'd of it . but few of you , i suppose , are thus perswaded . and yet i know not whether you have any better reason for the preference which you give to your pastors , and for having their persons so much in admiration . i deny not but there are amongst them persons of great abilities . but i think some of their brethren , much their inferiour , have had the reputation of more powerful preachers , who acquir'd it only by the use of a set of phrases , in which they had no meaning , or a bad one . and many have thought themselves much edified by such a sound of words , when they understood nothing by it ; or , which is much worse , receiv'd under it some false doctrine . such a doctrine is that of the antinomians , which being wrapt up in expressions of scripture , hath pass'd without any great examination , and gain'd an easie admission amongst many ; notwithstanding the plain opposition that it bears to the design of the gospel . there is no question but the antinomian doctrine being deliver'd in a pathetick manner , and with agreeable gestures , may heat the imagination , and work powerfully upon the affections of those that embrace it ; how contrary soever it is to the holy scripture . and this may give you some intimation , that you are not to judge of the excellence of sermons , by such effects as may proceed from falshood as well as truth , or may be owing to the pronunciation , or action of the speaker : but that which is fittest to convince the reason , and inform the judgment in things divine ; that which sets these things in the clearest light , and defends them best ; that which best shews the necessity of obedience , and urges the practice of all christian duties with the strongest motives ; that which most conduces to the reformation of manners , and to the perfecting of holiness in the fear of god , is the best preaching : and that this is wanting in the church of england , or more abounds in your meetings , is , in my opinion , what will not gain an easie credit amongst equal judges . yet let us suppose that you have amongst you better praying and preaching ; is there any thing wanting with us that is necessary to salvation ? this is not pretended by you . only you think you may receive greater benefit in your congregations , than was to be expected in our assemblies . what you seek then in frequenting those meetings , is your own advantage , without due regard to the publick good. but the edification which the scriptures require you to promote , is that of your neighbours ; and especially that of the church of christ . so that your notion of the thing is at best defective , and too narrow . what other faults it has we shall see hereafter . iii. the next enquiry is , whether it be a good rule , that you may , or ought to follow those teachers , whosoever they are , by when you can most be edified , or whose praying and preaching you approve , as most beneficial to your selves . to which i answer , that a rule which would give you liberty or make it your duty to shift communions as often as you expect something better for your selves , or more edifying , as you call it , in the next change , ought to be rejected as absurd , and as a ground of perpetual divisions . a numerous congregation acting by this rule , might soon be split into twenty , or many more ; according as the members of it differ'd about the best means of their edification . and of every one was left to judge for himself , who is the most edifying minister ; and all thought that they might admit of none but the best , the number of their teachers must be equal to that of their own opinions about them ; and there would be no fixing them under one unless they could all be perswaded , that this one is the best for them all. but as mr. baxter says , a almost all have a very strange diversity of apprehensions . one thinks that this is the best way , and another that the other is the best : and let them reason and wrangle it out never so long , usually each party still holdeth its own , and hardly yieldeth to anothers reasons . at corinth some said they were of apollos , as well as others did that they were of paul : and as far as we can find , both these parties thought they did the best , and contended with equal zeal . which yet might seem very strange , were it not usual with men in such debates , to be govern'd by fancy more than judgment . for paul was in nothing inferiour to the very chiefest apostles , and in his labours and sufferings he exceeded the rest . paul was caught up in the third heaven , and had such an abundance of revelations , that he was in danger of being exalted by them above measure . and it might well have been thought , that he was the person upon earth , from whom one should have been most willing to receive instruction . nevertheless some prefer'd apollos , who had no such priviledges , before him : and probably the reason was , because apollos was an eloquent man , as well as mighty in the scriptures . but of paul it was said , that his bodily presence was weak , and his speech contemptible . and for this reason , it seems , he was esteem'd amongst them a weak preacher . and such ill judges would the people often be in like cases , if these were left to their decision . but the apostle , to set the corinthians right about the matter in controversie , informs them , that he himself and apollos , were not design'd to be leaders of factions , but were unanimous in their work in the service of the same master : that they were both ministers of christ , and both employ'd by him , the one in planting , the other in watering . but , says he , neither is he that planteth any thing , nor he that watereth any thing , but god that giveth the increase . and from him they might have expected a blessing either by paul , or apollos , or much weaker instruments in a way of vnity and order : but in their factions preferring of their teachers before one another , they were carnal , and walked as men. they hindred their own benefit , when they disturb'd the churches peace . probably they expected some great benefit from their zeal which they express'd in their several parties , and their endeavours to have the best teachers : but they took wrong measures to obtain it , and were reprov'd for their contentions . and many there are at present who oppose the vnity , and break the order of the church , in hopes of better edification . but i shall shew that the means which they use , are contrary to the end which they propose , and therefore must frustrate their expectation , and bring guilt upon their souls . this indeed may be gather'd from what went before ; and these two things which i shall add for illustration of it , are only consequences of what i have already prov'd . . it follows from that which was said before , that what is against the vnity of the church , is also against the edification of it ; and consequently , of the parts whereof it consists . that which separates the stones of this building from one another , hinders the conveyance of that vital spirit , which would animate them all . that which divides this body , weakens it , and puts it into a sickly condition . the members that make a schism in it , throw it into dangerous convulsions : and they that make a schism from it , give it a grievous wound ; and afterwards can neither grow up with it , nor without it . if therefore they that make divisions could speak with the tongue of angels , we ought to avoid them . if in some things we might arrive at great knowledge by their instruction , we must avoid them notwithstanding . such knowledge would be apt to puff us up , but it is charity that edifieth . and charity , says clemens romanus , a admits of no schism . charity is not seditious , but doth all things in concord . all the elect were perfected by it , and without it nothing is acceptable unto god. . what is against order , is also against the edification of the church , and consequently , of the particular members of it . that which justles the stones of this spiritual building out of their places , hinders it as much as possible , from growing unto a holy temple in the lord. that which diverts the parts of this body , from their proper offices , or puts them out of joynt , hinders the nourishment , abates the strength , and destroys the comeliness and beauty of it . that which brings confusion into my society ecclesiastical , or civil , tends to the ruine of it , and fails not of doing mischief to it . to prevent this , even they that were inspir'd from heaven , and had psalms and doctrines , tongues , and revelations , and interpretations by miracle , were yet limited in the exercise of their gifts , and to restrain them , these two precepts were given by the apostle : let all things be done to edification : let all things be done decently and in order . decency and order have such a connexion with edification , that what promotes them , advances this : what is contrary to them , is contrary to this also . it is no wonder then that st. paul was so much concern'd , when he heard that among the thessalonians , there were some that walked disorderly , a or did break their ranks . for as such men might be useful in their proper places , so out of them they hinder the edification of the church , and are wont to be disturbers of the publick peace . many in the way of their vocation might have excell'd , who going beyond their line , intrenching on the rights of others , and assuming an authority which did not belong to them , have become great incendiaries ; and persons of that character have been most pernicious to the best societies . when such disturbers invade the offices of the church , it is not enough to say , that they act the part well , which they have taken upon them , when it is none of their own ; or that they have great gifts , and are well qualified for the sacred function , when their assuming it is a meer usurpation . there were many , doubtless , in israel , who could have managed the business of sacrificing , more de●trously than some of the priests themselves : but it appertained not to them ; and if they undertook it , they incurr'd the indignation of the almighty . and in a christian congregation there may be some private persons , who are of better capacity , or much fitter for the ministry , than the minister himself . but having no lawful call to it , it appertains not to them : and if , in confidence of their own abilities , they set up for spiritual pastors , they are so far from promoting edification , that they become open enemies to the church , and liable , as are also their followers , to a just condemnation . iv. the fourth enquiry is , whether your hopes of being better edified , may justifie your separation . that is , if i have stated the matter rightly , whether your false hopes may justifie a sinful practice . and this , i think , may easily be resolv'd . it appears from what was said before , that your practice is against the church , as a visible and a regular society : that it is against the vnity and order of it ; and consequently , that it is against the edification which the scripture requires ; as pulling a house in pieces is contrary to the building it up , and throwing it in heaps , is contraary to the adorning and reparation of it . 't is true , the gates of hell shall not prevail against the church ; nor shall the fury of man be able to destroy it : but to bring divisions and disorders into any part of it ; to separate from any sound members of it , and to form societies , or be of those , that are opposite to it , is to strike at the whole , and to attempt the ruine of it : as it is also to act against christ himself , who hath purchas'd and cemented it with his own blood. sect . v. having examin'd the arguments which have been offer'd on your part , to excuse you from the guilt of schism ; i am now to treat of the consequences of it . and these are so deplorable , and of such a nature , that they induced many antient and modern writers , who had them in view , to reckon this amongst the worst of crimes . mark those , says the apostle , which cause divisions and offences : and he had reason to put these things together . for divisions having their usual effect , become offences , and may well be esteem'd amongst the greatest scandals . i pretend not to give any compleat history of the evils which church-divisions have produced : yet i shall briefly shew , i. that they have hardned the infidels in their unbelief , and hindred their conversion . ii. that they have brought a reproach on the reformation of the church , and hindred the progress of it . iii. that they have given occasion to the spreading of many detestable errors in matters of religion . iii. that they have greatly encouraged immorality . i. they have hardned infidels in their unbelief , and hindred their conversion . this , says clemens alexandrinus , a is the thing which they first produce against us ; we ought not , say they , to believe , because of the difference of sects amongst you . to the corinthians , on the occasion of their divisions , clemens romanus a does thus address himself : your schism , saith he , hath perverted many , hath discouraged many : it hath raised doubts in many , and sorrow in us all . and a little after , b it is shameful , beloved ; yea , very shameful , and unworthy of a christian conversation , to hear , that the most firm and antient church of the corinthians , should by one or two persons , be led into sedition against their pastors . and this report is not only come to us , but to those also who are disaffected and estranged from us : insomuch that by your folly , the name of the lord is blasphemed , and danger accrues to your selves . it hath been found by experience , that when there was the greatest vnion amongst the faithful , it rais'd in those that were without a very high esteem of christianity , and strongly invited them to embrace it . but when schism prevail'd , it furnished the adversaries of the truth , with exceptions against it , and made them obstinate in their errors . this effect , as i shall shew , it hath had upon jews , heathens , and mahometans . . to begin with the jews ; they argue from the divisions amongst the christians , that the messiah is not yet a come . for , say they , was it not foretold by the prophets , that in his days , and amongst his followers , there should be unity and concord ; but how is this accomplish'd amongst those that believe in jesus ? where is their unanimity and harmony of affections ? where is their mutual love , and the promised peace ? are they not broken into many sects ? are they not ready to devour one another ? to this indeed we may reply , that jesus christ did break down the wall of partition that was between the jews and gentiles , and gathering a people out of both , he hath reconcil'd them in one body : that when great multitudes were converted to him , b whatever they might be before , they were of one heart , and one soul : that when the number of christians was mightily increas'd over the world , the heathens said of them with admiration , see how they mutually love one another : that the doctrine of jesus christ , disposes all that receive it heartily , to be of this temper , and to ●ollow after the things which make for peace ; and that all his genuine disciples do 〈◊〉 , of whom the predictions are to be un●derstood . and this i take to be a very sufficient answer to the objection ; yet it can hardly be hoped , that any great regard will be paid to it , when the schism amongst the professors of christianity so powerfully strike upon the senses of the adversaries , and turn their eyes another way . . the divisions amongst christians , have made the heathens more obstinate in their errors , and been a great scandal to them . from hence it is , that they who most violently oppos'd the gospel have been encouraged and animated in their enmity against it : and others that had something of inclination to it , have been made averse from it . the unbelieving greek , says st. chrysostom , a comes to us , thus he pleads , i would be a christian , but i know not to which party i should joyn my self : for there is ●uch contention and sedition , and many tumults amongst you . which opinion then shall i prefer ? which shall i chuse ? when every one saith , the truth is on my side . there is no great strength in such exceptions , yet they are obvious and popular , and with many they have been of greater force than the clearest demonstrations . . as for the mahometans , we are inform'd by a person of great worth , a who lived among them , that to divide the christians , hath always been the master-piece of the turkish policy , and this disunion amongst them hath avail'd the ottoman interest more than their swords , and confirm'd their obstinacy in religion with a miracle , as if the division of christian princes had been an effect of their prayers , and a concession of divine providence to their daily petitions . mr. baxter also tells us , b that doubtless the divisions of the christian world have done more to hinder the conversion of infidels , and keep the heathen , and mahometan world in their damnable ignorance and delusions , than all our power is able to undo ; and have produced such desolations of the church of christ , and such a plentiful harvest and kingdom for the devil , as every tender christian heart is bound to lament with tears of bitterness . if it must be , continues he , that such offences shall come , yet woe to those by whom they come . ii. divisions amongst the reformed , have brought a reproach upon the reformation , and hindred the progress of it . camden informs us , a that when the sectaries in the reign of queen elizabeth , made an open separation , the papist thereupon clapped their hands , and suggesting that there was no vnity in the church of england , they draw many to their party . by this means we have been on the losing hand , and this way they have gain'd more proselytes , than by all their books of controversie . you have been often told , how their agents have been employ'd to refine the protestants , to teach them a more spiritual way of praying than that of a liturgy , and to free them from all smacks of ceremonies : it being held meritorious by the managers of this affair , if under any shape they could from a party that would help to ruine our constitution . but in the late times , the men of this character , had the confidence to lay aside their disguise , and disdaining to act any longer behind the curtain , they did their work openly , and in the face of the sun : and what assistance you gave them in it , was visible to all the world. this i write , not to insult over you ; but in great pity , to raise your indignation against schism , which engaged you in a shameful confederacy . it was schism that made you , and other dissenters before you , the instruments of the open enemies of our reformation : and schism , if you persist in it , will detain you in their service . whether you intend it or not , you will be digging in their mines , or building up their shattered walls : and by your hands they will carry on their designs with hopes of success , which they despair of accomplishing by their own . iii. church-divisions have given occasion to the spreading of many detestable errors in matters of religion . they are apt to unsettle the minds of 〈◊〉 and pr●pare them for changes . we may gather from the words of st. paul , ephes . . , , . that ▪ they who forsake the officers which christ hath given for the perfecting or ●joying together of the saints ; they that are not compacted in his mystical body , but broken off from it , are as children tossed to and fro , by the sleight of men , ●word cunning craftiness , whereby they lie in wait to deceive . such deceivers are then most busie to exercise their arts , when they are remov'n , whose watchful eye should discover their impostures , and who are appointed for that purpose . and thus when the bishops and the clergy that adher'd to them were laid aside in this nation , false teachers did boldly shew their heads , and made a prey of very many . salmasius himself a complains , that innumerable sects which before were condemn'd to hell , and lurked in darkness , did then break out all on a sudden , and appear'd in an open day . and this was the cause that he alter'd his judgment about episcopal government , against which he had written with great zeal , and concluded , that in england especially , it ought to have been continu'd . this is the testimony of a forreigner , but our natives speak to the same purpose . mr. pagit a makes a heavy lamentation , that the wolves who were wont to lie in the woods , were come out into the sheepfold , and did roar in the holy congregation . and by another b we are told , that the discipline of the church was laid in her grave , and that the putredinous vermine of bold schismaticks , and frantick sectaries gloried in her ashes . mr. edwards declares , c that this land was become in many places a chaos , a babel , another amsterdam ; yea , worse , and beyond that . and he says , that more damnable doctrines , heresies , and blasphemies had been of late vented , than in fourscore years before . he also says to the lords and commons assembled in parliament , d you have cast out bishops , and their officers , and we have many that cast down to the ground all ministers in all the reformed churches : you have cast out ceremonies , as the cross in baptism , kneeling at the lord's supper ; and we have many that have cast out sacraments , baptism , and the lords supper . you have put down the saints days , and we have many that make nothing of the lord's day . mr. edwards a in the compass of a few pages , reckons up a vast number of heretical and blasphemous tenets , published within the space of four years : and he says , that things grew every day worse and worse ; and that it was hard to conceive them to be as bad as they were . this edwards is one that was not likely to be partial on the side of prelacy ▪ for he tells the lords and commons assembled in parliament , b that with choice and judgment he had imbarkt himself , with wife , children , estate , and all that was dear to him , to sink , or perish , or come safe to land with them : and that he had done this in the most doubtful and difficult times , and in a malignant place amongst courtiers . iv. church-divisions have greatly encouraged immorality : and this effect they had visibly in this nation , in the times of the great confusion . the disorders that were then introduced in matters ecclesiastical , were attended with others in things of morality : and if we may believe the nonconformists themselves , the many heresies which were spread abroad , were accompanied with a great corruption of manners , over the kingdom . on which occasion the assembly of divines said , a the lord hath strangely made way for vnion , by the bitter , woful , and unutterable fruits of our divisions , which have almost destroyed , not only the ministry , but even the very heart and life of religion and godliness . others also of the presbyterians , crying out against the horrible wickedness which did then abound , ascrib'd the growth of it to the increase of the sectaries , as they call'd them . but we may justly reckon the accusers in that number , and leave a great share of the matter in charge with them , who by revolting from their superiors , and deserting their lawful pastors , did break down the fences , and open a passage to all iniquity . to come nearer to the present time ; it is notorious , that since the last opening of your meetings by the toleration , impiety hath been gathering strength , and profaneness hath made such progress , that it is become too hard for all our laws . it is not doubted , but some new law is wanting to suppress it : and if that be obtain'd , it may be fear'd , that the success would not answer our desires , as long as the schism remains , which is at the root of this evil ; and is the great cause , why immorality hath so much spread it self , and boldly shew'd its head in defiance of all authority . but what affinity is there between schism and immorality , or how is the last of these a consequence of the former ? to which i answer . . that schism is a means of depraving the conscience . . it inclines men to infidelity . . it brings religion into contempt . . it is destructive of charity . . it weakens the ecclesiastical discipline , which was design'd for the punishment of offences . . it hinders , and sometimes frustrates the endeavours of the pastors of the church , for the suppression of vice , and the advancement of piety . . schism is a means of depraving the conscience ; and consequently of promoting immorality . for being the occasion of spreading of errors , which are inconsistent with holiness , the practice which is govern'd by them , when they have perverted the judgment , must be so too . and when men have been taught to call good , evil , and evil , good , their actions will be suitable to those instructions . we are inform'd by a thucydides , that in the times of sedition in greece , the signification of words was alter'd : so that a brutish hardiness was accounted true-hearted courage : provident deliberation , a decent fearfulness : prudence , a pretence for cowardice . — in short , says the historian , for persons to be of a kindred , was not so near as to be of a society ; on which account they were ready to undertake any thing , without making any disputes about it . and thus , when the church has been divided , the dividers have changed the names of things : and what , in other cases , they would have approv'd , they suffer not to pass without a sharp censure , when it is against their faction ; and what they would otherwise have condemn'd as a hainous crime , they consecrate into a duty , or an act of worship , when it is done by themselves , and for the interest of their party . . schism inclines men to infidelity , and by degrees leads them to it . dr. a owen confesses ; that it constantly grows to farther evil , in some to apostacy it self . in some it hath this effect , that they embrace one errour , or evil practice , after another , and being unstable and prepar'd for all changes , they usually grow worse and worse . thus some from declaiming against the common-prayer book as an idol , came to call the holy scripture a golden calf . and many who have been accustomed to shift their principles upon any new occasion , have turn'd scepticks , or atheists , at last ; and renouncing the fear of deity , have lived without god in the world. . schism brings religion into contempt , and exposes it to derision . the doctor of the gentiles saith , if an heathen come in and hear you speak with several tongues , will he not say that you are mad ? and certainly it is little better when atheists and profane persons do hear of so many discordant and contrary opinions in religion : it doth avert them from the church , and make them sit down in the chair of the scorners . these are the words of the lord a bacon : and they have been confirm'd by sad experience . . schism is destructive of charity . and from hence it is , that persons who provoked one another to love and to good works , when they remain'd in the same communion , being divided , have rejoyced in evil , and triumph'd in the falls of one another . mr. baxter b tells us , that he had great opportunity in his time , to see the working of the mystery of iniquity against christian love , and to see in what manner christ's house and kingdom is edified by divisions : and says he of himself , i thought once , that all that talk about schism and sects , did but vent their malice against the best christians under those names : but since then , i have seen what love-killing principles have done . i have long stood by while churches have been divided , and sub-divided : one congregation of the division , labouring to make the other contemptible and odious , and this call'd the preaching of the truth , and the purer worshipping of god. charity being expell'd , it is succeeded by envy and strife , by confusion , and every evil work. a false zeal usurps the place of true piety , and often pushes men on to the greatest enormities and acts of cruelty . this effect it hath often had amongst christians ; and in the days of the emperour julian , when they were much divided , it transported many of them into such rage against one another , a that the apostate was in hopes the church would perish , by their mutual animosities , and contentions . . schism weakens the ecclesiastical discipline , which was design'd for the punishment of offences ; and which put a powerful restraint on wickedness , when it remain'd in its full vigour . but when it is broken , it is rendred impracticable , or ceases to be a terrour to evil-doers . for as the jews , who would not be prevailed with , to live according to the law of moses , deserted jerusalem , and resorted to the temple which sanballet had built at garizin a ; so when a church is divided into opposite communities , offenders that would not be endur'd in one , fly to another for refuge . and then they are like to have no great regard for an excommunication , when it dismisses them from one , to another society , which will hardly fail to call it self the purer of the two , or to pretend to better means of edification . it may be thought , that a party being separated from the church , upon a pretence of greater purity , would not receive into their communion other deserters , who are notorious for their immorality . but this has been contradicted by frequent experience ; and particularly it was so in the case of novatianus and his followers : for however they profess'd a very rigorous strictness , yet they receiv'd into their society novatus , a man of contrary principles and loose morals . but that was no matter , as long as he serv'd their designs . they could connive at his former crimes , when he was engaged with them in schism , and communication of guilt had made them one. . schism hinders , and sometimes frustrates the endeavours of the pastors of the church , for the suppression of vice , and the advancement of piety ; and renders their condition like that of the jews , when they were rebuilding the walls of jerusalem , and held a weapon in one hand , whilst they wrought in the work with the other . they cannot lay out their whole strength against the immoralities of the times , and for the promoting of holiness , when they are diverted from it by a necessary defence of their own constitution . in this defence they must expect to suffer many reproaches from the seditious , who , when they have least to say for their cause , are usually most forward to cast aspersions on the pastors and people which they have deserted , that it may not be thought , it was for nothing that they made a separation . but the pastors of the church commonly bear the greatest share of this , as well as other persecutions : and then if the calumny with which they are loaded , is believed , it does infinite mischief . it renders their persons despicable , and their ministry useless . it makes their reproofs of sin appear ridiculous ; and be they innocent as they will , the imputation of wickedness , which is fastned on them , gives encouragement to those that are under the guilt of real crimes , and becomes an inlet to all debauchery . the conclvsion . i have now gone over the things which i design'd to treat of : and if you have well consider'd what has been said , perhaps you may see cause to say to one another , in the words of mr. baxter , a alas , dear brother , that we should not yet know that our own vncharitable divisions , alienations , and separations , are a crying sin ! yea , the crying sin , as well as the vncharitableness and hurtfulness of others . alas , will god leave us also , even to the obdurateness of pharaoh ? is there not crying sin with us ? what have we done to christ's kingdom , to this kingdom , to our own friends , dead and alive , to our selves , and alas , to our enemies , by our divisions ? and do we not feel it ? do we not know it ? is it to us , even to us a crime intolerable , to call us to repentance ? woe to us ! into what hardheartedness have we sinned our selves ! yea , that we should continue in the sin , and passionately defend it ! but to sum up all . would you bring the kingdom of christ to desolation , or are you willing to see the ruine of his house ? would you hinder the unbelieving world from receiving the gospel , or would you harden them in their insidelity ? would you blast the honour of our english reformation , and give pros●lytes to the church of rome ? would you occasion the spreading of many false and damnable doctrines , which cast reproach on the christian name , and are pernicious to the souls of men ? would you keep open a free passage for all iniquity , and encourage vice to appear abroad in great pomp , without shame , or fear ? schism is the direct way to all this , and the means which you have chosen , answer the ends which you have in view . but would you rather see the kingdom of christ in a flourishing condition , and the house increase strength and splendour , which he hath built with so much care and cost ? would you be instrumental to the conversion of unbelievers , or would you have them brought from darkness to light , and from the power of satan unto god ? would you defeat the designs of the factors for the church of rome , who have been so busie in inflaming our differences , and so ready to make their advantage of them ? would you hinder the progress of error , or do what is proper to stop the mouths of its advocates ? would you help to stem the torrent of profaneness , and drive it backwards ? and would you see the open enemies of religion , forced into their lurking holes , or flying into their retreats of darkness ? would you do what is highly beneficial to others , as well as glorious and happy for your selves ? your way is to return to the vnity of the church , which you have forsaken : and if that be so , as i really think it is , my endeavours to bring you into it , will need no apology . finis . errata . page . in the margent , for cor. . . read . . for galat. . . r. . . and for revel . . . r. . . p. . marg. l. . r. octavio . p. . l. . for . r. . and l. . r. their fall . p. . l. . r. had been . p. . marg. l. . r. coteler . p. . marg. l. . r. revel . . , . p. . l. . dele and. p. . marg. l. . r. reines . p. . marg. l. . r. act. . p. . marg. r. act. . p. . l. . r. by him that does so . p. . l. . r. know . p. . marg. r. tit. . . p. . l. . for ark r. altar . p. . l. . r. a third . p. . l. . can you — this and the following lines , to the end of the page , should have been printed in another character . p. . l. . r. tim. . . p. . l. . r. you have . p. . l. . r. ananias . p. . l. . r. to it . p. . l. . r. of the. p. . l. ult . r. malala . p. . l. penult . r. enjoy in it . p. . l. . r. litany . p. . l. , . for their their r. his . p. . l. . dele more . partial , put the comma before partial . p. . l. . dele the. p. . l. . r. compacted . p. . marg. l. . r. cor. . . p. . l. . r. cor. p. . l. . r. factious . p. . l. . for iii , r. iv. p. . l. . r. schisms . p. . l. . r. removed . p. . l. penult . r. increase in . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e job . . kings . . see his libertas ecclesiastica . john . , , . ephes . . . ephes . . . ephes . . , , , , , . phil. . , . ephes . . . jude . cor. . . coloss . . . galat. . . rom. . . john . . revel . . . & . . john . . gal. . . vid. justel . not. in cod. 〈◊〉 . eccl. v●●v . p. , . & pag. , . pet. . . & . . act. . , , , , , , . rom. . . gal. . . ephes . . . phil. . . coloss . . . . thess . . . . , &c. justin . apol. ad anton. p. pag. . lucian . tom. . p. . ed. amst . . caecil . apud minuc . felic . in octavo , p. , . edit . amst . . john . . john . . gal. . . cor. . . act. . . jude . a vid. aring . rom. subter . l. . c. . & balduin , comment ! in plin. l. : epist . . a osculum pacis quod est signaculum orationis . tert. de drat. e. . p. . b vid. ●a cerd . advers . sacr. c. . n. . & aubespin . de l'eucharistie . l. . c. . &c. rom. . . cor. . . c vid. tertul. ubi supra & rigalt . in locum . cor. . . d quo et ipso sacramento populus noster oftenditur adunatus , ut quemadmodum grana multa in unum collecta , & commolita , & commixta , panem unum faciunt : sic in christo qui est panis coelestis , unum sciamus esse corpus , cui conjunctus sit noster numerus & adunatus . cyprian ep. . p. . a qui accipit mysterium unitatis , & non servat vinculum pac●● ▪ non aceipit mysterium pro se , sed testimonium contra se . serm. de sacrament . ad infant . cor. . , . ver . . a vid. origen . contra cel. l. . p. . ed. spencer . b vid. tertul. de poenit. c. . & pamelii annot. in locum . cor. . . cor. . . ver . . a vid. ●evereg . annot. in canon . . concil . nic. p. . a vid. coteter . not. in const . apostol . col. , . b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . c vid. plin. l. . ep. . & . cum comment . balduini . d tertull. apolog. c. . p. . ed. paris . . e p. . ephes . . . rom. . . a ep. ad corinth . c. . b c. . c ibid. ephes . . . ver. . a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. vid. bud. comment . ling. grae p. . & hammond . annot. in a cor. . . ver. . . cor. . . cor. . . matt. . . cor. . . cor. . . cor. . . joh. . , , . acts . . tim. . . ● cor. . . a treatise of church-government , c. . b theod. tom. . p. . john ▪ . cor. . . a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 greg. na● . orat. . p. . ed. paris . . cor. . . a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. xenophon . occonom . p. . coloss . . . cor. . . rom. . , . rom. . , , . a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ●●d . bud. comment . p. . rom. . . ephes . . . joh. . . cantic . . . a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . xenophon . ubi supra . revel . . . matt. . . ephes . . . rom. . . cor. . . b 〈◊〉 pamel . annot. in tertull. de pr●●script . c. . 〈◊〉 . de l'eucharistie , l. . c. . ephes . . . and . . ● tim. . , &c. c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . ezek. . . lev. . . num. . . a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ●u●tath . in homer . iliad . . p. . see ephes . . , , , , . colos . . . a treatise of church of government , c. . b cyprian . tract . p. . ed. oxon. a cypr. epist . . p. . a episcopatus unus est cujus , à singulism solidum pars tenetur . cypr. tract . p. . vid. episcop . oxon. not. in locum . b collegium epi●●●pale non aliud , quam episcoporum universus ordo , ac societas quam latè patet . omnes enim toto orbe episcopi collegae . hinc aliquando collegium absolute , pro episcopale collegium : & collegae pro episcopis , &c. m. casaub . in optat. l. , p. . c copiosum corpus est sacerdotum concordiae mutuae glutino atque unitatis vinculo copulatum . cypr●●● . ep. . p. . a vid. constitut . apost . . . c. . & coteler . not. in locum , p. . b survey of church discipline , by t. h. part. a. c. . a see ruthband's n●●rative of some church-courses in n. e. p. . b hodie pr●●byter qui cras laicus . 〈…〉 c. . p. . c ball 's tryal of the new church . 〈…〉 . 〈…〉 p. . a vid. canon . apostolic . , . concil . nicam . canon . . antioch . can. . epist . synod . african . in bevereg . syn●dic . t. . p. . epiphan . haeres . . c. , ● . synes . ep. . p. . a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . vid. justel . not. in cod. can. eccl. univers . p. . a pacem tamen quomodocunque à sacerdote dei ●em●l data●● non putavimus au●erendam . cyprian . ep. . p. . rom. . . see cor. . , , , . galat. . . cor. . . galat. . . cor. . . act. . . . . a vid. justel . not. in cod. canon . eccl. univers . p. , . cor. . . revel . . . . , . . , . . . thes . . . a vid. jus divin . regiminis eccles . c. . p. . &c. hudson . vind. c. . p. . &c. blondel . praefat. ad eccles . rectores , p. . salmas . apparat. p. , , , &c. a scire debes episcop●● in ecclesia esse , & ecclesiam in episcopo — quando ecclesia , qu● catholica una est , scissa non ●it , 〈◊〉 divisa ; ●●d sit utique co●●e●a & 〈…〉 sibi invicem sacerdotum glutino copulata . cyprian . ep. . p. . heb. ● . . a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . vid. ephes . . . galat. . . b vid. spanhem . dissert . . de praest . & usu numism . p. . . ad . roines . inscript . class . . n. , . a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . eyhes . . . see rom. . . pet. . . b vid. chr. lupi schol. in tertul. lib. de praescript . c. . c vid. philippi thomasini lib. de tesseris hospitalitatis , c. . & . d dum est illis communicatio pacis , & appellatio fraternitatis , & contesseratio hospitalitatis . quae jura non alia ratio regit , quam ejusdem sacramenti una traditio . tertullian . ubi supra . vid. canon . . concil . chalcedon . cum notis justel . p. , &c. a vid. sozomen . hist . eccl. l. . c. . p. . cor. . , . cor. . . . , , , , . galat. . . a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . lucian . tom. . p. . a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . rom. . . cor. . . . , &c. b viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 constitut . apost . lib. . c. . acts . . acts . . a vid. julian . imperat. orat. . p. , . ed. spanhem . ephes . . . a joseph . antiq. jud. lib. . c. . pet. . , . a vid. solden . de jure nat. & gent. l. . c. . c. . b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . polit. l. ● . c. . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. c. . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. l. . c. . a vid. grot. de jure b. & p. l. . c. . sect. . a praescript . c. . p. , . joh. . . cor. . . ephes . . , . see cor. . . jam. . . a treatise of self-denial , ep. monit . a. d. : a ingens flagitium schismatis . l. . p. . p. . b chrys . tom. . p. . c advers . haeres . l. . c. . a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . rom. . . cor. . . b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . strab. lib. . c pythagorae , hisque qui ejus haeresim fuerunt secuti , &c. vitruv . de architect . praefat. . . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 diog. lacrt. proaem . segm. . plurimosque discipulos vivo adhuc praeceptore in suam haeresim congregasset . d aug. de civit. dei , l. . c. . acts . . & . . acts . . cor. . . v. . tit. . . cor. . cor. . . cor. . . cor. . . a owen of schism , p. . b pag. . c pag. . a pag. . b dr. cawdry . see his independency further prov'd to be a schism . p. . c pag. . a pag. . a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . galat. . . tit. . . a cyprian . de unit. eccles . p. . mat. . . a epist . ad ephes . p. . b ibid. joh . . ver. . ver. . heb. . , . tit. . . rom . . a pag. . b pag. . c pag. . d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . e epist . . p. . a epist . . p. . b see langley ' s persecuted minister , p. . . see jus divin . minist . angl. p. . . . a see cawdry's appendix to independ . a great schism . b true nature of a gospel . church , p. , , . ●am . . a vid. joseph . antiq. j●d . lib. . c. . a pallad . de vit. chrysost . p. . ed. bigot . b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , num. . . c antiq. jud. lib. . c. . p. . ed. oxon. numb . . 〈◊〉 . jude ● . luk. . . a polit. lib. . c. . numb . . . a epistle to the reader , before his quo warranto . a epistle to the reader before ju● divin . minist . evang : b philadelphians . a ubi supra . b anno dom. . 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . . a qui estis vos & unde venissis ? optat. lib. . b non nego quin apostolos postea quoque , vel saltem evangelistas in terdum excitarit deus , ut nostro tempore factum est . talibus enim qui ecclesiam ab antichristi defectione reducerent , opus suit . munus tamen ipsum extraordinarium appello , quia in ecclesi●● ritè constitutis locum non habet . calvin . inst . l. . c. . sect. . auteurs de sa reformation ont volontairement renonce a la marque de l'eglise romaine ; qu'l faut tenir leur vocation pour extraordinaire , &c. bez. hist . p. . ● tim. . . a instit . lib. . c. . sect. . a selden . de syned . lib. . c. . b ex hoc autem loco novi foederis unico tum lectionis tum sensus , ut vides , adeo incerti — mira formantur & varia ab aliquibus de jurisdictione presbyterii velut instituto divino etiam tunc fundata . ibid. joh. . v. . joh. . v. . pet. . v. . a vid. epiphan . haeres . . c. . b in rebus divinae institutionis nemo potest quod non accepit tradere , nec potestatem quam ipse non habet alii transcribere . sa●● . apparat. p. . a quis unquam vidit aut legit eos qui extraordinariam potestatem habituri sunt , delegari & ordinari ab illis qui ordinariam habent tantum . apparat , p. . tim . . a hieron . in tit. . a see the n●rrative of some church-courses in n. engl. by w. r. c. . a de qua terra germinavit ? de quo mari emersit ? de quo coelo decidit , contr. donat. lib. . c. . tim. . . b laicis sacerdotalia munera injungunt . praescript . haer●● . c . p. . a jus divin . minist . angl. part . p. , . b page . . a populus nunquam habuit eligendi & ordinandi presbyteros vel episcopos , qu●tamen potest regem super se imponere , & libertatem corporum suorum alicui domino mancipere . apparat. pag. . b non universam multitudinem manus imposuisse suis ministris , sed solos pastores . institut . l. . c. . sect. . c ordinandi , seu manus imponendi potestatem protestantium nemo laicis tribuendam putavit . blondel . apol. sect. . pag. . a 〈◊〉 of agreement , p. , . a vid. athanas . apolog. . p. . b a. d. . a see cotton ' s way of the churches of new-england , c. . sect. . 〈…〉 the narrative of some church-courses in new-england , by w. ● . c. . p. . a pag. . b pag. . a cyprian . epist . . p. , . b hos . . . a tom. . p. , . ed. s●vil . a ad lxx interpretes respicit apud quos 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , vel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , est consecrare , exod. . , & . , & . . levit. . , . numb . . . vid. morin . de ordinat . part. . & buxtorf . lex . chald. in voce 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . a vid. grot. de jure b. & p. lib. . c. . sect. . cor. . . cor. . . cor. . . philip. . ● . a cap. . b see rom. . . cor. . . john . . a dr. hamm●●d . acts . . acts . . acts . , . acts . . acts . , . acts . . acts . . a constitut . apostolic . l. . c. . p. . b malat. chronograph . p. . a vid. d. pearson . cestriens . episcop . opp. posthum . chro● . dissert . poster . b see treatise of church government , c. , , . see ephes . . , , &c. galat. . , . philip. . . rom. . . gal. . , , , . acts . . clem. rom. epist . ad corinth . c. . a vid. origen . in luc. c. . homil. . euseb . h. e. l. . c. . b iren. advers . haeres . l. . c. . tertull. praescript . c. . c vid. cyprian . ep. . & . d cornel. apud euseb . h. e. l. . c. . e vid. cornel. ep. ad cyprian-inter ep. cypr. p. . p. . matt. . . a cyprian . de unit. eccles . p. , . matt. . . philip. . , . ver. . a 〈◊〉 ess . n. . a cyprian . de unit. p. . a optat. l. . p. , . matt. . . b vid. joseph . antiq. jud. lib. . c. . p. . a hares . . n. . isa . . . job . . rom. . . a see baylie's disuasive , c. . ● . . paget's arrow against separation , p. , &c. rom. . . cor. . , &c. cor. . . cor. . . cor. . . psal . . . cor. , &c. cor. . . cor. . . cor. . . a see dr. hammond's view of the new directory , sect. . a way of the churches in new england , c. . sect. . cor. . , . cor. . . cor. . , . cor. . . cor. . . cor. . . a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , cor. . . cor. . , , . cor. . . a mr. ball. see his answer to can. p. , . a baxter's direct . p. . prov. . . a clem. roman . epist . ad corinth . c. . b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. c. . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. c. . a fingitis vos ante tempus messis fugere permixta zizania , quia vos estis sola zizania . nam si frumenta essetis , permixta zizania toleraretis , & à segete christi non vos divideretis . august . epist . . a christian direct . p. , . a see their preface before the jus divin . reg. eccles . b christian direct . p. . tim. . . pet. . . ephes . . colos . . a vid. ep. . ad corinth cap. & . b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . vid. coteler . not. col. , . a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . b chr. direct . p. . ephes . . . ephes . . . a christian direct . p. . a sermon on cor. . . a cure of church-divisions , p. . cor. . . cor. . . cor. . , . acts . . cor. . . cor. . . cor. . . a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. ep. ad corinth . c. . cor. . , . thess . . . a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . see also v. . and thess . . . rom. . . a strom. lib. . p. . a ep. ad corinth . c. . b c. . a vid. episcop . instit . lib. . sect. . c. . b see dr. pocock , on micah . . acts . . a tom. . p. . a rycaut's history of th● turkish empire . p. . b christian directory , p. . a cambd. elizab. a. d. . a ab episcopatus abolitione consecuta est horrenda confusio & perturbatio religionis , sectis innumera bilibus quae antea or●o damnatae in tenebris delites●ebant , de repente qua data porta undequaque in ●ucem erumpentibus . salm. resp . ad milton . a heres . p. . a. d. . b dr. 〈◊〉 c gangr . part. . p. . printed a. d. . d a. d. . a see gangr . part. . p. , &c. b ep. ded. a epistle to the reader before jus divin . minist . evangel . a de bello pelopon . lib. p. . edit . oxon. a owen of schism , p. . a bac. ess . . b see the preface to his cure of church-divisions . a vid. ammian . marcellin . lib. . c. . 〈◊〉 notis ha●r . vales . a vid. joseph . antiq. jud. lib. . cap. . nehem. . . a defence of his cure , part . p. . the protestants remonstrance against pope and presbyter in an impartial essay upon the times or plea for moderation / by philanglus. penn, william, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing p estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded 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(eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) the protestants remonstrance against pope and presbyter in an impartial essay upon the times or plea for moderation / by philanglus. penn, william, - . p. printed by n.t. for walter davis, london : . reproduction of original in the union theological seminary library, new york. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng dissenters, religious -- england. great britain -- history -- civil war, - . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - taryn hakala sampled and proofread - taryn hakala text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the protestants remonstrance against pope and presbyter : in an impartial essay upon the times , or plea for moderation . by philanglus . bonum publicum simulitantes , pro sua potentiae certant . salust . catil . conjurat . london : printed by n. t. for walter davis living in amen-corner , at the lower end of pater-noster-row . . the protestants remonstrance against pope and presbyter , gentlemen , as the tranquility and welfare of old england is a thing of universal concern to all true protestants , so should our endeavour to preserve it , be the same : if the danger be general and publick , so let the care also ; since the ignorant passenger may as well expect to survive the sinking ship and drowned pilot , as any man of an estate ( how little soever it be ) to prosper under the ruines of a civil war , and downfal of monarchy , rebellion and gaming being only fit for men that have nothing to lose ; 't is a meer lottery of state , wherein are an hundred blanks to one prize . for the miseries of a civil war , we need not any information from the histories of ancient rome under tiberius gracchus , marius , and sylla , pompey and caesar , the triumvirate , &c. nor from the dissentions in florence , begun by the guelf and ghibiline factions ; nor from the discords of france , under the tumultuous reigns of henry iii. and henry iv. no , we have too fresh , and too sad an example of our own late intestine broils , which rendred this unhappy nation little better then a den of thieves and murderers , for almost the space of years ; when under the disguise of religion , they committed the greatest impiety ; and under the pretence of defending their countries liberty , enslaved it : only with this difference , that instead of one good king , they set over us many tyrants . what prince , nay what tyrant ever perpetrated the thousandth part of those outrages upon a people , which they did ? till at length , out of an unsatiable ▪ ravenous humour , like beasts of prey , they fell to seclude and devour one another ▪ what landlord was then master of his own h●use ? what tenant secure of the stock upon his groun● ? what house-keeper could call his furniture his own , without being every hour in danger of having his very bed taken from under him ? what gentleman secure of his horses ▪ without having them by violence ▪ forced out of his stable , nay even out of his very coach ? who could ride in safety upon the road without eminent danger of his person ? who could follow his lawful vocation , or what trades-man his trade , without the hazzard of an assault ? what gentleman was master of his own child or servant ? or what shop-keeper of his prentice ? when the parliaments army was ready to receive , and reward them for their disloyalty ? nay what security had any man of his own life , family and estate without being in danger of hanging , plundering , sequestring and the like ? now who were the authors of these mischiefs , i shall not presume to determine , only this i am sure of , that the fanaticks were no less guilty then the papists : nor can any moderate person think of the th . of january , with less horrour then the th . of november , they are both equally enemies to the government ; and so alike declared by act of parliament ; they had both the same need of his majesty's most gracious act of oblivion ; neither were the acts of one , less cruel then the other , as many who writ of , or lived in those times inform us . i need not here acquaint you with the papists murther of henry the iii. and henry the vi. of france , their st. bartholomew's massacre , their cicilian vesper's , their irish massacre , and rebellion , their several plots against queen elizabeth and king james ; the gunpowder-treason , and how great , a share they had in our late civil wars , as well as of their present inhumanity against the distressed french hugonites ; no , there are so many tracts written of this subject , and people are already so well acquainted with their barbarous , and cruel principles , that it would be but time lost here to repeat them ; wherefore i shall wholly apply this discourse to their brethren in iniquity , the fanaticks , who are no less culpable , though less discovered to the world ; wherefore to take off their holy mask , give me leave out of a small treatise ( called mercurius rusticus , or the countries complaint ) to epitomize to you some few barbarous proceedings of these sectaries , which were executed upon the most loyal protestants by special order of parliament . as for example : how barbarously were sir jorn lucas and mr. newcomen , a minister used by the brownists , and anabaptists of colchester , ? sir john's house plundered , his mother , lady , and sister committed to the common goal ? the inhumane usage of sir william b●teler in kent , his house plundered , and servants put to exquisite torture , by the parliament dragoons ? the same party went on , and plundered sir hen. audley's house in essex as also mr. erazmus lau'd , a poor minister , of all his money , cattel , his own , and his wives wearing apparel : also mr. hongfield a batchellor in divinity near ▪ years old , of all his furniture , cloaths , bonds , bills , and evidences , and imprisoned his person ; also mr. stephens , parson of southamfeild in essex , of all his plate and goods , beating out the brains of a woman that hid them for him ; also imprisoned mr. edward symmons , parson of rayn in essex , and bestowed his living upon one lemuel tuke , by education a weaver ; which the parliament did , for that mr. symmons had preached a sermon against rebellion , lastly the said dragoons plundered the countess of rivers house at osyth , to the value in goods , and money , of an hundred thousand pounds , as also threatened to take away her life , had they found her . how inhumanely did the brownist and anibaptists of chelmford use mr. michelson , the parson of that town , and a man of great worth and learning ; how many attempts did they make upon his life ? how did they plunder him of all he had , and at last put him to flight , leaving behind him , his wife and eight small children to perish ? the same godly reformers also plundered mr. cornelius , parson of peldon , in the same county of essex , taking from him l in money , besides all his goods and child-bed-linnen of his wives , who look'd every hour , — yet had not wherewith to cloath her nakedness left her ; and when these criminals were taken ; and indicted for the theft , an ignoramus jury ( though they confessed the fact ▪ ) acquitted them ; for that the criminals were of the brotherhood , and goods stollen , belonged to a delinquent , which was the only reason they gave to the judge , who bound them over to answer their perjured verdict at the next assizes : wonder not therefore at colledges ignoramus jury of the brotherhoods . on august thursday th . , the lord b — s then plunders sir richard minshells house at bourton in buckinghamshire , destroying a prodigious quantity of rich furniture , killing and selling all the cattel on his ground , burning his corn and hay-ricks , tearing and consuming all his ●ooks , bonds , and evidences , clapping a strong guard on his lady , and denying her a bed to lie on ; all which they did , for that her husband was then waiting on the king ; they cut down his woods , destroyed his ponds , and left no piece of revenge unfinished . at kings harbour near hownslow-heath , a party of the lord wh's souldiers set fire on an inne ; for that the people of the house began the kings health , telling the hostess , that they would teach her the irish way to fire houses . at pelmarsh in essex , mr. wilborow the parson , was assaulted in his pulpit , having all his cloaths torn off him , and very hardly escaped with life , his bible and common-prayer-book torn in an hundred pieces , which they stuck on their pike-heads . the earl of e — left behind him at reading a committee of city captains , and trades-men , who amerced and fined men at their pleasures , in marlow , they assested one mr. druce at l. and imprisoned him till he paid l. of it ; they also fined mr. harepool l. mr. chace ( a man plundered before ) l. elliatt a butcher , they fined l. and imprisoned him also ; one cock a baker l. mr. furnace , the vicar l. john langley l. thomas langley l. william langley l. and willmot his servant l. john more l. hopkins a shooemaker , l. canne an inn keeper , l. and many more they fined in this illegal manner . mr. giles thorn minister of st. cuberts in bedford , upon a sunday after having preached sermons ; was barbarously assualted by the parliament troops , then carried up to london , and there kept close prisoner without any other cause being ever alledged against him , save only that he was too well beloved of his parishioners ; although the true reason was , a private picque of sir s. lukes against him , which sir samuel made use of his interest amongst the parliament to be revenged this way . warder castle being by the lady arundel ( in the absence of my lord her husband ) surrendred upon articles to sir edw ▪ h. and his parliament troops , how did they break all their articles as soon as they were entered , plundering all those goods , defacing that whole castle , cutting down all those timber-trees , destroying all those cattel , deer-parks and ●ish-ponds , which by their articles they were bound to spare , neither did this attone their malice , but they must also carry their ladies and their young children prisoners to dorchester , which place was then much infected with the small pox , and plague ; nay ( and what was more cruel ) did afterwards snatch the young infants out of their mothers arms , and carry them alone captive to bath , which was full of the same infection . on the th . of may ; . one mr. john bykar ( son to the vicar of dunchurch ) was run through the body , and kill'd in coventry ; by the rebels without any offence , but his being a parsons son. what havock did the parliamentarians at wellingborough in northamptonshire , without any resistance , they murthered mr. flint curate of harraden , plundered wellingborough , and carried away prisoners to northampton ▪ mr. grey , mr. neal , and above forty more , together with the vicar of the town , one mr. jones a grave learned man , and very ancient , whom for scorn they made ride along with them upon a bear , which they had taken from a barber of wellingborough , whom they had murthered ; at length being imprisoned at northampton , they starved him to death , without ever suffering his wife or his friends to come at him . wonder not therefore if the clergy so much inveigh against presbytery ! on the th . of january , the castle of sudley was surrendred to the rebels upon articles , which were no sooner made , but broken ; for they not only plundered the castle and seat of the lord shandois & winchcomb , a neighbou●ing village , but also god's service ( as they call it ) abused his church , a stately fabrick within the castle digging up the graves , breaking down the monuments of the shandoises , mak●ng the lower part of it a stable , the chancel a slaughter house ▪ the communion table a chopping-block for meat , & the vault where the family of the shandoise's lay , they filled with the guts , and garbage o● beasts ; so piously did these sectaries fight the lord's battel , the same barbarity was likewise used upon that beautiful piece of antiquity st. maries church in warwick , wherein were destroyed the famous and ancient monuments of the earls of beauchamp , by the lord b — , and coll. puresoys party . how barbarously did the rebels of exeter use doctor cox , who came with a trumpeter , and a party to them , from sir ralph hopton , and his majesties forces , wounding , abusing , and imprisoning him , contrary to the law of arms ; nay , they both vomited , and purged him for many days together , thinking to make him voy'd those papers of intelligence , which they distrusted he had swallowed , because they once saw him put his hand to his mouth , only to pick his teeth . how inhumanely did the lord g. of gs. party deal with mr. nowel of rutlandshire , firing his tennants houses , in one of which was a poor woman in labour ; also taking prisoner mr. nowel himself ; plundering his house ; defacing the church , and in it his wives monument ; all which they did contrary to the articles , upon the which he had surrendred . with what brutality did the rebels under coll. s — s in kent enter , ●r . bargraves , the dean of canterbury's house , plundering all they met with , imprisoning the son in his fathers absence ; and horridly abusing the deans wife , and mother , an old gentlewoman above eighty years of age ; after which the dean himself returning , they soon committed him to the fleet at london , where i think he dyed with grief in prison . brown , waller , and others in their march from aylsbury , to windsor , and thence by newbury to winchester , plundered every minister within five miles of the road , without distinction , whether their friends or foes . how many poor wretches were starved to death under the imprisonment of captain ven a citizen , and made governour of windsor castle . mr. chaldwell of thorngonby in the county of lincoln esq ; and a justice of peace , was for his loyalty , both himself and his wife , two ancient people put in the dungeon of lincoln gaol , where receiving the ill news ; for the rebels had plundered his house , destroying all his estate , and muthered one of his most faithful servants , he ended his days with grief , mr : wright a minister of wemslow in cheshire , and a pious , learned man years old , was plundered of his all , by the parliament troops having two of his maid-servants murthered , and others in his house wounded ; nor had escaped with his own life , had not his neighbours received his venerable old age . mr. anthony tyrringham minister of tyringham in bucks , being first robbed of his all , was afterwards miserably abused and wounded , having his arm cut off , and then carried away to aylsbury gaol . mr. bar●lets house at castle-morton in worcestershire was five times plundred by these rebels ; insomuch as they boasted they had not left him worth a groat , his wife and children abused , and himself imprisoned . how barbarously were mr : robert yeomans , and mr. george boucher , gentlemen of bristol murthered ? as also sir charles lucas , and sir george lisle shot to death in cold bloud at colchester by the parliaments court of injustice ? the cathedral churches of canterbury , worcester , and most of the other cathedrals in england , were miserably defaced and demolished by these pious rebels . in october . when the earl of stams . was in herefordshire ; captain kirl's troops ( in the ahsence of parson swift of goodwich in the same county , ) plundered his house by the order of the said earl and captain ; they took away all his provision of victuals , corn and household stuff , which were not conveyed away before they emptied his bed , and filled the ticks with mault ; they rob'd him of his cart , and six horses and make this part of their theft the means to convey away the rest , mrs. swift much affrightened thereat , taking up a young child in her arms , thought it best to secure her self by flight , which one of the troopers perceiving , he commanded her to stay , ( or holding a pistol to her breast ) threatned to shoot her dead in this condition ; and haveing her house thus rifled , next morning early she goes to hereford , and petitions the earl to have compassion , if not on her self , yet on her ten little infants , and that he would be pleased to cause some of her goods , and horses to be restored ; but the earl would not vouchsafe so much as to read her petition : hereupon she addresses to captain kirl , who grants her no restitution , but only a protection for what was left , and that too cost her thirty shillings ; and now thinking her self secure , she returns home in hopes to enjoy quietly what was left ; she had not been long at home but captain kirl sends her word , that if it pleased her she might buy of her . horses again , assuring her that she should never be plundred more by their forces , en●ouraged hereby , she bought of her horses for pounds shillings , and with this security brought home the remainder of those few goods she had hid at her neighbours houses : but soon after captain kirl sent to her for some vessels of cyder , which having tasted , and not liking , instead thereof , demanded ten bushels of oates , which not having of her own , she sent him s. to buy oates ▪ suddenly after , another captain of the earls sends to this mrs. swift for victuals and corn , who shewing him her protection , he also shewed her his warrant , and so condemning her protection , seizeth upon what provision and syder was in the house : hereupon mrs. swift complains to captain kirle , who said , he disapproved of what they did , but would not relieve her one jot ; and withal sends to her for more oates , which she not being able to send him , captain kirl's lieutenant , two hours before , on the third of december , comes with a party of dragoons to mr. swifts house , and demanded entrance , but the doors being shut , they forced them open , and entred ▪ with pistols cockt in their hands ▪ and swords drawn ; being thus entred , they took all mr. swifts and his wives wearing cloaths , his books , and his childrens cloaths , they being in bed , and poor children hanging by their cloaths , as unwilling to part with them , they swung about , until ( their hold-fasts failing ) they dashed them against the walls . they also took away all his servants cloaths , leaving none of them a shirt to cover their nakedness ; they robbed also one of her little infants lying in a cradle , nor leaving it a rag to preserve it from the cold , they took away all the linnen ; iron , pewter , and brass , and a fair cupboard of glass , which they could not carry away , they broke ; the horses lately redeem'd , they also laid hold on ; and threatned to carry away to prison mrs. swift and her three maids ; and to plunder all under their peticoats , as they said . whereupon she fled to the place where her husband was concealed ; in whose absence they fell a packing up all their plunder : when amongst other things , there was a batch of bread in the oven , this they seized upon , the ten small children on their knees , intreated but for one loaf , which they refused , not leaving one morsel to satisfie their hunger : nay finding a small pewter-dish which the drie nurse had hid for the use of the poor infant in the cradle , the mother which suckled it being fled : though the nurse begg'd for it on her knees , and the child lay crying for hunger , yet did they throw it to the dogs , and took away the dish : nay ▪ they commanded upon pain of death , that the miller should grind them no corn , nor any of their neighbours relieve them : and all the revenge was acted , only because at ross , th●ir fa●her preached a sermon upon this text , give unto caesar the things that are caesar's , &c. nulla salus bello pacem le possimus omnes : virgil. ii. lib. aeneid . these are not the thousandth part of those barbarities , and cruelties , which in all counties of england were acted by those bloody and merciless sectaries , who pretended to fight the lords battle ; and whose chief reformation consisted in turning churches into stables , and barns into churches ; in plucking down learned ministers , and setting up illiteral coblers and tinkers , to preach gods holy word in their stead ; how were the churches violated , and the vniversities turned topsie-turvy ? who ( not being a sectary ) was not then esteemed a papist ? or ( not being a rebel to the king , ) was not accounted a betrayer of his countrey ? now these tasts of calvenistical cruelties may be sufficient to deter any but mad-men , or fools , from splitting twice upon the same rock , unless we desire to have the same murthers , the same roberies , the same sequestrations , the same compounding for our own estates many times over , the same waiting at committees doors , the same free quarter , and the same parliament tyrannie , then which never any was greater : every little member of which long parliament , being a greater and more absolute tyrant , then any bashaw belonging to the turk : only with this difference , that such a member could ruin his enemies , but not assist his friend . the taxes more heavy , and burthensome , then ever any before : most of which publique moneys were spent in private uses , and divided amongst themselves : whilst thousands of widows , and orphans , who were ruined by their sequestrations , and plunderings , wanted bread to put into their mouths . thus ( besides other times ) they at once voted this division amongst themselves , of these several sums out of the publick stock , ( viz ▪ ) to the lord say. l. to the earl of northumberland . l. to mr. vassall . l. to mr. henry martin . l. to sir rowland wanford . l. to mr. bacon . l. to mr. selden . l. to sir william strode's family l. to mr. peter hammond's successors . l. to sir miles hubbard . l. to mr. hampden's children . l. to sir benjamin rudyard . l. to sir john elliot's children . l. to mr. benjamin valentine . l. to mr. walter long. l. to denzile hollis esquire . l. in toto . l. so that first this long parliament miss-pent the nations treasure : when ( besides the voluntary contributions of silver thimbles from the seamstresses , bodkins from the chambermaids , silver spoons from the cooks , silver bowls from the vintners , and rings and ear-rings from the sister-hood , for the maintenance of this holy war , ) they made an ordinance in march . for the levying of l. a week , which comes to above , l. a year , over and above all the kings lands , and woods , with whatsoever was remaining unpaid of any subsidy formerly granted him ; together with tunnage and poundage usually received by the king : and also the profit of sequestration of great persons , whom they pleased to vote delinquents , and the profit of bishops lands , which they all peaceably enjoyed : again the rump of this same parliament in : to maintain war with the dutch , levied a new tax upon the people , of l. per mensem , to continue a year ; which shews that this democratical , and parliamentary government , or rather this olygarchy , and rump of a parliament , was no less burthensom and chargeable to the people , even then a french monarchy : and after this , again was another six months tax of an l. per mensem . but what was most unjust of this parliament , and shews how dangerous it has sometimes been for an house of commons to have any great sum of money ready raised and deposited in their own hands , was , their imploying all that money which had been collected by charity ( for the relief of the distressed irish , ) towards the maintenance of a war against the king : whilst in the mean time , the poor irish protestants were perished by sword , and famine for want of this relief . secondly this parliamentary dominion , was no less bloudy , and tyranical then the most absolute monarchy of france or turkey , witness their high court of justice , which murthered the king , duke hamilton , earl of holland , lord capel , and other loyalists , nay , their own friends the two sir john hothams , whom upon a vain suspition they ungratefully sentenced to death ; but what was an inhumanity equal to any thing in popery , was , that the godly sectaries once put it to the vote , whether they should massacre all the royallists or no , which was carried in the negative , but by two voices ; and had it once pass'd , there are few but know , that lambert and his levelling party had designed to destroy all the nobility , and gentry of england , cutting their throats by the name of loyallists , whether they were so , or no ; as for the nobility , i mean the house of peers , that parliament which put the king to death , likewise presently voted them useless , whereby we may observe , how entirely the nobility and gentry depend upon the king's prosperity ; who was no sooner dethroned , but presently the lords are turned out of the government , and the gentry designed to be massacred . so that of all tyranies , god deliver us from a perpetual parliament , and of all governments , from that of geneva fetters which consists of many links , being more troublesom then those of one . but to argue upon the square , pray let me ask any of these rumpers , why the king might not then as well levy money without lords and commons , as the commons without king and lords ? why the king might not then interest himself in appointing what members the people should chuse for parliament , as well as cromwels major-general awed the electors in the like case ? and why the king might not then govern by a court rump of a parliament , as well as they by an independent rump ? for my part , i think them alike grievances , and equally unlawful . lastly , now , as for their hierarchy , or government ecclesiastick , it was more intollerable then their civil jurisdiction : elders , deacons , synods , and assemblies , being far more oppressive , and authoritative than vicar , arch-deacon , doctor , or spiritual court. synods are whelps o' th' inquisition , a mungrel breed , o' th' like pernition . synods are mistical bergardens , where elders , deputies , church-wardens , and saints themselves are brought to stake , for gospel light , and conscience-sake : and then set heathen officers , instead of dogs , about their ears . hudib . every little ananias , or elder , usurping as much power over his respective family , and authority over a man's wife ; and filly foals , whether children , or servants , ( especially if they be handsom ) as the pope himself ; nay and as formidable to the master , his patron ▪ he must be first served with the best meat , and drink , and the female which he chooses for his convert is ever the handsomest , such fellows , and wasps , having always the wit to elect the choicest fruit : as well in presbytery , as popery , the priests of both kinds center in the petticoat ; so that young elders , and young fryars , are frequent charges to the parish . they are the greatest of hypocrites , when by their long prayers they conceal their whoredom , drunkenness , gluttony , and lying : by their severity to others , they shadow their own wickedness , and by their canting religion , disguise their intended rebellion ; well knowing that flames ( as in hay , or straw ) may be kindled in the more combustible people , by such foxes , as shall appear rather to carry water , then fire . the presbyterians and papists began the war in scotland , continued it in england , and brought the old king's head to the block ; where the independants cutting it off , the others very cunningly wash'd their hands of it . as for the tyranny of their discipline , i refer you to geneva , or rather to the history of new england , and heylin of presbytery . presbytery does but translate the papacy to a free-state : a commonwealth of popery , where every village is a see , as well as rome ; and must maintain a tyth-pig-metropolitan : where every presbyter , and deacon , commands the keys for cheese , and bacon ; more haughty , and severe in 's place , then gregory , or boniface . such church must surely be a monster with many heads : for if we conster what in th' apocalypse we find , according to th' apostles mind , 't is that the whore of babylon with many heads did ride upon : which heads denote the sinful tribe of deacon , priest , lay-elder , scribe . hudib . moreover , as the government of the long parliament , was most tyrannical and wicked , so also was the usurpation and behaviour of cromwell , if rightly examined ; for as mr. cowley well observes , what can be more extraordinarily wicked , then for a private subject to endeavour , not only to exalt himself above , but to trample upon all his equals and betters ? to pretend freedom for all men , and under the help of that pretence , to make all men his servants ? to take arms against scarce l. a year , and to raise for himself above two millions ? to quarrel for the loss of or ears , and strike off or heads ? to fight against an imaginary suspicion of guards to be fetcht for the king , i know not from whence , and to keep up for himself no less then ? to pretend the defence of parliaments , and violently to dissolve all , even of his own calling , and almost choosing ? to undertake the reformation of religion , to rob it even to the very skin , and then to expose it naked , to the rage of all sects and heresies ? to set up councils of rapine , and courts of murther ? to fight against the king , under a commission for him ? to take him forcibly out of the hands of those , for whom he had conquer'd him , to draw him into his net with protestations , and vows of fidelity ; and when he had caught him in it , to butcher him with as little shame , as conscience , or humanity , in the open face of the whole world ? to receive a commission for king and parliament , to murther ( as i said ) the one , and destroy no less impudently the other ? to fight against monarchy , when he declared for it ; and declare against it when he contrived for it , in his own person ? to abase perfidiously , and supplant ingratefully his own general first , and afterwards most of those officers , who with the loss of their honour , and hazard of their souls , had lifted him up to the top of his unreasonable ambitions ? equally to violate his faith with all his friends , and enemies ? to make no less frequent use of the most solemn perjuries , then the looser sort of people do of common oaths ? to usurp three kingdoms without any shadow of the least pretensions , and to govern them as unjustly as he got them ? to seek to intail his usurpation upon his posterity , and with it an endless war upon the nations ? to pretend , when he went upon any mischievous consult , that he went to seek god ? and lastly , to die hardned , mad , and unrepentant , with the curses of the present , and detestation of all future ages . having thus now , gentlemen , shew'd you the miseries of our late civil wars , as well as of the long parliament's and vsurper's tyranny , together with the unsoundness of presbytery , i hope it may be the more easie to disswade you from running into the like miseries again , for we are just upon the brink of them ; insomuch as the church of england , be●●●●t popery on the one hand , and fanaticism on the other , seems now to be in as much danger , as susanna betwixt the two elders , who would ravish her both of her doctrine , ( so dear to her professors ) and of her lands , ( so dear to her priests ; ) or like flanders betwixt france and spain , to be the seat of war betwixt popery and presbytery . as pretended religion hath now produced these threatning clouds , so heretofore likewise was it the chiefest occasion of those storms which in years space caused such a revolution of the soveraign power , from king charles the first , to the long parliament ; from thence , to the rump ; from the rump , to oliver cromwell ; from oliver , to richard ; from richard cromwell , back again to the rump ; thence to the long parliament ; and thence to king charles the second , where god continue it many years . optima libertas ubi rex cum lege gubernat . the fears and jealousies of popery , as well then , as now , was the stock on which the ambitious , the covetous , and the revengeful grafted all their treasonable designs , of prosecuting their own private intere●●s , under the pretence of the publick ; and let any impartial judge , but narrowly examine the proceedings lives , and principles of our hottest anti-courtiers , who at this time pretend most to censure the king and government , and he shall find them , either vain-glorious lovers of popular applause , more then the real good of their country ; or necessitous and beggarly persons , of broken fortunes , extremely in debt , and men run out of their estates , which they hope to repair by crown , or church lands , as was done heretofore ; or men full of revenge to see others preferred , and themselves neglected : and all these generally men of no moral honesty , or religion , let them pretend what they will , but drunkards , whoremasters , and atheists ; men of the worst conversation themselves , who yet have the impudence to blame others for that which they themselves stand convict of . if a magistrate shews any countenance to his under-officers , or servants , they complain against his being a slave to favourites , never looking into their own private family , where some favourite steward , waiting-woman , or valet de chambre cheats him , and makes slaves of all the rest of the servants . if a magistrate casts his eye upon a handsom woman , how do they censure his effeminacy , as a meer sardanapalus ; when the very same persons themselves do oftentimes keep wenches to domineer over their own virtuous wives , spend their whole estates upon strumpets , and supplant their own legitimate children , with bastards . the truest pattern of one of these pretended country ▪ patriots , i beheld ( at the first breaking out of this plot ) enter into a coffee-house in a ragged suit , extremely drunk , and swearing most bloudily , that he heard there was a design to introduce popery , but damn him and sink him he would sooner part with his life , then his religion : such a main pillar was he of some church , though of what , 't is difficult to know . his majesty is most happy in his enemies ; for if rational men would but seriously consider , what a mad generation they were , few would value what they said , but justly suspect whatever cause they espouse . men of the same stamp were catiline's associates in his conspiracy , for so the historian describes them : catiline entertain'd a rabble of most wicked and dangerous persons , as if they had been the guard of his own body ; for whatsoever russian , leacher , or glutton had consumed his estate with gaming , banquetting , or whoring ; whosoever was deeply engaged in debt for redeeming some punishable offence , besides all paricides , church-robbers , convicted persons , and such as did fear conviction ; moreover all such whose hands and tongues got them maintenance by their perjuries , and civil bloud-sheddings ▪ and lastly , all those whom wickedness , want , or a guilty conscience did exaspera●e , became catiline's bosom friends and familiars . of the same stamp ( i say ) are these men who veil their malice to the king , under the reproach of his councel , well knowing that sedition ( like a screw'd gun , that is given to mounting upwards ) must be levell'd below the mark they shoot at ; they feed upon the plot , like vermin upon carry●● , and are as innanimate , and heartless during the recess of a parliament , as wasps ; and hornets in the winter time . that his majesty would comply with his parliament in what may be for the good of both , ought to be the prayers of every true english protestant , i am sure they are mine , but some of these perhaps desire such a fatal complyance as was that of the assyrian king ninus , to his queen semiramis , who granting her the regency but for five days , she did in that short time make a shift to destroy him ; or as his royal fathers condescention to let the parliament sit during their own pleasure , who never quitted their own reign , till they had ended his ; so dangerous is it for a prince to fulfil the unsatisfied desires of a craving mobile ; who being without doors , have it not in the orb of their understandings to comprehend or judge aright of the proceedings of a king and parliament . these are the fomenters of the common people , who ( though a moveable body like the ocean ) yet never swell , but when blown upon by such intemperate winds ; or like the swine in the gospel , are more furiously agitated by the discontented spirits of others , than their own ; they are like esop's trumpeter , who set people together by the ears with their libels or false news , and therefore of all others the least deserve quarter . and as heretofore by the names of roundhead , and cavalier , so now again they distinguish , and mark out for destruction his majesty's subjects by those factious epithites of whig , and tory ; which like rogue , rascal , and other opprobrious terms do rarely pass over without a bloudy nose , like ill servants betwixt husband and wife , they endeavour to breed a jealousy and mis-understanding between king and people , hoping to advantage themselves by the quarrel , and accordingly ▪ use their utmost endeavours to mis-represent his mildest actions to his people ; as for instance , if his maiesty grants liberty of conscience to the nonconformists , they , possess the people it is done in favour of the papists ; and on the contrary , if he suppresses them , then they say he is perswaded to it by the popish councels : so uncapable are they of being satisfied ! again , whilst he desists to prosecute the papists , they call him a favourer of them ; and when he puts out his proclamation against them , then they presently say it is sugar-plums for the parliament : so humoursom are these men . such enemies are they to monarchy , that they hate addresses , for the same reason they love petitions ; opposition to the king. that petitioning for a parliament is lawful , i do not oppose ; but to petition so often for one and the same thing , and that too after his majesty has shew'd his dislike of it , is ( i am sure ) uncivil , and shews as if hereby they would either publish to the world their distrust of his majesties single government , or else render themselves and their party formidable to the royal authority , by the counterfeit number of their petitioners . that the power of calling and dissolving parliaments , is solely in the king , their very act of petitioning confesses ; and yet if his majesty complies not with them at a minutes warning , they presently complain of injustice . again for addresses , they are absolute abhorrers of them , as thinking it lawful to give our thanks to any one but the king , the parliaments themselves have often expressed their gratitude and loyalty to the king , voting him thanks for many of his speeches , and promising to stand by him with their lives and fortunes , against all his enemies whatsoever : nay the city of london , and many other corporations , burroughs and counties , have done as much even to their own single members of parliament , voting them their thanks , and promising to stand by them ; and yet these men would deny his majesty tha● small respect , which is so commonly paid to his subjects ; and which as well to foreigners , as natives , will make known his majesties interest in the hearts of his subjects ; then which , nothing can be more for the honour of the english nation , to publish the kings grandeur , and peoples loyalty . moreover , they are highly offended with his majesty for dissolving parliaments , but not so much at that , as because his majesty would shew a reason why he dissolved them ; for they would have had the people gone away with the opinion that it was an arbitrary unjust action , and their dissolution purely in favour of popery , and nothing else : whereas his majesty in a gracious and voluntary manner comes ▪ and appeals to his own people how just his proceeding was in that , as in all other things ; that observing the differences between the two houses , he had reason to fear the ill consequence thereof , and therefore to allay those heats , was forced to send them home : yet was not out of love with parliaments , but would nevertheless call them frequently , &c. which reason being satisfactory to all his loving subjects , was therefore the more disapproved of by the factious , who , by this means , were perhaps disappointed of their intended tumult and insurrection , so confidently expected by mr. colledge . the same factious party do likewise accuse his majesty of having a design , both to render himself absolute , and to introduce popery ; and this is the present doctrine that they preach in all their cabals , libels , and pamphlets . now for his design of rendring himself absolute , let any rational man but consider how improbable a thing it is , that the king ( whom his very enemies accuse of being a too great lover of his ease , even in his youth ) should now when he grows into years , attempt a thing of that great trouble and hazard : at his first restauration , might he not then have had any thing of his people ? were not his subjects at that time so tired out with the late civil war , that he might have fettered them as he pleased himself 〈…〉 and has he not since had a parliament tha● supplied him with monies at his pleasure ; nay , were as ready to grant , as he to ask ; and did the king let go all these opportunities ( do you think ) to undertake it now ? surely no man of sence can harbour a thought so ridiculous , and void of reason ; besides , his majesty ( as all men know ) is of so mild and peaceable a disposition , that no person upon earth can be more averse to such a tyrannical and bloudy undertaking , than himself : what one act of severity or cruelty , can his greatest enemy charge him with , throughout his reign , nay in his whole life-time ? alas , 't is our too great ignorance of other neighbouring princes , makes us not enough esteem our own . no english monarch , even king james , or queen elizabeth her self , were ever more tender of , and careful to preserve the rights and priviledges of the people , then king charles the second now is ; parliaments themselves were never handled with that love , tenderness , and caution by any prince , as by him ; whose chief and only care is , not to violate their priviledges , contrary to the proceedings of many of his predecessors ; as for instance , in the . year of queen elizabeth , mr. paul wentworth moved in the house for a publick fast , and for a sermon every morning at seven of the clock , before the house sate , and it was ordered accordingly . but the queen being informed hereof , sent this message to the house by her vice. chamberlain ; that her highness much admired the rashness of the house , in committing such an apparent contempt of her express command , as to put in execution such an innovation , without her privity , or pleasure first known . whereupon the house acknowledging their said offence and contempt , craving her pardon for the same , and promising to forbear the like for the future , mr. vice-chamberlain by the suffrage of the whole house did accordingly carry up this their submission to the queen . also eliz. mr. peter wentworth and sir henry bromley delivered a petition to the lord keeper , desiring the lords of the upper house to be suppliants with them of the lower house unto her majesty , for entailing the succession of the crown , whereof a bill was ready drawn . the queen being highly displeased herewith , summoned the parties concern'd in this motion before her councel , and made the lord keeper buckhurst and sir thomas heneage commit wentworth prisoner to the tower , and mr. bromley to the fleet , together with mr. stephens , and one mr. welch , knight for worcestershire . another time this queen , the th . of her reign , sent a severe reprimand to the house of commons , for choosing and returning knights of the shire for norfolk ; a thing which she said was impertinent for the house to meddle withal , and belong'd only to the office and care of her chancellour , from whom the writs issue , and are return'd . again , the house of commons by their speaker ( eliz ▪ ) complained of some monopolies : whereupon the lord keeper made answer in her majesties name , that her majesty hoped her dutiful and loving subjects , would not take away her prerogative , which is the chiefest flower in her garden , the principal pearl in her crown and diadem , but that they will rather leave that to her own disposal . in one parliament , when mr. coke ( afterwards sir edward coke ▪ ) was speaker , the queen sent a messenger or serjeant at arms into the house of commons , and took out mr. morris a member thereof , and committed him to prison , with divers others , for some speeches spoken in the house . whereupon mr. wroth moved the house , that they would be humble suiters to her majesty , that she would be pleased to enlarge those member● of the house that were restrained ; which was done acco●dingly ; and answer was sent by her privy councel , that her majesty had committed them for cause , best known to her self ; and to press her highness with this suit , would be of dangerous consequence ; that the house must not call the queen to account for what she doth of her royal authority ; that the causes for which they are restrained , may be high and dangerous , and that her majesty liketh no such questions ; neither that it did become the house of commons to search into matters of that nature . and likewise ( in the th . of eliz. ) the commons were told , that their priviledges were yea , and no ; and that her majesties pleasure was , that if the speaker perceived any idle heads which would not stick to hazard their own estates , but meddle with reforming the church , and transforming the commonwealth , by exhibiting bills to that purpose , the speaker should not receive them till they were viewed and considered by those who were fitter to consider of such things , and can judge better of them . and moreover , the queen rejected . bills , which had passed both houses in that very parliament : whereas i have not heard of any two publick bills that our gracious sovereign ever yet refused to pass ; as for the bill of succession , that has never yet passed both houses . also in the of king james , a declaration was sent from new-market to the parliament , wherein he asserts , that most priviledges of parliaments gr●w from precedents , which shew rather a toleration , then an inheritance : wherefore he could not allow of the stile they used to him , calling it their ancient and undoubted right and inheritance ; but could rather have wished they had said , their priviledges were derived from the grace and permission of his ancestors , and himself . thereupon he concludes , that he cannot with patience endure to hear his subjects to use such antimonarchical words concerning their liberties , except they had subjoyned unto them , that they were granted them by the grace and favour of his progenitors : nevertheless he promiseth to be careful of whatsoever priviledges they enjoy'd by long custom , and uncontrolled lawful precedents . neither were the houses of commons so full of those heats and animosities in former times , as they have been of late years , and in king charles the first his reign ; but as all things were carried with lenity and justice on the kings side , so with great modesty and deference by the commons . thus in the th . of edward the third , a parliament was called to consult of the domestick quiet , and the defence of the marches of scotland , and the security of the seas from enemies : but the commons humbly desired , not to be put to consult of things , queux ols n'ont pas cognizance , whereof they had no cognizance . in the of the same king , the commons being moved for their advice touching the prosecution of a war with france , after four days for consultation by an elegant speech of justice thorp , they answered that their humble desire of the king , was , that he would be advised therein by the lords , they being of more experience then themselves in such affairs . in the sixth year of richard the second , a parliament was called to consult whether the king should go in person to rescue the city of gaunt , or send an army thither , wherein the commons being asked their advice , by sir thomas puckring their speaker , they humbly answered , that the councels did more aptly belong to the king and his lords . the next year the commons are desired to advise of the articles of peace with france , but they again modestly excuse themselves , as too weak to councel in so weighty matters : and being a second time press'd as they did tender the repute of their countrey , and right of their king , they humbly delivered their opinoins rather for peace , then war ; nay , and touching the point we are now upon , of naming a successor , i have seen ( saith a late author ) a manuscript which makes mention that henry the eighth , some two years before his death , summon'd a parliament , wherein he intimated to them , that one of his main designs of confining that parliament , was , that they should declare a successor to the crown , but the parliament with much modesty answered , that touching that point , it belonged to his majesty to consider of it , and consul● with his learned privy-councel about it . and whomsoever his majesty would be pleased to n●minate in his last will , they would confirm and ratifie ; whereupon old king henry made a formal will , which was afterwards enrolled in chancery , &c. for such was the moderation , and modesty of the house of commons in former times , that they declined the agittation and cognizance of high state affairs , humbly transferring them to their soveraign , and his privy-councel ; a parliament man then thought it to be the adaequate object of his duty , to study the welfare , complain of grievances , and have the defect supplyed of that place for the which he served ; thus the burgess of l●nn , studied to find out somthing that might have advanced the trade of fishing ; he of norwich , that might profit the making of stuff , he of rye what might preserve their harbour from being choaked up wi●h ●he●v●s of sand ; he of ▪ tiverston , to further the manufacture of kersey's ; he of suffolk , what produced to the benefit of cloathing ; and the members of cornwal , what belong'd to their stanneries ; and so the respective members of their several counties ; and in doing this , they thought to have complyed and discharged the trusts reposed in them , without roveing at universals , prying into arcana imperii , and bringing religion to the bar ; the one ( as they thought ) belonging more properly to the chief magistrate and his councel of state ; as the other to the bishops , and clergy . let me not here be misconstrued , or censured to justifie his majesty , by reflecting on the priviledges of the commons : for as i would not have the king lose the least tittle of his prerogative , so neither would i have the commons one hairs breadth of their priviledges ; nor do i go to prescribe the late houses by the foot-steps of their predecessors , since by the concession , or connivance of late princes , 't is possible their priviledges may be increased ; no , my only design is partly to satisfie the world that no king of england ever dealt more candidly with a parliament then our present soveraign ▪ no not queen elizabeth her self , who is so much the peoples darling ; and partly , by the loyal moderate example of former houses , to prevent any heats for the future . neither for such a factious age as this is ▪ can any loyal subject discharge his duty bo●h to king and countrey , without endeavouring ( as much as in him lies ) to silence those mutineers , who having first endeavoured to exasperate the houses one against another , and both against the kingdo , afterwards in the lobby lye waiting the event of each warm debate with the same repacious hope , as herenofore did , birds of prey upon a roman army , when the signal to battel was given ; for the enflaming the two houses one against another , they make use of the rights and priviledges of conferences , asserting it the undoubted rights of the commons , ( as in fitz-harris ▪ s case they did at oxford ) to confer with the lords when they please , without any denyal ; which whether it be so or no , i shall not presume to determine , any farther then to acquaint you with a remarkable passage that occurred in the reign of henry the fourths when the house of commons petition'd the king that they might have advice and communication with certain lords about matters of business in parliament for the common good of the kingdom , which prayer ( as the record hath it ) our lord the king most graciously granted , but with this protestation , that he did it not of duty , nor of custom , but of his special grace and favour : so our lord the king charged the clerk of parliament , that this protest should be entred upon record in the parliament roll. this the king made known to them by the lord say , and his secretary , who told them , that our lord the king neither of due , nor custom , ought to grant any lords to enter into communication with them of matters touching the parliament , but by his special grace at this time he granted their request in this particular . and the said steward and secretary brought the king word back from the commons , that they well knew they could not have any such lords to commune with them about any business of parliament , without special grace and command from the king himself . in like manner we read in appian , ( de bell. civ ▪ lib. . ) that the creation of the tribune office was design'd only to ballance the power of the consuls , whose election then depended only on the senate , and to keep them from exercising the whole authority in the administration of their republick ; but yet this bred much emulation , and many quarrels amongst these magistrates , the one seeing themselves supported by the countenance of the senate , and the other by the favour of the people , and each party thought themselves robbed of that which was added to the other . now as about these and the like priviledges , they endeavour to set the two houses in an opposite flame , left otherwise they might comply with his majesty ; so is it their principal ●nd ( were it in their power , which god almighty prevent ) to unite both lords and commons against the king ; and for this purpose invent all the calumnies imaginable wherewithall to asperse him . thus first , they would have his subjects believe than the removing of the parliament to oxford , was an in●ustice ▪ not to be parallel'd ; whereas he that knows any thing , cannot be ignorant how often parliaments have formerly been summon'd to meet as well a● york , oxford ▪ and very many other places , as at westminster ; and that not out of any cause of sickne●s , or the like , but meerly out of the kings will and pleasure ▪ ●● hath power by his writs to assign their meeting when and where he pleaseth . nay , so hellish was the malice of some 〈◊〉 these commonwealths men , that ( as colledge himself confesses ) they would have made the members believe his majesty brought them thither to be murthered , a report so incredible and so barbarous , that as the wise man laughs at it , so every loyal subject abhors it ; that a prince whose greatest error , is his clemency , should draw upon himself the guilt of a whole nations bloud ; but now as that appears a malicious story , and is already confuted by its not happening , so let us esteem of their reports for the future . secondly , these disaffected persons ( who are all descended from the right forty one breed ) endeavouring to ●rect another perpetual parliament , insinuate into the peoples ears , how unnatural it is for the government to go hopping upon one leg , whereby they mean the king ; as also that he ought to summon a parliament , whenever two or three of the houshold of faith desire him , and then never dissolve them so long as any grievances are depending ; when ( if so ) they shall never be without some grievance or other to perpetuate their sitting , how small soever ; and for this very reason , ( although no man is a greater lover of parliaments then my self ) that expedient seem'd to me of dangerous consequence , which ( to fetter the duke of york ) enabled the parliament then in being , to convene and fit six months after this kings death ; since , if they had not power to act as a parliament , they could do us no good , and if they had , then by virtue of the same power wherewith they pass'd other acts , they might also pass an act to perpetuate themselves ; for frequent , and not long parliaments , must render this nation prosperous ; old members being too apt to hunt soul , after they have run many chaces . thirdly and lastly , these malecontents encourage the most hainous criminals , and those who have more personally and particularly offended his majesty , to petition the house of commons , thereby thinking either to force the king , as it were , against his own inclinations , to release such his enemies , or else to put him upon a necessity of disobliging the house by his denial ; and so on the contrary , they ( too often ) excite them to address themselves to his majesty , for the removal of such ministers who are chiefly in his favour ; as if it were a thing of that small concern to a prince , to sacrifice his most intimate friends , to whom he hath unbosomed his most secret councels , and who perhaps is so charged only , for executing his masters precepts . alas ! let every man but make it his own case , and see how uneasie he should be to part with , or give credit to any evil report against an old friend , relation or servant , without some convincing undeniable proof made out against him : not but that such addresses may be lawful , and many times expedient ; also ministers of state , too often faulty . nevertheless , such votes and petitions ought not to be rashly undertaken , but first duly weigh'd and considered , with the grounds , and evidences against them ; and this more especially now , since his majesty hath been pleased to declare , as he will not govern arbitrarily himself , so neither shall his subjects one towards another . which puts me in mind of the story of the two roman embassadors , valerius and horatius , who being sent by the decem-viri to the people , to enquire of their grievances , the people amongst other things complained of the tyranny of the decem-viri , desiring to have them deliver'd up into their hands , that they might burn them alive : but the embassadors not consenting to their demand , replyed , crudelitatem damnatis , incrudelitatem ruitis ; you condemn cruelty , and practise it your selves . i do not find that the house of commons was ever petition'd till about the middle of henry the seventh's reign , which petition is inserted among the statutes : but though the petition be directed to the house of commons in its title , yet the prayer of the petition is turn'd to the king , and not to the commons . the petition begins thus ; to the right worshipful commons in this present parliament assembled ; shews to your discreet wisdoms , the wardens of the fellowship of the craft of vpholsterers within london , &c. but the conclusion is , therefore may it please the kings highness , by the advice of the lords spiritual and temporal , and his commons in parliament , &c. again , i find many examples to prove that though the cognizance and debating of great state-affairs , belong to the high court of parliament , yet heretofore the lords have oftentimes transmitted such business to the kings privy-council ; amongst others let this suffice : when one mortimer , who stiled himself captain mendall , ( otherwise called jack cade ) came with a rabble of the vulgar , with a petition to the lower house , the commons sent it up to the lords , and the lords transmitted it to the kings privy-council to consider of . but to conclude this point , the difference between king and parliament is , that the one represents god , the other the people ; the consultative power by the kings permission is in parliament , but the commanding power remains inseparable in him ; the results and productions of parliaments , at best are but bills , 't is the kings breath makes them laws ; which are till then but dead things , they are like matches unfired ▪ 't is the king that gives them life , and light : the lords advise , the commons consent , but the king ordains ; they mould the bills , but the king makes them laws . having thus now sufficiently vindicated our most royal soveraign , against all the malicious aspersions of his enemies , who would falsly and treacherously charge the best-natur'd prince under heaven , with having a design to introduce an arbitrary government here amongst us ; give me leave in the next place to speak to their no less devillish , and wicked reproach of his being a papist , which these traytors cast upon him in revenge , to alienate ( were such a thing possible ) the hearts and affections of his loyal subjects , from that duty and allegiance they owe to him . they first pretended his majesty to be in a plot against his own life , and now because that seems too ridiculous , they give out , that whereas there were two parts of the popish plot , the one to introduce popery , the other to kill the king , his majesty was made acquainted only with the former part of it , ( viz ▪ ) the introducing of popery , and not with his own death . but here let any rational man consider , for what end they should design to take off the king , unless it were that he would not aid and assist them in bringing in the popish religion into this kingdom ; for if he were ( as these men say ) privy and assisting to their plot of subverting the government , for what purpose should they then conspire against his person ? we must therefore either suspend our belief of the one , or the other at least . secondly , in favour to the popish party they would make the world believe that in an unnatural manner , his majesty should for his royal brothers sake , consent to the destruction of his own natural son the d. of m. and accordingly possess his grace with an opinion , that he was sent into flanders on purpose to be destroyed ; hoping by this means to set the son against his father , and render him like that worst of men , darius , who together with fifty of his bastard brethren plotted against the life of his most indulgent father artaxe●xes , that good king of persia ; in which conspiracy ( as the historian says , ) it was prodigious , that in so great a number ▪ parricide could not only be contracted , but concealed , and that amongst fifty of his children , there was not one found , whom neither the majesty of a king , nor the reverence of an ancient man , nor the indulgency of so good a father , could recall from so horrible an act. justin lib. . we read how themistocles used to say , that such men as he resembled oaks , to whom men come for shelter , when they have need of them in rain , and desire to be protected by their boughs ▪ but when it is fair , they come to them to strip and peel them . aelian lib. . ch . . in the same manner do the brotherhood by the d. of m. make all their present applications to him , as thinking him a fit pole to support those helpless hops , and the only person of whom for quality and courage they may make use as a general against a popish successor ; they make him the claw to take the chesnut out of the fire , which being done they will as ignominiously cashier him , their design being undoubtedly to erect a geneva republick , and no other : nay , did they yet intend a monarchy , their malice would after such a rebellion reject him , even for his royal fathers sake ; therefore as his grace must draw his virtue from his bloud , so i doubt not but e're long to hear ▪ the fatted calf is kill'd , especially since he is blessed with so merciful a king , and so indulgent a father . but thirdly , another argument which they urge to prove the king a favourer of popery , is , his being unwilling to disinherit his only brother , and ( if his majesty die before him without issue ) his next lawful successor . on this subject out of doleman's succession of the crown , ( though a popish book ▪ ) they steal many protestant arguments , which ( to be thought learned men , ) they vent for their own ; as indeed upon all other subjects , their speeches are nothing but fragments out of old parliament pamphlets , collected , pack'd together , and vented for their own ; ephemeris parliamentaria is a book of main use to them for this purpose ▪ but to return to our subject : now let any man make this his own case , and consider , whether he should not think it a hard put upon him , to be forced to dis-inherit his own son , ( the objection lying as well against a son , as a brother ) only for his changing his religion , and that too as well for turning presbyterian , anabaptist , or quaker , as for turning pap●st , they being alike recusants , and equally offenders against the established law and government of this land , witness the of eliz. nay to sacrifice , and deliver up a brother , who hath so often exposed his life amongst crouds of bullets , and to the raging of the boisterous seas , for the security and honour both of king and kingdom ; a brother who was an equal sharer with him in all his late afflictions , as well in the loss of a father , as in other sad effects of the late dreadful rebellion , this must be no small violence to his nature ; especially since it was never yet made appear , that his r. h. was in the least privy to any plot , or conspiracy against the person of his sacred majesty ; nay , by dr. oates his confession it appears , that these bloudy-minded papists had as well designed to take away the duke's life , as the king 's , had they not found him fitting for their turn ; which shews that they were never assured of his highnesses joyning with them , but rather that he was altogether ignorant of their intrigues , which ▪ made them question his adherence : since it may be very possible for a younger brothers servant , to conspire the death of his masters elder brother , in hopes to better his service , without ever acquainting his master with the design . which things considered , it seems to me very unreasonable to censure his majesty for his unwillingness to dis-inherit his brother , purely upon a surmise , and no proof ; also to argue from the ill consequence that must attend the dominion of a popish successor , were to disown that precept of christianity , which forbids us to do evil that good may come of it . nevertheless , as the house of commons voted , i cannot but acknowledge , that the unfortunate pervertion of his royal highness , may have been a great encouragement of that party to hope once more to establish their superstitious worship amongst us , and for that purpose they may , ( contrary to his highnesses knowledge , ) enter into plots and conspiracies , to divide and set us altogether by the ears ; when in the mean time , like the kite in the fable , they would come and seize upon us both ; for the consistory and jesuits maintaining throughout the world a traffick of sedition and privy conspiracy , have yet had so much wit , as to land it in presbyterian bottoms , ( fit vessels for rebellion ) and to cover their disobedience to governours , under the attempts of the anabaptists , who naturally acknowledge none ; so that to ruine this popish fabrick , we must extirpate this fanatick foundation . therefore i could heartily wish , and i do believe that most moderate men are now of the same opinion , that if the parliament had embraced his majesties gracious offers of hampering and fettering a popish successor , by laws , so as to render him ( as much as was possible ) uncapable of altering the government either in church or state , and that by some parliamentary expedient they had taken away his sting ; since now by refusing to accept any thing , because we cannot have every thing , we expose our selves both at home and abroad to danger , we miss the opportunity of making other good laws both against popery and a popish successor , who might have come upon us in this interim , when we had no law to oppose him , and his majesty ( whom we daily think in so much danger ) done otherwise then well , also for fear of this uncertain danger of a popish successor , ( whom with gods blessing his majesty may survive ) we expose not only our selves , but also all holland , flanders , and all the protestants of christendom to the merciless rage and fury of the french king. whereas did we agree amongst our selves , and assist his majesty in his alliance with other protestant princes , and states , we might happily prevent the effusion of that protestant bloud which will otherways be shed , as the dutch memorial complains . moreover , excepting this bill of succession , which never came to his hands , what other security for the protestant religion has his majesty ever denyed the parliament ; has he not offered to pass any expedient that could be proposed , has he not put out what ever proclamations they desired , either to banish the papists so many miles , or to encourage more witnesses to come in , with promises of rewards , and pardon ! in fine , what has he left undone that might tend to promote further discovery , to extirpate popery , and to secure the protestant religion ? now as to the truth of the popish plot in general , to subvert the government both in church and state , introducing the roman catholick religion into this kingdom , &c. is a thing beyond all possibility of doubt , and hath already been so declared by king and parliaments , nay the several circumstances belonging to it ( which i value more then the credit of the witnesses , ) makes it as visible as the sun at noon-day ; and besides the interest of the jesuits ( who are certainly the wickedest of all sorts of m●n ) 't is natural for all persons to covet to bring over converts to their own opinions , in civiel ma●ters , vain glory ; and in sprituals , the reward for doing an act of charity prompts them to it , for if either papist , or sectary believe their faith to be the only saving faith , how then ( say they ) can we love our neighbours as our selves , unless we endeavour to draw them over to our own perswasion , wherein we think men can only be saved ? and this i make no question has been one main reason . ( together with their promise of salvation to the converter ) that allured many of the most vertuous sort of papists into this conspiracy of introducing popery amongst us ; another reason which may have prompted their clergy , and the most dissolute sort of papists , to this undertaking , was perhaps , the vast rich abbies , and revenues which did heretofore belong to the church of rome ; and the which they cannot but with envy now behold in the possession of their enemies ; neither would they give themselves the least trouble for our conversion , were it not more for our estates-sake then for our souls good ; wherefore as their interest why there should be a plot , is one argument to me there is one ; so the plot is likewise another argument to me , that they have a design upon church-lands ; for which reason i could almost wish that all the abbies in england had been demolished and levelled with the ground at the time of the reformation , since the best way to destroy priests , as well as crows , is to pluck down both their nests . now these things considered , do fully satisfie me of the papists plot , and design to introduce popery , and with that arbitrary government ▪ whereby alone they inspect to be reinstated in the possession of their church-revenues and with the same do i also believe that the heat of this popish plot hath brought to life , the dissenting serpents , whose design now is , to sting the protestants upon the papists backs . there is a machiavelian plot. though eve y nor all-fact is not ; by setting brother against brother , to claw , and curry one another , 't is plain enough to him that knows how saints lead brothers by the nose . hudib . nevertheless now , although i believe the popish plot in general , yet can i not but suspend my credit of many particular circumstances given in evidence concerning the kings death : as the manner of groves , and pickerings going to shoot the king with silver bullets , is to me a pill of faith that i can hardly swallow ; which very thing makes many incredulous persons raise this scruple , whether some men perceiving the designs of the papists to introduce popery ( which part of the plot is undeniable even by their own party ) did not ( to represent it more formidable to the common people forge this aditional plot of murthering the king , the duke of buckingham , earl of shaftsbury , earl of ossery , and other great darlings of the people , ( who god be praised have none of them been yet assaulted ; ) that joyning both plots together , the vulgar people might be the more exasperated , and so by preventing the one , help to keep out the other ; but whether this be the truth of it or no , i do not positively affirm , only this i know , that since colledges tryal , neither i , nor i presume any one else , can have that esteem for the popish witnesses as before , where if you believe dugdale , turbervil , and smith , what must you think of oates's evidence , which has help'd towards the hanging so many ? and if you credit the doctor , what will your opinion be of dugdale , turbervil and smiths evidences , which have cost my lord stafford and so many others their lives ? 't is a mistery which nothing but the gallows can expound , therefore let him that best deserves it have it , only this i can say in behalf of the king's evidence against colledge , that i my self have bought two yards of popery and slavery ribbon of him at short's coffee-house in oxford , where i also heard him speak things ( though not treasonable , yet ) scandalously reflecting on the whole royal family ; also one of those treasonable pictures which he deny'd ever to have dispersed , is now to be seen at a smiths house at fretwel in oxfordshire , the which colledge gave him with his own hands , as others of his neighbours can testifie . nay , mr. sheriff of oxon , and other gentlemen , can testifie , that the day before his death he acknowledged to them many things whereof he was convicted at his tryal , the which he again denied at the time of his execution ; how then the london jury could think him so innocent as not to deserve to be brought upon his tryal , is a riddle , which all men wonder they have not yet expounded , by some vindication of themselves to the world ; unless it be as the ingenious hudibras says : that witnesses like watches go , just as they 're set , too fast or slow ; and where in conscience they 're strait lac'd , 't is ten to one that side is cast . is not the winding up the witness , and nicking , more than half the business ? do not your juries give the verdict as if they felt the cause , not heard it ; and as they please make matter of fact run all on one side , as they 're pack'd ? nature has made man's breast no windows , to publish what he does within-doors , nor what dark secrets there inhabit , vnless his own rash folly blab it . this grand-ignoramus-jury did undoubtedly cost the prisoner his life ; for had they brought in billa vera , then a pack'd petty-jury might afterwards have acquitted him in middlesex , and prevented his oxford-tryal , which was a great over-sight of the brotherhood ; as also was dr. oates's appearing so violently against the rest of his brother-witnesses , whereby he has cast no small blur upon the plot in general . but two of a trade can never agree . now , to conclude this subject , give me leave only to acquaint you what more favour mr. colledge had shewn him then mr. staley , who being buried pompously , was for that treason afterwards taken out of his grave by command , and his quarters erected upon the several city-gates ; whereas mr. colledge , though no less decently interred , was nevertheless permitted to remain undisturbed : so much more merciful to him was our good king , whom he had offended , then those barbarous oxonians , whom he had never injured , and who yet shouted at his condemnation . and now , gentlemen , having plainly shew'd and demonstrated the miseries of the late civil war , and our danger of running into the same again ; having without flattery represented to you the justi●e and clemency of our present king , as also the moderation of former parliaments , and having most impartially characterized the endeavours of the factious , and tyranny of a commonwealth , my earnest prayers and entreaty now is , that you would not too easily credit those idle reports and jealousies concerning the king and government , which are raised only to deceive you ; that , as well in your judgment as obedience , you would follow the supreme authority of the nation ; esteeming the king's glory your honour , and his grandeur your security . men of heat are men of faction , , therefore avoid all such zealots , of any kind ; and whe● his maj●sty shall summon your picture again to sit in the parliament-house , be sure it be drawn by a good hand : the government by king , lords and commons is the best of all others , therefore endeavour to support it , by following every man his own vocation , resigning state-affairs to the conduct of king and parliament , to whom they more properly belong ; as for my self , i was ever before of a different opinion , and blush not to own that my principles are changed , since 't is not out of any preferment , interest or expectation at court , ( which as i never wanted , so i never sought after ) but purely upon the merits of the cause . i now perceive so much faction and knavery among the whigparty , and so much uncertainty among the witnesses , that he who wishes well to king charles and old england , must equally abhor both whigs and tories , that is , both enemies to king , and enemies to parliaments . again , gentlemen , as well our interest as duty obliges us to promote peace ; and though we should ( as we have no reason to do ) apprehend our selves to be under some small grievance , yet let us esteem it as a scab , that oftentimes breaks out in the most wholesom constituted bodies of states , and may with less smart be continued on , then picked off . if hopes of raising a fortune be any motive to engage you to a party , remember first , that the sole power of rewarding virtue , and punishing vice , is in the kings breast ; all imployments both of honour and profit , solely at his majesties disposal : and secondly , remember that the die of war seldom turns to their advantage that first cast it : thus oliver , who was not known or heard of at the beginning of the late war , nevertheless went away with the prize . therefore ( saith a late author ) 't is good to have patience , and see the tree sufficiently shaken , before you run and scramble for the fruit , lest instead of profit or honour , you meet with a cudgel or stone ; and then too , see that you fall in rather by compulsion , then design . the example of brutus , rather then cato , is to be followed in bad times ; it being safer to be patient , then active ; or appear a fool , then a malecontent . should you ever live to be reduced under the extremity of a tyrants reign , and he should exact an acknowledgment of obedience from you , i see not how either in conscience or interest you could refuse him , it being the highest frenzy imaginable to dispute your innocency with those able to convert the greatest into a fault ; no plea is sufficient to bar the lyon of his right . also if it be no dishonour to submit to a stronger party , ( though of thieves ) when fallen into their hands , then let not the example of a few fools , who ( like lice ) thrive no where so well as in a prison , tempt you to oppose your felicity against the imperative power , under which the disposure of your person doth wholly remain , and therefore madness to deny it words . it is most dangerous to be the pen or mouth of a multitude congregated by the jingling of their fetters , lest a pardon or compliance knock them off , and all the reckoning left for you to pay ; when if you expect relief from the common people , you will then too late find the wise florentine's words true , that he who builds upon the people , builds upon dirt ; since the zeal of the rabble is not so soon heated by the real oppressions of their rulers , but may be as easily cooled by the specious promises and breath of authority . massianello adored by the mobile one day , is torn in pieces by the same the next ; therefore nurse not ambition with your own bloud ▪ nor sacrifice a gallant person for the applauses of an ungrateful , unthinking croud , which fame ( like venus ) is formed only out of the foam of the people . neither are any grown'd more in this warlike mill of vicissitudes , then such obstinate fools , who glory in the repute of state-martyrs after they are dead ; which concerns them no more , then what was said an hundred years before they were born ; it being the greatest odds their names will not be registred , or if they be , after death they are no more sensible of honour , then any dead animal whatsoever . most persons have enough to do about their own private concerns of family and estate , therefore what greater folly can there be , then to send to market for troubles , as those do that vex themselves about state-affairs , foreign wars , and the like ? finally , now as both from duty and interest i have used the best of my endeavour to perswade obedience and loyalty to king and government ▪ and unity and peace amongst one another ; so let me conclude with this disswasive from any contrary attempts , by shewing you the happy difference betwixt our present condition , and that of . first , god be thanked our enemies want such a factious parliament , with malice and cunning to invent mischief . secondly , ( god be praised for it ) they want such a perpetual parliament , with power to countenance and support all factious designs , without fear of being dissolved . thirdly , that providence which i trust will defend both king and kingdom , hath denied them at present such a popular general , and officers to carry on the sedition for them in the field , without which their treason must soon fall to the ground ; for a multitude without a head , is altogether unserviceable , as appear'd upon the accident of virginius ; when the people having taken arms , and re●●red to the holy mount , the senate sent to them to know upon what account they had abandoned their officers , and betaken themselves to that mount : but the authority of the senate was so venerable among the people , that having no head among them , there was no body durst return answer . titus livius tells us , non defuit quid responderetur , deerat qui responsum daret ; they wanted not what to say , but who to deliver it : for having no certain commander , every private person was unwilling to expose himself to their displeasure : whereby we may understand , how useless a thing is a multitude without a head. fourthly , and lastly , astrea ( since his majesties happy restauration ) hath descended and fixed the militia upon its right owner , which militia ( under pretence of belonging to the people ) was before made use of against the king ▪ now all these considerations , together with the never-to-be-forgotten smart of the late civil war , may i hope conduce to that everlasting peace and union of king and kingdom , which is so continually and earnestly implored of almighty god , by ( gentlemen ) your humble moderator and servant , philanglus . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e a. d . kent . essex . chelmf●●d bucks . middlesex . essex . reading . bedford . warder castle . northamtonshire . sudley castle . exeter . rutlandsh . kent . berks. windsor . lincolnsh . herefordsh . salust ques m●nus atque lingua perjurio aut g●vil● s●ng 〈…〉 alebat . salust . a●d 〈…〉 principi● sensus , 〈◊〉 siquid ●●cultius p●rat , exquirere illicitum est . tacit. bills rejected in one session by q. eliz. 〈◊〉 est ●●strum ●estimare quem s●pra c 〈…〉 ter●s , & quibus de caus●s extollat . sibi summum rerum judicium dii d●dere : nobis obsequ●● gloria re●icta est . tacit. nec quies gentium sine armis , nec arma sine stipendio , nec stipendia sine tributi● haberi queunt . ta●it . delatores , genus hominum publico exitio repertum , & paenis quidem nunquam satis coercitum , p●r praenis elici bantu● . tacit. ☜ ☞ the law and light within the most sure rule or light, which sheweth the right use and end of the scripture, manifested in opposition to several false principles inserted in a book intitled scripture light the most sure light, by william bridge, the great pastor and reverend father, so accounted, of the church at yarmouth in norfolk / confuted by george whitehead. whitehead, george, ?- . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing w estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) the law and light within the most sure rule or light, which sheweth the right use and end of the scripture, manifested in opposition to several false principles inserted in a book intitled scripture light the most sure light, by william bridge, the great pastor and reverend father, so accounted, of the church at yarmouth in norfolk / confuted by george whitehead. whitehead, george, ?- . p. s.n., [london : ?] caption title. imprint suggested by wing. reproduction of original in the union theological seminary library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng bridge, william, ?- . -- scripture-light the most sure light. puritans -- england -- controversial literature. society of friends -- england -- apologetic works. dissenters, religious -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - judith siefring sampled and proofread - judith siefring text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the law and light within , the most sure rule or light , which sheweth the right use and end of the scripture , manifested in opposition to several false principles inserted in a book intituled scripture light the most sure light , by william bridge , the great pastor and reverend father , so accounted , of the church at yarmouth in norfolk . confuted by george whitehead . having lately viewed part of william bridge his book aforesaid , who hath long been esteemed an eminent teacher among many of the professors , and them called independents in england , and having in his book found many false principles and sinful doctrines , contrary to the scriptures of truth , it was upon me in the fear of the lord to lay open some of his principles , that the ignorant may be instructed , and the professors of yarmouth and els-where may not trust in delusion nor in deluders , but cease from man whose breath is in his nostrils , and no longer esteem of any above what they are , but turn to the spirit of the lord as it appears in them , which spirit searcheth all things , and leadeth them into all truth who are willing to be guided by it , whereby they may try all things , both spirits , doctrines and fruits , and hold fast that which is good , which spirit they that hate it and resist the movings of it when it moves against their ungodlinesse and errours , it will be a witnesse against them unto condemnation , and they shall remain in darknesse , and have their portion in darknesse ; so let the professors and people of all sorts consider these things in the fear of god. first i shall lay down one particular for a truth which wil. bridge hath inserted in his book in p. . but it is against himself & such as he is , where he saith , pr. that a knowing learned man it may be can utter more of the scripture then he feels , but a good man feels more then he can utter . answ. this is a testimony against himself and his brethren the priests , who are learned men , who utter many things not in the true feeling which the good man is in ; so they are not the good men , for they walk contrary to that which should bring them into the feeling of truth in the inward parts ; & i shall here prove that william bridge is out of the true feeling when he utters such doctrines as he hath done contrary to the truth . pr. from pet. . . we have also a more sure word of prophecy whereunto ye do well to take heed , w. bridge saith the apostle doth here prefer the written word before a revelation from heaven , now if he do prefer it before a divine revelation , then it is not to give place to the dawning of some special light and revela●ion in the heart , p. . answ. in this he hath both perverted the scripture & affirmed that which is fals , for the apostles preferred divine revelation before the writings , as having the things of god revealed in them , before they spoke them forth or wrot of them , and peter saith , the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man , but holy men of god spake as they were moved by the holy ghost , pet. ● . ● . so that they first had the prophesies of scripture revealed in them by the holy ghost before they were written , and that word which the apostle directs to was the word of prophecy which was before the words were written , nigh in the heart , and gave place to the dawning of a special light and revelation in their hearts , for it led them to the dawning of the day and the arising of the day-star in their hearts which was christ , for whose revelation they hoped through the word or spirit of prophecy in them , and such did not deny the giving place to the dawning of the special light and revelation in the heart , as w. bridge in his blindness hath done , see mat. . . pet. . . pet. ● . . pr. he saith p. . i le tell you sayes the apostle what ye shall do whilest ye are in the dark , even take heed to the word written . ans. that 's false , the apostle sayes no such words , neither saies he the word is written but living , and they were to take heed to the word of prophecy which they had as a light that shined in a dark place , until the day-star arose in their hearts ; now they that are in the dark do not understand the scriptures , then how should they take heed to that they know not ? but the light in the heart which shineth in darknesse , before it shine out of darknesse it gives the true understanding ; again william bridge is exceeding dark in counting the word of prophesie the writing or scriptures of the prophets , for the apostles words or writings which testifies of christ as he is come are as sure as the prophets writings ( or more ) so that if he had intended the more sure word to be the scriptures without , he would rather have said ye have a more sure word of the apostles to take heed unto ; and again , the scriptures doth not shine to them that are in darknesse , because they understand them not , but the light shineth in darknesse though the darknesse comprehends it not , and the least measure of the light of christ being waited in by any one , it prophesies of a greater manifestation of light , and leads them that believe in it to the revelation of christ , the power and glory of the father , so that this light in them is more sure to them then a voice or vision which another hath heard or seen which they have not , a manifestation of which light or spirit is given to every man to profit withal , john . , . . cor. pr. in page . he saith , a good man may live and dwell in a place or town where no means of grace are , in a poor dark ignorant corner of the world. ans. this is false doctrine , for the grace of god which brings salvation hath appeared unto all men , titus . . and this grace is not without some means of it as it doth convince of sin , and teacheth to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts , and it appears with the means of it as to convince of sin and to teach righteousnesse , as thousands do and shall witnesse , and they who will not be taught by it , with it they shall be left without excuse . pr. in page . he saith , david thirsted after ordinances , saying , my soul thirsteth after thee o god to see thy power and thy glory , ps. . , . ans. david in thirsting after god and his power and glory , thirsted after that which is beyond all carnal or visible ordinances , and shall remain when all such your ordinances shall fail and have an end ; but now see how plainly william bridge hath in this contradicted himself , for if the scripture be preferred before revelation from heaven , and be not to give place to such a revelation in the heart as he hath affirmed , then what needed david have thirsted to see the power and glory of god , for that is revealed in the hearts of believers , eph. . . pr. in page . and . a very good man may be much in the dark , ( temptation time is a dark time ) yet this scripture light he hath alwayes by him , to the law and to the testimony . ans. a very good man is born of god and walketh in the light , and though he be tempted entereth not into the temptation , for the wicked one toucheth him not , as john said , and that is the most sure light to him which keepeth him out of temptations , which light was before the scriptures were , and the law is light , and the testimony is the spirit of prophesie which was in the saints before they wrote the scriptures , which are not the light but testifie of it . pr. page . joseph when mary was first with child , he did not know what to do in the case till the angel of the lord appeared to him . ans. which flatly contradicts his former words , for then the angel of the lord and what he revealed to joseph was more sure to him then the scriptures of the prophets , for they did but foretell of christ , but the angel convinced joseph concerning christ , that he must not put away his wife as he would have done , as by the scripture , touching fornication which she was not guilty of , as the angel convinced him , mat. . . so that revelation was more sure then the scripture . pr. page . wicked men have the light of the scripture as a blind man hath the sun , the sun is in the firmament over the head of the blind man , yet it is not light to him . ans. here again william bridge hath contradicted himself , for then the scripture is not the most sure light to the wicked , because the wicked are as far from understanding the scripture , as the blinde man is from seeing the light of the sun , by this mans words , and yet he bids them that are wicked in the dark take heed to the word written , which is no better then to bid a blind man follow the light of the sun , but that is the most sure light which shineth in the hearts , and opens the blinde mans eyes , and brings to divine revelation , which the scripture without doth not , but testifies of the light and of revelations , which the light of christ brings to . pr. page . the scripture light is the most excellent safe and sure light , it is the light of lights ; there are many false lights in the world . ans. god is the light of lights , the father of lights , james . . and not the scripture , for it is the writing not the light , and if god be the fountain of lights , from whence did these false l●ghts come ? surely william bridge hath spoken here much out of the feeling , for that which is false is not the light , though deceit may transform like the light , but no deceit is really light . pr. page . in looking in the scripture , this great looking-glass , ye see the truth ▪ that are therein contained concerning god and christ , there is god seen especially , and christ seen , there also you see your selves and your own dirty face , this is that manifesting light under christ. ans. here is confusion and false doctrines added to confusion , for if the wicked have the scripture but as the blind man hath the sun , how should they see their dirty faces in the scriptures , or see the truth , or god or christ in the scriptures , when the heaven of heavens cannot contain god , kings . . much less the scripture , and he that would here divide the scripture light from christ , as if the scripture light were one and revelation were another , he is blind , for the light which the saints have in scripture is in them , and is the light of christ , without which the scriptures cannot be understood , so that is the manifesting light which gives the true understanding of the scriptures , and the letter or writing not the light . pr. page . scripture light is the highest light , scripture dispensation the highest dispensation , the dispensation of visions and revelations was of a lower rank . ans. herein hath william bridge both shewen his ignorance and contradicted his brethren the priests , for many of the priests do account the dispensation of the prophets and apostles of christ , which was a dispensation of visions and revelations , far higher then theirs who now have the scriptures , but do not own revelations to be manifest in these dayes , when as no man knoweth the father but the son , and he to whom the son will reveal him , mat. . . so william bridge in his counting visions and revelations of a lower rank then the scripture , he might as well say that the knowledge of god and christ which is revealed , is lower then the letter , when as they were in a scripture dispensation , and had the letter of the law and prophets who persecuted christ , and paul was there when a persecutor , but when he received the dispensation of god given him by revelation , whereby he was made a minister , he knew that which was above or beyond the scriptures , even christ revealed in him the mystery , and so preached him unto the gentiles , and did not sleight divine revelation , nor set the letter above it as william bridge hath done , gal. . col. . . cor. . . pr. page . if god should now speak unto you by visions or visional revelations , how would you know that this were the voice of god but by the scripture , and who doth not know that the devil will speak an hundred truths . ans. here his grose ignorance of the voice of god is seen , for god is able to manifest his own voice to them that have not the scriptures without , as he did before they were written , and the sheep of christ knows and hears his voice ; what doth william bridge believe that the sheep of christ must all go to the scripture without , and try his voice thereby , when the devil can speak scripture or a hundred truths ? then what must try the devils voice , and how then must they try voyces and spirits that cannot read the scriptures ; now all that own the spirit of truth which searcheth all things , whereby words voyces and spirits are to be tryed , they may soon see the priests ignorance in these things . pr. pag. . i am to be so far from desiring god to speak in this way of a vision , as i am bound rather to be backward to it . ans. here william bridge his desires are contrary to the true ministers desires , for they went on to visions and revelations , and preached what god had revealed by his word in them , but in this he hath manifested himselfe to be like the priests of old , from whom the vision was departed , and the day was become dark over them that they might not have a vision , and where there is no vision the people perish , mica . cor. . . pr. pag. . if any have a revelation to try or confirme any gospel doctrine , 't is a delusion of satan . ans. which is quite contrary to the apostles doctrine , for they taught them that had revelation to try all things and hold fast that which is good . thes. . . and by the revelation of christ they witnessed the doctrine of the gospel confirmed and fulfilled in them , and this is no delusion , so that this priest might as well have said that the knowledge of god is a delusion , for it comes by revelation and confirmes gospel doctrine . pr. pag. . he saith the light and law within us here is imperfect , the law of grace within , & the light within is not able to convince others . ans. which are both false , for the law and light of the lord is perfect , and by this light within are many convinc'd of their evil deeds , and reproved for them , and things that are reproved are made manifest by the light , & who ever speaks to the convincing others it must be from the light within which is perfect , as every gift of god is perfect , eph. . . col. . . pr. though the law and light and spirit within us be a principle of good , yet it is not the rule of our goodness or lives . ans. herein william bridge hath plainly contradicted himself , for he confesseth in pag. that the inward law and light discovers those heaps of sin that are in the soul , and doth not onely incline a man unto what is good , but it inables him thereunto ; then i say , that the inward light both discovering sin , and inclining and inabling man to that which is good , it must be the rule of their lives , for the spirit of truth leadeth into all truth , john . . . which is more then the scripture will do , though we truly own the sripture in its place as it testifies of the truth , and against sin in the generall , yet the light within must be the more sure rule , for it shewes unto particular men their particular sins , and shews unto them wherein they are guilty , and opens their eyes and sheweth them the way to life which is christ , who enlightens every man coming into the world , and this is more then all outward words or writings . pr. in pag. , william bridge saith , if the law and light and spirit that is in me be my rule , then i may do any thing without sin , i may whore , be drunk , steal or any thing without sin , but the law , light and spirit may command me to do such things as these . ans. here 's heaps of confusion & horrible blasphemy , for before he confessed that the inward law and light doth both incline a man to what is good , and inables him to it , and that it is a great help to us in our way to life , and against this william bridge in pag. saith , that the law or light or spirit within you is christ in you , so you may see how horribly he hath blasphemed against christ , in making him the author or commander of whoredome , drunkenness and stealing , as by his words appeare , when as christ condemns all unrighteousness , and all that own christ in them for their guide and rule , they witness that he is come to condemn sin in the flesh , and not to lead them into whoredome and drunkenness , nor any sin , for he purgeth throughly them that receive him , mat. . . and . . rom . , , ● . pr. if the law and light and spirit that is in me be my rule , then i am my own rule , and so i am god. ans. this is false and absurd , and contradicts his own words , for he confessed that the law or light or spirit within is christ , now then if christ be my rule , i am not my own rule , nor am i god ; for he that hath christ to rule him , is not ruled by himselfe but by christ in him , whereby he is come to deny himselfe and to follow christ. pr. pag. , he saith , the scripture is the first ground of our faith and hope . ans. then christ is not your ground nor hope who are out of the apostles doctrine , for they witnessed that another foundation could no man lay then that which is laid , which is christ , who was in them their hope , and the author and finisher of their faith , cor. . ● . heb. . . pr. pag. . humane reason is a beam of divine wisdom , yet if it be not inlightened with a higher light of the gospel , it cannot reach unto the things of god. ans. here 's both falsehood and absurdity , for a beam of divine wisdom is not humane but divine , as the wisdom is from whence it comes , and a beam of divine wisdom need not higher light then that wisdom , by which wisdom the things of god are reached and known , now he is exceeding blinde who cannot discern humane reason which is earthly and corruptible , from the divine wisdom , which is incorruptible and eternall . pr. pag. . t is revelation light from the gospel that doth bring to heaven . ans. so now at length he hath granted to the truth ; but in this he hath overthrown all his former doctrine against revelation , wherein he did set the scripture above revelation , and would not have scripture to give place to the dawning of the speciall light and revelation in the heart ; but now is the light of the gospel which is the power of god revealed in his people , which hath discovered the blindness and ignorance of all such blind leaders who are ignorant of the light and law of god within , and who are against the knowledge of god in their preaching against divine revelation , concerning which william bridge hath so largely shewen his grosse darkness and blasphemies ; and this may be a warning to all his hearers , & all professors who are not wilfully blind to be awakened and cease from such blind watchmen and pastors , who have long fed themselves and not the flocks , and come to christ the true shepherd and pastor who will feed his flock himselfe . this in tender love was i moved to give forth for the simple ones sake that they may be undeceived ; and let none at the reading hereof be offended at what i have charged against william bridge aforesaid , for i am willing ( if the lord so order me , and give me an oportunity ) publickly to prove that he leads the people besides the wayes of god , and teacheth errour in stead of truth ; this i am willing to prove to his face if the lord so order me , if william bridge would stand a fair dispute with me publikly , and stand to his own doctrines ; many more of whose false doctrines i could manifest in his book , which at present i omit the end . a rational defence of non-conformity wherein the practice of nonconformists is vindicated from promoting popery, and ruining the church, imputed to them by dr. stillingfleet in his unreasonableness of separation : also his arguments from the principles and way of the reformers, and first dissenters are answered : and the case of the present separation, truly stated, and the blame of it laid where it ought to be : and the way to union among protestants is pointed at / by gilbert rule ... rule, gilbert, ?- . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing r estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a rational defence of non-conformity wherein the practice of nonconformists is vindicated from promoting popery, and ruining the church, imputed to them by dr. stillingfleet in his unreasonableness of separation : also his arguments from the principles and way of the reformers, and first dissenters are answered : and the case of the present separation, truly stated, and the blame of it laid where it ought to be : and the way to union among protestants is pointed at / by gilbert rule ... rule, gilbert, ?- . [ ], [i.e. ] p. printed for john salusbury ..., london : . reproduction of original in dr. williams' library, london, england. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng stillingfleet, edward, - . -- unreasonableness of separation. church of england -- controversial literature. dissenters, religious -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - judith siefring sampled and proofread - judith siefring text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a rational defence of non-conformity : wherein the practice of non conformists is vindicated from promoting popery , and ruining the church , imputed to them by dr. stillingfleet in his unreasonableness of separation . also his arguments from the principles and way of the reformers , and first dissenters are answered . and the case of the present separation , truly stated ; and the blame of it laid where it ought to be . and the way to union among protestants is pointed at . by gilbert rule , minister of the gospel . ezek. xliii . , . thou son of man , shew the house to the house of israel , that they may be ashamed of their iniquities , and let them measure the pattern , &c. and if they be ashamed of all that they have done , shew them the form of the house , and the fashion thereof , &c. london , printed for iohn salusbury , at the rising - sun , near the royal-exchange in cornhil . m dc lxxxix . the preface . the fierce contentions of this age about the mint , and annise , and cummin of religion , ( i mean religious ceremonies that men have devised and imposed ) hath , in a great measure hindered people from minding , with that application that becometh the weightier things of the law ; to wit , the love of god , and of our neighbour , and due regard to the promoting of true holiness , and the salvation of mens souls , the heavy sufferings of many in england , and in scotland , for not complying with such things , as their imposing task-masters did not so much as pretend to give scripture warrant for , are too notorious to be denied , and too smarting to be forgotten : how many thousands have been put on this sad dilemma ? either to wound their consciences , or to be destroyed by taking away their estates , liberties , livelihood , and life it self . but now the lord ( in his infinite wisdom , and tender mercy to an undeserving generation ) having by some late revolutions , first broken the yoak of the oppressors , and made them , for some time taste a little of the cup that they had made their brethren drink deeply of ; and then gratiously , and wonderfully , delivered both contending parties from that utter ruine that was manifestly impending ; and made us like them that dream'd , and done exceeding abundantly for us , above what we could think , out done our faith , as was foretold , luk. . . he hath by this surprising providence , laid an obligation on all protestants ( and they who are such in earnest , will mind it ) to turn to the lord from every evil way , that hath been in their heart or hand ; and particularly to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace ; to endeavour to speak , and do the same things ; and where that cannot be attained , ( through want of light , and other sinful disorders of the soul , not easily , nor soon removed , without that pouring out of the spirit from on high , promised , isa. . . and else where ; which we should daily , and earnestly pray and wait for . ) to bear with one another in love. they who know no other way to unity , but uniformity , will for ever miss of their design , unless either all men were perfect in knowledge , and wholly freed from irregular passions , or conscience were wholly laid to sleep , and its use banished out of the world. toward this blessed end , peace among protestants , sober reasoning between dissenting parties , may have some usefulness ; even eristick writings , may prove irenick , if managed , and read , with that spirit that becometh the gospel ; that is , with due love to truth and peace ; and if i did not judge this book to be of that tendency , i should never consent that it should see the light . the apostle giveth us two excellent directions for attaining this end , phil. . . ( beside the duty of forbearing one another , till the lord clear mistakes to them who are out of the way , which he doth more than insinuate , ver . . ) but alas , even about these ways to peace we contend , as will appear in this treatise : yet in my opinion , the apostle doth there clearly hold forth , that there is a rule to which all are obliged to conform their actions , and principles , and particularly , church administrations : let us walk by the same rule : in all reason , this rule must be divine , in that it is here generally injoyned to be minded , and that by all christians . is it imaginable that the apostle intendeth to oblige all the churches to take a rule of mans making for directing them how they shall please god ? besides , church , or humane canons never were , or are like to be the same in all churches ; nor indeed can they of the things that are left to the church to order at her discretion , that which is fit in one place , may be most unfit in another . wherefore if the apostle had aimed at these , he would have spoken of rules , not a rule . we have then cause to think , that the way to church peace is to take the word of god for the rule by which all the affairs of his house should be ordered : if we would enjoyn nothing , peculiar to religion , to be observed , but what is warranted there : and would not be too busie in making canons , for determining these things that are extrinsick to religion , its rites common to it with other solemn actions , further than necessity requireth , and in these determinations , keep within the bounds of the general directions of the word of god : if we would do all things in the church decently and in order ; and then make nothing such by our will and authority ; but enjoyn the observation of these things , that scripture hath declared to be such , or nature , and civil custom hath made such : if we would content our selves with that decency and order that was in the apostolick church : our controversie would soon be at an end . it is true , even where scripture is taken for the rule , there might be some different apprehensions about the meaning of this rule , what it enjoyneth ; but they who sincerely seek the mind of god in his words , and depend on him for the light of his spirit , readily will either find what they seek , or will soberly and peaceably differ from their brethren . but when this rule is laid aside , and mans wisdom must injoyn what is fit in god's worship , ( even though they be learned , wise , and holy men , and in authority in the church , yet not infallibly guided ; and much more when any of these qualities are wanting ) there can hardly he an end of controversie , it will be hard to set bounds to their multiplicity ( of which the popish church is a fatal witness ) and hard to bring them to an end by composing them , unless blind obedience be asserted ; at least as to some things : and how many things these shall be , who knoweth ? the other direction that the apostle giveth in that place , is , let us mind the same things : vnity in design is very conducive to vnity in heart and practice : when all have one end before them , they will the more readily fall into the same way leading to that end ; as when many are travelling to the same city , they will readily go in the same road ; or if one take a gainer way , as he thinketh , then another , yet they will not fall out about that . let us then all make the one thing needful , our business ; let us mind serious and practical religion ; and in subordination to that , let us mind the conversion , and edification of the souls of the people under our charge : let us set our selves against immorality , ignorance , ( which , alas , doth abound every where ) atheistical and careless neglect of religion : let us labour to awaken the people to mind how they shall be saved , and put them in mind of the hazard of resting on out side worship , whither it be with , or without the ceremonies that we controvert about : if we all have a true idea of that religion , that we should labour to instill into the minds of people , and have that impression if the weight , and indispensable necessity of it , that the apostle expresseth , cor. . . knowing therefore the terrour of the lord , we perswade men : if we were one in this , it would much contribute to oneness in things that are more remote from the essence and life of religion . but while we mind our own things which must needs be very different ) while one sort is for their grandeur , and riches , and dominion , and ease ; and another is for his ease and applause among one sort of men : while we are for keeping up a party , for victory over them that we contend with , and for maintaining our credit , so as we are ashamed to change , least we fall under the imputation of being once in a mistake : i say , while these different ends and motives are suffered to influence us , we must be far from agreement about any thing that hath been the subject of our debates , while lusts war in our members , wars , and fightings will be the product of them , ja. . . as this purging of our selves , from bad things might conduce to the churches peace , so might a joynt endeavour on both sides to purge the church from bad men ; an ignorant , scandalous , heady , and vnsober ministry is a great let to peace : god will not be at peace with the church , while such are countenanced , and good men cannot with any satisfaction behold such scandals to religion , and such effectual instruments of the ruine of souls , continued in the church : such ministers are make-bates in the church : while some effectual course is not taken to remove them , the church is like to have little peace , either with god , or in her self . let all then ( if they would see religion flourish , and the church setled in peace ) contribute their endeavours to get the unsavoury salt ( that hath long made us unpleasing to god ) cast out ; and to oppose the entrance of them into the holy function of the ministery , who are not in some tollerable measure such as the apostle requireth , and are not in a probable capacity , by their life , and doctrine , and diligence , to do good to souls ; and let none countenance or plead for unfit persons , either to be admitted into , or kept in the church : pity to mens persons , or families , being horrid cruelty , when the ruine of souls is the necessary consequent of such acts : when love to the salvation of men beareth sway with us above zeal for a party , we will easily be prevailed with in this . if this piece of reformation be endeavoured , all ranks must put hand to it , the people by discovering such , where they are , and not calling , nor countenancing them , when they want a guide to their souls : and magistrates , by endeavouring the regulating of such laws as do in any wise open the door to such men to enter , or protect them when they already are in places : and ministers in their station , by rejecting such candidates of the ministry , as are not duly qualified , and censuring the immoralities of such as have made a shift to get into that office , notwithstanding of their notorious unworthiness . in order to obtaining the peace of the church ( which we all prize and desire ) reformation is also necessary ; peace and purity will not long be separated the one from the other ; personal reformation must not be wanting , if it will give hope of peace , even from enemies , prov. . . much more is it the way to be blessed with peace from our friends ; without it there is no peace with god , nor man , but such as is a curse to them who have it , king. . . isa. . , . church reformation must also truly be endeavoured by us , if we would have church-peace ; it is no token for good , when sinful evils ( images of jealousie , that provoke the lord to jealousie ) are in the church , and yet all agree in these ways ; none lament them , none reprove them , none take care to keep their garments clean of the corruptions of the time ; like those whom the lord doth so highly commend , rev. . . if we expect peace , we must be humbled before the lord , for our personal and publick deviations , and be ready to confess them before the world ; we must take shame , if we expect that he should favour , and honour us . see ezek. ● , , . while we are fixed in evil ways , and will not be convinced ; or so proud that we are ashamed to acknowledge that we have been out of the way : god nor man can make no peace with us . neither is this all , but we must turn from our evil ways , of whatever sort they be particularly , while church grievances are continued ; while no effectual course is taken , and that unanimously , and with serious application , to remove scandals , to satisfie the consciences , and quiet the minds of such as are grived ; how can attempts for peace have any success ? i suppose it will not be denyed by sober and intelligent men , that there are faults in the church ( tho' some do strangely hyperbolize in declaiming of her perfection ; but they that are in that strain , of whatever party they be , do little understand the scripture patern , and the church-way that themselves own , and do not compare the one with the other ) non-residences , pluralities , want of parochial discipline , abuse of excommunication , making that which passeth for church discipline and censures ; to be more destructive to mens purses , than to their vices ; and other such things , are too grosly evil to be defended , and too well known to be denyed , or dissembled . it were one good step toward peace , if there might be a prospect of getting such enormities done away ; and the affairs of the house of god managed in a way more like that of the gospel . it might also make for our peace , if all of us , of both parties , should put on a spirit of meekness , and rather lament what we cannot approve , than reproach one another for such things . an unsober , and fierce spirit hath too much appeared on both hands ; our zeal for and against the things controverted , is no way proportioned to the things themselves . many have not a different degree of zeal against the grossest parts of popery , from what they use against some of the rags of that whors attire ; tho' all be unjustly charged with this , yet it is too evident to be the temper and way of some : it s true immorality in ministers , and visible enmity against the practice and power of religion , may justly stir the indignation of a serious christian , but to be so affected toward all that differ from us , in the lesser matters of religion , is a zeal not kindled from heaven : on the other hand , the odious comparison that is made between popery and presbytery , preferring the former as more eligible , which is frequent in the mouths , not of the rable only , but of men of name and authority in the church , doth not savour of that meekness guided by a sound judgment , which becometh the gospel : let them who are godly and sober on both sides , love and esteem one another in the lord ; and we may hope for more peace in the church , than yet we have seen . this ill temper now hinted at , should be shunned by all , and reproved where it appeareth , by them who would promote the peace of the gospel . if by all the means mentioned , or other good ways , peace cannot be obtained , we must not step out of gods way to obtain it ; truth must be bought at any rate , but peace may be too dear to be bought by a christian : it may be impossible , it may not lie in us to live peaceably with some men ; yea , or with a church , rom. . . holiness is simply necessary not peace , heb. . . wherefore it is to be expected , that we should yield in the matters of god ( however little they maybe comparatively ) as one may and ought to do , for peace sake , in his own matters ; men cannot command ; their light & consciences , are unplyable things to worldly , or carnal arguments ; yea , to those that seem to have somewhat in them more divine , seeing the least evils is not to be done , or assented to for attaining the greatest good : over-powering light to change our minds , or forbearing one another , till that light arise ; are the true methods to compose debates in the church . assent and subscrption to what is required , while an inward dislike of it remaineth , is away to peace in a church ; that the lord doth not approve , and that will not have stability , nor a good issue . i have no further account to give of this book , but that it was written a few years ago , which must excuse some passages that may seem not to suit our present case : it was a doing when king james came to the crown ; the case of protestants soon after made it appear unseasonable to contend about our private sentiments wherein we differ , when we all were like to be undone by a deluge of popery . but now after the state of the nation hath been unhinged , and is in a hopeful way to be setled , it may seem allowable , if not necessary , that each party should put in their claim , and give the best reasons they can for their prete●sions ; and that with all moderation and peaceableness : and having so done , what they should leave it to them who ought to judge , what is fittest to be chosen . this i have endeavoured ut potui , non ut debui , wishing that some other person , by whom it might have been done to more advantage , had taken this task : some may readily dislike the way of managing this debate , following the antagonist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : but this i could not well shun . the reverend doctor 's method not being very exact , and many things that might stumble an ordinary reader , being brought in by him , where it could little be expected . this way i thought most useful for them who want instruction ; and others , as they do not need any help that i can afford them , so they can suffer no prejudice by this manner of reasoning . i submit all that i have said , to the censure of the judicious , candid , and unbyass'd reader , and to the authority of the church of christ ▪ in any of her lawful assemblies . if any shall judge that i have yielded too much ; or , that i have condescended too little for the sake of unity , i am willing to be corrected , by any who shall bring plain scripture , or solid reason , for what they alledge . a rational defence of non-conformity , &c. they who find themselves under an obligation from the authority of a holy and jealous god , to regard the purity of his worship , and keep their consciences from being defiled with the corruptions that men have brought into that worship , are at this day under most severe persecution , and that from their fellow-protestants , ( which is no small aggravation of their trouble ) when the common enemy is ready to destroy us , and the religion that we do jointly profess : but our brethren are not satisfied with our other sufferings , but we are lashed with the●r tongues and pens , and exposed as the most contemptible and most unreasonable of men ; and that not only by the common sort of ministers and people , that are of the opposite party , ( whose zeal against us carrieth them commonly to profess , that papists are better than presbyterians , and that religion rather to be chosen than this . a great token of respect to the protestant religion ! as if all the principles of it , in which we agree with them , were of less value than the cermonies , owned as indifferent things , wherein we differ from them , ) but even by the reverend and learned dr. stillingfleet , a man formerly eminent for his moderation ; yet in this bock , now under examination , treateth his antagonists with that contempt and severity that was not expected from a man of his worth . that poor suffering party , though they have no shelter against their other afflictions , but to make that god their refuge , for obedience to whom they suffer ; yet may be allowed , i hope , a modest apology for their way and practice , by which that reproach that is cast on them may be rowled away , and their innocency vindicated . in order to this , i have made bold to attempt the answering of this book ( looking for his help whose cause we plead . ) but before i meddle with the book it self , it is needful to survey his long preface , consisting of pages , wherein his main business is to fasten on the non●conformists a most heavy charge , as if they were promoters of the interest of popery . sect. . if any dissenters of that time did use the excellent b. jewel ( whose memory is still precious among all protestants ) vngratefully and spightfully for preaching his opinion , in defence of the church-order of england , they deserve blame ; it had been their part to vindicate their principles by a sober and rational defence against the bishop's arguments , but not to shew disrespect to a person who had so well deserved for his learned labours against popery . but i do not well understand how this unworthy carriage should consist with the character that the dr. doth afterwards give of these dissenters , as to their moderation and compliance with the church's way , when he hath a mind to expose the present non-conformists as far degenerate from their ancestors in the same profession . but of this more in its due place . sect. . he complaineth ( p. . ) of his own hard usage on the like occasion . his sermon entituled , the mischief of separation , was indeed solidly refuted by several non-conformists , and in that sence his sermon was hardly used ; but i never heard before , that hard arguments were counted hard vsage from an adversary ; and if bishop jewel had no harder usage for his sermon , there was no need of this complaint , unless it were to make his own hard fate the more conspicuous , by so venerable a parallel . this reverend author should consider , that tho' we owe and give all due deference to the memory of bishop jewel , and to the worth of dr. stillingfleet , for their labours in defence of protestantism ; yet it is neither ingratitude nor incivility in us to defend the purity of gospel-worship worship against their assaults : we honour them , but retain our liberty of dissenting from them , and of owning our dissent , when they mistake , and are out of the way . we call no man rabbi , having one master , christ , whose written word we make the rule of our faith and worship . but one great part of the doctor 's hard vsage lieth in this , that it hath been maliciously suggested by some , and too easily believed by others , that he was put on that work with a design to inflame our differences , and to raise persecution . i confess malice to suggest evil , and over-easiness to believe it , is a thing too common among dissenting parties ; the lord heal these distempers on both hands ; but the particular ground of this charge on his antagonists , should have been mentioned . if any have suspected that he was put on the work ; if the work be good , that doth extenuate the fault of such suspicion . i know no evil in following either the advice or command of others to do our duty : so that hither to there is no ground for the heavy charge of malice and malign credulousness . if any have judged his design , that is not fair dealing , such secrets are to be left to the judgment of him who knoweth the hearts . but tho' i have a great deal of charity in reference to the intentio operantis ; yet it is not so easie to pass a favourable judgment on the intentio operis ; but he endeavoureth afterward his vindication in this , where i shall attend him . sect. . his professed design in preaching that sermon , was only his just apprehension , that the destruction of the church of england , under a pretence of zeal against popery , was one of the likeliest means to bring it [ popery ] in . here he supposeth , ( if i understand what he saith ) that the protestant dissenters aim at the destruction of the church of england ; or at least , that non-conformity tendeth to destroy it , than which no imagination can be more groundless ; nor can i conceive what should give cause to such a thought , unless it be an extravagant idea , that some men frame to themselves of the church of england , as if her essence consisted in the ceremonies , and the removing of these were the destruction of the church : we , who dissent from that which they call the church of england , are far from such low and dishonourable thoughts of her ; we look on her as a reformed part of the church of god , professing the protestant religion , in opposition to the errours of popery , but mixing this true religion with some humane ceremonies ; and therefore we think , that opposing of these ceremonies is so far from tending to the destruction of the church , that it conduceth much to reforming of her : but suppose the ceremonies were good and lawful things , it is still a strange notion , and inconsistent with the sentiments concerning them , that our brethren do profess , that they are indifferent things , and of no necessity : if they be so what hazard is there of the destruction of the church , from their being laid aside ? if the non-conformists had their wish , it would inferr no other alteration in the church , but the removal of such accidents , which the a betters of them do , say , that possunt adesse vel abesse sine subjecti interitu ; such incoherences would not have been expected from so learned a pen. sect. . it is also unfairly ( to say no worse ) hinted , that non-conformists zeal against popery is but pretended , and that the real design is to destroy the church of england ; we can clear our selves of both before a higher bar , and therefore lay little weight on such suggestions ; neither do we meerly dislike the ceremonies , because they are popish ; he knoweth that we have other arguments against them ; i hope non-conformists shew their zeal against popery in other things : nor do we desire the destruction of the church , that these ceremonies may fall to the ground , but the removing of the ceremonies that the church may be more acceptable to him , who can make her stand in despight of the gates of hell. if he charge us with the church's ruin , because our divisions about the ceremonies may tend to it : for answer ; let it be considered , who giveth culpably the rise to these divisions , whether they who forbear the ceremonies , because sinful ; or , they who do violently impose them , tho' indifferent , in their apprehension : but this will afterwards fall to be further discoursed . i deny not , that papists design the ruin of the church of england , but not as ceremonious , but as protestant ; they do not design to destroy her by removing what the non-conformists scruple , but by taking away what they agree with her in : and therefore there is no cause to think , that the removing of the ceremonies ( which non-conformists desire ) though under a pretence of zeal against popery , or under whatever other pretence , should be one of the likeliest means to bring it in ; which our author feareth . sect. . the learned dr. hath caught this notion , that non-conformists , by their zeal against popery , are like to be instruments of bringing it in ; and he seemeth to be very fond of this fine conceit ; runneth away with it at a great rate ; is confirmed in it from the proceedings of papists , ( p. . ) starteth a paradox , ( p. . ) as it seemeth to unthinking people , ( like the non-conformists ) that when papists 〈◊〉 appear no longer in that work , others out of meer zeal against popery , should carry it on for them ; and these unthinking people are carried away with meer no se and pretences , and hope those will secure them most against the fears of popery , who talk with most passion , and with least understanding against is ; and more to this purpose . one may think it little glory for the highly learned dr. stillingfleet to labour in refuting such a contemptible adversary , as he here representeth : but their wisdom , and learning , and reasons for what they hold , will ( i hope ) find more equitable , and less supercilious judges in the world ; neither will hectoring stop their mouths , though they are ready to be silent to plain scripture or solid reason . he judgeth ( p. , . ) that east and west may meet , and the most furious antagonists ( of popery ) may become of the easiest converts : deus avertat omen . if we may form any conjecture of what may be , from the observation of what hath been , easie conversion to popery is liker to be found among his own party , who are tame and gentle towards popery , and no way furious . and if any be furious against it , let them bear their blame . we applaud and practise rational zeal against it , but not fury , for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of god. he cannot get out of this fear concerning many thousand zealous protestants : i deny not , but there is cause of fear ; for many have got sound principles in their heads , without saving grace in their hearts ; and the knowledge and fortitude of most is very weak , and the best have cause to fear themselves , and look to him who is able to make them stand ; but i hope all the ground of fear is not on our side . sect. . but now the learned author cometh closer to his design , viz. to lay down grounds of his opinion , that he is so confirmed in , that the principles and practice of non-conformists do tend to re-introduce popery among us ; one is , that they mistake what popery is , being as much afraid of an innocent ceremony , and of the cross , as of real idolatry : and of kneeling , as of adoring the host. ans. . the dr. might have known , that the learned labours of some non-conformists against popery , do sufficiently testifie , that they are not ignorant what it is . . we generally know , that the ceremonies are not popery , but lo●k on them as a part of popery , but are far from equalling them with some other parts of popery , that are far 〈◊〉 re grosly evil . . we never counted even the nocent ceremonies used in england ( for innocent ceremonies , we know none but those of god's institution ) so bad as real idolatry ; nor crossing and kneeling , so bad as worshipping images , tho' we count both sinful , and dare practise neither : therefore if we should come to see our mistake in the one case ( which we expect not ) yet there is no ground for the consequence of this alledged by him , viz. that we should suspect our selves deceived in the other also , unless he would say that every discovery of a mistake that men make about the smallest matters in religion , will shake the very foundation of their faith ; which i hope he will be very far from asserting , left they that have read his irenicum in former years , and now read his sermon , and this defence of it , should inferr that which good men will be far from imputing to a person of his worth , especially when he doth not deny , but rather own a change in some things now debated , p. . of the preface . sect. . it looketh like another ground , that non-conformists serve the designs of papists , that when they find the undoubted practices of the ancient church condemned as popish and antichristian , by their teachers , they must conclude popery to be of much greater antiquity than really it is , and when they can trace it so very near the apostles times , they will soon believe it setled by the apostles themselves . ans. . here is still a confounding of something that is popish with popery , a part taken for the whole , an accident , without which popery can well consist , and which doth subsist without popery , with the body and substance of popery . he looketh on his antagonists ( according to his wonted esteem of them ) as very mean logicians , when he will have them conclude the antiquity of popery in those things that he and we do jointly dislike it in , from the antiquity of some rites that were used under that apostasie , and which we have continued among us under the reformatiom . . it were still as bad a consequence from our traceing some things near to the apostles times , to inferr that they were setled by the apostles : for we can make it appear , that not only soon after the apostles times , but in their times , some things were in the church that they did not setle ; as the love-feasts , which they reproved and abolished after that abuse of them was observed . . to call those things that non-conformists scruple , ( viz. ) the ceremonies , the undoubted practices of the ancient church which may be traced near to the apostles times , is gratis dictum , a bold begging of the question : the proof of it we expect . sect. . it will , saith he , ( p. . ) be very hard to perswade considering men , that the christian church should degenerate so soon , so vnanimously and so vniversally , as it must do , if episcopacy and the use of significant ceremonies were any parts of the apostasie . here is still the great antiquity of these things taken for granted but not proved . but further , his considering men , if they read and consider the scripture , will easily be perswaded that a church may very early and quickly degenerate , and that vnanimously and vniversally ; especially in some things that are of lesser concern in religion . how suddenly did the church of israel degenerate , and aaron with them , when moses was but days absent in the mount , & that in matters of higher moment than what we contend about ; even worshiping a calf for god ? see ex. . . and particularly vers. . and the lord foretold to moses their after apostasies , deut. . . and moses took notice of their apostasies while he was yet with them , and how soon they would break out after his departure , . . how quickly , vnanimously , and vniversally did the ten tribes apostatize after solomon's decease ? and is not the whole history of the church of judah under her kings , a witness of this ? when ever a bad king arose , presently the pure worship of god was turned to idolatry . in the days of joash , as soon as jehojada was gone , how quickly did a faction , with a complement to the king , turn the whole nation to idolatry ? chron. . , . these apostasies were in higher points than we now speak of ; and yet , how quickly did the church thus degenerate ? and that this should not be thought strange , even in the gospel-church we may see , if we consider what christ telleth us , of the tares sown while men sleep , and growing up insensibly , and without observation : also the degeneracy that the church fell into , even while the apostles were alive , and faithfully watching over her ; and that , both in doctrine and practice , is evident in the errours in corinth and galatia ; in the abuses in publick administrations at corinth , insomuch as the apostle behoved , even in his own time , to make a reformation , by bringing back to apostolick example , and the law of nature , for reforming some indecencies among them ; and to divine institution , for reforming their enormities , cor. . . . . if these evils crept in under the inspection of the apostles , what wonder is it if men afterwards began in some things to deviate in church-practice ? sect. . yea , the apostle , thess. . foretelling the antichristian apostacy , v. . telleth us , that that mystery of iniquity did then work , v. . this allegation the learned dr. putteth off with a scoff , p. . but we must not therefore part with it . it is evident , that there was then a tendency among some of the members of the christian church to several of these evils , which being grown up to maturity of wickedness , antichristianism was afterwards made up ; not to speak of the gross heresies that then were , and others that were foretold , act. . , . the ambition of diotrephes was a fermenting toward lordly prelacy , joh. ver . . so was the idolizing of some ministers among the corinthians , cor. . . so the turning aside to the jewish ceremonies , a carnal , gawdy sort of religion , not contented with the simplicity of gospel-worship , for which the galatians are reproved , gal. . . the worshipping of angels , voluntary humility , subjection to ordinances , touch not , taste not , handle not , will-worship , col. . . forbidding of meats and marriage , tim. . . and in a word , the turning the spiritual religion of god into a carnal outward shew . all these , i say , was a working toward the vile superstitions that afterward grew up under the antichristian apostasy , of which our ceremonies are some remains . now , if there was such a secret working of such evils in that time , is it any wonder that some unallowable practices should be in the church , soon after the apostles , and be little taken notice of ? sect. . and this is yet less to be wondred at , if we consider the defects and uncertainty of the history of the church in times next after the apostles , as it was in the first times of the church , before the law , which the jews call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , dies inanitatis , because of the want of the light of history . it was little better with the christian church at first . we have very little distinct account of her order ; and what we have , is but in some things , not so full as to enable us to pass a judgment with confidence of all their practices in church-administrations : it is no good argument , there is no mention of dissent from , or non-conformity to the church-practices of the first times ; ●rgo there was none ; especially considering that the writers of those times ( who were glorious lights , yet men , and subject to mistakes and passions ) would not readily give account of what might make against their own practices . and it can be made appear , that the best of the church guides , after the apostles , were in mistakes greater than what we now scruple at : but the early degeneracy of the christian church ( which our author thinks it so absurd to imagine ) is witnessed by the most ancient history , and nearest to these times . eusebius , lib. . c. . relating out of egesippus the martyrdom of simon son of cleopas , second bishop of jerusalem , who had seen the lord , and was his cousin - germain , he addeth , that after that the sacred company of the apostles were worn out , the church having before been a pure vi●gin , the conspiracy of detestable errors , through deceit of such as delivered strange doctrine , took rooting , &c. if heresie so soon got head , what absurdity is it to think that lesser evils might early prevail ? this may be also proved in reference to the rites used in the church , how early there was a degeneracy in these , out of irenaeus , who lived in the second century , epist. ad victor . episc. rom. quae varietas observantiae ( pascatis , & jejuniorum ) non 〈◊〉 primum neque nostris temporibus caepit , sed multo aute nos ( ut opinor ) qui non simpliciter quod ab initio traditum est tenentes , in alium morem vel per negligentiam , vel per imperitiam postmodum decidere . where it is evident , that irenaeus imputeth such negligence and unskilfulness even to the first age , and nearest to the apostles , if not in the days of some of them , as made them fall from christs institution in some things . the consideration of all which maketh me wonder at the confidence of the learned author , who saith , that so sudden and insensible a change of the church is so incredible , that they that think it could be , may on the same grounds believe that other parts of popery did as soon prevail . that this change did soon prevail , we believe not , but that it might , we see no absurdity in it ; and for other parts of popery , we can tell when most of them begun , and therefore are not obliged from the antiquity of one part of it , to acknowledge the same of another ; neither is there any inconveniency in asserting , that these mistakes crept in insensibly . seeing the apostle speaketh of them as a mystery that was long working , before it came above-board . what he saith of humane policies keeping long to their first institution , maketh little to his purpose , both because the contrary is most frequently observed ; they often degenerate , and that unobserved by the vulgar , through the cunning of statesmen ; and because corrupt nature is not so apt to deviate from humane constitutions , as from those that are divine . few politick frames have been so often , and quickly , and easily changed , as the religious worship of the jews was , in the time of the judges and kings . i hope by this time it will appear , that the principles of the church's enemies ( so he falsly calleth the non-conformists , who are no enemies to the church , but to her humane ceremonies ) bringeth no such mighty prejudice on the cause of the reformation , as he with confidence inferreth from what he had discoursed ; for we neither own such antiquity in the ceremonies ; nor , if we did , would that inferr the antiquity of popery in its grosser parts . sect. . he again chargeth his adversaries , that they must forgo the testimony of antiquity , and that by so doing they run into insuperable difficulties in dealing with the papists , which his principles do lead through ; for they can justly charge popery as innovation . and to that purpose citeth bishop sanderson ( p. . ) in answer to him and the bishop too , we say , . that we do not forgo the testimony of antiquity ; though we do not idolize it , as some do ; we will not be conclud●d by it against scripture , and not often without scripture , but take its help to search into the mind of god revealed in his word : it s greatest admirers must needs forgo it sometimes , both papists and prelatists ; and the ancient authors themselves do not seldom disown all authority in them or any men to determine in the controversies of religion : but i shall not digress into this debate , what weight is to be laid on antiquity ; it is enough at present that we deny , and our adversaries have not proved ( nor shall they ever be able to prove ) that bishops and ceremonies are so ancient as they affirm them to be ; what instances he intendeth , or can give from his present adversaries , ( the non-conformists ) that they maintain such principles as destroy the justice and equity of the reformation , i know not ; when we meet with them , we shall consider them ; mean while we profess our selves ready to disown all principles that can be made appear to be of that tendency . sect. . bishop sanderson's three ways how non-conformists promote popery eventually , tho' not intentionally , which he mentioneth , p. . are such as to unbyassed men will seen unworthy of the learned bishop to propose , or the learned dr. to applaud ; the first is , by helping to pull down episcopacy , at which , he saith , rome rejoiced . but , will any say that this joy of rome was because episcopacy is such an enemy to popery ; when they have it as well as we , and when it is not to be seen in any protestant church as in england ? yea , i must say , except in england . is it not obvious , that their joy was for our broils on that occasion , and not for the ruin of that which they love so well ? will any deny that rome rejoiced as much at the pulling down of presbytery in scotland , and the hindrance of its settlement in england , for our changes , anarchy , and confusions are their advantage ? the second is , their opposing the interest of rome , with more violence than reason . the third is , their frequent mistaking the question , especially through the necessity of some false principles , which they will maintain , whatever come of the common cause of the reformation . it is not easie to reply to these ; i shall only say , there is no truth in what is here said , nor the candour becoming a disputant , in saying of it , without any pretence to proving it . let not the dr. think that the bishop's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will convince us ; the folly and indiscretion that he is pleased next to grieve us with the imputation of , and to back again with the same learned bishop's authority , ( p. . ) is another of his arguments , which we will not attempt to answer , save with the words of psal. . , . have mercy upon us , o lord , have mercy upon us , for we are exceedingly filled with contempt , our soul is exceedingly filled with the scorning of those that are at ease , and with the contempt of the proud . what he after mentioneth of the popish instruments , being for the most violent courses , doth not concern us , who endure , but use no violence : let them look to it , who with such violence do press their brethren in things acknowledged indifferent , which they think unlawful , and ruine them for not yielding . what service this may do to the papists , who are such lovers of violent courses , let the world judge . the jews , by indiscreet zeal , brought the romans on them , which they designed to shun : if he will prove our zeal against popery to be also indiscreet , we shall endure the parallel . he cannot get that notion out of his head , ( p. . ) that was met before , that non-conformists attempt to overthrow the constitution of the church , because they are against the ceremonies . what service this may do the papists , may be considered : to make the protestant religion , which , i suppose , doth constitute the church of england , have a trifle ( such an indifferent ceremony must be ) for such a part of her constitution , as with it she is overturned , they will be apt to inferr , that we reckon our religion a trifle . let it be considered , whether talking at this rate doth not look liker a transport , than what can be justly charged on the non-conformists . sect. . who doubteth but the papists envy the church of england , and wish her torn in pieces , and wish there were no bishops in england , and that they have endeavoured to destroy her constitution and government ? but what is all that to the purpose ? doth it hence follow , that they who dislike her bishops and ceremonies are doing the same work ? the tendency ( much less the designs ) of papists and non-conformists can never be drawn into one channel , till he prove , that it is the ceremonies of the church of england that papists aim to destroy , and not the protestant religion in it ; and that their spight at the english bishops , is , not because they are protestant bishops , but because they are bishops . it may , with as much shew of reason , be said , that a physician promoteth the design of his patient's enemy , who aimeth to kill him , whereas the physician 's work is , to remove his disease ; both would have the man what he is not , but there is no concurrence between them , either in their intention or tendency of their work. what followeth doth as little prove his point , as i shall shew by brief answers to his questions : did not cranmer , ridley , &c. suffer martyrdom by their ( the papists ) means ? ans. yes , but not because bishops , but as protestants . did not they own the same episcopacy which is now among us , and which men by book upon book seek to destroy ? ( p. . ) ans. that maybe a question , but i now suppose they did : these worthy servants of god had reformed much , but left this unreformed ; they did worthily in their generation , yet as men who are imperfect , we may rather wonder , that in that time of darkness , which they had been born in , and under the prejudices of their education , they discovered so much of errour , than that they in that crowd of corruptions that they had to purge out , over-looked this . sect. . some further argumentative questions he moveth ; is all this ( writing against bishops and ceremonies ) done for the honour of the reformation ? is this the way to preserve the protestant religion among us , to fill mens minds with such prejudices against the first set●●ment of it , and to make the world believe , that the church-government then established , was repugnant to the institution of christ ; and that our martyr-bishops exercised an unlawful authority over diocesan churches ? but wh●ther will mens indiscreet zeal carry them ? here 's a tragical outcry , as if non-conformists went about to destroy religion , because they are not for bishops and ceremonies : what a strange unaccountable fondness have these men for their diana , who talk at this rate ! if this discourse have any nerves , it will at once condemn all these , as the worst enemies that true religion hath , who have found any fault in a reformed church , as if it were a thing impossible , that a true reformation should be an imperfect reformation . but thus it is with men who have left scripture-guidance , and become fond of humane authority in religious matters . we honour the reformers , but do not idolize their persons ; where they follow scripture , we follow them , ( and the apostle required no more of his followers , cor. . . ) but where they recede from the rule we must needs dissent . sect. . it may very much clear us , & silence such clamours of our adversaries , if we consider that the english is not the only imperfect reformation , that hath been in the world , and that what our author here alledgeth , would equally justifie all their defects , and condemn all endeavours after further nearness to primitive institution . to give some instances , how many reformations do we read of in the jewish church , which no doubt were approved of god , and rejoiced in by good men , in so far , as they were a casting off of false gods , and a worshipping of jehov●h , and yet had this nigrum theta set on them by the spirit of god , that the high pl●ces still remained , and the people still sacrificed in them ; yet only to jehovah . this is noted even of s●lom●n , kin. . , . ( and it 's like it was one of his first steps of degeneracy , tho' the want of a temple might seem to have excused it ; yet it is noted as a fault , as pis●a●●r observeth , and the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , attamen , only , importeth no less . ) it is also noted of manesseth , in his last and best daies , chron. . . and of azariah , king. . . and of jotham , king. . . and of many others , which need not be mentioned . now is it imaginable , that none of the godly in judah were dissatisfied with this depra●ati●n of god's vvorship , nor scrupled to leave the temple , and to go to the high places to worship ; and if there were any such , might not all this be applied to them ? was it for the honour of the reformation ? was that the way to preserve the worship of jehovah ? mast reformers be charged with a wrong way of worship ? if this had been an insig●ificant declamation against them , so is it now against us . to come nearer home , do not all the soundest protestants rejoice in the lutheran reformation , as to the main , and yet blame it in some things ? were not all english protestants glad of what king hen. . did against the pope , and in some other points of religion , and yet they thought not fit so to applaud that setlement , as to look after no further reformation : why then should it be thought in us a disgracing of the reformation , that we desire some things to be still mended ? sect. . we thank him for his charity , that he will not say , that we are set on by the jesuites , but misregard his saying , that we do their work ; a groundless and unproved assertion . i wish there were no ground for recrimination ▪ which i shall forbear : if his forty years meditation have enabled him to prove the present episcopacy agreeable to the institution of christ , and to the best churches , we must yield the cause , but we intend to hear his proofs first . it is a needless question that he asketh , wherein doth our church differ from its first setlen ●ut ? seeing he knoweth that we blame the first setlement , eatenus , tho' we applaud it in the main ; and what he cited out of dr. taylor the martyr ( p. . ) saith no more , but that some holy men discovered the evil of popery , and laid down their lives in opposition to it , but had not yet come to see the evil of some of the appurtenances of popery . dr. taylor and others rejoiced to see god worshipped in english , which had been in latin , as by parrots , but did not see the evil of such a frame of worship , having known no other . so the same dr. tay●or , when bp. bon●er was about degrading him , swore by st. peter , ( acts and monuments , p. . ) as joseph by the life of pharaoh , but that doth not justifie such a practice . sect. . he now undertaketh ( p. , &c. ) to make it appear , that the jesuitical party had a great hand in the beginning of the separation , ( as he calleth it . ) how doth this consist with what he had said , that he will not say , that we are set on by the jesuits ? that papists did not separate at first in queen elizabeth's daies , we can give no account , knowing that policy , not conscience , often governeth their actions . that non-conformists did go along with the church in all her practices , he largely insisteth on afterward , and there it is to be considered whether it was so , or not ; and if o , what is our concern in it . he telleth a long story of jesuits imployed under the disguise of more zealous trotestants , to oppose the liturgy , &c. and to set up a separation ; the truth of which i shall not dispute ; for it hath alwaies been the way of that active party to endeavour the dividing of them that are not of their communion . but , i know not what blame that can reflect upon the non-conformists , or their practices ; i do not doubt , the same party had a hand in the divisions of calvinists from lutherans , and are willing to take all occasions to divide , that they may ruin ; but if the lord turn it to good , and to their disappointment , and if his servants keep his way , while they part from the way of other men , let the jesuits do their worst , and let us do our duty , there is neither harm nor blame in it . were it not very easie for us , 〈◊〉 we had any confidence in such arguments , to shew what a hand jes●its ha●e in setting on our adversaries , in such peremptory cleaving to their indifferent ceremonies , that they will rather see the church torn in a thousand pieces , than part with one of them ; and in prosecuting men , tho' never so found in the articles of the church's doctrine , and innocent and holy in their conversation , because they cannot yield over the belly of scripture-light , and of their consciences , to the use of these trifles : doth not this look more like a design of jesuits to embroil the church , that they may ruine her ; while such measures are unaccountable , and the admiration of all the reformed churches that behold our differences ? sect. . whether the papers he speaketh of , and the confession of heath the jesuit , and the letter mentioned , have any thing of truth , or be a sham ( as many such things have been in our daies ) it were such a wild-goose chase to follow forth the enquiry , as i do not hope to come to the end of it ; and it were not operae pretium to find the truth of it . that coleman , hallingham , and benson are named in the letter , and also recorded by mr. fuller , and others as forward non-conformists , proveth no more , but that the cunning jesuits knew how to insinuate into the most unwary , as these with button are represented to be , by their forwardness beyond others , as appeareth , fuller's ch. hist. book . pag. . & pag. . where he saith , they cut-did all of their own opinion : and was there ever a party , among whom some might not be found fit tools by their indiscretion , to be imployed by cunning artificers , for raising troubles , without casting a reflection of blame on the whole party ? but our author should have at the same time taken notice out of the same historian , p. . that the bishops in eliz. . being impowered by their canons , began to urge subscriptions to the liturgy , ceremonies , and discipline of the church , and by so doing gave rise to these mens ▪ and others , appearing as they did , and branded the refusers with the odious name of puritans . p. . he sheweth , that the same canons being now , ( nine years after ) ratified by parliament ; the bishops began to urge subscription more severely than before , which made many dissenters keep their private meetings in fields , words , their friends houses , &c. and may not one rationally think , that the jesuits might ( in their own way ) prompt the bishops to this severity , as well as the dissenters not to yield to it ? sect. . the notions that jesuits have of spiritual prayer , mentioned , p. . ( some of them extravagant enough ) the learned dr. useth as a repreach to the non-conformists ; how rationally , let the vvor●d judge , seeing we never vented nor owned such fancies ; only we think set forms of prayer unfit to be used , where ministers are tolerably gifted to pray without them ; and that all the praying that we read of , to have been either practised or commended in the apostolick church , was without book , the spirit , not the book , helping their infirmities , even as to what they are to pray for , or the matter of prayer , rom. . . when he saith ( p. . ) that it is not improbable the j●suits were the first setters up of this way in england ; ●nd that it was never known here , or in any other reformed church before this time . if he me●n prayer without a set-form , ( if he mean any thing else , it is not to the p●rpose ▪ ) it is a rash and untrue assertion ; was ever prayer without book condemned by any r●formed church ? yea ; can any reformed church be instanced where it hath not been , and is not used ? or , let him mention , a reformed church that hath restrained extempor●● prayer , and imposed a set-form . but this debate he resumeth afterward , and till then , we shall leave it ; it doth not savour of tha● 〈◊〉 regard to the spirit of prayer , that is promised to be ●●ured out on the people of god , z●●h . . . to mock the using o● his help , to pray wi●hout a book , as a charm effectual with j●dicious p●ople , and to je●r the zeal and warmth of devotion that appeareth in it : many know the advantage of what he thinketh but a fancy ; let him abound in his own sence , for , de gustiius non est 〈◊〉 . if by me●ns of this manner of worshipping god , the division wonderfully 〈◊〉 , as he saith , i hope it was not the debauched nor unserious that were so taken with that way , and therefore this encrease was no reproach to it . sect. . he citeth the admonition given in to the parliament , eliz. of which he saith the authors ( mr. f●ller's church history , p. , . maketh mr. thomas cartwright author both of the first and second admonition ) would have neither papists nor o●●ers e●●strained to communicate . i do not understand whether any person should be constrained to partake of the lord's supper , ( for i suppose that is meant ) otherwise than by forcible perswasions , which is the compulsion meant , luk. . . brugensis saith , it expresseth vi●●●vangelij ; so others , that ord●nance was never appointed by the lord to be a test of a man's prof●ssion , while he is uncapable to improve it to higher ends . but if the admonition plead for tolerating of popery , ( i have not the book by me , and therefore cannot determine in this ) we are far from approving it . though we think we have a right , by the gospel , not only to toleration , but further co●ntenance for our way ; yet , if we might chuse , we had rather be under the severest pe●secution , than have the least hand in obtaining liberty to that idolatry : we must not do , yea , nor wish evil , that good may come . what he citeth out of archb. whit gift , and archb. grindal , p. , . i look on as invectives against the non-conformists of the same stamp with his own ; they are parties , and therefore not to be adduced as witnesses . dr. sutclife saith no more than we will say , that our divisions give advantage to the papists : let them who are the culpable cause of the divisions look to it . the prophecy cited out of mr. solden , is to the same purpose , and needeth no other answer . sect. . the politick , hellish advices given by the jesuit contzen , and seignior ballarini , make nothing against us at all , tho' he filleth p. , , . with them ; for all that can be thence inferred is , that they labour to divide protestants , and this d●vision falleth out according to their wish . now the division hath its rise from the impositions of one party that assume the name of the church , and the scruples of another party . if the church impose that which is lawful and necessary , and the other party scruple that , and so divide ; in that case the dissenters must bear the blame of the division , and are guilty of co-operating with the common enemy , in ruining the protestant religion : but if the church , by her impositions , burden the consciences of her members with things that she counteth indifferent , ( i. e. ) needless , and the scruplers reckon as unlawful , and have just ground so to do ; then the blame of separating , and of helping the papists to ruin our religion , lieth at the church's door ; wherefore all this might have been spared . let the learned dr. soundly refute our principles , and then cast what blame he will on us ; but till that be done , ( which we expect not ) let him ●ake heed where the blame will be laid , when the secrets of men shall be judged . it may be observed in these advices , that the jesuits , as their master the devil often doth , speak some truths out of a bad end . sect. . next he cometh ( p. . ) to reproach us with the indulgence that was granted march , - . as being procured by the papists . if any non-conformists had a hand in procuring liberty ( which i do not believe ) to them , i think their brethren will disown them in that act. that papists had a hand in it , is not improbable , both for their own ease , and to make the difference among protestants the more conspicuous : but was it fit , that we should forbear a necessary duty because of their ill design ? we did not join in the practices of the church before that , but worshipped god after his own institution , without humane ceremonies : all the change in our way on that occasion was , that what before we had done in corners , and with hazard , then we did safely and openly ; and , what fault was in this ? but , one saith , that the presbyterians suspected the kindness , and joined with the conformists , like wise men , and refused the bait : who said so , or on what ground , i know not ; we went no further from the conformists , than conscience of duty had made us do before ; but it had been a strange thing , if when liberty was granted us to worship god in his own way , we had then joined with a superstitious worship , which we could not do before . if that author mean , that presbyterians were then willing to concurr with the conformists , as their protestant brethren , in all things lawful , to disappoint the designs of the common enemy , we approve of that inclination , and think the dr. cannot charge us with any thing to the contrary in practice : wherefore it is without all reason , that he dateth the presbyterian separation from that time , p. . their building meeting-houses , and using separate meetings , p. . will not prove it ; for the one they did before , and the other was but a more publick owning of what was their private practice , when under the lash of the persecution . defending their practice by writing , is no proof neither : if he can prove , that they do it on principles that will justifie any separation , let them be blamed ; but this , i suppose dropt from his pen without due consideration . that they chuse ministers one after another , is as little proof as the rest ; how to judge i know not , of what his credible person informs him , of ten ministers coming into one city . it is a hard case , when ministers put to great hardships by the five mile act , that it being suspended , they might not live in corporations for their accommodation . let the author of the peaceable design ( cited p. . ) answer for himself ; i am sure , such non-conformists as i have conversed with , never approved of the tolerating of papists . sect. . mr. nye is produced ( p. . ) as owning , that jesuits had a hand in our divisions ( whoever denied it ) in perswading the unlawfulness of hearing the conformists preach . whoever broached that principle , it was never received among the more sober and intelligent of the non-conformists , especially the presbyterians ; it is their corruptings of god's ordinances , not their dispensing of them , that we refuse to join with them in ; and when we cannot join in the one without the other , we must forbear both ; which is by a necessity from them , not our choice ; but of this he will give fitter occasion to speak afterward . what he citeth out of mr. baxter , p. , . . tho' there be expressions of the keen spirit of that learned writer , which might have been a little softened , yet all that he saith , proveth no more but this ; from among the non-conformists have gone out some sects , that by their unsound principles have given advantage to the common enemy , which we deny not , but lament ; but if this prove our way evil , and tending to popery , the same must be concluded against the reformation from popery , where the german anabaptists sprung up ; yea , christianity shall not escape , for did not gnosticks , and other like hereticks , arise from among christians , even in the apostle's days ? sect. . the dr. ( p. . ) triumphantly appealeth to any impartial reader , who most serve the popish designs , those who keep to the constitution of the church of england , or those who fell into the course of separation . i hope the judge that he constituteth , having considered his allegations , and the answers hitherto discoursed , will acquit us of all accession to popish designs ; but if we should take as much pains to retort the same blame on his party , as he hath done to accuse us , it were easie to guess where the sentence of condemnation would fall ; but i delight not in such unbrotherly work , and there is the less need for it , that day unto day uttereth speech , to discover the sidings of that party with the enemies of our religion : that the papists designed to force all to seek a general toleration , is not unlikely ; but that non-conformists did desire or seek it , is unjustly insinuated . sect. . when i consider what he writeth ( p. , . ) i see cause to retort his own words on him , which he useth , p. . if such bold and notorious untruths are published now , what account may we expect will be given to posterity of the passages of these times ? he doth represent the non-conformists very unfairly , if not very falsly ; as that on the discovery of the popish plot , the non-conformists seemed to be like men roused out of a deep sleep , amazed , confounded , fearful of every thing , mistrusting all that were not in such a consternation as themselves . vvere they not as vigilant and jealous over the papists , as other protestants even before that time ? yea ; who that will see , doth not know that they exceeded their neighbours in this ; he hath forgotten what he had before so often declaimed against them , that they pretended to be the most zealous protestants about their fear of popery , their indiscreet zeal against it , &c. with which he besprinkles most of his pages : but now , of a sudden , they are transformed into a sort of men asleep , having neither fear of , nor zeal against it . how doth passion blind men ? impedit ira animum , &c. their fear and consternation on the discovery of the plot , is as groundlesly affirmed as their sleep before it : no doubt , they were apprehensive of danger , as all the protestant nation were , and still are ; but what signs of such disorder was among them , he doth not say , because he could not ; therefore a general accusation was more apt to calumniate them by . but it may be ( and it is beyond a may be ) they fasted and prayed more than some others did on this occasion , and that some reckon a sign of guilt and fear , beyond what is to be found in good men . some ( saith he ) in this case pressed the dissenters to study union among protestants ; but were they then , or ever , backward to it on sinless terms ? or , would they have had them abandon the light of the●r consciences for peace-sake in that time of danger ? he again chargeth the non-conformists , that formerly they carried smoothly towards the common and innocent papists , as they stiled them , and thought them equally capable of toleration with themselves . it were well done in the dr. if he can make this appear against any one non-conformist ; but if it be spoken with reference to them in general , nothing can be more calumnious . it is of the same stamp that followeth , p. . their trucking under-hand for toleration with the papists ; they represent , saith he , those of the church of england , as papists in masquerade . did ever any non-conformist talk at this rate of conformists in general , as he would have his readers believe ? and if it have been said of some , and those of no mean degree in the church , time partly hath tried , and it is like , will further try the truth of it ; i commend his humanity , and being free of undue heat against the papists , on occassion of that horrid plot. if there was due heat , we require no more ; but he doth most injuriously charge us with rage and fierceness in that case : i know not , that the wise and sober among the non-conformists ( if he will let it be said , that there be any such among them ) did exceed due bounds of the zeal of god against such a party of his enemies . he next fighteth with the popular censures that then passed on many of the clergy , which we are not concerned in . i wish him to consider , that as sometimes vox populi is vox diaboli , so also not seldom it is vox dei. sect. . he hopeth that the non-conformist ministers ( whom he taunteth as high pretenders to , and self-applauders in wisdom and self-denial ) would in so critical a time have joined with them against the common enemy , or let them know their sense of the present state of things . except in their ceremonies , the non-conformists were never backward to join with them , and much less at that time ; for letting the church-men know their sense of things , i know not what occasion they had for that , except in their sermons , in which they were asplain and faithful against popery , as their brethren were . he next falleth heavily on the plea for peace , and true and only way of concord , as most vnseasonable and divisive pieces . the author of these books is of age and ability to answer for himself , and yet living and writing : i need say nothing for him , only this i make bold to say , abating the vehemency of the stile , and forwardness of that learned man's genius , which sometimes run into over-lashes , that another cannot so well defend as himself ; for the substance of the books , let the dr. try it when he will , he may possibly find it a hard-enough task to deal with them . what that author saith in the name of the whole party , ( which the dr. taketh advantage from , p. . ) doth not oblige the party further than they see cause to own it . sect. . the reverend dr. doth begin , p. . to give account of the occasion and design of his sermon , which was answered by several hands , and in defence of which , this book now under our consideration was written : i shall concern my self little about it , being ready to give all possible charity to the design of so worthy a person , in undertaking and managing that affair . i shall consider what is said on this occasion , no further than shall be needful to the defence i now manage of our present way . it is most injur●ous that he asserteth , that ( by such books as he had mentioned ) the zeal of many was turned off from the papists against those of the church . is there any thing in these books that favoureth papists ? or any thing that maketh the church of england worse than that of rome ? if withdrawing from the corruptions of the church be defended , this hath no tendency to lessen zeal against papists . he that complaineth of hard usage , ( tho' without cause ) should not so retaliate , as to call his brethren , who differ from him , and give reasons for their so doing , an enraged , but unprovoked company of men. this , and much of that nature , we resolve patiently to bear . he must give us leave to deny what he imputeth to our way , p. . that it is a great , dangerous , and unaccountable separation : if his arguments against it prove as hard as his words , it will not be easie to stand before him ; if this be to touch us with a soft and gentle hand , as , ibidem , what will his severities prove ? sure he hath forgot himself , when with the same breath he calleth us peevish and partial men , and saith , he resolved to give us no just provocation by reproachful language , or personal reflections . sect. . the vnseasonableness of this make-bate sermon is objected , which he attempteth to disprove with a flood of words , all built on this foundation ; that the church was reviled , run down by a popular fury , &c. this is the usual respect the learned dr. is pleased to treat his antagonists with . other men think , that a modest dissent and with-holding communion in unlawful things , backed with solid reasons given for so doing , was all that the non-conformists were guilty of ; and that , that needed not give such an alarm as if there had been a design to ruin the church , as he fansieth ; and unbyassed men will think , that such a sermon , on purpose chosen to be preached before the magistrate , rather than before his ordinary hearers , doth not savour so much of a design to guard the consciences of the people against non-conformity , as of some other design ; what that was , may be easily guessed at , for all that is said to the contrary . i speak now of the tendency of the thing , rather than of the intention of the person ; but i rather chuse to wave this matter than contend about it , being more concern'd about the truth of what was said , than the season of saying it . i shall be as little concerned about the sharpness and severity of his sermon , which is the other objection that he answereth from p. . though i am sure , what i have already noted in this preface , sheweth , that such a way of treating dissenters is not ab hoc homine alienum ; but i must do him that right , as to acknowledge , that there is more mildness expressed in the sermon than here , he being galled by the pungent reasons of his answerers ; yet there wants not some vinegar in the ink that the sermon was written with ; but , i confess , that is so common a fault among imperfect men , that we must say , veneam damus petimusque vicissim ; for my part , i study to shun it , but if i be overtaken in this fault , i am willing to be admonished and corrected . we think schism as great a sin as the dr. doth ; and seeing he thinketh the blame of it is on our part , i judge it but consequent to that opinion that he exposed it , ( and us by reason of it ) with all its aggravations ; and if we cannot clear our selves in this matter , let us lie under as much blame as he can load us with . but withal , i hope he will remember , that if the schism be caused by the fault of his party , all the sad imports of his excellent discourse will return on his own head , and those of his way : wherefore i wish all this had been waved , and the merits of the cause only minded . sect. . the expression that his adversaries are so offended with ( to wit ) that he saith ( p. . ) the most godly people among them can least endure to be told of their faults ; is , as i think , not sufficiently vindicated , by saying , that he meant it of them who will not hear their own teachers telling them of the sin of separation ; as mr. b. alledgeth ; for they that are so unteachable , are not the most godly of the non-conformists : i hope there are among them who can hear sin of whatever sort charged on them , and soberly consider what is said ; and if on enquiry they be convinced of a fault , will humble themselves , and confess , if not , will soberly clear their innocency by reasons . far less is it a fit vindication of this assertion , to apply what he had said to dr. o. mr. b. mr. a. and the rest of the answerers of his sermon . i hope he doth not think that defence of truth , or of that which one is convinced to be such , is alwaies the sin of not enduring to be told of faults : neither do i by so saying referr the determining of our debates to mens fancies , which he hinteth , p. . that we call the dictates of conscience ( i am sorry that he doth either so undervalue conscience , or reflect on the worthy persons that answered his sermon . ) if we cannot shew plain and evident reasons for what we say , ( as he requireth ) we refuse not causa cadere . sect. . he telleth a very formal story , p. , . of the effects of his sermon , of the mimick gestures of the non-conformists , when it was spoken of ; the truth of which history , tho' i doubt , i cannot disprove . it neither was worth his writing , nor my confuting . he thinketh it lay at bottom of many mens stomachs , that he did not perswade the church of england to the dissenters . who did ever require that ? we pretend to no authority over her ; if she would have condescended to us for peace sake ( which that party talk so much of ) to forbear imposing her unnecessary things , which we judge unlawful , that should have satisfied us . but he thinks ( p. . ) it had been unseasonable to speak of alteration of laws before magistrates , who are tied to the laws ; that such alteration is one of the weightiest things . ans. supposing ( as he there saith ) his private opinion for abatements , there was no need of proposing the alteration of established laws ; but the exposing of them that were under the lash of inconvenient laws , may well be forborn , before the executors of these laws , by a man that thinketh that abatement should be made of the rigour of these laws ; i do not think ( as he doth ) that the alteration of every established law is a matter of such weight as any thing that can be taken into consideration , provided the consideration about it be by such as have power to alter it : what is more common than altering of laws when they are found inconvenient ? our first reformers thought not so under edward . the liturgy ( and the law for it ) was altered when excepted against by mr. calvin abroad , and some zealots ( so the historian speaks ) at home , full. chur. hist. , . p. . why may not this be done now , when dissatis●action is become more universal ? but it is a supposition that i can give no account of , that the laws against non-conformity ( for of these his discourse must be understood , if it be at all to the purpose ) should be so looked on , as that they concern the preservation of the church and religion : that church and religion must stand on a tottering foundation , that cannot be preserved , if those things be laid aside which are acknowledged to be indifferent . but thus it is to dote on mens inventions ; it is ordinary to equal , if not preferr them , to christ's institution , mark . . mat. . . qui amat ranam , ranam putat esse dianam . sect. . but the dr. is not content , not to advise the altering of these laws , where it had not been very pertinent to propose it , but he bringeth reasons able ( as he thinketh ) to preponderate all the considerations that any might use for changing them ; these reasons are in number six ; the . is , the impossibility of satisfying all dissenters . must therefore none be satisfied , because all cannot ? some will be satisfied , if you will but forbear imposing what god hath not commanded : others will not be satisfied , unless you forbear also some of christ's institutions , such as infant baptism ; is it reason to neglect the doing the one of these for peace and unity , because you cannot do the other ? the . is , the vncertainty of gaining any considerable number by relaxations . if any man look on this as uncertain , it must be either because he knoweth not what we scruple at or because he thinketh us resolved to dissent without reason , when the reason of our dissent is removed ; but , i hope the dr. is neither so ignorant , nor so uncharitable : he may be well assured , that by relaxing the imposition of humane ceremonies , all the presbyterians shall be gained to join in worshipping of god with the present church ; and i hope he will not say , that they are no considerable number in england . his . reason is , the difficulty of keeping factions out of the church , considering the ungovernableness of some mens tempers and principles . answ. if the discipline that christ hath instituted be duly exercised in the church , that will either make men governable , yea , actually govern them ; or it will exclude them out of the church , and so factions shall cease in the church : but it is a strange piece of ecclesiastical policy , on supposition that some will prove ungovernable , to obtain the making of civil laws for imposing those things on mens consciences , which the imposers count need nots , and they on whom they are imposed , know them to be unlawful . this is the way to make them ungovernable ( in reference to these particular impositions ) who would tamely submit to any yoke that is not contrary to that of christ. but it seems the dr. looketh on all that scruple at human ceremonies as ungovernable persons : and we rationally think , that his party are resolved , that we shall either be governed by their will , ( not by the word of god ) or they will take the most effectual ways that they can to keep us out of their church . i confess , conscience is an ungovernable thing , except by the laws of christ ; but it is much the strain of some of his party , ( i am confident the reverend dr. doth not mean so ill ) to ridicule and cry down conscience in private persons , that they may be governed by the publick conscience , ( a soloecism in divinity , never heard of before ) i.e. the will of the superiours ; the thing , to wit , blind obedience , is an old popish tool , to enslave consciences ; but such an express affronting of conscience , ( god's deputy in the soul ) is a new invention that this age is honoured with . sect. . his . reason is , the danger of breaking all in pieces by a toleration . ans. toleration is both commanded in scripture , rom. . . eph. . , . in this last place it is joined with endeavouring after unity , so far is it from being the way to break all in pieces , as the dr. thinketh . it is also condemned , rev. . , . wherefore it should not have been so generally censured , as a church-ruining thing . beside , toleration is not that which we plead for in the first place , but that the things that grieve our consciences may be removed , that so we may join with you in worshipping god in his own way , that we may need no toleration ; but if that cannot be obtained , our next desire is , that we may be suffered to worship god in that way that is acceptable to him by our selves , when we cannot do it with you ; neither is it a vast and universal toleration of all blasphenius , heresies , and vnpeaceableness , that we contend for , but a forbearing of such as live peaceable in their dissent from you in the smaller concerns of religion . this toleration would break nothing in pieces , but the denying of it tendeth to break all in pieces : for while men have the use of their conscience , they will dissent , and serve god in the way that they apprehend pleaseth him , without mens leave , when they cannot do it with their leave . it is a great mistake to think that unity among christians lieth only or mainly in vniformity , and not rather in consent , in the main points of religion , and loving forbearance in reference to the rest . sect. . the . is , the exposing our selves to the papists and others , by receding too far from the first principles and frame of our reformation . this is plain enough ; yet without wronging the scope or sence , it might have been thus expressed more openly , we are ashamed to mend , l●st men should think that we once were wrong . this reason , if it prove any thing , will conclude against all reformations : might it not have been pleaded against the abolishing the high places in solomon's , azariah's , and josiah's time ; ( of which before ? ) this will expose us to baal - worshippers , as too far receding from the first principles of our reformation : might not the same have been in k. edward 's time , and in q. elizabeth's time , in the one of which somewhat was mended that was defective in the reformation by hen. . and in the other praying for the dead , and some other things were laid aside , that had been under edw. . it is beyond my capacity to understand how this could expose you to the papists or any other ; what could they say , but that some of their superstitions were at first over-lookt , which now you see the evil of , and think fit to remove them ? what advantage could they make of all this against the church of england ? it will be hard to convince those of mistake , who think , that cleaving to these ceremonies doth more expose the church to the papists , and give them hope of their thinking at last of returning to them , when they see how loath they are to go too far from them . this principle seemeth to make what we have done , or the first frame of the reformation , the rule of the reformation , rather than the word of god : neither can the laying aside of humane ceremonies be rationally esteemed a receding very far from the frame and first principles of the reformation , seeing they are of so inconsiderable moment , and next to nothing , compared with the weighty points of truth that we gained by the reformation . it is known to them , who have lookt into the history of the council of trent , that this very principle put an effectual bar to all reformation in the papacy , that was so much desired , and stickled for by some . his sixth reason is , the difficulty of keeping out priests , pretending to be allowed dissenters : this reason is near of kin to that which papists use against peoples reading scripture ; the difficulty of keeping men from catching heresy by it : if the dr. here suppose the dissenters to be well affected to the priests , and willing to have their company ; or so unskilful , that they cannot discern a priest's droctrine , from that of a protestant ; or to admit ministers among them , to the discharge of that office , without trial , and testimonials : or , if he suppose , that when men are allowed , by law , to worship god without ceremonies ; that the law is so laid asleep , that men may do what they list : if , i say , all these things be supposed , this reason may seem to have some weight , but without such a supposition , it is lighter than chaff , and unworthy of the pen of the learned dr. stillingfleet . sect. . i perceive the dr. cannot get that fancy out of his head , that the strength and union of the national setlement dependeth on continuing of the present impositions , and that they are necessary to keep out popery . enough hath been already said , to lay open the fondness of this imagination , and its inconsistency with what sentiments about the ceremonies themselves do on other occasions declare , when it serveth a turn . after some indecent contempt of mr. a. in reference to what he had said of the dr's sermon , he distinguisheth ( p. . ) between lay-communion and ministerial conformity , that he meddleth with the former , not the latter , his reason is , if the people thought themselves bound to do what is their duty towards communion with the church , many ministers would change their mind . i contract , but not misrepresent what he saith . to this i return two things , . why ministerial conformity should not be taken into consideration in such a discourse , is not easily understood : but that we may see the dr. hath a mind not only to make a distinction but a difference between non-conformist ministers and their people , according to the maxime , divide & impera . if all the people might lawfully conform , and the ministers also could submit to what he calleth lay-communion , is no regard to he had to the many hundreds ( not to say thousands ) of ministers , many of them eminent , and most , if not all of them , compleatly fitted for the work of the gospel , and who have god's and his church's call to that work ? is there no consideration to be used by the church , how the labours of all these may not be lost , while the harvest is great , and the labourers few ? ( unless it be thought , that the case is not so now ) and , shall they all be rendered useless , rather than the imposing of subscription and assent to what is confessedly not instituted before born ? doth this savour of that regard to souls , and of that love of peace and unity that our brethren make such a noise with , when it suiteth their purpose ? tho' they think us no ministers for want of episcopal ordination , yet we cannot think so of our selves ; and that one principle sheweth them the greatest schismaticks that are among protestants ; for by it they unchurch most , if not all the reformed churches , and unminister all their pastours and nullifie baptism and all the other ordinances that are among them . sect. . the other thing that i reply to this distinction of the dr's is , that we have such rational and well-grounded scruples even against lay-communion , that is , joining in their service , and the use of the ceremonies , that nothing that we yet have seen , is able to remove , as i hope the progress of this debate shall make appear . he alledgeth , ( p. . ) that the scruple of the surplice is worn out , kneeling at the sacrament is generally allowed by the more moderate non-conformists : for the sign of the cross , mr. baxter saith , the sin ( if it be one ) in using it , is not the persons who bring the child to be baptized , but the ministers ; and that he also debateth for the use of the liturgy . to all this i answer , we have the same scruple against the surplice we had of old , but do not for it withdraw , it being the minister's fault , not ours . for kneeling , it is our own act , and therefore we must either be dispensed with in it ( which the church will not do ) or for bear the sacrament in which it is ; for we utterly deny , that the more judicious of the non-conformists do allow it ; neither do i see how they can , and disallow other ceremonies ; for they all stand on one bottom ( to wit ) that they are not instituted : but more of this in its due place . for mr. baxter's authority we lay little weight on it ; he hath his own singular opinions which neither party do unanimously allow . his reasons in their place we shall consider . what he saith of the crossing the baptized party , i know not that i shall hereafter be put in mind of it , wherefore i answer , that tho' it be the ministers action , yet it is the parties ( or his representatives ) passion ; and that personal . it cannot be done on my person , or my child 's without my consent and submission ; as if i willingly suffer holy water to be sprinkled on me , i am culpable in reference to that superstition : so it is in this case . sect. . the heavy complaints that he maketh , pag. . of the unmanly and barbarous usage that he met with for his sermon , i am wholly a stranger to , and can pass no judgment on it ; but if this be as he saith , it is no way to be justified . but he should not charge the party with this : there are some scurrilous and mean wits among all parties of men , who have no other way to express their zeal against what they dislike : and if we should trouble the world with such publick resentments of the same kind of dealings , and worse , that we and our way have met with , and daily do meet with , not only from the rabble and drunken boozers of his party ; but from pulpits and the press , not by the baser phamphelteers only , but famous authors ( witness dr. heylin's history of presbytery ) we might write books abundance . his citation of bishop whitgift cometh little short of a full proof of what i now say , in that he representeth us as depravers , raillers , back-b●ters , inventors of lyes , and spreaders of false rumors ; and that of the best deserving men , if they but come short of pleasing our humour . sect. . the dr. next , p. . taketh a view of the forces that he saith were mustered up against his sermon , and passeth a verdict on each of his adversaries , which i shall not stay to consider . only i think he treateth mr. b. with too much of the same sharpness , that he complaineth he hath received : tho' i think none who knoweth the writings of that learned man , will applaud his severe strain . and for mr. a. whether the dr. was piqued by some home thursts that he had met with from him , i know not ; but a man of his worth and learning should not have been so dispised , and his vvriting represented so contemptibly as the dr. dealeth with him ; the facetiousness of his strain needed to have bred no such disgust ; it is neither so . low nor scurrilous as the author would make us believe ; others look on it as a condiment to prevent taedium and nauseousness . i know none that blameth the excellent writings of mr. fuller , which have a pleasantness not unlike that of mr. a's . the debate that next falleth in between the dr. and mr. a. about the true meaning of the text , of the dr's . sermon , he now waveth ; as i shall also do that about the proof of a deity , which i think might have passed , as forreign to this purpose . sect. . one of his antagonists ( p. . ) chargeth him with changableness , in writing here contrary to what he had written in his irenicum , about which he maketh diverse apologies . a change in this learned man is too visible , and if it had been to the better , it had not been culpable ; but because his changes do not so much concern our present debate about conformity to the present church-way , i shall not meddle in that matter at this time : especially a change being ( upon the matter ) acknowledged by himself , p. . one thing i cannot pass over ; that he had asserted in his irenicum , that if others cast them wholly out of communion , then is their separation necessary : which he would reconcile with what he here writeth , p. . by shewing a difference as to this between the excommunication of the church of rome , and of the church of england : for saith he , our church doth not cast one wholly out of communion for meer scrupulous non-conformity , but alloweth to communicate in some parts of worship . . ours is but the lesser excommunication ; which he confesseth , publick defamers of the orders of the church to be under , ipso facto , by the canons ; but that it layeth on no obligation till duely executed : but the excommunication of rome is with an anathema . all this is very little to the present purpose : for if we be all , ipso facto , excommunicated , and if this excommunication be most frequently ( as it is ) executed against us , and capias's issued out commonly against us ; and all this for meer scrupulous non-conformity ( as he calleth it ) by these means we are de facto , put in such a case , as we cannot enjoy all the ordinances of god among them ; and therefore we must either live without gods ordinances ; or have them out of communion with their church . again , he alledgeth p. . that he could not mean , that there was an equal reason in these cases , when he expresly determineth , that , in the case of our church , men are bound in conscience to submit to the orders of it : neither doth this help the matter ; for if we think ( as we do ) that we are bound , in conscience , not to submit to all the orders of the church , some of them being unwarranted by the word of god ; and if for this opinion , and suitable practice to it , we be so excommunicated , as we cannot enjoy god's ordinances with the church ; then we are cast wholly out of the church , and our separation must be lawful , on the ground that of old he had laid down . but pag. . he would , in that case , allow us a serupulous forbearance of acts of communion ; but not to proceed to a positive separation . but if we make use of his allowance , the church , who is of another mind , putteth a bar to our enjoying all god's ordinances : what can we then do , but either live without them ▪ or proceed to that , which he is pleased to call a positive separation ? we are not convinced , that our practice is condemned by the wiser protestants abroad , for all the letters that he mentioneth ; of which , in their place : and it is a rash assertion ( which he knoweth cannot be tried ) pag. . that if a council were called of all the protestant churches in christendom ; we should not doubt of their determination , of the unlawfulness of the present separation . he , our author , maketh good the saying , quod misere volumus , id facile credimus ; any man that hath seen the vniformity , in almost all things , that is between our mode of worship and their's ; and the great deformity that is between theirs and that of the church of england , will find reason to expect a quite contrary determination from such an assembly . we may appeal in this case even to some of the sons of the church of england . the excellent and pious , and learned sr. matthew hales , in his book of schism , hath this passage . in times of manifest corruptions and persecutions , where religious assembling is dangerous , private meetings , howsoever beside publick order , are not only lawful , but they are of necessity and duty . all pious assemblies in times of persecution and corruption , however practised , are indeed , or rather alone , the lawful congregations and publick assemblies , though according to form of law , are indeed nothing but riots and conventicles , if they be stained with corruption and superstition . sest . . he answereth an objection ▪ pag. . that the publishing of this book is now unseasonable , being a hindrance to the vnion of protestants , to which there seemeth now to be a general inclination . he alledgeth ( p. . ) that the principles of non-conformists hinder that vnion , and lay a foundation for perpetual divisions . he knoweth that we will not own this , and therefore proveth it ( as he thinketh ) on the principles laid down by some of the dissenting brethren ; let the constitution be never so easie to themselves , others may make use of their grounds , and carry on the difference as high as ever . i wish he had told us what these grounds are . but it is an odd kind of reasoning ; we will not endeavour union with them who may be tollerated , because they who are not to be tolerated , will expect the same favour . the ground on which we plead for forbearance , is , our scruple about what you confess to be no institution of christ nor necessary duty ; we in our conscience judge it unlawful , and can shew good reason for our so judging : how this ground can be improved by any body to heighten differences , unless it be by the peremptoriness of them that will impose such things , i do not understand . he professeth to be for vnion that will lessen differences , and not weaken , but strengthen the protestant religion : now let any judge whether the union that is founded on the ground proposed be not such . sect. . he saith , p. . that vniversal liberty differeth from vnion , as loosing from binding ; and it is strange , if that which papists lately thought the best means to bring in popery , should now be lookt on as the most effectual way to keep it out . ans. we do not , nor ever did plead for vniversal liberty , which was that which no doubt papists aimed at , ergo nihil dictum . but suppose , saith he , the indulgence be at present strictly limitted to dissenting protestants , we are not sure it will always continue so ; will not the same reasons , as to scruple of conscience , suffering for religion , &c. be extended further when occasion serveth , and popery getteth footing on the dissenters grounds ? ans. were it not as rational for us to say , tho' we can now join with the church of england , in her present ceremonies , what know we how soon on the same grounds she may bring in all those of popery ? let us forbear evil surmising , and mind our present duty , especially seeing the way to prevent this feared evil is obvious , ( to wit ) that no indulgence be granted after , but what there is as good reason for , and as little hazard from , as is at present : neither do we plead for indulgence meerly on the grounds of s●ruple of conscience , or suffering for religion ; but on other grounds in conjunction with these , as hath been a little above expressed . it is like our grounds may be comprehended in his wide-bellied , &c. but if by it he means all grounds of forbearance now may be extended to plead for an undue toleration , then all forbearance of christians that dissent in any thing , must be unlawful , which is contrary to the scripture formerly mentioned , and to the general sentiments of all christians , except papists , whose religion standeth by blood and cruelty . sect. . where ( saith he ) hath the church of rome more labourers and a greater harvest than under the greatest liberty of conscience ? witness the state of the northern kingdoms , compared with the number of papists in the united netherlands ; i can soon tell him where , ( to wit ) under episcopal persecution of protestants in britain . if this be a mistake , these nations have been for some years in a dream . again , his instance is wide from the purpose , for we plead not for a toleration of all sects , and particularly not of papists ; what toleration is in the netherlands , themselves can best give account of . he asserteth it impossible to keep out popery , where toleration is allowed ; and i assert it as impossible to keep in christianity in an impure church , where it is not allowed ; and yet there is no inconsistency between the two assertions , if we distinguish between a limited toleration , which we plead for , and one vnlimited , which he all along speaketh of . to talk of toleration thus without distinction , is to walk in the clouds , and not descend to the thing in debate , which is unbeseeming a disputant . sect. . he bringeth three arguments , p. , . to prove his assertion ; . because of the various waies of creeping in under several disguises , which the priests and jesuits have , and can never be prevented , where there is a general indulgence for dissenters , and an unaccountable church-power is allowed to separate congregations . ans. . this argument supponit falsum , which we have often disclaimed ; to wit , that we plead for a general indulgence to dissenters ; we desire it may be limitted to men of peaceable principles and practices ; to such as differ from the publick way in matters not fundamental nor near to the foundation ( and for our part , who are presbyterians , we seek forbearance only in things that are acknowledged to be none of christ's institutions , ) and in things that are neither against godliness , nor the peace of church or state. another falshood that he supposeth , is , that we plead for an unaccountable church-power in separat● meetings . we plead for no power in them , but what a good account can be given of from scripture ; and what is allowed commonly to a church as such . . i mention'd before a way of preventing the creeping in of priests and jesuits , for all their cunning , ( to wit ) the due exercise of church-discipline , in all the ways that shall be tolerated , especially in the admission of ministers to their office ; and if these foxes creep in at undiscerned cranies , if discipline be in vigour , they may be cast out again , before they can do any considerable harm to the flock . sect. . argument . because it will be great hardship , when mens heats are over , for them ( the papists ) only to be deprived of the liberty of their consciences , when the wildest of phanaticks are allowed it . answ. . still the old supposition must found all his arguments . we plead for no toleration to any phanaticks ( properly so called ) much less to the wildest of them . . there are many weighty reasons why papists should be denied that liberty that is allowed to protestant dissenters ; from the grossness of their heresies , the idolatry of their worship , the unpeaceableness of their principles , such as dethroning kings , and cutting off all people that are hereticks in their sence ; their principle of bearing down all religion but their own . had a non-conformist spoke as much on the behalf of papists , what a noise would our author have made about it , that we do their work , &c. his . argument is , because the diversity of sects that will be kept up by this means , will be alwaies thought a plausible argument to draw men to the popish pretences of vnity . ans. by whom will this be thought ? surely , by no man that considereth , . that unity in error and idolatry is no perswading argument to them who regard the truths of god. . that our differences are in things of the smallest moment in religion , and managed with christian love and meekness , ( for who exceed these bounds ▪ may be punished by the laws , notwithstanding a toleration granted . ) . that the popish unity is but pretended , there being more and weightier differences among them , than among us ; as the dr. well knoweth , and hath , by his learned labours , made the world know . his . argument is , because the allowed sects will in probability grow more insolent upon a legal indulgence , and bid defiance to the setled constitution , as we have seen already by the yet visible effects of the former indulgence . ans. . he hath little charity for his brethren , in expecting such things from them , and less in making such an observe on what is past , without any ground known to unbyassed men . if he mean of any indecency in speech or behaviour among the vulgar , we cannot answer for that ; there is too much of it on both hands : neither is it fit , that on such a frivolous ground the sober and conscientious should be persecuted . . if insolency shall happen ( as god forbid ) to be the consequent of liberty to dissenters , let the guilty be punished by the law. we plead for toleration to mens consciences , not to their immoralities ; but , are we to expect , that the laws of men should work more upon them than the grace of god ? ans. not on their minds and wills to change them , but on the outward man to restrain them . such an effect may be rationally expected , and is daily observed in other cases . it is an odious representation , as if the vse of the liberty pleaded for were only to preach and pray , & write & dispute against one another ; and as absurd an inference , that there seemeth to be much of sence and reason in the papal pretence to vnity and infallibility . whatever our author , or the by-slanders that he mentioneth may think , they who have a just abhorrence of popery , will think , that none of the divisions that are amongst us , are so bad as it by far , tho' we desire neither to excuse nor extenuate them : nor do we refuse to concur in our station in any good way to heal these distempers . sect. . the rest of the dr's preface is taken up in expressing his cond●scendency to the dissenters , in the things that they scruple , tho' he pleadeth for the ceremonies as lawful , ( which is afterward to be debated ) yet he would have a liberty allowed , that they who scruple them , may have the ordinances without them . if this were put in practice , it would be one step toward healing : but it seems the church-men are not of his mind : however , we do thankfully own his moderation . his other condescendencies to such as scruple joining in the use of the liturgy , are for the most part very commendable , and might make england happy , if they were practised . but till some appearance of that be , it will be needless for us to tell our sence of them in particular : but his kindness to his brethren of the ministry doth not so well appear by his discourse from p. . he is willing to gain the people , but seemeth to look on the ministers as competitors ; his reasons for dealing so with them it were not hard to answer ; but considering , that there is little hope of seeing even what he holdeth to be made practicable , i think it needless to contend about it ; only i must tell him , that tho' we be as far as he is against lay-men , ( as he speaketh ) or any unordained person , usurping the office , or doing the work of a minister , yet his proposals are very lame , as to affording any ministers at all . and then what do all his commendable yieldings , as to the people , signi●●e ? would he have them have separate meetings , but no ministers in them to administer the ordinances of god to them ? this is a sort of toleration that would neither be for our advantage , nor the credit of the church that alloweth it : so that in a great many pages he hath said nothing . there is nothing further to be noted in the preface ; for we wish the proposals that he maketh , for reforming some abuses in the church , p. . might take effect . having now got through the preface , i proceed to the book , which the learned author divideth into three parts ; the . is , an histori●al account of the rise and progress of the separation . the . is , of the nature of the separation . the . is , of the pleas f●r the separtion . i shall accordingly divide this examination , and follow him , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so far as the clearing of our principles and practice does require it . the name of separation is justly odious in the church ; and it is certain , that where-ever it is , some great blame lieth on the one party or the other , and sometimes on both ; but there often is a sad and undesirable separation , attended with bad consequences , where yet the one party is wholly innocent . i should here speak somewhat to open the nature of that separation that the learned dr. chargeth us with , but that were to anticipate what is to be discoursed , animadverting on the second part of his book , and therefore i now wave it . part i. the dr's historical account of the separation , examined and answered . in his sect. . he premiseth two things , in prosecuting which , his first part of his book is taken up . the first is , that although the present reasons for separation would have held from the beginning of our reformation , yet no such thing was then practised or allowed , by those who were then most zealous for reformation . sect . i. the practice of the first non-conformists considered . before we consider his d . proposition , let us try how this will abide the test. here are two assertions put together , which for the greater clearness i shall consider apart ; the one is doctrinal , the other historical : the doctrinal part of his proposition , is , that the present reasons for separation ( i shall not contend about calling our practice so , not being willing to contend about words ) would have held from the beginning of the reformation . this i deny , and shall first give the reason of my denial , and then try the strength of what he saith for his assertion . the reason that i bring , is , that our reformation was carried on by degrees ; as rome was not built in a day , so neither was it pulled down among us in a day . king hen. . began this work , but did it so lamely , that protestants were little satisfied . there wanted not non-conformists then , who were all the true protestants ; many of them laid down their lives for their non-conformity . after him , his son edw. . a religious and zealous prince , reformed many things , but not all at once ; for the liturgy was twice reformed in his reign , full. ch. hist. book . p. . once in his first year , and again in a parliament held in his , & . years ; and again , in the reign of queen elizabeth ; there were also some alterations made in the rubrick , jacob. . saith the same author . and it is known , that several things unreformed in edw. 's reign , were after taken away ; as may be seen by comparing his injunctions with what afterward was practised in them . we have mention of coming to confession in lent , art. . of high mass , art. . prayer for the dead is expresly injoined in the form of bidding of common prayers ; all which were afterward removed , name and thing ; yea , these very injunctions gave people hope of a further reformation ; for they were only intended till a parliament should be called . and art. . people are injoined , not to violate the ceremonies not as yet abrogated ; which gave the people confidence , that such superstitions were not to be continued as a burden to mens consciences , but were used for the present supposed necessity . sect. . the case is far otherwise with us ; we are put beyond all hope of relief ; a yoke of humane ceremonies wreathed on our ne●k , without any probability of being loosed from it : for after the king 's happy restauration , then there was the fairest opportunity that could be wished for condescendence and accommodation , the ceremonies having gone into disuetude for years , and the nation being more generally against them than ever before , by the light of the word , that had for so many years been more freely and fully held forth than before ; and when a great number of ministers presented a petition for peace , to their brethren then commissionate to reform the liturgy , and used the strongest reasons , the most earnest obtestations , and the greatest condescentions that could be , to obtain either a taking away of what was grievous to their consciences , or , at least , a forbearance in them , ( all which may be seen at length in the book it self ; ) yet nothing was to be obtained , but impositions made more strict , and our yoke made heavier than before , rather than lighter ; so that there remained no more hope for our selves , or our posterity ; but either we and they must take up with a worship , that , we are convinced , is mixt with some things that maketh it displeasing to god , or live without god's ordinances , or worship god apart by our selves . may not we appeal to god , and to all the world , that whatever our brethren talk of peace and vnity , we were for peace , but when we spake , they were for wars ? psal. . . while they will not abate nor bear with us in one ceremony , ( which themselves declare indifferent ) for that peace and vnity that they extol so highly ; yea , for the keeping out of popery , the re-entry of which they pretend to fear by our divisions . sect. . these things being considered , it is very evident , that our case is not parallel with that of the first non-conformists , in reference to communion with the church , and therefore the reasons that moved them to go along with the present way , do not conclude , that we ought to do the same ; for , . there was then a necessity apprehended by some of the best men for retaining some of the ceremonies that had been in use in popery , lest too sudden and visible a change ( it being the out-side of religion that the multitude doth most consider ) should have scared the people from owning the reformation ; and we know , necessitas quicquid coegit defendit : on this ground even the apostles retained for a time a little of the jewish observations , act. . , . i do not say , that there was a necessity for this , but it was then thought to be , and therefore must needs influence their minds and practice , as if there really had been such a necessity : but now it is evident to unbyassed men , that there is no such necessity for retaining these ceremonies . p●pists are so far from being brought over to us by symbolizing with them , that they conceive hope , from that very thing , of our returning to them ; as hath been made appear by several passages in their writings and discourses , which i now stay not to rehearse : and in very deed , our service , especially in cathedrals , cometh so much nearer to their way , than it doth either to the way of the apostolick church ( so far as it is recorded in scripture ) or to the way of most of the reformed churches ; that it were no hard task to bring in popish worship ( abating the service being in latin ) and discipline ( for in that also we are at no great distance from popery ) among us , without being observed by the vulgar . and the necessity is yet the less for retaining them among us , that our people have not been bred in popery , as in those times , when the ceremonies were retained , and therefore are not in that hazard that they were to ●all back into popery upon the abolishing of them ; yea , it is so far from that , that the disuse of these might make popery to be more forgotten among the people , these being some of the ornaments by which that whorish worship was once decked . sect. . a second ground , why the reason of their cleaving to the church-way doth not conclude for our doing the like , is , they had cause to look on their grievances but as temporary , and knew that further reformation was designed , and might be in a short time expected , and therefore it was reason that they should rather forbear , for that time ▪ their edification , ( i mean the external means of it ) that they might have had by pure ordinances , rather than seem to make a breach . this reason doth not at all touch us , who are out of all hope of such purity of ordinances in the church , as is pleasing to god , or consistent with his acceptance ; ( i mean , from us , who know the right way ; for i shall not judge what acceptance an impure worship , invincibly not known to be such , may find with god ) they had not in vain essayed to make peace with their brethren , and been rejected with a peremptory ●leaving to the least indifferent ceremony , rather than to satisfie the consciencious seruples of those who doubted ; which is our case . therefore we are ( even by them who blame us for what they force us to ) brought to a necessity of worshipping god apart from them , seeing we neither can now do it , nor hope that afterward we may do it with them . and this our necessity is heightned , and our case made yet more different from theirs at the reformation , when we consider , that that was a time of reformatio , status convalescentiae ; ours is rather status decidentiae , a time of encreasing , rather than of diminishing the number of superstitions , and coming nearer the popish modes , rather than going further from them . instances of this are not a few ; take for a taste the allowing of plays on the lord's day ; ( the zealous promoting of the book of sports by that party , is not yet forgotten ) whereas that day was , art. . of king edw. the 's injunctions , before mentioned , appointed to be given wholly to god in hearing the word of god read and taught in private and publick prayters , &c. a further conviction in this matter may be abundantly had from a book entituled , the advances of england toward popery ; which book , tho' our reverend author labours to disparage , p. . of his preface , yet agreeth so well with what men see with their eyes , that it is not fit to be slighted ; for , tho' some be mentioned , and blamed in that book that appeared most zealous against popery , yet it is no rarity for words and deeds to clash . quid verba audio cum facta videam ? and if it be true , that the author before his death was sensible of the injury he had done to some , yet his evidence that he bringeth will still be compared with what every one saw to be the tendency of some mens way . i might here alledge the obligation of the national covenant that we are under , as they were not to whom the dr. would make our case parallel , tho i never thought , that that bond made any new duties or sins , that were not such antecedently ; yet the oath of god maketh the tye that we are under to duty , and against sin , more weighty , and aggravateth the sin of doing what is contrary to it ; but of this afterwards . i conclude then , that the present reasons of separation would not have held from the beginning of the reformation , quod erat probandum . sect. . the learned dr. ( p. . ) after explaining the terms of his assertion which we have denied , proveth the identity of reason , in their case and ours , by the ceremonies , liturgy , &c. being the same . let all this be admitted ; as they were dissatisfied with these then , so are we now ; but we join not in these practices , as they did , and worship god without them , as they did not ; because our case doth not make these things appear so needful as theirs did , because we have no hope of reformation , as they had ; beside our being under an additional tye against such superstitions , which they were not under . not content with this , the dr. thinks to prove , that we are more obliged to join in the church's worship , than those at the reformation : . because of the number , diligence , and learning of our allowed preachers . . because the ceremonies are retrenched . . because of the mischiefs that we have seen of separation . to the first i answer ; as what we complain of in the present ministry , is not the ground of our with drawing ( though it is a sad grievance , and tendeth to make the ordinances of the lord to be abhorred in the eyes of the people ; as the ways of eli's sons did , sam. . . ) so neither can their commendation by him given , be a sufficient reason for our joining in corrupted ordinances . i confess , the number of the present ministers is greater than in those days , the generality of the clergy continuing popish ; and i am far from derogating from some among them , who are learned and diligent ( and ● add ) pious men , and sound protestants : but as for the far greatest part of the parish ministers , that the people are most edified by , or disappointed of their edification , they are either strangers to england , or strangely byassed , who see not cause to complain of their ignorance , idleness , and vitious conversation , if not of all these three . to the second ; i know not what retrenchment hath been made of ceremonies , since the beginning of q. elizabeth's reign , but i know additions have been made , if not as to imposing , yet as to use , and some additions to the holidays hath been imposed ; but if they were fewer than they are , they are enough to corrupt the worship of god , and furnish as strong an argument to forbear such corrupted worship , as if they were more numerous . a grain of arsenick may justly make one forbear a dish in which it is , as well as if there were two or three in it . to the third ; as he hath seen mischiefs of separation , and we do not extenuate them , so have we of impositions , yea , all the mischiefs of that kind are justly imputable to these impositions , they being the cause of the separation ; and , causa causae est causa causati . our ancestors had hope of freedom from that yoke , as hath been said , which we have not ; therefore no inconvenience ( that is not our sin ) can warrant us to join with , and in the depravations of the worship of god , which were our sin , as neither can such inconvenience excuse us to live without ordinances alwaies , as the former non-conformist● might do for a time . sect. . in his . section , he cometh to the proof of the other part of his assertion , to wit , that there was no separation practised or allowed by those who were most zealous for the reformation . he confesseth there were different apprehensions about some few things ; but denieth that they were the things now scrupled at ; and that any separation was made because of them . i shall not much dispute either of these , because the cause that i defend is not much concerned in them , but standeth on a better foundation , than the opinions or practices of men : and because our case and reasons differs from theirs as hath been shewed , yet shall i a little examine what he alledgeth under both these heads . for the former of them ; he proveth it only from mr. roger , scrupling only the square cap and tippet ; and b. hooper scrupling only the episcopal h●bit , to which afterward he submitted : and bucer and others scrupled the liturgy till it was reformed , but none after that scrupled any of the things now in controversy . here is fall●cious if not false history , for with rogers and hooper , called ring-leaders of the party by one who was no friend to them ▪ are re●koned others who had sted beyond sea , and suck'd in both the air and discipline of the place where they lived , and renounced all ceremonies practised by papists , conceiving that such ought not only to be clipt with the sheers , but to be shaved with the razor ; yea , all the stums thereof to be pluckt out . fuller ch. hist. lib. . pa. . these fugitiv●s ( if it be not too bad a name for them ) i understand of hen. 's . reign of whom fox , act. and mon. book . p. . in the history of hooper , one of them , they being also joined with them by fuller . is all this no more than two mens scrupling only some habits ? or is not here rather a considerable number exactly of our opinion about all humane ceremonies in the worship of god ? . what he saith of mr. rogers is a very imperfect representation of him , for fox , act. and monu . vol. . pa. . ( the place which he citeth ) saith no such thing , as that this was mr. rogers only scruple : and mr. fuller ( loco citato ) saith the contrary . mr. fox is telling a story of his dissent from a determination of the bishops and clergy in the reign of edw. . for wearing of priests caps and other attire belonging to that order : mr. rogers said , he would not agree to that decree of uniformity , unless it be also decreed , that the papists for a difference betwixt them and others , should wear on their sl●eves a chalice with an host upon it ; which sheweth his factious and resolute way of refusing that thing , on that occasion , rather than , that he did not scruple any thing else ; and it hath no shew of probability that such a wise and holy man , would stick at that , and not at other ceremonies , that had as little warrant , and were more intrinsick to religion and worship , and so less in the power of men to be determined . sect. . . we may say the same of excellent hooper who was long at zurick , and very dear to bullinger , and one of those that had suck'd in the air and discipline of the places where they lived , and were for rooting out of ceremonies . he was a ring-leader of these , and this his scrupling the episcopal habit is never mentioned as the whole of his opnion about ceremonies , but is taken notice of on a particular occasion . for his after submission ; it was by the force of temptation , being in prison , and deserted by his patron , the earl of warwick . fuller ubi supra , p. . and with what reluctancy he did it , see p. . . that on the review of the liturgy in the reign of king edw. . there was little or no dissatisfaction left ; at least as to the things now scrupled , is still false history ; for that review was anno . full. ch. hist. lib. . p. . whereas . he telleth us pa. . of two parties discovered , conformists and non-conformists , and the one against all the ceremonies . sect. . that there was no separation at first he next asserteth ; but people ( tho scrupling them ) complyed with the use of liturgies and cerimonies . may be it was so at the very first , while reformation was hopefull going on . i have already shewed why we are not bound by such examples : i shall now apologize for the unimitable practice of the those holy men , to excuse them atanto , though not atoto . the glorious change that then was wrought in the church , did so affect then , & engage their zealous hearts to gods ordinances , that they did not so throughly consider , as they ought , the sinfulness of the ceremonies : they had got so many things reformed , the evil of which was so incomparably beyond that of the ceremonies , that these seemed as nothing to them . it is known that the limitted & scant powers of our souls , our understandings , affections ; yea , our senses are by some vehement objects so diverted , as that meaner objects at the same time cannot move them , nor be noticed by them . it was much that these men discovered any evil in the ceremonies , but that the principles that the reformation was built on led them to that ; ( to wit ) that scripture is the rule by which the affairs of the house of god must be ordered ; but it is no wonder that they did not so fully discover the evil of them , nor were so affected with it , as we who have had longer time and less hindrance to think on these things . i am far from thinking , that they had either less light , or less tenderness of conscience than we , but that their mind and conscience were exercised about higher matters , which we have ( through the lord's goodness ) so settled to our hand , that reforming of these is not our work. they were imployed to do the hardest part of the work ; to cast out antichristianism ; it was left to others that succeeded them to cast out of the house a little of antichrist's furniture , that had been forgotten , or by minding greater things , over-lookt , lying in some corners of the house : so that it doth no more inferr blame on us forbearing the use of the ceremonies that they used them , while they reformed the church from popery , than it was a blame to hezekiah , jos●ah , and such reformers , who took away the high places that other reformers had left , when they threw out baal's worship . sect. . this may satisfie an unbyassed mind , that our non-compliance with the liturgy and ceremonies is consistent with all that respect that is due to those excellent persons , who in the beginning of the reformation practised otherwise ; for we owe such respect to no man , nor men , as to reckon them infallible in opinion or practice . also what hath been said may take off the edge of the dr's jeering insinuations , that these things are now such bug-bears to scare people from our communion , and make them cry out in such dreadful manner , of the mischief of impositions , as though the church must unav●idably be broken in pieces by the weight and burden of two or three unsupportable ceremonies . we have little answer to this sort of argumentation , only we say , it is not childish fear , but conscience guided by scripture , that scareth us ; neither do we count these ceremonies such as will break ( tho' they defile ) the church , but they are too heavy for our consciences to bear , and the example of men using them , can yield us no ease of this burden . when the dr. doth thus ridicule the scruples of conscience , that his opposites pretend to have , either he thinketh , that an erring conscience is to be cured by contempt and scorn , or that we do only pretend to conscience in our dissent : the former is no sign of a good casuist , nor the latter of a good christian ; for such will not judge , lest they be judged . he stormeth much at two expressions of one of his antagonists ; one is , that it is unreasonable , that men should create a necessity of separation , and then complain of the impossibility of vnion : hath our church ( saith he ) made new terms of communion , or altered the old ones ? ans. though the terms of communion be not new , as to the matter of them , they are perpetuated on new grounds , which make them now harder to be submitted to than before , for they were brought in at first on a present necessity , as then was thought , the nation being popish , and ready to abandon the reformation , if that was offended . now it is not so ; they were continued in a reforming time , and now fixed in a time when no such thing is to be expected , but rather the contrary : they were retained in the morning twi-light of the reformation , but now in the noon-day of gospel-light long shining among us , fixed in perpetuity , so that the present prelates give a new being to these stumbling-blocks ; especially , they are new grounds of separation , because now they are scrupled at more than at first ; and though the things were before , yet they did not such mischief then as now ; and therefore , they who continued them when thus hurtful , ( though it were granted , that the hurt of them arose from the mistake of the scruplers ) do create a necessity of separation , while they may remove these scandals , and will not . but they that scruple , cannot remove their scruples . the other expression is , that continuing of the ceremonies , is , venturing our peace in an old worm-eaten bottom ; which the dr. against all reason , understandeth of the reformation , but is indeed to be understood of the ceremonies . the reformation is founded on scripture , a sure and sound foundation . the ceremonies on mens will and authority , and therefore justly termed a worm-eaten bottom . that he saith , there was no non-conformists in k. edw. . days , is before disproved ; and if there had not , while we can give scripture-ground for our non-conformity , we need not be ashamed , tho' martyrs and other reformers acted otherwise . sect. . that dr. ames can bring no other instances but rogers and hooper , is nothing against us , who have before shewed that a party they had , of whom they were the ring-leaders . he seemeth , p. . to lay some weight on p. martyr and bucer , perswading hooper to submit to the episcopal habit ; i deny not but they di● so , and he at last yielded to their advice ; but p. martyr , in the epistle cited by the dr. ( to wit ) ep. theolog. hoopero , p. mihi , . doth there fully declare his dislike of these things , and of all humane inventions in god's worship , only that for the necessity that then was , adviseth the use of them ; as the apostles on the like ground ( as he there mentioneth ) forbad eating of things strangled , &c. he highly commendeth hooper's zeal in endeavouring , vt ad castam simplicemque puritatem christiana religio denuo aspir●t ; and desireth , vt omnia paulatim resecentur — quae parum aut nihil habent , quae ad solidam aedificationem referri p●ssint , & redundare potius & superflua quodammodo piis animis judicantur . and he commendeth the practice at strasburg , ( where he lived ) vbi vestrum discrimina quoad sacra sunt sublata , as being morem candidiorem & apprime resipientem apostolicam ecclesiam : and after he saith , accendit hoc meum desiderium , partim quod in ritibus , quamproxime vellem ad sacras literas accedere , atque meliorum temporum ecclesiae imitatione persequi , partim quod animadverto , papae sectatores adhuc his reliquiis conari speciem saltem missae instaurare : and afterwards , si pateremur prius evangelium & propagari & altas radices agere , melius fortasse & facilius persuaderentur homines ut hos externos apparatus removerent . and he addeth a similitude of one that was sick , and recovered by degrees , who cannot forbear the use of some unfit things , that in health he will willingly put away . doth not all this fully express what i have already said , that all the ceremonies ought to have been cast out at first ? that the reformers , partly by the church's , and their want of due light ( like one in a state of convalescency ) and partly out of a design to gain , and not offend the papists , did for a time retain these ceremonies , with a design to have them afterward removed ? and is it not plain , that p. martyr , under our circumstances , would be a non conformist as well as we ? the opinion of this good man is yet more clear , and against the dr. out of another epistle , amico cuidam in anglia , who none that readeth the letter , and knoweth the history , can doubt to be hooper , p. ( mihi ) , . where he saith , de pil●● vero rotundo vel habitu , extra sacra gestando , non arbitramur esse plus quam opor●eat rixandum , at de vestibus ut sacris in ministerio ipso adhibendis cum sp●ciem missae referant , & sunt merae papatus reliquiae , dominus bullingerus cens●t non esse illis utendum ; ego vero et si usui ejusmodi ornamentorum semper sum adversatus — idcirco tardior eram ad suadendum , ut potius episcopatum abdicares , quam u● illarum vestium usum reciperes ; attamen quia scandala ejus generis vidi prorsus evitanda , propterea in ejus sententiam fucile cessi . he after adviseth , that he may not act against his conscience , and sheweth , that he himself , when at oxford , though he were canonicus , yet would never wear the surplice in the quire. i say nothing of bucer , not having his book , script . anglican . but it is reasonable to think that he was of the samemind . sect. . that mr. bradford was a non-conformist he cannot deny , but saith , a good man had an unreasonable scruple . might not we answer the same way to all his allegations of the martyrs and first reformers compliance with the ceremonies ; ( to wit ) that good men did not scruple where it was reasonable that they should . the words that he cited out of the act. and monument . vol. . p. . where mr. bradford calleth martyrdom the lord's cognizance , and not tippets , &c. do rather make against than for his design ; for it 's plain , that he putteth tippets , &c. in the same rank with shaven crowns , and calleth them antichristian baggage ; and no reason can be given why these should be so called , except that they are brought into religion by man , not by god ; which agreeth to all the ceremonies . who they were that kept secret meetings under b. ridley , it is needless to enquire . the dr. guesseth , that they were furious anabaptists or secret papists . i know no reason for this guess ; but because he is resolved ▪ that there shall be no no●-conformists then , such as are now ; but that there then were some excellent men , who disliked the ceremonies , i have shewed ; that some of them did use them notwithstanding , i acknowledge . that any did separate , i do not undertake to prove ; nor can he prove the contrary , so much as probably . i am sure , there were principles then maintained by a party of men , which would have made them do as we do , if their practice had been sufficiently adapted to the sentiments that they had about the ceremonies , which maketh it not unprobable that some of them did withdraw ; though it may be the men of more note among them , who considered the necessity of their case , as warranting that practice , might do otherwise ; but it is no way likely , that the church did so furiously impose these things on the consciences of scruplers , as we are now imposed on . sect. . the dr's long harrangue , p. , . to condemn our practice by the contrary practice of the first reformers , doth either prove nothing , or it concludeth , that it is possible that such holy men could mistake : which before he himself had imputed to holy mr. bradford , one of them here mentioned by him . their holiness , learning , integrity , industry , profound judgment , mortification , did not entitle them to infallibility . were it not easie to name many more men of all these excellent qualities , who have had their navi ? the laying such weight on men , hath been an useful tool to build up antichristian babel , b● taking people off from eyeing scripture authority in the matters of christ , and putting that of men in its room . doth the dr. thing it strange , that a dissenting artifi●er ( a term suited to that contempt of non-conformists that his book is full of ) should be in the right , when one more holy and learned than he is in the wrong ; especially in things of that moment that the ceremonies are of ? for , i look on it as taunting , not disputing , to talk of the mighty importance of the ceremonies to the souls of men ; the beams of vnlawfulness in them , of which a mote could not be seen by the reformers ; we count them of such importance , as a tender conscience ought to refuse them , and yet not of such mighty importance as many other things are . we see a m●te , not beams , of unlawfulness in them , whatever our ancestors thought of them : neither is this because of a dark and jewish dispensation that they were under , while all the clear gospel-light of division and separation is reserved for our times , as the author pleasantly dreams that we think ; they were not so favoured with a general sun-shine of light as we are , popish darkness being then but going away : but for the light of division and separation , we look on it as gross darkness , and leave it to our imposing brethren , who cause the division . neither was it the reformer's want of zeal for religion , but want of light and zeal against ceremonies , that caused their different practice from ●urs ; they burnt for the former , not for the latter ▪ neither is it strange , that they should have no suspicion of the unlawfulness of these things , when they went to suffer , seeing these things never were controverted between them & their persecutors . was it never heard of , that true martyrs had mistakes that were extrinsick to that on which their sufferings were st●ted ? what he citeth out of jacob , the non-conformist against johnson the separatist , p. . doth not touch our case , for the separatist● that then were , went on other grounds than we do ; of which after ; and if mr. jacob used some arguments that were ill grounded , l●t him answer for it . sect. . as to the historical account that he giveth , sect. . of the english exiles in queen mary's reign at frankford , and elsewhere , i shall not controvert it , only i shall make a few animadversions on it , having first in general noted , that it is no wonder ( nor is it argumentative against us , who take scripture , not mens opinions for our rule ) that they who in england were inured to that less-pure way of worship , did cleave to it abroad , till by seeing and learning away more consonant to scripture , they fell in with that : and it is as little to be wondred at , that some gave more pliable ears to the right way that they were instructed in , in strange places ; and others clave more obstinately to that they had been bred with ; ( we know what a prejudice education causeth ) and he●c● arose those contests that he mentioneth . if he could prove ( as he cannot ) that all the non-conformity that is in england , was brought from beyond sea , he saith nothing , unless he also prove , that it was not brought out of the scripture . we must not reject every thing in religion that is not of english original , lest we by so doing throw off both christianity and protestantism . s●ct . . in particular , i first take notice of what he saith , p. . these ( english exiles ) with the people in all other places , geneva excepted , kept to the orders established in our church . here is a notable falshood , ( to wit ) that all the exiles kept to the orders of the church of england ; himself excepteth those at frankford ; and mr. fuller , above-cited , telleth us of a party of non-conformists , before that time in england , headed by rogers and hooper ; no doubt some of them fled from the marian persecution , and it is not probable they would use the ceremonies that here grieved them , when they were under no law to ●ompel them . another thing that i take notice of , is , he challengeth mr. baxter for saying , that at frankford the contest was between them who were for the english liturgy , and them who were for a more free way of praying ; but i see not how this is disproved by him ; the confirmation of it may be rather gathered from the accompt he giveth of these debates , p. . ( to wit ) that when the magistrates first required them not to dissent from the french in doctrine or ceremonies , and then took off that restraint : yet they altered the english order , and brought it nearer to the french model ; which we know doth not impose a liturgy , nor restrain free prayer ; but at most proposeth a directory , wherein are some set forms , as helps to them that need them . to say , that those who laid aside the responses , litany , and surplice , ●●d many other things , were still for the english liturgy , is to speak at random . but he omitteth a material passage , ( because it maketh against him ) with which fuller , ch. hist. lib. . p. . supplieth us , out of the same history that the dr. citeth , ( to wit ) the troubles at frankford : that they laid aside the liturgy , surplice and other ceremonies in service and sacraments , both as superfluous , and superstitious : wherein then did they differ from non-conformists ? sect. . he saith , p. . that the question among them was not , whether a liturgy , or not ; but whether the order of divine service , was not to be accommodated , as much as might be , to the french. this is to confess , that they did not contend for the english liturgy , as he telleth us some others did , who were dissatisfied with their deserting of it . but i further assert , that the controversy was between a liturgy and directory , to wit , between the way of england , and that of the french protestants , who have no liturgy , but as other protestant churches had ; an order of publick worship , for directing unqualified ministers ; such many behoved to be in the beginning of reformation from popery , to the set forms , in which they were not tied , whom the lord had competently gifted for the work of the ministry : so as in the best reformed churches ; these directories were by degrees disused , as crutches are by a lame man , as he recovereth the use of his limbs . p. . he telleth us of some resolute conformists at zurick and strasburg , who were earnest with the non-conformists at frankford . we deny not that there were such among them , who suffered for protestantism . what those of frankford say p. . of not defacing king edward 's laws , must be understood of laws for the protestant religion , not of those for ceremonies ; otherwise it had been protestatio contraria facto ; and p. . their not dissenting from their brethren wholly at the ransom of their lives for this doctrine , must needs have the same interpretion , if we will reconcile them to themselves . and their extenuating , as much as might be the alterations they had made , sheweth them to be peaceable men , that shun offence , if possible ; but doth not prove them to be for the english liturgy ; yea , or for any liturgy . sect. . he speaketh ( p. . ) of knox and whittingham , finding their ( the exiles at frankfora's ) zeal for the english liturgy , desired calvin's judgment of it . i find no such zeal at frankford , for the english liturgy : but the dr. will have it so in despite of history , that telleth us of their laying aside its ceremonies as superfluous , and superstitious : of which before . it was not those of frankford , but of s●rasburg , whose zeal for the liturgy ( if it may be so called , for they desire but the substance of it to be retained ; quitti●g the ceremonies , and things which the country could bear ) occasioned the calling for calvin's judgment . fuller , ch. hist. lib. . s. . p. , . out of troubles of frankford , p. . in giving accompt of calvin's answer to their desire , he representeth calvin as byassed and selfish ; being throughly heated in a cause , that so nearly concerned him : it had been fairer to have refuted his opinion , than to judge his thoughts and motives . he saith also , that what calvin thought most unfit , yet he thought tolerable . calvin saith not so , pace tua dixerim , he saith , there were in it , multae tolerabiles ineptiae ; not that all things in it were such : any that know calvin's principles will say , that he thought some things in it no ineptiae , and other things not tolerabiles . and what he saith of the tolerableness of these fooleries is no more , but that they might be born with for a time ; because they could not be corrected primo statim die . he doth then not count them tolerable ; for he approveth them that appeared against them ( tho he condemneth the most unseasonable contest , that was in that church ) neque tamen ( saith he ) eorum constantiam repr●hendo , qui , ut pro justa causa depugnent , in vilem contentionem trahuntur . he speaketh of these things , as not to have been tolerated , even in england , after the progress of the reformation . si hactenus in anglia viguisset sincera religio , aliquod in melius correctum multaque detracta esse oportuit . much more to this purpose is in that epist. which is ( mihi ) , cited by the dr. for . it is true , he speaketh of his easiness , to yield in indifferent things , such as are external rites . this must be understood of rites common to religion : and others , not of sacred ceremonies ; or if of those , it is for a time of urgent necessity , not always , that they may be tolerated . that calvin gave no incouragement to separation , if the ceremonies were continued , is said gratis ; and in defiance of his own words , while he commendeth them , who stood up against them ; and the sequel proved , that calvin was so understood by them who regarded his judgment ; for fuller , p. , . giveth us the story of their hard usage by the other party ; and of their departure from them , being headed by whittingham , after knox's removal , and setteth down the names of them , who separated themselves from the congregation of frankford . sect. . he denieth ( p. . ) that calvin was in his judgment for free prayer , because in his ep. . ( mihi . ) to the protector of england ; he approveth a certain form , and giveth reasons for it . it is evident , that calvin giveth this advice for the necessity of the church ▪ that then was , popery being then scarce well removed , and there being few pastors tolerably gifted for their work , and some who laboured to sow the seeds of errors in christs newly dressed fields , whom he calleth cerebrosos homines ; i suppose he meaneth the anabaptists . that calvin designed no more , by this is manifest , both because at geneva , and other churches that owned calvin's doctrine , prayer was not restrained by an imposed liturgy ; but mens infirmity relieved by some forms also ; because calvin , in the same letter to the protector , adviseth , that all the abuses brought into popery , should be removed ; and that by bringing back things to christ's institution , as the apost . doth , cor. . . inde ( saith he ) colligend● generalis doctrina , tum de legitima reformatione & quae deo accepta sit ; igitur ad ipsum purum dei verbum redeundum nobis esse , etenim supererunt mixturae ex hominum ingenio prolatae , totidem extabunt polutiones quae homines distrahant a recto eorum usu quae dominus in ipsorum salutem instituerat , and much more to that purpose : no non-conformists will desire a further reformation , than calvin there adviseth to ; however he was forbearing with some things for the present necessity , as good men then generally were . he telleth us that the ceremonies ( making no exception of the few that were retained ) were lenocinia quae miseras animas ad malum perducerent : that no admonition against the abuse of them , will hinder men to be hardened by them . he confesseth that ceremonies should be accommodated to the peoples capacity , but we must beware , least under that pretext , any thing be left that proceedeth from satan or antichirst ; and compareth such a way of reforming to leaving of the high places untaken away . he blameth leaving of some things unreformed , to 〈◊〉 the d●ss●tisfaction of some ; and saith , that in our own matters , such yielding is allowable , not in gods matters ; and that god will be with us , if we keep his way , whatever men think or act against us . who ever , without prejudice , readeth that excellent ep. will not look on calvin , as a favourer of either the english liturgy , or humane ceremonies . sect. . he doth very unduly represent calvin's judgment expressed in his ep. to cox and his brethren , ( mihi . ) he there mentioneth nothing mis-represented to him , save that cox and his party had precisely urged the english ceremonies , and that they would remit nothing of them : but now by their letter he perceived , that they had shewed themselves magis humanos & tractabiles : here indeed are different representations ; but not of the state of the controversie , or things controverted : which of them was truest , we shall see a little after . it is false to say , that he expresseth himself satisfied , that the matter was so composed among them ; his words are , totum negotium placide fuisse compositum gaudeo ; he was pleased with their peace , not with their decision . and that this was falsly by cox , and the rest , represented to calvin , will appear , when i shall shew that their debate made a very unpeaceable end . calvin doth not mention lights to be an excuse for his letter ; but them and crosses , he mentioneth as superstitious usages to be abolished : neither needed he a miserable shift to excuse any thing that he had written : his first letter on knox and whittingham's information , advising the abolishing of the ceremonies ; his second on cox's information , applauding their supposed peaceableness , which he rejoiced in , tho he could not obtain his first desire . sect. . that they at frankford did compromise the matter , as he alledgeth , p. . i do not find . fuller saith , p. . that calvin's letter struck such a stroke , especially in the congregation at frankford , that some therein , who formerly partly approved , did afterwards wholly dislike ; and more who formerly disliked , did now detest the english liturgy . our author telleth us of dr. cox's setting up the litany , which put knox in a rage , so as he declaimed against the english church , as far as his wit and ill-will could carry him . woe to the world , if such partial and false history carry the day ! but we see what we are to think of the most ancient and remote history , when , so near our own time , matters of fact are so unjustly represented . fuller , u●i supra , telleth us , that dr. cox , a man of high spirit , with some of his friends , arrived there , and , march . discompose the model of their service ; first answering aloud after the minister , and on the sunday following , one of his company , without the consent and knowledge of the congregation , got up into the pulpit , and there read all the litany ; and citeth for this , troubles of frankford , p. . whereat knox highly offended , preaching from his ordinary text , shewed the english book to be superstitious , vnpure and imperfect . is here any thing of rage , or what did not become sober zeal for god , and his ordinances , which were interrupted in their peaceable administration by a proud-stranger , intruding into the pulpit without a call from the minister or the church ? sect. . we are told by the dr. ibid. from a letter of grindal to ridley , that the church at frankford was well quieted by the prudence of mr. cox and others , which met there , for that purpose : but a more impartial historian ( out of the book that the dr. pretendeth to follow ) , tho he be no non-conformist , telleth us what a peaceable end this debate came to ; even such an end , as a blo●dy victory useth to bring to an unhappy war : and such a peace as the non-conformists in england at this day have under prelatists of the same temper with dr. cox ; and such as the poor jews had in shushan , when the king and haman sate down to eat and drink , esth. . . the fore-cited author , p. , . telleth how cox prevailed by new recruits out of england : and knox 's party again by the favour of the magistrate , and the french minister : and that cox 's party being depressed , embraced a strange way to raise themselves , and accuse knox to the state , of treason against the emperour ; and that in eight places of a book of his . the seven last the historian saith , may be well omitted . the first is , that he called the emperour no less an enemy to christ , than was nero. this the impartial historian cryeth out on ; the words being spoken some years before in england , by one that owned no natural allegiance to the emperour ; that they should be charged on him , by men of his own religion , in exile with him , to the endangering of his life : and of this , he saith , alluding to rachel's words , with great rather than good wrestling , have i wrestled , and prevailed . so was mr. knox advised by the magistrate to depart ; not forbidden by the congregation ( as the dr. saith ) to preach : and those that clave to him , were scattered . here is episcopal peace , and here is a taste of the spirit and methods , by which they carry on their cause . but further , the s●me author telleth us , how harshly the coxioens ( it is his own word ) used the other party , ejecting their church-officers , without taking any notice of them , or asking their consent . also how they refused to let the matter come to hearing or arbitration , by which he saith , cox's party lost much reputation . how they reproached the other as schismaticks , when they had made the shism in a peaceable church . and after he telleth us , how cox's party brake among themselves about other things , oftner than once , and that to a scandalous heighth . which may be seen at length in the author . if this be convenient in a congregation , let any judge ; it is strange that the dr. and mr. fuller both , should read these historical passages , with so different spectacles . sect. . the dr. telleth us , sect. . p. , . that the controversy was not carried out of england with them , but as hooper in switzerland , so they in geneva , and elsewhere , got a better likeing of their church-way , than of ours ; that being such as the country would bear : and it is hard to remove prejudic●s , especially when they have such abetters , whose authority goes beyond any reason with them . and that is the true foundation of our unhappy differences , that yet continue . i have abridged his words ; but given the full sence of them . and now i shall note a few things on this discourse . . he will not allow it , it seems , that non-conformists of old , or late , have ever made the bible the rule of their worshipping god : no , they are meer consuetudinary men , and soon taken with any new fashion , and so obstinate , that they will not part with any custom , when once taken up . thus he is pleased to picture those that dissent from him : we expected more charity from him . . if non-conformists cannot prove what they hold , by scripture , and sound reason ; let them lie under as much of his reproach , as he shall please to cast upon them . but if they can , i hope he will retract this rash censure . . if custom did so far influence these men , methinks the customs that they had first received in their native country , should have been a sufficient antidote against all foreign infection to the contrary . but their being taken with the way in other countries , rather sheweth , that their former way was built on custom and education ; and that the change was from scripture light , that they had met with abroad , which they could not resist . . i have shewed before , that they had these principles before they went abroad ; even in king edward 's . time , there were not a few of that way . . it is strange that all countries beside england , are so clownish , that they cannot bear the pomp and ceremonies of divine worship here used : how then doth popery get any entertainment beyond sea , even among the sw●ssers ; which religion will vie with ours in outward splendor ? if the genius of a nation did determine men in religion ( as the dr. insinuateth in this cas● ) how is it that the ceremonies are not used among the protestants in france , which is the pattern for modishness and gaiety to england , and other parts of the world ? but this is so indigested a notion , that it doth not well become the learning of dr. stilling fleet ; tho it be good enough for some to rant with over a pot of ale. . whether our party or his , be more guilty of obstinate insisting on mens authority , in defiance of reason , let the world judge . we are content to set aside all the authority of men , ancient and modern ; and to referr our debate simply to the determination of scripture : but mens authority is the argument that the dr. in this book doth most insist upon . i hope the reader may by this time perceive , whether the dr. doth truly or faisly assign the foundation of our differences , which i , with him , acknowledge to be unhappy . sect. . he saith , p. . that in the english reformation , they proceeded more out of reverence to the ancient church , than meer opposition to popery ( which some other reformers made their rule . ) here are two mistakes not to be passed in silence ▪ . the ancientest church had none of the ceremonies ; they were neither in the apostolick church , nor in that which was near it . how ancient they were , he will after give occasion to enquire . so that england took for their pattern , the church that was much declined both in antiquity and purety . . what can be more grosly false , than to say , that other reformers made meer opposition to popery with their rules . two things make the contrary evident . . they did not reject all that papists held , as , that there is one god , &c. . they rejected nothing of popery , but what they gave other reasons for , than that the papists held it : ( to wit ) that it was contrary to scripture , or not instituted by christ ; and so condemned in scripture , as vain worship , being a teaching for doctrines , the commandments of men . we make symbolizing with papists , or other idolaters , an argument against the ceremonies ; but we reject them not on that account only ; and so meer opposition to popery , is not the rule of our reformation . sect. . he complaineth that calvin and others , did insinuate , that the english reformation was imperfect . nay , they openly main●ained it ; and so do we . he doth twice mis-represent calvin's words , p. , . that he had avowed in the letter before-cited to the protector , that the best rule of reformation , is , to go as far from popery as they could . no such words are to be found in that letter ; nor any thing that will import so much . he doth indeed press the removing of all popish ceremonies , as having been abused to idolatry ; and citeth , psal. . . where david saith , that he will not take up the names of idols in his mouth● , but he neither maketh this the rule , nor the best rule of reformation . he knew that scripture and institution ( which he had a little before-mentioned ) was the rule , and a far better rule than that : tho' even that hath its use to direct us in reformation of the church . again , he saith , that calvin yieldeth to this moderation , that such ceremonies might be retained , as were easie , and fitted to the capacity of the people ; provided they were not such as had their beginning from the devil , or antichrist . his words are , adeoque ceremonias ipsas ad usum & captum esse accommodandas ; sed non minus constanter affirmo , videndum esse ne sub illo praetextu toleratur quicquam quod a satana vel antichristo profectum sit . here is no advice to retain any humane ceremonies , but all of that sort fall under that censure , they being not from god , and being parts of worship , they are from satan , or antichrist ; but he would have all the externals of worship , so fitted to peoples capacity , as that they do not hinder , but rather help in the inward exercise of it . and if calvin did yield in that infancy of the reformation ( which i think he did not , otherwise he could not blame the imperfection of it ) that the ceremonies might be retained , it maketh nothing for perpetuating of them . the dr. saith , they proceeded by this rule of moderation , taking away all the ceremonies that were of late invention : and he saith , p. . that the ceremonies retained , were more ancient than the great apostasy of the roman church . it had been fit to have removed all that were of humane invention , for antiquity can neither prejudice christ's institu●ions ; nor warrant mens . but it is not true , that all the ceremonies retained were so ancient , as shall be made appear in due time , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , of kneelling in the act of receiving the lord's supper . neither will it free our ceremonies from being popish , that they were before the great apostasy , if it be made appear , that they were with a considerable degree of the apostasy ; yea , and a part of it . sect. . he endeavoureth to free our ceremonies from popery , because the cross is used by papists in the scrutinies before baptism ; we use it after baptism ; and kneeling is not strictly required by the roman church , in the act of receiving ; as appeareth by the pope's sitting , or a little leaning . for the first , what great difference doth it make , whether crossing be used before or after baptism , seeing it is not to be omitted , but belongeth to that sacrament , as one of its adjuncts ? our quarrel with it is not that it is used after baptism , but that it is used , being none of christ's institutions , but of man's invention , and abused in the popish administration of baptism . for the second , i hope he will not deny , that kneeling in the act of receiving is the constant practice , and required among the papists ; and , that the pope , who to them is above the laws of god , should be exempted from the laws of their church , is so insignificant an argument against kneeling , being required by them , that i wonder to see it used by so learned a man. for his plain linen garment , only used instead of many of the popish v●stments , which was used in the time of jerom and austin ; i deny that it is the only vestment that they use as appropriated to religion and religious persons ; any who read●th the book of canons , made anno . can. . may see the contrary , the reverend clergy there busying themselves to order the fashion of cloaths , that all of them should use . but , that the surplice is as ancient as hierom and augustin , i shall not now examine , seeing it is too well known , that many abuses were crept into the church sooner than their days ; the one flourishing in the end of the fourth century , the other in the fifth . i see no cause why any man should stand amazed at the noise that is made against the mischief of these impositions , as he saith , p. . seeing all that he hath said , do●h not clear them from being men's devices in god's worship , and consequently vain worship , which is a burden to any conscience that regardeth christ's authority more than that of men. sect. . he pretendeth , sect. . to give reasons why the ceremonies were retained by our reformers , tho' they were distasteful to some protestants , and like to prove the occasions of future contentions . these reasons are three , . out of a due reverence to antiquity . . to justifie the reformation before enemies , in that we would not break with them for meer indifferent things . . to shew our consent with the protestant churches . to these i return a word or two in general , and then shall answer them particularly . ● . why was not scripture consulted in this weighty matter , which wise men think is a safer and better rule of reformation than any of the three here mentioned ? shall we slight or cross christ's institution in the worship of god , for the sake of antiquity , or papists , or protestants either ? i am far from thinking , that our reformers had so little regard to scripture ; nay , that was the weapon they alwaies used against the papists , tho' in reference to the ceremonies , they did not so well consider it , as they should have done . but the dr. and his party seem to lay little weight on it in this controversie , for he maketh little or no use of it through this large book , which is somewhat strange in a controversie of divinity . it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to use weapons so far different from those of the apostles ; and therefore i hope they will not prove mighty through christ , as his were , cor. . . none of these reasons , nor all of them in conjunction , is sufficient to establish any point of truth , or to warrant any part of divine worship : wherefore they should first have proved the ceremonies to be lawful , and then these three reasons might well have come in as auxiliaries to confirm the use of them ; but to manage the worship of god by such considerations , without any other reason was too slender a ground to proceed upon . sect. . let us now consider his three reasons in particular . for the first , due reverence to antiquity . ans. . we reverence antiquity as much as our brethren do , but with these two cautions ; . that we preferr the first antiquity to that which was later ; the apostolick church , to the ages of the church that succeeded . if they can shew us any footsteps of the ceremonies in that church , we shall embrace them , if not , give us leave to reject them , even out of reverence to antiquity . . we do not own antiquity , ( where there was no infallibility , as was in the apostles ) for the rule of our faith or worship . we know , the church may erre , and did very soon begin to decline ; of which somewhat before , and more afterward . we reverence antiquity so far , as not to recede from it without sufficient warrant from scripture or clear reason ; and to reverence it further , is to idolize it , and put it in the place of divine authority . ans. . why are not our brethren uniform in their reverence to antiquity ? do not they desert antiquity in more things , and those of more moment than the controverted ceremonies are ? will they deny the naevi patrum that divines , both papists and protestants , have observed ? they have laid aside the osculum , that then was called pacis , sanctum , vel fraternitatatis , used presently after prayer , which tertullian calleth signacul●m orationis ; the agapae , that , notwithstanding of the apostles check , cor. . , . were used in tertullian's time , sometimes before the lord's supper , sometimes after ; also the baptizing ( if not only , yet more ordinarily ) the day before easter and pentecost ; the trina immersio ; the communio infantum ; the gustatio mellis & lactis , all used in baptism in tertullian's time . of the same sort are the diluting of the wine with water , in the lord's supper ; the sign of the cross used in omni conversatione , as tertullian hath it ; the carrying the eulogias , or consecrated symbols , to the sick and others ; all these in the second century . in the third century were brought in offerings and prayers for the dead , and exorcism in baptism . what a world of ceremonies were added in the fourth century , is too well known . now , all these were as ancient as the times of the first christian emperors , to which the dr. saith , p. . that our reformers endeavoured to reduce the state of the church ; if it was thought fit , and no disrespect to the fathers , to reject their practices in some things as innocent as our ceremonies , why not in them also , there being no more warant in the word for the one sort of things than the other ? this is to make respect to antiquity to ●erve a turn , or mens own designs ; which i hope our worthy reformers were far from , whatever may be said of their successors . sect. . ans. . if the dr. had pleased to tell us how ancient the ceremonies that he contendeth for are , we should have considered his allegations ; i am sure he cannot equal them in antiquity , with the rites above-mentioned , which yet his church rejecteth . we affirm them to be novel inventions , brought in under a considerable , tho' not the highest , degeneracy of the church ; when we meet with his proofs to the contrary , they shall be answered . i wonder to hear from such an antiquary as dr. st●llingfleet , that purging out of these ceremonies is a reforming years backward ; as if all the controverted ceremonies , or any of them , had been in the first century , in the very daies of the apostles ; i suppose he will find it a hard task to prove this . by what hath been said , it is easie to discover the weakness of what he alledgeth about giving unspeakable advantage to the papists , by reforming years backward ; for neither do we own the ceremonies to be so old ; nor could papists have any advantage , if we reject what is unwarranted by the word , however ancient it be . indeed , if we should part with scripture , and referr the decision of our controversies with the papists only to ●hurch-history , it were to give them advantage , if we should disown any thing so ancient , but i hope the dr. will not advise us to that course , and therefore there is no hazard . it addeth to this unspeakable advantage in the dr's opinion , that when they ( the non-conformists ) are pinched with a testimony of antiquity , presently cry out of the mystery of iniquity already working in the apostle's times , as tho' every thing that they disliked were a part of it . ans. tho' we have hitherto met with none of his pinching arguments from antiquity , yet we think that allegation no such ridiculous evasion as he would make it , seeing the spirit of god was pleased to give us this warning ; and after-ages gave a clear proof of the fulfilling of this scripture , by the ripening of those inclinations that were among some in the apostles days , of falling back to beggarly elements ; gal. . . and subjecting themselves to mens ordinances : touch not , taste not , handle not , col. . , . into the highest of superstition and depravation of the worship of god , as antichristianism came to a height . if the load of humane traditions were a part of that mystery of iniquity that was adult under antichrist , why should we not think that these beginnings were a part of these first workings of it , that the apostle complaineth of ? if we make any thing that disliketh us , a part of that working mystery of iniquity , that we cannot prove to be evil , and to have had its rise in the decay of the church , let us bear the blame . he saith , the rejecting of the ceremonies gave a great check to the reformation in france , and citeth for it thuanus and balduinus , both papists , without pointing to their words , or places where they may be found ; wherefore i look on what he saith as gratis dictum : and if it were true , it saith no more , but that there were two in france , that were fond of humane ceremonies , as there are many in england . vve have cause to bless the lord , that the reformation in france was not checked , but made very glorious progress , was owned by many , great and small , was sealed with the blood of many martyrs . and that it was not universally received , we may rationally impute to the supreme power being against it , which useth to have the command of the consciences of the greatest and carnal part of the world : but what the dr. saith in prosecuting this reason , i wish he would reconcile with his third reason , that england retained the ceremonies , to shew their consent with other protestant churches . sect. . his second reason is , to manifest the justice of the reformation , by letting enemies see , that we did not break communion with them for meer indifferent things . ans. . papists might have seen that , if they would have opened their eyes , without our retaining any of their ceremonies ; ( to wit ) that we brake with them on weighty points of heresie and idolatry , and not for ceremonies alone . ans. . when we had separated from their church , on such weighty accounts , we were not to retain any thing that they had corrupted the worship of god by , to please them ; neither could we retain those to shun breaking with them , having already broken with them on other accounts . ans. . the dr. taketh it for granted , which is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the question between him and us , ( to wit ) that the ceremonies are meer indifferent things . if he prove this , he must carry the day . what advantage the popish bishops ( for all their subtilty and learning that he talketh of ) could have made of rejecting of these as well as the rest of humane ceremonies , i know not ; they had a large field to expatiate in with the people , by holding forth to them : how many usages of the ancient church the reformers had rejected , that were ( in the dr's sence ) meer indifferent things , as holy water , cream , salt , spittle , &c. how little addition could the rejecting the cross , surplice , &c. with the rest , have made to their strength ? what he citeth out of p. martyr , is abundantly answered sect. . for he speaketh not of vestments used in , but out of worship , about which , he would not have such contentions made at such a time , but have them removed afterward . the dr. citeth his words indefinitely , other reformed churches ; but the author's words are , per multas ecclesias n●n ab evangelio alienas . i suppose he meaneth the lutheran , or rathe greek churches ; for p. martyr well knew ; that in the rest of the reformed churches no such vestments were used . sect. . let us now hear his third reason , to shew their consent with other protestant churches ; and he instanceth in the lutheran church . ans. . this reason could not be used by the english reformers , because they would surely rather have imitated the calvinist churches , with whom they agreed in doctrine , than the lutheran churches , from whom they differ'd in considerable points of doctrine ; if they had designed to symbolize with other churches ; and had been influenced in their determination of this matter by that design , sure they would have symbolized with the soundest churches . ans. . neither could this reason have had any weight if they had used it , seeing there were m●re protestant churches of a contrary practice ; and therefore the protestant churches would have carried the rejection of the ceremonies ; whether the notes had been ponderanda or numeranda . ans. . if our reformers had design'd a consent in ceremonies with the lutheran churches , why did they retain these , and not the rest used among them , which are ( most of them ) as little liable to exception , as those retained , and are not by their multitude such a burden as those of the papists ? i hope the dr. when he considereth better , will retract this argument ; for there is no reformed church on earth , that the church of england sheweth any consent with in her ceremonies . ans. . i have elsewhere shewed , from good authority , that the lutheran churches at first had no humane ceremonies , but what they now have , crept into those churches afterward , as other evils did , which luther did not authorise . sect. . he will not only have lutherans , but the chief among the calvinists , to be of his opinion . he citeth , calv. ep. ad sadol . that he was for restoring the ancient face of the church : his words ( which i found not easily in that long ep. ) are , vt instauretur vetusta illa ecclesiae facies quae primo ab hominibus indoctis & non optimis deformata & foedata , postea a pontifice romano , & ejus factione , flagitio se lacerata & prope deleta est . it is evident , that he is not speaking of ceremonies only , but mainly of the doctrine of the church , that was in controversie between him and the cardinal : also , that it is the apostolick church that he speaketh of , whose face he acknowledgeth to have been deformed before antichrist came to an height . he citeth also calvin de vera eccles. reformatione , ch . . which book i find not in the catalogue of calvin's works ; only among his tractatus theolog. i find a supplex exhortatio to the emperour and diet at spire , de necessitate reformandae ecclesiae ; which i have diligently lookt into , and find no such passage in it , but much contending against humane ceremonies : and he apologizeth for their casting them out , by shewing , quod nihil vel primo digito attigimus , nisiquod christus pro nihilo ducit , cum frustra coli deum humanis traditionibus pronunciat . wherefore , if calvin owne symbolical ceremonies ( as the dr. alledgeth ) we must understand him of those of divine institution , or charge him with inconsistency with himself . oecolampadius ( saith he ) lookt on the gesture in the sacrament as indifferent ; so do we ; therefore we think kneeling ought not to be imposed : and when it is so imposed , it loseth its indifferency , having a shew of adoration of the bread. i have not bucer's book , and therefore say nothing to the citation out of him , but that his authority will not prove the opinion of the calvinist churches that we debate about . sect. . our author , after this digression returneth to the historical part of his discourse , sect. . he telleth us , that in the beginning of que●n eliz. reign , the exiles returned from abroad , with secret dislike of the ceremonies , but the act of conformity being passed , and the vse of the liturgy strictly enjoined , there was no separation ; some of them accepted of preferment in the church : the bishops shewed kindness unto them for their zealous preaching . a few remarks on this , will serve to clear our way . . it seems the episcopal party had not such respect , as was fit to the consciences of their dissenting brethren , in that they were getting laws made , to force them to that , which they could not perswade them to by the gospel : but this is the old spirit of that party , which still createth trouble to the church . . that some of them accepted of preferment ( and these he nameth ; gilby , whittingham , are among them , whom fuller placeth in the ranck of fierce non-conformists , ) sheweth how loath they were to divide from their brethren , as long as they were suffered to keep their consciences undefiled . . he omitteth to tell us , that these men would never subscribe to the liturgy , nor use the ceremonies ; which mr. fuller , lib. . p. . informeth us of , that not only these fiery men ( as he calleth them ) but even the moderate non-conformists , as mr. fox , mr. lawrence humfrey , refused to subscribe . . it was a commendable piece of moderation in the then bishops , that they suffered these men to preach ; notwithstanding of their non-conformity . indeed there was cause for it ; they were able and useful men , and the church had much need of their labours : fuller saith , p. . tolerability was eminency in that age. a rush candle seemed a torch , where no brighter light was seen before ; where he telleth us of a sheriff's preaching for want of other to do that work , and how sorrily he performed it . if the present bishops would exercise the same moderation , they needed not to be afraid of separation . sect. . he proceedeth to tell us , that these non-conformist preachers first let fall their dislike of ceremonies , and gaining ground , they called them the livery of antichrist , and enflamed the people , and this was the first occasion of pressing vniformity with rigor : some were silenced ; as kindness had made them presumptuous , this made them clamorous . mr. fuller giveth another account of this matter , p. . the english bishops conceiving themselves impowered , by their canons , began to shew their authority , in urging the clergy of their diocess , to subscribe to the liturgy , ceremonies , and discipline of the church ; and such as refused the same , were branded with the odious name of puritans ; and p. . he sheweth how ministers were contented , before b. grindal ( one of the most moderate , but pressed to rigor by the rest ) who asked them , have we not a godly princess , speak , is she evil ? a question fitter for the inquisitors in spain , than a protestant bishop . that the non-conformists preached against the ceremonies , is neither to be doubted nor wondered at ; so did our lord and master , and his apostle paul : it was their duty to teach people to observe all that christ hath commanded , that being their commission ; if they spake falshood , or truth in an undue manner , they were liable to correction . what our author calleth inflaming the people , others will call faithful warning of them , against what might displease god , and defile their consciences . any who enflameth them to unsober , or unpeaceable principles or practices , let them bear their blame . i see nothing in their carriage , under the bishops forbearing of them , that deser●eth the name of presumption , nor under their sufferings , that should be called clamorousness , as the dr. calleth their informing their friends at geneva , how they were used . but it is the spirit of that party to use cruel severity against them , that differ from them , and reproach them , if they say they feel it : patience and stoical apathy are not the same thing . there is nothing yet said by the dr. that can cast the blame of separation on the non-conformists , or free the bishops of it . sect. . he saith further , p. . at the end ; about this time the dissenting party being exasperated , by silencing some of their most zealous preachers , began to have separate meetings , where they preached and prayed , and had the sacraments . here we have out of the mouth of an adversary , the true cause and original of the separation , tho' somewhat unfavourably represented ; the cause of it was , they could not have gods ordinances , without mans inventions , their ministers being silenced , who administred them purely ; and tho' , but some of them at first were silenced , yet the rest were under the same condemnation by the law , and daily expected the execution of the law on them ; and all the people could neither have the ordinances by those that were as yet unsilenced , nor could they live without them : so that it was not exasperation , but desire to wait on god in his own ordinances , that made them take that course . this account of it themselves give ( as the dr. hath it , p. . before the bishop of london , whose discourse to them the dr. relateth , unbecoming the moderation of b. grindal , charging them with lying pretences , without any ground mentioned , and unbecoming the learning of a bishop , charging them with condemning the reformation . sect. . the next thing he insisteth on , is , beza's advice to the ministers and people ; who , tho' he sheweth his dislike of the ceremonies , and adviseth the ministers not to subscribe ; yet presseth the silenced ministers not to exercise their function against the will of the queen , and the bishops : and the people to wait on the word and sacraments ; notwithstanding of the ceremonies ; that they might by these means obtain a through reformation : and to ministers , he saith , that they should not leave their functions for the sake of the ceremonies . in which advice the dr. doth much insult . how impartially beza's opinion in this case is represented by the dr. i know not , not being able at present to get a sight of the book ; but some other citations already examined , make me jealous ; especially , seeing the dr. maketh beza contradict himself ; for p. . he maketh him advise the silenced ministers to live privately , and not exercise their functions against the will of the q. and the bishops . but p. . he maketh beza say to them , that the ceremonies are not of that moment , that they should leave their functions for the sake of them . but whatever were beza's opinion , non-conformists of old and late , took the word of god , and not the authority of men , for the rule of their faith and practice : they honour such as beza , and are ready to receive instruction from them ; but must have leave to examine all by scripture , as the beraeans did the doctrine even of paul. again , beza is far from advising ministers to forbear preaching a together , because restrain'd by the magistrate : that principle never obtained among protestant divines ; and is to be examined afterward ; but he disliked their publick appearance in that case , which may be constructed a defiance and contempt of the magistrate . for they had hired a hall in london ( as publick as any church ) for their meetings . christ's apostles were private , with the doors shut , when they might not be publick , and so should we ; and yet not give over preaching and hearing when men forbid us : we should do it peaceably and inoffensively ; but do it notwithstanding . for his advice to the people , i cannot approve it ; yet doth it not reach our case ; for he adviseth to conformity for the present , with express mention of their hope of a further reformation ; which we are out of all hope , that ever our clergy will yield to . in beza's resolution of a case mentioned by the dr. p. . i desiderate one cause of separation from a church , ( to wit ) imposing unlawful terms of communion , unless either this be comprehended under the right use of the sacraments , that he mentioneth ; or such withdrawing be not properly a separation , but a being driven away . sect. . he saith , this advice of beza's put an effectual stop to the separation . i find no such thing in history , but rather the contrary . the same opinion he citeth of gaulter ep . dedicat . in homil . ad . ep. ad corinth . & zanchie ep . lib. . p. . where gualter complains of the lyes and prejudices against the church of england . i wish it have not been lyes written by that party , that made him write so , and zanchie is even for ministerial conformity . it is an easie thing to gather scraps and sentences out of mens . writings , that represent them as speaking what they never thought ; and nothing is more ordinary with this author , than to perswade himself . ( at least to endeavour to perswade his reader ) that all the world are of his opinion . it is enough to us in this matter , that the reformed divines beyond seas , did not use the ceremonies , but have condemned them , and that on such grounds , as make them unlawful to be used , ( to wit ) that they are vain worship , additions to the word of god , the symbols of popish idolatry , &c. and if notwithstanding of all this , any of them would perswade us to use them ; their doctrine doth hinder us to obey their advice , which we look on as an overlash of charity to the then good bishops of england , who were labouring to reform the church from popery . sect. . he telleth us next , sect. . of a new generation of fiercer non-conformists , the peaceable ones being worn out . it is not unusual for adversaries to represent true zeal as fierceness ; but if there was undue forwardness among them , we defend not the faults of men ; but the truth of god , which they owned . there was a sinful fierceness among some of christ's disciples , when they called for fire from heaven , luke . , . but this was no argument against their cause . we , with sad hearts behold the scandalous fierceness , that is among some antiprela●ists at this day , but must not change our principles for that and was there then , and is there now no fierceness on the otherside ? if we may judge of former days by the present , we may rationally ascribe the fierceness of some of the suffering party , to that of the persecuting party , as the exciting cause , for oppression maketh a wise man mad , eccles. . . for the complaint that mr. fox maketh of them , which he citeth out of fuller , ch. hist. lib. . p. . if the circumstances be considered , it will be found not to prove what the dr. bringeth it for . we must know then out of the same author , that the complaint in this letter was against some particular men in magdalen college , who were no representatives of the non-conformists , that it was not occasioned by any of their principles , or religious practices , but by a particular injury done by these men to mr. fox , as he thought : and mr. fox was as likely to be byassed in the matter , in controversie between him and these men he complained of , as they were : the matter was , his son samuel had left the college , and gone beyond sea , without leave either of his father , or the college ; and at his return was suspected of popery ; and for this , he was by that party , that mr. fox is so angry with , expelled the college . beside all this , any who readeth that letter of mr. fox's , may see a strain , and meet with expressions very unbecoming old , reverend and good mr. fox , who had always professed himself a non-conformist ; tho he had more latitude about the use of the ceremonies , than some others had : factiosa ista puritanuorm capita ; isti ter puri puritani , and some other foul reflections , with the odious name that enemies gave to that party , are very unsavory from such a pen : but age and supposed injury , must bear the blame of the peevish strain , that is too manifest throughout that whole letter . it were a hard case , if the faults either real or supposed of some , were always to be charged on all the party : the dr's own party would be black enough , if they were thus dealt with ; and even the historian , no friend to the non-conformists , calls this letter such a strain of rhetorick , as once tully used , pro domo sua ; and imputeth the too much passion in it to the unjust affront offered to him . sect. . next the dr. doth highly resent the admonitions , first and second , presented in the name of the non-conformists to the parliament , by mr. thomas cartwright : but i see not by what he citeth out of these admonitions , wherein the bitter zeal of that party appeared : neither that they despised the old trifling controversy about garments and ceremonies ; for these were still the grounds of their non-conformity ; tho they complained also of other grievances . neither do i find that they said all was out of course in the church ; they owned the protestant religion ; but desired , that the reformation might be more through , by laying aside some of the remainders of popish superstitions , formerly overlookt . i wonder why the dr. should startle so much at their complaining of the liturgy , bishops , and arch-bishops , the way of c●lling their clergy , the ceremonies annexed to the sacraments ; which are the grievances by these admonitions laid before the parliament , with an humble petition for redressing of them . seeing he knoweth , that these are the very things that our controversie is conversant about ; and , tho' all these be not the grounds of our withdrawing from their worship , yet all of them are such things as we are grieved with , and desire a reformation of . that he calleth them bold and groundless assertions , is a more bold and groundless assertion than any of them ; for , he knoweth , grounds have been given ; which it were better to refute , than rail at . it is also strange , that he saith , that these admonitions gave the true occasion to the following practice of separation ; when himself assigneth another cause of it before this , p. , . and yet another that he dateth it from , long after , ( to wit ) the indulgence , praef. p. . sometimes he layeth it on the jesuits , praef. p. . and indeed , he knoweth not whe●e to lay it , missing the true cause , which is episcopal rigour in their unscriptural impositions , on the one hand ; and consciencious obedience to the word of god on the other . that this cause was maintained with greater heat than learning , is the dr's dialect , not seldom occurring . that they courted the vulgar most , is like some others of his representations ; if they did , they acted not wisely : but if the vulgar embraced truth , while it was rejected by the great ones , it is no new thing , such ratiocinations did better become the pharis●es , jo. . , . than this reverend author . that they pleaded the peoples right of election of their pastors , we own our selves their successors in that . speaking ( railing we approve not ) against the greatness and pomp of the clergy , is no popular theme , but hath been insisted on by sober and learned men of all perswasions . but , that doth not much move us ; we are content that they enjoy their pomp and greatness , if they will let us enjoy the worship of god in purity and peace . that this will inferr a principle of levelling in mens temporal estates , is an insinuation unworthy of this reverned author . sect. . he still exposeth the people , p. . as pleased , to think what a share they should have in the new seigniory , to wit , presbytery in every parish . if any had such designs in being for that way , we blame their intent , not their work or opinion . but might not we ( if we were so disposed ) harangue of the pleasure the clergy taketh in their way , in contemplation of the fat rectories , prebendaries , deaneries , and bishopricks that they daily have in view ? but such ways of reasoning , i reckon fitter for the vulgar , whom he so much despiseth , than for scholars . he telleth of a mighty interest they got among the people , and compareth this prevalency with that of the anabaptists in germany . what if we should compare the prevalescency of episcopacy among the clergy and others , with that of popery in rome , and elsewhere , arguments one as strong as another ? that others would refine on us , as we refine on the church , is a plea against us , that would well suit , and hath been often used by papists , against our deserting them . if others do that which is wrong , because we do what is right , we are not accountable for that . if he can make it appear , that our principles lead to other mens evil practices , we shall disown such principles . i know not what name to give his assertion , that the consequence ( to wit , the brownist separation ) seemed so unnatural from their own ( the presbyterian's ) principles ; for nothing can be more rashly or falsly spoken . it behoved the dr. to attempt the proof of this , not barely to assert what is so injurious to his brethren , and that he might well know that they would be far from owning . all that we have from him as a colour of proof , is a most unfair representation of what the non-conformists had said , that the church had neither right ministry , nor right government , nor right sacraments , nor right discipline . one would think that they had asserted the nullity of all these ; whereas they had never d●sowned the ministry nor sacraments , but found some faults adhering to them , as the office of bishops , and way of calling all the clergy ; and as to the ceremonies that were annexed to the sacraments , which faults do not inferr a necessity of separation , further than the owning of them is made the terms of communion with the church : and it is known that separatists went on other principles , even such as will divide any church , the most moderate and indulgent , that is not of their way ▪ of which after . sect . ii. of the first separations that were in the church of england after the reformation . having followed the reverend and learned dr. through his historical labyrinth , about the non-entity of separation from the church by the first non-conformists , and found how little truth or candour there is in his account of these matters , and how little that little truth , that is in his histories , doth make against our cause ; i shall now attend him in his historical collections , to prove , that when separation began , it was vehemently opposed by the non-conformists , who were dissatisfied with many corruptions in the church . by the non-conformists , who opposed the separation , he cannot mean all the non-conformists , the separatists themselves being also such ; but that among the non-conformists some were for separation from the church , and others opposed it . and so it is at this day ; some are dissatisfied with humane inventions in the worship of god , and yet have more freedom than some others of their brethren have to use them . sect. . but before i come to a particular examination of his discourse , i shall premise some things , that partly might excuse my whole labour in this matter , and partly may render it more easie , and expedite . the first thing that i premise , is , that if i should grant all that the dr. discourseth , from p. . to . the end of his first part , it would conclude nothing against our cause , for it amounteth only to this ; that some good men were not of our opinion , nor practised as we do , but used the ceremonies , tho' they were dissatisfied with them . if arguments from the authority of men could satisfie our consciences , we should not be non-conformists ; for the hinge of the debate between us and our conforming brethren , is , whether god ought to be worshipped according to the prescript of his own word , and that in all the parts of his worship , greater and lesser ; or , may in some of them be worshipped by the traditions of men. we expect divine authority for every thing whereby we worship god , and cannot rest on that of men. and therefore , if the dr. could prove , that all men that ever were ( who were not infallibly guided ) did worship god by humane traditions , this cannot warrant us to do so . and yet this doth not inferr self-will , or pretending to be wiser , or more consciencious than all men ; yea , or any men ; ( an objection frequent in our brethrens mouths , and more frequent with papists against protestants ) for it is not will , but conscience , guided by scripture-light , that we are determined by : and we are alwaies ready to receive light from the word , if our antagonists can hold it forth to us , tho' it were to the changing both of our opinion and practice : and we judge no man's light nor practice ; they stand and fall to their own master ; let every one be fully perswaded in his own mind : but we dare not be so far the servants of men , as to subject our light and conscience to them . if we may retort without offence , it seemeth to us a less fault ( if it be any ) to seem wiser than those that have gone before us , ( if differing from them import so much ) than it is in our brethren to seem wiser than christ and his apostles ; from them they do manifestly and confessedly differ , in the things we now controvert about . sect. . another general consideration that i premise , is , that there are such considerable differences between the old church of england , in which these non-conformists lived , and this new edition of it , who now require conformity from us , that their example cannot , in reason , be judged sufficient to oblige us ; even apostolick example , in some cases , is not declarative of what is our duty , as it is in other cases : beside that , the clergy of england then were sound and orthodox , and the doctrine of the pulpi●s and press was fully consonant to the doctrine of the church , contained in their confession of faith , the articles . now , it is far otherwise with the greatest part , ( i am far from charging all with this blame ) ; who knoweth not how frequent ( yea , almost universal ) arminian doctrine is ? how some of them preach and print socinianism , and without a check from the church ? and , how many popish doctrines are either maintained or extenuated by some , is too well known by them who converse in england . in the old church of england , pious men were cherished : in this , we know how not only dissenters , tho' never so sober and religious , are persecuted to their utter undoing : but men of their own way , who are sober and serious , are by the high-church-men discountenanced and slighted , under the nick-name of whigs or trimmers . so that , if we judge of the church of england by her confession of faith , and the temper of her ancient clergy ; the presbyterians , with a few of the conformists , do best deserve that name . but this , tho' it be our great grievance and discouragement from communion with the church , is none of our grounds for withdrawing from her publick administrations . sect. . i say then further , as i did of the church in king edward 's time , that church was a reforming church ; even in the beginning of queen eliz. reign , they were about purging out of the old leaven ; and therefore many good men , who were dissatisfied with humane trash in the church , yet cleaved to publick ordinances notwithstanding , till a better season should appear for purging it out ( tho' i think they did better who stood at a greater distance from these relicks of superstition . ) but we are out of expectation of reforming of these things : what attempts have been made by arch-bishop laud , bishop cozens , and others , to re-introduce some of the ejected ceremonies , is not unknown ; and what superstitious gestures and practices are used by many without approbation of superiours , which yet are not imposed , but are at present a sort of candidate ceremonies , and stand in the place of the competentes or catechumeni , waiting for a fit season to be brought into necessary and universal observation , none is ignorant , who know any thing of english affairs . the advances that the present church of england hath made toward popery , not in these things only , but in greater matters , cannot be obscured by any thing that the dr. hath said against the book written to that purpose ; of which before . if our ancestors bare with these fopperies when they had hope to get them removed , as other things of the same kind had been a little before , it doth not follow , that we should comply with them , when we see them like to grow upon us ; yea , when we see them made use of , as an engine to drive away the best protestants , that popery may the more easily re-enter . sect. . another difference between our case and that of non-conformists , in former times , is , we have been in full and quiet possession of the pure ordinances of god , without the mixture of mens inventions , as they never were : therefore their using of ceremonies was only not going forward , but our doing so were going backward . sure it was not so great a fault in the people of israel , to be slow to entertain moses , proposing a deliverance to them out of aegypt , as to talk of returning back thither : nor in lot , to linger in sodom , as in his wife to lo●k back toward it . i hope these comparisons may be pardoned , not being intended to equal the evils to be shunned , but to illustrate the greater evil of backsliding , than that of continuing in a thing that is amiss ; licet magna componere parvi● . if any objection be made against the way that we came into that possession , i shall not dispute the truth of that allegation ; but the thing being our due , by gospel-right , we were to stand fast in the liberty wherewith christ had made us free , gal. . . i do not know , that their freedom from ceremonies could be defended at man's bar , though , i am sure , it could at god's bar , and so can ours . sect. . a third difference is ; at this time , ministers of ancient standing , and approved usefulness in the work of the gospel , who had received ordination in the way mentioned in scripture , by the laying on of the hands of the presbytery ; which is also the way of ordination used in most protestant churches ; must be re-ordained , otherwise they cannot be ministers of the church of england , nor the people enjoy the benefit of their labours : which imposition was never heard of in the old church of england , nor the need of it ever asserted : p. martyr , bucer , and others that came from beyond sea , had the right hand of fellowship given them in england , as ministers of christ , without that . neither was it ever heard of . that i have met with , in any of the churches of the reformation . therefore people then might hope to enjoy god●s ordinances from those that dispensed them purely ; which we cannot in your church ; and consequently , we have more cause to seek them where they may be had , than our ancestors had . fourthly , there never was in the protestant church of england , before our days , such a number of the lord's harvest-men thrust out of his work , for their not complying with humane ceremonies in god's worship , two thousand ( some say more ) in one day , before they were silenced , one , or two , or three , and that for some real or pretended personal misdemeanour : for , tho' there was an act of vniformity in the beginning of queen eliz. reign , y●t non-conformists preached , and people heard them : but here such a number laid aside , and that mee●ly for non-conformity , and the people out of all capacity to enjoy pure ordinances in the church . here was some more reason for having the ordinances by themselves , than was before . and , to make this difference between our case and that of our ancestors , more considerable , these ministers were silenced by the church , ( tho' clave errante ) ours only by the magistrate , who never prete●ded a power to give or take away ministerial authority . fifthly , we are under the solemn oath of god against superstition , ( under which head we reckon the ceremonies ) which our ancestors were not : and we cannot see how our using of them consisteth with our keeping of that oath . sect. . a third general consideration to blunt the edge of all this historical discourse of the dr's , is , that the s●paration that the old non-conformists did so much oppose , was quite another thing than that which he can charge upon us . it is of two sorts , that of the brownists , or rigid separatists , who denied the church of england to be a true church , but held it for an antichristian soci●ty , and therefore not to be communicated with . a●d that of the independents , who owned the congregations in england to be true churches , but thought it unlawful to join with them , because of the mixture of scandalous sinners with visible saints , that was among them . separation on the first ground is well refuted by the old non-conformists ; and that of the second , by the assembly of divines , and other presbyteri●ns : both these were active separation , chosen by the separating parties , and that on grounds of dislike with the church , that a●e indefensible . but our separation ( if it may be so called ) is pass●ve ; we are driven away ; we seek the communion of our brethren ; we are willing to bear wi●h many things that are a burden to us , and which we wish to be reformed , rather than have separate meetings . we own the parishes of england as the church of christ ; the petition for peace is a publick and authentick witness of all this ; but our brethren will have no communion with us , unless we will own the ceremonies that they , without any warrant from scripture , impose on us , which we cannot do without sinning against god , and wounding our consciences ; and we can and do give good re●son , and scripture-warrant , for this our scruple . let then any indifferent person judge , whether it be fair dealing to condemn our not joining in the publick worship of the church , by the authority of them who condemned these fore-mentioned separations . but occa●●on will be given to discourse this matter further ; wherefore i now forb●ar . sect. . i hope what hath been said will evince , that the dr's following historical discourse hath the fault called ignoratio elenchi , running through the whole texture of it , and that it doth not t●uch the question in hand ; but i shall take a more particular , yet transient , view of it . he saith , sect. . at the beginning , the separation being now b●g●n , the non-conformists set themselves with the greatest vehemen●y against it . if the dr. would prove any thing against us , he must shew , that there was no forbearing of publick ordinances , on account of scrupling the ceremonies by the non-conformists , before this , the contrary of which i have shewed : also , that it was separation on that account , and no other , that they wrote against , the contrary of which is most evident . he may know , that the presbyterians now do differ nothing from the old non-conformists in this ; for they have as much set themselves against the same sort of separation , and can make it appear , that this is no way unsuitable to their own principles or practice . it seemeth , by what the dr. citeth out of mr. parker , that the separation was charged on him , as laying a foundation for it by his principles ; just as it is now with us . if the dr. can charge any of us with bitterness and pride , the two characters given by parker , to the separatists ; let the guilty bear their blame : but i am sure our principles that he is angry with , import no such thing ; and therefore such an oblique reflection on us in general , is not brotherly dealing . we love not to recriminate . sect. . he alledgeth , p. . that of the four reasons published by barrow and greenwood , against the separation , three of them were taken out of the admonition , given in by the non-conformists , to the parliament . he here exposeth these non-conformists that then were , as very ridiculous men , who laid down reasons for separation , and yet were so much against other mens practising what they gave reason for . if he think them such men , why would he bind us to their authority , which is the tendency of this long discourse ? but the dr. doth both mistake and misrepresent this matter : his mistake is , in the admonition these things were presented as grievances , to be redressed , not as grounds of separation . his misrepresentation is , these monitors did not speak of the ministry , government , and worship , as wholly unlawful , antichristian , and false ; for they owned the ministry and worship ( whatever thoughts they had of the government ) as right for the substance , tho' vitiated by some modes adhering to them , which they desired to be removed . it is true , gilford saith , they make a vile schism ; rending themselves from the church of england ; but doth he not add , and condemning by their assertio●s the whole visible church in the world , even as the donatists did of old time ? which sheweth , that it was not scrupling of humane ceremonies that they are charged with , but nullifying of churches , because of some corruptions in them ▪ gilford's words that follow , p. . we are not concerned in : we know , that many were the sad effects of that separation , diverting people from the serious exercises of religion , to janglings . and it is not without this effect on some , where the oppressed party is innocent , as to the main ; but that proveth not , that we should comply with unscriptural ceremonies , to shun this evil , but that they should not be imposed on us . as to gilford's blaming them , for not coming to the book-prayers , this he spake without book , either in the heat of disputation , in which many do over-reach ; or , it was his opinion , but is not ours . i agree with gilford , that the corruptions of the church of england did not make her antichristian ; and therefore the brownists were to be blamed in separating from her as antichristian ; not we , who are ready to join with her as a church of christ , but cannot digest her humane ceremonies in divine worship . that gilford was a non-conformist , the dr. needed not to be at so much pains to prove . that all non-conformists are fallible men , and some of them mistaken in some things ▪ we willingly grant . we also close with what his next author saith , p. . that he is a member of that church , where he is by providence placed , and that he ought not to separate from it while it is a true church , only with this exception , unless that church require me to sin ; and if i will not do so , exclude me : which exception it could not be expected that he should mention , that not belonging to the thing then controver●ed . it is hard for a controversal writer to guard his words against all exceptions that contingent cases , not yet thought on , may afford . the same is to be answered to his citations out of mr. bernard , and the confutation of the errours of the separatists , d●ne in name of the non-conformists ; so that this whole discourse of the doctor 's is , — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . sect. . he thinketh , sect. . to parallel our withdrawing from the ceremonies , with the separation of the brownists , ( for if that be not desig●ed , i know not what his discourse tend●th to ) by setting down the concessions of these separatists , ( to wit ) that the doctrine of the church of england , is sound and saving ; that they will not separate for every blemish in the church . so far we agree . but they pleaded ( saith he ) that the corruptions of the church of england were such , as overthrew the very constitution of a church ; in which we differ from them , as he saith p. . the old non-conformists did , of whom he saith that they held , that nothing could justifie separation from the church , but such corruptions which overthrow the being of it . and he saith , the force of all their reasonings against the separation , lay in this , and the denying of such corruptions to be in the church . for proving of this , he sheweth , that the separatists thought nothing could justifie their separation , but that which nullified the church ; and it is no wonder , for they minded nothing but an active separation , and not that of being driven away by sinful terms of communion imposed . it is true , they mention the service , as one of their pleas for separation , but not barely as unlawful to be used , but as nullifying the church which we never pleaded : for , what he addeth , p. , &c. that the non-conformists , when they would disprove the separation , only proved the church of england to be a true church : it is no wonder that they minded no more , seeing that was to overturn the very foundation of the adverse cause . but , did they ever teach , that we ought to communicate with a true church in those parts of her worship that are sinful ? which is the one half of the controversie that we now manage . he insulteth much in an assertion of the non-conformists , p. . at the end , that the church of england is a true church of christ , and such a one , as from which whosoever wittingly and continually separateth himself , cutteth himself off from christ. i might say as much as all this , without giving the least advantage against our cause ; for we do not separate our selves , but the door is shut against us , by as many bars as they have imposed ceremonies , which we cannot use without sin , and they will not suffer us to worship god with them without these . again , we do not continually separate from the church , but are ready and waiting to return to communion with her in all ordinances , whenever these sinful bars shall be removed that keep us out ; the separatists could say neither of these . that the old non-conformists did not understand their assertion of such a case as ours is , is evident ; for they were men of so much sence and reason , as that they could not imagine it impossible , that any should lawfully withdraw from joining with a church , because of sinful terms of communion required : they could not blame any member of the church of pergamus , to refrain from the communion of that church , if that communion were denied to that member , unless he would either approve of the doctrine of the nicolaitans , or at least consent to the tolerating of it . such is our case ; we are denied christ's ordinances in the church , unless we will approve , by our practice , the ceremonies which we judge sinful ; with what face can they blame us , for doing that which themselves put us into so great a necessity to do ? have we not rather cause to take up david's complaint against them , sam. . . they have thrust us out from the inheritance of the lord , saying , go serve other gods. had it been fair dealing to call david a separatist in his exile , because he waited not on the temple service ? and yet the necessity that he was under , of abstaining from it , was not so great as ours : that was bodily hazard , ours is soul hazard by sinning against god. sect. . the non-conformists reasons that he bringeth for their assertion , p. . prove no more than what is already granted , as any that readeth and understandeth them , may perceive . what he bringeth out of jacob against johnson , and ball against can , is nothing against us ; to wit , that the church of england is a true church . from p. . he sheweth that non-conformists held , that the corruptions of the church of england , were not such as did over-throw the being , and constitution of it , which we willingly yield to . what he citeth out of other non-conformists , p. , . about forms of prayer , and the english liturgy , shall be examined in its due place ; if the lord permit . i know some non-conformists have had , and some now have a greater freedom to use it than others have : but as now there are , so of old there were , others that could not comply with it . what ever was giffard's opinion about the ceremonies being antichristian ; if he thought them lawful to be used ( which is our question ) i know not why he should be reckoned a non-conformist : but indeed there is nothing of that , in what the dr. citeth , p. , . what he bringeth , p. , , , , , . out of several non-conformists , to shew that the ministry , discipline , and hierarchy of the church of england , is not antichristian , nor the church-antichrist ; we are not concerned to disprove , and the dr. might have spared all this transcribing , it being wholly beside the question . some things he maketh them say , that deserve a little animadversion ; but i will not now digress to take notice of them . sect. . he proceedeth , sect. . to give accompt of the independent separation , and how it was opposed by the assembly of divines , by such reasons as will hold against the present separation . i confess there is a present separation , that these reasons do hold against ; for that same separation doth still continue : but he doth not prove his point , unless he make it appear that these reasons conclude , that we should use the ceremonies , rather than forbear church-communion with the prelatists . but his reasons for what he saith , we shall attend in their course . what reflection the dr. thinks to cast on the non-conformists , by the breaking of brown's church in midleborough ; and his jugling in the matters of god , i know not . this long story hath either no design , which i cannot impute to a man of his parts ; or an ill design , which i am loth to impute to one of his worth. however it be , we disclaim all concern in it . there have been breaches and apostasies among others , as well as among non-conformists . that a nameless author calleth brown's preaching privately in time of the publick assemblies ▪ a cursed conven●ic●e ; it may be there was cause , if brown was such a bad man , as the dr. maketh him : but i know some of these meetings that the dr. is so displeased with , are blessed of the lord. he imputeth these and the other dissentions that followed , to the judgment of god on them ; this we are no way concerned to apologize for : their way was evil , and it did not prosper : if the doctor can prove our way to be evil , let him pass what judgment he will on what befalleth us , but till then , sobriety in judging is becoming . no doubt the papists thought they had as good cause to construe providence to favour them , because of the confusions , and ruin that followed in germany , on the reformation . we have sins enough to provoke the lord against us ; but we are not convinced , that the things in controversy are to be reckoned among them . let the dr. impute this to our obstinacy , at his pleasure , we can bear it : in this we are murus aheneus — in the poets se●se . sect. . he telleth us , p. . of the present separatists going beyond mr. robinson , the fo●nder , ( as he maketh him ) of the independent way , who was for communicating with the church in the word and prayer : he should have told us who these are ▪ it is true , they thrust us out from word and prayer too , by denying us all church privileges , for not submitting to the impositions ; and force us to seek all gods ordinances , where we can have them in his way ; but we are far from withdrawing from the word and prayer in the church of our own choice . this discourse against the independent separation , i meddle not with , and therefore pass over all that he saith , from p. . to . only touching two or three passages . what mr. c●n saith . p. of the principles of the puritans inserting separation , is so far true , that their holding the unwarrantableness of bishops and ceremonies , doth inferr on them who act conscientiously , that they should rather refrain from joining with any church , than own the one , or use the other : and if these be made the necessary terms of communion with a church , we must suffer our selves to be separated from such imposers . p. . some complaining of the mischief of impositions ( a word the dr. is very angry with ) because unordained men were not suffered to preach , when and where they listed , is no fit parallel to the complaint that others make of the mischief of impositions , when they are excluded the church , for not using humane ceremonies : in the one case there is restraint of what is contrary to scripture ; no imposing in the other . that is imposed to be done , which is without warrant ; yea , condemned in scripture . such mean ●rtifices the dr. reacheth at , that he may ridicule our unwillingness to be imposed on by man's vvill , in the vvorship of god. p. ▪ he saith , presbyterians would not have all left to conscience : who ever said otherwise ; or can say otherwise , unless they would first burn their bibles ? we never made conscience the rule ; it must be guided and ruled by scripture . what he saith of popular government , let them answer it who are concerned . he saith , humorous and factious people , will always be complaining of the mischief of impositions . ( this title of mr. a's book , is a great eye-sore to him ) but he should consider that on the other hand , an imperious , superstitious clergy , that will be lords over gods inheritance , in dispite of the apostles words , will always be imposing , and take it ill that any should think their impositions a burden ; as wise and sober men may do without being either humorous or factious . he saith , the principles of liberty of conscience , will unavoidably lead men into confusion . many think that such indistinct and rash assertions , are more like to lead divines into confusion , in managing their polemick discourses . must conscience then be bound hand and foot , and carried whither the prelate pleaseth ? will even dr. stillingfleet own mr. parker's notion of the publick conscience ? hath conscience no use , but to discern what is my lord bishop's will , or what the act of parliament saith ? we are as far from owning an unbounded liberty of conscience , as the dr. is ; but the absolute denying of all liberty of conscience , is liker to lead men into atheism , than giving them some liberty to lead them into confusion . let conscience then have liberty , where it hath scripture warrant for what it holdeth ( which is the liberty we plead for to our selves ) and let it not be rigorously dealt with in things that are of lesser moment in religion , where they that profess conscience , are otherwise sober and peaceable ; and there is no hazard of confusion from conscience . it is a more innocent thing , where it is rightly dealt with , than the dr. taketh it to be , and we think it is more to be regarded , than the rules of order and government in a church , which the dr. seemeth to bring in competition with it . i mean such rules as are but of mans devising . it is false , that the presbyterians cannot answer independants , as to the pretence of conscience ; nor they the anabaptists . for the one can refute the other wherein they mistake , and tell them that conscience cannot make their error to be a truth : and yet they can bear with godly and peaceable men in these mistakes , because of their conscience . sect. . he telleth us , sect. . that the presbyterians charged the dissenting brethren ; with being the occasion of an inundation of error , by their going upon the principle of liberty of conscience . i am far from justifying that toleration , which the independants pleaded for , and which ( by their means , some say ) was used in our late times of distraction : then there was no king in our israel . all error should be opposed : gross error punished and restrained by force : but will it hence follow , that we must not have leave to dissent , even from those things that the church imposeth , without warrant from the lord ? all the citations that the dr. bringeth , p. , , . are evidently against a vast toleration . the vniformity in religion , that the scotch-commissioners speak of , is not to be understood of words in prayers , and humane ceremonies ( for would they not then have first setled that way at home ? ) but of doctrine , and discipline , and worship so far as commanded by christ. sect. . the dr. is pleased to give himself the trouble , from p. . to . to transcribe the substance of the many and large debates , that were between the assembly of divines , and the dissenting brethren : but he will find it hard to apply the condemning of their separation to our case : for they refused communion with the presbyterians , whom they could not charge with requiring them to use any mode of worship , but what was commanded : they left the church for supposed corruptions , which were none of their personal fault , nor were they put under a necessity of approving them . vve are willing to have communion with the church , if we may be suffered but to forbear these personal accusations that were our sin , if we should do them . but let us hear what conclusions the dr. draweth from these debates , p. , . the st . is , that the old non-conformists thought themselves bound in conscience to communicate with the church of england , and did look on separation from it as sin , notwithstanding its corruptions . this he thinketh he hath so proved , that the shining of the sun may as easily be denied : whether it hath been disproved in what is above discoursed , and with what measure of clearness , let others judge ; also how inconcludent mens authority is in gods matters , hath been shewed . the d . conclusion is , that all men were bound in conscience toward preserving the vnity of the church , to go so far as they were able : so that the lawfulness of separation , where communion is lawful , is one of the newest inventions of this age. this conclusion i easily yield to : and who are the inventers and maintainers of the contrary , i know not . i hope he will not blame us , when we are thrust out of the church , that we do not lie about the church-walls ; rather than go to another place , to worship god by our selves . if we do any thing but what we can shew christ's command for , let him blame us . d. conclusion . bare scruple of conscience doth not justifie separation , altho it may excuse communion in the particulars scrupled ; provided they have used the best means for a right information . i do so fully assent to this conclusion , that i shall say more than the dr. doth ; to wit , that bare scruple of conscience , cannot excuse even communion in the particulars scrupled , whatever means have been used for information : for scruples that have no scripture ground ( and what else can be meant by bare scruples , i know not ) make an erring conscience ; which however it may excuse ae toto , can excuse from nothing , in totum . but if our scruples , such as they are , ( and we may say , we have used the best means that we could for information ) do excuse us from communion in the particulars scrupled , and if by the force of rigid men , we be deprived of gods ordinances , unless we will communicate in these scrupled particulars ; i hope the duty that lyeth on us to worship god , and not live like atheists , will so far warrant that which the dr. will call separation ; that it will be hard for him to disprove it , unless he retract this conclusion ; by which he hath given a sore blow to his cause . i oppose to this regardlesness of mens consciences , that the dr. seemeth to allow himself in , the judgment of the excellent judge hales in his piece of schism , who saith , that nothing absolveth from the guilt of schism , but true and unpretended conscience : also , that requiring the doing of an unlawfu● or suspected act , is a just cause of refusing communion . sect. . conclusion . where occasional communion is lawful , constant communion is a duty . i suppose he meaneth of that particular church , in which a man is a member , and hath his constant residence ; otherwise it is manifestly false ; for it is lawful for me to have occasional communion with the protestant church of france ; but that i am not constantly bound to communicate in england , if my occasions call me often abroad . but take it in the most favourable sense , the assertion is not true : it is lawful to have occasional communion with a church that hath one ordinance pure , exemp . gr. preaching : i may as occasion serveth join in that ordinance , but if there be nothing else pure , or that i can partake of without sin , in that church , i am obliged to look after another occasion , where i may enjoy all gods ordinances without sinful additions ; and having got that opportunity , i do not see what obligation lieth on me constantly to hear in that corrupted church , rather than where i enjoy all the ordinances in purity . what he alledgeth out of the assemblies reasons , against the dissenting brethren , doth not all quadrate with our case ; for the congregational men could not alledge , that any unlawful terms of communion were imposed on them by the presbyterians , in one ordinance more than another ; and therefore if they might join in one ordinance , they might in all ; and so had no excuse from constant communion , if occasional communion was lawful . but this question about occasional and constant communion the dr. bringeth in afterward ; therefore enough of it at present . sect. . conclusion th . that withdrawing from the communion of a true church , and setting up congregations for purer worship , or under another rule , is plain and down-right separation , as is most evident from the answer of the assembly of divines , to the dissenting brethren . it is strange that this learned author , should cite these men for condemning our practice , who were of the same principles and practice that we own , and he is pleading against , particularly dr. burgess , mr. case , mr. calamy , mr. newcomen , &c. whom he nameth . they were neither such fools as to condemn themselves : nor such knaves as to blame others for that , wherein they allowed themselves . where●ore it is evident , that it was not every separation from a true church that they condemned ( for such is both innocent , and necessary , when a true church will impose sinful terms of communion on her members ) but a separation for pretended corruptions in a true church , which corruptions were not imposed on the separaters , either to be practised or approved of by them , and so could not become their personal sin. this separation they condemned ; and that with good reason ; for where the church is a true church , and no sin committed by them that join with it in their joining , separating can have no shew of reason . sect. . he inferreth , sect. . from what he had said , that the present practice of separation , cannot be justified by the principles of the old non-conformists : nor by the doctrine of the assembly of divines . the former i have disproved , tho' he saith , ●t's clear by undeniable evidence : the latter , he saith , is , in effect , confessed by all his adversaries ; to make out which he citeth in the margin , mr. baxter , and dr. owen : for the latter , no wonder he confess it , seeing he was for that very separation , which the assembly opposed . and the former is yet alive to speak for himself : and it is as little wonder that he should say so ; for he denieth that any of assembly were presbyterians . i have already shewed that the the assembly might well assert , that separation from a true church was schismatical ; the men that they debated against , separating or such grounds , as either proved the church false ; or gave them no colourable ground for that schism : but they could not understand it without exception . he taketh a great deal of pains , p. . to prove that any difference that is between our separation , and that which the assembly condemned , is but in some circumstances , that do not make the one unlawful , and the other not : but that it is otherwise is clear , if we consider ( as hath been said ) that they had no thing imposed on them as duty , and as terms of communion , which had been their personal sin to do , as we have . if this make not a material , and pertinent difference , i know not what can do it . but , saith he , the assembly used general reasons , that have equal force at all times . ans. these general reasons may suffer an exception ; which they did not , nor needed not mention , because it was not the case in hand : nor do we make the difference to lie between that and this time ; but between their and our grounds of non-communion . sect. . he saith , it cometh to the same point , whether the scruples ( on which men separate ) relate to some ceremonies required , or to other impositions , as to order and discipline ; if they be such as they pretend to a necessity of separation . ans. . the dr. then maketh no difference between a scruple that hath ground for it ; and one that hath none . if he can make our scruple appear to be groundless , as he confesseth theirs to be , he hath advantage against us . ans. . is there no difference between having probable grounds for a scruple , and having no such grounds ? is there any comparison between scrupling at using religious ceremonies , that have no warrant in the word , but are in general , at least , condemned in it , and scrupling at some pretended corruptions , that no scripture condemneth ? ans. . if the dr's reasoning be good , either we must bear with none that scruple , unless we scruple the same thing : or we must bear with all that scruple . the first of these excludeth all christian forbearance ; the last he will not alledge . ans. . he mentioneth impositions as to order and discipline , only that we may seem imposers as well as his party is ; that is unreasonable , not only because we can shew christ's laws for our order and discipline , which he will not pretend to shew for the ceremonies : but also because we can bear with sober and faithful brethren , that cannot approve of all that we do ; which his party will not . sect. . he mistaketh the case when he insinuateth , that we have no more but scruple of conscience to plead . the dr. should not have alledged this , till he , or some of his party had answered all our reasons of scrupling , in many books , neither touched by him , or any other : but now he will knock down our cause with one blow . he saith , he put the case as clear as possible , to prevent all subterfuges , and slight evasions . he supposeth five scrupling parties , one at the liturgy , a second at the cross and kneelling , a third at wrong gathered churches , a fourth at infant baptism , a fifth at preaching by set forms , and being stinted by an hour-glass : and he saith , the nature of the case doth not vary according to these . if this be the dr's herculean argument , we shall not need to fear his strength so much as before . surely the learned dr's parts could let him see more reason to bear with sober and intelligent men , who dare not join with a church in worshipping god , by religious ceremonies not instituted by christ , than with fantastick quakers , who cast off god's ordinances , because of an hour-glass ; but that his prejudice doth , in this , darken his understanding . but the tendency of his discourse seemeth to be ; either church-authority must lead us blind-fold , so as we must scruple nothing imposed ; or neither scripture , nor reason shall limit our fancy ; but we may scruple what we will. he saith well , p. . ( and the non-conformists before him had said it ) if they alledge grounds to justifie themselves , they must do it ex natura rei , and not from the meer errour or mistake of conscience . we will most willingly join issue with him on this condition , provided the natura rei may be judged by scripture , as all the worship of god should be . if he can prove the ceremonies that we scruple , to be such as we may use without sin ; or , if we prove not the contrary , let him call us as vile separatists as he pleaseth . if the dr. had pleased at first to hang the matter on this pin , and not to have filled his book with so many citations , to strengthen his cause with humane authority ; he might have saved both himself and me all this labour , that hitherto we have been at . it is no great commendation either of the wisdom or of the sobriety of his church , that he saith , sh● hath as much occasion ( cause he should have said ) to judge their ( the presbyterians ) scruples unreasonable , as they do those of the quakers . what followeth about occasional communion , is answered above . that which he citeth out of mr. a. of the assemby's being transported in the heat of dispute , is not so derogatory from that venerable meeting , as he would make it : it is rare to find it otherwise with sinful men . how many things did thus slip from the pens of several of the fathers , that the dr. will not approve ? but we do not hereby give up the cause to the dissenting brethren , nor forsake the assemblies principles ; it is one thing , not to approve all that men say , and another thing to condemn the cause that they plead for . sect. . our author doth next undertake sect. . to shew how we have deserted the principles of the old non-conformists , as to private persons reforming church-discipline , setting up new churches , and the preaching of ministers , when silenced by the laws . for the setting up of churches and discipline , he citeth several non-conformists against it , without the magistrate , p. , , , , . to all which , i answer , that two things are expresly in these citations , that make what they condemned not , to reach our case : for , . they condemn private mens endeavouring a publick reformation , that belonging to the magistrate ; so it is thrice expressed , p. . out of confut. of the brownists . now we meddle not with a publick reformation , otherwise than by our prayers and advice , as we have occasion , ( which is there also expresly allowed by them ) but content our selves to serve god privately , when we cannot do it publickly without sin. to this same purpose is that which is cited out of giffard , p. . that tho' every one ought to keep a good conscience , yet no private persons are to take on them publick authority to reform . if we do so , blame us for it . . these non-conformists all along speak of private persons reforming the discipline of the church . now , what is done among us of that kind , is done by ministers , who , though in the state they are private persons , and therefore are not to meddle with matters of that concern : yet in the church they are publick persons , and have authority from god , to dispense his ordinances . but i do not , by what i have said , intend to homologate all that the dr. citeth out of these non-conformists ; several things they assert , that cannot well be defended ; but i shall not digress so far , as to particularize them . sect. . i shall only say , that had this principle of not reforming the ordinances of christ by people , among themselves , till the magistrate gave countenance , taken alwaies place in the world , not only christianity had not come in the place of jud●ism , but arrianism had extinguished the orthodox profession . have we not examples of people who were under arian bishops , setting up new bishops over themselves , in epiphan . haeres . ? doth not hilary exhort the people to separate from auxentius , their arian bishop , adversus arianos , when yet there was no orthodox magistrate to countenance these things ? yea ; had this principle obtained , there had been no reformation from popery , in most places , where now , through the lord's mercy , it is . say not , that our reforming of worship and discipline is not in things of that moment ; for tho' that be true , yet it is not of no moment ; without it we should either join with men in sin , or live without the ordinances of god. let me here make use of the testimony of a worthy person , one whom the dr. afterward bringeth against us ; and therefore , in reason , cannot refuse his suffrage , ( tho' we are far from hanging our cause on mens opinions , as the dr. doth ) that is , the learned monsieur claude , in his excellent book called , the historical defence of the reformation ; the design of which , is , to shew , that every man hath a right to believe the truth , and to dissent from errour , and to profefs this , and to reform religion , by setting up religious assembles , for the true worship of god ; when they cannot have truth , nor right worship in that which goeth under the name of the church . he saith , ( part . p. . ) as it is ridiculous to demand of a man , in a civil society , what personal call he had to live , to labour , to avoid that which would be hurtful to his life , and to have a care of his own preservation ; so it is also an absurdity to demand of our fathers , what call they had to believe aright in god , and to worship him purely , and to remove far from them all that which they believed to be contrary to a spiritual life , and their own salvation . and much more to this purpose . he objecteth , p. . is not this to rend the church by divisions ? and answereth , no ; for the vnity of the church lieth not in errour , or false worship ; it is love to the church , to endeavour her cure , by shewing a good example . and , part . p. , . when it is objected , that the protestants could not separate , because their pastours were against it ; he answereth , that many pastors went along with them ; and if that had not been , they might have chosen pastors ; all which he discourseth at length . we have an example of setting up god's ordinances without , yea , against the laws of men , in the word . it is clear from ezr. . with ch . . . that the temple was built against law : and it is clear from hog . . . that it was the peoples sin , that they neglected it so long , even when law was against them ; and that they ought to have done it before haggai and zechariah put them on it . sect. . next the dr. ( p. . ) bringeth in some non-conformists condemning ministers preaching , after they were silenced . it is evident to any that readeth , p. , & . that it is silencing by the church that is there spoken of ; but our restraint is by the magistrate only , who doth not pretend to give nor to take away pastoral power . pag. . he bringeth mr. bradshaw reasoning against ministers preaching against the will of the magistrate ; but in the first part of mr. bradshaw's discourse , it is evident , that he speaketh only against publick preaching in such a place , in defiance of the magistrate , and running on the sword 's point , or opposing sword to sword ; which we are far from either practising or approving . i confess , p. . he is for the ministers living privately ; yet saith expresly , that he is to labour mean while privately , upon particular occasions offered , ( why they may not be also sought , i know not ) to strengthen and confirm in the ways of god those people that are deprived of his publick labour . if this be not an allowance of his private preaching , i understand it not : but. mr. bradshaw will have the people to submit to the ministry of another in publick , with the liking of the magistrate , tho' he would have them to affect and love the former as their pastor . how congruous this advice is , i shall not enquire , not laying so much stress on mens thoughts of things , as to be turned out of our way by them . but mr. bradshaw seemeth to speak of a case wherein the magistrate is offended with a minister on some personal account , and another is set over the people , with whom they may as lawfully join , as with the former ; but that doth not come near to our case , in which ministers are restrained , because of a scruple common to them and the people that join with them ; to wit , using the ceremonies . would he have the people , over the belly of scripture-light , to join with the new incumbent in ceremonies , and not rather enjoy the ordinances in purity , tho' in private , from their own faithful pastor ? i cannot see how that can be gathered from his words ; but if it was his opinion , we crave leave to differ from him . beside , mr. bradshaw did never advise , that some thousands of ministers being all laid aside at once , should deprive the church of their more private labours , when they were forcibly restrained in publick : the non-conformists , in former times , were not in our circumstances . sect. . the dr. is now come to his triarij , his last argument to prove what was the general sence of the non-conformists in this . it is mr. sprint's argument for conformity , rather than to be deprived ; to wit , that a lesser duty should cede to a greater : he supposeth conformity and preaching to be a greater duty than abstaining from the ceremonies : and he confirmeth this ( it seemeth ) by the apostles , who , he saith , submitted to the jewish ceremonies , rather than lose the liberty of the ministry . the dr. i see , hath not kept his best wine till the end of the feast ; this is one of the meanest of his allegations ; for the non-conformists had an easie answer to this argument , that here a sin , and forbearing a duty , are brought in competition ; which maketh an easie choice , to wit , using unlawful ceremonies , with not preaching in publick . what he saith of the apostles using the jewish ceremonies , is quite out of our way , for these ceremonies for a time were indifferent , as all acknowledge ; bu● , that ever any of the apostles used them , after the full promulgating of the gospel , and the destruction of the temple , when they became not only mortuae , but mortiferae , ( as the schools speak ) we utterly deny . but even what he maketh the non-conformists answer , concerning the greater usefulness and necessity of the preaching of the apostles , than of their preaching , maketh nothing for his design : nor doth it prove , that they did not think that the apostle's , wo be unto me , if i preach not the gospel , did reach to their case ; for it can import no more , but that if such a great necessity might warrant some things otherwise not warrantable , ( as the abstaining from things strangled , and blood , was warranted ; yea , made necessary by a present necessity ) their publick preaching was not of that moment ; and it was only their publick preaching that was hindred by their non-conformity . and thus i have got through the thicket of his historical coll●ctions , and proceed to the rational part of his discourse , which , i hope , shall prove less tedious . part ii. in the second part of his book , the learned dr. enquireth into the nature of the separation . ( i wish he had taken as much pains to find out the true cause of it , and to get that removed ) ; where he considereth the several principles , on which he alledgeth , that the several sorts of dissenters do proceed in their separating from the church . i am not obliged , nor shall i endeavour to defend all these ; the owners of them not agreeing among themselves , let every one stand up for his own principle . but there is one general principle that i think non-conformists agree in , that the church of england imposeth some unlawful terms of communion , and because of not submitting to these , she excludeth the dissenters from her communion ; and being thus excluded , they think it their duty to worship god apart by themselves , when they are not suffered to do it with the church without sin. if any do add to this other principles , i leave the defence of them to their authors . this is to be further opened in the third part ; where the dr. examineth the several pleas for separation . he is pleased to take a great deal of pains to refute some things , as insufficient grounds for separation ; which some dissenters have mentioned in their books , as additional motives ; there being other sufficient reasons for non-communion which never any of them owned , as the sole ground of their practice , or a sufficient reason for not joining with the church by it self . this is to set up a man of straw , that he may get a victory by bearing him down . instances enough of this kind will occurr in our progress . i shall consider what is argumentative against the principle already mentioned , that i hold . sect . i. some opinions about separation from the church of england examined . the dissenters , with reference to the principles of their withdrawing from the church , he divideth into two sorts : . such as hold partial and occasional communion with the church , lawful ; but not total and constant communion ; and that they may chuse communion where there is greater purity and edification . . such as hold any communion with the church to be unlawful , because they believe the terms of its communion to be unlawful ; such as the liturgy , cross , &c. this distinction is unhappily stated ; for , . non exhaurit divisum . there is a third sort , who hold partial and occasional communion lawful , but not total and constant , and yet believe the churches terms of communion unlawful ; and because of that belief , cannot communicate totally and constantly with her. we can hear a sermon , join in prayer , without partaking in any of the unlawful terms of communion , to wit , ceremonies and liturgy ; but we cannot enjoy other ordinances ; and often we are even excluded from these by their excommunications , and therefore must seek the ordinances elsewhere . . partial and occasional communion are not the same thing ; nor total and constant , as to the lawfulness of them . one may have communion with you , and that not only occasionally , but constantly , in god's ordinances that are kept pure ; and yet refuse communion with you in your own devices , and in those ordinances of god , that ye have so annexed those devices to , that the one cannot be had without the other . and there are some that practise accordingly ; they wait on your sermons and pulpit-prayers constantly , but refuse the rest of your worship . . i think there are few , if any non-conformists , that think the terms of communion with your church lawful , and can keep occasional communion with her , and yet separate for greater purity and edification . if any such be , they make a causeless separation indeed . sect. . he will now proceed with all clearness , ( which he hath not done in the fore-mentioned distinction ) and consider three things ; . what things are to be taken for granted by the several parties . . wherein they differ among themselves about the nature and degrees of separation . . what the true state of the present controversie about separation is . for the first , he saith , there are three things that we cannot deny . and i say , there is not one of the three , but they are to be denied , or at least distinguished , and not admitted , as he setteth them down : the first of them is , that there is no reason of separation , because of the doctrine of our church . i do cordially agree with the learned authors , whom he citeth in the proof of this , p. . that there is no cause of separating from the church of england , or refusing communion with all her congregations , on account of that which is the doctrine of the church , contained in the articles ; for we assent to them all as true , except those about bishops and ceremonies ; and we would not separate from the church , because of doctrinal mistakes in these things , if the owning of them were not imposed as terms of our communion with her. but it is not so easie to perswade us , that there is no just cause to withdraw from the communion of some particular parishes in england , where arminianism or socinianism is commonly taught ; where the practice of godliness is ridiculed , and principles striking at the root of it , are instilled into the hearers ; such as , that all the aids of the spirit that men pretend to look after , that are above that exercise of their own faculties , that is in their own power , is but fancy ; that the person of christ is not to be minded by christians , but only obedience to his laws ; that , resting on christ , rolling the soul on him , are no fit expressions of faith. what would the dr. have serious christians , who are concerned about the salvation of their souls , do , when such a minister is set over them ? shall they hear him ? that were to sit down to a table , where poison is strewed over all the meat , and it is hard , if not impossible , at the best dangerous , to pick out a wholsome bit . and it is contrary to solomon's advice , prov. . . cease , my son , to hear the instruction that causeth to erre from the words of knowledge . they who would have such doctrine heard , but not received , may as well advise to go to the stews , but not commit fornication . should they complain to superiors , against the erroneous preacher ? but what if they get no redress , and the heretick be countenanced and dignified , notwithstanding that all this is known to the world , by the press , as well as the pulpit ? what if such a case as this , or little less evil , be not rare ? ought not people to seek their souls food in corners , when they cannot have it in the publick assembly , being mean while ready again to join with the assembly , when the lord shall remove this stumbling-block ? sect. . the second concession of his adversaries , that the dr. setteth down , is , that there is no other reason of separation , because of the terms of communion , that what was from the beginning of the reformation . a sufficient refutation of this may be seen , par. . sect. , , , . if he can tell of some alterations that have been made to the better , we can tell , and have told of others made to the worse . it may be , mr. baxter thinketh lay-communion easier than before ; he thinketh it so easie , that he practiseth more of it than his brethren can do . but that is no proof . what he objecteth from the practice of the martyrs is above answered . the third concession ; that communion with the church of england hath been still owned by the reformed churches abroad . i have before answered this also , shewing , that though some of the divines , ( for no churches ever gave any hint to that purpose ) in their condescendency , have shewed aversion from our withdrawing , yet they have laid down doctrinal principles , that necessitate what they are so averse from . their receiving the apology and articles of our church into the harmony of confessions , the dr. bringeth as an argument against separation from her : but it is a frivolous argument , both because the collection of these confessions is not the work of the churches , but of a private writer ; as also , because the author of that book reckoning england , among the protestant churches , doth not by so doing oblige all to submit to her unlawful impositions . what durel hath said , or he or others can say of the good opinion of reformed divines of the constitution , and orders of the church of engl●nd , may soon be balanced by testimonies , out of the same reverend divines , condemning her ceremonies as relicts of popery . sect. . the second thing that he insisteth on , he beginneth , sect. . to examine the several hypotheses and principles of separation that are at this day talked of among dissenters : he saith , some seem to allow separate congregations only in such places , where the churches are not capable to receive the inhabitants . and this he groundeth on some passages , wherein some had defended their meeting-houses by this consideration , that all the inhabitants in london could not hear in the churches . but did ever any of them say , that this was either the only , or main reason of their meetings ? or was it not rather brought as an additional consideration , to blunt the edge of that clamour , that was raised against non-conformists preaching , by them , who neither could benefit the people themselves , nor would suffer others to do it ; whereas the non-conformists had other reasons for not joining with the church , but worshipping god without humane mixtures , in other assemblies ? but even that reason might have some weight , ad hominem , against the silencers of non-conformist ministers : i hope to give better reasons in due time and place , for the non-conformist ministers preaching : but i am very free to declare , that in a church where there is no cause of withdrawing from her ordinances , this alledged is not sufficient . sect. . some , saith he , sect. . do allow communion with some parochial churches in some duties , and at some seasons ; but not with all . churches , in all duties , and at all times . and from this he chargeth the separation as a mystery , as if we dealt not openly and ingeniously in setting down our opinion . but i ask the dr. who of the non-conformists did ever thus express their opinions without further explication ? and if none have , it is not candour so to represent us : we desire not to walk in the dark , nor are we ashamed of our principles . we profess then , that in parishes , where truth is preached , and not dangerous error , and in those ordinances , to which no humane ceremonies are annexed , as preaching and prayer ; and when we are not obliged to wait on the ordinances in those assemblies , where we have all the ordinances in purity , as we cannot even in the parish mentioned , because of unlawful impositions made the terms of our communion with them : i say thus , we can join with them ; but not otherwise . i hope there is no labyrinth in this declaration of our opinion . sect. . he is at much pains to prove , that we go upon the same principles with the old separatists ; which he prove●h of some of the people , out of mr. baxter's reproof of them for their unsoberness : i know the reproofs of that learned author , were sometimes dealt at random : but if any of the people have undue apprehensions of things , and understand not so well as need were , what they profess , will that ruin our cause ? is there no such blame among his party ? do they all speak judiciously , and soberly , and with no tincture of popish principles in managing their conformity . but he will ( p. . ) have even our teachers to come near to the principles of the old separatists ; for what matter is it , saith he , as to the nature of the separation , whether the terms of our communion be called idolatrous or unlawful ? whether our ministery be called a false or insufficient ministry ? scandalous vsurpers and persecutors ? whether our hierarchy be called antichristian , or repugnant to the institutions of christ ? ans. . a difference sufficient to make our separation lawful , and theirs unlawful , is , that we withdraw , being put away by the church , for not submitting to unlawful terms of communion : these left the church , and would not join with her , even tho' these terms had not been imposed ; looking on the church as no true church . answ. . whatever fault we find with the ministers of the church and the hierarchy , we do not separate because of these ; we would join with you for all these grievances , if you would but suffer us to do it , without sinning against god in that , which is our personal action . i hope he will not alledge , that the old separatists were of that principle . sect. . but this , to wit , that we are of the same principles with the old separatists , the dr. will make manifest : and that , . as to the people . . as to the ministers of the church . as to the people , sect. . he saith , we disown the old separation ; and yet make the terms of lay-communion for persons , as members of the church unlawful . this i own , save that i am not willing to contend with him about the term , members of the church ; let the thing be understood , to wit , that we think it unlawful to join in the liturgy and ceremonies ; and seeing we cannot have gods ordinances without these , with the church ; we think it our duty to serve god without these apart among our selves : yet are ready to worship god with the church , when they shall please to suffer us to do it , without these impositions : this , i say , being understood ; we matter not much , whether he call this a casting off of membership with the church or not . mr. baxter , he saith , calleth it schismatical in the church , to deny baptism without the sign of the cross , and god-fathers ; and the communion without kneeling ; and that people , in this case , may join with other pastors , that will otherwise baptize , and give the communion . and i say the same : what is this , saith the dr. but formal separation . ans. it is nothing else . and what hath he gained by that concession ? for who ever questioned but there is a separation in the church of england , between the rigid imposers and the dissenters : but the question is , who is the culpable cause of the formal separation ; and consequently who are the schismaticks ? whether the imposers or the scruplers ? i know no way to determine this question , but by falling upon the merits of the cause , and deciding whether the things scrupled be lawful to be used , and fit to be imposed on them , who conscienciously scruple them , so as no forbearance should be used in them , what ever may follow . if both these can be proved ( as i am sure neither of them can ) we were the schismaticks : if not , unbyassed men will adjudge that epithete to the dr. and his party . if he had pleased to put the matter to this issue , the far greatest part of his book might have been spared . sect. . neither hath the dr. any advantage , by what he next bringeth out of mr. baxter ; to wit , it may be schism to separate from a church , that hath some schismatical principles , practices , and persons . if these be not such , and so great , as to necessitate our departure from them , for there is such a case supposeable ; yet we affirm , that the schismatical principles , and practices , and persons in the church of england , to wit , the clergy imposing the ceremonies , as terms of our communion with them , are such as necessitate our departure : or rather , they do by these drive us away . the old separatists , saith he , did not renounce total communion with our church ; but held communion in faith with us lawful ( so do we with all the sound christians in the world , tho' we hold no church communion with them for want of opportunity ) and private christian communion ( neither is this in the question ) and in some acts of worship , as hearing and joining in prayer , and yet were charged with separation by the old non-conformists . ans. they were justly charged with separation , because their principles would separate them from a church , that gave no just cause by unlawful impositions ; which ours do not . the separation materially is the same ; that is , here are two parties gone asunder , as were there : but not formally ; for their principle was , the church was no true church , and ministry and ordinances were nullities . ours is , vnlawful terms of communion are required ; and for our non-submission to these , we are expelled by force . he saith , we must hold a necessity of separation . ans. so we do , as things now stand ▪ but this necessity is not of our making , but of our brethrens making , and therefore they must bear the blame of it . it no way followeth , which he inferreth , that we must be separatists : for it is an uncontroverted truth , that they only are separatists , who separate without just cause , which we deny to be imputable to us . the medium that he insisteth so much on , p. . is but a quibble ; to wit , either we are members of the church of england , or of no church , or of another church : if the first we must communicate as members : if the second , we are no good christians : if the third , we own as formal a separation , as ever any did . all this hath been before answered , but the dr's repeated importunity forceth repetitions from us . i say then , there is here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . if we own our selves as members of the church of england , it will not follow that we are obliged to partake with her in corrupted ordinances , that is , her sin to impose , and were our sin to yield to . there were members of the jewish church in her degenerate times , who sinned not in abstaining from baal's worship , and the groves , and high places . if we should say the d . that we are at present members of no church , that understood sano●sensu , might be our affliction , and not our sin , for if a man be cast into a place where there are no christians to join with , or none that will let him join with them , without he sin against god , he is not to be blamed if he worship god by himself : every good christian is a member of the vniversal church ; and ought to join himself to some particular church if he can : but it doth not always derogate from a mans christianity , that his circumstances are such , that he is not actually in communion with any particular church . if we should say the d. it is true , we own a formal separation ; but the culpable cause of it is not in us . sect. . if any ask , which of these three we do indeed own ? i might answer as above , section . that the question is not very material , and but about words . yet seeing the dr. seemeth to lay such weight on the word , members of the church , i shall open this a little further . and st . i say ad hominem by the dr's doctrine we are not , nor never were ( most of us ) members of the church of england ; and therefore not capable of culpable separation from her ; on what ever accompt we separate : for he asserteth , part . p. , ▪ that the minister in using the sign of the cross after baptism , and saying , we receive him into the congregation of christ's flock , and do sign him with the sign of the cross , &c. doth speak in the name of the church ; and so as baptism is a rite of admission into the catholick church : so the sign of the cross is into our church of england . i leave the examination of the truth of what he here asserteth to its due place . i only now consider , seeing this learned author taketh this crossing to be the admitting rite into the church of england , how he can look on us as members of that church , who were never so admitted into it : and if we never were members in it , how can we be blamed for separating from it ? but i am not so fond of this notion of the dr's coining as to excuse our separation by it ; i make no other use of it but ad hominem : and i think it will be hard for him to answer it . but i come ad rem : the term church-member is a relative term ; it importeth a relation between a person and a church . now in all relatives , there are the two termini , the things or persons related , and the fundamentum relationis : that which maketh them so to be related one to another ; which must be something so particular to them , that it is not common to them with all other persons or things . and this is that we here enquire after . that which maketh our relation to the vniversal church is baptism , and our visible owning of our baptismal covenant . that which foundeth ones relation to a particular church , is the obligation that he hath to join with that church ; and the right he hath to be reeeived into its fellowsh●p , or admitted to the ordinances in it . this right and obligation is either remote , or proximate : a remote right and obligation to communicate with every particular church as occasion serveth , every visible believer hath ; this is a part of the communion of saints , that they should join with one another , and receive one another as providence giveth opportunity ; and thus every visible believer is aptitudinally , a member of all the churches of christ. but the proximate right that one hath , and the proximate obligation that he is under hic & nunc to join with , and be admitted to the ordinances in a particular church , is that which doth actually make him a member of it . and the foundation of this is not the rite of admission , whether it be the dr's crossing , or the independents declaring their assent to the church-covenant , or whatever other outward expression men do pitch on for that end ; for these are but the external declarative signs , not the effecting cause of such right or obligation : and therefore these are but the tokens , not the foundation of actual membership . but the true foundation of the obligation mentioned , is ones being so circumstantiated , that he may conveniently wait on the ordinances here rather than elsewhere ; which is determined by his place of residence ( not that i think the division of parishes a divine , but a civil constitution ; yet it hath its use for shunning confusion . ) and the true foundation of his right to be admitted , is his being a visible believer . sect. . this obligation to join with a particular church , may be suspended by that church's refusing the ordinances to the man , unless he will submit to their unlawful impositions ; and his right may also be superseded , and the church not obliged to admit him to ordinances , by his contradicting his profession by heresie or scandal . wherefore as every one that liveth within the precinct of a parish , is not to be owned as a member of that church as papists , willful deserters of the church , atheists , &c. so every one that liveth in a parish , is not to act as a member of that church in all things : as they who cannot with a good conscience submit to these terms of communion , which that church doth sinfully require : to clear this a little further , consider ; that to make actually and compleatly a member of a particular church ; beside his residence , there is required a mutual consent of the church and person ; and that either explicite , or implicite : the implicite consent of the church lies in ordinary giving the ordinances to such a person , word , sacraments , discipline : the implicite consent of the person lyeth , in ordinary using of , or submission to these . now where the church is willing , and the person is not , and his unwillingness is from no allowable cause , the person may be charged with sinful separation , where the person is willing , but the church is not . and this unwillingness may be expressed either by absolute refusal , or by refusal , unless the person will submit to sinful conditions , the person is no separatist ; but the church doth sinfully cause a separation . in this last case ( which is our case ) the person is a member affectu , but not effectu . this is ( to apply this whole discourse to the case in hand ) we are members of the church of england affectu , i. e. being by providence fixed in england , where christ's truth is professed , and his ordinances administred ; we are willing to join with his people in the ordinary assemblies of that church in the waiting upon all his ordinances ; yet we are not members of that church effectu ; because the church will not suffer us to answer that obligation that we are under , to join in the ordinances , without submitting to sinful terms : and therefore because we cannot please god by living without his ordinan●es , we meet privately in little occasional assemblies , for the present distress , where we have christ's ordinances purely administred ; and there we are effectu members , where we thus ordinarily meet . and for all this we are still members of the church of england affectu ; for we declare a readi●ess whenever these unlawful barrs from communion with her shall be removed , that we dissolve these separate private assemblies , and join in christ's pure ordinances in the parishes where our lot shall be cast . if after all this , the dr. or his party , will charge us , as he doth , with obscurity and tergiversation in declaring our principles ; and prevarication in manageing of them we must bear that injustice . sect. . he dealeth , p. , , . with some of his adversaries about their opinion , how far they reckon communion with the church of england lawful . i have ●o fully set down my opinion in this ( and i hope presbyterians will generally say the same things , tho' many of them may word them better ) that i think it not needful to interpose in that debate ; especially some positions of nonconformists whom he citeth , i will not defend . he taketh up part of p. , , . in proving that occasional communion with the church of england doth not make them who ordinarily join in other assemblies , to be members of the church , nor excuse them from separation . i have nothing to say either against his assertion or proofs : for it is not occasional communion alone , but that with a readiness for constant communion with her , when her unlawful bars from it shall be removed , that both doth answer that obligation that is on us to join with her , and so maketh us members so far as we can ; and doth also excuse us from a culpable separation . sect. . some of his answerers had yielded to occasional communion with the church of england , and that notwithstanding of some defective modes of worship , because holding communion with one church exclusively of others is contrary to catholick principles . this he highly derideth , and laboriously refuseth , p. , , , . what is argumentative i shall touch . it is not their ( saith he ) obligation to peace and vnity with the church , as members of it , that moveth , but a certain romantick fancy of catholick vnity . ans. that respect to peace and unity inclineth us to constant communion with the church ; but unlawful impositions hinder the effect of these inclinations : and therefore by the fault of the imposers , we have no other way to shew our owning the church ▪ as a true church , but this occasional communion : let him call it a romantick fancy , or what he will ; we separate from no true church , and much less fr●m that where we live , but so far as we needs must to shun sinning against god. again , he argueth from a supposition , that if we were at jerusalem , where there is occasion of communion with all sorts of the eastern churches ; and one should ask us what church we were members of . if we should answer , we are fixed members of no church , but can have communion occasionally with all tolerable churches . would they take such a man for a christian ? ans. we are under no obligation to make such an answer , as he feigneth for us , for his own advantage . i should in that case join my self to the purest church that i could there meet with ( being at liberty to choose , and not prelimitted by my habitation ) if i could do it without sinful terms of communion : and then should answer to the question , i am here free to join with you , or any tolerable church , but do actually join with you as the purest , during my abode here . when i am at home i would join with the publick assembly , in the true protestant church of england ; but that her rulers impose unlawful terms of communion , which forceth me and others to join together in worshipping god apart , and in that assembly i am a member , till i can find a sinless access to the publick assembly ; where i desire to be a member . i suppose the eastern christians , such as are sober and serious of them , and are duly informed of the state of our debates , would not think me no christian for this answer , nor deny me occasional communion for it . i am sure if they did , they should not then walk by the rules of the gospel . sect. . another argumentative consideration is , p. . we were baptized in the church of england , and received as members of it : if then we communicate with it only occasionally , we renounce our membership . ans. whereever one be baptized , that baptism maketh him only a member of the catholick church . if an inhabitant of england be occasionally in france , and have his child there baptized in the english way , or in the french way , doth that make it a member of the church of france , tho' the child in infancy be brought to england , and there have education , and continue ? the dr. had not , it seems , when his book had come this length , hatched his fine notion of the sign of the cross being the rite of admission , as a member of the church of england . ans. . we are obliged to fixed and constant communion , though not by our being baptized in this church , yet by our residence in it , and owning the same ●aith with it , and are willing to own that membership and obligation : but the church's sinful impositions do take off this obligation ; for we cannot by any means or case be obliged to sin ▪ and therefore we do not renounce our membership ; but the church hindereth our answering that obligation that our membership layeth on us . the dr. despiseth this our yielding to occasional communion , and it is no wonder , for his party ( forasmuch as they talk against us for withdrawing ) desire none of our communion , as appeareth in excluding us , by imposing such terms as they themselves count needless , and we judge unlawful . but whatever he think of it , it is all that we can do : we would bid more frankly in bargaining about our own matters , but in god's matters dare not go one ace beyond his warrant . sect. . the next thing he bringeth against this occasional communion , p. , . is pure trifling , unworthy of so learned an author ; that this occasional communion cannot be lawful above once or twice in a man's life : that there will arise a difficult case of conscience , concerning the lawfulness of not constant cleaving to the purer occasions , and leaving purer administrations to join with a defective church . for a man may occasionally have communion in publick , when he cannot have it in private , and that often : and these occasions we may embrace in a true church , which we would not do in a false church , but rather be without the ordinances for that time . again , we do not speak of occasional communion with the church , in any of her corruptions ; we should alwaies abstain from and reprove those , as he speaketh . these things being considered , the difficult case of conscience , that he fansies , hath an easie resolution , that when we can enjoy god's ordinances in the society to which we are joined , to shun the sinful impositions that are in publick , we should wait on them there , rather than elsewhere ; but when that occasion is not offered , we may join with a church in some things corrupted , in such ordinances that are not corrupted in it . sect. . his next argument is , that here are no bounds to the peoples fancies of purer administrations , and less defective ways of worship , so that there can be no stop to separation in this way . this argument the dr. prosecuteth with facetious scoffs , more than with solid reasons , which he ( but undeservedly ) most severely had taxed mr. a. for ; he telleth us of deserting our meetings when the first relish is over ; and going to anabaptists , and thence to the quakers ; and that they are bound to forsake us on the same reasons that we left the church , unless they be secure , that the perfection of our way is so glaringly visible to all mankind , that it is impossible for them either to find or fansy any defect in it . no●hing here that hath a shadow of argument , but it is already objected and answered ; but the dr. falleth into frequent repetitions . i answer ; it is not only for purer administrations , that we withdraw , but to shun sinful impositions , which , i am sure , neither anabaptists nor quakers can justly alledge . neither is it the glaring visibility , but the real scripture-warrant for our way , that condemneth them for departing from us : nor will fansied defects in our way excuse them , but real sinful terms in our communion . but that some will without cause separate from us , is no reason why we should not on just cause withdraw from you . such a way of reasoning , from the ill use that some will make of our doing our duty , is too vulgar to come from so learned a pen. the dr. when he wrote this , had forgotten , it seems , what he had said iren. p. . where he saith , a christian is bound to adhere to that church which appeareth most to retain the evangelical purity . which assertion i no further improve than ad hominem , counting it the opposite extreme to what he here pleadeth for : it is incident even to wise men , dum vitant vitia ; that , in contraria currunt , it is downright for us , and against himself . what he hath iren. p. . a christian is bound to break off from that society that injoineth some corruptions , as to practice . what he citeth out of mr. baxter , is a good and sound reproof to them that causelesly divide the church , if he intended it against any others , let him answer it . the sad effects of r. william's separation in new-england , do not concern us further , than to lament them , unless the dr. can prove , that we have no better reason for what we do than he had . sect. . his refutation of mr. b's answer to this objection , that he had made , i insist not on , save that i observe his usual way here also , his representing his adversaries , as if they held , that peoples apprehension of a less defective way of worship , is sufficient ground for them to break the church in pieces . we think , the less defective that worship be , it is the better ; but it may be the dr. as well as mr. b. writeth sometimes in haste : neither do we think defectiveness but real sinfulness , and that imposed on us as the terms of our communion , a sufficient ground of separation : far less do we think , that the peoples apprehension of defectiveness in worship is a sufficient ground , unless that apprehension be founded on scripture , or found reason : and least of all do we think that such apprehension can warrant us to break the church in pieces . the best grounded scruples can only warrant our peaceable withdrawing and worshipping god apart , which may consist with the church's being whole and sound . he doth exceedingly wrong mr. b. and others , in that he imputeth to them an opinion , that better means of edification is , by it self , a sufficient ground of separating from a church . if any have ever asserted that , let them bear their blame . it may be some might mention this as a cumulative inducement to join with other societies ; but none of us ever held , that this alone could warrant a separation . and yet the dr. is at a great deal of pains to prove , that neither the old separatists , nor the new-england-men ever held such an opinion , which he might have got us to yield to him without his spending five pages in the proof of it ; but some men labour most in that which is least necessary . i know not what name to give to the dr's assertion , p. . that this ( greater means of edification ) is now the main support of the present separation . nothing can be spoken with less semblance of truth . sect . ii. of the ministry of the church of england . from sect. . and forward , the dr. debateth against separation that is grounded on the church's want of true or rightly qualified ministers . here i shall have but little debate with him ; i shall , to cut off debates , as much as may be , lay down mine own thoughts ( which , i think , are not different from those of most sober non-conformists , especially presbyterians ) in a few particulars . . we look on some of the conforming ministers as persons of great worth , and excellent ministerial qualifications , and could live with great satisfaction under their ministry , if it were permitted to us , without our sin. . others of them we know to be very bad men , and ill qualified for the work that they undertake ; they are strangers in england , who have not seen this . . we are dissatisfied with some things in the calling and practice of all the present clergy ; we think the very office of some of them unlawful , as bishops , deans , a●ch-deacons , &c. and their ordination by a bishop alone not warrantable ; their call by patrons , we judge such also ; and their using the liturgy and ceremonies we look on as sinful . these things i now only assert , and shall debate them with the dr. as they fall in . . yet we deny not any of them , on any or all of these accounts , to be true ministers , nor to have the substance of a lawful calling : let this be understood of bishops and de●ns , &c. as ministers , not as in these superiour offices . . tho' we think a better and more edifying ministry than that which most of the people of e●gland live under , very desirable , yet we do not think , that any defect that is in their ministerial call , or in the truth of their ministry is a sufficient ground for separating from the church . sect. . these things being premised , i am resolved not to take the defence of all that some have written of the defects of the ministry , as a ground of separation , tho' i find many things cited by the dr. that at first view may seem to have that tendency , ( a●d he improveth them with all the advantage that he can ) and yet were not so meant . in the very entrance of this discourse , i meet with a most unjust imputation laid on us by the dr. in general ( saith he ) they declare , that they only look on those as true churches , which have such pastors as they approve ; and for this , citeth not o●e author , but mr. baxter . is this fair dealing ? did ever the non-conformists make mr. baxter their general representative ? or , hath he so much as pretended to write in the name of them all ? were it candid in us , if we should pick out some passages out of dr. sherlock's book of the knowledge of christ , and impute those opinions to the conformists , as their doctrine in general ? beside , mr. baxter , nor no non-conformist never made their approbation the rule , by which ministers are to be judged , the having of whom maketh a true church : but the dr. looketh on us as a company of silly rediculous men , and is pleased often so to expose us . mr. baxter's notion about true pastors , and true churches , i know he himself can best defend : and therefore i leave him and the dr. to debate that case . sect. . he saith , sect. . if the people judge their ministers to be unworthy , or incompetent ; they allow th●m liberty to withdraw , and to separate from them ; and promiseth to prove it from many passages , in several books of mr. baxter's and others still he representeth us as making the peoples judgment the rule ; and that this judgment is sufficient ground of separation , not considering whether their judgment be right or wrong ; or that there is a superior rule , by which all judgment , whether of people or others , is to be governed . all this we disown ; neither can the dr. prove that any of us ever owned it yea , we further deny , that we own a power in the people to withdraw and separate from every pastor , who is really unworthy and incompetent . but what he asserteth , he endeavoureth to prove by three arguments . . saith he , p. . they leave it to the peoples power , notwithstanding all legal establishments , to own , or disown whom they judge fit . this we deny . and the proof he bringeth of it , is , mr. b. speaketh against the right of patronage , and the power of magistrates in these cases , for the unalterable right of the people . mr. a. saith every particular church hath power to chuse its own pastors . dr. owen maketh the depriving the people of this right , a ground of separation . if dr. owen hath done so , let it pass for a part of the independent judgment , which was the mistake of that eminent servant of god ; others are not of that mind . for mr. b. and mr. a's words no such consequence can be drawn from them . the people ( and neither patron nor any other ) by the laws of the gospel , have the right of election of their pastors ; but it doth not follow , that they ought not to bear with being hindred the exercise of this right , for the sake of peace and unity . sect. . the d . argument is , the people are made judges of the worthyness and competency of their ministers . this , saith he , followeth from the former . ans. i have disowned the former ; and therefore this falleth with it . yet i here distinguish : the the people have a discretive power of judging the fitness of the man that is to be set over them with respect to their souls ; so as he ought not to be obtruded on them , without their being satisfied with him . but the peoples power of judging is not authoritative , nor supreme , much less absolute , in this matter ; but subordinate to the pastors of the church , who have power of trying the person elected by the people , and rejecting him if unqualified : for the spirit of the prophets is subject to the prophets ; not to the people . as for pastors not now to be elected , but obtruded on the people , and s●tled among them , tho' in an undue way , i shall not say , that it is the peoples part to separate meerly for the insufficiency of the minister , if the ordinances be administred , so as they can partake of them without sin. that which can warrant withdrawing , must be a depravation of the ordinances ; and that such as importeth my personal action , in partaking of that depravation of the ordinance , and not every defect or fault , either of the minister or the ordinance . what mr. b. saith of peoples duty to get the best supply they can , which the dr. taxeth him for , is not meant of d●ferting , or separating from a parish , meerly on accompt of the defective quali●●cations of the minister ; but either , of occasional communion with a better supplied society ; which if the dr. do altogether condemn , he should preach against the throngs that resort to him , and leave others under whose particular charge they are . or , when withdrawing is founded on other good grounds , that people should chuse better qualified pastors , than those they leave : what he saith , himself must explain and defend . what mr. b. further saith , of the warrantable preaching of silenced ministers ; and of the magistrates imposing pastors , obliging people to adhere to and own these ; and forsake their own pastors , settled among them in the way of the gospel , come afterward to be debated ; and hath in part been spoken to above . sect. . argument d. they give directions to the people , what sort of ministers they should own , and what not . and doth not the scripture so too ? we affirm people to have a judgment of discretion , both of their pastors to be elected ; and also of the doctrine and administrations of their pastors already in possession of the cha●ge of their souls : and yet that they are not to separate from the latter for any defect , save that which doth so vitiate the ordinances , as that it is their sin to join in them . and if the dr. will not allow them this judgment ( as he seemeth to deny it , by his sarcasm , of which , saith he , ( to wit , utter insufficiency , and heresie ) the people are admirable judges ) he must introduce implicite faith and obedience : and by this doctrine , it had been a sin in the people even to have left rome it self ; for were not they admirable judges of the heresie and idolatry of that church ? he that chargeth other mens way so fiercely , with a tendency to popery , should take heed of giving ground for such a reflection to be made on himself . our lord doth not speak with such contempt of the people , as this learned dr. doth . he saith , my sheep hear my voice ; and they know not the voice of strangers , joh. . . and . to deny this spirit of discerning to the people of god , is to make them sheep in a literal sense ; that men may rule over them as beasts . i see not such inconsistency in mr. b's words , as the dr. would make us believe ; while he speaketh , p. . of withdrawing from the utterly insufficient and heretical ; and p. . that people are not warranted to withdraw for a ministers personal faults , nor for his ministerial faults , while his ministration is not utterly untolerable ; if the dr. can shew either the falshood , or inconsistency of these assertions , we shall own it . he also wrongeth mr. b. and the non-conformists , while p. . he telleth us of mr. b's outcries against the people , as heady , rash , c●nsorious , proud , ignorant , such as are ready to scorn and vill fy the gravest and wisest preachers : and hence he ( the dr. ) inferreth , that such are unfit to discern the qualifications of ministers . i ask the dr. if ever mr. b. said that the people were all , or generally such : we deny not there are too many that de●erve severe reproofs for such things ( and mr. b. hath not been too sparing in his censures of them ) but is there any shadow of reason for in●erring thence , that all the people should be deprived of the right , that christ by his testament hath bequeathed to them ? it were as reasonable to say , that because many men misguide , or debauch away their estates ; therefore no man should ha●e the power of managing his estate . christ hath provided discipline and authority in his house to curb the extrav●gancy of such persons , and to restrain the power of election , when it is mis-managed , as is above-said : and he needed not the dr's , and t●e ●●elates device to prevent this mischief , by putting the power of election into the hands of a patron ; who ( may be ) a papist , atheist , or enemy to godliness , and so less fit to chuse one to take the charge of mens souls , than any of the persons described . sect. . and if mr. b. say , that the heady persons mentioned , are comm●nly the most violent , and will judge in spite of the rest : yet the remedy that i have mentioned , is for restraining of them , and is like to do it bet●e● than what the dr. is for , can do . neither doth mr. b. nor any of us , allow these heady persons to be the decisive judges either of who of his side , or who of our side are true and sufficient ministers : which the dr. might have known , and so spa●ed much of his discourse ; which i shall not transcribe . that which mr. b. telleth of many young , rare , injudicious preachers in england , was never look'd on as sufficient ground of separation by it s●lf ; as the dr. insinuateth . but it is a sad grievance , and these men withal imposing sinful terms of communion on the people ( for who greater zealots for liturgy and ceremonies than they ) and there being many faithful and qualified ministers laid aside from their publick work ; is it any wonder that people leave the one , and cleave to the other ? the ground that i have already laid down , will justifie our withdrawing from the ministers even in london , however grave and learned they be , and however capacious their churches be : for even their sinful terms of communion are imposed . sect. . he alledgeth , sect. . that by this means separation cann●t be kept out of any church whatsoever . this is true if the dr. have liberty to make our opinion to be what he pleaseth to have it , that he may the better refute it . but if our opinion be rightly understood , and if we be heard speak for our selves ; it is most false . i hope there are churches where the ministers generally are sound in doctrine , and mix nothing with god's ordinances as terms of ●ommunion with them , that is unlawful : in a word , there are church●s where , tho' ministers be not faultless , yet the ordinances are pure ; or if there be any thing amiss in the ordinances , people are not required to own it pe●sonally : from such we will not withdraw . he bringeth four qualities that mr. b. required in ministers ; the want of which may warrant to withdraw from them : tolerable knowledge : that they be not heretical : that they be not opposers of serious godliness : that they be not so vicious in their lives as to do more hurt than good . if these qualities were to be considered by a people about to elect a minister , it is not difficult to determine what obligation lieth on people to shun the man that wanteth them : but it is another case , when the qualities of a minister under whom we are , come to be considered in order to warrant casting off his ministery . a general determination of this i have already given ; to wit , that no other qualities of the minister doth warrant withdrawing , but such as so vitiate the ordinances , as my personal concurrence with them is sin. sect. . but to consider these four ministerial qualities in reference to this case : two things i shall say of them in general . . it is either supposed , that all the ministers of a nation are so ill qualified ; or that some one , or a few , or most of them : in the first case there is more need of separate meetings : in the last some less need ; in the third yet less ; and in the fourth least of all ; because peoples wants are more easily supplied by neighbour ministers in the one case , than in the other : tho the need to the soul under that one bad minister to shun him , is as great as that of others to shun many . . these bad ministerial qualities may no doubt arrive at that height , and have those aggravations and circumstances , that they may warrant withdrawing from such ministers ; and when people cannot otherwise have god's ordinances , may warrant separate meetings . the reason of this , a priori , is , b●cause they may so pervert the ordinances of god , as to make them unlawful to be used : this may without difficulty be supposed to be possible : ignorance may be such as neither word nor sacraments are so much as right for the substance . it is so clear in heresie , that none can doubt it , as in papists , socinians , &c. opposing serious religion may be the all of some mens preaching . and even personal wickedness of ministers ( which seemeth to be more remote from this hazard than the rest ) may affect the ordinances , as is exemplified in eli's son , the priest of the lord ; their intemperance and covetousness made non-conformists in israel , that were not chargeable for their withdrawing : for their taking the flesh by violence from the people , before the fat was burnt , was contrary to the institution of that ordinance ; in which first the blood was to be sprinkled , then after the slaying and opening , the fat was to be burnt : and after that the priest was to have his part ; as may be seen , levit. . , , , , . and before the burning of the fat to the lord , the flesh was not holy , and so not the priests portion , saith j. martyr , in locum . this was so observed among the very heathens ( who imitated in many things the jewish sacrafices ; that haud immolata sacra devorare , was proverbial , to express a belly-god ; such as eli's sons were . this was their sin , whereby they did pervert divine ordinances from the institution , sam. . , , ; and it is said ver . . that men abhorred the offerring of the lord. some translate it , retrah●bant homines a sacrificiis domini , they shunned offerring sacrifices ( saith vatablus ) beholding the avarice of the priests , and when they saw that the wonted rites of sacrificing were not observed , saith menochius : and it yet further appeareth from ver . . that this their fact did affect the ordinances , and made people withdraw from them ; you make the people of the lord transgress , saith eli. there is no reason to restrict this to their uncleanness mentioned , ver . . for eli heard beside that , of all that they did to israel ; and no doubt his reproof had respect to all . some translate ver . . abigitis populum domini , i. e. efficitis ne huc veniat populus ad sacrificandum . so vatablus . all this considered , we must not think it absurd , to say that people may see such things in their ministers , as may warrant deserting of them . sect. . if this should be denied , the clergy should be lords over god's heritage , to all ends and purposes , and might teach what they would , and do what they would , and bring into the church what they would , instead of christ's ordinances ; and the people be still oblig'd to hear them , and join with them in all these abominations ; they might lead the people in the way to hell , who were still obliged to follow them . . the people have a right of discerning and judging , in reference to their own practice , whether their ministers be so qualified , as that they may safely live under their ministry : this doth neither import , that they may determine in this what they will ; nor that they are not to blame , if they judge amiss ; nor that they have authority to pass a sentence on their ministers ( that belongeth to the pastors ) ; nor that all of them are so qualified for this judging , as were to be wished ; yet , that they have such a right , cannot be denied , without obliging them to blind obedience , and regardlesness of their own souls ; and scripture alloweth it , when it alloweth people to admonish ministe●s in reference to their work , col. . . this command the colossians could not obey , if they had no power of discretive judging , whether archippus fulfilled his ministry , or not . without this , people were obliged to cast themselves into temptation and hazard of soul-ruine by a deceiver or soul-murderer . this was both the principle of the primitive church , cyprian , ep. . plebs obsequens praeceptis domini a peccatore praeposito separare se debet . and it was their common practice , ( tho' i confes● sometimes on no sufficient grounds ) they separated every where from the arian bishops and pastors . the magdeburgenses , cent. . , . p. . tell us out of ruffinus , theodoret , sozomen , that when foelix b. of rome had communicated with the arians , the people of rome separated themselves from him ; and that when he taught , none of them came to church : also , ibid. p. . that moses refused to be ordained by lucius b. of alexandria , because he was an arian , and a persecutor , but went to the exiled orthodox bishops to receive ordination . i may here put the dr. in mind ( using it only as argumentum ad hominem ) that an eminent light of their own church , bishop jewel , giving reasons why the english bishops went not to the council of trent ( a formal separation ) was , because of pope pius's simony in getting the chair , and manageing it with murders and cruelty . full. ch. hist. lib. . p. . sect. . . breaking the peace and unity of the church , is a matter of so much weight and consequence : and the sin of it ( on whatever side it lieth ) of so deep a die , and so great aggravation ; that the greatest caution is to be used , that we do not separate for imagined , but real ; for small , but very great ; for uncertain , but very evident want ; not of every ministerial quality that is ●●sirable , but of such as is necessary for the ordinances being so administred , as we may partake of them without sin. if people do mistake in any of these , and run into separation without sufficient grounds , thinking that fault of a minister true , or great , or evident , or intolerable , which is not so ; we do not plead for this practice : but we must not , to shun that inconvenience , say , that it is in no case lawful . i know no truth but it may be abused by men of corrupt minds , as well as this . i know there are faults in ministers , which render them in the secret judgment of god , and to the jealousie of good men , no ministers of christ , but of satan ; which yet will not warrant separation from them , while they have ordination unrepealed by a church sentence of deprivation , and administer god's ordinances , so as the partaker of them is not involved in sin. gildas said of some pastors in his time ; apparet cum quem vos sacerdotes — sciens ex corde dicit , non esse eximium christianum : and o inimici dei , & non sacerdotes : o li●●atores malorum , & non pontifices traditores , & non sanctorum apostolorum successores ; impugnatores & non christi ministri . when we can apply all this to a minister , the church ought to cast him out , as unsavoury salt : but till that be done , private persons ought to withdraw from his evil deeds ; but not from the ordinances while they are pure . i know this hath been , and is , a controversie in our neighbour church of scotland , and hath given rise to much disquiet , much confusion , and many persecutions there : i shall not much dip in it ; our case being more clearly stated : and our withdrawing from the publick assemblies , being founded not on personal faults of ministers , but on sinful impositions in worship . i have not met with one judicious writer of that nation ; nor one minister that i remember of in private discourse , who denieth , in thesi , that it is lawful to partake of the ordinances from a minister , meerly on accompt of his personal faults , where the ordinances that we are to partake of are incorrupted ; but they state the controversie upon some specialities in their case . one or two little manuscr●pts i have seen , that in thesi and with as much confidence , as little reason , deny the lawfulness of hearing a scandalous minister . to these , i only oppose this one argument ; our lord commanded the jews to receive the ordinances from the priests of that time , who were most of them very bad men , matth. . . luk. . . and what christ bid them do , we may lawfully do in the like case . the exceptions made against this argument ( that i have met with ) are very light , as that the priests were not so bad as ours . . this is said without all colour of reason . . let them shew what degree of scandal in a minister will warrant such withdrawing , and what not . again , they object , that the ordinances could not be had , but from these priests . ans. if it had been unlawful to partake with them , christ would rather have had no sacrifice offered , than that people should sin in going about it . he that preferreth mercy to sacrifice , would never preferr sacrifice to shunning of sin. and , beside this , if the hazard of want of ordinances could inferr the necessity of joining with these priests , so may the hazard of a sinful rending of the church , perswade to join in the case in hand . and further , where the ordinances can , without any sinful circumstance , be had from better hands , i am far from advising any to attend the administrations of bad men : but in that nation they had better grounds of their practice , to wit , subjection to prelacy , required of them ; and that their faithful pastors were turned out , and others put in their place . but i leave this debate , as not being my present work. sect. . i now come to say a word of each of mr. baxter's four ministerial qualities ; in particular , . knowledge and vtterance : the ordainers are the authoritative judges of these ; and the people are not without very great and manifest cause to question what is in this done , by the guides of the church ; yet must they see with their own eyes , and lament the defects of this kind , that they evidently see , but not separate , while the ordinances are not intolerably depraved , tho' there be considerable defects . the dr. never heard , that the apostle bid people turn away from their minister for want of vtterance ; neither was such a command needful , nature and reason injoining , that if a man cannot speak audibly and intelligible , people should not come to hear a noise , so that they cannot tell what is uttered . his declamation against peoples judging of a minister's knowledge , is out of the way ; we do not make them triers , as he supposeth , neither give them authority ; and we think , ( for all his scorn ) that tho' many ●annot well discern a minister's knowledge in controverise , yet most can tell whether he understandeth the plain truths of the gospel , when they hear him discourse of them . if men , by prejudices , or want of due application of their minds , ( as the dr. speaketh ) mistake about these , i shall hardly call them very good men ; as he supposeth they may be . the second quality is , that a minister be not heretical . except taunts and personal reflections on mr. b. i see not what the dr. answereth to this . we do not say , that peoples thinking a man heretical , when he crosseth their humours , is a good ground to separate on , as the dr. would have it thought ; neither is it needful for discerning this , that all the people be learned divines , or have read epiphanius and binnius , as he talketh ; but we think , they that diligently read the scripture , and pray for spiritual understanding , may discern when manifest errour against the foundation of christian doctrine is taught ; and where they find this to be the way of a minister , may withdraw from him . i wish the dr. would speak more plain , that we might see his mind more clearly than we can do by these jeers : doth he think there are none learned among the people ? or , doth he think that none of them that want literature can discern truth from errour , in any case ? or , doth he think , dangerous errour being discerned to be ordinarily preached , people should attend on that preaching , instead of the wholsome food of their souls , and not seek better means , unless the bishops will give leave ? if he be not positive in all these , he saith nothing against mr. b. nor us , in this matter . sect. . the third quality is , that ministers be not opposers of godliness . that is not to be understood of what people will call so without cause ; nor of suspected malignity ; nor of open opposing of it in the mans private actings , by word or deed ; nor of close hints in sermons against it ; nor breaking out sometimes into more open maligning of it : but when this is manifestly the ordinary strain of his preaching ; we say , in that case people may withdraw from a man ; for here the ordinance of preaching is wholly inverted and turned against that which it was appointed to promote . there is as good ground in this case to desert a minister , as there is in a besieged garrison , for the souldiers to desert their commander , when he turneth the guns that are on the walls , from the enemy , upon the town . the dr. rejecteth this , as before , by tart reflection on mr. b. which whatever it may be , ad hominem , is nothing ad rem . if mr b. hath sharply reproved some for censoriousness , pride , divisions , &c. and these will count this opposing of godliness , doth this peevish mistake of theirs prove , that there can be no such thing really committed by a minister ; or if it be , that it should not be resented by the hearers ? or , if mr. b. sometimes speak at this rate , is this his ordinary doctrine ? or , when men make railing their ordinary doctrine , should people sit and hear that , as god's ordinance for their souls edification ? the fourth quality ; that ministers be not of a scandalous life . of this the dr. saith nothing , and i shall say little more than is already said . we do not hold , that personal faults in a minister , where the ordinances are incorrupted , is a sufficient ground of separation from him . but it cannot but be a sad grievance , and make people wait on the ministry of such a person with less comfort and satisfaction , and may warrant people that regard the advantage of their souls , to lay hold on the first opportunity that they can get , to live under a ministry that is more like to be blessed . sect. . he chargeth the non-conformists ( without exception ) sect. . with insinuating , that the whole body of the conforming clergy is guilty of such faults as the people may lawfully separate : a most false assertion , and unjust charge . not one non-conformist that ever i read or met with , hath said or written this , or words to this effect , but they do generally disclaim it : but the dr. undertaketh to prove it by some particulars . . they make conformity it self to be a very scandalous thing , and then tell the people over and over again , that it is no sin to separate from scandalous priests , especially where the scandal is so notorious . i am astonished to read this , from the pen of one whom i am loath to have an harsh thought against . we do indeed think conformity a sin , and being open , it cannot but be a scandal ; and we think , that in some it arising from a regardlesness of knowing what is right , becometh yet more scandalous ; but none of us ever thought , that a mistake of this nature in men , otherwise sober and conscientious , was a very scandalous thing ; or , that it was such a scandal , as by it self could warrant separation . but let the dr. tell us of any one of our way , that ever held this general thesis , that it is no sin to separate from scandalous priests , when the scandal is notorious . i am sure mr. b. ( whom he only citeth on this occasion ) teacheth the contrary oftner than once , particularly christ. direct . p. . and his looking on conformity as sin , and an aggravated sin , and the pressing of it as that sin which they charge us with , to wit , schismaticalness , do no way prove what the dr. asserteth . when mr. b. saith , p. . can you wonder if the people chuse more faithful pastors ? it doth not make the clergy's conformity the true reason ( nor the main reason neither ) of separation ; yea , nor doth it import an approbation of separation , ( tho' he doth elsewhere shew his approbation of it ) but only sheweth how you tempt the people to it . sect. . another argument to prove his charge , is sect. . that we count most of the present ministers of the church of england vsurpers , and that from such we may lawfully separate . ans. we deny both parts of his assertion , whatever usurpation some of them may be guilty of . we know most of them have the ( tacite at least ) consent of the people , a post facto ; and therefore , however they might be guilty of intrusion in their entry , in their continuing in their places they are no usurpers . neither do we own it to be lawful to separate from every minister that is an usurper , meerly on the account of his usurpation . to clear this , i shall lay down our opinion about this , in these few assertions . . the regular way of entring into the ministry , is by the election or call of the people over whom he is to have charge , and the potestative mission or ordination of the pastors of the church : this will fall in afterward to be debated . . it is consequential to this , that whoever do not enter this way into the ministry , are in some degree or other intruders into that work. . though the express call of the people , and their free consent , be needful to the more orderly entrance of a minister among them ; yet if they implicitely shew their consent , and they being prelimitted by the presentation of a patron , or commands of the magistrate , if they consent , that is enough to the substance of a call , and maketh the minister that so entereth no usurper . the reason is , because he is only to consider the will and consent sufficiently declared , not the motives nor considerations that influence their will. indeed , if the man had any hand by undue means , to influence them to consent against their duty and right reason , he is , in so far , guilty before god : but this doth not nullifie his call , which consisteth in the peoples consent . . there are three sorts of usurpers of the ministerial office or work. . such as fall upon that work , without a call from a people , or ordination by ministers . . such as do it upon a peoples call , but have no ordination or potestative mission by those in authority , the church for that end . . such as have ordination , but take the charge of a particular flock , wholly without consent , or against their will. the two former sorts usurp the office ; the third usurpeth that particular charge that he hath no right to . . the presentation of a patron to the living ; the civil laws of men , injoining or owning a mans entrance into a place ; due ordination , institution , and induction , and what else men please to devise , can never make him the pastor of such a particular people , without their consent some way had ; but without it he is still an usurper . this doth follow , from the peoples right of chusing their pastors , which is to be afterward discoursed . . it is lawful to separate from usurping ministers of the first and second sort , because they are no ministers ; they have only the name of ministers , like those that called themselves apostles , and were not , rev. . . i hope the dr. will not deny this . . when a minister is obtruded on a people against their will ; and so is an usurper of the d. sort ; if there be no other cause of separating from him but that , i think ( under correction of the more wise and learned ) that they should rather cede of their right ( with a salvo ) than break the peace and unity of the church , or disoblige the magistrate ; and therefore they ought to give their consent . by this means , their right that christ hath given them is not alienated ; it being by them on that occasion asserted ; and the rending of the church is prevented . sect. . let us now hear what the dr. will say , to make good against us his charge of our separating on this head. he saith , they have a legal establishment , and law and vsurpation are contraries . ans. establishment by a civil law , and usurpation of a civil office are contrary . also establishment by the gospel , and usurpation of a church-office are inconsistent ; but establishment by a civil law , and usurpation of an office in the church , are very consistent one with another : because the office of the ministry is no institution of man , but of christ ; and he giveth laws to regulate that , and other affairs in his house ; and hath not left these to be ordered by the laws of men . i thought the dr. had been for episcopal government in the church , not for erastianism . mr. b. is cited , p. . asserting , that all that come into the places of ejected ministers , the people not consenting , are vsurpers ; that the magistrate's imposition maketh not such true pastors of that church , without or before the peoples consent ; nor will it always oblige the people to consent , and forsake their former pastors ; nor prove them schismatical , because they do it not : for disproving of this , the dr. first leaveth it to others , to judge of the dangerous consequences of this ; an act being passed by king and parliament for removing of some pastors , and putting in others . and i desire that these others , who judge of this matter , may consider , that the ordering of the ministerial call , and the fixing a religion between pastor and people , do fall directly under the cognizance , and laws of him who is the head and lawgiver in his church , even jesus christ , and under the laws of men only , as the civil peace may be concerned therein ; and let them also consider , that we by owning or disowning a pastoral relation , which the magistrate hath passed an act for or against , do manage our principle , and order our practice with that peaceableness and caution , that the magistrate may as little as possible either know it , or be offended at it ; and if we be convicted of a transgression of the magistrate's law , we patiently suffer the penalties : let them , i say , consider these things ; and withal consider , that to differ from the magistrate in principle and practice of religion , was the lot of the primitive christians ; and then let them judge ( if they be impartial men ) whether any such dismal consequences as the dr. insinuateth , are like to follow . sect. . he objecteth next , on those grounds when solomon deprived abiathar , and put zadock is his room ; any part of the people might have pleaded they never consented to zadock's coming in — the question is , whether it belonged to the king or the people . ans. there is so little shadow of reason , or affinity to the question in hand in this argument , that it is no small derogation from the understanding of so learned a man , once to mention it ; for the chusing of a high-priest belonged neither to king nor people ; but the succession was fixed in one family by the lord ; and it was neither in the power of the king nor people to chuse any , but the nearest heir of that lin● . wherefore what solomon did in this case , was no more but to inflict a civil punishment on abiathar , to wit , exile from jerusalem ( where only the office of high-priest could be exercised ) and confinement to anathoth : and this was done for his accession to treason against solomon : and solomon's putting zadock in his place , was no more but obeying the commandment of god , who had promised the priest-hood to phinehas ; whose nearest heir zadock was : and it is the opinion of many divines , that abiathar's right to the priesthood was not so good as zadock's . another argument like the rest he hath , p. . is , that it follows that a smaller part of the people may disown the publick acts of parliament , and chuse other governours in opposition to those established by law , and they may do it in one case as well as in another . which makes me wonder ( saith he ) at those who dare call them vsurpers , who enjoy their places by the same laws , that any men do enjoy their estates . this is a confounding of things most disparate one from another , a taking away all distinction of civil and church power . we utterly deny his consequence , that because people , notwithstanding of an act of parliament , may adhere to their pastors ; therefore they may chuse other civil governours ( for of these he must speak , or speak nothing to the purpose . ) they may not do it in the one case as in the other ; because the one case is regulated by christ's law , the other by mens law. but i now smell out a mistake in the dr. that maketh such choler and zeal against us , that we count them usurpers of their places , that is their benefices : let him no more fear that ; we own their title to these , to be as good as men have to their estates , both being disposable by the same law : but all that we have said , is about their usurping the charge of souls : of which we assert two things , . that there is no necessary connexion de facto between a good title to the one , and to the other , though de jure ( i mean , divino ) beneficium sequitur officium . . that the same law may give a title to an ecclesiastick estate , which giveth title to other estates ; but another law and not that , must give a title to having the charge of souls , and must make a relation between pastor and people : and the reason of this difference i bring from that famous saying of constantine the great , to the church-men , that they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . sect. . he hath yet another argument ; to wit , that this overthroweth the reformation , for the papists had the very same plea , that these men have now , to wit , that the magistrate had no power to dissolve the relation between them , and their former church-guides . ans. if the dr. will say , that the popish clergy had no otherwise forfeited their title to the charge of souls , than by the magistrates law , then their plea , and ours were the same . but i suppose he , as well as we , will fix that forfeiture on another foundation ; to wit , their heresy and idolatry , that they led the people into , warranted the people to withdraw from them , as none of christ's ministers , and disobliged the people from owning any further relation to them , as their pastors : and this not only warranted the magistrate to protect those that did break off from them ; but to suppress them , who should have done so , and would not , if he will not own this , he doth more to over-throw the reformation , than all that he can charge non-conformists with can amount to . we are far from questioning the magistrates power over ministers , to inflict civil punishments on them ; if he do it on good grounds , he is approved of god ; if otherwise he must answer to him for it : but our magistrates do not own any power of inflicting church-censures by themselves ; whatever some flatters do on their behalf . the objection from the old non-conformists , i have answered above . by what hath been said it will appear , whether he saith truly , p. . that not one word of our plea , but might equally serve the papists . sect. . what followeth , p. , , and ▪ of the peoples power of chusing their pastors , and the nullity of their title to that charge without the peoples consentt , he dr. it seems thinks that recitasse is refutasse , for he saith no more to disprove it , but asserteth , that it layeth a foundation for all imaginable disorders , and separations ; which we deny : and enough i have said above to evince the contrary . he maketh another of our grounds of separation to be , the persecution of the prelatists , and their having a hand in silencing of ministers : this we disown . indeed their persecution for our not submitting to their impositions , is a barr by which we are forcibly kept out of the church ; but it is not the motive that determineth us to leave the church ; we are willing to wait on gods ordinances even administred by them that persecute us , if they will suffer us to do it on sinless terms . and if mr. b. ( whom he only citeth in this matter ) mean any thing else , i cannot answer for him . sect . iii. of the terms of communion imposed by the church . after examination of other pleas for non-conformity , the dr. cometh sect. . to examine that which he confesseth to be the most colourable plea that hath yet been used ; to wit , their imposing of unlawful terms of communion with them . and this i look on as not only the most colourable plea ; but is the causa sine quo non , that without which no separation can be made from a true church , which is sound in the faith , without sin ; and as the very foundation of that cause that i now plead : and if the dr. can beat us out of this hold , we shall become his willing proselites . let us hear then how he taketh this plea from us . sect. . his first assault is by a distinction , which is really true , but very ill managed , tho' by amost learned hand ; but the dr. being master of so much learning , as few men are , doth , i suppose , sometimes make him consider less what he writeth , than they find need to do , who move in an inferiour orb. his distinction is , between terms of communion plainly and in themselves sinful ; and such as are only fansied to be so through prejudice and wilful ignorance , or error of conscience . that there are some terms of communion with a church really sinful , and others that are not so , tho' they be fansied by some to be so , i think none ever doubted ; and therefore the dr. might have better imployed his pains ( to say nothing of his ink and paper ) that he hath taken to prove this by a multitude of instances . and i grant , that when the sinfulness of the terms is only fansied , the sin of schism , that followeth on that apprehension , lieth not on the imposers , but on those that separate : only i must add an exception of a case in which it may lie on both ; that is , when the thing imposed is unnecessary , and is made a ground of separation by the mistake of persons otherwise orthodox and sober , and who pretend to no other cause of separation : if the imposers will not yield in that case , ( that is the wiser to the more wilful ) they shew not that moderation , nor love to peace that they should . if the quakers could be gained by forbearing preaching by an hour-glass , ( the dr's . instance ) i would think it hard to lose them for that , for whom christ lost his life . sect. . as the dr. manageth this distinction , it is hard to tell what to make of it ; for he confoundeth two things that are most distinct , yea , different ; to wit , terms of communion plainly sinful , and terms of communion in themselves sinful : and in the other lemma of the distinct on , he hath set nothing in opposition to plainly ; for fansied to be sinful through prejudice , wilful ignorance , error of conscience , are all opposite to those that are sinful in themselves . he should then have told us , if terms of communion imposed be sinful in themselves , but not plainly , but only obscurely so ; what censure he would pass on them that could not comply with them ; also what degree of plainness he would require about the sinfulness of imposed terms of communion , that it might be lawful to separate , rather than yield to them . my opinion is , that if terms of communion be imposed , that are in themselves , and really sinful , and if the sinfulness of them can be known by diligent searching of the scripture , and depending upon god for light and guidance , tho' there be not such plainness as the dr. had above called glaring evidence , that all the world may see , they that are consciencious ought to withdraw from any church whatsoever , rather than submit to those terms . there is an ambiguity in the term that he useth , in themselves sinful ; for i know , that it is their usual plea for the ceremonies , ( the imposed terms of communion now under debate ) that they are things in themselves indifferent . this may either be understood , that they are in their general nature such ; which we grant ; habits , and postures , and gestures importing neither good nor evil , as such : or as considered under the circumstances that they are cloathed with , as they fall under our debate ; and so we think them sinful . now , the dr. should have told us whether he meaneth of terms of communion , that are things imposed , which are really evil , under the circumstances with which they are imposed ; or terms of communion , which are things in their general nature evil : we think the sinfulness of terms of communion , even in the former , and not only in the latter sence , may warrant our withdrawing . sect. . he telleth us , that the magistrate of church may lawfully determine and impose time and place , and such-like circumstances of worship ; which we grant , ( tho' we think it inconvenient to be rigorous in these impositions , or too frequent and universal in them ; but about these , our question is not conversant : ) therefore , if any separate from these impositions , he saith , the sin of separation is on their part : this we do not deny . we also grant his hypothetick proposition that followeth ; to wit , if other things be as much in the magistrate or church's power , they sin who separate , because of imposing of them . his reason of this is not so clear ; to wit , where there is no plain prohibition , men may with ordinary care and judgment satisfie themselves of the lawfulness of the things required : and there is no plain prohibition , he saith , of the liturgy and ceremonies . we deny the imposing the liturgy and ceremonies to be as much in mens power as is the determining of circumstances of time and place , and such-like . we deny also , that men , with the best care and judgment , can see the lawfulness of every thing imposed in the worship of god , ( for of such things we now discourse ) that is not plainly prohibited : for , what if they be prohibited , tho' not plainly ? it is too great peremptoriness , to take upon us to teach the spirit of god how to speak in scripture ; if he expects obedience from us ( the dr. was in this strain also in his ir●nicum ; ) if we have any hint of his will , tho' never so obscurely , so as we can understand that it is the mind of god , we are obliged to obey it . again , we deny , that want of either obscure or plain prohibition is good ground to satisfie us about religious ceremonies , that they are lawful , though imposed by men : it is enough , that they are not commanded nor instituted . will worship is condemned in scripture ; and , can it be denied , that what is not commanded , tho' it be not plainly forbidd●n , is will-worship ? and , what argument will the dr. bring against most of the popish ceremonies , but that they are not commanded ? where is the plain prohibition of them ? sect. . further , we say , that the liturgy and ceremonies are plainly enough forbidden , tho not in particular , yet in general terms . the traditions of men in gods worship , are plainly forbidden , mat. . , , . mark . , , . gal. . , , . col. . . — which scriptures , and other arguments proving them to be forbidden by god , have been so fully managed against his party , without any answer , as may let the world see , that neither ordinary care nor judgment hath been wanting to find ▪ out the lawfulness of such impositions ; and yet we cannot find it . i shall not now repeat what i have elsewhere said to this purpose , but intend to answer what the dr. will please to say in defence of these his lawful impositions . sect. . the dr. is at some pains to prove , that the prohibition of these is not in the second commandment : but if he would have convinced us of our error , he should have proved , that they are neither forbidden there , nor elsewhere , by giving satisfying answers to all our other arguments ; but he is pleased to insist only on our argument from the second commandment , and to that as he is pleased to frame it , he giveth an answer , such as it is . i observe some mistakes in his treating of this argument ; . that he expecteth that the liturgy and ceremonies should have been forbidden in words , if they be forbidden ; that is , that they should have been expresly named . will he forbear no sin , but what is named in one of the ten commandments ? what will he say of fornication , incest , rebellion against kings , &c. may be he will say these are forbidden expresly in other parts of scripture . ans. so are humane inventions in god's worship ; as hath been shewed : and beside , it were impertinent to deny fornication to be forbidden in the seventh commandment , because it is not named there , tho' it be in other scriptures : even so it is here ; yea , i suppose the dr. will not think , that whatever is not named in scripture as a sin , is no sin ; mispending the sabbath day in sleep , idleness , play , &c. advising or commanding one man to murder another , and many things of that nature , are not named in scripture , and yet comprehended under general prohibitions . sect. . . his question is very absurd , how shall we come by the sence , but by the words ? he must mean the words of the second commandment . and then i answer , that we could never by this way know the sence of the seventh commandment , fornication is a sin : nor by the words of the sixth commandment could we know it is a sin , to say to our brother , thou fool . wherefore hath the spirit of god written so much more scripture holding forth sins and duties , if we are only to look to the bare words of the ten commandments , for learning the preceptive or directive part of his revealed will ? his commands are exceeding broad , ps. . . and therefore we are to look for more understanding from them , than the words by themselves can afford us . ezra and the levites read the words to the people , and gave the sence , neh ▪ . . it is our duty also to read it , and enquire into the sence of it . one useful means of coming by the sence of the commandments , is , to consider how they were expounded by christ , enlarged on by the prophets and apostles injoining and forbidding things of the same nature , with what the words of the commands do express ; and in general , we must compare scripture with scripture , if we would understand the meaning of the several parts of it . it is strange , that the dr. and his pa●ty should deal so unequally ; they take a great deal of liberty to impose things on the church of god , from a very general command , let all things be done decently and in order : which words they practise upon at their pleasure , devising rites for the worship of god , and bringing this to warrant them , tho' they can bring no such sence out of the words , as that crossing , kneeling , &c. are lawful : but if we scruple any of their inventions , we must be obliged to give words of scripture , where they are expresly forbidden . sect. . in the third place ; when his opposites alledge certain rules for interpreting the commandments , he asketh , whether they be divine or humane ? i again ask him , whether doth he own them as sound , or reject them as fallacious ? but to his question i answer ; they are by men collected out of the scripture , and therefore have divine authority , tho' the frame of them be humane ; as the dr's sermons ( i do not mean that at guild-hall ) are divine . truths , and of divine authority , tho' of humane frame and composure . . one of these rules is , that where any thing is forbidden , something is commanded . we chuse , after the generality of divines , rather to express it thus ; that in every negative precept the contrary duty is commanded : and in the affirmative precept , the c●ntrary sin is forbidden . his answer is , there is here a command to worship god without an image . a logician would say , this is still a negative command , for here the matter of this precept is expressed negative . all protestant divines agree , that the matter of the second command is the m●dus of divine worship , divine worship it self being commanded , and what is contrary to it forbidden in the first commandment . now , though this preceptive proposition of the dr's , worship god , be set down affirmative , yet the manner how god is to be worshipped , is set down negative ; and therefore he hath yet given us no duty commanded in the second commandment , but only the way of worshipping god by an image forbidden , ( which he shunneth to say ) or we must seek for some other way to express the affirmative part of this commandment . sect. . we may then conclude , that it is injoined in this command , that we should worship god in the way that he hath prescribed to us in his word . this is elsewhere commanded , exod. . , . and the contrary is severely reproved , isa. . . ier. . . from all these places it is evident , that god is to be worshipped according to his own institution , and no otherwise : and i hope the dr. will not dissent from the generality of divines , who hold , that all sins and duties held forth in other places of scripture , are reducible to one of the commandments . and to which of them can this duty of worshipping god by the prescript of his vvord , be reduced , if not to the second ? hence we conclude , that the affirmative part of the second commandment is , that we ought to worship god in the way that he himself hath prescribed in the word . and if the dr. can make it appear , that the liturgy and ceremonies are prescribed there , whether plainly or obscurely , directly or by consequence , we shall own them . . whereas we say , that it is a prohibition comprehended in the second commandment , that we must worship god by our own inventions . he saith , no inventions are condemned in the worship of god , but such as god himself hath somewhere forbidden ; but he hath no where forbidden the liturgy and ceremonies . the meaning of this must be , a general prohibition of humane inven●ions is not sufficient ; but notwithstanding , that they are generally forbidden , men may devise , and bring into god's worship , and impose on others what they please , if that in particular be not forbidden by a particular precept wherein it is named , or otherwise particularized . vvhat a mad exposition of the second commandment is this ? he might as well say , when it is said , thou shalt not kill , i may , for all that , kill any man i please , if there be not a particular command not to kill such a man. are there particular prohibitions of the several ceremonies that were used in popery ? or , must the bible have been made so voluminous , as to mention every circumstantiate case , otherwise we will take no notice of its general precepts ? is not this stretching and forcing of scripture to defend a bad cause , which he below chargeth us with ? sect. . the dr. ( as conscious to the insufficiency of this shift ) cometh in the fifth place to excuse the ceremonies from falling under the second command , by telling us of two sorts of humane inventions forbidden in it , and no other . . such as go about to represent god , and so to disparage him : for , he saith , the reason of the law , to wit , the spiritual and invisible nature of god , extendeth only to these . ans. . it seems then , worshipping god by or before a crucifix , is not here forbidden , for that doth not go about to represent or disparage god , but only to represent christ as man. the same may be said of all the use of the images of saints in the worship of god that is among the papists ; that is , they are all innocent by this doctrine : for , if these be not forbidden in the second commandment , the dr. will find it hard to refute these practices from scripture . if such a passage had dropt from the pen of a non-conformist , how would the dr. have improved it against the whole party , as doing the papists work for them ; as he hath charged them on far less grounds than this is ? ans. . seeing other waies of uncommanded vvorship are condemned in scripture , as hath been shewed , what reason is there to say , that this way of it alone is here meant ? this is to expound scripture ad libitum , and amplifie or restrain it as our fancy or interest leadeth us . ans. . i deny not the spiritual and invi●●ble nature of god to be a good reason of this law ; but i deny it to be either the sole reason of it , or the reason of it that is exprest in the law it self ; which is , that he is a jealous god , and will punish the corrupters of his worship . now this reason of the law doth evidently extend to all waies of worshipping him that he hath not injoined , making bold to worship him in any of these ways , being a derogation from that soveraignty that he hath over men , especially in his own vvorship , which hath a nearer dependance on his institution than other thi●gs have . sect. . the other sort of humane inventions that he will exempt from the scope and sence of this commandment , is , such as relate to the manner and form of worship , supposing the worship it self to be performed in a way agreeable to the divine nature and law. ans. . i desire to know of the dr. what difference he maketh between the manner or form of worship , and the way of worship ; when he supposeth the way of it to be agreeable to the divine nature and law ; while yet the controversie is , whether the manner and form of it be so . this is a subtilty that i cannot reach ; but words must serve to palliate a bad cause when reason cannot defend it . will then the dr. say , that the way of divine worship is injoined in this command , but not the manner and form of it ? i hope he will not deny ; that the object of worship is fixed in the first commandment , and also the way of it , so far as by that word is expressed , the duties of natural worship , the inward affections and actings of the soul on god , that are requisite in his worship . wherefore , if he will ( with all divines , except papists and some lutherans ) allow this to be another precept , and not a part or explication of the first ; he must say , that here is appointed all instituted worship ; that is , all the means , manner , external forms and ways , by which the lord will have us to worship him ; to wit , that we should make nor devise none of them to our selves : and this he was pleased to express by the most absurd and most common way that men had devised to themselves to worship god by , to wit , images ; as , in the rest of the negative precepts , he useth to express all the sins included in it , by one that is more notable than the rest . ans. . i hope the dr. will not deny , that most of the popish ceremonies , as oil , salt , spittle , &c. are forbidden in this commandment , ( or , if he do deny it , let him tell us where they are forbidden , or whether they be forbidden any where , or not ) but they perta●n to the manner and form of worshipping god , as well as our ceremonies do . further , let him tell us whether it is possible there should be any superstition in the manner and form of worship ; and if there be , where is it forbidden , but in this commandment ? or , let him give us any reason why humane inventions , relating to the manner and form of worship , are not forbidden , as well as these that relate to the way of it . a reason indeed he pretendeth to give , otherwise ( saith he ) all vse of mens inventions , as to preaching , reading , interpreting scripture , would be forbidden ; and then this interpretation of the second command would be unlawful , because it is a meer invention of man , as much as liturgies and ceremonies . if this be to reason like a divine , or to quibble like a sophister , let the reader judge ; for the invention that men make use of in preaching , &c. is the act or exercise of their faculties , whereby they find out the mind of god : the inventions in god's worship , that we ●ow debate about , are objects found out by men , not commanded by god. if men devise unrevealed objects in reading , preaching , &c. we condemn them in that , as well as in devising ways of worshipping god : and if the dr. mean , that this exposition of the second commandment is an invention of man , that is , the exercise of his inventive faculty , whereby he findeth out the mind of god ; he speaketh wide from the purpose , when he compareth that with things that men devise to worship god by : if he mean , that the interpretation is only devised , not warranted ; let him prove that , and we shall reject it . sect. . i hope , by this time , the impartial reader may judge whether we stretch and force scripture to condemn liturgies and ceremonies , as the dr. saith ; or he doth so to defend them . that he imputeth to us , blinding and fettering our minds by education , and reading but one sort of books , and taking things for granted , which we ought not , we resolve to bear patiently , and must accept of these , instead of better arguments , to refute our principle . his instance of the deniers of infant-baptism , proveth fully , that the schism doth not alwaies lie on the imposer's side , ( tho' they separate from us , because of our using it , without considering imposing it on them . vvho of them have been excommunicated for not using it , as we are for forbearing the ceremonies ? ) if men will separate , because the ordinances of god are imposed on them , let them answer it ; we scruple only the ordinances of man : neither did we ever say , that the blame of separation doth in all c●ses lie on the imposers . and we confess , that where impos●d terms of communion are scrupled through mistake , they that separate on that scruple do sin . and we yield also to him , that not the pretence of conscience , but sufficient proof of the unlawfulness of the terms of communion , is a good ground of separation ; and we still desire that the matter may be put to that issue . sect. . he proceedeth next to set ●orth the principles of them who hold all acts of communion with the church of england unlawful ; of them he hath little to say , their mind ( as he saith ) being easily discovered ; and we are not concerned in that opinion , and therefore shall not insist on it . only i see not on what grounds the dr. nameth the author of the book called jerubbaal , as one that is against the lawfulness of hearing the conforming ministers preach ; for that author 〈◊〉 , p. . of himself and others , whom mr. c. had charged with schism , because they could not communicate with her in the liturgy , that they joined with her in the instituted vvorship and substantial ordinances of christ , as prayer , hearing of the word preached , singing of psalms , &c. sect . iv. the dr's stating of the question examined , and the question truly stated . the several principles of the dissenters having been examined● the dr. now proceedeth to state the question about separation . some think this should have been done before examining of the principles on which men separate ; but the dr. must use his own method , and we must follow him , in examining what he saith . he giveth us , sect. . his concessions , which i shall say little of , save to make a remark on one or two of them . and , . his third concession is , he can allow different modes of worship in cathedral and parochial churches , in publick and private administrations ( these being allowed by the church in whose communion we live : ) but , what is this , saith he , to the denying of constant communion with our churches , to the chusing of new pastors ? it is true , these are two different things ; the difference is , the one is allowed by the church , the other not so . but consider the things in themselves , and abstracted from the churches pleasure , and there will appear to be as little vniformity between cathedral and parochial worship , as between their parochial worship , and that used in the meetings of the dissenters . now we gladly would know of the dr. or any of his party , seeing the church can yield so far to parochial assemblies , as not to tie them to the same modes with cathedral assemblies , because they cannot go to the expence of it : and seeing the church dispenseth with crossing in pr●vate baptism , why may she not condescend so far to the dissenters , who cannot for their consciences use these things , and so shun this breach in the church , this denying of communion with their churches , and chusing of new pastors ? are the consciences of men so little to be regarded ? or , is it fit the church should be so imperious over her members , as that she will indulge mens purses , but not their consciences ; she will dispense with the sign of the cross for her pleasure , but not for peoples consciences , when they can shew good reason for what they think and make conscience of ? this is wholly unaccountable , and very inconsistent with those high pretentions , that our brethren make of regard to peace and unity . sect. . another remark i make of his th . concession , that the church alloweth a different mode of worship to foreign churches set up in england , because they break not off communion with the church of england , as they do who were baptized in it . but why may not the church be as kind to her own members as to strangers ; if the ceremonies be necessary , why should the neglect of them be permitted to any ? if unnecessary ; why should they be forced on mens consciences , to the rending of the church ? the breaking off of communion that he talketh of , may be prevented by this condescendency ; and therefore it is most unreasonable to charge us with that as a sin , which we are under a necessity to do for shunning the wounding of our consciences , and sinning against god ; and which they might as easily prevent by shewing us that favour that they shew to others . i take notice also of his th . concession , that it was no sinful separation to keep up the exercise of true religion under arians , against the will of the magistrate : but what is this to our case , where true doctrine is taught ? it is very much to our case ; for the reason why the orthodox might worship god apart from the arians — was because it had been their sin to join in corrupted worship ; though we do not equal the owning of the arian doctrine , and using the ceremonies ; yet we reckon the one to be sin , as really as the other ; and we may not commit a smaller sin to enjoy communion with a church , more than we may commit a greater sin for that end . and we are not obliged to live without the ordinances of god , when we cannot have them with the church without sin , more than the oxthodox were , who lived under the arians . sect. . tho' the dr. it seems had designed this section for stating of the question , upon which his whole book is founded : i see no formal stating of it ( concessions are but preparatory to the stating of a controversie ) except that , he saith , he had told mr. b. that all our dispute was , whether the upholding separate meetings for divine worship , where the doctrine established , and the substantial parts of worship are acknowledged to be agreeable to the word of god , be a sinful separation or not ? this is no sufficient stating of the controversy between the prelatists and dissenters about separation . two things in it are not sufficiently clear ; and some things needful to be minded in our present controversy are left out . the first thing that is not clear , is , that he will not allow any fault in doctrine to justifie separation , but what is in the established doctrine ; that is , either that which is contained in the churches confession of faith , or is setled by law. but it is evident there may be such faults in doctrine , as may make them that regard their souls health , withdraw from a church which are not here comprehended ; that is , when gross errors are commonly taught , contrary to the doctrine contained in the publick confession of faith , and which is established by law : that this is a case supposeable ; yea , that it ought to have been supposed with reference to our controversy , appeareth in that it is most common in england , for ministers who have subscribed the . articles , to teach doctrines quite contrary to them ; as i observed above : it is no rarity for unconscientious men , to subscribe to whatever is imposed , rather than lose a benefice ; and mean while to hold and teach what they please notwithstanding of such subscription . now if a church should become so corrupt , that heresie is commonly taught , though the orthodox faith be established ; ought not people to withdraw from that church ? or if many teach dangerous doctrine contrary to established truth ; ought not people withdraw from such teachers ? especially when there is no way to get this unsound teaching removed , or restrained . sect. . another thing in the dr's state of the question is unclear ; to wit , that where the substantial parts of worship are acknowledged to be right , there should be no separation . what he meaneth by these is a controversy it self ; and he is at a great deal of pains to clear what he meaneth by this term , part. . p. . whither i referr the debate with him about it . but , what if any part of worship be unlawful ; call it substantial , or circumstantial , or what he will ? or what if something be annexed to the true worship of god ; which is sinful ; but yet so peremptorily imposed , as none shall worship god without it ? i ask the dr. whether in this case we may separate , though we scruple not any part of that worship that he is pleased to call substantial worship ? sect. . some things are also left out by the dr. in his stating of the controversy , which were needful to have been minded . as , st . to clear what he meaneth by separation . i have above shewed , that sometimes they that are charged with separation , are meerly passive in it ; sometimes they are active : the first is when the church casteth them out , because they cannot submit to her impositions . the second , when they take offence at something in the church , and therefore leave her ; but are not cast out by her , but have free and peaceable access to all her ordinances : in the first case ( which is ours ) if they causlesly scruple at the impositions , they may be charged with ignorance , or errour of conscience , or peevishness , and willfulness ; but how they can be charged with separation , i know not , more than a banished man can be blamed as a fugitive from his country . and if they have good cause to scruple the impositions ; i see not how any blame can be fixed on them at all . . he should have shewed whether by separation he meaneth casting off all ties to have communion with that church , more than with another church that professeth the true faith ; as a man , or company that live in holland , have no more tie to communicate in england than in france , &c. or a present forbearing of communion , because of sinful terms , with owning an obligation to communicate with this church , when these bars shall be removed . in the one case all relation to that church in particular is cast off ; in the other not so : it is but a suspending the exercise of communion as a church-member ; not a disowning it , or casting it off . sect. . he is defective in mentioning no other alledged grounds of separation , but false doctrine established , or wrong substantial parts ( as he calleth them ) of worship . he knoweth little of the controversy that he manageth , if he knew not that other grounds are alledged ; and therefore it had been fair to have fixed the question on them ; whether it be lawful to separate on such and such grounds . it is true , his question may include all the grounds that can be alledged , beside the two mentioned ; but that which is the main hinge of our controversy , should have been mentioned , in stating of the question . . it being confessed on both hands , that there is a sinful separation ; it should have been one part of his question , where the sin of this separation is chargeable ; whether on the imposers , or the scruplers of those things that cause the separation ? but he is willing to set his church beyond all imaginable blame , and to put the question only , whether the dissenters have any blame , or not ? . it should not have been omitted ; to enquire whether the grounds alledged for separation lie in things really evil , or only fan●ied to be such ? and again , whether the evil of them be such as will bear the weight of separation . sect. . i shall then endeavour to state the question more fully and clearly than the dr. hath done . there are indeed divers questions , on which this question about separation doth depend ; and therefore our controversy cannot be represented in one single question , to which an affirmative or negative answer will suffice . it is then , . a great part of our controversy , seeing the liturgy as to the frame of it , and ceremonies are by the clergy thought indifferent , and so unnecessary , that god may be acceptably worshipped without them , and the dissenters think them unlawful to be used , and are able to make it appear by good reason , that it is not humour but conscience that moveth them so to think ; whether they should impose these on the dissenters , and so force them either to separate or sin against their consciences . . it is a part of our controversie , and that indeed on which it mainly hangeth ; whether to worship god by the liturgy , and with the seremonies , be a worship acceptable to him ; or such as he will reject . if he will approve them to be acceptable worship ; yea , lawful to be used ; all our other questions will cease . . supposing them to be unacceptable worship , as the non-conformists believe ; and supposing them to be so imposed by the church , as we cannot enjoy god's ordinances without them with the church : the question is , whether we should chuse to use them , or forbear the ordinances with the church ? . it is yet another question ; supposing the unlawfulness of using them , and impossibility of joining with the church without them ; whether we ought to live without the ordinances of god ; or keep separate meetings , where we may enjoy god's ordinances without sinful mixtures of man's inventions ? i deny not but several other questions may fall in , while we are debating these ; but these are the main points in difference between our brethren and us. some have not unfitly , though not so fully , comprized all the controversie in this question ; whether we ought to worship god , only according to the prescript of his word , or may do it by the traditions of men ? sect . v the dr's arguments examined for occasional communion . having stated the question , he is resolved to make the charge of separation against all the dissenters : and st . against those that deny constant communion to be a duty , where-ever occasional communion is lawful . . against them that hold all communion with the church of england unlawful . he insisteth on the st . sect. . &c. there was here also need of clear stating of this question ; which i have done above ; and here resume it briefly : occasion●l communion is either in some duties , or in all duties ; and so is constant communion . i hope he doth not mean , that they who think it lawful to communicate with the church in some ordinances , as preaching , prayer , &c. are consequently to that obliged to think it lawful to communicate with them in all ordinances ; because they have annexed unlawful terms of communion to some ordinances , and not to others . the question then is , whether they who because they cannot enjoy all the ordinances without sin in the publick assembly , and yet think they may enjoy some of them without sin ; and have for enjoying all god's ordinances without sin , set up a meeting apart from the church for that end : whether i say such are obliged constantly to attend these ordinances in the publick assembly , where there is no sin in their joining in . to make the thing plainer by instances ; we may lawfully hear sermons by the conformists ; and do not shun to do it occasionally ; but they have annexed such unlawful terms of communion to the sacraments ; and sometimes even to their preaching , by their second service at the end , as well as the first at the beginning , that we cannot at all enjoy the sacraments ; and but seldom other ordinances , in purity ; and therefore are forced to have meetings where we may enjoy all the ordinances in purity . now the question is , whether in that case we are obliged constantly to wait on preaching in the publick assembly , rather than in our private meetings . the dr. is for the affirmative ; we are for the negative . sect. . before i examine what the dr. saith for his opinion ; i shall in a few words lay down the grounds on which we deny any such obligation to lie on us . . we are cast out of their church by excommunication ; all of us being excommunicated ipso facto , on our non-conformity by the canon as the dr. confesseth ; though he labour to palliate the matter , praef. p. . and part. . p. . and many of us ; yea , most of us in many places excommunicated by name ; and prosecuted with such severities , that we may not be seen in publick : it is strange that they should cast us out of their communion , and at the same time blame us for forbearing their communion . . this partial communion that the dr. would have us constantly use , can neither satisfie the laws of the state ( which he layeth so much stress on in church-matters ) nor of the church : there is no law for hearing of sermons ; but only for waiting on the service and sacraments ; from which they have excluded us by their impositions . why then should they blame us for forbearing that communion with them , which themselves lay so little weight on , while they have excluded us from that which they count church-communion , so as the dr. himself reckoneth hearing a sermon not to be ? . being by their unlawful impositions necessitated to have meetings and pastors for administration of all god's ordinances ; we think our selves more obliged to wait constantly on hearing of the vvord in those meetings , and from those pastors ; than in the assembles , which we are so necessitated to leave , or rather are driven from , for a time . sect. . in order to proving his opinion about occasional communion , the dr. undertaketh to make out . . that bare occasional communion doth not excuse from the guilt of separation . . that as far as occasional communion with our church is allowed to be lawful , constant communion is a duty . the first of these we are little concerned to dispute with him ; we bring other grounds to clear our selves of the guilt of separation , that he layeth on us : neither do i see how that by it self could do it . if we have no cause to forbear constant communion , we cannot satisfie the obligation that lieth on us to the unity of the church , by communion with her now and then . it is no wonder that the presbyterians ( as he saith ) were not satisfied with occasional communion granted to them by the dissenting brethren , because they saw no just cause of their denying constant . communion ; which if we cannot shew in our case , we are indeed faulty . i have above shewed how we are members of the church , and how not : and do not plead that occasional communion maketh one a member , but i hope it will not be denied , but that , with protestation of the grounds on which we own it , will shew that we do not cast off all sort of membership with the church ; and it may excuse from the tantum , though not from the totum of separation , as i believe it did in the independants , compared with the brownists , in reference to the presbyterians , which the dr. instanceth . for his discourse against mr. b. for being eighteen years without administring or receiving the sacrament , and yet preaching , what evil is in it , or in other instances of this nature , will be charged on his party , who deprive us of the ordinances of the lord with them , by their sinful impositions ; and do what they can to hinder us from having them otherwise , by their persecutions ; many things of that nature are our affliction , and their sin ; but all this cannot oblige us to communicate with them in their corruptions of god's worship . sect. . i leave our author to make the best he can of his first undertaking , and come to attend him in his second ; to wit , that constant communion is a duty , where occasional communion is lawful . this he manageth , sect. . mr. b. and mr. a. had given good instances to disprove this , as it is here set down ; to wit , joining with other parishes in a journey , at a lecture , &c. but i am willing to understand it , with the dr. of communion with a church , whereof we have been or should be members ; and of withdrawing from a church for some corruptions ; where yet i may occasionally join in some duties ; for his opinion in this , he bringeth two arguments ; the first he taketh from the general obligation upon christians to use all lawful means for preserving the peace and vnity of the church . this he inforceth , by proving this obligation ; which none of us ever denied ; but do with more reason retort all that can be said , on that he●d , on themselves , who will not do what they can for this peace and unity ; they will not quit so much as one of their needless ceremonies : ●or our part we are ready to do what we can without sin for peace and unity ; but the dr. should have proved , . that our coming to their sermons , as often as there was no let by the liturgy joined with it , and when they pleased to suffer us without excommunication , and c●pi●ndo's , would preserve that which he calleth peace and vnity . . that we being necessitated to have other meetings for the pure ordinances of god ; it was a lawful means for peace and unity with that church that had driven us away , to desert these meetings , and wait on so much of their administrations , as they should be pleas●d to allow us . our hearts do not reproach us , as this learned author doth , that it is one of the provoking sins of the non-conformists , that they have been so backward in doing what they were convinced they might have done , with a good conscience : he meaneth toward communion with the church . sect. . but i perceive all the strength of his argument , and the zeal with which he prosecuteth it , is built on a mistake ; to wit , that we hold it lawful to communicate with the church in the liturgy and sacraments . if mr. b. or any other , are of that opinion , i know not why they should be non-conformists : if i were convinced of it , i should not deny constant communion with the church , whatever i might do occasionally elsewhere ; only i think our author need not talk so highly against his opposites as he doth , p. . when they speak of some cases , where joining with the church , would do more harm than good . was ever schism , saith he , made so light of ? and the peace and vnity of christianity valued at so low a rate ? ans. yes , to wit , by them who will not part with a trifling ceremony , for the peace that they so much talk of ; but will impose these on scrupling consciences by force , to the dividing of the church , the laying aside of thousands of well qualified ministers , and the hazard and ruin of many souls . did ever men in the world make lighter of the peace of christians , than these men do , if you believe their deeds , and yet value it more highly , if ye regard their words ? he asketh , p. . which of them readeth what they think lawful in their own assemblies ? ans. we read part of that service-book daily in our assemblies ; to wit , the scriptures therein contained , we read them out of the bible ; but for using the book , or any part of it , as in that composure , we find no obligation on us to that ; both because that would be very insignificant toward unity with the church , more than preaching of the same doctrine , and praying for the same things , is counted by them ; also , we look on the whole frame and model of that service , as a humane device , that we ought to give no countenance to in god's worship . a●d lastly , because having once par●ed with them , in the matter of worship ; we think we should take our rule for manageing our worship , from the scripture , rather than from their ecclesiastical constitutions . sect. . all his arguments , sect. . do proceed on the forementioned mistake ; to wit , that we count communion with them in all their ordinances lawful : if that were true , communion with them sometimes for peace , might well inferr constant communion , for the same good design . neither do i say , that better means of edification will warrant constant separate assemblies ; however it may warrant occasional communion elsewhere , then where we are members of a church . i look not on our lords communion with the jewish church , as only occasional , but constant , so far as the wo●k that he was sent into the world for , did permit ; but i am far from thinking that ever he did communicate with the jews in any part of their uninstituted worship , as the dr. alledgeth , p. . his presence at the feast of dedication , as other jews were , is asserted by the dr. without all ground ; and he knoweth our writers do constantly deny it ; and therefore his bare asserting it , should not have been thought enough to set it off . all that the scripture saith of this , is , that he walked in solomon's porch , joh. . , . did none of the jews more than this , at that feast ? is it not to be thought , that he who did so sharply reprove their uninstituted washings , and other religious observations , on account of the want of institution ; and defended the non-conformity of his disciples to these observations ; would himself observe a religious solemnity , that had no other warrant nor foundation , but what those other things had , which he condemneth ? it is then rational to think , that he walked there to get opportunity to speak to the people at that concourse ; as the apostles after did , when they knew these jewish feasts to be abrogated , and not fit to be observed . sect. . he bringeth a second argument , sect. . from phil. . . as far as we have already attained , let us walk by the same rule ; let us mind the same things : to prove that where occasional communion with a church is lawful , constant communion is a duty ; for , saith he , from hence appeareth evident , that men ought to go as far as they can toward vniformity , and not to forbear doing any thing which they lawfully may do towards peace and vnity . this argument is but lamely proposed , and this scripture but weakly improved ( by what the dr. saith ) to prove his design . two things , it seems , he would inferr from it ; to wit , vniformity , and study of peace . i first ask him , whether he thinketh these two to be necessarily conjoined ; so as to study the one , is to study the other also ; and neglecting the one , is , to neglect the other ? if he say they are not , why doth he here conjoin them ? will not the study of peace answer this injunction of the apostle , without uniformity ? if he say they are , it is easie to prove the contrary ; for not only we have peace and unity with other churches , though not vniformity ; but the church of england alloweth a difformity within her self ; to wit , between cathedral and parochial service ; and yet i hope she alloweth no schism , nor breach of unity ; or , will the dr. say , that the apostle here injoineth vniformity among all particular assemblies in a church , except in cathedrals ? i confess it is like he did not mind their vniformity , for he knew no such distinction of churches , or officers , on whom it dependeth , under the new testament . sect. . i ask , secondly , what sort of vniformity doth he think the apostle doth here injoin ; if in doctrine , instituted worship , holy conversation , and such like : i grant it to be our duty to study it ; but if in the same forms and words of prayer , in the same religious instituted ceremonies ; yea , or in all the same circumstances , let him prove that the apostle meant any such thing ; for we deny it : and it is generally held , that the ancient church ( which the dr. thinks could not possibly so soon degenerate from apostolick practice ) was very various , and not uniform in her rites and customs ; as may be seen in daillie's right use of the fathers , lib. . p. . — but much more fully in the dr's own irenicum , p. , . he must be a great stranger to the primitive church , that takes not notice of the great diversity of rites and customs used in particular churches , without any censuring of those that differed from them , or if any , by inconsiderate zeal did proceed so far ( as the dr. and others now doth ) how ill it was resented by other christians . a great deal more to that purpose is excellently there said : but , o quantum mutatus ab illo — we deny that vniformity ( such as that our breth●en use to plead so hotly for ) was any part of the apostles meaning ; and therefore it ought to be no part of the dr's argument from this text. sect. . i do , in the third place , readily acknowledge , that the apostle here designeth to engage christians , as far as they can attain , by their understanding of what is their duty ; and as far as they can lawfully do , to study peace and unity , as with all men ; so with the church of which they are members . but how doth this prove constant communion with the church to be our duty ; for if he mean constant communion in the liturgy and ceremonies , we have not attained so far : we see not the lawfulness of the use of these , much less of the constant use of them ; and therefore the apostle doth not enjoin us to study peace and unity that way . i should rather think that a concludent argument might be brought from this text , to perswade our brethren to study the peace and unity of the church , by not pressing us with these things , nor forcing us to withdraw from the church , because of them ; for they have attained so far , they know them to be indifferent , and so unnecessary : they and we agree in this attaintment ; why then do we not walk by the same rule , in laying them aside , and minding the same things ; to wit , the unity of the church , and not our own enriching , grandeur , and dominion over our brethren ? but if he mean constant communion with the church in the orninance of preaching , . that themselves hinder , by their excommunication . . that is not duty in the circumstances , that their violence hath placed us in , as hath been shewed . . that could not conduce to peace and unity , while we are necessitated to keep separate meetings on other accounts . so that the apostle's command in this text , doth not at all reach our case , and how far it reacheth the imposers , let them look to it . sect. . having thus defended our cause from his argument built on this text , even supposing his own exposition of the text , i shall not need to be concerned in what exposition others give of it ; nor in his refutations of them ; yet i shall take notice of a few things in his discourse on this text , which may seem to make against our cause . and , . this refutation of dr. o. who saith , that the apostle understandeth the different attainments of christians in knowledge ; supposing which , they should jointly practise what they know ; and bear with one another in what they differed about . to confirm this , ( if i● be not a crime to make use of mr. pool's criticks , which the dr. objecteth to mr. a. the poor non-conformists not having dean●ies to furnish them with vast libraries ) this seemeth to be the general opinion of interpreters , gradum illum cognitionis rerum divinarum & perfectioris vitae , say menochius , estius and tirinus . in eo quod revelavit deus ; saith zanchius : who , though he apply it by way of consequence against dissentions in the church , as the dr. a●le●geth , p. . yet doth down-right make the apostle to mean of degrees of knowledge ; and his applying it against dissentions doth not say , that he presseth unity in mens devices ; but in god's truth , and institutions , which no doubt the apostle doth also recommend . also bullinger in loc . ( not cited by mr. pool ) idem sentientes , & concordibus votis , calculis , & studiis progrediamur , agnitaque veritate provehamur . let the dr. shew us one interpreter , that expoundeth this passage of studying the churches peace by vniformity in ceremonies and liturgy : i think himself is the first that hatcht that opinion . sect. . the dr. here , against dr. o. discusseth three points ; the first is , whether the apostle speaketh here of different opinions , or of different practices . he endeavoureth to prove the latter , because the apostle beginneth with a caution against them that were for circumcision , and maketh a digression concerning himself ; he adviseth people to agree in pursuing their main end ; and then bringeth in the case of them that were not satisfied about the law , that people should not listen to them , because they made divisions among them , and divided them by different observations . this is to expound scripture by our fancy . it is evident , that the apostle is speaking of justification , which the concision thought must be , by the works of the law : and this he refuteth from his own practice of looking after another righteousness ; but he would have them to deal tenderly with those that had not yet learned the truth , even in that great point , waiting till god should instruct them . i see nothing that he saith to prove , that it was meant of different practices , but rather of different opinions , that divided the church : but whether the one or the other , it proveth not , that we should go over the belly of our light to keep peace , but rather bear with one another for that end . sect. . next he enquireth , whether the rule here mentioned was the rule of mutual forbearance . i think the question should rather be , whether it was a rule of god's making , or of man's making ? whatever the rule were in particular . tirinus saith , regulam hic intelligit a christo & apostolis ejus praescriptam . zanchius , doctrinam quam modo tradidit , summam doctrinae chr●stianae , tum de d●gmatibus , tum de moribus . doctrinam fidei , say estius & menochius . grotius saith , etiam qui de ri●ibus & circumcisione aliter sentiunt , interim s●iant , evangelij praecepta , quae divina esse per suas sunt sibi esse sequenda . if the dr. can prove this rule to be a humane rule , he will gain much by this scripture , otherwise nothing at all . we are content to follow a divine rule , for attaining peace in the church ; it doth indeed forbid peevish dividing of the church , by injoining to hold to the same rule ; but the dividers are not they that are content to follow all christ's rules , but they that make rules of their own , and will tear the church in pieces , rather than these should not be observed . the third thing he enquireth into is , what influence this rule hath on our case . he saith , it obligeth to go as far as we can : this is confessed . but then we say , it is a divine , and not humane rule that must shew how far we can , ( i. e. ) ought to go . he saith , when we can go no further , we must sit down quietly , and wait for further instruction , and not divide the church . ans. when the apostle speaketh , ver . . of god's further instructing them that mistake , i suppose it expresseth rather the hope that the sound part should have of them that are short in knowledge , which should make them not over-drive them , ( as our brethren would do with us ) than what is their duty . i am far from saying , that it is mens duty to break the peace of the church , but i am sure , two things are far from being the apostle's scope , to injoin such doubting christians ; . that they should go over the belly of their light , to join with them that they differ from , either in the principles or the practices that they scruple . . that if they cannot have communion in ordinances with them , unless they thus sin against light , that they should live without the ordinances . none of these we have any rule for in the gospel ; and therefore doing of these were not walking by any rule that the apostle here meaneth . the dr. saith , p. . this rule , in order to peace , requireth the observing of such things , which although they be not particularly appointed by god , yet are injoined by lawful authority , and not repugnant to the word . i wish the dr. had proved , that the apostle giveth any warrant to observe such things in the worship of god ; we deny it . it is fallacious to propose his distinction of things not particularly appointed by god , but appointed by lawful authority ; but let us see a general rule from the word , for what we scruple , and that will satisfie us : or , let us see what authority men have to appoint any thing that is in statu cultus , or religioso , that god hath not appointed . it is most falsly asserted , p. . that because the apostles decreed against a plausible pretence of conscience , about abstaining from blood , &c. the governours of the church , ( he hath now changed the stile ; it used to be , the magistrate ) by parity of reason , may determine those things which they think conduce most to the peace and welfare of the church which they are bound to preserve : for to give any colour of truth to this assertion , he must prove , . that ordinary church-governours have as much power as the apostles in such cases . . that there is a parity of reason for the things determined by our church-guides , and those by the apostles ; these were necessary , and the apostles decree found them so , and had its rise from this necessity . the ceremonies are confessed to be indifferent , and to have no necessity , but what it pleaseth the church or magistrate to give them . sect. . he saith , p. , in answer to another of his opposers , that the apostle gave binding rules to particular churches , which are not extant in scripture , as appears by cor. . . ans. . this rule is expresly said to be given in all churches , not to any church in particular . . that this rule is not extant in scripture , is false ; for it is extant in this place . . this rule that a man should keep within his station , is no prudential rule of order and government , as the dr. hinteth , but a principle of the moral law. . we are content to submit to all rules that can be justly proved out of , or inferred from scripture , tho' they be not , in terminis , extant there . but the rules for liturgy and ceremonies are none of these . sect . vi. the dr's arguments against independent separation considered , in so far as they may be thought to reach presbyterians . from sect. . and forward , the reverend author insisteth on the charge of schism , against those that deny any communion with the church of england to be lawful ; to wit , in partaking of the ordinances with them ; who deny them ( tho' true churches in some sence ) to be such churches as they can abide in the communion of , and therefore must keep separate meetings , which they own as other churches distinct from the patrochial churches . he aimeth i suppose , especially at the independents ; i am not of that perswasion , and therefore leave the patrociny of it to them that are . yet because many of the dr's arguments against their separation may be thought by the unwary reader to militate also against the meetings of the presbyterians , i must not wholly pass over this part of his book ; but i shall answer his arguments so far only , as they may be thought to condemn our principle and practice . sect. . before i examine his arguments , i shall shew two considerable differences between our withdrawing from the church , and that of the independents . . they have more grounds on which they separate than we ; and consequently , more is required to bring them back to communion with the church , than is to bring us to it ; for we withdraw , as they also do , because of the liturgy , crossing in baptism , kneeling in the act of receiving the lord's supper , observing of holidaies : if the church will either remove these , or bear with us in them , we are ready to join with her in acts of communion . but besides these , they s●parate , because of the wrong constitution of the church in her members , want of a right discipline , faults in the election and ordination of ministers : tho' the liturgy and ceremonies were not , they would still separate , as they do from the presbyterian churches , where these are not . . they separate , because these are used ; we only because they are imposed as necessary terms of our being admitted to communion . they separate , because the church is polluted with these ; we only because we dare not pollute our own consciences with them . if we may have leave but to forbear personal concurrence in these , we think the fault of other men ( i mean in things of that nature ) no ground for us to withdraw from the ordinances in and with the church ; so that , in effect , they go away from the church , we are driven away by the church . sect. . the first argument that the dr. bringeth against denying communion to the church , is , it weak●neth the c●use of the reformation . this he undertaketh to prove by the testimony of some french divines , and he beginneth with calvin , whose words ( too long here to be transcribed ) do prove indeed separation from a church to be unlawful , because of lesser impurities or great faults , while the doctrine and worship are not greatly corrupted . but he speaketh not one word of the case of them who are driven away from a church , because they cannot submit to sinful terms of communion with her : yea ; he speaketh more in favour of such a case than against it ; for he maketh corruption in christ's institutions ( even in the words cited by the dr. p. , . ) and being anathematized , for not complying with these corruptions , a ground of separation from the church of rome , which is parallel to our case . but ( saith the dr. ) he doth not mean indifferent rites . ans. neither do we scruple indifferent rites , but sinful ceremonies . and tho' i am far from comparing the church of en●land with that of rome , as ●o causes of separation , yet here there is a likeness ; the one rejecteth some of her members , because they will not sin with her , and will force her impositions on their consciences ; and so doth the other . another author he citeth is daillie , giving most substantial reasons for separation from rome ; and he doth not mention our ceremonies among them . and , what need was there to mention them , when there were such weighty reasons beside to be insisted on ? but monsieur daillie saith expresly , if the differences had been such , as we might safely have yielded to , then separation had been rash and unjust . so say we , for we cannot yield to the lesser sinfulness of superstitious worship , as we cannot to that which is greater , to wit , idolatrous worship . sect. . next he citeth amyraldus , who saith , if there had been no other faults in the roman church , beside their unprofitable ceremonies in baptism , and other things beyond the measure and genius of christian religion , they had still continued in her communion . ans. neither should we refuse communion with the church of england , for these and such-like faults : we refuse the use of these , and because of that , the church casteth us out of her communion . and if amyrald us say , that he would have used these rather than have fallen under rome's anathema , we leave him to his own sentiments in that , but are of another opinion . it is no wonder these men think little or next to nothing of the evil of our ceremonies , when they are compared with these romish abominations ; but when we consider them by themselves , and compare them with scripture , we cannot think so of them . the dr. further urgeth us , with the answers given by claude , paion , and turretine , to the book entituled , prejudes legitimes contre les calvinustes : that they do not defend the reformation by the unlawfulness of the ceremonies ; this is both false and inconcludent : it is false ; for monsieur claude spendeth a good part of the third chapter of his first part in defending the ground and right that the reformers had , to depart from the communion of the romish church , because of their ceremonies . one of the chief objects ( saith he ) that presented it self to our fathers , was that of the great number of the ceremonies ; which he setteth forth as defacing god's worship , making it look partly like judaism , and partly like heathenism : he saith , it was , without doubt , a character very opposite to the gospel of jesus christ ; and much more to that purpose . what the other two answerers of that book say on this head , i know not , for i have not seen them . this argument is also inconcludent , because the reformation is abundantly defended by weightier objections against popery . sect. . one passage he citeth , p. . out of mr. turretine , that no tolerable superstitious rites , that do not infect the conscience , are sufficient grounds of separation . and the dr. addeth is parenthesi , ( as they cannot be where they are not forced on it by f●lse doctrine . ) to mr. turretine's assertion i assent ; for nothing that is tolerable can warrant separation : and i deny not , that some superstitious rites may be tolerable ; to wit , where men will use them , and do not impose them on others : they that are left to their liberty , may well tolerate others in the use of them ; but i do not so well see , that any superstition imposed is tolerable to a tender conscience ; for superstition is sin , and no sin is tolerable in that case . to the dr's parenthesis i answer , that it is absolutely false ; and i wonder that he should assert it so confidently without proof ; for , ( that i may not deny , as he asserteth , without reason ) . a superstitious ri●e is one of the traditions of men , in the worship of god , and that the scripture doth simply condemn , without all noticing of any false doctrine to enforce the tradition . i know not what false doctrine the pharis●ical washings were enforced with , but i am sure christ condemneth them without mention of any such false doctrine distinct from the asserting of their lawfulness , mat. . , . but of this afterward . . may not enforcing a superstitious ri●e on the conscience of one that scruples it by command and will , make it to defile the conscience , as well as enforcing it by false doctrine ? if this doctrine were true , men might impose what they will in the worship of god ; they might impose all the rites that ever jews or heathens used , or papists either , if they keep but orthodox mind , and give no reason that is heterodox for these rites , but only sic volo , sic j●beo . to what purpose he citeth le blanch , shewing the impossibility of re-union with the papists , i see not , but that many names of authors make a shew , and it argue●h great reading ; for he saith not one word of the ●eremonies ; and we all know , that if we would swallow down not only the ceremonies of england , but those of rome it self , yet re-union with them is impossible on other grounds . sect. . it was needful , that the dr. should bring all this discourse and these long citations , home to his purpose , which every reader could hitherto hardly ●iscern how it should be done : wherefore , p. . he telle●h us what triumphs the church of rome would make over us , if we had nothing else to justifie our separation from them by , but the things that we now scruple . and he telleth us , how we would be laughed at , all over the christian world , and how the papists are hardened , seeing no end of schism . to all this i answer , . i know rome , and some others too , will triumph when there is no cause for their so doing ; but as long as we can shew scripture-warrant for what we hold and do , we are unconcerned in their censures . . that there is no cause , for their triumphing , appeareth , because the dr. and his party , ( who have the same cause of triumph that the papists could have on this occasion ) have as yet had no such victory in their debates with us , as to make them triumph . . if by the christian world , he mean the protestant part of christianity , ( for the rest , we are less m●ved by their judgments ) i hope they will not laugh at us , who scruple nothing , but what most of them have condemned , as additions to the word of god , and corruptions of his worship ; for so all the calvinist-churches and divines have done . . if the papists be hardened , as seeing no end of schism , they are to be blamed ; for we can shew them , and others , a good end of it ; to wit , ordering the worship of god by his institution ; or , at least , imposing nothing uninstituted as terms of communion with the church . sect. . his second argument is , sect. . that this separation maketh vnion among the protestant churches impossible , supposing them to remain as they are . this he proveth , because the lutheran churches have these and more ceremonies , yet these churches are thought true , and fit to be united with , by a synod of the reformed at charenton , . the helvetian churches declare against separating for different rites and ceremonies . so doth the confession of poland , and that of ausburg , and strasburg ; also crecius , and the transilvanian divines . nothing of all this cometh up the point as above stated . we allow no separation for these rites ; and none of the divines or confessions mentioned , disalloweth forbearing of them in our own persons , nor injoineth using of them . we do not separate because the church useth them ; but she driveth us away because we cannot use them . what he citeth out of amyraldus , p. . that the nature of ceremonies is to be taken from the doctrine that goeth along with them , i have said somewhat to above . i deny not , but a bad doctrine may infect an indifferent ceremo●y , that is built on it ; but i cannot assent , that the best doctrine can justifie an uninstituted ceremony in god's worship . he citeth davenant , giving three reasons that may hinder union ; and the first is , tyranny over mens faith and conscience ; let but this be removed , and our separation is at an end ; for i think the dr. will hardly clear imposing of needless ceremonies on them that are convinced of , and can prove their sinfulness of this blame . that protestant churches abroad have harder terms of communion than we , he supposeth , p. . but doth not prove ; the calvinist churches have not ; and if the lutheran churches have , that is , impose them with such rigour , we cannot but , eatenus , condemn them : yet we shut not out the lutheran churches from all possibility of union with them , as he insinuates ; we can have union with them as sister churches , but we cannot partake in their instituted parts of worship . sect. . his third argument is , that this will justifie the ancient schisms that have alwaies been condemned in the christian church ; and he instanceth in the schism of the novatians and others : but the dr. hath done us presbyterians the favour , to free us of the trouble of this debate with him , by setting aside ( from their pleas for separation ) ceremonies , liturgy , and holidays , which are the things we insist upon . i say no more on this argument , but take notice of the dr's wonderful but most groundless confidence in a parenthesis , asserting , that these are common to our church , with all other christian churches , for many hundred years before the great degeneracy of the roman church , and are continued by an universal consent in all parts of the christian world. the first part of his assertion is absolutely false , for all the cunning used in inserting the epithete , great degeneracy of the roman church ; i know not where he will fix this great degeneracy , whether in boniface's usurping the title of vniversal bishop , or , may be , in the council of trent : but he shall never prove , that these were used in the church before a notable degeneracy of the church ; nor that they were used by all christians , even before the greatest deg●neracy . for the second part of his assertion , it is beyond comprehension what he can mean by it ; for he cannot be ignorant , that these are not continued in all , nor most of the reformed churches , but disowned in their confessions , and by their practice . but some mens confidence , or pretence to it , runs highest , when truth and reason is with them at the lowest ebb . sect. . i come now to his fourth argument , sect. . that these grounds will make separation endless . he prosecuteth this argument in pages , by shewing the evil of schism , p. . reprov●ng mr. a. for making too light of it , p. . and exposing him in a mimick lo●g oration , in the excuse of it , p. , , , , . and citing mr. b. setting forth the evil of schism , p. , , . and reproving mr. a. for not setting bounds to separation . all which i shall pass by , as not against the cause that i maintain , and only briefly answer his argument , ( if either his party , or any pretended to be on our side , will not keep within that boundary , let them answer it ) that separation will soon be at an end , if the church impose nothing but what is warranted by scripture , and if people refuse nothing , so as to separate for it , but what they can shew scripture-ground , that it were their sin to own it or do it . sect. . his fifth argument is taken from the obligation that lieth on all christians to preserve the peace and vnity of the church . to enforce this argument , the dr. doth well prove several sound truths , but such as none of them , nor all of them , conclude against withdrawing from the church , when sinful terms of communion are imposed ; as , . that the study of unity is a duty . . that this unity doth not lie in bare communion in faith and love. . nothing can discharge us from this obligation to study unity , but what is allowed by christ or his apostles , as a sufficient reason for it . what is all this , to make up an obligation to sin against god , rather than separate from the church ? but a fourth thing he insisteth on , may be , will help him better . he telleth us of three cases , wherein scripture alloweth of separation ; to wit , idolatrous worship , false doctrine , mens making indifferent things necessary to salvation . that this is not a sufficient enumeration , i prove ; . because there may be sinful terms of communion imposed where none of these are . may not men make owning traditions of men necessary to their communion , tho' they make it not necessary to salvation ? and where-ever we must sin or separate , separation is allowed by the scripture , which tieth us to live peaceably with all men , if possible , and so far as in us lieth : it is not in our power to sin , for illud tantum possumus quod jure possumus . . the apostle speaketh of using ceremonies that the dr. calleth indifferent , as so dangerous to the soul , that separation is , no doubt , rather to be chosen than the use of them ; and yet he doth not take notice of their being lookt on as necessary to salvation : therefore i conclude , against the dr's conclusion of this second part of his book , that we are not obliged to prove against his party , either idolatry or false worship , or making the ceremonies necessary to salvation . it is enough , if we prove , that ye make them necessary to our communicating with you , and that it is unlawful for us to use them ; for hence it plainly followeth , that we must either live without the ordinances , which were our sin ; or meet apart , for worshipping god , which is our duty , as your impositions and severities have stated us . part iii. in this third part of his book , the learned author undertaketh to refute several pleas that the dissenters use for their not communicating with the church of england , and for keeping meetings separate from the church . the dissenters , as they are of different p●rswasions , so they use different pleas in defence of their ways . i shall not take the defence of them all ; but before i come to examine this part of the dr's book , i shall give my opinion of the several pleas that he refuteth , and fix upon what i shall own . sect . i. the several pleas used by dissenters , considered . i behold the pleas used for the present separating from the publick assemblies , as divided into three sorts . . some that i do not think to be any just cause of complaint against the church of england ; . some that are grievances to us , that we dare not own nor approve , but desire a reformation of them ; yet i do not think that they by themselves make communion with the publick assemblies unlawful , nor can justifie separation : . some that not only are grievances , but do justifie ; yea , make necessary some sort of separation ; and these i shall afterward further subdistinguish . of the first sort , i reckon the constitution of the church in its members at first ; want of governing power in the people ; and the constitution of a national church , as it is scrupled at by some . sect. . for the second sort , they are not a few , neither can i promise to name them all . . we are gri●ved with prelatical government , and taking away of that pari●y of power that christ hath given to the ordinary ministers of his church . this we cannot approve , and therefore ministers ought rather to suffer deprivation of the publick exercise of their ministry , than own it . and people also ought not to own that their lordly authority that they exercise ; yet , because this is not required to be acknowledged as a lawful power in the church , by the people , i see not that we should withdraw from the publick assemblies , meerly because there are diocesan bishops set over the church ; except our owning them , by submitting to their jurisdiction , is required as one of the terms of communion with the church . . depriving people of their right of chusing their own church-officers , is also matter of complaint ; but we must bear it , rather than separate for that , from a church . . the gross abuses that are in the discipline of the church , or rather the want of any thing that looketh like gospel discipline , we lament ; but it not being peoples work to mend it , nor the abuses their personal action , it is no just ground of separation . . godfathers and godmothers in baptism are an abuse ; but being extrinsick to the ordinance , we should not separate for that neither . . the defects and faults that are in the call of the ministers , and in their personal conversation , their pluralities and non-residences , and several things of that nature we complain of , and the insufficiency of many of them , but do not separate for these , while the ordinances are not corrupted that we partake of . . the surplice , and other superstitious habits , worshipping toward the east , bowing to the altar , and such-like , we dare not approve nor practise ; yet these not being imposed as terms of our communion with the church , we do not separate on account of them . the lawfulness of these i do not now debate ; nor is it needful at all to do it , in reference to the point of separation , that the dr. chargeth us with ; yet they being things wherein we dissent from our brethren , i shall not shun to dispute such of them with the dr. as his following discourse shall give occasion for . sect. . there are a third sort of things that we dislike in the episcopal church of england , which not only are matter of grievance , but do necessitate us ( and justifie us in it ) to depart from her communion till these letts be removed ; and they are of two sorts : . the unlawful terms of communion with her , tha● she requireth of us ; without which she will not suffer us to partake with her in the ordinances of god ; as that we must worship god by the liturgy , that our children , when baptized , must be signed with the cross ; that we must kne●l in the act of receiving the lord's supper ; that we must observe the holidays that she hath appointed , out christ never instituted . these things we think unlawful to be done ; and the church , tho' she thinketh them indifferent and unnecessary in themselves , yet have made them necessary by her imposing them , and excommunicateth and persecuteth us , if we will not use them ; and therefore a parting from her on these accounts , doth necessarily follow ; not only because we ought not to live without god's ordinances , which we cannot have with our brethren , but because , if we would do so , they would still persecute us , if we come not to the liturgy ; if we have not our children baptized ; if we do not receive the lord's supper thrice a year , and especially at easter ; if we do not observe the holidays . a second thing that layeth a necessity on us , to have meetings apart from them , is , their restraining of a considerable part of the ministers , whom christ had sent to his church , and fitted by his gifts for gospel-administrations ( upward of two thousand of them being put out in one day . ) we think it is the duty of these men to preach the gospel , and administer the ordinances of god , and the duty of the people to wait on their administrations , and to own their relation to them . it is true , this by it self considered , need not hinder our communion , and that ordinarily with the publick assemblies , for things might be so managed , as no clashing needed be ; but this putteth us under a necessity of meeting by our selves , and the sinful terms of communion imposed , putteth us out of capacity to assemble with our brethren in publick . these i now but propose , but intend to dispute them as they fall in , in the doctor 's discourse . sect . ii. of parochial churches . in the beginning of this third part , the reverend author reduceth the pleas for separation , to four heads , . such as relate to the constitution of our church . . to the terms of communion with it . . to the consciences of dissenters . . to the parity of reason , as to our separation from rome : under the first he ranketh , . that the parish churches are not of christ's institution . . that diocesan churches are unlawful . . that the national church hath no foundation . . that the people are deprived of their rights in the choice of their pastors . about these four last mentioned , he spendeth the far greatest part of this third part of his book ; and a very small part of it upon the second head ; which is that which he knoweth his antagonists do most generally insist on , and lay most weight on ; but it is easiest going over the hedge , where it is lowest . sect. . he beginneth with parochial churches , because it is separation from those , that is most conspicuous . he saith , the non-conformists at first kept communion with them . i have before disproved the truth of this , and also given reasons , why the practice of them who did so , is not binding to us . he saith , since the congregational way prevailed in england , the present dissenters are generally fallen into it ; at least so far as concerns communion with our parochial churches . ans. there was a withdrawing from the parochial churches , because of unlawful terms of communion , before the present congregational way was either known , or prevailed ; and to say that dissenters are generally fallen into the congregational way ( i suppose that he meaneth by it ) is a mistake ; it is true , indeed , the restraint ( he will be angry if i say persecution ) that they are under , maketh presbyterian meetings de facto in many places independant ; because they cannot associate for discipline ; but we have not quitted our principles for that . sect. . i do not interpose in his contests with dr. o. about the parochial churches in england being true churches ; or about dr. o's reasons for separating from them . but i cannot pass our reverend authors ingenuity , in acknowledging p. . that tyranny over mens consciences is a good ground of separation ; which is our great plea for withdrawing from their assemblies : they impose on us terms of communion , that they can pretend to no other warrant for , but their own fancy and will ; and they exclude us , because we cannot yield to them : if this be not tyranny over the consciences of men , let any unbyassed person judge ; and if it be so judged to be , we have good ground for separation by the dr's own confession . sect. . our author , sect. . maintaineth a long debate with dr. o. about this question : whether one church is that which ordinarily assembleth in one place ; or divers assemblies , that meet ordinarily in divers places for worship , be to be recko●ed divers churches . this question is stiffly debated on both sides , between the congregational and episcopal brethren ; the reason of their so much concern in it , is , the one ascribeth all church power to every congregation that ordinarily meeteth for worship ; and so maketh that the highest ruling church : the other placeth ruling church-power only in the bishop ; and so maketh a diocesan church , to be the lowest ruling church . the presbyterians go a middle way ; they stand not on the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , whether a congregation should be called a church , or only the combination of more congregations , for the exercise of discipline ; they find the word used both ways in scripture ( and the word it self , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , signifieth any convention , civil or religious ) as , cor. . . all the christians in corinth , with their officers , are called the church ; and yet cor. . . it is supposed that there were several meetings among them ordinarily , that might bear each of them that name , of church . when the apostle forbiddeth , that their women should speak in the churches , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , he must mean the churches in corinth ; for it is not to be thought , that he would particularly have mentioned their women , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , if he had not meant the churches of corinth , where they were likest to usurp that authority . the dr. saith , p. . that it doth not once fail , that where churches are spoken of in the plural number , they are the churches of a province : here it faileth . sect. . but leaving the word , let us understand the thing ; which i shall set down in a few assertions , . all visible christians are members of one great body ; whereof christ is the head ; to wit , his vniversal church ; which if it could so meet together as to be taught , and ruled , ordinarily , by the same officers , there needed be no distinction of churches in the world. and it is probable it was so in the beginning of the gospel ; till the encrease of believers made it needful to divide into several compani●s , that might be ordinarily taught and ruled by their several officers . . the several companies of believers , with their several officers ( each of which in scripture-sence , may be called a church ) are to be such as may commonly meet together in one place , for partaking of god's ordinances . we read of the apostles ordaining elders in every city , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sure then they had respect to the conveniences of peoples living together , that so they might usually meet together . . these single congregations being furnished with one or more pastors , and elders have ruling power within themselves ; for christ hath given ruling power to all the pastors and elders , and not placed it single in a diocesan bishop ; for at philippi , phil. . . all church-officers are divided into bishops and deacons ; a plurality of which were in that church , tho' in one city ; where our brethren acknowledge , that more diocesans than one could not be . . the church power in single congregations , is not independant , but is to be subordinate to the power of them , associate together . this may be gathered from the churches in corinth , being there also called a church : if there were not divers religious assemblies , ordinarily they could not be called churches ; if they were not associate , they could not be called a church ; and wherein they could be ass●ciate , except in the exercise of government , is not easy to guess . . the association of churches for government may be divers , as their convenience of meeting together for that end , giveth them opportunity : hence particular assemblies , lesser and greater associations , have their congregational , classical , provincial , and national presbyteries , or assemblies , for the government of the church ; the lesser in subordination to the greater and if oecumenical synods could as conveniently , and duly assemble , all the rest should be subordinate to them , seeing every one of them should make a part of these . sect. . but because the diversity of civil powers , and frequent clashings of them , in divers nations maketh this hardly practicable ; therefore the highest church-power is usually in national assemblies . and tho' i am far from the opinion of them , who think that church government should be modelled according to the civil government of the nation ; the contrary of which i have asserted elsewhere against the learned author ( whom i now dispute with ) yet in this particular , it not only may , but must be suited to the extent of the civil government : this being no essential part of church-government , nor instituted ; but a circumstance of it , determinable by necessity and conveniency . on the same score , where a congregation could have no other to associate with , it might act independently , and be blameless . . tho' christians should so divide themselves into particular churches , as they may attend the ordinances together ordinarily ; yet is not this meeting together , but their being under the particular inspection of the same officers , that maketh one particular church : for , . one congregation may encrease to that number , that one place cannot contain them ; and yet continue one congregation , till they be regularly divided : thus it was in some of the ancient churches . . where parochial bounds are so large , as all the people cannot always travel to one place ; the pastor or pastors of the church , may well have places more convenient for some of them , where he or they may administer the ordinances to them , sometimes ; as in chapels of ease ; and yet they all continue one particular church . . it is a frequent case with families , that but a part of them at one time , can leave the house , to wait on publick ordinances ; and the rest at another time ; yet are they one congregation . . in a time of persecution , where the flock is but small , and might easily be contained in one house , the danger of numerous meetings may be such , as it may be needful , that but a part of them should come together at once , and that by turns ; as we are necessitated at this time to do : this doth not make divers congregations . all this considered we are little concerned ; whether in the primitive times there were but one chu●ch in a city , or more ? whether those called churches did meet in one place , or not ; as long as the one party cannot prove , that each meeting was ruled independantly by it self ; nor the other , that a diocesan bishop ruled over more churches than one , and over their presbyters . sect. . before i part with this d●scourse of the dr's about the unity of churches , i take notice of his confident asserting , p. . the impossibility of the change of church-government , so suddenly from its first institution ; even though the church fell into heresies very soon , yet this change could not be . the same thing he had asserted before , and i have answered it , praef. s●ct . . his further considerations to enforce what he had said , are not weighty ; to wit , that government is so nice and tender a point , th●t they cut of whose hands it was taken by those who usurped it , would certainly have complained . this he enlarge●h upon : but i answer , . it may be they did ; that they did not , is not proved by the silen●e of history : a negative argument here is not concludent ; especially considering the lame●ess of the history of the first centuries ; and what we have of it , is by those who had a hand in the usurpation . . he doth not consider , that men might sleep , while others were robbing them ; as christ foretold , matth. . . . we may rationally think that government in the church ( which then was no lordly dominion , but a painful ministery , or servi●e ; and made unpleasant by the cross humors of them that needed it most ) was not then so ●ice and tender a point , to honest and well-meaning presbyters , as it is now to our aspiring church-men ; they were men of another stamp ; they were willing to lie by , if the work were done ; and they might think , that others might do it better than they ( this is not to justifie them , but to take off mens wonder at this ) and men of higher parts and spirits might easily , by degrees , wrest power out of the hands of as good men as themselves , who were not so fore-seeing as they should have been ; nor so tinctured with ambition as they ; though other ways good , and eminent men. and we need the less wonder at this , when we consider , that this thing was not done suddenly ; but by insensible steps , in the space of three or four hundred years . cyprian ( whom the dr. layeth most weight on in this matter ) lived in the third century , & even then we deny that diocesan episcopacy was setled . what the dr. saith under this head of the plurality of congregations in the several cities , that seemeth to prove episcopal power over presbyters , shall be answered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in the next section ; where it is more proper : also what he here saith against popular election , is to be considered in its place ; because i would not confound subjects so divers . sect . iii. whether diocesan episcopacy be lawful . the second plea for separation , that the learned dr. considereth , is , the vnlawfulness of diocesan episcopacy ; which he taketh a great deal of pains to prove to be , . primitive ; . not repugnant to any institution of christ ; . that its discipline , as exercised in england , doth not overthrow the being of parochial churches . all this he manageth , sect. , &c. i might shun this whole debate , having above disowned this as a plea for separation , except in so far as we are required to own it . but because we look on this episcopacy , as unlawful to be used or owned , i shall examine what the dr. saith in defence of it : this is done already to much more advantage than can be expected from me by the learned auther of , no evidence for diocesan churches or bishops , &c. and the defence of that piece , under the title of , diocesan churches not yet discovered in the primitive times ; which might supersede all that i have to say , and shall make me say the less , referring the reader to these two most learned books ; yet , lest there should be an hiatus in this dis●ourse , i shall not wholly decline this debate with the docto● . s●ct . . mr. b's frame of church-government , ( which the dr. disproveth , p. , . ) being singular , himself can best defend it ; wherefore i leave it , and shall attend the dr's proof of the three particulars above mentioned , first asserting a few things that may clear our way . . that it is not the name of bishop that we quarrel , it being applied in scripture to all the ordinary ruling officers in the church , as distinguished from her servants , the deacons , phil. . . and the exercise of it called a good work , tim. . . and applied to all the elders of ephesus , act. . . . we meddle not with their titles and revenues ; those are the magistrates gifts , and do not cross christ's institution , whatever inconvenience may be in them . . nor do we deny the lawfulness of a presidency among presbyters in the person of one of them . nature maketh it necessary , that one should preside in a meeting to shun confusion ; and christ hath not instituted the duration of one man's presidency , whether for one meeting , for a month , or year , or during his life , and therefore the church may determine in that : yet we must add , that the perpetuating of a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or making a moderator constant , having been , of old and late , the means of bringing in a lordly prelacy , and corruption of ambitious men being so apt to improve it that way ; so that the papal chair hath arisen from this low and blameless foundation , we think it highly inconvenient . . neither do we deny , that among ministers , the wiser , graver , and men of more holiness and experience , should by their reason prevail over those that are not so well qualified : it is superiority of power that is in question between us and our brethren ; yea , we deny not , but some of opinion for parity of power , have overborn their brethren , through their loftiness of spirit ; an episcopal temper may be in a presbyterian ; it is not mens corruptions , but their principles that our debate is about . . we deny not , but the name , bishop , that in the apostles times was common to all elde●s of the church , began very early to be appropriated to the moderator , who also was called primus presbyter ▪ and that this priority , for as small as it was , was too much affected and taken notice of , even in the apostles times . diotrephes ( who is said , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , jo. . . i. e. affected to be primus presbyter ) had a great mind to that dignity ; but this was , when ●ew of the apostles were now alive . it is neither the presidency nor the precedency that we debate about , but the imparity of church-power or authority . . we deny not that prelatical usurpation obtained in some places , and was s●atched at in other places ; while yet the ancient order of parity , among the pastors of the church , was in most places retained . . though we deny , that diocesan episcopacy prevailed in the church , for the first three hundred years , or that it was general in the fourth century , and are willing to enter the lists with our brethren in this debate about the first and purest antiquity of church-government ; yet it is not mens authority , but divine institution , that we are determiend by , and lay the stress of our cause upon ; and will admit of no absolute rule of judging in this controversie , but the scripture . sect. . it might have been expected , that the dr. when he would charge us with so great blame , as he doth , in not submitting to the authority of prelates , should have proved the divine institution , or at least , the lawfulness of that office , and answered the arguments that our writers bring against it . this were the way to satisfie mens consciences ; but the dr. is pleased to take an easier , though not so perswasive a way , to wit ; to refute mr. b's . assertions about episcopacy , and to prove some things that are short of the main thing that is in question ; as i hope shall appear in our progress . and i have often observed , that the confidence of our brethrens assertions in this controversie is too big for the strength and concludency of their arguments . sect. . it will contribute to our clear , and sure procedure in this controversie , if we consider the difference and inconsistency that is among our prelatical brethren about the episcopacy that they assert ; and the foundation on which they build it , as to the thing ; some of them do so restrain the power of bishops , denying both sole ordination and sole jurisdiction to them , that they make it little or no more , but a presidency : so the learned and pious vsher , who is followed by many of the more sober and learned of that party . grotius also goeth this way , de imper. sum . potest . circa sacra , p. . others allow them jurisdiction over other pastors of the church , and exempt them from being liable to the censures of their brethren ; yet so as they ought not to rule by themselves , but with the consent of the pastors of the church , who are to be their counsel . our author , iren. p. . saith , that both jerom , and ignatius agree , that the counsel of presbyters was of divine institution . others are for their monarchial power in their several diocesses ; neither being obliged to take the counsel of the presbyters ; nor being liable to their censures : so the generality of our high church-men . some make the bishop the sole pastor of the diocess ; and all the parochial clergy to be but his curates ; others think the parochial pastors to be substitute , or delegate to none but christ ; some think the bishop's work is to preach the gospel , and administer sacraments in his own person , and that this , he should be constantly exercised in : others , that his work is to rule , and that he need not trouble himself with other work , unless he please . some allow the bishop a power of delegating his authority ; not of dispensing the word and sacraments only , but of government and discipline , to others ; yea , to lay-men ; that by them he may excommunicate , and judge ministers and people : others think that he hath no power to do so ; so me think that it is inconsistent with the office of a bishop to be imployed in civil government , others allow it . some think a bishop should be chosen by the church , and that really , and not seemingly only , as when the magistrate nominateth the person to the chapter ( who yet are not the church ) of whom they must proceed to a mock election ; others think those that come in this way , to be none of christs bishops . some own diocesan bishops , who yet see no warrant for the hierarchy , as it is stated among us , in metropolitans , primates , arch-bishops , deans , arch-deacons , chancellors , &c. some hold the office of bishop to be distinct from that of presbyter ; others deny this ; many school men are on both sides ; it was debated at the council of trent . in all these things , i observe very much confusion , and want of a distinct idea of that office , that is debated about in the writings of our prelatical brethren . sect. . there is as little agreement , or distinctness among them about the foundation , on which the office of a diocesan bishop standeth : some of them are for i●s divine right , as being instituted by christ : but this plea they find so hard to be managed , and to have so ill success , and to be so little the way to preferment , ( as derogating from the supremacy of the magistrate ) that most have laid it aside ; others , that it is of apostolick institution ; being not commanded by christ , but prudently setled by the apostles . others , that it is juris ecclesiastici brought in by the primitive church , af●er the decease of all the apostles . others , that it is wholly indifferent , and may be received , or not , as is thought most expedient in several times and places ; and some of these say , this is to be determined by the church : others , by the magistrate . this dr. stillingfleet , in his irenicum asserteth ; but is very uncertain , whether the church or magistrate is to determine in this matter . one of the most learned of our adversaries , dr. hammond , holdeth the divine right of episcopacy , but goeth away different from all the rest in managing of that opinion ; to wit , that all the ordinary pastors of the church , appointed by christ , or ordained by the apostles , were diocesan bishops , and that presbyters are a sort of men unheard of in the new testament , and their office but a device of men , or a constitution of the church . this fancy is solidly refuted by learned mr. durham , on rev. . p. . where the reader may see abundant ground of satisfaction about the absurdity and inconsistency of this notion , from scripture , reason , and antiquity . sect. . the question between us and our brethren , being about the lawfulness of the prelacy now exercised in england , the owning of which is required of us ; that we may judge aright of it , we must have a true idea of it , and then consider whether such an episcopacy was instituted by christ , practised in the primitive church with general approbation ; or whether it hath any rational foundation to stand upon . the true idea of our english episcopacy is visible in these lineaments of it ; first , the bishop is one of a superior order to , and distinct office from , other presbyters , as appeareth not only from the power he hath , and they have not , and acts of church-power reserved only to him ; but also because he is put into that office by an ordination distinct from that by which he is made a presbyter . and yet further , because the presbyters are owned but as his delegates , or curates , and he is owned as the sole pastor of all the presbyters , people and flocks in the diocess . secondly , the bishops have jurisdiction over other presbyters . thirdly , he hath the sole power of ordination of presbyters . fourthly , he may delegate this power to whom he will , whether men ordained to the ministry , or any of the people ; so that by this delegation , a man that is no church-officer may exercise church-power over both ministers and people . fifthly , this power is exercised in the name of the magistrate ; the courts in which it is exercised being owned as the kings ecclesiastical court. sixthly , they are not chosen to this office by the church , but by the magistrate ; and they are not preaching but ruling bishops . now if our brethren cannot shew us such a b●shop as this in scripture , or antiquity , all that they say from either for an episcopacy , is short of the thing in question , and our scruple cannot be taken away by their proofs for episcopacy , unless they prove this episcopacy . sect. . though our writers have brought arguments against the lawfulness of this office in the church that have never yet been answered , and i think never shall ; and tho' i can promise no new nor better arguments than have been already adduced by others ; yet that the reader may see that our scruples against episcopacy are not without good ground , i shall briefly set down some arguments against it . the first shall be , ad hominem , against our learned author : by this author's doctrine , there is no ground to believe that such an episcopacy as consisteth in a superiority of power above presbyters , was instituted , allowed , or exercised in the church ; ergo , according to him , it hath no foundation at all that can satisfie ones conscience about the lawfulness of it . the antithesis i prove , if such a ground there be , it must lie in one of these three ( if any asserters of it can add a fourth , we shall quit this argument ) either christs appointing it in scripture , or his allowing men to appoint such an office , or the practice of the church , shewing us what was christs allowance . but none of these yield us a warrant for episcopacy , all the three being denyed by this author to be able to satisfie the conscience in this matter . for the first , he denyeth such an institution , asserting expresly that christ gave equal power to all the ordinary ministers of the gospel ; this is the basis of his irenicum . the second , he never had the confidence to assert , neither is the least hint in all the scripture , that christ hath allowed men to take away that power from his servants that he hath given them , and to put it into the hand of others to whom he never gave such eminency of power . for the third , he proveth at length that the primitive form of church-government is uncertain , from the defectiveness , ambiguity , partiality , and repugnancy of the records of the ages that succeeded the apostles times , iren. c. . p. . let him tell us then what ground we have to belive that episcopacy was instituted by christ , practised by the church in her uncorrupted times , or any way allowed . sect. . our second argument is , there is no foot-step of any inequality of power among these ordinary pastors of the church , that are mentioned in the bible , neither in their name , nor office , nor power , nor work , nor qualifications , nor respect or obedience due to them , nor any thing else from which any distinction can be rationally gathered ; whence i thus argue : if the lord had allowed a distinction between bishops and presbyters in his church , he would have hinted some thing about this distinction ; but this he hath not done , ergo , &c. the first proposition i prove , first , because this was needful for these distinct officers , that each might know his work : and for the church-guides that they might know how to chuse and ordain qualified men for so different imployments : and for the people that they might know how to carry toward these officers respect according to the difference of their stations , that they might obey the bishop rather than the presbyter , — and submit to the teaching of the presbyter and ruling of the bishop ; that they might not come to a presbyter for confirmation , nor call presbyters to ordain a minister for them , nor delegate a person that deserveth excommunication to the presbyters , all these belonging to the bishop . . our lord hath made a clear distinction in scripture , among the other ordinary officers in the church , in their names , qualifications , work , and office , as between elders or bishops and deacons , phil. . . tim. . , . also between preaching elders , and those that are only ruling elders , tim. . . if our brethren can shew us as much for a distinction between bishops and presbyters , let them do it : i hope none of them will say , that by ruleing elders is here meant the bishop , least it follow that the preaching presbyter should rather be honoured than he , either by affording him more respect or maintenance : i suppose our bishops will rather part with the patrimony of this text , then with their titles , grandeur , and revenues . sect. . the second proposition is evident in the several branches mentioned before , for our adversaries can produce no hint of any such distinction in scripture , and we can shew an identity in them ; and first , for the name it is clear from act. . . where the apostle calleth all the elders of ephesus , bishops . it is a groundless fancy of some , that these elders were the diocesan bishops of asia ; for this is said without any shew of proof , to serve a turn . besides that , they are called the elders of the church , not churches , as ( even in the prelatical stile ) diocesan districts should be called . and it is called the flock , not flocks , and the church of god , not the churches of god , that they were to take heed to ; and the haste that the apostle then was in , considering the short time , and long journey that he had before him , was inconsistent with his expecting such an assembly from so remote parts . this identity of name is also clear from phil. . . for no reason can be assigned why deacons should be mentioned , as concerned in what was written in that epistle and not presbyters . also it is most clear , tit. . . with . where shewing how elders must be qualified , a reason is given why they must have such qualifications , for a b●shop must be blameless ; if they were not one , this reason should have neither force nor sence , which were blasphemy to averr , it being the holy ghosts reasoning . sect. . in the next place , scripture maketh no distinction between the office of bishop and presbyter , many of our brethren deny a distinction of office betwixt them ( how consistently with their other principles i enquire not ) and they that assert such a distinction cannot shew the least foot-step of it from scripture . thirdly , for their power , if bishops ordained , so did presbyters , tim. . . if any alledge that the ordainers of timothy were diocesan bishops , they must prove it : if bishops had rule over the people , were over them , so were presbyters , thes. . . heb. . . for none question but presbyters are they who mainly labour among the people , admonish them , and watch for their souls ; ( i am sure this is not the work that our bishops are exercised in ) and the same persons in both places are the peoples rulers , and are over them . fourthly , their work is the same , as is clear both from the places last cited , and act. . . pet. . , . where taking heed to , feeding , and over-seeing , in the greek , acting the part of bishops , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , are made the work of all the pastors of the church . . the same qualifications are required in all the guides of the church without any distinction , tim. . . tit. . . and the qualification of deacons , they being a distinct sort of officers in the church , are set down by themselves , tim. . . sixthly , for obedience , reverence , maintenance , or any thing else , that concerneth a bishop as distinct from a presbyter , there is not the least hint in scripture from which any such thing can be gathered ; a man must then put force upon his reason ▪ or be strangely swa●ed by prejudice , who can perswade himself that there is an ordinary officer mentioned or allowed in the new testament , that is above the presbyters of the church , or hath jurisdiction over them . sect. . argument third . the apostle doth thrice set down a list of the several officers of the gospel-church , without mentioning a diocesan bishop , or any officer to which this office can be rationally reduced ; ergo , no such officer ought to be allowed in the church . the consequence i prove , first , because this should have been a defect not imputable to the apostle , infallibly guided by the spirit , to teach us designedly the several church-officers appointed by christ , and not tell us of them all : let our brethren , if they can , give us an instance of a defectiveness in any scriptureinstruction of this moment that can be parallelled with this . secondly , the consequence can yet less be questioned , if we consid●r that not only an officer is left out , and the church left without a hint concerning him ; but the chief ordinary officer in the church , that should make the greatest figure in the church to the end of the world , and on whose management the weightiest affairs of the church should depend : he who can believe this , his judgment must be under the power of so strong a byass , that i know not what will be too hard for him to swallow ; the antithesis i prove out of cor. . . eph. . . rom. . , , . not any of these offices agreeth to the diocesan bishop ; some say , they are reducible to apostles . with what face can wise men alledge this ? was not the office of an apostle extraordinary , and temporary , appointed for the first dispersing the gospel , and planting churches ; and besides every apostle was an universal officer : diocesans have their limitted charges : some alledge they are reducible to apostles , not as being absolutely such , but because they have power over inferior ministers as the apostles had . but these men should prove that christ instituted such an office , or that the apostle meant not only extraordinary apostl●s , but these semi-apostles as ordinary officers to continue in the church . secondly , they should prove that christs instituting apostles , did warrant the church to set up an office made up of as much of the apostles office , as should be afterward thought convenient . what may not men devise in the church , that take on them thus to add to , or diminish from christs institutions , and thus to wrest scripture to make it comply with their fancies and interests ? sect. . others make the doctors or teachers , eph. . . to be the bishops , and this with as little ground as the former , though some learned men have so dreamed , as estius , and doctor hammon . grotius thinks metropolitans also are here meant , but the absurdity of this fancy will appear , first , if we consider that they are named after the pastors or presbyters , which is an indecency un●uitable to the apostles exactness , if my lord bishop we●e here meant . i find many interpreters argue that prophets are the next in dignity to apostles , and are extraordinary officers , because they are named alwaies next after the apostles , which argument will as well hold here . secondly , the work of the bishop that we speak of , which discriminateth him from the presbyter , is not to teach but to rule : therefore others , as calvin , by teacher understandeth him that educateth ministers , and instructeth them and others in the truth , and defendeth it against heresies ; such as are divinity professors in universities ; others understand catechists : but it is evident that it cannot , with any kind of congruity be applied to the diocesan bishop , who is least imployed in teaching of any part of church-work ; some find the diocesan bishop under the name of helps , cor. . . as grotius and hammond ; both of them also make him to be meant by government ; and the same two authors , in the same verse by teachers understand the same officer . they would be sure to find him somewhere , but this very uncertainty where to fix him is a token that he is no where to be found . is it imaginable that the apostle in a list of church-officers set down in so few words , would use such repetition ? when so learned men are put to such shifts , it is a sign the cause is so weak , that it affordeth no better reason to defend it by . that they are not meant by teachers , i have already shewed ; neither are they meant by helps . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith grotius , significat , curam rei alicujus gerere : this is said without book ( be it spoken with due respect to that great critick . ) i find authors cited for its signifying , to take hold , undertake , uphold , help , correct ; but none for its signifying , to take charge of a thing . the place he referreth to , luk. . . can bear no signification of the word so well as that of helping ; and among all criticks and other interpreters , he cannot produce one that so expoundeth the word , either here or in that place : but men will say any thing to serve a turn . neither can the diocesan be meant by government , not only because they are among the last , and so the most inferior of church-officers ; but also because our brethren will not say that the bishop should only rule , and not teach ( though it is too much their practice , yet they will not averr this to be according to institution ) as this officer must do , he being a distinct officer from the teacher . i conclude , if the apostle had intended to set forth to us such an eminent officer of the church , we might have expected he should have , if not clearly , yet to the satisfaction of an inquisitive mind , set him down in some of these cat●logues , which is not done . sect. . argument fourth . the power that we read of in the new testament , was never exercised by any ordinary officers alone , but by the church-guides in common ; ergo , there was no diocesan bishop in the new testament , and if we have no warrant there , our scrupling to own such a one is not unreasonable . that church-power was so exercised i prove by instances , leaving to our brethren , if they can , to bring instances to the contrary . first , ordination was performed by presbyters in common , tim. . . it is a groundless notion that some men of great name and worth have on this place , that presbytery is meant of the office , for both it is a harsh phrase , the hands of the office ; and further the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is often used in the new testament , yet is never used for the office , but for the college of presbyters ; the office is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith camerarius ; others say , that by the presbytery here is meant the company of the apostles , who are called presbyters : this cannot be , for the apostle ascribeth to himself a special concern above others in the ordination of timothy , tim. . . which he would not have done if the rest of the apostles , equal in authority with himself , had concurred , but might well do it , when , he as chief , and the ordinary pastors as sub●rdinate , did join in this action , for ( it is the observation of camerarius on this text ) the apostles did not use their extraordinary power often , but when the church was constitut●d , acted in conjunction with the ordinary pastors ; and there was good reason for this , to wit , both that the church-guides might know that apostolick power was not always to continue among them , and that they might learn the way of church-administrations , which they behoved to exercise by themselves when the apostles were gone . sect. . another instance is in excommunication , which the apostle injoineth the ordinary eld●rs of the church of corinth to exercise against the incestuous man ; he directeth his injunctions not to a single bishop , but to a company of men , cor. . that they being gathered together should deliver him to satan , vers . , . that they should purge out that old leaven , vers . . that it was their part ( not a single persons part ) to judge the members of the church , vers . . that they should put away the wicked person , vers . . and sp●aking of this sentence , cor. . . he expresly saith it was done by many , and ascribeth the power of forgiving ( i. e. absolving from the sentence of excommunication ) to them , not to one man. what ever different thoughts men may have about this delivering to satan , or about the apostles interest in this action , it is evident that here is church-power adjudging ( which implyeth authority ) exercised by a community . a third , instance of this is , thes. . . where a community not a single person is commanded to note them that were disobedient to paul's admonition in his epistle . this is not to be understood as some take it , of noteing the disobedient person in an epistle , that they should write to paul ; for first , the emphatick particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 put before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 denoteth that epistle , to wit , that the apostle now wrote not an epistle that they should write . secondly , the greek word will not bear that signification 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here used , is note , or set a mark on him ; to signifie , or give notice , is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which word had surely been used if the apostle had intended that they should give notice to him by an epistle of the disobedient . thirdly , he telleth them what should follow on this note ▪ set on the man , and how they should carry towards him when thus noted ; to wit , that they should have no company with him ; this would not follow on their writing about him to the apostle , while no sentence was as yet passed against him , but might rationally follow upon their setting the ignominious mark of excommunication upon him . if then church-discipline , in the apostolick and best times of the church , and especially while the apostles being yet alive , might have exercised it by themselves or their delegates , the evangelists , was yet exercised usually in common , and not by a single bishop ; we have cause to scruple the owning of such an officer in the church . sect. . other arguments from scripture may be brought , but i shall not now insist on them , having maintained some of them against this learned author , in my animadversions on his irenicum . wherefore i shall only add a fifth argument , as a ground of our scruple from some testimonies of the judgment and practice of the primitive church , that succeeded to the apostles . this may the more heighten our scruple , that our brethren lay the stress of their cause on the ancient church ; if we cannot find there sufficient ground for a diocesan bishop , but much to the contrary , they ought not to blame us if we cannot with them own such an office in the church . the first testimony that i bring , is that of jerome , who giveth his judgment of this matter , not obi●er , but of set purpose , as that which was his setled opinion , and that oftner than ●nce . in his epistle to euagrius , where he sharply reproveth some as impudent , that preferred deacons to presbyters , i. e. saith he , to bish●ps , but sheweth at length that bishops and prebyters are the same , for which he citeth , phil. . . act. . . tit. . , , . tim. . . pet. . , . and if any should think little of these testimonies he addeth ; clanget tuba evang●l●j , filius toni●ru , &c. and so citeth , joh. ver . . and . joh. v. . and after he hath shewed the occasion of preferring one presbyter to the rest , he telleth , that notwithstanding of their riches or poverty , greatness or meanness ; the difference of cities where they are , sive romae , sive e●g●bij , sive constantinopoli , &c. they are ejusdem meriti & sacerdotii ; and sheweth that the apostle giving direction to timothy and titus , about ordination of bishops and deacons , saith nothing of presbyters ; because the presbyter is contained in the bishop ; that is , they are the same . what may seem to make against our cause , in this epistle , is , that he saith , quod autem unus electus quem caeteris praeponeretur id in schismatis remedium factum , which he saith was , ne unusquisque ecclesiam ad se trahens , christi ecclesiam rumperet ; which was done , saith he , in alexandria , a marci temporibus . this may well be unde●stood of a moderator of their meetings , who had power of convening the presbyters , least every one might call a meeting of them at his pleasure ; and so breed confusion ; and it must be so understood ; not of a bishop with sole jurisdiction ; unless we will make jerom to contradict the whole strain and design of this epistle . another passage is , quid enim facit episcopus prae●er , ordinationem , quod non facit presbyter : which cannot be understood of ordination , or s●le ordination of presbyters ; for that were to make a material difference between bishop and presbyter ; which is directly contrary to his whole discourse ; but ordination here , must be , ordering of their meetings ; which is the part of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or moderat●r . one might also alledge , that in the writings of this learned father , a passage , obiter set down , is not to be taken notice of , in prejudice of the scope and strain of h●s discourse , tho' they be ●n●●nsistent and might ground this allegation on the account that he giveth of his own writings , and cited also by dr. stillingfl●et , ireniou●● , p. . itaq●e ut simpliciter fatear , legi haec omnia , & in me●●e mea plurima conservans , accito notario , vel mea , vel aliena dictavi , nec ordinis , nec verborum , interdum nec sensuum meinor . sect. . another testimony is also out of jerom , c●mment . in tit. . where he insisteth at length on the same subject , and asserte●h the same opinion as before , idem ergo ( saith he ) presbyter qui episcopus , & antequam diaboli instinctu studia in religione fierent , & diceretur in populis , ego sum pauli , ego appollo , ego cephae ( alluding to the schism mentioned , cor. . not meaning it in particular , as some fansy ) communi presbyterorum concilio ecclesia gubernabatur ; postquam vero unusquisque eos quos baptizaverat suos putabat esse , non christi , toto orbe decretum est , vt unus de presbyteris electis superponeretur reliquis , ad quem omnis ecclesiae cura pertineret , ut schismatum semina tolerentur ; and for proof of the identity of bishop and presbyter , he citeth many scriptures , as above ; and sheweth , that bishop denoteth the office , presbyter the age. he citeth also , heb. . . ibi ( saith he ) equaliter inter plures ecclesiae cura dividitur . and after he sheweth the difference between bishop and presbyter , to be magis consuetudine quam dispositionis dominicae veritate . and in conclusion of that discourse , making a transition to the qualities that the text mentioneth ; saith , videamus igitur qualis presbyter , sive episcopus , ordinandus sit . what jerom saith , toto orbe decretum est , is not to be understood of the decree of an oecumenick council , for no such decree can be produced ; but that this remedy of schism in many places , began then to be thought on ; and it was no wonder that this corruption began then to creep in ; it being then about the end of the fourth century , when jerom wrote . and this remedy jerom declareth was not of god's , but of mans inventing ; and accordingly it succeeded ; for it proved worse than the disease , bringing in tyranny , and overturning christ's institution ; and at last setting up the man of sin. satan gave the occasion to it , as jerom saith ; man gave a being to it , and satan improved it to carry on his designs . the omnis eccle●iae cura , that he mentioneth is inconsistent with the cura inter plures aequaliter divisa , which , he saith , was the way of the gospel ; and therefore either we must make jerom say , that the practice in his days was a direct overturning of christ's institution , and contrary to apostolick practice , which will make the way of the primitive church , and writings of the fathers to be no good commentary upon the institution and way of the apostles times ; and so destroy the argument that our brethren insist most upon for episcopacy ; or we must expound this omnis cura of the extent of it to the whole church , not of the solitude of it in one man , excluding the rest of the presbyters , that he had a special inspection , though he might not exercise discipline by himself . sect. . a third testimony out of jerom , is ep. ad heliodorum , fol. ( mihi ) . speaking of the dignity of a presbyter , and shewing that they have power to consecrate the eucharist ; they have claves regni coelorum & quodammodo diem judicij indicant , and then addeth , illi ( presbytero ) si peccavero , licet tradere me satanae . sure then he is not for sole jurisdiction of a bishop . and this he speaketh of the principle and practice of his time ; which confirmeth what i said before of the meaning of omnis cura ecclesiae . there is yet another place in jerom that is plain to this purpose , ep. ad demet . sunt quos ecclesia reprehendit ; quos interdum abjicit ; in quos nonnunquam episcoporum & clericorum censura desaevit ; which clearly putteth the censures of the church in his days , into the hands of presbyters , and not into the hands of bishops only , whatever priority they had above the other . it is worth our observation , that several popish writers ( as zealous for prelacy as ours are ) confess such light in the writings of jerom to this purpose , that they find no way to answer , but to condemn him of error in this matter . and bellarm. de clericis , lib. . c. . confesseth that sedulius & anselmus ad verbum retulerunt hieronymi sententiam , in comment . in tit. . if any reject the testimony of jerom , because he was a presbyter , and no bishop , i hope they will allow us the like liberty , to reject the testimonies that they bring of them , who themselves were bishops ; and then let them reckon their gain , when the suffrages of the ancients are brought to the poll. sect. . other testimonies i shall mention more briefly . tertul. apolog. c. . speaking of excommunications , and other censures , saith , they are done in the assemblies , and that praesident probati quique seniores . clem. alexandr . stromat . lib. . poenes presbyteros est disciplinae quae homines facit meliores : both these wrote in the beginning of the third century . wherefore discipline in that age was exercised in common , and every assembly had its president , with power of discipline . ambrosius who wrote in the end of the fourth century , when no little deviation had been made from the right way ; yet sheweth the church could not then bear sole jurisdiction ; for a sentence pass'd by syagrius was disliked , quia sine alicujus fratris consilio . but ambrose passing sentence in the same cause , was approved , quia cum fratribus , & consacerdotibus participatum processit , ambros . ep. ad syagrium : and even cyprian , as great an asserter of episcopal primacy , as that age could bear , ep. . . joineth the clergy with the bishop in receiving the lapsed on their repentance . i next adduce the learned and excellent augustine , as a witness of this truth , ep. . ad hieron . quamquam enim honorum vocabula quae jam ecclesiae usu obtinuit episcopus , presbytero major sit : he maketh the bishop major , not lord over the presbyter ; and even that majority , was but by the custom of the church , not divine ordinance , and a custom that had now obtained , was not always . also , lib. quaest . com . he proveth from , tim. . b●shop and presbyter to be one ; and saith , qu●d est enim episcopus nisi presbyter , and this o●eness he further sheweth , because bishops ( such as then were ; to wit , in the beginning of the fifth century , when the order of the church was much changed ) called the presbyters , compresbyteri , but never called the deacons , condiaconi , presbyter and bishop being the same office , but deacons being distinct from them both . the last testimony shall be that of chrysostom , in tim. . homil . . inter episco um atque presbyterum interest fere nihil ; quippe & presbyteris ecclesiae cura permissa est ; & quae de episcopis dicuntur , eae etiam presbyteris congruunt ; sola quippe ordinatione superiores ill● sunt . bellarm. saith that primasius , theophilactus , and oecumenius on that text , teach the same things , and almost in the same words : and the second of these lived in the end of the ninth century ; the last in the tenth or eleventh . the answer that bellarm. giveth to this , is not worth taking notice of ; to wit , chrysost. meaneth , that presbyters have jurisdiction , as bishops have , but only by commission from the bishop : this is directly contrary to the scope of his discourse , which is to shew an identity of them , as they are in themselves . what he alledgeth out of this citation ; that a bishop may ordain , not a presbyter , the learned father's expression will not bear ; for ordination must signifie either the ordination the bishop and presbyter have , whereby they are put in their office , to be different ; which he doth not alledge ; or that the difference between them was only in order , or precedency , not in power or any authority ; or that it was by the ordination , or appointment of the church not christ's institution ; but it can never signifie the power of ordaining ; for then christ ( who was sufficiently a master of words ) would have said , potestate ordinandi , not ordinatione . sect. . i conclude this one ground of scruple at the present episcopacy with considerations ; which tho they be not ●oncludent in themselves , being but humane testimonies ; yet may abate a little of our brethrens confidence in asserting their opinion about bishops , to have always been the sentiments of the catholick church . the , is , that lombard and most of the school-men deny the distinction of bishops and presbyters , lib. . dist . . liter . i. he telleth us that the canons do only mention the orders of presbyters and deacons ; because the primitive church had only these ; and of these only we have the apostles commandment ; the rest were after appointed by the church . and ibid. litera m. he sheweth that the orders of bishop , arch-bishop , &c. the church borrowed from the distinction of the heathen flamins , horum autem disoretio ( saith he ) a gentilibus introducta videtur . both cajetan on tit. . and estius on the place of lombard now cited , deny the divine right of episcopacy . the consideration , is , that the waldenses , albigenses , wickliff and his followers , and all they that under the darkness of popery maintained the same doctrin●s that the protestants now profess , were of a parity among presbyters , and disallowed of diocesan bishops . this is confessed by medina , and is not denyed by bellarm . and any that read what is written of their opinions will acknowledge this ; it is among wickliff's errors imputed to him by tho. waldensis , that in the apostles times there were only orders , priests and deacons , and that a bishop doth not differ from a priest , fuller ch. hist. lib. . cent . . p. . let not any impute this to their persecuted state ; for we know papists have always had their titular bishops , where their religion was suppressed . the third thing that i offer to be considered , is , the observation of spanhemius , a most diligent searcher into the history of the ancient church , in his epitom . isag●g . ad hist. n. t. saeculo . v. . where he moveth a doubt , whether then there was episcopus praeses only in the greater churches ; whether it was only praesidentia ministerii non imperii , as tertul. de pudicitia , c. . or only a reverence to their age , and their conversing with the apostles , and whether it did not with the defection of after ages receive addition . sect . iv. the dr's arguments for episcopacy answered . i return now to the reverend dr. to hear what he will say for this episcopacy that we scruple , on the forementioned grounds . i begin with his first undertaking above mentioned ; to wit , to shew that our diocesan episcopacy is the same in substance which was in the primitive church . and this he laboureth to prove concerning the african churches , in the times of cyprian and augustine , and the church of alexandria in the time of athanasius and of the church of cyprus in the days of theodoret. concerning all this in general ; i make two observations before i come to examine his particular allegations , . that his phrase is ambiguous , that their episcopacy was the same in substance with ours : i wish he had shewed what is that substance of diocesan episcopacy that he findeth in both . i think the substance of our english episcopacy is , that one man hath sole power of ordination and jurisdiction over all the church-officers and members in many congregations ; if he will shew us that in the primitive times , let him rejoice in his argument from antiquity . . the antiquity that the dr. here pretendeth to , is far short of that which himself and others do boast of with a great deal of confidence ; some of them tell us of a clear deduction that they can make of it down from the apostles in all ages without interruption , some make it of more than years standing ; but the dr. here is not pleased to pretend to that . cyprian lived in the third century , athanasius in the fourth , augustine and theodoret in the fifth , and it may easily be granted that there was a great degeneracy in church-discipline and government by that time ; yet that episcopacy was arrived at that heighth that is now in england , even at that time , we deny . sect. . to prove what he had undertaken , he layeth down two observations . . that it was an inviolable rule among them , that but one bishop was to be in one church . i am little concerned in this , though i see no rule for it , except a canon of concil . cabilonens . which was but provincial , and very late , under pope eugenius , about ann. , yet i think it was generally and rationally practised for taking a bishop for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 among the presbyters , ( which i affirm to have been the dialect of those times . ) what needed more bishops than one , seeing all the presbyters of one city might conveniently meet ordinarily for the exercise of discipline . when mr. b. proveth the contrary , he taketh bishop in the apostles sence , and then i affirm with him that there were more bishops in one city , that every assembly for worship had one , if not more . the dr's . argument that he seemeth to glory in , p. . is of no value ; it is , that if more bishops than one could be in a city , the schism of the donatists and novatians might have been prevented ; this is either a great mistake , or somewhat else ; for taking bishops for moderators of presbytery , the bare setting up of two presbyteries , and two moderators could not have prevented these schisms ; and if the church had found it convenient to divide them , retaining the same principles of faith , and about church-order and discipline , there had been no schism : it is most false that these schisms were meerly about the plurality of bishops in a city . the schism of the donatists had its rise at carthage from the ambition of donatus , who opposed the election of cecilianus ; the pretence was , that he had been ordained by a proditor , and that he had admitted another proditor to ecclesiastical office ; cecilianus being tried , and acquitted , both by the emperor and the church in several councils , donatus and his party set up another church , an eldership , and people , in opposition to cecilianus , disclaiming the discipline of cecilianus , and his party , in admiting the lapsed upon repentance , and admitting the wicked as they alledged to the sacraments . so that it is plain , that the schism lay in this , that they set up another church-way and order , and consequentially to that , set up another bishop and presbytery , not beside , but in opposition to that which was before , and that without sufficient reason ; upon the very like occasion did novatus separate from cornelius bishop at rome , and set up a new church on the foresaid grounds . cyprian indeed condemneth novatus , and nullifieth his church-power , because post primum secundus esse non potest ; but this is still to be understood of setting up another bishop , or meeting of presbyters under a president without the authority of the church , or good cause for so doing . it is evident then , that these schisms were built on another foundation than what the dr. supposeth , and that they could not have been prevented if forty bishops had been allowed in a city ; as long as donatus and novatus retained their principles , they would have separated from all bishops and churches that were not of their way ; all that followeth in this his first observation is easily answered in one word , to wit , that all these citations prove no more than this , that where a church was setled , and sufficiently furnished ( whether you take it for a single congregation , or more congregations associate for discipline with a president ) it was not fit for any to disturb that unity by setting up another church , whether of the one , or the other sort mentioned . sect. . his second observation is , that in cities and diocesses which were under the care of one bishop , there were several congregations and altars , and distant places . i contend not about the word diocess , supposing that one president of an assembly of presbyters , with these presbyters might have ruling power over many particular churches ; call that district by what name he will , the matter is not great : our question is not about the name , but the power by which that district was ruled , whether it were in one man or in the body of presbyters . but it is well known that diocess , which now signifieth a church division , did in those days signifie a civil division of the roman empire made by constantine the great , who divided the hundred provinces of the empire into ▪ diocesses , where all africk was but one ; see for this heylin , cosmogr . lib. p. . and it is as well known that diocess did often signifie a parish or people of a parish ; neither do i contend about the word altar , supposing the dr. meaneth , places where the lords supper was celebrated . both origen and arnobius affirm that years after christ , the christians were blamed by the heathens , because they had no altars ; the name of altar was not used in the church till the third century , and not then neither , but figuratively : but the dr. loveth to speak of ancient things in his modern dialect , borrowed from the more corrupted times of the church . sect. . for his observation it self , i shall not contend about it , tho' i think he will hardly answer what is said against it , no evid . for diocess , p. . for it maketh nothing against what i hold , unless he prove that the bishop had the sole power , or had jurisdiction over the presbyters in that district which he calleth a diocess . what he saith that seemeth to be argumentative to this purpose , i shall mind , and no more : the multitude and distance of places that he instanceth ( tho' all were true , the contrary of which the forecited author maketh appear ) will not prove superiority of power in one man ; neither augustine's care for neighbouring places that wanted ministers , either to provide ministers for them , or to baptize them , or do other church acts for them in their need . this proveth neither extension , nor solitude of power ; far less doth cyprian's nameing provincia nostra , in which were many bishops , prove him to have been a metropolitan ; the empire was divided into provinces . if a minister in england should say there are many ministers in our country , it will not prove that they were under his charge . vuler mentioneth cresceus who had bishops under him ; the dr. should have proved that he had sole jurisdiction over them , and all their churches , or that he could act any thing in church matters without them ; and so that he was more than president in their meeting , when they came together about the affairs of the church . these are the goodly arguments from antiquity , by which men think to wreath on our necks the yoak of domination . sect. . he bringeth another proof for his diocesan bishop , sect. . from athanasius his having charge over the church of alexandira ; and these of maraeotis . and . epiphamus saith , that athanasius did often visit neighbour churches , especially those of maraeotis . ans. so have many presbyterian ministers done to neighbouring parishes that were destitute , and yet never pretended to episcopal power over them ; that this was an act of charity , not of episcopal authority appeareth , because epiphamus calleth them neighbour churches , not a part of athanasiu's church , and that he mentioneth other neighbour churches besides these of maraeotis , which athanasius saith were subject to him . next , athanasius saith maraeotis is a region belonging to alexandria , which never had neither bishop nor suffragan in it , but all the churches there are immediately subject to the bishop of alexandria ; but every presbyter is fixed in his particular village . ans. maraeotis or m●ria , as ptolomy calleth it , is a lake not far from alexandria now called lago 〈◊〉 ; i suppose athanasius means the country about that lake , which it seems had then few churches , and christians , and therefore it was very fit they should associate for discipline , with these of alexandria , being very near to it ; their subjection to the bishop of alexandria doth not prove his sole jurisdiction over them , but only that they were so by the association of presbyters , of which the bishop of alexandria was moderator . subj●cton to a bishop in our days signifieth to be under his jurisdiction by himself , because men have set up such bishops ; but it cannot be made to signifie the same in the dialect of these times , unless it were aliunde proved that they were such bishops , which is not done by such an argument as this ; wherefore i deny the drs , third consequence that he draweth from this passage , p. . to wit , that these were under the mediate inspection of the bishop of alexandria , so that the whole government belongeth to him . there is not the lest shadow of reason for such an inference ; his disputation that followeth about the christians of alexandria meet●ng in diverse assemblies , i meddle not with , it is nothing against us , whether it we●e so or otherwise . sect. . the last proof that he bringeth , is out of theodoret , which he saith , is plain enough of it self to shew the great extent of diocesan powe● ; he saith , he had the p●storal charge of . ( he should have said ) churches , and that so many parishes were in his diocess . the dr. insulteth much on this testimony , but without cause ; for . theodoret lived in the fifth century , and we deny not but by that time episcopal ambition had in some places encroached on the government instituted by christ , and which had been kept more intire in former ages . . it is much suspected by learned men , that theodorets epistles are not genuine , and the dr. doth not deny that hereticks had feigned epistles in theodorets name , as leontius saith , which doth darogate much from the credit of these that cannot be well proved to be true . . theodoret doth not say that he had the pastoral charge of these churches , but that he had been pastor in them ; the former expression looketh like a sole power in him , and therefore the dr. thought fit so to vary the phrase ; the other hinteth no more power then is consistant with a party , every minister being a pastor in the churches to whose association he belongeth . . but whatever be in that , this sheweth the extent of theodorets power , as to place or bounds , but doth not prove that he alone exercised that power , and therefore is no proof of a diocesan bishop . sect. . before i proceed , i shall return to examine the doctor 's allegations for diocesan power , p. . which i above referred to this place . he asserteth , that the presbyters and whole church were under the particular care and government of cyprian : this assertion is too big for the proofs that he bringeth for it ; to wit , that cyprian reproveth some of the presbyters for receiving penitents without consulting him , and complaineth of the affront done to his place , as bishop , and dischargeth the like to be done for the future . lucian saith , that the martyrs had agreed that the lapsed should be received on repentance ; but their cause was to be heard before the bishop , and several passages to this purpose . to all which , i. a. by denying the consequence ; cyprian as i cited above , did not take on him to receive the lapsed without the presbyters : will it thence follow that he had no power at all ? but it was solely in them ; even so , that the presbyters ( especially that some of them , as the dr. himself states the case ) might not do it without cyprian , doth not prove that the presbyters , and whole church , were under his government . it amounteth to no more but this , that in a presbytery regularly constituted , especially , where they have devolved the power of calling , and presiding in their meetings on a fixed , and constant moderator , it is very irregular that a part should meet about discipline , without the rest , and particularly , without consulting him whom they have so chosen . beside , i will not deny but cyprian sheweth too much zeal in this cause , and might possibly attempt to stretch his power a little too far , as afterward many did : he was a holy and meek man , but such may be a little too high . to this same purpose are his other citations of moses and maximus , commending cyprian for not being wanting to his office. cyprian's epistle to the clergy of carthage , that the dr. citeth , sheweth there were disorders committed in the matter of receiving the lapsed ; in that not only some presbyters took it on them , without a regular meeting of the whole , but even deacons medled with it , which was out of their way . his citation of the roman clergy commending the martyrs for not taking on them the discipline of the church , is wholly out of the way ; for none ever supposed that every martyr had church-power . that they delayed some parts of discipline till they had a new bishop , proveth as little as the rest ; for it is fit one should moderate in their meetings , and custom had obtained that he should be fixed in that office , which was not from the beginning . cyprians appointing some to visit , when he could not do it by reason of persecution , neither is a precedent for our bishops doing their work by delegates when they are at ease ; nor doth it prove that these did any thing without the presbyters ; that cyprian citeth tu es petrus ; and whatsoever you shall bind , &c. was to very good purpose , when some martyrs invaded the discipline of the church ; and i proveth , that as christ gave the power of the keys to peter , and the rest of the apostles , not to the people ; so he had given it to cyprian and the rest of the presbyters , not to the martyrs . it had been well if tu es petrus had never been more abused . he saith indeed , that the church hath ever been governed by bishops , but the dr. must prove that he meaneth , by bishops alone , as they are distinct and separate from the other presbyters : the rest that followeth , that the bishop is to govern , and give account to god , that he is in the place of christ ; that a church is a people united to a bishop , do all agree very well , either with a congregational bishop , or minister ; or a presbyterian moderator , acting in parity with other presbyters ; and yet these are the herculean arguments from antiquity , that men make such a noise with . sect. . i now proceed with the dr. to the third thing , that he had undertaken ; to wit , to prove , that such an episcopacy as is practised here , and was so in the primitive church , ( this last he supposeth that he hath proved ) is no devisi●g a new species of churches , nor repugnant to any institution of christ. to prove which , sect. . he bringeth some of mr. b's concessions , which i neither yield , nor will vindicate . he bringeth also some arguments of mr. b's to prove that the ordinary governing part of the apostolick office was setled in all ages : wherefore , i must , for a little , leave the dr. and answer these arguments of mr. b's : but first , i take notice , that it is a mistake in the dr. and mr. b. too , to call the governing part of the apostle's office ordinary : for . that is , to suppose the thing in question ; to wit , that it was continued in the church ; that they governed , and preached , is true ; but that officers that after were imployed in governing , or preaching , can claim that power as succeeding to the apostles in any part of their office ; and without other warrant we deny . the apostles governed , and preached by another commission from christ , than men now do ; and that both , as to the manner of it , the one being immediate , the other mediate ; and as to the matter of it , their commission warranted them to do many acts in governing , and preaching , that others have no power to do , as giving authoritative rules to all churches where they came ; ordaining , and censureing every where , going up and down to preach every where , without a call from any church , without being fixed any where ; this power no man can now pretend to : wherefore i say , that min●sters te●ch and rule the church not by vertue of apostolick office , or any part of it committed to them , but by vertue of ano●her office , distinct from that of the apostles which they receive by their ordination . . it is evident that the apostles governing power was not ordinary , because there was an ordinary governing power in the church even in the apostles times , distinct from that of the apostles , and exercised by other men ; tho' in subordination to the apostles governing power . the presbytery did then ordain , they did also excommunicate , as was above shewed , and the apostles directed them so to do ; and sometimes concurred with them , and sometimes they acted without them . sect. . let us now hear mr. b s. arguments , . we read ( sai●h he , christ direct . pt . . question , . p. . ) of the s●●l●ng of that form ( viz. general officers as well as particular ) but we never read of any absolution , discharge , or cessation of the institution . ans. . if this argument have any force , it will pr●ve the continuance of all the extraordinary offices that ever were in the church , prophets , evangelists , workers of miracles , &c. for we read not that ever they were discharged . ans. . it is enough to abolish and discharge that institution , that this office was setled in the persons of some men , immediately by jesus christ himself ; and after their decease , he neither put others in their room immediately by himself , nor gave the church any hint that such a thing should be done ; but instead of that , he hath given sufficient direction for propogating other officers in the church in all ages . argument . if we affirm a cessation without proof , we seem to accuse god of mutabillity , as setling one form of government for one age only , and no longer . ans. i hope mr. b. will not say that a change in gods works , yea , or institutions , doth argue mutability in god , are not all the old testament institutions now changed ? were not prophets , evangelists , men gifted with divers tongues , &c. his institutions , and yet now ceased , and no other proof can be given for their cessation then what we give for the ceasing of apostles . neither do we say they are ceased without proof , that they were by immediate commission from god ; that that now cannot be pretended to , and that the lord hath hinted no other way of continuing such an office in his house , nor that it should be continued , is abundant proof of this cessation . argument . we leave room for audacious wits , accordingly to question other gospel institutions , as pastors , sacraments , &c. and to say that they were but for an age. ans. there is not the least shew of reason for this : for their gospel institutions have more abiding warrant then immediate commission given by christ to some to administer them . argument . . it was general officers that christ promised to be with to the end of the world , ma●h . . . ans. . if this argument prove any thing , it proveth too much ; to wit , that only general officers have that promise which i hope mr. b. will not say . ans. . it was spoken to general officers , but the promise is not made to them alone , but to all that should be imployed in the work of teaching , and baptizing . and these being particularly here mentioned , will prove that there shall be teachers and baptizers to the end of the world ; but not that there shall be general officers , as the metropolitans , &c. that mr. b. dreameth of to the end of the world. sect. . the dr. to improve these arguments of mr. b● . to his purpose , joineth with him the consent of the ages , succeeding the apostles that the apostles did leave successors in the care of government of the churches . aus . who doubteth of that ; but the question is , to whom did the apostles commit this care ? we say to the pastors in common , he saith to diocesan bishops , this we deny that it can be proved , either from any writing or deed of the apostles , or from the consent of the ages next after them ; that the bishops were looked on as succeeding to the appostles in the government of churches ; we deny not ( tho' we deny that they had that office , or any part of it ) but then the question is , whether they alone who in the . or . century began to get the name of bishops appropriate to them , had that government by themselves , or in common with the rest of the presbyters , unless the dr. prove the former , he speaketh not to the point . none hath better proved the contrary of what is here held by the dr. then he himself , iren. p. . to wit , that not bishops alone , but all presbyters succeeded to the apostles , and that by testimonies out of cyprian , ierom , and ignatius . sect. . he undertaketh to prove that the english episcopacy doth not take away the whole power of presbyters , as some alledge : and that therefore it maketh no new species of government from what christ instituted , or was read in the ancient church . we do not alledge that it taketh away the whole power of presbyters , for that were to reduce them into the same order with the rest of the people ; but we say it usurpeth an undue power over them , that neither christ nor the primitive church ever allowed , in taking out of their hand that power of governing the church that they have equal with the bishop ; and in other things to be observed in our progess . in order to makeing out what he alledgeth , he proposeth two things to be enquired into , sect. . first , what power is left to presbyters in our church . . what authority the bishops have ●ver them . for the first , he asserteth their power in reference to the whole body of the church , and that because they have a place in the convocation , where rules of discipline , articles of doctrine , and forms of service are determined . how small a matter this is ( tho' the dr. aggravateth it ) i do with him appeal to any man of understanding who is unbyassed , and who knoweth the constitution of an english convocation ; it consisteth of two houses , in the upper house are only bishops , and let the lower house never so unanimously vote for a thing , they can reject it ; that is , men who by the laws of the gospel , have no more power then any other of near ( so many churchs are reckoned in england ) take to themselves as much power as all these . then for the lower house of the convocation , it is made up of presbyters indeed , as the dr. saith ; but many , if not most of them , such as by no law of christ have more power to sit there than any others have , as deans , arch-deacons , and other cathedral officers ; here also the presbyters are bereaved of that party of power that is their due ; besides that few of the inferior presbyters are admitted , often not above two or four in a diocess . if then their power be not swallowed up by the bishops , and their creatures in the convocation , let any judge : he next proveth the power by the hand that they have in ordination , or giving orders , as he calleth it , to wit , that by the rules of this church ; four presbyters are to asist the bishop , and are to examine the persons to be ordained ( or the bishop in their presence ) and to join the imposition of hands . here also their power is swallowed up , for all the rest have equal power with these four , yea , with the bishop himself , which is wholly taken out of their hands , and managed at the bishops pleasure , who chuseth these four , beside , that this is really , if ever practised , the person is usually examined , or said to be so by the bishops chaplain , and the bishop layeth his hands on him . sect. . next he telleth us what power presbyters have in their particular charges , p. . which he leaveth us to gather from topicks . the epistle that is read at the ordination of a presbyter , to wit , act. . or tim. . what an impertinency ( saith the dr. ) had both these been , if the presbyters power had been swallowed up by the bishop . a goodly argument , some think it a great impertinency , and boldness too , in the face of these scriptures to make a distinction , as to any part of church power , between a presbyter and a bishop . his next topick is , the bishops exhortation at the ordination , where he telleth them of the dignity of the office , and greatness of the charge , calleth them pastors , that they are to teach , premonish and feed , and provide for the lords family , &c. this indeed implyeth their preaching power , but there is not a word of ruling power , which the lord joyned with it , but the bishops do separate them ; and for all this saying over their cold ●esson at the solemnity , the bishops will not suffer the presbyter to preach by vertue of this ordination without license ; so that their ruleing power is taken away , and their preaching power restraine● at the bishops pleasure . this is a crossing of christs institution , who made them equal ; neither is it any more wonder that the bishops practice should cross his own exhortation , then that he should cross the scripture , read on that occasion . his third topick , is the ordained persons oath , to mi●ister word and sacraments , and discipline , as this realm hath received the same . here discipline is pro forma mentioned ; but the following words shew the meaning , for this realm hath not received christ's discipline to be exercised by the officers , into whose hands he put it , but the dr. acknowledgeth little less then i say , when he saith , that the general care of government and discipline is committed to the bishop ; i hope the reader will by this time see , that the presbyters in the church of england , have not all that power left to them that christ gave to his ministers ; and therefore the english episcopacy is another kind of church government , than that which christ instituted , or the purer primitive times knew . sect. . the other thing he proposeth , is , sect. . to shew what authority the bishop hath by his consecration , which he placeth in government , ordination , and censures ; and he saith , the church of england did believe that bishops did succeed the apostles in these parts of their office. this i deny not , but the dr. should have proved that the church of england had ground to believe so . mr. bs. concession will not oblige us to be of the same mind ; that she did believe so , i am not convinced from what he bringeth in proof of it , but the contrary i have proved above , wherefore i shall take no further notice of this section except to examine his notion , p. . on which he seemeth to value himself very highly ; it is that in the apostles times they managed the government of the church themselves , and therefore there was no bishop , but bish●ps , and presbyters were one ; but as the apostles went off , bishops came to be setled in the several churchs , whom the apostles setled some sooner , some later ; if which ( saith he ) we have an incontrouleable evidence in timothy and titus . and by this he would reconcile the different testimonies of antiquity , the succession of bishops from the apostles time being hereby secured , for which irenaeus , tertullian and cyprian stand , and with this consisteth all that jerom , and epiphemus say of the different settlement of churches at first ; to all this i repone these few things . . is is most false that the apostles managed church government by themselves while they lived ; the contrary i have proved , as to ordination , and excommunication in corint● , and th●ssal●ni●a , that these were in the hands of ordinary officers , tho superintended by the apostles . . that they setled bishops any where , either in their own time , or left order for it to be done after their decease , is also false . the incontroullable evidence of it that the dr. talketh of is asserted duro ore ; for he knoweth it is controulled beyond what he or any man can refute , to wit , that tim. and tit. were no diocesan bishops is proved by our writers ; and all the arguments that are brought for their being such , fully answered . this confidence without argument is unbecoming so learned a man , he hinteth an argument for his assertion , to wit , that the care of government was a distinct thing from the office of an evangelist . this we deny , the office of an evangelist was to teach , or govern by a deputation from the apostles ; he saith , th●ir removes do not invalidate this , because while the apostles lived there were no fixed bishops , or but few : i wish he had instanced in one , he confesseth by this tim. and tit. were not such , and for unfixed bishops , we read of none such either in scripture , or antiquity , . neither can this reconcile the testimonies of antiquity as he would have it ; for it doth not answer what jerom , augustine , chrisostom , and others say of the divine institution of parity ; neither is it true that irenaeus , tertulian , and cyprian are for diocesan bishops . sect. . the dr. proceedeth now , sect. . to the third thing that he had undertaken to prove , p. , to wit , that the restraint of discipline in our parochial churchs doth not overthrow their constitution . in this i shall not oppose him , and therefore i shall only consider this matter as a grievance , and consider what he saith in justification of it , and not as a ground of separation , and shall pass over what he saith , that is of that tendency . he saith presbyters have power in admission to the lords supper , because none are to be admitted , but such as are confirmed , or be ready and desirous to be confi●med , and presbyters are judges in that , because they are to send a list of the names of the persons to be confirmed to the bishop , who is to confirm them ; and this , he saith , would ( if rightly observed ) keep as much purity in that ordinance as is pretended to in the separate congregations . ans. this is a poor fence for the table of the lord , for if one be ready to be confirmed , the presbyter cannot keep him back , tho' he was not listed by the presbyter , nor confirmed by the bistop ; and we know many of the worst of men are ready for it : again , when one is confirmed by the presbyters consent , if he prove never so profane or careless , the presbyter cannot debar him ; the bishops confirmation admiteth him , let him do what he will. i hope separate meetings will not admit every one to the lords table that is a church member , when they fall into gross sins . . it is no good way of defending the presbyters power in manageing of christs ordinances , to say that his testimonie is to be taken about admitting persons to an ordinance that christ never instituted ; to wit , confirmation . . this is no great evidence of church authority in the presbyter that his testimony is taken by the bishop in order to admission ; it is the bishop not the presbyter that authoritatively admitteth . . it is an odd way of admission to gods ordinances , not precedented in scripture , nor purer antiquity , that one man should judge of the fitness of a person to be admitted , and another should admitt him ; the bishop must act implicitly , and the presbyter is only his informer , where this way of discipline had its use we know ; the dr. hath yet said nothing to vindicate the power that christ gave to his ministers , or to justifie the discipline of the church of england . sect. . next , sect. . he speaketh of the presbytes power in rejecting these for scandal that have been church members , and sheweth out of the rubrick before the communion , that the parochial ministers may advertise a scandalous sinner not to come to the lords table till he repent and amend , and if he continue obstinate , ●e may repel him from the communion , yet so as within fourteen days he give account to the ordinary . ans. this is far from amounting to the power that christ gave to his minsters , for . by what law of christ is the presbyter accountable to the bishop , more then the bishop is accountable to him ? christ made them equal . . i see no reason why a presbyter by himself should have power to debar any , it should be done by presbyters in common ; the new testament knoweth no such thing as excommunication , either greater or lesser by a single person , except it were by an apostle . but our bishops think they have such a plenitude of power , that they may delegate as much of it as they please to any other person . . i see the dr. is at a stand , what sort of censure this act of the parochial ministers is , it is not the greater excommunication ; and he confesseth p. . that it is not the lesser excommunication used in this church . i deny it not to be a church censure , but it is not such as argueth that power of discipline in the inflicter of it , that christ hath given to all his ministers , to be exercised by them in common . the dr. infereth p. . from the power of the presbyter , that our church doth not deprive them of all the necessary and essential parts of church discipline . but if it deprive them of any such part in which they may not medle , it taketh away that power that christ hath given them ; it is a fine apology for episcopal vsurpation , that they suffer a presbyter as their delegate , and as he will be accountable to them to do some acts that they themselves cannot attend ; whereas christ gave no more power to a bishop , than to any of the presbyters . sect. . mr. b. objecteth to the dr. that it is actionable by law , if a parish minister admonish a person by name , not censured by the ord●nary ; to which the dr. hath two sorry answers . . what need publick admonition by name ? doth the nature of church discipline lie in that ? it is enough it be done privately , and sheweth that augustine bid people examine themselves , and abstain if they saw cause ; and the same augustine saith , that church discipline may be forborn in some cases in a true church . to this i reply , . how will the dr. reconcile this with what he citeth out of the rubrick ; will private dealing with the offender amount to repelling of him from the communion ? . discipline is a publick and authoritative act ; and another thing then , private dealing with a person , the apostle calleth it a rebuking before all , tim. . . and it differeth from preaching , in that by discipline reproofs are applyed to the person , in preaching they are in more general terms : now how this should be without publick nameing the man , i know not . . who doubteth that augustine did well in what the dr. alledgeth ; it must be our practice when discipline is most strictly exercis●d , because discipline cannot reach the secret sins of men : but augustine never thought that therefore discipline was not to be publickly , and personally inflicted on offenders ; and sure discipline may in some cases be forborn , hic & num , without fault , a●d where it is f●ul●ily forborn , it doth nullifie the being of a church ; yet it must not always be forborn . his . answer is , if a restraint be laid on ministers by law , whether the minister ought to admonish publickly , and debar in that case ? reply ; why doth the dr. make the rubrick , and the law thus to clash , especially seeing the common prayers and its rubri●k are setled by law ? and he doth by this fairly yield , that by the constitution of the church of england now established by law , a parish minister hath no power to keep back any from the lords table that hath a mind to come . why then hath he taken so much pains to prove they can do something , and at last conclude that this same thing is just nothing , parturiunt montes . sect. . he frameth an objection to himself , sect. . that the neglects , and abuse of discipline among us , are too great to be justified , and too notorious to be concealed . to this he hath several answers . the . is , that the question is , whether this destroyeth the being of parochial churches ; this i pass , for i think it doth not . the . is , it is easier to complain of this , or separate , then find out a way to remedy it . we propose the scripture remedy ; to wit , to put it into the hands of the pastors of the church in common . the . is , that ther● is not that necessity of church discipline , as in the primitive times , the christian magistrate taking care to punish scandalous offenders , and so to vindicate the honour of the church : and to confirm this , he citeth a passage of king charles the first to the same purpose . thus the drs. zeal for episcopacy is swallowed up in the gulf of erastianism ; to what purpose doth he cite cyprians tu●es petrus , and why hath he pleaded so much for episcopacy , even out of these fathers that lived under christian emperors , as augustine , theodoret , &c. if church discipline be at the magistrates disposal . but i see men will say any thing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; let the dr. answer what our divines have written against erastus , and his followers , proving that the church and republick , are distinct societies , tho made up of the same persons ; that christ hath a visible mediatory kingdom in the world ; that the rules , laws , punishments , and immediate ends of church-state are different . let him no more tell us of the church of england , but of the civil laws of england ; as that which the ordinances of christ are to be dispensed , and ordered by . i shall not digress to refute this assertion ; but men will be apt to think that this principle doth foully reflect upon christ , and his apostles , who gave all their directions about chruch affairs , to church-men , and not to the magistrate . sict . . his fourth answer , is , that excommunication by protestant divines , is not left to a parochial church ; i do not plead for that ; but against putting it into the hand of one man. neither will it hence follow , a parish minister and his elders may exercise no discipline : the protestant divines abroad are not of that mi●d . it is false , that among us a minister ( i mean with his elders ) can only admonish , not repel from the lords supper . why , ( saith he ) may not our ministers be obliged to certifie ●he bishop , as well as theirs to certifie the presbytery . ans. because christ gave no power to a bishop above other presbyters ; and discipline in the apostolick and primitive church , was exercised by a single person . if the dr's principle be true ; i think it is fitter to certifie the justice of peace , than either of both . what he saith of the affrican churches , is answered above . let him prove that a bishop by himself exercised discipline in them . the bishop is often named as the speaker in the presbytery , by the declining of him , is meant declining of them . the inconveniences that he allegeth , by putting excommunication into the hands of a single congregation ; we shun by a prudent reserving of that dreadful ordinance , to a meeting of pastors . but if it were done by the meanest congregational elder-ship , it could hardly be so ill managed , and made so ridiculous and contemptible , as it is now in the hands of bishops , or rather their servants , in england . it is well known how solemn , and terrible it is , as practiced ( which is seldom ) in presbyterian churches ; and how it hath tamed some stout-hearted sinners , without a capias or magistratical power to back it . i wonder why the dr. should use such arguments , as he doth against parochial discipline ; to wit , that there are no certain rules to proceed by ; no determination what faults deserve excommunication ; no method of tryal ; no security against false ●itnesses ; no limitation of causes ; no liberty of appeals , besides multitudes of other inconveniences . sure this author thinketh the bible of little use to the church , without a book of canons ; such reflections on the word of god , are very unbecoming ; a part of which is written on purpose to teach ministers , how to behave themselves in the house of god , tim. . . i hope the dr's more sober thoughts will satisfie him in all these ; and therefore i shall give no more particular answer . but he might have considered , if the bishop have directions for all these in the bible ( and if he have not , his will must be his law ) why may not the classical and congregational presbytery , respective take the help of them . he thinketh a parochial court of judicature ( so he is pleased to speak in the episcopal stile ) would prove more tyranical , than any bishops court. it may be so , if managed by bad men ; but if they keep within the rules they profess to go by , it will seem tyrannical to none but stubborn sinners , whose galled necks cannot bear christ's yoke , and it could never be so grievous to mens persons and estates , as the bishops courts ; for these we medle not with . his fifth answer i say nothing against . sect. . he hath yet a further apology for the want of parochial discipline ; even supposing every one left to their own consciences , as to their fitness for the communion ; he saith , . the greatest offenders abstain of themselves ; and they that come are usually the most devou● . . if debauched persons come , it is upon some awakening of conscience . then both which nothing can be said more contrary to common experience . . he saith , this doth not defile right communicants : that is true ; and therefore it is no cause of separation ; but it is the churches fault , and should be amended . . and . some presbyterian churches , and the church of constantinople were for a time without discipline . this is no imitable example . sect . v. the national constitution of the church of england debated . having now examined what the dr. saith for diocesan episcopacy , i proceed to consider the next ground for separation pleaded by some ; to wit , the national constitution of the church of england . i have above declared , that i look on this as no ground for separation ; yea , nor cause of complaint , if it be taken sano sensu . though i think every organized congregation hath a governing power in it self ; yet this power is not independent , but subordinate to the association of such churches . these associations may be greater or smaller ; one contained in another , and so subordinate to it , as the conveniency of meeting for discipline doth allow ; and because the association of churches in a whole nation , containeth all the churches in it , and may all meet in their representatives , for the governing them all in common . this we own as a national church ; wherefore on this head i have no debate with the dr. except in so far as he is , for national , and provincial officers in this national church , arch●bishops , and bishops , put but provincial and national synods in the place of these , and i shall contend no further . i shall not then medle with the substance of this his discourse ; but only note a few things . sect. . the first thing that i take notice of , is , p. . where the dr. maketh the institution of the apostolick function in the hands of twelve men , to be an argument against churches power of governing themselves . this proveth nothing ; for the ordinary government of the church must be regulated by what the apostles appointed , which is an abiding thing ; not by their own governing the church , which ceased with them . next , p. . he saith , the succession of bishops from the apostles , is , matter of fa●t , attested by the most early , knowing , honest , and impartial witnesses ; which i deny and have disproved . the next remark shall be upon , p. . where he pleadeth for bishops joining together , and becoming one national church ( he shuneth mentioning a primate under , and in whom they unite ) and this he seemeth to vindicate from making way for papal vsurpation , and and universal head of the christian church ; by its being intended for the good of the whole so united , and no ways repugnant to the design of the institution , and not usurping the rights of others , nor assuming more than can be managed . this , he saith , an vniversal pastor must do ; and he therefore mentioneth this , that any one may see that the force of this reasoning will never justifie the papal vsurpation . i cannot , for all this , see , that it is more justifiable , or consistent with christ's institution , to unite a national church under a primate , than to unite the universal church under a pope : save that the one is a further remove from parity that christ instituted , and so a greater evil , than the other ; but magis & minus non variant speciem , to clear this , i shall run over these four qualities that he mentioneth , in their uniting under a primate ; and consider whether they do agree better to him , than to a pope . the first is , it is intended for the good of the whole , so vnited . if we judge by intentions ; no doubt this intention will be pretended to by the papists also ; and is de facto as much pleaded by them , and with as specious pretences . and if we consider the reallity of the thing ; sad experience sheweth , that neither the one nor the other doth conduce to the good of the whole ; but is improved to tyrannizing over mens consciences ; and rending , and harassing the church , for the sake of superstitious concepts of corrupt men. sect. . the second , this vnion is no way repugnant to institution . this he should have proved ; we deny it : let him shew us more institution , or warrant for a metropolitan , than for a pope . if we should own . bishops as successors to the apostles ; yet an arch-bishop , a metropolitan , a patriarch , a pope , must still be beside institution , except the dr. will own an imparity among the apostles , and so be for peters supremacy . the third is , that in this vnion there is no usurping the rights of others . i say , there is , as really as there is in the papacy ; for it is the right of every one of christ's ministers , to govern the church in equallity of power with the rest ; this is taken from them , and put into the hand of a bishop ; and that right that the bishop hath usurped from the presbyters , the primate usurpeth from him , and the pope doth no more but usurp the same from all the metropolitans , and patriarchs , that they had usurped from these under them . the th . is , not assuming more than can be managed . nothing but prejudice could hinder a man of the doctors understanding , to see , that the bishop assumeth more power than he can manage , as really as the primate or the patriarch ; yea , or the pope doth . for as the pope cannot administer the word and sacraments , and discipline of the church to all christians in his own person , no more can a primate to a whole nation , nor a bishop to a diocess consisting of many thousands of people , and hundreds of congregations . and as the bishop can do all this by the parochial clergy , for word , and sacraments , and by his chancellors , archdeacons , &c. for his discipline , such as it is : and as the primate can rule a whole national church , by his and the bishops courts : so can the pope rule all christian people ( ut cunque ) by cardinals , patriarchs , metropolitans , bishops , by his legate , or other officers of his appointment . i challenge the doctor , or any man , to shew such a difference between a national officer , and an oecumenick officer in the church , as maketh one lawful , and the other unlawful . the pope's usurping a plenitude of civil power , and more grosly abusing his pretended church power , will not make this difference . for we speak of a pope and primate as such , abstracted from all accidents of such an officer in the church . sect. . pag. . he seems to expose the framing of church-government too much , to the reason , or rather fansie , of men ; when he saith , that vnion being the best way to preserve the church , ( the preservation of which christ designeth by his institution ) we may reasonably infer , that whatever tendeth to promote this union , and to prevent notable inconveniences , is within the design of the first institution , tho' it be not contained in express words . the papists are dull if they cannot out of this principle hammer out a pope , as well as the doctor can frame a bishop , or arch-bishop : this inference as thus loosly set down , is no way to be admitted ; because christ hath not provided for the unity , and preservation of his church , by leaving it to mens will , or wholly to their reason either ; but by his own institutions to be wisely managed by the officers , that he hath appointed in his house . unity is then to be preserved , divisions and heresies to be prevented by the painful and faithful preaching of the gospel by christs ministers in their several particular charges , by private , and publick instructions , and admonitions : by their joynt concurrence in censuring , and drawing out the sword of discipline against stubborn offenders : these are christs institutions , and will be effectual when he is pleased to bless them ; and this blessing we are to expect on his own appointed means , not on mens devices : but we deny that unity in the church is to be preserved in any way that men in their wisdom think fit , and particularly , that it is to be preserved by setting up arch-bishops , and bishops in the church : these being none of christ's means appointed for that end . it is often seen that means thus devised of men , by crossing of christ's institution , either fail of their end , or by mending one evil make a worse : peace , and unity is sometim●s ( and in the case in hand ) procured to the church , with the bearing down of piety , and shutting out of purity . sect. . i dislike one particle of that definition that he giveth of the national church of england diffusive , p. . to wit , he saith , it is the whole body of christians in this nation , consisting of pastors , and people , agreeing in that faith , government , and worship which are established by the laws of this realm . had he put the word of god inste●d of the laws of this realm , i should have fully assented to this description . but against that particle i have two exceptions . . the civil law is accidental to the church , and is neither a constituent part of its essence , nor a necessary adjunct of it : the church hath been without it , and i hope he will not say , that if the laws were taken away , the church is unchurched for that . . this make●h the church of england , a variable and mutable thing , as the laws of men are , for if presbytery , if anabaptism , if independency , popery , socinianism , and what sort of religion you can name , either as to faith , or worship , or government , were established by law : they that are of that way should then be the church of england ; which is not only absurd , but a dangerous notion in such a critical time as this ( i hope the doctor did not design a fair retreat by this ) if popery ( which god forbid ) should come to be establi●hed by law : the papists were the church of england , and all the ties that men are under to the church of england , by the●r oaths , and subscriptions , should oblige them to be papists ; and all the true sons of the church must turn with the law , as the weather-cock doth with the wind : this is like to be pleasing doctrin to many . but i p●rceive the doctors design by this fine new notion is , to let men see how easily the church of england is distinguished from papists on the one side , and dissenters on the other ; which makes him wonder at them who cannot tell what is meant by the church of england . if men wondred much before , they may wonder far more now , what is meant by the church of england , when they see her painted in so changeable colours , as that she may be one thing now , and another next year , and another the third year , and so on . the scripture placeth the moon under the churches feet , and the twelve stars , apostolick doctrine , on her head , as her cognizance and glory , but the doctor hath advanced the moon to her head , that she must be known by it ; what he will do with the twelve stars i know not . he is more favourable to the papists , and dissenters , they are to be known by their conformity , or nonconformity to scripture ; not to the laws of the land : but if papists or dissenters should happen to get the law on their side , what will that party be that is now the church of england ? it seems the doctor is fond of this notion , for he hath it up again , p. . to the question , how comes it to be one national church : he answereth , because it was received by the common consent of the whole nation in parliament , as other laws of the nation are , and is universally received by all that obey these laws . and thus he cleareth our mists about the church of england . he had debated much with mr. b. owning a christian kingdom , but not a national church ; but here he homologateth all that mr. b. had said , for the parliament owning the faith , maketh a christian kingdom , but it is some other thing that maketh a national church , to wit , the collective body of all the congregations of a nation agreeing in the same faith , and worship , and government , as it is held forth in the word of god. if the doctor say , thi● leaveth room for every party to call themselves the church ; for all pretend to have the word on their side . i answer , this is not to be denied ; for till the lord cure our divisions about truth , and about his ordinances , we are not like to come to a decision of that question , who is the church ? for all congregations are parts of the church ; and these that are nearest to the scripture rule are the truest part of the church : the apostle decided that controversie , who is the circumcision , ( the dialect of some in that time , for who is the church ) not by the laws of men ; but by the truth of god that they owned , phil. . . the doctor hath found out a new mark of the church that b●llarmine hath not , ( though he hath more than enough ) to wit , they that have the law on their side are the church . sect. . he telleth us that the representative church of england is , the bishops and presbyters of this church meeting together according to the laws of this realm to consult , and advise about matters of religion . this is saith not of the convocation at westminster ; but of the consent of both convocations . here i observe , . that the law of the land is so constitutive of a church to this author , that without it there is neither diffusive , nor representative church . then what becometh of the apostolick church , and that of the first years , and of the greek churches under the turk ; yea , and of the protestant church of france , where their prince is not only christian , but most christian ? and yet his law does not favour that church . . i have shewed before that the convocation can make no church national representative : the presbyters , and churches of the nation being so insufficiently represented there . . neither do i understand how the consent of two convocations , that never meet personally together , can be called a church , or national representative church : i thought a church had been a me●ting , not a consent of men : a personal concurrence in some religious acts ; not a mental consent about them : bodies are requisite to make a church , as well as souls . sect. . i ple●d not for mr. b's constitutive regent part of the catholick church ; though an oecumenick counsel , if it could be had , might better challenge that name than the pope ; and i think christs headship over the catholick church d●th not answer to what is debated about , to wit , a visible power , super-intending all the inferiour church powers on earth . we own a catholick , diffusive , visible church ; but wish , rather than hope for one representative ; for we are perswaded , the pope hath no title to such a headship . but the question between him and mr. b. being about a visible representative or regent head of the national church of england : i have shewed that consent cannot stand in this room ; and therefore bringeth in the arch-bishops , bishops , and presbyters summoned by the kings writ , whose conclusions must be enacted by a parliament . against this national head i object , . that it hath no warrant to represent the churches of the nation ; of which before . . he seemeth above to make two such convocations , and so there must either be two churches of england , or the one church of england must be biceps , and so a monster . . this consent or convocation ( call it what you will ) is not a regent head of the church of england , it medleth only with makeing rules for government ( which is none of the churches work , she is only ministerially to execute christs laws ) but doth not govern ; by receiving appeals , censuring the maleversation of inferior ruling churches , inflicting censures , &c. sect. . mr. b. asketh whether the rules that unite the church of england , be divine , or humane . the dr. answereth , sect. . the church is founded on a divine rule ; but requireth a conformity to the rules that she hath appointed , as agreeable to the word of god. this , i conceive is not to answer the question ; he should have told us in which of the two rules their unity lieth : we know that all churches as well as these of new-england , ( which he mentioneth ) if the magistrate own them , have civil priviledges annexed to church orders , but that is still wide from the question , whether these orders be divine , or humane . doth the church , or do the churches of new-england make orders for observing ceremonies in god's worship , devised by man , and place their unity in that ? it remaineth then still , that if the national unity of the church of england , be made by divine rules that either are expresly , or by consequence in scripture we are members of it , and will in all these joyn with it ; but if they place their unity in observing rules that have no warrant from scripture ; if we cannot joyn with them in so doing , we do not separate from them , but they in so far separate from us , and from all the pure churches of christ. sect. . he maintaineth , p. . against one of his opponents , who had objected , that the church had no power to make laws about foederal rules , teaching signs , and symbols , &c. that such a church hath power to appoint rules of order , and decency not repugnant to the word of god , and that all setled churches are for this , i reply . . he doth not answer to the objection : i hope all rules for order , and decency are not about foederal rites , and teaching symbols : ordering the natural circumstances of worship comprehendeth the one , but not the other . . it is false . that all setled churches appoint rules for such order , and decency as consisteth in religious ceremonies , teaching symbols , and such like . . it is also false that all setled churches appoint rules of order , and decency even in the circumstantials of religion ; so as to exclude all from their priviledges , and to incite the magistrate to punish them , who do not conform to these rules ( as he alledgeth ) other churches use to rule by holding forth light , and perswasives , not to impose with rigour and force on the consciences of men : nor do they concern the magistrate , but where some notable violations of the law of god , otherwise not to be restrained , doth require it . . it is a false supposition , that our imposed rules about ceremones , are not repugnant to the word of god ; but this is not the place of that debate . sect . vi. the peoples right of electing their pastors . the last of these four pleas , that the reverend author ranketh under the first head , and which he alledgeth , some make use of for separation , is , that the people are deprived of their right in the choice of their own pastors : this he proceedeth to sect. . i do not make the depriving the people of this power a cause of separation ; though i reckon it a notable grievance , and earnestly desire a redress of it , and pray that the lord may move the hearts of rulers to defend the people in this their right , against them that take it from them . but our work is now to defend this right of the members of the church , against the doctor 's assaults . but before i come to this , i shall shew . what this right is that they have in electing their pastors . . from whom they derive it . . what ground we have to think that they have such a right . sect. . to shew what this right is , i assert , . that the people have no right to bestow the benefice on their pastor ; nor to elect him to it , unless either it be their own gift , or the giver of it hath transferred that power on them . it is election to the office , not to the benefice , that we debate about ; which if the doctor had considered , he might have spared a great deal of his following discourse . it is true , the magistrate ought to provide for the church , so as the person , regularly chosen , may enjoy the benefice ; but if the magistrate please to reserve it to his own disposing , there is no remedy ; the people must either chuse the man that may have the maintenance , if he be tollerably qualified , or they must provide for him themselves . and so when a patron giveth a maintenance on these terms , that he have the chusing of the person who shall enjoy it , the church should either reject it , and provide for their minister another way , or chuse the person that the patron presenteth . but this patronage is a sad grievance to the church , devised in satan's kitchen , saith beza , confess . fid . c. . it is an oppressing of people in their spiritual rights , and in that which concerneth their souls : a greater bondage than if the whole parish were obliged to eat nothing but what the patron pleaseth . and it had been less blame-worthy , if these donors of church livings had kept their gift to themselves , than thus to prelimit the people in that which so nearly concerns their souls ; and to make that but an accessory ( to wit , the charge of souls ) which should be the thing principally minded : as now the living is . . the magistrate , or patrons electing of a minister , may give him a title to the living ; but it can never make him the pastor of such a people , nor fix a relation between him , and them , of pastor , and flock : for it is wholly forreign to the church as a church ; it is a thing of worldly concern , and therefore can never found that relation , which is an institution of christ in his church . . we do not deny , but when the people have chosen a pastor , and the presbytery hath ordained him also , the magistrate may imprison , banish , or otherwise punish him , so as he is consequentially restrained from the exercise of his ministry among that people ; if the man be guilty of a civil crime ( of which the magistrate is judge ) but we deny that this act doth dissolve the ministerial relation between that pastor , and people ; that cannot be done but by the church . we do not so put election into the hand of the multitude , as either to exclude the eldership that is among them ; or to exempt the people from their guidance in this : the eldership ought to regulate this action ; yet so , as it be not done without the consent of the generality . . we are far from saying , that the people by their election , doth make the elected person a minister ; that is done by ordination , which is in the hands of the presbytery . . we do not say , that this elective power of the people is arbitrary , and independent ; they are to be bounded in it by the rules of the gospel , that set forth the qualifications of ministers ; and if they chuse contrary to these , the presbytery may reject the person , and refuse to ordain him . . we deny not but a part of a church , or the whole church , may forfeit this right , as to the present exercise of it , by ignorance , scandal , irreconcileable contentions about the matter , and such like ; in which case the power of election devolveth into the hands of the pastors of the churches associated ; i mean the presbytery . yet , the peoples satisfaction should be endeavoured as much as is possible . . it is the right of the people , which they ought not to be deprived of , nor restrain●d from exercising , ordinarily , nor without singularly weighty cause , to chuse their own pastors , and other church officers . sect. . as to the author of this right in the people , i maintain , that it is neither from the churches determination , nor from any grant from the magistrate ; neither do i plead any law of nature for it : for by divine institution ( which is never contrary to the law of nature ) it was otherwise in the jewish church . and though there be abundant reason for it , it being the priviledge of free corporations , and other societies , to chuse these that are to govern them ; and it being rational , that a corporation , or person , may chuse the lawyer that they will intrust their estates to ; and the physician in whose hand they put their life ; so men should not be imposed upon to entrust the conduct of their souls to a person that they have not confidence in , and whom they cannot chuse for that end . yet , i say , we do not lay the stress of the matter on humane reason , but on gospel institution : i affirm then , that this is the institution of christ ; that it is the order that he hath appointed in the gospel , that people should have liberty to chuse their own pastors , and other church officers . sect. . i am next to shew the grounds that we have to think so . i shall prove this by shewing that it was the constant practice in the church , while the apostles managed the affairs of it , that church officers were chosen by the suffrages of the people ; and i hope it will not be denied , that such practice is declarative of christ's institution . the first argument for it , is from act. . . where though ordination , or appointing , be expressed in our translation , yet the greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; ●ignifieth a chusing by suffrages ; as the manner of the grecians was , by stretching out or lifting up the hand ( for that is the force of the word ) to declare their votes . i deny not that this word is sometimes used figuratively , for potestative mission , the effect , or consequent of election ; and that by one person , withot suffrages , as act. . . yet it is very rare that the word is so used : and it is evident , that the word is most commonly us●d in this sence ; of all the instances that scapula in his lexicon , giveth of the use of this word , not one of them is to the contrary . and it cannot be instanced , that ever this word is used for laying on of hands ; lifting up ( which is the force of the word ) and laying them down , being so opposite , it is not to be imagined that the one should be put for the other . neither is it fit to seek for the figurative signification of the word , when the proper signification may be admitted . it is objected against this use of the word here , that they ordained 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to them , not to themselves , that is , the apostles to the people ordained elders . answ. it cannot be denied , but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used indifferently for them , or themselves ; and why it may not here be understood of themselves , i see not ; so as that here is denoted the action of appointing elders for the people , in which the people had a hand by election , as the word here importeth , and the apostles had a hand by ordination , as can be proved by other scriptures ? but if we should turn 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 them , the sense may run plainly thus ; the apostles appointed by ordination , elders for the people , upon their electing them by suffrages . it is no strange thing in scripture to see divers actions expressed by the same word , where one is the consequent of the other , as is. . . thou hast loved my soul out of the pit of corruption , i.e. delivered it , because thou loved it : also act. . . the patriarchs are said to sell joseph to egypt ; where both their actions , and the actions of the midianites who carried him to egypt , and there sold him , are included in one word . many instances of this kind of synthesis may be seen in gl●ss . philol. sacr. lib. . tract . . p. — it is also objected , that these are said to ordain who commended the people to the lord ; that is , the apostles , and that the apostles are spoken of all along in the nominative case , and not the people ; and therefore they must be the actors meant by this word . answ. we deny not the apostles to be actors meant in this word , as the patriarchs were in the word , selling to egypt , act. . . but we say the peoples action is also included , in the force of the word ; to wit , their voteing by lifting up their hands ; which in no reason can be applied to the apostles , being but two men , the mater needed not such a way of voteing between them . i conclude , this being done 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in every church , the people respective chusing their pastors , and the apostles ordaining them , it is clear to have been generally the practice of these times , and so the institution of chirst . sect. . argument . the apostles were so careful ; yea , rather the lord was so careful , to preserve this right in election or ordinary officers ; that when men for extraordinary work were to be sent forth , the peoples choice was not neglected . hence two were chosen by the multitude , and presented to the lord ; that by lot the lord might chuse one of them to be an apostle successor to judas , act. . . and matthias being chosen by lot , it is said of him , ver . , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he was reckoned by votes , among the apostles , and act. . , . the lord chused barnabus , and paul for a special service ; but he would have the votes of the church for it . if the lord thus condescended to take the present consent in such a matter ; is it fit for bishops or patrons to neglect them , and obtrude men upon them , whether they will or not ? argument d. when ever any extraordinary piece of work ( i mean such as was not daily exercise ) was to be put into the hands of ministers , without a special revelation ; they were chosen to it by the suffrages of the people , as appeareth by . act. . . where judas , and silas are sent to antiech , about carrying the decrees of the synod at jerusalem , and backing them with their doctrine . so cor. . . . some are chosen by the churches to accompany paul in carrying a collection to the jews in judea ; and are called the messengers of the churches . argument th . the deacons were appointed to be chosen by the people , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , also the other church officers see , act. . , . it is a frivolous answer ; that it doth not follow , that they should chuse their pastors , because they may chuse the distributers of their benevolence . for , . both are church officers , instituted by christ : in this then they are alike . . it were a less matter , that people were imposed on in this lesser concern ; than in that of greater consequence ; and if the lord have taken care , that they should be satisfied about the one , much more that they should be satis●ied about the other . sect. . our th . argument , is from the concurrent testimony of the purer primitive times ; which we the rather use , because our brethren lay so much weight on this for the power of bishops , it should not be neglected by them in the matter of election ; and that of other church officers . also , because nothing of church-ord●r is more clearly , and frequently , and unanimously in the writings of the ancients ; nor did longer continue untaken away , even in the degenerate ages of the church ; so that we may reckon patronages , and ob●ruding ministers on the people , among the novelties of popery . i shall in the first place bring some canons of council for this : theoderet mentioneth an epistle from the famous council of nice , to a church in egypt ; in which are these words , dignum est vos potestatem habere & eligendi quem libet & eorum nomine dandi quem clero st. digni . and after , si quum vero con●igerit requiescere in ecclesia , tunc pro vehim honorem defuncti eos quem nuper assumpti st. solummodi si videantur digni , & populus eos elegerit . the synod constantinopolit . in an ep. to damasus , and others , shew that they had ordained nectarius — cuncta decernente pariter civetate , and that they had ordained flavianus , omni ecclesia parriter decernente . hist. inpert . lib. . c. . also , . carthagin . cau . . it is required that a bishop be ordained , cum omni consensu clericorum , & laicorum , & concil . . carthag . can . . nullus ordin●tur clericus sine episcopi examinatione & populi testimonio . also the tenth canon of council . cabilonens ; ( which was in the midle of the seventh century ) hath these words , as they are in caranz . summa concil . signis ep●scopus de quacunque civitate fuerit defunctus , non ab aliis nisi a com . provinicialibus , clero , & civibus suis , alterius habeatur electio sin autem aliter fiet , ejus ordinatio irrita habeatur . here the want of popular election is held to make void ordination . sect. . another sort of testimonies out of antiquity , are the decrees of popes ; it was of old the canon law , that the people should have a hand in el●ction of ministers , bishops , and others . anacletus , who lived very near the apostles time , hath these words in one of his epistles , cum ejectionem summorum sacerdotum sibi pominus reservaverit , eorum electionem tamen benis sacerdotibus & spiritualibus populis concessit ; caelestinus primus ; who lived in the beginning of the fifth century , hath these words , nullus invitis detur episcopus cleri plebis , & ordinis consensus requiratur . galasius about the year decreed , electionem episcopi esse totius ecclesiae . also , stephanus , pecretat . dist . . saith , electionem non solum ad spiritual●s , sed etiam ad paicos pertinere . and l●o magnus , anno . dist . . is plain , and full to this purpose . so gregorius magnus , about . frequently writeth to this purpose . i instance only his letter to scholast●us ; h●rtanum magnitud●nem vestr●m , ut cer●ocantes p●iores vel pl●bem civitatis , de electione alterius sacerdotis cogites , and when in case they found not one , he desireth they may send three to rome , to consult about it , adding quorum & judicio pl●bs tota consentiat . hadriarus , who lived near the end of the eighth century , in an ep. to charlemain , commendeth can●nes olitanos , and saith , at elect●ones he caused to proclaim the consuetudo olitana ; to wit , plebs & clerus ecclesiae illius simul consistens , elegerunt sibi episcopum . sect. . also particular fathers have frequently given their vote for this priviledge of the people . cyprian ep. . often mentioneth his being chosen by the suffrage of the whole church of carthage , and in his ep. de martial . & basilid ; he saith , plebs in sua potestate hab●t eligendi dignos sacerdotes . and he saith , idemvidemus de divina authoritate descendere . and he excuseth himself very carefully , that in a case of necessity , he had chosen aurelius to be reader in the church , without the knowledge , and consent of the people . tertul. apol . cap. . saith of the seniores that preside in their assemblies , that is , the ministers , approbantur suffragiis eorum quos reger●debent . greg. nazianzen ; in a funeral sermon made on his fathers death ; discourseth much of this priviledge of the people , chrysostom . lib. . de sacerdotio , is of the same mind . also , augustine naming eracius , his successor addeth this express caution , si ecclesia consentiat , and declareth , hoc esse receptum provatumque jus & consuetudine , ut tota ecclesia sibi elegat episcopum , aut in ipsum consentiat . hierom ep. ad rustic . monachum , foll . ( . ) cum ad perfectam ae●atem veneris si tamen vita comes fuerit , & ●e vel populis vel pontif●x civitate elegerint agito quae clerici st. he supposeth it as the received practice ; that the people should elect . ambros. ep. . electio & vocatio quae sit a tota ecclesia , vere & certo est divina vocatio ad munus episcopi : many more citations might be added ; but these may suffice , and abundance more may be seen append . ad catalog . test. veritat . where this right of the people is deduced from the days of the apostles , to the eigth century , by testimonies out of all sorts of authors . that author taketh notice of this , as an ordinary clause in many of the epistles , which tinemeras , archbishop of rhemes , in the reign of charlemain ab omnibus debet eligi , cui debet ab omnibus obediri . sect. . i shall now attend to what the learned dr. hath to say in the contrary of this right of the people , so divinely appointed , so anciently , universally , and long approved . he discourseth these three things to this purpose , . what inherent power the people had ▪ . how they came to be devested of it . . whether there be suffic●ent ground to resume it . one would think , that if this power be from christ ; his other two parts of his discourse migh● have been spared : for who then could take it from them ? and they always had a right to resume it , being unjustly deprived of it . as to the first of these , his debate with dr. o. about the peoples church-power , and the government of the church being democri●al , i medle not with ; we plead for this power in them , not all church-power . but he cometh , sect. . to this power of election ; for disproving of which , he undertaketh to make out six things : i shall examine them in order . but i think it had been more to the purpose to have answered the scriptures , and testimonies out of antiquity alledged by the opposites , which he hath not done . the first of these is , that the main ground of the peoples interest was founded on the apostles canon ; that a bishop must be blameless , and of good report , tim. . , . ans. i have produced other grounds , and not made this either the main , or any ground of this right of the people ; for indeed that passage of scripture doth direct the electors ; but doth not determine who should elect. i deny not but some of the ancients made use of that scripture to this purpose , but they made use of others also ; and having established the truth on other grounds , they might well apply this place as spoken to the people , to direct them how to manage that power of el●ction , that the lord had given them . this is a sorry shift to shun the dint of arguments , to pitch on that which is either no argument , or a weak one , and to set up that as the only argument ; and so by beating it down , to triumph . sect. . he bringeth a passage out of clem. on which he taketh a great deal of pains , to make it speak for him contrary to the manifest design of it . the passage is , the apostles , preaching through cities , and countries , did appoint the first fruites ; having made a spiritual tryal of them , to be bishops , and deacons . — the apostles foresaw the contentions that would be about the name of episcopacy ( i. e. saith the dr. about the choice of bishops ) therefore they appointed the persons mentioned , and left the distribution of their office with this instruction ; that as some dyed , other approved men should be chosen into their office : these therefore who were appointed by them , or other eminent men ; the church being therewith all pleased , discharging their office with humility — cannot be justly put out of their office. a man of less learning than the dr. might easily draw the quite contrary conclusion , from these words of clement ; but it will require all his skill , and more too ; to conclude from them against popular election . but thus he argueth ; they were to be appointed by the apostles ; therefore not of the peoples choice . ans. non sequitur : the deacons were appointed by the apostles , act . . yet the people are to look out from among them , i. e. to chuse ; and the apostles to appoint them , i. e. set them apart for their work . many other instances may be given ; yet this argumentation the dr. useth again , pag. . as if it were a mighty argument . he saith , it seems some of the people were contentious , and endeavoured to throw out some of their officers , which occasioned this ep. ans. this ep. is clear , that the people may not cast out their officers , doing their work in humility — but not a word in it against their electing of them , but clearly to the contrary ; in these words , the whole church being therewith well pleased , implyeth , that it is not to be done without them ; and what hand they can have in placing their officers , that doth not amount to election , i know not . he saith , they took this course of purpose to avoid contentions . what course doth he mean ? it cannot be meant of obtruding officers on the church ; for he saith , they must be well pleased . therefore the course must be appointing officers authoritatively by ordination ; who being so appointed , could not be ejected again , quemdiu se bene gesserunt , as appeareth by clem. instancing the blossoming of arons rod , to put an end to the emulation among the tribes ; which was a strife not about election , but about changing of the setled officers of the church . he saith , all that the people had to do , was to give their testimony . clem. saith , they must be well pleased . and it is clear , that that excludeth obtruding ●astors on people , either by patrons , or the magistrate , or bishop . he saith , it seems probable to him , that the reason of the faction among them was , that some represented it as a grievance , that those officers were appointed by others , not chosen by them . why this should seem to him , i know not ; except that prejudice representeth things otherwise than they are ; as coloured spectacles do . it seemeth to me there could be no such thought among the people , because clement supposeth the officers to have been chosen by themselves ; the whole church being well pleased . that these factious men had no objection against the presbyters themselves ; the dr. asserts , but he doth not prove : it is true , clem. supposeth there was no ground for objection ; and therefore they could not be cast out , while they were humble , quiet , ready , and blamless ; but for all that , factious men will find fault , and pick quarrels , with the most innocent men . sect. . he next bringeth cyprian to plead against popular election ; that is , to plead against himself . for he saith , p. . that he requireth no more but their testimony , that it be done , sub populi . assistentis conscientia ; that by their presence , either their faults might be published , or their good acts commended , that so it might appear to be a just , and lawful ordination , which hath been examined by the suffrages of all : and after cyprian saith , it came down from divine tradition , and apostolick practice that a bishop should be chosen , plebe presente ( not by the votes of the people , ( says the doctor . ) one would think all this time , the doctor is secretly undermining his own cause ; and yet will out-face plain light to defend it . doth not cyprian mention the suffrages of all , and yet the doctor maketh him deny them votes ; if their presence , their testimony , commending or publishing the faults of the candidate , their knowledge , and assistance , can consist with patronage , and obtruding of ministers on the people , as a master of a flock setteth a sheepherd over his sheep ( it is one of bellarmin's arguments for the doctor 's conclusion . ) if these do not import the peoples consent to be required ; and so amount to election ; let any indifferent reader judge . it is plain that cyprian not only alloweth the people this power , but maketh it a divine right ; and maketh ordination without it to be unjust , and unlawful : wherefore if we should adhere to cyprian's judgment , there would be few ministers in the church of england ; and so more cause for separation than he is aware of ; but i do not improve his testimony to that end . the doctor , p. . bringeth cyprians testimony , that it belongeth chiefly to the people to refuse the bad , and chuse the good ; and yet hath the brow to say , that this is no more then their testimony ; but if testimony be chusing , we require no more but testimony ; it is nothing to the purpose that lampridius says severus , proposed the names of governors of provinces to the people , to see what they had to say against them ; and that this will not infer popular election of these governors . for . this was never declared to be necessary , and appointing governours unjust or unlawful without it , as it is in our case . . we have proved , that the people have power of suffrage , and of chusing : which was not granted by severus . that origen saith a bishop must be ordained astante populo , is such an argument against us , as sheweth a very weak cause , especially when so learned a man thought better to use it then say nothing . for it is election we speak of , not ordination ; in which we confess , the people have no hand , neither doth origen say , that this ordination could proceed without the peoples being more concerned about the person , than standing by while he was ordained ; and yet even this favour is not granted to the people in england , the bishop will not be at the pains to come to the several parishes to ordain the ministers before the people . sect. . the . thing that the dr. insisteth on is , p. . that the people upon this , assuming the power of elections , caused great disturbance , and disorders in the church . to this i answer in general , . i desire to know on what the people assumed the power of election , whether on christ's institution , or any subsequent ground ; if the latter let him shew it , if the former , it is improper to say they assumed , what was ever their due : the doctor seemeth to speak of it as an act of the people , after that priviledge had been out of their hand for some time . . there is no institution of christ , but inconveniences may follow on it , as long as sinful men have the managing of it : hath none followed on church power in the hands of bishops , and presbyters ? yea , of civil power in the hands of magistrates ; yea , of power of election , in the hands of patrons . it were easie to fill a volume with histories to this purpose : will the doctor thence conclude , that all these should be abolished ? . as few inconveniences can be instanced , as following on the peoples election of their pastors , as of most other things . the doctor instanceth but four in the space of years , that this power of the people lasted unviolated ; and that through all the christian churches . i do not deny but more there might be ; but when so few occurr as observable to a man of so great reading , it saith more against the doctors design , than all these instances say for it . . most of these disturbances fell out by the ambition of bishops influencing the people , and leading them into factions ; and were occasioned by the worldly advantage of episcopacy , in the degenerate state of the church ; and were not to be seen where bishops kept within due bounds , and were in a mean condition ; so that indeed this consideration is more against episcopal grandeur , and imparity , than against popular elections . as is evident from ammian . marcellin ▪ whom the doctor citeth , as the author of that story of a bloody election at rome , when the contest was about damasus , where he sheweth , that they aspired to that bishoprick with all their might , considering how the bishop was enriched , oblationibus matronarum , rode in chariots , were gorgeously attired , fared sumptuously ; and saith , they might have shuned these inconveniences , had they despised this grandeur , and imitated the bishops in the provinces , whose humble carriage , poor fare , and mean habit , commended them to god and good men . . it is worth our observation , that not one of these disorders fell out for years after christ , when the church was in her integrity , and had not degenerated , as she did afterward . . there is a better means of preventing these disturbances , to wit , the magistrate ought to suppress them ; and the rulers of the church ought to regulate elections , and take away the exercise of that power from the unruly , as they take the sacraments , though peoples priviledge , from them that walk unworthy of them . when inconveniences fall in , we must take god's way not our own , to set things right again . sect. . this might suffice for answer to all , the doctors alledgeances on this head ; but further there is not so fair a representation made of matters of fact as need were . for the ●st . instance , the disorder at antioch , it was not as he representeth it , about the chusing of a new bishop to a vacant place ; but about putting an arian bishop ( at least supposed to be so ) into the place of eustathius , who had long been peaceably in that place , and regularly chosen ; but was injuriously deposed by the arians . neither was eustathius chosen at last ( as the doctor saith ) but rid out the storm ; and kept his place against the violent attempts of these hereticks . and therefore this instance is wide from the purpose . the next instance is at caesarea : the person that carried the election was basil , the magistrates , and the worst of the people opposing him . of this nazianzen justly complaineth ; and it cannot be justified ; but cannot infer , that popular elections should be taken away . gregorius nazianzenus's wish to that purpose , is unduly represented ; it was , that the election might be in the hands of the clergy , and the more holy part of the people , and that not only , but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 chiefly . this doth evince that he looketh on the right of election to be in them ; and only wished , that bad men might be deprived of the use of that priviledge ; and so do we , when they abuse it : so it be taken from them orderly . the d. instance is at alexandria , where dioseurus was chosen , and proterius killed . this is a gross mistake , or misrepresentation . it was not at the election ; but long after , yea , proterius's murder was or years after ; beside , it was done , and the sedition raised by hereticks : shall not the church chuse her pastors now , because papists would oppose it , if they be not curbed ? of the th instance i have already spoken ; to wit , that at rome about damasus . what he saith of chrysostom , jerom , and others , complaining of peoples unfitness to judge , doth not prove his point : for all these men were for popular election , as i have shewed above . beside , that the pastor's fitness is to be judged by the ordainers , after the electors have done their part . sect. . his third thing is , p. . that to prevent these inconveniences many bishops were appointed without the choice of the people , and canons were made for regulation of elections . for proof of this , he telleth us , that at alexandria the bishop was not only to be chosen out of the twelve presbyters , but by them , and citeth for this jerome , ep. ad enagrium , severus , and almacintus , and hilarius the deacon . answ. . it is no wo●der the bishop was chosen out of the presbyters , and by them ; for he was their moderator , and had no power over the people , more than the rest had ; as hath been shewed above : if he can prove that he was chosen to be pastor of his particular flock without their consent , that were to the purpose . . this can make nothing for patronages , or the magistrate obtruding a pastor on the people , or a single bishop doing it . . jerom●'s words are , presbyteri unum ex selectum in excelciori gradu collocatum episcopum nominabant ; he saith , not unum a selectum : severus speaketh not a word of the presbyters ●lecting alone : what is said by hilarius of the altering of the custom , is not who should elect ; but that he might be elected either from among the presbyters , or from any place else . what is all this against popular elections ? we find ( saith he ) bishops consecrating others ( in the room of the deceased ) in several church●s , without mention of choice made by the people : and mentioneth several instances . a. a negative testimony in this case signifieth nothing . the election being the constant practise , might well be supposed , but needed not be mentioned . that severus of milevis , and augustine named , their successors is no proof , unless he prove that they were obtruded on the people without their consent : no doubt any man , more the great augustine , may name a minister to the people ; but this taketh not away the peoples free consent or choice ; which the dr. doth not deny to have been had in both these cases . yea , augustine himself took it ill , that severus named his successor , without acquainting the people , and ther●fore in his own case did acquaintthem . sect. . what he alledgeth out of the greek canonists ( whom he doth not name , and so cannot be examined ) that the council of nice took away the power of election from the people ; is inconsistant with the epistle of that same synod above mentioned ; and therefore these canonists are not to be believed : he citeth concil . anti●ch ; to shew that bishops were sometimes consecrated without the consent of the people ; which that council doth not approve ; but rather alloweth the people to reject such a one ; yet they will have him to retain the honour , and office. the words are , si episcopus ordinatus , ad paraeciam minime cui est electus , accesserit , non suo vitio , sed aut axuia cum populus volet — hic & honoris sic & ministerii particeps . — this seemeth to shew the election of the people to be necessary to a mans officiating as their past●r ; whether it go before ordination , or follow after it : the same council , can. . mentioneth the case of a bishop , consecrated , and neglecting to go to his charge ; which the dr. improve●h to shew , that a bishop was not always consecrated in his church . i deny not , that such abuses were committed : the council doth not approve of such a thing ; nor doth it hence follow , that it was ordinary , but rather the contrary ; it is pitty to see the dr. put to such shifts , as to instance gregorius , being made bishop of alexandria before he went thither ; seeing this was done by the arians , and he took possession by military force , and it was disliked by the rest of the eminent persons of the churches . but the main thing that maketh this instance to be inimitable , is , that anastasius was in the place , and by this means expelled . the next instance of basil ordaining euphronius before the peoples consent , was irregular ; but that he behoved to have the peoples consent before he setled there , maketh it wholly impertinent to the thing in hand . nothing can be less to the purpose , than what followeth , of the peoples pititioning the metropolitan to ordain their bishop ; for this supposeth their election of him ; and that the metropolitan had power to refuse him , is no more then we allow to the presbytery , who may reject an unqualified person , tho' chos●n by the people . the dr. is not yet weary of writing beside the purpose , wh●n he telleth us of a canon of the council of laodicea , that a bishop chosen by the people , taking possession without the provincial synod , was to be turned out : we say the same ; because the people may elect ; but the pastors must ordain . this doth not shew ( as he alledgeth ) that the business of election was in the east , brought into the bishops power , but only that the peoples election was not sufficient without the bishops , and other pastors ordination . sect. . he next citeth justinians law ; that the clergy , and better sort of citizens name three to the metropolitan ; whence the dr. inferreth , that the common people were excluded from the election . ans. . justinians law cannot make void the law of god and they that have not given their names to erastus , do think that christ's laws , which are to be declared by his church , and not justinians laws should take place in the church of god. . it is not said they must present three ; but they might do it ; but they might also present two , or but one . . it is not said , that the clergy and better citizens were to elect ; but they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that is , to draw up the decrees , as they were then called , wherein the election was contained . . in another law of justini●n , it is appointed that the election be made by the inhabitants of the city . and i hope he will not impute contradictions to justinian's laws . he next objecteth concil . laodic . can . . he doth not cite the words , and i meet only with the title in these words , deo quod non sit populis concedendum electionent facere eorum quam altaris ministerio sit applicandi . ans. if this be meant of excluding the people wholly , it is inconsistent with other canons above cited , and therefore not to be minded . therefore the meaning must rather be , that the election is not to be left to the rable ; but they are to be assisted , and directed in that action by the presbyters , and better-sort of the people . the second council of nice , is next cited ; but much amiss ; for it is ordination , not election that is restrained to bishops , i. e. not to be done without them ; and election is only taken out of the hand of the magistrate . that second council citeth for conformation of their decree , the fourth can. of concil . nice . . where there is not a word of election by bishops , but only of ordination . he concludeth with concil . constantinop . . can. . carazanze hath it , . whereas the greek church owned but fourteen of these canons ; and the rest are look'd on as a forgery . beside , that council was in the end of the ninth century ; when the bishop of rome had got very high ; and therefore less to be regarded . sect. . the fourth thing the dr. considereth , is , p. . that the magistrate , when christian , did interpose in this , as he judged expedient . ans. we are not against the magistrates interposing ; to repress tumults , assist the oppressed , oppose unpeaceable persons , &c. but the question is , whether the magistrate did take away the election from the people , and did interpose generally ; and when there was no special necessity for his interposing . . we deny not but some mag●strates did interpose against right , and reason ; but quo jure did they do so . but let us hear his instances ; the first is , constantine recommended to the synod , two men to chuse either of them , or whom they should judge fit , without taking notice of the interest of the people . ans. . this is far from taking away the peoples right , to deprive them of the present use of it , on occasion of their dissension . . how doth he prove , that no notice was taken of the peoples interest : that it is not mentioned , is no proof ; it was so universally owned in those days , that it might well be supposed without mention . , yea , the emperour in his ep. to the people of antioch , doth mention it several times , as eus●bius relateth , for he willeth them not to desire the bishop of anti●ch ; but to chuse one according to the custom of the church , as our saviour had d●rected them . his next instance is , in a dissension at constantinople , about paulus , and macedonius . the emperour constantius put them both by ; and put in eusebius of nicomedia . and after his death , when the oxthodox party chused paulus , the emperour put him out by force , and put in macedonius . ans. such instances will be little to the credit of his cause ; for all this was done by a persecuting emperour constantius , for r●oting out the sound faith , and planting arianism ; and was complained of by all the orthodox , as an encroachment on the liberties of the church . what followeth is far short of the point ; to wit , the emperours restoring athenasius , and several other bishops , who had been duly elected and ordained , and by him thrust from their plac●s . next , theodosius would have nectarius made bishop of constantinople , when many of the bishops opposed it . ans. this maketh more against episcopal ordination , than against popular election . but that t●e peoples election was not here impedited , is clear from the synod at ep. cited above , sect. . where the consent of the whole city is mentioned . next , chrysostom was app●inted by the emperour to constantinople , without the people , for palladius doth not mention any consent , but what was subservient to the emperours determination . ans. whether the c●nsent was antecedent or subsequent , if it was , it destroyeth his design . beside , both socrates and sozomen do expresly m●ntion the peoples votes ; and palladius , whom the dr. in this leaneth to , doth not deny them . next , he saith , the emperour would have none of the clergy of constantinople chosen to succeed sinsinnius ; therefore nestorius was brought from antioch . ans. it doth not follow that he was not chos●n by the people ; and the emperour laying this restraint on the people , is only , if at all , exc●sable , because he feared disturbance : such pretences have often given occasion to oppression . his last instance is , proctus was made bishop by the emperours order , before the burial of his successor . ans. it is not proved that the people did not chuse him , yea , the people had chosen him before maximanus his predecessor got the place , and he being now dead , he might enter in without the formality of a new choice . let the reader now judge , whether any orthodox emperour did ever disown this priviledge of the people , either by declaring that the power was not in them , but in himself , or by interposing ordinarily , or without hazard of the civil peace , in the elections of the pastors of the church ; wherefore the dr. in all this hath said nothing , that can conclude against this power of the people . sect. . his fifth consideration , p. . is , that upon the alteration of the government of christendom , there was greater reason for the magistrates interposing th●n before . i suppose by the alteration of the government of christendom ; the reverend author meaneth the breaking of the roman empire , and the setting up of many kingdoms out of it ; which fell out in the latter , and very corrupt times of the church : himself dateth it from the endowment of churches , by the liberality of the northern princes . against this i argue , . this practice being so long after the churches purity began to decay ; and when christian religion was almost destroy'd by the encrease of apostacies , and when princes , and prelates had , as it were divided the spoiles of the church between them ; and robbed the people both of their rights , and many of the ordinances of god , as to the purity of them ; it hath no weight to conclude against the peoples right of election , which they had from christ , and enjoyed in the purer ages of the church , for many centuries of years . if this reasoning have any force , it will make as much for the mass , imagi●s , denying the cup in the lords supper to the people ; and many such things , which i hope the dr. will not argue for ; tho' he unwarily sa●th more for them , than w●●ld have been expected . . he acknowledgeth , p. . that this was obtained by princes by degrees , and indeed it was very late before it became common ; and the power was wholly wrested out of the peoples hands . he confesseth that this way was not always observed in the days of clo●harius in france ( which of them he mea●e●h , i know not ; there were three of that name ; the first of them was about the year . the last a hundred years after ) now if the infancy of this usage was so late , and it grew by degrees ; the adult state of it must be ( as indeed it is ) a very novel device of men to subject religion to their lusts. sect. . . i deny that on that alteration of government in the state , there was either greater reason than before , or any reason , for princes to interpose so in the election of the pastors of the church , as to take it out of the peoples hand . that there was no greater reason then before i prove , both because he cannot shew us such reason ; and also because before this , there were tumults , and confusions , which might require the magistrates interposition ; and also because the christian emperours had as much power over the church in their large dominions , as christian kings could pretend to in their lesser kingdoms . no difference in this can be assigned , either from any grant of christ to the one , more then to the other ; nor from sound reason . that which the dr. bringeth for a reason , is none at all ; to wit , the northern princes endowing churches liberally : for , . did not the emperours so too . co●stantin's liberality was exce●ding great , which occasioned that saying , hodie veninum infusum est in ecclesiam , and yet he laid not out that treasure to purchase the rights that christ had given to his people . . the liberality was no sufficient price to purchase gospel priviledges , from them that christ had granted them to , more than jacobs pottages was for es●us's birth-right . it is a conceit unworthy of a divine , and only fit for simon magus ; that the liberality of princes , or others , to the church , can entitle them to be masters of her priviledges . as there is no more reason now then before , so there neither was , nor is any reason at all , why magistra●es should m●dle with the election of church officers ; because it is the peoples right , by christ's institution , and hath been owned by the church , and the magistrate for many ages , as hath been shewed above . sect. . the dr. saith , that after the solemn assemblies of the people came to be much used , these priviledges ( in election of church-men ) of princes came not only to be confirmed by the consent of the people ; but to be enlarged . this he insisteth much upon af●erward ; alledging that the people of england , by their representatives in parliament , have given away their power of elec●ion , and put it into the hand of the magistrates , bishops , and other patrons . a s. . i deny that the people could give away this right ; it was christ's legacy to them , and not alienable by them . it doth concern their souls , not their temporal estates , and such concerns are not at mens disposal . . i deny that this was done ; people never gave away this right ; it was partly by violence , and partly by fraud , wrested out of their hands ; what he saith of the parliaments giving it away , wherein the people are represented ; is a mistake ; for the people are represented in parliament , as they are members of the body politick ; and they instrust all their worldly interests , and lives , and estates , to them whom they chuse ; and they may dispose of these , by making laws to secure them ; and also to take them away when the publick good doth so require ; but they are not there represented , as they are members of the church ; neither do they , or can they , entrust the parliament with the concerns of their souls , or the church rights , and priviledges : these christ hath made laws about , and no man can make laws about them ; all that men can do in reference to these is ministerial , not magisterial , as acts of parliament are ; it is to declare christ's laws , and to put them in execution ; and christ hath not entrusted kings , nor parliaments with these affairs , but only his ministers ; and the people can entrust no other with them . the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this discourse of the dr's , on which all of it is built , is his confounding of church , and state , with erastus ; which is to mingle heaven and earth . sect. . he saith , the princes obtained by degrees , not only the con●irmation of the election , b●t the liberty of nomination , with a shadow of election by the cl●rgy , and others of the court , as appears by the formula of marculphus . answ. here is plain dealing , both to let us see what fra●dulent ways were used to cheat the people of their right , by leaving a shadow of election , when the substance was taken away ; and also that princes were not in ancient possession of this priviledge , that they behoved by such policies , to wind themselves into : and further , that it is so grosly evil , that princes are ashamed openly to own such a power over the church ; but must thus hide the shame of this practice ; if they have a good title , why leave they a shadow of election ? if not , why do they assume the substance of it ? he ci●eth on the margin , in confirmation of this grant made to kings ; several acts of cou●cils , as concil . aurelian . an. . but this destroyeth his cause , for can. . ( which i suppose is that he aimeth at ) d●th barely name the king ( whose interest in all church matters no man denyeth , so far as the peace of the state is concerned in t●em , ) but expresly requireth the election of the clergy , and people ; and again their consent , and moreover maketh this election a clero & plebe , to be as it is written in the antient canons , concil . aurelan . . can. . doth also expresly mention popular e●ection , and concil aurel●an . . can. . doth require their consent . and concil . aurelian . . can. . requireth a bishop to be ord●ined in his church , to which he was elected decreto : that was the ordinary term for the writing , wherein the peoples election was con●ained . and in all these canons , there is not one word of the magistrate , except in the first , as abovesaid . his concil . tarraco● . i cannot find , concil . tolet. . that he citeth , was in the end of the seventh century ; when corruptions were come to a great height , and it was but provincial , it saith indeed , quoscunque p●testas regia ●l●gerit ; but the peoples election is not exluded , tho not mentioned ; and there is an express salvo ( it is the th . can. ) for the liberty of the provinces , which cannot well be understood , but of the priviledge of the people of the province . sect. . he telleth us of great contests , between the papal , and regal power ; and how the latter prevailed in england , and citeth several acts of parliament ; as of edward th . and others . a●sw . what doth all this prove ? if two contend about a third persons estate , and the one prevail against the other , do●h that give him a title ? we deny that either pope or prince had a right to that they strove about ; and neither possession , ●or acts of parliament can take that right that christ hath given to h●s people , and b●stow it on another . his allegation that the peoples consent is swallowed up in the parliaments act , is answered above . that this right hath been owned in the king from the first planting of christianity in england , is said with more confidence , than any semblance of truth , or shadow of reason : that edward d asserted it in an ep. to clement will not prove it ; men use big words , sometimes instead of strong arguments ; and i believe that his ass●rtion was so far true , that from the beginning of christianity he●e , the pope had not that power which he had claimed , and which the king was debating with him . sect. . he saith , p. . that the right of inferior patronage is justly thought to bear equal da●e with the first settlement of christianity in peace , and quietness . a bold assertion : it must then have begun in the days of constantine the great . his proof of this is , presbyters were setled in country cures , what then ? in the first council of orange , express mention is made of patronage , and it is reserved to the first founders of the churches : if a bishop ( saith the dr. ) built a church on his own land , in another bishop's diocess , yet the right of presenting the clerk was reserved . when first i read this , i could think of no other answer , but that this was far from what was to be proved . christianity was setled in peace long bef●re this time ; for i doubted not of the truth of a citation , made by a man of so much learning , reading , and integrity ; but i now find it is fit we should see with our own eyes ; for in that cano● ( it is the th . the dr ▪ calleth it the th . ) there is no mention , expresly , nor implicite , of patronage , nor presenting of a clerk ; only this favour is reserved to the builder of the church , ut quos desiderat in re sua videre , ipsos ordinetis , in cujus civitatis terri orio est , vel si ordinati jam sint , ipsos habere acquiescat . it is evident that no contest between the people and the bishop is here determined , who should chuse the clerk ; but between the bishop that builded the church , and him in whose di●cess it is built . the builder of the church is to have his desire , as to the officers of the church ; and not the bishop in whose diocess it is ; but it may be rationally thought that the bishop's desire was not to cross christ's institution , nor t●e ancient canons , in depriving the people of the election . such a desire this counc●l could not grant him ; nor is it rational to suppose , that they granted it . but it might be supposed , that t●e builder of the church might more influence the people ( they being his own vassals , or tena●ts ( as we now speak ) then the other bishop , in whose diocess the church was ; and therefore the one is here decreed to have his desire , rather than the other . he saith this was confirmed by concil . arelat . . c. . it is ( mihi ) can. . now let any judge , whether this canon doth affirm any such th●ng , or rather doth not speak plainly for popu●ar election : the words of it are , placuit , in ord●natione episcopi hunc ordinem custodiri ; ut primo loco , ven●litate , vel ambitione , su●inata , ad episcopis nec nominentur ; de quibus clerici vel lai●i cives erga unum eligendi haebe●nt potestate . the relative de quibus , is not diacritick , as if some might be named by the bishops ( which is the only ground on which this canon could be drawn into the dr's design ) for here bishops , ( not a bishop ) are m●n●ioned ; and the choice is of a bish●p ; not a presbyter , of whom a bishop might be a pa●ron ; the relative is then to be understood , vnivers●lit●r , that the clergy and l●ity have the power of chu●ing their bishop , and theref●re the rest of the bishops must not name him . sect. . he bringeth next the constitutions of the emperours zeno , and jusiinian . i have above answered to this ; they were out of their line , when they medled in these matters . the citati●ns t●emselves i cannot examine ; not having the books ; but if they be like what goeth before , it is little matter . he sai●h , this was setl●d also in the west●rn church , as appeareth by the th . council of ●oledo . ans. . this council was held , an. . saith the dr. . saith alstedius ; this was in a time , when corruptions in the church were come to a great height . . in this provincial council were bu●●●xteen bishops : with what face then can it be said , that what they did was brought into the western church ? this it is to speak big words , instead of using strong arguments . . the st . ●anon impowere●h the heirs of founders of churches to prevent dilapidations in those churches . the second impowereth the founder himself ( quum diu in h●c vita supe●stes extiterit ) during life , to have a care of these places , and to offer fit rectors to ●erve in them . where it is to be noted , . that the founder might be p●esumed to be a good man , by his liberality ; and theremore trust might be reposed in him , as to this matter , but his heirs who m●ght be profane , hereticks , or atheists , are not intrusted with a con●ern of that nature , as it is with us : where papists must chuse a minister for protestants , or an atheist or drunkard , &c. . it is not said , that the people shall not chuse , nor must consent , but he was to offer a pastor , which might well consist with the peoples election . all that followeth is nothing but a raking into the dunghil of the latter corruptions of the church , to confirm this right of patronage , i therefore wave it . sect. . he is now arrived at his last consideration , p. . things being thus setled by general consent , and established by laws , there is no ground for the people to resum the liberty of elections . i hope the weight of this is already taken of in the judgment of the unbyassed reader ; that there never was such general consent , nor laws , till the church was quite corrupted , and that these , if they had been , could not take away the peoples right of election ; and therefore they are to own i● still . he giveth three reasons for this assertion . . it was not unalterable . that is deny'd . . no inconvenience can be alledged against the setled way of disposing of livings , but may be remedied by l●w , easier than those which will follow on popular el●ctions in a divided nation . ans. . it is not only inconveniences that we object , but crossing of christ's institution . . the doctor hath nothing in his eye but livi●gs ; it is the pastoral relation that we mind , and the con●ern of souls in it : we desire to know who put the power of disposing of these into the hand● of pa●rons . . we deny his asser●ion ; for though the law will restrain a popish patron from presenting a popish priest that is ope●ly so , yet he may present a protestant in masquerade , or one of the meanest of men for parts , and other qualities of a minister , which it is known they often do ; when yet the law of the land can ha●dly re●ch the man. and a debauched patron may present one who will not reprove him too severely , who yet may have qualifications to satisfie the law. but the dissen●ions that arise among a divided people , may be remedied by church d●scipline ; or if they break out into external disorders by the magistrate . . b●cause ( saith he ) other reformed churches have thought this an unreasonable prete●ce . answ. mens authority must not preponderate with us , against that of christ. he proveth what he saith , . by beza declaiming against popular election . see this in b●z . ep. . answ. beza speaketh only against election by the people , without their church-guides to manage them in that action . the lutheran churches that he next addeth , are no examples to us . their way is much applauded by the church of england men , much more then the way of engl●nd is by them : for as pezel . mel●fic . ●ist . part . p. . observeth , none did more fiercely persecute the exiles in qu. mary's days , than they did in denmark , lubeck , rostoch , and especially at hamburgh . the salvo of the synod of dort shew●th , that they did not allow patronages , but must proceed warily in removing them ; which hath been the case of other churches , but maketh against the doct●r's opinion , not fo● it . that the ministers in france , or the council of state at gen●va , chuse ministers and obtrude them on the people without their consent , we deny . sect. . i have by what is said , preoccupied most of the doctor 's reasons against mr. b. contained sect. . i shall only take notice of a few things . we make void no laws about patronage , but so far as they respect the peoples right of chusing a pastor for their souls ; and thus far they are cassate by the laws of ●hrist : as to temple and tythes ( as he speaks we medle not with laws about them ; only we wish the removing of them , as a gri●vance ; and that rulers would provide for the church in a way that the peoples right of el●ction might not be hindered , nor restrained in its exercise . mr. b. objecteth . p. . that the patron by giving a right to temple and tythes , doth not make the man a minister to that people● souls , and the parliament cannot dispose of peoples souls . the doctor instead of an answer , giveth the meaning of this , that if the people be humersome and factious , they may run after whom they please in opposition to laws . this is ad populum f●l●ras , but no fair way of arguing . the true meaning is , that though the pa●non by law , may give a man a title to the temple and tythes , and the people can neither keep him out of the church , nor deny to pay his dues ; yet the law cannot make him their pastor without their consent . i do not say , they should run after another ; it is fit they should consent to a tolerable person , so imposed on them , for peace sake ; yet it is not the law , but their consent that maketh him their minister : that anabaptists , quak●rs , and papists will put in for a share in this priviledge , is but a m●an objection ; for christ hath given people power to chuse sound pastors , not whom they will. the doctor asketh , whether all must have equal votes ? then the worst , who are the most part will chuse one like themselves . answ. this is to be regulated by the guides of the church , the worst are to be instructed ; yea , and censured , if need be , and if they chuse a bad man , the pastors are not to ordain him . he alledgeth , few are competent judges . answ. many can judge tolerably , and they who cannot , are to be guided by others : but the matter is not wholly left to their judgment , the elected man being to be tryed by the eldership . he enlargeth on the tumul●s , and strifs in popular elections : this hath been abundantly answered above . that the matter is devolved , on a few , doth not take away the right of others , who are willing to be advised by these few . the doctor is as certain that christ never gave people such an unalterable right , as he is , that he designed peace and unity in the church . this certainty is built on no good grounds , and therefore amounteth to no more but fancy . i have shewed ground for a contrary perswasion , and a way that christ hath laid down for peace consistent with this right . sect . vii . of the terms of communion imposed by the church , and first of the liturgy . the reverend author is now at last , sect. . come to that which i reckon the main plea for our withdrawing from the communion of the church of england ; to wit , the terms of communion , that she imposeth on all that shall partake with her in the ordinances of god , which we count unlawful , and therefore cannot submit to them ; the church imposeth them so , as none are permitted to joyn with her who forbear them ; and ther●fore we cannot partake without them . this putteth us on a necessity of forbearing communion with her ; and the necessity of worshipping god , doth not suffer us to live without the ordinances , and thence resulteth a necessity of keeping sep●rate meetings , which our brethren blame us for , and we blame them for for●ing us to it against our will. if these terms of communion , upon due examination prove lawful , we refuse not the blame of separation , which we think as g●eat as they do ; but if they prove unlawful , then doth the blame lie at their door , who impose them . yea , unbyassed men will say , that if the things be but indifferent , and of no necessity , the imposers cannot justifie the imposing of them , when so sad inconvenience followeth upon them . sect. . these terms of communion in particular are , the constant use of the liturgy , and the ceremonies ; which are the cross in baptism , kneeling in the act of receiving the lord's supper , and observing of holy-days , that god hath not appointed . ●●her ceremonies they have , which we also dislike ; but because they are not imposed as terms of communion , we do not here mention them . what is to be said of godfathers , and ●odmothers , in baptism , we shall in its place examine . the doctor excuseth himself from saying any thing about the litu●●y , because it hath la●ely been so very well defended by a divine of this church , ci●eing on his margin , dr. fal●oner's vindication of liturgies , and i for the like cause forbear this debate , or answering dr. falkoner , that having been exceeding well done , anno . by the learned g. f. in his questions between the conformist and nonconformist , truly stated , and briefly discussed ; which the doctor if he had pleased to read the writings on both sides ( the neglect of which he blameth us for ) might have taken notice of before his third edition came out , . but beside that , neither doctor falkoner , nor any other , hath answered what hath been said against the liturgy , and the use of it , in the anatomy of the service-book , interest of words in prayer , smectyminis , jerubbaal's necessity of reformation , and other pieces , to which i refer the reader for satisfaction in this point . although i have made some collections on this subject , yet so much being said by others ; and neither the doctor ( nor any other ) being ple●sed to answer it ; i also shall wave this controversie . only hinting a few of the chief grounds of our scruple in this matter , because the dr. p. , . chargeth his answerers with pretending to scruple , without giving reason for their scruples . sect. . we do not simply , nor generally condemn forms of prayer ; they may be used when that work cannot be tollerably performed without them ; neither do we condemn joyning in such a way of praying even when the man that chuseth that way might and ought to do otherwise : neither do we scruple joyning in the use of the liturgy , meerly because it is imposed by authority . i know we are misrepresented in all these . but . we condemn using of set forms of prayer , either in private , or publick , without such necessity , as that duty cannot be tollerably performed without that help . . we think it unlawful for the church , or any other , to impose on the ministers of the gospel the use of a set form of praying , where there is not absolute necessity . . we think in the present case of the church , there is no such absolute necessity of that imposition , seeing ministers may be had , who are tollerably gifted for their work : and seeing it is christ's institution that none but such should be in the ministery ; and seeing any escapes , or indecencies that can be observed in a ministers administrations , are to be corrected by the discipline of the church ; which is christ's way , not by imposing a liturgy , which is mans way . . we think it unlawful for ministers , who are tollerably gifted for their work , ( and if they be not such , in the judgment of the church , they should lay aside that work , and betake themselves to other callings . ) to submit to such impositions , or to use such forms of prayer . . what is said of forms of prayers , let it be also understood of forms of preaching , administration of sacraments , and exhortations at them , and of other parts of the service of god : here we may rationally except forms of singing praise unto god , and that on two grounds . . the scripture hath furnished the church with such forms for all cases of a soul , and of the church , in the book of psalms , which is not done in prayer , and other admin●strations . so that these forms are not humane , as other forms must be● . the gift of composing spiritual songs , fit to be sung in the church , is not to be expected that it should be commonly given to the pastors of the church , as the gifts of preaching and praying are given . . we think it unlawful for people to joyn in worshipping god , by a frame of service , not instituted , nor warranted in the word of god ; both as to the matter , and as to the manner of it . . the english service book is such a frame of service as is not warranted , nor instituted in the word ; and so it is unlawful for us to joyn in worshipping god by it . sect. . if we can give good reason for the d , th , th , and th , of these assertions , sufficient ground will appear for our scrupling the use of the liturgy , imposed as one of the terms of our communion with the church of england . for the first of these , that men may not impose set forms on gifted ministers . arguments for this are , . there is no warrant for such practice ; if there be , it must be either christ's command , or his permission , or the necessity of it : the first nor second is not alledged , because no such thing can be proved from the word . nor the third , for such a necessity is contrary to our supposition , that the men , so imposed on , are gifted . if it be said , the best gifted may slip into unfit expressions . reply , this unfitness is either tolerable , and so no necessity can arise from that hazard ; or into●erable , and then it is to be cured by christ's means , church discipline , not by the invention of man. . no such imposition , nor usage was ever heard of in the apostolick church , nor in the primitive church for years and more ; and yet there were ministers subject to infirmities , as men now are ; and the worship of god was by them fitly managed . may not the means of securing worship from abuse , serve us that served them ? or will we be wiser and m●re wary than they ? that there was any forms used or imposed in the apostles times , we need not prove , the lord's prayer is no instance to the contrary , it cannot be made appear , that ever it was intended to be a form of words , or used as such . and for the primitive times , it is evident that when constantine would help his souldiers , newly come out of heathenism , with a form he behoved to get some composed , which needed not , had they then been in the church . justin martyr , apol. . p. . edition . paris . giving account of their publick exercises on the lord's day ; to wit , reading scripture , exhortation , prayer , singing , administration of the lord's supper , he saith , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . that is , the minister sendeth up prayers and thanksgivings , as he is able ; then not by book , but his ability as the lord furnished him . tertullian , apol. c. . saith , they prayed in their assemblies , sine monitore , quum de pectore ; and in his book de oratiore , he sheweth that there are many things to be asked according to every ones occasions ; the lord's prayer being laid as a foundation : where the true use of the lord's prayer ( note that by the way ) is hinted ; to wit , to be a directory , not a form. socrates hist. eccles. lib. . c. . which is wholly spent in shewing what diversity of usages was in the primitive times , in divers places ; and how little weight was laid on uniformity ( the great argument for the common-prayer ) hath these words , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . that is generally and every where , in all religions , in prayer , there are not two to be found that agree in one ; which surely must be meant of agreement in the same words . sect. . a third argument for this is , such imposing doth thwart one great design of prayer in publick , which is to lay out before the lord all the several cases of the people , or the church ; their sins , and wants ; which do so vary , that no book can suit them all ; i am sure ours doth not . if it be answer●d , th●s design may be answered by leaving a liberty to minist●rs sometimes , as af●er sermon 〈◊〉 use their gifts . i reply , that this l●berty doth frustrate the design of set prayer , which is to prevent venting of error , and indecency , is not that hazard in permitting prayer after sermon , as well as at other times : wherefore either this imposing must shut out all prayer ; or it is a needless thing , and so unlawful in the church . argument . imposing set forms on the ministers of the gospel , is a restraining , if not making void the charismata , the gifts of the spirit that the lord hath furnished his ministers with , for the benefit of the church . for clearing and confirming this argument , i offer these considerations . . the lord hath furnished his church with gifts that are needful for her edification . there was a large pouring out of the spirit at first , act. . . and tho' that degree and manner , and some of the uses of it , be ceased ; yet the thing it self shall never cease , isa. . . for without the gifts of the spirit , the church could not subsist , cor. . . it is by the holy ghost that we must profess christ , preach him , pray in his name , &c. hence christ sent the spirit in his own room , when he left off to manage the affairs of the church in his person , as he had done on earth in the days of his humiliation ; and the spirit is on this account called by the ancients vicarius christs . . the gifts of the spirit are particularly given to the ministers of the gospel , for assisting them to manage their work for the churches advantage : for these gifts are mentioned with reference to them , and their work , and the fruit of their work ; as is clear , eph. . , , . cor. . . with . — having discussed of diversity of gifts , the apostle there sheweth to whom especially they are given . . the ordinary ministers of the gospel , have their interest in these gifts , and a share of them ( tho' differently ) as well as the extraordinary : for both sorts are mentioned in both the places last cited . sect. . . the spirit is given to ministers , and people ; as for other supplies , so to assist them in right managing the work of prayer ; and that not only to assist as to the manner of praying , or praying graces , and affections ; but as to the matter of prayer , to furnish the mind with fit and pertinent p●tions , rom. . . the spirit not only helpeth our infirmities by making intercession with groans , but on account that we know not what to pray for as we ought . the spirit also giveth utterance , act. . . cor. . . . it is the will of jesus christ , that his ministers should make use of the gifts that he hath given for their proper ends ; to wit , the edification of the church , that they should pray for them , improve them , and use them ; yea , lean to the help of the spirit , not to the book for helping their infirmities . this is clear from , rom. . . tim. . . ministers must give account to their master , of the use and improvement of their gifts : this is clear , not only from the parable mat. . . tho' theologica parabolica is said not to be argumentativa ; yet none denyeth , that an argument may be brought from the scope of a parable ; which here is to shew , that god will reckon with men about their using , and improving what he entrusteth them with . but the thing is evident of it self ; for this giving of gifts to men , cannot be imagined to be , that men may use them or not , as they will ; or as other men will ; but for the ends they were given for . . it is christ's appointment , that none should be in the ministery , but gifted men : they must be apt to teach , tim. . . that is fit for their work , in all the parts of it . . the imposing of set forms doth hinder the exercise of the gifts that ministers have received , and so hindereth that edification , that the church should receive by that means . this cannot be denyed , when ever they use set forms ; there is no use of these gifts . all these put together , may warrant us to conclude , that imposing of set forms on ministers of the gospel , is a restraining ; yea , in a great measure , a making void , of these gifts that are given them to profit with all . i conclude this with the opinion of wickliff , that to bind men to set and prescript forms of prayers , doth derogate from that liberty that christ hath given them . full. ch. hist. lib. . cent . . pag. . sect. . the proof of the second thing that i undertake ; to wit , that it is unlawful for ministers to submit to such a restraining of their gifts by such impositions as was mentioned . it followeth from what hath been already discoursed ; all the arguments for the former assertion do also prove this , for they ought not to worship god in a manner , that is neither warranted by any necessity , nor by christ's allowance , that were to worship god by the prescript of mans will alone . neither is it lawful to serve god in the way , that the apostate used used ; but was never used by the church in her best times : nor ought we to cross the design of prayer by our way of praying ; nor to make void the gifts given to profit the church by . all which , this way of being tied up to set ●orms , hath been proved to be guilty of . sect. . the next thing to be proved , is ●ur sixth proposition ; to wit , that it is unlawful to worship god by a frame of service , that is not warranted in the word , both as to its matter , and manner . this i prove , . from christ's condemning the traditions of men as vain worship , mat. . . they taught these traditions , e. i. saith lucas burgensis , in locum ; they followed them , and taught others to follow them . the same author calleth these mens traditions , that , are so of men ; that they are not of god ; or are devised , by man , ibid. so also vat●blus , erasmus , maldonate , tirinus , piscator , calvin and chemintius say , here is meant , whatever is brought into religion without the word . now it is mani●est , that a frame of divine service , not warranted in the word , falleth under this general head . . the lord condemneth all worship offered up to him , that he hath not commanded , jer. . . where not being commanded , but devised by men , is made the ground on which that practice ( though otherwise evil also ) is condemned . and jeroboam's frame and way of service is condemned , because devised ( heb. created ) of his own heart , king. . . . even reason teacheth that god ought to chuse how he will be honoured , or worshipped by his creatures . he best knoweth what will please him ; and his soveraignty in all things must especially appear in this , that himself is so nearly concerned in . this is a principle so rooted in nature , that among the heathens , they that contrived their liturgies , or ways of worship , behoved to pretend revelation from their gods , to guide them in this . it was never heard of among the more religious heathens , that religion , or the manner of worshipping their gods , was injoined only by mans authority , and devised only by him . yea , in the so much magnified rozary of the virgin mary ; it is alledged , that st. domini●us had it revealed by the virgin her self , that this form of service was most acceptable to her ; and it is added , that she was fittest to chuse what way she would be worshipped : i hope they , and such as symbolize with them , in ordering of the worship of god , will give us leave to say the same of her blessed son. . for the matter of worship , i think it will not be questioned , whether that m●st be appointed by god or not ; otherwise the five popish sacraments , that they have added to christs wo , could not be condemned ; and men might make an● kind of action , as dancing , walking , leaping , to be religious worship . and even the frame , composure , or mode of divine worship should have divine warrant ; otherwise it is not acceptable to god. the lord hath appointed in his house , as acts of his worship , reading scripture , preaching praying , praising , baptism , and the lords supper ; and the service that we offer up to him in our assemblies ; should be an orderly performance of these . but when men devise a frame of service , which is none of these , distinctly and orderly performed ; but all of them confusedly jumbled together , and some modes of their own added to them . this mode or frame of divine worship the lord hath not warranted ; there is no example of it in scripture , nor in the purest and first times of the gospel ; and therefore we ought not to worship god in such a manner . i hope it will not be asserted by our brethren , that it is in the power of the church to cast the divine offices ( as they speak ) into what frame or mould they will ; to make it look like a theatrical show , if they like that way , and think some carnal minds will be taken with it ; and if this be granted ; then it followeth , that there may be a frame of worship unlawful as to the manner of it ; which it may be a sin for people to join in . i do not say , that the order of religious acts in the publick assemblies is fixed ; so as we may not begin either with a psalm or prayer , or exhortation , &c. but there is an order to be observed ; and there may be a sinful swerving from it , which we are obliged to shun . sect. . the last thing to be proved , is , that the liturgy now under debate is unwarranted ; and that it is unlawful to join in worshipping god by it : for this i bring five reasons , . the ordinance of god for reading the word in the assembles of his people , is by this service much perverted ; for the scripture is read in a very corrupt translation ; following the vulgar latin translation , as the papists do , as may be shewed in many instances , where the sense of the hebrew or greek text , is either contradicted , or distorted additions are made to the scripture ; as the th . th . and th . verses of psal. . are not in the hebrew . many chapters of the bible are never read in the church at all ; and instead of them , humane writings : yea , which contain fabulous things , as ecclesiasticus . judith . tobit . much more also of apocripha is read as the word of god. yea , with justling out the word of god. this we judge a depraving of god's ordinance . these apocriphical writings , tho they be not said to be divine scripture ; yet they are so placed with it , and in its stead , and no hint given of their humane original ; that the people cannot but look on them as scripture ; yea , wise men have ground to judge that they were so look'd on by the first contrivers of that frame of service , i mean the papists . some scriptures are so read , as the reading of them with express reference to such occasion , as they are in the book , appropriate to , is an abusing and mis-applying of them ; as on the festivity of michael the archangel , is read , rev. . . as if michael that fought with the dragon , were not christ , but a created angel. . it hath a great and scandalous appearance of superstition ; if superstition it self can be separated from its use in appropriating scriptures to be read , to days , not only ordinary days , but such as they without warrant have separated from other days , and made holy , and restraining ministers from reading such portions of scripture to the people , as suit the present case of them , or of the church , also the appointing one piece to be said in the desk , another at the altar ; one with the ministers face to the people , another with his face to the east , and his back toward the people ; the many changes of postures , sitting , standing , kneeling , bowing , &c. we cannot perswade our selves , that such a mode of worship is appointed by christ , was ever practised in the purer times of the church , or is acceptable to god. sect. . the frame or composure of it is unwarranted , unprecedented in scripture , and the purer antiquity , and unsuitable to so holy an action , as is gospel worship ; as appeareth , in the jumbling of prayer , and reading scripture together ; so many short collects , two or three lines , and then reading ; then another ●crape of prayer , and then of scripture ; also the responds , tossing the service between minister and people , and the clerk and minister ; the mutual salutations ; the letany , of hethenish original ; like o baal hear us , reiterated so often ; and other repeating of the same things so often , as is nauseous to serious worshippers of god : we dare not worship god in a way that is so unlike to any worship , that we read of among his people ; and that is so theatrical and pompous . . several passages in it are not sound ; others have a great appearance of unsoundness ; and others are unwarrantable . there is a prayer , that we with this our brother ( the man to be buried ) and all our brethren departed , may have perfect consummation : where the dead are prayed for ; and it is supposed that every one that dyeth is saved : the words have that appearance ; they pray to be kept from all deadly sin. it hath an hew at least , of approving the distinction of mortal and venial sins : they pray to be delivered from several dangers and afflictions , which there is no more reason to mention in prayer , than there is of other things that are ordinary . sect. . . it is a symbolizing with idolaters , in our manner of worshipping god , which the scripture condemneth , deut. . , . i hope it will not be denyed by our brethren , that the papists are idolaters ; and that this service is a symbolizing with them , is too evident , which may appear , . if we consider the manner and frame of this service , and compare it with the mass : it is true , they differ in that this is in english , that in latin ; and that some parts of the mass are left out ; but otherwise they are as like to one another , as one thing can be to another ; and this was not denyed by our reformers , who professed that their design in retaining this service , was to bring papists to the church ( tho' it proved , after a while , rather a mean of carrying protestants to the mass. ) and king edward th . with the council , did affirm as much in a letter to the rebels in the west , who had risen in defence of popery ; saying , that the service that now they had in english , was almost the same that before they had in latin. and any that readeth the bible , and the mass , and this service , may easily see that there is a far greater simitude between it and the mass , than between it and all the worship of god , that the scripture giveth account of , to have been practiced in the apostolick church . . this may appear , if we consider the original of this service ; it was taken out of several popish books ; the prayers out of the breviary , the sacraments , burial , matrimony , visitation of the sick , out of the ritual : adminstration of the lords supper , out of the m●ss-book ; and consecration of bishops , out of the pontifical ; as any may see , who will be at the pains to compare the books mentioned together . sect. . i know it will be said , that they retain only those parts of those books , that were composed by the orthodox fathers of the church , and used in the primitive times . but this is no sufficient defence ; for , . suppose that frame of worship had so good an original ; yet being now of late so grosly abused to idolatry , and being so like to the idolatrous worship of the papists , rather than like apostolick worship ; and we having departed from that church on good grounds , why should we chuse their way of worship , and in so doing , both differ from the primitive times , especially the apostles times , and from all other reformed churches ? . it is false , that this frame of service was composed by the fathers ; it is indeed said by some , that jerom composed some prayers for the use o● weak christians ; but that he , or any other such , did compose this frame , or any thing like it , is denyed ; and i have proved , that there was no such thing in these times . the prayers were made by gregory the great , anno . or thereabout , other parts were added by other popes ; the responds came not in till many years after . what is commonly talked of the liturgies of the apostles or evangelists , james , peter , matthew , mark , is now so exploded , as learned men among our brethren , do not plead for them . this shall suffice concerning the liturgy , about which more might have been said ; but i have said more than at first i intended . sect . viii . the other terms of communion that they impose , considered . i proceed now to attend the learned dr's discourse , about thes● other terms of communion , that his church imposeth , and we scruple : and first i take notice , that he chargeth his answerers with remaining in generals , and pretending that they judge , they esteem , the terms of communion unlawful ; but bring no particular arguments to prove the unlawfulness of them . he saith , protestants do not do so when they charge the church of rome with unlawful terms of communion . the answer to this is easie , . they were charged with separation , and in answering the dr's sermon , acted the part of defendants ; it was enough for that de●ence , to plead that they did not separate without good ground , and to shew that they scrupled such and such terms of communion , imposed on them by the church . it was not needful in this debate to resume all the controversie about the liturgy and ceremonies . . our party have given abundant proof of the reasonableness of their scrupling at these things ; the books above mentioned against the liturgy , and against the ceremonies ; didoclavius , the author of the book , called the english popish ceremonies ; mr. jeans treasu●e out of rubish , a treatise of divine worship : english puritanism . twelve arguments against ceremonies : smectymn . g. f. questions betwixt conformists and non-conformists , and many other pieces . there is so much said in these , and yet unanswered , that it was needless to repeat what is there said . i must be guilty of the same fault , if it be one ; having at length disputed against the ceremonies , and proved them to be unlawful to be used , in a piece entituled , a vindication of the purity of gospel worship , against mr. geo●ge ritchel , and others . i may without blame referr the reader thither and not repeat what is there written ; provided i leave nothing unanswered , that the dr. hath here said on that subject . . our party do not stand on equal ground with the dr. and his party : neither have we the liberty of the press as they have , nor that immunity to speak out our arguments ; but we are ready to be concluded , by a prison , instead of arguments ; but let not the dr. think our cause is laid low , because our persons , and worldly interests are so . sect. . he resumeth an argument ( out of his sermon ) against our separating ; that there ought to be no separation , where there is agreement in doctrine and substantial parts of worship ; and that this agreement is acknowledged in our case . he saith mr. a. denyeth such agreement both in doctrine ( of this i have given my judgment above , part . s. . section , . also in substantial parts of worship , and alledged the cross in baptism , to be a substantial part of worship : hence the dr. undertaketh , p. . . to shew what he meaneth by substantial parts of worship . . that the cross is not made such . the dr. seemeth to lay some weight on this distinction of parts of worship , to wit ; substantial and circumstantial , or accidental ; and alledgeth that many of us are misled , by not considering it . i much desire the clearing of it , and therefore resolve carefully to observe what he saith , and shall be ready to receive light. he saith , that , the nonconformists great principle is , that what ever was any ways intended or designed for the worship of god , was a real and substantial part of his worship ; and when their adversaries told them , that divine institution was needful to make a part of worship ; they said , that made true worship , but without it an act might be worship , that is , false worship ; and yet they allow'd the application of common circumstances to acts of worship . this subject i have discoursed at large , in the book above cited , cap. . sect . , , . but shall now a little consider , what representation the dr. is pleased to make of our principles . . i know no nonconformist that ever asserted that all that was intended or designed for worship , was worship , either real or substantial ; for they well know , that the meeting-place , the ministers maintenance , the pulpit , communion-table , &c. are designed for worship , and yet are no worship , real nor imaginary , substantial nor accidental , true nor false . if he mean by being designed for worship ; that the person doing such an act , intendeth to worship god by so doing ( which i cannot take to be his meaning ) ; i hope himself will acknowledg that though such a design is needful to make an act of worship acceptable ; yet worship may be without it , else the three children might have fallen down before the image , keeping their intention to themselves , without the guilt of the external act of idolatry . sect. . i observe here , . that the dr. confoundeth his own distinction , by jumbling together the terms of real and substantial worship : to real worship , must be opposed that which is no worship , or but such in imagination : to substantial worship , must be opposed that which is circumstantial , or accidental worship . this is as if we should distinguish eus in substantiam , & accidens ; and speaking of the first member of the division , call it , substantiam , or eus reale , which comprehendeth both substantia and accidens . let the dr. then tell us plainly , whether by substantial worship , he mean all that is really worship , or is truly worship , veritate metaphysica , though it be not so , veritate theologica . and if this be his meaning , what needed such a distinction of worship ? had it not been as easie to deny the ceremonies , in debate , to be worship , or any part of worship , as others of his party do ? what needed he blame the non-conformists for want of clearness and distinction in this matter , when himself hath confounded it ? i see no use of this his clear notion , but to confound the debate , and hide the nakedness of his cause . we say , the ceremonies are parts of worship , though false worship ; others of his party say , they are no worship , but meer circumstances of worship : the dr. will clear the matter , by telling us , that they are accidental worship , but not real nor substantial worship : let any , that hath a cleer sight , judge , whether this be a clearing or a confounding of this matter . sect. . the dr. will now ( p. . ) seriously consider this matter ; because he designeth not to confute , but to convince the non-conformists ; and his work for this end , is , to find out a plain discernable difference between substantial parts of divine worship , and meer accidental appendices ; and this , he saith , may more disintangle scrupulous minds , than the multiplying of arguments , to prove the lawfulness of our ceremonies . i doubt not of the doctor 's good design , in this debate , but he is not very like to attain it by such methods , as is this proposing a distinction to clear the subject in dispute , and then confound the terms ; and then at last , as he doth here , to over-turn it wholly ; for here he calleth the ceremonies , meer accidental appendices of worship ; that is , no worship , nor parts of worship at all . but let him call them what he will , we strive not about names ; we maintain , that they are parts of worship , ( but parts of false worship ) and in such a religious state , as nothing but the institutions of christ can lawfully have ; in that they are used in religion appropriated to it , designed for the honouring of god by them , for the bettering of religious actions , and for the religious end of edifying the souls of them that use them : these qualities are in the ceremonies ; and if these conjoined , do not make an action to be religious , and a part of worship , ( they belonging to no other part of religion ) i know not what can make a thing to be an act of worship ; for to say , that nothing can be a religious act , but what hath divine institution , is to deny , that there can be such a thing as an external act of idolatry , or superstition . sect. . in pursuance of this enquiry , and to find out this plain and discernable difference between substantial parts of worship , and accidental appendices of it : the dr. bringeth several things agreed on both sides ; they are five in number ; i shall not repeat them , nor except against them , save that i wish he had shewed in the second of them , how these things under the law , that by divine institution , became parts of worship , were of themselves ritual , and ceremonial : i rather think that without divine appointment , it was unlawful to use them as rites or ceremonies in gods worship . he cometh now , sect. . to find out the marks of distinction , to satisfie the conscience of the difference between innocent ceremonies , and superstitious parts of divine worship . here is yet another face of our proteus-like distinction , but i wave that , finding that the dr. cannot make it appear , that there is any part of worship that is not substantial and real worship ; and that all that is a part of worship , is , even by him , looked on as superstitious , if it be not appointed by divine authority : for his notion of innocent ceremonies , i apprehend not his meaning by this term , accidental appendices of worship he calleth them before , which also needeth a commentary . if he mean natural circumstances , i know these may be very innocent , and yet not instituted : but a ceremony ( as i have shewed in the before cited vindic. of purit . c. . sect. . ) is properly a thing in statu religioso , or appropriate to religion , but no natural part of worship ; and therefore i see not how it can be innocent , unless instituted : for accidental appendices of worship , if they be any thing beyond natural and necessary circumstances determined by natural or civil custome , i see not how these either can be innocent , unless instituted . i humbly conceive , the dr. hath hitherto brought little light into this controversie , but rather darkness and confusion . sect. . seeing we cannot agree about these notions , let us labour , if we can , to concert the thing . he telleth us of two ways , by which ceremonies may become parts of worship ; . by supposing them to be necessary , and pleasing to god , without a humane law imposing them . . by supposing them unalterable . we need not debate with the dr. whether things become parts of worship , and so superstitious , when not instituted by these two ways or not : but all this discourse is wide from the purpose , unless he make it appear , that no uninstituted thing can be a part of worship , nor superstitious , but by one of these two means : or if we can make it appear , that without both these opinions of men , about the things that they use in worship , without institution , they may be guilty of false worship , or superstition ; which i here do briefly , because i have done it sufficiently , in the place cited against mr. ritshell , who objected the same thing , in defence of the ceremonies , that the dr. now doth . . if this were true , there could be no external act of false worship , without an erroneous opinion of the mind ; but that is absurd , for then a man , who , to shun persecution , should fall down before an idol , and in words and gestures , do all that idolaters do , should not be guilty of the outward act of id●latry ; yea , it would follow , that is , the church should erect a statue , and impose it as a necessary term of communion with her , that her members should once a week kneel before that statue , and pray to god , and then kiss that statue , with a reverend bow , when , mean while , the church declareth that this is not commanded out of an opinion that such kneeling , &c. is antecedently pleasing to god ; nor that this their command is unalterable , nor binding to all ; nor that the things commanded , are unalterable , and so binding ; but only the church judgeth this decent and fit to adorn the other parts of worship : i say in this case , this bowing , should be innocent ceremony , and no act of false worship ; which , i think , will hardly go down with the greatest ceremony-mongers : and , in a word , let us but receive this one principle , that there is no false worship without such opinion , as he mentioneth ; and men may do what they will , and the church impose what she will , in the worship of god , provided they keep a right opinion about the nature of these things ; so that it is no more our concern to look to scripture , that we may learn how to order the external worship of god , but to look to our opinion , that it be not faulty : and by this means , there are few of the ceremonies that ever papists , or heathens used , but a church sound in the faith , and in opinion about superstition , might bring them into the worship of god , which is to open the door for ceremonial worship a little too wide , in the opinion of most sound divines . sect. . another exception i make against the dr. two ways , how an act becometh superstitious , is , let them ( especially the first of them ) be applyed to our ceremonies , and i doubt not , but even what himself hath said , might condemn them ; for however the pliable people that use the ceremonies , because commanded by the church , and see no antecedent necessity , or goodness in them , may by this means be acquitted from superstition ; the church that imposeth them , cannot be so innocent ; for either the church must have reason for this imposition , or none , but , sic volo , sic jubeo , sit pro ratione voluntas . the latter , i hope , the dr. will not say , lest by purging his church of superstition , he make her guilty of as great a crime ; to wit , being lords over god's heritage , and church-tyrants . if he say the former , this reason must be , that these things are needful , that they please god : no , say our adversaries , the churches reason for imposing them , is , she thinketh them decent , and edifying : but doth she not think this decency , and that edification that is by them , to be antecedently pleasing to god , and needful for the church ? if she do not , she acteth by meer will ; if she do , she is guilty of a superstitious opinion , in supposing uninstituted things in vvorship , to be pleasing to god , antecedentally to a humane law ; for if the use of them be pleasing to god , so must the things , out of which that usefulness doth result . and indeed , it may abundantly appear , to the conviction of all unbyassed men , what opinion of the necessity of these ceremonies our bishops have , when they appoint them by their canons , impose them with rigour and severity , punish the neglect of them with such violence ; and when they force them upon the consciences of them , who agree with themselves in all things else ; and when they make such distractions and divisions in the church , rather than lay aside these things . can any man of common sense , whose reason is not fetter'd by prejudice and interest , judge , that men who act so , have no opinion of the antecedent goodness of the ceremonies , or that they do not think them pleasing to god ? he that thinketh otherwise , can think what he will. sect. . i come now to examine what the d● . saith in defence of these two things , which he requireth to make an uncommanded act in worship to be superstitious . the st . is , that it be supposed to be necessary and pleasing to god , and the omission of it unpleasing to god , antecedently to a humane law. all the proof that he bringeth of what he saith , is , that the observations that christ condemned in the pharisees , had no other evil in them , nor were condemned on any other account , but because of this opinion that they had about them , ( as grocius observeth ) that touching any thing unclean , by law , did communicate uncleanness to soul and body , and that washing did cleanse both ; on which supposition , they thought this washing pleasing to god. three things i here reply , before i come to answer the drs. proofs of this his allegation . . all this is nothing to our purpose , unless it can be made appear that christ condemneth only their erroneous opinion , and not the●● practise ; or that they might lawfully have added these religious observations , to these that the lord had appointed in his law , provided they had no opinon of the antecedent necessity of the things which is so far from being proved , that the contrary is evident , for our lord doth expresly condemn the observing of these things mark , . . ye hold the tradition of men , as the washing of pots and cups , and many other such things do ye . their doing , not their thinking only , is condemned ; will any man say , that if any of the pharisees should have laid aside that opinion that the dr. imputeth to them , and look'd on these observations , as of no necessity , antecedent to the tradition of the elders ; and yet observed them carefully and religiously , that such a one had sufficiently complyed with christ's doctrine ? no , surely , for the controversy between the disciples and pharisees , was not about thinking , but about doing ; the disciples not only were not of their opinion , but abstained from their practice . sect. . it is evident from galat. . , . that the apostle condemneth the observation of the old jewish ceremonies , though it is clear , that he is mainly disputeing against their opinion of justification by works , and these among other works ; yet this doth not hinder the practice of these , abstracted from that opinion to be evil , it being expresly condemned ; wherefore it is not enough that our practice , in gods worship , be not built on a bad opinion ; but it self must have warrant from god. . christ in that debate is mainly dealing with the imposers of these ceremonies , the pharisees , who continued that yoak on the people , that their ancestors had laid on them ; and therefore it is no wonder that he took notice of a perverse opinion in them , which moved them so to impose on the people , whereas the people that obeyed , might be moved only by the authority of their guides ; hence he calleth them their traditions , because they continued them , and put new life in them , by their authority . the parallel then still holdeth between our case and theirs , as they behoved to have some undue esteem of these washings that made them impose them with the same ( yea more ) zeal than that with which they enjoyned the ordinances of god ; so there must be in our church-guides , some apprehension of good in the ceremonies more than is meet , that maketh them not only intermix them with divine worship , but impose them with equal ( if not superiour ) zeal , with the ordinances of god. . any variation of their opinion about their washings , from our opinion about our ceremonies , that can be observed , ariseth from the difference that is between their church and ordinances , and ours ; and so cannot make their imposition unlawful , if ours be lawful ; for god had appointed washings , for removing of ceremonial uncleanness , which affected both soul and body ; to wit , at the touching of the dead , or any unclean thing ; and all 〈◊〉 jews knew , that antecedently to the command , no uncleannes●●ould be contracted by these touches , nor removed by these washings . the rabbies , in the apostate state of that church , added such like observations to gods , out of a desire of more ample strictness , and that their purity might be more conspicuous ; knowing well , that before the command , these things were in the same state , that the other things were in , before god's command . just so doth our church ; god hath instituted some ceremonies for his own honour , and edification of his people ; so as we all know , that antecedently to his command , they were indifferent things , as water , bread , and wine ; and the church not content with these , add some other ceremonies , for further honouring of god ; to wit , making his worship more decent , and further edification , stirring up the dull minds of men ; yet protesting , that antecedently to their command , these things are indifferent . is not here an exact parallel ; if it be said , that the rabbies thought the things that they enjoyned , to be comprehended under god's commanded worship , before they enjoyned them ; this is denyed , and the contrary is evident , from christ's reasoning with them ; he all along maketh a distinction between god's command , and their tradition : which they might easily have objected against , if they had pretended a command of god , for the things that they by tradition imposed . sect. . in order to the proving his opinion in this matter , he saith , p. . that , the reason of christ's opposing the pharisees was , not because a thing in it self unnecessary was determined by their superiors , but because of the superstitious opinion that the pharisees had about these washings . here is a wrong state of the question hinted ; we never quarrelled with superiours for determining a thing in it self unnecessary ; we know they may determine this time , and that place of worship , and yet neither of these in it self is necessary , seeing another time or place may do as well . but the question is , whether superiors may determine a thing , that is not at all needful to be determined ? as the habit , gesture , &c. and appropriate this their determination to religious worship , that so it shall be done in worship , though it be not so done in other actions ; and this without warrant from the lord , whom we worship . his proofs , that the pharisees were condemned only because of their superstitious opinion ( and if this only be not understood by the dr. he speaketh not to the point in hand ) are two . from the force of our saviour's reasoning : thus then he argue●● ▪ p. . he proveth that they set up their tradition above the law of god ; as in the vow corban . ( the force of which argument extendeth to all that they observed , because of the tradition of their ancestors ) therefore they thought these things pleasing to god , and that mens consciences were strictly obliged to observe them . this is the sum of the drs. argument . to which the answer is obvious ; to wit , that this doth not at all prove , that the pharisees thought these things obliging , antecedently to their tradition , which is the only thing in question ; christ's reasoning proveth no more , but that they had an undue esteem of their own authority , and did ( upon the matter ) equal it with , if not prefer it , to that of god ; by laying such stress on things that stood meerly on their authority ; but he doth not so much as hint , that they thought these things antecedently obligeing , or that the omitting of them would have defiled the conscience , though there had been no such tradition . is not our case parallel to theirs in this ? vve say , the ceremonies oblige not , there is no sin in not observing them , nor indecency in not using them , antecedently to the law ; so did the pharisees of their washings ; and if they were zealous for their washings , are not ye so , to as great a degree , for your ceremonies when imposed ? what disobedience , ungovernableness , contempt of the worship of god , and indecency in it , are we charged with ? and we are prosecuted with more rigour for neglect of these , than others are for the highest immoralities . is not this to prefer your tradition to god's law ? do not ye make void the law of god , neglecting love , studying unity , mercy , &c. for these your traditions ? sect. . but saith the dr. the pharisees thought a mans conscience defiled , if he did not observe the traditions , as appears by christ's subsequent discourse , shewing what it is that defileth a man , and what not . a. this they thought , only because they had put these things in that state , by their tradition , but never taught that these things would have defiled the man if there had been no such tradition ; and do not our brethren think , that omitting the ceremonies now injoyned , defileth a man ? do they not think the non-conformists have need of repentance and pardon for their non-conformity : if they think not so , why do they so blame , and prosecute them ? the dr. concludeth , p. . that the main thing in question , was , whether this ceremony of washing hands , could be omitted without defileing the conscience , otherwise , saith he , our saviour's conclusion doth not reach the question . this is a great mistake ( though it were no hazard to our cause to grant it ) for this question was but consequential to another ; to wit , whether the church had power to institute ceremonies , such as christ had not instituted ; and then charge people with sin , and not keeping a good conscience , for not observing them : this was the main question , as appeareth by his reproving them for making such traditions , and for bringing the commandments of men into god's worship : our saviours conclusion that he speaketh of ; to wit , his discourse about what defileth a man , is not the thing he first intended to prove ; to wit , by his reproving them for their traditions ; for the conclusion of that argument , is , that men ought not to teach for doctrines , the comman●ments of men , i. e. institute in worship , what christ hath not instituted : but this discourse , about what defileth a man , is a consequence drawn from that conclusion ; to wit , that things , so forbidden , may be forborn without sin ; and that it is transgressing of god's command , not of mans , that defileth the conscience ; wherefore there is no ground for what the dr. saith , that christ condemned them , not meerly with respect to the command of superiours , ( understand a command of superiours bringing into the worship of god , what was not instituted by god ; otherwise , it reacheth not our question ) for condemning the traditions of men , is a condemning meerly with respect to the command of superiors , in that sense . sect. . this next proof is from the general sense of the jews , p. . for this he sheweth , that mr. a. himself quoteth several passages of the talmudists , to prove , that they equalled their traditions , with the commands of god ; and h●nce inferreth , that this was not look't ●n as an indifferent ceremony , but as a thing , whose omission brought guilt on the conscience . the former answer doth fully take away the force of all that he here discourseth ; to wit , the jews thought the conscience defiled by such omission , after the thing was imposed by the authority of the church , not before ; so our prelatists in reference to the ceremonies . wherefore , mr. a. is far from overturning all the rest of his discourse , by this one saying , as the dr. alleadgeth . i well know , what sanctity the rabbies placed in the strict observance of these things , and therefore i contradict none of his citations out of them : but all this sanctity they founded , not only natural , or antecedent goodness of the things observed , but on the great duty of obedience to the orders of the church , in which our brethren are not much inferiour to them . he telleth us , that they said , whosoever disesteemeth this custom , deserveth not only excommunication , but death too : and what less do the prelatists say of omitting the ceremonies , except that it is not yet made death by the law ; though the cruel usage that many have met with on this account , hath brought them to their death . i could tell you of rabbies in the church of e●gland , that talk as high against not observing the ceremonies , as ever the jewish rabbies did against not observing their washings . he admireth , p. . that mr. a. would make people believe , that this was no more but an indifferent ceremony among the jews , and required for order and decency , as our ceremonies are . a. he need not admire , for none of us say so of that washing , when imposed ; and he cannot prove that it was any other but indifferent to them before imposition , as our ceremonies are . that washing was not imposed for order and decency , as our ceremonies are ; a reason of the difference is already given ; to wit , that it was an addition to christ's ceremonies , for taking away uncleanness : ours are an addition to christ's institution , for honouring him , and edifying of souls . sect. . he proceedeth , sect. . to enlarge and enforce this truth , by considering the popish ceremonies , and their opinion of washing away sin , and justification by them . and for this , he citeth many authors , all which pains might have been spared : for this argument doth not at all differ from what he hath said abou● the jews opinion of their washings , and needeth no other answer . all the efficacy that papists attribute to their ceremonies , is consequent to , and dependent on , their being injoyned by the church : none of them say , that they have such efficacy in themselves , and that they attribute , taking away of sin , to them , ariseth from the opinion they have of the merit of good works , which the church of england doth not maintain . the church of england maketh them good works , but denieth their merit ; because she denieth that , even to the works that god hath commanded : the papists do but make them good works also , and that they think them meritorious , is from this their opinion , that all good works are such , and not from an opinion that they can do such feats by any power in themselves , without institution . they ascribe spiritual effects to them , saith he ; so do you to your ceremonies ; as , stirring up of dull minds , engaging the soul to god , &c. i think the cross hath no more efficacy for this , without a divine institution , that it has to drive away devils , as the papists alledge amesius ought not to have been charged with disingenuity , by the doctor , on this ground . he doth not equal the evil of the english ceremonies , with these of rome , but that this church hath no more power to make them religious rites , than that hath to make them causes of grace . he telleth us , pag. . that our church receiveth them no otherwise , than as purged from popish superstition ; and for this , citeth praef. to common-prayer , and can. . answer . neither the dr. nor his church will be condemned , if they may be their own judges ; it is amicum testimonium . i confess they have purged out much popish superstition out of them , but to purge out all , is impossible : the things themselves , as stated in the worship of god , without his institution , being such : whatever the dr. hath gained to his cause , by this discourse , our cause gaineth from it a good argument against the ceremonies ; viz. that these things ( being unnecessary in themselves ) that have been so grosly abused to idolatry and superstition , ought not to be brought into god's worship , by them who abhor that way ; nor indeed , can they without much scandal : but of this , and other arguments , i have treated elsewhere . sect. . his second way , how ceremonies become parts of divine worship , he hath , pag. . viz. if they be supposed to be unalterable , and obligatory to the consciences of all christians : and this he purgeth the church of england from : what is already said , doth abundantly refute this ; for i have shewed that ceremonies may be parts ( tho bad ones ) of worship , without this , and the former too . and indeed , if this were necessary to make them parts of worship , none of the popish ceremonies were such ; for the pope will not part with his power of altering the worship of god , as he pleaseth , more than the english convocation will ▪ and i believe , there was never church in the world , that held , that she could injoyn what god had not injoyned , unalterable , and so as to bind all christians . but still the doctor ( as his cause doth necessitate every defender of it to do ) maketh an inconsistency and irreconcileableness between the opinion of the church about the ceremonies , and their practice , in reference to them : if they be alterable , why will ye rather ruine your brethren , hazard souls , rend the church , than alter them ? if they bind not our consciences , why do ye charge us with sin , for refusing them ? if they bind not all men , why is the worship of other churches so cryed out upon , by many of your church ? sect. . the reverend dr. cometh now , sect. . to examine the charge against the church , and bringeth the arguments of his adversaries , that tend to prove the ceremonies to be parts of worship , and answereth them . it is here to be observed , that the arguments that he mentioneth , are but some of many , that we use against the ceremonies : and these , not they that are most directly against them . mr. a. argueth thus : an outward visible sign of inward invisible grace , whereby a person is dedicated to a profession of , and subjection to the redeemer , is a substantial part of worship . the dr. answereth : an outward visible sign , representing between men , the duty or engagement of another , is no part , much less a substantial part of worship . i know not how this answereth the argument , or to what end it is brought ; for the argument speaketh of a sign dedicating us to the redeemer , the answer of one mans duty to another . i also wonder that the dr. who a little above confounded a real and substantial part of vvorship , should distinguish between some part of it , which is all one with a real part , and a substantial part . for further answer , the dr. distinguisheth a three-fold sign : . representing gods grace to us , as sacraments . . representing mens subjection to god , these are parts of worship . . signs from men to men , to repres●nt some other thing , beside the bare action , and these are significant ceremonies , such as is the cross in baptism , he saith that , after the child is baptised , the cross is used in token that he shall not be ashamed to confess the faith of christ crucified . this sign is made not to god , even as the primitive christians used the sign of the cross as a declarative sign to man ; it in baptism representeth the duty , not the grace ; that is ours , and we appoint the sign for it ; this god's , and he must appoint the sign for it . sect. . to this his answer , i repone . . sacraments do not only represent gods grace to us , but our duty to him ; for they are seals of the covenant , and the covenant is mutual containing a promise of grace from god , and our duty to him ; wherefore , a sacrament , as it sealeth both , doth also represent both . i wonder that the learned dr. for the sake of a few paultery ceremonies , should thus mangle the use of the sacraments of the new testament , when he cannot otherwise defend these ceremonies ; but what will not men do or say to serve a design ? . signs representing our duty to god ; are parts of worship , he acknowledgeth ; he meaneth representing to god that which is our duty . now the dr. should have told us what are these signs that represent our duty to god ; it is like , he meaneth prayer , praises , and such like ; but these do not so much represent to god our duty , as offer it , or pay it to him : when i pay money to a man that i owed him ; this is not a sign representing the mony to him which is his due , but a giving of it to him : and indeed , we cannot without a very unfit catachresis be said to represent to god , by a sign , what is our duty . for , signum ( as augustine defineth it ) est res praeter speciem quam sensibus ingerit aliud aliquid ex se faciens in cognitionem venire . and all acknowledge , that it is essential to the notion of a sign , to bring one to the knowledge of somewhat , which cannot be applyed to god who knoweth all things actually , and intuitively , at all times ; beside , that a sign is a sensible thing , and senses are not to be ascribed to god , and therefore god knoweth not any thing by signs . sect. . . his thoughts seem to run very muddy in managing this distinction ; especially in explaining the third member of it , signs from men to men , representing some other thing than the bare action . vvhat meaneth he by this last clause ? do not all signs represent somewhat beside the bare action , or beside themselves ? so that he here describeth his third member of his distinction , by the general notion of the thing distinguished , which is a great error in logick . . signs are rather to be distinguished by their original , which giveth them a signification , or maketh them representative , than by the persons to whom they hold forth what they signify ; for every sign doth represent the thing signified by it , to all that can discern . hence all who treat of signs , use to distinguish them in natural , customary and instituted , as having their power to signify , or represent somewhat , either from their nature , or from custom , or from institution , or they will of the imposer of the signification ; and this last sort they make to be divine , when they are appointed by god for their use of signifying or representing somewhat , or humane , when they are appointed by man. this distinction of signs giveth some light , but i know no use of the drs. new coined distinction , but to confound the matter and serve a design . now the sacraments are signs instituted by god to represent his grace , and our engagement , and this is represented to our selves , and to all the world ; the other duties wherein we express our subjection to , and dependance on god before all the world , and offer up our acknowledgments of these to him ; these are also appointed by him , and so are parts of vvorship that are acceptable to him ; for the ceremonies , they are meerly humane signs , appointed by man , and therefore they are not acceptable vvorship ; but that they are parts of vvorship , is not from their original , but from the religious state that they are placed in ; they are solemn actions , done in and with the solemn vvorship of god , and so appropriated to it , as that they are not done but in it ; they have all that could make an external act of vvorship , except divine institution ; they are designed for the same uses with true vvorship ; viz. honouring god , and edifying men. on these accounts they are to be accounted parts of vvorship , and want of god's appointment doth not hinder that , otherwise there could be no false vvorship , neither can their signifying to man , what they do signify , hinder it ; for the true vvorship of god doth that as hath been said . sect. . . the dr. seemeth to lay some weight on this , that the cross is used after baptism ; but he will not deny ; . that it is used immediately after it , or rather conjoyned with it , as near as two actions can be to one another . nor , . vvill he deny that it is included in , and not used after the complex action of baptism , which taketh in instruction about the nature of baptism , prayer and thanksgiving ; it is not after all this , and so it is stated in , and mixed with this solemn piece of religious vvorship , and therefore must be a religious thing ; it cannot possibly be a civil right under such circumstances . . it was to no purpose to mention here the antients use of the sign of the cross , for that was in war , or other civil actions , which could have no appearance of making it a religious ceremony . . that the cross in baptism representeth the duty , and not the grace of subjection to the redeemer , doth not hinder it to be a sacramental sign ; ( though we never thought it a sign of grace , as the sacraments are ) for sacraments represent , also our duty , as hath been shewed ; and its being so conjoyned with the sacrament ; maketh a shew as if men would by it represent that grace by which we must subject our selves to the redeemer , which yet they cannot do . vvhen men take upon them to add a new sign to the sacramental sign instituted by christ , for representing the one half of what is represented by christ's sign ; viz. one part of the covenant there sealed which is subjection to , and owning of the redeemer , and put this their sign , in the same religious state with christ's sign , so as there is no difference between them , but the authority by which they are instituted ; it may be warrantably said that they make a sacramental sign , and that they make a new sacrament as far as man can make it . . that we may devise a sign to represent the duty in baptism , because the duty is ours , as god appointeth the sign to represent the grace , because that is his , is a strange assertion ; for that is to allow man an equal share with god in instituting a sacrament , in which both the grace of god , and the duty of man , or his engagement to his duty , are sealed , and represented . if ceremonies must have such divinity to defend them , i shall be less in love with them than before . sect. . he denyeth , p. . that the cross in baptism , is intended by the church as a sign of immediate dedication to god , but of obligation on the person , and laboureth to clear the thirtieth canon , asserting the contrary , which saith , that by it the infant is dedicated to the service of him who died on the cross. vvhat he saith for vindicating this canon , is , that baptism is compleat before crossing , and so it is no part of baptismal dedication ; and that , the minister baptiseth in the name of christ , but signeth with the cross in the name of the church , who by that rite , receiveth the infant into their number ; and thus understanding the use of the cross , he saith , all the difficulties about dedicating , covenanting symbolical sacramental signs , will appear to be of no force . answer , . the dr. would say something , by mentioning immediate d●dication : and if what he intendeth by it be to the purpose , it must be , that the church may not institute a sign , whereby one is immediately dedicated to god ; but they may institute one , whereby he is immediately dedicated to god : now if the dr. had given any hint of a ground for this distinction , or to shew that the one is more lawful than the other , he would have obliged us ; but that not being done his implyed distinction is to be rejected as without all ground . . a sign of obligation of the person to dedicate himself to the redeemer , used in a piece of gods solemn worship , and appropriated to that worship , is by its signification , its end , its concomitant circumstances , so stated , as the using of that sign cannot but be a religious act , and so a part of god's vvorship , which ( as the dr. himself confesseth ) needeth divine institution , and cannot lawfully be appointed by the church . . i wonder why the dr. should endeavour to vindicate that canon that he citeth , from meaning what it expresly saith ; viz. that by the sign of the cross , the infant is dedicated to the service of him who died on the cross ; it is impossible to shun expounding this of a dedicating sign without doing the greatest violence imaginable to the plain words , neither is there the least shadow of ground , to think , that immediate dedication is not here meant , seeing the infant is said to be dedicated by this sign , without the least hint of any intervenient dedicating sign , or cause between the sign , and that which the dr. will call immediate dedication . . vvhen he saith the cr●ssing is no part of baptismal dedication , the meaning must be , it is not a part of d●dication by that sign that christ appointed ; viz. baptising in the name of the father , son , and holy ghost , none doubteth of that ; but how doth this shew that it is no dedicating sign , as the canon saith ; or no immediate dedicating sign , as the dr. alledgeth : it is a sign devised by men , to dedicate the infant , added to the sign appointed by god for the same end . now our question is , vvhat warrant have men for making such an addition to so great an ordinance of god ? . the next thing for vindicating the canon is , that the minister baptiseth in the name of christ ; but signeth in the name of the church , is as little for his purpose : for who gave the church power to institute a dedicating sign to be administer'd in her name , and set it up by christ's dedicating sign , to be administer'd in his name ? this seemeth to be an addition to christ's ordinance , and a reflection on it as imperfect ; as if the child were not sufficiently dedicated to the redeemer by christ's sign that he hath instituted for that end. . it doth least of all vindicate the canon , which he addeth ; to wit , that by it ( the sign of the cross ) the church receiveth the infant into their number ; for this is a quite other thing than the canon saith ; and to make that the meaning of the canon , is to take a liberty to impose what meaning upon it he pleaseth . let the reader now judge , whether by any thing that he hath said , all the difficulties about dedicating , covenanting , symbolical , sacramental signs , do appear to be of no force . sect. . he asketh , page . why may not the church appoint such a rite of admission of one of her members , declaring it to be no part of baptism ? answer . the church hath not appointed it as a rite of admission of a member , but a rite of dedicating the person to christ as hath been shewed . and the reason why he may not do it , is , because christ hath already done it sufficiently : he hath appointed baptism both for dedicating the person to himself , and for admitting him into his church : therefore men ought not to contrive their signs for that end , which he hath abundantly provided for , by his own means . another reason why this may not be done , is , because this sign is so stated in the word of god , by being done in the solemn exercise of it , for a religious end ; and appropriated to this religious exercise , that it cannot be otherwise lookt on than as a piece of gods worship . he parallelleth this with holding up the hand , in an independent-church presently after baptism , as a sign of admission into that particular church . answer , . i know no warrant for such an admitting rite , baptism is sufficient to make one a member of christs church , and that maketh one a member of any particular church , where providence casteth his lot . . if independents should state this admitting rite in the very solemnity of baptism , before the complex action be finished , they were to be blamed , but they do not so ; they make an observable difference as to time , and other circumstances , between these two actions . . signing with the cross , is not a meer admitting sign into a particular church , as shall afterward be discoursed , but also a dedicating sign ; as the canon expresly saith , and therefore this parallel is null . sect. . he next blameth mr. b. for supposing , that the minister signing the child , speaketh in the name of christ , or as his officer , and saith , it is evident that he doth it in the name of the church ; because he saith , we receive him into the congregation of christs flock , and do sign him , &c. answer , it is not material to our debate , which of the two be said ; for the question is , whether the church hath power to appoint a sign for dedicating a person to christ , when he hath already appointed a sign for that end ? we desire to see a warrant for the churches appointing dedication to christ by her sign , to be done in her name ; after the person is already dedicated by christs sign , and in his name . if he say the church only appoints him to be received by this sign into her number ; and that may be done in her name . i answer , by christs sign that is also done , by baptism the person is admitted as a member of christs flock . but beside this , it is evident , that by the sign of the cross is not intended bare admission as a member of the church ; but dedicating of the person to christ , not only from the plain words of the canon , of which already , but by what followeth in the words used at the signing ; which are , we receive him into the number of christs flock , and do sign him with the sign of the cross , in token that hereafter he shall not be ashamed to confess the faith of christ crucified , and manfully to fight under his banner against sin , the world , and the devil , and to continue christs faithful souldier and servant , unto his lives end , amen . will any man say that this is meer admission , as a member of the church , or into the church of england ; and that no more is intended by these words ? is it not made a sign of our covenant , or engagement to the same duties that we are engaged to by baptism ? to wit , all the duties that the covenant of grace bringeth us under the obligation of . the absurdity of this notion ; to wit , that crossing is meerly an admitting sign , will yet further appear , if we consider , that in the same office of baptism , used by the church of england , the minister having put the god-fathers in mind of christs promise to the infant to be baptised , he is to say : wherefore after this promise made by christ , these infants must also faithfully for their part promise by you that be their sureties , that they will forsake the devil , and all his works , and constantly believe gods holy word , and obediently keep his commandments : this is the baptismal dedication . i hope that will not be denied : now , is not the cross used to betoken our obligation to the very same things ? and therefore it must be a dedicating sign , as well as baptism . and it may as well be said , that baptism is meerly a rite of admission into the church , as that is such . sect. . he telleth us , page . that all publick admissions into societies have some ceremonie ; belonging to them . that we deny not , and therefore christ hath made baptism the ceremony for solemn admitting the members of his church ; which he having done , how dare any take upon them to invent new rites for that end ? as baptism ( saith the doctor ) is a rite of admission into christs catholick church , so is the sign of the cross into our church of england , in which this ceremony is used , with●ut prescribing to other churches . this now , is the fine new notion , for the sake of which , all the foregoing discourse is designed : the dr. deserveth the honour of inventing it ; for i do not find that ever any had thought of it before : but i doubt it will prove but a mouse brought forth by the long labour , and hard throws of a mountain . i shall here remind the reader of what i have observed already , part . sect. . sect. . that by this one notion , the dr. destroyeth the great design of his book ; which is to charge them with separation ; most of whom he here doth implicitely , and by necessary consequence , acknowledge never to have been members of the church of england ; they never having been signed with the cross : for if they never were members , they were not capable of separation , more than another mans leg can be said to be cut off from my body , to which it never was united . . this to be the use of the sign of the cross was never declared by the church , but the quite contrary ; as is evident from what is already cited , both out of the thirtieth canon , and out of the office of baptism , both which are the authentick writings of the church ; wherefore this is to be lookt on as but one doctors opinion ; and we are to take the scope , and meaning of the churches ceremonies from her own declaration , and not from the thoughts of any one man , when he is streightned in defending of these rites . . i ask the dr. if we who never were yet signed with the cross , should be willing now to join as members of the church ; and to submit to all her terms of communion , whether must we be signed with the cross at our admission ? the same may be enquired concerning any baptized in france , scotland , or any other church . i suppose he will not own such crossing , i am sure it was never heard of ; if he say , it is not to be done , how do these become members of the church ? the independents will require some token of owning their church-covenant , even where it is not joined with baptism , why then do not the church of england , ( for the dr. parallelleth these two admissions into the church ) require this crossing out of baptism , if it be meerly a sign of admission into the church of england ? . if the church , and the dr. too , and all the divines that write in defence of the church , would declare never so often that this is the use , and the only use of crossing , all this could not satisfy , as long as the words used with it , and the religious state in which it is by their practice sixed , do make the contrary apparent . sect. . mr. bs. allowing some religious use of the sign of the cross , his brethren do not approve ; yet his argument is good against the use of the cross as a dedicating , or common professing sign of baptized persons ; to wit , that god hath appointed sacraments for that end : then the dr. answereth ; true , but not only for that end , but to be means and instruments of conveying grace to men ; for which god o●ly ought to appoint means . reply , . it is not enough that men do not appoint other means beside christs for all the ends that they are appointed for ; but they ought not to appoint other means for any of these ends ; because christs means are sufficient for all the ends that they are appointed for : sacraments are not only sufficient to signify gods promise of giving grace , but also to signify our engagement to perform duty : wherefore we ought not to add new signs for the one , more than for the other ▪ . the sign of the cross is intended as a mean and instrument of conveying grace to men : ergo , ex concessis , it is unlawful to be appointed by men . the antecedent i prove , for the church maketh her ceremonies to stir up the dull minds of men ; and this in particular , to be a token that h●reafter the party baptized shall not be ashamed of christ ; therefore it must be a mean of stirring up one to own christ ; and is not this the very use of baptism ? what difference is there , but that the one is a mean appointed by god for conveying the grace that he hath promised ; the other is a mean appointed by man for the same end ? sect. . the dr. chargeth the church of rome with insolence , in appointing rites for applying the merits of christ ; and saith , this is the only possible way for a church to make new sacraments . answer , though we have many other arguments against the ceremonies , than that they are sacraments of mens making ; yet we will not pass even from that argument . the drs. assertion 〈…〉 false ; for a sacrament is a visible sign of inv●si●le grace ●nd if men appoint signs of their own , for representing or conveying grace , they make new sacraments ; tho' they do not intend by these to apply christs merit : sacraments are for applying the spirit of christ , as well as for applying the merit of christ ; and therefore if men pretend to make signs for the one , tho' not for the other , they make new sacraments . we do not say , that every significant custom in a church is to pass for a new sacrament , as the dr. would make us say : sitting at the sacrament , putting off the hat in prayer , &c. ( which he paralleth with the ceremonies , are quite of another nature , being actions made sit by civil custom , and for their fitness , used in , worship , but not appropriated to it . mr. b. objecteth against the cross , being a bare rite of admission ; that the obligation is to the common duties of christianity . the dr. answereth ; and is not every church-member bound to perform these ? how this answereth the objection , i see not : for the question , is not what church-members are obliged to , but when christ hath appointed a sacramental sign , to represent the common duties of christianity ; whether the church may appoint another sign for the same end , and join that sign with christ's sign , to be performed with it , with the same solemnity , and in the same office of divine worship ? he saith that , to shew that crossing is a solemn rite of admission , the church alloweth it to be forborn in private baptism . answer , . this only sheweth it to be a solemn action , not that it is a solemn rite of admission ; for all this , it may be a solemn sacrament , or a solemn piece of other worship . . this allowance of the church doth quite cross the drs. conceit of its being a rite of admission into the church of england ; for if it were so look't on , the church would rather injoin it then , because without it , the person baptised , should not at all be admitted into the church , and so be no member of it ; and surely the rite of administration to the church , is more needful , where admission into the universal church ; to wit , baptism is more questionable , whether it hath been done or not , as in private baptism , than where it is publick and known to all . to mr. b's . objection , that christs sacraments or symbols are sufficient , and therefore we need not devise more . he answereth , if it be lawful , the church is to judge of the expediency , and to appoint other rites that do not encroach on the institutions of christ , by challenging any effect peculiar to them , is no charging them with insufficiency . reply , . mr. b. and others assert , and prove the unlawfulness of these rites , as the dr. well knoweth ; wherefore he might well have expounded , we need not devise , by , we ought not devise . . there are other ways how mens rites may encroach on christ's institutions , than by challenging any effect peculiar to them , when as they are appropriated to religion , used in , or amidst religious exercises , and for religious ends. . dedicating a person to god , engaging the soul to own christ , and such like , are effects peculiar to christ's institutions ; for they are instituted for these ends , and nothing else hath any efficacy that way , being destitute of the promise of a blessing : wherefore , even on that account , and by his own confession , our ceremonies import a charging of god's ordinances with insufficiency . sect. . the rest of his debate with mr. b. pag. , . i wave , it being ad hominem , only on a principle of mr. b's . that i allow not . he pleadeth against mr. b. pag. . that the sign of the cross , if it had christ's institution , would be a sacrament ; because then it should have promises annexed , and the nature of it quite changed , and the minister should sing in christ's name not in the church's . answer . the nature of it would be then changed , no doubt , because it would be a true sacrament , and have the annexed blessing ; but there would be no other change from what it now is , than what dependeth upon the authority , by which it is instituted . but that doth not hinder it to be now a mock sacrament , and to have as much of a sacrament as is possible , without divine institution . the ministers signing now in the name of the church , which he then would do in the name of christ , saith no more , but that in the one case it is christ's ordinance , but in the other case it is mans ordinance , but doth not hinder it in that case , to be a humane sacrament . whether mr. b. do misrepresent the popish doctrine , about the efficacy of sacraments , or not ( which the doctor by many testimonies endeavoureth to prove , pag. , . ) is not much to our business . the doctor saith , that if by the protestant doctrine , the sacraments do at all convey grace , whatever way it be done , it sheweth that the sign of the cross-can never be advanced to that dignity ; since , in no sence it is held to be an instrument for conveying of grace . answer . it is true , it is by this excluded from being a true sacrament : but it may , for all that , be a false sacrament ; for though it be not their opinion , that it conveyeth grace , yet it is by them held to be a mean of stirring up the mind , and engaging the soul to these acts , to which , nothing but the grace of god can effectually help a person . i hope the doctors conclusion of this debate with mr. b. may now appear to be groundless ; to wit , that this phrase of a new sacrament is groundless , and only invented to amuse people : neither can i understand what sort of people these should be , who have been satisfied against all the other arguments ( which he calleth conveying their prejudices ) and have so stuck at this stumbling block ; for we bring many arguments against the ceremonies , that more weight is to be laid on , though this wanteth not its force . sect. . the dr. is pleased , sect. . to engage in a debate with mr. a. about bowing at the name of jesus , and counts opposing it ; a blow at the church . if the dr. would have defended this ceremony , he should have answered what is of purpose , learnedly and solidly written against it by mr william wicken , and twelve arguments against it by another hand ; and not satisfied himself with answering some occasional reflections made on it by mr. a. : but this ceremony being imposed by the church , as one of the terms of her communion ( which i knew not till i find the dr. here doth not deny it ) i shall a little consider it , by proposing our scruples against the use of it ; and taking off the edge of what the dr. bringeth in defence of it . but we must first consider the true state of the controversy ; which is not , whether all possible honour be due to the glorious person who is so named ? nor whether it be unlawful at the hearing of that name or any other name , whereby that blessed person , or either of the other persons of the god-head are designed , to have the heart raised to adore that majesty , whom saints and angels worship ? yea , nor thirdly , whether it be in it self , and always a sin to express our adoration of him by an outward sign of kneeling , as bowing , or lifting up the eyes , when the heart is thus excited by the mention of his name or any of these other names ? all these we readily yield : and our brethren , on the other hand , grant , that no worship , direct or indirect , mediate , nor immediate , ( such as papists give to their images ) is due to the name , i. e. the word . . that there is no duty lying upon people always , and every where to bow at the hearing of this name ; for they appoint it only to be done in the time of worship : the canon prescribeth it only in time of divine service ; it is not there restricted to the lessons , and the creed , as the dr. alledgeth , page . in the injunctions of queen elizabeths sermons are also taken in , & a general clause ( when otherwise in the church mentioned ) carrieth it to all acts of worship ; which the dr. without ground would limit ; to wit , when they are not imployed in any other act of devotion . . they make it no natural , but instituted piece of worship ; the dr. all along speaketh of it only as lawful , never pleadeth for the necessity of it , and defendeth it only so far as it is required by the church . it is true , some of them plead scripture for it ; to wit , phil. . . and by consequence must make it a duty , as naturally necessary , as praying , and believing : but i do not find that the learned among them do insist on this . the question then is , . whether it be lawful for the church to command people to use outward signs of reverence , by bowing the head or knee , or otherwise , when ever they hear the name of jesus mentioned in divine worship , when yet no such injunction is given in reference to any other name of gods ? . whether it be lawful for people to obey such commands ? to both , our brethren answer affirmatively ; and we answer negatively . sect. . the same reasons will serve for both parts of our opinion . they are . this bowing is an uncommanded piece of worship . ergo , it is unlawful . the consequence dependeth on christ's condemning of mens traditions in his worship , as vain , on this account , that they are the commands of men , math. . . mark . . of which before . and i think the doctor will not deny it , who owns that acts of worship must have divine warrant , page , . the antecedent hath two parts ; to wit , that this act is uncommanded , and that it an act of worship . for the first : few of our brethren alledge a command for it ; for then it should not be indifferent , as they make it , and they that plead a command , found it in phil. . . but that place doth no way injoin any such rite : for first , the greek text is plain , not at , but in , the name of jesus : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; which to expound of bowing at the hearing of the word , is the greatest violence that can be done to plain words : for the plain sense , is , that subjection to his dignity and power , shall be yielded by all creatures . . this text can no way be restricted to the reverence given in divine service , but must either prove this a duty at all times , when this name is uttered , or it proveth no such expression of reverence at all . . the text speaketh only of kneeling ; and i know not that it is in the churches power , where the lord commandeth kneeling , to change it into bowing of the head. . if this be injoined , so is confessing with the tongue , ver . . what power hath the church , to pick and chuse scripture-commandments , to injoin one , and neglect another of equal authority ? but why do i stay on this , many episcopal men , and even some papists , look on this text , as nothing to the purpose in hand ; for the second part of the antecedent , that this bowing is an act of worship , i hope that will not be denyed , it being a direct and solemn adoring of jesus christ ; and the stating of it in divine service , and appropriating it to that , doth constrain men to look so upon it . sect. . argument . it is not reasonable service ; ergo , it is not acceptable service . the consequence , i hope , will not be denyed : the antecedent i prove , because no reason can be given for bowing at the hearing of this word , rather than at the mention of these other names , by which , god , father , son , and holy ghost , or our blessed redeemer are called . it is not enough , that some reason can be pretended for this practice singly considered : for . whatever reasons be given for it , do equally concern other names of god and christ ; and therefore , must either prove the church faulty , in not instituting worship to all these names , or they prove nothing at all . . our main scruple is at the discrimination that is made by this ceremony , between this name , and others that are equally holy ; therefore , they must either give a reason , why adoration is fit in this case , rather than in the other cases , or they do not reach the question . the reasons given by the learned hooker , eccles. polic . lib. . sect. . are not concludent ; to wit , . it sheweth a reverend regard to the son of god. answer , . let the father and spirit have the same reverend regard . . every way of expressing our regard to him , is not warrantable : he hath appointed ways for it , and not left them to our devising . . he saith , it maketh much against the arians , who deny his god : head : answer , . his way of convincing gain-sayers , is by the word ; we must not devise ways of our own to convince hereticks ; moses and the prophets , being god's way , are more powerful to convince , than if one were sent from the dead ; and therefore , much more than such a foolish ceremony . . if this argument prove any thing , it would make it our duty rather to bow to him , when his name is mentioned in blasphemy , or swearing : then such a testimony is more needful , than when all present are worshiping him . sect. . argument . it is superstitious worship , not only on the account of its not being commanded ; but also because it is impossible to make that use of a name , without ascribing more to it than is due , to a word , or any external sign . i know our brethren will deny all respect to the word , and affirm that it is only the person of the redeemer that they reverence : and i am obliged to believe that they make not the name , the objectum terminans , of any part of their worship , yet the setting such a mark of discrimination on that name , from others , and giving such reverence on that occasion , is such a violent presumption of some inward respect to that word , rather than to another of equal excellency , that a man ought not to believe himself , when he denyeth it of himself , much less are others obliged to believe him : especially , the church-guides , who impose this , must either see some reason for it , or none ; if none , it is church-tyranny , to impose so arbitrarily in the worship of god : if they see a reason , that reason cannot shun to be superstitious ; to wit , a making a difference in this name from others , where there is no such difference : and if it were possible to free the mind of superstitious conceits in this matter , it is altogether impossible to free the action from a●candalous appearance of superstition ; for what other construction can the beholder put on bowing so many times at the recurrent mention of a word , when no such thing is done at the mention of other words of the same signification ? may not one rationally think , that it is not the thing signified , but the sound of the word that moveth men , when they see them bow at that word , and not at another , that expresseth the same thing ? if i see a man frighted at the hearing the word eusis , and not moved at hearing gladius , i have reason to think , that it is not the apprehension of a sword , which is signified by both words , that doth so move him , but some antipathy he hath at the sound of the word e●sis : this is easily applyed . sect. . argument . it is impossible to observe this usage punctually , without having the mind diverted from that attention to the other acts of religion , that is fit . men may talk what they will , but common experience will convince the unbyassed , that it is impossible to hear with serious attention , toward the matter read , or otherwise spoken , to go along with it in the heart , and at the same time to be ready at the sound of the word jesus , to catch it , and to use the reverence required . i appeal to the experience of them who do seriously mind this bowing , whether their mind be not taken up with thoughts about the word , waiting for it before they hear it , so as they cannot at the same time , mind what else is spoken , as they ought . here we may apply that adage ; vides aliquem de vocibus solicitum , scito animum in pusillis occupatum . the mind cannot be intent on two things at once , such as are one single word , and the matter of a coherent discourse . argument . it is an usage unknown to the apostolick & purest primitive times of the church ; yea , it is amongst the most novel inventions of the later , and more corrupted times of the church , under the anti-christian apostacy ; no mention of it , till the middle of the th . century . it was never injoined , till concil . lugdunens . . and basiliens . . argument th . it hath been grosly abused to superstition and idolatry , in the popish church , and therefore being confessed to be an indifferent thing , it ought to be abolished . in a council at auspurg , this bowing is injoined at the name of the body and blood of christ , of the virgin mary , and several others of their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , concil . lugdun . it is injoined chiefly in the mass. it argueth a strange respect to that way , thus to symbolize with them in their usages , that have no warrant in the word ; and by so doing , to differ from all protestant churches . sect. . i come now to attend the doctor 's debate with mr. a. about this matter , where i am troubled to find the dr. treating his adversary with such contempt , and indecent reflections , on his learning , which maketh him be honoured in the eyes of men , as able to discern , as they who despise him ; telleth us , he had before defenced these things , as required by the church , against papists ; and mr. a. borroweth their weapons , but doth not so well manage them . we give the author his due praise for his learned labours against the papists , but are not thereby obliged to be silent , when he opposeth any of the truths of god : but i cannot understand how mr. a. should borrow the popish weapons in this controversy , seeing the papists , and the doctor are in this matter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; and mr. a. doth oppose them both : it is true , a non-conformist may say , that papists have as good reason for their ceremonies , as the church of england for hers : but this is not to use their weapons ; for we think neither hath reason on their side . mr. a. blameth the doctor in answering his popish adversary , for saying , that bowing at the name of jesus , is no more , than going to church at tolling of a bell. to which mr. a. replyeth , that it is motivum cultus , at least ; and so more than the tolling of a bell , to call people to church ; and he addeth , that an image may as well give warning to the eye , to worship , as a bell to the ear . here mr. a. is far from either pleading for popish tenets , or using popish weapons ; but sheweth the absurdity of the doctor 's opinion , by a parallel opinion of the papists , which the dr. condemneth ; which is a good way of reasoning ad hominem , and needed not be so cryed out against . the dr. giveth some good reasons , why images are not to be used in worship , but he doth not touch the point in hand , between him and mr. a. who never intended to parallel a bell and images any further than this ; that a bell in the act of worship ( the sound of the word jesus is in the same quality ) must be motivum cultus , and so is an image . therefore , if an image not only on other accounts , that the dr. mentioneth , but even on account of this lower use of it , its being motivum cultus , be evil ; so is the sound of the word jesus . sect. . the dr. exposeth mr. a. as a crackt delirious man , for saying , that the papists go too far in preserring an image higher than to be motivum cultus , but the question is , whether they do not sin in applying it to this lower use , to make it an ordinary stated motive to worship . and after , if men sin who make an image an ordinary stated motive of worship , yet how shall we excuse our own adorations ? sure the application of all this to the present controversy is not so hard to be understood ; but that a man , whose wit is not a wool-gathering , may see these are not the words of a delirious man. he doth not charge the church of england , with using images , but with using the sound of a word to the same purpose , with the lower use that papists ascribe to images ; and inferreth , that if the one be a sin , so is the other ; and the one may as lawfully be done as the other . the adorations he speaketh of are worshipping god by the help of the sound of that word , as a motivum cultus ; and therefore there is no need of proving that ye worship any other beside god , before ye need excuse your adorations . the dr. confesseth , page . that their church never denied that men sin in making images a stated motive of worship : hence mr. a. inferreth , that their church sinneth in making the sound of a word a stated motive of worship ; but this the dr. is not pleased to take notice of : but when mr. a. asserteth , that they may bring in images with equal reason , the dr. denieth that we may worship images on the same reason , that we perform external adoration to jesus at the mention of his name ; still he will not take notice wherein the parallel , and consequently , the strength of the reason lieth ; to wit , in making images a motive of worship ; and making a word such ; but the dr. parallelleth making images the object of worship , and making the word jesus , the occasion only of it ; which is to seek subterfuges ; not to stand to the argument insisted on . sect. . mr. a. giveth a difference between the tolling of a bell to call people to church , and the word jesus occasioning , our bowing , that the one is out of worship , the other in it ; when we should be intent on devotion . in answering this the dr. saith , they contend not for the seasonableness of this bowing when they are in other acts of devotion , and immediate application to god ; but about the lawfulness of it in repeating the lessons or the creed . reply , . i have before shewed that this is not the sense of the church , which injoineth it in time of divine service ; which i hope taketh in prayer : yea , when ever that name is mentioned in the church , wherefore the dr. must be sore put to it , when he must defend the church by contradicting her , and setting up his private opinion that he is forced upon , against her authentick and publick records . . here are two distinctions hinted , equally useless to this design . the first is , he pleadeth not for the seasonableness , but for the lawfulness of this usage ; but if it be unseasonable , even at these times , that he will have it used , then it is also unlawful ; seeing duties acceptable to god must be done in their season . . the other distinction is , it is not to be done in acts of devotion , and immediate application to god ; but in the lessons and creed . i desire to know whether hearing the word read , and hearing the articles of our faith rehearsed in a solemn manner , while we are about worshipping god , be not acts of devotion , and immediate application to god , as well as prayer ; which he seemeth to understand by that expression . the word read , as well as preached , heb. . . should be mixed with faith , and so should the hearing the articles of our faith ; and is not faith in its exercise devotion , and an immediate application to god ? at least it cannot be denied , that serious exercise of the whole soul is requisite in these exercises , as well as in that which he will call devotion ; and therefore it must be as unseasonable to be diverted by waiting for the fall of a word , in the one exercise as in the other . . the dr. taketh no notice of the main strength of mr. a's . reason ; to wit , that the toll of the bell is out of worship ; the sound of the word in it . the one is in statu civili , or communi ; the other in statu religioso ; : for i hope he will not deny these exercises in which this bowing is to be used , to be religious acts . he saith it signifieth nothing to this purpose whether persons be in the church or out of if when the bell rings ; for in the same page he ( mr. a. ) mentioneth the mass-bell , which ringeth in worship ; and if the object of their worship were right , it would make him better understand the parallel . reply , it is a rash assertion to say there is no difference between the bell ringing when people are in the church , and when they are out of it , ( he must mean when they are in the act of worship , and when not ; otherwise what he saith is impertinent ) for the one is motivum cultus , and in status religioso , the other not : it is true , mr. a. mentioneth the mass-bell in the next page , but he parallelleth it with the sound of the vvord jesus ; both being a stated motive of worship , and therefore that is mentioned by the dr. to no purpose . sect. . he saith , when it is said in the injunctions , that we must bow at mentioning the name jesus in divine service — or when it is otherwise in the church pronounced : yet , saith he , by the manner of shewing this reverence , viz. with lowliness of courtesy , and uncovering the heads of mankind , it supposeth them at that time not to be imployed in any other act of devotion . answer , by this way of commenting he may easily make the church say whatever he pleaseth ; for this is to contradict the text by his commentary . let him tell us when is that name pronounced in the church , and yet people at no other act of devotion : this manner of reverence required , proveth nothing ; for it is no wonder to hear them speak inconsistencies in requiring low courtesy , and uncovering of the head in time of devotion , when the head is already uncovered ; who injoin the same in the church out of that devotion , when that vvord is mentioned , tho' heads be already uncovered , as all must be in time of divine service ; by can. . the same that injoineth this bowing . he saith , it giveth no interruption to devotion : but doth it give none to other parts of worship , which he is not pleased to call devotion ? he will still have it lawful , as long as the object of worship is true ; the mention of this name only expresseth the time as the bell doth of going to church . answer , it will then follow , that if papists will only worship god , not the image ; and use it only as a stated motive of worship , that were lawful too . but he considereth not that the manner and mean of worship may be sinful ; when the object to which it is directed is true ; and that this is so , is clear from what hath been said . i have also shewed how irrational it is to parallel the bell to call people together with a sign stated in worship to stirr up , or put in mind of it ; what mr. a. objecteth , that there is more need of this reverence in our ordinary converse , i have touched before : the dr. maketh it a strange crossness , to deny it in worship , and then plead for it in other cases . but mr. a. doth not plead for it in any case , but useth this as a good reason to shew the folly of their imposition : but enough of this . sect. . the rest of his debate with mr. a. may soon be dispatched . mr. a. commendeth the moderation of the canon . not imposing worship toward the east or altar ; but leaving it indifferent , and pleadeth for the same indulgence in other rites , as little necessary in themselves ; as crossing , kneeling , &c. according to the apostles rule , that differing parties should not judge nor censure one another , rom. . . the dr. in his answer , bringeth two reasons of this different practice ; one is , the one sort of things were settled at the reformation , not so the other ; another is , the one is settled by law , the other not . it is strange the dr. should lay weight on either or both of these reasons in opposition to the apostles command of forbearance ; for the question still recurreth on the first setler of these , either by law or otherwise : why did they impose things so severely that the apostle would have us bear with one another in ? and then it recoileth on the upholders of this unwarantable settlement : why do they continue such impositions as may be for-born , and divide the church by so doing ? we do prove these things unlawful as the dr. requireth ; but tho' we should fail in that proof , their counting them indifferent is enough to condemn such severe imposing of them . he saith , page . that mr. a. thinketh the rule of forbearance rom. . to be of equal force in all ages , and as to all things about which christians have different apprehensions ; and then papists may come in for a share as to worshipping the host , images , &c. had mr. a. talked at this rate , the dr. would ( as he doth on less ground ) have said his fancy had been disordered , and all things were not right somewhere . did ever mr. a. or any of us say this , or words to that effect ? we say this of things indifferent , not of things about which christians differ ; and so i hope the papists are sufficiently shut out . sect. . vvhen mr. a. or any of us , blame the leading church-men for using these things that are not imposed , we make this no grounds of separation , as the dr. would insinuate . vvhat mr. a. saith of disagreeing in a circustantial part of vvorship , is not the conclusion of his discourse , to prove a disagreement in substantial parts of worship ; but an antithesis ( sufficiently proved ) to the dr's . assertion , that all our difference was about circumstances of vvorship ; and he makes it appear , that not only they with the dissenters , but they among themselves did so disagree ; while some of them bow to the altar , others not . if this be not a part of vvorship , i see not how bowing to an image can be called such . he further blameth mr. a. page . at the end , for making a sort of middle things ( able to justify separation ) between substantial parts of vvorship , and meer circumstantials . and the dr. doth most unjustly inferr from thence , that separation is justified by things that are neither substantial nor circumstantial parts of vvorship , and no part of it at all . for he will not consider , that tho' mr. a. doth not make the ceremonies meer circumstantials , yet he maketh them circumstantial parts of vvorship ; that is , parts of vvorship without , which all that vvorship that christ hath instituted is confessed to be intire . and if mr. a. do also go about to prove that the ceremonies are made by the church-men substantial parts of vvorship , it is no incoherency in him , but in them who talk so variously of these rites ; sometimes as the veriest trifles that can be , sometimes as so much conducing to the glory and decency of gospel-vvorship . the truth is , substantial parts of vvorship , is a term of the drs. ( as mr. a. telleth him ) none of ours ; and therefore if we do not apply it sometimes to his mind , let him blame himself for not making it more intelligible to us by his explication of it . sect . ix . the other pleas pretended for separation . vve come now with the dr. to the next plea used for separation ; to wit , that the dissenters are still unsatisfied in their consciences about the churches terms of communion , and the church excommunicateth them ; and therefore they cannot join . he is pleased to join these two , tho' very distinct , yet he prosecuteth them severally . for the latter , which he speaketh first of , the dissenters plea , that he is pleased to take off is , the excommunication ipso facto by the canon . that we all lye under . before i consider his answer to this , i must tell him of two things that have more weight to justify our separation than that canonical excommunication . . that many thousands of us are otherwise excommunicated for our non-compliance with the ceremonies ; even by the personal application , and publishing of the sentence against us ; yea , multitudes may not go to church if they would , being under the writ de capiendo excommunicato , and daily watched for to be apprehended ; this putteth on us a forcible necessity of non-communion , and conscience of worshipping god , and waiting on the means of grace , engageth us to meet privately to enjoy these ordinances that we cannot have publickly . the second thing is , even they who are not under the sentence of excommunication , yet are materially excommunicated by your church if they will not comply with your ceremonies ; for we can have none of the sacraments without them ; and your canon excludeth us out of the church unless we bow at the name of jesus . so that we cannot , if we never so fain would , enjoy god's ordinances among you , without partaking your ceremonies . wherefore all the blame that can be cast on us , is not using the ceremonies . from which we have sufficiently cleared our selves in the eyes of unby-assed men ; all that followeth on this is not to be charged on us , but on the rigour of your church , which forceth us from among them . sect. . the dr. answereth to the plea from the canonical excommunion , sect. . page . that , that excommunication is not against such as modestly scruple the lawfulness of the things imposed , but against those who obstinately affirm it ; and he blameth mr. b. as misciting the words of the canon . wherefore i shall set down the whole canon , it is the can. . of the convocation , . whosoever shall hereafter affirm , that the rites and ceremonies of the church of england , by law established , are wicked , anti-christian , or superstitious ; or such as being commanded by lawful authority , men who are zealously , and godly affected , may not with any good conscience approve them , use them , or as occasion requireth subscribe to them , let him be excommunicated ipso facto , and not restored untill he repent , and publickly revoke these his wicked errours . the dr. hath a subtile distinction here between , but affirm , which term mr. b. had used , and affirm : one would think that affirm , and no more added to it , signifieth no more than but affirm : but the dr. saith , that affirm , signifieth these circumstances , which according to the common sense of mankind , do deserve excommunication , viz. that it be done publickly and obstinately . what ground the dr. hath for this criticism , i know not ; i am sure his citation out of augustine , that a man is born with till he find an accuser , or obstinately defend his opinion , saith nothing of the sense of the word affirm . neither do i think that our courts will be ruled by augustine or the dr. either . if a man with the greatest modesty imaginable , being asked , why he doth not conform ; shall say , he cannot do it with a good conscience , he falleth under the plain letter of this law , and goeth against the express words of it ; and this is the least that a modest man can say , unless he will say , i will not do it , and that will be called obstinacy ; and so bring him under the law , in the dr's . own sense . but if the man ( as a modest man may ) give reasons for his non-conformity , when men require him to conform , every word he saith , will bring him under this excommunication . sect. . another answer that the dr. bringeth against this plea , is pag. , . where he tells us of the opinion of canonists , that such an excommunication is but a commination , and cannot affect the person till a sentence be past , applying it to him ; and that men under such excommunication are not obliged to execute it against themselves , by withdrawing from the church . i shall not contend about this , though one would think that such excommunication as he describeth , were rather ipso jure , than ipso facto ; and that excommunication ipso facto , bringeth one under the sentence as soon as the fact is committed . but to let that pass , this excommunication declareth what we are to expect ; and the frequent , yea , general execution of it , putteth most part out of capacity to come to church , and may justly alarm the rest to seek a retreat for themselves in time . it is as when an act of banishment is passed by the magistrate , the party is so far loosed from his obligation to that society , that he may with a good conscience withdraw before he be violently transported ; sure such excommunication , and the fact , ( which we neither deny , nor are ashamed of ) are enough to loose our tie that we had to the church . sect. . he answereth a question ; can these be called schismaticks who are first excommunicated by the church ? he saith , they may in two cases . . when there is just cause for the sentence . reply , i deny not but such are to be condemned for their giving just cause for such a sentence , and it may be on the same ground they may be called schismaticks ; but to call men schismaticks for not joining with a society that hath cast them out , seemeth to be such a figure , as when men are called fugitives , who are justly banished ; but i will not contend about words : if the dr. can prove our excommunication just , let him call us what he will. the instances he giveth , make nothing for that ; none of these churches require sinful terms of communion , imposing mens devises in the worship of god , and then excommunicate men for not submitting to them . his second case , in which excommunicates are schismaticks , is , if they set up new churches , which he proveth from the instances of the churches that he had before mentioned . reply , he now supposeth the excommunication to be unjust , else this case were coincident with the former : and in that case i distinguish his assertion . the unjust excommunication is either for an alledged personal fault , or for a principle of religion unjustly called false . again , it is either past against one or few , or it is against a great multitude , a considerable part of a church or nation . if it be for an alledged personal fault ( where it is hardly supposed that a great part of the church can be concerned ) i do not say that such may set up new churches . it is fit such should quietly wait till they can be cleared ; they having in that case no ground to charge the church with any fault in doctrine , worship , or discipline ; but in the mis-application of a true and right way of discipline . but where the unjust excommunication is for a sound principle , falsly called errour ; and it also reacheth a great part of the church , ministers and people : i see no reason why they should not have the worship of god among themselves , let men call it setting up of new churches , or what they will. for , . it were strange if the half of a church or nation , or near so many , should be obliged to live without the ordinances of god , for the caprice of some ambitious church-men , who excommunicate them , because they will not dance after their pipe. . in this case , the orthodox had been schismaticks , when they were excommunicated by the arians , and set up new churches . . christ should oblige his people to live without his ordinances , because of their love to the purity of them . what the author objecteth out of augustine is not to be understood of our cases , but for private men excommunicated for falsly-imputed crimes ; not for any thing of their faith , for he bids them keep the true faith , without separate meetings . sect. . our author proceedeth , in the end of page . and forward , to consider another plea , made for separation ; to wit , scruple of conscience , which , i think , none do make the sole ground of separation ; but they have a ground for their scruple : if that ground be good , it will warrant the scruple , and the separation too ; if not , it can do neither . and therefore i shall not insist on this as a plea , distinct from what i have already defended . i suppose the author that mention it intend no more than i say ; only they may rationally maintain , that a scruple not sufficiently warranted , in a person otherwise sober and sound , about a matter indifferent , or not intollerably evil , tho' it doth not free the scrupler from all blame , yet may oblige the church not to impose with rigour the things so scrupled on such a person . the dr. here doth not act the part of a disputant , nor a casuist ; but of somewhat else that i shall not name . for when it had been pleaded , that these scruples are great , of long standing , not to be removed without very over-powering impressions on mens minds : he answereth , by a harange full of contempt of his adversaries , that a little impartiality and consideration would do it , but that we read , judge , and hear only on one side ; think it a temptation to examin , cry out , we are satisfied already , are not willing to be informed , nor glad of light ; fly out into rage at them who endeavour to remove our scruples , &c. if we be such men , why hath the learned dr. written so long a book to refute us ; it is no wonder that he stirr up the magistrate against such , and the people too ; to cry out , away with such fellows from the earth , it is not fit they should live . he asketh , where lyeth the strength and evidence of our scruples ? if i should speak in his dialect , i should answer in the arguments by us produced , which he and all his party are not able to answer , nor have ever answered ; but i had rather-dispute than scold : he saith , we may see light if we will : we say , we would see it if we could , and think we could see it , if it were to be seen . he telleth us how easy this dispute is . we assent , and wonder that so learned a man should go about to darken so plain a truth . he chargeth us with willful mistake ; a mistake we deny , and make the contrary of it appear ; but if it be a mistake , that it is willful , we also deny ; and though we cannot in this , satisfy them who are resolved to cast iniquity upon us , &c. yet we can make our appeal the to searcher of hearts , who will one day judge us , and our rash judgers . sect. . he contesteth , page . with mr. a. about some expressions of his that he alledgeth mr. a. mistook ; there is no need of insisting on such debates : brethren should study to understand one another , and construe every thing to the best . but if the dr. had been as careful to vindicate his own cause as his own words , he would have refuted mr. a's pertinent and weighty discourse , pag. , , . which he hath but lightly , or hardly at all touched . he proceedeth , pag. . to deal with another of his antagonists , who objecteth , that these who cannot conquer their scruples , as to communion with our church , must either return to the state of paganism , or set up new churches , by joyning with the ejected ministers . the dr's . answer is , that this is new doctrine ; the old puritans supposed men obliged to continue in the communion of our church , altho' there were somethings that they scrupled at . reply , i have formerly shewed that there were old puritans , that did both scruple and act as we do ; but i deny not that some did join with the church , but then their scruples and ours do differ : they thought the ceremonies were inconvenient , yet might be used ; we think them unlawful , and not to be used : there was also another difference , they met with some indulgence , and were suffered to worship god with the church , and forbear the things that they scrupled ; we meet with nothing but rigour and severe imposing of these , and therefore , whatever they did , we are under this unpleasing choice , either to sin against god and our consciences , or to set up separate meetings , or to return to the state of paganism ; i. e. to live without the ordinances of god. sect. . it is objected , that we scruple joining in the sacraments , and living under some of the ministers . he answereth , that he never heard this last alledged for a ground of separation ; neither do i insist on it , as i have before declared ; save , where they preach false doctrine , or otherwise corrupt the ordinances , so as we cannot join in them without our personal sin : and this scruple hath been often heard of . it is too vulgar a way of reasoning , it is a hard case if people must fly into separation , because all their ministers are not such as they ought to be . pray , who ever said so ? but the dr. would fain know whether , as often as men do scruple joining with others , their separation be lawful . this is easily known by a less knowing person than the learned dr. st. for all men knows and acknowledge , that scrupling can never make separation lawful ; it is good ground for these scruples that must do that . wherefore all the instances that he heapeth up of unjustifiable separations , might have been spared , as wholly impertinent ; o how easy is it to prove learnedly that which no man denieth . after one of his historical instances of a separation from the churches of new-england , he asketh , what is there in this case but is every whit as justifiable , as the present separation ? ans. there is in it , that these separatists could not with any reason object to the church from which they separated , that she imposed on them any religious ceremonies of mens devising , or other unlawful terms of communion , and then excommunicated them for not submitting to these . he telleth us , page . that no setled church doth allow this liberty of separation , because men cannot conquer their scruples . it is true , neither is it fit they should allow it meerly on that account ; but withal he might have added , that few setled churches except that of rome , and that of england , do tempt , or rather force men to scruple , and to separate by imposing unnecessary terms of communion , which they know many count unlawful . what he saith ibid. for papists , anabaptists , and quakers pleading for the same liberty of separating , doth no way come up to our case . neither are their scruples built on good grounds , nor are the things that they scruple , known by the church that imposeth them to be unnecessary things . he wondereth that none hath taken care to put a stop to separation , by shewing what scruples are to be allowed , and what not . hath this never been done by non-conformists ? have we not also taught that the church ought to bear with them who soberly dissent in the lesser concerns of religion ; and not impose unnecessary things on peoples consciences : if these were attended to , a stop might soon be put to separation ; but if men will scruple without cause on the one hand , and the church will impose without cause on the other , there is no putting a stop to separations , till the lord cure our distempers . rigour and persecution , if it succeed to root out the dissenting party , is one way to put a stop to separation , but it is none of gods way ; and as it never had his approbation , so it seldom hath had success . sect. . the learned author , sect. . falleth on a new subject ; to wit , the use of god-fathers and god-mothers in baptism . i never look't on this as a sufficient ground of separation , and therefore might wave this whole debate : but i think it is an abuse , and therefore shall say a little on this subject . here we have not any institution to guide us , there being nothing in scripture , that i know of , about spo●sion for the party baptized : and therefore , as on the one hand , what the nature of the thing and reason make necessary , should not be withstood ; so on the other , what is beyond that , should not be practised , and far less imposed . all the question is about the use of sponsers in the baptism of infants , for the adult are to undertake for themselves . some make the use of god-fathers , to be witnesses of the childs-baptism . that is very needless , for the whole church are witnesses of that . the true use of them is to represent the child as a party covenanting with god , in this solemn sealing of the covenant of grace between god and the infant ; and consequential to this , to undertake the instruction and education of the child in the christian religion ; and endeavouring to engage him to a personal owning of the covenant . the original of other sponsors beside the parents was , in the primitive church , many young ones , either born of heathen-parents , or orphans of christian-parents , falling into the tuition of heathen-relations , in reference to their worldly concerns , were in hazard by that means to be bred in heathenism : wherefore it was judged needful that some faithful , and intelligent christian should undertake for their religious education . this usage which reason had first brought in , ostentation did afterward enlarge , by multiplying god-fathers and god-mothers ; and after that , superstition did perver● it , by excluding the parents , and putting strangers in their room ; till at last in popery , it was quite depraved , by making a spiritual kindred to result from this action . wherefore , we do not deny the use of sponsors , but think the parents the most proper sponsors ; both on account of their opportunity , obligation and natural inclination , to do the office of a sponsor for the child , which may rationally be thought to be more in them than in a stranger ; and we think it a gross abuse to admit of other sponsors , except in the want of parents , or their inhability . i think also , considering things as they are , not barely in the notions that men have of things that they will defend ; this practice is fallen into such abuse , that even that should make it be laid aside ; for it is manifest and most common , that god-fathers and god-mothers are chosen most unqualified for , and most unconcerned in that which they make a solemn promise to god to perform , which is a horrid mocking of him and his ordinances : are not boys and girls chosen , or debauched and ignorant persons ; or strangers , that may be , shall never see the child again , nor mind it , except it be to send it a new coat ? sect. . the dr. telleth us of mr. cartwright ; yea , and all protestant churches approving of this . but will he say , that they are for excluding the parents ? which is the very thing that we controvert ; for as the dr. confesseth , can. . ordaineth , that parents need not be present , and that they shall not be admitted to answer : that is , they must not undertake for the instruction and education of their own child . but saith he , the parents are to provide such as are fit. i desire to know what warrant is for this , even from sound reason ? who can be so fit , by his opportunity and care , as the parent ? and if he be wholly unfit , as to understanding , and respect to true religion , we are not against his having a deputy , in that case ; that it is done with the parents consent , is better so than otherwise ; but that the parent can transfer his right to another , is without all reason , unless the person to whom such a translation is made , do really take the education of the child ; which though by a private compact between the parent and sponsor , might be done ; yet , what shadow of reason can be for a canon compelling every parent to do it ? it is ( saith he ) but like an occasion of absence ; to wit , of the parent , in which case all allow of a sponsor . ans. it is no way like it , for the one hath necessity to warrant it ; the other hath nothing but mens will , or superstitious conceit . is it alike for , the state to make a law that neighbours should feed and cloath the orphans of poor parents ; and to make a law that they shall feed and cloath the children of their rich neighbours , who are alive ? the case is just so here . it is an injury to a man , to have his child taken from him without a cause , and given to another to be educated ; so it is to be obliged , yea , forced to transfer upon another all that right he hath to represent his own child , and to engage for his education . he saith , it is not the churches intention to supersede the obligation of the parent , but to superinduce a further obligation upon other persons . had the parent been permitted to undertake for the child jointly with the sponsors , there had been some colour for this assertion ; but that being expresly denied by the canon , it is evident that the church doth what she can to make the parent think that no obligation at all lyeth on him . i meddle not with his debate against mr. b. about mr. b's argument against sponsors , from the childs having right to baptism , only from the parents ; many learned men differ from mr. b. in that , and i shall not digress to dispute it . sect. . the dr. pag. . saith , he findeth nothing particularly objected against kneeling at the communion , that deserveth consideration , which he hath not answered in another place ; to wit , conferences first part , which book i have not seen ; wherefore i shall in a few words lay down our ground of scrupling that practice , and so leave it . we do not scruple kneeling at prayer , which is joyned with receiving of that sacrament ; nor do we deny that all possible reverence should be used in going about that holy ordinance ; but we think the expression of that reverence should be of gods appointing in his word , or grounded on nature , or civil custom , and not instituted by mans will. . then we scruple it , because it is an uncommanded act of worship ; that it is worship , i think will not be denyed ; kneeling in prayer cannot be denyed to be an act of external worship , no more than this : that it is uncommanded , we must believe , till they shew us a command for it . they alledge , that kneeling , being unquestionable a fit gesture to express humility and adoration ; it cannot be unfit , but needful in this case where both are required . to this i reply , humility is not fitly expressed by kneeling , though adoration be , and therefore we think kneeling in the act of receiving to be no fit gesture , because adoreing , however needful it be in the complex action of communicating ; to wit , before and after receiving the elements ; it is not the souls work in that act , believing or covenanting with god , is the proper exercise of the soul in that act , which is a solemn sealing of the covenant , and this covenanting is very unfitly expressed by kneeling . he that is about solemn prayer or adoration ( which might be well expressed by kneeling ) in the act of receiving that sacrament , doth little know , or consider , the nature and use of it ; whence i form our argument thus ; that religious gesture which is neither commanded by god , nor necessarily connected with the souls exercise in worship by nature , and dictated by it ; nor is by civil custom made a fit expression of the inward exercise of the soul in that worship ; but is only imposed by the will of man , is unlawful to be used in that worship ; but kneeling in the act of receiving the sacrament is such ; ergo , &c. the major is clear , for that must in that case be will-worship ; the minor is proved by what is said , and the conclusion followeth , ●i●syllogistica . sect. . another ground of our scruple is ; this practice is unprecedented in the apostolick and purest primitive church ; christ with his disciples sate or leaned ; they used the table gesture , then made decent by civil custom , and yet they used as much humility in receiving , and knew as well what was fit and decent as we now do , or can . in after ages this practice was not used , it is well known that in tertullians time , and till the beginning of the fifth century , they did not use to kneel on any lords day between easter and pentecost , so much as at prayer ; and the canon of the famous first council of nice did forbid it ; how then did they make the communion kneeling ? a third ground is ; this kneeling is a religious adoration before a creature , with a religious respect to the creature ; but this is unlawful , &c. the first proposition is clear , for it is with respect to the consecrated elements before them , that we kneel ; and it will not be denyed that we there adore god religiously . the second proposition i prove , because protestants do generaly condemn praying before an image ( as on other accounts , so on this ) because it is an adoring of god before a creature , with a religious respect to it ; let our brethren shew us what the more moderate of the papists give to their images , that we do not give to the consecrated elements . we use the one as a a stated motive of worship , as they do the other ; they deny that they give any worship to the image , as we do with reference to the elements . a fourth ground is ; this practice , ( as acknowledged by its patrons to be indifferent , ) hath been grosly abused to idolatry , the papists in the same external way worshiping the hoste . and it is known that this practice came in with the belief of christs bodily presence in the sacrament , and the papists profess , that if they did not believe that , they would not so kneel ; and is it fit that we should so symbolize with them ? which by this practice we do to that degree , that it is not easy to distinguish our adoration from theirs , by the spectators of both . these grounds i have but hinted , being spoken to more largely by others . sect. . he debateth next with mr. a. pag. . for saying that on the same reason that the church imposeth these ceremonies , she may impose some use of images , &c. to which the dr. bringeth three answers filling four pages . all this discourse might have been waved , for neither mr. a. nor any of us , did ever make that a ground of separation ; tho' we plead against the ceremonies on that ground . if they will remove the present ceremonies , we shall not for the asserting an imposing power leave them ; nor out of fear of what may come . sect. . the last plea for separation that the dr. first deviseth , and then refuteth is , sect. . that there is a parity of reason for our separating from the church of england , and from the protestants separating from the church of rome ; and this plea he imputeth to mr. a. in his preface ( he should have said , epistle dedicatory ) to mischief of impositions ; but i do not find that mr. a. or any other , ever used such a plea. all that he saith there is , ad hominem , against the dr's . ordinary crying out on us for separating from a true church ; whereas the dr. himself had owned rome to be a true church ; ration : account . p. . and def . against t. g. p. . and yet alloweth . separation from that church : wherefore i shall no further consider any thing that he saith on that head . and i conclude with the dr. and declare as he doth to the contrary , that i have examined all that he hath said on the present subject , and do find still remaining sufficient plea to justify the present practice of non-conformists in not joyning with the church of england , but worshiping god in meeting apart from it . sect. . the learned dr. is pleased to append to his book , to set it off 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , three letters of three french divines , printed first in french , and then in english , ad pompam ; for it is little ad pugnam . but he might know , what ever difference we give to learned and good men , their authority , without scripture proof ( which we yet desiderate ) will not prevail with us to alter our opinion or practice ; let the dr. call it obstinacy , or by what name he pleaseth . the first of them is from monsieur le moyne professor of divinity in leyden , to the bp. of london ; the authority of which letter ( not of the learned author of it ) we have good cause to neglect ; because it is apparent to any that read it , that it is written by a stranger to us , upon gross mis-information of our principles : for he saith , page . that he could not have perswaded himself that there had been any who believed that a man could not be saved in the communion of the church of england : and i join with him so far ; that i know not , nor hear of one non-conformist of that opinion ; but thus it seems we are , by our brethren , represented abroad ; and then precarious letters got by such means must be produced as witnesses against us . he also representeth us as if we condemned all to hell that use the ceremonies , page . and the same he saith about the church-discipline , ibid. and that we imagine that we are the only men in england , yea in the christian world , that are predestinated to eternal happiness , and that hold truths necessary to salvation , as they ought to be held , so he page . he also , page . tells us of a non-conformist-meeting he was at in london , where he exposeth the meeting and preacher , as very ridiculous ; and his calling the preacher one of the most famous non-conformists , sheweth him to be either a very great stranger to them , or somewhat that is worse . let any now judge , whether such a testimony be to be received against us . sect. . the second letter from monsieur de l' angle , speaks the reverend and learned author of it , to be an ingenious and sober person , but in some things misinformed by the episcopal party : he lamenteth our divisions , so do we ; he is for complyance with the ceremonies , being setled , but is far enough from approving of them . the former part of this , i impute to his being less concern'd to consider these things , than we are . he stateth our separation mainly upon episcopacy , which we do not ; and he , no doubt , doth it upon misinformation : but it is observable , that this good man , whom the dr. bringeth as a witness on his side , doth as much blame the church as us , whilst he is for their quitting of ceremonies , that occasion separation ; which he insisteth much on , as the way to peace . a notable piece of misinformation that this worthy person hath met with , is , that at a conference held for union with the dissenters , a little after his majesties restauration , nothing letted the agreement but some of the presbyterians ; the contrary of which , and their great condescendency for peace , is known to all england , and a lasting monument of it to posterity , is the book called , a petition for peace , containing the things that the presbyterians proposed , while the prelatical party would not part with , yea , nor forbear their brethren in the least ceremony , or mode of their service . sect. . the third letter is from the famous and excellent , monsieur claude , who walketh by the same spirit , and in the same steps with his reverend colleague , monsieur de l' angle : he speaketh of episcopacy as tollerable ; that one may , with a good conscience , live under it : this is not our question ; but it seems the question hath been so stated to him , by them who had a mind to procure his testimony to their cause . he telleth us , they admit of ministers that had been ordained by bishops ; so do we : he doth highly commend love and concord : and we think it cannot be overvalued ▪ where it can be had without sin. he speaketh of advantages , both by episcopacy , and parity ; and of disadvantages by both , when managed by bad men . nothing of which do we contradict . he complains of extreams on both sides , we do the same : we never yet thought all of our party so moderate , as they should be : after a proof of independency , he comes to speak of presbyterians , with that decent respect that becometh a man of his understanding and breeding , and in a far other dialect than dr. st. doth . he wisheth them to be moderate in reference to the scandal that they think they have received from the episcopal order , and to distinguish the persons from the ministry ; this we refuse not . he doth indeed condemn our holding assemblies apart , but stateth it on this ground , page . as if we did separate because the publick assembles are held under episcopal government ; and that we think our presence there were an approving of it , which is wide from our case ; but no doubt is according to his information , for which we ●hank our episcopal brethren , and commend their ingenuity . to the same purpose is what he hath page . as if we thought we cannot with a good conscience be present in the assemblies ; but only when we do fully and generally approve all things in them : which is far from our thoughts : these principles he doth most solidly refute . he saith , page . that he cannot believe that any of ●us ( presbyterians ) look on their episcopal discipline , or ceremonies as blots and capital errours that hinder a man from salvation . and doth in this truly judge , for we have always disowned such sentiments , we judge them sinful evils , which we dare not own ; but have much charity to some who own them . he next adviseth the bishops to moderation , and when the dispute is about ceremonies , that are a stumbling-block , and nothing in comparison of communion , they would make it be seen that they love the spouse of christ , better than themselves . o that this advice were followed , how soon might peace return to our land now wherein hath mr. claude , or his colleague touched our controversy . alas ! good men , they are abused by mis-representations . their letters give just ground to think , that if they were made umpires between the two parties , prelatical and presbyterian , and heard the true state of our debate , and true matters of fact : they would be of the same mind with us . and i am sure the church way that they practice is the same that we are for . wherefore the dr. with no loss to his cause might have waved the producing of these letters . what acts are used by the prelatical party to get foreign divines to be on their side , or at least to say nothing against them , may be gathered from a passage in the life of the famous and great antiquary , monsieur l' arrogie ; who having writ a book , wherein he sheweth the conformity of the discipline of the protestant church of rome ( which all know to be presbyterian ) with that of the primitive church ; and another in defence of monsieur dialle , touching the letters of ignatius , and the apostolical constitutions , against mr. pearson and beverige , and having designed a reply to their answer that they had made to him , at the request of some that favoured ●piscopacy , he did not finish his answer . these are pitiful shifts to support a tottering cause ; of the same kidney is their denying relief to the french protestants , ministers and others , who do not conform to the church of england ; the ceremonies being to them of more value than the great gosple duty of charity . at dublin . a french minister who preached to some of these exiles , was suppressed because he did not use the ceremonies , nor english liturgy . since i wrote this , i have met with another instance of episcopal inge●uity , for exposing the presbyterians among the foreign churches . it is in a letter of the famous bochart , dated nov. d . . in answer to a letter from dr. morley , wherein the dr. representeth the presbyterian principles in three po●itions ; whereof the third is a gross calumny , and excellently disproved by bochart , and the presbyterians fully vindicated by him ; the position is , reges posse vi & armis a subditis cogi in ordinem ▪ & si se praebeant immorigeros , de soliis deturbare , in carcerem c●njici , si●●i in jus & carnificem deniqne capite plecti ; and the dr. asserts that these principles were proved by the murder of k. c. st . the reader may abundantly satisfy himself of the impudence of this calumny from mr. bocharts letter , as it is printed after his phaleg , and canaan ; from page . of that letter ed. francford , . finis . an answer to dr. stillingfleet's book of the unreasonableness of separation so far as it concerns the peaceable designe : with some animadversions upon the debate between him and mr. baxter concerning the national church and the head of it. humfrey, john, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing h estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) an answer to dr. stillingfleet's book of the unreasonableness of separation so far as it concerns the peaceable designe : with some animadversions upon the debate between him and mr. baxter concerning the national church and the head of it. humfrey, john, - . humfrey, john, - . peaceable design. baxter, richard, - . of national churches. stillingfleet, edward, - . unreasonableness of separation. , [ ] p. printed for thomas parkhurst, london : [ ] attributed to humfrey--nuc pre- imprints . imprint date from nuc pre- imprints. reproduction of original in the union theological seminary library, new york. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng dissenters, religious -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - emma (leeson) huber sampled and proofread - emma (leeson) huber text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion an answer to dr. stillingfleet's book of the unreasonableness of separation , so far as it concerns the peaceable designe , with some animadversions upon the debate between him , and mr. baxter , concerning the national-church , and the head of it . against whom hast thou exalted thy voice , and lifted up thine eyes on high ? london , printed for thomas parkhurst , at the three bibles in cheap side , near mercers-chappel . an answer to dr. stillingfleet , &c. in dr. stillingfleet's book , there is one thing i meet with , that i perhaps can better tell how , than another , to answer . it is in his preface , where he is going about to make the nonconformists a kind of parties with the papists , as if they were joyning with them for the bringing in of popery ; and for the proof of this , he produces one evidence . i will set down his own words , and answer the allegation . in ann. dom. . there was a book printed , entituled , the peaceable designe , or an account of the nonconformists meetings , by some ministers of london . in it , an objection is thus put : but what shall we say then to the papists ? his answer is , the papist , in our account , is but one sort of recusants , & the conscientious & peaceable among them , must be held in the same predicament with those among ourselves , that likewise refuse to come to common-prayer . what is this but joyning for a toleration of popery ? if this be not plain enough , these words follow ; but as for the common-papist , who lives innocently in his way , he is to us as other separatists ; and so he comes under the like toleration . this notable book , with some few additions & alterations , hath been since printed , & with great sincerity called , an answer to my sermon . and the times being changed since , the former passage is thus altered : the papists is one whose worship to us is idolatry , and we cannot therefore allow them the liberty of publick assembling themselves as others of the separation . is it idolatry , and not to be tolerated in ? and was it idolatry , & to be tolerated in ? or , was it no idolatry then , but is become so now , and intolerable idolatry too ? the latter passage hath these alterations ; instead of he is to us as other separatists , and so comes under the like toleration , these are put in , he is to us ( in regard of what he doth in private , in the matter of his god ) as other who refuse to come to common-prayer . now we see toleration struck out for the papists , but it was not only visible enough before , but that very book was printed with a design to present it to the parliament , which was the highest way of owning their concurrence with the papists for a general toleration : and the true reason of this alteration is , that then was then , and now is now. for the answering this evidence . in the first place , this book the doctor mentions , was drawn up by one man ( though put out by others ) and the first mistake of the doctor is , to lay a charge on the party of the nonconformists , for a passage which indeed concerns but one person only . in the next place , the reason of bringing that passage into the book was , because the objection is so obvious it could not be baulkt ; and the consequence appearing to the author undeniable , he thought it but honest to yeild it . the doctor then is mistaken next , that believes ( or pretends ) the reason of the bringing in that passage , was on purpose only to favour , or fall in with the papists . that which is said in right to all , ought not to be interpreted in favour to any . in the third place , for the alteration mentioned , it is to be known , that when the author had drew up this book , he left it with a non-conformist doctor to shew it to his brethren ; who return'd it after a while , telling him , that they disliked some passages in it ; which made him put it into some other hands , who afterwards , while he was absent , printed it . they altered nothing , but when it came out , the author indeed found his brethren offended at some things , and that passage most obnoxious to exception : so that he presenrly made his emendations , and seeing the book ill printed , intended in time to have another impression . upon this , it appears the doctor is again mistaken , in regard to this alteration which he quotes , who judges the reason of the change , to be only because of the times . the true reason ( sayes he ) is , because then was then , and now is now. the true reason , as if he knew it , when you see how perfectly he is out in his confidence , as well as his conjectures . the making the emendations which he did , at the present season , is a demonstration . the nonconformists are here suspected or impeached by this doctor , for favouring & ioyning with the papists , because of a passage in that book ; when the very reason of altering that passage was , because of their presumed finding fault with it . in the last place , we have here , not only a mistake in the doctor ( which might be born ) but an open wrong or injury , if it be not want of consideration . the doctor thinks , or speaks , as if the author ( in re-printing the book ) had changed his opinion ; wherein i count he most of all is out , and most to blame . he who drew up the book , is not one of that humour , as to turn with the times , but rather against them . the opinion he offered in the year , is the same with what he holds now in the year . here is an alteration indeed as to more words , or some other words , but the same opinion or solution , with the difference only of a farther explication of it , and nothing else therein ( besides avoiding offence ) entended . the author had been wary in declaring the toleration he proposed to be a limited one , and provided against the iesuite upon reason of state , and shewed his dread of popery in dominion , but had omitted the distinction of a toleration in regard to publick assemblies , and the private exercise of a man 's own religion . he explains himself therefore by way of supply , signifying that what he said at first , should be taken in regard to the tolerating the papist only privately , as his meaning really was then , and is now but fullier expressed . this is the opinion he recedes not from ( whether peculiar to himself or not ) that no man should be persecuted meerly for his conscience , if there be no other reason . whether a man be a dissenter of one kind , or of another , the common rule of christianty must be remembred ( he sayes ) still , that we do to all men , as we would be done by , and that with what measure we mete to others , it shall be met to us again . these words remain in all the impressions . and now for the title , i have this also to answer . the book as it came out an. . was then gone , and now re-printed against the parliament sate ; but they not sitting , was laid by till the doctor 's sermon comming out , it was thought seasonable . the doctor charges the nonconformists meetings with schisme . this book gives an account of their meetings , and vindicates them from schisme : and forasmuch , as something was inserted in regard to the people ( whom his charge mainly concerns ) when the ministers only were vindicated in the first edition , and the first sheet was new printed over on purpose , and the doctor named , it was sent out with this also in the title . there was no concealment that it was a former book , it was still call'd the peaceable design , and said to be renewed ; but there was this addition , and this reason . and so i have given an account of doctor stillingfleet's book , so far as concerns that author ; and do not doubt , but the doctor will have an account also from others so far as it concerns them , in due season . as mr. baxter , mr. alsop , dr. owen . and here i had thought to have given over , and got one of these friends to have put so much for me in one of their books : but when i remember there is a postscript to the last impression of the book mentioned , and what there is said , and with what openness ; i must needs say , that i did expect something from a candid person , more like a gentleman ; that is , so much ingenuity as to cover a fault which was confessed , rather than expose it , if there were any : but i see there is nothing of this nature , no such ingenuity i thought , to be expected from the doctor . i am sensible of his spirit , and that temper i observe in him , from a few words let out of his soul here and there , in this ironical way of his , which is a sufficient indication of what kind of estimation he hath of himself , in his contempt of others . i will give one instance in a place somewhere , where he is speaking of mr. alsop . he begins his sentence , this learned man , but before he ends it , he tells us of an admirable peice of his reading : so that when i was thinking him to be in earnest , i find it only to disdain him . i do therefore hate such a counterfeit epithet as this is , and these fleering expressions . it is all one in good earnest , as if he should more at large speak thus to his readers . readers , you may perhaps think that mr. alsop is a learned man ; but alass , what is he in comparison of me ? i am the man that have all learning in me . 't is i have done such feats , especially against the papists . i am the man that have kill'd the philistine . i forbear to mention a place where he treats this same worthy man , after the rate , as if he were some person distraught , which is a vile abuse , but that is not the thing i note . another instance i must not forbear , in regard to mr. baxter , and it is this , that when he at first names that good man , he tells us he pitties him . mr. baxter belike , is one scarce worthy of the doctors conquest , but fit for his compassion . and can the doctor here be in good earnest ? mr. baxter certainly is not an enemy so contemptible , nor the doctor i hope quite so elated , as he is idle . the doctor is one who may look on himself to have abilities in some regard , which mr. baxter hath not ; but if he should really value himself mith mr. baxter , upon the account of a profound divine ( which one may think here he would be at ) , he is a man who must want that modesty in good earnest , whereof he makes a shew in the beginning of his book , upon a comparison of his with iewel . the doctor hath learning , and hath apt words , and is a ready sufficient man : but mr. baxter is really a man extraordinary , and whose talents are of another sort , than the doctors can reach unto . mr. baxter is one , i will say , like the man in the neighbourhood , who is first up , and all the neighbours come for fire to his house : that is , one from whom the present age do fetch light , and unto whom the ages to come will bring honour . neither care i for any bodies saying this is odious , for the old-proverb shall not hinder me to end the comparison . the doctor is one as well as others who may be willing to learn ( or else i am sure be will have the more need to be taught ) of that man whom he pitties . it is fit after i have said this , that i make it good . and there is a dispute between these two , concerning the national church , will help me to do it . if there be a national church , it must have a head , a constitutive-head , sayes mr. baxter : and therefore asks the doctor where the constitutive regent part of the church of eng - is to be placed ? it is a matter of polity the doctor is put upon : the question also seems something perplext , it may be on purpose to try the doctor , but this we find , the doctor is posed , that is flat , for he cannot answer , but is driven to say there is no such head , and that there is no need of any ; which is the absurdity unto which the opponent would drive him . if ever any boy in the higher form at school , was posed by his master , the doctor here is posed , who is indeed in mr. baxter's hands , no other but such a one , when he takes him on such a point , where his books , and polite style do not serve him . that there is a government in the church of england , i hope the doctor does not doubt , who pleads for conformity to it . where there is a government established , there must be a political society ; every political body consists of a pars imperans & subdita . does , or does not the doctor know this ? if the church of england then be a political church , it must have a regent part , and this constitutive regent part must be assigned . the doctor here is indeed something more unfortunate in his reading , than he uses , or else it need not be so hard for any , to find out , where the head , or regent part of every political society is , or must be placed , whether mr. baxter contradicts it or not . there are therefore certain rights of soveraignty , iura magistatis ( as writers of politicks do call them ) or prerogatives , and where those rights are invested , there the headship must be placed . the chief of these rights is legislation . wheresoever then the power of giving laws to any society is found , there must this constitutive regent part , which mr. baxter enquires for ; be assigned . the church of england , now we know , hath her laws : there are laws ecclesiastical , and these are called canons , or constitutions . we must then enquire where it is , the power of making these does lye . and here we find , that the arch-bishop of the province , with the bish●ps and clerks making up a convocation , do frame these canons . if the doctor now could but prove , that the hierarchy of the church thus congregated , were certainly of divine institution , so that there needed no other authority , but of the convocation only , for their ratification ; then could he perfectly assign to us such a head as mr. baxter seeks . but forasmuch as there is no authority in the convocation when they have composed their canons , to impose any of them upon the church , or to oblige the conscience of any by them , until they are ratifyed by the authority of the king ; it is manifest both that this hierarchy of the nation is but of human right , and that the king alone ( the power of legislation , which proves it , lying only in him ) is , and must be , the head of the church , in this kingdom . and that this certainly is so , it is declared in the statute of henry the eighth , that the king shall be taken for the only supream head of the church , called ecclesia anglicana . to understand this , the church may be consid●red , we are to know , as universal , and so is christ the head of it , and can only give laws to it : or as particular , and so the pastors are heads , and rule it : or as national , ( to wit , as it is according to the statute ecclesia anglicana ) and so the magistrate is head , and makes laws for it . i will add ; there is something essential to the church of christ , and something accidental . that there should be persons , who meet to worship god and christ , and be put in order for it , is of christ's appointment , and necessary to his church . of these particular persons and churches , the catholick church consists . to be particular then , or universal , is of essential consideration to christ's church : but to be national , is of accidental consideration . that all the people of a land should be christian , and the magistrate also , is ( i say ) an accidental thing to the church , which may exist where that is not : upon which account , though the magistrate be none of christ's proper officers , yet may he be head of his church , and constitutive head of it , as undet his dominions , because he is head not in any essential , but in this accidental consideration of it . i will now set down the doctor 's own words . pag. . we deny any necessity of any such constitutive regent part , or one formal ecclesiastical head , as essential to a national-church . for a national consent is as sufficient to make a national-church , as an universal-consent to make a catholick-church . in this determination of the point , when the doctor denyes any necessity of such a head , i hope , he is not so frivolous , as to believe one in this nation , and not to tell it . so long as the church of england is a political church , and hath a government establish't , it must have its regent part , as well as the part ruled ; and to deny the necessity of one , is all one as to say there is none . i press the doctor : is it a political-church , or no ? if it be , he must find it a head : if it be not , then it is only a community of christians , amongst whom , it must be supposed , there is no government ( as yet ) introduced ; and then shall our ecclesiastical laws , canons , and constitutions , our bishops and arch-bishops , with the whole . constitution we have already , be hurled in the dust. the doctor will be a fine champion for the church , if he persists to say this . we deny any necessity of any such constitutive regent part , or one formal ecclesiastical head , as essential to a national-church . the doctor here , who is posed with the question , is confounded with the terms . he should distinguish between a he●d , and a formal ecclesiastical head ; a regent part , and an ecclesiastical regent part ; a constitutive regent part , and a formal ecclesiastical head of the church of england . though a national - church hath no ecclesiastical head , it hath a head , a regent part , a constitutive regent part , under this accidental consideration of the church as national , though not under the essential consideration of it as the church of christ. if the doctor had light upon it in some of his books , that the king of england represents two persons , an ecclesiastical person while he presides by his authority in the convocation , and so is head of the church ; and a civil person , while he sits with the parliament , and so is head of the state , and upon the account of both , the fountain of all obligation upon the subject , both from the canons of the church , and statutes of the realm , i cannot tell how he might have put mr. baxter to it : but so long as the king is not indeed both supream magistrate , and high-priest , as the maccabees were , and neither of them think otherwise of the king , than magistrate only , ( that is , supream coercive governour ) it is this which is here said , must be the expedient to remove the bone from between them . it is said in scripture , that kings and queens shall be nursing-fathers and nursing-mothers to the church . as they are fathers , they are heads : as nursing-fathers , it shews their power is not internal to the church , but external , as divines speak , that is of another kind than that which is proper to spiritual fathers , the pastors , or christ's own officers . the authority of kings over the church , is objective , ( they say , circa sacra ) not formal : that is , it is objectively ecclesiastical , and formally civil . and as this is so , i apprehend in like manner , that the society of christians in a nation ( as the whole nation are such ) is objectively a church , and formally a kingdom , or common-wealth of christians ; and so may the christian magistrate be the constitutive regent part of it . well! but what argument hath the doctor to prove that there is no necessity for a national church , to have a constitutive head , essential to it ; that is essential to it , not as the church of christ ; but under a national consideration ? he hath no argument , but brings another instance , and that is of the catholick church visible , which he saith , hath no head neither . the doctor is miserably driven to the wall , when he is driven hither . there was never any protestant doubted , but that iesus christ is the head of the catholick church ; and if he be the head of it as universal , he must be the head of it , whether visible or invisible . but christ is not ( sayes he ) a visible head. poor ! if this were true , it is enough that he is the head of those who are visible : but yet he is out even in this , for though christ be not caput visum , he is caput visibile . he is not seen on earth , but he is seen in heaven . nay , he was seen on earth by paul and stephen , and will appear as he is at the great day . and what thinks the doctor of christ before his ascension ; was he head then ? nay , did not christ while upon earth give laws for his church , appoint officers , and commission his apostles to gather christian societies in the world ? and is not his government over them , a visible ecclesiastical government , where the officers are visible , and the members visible ; and is not he the head then of the church visible ? are not making laws , and appointing officers , the rights of a head ? when that article was put in the creed , i believe the catholick church ; i would ask the doctor , whether this distinction of visible and invisible was used in the world ? and if it was not , when it arose , it could not take off any thing of christ's headship . when both visible and invisible were but one , he must be head of both . again , there are some learned men deny a catholick church visible . the doctor does hold it . and what if they should advance against him this argument ? if there be no catholick visible head , there is no catholick church visible . but there is no catholick visible head. the minor is the doctors , and the major is to be denyed of no other but the doctor . let us proceed to the bottom . we have sounded the doctors invention ; let us try his reason . there is no necessity of such a head ( sayes he ) for a national consent is as sufficient to make a national church , as an universal consent to make a catholick church . this is the doctors reason . it is consent alone makes a church or society , though it hath no head. the consent of a nation makes a national church , the consent of all christians the catholick church , the consent of a particular company , a particular church or congregation . this is his bottom , and it is something , but exceeding rawly spoken . let us understand therefore , where there is a company of persons , who have no power one over another , that might receive mutual advantage , if united to that end ; such a company are called a community . if they agree together for the obtainment of that end , to come into an order of superiority and inferiority , that makes it a society , or political body . if the end be for that good which is only temporal , it is called a common-wealth : if for that which is spiritual , it is a church . the doctor now is to be askt , what consent it is that he means ? if he means by his consent , the agreement which people make at first , when they enter into society , it is true , that their consent is the foundation : but the doctor here i hope does see that this consent is for the having a head , and government , and the pitching upon the sort , or manner of the government they would have ; which agreement is called the constitution . it is not this consent therefore the doctor should mean , which is not also applicable to the catholick church ( in which he instances ) whose head and government is not of mans election , but of the will of god only . by the way for the national church , it is true , that particular churches in a nation , being of divine appointment , the pastors or ministers who have the rule over their flocks in actu primo , that is , the right of discipline and censure , may agree to a delegating that power in actu secundo , or the exercise of it ( for reasons of prudence ) to a superintendent , called a bishop , who shall be supervised by an arch-bishop ; and that the arch-bishop , bishops , and clerks , chosen out of themselves , met in a convocation , shall have the power of making laws , or canons , by which they will be governed . upon such a consent , as this here appears a political national church in the constitution , wherein is an ecclesiastical formal constitutive regent part , or head over an organical body for the administration , and that founded upon the true bottom , upon which all rightly constituted societies do stand , the agreement of the community . the regent part here is placed not in one person ( which does not need ) but in one corporation , or united assembly , whereof the arch-bishop is but a chief part , as the bishops are : and i would humbly ask mr. baxter what he thinks of it . for as for the doctor , i think not him a competent judge , not so much because he is not versed in that sort of study , as the other is ; but because of his departure from himself in the prudentials of his irenicum , and being thereby now engaged to maintain the government of our church to be of divine right , he must not receive this notion , which , let it shew him never so clear and firm a ground to build the same upon , does make it of human institution . if by his consent , he means the consent of every man in particular , to be of such a church or society , it is true that a mans consent does make him a member , so as without it he could be none : but the church or society , must be supposed to be formed before of the ruling , and ruled part , and his consent to be a member , is a consent to be ruled , and to own such a head , as well as to enjoy the benefits of such a society . this consent is the condition upon which he hath right to be a member , it is the ratio fundandi of his membership , and the condition upon which the ruler hath authority over him in particular ( when we suppose he may otherwise be at his own choice ) : but if a man shall fancy that this consent does make a church or society , as the form that constitutes it , as they must do , who suppose a society to be made , formed , or constituted , by this consent without a head , or the necessity of one ; it is such a raw , injudicious , indigested conception , as could have never once swum in the thoughts of so learned a person , if he had a faculty for beating out a notion , so good as he has for books , and negligence toward others that endeavour it . it is true , there is no political society , whether civil or ecclesiastical , but there must be consent and union ; but it is not this consent , and union only makes it a church or common-wealth . a vicinity may have concord , nay a herd ; and there is consent in a society in fieri , not yet organiz'd , or unform'd . there is something that gives the name and being , and makes a society to be that which it is , in specie different from others , which is not i say consent , but it is an order of superiority and inferiority upon consent , that does this ; and that is all one , as to be the form that constitutes the society : and consequently , when i find the doctor ( being at last drawn to it ) come to such a determination as this about the point , that there is no necessity of a constitutive head , because a national consent makes a national church , i must pronounce it such a grave nothing , such a speaking nothing with gravity , and pretence of being wiser too than his fellows , that if he do not come to be ashamed before mr. baxter has done with him , or has reason to be so , i will be exposed to shame my self for my speaking thus freely , plainly , and honestly , as another person perhaps would not do . the truth is , it is pity the doctor did declare his heart while he was young against the divine right of episcopacy , seeing he hath occasion now for another opinion . whether out of prudence or conscience , whether for want of more light then , or more full light now ; it is god , and himself knows , and i judge not . but i do perceive this , that it hath exposed him much , and that not only to such a sawcy man as mr. alsop , to style him this weather-cock : but to such a serious man as mr. baxter ; to drive him into such distress . for so long ( i must still say ) as the doctor is engaged to hold the government of episcopacy , as it is exercised in the church of england , to be of divine right ; he must maintain also her proper constituting officers to be of christs appointment , and then find out a constitutive head of it , or he is gone . and seeing he cannot do this , but is forced to grant there is no such head , and that there is no need of any , it is plain that his cause is lost . i will sum up my answer again . the doctor 's determination is , we deny the necessity of any such regent part. for a national consent is as sufficient to make a national church , as an universal consent to make a catholick church . it is well he sayes , as sufficient , because , that may excuse him something , if neither of them be sufficient , as it appears they are not without a head. i have distinguished therefore two consents . a consent that goes to the making a society or church ; and a consent for coming into the same , when it is made . a consent that goes to the constitution , and a consent , that goes to put a man under the administration . when the doctor argues from the catholick , to a national church ; that , as an universal consent makes the catholick church : so a national consent the national church ; he must not be understood to mean it of the former consent , because there is no such consent as that imaginable , in regard to the catholick church . there can be no coming together possibly of the community of the whole christian world , to agree to such a constitution . the catholick church is not made by the consent of men , but is of god's ordination altogether . nor can he be understood of the latter consent , because a consent to be a member of a church or society already made , is not that consent which goes to the making it . a consent to be a christian , or of the church catholick , is to consent to have christ for my lord and head. but how a consent to have christ for ones head , should prove that consent makes a church without a head , is a reasoning i am yet to understand . for the former consent , there is here none of it : and from the latter , there can be no argument . again , the catholick church visible in its nature , can never be organical . it hath a head , and all the particular churches in the earth , are the parts of it . nay , there were at first , universal officers , gifted with proper gifts , as the gifts of tongues , sutable to such an office : but these were only to gather particular churches throughout the world ; and it never was the designe of the head , that there should be a form of polity introduced into an oecumenical society , that by the organs of bishops , arch-bishops , patriarchs , general councils , and a pope , a catholick visible government should be administred so , as to make the whole earth a political church . and consequently , the doctors arguing from the catholick to a national church , cannot be good . not only because there is no such constitution as this by consent imaginable ( which i shall say principally ) as to the catholick church ( the true head of this church being not chosen by man's consent , and the false head , i hope , we are never like to choose ) : but because , upon supposition that the doctors consent ( some way or other as he means ) did make it , he must suppose this universal church , as such , to be on earth , a compleat organized body , or he must make the national church an in-organical body ; and by either way he drops his cause . i do now wonder therefore at the doctor , what these first apprehensions of something indeed , he knew not what , in his mind , should mean. how a man , whose parts are so great , should be so slender in his reasonings ; and why he should undertake the resolution of such a point , as he is no body at , at all . the doctor certainly has no reason therefore , to insult over any body , or contemn any , and much less to pity mr. baxter ; which pity , by interpretation , is slight . mr. baxter is a man that is not to be pityed , nor indeed to be envied ; for we usually don 't aspire to be equal to singular persons . the doctor has his excellencies other ways , but he hath not mr. baxter's . the doctor 's soul is made of free-stone , you shall have from him polished learning ; mr. baxter's is made of flint , you shall have from him acute truth . it is the flint , not the free-stone , that strikes light. a quick apprehension ; a d●ep judgment , a vast invention ; exquisite notion . a pen consequently , that is but turning the cock , and it will run at any time a sermon full , or a book full , as he hath occasion . there is a book i understand , of his now sending out , which hath been many a year in study ( he is usually too sudden ) ; it is a methodical system of divinity , fit for students at the university . i believe , that many of our episcopal-divines will speak lightly of it , but not read it ; for my part , through his having this one chief work , happily in latin , i rejoyce from my heart , that forreign divines who are not yet prejudiced , as ours are , will come to know him . above all yet , mr. baxter is a holy man , who will be for ever greater in his own refusing a bishoprick , than the doctor can be in getting one ; if the present ill managing of this cause does not preclude his having any . and now , i could not answer it to my self , if i should leave this discourse without returning to the matter , to make some improvement of it . from this piece of doctrine then before ( wherein i wonder how the doctor should stumble so at noon day ) that the church of england is so far erastian , that she will not admit of two co-ordinate powers with respect to the church and the state of this nation , but doth choose to own and acknowledge the king to be the only head of both ; we have a dore open'd for union , which hath hardly been thought on by any of those pious and learned men , whose souls heretofore have so much breathed after it . archbishop usher hath left us his model for an accommodation : and it hath been upon the hearts generally of all moderate persons , that a reduction of such a government into our church , as was in in the primitive times ( when there was a consessus presbyterorum joyn'd with the bishop in all his acts of ordination and jurisdiction ) were the way , and only effectual way to our true happiness and reformation . unto which , if one thing more might be added , that is , if the common-prayer might be new cast ( it being fit , that such a vessel for the sanctuary should be all of pure gold ) so as the whole of it were composed of scripture-phrase altogether , leaving nothing at all lyable any more to exception , unless the imposition of a form only ( which i doubt not but is also justifiable by scripture-instances , as well as sound reason ) it might go near to put an end to all dissention among the sober and peaceable of the nation . it is this i know is apt to recur into the imaginations of good men , and forasmuch as there was lately two bills prepared , for comprehension ( or uniting the protestants ) , and for indulgence ( or repealing the penal statutes ) ; i shall not i hope incur any blame if i apprehend that such men who are most considerate , and intent upon the interest of god , in what they seek , do , or did look upon either of such bills , as no other than an english interim , preparative to this higher concord , and union of the bishop with his presbyters , according to the primitive pattern mentioned , as soon as more mellow opportunity , and well advised piety , should administer unto such farther perfection . nevertheless , in regard there is no uniting of a nation , can be supposed by any model , but such as is of h●man contrivance ; and there are multitudes of holy , and learned men in this kingdom , that do believe the way of their gathered congregations , is after a higher pattern , than this of primitive episcopacy it self , i● there were any hope of the return of it ; it is manifest that there is no society which is national in england , could be formed on these terms , because these congregational men can never recede from that which is of divine appointment , for the sake of any antiquity whatsoever . they do hold particular churches to be of christ's ▪ institution , and diocesan of ecclesiastical consent only , and under the notion of divine right , it is sin to them , to submit to any bishop . there is another notion then , that must be advanced to take in these good men of this way , as well as those of the parochial and diocesan way , into one political body , for the making up the national church of england , whereof the king is head , as i have been speaking : and that is by an act of parliament , legitimating these meetings of the nonconformists , so as to become thereby immediately parts of the church , as national , no less than the parochial assemblies . it was a good thing in the house of commons , that they were about to free many innocent men , from the danger of the penal statutes ; but the making such meetings to be legal , is a design of another nature , of a far greater , nobler , and vast importance . the nonconformist as well as conformist , the congregationalist as well as presbyterian , do acknowledg the king's supremacy , and can take the oath . the one , as well as the other , therefore do own an external regiment of the magistrate over their churches , so as to be punishable by him ▪ for any neglect of the gospel order , which themselves profess ; or for any rules they make , or things they do , which are repugnant to the peace of the kingdom . if it shall please the king consequently , to commit any part of that authority of his , which he hath circa sacra , to be exercised by the bishops , as ecclesiastical magistrates under him , they can submit to a visitation under them , upon that account : though they acknowledge them not to be christs officers , bearing , or having any internal church-power from him , over them , or any other , but their own charge . upon which account it appears further , how the outward dignity , and grandeur of the bishop need not be diminished , but enhaunced ; and his superintendency extended over the congregational , as well as the parochial churches : provided only , he will but keep within his line ; that is the line of the king , and meddle not with christ's jurisdiction . neither will they envy him his barony , and sitting in the parliament . and if it should seem farther good here to a parliament in one and the same act , that legitimates such meetings , to appoint that unto the two clerks , which are elected by the ministers of every diocess ; there should be one more chose by the congregationalists , likewise , for every convocation ; to joyn with them in consultation , that such canons , and such only may be framed , as tend to the propagation of holiness and peace , throughout all the churches , as we●l congregational as parochial ; who does not see , how by this means , one organ more should be added to this great political society , for deriving an influence from this head , to these parts of the body , as well as others , which now seem neglected , and to have no care taken of them . and this brings into my mind , a text of the apostle . god hath tempered the body together , having given abundant honour to that part which lacked : that there should be no schisme in the body , but that the members should have the same care of one another . from which text ( if i may go a little about , to come the nearer home ) we may understand where the core of that evil we call schisme , does lye ; and that is mainly in the want of that love , and that care which the members owe one to another . it will follow , that whosoever they be , whether conformist or nonconformist , who do care least for the concord , and edification of the whole body ; those are like to be found most guilty of that sin in the sight of god. the nonconformist minister does often come to the parish church , but the conformist minister comes never to his meeting ; and , which then of the two , is the greater separatist ? the meetings of the one , and of the other , as they are particular churches , are churches of christ , and parts of the universal , and so of divine , through quatenus parochial , of human institution . they both agree in the same doctrine , and the same sacraments . they have one god , one hope of our calling , one lord , one faith , one baptism . they differ somthing indeed in opinion about the church , as to the external constitution , and discipline of it , and about some rites and practices , which makes them go into distinct congregations . but is their going only to two meetings enough to make both , or either of them , to be guilty of this sin of schisme ? separation i take it , in its self , simply considered , is neither good nor evil ; and there must be something that makes such a separation to be sinful , or else it is not to be accounted schisme . if a man shall separate from the parish church , upon the perswasion that those churches are no true churches , i take such a separation to be a high breach of charity , which must therefore render it sinful , and consequently schisme . if any shall separate out of pride , contention , or any the like sinful cause , or to any sinful end , as worldly gain ( for to some , gain is godliness ) , or vain glory : this will make such a separation to be still sinful , and so schisme . it were the part then of such a convocation before mentioned , that is , of ministers consisting of both sorts , to be sure to agree upon this , that , neither church ( or any members of either ) shall unchurch one another : and , that no man should depart from the one church to the other , but upon a sufficient peaceable reason , under the pain of ecclesiastical censure . they should not permit any person unlearned , till come to very grave years ( which are past heat and ostentation ) to exercise in these meetings : they should decree the doors of such meetings to be kept open , that the magistrate may be secure against sedition . they should determine many things of such a nature ; but especially , that when a man hath his choice to be of what congregation he will , in regard to fixed communion , as he finds it most conducive to his souls edification ; yet should he be allowed , and enjoyned to come occasionally also to the parish ▪ meetings ( so far as he can in point of conscience ) , for the testifying his union with the body , as the church is national in this kingdom . and i would have persons likewise , who come for their stated worship to the parish church , to go sometimes to the meetings also without scruple , by the way of occasional communion . i will here deliver my own soul. i know that the laws of the magistrate that are good , do bind the conscience : but there are two cases that loose a man from obedience . one is , when that which is commanded , is against his conscience : and the other is , when that which is commanded , is superseded by a duty of greater concernment . i cannot say for my part , that to go to church , and hear common-prayer , is against my conscience ; though a thorough conformity in all things , on the ministers part , is like still to be so ; seeing the doctor himself does shrink from a defence of the lawfulness of that : but this i can say , that when it is my duty to go to church , and my duty also to go preach ( supposing i am called to one of these meetings ) , the leaving undone that duty , which is the less , for the doing the other that can't be done otherwise , is no sin , or evil , as i am perswaded in my judgment . and it is upon the plea of the greater duty , that the peaceable design does stand . i know well how my brethren state their case , they will have going to their meetings , to be for their fixed communion ; and allow occasional communion with the parish church , to defend themselves from schisme : but i , for my part must confess , that i see not , and cannot see my defence to be so safe , unless i take the parish assembly ( where i have convenience ) for my fixed communion , and my preaching in the meetings , and the peoples going to them , to be occasional only , for our greater or farther edification . the doctor therefore should indeed have taken particular notice of this , and providing only against such preaching to be at that time , when publick authority requires the general attendance otherwhere , he should , by giving an approbation to such a state of our cause , have consulted his own , both with more judgment , and with more moderation , then for ought i see he hath done , or was able to do . indeed if the scene were altered , i need not be so wary . if these separate assemblies were made legal , the schisme presently , in reference to the national church were at an end. schisme is a separation from that church , whereof we ought , or are bound to be members : if the supreme authority then loose our obligation to the parish meeting , so that we are bound no longer , the iniquity upon that account , is not to be found , and the schisme gone . it is one act of parliament would give a full answer , to all mens arguments . in the mean time , the non-conformists i know , have other pleas besides one for what they do . they think themselves bound in conscience to meet , and preach , and account it serving god , and doing their duty . the doctor and others call it sin and wickedness . when i hear such sayings therefore , and read such books , i may still bear reverence to the persons , but i do not in my heart , care one penny for what they say ; for , there is a conscience within quite above such words . they may cry , this is schism ; there never was such horrible schism , as this practise , heard of , before in the christian world sayes one very serious author , whom i name not : but i am not moved for all that . i cannot think a nonconformist meeting such a horrible creature ( considering how our case in england now stands ) as these church-men generally would make it . the great bear ( i must count still ) hath been lead so long about the streets , that the very children are no longer afraid of it . not but i am sensible of the dangerous consequence into which our divisions may bring us ; but who can help it ? who is the cause of them ? who is in fault , is the question . who is it can remedy these terms imposed on us as necessary to communion ? the nonconformist hath no conscience of sin upon him in the thing ; and if he cannot have peace with his brethren of the church , upon any terms but full conforming , it is god must be the judg , and the bishop and presbyterian , the doctor and mr. baxter , shall know which of them it is , that are to blame at the great day . and wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant moses ? the doctor had no need to lay out his parts upon such a design as that he hath under his hands : nor has he reason ( i must inculcate ) to despise or scorn , no nor to slight , or neglect any body , though the meanest person . there is a late reverend conformist ( for so i take him to be ) who in a certain book , entituled , liberty of conscience , in its order to universal peace , hath deserved better of us . i suppose ( sayes he ) there is a society , or societies of christians , that hold christ the head , and the great points of union ; but refuse to ioyn in such opinion or practise , as they conceive not allowable by the word of god ; nor can they , that require their compliance , pretend on their part , that the things are absolute necessary to make a member of the body of christ : in this case , i say , he is only the schismatick that hath not a love , that hath no sympathy with the body ; and therefore , if neither hath , they must be both schismaticks . i should not fill so much room with a quotation , but that i am taken with the genius of the writer . he is a man quite unknown to me , but he hath a fine spirit , and his book savours of it : that is , so generous , so candid , so benign towards the dissenters ; as the temper is quite contrary , in the authors , of the friendly debate , the ecclesiastical polity , and the unreasonableness of separation . i am concern'd , i must needs say , that i put these three names together ; not that the authors of either of the first books , are men of less bright parts , or that the books have less excellency of their kind , in them , than the last , but because of the reason , why i do it . for i must confess , it is a matter of real offence to me , that a man who is so learned a man , so honoured a man throughout the nation , should prove a proud man , a disdainful , contemptuous person ; which temper , if it be indulged , is so un-endurable by god and man , that it will hurl any one into the dust : and i cannot do any better service in the earth to this otherwise very worthy and excellent doctor , than to contribute the best i can to my utmost , for bringing him to some ingenuous sense and amendment of it . and so i leave him to the world , to judg who is most fit to be pityed , the doctor himself , or mr. baxter . thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart , but thou shalt in any wife rebuke him , and not suffer sin upon him . the end . errata . page . line . in some of the copies the word last is put for first . p. . l. . for shall read still . p. . l. . for own read once . the spirituall vertigo, or, turning sickensse of soul-unsettlednesse in matters of religious concernment the nature of it opened, the causes assigned, the danger discovered, and remedy prescribed ... / by john brinsley. brinsley, john, fl. - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; 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(eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) the spirituall vertigo, or, turning sickensse of soul-unsettlednesse in matters of religious concernment the nature of it opened, the causes assigned, the danger discovered, and remedy prescribed ... / by john brinsley. brinsley, john, fl. - . 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ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng church of england -- controversial literature. dissenters, religious -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - rina kor sampled and proofread - rina kor text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . the spirituall vertigo : or turning sicknesse of soul-unsettlednesse in matters of religious concernment . the nature of it opened , the causes assigned , the danger discovered , and remedy prescribed . as it was lately delivered to the church of god at great yarmouth , by john brinsley , minister of the gospel there . and now presented unto a publick view , as a needful antidote against the infection of those divers and strange doctrines , wherewith in these unsettled times many ( possibly well-meaning , but ) unwary and unstable soules are carried about , to the great disquietment of the church , the dishonour and prejudice of gods true religion , the hazarding of others , and eminent indangering of their own soules jam. . . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . eph. . . that we henceforth be no more children , tossed to and fro , &c. rom. . . now i beseech you , brethren , mark them which cause divisions and offences , &c. london , printed for tho. newberry , and are to be sold at his shop in corn-hill near the royal exchange , . to all the fixed stars in englands horizon , whether ministers or others , who in these loose and unsettled times , do yet ( through grace ) remain stable as to matters of religious concerncernment . specially those in the town of great yarmouth . ( highly and deservedly honoured in the lord , ) you see what matters they are i have here to deal with ; not civill , but religious : the former of these i leave to the wise providence of that most high , who ruleth in the kingdome of men , and giveth it to whomsoever he will , dan. . . the latter i look upon as properly within the sphere of my sacred function . and being so , i have taken occasion to deal therewith according to the exigence of the present times : which being themselves unstable , are apt to render those that live in them like unto themselves , as the ship doth the passengers that are imbarked in it . hence is it that vertiginous distempers ( as to a secondary cause of them , ) are grown so epidemical in this our climate at this day ; that in this our heaven ( so the church is frequently stiled in the book of revelations ) there should be so many planets , wandring stars ( it is st. jude's word , jude . ) to be seen in every quarter of it ; so many every where carried about with divers and strange doctrines , to the no small disquietment of the church , the high dishonour , and great prejudice of gods true religion , with the eminent indangering of their own soules . that you are not in this number , this you owe to that grace , by which the heart of man is established . and that you may not be so , is my design in this treatise : wherein i have , according to my weak skill , done ( or at least endeavoured to do ) what becometh a spiritual physician , opened the nature , assigned the causes , discovered the danger of , and prescribed a remedy proper and soveraign for , this malady . and these my good intentions i do here present to a publick view ; desiring ( what i do not wholly despair of ) that they may be in some degree useful and successfull , if not for the reclaiming of those who are already turned aside from the way of truth , yet for the preventing of the like deviations in others . which that they may be , let them not want the additional ingredient of your prayers : for which i shall rest yours obliged to serve you in the gospel of jesus christ , ioh. brinsley . yarmouth , march . . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the spirituall vertigo ; or turning sicknesse of soul-unsettlednesse in matters of religious concernment . heb. . . be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines ; for it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace , &c. ] it is not for nothing that the prophets , the ministers of god in the language of the old testament are sometimes called by the name of watchmen . son of man , i have made thee a watchman , ( saith the lord to his prophet ezekiel ) ezek. . . what the watchmans office is , it is not unknown ; viz. to stand upon the watch-tower , to look out for , and give warning of approaching dangers , or enemies . and such is the office of the ministers of god ; thus to watch for the soules of men , ( which is their proper work , as the . verse of this chapter sets it forth , obey them that have the oversight over you , &c. for they watch for your soules ) , to look out and descry what spiritual dangers do threaten them , and to give timely warning of them . son of man , ( saith the lord to that prophet in the place forecited , ezek. . . ) i have made thee a watchman unto the house of israel , therefore hear the word at my mouth , and give them warning . this did that apostle who is commonly reputed the penman of this epistle , the apostle st. paul. he made this his work to warn others . so he tells the elders of ephesus at miletum , propounding himself unto them ( as to all other ministers of the gospel ) , as a pattern for their imitation , act. . . remember ( saith he ) that by the space of three years i ceased not to warn every one night and day with teares . and writing to his colossians , he inculcates the same , telling them how this was one thing which he ever had an eye at in his preaching of christ ; whom we preach , ( saith he ) warning every man , col. . . and this is the design which my self have upon you at the present . god having by his providence and ordinance set me as a watchman in this place , my desire is to approve my self faithful in discharging that trust committed unto me , by giving a seasonable warning unto you of that which may indanger your soules . i presume there are few , or none of you , but take notice of a flood of dangerous and soul-destroying errors , which in these unsettled times have broke in upon the church of god in this nation . some of which have already entred in at these gates ; and others in all likelihood are treading upon their heeles , ready every day to follow them . now upon this account it is , that i have singled forth this portion of scripture , wherein the apostle giveth the like caveat to his hebrewes , that i intend to you ; forewarning them of the like danger , willing them to beware of it . [ be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines ; ] then seconding and backing that caution , that admonition with a reason of it , wherein also he comprehends an antidote , or remedy against it . [ for it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace . ] these are the parts of the text , which by gods assistance i shall handle distinctly ; beginning with the first ; the precaution , or admonition , be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines . ] wherein ( for the better handling of the words ) we may take notice of two things ; the affect , or malady , and the ground or cause of it . the affect or malady , a spiritual vertigo , or giddinesse , [ be not carried about ] . the ground or cause of it , [ divers and strange doctrines ] . touch we upon these severally by way of explication ; beginning with the affect or malady it self . be not carried about ] . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ( saith the original ) ; which some manuscripts ( as both beza and grotius take notice of it ) read , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , be not carried away . so the vulgar latine ( therein following the syriack ) renders it , nolite abduci , be not led , or carried away : or be not transported beyond the truth , and your selves . or ne insanite ( as grotius expounds it ) , do not dote , be not frantick and mad . so he observes the word to be used by the seventy , sam. . . where it is said of david , that he feigned himself mad ; distracted , frantick . a sense which will very fitly suit with the apostles meaning in the text. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , be not distracted . made frantick and mad with divers and strange doctrines . so it is with some errours , some heresies ; it is even a madnesse to embrace them . as it was in the doting prophet balaam , who would still go on in his way , in attempting to curse the people of god , though expresly contrary to the mind of god , untill such time as the brute and dumb creature reproved and convinced him , this was in him no other but madnesse . so the apostle st. peter expresly termeth it , pet. . . the dumb asse ( saith he ) speaking with mans voice , forbade the madnesse of the prophet . even so fareth it with many hereticks , as of former ages , so in the present times , who have broached and maintained divers opinions and doctrines so clearly and expresly contrary to the revealed will of god in the scriptures , as that it can be accounted no other then madnesse in them : a plain evidence that they have been , and are besides themselves . this was that which festus thought and said of paul , when he heard him preaching of such strange doctrine , such as he had never heard of before . he cryed out , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , paul thou art besides thy self , act. . . and truly , what he spake ignorantly and falsely , we may say it knowingly and justly of some hereticks in this and former ages : when we hear of their strange , monstrous , and unheard of doctrines , so expressly contrary to the word of truth , we may without any breach of charity conclude they are besides themselves , they are mad. so was that old heretick accounted in the ancient church , whom the greeks alluding to his persian name manes ( as if he had omen in nomine ) called manicheus , which signifieth ( as augustine interprets it ) a madman , or one pouring out of madnesse : which they did in reference to his many strange and mad opinions , he being a very sink of heresie , in whom most of the errours of former ages from christs time to his were concentred and met together . and truly such there have been in the ages after him , almost in every age some , whose opinions have been so wilde , so monstrous , that men cannot conceive , that had they not been given up at least to a spirituall distraction and madnesse , they would ever have imbraced them , or hearkned to them . and i wish i might not so truly speak it , that some , yea many , such there are to be found at this day in this poor distracted nation , concerning whom i think it were the greatest piece of charity that we can exercise towards them , to passe this censure upon them , that they are besides themselves , under a spiritual , if not corporal distraction : which if they were not , they would never do as they do , nor say as they say . and indeed it is the nature of divers and strange doctrines , if men will hearken to them , to make them so ; to distract them , to put them besides themselves ; even to make them mad . a truth i think never more sadly verified then in and by the experience of this age and nation wherein we live : wherein many of the ancient heresies which have been dead and buried , and lyen rotting in the grave of oblivion for many hundreds of years , are now revived and raised up again ; insomuch that many by reason of those ghostly and ghastly apparitions coming out of the bottomlesse-pit of hell , and walking so freely abroad without check or controul even at noon-day , are ( as i say ) even scared out of their wits , plainly , according to that sense of this word , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , being distracted , put besides themselves . but i shall not fasten upon that reading of the word , though ( as i said ) proper enough to the apostles meaning in the text. the generality of copies read it as our translation renders it , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ne circumferimini , be not carried about . verbum paulinum ( saith pareus upon it ) : a word used sometimes by the apostle st. paul. so we find it in that text , which running parallel with this , will let some light into it , viz. ephes. . . that we henceforth be no more children , tossed to and fro , and carried about with every wind of doctrine . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ne circumferamur , not carried about . and so the word here is most properly read , as beza rightly collects from the opposition betwixt this verb and that other in the following clause . be not carried about , but be established . where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , is opposed to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , establishment to unsettlement . so reading the word , come we in the next place to enquire concerning the sense and meaning of it . be not carried about ] . a metaphorical expression , very fitly setting forth the nature of this malady , the unsetlednesse of some christians , who hearkning to divers and strange doctrines , are carried to and fro , and carried about . the metaphor i find derived and fetched from divers heads . pareus writing upon the text , giveth me the choice of two . . it may be taken from a wheel , which is turned round , and carried about ; which it is either by its own motion , or by the hand that moveth it . a lively embleme of inconstancy , and unsettlednesse . david imprecating the implacable enemies of god and his church , maketh use of this expression ; o my god , make them like a wheel , psal. . . a wheel being set upon a declivity , the side of a hill , it is restlesse , never leaving rolling and turning till it come to the bottom . and such a condition david there wisheth to those his , and gods enemies ; that they might have no rest or peace ; but as they were instruments of disquiet to others , so they might have no quiet themselves ; but that being set in slippery places , they might be cast down to destruction ( as elsewhere he speaketh , psal. . . ) , still rolling downwards , till they came to their own place , the bottom of hell. and truly such is the condition of some poor unstable soules ; who are ready to follow every new doctrine , and way ; they are like a wheel , which turneth round ( which is the proper signification of the word in the text ) : so do they with the times and places wherein they live . being now of this mind , then of that . up and down . even as the wheel , which turning round hath now this spoke uppermost , then another , and then another , untill at length that which was uppermost cometh to be lowest , even so is it with them in matter of opinion and practice . up and down . now crying up this doctrine , or this way , as the truth and way of god : and soon after decrying , renouncing , disclaiming , trampling upon it . now joyning in fellowship and communion with this society ; soon after , without any just cause , falling off from that to another , and from that to a third ; and so going on till it may be not knowing whither further to go , either they come round again , re-imbracing their first love , or else ( as the sad experience of the present times tells us ) they come to trample all religion under their feet . and such wheeles how many in this nation at this day ? unstable christians . amongst whom some there are , ( whom i look upon as the worst kind of them ) who instead of serving the lord , serve the times ( and that in a far other sense then ever the apostle meant it , if we should read that text , as some copies do , rom. . . which for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , for serving the lord , serving the time ) , turning about with them : embracing and following those opinions and wayes which the times smile upon ; and which may be any wayes advantagious to themselves in point of credit or profit . such a wheel was that notorious apostate and changeling , ecebolus , or ecebolius ( taken notice of by aretius writing upon the text ) , the constantinopolitane oratour , of whom ecclesiastical-histories make frequent mention , telling us how he still turned round ( as we have seen some fanes do ) under the crown , conforming his religion to the religion of the prince , the emperour for the time being , being one while a christian , then a heathen , then a christiah again ; for which at length he grew not more infamous to others then to himself ; insomuch that being convinced of the evill of his way , he came and cast down himself at the church-door , at the feet of those christians who had continued constant in their profession , bidding them to tread and trample upon him , calcate me insipidum salem , tread upon me unsavoury salt , worthlesse creature , good for nothing . such was he in his own apprehension . and ( truly ) this is that which such weather-cocks , such time-servers . such turn-coats must look for . however for the present they may by this politick practice of theirs in changing their coat save their skin , escape some sufferings , and gain some temporal advantages , yet in the end they will come to be justly accounted and looked upon as unsavoury salt , neither owned by god , nor his people . which let it make all you that hear it afraid of it . take heed that ye be not thus carried about , turned about as wheeles . this is a first head from whence this metaphor in the text may be derived . a second is from chaffe , which being a light empty husk is carried to and fro , and whirled about with the wind . that is another of the psalmists imprecations , psal , . . let them ( saith he , speaking of the enemies of god ) be as chaffe before the wind ; which our new annotation explains , let them be smitten with the spirit of giddinesse . and the prophet isaiah , setting forth the doom of israels enemies , maketh use of the like expressions , isai. . . god shall rebuke them , and they shall flee afar off , and shall be chased as the chaffe of the mountains before the wind , and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind ] . lively expressions of a total rout , of an utter dissipation . chaffe being ( as i said ) onely an empty husk , it flyeth before the wind . so doth the chaffe upon the floor , in the valley ; much more chaff upon the mountain ; where the wind hath more force , there being nothing to restrain the violence of it , or to stop or stay the thing which is driven before it . and like a rolling thing ] like thistledown , ( so the margine in our new translation readeth it ) then which nothing is lighter . or ( as some others render it ) sicut pulvis rotatus , as dust whirled about with the whirlwind . such a condition is there threatned to israels enemies in a temporall way . and ( truly ) even such is the condition of some poor unstable soules in a spiritual way . thus are they carried about , and carried away . being but chaffe , having in them onely an empty husk of a formal profession , wanting the kernel , the truth of grace , not having in them the root of the matter ( as iob phraseth it , iob . . ) , they are carried about with the wind of every tentation . being as light as the thistle-down , having no substance or solidity in them , they are tossed to and fro with every breath of wind that bloweth upon them . both these are very apt and elegant similitudes , fitly explaining and illustrating the force and meaning of the phrase in the text. but besides these , there are two other ( which our new annotation putteth into my hand ) no lesse apt and proper then either of those . the one is of the waters of the sea ; the other of the clouds of the ayr : both which are carried about by the wind , now this way , now that way . such are the waters of the sea ; never standing still , especially if there be any wind stirring : whence it is that water is made an emblem of instability ; unstable as water ( saith iacob of his son reuben , gen. . . ) and for the clouds of the ayr , especially if they be light and empty , wanting those libramenta , those ballancings which the lord speaketh of to iob , job . . how are they carried about from one quarter of the heavens to another ? and even such is the condition of some unstable soules . they are , in the third place , like the waters or waves of the sea. that is st. iames's comparison , iam. . . he that wavereth ( saith he ) is like a wave of the sea , driven with the wind and tossed . so are the waves of the sea ; by the force of the winds they are driven to and fro , carried sometimes this way , sometimes that ; one while lifted up to heaven , and by and by depressed again as low as the deep . and even so fareth it with unsettled spirits ; they are still fluctuating to and fro , up and down ; now of this mind , this opinion , this judgment , this resolution , then of that . or ( in the fourth place ) like the clouds of the ayr. that is st. iudes comparison , ver . . of his epistle , where speaking of some hereticks sprung up in his time , among other characters which he giveth of them , he calleth them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , empty clouds ; clouds without water carried about of winds . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the word is the same with that in the text. carried about . here is then a fourfold head from whence this metaphor may be derived . and to some one or more of these i conceive our apostle here to allude in the text , whilest he giveth this caveat to his hebrews , that they should not be thus carried about . be not carried about , as wheeles , as chaffe , as waves , as clouds . and thus i have shewen you the affect , or malady it self . spiritual unsettlednesse . come we ( in the next place ) to take notice of the ground , or cause of it ; which we have in the words following . with divers and strange doctrines ] . here is the wind which carrieth about these waves , these clouds . a wind of doctrine . so the apostle calleth it in that place , to which i have had , and shall have frequent recourse , eph. . . be not carried about with every wind of doctrine . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , every wind . an elegant metaphor ( saith calvin upon it ) fitly expressing the nature of all those doctrines of men ( as the apostle calleth all false doctrines , col. . . ) which draw men aside from the simplicity of the gospel ; whatever they may seem to be , what noise soever they may make in the eares of those that hearken to them , and how prevalent soever they may be with them , yet they are but wind , vain and empty speculations . and concerning this wind it is , that our apostle here ( as elsewhere ) warneth christians , that they should take heed of being carried about with it . hence is that natural disease in the head , which we call a vertigo , the turning sicknesse or giddinesse ; it is caused by wind , by flatulent vapours affecting the brain . and from a like cause many times is this spiritual vertigo , the unsetlednesse of christians in the matters of god ; they are turned and carried about with this wind of doctrine . but what doctrine ? that we have here set forth by a twofold epithet : divers and strange doctrines . two words ( as lapidee noteth upon them ) fitly agreeing to false and hereticall doctrines : which are , . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , various , divers . so they may be said to be , in as much as they differ alwayes from the truth , and often from themselves . . alwaies from the truth . being no other but lyes . so paul calleth heretical doctrine , thess. . . a lye. and speaking of heretical teachers , he calleth them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , teachers of lyes , tim. . . and so , divers . truth ( as aquinas notes upon the text ) is but one , being like the center ; errors are many , like the several points of the circumference ; which as they all differ from the center , so one from another . and so do errors ; all differing from the truth , which is but one ; they differ betwixt themselves . . yea , and often differ from themselves . such is the guize of hereticks , having no sure ground to stand upon , they are often flitting , running from one error to another ; they do not sibi constare ; but are often inconsistent with themselves , self-contradicting , saying and unsaying with the same breath ; denying and destroying that by consequence , which positively they assert and maintain : thus false doctrines are said to be divers . and , . strange , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . so tearmed again in a like double respect . being strange to the scriptures , and strange to the church . . to the scriptures , not to be found in the canon of the old or new testament ; not known to christ or his apostles . were they alive again they would be strange to them . they preached no such doctrine . they are no other but humane inventions , commandments and doctrines of men ( as the apostle calleth them in the place forecited , col. . . ) ; not delivered by god in his word , but invented by men . and being so , they may upon that account well be called strange , having no acquaintance with the scriptures . and , secondly , strange to the church . such doctrines as the true church either never heard of , or at least never owned , never acknowledged . new doctrines . such was paul's doctrine to those athenian philosophers , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ( as they call it ) a new doctrine , act. . . whereupon they charge him to be a setter up of strange gods , vers . . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . strange deities ; and a bringer of strange things to their eares , vers . . strange , because new . and such are heresies unto the true catholick church of god ; either not known to it , or not known by it . and upon that account may well be called strange . now concerning such doctrine it is that the apostle here giveth this caveat to his hebrewes , that they should take heed of being seduced , of being carried about with them . be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines . ] a useful , a needful admonition . so it was to the church at that time when the apostle gave it . and that in a twofold regard : . in regard that some such doctrines were then abroad . . some christians were then carried about with those doctrines . both which are insinuated in the text. and so it was . . some such doctrines were then abroad in the world , divers and strange doctrines . such was that doctrine which was then preached by the false apostles , whose design was to make a mixture of the law and gospel , to joyn them both together ; pressing the observation of the mosaical law , not onely the moral , but ceremonial law , as necessary to justification and salvation . this did some and many in paul's time ; who placed a great part of religion in ceremonial observances . such were those ordinances which he speaketh of , col. . . where he blameth his colossians for dogmatizing , for complying with the false apostles in subjecting themselves to them ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , why are ye subject ? how is it that ye suffer your selves to be so inthralled unto such doctrinal errors , and superstitious rites and observances , viz. touch not , taste not , handle not ? ] these were the prescriptions and injunctions of those false teachers ; who by crying up these ceremonial rites , corrupted the minds of those that would hearken to them , from the simplicity that was in christ ( as he speaketh , ( cor. . . ) , drawing off the hearts of christians from looking onely unto christ , and the free grace of god in him for justification and salvation . and this was one of those doctrines , those divers and strange doctrines , which our apostle here in the text hath an eye at . so much we may collect from the latter clause of the verse ; where he saith , it is good that the heart be established with grace , not with meats . ] i. e. not with the choice of meats , and drinks ; using of some as clean , abstaining from others as unclean , under which ( by a synecdoche ) he comprehendeth all other ceremonial observances ( as i shall shew you hereafter ) . this did some of the teachers of those times presse upon christians ; therein teaching them a doctrine diverse from , and contrary to that which paul had before taught ; which was , that the kingdome of god is not meat and drink , rom. . . the kingdome of christ under the gospel did not consist in such outward observations . and besides this there were at that time sundry other doctrines abroad of like nature ; divers and strange doctrines . such were those which saint iude speaketh of , verse . of his epistle , ( iude . ) there are certain men ( saith he , speaking of false teachers ) crept in unawares ] : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , subrepserunt , subintroierunt ; they came in closely and covertly , coming under-ground , as pioners do , who sometimes enter a city by a mine , while the guard is standing upon the walls . so did they insinuate themselves into the church , coming both unlooked for , and unsent . not expected , or suspected by the church ; nor yet sent by god ; but taking the ministery upon them of their own heads ( as our new annotation paraphraseth upon that word ) . and so entring what did they ? why ( among other things ) they turned the grace of god into lasciviousnesse , and denyed the only lord god and saviour iesus christ. both these they did ; and that as by their practice , so by their preaching . under a pretence of crying up gospel-liberty , and advancing the free grace of god in the pardoning of sin , and justifying of sinners , they set open a wide door to all kind of sensuality . so turning evangelical liberty into carnal licentiousnesse . and they denyed the onely lord god , and their saviour iesus christ ] . such st. peter had foretold of , pet. . . but there were false prophets among the people ( saith he , meaning the people of israel under the old testament ) , even as there shall be false teachers among you ( you christians under the new ) who privily shall bring in damnable heresies , even denying the lord that bought them . and what he foretelleth , st. iude ( having an eye to that prophecy , as he hath almost throughout his whole epistle unto that second epistle of st. peter ; the one being looked upon but as a kind of abstract and summary of the other ) shewes how even in his time it was come to passe . such false and heretical teachers then there were , who denyed the lord that bought them ; denyed the onely lord god , and their saviour iesus christ : denyed christ to be god , who having paid a price in it self sufficient for them , and being their master and saviour by an outward profession , they ought to have owned him . but they denyed him : and that as by their deeds , so by their doctrines . this among others did thnt simon , of whom we read , act. . who was in his time , and still is , famous , ( or rather infamous ) for three things ; his sorcery , his simonie , his heresie . his sorcery , for which he was admired by the people , who cryed him up for little lesse then a god ( this man ( say they ) is the great power of god , vers . . ) ; and was afterwards called for distinctions sake by the name of simon magus , simon the magician . his simonie , in offering money to purchase the holy ghost , the extraordinary and miraculous gifts of it , from the apostles , vers . . from whence it is that that sin ( for such a sin still there is , what ever the present times think of it ) beareth his name , being called simonie . and lastly , his heresie , for which he is no lesse famous in ecclesiastical , then for those two other in sacred story . he being the father of hereticks ( as he is called ) , the first apostate under the gospel , who broached and maintained divers blasphemies , and damnable opinions ; among other , denying the trinity , and denying any other christ but himself ; affirming himself to be the true god , ( as afterwards he was accounted at rome , where ( through the just judgment of god giving them up to that strong delusion , that they should believe a lye ) , they who who in the dayes of tiberius would not acknowledge the divinity of christ , yet soon after in the dayes of claudius ▪ erected a statue to this impostor with this blasphemous inscription , simoni deo sancto , to simon the holy god. thus did he bewitch the people , as by his sorcery , so by his heresie . wherein he being the ring-leader , wanted no followers . divers there were who within a few years after , when he was gone off from the stage , stept up in his room ; owning most of his opinions , and adding to them many other no lesse monstrous and absurd . such was menander , and ebion , and cerinthus ; the last of which was that heretick , with whom st. iohn is said to have refused to enter into the same bath ; and who is the reputed father , the first authour of the millenary opinion concerning the temporal kingdome of christ upon earth after the resurrection , wherein his subjects should live in the full enjoyment of all kind of carnal and sensual pleasures and contentments . these and some other hereticks and heresies did the first age bring forth . among whom st. paul taketh notice of two , hymeneus and philetus by name , who ( among other errours , as errour seldome goeth alone ) denyed the resurrection of the body , ( as simon magus is said to have done before them ) saying , that the resurrection was past already , tim. . . acknowledging ( as is probable ) no other resurrection , but that of the soul , or of the church in the renovation , the new state of it under the gospel . besides these , st. iohn maketh mention of another sect , notorious in his time , the sect of the nicolaitans ( so called from nicolas , one of the seven deacons , mentioned , act. . the reputed father of them , whether justly or no , is a question ) . this he doth once and again in that one chapter , revel . . first telling the church of ephesus to her deserved commendation , that she hated the deeds of the nicolaitans , ver . . then charging it upon the church of pergamus as no small blemish to her , that she had them ( some of her members ) which held the doctrine of the nicolaitans , ver . ▪ what that doctrine was , scripture is silent ; but ecclesiastical histories with one consent tell us , it was the renouncing of a conjugall propriety betwixt man and wife , and so allowing a promiscuous community ; at which door brake in many other horrid enormities not fit to be named amongst christians . to them soon after succeeded that impure and infamous brood of the gnosticks , who were indeed the same sect under a divers name , calling themselves by that name , gnosticks , from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which signifieth knowledge ; which they of that sect pretended to above all others , who had either gone before them , or were contemporaries with them : such high thoughts had they of themselves , ( as for the most part hereticks are not wanting in that way ) ; and thereupon gave themselves that proud title . whereas in truth those other stiles were far more proper , which ( as augustine tells us ) were given them by others , who called them borboritae , or coenosi , men given over to wallow in the mire and filth of all kind of abominable uncleannesse . such was their practice , and such was their doctrine . i might here yet go on , and ( following the track of ecclesiastical history ) shew you what a flood of like monstrous errours after these broke in upon the church . the golden age of the apostles and evangelists being spent , then how did false teachers croud in amain , infesting the church , and assailing the truth almost in every part of it ? broaching and venting divers and strange doctrines ; some , and many of which were so strange , as it cannot but amaze and astonish any christian head or heart to hear of them . a catalogue whereof is left to posterity by epiphanius and augustine , and some other of the ancients . but i shall not trouble you with any more of them . this being enough , as to our present purpose , that such doctrines were then abroad ; some of them come upon the stage already , and others pressing after them . which latter also our apostle saint paul ( if so be that he were the penman of this epistle , which for the present i shall yield ) took notice of . so much he telleth the ephesian elders at miletum , acts . . i know ( saith he ) that after my departure from you shall grievous wolves enter in among you . what wolves were these ? why , two sorts of them . first , bloody persecutors , whom he calls wolves , and grievous wolves , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , being like those lupi vespertini , the evening wolves , which the prophet ieremy speaketh of , ier. . . which should not spare the flock , but make a prey of the poor lambs of christ , sucking their blood . such wolves there were many after paul's departure ( his dissolution ) in that neronian persecution , and others following it . but besides these , there was another kind of wolves , whom paul looked upon as no lesse dangerous , if not more . and those were white wolves , wolves in sheeps cloathing . so our saviour describeth false prophets , matth. . . men who had fair and promising outsides , specious apparances of a harmlesse innocency ; yea , and pretenders ( it may be ) to a more then ordinary piety ; but inwardly ( saith he ) they are ravening wolves ; such whose design is to make a prey of the soules of men , to destroy them by their false doctrines . now such also the apostle took notice of , that they should come after his departure . so he tells them there more plainly in the verse following , vers . . also of your own selves shall men arise , speaking perverse things , ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , preaching false and heretical doctrines ▪ crosse to the truth , and wrested contrary to the mind of god in the scriptures ) that they may draw disciples after them . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , draw and pluck them as members from the mystical body , so making a separation therein , that they may gain a party to themselves , and so be reputed singular and popular . such paul foresaw would arise to the great indangering of the church : which ( as grotius and others look upon it ) was made good in the forenamed nicolaitans and gnosticks . thus then in those first times there were such doctrines as the apostle here speaketh of in the text , divers and strange doctrines . and ( in the second place ) these doctrines were then taking with some , with divers . so ( it seemeth ) was that doctrine of the false apostles concerning the observation of the ceremoniall law with the hebrews , the iewes , who had been educated and brought up in it , having sucked it in ( as it were ) with their mothers milk , it was taking with them ; insomuch that they were already ( some of them ) carried away with it , and others in danger of being so , ( as the caveat in the text is conceived to import ) . and not onely they , but others also . this was that which paul took notice of in his galatians , charging it upon them not without a wonderment to himself , gal. . . i marvell ( saith he ) that ye are so soon removed from him that hath called you into the grace of christ , unto another gospel . so it was ; by the means of the false apostles , they were either already turned , or turning . both which are looked upon as implyed in that word , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which being of the passive voice , layeth the fault primarily upon those false teachers , by whose means they were perverted : [ ye are turned ] and being of the present tense , it imports what was in fieri , doing if not done . they were turning , well nigh turned . and from what , and to what were they thus turned ? why , [ from him who hath called you into the grace of iesus christ ] from paul and his doctrine , who by the preaching of the gospel to them , had called them to seek for justification and salvation onely by faith in christ. from this doctrine they were turned to another gospel ; taught and brought to seek iustification in another way , ( at least in part ) by the observation of mosaicall rites and ceremonies : which paul there calleth another gospel : not that it was so in truth . well did he know that there was no other gospel but one ; no other name under heaven given among men whereby they must be saved ( as peter elsewhere tells the iews , act. . . ) ; no way or means of salvation appointed by god for lost mankind ; save onely through the merit and mediation of iesus christ. but in as much as it was a doctrine diverse from , and a depravation of the true gospel , therefore he so calleth it ; as he explaineth himself in the verse following , [ which is not another gospel ; but there be some that trouble you , and would pervert the gospel of christ , v. . ] . thus were they carried about . and what he saw in them as done , or doing , he feared the like in his corinthians . so much he tells them , cor. . . i fear ( sairh he ) lest by any means , as the serpent beguiled eve through his subtlety , so your minds should be corrupted , from the simplicity that is in christ. this he also speaketh in reference to the doctrines of the false apostles ; who made a medly of the gospel , mixing their own philosophical speculations , or jewish traditions , or ceremonial observances with it . by which meanes they corrupted and adulterated that pure doctrine , even as pure and precious liquors are imbased and corrupted by other mixtures . and concerning this corruption paul's jealousie was , that they were ready to swallow it down ; and so to be carried about with those divers and strange doctrines . a thing that was no newes in those first and purest times . this was that which our saviour himself foretold a little before his death , matth. . . where shewing what should come to passe before the destruction of ierusalem , among other things , he saith , there shall arise false christs and false prophets , &c. insomuch that ( if it were possible ) they shall deceive the very elect. intimating that many should be seduced , and deceived by them . and the like prophecy we meet withall in that forecited place of st. peter , pet. . where having in the first verse ( as you have heard ) foretold of false teachers that should come , in the next verse he sheweth what successe they should have ; and many shall follow their pernicious wayes , ver . . and what he there forerelleth , st. iude sheweth us how in his time it came to passe . having in the fourth verse of his epistle in like manner described the false teachers of his time , in the sequel of the epistle he sets forth their followers ; whom he calleth clouds without water , carried about of winds , ver . . and in the next verse , waves of the sea , and wandring stars ; thereby denoting christians who were inconstant in their profession ; not like fixed stars which are regular in their motion , but like planets , or comets , wandring from one opinion or way to another , being constant onely in inconstancy . thus were there some , and not a few in those times , those proto-primitive times , who were thus carried about with divers and strange doctrines . this is that which our apostle saith of hymeneus and philetus in the place forecited , tim. . , . that by their pestilent doctrine in denying of the resurrection , they overthrew the faith of some . so as there was then a just cause why he should here give out such an admonition as this , be not carried about , &c. a useful and a needful caveat then ; and no lesse in all the ages of the church since ; in every of which still there have been some such doctrines held forth . so it hath been ; so it is at this day ( that i shall not need to tell you ) , and so it will be . this calvin looketh upon as a truth not obscurely hinted by the apostle here in the text ; that the church in all ages must account to conflict and combate with divers and strange doctrines . and if there be teachers of them , it is not to be imagined but that there will be some disciples , some followers . q. but how cometh it so to be ? how cometh this to passe ? first , that there should be such doctrines held forth ? and then , that so many should be carried about with them ? to these two queries i shall return answer severally . a. . for the former ; know we ( in the first place ) that this cometh to passe not without a providence , and a special providence . herein ( as in all other things ) god hath a hand ; concurring therewith not barely by his permission , but ( as melancton calleth it ) by his effectual permission ; most justly decreeing that they should be ; whence it is that the apostle saith , there must be heresies , cor. . . must , as by reason of satans malice , and mans corruption , so of gods decree , who having determined that they should be , most wisely ordereth and disposeth of them when they are . which he doth for divers ends . as , . for the manifestation of his own power in maintaining his truth , and that against all opposition . . for the honour of truth it self , which by these conflicts with errour is rendred more illustrious . that house which standeth out all storms and tempests of wind and weather , shewoth it self to have a good foundation . . for the probation and tryal of such as are sound in the faith . there must also be heresies , ( saith the apostle in the text last named , cor. . . ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : there must be also ; not onely schismes , ( of which he had spoken in the verse foregoing ) divisions about matters of order and discipline ; but also heresies , errours in doctrine , and that fundamental errours . and wherefore must these be ? why , that they which are approved may be made manifest . thus is wheat differenced and distinguished from the chasse . inanes paleae tempestate jactantur , ( saith cyprian ) light empty chaffe is whirled to and fro with the wind ; while the wheat lyeth still in the floor . thus whilest empty and formal professours , who have taken up the profession of the truth either pro formâ , for fashion sake , or else for some by , and sinister ends , wanting the kernel and truth of grace , are carried away : those which are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , approved unto god , sincere and sound-hearted christians , they are hereby made manifest , as to themselves , so to others . thus doth god by this means ( as cyprian in the same place noteth ) make a kind of a previous separation , separating the chaffe from the wheat before the day of judgment . . this god permits for the just condemnation of others ; and that both of masters and scholars ; of such as broach and preach such doctrines ; and such as believe them . for the former of these , expresse is that of st. iude in the text forecited , iude v. . there are certain men crept in unawares , ( saith he ) who were before of old ordained to this condemnation . this he speaketh of seducers , false teachers , whom god in his most just and righteous decree did from eternity preordain so far to leave them to their own natural corruption and malice , as that they should dare to corrupt and falsifie his truth , and thereby justly incur the sentence of condemnation , and bring upon themselves swift destruction ( as the apostle st. peter saith of them , pet. . . ) and for the latter , that of st. paul is no lesse expresse , thess. . . where speaking of antichristian errours , that should come into the church , and should be prevalent with many , he assigneth this as one end of gods dispensation in permitting and sending them . god shall send them strong delusion , ( saith he ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , efficaciam deceptionis , the efficacy of errour , or deceit , that is , such errours as should be effectuall for the deceiving of them , so as they should believe a lye , receive and imbrace those forged and false doctrines . and wherefore this ? why , that they all might be damned who believed not the truth , but had pleasure in unrighteousnesse , ver . . thus hath god not onely an eye to , but also a hand in these divers and strange doctrines ; which come abroad not onely with his prescience and permission , but also by his most wife and just ordination . . this is satans doing . he it is that is the father of lyes . when he speaketh a lye he speaketh of his own ; ( saith our saviour ) pro ingenio suo , according to his natural disposition , ( so it is , if ever satan speak truth , ( as sometimes he doth ) he borroweth it , to make some advantage of it , that he may the more easily deceive by it ) ; lyes are his proper and natural off-spring ; for ( as that text goeth on ) he is a lyar , and the father of it . so he is of all lyes : among which false doctrines are none of the least . and therefore deservedly called by that name , thess. . . tim. . . he it is that was the first preacher of divers and strange doctrines . this he did in paradise . where when god had preached to our first parents this . doctrine , that the day that they ate of the forbidden fruit , they should certainly dye the death , ( gen. . . ) he soon after preacheth to them the clean contrary . the serpent said unto the woman , ye shall not surely dye , gen. . , . and still this is his work . he that was a lying spirit in the mouthes of ahabs prophets , ( king. . . ) he is still the same in the hearts and mouthes of all false prophets . he is the seedsman that soweth these tares . so the parable in the gospel sets it forth , mat. . . the kingdome of heaven is like unto a man , which sowed good seed in his field ; but while men slept , his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat . the moral of the parable is obvious . the field is the true church of god. the seed is the word , the doctrine of truth . the seeds-man sowing this seed , is god himself , who hath caused this doctrine to be preached and published , as by his son , so by his ministers . the tares are heresies , false doctrines , which are fitly represented by tares , which as they are of a different kind from the wheat , so they are hurtful to it , pulling it down ; and withal have a peculiar quality of intoxicating the brain ; all fitly appliable to false doctrines . now these were of the enemies sowing , the devils work , who is rightly called satan , an adversary , an enemy ; being so both to god , ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith the original there , his enemy ) ; and to his people , ( your adversary the devil , ( saith peter ) pet. . . ) this is properly his work . the enemy hath done this ( saith the master there to his servant , enquiring of him how those tares came , v. . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the envious man , ( as the former translation hath it ) satan , who doth this out of malice and envy . envy , first , to the owner of the field , to god himself , whose professed enemy he is , and so seeketh by all means to crosse him in his work , and to frustrate his designs . secondly , envy to the field , the church , which he cannot endure to see flourishing and prospering ; and therefore stirreth up against it , as persecution on the one hand , so false doctrines on the other ; both to disquiet ; and hinder the growth of it . and , thirdly , envy to the wheat : both to the doctrine of truth , which he being a lyar hateth , and so by this means seeketh to pull it down , to hinder the propagation of it : and also to the professours of it , true believers , whose salvation he envies , and so seeketh to turn them aside from the way of truth . thus this is satans work . . this is mans own work ; the proper fruit of his natural corruption . even as the ground by reason of that first curse , not being tilled and cultured , it bringeth forth briars and thornes ; and being tilled it bringeth forth c●ckle and darnel , and such other heterogenous plants , which are never sowen . even so doth the heart of man by reason of that corruption which is in it , it is apt of it self to conceive and breed such errours in doctrine , divers and strange doctrines . which being thus conceived and bred , there are some particular lusts which have a special midwifery in the bringing of them forth unto an open view : of these i shall instance onely in three . . hypocrisie . this was that which set those false teachers , those seducing spirits on work , to broach and vent those doctrines of devils , as the apostle calleth them and their heresies , tim. . . they spake those lyes in hypocrisie , ( as the next verse hath it ) pretending to a more then ordinary holinesse and strictnesse ; and thereupon they forbade to marry ( as it followeth , ver . . ) ; even as the religious orders in the church of rome upon the same account at this day do . and truly ( without any breach of charity ) this may be conceived to be either the mother , or nurse of some of those strange doctrines which are abroad in this nation at this day . . ambition , vain-glory . this was that which moved that notorious impostor theudas ( mentioned , acts . . ) to that factious undertaking , who under pretence of being a prophet , moved sedition among the jewes ; this he did ( saith the text there ) boasting himself to be some body ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , i. e. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ( as some copies there have it ) some great one . so it is noted of simon magus , that he bewitched the people of samaria with his sorcery , giving out that himself was some great one . and this it is that setteth some false teachers a work to invent and publish some new and strange doctrines , that so they may be thought to be some body , some more then ordinary persons . this is that which paul saith of those hereticks which he foresaw should arise after his departure , act. . . they shall speak perverse things ( saith he , preach strange and heretical doctrines ) to draw away disciples after them , affecting popularity . and surely in all times this hath had no small influence upon such kind of persons . . to these adde ( in the third place ) covetousnesse . this paul washeth his own hands of ; appealing to god as a witnesse of his innocency therein , thess. . . for neither at any time used we flattering words ( as ye know ) , nor a cloak of covetousnesse , god is witnesse . as he was free from vain-glory ( of which he speaketh in the next verse , ) so also of covetousnesse . he had no covetous design in his preaching . so he tells his corinthians ; i seek not yours , but you , cor. . . not their goods , but their good ; not their estate , but their salvation . but so did not the false apostles , and other false teachers of that time . what ever they pretended , they sought their own things more then the things of iesus christ ( as paul speaketh of the greater part of teachers in his time , phil ▪ . . ) ; their own things , as their own honour , so their own profit . and such for the most part are false teachers , they are self-seekers ; seeking rather to make a gain of others , ( which thing paul disclaimes both for himself , and titus , cor. . , . ) then to gain them to christ. this is that which st. peter foretelleth of the false teachers that should come in after-times , among other things , they should make merchandize of their followers . so you have it , pet. . . and through covetousnesse shall they make merchandize of them ] . thus do false teachers too often ( witnesse those in the church of rome ) ; they endeavour to lay hold of the goods of others , though it be with the ruine of their soules . thus do they follow the way of balaam , ( as the apostle there speaketh of them . v. . and after him st. iude , ver . . ) who loved the wages of unrighteousnesse ; so as he cared not what he said or did , so he might but gain that reward which balack proffered him ; though it were to the cursing of that people which he knew to be gods people , the people of israel , had not god withheld him , by causing the dumb asse to reprove him ; as you have it recorded , numb . . , , . pet. . . even so is it with some false teachers , having an heart exercised with covetous practices ( as st. peter speaketh , verse . of that chapter ) , they care not what they say , or do for gain . and thus do they make merchandize of the soules of men . this is said to be part of babylons merchandize , rev. . , . as gold , and silver , and precious stones , and divers other commodities there reckoned up , so among other , the soules of men . which may very well be taken literally , in as much as babylons , romes merchants , her idolatrous priests and false teachers , do make a spiritual merchandize of them . now put these together , and here you may see , how many of these divers and strange doctrines come to be conceived , bred and brought forth . and being thus brought forth , now they come to propagate and increase , to spread themselves ; which they do , ( as by other wayes and means , so ) through the sinful connivance , or carelesse negligence of those to whom god hath committed the care of his church . so saith the parable in the text forecited , mat. . . while men slept , the enemy came and sowed tares . ] whilest those to whom god hath committed the care of his field , his church , ( which he hath done to magistrates and ministers , to whom he hath given the like charge concerning heresies , that the king of egypt did to the hebrew midwives concerning the male children , exod. . . viz. that they should stifle them in the birth ) whilest they sleep ; whilest they are remisse and negligent in discharging of their duties , for the suppressing of false and heretical teachers , with their doctrines , by such wayes and means as are agreeable to scripture , and gospel-rules ; in the mean time satan , ( that vigilant adversary , who watcheth all such opportunities ) , he taketh advantage to sowe and scatter these seeds , to propagate and spread abroad these divers and strange doctrines . and thus you have the former question resolved , how it cometh to passe that there are such divers and strange doctrines abroad in the world , and in the church ? come we now to the latter , how it cometh to passe that christians professing the faith of christ , should be carried about with such doctrines ? so they are sometimes , oft ▪ times ; and yet easily , quickly . so were the galatians , in so much , that paul could not but wonder at it , gal. ▪ . . i marvel ( saith he ) that you are so soon ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so quickly , so suddenly ) removed to another gospel . and truly , so i● is ; it is a wonder to see , how easily , how quickly some professours are turned about , and carried away , and that with strange doctrines . now how cometh this to passe ? in answer to this i might again reflect upon some of those generals , which i made use of before . . this cometh to passe not without a special providence of god ; who in his most righteous judgment , both sendeth , and giveth men over to strong delusion , that they should believe a lye : ( as the apostle hath it in that forecited text , thess. . . ) and wherefore so , and so ? the verse foregoing renders the reason of it ; because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved . thus it is ; where the truths of god , ( gospel-truths ) are not sincerely and cordially imbraced , believed and loved , lodged in the heart , and the power of them expressed in the life , god in his just judgment giveth men over to the power of strong delusions , that they should be deceived by them , and carried away with them . . this cometh to passe through the working of satan , through his subtlety . in this way was our first parent , our great grandmother eve , deceived . satan coming to her in the form ( or rather body ) of the serpent , ( making use of that subtle and insinuating creature to speak through , and convey his temptations by ) , he beguiled her through his subtlety ( as the apostle hath it , cor. . . ) and in a like way doth that old serpent , called the devil and satan , ( the accuser of the brethren , and adversary to the church ) deceive the world , ( as you have it , rev. . . ) the wicked and ungodly world , which is the greatest part of it . this he doth through his subtlety , winding himself into the heads and hearts of men , seducing them by his temptations , thereby drawing them , as into moral vices , so into doctrinal errours . . for this men are beholding to their own corruption ; which is as tinder , ready to take fire by every spark that falleth into it . insomuch that if man be left to the inclination and sway thereof , it can be no wonder if he be turned aside from the way of truth , to the imbracing of the most pernicious and damnable errours . but i shall let passe these generalls ; for a more full and particular resolution of this enquiry , directing you to these three heads , to take notice , first , of somewhat in the teachers of these doctrines . secondly , somewhat in those that hearken to them , and are carried away with them . thirdly , somewhat in the doctrines themselves ; whereby this seduction may be either caused , or occasioned . begin with the first , the teachers of these doctrines . and in them take we notice of two things ; their activity , and their subtilty . their activity : as satan , so his instruments are very active in this work . st. peter speaking of him , ( of satan ) saith , he walketh about as a lyon , seeking whom he may devour , pet. . . and we may as truly say , that he creepeth about as a serpent , seeking whom he may poyson ; in both kinds compassing the earth ( as himself speaketh , iob . . ) . and our saviour speaking of some of them , ( his instruments ) the scribes and pharisees in his time , he saith , that they compassed sea and land to make one proselyte , matth. . . they were indefatigable in their endeavours of bringing the gentiles over to their own religion , of turning them from heathenisme to iudaisme ; which when they had done ( as our saviour there further chargeth it upon them ) , they made them twofold more the children of the devil then themselves ; i. e. more superstitious then themselves ; ( as oft-times disciples do in the way of errour , exceed and go beyond their masters ) ▪ and thus for the most part it is with false and heretical teachers . they are very active and unwearied in spreading their errours , not caring what paines they take that way : in so much that they are willing to compasse sea and land , to go far and near ( as the iesuites are notoriously known to do , who ttavel into all parts of the habitable world ; and as some sectaries among our selves are said at this day to do , into all parts of this nation ) , that they may by spreading their doctrine , make proselytes , gain disciples . to this end some of them thrust themselves into publick congregations : more of them creep into private houses , ( as the apostle speaketh of them ) tim. . . such is their activity . and no lesse ( in the second place ) is their subtilty . wherein oft-times ( and for the most part ) they shew themselves to be the children of their father , a serpentine brood , a subtile generation . such a one was elymas the sorcerer , ( who sought to turn away the deputy from the faith , and to pervert the right wayes of the lord ( as it is charged upon him , acts . , . ) laying false imputations upon the doctrine of the gospel , that so he might hinder the work of gods grace , and obstruct the apostle in the work of his ministery ) , he was a man ( as ▪ paul there setteth him forth ) full of subtilty and mischief . and such ( in their measure ) ordinarily are seducers , false teachers ; they are ( as solomon describeth the harlot , prov. . . ) subtile of heart , cunning , and crafty , and wily . and by this means they come to seduce and deceive those that will hearken to them ; viz. by their subtilty . this is that which the apostle taketh notice of as a principal engine , whereby these wheeles come to be turned about ; as we may collect from that intimation of his to his ephesians , in that text to which i have had so frequent recourse , eph. . . where he giveth them this caveat , that they should not be carried about with every wind of doctrine , by the sleight of men , and cunning craftinesse , whereby they lye in wait to deceive . two words expressing ( for substance ) one and the same thing : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : the former of which is a metaphor , taken from cheaters , who by cogging of dice , and by sleight of hand cheat and cousin those whom they play with . even so do false teachers , by their sleight and cunning craftinesse deceive those which have to deal with them . which they do divers wayes : instance in some few of them . first , by their sophismes , fallacious arguments . these are the false dice which these cheaters play with : subtile and intrapping arguments ; which they take out of divers boxes ; fetch from several heads : as , . from scripture ; which they make use of this way , by wresting it . even as davids enemies made use of his words , as he complaines , psal. . . every day ( saith he ) they wrest my words ; perverting them , and turning them to another sense then ever he meant when he uttered them : so do false teachers , being gods enemies , make use of his word . this is that which st. peter saith of some unlearned , and unstable soules in his time , they wrested some things in paul's epistles , as they did also divers other scriptures to their own destruction , pet. . . this did they by mis-interpreting of them , and drawing them violently from their true and genuine sense , to a false one ; which they did to that end that they might thereby uphold their errours . and truly such is the ordinary practice of hereticks and false teachers ; they wrest the scriptures ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , detorquent , depravant , writhe and wring them about , turning them this way or that way , as may best serve for their purpose . dealing by them as chimists sometimes do with natural bodies , which they ( as it were ) torture , to extract that out of them which god and nature never put into them : or as cruel tyrants sometimes deal by innocent persons , whom they set and stretch upon the rack , and so make them speak that which they never thought . after the like manner do false teachers use to deal by the scriptures , wresting them to draw a sense out of them , which the spirit of god never intended . a practice common to all hereticks , save onely those antiscripturians , who will not acknowledge the divine authority of sacred writ . . and as herein they make use of scripture , so also of reason ; which it may be sometimes they oppose against scripture , or else make use of to vouch that sense which they put upon it . so dealt those false teachers in the primitive times : such use they made of their philosophy . thereupon it was that paul gave that caveat to his colossians , chap. . v. . beware ( faith he ) lest any man spoyl you through philosophy , and vain deceit ; that is , by such subtile and plausible arguments as are drawn from the principles of naturall reason : which however in it self it is useful , yet when it is made the measure of spiritual mysteries , this is a dangerous abuse of it . now , it cometh to be no other but ( as he there calleth it ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a vain deceit . and this deceit did those false teachers in those first times make great use of ; by such arguments both opposing the doctrine of the gospel , and supporting their own errours . and the like use do not a few make of it at this day . in speciall the socinians , who make this the measure of their faith , and the touchstone to try all evangelical truths by , viz. humane reason ; not allowing any thing to be believed , ( how clearly soever in scripture held forth ) but what that may apprehend and comprehend . upon which account it is that they desperately disclaim divers articles of the christian faith , for which scripture is expresse , and which the church of god in all ages of it hath looked upon as truths , the belief whereof was necessary to salvation . and by this means it is that they pervert the faith of some , who have not learned to submit their carnal reason to divine revelation . and ( in the third place ) sometimes they plead custome , tradition . so did the scribes and pharisees in maintenance of their superstitions . that is the argument which they use to our saviour , blaming his disciples ( and him in them ) for not complying with them in some of their ceremonial observances , mat. . . why do thy disciples transgresse the traditions of the elders ? not observing such customes and usages as they had received from their ancestors , and so had been of long continuance . and this argument the false apostles in paul's time made great use of . thereupon it is that he giveth the like caveat to his colossians concerning that , as he doth concerning philosophy , putting them together in that forecited caveat , col. . . beware lest any man spoyl you through philosophy , and vain deceit , after the traditions of men . this was one thing which they pleaded for their doctrines against the doctrine of the apostles ; tradition , custome . wherein they are followed by the doctors of the church of rome , who take up the like plea for many of their errours ; pretending ( though most falsly , as it hath been made out by divers champions of the truth , who have undertaken that cause against them ) antiquity for them : casting the odious imputation of novelty upon all contrary opinions and practices . which is a taking argument with many . so was it with the iewes , who brought it in as an article against stephen , that he should say , that iesus should change the customes , which moses had delivered them , act. . . and the disciples , when paul came to ierusalem , give him to take notice what a stumbling-blockit was in the way of the believing jewes , that he should teach those of that nation to forsake moses , saying , that they ought not to circumcise their children , neither to walk after the customes , act. . . so tenacious are many at this day of some customes , that they will prefer them even before either scripture , or reason . and these are some of those arrowes wherewith false teachers do oft-times pierce the hearts of men ; sophistical arguments , fetched from scripture , reason , custome . to which for the further confirmation of their doctrines , and gaining belief from the credulous multitude , they sometimes adde two other artifices ; pretending to revelations and miracles ; to the receiving of the one , and working of the other . . for the former ; revelations . this was a thing which the false prophets under the old testament frequently pretended unto ; and thereby deceived those that trusted to them . so did that old prophet of bethel the man of god , who had prophesied against the altar there , king. . . and so did ahabs prophets him . and the like artifice have many false teachers under the gospel used , which hath proved very effectuall for the seducing of many . so did many of those ancient hereticks , the montanists , messalians , donatists , and others who pretended to an extraordinary familiarity with god this way ; affirming that they had received their doctrines by immediate revelation from god himself ; whence it was that some of them ( as the messalians ) were called enthusiastae , enthusiasts , from their pretended inspirations . and it is well known what use that grand impostor mahomet made hereof , who held forth his new and impious doctrine , as delivered to him by the angel gabriel ; with whom he would be thought to have had frequent intercourse in his epileptical fits , which he pretended to be no other but divine raptures . and i shall not need to tell you of what use this hath been to the doctours of the church of rome , whose legends are stuffed with such stories of visions and revelations made to themselves , or others . nor yet what use hath been made of it by the anabaptists , and some other sects of late times . some of which are said to be among our selves in this nation at this day , who are great pretenders to enthusiasmes ; as if they neither spake nor did ought , but what the spirit in an immediate and extraordinary way moved them to . . and to these some joyn miracles ; being in like manner pretenders unto them . such were some under the old testament , as , viz. iannes and iambres , of whom st. paul maketh mention , tim. . . two of those egyptian magicians ( spoken of , exod. . ) who are there said to withstand moses . this they did , as by other wayes and means , so by vying miracles with him , as the story sets it forth , exod. . . and the like ( it seemeth ) did many false prophets in those times . thereupon it was that the lord gave that caveat to the people of israel , deut. . . if there arise among you a prophet , a dreamer of dreams , and giveth thee a sign or a wonder , &c. such it seemeth then there were , some who pretended to revelations by dreams , and confirmed their prophecies by signes and wonders . and the like have divers false teachers done under the gospel . so our saviour foretold it that it should be , matth. . . there shall arise false christs , and false prophets , and shall shew great signes and wonders . and accordingly soon after his departure it came to passe . many such false teachers arose . among other , and in the first place , the forementioned simon magus , who for the confirming of his impious opinions , made use of his sorcery , which he had practised before his seeming conversion , by the power of satan working many wonders , counterfeit miracles , in so much that the people of rome generally thought of him , as the people of samaria had done before , act. . . that he was the great power of god , and so both admired , and adored him . such use did he make of those his impostures to gain credit to his person and doctrine . in which way he went on , untill he was stopped by the hand of divine iustice , which as the hand of providence saith to the sea , hitherto shalt thou come , but no further , and here shall thy proud waves be stayed , job . . . so said that to him ; not onely staying and bounding him , ( as it did iannes and iambres , who were permitted to go on in their inchantments , till it came to the turning of dust into lice , but then were stayed , exod. . . ) but also arresting him , taking him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in the very act of his sorcery . so ecclesiasticall histories tell us , how that attempting on a time to flye in the ayr in the sight of many people , his divellish art failing him , he fell to the ground , and brake his leg , which proved to him mortal , in a little time bringing his wretched life to a miserable end . thus was he most deservedly made a spectacle of divine vengeance , and a laughing-stock to the people , who before taking him for a god , now saw him to be what he was , no other but a notorious impostor . god therein dealing by him , as the apostle there saith he had done by iannes and iambres , and would do by other false teachers , tim. . . not suffering him to proceed any further , but causing his folly to be made manifest to all men . and what that father of hereticks did , the like have divers of his followers after him done . it is the character which the apostle giveth of the great antichrist , thess. . . he is one , whose coming is after the working of satan , with all powers and signes , and lying wonders . a description fitly agreeing to the antichrist of rome , who maketh use of this as a speciall meanes for the confirming and upholding of his erroneous doctrines , and false worships . among all the engines which he employeth in this way , there is none more usuall , or effectuall then this , this of lying wonders ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , wonders of deceit , deceitful wonders . so may popish miracles fitly be called ; being either downright lyes , things meerly feigned , never acted or done ; or else impostures and illusions , cheats , acted onely in shew and apparence , deluding the senses of the beholders ; or at the best , diabolical wonders , miranda non miracula , not true miracles exceeding the power of any created nature ( which all true miracles do ) , but wonders , varying from the ordinary course of nature , which by gods permission satan may alter and change . such , i say , are romish miracles ; either prodigious lyes , or lying prodigies . and these doth that man of sin make use of for the confirming of his doctrines . therein shewing himself to be the antichrist , aemulum christi , ( as the word antichrist may be expounded ) christs ape ( as it were ) emulating and imitating of him in things not imitable . this was christs way of confirming his doctrine , by miracles , and wonders , and signes , which god did by him ( as the apostle peter tells the jewes , act. . . ) and by the like means antichrist attempteth the confirming of his doctrine , his coming being after the working of satan , with all power and signes , and lying wonders . and the like hath been the practice of divers other hereticks , and false teachers . some of which are said to be abroad among our selves in this nation at this day , who pretend as to revelations , so to miracles . of all which we are to judge as of the former . and these are some of those false dice , those false arguments , which these spirituall cheaters , false teachers make use of in the seducing of simple and unstable soules . besides which there are some other artifices which are very usefull to them in this way ; as , viz. the glosse which they set upon their doctrines , and the vizour which they put upon their own faces . they use to set a glosse upon their doctrines . even as trades-men do upon their stuffs and other commodities , which they set a glosse upon , to make them more pleasing to the eye , and so the more vendible . so deal false teachers by their doctrines , putting a specious glosse upon them , to make them more taking ; setting them forth with such a dresse of words , as may commend them to those that will hearken after them . this is that which st. peter foretelleth and forewarneth the primitive christians of , pet. . where speaking of false teachers , who should come among them , privily bringing in of damnable heresies , verse . he addeth , ver . . and through covetousnesse shall they with feigned words make merchandize of you . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , smooth language , a feigned kind of speech , framed ( it may be ) to a shew of more then ordinary piety , zeal , charity . by this means do subtile seducers oft-times wind and insinuate themselves into the bosomes of their auditors ; withall , crying up the doctrines which they hold forth ; decrying all other doctrines and wayes but their own , ( at the best sleighting them , as not worthy to be looked after ) but crying up their own , as the onely wayes and truths of god ; making use ( it may be ) of high and lofty and confident expressions to that end : as st. peter describeth those seducers which he speaketh of , to be such as should speak great swelling words of vanity , pet. . . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , praetumida , words swelling with pride , and arrogancy , and self-conceitednesse , as bubbles do with wind . and hereby they oft-times exceedingly take the eares of the ignorant multitude , carrying them about like pitchers : so putting off their doctrines , as cunning chapmen do their wares , which by their smooth language , and high commendations they obtrude upon the simple and unskilfull buyers . and thus setting a glosse upon their doctrines , they also oft-times put a vizour upon their own faces ; pretending to a more then ordinary piety , and sanctity . thus doth satan sometimes transform himself into an angel of light , ( as the apostle speaketh , cor. . . ) either assuming unto himself the like shape that some of the heavenly angels have sometimes ; done or doing the office of a good angel , by suggesting such things as have in them a shew of piety , as if it were the motion of one of the holy and blessed angels . and if satan do this , no wonder if seducers , false teachers , being his instruments , and acted by him , do the like . so the apostle there infers in the verse following , ( ver . . ) therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as ministers of righteousnesse . this did the false apostles , ( as the verse foregoing there hath it ) verse . they transformed themselves into the apostles of christ ] ; pretending not onely to the like commission that they had to preach the gospel ; but also to equalize , yea , to exceed and excell them in their gifts and graces . thus were they ( as they are there called ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , crafty , and deceitful workers ; making use of those shewes to gain a high esteem of their persons , and so to promote their doctrines . such were the scribes and pharisees in their time , whom our saviour calleth whited , or painted sepulchres , mat. . . they were outwardly , seemingly very religious , pretending to a high degree of sanctity ; to be more devout then others , for a pretence making long prayers , v. . and very zealous they were in their way , compassing sea and land to make one proselyte ( as the next verse hath it ) : and elsewhere we read how strict and precise they were in their outward deportment ; in their habits , gestures , diet , washings , and such like ceremonial observances . by all which their design was to ingratiate themselves , and so their doctrines , with the people . and such deceitful workers oft-times are false teachers ; having ( as the apostle saith of them , tim. . . ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a form , a shew of godlinesse , pretending to extraordinary strictnesse . so did many of those ancient hereticks in the first ages : who therein have been , and at this day are followed by those religious orders ( as they call them ) in the church of rome , both the iesuitical and other , who tye themselves so strictly to their rules , being many of them very exact and precise in the observation of them ; and very demure in their carriage ; out-side saints , seemingly more devout , more just , more temperate , and abstemious then others ; thus these locusts ( as it is said of those in the revelation , chap. . . ) they have as it were crownes of gold on their heads , and their faces are as the faces of men ; and they have hair as the hair of women ; being outwardly very demure ; by which meanes they and their doctrines gain no small esteem with the vulgar , who look no further then to the outward appearance . and it cannot but be thought that there are some false teachers at this day in this nation , who do therein tread in their steps , making use of the same stratagem . such as pretending to an extraordinary piety , zeal , devotion , make use of that vizour to commend , first their persons , and then their doctrines to the credulous multitude ; who having the persons of men in admiration , do readily yield up themselves to them , to be carried about by those divers and strange doctrines which they hold forth to them . and thus have i done with the first of these heads , from which this dangerous seduction may be conceived to arise , viz. somewhat in the teachers of these doctrines , their activity , their subtilty shewed in their deceitful arguments , fetched from scripture wrested ; from reason abused ; from custome alledged ; backed with pretended revelations and miracles ; and set off by false glosses put upon their doctrines , and vizours put upon their own faces . to all which i might yet adde two other qualifications , which being sometimes found in the teachers of these doctrines , do not a little promote this seduction in the hearers of them ; as , viz. . it may be they are learned men , who either broach , or maintain some of these opinions ; possibly , eminently learned ; at least reputed so to be . and this is a weight which swayeth not a little in the vulgar balance . this it was that had a prevalent influence upon many of the iewes ; the reputed learning of the scribes and pharisees , who were their teachers . them they looked upon as great doctours , as scribes fully instructed unto the kingdom of heaven ; as knowing men ; specially in their own science , in all matters of religious concernment : and thereupon they yielded up themselves to be led and carried about by them , as the shadow is by the body . and truly so hath it been , and yet at this day is . if men of eminent learning ( really or reputedly so ) shall be turned aside from the truth , to the imbracing and holding forth of any errour , ( as sometimes , and not seldome , they are , whereof many causes and reasons might be assigned ) it is not to be wondered , if those who being unlearned themselves , have them in admiration that way , and look upon them in spirituals , ( as achitophel in his time was accounted for politicks , sam. . . ) as the oracles of god , be carried about with them , after them . or , ( secondly ) they may be godly ; really , yea , and eminently such . now being so , and being themselves seduced ( which the most holy men are subject to ) they become eminently instrumental in seducing of others , upon whom their example hath a prevalent influence . that was peters case , recorded by st. paul , gal. . he being through fear of scandal fallen into a scandalous dissimulation , iudaizing with the iewes , for fear of displeasing them , in the observation of some legal ceremonies , which before being among the gentiles , he had seemed to renounce and disclaim , by this meanes he drew many after him . so the . verse there setteth it forth ; and the other iewes dissembled likewise with him ; insomuch that barnabas likewise was carried away with their dissimulation . of such prevalency oft-times are the examples of men eminent for piety and holinesse ( as peter was ) that if they miscarry whether in practice or doctrine , they draw many other well-meaning , but unstable soules after them . but i shall hold you no longer in this first head. come we now to the second head , to take notice of somewhat in the hearers and receivers of these doctrines . and here again we shall meet with divers things which help forward this seduction . i shall onely instance in some of the most obvious . . it may be they are chaffe . and so they may be upon a double account . either in regard of their natural levity , or spiritual vanity . . chaffe , in regard of natural levity : being by natural disposition weak of apprehension , and so fickle and inconstant , like quicksilver , which cannot be fixed , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , like a man standing upon one leg , wavering and unsteady , unstable in all their wayes ( as saint iames hath it , iam. . . ) . so they are even in matters of civil concernment ; they are in and out , to day of one mind , to morrow of another , easily turned this way or that way . and being so in the matters of the world , it is the lesse to be wondered at if they be so in the matters of god. . others who have no such defect in nature , yet are chaffe still , and that in regard of spiritual vanity . having at the best but the empty husk of an outward profession , wanting the inward grain , the truth and kernel of grace . this it is , and onely this , which establisheth men in the matters of god ; as the latter part of the text will shew us , [ it is good that the heart be established with grace ] this is the ballast of the soul. now what wonder is it to see unballasted vessels , light skiffs and cock-boats , to be tossed to and fro upon the waves ? ( a metaphor to which the apostle alludes , eph. . . be not tossed to and fro ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ) ; or to see light and empty clouds , clouds without water ( which is st. iude's comparison , verse . of his epistle , borrowed from st. peter , epist. . . ) carried about this way or that way , which way soever the wind bloweth . no more is it to see empty soules , being wholly void and empty of true saving grace , to be carried about by divers and strange doctrines . here is a first supposal , they may be chaffe . . if not so , yet ( in the second place ) they may be childron . that we henceforth be no more children , tossed to and fro , and carried about with every wind of doctrine , eph. . . children , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , such are many christians . though they may have more then a bare empty profession , they have some truth of grace in them , yet they are but children . so paul looked upon some of his corinthians , when he wrote that epistle to them , cor. . . and i , brethren , ( saith he ) could not speak unto you , as unto spiritual , but as unto carnal , even as unto babes in christ. such was their estate then . they were such as had received the first-fruits of the spirit , and so were in measure spiritual , yet he calleth them carnal , which he doth comparatively , in as much as there was a great deal of carnality yet in them , much flesh , and little spirit . and they were babes in christ ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . they were in christ , being engraffed into him by faith ; but they were children , babes in christ. so they were , though not in respect of time ; ( they had been long enough in him , to have grown up to some degree of maturity ) , yet in respect of proficiency . they were babes in christ , that is , in the knowledge , faith and mystery of christ. and such at this day is the condition of many christians ; though it may be they are in christ , and have had a long standing in him , being ancient professours , yet they are but babes , children . children in understanding , ( as the apostle explains it , cor. . . ) unskilful in the word of righteousnesse ( as those babes are described , heb. . . ) such there are some ( and too many ) among us at this day , who ( it may be ) have been old standers in the churches grove ; they have been long in christ before many others , ( as paul saith of andronicus and iunia , that they were in christ before him , rom. . . ) and yet they are but dwarfe-trees , ( like the adam apple-tree ) babes . children in understanding . so the apostle complaines of some of his hebrewes , heb. . . when for the time ye ought to be teachers , ye have need that one teach you again , which be the first principles of the oracles of god , and are become such as have need of milk , and not of strong meat . upon which account he calleth them babes in the verse following ( verse . ) : and truly thus fareth it with some at all times , with many at this day . they have been a long time scholars in christs school , and have not wanted meanes of instruction , such as , had not they been wanting to themselves and them in the improvement thereof , they might have been in a degree , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ( as the apostle there calleth them ; heb. . . ) adulti , of full age , grown men in christ. but through that neglect they still continue babes , children , such as have need to be catechized , and instructed in some of the principles of christian religion . thus ( it may be ) they have good affections , but weak iudgments ; having but little knowledge , lesse experience . and by this means they come to be unstable soules , ( as st. peter calleth them , pet. . . ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , not well grounded . and being so , they are apt to be seduced by false teachers . so he there sheweth it ; where speaking of those impious and blasphemous seducers which were to come , he saith , they should beguile unstable soules . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , inescantes , a metaphor taken either from fowlers , who by their calls , and stales , and other devices , draw the simple birds in to their nets or snares ; or rather from anglers , who by covering their hooks with deceitful baits , take the silly fishes . even thus are simple and unstable soules taken oft-times by subtile seducers . wanting judgment , and so not being able to discern the hook that lyeth hid under the bait that is presented to them , to see the danger of those erroneous doctrines , which are held forth unto them under fair and specious pretences , they are by that means taken and carried away by them . and surely this is the case of many at this day in this nation ; of whom charity requireth us to hope the best , that they are such as whose hearts are upright with god ; they have good desires , good affections , and such as both have had , and have ( reall saints being through grace exempted from a total and final apostasle ) the truth of grace in them ; yet being but children , not well grounded in the truths of god , and so wanting judgment to discern betwixt truth and falshood , they are drawn aside out of the way of truth , to the imbracing of dangerous , and ( it may be ) in themselves , damnable opinions . here is a second supposal ; they may be children . or ( in the third place ) they may be for a time blinded , or blindfolded . even as men sometimes deal by their horses , which they first blindfold , by putting some covering over their eyes , and then make them go round in their mills ; so dealeth satan sometimes by some christians , the eyes of whose understanding god hath opened , inlightning them with the saving knowledge of his truth , revealing christ unto them , and in them , ( as the apostle speaketh of himself , gal. . . ) though he cannot put out their eyes ( as the philistines did sampsons , judg. . . ) quite extinguish and put out that spark of divine light which god hath kindled in their heart , yet ( possibly ) for the time he may blindfold them through his temptations ; and so by that means carry them about to the imbracing of divers and strange doctrines . and this he doth divers wayes , according to the divers kinds of temptations which he maketh use of ; as , viz. . through blind zeal . such a zeal paul took notice of in many of the iewes . i bear them record ( saith he ) that they have a zeal of god , but not according to knowledge , rom. . . even as it was with himself before his conversion ( as he tells them , act. . ) so was it with them , they were zealous towards god , many of them bearing an earnest affection to his glory , and to his worship and service ; but wanting the light of knowledge for the guiding and ordering of that affection , by that means they miscarried , and so were carried out in an unwarrantable way after legal observances . and truly so fareth it with many well-meaning christians , they have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a zeal of god , for god ; they have good intentions , and strong affections , but wanting a due proportion of knowledge for the regulating of that zeal , it becometh to them as a mist before their eyes , hindering their sight ; so as through the vehemency of that boyling passion foming up from the heart to the head , they do not so judiciously discern betwixt things that differ , as they ought to do , and otherwise might do ; and so are carried , as into some unadvised actions , so also to the imbracing of some erroneous opinions , which have some shew and semblance of piety in them . . as inordinate zeal may occasion this , so also sometimes may inordinate fear , fear of suffering . this was that which wrought that strange change upon peter , turning him about contrary to his confident resolutions , to the denying and abjuring of his lord and master , matth. . , . fear having possessed his heart , it for the present bred a sudden vertigo in his head , so as he was turned about like a wheel by the hand of every damsel . and like operation it hath sometimes upon holy and precious saints , causing them either to dissemble the truths of god , as nicodemus did , who came to christ only by night , ioh. . . this he did for fear of the iewes . which so far in those times prevailed with many true believers , whose hearts were towards christ , that they durst not own him . so it is noted ▪ ioh. . . no man spake openly of him for fear of the iewes . and this it was which made the parents of that blind child dissemble their knowledge of christ , ioh. . . ) or ( it may be ) to deny them . thus do timorous christians too often , ( like the weathercocks upon this and many of our church-sleeples ) turn round under the crosse : being through fear brought not onely to dissemble their profession , but to deny it . that was the case of those primitive christians among the jewes , whom paul saith that he by his persecuting of them , caused to blaspheme , act. . . to deny christ , yea , and ( it may be ) to speak evil of those truths , that way , which before they had owned . thus is this vertigo sometimes caused by fear . . and sometimes again through desire of gain , and outward advantage . so is it with grosse hypocrites . with them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , are all one , gain is godlinesse ( as the apostle saith of some seducers in his time , tim. . . ) they make it their design to turn that way which may bring in the best income of profit to them ; and so are carried about with the hope of gain . this is that which st. iude saith of some in his time , in that text forecited , iude . they ran greedily after the errour of balaam for reward ; which ( as diodate notes upon it ) the italian version understands of some who were seduced by those false teachers spoken of before , verse . rendring it , they suffered themselves to be carried away ; that is , ( as he expounds it ) they were carried away by the bait of gain , which they ran greedily after . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ( saith the original ) a word very emphatical , properly signifying effusi sunt , or erant , they were poured out ; a metaphor taken from water in a bottle , which being poured forth maketh haste to get out ( as our new annotation explains it ) . even so did they ; so earnest were they in seeking of gain , that they cared not what errours they closed with for the compassing of their base ends ; which they followed with such eagernesse , that they cared not though they poured their soules in the pursuit thereof ; though they poured them forrh as water that is spilt upon the ground , lost them . even so fareth it oft-times with hypocrites . and i wish there were no cause to suspect that there should be any such by and base respects in the hearts of any whom the judgment of charity looketh upon as truly godly . possibly thus it may be ; some whose hearts are right and sound in the main , yet they may be drawn aside to the imbracing of some opinions and waies , which were it not for some temporal advantage they expect to meet with in them , and from them , they would not look after . such a filme is this sometimes upon the eyes of those who are otherwise seeing , and knowing enough , that for the time it blindeth them . even as it is said of a gift , a bribe , exod. . . a gift blindeth the wise , ( the seeing , as the originall hath it ) dimming the eyes of judgement and conscience in those who are otherwise understanding and judicious , [ and perverteth the words of the righteous ] , causing them neither to speak nor judge aright , according to the evidence of truth given into them . and truly it is to be feared , such effect sometimes the hope of gain may have upon some who are otherwise godly , that it is like a pearl in their eye , dimming their sight for the present , so as they do not see the errour of those opinions and wayes which are so promising to them . and thus i have done also with the second of these heads . passe we to the third ; to take notice of somewhat in the doctrines themselves , which may cause , or rather occasion this seduction . and here again i shall single forth three or four particulars . . it may be they are such doctrines as do please and tickle the fancy through the novelty and strangenesse of them . they are such doctrines as the text speaketh of , divers and strange doctrines . and strange it is to think , how such doctrines do sometimes affect the hearers of them ; having nothing else to commend them but onely their novelty and strangenesse . they are new and strange . and oh! how taking is this with many ? and that not onely with children , who are apt to be taken with novelties ; such things as they have not seen before , be they never such toyes , yet they are apt to part with things of far greater value for them ; but also with others , persons who in respect of their years might , and should be wiser . what is it that induceth many , ( i wish i might not say some professours ) to follow every vain fashion in their apparel , and hair , &c. though in themselves never so undecent and unbecoming , ( as divers of the fashions at this day are ) but onely this , they are divers and strange ? and what is it that induceth the impure adulterer sometimes to forsake the wife of his youth , being both for her person and condition every waies amiable , to imbrace the bosome of another no waies to be compared with her ? why , onely this , she is a stranger , the strange woman ( as solomon calleth the harlot , prov. . . and often elsewhere ) . and so for the abominable sodomite to commit that horrid sin against nature , but onely because it is ( as st. iude calleth it , v. . ) strange flesh , of another sex . thus is corruption oft-times taken with divers and strange things upon no other account but this , because they are so . and truly so is it sometimes in matters of religious concernment , both doctrines and practices , they are taking with some ; how so ? because they are new ; new lights , and new wayes ; such as the church of god in former ages hath not been acquainted with . this it was that bred that itch in the athenians eares ; that made them so earnestly desirous to hear what paul's doctrine was ; because it was new and strange . may we know ( say they ) what this new doctrine whereof thou speakest is ? for thou bringest certain strange things to our eares ; we would know therefore what these things mean , act. . , . this it was that moved them to become his auditors , because they would satisfie their own curiosities . and in likelihood , this it is which moveth some , and not a few , at this day , to run after some teachers , and to listen after some doctrines : onely because they are new and strange . so the apostle foretold that it should be , tim. . . the time will come ( saith he ) when they ( speaking of some christians ) will not endure sound doctrine ; but after their own lusts shall heap unto themselves teachers , having itching eares . and what he foretold we may now see it verified . the time is now come , when some , nay many , will not endure sound doctrine ; old truths , with the ministers that preach them , these they cry down ; crying up new teachers , and new doctrines ; thereby shewing that they are infected with this leprosie , this itch. . it may be they are such doctrines as gratifie the flesh . such was that first divers and strange doctrine that was ever held forth in the world ; i mean that doctrine which was preached by satan to our first parents in paradise ; it was a doctrine that gratified them by an indulgence of a greater liberty then god had allowed them . and such were some of those doctrines which were held forth by some false teachers in the primitive times , which were so taking with divers , whereof st. peter speaketh , pet. . . for when they speak great swelling words of vanity ( saith he ) they allure through the lusts of the flesh , through much wantonnesse , those that were clean escaped from them who live in errour . this did some false teachers in those early times ; they held forth such doctrines as did gratifie the flesh ; under the name and notion of christian liberty giving a licence for some loose and licentious practices , as the verse following explains it [ while they promise them liberty , &c. ] , so turning the grace of god into lasciviousnesse , ( as st. iude , having an eye to that of peter , expresseth it , iude . ) and by this meanes they allured some , who ( as st. peter there describeth them ) were clean escaped from them who live in errour ; that is , either true converts , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( as most copies have it ) qui verè effugerant ( as beza translates it ) such as were really , and truly converted . even such ( as it seemeth ) , some of them were wrought upon by those doctrines ; being for a time dangerously shaken , though not utterly overcome by those temptations . or however , such as had onely renounced idolatry , and made an outward profession of the christian religion , withall , walking answerably to that profession , without any just scandall . yet they were taken by these anglers ; as the word there imports , ( being the same with that which we met with before in the . verse of that chapter ) . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , inescant , i. e. quas● pisces hamo captant ( as beza interpreteth it ) , they take them as fishes with a hook and a bait. and ( questionlesse ) in this very way have not a few of late times in this nation been taken by divers of those false doctrines which have been spread abroad . they being such doctrines as gratifie the flesh , indulge men in a great deal of loosnesse and licentiousnesse under the pretence of christian and gospel-liberty ; giving allowance unto them in some unwarrantable practices , which true religion will not admit . and by this bait it is that they are taken , and so carried away with those doctrines . . it may be they are such doctrines as are consonant and agreeable to humane reason . such were the doctrines of the false apostles in paul's time , who made use of their philosophy ( as i shewed you ) their naturall reason ; which they did both pro and con , for their own doctrines , against the doctrines of the gospel ; pretending the one to be agreeable to reason , and the other contrary to it . which ( no question ) cannot but be a very prevaient argument with such as the apostle calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , cor. . . meer naturall men , who have no other guide but the light of reason to follow . and hereupon it is that satan , that subtle and experienced engineer hath made , and at this day doth make so much use of this engine , for the battering and overthrowing of divers articles of the christian faith ; as , viz. the doctrine of the trinity ; the incarnation of christ , the creation of the world , and the resurrection of the body ▪ all which being contrary to philosophicall principles , and so not to be comprehended by reason , upon that ground he disswadeth men from the belief of them . and by the same means he seduceth and draweth them into dangerous , yea , into pernicious and damnable errours ; presenting them unto them as doctrines most consonant and agreeable to their carnal reason . such are the doctrines , as of some other sects amongst us , so in special of that , of all other ( in my eyes ) the most dangerous , the socinian : which by this engine seeks to undermine divers of the principles of christian religion , because they are not consonant and agreeable to their reason , though never so clearly held forth to the eye of faith in scripture . and upon this foundation it is that they erect and build their own divers and strange doctrines : which ( presuming themselves to be great masters of reason ) with much confidence they hold forth , to the seducing of some , who are willing to hearken to them , and to be deceived by them . . to these adde one more , which is as taking as any of the former , if not more . and that is ; it may be they are such doctrines as have in them a shew of piety . such were the doctrines which the false apostles preached , and pressed . they were such things ( as the apostle describeth them , col. . last ) as had indeed a shew of wisdome in will-worship , and humility , and neglecting of the body . such were divers of those ceremonial observances , which were so eagerly pressed by them upon christians in those times . they had a great shew of piety and humility in them ; being exercises of mortification and self-denyall , which ( being rightly performed ) are services very acceptable to god. thus did they varnish over that superstitious will-worship of theirs ; whereby it became very taking with such as were not aware of the hook hid under that bait . and the like may be said of many of the doctrines of the church of rome at this day , which pretend to extraordinary strictnesse , and so carry a shew of singular piety and devotion with them ; whereby many well-meaning , but unwary soules are bewitched ; and so carried away with them . and surely that is the case of some and divers of those doctrines which walk abroad in this nations at this day : they have a shew of speciall and singular piety in them . some of them pretending to an high advancement of free grace , which in it self is a glorious doctrine . such is that arminian doctrine , ( which it seemeth is of late crept into this place , being brought in by some who creep into houses , and so beguile unstable soules ) , i mean the doctrine of universal redemption , with its attendants , ( as errour seldome goeth alone ) , which is cryed up as a doctrine highly advancing and magnifying the grace of god , by this extending it to the universality of mankind , far above that which confines it to a select number : which yet is but a meer pretence . for if all be alike elected in christ , alike given to christ , and alike redeemed by christ , so as nothing is done , or intended more for one then another , where is then that speciall differencing and distinguishing grace of god , which is so admired by the apostle in divers of his epistles ? so as in truth this doctrine , being rightly scanned , is not an exaltation of grace , but a great derogation from it . and divers other doctrines there are of like nature , which have the like varnish set upon them : as , viz. the antinomian tenents , and some other , which i shall not trouble you with the enumeration of . onely desiring you to take notice of this in the general , as one special means of thus carrying about some , and many well-meaning , but unstable soules ; even the specious shew of pretended piety that is in some doctrines . and thus i have now ( through the good hand of my god leading me along ) dispatched the former of my tasks , that which i intended by way of doctrinal explication and illustration . wherein i have shewed you what is meant by divers and strange doctrines , and what by being carried about with those doctrines . then that there have been , and are such doctrines ; and that christians are subject to be carried about with them ; giving you the grounds and reasons of both . that which now remains of this part of the text , is application . where ( in the first place ) i might here make a stand , and take a just and sad lamentation , pouring forth my soul in bemoaning the present state and condition of the church of god in this nation . wherein , ( lord ! ) what variety of strange doctrines are there to be found ? and how many every where carried about with them ? for doctrines , how divers ? and many of them how strange ? surely africa was never more fruitful in variety of monsters , then england is at this day in variety of opinions : divers of which are so monstrous , so hideous , as surely hell it self affords none more . such as give us to hope , that the devil is now pouring out the very dregs of his poysonous cup. but withall , how many are there found to be intoxicated therewith ? yea , some , who some yeares since were looked upon as stayed and sober christians , yet now we may see them reeling and staggering like drunken men to and fro ; carried this way and that way , as not knowing how , or where to stand . such is the condition of this poor nation at this day : insomuch that this disease of the spiritual vertigo is grown epidemicall , common in all places . look where we will , almost , how may we see wheeles turning about , chaffe whirled about , waves and clouds driven about , unstable soules carried about with the wind of divers and strange doctrines . a matter of just and deep lamentation . and so let it be to every of us . should any of you , while your selves stand safe upon the shoare , see others , though strangers , much more if friends , tossed upon the waves among rocks or quick-sands , ready to perish every moment , i presume it could not but affect the flintiest heart among you . and surely such is the condition of many of your brethren and sisters at this day in this nation , who are thus tossed to and fro with divers and strange doctrines , some of which are no better then rocks and quicksands , desperate , and damnable doctrines , such as who ever imbraceth , living and dying in the belief of them , must needs split and perish upon them . now how should the consideration hereof affect the hearts of all those who truly loving god , cannot but bear an hearty affection to their brethren , so as to desire their everlasting welfare and happinesse ! but i shall not insist upon this , either the further discovering of this malady , or the bewailing of it . i shall rather come to that which more nearly concerneth your selves ; to prosecute that which i told you was my design in taking up of this text ; which is , to warn you , you of this place , of this congregation ; to whom let me in the name of god here hold forth a double caveat : first , be not you offended at these : secondly , be not you seduced by them . of these two severally . begin with the former . . be not you offended by these ; by what either you see or hear of in this kind ; so offended , as to like christ and his religion ever the worse for them . a blessed thing not to be thus offended . blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me ( saith our saviour ) matth. . . this unstable soules are subject unto upon divers occasions ; like queasie stomachs which are ready to take distaste at every thing that displeaseth them . but upon none sooner then this , the instability , and unsettlednesse of those that professe the faith of christ ; when they shall see them carried about with divers and strange doctrines . so much we may learn from st. peter , ▪ ep. . where speaking in the first verse of false teachers , such as should broach damnable heresies ; and in the second verse , of their followers , which should not be few , but many , [ many shall follow their pernicious wayes ] , he subjoynes this to both , [ by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evill spoken of ] . the way of truth ] , the true christian religion , which shewes the true and onely way to true happinesse ; it should by this meanes be exposed to the reproaches and obloquies of the adversaries of it . and surely so is it with the protestant religion at this day , which is professed and held forth as the true religion of god in this nation ; by reason of those divers and strange doctrines which are to be found in it ( some of them confessedly far worse then any that the church of rome is charged with ) , and the strange unsettlednesse of the professours of it , who as if they had no sure bottome to stand upon , are thus carried about with every wind . by this meanes this way of truth is evil spoken of by the adversaries of it . and that especially by our adversaries of rome , who as they have ever been ready to cast this in the protestants face , their divisions , so now questionlesse , they rejoyce in them , and triumph over them ; from hence concluding , that surely this cannot be the way of truth , which hath so many windings , and turnings , and crosse waies in it : this cannot be the true religion of god , the professours whereof are so far from that which god hath promised to his church under the gospel , viz. cor unum & via una , one heart and one way . thus are others offended hereat . but let not any of you be so offended . no reason why you should be so . this being no other then what , . hath been . it is no new thing . no other then what hath been in all ages of the church ; even in the first and purest times of it . then were there such divers and strange doctrines set on foot , and divers carried about with them . and what wonder then to see the like acted over again in these dregs of time . it is no other then what hath been . . and ( secondly ) it is no other then what hath been foretold should be , must be ; there must be heresies ( saith the apostle , ) cor. . . and that as in all , so specially in the latter times . for which most clear and expresse is that of st. paul , who writing to timothy , informs him hereof , tim. . . now the spirit speaketh expresly , that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith , giving heed to seducing spirits , and doctrines of devils , &c. and again , tim. . . this know also , ( saith he ) that in the last dayes perilous times shall come , for men shall be lovers of themselves , covetous , boasters , and so he goeth on , shewing what a flood of evills should in the last times ( being , as it were , the lees and dregs , the worst of times ) break in upon the church , spreading over the face of it ; and among other he reckoneth up this for one , that there should be some who should creep into houses , and lead captive silly women , &c. there should be many seducers , and many seduced by them . now wherefore is this so clearly foretold , but to prevent that offence , which any might be ready to take , when they see these things come to passe . this was our saviours end in foretelling to his disciples what harsh usage they should find in and from the world , after his departure from them , these things ( saith he ) have i spoken unto you , that ye should not be offended , joh. . . and again , these things have i told you , that when the time shall come , ye may remember that i told you of them , v. . and to the very same end he elsewhere foretelleth in like manner of false teachers that should come , and the prevalencie of their seductions , matth. . . there shall arise false christs , and false prophets , and shall shew great signes and wonders , insomuch that ( if it were possible ) they shall deceive the very elect. so prevalent should they be in their seducements . and wherefore doth he foretell this ? why , to prevent that offence which any might be ready to take hereat , when they should see it ; so it followeth , behold , i have told you before , v. . given you this warning , that you might not be offended or troubled at it , when you shall see so many errours held forth , and so many giving heed to them . and of such use let these and the like predictions be unto us . now that we see what was foretold to be come to passe , being thus forewarned of it , be not offended at it , so as to like the true religion of god ever the worse for it . here is the former of these caveats . passe we to the second , which my eye is principally upon . not being offended , take heed ( in the second place ) of being seduced . be not ye carried away with divers and strange doctrines . that was the apostles admonition to his hebrewes , and let it now be mine to you . such doctrines there are abroad ; and many there are who are carried about with them . now taking notice hereof , take you heed that none of you be found in this number , that you be not also led away . so st. peter presseth it in the close of his latter epistle , pet. . . having foretold them of ( what we at this day see ) false teachers , and many that should be seduced by them , ye therefore ( beloved ) ( saith he ) seeing ye know these things before , beware lest ye also being led away with the errour of the wicked , fall from your own steadfastnesse . and the like let me , with like tender respects to your soules , presse upon you ; seeing so many seducers are abroad , and so many every where seduced by them , take heed that you be not in like manner carried about as they are . which let me beg from you : and that , . for our sakes , whom god hath set over you . ( i begin here ; not that we seek our selves in the first place , ( as some are ready enough to charge it ) but intending a gradation , i begin at the lowest stayr first ) . if you should be thus carried away , this will be our losse , our grief ; which look you to . so saint iohn presseth it , making use of this very argument to this very end , ep. v. . where speaking to the elect lady , and her children , and exhorting them to constancy in the faith , which he doth the rather because of those false teachers which were then abroad , of whom he speaketh , v. . for many deceivers have entred into the world ] then he subjoynes , look to your selves , that we lose not the things which we have wrought , but that we receive a full reward ] . we. so it is , where christians come to apostatize , to fall from the truth which they have received and imbraced , there their ministers , who have been their teachers and instructers , they lose the things which they have wrought ; their former labours by this meanes are frustrated ; they are lost and spilt ; and so it cometh to passe that they do not receive their full reward . true indeed , as for their eternal reward , that they shall not lose . that was the confidence and comfort of their lord and master , the lord christ , who complaining of the fruitlesnesse of his labours among the iewes , ( as he is brought in , and personated by the prophet isaiah , being therein a type of him ) isai. . he beareth up his spirit with this comfortable assurance , v. . then i said , i have laboured in vain , i have spent my strength for nought , &c. yet surely my judgment is with the lord , and my work with my god. this was his comfort , that though his labours had been in vain as to the greatest part of that people , and of the world , yet god his father , who knew with what uprightnesse and sincerity he had done the work which he had given him to do , would , for all that , crown his endeavours with an answerable reward . and the like may all his servants comfort themselves with . being faithful in their ministration , approving themselves unto god , in seeking his glory , and the good of his people , what ever the successe of their labours be , yet they shall not lose their eternal reward hereafter . but in the mean time , they may lose a part of their reward here : which consisteth partly in the fruit of their labours ; when they see them successeful in the hearts of their people . this they may by this means lose . yea , and in some sense they may be said to lose part of their reward hereafter . for if those whom they gain unto christ are their crown , and their , glory , as the apostle calleth them , phil. . . therefore , my brethren , dearly beloved , and longed for , my ioy and my crown , so stand fast in the lord. and so writing to his thessalonians , thess. . , . for what is our hope , or joy , or crown of rejoycing ( saith he ) ? are not even ye in the presence of our lord iesus christ at his coming ? for ye are our glory and ioy. now if so , then the apostatizing of those whom god hath ( as to an outward profession ) given unto them , their falling off from the truth received , is as the falling off of so many pearles from their crownes . and so by this meanes it cometh to passe , that they do not ( as he there speaketh ) receive their full reward . and this being thus their losse , it is also their grief . so it must needs be . if this be their ioy to see those whom they have gained by their ministery , to continue constant in the profession and practice of the truth , ( as it is ) i rejoyced greatly ( saith st. iohn , writing to the elect lady in that his second epistle ) that i found of thy children walking in the truth , verse . and so writing to gaius in the epistle following , he tells him first , as concerning his own person in particular , ioh. verse . i rejoyced greatly when the brethren came , and testified of the truth that is in thee , even as thou walkest in the truth : then concerning all others who were converted by his ministery , verse . i have no greater joy then to hear that my children walk in the truth ] . now ( i say ) if this be so great a joy to them , ( as it is to all the faithfull ministers of christ , who do seriously intend , desire and endeavour the salvation of those committed to them ) it cannot , on the other hand , but be a great sadding to their spirits , to see hopefull branches broke off from the stock , fair blossomes falling off from the tree ; to see those upon whom their ministery hath been in measure effectual , ( at least to the enlightening of them ) , deserting the truth , and imbracing of errour , seduced by false teachers , and so carried about with divers and strange doctrines . even as it is with natural parents , ( if they be not such as the apostle speaketh of , rom. . . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , without natural affection ) it cannot but be a heart-grief to them , to see any of their children whom they have bred and brought forth , and brought up to some maturity , with so much carefulnesse and tendernesse to be taken captive by the enemy , or to be carried away by gipsies , or the like . truly in like manner , it cannot but deeply affect the faithfull ministers of christ ( who are as spiritual parents , as paul calleth himself , . cor. . ) to see any of those whom god hath given them as children , who have been ( as it were ) the labour and travell of their souls , to see them captived by satan , to see them carried away by those gipsies in religion ( of which there are many walking abroad in this nation at this day ) , i mean seducers , false teachers , who by their canting language , and other like artifices , deceive simple soules , and so carry them about with them into the waies of error . this ( i say ) cannot but deeply affect the hearts of the faithfull ministers of christ ; be a sadding to their spirits . now then have you a regard to this , that you be not in this way the causers of it . this is that which the apostle presseth upon his hebrewes , v. . of this chapter whereof the text is part , ( heb. . . ) and let me presse the same upon you . obey them that have the rule over you ( meaning thereby not civil magistrates , as the erastian glosse would corrupt and darken that clear text , but ecclesiastical ministers ) , and submit your selves , for they watch for your soules , as they that must give account , that they may do it with joy ( that they may ( first ) do their work with joy , going on chearfull in their ministeriall service ; and ( secondly ) that they may give up their account with joy , ) and not with grief . which if they do , it will in the end prove a losse and grief to you , as well as them : so it there followeth . for that is unprofitable for you ; it will be prejudiciall to you here , and it will turn to a sad account to you an other day . which leadeth me to a second argument . whilest you do this for our sake , do it also for your own sake , that you may not lose your work and your reward . so some greek copies ( who are therein followed by the vulgar latin , and some other translations , our own also taking notice of it in the margin ) read that forecited text of st. iohn , ep. v. . look to your selves , that ye lose not those things which you have wrought , ( or gained ) but that ye may receive a full reward . ] ye ] this apostates do ; falling from the truth believed and acknowledged , they lose the things which they have wrought , lose the reward of them ; so as all their profession shall not turn to any account to them . for this expresse is that of the lord by the prophet ezekiel , chap. . . repeated and inculcated , chap. . , , . when the righteous turneth away from his righteousnesse , &c. all his righteousnesse that he hath done shall not be mentioned , &c. so it is in doctrinall truths , as well as practical performances . a professour turning aside from the way of truth , to the imbracing of errour , thereby he blasteth all his former profession , loseth the fruit and benefit of his former faith , or seeming holinesse . and unlesse he look to it betimes , may also lose that full reward , ( as the apostle there calleth the reward of eternal life ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in as much as it is an abundant recompence for what ever any shall either do or suffer ) . this reward all apostates are in danger to lose . not that all errours in doctrine ( no more then in practice ) are alike dangerous . we know what the apostle saith of those teachers , which build wood , and hay , and stubble upon the foundation , cor. . . holding fast christ , and his saving truths , the mystical and doctrinal foundations , yet raise and build some unwarrantable superstructures upon them , holding forth some doctrines that will not endure the tryal ; of such he saith , verse . that though their work be burnt , ( as it shall be at that great day of tryal , when all things shall be tryed ( as it were ) by fire ) , and themselves suffer losse , ( lose the praise of their labour , which shall not be accepted or rewarded with god ) yet they themselves shall be saved , though it be as by fire . though they escape narrowly , as a man that escapes out of the fire naked , where he hath lost both his goods , and his garments ; yet , as to their persons , they shall be saved . god accepting the sincerity of their intentions as to the main , will graciously over-look and pardon those infirmities , and so receive them to mercy . now what he there saith of the teachers of such doctrines , we may apply to the followers of them . so long as they hold fast the foundation , though they be ( through infirmity ) drawn aside into some errours not fundamental , they may as to their persons , through the indulgent grace and mercy of god , be saved . which we hope concerning many poor seduced foules in this nation at this day . thus it is true , all errours are not alike dangerous in themselves . but withall , who knoweth what the consequence of those more venial errors may be ? when the wheel begins to turn , going down the hill , who knoweth where it will stay ? not , unlesse it be accidentally stopped , untill it come to the bottome . and even so is it with poor seduced soules ; if once they begin to be carried about with divers and strange doctrines , though of an inferiour concernment , if they once begin to fall from their steadfastnesse , who knoweth where they will rest ? whether before they come to the bottome of the hill , to the bottome of hell , or no ? i presume your own experience can furnish some of you with some instances of this kind : of some , who beginning at the first with some smaller errours , ( as , viz. withdrawing themselves from the publick assemblies ) , in processe of time , by turning and turning from one errour to another , they have never left till they came to the very browe and brink of hell ; even to the deriding and scorning of that religion which before they professed ; to the defying of ordinances , publick and private ; to jear at heaven and hell , at the immortality of the soul , and resurrection of the body , as if they were no other but melancholy dreams ; and so brought even to the height ( or rather depth ) of downright atheisme and profanenesse . o let these examples be as booyes , or sea-marks unto you , to warn you to take heed of coming near those shelves , those quick-sands , which they have thus made shipwrack upon . as you love your selves , your own precious soules , take heed of being thus carried about with divers and strange doctrines . which if you shall suffer your selves to be , unlesse gods mercy be the greater in checking and stopping of you , you are like to be undone by it . so much the apostle intimates to his colossians in that text forecited , col. . . beware ( saith he ) lest any man spoyl you through philosophy and vain deceit ] . this he speaketh in reference to those false teachers , who by their false doctrines sought to make a prey of them . so the word there used signifieth , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . ne sit qui vos depraedetur ; that no man make a prey of you . verbum militare , ( saith beza upon it ) a word taken from the wars , where souldiers drive away as a prey the cattel which they have taken ; or ( as our new annotation hath it ) from such thieves or pyrates , as do not onely take and carry away the goods of those they rob , but their persons also , to make them their own , or other mens slaves . thus do false teachers deal by those that hearken to them . by their false doctrines they carry them away for a prey , making a spoyl of them ; spoyling them , not only of their goods , the things which they have wrought , and gained ( as the apostle there speaketh ) but even of their soules , ( unlesse god in mercy step in to their rescue ) ; as much as in them lyeth , giving them up as captives unto satan . as our saviour saith of the scribes and pharisees , who were so zealous to instill their doctrines into others , to make proselytes , they thereby made them twofold more the children of hell then themselves , matth. . . thus do false and heretical teachers , by their false and damnable doctrines , they beget children of hell ; bringing men under the power of satan to be taken and led captive by him . as therefore you love your selves , beware of such seducers , such seductions , that you be not thus carried about with such divers and strange doctrines . and ( in the third place ) whilest herein you have respect to your ministers and your selves , have the like also to the church of god. this is a thing which all christians , who professe themselves members of that mysticall bodie , ought to have a special regard unto , so as not to despise it , nor yet to shame it . . not to despise it . this is one thing which paul chargeth upon some of his corinthians , that by their disorderly manner of administring and receiving of the sacrament of the lords supper , and celebrating their love-feasts before , or after it , ( uncertain whether ) they in so doing despised the church of god , cor. . . or despise you the church of god ? which , though some , and not a few , learned expositors , and that not without some good shew of reason for it , interpret of the place of the churches meeting , which by a usual metonymie , vulgarly is ( and inoffensively may be ) so called , ecclesia , the church : which place they might be said to have despised , in that they put no difference betwixt their own private houses and that ; which , supposing it to be set apart for religious services , ought not , without necessary cause , to have been imployed to other civill , ( much lesse uncivil ) uses , ( as it seemeth their meetings were ) . yet others , not inferiour to them , ( to whom i professe my self rather to subscribe ) understand it rather of the mystical church , the coetus fidelium , the company of believers , either in that particular congregation , or elsewhere . this church they by this disorderly carriage of theirs , seemed to sleight , not regarding the custome of other churches , nor yet hearkening to the admonition of their own , possibly seconded by some others , ( as pareus conceiveth of it ) : and this the apostle there calleth a despising of the church of god. which he chargeth upon them as a thing most blame-worthy in them . [ shall i praise you for this ? i praise you not . ] and so is it in whomsoever shall do the like in any kind ; despise the church of god! that church whereof they are members , and others of the true churches of christ. which they do , without regarding the lawful and laudable usages and customes of those churches , do without any just ground and reason differ from them in matters of concernment . paul ( in the chapter last named ) taxing another undecency in that church of corinth , viz. their women ( some of them ) having their heads and faces unveiled , uncovered in the publick assemblies , he presumes this to be argument sufficient to silence those , who ever they were , that should appear whether in defence of it , or contest about it ; if any man list to be contentious , ( saith he ) we have no such custome , nor the churches of god , cor. . . and if this be an interpretative despising of the church , not to regard the customes thereof , much more may it be so construed , to recede from the doctrine thereof ; and to run after divers and strange doctrines , such as the true church of god hath not owned , but renounceth , and disclaimeth . surely this is no other but a despising of the church of god ; which who so standeth guilty of , let him not look for praise from god , or thanks from men . . not to shame it . this do they who professing themselves to be children of this mother , yet desert her doctrine , suffering themselves to be thus carried about with such divers and strange doctrines . this is no small blemish in the churches face . even as it is in a field of corn , to see such a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , such a medly in it , as sometimes we do in barren soiles , such an intermixture of divers and strange weeds , and flowers , as cockle and darnel , poppies , and mayeweed , &c. all growing among the wheat ; this variety of heterogeneous plants , ( what ever their colour be , and how pleasing soever they may be in the eyes of children , yet ) it is no small eye-sore to the husbandman , or blemish to the field it self , whose best beauty is to be all of one colour . and ( truly ) so is it in the church of god ; where there ought to be but one faith , ( as the apostle speaketh , eph. . . ) , to have divers and strange doctrines put up , and take rooting there ( much more if they come to flourish and spread ) , this is no small eye-sore unto god , nor blemish to it . which have you a regard unto , that you may not in this way either despise , or shame the church of god. in the fourth place , having an eye to the church of god , have a regard also to the religion of god therein professed . to the truth of god , which is but one . veritas unica , error multiplex . errour is various , and may be infinite : truth is but one , and that semper eadem , ever the same , being constant and immutable ; like unto him who is the authour of it , the god of truth , who saith of himself , i am the lord , i change not , mat. . . now what a dishonour then is this ? to have the professours of it so unlike unto it self ; the children so unlike the mother , such changelings ? so mutable , so changeable ; as if they were of pilates race , who when christ spake to him concerning the truth , he replyeth , not without some passion , and what is truth ? joh. . . truly such scepticks in religion are some , and many at this day , as if they were ( as some call themselves ) seekers ; not knowing what truth , no not gospel-truth , is : which if they did , surely they would be more constant in adhering to it , and owning of it . fifthly , and lastly , let me beg this for the sake of your lord and ours , even for christ his sake . his disciples and followers you professe your selves to be . and are you so ? then hear his voice , and no others . this will his sheep do . my sheep hear my voice , joh. . . those that are truly given unto christ by the election of god the father , to be made partakers of the merit and benefit of his redemption , to be justified and saved by and through him , they will hearken unto him speaking in the gospel . and thus hearing him , they will follow him , and onely him ; not so any other . a stranger will they not follow ( saith the fifth verse of that chapter , speaking of the same sheep of christ ) , but will flee from him ; for they know not the voice of strangers . false teachers , such as teach divers and strange doctrines ( and in that respect fitly called strangers ) ; christs sheep know not their voyce , viz. with a knowledge of approbation , so as to hearken to them , to follow them . and o that all of you might in this way approve your selves to be in the number of these sheep ! such as have christs ear-mark upon you , by giving this honour unto iesus christ , to hear him . this is my beloved son , in whom i am well pleased , hear ye him , ( saith the voice from heaven ) matth. . . a prophet shall the lord your god raise up unto you of your brethren , like unto me ; him shall ye hear , ( saith moses , speaking of the messia ) deut. . . cited by stephen , act. . . hear him ; and in matters of faith , onely him ; not hearkening to any other , who ever they are , that shall bring any divers and strange doctrines , contrary to , or diverse from , that which is revealed in the word . this is that which paul ( with no little earnestnesse ) presseth upon his galatians , gal. . . though we , or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you , then that which we have preached to you , let him be acoursed . and let me with like affection presse the same upon you . if any ( be they who , or what they will ) shall preach another gospel ( as some such there are in this nation at this day ) then that which hath been preached to you by the faithfull ministers of jesus christ , what ever they are ( i say ) let them be accursed . so look upon them , as being therein instruments of the devil , no other but the spawn of that old serpent , who having deceived your first parent , now attempteth the like upon you . to proceed no further . put these arguments together ; and i hope ( being by the good spirit of god set on upon your hearts ) , they may prove effectually prevalent , for the letting in of this useful and needful admonition , that you would take heed , that you be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines . but you will now say unto me ; how shall we be preserved from this so dangerous a vertigo ? this turning sicknesse ? how shall we be kept from being thus carried about , and carried away ? a question that will be very useful in the resolution of it . wherein i shall prescribe unto you some plain , but proper directions , which may serve as an antidote against this infection . . in the first place , my advice shall be ; be not over-confident , over-confident of your selves . whether of your own strength or iudgment . . not of your own strength . this it was that gave peter that turn in the high priests hall ; even his standing upon his own legs , self-confidence . though all men shall be offended because of thee , yet will i never be offended , ( saith he to his master ) matth. . . this he spake in confidence of his own strength ; and therefore he was left by his master to that sad experience of his own weaknesse . let his miscarriage be a warning to all that hear of it , to teach them while they stand , to take heed lest they fall . that is the apostles counsel , cor. . . let him that thinketh he standeth , take heed lest he fall . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . he that thinketh he standeth firm and sure , and is confident that he shall ever stand ( as grotius well expounds it ) ; let him take heed . let him not be over-confident . that is the same apostles advice to his romans , and other gentile christians , rom. . . where speaking of the just rejection of the iew , and the gracious reception of the gentile in their stead , he maketh this use of it . because of unbelief they were broken off , and thou standest by faith ; be not high-minded , but fear . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , have not high thoughts of your selves , but fear ; not with a fear of diffidence and distrust , but of circumspection , and watchfulnesse . a useful direction , very proper in the present case . would you not be thus carried about ? take heed of topsailes . you well know ( many of you ) how unsteady they make the vessel that beareth them , carrying it about , and tossing it to and fro with every blast of wind . and the like will high thoughts do the soul that is possessed with them . and therefore be not high-minded . let no man think of himself more highly then he ought to think , ( as our last translation renders that , rom. . . ) but fear . happy is the man that feareth alwaies ( saith the wiseman , prov. . . ) : feareth god , and himself . feareth god with a fear of piety , and himself with a fear of iealousie . feareth to offend his god , and is no waies confident of himself ( as diodate well expounds it ) . and thus let us fear ; and that alwaies . which well we may , when we see , or hear ( which we may do ) of others , some of them , sometimes champions for the truth , to be thus deceived , thus seduced , thus captived . well may we , who in comparison of them are but poor weak striplings , fear . be we diffident of our selves . which whilest we are , commit we our selves to the custody of another . that is st. peters advice to christians in all their sufferings for god , that they should commit their soules to god , pet. . last . let them that suffer according to the will of god commit the keeping of their soules to him in well doing , as unto a faithful creatour . and this do we : knowing that we cannot keep our own soules , ( if adam in state of integrity could not do it , how much lesse we in this lapsed condition , labouring under so great imperfection ) , commit them to the custody of another , even of that god who is a faithful creatour , who , as he is able to keep that which is committed unto him ( as paul speaketh , tim. . ) ; so also he will do it for all that trust him . a god that will not forsake the work of his own hands . thus commit we our selves unto him . taking hold of him by faith . even as children , walking abroad in the winds way , specially if they be to passe over some narrow bridge , they will take hold of their fathers hand . even so do we of our heavenly fathers . now that the wind of divers and strange doctrines is up , and is so high that every day it carrieth away some or other , we being to passe over a narrow bridge , ( for such is the way to heaven , narrow is the way which leadeth unto life ( saith our saviour , matth. . . ) so as if our foot slip , or we be turned aside , we may perish for ever , take we hold of our fathers hand , begging it from him that he would hold us , so keep us that we may not turn aside from the way of truth : not leaving us to our selves ; which if he do , we shall be found no better then wheeles , then chaffe , then clouds , then waves , easily carried about . thus be not over-confident of our own strength . . nor yet ( secondly ) of our own iudgment , by leaning too much upon it . so the wiseman subjoynes this direction to the former , prov. . . trust in the lord with all thine heart , and lean not to thine own understanding . a usefull caveat , which let christians make use of in this case . would they stand sure , so as not to be carried away with errours , let them not lean too much upon their own armes , trust too much to their own judgments . by this means many have been deceived in matters of the world , more in the matters of god. and therefore beware of this self-confidence also . and that , as in other things , so in interpreting , and expounding of scriptures . we know what the apostle st. peter tells us , pet. . . where he layeth down this as a praecognitum , a thing which he would have all those who meddle with prophetical scriptures , to take notice of . know this first ( saith he ) that no prophecie of the scripture is of any private interpretation . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , propriae explicationis , of a mans own expounding , for a man to interpret of his own head , according to his mind , without consulting with others , with god , with scriptures , with other men : with god , having recourse to him by prayer ; with scriptures , comparing one place with another ; with other men , consulting with their wrttings , conferring with their persons . this is the ordinary way for expounding of prophetical scriptures . and the like we may say of all other texts ; specially such as have any degree of obscurity in them . and therefore let all christians take heed how they go about to expound them , that therein they do not go upon their own heads , lean too much to their own understandings . which as it concerneth all , so more specially those that are ignorant and unlearned ; who leaning to their own ( too often prejudiced ) understanding , in interpreting of scripture , may and do , sometimes make strange work of it ; wresting it . thus in peters time dealt some by paul's epistles , as also by other scriptures , as himself observes , pet. . . in which ( saith he , speaking of those epistles ) there are somethings hard to be understood , ( viz. by reason of the sublimity , the height of the matter , and some particular expressions in the phrase ) which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest ; as they do also the other scriptures to their own destruction . this did those kind of men then . and the like they are still apt to do . being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , men void and destitute , not onely of humane learning , ( which is , what ever any , who have either little acquaintance with it , or affection to it , may think and speak of it , no small help to the right interpreting and understanding of scripture ) , but also of divine ; having little acquaintance with the mind of god revealed in his word ; not having their senses ( the faculties of their soules , understandings and judgments ) exercised to discern good and evil ( as the apostle describeth the growen christian , heb. . last ) , to discern betwixt truth and falshood , they by this means , medling with the interpretation of scripture , and trusting to their own judgments , wrest it , torment it , set it upon the rack ( as i shewed you before the word there used signifieth ) . a truth ( i think ) never more verified in any age or part of the world , then it is at this day in this nation . wherein how do these sacred records in this time suffer , being thus wrested , thus tortured by many different sects , ( like so many wild horses drawing at the severall quarters of man ) , every one endeavouring to force them , and bring them over to their own party , to vote with them , and speak for them . to which end some of them put such senses upon them as the world before never heard of , nor any sober and unprejudiced spirit would ever have dreamed of . it were an easie matter here to give you some instances in this kind . take only a taste of them from that poor illiterate act , ( the noise whereof hath of late alarummed these quarters , which gave me the first occasion to fall upon this subject ) , those gipsies in religion ( so i called them , with some others before , and know not how more fitly to tearm them ( vulgarly known by the name of quakers . being ( as it seemeth ) every way such as saint peter there describeth , unlearned and unstable ; what a nose of wax do they make of the scriptures ? which having a low and contemptible esteem of , they handle accordingly . bear with me a little if i take up a few of those fragments which have fallen from some of them . having ( all of them ) an evill eye upon those two standing ordinances of god magistracie and ministery , ( which diverse look upon as the two witnesses spoken of , rev. . . and some suppose to be now about to be slain , v. . and having a design ( as much as in them is ) to slay them , to take them out of the way , or at least to render them contemptible in the eyes of the people , how do they hale in scriptures to their ●id ? not sparing to offer violence to them , to inforce them to speak that which neither the spirit of god , nor yet any man besides themselves ever thought of . as for instance . whereas the prophet ieremy speaking of the false prophets that were in israel , saith , that the priests did bear rule by their meanes , jer. . last , meaning that they strengthened themselves by the league which they had with the prophets , and so were confirmed in their ambitious courses and corrupt carriages , they envying the ministers of god that double honour , which the apostle , ( tim. . . ) saith , those which rule well , and specially they which labour in the word and doctrine are worthy of , viz. countenance and maintenance , and not willing to allow them either the one or the other , but being desirous to muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn , and willing that they which serve at the altar should live upon the ayr , some of them ( and i suppose none of the meanest ) would have thereby understood their temporal subsistence ; the priests bear rule by their means ; i. e. ministers of the gospel domineer by their maintenance ; which upon that ground they would have taken away . and so finding our saviour blaming the pharisees for their ambition , and among other things charging them with this , that they loved the chief seats ni the synagogues , matth. . . they , not understanding what the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . signifieth , nor yet what the manner of the jewish synagogues was , wherein ( as in our churches ) there were many chief seats for more eminent persons , they apply it to the pulpits , which ministers in preaching of the word make use of for conveniencies sake , not without an expresse scripture - president for it , viz. that of ezra , of whom we read , neh. . , . that ezra the scribe stood upon a pulpit of wood , which they had made for the purpose . and so ( it is said ) he opened the book in the sight of all the people ; for he was above all the people . and so again , while they find the pharisees taxed by our saviour for loving to stand praying in the synagogues , so making their private prayers in those publick places , which they did for ostentation sake , that they might be seen and heard of men , ( as our sadiour himself there expounds it , matth. . . ) they take it up , and cast it as a stone at the faces of gods ministers , for using the same posture in their publick devotions . and so also , where our saviour biddeth his disciples to beware of the scribes , which desired to walk in long robes , luk. . . wherein he had no intent to condemn garments of that fashion , ( which as the prophets were ever wont to wear , so himself and his apostles did the like , it being the custome of those eastern countries then ( as to this day it is ) to wear vestes talares , side-garments ) , but their vain affectation in wearing them , most probably having them longer then usuall , trayling upon the ground , that so they might be taken notice of to be no ordinary persons ; these men apply it to the decent garments of ministers , whether gownes or cloakes , which they wear , and warrantably may ( as magistrates do ) for distinction sake , and that there may appear ( as there ought to do ) even in their habit a gravity becoming their calling . i might soon weary you with more of this kind ; texts thus perverted against the ministers of god. and as they deal with ministers , so also with the civill magistrate . to whom they refuse to give any civil respects suitable to their places and offices . which they do ( as it seemeth ) chiefly upon the account of those two abused texts . the one , matth. . where our saviour taxing the ambition of the scribes and pharisees in affecting to be called rabbi , rabbi , verse . he prohibits his disciples to do the like , be not ye called rabbi , verse . and again , verse . be not ye called masters , so forbidding them to affect high stiles , and swelling titles ; from thence these men refuse to give any respective language to magistrates , more then to any others . the other place is that , luk. . . where our saviour sending forth his seventy disciples upon that great and earnest employment to preach and plant the gospel , he orders them that they should carry neither purse , nor scrip , nor shoes , nor salute any man by the way ; this kind of men overlooking the former part of the verse , which equally concerneth themselves , forbidding that which they usually practise in their journeys , the carrying of purse , or scrip , or shoes , they take hold of the latter , and from thence refuse to salute any man , and so to afford any respect unto magistrates , as well as others . whereas our saviour therein intended no such prohibition to his apostles , as to for●i● them comitie and civilitie , the verse following there , he expresly enjoynes them , ( verse . ) into whatsoever house ye enter , first say , peace be to this house ; which was a form of salutation then in use ) ; but onely that they should not give way to any unnecessary diversions , so as to be taken off from , or hindered in the executing of that commission which he had given to them . thus do they make good what st. peter there speaketh , being unlearned and unstable , they wrest the scriptures . and that not onely such places as he there speaketh of , which are dark and obscure , whether for matter , or expression , but plain texts , the sense whereof is obvious to every eye , that hath not the like filme of prejudice upon it that theirs hath . and by this means ( among other ) are they ( poor soules ) carried about with such divers and strange doctrines as they are , to the shaming of that religion which formerly they have made profession of , and indangering their soules , and the soules of others . now let this present experience be useful to you , to warn you to beware of that which exposeth you to such eminent danger in this way ; of being over-confident of your selves , as not of your own strength , so not of your own iudgment . i passe to a second direction . while you are not over-confident , be not over-credulous . while you are not over-confident of your selves , be not over-credulous of others , so as to take doctrines from them upon trust . whether from any one singular person , or from any community and society of men . . not from any one singular person . this is an honour due only unto christ ; who being the word of his father , ought to be heard , and that with an absolute credence . not so any other ; whether man , or angel. though we , or an angel saith st. paul , gal. . . it matters not how qualified , how dignified . how qualified , whether for learning or piety . how dignified , whether pastours , or teachers , to whom ( being sent by christ ) he hath promised a more special assistance , lo , i am with you alwayes to the end of the world , matth. . . yet give not this honour to any of these , so as to pin your faith upon their sleeves ; to take doctrines upon trust from their tongues or pens . it is the bereans commendation , that they would not trust paul upon his word , but that they would search the scriptures , to see whether the things which they heard from him were so , or no , act. . . even as wary princes and states will not trust ambassadours upon their bare word , but they will see their credentials under hand and seal : so wary should christians be in hearing the ambassadours of christ , his ministers , whether ordinary or extraordinary ( of which latter sort yet i know none since the apostles times ) , so as not to receive any thing ( in matters of faith ) from the mouthes of any , be they what they will , unlesse they see their credentials , good warrant , and clear evidence from scripture for it . in which case it matters not what pretensions may be made by , or for any . be it the highest that can be , an unerring infallibility . that is the pretension of him who giveth out himself to be peters successour , and head of the church , that man of sin , that antichrist of rome ; who upon that account challengeth to himself an absolute credence , requiring all to acqutesce and rest in his determinations , without any further discussion . which is more then ever paul or peter did . and a thing directly contrary to that which st. paul enjoynes , cor. . . ye are bought with a price , be ye not servants of men ; i. e. so as to inslave your selves , specially your consciences unto them , by giving an absolute credence unto them . no , though they may pretend credentials also ; credentials whether from earth , or heaven . from earth , the reports or writings of men ; from heaven , divine and immediate revelations . all these three ( it seemeth ) some of the false apostles made use of . and thereupon it was that st. paul gave that caveat to his thessalonians , thess. . . now we beseech you , brethren , that ye be not soon shaken in mind , or be troubled ▪ neither by spirit , nor by word , nor by letter as from us ] . that ye be not shaken in mind , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a metaphor taken from ships , which are tossed to and fro at sea in a stresse of wind . thus are poor unstable soules sometimes tossed and troubled , by hearkening to false teachers . but so would not paul have his thessalonians to be by those false apostles , who to insinuate into them , and to gain credit and credence unto their doctrines , made use of that threefold artifice , viz. spirit , word , and letter ; spirit , pretending prophetical revelations : word , reports concerning the apostle , as if he had changed his mind , recanting what before he had preached , and so were of the same mind with them , ( as grotius , i think , sitly expounds the word there ) ; letter , any counterfeit writing , going under the apostles name . and the very like artifices do false teachers frequently make use of . pretending sometimes to spirit , revelations , inspirations : sometimes to word , reports , traditions : sometimes to letter , forged records ; all frequently made use of in the church of rome . and some of them made use of by some false teachers among our selves at this day . now let not christians be shaken in mind , or troubled by any of these . no , not by that which biddeth most for belief in this kind . spirit , pretended revelation . this was the great argument which the false prophets under the old testament made use of to gain credit to their doctrines by . and the like have false teachers done in the new : as in the primitive times , so in most ages since ; being therein imitated by some in this nation at this day . but let not this pretence gain any credence from us . that is st. iohn's advice , ioh. . . beloved ( saith he ) , believe not every spirit . but try the spirits , whether they be of god ; because many false prophets are gone out into the world . so it was in his time ; there were many false teachers . who boasted of the spirit , pretended revelation , and inspiration , by which means their doctrines gained belief with over-credulous soules . but st. iohn forbids to believe them ever the more for that ; but to try them . so did the church of ephesus , for which she is commended , rev. . . thou hast tryed them which say they are apostles , but are not , and hast found them lyars . and the like it standeth all christians in hand to do . not lightly to believe every spirit . by this means ( if reports be true ) many children have been stollen and carried away by those whom the vulgar call by the name of spirits . being over-credulous , and committing themselves to them , they have made merchandize of them . take you heed of doing the like by your soules ; of committing them to every one that pretend to the spirit , lest they also do the like by you , make merchandize of you ( as st. peter foretelleth false teachers would do , pet. . . ) : but try such spirits , whether they be of god : bringing their doctrines to the touchstone of the word . that was the touchstone to which god requireth his people to bring the prophets under the old testament , isai. . . to the law , and to the testimony ( to the word , to the scriptures ) if they speak not according to this word , it is because there is no light in them ; no morning ( saith the original ) , the daystar hath not appeared unto them , the sun is not risen upon them , as they pretend ; they have no light of divine illumination , or yet can afford any light of true consolation . and in like manner , by the same means , try we the like pretenders under the new testament . not taking doctrines ( in matters of faith ) upon trust from any . not from any one singular person . . no nor yet ( in the second place ) from any community , any society of men . be it a church , or be it a synod , a councel , provinciall or national , yea , suppose oecumenical , general , universal . true it is , great respect both may and ought to be given to these ; specially to the last . but yet none of them having a promise of infallibility , it is too great an honour to yield an absolute credence unto them , so as to receive their determinations for articles of faith , without any further discussion . such an implicit faith did that ancient heretick apelles plead for . being ( as eusebius reports it of him ) taken in some errors , and dealt with for his conviction , he alledged that it was not for him , or any other to enquire into the truth of doctrines professed , but every one to abide in that faith which he had received . and the very like do they of the church of rome . fearing the truth of their doctrines , they forbid the people to try them ; specially if once they have the churches stamp upon them , now it is piacular so much as to question them . no wonder that poor souls being over-credulous are in this way carried about , whither it pleaseth their blind guides to lead them . would not you miscarry in the like way ? make use of this second advice ; be not over-credulous in receiving of doctrines upon trust from others . i passe to a third . would you not be thus carried about , take heed how you come in the winds way , how you expose your selves to temptations in this way . under which head let me give you a twofold caveat . . take heed of high things that is the apostles caveat to his romans , rom. . . mind not high things . and let it be mine to you . if you would not be thus carried about , take heed of high things . you may remember what i told you of chaffe upon the mountains ; being there , it is presently whirled about with every gust of wind , whereas had it been in the valley , or upon the floor , possibly it might have lyen still and quiet . would not you in like manner be carried about with this wind of strange doctrines , keep off from the top of the mountain ; take heed of high things . in particular of high thoughts , and high speculations . i shall instance onely in these two . . of high thoughts concerning your selves ; of your own wit , your own wisdome , your own judgment ; as if you were more perspicacious , more quicksighted then others . this caveat the apostle subjoynes to the former , rom. . . be not wise in your own conceits . such for the most part hereticks are ; they have high thoughts of themselves , as if they could seek further then others . and with this leaven ( for the most part ) their disciples likewise are sowred . and thence is it that having once given entertainment to an opinion , they are so hardly induced to part with it again . seeth thou a man wise in his own conceit ? there is more hope of a fool , then of such a one , prov. . . would not you fall into the like condition ? be not in this sense high-minded , have not over weening thoughts of your selves . and ( secondly ) whilest you take heed of high thoughts , take heed also of high speculations . whilest you take heed of setting the one into your soules , take heed how you let out your soules after the other ; that they do not reach at things above their reach . so our former translation ( not unfitly ) renders that of the apostle , rom. . . that no man prefume to understand above that which is meet to understand , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 either , above that which is meet for any man to understand , as some divine secrets are , which yet some will be prying into , or above that which is not meet for such or such persons to attempt to understand . such are some high and deep points in divinity to low , and shallow capacities . they are too high for them . and thereupon it is , that when they will be medling with them , and looking too far into them , they are like weak braines upon an high tower , which presently turn round , they are easily carried about . even as it is with small skifs and cockboals ; so long as they are in the narrow and shallow waters , they are steady , but lanching forth into the main , the broad and deep ocean , then how are they tossed ? even so fareth it sometimes with some well-meaning christians . so long as they keep themselves within the banks of more plain and necessary truths , as the doctrines of faith and repentance , &c. now they are steady and stable , but adventuring to lanch forth into the deeps , how are they carried about ? such deeps the apostle speaketh of , rom. . . where having treated of gods just and gracious dispensation , in rejecting of the iew , and receiving the gentile into covenant in their room , he breaketh forth into this passionate exclamation , as a man astonished with the thought of that which he could not comprehend the reason of , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ! o the depth of the riches both of the wisdome and the knowledge of god! how unsearchable are his iudgments , and his wayes past finding out ? so they are in many of his common providences , in disposing of humane affairs here below , much more in disposing of men for their eternal estates . those decrees of election and reprobation , or preterition ; gods choosing of some to be vessels of honour , ordaining them to life and salvation by jesus christ ; his over-looking and passing by of others , leaving them to be vessels of wrath , ordaining them to just condemnation for sin ; and both these before they have done either good or evil , ( as the apostle layeth it down , rom. . . ) meerly out of the good pleasure of his own will , without any respect ( as to the decree ) to any thing in the persons so disposed of , this is a depth which neither man nor angel can sound the bottome of . no wonder then when such skifs and cock-boats , unlearned and unstable soules shall boldly adventure into these deeps , that they are tossed to and fro , that they are carried about into pelagian , vorstian , arminian , and socinian errours , which too many vessels of greater burden , men of eminent learning and parts have been , and at this day are . that you may be secure from the like danger , take heed of these high things ; as of high thoughts , so of high speculations ; as how you entertain the one , so how you meddle with the other . remembring what the kingly prophet saith of himself , psal. . . i do not exercise my self in things too high for me ; ( things passing the measure of his apprehension , or limits of his vocation ) as also what the apostle saith unto you , be wise ( understand ) unto sobriety , rom. . . secondly , that you may be kept out of the winds way , take heed of eddy winds , ( i speak to you in a language you are well acquainted with ) . take heed ( i say ) of eddie winds . such are the winds that we meet with in by-lanes , or in the corners of streets , where the wind being but straitned , bloweth more violently then in the open fields , turning light things about like a whirlewind . and even like danger there is in those ( truly so called ) conventicles . let no man here mistake me , as if under that name i had any intent to strike at those private meetings of christians , which are intended for mutuall edification in gods way , by praying together , conferring together , repeating of sermons , or the like warrantable exercises . i am so far from discouraging such meetings , that i wish where there is one , there were many . but those unwarrantable conventions which are intended onely or chiefly for seduction . when false teachers ( as the apostle foretelleth they should do ) creep into private houses , there to sowe their tares , to vent their erroneous doctrines . specially where these meetings are upon the lords day , during the time of publick worship , ( of which kind ( it seemeth ) there are more then one , taken notice of in this place ) . these i call , and that deservedly , by the name of conventicles ; and compare them to those eddie winds in by-lanes , or corners , wishing you , if you would avoid the danger of being carried about , to take heed of them ; how you come at such places where seducers keep their haunts . q. but ( will some say ) may we not try all things ? is not this a christians liberty ? nay , is it not his duty ? what else meaneth that of the apostle , thess. . . prove all things ; hold fast that which is good ? a. true , this christians may do , ought to do , but in the apostles sense . where doctrines and opinions are presented and offered to them , they are to bring them to the touchstone of the word , so to prove them , to try whether they be current or no , before they receive them , lay them up in the cabinet of their hearts . but in the mean time , know we it to be far from the apostles meaning , to approve of that vain and fond curiosity , of affecting of novelties , which some , and too many in this ( as in all other places ) are guilty of . if a new teacher , that bringeth some new and strange doctrine , come to town , and creep into a private house , they must ( like those athenians forementioned ) go hear what he saith . a dangerous affectation . specially in those who are most subject to be infected with this itch , unlearned and unstable soules , for the most part silly women ( as the apostle calls them ) , who wanting judgment , know not how to try any thing . for them to adventure upon this tryall in this way , what is it but as if a child should adventure to taste of every box , every glasse in an apothecaries shop ? in which way he may sooner meet with poyson then with nutriment . and truly such is the danger , when simple soules , children in understanding , will be thus trying of every doctrine , and thus following of every teacher . not unlike to those men or women , who being over-affected unto physick , will have recourse to every emperick , every mountebank that they hear of , putting themselves into their hands , suffering them to practise upon them , who in so doing can never expect to have sound bodies . no more let them look for sound soules , who will be thus running after every mountebank in religion , at least to hear what their new and strange doctrines are . a fond , and ( as i said ) dangerous curiosity : so it was to the first woman , who by holding parly with the serpent , was seduced by him , the woman being deceived was in the transgression , tim. . . and so hath it been to many of her sons and daughters after her ; who lending an ear to subtle seducers , god in his just judgment hath given them over to be deceived and seduced by them . and thus i have also done with this third direction , which bids you take heed of coming in the winds way . take a fourth . would you not be thus carried about ? take heed of beginning to turn . you know how it is with a wheel , ( i have hinted it once and again ) , being set upon a declivity , if once it begin to turn , going down the hill , now it turneth alone being carried about of it self , by its own force . object . true , ( will some say ) so long as it is going down the hill. but that is not our case . we are going up the hill , and therefore though we do begin to turn , yet there is no such fear , no such danger . a. this is the common plea of all sects and secturies in the world . they all think they are going up the hill , tending to an higher degree of perfection then those have attained to , whom they leave behind them . but we know how it fared with the syrian army which was sent to surprize the prophet elisha , being smitten with blindnesse , whilest they thought they were going to dothan , they march into the midst of samaria , kings . , . and even so fareth it with those armies of sectaries that are in this nation , and elsewhere . being all of them , blinded , blindfolded in some of the waies aforesaid , they all think they are going up the hill , climbing towards perfection , whilest in truth they are going downwards , declining in their spirituall conditions . that none of you may be taken with this ( not more common then dangerous ) fallacie , let me subjoyn to this generall direction . or . particular caveats ▪ every of which will informe you , when you are going down the hill. . take heed of turning from iesus christ , of not holding fast the head ( as paul cautions his colossians col. . . ) such is iesus christ the head of the body , ( the mysticall body , the church , col. . . the head of the corner ( as saint peter hath it ) . . . borrowing it from the psalmist . ps. . . ) the head-stone , as the foundation-stone , so the topstone . and being so , it necessarily followeth , that whosoever turn from him , which way soever they turn , they are gowing downwards . and this take you heed of , as being at all turns most dangerous , of turning from iesus christ to any thing else . in particular , of turning from christ to moses . this was the case of many in the apostles time , who turned from the gospell to the law , from the doctrine of free grace in christ , to seek justification in whole , or in part by the works of the law. so did the galatians ( some of them ) whom paul tells , that they were fallen from grace , gal. . . from the doctrine of gods free grace in christ. and so do they , who ever shall seek justification and salvation by the works of the low , by any morall performances , much more by ceremoniall observances ( which was the case of those galatians ) , or any thing besides christ , in so doing they fall from grace , and they fall from christ , who by this meanes is made of none effect to them . so unsound is that seemingly politick maxime , which is made use of by many in the church of rome , viz. that a man standeth surer upon two boughs then upon one . not so ( say we ) , if so be that by standing upon a bough that is rotten , he fall from that which was sound . which is the very case of all those who trust to christ and moses , to gospell and law for their justification and salvation . by resting upon the one in part , they fall wholly from the other . christ will either be a whole saviour , or no saviour . so as this is a declining , a going down the hill with a witnesse . so paul looked upon it in his galatians and would have them so to judg of it , gala. . . where he parlies with them about it , are ye so foolish , ( saith he ) having begun in the spirit , are ye now made perfect in the flesh ? where by flesh we are to understand the ceremonies of the law , which were no other but external and carnall observances , especially after that the figurative and sacramentall use ( which whilest it continued , was as the soul and spirit , putting life into them ) was now ceased , being taken away by the death of christ ; now they were no other but flesh ; flesh without spirit . and being so , the apostle censureth it as no small degree of folly in them , that they should fall off to them ; that having begun in the spirit , having imbraced the doctrine of the gospell , the commands whereof are spirituall , and having withall found the effectuall work of the spirit in their heart , working faith and regeneration in them , that they should once think of being made perfect in that way . this indeed was that which the false apostles promised them , that they should by this means receive some addition of perfection ( even as the doctors of the church of rome at this day do to their disciples ) . but this the apostle justly censures as folly , and that no small degree of it , as in the teachers , so in the receivers of this doctrine . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are ye so foolish ? and be you ware of falling under the like censure . a caveat not unneedful ; this being a folly which some in this nation at this day , who pretend to the highest degree of perfection , to be perfect as adam , nay , for holinesse ( such is their blasphemy ) perfect as god himself , do openly proclaim whilest they professe to look for justification and salvation , not by the righteousnesse of christ imputed to them , but by the righteousnesse of christ inherent in them ; which is no other then inherent holinesse . now if this be not a falling from christ , and a falling from grace , surely we must conclude the apostle in that text forenamed ( gal. . . ) to have been much mistaken . let this be a first caveat under this head. secondly , whilest you thus hold fast the head , take heed of parting with the body ; of falling off from the church , by severing and separating from it . and that , as from any part of it , any particular church , which being sound in the faith ; wherein the word is rightly preached , and sacraments duly administred , though possibly labouring under some other imperfections , and not so accomplished in respect of order as it ought to be , and some others are , yet deserveth to be called and owned as a true church ; so , much more from the whole body , the whole catholick visible church . this also is a hill , a mountain ; yea , a mountain paramount , a mountain established in the top of the mountains . so the prophet esay describeth the church under the gospel , ( isai. . . ) which in respect of spiritual glory is exalted far above all secular state and power : and being so , well may they who fall from it be said to go down the hill ▪ and such a declension , such a separation take heed of . such separatists there were in saint iude's time , these are they that separate themselves , jude v. . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the word properly signifieth separatists , such as separated themselves , and others from the true church of god , renouncing communion with it , so making of sects . such were the donatists some ages after , against whom augustine so strenuously and earnestly contended . the founder of which sect , donatus a bishop , taking an unjust and groundlesse distaste at cecilianus bishop of carthage ( not unlike that which some among our selves at this day have taken up against the ministers of the church of england , ( as also of other churches , being in this respect in the same predicament with them ) , viz. because he had received his ordination from the hands of some of the traditores , or proditores , such persons as had in time of persecution delivered the book of holy scriptures to be burnt , ( even as our ministers are said to have received theirs by or through the hands of antichristian romish bishops ) thereupon he fell off from the unity of the church , separating himself , with his party , from all others , as if the catholick church had been no where else to be found but onely in that corner of africk where himself dwelt , and that among his society , himself and his followers . thus did that sect then . and the very like have the anabaptists of the last age done , who are not unjustly looked upon by some , as revivers of the sect of the donatists ; being therein followed by their successours among our selves in this nation , at this day , who by that one act of rebaptization ( which also they learned from those donatists , of whom augustine tells us that they did the very like , rebaptize those that were baptized before ) do at once unchurch all the churches in the world , in as much as they do thereby make a nullity of that sacrament , which the members of those churches have received in their infancy , which being the initial seal of the covenant , and the distinguishing mark betwixt christians and heathens , none can be looked upon as visible members of the church without it . an errour , which be you ware of . it being a mother-errour , and that a teeming , a fruitful one , in whose womb ordinarily many erroneous opinions are conceived . so it was to those donatists the first founders of it ; who being fallen off from the church stayed not there , but were then carried about with divers and strange doctrines , ran into many pestilent opinions , ( as inveterate schisme for the most part turns to heresie ) besides some desperate practices . one of which amongst the rest is very observable ; viz. that whilest they at the first plead for liberty of conscience , and an universal toleration , that no man should be compelled to any religion , nor yet hindred from holding forth any opinion ; denying the civill magistrate , though christian , ( as constantine the emperour then was , under whom this schisme had its beginning ) any power for the punishing or repressing of any hereticks or heresies , or to take any course whereby either the broachers or maintainers of them might be brought to repentance , or else the poysonous breath of their opinions might be stopped from infecting of others ( which is , and not without cause , reckoned up as none of the least errours they were guilty of ) , yet in processe of time they came to that height of rage , that if they met any in the field or streets , who were not of their judgment , they made nothing furiously to fall upon them , to assassinate , to murder them . the like spirit whereunto modern histories tell us was to be found among their successours in germany in the last age . and god grant england may never have experience of the one . well , ( to draw to a conclusion of this head ) take you heed of this so dangerous a defection , of this turning from the church . which being the pillar and ground ( or the stay ) of truth , ( as the apostle calleth it , tim. . . ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , columna et firmamentum , or stabilimentum ( as beza hath it ) , holding forth , and in some sense bearing up , the truth of god , even as pillars and posts are wont to do the proclamations and orders of magistrates , which are affixed to them , that so all may take notice of them ; no wonder that they who recede from it , turning their backs upon it , recede also from the truth , and so become subject to this peripherie , to be thus carried about with divers and strange doctrines . even as it is with deer ( i do not know a fitter comparison ) , when once they have left the herd , and got out of the park , then though they get into pikles , yet there they are restlesse , driven to and fro by every passenger , so as then they leap hedge and ditch . even such is the condition of those who have once given a farewell to the church ( which is as gods park in the world ) , being once got out of the pale of it , now though they fall into pikles and severals , several companies , yet it cannot be expected that they should rest there , but that they will be subject to be driven to and fro by errour after errour , till at the length they come to leap hedge and ditch , to make shipwrack of faith and a good conscience ( as the apostle saith that brace of hereticks , hymeneus and alexander , with some others in his time , had done , tim. . , . ) : but i passe to a third . whilest you thus hold fast the head and the body , christ and his church , take heed of turning from the scriptures . the scriptures , they are a christians light , whereby he is to walk in this world ▪ thy word is a lamp unto my feet , and a light unto my path , ( saith david ) psal. . . and st. peter speaking of scripture-prophecie , pet. . . calleth it a more sure word , ( that is , most sure , the comparative put for the superlative , as sometimes in scripture it is ) whereunto ( saith he ) ye do well to take heed , as unto a light that shineth in a dark place , &c. such is the understanding , the mind of man in regard of spiritual and heavenly mysteries it is like a dungeon , a dark place , untill it be enlightned by that light which the lanthorn of the scripture holdeth forth . which therefore all christians are to attend unto . object . true ( say some ) they are so to do ; but how long ? untill the day dawn , and the day-star arise in their hearts , ( as it there followeth ) , that is , untill their hearts be fully enlightened by the spirit of christ , who is as the morning-star ( so called , rev. . . ) and the sun of righteousnesse , mal. . . but when the sun is up , what need of canales ? when christ is once come into the heart of a christian , dwelling there by his spirit , what need then any more of this candle-light of the scriptures ? this is but to burn day-light . a. to this it is answered ; that true it is , the saints upon earth are thus enlightened . they who were sometimes darknesse , are noon-light in the lord , ( as the apostle saith of his believing ephesians , ephes. . . ) having an inward light of the spirit within them . but this illumination is imperfect . this light is but a twilight ; like that of the morning , when the day-star appeareth before the sun ariseth . now during that time a candle will not be unusefull in a dark room . and of such use are the scriptures unto enlightened soules , illuminated saints here ; who though they have some light , yet still they have much darknesse within them , and so stand in need of a light without them , which is scripture-light . to this paul directs his timothy . though he was then illuminated by the spirit , and that in a more then ordinary measure and manner , being an evangelist , yet he bids him , give attendance to reading , tim. . . viz. of the scriptures , the law and the prophets . and again in his second epistle , chap. . . he tells him , that the scriptures which he had known from a child were able to make him wise unto salvation . and in the verses following , ( verse , . ) enlarging himself in setting forth the divers and excellent uses of scripture , he saith , it is profitable for doctrine , &c. that the man of god may be made perfect , thorowly furnished to all good works . now if scriptures contribute so much to ministerial perfection , surely they cannot be uselesse to the most illuminated saints upon earth . this is their light to see by . as also their rule to walk by . even as the card and compasse is to the seaman , so are the scriptures unto the christian , serving him to stear his course by . and therefore take heed of laying them aside . should the mariner do so by his card and compasse ? lay them aside , and stear by guesse , no wonder if his vessel were carried about to this coast , or that , striking upon this rock , that shelf , this or that quicksand . and truly so is it with christians , if once they shall come to lay aside the scriptures , and pretending to revelations and inspirations , ( as it seemeth too many in this nation at this day do ) stear their course by guesse , following their own fancies , no wonder they be carried about this way or that , to the imbracing of all kind of errours . and therefore , as you would be freed from this deception , take heed of this delusion , of thus turning from the scriptures : turning from them , whether in whole , or in part . . in whole , as anti-scripturists do , ( of which sort it seemeth there are not a few abroad in this nation ) who will allow the scriptures no such divine authority , as that they should be called the word of god above any other writings ; but onely look upon them as the writings of holy men setting forth their own and others conditions . whence it is that they are usually stiled by some , the saints conditions ; moses's , davids , isaiahs , ieremies , pauls conditions . in the mean time they do not look upon them , either as a light , or a rule which they are bound to follow . . or yet ( in the second place ) of turning from them in part . this do they , who whilest they receive the new testament , reject and disclaim the old , as being now like an old almanack calculated for the year past , out of date , of no more use for christians under the gospel . and so do they who renounce the letter of the scripture , as a uselesse shell or bark , a dead letter ( as they ordinarily call it ) . they are all for the pith , the inward mystery . to which end they turn every thing into an allegory , as if the literal sense were not at all to be regarded . by which meanes they make no other then ( as papists stile it ) a nose of wax , or leaden rule of the scripture , turning it which way they will to please their own foolish fancies . being so far in love with the pretended pith , as that for it they cast away both bark and timber too . this be you aware of ; of offering such force to sacred writ . which whilest origen did , god is said justly to have met with him , leaving him to offer violence to himself through mis-expounding of one text in a literal sense , who before had done the like to many by turning of them into an allegorical ; and which whosoever shall do , no wonder if they be carried about with divers and strange doctrines . here is a third of these caveats . to which adde a fourth . whilest you thus hold fast the head and body , christ and his church , with the scriptures the rule of faith , take heed of sorsaking the house of god ; i mean his publick worship and service . this also is set upon the hill. so was the tabernacle which david erected ; and so was the temple which solomon built , the places of gods publick worship and service , the house of god. wherein we find these four precious and sacred reliques , all mentioned by the apostle in one verse , heb. . . the golden censer , the pot of manna , aarons rod , and the tables of the covenant , not unfitly ( whether intentionally or no i will not say ) representing those four great gospel-ordinances , prayer , word , sacraments , discipline ; these were seated upon the hill ; upon mount sion the one , the other upon mount moriah : so as whoever in ierusalem went aside from this place , they went down the hill : and so do they who ever they are that forsake the house of god , that forsake publick ordinances . what ever they may fancy to themselves , as too many at this day do , whose design it is to get and live above ordinances ( as they call it ) , looking upon them as low things , fit for children ; and so they think that they are flown above the ordinary pitch ; yet certainly they are gone down the hill , and ( unlesse mercy step in to them ) are not far from the bottome . o be you ware of this so dangerous a declension , of this forsaking the house of god. this did some in our apostle's time , as he giveth us to take notice , heb. . . where he giveth this caveat to his hebrewes , that they should not do as some among them had done , not forsaklng the assembling of your selves together , as the manner of some is ; that is , not forsaking the publick congregations and assemblies of the church , where publick ordinances are dispensed , where the word of god is rightly preached , sacraments duly administred , prayers and praises in a publick way presented unto god. these assemblies some christians in those early times forsook ; upon what ground ( it being not expressed ) is uncertain , whether for fear , or through negligence , or out of pride , self-conceitednesse , and affectation of singularity . but what ever it was , this practice of theirs the apostle censures and condemnes . and well doth it deservea censure in whomsoever , upon what ground soever . true it is , where god separates men , as by sicknesse , or any just and necessary impediment , this pleads their excuse ; but where men shall separate themselves , this is a practice both unwarrantable and dangerous . in the fear of god be you ware of it . it is grotius his note upon the text , ( heb. . . ) and it is a true one ; deserere conventus est initium quoddam defectionis , to forsake the publick assemblies is the beginning of apostasie and defection , opening a wide door to all kind of errours and miscarriages in doctrine and practice . a truth sufficiently evidenced by many and sad examples in this nation at this day . whence is it that so many have been carried about with divers and strange doctrines ? follow it to the head , enquire into the original of it , and you shall find it for the most part to have begun here , in their for saking of the publick assemblies of the church , falling off from publick ordinances . let this be a warning to you . take heed how you fall off from attending upon , or submitting unto any ordinance of god , which is dispensed and held forth in the congregations where you live , and whereof you are , or ought to be members , according to the rule of gods holy word . and in particular , take heed of renouncing a true gospel-ministery . which whilest some have done in this nation , being carried forth , not onely with groundlesse distastes against the persons of gods ministers , but also against their office and calling , crying that down , as antichristian , and i know not what , ( as that poor ignorant sect forenamed , and some others do ) how have they been whirled , and carried about ? and no wonder it should be so . this being the ordinance which god hath appointed for this very end ( among others ) for the establishing of the hearts of christians , to keep them from being thus carried about . so the apostle setteth it forth expresly in that text forecited , ephes. . where having reckoned up divers ends wherefore christ instituted those ministerial offices in his church , extraordinary and ordinary , why he gave some to be apostles , some prophets , and some evangelists , and some pastours and teachers , among other he points out this for one , ver . . that we henceforth be no more children , tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine . mark it , it being worth your marking . to this very end christ instituted , not onely apostles , and prophets , and evangelists , extraordinary officers , but also pastors and teachers , ordinary ministers , who are to continue to the end of the world , ( as that promise made to them implyes , matth. . last ) , that by and through their ministery his people might not onely be begotten unto god , but also confirmed and strengthened , edified and built up in their holy faith , and so established in it , as that they might be kept therein , not being carried about , as light and empty vessels , without a pilote are upon the waves . and if so , what wonder if those who throw away the antidote , which is prepared for them , and given to them , be infected with that disease , which it was proper and soveraign against ? if they who cry down this ordinance which god hath given them to be a preservative against this turning sicknesse , be thus carried about , as generally they are , with such divers and strange doctrines . thus i have done with this fourth caveat , as also with this fourth direction ; which adviseth you to beware of beginning to turn , of beginning to go down the hill ; in particular , of falling off from christ , from his church , from scriptures , from ordinances . to which let me yet adde one more , which is still upon the negative , shewing you what you should not do , what you are further to take heed of , and that is , of following of false lights . by this meanes men are sometimes , oft-times carried , and led wild , by following of ignes fatui , false lights , insomuch that sometimes they are led into ditches , and bogs , and riuers . and by the very like meanes are unwary and unstable soules often seduced and carried about , by following of false lights . which are of two sorts , lights without them , and lights within them . . there are false lights without the man ; such are false teachers , of whom i have spoken . teachers are lights . ye are the light of the world ( saith our saviour to his apostles ) matth. . . and being true teachers , they are true lights . such was christ the master , of whom it is is said , he was that true light , joh. . . so he was originally , as the sun is , which is the fountain of light. and such are his servants , his ministers , who hold forth the word of truth , they are lights also , though by participation onely , as the stars are ; by which name they are called , the seven stars are the seven angels ( the ministers ) of the seven churches , rev. . . but so are not fale teachers : they are lights indeed , but false lights . not true stars , but comets , blazing stars ; so called by st. iude , ( as some understand his expression ) iude v. . wandring stars : such as comets are , or planets , ( that is his word ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) which have no regular motion . now would you not be carried about , take heed how you follow any of these lights , how you follow false teachers . that is our saviours advice concerning them , luk. . . go not after them , nor follow them : yea and , knowing them so to be , how you come nigh them , how you resort unto them , have any unnecessary society , much more familiarity with them . that is st. iohns advice to the elect lady and her children , joh. . ep. v. . if there come any among you that bring not this doctrine , ( viz. the doctrine of christ spoken of in the verse foregoing , but a doctrine contrary to it ) receive him not into your house , neither bid him god speed . and thus let christians deal by false and heretical teachers ; keep a distance from them , as they would do from those creatures which poyson with their breath ; not shewing them any countenance , not affording them any encouragement , not having any unnecessary society with them . these are false lights without a man. . besides which there are other false lights within him . these are of two sorts , supernatural , natural . . supernatural , ( i mean going under that notion , so apprehended and taken to be by those that are deceived by them ) . such are enthusiasmes , supposed inspirations . this is the light which some , and not a few ( it seemeth ) in this nation at this day , ( as the anabaptists in the last age also did ) pretend to be led by . not by any light without them , the scriptures , or any outward teaching . no , this they renounce as a dimme and uncertain light . but a light within them : the light of the spirit . this is that which those poor deluded soules forementioned so much boast of , as being that which they professe to follow as their onely guide ; sending all christians to it for direction . all people , cease from your outside lights , ( saith one of them ) , and return to the light of christ within you . which light is not a chapter without you in a book . so do they take men off from scriptures , directing them onely to a light within them . this is the light ( saith the same authour ) which peter biddeth christians to take heed unto , pet. . . so blind was he ( or worse in expounding that clear text , which plainly speaketh of a light without , the word of prophecie , scripture-light . but be you ware of this light. it being for the most part no other but a meer ignis fatuus , a false light , nothing but the fancy of a distempered brain , or else a diabolical illusion , which whoever , laying the light of the word aside , shall make their sole , or chief guide , no wonder if they fall into bogs and ditches , and rivers , into all kind of erroneous doctrines , and enormious practices , as we see it by sad experience verified at this day . which that you may be kept from , take heed how you follow this light. knowing that you have a more sure word of prophecie ( as st. peter there calleth it ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , more sure then any pretended private inspiration or revelation : which where it is not consonant and agreeable to this word , we may safely and confidently conclude , that whatever glaring there may be , as there is in glow-worms , and in rotten wood , and some other things which shine in the dark , yet there is no true light in it ( as the prophet asserts it in the place forenamed , isai. . . ) . there is a light within a man which is natural . this is the light of reason ; that light wherewith every man is said to be enlightned , that commeth into the world , joh. . . and this light is much cryed up by some , and not a few , ( and some of them no mean ones ) in these times , as being sufficient to guide any man to salvation , without the help of any outward light or discovery . so it is averred by those of that sect aforesaid ; who upon that account bid every man to mind the light of god within him ; meaning the light of natural reason , as being sufficient without any other . but this also may be and often is a false light ; which take you heed how you follow in matters of religious concernment . take heed how therein you consult with reason . not but that reason herein may be consulted with . for my part i dare not vouch what chrysostome writing upon the text affirms , that faith is contrary to reason . no , i conceive aquinas his determination to be more orthodox and sound , that divinity is never contrary to true and right natural reason , however oft-times it is above it , and so may seem repugnant to it . neither am i of their mind who would have reason alwaies to be shut out from counsel in matters of religion . no , it may be consulted with , and that oft-times very usefully . but yet whilest this is allowed , take heed how you make use of it , so as to make it your guide , to be led by it ; whether it be grosse , or yet refined reason . . for the former , it is a light ( if i may so call it ) which too many are guided by , grosse reason , which differs little from sense , being imbased by it . such were those whom st. iude calleth sensual men , jude , vers . . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , meer natural , animal men , who have nothing to difference and distinguish them from brute beasts , but a reasonable soul ; which yet they make little use of , but are rather led , like brute beasts , by their senses . if such miscarry in the matters of god , it is not to be wondred at : when as the apostle tells us plainly , that they are above their reach , their capacity . the natural man ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the same word with that of iude ) receiveth not the things of god , ( gospel-mysteries , receiveth them not into his mind , so as rightly to apprehend them ) . neither can be know them , for they are spiritually discerned . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . there must be some suitablenesse betwixt the faculty and the object . the brute creature , having nothing but sense , cannot apprehend what belongs to humane affaires . no more can the meer natural sensual man , who hath nothing but reason , and that grosse reason , to guide him , understand what belongs to the matters of god. take heed of following this light , or of judging of doctrines by it , the light of grosse reason . . yea , or yet of reason refined . such is philosophy ; which the apostle bids his colossians to take heed of , being deceived by ( col. . . ) philosophy , which is nothing but reason refined by art. now however this may be made use of , and consulted with , as being a useful handmaid to divinity , yet take heed of making it a guide , a mistresse , so as to set reason above faith . what were this but to set hagar above sarah : to give the handmaid the upper hand of her mistresse ? which let christians beware of . philosophia theologiae se submittat ( saith clemens well ) . let philosophy submit her self to divinity , as hagar is bid to do to her mistresse , ( gen. . . ) , suffering her self to be admonished and corrected by it . otherwise if she will not thus stoop , ejice ancillam , cast out the handmaid . thus make reason stoop to faith , philosophy unto divinity . otherwise you will follow a false light , which will deceive and seduce you , carrying you about into divers and strange doctrines ; as it hath done , and doth , the socinians , and some others at this day . thus have i given you some negative directions , shewing you what you are not to do , what you are to take heed of , if you would not be thus carried about . there is yet one direction more behind , which is positive , shewing you what you are to do . and that is , that you may not be thus carried about , get your soules well ballasted . that is the way , and onely way to make your vessels steady at sea , to lay in good ballast in the bottome of them . like course take you with your soules , that they may be steady , and not carried about , get them well ballasted . q. but how shall that be done ? what ballast shall we get ? a. to this the text it self in the latter part of it will give you a short , but full answer in one word ; grace . this it is that is the best ballast for the soul , which being well laid in with it , it will so establish it , that it shall not be thus tossed to and fro , thus carried about . so it followeth , it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace . to which i should now come ; were it not that there is another useful admonition or exhortation that steps in ; which i shall dispatch in a few words . whilest you have thus a care of your selves , that you be not thus carried about , as much as in you lyeth have also a regard to others . that is our saviours lesson to peter , luk. . . when thou art converted , strengthen thy brethren . and let it be mine to you . when you are in measure through grace established , and so secured from this turning sicknesse your selves , labour what you may to establish others of your brethren . taking heed that you be neither causes , nor yet occasions of their turning . not causes of it , whether principal or instrumental , by broaching , or spreading of false doctrines : not occasions , by your examples ; do what in you lyeth for the preventing , or curing of this soul-sicknesse in others . which let all do in their places . private christians in their places , by suggesting seasonable counsel unto their brethren , for the staying of those that are wavering and beginning to turn , or for the reducing of those that are turned . publick persons in their places . heads of families , ministers , magistrates . heads of families , parents and masters , catechizing those committed to their charge , children and servants , instructing them in the principles of gods true religion , seasoning them betimes with divine truths , which will be of special use to keep them from the putrefaction of unsound , and erroneous doctrines . ministers , watching over their flocks with all possible circumspection , warning them , as paul saith he did , act. . . instructing of them , praying for them , that so the sheep and lambs committed to them may not become a prey to wolves or foxes . magistrates , improving that power , which god hath put into their hands for the restraining of seducers ; so as if they will not be brought to believe the truth , yet they may not dare to divulge and publish errours . this is the magistrates work . whence it is that in scripture-language they are called , heires of restraint ; so you find it , iudg. . . there was no magistrate in the land : ] no possessour , or heir of restraint ( saith the original , as the margin in our new translation will inform you ) so called because this was , and is their office , to bridle and restrain men from all kind of wickednesse , doctrinal and moral , in matters as well of religious , as civill concernment . it is noted as the reason how it came to passe that micah played the idolater in that manner , iudg. . , . ( the chapter foregoing ) that he had an house of gods , ( of idols ) and made an ephod ( a priestly vestment , such as the high priest wore ) and teraphim , ( images ) and consecrated one of his sons , who became his priest , ( being neither of aarons linage , now tribe ) , so moulding the religion of god according to his own fancy ; in those dayes ( saith the verse following ) there was no king in israel , ( no judge , no supream magistrate ) but every man did that which was right in his own eyes ; ( as in matters of civil , so of religious concernment . ) intimating that so they should not , nor durst not have done , had there been a magistrate set over them ; into whose hands god committing the care and custody of both tables , he ought to have an eye to gods religion , as well as to any other civil interest whatsoever ; so as not to suffer it to be injuried or prejudiced , as not by false worshippers , so not by false teachers . concerning whom the law under the law was expresse , deut. . . if there arise among you ( saith the first verse ) a prophet or dreamer of dreames , &c. saying , let us go serve other gods , ( so endeavouring to seduce the people from the true worship and service of god ) that prophet , or dreamer of dreams shall be put to death , ( saith the fifth verse ) being a convicted seducer in so high a kind , he was not to be suffered to live . and was this crime then adjudged to be so capital ? surely it cannot be so venial as some at this day would make it ; who would have a licentious liberty given , not onely to all men in a private way , keeping their conscience to themselves , but to all kind of teachers , to come upon the publick stage , and there by tongue or pen , preaching or writing , to vent what doctrines they please . to this let magistrates see . being accountable for it , as to god , so to his people , who cannot have the evil put away from the midst of them ( as the close of that verse there hath it ) , unlesse some course , and some severe course also , be taken for the restraining and repressing of such dangerous deceivers . but i shall prosecute this no further : but rather come to that which is behind in the text , the second branch of it ; wherein we shall meet with a proper and soveraign remedy for the aforesaid malady . for it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace . in which words , for the better handling of them , we may take notice of two things . the thing here commended , and the means of attaining it . the thing commended , is heart-establishment : [ it is a good thing that the heart be established ] . the means of attaining this establishment , grace , [ it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace ] . upon these two i shall insist severally , and that with all convenient brevity . begin with the former . it is a good thing that the heart be established ] . where , by way of explication , let two things be enquired into . what is here meant by the heart , what by the establishing of the heart . for the former , i will not trouble you with the severall acceptations of the word ( heart ) in scripture , which are many . literally and properly what it signifieth , i shall not need to tell you ; that fleshy partt in the body of man , or other creature , which is the seat of the soul , the fountain of life ; primum vivens , & ultimum moriens , the first that liveth , and the last that dyeth . but this is not the heart that our apostle here speaketh of . as for this heart , the proper meanes of strengthening and establishing it , is by meats and drinks . thus abraham speaking to the three angels , and taking them to be men , he bids them sit down and rest themselves , and i ( saith he ) will fetch a morsel of bread , and comfort ye : your hearts , gen. . . fulcite corda , stay , or stablish your hearts ( saith the original ) , meaning their vitall spirits , whereof the heart is the receptacle . but to let that go . the heart here spoken of , is ( as the apostle telleth us ) such a thing as whose establishment is not by meats , but by grace . understand hereby then the soul of man. the reasonable soul , with the faculties of it . so the word ( heart ) in scripture is most frequently used ; it being ( as i said ) the proper seat of the soul. and so look we upon it here . it is good that the heart ] ; the soul. q. but the soul of man , in regard of the faculties of it , is divided into two parts . the intellective , and affective . the former properly called the mind , comprehending the understanding , iudgment , conscience . the latter the will , with the affections , ( which are nothing but the several turnings of the will , to or from an object ) . now of whether of these shall we understand the apostle here to speak ? a. to this i shall answer , that however ( with aretius ) i look upon the former of these as primarily and principally here intended , the mind of man , his understanding , iudgment , conscience , which are the faculties with which doctrines , as to the verity or falsity of them , properly have to deal ; yet so , ( in as much as they have also an influence upon the affective part , the will and the affections ) as that i shall not wholly exclude any of them : but rather take the word ( heart ) here in the comprehensive sense of it , ( as commonly it is to be taken , where it goeth alone ) as pointing at the whole inward man ; both the intellective , and affective part of the soul , understanding , iudgment , conscience , will , affections . q. now so taking it , what is it for the heart to be established ? a. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : to be firmly and surely settled , as an house that is built upon a sure foundation , or a pillar that standeth upon a firm and solid pedestal . , so as it can neither be removed , nor moved . and thus is the heart of man said to be established , when it is fixed , ( as david saith his was , my heart is fixed , o god , my heart is fixed , psal. . . ) settled upon a sure basis , a sure foundation ; or well ballasted , so as it is free from such fluctuations , such vertiginous distempers as the former part of the text speaketh of . when it is neither actually carried about , nor yet subject so to be . when christians are not soon shaken in mind , nor troubled , whether by spirit , word , or letter ( as the apostle speaketh , thess. . . ) but are stablished , strengthened , settled ( as st. peter hath it , pet. . . ) : this it is to have the heart established . which the heart of man naturally is not . so much is not obscurely insinuated by the apostle here in the text , where he saith , it is a good thing that the heart should be established , and that with grace : intimating that of it self it is not so : this is a flower that groweth not in natures garden : a truth . the heart of man by nature is nothing lesse then stable . even as it is with a ship , when it first cometh out of the dock , or off from the stocks ( as here you phrase it ) , before any ballast be put into it , being light and empty , it is also waltery , and unsteady , apt to turn this way and that way . and truly such is man , as he cometh out of the womb ( natures dock , ) a light and empty thing . so david who had well weighed him , found him to be . surely men of low degree are vanity , and men of high degree are a lye ; to be layed in the balance , they are altogether lighter then vanity ] : that is his verdict , psal. . . altogether , ( iacad ) suppose it that all the men upon earth were put together in one balance , and vanity it self , ( any light thing as a bubble , or a feather ) put in the other , to be weighed against them , they would ascend , mount up ( as the original hath it ) , as the lighter scale useth to do , they will be found the lighter of the two . such was davids apprehension of all the sonnes of men ; be they what they will , whether beni adam , or beni ish , filii hominis , or filii viri , whether men of low degree , or men of high degree , all was one to him . he sets his tekel upon them all ; even the very same that the hand-writing upon the wall did upon belshazzer the persian monarch , the greatest man of his time , dan. . . thou art weighed in the balances , and found wanting ; wanting weight , many graines too light . and such are all the sons of men naturally : and that , as in regard of their outward state and condition , being not to be confided , trusted in , so also in respect of their inward disposition , the frame and temper of their hearts and spirits : before the grace of god meet with them , they are all light as vanity . being by nature empty things . this it is that maketh the bubble so light , because it is empty . and such is the heart of man naturally . the evil spirit returning into the heart of a man from whence he seemed to have been ejected , findeth it empty , matth. . . empty of grace : which being the best and onely ballast for the soul ( as i shall shew you anon ) , without it it must needs be light , and consequently unsettled , subject to fluctuations , and turnings ; specially in matters of religious concernment . thus it is . but , it is not good that it should be so . that is a second thing we have here hinted unto us . it is good that the heart should be established . ] so then the contrary is not good . that the heart should be unsettled , specially in the matters of god , this is an evill , a great evil. so it is ( first ) when a man is actually turned . when he is under this sad distemper , carried about ( as the apostle saith ) with divers and strange doctrines . this is an evil , and that both a sinful , and a penal one . . sinful . so it was in our first parents , when they hearkened to the voice of the serpent , bringing to them a doctrine diverse from , and contrary to that which god himself had preached to them . and so is it in their posterity ; when they shall in like manner hearken to the instruments of satan , subtle seducers , suffering themselves to be turned aside from the way of truth to the imbracing of errours . this is a sinful evil. and so it may be called , and looked upon , upon a double account ; as it is a forsaking of truth , and as it is a cleaving to errour . thus the lord complaineth of his people , ier. . . my people have committed two evils ( two grand and notorious evils ) , they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters , and hewed them out cisternes , broken cisternes , that can hold no water . they forsook the true god , and turned to false gods , idols . this he chargeth upon them as a double evil. and so is it , when any one shall forsake and relinquish the truth once received , and acknowledged , and shall follow after errours , this is a double evil. even as it was in the israelites , when being weary of their manna , they lusted for flesh , ( of which you have the story , numb . . , . ) this was in them a double evill . their loathing one , their lusting another ; their loathing of that heavenly manna , and their lusting after egyptian flesh-pots . even so is it with christians ; when they shall come to loathe divine and heavenly truths , which their soules have formerly fed upon , and found relish in , satisfaction and contentment , and shall lust after divers and strange doctrines , this is a double evill . so st. peter looked upon it in those seducers , of whom he complaineth , pet. . . that they had forsaken the right way , and were gone astray , following the way of balaam . and so may we look upon it in the seducers of these times , as also in many of those that are seduced by them . their turning from the truth received , and imbracing of errour , is in them a double evil. a sinfull evil . . and as sinful so penal . as a sin , so a punishment of sin , and that a dreadful one . so the apostle looked upon it , who writing to his thessalonians concerning the apostasie of the latter times , he saith , that for this cause ( viz. because men received not the love of the truth ) god shall send them strong delusions that they should believe a lye , thess. . . thus doth god justly punish those disrespects which men shew unto his truth , when it is held forth unto them , their not receiving and imbracing it with intire and cordial affection , and living up to it , by giving them over to satanical delusions , to be captived and blinded by them , that they should believe a lye , be carried about with dīvers and strange , forged and false doctrines . thus is this actual turning an evil thing . and such ( in the second place ) is habitual instability . when men have unsettled heads and hearts , and so are subject to be turned , and to be carried about in this manner . this also is an evil , a great evil. so it will appear , if we do but consider these two things : first , how it indisposeth a man to service ; and , secondly , how it exposeth him to danger . both which may fitly be illustrated from a ship ( a similitude which i have the more frequent recourse unto , in regard that , as it suiteth very well with the subject in hand , so it is familiar , and well known to you . ) a ship , being tender-sided , and waltery , is neither serviceable , nor safe . not serviceable to the owner , not safe to the passenger . and truly such is the condition of an unstable soul. . it is unserviceable . unserviceable to god the owner of it : being hereby indisposed unto his service ; whether to do , or to suffer for him . both which require a stable head , and a stable heart . where these are wanting , it cannot be expected , or hoped , that a man should walk uprightly with god in a constant course of obedience . we see how it is with a man in drink ( so we speak sometimes , and yet not improperly , when the body being surcharged with any inebriating liquor , the soul ( which is the man , the most noble part of him ) is drowned in it ) , his head turning round , what indentures doth he make with his feet : he cannot now walk right on , but reeleth to and fro , this way and that way ( as the psalmist speaketh , psal. . . ) : and truly so is it with an unsettled christian , having an unstable head and heart , he hath also an unstable foot , so as he cannot walk steadily with god. he cannot do ( what our apostle requires all christians to do , heb. . . ) make streight pathes ( or steps ) unto his feet . this is that which st. iames telleth us in that text forecited , iam. . . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a double-minded man is unstable in all his wayes . a man unsettled in his principles , opinions , resolutions , purposes , having ( as it were ) his soul divided in him , ( which the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly signifieth , bianimis ; when the mind is divided betwixt two objects , that it knoweth not which to choose , but is like a man standing in bivio , that hath two wayes before him , and knoweth not which to take ) he is unstable in all his wayes , all his practices , courses , undertakings , whether of civill , or religious concernment . and being so , it cannot be expected than either god or man should ever have any great service from such a one . it was iacobs prophetical prediction concerning his first-born son , reuben , gen. . . unstable as water , thou shalt not excel , &c. viz. in valour , or any excellent atchievements . and the like may be said of unstable christians . being unstable as water , ( which too many are ) subject to be moved and carried about with every wind of doctrine , as the water is with every gale that bloweth upon it ; let it never be expected that they should excell , in doing any speciall service whether for god , or for his church . thus doth this habituall instability indispose a man for service . . it exposeth him to danger . even as it is with a ship ( still i have recourse to the same similitude ) , being tender-sided and waltery , as it will not bear much sail , so it is subject to be overset by every gust . even so is it with an unsettled christian. as he is not capable of doing much service , so he is in danger of being over-set by every tentation ; to be carried about by fear , or hope of gain and outward advantage , or by the sleight and cunning craftinesse of subtile seducers ; which is a thing of very dangerous consequence , making the condition of a man most hazardous and unsafe , continually exposing him to the danger of no lesse then the sinking of his soul in eternal perdition . but i promised brevity . thus is it ( as you see ) an evil thing to have the heart , the soul of man , unsettled , especially as to matters of religious concernment . but on the other hand , to have the heart established is a good thing . that we have here expressed . [ it is a good thing that the heart be established ] . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a good thing , a singular good , eminently good . so it is , being both honestum , utile , and iucundum , ( which are the three kinds of good ) an honest good , a profitable good , a pleasurable good . . an honest good . this is the good of the heart , when it is like the good ground spoken of , luk. . which our saviour , verse . expounds to be the honest and good heart ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 now this it is which maketh it so to be , when it is established , and that with grace . this is as good manure to a light soil , which being layed on it and mingled with it , maketh it good ground . and so doth this a good heart , an honest heart . . it is a profitable good . so is good ground to the owner . and so is a good heart , that is thus established . now it bringeth forth fruits unto god ; fruits of new obedience ; fruits of holinesse and righteousnesse ; and that both plentifully and constantly . which a heart not so established will not do . possibly by fits and starts an unsettled , unstable christian may do some good services , in themselves acceptable unto god , and profitable to others . but he is not constant herein . this is the fruit of this heart-establishment , to make the christian like davids tree , planted by the rivers of water , that bringeth forth his fruit in his season , and whose leaf also doth not wither , psal. . . constant both in profession and practice of gods true religion . . it is a pleasurable , a delightfull good . so it is to the christian himself . the heart being in a good and constant temper , it maketh both an equable pulse , and a chearful countenance . and so is it with the christian , when his heart , his soul is settled and established in the matters of god , this maketh him as constant in his way , so chearfull . david having his heart fixed , then he will sing and give praise , psal. . . an unsettled heart must needs be an uncomfortable heart . even as it is with a traveller , falling with divers wayes , and being anxious and uncertain which to take , now he goeth on heavily , though possibly he may be in the right ; whereas being confident of his way , he goeth on chearfully . so is it with a christian in his journey to heaven , falling with divers wayes , divers doctrines , and being in himself unsettled , and unresolved which to cleave unto , this amity is to him no small perplexity . whereas going on resolvedly , now he walketh comfortably . thus is heart-establishment a good thing . and is it so ? what then remaines ( to make a short application of this threefold observation ) but that , . we be all of us convinced of the want of this establishment ; which who so is not , surely he is not acquainted with his own heart as he ought to be . true it is , amongst christians some are more stable then others , having through grace attained some good measure of this heart-establishment . this is that which david saith of the good and godly man , psal. . , . his heart is fixed , trusting in the lord. his heart is established , &c. ] so it may be in measure , in good measure ; yet so as still there will be some fluctuations , some doubtings , some waverings , specially in times of temptation , being the remainders of natural instability . and this let every of us be convinced of . . and being convinced of the thing , be withall convinced of the evil of it , that so we may be humbled for it , and under it . and that , as for any actual deviation , turning aside from any way or truth of god , and being carried away with any divers and strange doctrine , which many , many , ( i hope well-meaning soules , many of them ) in this nation ( that i say not in this place ) at this day have just and great cause for ; so for that degree of habitual unsettlednesse which is yet left remaining in us ; that we should be so obnoxious , so subject to be thus carried about , as the best of us are if left unto our selves . . then ( in the third place ) be we exhorted to seek after this blessed frame and temper of spirit , never resting untill we have in measure attained it . not resting our selves contented either with that fides implicita , or conjecturalis fiducia , that implicit faith , or conjectural belief , which the doctors of the church of rome would have their disciples to rest contented in . as for any certain knowledge , or assurance , ( looking upon them as things in an ordinary way not attainable , specially for private christians ) , they would not have them sought after by them . and thus do they keep poor soules in a fluctuating , doubting condition ; by which meanes their consciences can never be quiet ; not having any sure basis to rest upon ; but they are continually subject to be carried about . a sad and dangerous condition , what ever they may think or speak of it . an evil , a great evill . so much pareus writing upon the text rightly concludes from it against the iesuites , and their conjectural faith . if it be a good thing to have the heart established with grace , then it must be an evill thing , not to have it thus established . and so looking upon it , rest we not contented under it , but strive after such a plerophorie , such a full perswasion and assurance as the apostle sometimes speaketh of . thus did the thessalonians receive the apostles doctrine , ( as he saith ) it came unto them in much assurance , thess. . . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . and the like doth he wish and earnestly desire , as for his colossians , so for other of the saints , col. . . that their hearts might be comforted , being knit together in love , and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding , to the acknowledgment of the mystery of god , &c. that is , of the doctrine of the gospel . and the like doth st. peter beg for the saints to whom he writeth , pet. . . the god of all grace , &c. make you perfect , stablish , strengthen you . and this let all of us seek for our selves ; that our hearts may be established in the truth of god. this is the commendation which that apostle st. peter giveth to the saints , to whom he writeth , that they were established in the present truth , pet. . . i. e. the truth of the gospel which was then preached unto them . and o! that the like could be said of every of us , and of all the lords people in this nation ! that we and they were thus established ! a blessing never more to be desired then at this day . wherein , the times , the general state of all things , both in church and state , being so unsettled , christians have need of stable hearts . when the winds are loud , and the sea is up , then have ships need to be well ballasted . and truly so is it with christians , as at all times , so specially in unsettled and troublesome times , when the wind of divers and strange doctrines is up , ( as is at this day among us ) blowing upon the church , as that wind of the devils raising did upon the house where iobs children were , which is said to have smote the four corners of it , job . . ( a strange wind to blow so many several wayes at once , and such is the wind of false doctrines , which the devil hath raised against the church in this nation at this day ) now they have need to have their hearts established . . and this let all of us now seek for . seeking it from god , who is the god of all grace . from him it is that peter beggeth this blessing in that text even now cited , pet. . . now the god of all grace stablish you . this is his work . he which establisheth us with you in christ , is god , ( saith the apostle to his corinthians ) cor. . . this he can do . to him that is of power to establish you , ( saith the same apostle , describing of god , rom. . . and that he would do it , that he would put forth that power upon every of us , beg it from him by prayer . that is davids request for himself , psal. . . stablish me with thy free spirit , ( so the former translation readeth it ) and this let all of us beg , as a mercy seasonable at all times , never more then at this day , lord establish our hearts , stablish us in thy truth , confirm us , uphold us , keep us from being thus carried about . . which that he may do ; be directed with care and conscience to attend upon the meanes of establishment ; confirming , strengthening , establishing ordinances , whereby god is wont to convey this grace into the hearts of his people . such is the word in the publick ministery of it , and such is the sacrament of the lords supper . and therefore that your hearts may be established , whilest you attend upon the one of these , do not neglect the other . that which david and ezekiel say of ordinary bread in reference to the body , psal. . . ezek. . . we may in reference to the soul apply it to sacramental bread , it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( as the seventy there render it ) , the stay and staffe of bread ; being of soveraign use for the comforting and strengthening of the heart , the establishing of the soul , by sealing up unto it the covenant of grace , and all the blessed promises belonging thereunto , and engaging it to a close and conscientious walking with god. to these i might adde , forget not the communion of saints . trees stand surer in the wood or grove , where they have company , then in the field where they stand alone . but i shall not give way to enlargements . i have done with the first of these particulars , the thing here commended , which is heart-establishment . briefly of the latter , the meanes of attaining this great good , and that is grace ] it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace ] . see here ( what i have told you before , once and again ) what is the best ballast for the soul , the best way and meanes of establishing the heart , grace . it is a good thing , optimum est , ( saith the vulgar latine ) it is the best thing ( turning the positive into the superlative , which frequently it doth , as estius notes upon it ) . and what ever there be in the translation , sure it is there is a truth in the thing . other things there are which may be useful in this way , for the setling and establishing of the heart , as , viz. reason , and experience . the former of these was the ballast which the heathen philosophers made use of , natural reason . thereby they quieted , and composed their spirits , so as they were not transported with inordinate passions , but were kept in a sedate , calm , eeven temper in the middest of whatever changes passed over them . and of like use is the latter to the sea-man , and to the souldier . having been in many stormes , many battels , having had experience of many dangers , wherein yet they have come off safe , escaping with their lives , their spirits are hereby steeled , hardened , composed , settled , so as whilest others being in their conditions would quake and tremble like leaves , they are no more moved then the tree that beareth them . thus other things may be usefull in this way . but none like this : none to grace . this is the best ballast for the soul , the best way and meanes of establishing the heart , grace . q. but what shall we understand hereby ? what grace is it that hath this property ? a. the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , grace , is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , of very various signification in scripture . i shall not trouble you with that variety . here in the text i find a double sense put upon it : some understanding it of the doctrine of grace ; others of the habit of grace . but this differencr may be both easily and fairly taken up , by putting them both together , which accordingly i shall do : both these we shall find of soveraign use in this way . . the doctrine of grace . the gospel , holding forth the free grace of god in iesus christ , for the iustifying and saving of poor sinners , through the application of his merit , and the imputation of his obedience unto them . this in phrase of scripture is called sometimes by the name of grace . this is that which the apostle meaneth , cor. . . where he beseecheth his corinthians , that they would not receive the grace of god in vain ; meaning the doctrine of the gospel , holding forth to them the free grace of god in christ. so again , titus . . he calleth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the grace of god that bringeth salvation hath appeared ; meaning the grace of god held forth in the doctrine of the gospel , which ( saith he ) hath now appeared , and that unto all men ; being held forth more clearly then under the law , and tendred not to iewes onely ( as then in an ordinary way it was ) , but to gentiles also . and in a like sense our apostle is conceived to make use of the word sometimes in this epistle to the hebrewes ; as , viz. twice in the chapter before the text. once , ver . . looking diligently lest any man fail of ( or fall from , as the margin hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) the grace of god. and again , ver . . let us have grace ; or , let us hold fast grace ( as the margin again readeth it , and that , ( as is conceived ) more properly ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being put for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as grotius there noteth upon it , and as sometimes elsewhere it is ) . in both places by grace ( as it is by many expounded ) understanding the doctrine of grace , the doctrine of the gospel , which holdeth forth salvation through the free grace of god in christ. and so , besides aretius and some other protestant expositors , i find estius the jesuite very candidly interpreting it here in the text with a magis placet . though he do not wholly reject the habit of grace , yet he rather hereby understandeth the doctrine of grace . doctrina christiana fide suscepta : true christian doctrine ( the doctrine of the gospel ) apprehended and imbraced by faith , which is gratia christianismi , the grace of christianity ( as he there calleth it ) . the doctrine of gods free grace in christ ; that saving grace which iesus christ as mediatour hath purchased , procured , and made known to poor sinners . of him it is that our apostle speaketh in the verse before the text , verse . iesus christ the same yesterday , and to day , and for ever . and to him , ( questionlesse ) he hath also an eye here in the text ; where forbidding his hebrewes to be carried about with divers and strange doctrines , ( any doctrines which held forth justification in any other then a gospel way ) , he giveth this as a reason for that his prohibition , for it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace , with the grace of god in christ , the doctrine of free grace held forth in the gospel . and of all wayes and meanes for the establishing of the heart , there is none like unto this , the doctrine of gods free grace in christ. that it is so , may soon be demonstrated . there being but two things that can be supposed to have any efficacy this way , for the establishing of the heart as to god-ward , viz. law or gospell . now , as for the former of these , the law , that will say to the soul that cometh unto it , this is not in me . not in the ceremonial law. for that the apostle is expresse in the text ; it is good ( saith he ) that the heart be established with grace , not with meats ; that is , not with any ceremonial observances , among which , choice of meats was one , and so by a synecdoche is put for all the rest . as for this ceremony , the choice of meats , using one as clean , abstaining from another as unclean , and that for conscience sake , the apostle here affirmes it to be an unprofitable thing , not to have profited those that had been occupied ( or walked ) therein . such as were most superstitiously addicted thereunto , as the iewish doctors were , who placed a chief part of their religion in those legall ceremonies , yet they merited nothing at gods hands thereby ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : in this way they did not profit them under the law. much lesse can they , or any of the like nature , now profit christians under the gospel . feathers and thistledown may as soon ballast a ship , as ceremonial observances establish the heart . this cannot the ceremoniall law do . no nor yet the morall . for that the apostle is no lesse expresse , rom. . . where speaking of the christians liberty which he hath by grace , his being made free from the law of sinne and death , he sheweth this to be a thing which the law cannot do for him ; giving this as a reason of it ; in that it was weak through the flesh . time was indeed when the law was able to iustifie and save , viz. when it was given to adam in his state of integrity , because then he was able to have fulfilled it . but so it is not now . man being fallen from that state is grown impotent , unable to fulfill the law : nay , through the corruption of his nature , averse to it . so as by this meanes the law is , as it were , enervated , it hath no such power as sometime it had , no possibility of justifying and saving of a man. and consequently it cannot be of use in this way , as a foundation for a christian to ground and build his confidence upon , and so to establish his heart . no , this is but a tottering foundation . so much that great cardinal , bellarmine , however he was no great friend to free grace , yet was inforced to acknowledge , propter incertitudinem propriae justitiae , etc. a mans own righteousnesse ( saith he ) is an uncertain thing ; a man may easily be deceived in it : and therefore it cannot be safe to put any confidence in it . so far he . which we accept , ( especially coming from an adversary ) owning it for a truth ; though not the whole truth . advance we a step further . a mans own righteousnesse is uncertain : nay , it is certain , being certainly defective and imperfect . such are the best duties and services of the most sanctified persons upon earth , being clogged with many weaknesses and imperfections : which though they do not render and denominate them peceata , sins , yet peccaminosa , sinful . this is the churches confession , isai. . . all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags . not onely their ceremoniall services , but even their morall performances ; they were all mixed with hypocrisie , vain-glory , or some such like tincture of corruption , as rendred them loathsome in the sight and presence of god. and truly , the like may we say of the best actions and services of the best of men , and in the best manner performed , yet still they are contaminated and defiled with some imperfections , which might deservedly make them as filthy rags , odious and abominable in the sight of god , should he look narrowly into them with an eye of justice , and judge of them according to the exact tenour and rigour of his law , such an influence hath corruption upon the best of men , and the best of duties . this is that which regenerate paul complaines of in himself , that when he would do good , evill was present with him , rom. . . evil , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , sinful corruption , either hindering him from doing it at all , or else in the manner of performance , from doing it in such a manner as he both ought , and desired to have done . and if so , here can be no establishment for the heart in this way . in thy sight ( saith the psalmist , speaking unto god , psal. . . ) shall no man living be iustified ; that is , by the deeds of the law. so the apostle expounds it , rom. . . therefore by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight ] : for which he giveth a reason in the words following [ for by the law is the knowledge of sin ] . this is the proper work of the law , to discover sin and wrath , sealing up condemnation unto the sinner ; but iustifie , it cannot . and if not justifie the sinner , then not satisfie the soul , not quiet the conscience . disquiet and unsettle , nay , torment and excruciate it with the terrours of it , it may : but in this way to settle and establish the heart , it can never do . no , this is a gospell-work , the fruit of grace , issuing from the doctrine of gods free grace in christ , rightly apprehended , and firmly believed . this it is , and onely this , that establisheth the heart . and this can do it . and how so ? because this is like unto the authour of it , the god of all grace ; he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , all-sufficient : and such is his grace . this is that which the lord from heaven tells paul , when he was conflicting with that thorn in the flesh , some violent temptation or other , ( as is most probably conjectured ) , my grace ( saith he ) is sufficient for thee , cor. . . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , sufficit , or sufficiat , it is sufficient in it self for thee , and so let it be unto thee , for the quieting , settling , establishing of thy heart and spirit . and so may it well be to every true believer . it is that which the preacher saith of money , eccl. . . money answereth all things . what ever it is that a man desireth , if it be to be got , money will procure it for him . and we may truly say the like of grace ; grace answereth all things . what winds are there that can arise in the heart of a christian , which this one word ( grace ) is not able to lay ? what doubts which it cannot resolve ? are his sinnes many and great ? this is sufficient to pardon them : are his infirmities many ? this is sufficient to heal them : are his wants many ? this is sufficient to supply them . thus is grace , this grace of god in christ , sufficient , all-sufficient . and being so , well may this be attributed to it , as the proper effect of it , to satisfie , settle , and establish the heart of man. what then remaines ( to make application of this branch ) but that all of us who desire to be made partakers of this choice blessing , declining all other wayes , put our soules upon this way of obtaining it . . decline all other wayes . not hearkening to any other doctrines , which hold forth to us iustification and salvation by any other way and means . this is that which the apostle here driveth at in the text ; to take off his hebrewes from being carried about with any of those divers and strange doctrines , which were held forth to them by the false apostles and seducers of those times , whose design was to remove them from their gospel-foundation ; directing them to the law , and that to the ceremonial part of it ; promising to them great matters from those external observances . but the apostle would have them to turn away their eyes from them , as being things which were not able to profit them in that way . and truly , so is it with all things besides iesus christ , and the free grace of god in him . they can do nothing to the true establishing of the soul. disquiet it they may ( as i said ) and trouble it . nay , so they will in the end , if ever god come to open the eyes of those that trust in them , and rest upon them . they will fail them as brooks in the summer . nay , be unto them as the staffe of a broken reed , ( as he said of egypt , isa. . . ) not onely failing the trust reposed in them , but running into their hands , their hearts , piercing , and wounding , and goaring them . and therefore cease from them . not hearkening to any of those romish doctrines , which tell us of merit ; and that not onely of congruity , but of condignity ; and hold forth many external , ceremonial observances , as fastings , whippings , washings , crossings , pilgrimages and the like : all which they make use of as women do of rattles to still their children with . so do they think hereby to still and quiet the consciences of their disciples . but alas , all these , and the like , they are but shells , busks , empty things ; no fit ballast for the soul. let we them go : and not onely them , but even all our morall performances ; what ever services , or duties we have done , or can do ; duties of piety , or duties of charity ; duties of holinesse or righteousnesse , make losse of all ( as paul saith he did , phil. . , . ) casting them over-board , renouncing them as to any opinion of merit : not placing any trust , any confidence in them . however we may take up confidence from them ( of which i shall speak anon ) , yet place no confidence in them . far be it from any of us to think of establishing our hearts in this way . and if not in this way , then much lesse by any temporal possessions or enjoyments ; all which not being able to fill any corner of the heart , can never satisfie , never establish it . the truth whereof we see sufficiently evidenced by daily experience . who are so far off from this heart-establishment , from having their spirits quieted and composed , as they that have the greatest share of these outward things ? how are their hearts hereby filled with disquieting cares , and tormenting fears ? so as their bodily rest and sleep is often broken thereby , which the poor man quietly enjoyes . and therefore renouncing all these ( i mean in respect of any soul-confidence in them ) looking upon them as empty pits and broken cisternes , which will not afford one drop of true solid comfort to the heart . . in the second place , go we to the fountain of living water , the free grace of god in iesus christ , making that our foundation . such it is , a foundation , and the onely foundation . other foundation can no man lay , then that which is laid , iesus christ ( saith the apostle , cor. . . ) this is the gospel-foundation , that foundation of the apostles and prophets , spoken of , ephes. . . and it is the onely sure foundation . that our soules may be established , set them upon this foundation . first , laying the foundation ; then setting our soules upon it . these are two principal requisites in the building of a house , that it may stand sure ; first , that the foundation be well laid : and then , that the building be fixed to it , and settled upon it . and this course take we for the establishing our hearts . . lay this foundation . as it is already laid in the word , by those master-builders the apostles and prophets , [ other foundation can no man lay , then that which is laid ] , so let it be laid in our hearts . and that both rightly and deeply . these are the two principall requisites in laying of a foundation : that it be right set , and deep laid . and so let this foundation of the free grace of god in christ be laid in our hearts . . let it be right set . get a right understanding of this doctrine ; that you may know what this grace of god in christ is ; and that this is the onely way and meanes whereby poor sinners may come to be justified and saved . . and being thus right set , let it also be deep laid ; in a deep apprehension of the truth and excellency of this glorious doctrine . not suffering it to swimme aloft in the brain , contenting your selves with a superficial notion , an overly knowledge of this truth . no , that which ballasteth the ship must not lye aloft upon the deck , but it must be put into the hold , into the inward , yea lowest part of it . and so deal you by this doctrine . that your hearts may be stablished with it , think it not enough that you have it in your heads , some generall apprehensions of it ; but let it sink down into the bottome of your hearts . labour for a serious and deep apprehension hereof ; that being convinced of your own lost state and condition by nature , and utter inability to do any thing for your selves , you may come to admire and adore this rich grace of god in iesus christ , so as it may make a deep impression upon your hearts and spirits . and the foundation being thus laid , now set your soules upon it , fixing them to it . be the foundation never so well laid , yet if the house be not settled upon it , and fastened to it , it will never stand sure . and so is it with the soul. gods grace is a sure foundation , where it is rightly laid . but withall , that the soul may be established by it , it must be fixed upon it . and this see you to . as many as would have your hearts truly established , fix them , settle them upon this foundation . which is done by a serious purpose and firm resolution of cleaving hereunto , resting and relying hereupon for iustification and salvation . and this ( i say ) do you , as many as would be made partakers of this great benefit , to have your hearts established . renouncing all other things in the world , as being no other but mock-stayes , false foundations , pitch your selves wholly and alonely upon this , the free grace of god in iesus christ , believing , resting thereon . so being strong in the grace that is in iesus christ : ( as paul exhorteth his timothy , tim. . . ) no way of establishment but this . if ye will not believe , surely ye shall not be established ; so the lord telleth his people concerning their temporal salvation , isai. . . if they would not believe his gracious promise , whereby he had engaged himself to them , and rest upon it , but would be looking out after other helps and succours , other meanes of security , they should not be established , they should never be firmly settled , whether in their estates , or in their minds . and what he there saith of temporall , let it be applyed to eternal salvation . if you will not believe , believe the great gospel-promise , that gracious promise made unto all poor penitent sinners upon their believing on christ , and so rest upon the free grace of god in him , but will be looking after other wayes and meanes of justification and salvation , you shall never be established , your hearts shall never be setled . but i shall reserve a word or two for the latter sense here put upon this word , grace : which we shall find not inconsistent with the former . grace , as it is put for the doctrine , so also for the habit of grace . so we find it frequently in scripture . and so both calvin and beza here look upon it in the text ; by grace here understanding the spiritual worship and service of god , with the inward work of regeneration , for which they both give this reason , in as much as it is here opposed to meates . and truly , to this grace may we in a warie sense fitly apply this property of establishing the heart . this is a thing which is not done by meates , by any bodily external exercises , such as were prescribed under the law ; not by a ceremonial , but by a true gospel-worship , which is ( as our saviour describeth it , ioh. . . ) in spirit and in truth : and by the work of regeneration , true sanctification , the inward work of the spirit in , and upon the heart . that which ballasteth the ship must not be any thing on the outside of it , but it must be within , in the hold . and thus , that which establisheth the heart must not be any externall observance performed by the outward man , but that grace that is within the inward man , the soul ; the grace of regeneration , with the fruits of it , as faith , hope , and love , with humility , meeknesse of spirit , and other the like gracious habits , which are freely bestowed , gratiae gratis datae , as fruits of grace , and wrought in the heart by the preaching of the doctrine of grace ; and thence called by that name , grace . in which sense estius also yieldeth that the word may be here taken . q. but ( taking it thus ) how doth this grace establish the heart ? a. this it doth divers wayes . all which may be reduced to two generals . per modum evidentiae , & efficientiae . by way of evidence , and by way of efficiency . . by way of evidence . this is that which the apostle saith of faith , ( chap. . of this epistle , verse . ) it is the evidence of things not seen . and the like may we say of other graces of the spirit in the soul ; they are evidences of that which to the eye of sense is invisible ; viz. of that grace of god in christ ; assuring unto a christian his interest in that grace . thus is grace within an evidence of grace without ; sanctification an evidence , a sure evidence of iustification . which being evidenced and ascertained unto the soul , now it cometh to have peace towards god ( as the apostle hath it , rom. . . ) , and so to be established . but this is not all . . in the second place , grace doth this also by way of efficiency . and that it doth two wayes . indirectly , directly . . indirectly , and by consequence ; by freeing the heart from those things which would disquiet and unsettle it . such is fear , servile , slavish fear . of which st. iohn tells us that it hath torment , joh. . . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . such is fear of gods wrath , and judgment , it is as a hell in the soul , a rack , a continual torment to it , disquieting , unsettling it . but now grace ejecteth this troublesome inmate . so the former part of that verse there hath it . there is no fear in love , but perfect love casteth out fear ] : perfect love , sincere , cordial affection towards god , and towards man , it casteth out fear ; freeth the heart from that slavish , tormenting fear . which it doth by assuring the soul of the love of god to it . so the same pen there sets it forth , ver . . and we have known , and believed the love which god hath to us . god is love , and he that dwelleth in love , dwelleth in god , and god in him . mans love to god , being a fruit , it is also an evidence of gods love to him . we love him , because he loved us first . ( so it there followeth , verse . ) and by this means true grace freeth the heart from fear . and so it doth from other inordinate lusts , affections , passions , whereby it is subject to be distempered , to be carried about . as from self-love , pride , ambition , vain-glory , covetousnesse , envy , malice , &c. all which being like so many eddie winds in the corners of the heart , do disquiet and unsettle it . now grace layeth all these , subdueth them , and by that meanes procureth the settlement and establishment of the heart . even as a kingdome is settled , and established by the subduing of rebels , which before disturbed the peace of it . thus doth grace promote this work indirectly , and by consequence . . and this it doth ( in the second place ) directly and properly . and that by setting the soul upon a sure foundation . this is ( as in part you have already heard ) the proper work of the grace of faith ; which taking the soul off from all false and rotten foundations , sets it upon the true foundation , upon iesus christ , and the free grace of god in him : into which grace by this meanes a christian cometh to have accesse . so the apostle layeth it down , rom. . . by whom also we have accesse through faith into this grace , wherein we stand . here is a christians standing , viz. in the grace of god ; and into this grace he cometh to have accesse , to have the actual enjoyment , and comfort of it by christ , through faith . by christ , as the meritorious cause procuring it ; through faith , as the instrumental cause , applying that merit , and so apprehending that grace . and by this meanes doth this grace of faith come to establish the heart ; by thus setting and settling it upon this sure foundation , fixing it upon christ. even as it is with the stock , and the graft , though fle●●er and weak in it self , yet being put into the stock , ingraffed into it , and incorporated with it , now it standeth firm ; so is it with a christian , how weak , how infirm , how unstable soever in himself , yet being by faith ingraffed into christ , now he cometh to receive establishment from him ; viz. by his adhesion unto him , and union with him . or as the vine , though in it self infirm , not able to stand alone , yet by clasping about the elme , or such other supporter , now it standeth sure ; so doth the christian by clasping of iesus christ , imbracing him in the armes of his faith , by this meanes he cometh to be established . and thus may this blessed work not amisse be attributed and ascribed to this habit of grace in the soul , specially to faith , which hath ( as you see ) a peculiar efficiency this way . whence it is that faith is compared by our apostle to an anchor , heb. . . which hope ( or faith ) we have as an anchor of the soul both sure and steadfast . an anchor , you well know what the use of it is ; to stay the ship from being carried about . and of like use is faith unto the soul ; a meanes to stay , settle , establish it . which it doth not by any worth which it hath in it self above other graces , but onely as an instrument apprehending , and uniting the soul unto that whereby it is established . thus doth the anchor stay the ship , not by its own weight ; no , were it in the hold , or hanging upon the bowe , it would have no such property ; but being cast forth , and taking hold upon good ground , being firmly fixed upon a sound bottom , now it becometh useful in this way to this end . and so is it with faith . it is not faith it self , either as it is an habit , or as it is an act , by any worth of its own that can establish the heart of man , but onely as it is an instrument laying hold upon christ , and so upon gods free grace through him . in this way it is that it cometh to establish the heart . so the psalmist sets it forth in that text forecited , psal. . , . his heart is fixed , saith he speaking of the righteous man ) trusting in the lord ; his heart is established , viz. by his faith and confidence , resting upon gods free grace and mercy in christ , as for the performance of that great promise of life and salvation by and through him , so of all subordinate and inferiour promises . but i shall not give any further way to enlargements . you see that the habit of grace doth this , and in what way it doth . and what then remaines ( to draw to a conclusion ) but that all of us seek after this grace ? not resting our selves contented with the bare outward performance of any duties ; or yet in a constant attendance upon ordinances ( which some conceive here hinted by the apostle in this word , meates , understanding it of the meates of the sacrifices ) . alas , these being outside things , without the man , they will not ballast the soul , establish the heart . see we that our hearts be laid in with this ballast of grace . concerning which have an eye to two things ; first to the quality , then to the quantity of it . these are the two requisites in the ballasting of a ship : that which is used for that purpose , must be some solid material , some weighty substance ; and there must be a proportionable quantity of it . if either be wanting the work will not be done . and thus for the establishing of the heart . . see that your grace be true grace , solid and substantiall grace ; that your faith and love be unfeigned , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , without hypocrisie ( which is paul's epithet , cor. . . tim. . . & . , . ) ; that you believe with all your heart ( which is that which philip requireth in the eunuch before he would baptize him , being both a man of yeares , and an alien , act. . . ) , sincerely and firmly ; that you love god and iesus christ in sincerity , ( which who so doth not , but out of malice opposeth him , paul pronounceth an anathema maranatha upon him , let him be had in execration unto the death , cor. . . ) ; that your soules be purified through the spirit , to the unfeigned love of the brethren ( as st. peter saith of the believers to whom he writeth , pet. . . ) and the like i may say of other graces ; see that there be truth , sincerity in them ; that the root of the matter may be found in you ( as iob pleadeth that it was in him , iob . . ) true piety , true grace . . and being true for quality , then see to the quantity of it . it is not a small quantity , though it be of lead , that will ballast a ship , no more will every degree of grace stablish the heart . true it is , it must not be denyed ; the least measure of grace ( if true ) it is saving , but not establishing . this will require some proportionable quantity . and therefore rest not in the beginnings of grace , but still strive after a further measure ; grow in grace ( as the apostle exhorts , pet. . . ) : as in knowledge , the knowledge of god and jesus christ , so in faith and love , and all other graces ; adding one grace to another ( as the same apostle exhorts , pet. . . ) , and one degree to another ; that so the habit of grace may be more confirmed in your hearts , and shew it self by a vigorous acting in your lives , and so may be more and more conspicuous and visible to your selves and others . in this way , and by this meanes , ( this being an evidence of a christians standing in the grace of god ) the heart shall come to be quieted , setled , established . which blessing the god of all grace , out of his abundant grace and mercy in christ iesus , vouchsafe to every soul of us . amen . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e ministers , watchmen . occasion of taking up this text. parts caution . reason . part . admonition , or caution . wherein the malady , cause of it . . the malady . sic etiam chrysistomus . hom. . ad loc . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . a madnesse to embrace some opinions . manicheus insaniam sundens . vide august . de haeres . & contra faustum . divers and strange doctrines apt to distract those that hearken to them . the ordinary reading accepted . pareus ad text. beza gr. annot . in loc . sense of the word expounded . a metaphor fetched from divers heads . . from a wheel . verbum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 metaphoram habet a rotā , quae continuo motu circumacta , partes summas & imas semper commutat , et nunquam consistit : vel à stipulis quas ventus hinc inde in gyrum versat . paereus in text. a wheel a lively embleme of inconstancy . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . heinsius ad text. ex hesichi● . the worst kind of wheeles , temporizing apostates . ecebolus infamous for turning with the times . ecebolus sophista ad mores imperatorum mutabat religionem . ar t ▪ ad text. prostratus ante templum dicebat , calcate me sa em insipidum . aret. ibid. vide socratis histor. eccl. . chaffe ▪ empty-soules like chaffe . . waves of the sea. . clouds of the ayr. the ground or cause of this malady , a wind of doctrine . pulchra metaphora , dum omnes hominum doctrinas , quibus ab evangelii simplicitate distrahimur , appellat ventos . calvin . ad loc . false and heretical , called divers and strange doctrines . . divers . nec sibi nec veritati consentaneae , pareus in text. . alwaies differing from the truth . cum veritas consistit in medio , cujus est unitas , &c. doctrina ergo fidei una est , &c. aquin. com. ad loc . . and often from themselves . . strange . . to the scriptures . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . chrysost . ad loc . . to the church the apostles caveat to his hebrewes : not to be carried about with such doctrines . a useful admonition at that time upon a double account . . such doctrines were then abroad . the ceremonial law cryed up by false teachers . gospel-liberty turned into carnal licentiousnesse . christ denyed . simon magus the father of hereticks . vide augustin . de haeresib . heresies in the first age , in the apostles times ▪ hymeneus and philetus . augustin . de haeresib . the sect of the nicolaitans the gnosticks too like some in the present times . false teachers foretold of . . these false doctrines were then taking with some . many seduced in the first and purest times . a useful caveat at all times . significat praeterea apostolus , ecclesiae dei semper fore certamen cum peregrinis doctrinis . calvin . com. in loc . qu. . how cometh it to passe that there should be such doctrines held forth ? ans. . by gods providential and effectual permission . efficax permissio . melanct. so disposing hereof for divers ends . . the manifestation of his own power . . for the honour of truth . . for the manifesting of such as are approved . triticum non rapit ventus , nec arborem solida radice fundatam procella subvertit . inanes paleae tempestate jactantur ; invalidae arbores turbinis incursione evertuntur . cyprian . do unitate ecclesiae . sic probantur fideles , sic perfidi deteguntur : sic et ante judicii diem hîc quoque jam justorum et injustorum animae dividuntur , et à frumento paleae separantur . cyprian . ibid. . the just condemnation of others . of false teachers themselves . of those that hearken to them . a. . this is satans doing . a. . this is mans own work . natural corruption the mother of false doctrines , conceiving and breeding them . false doctrines brought forth by . hypocrisie . . ambition . vide grotium ▪ & bezam ad loc . . covetousnesse . false doctrines propagated and multiplyed through the negligence of ministers and magistrates . qu. . how christians come to be carried about with false doctrines ? a. the general resolution . . through gods righteous judgment . . satans subtlety . . mens own corruption . a more particular resolution ; fetched from . heads . . from the teachers of these doctrines . in whom consider , . their activity . . their subtlety . whereby they deceive those that hearken to them . which they do divers wayes . . by fallacious arguments taken from . scripture . . reason . . custome . bishop iewel 's apolog. pretended custome a taking argument with many . . pretended revelations . . feigned miracles . simon magus deceiving the people thereby , till he was arrested by divine vengeance . antichristian lying wonders . other artifices made use of by false teachers . a glosse set upon their doctrines . . a vizour put upon their own faces . scribes and pharisees pretenders to special sanctity . therein imitated by many false tea chers . as in the church of rome . so among our selves . two other qualifications promoting this seduction . . learning . . piety . from the hearers and receivers of these doctrines ; who , . it may be are chaffe . . in regard of their natural levity . . or spiritual vanity . . they may be children . the case of many in the present times . . they may be blinded . . through blind zeal . . fear . . covetousnesse . by-respects promoting the embracing of errours . . the third head ; taken from the doctrines themselves . . it may be they are new and strange . novelty and strangenesse taking arguments . . it may be they gratifie the flesh . . it may be they are consonant to reason . . it may be they have a shew of piety . applic. a just lamentation over the present state of the church in this nation . use . a double caveat to christians . caveat . be not offended . no reason why christians should be offended at this . . this is no other then what hath been . . no other then what is foretold shall and must be . caveat . take heed of being seduced . arg. . for your ministers sakes . peoples apostasie the ministers losse . their grief . ministers spiritual parents . the ministers losse and grief reflecting upon the people . arg. . christians to beware of this for their own sakes . beza gr. annot. errours not all alike dangerous in themselves . yet all dangerous in the consequence . soul-unsettlednesse in religion an undoing thing . beza gr. annot . arg. . for the churches sake . . not despising it . chrysostome . augustine . grotius ad loc . fuller , in miscellan . calvin . ad loc . beza gr. annot . in cor. . . pareus ibid. & in vers . . camero in praelect . de ecclesiam adversus . bellaminum et fulle●●● ▪ fusè . to despise the church no small contempt . . not shaming it . divers and strange doctrines tolerated a shame to the church . arg. . for religions sake . arg. . for christ his sake . q. . preservatives against this spiritual vertigo . a. direct . . christians not to be over-confident of themselves . . not of their own strength . christians alwayes to fear themselves . committing their soules to a divine custody . taking hold of their fathers hand . . nor of their own judgment . particularly , in expounding of scriptures . specially being ignorant & unlearned ; who are apt to pervert it . strange perverting of scripture in the present times . a taste of it in the sect of quakers ▪ gipsies in religion . see the perfect pharisee set forth by the ministers of new-castle . texts perverted against ministers . texts perverted against magistrates . direct . . christians not to be over-credulous , so as to take doctrines upon trust. . not from any one singular person . pretended infallibility not to be regarded . nor yet pretended credentials : spirit , word , or letter . spirits to be tryed . merchandizing spirits . . not from any community or society of men . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . euseb. histor. eccl. lib. . cap. . direct . . take heed of coming in the winds way . caveat . take heed of high things . . high thoughts . . high speculations . cavat . take heed of eddie winds . conventicles truly so called . q. may we not try all things ? a. the apostles sense expounded . the itching ear a dangerous disease . specially in those that are unlearned and unstable . direct . . take heed of beginning to turn . object . we are going up the hill. answ. the common plea of all sects and secturies . . particular caveats under this generall direction . caveat . take heed of turning from jesus christ to any thing else . from christ to moses . an unsound and dangerous maxime . to fall from christ a desperate declension . a needful caveat in regard of the present times . see the perfect pharisee , pos. , , , . caveat . take heed of turning from the church . the church a mountain paramount . an unwarrantable and dangerous separation . donatists and anabaptists parallelled . maximè quod à traditoribus divinarum scripturarum fuerit ordinatus , august . de haeresibus . tanquam ecclesia christi de toto orbe perierit , ubi futura promissa est , atque in africâ et donati parte remanserit : in aliis terrarum partibus quasi contagione communionis extincta , august . ibid. diu perstitit haec haeresis , etc. posteà tamen jugulata est , atque acquieverat , nisi miseri et insani anabaptistae eam ab inferis hoc nostro seculo revocâs●ent , danaeus in augustin . de haeresib . cap. . audent rebaptizare cathol cos , august . de haeresib . separation a mother-error . vide augustin . de haeresib . & danaeum , cap. . a practice observable in the donatists . haereticos negant ullo modo magistratûs quanquam pii ▪ et fidelis autoritate coercendos , castigandos , vel comprimendos , ne eorum venenum latiùs setpat , vel ut ipsi haeretici resipiscant . error . . danaeus ubi suprà . obvios sibi quosque in plateis et agris homines a suis erroribus alien●s caedunt et jugulant furiose , danaeus ibid. error . . the church the pillar and ground of truth , how . the church gods park . caveat . take heed of turning from the scriptures . how long christians are to give heed to the light of the word . saints upon earth enlightened but in part . the scriptures a christians light to see by ▪ and rule to walk by . turning from the scriptures in whole . see the perfect pharisee , pos. . in part . letter of scripture not to be renounced . regulam lesbiam , nasum cereum . ita origenes , poenam dans merito tot allegoriarum , eunuchatum planè allegoricum ad literam paulo servilius interpretatus , sibi vim tulit qui non minùs vim intulerat scripturae , virque esse desiit , qui non desiit esse malus interpres . d. josephus . hall in communione ad synodum dordracenam . caveat . take heed of turning from publick ordinances . church-assemblies not to be forsaken . forsaking publick assemblies , the beginning of apostasie . take heed of renouncing a gospel-ministery . note . direct . . take heed of false lights . . false lights without a man , false teachers . . false lights within a man. supernatural ; enthusiasmes . perfect pharisee , pos. . ibid. enthusiasmes for the most part an ignis fatuus . . natural reason . perfect pharisee , pos. . how reason may be consulted with in matters of religion . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . chrysost. hom. ad text. rationi naturali verae nunquam contrariatur theologia , sed eam excedit saepè , et sic videtur repugnare , thom. disp. de fide artic. . take heed of making reason our guide . not grosse reason . nor yet reason refined , philosophy . philosophia theologiae se submittat , ut agar sarae ; patiatur se admoneri et corrigi , sin minus pareat , ejice ancillam . clem. str. . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . chrysost . hom. ad text. direct . . get the soul well ballasted . viz. with grace . use . christians to be careful of their brethren , for the prevention , or cure of this turning sicknesse in them . all in their places . siquis pudor , si qua pictas , reprimite hanc petulantissima● insaniendi libidinem , modum imperate hominum et linguis , et calamis : et facite ut qui vera sentire nolunt falsa divulgare non ausint , etc. vide d. joseph . hall , ubì suprà . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 possidens retentionem , montanus . magistrates to restrain falle teachers . the law against false teachers . d. part of the text. the reason of the prohibition . parts two . part . the thing commended ; heart-establishment . explic. q. . heart , what it here signifieth . the soul of man. q. what part of the soul ? a. the whole soul , specially the mind . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pro mente , et ratione intelligente ponit . homo is est interior , et spiritualis , aret. com. ad loc. q. . heart establishment , what . a. oserv. the heart of man naturall unstable . pa●iter , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ascendendo : montanus . obser. . heart-unsettlednesse a great evil . . such is actual turning from the way of truth . . a sinful evil. upon a double account . . a penal evil. . habitual instability a great evil , in two respects . . rendring the soul unserviceable . . exposing it to danger . obser. . heart-establishment a good thing . . an honest good . . a profitable good . . a delightful good . applic. use . be convinced of soul-unfetlednesse . use . be convinced of the evil of it , aud be humbled under it . use . seek after heart-establishment . damnat hic apostolus fidem conjecturalem , h. e. fluctuationem jesuitarum , quâ necesse est conscientias circumferri dubias . contra asserit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fidei , &c. pareus ad text. heart-establishment needful in respect of the present times . directions for the obtaining of it . . seek it from god by prayer . . by a conscionable attendance upon establishing ordinances . the sacrament of the lords supper an establishing ordinance . part d. the meanes of hearr-establishment , grace . oserv. the best ballast for the soul , grace . q. grace , what here it signifieth . a. the doctrine ; and habit of grace . . the doctrine of grace , the gospel . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pro gratuitâ dei erga nos benevolentiâ acceptante nos & justos pro nunciante propter meritum christi , aretius ad loc . heart-establishment not to be expected from the law. not from the ceremonial law. nor yet from the morall law. reason . grace , like the authou of it , all-sufficient . applic. use . seek not heart establishment in any other way . not from ceremonial observances . nor yet from moral performances . much lesse from temporal enjoyments . use . seek it in a gospel-way , making free grate our foundation . concerning which , two directions . direct . . see that this foundation be well laid . . right set . . deep laid . direct . . settle the soul upon this foundation . which is done by faith , resting upon free grace . . the habit of grace , regeneration . quum cibis opponit gratiam , non dubito quin spiritualem dei cultum , et regenerationem intelligat hoc nomine , calvin . ad loc . iisdem etiam verbis , beza . gr. annot. ad loc . nomine gratiae graeci fidem , etc. atqui nihil verat generatim significari interna ac spiritualia . dei dons , quibus homines sanctificantur , ut fidem , spem , charitatem , caeterásque virtutes , estius com. ad loc . q. how the habit of grace establisheth the heart . . by way of evidence . . by way of efficiency . . indirectly , by freeing it from what might disquiet it ; as from fear . so from other inordinate affections and passions . . directly , by fixing the soul upon a sure foundation , the grace of god in christ. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . chrysost. ad text. faith compared to an anchor . applic. seek after the habit of grace . chrysost. ad loc . having an eye to two things . to the quality , that it be true . . to the quantity , that there be a good proportion of it . mr. baxter's judgment and reasons against communicating with the parish-assemblies, as by law required, impartially stated and proposed baxter, richard, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing b estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) mr. baxter's judgment and reasons against communicating with the parish-assemblies, as by law required, impartially stated and proposed baxter, richard, - . 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ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng dissenters, religious -- great britain. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - jonathan blaney sampled and proofread - jonathan blaney text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion mr. baxter's judgment and reasons against communicating with the parish-assemblies , as by law required . impartially stated and proposed . great men are not alwayes wise , &c. job . . surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird prov. . . happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth , rom. . . printed in the year . to the reader ▪ thou art desired to consider , that the reason why the author of these papers has given thee the judgment of mr. baxter against communicating with the parish-assemblies , as by law required , is to undeceive those who think , that he has been of late writing for it ; whereas that which he hath written does hold good only on supposition , the parish assemblies are congregational churches , independent on the diocesane bishop , who is for our holding communion with them only as such . it has very much grieved the author to see how many have been led from their principles by some men , who though otherwise dissenters , have since the late vigorous execution of the paenal laws , not only gone themselves to church , but done their best to engage others to do so too ; and to that end have observed the rule of the polititian , to press the examples and practices of some eminent men , as a good means to draw on the rest . thus have they published the names of nye , robinson , owen , and goodwin to countenance their commnnicating with the parish assemblies in the liturgy-worship , which is manifest abusing those persons , while they are made to plead for a practice they disavow . the designe of the publisher of mr. nye , robinson , &c. ( as he himself professeth ) is as well to satisfie those that scruple communion with the church [ to wit , with the parish assemblies in their liturgy-worship ] as to vindicate those who have complyed ; whereas there is not one of these men that spake a word in favour of parish communion . nye's and robinson's rapers are only for the lawfulness of hearing the conformist ministers preach , not for communicating with the parish in their liturgy-worship . besides , it must be noted , that what they wrote was confined to private manuscript , until some years after their death , and never , it may be , designed for publick view . and the author of a speedy remedy against spiritual incontinency , pag. . doth assure us , that at leyden , mr. robinson being confuted in the presence of above three hundred people , did revoke his opinion about hearing , and acknowledged that hearing was a sinful partaking with that ministry . that this was nine years before robinson's death , and that robinson's papers were not published in some years after his death , and had not been published then neither , had they not through inadvertency escaped the flames , and fell into the hands of an inverterate enem● who printed them . soon after they were printed , mr cann wrote an answer ; notwithstanding which , thes● papers are now re-published , and robinson's authority urged to justifie the lawfulness communicating with the parish assemblies in the liturgy-worship . in like manner , dr. owen , who did grant that forms of pra●ers , in thesi , may be lawful , is introduced as an approver of the lawfulness of the imposed liturgy and ceremonies in particular ; than which there cannot be a greater abuse . dr. goodwin likewise , after the diocesane episcopacy was laid aside , did say , that in some of the parishes in this kingdom there are many godly men , that do constantly give up themselves to the worship of god in publick , and meet together in one place , to that end in a constant way , under a godly ministry , whom they themselves have chosen to cleave unto ( though they did not chuse him at first ) these ( saith the doctor ) notwithstanding their mixture , and want of discipline , i never thought for my part , but that they were true churches of christ , and sister churches , and so ought to be acknowledged ; and as for holding communion with them , i say , as sister-churches , occasionally , as strangers , men might hold communion with them . so far dr. goodwin . note here , st . that he describes a church , which for its kind is congregational , though in it there is a mixture and want of discipline . his discourse is of a compleat congregational church , not of an incompleat part of the diocesane . dly . he writes for our acknowledging 'em to be sister churches , and communicating with them occasionally as strangers ; but speaks not of our communicating with such parish-assemblies as are of the diocesane frame , nor of fixing our communion there , as the law now requires . dly , he insists only on the faultiness of mixture , and want of discipline , not on the liturgy-worship , which sufficiently evinceth that he meant it of the presbyterian congregations , which had no liturgy ; not of the episcopals which have . for whoever consults what he has in his exposition on the revelations , will find enough that shews how much he was against the liturgy-worship . but yet this doctor 's judgment must be produced for the justifying our communicating with the parish-assemblies , that are but incompleat parts of a diocesane single church in their liturgy-worship , as by law required . much after the same manner doth the reverend mr. baxter deal with us , when he refers us to the judgment of the old nonconformists , who though they were for communion with the parish assemblies then in being , yet esteemed the diocesane kind of churches , ministry and ceremonies to be violations of the second commandment , idolatrous and antichristian . and as to the controverted ceremonies ( for instance , kneeling at the sacrament ) mr. baxter knows best how much he differs from several of them , to whom he refers us ; for they assert these ceremonies to be antichristian and idolatrous . but mr. baxter , notwithstanding the high applauses he gives 'em , has openly relinquished their doctrine , and fallen in with morton and burgesse , having also espoused that very distinction of primary and secondary worship , which they received from bellarmine and suarez ; the insufficiency whereof has been long a go detected by doctor ames in his reply and fresh suite . moreover , it must be observed , that mr. baxter has not given us so full and distinct a state of the present controversie , between him and those he calls separatists , as was necessary ; for , his discourses for communion with the parish-assemblies , without fuller explanation , will ( as now they are ) be generally taken as if he meant it of the parish assemblies by law established , which are in a kind destructive of christ's churches , ministry and discipline , as mr. baxter himself avers ; whereby the weaker sort mistaking mr. baxter , are induced to conclude the established constitution to be good . but what is this less than the casting a stumbling block in the way of his weak brethren ? these things then being so , 't is become necessary that some-what be done to undeceive the world ; and seeing mr. baxter is the person on whose authority most of those dissenters who are now for parish communion , do lean , i have thought it expedient to lay before them an impartial state of mr. baxter's judgment , as i find it in some of his late writings , together with those reasons that he doth furnish us with , ( as arrows which we may gather up to shoot back upon him ) against communicating with the parish assemblies , as by law required . the giving a just account of baxter's judgment against parish-communion is , i acknowledge , but argumentum ad hominem , adapted chiefly for the silencing mr. baxter ; but the reasons that are couched in what is given out of mr. baxter , are more than so , and such as must receive another answer than meerly the saying ▪ that mr. baxter is grown wiser , and hath changed his judgment ; for until mr. baxter or some other do validly answer what mr. baxter has said in his five disputations against episcopacy and ceremonies , and in his late treatise against episcopacy , what i have here urged will abide in its strength , and carry also with it the authority and weight of the vnanswerable mr. richard-baxter . mr. baxter's judgment and reasons against communicating with the parish assemblies , as by law required , impartially stated and proposed . there has been of late no little stir about going to the parish assemblies , and communicating with them in their liturgy-worship , and in special mr. baxter hath been warmely engaged in the defence , ( as he himself will have it ) of his own , and the practice of those that are for parish-communion , and cannot suffer a little manuscript , said to be dr. owens , to escape his annimadversions and opposition . it is at this time no part of my province to examine baxter's answer to owen's arguments ; i call the manuscript dr. owens , not only because common fame directs me to do so , but because in the arguments there is the doctor 's wonted accuracy and strength . there are very many scripture-reasons couch'd in a few lines , and such as are too strong to receive any harm from baxter's answer , as i could by divine assistance clearly evince : but at this time it shall be no part of my work. in this , my aim is to shew , what it is mr. baxter is really for , that he is as much against holding communion with the parish-assemblies , as by law required , as those are , against whom he writes , and that we are furnished with unanswerable arguments against such parish-communion , by mr. baxter . thus much will be made very manifest to a common capacity , by shewing what are baxter's avowed principles about the institution , ministry and discipline of christ's churches , and what are the natural consequences of those principles he holds , and wherein lies the point , in which he differs from his brethren . in doing which i will give you baxter's sence , for the most part in his own words , directing you to the very pages of those books of his i make use of . § . . all christians ( saith mr. baxter ) are agreed , that christ is the author of the universal church ( consider'd both as baptized or externally covenanting , call'd visible , and as regenerate and sincerely covenanting , call'd , mystical ) as it is headed by christ himself , and called his body and special kingdom . § . . we doubt not but christ has instituted the office of the sacred ministry , to be under him as a teacher , ruler and high-priest of the church , in teaching , guiding and worshipping , and that he has instituted holy assemblies and societies , for these things to be exercised in . and that [ a society of neighbour christians , associated with such a pastor or pastors , for personal communion , even in such doctrine , discipline and worship ] is a church-form of divine institution . § . . we know not of any proof that ever was produced that many churches of the first rank , must ( of duty ) make one fixt greater compound church by association , whether classical , diocesane , provincial , patriarchal or national , and that god has instituted any such form , vide mr. baxter's nonconformists plea for peace , p. . . § . . christ has stated on the pastors of his instituted churches , the power of teaching assemblies , and particular persons of leading them in publick worship , and sacraments , and of judging by the power of the keyes , whom to receive into their communion by baptism , and profession of faith , and whom to admonish , and for obstinate impenitance reject ; and this institution none may alter . § . . he has instituted ordinary assemblies , and stated particular churches , as is aforesaid , for these holy exercises , and forbad all christians to forsake them , and he and his apostles , have appointed and separated the lords day hereunto . none therefore may abrogate , or suspend those laws ; all this is proved , mat. . , . and . . and . , . joh. . . luke . , . mat. . . and . , . &c. and . , . heb. . , . acts . . cor. . ephes . . . to . thes . . , . heb. . . . tit. . , . &c. tim. . acts . . acts. . cor. . . &c. mr. baxter vbi supra , p. . § . . the diocesane kind of particular churches , which has only one bishop over many score or hundred fixed parochial assemblies , i take ( saith mr. baxter ) to be it self a crime : which in its very constitution , overthroweth the office , church and discipline , which christ by himself , and his spirit in his apostles , instituted : for . parishes are made by them no churches , as having no ruling pastors , that have the power of judging whom to baptize , or admit to communion , or refuse , but only are chappels , having preaching curates . . all the first order of bishops in single churches are deposed . . the office of presbiters , is changed into semi-presbiters . . discipline is made impossible ; mr. baxter ' s church history of bishops and council abridged , ch . . § . . the like he affirms in his five disputa . of church-government , pag. . as to the eight sort of bishops ( viz. ) [ the diocesane , who assumeth the sole government of many parish churches , both presbiters and people , ] as ten , or twelve , or twenty , or more , as they used to do , even a whole diocess , i take them ( saith mr. baxter ) to be intollerable and destructive to the peace and happiness of the church , and therefore not to be admitted under pretence of order or peace , if we can hinder them . § . . this diocesane church government , being de facto , established in this kingdom , the parish assemblies are not compleat particular churches of the first rank and order , they are but parts of a diocesane , which is de facto , established as a single church , infime speciei . that parish assemblies are not particular churches , is manifested from mr. baxters principles . for . that cement which is necessary to the being of a church , is wanting . and it is impossible ( saith mr. baxter in his cathol . concord , p. . ) to be a church without the cement of consent . if many be forced into a temple , not consenting , it is a prison , they are not a church if they consent only to meet on other occasions , as for some occasional act of religion , it is not thereby made a church . if they be commanded to consent , and do not , and if it only be their duty , it maketh them not a church , but only proveth that they ought to be one : so far mr. baxter . and it is manifest , that in pursuance of canon and statute law , the parishes are de facto , settled as parts of a diocesane church ; and whoever joyn themselves unto the parish assemblies , as by law required , consent to be of the parish assembly , as it is a part of the diocesane church ; this doth every parish minster , who swears canonical obedience , that is , obedience to his ordinary secundum canones , and who is to rest so fully satisfied in the diocesane government , as to declare he will not endeavour , on any pretence whatever the alteration of it . but to form the parish assembly into a compleat particular church , is to make a substantial alteration in the diocesane constitution . besides the vesteries , who ( as mr. baxter saith ) do after a sort represent the parish assembly , are also sworn to the diocesane constitution and government , and therefore cannot be justly interpreted to consent to the parish assemblies , being a compleat particular church ; whatever consent there is between the minister and people , it must be supposed to be no other than what is agreeable to the diocesane rule , ( i. e. ) to be parts of the diocesane church , taking none for their pastor but the diocesane bishop . . this parish-assembly doth not only want consent to make it a church , but it has no parochial pastor , though the pastor and flock are the essential constitutive parts of a particular organiz'd church , yet it s not to be found in our parishes . it may be a community ( saith mr. baxter , ubi su●r . ) without a pastor ; not a polity , not an ecclesiastical society . that the parish minister is not a pastor , is manifest ; for he is deprived of what is essential to the pastoral office. this is evident ( according to the principles of mr. baxter ) who distinguishing between the old and new episcopacy , and who though he had more favourable thoughts of the old than of the new , and knows that the present is more like the new than the old , and consequently worse ; yet writing against the restoring the old , he lays down his fourth argument thus , — . that episcopacy , which degradeth all the presbyters in the diocess , or causeth them to suspend an essential part of their office , is not to be restored under any pretence of the right order of peace . but such was the late english episcopacy ; and in his advertisement to his five disp . p. , , &c. to satisfie those that make some doubt of the truth of the minor , he saith , all men in england that knew but twenty years ago what belonged to these matters , are past doubt of it . and i have no mind to dispute against them that contradict the common knowledge of the nation , as if they should doubt whether ever we had a king in england . . read over the canons , and the yearly visitation articles , which the church-wardens swear to present by , before they had ever read the book , or heard what was in it . and then judge , . their arguing for the sole jurisdiction of bishops , and that they only were properly pastors , and that presbyters had not the key of discipline , but of doctrine , is some evidence . it is known to the nation , that the pastors of the parish-churches had no power by their laws , ( or sufferance ) to castout any the most erroneous sinner or heretick from the church , nor to bring them to open confession of their sin , nor to absolve the penitent , but by reading of their sentences , and publishing what they sent from their courts , and consequently could do nothing of all the means hereunto ; for the means cannot be used where the end is known to be impossible . all the obstinate scandalous persons and scorners of a holy life , we must take as members of our churches , having no power to cast them out . indeed we had the same power as the church-wardens , to put our names to the presentments , but a power of accusing to a chancellors court , is not a power of governing , especially when piety , under the name of preciseness and puritainism , was so hated and persecuted , that to have accused a man for meer prophaneness , would have been so far from obtaining the end , as that it was like to have been the undoing of the accuser . obj. but is not the power of discipline given them in their ordination ? answ . st . in their ordination , the bishop said to them [ receive the holy ghost , whose sins thou dost remit , they are remitted ; whose sins thou dost retain , they are retained ] and in the book of ordination it was asked them , [ whether they would give their faithful diligence alwayes to administer the doctrine and discipline of christ , as the lord has commanded , and as the realm has received the same , according to the commandments of god ? ] and the rubrick of the common-prayer-book enables the curate to admonish open and notorious evil livers , by whom the congregation is offended ; and those that have wronged their neighbours , that they come not till they have openly declared , that they have repented and amended . but , . this doth but serve to leave them inexcuseable that acknowledge discipline to belong to the office of a presbyter , when yet he might not excuse it . the bishops in the ordination of presbyters enabled them to preach the gospel , and yet they were after that forbidden to preach , till they had a licence , and it was put into the visitation article , to present those ministers , that preached without a licence . if they will deny us the exercise of the power , that they first confess belongeth to our office , we are not answerable for , their self-contradictions . . by discipline , i suppose they mean but our instruction , and our publishing their orders for penance , excommunication , or absolutions . . they were the judges of the sence , of the laws as far as the execution required , and the universal practice of england ; which their writings shewed us , to our cost , their judgment ; what good would it do us , if the law had been on our side , while the concurrent judgment and practice of the governours denied it , and went aganist it ? . he that has kept a man from the sacrament , according to the plain words of the rubrick , was to have been acountable for it at their courts , and so likely to have been undone by it : so far mr. baxter . which sufficiently shews that the parish minister is in his judgment degraded and deprived of what is essential to the pastors office ; for by taking from them the power of church-government they destroy the very office of the presbyters ; for ruling is as essential to their office as preaching ; notwithstanding which , as mr. baxter proves , and expresly asserts , the english episcopacy , taketh from the presbyters the power of church governing ; see his five disput . p. . but if it had been only the exercise of the parish presbyters power that had been suspended , yet considering the suspension is statedly established by ▪ law or custom , during the life of the minister , it s a destroying his office ; saith mr. baxter ; though an office may be unexercised for a time on some special reason , yet if it be statedly suspended , and that suspension established by law or custom during the life of the minister ; this is plainly a destroying or nulling the office it self , and not to be endured . and surely , the exercise of the pastoral power is statedly suspended , and the suspension is by law or custom established , during the ministers life , and therefore the office is nulled and destroyed ; that is , the parish minister is not a pastor , nor has the parish assembly any pastor , it is not a particular church . all this mr. baxter saith , of the old english prelacy , and yet thinketh that the present is much worse than the old. in his second defence of the nonconformists , p. . dr. still . saying , that t●ere is no other reason of our separation , because of the terms of our communion , than what was from the beginning of the reformation . mr. baxter answers , to say , that we grant that there are no more reasons now , than were then , is too bold an untruth , there is more reason ( . ) from the quality of the things imposed ( . ) from the designes and drifts of the imposition . ( . ) from the effects . ( . ) from the aggravation of conformity , as in the church that we must communicate with . ( . ) from the things which give us a fuller cause for our preaching and assemblies , viz. the late general contrary church state and engagement to it , &c. on these particulars mr. baxter enlargeth ; i will but just intimate what he saith on some of them . ( . ) as to things imposed now which were not then . o. the vestry act was not then made , by which so considerable part of the parish churches as the vestries are , are to renounce all obligations , to endeavour any alteration of the government of the church , from the oath and vow , called the covenant ; so that all reformation of church government , as so sworn , was renounced by them , who in a sort represent the parish church . . the reordination of ministers , ordained by presbyters , was not then required , and made a necessary condition of their ministration and church relation , ( even by them that confess reordination unlawful . ) and therefore plainly intimateth the nullity , of the first . — o. the word [ pastor ] as applyed to parish ministers , distinct from [ curates ] was not then blotted out of most places in the liturgies , nor the th of the acts , as applyed to presbyters left out [ take heed to your selves , and to the flock &c. ] in plain design to alter the office and parish churches . to all this let us add . § . . that he that will hold communion with a church , must consent to the ministry , discipline and worship of that church , see cathol . concord , ubi supra . so that he that will communicate with the parish assemblies must consent to the ministery , discipline and worship of their assemblies ; that is , he must consent to the diocesane pastor , to the parish semi-presbyters , and to the parish assemblies , as being a part of the diocesane church , and to the diocesane discipline ; for de facto , this is the constitution and frame of parish assemblies , they are but parts of the diocesane church , they are under no other pastor but the diocesane bishop , have no other minister than a semi-presbyter , who wants what is essential to the pastoral office , and the assembly wants that cement of consent that is necessary to the making e'm a compleat particular church . this being so , may we by any act or deed contribute to the fixing and establishing the diocesane episcopacy amongst us ? i 'll answer according to sound reason , in conjunction with mr. baxter's own principles : if it were unlawful to restore the old english episcopacy , its unlawfull to give countenance and strength to it , once restored ; for the strengthening it , is but the continuation of the thing restored : and if we might not lawfully help forward , nor consent unto the restoration of it , we may not lawfully fix it , when once restored ; for all these mischiefs that are said to be the fruits of its restoration , will be continued by a fixing it . but according to mr. baxter , it was not lawful to restore the old english prelacy , much less lawful to settle the new , which ( he saith ) is worse . his reasons are many , e. g. it destroys the end of government , and is certainly inconsistent with the necessary government and discipline , to be exercised in the churches ; it unavoidably causeth separations and divisions in the church ; it degradeth all the presbyters in the diocess , and destroys and nulls their office ; it is the product of proud ambition and arrogancy , contrary to the express command of christ : it so far gratifieth lazy ministers , as to ease them of the most painful part of their work : it is contrary to the word of god , and apostolical institution , according to their own interpretation . moreover , it gratifieth the devil and wicked men , not by an unavoidable accident , but by a natural necessity ; therefore ( saith mr. baxter in his five disput . pag. , to . ) not to be restored under any pretence of the order or peace of the church : and for the same reason ( say i , according to mr. baxters principles ) not to be complyed with , not to be countenanced , not to be fixed and strengthened by us , though now restored . though the order and peace of the church be pretended , yet we must do nothing that countenanceth or stregthens the english episcopacy , we must not hold communion with them ; for that is to consent to the uninstituted species of their church , ministry , discipline and worship . what then must we do ? may we separate without contracting the guilt of schisme ? take mr. baxter's own answer . § . . if any prince would turn his kingdom , or a whole province , diocess or country , into one onely church , and thereby overthrow all the first order of churches , of christs institution , which are associated for personal present communion , allowing them no pastors , that have the power of the keys , and all essential to their office , though he should allow parochial oratories or chappels , which should be no true churches , but parts of a church , it were no schism to gather churches , within such a church , against the laws of such a prince ; see nonconformists first plea for peace . p. . thus according to mr. baxters principles , a separation from the parish assemblies , and an erecting particular churches , according to gospel order , is not schism . our separation from the diocesane constitution , and from the parish churches , as but parts of the diocesane , is justifyable , and not to be condemned . now the lay-nonconformists are fully perswaded , that the law of the land requires our coming to church , our going to the parish assemblies , as they are parts of the diocesane church , which mr. bax. saith they must not do . this being so manifest , i presume the reader will be querying about mr. baxters practice , and late writings , and say , why then does mr. baxter go to church ? why doth he write so much for it , and cannot suffer a few lines in manuscript to pass without a publick confutation ? what! doth mr. baxter say and unsay , or is his conscience against communicating with the parish churches , and his practice for it ? god forbid i should think so of one , whose goodness and learning both seem above the size of what is ordinary : really therefore that i might find out the notion on which mr. baxter insists to satisfie himself , in holding communion with the parish assemblies , even when he is so very much against them , as they are but parts of the diocesane church , i have taken some pains , and have been impartial in my search , and i think i have found out the notion he builds on , which i take to be this . mr. baxter distinguisheth between the many parish churches , and the diocesane , and the church of england , as constituted of such diocesane churches . the old nonconformists commonly owned the parish churches , ( and the church of england , as made up of such ) but not the diocesane . it is therefore a mistake , that owning the parish churches and worship , is an owning of the present diocesane constitution . mr. b. against dr. o. p. . so that mr. baxter distinguisheth between the church of england , as it is made up of many particular compleat churches that are parochial , and as it is made up of many particular diocesane churches . and here it must be noted , . that though mr. baxter supposes the national church of england to fall under these two distinct considerations , yet de facto , its notorious that there are not two such national churches of england existent ; and in truth , its impossible that there should be two such churches , simul & semel , existent in one nation ; for a national church made up of many compleat parochial churches , is in its very constitution destructive of a national church made up of many particular diocesane churches . mr. baxter himself confesseth , that the diocesane church made up of many parochial assemblies , and established as a single church , infimae speciei , of the lowest rank and order , is destructive of the very constitution of parochial churches , and the diocesane episcopacy and discipline destructive of the parochial ; and the same may be said , è contra , of the parochial , it is destructive of the diocesane . so that its impossible there should be in this nation two distinct national churches , the one made up of many parochial compleat single churches , the other made up of many diocesane single churches . if then the national church be in pursuance of the laws , de facto , settled as made up of many diocesane single churches ( whether this be of divine or humane right , matters not ) its impossible to joyn our selves to the parish-assemblies , as to compleat particular churches . for what-ever mental notions we may have of the church of england , our notions cannot make the constitution to be de facto , otherwise than it is ; and all know that the national church is de facto , a national church made up of several single diocesane churches , and that there is no national church of england existent made up of many compleat parochial churches . but , . suppose one parish assembly , or more , should form and frame themselves into compleat single churches , and the people should consent to take the parish minister for their pastor , and the minister should exercise the whole power of a pastor in this parish church . if this be so , it 's acknowledged that mr. baxter may hold communion with this parish church , and not own the present diocesane constitution : but then it will also unavoidably follow , that this parish church cuts it self off from the national settled order , it is a dissenting church ; for it hereby ceases to be a part of the diocesane constitution , it is no more under the pastoral over-sight of the diocesane bishop , but assumes to it self all that pastoral power that in pursuance of canon and statute law is fixed in the bishop ; so that this parish church is not established or allowed by the law , but is a dissenting congregation , of the same nature , form and constitution with that of other dissenting churches ; for the species of these parochial churches constitution , ministry and discipline is the same with theirs , and as perfectly inconsistent with that of the diocesane , and by the church of england's representative declared to be no true church , and the minister and vestry , who consent to this alteration , do act contrary to their several declarations and oaths , and are by the canons excommunicate , and their assemblies declared conventicles . in the th canon , whose title is [ maintainers of conventicles censured ] it s express , that whosoever shall hereafter affirm or maintain , that there are within this realm other meetings , assemblies or congregations of the king 's born subjects , than such as by the laws of the land are held and allowed , which may rightly challenge to themselves the name of true and lawful churches , let him be excommunicated , and not restor'd , but by the arch-bishop , after his repentance and publick revocation of such his wicked errors . and in can. . whosoever shall affirm , that it is lawful for any sort of ministers and lay-persons , or either of them to joyn together and make constitutions in causes ecclesiastical , without the king's authority , and shall submit themselves to be ruled and governed by them , let them be excommunicated , ipso facto , and not be restored until they repent , and publickly revoke those their wicked and anabaptistical errors . and in canon . where the title is [ ministers not to hold private conventicles ] it is thus ordained ; for as much as all conventicles and secret meetings of priests and ministers , have been ever justly accounted very hurtful to the state of the church wherein they live , we do now ordain and constitute , that no priests or ministers of the word of god , nor any other persons shall meet together in any private house , or else-where , to consult upon any matter or course to be taken by them , or upon their motion or direction by any other , which may any way tend to the impeaching or depraving of any part of the government and discipline now established in the church of england , under pain of excommunication , ipso facto . so that those parish assemblies that are erected in other manner than according to the diocesane constitution , and made compleat particular churches , they are as such no more a part of the settled national order , than the present dissenting congregations , but are by the canons declared to be conventicles , and the ministers and people that have had a hand in the framing their parishes into this order , are ipso facto , excommunicated . this then being so , i desire it to be observed , that when mr. b. joyns with these parish-assemblies , thus constituted , his communion is still confined unto the dissenters congregations , he doth not hereby hold any communion with the church of england , any more than the dissenters do ; for his communion with these parish churches , is with them as they are erected , in opposition unto and destruction of the national settled order , which is diocesane . to undeceive the world then , i must tell them ( and mr. baxter cannot deny it , ) that mr. baxter is no more for the joyning with the parish assemblies , as they are parts of the settled national church , than the congregational dissenters are , that when he goes to church , he holds no other communion with the church of england than they do who go not to church ; for his communion is still confind to a dissenting parish church , erected as much contrary to the law of the land , as their congregations are . it s true , he joyns with them in some part of the liturgy , and so goes farther then they , but he holds not communion with the church of england , as it is a church of legal establishment , any farther than they do . for he esteems the church of england , as by law established , to be destructive of that kind or species of those churches , ministry and discipline , which is of christs institution , and parochial or congregational . mr. baxter and they ( i say ) are agreed in their dissent and separation from the parish assemblies , as they are parts of the settled national order , and differ about the frame of parochial assemblies ; for mr. baxter supposes them to be what ( consideratis considerandis ) other dissenters judge impossible . to make this as plain as possible i can , it must be observed , that mr. baxter affirms the parish assemblies to fall under a twofold consideration ; they must be looked on , either as they are compleat particular congregational churches , independant on the diocesane , or as they are incompleat parts of , and dependant on the diocesane . now as the parish assemblies are parts of the diocesane ; they are not by any means to be owned or approved , but as they are particular congregational churches , so they are to be communicated with and owned . this is baxter's judgment ; but on the other hand , his dissenting brethren hold , that though parochial assemblies may be actually formed and framed according to the congregational constitution , that is , an assembly of good christians living in a parish , may give up themselves to god , and associate themselves for personal communion in the doctrine , discipline and worship of christ , chusing a pastor and other officers ; for this end the parish assembly may consent to be of such a constitution , and may chuse a pastor , and in this assembly all the ordinances of christ may be regularly administred , and discipline duely exercised . this may be , but though it may be so , yet they affirm that the parish assemblies are not thus constituted , their constitution is not congregational , but diocesane . they are not a compleat church , but incompleat parts of the diocesane ; there is no such consent as is necessary to constitute such a church ; but a consent to be what the law directs 'em to be ; they have no pastor amongst them , as a congregational church has , nor are they independant on the diocesane , as the congregational is . they are not a particular church of christs institution : though they may be a sound part of the catholick church , or of the christian kingdom , yet they are not an instituted church , they are not a true particular church , and therefore it is impossible any should communicate with them , as with such a church . whatever we may fancy them to be they alwayes remain the same , our imaginations cannot make any change on their constitution , our mental conceptions are but iminanent acts , et nihil penunt in esse . think any man what he will of the church of england , de facto , it remains the same , viz. a national church made up of many single diocesane churches , infimae speciei , of the lowest rank and order ; for which reason its impossible for any to joyn with the church of england , as made up of many single compleat parochial churches ; we cannot communicate with it as such , because it is not so made ; there is not any one parish thus constituted . let mr. baxter direct them to that parish , that is thus framed , that is , a particular compleat church of christs institution , and he would do somewhat , but till then , although there be some such parish churches , it is to them as if there were none such ; for [ de non apparentibus et non existentibus eadem est ratio . ] besides they say , that if there be any such parochial congregational church actually existent in this kingdom , and the minister and people privately declare so much , they think , that if without an open profession of their church constitution , as different from the national established order , their commuunicating with them must be interpreted a communicating with them as they are a part of the settled national order , which is diocesane , which cannot be done without an owning the present diocesane constitution . but if such a profession be made , they communicate not with the church of england , but with a congregation of dissenters , from the national constitution . farthermore , some are afraid , that the erecting such parish assemblies , cannot be without the ministers and vestry mens contracting the guilt of perjury . in fine , i must again beseech the reader to fix it in his thoughts , that the church of england , as made up of many single diocesane churches , is not in mr. baxter's judgment a true church ; though it be a sound part of the church universal ; yet the diocesane churches , which make up the national , and which in pursuance of the law are , de facto , settled and established , are not true churches . mr. baxter doth hold that the parish assemblies , as parts of diocesane churches , are not true churches ; for they have not pastures , as has been largely proved , and it s no schism to deny 'em , the communion proper to a true particular church . what mr. baxter saith of a parish , that wants a pastor , on the account of the peoples not consenting to one imposed on 'em , the same may be said of that parish , whose minister wants what is essential to the pastoral office ; and this all parish ministers according to the settled national order do want , and therefore it may be said , that that parish church is no parish church , in the proper political organized sence , as we now speak of a church , as constituted by the governing and governed part . for that which wanteth an essential part wanteth the essence . and therefore it is no schism to pronounce it no such church , [ i e. no true church of christs institution ] and to deny it the communion proper to such a church . mr. baxters nonconformist plea for peace , p. . this then is mr. baxters judgment , touching the diocesane churches , as by law established . he cannot consent unto them , nor hold communion with them as such . for the very kind and frame of their churches is false , so is their ministry , and discipline , even - destructive of christs churches , ministry and discipline . § . . a congregation or nation of men ( saith mr. baxter ) of eminent sanctity and order , sound doctrine and worship , may by humane frailty take some one falshood or uncertain thing to be necessary to ministry or communion , ( as they say , some churches unhapily of late reject all that own not the antiquity of the hebrew points ) i cannot have local communion with that church , ( saith he ) for they will not receive me , unless i subscribe either a falsehood , or that which i judge false ) but yet i highly honour and love 'em , and have mental catholick communion with them , when perhaps necessity makes me joyn with a church of far worse men and order , that will impose no sin on me . mr. baxter's schism detected , pag. . in pursuance of this principle mr. baxter layes down , his brethren separate from the church of england ; for there are several things which they judge unsound , that are made necessary to their communion with them . by cannon . no minister , when he celebrateth the communion shall wittingly administer the same to any but such as kneel , under pain of suspension , nor under the like pain to any that refuse to be present at publick prayers , according to the orders of the church of england ; that 't is according to the th . canon , the communion must not be administered to him , that will cover his head in the church or chappel , in time of divine service , or that doth not reverently kneel , when the general confession , lettany and other prayers are read , and shall not stand up at the saying of the belief , or refuse to make due and lowly reverence , when the name of the lord jesus shall be mentioned , in time of divine service , or refuse to say in due place , and audibly with the minister , the confession , the lords prayer , and the creed , or not make such other answers , to the publick prayers , as are appointed in the book of common-prayer . whoever refuseth these things , he is one who though present at the publick prayers , yet not according to the orders of the church , is not to be admitted to the communion , that is , all those things are made necessary to the communion : and here it must be observed , that though the admitting notorious offenders to the comunion be forbiden by the th canon , yet not under the penalty of suspension , as it is in this case of admitting those who refuse to kneel , or to be present at the publick prayers , according to the orders of the church of england . but these things several dissenters for great reasons refuse to do , i 'll at this time only insist on the ceremony of kneeling at the sacrament , and give the reasons of some learned men against it . st . let us hear mr. baxter in his five disput . p. , . as for kneeling at the sacrament , i doubt not at all but the imposing it , and that on such rigorous terms , tying all to it , and easting all out of the communion of the church , or from the participation of the sacrament , that durst not use it , was a very grevious sin , and tended to persecution , and injustice , and church dividing . it is certainly in a doubtful case the safest way to do as christ , and his apostles , and the vniversal church did for many hundred years ; either the gesture is indifferent in it self , or not ; if it be , how dare they thus divide the church by it , and cast out christians that scruple it , when they have these and many other reasons of their scruples ( which for brevities sake i omit ) ? if they say , that kneeling is of it self necessary , and not indifferent , because it is reverent . [ now if the reader considers the rubrick added in the new common-prayer-book , he will find that kneeling is enjoyn'd for a signification of our humble and grateful acknowledgment of the benefits of christ therein received , and for avoiding such prophanation and disorder in the holy communion , as might otherwise ensue . thus we see the gesture of kneeling is made a reverent gesture , necessary to avoid disorder and prophanation . but sayes mr. baxter , if kneeling is of it self necessary , and not indifferent , because it is reverent ] then , st , they make christ an imperfect law-giver . dly , they make himself or his apostles , or both , to have been sinners . dly , they condemn the catholick church of sin. thly , they condemn the canons of the chief general councils . all which are consequents that i suppose they will disown . what a perverse preposterous reverence is this ! when they have leave to lie in the dust before and after the very act of receiving , through all their confessions and prayers ; yet they will at other times stand , and many of them sit at prayer , and sit at singing psalms of prayer and praise to god , and yet when christ doth invite them to a feast , they dare not imitate his apostles and universal church in their gesture , lest they should be sinfully irreverent . so sar mr. baxter . now though mr. baxter is accurate in distinguishing , and as to the part of the receiver , may yet see how to answer all these arguments , and satisfie himself in kneeling , yet he cannot but believe , that godly and judicious men may be so far under the powerful convictions of such arguments against the imposition , as to be unable to satisfie their consciences in complying with the gesture of kneeling . surely mr. baxter tells the world so much in his first nonconformists plea for peace , p. , , . some nonconformists ( saith he ) lay and clergy , judge kneeling , as things now stand , vnlawful : their reasons are , . in doubtful cases duty lieth on the surest side ; but this to them is a doubtful case on one side , and to imitate christ's institution by such sitting , as men use to do at meat , is certainly lawful . . because they think kneeling violateth the reasons of the second commandment , being used where by whole countries of papists round about us , and many among us , it signifieth bread-worship , or idolatry by the same action , at the same season used . for they suppose that the second commandment forbiddeth images , as being external corporal idolatry , and symbolizing scandalously with idolaters , though the mind intend the worship of god alone : and such they think this kneeling is , and that encourageth the papists . so far mr. baxter . . i 'll only add one argument more , which i find in a proposition concerning kneeling , joyned to bradshaw's twelve arguments , which is taken from the abuse of kneeling in this ordinance , by the papists . 't is there said , that the apostle , to reform an abuse which crept ( even in their times ) into love-feasts , which were immediately before or after the lords supper , did banish them thence , and reduced the manner of admistring the lords supper to the first institution , saying , shall i praise you in this ? i praise you not ; for i have received of the lord that which i delivered unto you , &c. cor. . vers . , . whereby it is apparent , that that form of administration which differeth from the first institution , is worthy no praise , and therefore no acceptable service to god. for if the apostle would not tolerate an indifferent thing ( as was a love-feast till then ) to continue so near the lords supper , when it was abused , how would they allow the change of sitting into kneeling , especially in these two considerations ? first , because the abuse of love-feasts ( viz. superstuity ) was never so great and scandalous in the apostles time , as the abuse of kneeling ( viz. idolatry ) ▪ was and is in the synagogue of rome . and besides , love-feasts were either before or after the lords supper ; whereas kneeling is in the principal part of the holy communion . therefore if the apostle banished love-feasts from the lords supper , because of the abuse , and brought the church to the simplicity of the first institution , is it not a tempting sin to retain the idolatrous kneeling of papists , and reject the exemplary sitting of our master christ ? and the rather because it is in that sacrament , and in that part of the sacrament which especially setteth forth our communion with christ and his church , and is therefore called the communion — doth not god strictly forbid us to serve him as idolaters do their godds ? the which considered , can kneeling , wherewith papists honour their breaden god , be honourable to christ in his holy sacrament ? for such reasons , many are convinced , that kneeling at the receiving the communion is unlawful ; and seeing without kneeling they cannot have communion with the church of england , they cannot locally communicate with her , but yet highly honour her for the soundness of her doctrine , and do mentally hold catholick communion with her , so far as she agrees with the catholick church ; but necessity makes them to with-hold local communion from them . to make this yet more clear , the reader must observe , that the argument mr. baxter doth furnish them with , runs thus , it is not lawful to communicate with those that impose sinful terms of communion : this mr. baxter affirms . but the church of england imposeth many things as terms of communion with them , which they think are sinful . ergo they must not communicate with them . now in the minor mr. baxter and they differ ; he thinks the things they scruple ( for instance , kneeling ) are lawful , but yet proposes strong arguments against the lawfulness of kneeling ; which arguments , though not convincing unto him , yet are so unto them . and therefore whatever is his liberty , it is their duty to with-hold their communion from the church of england , still honouring her for the soundness of her doctrine , &c. § . . mr. baxter in his schism detected , p. . affirms , that he who is unjustly cast out of the church , and by its very laws excommunicated , ipso facto , is no damned nor sinful schismatick , for worshipping god in a church , that will receive him . but according to the judgment of mr. baxter , protestant dissenters , are unjustly cast out of the church of england , and by its very laws , ipso facto , excommunicated . ergo they are not sinful schismaticks . when mr. baxter speaks of going to another church , mr. baxter must be understood to mean a with-holding communion from the excommunicating church , and commuicating with another , whose laws do not , ipso facto , excommunicate . the which being so , the argument against mr. baxter is valid for the acquitting their seperation from the guilt of sin. § . . there is another argument which mr. baxter , in conjunction with dr. sherlock gives us , and which will acquit the lay-dissenter from sin , 〈…〉 no sin , but a duty to with-hold communion from a schismatical church : this dr. sherlock doth over and over assert . but the church of england is a schismatical church , saith mr. baxter . it is a schismatical church , it is guilty of haneous and aggravated schisme . mr. baxter in his first plea , p. . saith , § . . if any proud , or passionate , or erronoous person do , as diotrephes , cast out the brethren undeservedly , by unjust suspensions , silencings or excommunications , it is tyrannical schisme , what better name soever cloaks it . if any should make sinful terms of communion by laws or mandates , imposing things forbidden by god , on those that will have communion with them , and expelling those that will not so ▪ sin ; this wore haneous schisme ; and the further those laws extend , and the more ministers or people are cast out by them , the greater is the schisme . § . . if any should not only excommunicate such persons for not complying with them in sin , but also prosecute them with mulcts , imprisonments , banishments , or other prosecution , to force them to transgress ; this were yet more haneously aggravated schism . § . . all those would be deeply guilty of such schism , who by talk , writing or preaching justifie it , and cry it up , and draw others into the guilt , and reproach the innocent as schismaticks , for not offending god. [ then look to your self , good mr. baxter , reflect on your talk and writing , and clear your self from the guilt of reproaching the innocent as schismaticks , if you can . ] but i 'll proceed : § . . if any should corrupt such a church , or its doctrine , worship or discipline , in the very essentials , by setting up forbidden officers and worship , or casting out the officers , worship or discipline instituted by christ , and then prosecute others for not communicating with them , would be yet the more haneous schisme . § . . if either of the last named sorts would not be contented with mens communion with them , but would also silence and prosecute such as will not own , justifie and consent to all that they do by subscriptions , declarations , covenants , promises or oaths , this would be yet more aggravated schism . so far mr. baxter . now let any impartial reader compare what is here said , with what else-where mr. baxter accuses the church of england of , and he 'll find all this to be but his description of the church of england , which according to the general import of his writings , must be looked on as guilty of haneous , aggravated and tyrannical schism , that is , to be deeply schismatical ; and therefore , according to dr. sherlock , not to be communicated with . but i 'll draw to a close , beseeching the reader to consider well what mr. baxters judgment is , about communicating with the parish-assemblies , by law established , how much he is against it , and what are some of his reasons , and he will find , i. that mr. baxter is as much against communicating with the parish-assemblies , as by law required , as his brethren are . the parish-assemblies , by law established , are diocesane , and with them , as such , mr. baxter communicates not . but first fancies the parish assembly to be a congregational church , and the parish minister to be an independant pastor , exempt from the spiritual jurisdiction of the diocesane bishop , and then holds communion with it as such , that is , he either communicates with it as if it were what indeed it is not , or if it be really such a church as he fancies it to be , his communion with it is only as 't is a church separated from the national settled order : for the parish assembly , as a part of the national settled order , is no church , it has no pastor , &c. ii. that baxter's communion is no more catholick than theirs ; though he talks more of the name , he has no more of the thing than they have . doth he hold catholick communion mentally with the universal church ? so do they . do they with-hold mental communion from parish-assemblies , as by law established ( i. e. ) as they are parts of the diocesane ●nstitution ? so doth mr. baxter . are the con●●●●●…tions , to which their local communion is confined , of a constitution different from , and independent on the diocesane ? so is the parish church with which mr. baxter communicates , if it be really what he fancieth it to be ; so that his local communion is as much confined to dissenting assemblies as theirs is . this is on a supposition that mr. baxters imaginations were operative , ad extra , and would make a real change on the constitution . but if the parish assembly continues , de facto , as established , then i must say , iii. that mr. baxter holds both those premises , from which a conclusion ( justifying their separation ) doth naturally follow . the premises are these ; it is our undoubted duty to separate from the corruptions that are in the parish assemblies . but the very constitution of the parish assemblies and ministry , by law established , are corruptions . these are mr. baxter's premises . and let the world judge whether this conclusion [ namely , that it is our undoubted duty to separate from the parish assemblies and ministry , as by law established ] doth not naturally flow from them , justifying a with-holding communion from the parish assemblies . in fine , it must be observed , that if the parish assemblies be really de facto , but parts of the diocesane church , and no compleat churches , mr. baxter must justifie the separation , and that he doth so , i will give you his own words , as i find 'em in his schism detected , p. . either our parish churches ( saith he ) are true churches , or not ; if not , the separatists are so far in the right , and separate not from true churches , eo nomine , because they separate from them : so far mr. baxter ; who , if the parish . assemblies be but parts of the diocesane constitution and not true compleat particular churches , justifies the separation from 'em ; and who knows not , that the parish assemblies , as by law established , are but parts of the diocesane ? finis . an answer to dr. scot's cases against dissenters concerning forms of prayer and the fallacy of the story of commin, plainly discovered. collins, anthony, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing c estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) an answer to dr. scot's cases against dissenters concerning forms of prayer and the fallacy of the story of commin, plainly discovered. collins, anthony, - . [ ], p. printed for a. baldwin ..., london : . reproduction of original in huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng scott, john, - . prayer -- early works to . dissenters, religious -- great britain. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - marika ismail sampled and proofread - marika ismail text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion advertisement . there is lately published , a letter of advice to the churches of the nonconformists in the english nation : endeavouring their satisfaction in that point , who are the true church of england ? and now in the press . short animadversions upon dr. calamy's discourse ( in the conformists cases against dissenters ) concerning a scrupulous conscience . an examination of dr. hascard's discourse concerning satisfaction , wherein it is inquired , how well the author of the said discourse hath proved , that it is not lawful for a man to go from his parish church to meetings , that he might better edifie . an answer to dr. scot's cases against dissenters concerning forms of prayer . and the fallacy of the story of commin , plainly discovered . london : printed for a. baldwin at the oxford-arms in warwick-lane , . an answer to dr. scot's cases of conscience about forms of prayer . in the question , relating to ( forms of prayer ) agitated of late years betwixt learned divines , of several perswasions , three things are considerable , which are no light prejudices against their opinion , who have been so zealous for them . . the difficulty of bringing them to state the question right , or to speak closely to it , when so stated . . whether forms of prayer be lawful yea or no ? . whether supposing them lawful , they may be lawfully imposed on ministers of the gospel ? . whether ( supposing they may be lawfully imposed on by some ) they may be lawfully imposed universally on all ministers , and by all ministers used in their publick ministration ? . whether people may join with ministers using them ? are four distinct questions . the first of which is ( that i know of ) denied by none . the last , by none , or very few . the author of the book called , a reasonable account , why some pious nonconforming ministers in england , iudge it sinful for them , to perform their ministerial acts in publick , solemn prayer by the prescribed forms of others . chap. . stated the question thus . whether it be lawful for ministers ( having the gift of prayer ) ordinarily to perform their ministerial acts in solemn , stated , publick prayer ; by reading , or reciting forms of prayer composed by other men , confessedly not divinely and immediately inspired , although by superiours required so to do ? his learned answerer confesseth , that he had stated the question with sufficient plainness and clearness . let that then be taken for the true question , for we are concerned in no other . . a second considerable prejudice is , that those who have pleaded the lawfulness of the vse of forms ; have laid a great deal of more stress , upon the inartificial arguments , drawn from authority and antiquity ( as they have pretended ) than upon any artificial arguments drawn from the intrinsick nature of the action ; whereas one scriptural , or artificial argument is worth a thousand others ; and till the lawfulness of an action be proved , no argument from authority commanding , or antiquity , or present usage approving , can come into any consideration at all ; it being most certain , that no authority of man can oblige us contrary to the will of god , neither ought any examples of men to be produced , as temptations to move us to any thing of that nature . . a third is , their extravagant zeal to load the opinions contrary to theirs , with odious prejudices and imputations . three of these i have taken more special notice of in this case . . the first is great impertinence , and nonsense , and rudeness to say no worse , that are sometimes mingled with extempore prayers ( so our casuist phraseth it ) part . pag. . . the possibility that fluency of expression may be from diabolical inspiration . this our casuist also hits upon , i do not remember any higher authority for this , than that of ravilliac redivivus . since the notion mightily pleased dr. falkner , in his vindication of liturgies , p. . ravilliac produced only the instance of major weier , to prove what he said , our casuist hath found more . . the third is , that these conceived prayers , were first brought in by iesuits . this also our casuist hits upon , p. . pa. , . for the first of these , i do not think it worth the while to say any thing to it , the knowledge of the contrary , to so many thousands in london for twenty years together ( whiles hardly any others were publickly used ) and the experience of two or three and twenty years since , whiles the forms have been used in publick temples , yet others also have been used in the hearing of many thousands , is so eminent a confutation of this , as nothing need be added , to say nothing of what hath been already said , that forms for the desk will not prevent this , unless we have some for the pulpit , and that for sermons , as well as prayers , and for families , &c. and that as large an experience hath shewed , that a wandring mind in a minister , will expose forms to the like absurdity ( of which instances enough might be given ) besides , that it is no small imputation upon those who are intrusted to send out faithful , and able preachers , that they send out such as cannot pray , without impertinency , nonsense , and rudeness , or worse . but the two latter have in them so much of falshood ( if not , something much worse ) that it is necessary to vindicate , free , conceived prayer , from such black and odious imputations , fit for nothing ; but to make some prophane persons , matter for discourse over a pot of ale , or pint of wine . i will begin with the latter first , as to which our casuist faith , p. . par. . " that we should do well to consider who it was that first introduced it [ that is praying by conceived prayer ] into england , and set it up in opposition to our liturgy . for first , there was one faithful commin , a dominican frier , who in the ninth of elizabeth , to seduce the people from the church , thereby to serve the ends of popery , began to pray ex tempore , with such wonderful zeal and fervor , that he deluded a great many simple people , for which he was afterwards amply rewarded by the pope . after him one thomas heath a iesuit , pursued the same method , exclaiming against our liturgy , and crying up spiritual , or ex tempore prayers , thereby to divide the people from our publick worship , telling the bishop of rochester , by whom he was examined . that he had been six years in england , labouring to refine the protestants , and to take off all smacks of ceremonies , and to make the church purer † and i hope , when our brethren have well considered , who it is they join with , and whose cause they advance , while they thus decry our liturgy , and cry up their own ex tempore prayers , in the room of it ; they will at last see cause to retract a mistake , which none but the church of rome will have cause to thank them for . " the learned author quoted by our casuist in his margent , thus expresseth himself in the place cited . " of this , we have a considerable evidence lately offered to the world , in the examination of a priest so imploied at the council table , a. d. . being the ninth of queen elizabeth , which is published from the lord burleigh's papers , which were in the hands of the archbishop vsher , and from him came to sir iames ware , whose son brought them into england , and lately caused them to be printed . " to prove this , he quotes no more valuable author then foxes and firebrands , . so that to the author of that reverend pamphlet , foxes and firebrands we must go , and if he proves romantick , all this story is spoiled . the author of that pamphlet hath this story , pag. , , , , , , , , . too long for any to transcribe . i shall only make some remarks upon it , sufficient to make it appear ridiculous enough . . he tells us , it was a story which happened . ninth elizabeth . and p. . he saith , " it produced the act for preventing popery , and other sects , which injoined all people from ten years old , and upward , not having a lawful impediment , to repair every sunday , to hear divine service under the penalty of forfeiting twelve pence for every such default . " whereas first , there was never any such act , as took notice of persons ten years old. secondly , for the twelve penny act , it concerns none under sixteen years of age , and was made first elizabeth , which was eight years before , ( surely the worthy author read first elizabeth , decimo elizabeth ) was not this think we a very judicious author fit to have his word taken ? how this falshood could escape the eyes of the learned dean , that thought fit to give such a paltry pamplet credit i cannot but admire ; but we shall find more than this to defame this romance by . . he tells us the story was transmitted ( being an extract out of the memorials of my lord burleigh , to bishop vsher ) from his papers to sir iames ware , from him to robert ware esquire his son. so then , here are papers , which in their original are pretended to be but extracts ( by we know not whom ) these extracts , are years old ( wrote in paper ) never that we heard of discovered by bishop vsher all his life time , but coming , none knows how , or when , to sir iames ware , ( who is not said to be the bishops executor ) neither did sir iames communicate them , but dies . at length , 't is pretended one mr. robert ware his son , hath obliged the world , not by publishing them himself , but by communicating them to the author of foxes and firebrands ( in whose hands , papers of that nature whatever they got , were like to loose nothing ) thus the world comes to be blessed with them ; and i presume this story , deserves just as much credit as the catholick letter , published a little after this , the forgery of which was detected by parliament , and the author cried peccavi for it . surely , if we were not very partial in our judgments , upon relations and stories , that favour our own opinions , and fancies it were hardly possible any learned man could call this a considerable evidence , which hath nothing of an evidence in it . here is a paper evidence , that is , but a pretended abstract , and that of a relation of matter of fact more than a hundred years old ( it were worth something to see it ) and this communicated to the world , after i know not how many descents . my lord burleighs , the primates , sir iames ware , and at last at the second hand , not by him that had this relick , but by one who hath not given the world much cause to be confident of the truth of what he hath wrote . and as it will appear by what followeth , hath no more deserved any credit from the world for this story , ( which will appear , if not a romance , yet to have such marks of one , as any one upon an hue and cry would ) see reason to stop it upon suspicion , as such . . in the first place , he saith , faithful commin was a friar of the order of st. dominick . this encouraged the dean of pauls to call him a priest , and our casuist to call him a dominican frier ; but how doth this appear from any part of the story , as related at large in the pamphlet ? he confessed no such thing , all that he said , was , that he was of christs order , a preacher of the holy gospel . no such thing was proved against him . clerkson ( the arch-bishops chaplain ) saith , he fell from the church of rome , and puts him to prove his ordination ; objects , that he never came to our liturgy , nor received the sacrament from any of our orthodox clergy-men . draper the cook and his maid witnessed nothing , but their hearing of him pray two hours in his private chamber . neither doth baker the ship-master prove any such thing , he only tells the council of a story that one martin daval , should tell him , of which this was no part. possibly he had been a dominican frier , but that he was so now , appeareth from nothing in the whole story , and there is no doubt but in the ninth of elizabeth , there were some hundreds of dominican friers , that were protestants ; for it was but nine years after the generality of the nation had been papists . so as all that should have been said ( if so much could ) was , that this faithful commin ( who formerly had been a dominican frier ) was accused by iohn clerkson ( chaplain to archbishop parker ) nicholas draper , and mary dean a maid servant . . they deposed ( as is said ) upon their oath . what ? that the said faithful commin , was no true protestant , but a false impostor , a sower of sedition among her majesties loyal subjects . this is a pretty strange oath , as if one should go and depose before a justice of the peace , that a. b. is no honest-man , but a thief , a murtherer , &c. i wonder what judge or justice of peace would convent any upon such an oath ? yet we are made believe ( not very probably ) that upon this he was convented , munday april . before the queen and the council , where archbishop parker examined him . i hope upon his examination , something will appear further . : the archbishop ( as is said ) asked him , of what profession he was ? he replieth , of christs order . the archbishop asks him , what order was that ? he replieth , a preacher of the holy gospel . the archbishop asks him , what gospel he call'd the holy gospel ? he replies , the gospel of iesus christ. the archbishop asks , vnder what porrer do you own to bold that gospel ? he replieth , vnder christ and his saints . the archbishop asks , do you acknowledge any other power save that of christ to be on the earth ? he replies , yes i do . archbishop saith , what is that ? he replies , the holy catholick church . the archbishop saith , do you not acknowledge , a defender of the holy catholick faith ? he replieth , god is the only defender . then the archbishop tells the queen , he was instructed , or else was a man of craft . i would now gladly know , what upon all this his first examination , spake him a papist . his answers are as like the answers of some simple , weak noncon , as is imaginable . neither doth the archbishops questions argue his suspicion of him to be a papist . he doth not so much as ask him , what religion he owned , nor propound any question to him about any distinctive point of popery . nor do the archbishops questions found like questions indeed , propounded by a man of archbishop parker's learning , who would hardly have phrased his questions so , . vnder what power do you own to hold [ certainly he would have said to preach ] the gospel . . do you acknowledge any other power , save christ on the earth ? those who formed these questions , seem to be some persons short of the learning and judgment of archbishop parker . after this , the author of foxes and firebrands tells us , that commin was ordered to withdraw , then the witnesses were called , of which iohn clerkson ( the archbishops chaplain ) was the first , who told the queen he had been acquainted with commin for a year before past . the queen asked him , what he had to say against f. commin , that he suspected him to be an impostor ? he answers three things . . let him ( saith he ) prove his ordination , since he fell from the church of rome . . why he never cometh to the prayers of the now established church of england . . let him prove , that ever he received the sacrament according to the church of england , from any of our orthodox clergy-men . . this is all so romantick , as hardly any thing can be more ; i suppose the accuser after an oath taken , ought to have averred before so great a presence , not to have said , let him prove . at this rate the council might have sent for , and charged every subject the queen had , was it ever before heard , that an accuser charged with an oath , to speak the truth , the whole truth , and nothing but the truth , should begin his deposition with , let him prove . how must the entry of this be ? this deponent being sworn and examin'd , saith , let him prove his ordination , since he fell from the church of rome , &c. my lord burleighs clarks knew better how to draw a deposition sure . . but besides , what should commin prove ? that , which none in england ( being a priest of the church of rome before ) was ever required to prove , nor ever had , viz. a second ordination , after his conversion from the romish religion . the author goeth on telling us , that after some consideration , he was called in again and asked , whether he was ever ordained , and by whom ? commin saith he was , and by the cardinal pool , ( who was dead nine years before this ) the archbishop asks , if he had not any other certificate under the bishops hands since the reformation ? he saith , not any . the archbishop asks him , wherefore be would dare to preach , having not got a license of permission , under some of our bishops hands , how shall we be assured you are not of the romish church ? commin answers , there are several have heard my prayers , and my sermons , and can testifie that i have spoken against rome , and her pope , as much as any of the clergy have , since they have fallen from her , i wonder therefore , why i should be suspected . . so certainly might any one else wonder , till they had proved some popish tenets broached by him , and either publickly preached , or secretly whispered . the archbishops question too was admirable , how should his purchase of a license to preach , have secured them that he was no papist . though he had taken the oath of supremacy , he might have vomited it up , both bonner and gardiner had done as much . but the archbishop is made to go on thus . by your answer mr. commin , i perceive you would have any one preach , so that he speak but against the pope in his sermons . commin is made to reply , not every one , but he whose function it is , and who hath the spirit of grace and truth . the archbishop replieth , but is this spirit that is in you , either the spirit of grace , or truth , that doth not comply with the orders of the church , lately purged from schism and idolatry ? . this question now proceeds upon this hypothesis . that a particular church lately purged from schism and idolatry , can make no order , that cannot by all be lawfully complied with ( that is , cannot err ) which is directly contrary to our thirty nine articles , and not like to have been the speech of so learned and judicious a person , as archbishop parker was . but to proceed , commin is brought in replying to the archbishop . therefore i endeavour to make it purer , as far as god permits . the archbishops asks , how do you endeavour to make the church purer , when you neither communicate with her in sacraments , or in prayer ? to which commin answers , yes , i endeavour , if when i pray to god , that he would open the eyes of men to see their errours , and several have joined with me , when i have prayed among them , and i have both given , and taken the body of christ to those of tender consciences , who have assembled with me in the fear of the lord. the archbishop replies , by your words then , you have a congregation that follows you . commin replies , i have . the archbishop asks , of what parish , and in what diocess ? he replies , neither in any certain parish , nor in any certain diocess . the archbishop replies , where then i pray ? he replies , in the wide world among the flock of christ , scattered over the whole earth . the queen replies , your diocess is very large mr. commin . . i would gladly know of any , who understand sense , what there is in all this , to prove this commin was a papist . after this two other witnesses were examined , one draper , and mary dean his maid . draper , saith , " that commin , came to his house at the maiden-head , with several of his followers , where he bespoke a joint of mutton , and two hens for his dinner , hearing that his profession was a cook , that he shewed him a room , for him and the company that came with him , perceiving several to come and inquire for him . that by chance going up to the stairs , he heard one groan and weep , which caused him to lift up the latch , at first he was startled and stood amazed , but inquiring of one of his followers , what ailed the man ; he replied , do ye not see we be all at prayers ? the maid ( saith he ) wondering where i was , came to seek me , and found me amongst them , and can testifie the same . the maid ( mary dean ) testified the same , adding , that she thought he was distracted , when she heard him pray ; but the people said , he was an heavenly man , and that it was gods spirit made him weep for the sins of the world. draper added , that he continued about two hours in prayer , then some went away , about ten staid , and did eat what they had spoken for , and paid him to the utmost penny. " what was there now in all this , to prove faithful commin a popish priest ? was it his praying two hours ? here is nothing else evidenced against him , yet this was the whole proof , as recited by the author of foxes and firebrands . but it may be , we shall meet with something afterward , more effectual . let us therefore proceed with the story . the aforesaid author tells us , that after this the queen caused commin to be called in , and told him that , if he would receive orders , and become of the church of england , he might ; otherwise he must not be permitted to pray and preach among her subjects . how improbable a story this is , may be understood by any that understand , that according to our english discipline , none once ordained by the church of rome is to be reordained ; and it is not likely the queen would have put him more upon a reordination , than a rebaptization . his fault apparently was , a preaching without license , and so much is imported by the queens next words ( if ever they were hers. ) you have usurped over the power both of church , and of state , in doing contrary to the order , that we , our council , and parliament have agreed on unanimously , by , and with the consent of the whole clergy of my realm . commin ( as the tale is told ) desires time to give the queen an answer . the queen requires bond for his appearance , pretending other examinations to be taken , and questions to be propounded . how preaching without licence , and praying two hours in an inn , came to be a council-board case , deserveth thinking-mens deliberation ; for here is nothing else either confessed by him , or objected , or proved against him ; but not coming to the prayers , and not receiving ' the sacrament , for both which , the statute , and ecclesiastical law was plain enough ; and in cases where the law hath provided , the council-board useth not to concern themselves . the upshot of the story is , that one bland , and twenty others were commin's security , for his appearance again at the council-table , april , . when they did appear , but were put off till the next day . when ( as the tale is told ) commin did not appear , his bail was sent for , but they were discharged , being bound only for his appearance april , when he did appear . commin , if we may believe the author of foxes and firebrands , went away that evening , april . the same author tells us , p. . " that commin coming from the council , told his followers , that her majesty , and the council had acquitted him , and that he was warned of god to go beyond the sea , to instruct the protestants there , and that ere long he would return to his flock , with better success . he told them , that spiritual prayer was the chief testimony of a true protestant , and that the fett form in england , was but the mass translated - so after he had with a multitude of tears like a crocodile , first prayed an ex tempore prayer , the better to prey upon the poor deluded people ; he took his leave of them , telling he had not one farthing to support him in his journey , yet being gods cause , he would undertake it out of charity ; and he was assured that the lord would raise him up friends where ever he travelled . this speech set most of the people on weeping , especially the women , who requested their husbands to contribute towards his necessities , and it was made appear after his escape out of england , that they collected for him l. besides what the compassionate sex bestowed upon him unknown to their husbands . " all this now is either true or false , if it be all a forgery , and of the same batch that the letter which came out a little before this pamphlet from the jesuit in paris , to his correspondent in london , shewing the most effectual way to ruine the government , and protestant religion ( complain'd of in parliament , march st . . which the house of commons was informed , one dr. nelson was the forger of , march . . and upon it , that day ordered him into custody , and for which he had upon his knees a reprimand , may . . ) it signifies nothing . if any think it was true , he should do well to consider , how the author of foxes and firecrands , should know it to be so . it is a passage years old , and not likely ( as any will say that ever saw any minutes of the council-board ) to be all entred there , or so taken by the secretary cecil , as to be so whole in his papers . it was not the product of any judicial examination , few i think will be so credulous as to believe such romances . let us yet go on with the story , in the latter part of which ( if any where ) must be the proof of commin's being a popish priest. the author of the book aforesaid , tells us , there was no further account of commin , till the . sept. which was just five months , and no more from commins going away . then , " one baker , a shipmaster arrived at portsmouth , and told ( we know not who ) that he had seen commin in the low countries , and that coming to unlade some goods at amsterdam , one martin van daval , a merchant of that city , hearing him talk of the said commin ; told him , that this faithful commin , had been lately at rome , and that the pope pius quintus had put him in prison , but that commin writing to the pope , that he had something of importance to communicate to him , the pope sent for him the next day , and assoon as he saw him said . sir , i have heard how you have set forth me , and my predecessors among your hereticks in england , by reviling my person , and railing at my church : to whom commin replied , i confess my lips have uttered that which my heart never thought , but your holiness little thinks , i have done you a most consid erable service , notwithstanding i have spoken so much against you . to which the pope returned , how in the name of iesus , mary , and all the saints hast thou done so ? sir ( said commin ) i preached against set forms of prayer , and i called the english prayers , english mass , and have perswaded several to pray spiritually , and ex tempore , and this hath so much taken with the people , that the church of england is become as odious to that fort of people , whom i instructed , as mass is to the church of england , and this will be a stumbling block to that church , while it is a church ; upon which the pope commended him , and gave him a reward of two thousand ducats for his good service . " qui bavium non odit , amet tua carmina maevi . let those whom a romance , or notorious forgery will tickle , be pleased with this most inartificial one , which hath as many brands of such a thing , as it is almost possible a story should have , . first , here is but five months allowed for one to go in to rome ; be there taken notice of , imprisoned in the inquisition , delivered , to come back into holland , for a merchant in holland to be informed of all these transactions ; to tell them to a ship-master unloading goods , for him again to load his ship , to come to portsmouth , from thence to london , and be examined before the council ; which makes it alone much like the story of him that shot the deer through his claw , and right ear at the same shot , which might be true , but not very easie to be credited by any thinking man. . here are set , formal speeches reported betwixt the pope and commin , upon his private discourse with the pope , which none could know , or relate , unless they wrote the words in characters ( a thing not so usual in rome ) and upon the truth of these words of commin to the pope , lies all the stress of the matter for which this story is brought . this is so bare-faced-a piece of fiction , as any man of ordinary modesty would blush at . . here are forms of speech used , not very likely to be used , either by a beggerly priest to a pope , or by a pope unto him ; it would also be inquired , whether pius quintus used that phrase ordinarily , in the name of iesus , mary , and all the saints ? . it is not very probable , that he being committed for so high a crime , as railing at the pope or the church of rome , should be so soon discharged , upon writing a lie ; all know in such cases there use to be petitions upon petitions , nor is the pope so much at leisure , as to send for a prisoner the next day . . what evidence had the pope of the feats commin had done ; did he take his own word ( think we ) for the good service he had done , so as to acquit him of such a crime ? . all i can say is , if the pope gave him ducats upon these terms , pius quintus and his money were sooner parted , than i think any reasonable man will believe they should . i appeal to the judgment of the whole world , whether this story hath any thing of credibility in it . the next story brought to perswade us , that free , spiritual prayer was brought in by the iesuits and romish priest's is the story of one heath , related largely by the aforesaid author of the pamphlet called foxes , and firebrands , out of a pretended registry of the episcopal see of rochester , which begins anno . & . phil. & mar. and continued to the th elizabeth . the passage which makes up the story , he saith was . eliz. he tells us the story at large , p. , , , , , , , . dr. st. mentions it in his preface to his vnreasonableness of separation , p. , . our casuist hath it again , part . p. . i shall not trouble my reader with the history at large , which may be read by any that are curious in the afore-mentioned pamphlet called foxes and firebrands . all in it which looks towards our purpose is , that this heath confessed , that he had been a iesuit six years before , viz. anno . but owned himself at that time a protestant , and accordingly applied himself to the dean of rochester ( his brother having been lately bishop of that see ) for some church preferment , and had incouragement , only the dean would first hear him preach , and appointed him , . nov. when he preached , and that in the cathedral upon acts . . peter therefore was kept in prison , but prayers were made without ceasing to god for him . it seemeth , this subtle iesuit was so simple , as in a probation sermon to tell the dean , and his other hearers . that they were not the prayers of the church of england as then established , that brought peter out of prison , but spiritual prayers . the sexton ( as the story goes ) after sermon found a letter in the pulpit , directed to one mr. thomas thinn , he carrieth it to the bishop , and it was as followeth brother , " the council of our fraternity , have thought fit to send you david george , theodorus sarter , and iohn hutts , their collections , which you may distribute where ever you see it may be for your purpose , according to the peoples inclinations ; these mixtures with your own , will not only puzzle the understandings of your auditors , but make your self famous . we suppose your wants are not considerable at present , by what we have heard , how your flock do admire you every day , more , and more . be not over zealous in your proceedings in the beginning , but gradually win on them , as you visit them ; and according as you find their inclinations bend to your design . let us hear how you have proceeded , for it will satisfie our brethren much , and inable them to instruct you for the future ; hallingam , coleman , and benson have set a faction amongst the german hereticks , so as several , who have turned from us , have denied their baptism , which we hope will soon turn the scale , and bring them back , to their old principles . this we have certified to the council , and cardinals . that there is no other way to prevent people from turning hereticks , and for recalling others back again to the mother church , then by diversity of doctrines ; we wish you to prosper . " madrid , oct. , . samuel malt. upon this letter thus found , the bishop of rochester convented the preacher , nov. . chargeth him with nothing , but a suspicion that he was a iesuit , and that this letter came indeed to him , though under the fictitious name of thomas thinn . if we may believe the story he confessed , that he had been a iesuit six years before , . but faith , that he had for six years before , past , withdrawn from them . the bishop ( to prove him a iesuit still ) urged his saying in his sermon the day before . that they were not the prayers of the church of england , but spiritual prayers , that brought peter out of prison ( and was not this a concludent argument that he was a iesuit ? ) and by and by , the bishop asks him , if he had no letters from those of his own order ? if he knew one malt , sheweth him the letter supposed to be by him dropped in the pulpit . he owned , that he had heard of malt , and perhaps had formerly known him , but would not own that he yet was a papist . but it is said , that upon search at his inn ( for he had been in town but three weeks ) his beads were found in his boots , and amongst his papers , a license from the fraternity of the iesuits , and a bull dated the first of pius quintus ( which by the way was that year ) to preach what doctrines that society pleased , for dividing protestants , and in his trunk were found several books denying infant baptism . upon which it is said , the bishop adjourned the court three days , to the . nov. and in the mean time sent to the council for instructions . vpon . nov. be remanded him to prison , sentenced him to stand in the pillory three days , and on the third day to have his ears cut off , his nose slit , fore-head branded with f. and to be perpetually imprisoned . this is the story . admit , now it were true in all points , i see nothing in it , that either makes against free , conceived , prayer , or against dissenters . who doubteth but that iesuites will turn themselves into all shapes , this very iesuit was a probationer for a son of the church , he preached before the dean for that purpose . one of them may be all for the prayers of the church , and for the heighths of ceremonies ( as we know popish priests are generally . ) another of them may be for conceived prayer , and exclaim against the ceremonies , when both the one , and the other , drive the same design , that they may rule . now had we no liturgy universally imposed , nor any ceremonies so imposed , their designs were spoiled , and they would be put to new topicks . i never thought the good angels in the least defamed , by the devils transforming themselves into their appearance . but this story as related by the author of foxes , and firebrands , hath as great appearances also of a forgery , as can well be imagined . . it comes to us only upon the credit of a registry , and concerneth a matter of fact years since , is justified by no print , though both itolinshead and cambden wrote the history of queen elizabeth's reign with great particularities . now we know the authority of an ecclesiastical court , is such , as none of our civil courts will admit their scripts for records . . we know there was for twenty years an interruption of those registrings , in which time they lost many of their books and papers , this must be supposed to have escaped the common fate . . the register must be presumed to have made a true entry , and that verbatim , of what the bishop said , and heath answered . those who have been acquainted with those courts will tell us , they could never find a true entry made , of what was said between the iudges and parties questioned , when they have looked for them within fourteen days or a month. . this examination was in court. registers use not in court to set down questions and answers at large , but to make minutes of them , and then extend them at their leisure ; so as this examination was probably set down when the court was done , as mr. register's memory would serve him , and it was for the interest of the church to set down , so as we cannot be assured that so much as one question with the answer to it , is truly set down . . by what authority did the bishop sentence him to the pillory , to have his ears cut off , his nose slit , and to suffer perpetual imprisonment ? and for what crime ? all the world knows , that since the reformation , no bishop ever had such a power . the high commission , and star-chamber , in latter years exercised some such power , but this was in the bishops consistorial court , which never had such a power . . it is neither probable , that a iesuit should put his beads into his boots , nor keep a letter ( of no more moment ) in his pocket to drop in a cathedral pulpit . . the having of popish beads , or books denying baptism , or speaking such words , was by no law a crime , subjecting a person to so severe a punishment . . in the year , . ( but thirty two years before ) there were not ten iesuites in the world. in the year , . ( but twenty eight years before ) pope paul increased them to sixty . in the year , . ( but twenty five years before ) he established them without limitation . in the year , . ( but twenty seven years before this year ) their colledge at the importunity of peter mascarenhaz ( the portugal ambassadour to the pope ) could afford but two ( and those were two of the first twelve ) xavierus , and rodericus for all portugal . this story happening within twenty seven years , supposeth them a formed body , with settled correspondencies , so as there was a communication fixed betwixt rome , madrid , and england . the probability of which i leave to my readérs judgment . . whereas common fame speaks the iesuites the most subtle of all orders . this narrative , speaks their fathers ( for so all their missionaries are ) the veryest coxcombs in nature . otherwise heath would never at first have owned himself a iesuit , . muchless would he , preaching a probation sermon , and that in a cathedral , have so sillily reflected on the prayers of the church , or told the bishop . that he had laboured to refine the protestants , and to take off all smaks of ceremonies . the poor iesuit is made here beneath a tolerable fool. . nor was the iesuit malt made less . whereas the anabaptists had been once up in - germany , . and finally quelled upon their after-rising in the years , , . malt the iesuit is here brought in , endeavouring to perswade his friend , that hallingam , coleman , and benson , thirty one years after , and . had raised this faction . was not this a great blockhead , think we for a iesuite ? these difficulties ( as to credibilty ) this story laboureth under , how much soever it pleased the dean of pauls , or now pleaseth our casuist . i am aware of what the dean hath further said to strengthen this story , and to evince the suitableness of these pretences about spiritual prayer ( as he calls them ) to the doctrine , and practice of the iesuites ; but he hath received an unanswerable answer by the learned author of the book called . a modest and peaceable enquiry into the design and nature of those historical mistakes that are found in dr. stillingfleets preface to his vnreasonableness of separation , p. , , . where is proved . . " that the iesuites were not the first inventers , nor the first bringers in of spiritual prayer ; spiritual prayer , being owned , acknowledged , and privately practiced ever since the apostles days ; for the church never did forbid the use of it , faith filiucius . . that the iesuites ever have , and still do zealously oppose the use of free prayer . . that wherein the iesuites and the dissenters agree , as to this , it is in no other respect , than wherein the universal church agree with them . . that wherein the dissenters , and the doctor differ about spiritual prayer , the dr. closeth with the iesuit ; our difference if any , being about the publick vse of free prayer , against which the iesuites are . see these four things made good in the book before-mentioned , p. , , . " but methinks , the dean , and those other divines we have to do with in this controversie , if they have a mind to make people a little sport , about this grave business of prayer , in the use of mens own abilities , they should give it another name than that of spiritual prayer . prayer is then spiritual , when it is so with respect to the matter , being such things as the holy spirit in the word , hath directed us to pray for . or as to the manner , when it is the action of our inward man , not the outward only , not a meer lip labour , and so it is opposed to what is meerly verbal . or else , when it is attended with holy , and spiritual affections excited , and inflamed by the holy spirit . i am sure all other prayer is an abomination in the sight of god. all the question is , betwixt our brethren and us , whether the words we use in prayer , should not be first formed in our own hearts , and whether that prayer which is such , be not more spiritual than other . that is , . whether there be not more of the work of our own spirit in it ( which i think no modest man will deny ? ) . whether there be not in such prayer more room left to the spirit of god to bring to our remembrance what we have to confess , to supplicate and give thanks for ? no words diminutive of spiritual prayer , become a divine who ought to know , that god is a spirit , and will be worshipped in spirit and in truth . what , if some iesuites have discoursed for this kind of prayer under the name of oratio acquisita , acquired prayer ? so they have discoursed very well , for the divine nature of christ , the trinity , the love of god , &c. all sober divines will grant , that this acquired prayer , is the most perfect prayer . the iesuites never discoursed for it , but in private . they agree with some others that are no dissenters , as to publick prayer . there was a time , when many can bear both the dean , and our late casuist witness , that they both approved , and practised this kind of praying ; if they see better now , they must pardon others , that cannot see by their spectacles ; still acquired prayer , or free prayer , is what it was in the same degree of goodness , and praeference . i know nothing that spiritual prayer can be opposed to , but either carnal , or meer formal prayer , from both which the good lord deliver the whole generation of those that seek his face . but this is enough to deliver free , or conceived , or acquired , or ( if they will have it so ) spiritual prayer ; from the false and fordid calumny of being brought in by iesuites . . the third is yet worse . that the devil may have a causation in it . the first that i remember i have met with , who hath taught the world this new imputation , was the author of ravillac redivivus proving it from the instance of that prodigious hypocrite in scotland , major weier . the next that approved his saying was dr. falkner in his vindication of liturgies , p. . who speaking , how the faculty of expression in prayer may be procured , faith , it may be procured , as he hath read in some particular instances , by diabolical contracts . what his answerer replieth to him , see p. , , . our casuist hath improved the notion , part . page . " but then secondly , as for diabolical inspirations , of matter and words in prayer , we have sundry very probable instances ; such as major weier ( who is said to have received his inspirations through a staff ) hacket , david george , and that monster of wickedness iohn basilides duke of russia , who were all of them possessed with such a wonderful gift of prayer , as did not only charm , and ravish those that heard them , but seemed in the opinion of the most wise and impartial to exceed the power of nature , which renders it very probable , that the matter of their prayers was for the most part agreeable to scripture ; otherwise it is hardly conceivable , how they could have procured to themselves so many admirers , and abused so many honest minds into a belief , that they were immediately inspired by god. " for answer to our casuist , his probable instances of the devil , his inspiring ill men with matter and words in prayer ; i shall only desire the reader to consider these few things following . first , consider , that it is worth the observing , how unreasonable this casuist , and his liturgical brethren are , while they find a difficulty to allow the holy spirit ( who is called , the spirit of grace and supplication , zech. . . the spirit of adoption , by which we cry abba , father , rom. . gal. . . the spirit that helpeth our infirmities , because of our selves , we know not what we should pray for , as we ought , rom. . . ) any influence on our words in prayer , which is a good and holy action ; and yet find no difficulty to yield the evil spirit , such an influence , who abhorreth prayer , and will leave the room , where he is molesting men , when they go to prayer , as we are assured in good histories of such molestations by the devil , such as that of the devil of mascon , published by dr. peter du moulin , and others . is not this very unfair dealing , and an horrible derogation from the dignity , and blessed influences of the holy spirit ? secondly , consider , that as for us , we freely grant the possibility of all that our casuist and his brethren can reasonably demand , and rightly infer from the foregoing instances . that is , we grant it is possible that by gods holy permission , satan may suggest many things to ill men , he may represent various objects to the imagination and inward sense ; he can impress the ideas of objects upon mens fancy and imagination ; and by means of those ideas , he can raise their passions , and excite their lusts and corrupt . affections : he cannot only imprint new idea's upon their imagination , but he can also revive in them the memory of things past , and restore to them the ideas of things which they had forgotten , and seemed to have lost ; and by the one , or the other , or by both these means he can influence their corrupt affections , and put them into motion . these are his venemous darts , wherewith he agitates their blood and spirits , and fixes their lusts and passions . he can also suggest to them thoughts , that it is gods good spirit who thus moves them , and makes those impressions upon them ; and then their own wicked hearts , inclining them too readily to believe the truth of his suggestions , because of the agreeableness of some of the things suggested , to the vanity of their minds , out of the abundance of their hearts , their months naturally speak , and that with such defining and flourish of words , as bears proportion to the natural volubility of their tongues , or to that readiness of speech , which by use and exercise they have acquired . thus it is granted , that without bodily . possession , the evil spirit might work in those children of disobedience ( ephes. . . ) and so doing , might furnish them with matter of discourse , and thereby so excite and inflame their corrupt affections and passions , that their wicked hearts so warmed , should readily prepare words for their tongues to utter , by a natural or acquired volubility of speech . but now , thirdly , consider , that in all this , there is nothing of that truly , spiritual , vocal prayer , which is the proper and genuin effect of gods holy spirit , influencing the souls of true penitent believers . for that vocal prayer , as such , consists of gracious words proceeding from , and reverently , and aptly expressing the inward workings of grace , the gracious devout affections of the heart , and the holy and humble desires of the soul towards god through christ. but the words spoken from the aforesaid wretched men , were no such gracious words , they proceeded from no such good , and so were expressive of no such gracious affections , of no such holy and humbly desires . the utmost that with any colour of reason can be said , is , that they were the counterfeit , and had the semblance and appearance of so good a thing . but then , fourthly , let it be considered , that the devils , and wicked mens counterfeiting the inspirations of the spirit of god , and the spiritual prayers of good men , is so far from being an argument against the inspiration of the holy spirit , and against the spiritual prayers of good men influenced by the holy spirit of prayer ; that it is rather an argument for them : just as there having been so many false and counterfeit miracles in the world , is an argument that there really have been true miracles ; and as there having been so much counterfeit coin in england , is a good argument that there hath been , and there is in it , true and good coin. for if there had never been any thing of that nature , true and good ; devils and ill men would never have been at the pains , to make their counterfeits . fifthly , consider , that what ever might be the design of the devil in being the author of such counterfeit delusive inspirations , ( which to be sure was no good one ; ) and what ever also might be the design of our casuist in objecting against us such counterfeit delusive inspirations ; yet certain it is , that in truth and reality , it is no reproach to the holy spirit of god , that he suffers the devil and his instruments to counterfeit his holy inspirations ; no more , than it is a reproach to gods holy angels , and faithful ministers , that satan transforms himself into an angel of light , and that satans ministers also are transformed into the ministers of righteousness , cor. . , . consider , sixthly , that the right use which men fearing god , should make of the instances of diabolical inspirations before-mentioned , is not to reject the true influences of the holy spirit in prayer ; for fear of being imposed upon by the counterfeit inspirations of satan ( that would be as wise a course , as to throw away all money good and bad , for fear of being cheated with counterfeit coin ) but to be upon our guard , and to try the spirits , ( thes. . , , . iohn . . ) examining the motions of the spirit within us , by the sure rule of gods written word ; which even cardinal bona confesses to be a sufficient rule to try spirits by . ( cum scriptum sit ( inquit ) lucerna pedibus meis , verbum tuum , & lumen semitisi meis : sit que sacra scriptura , sicut , apostolus ( tim. . ) divinitus inspirata , utilis ad docendam & ad erudiendum in iustitia , ut perfectus sit homo dei , ad omne opus bonum instructus ; suffciens apparatus ad spirituum discretionem , in eâ ●rocul dubio reperitur . bona de discretione spirituum , edit . paris , . cap. . p. . without doubt ( saith the cardinal , there is in the scripture sufficient means to discern spirits by . ) and withal , we ought to be very modest , humble , holy , and charitable ; exercising our selves to have always a conscience void of offence toward god and toward men. and if we do so , god , who is faithful , will not suffer us to be tempted above that we are able , cor. . . the infinitely good , wife , and faithful god , will not suffer any of his faithful people to be invincibly tempted by satanical delusions . god , by his word and providence , always furnishes his people with means to discern divine from satanical inspirations and enthusiasms : otherwise , if we could not discern the one from the other , divine inspirations would be of no use , but might be a trap and a snare to the best of god's people ; which were blasphemy to assert , and is contrary to the daily pattern of the church of england , which continually prays , that god would cleanse the thoughts of their hearts by the inspiration of his holy spirit : and let any sober , intelligent man read the life of hacket and his two prophets , as it was written and published by dr. cousms , no friend , but an enemy to dissenters , and he may see , that their pretended-inspired prayers had the devil's mark imprinted upon them in capital letters . i will mention but one such mark : it was usual with them , in their prayers , to call upon god to confound them , to destroy and damn them , if what they said was not true , and they were not men extraordinarily and immediately called of god to reform the church , as they pretended to be . by this one mark it is easie for any man of sense to see and judge that certainly they were melancholly to a degree of madness ; or , that they were deluded by the devil ; or , that they were both one and t'other . so much is sufficient for an answer to our casuist his instances of men diabolically inspired , as he says ; which should indeed make christians watchful against the stratagems of the enemy of god and men , but should never so far fright them out of their wits , as to make them reject the true genuine influences and inspirations of god's holy spirit who helps our infirmities in prayer , rom. . . if my style in handling this argument appear to any too severe , i must beg their pardon , if i want a little patience to hear the more-than-probable effects of the operations of the holy and blessed spirit traduced for iesuitical inventions , and the effects of the vnclean spirit in such cases . difficile est satyram non scribere — i have been large in this argument , because it is new ; and all i expect to find new in , the discourses i am animadverting upon : in the other parts , i believe , fewer words will serve the turn . the first case which our casuist undertakes to speak to , p. . and so to the th . is , . case . whether praying in a form of words do not stint and limit the spirit of prayer ? i must confess , i have always thought it no inconsiderable argument prevailing with me to judge it unlawful for me , ministring in prayer , to use the prescribed forms of others ; because , by doing it , i must necessarily exclude what influence or assistance the holy spirit may give me in the performance of that holy duty . it is true , this is done as to all the people that join with him that ministreth , but that is quite another species of prayer . we know it is the will of god , that as we sometimes should minister to our selves , and to others , in the duty of prayer ; so at other times we should only pray by communion , or joining with another in prayer . this is evidently god's will , as appears by the constant practice recorded in holy writ . now , if it be the will of god that we should sometimes pray only mentally , whilst one only useth words in prayer , and if it be lawful here to shut out the spirit 's influence upon our words , when we are to use no words , but only to join our amen to him that useth them ; it will not therefore follow , that we may do it , when we are our selves to use words , as to which the holy spirit may influence us . and this is all the unlawfulness in this case we plead , and which some phrase a stinting or limiting the spirit . for the clearer understanding of this matter , i will first set down what influence upon our words in prayer we challenge for the holy spirit . it lieth , as i said in the former chapter , in two things : . in bringing to remembrance the word of god. what acts are contrary to it , and have been our sins , and so are matter of confession ; what things the word of god gives us leave to ask , and under what circumstances , and what we have need of , what promises god hath made for giving them to us . now this is no more than christ promised , iob. . . the holy ghosts shall bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever i have said unto you . we challenge no such thing for the holy spirit , as dictating new matter , not contained in the word , but bringing to our minds what things are in the word fit for confession , supplication , or thanksgiving , as to us , or others . . nor , secondly , must that power be denied the holy spirit which any of our brethren have ; they can whisper such things in our ears , and so bring them to our minds ( tho' it may be we were not aware of them , or had forgotten them ) we believe the holy spirit can make immediate impressions upon our spirits , proportionate to the sounds creatures can make in our ears , from which impressions are made upon our souls : those who deny this , must deny all spiritual motions from the blessed spirit of god. . we also challenge for the holy spirit a power to excite and inflame the affections , which , so beated , thrust out words in a natural course . this is all we plead for in the case , and say , that if in prayer we be limited by a form of words , such kind of impressions as these cannot affect us , nor have any effect upon us suitable to the nature of them , and the holy spirit 's design in making of them ; and this we think is not lawful for us to allow , because it is a quenching of the spirit . our casuist tells us , that he will also examine , what the scripture attributeth to the spirit in prayer . . what it is to stint or limit the spirit . he saith , the scripture attributeth something to the spirit in prayer , which was extraordinary and temporary ; and something ordinary , fix'd , and standing . that which he mentions as extraordinary , is , the inspiration of the matter of prayer , together with an ability to express it in known , or unknown languages . to which i answer , there is thus much truth in this ; that it is sufficiently probable , that before the full revelation of the will of god in scripture , god did extraordinarily inspire his servants , as to some particular matter of prayer , how otherwise could they know what was his will ? and that also upon the first going of the apostles to the gentiles , it pleased god also to inable the apostles to pray with divers tongues ; nor was this only for a sign to them that believed not , but as a necessary mean , by which the first messengers of christ to the gentiles were inabled both to pray with , and to preach to several nations . but that after the full revelation of the divine will in the holy scriptures , god at any time more than other hath revealed the matter of prayer unto his people , more than the matter of preaching , is more than i know , or any can prove ; nor can any reason be given for such an assertion , he had in his written word told his ministers and people what they should pray for ; nor might they pray for any thing but what was according to that his revealed will. . if by revealing the matter of prayer , this author means no more than bringing to ministers and peoples minds such things as they stand in need of , and god in his word hath declared himself , ready to give , it is no more than god yet doth every day . . if by it he meaneth his exciting them , at this or that time , to pray for some particular good , either for a nation , or church , or a particular family , or person , which he had only generally promised in his word , and left them at liberty to pray for , conditionally , and with a reference and submission to his divine will and wisdom , neither can this be called extraordinary , with reference to any period of time , it being no more than what god hath by his spirit done in all times , and yet doth ; tho' in another sense this be extraordinary , such more-than-ordinary impressions , being but at such particular times , when god intendeth to give out such mercies ; other extraordinary and temporary revelations of the matter of prayer , after the sealing of the canon of scripture , are such as nothing in scripture guideth any to expect . and to assert any such thing , is but to dictate without shadow of proof eithe r from scripture or reason . nor is it more true , that there ever were any extraordinary assistances of the spirit at any time , as to the words used in prayer , further than the inabling the first ministers and christians to pray and preach in other tongues than they had learned . nor can it be proved , that as to praying in their own language , the holy spirit ever was further promised or given to any , than to bring to their remembrance the things they stood in need of , and which god had given them leave to pray for , and promised to give , and the like , and exciting their affections , and inflaming them , which being heated , they spake with their tongues ; which assistance , we do say , is an ordinary and standing influence communicated , as to former ages , so to our present age , and will be communicated to believers to the end of the world. let us hear what reason our casuist hath to the contrary : he pretendeth to give us four , p. , , , , , &c. to . . his first reason is , because there is no promise of any such gift , which , were it true , were indeed a strong reason , tho' not against the thing , ( for god may give what he hath no where particularly promised , ) yet against our expectation of any such thing . but this is very far from being truth : for , . there are general promises of all good things , and of his spirit . . there are particular promises of the holy spirit to help us in the duty of prayer . so that , if this influence be a good thing , and what is possible , without any derogation to-the honour of god , there are promises enough for it . he who looketh for a particular promise for every thing , will deprive himself of the comfortable expectation of much good , and disable himself from praying in faith for most things he prayeth for . god hath promised , psal. . no good thing will be with-hold from them that walk uprightly . he hath promised to give his holy spirit to them that ask him ; and he hath told us , that by this spirit we cry , abba father , rom. . . gal. . . and told us , rom. . that the spirit helpeth our infirmities , for we know not what we should pray for as we ought . he gives his spirit to his people , they are joined to the lord , and one spirit , and his spirit dwells in them , as we often read in scripture . he hath promised , that his spirit shall bring to remembrance the things we have heard of him , joh. . . but it may be he will say , there is no promise of assistance as to words in prayer : what should be the meaning of that ? there is no promise indeed of the holy spirit standing by , and dictating to us what words to speak , nor yet of the spirit 's so possessing us as the evil spirit doth a demoniack , so as to lay our soules asleep , while he useth our tongue . but there are promises of his teaching us to cry , abba father ; of his bringing to our remembrance what the scripture hath of his making intercession for us , &c. these are enough for us , and to prove all that ordinary assistance as to words in prayer which we plead for . nor doth our casuist say any thing of force , to perswade us , that such influence and assistance of the spirit is not within the latitude of the promises , in saying , that there are many good christians who would never pretend to any such inspiration , but are some of them beholden to their own recollection and invention for the matter and words of their prayer ; and others , for want of a sufficient quickness of invention , to be beholding to forms of prayer of other mens composure . ( p. . ) now there are no such blessings of the new covenant , to which good christians may have no right and title , and of which they may never actually partake , which is utterly to destroy the nature of the covenant , &c. that there are no blessings of the new covenant , to which every true believer hath no right or title , or which they may never actually partake of , is most freely granted . but that there are some blessings of the new covenant , which every good christian doth enjoy , tho' he lieth under other apprehensions , and which he may have a ius remotum , a right and title to , which , pro hic & nunc , he doth not actually enjoy ; and some blessings of the covenant which a christian might enjoy , if indeed he did not by his voluntary fault deprive himself of the benefit of them ; and some blessings which a young christian doth not at present enjoy , must be denied by no considerate divine : for who ever saith it , must deny both the quickening and consolatory influences of the holy spirit , and many more also indeed ; for the promises relating to iustification and regeneration , as every believer hath a right to them , so he actually partakes of them , as he shall do of eternal life . but for those branches of the covenant which concern further grace , or gifts , the case is otherwise . every good christian hath a right and title to the spirit of adoption , teaching him to cry abba father , influencing him in the manner i have opened , as to words in prayer . but yet it is very possible , . that by his own voluntary fault he may shut out these influences by tying himself up to forms of words . . he may want them , through his own default , in not studying the scriptures , and gaining a full knowledge of them . . he may deprive himself of them by wilful sinnings , which may make the holy spirit withdraw himself in those arbitrary manifestations . . he may have them , and not know it , but take them to be meer humane and natural recollections , to which the holy spirit hath assisted , by bringing to remembrance what christ hath said . our casuist's second reason , p. . is , because there is no need of any such immediate inspiration . this indeed ( were it true ) were a great argument , and would prove what he said before , that there are no promises of any such tendency . but how will he prove this ? he saith , . as to the matter of prayer , it is sufficiently revealed in scripture . . he saith , for words , if we have not quickness enough of fancy and invention to express our wants and desires in our own words , we may readily supply that defect by forms of other mens composure , which , with very short additions and variations of our own , we may easily adapt to all our particular cases and circumstances . this is the summ of what he saith , p. . p. , . if the matter of prayer be sufficiently revealed in holy writ , there neither is , nor ever was , since the apostles time , any need of any extraordinary assistance of the spirit to dictate that . but ( admitting this , which we freely grant ) is there yet no need of the spirit to bring to remembrance the things we have had of christ's ? our particular violations of the divine law , our particular wants , or the promises warranting us to beg a supply : to assert no need of the spirit 's help , we must not only assert the perfection of the rule of prayer , but the perfection of an human memory too , which , i suppose , our casuist will not . . as to words , our casuist talks as if he thought we pleaded for the spirit 's dictating formed words to us , or made use of our tongues to speak words not formed in our own hearts : what else doth he mean by words immediately inspired ? alas ! we mean no such thing , but only a bringing into our thoughts the matter of scripture , relating to things forbidden , commanded , promised , &c. from which , our souls , by a natural power , form words , and warming and heating our affections , which also contribute to them , and then thrust them out at our lips , as the psalmist speaks , psal. . . now how it can be , that forms should not shut out this assistance and influence , poseth me to understand . . our casuist's third reason is , p. . because there is no certain sign nor testimony of it amongst us . by signs , as he expounds himself , p. . he means miracles . he gives his pretended reason for this , because , without such signs to distinguish it from false pretences , we were better be without inspiration than with it , because we shall be left under an unavoidable necessity , either of admitting all inspirations which pretend to be divine , or of rejecting all that are truly so . according to this rate of arguing , we must conclude nothing to be the effect of the spirit of god , but what we can confirm to be so by working some miracle . alas ! how should christians ( if this had a grain of truth in it ) ever be able to satisfie themselves that they truly believe in christ , or love , or fear god , or exercised , or had any habit of grace ? god indeed gave the gift of miracles to confirm new doctrines , or some prophecies , or persons extraordinary missions . but did ever any divine make miracles necessary to confirm every manifestation of the spirit ? and why are they necessary for this more than any other ? is it not sign enough to him who believeth the scriptures to be the word and revealed will of god , that the inspiration is from god , if it be according to the revealed will of god ? surely one , who being about to pray , hath any thing brought into his mind to confess , beg , or give thanks for , which he knows is according to the revealed will of god his duty to confess , beg , or give thanks for , may know , or at least reasonably think , it is brought to his thoughts by the holy spirit of god , tho' he cannot confirm it to be so by a miraculous operation . but ( saith our casuist ) tho' the scripture may be sufficient to discover the matter of the inspiration , whether it be true or false , yet it is not sufficient to distinguish the inspiration , whether it be divine , or natural , or diabolical . then he runs into a discourse of natural and diabolical enthusiasms ; and concludes , that men may be inspired naturally , or from the devil , and how dangerous it is to father such inspirations upon the spirit of god. . for natural inspiration , it is a kind of unintelligible thing ; for surely he that is inspired , doth aliquid pati , suffer something , and to suffer it to receive the action of a foreign agent : so that , to speak modestly , ( tho' natural inspiration be a canting term , devised by some of late for no very good purpose , ) it is no very good natural sense , carrying with it contradictionem in adjecto , which is not very scholastick . it is true , a man may have a natural or accidental fervency of spirit , occasioned several natural and honest ways , as well as by some less honest ; and i do not think it much dishonourable to the holy spirit to make use of those natural means to excite the affections . our casuist is aware that this third reason of his will have the same , if not a greater force against that assistance of the spirit in prayer , which he , and others of his mind , are willing to allow , ( that he might not be called the spirit of supplication for nothing , ) viz. in exciting and inflaming the affections , whose fervour cannot be denied also , to proceed sometimes from the temper of the body , and they will be at a loss there also to distinguish betwixt the fervour that is divine and that which is natural in its causation . but how will he avoid it ? he tells us , p. . that as to this , we have a sure word of promise ; but not for the latter ; and therefore , if we can claim a promise , we have just reason to conclude , that how much soever other causes might contribute towards it , the holy spirit was the principal cause . i hope my reader , from what i have said before , will see reason to conclude , that we may as well claim promises , and more than one , for that influence which we claim for the holy spirit upon our words in prayer , as for the influence it hath upon our affections ; and if he will but name us the texts and promises he hath for the spirit 's influence upon our affections , it is ten to one but we shall prove , that those very texts , if rom. . , . gal. . . as much concern words , and contain promises for assistance as to words , as the exciting of affections ; and we are pretty sure of it , considering the great influence raised affections have upon our words expressive of them , so as we are even ; and if there need no miracle to prove the one to be divine , neither doth there need any to prove the other influence divine also . . as to diabolical inspiration , we have spoken before . the probability of such a thing is a very bold suggestion : we cannot deny but the devil may sometimes suggest scriptures to us . ' he did so to our saviour , matth. . . but it is a sure rule , that he never doth it but for obvious and apparently sinful ends. if a minister , or a consciencious christian , be conscious to himself , that he hath no other ends in prayer than to glorifie god , in obeying his will , to humble his soul before god for his sins , and to beg and obtain his pardon , and such influences of grace as his soul stands in need of , and he finds scriptures pertinent to these things brought to his mind , he hath no reason but to conclude they come from the holy spirit ; nor needeth he any miracle to confirm it . the end will both demonstrate the act , and also discover the principle plainly enough . but , p. . our casuist riseth higher , telling us , that we have not only no certain sign of any such inspiration in the conceived prayers of those which most pretend to it , but many certain ones of the contrary . four he will instance in , upon which he deseants , p. , , , , , . . the great impertinence , and nonsense , and rudeness , to say no worse , that are sometimes mingled with these extempore prayers . . that they are so generally tinctured with the particular opinions of those that offer them . . that that which gives them the reputation of being so inspired , is not so much the matter , as the way and manner of expressing them . . that that extraordinary manner and way of expressing them , for which they are thought to be inspired , doth apparently proceed from natural causes . the two latter be calleth plain signs : let us try the certainty and truth of any of them . i observe his first sign is wonderfully qualified with sometimes , which takes out all the efficacy of it ; for i suppose our casuist hath heard of such an axiome as this ; spiritus dei non semper tangit prophetatum , &c. the best prophet is not always a true prophet ; even nathan himself falsly revealed the will of god to david , sam. . . go do all that is in thine heart , for the lord is with thee . god sent him the next morning to tell david the quite contrary . and paul , who sometimes spake what he had received from the lord , cor. . . and cor. . . saith , vnto the married i command , yet not i , but the lord ; v. . of that same chapter , saith , but to the rest spake i , not the lord. so that ( with our casuist's leave ) supposing it true , that at some time some phrases may slip , which some criticks may call nonsense , ( and oft-times they will call that so which is not so , ) or which should , in their judgment , be rude and indecent , or perhaps worse : supposing , that some at some times should in their prayers declare their own opinions , which are not truth : neither of these would any more prove , that these mens words , in other parts of their prayers , or at other times in prayer , were not influenced by the holy spirit ; then david's murther and adultery , lot's incest , peter's denial of his master , would prove that they were not in the general course of their conversation led by the spirit of god ; or , that nathan was never influenced in his prophecy by the holy spirit , because he was not when he approved of david's resolution to build god an house . so plain are the two first signs , that indeed they are no signs , nor have any colour of such a thing , further than concerns those phrases so culpable . . nor , it may be , upon a strict enquiry , will it be found , that in publick there is more nonsense in free prayers than some make by their careless reading forms . i do not think our casuist , who hath sometimes used , and doth still sometimes in the pulpit use free prayer , so chargeable ; and i have reason to think there are some hundreds of ministers in england , of whom it may be full as charitably presumed . . for this second sign , i know no error can be in a man's declaring his own opinions in prayer , if they be true . i know no man who prayeth by forms , or otherwise , but must declare some of his own opinions . if he means by opinions , his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , singular opinions , which are false , it will only prove , that he did aliquid humanum pati , and was not influenced , as to those words , by the spirit of truth . . for his third , which he calls a plain sign : that that which gives them the reputation of being so ( that is from the spirit ) is not so much the matter , as the way and manner of expressing them . what gives them the reputation amongst weak people , of coming from the spirit , is one thing ; what indeed makes them so , is another thing . that which makes them so with others indiscernable , being the secret work of the spirit upon the heart , bringing scripture to remembrance , and exciting and inflaming the affections , which cause the thoughts to form words , which are by the affections thrust out of the lips ; all this is now a thing indiscernable to an hearer , who can only probably and charitably judge from the expressed affections by sighs and groans , and proper expressions . i know none makes the spirit 's influence upon our words to respect the matter of prayer , further than bringing to the mind of him that prayeth , matter before prepared in scripture , fitted for his circumstances at this or that time . all his other discourse under this head , hath nothing in it of argument , but is only defamatory of any other prayer than by forms , ( so far as he is able to defame it , ) and proceeds wholly upon a mistake of the principle ; for the spirit 's influence doth not only respect the way and manner of expressing , but , as i have said , the very matter of prayer it self , for this or that time , bringing to a christian's remembrance the true matter of prayer , and what at that time is proper for a christian. nor can i imagine with what consistency to himself our casuist makes this a plain sign of conceived prayers not being inspired : that that which gives them reputation to be so , is not so much the matter , as the manner and way of expressing them ; when himself alloweth all along the spirit 's influence to excite pious and devout affections , which certainly do not respect the matter , but the manner and the way , and manner of expressing our prayers . our casuist trifleth too much in making the only difference between forms and conceived prayers , to be , . that the one is in set words , the other in extemporary words : . in the largeness of them , and repeating the same things over and over again . before he had wasted his paper in confuting such fooleries , he should have heard us asserting them here . — qui capit , ille facit . . his fourth plain sign , is , that that extraordinary manner and way of expressing them , for which they are thought to be inspired , doth apparently proceed from natural causes : which neither he , nor an angel of heaven , can know , nor any but he who knows the heart , and what hand strikes those strings of the affections , from the touching of which , those sounds proceed . . how unreasonable is this for him to say , who will allow the holy spirit no influence , but upon our affections , exciting and inflaming them ? . suppose they do proceed from natural causes , why may not the holy spirit set those natural causes on work ? all which being most certain , there needs nothing be said to the further vain philosophy he useth upon this head. whether it be true , or false , is not of a pin value , as to the cause in hand . it may be from natural causes , and yet too from a first cause setting them on work. none will say , but the holy spirit makes use of natural causes for spiritual effects . in his . p. he comes to a fourth argument , to prove , that the gift of inspiration of prayer ( as he odly phraseth it ) doth not continue , is , because then conceived prayers must be infallible , and of equal authority with the word of god. we are very unhappy that in these debates , we either will not or cannot understand one another . do we plead for any more than the spirits helping our weak memories , in bringing to remembrance what things are contrary to the divine law , for the matter of confession ; and of what god hath declared in his word , he will give to them that ask him , upon such terms as he hath declared his will , for matter of petition , and the divine promises , for arguments to inforce our petitions , &c. so that , if the word of god be infallible , that which is so brought to remembrance , must certainly be so too ; and surely the scripture must be of the same authority with it self . if we mistake in the applications , we father not our mistakes on the holy spirit , but beg pardon for them . this being rightly understood , i refer to any intelligent reader , what strength there is in this argument more than in those we heard before . our casuist , having thus far given us his opinion against the continuance of that influence of the spirit upon us in prayer , which he called extraordinary , comes p. . to favour us with his opinion ; wherein the ordinary influences of the spirit consist , relating to the duty of prayer . he tells us it is , in exciting in us the graces , and proper affections of prayer . such as shame , and sorrow in the confession of sins , a sense of our need of mercy , and an hope ( surely he should have added also an intense desire ) of obtaining it , in our supplications for pardon , &c. in all this , we most freely agree with him , saving only in the restriction of the spirits influence to this only . nor can we possibly understand , how the spirit should thus influence our affections , and not our words ; which are and ought to be thrust out by those affections . we will suppose a soul to be guilty of wandring thoughts in the duty of prayer ( a guilt common to all persons ) and the spirit , who in the word hath accused and condemned this , to bring this to a souls remembrance when it is praying , or about to pray ; and to excite in the soul , a shame and sorrow for it , and inward desire and hope of pardon for them . can this soul be thus far in this particular be influenced , and not influenced , as to words also expressive of this desire and hope ? our casuist further tells us , p. . that words and expressions are of no other account with god , than as they signifie the graces , and affections of our hearts , without which he regards them no more then the whistling of the wind. all this is very true , but what then ? therefore ( saith our casuist ) since these affections are the main of our prayer , and words are nothing in his account in comparison with them ; can any man be so vain , as to imagine that those affections will be ever a whit the less acceptable to him , because they are presented in a form of words , and not in extemporary effusions . to which i answer , truly no. but admit , that the holy spirit to day or to morrow , bring to our mind from scripture , some particular sins as matter of confession , which are not mentioned ( unless generally ) in the form we are to use , and excites in us a shame , and sorrow for them ; and an earnest desire , or hope , for the pardon of them , and the christian hath no words in his form expressive of such shame , sorrow , desire , or hope , how acceptable do we think will this prayer be unto god , which is but half a prayer ? for though the motions of the affections be a part of prayer , yet it is not all prayer , and scarcely any where in holy writ call'd by that name ; at least not in one place of forty , where prayer is mentioned . as for the senses which our casuist puts upon those texts , gal. . . rom. . , . iude v. . he should have done well to have proved what he dictates , that they concern not our words in prayer , we are quite otherwise minded , and think that the spirit may influence us with sighs and groans , that cannot be fully uttered ( as no great passions can ) yet may be in a great measure uttered , and so uttered , as to let those that hear them , know they are imperfectly uttered , which is often discern'd , though not by non-sense ; yet by abruptures of phrase and expression , and the incoherence of them also sometimes . in the next place our casuist comes to explain stinting , and limiting the spirit . where first he quarrels at the phrase as being not found in scripture nor antiquity , he saith . it is a term of art invented by us , applied only to the present controversie , and this plainly argueth the argument to be new. i dare say , the author cannot find the term of natural enthusiasms , or inspiration in scripture ; nor yet the new invented notion of diabolical inspiration of men to the duty of prayer , in any antiquity : yet our casuist maketh no scruple to use them both , why may not we have the same liberty ? nor do we apply it meerly to the present case , we are every whit as much against forms of sermons . and what matters it , if the argument be new , provided it be an argument , and be strong ? but , neither is it new ; it is a great while ago , since the apostle commanded the thessalonians , saying , thess. . . quench not the spirit . now if the spirit kindleth , and inflameth the affections , and they influence the thoughts to form suitable words , and then the tongue cannot utter them , because it is tied up to some certain words and syllables , i think it is quenched , so far as it is capable , that is , its operations are quenched , and made to die in the heart . nor doth our casuist perfectly express our meaning in this phrase of limiting the spirit , for we by it do not so much mean hindring the spirit from affording us some assistance which we might otherwise expect from it . as , that we hinder our selves from making a due and perfect use of that assistance , which the holy spirit is ready to give us , both by bringing things to remembrance which we have forgot ; and also exciting , and inflaming our affections . for though they may yet burn within us , yet in the use of forms , they cannot ( as they ought to make up a perfect prayer ) burst out at our lips , we must not speak with our tongues , as david , psalm . . and this indeed may provoke god to withdraw these assistances from us . and now in opposition to our casuists conclusion i also conclude . i have shewed at large , that there is an ordinary assistance which the holy spirit giveth to conscientious christians about to pray , or in prayer . . by bringing to remembrance the matter of prayer ( recorded in holy writ ) proper for this , or that time of prayer , both for matter of confession , supplication , and thanksgiving , which ( through the frailty of our memories ) we often do not at that time think of . . by exciting and inflaming holy and pious affections , suited to every part of that duty . now by keeping our selves to forms , we shut out these influences of the holy spirit , either rejecting them , or not being able ( because restrained by forms ) to make use of them as to a perfect prayer . what our casuist hath said , or any one can say to disprove this , i refer to any reader indued but with common sense to judge . so much in answer to what our casuist hath said as to the first case stated by him . the second followeth . case . whether the use of publick forms , be not a sinful neglect of the ministerial gift of prayer ? our casuist hath here very rightly stated our case thus , p. . " by the gift of prayer , they mean an ability to express our minds to god in prayer , or to offer up our desires and affectito him ; in words , befitting the matter of them . which ability , say they , is given by god to his ministers , as a mean for publick prayer ; and in order to their being the mouths of the congregation to god , to represent to him , the common cases , and necessities of the people . and therefore , since god ( say they ) hath given us this gift , it may be justly questioned , whether we may lawfully omit the use of it , by using publick forms of other mens composure . " in speaking to his case , our author premiseth two things , and then laieth down four conclusions , all which i shall candidly examine in their order . . that this case concerneth the clergy only , not the laity . that is true , so far as concerneth publick prayer in churches . this argument will not indeed conclude it sinful for christians to join in prayer , with such ministers as use pious and good forms . what others may do , i cannot tell . . he premiseth , that this is not the case of the clergy of the church of england , who though they stand obliged to the constant use of the liturgy , yet are not hereby restrained from the exercise of their own abilities in publick prayer in their pulpits . i shall say nothing to the case of these , or these clergy-men . there hath been enough said as to this , by the author of the reasonable account , p. , and . i therefore come to his conclusions . . he saith , that this ability to express in our own words the common devotions of our congregations to god , is either natural , or acquired . we will grant this without more words about it . it is partly natural , speaking is so , partly acquired , to speak fitly , and properly to god in prayer is acquired . . he saith , that this natural , or acquired gift is no where appropriated by god to prayer , but left common to other uses and purposes . whether in words of scripture it be any where by god so appropriated , is not worth the disputing ; if from the nature of the ability , gift , or thing it self it be so appropriated ; which that it is , i think is clear enough from the description of it given by our casuist , p. . where he hath these words , by the gift of prayer , they mean an ability to express our minds to god in prayer , or to offer up our desires , and affections to him , in words befitting the matter of them . nor hath our casuist before contradicted this notion , now how it is possible that an ability fitly to express our minds to god in prayer , can relate to any thing but prayer , i cannot understand ; if he had indeed in stating the question , or explicating it , have denied this notion , there might have been some colour for this assertion , but now to tell us ( as he doth p. . ) that the gift of prayer is nothing but a freedom of elocution , or vtterance is very impertinent . but this is fully answered in the reasonable account , p. . and again in the answer to dr. falkners vindication of liturgies , p. , . but to add , yet a little further . the question is , whether an ability , fitly to express our minds to god in prayer , be a gift differing from the lawyers ability to plead well at the bar ; or a mans ability to discourse pertinently in good company , or a schollars ability to dispute well in the schools . our casuist saith plainly , they are but one and the same gift . . by our casuists ratiocination , those also must be the same gift with the gift of preaching ( which admitted ) it must necessarily follow , that he who is able to plead a case well at a bar , or to discourse well in company , must be able also to preach a good sermon , and to express himself fitly to god in prayer . which ( besides , that it would justifie the socinian , in telling the world , that they have been a long time troubled with a needless sort of men called preachers or ministers ) is most demonstrably false , there being some thousands in the world , that can discourse well in company , and many lawyers that can plead very well at a bar ; and several schollars that can dispute in mood and figure , that if they were put to it to pray and preach in a pulpit , few would think they had a gift , that is an ability for either . . according to this notion all gods gifts , as to external action might be reduced to the gift of motion . all spiritual habits to the one gift of the spirit ; but the apostle speaks after another rate . cor. . . now there are diversity of gifts , but the same spirit . and tells ver . . to one is given by the spirit , the word of wisdom , to another the word of knowledge by the same spirit . ver. . to another prophecy — to another the interpretation of tongues . all these now flow from the same spirit , and are all species indeed of the gift of vtterance ; but if the apostle understood himself , they were divers gifts , and by his authority we must crave leave to call them so . . besides , what can make , or argue a diversity of gifts , if a diversity of knowledge , as the foundation of their exercise , and a diversity of end , will not ? and with what sense can two gifts be made the same , when it is demonstrable that every one who hath the one of them , hath not the other , nor any thing like it ? neither is that true which our casuist tells us , and i admire to read him asserting what is contrary to all mens experience ; for he saith , " we find , that those who have this gift , ( viz. of prayer ) have it not only while they are speaking in prayer , but when they are speaking on their occasions ; and that ordinarily they can express themselves to men with the same readiness and fluency in conversation , as they can express their minds to god in prayer . " either he means all such , or only some such . if he speaks of all , it is most evidently false : how many have we known that want no words or proper expressions in prayer , that in worldly affairs cannot speak to any purpose . if he meaneth it of some only , he speaketh true , but nothing to the purpose ; for the same man might , in the apostles times , have the word of wisdom , and the word of knowledge , and prophecy , and interpretation of tongues . the apostles , doubtless , had them all , yet the apostle determines them , diversity of gifts , i cor. . , , , . . in the third place he tells us , that this gift of utterance not being appropriated by god to prayer , may , upon just reasons , be as lawfully omitted in prayer , as in any other use or purpose it is designed for . here our casuist supposeth , that the gift of prayer is nothing but the gift of vtterance , which we have disproved under the former head. . that the gift of prayer is not appropriated to prayer , which we have also disproved ; so as this conclusion falls by the fall of the two pillars on which it is built only . i must not omit what our casuist hath here said excellently , p. . " i do confess , had god any where appropriated it to the end of prayer , those who have it were obliged to use it to that end , and to omit it ordinarily , by confining themselves to forms of other mens indicting , would be to neglect a means of prayer of god's special appointment and institution ; for had he any where intimated to us , that he gave it us purely to inable us to pray , without respect to any other end , we could not have omitted the use of it , without crossing his intention , and frustrated him of the only end for which he intended it . " here our casuist hath spoke our heart ; only we think , that if this appears from the nature of the gift , which is such as it is impossible to use it any other way , it is the same thing as if he had told it us in so many words in scripture , or by an angel from heaven . let it now be left to any man of sense to judge whether we have not proved this , and that from our casuist's own words , p. . where he accepts the question as stated by us , as well as from the nature of the gift it self , being not vtterance , tho' a species of it ; a gift exercised from a different species of knowledge than other gifts are that fall under vtterance as the genus , and to a quite different end , and not found in thousands who have utterance good enough in other things . . our casuist's last conclusion upon this case , is , " that to rend our desires to god in other mens words , is as much a means of prayer as to speak them in our own ; for to speak in our own words , is no otherwise a means of publick prayer , than as it serves to express to god the common cases and necessities of the congregation ; and if these may be as well expressed in other mens words as in our own , the end of publick prayer is as effectually served by the one as the other , p. . " . in the first place , it is not yet agreed , that reading in prayer is that sacred action which the scripture any where calls prayer . this hath been argued in the reasonable account , chap. . and what is there said , hath been vindicated , chap. . of the answer to dr. falkner's vindication : so as that point lieth not yet cleared . . when we speak of means , referring to divine and sacred actions , we vainly philosophize in our measuring true means from the proportion we judge they have to the end. if god , either in nature , or in his revealed will , hath directed any means , it is most certain that means is to be used now ; that he hath so , hath been proved in the reasonable account , p. , . and what hath been there said , hath also been vindicated from dr. falkner's exceptions to it , in the answer to his vindication of liturgies , p. . , , . when what is there said , hath received a just answer , there will need more words in this argument . it hath also been told our adversaries in this point , that the speaking of words first formed in our own hearts , is not only a divine mean , but natural and proper , ( there can be nothing more natural than for the tongue to speak , out of the abundance of the heart ; nothing more proper to express our words , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , formed in our heads , than by our own words , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and certainly any means , divine , natural , and proper , ought to have the preference of others : it is a kind of force upon the soul , to make the tongue speak what is not formed in the heart . . it is true , if forms were to be made new for every publick prayer , it were not impossible but that the end of prayer might be as well obtained by the use of other mens words , as his that ministreth ; otherwise it is not possible . the invariable wants of a congregation are very few ; pardon of sin , and further sanctification , and upholding habits of grace bestowed , are so : but how many more ? have not all congregations renewed sins , wants , and mercies ? . but to make this business short . till what hath been said to prove , that the gifts of him that ministreth in the duty of prayer are the means which god hath directed and given the minister for that use , and the most natural and proper means imaginable for the performance of the act , be answered , we vainly discourse of other means , unless any person hath not obtained this . this is enough to have said , as to what our casuist hath spoken upon his second case . the third case which our author speaks to , is , case . whether the use of publick forms of prayer doth not deaden the devotion of prayer ? that which our author here calleth the devotion of prayer , the nonconformists call . the attention of our own , or others thoughts ; or the intension and fervency of our own , or others spirits . our reverend casuist granteth , p. . " if forms are in themselves , and not through our fault , and erroneous prejudice , less apt to quicken and raise devotion than conceived prayers , it will be granted on all hands that this is a good argument against them . " here then is an issue joined : the medium is granted to be good , if true . our author propounds , in order to the trial of the issue , to consider , . " what those advantages are which conceived prayers pretend to . . whether they are not , for the most part , fantastical and imaginary ; and whether , so far forth as they are real , they are not much more peculiar to forms . . whether , besides those common advantages , publick forms have not peculiar advantages which conceived prayers cannot pretend unto . " if our author rightly enumerateth the advantages pretended by the nonconformists , and makes it good , that they are but imaginary and fantastical for the most part ; and that what of them is real , is more peculiar to forms , ( which is his second task ) and that besides those common advantages , forms have real advantages peculiar to them ; we must yield he hath won this game . but let us examine what he saith . only it must first be observed , that the nonconformists have acknowledged the truth of this proposition variable : and that may be the best means to one , both of attention of mind , and intention of affections , which to another is not so . reasonable account , p. . § . . it very much depends upon mens having , or not having an ability to express theirs and others wants to god in prayer , and the degree in which they have it . our casuist thus enumerateth the pretended advantages that are in free , conceived prayers : . " our minds are kept more attentive to our business . . that the minister is more affected . . that the affections of the people are raised by the performance of the minister . . that in conceived prayers the words follow the affections ; whereas , when a man prayeth by forms , his affections ( if any ) must follow his words . . that words formed in our own hearts are more expressive of our affections , than it is possible words formed by others should be . . that the soul can better direct its affections to god , whilst it hath nothing else to do , than when it hath a previous work to direct the eye to read right . " this is the substance of what our author saith nonconformists say in proof of their proposition ; and indeed it is a good summary of what hath been said on this argument , whether they be meerly imaginary , or real advantages of conceived prayer , that is the question . our casuist ingenuously granteth , p. . that by expressing a serious and devout affection , the minister doth really advantage the devotion of the congregation : which is the third of those things before-mentioned . " the first ( pretended ) advantage , he saith , p. . is , that the very conceiving the matter of his prayer , doth naturally more bind his attention , than the reading it out of a form. " this is undeniable , and granted by our author . but he goes on : " but , i beseech you , what doth it more bind his attention to ? is it to attend to the words and phrases ? if so , then it is not to attend to the acts of prayer : or is it to attend to those acts which are the proper business of prayer ; such as being ashamed of sin , and bewailing of it in confession , &c. " i answer , it bindeth the thoughts of a man praying , to his business , and to one principal act of prayer , that is , the uttering of the desires of his heart in fit words . this answer of our author depends upon this mistaken hypothesis , that the uttering of fit precatory words without lips , is no part of prayer ; whereas it is an essential part of perfect vocal prayer : and we scarcely read of any thing else called by the name of prayer in holy writ . which words being first formed in our own hearts , must necessarily more affect us than words formed by others , and are always attended in pious souls with more of all those affections , the exercise of which god requires , than it is almost possible foreign words should . a man cannot pronounce another man's oration with so much natural life , vigour , and fervency , as one himself hath composed , and which is so fitted to his own thoughts : now what should he that ministreth in prayer , attend to , but his business , and the work he is about ? which is as much to utter words expressive of his inward shame , and sorrow , and hope , and desire , as to be ashamed , and sorrowful , and to desire , and hope . our author , p. . confesseth what none can possibly deny , " that he who prayeth by a form , being released from attending to the invention of his matter and words , his mind is more at leisure to wander , and instead of attending ( as he ought ) more closely to the acts of devotion , by imploying those thoughts which in conceived prayer he employeth in invention , in a closer attention to the acts of devotion , he may , if he please , permit them to rove abroad ; but if he doth , the fault is in himself , not in the form he prayeth by . he makes an ill use of a good thing . " to all which i reply , that whether our thoughts divert in prayer to other objects by consent , or from their own natural wildness , not being sent upon any errand from the will , it must be confessed our duty to use all lawful means to keep them at home ; and to use no means that shall give them further scope and liberty of diversion . our reverend author grants , that the mind is more at liberty to wander , when it prayeth by a form , which is argument enough to oblige us , if we have an ability , to pray by conceived prayer . our author herein differeth from us ; for he saith the fault is in our selves , if our thoughts do wander , not in the form. those words [ the fault is in himself ] may be taken in a double sense ; either , . the fault is in the will of man , which willeth them to wander . . or , the fault is in the infirmity of humane nature ; which is such , as they will wander , if they have a scope and liberty . our author thinks the former ; for he saith , he may , if he please , permit them to rove : but may he also , if he please , keep them from wandering and roving ? i do not believe there is that man or woman upon the earth , that can in truth say so , upon his own experience ; nay , i much question whether any can say so , who adds to willing , the use of this means , praying by a free and conceived prayer , ( tho' it must be granted , that he shall do it much better that way than any other . ) the fault therefore is in our selves , that is , in the common infirmity of humane nature , its averseness and awkwardness to spiritual imployment , and the contemplation of spiritual objects , and exercise of it self upon them ; and tho' it be such a fault as will hardly be perfectly corrected , whilst we are in the flesh , yet it is such as we may use means to correct , and in a good measure actually correct , and praying by a conceived prayer , by our author 's own confession , is one means by which it may be corrected ; ( for he acknowledgeth , that when we use forms , our mind hath a greater scope and liberty to wander : ) so that if free and conceived prayer be what god hath not forbidden , it is what he hath commanded , ( where he hath given an ability to it ) as a means in order to this great end , in the obtaining of which lieth much of the life and soul of prayer ; ( for the affections of a roving , wandering heart will be cold enough , ) thoughts of an object being necessary to the workings of the affections about it , and previously necessary . but saith our author , p. . " to invent the words and matter of prayer , is not to pray , but to study a prayer ; and till our brethren have proved , that our inventing the matter and words is a part of our duty of prayer , ( which is the question in debate betwixt us ) we can by no means grant that our attention to it is attending to the duty of prayer . " the matter of all prayer is already invented for us , and prescribed to us in holy writ : this our author hath often already told us , and we have agreed it . the only thing to be premeditated and done , is , . to consider what of that mutter of prayer , allowed and directed in the word , is proper for us , under our circumstances , at the time when we pray . . to form words in our hearts , by which our lips shall express the desires of our souls . the first is , and will be every good christian's work , before he cometh to minister in prayer , and the matter may vary every day , according to the various contingencies to persons and families , occasioned through the wisdom of him that governeth the world , and the daily breakin gs out of sin and corruption , occasioned through that fountain of lust in man's heart : but yet can never be so well done , ( through the unfaithfulness and slipperiness of our memories ) but there will be room left for a dabitur in hora , the spirit of god , in the very time of our prayer , to bring to our minds some violations of the divine law we did not think of , and some wants which we had forgot . . the second needs no study or deliberation ; our thoughts in a moment form words , when they are sensible of wants . the beggar studieth not for words to ask for bread , no more doth the malefactor for words to ask for his life . that words are apart of perfect prayer , and of all prayer , where one ministreth to others in prayer , must not be denied , and an essential part too ; for without them he cannot so pray : so as he whose thoughts are imployed in forming of words , whether to express his own premeditations , or present impressions , or monitions , cannot certainly be denied to have his thoughts imployed about his work in prayer . our casuist goes on , p. . and saith , " it is pretended , that conceived prayer is more apt to fix the minister's attention in prayer , because he utters his words in conceived prayer , immediately from his affections , by reason of which , his thoughts have not that scope to wander , as when he reads them out of a book . " to which he answereth , " that if he hath devout affections , he may utter his words as immediately from his affections in a form , as in a conceived prayer , and therefore this pretence is insignificant . " there is no doubt of this , nor do i know who hath made this pretence : but the question is , whether a man can have the same devout affections attending a form of words composed by another , as he may have attending words flowing from his own heart ; as a bullet taken up from the ground , and thrown by a man's hand , is never so hot as one shot out from a gun , and heated with the fire there first kindled : so i do think experience will demonstrate , that no form of prayer made without the man , and taken up into the lips , will so affect the soul as words formed within it , and then thrust out of the lips. our author , in the next place , comes to answer the arguments for conceived prayers most raising the minister's intention , that is , of affection , he saith . they pretend , that in praying by a form , the minister's affections follow his words ; whereas , in conceived prayer , his words follow his affections . as to this , he saith , . that it is a very curious distinction . . that he is not able to apprehend either what foundation there is for it , or how it it applicable to the matter . the distinction is used both by dr. ames in his cases , and by mr. calderwood in his altare damascenum ; men both of learning , reason and piety . if our casuist cannot apprehend the foundation of it , our charity to them will oblige us not presently to conclude that it hath none ; and our charity to our author obligeth us , if we can , to help his apprehension . when our souls are imployed about any object , it first discovereth that imployment , by thoughts upon it , which produce the motions of the affections according to the apprehended nature of the object which the thoughts are so imployed about , if the object be something to be beg'd or pleaded for , of or from another . the soul is presently forming words for the tongue , in the use of which they shall beg it . do not the words here follow the affections ? and are they not thrust out by them as a bullet is driven out of a gun by the powder first fired beneath it , and affecting it . in praying by forms , it is not possible that the heart should be sutably affected by any inward motion of the soul forming the words for the lips , ( for they are already formed for them . ) so that all the affection that can possibly attend them , must either be raised , . from a serious premeditation of the matter of those forms ; or , . from post-thoughts or reflections upon them when they are uttered . if the latter only , then what is said is true , in the use of forms . the affections follow the words , and have no work either in the forming of them , or sending them forth . as to the former , it must not be denied , but we may be affected with the premeditation of the matter in any form , as well as an orator may be affected with the matter of a speech , which he is to utter before he uttereth it , though the speech he made not by himself , but by another . but , i beseech this reverend author to consider as in the presence of god. . quotus quisque est . how few there are , or are like to be found in the world , who being to pray only by reading forms , doth take any considerable pains with their own hearts every time they use them , to affect them praeviously , with the matter of those forms ; which if one doth not , it must be true , that his affections only follow his words ? . suppose we could find one of many that did so , whether it would be possible for him to raise his affections to that degree upon such prepared forms , as when his own thoughts form the words which he is to utter ? . besides this , it is hardly possibly ( to be sure not ordinary ) for men and women , to be equally affected with shame and sorrow , for past sins ; as for sins newly , and lately committed , or to be equally intense with desires , for ordinary and common wants , as for such wants as presently pinch us , and press hard upon us , as to which forms cannot serve , unless they be renewed every day ; but as to this , we shall have occasion more to speak , when we come to its proper place . this is enough said , to make the distinction plain and intelligible . but then secondly ( saith our author ) suppose it were true , that in conceived prayer the words follow the affections , and in a form the affections the words ; how doth it from hence follow , that conceived prayer doth more intend , and heighten the affections then forms ? what reason can there be assign'd , why those acts of inward affections , should not be as intense and vigorous as those that go before them ? suppose , that there can no reason be given ( which yet i think may ) yet this follows , that whereas the grace of prayer , and the very life and soul of it ( as our author somewhere speaketh ) lieth much in the holy affections that attend it . if the affections only follow the words ( the prayer being done , when the words are once uttered ) that prayer is put up without any such holy and inflamed affections . nor sure is shame and sorrow ( two of the affections mentioned by our author ) so properly consequents to , as concomitants of the act of prayer . our author goes on , p. . but then secondly , it is pretended that the minister cannot so well express his devout affections in other mens words , as in his own . to which he answers . that the ministers business in publick prayer , is not to express the degrees and heighths of his affections , or to acquaint god of the particular , and extraordinary fervencies of his own soul ; for in publick , he prayeth as the commonmouth of the congregation , and therefore he ought not to express to god in the name of the people , any matter that is peculiar to himself , &c. this now is what i cannot possibly understand . to express our particular affections and fervency is one thing , and to pray for any particular matter peculiar to himself is another thing ; yet certainly , the first is the ministers duty , and the latter his liberty , if not his duty also . let a man be praying in publick , or private , or secret , certainly he ought to do it with the most fervent , intense , and raised affections which he can . let the matter of his prayer be what it will or can , still affection must be an adjunct to an acceptable prayer , and the more 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the more raised , and setting the soul on work it is , the better it is , or else st. iames was mistaken , iames . . nor is it true , that a minister in publick prayer ought to confess no sins , but what the whole congregation is guilty of , nor to put up petitions for any wants , but what are the common wants of the whole congregation . the common practice both of the present church , and the church in all ages confuteth this . if this were true , in vain were the desires of any particular person or family , in vain their papers desiring the prayers of the minister and congregation for them , in vain are we in scripture , commanded to pray one for another , to make supplications for all saints , eph. . . if our brother sin not unto death , to pray for him , john . . and certainly the minister hath the same liberty , and priviledge that the meanest of the people have . i cannot therefore conceive what our author means by this , who surely hath a hundred times , prayed for some things for particular persons , and families which have not been needful for , nor the wants , and desires of all the persons in the congregation for themselves , and their families . our author yet proceeds , and tells us , " thirdly and lastly , it is also pretended , that in the use of forms , the ministers soul is so ingaged in directing his eye to read , that it cannot be so intensely affected with that he prayeth for . in answer to which he saith , ▪ he leaveth the reader to judge , whether the recollecting of the matter of prayer , the disposing of it into a due method , inventing of proper phrases to express it ( neither of which are acts of prayer ) as ( he pretends ) he hath shewed before , must not much more busie his soul , than the directing of his eye to read . " the reply is easie . the matter of prayer is already directed , and needs no inventing , only a considering what is applicable to present circumstances , which is a work previous to prayer , the disposing it into a due method , is another imaginary thing ; confession , supplication , and thanksgiving , are the three parts of prayer , which is put before another is nothing material , though every one will without any study , know it is rational to put confession of sin , before supplication for pardon . the inventing of proper phrases , is another thing as imaginary , for they are already invented , being scriptural phrases or formed with as little study , as the hungry begger , need take for words by which to ask a bit of bread. but the souls looking through the eye upon the book to see what is there printed , then recollecting what it sees , and forming the words first in the mind , then uttering them by the lips , is surely a greater diversion . besides , that the meditating of the matter of prayer , then forming the words in the heart , are both of them as proper acts relating to prayer , as the killing the sacrifice , the cleansing of it , the laying on the altar were acts relating to the sacrifice ; and therefore lawful , and the priests duty , as well as the burning of it , but of this i have before spoken . our casuist proceeds , p. . " it is pretended , that forms of prayer deaden peoples affections — by a more direct , and immediate influence , because they still express the matter of prayer in the same words — whereas the very newness , and variety of words in which conceived prayers are expressed , doth naturally awaken and entertain their minds , and keep them more fixed and intent . for answer whereunto he saith , let us consider upon what it is that this novelty , and variety of expression doth keep our minds so fixed , and intent upon . is it upon the matter of prayer ? doubtless no. for that is generally the same , especially the matter of publick prayer , and therefore if it were that , fixt our minds , it would as well do it in the same , as in new and varied expressions . — but if it be nothing , but the newness of the phrase , it is expressed in that fixeth their minds , there is nothing in it , but a meer surprize and amusement of their fancies , which instead of fixing their minds doth unfix them , from the internal acts of prayer , and divert its attention from the devotion to the oratory of it , &c. " . to make this experiment , let the author , comprize the matter of all sermons in six , or twelve sermons ( which it may be were not impossible ) or as some have done in fifty two sermons , and never preach no other in forty or fifty years time to his people , and by that time he hath preached them five or six times , ask his people , whether they do generally hear him with that attention and intention , as if he cloathed that matter with new phrase . i do not believe that one of five hundred would say so . . but secondly , the matter of prayer is principally , petitions or arguments to inforce those petitions ; admit the petitions or the matter of them be always the same , are the arguments also ? doth there any form comprehend all the arguments to implead petitions , which the scripture warranteth to use , though it commandeth not us to use them all at the same time ; nor it may be , are they all so proper for one and the same time , or for persons under some circumstances , as others . so that by our authors leave , there may be new matter of prayer to draw out attention and intention . . thirdly , suppose there were not , doth not the holy scripture express the matter of the same petitions by different phrases . why may we not express it by these phrases as well as those ? and yet peoples attention , and intention be upon the matter of the prayer ; and if varying of phrases will help to it , and the wisdom of the holy ghost knowing this hath canonized a variety of phrase , how any can be restrained the use of that variety which god hath left us ? i cannot tell . . the gingling , tickling , oratory of prayer , is a thing nonconformists abhor , as a puerile , pedantick thing , not worth any mans attention or intention : but the asking the same things in other words , and those such as the holy ghost hath taught us in holy writ , or such as are proper and expressive , is what deserveth a better name . nonconformists are a kind of men , that think that meat good enough , that is wholesome and nourishing enough ; and those cloaths fine enough , that cover enough , and are warm enough , little regarding as to the former ; the turneps cut into several figures , and laid about the sides of the dish , nor yet what the laces , and fringes of their cloaths are , or whether they be of the spanish or french fashion . the like judgment they make too of sermons , and prayers . they judge those sermons the best that most instruct , and affect the most intelligible , and scriptural , and those prayers best , where the things which god hath given us a liberty to ask , are most intelligibly and plainly asked , and urged by arguments , that are most scriptural ; but they know the holy scripture hath a variety of phrases , and all of equal authority , and dignity , equally canonized , and expect that he who is a teacher should be mighty in the scriptures , and bring to their ears and tastes out of that store-house , things new , and old , and are apt to think that he that doth it not , hath made but a little entry into that blessed store-house . that , de facto , novelty in phrase doth most affect cannot be denied , that it is not sinful , is as evident , and it is as certain , that the same matter may more affect in a novelty of phrase , then in an old stile . our reverend author cometh in the last place , to shew us the advantage which people have for their devotion from forms , to which conceived prayers cannot pretend . he instanceth in six , from p. . to p. . . the first is , that people may address themselves to prayer with greater preparation . . the second is , that in joining with them , the people may pray with more understanding , then they can well be conceived to do in extemporary prayer . . a third is , that they may join with them , with much more faith , and assurance . . a fourth is , that they have much less in them to divert the affections of the people from the matter of prayer . . a fifth is , that they are more secured , as to the decency , and solemnity of their publick worship . . the last is , that in joining with them , the people are more secured of the reality and sincerity of their own devotions . to all which in general , there are several things may be said . . that all this is to be said as much for prayers by a prescribed form in the pulpit , as in the desk ; and if there be any thing in these , as to prayers in the one place , it holds as strongly as to prayers in the other . that people may address themselves to join in those prayers with greater preparation , and pray with more understanding . more faith , and assurance , have less to divert them , from the matter of prayer , be more secured as to the decency , and order of publick worship , and people be more secured of the reality and sincerity of their devotions : nay these arguments will run home to a mans family , and hold as strongly there . nay most of them will ascend up into his closet after him , three or four of them will hold as strongly there . so as they serve to destroy all conceived prayers . . it is an amazing thing , that if these things were necessary , and indeed such real advantages to peoples devotion ; neither solomon , nor moses , nor asa , nor hezekiah , nor the levites mentioned nehemiah , that prayed that long prayer , should think of this mighty help to the peoples devotion , and give out copies of their prayer there mentioned to all the congregation , that they also might have addressed themselves to god with more preparation , and have prayed with more vnderstanding , and with more faith , and assurance , and have had their affections less diverted from the matter of prayer , and have had the decency , and solemnity of their publick service more secured , and have been more secured of the reality , and sincerity of their devotions , they were all things as necessary then , as they are now , yet we have no mention of any such thing ; but this it seems , is a new discovery , reserved to the later times , or rather a new device , to uphold the necessity of forms . . if the wise god had seen these things so necessary for so great ends , we certainly should not have been without an institution , or at least some declaration of the will of god in the case , but we find nothing of that in any part of holy writ . . all these things will signifie nothing , if it prove impossible , that he who ministreth in prayer unto others , should by forms ( unless drawn for every time he ministreth ) confess the sins , or put up supplications for the good things , he ought to confess , or put up supplications for ; but this will fall under our debate , when we come to consider what our author hath said to the fourth case stated by him . . it is not what we fancy , and think we can prove by our reason to be a more apposite mean for the performance of a duty that indeed is so : but the mean must have a divine institution , if it be not so naturally . a papist will discourse bravely for the usefulness of a crucifix to be set in our eye , to put us in mind of what christ hath suffered for us , to incourage us to hope in the mercy of god through him ; but yet it is a mean to be abhorred , not used ; to speak more particularly to our authors six things . . nonconformists know that they are to pray intelligibly , and not in bumbasted non-intelligible phrases to the meanest of the people . so as there is no such need of preparation to understand words and phrases , which are ordinarily such as are understood assoon as heard . they detest such kind of language in prayer , as dr. featly reflects on , where the minister spake to christ under the name of the dolphin of heaven , such kind of stuff indeed , had need have time allowed the hearers to understand . nonconformists would have all prayers in such a phrase as needs no companion to the temple to expound , which they judge of no great significancy , because he is not like to be a companion to one of an hundred . . for the same reason , they see little in our authors second pretended advantage of forms . . there is as little in his third thing , for nothing can advantage faith and assurance , but a knowledge that the thing ask'd , is what god hath promised to give , which a form will not instruct him in , that doth not otherwise know it ; and if he otherwise know it , it is needless as to any such thing : however i know of none , but alloweth the use of forms for instruction , which if men will use , they may easily know , by examining scripture , what god hath willed men to ask . . for the fourth thing . men in praying ought to take care not only that their affections be not separated from the matter of prayer , but that their thoughts may not be separated from the words , by which that matter is expressed : nor can i understand , how the affections should attend the matter expressed , if the thoughts be out of the way of expressing , or of words , by which it is expressed . i am sure , he who prayeth by forms gives his thoughts more liberty to leave both , than he who prayed depectore , by words formed in his own breast ; whether there be any soul so pious , that it will not take it ? i cannot tell . it is probable , that the souls of the most will ( i am sure my own would ) and if the thoughts be once separated , the affections in the course of nature will not stay behind . . as to the fifth . if our author means no more by decency , and solemnity , then gravity , and expressiveness , and the absence of what usually men will call rudeness , who understand any thing of religion , he is a lamentable minister , that cannot so pray without a form , and indeed aptior ad stivam , fitter for some other imployment : if he means delicate words , curt , and comprehensive exprehensions , it may be such prayers will be found not wrote after any scriptural copy ; unless that of the lords prayer , which we rather judge a directory of matter , than a copy of words , and hath always been so judged by the church , extending it in all practice , and never judging that enough , either for the desk , or pulpit . . it will pose any to understand how people should , more by forms than by free expressions , be secured as to the reality and sincerity of their devotions , considering that to devotion in prayer is required not only intention and fervor of affection , but attention of thoughts also ; and the latter cannot be without the former , especially if forms give a greater liberty to the roving of thoughts , and the heart of man be so bad , that not one of many , but will take it . thus much come our author's six pretended advantages to devotion from forms of prayer to . there are two eminent ones that it must want . . one obvious means to keep the thoughts of him that prayeth from wandering : and this is true , both as to him that ministreth in prayer , and those who only pray , the thoughts of both have apparently a further liberty to rove , whether they will take it , or no. let every one speak from his own experience , and if they do differ in their experience , let it be considered whether their natural temper doth not make the difference ; which is not a thing eligible , but natural , and upon that account necessary . if the ministers thoughts be not attent , he must speak nonsense ; if the peoples thoughts be not , they must say amen to they know not what . . a second advantage they must want , is the confession of renewed sins , and begging pardon of them , the making known of renewing wants , and giving thanks for new mercies , which , whether they ought to be the matter of confession , petition , or thanksgiving in publick prayer , will fall under our consideration in speaking to the next case . . to these two must be added , that those who in publick pray by forms , are tied up to those particular opinions which the composers of these forms have , which indeed is not an evil falls upon the people that do not minister , who may with-hold their amen , but yet by their presence will appear to do what they indeed do not ; but it will fall heavy upon those that minister by them . we have a plentiful instance of this in the popish missal , where their idolatrous opinions are mixed with their prayers , viz. that of the invocation of saints , the application of their merits to us , as well as their heretical opinions of purgatory , and departed saints intercession for us , and the merits of our own works : all which indeed are upon the reformation left out of our liturgy , but may be put in again whenever we have superiors of that faith. it is true , in conceived prayers the people are exposed to the same danger as to their ears , but not the person that ministreth , and the people have a power to with-hold their amen , and to complain of such as are guilty of such errors : but there is no complaining of forms by publick authority confirmed . our casuist saith truly , p. . and . that experience ( the best judge in this case ) is pleaded on both sides : some say , they can keep their thoughts most attent , and their affections most intense , in praying by forms ; others say the quite contrary . but i do not think that our reverend casuist directeth the best way for reconciling these experiences , by endeavouring to perswade them , that the fault must lie in their prejudice or temper : for it may be , the fault lieth on the other side , in their customary practices and vsage , or a not right understanding their duty in prayer , but judging , that it only lies in their saying amen , whether their thoughts be kept attent to the words and matter of prayer , and their affections intense , yea , or no : if so , the cure must be wrought on the other side . if our author , by his many good christians , meaneth many such as have an ability to express their own and others wants to god in prayer , and exercise that ability in a daily prayer with their families , and in their closets , i do very much doubt whether many such will say so , at least i have not met with many such do say so . if he meaneth others that have not attained to this ability or practice , he ought to distinguish between a metaphysical goodness and a moral goodness , and again , betwixt the degrees of moral goodness . we desire to speak wisdom to those that are perfect , and to all , to strive after perfection ; forgetting 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the things that are behind , and pressing on to those things that are before ; and this is that which we wish , even every soul 's spiritual perfection . this is enough to have spoken to our casuist's three cases handled in his first part ; we now proceed to his second , which begins with this case : case . . whether the common cases and wants of christians can be so well expressed in one constant form , as in a conceived prayer ? the author hath a little perplexed this case , by putting in the word common , the question had been well enough without it . nor hath he sufficiently explain'd what he means by common cases and wants ; whether he understands it with reference to time , and by common understands constant ; or with reference to persons ; in which sense , cases and wants cannot be called common , unless all propound or have them . we cannot therefore well speak to what this reverend author saith , as to this case , without putting a previous question , viz. quest. what , and whose cases , or wants , the minister is bound to represent or make known to god in the publick congregations or meetings of christians ? i find our author in part determining this question , p. . p. . publick prayers ( saith he ) ought not to descend to particular cases and necessities , because they are the prayers of the whole congregation , and therefore ought to comprehend no more than what is , more or less , every man's case and necessity . i take this to be a false and mistaken hypothesis , and the reason given for it , because they are the prayers of the congregation , to be utterly insufficient ; for surely the whole congregation is concerned in the true wants and welfare of every member , that they may rejoice with those that rejoice , and weep with them that weep , rom. . . otherwise they are not kindly affectionated one to another , according to v. . and this is the declared will of god , eph. . . that there should be made supplications for all saints , yea , for all men , tim. . . how are these texts ( think we ) to be understood , that supplications should be made for all saints , so far as their wants are all the same , and no further ? or , that prayers should be made for all men , as to those things that are the common wants of all men , but no further ? i would fain see one good reason for this , or one text of scripture to prove it . it is true , we cannot confess the sins of particular persons , unless we know them , nor put up petitions for a supply of the wants of particular persons , unless we know them ; and tho' we do know them , yet some particular sins or wants are not fit to be made the matter of publick confessions , or publick petitions : but it is as true , there are a multitude of other sins , which are not the sins of all , but of some particular persons in congregations , and many other wants , which likewise are not the wants of all the congregation , but of some particular persons in them , which may well enough be confessed , and pardon begged for , and which we may well enough beg a supply of ; and these ought to be made the matter of a publick prayer , either upon the pastor's knowledge of them , tho' the sinner doth not desire them , or upon such persons desire . it was in a publick assembly and prayer , that ezra confessed and bewailed the sins of those that had married strange wives , ezra . , , . for , v. . they were assembled , all them that trembled at the words of the lord god of israel ; yet that sin was not the common sin of all the people . ezra . they are numbred , and it appears they were but , priests , levites , singer , porters , and israelites , ( who may be called laicks . ) he who consulteth ezra . will find the whole number was ( v. . ) . besides servants ; the priests alone were above , v. , , , . and these were but the first companies came out . so that it seems that excellent scribe thought , that in publick prayers , confession was to be made of other sins than what were the sins of every individual of the congregation . more instances might be given , but this is enough . besides that , our saviour's prayer upon the cross was publick enough , father , forgive them ; for they know not what they do ; yet he knew , that all there present were not guilty of crucifying him . the like might be said of stephen's prayer , acts . . so that this new notion is quite contrary both to the practice in the old testament and new. . secondly , it must necessarily deprive all private christians of the benefit of publick prayers in all their particular distresses , whether respecting their outward or inward man , and leaves them only to family and closet-prayer of their friends , and to what prayers they can make for themselves . . it is directly contrary to the apprehension of the generality of christians , who have used to send to their ministers to pray for them in the publick congregation , and to the practice both of our church , and i believe all others . . whoso looks into scripture , will find , that the ministers of god never thought it enough , in the case , to make general confessions of sin , or general requests for good things , or to give thanks for mercies in general ; but have descended to particular confessions of the particular sin regnant , or committed lately , and to particular petitions for specifical mercies , and to particular mercies in their thanksgivings . . our author , p. . of p. . hath given us a good account of such things as are the common wants of all persons , and at all times , viz. . forgiveness of sin , peace of conscience , ( the giving , or preserving of it , ) the assistance of divine grace , to deliver us from the power of sin and satan , and make us meet to be partakers of the saints in light ; redemption from death and hell ; protection and success in all our honest concerns and vndertakings ; the daily supply of our bodily wants and necessities ; and in general , the preservation and direction of our governours ; the peace and welfare of our native country ; the prosperity of the church , the propagation of the gospel , and the success of its ministers in the work of the lord. our reader must also remember how much our author hath reflected upon conceived prayers , for having in them the same things over and over again , part. . p , , . as contrary to the order of our saviour , who expresly forbids us vain repetitions , matt. . , . now unless this be only faulty in conceived prayers , not in forms also , and we ought in publick only to pray for things which a whole congregation ( in common ) wants , and to confess sins which a whole congregation ( not some persons only in it ) are guilty of , one single collect is enough . here are but eleven or twelve lines made comprehensive of all this ; nor must any particular confession of sin be made , but only in the general , that we have all sinned , and come short of the glory of god ; for there are few sins that every individual person in a congregation is guilty of . . supposing that none but the same sins ( and those the sins of the whole congregation ) ought to be in publick prayer confessed , and none but the same good things , and those such as are the wants of the whole congregation , ought to be petitioned for ; yet neither are such sins , nor such wants , always the same , much less such mercies as refer to a whole congregation . god's mercies to congregations , as well as persons , are new every morning : so as the same forms will not serve . . i therefore conclude , that altho' this be the best argument i know can be brought for the constant use of a stated form of words in prayer , if it could be maintained ; yet the hypothesis is in no degree true , and the argument built upon it must needs be very weak , supposing what is far from truth . prayer is the communion of the church , wherein the members of it are not only to confess their joint sins , but the particular sins ( tho' not all the particular sins , of which some may not be sit for publick notice ) of each member , or any number of members , and to beg not only a supply of such things as they all want , but as any member of their body , or number of their members are guilty of , and known to be so , or stand in need of . this is enough to have spoken to the first thing said by our author , as to this first case . . he tells us , secondly , that such . alterations of the common cases of christian churches , as could not be foreseen , and provided for at the first forming of their liturgies , may , for the most part , be provided for in new forms . to which i say , . that this proceedeth upon the former supposition , that no sins are to be confess'd in publick prayers , but such as are the common sins of the congregation ; no good things to be begg'd , but such as all persons in the congregation want ; no thanksgigivings to be made , but for mercies affecting the whole congregation ; which is not true , and contrary to all reason and practice , as i have already shewed ; and therefore i need not here inlarge again on that discourse . but supposing what i have before proved , that the more notorious and publickly-noticed sins of any member , or number of members in congregations ; such as swearing , cursing , drunkenness , noted vncleanness , &c. are matters of publick confessions , and the wants of any member , or number of members in a congregation , known to the minister and better part of the people , are matter of publick petition ; and any noted deliverance or mercy , bestowed on any member , or any number of members of a congregation , is also matter of publick thanksgiving . these are so frequently renewing , so often varying , that our casuist could hardly have said new forms were likely to be made sufficient for them , and proper to them : especially considering publick forms are not ordinarily made by the respective ministers of congregations , who alone , by watching over his flock , is like to know its state. . secondly , there may be , and ordinarily is , so great a variety in the state of particular congregations , as to sins , wants , and mercies , that it is not reasonable to imagine , that forms enough should be made suited to each congregation : so as our author must assert , that no sins ought to be confessed publickly , but the sins that are common to all christians ; no mercies to be begged , but what all christians need ; no mercies to be given thanks for , but such as all christians receive , or at least all within the compass of those churches to whom those forms are to extend , or his second conclusion will not hold . . his third conclusion is but for a quousque , viz. " that supposing such provision for extraordinary cases cannot be made in the publick forms , yet that is no argument why it should not be used so far forth as it comprehendeth the main of the common " cases of the people . " this indeed is true , against such an use this argument doth not conclude ; but it doth not follow but some others may . . the last thing our author saith , that the defect of such new provision may be supplied by the minister in a publick prayer of his own . may , may be here understood as referring to naturally or legally : of the first , there is no doubt ; for the second , our author saith no more , than that our church allows , or at least permits ministers so to do . as to this , i have spoken before ; and , it may be , if it be inquired into , it will be found , that within these twenty years it would neither be allowed nor permitted in some diocess . besides that , permission is the same with connivance or indulgence , which is a very uncertain thing , until it be established by an act of parliament . besides that , many ministers will not allow themselves any such thing ; the reason of which ( doubtless ) is , because they have at least an apprehension that no such thing is allowed by the law : whether it be , or no , i shall not dispute . our author proceedeth to his fifth case . case . whether there be any warrant for forms of prayer in scripture , or pure antiquity ? i dare say there is hardly one dissenter , of any judgment , that will not readily grant there is ; tho' some of them very much doubt , whether there be any warrant for forms of prayer to be universally imposed or used in prayer . by warrant , our learned author saith right , must be meant some positive command , or allowed example . i cannot tell who it is that hath affirmed , that nothing ought to be used in the worship of god , but what is commanded by him : whosoever hath so said , hath spoken crudely and rashly , and himself ( if he understand himself ) will at the next breath grant , that pulpits and pews , seats and cushions , and habits of cloaths , ( not entailed to worship only , ) and many things more , may be used in the worship of god , which god hath not particularly and in specie commanded . these things indeed dissenters will say , . that god may be worshipped by no act but what himself hath directed , because no other act can be an act of obedience to him ; and where there is no obedience , there can be no homage paid to god : and here both conformists and nonconformists are , i suppose , fully agreed . . that no means by which any act of worship shall be performed , may be used , which god hath not directed , either by the light or law of nature , or by a positive institution in his word . their reason is , because the law of god extendeth to the means as well as to the act ; nor hath god directed any act of worship or homage to him , but he hath also , either by the light or law of nature , or by some part of his revealed will , directed sufficient means for the performance of that act , which every obedient christian is bound to observe , use , and prefer ; particularly as to prayer , they say , the act is directed both by the light of nature , ( whence it is that the heathens prayed , and directed dies supplicationem to the divine being ) and also by scripture , and his revealed will , which rectified the light of nature , and hath taught us , as to the object , that prayer is to be directed to the only true god ; and many things , as to the manner of performance , viz. that it be directed to the father , in the name of christ , and with the spirit ; and for things only , which are according to the revealed will of god , and under such limitations as the scripture hath directed . . that even the light of nature , as well as scripture , hath not only directed men and women to pray , but to use words in prayer : they are the calves of our lips , the homage of our tongues unto god ; and whereas prayer is the expression of our wants and desires unto him who is able to supply them , tho' god indeed understands the first motions of our souls in desires , yet these without words are not what the scripture ordinarily calls prayer , nor what men have ordinarily called so . . that god hath not directed the words which we should use at all times , ( tho' he hath directed some words and forms of words which we may use ) but hath left us at liberty to use what words we please , expressive of the matter of prayer directed in holy writ ; and this could be no otherwise , the same matter not serving us at all times , and consequently not the same words . . that our words are ( as the philosopher expresseth it ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , inward and outward . our internal words are our thoughts , ( our hearts being our shops , wherein the words of our lips are first forged or formed : out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh , ( saith our saviour . ) while i was musing , ( saith david , psal. . . ) the fire burned , then spake i with my tongue . . that as we best know our own wants , so our own hearts can best form words , by which our lips shall express and utter them : so as the forming of words expressive of our own wants and desires , in our own hearts , is the most natural and proper means of prayer , and divine , because most natural , and not restrained by any par tof the divine rule . . lastly , they think that nothing but a plain divine revelation of the will of god , as to the use of another mean , can excuse them from the use of a mean that is proper and most natural for the end : so as they think there must be something in scripture , either in a command , or something which hath the force of a command , ( as universal example hath ) which must justifie their ordinary use of forms of words , not first formed in their own hearts , to express their wants and desires to god in prayer . this is all , i think , that dissenters will say in this case . let us now hear what our reverend casuist opposeth to this : he will prove , as he tells us p. . p. . . " that supposing this were true , yet it doth not conclude against forms . . that supposing it did conclude against the use of forms , it equally concludes against conceived prayer . " as to the first , he saith , . " that they do not pretend that god hath any where commanded us to pray by forms , and no otherwise . so that then publick praying by forms is not the only instituted publick prayer . . nor , secondly , do they pretend , that all the prayers we at any time offer unto him , should be first composed into a form. " then some conceived , free prayer in publick is our duty , or at least lawful . but this our casuist pleadeth for , " that god hath injoined some forms to be used and offered up in prayer : tho together with those forms , we grant there might be , and doubtless were , other prayers to be offered up unto him . " this he proves , p. . and to p. . of the second part. he instanceth in the form of blessing , mentioned numb . . , , , . the directions for prayer , forthe expiation of murther , deut. . , . and for the prayer to be used at their payment of their third year's tythe ; the prayers mentioned in the psalms , delivered to asaph , chron. . , used in hezekiah's time , chron. . . and by ezra , chap. . , . and the lord's prayer , upon which he enlargeth from p. . to p. . to all which so much hath been already said , that nothing need be added . see mr. cotton about the lawfulness of set forms ; the reasonable account , and supplement , &c. but all these are indeed no proof . the reason is , because , what was lawful for god himself , and christ , and holy men inspired by god , by a prophetical spirit , and imploied by him ( as david was to set his temple-service in order ) . chron. . , , , , , , , , , . must not be concluded lawful for others , and what might be lawfully complied with upon such direction ; and indeed divine institution , must not be concluded lawful to be complied with upon no such direction or divine institution . the three first instances produced by our author , are forms instituted by god immediately ; the other by david imploied by god , and made by his spirit to understand his will , and the pattern of his temple-service . the last by christ himself , sent to erect a new way of worship . not therefore to enter into any further disputes . . whether christ intended the lords prayer , for a form of words , or only a direction for matter , if as a form of words , it doth not agree with it self , matth. . luke . the words differ much in those two places ; whether for a constant use , or temporary use are things , many words have been spent about , and i see no help ; but men must opine as they please in the case . our author thinks , that only luke . it was prescribed as a form of words , and truly it is probable ( if it were at all so prescribed ) but then those words . for thine is the kingdom , the power and the glory for ever , amen . are no part of the lord's prayer , for they are not in luke at all , but i say all this signifieth nothing ; for , from christs , or the apostles acts , is no conclusion to justifie other mens acts , without other warrant of precept , &c. and to this answer to these instances our author cometh , p. . for what he saith of the lord's prayer , let men judge as they please ; i know no sober dissenter , but will say it is their duty to make the matter of that prayer , the matter of their prayers ; and that they may use the phrase , or entire form ( if they understand it ) as well as other words of scripture . and if our brethren judged that we should use that , and none else ; we should have no other liturgy for the desk , nor other prayers in the pulpit . the difference therefore about that , is not worth mentioning , and a dispute about spelling this or thys . that which we insist upon , is , that though christ had authority to prescribe a form , yet none else hath any . our author saith very true , p. . . that this answer allows the prescribing forms of prayer to have in them no intrinsick evil , no contrariety to the eternal rules and dictates of right reason . . that the prescribing of forms ( under the new testament ) is good and useful . this is expressed too indefinitely . for nothing will follow , but only , that christ's prescribing a form was good and useful ; if we extend it further , it must be upon this principle , that others have the same authority , to direct means of worship that christ had . now this will ask a great many words to prove . christ had undoubted authority to institute acts , and means of worship for and in his church ? but how doth it appear that others have ? his very apostles commissionated by him to settle the first gospel churches , neither claimed nor practised any such power . . thirdly , he saith . this answer must also allow , that god's prescribing forms of prayer by inspired persons ( by his son , he should have said , for we under the gospel , find no forms of publick prayer prescribed by other inspired persons ) is so far forth a warrant for our imitation , as the thing it self is good , useful , and imitable by us . if god doth such , or such a thing , because it is good , and useful to some end ; that is sufficient warrant for us to do the same , provided we have the same reason , for to imitate god , is our duty , &c. here now is a great fallacy . forms of prayer in themselves are neither good , nor evil ; god , or christ have not prescribed us any forms , because they are good and useful ; but because he hath prescribed them , therefore they are good ; and 't is our duty to use them ( if such a prescription can be proved ) as forms , or the prescribing forms , hath in it , or them no intrinsick evil ; so neither hath it any intrinsick goodness , or suitableness to the eternal dictates , or rules of right reason ( as our author expounded it , p. . ) it is very true , we are bound to imitate god in any thing which he hath done , because it is good and useful , but not in such things , which are made good only by his command and institution . god instituted acts of worship , which but for his institution had had no goodness in them : such were sacrifices under the old testament . the two sacraments under the new , he directed forms as means for the celebration of both sacraments . will it therefore follow , that we may imitate god , in making new sacraments , and new forms . but ( saith our author ) our governours have the same reason that god had , viz. because they are useful . what christ's reason was we cannot inquire , so far as the evangelist acquaints us with it , it was to gratifie the disciples , desiring him to teach them to pray , luke . . indeed it is probable , that our saviour would not have gratified them , if he had not known it had been useful for them . but he never imposed upon them , either never to use any other words in prayer ; nor yet always to use these . nor doth our saviours direction refer more to the church , than to the family , and the closet ; besides , what might be useful for some , and at some times , might not be useful for all , and at all times . . our reverend author , p. . comes to his second thing promised , viz. to shew , that supposing it were true , that nothing were to be admitted in the worship of god , but what hath a divine institution ; it equally concludes against conceived prayer , as against forms . his answer is , because god hath no where instituted conceived prayer , i. e. that men in prayer should pray by words first formed in their own hearts . we need no institution for what nature it self dictateth in any religious act. all institution of that nature must be corrective , not directive . institution indeed , often correcteth our corrupt and imperfect nature ; and so it is in this business of prayer . god hath commanded us to pray . it is written in the law of nature , that there is a god , that this supream being , being the first cause , and the first mover , must be the author of all good. hence it directs us prayer for the good things we want , and praise for good things received . prayer is a making known of our wants to god. god hath given us sense and reason to tell us what those wants are , a power to will , and desire a supply of them , to form words to be uttered by our lips as expressive of them , to help us to the better knowledge of our wants , he hath given us his word ; if in that , he hath given us any forms of words to be ordinarily used in that duty , we are to use them . others he hath left at liberty , under the more general laws , and directions of his word : what need any institution of what nature it self directeth and teacheth ? we have indeed reason to look for an institution , if we will correct this natural course of mans soul , of expressing its desires by words formed in our own thoughts ; we have reason to look for a supersedeas from a divine institution , any forms instituted by god himself , make up such an institution , corrective of the natural motions and inclinations of our souls . which is a sufficient answer to what our author saith , p. , . i cannot apprehend what can be called vocal prayer , but what is such from a natural course and order , or from a divine institution . scriptural forms ( if given and enjoined for ordinary use ) are doubtless so by divine institution , what can be so in a natural course or order , but those which we call free , and conceived prayers i am yet to learn. for what our author saith of the iews use of forms , it hath been abundantly spoken too . particularly , in the answer to dr. falkner's vindication of liturgies , p. , , . chronologers account that the iews were carried into the captivity of babylon about the year of the world , . and came out thence about the year , . after . we have little account of them , they being in a miserable distracted state ; till pompey conquered them about . and in like manner under the romans , to the coming of christ about the year of the world , ; how they were in christs time , the gospels , and acts of the apostles tells us . about the sixty fifth year of christ , they were utterly destroied . philo is by chronologers computed to have lived about twenty five years before the final ruine of hierusalem ; but our author quotes him proving nothing , but that the priests were want to offer prayers with their sacrifices , so they might , and yet use no forms . for the samaritane chronicle , which p. . he tells us of , which mentions a book wrote in the year of the world , . which contained the songs , and prayers also used before the sacrifices . those who will give it any credit may , but the year of the world , . was . and odd years after christ , ( that was the pretended time for its first appearance to the world ) for it could not be printed till above . years after christ ; and this book must give an account of the affairs of the iewish church before the year . which was more than a thousand years , before that ( for who will regard what the iews did , after they came under the power first of the grecians , then of the romans . ) i appeal now to any reasonable man , who will give credit to any manuscript , that ( wrote more than a thousand years after ) should pretend to give us account of what was done in ezra's time , or before the iews were captivated by the grecians and romans ( for admit the iews when tributaries to the grecians , or romans did use forms , it is no imitable president ) especially when the new testament gives us the story of the church at least seventy years of the time , and saith nothing of it . for our authors quotation out of iosephus about the essenes , besides , that it signifies little , what a particular sect did , and a sect that sprang up too after christ's time , of which the scripture saith nothing . i say besides this , if our author knoweth how to translate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , better than certain prayers , which they received from their ancestors , the translator of iosephus into english will help him , who translates it , they made certain vows and prayers , after the custom of their country ; which they might do without forms . i am not of our author's mind , " that there was not a more urgent occasion for an express prohibition of any rite or usage of the iewish church than praying by a form : " for i believe there was no reason for it at all , because there was no such thing in use ; and if there had been any such rite , i know no reason why either iohn the baptist should teach his disciples to pray ; or why christ's disciples should beg of him to prescribe them a form : it should seem they had forms enough . our author , in the next place , p. . p. , , &c. comes to answer those places of scripture which dissenters produce to prove it their duty to pray free and conceived prayers . the first he instanceth in p. . zech. . . i will pour out upon the house of david , and upon the inhabitants of hierusalem , the spirit of grace and supplications . i shall say little as to what our author speaketh as to this text , because i am not concerned in other mens forming the argument from it . the spirit of grace and supplications signifieth either our own spirit , and then the promise concerneth the fuller effusion of the spirit of grace under the gospel , giving unto god's people generally more gifts for his service , especially for prayer ; or else it must be understood of the spirit of god , which is called the spirit of supplications , because it particularly helpeth our infirmities in that duty . now whether this infirmity respecteth only our affections , or our memory and vnderstanding , bringing to our remembrance matters contained in holy writ , according to the promise , iohn . . is the question betwixt us and our casuist . let it be interpreted which way it will , it is all one to us . if of the third person in the trinity , we say he ought not to be shut out , we must give him a liberty so to bring to our remembrance ; and thus this text is reducible to the first case propounded by our author . or let it be interpreted as to the spirit of a man , under the gospel renewed and sanctified , so it relates to our author's second case ; and enough hath been spoken to each of them . we ought not so to pray ( if we be able to do otherwise ) as to exclude the former ; nor yet so as to omit our own gift , which is the effect of the spirit , which is all we contend for : for all that our author saith about the word in the hebrew used 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whether it sometimes signifie prayer in the general , signifieth nothing as to the argument , especially considering , that if by the terms of praying and prayer , &c. be thrice in scripture signified meerly mental prayer , yet vocal prayer is for those three times forty times understood ; and i believe it is not capable of proof , that meerly mental prayer is thrice called prayer . for his next texts , cor. . . cor. . . i know of none that hath pleaded , that the gift of vtterance is to be restrained to prayer ; for my own part , i always thought it respected preaching as well as prayer ; but that it is to be understood and limited to extraordinary gifts , is what i cannot yield : for what is the gift of utterance , but an ability to utter ? which certainly is applicable as well to the utterance of our minds to god in prayer , as of god's mind to us , in the interpreting or applying of god's will to us ; and let our author prove the contrary , if he can . these extraordinary gifts were certainly not so common as that of vtterance , which seems to have been the portion of the whole church of corinth , cor. . . and by cor. . . it appeareth no more extraordinary than faith , knowledge , and diligence , with which it is ranked there ; and if vtterance be no more than ability to utter , or a freedom of speech , it is demonstrable that it was not ( as our author saith ) peculiar to the primitive ages of miraculous gifts ; because we find by experience , that multitudes have it now , and that both as to prayer and preaching . vtterance is expressed by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , cor. . . eph. . . col. . . or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : now speech , or a freedom of speech , was no extraordinary miraculous gift . acts . . ( quoted by our author ) is thus , they were all filled with the holy ghost , and began to speak with other tongues as the spirit gave them ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to utter or speak . it is also used v. . and acts . . i speak the words of truth and soberness , for which paul needed no extraordinary gift . by this reply , the insufficiency of our author's answer to these scriptures , produced by dissenters , will appear . but , p. . he goeth on , and saith , " but they object further , that supposing god hath not given to all christians the gift of prayer , extempore , yet to a great many he hath ; and therefore these , at least , he requires to pray by their gifts , not by a form , tim. . . tim. . . pet. . . rom. . . " it is very true , that some dissenters have quoted these texts , and see no reason yet to quit them , tho' they at first granted them ex abundanti , not as needing them to to prove what is all that they do prove ; for even nature it self teacheth men and women ( being able to do it ) to express the wants and desires of their souls by words formed in their own hearts , and tells us no words are so natural and proper ; and what nature teacheth , we need no institution for . if any corrective institution hath restrained us in the use of what is a natural , proper means to an action , it must be produced . the iews needed no positive law , requiring them to eat flesh ; but it being the will of god , that , to shew their obedience to him , they should forbear eating some kinds of flesh , there was need of an institution corrective of what nature otherwise taught them . but yet what nature it self teacheth , may also be taught by revelation , as we have always thought this was , by the texts quoted , which have not been brought to prove , in specie , that those who have the gift of prayer , ought to use it ; but that those who had any gift , serving them to the performance of a religious act , ought to use it in the performance of that act , unless they be restrained by some corrective institution , that is , by some law of god , declaring his will for their forbearance of the use of that ability , which the declaration of his will , in his word , for the use of this or that form of words in prayer we confess is . this is the general summ of what hath been said . all that our author saith , as to these texts , is , that by gifts in those texts is only to be meant office. what hath been said to this , may be read in the answer to dr. falkner's vindication of liturgies , p. , , , , , , . nothing of which our author takes notice off . . it is gratis dictum said , and not proved , that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies in three texts , office , not gift , it being manifest , that in many texts it signifies gift , not office. er●smus , in all those texts , translates it donum , the gift . dr. fulk , against martin , sath , it is never taken in scripture but for a free gift ; or a gift of his grace . the vulgar latin so translates it . erasmus notes , that ambrose so understood it . . rom. . . saith , having then gifts , differing according to the grace given to us ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . it may be , it is the only text where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 can with any pretence be translated offices , and not necessarily there . see rom. . . chap. . . rom. . . cor. . , , , . chap. . . rom. . . cor. . . cor. . . i think it is hardly used in any other texts , and in no heathen author : so as we must have the sense of it from holy writ . let any one peruse those texts , and judge whether , contrary to the sense of most authors , he can translate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , office , or dignity . for what our author saith , as to tim. . . that the next words [ which was given thee by prophecy ] make it plain , that this is the sense of it ( the reader may see in the aforementioned answer to dr. falkner , p. . what is said to it ) that is obscurum per obscurius . piscator , vatablus , and beza , make the sense , that thou mayest prophecy . three ancient versions , viz. the syriack , arabick , and ethiopick , read it , with prophecy . our translators indeed , and vulgar latin , read it , by prophecy . the greek particle , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , is translated with great variety , per , propter , prae , ob , post , cum , quoniam ; which gives interpreters such a liberty . because of , or for prophecy , is a very good interpretation , and justifyable from matth. . . and chap. . , . " but ( saith our author , p. . ) suppose that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth signifie abilities , not offices , yet they must be exercised so far forth only as is consistent for edification . " that is granted ; but it is not granted , that our author hath proved part . case . ( as he saith ) that the use of forms is more for edification . let the reader judge what hath been said in , and replied to that case . our author comes , p. . to his last task , to prove a warrant in pure antiquity for the vse of forms ; and here , first , he will answer what is objected to the contrary , which , he saith , are but two or three doubtful authorities . there needed not so many ; for the proof lieth upon the affirmer's part , surely : it is much to find two or three authorities to prove a negative ; but neither are they so blind and doubtful as our author would make them : that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth with all our might , rather than as we are able ; that sine monitore signifieth , without a mummer , or a custos , or a corrector ; that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth an agreeing in rites , rather than agreeing in words , or phrases , are things impossible to be proved , and therefore vainly attempted . we lay no stress upon these , but look upon them as very good probable proofs , which may be , i hope , allowed , where demonstration is impossible . see what is said as to these quotations , in the supplement to the reasonable account , p. , . let us rather see how our author proveth , that pure antiquity did impose any such forms . the author of the answer to dr. falkner , makes it appear , p. , . that it is a thing not capable of proof , and p. . that if it could be proved , it signifies nothing ; the practice of men being no argument to prove any thing lawful or unlawful . but yet , let us consider what our casuist saith ; for we do indeed believe that there can be no proof brought from antiquity for near six hundred years after christ. to prove , . that publick prayers were made within that time . or , . that the lord's prayer was frequently used in the publick congregation and worship . . or , that there were rules and orders made for churches meeting together for prayers , in certain places , and at certain times . . or , that many good men , did from the first , compose forms of words for the instruction of the weaker , in the due method , and matter of prayer , which some weaker people might arbitrarily use , or let alone . is to prove nothing denied . that which is to be proved . that in the times of purer antiquity , there were forms of prayer composed by the governours of the church , and universally imposed on ministers , even upon those who had the gift of prayer , and that the christian people and ministers , did universally comply with such vse . which ( as was said before ) is so far from having been by any proved , that it is impossible to be proved , for more then three hundred years after christ , which were the times of purest antiquity . nor ( to give our reverend author his due ) doth he say more than it seemeth most probable , p. . now probable things may appear to others not probable , for otherwise they would commence into demonstrations . but let us examine upon what grounds he saith , it is most probable , highly probable : his first ground is , because so far as we can find , there never was any dispute amongst christians , concerning the lawfulness of praying by forms . nor is there now , for those who are not able to pray without it , or who make use of a form of divine prescription . . how should there be , or what need was there of any dispute about it , till it came to be universally imposed ? . who so knows how little record we have that gives us account of the church for the first three hundred years , and by what hands that little cometh to us , will see no reason to wonder at our having nothing on this argument , immemorial usage , proves nothing in divine worship . but he cometh in the next place to matter of fact. . he instanceth first in the three ancient liturgies of peter , mark and iames , which though ( he saith ) they have been all of them corrupted , yet are doubtless , as to the purer part of them of great antiquity , and probably even from the apostolical age. there is enough said , as to this in my lord of morneyes book de missâ , cap. . and in the reasonable account , p. , . it is enough to say , that it is not a thing conceivable , that if mark , or peter , or iames , or andrew , or any other apostle had left any such liturgies , that either basil , or chrysostome , , or years after , should ( as is pretended ) go to make new ones : nor that , if either they , or basil , or chrysostome , had made any , then known or taken notice of in the world ; that ever the council of melenis ( as is pretended ) should direct the making any for their province , and not only injoin the use of them : nor considering , that peter , james , andrew , and peter , and mark , were all apostolical , and inspired men , would the use of any other than theirs have been lawful . . for our authors second proof , p. . about the forms of questions in baptism , it is quite another thing ; and those who doubt of the lawfulness of forms of prayer , to be universally and publickly used , never doubted of the lawfulness of a form of sound words , containing matter of doctrine . . in all that our author further saith upon this argument . i find nothing of moment insisted on , but what dr. falkner hath said , either in his libertas ecclesiastica , or in his vindication of liturgies , and hath been largely answered , in the reasonable account , p. , . or , in the supplement to it . ( wrote wholly upon this argument ) or in the answer to dr. falkner's vindication of liturgies , cap. . or in the postscript to that answer , containing the review of that chapter . there the reader will find a full answer to what is here said about the councils of laodicea , and milenis , to his argument from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ▪ his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , constantine's forms . i shall not take the pains to write , what is already written so plentifully on this argument , till i see something said to take off what hath been already said . . our author saith true , that after the year six hundred , when gregory was come to be pope , or rather after the year eight hundred , when charles the great had by his civil authority enforced the use of gregory's liturgies by fire , and sword. no other prayers were admitted into the publick worship , of what was then the popish church , but what was in the established liturgy ; but what they did then in the wilderness of the vallies of piedmont , and lucerne , or other places where the true church fled , we do not so well know ; but never read of any liturgy they carried along with them , or used . . for what our author further saith , about the calvinistical and lutherane churches , there is enough said in the aforemention'd books to answer it . it lies upon him to prove , that the churches in france and holland generally impose the use of forms in all parts of publick worship . if any do voluntarily use any forms which are prescribed , and left to a free use , we have nothing to do to condemn them ; though we be of another mind . i have indeed heard , that in the administration of the sacraments , and marriages , the ministers of the reformed churches in france , and holland generally , keep to forms . marrying persons is no ministerial act by any institution of christ. it is a great and weighty action , and possibly what is fittest to be done by such whose office it is to exhort , and to pray for people . as for the sacraments , the ministration of them is indeed a ministerial act. if we cannot satisfie our selves , in that ministration by tying our selves to prescribed forms . we hope , it is not a thing of that nature , but we may without any great danger differ in it from persons and churches which we honour . in the mean time , the churches of scotland , and new england have hitherto been of our minds , so that we are not wholly alone , we differ from the lutherane churches in far greater things than this , and further yet from the popish synagogues . but as i have often said , admit all here said as to antiquity or practice of other churches were true ( which manifestly is not ) it were but a presumptive , no concluding argument . in the mean time , . we ( many of us as we have said , and it hath appear'd by our practice , do not judge it sinful , though we do not judge it under all circumstances eligible ) to join by communion in prayer with ministers who use the prescribed forms , or any other , whose matter is not sinful , to be assented to , or begg'd of god. so that all our question is about the ministerial use. . nor as to that , do we judge our selves so infallible , as to condemn any ministers , that are satisfied , so to perform their publick ministerial acts in prayer . we only say , we cannot , and offer our reasons in vindication of our selves . for what our author saith , p. , . about iesuits , and romish preists , introducing conceived prayers , into publick use ; we hope enough hath been said in our first chapter to make him alter his mind . indeed forms of prayer were of general use in the popish worship , many hundred years before there was a jesuite in the world. but we do not believe them so much as canonically injoined before pope gregories time , but first by him . nor universally practised tell charles the great 's time , which was eight hundred years after christ. nor do we see the least colour of proof for any such thing . our author thinks fit to propound , but to speak very little to a sixth case , viz. case . whether it be lawful to comply with the use of publick forms , when they are imposed . our author i hope means publick forms , containing no matter , but what god hath given us leave to pray for . . with a liberty also to vse others in the pulpit ( for i observe our author hath all along pleaded for that ) this supposed , the term complying , referreth to ministerial vse , or to a popular vse , whose work is only to say amen in heart and with faith , and due affection , desiring those things of god. as to the latter it is not in question betwixt us . we are so far agreed . that such use ( though possibly under all circumstances not eligible ) yet is not sinful . so as the only question is of ministerial use. this our author knows many of us iudge not lawful , we have given him our reasons . our author hath pretended to answer them . we have now shewed him , that his answers appear to us insufficient , and bottomed upon mistakes . so as yet sub judice lis est , and the question is not ( as our author states it . ) whether a lawful thing when imposed , may be lawfully complied with . but whether what some persons judge lawful , may be done by others , who verily believe it unlawful . yet were the question ( as our author stateth it ) whether a thing [ in the worship of god ] lawful [ that is apparently , neither commanded nor forbidden in gods word ] may be lawfully complied with , if commanded by men. it could not be determined affirmatively without determining . that it is in the power of man to determine things in gods worship , which he hath left to peoples liberty ; and consequently , when god had given his people a liberty ; for a peace offering to offer of the herd , or of the flock , either male , or female , lev. . , , , , , . or a goat . it was yet lawful for asa , or iehosaphat , or hezekiah , or iosiah , or the iewish sanhedrim to have by an humane law restrained them to offer none but bullocks , or sheep , or goats , or of them none but males , or none but females , which as we read not was ever attempted ; so the lawfulness of such a restriction , or compliance with it may deserve serious thoughts . for what our author saith , that if the imposition of prayer in publick by forms may not be lawfully complied with , then neither may the imposition of prayer ex tempore . we say , who asketh any such thing ? for my own part , i think it would be unreasonable , surely those who plead for liberty in this thing , cannot plead for imposition any way ; and therefore what our author saith here , seemeth to me wholly impertinent . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e p. . pag . p. . part . vid. foxes and firebrands , p. . p. . † of which see more in the preface of the learned treatise , the unreasonableness of separation beginning , p. . 〈…〉 factor of queen 〈◊〉 for him . tinne of 〈◊〉 i● . so cap. . liturgias has omnes falsi postulo , ( saith the learned morney . ) the successive visibility of the church of which the protestants are the soundest members i. defended against the opposition of mr. william johnson, ii. proved by many arguments / by richard baxter ; whereunto is added . an account of my judgement to mr. j. how far hereticks are or are not in the church, . mr. js. explication of the most used terms, with my queries thereupon, and his answer and my reply, . an appendix about successive ordination, . letters between me and t.s., a papist, with a narrative of the success. baxter, richard, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing b estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) the successive visibility of the church of which the protestants are the soundest members i. defended against the opposition of mr. william johnson, ii. proved by many arguments / by richard baxter ; whereunto is added . an account of my judgement to mr. j. how far hereticks are or are not in the church, . mr. js. explication of the most used terms, with my queries thereupon, and his answer and my reply, . an appendix about successive ordination, . letters between me and t.s., a papist, with a narrative of the success. baxter, richard, - . johnson, william, - . [ ], , [ ], p. printed by r.w. for nevil simmons ... and are to be sold by francis tyton ..., london : . "the second part," "mr. johnson's explication of some of the most used terms," and "a letter written to thomas smith, a papist," have special title pages. errata on p. [ ] at end of first part. reproduction of original in british library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng protestantism -- apologetic works. dissenters, religious -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - olivia bottum sampled and proofread - olivia bottum text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the successive visibility of the church of which the protestants are the soundest members . i. defended against the opposition of mr. william iohnson . ii. proved by many arguments . by richard baxter . whereto is added , . an account of my judgement to mr. j. how far hereticks are or are not in the church . . mr. js. explication of the most used terms ; with my quere's thereupon , and his answer , and my reply . . an appendix about successive ordination . . letters between me , and t. s. a papist , with a narrative of the success . london , printed by r. w. for nevil simmons bookseller in kederminster , and are to be sold by francis tyton at the three daggers in fleet-street . . the preface . reader , if thou meet me at the threshold with a [ what need any more against popery then is written ? ] i must answer thee , [ no need , if all that is already written , were improved . nor were there need of any writings , if men would not renounce their common senses . we cannot hope or pretend , by any writings , to bring any controversie to a plainer , better issue , then to resolve it by the judgement of the common senses of all the world : and yet this doth not end the controversies between us and the papists ; whether bread be bread , and wine be wine , when they are seen , felt , tasted , &c. but some writings are usefull to awake men to the use of reason , and to help them to improve their other helps . and , as seneca saith , multum egerunt qui ante nos suerunt ; sed non peregerunt : suscipiendi tamen sunt ] though i thought i had said enough before in three or four former writings , yet the weight of the question here debated , and the common use that 's made of it by the papists , have perswaded me , that this also will be usefull to the church . and i must confess the moderation and ingenuity of the gentleman that i contend with , did not only tempt me into the undertaking at the first , but also did incline my thoughts to a publication ; there being here no stinking breath to annoy and drive away the reader . i have learned by experience , that its only prudent , charitable , self-denying , humble men , that are fit to be engaged in controversies . we bring fire to gun-powder , when we deal with proud malignant wretches , ( such as i have lately had to do with , ) that have souls so forsaken , and consciences so seared , as that they seem to make malicious lies , their glory and delight . some think that the contending with such , is a needfull , though an unsavoury work : i confess , a lyar is not to be encouraged , nor our just reputation to be prodigally cast away , or contemptuously neglected . duo sunt necessaria , saith augustine , conscientia & fama : conscientia propter deum ; fama propter proximum . but for our selves , gods approbation is enough ; and for others , if duty satisfie them not , contending will not . bacchae bacchanti si velis adversarier , ex insana insaniorem facies ; feriet saepius , saith plaut . if truth make blinded men our enemies , and the performance of our duty be our greatest crime , and no purgation be left us , but by becoming erroneous or ungodly , it s not worth our labour to word it with such men . pride and malice hearken not to reason : apologies will not cure the envy of a cain , or the pride of a diotrephes , or the hypocrisie and persecuting fury of a pharisee . but ( as august . ) conscientiam malam laudantis praeconium non sanat ; ne● bonam vulnerat convitium . ] praise healeth not an ill conscience ; and reproach cannot wound a good one . conscience respects a higher tribunal . could a calumniator be believed , it were a small thing to be judgeed by man : and conscia mens recti famae n●e●dacia ridet . but when they make themselves the objects of the common compassion or derision , they spare me the labour of a confutation : it s enough to say with the philosopher , [ ego sic vivam , ut nemo illi credat ] [ i will so live , that no man shall believe him ; ] when they themselves will so lie that no man ( or next to none ) shall believe them . it s a far more necessary and profitable employment , to oppose our sins then our accusers ; and to see that we are blameless , then that we are so reputed : and to escape the temptations of satan , rather then the calumnies of his instruments . it s better this wind offend our ears , then guilt should wound our hearts . penalty is heavier then injurious persecution , because of its relation to guilt : but culpability it self is worse then both . poena potest demi , culpa perennis erit . mors faciet certe , ne sim , cum venerit , exul . ne non peccarem , mors quoque non faciet . and even when god hath fully pardoned us , litura tamen extat . a soul that knows the evil of sin , and seeth by faith the dreadfull majesty , and the judgement to which he must stand or fall , is taken up with greater cares , then the defence of his reputation with men ; except as gods honour , or the good of souls may be concerned in it . another thing that encouraged me to this engagement was , that my antagonist seemed exceeding desirous of a close syllogistical way of arguing , which put me in hope of a speedier and better issue , then with wordy wandring sophisters i could expect . i never liked , either the feasts that consist of sawce and ceremony with little meat ; or the bawling rooks , that will not receive a bit without a troublesome noise . sed tacitus pasci si posset corvus , haberet plus depis , & rixa multo minus , invidiaeque nor the prodigal covetousness that turns the cock when none requireth it ; and plucks up the flood-gates , and sets the mill a going when there is no grist ; & omnia vult dicere , & nihil audire . when words are too cheap , it either proves them worthless , or makes them so esteemed . the sentence of an orator , and the very syllables of a disputant should be short . there should be no more dishes then are necessary for the meat : nor no more straw then is necessary to sustain the grain . frugality of speech , and sermonem habere rebus parem , do shew and make our speeches valuable . truth would be adorned , but not covered : attended , but not crowded ; proclaimed , but not buried in an heap of words . arguments are like money , that is valuable according to the mettal and the weight , and not according to the number of pieces , or curiosity of the stamp . and a third thing that made me the willinger to this task , was ; that the assaults of juglers , that thought to catch me under the names and mask of seekers , behmenists , and such other sects , had possessed me with so much indignation and distaste , that i was glad to meet with a bare-fac't papist , that was not ashamed of his religion , but would profess himself to be what he is . i could never hear that the papists won so many , and so considerable persons this threescore years , by open dealing , as i have cause to think they have won by fraud under the vizor of se●kers , and sectaries , within a few years past . i fear no papists , but protestant papists , that come to church , and take the oaths of supremacy and allegiance , as many did the engagement but a while ago ; or that wear some other vizor of dissimulation . hypocrisie is nowhere so odious as in religion , where men have to do with a heart searching god , and deal in matters of everlasting consequence . he hath no religion , that thinks it his duty to lie for his religion . for he hath no religion that believeth not in god. and he that believeth him to be a lover of lies , believeth not that he is god. verba ( inq . august . ) propterea instituta sunt , non ut per ea se invicem homines fallant , sed ut eis quisque in alterius noticiam cogitationes suas proferat . ] verbis ergo uti ad fallaciam , non ad quod sunt instituta , peccatum est . — longe tamen tolerabilius est , in his quae à religione fidei sejuncta sunt mentiri , quam in his , &c. — ] truth is great , ( and the greatest advantage to a disputant : ) and will at last prevail . lying is a remedy that needeth a remedy ; easing for the time by palliation , but much increasing the disease . [ magna est viis veritatis quae contra omnium ingenia , calliditatem , solertiam , contra fictas hominum insidias , facilè se per ipsam defendit , saith seneca . three questions about popery have put the world to much dispute . qu. . whether it be the right and safe religion ? . whether it may be tolerated ? . whether it be our duty to enter into reconciliation and communion with the papist , ( though not subjection ) and on what terms ? the first i have debated in this and divers other writings , ( viz. three disputations , called the safe religion , a key for catholikes , &c. a winding-sheet for popery , and the true catholike , and catholike church discribed . ) it is one of the reproaches of humane nature , that ever it could be corrupted into so sensless , unreasonable , impious , uncharitable a thing as popery : and one of the prodigies of misery , in the world , that any save one that inguinis & capitis quae sunt discrimina nescit , should be fully , and seriously a papist . but four things i find are the pillars of their church , and propagates their corruptions : . one is the love of themselves and of the world in unsanctified hearts : which makes them be of the religion of their rulers ; and resolve to be of no religion that shall undo them in the world : and therefore to escape reproach , and torment , and death , they will do any thing , and as they speak , will trust god with their souls , rather then men with their bodies : the meaning is , they will rather venture on the wrath of god , then of man ; and save their bodies , then their souls ; and secure this life ( as long as they can ) then life everlasting . . another is custom and education , possessing men with blinding stupifying prejudice , together with a contempt of truth and happiness , that keepeth sluggish souls from that diligent search and tryal that is necessary to a conquest of that temptation , and to a saving entertainment of the truth . and the name and reverence of their forefathers , emboldeneth them against the name and reverence of god. adeò à teneris assuescere multum est . saith seneca , inter causas malorum est quod vivimus ad exempla , nec ratione componimur , sed consuetudine abducimur . quod si pauci facerent , nolumus imitari ; quum plures facere caeperunt , quasi honestius fit , quia frequentius sequimur , & recti apud nos locum tenet error , ubi publicus factus est . not what god saith , but what man doth , is made the rule of this humane apish kind of religion . and so the tyrant custom ruleth them : et gravissimum est imperium consuetudinis , senec. educatio & disciplina mores facit : & id sapit unusquisque quod didicit : id. . another cause is superstitious fears which the false doctrins of purgatory , and no salvation out of their church , &c. have cast into mens minds . the priests rule their subjects , as one of their captains ruled the thracians , by making ladders , and making them believe he would climb up to iuno to complain of them . . and it is not the least support of popery , that it maketh light of heynous sins , as ●ornication , drunkenness , swearing , forswearing , lying , equivocation , &c. and provideth for them the easie remedies of confession , and such gentle pennance as the sagacious tractable priest shall impose . but holy water will not wash out their spots . god judgeth not as the pope or mass priest. let no man deceive you with vain words : for such things ( as fornication , uncleanness , filthiness , foolish talking , &c. ) cometh the wrath of god on the children of disobedience , eph. . , , . for all the flatteries of indulgences , and pardons , and the name of venial sin , yet conscience hath not pardoned all that is pardoned by the pope . and , prima est haec ultio , quod se iudice nemo nocens absolvitur — and it s no great ease to have an external pardon , and neither an eternal , nor internal ; but nocte dieque suum gestare in pectore testem . how many must be damned by christ , that were pardoned by the vice-christ . qu. . and for the second question , about the toleration of popery , let him that desireth it , but procure a toleration of the protestant profession in spain , italy , bavaria , austria , &c. and then i undertake to give him a satisfactory answer of this question . in the mean time , i shall only say as seneca , nemo ex imprudentibus est qui relinqui sibi debeat : especially men that renounce all their senses and reason ▪ so far , as not to believe that bread is bread , and wine is wine , should not be left without a guardian . but in general , we must on one hand avoid inhumane cruelty ( and leave them those means that are suited to their cause : ) and on the other hand we must take heed that we betray not the gospel and the souls of men , to the subtilty and pernitious fraud of trained deceivers . we must vigilantly and strenuously defend , though we must tenderly and sparingly offend , any further then is necessary to such defence . qu. . and for the third question , about reconciliation , i have spoken to it , and offered the terms in other writings ( especially my key for catholikes ) i only add now , that the peace-makers no doubt are blessed ; and if it be possible , as much as in us lyeth , we must live peaceably with all men . but for the terms , we cannot possibly meet every corrupted party half way in their sins and errors , that we may be friends . let us hold to the immutable sufficient rule , indited by the holy ghost , and judge of all that swerve from it , according to the degree of their deviation , and unite in the ancient simplicity of doctrine , worship , and government , and lay our unity only on things necessary : for whosoever deviseth any other rule and terms of unity then these , shall never attain it , but raise up a new sect , and encrease our wounds . i am as much for unity as ever was cassander , erasmus , grotius , or any of the reconcilers : but i am certain that to subscribe to the trent decrees and creed , and to turn papist , or semi-papist , or participate of any sin for peace , is not the way . let some plead for all the greek corruptions , and some for the popes supremacy regulated by canons ; and some for his meer primacy as principium unitatis , and his government of all the west as patriark ; let them digladiate about a pope and council , as wisely as greece and troy did fight ten years for a beautiful whore ; i am sure that none of these are the way to the churches unity and peace ( as i have opened in my description of the true catholike church ) nor will their design be more successeful , that would so discordantly agree us all with the first three hundred years , as to deny the first hundred , or two hundred to be our pattern , and to make all the forms and ceremonies to be necessary to our concord , which the third or fourth century used but as things indifferent , with diversity and mutation , and mutual forbearance . but of the terms of catholike vnity , i have spoken , as in the forecited papers , so in a pacificatory letter of the worcestershire ministers to mr. j. dury : and if god will , shall do it yet more ●ully . and of the evils in popery , that move me to distast it , having given a breviate in an epistle before another mans book , which i perceive is seen of very few , i shall here annex so much of that epistle , as is pertinent to the present business . readers , were not the iudgements of god so dreadfull , and infatuation so lamentable in matters of everlasting consequence , and sin so odious , and the calamities of the church , the dishonour of god , and the damnation of souls such deplorable things , as tolerate not a laughter in the standers by , it would seem one of the most ridiculous things in the world , that a man of seeming wisdom should be a papist ; and that so many princes , and learned men , with the vulgar multitude , should be able so far to renounce or intoxicate their reason while they are awake : and a papist would be described , to be one that sets up his understanding to be the laughing-stock of the sober rational world. there are abundance of controversies among physitians that concern mens lives ; and yet i have heard of none so vain , as to step forth and challenge the authority of being the universal decider of them , or to charge god with solly or oversight , if he have not appointed some such universal iudge in the world , to end all controversies in matters of such weight . but if in physick's , law , or any of the sciences , the controversies should be never so many or so great , if yet you could resolve them into sense it self , and bring all to the judgement of mens eyes , and ears , and taste , and feeling , who would not laugh or hiss at him that would still make them the matters of serious doubts ? the papists finding that man is 〈◊〉 perfect , and knoweth but in part , and 〈◊〉 the scripture there are some things are hard to be understood , and that earth hath not so much light as heaven , imagine that hereby they have a fair advantage to plead for an universal terrestrial iudge , and to reproach god , if he have appointed none such , and next to plead that their pope or his approved councils must needs have this authority . and when they come to the decision , they are not ashamed to see after so many hundred years pretentions , that the world is but basfled with the empty name of a judge of controversies , and that difficulties are no less difficulties still , and controversies are nowhere so voluminous as with them . but this is a small matter with them . their iudge s●●ms much wiser when he is silent , then when he speaks . when he comes to a decision , and formeth up thereby the hodge-podge of popery , they seem not to smile at , nor be ashamed of the picture which they have drawn , which is , of an harlot shewing her nakedness , and committing her lewdness in the open assemblies , in the sight of the sún . they openly proclaim their shame against the light of all the acknowledged principles in the world , their own or others , and in opposition to all , or almost all that is commendable among men . the charge seems high , but ( in a few words ) take the proof . . they confess the scripture to be the word of god : and yet when we would appeal to that as the rule of faith and life , or as a divine revelation , in our disputes , they fly off , and tell us of its obscurity , and the necessity of a iudge . if they meet with a hoc est corpus meum , they seem for a while to be zealous for the scripture : but tell them that paul in cor. . , , . doth call it bread after the consecration , no less than three times in the three next verses , and then scripture is non-sense to them till the pope make sense of it . it is one of their principal labours against us , to argue against the scriptures sufficiency to this use . by no means can we prevail with them to stand to the decision of the scripture . . they excessively cry up the church , and appeal to its decision : and therefore we might hope , that here if anywhere , we might have some hold of them . but when it comes to the point , they not only disown the judgement of the church , but impudently call christ's spouse a strumpet , and cut off ( in their uncharitable imagination ) two or three parts of the universal church as hereticks or schismaticks . the judgement of the churches in armenia , ethiopia , egypt , syria , the greeks , and many more besides the reformed churches in the west , is against their popes universal vicarship or soveraignty , and many of their errours that depend thereon : and yet their judgement is not regarded by this faction . and if a third or fourth part ( such as it is ) of the universal church , may cry up themselves as the church to be appealed to , and condemn the far greater part , why may not a tenth or a twentieth part do the like ? why may not the donatists , the novatians , or the greeks ( much more ) do so as well as papists ? . they cry up tradition . and when we ask them , how we shall know it , and where it is to be found , they tell us , principally in the profession and practice of the present church . and yet when two or three parts of the universal church profess that tradition is against the papal ▪ monarchy , and other points depending on it , they cast tradition behind their backs . . they cry up the fathers : and when we bring their judgements against the substance of popery , they sometime vilifie or accuse them as erroneous , and sometime tell us , that fathers as well as scripture must be no otherwise understood , than their church expoundeth them . . they plead for an appeal to councils ; and ( though we easily prove that none of them were universal , yet such as they were ) they call them all reprobate , which were not approved by their pope , let the number of bishops there be never so great . and those that were approved , if they speak against them , they reject also , either with lying shifts denying the approbation , or saying , the acts are not de fide , or not conciliariter facta , or the sense must be given by their present church , or one such contemptible shift or other . . at least one would think they should stand to the judgement of the pope , which yet they will not : for shame forbids them to own the doctrine of those popes that were hereticks or infidels ( and by councils so judged : ) and others they are forced to disown , because they contradict their predecessors . and at rome the cardinals are the pope , while he that hath the name is oft made light of . and how infallible he is judged by the french and the venetians ; how sixtus the fifth was valued by the spaniards , and by bellarmine , is commonly known . . but all this is nothing to their renunciation of humanity , even of the common senses and reason of the world . when the matter is brought to the decision of their eyes , and taste , and feeling , whether bread be bread , and wine be wine ; and yet all italy , spain , austria , bravaria , &c. cannot resolve it ; yea , generally ( unless some latent protestant ) do pass their judgement against their senses , & the senses of all sound men in the world ; & that not in a matter beyond the reach of sense ( as whether christ be there spiritually ) but in a matter belonging to sense , if any thing belong to it , as whether bread be bread , &c. kings and nobles , prelates and priests , do all give their judgement , that all their senses are deceived . and is it possible for these men then to know any thing ? or any controversie between us and them to be decided ? if we say that the sun is light , or that the pope is a man , and scripture legible , or that there are the writings of councils and fathers extant in the world , they may as well concur in a denyal of all this , or any thing else that sense should judge of . if they tell us that scripture requireth them to contradict all their senses in this point ; i answer , . not that scripture before mentioned , that calleth it [ bread ] after the consecration , thrice in the three next verses . . and how know they that there is such a scripture , if all their senses be so fallible ? if the certainty of sense be not supposed , a little learning or wit might satisfie them , that faith can have no certainty . but is it not a most dreadful judgement of god , that princes and nations , learned men , and some that in their way are conscientious , should be given over to so much inhumanity , and to make a religion of this brutishness , ( and worse ) and to persecute those with fire and sword , that are not so far forsaken by god , and by their reason ? and that they should so solicitously labour the perversion of states and kingdoms for the promoting of stupidity or stark madness ? . and ( if we go from their principles to their ends , or wayes , we shall soon see that ) they are also against the unity of the church , while they pretend this as their chiefest argugument , to draw men to their way . they set up a corrupted faction , and condemn the far greater part of the church ; and will have no unity with any but those of their own faction and subjection : and fix this as an essential part of their religion , creating thereby an impossibility of universal concord . . they also contradict the experience of many thousand saints ; asserting that they are all void of the love of god and saving grace , till they become subject to the pope of rome ; when as the souls of these believers have experience of the love of god within them , and feel that grace that proveth their iustification . i wonder what kind of thing it is that is called love or holiness in a papist , which protestants and other christians have not , and what is the difference . . they are most notorious enemies to charity , condemning most of the christian world to hell , for being out of their subjection . . they are notorious enemies to knowledge under pretence of obedience and unity , and avoiding heresie . they celebrate their worship in a language not understood by the vulgar worshippers . they hinder the people from reading the holy scriptures , ( which the ancient fathers exhorted men and women to , as an ordinary thing . ) the quality of their priests and people , testifies this . . they oppose the purity of divine worship , setting up a multitude of humane inventions instead thereof , and idolatrously ( for no less can be said of it ) adoring a piece of conserated bread as their god. . they are opposers of holiness , both by the foresaid enmity to knowledge , charity , and purity of worship , and by many unholy doctrines , and by deluding souls with an outside histrionicall way of religion , never required by the lord , consisting in a multitude of ceremonies , and worshipping of angels , and the souls of saints , and images , and crosses , &c. let experience speak how much the life of holiness is promoted by them . . they are enemies to common honesty , teaching the doctrines of equivocations and mental reservations , and making many hainous sins venial , and many of the most odious sins to be duties , as killing kings that are excommunicated by the pope , taking oaths with the foresaid reservations , and breaking them , &c. for the jesuits doctrine , montaltus the jansenist , and many of the french clergy have pretty well opened it : and the pope himself hath lately been fain to publish a condemnation of their apology . and yet the power and interest of the jesuites and their followers among them , is not altogether unknown to the world. . they are enemies to civil peace and government , ( if there be any such in the world ) as their doctrine and practice of killing and deposing excommunicate princes , breaking oaths , &c. shews . bellarmine that will go a middle way , gives the pope power in ordine ad spiritualia , and indirectly , to dispose of kingdoms , and tells us , that it is unlawfull to tolerate heretical kings that propagate their heresie , ( that is , the ancient faith. ) how well doctor heylin hath vindicated their council of laterane in this , ( whose decrees stand as a monument of the horrid treasonable doctrine of the papists ) i shall , if god will , hereafter manifest : in the mean time , let any man read the words of the council , and iudge . and now whether a religion that is at such open enmity with . scripture , . the church , . tradition , . fathers , . councils , . some popes , . the common senses and reason of all the world , even their own , . vnity of christians , . knowledge , . experience of believers , . charity , . purity of worship , . holiness , . common honesty , . and to civil government and peace ( which might all easily be fully proved , though here but touched ) i say , whether such a religion should be embraced and advanced with such diligence and violence , and mens souls laid upon it , is the controversie before us . and whether is should be tolerated ( even the propagation of it , to the damnation of the peoples souls ) is now the question which the juggling papists have set a foot among those that have made themselves our rulers : and there are found men among us , that call themselves protestants and godly , that plead for the said toleration ; ( and consequently for the delivering up of these nations to popery , if not to spanish , or other forreign powers ) which if they effect , and after their contrary professions , prove such traitors to christ , his gospel and their posterity , as they leave the land of their nativity in misery , they shall leave their stinking names for a reproach and curse to future generations ; and on such pillars shall be written , [ this pride , self-seeking , uncharitableness , and schism hath done . ] this was written and printed under the late usurpers . ) postscript . reader , though the papists have seemed to be the most discountenanced party under the late usurpers , and to have no interest or power , yet i have still found , that those sped worst from men , that were most against them ; and that i never wrote any book against them , but it brought a sharper storm upon me , then any thing that i wrote against any other sect that was more visibly in power . and yet it was not openly professed to be for my opposition to popery , but on some other account : and though the fountain by the taste of the waters , might be known yet it self and secret conducts were all underground and undiscernable . the jesuits that are the spring of these and greater things then these , are latent , and their motion is not seen , while we see the motions which are caused by their secret force . so that by this means its only those few inquisitive discerning persons , that can see a cause in its effect , that find them out : and those few are unable to make full proof , even of the things they know ; and thereby are prohibited from appearing openly in the cause , lest coming short in legal proof , they leave the guilty triumphing over the innocent as calumniators . for the last book that i wrote against them ( my key for catholikes ) the parliament-house it self , and all the land did ring of my accusations ; and the menaces were so high , that my intended ruine was the common talk . and i know their indignation is not abated . my crime is , that their zeal to proselyte me , hath acquainted me with some of their secrets , and let me know what the jesuits are doing , and how great a party that are masked under the name of seekers , familists , &c. they have in the land . i have therefore reader , this double request to thee : first , arm thy self diligently against popery , if thou would'st preserve thy religion and thy soul. whatever sects assault thee openly , suspect and avoid the disease that is endeavouring with greatest advantages to be epidemical . to this end , be well studied in the writings that have opened their vanity and shame : i hope , what i have written on that subject , will not be useless to them that are not at leisure to read the larger volumes . read dr. challoners credo sanctam ecclesia● catholicam . peter moulins answer to cottons questions . and for larger volumes , vsher , chillingworth , field , whittakers , especially de pontif. roman ▪ may be numbered with the most solid , judicious and useful : and dr. mouline of the novelty of popery now in the press , with river , and chamier , to add no more . and if ever thou fall in company with seekers , or familists , that are questioning all things , and endeavouring to disparage the holy scriptures , and the ministry , and church , and ordinances , though but in a questioning way , look then to thy religion , and suspect a papist : secondly , because experience hath taught me to expect that my renewed assault of popery should raise some storm , and renew my dangers , ( though i know not which way it will come , and expect it should be upon pretence of something that is no kin to the real cause , ) let him that hath been so exceedingly beholden to the servants of christ for prayers , have thy prayers in particular for this , that he may be satisfied in gods approbation , and count it a small matter to be censured by man , or to suffer those soft and harmless stroaks , that the impotent arm of flesh can inflict ; and may live and dye in the army of believers , described heb. , and . and be so far preserved from the contrivances of malice , as is needful to his appointed work : in which it is the top of his ambition : to be found a faithful though unworthy servant of christ for his church , rich. baxter . s●p . . . the contents . the first part. mr. johnsons argument prosecuted , to pag. my answer . to mr. johnsons second paper . his attempt to prove the succession of the roman soveraignty . to the end . my letter to the sender of his . my reply to the second paper . on which of us the proof is incumbent . of the eastern and southern churches . , , &c. whether we are one church with them of rome . , &c. of our separation . whether the armenians , ethiopians , syrians , &c. are excluded as hereticks ? the instance of an appeal of john of antioch refuted . the instance of flavianus appeal refuted . of leo's pretended restoring theodoret upon appeal . of cyprians desire that stephen would depose martian bishop of arles . a pretended decree of the council of sardis examined . basils words epist. . examined . chrysostoms words to innocent . a pretended proof from the council of ephesus confuted . of the addresses to pope julius by athanasius and the arrians . chamiers words hereabout . of chrysostoms case . of theodosius and the concil . ephes. of the council of calcedon . of pope agapet deposing anthymius of constantinople . of gregories words . of cyril and celestine against nestorius . of juvenals words . of valentinians and theodosius words . of vincentius lirinensis words . of philip and arcadius at concil . ephesus . the nullity of all these pretended proofs . whether papists give , and popes accept the title of vice-christ , monarch , &c. to of the contest of councils for the rule . mr. johnsons work to which his cause engageth him . the contents of the second part. qu. whether the church of which the protestants are members have been visible ever since the daies of christ on earth ? aff. the church what . protestants what . of membership , and visibility . the first argument , to prove the successive visibility . the second argument . papists testimonies for the sufficiency of scripture as the rule . some of the fathers of the same . where was our church . the true catholike church , how described by augustine . optatus . tertullian . the third argument . the fourth argument . , arguments proving the visibility of a church without the papacy , since christ. argument first , from the council of calcedon . argument . from the silence of the ancients in cases where the allegation of the papal power would have been most pertinent and necessary . argument . from the tradition and testimony of the greatest part of the church . argument . from the churches without the verge of the empire , not subject to the pope . argument . from the eastern churches within the empire , not subjects of the pope . argument . from the full testimony of gre●ory the first , p. , &c. defended against bellarmine . argument . from the confession of ●●ie● papists . 〈◊〉 sylvius , melchio● c●nus , reynerius . argument . from historical testimony about the original of vniversal h●●dship . argument . the generality of christians in the first ages , and most in the latter , free from owning the papacy . argument . most christians in all ages ignorant of popery . object . the armenians , greeks , &c. differ from protestants : answered . misce●●any considerable testimonies . mr. johnsons exception . my answer to his exception , shewing in what sense hereticks are , or are not in the church , applyed to the eastern and southern churches . , &c. mr. johnsons explication of the most used terms , with my quere's thereupon , and his answer , and my reply . . of the church . . of heresie . , &c. . of the pope . , &c. . of bishops . . of tradition . of general councils . . of schism . an appendix about successive ordination . letters between me and t. s. a papist ; with a narrative of the success , written by his friend . errata . page . l. . for it r. that . p. . l. . r. freheri . p. . l. . r. necessitate . p. . l. . r. ecclesia romana . p. . l. . for here r. hear . mr. iohnsons first paper . the church of christ , wherein only salvation is to be had , never was nor is any other then those assemblies of christians who were united in communion and obedience to s. peter in the beginning since the ascension of christ. and ever since to his lawful successors , the bishops of rome , as to their chief pastor . proof . whatsoever congregation of christians is now the true church of christ , acknowledges s. peter and his lawful successors the bishops of rome , ever since the ascension of christ to have been ; and now to be by the institution of christ , their chief head and governour on earth in matters belonging to the soul next under christ. but there is no salvation to be had out of that congregation of christians , which is now the true church of christ. ergo , there is no salvation to be had out of that congregation of christians which acknowledges s. peter and his lawful successors the bishops of rome ever to have been since the ascension of christ ; and now to be by the institution of christ their chief head and governour on earth in matters belonging to the soul next under christ. the minor is clear ; for all christians agree in this , that to be saved , it is necessary to be in the true church of christ ; that only being his mystical body , spouse and mother of the faithful , to which must belong all those who ever have been , are , or shall be saved . the major i prove thus . whatsoever congregation of christians as now the true church of christ , hath been alwaies visible since the time of christ , either under persecution , or in peace and flourishing . but no congregation of christians hath been alwaies visible since the time of christ , either under persecution or in peace and flourishing , save that only which acknowledges s. peter and his lawful successors the bishops of rome , ever to have been since the ascension of christ ; and now to be by christs institution , their chief head and governour on earth , in matters belonging to the soul next under christ. ergo , whatsoever congregation of christians is now the true church of christ , acknowledges st. peter , and his lawful successors the bishops of rome , ever to have been since the ascension of christ ; and now to be by christs institution their chief head and governour on earth , in matters belonging to the soul , next under christ. the major is proved thus . whatsoever congregation of christians hath alwaies had visible pastors and people united , hath alwaies been visible , either under persecution , or in peace and flourishing . but whatsoever , congregation of christians is now the true church of christ , hath alwaies had visible pastors and people united . ergo , whatsoever congregation of christians is now the true church of christ , hath alwaies been visible , either under persecution , or in peace and flourishing . the major of this last sylogism is evident , for seeing a visible church is nothing but a visible pastor and people united : where there have alwaies been visible pastors and people united , there hath alwaies been a visible church . the minor i prove from ephesians , cap. . ver . , , , , , &c. where s. paul saies , that christ had instituted , that there should be pastors and teachers in the church for the work of the ministry , and preserving the people under their respective charges from being carried away with every wind of doctrine , &c. which evidently shews , those pastors must be visible , seeing the work of the ministry , which preaching , and administration of sacraments , and governing their flocks , are all external and visible actions . and this shews likewise , that those pastors and people must be alwaies visible , because they are to continue from christs ascension , untill we all meet together in the unity of faith , &c. which cannot be before the day of judgement . neither can it be said ( as some say ) that this promise of christ is only conditional , since to put it to be so without evident reason , giveth scope to every one at his pleasure , to make every other promise of christ to be conditional . and so we shall be certain of nothing that christ hath promised , neither that shall alwaies be a visible or invisible church , nor any church at all ; no nor of judgement , nor of eternal life , or of the resurrection of the dead , &c. for one may say with as much ground , as this is said , that some conditions were included in all those promises , which being not fulfilled , hinders the execution of them . there remains only , to prove the minor of the second sylogism , viz. that no congregation of christians hath been alwaies visible , &c. save that which acknowledges s. peter , and his lawful successors , &c. to be their chief head and governour , &c. next under christ. this minor i prove , by obliging the answerers to nominate any congregation of christians , which alwaies till this present time , since christ , hath been visible , either under persecution , or in peace and flourishing , save that only which acknowledges s. peter , &c. ut supra . sir , to comply with your desires of brevity , and of confining my self to half a sheet of paper ; i send you at present only one argument , which being fully discussed , shall be followed by others god willing . to this as to all the rest of my arguments , which may hereafter be urged : i require a categorical and strict sylogistical answer in form , by concedo , nego , distinguo , omitto , transeat . and the particular propositions specified , to which the respondents apply any of them ; and no more then precisely thus , neither adding amplifications , reasons , proofs , &c. of their own out of form , and that this may be done with all convenient speed . to the place of scripture , ephes. . &c. is also required a categorical answer , to what is precisely pressed in it , without directing the discourse to other things : and what is answered otherwise , i shall not esteem an answer , but an effugium , or declining of the difficulty . by this method exactly observed , truth will easily and speedily be made manifest ; and your desires of brevity will be punctually complied with . i also desire , that the respondent or respondents will ( as i do to this ) subscribe his , or their name or names to their answers , so often as any are by him or them returned , with the day of the month when returned . william johnson . decem. . the answer to the first paper . i received yours , and writ this answer , ian. . . sir , whoever you are , a serious debate with so sober a disputant , is to me an exceeding acceptable employment : i shall not , i hope , give you any cause to say , that i decline any difficulties , or halk your strength , or transgress the part of a respondent . but because , . you have not ( as you ought to have done ) explained the terms of your thesis . . and have made your propositions so long . . and have so cunningly lapped up your fallacies ; your respondent is necessitated to be the larger in distinction and explication . and seeing you are so instant with me for strictness , you thereby oblige your self , if you will be ingenuous , to make only the learned , and not any ignorant men the iudges of our dispute : because you know that to the unlearned a bare nego signifieth nothing ; but when such have read your arguments at length , they will expect as plain and large a confutation , or judge you to be in the right for speaking most . to your argument . . your conclusion containeth not your thesis , or question . and so you give up your cause the first step , and make a new one . it should have contained your question in terms , and it doth not so much as contain it in the plain sense : so much difference is there between [ assemblies of christians united , &c. ] and [ congregation of christians ] and between [ salvation or the church , never was in any other then those assemblies ] and [ no salvation out of that congregation ] ; as i shall shew you : besides other differences which you may see . ad majorem . resp. . by [ congregation ] you mean , either the whole catholike church united in christ , or some particular congregation , which is but part of that whole . in the latter sense , your subject hath a false supposition , viz. that a part is the whole , and your minor will be false . and your [ whatsoever congregation of christians ] seems to distinguish that from some other excluded congregation of christians that is not part of the catholike church , which is a supposing the chief part of the question granted you , which we deny . we know no universal congregation of christians but one , which containeth all particular congregations and christians , the univocally deserve that name . . either you mean that [ this whole congregation or true church acknowledgeth ] the popes soveraignty , or else [ that some part of it doth acknowledge it . ] the former i deny , and challenge any man living to prove : if it be [ part only ] that you mean , then either [ the greater part ] or [ the lesser ] : that it is the greater , i as confidently almost deny : for it is against the common knowledge of men acquainted with the world , &c. if you mean [ the lesser part ] you shall see anon that it destroys your cause . . either you speak de ecclesia quae talis , or de ecclesia qua talis : and mean that this [ acknowledgement ] is essential to it , or at least an inseparable property , or else that it is separable accident . the latter will do you no good : the former i deny . in summ : i grant that a small corrupt part of the catholike church doth now acknowledge the pope to be christs vicar , ( or the vice-christ ) ; but i deny , . that the whole doth so ( which is your great cause . ) . or the major part . . or any congregation through all ages ( though if they had , it would do you no good . ) . or that it is done by any upon just ground , but is their corruption . ad minorem . resp. . if you mean any [ part ] of the universal church by [ that congregation which is now the true church ] i deny your minor : if [ the who le ] i grant it . . you say [ all christians agree ] in it , &c. resp. i think all protestants , or near all , do : but franciscus à sancta clara hath copiously told us ( in artic. anglic. ) that most of your own doctors are for the salvation of infidels ; and then either you take infidels for your church members , or your doctors for no christians , or you play not fair play to tell us so gross an untruth , that all christians are agreed in it . to your conclusion . resp. . either you mean that [ there is no salvation to be had out of that universal church , whose part ( a minor corrupt part ) acknowledgeth the popes soveraignty ] or else [ that there is no salvation to be had out of that universal church which wholly acknowledgeth it ] or else [ that there is no salvation to be had out of that part of the universal church which acknowledgeth it . ] in the first sense i grant your conclusion ( if really you are part of the church . ) there is no salvation to be had out of christs universal church , of which you are small corrupted part . in the second sense i told you we deny the supposition in the subject . in the third sense i deny the sequel ; non sequitur , because your major proposition being false de ecclesia universali , the conclusion must be false de parte ista , as excluding the rest . but to the unskilful or unwary reader your conclusion seemeth to import , that [ the being in such a church which acknowledgeth the popes soveraignty , as it is such a church , is necessary to salvation ] and so [ that the persons acknowledgement is necessary . ] but it is a fallacia accidentis cunningly lapt up , that is the life of your imported cause . that part of the universal church doth hold to the popes soveraignty , is per accidens ; and could you prove that the whole church doth so ( which you are unlike to do ) i would say the like . and that your fallacy may the better appear ; i give you some examples of such like sophisms . [ whatsoever nation is the true kingdom of spain is proud and cruel against protestants : but there is no protection there due to any that are not of that kingdom : therefore there is no protection due to any that are not proud and cruel . ] or [ whatsoever nation is the true kingdom of france acknowledgeth the pope : but no protection is due from the governours to any that are not of that kingdom : therefore no protection is due to any that acknowledge not the pope . ] or [ what ever nation is the kingdom of ireland in the daies of queen elizabeth , was for the earl of tyrone : but there was no right of inheritance for any that were not of that nation : therefore there was no right of inheritance for any that was not for the earl of tyrone . ] or suppose that you could have proved it of all the church . if you had lived four hundred years after christ , you might as well have argued thus . [ whatsoever congregation of christians is now the true church of christ , is against kneeling in adoration on the lords daies . but there is no salvation to be had out of that congregation of christians , which is now the true church of christ : therefore there is no salvation to be had out of that congregation which is against kneeling on the lords day . &c. ] but yet , . there was salvation to be had in that congregation without being of that opinion . . and there is now salvation to be had in a congregation that is not of that opinion , as you will confess . or [ whatsoever congregation of christians is now the true church of christ , doth hold the canticles and the epistle to philemon to be canonical scripture , ( and so have done , &c. ) but there is no salvation to be had out of the true church : therefore there is no salvation to be had out of that congregation which holdeth the canticles and epistle to philemon to be canonical scripture . ] but yet , . salvation is to be had in that church without holding it . . and its possible hereafter a church may deny those two books , and yet you will think salvation not thereby overthrown . this is but to shew your fallacy from a corrupt accident , and indeed but of a part of the church , and a small part . now to your proof of the major . resp. ad major . the present matter of the church was not visible in the last generation , for we were not then born : but the same form of the church was then existent in a visible matter , and their profession was visible or audible , though their faith it self was invisible . i will do more then you shall do , in maintaining the constant visibility of the chruch . ad minorem . . if you mean that no congregation hath been alwaies visible [ but that universal church whose lesser corrupt part acknowledges ] the popes soveraignty , i grant it . for besides [ the whole containing all christians as the parts ] there can be no other . if you mean [ save that part which acknowledgeth ] you contradict your self , because a part implyeth other parts . if you mean [ save that universal church , all whose members ( or the most ) acknowledge it ] , there is no such subject existent . . i distinguish of visibility : it s one thing to be a visible church , that is , visible in its essentials ; and another thing to be visible quoad hoc , as to some separable accident . [ the universal church was ever visible ; because their profession of christianity was so , and the persons professing : but [ the acknowledgement of the vice-christ ] was not alwaies visible , no not in any part , much less in the whole . and if it had , it was but a separable accident ( if your disease be not incurable ) that was visible : and therefore , . it was not necessary to salvation , nor a proper mark of the church . . nor can it be so for the time to come . i need to say no more to your conclusion . your argument is no better then this , [ whatsoever congregation of christians is now the true church of christ , hath been alwaies visible since the time of christ : but no congregation of christians hath been so visible , save only that which condemneth the greeks , which hath a colledge of cardinals to choose the popes , which denieth the cup to the laity , which forbiddeth the reading of scripture in a known tongue without license , &c. therefore whatsoever congregation of christians is now the true church of christ , hath all these ] ; . in a corrupt part it hath . . but it had not alwaies . . and may be cured hereafter . to your proof of the major : . i grant your major . . ad minorem . . either you mean [ universal pastors ] each one , or someone having charge and government of the [ whole church , ] or you mean , [ unfixed pastors having an indefinite charge of preaching and guiding when they come and have particular calls and opportunities ] or you mean [ the fixed pastors of particular churches ] in the first sense your minor is false , the catholike church was never so united to any universal head but christ : no one of the apostles governed the rest & the whole church , much less any since their time . in the second sense , i grant that the church hath ever had pastors since the ascension . in the third sense , i grant that some parts or other of the catholike church , have ever had fixed pastors of congregations since the first settling of such pastors . but any one particular congregation may cease to have such pastors , and may cease it self : and rome hath been long without any true pastors ; and therefore was then no such visible church . . if by [ congregation ] you mean not the universal church , but [ a part ] , or if you mean it of [ all the parts of the universal church ] i deny your minor : communities of christians , and particular persons have been and may be without any pastors , to whom they are united or subject . the indians that died in the faith while frumentius and edesius were there preaching , before they had any pastor , were yet christians and saved : if a lay-man convert one , or a thousand , ( and you will say that he may baptize them ) and they die before they can have a pastor , or ever hear of any to whom they owe subjection , they are nevertheless saved , as members of the church ; and if all the pastors in a nation were murdered or banished , the people would not cease to be christians and members of the church . much less if the pope were dead or deposed , or a vacancy befell his seat , would all the catholike church be annihilated , or cease . to your confirmation of the major [ that a visible church is nothing but a visible pastor , and people united ] i answer : . it s true of the universal church , as united in christ , the great pastor , but not as united in a vice-christ or humane head . . it is true of a particular political or organized church , as united to their proper pastors . but it is not true of every community of christians who are a part of the universal church . a company converted to christ , are members of the universal church , ( though they never heard of a pope at rome ) before they are united to pastors of their own . the proof of the minor from eph. . i grant as aforesaid : the text proveth that pastors the church shall have : i disclaim the vain objection [ of conditionality in the promise ] which you mention . but it proves not , . that the church shall have an universal monarch or vice-christ , under christ. . nor that every member of the universal church , shall certainly be a member of a particular church , or ever see the face of a pastor , or be subject to him . you say next [ there remains only to prove the minor of the second syllogism , viz. that no congregation of christians hath been alwaies visible but that which acknowledges , &c. ] this is the great point which all lyeth on : the rest hath been all nothing , but a cunning shooing horn to this . prove this , and prove all : prove not this , and you have lost your time . you say [ the minor i prove , by obliging the answerers to nominate any congregation of christians which alwaies till this present time since christ hath been visible — save that only which acknowledges &c. ] and have i waited all this while for this ? you prove it by obliging me to prove the contrary . ridiculous ! sed quo jure ? . your undertaken form of arguing obligeth you to prove your minor : you cannot cast your respondent upon proving and so arguing , and doing the opponents part . . and in your postscript you presently forbid it me ; you require me to hold to a concedo , nego , distingno , omitto , transeat ; threatning that else you will take it for an effugium . and i pray you tell me in your next , to which of these doth the nomination or proof of such a church as you describe belong ? plainly , you first slip away when you should prove your minor , and then oblige me to prove the contrary , and then tell me , if i attempt it , you 'l take it for an effugium . a good cause needs not such dealing as this : which me thinks you should be loth a learned man should hear of . . your interest also in the matter ( as well as your office as opponent ) doth oblige you to the proof . for though you make a negative of it , you may put it in other terms at your pleasure . it is your main work to prove [ that all the members of the universal church have in all ages held the popes soveraignty or universal head-ship . ] or [ the whole visible church hath held it ] prove this , and i will be a papist ; you have my promise . you affirm , and you must prove . prove a catholike church , at least that in the major part was of that mind : ( though that would be nothing to prove the condemnation of the rest . ) if you are an impartial enquirer after truth , fly not when you come to the setting too . i give you this further evident reason why you cannot oblige me to what you here impose ; . because you require me to prove the visibility of a church which held not your point of papacy ; and so put an unreasonable task upon me , about a negative : or else , i must prove that they held the contrary , before your opinion was started : and it is the catholike church that we are disputing about ; so that i must prove this negative of the catholike church . . it is you that lay the great stress of necessity on your affirmative , more then we do on the negative ; you say that no man can be saved without your affirmative [ that the pope is the universal head and governor ] but we say not that no man can be saved that holdeth not our negative , [ that he is not the vice-christ ] for one that hath the plague or leprosie may live . therefore it is you that must prove that all the catholike church was still of your mind . . and it is an accident , and but an accident of a small●r corrupted part of the catholike church that you would oblige me to prove the negation of ; and therefore it is utterly needless to my proof of a visible catholike church . for i will without it prove to you a successive visibility of the catholike church , from the visibility of its essential or constitutive parts ( of which your pope is none . ) i will prove a successive visible church that hath still professed faith in god the father , son and holy ghost , and been united to the universal head , and had particular pastors , some fixed , some unfixed , and held all essential to a christian. and proving this , i have proved the church of which i am a member . to prove that england hath been so long a kingdom , requireth no more but to prove the two essential parts , king and subjects , to have so long continued united . it requireth not that i prove that if ever either h●●d , or opposed a vice-king . this is our plain case . if a man have a botch on one of his hands ; it is not needful in order to my proving him a man heretofore , that i prove he was born and bred without it : so be it i prove that he was born a man , it sufficeth . nor is it needfull that i prove the other hand alwaies to have been free , in order to prove it a member of the body : it sufficeth that i prove it to have been still a hand . i do therefore desire you to perform your work , and prove that [ no congregation hath been still visible , but such as yours ] or that [ the whole catholike church hath ever since the ascention held a humane universal governour under christ , ] or else i shall take it as a giving up your cause as indefensible . and observe , if you shall prove only that a part of the catholike church still held this ( which you can never do ) then , . you will make the contrary opinion as consistent with salvation as yours . for the rest of the catholike church is savable . . and then you will allow me to turn your argument against your self as much as it is against us ( and so cast it away . ) e. g. [ what ever congregation of christians is now the true church of christ , hath been alwaies visible : but no congregation of christians hath been alwaies visible , but that which quoad partem denyeth the popes universal headship ; therefore whatever congregation of christians is the true church , denyeth the popes universal headship . well! but for all this ( supposing you will do your part ) i will fail you in nothing that 's reasonable , which i can perform . a catholike church in all ages that was against the pope , in every member of it , i hope i cannot shew you ; because i hope that you are members , though corrupt . but you shall have more then a particular congregation , or a hundred . . at this present , two or three parts of the catholike church is known to be against your universal monarchy . the greeks , armenians , ethiopians , &c. besides the protestants . . in the last age there were as many or more . . in the former ages till an. d. . there were neer as many , or rather many more . for more be saln off the tenduè , nubia , and other parts then the protestants that came in . . about the year . there were many more , incomparably ; and i think then , but at least of . years after christ i never yet saw valid proof of one papist in all the world , that is , one that was for the popes universal monarchy or vice-christ-ship . so that most of the catholike church ( about three parts to one ) hath been against you to this day ; and all against you for many hundred years . could i name but a nation against you , i should think i had done nothing ; much less if i cited a few men in an age . . and all those of ethiopia , india , &c. that are without the verge and awe of the ancient roman empire , never so much as gave the pope that primacy of dignity , which those within the empire gave him , when he was chief , as the earl of arundel is of the earls of england that governeth none of them , and as the lord chancellor may be the chief judge , that hath no power in alieno foro : or as the eldest justice is chief in the county and on the b●nch , that ruleth not the rest . mistake not this primacy for monarchy , nor the romane empire for the world , and you can say nothing . at present , ad hominem , i give you sufficient proof of this succession . as you use to say that the present church best knew the judgement of the former age , and so on to the he●d , and so tradition beareth you out : i turn this unresistibly against you . the far greatest part of christians in the world that now are in possession of the doctrine contrary to your monarchy , tell us that they had it from their fathers , and so on . and as in councils , so with the church real , the major part ( three to one ) is more to be credited then the minor part ; especially when it is a visible self-advancement that the minor part insisteth on . . and were not this enough , i might add , that your western church it self in its representative body at constance and basil , hath determined that not the pope but a general council is the chief governor under christ ; and that this ha●h been still the judgement of the church , and that its heresie in whoever that hold the contrary . . and no man can prove that one half or tenth part of your people ca●●ed papists are of your opinion : for they are not called to profess it by words : and their obedience is partly forced , and partly upon other principles ; some obeying the pope as their western patriarch of chief dignity ; and some and most doing all for their own peace and safety : their outward acts will prove no more . and now sir , i have told you what church of which we are members , hath been visible ; yea and what part of it hath opposed the vice-christ of rome . this i delayed not an hour after i received yours , because you desired speed . accordingly i crave your speedy return ; and intreat you to advise with the most learned men ( whether jesuites or others ) of your party in london that think it worth their thoughts and time : not that i have any thoughts of being their equal in learning , but partly because the case seemeth to me so exceeding palpable , that i think it will suffice me to supply all my defects against the ablest men on earth , or all of them together , of your way ; and principally because i would see your strength , and know the most that can be said , that i may be rectified if jerr ( which i suspect not ) or confirmed the more if you cannot evince it , and so may be true to gods truth and my own soul. rich. baxter . mr. iohnsons second paper . sir , it was my happiness to have this argument transmitted into your learned and quiet hands ; which gratefully returns as fair a measure as it received from you : that animosities on both sides seposed , truth may appear in its full splendour , and seat it self in the center of both our hearts . to your first exception . my thesis was sufficiently made cleer to my friend , who was concerned in it ; and needed no explication in its address to the learned . to your second exception . my propositions were long , that my argument ( as was required ) might be very short , and not exceed the quantity of half a sheet : which enforced me to penetrate many syllogisms into one ; and by that means in the first not to be so precise in form , as otherwise i should have been . to your third exception . seeing i required nothing but logicall form in answering , i conceive that regard was more to be had amongst the learned to that , then to the errours of the vulgar : that whilest ignorance attends to most words , learning might attend to most reason . to your fourth exception . my argument contains not precisely the terms of my thesis : because , when i was called upon to hasten my argu●ent , i had not then at hand my thesis . had i put more in my thesis , then i prove in my argument , i had been faulty ; but proving more then my thesis contained ( as i cleerly do ) no body hath reason to find fault with me , save my self . the reall difference betwixt assemblies of christians , and congregation of christians , and betwixt salvation is only to be had in those assemblies , and salvation is not to be had out of that congregation , i understand not : seeing all particular assemblies of true christians , must make one congregation . to your answer to my first syllogism . he who distinguishes logically the terms of any proposition , must not apply his distinction to some one part of the term only , but to the whole term , as it stands in the proposition distinguished . now in my proposition i affirm , that the congregation of christians i speak of there , is such a congregation , that it is the true church of christ , that is , ( as all know ) the whole catholike church : and you distinguish thus , that i either mean by congregation the whole catholike church , or only some part of it as , if one should say , whatsoever congregation of men is the common-wealth of england , and another in answer to it should distinguish , either by congregation of men you mean the whole common-wealth , or some part of it , when all men know , that by the common-wealth of england must be meant the whole common-wealth : for no part of it is the common-wealth of england . again you distinguish , that some things are essentials , or necessaries , and others accidents , which are acknowledged or practised in the church . now to apply this distinction to my proposition , you must distinguish that which i say is acknowledged to have been ever in the church by the institution of christ , either to be meant of an essential , or an accident ; when all the world knows that whatsoever is acknowledged to have have been ever in the church by christs institution , cannot be meant of any accidental thing , but of a necessary , unchangeable and essential thing , in christs true church . if one should advance this proposition , whatsoever congregation is the true church of christ , acknowledges the eucharist ever to have been by christs institution a proper sacrament of the new law : and another should distinguish ( as you do my proposition ) this may be meant either of an essential or accidental thing to christs true church : seeing whatsoever is acknowledged to have been alwaies in christs church and instituted by christ , cannot be acknowledged but as necessary and essential to his church . if therefore my major , as the terms lie expressed in it , be true , it should have been granted : if false , it should have been denyed . but no logick allows that it should be distinguished into such different members , whereof one is expresly excluded in the very terms of the proposition . these distinctions therefore , though learned and substantial in themselves , yet were they here unseasonable , and too illogical to ground an answer in forme ( as you ground yours ) still insisting upon them in your address almost to every proposition . hence appears first , that i used no fa●lacy at all ex accidente : seeing my proposition could not be verified of an accident . secondly that all your instances of spain , france , &c. which include accidents , are not apposite ; because your propositions , as they lie , have no term which excludes accidental adjuncts , as mine hath . to the proof of my major . you seem to grant the major of my second syllogism ; not excepting any thing material against it . to my minor. you fall again into the former distinctions , now disproved and excluded , of the meaning of congregation , &c. in my proposition , and would have me to understand determinately either the whole catholike church , or some part of it , ( and so make four terms in my syllogism : ) whereas in my minor , congregation of christians is taken generically , and abstracts , as an universal , from all particulars . i say no congregation , which is an universal negative ; and when i say , none , saye that congregation which acknowledges saint peter , &c. the term congregation supposes for the same whole catholike church mentioned in my former syllogism , but expresses it under a general term of congregation in confuso ; as i express homo , when i say he is animal , a man , when i say he is a living creature , but only generically , or in confuso . now should i have intended determinately either the whole catholike church , or any part of it , i should have made an inept syllogism , which would have run thus . whatsoever true church of christ is now the true church of christ , hath been always visible , &c. but no true church of christ hath been alwaies visible , save the true church of christ , which acknowledges saint peter , &c. ergo whatsoever true churh of christ is now the true church , acknowledges saint peter , &c. which would have been idem per idem ; for every one knows , that the true church of christ , is now the true church of christ. but speaking , as i do in abstractive and generical terms , i avoid this absurdity , and frame a true syllogism . now my meaning in this minor could be no other then this , which my words express ; that the congregation , that is , the whole congregation acknowledges saint peter , &c. and is visible , &c. and not any part , great or small of it . for when i say , the parliament of these nations doth , or hath enacted a statute , who would demand of me , whether i meant the whole parliament , or some determinate part of it ? you should therefore have denyed , not thus distinguished my minor quite against the express words of it . what you say again of essentials and accidents , is already refuted ; and by that also your syllogism , brought by way of instance . for your proposition doth not say , that the church of rome acknowledges those things were alwaies done , and that by christs institution , as my proposition says she acknowledges saint peter and his successors . to my third syllogism . granting my major , you distinguish the term pastors in my minor , into particular and universal , fixed and unfixed , &c. i answer , that the term pastours ( as before congregation ) signifies determinately no one of these , but generically and in confuse all ; and so abstracts from each of them in particular , as the word animal abstracts from homo and brutum . neither can i mean some parts of the church only had pastors ; for i say , whatsoever congregation of christians is now the true church of christ , hath alwaies had visible pastors and people united . now the church is not a part but the whole church , that is , both the whole body of the church , and all particular churches the parts of it . and hence is solved your argument of the indians , of people converted by lay-men , when particular pastors are dead , &c. for those were subjects of the chief bishop alone , till some inferiour pastors were sent to them . for when they were taught the christian doctrine , in the explication of that article , i believe the holy catholike church , they were also taught , that they being people of christs church , must subject themselves to their lawful pastors , this being a part of the christian doctrine . heb. . who though absent in body , may yet be present in spirit with them , as saint paul saith of himself , cor. . . your answer to the confirmation of my major seems strange . for i speak of visible pastors , and you say t is true of an invisible pastor , that is , christ our saviour , who is now in heaven , invisible to men on earth . the rest is a repetition of what is immediately before answered . ephes. . proves not only that some particular churches , or parts of the whole church , must alwaies have pastors , but that the whole church it self must have pastors , and every particular church in it ; for it speaks of that church which is the body of christ ; which can be no less then the whole church . for no particular church alone is his mystical body , but only a part of it . ephes. . is not directly alledged to prove an universal monarch , ( as you say ) but to prove an uninterrupted continuance of visible pastors ; that being only affirmed in the proposition , which i prove by it . . this is already answered . i stand to the judgement of any true logitian , nay or expert lawyer , or rational person , whether a negative proposition be to be proved otherwise then by obliging him who denies it , to give an instance to infringe it . should you say , no man hath right to my benefice and function in my parish , save my self , and another should deny what you said ; would not you , or any rational man in your case , answer him , that by denying your proposition he affirmed that some other had right to them , and to make good that affirmation was obliged to produce who that was : which till he did , you still remained the sole just possessour of your benefice as before ; and every one will judge , that he had no reason to deny your assertion , when he brought no proof against it . this is our case . the contradiction , which you would draw from this , against my nego , concedo , &c. exacted from the respondent , and nothing else , follows not . for that prescription is to be understood , that the respondent of himself , without scope given him by the opponent , was not to use any other forms in answering ; but if the opponent should require that the respondent give reasons , or instances , or proofs , of what he denies , that then the respondent is to proceed to them . and this is most ordinary in all logicall disputations , where strict form is observed , and known to every yong logitian . instances therefore demanded by the opponent , were not excluded , but only such excursions out of form , as should proceed from the respondent , with out being exacted by the opponent . you say , though i make a negative of it , i may put it in other terms at my pleasure . but the question is not what i may do , but what i did : i required not an answer to an argument , which i may frame , but to that which i had then framed , which was expressed in a negative proposition . you tell me if i prove the popes universal supremacy , you will be a papist : and i tell you , i have proved it by this very argument , that either he hath that supremacy , or some other church ; denying that he hath alwaies had it , hath been alwaies visible ; and that church i require should be named , if any such be , and whilest you refuse to name that church ( as here you do ) you neither answer the argument , nor become a papist . you say i affirm , and i must prove . i say in the proposition , about which we now speak , i affirm not , and so must not prove ; and you by denying it , must affirm , and so must prove . you prove it is not your part here to prove , because the popes supremacy could not be denyed , before it was affirmed ; and you must be obliged to prove that denyal . i oblige you not to prove a continued visible church formally and expresly denying it , but that it was of such a constitution as was inconsistent with any such supremacy , or could and did subsist without it ; which is an affirmative . you affirm , that because i say you cannot be saved if you deny that supremacy , and you say that i may be saved though i hold it , therefore you are not bound to prove what i reprove , but i to prove my negative proposition . but this would prove as well , that a mahumetan is not bound to prove his religion to you , but you to prove yours to him , because you say he cannot be saved being a mahumetan ; and he says , that you may be saved being a christian. see you not , that the obligation of proof in logicall form depends not of the first position , or thesis , but must be drawn from the immediate proposition , affirmative or negative , which is or ought to be proposed ? to what you say of an accident and a corrupt part , i have already answered . to what you say of a vice-king , not being necessary to the constitution of a kingdom , but a king and subjects only , is true , if a vice-king be not instituted by the full power of an absolute authority over that kingdom , to be an ingredient into the essence of the kingdom , in the kings absence : but if so constituted , it will be essential ; now my proposition saith , and my argument proves , that by the absolute authority of christ , saint peter and his successors were instituted governors in christs place of his whole visible church ; and whatsoever government christ institutes of his church , must be essential to his church . you see now the disparity . you insist to have me prove a negative ; and i insist to have you prove that affirmative , which you fall into by denying my negative , and leave it to judgement , whose exaction is the more conform to reason , and logical form . but if i prove not here , say you , the whole catholike churches holding ever the popes supremacy , you shall take it as a giveing up my cause . i tell you again , that i have proved it by this very argument , by force of syllogistical form : and it is not reasonable to judge that i have given up my cause , if i prove not again , what i have already proved . your taking upon you the part of an opponent now is , you know , out of season ; when that is yours , mine shall be the respondent . at length you give fair attempt to satisfie your obligation , and to return such an instance as i demanded of you . but you are too free by much in your offer . i demand one congregation , and you promise to produce more then an hundred . but as they abound in the number , so are they deficient in the quality which i require . i demand , that the answerer nominate any congregation of christians , which alwayes till this present time since christ hath been visible , &c. and you tell me of more then an hundred congregations , besides that which acknowledges saint peter , &c. whereof not any one hath been all that designed time visible : which is as if i had demanded an answerer to nominate any family of gentry , which hath successively continued ever since william the conquerour till this present time ; and he who undertakes to satisfie my demand , should nominate more then a hundred families , whereof not so much as one continued half that time . you nominate first all these present , the greeks , armenians , ethiopians , besides the protestants . these you begin with . now to satisfie my demand , you must assert , that these , whom you first name , are both one congregation , and have been visible ever since christs time . this you do not in the pursute of your allegations . for numb . . you nominate none at all , but tell me , that in the last age there were as many or more . what were these as many or more ? were they the same which you nominated first , or others ? i required some determinate congregation to be nominated all the while , and you tell me of as many or more , but say not of what determinate congregation they were . in your num. . you tell me , in the former ages , till one thousand , there were neer as many , or rather many more . a fair account ! but in the mean time you nominate none , much less prosecute you those with whom you begun . num. . you say , in the year six hundred there were many more incomparably . what many ? what more ? were they the same which you nominated in the beginning , and made one congregation with them ? or were they quite different congregations ? what am i the wiser by your saying many more incomparably , when you tell me not what , or who they were ? then you say , but at least for four hundred years after christ , i never yet saw valid proof of one papist in all the world , that is , one that was for the popes universal monarchy , or vice-christship . what then ? are there no proofs in the world , but what you have seen ? or may not many of those proofs be valid which you have seen , though you esteem them not so ? and can you think it reasonable , upon your single not-seeing , or not-judging only , to conclude absolutely , as you here do , that all have been against us for many hundred years ? in your num. . you name ethiopia and india , as having been without the limits of the roman empire , whom you deny to have acknowledged any supremacy of power and authority above all other bishops . you might have done well to have cited at least one antient author for this assertion . were those primitive christians of another kind of church-order and government , then were those under the roman empire * ? when the roman emperors were yet heathens , had not the bishop of rome the supremacy over all other bishops through the whole church ? and did those heathen emperors give it him ? how came st. cyprian , in time of the heathen empire to request stephen the pope to punish and depose the bishop of arles , as we shall see hereafter ? had he that authority ( think you ) from an heathen emperour ? see now how little your allegations are to the purpose , where you nominate any determinate congregations to satisfie my demand . i had no reason to demand of you different congregations , of all sorts and sects opposing the supremacy , to have been shewn visible in all ages . i was not so ignorant , as not to know , that the nicolaitans , valentinians , gnosticks , manichees , montanists , arians , donatists , nestorians , eutychians , pelagians , iconoclasts , berengarians , waldensians , albigenses , wicleffists , hussits , lutherans , calvinists , &c. each following others had some kind of visibility , divided and distracted each to his own respective age , from our time to the apostles , in joyning their heads and hands together against the popes supremacy . but because these could not be called one successive congregation of christians , being all together by the ears amongst themselves ; i should not have thought it a demand beseeming a scholar , to have required such a visibility as this . seeing therefore all you determinately nominate , are as much different as these ; pardon me , if i take it not for any satisfaction at all to my demand , or acquittance of your obligation . bring me a visible succession of any one congregation of christians , of the same belief , profession , and communion , for the designed time , opposing that supremacy , and you will have satisfied : but till that be done , i leave it to any equal judgement , whether my demand be satisfied or no. you answer to this , that all those , who are nominated by you , are parts of the catholike church , and so one congregation . but sir , give me leave to tell you , that in your principles , you put both the church of rome and your selves , to be parts of the catholike church : and yet sure you account them not one congregation of christians , seeing by separation one from another they are made two : or if you account them one , why did you separate your selves , and still remain separate from communion with the roman church ? why possessed you your selves of the bishopricks and cures of your own prelates and pastors , they yet living in queen elizabeths time ? and drew both your selves and their other subjects from all subjection to them , and communion with them ? is this disunion , think you , fit to make one and the same congregation of you and them ? is not charity , subordination , and obedience to the same state and government required as well to make one congregation of christians , as it is required to make one congregation of common-wealths men ? though therefore you do account them all parts of the catholike church , yet you cannot make them in your principles one congregation of christians . secondly , your position is not true ; the particulars named by you neither are , nor can be parts of the catholike church , unless you make arians , and pelagians , and donatists , parts of the catholike church : which were either to deny them to be hereticks and schismaticks ; or to affirm , that hereticks and schismaticks , separating themselves from the communion of the catholike church , notwithstanding that separation , do continue parts of the catholike church . for who knows not that the ethiopians to this day are * eutychian hereticks . and a great part of those greeks and armenians , who deny the popes supremacy , are infected with the heresie of nestorius , and all of them profess generally all those points of faith with us against you , wherein you differ from us ; and deny to communicate with you , or to esteem you other then hereticks and schismaticks , unless you both agree with them in those differences of faith , and subject your selves to the obedience of the patriarch of constantinople , as to the chief head and governour of all christian churches next under christ ; and consequently as much a vice-christ , in your account , as the pope can be conceived to be . see , if you please , hieremias patriarch of constantinople , his answer to the lutherans , especially in the beginning and end of the book ; acta theologorum wittebergensium , &c. and sir edwyn sands , of this subject , in his survey , p. , , , &c. either therefore you must make the eutychians and nestorians no hereticks , and so contradict the oecumenical councils of ephesus , and chalcedon , which condemned them as such ; and the consent of all orthodox christians , who ever since esteemed them no others ; or you must make condemned hereticks parts of the catholick church , against all antiquity and christianity . and for those greeks neer constantinople , who are not infected with nestorianism and eutychianism , yet in the procession of the holy ghost , against both us and you , they must be thought to maintain manifest heresie ; it being a point in a fundamental matter of faith , the trinity : and the difference betwixt those greeks and the western church , now for many hundred of years , and in many general councils esteemed and defined to be real and great ; yea so great , that the greeks left the communion of the roman church upon that difference alone , and ever esteemed the bishop of rome and his party to have fallen from the true faith , and lost his ancient authority by that sole pretended error ; and the latins alwaies esteemed the greeks to be in a damnable error , in maintaining the contrary to the doctrine of the western or roman church in that particular . and yet sure they understood what they held , and how far they differed one from another , much better then some novel writers of yours , who prest by force of argument , have no other way left them to maintain a perpetual visibility , then by extenuating that difference of procession betwixt the greek and latin church , which so many ages before protestancy sprung up , was esteemed a main fundamental error by ▪ both parts , caused the greeks to abandon all subjection and communion to the bishops of rome ; made them so divided the one from the other , that they held each other hereticks , schismaticks , and desertors of the true faith , as they continue still to do to this day , and yet you will have them both to be parts of the catholike church . but when you have made the best you can of these greeks , armenians , ethiopians , protestants , whom you first name , you neither have deduced , nor can deduce them successively in all ages till christ , as a different congregation of christians , from that which holds the popes supremacy ; which was my proposition . for in the year . those who became the first protestants , were not a congregation different from those who held that supremacy ; nor in the year . were the greeks a visible congregation different from it ; nor in the year . were the nestorians ; nor in the year . the eutychians a different congregation from those who held the said supremacy : but in those respective years , those who first begun those heresies , were involved within that congregation , which held it , as a part of it , and assenting therein with it : who after in their several ages and beginnings fell off from it , as dead branches from the tree ; that , still remaining what it ever was , and only continuing in a perpetuall visibility of succession . though therefore you profess never to have seen convincing proof of this in the first years , & labour to infringe it in the next ages , yet i will make an essay to give you a taste of those innumerable proofs of this visible consent in the bishop of rome's supremacy , not of order only , but of power , authority , & iurisdiction over all other bishops , in the ensuing instances , which happened within the first , or , or , years . (a) iohn bishop of antioch makes an appeal to pope simplicius . and flavianus (b bishop of constantinople , being deposed in the false councill of ephesus , immediately appeals to the pope , as to his judge . (c) theodoret was by pope leo restored , and that by an (d) appeal unto a just judgement . (e) saint cyprian desir●● pope stephen to depose marcian bishop of arles , that another might be substituted in his place . and to evince the supream authority of the bishops of rome , it is determined in the (f) council of sardis , that no bishop deposed by other neighbouring bishops , pretending to be heard again , was to have any successour appointed , until the case were defined by the pope . eustathius (g) bishop of sebast in armenia was restored by pope liberius his letters read and received in the council of tyana ; and (h) saint chrysostome expresly desires pope innocent not to punish his adversaries , if they do repent . which evinces that saint chrysostome thought that the pope had power to punish them . and the like is written to the pope by the (i) council of ephesus in the case of iohn bishop of antioch . (k) the bishops of the greek , or eastern church , who sided with arius , before they declared themselves to be arians , sent their legates to iulius bishop of rome to have their cause heard before him against saint athanasius : the same did saint athanasius to defend himself against them : which arian bishops having understood from iulius , that their accusations against saint athanasius , upon due examination of both parties , were found groundless and false , required ( rather fraudulently , then seriously ) to have a fuller tryal before a general council at rome : which ( to take away all shew of excuse from them ) pope iulius assembled . saint athanasius was summoned by the pope to appear before him and the councill in judgement : which he presently did , ( and many other eastern bishops unjustly accused by the arians aforesaid , had recourse to rome with him , ) and expected there a year and a half : all which time his accusers ( though also summoned ) appeared not , fearing they should be condemned by the pope and his councill . yet they pretended not ( as protestants have done in these last ages of the kings of england ) that constantius , the arian emperour of the east , was head , or chief governour over their church in all causes ecclesiastical● ; and consequently that the pope had nothing to do with them , but only pretended certain frivolous excuses to delay their appearance from one time to another . where it is worth the noting , that iulius , reprehending the said arian bishops ( before they published their heresie , and so taking them to be catholikes ) for condemning saint athanasius in an eastern councill , gathered by them before they had acquainted the bishop of rome with so important a cause , useth these words , an ignari ●stis hanc consuetudin●m esse , ut primum nobis scribatur ; ut ●inc quod justum est , à●finiri possit , &c. are you ignorant , saith he , that this is the custome , to write to us first , that hence that which is just may be defined , &c. where most cleerly it appears , that it belonged particularly to the bishop of rome to pass a definitive sentence even against the bishops of the eastern , or greek church ; which yet is more confirmed by the proceedings of pope innocent the first , about . hundred years since , in the case of saint chrysostome : where first saint chrysostome appears to innocentius from the councill assembled at constantinople , wherein he was condemned . secondly innocentius annulls this condemnation , and declares him innocent . thridly , he excommunicates atticus bishop of constantinople , and theophilus bishop of alexandria for persecuting saint chrysostome . fourthly , after saint chrysostome was dead in banishment , pope innocentius excommunicates arcadius the emperour of the east , and eudoxia his wife . fifthly , the emperour and empress humble themselves , crave pardon of him , and were obsolved by him . the same is evident in those matters , which passed about the year . where theodosius the emperour of the east having too much favoured the eutychian hereticks by the instigation of chrysaphius the eunuch , and pulcheria his empress , and so intermedled too far in ecclesiasticall causes , yet he ever bore that respect to the see of rome , ( which doubtless in those circumstances he would not have done , had he not believed it an obligation ) that he would not permit the eutychian council at ephesus to be assembled , without the knowledge and authority of the roman bishop leo the first ; and so wrote to him to have his presence in it , who sent his legats ▪ unto them . and though both leo's letters were dissembled , and his legats affronted , and himself excommunicated by wicked dioscorus , patriarch of alexandria , and president of that coventicle , who also was the chief upholder of the eutychians , yet theodosius repented before his death , banished his wife pulcheria and chrysaphius the eunuch , the chief favourers of the eutychians , and reconciled himself to the chruch with great evidences of sorrow and pennance . (m) presently after , anno. . follows the fourth general council of chalcedon : concerning which these particulars occur to our present purpose . first martianus the eastern emperour wrote to pope leo , that by the popes authority a general council might be gathered in what city of the eastern church he should please to chuse . secondly , both anatolius patriarch of constantinople , and the rest of the eastern bishops , sent to the legats of pope leo , by his order , the profession of their faith. thirdly , the popes legats sate in the first place of the council before all the patriarchs . (n) fourthly , they prohibited ( by his order given them ) that dioscorus patriarch of alexandria , and chief upholder of the eutychians , should sit in the councill ; but be presented as a guilty person to be judged ▪ becuase he had celebrated a councill in the eastern church without the consent of the bishop of rome ; which ( said the legats ) never was done before , nor could be done lawfully . this order of pope leo was presently put in execution by consent of the whole councill , and dioscorus was judged and condemned ; his condemnation and deposition being pronounced by the popes legats , and after subscribred by the councill . fifthly ▪ the popes legats pronounced the church of rome to be * caput omnium ecclesiarum , the head of all churches , before the whole council , and none contradicted them . sixthly , all the fathers assembled in that holy councill , in their letter to pope leo , acknowledged themselves to be his children , and wrote to him as to their father . seventhly , they humbly begged of him , that he would grant , that the patriarch of constantinople might have the first place among the patriarchs , after that of rome : which notwithstanding that the councill had consented to ( as had also the third general councill of ephesus done before ) yet they esteemed their grants to be of no sufficient force , untill they were confirmed by the pope . and leo thought not fit to yield to their petition , against the express ordination of the first councill of nice ; where alexandria had the preheminence , as also antioch and hierusalem , before that of constantinople . saint cyril of alexandria , though he wholly disallowed nestorius his doctrine , yet he would not break off communion with him , till celestinus the pope had condemned him : whose censure he required and expected . nestorius also wrote to celestine , acknowledging his authority , and expecting from him the censure of his doctrine . celestinus condemned nestorius , and gave him the space of ten daies to repent , after he had received his condemnation . all which had effect in the eastern church , where nestorius was patriarch of constantinople . (o) after this saint cyrill having received pope leo's letters , wherein he gave power to saint cyrill to execute his condemnation against nestorius , and to send his condemnatory letters to him , gathered a council of his next bishops , and sent letters and articles to be subscribed , with the letters of celestine to nestorius : which when nestorius had received , he was so far from repentance , that he accused st. cyril in those articles , to be guilty of the heresie of apollinaris : so that st. cyril being also accused of heresie , was barred from pronouncing sentence against nestorius , so long as he stood charged with that accusation . theodosius the emperour , seeing the eastern church embroyled in these difficulties , writes to pope celestine about the assembling of a general council at ephesus , by petronius afterwards bishop of bononia ( as is manifest in his life written by sigonius ) pope celestine in his letters to theodosius , not only professeth his consent to the calling of that council , but also prescribeth in what form it was to be celebrated ; as firmus bishop of caesarea in cappadocia testified in the council of ephesus . hereupon theodosius sent his letters to assemble the bishops both of the east and west to that council . and celestine sent his legats thither , with order not to examine again in the council the cause of nestorius , but rather to put celestines condemnation of him , given the year before , into execution . st. cyril bishop of alexandria , being constituted by celestine his chief legate ordinary in the east , by reason of that preheminency , and primacy of his see after that of rome , presided in the council : yet so , that philip , who was only a priest and no bishop , by reason that he was sent legatus à latere from celestine , and so supplied his place as he was chief bishop of the church , subscribed the first , even before st. cyril , and all the other legats and patriarchs . in the sixth action of this holy council , iuvenalis patriarch of hierusalem , having understood the contempt , which iohn patriarch of antioch , who was cited before the council , shewed of the bishops and the popes legats there assembled , expressed himself against him in these words , quod apostolica ordinatione & antiqua traditione ( which were no way opposed by the fathers there present ) antiochena sedes perpetuo à romana dirigeretur judicareturque , that by apostolical ordination and ancient tradition the see of antioch was perpetually directed and judged by the see of rome : which words not only evidence the precedency of place , as dr. hammond would have it , but of power and judicature in the bishop of rome over a patriarch of the eastern church ; and that derived from the time and ordination of the apostles . the council therefore sent their decrees , with their condemnation of nestorius , to pope celestine , who presently ratified and confirmed them . not long after this , in the year . valentinian the emperour makes this manifesto of the most high ecclesiastical authority of the see of rome , in these words : seeing that the merit of st. peter , who is the prince of the episcopal crown , and the dignity of the city of rome , and no less the authority of the holy synod , hath established the primacy of the apostolical see , lest presumption should attempt any unlawful thing against the authority of that see , ( for then finally will the peace of the churches be preserved every where , if the whole universality acknowledge their governour ) when these things had been hitherto inviolably observed , &c. where he makes the succession from st. peter to be the first foundation of the roman churches primacy ; and his authority to be , not only in place , but in power and government over the whole visible church : and adds presently , that the definitive sentence of the bishop of rome , given against any french bishop , was to be of force through france , even without the emperours letters pattents . for what shall not be lawful for the authority of so great a bishop to exercise upon the churches ? and then adds his imperial precept , in these words . but this occasion hath provoked also our command , that hereafter it shall not be lawful , neither for hilarius ( whom to be still entituled a bishop , the sole humanity of the meek prelate ( id est , the bishop of rome ) permits ) neither for any other to mingle arms with ecclesiastical matters , or to resist the commands of the bishop of rome , &c. we define by this our perpetual decree , that it shall neither be lawful for the french bishops , nor for those of other provinces , against the ancient custom , to attempt any thing without the authority of the venerable pope of the eternal city : but let it be for a law to them and to all , whatsoever the authority of the apostolick see hath determined , or shall determine . so that what bishop soever , being called to the tribunal of the roman bishop , shall neglect to come , is to be compelled by the governour of the same province , to present himself before him . which evidently proves , that the highest , universal , ecclesiastical judge and governour was , and ever is to be the bishop of rome : which the council of chalcedon before mentioned , plainly owned , when writing to pope leo they say , thou governest us , as the head doth the members , contributing thy good will by those which hold thy place . behold a primacy , not only of precedency , but of government and authority ; which lerinensis confirms , contr . haeres . cap. . where speaking of stephen pope , he saies , dignum , ut opinor , existimans , si reliquos omnes tantum fidei devotione , quantum locī authoritate , superabat : esteeming it ( as i think ) a thing worthy of himself , if he overcame all others as much in the devotion of faith , as he did in the authority of his place . and to confirm what this universal authority was ; he affirms , that he sent a law , decree , or command into africa , ( sanxit , ) that in matter of rebaptization or hereticks nothing should be innovated ▪ which was a manifest argument of his spiritual authority over those of africa ; and à paritate rationis , over all others . i will shut up all with that which was publickly pronounced , and no way contradicted , and consequently assented to in the council of ephesus , ( one of the four first general councils ) in this matter , tom. . concil . pag. . act. . where philip , priest and legate of pope celestine , sayes thus , gratias agimus sanctae venerandaeque synodo , quod literis sancti beatique papae nostri vobis recitatis , sanctas chartas , sanctis vestris vocibus , sancto capiti vestro , sanctis vestris exclamationibus , exhibueritis . non enim ignorat vestra beatitudo , totius fidei , vel etiam apostolorum , caput esse beatum apostolum petrum . and the same philip , act. . p. . proceeds in this manner , nulli dubium , imo saeculis omnibus notum est , quod sanctus beatissimusque petrus , apostolorum princeps & caput , fideique columna , ecclesiae catholicae fundamentum , à domino nostro jesu christo , salvatore generis humani ac redemptore nostro claves regni accepit , solvendique ac ligandi peccata potestas ipsi data est ; qui ad hoc usque tempus ac semper in suis successoribus vivit & judicium exercet : — hujus itaque secundum ordinem successor & locum-tenens , sanctus beatissimusque papa noster celestinus , nos ipsius praesentiam supplentes huc misit . and arcadius another of the popes legats enveighing against the heretick nestorius , accuses him , ( though he was patriarch of constantinople , which this council requires to be next in dignity after rome ) as of a great crime , that he contemned the command of the apostolick see , that is , of pope celestine . now had pope celestine had no power to command him ( and by the like reason to command all other bishops ) he had committed no fault in transgressing and contemning his command . by these testimonies it will appear , that what you are pleased to say , that the most part of the catholike church hath been against us to this day , and all for many hundred of years , is far from truth : seeing in the time of the holy oecumenical councils of ephesus and chalcedon , the universal consent of the whole catholike church was for us in this point . as to what you say of congregation of christians in the beginning , i answer , i took the word christians in a large sense , comprehending in it all those ( as it is vulgarly taken ) who are baptized and profess to believe in christ , and are distinguished from jews , mahumetans and heathens , under the denomination of christians . what you often say of an universal monarch , &c. if you take monarch for an imperious sole commander , as temporal kings are , we acknowledge no such monarch in the church : if only for one who hath received power from christ , in meekness , charity , and humility to govern all the rest , for their own eternal good , as brethren or children , we grant it . what also you often repeat of a vice-christ , we much dislike that title , as proud and insolent , and utterly disclaim from it ; neither was it ever given by any sufficient authority to our popes , or did they ever accept of it . as to the council of constance , they never questioned the supremacy of the pope , as ordinary chief governour of all bishops and people in the whole church : nay they expresly give it to martinus quintus , when he was chosen . but in extraordinary cases , especially when it is doubtful who is true pope , as it was in the beginning of this council , till martinus quintus was chosen : whether any extraordinary power be in a general council , above that ordinary power of the pope : which is a question disputed by some amongst our selves , but touches not the matter in hand ; which proceeds only of the ordinary and constant supream pastor of all christians , abstracting from extraordinary tribunals and powers , which are seldom found in the church , and collected only occasionally , and upon extraordinary accidents . thus honoured sir , i have as much as my occasions would permit me , hastened a reply to your answer ; and if more be requisite , it shall not be denyed . only please to give me leave to tell you , that i cannot conceive my argument yet answered by all you have said to it . william iohnson . feb. . . sir , it was the . of january , before your answer came to my hands ; and though my reply was made ready by me the third instant , yet i have found so great difficulties to get it transcribed , that it was not possible to transmit it to you before now . but i hope hereafter i shall find scribes more at leasure . i must desire you to excuse what errors you find in the copy which i send ; as also , that being unwilling to make a farther delay , i am enforced to send a copy which hath in it more interlineations then would otherwise become me to send to a person of your worth . yet i cannot doubt , but your candor will pass by all things of this nature . i am sir , your very humble servant , william iohnson . feb. . . worthy sir , i have now expected neer three moneths for your rejoynder to the reply which i made to that answer which you were pleased to send , and return to my argument concerning the church of christ , but as yet nothing hath appeared . i must confess , i have wondered at it , considering the earnestness which appeared in you at the first , to proceed with speed in a business of this nature : what the impediment hath been , i am only left to guess : but certainly truth is strong , and it will not be found an easie thing to oppose her while we keep close to form . i am now necessitated to go out of london ; so that if your papers come in my absence , i shall hope you will have the patience to expect untill they can be sent from london to me , and my answers returned by the way of london : but i do engage not to make a delay longer then the circumstances of the place and times shall enforce . sir , i do highly honour and esteem your parts and person ; and shall be very glad to bring that business to an handsome issue which hath been so calmly and soberly prosecuted . i am an enemy to passion ; and as i have hitherto found you sweet and gentle in your proceedings towards me , so shall you alwaies find me , worthy sir , your friend to serve you , william johnson . may . . sir , be pleased to return your answer , papers or letters which you intend for me , to the same place to which you directed your former ; by which means , i shall be secure to receive them at my house , which is fourscore miles from london . to mr. t. l. ( who called me to this work . ) sir , though i am a stranger to you , i thought meet to take notice of the letters which you sent your friend here ( t. h. ) it seems you urge hard for a reply , and intimate somewhat of triumph in my delay : you speak as an incompetent judge . god is the master of my time and work ; and him i must serve : and not neglect his greater work , for such trivial objections as your friend hath sent me , which are answered over and over by many so long ago . had you read blondel , molineus de novitate papismi , whitaker , sibrandus , lubbertus , chamier , abbots , crakenthorp , spalatensis , or one of many that have confuted them , you would sure call for no more : or if in english you had read dr. field , dr. white ; yea , or but sir humphery lind ( to pass by multitudes ) you might have seen their vanity . yea plainly read impartially my two books against popery , and be a papist if you can . but it seems you take it for a poor answer to be referred to books . do not fear it . but yet let me tell you , that my hand is not more legible then my printed books : and if i had sent you this in print , would that have made it a poor answer ? or rather , is not this a poor exception , and shews that it is not truth that is look after : for truth may be printed as well as written . if you be deceived by the men of the papal way , let me yet intreat you , but to read over those two books ( the safe religion , and the key for catholikes ) : if your soul be not worth so much labour , take your course : i did my duty . but i must say , that it is doleful case that professors are so ungrounded , that such vanities should carry them away from catholike verity and unity , to a faction that usurps the name of catholikes . to be free with you , i think it is that pride and levity that brings them first to separation from our churches into sects , and the guilt which they there incur , that prepareth professors to be so far forsaken of god , as to be given up to believe a lie , and to turn papists . o dreadful case ! that one bishop cannot swell in pride , but men must make a religion of his pride ! yea and make a catholike church of it ! yea and plead for it , and make the sin their own ; yea condemn all christians that list not themselves under this prince of pride . he is culpably , if not wilfully blind , that hath read scripture and church history , and knoweth not , that the pope for three hundred years after christ , was not the creature that now he is ; nor had for most of that time any more government over other bishops , then i have over neighbour pastors : and after that time , he was no more an universal head , or governour , or vicar of christ , then the archbishop of canterbury was ▪ having indeed a far larger diocess then he , but never was more then the swelled primate of one national ( imperial ) church . when synods began to be gathered out of a principality ( the emperours desiring that means of unity within their empire ) , the pride of the prelates set them presently a striving for superiority , who should sit highest , and write his name first , and have the largest diocess , & c ! and now men make a religion of the fruits of this abominable pride . what are all their disputings for , and all this stir that they make in the world , but to set up one man over all the earth ? and that to do a spirituall work , which consisteth not with force , but is managed on conscience : one wretched man must govern the antipodes on the other side of the earth , that is indeed uncapable of truly and justly governing the city of rome it self . popes , that their own councils have condemned for ravishing maids and wives at their doors , for murders , simony , drunkenness , heresie , denying the resurrection and the life to come ( that is , being no christians ) these forsooth must be the universal governours , or we are all undone ; and we are damned if we believe it not : o how dreadfull are the effects of sin ; and how great a judgement is a blinded mind ! this comes of falling into sects and parties , which leads men into the gulf of the most odious schism ( even popery ) in the world . but if you are engaged in this party , it s two to one but you are presently made partial , and will not so much as read what is against them ; or will believe them if they do but tell you that we write lies ; when they are things done in the open sun , and which they cannot confute , nor dare attempt , le●t they manifest their shame . take from them their clergies vast dominions , principalities , lands and lordships , riches and worldly honours , with which they so much abound , and then try how many will plead for the pope : then they 'l say , if ba●l be a god , let him plead for himself . but i confess , i have little hopes of turning any of them , though i could shew it them written by an angel from heaven that popery is a deceit : for the scripture that 's above angelical authority declareth it ; and by making it a nose of wax , they take it as if it were not sense , nor intelligible without the popes interpretation ( which in difficult cases he dare not give ) . they cry up the church , and when we would have them stand to the church , they shamefully turn their backs ; and when two or three parts of the churches through the world are against the papal soveraignty , they refuse them as hereticks or schismaticks . they cry up tradition , and when we offer them in the main point to be tried by it , they disclaim the tradition of two or three parts of the universal church as being all hereticks . and may not any sect do so too as honestly as they ? yea among the ignorant that know not chaffe from corn , ●hey have some of them the faces to perswade them that their church is the greater half of the christian world ! when they know they speak notoriously falsly , or else they are unworthy to speak of such things that they understand not . but to what purpose should any words be used with men , that have taught so great a part of the world , not to believe their eyes and other senses ! can any writing make any matter plainer to you , then that bread is bread , and wine is wine , when you see them , and tast , and eat , and drink them ? and yet their general councils approved by the pope , have made it an article of their faith , that the whole substance of the bread and wine is turned into the body and blood of christ , so that there is left no bread or wine , but only that colour , quantity and tast that before belonged to it . and if you know not bread when you eat it , or wine when you drink it , and when the senses of all the sound men in the world concur with yours , is it not vain for me , or any man to dispute with you ? can you have any thing brought to a surer judgement then to all your senses ? and yet no doubt but your seducers can say something to prove that bread is not bread when you see and eat it : no wonder then if they can confute me . but do they indeed believe themselves ? how is it possible ? there is no exercise of reason , and belief that supposeth not the certainty of sense . if i cannot know bread and wine when i see , touch , ●ast them ; then cannot i know the pope , the councils , the scripture , the priest , or any thing else . if you think to let go this point of popery and hold the rest , you know not what popery is : for a pope and council having determined it , you are damned by them for denying the faith : and if you depart from the infallibility of their rule and judge in points of faith , or at least from the obligation of it , in one thing , they will confess to you that you may as well do it in more ; false in this , and certain in nothing , is their own conclusion . sir , i have not been unwilling to know the truth , having a soul to save or lose as well as you , and having as much reason to be loth to perish . if you have so far forfeited the grace of god , as meerly to follow the pride of a pretended vice-christ ( that hath turned doctrine into error , worship into superstition and dead formality , light into darkness , discipline into confusion mixt with tyranny ) ; if meerly to set up one tyrant over the consciences ( and bodies too ) of all believers in the world , you can fall into a sect , deny scripture , reason , the judgement and tradition of most of the church , and your own and all mens eye-sight , tast and other senses , the lord have mercy on you , if you be not past it : i have done with you , yet remaining an unfeigned desirer of your welfare , and lamenter of the apostacies and giddiness of these times , richard baxter . may. . . did you know what it is , by loose and false allegations , to be put to read so many volumes ( in great part ) in folio , to try whether the alledger say true or false , you would not expect that i should return an answer , and read so much of so many folios in any less then ten or eleven daies , which i think hath been all that i have had to write and read so much . the reader must take notice that i wrote the former letter to the person that sent mr. johnsons letters , with a charitable jealousie , that if he were himself in doubt , he might be resolved : but in his return he fully disclaimed popery , and assured me , that it is for the sake of some friends that he desired my labour , and not for his own . r. b. the reply to mr. johnsons second paper . sir , the multitude and urgency of my employments gave me not leave till this day ( may . ) so much as to read over all your papers ; but i shall be as loth to break off our disputation , as you can be , though perhaps necessity may sometime cause some weeks delay . and again , i profess , my indignation against the hypocrital jugling of this age , doth provoke me to welcome so ingenuous and candid a disputant as your self , with great content . but i must confess also , that i was the less hasty in sending you this reply , because i desired you might have leisure to peruse a book which i published since your last , ( a key for catholikes ; ) seeing that i have there answered you already , and that more largely then i am like to do in this reply . for the sharpness of that i must crave your patience ; the persons and cause i thought required it . ad m. what explications were made to your friend of your thesis , i could not take notice of , who had nothing but your writing to answer . . if you will not be precise in arguing , you had little reason to expect ( much less so strictly to exact ) a precise answer ; which cannot be made as you prescribed , to an argument not precise . . i therefore expect accordingly that the unlearned be not made the judges of a dispute which they are not fit to judge of ; seeing you desire us to avoid their road . . again i say , if you will not be precise in arguing , i can hardly be so in answering . and by [ a congregation of christians ] you may mean [ christians politically related to one head , ] whether christ , or the pope : but the word [ assemblies ] expresseth their actuall assembling together , and so excludeth all christians that are or were members of no particular assemblies , from having relation as members of christ ( our head ) or the pope ( your head , ) and so from being of the congregation , as you call , the church universall . . i had great reason to avoid the snare of an equivocation , or ambiguity , of which you gave me cause of jealousie by your [ whatsoever ] as i told you : as seeming to intimate a false supposition : to your like , i answer , it is unlike , and still more intimates the false supposition . [ whatsoever congregation of men is the common-wealth of england ] is a phrase that importeth that [ there is a congregation of men which is not the common-wealth of england . ] which is true , there being more men in the world . so [ whatsoever congregation of christians is now the true church ] doth seem to import , that you suppose [ there is a congregation of christians ( univocally so called ) that are not the true church ] which you would distinguish from the other : which i only let you know at the entrance , that i deny , that you may not think it granted . yet i must tell you that nothing is more ordinary then for the body to be said to do that which a part of it only doth ; as that [ the church administreth sacraments , discipline , teatheth , &c. the church is assembled in such a council &c. ] when yet it is but a small part of the church that doth these things . and when bellarmine , gretser , &c. say [ the church is the infallible judge of controversies of faith , ] they mean not [ the whole church ] which containeth every christian , when they tell you that it is the pope they mean. and therefore i had reason to enquire into your sense , unless i would willfully be over-reacht . you now satisfie me that you mean it universally , viz. [ ●ll that congregation ( or church ) of christians which is now the true church of christ , doth acknowledge , &c. ] which i told you i deny . . to my following distinction you say [ that all the world knows that whatsoever is acknowledged to have been ever in the church by christs instiution , cannot be meant of any accidental thing , but of a necessary unchangeable and essentiall thing , in christs true church , ] to which i reply , either you see the gross fallacy of this defence , or you do not : if you do not , then never more call for an exact disputant , nor look to be delivered from your errors by argumentation , though never so convincing . if you do , then you are not faithfull to the truth . in your major proposition the words being many ( as you say , you penetrated divers arguments together , ) ambiguities were the easier hidden in the heap . that which i told you is accidental to the church ( and that but to a corrupted part ) was [ the acknowledging of the papacy as of christs institution , ] and therefore if it were granted that a thing [ of christs institution ] could not be accidental , yet [ the acknowledgment ] that is , the opinion or asserting of it may . if the church by mistake should think that to be essential to it which is not , though it will not thence follow that its essence is but an accident , yet it will follow that both the false opinion , and the thing it self so falsly conceited to be essential , are but accidents , or not essential . you say [ it cannot be meant of any accidental thing ] but . that meaning it self of theirs may be an accident . . and the question is not what they [ mean , that is , imagine or affirm ] it to be ; but what it is in deed and truth . that may be an accident , which they think to be none . . but that which you say [ all the world knows ] is a thing that [ all the world of christians except your selves , ] that ever i heard of , do know , or acknowledge to be false . what! doth all the world know that christ hath instituted in his church nothing but what is essential to it ? i should hope that few in the christian world would be so ignorant as ever to have such a thought , if they had the means of knowledge that protestants would have them have . there is no natural body but hath natural accidents as well as essence : nor is there any other society under heaven ( community or policy ) that hath not its accidents as well as essence : and yet hath christ instituted , a church that hath nothing but essence without accidents ? do you build upon such foundations ? what! upon the denyal of common principles and sence ? but if you did , you should not have feigned all the world to do so too . were your asseriton true , then every soul were cut off from the church , and so from salvation , that wanted any thing of christs institution , yea for a moment . and then what would become of you . you give me an instance in [ the eucharist ] but . will it follow that if the eucharist be not accidental or integral , but essential , that therefore every thing instituted by christ is essentiall ? surely no ? . the question being not whether the being of the eucharist in the church be essential to the universal church : but whether the belief or acknowledgment of it by all and every one of the members , be essential to the members ? i would crave your answer but to this question ( though it be nothing to my cause . ) was not a baptized person in the primitive and ancient churches a true church-member , presently upon baptism ? and then tell me also , did not the ancient fathers and churches unanimously hide from their catechumens , even purposely hide , the mysterie of the eucharist , as proper to the church of understand ? and never opened it to the auditors , till they were baptized ? this is most undenyable in the concurrent vote of the ancients . i think therefore that it follows that in the judgement of the ancient churches the eucharist was but of the integrity , and not the essence of a member of the church ; and the acknowledgement of it by all the members , a thing that never was existent . where you say , your major should have been granted or denyed without these distinctions : i reply , . if you mean fairly , and not to abuse the truth by confusion , such distinctions as you your self call [ learned and substantial ] can do you no wrong . they do but secure our true understanding of one another : and a few lines in the beginning by way of distinction are not vain , that may prevent much vain altercation afterwards . when i once understand you , i have done : and i beseech you , take it not for an injury to be understood . as to your conclusion , that you used no fallacy ex accidente , and that my instances are not apposite ; i reply , that 's the very life of the controversie between us : and our main question is not so to be begged . on the grounds i have shewed you , i still averr , that [ the holding of the papacy is as accidental to the universal church , as a cancer in the breast is to a woman ; ] and though you say , it is essential , and of christs institution , that maketh it neither essential , nor of christs institution ; nor doth it make all his institutions to be essentialls . now of your second syllogism . . i shall never question the successive visibility of the church . whereas i told you out of your fransc. à s. clara , that many or most of your own schoolmen agree not to that which you say [ all christians agree to , ] you make no reply to it . as to your minor , i have given you the reasons of the necessity and harmlesness of my distinctions : we need say no more to that [ a congregation of christians ] and [ a church ] are synonima : but the word [ true ] was not added to your first term by you or me ; and therefore your instance here is delusory . but to say [ whatsoever congregation of christians , is now the true church ] is all one as to say whatsoever church of christians is now the true church . ] when i know your meaning i have my end . though my syllogism say not that [ the church of rome acknowledgeth those things alwaies done , and that by christs institution ] it nevertheless explicateth the weakness of yours , as to the fallacy accidentis : for . the holding it alwaies done , and that of christs institution , may be either an accident , or but of the integrity , and ad bene esse , yea possibly an errour . . and i might as easily have given you instances of that kind . to your . syllogism i reply . . when you say the church [ had pastors ] as you must speak of what existed , ( and universalls exist not of themselves ) so it is necessary that i tell you , how far i grant your minor , and how far i deny it . my argument from the indians and others , is not solved by you . for . you can never prove that the pope was preached to the iberians by the captive maid , nor to the indians by frumentius . . thousands were made christians and baptized by the apostles , without any preaching or profession of a papacy , act. . & passim . . the indians now converted in america by the english and dutch , hear nothing of the pope , nor thousands in ethiopia . . your own do or may baptize many without their owning the pope , who yet would be christians . and a pastor not known , or believed , or owned , is actually no pastor to them . to your confirmation , i reply : you misread my words : i talk not of [ invisible . ] i say it is true that the universal church is united to christ as their universall head : and is visible . in the members . . in the profession . . christ himself is visible in the heavens , and as much seen of most of the church as the pope is , that is , not at all . as the pope is not invisible , though one of a million see him not , no more is christ , who is seen by most of the church , and by the best part , even by the glorified . you know my meaning : whether you will call christ visible or not , i leave to you : i think he is visible : but that which i affirm , is , that the universal church hath no other visible universal head or pastor : but particular churches have their particular pastors all under christ. of eph. . i easily grant that the whole church may be said to have pastors , in that all the particular churches have pastors . but i deny that the whole have any one universal pastor but christ. of that which is the point in controversie , you bring no proof . if you mean no more then i grant , that the whole church hath pastors both in that each particular church hath pastors , and in that unfixed pastors are to preach to all as they have opportunity , then your minor hath no denyall from me . instead of prosecuting your argument , when you had cast the work of an opponent upon me , you here appeal [ to any true logician or expert lawyer ] content ; i admit of your appeal . but why then did you at all put on the face of an opponent ? could you not without this lost labour at first have called me to prove the successive visibility of our church ? but to your appeal , ho all you true logicians , this learned man and i refer it to your tribunal , whether it be the part of an opponent , to contrive his argument so as that the negative shall be ●is , and then change places , and become respondent , and make his adversary opponent at his pleasure . ] we leave this cause at your bar , and expect your sentence . but before we come to the lawyers bar , i must have leave more plainly to state our case . we are all agreed that christianity is the true religion , and christ the churches universal head ; and the holy scriptures the word of god. papists tell us of another head and rule ; the pope and tradition , and judgement of the church . protestants deny these additionals , and hold to christianity and scripture only ; our religion , being nothing but christianity , we have no controversie about : their papall religion , superadded , is that which is controverted : they affirm . the right . . the antiquity of it : we deny both : the right we disprove from scripture , though it belongs to them to prove it . the antiquity is it that is now to be referred . protestancy being the denyall of popery , it is we that really have the negative , and the papists that have the affirmative . the essence of our church ( which is christian ) is confessed to have been successively visible : but we deny that theirs as papal hath been so ; and now they tell us , that it is essential to ours to deny the succession of theirs , and therefore require us to prove a succession of ours , as one that still hath denyed theirs : now we leave our case to the lawyers , seeing to them you make your appeal , . whether the substance of all our cause lie not in this question , whether the papacy or universal government by the pope , be of heaven , or of men ? and so whether it hath been from the beginning ? which we deny , and therefore are called protestants ; and they affirm , and are therefore called papists . . if they cannot first prove a successive visibility of their papacy and papal church , then what law can bind us to prove that it was denied , before it did arise in the world , or ever any pleaded for it ? . and as to the point of possession , i know not what can be pretended on your side . . the possession of this or that particular parish church or tythes , is not the thing in question ; but the universal headship is the thing : but if it were , yet it is i that am yet here in possession ; and protestants before me for many ages successively : and when possessed you the headship of the ethiopian , indian , and other extra-imperial churches ? never to this day . no nor of the eastern churches , though you had communion with them . . if the question be , who hath possession of the universal church ; we pretend not to it ; but only to be a part , and the soundest safest part . . the case of possession therefore is , whether we have not been longer in possession of our religion , which is bare christianity , then you of your superadded popery . our possession is not denied , of christianity . yours of popery we deny : ( and our denyal makes us called protestants ) : let therefore the reason of logicians , lawyers , or any rational sober man determine the case , whether it do not first and principally belong to you , to prove the visible succession of a vice-christ over the universal church . as to your contradictory impositions i reply , . your exception was not exprest , and your imposition was peremptory . . i told you i would be a papist if you prove [ that the whole visible church in all ages hath held the popes universal headship ] you say that you [ have proved it by this argument , that either he hath that supremacy , or some other church ; denying that he hath alwaies had it , hath been alwaies visible , ] and that church you require should be named . i reply , . had not you despaired of making good your cause , you should have gone on by argumentation , till you had forced me to contradict some common principle . . if you should shew these papers to the world , and tell them that you have no better proof of the succession of your papacy , then that we prove not that it hath alwaies been denied by the visible church , you would sure turn thousands from popery , if there be so many rational considering impartial men that would peruse them , and believe you . for any man may know that it could not be expected that the churches should deny a vice-christ before he was sprung up . why did not all the precedent roman bishops disclaim the title of universal bishop or patriarch , till pelagius and gregory ? but because there was none in the world that gave occasion for it . how should any heresie be opposed or condemned before it doth arise ? but you fairly yield me somewhat here , and say that you [ oblige me not to prove a continued visible church formally and expresly denying it ; but that it was of such a constitution as was inconsistent with any such supremacy , or could and did subsist without it . ] reply , i confess your first part is very ingenuous and fair . remember it hereafter , that you have discharged me from proving [ a church that denied the papacy formally & expresly . ] but as to what you yet demand . . i have here given it you , because you shall not say ●'le sail you : i have answered your desire . but . it is not as a thing necessary , but ex abundanti , as an overplus . for you may now see plainly , that to prove that the church was without an universal pastor , ( which you require ) is to prove the negative , viz. that then there was none such ; whereas its you that must prove that there was such . i prove our religion : do you prove yours : though i say to pleasure you , i 'le disprove it , and have done it in two books already . my reason from the stress of necessity , which you lay on your affirmative and additions , was but subservient to the foregoing reasons , not first to prove you bound , but to prove you the more bound to the proof of your affirmative . and therefore your instance of mahumetans is impertinent . he that saith , you shall be damned if you believe not this or that , is more obliged to prove it , then he that affirmeth a point as of no such moment . to what i say of an accident and a corrupt part , you say you have answered , and do but say so , having said nothing to it that is considerable . me thinks you that make christ to be corporally present in every church in the eucharist , should not say , that the king of the church is absent . but when you have proved , . that christ is so absent from his church , that there 's need of a deputy to essentiate his kingdom , and . that the pope is so deputed ; you will have done more then is yet done for your cause . and yet let me tell you , that in the absence of a king , it is only the king and subjects that are essential to the kingdom . the deputy is but an officer , and not essential . your naked assertion , that whatsoever government christ instituteth , of his church , must be essential to his church , is no proof , nor like the task of an opponent . the government of inferiour officers is not essential to the universal church , no more then judges and justices to a kingdom . and yet we must wait long before you will prove that peter and the pope of rome are in christs place , as governours of the universal church . sir , i desire open dealing , as between men that believe these matters are of eternal consequence . i watch not for any advantage against you . though it be your part to prove the affirmative which our negative supposeth ; yet i have begun the proof of our negative ; but it was on supposition that you will equally now prove your affirmative , better then you have here done . i have proved a visible church successively that h●ld not the popes universal government do you now prove [ that the universal church in all ages did hold the popes universal government ] which is your part ; or i must say again , i shall think you do but run away , and give up your cause as unable to defend it : i have not failed you ; do not you fail me . you complain of a deficiency in quality , though you confess that i abound in number . but where is the defect ! you say , i must [ assert both that these were one congregation , and ever visible since christs time ] reply , if by [ one congregation ] you meant [ one assembly met for personal communion ] which is the first sense of the word [ congregation ] it were ridiculous to feign the universal church to be such . if you mean , one as united in one visible humane head , that 's it that we deny , and therefore may not be required to prove . but that these churches are one as united in christ the head , we easily prove ; in that from him the whole family is named ; the body is christs body , cor. . , . and one in him , eph. . , , , &c. all that are true christians are one kingdom or church of christ ; but these of whom i speak are true christians ; therefore they are one kingdom or church of christ. and that they have been visible since christs time till now , all history , even your own affirms : as in iudaea , & from the apostles times , in ethiopia , egypt and other parts , ( rome was no church in the time of christs being on earth . ) and to what purpose talk you of determinate congregations ? do you mean individual assemblies ? those cease when the persons die ; or do you mean assemblies meeting in the same place ? so they have not done still at rome . i told you , and tell you still , that we hold not that god hath secured the perpetual visibility of his church in any one city or country : but if it cease in one place , it is still in others . it may cease at ephesus , at philippi , colosse , &c. in tenduc , nubia , &c. and yet remain in other parts . i never said that the church must needs be visible still in one town or country . and yet it hath been so de facto , as in asia , ethiopia , &c. but you say , i nominate none . are you serious ! must i nominate christians of these nations , to prove that there were such ? you require not this of the church historians . it sufficeth that they tell you , that ethiopia , egypt , armenia , syria , &c. had christians , without naming them . when all history tells you that these countries were christians , or had churches , i must tell you [ what and who they were ] ! must you have their names , sirnames , and genealogies ? i cannot name you one of a thousand in this small nation , in the age i live in : how then should i name you the people of armenia , abassia , &c. so long ago ? you can name but few of the roman church in each age : and had they wanted learning and records as much as the abassins and indians , and others , you might have been as much to seek for names as they . you ask [ were they different congregations ? ] answ. as united in christ they were one church : but as assembling at one time , or in one place , or under the same guide , so they were not one , but divers congregations . that there were any papists of . years after christ , do you prove if you are able . my conclusion , that all have been against you for many hundred years , must stand good , till you prove that some were for you : yet i have herewith proved that there were none , at least that could deserve the name of the church . do you think to satisfie any reasonable man by calling for positive proof from authors , of such negatives ? yet proof you shall not want , such as the nature of the point requireth , viz. that the said churches ; of ethiopia , india , the outer armenia , and other extra-imperial nations , were not under the jurisdiction of the bishop of rome . . you find all these churches , or most of them at this day ( that remain ) from under your jurisdiction : and you cannot tell us when or how they turned from you . if you could , it had been done . . these nations profess it to be their tradition , that the pope was never their governour . . no history or authority of the least regard , is brought by your own writers to prove these churches under your jurisdiction : no not by baronius himself , that is so copious , and so skilful in making much of nothing . no credible witnesses mention your acts of jurisdiction over them , or their acts of subjection , which church history must needs have contained , if it had been true , that they were your subjects . . their absence from general councils , and no invitation of them thereunto , ( that was ever proved , or is shewed by you ) is sufficient evidence . . their liturgies , even the most ancient , bear no footsteps of any subjection to you . though your forgeries have corrupted them : as i shall here ( digressively ) give one instance of : the ethiopick liturgy , because of a [ hoc est corpus meum ] which we also use , is urged to prove that they are for the corporal presence , or transubstantiation : but saith vsher , de success . eccles. in ethiopicarum ecclesiarum universali canone , descriptum habebatur [ hic panis est corpus meum ] : in latina translatione contra fidem ethiopic . exemplarium ( ut in prima operis editione confirmat pontificius ipse scholiastes ) expunctum est nomen [ panis . ] . constantines letters of request to the king of persia for the churches there ( which euseb. in vit . constant. mentioneth ) do intimate that then the roman bishop ruled not there . . even at home , the scots and brittains obeyed not the pope , nor conformed about the easter observation , even in the daies of gregory ; but resisted his changes , and refused communion with his ministers . . i have already elsewhere given you the testimony of some of your own writers : as reynerius contra waldens . catal. in biblioth . patr. tom. . p. . saying [ the churches of the armenians , and ethiopians , and indians , and the rest which the apostles converted , are not under the church of rome . ] . i have proved from the council of chalcedon , that it was the fathers , that is , the councils that gave rome its preheminence : but those councils gave the pope no preheminence over the extra-imperial nations : for . those nations being not called to the council , could not be bound by it . . the emperours called and enforced the councils , who had no power out of their empire . . the diocess are described and expresly confined within the verge of the empire ; see both the description , and full proof in blondel de primatu in ecclesia . gall. and . the emperours themselves did sometime ( giveing power to the councils acts ) make rome the chief ; and sometime ( as the councils did also ) give constantinople equal priviledge ; and sometime set constantinople highest , as i have shewed in my key , p. , . but the emperours had no power to do thus with respect to those without the empire . but what say you now to the contrary ? why . you ask , [ were those primitive christians of another kind of church order and government then were those under the roman empire ? ] answ. when the whole body of church history satisfieth us that they were not subject to the pope , which is the thing in question , is it any weakening of such evidence in a matter of such publick fact , to put such a question as this , whether they were under another kind of government ? . we know that they were under bishops or pastors of their own : and so far their government was of the same kind . . if any of them , or all , did suit their church associations to the several commonwealths in which they lived , and so held national councils , and for order sake made one among them the bishop primae sedis , then was that government of the same kind with that of the imperial churches , and not of another kind . the roman government was no other , but one , thus ordered , in one empire : and if there were also one , so ordered , in england , one in scotland , one in ethiopia , &c. this was of the same kind with the roman . every church suited to the form of the common-wealth , is even ( as to that humane mode ) of the same kind ( if a humane mode must be called a kind . ) it may be of that same kind , and mode , without being part of the same individual . but . you say that [ how far from truth this is , appeareth from st. leo in his sermons de natali suo , where he sayes , [ sedes roma perri ; quicquid non possidet armis , religione tenet . ] reply , if you take your religion on trust , as you do your authorities that are made your ground of it , and bring others to it when you are deceived your selves , how will you look christ in the the face when you must answer for such temerity ? leo hath no sermons de natali suo , but only one sermon affixed to his sermons , lately found in an oid book of nicol. fabers . and in that sermon there is no such words as you here alledge . neither doth he poetize in his sermons , nor there hath any such words which might occasion your mistake : and therefore doubtless you believed some body for this that told you an untruth ; and yet ventured to make it the ground of charging my words with untruth . yet let me tell you , that i will take pope leo for no competent judge or witness , though you call him a saint : as long as we know what past between him and the council of chalcedon , and that he was one of the first tumified bishops of rome , he shall not be judge in his own cause . . but you add that [ the abassines of ethiopia were under the patriarch of alexandria anciently , and he under the authority of the roman bishop . ] reply . . your bare word without proof shall not perswade us that the abassines were under the patriarch of alexandria for above three hundred , if not four hundred years after christ. prove it , and then your words are regardable . . at the council of nice the contrary is manifest by the sixth can. [ mos antiquus perdurat in aegypto , vel lybia & pentapoli , ut alexandrinus episcopus horum omnium habeat potestatem , &c. ] and the common descriptions of the alexandrian patriarchate in those times confine it to the empire , and leave out aethiopia ( pisanus new inventions we regard not . ) . i deny that the patriarch of alexandria was under the government of the bishop of rome , any more then the jury are under the foremen , or the junior justices on the bench are under the senior , or york is under london , or the other earls of england are under the earl of arundel . . but if both these were proved , that ethiopia was under alexandria , and alexandria under rome , i deny the consequence , that ethiopia was under rome : for alexandria was under rome but secundum quid , and so far as it was within the empire , and therefore those without the empire that were under alexandria , were not therefore under rome . . and if it could ( as it never can ) be proved of abassia , what is that to all the other churches in india , persia , and the rest of the world ? sir , if you have impartially read the ancient church history , and yet can believe that all these churches were then under the pope , despair not of bringing your self to believe any thing imaginable that you would have to be true . . your next question is [ when the roman emperours were yet heathens , had not the bishops of rome the supremacy over all other bishops through the whole church ? ] answ. no : they had not ; nor in the empire neither . prove it , i beseech you , better then by questioning . if you askt , whether men rule not angels ? your question proves not the affirmative . . but you ask again [ did those heathen emperours give it him ? ] answ. . power over all churches none ever gave him , till titularly his own parasites of late . . primacy of meer degree in the empire , for the dignity and many advantages of the emperial seat , the bishops of the empire gave him by consent ( blondel de primatu , gives you the proof and reason at large : ) yet so as that [ small regard was had to the church of rome before the nicene council ] as saith your aeneas sylvius , pope pius the second . . [ whether the bishop of rome had power over the bishop of arles by heathen emperours , ] is a frivolous question . arles was in the roman patriarchate , and not out of the empire . the churches in the empire , might by consent dispose themselves into the patriarchal orders , without the emperours , and yet not meddle out of the empire . yet indeed cyprians words intimate no power rome had over arles , more then arles had over rome : that is , to reject communion with each other upon dissent . nay it more confuteth you , that even under heathen emperours , when church associations were by voluntary consent of pastors only ; and so if they had thought it necessary , they might have extended them to other principalities : yet de facto they did not do it , as all history of the church declareth , mentioning their councils and associations , without these taken in . see now how little your objections are worth ; and how groundlesly you bid me [ see now how little my allegations are to the purpose . ] as for the rabble of hereticks which you reckon up , ( as you esteem them , ) some of them are no christians univocally so called , and those cannot be of the christian church . others of them were better christians then the romanists , and so were of the same church with us : and it is not many reproachfull names put on them by malice that makes them no christians , or of many churches or religions . if an arrogant usurper will put nick-names on all that will not bow to him as the vice-christ , and call them iconoclasts , berengarians , waldensians , albigenses , wicklefifts , hussites , lutherans , calvinists ( you may as well give them a thousand more names ) this makes them not of various religions , nor blots out their names from the book of life . i have in my most retired thoughts perused the history of those mens lives , and of the lives of many of your popes , together with their severall doctrines ; and with death and judgement in my eyes , as before the great god of heaven . i humbly beg of him , that i may rather have my everlasting portion with those holy men whom you burned , as waldenses , albigenses , hussites , &c. then with the popes that burned them , or those that follow them in that cruelty , unless reconciling grace have given them repentance unto life . the religion of all these men was one , and they were all of one universall church . where you again call for one congregation , i tell you again that we know no vnity essentiall , from whence the church can be called one , but either christ or the vice-christ : the former only is asserted by us , and the latter also by you , which we deny : and therefore we cannot call the universall church one , in any other formal respects , but as it is christian , and so one in christ. yet have i herewith satisfied your demand , but shewed you the unreasonableness of it , beyond all reasonable contradiction . you next enquire whether [ we account ] rome and us one congregation of christians ? ] i answer , the roman church hath two heads , and ours but one , and that 's the difference . they are christians , and so one church as united in christ , with us and all other true christians . if any so hold their papacy and other errours as effectively and practically to destroy their christianity , those are not christians , and so not of the same church as we . but those that do not so , but are so papists , as yet to be truly and practically christians , are and shall be of the same church with us , whether they will or not : and your modest stile makes me hope that you and i are of one church , though you never so much renounce it . as papall , we are not of your church ; that 's a new church form ; but as christian , we are and will be of it , even when you are condemning , torturing and burning us ( if such persecution can stand with your christianity . ) but you aske [ why did you then separate your selves , and remain still separate from the communion of the roman church . ] answ. . we never separated from you as you are christians ; we still remain of that church as christian , and we know ( or will know ) no other form ; because that scripture and primitive churches knew no other . either you have by popery separated from the church as christian , or not ; if you have , it s you that are the ( damnable ) separatists . if you have not , then we are not separated from you , in respect of the form of the christian church . and for your other form ( the papacy ) . neither i , nor my grand-father , or great grand-father did separate from it : because they never entertained it . . those that did so , did but repent of their sin , and that 's no sin . we still remain separated from you as papists , even as we are separate from such as we are commanded to avoid , for impenitency in some corrupting doctrine or scandalous sin ; whether such mens sins or their professed christianity be most predominant at the heart , we know not : but till they shew repentance we must avoid them ; yet admonishing them as brethren , and not taking them as men of another church , but as finding them unfit for our communion . but o sir , what manner of dealing have we from you ! must we be imprisoned , rackt , hang'd or burn'd , if we will not believe that bread & wine , are not bread and wine , contrary to our own and all mens senses ; and if we will not worship them with divine worship , and will not obey the pope of rome in all such matters contrary to our consciences : and then must we be chidden for separating from you , if we 〈◊〉 a while escape the strappado and the 〈◊〉 ? what! will you blame us for not believing that all mens senses are deceived , and the greater part of christians and their traditions ( against you ) are false , when we read , and study , and suspect our selves , and pray for light , and are willing to hear any of your reasons , but cannot force our own understandings to believe all such things that you believe , and meerly because the pope commands it : and when we cannot thus force our own understandings , must we be burned , or else called separatists ? would you have the communion of our ashes , or else say , we forsake your communion ? in your churches we cannot have leave to come , without lying against god and our consciences , and saying , we believe what our senses contradict ; and without committing that which our consciences tell us are most heynous sins . we solemnly protest that we would do as you do , and say as you say , were it not for the love of truth and holiness , and for fear of the wrath of god , and the flames of hell : but we cannot , we dare not rush upon these errours , and sell our souls to please the pope . and must we then either be murdered , or taken for uncha●●●●ble ? will you say to so many poor souls , that are ready to enter into another world [ either sin against your consciences , and so damn your souls , or else let us burn and murder you , or else you do not love us ; you are uncharitable if you deny us leave to kill you , and you separate from the communion of the church . ] we appeal from the pope and all unreasonable men , to the great god of heaven and earth , to judge righteously between you and us concerning this dealing . as for possessing our selves of your bishopricks and cures , if any particular person had personal injury in the change , being cast out without cause , they must answer for it that did it , and not i : though i never heard any thing to make me believe it . but must the prince and people let alone delinquent pastors for fear of being blamed for taking their bishopricks ? ministers of the same religion with us may be cast out for their crimes : princes have power over pastors as well as david , solomon , and other kings of israel had . guil. barklay and some few of your own knew this . the popes treasonable exemption of the clergy from their soveraigns judgement , will not warrant those princes before god , that neglect to punish offe●●ing pastors . and i beseech you tell us , ●hen our consciences ( after the use of all means that we can use to be informed ) cannot renounce all our sences , nor our reason , nor the judgement of the most of the church , or of antiquity , or the word of god , and yet we must do so , or be no members of your church , what wrong is it to you if we choose us pastors of our own , in the order that god hath appointed ? had not the people in all former ages the choice of their pastors ? we and our late forefathers here were never under your oversight : but we know not why we may not now choose our pastors as well as formerly . we do it not by tumults : we kill not men , and tread not in their blood , while we choose our pastors , as pope damasus was chosen . the tythes and other temporal maintenance we take from none , but the magistrate disposeth of it as he seeth meet for the churches good . and the maintenance is for the cure or work : and therefore they that are justly cast out of the cure , are justly deprived of the maintenance . and surely when they are dead , none of you can with any shew of reason , stand up and say , these bishopricks are yours : or these parsonages your●● it is the incumbent personally that only ●an claim title ; saving the supereminent title of christ , to whom they are devoted . but the successive popes cannot have title to all the tithes and temples in the world ; nor any of his clergy that never were called to the charges . if this be disunion , it is you that are the separatists and cause of all . if you will needs tell all the christian world , that except they will be ruled by the pope of rome , and be burned if they believe not as he bids them in despight of all their senses , he will call them separatists , schismaticks , and say they disunite and are uncharitable : again , we appeal to god and all wise men that are impartial , whether it be he or we that is the divider ? you ask me [ is not charity , subordination , and obedience to the same state and government , required as well to make one congregation of christians , as it is required to make a congregation of commonwealths men ? ] answ. yes , it is : but as all the world is one kingdom under god the universal king , but yet hath no universal vice-king , but every commonwealth only hath its own soveraign ; even so all the christian world is one church under christ the universal king of the church , but ha●● not one vice-christ , but every church hath its own pastors , as every school hath its own schoolmaster . but all the anger is because we are loth to be ruled by a cruel usurper therefore we are uncharitable . your next reason against me , is , because [ they cannot be parts of the catholike church , unless arrians , and pelagians , and donatists be parts ] and so hereticks and schismaticks be parts . ] reply . you know sure , that your own divines are not agreed whether hereticks and schismaticks are parts of the church . and if they were , yet it is not de fide with you , as not determined by the pope . if it be , then all yours are hereticks that are for the affirmative ( bellarmine nameth you some of them ) if it be not , then how can you be sure its true , and so impose it on me , that they are no parts . . arrians are no christians , as denying that which is essential to christ , and so to christianity . pelagianism is a thing that you are not agreed among your selves of the true nature of . many of the dominicans and jansenists think the jesuits pelagianize , or semipelagianize at least . i hope you will not shut them out . donatists were ●chismaticks , because they divided in the catholike church , and not absolutely from it ▪ and because they divided from the particular churches about them that held the most universal external communion . i think they were still members of the universal church : but i 'le not contend with any that will plead for his uncharitable denyal . it s nothing to our case . that the aethiopians are eutychian hereticks , i will see better proved before i will believe it . rosses words i so little regard , that i will not so much as open his book to see whether he say so or not . i know that heresie is a personal crime , and cannot be charged on nations , unless you have evidence that the nations consent to it : which here you have none : some are called hereticks for denying points essential to christianity : these are no christians , and so not in the church : but many also are called hereticks by you , and by the fathers , for lesser errors consistent with christianity : and these may be in the church . the abassines , and all the rest have not been yet tryed , and convicted before any competent judge : and slanderers we regard not . . many of your own writers acquit them of heresie , and say , the difference is now found to be but in words , or little more . to what you say of their disclaiming us , unless we take the patriarch of constantinople for the vice-christ ; you many waies mistake . . if this were true , that they rejected us , it were no proof that we are not of one universal church . . they do not claim to be vice christi , the universal governours of the church : the title of universal patriarch they extended but to the then roman empire ; and that not to an universal government , but primacy . and many of them have been of brotherly charity to our churches of late . cyril i need not name to you , whom your party procured murdered for being a protestant . meletius first patriarch of alexandria and then of constantinople ) was highly offended with the fiction of a submission of the alexandrian church to rome , ( under a counterfeit patriarch - gabriels name ) ; and wrote thus of the pope in his letters to sigismund king of poland an. . [ perspiceret majestas tua , nos cum majoribus nostris , non ignorare ( quem precaris ut agnoscamus ) pontificem scilicet romanum veluti & constantinopolitanum pontificem , pontificem constant. caeterosque apostolicarum sedium pontifices . qui non unus omnium , sed inter omnes & ipse unus . — vnum universale caput , quod sit d. n. iesus christus ; alius esse non possit , nisi biceps aliquod sit corpus , aut potius monstrum corporis . perspiceres , rex serenissime , ( ut interim de concilio illo florentino , veluti de re silentio digna taceam ) non nos , è patria , tum orientalium , tum occidentalium dogmatibus traditionibusque quae per septem universalia concilia nobis consignarunt atque obsignarunt , egressos : illos egressos , qui novitatibus in dies delectantur . ] in the same letters he commendeth cyril . and what can a protestant say more against the vice-christship , and your novelties ? and for ieremias his predecessor , whom you mention , though they that disputed with him by letters ( stephanus gerlochius , & martinus crusius ) did not agree in all things with him , yet he still professed his desire of unity and concord with us , and in the beginning of his second answer rejoyceth , that we agreed with them in so many things . and iohan. zygomalas in his letters to crusius . may . saith , [ perspicuum tibi & omnibus futurum est , quod in continuis , & causam fidei praecipue continentibus articulis , consentiamus : quae autem videntur consensum inter vos & nos impedire , talia sunt , si velit quis , ut facile ea corrigere possit . — gaudium in caelo & super terram erit , si coibit in unitatem utraque ecclesia , & idem sentiemus , & simul vivemus in omni concordia & pace secundum deum & in sincerae charitatis vinculo . ] but as it is not the patriarch that is the whole greek church , so it is not their errors in some lesser or tolerable points that prove us of two churches or religions . whereas you say , it is against all antiquity and christianity to admit condemned hereticks into the church . i reply , . i hate their condemnation , rather then reverence it , that ( even being non judices ) dare condemn whole nations without hearing one man of them speak for himself , or hearing one witness that ever heard them defend heresie ; and this meerly because some few bishops have in the daies of old maintained heresie , and perhaps some may do so still , or rather differ from you in words , while you misunderstand each other . did i find such errors with them as with you , yet i durst charge them on no one man that i had not reason to hold guilty of them : i dare not accuse whole nations of your errors . but of all these things ( and of sandys words which you cite ) i have spoken already in two books , and in the latter fully proved that you differ in many points of faith , and greater things then you call heresies in others among your selves , even your popes , saints , and councils , and yet neither part is judged by you to be out of the church . see my key , p. , , , , . p. . ad . when you say so much to prove the greeks guilty of manifest heresie , and pretend that it is but some novel writers of ours that deny it , as forced by your arguments . ] i must say , that you prove but your own uncharitableness instead of their heresie : and you shew your self a stranger to your own writers , who frequently excuse the greeks from heresie , and say the difference at the council of florence was found to be more about words then faith . thomas a iesu de convers. omn. gentium , lib. . cap. . p. . saith , [ his tamen non obstantibus alii opinantur graecos tantum esse schismaticos : ita ex junioribus docet pater azorius . primae institut . moral . lib. . cap. . q. . quare merito ab ecclesia catholica non haeretici , sed schismatici censentur & appellantur : ita apert insinuat d. bernardus ( no novel protestant ) in epist. ad eugenium , lib. . [ ego addo ( inquit ) de pertinacia graecorum qui nobiscum sunt , & non sunt : juncti fide , pace divisi ; quanquam & in fide ipsa claudicaverint à rectis semitis . ] idem aperte tenet d. thomas opuscul . . ubi docet patres graecos in catholico sensu esse exponendos . ratio hujus opinionis est quoniam ut praedictus author docet , in praedictis fidei articulis , de quibus graeci accusantur ab aliquibus ut haeretici , potius nomine , quam re ab ecclesia romana dissident . inprimis inficiantur illi spiritum sanctum à patre filioque procedere ut in bulla vnionis eugenii . dicitur , existimantes latinos sentire à patre filioque procedere tanquam à duobus principiis ; cum tamen latina doceat ecclesia procedere à duabus personis tanquam ab uno principio & spiratore ; quare graeci ut unum principium significent , dicunt spiritum sanctum à patre per filium procedere ab omni aeternitate . ] your paulus veridicus ( paul harris dean of your academy lately in dublin ) in his confutation of bishop vshers sermon , saith that the greeks doctrine about the procession of the holy ghost à patre per filium , and not à patre filioque , was such that [ when they had explicated it , they were found to believe very orthodoxly and catholikely in the same matter , and for such were admitted ] and that [ he findeth not any substantial point that they differ from you in , but the primacy ] ( so the armenians were received in the same council of florence . ) many more i have read of your own writers that all vindicate the greeks ( and others that disown you ) from heresie , i think more then i have read of protestants that do it . and do you think now that it is not a disgrace to your cause , that man of your learning , and one that i hear hath the confidence to draw others to your opinions , should yet be so unacquainted with the opinions of your own divines , and upon this mistake so confidently feign that it is our novel writers forced to it by your arguments that have been so charitable to these churches against antiquity that knew better ? if the greeks and latins tear the church of christ by their condemnations of each other , they may both be schismatical , as guilty of making divisions in the church , though not as dividing from the church . and if they pretend the denyal of the christian faith against each other as the cause , you shall not draw us into the guilt of the uncharitableness , by telling us that they know better then we . if wise men fall out and fight , i will not justifie either side , because they are wise and therefore likelier then i to know the cause . but what need we more to open your strange mistake and unjust dealing , then the authority of your so much approved council of florence , that received both greeks and armenians ; and the very words of the popes bull of the union , which declare that the greeks and latins were found to mean orthodoxly both ? the words are these [ convenientes latini & graeci in hac sacrosancta oecumenica synodo magno studio invicem usi sunt , ut inter alia articulus etiam ille de divina spiritus sancti processione summa cum diligentia & assidua inquisitione discuteretur . prolatis vero testimoniis ex divinis scripturis , plurimisque authoritatibus sanctorum doctorum orientalium & occidentelium , aliquibus quidem ex patre & filio , quibusdam vero ex patre per filium procedere dicentibus spiritū sanctum , & ad eandem intelligentiam aspicientibus omnibus sub diversis vocabulis : graeci quidem asseruerunt quod id quod dicunt spiritum sanctum ex patre procedere , non hac mente proferrent ut excludant filiū , sed quia eis videbatur , ut aiunt , latinos asserere spiritum sanctum ex patre filioque procedere tanquam ex duobus principiis & duabus spirationibus , ideo abstinuerunt à dicendo quod spiritus sanctus ex patre procedat & filio . latini vero affirmaverunt non se hac mente dicere spiritum sanctum ex filioque procedere ut excludant patrem , quin sit fons ac principium totius deitatis , filii scilicet , & spiritus sancti , aut quod id quod spiritus sanctu procedat ex filio , filius à patre non habeat , sive quod duo ponant esse principia , seu duas spirationes , sed ut unum tantum asserunt esse principium , unicamque spirationem spiritus sancti , prout hactenus asseruerunt ; & cum ex his omnibus unus & idem eliciatur veritatis sensus , tandem , &c. — ] i pray you now tell it to no more , that it is same novel writers of ours , prest by force of argument , that have been the authors of this extenuation . may heart even trembleth to think that there should be a thing called religion among you , that can so far extinguish both charity and humanity , as to cause you to pass so direful a doom ( without authority or tryal ) on so great a part of the christian world , for such a word as this , about so exceeding high a mysterie , when your pope and council have pronounced a union of meanings ! and what mean you in your margin to refer me to nilus , as if he asserted [ that the greeks left the communion of the roman church upon that difference alone . ] verily sir , in the high matters of god , this dealing is scarce fair ! ( pardon this plainness : consider of it your self . ) the substance of nilus book is about the primacy of the pope : the very contents prefixed to the first book are these [ oratio demonstrans non aliam , &c. an oration demonstrating that there is no other cause of the dissension between the latin and greek churches , then that the pope refuseth to defer the cognisance and iudgement of that which is controverted to a general council : but he will sit the sole master and iudge of the controversie ; and will have the rest as disciples to be hearers of ( or obey ) his word , which is a thing aliene from the laws and actions of the apostles and fathers . ] and he begins his book ( after a few words ) thus , [ causa itaque hujus dissidii , &c. the cause therefore of this difference , as i judge , is not the sublimity of the point exceeding mans capacity : for other matters that have divers times troubled the church , have been of the same kind : this therefore is not the cause of the dissention ; much less is it the speech of the scripture it self , which as being concise , doth pronounce nothing openly of that which is controverted . for to accuse the scripture , is as much as to accuse god himself . but god is without all fault . but who the fault is in , any one may easily tell , that is well in his wits . ] he next shews , that it is not for want of learned men on both sides , nor is it because the greeks do claim the primacy , and then concludeth it as before . he maintaineth that your pope succeedeth peter only as a bishop ordained by him , as many other bishops that originally were ordained by him in like manner do succeed him ; and that his primacy is no governing power , nor given him by peter , but by princes and councils for order sale : and this he proves at large , and makes this the main difference . bellarmines answering his so many arguments might have told you this , if you had never read nilus himself . if you say that , this point was the first cause , i deny it ; but if it were true , yet was it not the only or chief cause afterward . the munner of bringing in the [ filioque ] by papal authority without a general council , was it that greatly offended the greeks from the beginning . but you say that when i have made the best of these greeks , armenians , ethiopians , protestants , i cannot deduce them successively in all ages till christ as a different congregation of christians from that which holds the popes supremacy , which was your proposition . reply . i have oft told you we own no universal informing head but christ. in respect to him i have proved to you , that is not my interest or design to prove us or them [ a different congregation from you as you are christians . ] nor shall you tempt me to be so uncharitable , as to damn , or unchristen all papists as far as you do others , incomparably safer and better then your selves . but as you are papal , and set up a new informing head , i have proved that you differ from all the antient churches , but yet that my cause requireth me not to make this proof , but to call you to prove your own universal succession . you add your reason , because these beforenamed were at first involved in your congregation , and then fell off as dead branches . reply . this is but an untruth in a most publick matter of fact . all the truth is this . . those indians , ethiopians , persians , &c. without the empire , never fell from you , as to subjection , as never being your subjects . prove that they were , and you have done a greater wonder then baronius in all his annals . the greeks , and all the rest within the empire , without the roman patriarchate , are fallen from your communion ( if renouncing it be a fall ) but not from your subjection , having given you but a primacy , as nilus shews , and not a governing pewer over them . the withering therefore was in the roman branches , if the corruptions of either part may be called a withering . you that are the lesser part of the church may easily call your selves the tree , and the greater part ( two to one ) the branches ; but these beggings do but proclaim your necessities . in good time you come to give me here at last some proof of an ancient papacy , as you think . but first , you quite forget ( or worse ) that it is not a man or two in the whole world in an age , but the universal church , whose judgement ( and form ) we are now enquiring after . you are to prove [ that all the church in every age was for the papal universal government ] and so that none can be saved that is not . . but instead of this which you should prove , you prove not that those very single persons named by you , had any opinion of the papal soveraignty . . your first testimony is from liberatus , c. . [ john bishop of antioch makes an appeal to pope simplicius . ] reply . . i see you are deceived by going upon trust : but its pitty so to deceive others . there was no such man as iohn bishop of antioch in simplicus raign . iohn of antioch was he that made the stirs and divisions for nestorius , against cyril , and called the schismatical council at ephesus , and dyed , anno . having raigned thirteen years , as baronius saith , and eighteen as nicephorus : he dyed in sixtus the fifths time . but it s said indeed that john bishop of alexandria made some address to simplicius : of which baronius citeth liberatus words ( not c. . but c. . ) ad an. d. . that john being expelled by the emperour zeno's command , went first to calendion bishop of antioch , and so to rome to simplicius , ( if baronius were to be believed , as his judge ) liberatus saith , that he took from calendion bishop of antioch letters to simplicius , to whom he appealed as athanasius had done , and perswaded him to write for him to acacius bishop of constantinople ; which simplicius did : but acacius upon the receipt of simplicius letters , writ flatly to him , that he knew no john bishop of alexandria , but had taken petrus mogus as bishop of alexandria , into his communion , and that without simplicius , for the churches unity , at the emperours command ] here you see how little regard acacius made of your pope : and that the appeal was but to procure his letters to acacius , which did him no good . . but do you in good earnest think that all such addresses , or appeals are ad superiorem judicem ? what more common then to appeal or make such addresses to any that have advantage of interest , for the relief of the oppressed ? young men appeal to the aged in controversies : and the less learned to the more learned : and the poor to the rich , or to the favorites of such as can relieve them . iohns going first to antioch was no acknowledgement of superiority . . but of this i must refer you to a full answer of blondel against perron , de primatu in eccles. cap. . sect . . where you may be satisfied of the vanity of your instance . whereas therefore you infer ( or you say nothing ) that because this iohn thus appealed to rome , therefore he appealed thither as to the vniversal ruler of the church . ] the story derideth your consequence . much more that [ therefore the vniversall church held the pope then to be the vniversall head or governour . ] here 's nothing of government but intreaty , and that but within the empire , and that but upon the seeking of one distressed man that would be apt to go to those of most interest that might relieve him , and all this rejected by acacius and the emperour . a fair proof ! . your . instance is , that flavianus appeals to the pope as to his iudge . epist. praeambul . concil . chalced. ] reply . i have perused all the council of chalcedon , as it is in binnius , purposely to find the words you mention of flavians appeal , and i find not any such words . in flavianus own epistle to leo there are no such words , nor any other that i can find , but the word [ appeal ] once in one of the emperours epistles ( as i remember ) but without mentioning any judge . i will not use to turn over volumes thus in vain for your citations , while i see you take them on trust , and do not tell me in any narrow compasse of cap. sect . or pag. where to find them . but had you found such words , . an appeal is oft made from a partiall to an impartiall judge , though of equal power . . he might appeal to the bishop of rome as one of his judges in the council where he was to be tried , and not as alone . and it is evident in the history , that it was not the pope , but the council that was his iudge . . the greatnesse of rome , and primacy of order ( not of jurisdiction ) made that bishop of speciall interest in the empire : and distressed persecuted men will appeal to those that may any whit relieve them . but this proves no governing power , nor so much as any interest without the empire . it being the custome of the churches in the empire , to make the votes of the patriarchs necessary in their general councils , no wonder if appellations be made from those councils that wanted the patriarchs consent to other councils where they cons●nted ; in which as they gave constantin●ple the second place , without any pretence of a divine right , and frequent appeals were made to that seat ; so also they gave rome the first seat. of this whole matter perron is fully answered already by blondell de primatu , cap. . sect . . to which i refer you , it being as easie to read it in print as writing . adding this only , that as flavian ( in his necessity ) seeking help from the bishop of the prime seat in the empire , did acknowledge no more but his primacy of order by the laws of the empire and the councils thereof , so the empire was not all the world , nor flavian all the church , nor any more then one man , and therefore if he had held ( as you will never prove he did ) the universall government of the pope , if you would thence argue that it was held by all the church , your consequence must needs be marvelled at , by them that believe that one man is not the catholick church , no more then seeking of help was an acknowledging an universal headship or governing power . and it is undeniably evident , that the church of constantinople and all the greek churches did believe that universal primacy which in the empire was set up , to be of humane right , and new , and changeable , as i prove not only by the expresse testimony of the council of chalcedon , but by the stating of the primacy at last in gregories dayes on constantinople it self , whose pretence neither was nor could be any other then a humane late institution . and if the greek churches judged so of it in gregories daies , and at the council of chalcedon in leo's daies , we have no reason to think that they ever judged otherwise ; at least not in flavians dayes , that were the same as leo's , and the businesse done about . this argument i here set against all your instances at once ; and it is unanswerable . . your next instance is of pope leo's restoring theodoret , upon an appeal to just judgement ] reply . . every bishop hath a power to discern who is fit for his own communion ; and so leo and the bishops of the west perceiving theodoret to be orthodox , received him as a catholick into their communion ; and so might the bishop of constantinople have done . but when this was done , the council did not hereupon receive him , and restore him to his bishoprick , no nor would hear him read the passages between pope leo and him , no nor make a confession of his faith , but cried out against him as a nestorian , till he had expresly anathematized nestorius and eutiches before the council , and then they received and restored him : so that the finall judgement was not by leo , but by the council : but if in his distresse he appealed as you say , to a just judgement , from an unjust , or sought to make leo his friend , no wonder ; but this is no grant of an universall soveraignty in leo : and if it had granted it in the empire , that 's nothing to the churches in other empires : or if he had granted it as to all the world , he was but one man of the world , and not the catholick church . the council expresly take on them the determination after leo , and they slight the legates of the pope , and pronounce him a creature of the fathers , and give constantinople equall priviledges , though his legates refuse to consent . but of the frivolousnesse of this your instance , see dr. field of the church , lib. . cap. . pag. , . and more fully blondell de primatu , ubi sup . cap. . sect . , . . your next instance is of cyprians desire that stephen would depose martian bishop of arles . ] reply . that epistle cannot be proved to be cyprians : for the reasons i refer you to m. de lanny on that subject , and rivets critica sacra : only adding that there are eight copies of cyprian , ancient m. s. s. in the english universities , that have none of them this epistle to stephen ( of which see ierem. stephens edition of cyprian de unitate ecclesiae ) . could you prove this epistle to be cyprians , it makes against you more then for you . not for you : for the distance of cyprian , the nearnesse of stephen might make it a matter more concerning him , and fitter for him to transact : and it was within his patriarchate , and therefore no wonder if he were minded of it . and yet cyprian only writes to him to write to the bishops of france to restrain martian : [ § . . quapropter facere te oportet plenissimas literas ad coepiscopos nostros in gallia constitutos , ne ultra maertianum pervicacem & superbum , & divinae pietatis ac fraternae salutis inimicum , collegio nostro insultare patiantur . ] cyprian did as much to stephen , as he desired stephen to do to the bishops of france : this therefore is against you , if any thing to the purpose : had you found but such words of a pope to another bishop as cyprian useth to your pope , you would have taken it as an evidence of his superiority . § . . dirigantur in provinciam & plebem in arelate c●●xistentem à te literae , &c. [ let thy letters be directed to the province and people at arles , &c. ] and it s plainly an act of non-communion common to all bishops towards those unfit for their communion , that cyprian speaks of [ § . . idcirco enim , frater charissime , copiosum corpus est sacerdotum concordiae mutuae glutino atque unitatis vinculo copulatum , ut siquis ex collegio nostro haeresim facere , & gregem christi lacerare & vastare tentaverit , subveniant caeteri , & quasi pastores utiles & misericordes oves dominicas in gregem colligant . ] you see it is a common duty of brotherhood , and not an act of jurisdiction that cyprian speaks of . . your next instance is , that [ the council of sardis determined that no bishop deposed by other neighbouring bishops , pretending to be heard again , was to have any successor appointed till the case were defined by the pope : conc. sard. cap. . cited by athanas. apol. . pag. . ] reply . it seems you are well acquainted with the council , that know not of what place it was ! it was the council at sardica , and not at sardis , that you would mean. sardis was a city of lydia , apud tmolum montem , olim regio craesi , inter thiatiram & philadelphiam . but this sardica was a city of thrace in the confines of the higher mysia , inter naissum myssiae & philippopolim thraciae . as to the instance , . this council was by augustine rejected as hereticall , though i defend not his opinion . . it was of so little note and authority , that it was not known to the council of carthage to have the next antecedent canons ( which you would not have omitted if you had read them , its like ) in which your writers glory as their chiefest strength ; and which bellarmine thinks pope zosimus call'd , the nicene canon : or rather is it not suspicious that this canon is but forged , when those carthage fathers plainly say , in nullo patrum concilio decretum invenimus ; mentioning that antecedent canon proposed by hosius , to which this mentioned by you proposed by gaudentius is but an addition or supplement . and it is not like that all these africane fathers could be ignorant of those canons of sardica , when such abundance of africane bishops were at the council , and that but about years before : you may see in binnius how hard a strait he is put to , to give any tolerable reason of this , and only saith , that its like some how the canons were lost : sure tradition was then grown untrusty . your cardinal cusanus de concord . cath. l. . c. . makes a doubt whether the canon of appeals be indeed a canon of this council . . but grant it be , yet take these observations , and you shall find small cause of confidence in that canon . . it was made in a case of the distresse of athanasius and other orthodox orientall bishops , meerly in that strait , to save them and the churrhes from the arrians . the arrians withdrew from the council being the minor part , and excommunicated iulius with athanasius , and other occidentals ; and the occidental bishops excommunicated the oriental . athanasius himself was a chief man in the council , and had before been rescued by the help of iulius , and therefore no wonder if they desired this safety to their churches . . note , that this is a thing newly granted now by this canon , and not any ancient thing . . note , that therefore it was of humane right , and not of divine . . note , that yet this canon was not received or practised in the church , but after this the contrary maintained by councils , and practised , as i shall anon prove . . that it is not any antecedent governing power that the canon acknowledgeth in the pope ; but in honour of the memory of s. peter , as they say , ( yet more for their present security ) they give this much to rome ; it being the vulgar opinion that peter had been there bishop . . that it is not a power of judging alone that they give , but of causing the re-examination of causes by the council , and adding his assistants in the judgement , and so to have the putting of another into the place forborn till it be done . . and i hope still you will remember , that at this council were no bishops without the empire , and that the roman world was narrower then the christian world : and therefore , if these bishops in a part of the empire had now given ( not a ruling , but ) a saving power to the pope , so far as is there expressed , this had been far from proving that he had a ruling power , as the vice-christ over all the world , and that by divine right : blame me not to call on you to prove this consequence . . there is as much for appeals to constantinople , that never claimed a vice-christship as iure divino . . your sixth instance out of basils . epistle i imagine you would have suppressed , if ever you had read that epistle , and had thought that any others would be induced by your words to read it . i have given you out of this and other epistles of basil , a sufficient proof of his enmity to popery , in my key , cap. . pag. , , . and cap. . pag. . that very epistle of basils was written to the western bishops , and not to the bishop of rome only , nor so much as naming him : the help that he desireth is either a visit , or perswasive letters , never mentioning the least power that the pope had more then other bishops , but only the interest of credit that the western bishops had more then basil and his companions : saith he [ for what we say is suspected by many , as if for certain private contentions , we would strike a fear and pusillanimity into their minds : but for you , the further you dwell from them , so much the more credit you have with the common people : to which this is added , that the grace of god is a help to you to care for the oppressed . and if many of you unanimously decree the same things , it is manifest that the multitude of you decreeing the same things , will cause an undoubted reception of your opinion with all . ] you see here upon what terms liberius his letters might bestead eustathius : he having received him into his own communion , and eustathius being orthodox in words , no wonder that the synod of tiana receive him upon an orthodox confession , and their fellow-bishops reception and letters : no doubt but the letters of many another bishop might have perswaded them to his reception ; though he had more advantages from rome . is it not now a fair argument that you offer ? liberius ( sometime an arrian pope of rome ) by his letters prevailed with a synod at tyana to restore eustathius ( an arrian ) that dissembled an orthodox confession : what then ? ergo the pope of rome is the vice-christ , or was then the governour of all the christian world . soft and fair . . basil gives you other reasons of his interest . . he never mentioneth his universall government , when he had the greatest need to be helped by it , if he had known of such a thing . . the empire is not all the world : if basil knew the roman soveraignty , i am certain he was a wilfull rebel against it . . your seventh proof is from chrysostome , who , you say [ expresly desireth pope innocent not to punish his adversaries if they do repent : chrys. epist. . ad innoc. ] reply . you much wrong your soul in taking your religion thus on trust ; some book hath told you this untruth , and you believe it , and its like will perswade others of it as you would do me . there is no such word in the epist. of chrysostome to innocent , nor any thing like it . . your eighth proof is this [ the like is written to the pope by the council of ephesus in the case of iohn of antioch : concil . ephes. p. . act. . ] reply . . the first council at ephesus ( which no doubt you mean ) is in binnius enough to make a considerable volume , and divided into six tomes , and each of those into chapters , and not into acts : and if you expect that i should exactly read six tomes in folio before i can answer your severall sentences or shreds , you will put me on a twelve-moneths work to answer a few sheets of paper . if you mean by [ p. . ] [ tom. . ] and by [ act. . ] [ cap. . ] then i must tell you there is not a word of that you say , nor like it . only there is reference to celestines and cyrils epistles ; and celestine in his epistle recited tom. . cap. . threatens nestorius , that if he repent not , he will excommunicate him , and they will have no more communion with him , which others did as well as he ; but not a word of iohn bishop of antioch there . nor can i find any such thing in the . tome , where iohn's cause is handled . indeed the notes of your historian divide the council into sessions : but in his fifth session there is nothing of iohn , but of nestorius . and in the . sess. iohn and his party excommunicate cyril , memnon , and theirs . and it was the council that suspended first , and after excommunicated iohn . and it is the emperour to whom he appeals . indeed your annotator in sess. . mentions some words of iuvenals ; that he should at least have regarded the roman legates , it being the custome that his church be directed by that : but i see no proof he brings of those words ; and it is known , that cyril of alexandria did preside , and subscribed before the roman legates , even to the severall letters of the synod , as you may see in tom. . cap. . & passim . . but if your words were there to be found , what are they to your purpose ? the pope can punish the bishop of antioch : but how ? why by excommunicating him . true , if he deserve it : that is , by pronouncing him unfit for christian communion , and requiring his flock , and exhorting all others to avoid him . and thus may another bishop do : and thus did iohn by cyril of alexandria , though he was himself of the inferiour seat : and thus hath the bishop of constantinople done by the bishop of rome , and so may others . . your ninth proof is from the applications that the arrians and athanasius made to iulius : ex athan. ad solit . epist. iulius in lit. ad arian . apud athan. apol. . p. . theodoret. lib. . c. . athan. apol. . zozom . l. . c. . ] reply . i marvel you urge such rancid instances , to which you have been so fully and so often answered : i refer you to blondell de primatu cap. . sect . , . whittaker de roman . pontif. p. . & passim . dr. field of the ch. l. . c. , &c. briefly , this may shew the vanity of your proof . . sozomen in that place saith , that though he alone wrote for them , yet he wrote in the name and by the consent of all the bishops of the west . . the advantages of rome by its reputation and greatness , and the number and quality of the western bishops , made their judgement and communion valuable to others : basil before cited tells you on what grounds when churches disagree , those that are distant are supposed to be impartiall , especially when numerous . to which is added , which basil intimates , that some hope of help from the secular powers , by the interposition of the western bishops , made them the more sought to . . and the primacy of rome ( though it had no soveraignty ) made it seem irregular , that a patriarch should be deposed without the knowledge and judgment of the patriarchs of the precedent seats . this was the custome that iulius spoke of , and the patriarchs of constantinople and alexandria might have said as much , if the patriarch of ierusalem or antioch had been deposed without them . . every patriarch might absolve the innocent , and hold communion with them in his own patriarchate ; and if any be against it , ( as the arrians here were , and sent false accusations against athanasius to iulius ) he may require them to prove their accusations , if they will have him moved by them . our own communion with men , is to be directed by the judgment of our own well informed consciences . iulius desired not any more then to be one with a council that should decide the case . councils then had the rule , and patriarchs were the most honourable members of those councils , but no rulers of them . . yet sozomen and others tell you , that iulius , when he had done his best to befriend athanasius and paulus could do no good , nor prevail with the bishops of the east , till the emperors commands prevailed : yea the eastern bishops tell him that he should not meddle with their proceedings no more then they did with his , when he dealt with the novatians ; seeing the greatness of cities maketh not the power of one bishop greater then another : and so they took it ill that he interposed , though but to call the matter to a synod , when a patriarch was deposed . any bishop might have attempted to relieve the oppressed as far as iulius did : especially if he had such advantages as aforesaid to encourage him . all your consequences here therefore are denied . . it is denied , that because iulius made this attempt , that therefore he was universal ruler in the empire . . it is denied that it will thence follow , if he were so , that it had been by divine right , any more then constantinople had equall priviledges by divine right . . it is denied that it hence followeth , that either by divine or humane right , he had any power to govern the rest of the world without the empire . had you all that you would rack these testimonies to speak , it is but that he was made by councils and emperours the chief bishop or patriarch in a nationall church ( i mean , a church in one princes dominion ) as the archbishop of canterbury was in england . but a nationall or imperiall church is not the universall . and withall , oppressed men will seek relief from any that may help them . in your margin you adde that [ concerning s. athanasius being judged , and rightly , by p. julius , chamier acknowledgeth the matter of fact to be so : but against all antiquity pretends that judgment to have been unjust . ] reply . take it not ill sir i beseech you , if i awake your conscience , to tell me , how you dare write so many untruths , which you knew , or might know , i could quickly manifest . both parts of your saying of chamier p. , are untrue . . the matter of fact is it that he denieth : he proveth to you from sozomens words , that athanasius did make no appeal to a judge , but only fled for help to a friend : he shews you that iulius did not play the judge , but the helper of the spoiled , and that it was not an act of judgement . . he therefore accuseth him not of wrong judgeing , but only mentioneth his not hearing the accused , to shew that he did not play the part of a judge , but a friend , as chrysostome did by some that fled to him . i pray answer his reasons . and for what you say again in your margin of theodoret ; i say again , that he appealeth to the bishop of rome for help ; as a person who with the western bishops might sway much against his adversaries , but not as to an universal governour or judge : no not as to the universal judge of the church imperiall ; much less of all the catholick churches . . your tenth proof is from chrysostomes case , where you say some things untrue , and some impertinent . . that chrysostome appeals to innocent from the council of constantinople is untrue , if you mean it of an appeal to a superiour court or judge ; much more if as to an universal judge : but indeed in his banishment , when all other help failed , he wrote to him to interpose and help him as far as he could . i need no other proof of the negative then , . that there is no proof of the affirmative , that ever he made any such appeal . . in his first epistle to innocent , he tells him over and over , that [ he appealed to a synod , and required iudgement ] and that he was cast into a ship for banishment [ because he appealed to a synod and a righteous judgement ] never mentioning a word of any such appeal to the pope . yea he urgeth the pope to befriend and help him , by that argument , that he was still ready to stand to uncorrupted judges , never mentioning the pope as judge . by all which it appears it was but the assistance of his intercession that he requireth : and withall , perhaps the excommunicating of the wicked , which another bishop might have done . yea , and it seems it was not to innocent only , but to others with him that he wrote ; for he would scarce else have used the terms [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ] but what need we more then his own words to know his request : saith he [ let those that are found to have done so wickedly , be subject to the penalty of the ecclesiasticall laws : but for us that are not convicted , nor found guilty , grant us to enjoy your letters , and your charity , and all others whose society we did formerly enjoy . ] the ecclesiastical laws enabled each patriarch and bishop to sentence in his own diocess ; though the person sentenced lived out of their diocess , yet they might renounce all communion with him : churches that have no power over one another , may have communion with one another ; and that communion they may hold and renounce as there is cause . now if a neighbour patriarch with so many bishops of the west had renounc'd communion with chrysostomes enemies , and also written their letters on his behalf , and taken him still as in their communion , this he hoped would much further his restauration : which yet he doubted , as he had cause . for in his second epistle he thanks him for doing his part , though it did no good , or did not avail . and it is to be noted , that your author nicephorus tells you , lib. . cap. . that chrysostomes letters , and his fellow-bishops also , and the clergies of constantinople , were all written both to the emperour honorius and to innocent : and therefore you may see by that on what account it was , and what help they did expect . the emperour was not to excommunicate , but his letters might do much . well , but you alledge niceph. l. . c. . to prove . chrysostomes appeal : but you have better or worse eyes then i , for i can find there no such thing , but a seeking for help as aforesaid . . you say [ innocentius nulls his condemnation , and declares him innocent . ] ans. so might another bishop have declared him : but how far it should be regarded , was not in his power . . you say he excommunicates atticus and theopilus , and . arcadius the emperor also , and eudoxia . ] reply . . if he did so and did well , another bishop might as well have done it . mennas excommunicated vigilius of rome . excommunicating is not alwayes an act of jurisdiction , but a renouncing of communion , with a ministeriall binding , which any pastor on a just occasion may exercise , even on those that are not of his diocess ; examples in church-history are common . . but i would have you answer dr. whittakers reasons , by which he proves that nicephorus is a fabler in this relation , and that that epistle is not innocents which cap. . he reciteth , lib. de pontif . rom. contr. . qu. . pag. , . . neither socrates , theodoret or sozomen make any mention of this excommunication , who yet write much of the case of chrysostome and arcadius : and would these men that lived so near that time have all silenced so great and rare a thing , as the excommunication of the emperour and empress , which would have made so great a noise and stir , that yet mention ambrose his censure of theodosius ? . this bull of innocents , ( as nicephorus would have us believe it ) hath such falshoods , contrary to more credible history , as bewray the forgery . for socrates lib. . c. . writeth , that eudoxia died the same year that chrysostome was banished , and that chrysostome died the third year of his banishment : and sozomen saith l. . c. . that chrysostome was in banishment three years after the death of eudoxia : but , if nicephorus were to be believed , eudoxia was alive and excommunicated by innocent after chrysostomes death . nor can it be said that innocent knew not of her death ; for his legats were sent to constantinople in atticus time , who succeeded arsacius , who outlived eudoxia . ] this is the summe of dr. whittakers confutation of nicephorus . and withall , who knows not how full of fictions nicephorus is ? in your margin you pretend to confute chamier p. . as saying [ that other bishops restored those wrongfully deposed as well as the pope , ] to which you say that [ never single bishop restored any who were out of their respective diocess , &c. whereas the bishop of rome by his sole and single authority , restored bishops wrongfully deposed all the church over . ] reply . . it seems you took chamiers words on trust : peruse that page , and see his words . . single bishops have censured , and therefore might as well remit their own censures . ambrose censured theodosius , who was no fixed member of his charge , and he remitted the censure . epiphanius presumed even at constantinople to excommunicate dioscorus and his brethren , socrat. lib. . c. . and many instances may be brought both of excommunicating , and again receiving to communion by particular bishops , even as to those that were not of their charge . and if the fact were not proved , yet the forbearance proveth not the want of power . . i deny your unproved assertion , that the bishop of rome singly restored all the church over : it is a meer fiction . how many restored he out of the empire ? or in the empire out of his patriarchate , but suasorily or synodically . your next instance of theodosius his not permitting the council at ephesus to be assembled , and his reconciling himself to the church , is meerly impertinent : we know that he and other princes usually wrote to rome , constantinople , alexandria , &c. or spoke or sent to more then one of the patriarchs before they called a council . you cannot but know that councils have been called without the pope : and that neither this , nor an emperours forsaking his errour , is a sign of the popes universal government . that emperour gave sufficient testimony , and so did the bishops that adhered to dioscorus , that in those dayes the pope was taken for fallible and controlable , when they excommunicated him : but when you cite out of any author the words that you build on , i shall take more particular notice of them . till then this is enough , with this addition , that the emperours subjection , if he had been subject ( not to an ambrose , or other bishop , but ) only to rome , would have been no proof that any without the empire were his subjects : no more then the king of englands subjection to the archbishop of canterbury , would have proved that the king of france was subject to him . . your twelfth proof from the council of chalcedon , is from a witness alone sufficient to overthrow your cause , as i have proved to you . this synod expresly determineth , that your primacy is a novel humane invention ; that it was given you by the fathers , because rome was the imperial seat. if you believe this synod , the controversie is at end : if you do not , why do you cite it ? and why pretend you to believe generall councils ? but what have you from this council against this council ? why , . you say martian wrote to leo , that by the popes authority a generall council might be gathered , in what city of the eastern church he should please to choose . ] reply . . whereas for this you cite act. concil . chalcedon . . you tell me not in what author , whether crabbe , binnius , surius , nicolinus , or where i must seek it . i have perused the act. . in binnius , which is pages in folio ( such tasks your citations set me ) and find no such thing ; and therefore take it to be your mistake . but in the preambul . epist . i find that valentinian and martian desire leo's prayers , and contrary to your words , that they say [ hoc ipsum nobis propriis liter is tua sanctitas manifestet , quatenus in omnem orientem & in ipsam thraciam & illyricum sacrae nostrae literae dirigantur , ut ad quendam definitum locum qui nobis placuerit , omnes sanctissimi episcopi debeant convenire . ] it is not [ qui vobis placuerit ] but [ qui nobis . ] but what if you had spoke truth , doth it follow that leo was christs vicar-general governour of the world , because that the soveraign of one commonwealth did give him leave to choose the place of a council ? serious things should not be thus jested with . . you say anatolius and the rest of the eastern bishops sent to pope leo the professions of their faith by his order . ] reply . . and what then ? therefore pope leo was both governour of them and all the christian world . you should not provoke men to laughter about serious things , i tell you . can you prove this consequence ? confessions were ordinarily sent in order to communion , or to satisfie the offended , without respect to superiority . . but i see not the proof of your impertinent words . pulcherius epistle to leo , expresseth that leo had sent his confession first to anatolius , to which anatolius consented . by your rule then leo was subject to anatolius . . you say the popes legates sate first in council . ] reply . what then ? therefore the pope was governour of the christian world , though not a man out of the empire were of the council . are you still in jest ? but if it must be so , then i can prove that others were the universal governours , because at nice , and other councils they sate before the legates of the pope , and in many his legats had no place . is this argument good think you ? o unfaithful partiality in the matters of salvation ! . you say , they prohibited dioscorus to sit by his order ] reply . . what then ? therefore he was universal governour of the church . all alike . any accuser in a parliament or synod may require that the accused may not sit as judge , till he be tried . . but did you not know that leo's legates were not obeyed ; but that the gloriosissimi judices & amplissimus senatus , required that the cause should be first made known : and that it was not done till eusebius episcop . dorylaei had read his bill of complaint ? binnius act . pag. . . you say the popes legates pronounced the church of rome to be caput omnium ecclesiarum ] reply . . what then ? therefore he was governour of all the christian world ? i deny the consequence . you do nothing but beg : not a word of proof . caput was but membrum principale , the patriarch primae sedes , and that but in the empire . . the popes legates were not the council , nor judges in their own cause , and not opposing , signifies not alwayes a consent . . but the council do as i said , expresly define the point , both what your primacy is , and of how long standing , and of whose institution , and that constantinople on the same grounds had equall priviledges . . you say , all the fathers acknowledged thtmselves leo 's children , and wrote to him as their father . ] reply . of this you give me not any proof , but leave me to read pages in folio , to see whether you say true or no. and what if you do , ( as i believe you do ) can a man of any reading be ignorant how ordinarily other bishops were stiled fathers , even by their fellow-bishops as well as the bishop of rome ? . you add , that they humbly begged of him that the patriarch of constantinople might h●ve the first place next rome , which notwithstanding the council had consented to , as had also the third general council at ephesus before , yet they esteemed their grants of no sufficient force , till they were confirmed by the pope . ] reply . so far were the council from what you falsly say of them , that they put it into their canons , that constantinople should have the second place , yea and equal priviledges with rome , and that they had this on the same grounds as rome had its primacy , even because it was the imperial seat : vid. bin. pag. , . col . . and not only ephesus , but the second general council at constantinople , they tell you had decreed the same before . you see then ( contrary to your fiction ) that three general councils ( of the greatest , likened by gregory to the evangelists ) not only judged without the pope , but by your own confession against him ( for you say , he consented not ) yea so much did they slight the popes consent , that when his legates dissented , they were not heard : see bin. pag. , . they persisted in the council to maintain their canon . notwithstanding the contradiction of lucretius and paschasinus , and by the judges it was accordingly pronounced , p . and unanimously the whole synod consented , never stopping at the roman dissent . pergamius bishop of antioch saith [ in omnibus sanctissimum archiepiscopum regiae civitatis novae romae in honore & cura sicut patrem praecipuum habere nos convenit . ] no man contradicted this : and is not this as much or more , then you alledge as spoke to leo ? they call leo ( you say ) father : and the bishop of constantinople is pronounced the chief father in all things , in honour and cure. and eusebius bishop of doryl . the chief adversary of dioscorus , witnessed that he himself , in the presence of the clergy of constantinople , did read this canon to the pope at rome , and he received it . upon which your historian hath no better an observation , then that [ either eusebius lyed , or else at that hour he deceived leo. ] it s true that the synod writ to him for his consent : but not as suspending any of their decrees on it ; but telling him over and over , that the things were by them defined and confirmed already , pag. . that which they desired of him was , what synods ordinarily did of bishops of their communion that were absent [ haec , sicut propria , & amica , & ad decorem convenientissima , dignare complecti , sanctissime & beatissime pater . ] . in your margin you tell me that agapet in the time of iustinian depo●ed anthymius in constantinople against the will of the emperour & the empress . ] reply . . and doth it follow , that because he did it , therefore he did it justly , yea and as the governour of that church ? when menna bishop of constantinople excommunicated pope vigilius , was he not even with him ? and did that prove that rome was subject to constantinople ? niceph. l. . c. . when dioscorus excommunicated leo , and an eastern synod excommunicated iulius ( sozom. l. . c. . ) that proves not that they did it justly , or as his governours . honorius the emperour deposed boniface . othe with a synod deposed iohan. . iustinian deposed sylverius and vigilius : will you confess it therefore justly done ? . as to the history i refer you to the full answer of blondel to perron . cap. . sect . , . . usurpation and deposing one another by rash sentences was then no rare thing , eusebius of nicomedia threatened the deposing of alexander of constantinople , who sure was not his subject , socrat. lib. . c. . ( vel . . ) acacius of caesarea and his party depose not only eleusius , basilius and many others , but with them also macedonius bishop of constantinople : socrat. lib. . c. . ( vel . . ) did this prove acacius the vice-christ ? what should i instance in theophilus actions against chrysostome , or cyrils against iohan. antiochen . and many such like ? . still you suppose one empire to be all the christian world : we must grant you that in all your instances ! . for what you alledge from gregory , i shall give you enough of him anon for your satisfaction , if you will be indifferent . as to your citation what can i say ? a years time were little enough to search after your citations , if you should thus write but many more sheets . ( if a man had so much time and so little wit as to attend you ) you turn me to greg. cap. . ep . . but what book , or what indiction , you tell me not : but whatever it be , false it must needs be , there being no one book of his epistles ( according to all the editions that i have seen ) where c. . and ep . . do agree or meet together . but at last i found the words in lib. . c. . ep . . to which i say , that either your great gregory by [ subject ] meant that the bishop of constantinople was of an inferiour order , as the patriarch of alexandria and antioch were to constantinople , that yet had no government of them ; or else he could say and unsay : but i doubt not but this was all his sense . but if it had been otherwise , constantinople and the empire was not all the christian world . your next citation is lib. . ep . . but it s falsly cited : there is no such word ; and you are in so much haste for an answer , that i will not read over all gregories epistles . . you say cyril would not break off communion with nestorius till celestine had condemned him ; of this you give us no proof : but what if it be true ? did you think that it proved the pope to be the vice-christ ? prudence might well make cyril cautelous in excommunicating a patriarch . and we still grant you , that the order of the empire had given the roman bishop the primacy therein : and therefore no wonder if his consent were expected . but that nestorius was condemned by a council needs no proof : and what if celestine began and first condemned him ? i she therefore the universal bishop ? but it was not celestine alone , but a synod of the western bishops . and yet cyril did not hereupon reject him without further warning : and what was it that he threatned , but to hold no communion with him ? vid. concil . ephes. . tom. . cap. . and though pride made excommunication an engine to advance one bishop above others , i can easily prove that if i had then lived , it had been my duty to avoid communion with a notorious heretick , though he had been pope . the long story that you next tell , is but to fill up paper , that cyril received the popes letters , that nestorius repented not , that he accused cyril , that theodosius wrote to celestine about a council ; and many such impertinent words : but the proof is , that cyril was the popes chief legate ordinary ! forsooth because in his absence he was the chief patriarch ; therefore he is said celestini locum tenere , which he desired . well , let your pope sit highest , seeing he so troubles all the world for it . christ will shortly bid him come down lower , when he humbleth them that exalt themselves . that cyril subscribed before philip , you may see , tom. . cap. . but where i may find that philip subscribed first , you tell me not . but what if the archbishop of canterbury sate highest , and subscribed first in england ? doth it follow that he was governour of all the world ? no nor of york it self neither . . and here you tell us of iuvenal , act. . repl. . the council is not divided into acts in binnius , but many tomes and chapters : but your words are in the notes added by your historian ; but how to prove them iuvenals words i know no● , nor find in him or you . . but why were not the antecedent words of the bishop of antioch and his clergy as valid to the contrary , as iuvenals for this ? . if these words were spoken , they only import a iudgeing in council as a chief member of it , and not of himself . and his apostolica ordinatione is expresly contrary to the ●orecited canon of the council of chalcedon , and therefore not to be believed . yet some called things done ordinatione apostolica , which were ordained by the seats which were held apostolike . . but still you resolve to forget that antioch or the empire extended not to the antipodes , nor contained all the catholick church . . you next tell me of valentinians words a. d. . reply . it is the most plausible of all your testimonies , but worth nothing to your end . for . though theodosius name pro forma were at it , yet it was only valentinians act , and done at rome , where leo prevailed with a raw unexperienced prince to word the epistle as he desired ; so that it is rather leo's , then the emperours originally : and leo was the first that attempted the excessive advancement of his seat above the rest of the patriarchs . . it is known that the emperours sometime gave the primacy to rome , and sometime to constantinople , as they were pleased or displeased by each of them . so did iustinian , who a. d. . lampadio & oreste coss. c. de episcopis lib. . lege . saith [ constantinopolitana ecclesia omnium aliarum est caput ] [ the church of constantinople is the head of all other . ] . it is your fiction , and not the words of valentinian ( or leo ) that [ the succession from peter was the foundation of romes primacy . ] it was then believed that antioch and other churches had a succession from peter . it is the merit of peter , and the dignity of the city of rome , and the authority of the synod joyntly that he ascribeth it to . the merit of peter was nothing but the motive upon which leo would have men believe the synod gave the primacy to rome : and hosius in the council of sardica indeed useth that as his motive , [ let us for the honour of peter , &c. ] they had a conceit that where peter last preached , and was martyred and buried , and his relicts lay , there he should be most honoured . . here is not the least intimation that this primacy was by gods appointment , or the apostles , but the synods : nor that it had continued so from peters dayes , but that joyntly for peters merits ( and honour ) and the cities dignity , it was given by the synod . . and it was but leo's fraud to perswade the raw emperour of the authority of a synod , which he would not name , because the synod of sardica was in little or no authority in those daies . the rest of the reasons were fraudulent also ; which though they prevailed with this emperour , yet they took not in the east . and leo himself it seems durst not pretend to a divine right and institution , nor to a succession of primacy from the apostles . . but nothing is more false then your assertion , that he extendeth the power [ over the whole visible church . ] the word [ vniversitas ] is all that you translate in your comment , [ the whole visible church ] as if you knew not that there was a roman vniversality , & that roman councils were called vniversall , when no bishops out of that one common-wealth were present ; and that the church in the empire is oft called [ the whole church . ] yea [ the roman world ] was not an unusuall phrase . and i pray you tell me , what power valentinian had out of the empire ? who yet interpos●th his authority there , [ nequid praeter authoritatem sedis istiusilli●itum , &c. ] [ & ut p●x ubique servetur . ] and in the end , it is all the provinces , that is , the vniversity that he extends his precepts to . . and for that annexed [ that without the emperours letters , his authority was to be of force through france ; for what shall not be lawfull , &c. ] i ans. no wonder : ●or france was part of his patriarcha●e , and the laws of the empire had confirmed his patriarchal power : and those laws might seem , with the reverence of synods , without new letters , to do much : but yet it seems , that the rising power needed this extraordinary secular help : hilary it seems with his bishops thought , that even to his patriarch he owed no such obedience as leo here by force exacteth . so that your highest witness ( leo by the mouth of valentinian ) is for no more then a primacy , with a swelled power in the roman universality ; but they never medled with the rest of the christian world : it seems by all their writings and attempts , this never came into their thoughts . and it s no credit to your cause , that this hilary was ( by baronius confession ) a man of extraordinary holiness and knowledge , and is sainted among you , and hath his day in your calendar . and yet valentinian had great provocation to interpose ( if leo told him no untruths , for his own advantage ) : for it was no less then laying siege to cities , to force bishops on them without their consent , that he is accused of ; which shews to what odious pride and usurpation , prosperity even then had raised the clergy : fitter to be lamented with floods of tears , then to be defended by any honest christian : leo himself may be the principal instance . . you next return to the council of chalcedon , act. . & seq . where . you refer me to that act. . where is no such matter : but you add [ & seq . ] that i may have an hundred and ninety pages in folio to peruse , and then you call for a speedy answer : but the epistle to leo is in the end of act. . pag. ( bin. ) . . and there you do but falsly thrust in the word [ thou governst us ] and so you have made your self a witness , because you could find none : the words are [ quibus tu quidem sicut membris caput praeeras , in his qui tuum tenebant ordinem benevolentiam praeferens : imperatores vero adornandum decentissime praesidebant . ] now [ to go before ] with you must be [ to govern ] : if so , then aurelius at the council of carthage , and others in councils that presided , did govern them . it was but [ benevolentiam praetulisse ] that they acknowledged : and that the magistrates not only presided indeed , but did the work of judges and governours , is express in the acts ; it s after wrote in that epistle [ haec sunt , quae tecum , qui spiritu praesens eras , & complacere tanquam fratribus deliberasti , & qui pene per tuorum vicariorum sapientiam videbaris , à nobis effecimus ] and [ haec à tua sanctitate fuerint inchoata ] and yet [ qui enim locum vestrae sanctitatis obtinent , iis ita constitutis vehementer resistere tentaverunt . ] from all which it appeareth , that he only is acknowledged to lead the way , and to please them as his brethren , and to help them by the wisdome of his substitutes ; and yet that the council would not yield to their vehement resistance of one particular . but i have told you oft enough that the council shall be judge , not in a complementall epistle , but in can. . where your primacy is acknowledged ; but . as a gift of the fathers . . and therefore as new . . for the cities dignity . . and it can be of no further extent then the empire ; the givers and this council being but the members of that one commonwealth : so that all is but a novel imperial primacy . . and for the words of vincentius lirinensis , c. . what are they to your purpose ? [ quantum loci authoritate ] signifieth no more then we confess , viz. that in those times the greatness of rome , and humane ordination thereupon , had given them that precedency , by which their [ loci authoritas ] had the advantage of any other seat : or else they had never swelled to their impious usurpation . i have plainly proved to you in the end of my [ safe religion ] that vincentius was no papist . but you draw an argument from the word [ sanxit ] . as if you were ignorant that bigger words then that are applied to them that have no governing power ; quantum in se sanxit , he charged them that they should not innovate : and what ? is it p. stephen that is the law-giver of the law against unjust innovation ? did not cyprian believe that this was a law of christ before stephen medled in that business ? what stephens authority was in those dayes , we need no other witnesses then firmilian , cyprian , and a council of carthage , who slighted the pope as much as i do . i pray answer cyprians testimony and arguments against popery , cited by me in the disp. . of my [ safe religion . ] . you say you will conclude with the saying of your priest philip , and arcadius at ephesus : and . you take it for granted that all consented to what they contradicted not : but your word is all the proof of the consequence . nothing more common , then in senates and synods to say nothing to many passages in speeches , not consented to . if no word not consented to in any mans speech must pass without contradiction , senates and synods would be no wiser societies then billingsgate affords ; nor more harmonious then a fair or vulgar rout : what confusion would contradictions make among them ? . you turn me to tom. . pag. . act. . i began to hope of some expedition here : but you tell me not at all what author you use : and in binnius which i use , the tomes are not divided into acts , but chapters , and p●g . . is long b●fore this counc●l . so ●hat i must believe you , or search paper enough for a weeks reading to disprove you : this once i will believe you , to save me that labour , and supposing all rightly cited , i reply : . philip was not the council . you bear witness to your selves , therefore your witness is not credible . yet i have given you instances in my [ key ] ( which i would transcribe if i thought that you could not as well read print as m. s. ) of higher expressions then caput and fundamentum , given to andrew by isychius , and equal expressions to others , as well as rome and peter . and who is ignorant that knowe●h any thing of church-history , that others were called successours of peter as well as the bishop of rome ? and that the claves regni were given to him , is no proof that they were not given also to all the rest of the apostles . and where you say [ arcadius condemneth nestorius for contemning the command of the apostolick sea. ] ( you tell me not where to find it . ) i answer you still , that its long since your sea begun to swell and rage , but if you must have us grant you all these consequences , [ celestine commanded , therefore he justly commanded , therefore another might not as well have commanded him : ( as one pastor may do another , though equall , in the name of christ ) : and therefore he had power to command without the empire , even over all the catholick church ; and therefore the council was of this mind : yea , therefore the universal church was of this mind , that the pope was its universal head . ] you still are guilty of sporting about serious things , and moving pity , instead of offering the least proof . yet fear you not to say [ that in the time of the holy oecumenical councils of ephesus and chalcedon , the universal consent of the whole catholick church was for you in this point . ] the lord keep our consciences from being the servants of our opinions or interests . . was the popes legate the whole catholick church ? . was there one man at either of these councils but within the empire , yea a piece of the empire ? so that they were but such as we now call national councils , that is , consisting only of the subjects of one republick . . did the council speak a word for your power without the empire ? . do they not determine it so expresly to be of humane right , that bellarmine hath nothing regardable to say against it ( can. . conc. chalced. ) but that they spoke falsly ? and yet your opinion or interest hath tempted you to appeal . viz. to the sun that there is no such thing as light . . after the conclusion you have a supernumerary in your margin , from greg. lib. . epist. . but there is no such word in that epistle , nor is it of any such subject . but is the . epistle its like that your leader meant . and there 's no more but that a bishop not named ( person or place ) having fallen into schism voluntarily , swore never more to depart from the unity of the catholick church , or the sea of rome . but . so may a bishop of the roman province do ( or patriarchate ) without believing rome to be the universal head. so might one in any other province have done : and yet it follows not that he ought to do so , because he did so . you see now what all your proofs are come to , and how shamefully naked you have left your cause . in summ , of all the testimonies produced , . you have not named one man that was a papist ( pope leo was the nearest of any man ) nor one testimony that ever a pope of rome had the government of all the church without the verge of the roman empire ; but only that he was to the roman church , as the archbishop of canterbury to the english church : and as between canterbury and york , so between rome and constantinople , there have been contentions for preheminency : but if i can prove canterbury to be before york , or rome before constantinople , that will prove neither of them to be ruler at the antipodes , or of all the christian world . . much less have you proved that ever any church was of this opinion , that the pope was by divine right the governour of all the world , when you cannot prove one man of that opinion . . much less have you proved a succession of such a church from the apostles , having said as much as nothing concerning the first years . . and yet much less have you proved , that the whole catholick church was of this opinion . . and least of all have you proved , that the whole church took this primacy of rome , to be of necessity to the very being of the church , and to our salvation ; and not only ad melius esse , as a point of order . so that you have left your cause in shameful nakedness , as if you had confessed , that you can prove nothing . in the end you return to terms . to what you say about the word [ christians ] i only say , that it s but equivocally applied to any that profess not all the essentialls of christianity , of which popery is none , any more then pride is . about the word [ monarch ] in good sadness , do you deny the pope to be [ an imperious sole commander . ] which of these is it that you deny ? not that he is [ a commander ] not that he is [ imperious ] not that he is [ sole ] in his soveraignty ! i would either you or we knew what you hold or deny . but perhaps the next words shew the difference [ as temporal kings . ] but this saith not a word wherein they differ from [ temporal kings ] : sure your following words shew not the difference . . kings may [ receive power from christ. ] . kings must rule [ in meekness , charity and humility . ] but i think the meekness , charity and humility of popes , hath been far below even wicked kings ( if cruel murdering christians for religion , and setting the world on fire may be witness ) as your own histories assure us . . the government of kings also is for [ mens eternal good ] however papists would make them but their executioners in such things . . brethren , as such , are no subjects : and therefore if the pope rule men but as brethren , he rules them not by governing authority at all . . children to him we are not : you must mean it but metaphorically ! and what mean you then ? is it that he must do it in love for their good ? so also must kings : so that you have yet exprest no difference at all . but our question is not new , nor in unusuall terms : what soveraignty you claim , you know or should know . are you ignorant that bellarmine , boverius , and ordinarily your writers labour to prove that the government of the church is monarchicall , and that the pope is the monarch ? the supream head and ruler , which in english is the soveraign . are you ashamed of the very cause or title of it , which you will have necessary to our salvation ? next you say , that you [ very much dislike the title of vice-christ , as proud and insolent , and utterly disclaim from it , neither was it ever given by any sufficient authority to your popes , or did they ever accept of it . ] reply . now blessed be god that makes sin a shame to it self , that the patrons of it dare scarce own it without some paint or vizard . . is not the very life of the cause between you and us , whether the pope be the universal head of the church , vice christi . & vicarius christi ? are not these the most common titles that papists give them , and that they take unto themselves ? nay look back into your own papers here pag. . whether you say not that they are [ instituted governours in christs place of his whole visible church . ] . doth not bellarmine ( as i have cited elsewhere ) labour to prove , that it is not as an apostle that the pope succeeds peter , but as a head of the church in christs stead ? doth not boverius ( cited in my key ) labour to prove him the vicar of christ , and to be vice christi ? and what fitter english have we for the kings deputy in a distant kingdom , who is vice regis , then the vice-king ? or a chancelors deputy , then [ the vicechancellor ] : vice christi is your own common word , and vicarius christi ; none more common scarce then the latter : and what english is there fitter for this , then the vice-christ , or vicar of christ ? it is indeed the very term that expresseth properly as man can speak , the true point and life of the controversie between us . and how could you suffer your pen to set down that the popes did never accept of this , when it is their own common phrase [ vice christi , & vicarius christi ? ] but here again remember ( and let it be a witness against you ) that you dislike and utterly disclaim the very name that signifieth the papal power , as proud and insolent . and if you abhor popery while you tice men to it , let my soul abhor it , and let all that regard their souls abhor it . blessed be that light that hath brought it to be numbred with the works of darkness . were it not more tedious then necessary , i would cite you the words [ vice christi & vicarius christi ] out of popes and multitudes of your writers . but alas that 's not the highest : the vice-god is a title that they have not thought insolent , or words of the same signification . would you have my proof ? pardon it then for proving your pen so false and deceitfull ( that 's not my fault . ) pope iulius the second in his general council at the laterane , saith ( cont. pragmat . sanct . monitor . binnius vol. . pag. . ) [ though the institutions of sacred canons , holy fathers , and popes of rome — and their decrees be judged immutable , as made by divine inspiration ; yet the pope of rome , who , though of unequal merits , holdeth the place of the eternall king , and the maker of all things , and all laws on earth , may abrogate these decrees when they are abused . ] here from your judge of faith it self , you hear [ that the pope holds the place of the eternal king , the maker of all things and laws . ] pope sixtus quartus in passagio sive bulla contra turcos , sent to philip palatine elector . in breheri tom. . pag. . vol. . saith [ vniversos christianos principes , ac omnes christi fid●les requirere , eisque mandare vice dei , cujus loc●m , quamvi● immeriti tenemus in terris — ] that is , we are constrained [ to require all christian princes , and all believers of christ , and to command them , in the stead of god , whose place on earth we hold , though undeserving — ] here is a vice-god , holding his place on earth , and commanding all princes and christians to a war against the turks in gods stead i know to a particular people gods embassadours are said to speak in his name and stead , as if god did beseech men by us , cor. . . but this is only as to a narrow and limited embassage , not that they hold gods place on earth , as rulers over the universal church , &c. the same pope sixtus ▪ saith ibid. pag. . [ sola superest romana sedes : sedes utique immaculati agni : sedes viventis in secula seculorum : haec quippe praedictas patriarchales genuit ecclesias ; quae quasi filiae in ejus gremio residebant , & in circuitu tanquam famulae in ipsius adsistebant obsequio . ] that is , [ only the roman seat remaineth : even the seat of the immaculate lambe : the seat of him that liveth for ever ( my flesh trembleth to write these things ) : this did beget the foresaid patriarchal churches ( notorious falshood ! ) which rested as daughters in her bosome , and as servants stood about in her obedience . ] here you see from the pope himself , that the other patriarchs are his servants , and so to obey him ; and that rome begot them all ( that were before it , except constantinople ) and neither made christians nor patriarchs by it , and that rome is now become the seat of the immaculate lambe , and of him that liveth for ever . ] truly the reading of your own historians , and the popes bulls , &c. hath more perswaded me , that the pope is antichrist , then the apocalyps hath done ( because i distrusted my understanding of it . ) benedictus de benedictis wrote a book against dr. whittaker , to prove that it s as false that the pope is antichrist , as that christ is antichrist , and dedicated it to pope paul. . with this inscription , paul. . vice deo : to paul . the vice-god . ] printed at bononia . caraffa's theses printed at naples . had the same inscription [ paulo . vice deo ] to paul . the vice-god . alcazar in apocal. in carmine ad johannem apostolum , saith of the same pope paul. . [ q●em numinis instar , vera colit pietas . ] [ whom as a god true piety adores . ] christopher marcellus in his oration before pope iulius . in the approved council at laterane , sess. . ( and you take not contradicting to be consenting ; and verily to such blasphemy in a council , so it is ) saith thus [ quum tantae reipublicae unicus atque supremus princeps fueris institutus , beatissime pontifex , cui summa data potestas , ad divinum injunctum imperium , &c. ] — & ante [ sub tuo imperio ] & [ vnus princeps qui summam in terris habeat potestatem . ] but these are small things [ teque omnis aevi , omnium seculorum , omnium gentium principem & caput appellant . ] but yet [ the prince and head of all ages and nations ] is too low [ cura pater beatissime ut sponsae tuae forma decórque redeat . ] but yet to make the church [ his spouse ] is nothing [ cura denique ut salutem quam dedisti nobis , & vitam & spiritum non amittamus : tu enim pastor , tu medicus , tu gubernator , tu cultor , tu denique alter deus in terris . ] that is , [ see that we l●se not the health that thou hast given us , and the life and spirit . for thou art the p●stor , the physician — to conclude , thou art another god on earth . ] if you say that the pope accepteth not this ; i answer it was in an oration spoken in a generall council , in his presence , without contradiction , yea by his own command , as the oratour professeth [ iussisti tu , pater sancte , & parui ] [ you commanded me , holy father , and i obeyed , ] binnius pag. , , . you may find all this . in gl●ss extrav . g. ioan. . de verb. signific . c●p . cum inter , in gl●ssa : credere dominum n●strum d●um papam conditorem dictae decretalis & istius , non potuisse statuere prout statuit , haereti●um censeatur . ] so that by your law we must believe the power of your lord god the pope , or be hereticks . if you meet with any impressions that leave out [ deum ] take rivets note [ haberi in editione formata jussu greg. . ● corectoribus pontificiis , nec in censuris gl●ssae j●ssu pii . editis , quae in expurgatorio indice habintur , nomen dei erasum fuisse . pope nicolas . de el●ct . cap. fundamenta in . saith [ that peter was ●ssumed into the society of the individuall trinity . angelus polit. in orat. ad alex. . pontificem ad divinitatem ipsam subl●tum , asserit : he saith , the pope was taken up to the godhead it self . at the foresaid council at laterane , antonius puccius in an oration before leo the tenth in the council , and after published by his favour , said [ divinae tuae majestatis conspectus , rutilante cujus fulgore imbecilles oculimei caligant . ] his eyes were darkened with beholding the popes divine majesty . ] none contradicted this . in the same council , simon b●gnius modrusiensis episcopus , in an o●acion s●ss . . calls leo [ the lion of the tribe of juda , the root of jesse , him whom they had looked for as the saviour . ] in the same council , s●ss . stephanus patracensis archiop . saith [ reges in compedibus magnitudinis magni regis liga , & nobiles in manicis ferreis censurarum constringe , quoniam tibi data est omnis potestas in coelo & in terra — ] and before [ qui totum dicit , nihil excludit . ] so that all power in heaven and earth is given to the pope . paulus aemilius de gestis francorum , lib. . saith , that the sicilian embassadours lay prostrate at the popes feet , and thrice repeated , [ thou that takest away the sins of the world , have mercy on us . ] and prove to me that ever any such man was reprehended for these things by the popes of late . august . triumphus in praefat. sum . ad ioan. . saith [ that the popes power is infinite : for great is the lord , and great is his power , and of his greatness there is no end . and qu. . ad . he saith that [ the pope influenceth ( or giveth ) the motion of direction , and the sense of cognition , into all the members of the church , for in him we live and move and have our being . ] and a little after he saith , [ the will of god , and consequently of the pope , who is his vicar , is the first and highest cause of all corporal and spiritual motions . ] would you have any more witness of the falshood of your words : saith zabarella i.c. lib. de schism . innocent . . & bened. pag. . [ for this long time past , and even to this day , those that would please the popes , perswaded them that they could do all things : and so that they might do what they pleased , even things unlawfull , and so more than god. ] antonius parte . tit . . cap. . § . . saith [ the pope receiveth from the faithfull adorations , prostrations , and kisses of his feet , which peter permitted not from cornelius , nor the angel from john the evangelist . ] cardinalis bertrandus tract . de origin . jurisd . q. . num . . ( & in glos. extrag . com . l. . fol. . ) saith [ because iesus christ the son of god while he was in this world , and even from eternity , was a naturall lord , and by naturall right could pronounce the sentence of deposition on emperours , or any others , and the sentence of damnation , and any other , as upon the persons which he had created , and endowed with naturall and free gifts , and also did conserve ; it is his will that on his account his vicar may do the same things . for the lord should not seem discreet ( that i may speak with his reverence ) unless he had left behind him one vicar that can do all these things . ] tell me now whether you said true in the paragraph about the title vice-christ ? yea , whether it be not much more that hath been given and accepted ? but what name else is it that you agree on as proper to express the power which is controverted ? i know no name so fitted to the reall controversie ? and therefore in disclaiming the name , for ought i know , you disclaim your cause , and confess the shame of popery . if he that seeks to be king of england , should say he disclaimeth the title of king as insolent and proud , doth he not allow me to conclude the like of the thing , which he concludeth of the proper name ? the name [ papa ] [ pope ] you know ( its like ) was usually by the ancients given to other bishops as well as to him of rome ; and therefore that cannot distinguish him from other men : the same i may say of the titles [ dominus , pater sanctissimus , beatissimus , dei amantissimus , and many such like ] — and for [ summus pontifex ] baronius tells you ( martyrol . rom. april . . ) that [ it was the ancient custome of the church to call all bishops , not only pontifices , popes , but the highest or chief popes ] citing hierom. ep. . and for the word head of the church , or of all bishops , it hath been given to constantinople , that yet claimeth not ( as nilus tells you ) neither a precedency to rome , nor an universall government , much less as the vice-christ . and that the bishop of constantinople was called [ the apostolick vniversal bishop ] baronius testifieth from an old vaticane monument , which on the other side calls agapetus [ episcoporum princeps . ] the title [ apostolick ] was usually given to others . hierusalem was called [ the mother of the churches . ] a council gave constantinople the title of [ vniversal patriarch ] which though gregory pronounced so in pious and intolerable for any to use , yet the following pop●s made an agreement with constantinople , that their patriarch should keep his title of vniversal patriarch ] and the bishop of rome be called [ the vniversal pope ; ] which can signifie nothing proper to him ( the name pope being common ) more then [ vniversal patriarch ] doth . the foundations , and pillars of the church , and the apostles successors , yea peters successors , were titles given to others as well as him : and more then these . it being therefore the point in controversie between us , whether the bishop of rome , be in the place of christ or as his vicar , the head , monarch , or governour of the church universal ; and the terms [ vice christi & vicarius christi ] being those that popes and papists choose to signifie their claim , what other should i use ? as to what you say of the council of constance ( which you must say also of basil , and of the french church , venetians , &c. ) you pretend the doubt to be only between ordinary and extraordinary governours . but . of old the councils called generall ( indeed but of one principality ) were more ordinary , then now the pope hath brought them to be : ( and i blame him not , if he will hold his greatness , to take heed of them . ) . the way not to have been extraordinary , if the council of const●nce had been infallible , or of sufficient power , who decreed that there should be one every ten years . . the councils that continue so many years as that at trent did , are then become an ordinary government . . what is given to the church representative , is by many of you given to the church reall or essentiall ( as you call it ) which is ordinarily existent , only not capable of exerting the power it hath : the singulis major , at universis minor , is no rare doctrine with you . . but let it be as extraordinary as you please , if while these councils sit , the pope lose his headship , your church is then two churches specifically distinct , and the form of it changeth when a council sitteth : which is a two-headed , mutable church , not like the spouse of jesus christ. . as your popes are said to live in their constitutions , and laws , when the person dyeth ; and your church is not thought by you to die with them ; so why may not councils do ? the laws of councils live when they sit not , and the french think that these laws are above the pope ; though i shewed you even now that iulius . in conc. later . concluded otherwise of decrees , and the council of the popes power . . if a nation be governed by trienniall ( and so decenniall ) parliaments as the highest power , and councils of state in the intervalls , who shall be accountable to parliaments ; will you say that these parliaments are extraordinary , and not the ordinary soveraign ? no doubt they are . and the council of state is not the soveraign , but the chief officer or magistrate for execution in the intervals . having begun this reply may . i was again taken off it about may . or . and about may . i received a letter from you , wherein you tell me of a quarter of a years expectation . be patient good sir ! these matters concern eternity : believe it , i have somewhat else to do of greater hast and moment . even some of your own friends find me more work . what if ten of you write to me at once , is it fair for each one of you to call for an answer as hastily as if i had but one in hand ? this is not my case , but it is more then thus . fear not lest i give you over , till you first prove the deserter , and turn your back ( if god enable me : ) only i must tell you , that i take it for a flight already , and a forsaking of your cause , that you turn to these rambling impertinent citations and discourses , in stead of a syllogisticall arguing the case , and that when you had spoken so much for it . i have here ( that you may have no cause of exception , nor pretence of cause ) in this paper replyed to your last ; and in another proved the visibility of our church syllogistically ; and ( as overplus ) also disproved yours , and proved it to be an upstart , the sprout of pride , upon occasion of the greatness of the city of rome , and of the forming the church to the civil state , in that one empire . if now you will deny to do the like , i shall conclude you fly and forsake your cause . besides your rejoinder to this reply , i principally expect that you syllogistically ( in close and faithfull arguing ) do prove to us the affirmative of these questions following . qu. [ whether the church , of which the subjects of the pope are members , hath been visible ever since the dayes of christ on earth . ] in which these three questions are involved , which you have to prove : . whether the papacy , that is , the vniversal monarchy , or soveraign government , or vice-christship of the pope ( take which term you like ) hath continued from christs dayes till now . whether all the catholick church did still submit to it , and were subjects of the pope . . whether those that did submit to it , did take it to be necessary to the being of the church , and the salvation of all believers , or only to the more peaceable and better being . ] if you call for catalogues , or proof of visible succession , and pretend so high to it your selves , and yet will give us none when we importune you to it , you tell us that you seek not to reveal the truth and church but to hide them . i urge you the harder ( though it may seem immodest ) because as the cause doth lie upon your proof here , so i know you cannot do it : pardon my confidence : i know you can do no more then baronius , bellarmine , bullinger , &c. set together have done : and therefore i say , i know you cannot do it . i know your vice-christ ( i doubt the antichrist ) is of humane introduction , springing out of a nationall ( i mean imperiall ) primacy , which also was of humane invention . it was but one civil government or commonwealth , in which your bishop had his primacy , and that long without a governing power . and this national primacy , because of the greatness of the empire , was at last called universal : and even this was long after the dayes of christ ( some hundreds of years ) a stranger in the church , unless as the greatness of the church of rome , and advantages of the place , did give that church such authority as ariseth from magnitude , splendour , honour , and accidental advantages from the populousness , wealth , and glory of the city of rome . the carnall church is led by the vice-christ , the earthly prince of pride , contending in the world for command and superiority ; and prosecuting his cause with strappados , fire , sword , and gunpowder , when christ gave no pastor a coercive power , to touch mens bodies or estates . the true spirituall church is headed and commanded by jesus christ the prince of peace , and knoweth no other universal head , because no other hath either capacity or authority . it obeyeth his laws ; and learneth of him to be charitable , patient , meek , and lowly ; and wonders not at errours and divisions on earth , nor therefore accuseth the providence of god : but knoweth by faith , that the universal judge of controversies is at the door , and that it is but a very little while , and we shall see that the church had an universal head , that was alone sufficient for his work ; for he that cometh will come , and will not tarry : amen , even so come lord jesus ! sir , i desire you presently to send me word , whether you will by close syllogisticall arguing , prove the successive visibility of your church as papal , or not , that i may know what to expect ? and once more i pray you take the help of the ablest of your party , both that i may not be so troubled with wrong , or impertinent allegations , and that i may be sure that your insufficient arguings are not from any imperfection of the person , but of the cause . if you meet in these papers with any passages which you think too confident and earnest ; i beseech you charge them not with uncharitableness or passion , for i hope it proceeded not from either ; but i confess i am inclined to speak confidently where i am certain , and to speak seriously about the things of god , which are of everlasting consequence . may . . for mr. william iohnson . the second part : wherein the successive visibility of the church , of which the protestants are chief members , is clearly proved : and the papists exceptions against it confuted . london , printed in the year . qu. whether the church , of which the protestants are members , have been visible ever since the dayes of christ on earth ? aff. the terms explained . . [ the church ] sometime signifieth a particular congregation actually met , or associated for such personal meeting , for communion in gods worship . . sometime it signifieth an association of churches , and that either of sewer , or of more , as they have opportunity of communion or correspondency by their pastors ; and also the assemblies of the pastors of the particular churches so associated . scripture useth it in the first sense , and later custome ( whether scripture also i omit ) in the later . . both scripture and custome have used the word to signifie the church universal , of which all particular churches are members . this is [ the church ] that we speak of in the question . defin. the universal church , of which the protestants profess themselves members , is , the kingdome of iesus christ : or , the whole company of believers ( or true christians ) upon earth , subjected to iesus christ their head. ] the constitutive parts , or the relate and correlate are , ( as in every politick body ) the pars imperans , and pars subdita : which is christ and christians . the form consisteth in the mutuall relation . the end is the common good of the church , and the glory of the head , and the accomplishment of the will of god. . [ the protestants ] defin. [ protestants are christians protesting against , or disowning popery . ] the word [ protestant ] expresseth not the essence of our religion . and therefore it must not denominate the universal church , of which we are members : we are not to call it [ a protestant universal church . ] nor doth it signifie an inseparable proper accident . for when the catholick church had no popery , there was none to protest against , and therefore there could be no protestants . and ethiopia , india , and other nations that never had popery , or those nations that never heard of it , have no occasion to protest against it . nor doth it signifie any positive part ( directly ) of our religion : but only the negation , or rejection of popery : even as when a man is called [ homo purgatus , sanatus , liberatus , à leprâ , peste , tabe , &c. ] a man purged , healed , freed from the leprosie , plague , consumption , &c. it is no positive part , nor inseparable proper accident , much less any essential part of the man , that is signified by the word [ healed , purged , &c. ] nor is it necessary in order to the proving him [ a man ] or [ a healthfull man , ] to prove that he was ever [ a purged , or healed man. ] we undertake not therefore to prove that there have been alwayes protestants , that is , men protesting against popery : nor have we any need , in order to the proof of our thesis , to prove that the catholick church hath all been free from popery in all ages , or in any age since the apostles , no more then that it hath been free from pride , ambition , or contention . ( but yet we shall do it ex abundanti . ) the religion then of a protestant is christianity , and he knoweth and owneth no other . which is called [ the protestant religion ] as cleansed from popery . [ members ] that is , true integral parts . [ of which — are — ] by profession . we profess our selves to be of no other church . and before men , a man is to be taken to be of that religion and church of which he professeth himself to be , till he be proved false in that profession . if a papist affirm himself a member of the roman church , in disputing with him we will take it for granted that he is so ; every man being best acquainted with his own mind , and fittest to describe the religion which he owns . so that two things i here include . . it is only such a catholick church that hath been still visible , [ that protestants own . ] . and only such that really they are of , their profession being valid . note also , that it is not directly the inexistency by internal invisible faith , that is in question among us , or that i mean : but the inexistency by external visible profession . bellarmine thinks the bare professors that are wicked , are best termed [ dead members ] and [ the true professors , [ living members ] we will not stick needlesly on words : we take the living members only to be in strict propriety members ; but sincerity and hypocrisie being known only to god and the possessors , we speak of professors as professors abstractively from their sincerity or hypocrisie . [ hath been visible . ] . not visible to man in its internal faith ; but in its external profession . . not visible at once to any one man : for no man can see all the christian world at once : but visible in its parts , both in congregations and individual persons . . not visible in the soundness of its professed faith unto infidels and hereticks : for they cannot see that faith to be sound , which they take to be fabulous and false : but visible in the soundness of its professed faith to themselves , that know the soundness of faith . . not visible in the excellent degree of soundness in the better parts , unto the corrupter or infirmer parts : for though de facto they may know what doctrine the better part do hold ( as infidels know what doctrine the church holdeth ) yet they know it not to be true and sound in the points wherein they differ . and note again , that it is not the [ visibility ] of every accident of the church , nor of every truth or duty that is but of the integrity of religion , and necessary only ad melius esse ecclesiae , to the better being of the church , but it is the [ visibility ] of the church that we speak of . lastly , it is the body and not the head , whose visibility is in question by us . though the head also is truly visible in heaven ; and visus , or seen to the most excellent triumphant part of his body , who are fittest to be his courtiers , and in his presence : ( and as much seen on earth , as the pope is to most of the church , which is not at all . ) [ ever since the dayes of christ on earth . ] . but not still in one and the same place on earth . it might be in one age much of it in iudea , at ephesus , sardis , laodicaea , colosse , philippi , and other parts of asia ; and in other ages removed thence , either wholly or for the most part : it might be in one age in tendu● , n●bia , and other great kingdoms , where it shall af●er cease to be : but in some part or other of the earth it hath been still . . not equally visible in all times and places of the earth . in some times ( as in the arrians prevalency ) it was so oppressed and obscured , that the world groaned to find it self turn'd arrian , and the arrians in general councils and number of bishops ( to whom the true christians were very few ) did seem to carry away the name and glory of the catholick church ; so that in their eyes , and in the eyes of slanders by that were of neither party , the most visible catholick church was theirs : who yet had no part in it , because they were not christians ( as denying that which is essentiall to christ , the object of the christian faith ) and therefore none of the church , and therefore though most visible and numerous , yet not the visible church : and the church , which to others was as wheat hidden in this chaffe , or rather a few ears among so many rares , was yet visible to it self in its truth of faith , and visible to its enemies in its profession and assemblies , though in number far below them . so also in some places it may be latent through persecution & the paucity of believers , when in other places it is more patent . and its degrees of soundness being various , are accordingly variously visible . one part may be really and visibly more strong , and another more weak in the faith : one part much more corrupt then others , and other parts retain their purity : and the same countries increase or decrease in that purity , as is apparent in the case of the churches of galatia , corinth , the seven asian churches , rev. . and . &c. lastly note , that it is only that part of the church which is on earth whose visibility we assert ; though that in heaven be also a true part of the body of christ. nor is it in the same individuals that the church continueth visible , but in successive matter . so much for explication of the terms . thes. the church of which the protestants are members , hath been visible ever since the dayes of christ on earth . arg. . the body of christians on earth subjected to christ their head , hath been ( in its parts ) visible ever since the dayes of christ on earth . but the body of christians on earth subjected to christ their head , is the church of which the protestants are members : therefore the church of which the protestants are members , hath been visible ever since the dayes of christ on earth . i have not sagacity enough to conjecture what any papist can say against the major proposition . the minor is proved by our own professions : as the profession of popery , proveth a man a papist , so the profession of christianity as much proveth us to be christians . [ α ] those that profess the true christian religion in all its essentials , are members of that church which is the body of christians on earth subjected to christ the head. but the protestants profess the true christian religion in all its essentialls : therefore the protestants are members of that church which is the body of christians on earth subjected to christ the head. the major is undeniable . the minor is thus proved . . those that profess so much as god hath promised salvation upon in the covenant of grace , do profess the christian religion in all its essentials . ( for god promiseth salvation in that covenant to none but christians . ) but the protestants profess so much as god hath promised salvation upon , in the covenant of grace : therefore the protestants do profess the christian religion in all its essentials . the minor is thus proved . all that profess faith in god the father , son , and holy ghost , our creator , redeemer and sanctifier , and love to him , and absolute obedience to all his laws of nature and holy scripture , with willingness and diligence to know the true meaning of all these laws as far as they are able , and with repentance for all known sin , do profess so much as god hath promised salvation upon , ioh. . , . mark . . heb. . rom. . . . act . . but so do the protestants : therefore the protestants profess so much as god hath promised salvation on . . those that profess as much and much more of the christian faith and religion , as the catechumens were ordinarily taught in the ancient churches , and the competentes at baptism did profess , do profess the true christian religion in all its essentials . but so do the protestants : therefore , &c. . those that explicitely profess the belief of all that was contained in the churches symbols , or creeds , for six hundred years after christ ( and much more holy truth ) and implicitly to believe all that is contained in the holy scriptures , and to be willing and diligent for the explicite knowledge of all the rest , with a resolution to obey all the will of god which they know , do profess the true christian religion in all its essentials . but so do the protestants . therefore , &c. ad hominem , i confirm the major ( and most that went before ) from the testimonies of some most eminent papists . bellarmine saith , de verbo dei , lib. . c. . in the christian doctrine both of faith and manners , some things are simply necessary to salvation to all ; as the knowledge of the articles of the apostles creed , of the ten commandments , and of some sacraments : the rest are not so necessary that a man cannot be saved without the explicite knowledge , belief , and profession of them — these things that are simply necessary , and are profitable to all , the apostles preached to all — all things are written by the apostles which are necessary to all , and which they openly preacht to all — costerus enchirid. c. . p. . [ we deny not , that those chief heads of belief , which are necessary to all christians to be known to salvation , are perspicuously enough comprehended in the writings of the apostles . ] but all this the protestants profess to believe . [ ● ] if sincere protestants are members of the true church , as intrinsecally informed ( or as bellarmine speaks , living members ) then professed protestants are members of the true church as extrinsecally denominated ( or as it is visible , consisting of professors . ) but the antecedent is true : therefore so is the consequent . the reason of the consequence is , because it is the same thing that is professed by all professors , and existent in all true believers : and that as to profession is necessary to visibility of membership ; and as to sincere inexistence , is necessary to salvation . the antecedent or minor i thus prove . all that by saith in christ are brought to the unfeigned love of god above all , and speciall love to his servants , and unfeigned willingness to obey him , are members of the true church as intrinsecally informed . but such are all sincere protestants : therefore all sincere protestants are members of the true church as intrinsecally informed . the major is granted by the papists , who affirm charity to be the form of grace , and all that have it to be justified . and the promises of scripture prove it to our comfort . the minor . is proved to others by our professions : if this be in our profession , then the sincere are such indeed . but this is in our profession : therefore , &c. . it s certainly known to our selves by the inward knowledge and sense of our souls . i know that i love god and his servants , and am willing to obey him ; therefore all the papists sophisms shall never make me not know what i do know , and not feel what i do feel . they reason in vain with me , when they reason against the knowledge and experience of my soul. your scope is to prove me in a state of damnation . you confess that if i have charity i am in a state of salvation . i know and feel that i have charity : therefore i know that your reasonings are deceit . arg. . the church whose faith is contained in the holy scriptures as its rule in all points necessary to salvation , hath been visible ever since the dayes of christ on earth . but the church whose faith is contained in the holy scriptures as its rule in all points necessary to salvation , is it of which the protestants are members . therefore the church of which the protestants are members , hath been visible ever since the dayes of christ on earth . that the catholick church which hath been visible till now , hath received the holy scriptures which we receive , is confessed by all papists that ever i heard or read making mention of it . and no wonder , for it cannot be denied . that this church hath taken these scriptures for the rule of faith in all points necessary to salvation ( allowing church-governours to make canons about the circumstantials of government and worship , which in the universal law are not determined , but left to humane prudence to determine . ) . i have proved in my third dispute of the safe religion already . . it is confessed by the papists : the forecited passages of bellarmine and costerus are sufficient . but in the great council at basil , orat. ragus . bin. p. . it is most plainly and with fuller authority asserted . [ the holy scripture in the literal sense , soundly and well understood , is the infallible and most sufficient rule of faith . ] see my vindication of this testimony in my catholick key : and the like from card. richlieu . gerson saith , de exam . doctr . p. . cont . . nihil audendum dicere de divinis , nisi quae nobis à sacra scriptura tradita sunt . durandus in his preface is wholly for the excellency and sufficiency of the scriptures . three wayes , he saith , god revealeth himself and other things to man : the lowest way is by the book of the creatures ( so heathens may know him . ) the highest is by manifest vision ( as in heaven ) : and the middle way is in the book of holy scripture , without which there is no coming to the highest way . ] and going on to extoll the scripture , he citeth ieromes words ad paulinum , [ let us learn on earth the knowledge of those things which will abide with us in heaven : ] but this is only ( saith he ) in the holy scripture . ] and after ex hierom . ad marcell . [ if reason be brought against the authority of the scriptures , how acute soever it is , it cannot be true : ] and after [ we must speak of the mysterie of christ , and universally of those things that meerly concern faith , conformably to what the holy scripture delivereth : so christ , iohn . search the scriptures , it is they that testifie of me . if any observe not this , he speaks not of the mysterie of christ , and of other things directly touching faith as he ought , but falls into that of the apostle , cor. . if any man think he knoweth any thing , he yet knoweth nothing as he ought to know . for the measure is not to exceed the measure of faith : of which the apostle bids us , rom. . not to be wiser then we ought to be , but to be wise to sobriety , and as god hath divided to every man the measure of faith . which measure consisteth in two things ; to wit , that we subtract not from faith that which is of faith , nor ( n.b. ) attribute that to faith which is not of faith : for by either of these wayes , the measure of faith is exceeded , and men deviate from the continence of the sacred scripture , which expresseth the measure of faith . ] ( that is , from the full sufficiency of the scripture measure : ) [ and this measure , by gods assistance , we will hold , that we may write or teach nothing dissonant to the holy scripture . but if by ignorance or inadvertency , we should write any thing dissonant , let it be taken ipso facto as not written . ] this is a confession of the religion of the protestants . and though he adjoyn a submission to the roman church , because he was bred in it , it is only as to an interpreter of doubtfull texts of scripture : so that the sufficiency of our rule and measure of faith is granted by him , and zealously asserted ; and that without bellarmine and costerus limitation , to points necessary to the salvation of all ; he extendeth it to all the faith . aquin. . q. . a. . ad . saith , [ that in the doctrine of christ and his apostles , the truth of the faith is sufficiently explicated : ] even when he is pleading for the popes power to make new creeds to obviate errours . and in his sum . de verit. disp . de fide q. . ad . he saith , [ that all the means by which the faith cometh to us are free from suspicion . the prophets and apostles we believe , for this reason , because god bore them witness by working miracles : as mar. . confirming their speech with following signs : but their successors we believe not , but so far as they declare to us those things which they have left us in the scripture . ] this is the religion of the protestants . scotus in prolog . in sent . . makes it his second question , whether supernaturall knowledge necessary to us in the way , be sufficiently delivered in the holy sc●ipture , which he proveth ( having first given ten arguments to prove the truth of scripture . ) and first he shews it containeth the doctrine of the end , and . of the things necessary to that end , and the sufficiency of them ; summarily in the decalogue , explained in the other scriptures , as to matter of faith , hope , and practice ; and so concludes , that the holy scripture sufficiently containeth the doctrine necessary viatori , to us in the way : and he answereth the objection , of difficulties in it , ( without flying to the church ) that [ no science explaineth all things to be known , but those things from which the rest may conveniently be gathered : and so many needfull truths are not expressed in scripture ; though they are virtually there contained , as conclusions in the principles , about the investigation whereof the labour of expositors and doctors hath been profitable . ] this is his doctrine out of origen . gregor . ariminensis in prol. q. . act . . resp. ad act . fol. . & . saith [ a discourse properly theologicall , is that which consisteth of words or propositions contained in the holy scripture ; or of those that are deduced from them ; or at least from one of these : this is proved . by the forealledged authority of dionys. for he will have it , that there can be no leading of that man to theologicall science , that assenteth not to the sayings of the holy scripture . — it follows therefore that no discourse that proceedeth not from the words of holy scripture , or of that which is deduced from them , is theologicall . ] — [ . the same is proved from the common conception of all men : for all men judge that then only is any thing proved theologically , when they prove it from the words of the holy scripture . ] this is more then the former say : for to extend the sufficiency and necessity of scripture to all that 's theologicall , is more then to extend it to matter of faith . no protestant goeth higher then this that i know of . and note , that he makes this the very common conception and judgement of all men . see then where our religion and church was before luther ! even among all christians . yet more fully he proceeds ( ibid. ) [ hence it further appeareth , that principles of theology thus taken , that is , which is acquired by theologicall discourse , are the very truths themselves of the holy canon , because the ultimate resolution of all theologicall discourse doth stand ( or belong ) to them ; and all theologicall conclusions are deduced first from them . but distinguishing the conclusions theologicall from the principles , i say that all truths are not in themselves formally contained in the holy scripture : but of necessity following from those that are contained in them : and this whether they are articles of faith , or not ( n b ) ; and whether they are knowable or known by another science , or not : and whether they are determined by the church or not . but of other truths , to wit , not following from the words of the holy scripture , i say there is no theologicall conclusion : this is proved , &c. — ] when i read over the schoolmen and divines of all sorts , that wrote before the reformers fell so closely upon the pope , and [ find how generally even the papists themselves maintained the sufficiency of the holy scripture , just as the protestants now do , i am convinced . of the succession of the protestants religion in the universal visible church ; and . that it was the reformers arguments from scripture , that forced the papists to oppose this holy rule , as to its sufficiency ; and to invent the new doctrine of supplementall tradition ; ( for conservative , ministeriall tradition of the holy scriptures we are for as much , at least , as they . ) the words of guil. parisie●sis , too large to be recited , in extolling the fulness and perfection of the scripture , even for all sorts of men , you may read , de legibus , cap. . pag. . bellarmine de verbo dei. lib. . cap. . ad arg. . saith [ we must know that a proposition of faith is concluded in such a syllogism : whatsoever god hath revealed in scripture is true : but this god hath revealed in scripture : therefore it is true . ] ( though he require another word of god by the pope , or council , to prove that this is revealed in scripture . ) but if so , then scripture containeth all that 's true in points of faith . . and that all things that are revealed , and which we ought to believe , are not essentiall to the christian faith , and therefore that all are of the church that hold these essentialls , and that such a distinction must be maintained , the papists have still confessed , till lately , that disputing hath encreased their novelties and errours . bellarmines and costerus confession , i recited even now . guliel . parisiensis in operum pag. , , , . de fide , industriously proveth the necessity of distinguishing the fundamentalls or essentialls , from the rest of the points of faith : and it is they that constitute the catholick faith , which he saith is therefore called catholick or universal , because it is the common faith , or the common foundation of religion : and he proves that hence it is that the catholick faith is but one , and found in all catholicks , these fundamentalls being found in all . ] by many arguments he proveth this . and that there are some points , even these common articles necessary to be known of all , necessitati medii , the schoolmen commonly grant : as aquin. . q. . a. . c. bannes in . q. . a. . &c. of these saith espencaeus ( in . ti. c. . dig . . ) which are the objects of faith per se , and not the secondary objects , the adult must have an explicite faith , and the colliers faith at this time decantate by the catholicks , will not serve the turn . ] and we have both the scripture sufficiency to all points of faith , even the lowest , and also the foresaid distinction given us together , by tho. aquinas . q. art . . c. [ we must say , that the object of faith per se , is that by which man is made blessed : but by accident and secondarily , all things are the object of faith which are contained in the holy scripture . ] see the judgement of occham , canus , tolet , and many more cited by dr. potter ; and yet more for the sufficiency of the symbole or creed , as the test of christianity , pag. , , , , . where you have the sense of the ancients upon the point , and p. , . i conclude therefore with the jesuite azorius , par . . lib. . c. . [ the substance of the article in which we believe one , holy , catholick church , is , that no man can be saved out of the congregation of men professing the reception of the faith and religion of christ , and that salvation may be obtained within this same congregation of godly and faithfull men . and as to the essence of the christian faith and church , we say with tertullian of the symbole [ fides in regula posita est : habes legem , & salutem ex observatione legis : exercitatio autem in curiositate consistit , habens gloriam solam ex peritiae studio : cedat curiositas fidei : cedat gloria saluti . corte aut non obstrepant , aut quiescant adversus regulam : nihil ultra scire , est omnia scire . ] that is , [ faith lieth in the rule : here you have the law , and salvation in the observation of that law ; but it is exercise that consisteth in curiosity , having only ( a name or ) glory by the study of skill ; let curiosity give place to faith : let glory give place to salvation . let them not prate , or let them be quiet , against the rule . to know nothing further , is to know all things . ] de praescript . cap. , . so cap. . nobis curiositate opus non est post christum iesum , nec inquisitione post evangelium . cum credimus , nihil desideramus ultra credere ; hoc enim prius credimus , non esse quod ultra credere debeamus . ] that is , [ as for us we need not curiosity after jesus christ , nor inquisition after the gospel : when we believe , we need to believe no further : for we first believe this , that there is nothing further that we ought to believe . ] and here ( on the by ) for the right understanding of tertullians book de praescript . note , . that the rule of essentialls extracted from the whole scripture , is the churches ancient creed . . that the compleat rule of all points of faith is the whole scripture . and that tertullian had to do with hereticks that denied the essentials , and desired the whole scripture to dispute their case from both , because they had questioned or rejected much of it ; and because it was a larger field to exercise their wits in , and whence they might gather more matter of dispute to puzzle the weak : and therefore tertullian adviseth the ordinary christians of his time , instead of long puzzling disputes with them out of scripture , to hold them to the churches prescription , of the simple doctrine of the creed . but now come in the papists ; and . will neither be content with creed nor scripture , but must have a church or faith partly made up of supplemental traditions , of more then is in all the scripture , and so run further from tertullian and the ancient simplicity , then these hereticks , and yet are not ashamed to glory in this book of tertullian as for them . of the fathers judgement of the scripture sufficiency , see the third part of my [ safe religion ] where i have produced testimonies enough to prove the antiquity of the protestants religion , and the novelty of popery . but nothing can be so plain and full , which pre-engaged men dare not deny . let me instance but in one or two passages of augustine , so plain as might put an end to the whole controversie . aug. de doctr. christian. lib. . c. . [ in his omnibus libris timentes deum & pietate mansueti , quaerunt voluntatem dei. cujus operis & laboris prima observatio est , ut diximus , nosse istos libros , & si nondum ad intellectum legendo tamen vel mandare memoriae , ( he was not against the vulgars reading scripture ) vel omnino incognitos non habere . deinde illa quae in eis aperte pofita sunt , vel praecepta vivendi vel regulae credendi , solertiùs diligentiúsque investiganda sunt : quae tanto quisque plura invenit , quanto est intelligentia capacior : in iis enim quae apertè in scriptura posita sunt , inveniuntur illa omnia quae continent fidem moresque vivendi , ( n. b. ) spem scilicet atque charitatem , de quibus libro superiore tractavimus . tum vero facta quadam familiaritate cum ipsa lingua divinarum scripturarum , in ea quae obscura sunt aperienda , & discutienda pergendum est , ut ad obscuriores locutiones illustrandas de manifestationibus sumantur exempla , & quaedam certarum sententiarum testimonia , dubitationem de incertis auferant . ] you see here that the scripture , as sufficient to faith and manners , to be read by all that fear god , and can read ; and the harder places to be expounded by the plainer , was the ancient rule of faith and religion : and this is the religion of protestants . aug. lib. . c. . contra lit . petiliani , pag. . [ proinde , sive de christo sive de ejus ecclesia , sive de quacunque alia re quae pertinet ad fidem vitamque nostram , non dicam nos , nequaquam comparandi ●i qui dixit [ licet si nos ] sed omnino quod secutus adjecit , si angelus de coelo vobis annunciaverit praeterquam quod in scripturis & evangelicis accepistis , anathema sit . ] i must needs english this short passage , to the utter confusion of popery . [ and therefore whether it be of christ , or whether it be of the church , or whether it be of any other matter that pertaineth to our faith or life , i will not say [ if we ] as being not worthy to be compared with him that said [ though we ] but ( i will say ) plainly what he added following : [ if an angel from heaven shall declare to you any thing besides that which you have received in the legall and evangelicall scriptures , let him be anathema , or accursed . ] was not the church then purely protestant in their religion ? the minor needs no proof but our own profession . my profession is the best evidence of my own religion to another : and i profess this to be my religion ; which is contained in the holy scripture , as the test , or law , or rule . and let no man contradict me , that knoweth not my religion better then i do : the articles of the church of england profess this also to be the religion of the composers . and the protestants commonly uno ore do profess it . it is the great difference between us and the papists . the whole universal law of god that we know of , and own , is contained in nature and scripture conjunct . but the papists take somewhat else to be another part . we allow by-laws about mutable undetermined things ( as aforesaid ) to governours : but we know no universal law of faith and holiness , but nature and scripture : this is our religion : and this religion contained in nature and scriptures hath been still received . obj. we confess scripture is sufficient to them that have no further light : all that is necessary to the salvation of all , is in that perspicuously , as costerus , bellarmine , and others say : but more is necessary to salvation to some . ans. . then at least it containeth all the essentialls of christianity , which sufficeth to our present end . . and what maketh more necessary to me , or others here in england , if it be not necessary to all ? is it because that more is revealed to us ? but how and by whom ; and with what evidence ? we are willing to see it , and can see no such thing : but if this be it , ( if i may speak so plainly without offence ) it seems it concerneth us to keep out friars and jesuites from the land , as much ( if we knew how ) as to keep out the devil . for they tell us , . that we must believe the popes soveraignty , against the tradition and judgement of most of the catholick church . . and we must believe our selves to be void of charity ( because no papists ) contrary to our internall sense and knowledge . . and we must believe that bread is not bread , and wine is not wine , contrary to the common senses of all sound men : and if we will not thus renounce the churches vote , tradition , our certain knowledge , reason , and all our senses , we must be damned : where as before this doctrine was brought us , we might have been saved , as having in the scriptures all things necessary to the salvation of all . but the papists must needs have us shew them where our church was , and name the persons . answ. . it were not the catholike church , if it were confined to any place that is but a part of the christian territories . . nor were it the catholike church if we could name half or a considerable part of the members : as augustin oft tells the donatists , it is the church which begun at ierusalem , and thence is spread throughout the world . part of it may be in one nation one year , which may forfeit and lose it before the next . god hath not tyed it to any place . . to tell you where the catholike church hath been in every age , and who were the members or the leaders , requireth much knowledge in history and cosmography , which god hath not made necessary to salvation . . there are no known histories that deliver us the catalogues of the christians in every age of the world . had any been so foolish as to write them , they would have been too chargeable to keep , and too long to read : yea were it but of the pastors . . god hath nowhere commanded the church to keep such catalogues or histories , nor promised when they are written , that papists shall not purposely corrupt and destroy them , not turks ( as at buda ) take the christian libraries , and burn them . . papists cannot prove the successive extent and habitations of the catholike church any more then we ; and we can do it as well as they : for we have the same means . if they can tell us where it hath been in every age , they need not ask us : if they cannot , they have as much need to learn as we , and much more . they think it not necessary to their laity , to the proving of their faith , to be able to prove the habitations or names of the members of the catholike church in all ages : and why is it more necessary to us then them ? . but yet , to men acquainted with history , what can be more easie , then to tell you where great multitudes of christians in all ages have inhabited , and where many parts of the church have been , though no man can give you a catalogue of the church , any more then of the world ? would you know then where our church , that is , the catholike church hath been , in all ages ? why it hath been in asia , africa and europe . is that too general ? it hath been in syria , in mesopotamia , parthia , media , armenia , india , persia , in egypt , habassia , georgia , cilicia , circassia , mengrelia , natolia , isauria , thrace , and more other countries , then i have any need to name to you , ( to say nothing of europe , and brittain by name , as a thing most known ) . but no man well in his wits will deny a succession of the christian church which i have defined , from the first plantation of it until now . if christianity had ever ceased in the world , how came it to be new planted , and revived ? that this before described is the only catholike church that hath been owned by the ancient doctors , appeareth by their constant witnesses . to cite a few , and yet enough . august . in psal. . vbicunque timetur deus & laudatur , ibi est ecclesia . id. epist. . in sanctis libris ubi manifestatur dominus christus , ibi & ejus ecclesia declaratur ( and therefore there it must be sought ) isti autem mirabili caecitate , cum ipsum christum praeter scripturas nesciant , ejus tamen ▪ ecclesiam non divinarum authoritate cognoscunt , sed humanarum calumniarum vanitate confingunt . christ is to be known in the scripture , and therefore so is the church . ibid. in causa caeciliani — se ab ecclesia catholica , hoc est , ab unitate omnium gentium diviserunt . it s not the catholick church because roman , but because extended to all nations . sed tamen ecclesiam , quae non litigiosis opinionibus fingitur , sed divinis attestationibus comprobatur , propter quemlibet hominem relinquere non debemus . id. in psal. . corpus ejus est ecclesia : non autem ista aut illa , sed toto orbe diffusa : nec ea quae nunc est in hominibus qui praesentem vitam agunt , sed ad eam pertinentibus , etiam his qui fuerunt ante nos , & his qui futuri sunt post nos , usque in finem seculi . tota enim ecclesia constans ex omnibus fidelibus , quia fideles omnes membra sunt christi , habet illud caput positum in coelestibus quod gubernat corpus suum , etsi separatum est à visione , sed annectitur charitate . ] id. enchirid. ad laurent . c. . ecclesia tanquam habitatori domus sua , & deo templum suum , & conditori civitas sua : quae tota hic accipienda est , non solum ex parte quae peregrinatur in terris , à solis ortu usque ad occasum laudans nomen domini . ] id. contr . petilian . cap. . purposely opening the true nature of the catholick church for the stating of the case , saith , [ quaestio certè inter nos versatur , ubi sit ecclesia ? utrum apud nos , an apud illos ? quae utique vna est , quam majores nostri catholicam nominarunt , ut ex ipso nomine ostenderent , quia per totum est . — haec autem ecclesia corpus christi est : sicut apostolus dicit , [ pro corpore ejus , quae est ecclesia . ] vnde utique manifestum est , eum qui non est in membris christi , christianam salutem habere non posse . membra vero christi per unitatis charitatem sibi copulantur , & per eandem capiti suo adhaerent quod est christus iesus . — quaestio est , ubi sit hoc corpus , i. e. ubi sit ecclesia ? quid ergo facturi sumus ? in verbis nostris eam quaesituri ? an in verbis capitis sui ? domini nostri iesu christi ? puto quod in illius potius verbis eam quaerere debemus , qui verit as est , & optime novit corpus suum — after he calls the church over and over , vniversum orbem christianum — cap. . quia nolo humanis documentis , sed divinis oraculis sanctam ecclesiam demonstrari . si sanctae scriptura in africa solâ , &c. — si autem christi ecclesia canonicarum scripturarum divinis & certissimis testimoniis in omnibus gentibus designata est , quicquid attulerint ( n. b. ) & undicunque recitaverint , qui dicunt , [ ecce hic christus , ecce illic ] audiamus potius , si ●ves ejus sumus , vocem pastoris nostri dicentis [ nolite credere . ] — cap. . totus christus caput & corpus est : caput unigenitus dei filius , & corpus ejus ecclesia , sponsus & sponsa ; duo in carne una : quicunque de ipso capite ab scripturis sanctis dissentiunt , etiamsi in omnibus locis inveniantur in quibus ecclesia designata est , non sunt in ecclesia : & ●ursus quicunque de ipso capite scripturis sanctis consentiunt , & vnitati ecclesiae non communicant , ( or as after ) ab ejus corpore quod est ecclesia ita dissentiunt , ut eorum communio non sit cum toto quacunque diffunditur , sed in aliqua parte separata inveniatur , manif stum est eos non esse in catholica ecclesia . ] ( a sad conclusion to the papists . ) it would be tedious to recite half that austin there hath to this purpose . through all his exquisite disputes with the donatists , he still describeth the church , . as being the body of christ , its head. . as dispersed through the world , and containing all the members of christ. . and that which begun at ierusalem . . and is to be known by the word of god : never mentioning the headship of the pope , nor the mistris-ship of rome : of which more anon . so optatus lib. . advers . parmen . vbi ergo erit propriet as catholici nominis , cum inde dicta sit catholica , quod sit rationabilis & ubique diffusa , &c. ] and before ( p. . ) ergo ecclesia una est , cujus sanctitas de sacramentis colligitur ; non de superbia personarum ponderatur : he glorieth indeed in the chair of peter , and the roman church and succession , as being on the catholicks side ; but never maketh them an essentiall part of the catholick church , nor talks of a unity caused by subjection to them , but charity to all : and therefore calls the schismaticks , lib. . p. . charitatis desertores , not subjectionis desertores : adding , gaud●t totus orbis de vnitate catholica ; but never de subjectione romae . yea he saith more of the seven asian churches , lib. . p . extra septem ecclesias quicquid foris est , ●lienum est . never more ( i●●o much ) can be found to be said to rome : and now rome it self is extra septem ecclesias . so he supposeth god praising the catholick , p . lib. . dissentio & sehisma tibi displicuit ; concordasti cum fratre tuo , & cum una ecclesia , quae est in toto orbe terrarum : communicasti septem ecclesiis & memoriis apostolorum : amplexus es unitatem . so lib. . p. . he thus describeth the catholick communion . [ an quia voluntatem & jussionem dei secuti sumus amando pacem , communicando toti orbi terrarum ; societati orientalibus , ubi secundum hominem suum natus est christus ; ubi ejus sancta sunt in pressa vestigia ; ubi ambu●averunt adorandi pedes ; ubi ab ipso factae sunt tot & tantae virtutes ; ubi eum sunt tot apostoli comitati ; ubi est septiformis ecclesia ; à qua vos concisos esse , &c. ] tertullian dealing with hereticks indeed , that denyed the fundamentals , thought it but a tiresome way to dispute with them out of scripture , who wrested so many things in it to their destruction , but would have them convinced by prescription : because they lived near the churches that were planted by the apostles , and near their daies : and what doth he ? appeal to rome , as the judge , or church that the rest are subjected to ? no : but . it is the common creed or symbole of the church , that he would have made use of in stead of long disputes ( and not any other doctrine . ) . and it is all the churches planted by the apostles , that he will have to be the first witnesses . . and the present churches , the immediate witnesses that they received this creed ( not any supernumeraries ) from them , as the apostles doctrine . so de praescript . c. . he reciteth the symbole it self , and so cap. . he mentioneth the sending of the twelve to teach this faith , and plant churches , which he describeth thus [ statim igitur apostoli — primo per iudaeam contestata fide in iesum christum , & ecclesiis institutis , dehinc in orbem profecti , eandem doctrinam ejusdem fidei nationibus promulgaverunt , & proinde ecclesias apud unamquamque civitatem condiderunt , à quibus traducem fidei & semina doctrinae caeterae exinde ecclesiae mutuatae sunt , & quotidie mutuantur ut ecclesiae fiant . ac per hoc & ipsea apostolicae deputantur ut soboles apostolicarum ecclesiarum . omne genus ad originem suam censeatur , necesse est . itaque tot ac tantae ecclesiae una est illa ab apostolis prima , ex qua omnes . ( are not those too gross deceivers that would perswade us that he here meaneth the church of rome by the [ una illa ] , when he plainly speaks of the catholick church of the apostolick age from which all the rest did spring ? if of a particular church , it must be that of ierusalem . did all the rest arise from rome ? can they say [ ex hac omnes ? ] sic omnes primae , & omnes apostolicae , dum unam omnes probant unitatem . communicatio pacis , & appellatio fraternitatis , & contesseratio hospitalitatis , quae jura non alia ratio regit , quam ejusdem sacramenti una traditio . ] note here . that no original church is mentioned but those of iudaea , with the rest of the apostles planting . and . that the churches planted by the apostles themselv●s , ( without any mentioned difference of superiority ) are that one church which all the rest must try their faith by , as the witnesses . that they are equally made traduces fidei , and mother churches to others propagated by them . . that per hoc , by this propagation ( without subjection to the church or pope of rome ) all the rest are apostolicall . . and the sufficient proof to any church then that it was prima & apostolica , was ( not subjection to rome but ) that nuam omnes probant unitatem . that is , of the apostolick faith , received from that one apostolick church . . yea when he reciteth the external characters of the church , it is not subjection to rome , that is any one of them , but , communicatio pacis , appellatio fraternitatis , contesseratio hospitalitatis . ] . yea utterly to exclude the roman subjection , he adds [ quae jura non alia ratio regit , quam ejusdem sacramenti una traditio . ] so he proceeds si haec ita sunt , constat proinde omnem doctrinam , quae cum illis ecclesiis apostolicis matricibus & originalibus fidei conspiret , veritati deputandum id sine dubio tenentem , quod ecclesiae ab apostolis , apostoli à christo , christus a deo suscepit ; reliquam verò omnem doctrinam de mendacio praejudicandam , quae sapiat contra veritatem ecclesi●rum , & apostolorum , & christi , & dei. superest ergo ut demonstremus , an haec nostra doctrina ( the creed ; not the popes additions ) cujus regulam supra edidimus , de apostolorum traditione censeatur , & ex hoc ipso , an caeterae ( that contradict the creed ) de mendacio veniant . communicamus cum ecclesiis apostolicis ( rome is not made the standard ) quod nulla doctrina diversa , hoc est testimonium veritatis . and cap. . he doth not send us to the roman church as head or judge , but calling the holy ghost only , vicarius christi , christs vicar , makes it incredible that he should so far neglect his office , as to let ( not rome , but ) all the churches to lose the apostles doctrine ; proving the certain succession of it , by the unity , and not by romes authority [ ecquid verisimile est , ut tot ac tantae in unam fidem irraverint ? nullus inter multo seventus est unus exitus : variasse debuerat error doctrinae ecclesiarum . caeterum quod apud multos unum invenitur , non est erratum , sed traditum . audeat ergo aliquis dicere , illos errasse qui tradiderunt ? so c. . when he calls them to the apostolical church , it is no more to rome , then another . aedant ergo origines ecclesiarum suaerum — ut primus ille episcopus aliquis ex apostolis vel apostolicis viris , qui tamen cum apost lis perseveraverint , habuerit auctorem , & antecessorem . hoc enim modo ecclesiae apostolicae census suos deferunt : sicut smyrneorum ecclesia habens polycarpum ab iohanne collocatum refert ; sicut romanorum clementem a petro ordinatum edit : proinde utique & caeterae exhibent ] here you see he puts smyrna before rome , and iohn before peter , and refers them to rome , but only as one of the churches planted by the apostles ; and this is but to know their doctrine , delivered in that first age , which we appeal to . and after he expresly saith [ ad hanc it aque formam , provocabantur ab illis ecclesiis , quae licet nullum ex apostolis , vel apost●licus auctorem suum proferant , ut multo posteriores , quae denique quotidie institutum ; tamen in eadem fidem conspirantes , non minus apostolicae deputantur pro consanguinitate doctrinae : ] the apostles doctrine will prove an apostolical church , when ever planted . and c. . he draws them from disputing from the scripture , because they owned not the true scripture , but corrupted it , and charged the catholikes with corruption [ sicut illis non potuit succedere corruptela doctrinae sine corruptela instrumentorum ejus : ita & nobis integritaes doctrina non competisset , sine integritate eorum ( not by real tradition alone ) per quae doctrina tractatur : etenim quid contrarium nobis in nostris ? quid de proprio intulimus , ut aliquid contrarium ei & in scripturis deprehensum , detractione vel adjectione vel transumtatione remediaremus ? quod sumus , hoc sunt . ab initio suo ex illis sumus ; antequam nihil aliter fuit , quam sumus . ] and cap. . he sends them by name to the particular apostolical churches , and begins with corinth ; then to philippi , thessalonica , ephesus , and then to rome , of whose soveraignty he never speaks a syllable . so more plainly l. . contr . marcion . c. . because marcion denied the true scriptures , he sends them to the apostolike churches for the true scriptures , first to the corinthians , then to the galatians , then to the philippians , thessalonians , ephesians , and last of all to rome . but it would be tedious to cite the rest of the ancients , that commonly describe the church as we ; and such as we all own as members of it . arg. . if the roman church ( as christian , though not as papal ) hath been visible ever since the daies of the apostles , then the church of which the protestants are members , hath been visible ever since the daies of the apostles : but the antecedent is their own ; therefore they may not deny the consequent . the consequence also is past denyal . . because the roman as christian , is part of the universal christian church . . because they profess to believe the same holy scriptures and creed as we do . so that though they add more , and so make a new form to their church , yet do they not deny our church , which is the christian church as such , nor our test and rule of faith , nor any article that we account essential to our religion . so that themselves are our sufficient witnesses . well! but this will not satisfie the papists , unless we shew a succession of our church as protestant . . this we need not , any more then a sound man lately cured of the plague , doth need to prove , that he hath ever been , not only sanus but sanatus , a cured man ( before he was sick . ) how could there be a church protesting against an universal vicar of christ , before any claimed that vicarship ? . and when the vicarship was usurped , those millions , abroad , and even within the roman territories , that let the pretended vicar talk , and followed their own business , and never consented to his usurpation , were of the very same religion with those that openly protested against him : and so were those that never heard of his usurpation . object . but at least , ( say they ) you must prove a church that hath been without the universal vicar negatively , though not against him positively . answ. . in all reason , he that affirmeth must prove : it is not incumbent on us to prove the negative , that the church had not such a roman head ; but they must prove that it had . object . but they have possession , and therefore you that would dispossess them , must disprove their title . ans. . this is nothing to most of the catholike church where they have no possession : therefore with them they confess themselves obliged to the proof . . this is a meer fallacious diversion : for we are not now upon the question of their title , but the matter of fact and history : we make good the negative , that they have no title from the laws of christ himself : and so will not dispossess them without disproving their pretended title . but when the question is de facto , whether they have ever had that possession from the apostles daies , they that affirm must prove , when we have disabled their title from the law. . but what must we prove ? that all the church hath been guiltless of the papal usurpation , or only some in every age ? of all its no more necessary to us , then to prove that there have been no heresies since the apostles . if a piece of the church may turn hereticks , or but schismaticks , as the novatians , and african donatists , why may not another piece turn papists ? . what will you say to a man that knoweth not a protestant , nor a papist , or believeth only christianity it self , and meddleth not with the pope , any further then to say , [ i believe not in him , jesus i know : and the apostles , and scripture , and christianity i know , but the pope i know not : ] and suppose he never subscribed to the augustane , english , or any such confession , but only to the scripture , and the apostles , and nicene , and other ancient creeds ; by what shew of justice can you require this man to prove that there hath been no pope in every age ? . the foundation of all our controversie is doctrinal , whether the papal soveraignty be essential to the church ? or necessary to our membership ? we deny it ; you affirm it . if it be not essential , it is enough to us , to prove that which is essential , to have been successive : we be not bound in order to the proof of our church it self , to prove the succession of every thing that maketh but to its better being . yet professing , that we do it not as necessary to our main cause , we shall ex abundanti prove the negative , that the catholike church hath not alwaies owned the papal soveraignty , and so that there have been men that were not only christians , but as we , christians without popery , and against it : and so shall both prove our thesis , and overthrow theirs . arg. . if there have been since the daies of christ , a christian church that was not subject to the roman pope , as the vicar of christ and universal head and governour of the church ; then the church of which the protestants are members , hath been visible both in its being , and its freedom from popery . but the antecedent is true : therefore so is the consequent . i shall prove the antecedent , and therein the visibility of our church , and the non-existence in those times of the papacy . arg. . my first argument shall be from the general council of chalcedon . if the priviledges of the roman sea were given to it by the bishops consequently because of the empire of that city , and therefore equal priviledges after given to constantinople on the same account ; then had not rome those priviledges from the apostles ( and consequently the whole catholike church was without them ) . but the antecedent is affirmed by that fourth great approved council : in act. . bin. p. . [ we everywhere following the definitions of the holy fathers , and the canon , and the things that have been now read , of the hundred and fifty bishops most beloved to god , that were congregate under the emperour theodosius the great of pious memory , in the royal city of constantinople , new rome , we also knowing them , have defined the same things concerning the priviledges of the same most holy church of constantinople , new rome : for to the seat of old rome , because of the empire of that city , the fathers consequently gave the priviledges . and the hundred and fifty bishops , most beloved of god , being moved with the same intention , have given equal priviledges to the most holy seat of new rome : reasonably judging , that the city adorned with the empire and senate , shall enjoy equal priviledges with old regal rome . ] here we have the testimony of one of the greatest general councils , of the humane original of romes priviledges . bellarmine hath nothing to say , but that they spoke falsly , and that this clause was not confirmed by the pope ( which are fully answered by me elsewhere . ) but this is nothing to our present business : it is a matter of fact that i use their testimony for . and if all the bishops in two of the most approved general councils , ( called the representative catholike church ) were not competent witnesses in such a case , to tell us what was done , and what was not done in those times , then we have none . the papists can pretend to no higher testimony on their part . the church it self therefore hath here decided the controversie . and yet note , that even these priviledges of rome were none of his pretended universal government . it s in vain to talk of the testimonies of particular doctors , if the most renowned general councils cannot be believed . yet i will add an argument from them as conjunct . arg. . had the roman universal soveraignty , as essential to the catholike church , been known in the daies of tertullian , cyprian , athanasius , nazianzen , nyssen , basil , optatus , augustine , and the other doctors that confounded the heresies or schisms of those times ( e. g. the novatians , donatists , arrians , &c. ) the said doctors would have plainly and frequently insisted on it for the conviction of those hereticks and schismaticks : but this they do not : therefore it was not known in those times . the consequence of the major is evident hence : the doctors of the church were men at least of common wit and prudence in the matters which they did debate : therefore they would have insisted on this argument , if then it had been known . the reason of the consequence is , because it had been most obvious , easie , and potent to dispatch their controversies . . when the arrians and many other hereticks denied christs eternal godhead , had it not been the shortest expeditious course , to have cited them to the barr of the judge of controversies , the infallible soveraign head of the church ; and convinced them that they were to stand to his judgement ? . had not this argument been at hand , to have confounded all heresies at once , [ that which agreeth not with the belief of the roman pope and church is false : but such is your opinion : therefore ] . so for the donatists ; when they disputed for so many years against the catholikes , which was the true church , had it not been augustins shortest , surest way to have argued thus : that only is the true church that is subject to the pope of rome , and adhereth to him : but so do not you : therefore . ] either the arrians , donatists and such others did believe the papal soveraignty and vicarship , or not : if they did , . how is it possible they should actually reject both the doctrine and communion of the pope and roman church ? . and why did not the fathers rebuke them for sinning against conscience , and their own profession herein ? but if they did not believe the papal soveraignty , then . how came it to pass that the fathers did labour no more to convince them of that ( now supposed ) fundamentall errour ? when . it is supposed as hainous a sin as many of the rest . . and was the maintainer of the rest . had they but first demonstrated to them , that the pope was their governour and judge , and that his headship being essentiall to the church , it must needs be of his faith , all heresies might have been confuted , the people satisfied , and the controversies dispatched in a few words . . either arrians , donatists , novatians , and such like , were before their defection acquainted with the roman soveraignty , or not . if they were not , then it is a sign it was not commonly then received in the church , and that there were multitudes of christians that were no papists : if they were , then why did not the fathers , . urge them with this as a granted truth , till they had renounced it ? . and then why did they not charge this defection from the pope upon them , among their hainous crimes ? why did they not tell them , that they were subjected to him as soon as they were made christians ; and therefore they should not perfidiously revolt from him ? how is it that we find not this point disputed by them on both sides , yea and as copiously as the rest , when it would have ended all ? and for the minor , that the fathers have not thus dealt with hereticks , the whole books of tertullian , nazianzen , nyssen , basil , optatus , hierom , augustine , and others are open certain witnesses . they use no such argument , but fill their books with others ; most imprudently and vainly , if they had known of this , and had believed it . otherwise the papists would never have been put to gather up a few impertinent scraps to make a shew with . we see by experience here among us , that this point is voluminously debated ; and if we differ in other matters , the papists call us to the roman bar , and bring in this as the principall difference . and why would it not have been so then between the fathers , and the donatists , arrians , and such like , if the fathers had believed this ? it s clear hence that the papall vicarship was then unknown to the church of christ. arg. . the tradition witnessed by the greater part of the universal church saith , that the papal vicarship or soveraignty is an innovation and usurpation , and that the catholick church was many hundred years without it : therefore there was then no such papal church . this is not a single testimony , nor of ten thousand , or ten millions , but of the major vote of the whole church ; and in councils the major vote stands for the whole . if this witness therefore be refused , we cannot expect that the words of a few doctors should be credited ; nor may they expect that we credit any witness of theirs , that is not more credible . and that the antecedent is true , is known to the world ; as we know that the turks believe in mahomet , by the common consent of history and travellers . part of the churches anathematize the romans , and part more modestly disown them , and the generality that subject not themselves do profess that popery is an usurpation , and that in the ancient church it was not so ; and this they have by tradition from generation to generation . and if the roman pretended tradition be with them of value , the tradition of the far greater part of the church is with us to be of more . we must despair of satisfying them with witness , if most of the christian world be rejected , and the tradition of the greatest part of the church be taken to be false in a matter of publick notorious fact . arg. . many churches without the verge of the roman empire , never subjected themselves to rome , ( and many not of many hundred years after christ : ) therefore there were visible christian churches from the beginning , to this day , that were not for the roman vicarship . that abundance of churches were planted by the apostles , without the reach of the roman empire , is plentifully testified by the ancients , and the papists commonly confess it . that these were under the papal government , all the papists in the world cannot prove . the contrary is confessed by them , and proved by us . . they came not so much as to generall councils . . they had no bishops ordained by the pope , or any impowred by him . . they never appealed to him . . they never had any causes judged by him . . they performed no obedience to him , nor lived under his laws ; nor scarce had any communion with him , more then the common communion that is held in charity , and common faith and ordinances with all . such were the indians , the persians , the further armenia and parthia , the habassines and many more . and of long time the english and the scots , that refused so much as to eat and drink in the same inn with the roman legates : much less would obey him , so much as in the change of easter day ; we challenge them to shew us any appearance of subjection to the pope in the generality of the churches without the empire . but you say , that the habassines were under the patriarch of alexandria , and he under the pope . ans. . if that were true , yet what 's that to all the rest ? . give us your proof that the abassines were under the patriarch of alexandria , before that patriarch broke off his communion with rome . the canons of pisanus , of yesterdayes invention , we regard not : surely the true canons of nice ( can. . ) measure out no more to the patriarch of alexandria , but aegypt , lybia , and pentapolis . there 's no mention of ethiopia : and it s not like that the greatest part of his province would have been left out . . if it had been so , yet we utterly deny that ever the pope had the government of the alexandrian patriarch : only for a little while he had a precedency in honorary title , and in councils ; as the city of london is preferred before york , but doth not govern it at all . here therefore ( without the roman empire ) you may see those churches that have successively been visible , and yet no papists . this your raynerius confesseth contr . waldens . catalog . in bibliothec. patr. tom. . pag. . saying [ armeniorum ecclesiae , & aethiopum , & indorum , & caeterae qua● apostoli converterunt , non subsunt romanae ecclesiae . ] see godignus de rebus abassinorum , of their antiquity . arg. . the eastern churches within the empire were never subjects of the pope : therefore there have been and are churches visible , that neither were nor are his subjects . the antecedent i have proved in my key for catholicks , from the council of carthage's letters to pope coelestine , after their resistance of zosimus ; and divers testimonies from basil and others . and they can give us themselves no plausible appearance of a proof of that subjection which they assert : no more then the younger justices on the bench are subject to the elder , or the jury to the foreman , or a master of arts in a colledge to a batchelor in divinity , or then the mayor of bristoll is to the mayor of york . . the pope never chose the patriarchs of alexandria , antioch , &c. . it did not belong to him to ordain them : nor did he authorize any other to do it , nor did they receive or hold their power from him . . they receive no laws of his to rule by . . they were not commanded or judged by him . . the patriarch of constantinople had equall priviledges with him . so that here is nothing like to soveraignty and subjection , nor any acknowledgement of an universal vicar of christ. communion indeed they held with rome , as they did with one another , till pride divided them ; but communion is one thing , and subjection is another . the greek church never gave them this . arg. . my next argument to prove the novelty of their church as papal , and consequently that the universal church was void of popery , and therefore of the same religion with protestants , shall be from the testimony of their own most magnified bishops . gregory . epist. regist. l. . c. . speaking against the patriarch of constantinople , for usurping the title of oecumenicall patriarch , or universal bishop , saith ( fol. , . edit . paris . . ) [ sicut enim veneranda vestra sanctitas novit , mihi per sanctam chalcedonensem synodum pontifici sedis apostolicae , cui deo disponente deservio , hoc vniversalitatis nomen oblatum est : sed nullus unquam decessorum meorum hoc tam prophano vocabulo uti consensit . quia viz , si vnus patriarcha vniversalis dicitur , patriarcharum nomen caeteris derogatur . sed absit hoc , absit à christiana mente , id sibi velle quempiam arripere , unde fratrum suorum honorem imminuere ex quantulacunque parte videatur . cum ergo nos hunc honorem nolumus oblatum suscipere ; pensate quam ign●miniosum sit hunc sibi quempiam violenter usurpare voluisse propterea sunctitas vestra in suis epist●lis neminem universalem nominet , ne sibi debitum detrahat , cum alteri honorem offert indebitum . ] . here he affirmeth that the title of vniversal was never used by any of his predecessors nor received . . that it is a prophane title . . that it is an injury to other patriarchs . . that its unbeseeming a christian mind to assume it . . that its undue . . he perswaded the bishops of alexandria and antioch to give it to no man whosoever . obj. but he saith that the council of chalcedon offered it him . ans. . if he renounce it as undue and prophane , and say that de facto none of his predecessors took it , this is as much as we desire . . that at the council of chalcedon , near . years before this , two deacons ( that they say have no votes ) call'd theodorus and ischirion , did superscribe their libels , to leo vniversal archbishop , i find ; but no more : and this is it that gregory here brags of : and what 's two deacons to the council ? obj. but it is only the name and not the thing that he disclaims , and that is in modesty . ans. . how then could he censure the name as undue , injurious , prophane , and blasphemous , if he owned the thing ? seeing aptanda sunt verba rebus : words are to be fitted to things . . but i shall confute this fully from his following words . [ ita ut vniversa sibi tentet ascribere , & omnia quae soli uni capiti cohaerent , videlicet christo , per elationem pompatici sermonis , ejusdem christi sibi studeat membra subjugare . ] here it is plain . that it is the thing as well as the name that gregory wrote against . . and that it is also a palpable fiction of the papists ( for want of a better ) that gregory opposeth only such an universal episcopacy as taketh away all episcopacy from others . ridiculous ! they would make us believe , that iohn of constantinople would have had no bishop in the world but himself ; and that the council that gave him the title , intended all to degrade themselves ; and that there were no bishops under him ever after ; when other councils confirmed his title . on the contrary , you here see . that there is but one head , even christ. . and that iohns sin in arrogating the title [ vniversal ] was , that he would subjugate , or subject all christs members to himself . and is not this now the very form of popery , which gregory makes so great a sin ? even to subject all christs members to one , as an universal patriarch or bishop ? yea much higher titles do they arrogate , even to be [ the vicar of christ , and god , and in stead of christ and god ; and to be the vice-christ . ] he proceeds [ nec mirum quod ille tentator , qui initium omnis peccati scit esse superbiam , &c. ] making the devil the author of this title . he adds a weighty reason [ si enim hoc dici licenter permittitur , honor patriarcharum omnium negatur . et cum fortasse is in errore periit qui vniversalis dicitur , nullus jam episcopus remansisse in statu veritatis invenitur ] or as more plainly before c. . fol. . in the epist. to the emperour maurice [ si igitur illud nomen in ea ecclesia sibi quisquam arripuit , quod apud bonorum omnium judicium fuit : vniversa ergo ecclesia , quod absit , à statu suo corruit , quando is qui appellatur vniversalis cadit ] the reason is plain , because the head of every political society is essential to it : and therefore if the head of the universal church fall away to heresie or infidelity , the church falls : as bellarmine knew when he told us , that if the pope should erre in determining , the church would be bound to take evil for good , and vice for vertue . he proceeds in the same epist. ad maur. imperat. [ sed absit à cordibus christianorum nomen istud blasphemiae , &c. ] [ far be this name of blasphemy from the hearts of christians , &c. ] and after again saith [ sed nullus eorum unquam . hoc singularitatis vocabulum assumpsit , nec uti consensit ] that none of the roman bishops did ever assume this name of singularity , nor consent to use it . ] and therefore he concludes to the patriarchs of alexandria and antioch , c. . [ oportet ergo ut constanter ac sine praejudicio servetis sicut accepistis ecclesias , & nihil sibi in nobis haec tentatio diabolicae usurpationis ascribat . state sortes , state securi ; scripta cum vniversalis nominis falsitate , nec dare unquam , nec recipere praesumatis ] he chargeth them never to give or take writing with the falshood of this name [ vniversal ] as being from the devils tentation . and in ep. . c. . to iohn const. himself he calls it [ nefandum elationis vocabulum ] and the cause [ nefandum & prophanum tumorem ] and after he calls it [ the usurping of a proud and foolish word . ] to all this bellarmine miserably answereth de pontif. rom. l. . c. . that the title [ universal ] as it signifieth a sole bishop to whom all other are but vicars , is indeed profane , sacrilegious and anrichristian , and is it that gregory speaks against , but not as it excludeth not particular bishops , ] to which i answer , . to be the vicarius of a superiour , is not an exclusion . the pope saith he is the vicar of christ the chief pastour and bishop of souls : and all pastours are to preach the word of reconciliation in his name and stead , cor. . . and yet they are not thereby excluded from being pastours . if to be christs servants , may consist with episcopacy ; much more to be his vicarii over their particular flocks . rather this is too high an honour for us to assume . i do not think that all the clergy under the pope , do think themselves honoured so much as they should be if they were his vicars . . hath not that man sold his conscience to his cause , that will perswade the world that the patriarch of constantinople was about to unbishop all the bishops in the world except himself ? let any man shew us by tolerable proof , that iohn of constant●nople did claim any higher a power over all others , or would bring other bishops by his universality to be lower , then the pope of rome doth by his universality , and then i will confess that papists only have eyes and reason , and all the world besides are blind , and mad , or beasts . their cause is at a fair pass , when they must fly to such palpable falshoods , as makes them the wonder of their sober readers . . i proved before from the express words of gregory , that it is superiority of government , and making all other bishops subject to him , that he condemned in the patriarch of constantinople . and no doubt he made not the least of his arrogancy : nor do i believe that it can be proved that iohn , or the council that gave him the title , did ever intend so much as a universal government , which the pope now usurpeth ; but only a primacy before all , which popes were then striving for . for the greeks to this day disclaim it , and they never strove to exercise it . i will give you more of gregories words to put the question past doubt , cap. . ep. . to iohn , saith [ humilitatem ergo frater charissime totis vis●eribus dilige , per quam cunctorum fratrum concordia & sanctae vniversalis ecclesiae unitas v●leat custodiri : certe paulus apost●lus cum audiret quosdam dicere , ego sum pauli , ego apollo , ego vero cophae , hanc dilacerationem corporis dominici , per quam membra ejus aliis quodammodo se capitibus sociabant , vehementissimè perhorrescens exclamavit , dicens : nunquid paulus pro vobis crucifixus est : aut in nomine pauli baptizati estis ? sic ergo ille membra dominici corporis certis extra christum quasi capitibus , & ipsis quidem apostolis subjici particulariter evitavit : tu quid christo vniversalis scilicet ecclesiae capiti , in extremi judicii es dicturus examine , qui cuncta ejus membra tibimet conaris vniversalis appellatione supponere ! ] here you see . that the unity and concord of the church is not maintained by universal headship , but by fraternal communion and humility . . that it wounded paul , and should do us , to see the church make men as it were their heads , though they were apostles , and though peter was one of them : and that extra christum , beside christ , none , no not peter should be as a head to christs members . . much more abominable is it for any man to pretend to be the universal bishop or head to all christs members : . that the sin of this usurpation was against christ the churches head , and that before him in judgement the usurper of universal episcopacy will be confounded for this very thing . . and that the crime of this title of universal bishop was , that it endeavoured to put all christs members under him that used it ( tibimet supponere : ) not to exclude all other bishops , but to put under him all christs members . these are the words of gregory : and if men can make what their list of words so full and plain , and oft repeated in many epistles , what hope have they that their judge of controversies should do any more to end their controversies then scripture hath done , which they cannot understand without such an unintelligible judge ? he proceeds ( ibid. ) [ quis ergo in hoc tam perverso vocabulo , nisi ille ad imitandum proponitur , qui despectis angelorum legionibus , secum socialiter constitutis , ad culmen conatus est singularitatis erumpere , ut & nulli subesse , & solus omnibus praeesse videretur . ] he maketh him the imitator of the devil , that aspiring above the rest of the angels , fell by pride . but bellarmine hath three reasons to prove yet that gregory after all this meant not the universal headship or episcopacy indeed . . because the holy council of chalcedon offered it him . ans. . a fair offer ! because two or three deacons inscribed their libels to him with the name of universal archbishop : and we must believe that the council approved of this , though we cannot prove it . or if they called him the head , as the city of london is the head city in england , and the earle of arundel the head earle , or the lord chancelour the head judge , that yet have no government of the rest , what advantage were this to the roman vicarship ? . if gregory judge the name so blasphemous , when it signifieth an universal governour of the church , surely he believed that the council offered it not to him in that sence , but as he was the episcopus primae sedis . . but again , i say the matter of fact is it that i am enquiring of : and i have the testimony of this roman bishop that none of his predecessors would receive that name . . but saith bellarmine , he saith that the care of the whole church was committed to peter , which is all one . ] ans. . but so it was committed also to the rest of the apostles : paul had on him the care of all the churches , that claimed no headship . . he expr●sly excludeth peters headship , both in the words before recited , and after , saying [ certe petrus apostolus primum membrum ( or rather as dr. iames corrupt . of the fathers part. . p. saith he found it in seven written copies , [ apostolorum primus membrum ] sanctae & vniversalis ecclesiae est : paulus , andreas , iohannes , quid ●liud quam singularium sunt plebium capita ? et tamen sub uno capite omnes membra sunt ecclesiae ] that is [ peter the first of the apostles , is a member of the holy and universal church : paul , andrew , iohn , what are they but the heads of the singular flocks of the people ? and yet all are members of the church under one head ] ( that is , christ ) so that christ is the only head : peter is but a member , as the other apostles are ; but not a head. . but saith bellarmine , gregory could not but know that the title of episcopus vniversalis ecclesiae , which is all one , had been oft assumed by the popes . ] ans. . whether was bellarmine or gregory the wiser man ? at least the fitter interpreter of those words : would gregory have made them so blasphemous , foolish , prophane , and devilish , if he had thought them of the same importance with those which his predecessors used ? or was he so silly as not to know that this might have been retorted on him ? what a silly ●or , what a wicked dissembling hypocrite , doth bellarmine feign pope gregory to have been ? . but verily did the learned jesuite believe himself that [ vniversalis episcopus ecclesiae ] & episcopus ecclesiae vniversalis ] are of the same signification ? every bishop in the world , that adhered to the common communion of chr●●●ians and was a catholike , was wont to be called [ a bishop of the catholike church , ] and is indeed such ; but he is not therefore [ the universal bishop of the church . ] but bellarmine will not charge gregory of such horrid dissimulation without reason . his first reason is , [ that gregory did it for caution , to prevent abuse . ] ans. what! charge it with blasphemy , prophaness , devilism , wronging all the church , and also to excommunicate men for it , and all this to prevent abuse , when he held it lawful ! did hell ever hatch worse hypocrisie then this that he fathers on his holiest pope ? but . his other reason is worse then this ; forsooth [ because the question was only whether iohn of constantinople should have this title , and not whether the bishop of rome should have it : and therefore gregory simply and absolutely pronounceth the name sacrilegious and prophane , that is , as given to iohn , ( but not to himself ) yet he refused it himself , though due to him , that he might the better repress the pride of the bishop of constantinople . ] ans. the sum is then , that gregory did meerly lye and dissemble for his own end . he labours to prove that blasphemous , sacrilegious , &c. which he desired ; but we will not judge so odiously of the pope as papists do . doth he charge the other patriarchs and bishops to give it no man ? doth he blame them after in other epistles that gave him that title ? and doth he profess that never any of his predecessors received it , and make so hainous a matter of it , and yet all this while approve it as for himself ? who will believe a saint to be so diabolical , that calls it an imitation of the devil ? you see now what the roman cause is come to , and whether their church as papal , that is , their universal soveraignty , be not sprung up since gregories dayes . hear him a little further ( ibid. ) [ atque ut cuncta breviter cingalo locutionis adstringam : sancti ante legem , sancti sub lege , sancti sub gratia , omnes hi perficientes corpus domini in membris sunt ecclesiae constituti , & nemo se unquam vniversalem vocare voluit : vestra autem sanctitas agnoscat quantum apud se tumeat , quae illo nomine vocari appetit , quo vocari nullus praesumpsit , qui veraciter sanctus fuit . ] that is , [ and to bind up all in the girdle of speech , the saints before the law , the saints under the law , the saints under grace , all these making up the body of christ , were placed among the members of the church , yet never man would be called universal . let your holiness therefore consider how with your self you swell , that desire to be called by that name , by which no man hath presumed to be called that was truly holy. ] well! if this be not as p●●in as protestants speak against popery , i will never hope to understand a pope i only add , that gregory makes this usurpation of the name of an universal bishop a forerunner of antichrist : and that pope pelagius condemned it before him ; which gratian puts into their decrees , or canon law. and that he took the churches authority to be greater then his own , when he tells iohn , [ sed quoad in mea correptione despicior , restat ut ecclesiam debeam adhibere . ] lib. . ep. . dixi nec mihi vos , nec cuiquam alteri tale aliquid scribere debere : & ecce in praefatione epistolae quam ad meipsum qui prohibui direxistis , s●perbae appellationis verbum , universalem me papam dicentes , imprimere curastis . quod peto dulcissima sanctitas vestra , ultra non faciat : quia vobis subtrahitur , quod alteri plusquam ratio exigit , praebetur . ] see then whether it be not judged by him undue to himself as well as to others . and what the weight of the matter seemed to him , judge more by these words , ep. . l. . ad arrian . in isto scelesto vocabulo consentire , nihil est aliud quam fidem perdere . ] [ to consent in that wicked word , is nothing else but to lose ( or destroy ) the faith . ] that is , apostasie . and l. . c. . mauric . aug. ego fidenter dico , quia quisquis se universalem sacerdotem vocat , vel vocare desiderat , in elatione sua antichristum praecurrit ; quia superbiendo se caeteris praeponit , nec dispari superbia ad errorem ducitur . ] arg. . the papists themselves confess , that multitudes of christians , if not most by far , have been the opposers of the pope , or none of his subjects : therefore by their testimony there have been visible churches of such . aeneas sylvius , after pope pius . saith , small regard was had to the church of rome before the council of nice . bellarmine saith , this is partly true , by reason of the persecution of those ages , and partly false . ans. but , if true , we prove the matter of fact , and leave bellarmine better to prove his reason . if it be false , then their own historians are not to be believed , ●hough worthy to be popes . and then w●at historicall testimony will they believe ? voluminously do their historians mention the opposition of the greeks on one side , and of the emperours and kings , and divines , that were under the popes patriarchal power ; as mich. goldastus in abundance of treatises hath manifested . i gave before the testimony of reynerius , that the churches planted by the apostles , were not under the pope . i shall once more recite the words of melch. canus , loc. theol. lib. . cap. . fol. . [ not only the greeks , but almost all ( n. b. ) the rest of the bishops of the whole world , have vehemently fought to destroy the priviledge of the church of rome : and indeed they had on their side , both the arms of emperours , and the greater number of churches ; and yet they could never prevail to abrogate the power of the one pope of rome . ] by the papists confession then most of the churches , and almost all the bishops of the whole world , and the emperours & their armies , have vehemently fought to abrogate the popes power , and destroy the priviledges of rome . reynerius his testimony concerning the antiquity of the waldenses , as from pope sylvesters dayes , if not the apostles , hath been oft cited : had they been but from gregories dayes , it had been enough , when we have his own testimony , that no bishop of rome would own ( to that time ) that wicked , prophane , sacrilegious , foolish , blasphemous , dividing name of vniversal patriarch or bishop , which who ever holds to , destroys the faith . arg. . the next argument should have been from the historical testimony of the ancients , that the papal soveraignty was then no part of the churches faith , nor owned by them . but here to produce the testimonies of all ages , would be to write a volume in folio , on this one argument alone : for how can the history of all ages be so particularly delivered out of such a multitude of books , but in a multitude of words ? and it is done already so fully , that i provoke the papists to answer the catalogues and historicall evidence given in , if they can . if you ask where , i will now only tell you of , . blondell against perron d● primatu in ecclesia ( in french ) that shews you the torrent of antiquity against the papal soveraignty . . molinaeus ( in french ) de novitate papismi against the same perron . . bishop vsher , de statu & successione ecclesiarum , and his answer to the ●esuites challenge . . dr. field of the church , who lib. . answereth bellarmines allegations from all sort of antiquity , which are their strength . i pass by many others , some of which i have named in the foresaid . dispute of the safe religion : where also i have produced more of this evidence then they can answer . at least much more then you have returned me in your last paper for the contrary , to which i desire your answer : for it s in vain to write one thing so oft . i shall only instance in the currant testimony of their own historians , of the beginning of their universal headship . saith regino chron. l. . an. . p. . [ bonifacius obtinuit apud phocam principem , ut sedes romana caput esset omnium ecclesiarum : quia ecclesia constantin●p●litana primum se omnium ecclesiarum scribebat . ] hermannus contractus , an. m. . p. . [ hoc tempore phocas romanam ecclesiam omnium ecclesi●rum caput esse constituit : nam constantinop . primam se esse scripsit . ] so marianus scotus in phoc. [ bonifacius p. . impetravit á phoca caesare ut sedes apostolica romana caput esset ecclesiae , quum antea constantinopolis primam omnium se scriberet . ] the same hath sigebertus gemblac . an. . p. . and so compilat . chron. and many more . beneventus de rambaldis lib. augustali , saith p. . in phoca [ phocas occi●●r manritii — qui primus constituit , quod ecclesia esset caput omnium ecclesiarum : cum prius constantin . supremum se nominaret . ] mark here the [ primus constituit . ] so beda , p. diaconus , anastasius , pomponius laetus , &c. and of the novelty of their worship , saith platina in gregor . . [ what should i say more of this holy man ! whose whole institution of the church office , specially the old one , was invented and approved by him ? which order i would we did follow : then learned men would not at this day abhor the reading of the office — ] so that here is all invented new by gregory ( which was hardly received in spain ) and yet that changed since . arg. . if the generality of christians in the first ages , and many ( if not most ) in the later ages , have been free from the essentials of the papists faith , ●hen their faith hath had no successive visible church professing it in all ages ; but the christians that are against it have been visible : but the antecedent is true : as i prove in some instances . . it is an article of their faith determined in a general council at laterane and florence , that the pope is above a council : but that this hath not been successively received , the council of basil and constance witness , making it a new heresie . . it is an article of their faith , that a generall council is above the pope : for it is so determined at basil and constance : but that this hath had no successive duration , the council of laterane and florence witness . . it is an article of their faith , that the pope may depose princes for denying transubstantiation and such like heresies , and also such as will not exterminate such hereticks from their dominions , and may give their dominions to others , and discharge their subjects from their oaths and fidelity : for it is determined so in a council at laterane : but this hath not been so from the beginning : not when the . chapter to the romans was written : not till the dayes of constantine : not till the dayes of gregory that spake in contrary language to princes : and goldastus his three volumes of antiquities shew you , that there hath been many churches still against it . . it is an article of their faith , that the body and blood , together with the soul and divinity of our lord jesus christ , is truly , really , and substantially in the eucharist , and that there is a change made of the whole substance of bread into the body , and of the whole substance of wine into the blood , which they call transubstantiation . ] so the council of trent : but the catholick church hath been of a contrary judgement from age to age , as among many others , edm. albertinus de eucharist . hath plainly evinced ( though a quarreller hath denyed it and little more ) : and it s proved , in that successively they judged sense ( and reason by it ) a competent discerner of bread and wine . . it is now de fide that the true sacrament is rightly taken under one kind ( without the cup ) as the councils of constance and trent shew . but the catholick church hath practised , and the apostles and the church taught otherwise , as the council of constance , and their writers ordinarily confess . . it is an article of their faith ( as appears in the trent oath ) that we must never take and interpret scripture , but according to the unanimous consent of the fathers ] : but the catholick church before these fathers could not be of that mind : and the fathers themselves are of a contrary mind : and so are many learned papists . . it is an article of their faith , that there is a purgatory , and that the souls there detained are holpen by the suffrages of the faithful . but the latter was strange to all the old catholick church ( as bishop vsher and others have proved ) and the very being of purgatory , was but a new , doubtfull , indifferent opinion of some very few men , about augustines time . . it is now an article of their faith , that [ the holy catholick church of rome is the mother and mistris of all churches . ] but i have shewed here and elsewhere , that the catholick church judged otherwise , and so doth for the most part to this day . . it is now an article of their faith , that their traditions are to be received with equall pious affection and reverence as the holy scripture . but the catholick church did never so believe . . the council of basil made it de fide , that the virgin mary was conceived without originall sin : but the catholick church never judged so . . it s determined by a council now , that the people may not read the scripture in a known tongue without the popes license : but the catholick church never so thought , as i have proved , disp. . of the safe religion . . the books of maccabees and others are now taken into the canon of faith , which the catholick church received not as such : as dr. cosin , and dr. reignolds have fully proved . to this i might add the novelty of their worship and discipline ; but it would be too tedious : and i have said enough of these in other writings . see dr. challoner , pag. , . in . points dr. challoner proveth your novelty from your confessions . indeed his book de eccles. cath. though small , is a full answer to your main question . arg. . if multitudes ( yea the far greatest part ) of christians in all ages have been ignorant of popery , but not of christianity ; then hath there been a succession of visible professors of christianity that were no papists : but the antecedent is true : therefore so is the consequent . in this age it is an apparent thing , that the far greatest part are ignorant of formal popery . . they confess themselves that the common people , and most of the nobility of habassia , armenia , greece , russia , and most other eastern churches that are not papists , are ignorant of the controversie . . they use to tell us here among protestants , that there is not one of many that know what a papist is . . we know that of those that go under the name of papists , there is not one of a multitude knoweth . we hear it from the mouths of those we speak with : i have not met with one of ten of the poorer sort of them , even here among us , that knoweth what a papist or popery is ; but they are taught to follow their priests , and to say that theirs is the true church and old religion , and to use their ceremonious worship , and to forbear coming to our churches , &c. and this is their religion . and in ireland they are yet far more ignorant : and it s well known to be so in other parts : their priests they know , and the pope they hear of , as some person of eminent power in the church : but whether he be the universal vicar of christ , and be over all others as well as them & whether this be of gods institution , or by the grant of emperours or councils , &c. they know not . and no wonder , when the papists think that the council of chalcedon spoke falsly of the humane originall of the primacy in the imperiall territories : and when the councils of basil and constance knew not whether pope or council was the head. and that the people were as ignorant and much more in former ages , they testifie themselves : and before gregories dayes they must needs be ignorant of that which was not then risen in the world . yea dr. field hath largely proved , append . lib. . that even the many particular points in which the papists now differ from us , were but the opinions of a faction among them before luther : and that the western church before luther was protestant , even in those particular controversies ; though this is a thing that we need not prove . and as dr. potter tells them , pag. . [ the roman doctors do not fully and absolutely agree in any one point among themselves , but only in such points wherein they agree with us : in the other disputed between us , they differ one from another as much almost as they differ from us . ] he appeals for this to bellarmines tomes . though i cannot undertake to make this good in every point , yet that proper popery was held but by a faction in the western church , even at its height before luther , is easily made good . he that readeth but the writers before luther , and in history noteth the desires of emperours , kings , and universities , and bishops , for reformation of the things that we have reformed , may soon see this to be very true . it was avitas leges & consuetudines angliae ( as rog. hoved●n and matth. paris in h. . shew ) that the pope here damned , and anathematized all that favoured and observed them ( o tender father , even to kings ! o enemy of novelties ! ) the german history collected by reuberus , pistorus , freherus and goldastus , shews it as p●ain as day light , that a papal faction by fury and turbulency , kept under the far greater part of the church by force , that indeed dissented from them , even from hildebrands dayes till luthers , or near . saith the apologia henrici . imperat. in m. fr●heri tom. . p. . [ behold pope hildebrands bishops , when doubtless they are murderers of souls and bodies — such as deservedly are called the synagogue of satan — yet they write , that on his and on their side ( or party ) is the holy mother church : when the catholick , that is , the universal church , is not in the schism of any side , ( or parties ) but in the universality of the faithfull agreeing together by the spirit of peace and charity . ] and p. . [ see how this minister of the devil is beside himself , and would draw us with him into the ditch of perdition ? that writeth that gods holy priesthood is with only . or few more bishops of hildebrands : and that the priesthood of all the rest through the world are separated from the church of god : when certainly , not only the testimony of gregory and innocent , but the judgement of all the holy fathers agree with that of cyprian — that he is an alien , prophane , an enemy ; that he cannot have god for his father , that holdeth not the unity of the church : which he after describeth to have one priesthood . ] et p. . [ but some that go out from us say and write , that they defend the party of their gregory : not the whole , which is christs , which is the catholick church of christ. ] and p. . [ but our adversaries ( that went from us , not we from them ) use thus to commend themselves — we are the catholicks , we are in the unity of the church . ] so the writer calls them catholicks , and us that hold the faith of the holy fathers , that consent with all good men , that love peace and brotherhood , — us he calls schismaticks and hereticks , and excommunicate , because we resist not the king — ] and p. . [ isidore saith , etym. l. . the church is called catholick , because it is not as the conventicles of hereticks , confined in certain countries , but diffused through the whole world : therefore they have not the catholick faith that are in a part , and not in the whole which christ hath redeemed , and must reign with christ. ] they that confess in the creed , that they believe the holy catholick church , and being divided into parties hold not the unity of the church : which unity , believers being of one heart and one soul , properly belongs to the catholick church . ] so this apol. one objection i must here remove , which is all and n●thing : viz. that the armenians , greeks , georgians , abassines , and many others here named , differ from protestants in many points of faith ; and therefore they cannot be of the same church . ans. . they differ in nothing essentiall to our church or religion , nor near the essence . . protestants differ in some lesser points , and yet you call them all protestants your selves . . i prove undeniably from your own pens , that men differing in matters of faith , are all taken to be of your church , and so of one church , ( and therefore you contradict your selves in making all points of faith to be essentials of the christian religion or church . ) . the council of basil and constance differed de fide with the pop● and the council of laterane and florence : they expresly affirm their doctrine to be de fide , that the council is above the pope , and may depose him , &c. and the contrary heresie . and pighius ( hierarch . eccles. lib. . ) saith , that these councils went [ against the undoubted faith and judgement of the orthodox church it self . ] . their saint tho. aquinas , and most of their doctors with him , differ from the second council of nice , in holding the cross and image of christ to be worshipped with latria , which that council determined against . see more arguments in my key for cath. p. ▪ . and after . i will now add a testimony sufficient to silence papists in this point : and that is , the determination of the theological faculty of paris under their great seal , against one iohan. de montesono ordinis praedic . as you may find it after the rest of the errors rejected by that university , in the end of lombard , printed at paris . pag. . their . conclusion is , that [ saint thom. aquin. doctrine is not so approved by the church , as that we must believe that it is in no part of it erroneous de fide ( in matter of faith ) or hereticall . they prove it , because it hath many contradictions , even in matter of faith ; and therefore they ought not to believe it not hereticall . here fol. , . they give six examples of his contradictions : and therefore they conclude , that though he were no heretick ( because not pertinacious ) yet they ought not to believe that his doctrine was in no part hereticall , or erroneous in the faith . they further argue thus [ if we must believe his doctrine not hereticall , &c. this should be chiefly , because it is approved by the church . but there is some doctrine much more approved by the church then the doctrine of s. tho. which yet is in some part of it hereticall or erroneous in the faith : therefore — the minor they prove by many examples . the first is of peters doctrine , gal. . ( i own not this by citing it : ) the second is of cyprian . the third of hierom ; and they add , that the same may be said of augustine , and many more approved doctors . the fourth example is lombard himself , who they say hath somewhat erroneous in the faith . the fifth is gratian , who had he pertinaciously adhered to his doctrine , they say , had been a manifest heretick : and ( say they ) some say the like of the ordinary glosses of the bible , which yet seem of greater authority then aquinas . the sixth example is of some not canonized saints , as anselm . cantuar. hugo de sancto victore , and others , as authentick as s. thomas . ] [ and ( say they ) his canonization , hindereth not , which some pretend as of great colour — to say that s. tho. in some part of his doctrine erred in faith , derogates not from his canonization , nor from the approbation of his theologicall doctrine : even as to say this of other saints and chief doctors derogateth not from their canonization or approbation . for as the church by canonizing one a saint , doth not thereby approve all his deeds , so in approving his doctrine , it doth not hereby approve all his sayings or writings , but only that which is not retracted by himself , or corrected by another , or deservedly to be corrected as contrary to truth . and now when fathers , even the chief , and your saints and highest doctors have this testimony from the famous university of paris , to have somewhat hereticall or erroneous in the faith ( and so who among you is free ? ) i leave it to modesty to judge , whether the greeks , armenians , &c. and we , are not of one faith , religion , and catholick church , for all our differences in some points ! have you had all these nations man by man before your bar , and convinced them of pertinaciousness in heresie ? if not , call them not hereticks till you are willing to be called such your selves , and that by your selves . and thus i have evinced , . that the church of which the protestants are members , hath been visible since the dayes of christ on earth . . and ex abundanti , that the papal church as papal hath not been visible , and that christian churches without papal soveraignty have been visible since gregories dayes , and the whole catholick church was such before . and you see both in the essentialls , and in the freedom from the romish vice-christ , where our church hath been before luther , even since christ. sir , i have performed this task on this supposed condition , that you will now do the like as to your own church ; and send me in solid arguments your proof of this thesis . [ the church of which the subjects of the pope are members , hath been visible ever since the dayes of christ on earth . ] where note , that it is not the visibility of your church as christian , united in christ the head , that is in question : we grant , as christians , all of you are of the true christian church that destroy not your christianity : but it is your new church form , as papal , that we question , and renounce . protestants are of no church but the christian united in christ : the name protestant signifieth not any essentiall of their church , but their rejection of your church as headed by the pope : you are therefore to prove that your catholick church as headed by the pope hath been visible in all ages . and here i must in justice expect , that you give us such a definition as you will stand to through the dispute , . of [ the church ] . of [ the pope ] and . [ of the subjects of the pope ] or [ papists . ] the term [ roman catholicks ] would but divert and elude : for it is not as [ romane ] that we oppose you , that is , as inhabitants of rome , or as subject to him as a bishop of rome : nor is it as [ catholicks ] that is , as of the universal christian church : but as [ papists ] that is , [ subjects of the pope as universal soveraign , or bishop . ] to dispute of terms not agreed on , is lost labour : define first , or you do nothing . i find of your writers , some by the [ church ] mean [ the pope ] as gretser defens . cap. . lib. . de verbo dei , pag. , . [ by the church ( saith he ) we mean the pope of rome ] and [ per ecclesiam papam interpretantur : non abnuo . ] some by [ the church ] mean [ a council ] and what they mean by [ a council ] i know not well . and some mean [ the roman clergy ] i. e. of that diocess : and some mean [ all the clergy under the pope : ] and some mean [ all the people that are his subjects . ] i have given you the reason of my doubting of your meaning in these terms , in a book come out of the press since your last to me , where i have answered most of yours . . let me desire of you such proofs as in your own judgement are cogent . i suppose ( as i have there told you , key pag. . cap. . ) that none of you will take either sense , reason , scripture , the tradition or judgement of most of the church for a sufficient proof : but yet we will accept of them , when you argue but ad hominem : for we renounce them not . i think what ever you say , that is not the determination of the pope or a council by him approved ( which is all one ) you will give us leave to judge that you are uncertain your selves whether you say true in it , if de fide . saith skul . revius apol. pro bell●rm . c. . p. . the popes power is as the hinge , the foundation , and ( that i may comprehend all in a word ) the summ of the christian faith . greg. valent. anal. fid . l. . c. . [ the authority that resideth in the pope alone , is called the authority of the church and councils . [ bell●r . de rom. pont. l. . c. . [ it is apparent that the whole firmness ( or strength ) of councils is from the pope ; not partly of the pope , and partly of the council . ] binnius vol. . p. . saith [ every council hath just so much strength and authority , as the apostolike seat bestoweth on it . ] but i leave you to give us your own judgement . your testimonies from fathers can seem of no great weight to us , while you so slight them your selves as commonly you do : with what lies , or errors , or other incompetency , you charge iustin mart. irenaeus , tertullian , origen , victorinus , cyprian , eusebius , epiphanius , prudentius , hierom , lactantius , augustine , procopius , theodoret , isidore , euthymius , sozomen , oecumenius , bernard , and all the fathers , see dr. iames corrupt . of fath. part. . p. , . tell us therefore how far you credit them . sir if you refuse thus first to explain your terms , and then prove the visibility of your church , as papal , successively , as i have proved the visibility of the church that i am of , i shall be forced to conclude , that you love not the light , but at once give up your cause , and the reputation of your impartial love of truth . addenda miscellanea . concil . ephes. . in epistola ad nestor . tom. fol. . ed. pet. crab. [ petrus & iohannes aequalis sunt ad alterutrum dignitatis . ] comment . in epist synodal . basil. p. . & p. . impress . colon. . saith that [ the provinces subject to the four great patriarchs from the beginning of the christian church , did know no other supream but their own patriarcks — and if the pope be a patriarck , it is by the church ; if he be head of all churches , it is by the church . and whereas we have said that it is expressed in the council of nice , that many princes were subjected to the church of rome by ecclesiastical custom , and no other right ; the synod should do the greatest injury to the bishop of rome , if it should attribute those things to him only from custom , which were his due by divine right . ] this citation i take from bishop bromhall , having not seen the book my self . the popish bishop of calced●n , survey cap. . [ to us it sufficeth that the bishop of rome is saint peters successour ; and this all the fathers testifie , and all the catholick church believeth : but whether it be jure divino , or humano , is no point of faith. ] an ingenuous confession destroying popery . see aubert miraeus notitia episcopat . where in the antient notit . and leunclavius record of leo philos. impera . there are none of the abassine , or other extramperial nations under the old patriarcks . cassander epist. . d. ximenio ( operum p. . ) saith of that learned pious bishop of valentia monlucius , ( so highly commended by thuanus and other learned men ) that he said , si sibi permittatur in his tribus capitibus [ viz. forma publicarum precum , de ritibus baptismi , de formâ eucharistiae , sive missae ) christianam formam ad normam priscae ecclesiae institutam legi , con●idere se quod ex quinquaginta mill . quos habet in suâ dioecesi à praesenti disciplina ecclesiae diversos , quaùraginta millia ad ecclesiasticam uni●n●m sit reducturus ] that is , if he had but leave in these three heads ( the form of publick prayers , of the rites of baptism , and the form of the eucharist or the mass ) to follow the christian form instituted according to the rule of the antient church , he was confident that of fifty thousand that he had in his diocess that differed from the present discipline of the church , he should reduce forty thousand to ecclesiastical union . ] by this testimony it is plain that the church of rome hath forsaken the antient discipline and worship of the church by innovation ; and that the protestants desire the restitution of it , and would be satisfied therewith , but cannot obtain it at the papists hands . so cass●nder himself , epist. p. . [ i would not despair of moderation , if they that hold the church possessions would remove some intolerable abuses , and would restore at tolerable form of the church , according to the prescript of the word of god , and of the antient church , especially that which flourished for some ages after constantine , when liberty was restored : which if they will not do , and that betime , there is danger they may in many places be cast out of their possessions . ] still you see rome is the innovator ; and it is restitution of the antient church-form that would have quieted the protestans , which could never be obtained . so again more plainly , epist. . p. . whether hereticks are in the church . when i came to london , i enquired after mr. iohnson , to know whether i might at all expect any answer to the foregoing papers , or not : and at last instead of an answer , i received only these ensuing lines . pag. . part . you say , i reply first , had not you despaired of making good your cause , you should have gone by argumentation , till you had forced me to contradict some common principle . now i have by argumentation , forced you to this , if you will maintain what after you seem to assert in divers passages , ( viz. ) that hereticks are true parts of christs catholick church ; for thus you write p. . some are called hereticks for denying points essential to christianity ; those are no christians , and so not in the church ; but many also are called hereticks by you , and by the fathers for lesser errours consistent with christianity ; and these may be in the church : and p. . you answer thus to your adversary : whereas you say it is against all antiquity and christianity to admit condemned hereticks into the church ; i reply first , i hate their condemnation , rather then reverence it ; where you saying nothing against their admittance into the church , seem to grant it . i therefore humbly entreate you to declare your opinion more fully in this question ; whether any professed hereticks , properly so called , are true parts of the universal visible church of christ ; so that they compose one universal church with the other visible parts of it . iunii to . william johnson . the answer . answ. my words are plain , and distinctly answer your question , so that i know not what more is needful for the explication of my sense ; unless you would call us back from the thing to the meer name , by your [ properly so called , ] you are answered already . but i would speak as plainly as i can , and if it be possible for me to be understood by you , i shall do my part . . it is supposed that you and i are not agreed what the vniversal visible church it self is , while you take the pope , or any meer humane head to be an essential part ; which is an assertion that with much abhorrence i deny . you think each member of that church must necessarily ad esse , be a subject of the pope ; and i think it enough that he be a subject of christ ; and to his orderly and well-being , that he hold local communion with the parts within the reach of his capacity , and be subject to the pastors that are set over him ; maintaining due association with and charity to the rest of the more distinct members , as he is capable of communion with them at that distance . so that when i have proved a person to be a member of the catholick church , it is not your catholick church that i mean : no ●ound christian is a member of yours ; it is hereticks ( in the softer sense ) that are its matter . it s necessary therefore that we first agree of the definition of the catholick church , before we dispute who is in it . . your word [ properly so called ] is ambiguous ; referring either to the etymologie , or to some definition in an authentick canon ; or to custom and common speech . of the first , we have no reason now to enter controversie : for the second , i know no such stablisht definition that we are agreed on : for the third , custom is so variable here , not agreeing with it self , that what is to be denominated proper or improper from it , is not to be well conjectured . however all this is but de nomine ; and what is the proper , and what the improper use of the word heretick , is no article of faith , nor necessary for our debate . therefore again you must accept of my distinguishing , and give me leave to fly confusion . . the word [ heretick ] is either spoken of one that corrupteth the doctrine of faith ( as such ) , or of one that upon some difference of opinion , or some personal quarrels , withdraweth from the communion of those particular churches that before he held communion with , and gathereth a separated party : such are most usually called schismaticks ; but of o●d , the name [ hereticks ] was oft applyed unto such . . the word [ heretick ] in the ●irst sense , is either spoken of one that ( professing the rest ) denyeth some one or more essential articles of the faith , or parts of christianity ; or one that only denyeth not what is necessary to the being , but to the integrality or sober and better-being of a christian. . hereticks are either convict and condemned , or such as never were tryed and judged . . hereticks condemned , are either condemned by their proper pastors , or by others . . if by others , either by usurpers , or by meer equal neighbour consociate pastors . . they are condemned either j●stly cl●ve non errante , or unjustly clave errante . . they are either judged to be materially , as to the quality of their errour , hereticks ; or also formally as obstinate , impenitent and habitually stated hereticks . upon these necessary distinctions , i answer your question in these propositions . prop. . as the word [ hereticks ] signifieth schismaticks as such , so hereticks with drawing from some parts of the universal church only , may yet be parts of the who●e ( even with those parts from which they separate ) . if they say [ you are no parts , and therefore we disown you , and will have no communion with you ] this maketh neither cease to be parts ] and while both own the head and the body as such , they have an union in tertio , and so a communion in the principal respects , while they peevishly disclaim it in other respects . besides that the local or particular communion , is it that is proper to members of a particular church , and therefore the renouncing it only separates him from that church . but it is the general communion that belongs to us as members of the church universal , which may be still continued . but should any renounce the body of christ as such , and separate ( not from this or that church , but ) from the whole , or from the church universal as such , this man would be no member of the church . prop. . as the word [ heretick ] is taken for one that denyeth any thing essential to christianity ; so an heretick , if latent , is out of the church deo judice , as to the invisible part , or soul of the church , ( as bellarmine calls it ) as a latent infidel is ; but he may be ( if latent ) in the outward communion , or ( as bellarmine calls him ) a dead member , that properly is none ; as the straw and chaffe are in the corn-field . prop. . such an heretick convict and judged by the pastors of that particular church , of which he is a subject-member , is accordingly to be avoided , and in foro illius ecclesiae , is so far cast out of that church , as the sentence importeth . prop. . such an heretick , if he be a pastor of one church , and be convict and condemned by the consociate co-equal pastors of the neighbour churches , is accordingly cast out from communion of all the churches , of which they are pastors . prop. . so far as any christians through the world have sufficient proof or cognisance of the said conviction and condemnation , they are all bound accordingly to esteem the condemned heretick , and avoid him . prop . if [ heresie ] be taken for the obstinate , impenitent resisting or rejecting of any point of faith ( that is , of divine revelation ) which is made so plain to the person , that nothing but a wicked will could cause such resistance or rejection , such persons being justly convicted and condemned as aforesaid , are to be taken as persons condemned for obstinacy and impenitency in any other sin ; and are out of the church , as far as a man condemned for impenitency in drunkenness or fornication is . prop. . heresie taken in this softer sense ( for the denyal of a truth of divine revelation , not essential to the christian religion , or necessary to the being of a christian ) excludeth no man from the church of it self , unless they are legally convict of wicked impenitency and obstinacy in defending it . prop. . a sentence passed in alieno foro , by an usurper that hath no true authority thereto , proveth no man an heretick . prop. . a sentence passed by an authorized pastor , ( or by many ) if it be notoriously unjust , clave errante , proveth no man an heretick , or out of the universal church . prop. . a sentence passed by one church , or many consociate , binds none to take the condemned person to be an heretick , and out of the universal church , but those that have sufficient notice of the authority of the judges , and validity of the evidence , or a ground of violent presumption ( as it s called ) that the sentence is just . prop. . he that is sentenced an heretick or impenitent by the pastors of some churches , and acquit by the equally-authorized pastors of other churches , is not eo nomine to be condemned or acquit by a third church , but used as the evidence requireth . prop. . there is an actual excommunication pro medelâ and pro tempore , due for an actual , willful defence of error , or for other willful sin ; which statedly puts not a man out of the church ; as there is an excommunication à statu & relatione , which is due for stated habitual or obstinate impenitency in that or other great or known sin . having thus distinctly told you my judgement how far hereticks are , or are not in or out of the universal church , i add in order to the application : . that this whole debate is nothing to the great difference between you and us , it being not de fide in your own account , but a dogma theologicum , which you differ about among your selves : bellarmine tells you alphonsus a castro maintaineth that hereticks are in the church ( de eccles. l. . c. . ) and he himself saith that haeretici pertinent ad ecclesiam ut oves ad ovile unde confugerunt , ibid. c. . so that they are oves still , and if it be but ovile particulare ( veluti romanum ) that they fly from , and not the vniversal , that proves them not out of the vniversal church . and bellarmine saith of the catechumen . & excommunicatis , that they are de anima , et si non de corpore ecclesiae , ib. c. . and may be saved , cap. . and the anima ecclesiae is not incorporated in the world without : all that have that soul , are of that church which christ ( that animateth his members ) is the head of . which made melchior canus ( fatente bellarmino de eccl. l. . c. . ) confess the being of that which indeed is the true catholike church , saying of the vnbaptized believers , that [ sunt de ecclesia quae comprehendit omnes fideles ab abel usque ad consummationem mundi . ] . many popes have been condemned for hereticks , even by general councils , as not only henorius ( by two or three ) but eugenius by the council of basil , when yet he kept his place , and the rest come in as his successors . and your writers frequently confess that a pope may be an heretick ( as pope adrian himself affirmeth . ) now if these are not of the church , then they are not heads of the church , and then being essential parts of your church , it followeth that your church is heretical and unchurched with them . but if these popes may be in the church ( and heads of yours ) while hereticks , then so may others . . it s commonly said by others ( of yours ) as well as bellarmine , that the councils were misinformed about honorius , ( and the popes that consented to those councils ) and so that he was not a heretick nor out of the church : also that a pope may erre in matter of fact , and unjustly excommunicate . if so , a pope and council may erre about another , as well as about honorius or other popes ; and therefore their sentence be no proof that such are out of the church , no more then that he and eugenius were out . . as the pope and his synods condemn the greeke , so the greeks condemn and excommunicate you ; as formerly the patriarch of constantinople , and the pope have excommunicated each other . i am therefore no more bound to take them for excommunicate persons , than you , they having as much authority over you as you over them , and their witness being to us as credible as yours . . the abassines , armenians , greeks , &c. are not proved to deny any essential point of the christian religion , or which is necessary to the being of a christian or church . . nor are they proved to be willful , obstinate and impenitent in defending any errors , with a wicked mind ; and so to be formally hereticks in your own sense . . they are large nations , and millions of souls , and their pastours numerous , so that its impossible they should be all legally by you convicted . they never spake for themselves , nor were witnesses heard against them . noxa caput sequitur . guilt of heresie is to be proved of each individual whom you condemn . if a few bishops were hereticks , or a prince were such , that proves not that the rest , and all the pastors , or people , even to many mill●ons are such . or if half had been such in former ages , that proves not that half or any are such now . christ never appointed the excommunicating of millions for the sakes of a few of their rulers , nor of whole nations unheard ; but of single persons upon a just and equal tryal . if therefore your pope , or any of his councils , ( which you falsly call general ) do excommunicate or condemn habassia , armenia , georgia , syria , and other na●ions as hereticks , it is so far from unchurching them , or proving them such , as that it is one of the greatest sins that can be committed by the sons of men , with inhumane injustice , cruelty , pride and arrogancy , presuming to pass a damning sentence on so many millions of souls , whose faces you never saw , nor were ever called to a legal tryal . . your own writers ordinarily acquit the greeks from heresie ; and those of them that have travelled to other countries , as syria , &c. acquit most of them , as i have proved in former writings out of their own words ( not needful therefore here to be recited , when you may see any writings . ] . your pope ( and bishops ) is none of their authorized pastor , and therefore hath no power as such to judge them . and as neighbour churches they have as much to do to judge you as you to judge them . therefore they are never the more out of the church for your judgement , any more than you for theirs . . there are as many and as great errors proved by them to be in your church as is by you to be in theirs : so that ( in sum ) your cause being much worse , and your censure of them proving you guilty of such inhumane cruelty , injustice , arrogancy , usurpation , &c. by condemning them , you go much nearer to prove your selves no christians and no church than them . . and yet i think the far greatest part of them ( many thousands to one ) are not actually excommunicated or condemned by any pretended sentence of your own , whatever your writers may say of them , and whatever one council might say of some few in some one age . . lastly , it can be no matter of certainty to you your self , or any of you , that these nations or churches are hereticks , both because it is a thing that none of your approved councils have determined of , as to any person now living , nor to any considerable number comparatively , in other ages ; and also because you confess your pope and councils fallible in these cases , of fact and personal application . you cannot therefore build upon such acknowledged uncertainties . but sir , having thus answered your demand , i must ask you , what 's all this to the answer of my last papers , which i have now near a year expected from you ? i suspected some such ●ergiversation , when i took the boldness to urge you so hard to the tasks that you were reasonably engaged to perform , viz. . to prove by close argumentation , the nullity of our churches , as you begun in your first argument . . to answer my proofs of our successive visibility . . to prove your own successive visibility in all ages since christ , as i have proved ours . i do therefore once more urge you speedily to do this , assuring you that else i must take it for an open deserting of your cause . but yet i must add , that if you will please to dispute the main cause in difference between us , upon equal terms ; we have yet other questions in which we differ , that are lower then these , and nearer the foundation . besides the forementioned work therefore , i desire , that you will dispute the main cause , in two distinct disputations , in one of which be you the opponent , and bring your strongest arguments against the reformed churches and religion ; and in the other i will be opponent and argue against popery ; in the beginning agreeing upon the sense of those terms that we are like to have greatest use of through our disputation . if you will but let us meet , and state our sense of such terms , before i return into the country , that we may the better manage it after at a distance , it will be worth our labour : and for verbal dispute , i shall at any fit time and place most cheerfully entertain it , if so many doubting persons may be present , as that it may be worth our labour . in the mean time i pray pardon it , if the roughness of any passages discover the frailty of your servant , r. baxter . iune . . mr. iohnsons explication of some of the most used terms : with queries thereupon : and his answer : and my reply . london , printed , . after the writing of the foregoing paper , i again urged mr. johnson to the speedy answering my papers : of which when he gave me no hope , i committed them to the press . but afterward , he seemed more inclinable both to that , and to a verbal conference : and in order to both , ( if we had opportunity ) i desired him first that we might agree on the sense of those terms that are like to be most used in the substance of our controversie ; promising him that i will give him my sense of any term , when he shall desire it ; and accordingly he explained his sense of many of them as followeth . queries of r. b. on these definitions , with mr. iohnsons answer , and my reply . mr. j. the catholick church of christ. the catholick church of christ is all those visible assemblies , congregations , or communities of christians , who live in unity of true faith , and external communion one with another , and in dependance of their lawful pastors . r. b. of the church . qu. . whether you exclude not all those converted among infidels , that never had external communion with , nor were members of any particular visible church , of which you m●ke the catholick to be constituted ? mr. j. answ. it is sufficient that such be subject to the supream pastor , and in voto , quantum in se est , resolved to be of that particular church actually , which shall , or may be assigned for them by that pastor , to be included in my definition . r. b. reply . q . repl. ad m . you see then that your definitions signifie nothing : no man can know your meaning by them . first you make the catholick church to consist only of visible assemblies : and after you allow such to be members of the church that are of no visible assemblies . you now mention subjection to the supream pastor as sufficient , which in your description or definition you did not . . if to be only in voto resolved to be of a particular church will serve , then inexistence is not necessary . to be only in voto of the catholick church , proves no man a member of the catholick church , but proves the contrary , because it is terminus diminuens . seeing then by your own confession , inexistence in a particular church is not of necessity to inexistence in the catholike church ; why do you not only mention it in your definition , but confine the church to such ? will you say you meant in voto ? who then can understand you , when you say they must be of visible assemblies , and mean , they need not be of any , but only to wish , desire or purpose it ? . but yet you say nothing to my case in its latitude . many a one may be converted to christ by a solitary preacher , or by two or three , that ne●er tell him that there is any supream pastor in the world : how then can he be subject to that supposed pastor , that never heard of him ? the english and dutch convert many indians to the faith of christ , that never hear of a supream pastor . . if it be necessary that a particular church must be assigned for such members by the supream pastor , then they are yet little the better that never have any such assignation from him ( as few have ▪ ) r. b. qu. . what is that faith in unity whereof all members of the catholike church do live ? is it the belief of all that god hath revealed to be believed ; or of part ? and what part ? mr. j. answ. of all ; either explicitly , or implicitly . r. b. reply . reply , ad m. your second answer further proves that your definitions signifie just nothing . they must live in unity of the faith : that is , either with faith or without it : with a belief of what go● hath revealed to be believed , or without it . for to believe any point implicitly , in your ordinary sense , is not to believe it , but only to believe one of the premises , whence the conclusion must be inferred . but why do you not tell me what you mean by [ an implicite faith ] ? faith is called implicite in several senses . . when several truths are actually understood and believed in confuso , or in gross , in some one proposition which containeth the substance of them all ; but not with accurate distinct conceptions , nor such as are ripe for any fit expression : this indistinct , immature , imperfect kind of apprehension may be called implicite ; and the distinct and more digested conceptions explicite . . when a general proposition is believed as the matter of our faith , but the particulars are not understood or not believed : as to believe that omne animal vivit , not knowing whether you are animal or cadaver . or to believe that [ all that is in the scripture is the word of god and true , ] but not to know [ what is in the scripture ] . . when it is only the formal object of faith that is believed , without understanding the material object . the first sort of these , i confess , is actual belief , though indistinct : but i suppose you mean not this . . because it is not the ordinary sense of your party . . because else you damn either all the world , or most of your own professed-party at least as no members of the church : for few or none have an actual understanding and belief of all that ever god revealed to them ; because all men ( or most at least ) have been sinfully negligent in searching after , and receiving truth ; and so are sinfully ignorant : no man knoweth all that god hath revealed , or that he ought to know . . because by this rule it is impossible for you or any man to know who is indeed a member of your church ; for you cannot know mens confused knowledge , or know that it extendeth to all revealed : for if you speak of all revealed in general , or in scripture , you still damn all , ( or most in your own sense ) for none , as i said , understand it all to a word : but if you speak of all which that particular man hath had sufficient means to know , it is then impossible for you to make a judgement of any mans faith by this : for you can never discern all the means ( internal or external ) that ever he had ; much less can you discern whether his faith be commensurate to the truth so far revealed . so that by this course you make your church invisible . i pray tell me how you can avoid it ? . the second sort of implicite belief , is no belief of the particulars at all . an animal may live , and yet it followeth not that you are alive or an animal . if this were your meaning , then either you mean [ that it is enough if all be believed implicitly besides that general proposition ] ; or you mean that some must be believed explicitly ( that is actually ) and some implicitly , ( that is , not at all ) . if the former be your sense , then infidels or heathens may be of your church . for a man may believe in general that [ the bible is the word of god and true ] and yet not know a word that 's in it ; and so not know that christ is the messias , or that ever there was such a person . but if somewhat must be explicitely ( that is , actually ) believed , the question that you should have answered was , [ what is it ? ] for till that be known , no man can know a member of your church by your description . . if you take [ implicite ] in the third sense , then implicite faith is either divine or humane . divine , when the divine veracity is the formal object . humane , when mans veracity is the formal object . which may be conjunct where the testimonies are so conjunct , as that we are sure it is god that speaks by man ; who is therefore credible because god infallibly guideth or inspireth him : this is at once to believe a humane and divine veracity . if any of this be your meaning , the last questions remain still to be resolved by you . a man may believe that [ god is true , ] and that [ his prophets or inspired messengers are true ] and yet not understand a word of the message : so that still if this will serve , a man may be of your church that knoweth not that ever there was such a person as jesus christ , or that ever he died for our sins , or rose again , or that we shall rise . and are infidels of your church while you are arguing us out ? but if there be some truths besides the veracity of god ( and his messengers ) that must be believed , you must shew what it is , or your church-members cannot be known . tell me therefore without tergiversation , [ what are the revealed truths that must actually be believed ] or [ what is the faith materially , in unity whereof all members of the catholike church do live ? ] i pray fly not , but plainly tell me . and if again you fly to uncertain points , because of the diversity of means of information , and say , [ it must be so much to every man as he had means to know ] i again answer you . . if a man had no means to know that there is a christ , it seems then he is one of your church . . you still damn all your own , there being not a man that knoweth all that he had means to know , because all have culpably neglected means . and so you have no church . . still you make your church invisible ( if you had any : ) for no man can tell , as i said , who knoweth in full proportion to his helps and means . do you not see now whither your implicite faith hath brought you ? r. b. qu. . is it any lawful pastors , or all , that must necessarily be depended on by every member ? and who are these pastors ? mr. j. answ. of all , respectively to each subject ; that is , that the authority of none of them , mediate or immediate , be rejected or contemned by him , that is a true member of the church . r. b. reply . ad qu. . r. reply . here still you tell me that your descriptions signified nothing . you told me that the members must [ live in dependance on their lawful pastors . ] and now you tell me that [ their authority must not be rejected or contemned . ] and indeed , is dependance and non-rejection all one ? the millions of heathens that never heard of the pope or any of your pastors reject them not , nor contemn them : are they therefore fit matter for your church ? . if you say , that you mean it of such only as have a sufficient revelation of the authority of these pastors , i further reply . . it seems then it is not only the pope , but every priest respectively that is an essential member of your church ; or to whom each member must be subject necessarily ad esse . if so , then every man that by falling out or prejudice , doth culpably reject the authority of any one pastor or priest among a swarm , is damned , or none of the church , though he believe in the pope and in twenty thousand priests besides . . and then have we not cause to pray god to bless us from the company of your priests ? or at least , that we may not have too many , when among a multitude we may be in danger of rejecting some one , and then we are cast out of the church ! what if a gentleman should find some such as watson or montaltus describe in bed with his wife ; or a prince find a garnet , a campion , or a parsons in a treason , and by such a temptation should be so weak , as to contemn , or reject the authority of that single priest , while he honoureth all the rest : is it certain , that such a man is none of the catholike church for that ? how hard is it in france and italy then to be a catholike , where priests are so numerous , that its ten to one , but among the crowd the authority of some one may be rejected ! . but is it all the priests that we never knew , or knew not to be priests , that we must depend on , or is it only those whose authority is manifested to us by sufficient evidence ? doubtless you will confine our dependance to these only ( or else no man could be a christian : ) and if so , you know we are never the nearer a resolution for your answer , till you yet tell us how we must know our pastors to have authority indeed . what if they shew me the bishops orders , and i know that many have had forged orders ? am i bound to believe in his authority ? what if i be utterly ignorant whether he that ordained him , were himself ordained ? or had intentionem ordinandi ? how shall i then be sure of his authority that is ordained ? and how can the people be acquainted with the passages in election and ordination that are necessary to the knowledge of their authority ? especially of the popes and prelates . and what if you tell me your own opinion , of the sufficient means by which i must be convinced of the popes and priests authority ? how shall i know that you are not deceived ; and that these are the sufficient means indeed , unless a general council have defined them to be sufficient ? and if they have , if it were not as an article of faith , you 'l say i am not bound of necessity to believe their definition . and what if i have sufficient means to know the authority of a thousand priests , but am culpably ignorant of it in some few through my neglect ? doth it follow that therefore i am out of the church ? is my obedience to each priest as necessary , as my belief of every article of my faith ? if so , i know not whether your multiplying articles , or multiplying priests , doth fill hell faster , if men must be judged by your laws . but it is our allegiance to our soveraign , that is the character of a subject in the common-wealth , and not our allegiance , or duty to every inferiour magistrate : the rejection of one of them may stand with subjection , though not with innocency : it is not treason to reject a constable : why then should more be necessary to our church-membership and salvation ? but still you make your church invisible : for as no man can know that liveth in the remote parts of the world , whether your popes themselves are truly popes , as being duly qualified and elected , nor which is the true pope , when you have oft had more then one at once ; so you can never know concerning your members , whether their dependance on their pastors be extensively proportionate to the means that discovered their authority ? and whether their disobedience unchurch them or no ? i earnestly crave your answer to the thirty uncertainties , which i have mentioned in my safe religion , p. , to . and tell us how all our pastours may be known . and whether every particular sin unchurch men ? and if not , why the contempt or rejection of a drunken priest doth it , while all the rest are ( perhaps too much ) honoured ? r. b. quest. . why exclude you the chief pastors , that depend on none ? mr. j. answ. i exclude them not , but include them ▪ as those of whom all the rest depend ; as st. hierom does in his definition , ecclesia est plebs episcopo unita . repl. ad resp. ad quest. . how unconstant are you among your selves in the use of terms ? how frequent is it with you to appropriate the name of [ the church ] to the clergy ? but remember hereafter , when you tell us of the determinations , and traditions of the church , that it is the people that you mean , and not only the pastors in council ; much less the pope alone . mr. j. heresie . is an intellectual obstinate opposition against divine authority revealing , when it is sufficiently propounded . r. b. of heresie . is the opposition and obstinacy that makes heresie , in the intellect or will ? mr. j. in the will , by an imperate act , restraining the understanding to that errour . r. b. reply . of heresie . qu. . reply . still your descriptions signifie just nothing . you describe heresie to be an intellectual obstinate opposition ; and yet say that this is in the will. and yet again you contradict your self by saying that it is an imperate act . no imperate act is in the will , though it be from the will. it is voluntary , but not in voluntate . an imperant act may be in the will , but not imperate . all imperate acts are in ( or immediately by the commanded faculties . ) the intelligere , which is the imperate act , is in the intellect : though the velle intelligere , which is an elicite act , be in the will. . from hence its plain that you cannot prove me or any man to be an heretick that is unfeignedly willing to know the truth , and is not obstinately willful in opposing it : which are things that you cannot ordinarily discern and prove by others , that are ready to be sworn that they would fain know the truth . r. b. qu. . must it needs be against the formal object of faith ? is he no heretick , that denieth the matter revealed , without opposing obstinately the authority revealing ? mr. j. answ. yes . nor is he a formal , but only a material heretick , who opposes a revealed truth , which is not sufficiently propounded to him to be a divine revelation . r. b. reply . qu. . reply . every man that believeth that there is a god indeed , believeth that he is true : for if he be not true , he is not god. if therefore no man be formally an heretick , that doth not obstinately oppose the veracity of god , which is the formal object , then as there are i hope but few hereticks in the world , so those few cannot by ordinary means be known to you : unless they will say that they take god to be a lyar , so that you make none hereticks indeed but atheists . what if a man deny that there is a christ , a heaven , a hell , or a resurrection ? and also deny the revelation it self , by which he should discern these truths ? and yet deny not the veracity of god , ( no nor of the church ? ) is this no heretick ? i would your party that have murdered so many thousands as hereticks , had so judged : ( if a falshood may be wished , as a thing permitted , to have prevented such a mischief . ) it is not gods veracity that is commonly denyed by hereticks , but the thing revealed , and the revelation of that thing : and your turnebul against baronius hath told you , that the revelation is no part of the formal object of faith , but as it were the copula , or a condition sine qua non . if he that obstinately refuseth to believe that the godhead of christ , or the holy ghost is any where by god revealed , and so denyeth it , be no heretick , unless he also obstinately deny or resist the veracity of god ; then there are few that you can prove hereticks . ( for forma dat nomen ; and he that is not a heretick formally , but materially only , is no heretick at all . ) lastly , many a truth is sinfully neglected by the members of the church ; that have a proposal sufficient , and yet not effectual through their own fault : and yet they are no hereticks . millions in your church are ignorant of truths sufficiently proposed , and therefore their ignorance is their sin : but it followeth not that it is their heresie . but if it be , then hereticks constitute your church ; and then your church is a thing unknown ; because the hereticks cannot be known , the sufficiency of each mans revelation being much unknown to others . r. b. qu. . what mean you by a sufficient proposal ? mr. j. answ. i mean such a proposal as is sufficient in humanis , to oblige one to take notice , that a king , or chief magistrate , have enacted such , or such laws , &c. that is , a publick testimony , that such things are revealed by the infallible authority of those who are the highest tribunal of gods church ; or by notorius and universal tradition . r. b. reply . qu. . reply 〈…〉 there lieth not so much at the stake as a mans salvation : and man is not so able as god to make a truly sufficient revelation of his will to all : and therefore the proportion holds not . . but if it did , either you think the sufficiency varieth according to the variety of advantages , opportunities , and capacities of the persons , or else that it consisteth only in the act of common publication , and so is the same to all the subjects . if the first be your sense ( as i suppose it is , ) then still you are uncertain who are hereticks , as being uncertain of mens various capacities , and so of the sufficiency in question . unless you will conclude ( with me ) that thus you make all hereticks , as aforesaid ; because all men living are culpably ignorant of some truths , which they had a revelation of that was thus far sufficient . if the second be your sense , then the same unhappy consequence will follow ( that all are hereticks ; ) and moreover , that some of obscure education are unavoidably hereticks , because they had no opportunity to know those things , which as to the majority , are of publick testimony or universal tradition . is not the bible , a publick testimony and record , and being universally received , is an universal tradition ? and yet abundance of truths in the holy bible are unknown , ( and therefore not actually believed ) by millions that are in your church , and are not taken by your selves for hereticks . your befriending ignorance would else make very many hereticks . mr. j. pope . by pope , i mean st. peter , or any of his lawful successors in the see of rome , having authority by the institution of christ , to govern all particular christian churches , next under christ. r. b. of the pope . qu. . i am never the nearer knowing the pope by this , till i know , how peters successors may be known to me . what personal qualification is necessary ad esse ? mr. j. answ. such as is necessary ad esse for other bishops ; which i suppose you know . r. b. reply . of the pope . qu. . reply . if so , then all those were no popes that were hereticks , or denied essential points of faith ( as iohan. . ) and so were no christians ; and all those that wanted the necessary abilities to the essentials of their work . and so your church hath oft been headless , and your succession interrupted , councils having censured many popes to be thus unqualified : and the dispositio materiae being of it self necessary to the reception of the form , it must needs follow , that such were no popes , even before the councils charged them with incapacity or heresie : because they had it , before they were accused of it . and simony then made many uncapable . r. b. qu. . when and how must the institution of christ be found ? mr. j. answ. in the revealed word of god , written or unwritten . r. b. reply . qu. . reply . you never gave the world assurance , how they may truly know the measure of your unwritten word , nor where to find it , so as to know what it is . . till you prove christs institution ( which you have never done , ) you free us from believing in the pope . r. b. qu. . will any ones election prove one to be pope ? or who must elect him ad esse ? mr. j. answ. such as by approved custome , are esteemed , by those to whom it belongs , fit for that charge ; and with whose election the church is satisfied . r. b. reply . qu. . reply . here you are fain to hide your self instead of answering ; and shew indeed that a pope ( that 's made an essential part of the church ; subjection to whom is made of necessity to salvation ) is indeed but a meer name , or a thing unknown ; and so can be certainly believed or acknowledged by none . for either election of him ( by some body ) is necessary , or not . if not , then you or another man unchosen may be pope , for ought i know , or any man else . if yea ; then it is either any bodies election of him that will serve turn , or not . if it will , then you may be pope , if your scholars choose you , and then you have had three true popes at once ; for so many were elected . but if it will not , then it must be known who hath the power of election , before it can be known who is indeed the pope : but you are forced here by your answer to intimate to us , that the power of election cannot be known : and therefore the pope cannot be known . for , . here are no determinate electors mentioned ; and therefore it seems none known to you : and no wonder : for if you confine it to the people , or to the cardinals , or to the emperours , or to councils , you cut off all your popes that were chosen by the other waies . . nor do you determine of any particular discernable note , by which the electors , and power of election may be known to the church : but all these patches make up your description . . it must be those that are esteemed fit for the charge . . and that by those to whom it belongs . . and that by custome . . and that approved . . and the church must be satisfied with the election . o miserable body then that hath been so oft headless , as rome hath been ! . will esteeming them fit , serve turn though they be unfit ? then it is not the fitness that is necessary , but the estimation , ( true or false . ) . but why did you not tell us to whom it is that it belongs to esteem the choosers fit ? here you were at a streight . but is not this to say nothing while you pretend to speak ? and to hide what you pretend to open ? . and who knows what custome , and of what continuance you mean ? primitive custom went one way ; and afterward custom went another way ; and later custom hath varied from both ; and hath the power of election changed so oft ? . and who is it that must approve this custom ? and what approbation must there be ? all these are meer hiding , and not resolving of the doubt , and tell us that a pope is a thing invisible or unknown . . and your last assureth us , that your succession was interrupted through many usurpations , yea indeed that you never had a pope . for the church was unsatisfied with the election of abundance of your popes , when whores , and simony , and murder , and power set them up : and most of the church through the world is unsatisfied with them still to this day . and you have no way to know whether the greater part of the church is satisfied or not ; for non-resistance is no sign of satisfaction , where men have not opportunity or power to resist . and when one part of europe was for one pope , and another for another through so many schisms , who knows which had the approbation of that which may be called the church ? r. b. qu. . is consecration necessary ? and by whom ad esse ? mr. j. answ. it is not absolutely necessary ad esse . r. b. reply . qu. . reply . if consecration be not necessary to the papacy , then it is not necessary that this or that man consecrate him more then another . and then it is not necessary to a bishop . and then the want of it makes no interruption in succession , in any church , any more then in yours . r. b. qu. . what 〈◊〉 , or proof is necessary to your subjects ? mr. j. answ. so much as is necessary to oblige them , to accept of other elected princes to be their soveraigns . r. b. reply . qu. . reply . when you have answered to the forementioned thirty doubts , we shall know what that general signifieth . mr. j. bishops . i mean by bishop , such a christian pastor as hath power , and jurisdiction , to govern the inferior pastors , clergy , and people within his diocesse , and to confer holy orders to such as are subject to him . r. b. of bishops . qu. . do you mean , that he must have this jure divino , or humano ? and if jure divino , whether mediately or immediately ? mr. j. answ. the definition abstracts from particulars , and subsists without determining that question . r. b. reply . of bishops . qu. . repl. . you before seem to yeild that the papacy is but jure humano ; ( and therefore sure of no necessity to salvation : ) for if man can change the power of election , and the foundation be humane , it s like the relation is but humane . and therefore if bishops must be jure divino , they are more excellent and necessary then the pope . . how gross a subterfuge is this ? either the bishop in question is a divine creature or a humane : if a divine ; as you may manifest it , or express it at least , so you ought ; it being no indifferent thing to turn a divine office and church into an humane : if he be not divine , he is not of necessity to a divine church , nor to salvation . and yet thus your r. smith bishop of calcedon ( ubi supra ) confesseth it to be no point of your faith , that the pope is st. peters successor jure divino . and if you leave it indifferent to be believed , or not , that both your pope and bishops are jure divino , you confess you are but a humane policy or society , and therefore that no man need to fear the loss of his salvation by renouncing you . r. b. qu. . how shall we know who hath this power ? what election , or consecration is necessary thereto ? if i know not , who hath it , i am never the better . mr. j. answ. as you know , who hath temporal power , by an universal , or most common consent of the people : the election is different according to different times , places , and other circumstances . episcopal consecration is not absolutely necessary . r. b. reply . qu. . repl. . how now ! are all the mysteries of your succession and mission resolved into popular consent ? is no one way of election necessary ? do you leave that to be varied as a thing indifferent ? and is episcopal consecration also unnecessary ? i pray you here again remember then , that none of our churches are disabled from the plea of a continued succession , for want of episcopal consecration , or any way of election ▪ if our pastors have had the peoples consent , they have been true pastors , according to this reckoning : and if they have now their consent , they are true pastors . but we have more . . by this rule we cannot know of one bishop of an hundred whether he be a bishop or no ; for we cannot know that he hath the common consent of the people : yea we know that abundance of your bishops have no such consent : yea we know that your pope hath none of the consent of most of the christians in the world ; nor ( for ought you or any man knows ) of most in europe . it s few of your own party that know who is pope , ( much less are called to consent , ) till after he is settled in possession . . according to this rule , your successions have been frequently interrupted , when against the will of general councils , and of the far greatest part of christians , your popes have kept the seat by force . . in temporals your rule is not universally true . what if the people be engaged to one prince , and afterward break their vow , and consent to a usurper ? though in this ease a particular person may be obliged to submission and obedience in judicial administrations ; yet the usurper cannot thereby defend his right , and justifie his possession , nor the people justifie their adhesion to him , while they lye under an obligation to disclaim him , because of their preengagement to another . though some part of the truth be found in your assertion . r. b. qu. . will any diocess serve ad esse ? what if it be but in particular assemblies ? mr. j. answ. it must be more then a parish , or then one single congregation , which hath not different inferiour pastors , and one , who is their superior . r. b. reply . qu. . repl. this is but your naked affirmation . i have proved the contrary from scriptures , fathers , and councils in my disputation of episcopacy , viz. that a bishop may be ( and of old ordinarily was ) over the presbyters only of one parish , or single congregation , or a people no more numerous then our parishes . you must shew us some scripture , or general council for the contrary before we can be sure you here speak truth . was gregory thaumaturgus no bishop , because when he came first to neocaesarea , he had but seventeen souls in his charge ? the like i may say of many more . mr. j. tradition . i understand by tradition the visible delivery from hand to hand in all ages , of the revealed word of god , either written , or unwritten . r. b. of tradition . qu. . but all the doubt is , by whom this tradition that 's valid , must be by your pastors , or people , or both ? by pope , or councils , or bishops disjunct ? by the major part of the church , or bishops ( or presbyters ) or the minor ? and by how many ? mr. j. answ. by such and so many proportionably ▪ as suffice in a kingdom to certifie the people , which are the ancient universally received customs in that kingdom , which is to be morally considered . r. b. reply . of tradition . qu. . repl. i consent to this general . but then , . how certainly is tradition against you , when most of the christian world , yea all except an interessed party , do deny your soveraignty , and plead tradition against it ? and how lame is your tradition , when it s carried on your private affirmations , and is nothing but the unproved sayings of a sect ! r. b. qu. . what proof , or notice of it , must satisfie me in particular , that it so past ? mr. j. answ. such , as with proportion is a sufficient proof , or notice , of the laws and customs of temporal kingdoms . r. b. reply . qu. . repl. but is it necessary for every christian , to be able to weigh the credit of contradicting parties , when one half of the world faith one thing , and the other another thing ? what opportunity have ordinary christians to compare them , and discern the moral advantages on each side ? as in the case of the popes soveraignty , when two or three parts of the christian world is against it , and the rest for it , can private christians try which party is the more credible ? or is it necessary to their salvation ? if so , they are cast upon unavoidable despair . if not , must they all take the words of their present teachers ? then most of the world must believe against you , because most of the teachers are against you : and then it seems mens faith is resolved into the authority of the parish-priest or their confessors . the laws of a kingdom may be easier known , then christian doctrines can be known , ( especially such as are controverted among us ) by meer unwritten tradition . kingdoms are of narrower compass then the world : and , though the sense of laws is oft in question , yet the being of them is seldom matter of controversie ; because men conversing constantly and familiarly with each other , may plainly and fully reveal their minds ; when god that condescendeth not to such a familiarity , hath delivered his mind by inspired persons long ago , with much less sensible advantages , because it is a life of faith that he directeth us to live . mr. j. general council . a general council , i take to be , an assembly of bishops and other chief prelates , called , convened , and confirmed , by those who have sufficient spiritual authority to call , convene , and confirme . r. b. of a general council . qu. . who is it ( ad esse ) that must call , convene , confirm it ? till i know that , i am never the nearer knowing , what a council is ; and which is one indeed . mr. j. answ. definitions abstract from inferior subdivisions . for your satisfaction i affirm , it belongs to the bishop of rome . r. b. reply . qu. . repl. . if it be necessary to the being or validity of a council that it be called or confirmed by the pope , then your definition signifieth nothing , if you abstract from that which is so necessary an ingredient , unless it were presupposed to be understood . . if it belong to the bishop of rome to call a council as necessary to its being , then the first great general council , and others following , were none ; it being certain that they were not called by him . and as certain that he hath never proved any such authority to call them , or confirm them . r. b. qu . must it not represent all the catholike church ? doth not your definition agree to a provincial , or the smallest council ? mr. j. answ. yes , my definition speaks specifically of bishops and chief prelates , as contradistinct from inferiour pastors and clergy , and thereby comprises all the individuums contained in the species ; and consequently makes a distinction from national , or particular councils , where some bishops only are convened , not all ; that being only some part , and not the whole species , or specifical notion applied to bishops of every age . and yet i said not all bishops , but bishops and chief prelates ; because though all are to be called , yet it is not necessary that all should come . whence appears what i am to answer to the next two questions . r. b. reply . qu. . repl. . then you have had no general councils ; much less can have any more : for you have none to represent the greatest part of the church , unless by a mock representation . . if all must be called , your councils have not been general , that call'd not a great part of the church . . if most are necessarily detained ( as by distance , the prohibition of princes , &c. ) the call made it not their duty to be there , and so makes it not a general council ; which is so called from the generality of the meeting and representation , and not of the invitation : no more then a call would make it a true council if none came . r. b. qu. . how many bishops , and from what parts must ( ad esse ) make such a council ? mr. j. answ. the number is morally to be considered , more or fewer according to the difficulties of times , distances of place , and other circumstances ; as is also the parts , from whence they are to come . r. b. reply . qu. . repl. this is a put-off for want of an answer . is it a council if difficulties keep away all ? if not , it can be no general council , when difficulties keep away the most . much less when such a petty confederacy as met at trent , shall pretend to represent the christian world . you thus leave us uncertain when a council is general , and when not . how can the people tell , when you cannot tell your self , when the bishops are so many as make a council general ! r. b. qu. . may none but bishops and chief prelates be members , as you intimate ? mr. j. answ. no others ; unless such inferiours as are sent to supply the places , and as deputies of those bishops or prelates , are such members of the council , as have decisive votes in framing decrees and definitions . r. b. reply . qu. . repl. this is but your private opinion . no council hath defined it , unless they are contradictory . for i suppose you know that basil and many councils before it had presbyters in them . mr. j. schism . i understand by schism , a willfull separation , or division of ones self from the whole visible church of christ. r. b. of schism . qu. . is it no schism to separate from a particular church , unless from the whole ? mr. j. answ. no ; it is no schism , as schism is taken in the holy fathers , for that great and capital crime , so severely censured by them ; in which sense only i take it here . r. b. reply . of schism . qu. . repl. though i take schism more comprehensively , and i think , aptly my self , yet hence i observe your justification of the protestants from the charge of schism ; seeing they separate not from the catholike or whole church : for they separate not from the armenian , ethiopian , greek , &c. nor from you as christians , but as scandalous offenders , whom we are commanded to avoid . we separate not from any , but as they separate from christ. r. b. qu. . or is it no schism , unless willfull ? mr. j. answ. no ; it is not schism , unless the separation be willfull on his part who makes it . r. b. reply . qu. . repl. again you further justifie us from schism . if it be willfull , it must be against knowledge . but we are so far from separating willfully or knowingly from the whole church , that we abhor the thought of such a thing , as impious and damnable . r. b. qu. . is it none , if you make a division in the church , and not from the church ? mr. j. answ. not , as we here understand schism , and as the fathers treat it . for the church of christ being perfectly one , cannot admit of any proper schism within it self : for that would divide it into two ; which it cannot be . r. b. reply . qu. . repl. though i am sure paul calls it schism , when men make divisions in the church , though not from it ; not making it two churches , but dislocating some members , and abating charity , and causing contentions where there should be peace ; yet i accept your continued justification of us , who if we should be tempted to be dividers in the church , should yet hate to be dividers from it ; as believing that he that is separated from the whole body , is also separated from the head. mr. j. sir , the want of a scribe hath forced me to fail a little in point of time : but i hope you will excuse him , who desires to serve you , w. j. iune . . r. b. sir , vrgent unavoidable business constrained me to delay my return to your solutions , or explications of your definitions , till this june . . when you desire me to answer any such questions , or explain any doubtful passages of mine , i shall willingly do it . in the mean time you may see , while your terms are still unexplained , and your explications or definitions so insignificant , how unfit we are to proceed any further in dispute , till we better understand each other as to our terms and subject : which when you have done your part to , i shall gladly , if god enable me , go on with you , till we come ( if it may be ) to our desired issue . but still i crave your performance of the double task you are engaged in . richard baxter . appendix . the most that i here said against the successive visibility of our church , is reduced by them to the point of ordination . they say , we can have no church without pastors : no pastors without ordination ; and no ordination but from the church of rome : therefore when we broak off from the church of rome , we interrupted our succession , which cannot be repaired but by a return to them . this is the sum of most of their discourses , in what shape soever they appear . to which i answer . . as [ a church ] is taken for a community of christians , which are really members of the church universal , so it may ad esse be without pastors . but the catholike church can never be without them : nor yet , any true political , organized , particular church . . it is contrary to the papists own opinion that ordination of their particular pastors , is necessary to the being of a true particular church . bellarmine granteth ( lib. . de eccles. c. . ) that it is indeed to us uncertain that our pastors have potestatem ordinis & jurisdictionis ; and that we have but a moral certainty that they are true bishops : though we may know that they hold christs place , and that we owe them obedience ; and that to know that they are our pastors , non requiritur nec fides , nec character ordinis , nec legitima electio , sed solum ut habeantur pro talibus ab ecclesia . [ i. e. it is not requisite , that they have faith , or the character of order , or lawful election ; but only that they be taken for such by the church . ] and if it be enough that their church repute their pastors to be elected , ordained , and believers , though they are not so indeed ; then can no more be necessary to ours . we repute ours as confidently to be lawfully elected and ordained as they do theirs . . it is contrary to the papists own opinion , that any consecration ( much less canonical ) is necessary to the being of their vniversal head. i need not cite their authors for this ; as long as you have . the history of their practices : and . the confession of this learned man that i dispute with , in the explication of the term [ pope ] in these his last papers . and that which is not necessary to their pope , cannot by them be made necessary to our bishops . . nothing in church history more certain , then that the church of rome hath had no continued succession of a truely elected , or ordained pope according to their own canons . . if infidelity or heresie judged by a council ( in the case of honorius , ioh. . eugenius , &c. ) will not prove a nullity and intercision . . if simony , murder , adultery , &c. will not prove it . . if about fourty years schisme at once will not prove it : none knowing who was the true pope , but by the prevalency of his secular power ; and their writers confessing that it is known to none but god. . if intrusion without any just election will not prove it ; then there is no danger to those churches that are lyable to no such accusations . but if any or all of these will prove it , the roman intercision is beyond dispute , as i shall further manifest on any just call , if it be denyed . . the standing law and institution of christ , is it that gives the power ( by imposing the duty ) of ministration : and ordination only determineth of the person that shall receive it ( together with election , ) and solemnizeth it by investiture : as coronation to a king , that is a king before . i have already proved that an uninterrupted succession of regular ordination is no more necessary to the being of a church , then uninterrupted succession of regular coronation is to the being of a king or kingdom : which i am ready to make good . . this whole case of ordination i have already spoken to ( so carefully and fully according to my measure ) in my second dispute of church government , that i shall suppose that man hath said nothing to me , requiring my reply , on this point , that doth not answer that . and to write the same thing here over again , cannot fairly be expected . . voetius de desperata causa papatus , hath copiously done the same against iansenius , which they should answer satisfactorily before they call for more . . the nullity which they suppose to make the intercision , is either the ordination we had from the papist bishops before our reformation , or the ordination that we received since . if the former be a nullity , then all the papists ordinations are null ; and so they nullifie their church and ministry . that the latter is no nullity , we are ready to make good against any of them all . object . but if you own your ordination as from the church of rome , you own their church . answ. we consider them , . as christian pastors . . as popish pastors ; as christian pastors in the catholike church , their ordination is no more a nullity than their baptizing , ( which we count valid . ) but as popish , they have no authority for either . object . but they gave both baptism and ordination as papists , and it must be judged of by the intention of the giver , and receiver . answ. it is the baptism and ordination of christs institution , as such , which was pretended to be given and received : could we prove that they administred any other or otherwise , they say they would disown it : as such therefore we must take it , till we can prove that they destroy the very essence of it . if it be given and taken secondarily as popish the scab of their corruption polluteth it , but not nullifieth it . so they profess themselves first ministers of christ , and but subordinately ( as they think ) of the pope : so much therefore as belongs to them in their first and lawful relation may be valid ; though so much as respecteth their usurped relation be sinful . had i been baptized or ordained by one of their priests , i would disown all the corruptions of them , but not the baptism and ordination it self . . there is no necessity to the being or well-being of a particular church , that it hath continued from the apostles daies , or that its particular ministry have had no intercision . if germany were converted but lately to the christian faith , it may be nevertheless a true part of the catholike church . if ierusalem had sometime a church , and sometime none , it may have now a true church nevertheless . . if our ordination had failed by an intercision , it might as well be repaired from other churches ( that have had a continued succession ) as from rome . and much better ; because without participation of their peculiar corruptions . or if any bishops that were of the papal faction should repent of their poperie , and not of their ordination , they might ordain us as bishops , and repair our breach . and indeed that was the way of our continued ordination . many that repented that they were popish prelates , continued the office of christian bishops , and by such our ancestors were ordained . as christianity and episcopacy were before popery , and so are they still separable from it , and may continue when it is renounced . besides what i have more fully said in the foresaid dispute of ordination , i see no need of adding any more , against this objection , about successive ordination and ministerial power . as to their other objection ( which they make such a stir with , and take no notice of the answer which we have so often given ) viz. [ when every sect pretend that they have the true church and ministry , who shall judge ? ] i again answer , there is a iudicium privatum , and publicum : a private judgement of discerning belongs to every man : the publick judgement is either civil or ecclesiastical . the civil judgement is [ who shall be thus or thus esteemed of , in order to civil encouragement or discouragement ] ( as by corporal punishments , or rewards : ) this judgement belongeth only to the civil magistrate . the ecclesiastical judgement , is in order to ecclesiastical communion or excommunication . and so it belongs to those with whom the person is in communion , in their several capacities . the members of a particular church , are to be judged authoritatively by the pastors of that church , ( and by the people , by a private judgement of discerning . ) pastors should associate for communion of churches : and so in order to that communion of association , it belongs to the several associations to judge of the members of the society : which yet is not by a publike governing judgement : for in councils or associations , the major vote are not properly the governors of the lesser part : but those that are out of capacity of communion , have nothing to do to judge of the aptitude of pastors or churches in order to communion or non-communion . and for the pope , he hath nothing to do with us at such a distance , whose persons and cases are wholly unknown to him ; he being neither our governour nor our associate . but if we and our case were known to him , he may judge of us so far as we may judge of him . and other judgement ( what ever men may say to deceive ) there is none to decide our controversies , but the final judgement of the vniversal iudge , who is at the door . a letter written to thomas smith a papist , concerning the church of rome . london , printed , . reverend sir , the noted sanctity , admirable integrity , and extraordinary charity so eminently appearing in your pious actions , ( and as i have some cause to think , the indelible characters of your sacred function ) hath animated me to make choice of your self rather then any of your coat to this present address : hoping your candour and tenderness will bear with what may be ( by others less sensible of the value of immortal souls slighted ) interpreted according to the candid and true sense of your supplicant by you . it hath pleased the great and terrible iudge of heaven and earth to put me upon some thoughts more seriously then ordinary of my eternal estate , and to be somewhat doubtful ( in the midst of external perturbations ) of those internal grounds which i have formerly relyed upon ; and truely sir with all cordialness , my desire is clearly to know the mind of my god , which were i truely satisfied in , i should soon wave all other interests to entertain : and assuring my self according to what i have seen and read , the church of rome , to which i have long cleaved and adhered , to be the pillar and ground of truth , and that catholike church which the ancient creed testifies , we are to believe in : my desire is to be as soon satisfied as may be of your thoughts , whether it ever were a true church , which i suppose you will not deny , when you consider the first verse of the epistle to the romans ; and if so , when it made its defection ? the reason of my urging this is , because i think all other questions to be but going about the bush , and the true church being proved , all arguments else easily are answered . i have heard protestants aver the ancient maxime , viz. extra ecclesiam non est salus . therefore i suppose it the only thing pertinent to my purpose , and necessary to salvation to enquire after . my occasions will suddenly draw me from these parts , unless i hear from you speedily : and doubt not sir , but i am one who freely will resign my self to hear truth impartially . therefore i beseech you to send something to me by way of satisfaction the next saturday , after which you shall be more particularly sensible who the person is that applies himself to you , and in the interim subscribes himself , sir , a thirsty troubled soul , and yours to his power , tho. smith . feb. . . direct your letter to me if you please to mr. john smiths house next door to the sign of the crown in the broad street , worcester . good sir , be private for the present ; otherwise it may be prejudicial to some temporal affairs agitating at this time . sir , that you can have such charitable thoughts of one that is not of the roman subjection , and of my function , being not received from the pope , is so extraordinary , yea and contrary to the judgement of your writers , that i must needs entertain it with the more gratitude , and some admiration . and that you are so impartially willing to entertain the truth , ( as you profess ) though it be no more then the truth deserves of you , and your own wellfare doth require ; yet is the more aimiable in you , by how much the more rare in those of your profession , so far as my acquaintance can inform me : for most of them that i have met with , understand not well their own religion , nor think themselves much concerned to understand it , but refer me to others for a reason of their hope . for my part , i do the more gladly entertain the occasion of this entercourse with you ( though unknown , ) that i may learn what i know not , and may be true to my own conscience in the use of all means that may conduce to my better information . and therefore i shall plainly answer your questions according to the measure of my understanding ; most solemnly professing to you , that i will say nothing which comes not from my heart in plain simplicity , and that i will with exceeding gladness and a thousand thanks come over to your way , if i can finde by any thing that you shall make known to me , that it is the mind of god that i should so do . and therefore i am desirous , that if what i write to you shall seem unsound , you would not only afford me your own advice for the correction of it , but also the advice of the most learned of your mind , to whom you shall your self think meet to communicate it . but on these conditions . . that it be a person of a tender conscience , that dare speak nothing but what he verily believes . . that he will argue closly , and not fly abroad or dilate rhetorically . and for any divulging of it to your danger or hurt , you need not fear it : for these two grounds of my following answers ; i shall here promise , . that i am so far from persecuting bloody desires against those of your way , that their own bloody principles and practices where they have power ( in italy , spain , &c. ) hath done much to confirm me , that the cause is not of god that must be so upheld and carried on . . and i am so far from cruel uncharitable censures of any that unfeignedly love the lord jesus and his truth , that it is the greatest motive to me of all other to dislike your profession , because it is so notoriously against christian charity , restraining the catholike church to your selves , and outing and condemning the far greatest part of christians in the world , and that because they believe not in the pope , though they believe in god the father , son and holy ghost , and all that the primitive church believed . i am so catholike , that ( according to my present judgement ) i cannot be of your church , because it is so little catholike . i am of the one universal church , which containeth all the true christians in the world : and you are of a party which hath separated it self from most of the christians in the world . i am of that one body that is centred in christ the head ; you are of a piece of this body , that hath centred in a man , and oft a confessed heretical wicked man , whom you take while he lives to be the infallible judge and foundation of all your faith and hope ; and when he is dead , perhaps pronounce him to be in hell ( as bellarmine did pope sixtus , and others commonly . ) i know , as every sect hath a kind of unity among themselves , however divided from all the rest of the church , so also hath yours : but nothing will satisfie me but a catholike unity , church and faith. so much being premised , i answer your questions . quest. . whether the church of rome was a true church in the apostles dayes ? answ. the word [ church ] signifies more things then one . . sometime it is used to signifie the whole mystical body of christ , containing all and only those that are justified , whom bellarmine calleth living members . and in this sense the church of rome in the apostles dayes was not the church , but the justified members were part of the church . . sometime it is used to signifie all that profess true christianity in the world : and thus the church of rome was not the church , but part of it . . it is oft used by your writers to signifie one church , that by prerogative is the head or mistris of all christians in the world , to which they must all be subject , and from which they must receive their name , as the kingdom of mexico , of tripolis , of fez , &c. are so called from the chief cities of the same name , and from which they receive their faith and laws , as the body hath life and motion from the head or heart . in this sense the church of rome was no church in the apostles dayes . . sometime it is used to signifie one particular church , associated for personal communion in worship . and thus the church of rome was a true church in the apostles dayes . . sometime it is used to signifie a collection or conjunction of many particular churches ( though not all ) under the bishop of one church , as their patriarch or metropolitan . and thus the church of rome was no church in the apostles dayes , but about two hundred years after christ it was . it is only the church in the third of these senses , that is in controversie between the roman and reformed churches . now to your next question . quest. . when was it that the church of rome ceased to be a true church ? answ. in the first , second , and third sences it never ceased to be a true church : for it never was one . in the first and second sence it never was one either in title or claim , ( i hope . ) in the third , it was never one in title , nor yet in claim for many hundred years after christ : but now it is . therefore the question between us should not be , when it ceased , but when it begun to be such a capital ruling church , essential to the whole ? in the fifth sence it never ceased otherwise then as it is swallowed up in a higher title . it begun to be a patriarchal church , about two or three hundred years after christ : and it ceased to be meerly patriarchal when it arrogated the title of vniversal or mistris of all . in the fourth sence , the question is not so easie , and i shall thus answer it . . by speaking to the use of the question . . by a direct answer to it . . it is of small concernment to my salvation or yours , to know whether the church of rome be a true particular church or not : no more then to know whether the church of thessalonica , or ephesus , or antioch , be now a true church . in charity to them i am bound to regard it , as i am bound to regard the life of my neighbour : but what doth it concern my own life , to know whether the mayor and aldermen of worcester or glocester be dead or alive ? so what doth it concern my salvation to know whether the church of rome be now a true particular church ? if i lived at the antipodes or in aethiopia , and had never heard that there is such a place as rome in the world ( as many a thousand christians doubtless never heard of it ) this would not hinder my salvation , as long as i believed in the blessed trinity , and were sanctified by the spirit of grace . so that , as i am none of their judge , so i know not that it much concerneth me , to know whether they be a true particular church , save for charity or communion . . yet i answer it more directly . . if they do not by their errors so far overthrow the christian faith which they profess , as that it cannot practically be believed by them , then are they a true particular church , or part of the universal church . . and i am apt to hope at least of most that they do not so hold their errors , but that they retain with them so much of the essentials of religion as may denominate them a true professing church . more plainly : rome is considered first as christian , secondly as papal : as christian , it is a true church : as papal , it is no true church : for popery is not the church according to christs institution , but a dangerous corruption in the church . as a leprosie is not the man , but the disease of the man. yet he that is a leper may be a m●● . and he that is a papist may be a christian : but . not as he is a papist . . and he is but a leprous or diseased christian. so much to your questions . by this much you may see that it no way concerneth me to prove when rome ceased to be a true church . for if you mean such a church as corinth , philippi , ephesus , &c. was , that is , but a part of the catholike church , so i stick not much , saving in point of charity , whether it be true or false . but if you mean as your party doth , a mistris church to rule the whole , and denominate the catholike church [ roman , ] so i say , its vsurpation is not ceased ( that 's the misery ) and its just title never did begin : and its claim was not of many hundred years after christ : so that your question requireth no further answer . but what if you had put the question , at what time it was that your church began to claim this universal dominion ? i should give you these two answers . . when i understand that it is of any great moment to the decision of our controversie , i shall tell you my opinion of the man that first laid the claim , and the year when . . but it is sufficient for me to prove , that from the beginning it was not so . little did the bishops of rome before constantines dayes , dream of governing all the christians in the world . but when the emperours became christians , their great favour and large endowments of the church , and the greatness and advantage of the imperial city did give opportunity to the bishop of rome ( as having both riches , and the emperours and commanders ears ) to do so many and great favours for most other churches , in preserving and vindicating them , that it was very easie for the bishop hereby to become the chief patriarch ( which he was more beholden to the emperour for , then to any title that he had from christ or peter . ) and then the quarrel with iohn of constantinople occasioned the thoughts of an universal headship ; which gregory did disclaim and abominate , but boniface after him , by the grant of a murdering trayterous emperour , did obtain : but so as the see swelled before into a preparatory magnitude . and if we could not tell you the time within two hundred years and more , it were no great matter , as long as we can prove that it was not so before . for who knows not that even some kings in europe have come from being limited monarchs , to be absolute , and that by such degrees , that none can tell the certain time . nay i may give you a stranger instance . the parliaments of england have part in the legislative power : and yet i do not think that any lawyer in england is able to prove the just time , yea or the age , ( or within many ages ) when they first obtained it : which yet in so narrow a spot of ground may be easilier done , then the time of the popes usurpation over all the world . for it could not be all at once : for one country yeilded to his ( late ) claim in one age , and another in another age , and many a bloody battle was fought before he could bring the germane emperours and christian princes to submit to him fully . . but let me tell you one thing more ; though as to an arrogant claim , the pope is head and governour of all the catholike church , and rome their mistris , ( as the pope makes patriarchs of antioch , alexandria , and hierusalem , that never come near the place or people , ) yet as to any possession or acknowledgement on the churches part , he was never universal head , nor rome the mistris to this day . for the greater half of the christians did never subject themselves to him at all , nor come under his power . so that the pope even now in his greatest height , is only the head of the universal church by his own claim , and naming himself so , without any title given by god , or acknowledged by men , and without having ever been possessed of what he claims . the king of france doth scarce believe that the king of england was king of france , for all that he put it into his title : nor do the swedes take the pole for their king , because he so calls himself . i am sure if the turkish emperour call himself the emperour of the world , that doth not prove that he is so . rainerius the popes inquisitor ( in catal . post . lib. cont . waldens . ) saith plainly , that the churches that were planted by the apostles themselves ( such as the abassines , 〈◊〉 ) are not subject to the pope . once he 〈◊〉 the government of no church in the world , but rome it self : after that he grew to have the government of the patriarchate of the west : since that he hath got some more , and claimed all ; but never got neer half the churches into his hands to this day . do i need then to say any more to disprove his universal headship , and that rome is not the catholike ruling church ? but having gone thus far in opening my thoughts to you , i shall forbear the adjoyning the proof of my assertions , till i hear again from you . if i understand it , the question between you and me to be debated , must be this , [ whether the roman church was in the apostles dayes , the mistris or ruling church , which all other churches were bound to obey , and from it were to be called the roman catholike church ? ] this i deny : and you must maintain , or else you must be no papist . the motion that i make is , that by the next you will send me your arguments to prove it ( for it belongs to you to prove it , if you affirm it . ) to which i will return you ( if they change not my judgement ) both my answers and my arguments for the negative . and if you do indeed make good but this one assertion , i do 〈◊〉 promise you , that i will joyfully and resolvedly turn papist : and if you cannot make it good , i may expect that you should no longer adhere to rome as the ruling or catholike church , and the pillar and ground of truth ; though charity should allow it to be [ a catholike church ] that is a member of the catholike church , which is indeed the pillar and ground of truth , wherein rome may have a part as it is part of the church : but i would it were not a most dangerously diseased part . i crave your reply with what speed you can , and remain , an unfeigned lover of truth and the friends of truth . rich. baxter . feb. . / . the two following letters , with the narrative , are annexed only to shew the effect of the former . sir , though the business in agitation betwixt your self and me , be the one thing necessary , and so to be preferred to all obligations , and businesses of what concernment soever ; yet a resolution formerly taken up , hath diverted me somewhat from the present earnest prosecution thereof as it deserves . temporal credit , though it should give way to things of eternal moment , yet it often sways the minds even of good men to neglect very important opportunities ; which though i cannot excuse my self of , yet i desire it may be candidly interpreted , and that this may be accepted as a pledge to an answer of what you have inserted . and i desire your next may be directed to me to london , to one mr. t. s. who is a kinsman of mine , and no small admirer of your self . my thanks in the interim i return for the pains you have taken , which i hope through the mercy of god will not prove successeless for the future one way or other : the truth is , i have not divulged my self , or intentions as yet to any of my own way , which i know will be very troublesome ; and i know i shall be beset with enemies from the ignorant , that way affected , as i doubt not of help from the learned . yet as i told you in my former , without any carnal interest respecting , or outward troubles regarding , or inbred enemies combating , i resolve by the grace and assistance of god to be guided by truth impartially where i shall find it lye clearest : and shalt make it my work to implore the throne of mercy , that my understanding may be so enlightned , as to discern truth from heresie . i desire sir , if it may be no prejudice to your more earnest occasions , that i may have two or three lines from you by way of advice to meet me at london at the place aforesaid , and assure your self , however god shall direct the successe , i shall rest , sir , a thirsty desirer of truth , and yours unfeignedly , tho. smith . feb. . . if what you write to me be first sent to mr. john smiths of worcester as before , it will be safely sent to me . good sir , think not i slight a business of so eternal consequence by my neglect for the present ; for none shall for the future be found more earnest to find out the mind of god , and he assisting , i hope , as chearfully to close therewith . sir , the speed of your former applications to me by way of answer , incites me to the confirmation of those thoughts of your worth which were at my first addresses to you harboured in my brest ; but the substance of your discourse is a stronger motive . although peradventure it may seem somewhat wonderful , that i should so soon be brought over to the serious apprehensions of the weight of what you have written to me ; yet when you consult the divine providence , and the almighty direction which prompted me to the choise of your self above others , upon grounds not altogether insufficiently established , which will be further made good when i shall have the happiness of a personal entercourse of communion with you , it will be certainly concluded upon by your self and whosoever it shall be communicated to , that the truth , which i have already seriously pondered , was the full aim of my intentions : which truth i shall impartially and joyfully entertain wheresoever i find it , without any thoughts at all of temporal or external discouragements , of which i have already contested with some , and expect ( the lord arm me against them ) far greater . it is no small thing that i shall be lookt upon as an apostate , and so worthy of excommunication utterly ; but i conclude according to st. augustine ( i guess ) that it is no shame to turn to the better , and withal i add ( although i could insert some small exceptions ) i am to the main satisfied , but yet in some doubtful suspence , wherein i expect full satisfaction by your book , which i received intimation from you is in the press , and quickly to be published . if i might receive two or three lines from you in the interim , by way of establishment , it would be very gratefully accepted , in relation to the comfortable taking off those obstacles which i am certain to meet with in my change of judgement . i am very sorry that a person whom i know to be so tender of eternal souls in general , should be so continually taken off your important business daily by particulars . but being likewise sensible that you value a soul according to the worth of the same ; i am encouraged to think , yea i verily believe , these rude things proceeding from a soul that is to rise or fall according to what is now determining between us , it will not be unacceptably received from , sir , the admirer of your worth , tho. smith . march . / . a narrative of the case of t. s. by his friend . reverend sir , mr. thomas smith late of martins ludgate london was brought up in the protestant religion , and for some years accounted an affectionate professor thereof , by those who were acquainted with his diligence and pains in writing out at large the notes he took of ( mr. calamies and others ) pious sermons : but afterwards ( not living up to the knowledge he had ) he grew more remiss in his practice , and in his company ; and became a great affliction to his father in his life-time by reason thereof , but a greater to his mother after his fathers death : which i suppose mr. iacomb , mr. fauller and others of her acquaintance cannot forget . but when she understood the company he most frequented were papists , who did at length take the boldness to resort to her house , she was very much perplexed , fearing that they had prevailed with her son to turn papist , which she soon found , as she told me , to be so indeed . i was not willing to believe her report , but desired to satisfie my self by discoursing with himself , hoping that i should not have found his judgement determined that way , as i did to my great trouble find it to be , especially in his justification of the jurisdiction and authority of the pope , and other tenets of the church of rome . by this time he had wasted his patrimony , and had run himself into debt so far , that he durst not walk up and down the streets as he had done : he went a voyage to the barbadoes , but returned thence in a worse condition then he went , yet continued still in the opinion he had received , notwithstanding the great offence and trouble it was to those from whom he expected relief and maintenance , whose hearts and hands were in that particular somewhat shut up against him , in so much that he was reduced to manifold extremities here . afterwards , hopeless of any livelyhood here , he went over to ireland where he had a kinsman ; but meeting with disappointment there of what he expected , he returned again into england , and steered his course to worcester , where he had another kinsman lived ; during this voyage i exchanged several letters with him , being desirous to make him sensible of the hand of god eminently out against him , hedging up his way with thorns everywhere , which i desired might be in order to his return to god , looking upon his condition to be manifestly desperate for ever , if he should refuse to return , and harden his heart against him . at worcester he fell sick , which through gods blessing brought him to a more serious consideration of his everlasting state which he apprehended to approach near . and it wrought some kind of doubt in him , touching the truth of some of the chief of those things which he had entertained as true about the church of rome , as he informed me by his letter ; whereunto for his conviction and better satisfaction , i did advise him to apply himself unto mr. baxter of kederminster ( who i told him i did believe was a great lover of souls ) which he by letter did as he told me , and that mr. baxter did return him an answer thereunto in writing , with liberty to shew it to any the most learned of his way ; which when he came to london he shewed me , acknowledging himself much convinced by it : and the more taken , for that so large and full an answer with that liberty should be dispatch't to him with so much expedition , which as i remember he said he had the next day after he sent his . yet was he confident , as he said , that it would be answered , and as he told me , he had left it with one that had undertaken it ; he spake of its being shewn to embassadors or an embassador , and that within fourteen days he should have an answer to it ; but enquiring after it , i could never see any answer , nor could he notwithstanding all his solicitations and provocations used , prevail to have an answer ; which he seemed to be very much offended at ; and at length , as he told me , those with whom he had to do about it , were much offended with him : in so much that he intimated himself to be apprehensive of danger from some of them : yet he seemed resolved to adventure whatsoever might befall him in that respect , rather then he would stifle those convictions , which by mr. baxters letter had been begotten in him ; this letter of mr. baxters , together with [ the safe religion ] a book which he did refer him to , either then or near that time in the press , which he went for and had of the stationer upon mr. baxters account , ( which i had almost forgot ) gave him such resolution and satisfaction , that he thereupon altered his judgement and practice , and waited upon the ordinances here in london in our congregations for some time ; i my self having seen him at the morning exercise in london : what further effects it wrought upon him i know not ; for that he left the city and went over into flanders as his mother hath informed me , and is since dead : sir , your affectionate friend to serve you , t. s. for mr. william johnson . sir , when i was invited to this disputation with you , i entertained hopes , from your profest desires of close argumentation , that we should speedily bring it to such an issue , as might in some good measure answer our endeavours , in taking off the covering that sophistry and carnal interest had cast upon the truth . when my necessary employments denyed me the leisure of reading over your second papers for some weeks ; and when the loss of my reply by the carrier , and the difficulty of procuring another copy , had caused a little longer delay ; you urged so hard for a reply , as put me in some further hopes that you were resolved to go through with it your self . but after near a twelve months expectation of a rejoinder , and of the proof of your own succession from the apostles , being here at london , i desired you to resolve me , whether i might expect any such return and performance from you , or not : and when you would not promise it , i took up the thoughts of publishing what had past between us : but upon further urging you , some moneths after , you renewed my hopes , which caused me to make some stay of my publication , and to desire you to give me your sense of the most used terms ; ( promising you that i shall do the like , when you require it ; which i am ready to perform . ) but yet i hear nothing to this day of your answer to my papers , or the performance of what is incumbent on you for the justification of your church : and therefore having waited and importuned you in vain so long , and finding by your last , that you cannot or will not so explicate your terms , as to be understood ( without which there is no disputing ; ) and also perceiving , that my abode in london is like to be but little longer ; my discretion and the ends of my writing have commanded me , to forbear no longer the publication of what hath past between us : for , though the work be not copious and elaborate , yet being on a subject , which your party do so much insist upon , i am assured it may be of common use . and i know that the publication is no breach of any promise on my part , nor do i perceive how it can be any way injurious to you ; and therefore i see nothing to prohibite it : and i am not willing to be used as mr. gunning and mr. pierson were , by the partial unhansome publication of another . if yet i may prevail with you , to justifie your cause , as you are engaged , i must entreat you specially to try your strength for the proof of your own succession : for we are most confident that its a notorious impossibility which you undertake . our arguments against it are such as these . . that church which since the time of christ hath received a new essential part , hath not its being successively from the apostles . but such is the church of rome : ergo — the major is undenyable . the minor is thus proved . a vice-christ , or vice-head , or governour of the universal church is an essential part of the now church of rome . but a vice-christ , or vice-head , or gove●●●● of the universal church , is new , or a ●ove●● , ( or hath not been from the time of christ on earth : ) ergo , the church of rome since the time of christ , hath received a new essential part . the novelty i have here and elsewhere proved : and blondel and molinaeus against perron have done it more at large . . that church which hath had frequent and long interceisions in its head or essential part , hath not had a continued succession from the apostles . but such is the church of rome : ergo — the minor is here proved : and some hints of it are in the appendix . . that church which hath had many new essential articles of religion , hath not had a continued succession from the apostles : ( for if the essence be new , the church is new . ) but such is the church of rome . ergo — first it is commonly maintained by you that all articles are essential or fundamental : and you deride the contrary doctrine from the protestants . secondly , that you have had many new articles of religion ( of faith and points of worship ) is proved by our writers , and your own confessions . see molinaeus de novit . papismi . prove a succession of all that is de fide determined in your councils , or but of all in pope pius his creed , and the council of trent alone ; or of all that with you is de fide of those two and thirty points which i have named in my key for catholikes , p. , , . chap. . detect . . and i will yeild you all the cause : or i will profess my belief of every one of those points of which you prove such a succession , as held by the catholike church , as you now hold them . read and answer my detect . . cap. . in my key for catholikes . and how far you own innovations , see what i have proved , ibid. cap. . and . but these arguings being works of supererogation , i shall trouble you here with no more ; but wait for such proof of all your essentials , as we give you of all ours . in the mean time , i shall endeavour so to defend the truth , as not to lose or weaken charity , but approve my self an unfeigned lover of the truth and you . richard baxter . sep. . . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e syll. . * * but how far from truth this is , appears from st. leo , in his sermons de natali suo , where he saies , sedes roma petri , quicquid non possidet almis , religione tenet ; and by this , that the abyssines of ethiopia were under the patriarch of alexandria antiently , which patriarch was under the authority of the romane bishop , as we shall presently see . * * see rosse his view of religions , p. . , , &c. where he saies that they circumcise their children the eighth day , they use mosaical ceremonies . they mention not the council of calcedon , because ( saies he ) they are eutychians and jacobites , and confesses that their patriarch is in subjection to the patriarch of alexandria , &c. see more of the chofti , jacobites , maronites , &c. p. , . where he confesses that many of them are now subject to the pope , and have renounced their old errors . see nilus on this subject . (a) (a) liberatus in brev. c. . (b (b epist. praeambula . concil . chalcedon . (c) (c) concil . chalcedon . act. . (d) (d) concil . chalcedon . act. . (e) (e) st. cyprian . epist. . (f) (f) concil . sard. cap. . cited by st. athan. apol. . pag. . (g) (g) st. basil. epist. . (h) (h) st. chrysost. epist. . ad . innocent . (i) (i) concil . ephes. p. . act. . (k) (k) st. athanas . ad solit. epist. julius in lit . ad arian . ap . athan . apolog . . pag. . theodoret. lib. . cap. . athanas ▪ apol. . zozom . lib. . cap. . the appeal of theodoret from that council as to his judge , is so undeniable that chamier is forced to acknowledge it . tom. . l. . c. g. p. . and the whole council of calcedon , acknowledged the right of that appeal , restoring theodoret to his bishoprick , by force of an order given upon that appeal by leo pope to restore him . concerning saint athanasius being judged and righted by iulius pope , chamier . cit . p. . acknowledges the matter of fact to be so , but against all antiquity , pretends that judgment to have been unjust . which , had it been so , yet it shews a true power of judging in the pope , though then unduly executed ; otherwise saint athanasius , would never have made use of it ▪ neither can it be condemned of injustice , unless saint athanasius be also condemed as unjust , in consenting to it . niceph. lib. . cap. . chamier . cit . p. . sayes , other bishops restored those who were wrongfully deposed , as well as the pope which though it were so , yet never was there any single bishop save the pope , who restored any , who were out of their respective diocess , or patriarchates , but always collected together in a synod , by common voice , and that in regard only of their neighbouring bishops , whereas the bishop of rome his sole and single authority , restored bishops wrongfully deposed all the church over . (m) (m) concil . chalced. action . . (n) (n) concil . chalced. action . . * * which could not be by reason of the sanctity and truth which was then in it ; for the church of milan and many others in france , africa , and greece were also then pure and holy , and yet none have this title save the church of rome . in the time of iustinian the emperour , agapet pope , even in constantinople , against the will both of the emperour and empress , deposed anthymus , and ordained mennas in his place . libera● . in breviario . cap. . marcellinus . comes in chronico . concil . constantin . sub menna act . . and the same st. greg. c. . ep. . declares that both th● emperour and bishop of constantinople acknowledged that the church of constantinople was subject to the see of rome . and l. . ep. . et alibi pronounces , that in case of falling into offences he knew no bishop which was not subject to the bishop of rome . (o) (o) st. augustin . tom epist. rom. pontif. post epist. . ad celestinum . epist. concil . ad . i. con . pap. act. . & sequ . for the age . see st. gregory pope , l. . ep . . where hereticks and shismaticks repenting were received then into the church , upon solemn promise , and publike protestation , that they would never any more separate from , but alwaies remain in the unity of the catholike church , and communion in all things with the bishop of rome . a fannaticks letter sent out of the dungeon of the gate-house prison of vvestminster: to all his brethren in the three nations at liberty; and also in the several goales and dungeons therein, that are under all the principles of the doctrines of christ, heb. . i, . by henry adis, a baptized believer, undergoing the name of a free-willer; and also most ignomineously by the tongue of infamy, called a fannatick, or a mad man. adis, henry. this text is an enriched version of the tcp digital transcription a of text r in the english short title catalog (thomason e _ ). textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. the text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with morphadorner. the annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. this text has not been fully proofread approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. earlyprint project evanston,il, notre dame, in, st. louis, mo a wing a thomason e _ estc r this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (thomason tracts ; :e [ ]) a fannaticks letter sent out of the dungeon of the gate-house prison of vvestminster: to all his brethren in the three nations at liberty; and also in the several goales and dungeons therein, that are under all the principles of the doctrines of christ, heb. . i, . by henry adis, a baptized believer, undergoing the name of a free-willer; and also most ignomineously by the tongue of infamy, called a fannatick, or a mad man. adis, henry. p. printed by s. dover for the author, and are to be sold at book-sellers shops, london : . annotation on thomason copy: "march. .". reproduction of the original in the british library. eng dissenters, religious -- england -- early works to . religion and politics -- england -- early works to . freedom of religion -- england -- early works to . a r (thomason e _ ). civilwar no a fannaticks letter sent out of the dungeon of the gate-house prison of vvestminster: to all his brethren in the three nations at liberty;: adis, henry. b the rate of defects per , words puts this text in the b category of texts with fewer than defects per , words. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - robyn anspach sampled and proofread - robyn anspach text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a fannaticks letter sent out of the dungeon of the gate-house prison of vvestminster : to all his brethren in the three nations at liberty ; and also in the several goales and dungeons therein , that are under all the principles of the doctrines of christ , heb. . , . by henry adis , a baptized believer , undergoing the name of a free-willer ; and also most ignomineously by the tongue of infamy , called a fannatick , or a mad man . gal. . . stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith christ hath made you free , and be not entangled again with the yoak of bondage . london , printed by s. dover for the author , and are to be sold at book-sellers shops , . a fannaticks letter sent out of the dungeon of the gate-house prison of vvestminster , &c. dearly and well beloved brethren in the lord , it is the desire of my soul , that grace , mercy , truth , peace , love , gentlenesse , goodnesse , faith , meeknesse and temperance , to you be multiplyed , with all long-suffering and knowledge . brethren , when i enter into a serious consideration of what the flock of god gone before endured in their dayes , not onely by cruel mockings , deridings , and evil speakings , but also by whipings , imprisonments , buffettings , banishments , and painful deaths , patiently , chearfully , readily and willingly ; and all this that they might keep a good conscience towards god , in order to their producing his glory , and their own eternal good . i say , the serious consideration of this , is that which doth much encourage me , notwithstanding the many difficulties of this our day , to take up a resolution , to go on in my christian progresse by divine assistance , and not to look back , lest with lots wife , i become a standing monument of gods everlasting displeasure ; and therefore , these are earnestly to desire you also in gods fear , to persevere in that path , and to run swiftly towards perfection , in that race you have already made some progress in , beginning at heb. . , . and so chearfully to passe thorow this valley of tears ; for he that runneth , obtaineth not the crown unlesse he strive lawfully , tim. ▪ . let us therefore so run that we may obtain , cor. . . let us labour hard to get up sions hill , having a single eye to gods glory ; in which narrow way , you must expect the hedges to be lined on both sides , with multitudes of amalakites , shooting out their arrows , even bitter words , whose teeth are as sharp as arrows , and their tongue a sharp sword , psalm . . . who whet their tongue like a sword , and bend their bow to shoot those arrows , even bitter words , psalm . . . who are ready to say with those in jer. . . come and let us smite him with the tongue , and let us not give heed to any of his words ; to whom let me beg you in gods fear ; as you tender the honour of the gospel , and the reputation of your master ; king jesus , whom ( jew-like ) they so mock , scoff and jeer at , not to render to them evil for evil , nor reviling for reviling ; but contrariwise blesse , knowing that you are thereunto called , that ye should inherit the blessing ; for he that will love life and see good dayes , let him refrain his tongue from evil , and his lips that they speak no guile ; let him eschew evil , and do good , let him seek peace and ensue it ; for the eyes of the lord are over the righteous , and his ears are open unto their prayers ; but the face of the lord is against them that do evil ; and who is he that will harm you , if ye be followers of that which is good ? and if ye suffer for righteousnesse sake , happy are ye ; and be not affraid of their terror , neither be troubled , but sanctifie the ( lord in your hearts , and be ready alwayes to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you , with meeknesse and fear , having a good conscience ; that whereas they speak evil of you as evil doers , they may be ashamed , when they shall falsly accuse your good conversation in christ ; for it is better if the will of god be so , that ye suffer for well doing , then for evil doing ; for christ also hath suffered for sin●●●… the just for the unjust , psalm . . . &c. therefore let us look unto jesus the author and finisher of our faith , who for the joy that was set before him , endured the crosse , and despised the shame , heb. . . who is the captain of our salvation , and was made perfect through sufferings , heb. . . who was led as a lamb to the slaughter , and as a sheep before the shearer was dumb , so opened he not his mouth , acts . . for even hereunto were ye called , because christ also suffered for us , leaving us an example that ye should follow his steps , who did no sin , neither was guile found in his mouth ; who when he was reviled , reviled not again , when he suffered , he threatned not , but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously , pet. . , , . therefore seeing we have taken his yoak upon us , let us learn of him who is lowly and meek ; and we shall find rest for our souls , mat. . . and let us not think to be above our master , for if they have called the master of the house belzebub , how much more them of his houshold ? and if they have so done to the green tree , what will they not do to the dry tree ? it is enough for the disciple to be as his master , and the servant as his lord ; and therefore let us consider what legacy our master hath left us , who saith , that in the world we shall have tribulation ; for behold saith he , i send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves , be ye therefore wise as serpents , but harmlesse as doves ; but beware of men , for they will deliver you up to the counsels , — and they will scourge you in their synagogues , and ye shall be brought before governours , and kings , for my names sake , for a testimony against them and the gentiles ; and ye shall be hated of all men for my names sake , mat. . . . . yea , the time will come , that if they shall kill you , they will think they do god good service ; and christ hath spoken these things , that we should not be offended , john . . therefore in our patience let us possesse our souls ; and blessed is he that shall not be offended in him ; for our light afflictions which are but for a moment , worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory ; whilest we look on the things which are not seen , and not on the things that are seen , for the things that are seen are temporal , but the things that are not seen , they eternal , cor. . . and although no chastening at the present seemeth joyous but grievous , yet neverthelesse afterwards it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness , unto them that are exercised thereby , heb. . . and were it not ( that to the rejoycing of my soul ) i heard that your joy is full , as well in newgate , white-lyon , maydstone , alisbury , and in all other prison-holes , as it is super-abounding in the dark gate-house dungeon with us ; i should then have desired that the hands hanging down , and the feeble knees should have been held up and strengthened ; but seeing i hear that faith is every where upon the wing , and that the omni-present god is pleased to visit us in all our prison-holes , with the incomings of his comforting spirit , even to joy unspeakable and full of glory : i shall conclude with our apostle , and say , and that upon a good account to , that by the good hand of our god upon us , i see it is given unto us in the behalf of christ , not onely to believe , but also to suffer for his name sake ; and herein we have cause to joy and rejoyce in the lord , who by the incomings of his spirit , hath supported both you and us in this tryal , so as that we can with his people of old , joy in tribulations , knowing that tribulations worketh patience , and patience experience , and experience hope , and hope maketh not ashamed , because the love of god is spread abroad in our hearts . so that we can with our apostle upon a good account say , that , though we are troubled on every side , yet not destressed , we are perplexed , yet not in despair , persecuted but not forsaken , cast down but not destroyed , alwayes bearing about in our body the dying of the lord jesus christ ; for we which live , are alwayes delivered unto death for jesus sake ; and therefore let every soul of us , in singlenesse of heart , eye gods glory in our present sufferings , and take up that good resolution of our aged and faithful brother paul , acts . . and say ( if thereto called ) that we are willing in the behalf of christ , not onely to be bound and lie in bonds , but also to die for his name sake . and this is that which is the rejoycing of my soul , that in the midst of these sufferings , both by you and us , i cannot hear of one man of our society , that is found an evil doer in what is charged upon us , as to plotting , contriving or undermining , or in any act of hostility in disturbing the peace of the nation ; for herein we can safely and upon a good account appeal to our god , the searcher of all hearts , and can with confidence and boldnesse , in the faithfulnesse of our souls , to the faces of the greatest of men , affirm and say , we are not guilty of what we are charged withal , and that we are oppressed in judgements , and are injuriously torn from our callings and families , and most barbarously penned up in prison-holes ; and my self & some others of our society , thrust into a damp , dark dirty dungeon , without either light or air , bed or bedding , first nine , and after twelve of us together , scarce able to lie down one by another ; being thus used , not for what we have done , but for what we are ; nor for what is found in our houses , as to arms or ammunition : and that you may be satisfied in a measure with the truth of what my sufferings are and have been in this juncture of time , in this our cruel leading into captivity ; i shall lay down something upon the account of report , & also upon the account of action . and as for false rumors raised upon me , i was reported to say , that i hoped to wash my hands in the kings blood ; this was raised by one hopping jane , commonly so called , a notorious drunken swearing person , whose common conversation is , to go ranting , raving and singing like a bedlam along the streets , ( to the admiration of those that know her not ) pulling and haling gentlemen as they go along the streets , to get money of them , to buy ale to drink the kings health ; and this was reported that i should say at my shop door , on wednesday morning , the ninth day of the eleventh moneth , vulgarly called january , . when i was not down my stairs in the shop all that morning , as i proved by three witnesses to the french papish fencer , that carried me away , for saying these words after he , and they that were with him , had searched my house for arms ; the which words , or any other tending to that , or any such horrid and wicked tendancy , god the searcher of all hearts knows , i never entertained so much as a thought of in the least ; and for my tongue to utter that which never came into my thoughts , seemeth to me a very strange thing , the which she her self hath since said to my wife , before some that heard her words , as to that particular , was not so . it is also further reported by others far and near , that i my self , that said wednesday night , had killed one of the constables watch-men ; when i was in custody as is aforesaid , by nine of the clock in the morning , and was that night with some forty more upon the main guard at white-hall , and was sent on thursday morning to the gate-house prison dungeon , where i now am . and further , it is commonly reported , that in my house when it was searched , there were several arms and ammunition found , with barrels of gun-powder ; and that there was a barrel of white gun-powder left at one mr. horses house in stannop-street , a coach-maker , to be conveyed to me ; when in truth i had no arms at all , nor any manner of powder ; but was so far from any such thing , as that i can boldly affirm it in the presence of god , that i have not had , nor carried so much as a defensive weapon this fifteen or sixteen years . and in . i declared against the acting with the carnal weapon , and pleaded the unlawfulnesse thereof , as by the said declaration , in the end of my fannatick's mite cast into the kings treasury , is evident . more i might say as to matter of report , but i shall forbear and let you know , that my house was searched nine several times , twice before i was taken into custody , and seven times after i was in custody , and six times of that seven in one night , and by several parties ; so that i may say as to the malice of men , i am set up as their mark to shoot at , although my actings towards them are innocent and harmless . for i know nothing on my part as a cause of it , unless in my fannaticks mite , my bearing my testimony against the abominations of the times , in saying what i say therein , as to the madness of the rude multitude ; and in the revived and daily continued acts of folly in stage-playes , and the many bitter oaths and execrations uttered by unlawful game-players , & in the abominations of dammy and debauch'd bawdy-houses , the foul detestable shame of a christian kingdom ; or in what i say in page , , . of that mite , in that use of examination to the nation , considered as a nation ; or at my down-right and single-hearted conclusion of my epistle therein to the king dedicated ; or in my after-writing to the king , in that i give him some reasons , why i could neither swear nor fight for him : if these , or any thing of this kind , causeth them thus to become mine enemy , because i tell them and him the truth ; if it be this that renders me vile in their eyes , i must let them know in the words and resolution of david , and say , if this be to be vile , i according to the ability received , shall be yet more vile . but i shall proceed to discover to you what was acted , as to searching my house , and by what manner of persons , that so you may be sensible , whither we are posting , if they were legally commissionated . the second time that my house was searched , was by one john gosling , a known papist , and servant to mr. hillyard an apothecary in long-aker , who beyond his commission ( if he had one ) carried away ( he and his party and confederacy , captain wharton and others ) near of my fannaticks mite , and got two shillings in money of me , pretending it for the souldiers . and about a week after , captain wharton and another of them , came and took forcibly out of my house , two more of my books , demanding more ; which he would have had , had there been any ready . and the next time that my house was searched , was when i was taken into custody , and that was by mounseir lawrence an italian , a papist , who keepeth a fencing school in stānnop-street . the next was by mounseir de la mane , a french-man , and a known papist , living in long-aker , a gilt-leather man . the next time , or another time , by one mr. kirbey , a cloth-drawer , in our own street ; a known papist also . and another time by anthony welch , a limping porter , living in mr. roberd's celler , in drury-lane , near russel-street ; whose horrid oaths , execrations and debauch'd actions , both to us , to mris. whitaker , richard day , and others , do bespeak him to be no better than an athiest . and as if all these actions and reports , were not enough to render me and you sufficiently odious to the view of the world , the weekly news-monger , falsly , injuriously , and most ignomineously in his weekly pamphlet , hath branded us with that most stigmatical title of traytors . to whom i would give this christian caution , that for the time to come , he take a special care of venting and inventing lies , lest the lord christ say one day to him , as once he said to some of abrahams fleshly seed , john . . ye are of your father the devil , and the works of your father ye will do ; he was a murtherer from the beginning , and abode not in the truth , because there is no truth in him ; when he speaketh a lie , he speaketh of his own , for he is a lyar , and the father of it ; and therefore i would have him further to consider the shame of it , for as the lip of truth shall be established for ever , so the lying lip is but for a moment , prov. . . and as a righteous man hateth lying , so a wicked man is loathsome , and cometh to shame , prov. . . and if we may believe the wisest of men , he telleth us , that he that hideth hatred with lying lips , and he that uttereth a slander , is a fool , prov. . . and farther , i would have him consider the great danger of it ; for first , lying lips are an abomination to the lord , but they that deal truly , are his delight , prov. . . secondly , these six things the lord hateth , yea , seven are an abomination unto him , a proud look , a lying tongue , and hands that shed innocent blood , an heart that deviseth wicked imaginations , feet that be swift in running to mischief , a false witnesse that speaketh lies , and him that soweth discord amongst brethren , proverbs . . thirdly , it will exclude him heavens glory ; for without are dogs , and sorcerers , and whoremongers , and murderers , and idolaters ; and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie , rev. . . for there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth , neither whatsoever worketh abomination , or maketh a lie , but they which are written in the lambs book of life , rev. . . but the fearful , and unbelieving , and the abominable , and murtherers , and whoremongers , and sorcerers , and idolaters , and all lyars , shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone , which is the second death , rev. . . but leaving the man to consider of his wicked action , in suffering his pen to run to that excesse , that causeth men to raise false reports upon the innocent ; i shall in love to his soul , earnestly desire him to set himself upon the effectual work of repentance , that so he may make his peace before he go hence and be no more ; that when time shall be no more , he may then have a well-being with him , who gives a being to all beings , in that kingdom that shall never fade away ; the which that you my brethren and i may make sure , let us work out our own salvation with fear and trembling , and let us not be slothful , but be followers of them , who thorow faith and patience , inherited the promises , heb. . . and let us be found in gods way , doing gods work , being fortified with christian courage and boldnesse , following the foot-steps of the flock of god gone before us , not at all fearing what man can do unto us ; for this is the requirement of our lord and master , mat. . . who saith , fear not him that can kill the body onely , and afterwards can do no more , but rather fear him , that after he hath killed the body , can cast both body and soul into hell , i say , fear him : and in his fear , let us be found in well-doing , endeavouring as much as in us lyeth , to see that the peace and welfare of the nation be secured ; for if every mans particular interest be involved in the general good , then it stands every particular man in hand , to study the good , peace , safety and welfare of the whole . to this end , let us take the advice of our apostle , tim. . . even as good souldiers of jesus christ , to endure hardship , and take to us the whole armor of god , that we may be able to withstand in the evil day , and having done all , to stand ; let us stand therefore , having our loyns girt about with truth , and having on the brest-plate of righteousness , and our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace ; above all , taking the shield of faith , wherewith we shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked ; and take the helmet of salvation , and the sword of the spirit , which is the word of god , praying with all prayers and supplication for all saints , ephes. . . &c. and for all men , for kings , and all that are in authority , tim. . , . yea , for our very enemies , and all that hate us , mat. . . and of them that persecute us , let us cry out , and say , in the words of that holy martyr and brother stephen , lord , lay not this sin to their charge , acts . . and in the words of our lord and master , john . . the captain of our salvation , heb. . . our elder brother , heb. . . let us cry out and say , father forgive them , they know not what they do , luk. . . and thus being furnished with the armour of righteousnesse , on the right hand , and on the left , cor. . . let us behave our selves manfully , fighting the lords battel , even to the resisting unto blood , striving against sin , heb. . . striving together for the faith of the gospel , phil. . . not for the wealth , pomp , pleasure , pastimes , preferment , power nor dominions of the earth ; neither in the behalf of our selves nor others , no not in the behalf of our lord and master king jesus , to set him up as king ; for though i do really believe that jesus christ shall personally reign , yet his kingdom is not to be set up as some would have it ; for the seventh angel sounded , and there were great voices in heaven , saying , the kingdoms of this world , are become the kingdoms of the lord , and of his christ , and he shall reign for ever and ever , rev. . . for the stone that was cut out of the mountain without hands , that smote the image on the feet , became a great mountain , and filled the whole earth , dan. . . and this was the confidence of that holy man , job . . for saith he , i believe that my redeemer liveth , and that he shall stand at the last day upon the earth : so also saith the prophet , zech. . . for his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of olives , which is before jerusalem , on the east ; and verse . and the lord shall be king over all the earth ; in that day , there shall be one lord , and his name one ; and his dominion shall be from sea to sea , and from the river , even to the ends of the earth ; for he must reign , till he hath put all enemies under his feet ; the last enemie that shall be destroyed , is death , cor. . , . yet this kingdom shall not be set up by force of arms , neither shall his servants prepare it for him , but he for them ; for so saith he himself , john . . in my fathers house are many mansions , and i go to prepare a place for you ; and i will come to you again , and receive you to my self , that where i am , there ye may be also . and therefore he spake unto them a parable , because he was nigh to jerusalem , and because they thought that the kingdom of god should immediately appear . and a certain noble-man , went into a far countrey ; to receive for himself a kingdom , and to return , luke . , . so that he shall give the kingdom to them , if we may believe himself ; for saith he , fear not , little flock , for it is your fathers good pleasure to give you the kingdom , luke . . and i appoint unto you a kingdom , as my father hath appointed unto me , that ye may eat and drink at my table ; in my kingdom , and sit on thrones , judging the twelve tribes of israel , luke . . but we are yet in the kingdom of christs patience , and not in the kingdom of his power ; for if we may believe himself , he telleth us , john . that his kingdom is not of this world ; for this is esaus kingdom ; and so saith the lord to esdras , for when jacob and esau were born unto isaac , jacobs hand held fast the heel of esau ; for esau is the end of this world , and jacob is the beginning of that which is to come , esdras . , . and indeed this is esau , or the evil ones kingdom ; for satan is the god of this world ; and so saith our apostle , cor. . , . if our gospel be hid , it is hid to them that are lost , in whom the god of this world , hath blinded the minds of them that believe not , lest the glorious light of the gospel of jesus christ should shine unto them ; and so saith the devil to christ , mat. , , . when he set him upon an high mountain , and shewed him all the glory of the world , and said unto him , all this will i give thee , if thou wilt fall down and worship me . and the lord christ is so far from reproving the falshood of it , as that he saith , john . . the prince of this world cometh , but he ha●h no part in me , and john . . the prince of this world is judged . and to evidence that antipathy , that there is between these two kings kingdoms , and the subjects thereof , the apostle queries with those that had engaged for that king and kingdom , when they were fighting and quarrelling for the things of a temporal kingdom , from whence ( saith he ) comes wars and fightings among you , come they not hence even of your lusts , that war in your members ? ye lust , and have not , ye kill , and desire to have , and cannot obtain ; ye fight and war , yet ye have not , because ye ask not ; ye ask , and receive not , because ye ask amiss ; ye adulterers and adulteresses , know ye not , that the friendship of the world is emnity with god ; whosoever therefore will be a friend to the world , is an enemy to god , james . . &c. and because ye are chosen out of the world , therefore the world will hate you , yet that hatred is not to be requited with hatred again , but with love and good works , according to mat. . . so that no acts of violence or hostility , is to be found in the hands of canaans subjects , but they are patiently to wait for the coming of christ . for so perswadeth our apostle , be patient , brethren , unto the coming of the lord ; behold , the husband-man waiteth for the precious fruits of the earth , and hath long patience for it , until he receive the early and latter rain : be you also patient , stablish your hearts , for the coming of the lord draweth nigh , jam. . . and although we are redeem'd with the blood of the lamb , and are made kings and priests to god , and to christ , and shall live and reign with christ a thousand years , rev. . . . rev. . . yet we ought to have no acts of violence found in our hands to procure or set it up ; but this is the mistake between those that are so eager to set up christs kingdom by violence , and undermining of states and governments , and us that expect it , and yet can act no acts of violence : they expect him to reign spiritually in his people ; and we according to the scriptures , do look for him to come and reign personally with his : they look to have dominion , power and earthly authority by him , and to have their judges restored as at the first , and that on this side the grave ; whilest we wait for a manifestation of christ from heaven ; at which appearance we do expect , and that upon a scripture account , that those that fall asleep in the faith of jesus , shall then appear with jesus ; and that them that are then found in the actual faith of jesus , shall live together with them with jesus , thes. . . when that same jesus which was taken up into heaven , shall so come in like manner as he went into heaven , acts . . for behold , he cometh with clouds , and every eye shall see him , and they also which piersed him , rev. . . in which patient waiting of ours , we must expect , according to the saying of our apostle , that we must through many tribulations , enter into the kingdom of heaven , acts . . our lord and master was pleased to strip himself of glory , and became obedient to that ignomineous death of the cross for our sakes , to bring us to glory , and shall we then grudg for his sake , to go by the cross to inherit that glory ? o my brethren , in gods fear consider what ye do , turn not your backs upon jesus christ , but as ye have set your hand to the plow , so look not back ; for if any man draw back , my soul shall have no pleasure in him , heb. . . and whosoever will deny me before men , him will i also deny before my father which is in heaven , they were his own words , mat. . . in whose mouth there was sound no guile ; who also telleth us , that the time will come , that if they kill us , they will think they shall do god good service , john . . and seeing we do at this day both see and feel so much in order to the fulfilling of this scripture , in this juncture of time , wherein iniquity doth so much abound , and that the love of many do wax cold ; let us consider in gods fear , what our work is in this our day , that so we may be sound doing gods work , in gods way , although it be to the losse of our liberty , goods , yea and life and all , rather than lose all to eternity . and therefore for my part , i shall resolve , god assisting me according to the ability received , to make use of that sword of the spirit , which is the word of god , to the hewing down of all iniquity , transgression and sin , both root and branch , as near as i can in all , ( and to speak scripture language ) from him that sitteth on the throne , to him that grindeth at the mill and draweth water : and to endeavour such a reformation in all , as that god may build up the nation , and make our land as it is now , abounding in all excesse of ryot , to be as one day it shall be said of jerusalem , even a praise of the whole earth ; and if in this i am looked upon to be vile , i shall by divine assistance , resolve to be yet more vile ; and shall first begin this work at home ; and now i speak of home , i shall begin to look home , and as the husband-man and the merchant , take the time of their best leasure to make up their inventory ; so shall i , for being haled from my lawful employments , having little else to do in my dark , dolesome , drowsie , damp dungeon , i shall see what i am worth , that so i may set my house in order whilest i have time ; for age tells me , i cannot live long , and almost every day an alarm for death is sounding in mine ears , tear me and ram me , sink me and dam me , telling me , some to my face , and others behind my back , that i am not long liv'd , and that i must suddenly prepare for death , because of my judgement , notwithstanding the kings word passed to us from breda and since , for a peaceable enjoying our meeting upon our good behaviour , the which i shall bid defiance to any man that can say , it was ever tainted ; i have therefore set pen to paper , and have added this my inventory , the which haply may seem impertinent in this place , yet i judge the conclusion may be very comfortable ; and as the husband-man and merchant , so shall i ; the husband-man making his inventory , which we will suppose thus , imprimis , hay barns empty , and hay-stack-roomes railed round , with corn barns , and graineries empty , swept and garnished , in which there is nothing of l. s. d. any considerable value . but that which will make a mends for all , is , item , in the harvest crop , abundance of hay , to the raising of stacks , and filling the hay barn and lofts ; and of wheat , rie , barlie , oats , beans and pease , to the filling the barns and graineries , having increased some thirty , some sixty , and some an hundred fould , with the multiplicity both of summer and winter fruits , both of the orchards and cherry grounds , with the abundance of wall fruits , and fragrant-flowers , sweet herbs of all kinds appearing , like the hour of plenty ; together with the sweet encrease of that little , yet profitable creature , the bee ; the which being added to the fore part of the inventory , being as aforesaid , not of l. s. d. any considerable value . doth in the whole amount to , l. s. d. a good considerable sum . and the merchant , when he maketh his inventory , he doth it at his best leasure , when the venture is out-bound ; the which we will suppose this , imprimis , two or three large vast warehouses , empty and neatly cleansed , onely in one corner two or three empty casks , with some odd pack-cloaths and cording ; and all l. s. d. not worth setting down . but item the return of the venture , a gallant , lusty stout tall ship , of a vast burthen , deeply laden , and well man'd , in-bound at the havens ▪ mouth , ready the next tide , being a spring and a fresh smart gale of wind , filling the fore sale , the top sale , the sprit sale , and the mizen , running before the wind , like the post that sides for his life , the antient flying , and the pilat for the safe convey of the vessel carefully instructing the steers-man at the helm , as occasion serves , with a star-bord , lar-bord , port , steady , loof , non-neer ; and the master gunner and his mate fiering , to the rejoycing the heart of the owner , . . . or . great guns , the sea-men and marriners with all speed , striking and furling their sails , coming to anchor , and making to shore , to liver the ship , being richly laden with the best and choisest indian trade , and being home bound , coasting from one countrey to another port , being enriched with the choisest and best commodities of those countries and havens , by which means , though the inventory , as to the former part of it , amounts to l. s. d. no great matter . yet the return of the venture so supposed , as aforesaid , doth raise the total sum to l. s. d. hundreds thousands ten thousands . thus we see the husband-mans harvest , and the merchants return after their patient waiting , makes a mends for all . therefore by the way , a word to my brethren , that are already in prison , with my self , and those that do every hour expect the same measure to be met to them ; and that not upon the account of any real mis-actings found or known , either by them or us , as by plotting , contriving or undermining the present government ; but onely and alone , because we desire and endeavour to keep the testimony of a good conscience , and to prove faithful and loyal to our head and soveraign , our supream , our king , our lord and master jesus christ , whose laws teach the best loyalty to our earthly kings , and purest love to our princes , nay to our very enemies . i say to my brethren imprisoned , and the rest yet at liberty , i shall give the advice of the spirit , recorded in james . . . be patient therefore brethren unto the coming of the lord ; behold the husband-man waiteth for the precious fruits of the earth , &c. be ye also patient , stablish your hearts , for the coming of the lord draweth nie ; and let us not be weary in well doing , for in due time we shall reap if we faint not , gal. . . the which reaping time is , that which fills up my inventory , and will make a mends for all , and raise my total sum to a considerable value ; for as i am a trades man , my estate as to temporals , amounts but to a small value ; as , imprimis , my houshold goods and wearing apparil , being very little , and very mean , and therefore of l. s. d. very little worth . item , in my shop and ware-house , what is left by the hand of oppression ; is , l. s. d. scarce worth valuing . so also as i am a christian , my condition in gross is this , not l. s. d. worth setting down . imprimis , my footsteeps watched , and my actions weighed by an unjust weight and ballance , and mete by a false measure , by which means is produced false reports , opprobious speeches , cruel mockings , scoffings , jeerings and deridings , false accusations , and evil surmisings ; and my whole trade heaven-wards , arraigned , judged and condemned as utterly lawlesse and unlawful ; and my commodities sent me from thence , counterfeit and carnal , adulterated and abominable , sinful and schismatical , wavouring and unstable , whimsical and giddy , fantastical and fannatical , formal and faithlesse , papal and prophane ; by all which it may evidently appear , that as to my present estate and condition among men , i have l. s. d. very little comfort . and to speak in the words of our apostle , if in this life onely we had hope in christ , we were of all men most miserable ; but now is christ risen from the dead , corinthians . , . and therefore , item , in the resurrection day , they that have done good , shall arise of the resurrection of life , john . . for if we have been planted into the likenesse of his death , we shall also be in the likenesse of his resurrection ; and christ being raised from the dead , dieth no more , death hath no more dominion over him , rom. . . . so also is the resurrection of the dead , it is sown in corruption , it is raised again in incorruption ; it is sown in dishonour , it is raised in glory ; it is sown in weakness ; it is raised in power ; it is sown a natural body , it is raised a spiritual body . and as we have born the image of the earthly , so also shall we bear the image of the heavenly , cor. . , , . and thus shall we be recompenced at the resurrection of the just , luk. . . this shall we have after we have lived in reproach , infamy and ignomy ; this shall we have if we worship not the beast , nor his image , neither receive his mark in our foreheads , nor in our hands ; though we have been villified and undervalued , railed at and reproached , buffetted and whipped , banished or imprinsoned ; nay , though we shall lose our lives , provided it be only for the witness of jesus , and the word of god , we shall have our part in the first resurrection : and blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection , on such the second death shall have no power ; but we shall be priests to god and to christ , and shall reign with christ a thousand years , rev. . , , . for he must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet : and when all things shall be subdued unto him , then shall also the son himself be subject unto him , that put all things under him , that god may be all in all , cor. . , . for it is a faithful saying , that if we be dead with him , we shall also live with him ; if we suffer , we shall also reign with him , tim. . , . therefore , item in the harvest crop , abundance of plenty , for in due time we shall reap if we faint not : and whatsoever a man soweth , that shall he also reap ; for he that soweth to the flesh , shall of the flesh reap corruption ; but he that soweth to the spirit , shall of the spirit reap life everlasting , gal. . , , . and he that goeth on weeping , bearing precious seed , shall doubtless come again and bring his sheaves with him ; for they that sow in tears , shall reap in joy , psal. . . thus weeping may endure for a night , but joy cometh in the morning . in the morning of the resurrection , sorrow and mourning shall vanish away as the dew before the morning sun ; for god shall wipe away all tears from their eyes ; and there shall be no more death , nor sorrow , nor crying , neither shall there be any more pain , for the former things are passed away , rev. . . and the lamb that is in the midst of the throne shall lead them unto living fountains of water ; and god shall wipe away all tears from their eyes , rev. . . yea , he will swallow up death in victory , and the lord god will wipe away teares from all faces , and the reproach of his people shall be taken away from off all the earth , for the lord hath spoken it ; and it shall be said in that day , this is our god , we have waited for him , and he will save us ; this is the lord , we have waited for him , we will be glad and rejoyce in his salvation , isa. . , . for in his presence is fulness of joy , and at his right hand are pleasures for evermore , psal. . . thus our present sufferings are not worthy to be compared with that glory that shall be revealed in us , rom. . . for our light a●●●i●…ions , which are but for a moment , worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory , whilest we look at the things that are not seen , and not on the things that are seen ; for the things that are seen are temporal , but the things that are not seen they are eternal , cor. . . and now my brethren , seeing it is so , that there comes so much , and such great benefit to us by our sufferings , let us chearfully go on in gods way , continuing faithful to the death , that so we may attain the crown of life : and let us follow the lamb wheresoever he goeth , though to the cross , that so we may attain the crown , we shall be great gainers by it : and if we make that use of our sufferings that god intendeth , our faith , our patience , our joy , our love , our peace , and all will be tryed , strengthened , and much bettered . and in conclusion we shall reap the benefit of it , so as that we shall have cause to say with his servant of old , psal. . . i know o lord , that thy judgements are right , and that thou of faithfulness hast caused me to be troubled . and again , by our afflictions we shall evidence our selves to be sons and not bastards ; for whom the lord loveth he chasteneth , and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth ; if ye endure chastening , god dealeth with you as with sons ; for what son is it whom the father chasteneth not ? but if ye be without chastizements , whereof all are partakers , then are ye bastards and not sons , heb. . , , . god is now preparing a people for himself ; and as persons are to be fitted ; hewen and squared for the building of god , before they can be fit matter for his building here , as they must be lively stones before they can be duly put into his building , the church ; so he is now trying his stones for his heavenly building ; he now sitting as a refiner and purifier of silver ; and is now trying the sons of levi , and shall purge them as gold and silver ; and he that is not now found gold , silver or precious stones , will be consumed , his out-side formality will be proved to be hypocrisie : he that now hath not oyl in his vessel will walk in the dark , for profession is almost out of fashion , and he that now hath not habakkuks faith will not stand : he that now finds out a by-way to deny christ , vvill not be found worthy of him ; novv the day vvill try him ; he that vvould not leave his lust , his pride , his vanity , his hunting after his profit , will now evidence himself who he was ; for two men walking together , and a third following them as a servant , it is hard to guess whose servant he is ; but when they part , the servant will follow his own master : christ and reputation , credit or fame have in this nation walked hand in hand a long time together ; but now they are parting , it will suddenly now be evidenced whose servants professors are : and the master without all question will pay them their wages ; the lord is now dealing with his people , as once constantius dealt with his subjects : and would king charles the second have done so , he would have had far better attendants , then now he hath . in the ecclesiastical history , eusebius pamphilius in his first book of the life of constantine , in his twelfth chapter , speaketh to this purpose ; that the magistrates in every province , by the command of the former tyrannical emperors , did cruelly and grievously oppress the christians , and brought them to martyrdom , in so much that godly men were very scarce ; at which constantius , the father of constantine , was much troubled ; who when he came to succeed in the empire , and having a desire to try his courtiers ( saith the story ) he began to contrive a strong and admirable plot ; for he granted free leave to all his officers , and men of dignity , to offer sacrifices unto devils ; and yet to give their attendance in court , and keep their places ; and those that would not perform those accursed sacrifices should be banished the court and dismissed his service : whereupon his courtiers being divided into a double faction , presently discovered their minds and affections : and many were the number of idolaters ; whereupon this worthy constantius discovering his own plot , he reproved those that were fearful and desirous to keep their places , approving and commending the other for their constancy in gods cause , rejecting the idolaters as traytors to god , and not worthy of his service : for how ( said he ) can they be faithful to me their emperour , who have revolted from their god ? so that he presently banished them from his court , and made those that were approved to be constant in giving their testimony to the faith , near officers unto him for the securing of his own person , saying , that such men were to be accounted as his most familliar friends , and to be esteemed of more then great treasures . thus we have briefly characteriz'd the father of constantine by the actions of his life , by which any one may clearly discern that god gave him prosperous success in his affairs , and gave him a different heart from his predecessors : for having a long time performed many vertuous and royal actions , at length having suppressed the superstitious adoration of their heathen gods , he acknowledged the only true god , governor of all things ; and strengthned his family by keeping religious men to pray for him and his ; and spent the residue of his life with great commendations in peace and tranquility , living without troubles , or being troublesome , which the vulgar account a great happiness ; so he governed his wife , children and family very quietly and peaceably all the time of his reign ; and devoted them and himself to the service of god , so that his royal palace seemed to be a religious temple , in which there were holy and religious men , that offered up their incense of prayers for the emperours safety , even then when among the heathen it was a dangerous thing to be called a religious man , or one that served god . and all the harm i wish king charles the second is , that he were but a second constantius , that he had such a court , and such a guard , such a ministry and such a magistracy , such a nobility and such a gentry , such a yeomandry and such a peasantry ; that all from the highest to the lowest were such as truly feared god and hated covetousness , that every relation might act so faithfully towards their god , and each to other in love , peace and unity , that the god of peace might take a delight to dwell amongst us , when all abomination ( babylon like ) might be cast into the sea of forgetfulness . and seeing such a people would make so happy a prince : o friends ! let us hold fast our integrity , that so we may be a blessing to our prince here , and obtain the blessing hereafter . for they that shall be with the lamb are such as shall be found faithful , and worthy , and chosen , for they are virgins , and have not defiled themselves with women , they have not intermingled themselves with the abominations of the great whore , nor her adulterous brood . and if we will have one like the son of god , comforting and supporting , walking with and refreshing us in that hot furnace of affliction that is heating for us ; let us with shadrach , meshach , and abednego , keep close to our god , and let us not be careful to answer the desires of men , dan. . . but in all humility let us patiently suffer under them , in so doing our comfort will be great , though our sufferings be many ; yea though our lives lye at stake , and we also lose them ; yet if our saviours words be true , we shall find them ; for if we with our apostle do fight the good fight of faith , we may expect to lay hold of eternal life ; this is a faithful saying , for if we suffer with him , we shall reign with him ; but if we deny him , he will also deny us , tim. . . and therefore let us take up a resolution to follow him in this our day , in singlenesse of soul , and in our innocency , that we may be blameless and harmless ; the sons of god without rebuke in the midest of a crooked and perverse generation , among whom shine ye as lights in the world , phil. . . giving no offence in any thing that the ministry be not blamed ; but in all things approving our selves as the ministers of god in much patience , in affliction , in necessities , in distresses , in stripes , in imprisonments , in tumults , in labours , in watchings , in fasting ; by pureness , by knowledge , by long-suffering , by kindness , by the holy ghost , by love unfeigned , by the word of truth , by the power of god , by the armour of righteousness , on the right hand and on the left ; by honour and dishonour , by evil report and good report , as deceivers and yet true , as unknown and yet well known , as dying and behold we live , as chastened and not killed , as sorrowful yet alwayes rejoycing , as poor yet making many rich , as having nothing yet possessing all things , cor. . for ye see your calling brethren , how that not many wise men after the flesh , not many mighty , not many noble are called ; but god hath chosen the foolish things of the world , to confound the wise ; and god hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things that are mighty , and base things of the world , and things that are despised , hath god chosen ; yea , and things which are not , to bring to nought the things that are , that no flesh should glory in his presence . and seeing it is so , my brethren , i shall earnestly desire you in the words of our apostle , that you also who are troubled , rest patiently with us when the lord jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire , taking uengeance on them that know not god , and that obey not the gospel of our lord jesus christ , who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the lord , and from the glory of his power , when he shall come to be glorified in his saints , and to be admired in all them that beléeve , because our testimony among you was beléeded . so that as you have cause to joy in us , so we have great cause of rejoycing in you , that we yet stand fast in one faith ; and the churches of god have cause to glory in you for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure , which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of god , that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of god , for which we also suffer , thess. . and thus , if any of us suffer as christians , let us not be ashamed , but let us glorifie god on this behalf . as for you , my brethren , that are of kent , and other places , who have all your livelihoods , and some of you all that you could be trusted for ; as you are servers in of stores and officers in ships , and seamen , and labourers in the several yards appertaining to shipping , my trouble is great for you , to hear of your deplorable and sad condition , in that officers make such use of your tenderness of conscience in that you cannot swear , so barbarously to use you , refusing to let you have supplies for the relieving your poor families ; yet be of good comfort , and roul your selves upon the all-sufficient god : for mine own part i cannot but be a fellow feeler of your sad conditions , for the case is mine own , with one that is too great for me to deal withal , and for more then i am worth ; but wait we upon god , and in his due time he will relieve us . and therefore let us comfort our selves in the lord , and here what the apostle speaks , james . . who saith , go to now ye rich men , wéep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you , your riches are corrupted , and your garments moth-eaten ; your gold and silver is corrupted , and the rust of them shall be a witness against you , and shal eat your flesh as it were fire : ye have heaped treasure together for the last dayes ; behold the hire of the labourers which have reaped down your fields , which is of you kept back by fraud , cryeth , and the cry of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the lord of the sabbath : ye have lived in pleasures on the earth , and been wanton ; ye have nourished your hearts as in the day of slaughter , ye have condemned and killed the just , and he doth not resist you : be patient therefore brethren unto the coming of the lord . and consider , that there is one in power in heaven above them ; and one in earth that is his vicegerent intrusted under him , and set up by him , to be a terrour to evil-workers , and a praise to them that do well ; who in due time may be made acquainted of it , and give a remedy in it . in the mean time , my beloved brethren , be ye steadfast , unmoveable , alwayes abounding in the work of the lord , for as much as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the lord . to conclude , i shall impart unto you my resolution freely , and shall let you know as to my present condition , though i am in a dungeon , yet i had rather be there , ( as through mercy i can say i am with a clear conscience ) then be in the kings palace with a clogged conscience ; for mine own part i with others have had tenders of liberty upon engaging as others did ; the which we dare not do least we ensnare our selves ; for now we are as to our meetings , in this condition , we have yet the word of a king for the quiet enjoyment of our meetings , the which we had from breda , and since confirmed to some of our friends by verbal expressions , as well as in the act of oblivion , and in his declaration for ecclesiastical affairs , and that upon condition ; which condition is not yet , nor ( god assisting ) never shall on our part be broken : for as we have publickly declared our selves in former times under the other powers , to be a peaceable people , and utterly against both swearing and fighting , as by my declaration annexed at the end of my fannaticks mite is apparent , the which through mercy i shall resolve rather to die , then in the least to violate ; and here some men are ready to say as once the brethren of david did to him , who queried the reason of davids forwardness in the work of god ; whose answer was , is there not a cause ? sam. . . so must i say at this day , is there not a cause ? is not the israel of god now defied by the great goliahs of our times ? therefore i must say as once jeptha did in another case , judg. . . i have opened my mouth to the lord , and i cannot go back : and when i am solicited and perswaded to betray the cause of christ , and break his lawes by complying with engagements and oathes ; i must say as once that servant of the lord said , nehem. . . should such a man as i take sanctuary ? should such a man as i betray and break the lawes and cause of christ ? i that have been evil spoken of by the separation for separating from the separation , though i have never been condemned justly by the separation for any such separation ; i say , if such a man as i , should now seek to secure my self after all my separation , i should be the most abominablest person in the world , and might justly be condemned with the world . i know that by what i have said , i must set up my self more publickly for a mark to be shot at : yet i must discharge my conscience as to what i have been , and what i am ; that so i may not be thought either better or worse than what i am : and if therein i become nothing as to my earthly being , yet i matter it not , so i keep a good conscience void of offence , both towards god , and towards man : and if in the innocency of my soul i perish , i perish : and i shall rather chuse to perish a thousand times , then in the least ( knowingly ) either to violate the least law of god , or betray the cause of christ , or do any thing that may dishonour the gospel of christ , or cause his name to be evil spoken of : and although there be such a charge ( as i hear there is given ) to have such a special eye to me ; i know not for what , unless for my good advice to the king : yet it shall neither force me to violate my conscience , nor forfeit my liberty as to our meetings ; but i shall patiently bear my imprisonment till the lord shall in his mercy release me ; hanging yet upon the kings word to be made good to me , and the rest of our peaceable judgement , who are falsly accused , and some of us unjustly imprisoned , and to the wounding of our good names as traytors . yet i say again , i shall resolve ( god assisting me ) to continue , faithfully waiting upon god in his own way , in the integrity of my soul , because better is the poor that walketh in his integrity , then he that is perverse in his lips , and is a fool , prov. . . for the integrity of the upright shall guide them , but the perversness of transgressors shall destroy them , and the righteousness of the upright shall direct his way , whilest the wicked shall fall by his own wickedness , prov. . , . and thus whilest the just man walketh in his integrity , his children are blessed after him , prov. . . the premises considered , it shall be the desire of my soul to go on waiting upon god , earnestly begging in the behalf of the king and his people , that there may be such a right understanding of things , that justice be so duely administred , as that the righteous be not as the wicked , nor the innocent as the guilty , lest the cry of the many oppressed families come up into the ears of the great and just jehovah , that sin-revenging god , who is of a more purer eye then to behold iniquity , so as to approve of it , or those that act in it . thus having given you an accompt both of my innocency and integrety , both what i am , and what ( by divine assistance ) i shall resolve to be , notwithstanding the noysomness of the place i am in , and the hardships that i , and those that are with me , do undergo therein ; our livelyhoods chiefly depending upon our daily handy labours , being torn from our callings , and families , tyed up from getting our own bread , and brought into worse then an egyptian bondage , and contrary to the law both of nature and nations ; who though we are the kings prisoners , yet we have not ( as i said before ) neither beds nor bedding , meat nor money , nay , not so much as a drop of water but what we are forced to purchase with our money ; the which if we have not , nor friends to bring them to us , we must in reason inevitably perish , the which notwithstanding , though we undergo , yet i shall resolve still to endure , rather then set my hand to folly , either to violate my conscience , by breaking the least law of god , or in the least to give my consent to the making my self guilty by paying traytors fees , which is double fees , or any fees at all , seeing i am not guilty of what i am laid in for ; but shall resolve to go on in my christian progress , as a christian ought to do ; and shall desire to wait upon god in prayer and supplication for such a right understanding of things , as that the evil doer only may be punished , & that the meetings of the peaceable people of god , according to the kings promise , may be still continued ; praying for the king and his people , although at present my professed enemies , and to remain till death , your faithful brother and fellow prisoner for christ , henry adis. from my close constraint , the kings courtesie , for my christian counsel , the gate-house dungeon ; damp and dark , void of light , darker then night ; once a den for thieves , but now a house of prayer ; my contented castle , till christ clear me . the end . solomon's prescription for the removal of the pestilence, or, the discovery of the plague of our hearts, in order to the healing of that in our flesh by m.m. mead, matthew, ?- . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing m estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) solomon's prescription for the removal of the pestilence, or, the discovery of the plague of our hearts, in order to the healing of that in our flesh by m.m. mead, matthew, ?- . [ ], p. [s.n.], london : . attributed to matthew mead. cf. bm. reproduction of original in harvard university libraries. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng sin. dissenters, religious -- england. plague -- england -- london. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - jonathan blaney sampled and proofread - jonathan blaney text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion solomon's prescription for the removal of the pestilence : or , the discovery of the plague of our hearts , in order to the healing of that in our flesh . by m. m. lament . . , , . wherefore doth a living man complain ? a man for the punishment of his sins ? let us search and try our wayes , and turn again to the lord. let us lift up our heart with our hands unto god in the heavens . psal. . , . thus they provoked him to anger with their inventions : and the plague brake in upon them . then stood up phinehas , and executed judgment , and so the plague was stayed . london , printed in the year , m. dc . lxv . the preface to the reader . reader , i had more objections in my own thoughts to the sending forth this paper ; and can fore-think more faults like to be found with it when sent forth , then i shall now stand to tell thee of , or make any answer for . but because amongst all those objections , i met not with this , that it was impossible it should do anie good , i thought the rest answerable ; and because amongst all its faults , thou canst not ( trulie ) find this , that it was not intended for anie good , i perswade my self all the rest are pardonable . what the design of it is , if thou art in haste , the title will tell thee ; if thou art at leasure , and think'st it worth thy while , thou may'st find it in the book it self ; so either way i might be excused from saying ought of it here . but somewhat for thy satisfaction know , when i considered the sore judgment wherewith we have been visited , which so evidentlie declares wrath to be gone forth from the lord against us , i thought it might be an essay verie acceptablè to god , and profitable to our selves , to do the best i could to make the voyce of the rod articulate ; that in the print of its lashes , not onlie gods wrath , but the sin he scourgeth us for , and the duty he would drive us to , might be found in legible characters , that even he that runs may read them . when i lookt on affliction as a medicine for a distempered nation , i thought it was exceeding necessarie , in order to its kindlie working with us , to tell the nature , import and use of it ; and to give directions how it ought to be received . and though i acknowledge my self the meanest of ten thousand for so great a work , yet when i saw or heard of nothing so particular and distinct , as i thought the matter required , humblie depending upon , and imploring divine assistance , i made this attempt ; wherein , whil'st i have guided my self by the physitians own rules , and an impartial consideration of the nature of the patient , i hope i have made no material ( i am sure no wilful ) mistakes . this then was my great desire and hope , to be by this undertaking , a worker together with gods providence for some good to the nation . and surely no man hath cause to be angry with this intention , or with any thing that flows sincerelie from it . had anie man , though the meanest among the people , in the time when nineveh was threatned with destruction , given in a catalogue of those sins they were guiltie of , the removal of which could onlie prevent their ruine ; i am perswaded his endeavours would have been grateful to the prince , his nobles , and the people , though he had spoke to them all with more plainness and boldness , than i have done . and i dare confidentlie expect the same , if our fasting and prayers be not onlie for fashion-sake , but in as good earnest as theirs . two great miscarriages moreover i was prone to fear the most would be guiltie of , which i have especiallie consulted against . the first , of being swallowed up so much with a sense of their suffering , as to be indispose for all profitable reflections ; and therefore fain would i turn mens eyes and thoughts from off this , to the sin that brought it ; and have them onlie to consider the former , so much as to inform themselves more clearlie of the evil of the latter . oh what out-cryes we may hear up and down , what doleful times these are ! so manie thousands dead this week , so manie another ! the plague got to this town , and then to that ! all trading , as well as persons , dead and gone ! but were people formerly thus affected , whilst we were bringing this upon our selves ? did they cry out then , oh how manie thousand oaths are sworn in a week ? and how manie lyes told ? how manie thousands drunk , and how manie commit lewdness ? had we had weeklie bills of such sins brought in , they would far have exceeded the largest sums that ever yet the mortalitie made . but alas ! these with the most were light matters . not half so manie groans and tears for these , nor anie such complaints of them ; nor did the consideration of them make anie sensible alteration amongst us . now this i would fain obtain , to have those dayes thought as much worse than these ; and those actions as much worse than these sufferings , as the disease is worse than physick ; and a childs disobedience to his parents , worse than his being whip't : and he that should weep out of pitie to the child , when he sees it lash't ; and yet could be content to hear him revile and abuse his father , i should think to be a person of more fondness , than discretion ; and for him to be more concerned for the childs smart , than the parents honor , argues him to have no true love for either . and here by the way let me give a caution , viz. that no man bewray so much follie as to argue , that because in mercie god may abate and remove his heavy judgments , before manie , or perhaps any of these sins i have mentioned are put away from amongst us ; and because we may have our former health and plentie restor'd , whilst there is no such reformation of disorders as i have exhorted to , that therefore our sufferings were not intended to chastise us for those sins , nor to bring us to this reformation . if thou be an atheist or infidel that makest this argument , who believest not there is a god , or that he concerns not himself with our affairs , but that all things come by nature or chance , or i know not what , i shall then leave thee to receive satisfaction ( if nothing sooner will give it ) there , where all such as thou , by the feeling of divine vengeance , are at once convinc't what the sin is which hath deserved it , and that there is a god who inflicts it ; but if thou be a christian , then i would wish thee well to examine the nature of the thing , ( that i mean , which thou thinkest god hath not punish't us for , because it is yet continued ) and upon the issue of that examination , pass thy judgment . it 's much to be feared thou wilt see drunkards , and hear swearers , after the plague may be ceas't ; and wilt thou think therefore that these , and the like wickednesses , did not provoke god to afflict us ? but rather stay , if thou art in doubt , till the great reckoning day , till thou hast heard all mens accounts cast up , and those actions which are then approved confidentlie pronounce no sins ; but not all those that survive the heaviest judgments here on earth , which may be sent to punish and reform those that were guiltie of them ; since hardned sinners may frustrate some ends of an affliction , and all are not followed here , as pharaoh was . no , i say , do not justifie all such actions , though thou shouldst hear them openlie defended , and applauded , and those men punish't that dare to oppose and contradict them , and that opposition made the onlie sin . this lower world is full of such mad mistakes and confusions , but all will shortlie be set strait . the other miscarriages that i feared men would be apt to run into , and which i have laboured to provide against , was , that though they might be convinc't that sin in the general , was the cause of all our miseries , yet hardly that it was their sin , or their friends , but some bodies else that they don't love ; and so shift it off to this or that party , whom they would have punish't , had they been in gods stead . such a strong self-love there is in everie man , that his fancie shapes god verie much in a likeness to himself . even the vilest sinners , psal . . . thought god such an one as themselves . and consequentlie they account themselves , and all their concernments dear to god , and so would interpret all his providences in favour of them , to right their quarrel , and to avenge them of their enemies ; for thus would they prescribe god , might they be call ▪ d to his counsel . all would fain carrie it , that god is of their partie , and against those whom they are against ; everie man will be more inclined to accuse others ▪ than himself : nay , and hence it oft falls out , that they who have espoused anie sin , will be so far alone from thinking ill of it , that they 'l rather accuse the contrarie vertue ; and so godliness it self may sometimes bear the blame , or however the most godlie and unblameable men . the pillars of a ▪ land sometimes are accounted the pests of it , on which whilst some men blind with rage , lay their hands to pluck them down , they are about to do themselves , and the people with whom they are , the same courtesie that sampson did to the philistine lords . they who were the salt to savour a corrupt world , were accounted the filth and off-scouring of all things . ahab will sooner count elijah than himself , a troubler of israel . and when anie mischief befalls the empire , then the poor christians must be thrown to the lyons . thus i fear amongst us , manie bitter and undeserved censures will be past by one against another ; which great sin i have done my best to consult against , whil'st i have chieflie laboured to bring everie man to a reflection upon himself ; whil'st i have studied faithfullie to deal , both to this man and that , his share in procuring our miseries ; and whil'st i have made the divisions and parties that are amongst us which occasion this censoriousness , one great cause of our sufferings . however one or otber may interpret what i have done , i am prettie indifferent ; only i hope i have said nothing , which need make anie man presentlie fall a confuting me , which , i ▪ le promise you , it 's an hard thing in these dayes to escape ; say what you will , 't is against sin onlie i have a quarrel : if any guiltie person ( as the pharisees when christ preach't ) shall think i mean him ▪ let him once again know , that it is not against small or great , but the sins of all , that i am entered into the lists ; and i hope they 'l rather see to forsake , than vindicate them . but if otherwise , if leave may be granted , i dare undertake to evidence , that sin is that which brings suffering , and that those things i have mentioned as the sins of our nation , are indeed such . yea , and if it be not thought immodestie to forestall the readers judgment , i dare add , that i have spoken verie great truth and reason in the matters most liable to exception , notwithstanding all the weaknesses and disadvantages in the representing , which i readilie acknowledge to be manie and great . but i have alreadie exceeded the due bounds of a preface ; wherefore to conclude , let all censure as they shall find meet ; only let me make a solemn profession ( which is the more credible from one , who hath no great reason to expect to out-live the general desolation ) that , so far as i know my own heart , i have spoke nothing with a design to exasperate any , or to humor and gratifie one faction , by disgracing or inveighing against another ; but it hath been my care to speak the very truth , according to the infallible word of god , and the clearest apprehensions of my own soul ; with an unfeigned desire to discover what indeed those sins are , which we especiallie smart for , that the inconsiderate and ignorant may be informed , the guiltie humbled , wickedness rooted out , god appeased , and all our mercies , both spiritual and temporal , restored and continued ; and these designs shall be followed with my prayers : ( and i hope with thine too that read'st me ) but how far the success may answer either , i must leave to the readers improvement of , and gods blessing upon my well-intended , though weak endeavours . thine in the service of the gospel , m. m. i kings . , , . if there be in the land a famine , if there be pestilence , blasting , mildew , locust , or if there be caterpillar : if their enemy besiege them in the land of their cities , whatsoever plague , whatsoever sicknesse there be : what prayer and supplication soever be made by any man , or by all thy people israel , which shall know every man the plague of his own heart , and spread forth his hands towards this house : then hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place , and forgive , and do and give to every man according to his ways , whose heart thou knowest , ( for thou , even thou only knowest the hearts of the children of men . ) the good and gracious god , the ruler and governour of the world , and the disposer of all events , doth nothing rashly or in vain , and therefore hath made it the duty of the sons of men wisely to weigh and consider of his providences , and to learn instructions thence , as well as from the revelations of his mind in his written word , micah . . we are bid to hear the rod. and though in the bounteous dispensations of his favours , we can assign no higher cause than his own meer grace and good will , which is accomplish't in the doing good to his creatures ; yet in the inflicting of judgment which is his strange work , we may be sure to find something out of himself moving him to it . it cannot be well conceived how man should ever be the subject of pain or sorrow , did not sin render him passible , and open a way for the sword to enter his bowels , and give it that edge and force which causeth it to pierce the deeper , and to wound more sensibly . now as a distemper which ariseth from a surfet , is to be look't at only as an effect of intemperance , and is not to be quarrell'd at , but the cause of it to be blam'd ; and as the chyrurgions searching into the festered place is not a wound , but a discovery of the depth of the sore , in order to its cure ; so are the judgments which god sends on a people only to be regarded as the symptomes of , and means to cure that disorder , and distemperedness within our selves , which doth as it were naturally produce such sufferings . it is not the breaking forth of some inward distemper , which is our sicknesse it self , but 't is rather the effect of it . the spots discernable upon the infected , are not the plague , but the tokens . thus are we to account the most grievous things that light upon us , but as the manifestations and fruits of something worse within us . now look when men by outward signes find out those ill humours that lodge within them , they labour not so much to represse the out-side sore , as to correct and remove the inward cause . he that when the pox comes out upon a child , would drive them in , shall but make sure and hasten his death ; but rather will the wise physitian prescribe means for their kindly coming forth and ripening , that by them the corrupt humours may be vented and vanish . he that is troubled with heats and flushings , arising from his liver , would but play the fool to lay plaisters to himself , but will rather take physick that may inwardly purge him . even thus also suffering having its birth and nourishment from sin , the way for the redress of that is the removal of this . and by no other means can a kindly cure be effected . indeed sometimes an affliction may be taken off in greater wrath , than it was laid on , when people so revolt , that god will strike them no more , but because they are joyned to their idols , will let them alone ; but this is but the making way for sorer judgments to follow . and thus will it be wheresoever we are taken from under the rod , before we are brought under the yoke . if outward sufferings turn to hardnesse of heart ▪ desperate is the case ▪ of such a people or person , however they may applaud themselves in their deliverance ; this is but like a venome which may seem to leave a finger or hand , but strikes up to the heart : this is but a skinning over the sore which will wrankle beyond the possi billty of a cure ; it is but a kind of lightning before death , the surest forerunner and saddest presage , that all our happiness is giving up the ghost and departing from us . now we must needs acknowledge it infinite mercy and goodnesse in our god , when we have reduc't our selves to such a dangerous estate by sin , any way to discover it to us , though by sharp and smarting means , so that these prevent our final ruine . oh that i could inculcate this into my own , and the readers soul , that before we felt any pain , we lodg'd within us a greater evil , and that what we now feel proceeds from the hand of love , if we are wise to improve it . poor man , thou criest out of poverty , losse of relations , sicknesse and pain , but didst thou not know it ? thou carriedst these , yea , and worse than all these about thee before , when yet thou could'st go up and down quietly enough and never complain . couldst thou not swear , be drunk , commit lewdnesse , over-reach , defraud , and oppress thy brother , profane the lords day , neglect the worship of god both in publick and private , make a jest of scripture , and mock at holinesse , and corn , and deride , hate , and persecute the most serious christians ? these , these , oh senslesse sinner , were thy sicknesse and misery ; these conceived and bore about in their bowels , all that sorrow which since they have brought forth . sin goes big with all the most dreadful evils in the world ; even hell it self is its natural off-spring . but alas thou feltst no hurt , no smart in all this . thou couldst grieve the spirit of god , and trample under foot thy redeemers blood , and run fresh spears into his side , and nails into his hands and feet , and yet never once in any sober sadnesse reflect upon thy self , and say , what have i done ? thy sin was thy pleasure , thy sport , thy trade ; so sweet , so profitable , that thou thoughtest it as dear to thee , as thy life it self ; and couldst never believe thou wa'st doing thy self so much mischief , while thou was 't pleasing thy flesh , or filling thy purse . how hard a task had he undertook , that would have gone about then to have convinc't thee that thy most delightful gainful sins , were indeed thy wounds , thy losses , and would be thy undoing ? and yet thus it was . he that is swallowing down poison because its sweet , or wrapt up in gilded pills , is then poisoning himself even whilst the sweetnesse is in his mouth , and his palate is pleased with the relish ▪ though perhaps he may then laugh at him , that cries out it is poison , and bids him therefore as he loves his life , spit it out : what , shall you perswade him that can be hurtful , whose taste is so pleasant ? but even he himself when he feels it burn his heart , and gripe his bowels , and torture his inward parts , will then cry out he is poisoned , and roar out in the anguish and bitter torment which he feels , but all this his pain is but the working of that poison , which then became mortal , whilst it went down so pleasantly . you may hear people when in sufferings , make sad complaints and lamentations , that would even melt ones heart to hear them : then they can cry out , oh my my wife , or husband , or child is dead ! what shall i do ? how can i bear it ? oh what course shall i take to get bread , for my self and family ? cry the poor ; what must we starve for want of relief ? oh how doleful is our case ! and they that are under sicknesse , and strook with the visible hand of god , how do their hearts sink within them like a stone ? how pale and ghastly do their looks of a sudden become ? now they are even at their wits end , oh any thing , any thing for help ? what piteous moans now they can make ! oh their head , their heart , their back ! now with what astonishments and horrors , do they every moment expect to breath out their last ? with what amazing fears , what dark and dismal apprehensions of the state they are entering upon , are they now seiz'd ? what passionate out-cries may you hear from them ? what must they dye ? is there no remedy ? no hope ? must they then leave the world they have lov'd so much , and liv'd in so long ? and bid farewel to their freinds and companions , their houses , and lands , their sports and merriments and gainful trading , and all for ever ! oh that ever they should be born to see such a day ! that their dwellings should be within the reach of the contagion ! that this dreadful death of all others should befall them ! that they should be left thus desolate and forlorn , forsaken of all , abandoned of their nearest relations , in this time of their greatest extremity , when they most need succour and comfort ! thousands such hearty groanings , and bitter wailings may you hear : but had you come in amongst these people , a few days since , oh what quite other kind of men were they ? how jolly and secure , following their pleasures or businesse ; and would it's like have laught at him that should have told them of a death so near , or of the judgment that follows after . how few , alas ! how very few should you have then found amongst them , who did at any time cry out , oh blind mind that is so ignorant of god! oh earnal heart that is so averse from his laws ! oh how unevenly do i walk ! base treacherous wretch that i am , thus to depart from god! vile and unthankful creature , that ever i should offend a god of such mercy and love ! oh that i was delivered from the power of my lusts , the temptations of satan , and all the diseases of my soul ! alas ! instead of such becoming language as this , you might from the most have heard , swearing and cursing , idle songs , filthy and ribbald speeches , or at the best , frothy , foolish , or worldly unprofitable discourse . poor stupid sinner , then thou wast stabbing and destroying thy self , then thou wast seiz'd with the most deadly infection . then had it been no uncharitablenesse , nor absurdity to have set a lord have mercy upon me , in capital letters on thy forehead ; yea , wise and holy men saw it there in that wickedness that broke out in thy life , and lookt on thee as fitter for a pesthouse , than converse ; as one not to be accompanied with , except in order to thy recovery . now must we not all in general say , that it is tender compassion in the great benefactour to mankind , that he will so farre concern himself with us in our miserable estate , as by any means to awaken us to a sense of it , whilst there is any possibility of a cure : sottish wretches , that measure all events by their correspondency to flesh and blood , will not believe there can be love in such sore afflictions . they to whom sin was sweet , will hardly be brought to like well of those potions , which are administred on purpose to make it bitter . how will they loath the physick , who love their very sicknesse ? but all whose eyes god shall open by his providences , will see abundant cause to blesse , and praise him for his love , in working them to a timely apprehension of that , which otherwise had been their ruine . tell me man , is it not a wonderful mercy to be awakened on this side hell , let the means be what they will ? if thy present smart makes thee judge otherwise , couldst thou but come to the speech of those undone souls whose hopes are perisht for ever , they would soon satisfie thee that every thing is tendernesse , and very great mercy that comes to discover sin , and prevent everlasting misery . oh lay this to heart in time man , and stay not too long , till feeling give thee a too clear and undeniable demonstration of this truth . if now thou criest out thou art undone , because thy trading's gone , thy friends dead , or thy self in danger of death , and lookst not about thee to find out , and be affected with greater evils than all these , and so to escape much greater sufferings than yet thou hast felt , 't is but a little while before thou ▪ shalt find arguments reaching to thy very soul , which will make thee acknowledge what i now say . oh then , when thou findest thy self under the vials of divine vengeance , and hast taken up thy residence amongst the devils and damned ghosts in the midst of the burning lake , what slight inconsiderable things not worth the mentioning will all the miseries thou underwentst in thy life-time appear to thee ? what desirable things will the most pinching poverty , the most grievous pain then seem , compar'd to what thou wilt endure ? what very trifles , meer flea-bitings wilt thou then judge famines , plagues , and heaviest judgments that can light upon men whilst in the body ? oh what wouldst thou then give to be where thou wast , when thou thoughtest thy self at the worst ? and wouldst thou entertain such a state with joy and thankfulness , which before thou thoughtest the most miserable that a man could possibly be cast into ? then thou wilt confess , that to be shut up from the society of men , hath nothing of dolefulness in it , compar'd to thy being shut up under the burning wrath of an unreconciled god. then at length , whether thou wilt or no , thou shalt see sin , and cry out of sin , and acknowledge 't is thy sin that hath ruin'd thee . now thou canst in thy cold , faint manner by rote , say thou art a great sinner , and perhaps maist cursorily cry god mercy ; but then from the very inwards of thy soul shalt thou repent of sin , with such a kind of hellish repentance , as is proper to those damned spirits in the midst of their tortures ; such an one as thy predecessour judas felt the beginnings of , when he ran to the halter for comfort . then thou shalt not only with those rev. . . pour out thy blasphemies against god , the breath of whose fury like a stream of brimstone kindles and keeps alive those unquenchable flames : but thou shalt also load thy self with heavier accusations , than ever any of gods ministers did whilst thou wast upearth . then thou shalt feelingly confess thy self stark mad and besotted , and wonder at thy own stupendious folly , that ever thou shouldst so wilfully and resolutely plunge thy self into that place of woe . and this will be none of the least aggravations of thy torment , to reflect upon those many ways which god us'd with thee to have convinc't thee of thy sin and danger before it had been too late , of all which thou mad'st light , and wouldst not be taught by them ; when the hand of god here was lifted up , thou wouldst not see ; but then thou shalt see , thou shalt know . then thou wilt easily grant , that the sharpest suffering that had so shewn thee sin , as to have sav'd thee from this wrath , had been the happiest providence that ever befell thee . would any man that hath not lost his wits , as well as his gratitude , take it ill from his neighbour that should waken him out of his sweet sleep , when the house is on fire over his ears , yea , though he pinch and beat him black and blue that he may speedily rouze him ? now from all i have said then , i would gather , that the heavy hand of god upon a nation , as it is laid on for sin , so for the most part not meerly for punishment and destruction , but to discover to us the evil of our doings , that they may be repented of , and put away . and so there is much mercy in the midst of these judgments , if they be improv'd to those eads to which their nature is fitted for , and which we are commanded to make of them . the greatest of these calamities to those that remain , are but like the sounding of a trumpet , the giving an alarm , the shooting off a warning-piece , the hanging forth of a white flag , and all speak to this purpose , that though the sins of a nation have been exceeding great and provoking , whereby the anger of the most holy god is justly kindled against them , which he sends these his judgments to testifie , that yet he is willing to put up all former affronts that have been offered , if now at length they will become a reformed people , and with detestation of their sins turn from them unto god and his holy ways ; but if not , that his anger shall not be turned away , but his hand stretched out still , till he hath made a full end of them , and will follow them with judgment after judgment , till they are cast into the lowest hell . so that you see plainly the rod , hath a voice , and is a kind of sermon , but comes nearer to the sense , and will force an observance more than meer words could do . we could chuse whether we would read a bible or good book , or regard a minister or godly neighbour , giving us this very lesson as plainly , but in a more gentle manner . we could stop our ears , or turn our backs , or harden our hearts against all the most awakening , startling truths : we could make a pish of the most dreadful threatnings in the book of god , denounc't against those very sins we committed ; we could laugh at our teachers and reprovers , and scorn at the offers of their love for our recovery . and when we were sunk into such a deplorable estate , wanting nothing of falling head-long into hell , but the withdrawing of that miraculous patience which kept us out every moment , then in infinite mercy did our god , who like a wise physitian , suits his potions to the nature of the disease , and temper of his patients , make bare his arm , and reveal himself and his pleasure to us , in a way most likely to affect us , if we who yet survive , be not obstinately bent upon our own destruction . let us not then murmur or repine : for if our disease be grown to such an height , that without stronger medicines it would be our death , is it not all the reason in the world that we should submit to those prescriptions which are proportion'd to it ? whoever thou art that sufferest , thou hast reason to be content , for it s thy own doing ; thou mightst have hearkned in time to the plain word of god , and so have escap't this severer discipline . thou who wast wilfully deaf to the still voice , is it not of thy self that a message is delivered to thee in such terrible thundrings ? if thou hadst not clos'd thy eyes against the gentle light , they had never been so forcibly held open by the hand of god , to see those things which are as clear as the noon-days sun ▪ if the word of god had sunk into thy soul , thou hadst not thus felt his arrows in thy flesh , nor been taught thus with briars and thorns , like them , judg. . . god delights not in the smarting and roaring of his creatures ; but yet he that hath bidden parents by the rod of correction to drive out the folly that is bound up in the heart of a child , so he loves the sons of men , that he will not spare his rod when it may ( and if it be not mens own fault , will ) conduce to their advantage . when there is no way but either the gangren'd member , or the life must go , who would not lose that , to save this ? still then here is mercy : afflictions , beside the frightful noise , have a clear sense and meaning ; beside the heat that scorcheth , they have an informing light . god might in a moment have snatch't thee from earth to hell , and there have convinc't thee in such a manner as leaves no room for thy reformation , when as now he hath taken away thy neighbour , and but threatned thee with death , and afforded thee some breathing-time for thy preparation , and for the prevention of the endless death . thou who art reading these lines , mightest have been the first at whom god had level ▪ d his arrows ; thou mightest have been snatch't out of the world suddenly , without any other warning than the word had given thee , as it may have hapned to others . but since it hath not thus befaln thee , whatever thou maist feel or fear further , thou canst not but acknowledge god treats thee very graciously . whilst thou art on this side hell , thou maist learn much by the severest dispensations ; and though this seem a cutting , piercing way of teaching , yet is it ( as i said before ) best suited to thy dulness and senslessness , and most likely to prevail with thee , as not needing so much the pains of a particular application to thy self , which thou wouldst not be brought to in the hearing of the most searching sermons . 't was but forgetting them , and there was an end of all ; but now god speaks words which may be felt , that shall stick longer by thee , and upon which he will keep thy most serious thoughts whether thou wilt or no. it did require indeed deep and frequent consideration to convince thy self of thy lost undone estate by reason of sin , whilst thou wast swimming in plenty and prosperity , and couldst bid thy soul take its ease : alas ! what was it to hear of the wrath of god , a never-dying worm , an unquenchable fire , whilst men felt all well with themselves ; and lookt upon those very sins as essential to their happiness , which the word represented as their misery ? they were not then likely to think very ill of them whilst they perceiv'd no hurt they did them ; but now when god shall manifest his hatred ( and consequently the evil ) of sin by demonstrations reaching to the very bone , he that groans under these loads , may very readily infer , that surely sin is an exceeding great evil , which pulls down such judgments from a compassionate god : which yet at the highest , are but forerunners of infinitely worse to follow , even everlasting destruction from the presence of the lord without timely repentance . and when thou hast so far made advantage of thy afflictions , as thence to inform thy self of the evil of sin in general , and of thy particular sin ; to know that sin is a plague , and to know what is the plague of thy own heart , then thou art in a very fair way towards deliverance and healing . and this is made evident to us by the words of solomon which we propounded at the beginning , which i intend not particularly to insist on , but to make them the foundation of a more general and laxe discourse . the import of them seems to be this , that any man under any calamity whatever , that should be sensible of the sin that procured it , and betake himself to god , by prayer and true repentance , for him the wise man prays , that he may have audience and mercy . for such a man is fit to have the plaister taken off his sore , on whom it hath had a kindly influence , answerable to the end whereunto god sent it ; namely , to shew his sin , humble him for , and turn him from it . two things on the by only , i shall hint from these words , . that we may very well turn this prayer of solomon's into a promise , and conclude that what he beg'd of god , and that with a particular reference to the children of israel , shall be granted to every man , in any place performing the conditions here described . . note , that under the work know , is compriz'd the whole performance of all that is required in other places of scripture , in order to the obtaining of the pardon of sin , and the removal of those judgments which it had procured . there is nothing more common in holy writ , than the making words of knowledge , inclusive of the affections and practice also . to know god , frequently comprehends our whole duty to him ; for our knowledge of him being the beginning and ground-work of all other duties , and producing them where it is in clearnesse and power , may very well be put for all . according to this is our english phrase , i 'le make you know your superiours , that is , perform your duty to them . so here to know the plague of our own heart ( by which is meant sin , the disease of the soul ) is as much as to be convinc't of it , to see its odiousnesse , to be lively humbled for , and sincerely resolved to forsake it . that it must be a working practical knowledge , not resting in meer conviction , is evident from the foregoing words , which mention the prayer proceeding from those who know the plague of their own hearts ; the same also follows , and spread forth their hands to this house ; that is , make their addresses to god , with some kind of particular reference to the temple , where he did in a more special manner reside and manifest himself ; and thus daniel in captivity opened his window toward jerusalem , dan. . . now he that should thus come to god ; what is it for ? not only for deliverance , but also to confesse sin , the cause of his misery ; and if so , then must he be truly grieved for his provocations of the most holy god , and this could not be without promises , and purposes of a reformation . now i need not stand to prove what i before mentioned , that whoever is thus affected shall , if not be freed from the temporal affliction he lies under , yet , be secured from the hurt of it , and have greater blessings bestowed ; this , i say , i need not stand to prove , the scripture being everywhere so full of examples and promises that demonstrate it . and indeed it is fully evidenc't in the very tenour of the covenant of grace , which assures pardon , and salvation , and all things truly good for us , upon the condition of our coming to , and receiving christ ; which none can do , but they who are sensible of their need of him , who have seen the evil of sin , both as to its nature and effects , and are desirous to be delivered from the guilt , and pollution ; and this sense of sin , and aversion from it in heart and life , is true repentance , and upon condition of this it was that soloman pray'd for , and god frequehtly promiseth mercy , and particularly see his answer to this very prayer , and the promise he made to grant it , chron. . , . wherever then the judgments of god , are more eminently inflicted on a people , it is a sign there are some hainous transgressions which have deserved them . if the plague , or any such calamity , seize a nation , it speaks this much , that there is a plague in the hearts of that people ; some such wickednesse which provok'd god , to pour out his wrath upon them . sin is as the body , suffering usually as the shadow that attends it ; the one is as fire , the other as smoak that proceeds from it . wherefore by the putting away of sin only , can we escape the threatned wrath , or rescue our selves out of that we feel . this is very plain , if the knowledge and removal of the plague of our hearts , conduce to our recovery , then our being seiz'd with it was our misery : and therefore the cause being removed , the effect will follow . if the entertainment of sheba into abel , bring joab and an army against it , then to deliver him to them is the only way to procure their departure , sam. . these several truths then are plain , and the words we have taken notice of naturally afford them . . that god is the supream efficient cause of all the sufferings we lie under . is there evil in a city , ( of affliction that is ) and hath not he done it ? . it is for the sin of a people , that god lays these sufferings upon them . . it is a most proper seasonable duty , in times of such calamity , to make enquiry into our wayes , that we may discover what is most likely to be the cause ; what is that achan that trouble us ? this is the great thing whereof we are call'd in the day of adversity to consider ; and accordingly , the most of my business in my following discourse , shall be the practice of this direction : for i shall not particularly handle any of these observations . . if we finding out oursin , bewail and abhor it , put it far from us , and betake our selves to god for mercy and pardon , then will he hear in heaven , and forgive ; remove from us our miseries , and restore his loving-kindness . i shall only answer one objection by the way , and so pass on to what i chiefly design . some may say , they have been sensible of , and in some measure humbled for sin , and yet notwithstanding , have been held under as sharp and as long sufferings as others . here we must distinguish ( ) betwixt national and personal judgments : ( ) betwixt the ends and reasons why they are inflicted : ( ) betwixt the cross and the curse of it . and so i answer . ( . ) if the judgment be national , as sword , famine , captivity , some great mortality , and this sent for a national common sin , it cannot here be expected , that the humiliation of some few particular persons should always serve for the averting such calamities . nay , the righteous themselves may be involved in them ; as we find there were many good men carried captive with the rest into babylon , amongst which , were daniel , and the three children . indeed sometimes we read of one or more standing in the gap , and preventing a deluge of wrath , as moses oft did , but there was then also some kind of general humiliation ; for of the people , it s said , when god slew , then they sought him ▪ psal . . . and though moses prevailed thus far , that they might not utterly be destroyed , yet very sore judgments were frequently laid upon them . noah deliver'd himself and family only , not the old world. lot himself and children , but not sodom and gomorrah ; though then god graciously condescended to have spared them all for the sake of ten righteous persons , could they have been found amongst them . but at another time , so great and general were the sins of the jews , that god tells this prophet , though noah , samuel , and daniel were there , they should only deliver their own souls , ezek. . . ordinarily , 't is an humiliation in some competent measure proportion'd to the sin which must appease the wrath of god broke out upon a people . when all nineveh had sinned , and was threatned , it must be a general repentance that could prevent the execution of those threatnings . ( . ) though particular persons may not by their reformation procure mercy to a whole land , nor yet free themselves from the outward stroak which lights upon the body of the nation , yet shall not their labour be lost , but god will have a special eye to them in the common ruin ; and what is in wrath to others , shall be in love to them . they shall have either such preservation from , or deliverance out of the temporal calamity ; or such support in , and advantage by it , that they shall have abundant reason to acknowledge , that their repentance and supplications were not in vain . fear not , poor christian , if thou be but a mourner in zion , one whose heart bleeds for thine own and others transgressions ; though thy dwelling be in the midst of profane , rebellious sinners , yet thou shalt not be lost in a croud . it is not the oaths , and blasphemies , and crying sins of those about thee , that shall drown thy prayers : but god will hear , and one way or other graciously answer them . if thy soul , thy everlasting life be given thee for a prey ( as a temporal life was promised to ebedmelech , jer. . . and to baruch , jer. . ) thou hast sure no reason to complain . what though the same disease , and death seize thee , as doth them ? it comes not for the same reason , nor shall it have the same effect . what though thou wast carried in the same ship with traitors into another countrey , where they are to be executed , and thou advanc'd to the highest dignity , was this any hurt to thee ? if death take thee from the pressures of all sorts , under which thou maist now groan , and from the evil to come , and translate thee into the glorious presence and full fruition of the ever-blessed god , this is sure a different thing from being snatch't away from thy happiness into the society and torments of the devil and his angels . wherefore thou hast good reason to acknowledge gods distinguishing mercy in those his dealings with thee , which to sense may be the same with what others meet with . i might add also the spiritual advantages which accrue to the godly by afflictions sanctified , but the other contains this in it , and much more . ( . ) thy afflictions may perhaps be more for trial , than punishment ; and so may be continued , notwistanding thy endeavour to find out and forsake sin ; but when they have wrought that particular end for which god sent them , they shall be removed . or they may befall thee for the cause of god , and a testimony of a good conscience , and then thou hast more cause to rejoyce in them , than impatiently to seek their removal . whatever they be , see thou make this use of them , to be more deeply humbled for , and set against sin , which is remotely at least , the cause of all suffering ; and to demean thy self patiently and submissively under the mighty hand of god , and in his due time he will exalt thee . it being then evident , that the knowledge of sin is so necessary to the removing the heavy hand of an offended god from off an afflicted nation , surely , the great work we are all call'd to in this day of our sore visitation , is to give all diligence to know why it is that god contendeth with us ; and wherein we have incenst him thus , to pour out his wrath upon us ; that so we turning from our particular sins , he may turn away his anger , and comfort us . and in order to this , it is the duty of every one , who is an inhabitant of the land , in the first place to call himself to a strict account , and impartially to look into his heart , and review his life , and see what he hath done towards the hastening these judgments upon us , and accordingly apply himself to god , to do his utmost for their removal . every man hath brought a faggot to the kindling of the common flame , wherefore every man should bring his bucket to quench it . and here let me warn every soul to beware of a most dangerous temptation , wherewith its like they 'l be assaulted , to wit , to think but very meanly , and sleightly of their own particular sins , as if they had little or no influence , to the bringing on us such grievous calamities ; and that partly out of self-love , which makes us very tender how we accuse our selves , and ready to extenuate all our own faults ; partly , because we may yet be free from the smart , and therefore take but a cold superficial view of our selves ; and partly , because when we look upon the evils in grosse under which the nation lies , we can discern no proportion betwixt them , and our personal offences , and this comes much from our ignorance of the hainous nature of the least sin . now reflect on thy self , reader , and tell me , hast thou not been very ready in the general to cry out , that 't is for the sins of the nation we are now afflicted ; and to flie out very bitterly against this party , or that ; this abuse , and the other corruption in church or state , but in the mean time , hast been very backward , to charge and accuse thy self , as thou oughtest , as if thou wast not a member of this sinful and suffering nation . let thy conscience answer whether this hath not been thy way , and judge whether this be a just performance of thy duty . if every person thus shift it from himself , where will repentance be found , and what 's like to become of us ? if there were an army to go forth against the enemy , and one person should draw back , and say , what can he do ? he cannot be mist in such a multitude , nor can he do much against such a numerous force , and therefore desires he may stay at home ; and another come , and use the same excuse , and so a third ; and at length all that have the same reason , ( which indeed every man may pretend to ) what 's like to become of the war ? and yet alas ! how doth this senselesse objection , generally prevail in the world , in a case somewhat different from this , viz : hindring that couragious zeal , and industry , for the promoting of religion , and for the destruction of the devils kingdom , which beseems every member of christ hat is listed into his service , by the baptismal covenant , wherein he was engaged to fight under the banner of christ , and that without putting in this condition , that he should have good store of company to joyn with , and back him : for without this he may come off a conquerour . but yet now cries one , what can i do against an overflowing torrent of wickedness ? what can i , a weak , and single person do , for the advancement of holiness , against a wicked raging multitude ? what canst thou do ? why , thou canst strive and dye , canst not ? but what then , shall no-body do any thing , because every man is but one , and hath many difficulties to encounter ? or wilt thou therefore do nothing , because thou canst not expect a successe answerable to thy desires ? or may we not joyn , and unite our strength , and all set to a shoulder , for the carrying on of the work of the lord ? be sure thou shalt always have difficulties to try thee : for 't is thy heart god calls for , he needs not thy hands . why , man , if thou wast alone in all the world , having such a leader and captain as christ , wouldst thou not stick to his cause , and keep to his colours , and die fighting ? if not , thou deservest not the name of a christian . and if there be so few who seek the things of christ , with how much more vigour and resolution ought those few to bestir themselves ; and not also forsake their lord , because the rest of the world do ? but still they should imagine they hear the awakening words of christ to his disciples , sounding in their ears , what , will ye forsake me also ? but this was a digression . let not then , i say , the consideration of thy being a single person , abate any thing of the measures of thy sorrow for sin : for if all do thus , as all may have the same ground , there will be none found to charge sin on themselves , and acknowledge gods justice in all his sharp dispensations . wherefore , whoever thou art , into whose hands these lines may fall , my earnest request to thee , yea , my strict injunction , is this , that thou presently get alone , and soberly sit down to the intent study of thy self : beg of god , to help thee in this work , and do thou endeavour with all faithfulnesse , as in his sight , who will shortly judge thee before all the world , to rip open to thy self all the baseness that hath been lodg'd in thy heart , all the lusts that have been entertained there . and consider well thy life , what known sins thou hast been guilty of , what duties thou hast omitted . and then with all speed and seriousnesse , betake thy self to god , acknowledg thy own vileness , plainly confess , that 't is this or that thy sin , thy loosness , thy covetousness , thy pride , idlenesse , or voluptuousnesse , that may have helpt forward his anger . and own it as a token of undeserved grace , that all manner of woes have not seiz'd upon thee , in thy own person ; that whilst so many are afflicted , and taken out of the world before thee , thou hast warning and leave to prepare , for what may befall thee . and see that thou labour to represent sin to thy self , with all its heightning circumstances , and aggravations , that the review of it may more deeply affect thee ; help thy meditations with those doleful miseries so many now lie under , and that in part for thy sins , which yet are but the beginning of woes to the impenitent ; and then think , if these are no jesting matters , what is the sin that procur'd them : think of that matchless love , that continued patience , that clear light , those great engagements , purposes , and frequent promises , that thou hast sinned against ; till at length , these considerations work thee to such an apprehension of sin , that thou canst not conceive of any suffering suited to its demerit , but the everlasting wrath of the most dreadful majesty : and till thou acknowledge not only thy contributing to the present calamity ▪ but that if the rest of the nation had been like thee , it would surely have been all in flames before now . be sincere and thorow in this humiliation of soul , and take heed of neglecting any such consideration as may help on the same . review thy self , thy place , and relations , and what in them was expected from thee , which thou failedst in performing , and accordingly lay it to heart , and judge and condemn thy self and behaviour . if in any place of honour and service , thou hast not improved thy interest for the rooting out of sin , and advancement of holiness , account thy negligence aggravated by the greatness of the talents thou wast entrusted with . wast thou a man of wealth , wit , power ; a magistrate , a minister , a master of a family ? take a strict account of , and humbly bewail thy unfaithfulness to thy several trusts , and thy carelesness of those duties which thy place did peculiarly engage thee to . and do not think when thou hast discovered , and confess'd sin , that then thy work is over , as if ▪ by thy formalities thou hadst purchased to thy self a dispensation to continue in it ; like many , that think they serve god sufficiently by going to church , and saying their prayers , and in the mean while make this their serving him , but a kind of indulgence for their sinning against him . but when thou hast made this progress , thy next work in order to the obtaining of a pardon , is , seriously and deliberately to resolve upon the putting away far from thee every known sin , upon mortifying thy dearest lusts , and upon a faithful performance of those duties common to all christians , and those thy talents or relations call for . if thou hast been a debauch't , or covetous person ; a careless mispender of thy money or time ; an extortioner , or oppressour ; a racking landlord , or cheating tradesman ; a sabbath-breaker , and neglecter of duty to god , publick or private ; or hast liv'd in any the like sins , enter now into a solemn covenant with god , that by the assistance of his almighty grace , thou wilt never more allow thy self in such a course of impiety . if thou hast abused thy riches , and laid them out only in making provisions for thy own or others lusts ; if thou thoughtest thy dignity above others , did dispense thee a liberty of sinning without controll , and accordingly hast misimprov'd it ; if thou hast been unfaithful in the execution of justice , with which thou wast entrusted , neither looking after sin to punish it , nor punishing it when it was revealed to thee , but hast rather been a terrour to good works , than to evil ; if as a minister , thou hast been regardless of the souls of those committed to thy oversight , only striving to enrich thy self , not better thy people , practising those sins thou hast preach'd against ; or , if as ruler of a family , thou hast been negligent , not setting up the worship of god in thy house , but gone from one day to another without so much as a serious prayer , nor hast instructed thy children , nor servants in the fear of the lord ; whatever , in a word , thy trust and unfaithfulness to it hath been , confess and lament the same , and resolve for the future to do thy utmost to discharge thy duty , to answer and fill up thy several relations . and here again , let not any insist on that silly objection before mention'd ; what can my repentance do to the diverting of judgments that flow in upon us like a deluge ! for if all , i say , use this , who is it must pacifie gods wrath by their reformation ? but , if thou for thy part wilt practise what i have here cursorily directed , thou knowest not but others may do so also ; and so , if every one would set to this work , thy cavil would be wholly silenc'd and answer'd . but again , thou wouldest grant it to some purpose for the whole body of the people to joyn in hearty humiliation and amendment of their wayes , and know , that as to the greatest benefit that would accrue to a nation by such a general repentance , thou shalt procure it to thy self by this personal performance of thy duty ; that is , either the affliction it self shall be kept , or taken off thee , or laid on in so much mercy , that thou thy self shalt , either here , or in another world , bless god for the the same . and i hope this advantage is not inconsiderable , when on the other hand thou remembrest , how certainly thy impenitence will cause thy everlasting , as well as temporal ruine . and take notice from the text , that god will render to every particular man according to his wayes ; but this i have before said something to . oh that now there were in us all such resolutions unfeignedly to search our hearts , and reform our lives , and with our whole souls turn to the lord our god , from whom we have revolted ! what blessed effects should we find of this wise and dutiful demeanour ! oh that i knew how to perswade poor souls to this course , before their deadly enemy , who now doth all he can to harden and stupifie them , shall be fully seiz'd of them , past all possibility of a delivery ; then scorning at all our endeavours , and challenging us to do our best for the rescue of such undone souls , who must be tormented by him , by whom they would be ruled . but if thou art so far perswaded of the reasonablenesse of this duty i have been pressing upon thee , that thou art desirous to know thy self and sins , wouldest gladly find out , that thou mightest expel the plague of thy own heart ; that i may do something farther to help thee in thy self-examination , i shall briefly endeavour to discover what those sins in our nation are , for which especially we are now plagued by the visible hand of god : and the lord awaken us all seriously to lay to heart , and remove them far from us , that so god having accomplish't his own designs upon us , may lay by his rod , and shew us his wonted favour . and let me beseech thee , reader , to accompany me with thy conscience , and let thy eye still be turned off from the book upon thy self , and if thou seest thy own actions described , cry out , guilty , guilty , i am the man ; and so proceed in thy duty , as i have before directed , and shall not again repeat , except on the by. in the prosecution of this design , i shall say something , . of those notorious crying sins which are to be found amongst us ; of which , i shall need to say the lesse , because they are so visible upon us , and so readily acknowledged to be what they are , and because so many books are written to shame and suppress them . . i shall proceed to lay open some such abuses and corruptions amongst us , which are not only sinful in themselves , but also in part , secret causes of the former , which yet perhaps may not be apparent to , nor acknowledged as such by all . and once again , let me desire every reader to place himself , as at the bar of god , and so to passe a true judgment upon himself ; and not to quarrel with the physitian , instead of falling out with the disease ; nor be more averse from hearing the discoveries of the plague of his own heart , than he would be to hear his physitian tell the symptoms of the plague , to convince him he was struck with it , whil'st all this was but in order to his recovery . whoever thou art that are guilty , 't is thou hast wounded thy self ; i would willingly shew thee thy sores , that they might in time be healed ; if thy resolution not to have search't into them , make them uncurable , though i may never have thy thanks for the offer of my help , yet i know whom thou wilt accuse as the cause of thy destruction , which i would fain have prevented , and shall do what i may in order thereto . . in the front of those abominations under the effects whereof we groan , we may well place adultery , fornication and lasciviousness , whether we consider the provoking nature , or the commonness hereof amongst us . this is a sin we often find attended with exemplary punishments in scripture ; for this , together with their idolatry , we read of a plague inflicted upon the israelites , numb . . whereof dyed . for davids commission of this but once , it was threatned to him , that the sword should never depart from his house , sam. . . and in the new testament especially , how frequent are the prohibitions , and how severe the threatnings denounc'd against it ? whoremongers and adulterers , in a peculiar manner , god will judge . and for these things sake especially , we are told , comes the wrath of god upon the children of disobedience . how strict is our saviours exposition of the seventh commandment , making a lustful glance the breach of it ? and upon the mention of that , immediately follows the threatning of the whole body being cast into hell , without the cutting off the right hand , and plucking out the right eye , the subduing the dearest lusts , and renouncing the sweetest sins , matth. . , , . with what repetitions of the same do we find it mentioned , where it 's spoken against , inculcated again and again , to take the deeper impression ? and when the lusts of the flesh are named , usually this is reckoned for the greater part of them in various expressions , signifying much what the same thing , coloss . . . mortifie therefore , &c. fornication , uncleanness , inordinate affection , evil concupiscence , eph. . , . gal. . . now the works of the flesh are manifest , which are these , adultery , fornication , vncleanness , lasciviousness . this sin we find much aggravated by the apostle , cor. . , . to the end ; as that which in a particular manner defiles a man , and renders him indisposed for the in-dwellings of the holy spirit . this loathsom wickedness doth especially soften and brutifie men , and sinks them from god into the sensitive life , and stupifies the higher parts of the soul , and renders them unqualified for a converse with that god , who commands all that will approach him , to be holy , as he is holy. and this is a sinne which upon many accounts , breeds as much confusion and disorder in the world , as it does in particular mens souls : it must needs therefore incense the most high god , to see his creatures endued with reason for the governance of themselves , to whom he hath prescribed rules for their walking , to degenerate into such effeminate impotence , as to be hurried away by their own lusts , to such bestial uncleanness . but alas ! how notoriously infamous is our nation grown for filthiness and lewdness ! it cannot now be charged on the pope alone , that publick stews are erected within his jurisdiction ; only yet here 's this difference , those are ( if history , and common report speak truth ) licenc't : ours are not demolish't . nor yet perhaps are ours so publick , or certainly known , but yet too publick they are , to the disgrace of our nation , and holy profession . insomuch that one would think venice was lost from its foundation , and floated into england . it is not the loathsomnesse of that disease which in a just judgment attends it , that will deter men from this more loathsom sin : yea , so common is it grown , that by many 't is look'd upon as a very light matter , no way so hainous as god and his preachers would make it . and they are ready to censure his laws as severe , for not allowing them the priviledges of bruits ; so strangely doth frequency in sin , wear out the sense of it ! and a sensual life doth even blind the understanding , and bribe the conscience ; till at length with much ado , men almost perswade themselves , that they may do what they have often done , and are resolved still to persist in . whoredom , wine , and new wine take away the heart , hos . . , . even in a literal sense , the spirit of whoredoms cause men to erre . and can it seem strange , if at length god make use of arguments , which such brutish creatures themselves are capable of , to prove to them , that their filthiness is highly provoking to his glorious majesty , who is of purer eyes , than to endure to behold the least iniquity . his word condemned this before , as plainly as it could speak ; but vile wretches , whose senses are their masters , would not understand it ; they acknowledged not his commands , they either believed not , or would not consider his threatnings ; his promises of an everlasting glory , were too thin and spiritual for them to relish , or be allured by . what tell ye them of rivers of pleasures at gods right hand ? they must have their dirt to tumble and wallow in . take those who will for them , they must have their chambering and wantonnesse , and lustful dalliances . nothing must go for reason , with them which contradicted their sensual desires ; and is it not just , they should then be dealt with sutable to their natures ? that since nothing else would do it , sense and feeling may at length assure them , their sweet and pleasant sins are a displeasure to god , and most pernicious to themselves : and if neither seeing the beginning of gods wrath upon others , nor feeling it themselves will prevail with them , god hath judgments in store that shall extort from them , will they , or will they not , most passionate and hearty acknowledgments , that whilest they were satisfying their lusts , they were most studiously contriving their own ruine , and treasuring up wrath for themselves against the day of wrath . if neither poverty , nor shame , pox , nor plague can bring them to such a confession , hell shall bring them to this , and much more . but as if we were not content with those ordinary sins of adultery and fornication , 't is reported that we have amongst us , beside the effeminate , abusers of themselves with mankind also . this in italy had been no such monstrous thing , but can it be accounted lesse in england ? both heathen and popish rome indeed , hath still been infamous for this , amongst other abominations ; and thence 't is most probable , we have derived sodomy , as well as popery . and 't is well , if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all other projects , for the promotion of holy church , this be 〈…〉 to debauch our gentry , the better to dispose them for the embracing of t●at religion , which can afford them indulgences at so cheap a rate . now let any man but seriously consider the holinesse of god , his infinite purity and justice , and withall reflect upon his omnipresence , his all-searching eye that is upon the most secret actions ; think but how he hath been a witnesse of all that lewdnesse that hath been committed in all places , in the greatest privacies and retirements , not bars and bolts could keep him out , not drawn curtains , nor the darkest night could hide impure sinners from his view ; consider we but these things , and shall we wonder if for these wickednesses the lord be wroth with us , and pour out the vyals of his fury upon us ? how justly might god take up the complaint against us , which he did against israel , jer. . , . when i had fed them to the full , they then committed adultery , and assembled themselves by troops in the harlots houses : they were as jed horses in the morning , every one neighed after his neighbours wife . and what follows , ver . . shall i not visit for these things , saith the lord ? and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this ? and oh now , that all those , whose consciences condemn them for these things , would presently arise , and take shame to themselves , and do no more so wickedly , lest worse things yet befall them . and the good lord awaken those that are in authority , to greater vigilance and industry for the future , in searching after , punishing and suppressing this impiety wherewith we are so polluted ; that the visitation now upon us , which hath so much the same cause with that laid on the israelites , num. . may also have the same speedy and effectual cure , which we may read , psal . . , . thus they provok't him to anger with their inventions , and the plague brake in upon them . then stood up phinehas , and executed iudgment , and so the plague was stayed . the two next sins i shall mention , may passe for appendices to this first , as having been too apparent promoters of it ; which yet if they were not , may upon other accounts be deservedly reckoned amongst the provoking sins of the land. . the former , is the licentiousnesse of the stage , where wickednesse , and amongst other sorts , wantonnesse is more effectually taught , than it is decryed in the pulpit . let their favourers talk what they will , of their advancing virtue , and shaming vice , i should put it amongst one of the wonders of the times , to hear of any man reform'd by a play. if to hear others , be the way to make men leave them ; if to hear the sacred name of god profaned , his word jested with , religion it self derided , be the way to make men devout ; if to hear lascivious discourse , and see impudent persons and actions , be the way to get modesty , then let us all flock to the play-house . and next , from the same reason , let youth be brought up in a brothel-house , to learn chastity ; at a tavern , to avoid drunkennesse ; at a gaming-house , to keep them from cursing and swearing . i have heard but few count it any great wisdom in that nation , where they were wont to make their servants drunk , to shew their children the odiousnesse of it ; and surely there was lesse charity in it , to make some commit wickednesse , that they might prevent it in others . but when vice shall be represented , yea , and commendably too , 't is very great odds ; but that they will soon turn actors when they are gone away , who were even now spectators of it . what is to be learn't at the play-house , let the conversations of most that plead for , and haunt them , evidence . and from the lives , to the consciences of the greatest admirers of a play , do i appeal , whether ever they got any real good from them , and whether they have not oft got evil . the precious time that is mispent either in seeing , or afterwards talking of them , is not to be look't on as a thing of nothing ; however it be sleighted by those wretched sotts , that knowing neither god nor themselves , have more time than they know well what to do with , and therefore are glad to run to their playes and sports , for nothing else but to help them away with it ; and let not such complain , if a plague at once ease them of all that trouble , and carry them into an eternity , where they shall never more have one of those precious moments which here they were weary of , and knew not how to improve . and if they knew nothing they had to do here , but please themselves , god will cast them into a world , where he will find them employment enough , but of such a nature , that they shall wish a thousand and a thousand times over , that they had spent all their dayes in the greatest diligence and strictnesse to have prevented it . let the giddy carelesse ones of the world cry as long as they will , what hurt is there in this , or the other recreation or merriments , that only wasts their time ? if there was any hurt in the fire and brimstone that fell upon sodom , that which caus'd it , was no such harmlesse thing ; and amongst the sins of that city , abundance of idlenesse is nam'd for one , ezek. . . again , were it nothing else but that vanity and frothinesse of mind , and unfitnesse for all religious duties , which playes naturally produce , i think this was enough to make all sober persons regard them as little better than pest-houses : and had our gallants look't on them as such , and accordingly shun'd them , they might not have had occasion to avoid those which are more dreadful , but lesse hurtful . would our wanton youth , and idle dames have kept out of these places of infection , where folly and lightnesse tainted them both by their eyes and ears , there might have been no such infected places , which they are now so careful to avoid . for my own part , i must needs say , that i took it for a dishonourable reflection upon our english prelacy , which a modern poet makes his observation , in a preface to a book of comedies , put forth in these late times , that bishops and playes went down together . and sure , if they could have hindred it , 't is as little for their honour , that they have both been restor'd together . i can scarce ( but that i should prevent my self ) forbear crying out , when preachers mouths are stopt ; and players opened , what sad effects are like to follow ! surely the primitive christians , whose moroseness in refusing to behold the romane spectacula ( whatever difference there may be betwixt them , and our stage-plays ) was one great crime objected against them , would not have thought such lewd and immodest shews agreeable with their profession . but what talk i of them , a company of sullen souls , much what like the people , we are wont to laugh at for puritans ? it is not my business now to argue , what a play is in it self , or what it may possibly be refind'd to ; but i speak of them with all those corruptions with which they are now attended . and i would hope the same policy , a little more improv'd , which hath shut up the play-houses now , to prevent the spreading of the infection , will keep them so , to hinder its return : whoever may be displeased with this motion , i am very confident , god is not , and then i am indifferent who is . . the latter of the two sins , which i mention'd , as related to the first particular , is pride ; and here amongst all the sorts of it , which might very well deserve our notice , and with which no doubt god is provok'd , here i mean especially pride of apparel : a sin grown either so impudent , or so universal , that our pulpits do of late days seldom meddle with it . i am sometimes ready to think , ministers are asham'd to concern themselves with such low and ridiculous things ; ( though i wish they are not silent for fear of offending their fine hearers , which may chance to be of the best in the parish . ) but if people will be so ridiculous and vain , and manifest such childishness and folly , surely their teachers must follow them , and condiscend to discover to them all their mistakes , and the subtle ways of the deceiver of souls , who is very ready to play at any game for the ruine of poor creatures ; and holds more in his slavery by this very vanity we are now insisting on , than is ordinarily thought : we may find the great apostles not thinking it below them to give precepts in this matter , pet. . , , . whose adorning , let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair , or wearing of gold , or putting on of apparel , &c. so also tim. . , . in like manner also , that women adorn themselves in modest apparel , with shamefastness and sobriety , not with broidered hair , or gold , or pearls ▪ or costly array ; but , which becometh women professing godliness with good works . which commands how they have been violated , it concerns the guilty to lay to heart . as i would not be thought of their opinion , who place their religion so much in meats , drinks , or apparel , whether papists in the former , or quakers in the latter ; so i am as far from thinking , that religion extends not to these things : for though it be seated in the heart , it gives laws to the outward man. i rememember , it is an observation of a most judicious and learned divine , that few of those errours or sects that have rose up amongst us , but have call'd upon us , to have regard to some neglected truth or duty , as he instanceth in several ; and to adde one more , i think the quakers are risen up , keeping such a stirre about ribbonds , cuffs , and lace , and such like things , to shame and condemn all , especially the more strict professours of religion , for that very great liberty they have assum'd to themselves in their bravery , gaudiness , and changeableness of apparel . had the professours of these latter times , made those of the former ( who were yet as careful of their hearts as any ) their patterns in this matter , they had spoil'd the poor quaker of half his religion , and not given him an occasion to bring up a sect , that should go in plain and modest cloathing . but wise are they who shun both extreams . doubtlesse , this pride in the outward man , is no such a sleight matter as 't is commonly made . see isa . . . because the daughters of zion are haughty , and walk with stretch'tforth necks , and wanton eyes — therefore will the lord smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of zion . and have we not had multitude , such walking in our streets ? read on that chapter from the verse to the end , and tell me then whither god take not notice of , and is not displeas'd with this vanity , and curiosity in apparel . is not this indeed to be proud of our shame , since cloaths themselves had not been us'd , but for that shame which sin introduc't ? and i may well annex this to the sin of wantonnesse , both as discovering and promoting it : for what 's the design of all that art , cost , and pains that persons bestow upon attiring themselves , but to appear handsome and well set out ? and what 's this for , but to couch others eyes to be fixt on them ? what are naked breasts , and painted , and spotted faces design'd for , but as trapans and snares for the wanton beholders ? and the dresse it self by the lascivious is made but a more plausible kind of pander . it may be worth the noting , that the word rendred effeminate , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , cor. . . is joyn'd with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and signifies soft clothing , matth. . . which may intimate to us , that there is some relation betwixt such clothing and effeminency . and whereas by the texts above mentioned , it seems that women only were wont to be guilty of this folly ; the delicate youths of our time , will not suffer that sex to engrosse this sin , and shame to themselves , but are resolved to go sharers . oh the intolerable expence of money and time , for the satisfaction of this base monstruous pride ! how many naked backs might be cloathed with half that cost , which is lavish't to put a man in a fools coat , or to hang about them such baubles , as may serve people to stare at ? and let the guilty bethink themselves how to answer this their liberality upon their lusts , in the day of severe account , when all talents shall be reckoned for . by that time at the farthest , if they be not convinc't that persons of honour and estates , had been better distinguish'd by their examples of charitableness , than by gaudy garments , or rich jewels , let me pass for a false prophet . though i spe●k not this of those robes and ornaments of the magistrate , which are necessary for distinction sake , and to acquire greater reverence to his place and person . but let all those who are at so much charge in their attire , to let the world know they are some-body , remember this , that god entrusted them not with estates for them thus to make shew of , but to use for his service . and i think any body will say , that he 's an unfaithful steward with a witnesse , who when his lord hath given him money to lay out in necessary uses , shall throw it about streets , to let people know what store of money he hath the keeping of : thou who canst condemn such an one , see thou do nothing like him . whoever thou art that hast been guilty of this fault , surely thou wilt acknowledge this is a day that calls for the laying aside of thy braveries and ornaments , and rather to cover thy self with sackcloth and ashes . but if yet thy pride will not suffer thee to part with them , bethink thy self what thy naked soul shall wear in that place whither god hath expresly threatned to turn the proud . dives there must not have his silk and fine linnen , but instead of them , the purple flames are his unchangeable cloathing . is it any wonder then , if as the israelites were plagued for worshipping the idol which was made of their ear-rings and jewels , exod. . , . we meet with the same punishment for a sin not much different , even for making such toyes themselves our idols . strange judgments may well follow strange apparel ; yea , such that wear it , god hath plainly threatned , zeph. . . and what strange apparel for both men and women have the devil , pride , and fraunce help't us to ? and they who caught this sin one of another , pleading fashion for their justification , are they not justly afflicted with a disease that is contagious too ? the spots which pride and wantonnesse , those plagues of the heart , sent into the face before , are they not fitly punish't with spots of another hue ! is it not exceeding just , that they who were so far fal'n in love with their comely carkasses , that they were wholly devoted to deck and trim them ; should have such loathsom botches , and noisom biles and risings upon them , as might convince them how little better than carrion is that flesh they so much pamper and adorn ? and let them now think what pleasure or ease is to be had from putting on their splendid finest array , when the plague-sores shall be running upon them ; even much-what the same that herod had from his royal apparel , when he was eaten up of worms , acts . , . and if in such a case they would have little mind to stand tricking and trimming them , let them know that the ulcers and sores of their polluted souls , and proud hearts , call for as speedy , and earnest reg●rd , and deep humiliation ; and were these once cur'd , such vanities would be thrown aside . the lord grant all those who survive , may take warning in time , before their bodies are humbled to the dust , and their souls to hell , for their daring , impudent pride . . another heinous sin which hath overspread our land , is swinish drunkennesse and gluttony : this also may well be joined with those before mentioned , as being the ground and incentive of all other lewdnesse and wickednesse . but alas ! how hath the commonnesse of this vice , and mens custom in it , taken away those odious apprehensions which scripture helps us to , and all sober men have of it ? oh , how are our taverns and alehouses , in all parts of the kingdom , frequented ! how doth our whole nation seem even ready to reel into its own ruines , being seized with the vertigo of an epidemical drunkennesse ? how gentile , and fashionable a thing is it now grown , for men to be drunk , in civility to the company they are engaged in ? how many tricks have they devised for the maintaining of this sin , notwithstanding the most expresse injunctions and proclamations to the contrary ? profane custom hath so overswayed , that drinking of healths , must be the test of mens loyalty ; and of their respect to those great ones , to whom the beginner shall consecrate his bowl ; as if a disorderlinesse , which scarce any beast will be guilty of , must shew good manners ; and no man could be a good subject to his king , which dare not rebel against his god. those that dare , are valiant men indeed ; but such , as when it comes to tryal , will do little more for their prince , than they do for their maker . so general is this practice of excessive drinking grown , that both the gallant and the clown , rich and poor , young and old , yea , women as well as men , city and countrey , are fadly infected with the same . in too many places , he 's scarce accounted a good house-keeper , that let 's his neighbours go out of his house sober . how can men entertain their friends , or renew their acquaintance , or drive any bargain , without betaking themselves to some tipling-house ? yea , how frequently are drinking-matches appointed , for no other purpose , but to pour down their liquor ? what multitudes are there , who rise up to drink strong drink , who tarry at night till wine inflame them ? yea , to such an height of wickednesse are we grown , that as if there was some excellency in sinning , men strive for the mastery in it ; and to be able to drink down others , goes for a very manly faculty . such enemies have we got to the cross of christ , whose god is their belly , whose glory is their shame . and is there not the same reason , that our crown of pride , and the drunkards of england should be trodden down , as well as of ephraim , isa . . . is it not just , that they whose intemperance hath often deprived them of their reason , should be taken with a distemper that may strip them of the use of it ? that in those very streets where men have staggered and fallen down dead-drunk , they should there fall down stark-dead ? the like might be said of gluttony , and luxurious feastings , a sin more confin'd to the greater sort , who can make sufficient provisions for the flesh , to fulfill the lusts thereof ▪ abundantly confirming what the wise man hath told us , that the prosperity of fools destroys them . and what a wiser than he hath expresly affirmed ▪ though sure believ'd but by very few , that rich men do difficultly enter into the kingdom of heaven . how much money is expended but once , to furnish the tables of these gluttonous epicures ? how do they sacrifice gods creatures meerly to their lusts , eating only for pleasure , and to keep themselves alive from one meal to another , without thinking of that service they owe to god for all . they have lived in pleasure , and been wanton , nourishing their hearts , as in a day of slaughter , as st. james speaks , chap. . . what hath been the life of too many of our gentry , but to eat and drink , and sleep , and rise up to play ? here 's the improvement of the many special engagements god hath laid on them to honour him , that they of all will do least to his honour . what an exact description may we read of many of them , amos . , , , . ye that put away far the evil day , and cause the seat of violence to come near : that lie upon the beds of ivory , and stretch themselves upon their couches , and eat the lambs out of the flock , and the calves out of the midst of the stall : that chaunt to the sound of the viel , and invent to themselves instruments of musick ▪ like david : that drink wine in bowls , and anoint themselves with the chief oyntments : but they are not grieved for the affliction of joseph . and there read on , you may find their doom : if men will bid their souls take their ease , eat , drink , and be merry , well may they expect quickly to hear , your souls shall be taken from you . and when they are thus provoking god to anger with their eating and drinking , what wonder if his wrath fall upon them , whil'st the meat is in their mouths ? if they so far forget their own natures , and the use of his creatures , as wholly to be devoted to the satisfaction of their raging sensual desires , which they ought chiefly to have denied ; and if like unprofitable burdens of the earth , they fed themselves only that they might live longer to taste the pleasure of their delicious meats and drinks , how just is it that when like swine they were fatted , they should there be brought to the slaughter ? . as the next provoking sin which is rife amongst us , i shall reckon swearing , cursing , and profaning the most holy name of the dreadful god. a sin less excusable than epicurism , because i know no sense gratified with it ▪ but though it be less bestial , yet is it more diabolical . oh the horrid oaths that have been daily belch'd out by the black-mouth'd sons of belial ! who almost could walk the streets of the city without stopping his ears ? or else he was like to hear the name of god abus'd ; the life , the blood , the wounds of our dear and precious lord tost too and fro , by the mouths of wretched swearers . who , that had heard all the oaths and curses that were vented but in one day , in this one city of london , would not have admired , that their tongues , who were thus set on fire on hell , did not set our whole nation in a flame ? oh well is it for us ▪ that our god , who is mercy it self , rules in the world ? how quickly would all created patience , though meeting in one person , be quite tired out , and worn away ? these hellish exhalations streaming forth from the hearts and mouths of corrupted men , whereby they have assaulted even heaven it self , might justly have been kindled by the wrath of god , and have been returned upon our heads in showrs of fire and brimstone . and if the polluted breath of these kind of wretches , have infected the very air we breath in , 't is not to be thought strange in the least . could those volleys of blasphemies which have been discharg'd against the glorious majesty , do any other than turn to a black cloud , which should light heavily upon us ? some think it impossible for the soul of man so far to sink into the devilish nature , as to sin meerly , to sin without a regard to some carnal interest : but if any instance will evidence it , i think 't is swearing and cursing ! 't is possible i know ( though this is far from excusing it ) for passion to transport men to an oath ; and sometimes a desire to be believed , sometimes an ignorance that they do amiss , may betray them into it ; but for men to enterlard their ordinary discourse with full-mouth'd oaths , priding themselves therein , as if gentile and graceful , what excuse can be invented for such horrible practices ? nay , when men shall set themselves purposely to swear , and devise new oaths that shall be al a mode , what possible pretence have they for this ? and hither may i refer those strange , unheard of prodigies of profaneness ; wickednesses too transcendental to be rank'd under any ordinary topick ▪ such as killing men in a bravado , drinking healths of their own blood , yea , healthing it to the devil himself : for such — i know not what to call them , as these are we reported to have had amongst us , nay ( canst thou imagine it reader ? ) far worse than these , which let those mention who are masters enough of our language to render them in fit terms : for i profess , i cannot . so unwilling are the daring fellows of our days to go to hell in the old way ! it cannot consist with the greatness of their spirits , to be wicked at these low rates , that their silly ancestours were . in all they do , they would be taken notice of , and appear above the vulgar . and would proclaim to all men , that they are none of those melancholy , weak-brain'd , or mean-spirited men , who are so aw ▪ d with the apprehensions of a god , that they dare not sin freely and boldly . no , but they have so far conquered those prejudices they had conceived of vertue , and vice , sin , and shame , that they dare in the open sun commit those sins , which cowards run into the dark for . they are not asham'd to own themselves the devils vassals , but dance in his fetters ▪ whilst all men hear their cackling . what other design can these swaggering sinners have in such a carriage , but audaciously to affront the great majesty of heaven and earth , in the highest manner they are capable ? ah besotted wretches ▪ let me bespeak you in the language of the prophet , do you know against whom you shoot out the lip , and make a wide mouth ? what could your wit find no other way to vent it self , nor your malice , any other object ? had you no cheaper way to undo your selves ? were you afraid lest you should have miss't of hell ? what ? did you indeed mean by your blasphemies to dare god to his face ? would you force him to give a convincing evidence of his being ? if so , i hope you are satisfied by this time , if not , you shall be shortly . was you resolv'd to try how far his patience would extend ? did you fear he was so merciful , that you should never feel his wrath ? or were you in such haste to be with your everlasting companions , the devils and the damned , that you thought your judgment lingred , and damnation slumbred , and would therefore do your best to hasten it ? or were you so fully bent on the satisfaction of your lusts , that you were resolved to pursue them even to the burning lake , and therefore thought you had ee'n as good go to hell for somthing , & would make to your selves as good a bargain as you could , and do all that in you lay before-hand , o revenge your selves of that god , who will there treat you so severely ? or were you now betimes inuring your selves to the language of hell , that you might not be to learn when you should be thrown thither ? these are strange suppositions the reader may think , but not so strange as the sins i am speaking of , and for which , i can scarce assign other reasons than such as these . and shall we wonder , when such rebels are risen up against the lord , if he grow jealous for his great name , and arise , and vindicate his glory and power from the contemptuous affronts of insolent mortals . moreover , how many times have people in their execrations wish ▪ t , that the pox and the plague might take themselves , their children , servants , or cattle ? and can they find fault , if at length , their desires are granted ? yea , how many roaring ruffians have we got , who , as if they were already entered into the familiarity of devils , make nothing of it to curse themselves to the pit of hell in their common discourse ; who can scarce speak a sentence without their dammee's and sinkmee's ? whose tongues , were they pluck't out by the roots , it was a punishment no way suited to the heinousnesse of their crime . but let them , if they think fit , stay a while longer in their contempt of god , and his threatnings , and their resolute disobedience to his holy laws , and if nothing else will serve their turn , they shall too soon to their sorrow , find all their accursed prayers accomplish't . the devil , whom they have so oft wish't to fetch them , shall very shortly have that commission which he eagerly waits for , and then let them say whether the dreadful god be to be jested with , or abus'd : and then at length shall they hear that terrible question thundred against them , have you provok'd me , saith the lord , have you not provok'd your selves to the confusion of your own faces ▪ . amongst the rest of our commonsins we may account covetousness , together with all the discoveries , effects and branches of it ; such as oppression , extortion , bribery , injustice , either in judgment or mutual traffique , over-reaching each other , uncharitableness , and grinding the faces of the poor . i put all these together , as having some relation to each other , and being all neglects of duty betwixt man and man. if idolatry so often brought the plague , or other sufferings upon the israelites , why may not covetousnesse which is idolatry , by the same reason bring it upon us : is it not as displeasing to god to have men adore an heap of gold and silver , or their houses and lands , as an image of gold made up into humane shape ? and is it not as great a sin , for the heart to run a whoring after these things , as to bow the body to an idol ? and how are men almost every where set with all their might and main to thrive , and rise in the world , to lade themselves with thick clay , and here to lay up their treasures ? was it not time for us then to be told , and told to the quick what we were doing ? that we were not yet at home , and must not therefore think of setling here ? single deaths of men when there died now one , then another , had but little effect on us , to make us sensible of our own mortality , and therefore multitudes are swept away before our eyes , to see if that will have any more influence upon us . with what unwearied , and uninterrupted pains and diligence did the most drudg about their earthly affairs , from morning to night , weeks end to weeks end , without any serious regard to the business they came into the world for ? but were so deeply faln in love with present things , that they dream not of a removal ? and withal were so plung'd over head & ears in their cares and businesses , that they could not find a time , for any serious consideration of the matters of their souls ? how just is it then that god should take them off by his hand , if they knew not how to disengage themselves ? and snatch them away from those estates which they knew no better how to improve , but were even nestling themselves in them , as their durable possessions . and i hope all who are engag'd in such affairs , will call themselves to a strict account whether there have been no such unjust sentences pronounc'd either in condemning the innocent , or acquitting the guilty , that may have provok't the just god to anger against us . and let all merciless rich men , cruel extortioners , oppressive landlords lay to heart their unmercifulnesse , rigour or injustice to the poor , to the fatherlesse and widow , whose cries may have reacht the ears of the lord of sabboth , jam. . . and caus'd him to rise and plead their cause , by sending his judgments upon an hard-hearted generation . and doubtlesse that great want of charity , and christian compassion which ought to be in us , towards our brethren in their necessities and miseries , may very justly have hardned god himself against us , and caus'd him to be deaf , to our cries and prayers . how many have had their money and precious things which they had hoarded , left to strangers , or rifled by theevish hands , which they might in their life-time so well imploy'd for gods honour , and their own good ? but alas , amongst the many that professe the faith , how few are there who will take a promise from god as good security ? and amongst so many that say they love god , how few have manifested it by their love to their brother ? and hath the matter been mended , since we have been under this sore visitation ? nay , rather hath it been worse ? oh how men shut up their bowels against their poor , necessitous , visited brethren ? and suffered ( 'tis sadly to be feared ) thousands to starve for want of needful supplies , whilst they have had enough for their lusts , and to spare ; and need not ( which yet in such a day especially is our duty ) have pinch't their own back or belly to have afforded them relief . and this cruelty have men been guilty of whilst many of them had reason every day to expect their own death ; but they have seem'd resolv'd to hold , and grasp all as long as possibly they can , and to cleave closer , if they knew how , to their dear mammon , of which shortly they must take their sad , and last farewell , oh! who but infidels would not have sent their treasures before them thither , where they expect shortly to be themselves translated . but the sin i chiefly intended under this head , is the common dishonesty in buying and selling , mens defrauding and overreaching each other . a practise which i fear , london hath been more guilty of than corinth which yet was charg'd with it , cor. . . and it concerns citizens and tradesmen especially , to enquire into themselves upon this account , as being most expos'd to temptations to it . thou who yet survivest , examine thy heart , look back on thy former course of life , in thy following the world . does not thy conscience accuse thee for having grown rich by lying , cheating , and deceitful ways ? hath not thy conscience many times flows in thy face , for thy notorious falshoods , and crafty projects , and unlawful devices , to put off thy wares , and enrich thy self ? alas men are ready to plead a kind of necessity for their sin ; and say , if they should always be upright , and plain , and true , they should never know how to live . is not the world then come to a brave passe ? what a matter of course is it with tradesmen to tell multitudes of lyes to every customer almost , and never make matter of them , so they but help off their commodities ? they can go their ways , and wipe their mouths , and there 's an end ; but hold , god will not put it up so . so they can but now get a pound or a shilling , how little do they regard the time of reckoning for all again ? they know not how to keep up such serious thoughts in the midst of their noise and busle , in buying and selling . but if they can't , god will take them off their hot trading , and give them leasure enough to consider what they have been doing . and hath he not done thus ? 't is well for those who so improve their breathing space here , that they have not this work to do in the other world . all that men could think of , was , that mony was to be got , which way it mattered not so much . and well had it been for them , if god had made no more matter of it : but believe it he hath taken a strict notice of all thy ways , and recordeth them with greater exactnesse , than thou wast wont to do thy debts in thy shop-book . see thy sin describ'd and threatned . micah . , , , . after he had spoke of the lords voice crying to the city by his rod , ver . . then follows , are there yet the treasures of wickednesse in the house of the wicked , and the scant measure which is abominable ? shall i count them pure with the wicked balances , and with the bag of deceitful weights ? for the rich men thereof are full of violence , and the inhabitants have spoken lyes , and their tongue is deceitful in their mouths ; therefore also will i make thee sick in smiting thee , in making thee desolate because of thy sin . oh how many are there that will be religious , as far as coming to church , and being devout there , and making some outside profession , who yet in their dealings are stark naught , and will be dishonest for a small gain ? in the church , and perhaps a little in their closets , they can afford to do , that they call serving of god , but in their shops nothing at all . oh by that time all 's reckoned for , when the moneys gone , but the sin in getting it must be answered for , how will men wish , and wish again they had been clear from this guilt , though they had been the meanest beggars in the land ? now how just is it man should be snatcht from those estates , to which theynever had a true title ? and if indeed they cannot drive a trade without so great miscarriages , is it not time that their houses and shops should be shut up ? . the next sin we shall take notice of , is murder ; which surely , if any , hath a crying voice . abels blood soon wrought heaven with its cry for vengeance . and how many murders have we daily heard of , committed amongst us ? how common is it grown for the gallants of our times , to sacrifice one another lives to their lusts , to their passion , or their pride ? and i wish that the impunity of some , may not have encouraged others . is it not time then for god to take the sword into his own hand , and let his audacious creatures know , that their lives they are so prodigal of are his , and at his disposure ? and if they value them at no higher rates , they have no reason to complain if they are taken away , since they knew no better what to do with them . if indeed they are so weary of the world , they shall stay no longer in it . and here especially , let me bring to remembrance that heathenish practice of duelling ; which of late is grown so much in fashion , that none must passe for a gentleman , but he who dare murder his brother ; and to be an hector , is more commendable than a christian . the example and precepts of that pattern , and master of meeknesse the holy jesus , the very mention of them is little less than ridiculous to our brave fellows . alas , those precepts seem suited to the mean state of christianity , when poor fishermen and tent-makers were the preachers , and tradesmen like them , were for the most part retainers to it ; but we must have them calculated again for those of a more elevated meridian ; viz. for our gentry who had the luck to be born of parents that were cal'd christian . the jesuite must fit them with rules that shall allow for their birth and breeding : for surely christ never meant to have gentlemen his disciples , when he tied them up to such strict commands , not practicable by men of their blood and spirits . religion now adays is thought to emasculate men , and render them tame and cowardly . basely to submit themselves to their own unruly passions , with these is courage ; to be bears and tygers , is accounted gentle and manly . these are the lordly creatures that are so tender of their honors , that they will rather violate the laws of the great god , than the least punctilio of it . to humour or win a fantastical mistresse ( 't is well they are not in hearing when i call her so ) they durst venture upon the wrath of their maker . for the wall , or the way , for a wry word , or a straw , they durst venture their necks to the halter , and their souls to the devil . are not these the true sons of valour ? such that even in cold blood , and upon sober deliberation dare damn themselves ? and why ? because forsooth they are afraid of being call'd cowards , and abus'd by every body else , should they have past by one injury . they could tell what this was , but what the hell they leapt into was , they knew not till they found themselves there ; and by that time poor wretches how was their courage cool'd ? and now at length you valiant fighters , wonder not if god himself be stept into the field against you . what ? do you think you have met with your match yet ? nay , but he hath not yet appeared with all his strength . he hath only sent one of his warriours , death sitting upon the pale-horse , but see what a terrible second there is , hell follow'd after him . rev. . . but come try your manhood upon this first . the hour he appoints is , when he pleaseth ; the weapon he now chiefly fights with is the plague , take you what you will ; the place is london . what cowards , do you turn your backs now ? are you afraid to dye , and yet are not afraid to be damn'd ? what will you laugh at hell , and now quake at death , and flie from it ? but think not your heels can secure you , nor any place you can flie to , sooner or later be sure hee 'l find you out . what did you challenge god to the combat and now do you run for 't ? can you deny it ? what else meant all your open , impudent wickednesse , but to bid god do his worst ? for to fin you were resolved , let him right himself how he could . god threw down his gauntlet , when he said , the soul that sins shall dye . you took it up , when y ou rush't upon those sins . what , you miserable caitiffs , you children of the devil , who is a murderer , must you stand upon your terms , and command observance from your companny , and will draw at the least affront , and shall god be carelesse of his honour ? was it not present death for a man to throw a glasse of liquor in your face ? and have you done lesse against god one day after another , by pouring down your superfluous glasses ? did the lye deserve the stab , and shall you go scot-free , who have so often given the lye to god himself , speaking to you by his word and ministers , his spirit and your own consciences ? nay , what you count the most unsufferable reproach , have you not been ready to interpret gods patience for cowardice ? well , you are wont to call your selves gentlemen : know then , that for these , and a multitude of such affronts , god demands satisfaction , and have it he will one way or other . your speedy repentance , and believing recourse to the blood that speaks better things than that of murdered abel , may appease him ; otherwise , when he makes inquisition for blood , hee 'l take the proudest of you by the throat , and cast you to the tormentors , and verily you shall not come thence , till you have paid the utmost farthing . . another very heinous sin amongst us , is prophanation of the lords day , and neglect of the worship of god. how many are idling away their time at home , or which is worse , sinning it away in tipling-houses , whilest they should be attending the publick service of god ? or if they afford their bodily presence there for an hour or two , how soon after do they betake themselves to their pleasures , as if the rest of the day were their own ? or as if when they had prayed to god , to keep them that day without sin , they might boldly commit it ? as if when they had beg'd of god , to teach them to keep ( amongst the rest ) the fourth commandment , they might then take liberty to break it ? and by their after-practice , one would judge their prayer had been , lord have mercy upon us , and give us leave to break this thy law. some go to their drunken companions , some to their sports ; others to walk idly in the streets or fields ; and the most to their common , vain and worldly discourse : to any thing , rather than to private meditation , or family-repetition of what they have heard . how far are men from spending this day , as beseems those who have immortal souls to care for , and can spare but little time on week-dayes for such employments ? oh how exceeding few are there that are willing rightly to inform themselves of the nature , use and end of this day , and accordingly to improve it ? as it is a day set apart to commemorate not only the work of creation , but chiefly of redemption by christ our lord , and especially his resurrection , that being to him as a kind of rest from his labours : and moreover , as it may be to us a type and a resemblance of the eternal sabbatism we shall enjoy in the heavens : when we shall rest from all sinful , troublesom , and bodily works , and be wholly employ'd in the admiration , and praise of that divine love , which contriv●d and wrought our redemption and salvation . to have leave thus to spend a day with and for god , would be sufficient to engage holy and ingenious souls , with all alacrity and thankfulnesse to embrace the opportunity . such would be asham'd to stand reasoning and enquiring whether they might not halve it with god , and rob him and themselves of a good part . what a strange tedious thing is it for poor creatures , that know not god , nor their own necessities , to be obliged to consecrate one day in seven to spiritual services , for which , awakened and experienc't souls think their whole life-time little enough ? how many have we had crying , like those , amos . . when will the new moon be gone , and the sabbath over ? that they might again to their pleasures , or enjoyments ! nay , our people have been in more haste than so , they could not stay till the sabbath was over , but must to their bargaining , their buying and selling . how frequent is this with many shop-keepers in the city , when no necessity requires it ? well , if indeed you are so eagerly bent on your business , that you will not keep a sabbath which god commands you , hee 'l force you to another kind of sabbath than this , which you shall have more reason to cry out , when will it be over ? you shall be made to rest from your works longer than this comes to , if you cannot afford god that small space of time he affords you : and you that were wont to be so weary of the prayer and sermon , and shift postures , first up , and then down , peeping at the glasse , or your watch ; is it not equal that you should be held with those pains which shall make you weary for somewhat ? when you shall turn from side to side , but get no ease , and count all the tedious hours of the night , expecting every moment to sink into that woful state , where are no more dayes , or nights , or hours , where you shall never have a moments rest through a whole eternity ! and then say whether the service of god , or the sufferings you feel from god , be the more tedious . if wicked wretches thus loosely encroach upon the lords own day , may we not well fear lest god should depopulate our land , that so at length it may enjoy its sabbaths ? and is it not just they should be seized with a disease , which admits not of a minister to visit them , who in the time of life and health did so little care for their minister ? how many who have been shut up from all converse with men , were wont formerly to excommunicate themselves from the publick congregation ? and if they would not stir over their threshold to the church , 't is just they should not stir out at all . and may we not see many doors praying now , whose owners were not before wont to pray either in publick , or with their families , on the lords day , or any other time ? nay , perhaps , might be deriders of all serious praying , and only use to take gods name in vain with their formalities : is it not just then , that those who were utterly unacquainted with , and it may be jeer'd at , praying by the spirit , should be taught by the feeling of their flesh , to groan out an hearty lord have mercy upon us . . another very common sin , somewhat related to the former , is the contempt and abuse of the ordinances of christ , especially the lords supper ; whilest so many partake of the table of the lord , and in some sense of the table of devils ; which , what is it but to provoke the lord to jealousie , as if we were stronger than he ? cor. . , . many there are indeed , whose hypocrisie and treachery is only known to god , and though the minister cannot , yet these he will find out . to vow obedience to god , whil'st we intend and perform nothing lesse , this is such a wickednesse , so solemnly to mock him , as he will not bear at his creatures hands : and how many thousands are guilty of such falshood and perjury ? for the breach of these oaths be sure the land mourns . when each member of the church thus covenants to reform himself , and yet still continues in wickednesse . how is the receiving this sacrament made a meer matter of course ? and if it be remembred for a day it 's well , but the engagement then made is presently forgot . but believe it , god will not forget it so . how many have we , that are celebrating the remembrance of christs death to day , who are crucifying him again to morrow ? and such as these , i chiefly intend , who whil'st they customarily renew their obligations , to live to the honour of their lord , do what in them lies to put him to an open shame . and where is the place where difference is put betwixt the precious and the vile , and any scruple made of casting pearls before swine , childrens bread to dogs ? whosoever's fault this is , that it is a fault , and a very heinous one too , can hardly be denied by any that use to read , what qualifications scripture requires of all that are admitted , not only to some more solemn ordinances , but into church-communion . if covetous persons , drunkards , swearers , whoremongers , and all disorderly walkers are to be noted , withdrawn from , and not to be eaten with ( take the word in what sense you will ) then let the most impartial , charitable person judge , what a vast and sad difference there is betwixt the precept , and our practice . si hoc sit evangelium , non sumus evangelici . where are they that walk after this rule ? and 't is not likely that this very sin which brought sicknesses and death upon the corinthians , should have lost its provoking nature by the tract of time , or any difference of circumstances betwixt us and them . it cannot surely be thought that the commonnesse of this miscarriage , nor yet the difficulty and seeming impossibility which some are apt to pretend of having it remedied , should render it lesse displeasing to that holy god , who is so jealous about his sanctuary . if vzzah was smitten for his too bold officiousnesse in staying the tottering ark , and men of the bethshemites for their curiosity in prying into it , how shall they be able to stand before the lord in the day of his vengeance , who have so profan'd his holy ordinances ! interest sometimes restrains men from punishing a crime that is universal , but believe it , this takes no place in god : no , to his mercy we owe it only , that our punishment is not as extensive as our guilt . but surely this his besom of destruction with which he sweeps away multitudes , clearly speaks it self sent to scourge a general sin , and i know none more than this we are now upon . and it is not mens lazinesse , or carnal interests ; their lothnesse to displease either the vulgar , or great ones , by whom they live , that shall here , or in the day of their appearance before the great law-giver and judge , excuse their disobedience to his so expresse and peremptory injunctions . to tell them then , that his commands were inconsistent with their ease , or the favour of men , which is the voyce of their present negligence ; will hardly excuse them who have so often told others , that no man can be christs disciple ( much less then a minister ) without very great measures of self-denial . if any of those , whom they now please by their cowardice and compliance , will then bear them out , they are safe enough ; but if that is not to be expected , they had best bethink themselves in time , how to give a comfortable account of their stewardship . though private members performing their duty , may not justly pretend the pastors negligence to justifie a separation ; yet how far others assuming a power to themselves , if they execute it not , will excuse those who are deputed to dispense these mysteries , when they shall deliver them to such whom they have good reason to think unworthy , it behoves them who are concerned well to consider . the unworthy receiver himself , it may be , hath some pretence or other , to shift the blame from off him , as that he was never admonished nor suspended ; but all these evasions will be too gross to pass for current with a just judge . i hope 't is no scandalous thing to bewail the want of , and earnestly desire a discipline amongst us , as guilty as the word is grown : by whom , or with what circumstances managed , it matters not so much , so we might have the thing ; that the plain and indispensable laws of christ may be executed ; that those very constitutions which are fundamental to such a society as christ hath appointed his church to be , may not be violated ; that there may be discerned some difference betwixt the church and the world , beside what a bare opinion , or verbal profession makes ; that only the credible profession and discovery of that faith and holiness , which makes a man a member of christ , may serve for his being accepted as a member of the church . and i may very safely say , that all they who have promised to god they would see to the removal of such like corruptions as this i have been taxing , are indispensably oblig'd to perform it , since this is no more than what was inclnded in their baptismal covenant , whatever variety of apprehensions there may be as to this point of discipline , yet methinks so much as is judged lawful and necessary , by those who have power enough in their own hands , should not be neglected : but it would very well deserve their care , to see their own laws put in execution . . and now we speak of the execution of laws , we may very well mention it as a most s●d and shameful , and very provoking sin , that after there is so much provision made for the restraint and punishment of vice , by many good and wholsome laws , there should be no more fruit of them seen , for want of their being executed . how rare is it now adays to hear of a man punished for drunkennesse , swearing , sabbath ▪ breaking ? and is it any other than natural to see these and the like impieties abound , whilst the multitude that are most ruled by present things that reach their flesh , find no hurt come of their most profane , and licentious courses ? and if men neglect their duty , can it be expected but that god should take the sword of justice into his own hands , and punish the rebellious ? if it be demanded , what can be done more than to enact laws , and appoint men to put them in force , and by a solemn oath engage them thereto ? if it may n ot appear presumption , i would answer , that it is also of as great consequence to see the execution of laws committed to them , who give probable grounds to believe , that they will be faithful to their trust . scanderbegs sword in a cowards , or childs hand , is like to do no great service . the truth of it is , the most consciencious look upon the charge as so weighty , that they dare scarce undertake it , much lesse do they ambitiously seek after it ; and if they should , 't is a question whether their lesse deserving competitors would not make a greater interest and prevent them . but were all who are concerned so vigilant as they should be , no doubt but that there might be a very great redresse of this mischief . was there a diligent inspection to discover , and a willingnesse to embrace them , there might be found many , who notwithstanding the great discouragements they might meet with , would for the honour of god , and service of their country , engage themselves in this burdensom , but honourable employment . but can they be zealous for god , and for subjection to his laws , who will not themselves be rul'd thereby ? far be it from me to speak evil of the rulers of the people . i know it is the duty of all to do what they can to preserve to their persons that honour , which may contribute to the successeful discharge of their functions . and therefore it is no way fit to charge them with crimes upon suspition , or bare report ; nor to reprove them for secret sins publickly , nor to do it in that manner that may procure them contempt from the people : but if the miscarriages of men in authority are so notorious , that 't is in vain to endeavour to conceal them ; and when the offenders are such and so many , that there is no way to deal with them , but by an open publishing of their reprehension ; and consequently of the faults they are reprov'd for ; it cannot in this case be justly censured for irreverence or undutifulnesse , to mind them modestly of their duty , and their neglects of it : especially whilst the discourse is general , medling with no mans person , nor reflecting on any but the guilty . indeed it may very well become those who are more especially concern'd , and who have the advantages of accesse to , intimacy with , and interest in magistrates and great ones , to deal with them , though with that submission and meekness which beseems inferiours , yet with that freedome and plainnesse which beseems friends , and christians . such that have liberty to speak , without gratifying the corrupt humour of the rabble , that oftentimes dearly love to hear their governours talkt against and disgrac'd ; and they whose own personal knowledge , furnisheth them with matter and ground for reproof , without taking up with the flaunders , and groundless surmises of the malicious , or common rumours of idle , and impudent tatlers and railers ; those i say who have these advantages , are deeply engaged to improve the same in doing their utmost to discover to them their particular sins , with all the aggravations of them , and to presse them upon those duties , which are so necessary for their own and the kingdoms welfare . if this be the effect of greatnesse , to be secured from all faithful , and serious reproofs , and councel , and to be betray'd by base flatterers , and fordid low-spirited temporizers ; it is as great an unhappinesse as can befall the sons of men . to have leave to be sick , and not told of it till its past remedy ; to have leave to stab ones self , and no one must dare to hold our hands , are no very desirable priviledges : and to be suffered to post on to everlasting burnings , without being told plainly whither we are going , is i think , as little for our profit , as either of those . if any be of another mind , as loth to be tormented before their time , i earnestly pray god their experience give not them too full conviction . that which i intend under this head , is the negligence of those who are entrusted with the administration of justice . when i speak most softly , i cannot but say what is very notorious , that they are sadly guilty of a connivance at such grosse profanenesse , as is punishable by the laws of the land. alas , they have got their distinct capacities ; they are gentlemen as well as justices ; and these it seems are inconsistent one with the other . that which religion , their oath , their fidelity to god , their prince , and country engage them to ; is contradicted forsooth by the gentility they bear about them , which forbids all moroseness and severity , especially to their companions , who are as deeply guilty of debaucheries , as the vilest and poorest wretches of the nation . and indeed can they with any modesty , or pretence of reason take notice of , or be severe against those vices , which their own examples encourage even inferiours , much more their gentlemen-good-fellows to ? whether this be a forgery or slaunder , i appeal to the experience of the respective counties where they reside . i intend not the innocent in this accusation ; wherefore none but the guilty have reason to be angry , and they as little as any . why should an honest citizen be displeas'd , to hear another say , there are many knaves in the city ? but if it be grievous to them to hear of their faults , their drunkenness , swearing , and such like loosness , let them think what it is to commit them . how loudly did god cry , who will rise up for me against the evil doers ? or , who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity ? and because none would hearken , god himself hath brought upon men their own iniquity , and cut them off in their wickedness , psal . . , . had our justices , and all magistrates , been as careful to prevent the contagion of sin in themselves , their families and jurisdictions , as they are to hinder the spreading of the infection , this latter labour might happily have been spared them . and now i am speaking of rulers , and men of place and honour , here give me leave sadly to lament it , that the nobility and gentry of our land , the major part of them , are arrived to such an height of prophaneness , that they , as being by their advancements more conspicuous than others , are most infamous for the several vices we have mentioned . oh where are the hop't for fruits of those sufferings many of them have past through ? do they not demean themselves , as if they were delivered to do all these abominations ? are they not too like that king ahaz , who being afflicted , grew worse and worse ? have they taken such a prejudice against the word , reformation , that they hate the very thing too , and the least appearance of it ? what do they recoil with greater eagerness to their vicious courses , as having been under a restraint for a while ? are they resolved not to be behind hand in sin for all that ? or do they think to revenge themselves of god for the afflictions they have lain under ? or did they think themselves now so secure , that without all danger they might provoke the most high god ? why , you poor impudent worms , do you know whom you have reproached ? against whom you have exalted your voice , and lift up your eyes on high ? even against the holy one of israel . why , you sotrish sons of belial , did you think a title or place of honour would dispense with you , for your rebellions against the almighty ruler of the world ? who hath stood by you , and observed all your contempt of him , and his laws , and hath hitherto spared you out of pity , not fear . what , because you could proudly insult and domineer over your fellow-creatures , did you think to out-brave god himself ? what , did you think a feather in your caps , or a ruffling suit , for which fools look at you with so much reverence , would procure his respect ? did you think he would be more tender of your delicacies , than to treat you so roughly , as he doth inferiour sinners ? did you imagine , when he sent his messengers to seize you , when he should commission either death or the devil to lay hold on you , that you should fright them away with swearing and banning , and damming ? or with your swords and pistols , as you were wont to serve the serjeants that came to arrest you ? did you imagine you had made an agreement with death and hell , that they should never swallow you up ? or that your submissions to the devil had made him so much your friend , that he would not hurt you ? at length i beseech you , be convinc ▪ t of your mistakes , and humbled for your folly ; and be perswaded to believe , that the strictest holinesse is no dishonour to your greatnesse , nor think that your interest , which contradicts it . oh be not so monstrously vile , to abuse gods bounty , so as to make it but an help to your sinning against him with more freedom and constancy . make not your estates snares to your souls , by mispending them only in gratifying your lusts , appetite and pride ; but improve them for the honour , and according to the intention of the donor ; that they may not become such an accursed portion to you , that at length you should hear the cutting answer , given to one of your predecessors , in thy life-time thou didst receive thy good things . nor let any of our great ones please themselves with a conceit , that they are not the persons eminently instrumental in bringing down judgments upon us , because as yet they are freest from the same , as having the conveniencies of removing themselves from that stroke which lights most upon the meaner sort ; for we may frequently find in scripture , that the sins of the great ones have brought sufferings upon the commonalty , who also in their place and measure have been as wicked as others . and withall , let them not be too confident , till they are past all danger , till their harness is put of ; or rather , till god hath laid down his sword. if these judgments reach them not , god hath yet more in store for the obstinate ; and if they escape all here , yet if at length they are cast into the lake that burns with fire and brimstone , they 'l have little cause for boasting . since then our great men , like those , jer. . . though they have known the way of the lord ▪ yet have altogether broken the yoke , and burst the bonds : my prayer is , that they may not do as those , v. . who when they were stricken , did not grieve , but refused to receive correction , and made their faces harder than a flint , and refused to return , lest god execute on them those threatnings you may read at large , ver . . oh that they may receive instruction in time , before they feel that iron rod , which will dash in pieces all it lights on , and comes too late to teach them any thing but what will aggravate their torment . . i am verily perswaded , had this plague befal'n us three or fourscore years ago , and had popery been as rife then , as now it is with us , this would not have been accounted one of the least procuring causes , by the most sober divines of the nation ; except this be grown a more innocent thing than formerly , and the idolatry of it distinguish ▪ t away by latter wits ▪ or else idolatry be grown less offensive to god , than heretofore ; we may take the boldness to say , that the licence its professors have had , or have taken to exercise the same , is one of the abominations of our land , provoking to a god jealous of his worship . reason of state , is an abysse which it becomes not short-sighted subjects to pry into ; but if the pretence of this induce any thing contrary to the interest of religion , he that hath imbib'd but the very principles of christianity , may confidently pronounce the deepest politicians that advise it , stark fools . the resolution and constancy of pious prince edward , england's josiah , in denying liberty for mass to his sister mary , was in those times accounted singular piety , even by those bishops who came to request it . 't is somewhat strange , methinks , to see even the poor quakers themselves , drag ▪ d to prisons , and banish'd the land ; whil'st conventicles more expresly contrary to the law of god , and equally , i think , to the law of the land , are ( at least ) overlook't . yea , let me add , this freedom they enjoy , whil'st half a dozen of private christians , in all things so far as concerns laymen , conformable to the church of england , cannot have liberty to meet together for the private service of god ; though it were but to join their prayers on the behalf of our land , that it would please god to remove from off us ▪ the heavy judgments we now lie under . could there be no provision made against seditious meetings , without such restraints as these ? nay , and if they take this liberty by stealth , how much more secure are twice as many drunkards in a tavern , met at one of their conventicles of good-fellowship ? so that the more politick , have found a tavern the safest place for a meeting . and doth not this abundantly evince , how much the humors and private inclinations of men ▪ oversway and prevail in their administrations by the same laws ? if therefore the spirit of the times , and the inclination of inferiour magistrates lay as much against prophaneness , as what they call phanaticism ; that would have no more immunity than this . let none be offended at my liberty of speech , since doubtless these are things that need a reformation ; i hope 't is allowable to say so , yea , and necessary too . and as for popery , though i involve not the magistrate in the guilt of all that liberty they assume to themselves ; yet i hope we may have free leave to lay guilt upon it , and to charge a most intolerable impudence upon the professors , and numerous abettors of it . how many , both openly and closely , are hard at work for the propagation of that , which is much more hurtful , though not so spreading as the contagion now amongst us ? and that it is not so spreading , we owe not so much to their want of will , or pains ; but to the goodness of god , the illness of their cause , and the better temper of our clime fortified with the truth . but surely it would well deserve the care of those in power , to do somewhat more , to keep the healthful from the sick , and to order that there might not be so much license given for people to frequent those places , where 't is not impossible but some may be infected ; even such , whose sense chooseth their religion ; who would have their devotion , like their recreations ; and a chappel , like a play-house : and i wish too many of our gallants be not of this disposition ; but as for others , i would have them go to a mass to be confirmed against popery . it is very notorious , what freedom they take for their meetings in many places in the countrey , as well as city , besides those that may be priviledged : and certainly england is not like to fare the better , for being the stage whereon so much pious pageantry , and historical worship is acted . had dagon been carried about amongst the israelites , with as much reverence ▪ as the ark was amongst the philistines with rudeness ; 't is likely , that had been attended with as great plagues , as was this. he that considers what idolatry often brought upon the jews ; and shall well contemplate the popish devotions , and our present miseries ; may not more clearly discern our punishment like to theirs , than a like probable cause of it ; and look upon us little more beholden to rome , than they were to baal peor . if these meek innocents ( who with much ado bring themselves to talk a little humbly , when instead of fire and faggot , they are forc't to argue with words ) should retort , that we deal as unjustly with them , as the heathens did with the primitive christians , who imputed to them whatever mischiefs befell the empire . i shall be brought to think so too , if they can as easily evade the charge of worshipping angels , saints , bread , altars , crucifixes and images ; as those first christians could free themselves from the palpably false objections made against them : but in the mean time i cannot be perswaded , but that god is highly provok't with all those mockeries of worship which they have devised , and in the midst of us , solemnized . and even for these inventions , may the plague be broke in upon us . . we may well account amongst our provoking sins , the sad and lamentable divisions that have been , and still are on foot amongst us : and whoever have raised and kep't up these , have had not the least influence to procure wrath upon us . well may that people be divided from god , separated from his love , who are so divided one amongst another . when one part of the nation hath suffered , then still the other hath rejoyc'd in their brethrens miseries , as contributing to the advancement of their cause . and successively , what the sufferers call tyranny , cruelty , and persecution , those that inflict it , call it a just punishment for their malignity or obstinacy . oh how just is it then , that a general punishment should at length , work us into a more general compassion ? that at least , we may pity each other , when we are all in the same misery , that appears to have nothing of a party in it , but strikes down on all sides those that stand before it ? many and great factions in the western church , did immediately precede its being over-run by the gothes and vandals : and not only in this , but all other corruptions are we like to them , as may be learn'd from the writers of those days ; god of his infinite mercy avert the further judgments which such disorders presage . such is , and long hath been our case , that the loudest and most earnest intreaties for peace , have been drowned with the contrary noise and clamour of the contentious . what comes from the weaker and oppressed party , is still rejected as murmuring and complaining ; and those that are in prosperity , reject the offers which after they would gladly condescend to . still the side that rules , when they find they can secure their interests without any compliance , partly , out of a jealousie of being undermined , partly , out of a love to to have the preheminence , and partly , out of a desire of revenge , are far from hearkning to the most reasonable motions for unity and peace . and he that mentions , or laments our divisions with never so catholick and impartial a spirit and design , if he charge not all the blame upon one party , shall scarce receive any thanks from either . if he cries out of nothing but antichristianism , idolatry , superstition , and tyranny , then he shall be hugg'd by some ; and if he inveigh bitterly against schism , sedition , faction , hypocrisie , and charge this upon all that are not just of the humour of the times they live in , then he shall please others . but if he say , some are too imperious and imposing , and others too peevish , impatient , and quarrelsom ; and both too guilty of censoriousness and devotedness to their own customs or opinions ; he shall hardly be grateful to either ; but only to the true sons of peace amongst all , who are endued with the sweet and genuine temper of christianity . oh unhappy england ! how long hast thou been tost to and fro by the hands of violence and contention ? how oft hast thou been bent this way , and that , into contrary extreams ? oh when at length wilt thou be set strait , and obtain a quiet rest ? oh that this might be the happy effect of gods heavy hand now upon us ! we , and our posterity then would have cause to say , oh happy plague that befell us in . which discovered to the inhabitants of england this plague of their own hearts , their uncharitableness and animosities one against another , and cur'd them hereof , and reconciled them into a blessed lasting peace . to this wish of mine , let every reader say amen , even so beit . oh what is become of that humble , patient , self-denying , loving spirit , which was once the character of the followers and friends of our gracious , tender-hearted , and compassionate lord jesus . strange , that ever the gospel of peace should furnish the corruptions of men with matters for strife ! when one great , yea , very great design of it , is , to promote the truest , and most solid , and universal peace amongst the sons of men : which is the natural consequent of their being at peace with god , through the great reconciler . and yet what would we have ? there 's scarce a man but speaks for peace , and vehemently declaims against dissentions . few there are but wonder there should be any differences in the world , and that men are not all of one mind . but what mind must that be ? even their own . and this , this is our mischief : the world is full of such magisterial spirits , that they , forsooth , would be dictatours in the church . and though themselves may be always wavering , and crookned by a devotion for a party ; yet would they be the centre where all various apprehensions should meet , their opinions and wills must be the rule and standard of truth and duty . though men be never so much blinded by prejudice or self-conceit , yet they take it ill , if others will not see with their eyes , blindfold themselves , and take them for our guides . now in our nation ; one man wonders what is in the mind of some , that they are faln so much in love with some inconsiderable things , that they rigorously exact from all others an observance of them ; and these wonder there should be any found to scruple at them : but it s well , if either remember their own ignorance , weakness , and liableness to mistake , which might move them both to a more charitable construction of their brethrens actions . the overtures for agreement , which come from the weaker , are sometimes disgrac'd by those of their own way ( the zealots of them ) as proceeding from cowardice and temporizing , and most frequently snufft at by the party that hath got the upper hand , as saucy and impertinent ; the condescensions of those that are in power , are usually little more than to will and command , yes it may be , entreat all that dissent from them to a through-compliance , and then they 'l account them humble and peaceable ; but scarce otherwise , be their demands never so large and unreasonable . and if any true lover of charity , not of the name , but thing , shall propose a way for the reconciling of differences , hee 's look't awry at , especially by the higher side , and becomes less capable of preferment ( except as a means to corrupt him ) as being not thorowly baptized into their party . thus have we got one for paul , and another for apollo , nay , worse distinguishing names than these ; and whil'st both sides are too guilty of inveighing against each other for not coming over wholly to them , how little is done toward a mid-way meeting ? who formerly have been , and who now especially are too blame in the land for keeping open our breaches , is not very difficult impartially to discover : but still it so falls out , that they who are most in fault , may least safely be told so ; for this must needs be acknowledged , that they who have opportunity and power of making a very fair and satisfactory accomodation betwixt those that differ , and yet do it not ; so far as this neglect comes to , are the persons guilty of continuing our divisions . they who had formerly this opportunity , and neglected it , were in their time guilty ; and by consequence they who now enjoy the same advantages , and yet improve them not , must needs fall under the same charge . i think that man undertakes a very hard task , whose confin'd affections , and zeal for his particular opinions , shall engage him to defend all that is done , by the retainers to the way which he himself hath embrac't : for my part i should think it a piece of difficulty to maintain , that even our first reformers from the romish superstitions , were none of them acted by private aims , and secular interest , or miscarried in no circumstance of managing affairs , though the main cause was most just and honourable . let who list then for me , enter into a defence of this side or that , not only for these twenty , but hundred and twenty years ; for so long a date do some of our unhappy differences bear : and many will confidently aver , that a puritan is of as ancient standing , as an english protestant , and was once thought best worthy of that name ; and that a non-conformist was found , as soon as there appeared a martyr for the reformed cause : nor yet am i willing to look so far back , as to give any impertinent rehearsal of all the disorders that did precede or cause , accompany , or immediately follow upon the more open and violent contentions which have been amongst us , which might tend rather to exasperate all , than profit any ; for doubtless such miscarriages have been of all sides ( let particular historians , this way or that , say what they will ) that hearty repentance , and mutual forgiveness , is more becoming all , than self-justification , and spleenish recriminations ; if there be any yet guilty of so much pride and uncharitableness . i heartily pray , that all who have so long surviv'd their crimes , may be deeply humbled for their setting our nation on flame ( which all the blood that was spilt hath not yet quench't ) for the scandal they have brought upon the protestant cause , for all their breach of oaths , vows and covenants , prostituting their consciences , and pretending religion for carrying on their corrupt designs , and wilful letting slip the opportunities they had , for the promoting the cause of christ , and establishing a setled peace in the churches ; for the gaining of which , some excellent spirits did so earnestly ( though too unsuccessfully ) labour . but oh is it not strange and sad , that after we have so long seen and smarted under the deplorable effects of discord , we should yet be as far from embracīng the necessary means of reconciliation as ever ! that after a civil peace hath been graciously restored , the church should still be so much divided ? and this after diverse moderate persons of different perswasions , have so plainly laid down the methods for such an agreement , as might have made us a church glorious to all the world ; yea , for those things which are the true glory of a church , which would have made us also happy in the approbation and favour of the god of peace and holiness . the lord open the eyes , and soften the hearts of all , at length to discern and accept of some such proposals for peace , that the progress of our feuds make us not a spectacle of pity to our friends , and laughter to our adversaries , as they have already made us objects of gods indignation . it is not my business now to prescribe these wayes , which if i were to do , i should only take the boldness to present transcriptions ; and something i may have occasion to say of this under another head , to which i hasten : only in general let me add , this is a certain truth , approved by the joint suffrages of the most sober and judicious divines , that whilest our peace is laid upon the practice and approbation of things in their own nature , to the most learned and conscientious , doubtful and disputable , it 's never like to be firm and universal : and they who would build vnity upon an vniformity in those matters which will never bear the stresse of it , such as we before mentioned , they are the persons that lay the surest grounds imaginable for the hatching of schisms , wherein , though they who take this occasion , may be also culpable , yet will not this excuse those who administred it . wherefore 't is not by names or numbers , or power , you must make a judgment , when you seek for schismaticks , no more than you would , if looking for catholicks , enquire only who call'd themselves so . to evince my assertions , who that hath not lost his common reason , or else is becom'n a papist , but may discern , how impossible it is that ever a stable concord in the christian world , should be founded upon the acknowledgment of the universal headship of the bishop of rome ? and 't is not all their councels and fathers they can make such false brags of , nor the diffusiveness of this gangrene of their perswasion , nor the favour of so many princes , nor the harmony they would make us believe is amongst themselves , can excuse them from the just imputation of being most notorious schismaticks , an d dividers of the church , and a manifest combination of sectaries . once more let me add , all those who have espoused any private interest or party , which they are resolved to prosecute and maintain at that rate , that no man shall have liberty to promote christianity it self , except he will jointly contribute to the advancement of that their design and way ; are like to perpetuate our dissentions , so long as either there are other men of corrupt minds , who have got a faction contrary to theirs ; or so long as there are to be found men of truly catholick spirits and principles , that will serve the humors of no men , nor abet this or that party , as distinct from all other pious , sober , and peaceable professors of the christian faith ; but are resolved to be of that sect only , which in st. paul's dayes was everywhere spoken against . i know there are many that are earnest for peace , oftentimes meaning no more by it , than a stricter combination of all of their own party , or some a little different , against one they account a common enemy : thus no doubt the romanist may be griev'd to consider the struglings in his mothers own bowels , and may passionately exhort the several contenders to an unity , for the more effectual advancement of the catholick faction , and joint opposition of the reformed churches . but alas , what narrow-spiritedness is this ! the peace therefore i am exhorting to , and which it beseems all true followers of the prince of peace to endeavour after , should be built upon such foundations , as may make it extend to , and be comprehensive of all that agree in the essentials of religion , the belief and practice of those things that are revealed in scripture , as necessary to salvation ; and they ought to keep up no other difference betwixt themselves , and any that own the christian name , and the articles of its faith , papists themselves not excepted , besides what the rejection of all innovations in doctrine , discipline or worship will unavoidably produce . and therefore to be so much of a negative religion , as papists tell us we are , denying this or that groundless opinion , refusing such and such needless practises , is a truer sign of a catholick , than imposing any one of those contraverted things . our best disputants against the church of rome , tell us , that the foundations of the churches essence agreed on , and consented to , are alone the immutable grounds of its vnity . and i suppose it may be founded upon this reason , viz. that when a man enters into any society for some advantages there to be had , he is like to be firmly engaged thereto , whil'st the condition of his continuance in it , is an acknowledgment and practice of those things only , that are necessary for every particular member to do , if he would partake of those benefits that are attainable in common in that society ; for every mans personal interest engages him to an agreement thus far . but when any thing is super-induct , that is , consulted only for the gratifying or advancing some few , it cannot be expected that there should be a general compliance in these things . now the church being an aggregate of persons , believing and practising all things that god hath proposed and enjoined , in order to their everlasting happiness ; what more can be thought necessary for their union , than their conjunction , in the acknowledgment and practice of these things ? good god! how clear , methinks , is this truth ! and if this be the way for an union in the catholick church , why not in the particular churches that are parts of it ? for when these narrow and limit the conditions of church-membership , they so far depart from catholick unity . but these things are fully spoke to by others . so then , what miscarriages we are guilty of in this particular , is fully evident ; and what is to be done for their redress , is no way difficult to be found out and accomplish't , if at length we were agreed to make christs interest ours , and wholly to lay out our selves , and improve our power , and enact laws only to promote that , and to enforce the laws he hath already made , and would but bring our acknowledgments of scripture-sufficiency into practice . the lord grant this may be the resolution and endeavour of all in this church and state , who , under god , are in a capacity of restoring health and tranquility to a people so sorely weakned , by their being crumbled into so many sects and parties ; that at length becoming one in holiness and love , and turning as one man to the lord , serving him in a pure language with joint consent , he may be one with us , and the unity of our prayers may help on to their success , even the removal of those judgments , that were inflicted to drive us to such an unity . that i may now , lastly , sum up much in one word , we have been a people guilty of as wilful and malicious contempt of god , his gospel , ministers and people , and neglect of all true religion , as ever any nation of the world was , that hath enjoyed the means and opportunities for , and lain under the engagements to reformation that we have done . how have we trampled our mercies in the dirt , or thrown them in the face of the giver ? how soon have we forgot his rod , when when we have been but just from under the smart of it ? how have we contemn'd the threatnings of further wrath denounc't against us by his word and ministers ? how hath even profest atheism abounded , that hath made a scorn of , not only the duties , but doctrines of christianity ? to renounce all religion , was to be taken for a wit : and by their long impunity in wicked courses , were men more confirmed in their atheistical conceits . was it not fit then that death should reduce them to their right mind , when they are so wilfully distracted ? but especially for practical atheists , who whil'st they profess to know god , glorifie him not as god , but in works deny and dishonour him , how do they abound in our land ! except but some formalities of external performance , and publick worship , and a meer opinion ; how little appearance is there of a church , or christianity amongst us ? seem we not rather a cage of unclean birds ? look into the court , and university , the city and countrey , all sorts and conditions of men ; and say then , whether are we not overflowed with profaneness , which its just should be followed with a deluge of wrath to wash it away ? to what a pass are we come ? amongst whom nothing is so strange as serious holiness and strict walking ? to be a diligent server of the most holy god , is made a matter of reproach ? to live up in the principles of that religion , we all pretend to , is to expose ones self at the least , to scoffs and jears ? all that is past jesting in religion , is accounted fancy and hypocrisie . serious discourse is but fantastical canting . to mention any word of christ or his apostles , without making a jest of it , or the sacred name of god , except in an oath , or to take it in vain , is an offence to many tender ears . to admonish and reprove a drunkard or a swearer , is to become a busie-body , and self-conceited . to speak of god ▪ or christ , death , judgment , and eternity , and the great matters of religion , is the way to have some disgraceful title or other presently put upon you . godliness it self is look't on but as a faction , and as such despis'd and revil'd ; and the most unblameable professors of it , stigmatized with such names , as being design'd for their disgrace , too plainly shew what is their fault , even purity , and precise , circumspect walking . now may we justly revive the complaints made by godly bishops and ministers in former times , that let men walk never so conformably to the law of church and state , only endeavouring to avoid the sins of the times , and in their place and calling to bear witness against them , endeavouring to live convincing , exemplary lives , and to promote godliness in their own families , and amongst their neighbours , presently they shall be called puritans ( for that was , in bolton's phrase , the honourable nickname of christianity in those days ) and consequently , have less favour than ai papist , or carnal gospeller . the most powerful and awakening preaching , and serious , affectionate praying , where it is had to be had in publick ; are disgrac'd by the name of popular things , and such ministers the less favour'd , because flock'd after . and here is the fruit of the afflictions that have so long lain on us , even for such sins as these ! oh how justly may god take up against us all , those complaints that we find in his prophets , he doth against the jews . he hath sent his messengers early and late , giving us precept upon precept , line upon line ; calling to us , oh do not these abominable things ; they will be bitterness in the end ▪ and yet we have turned the deaf ear . nay , when we have pretended to enquire of the lord our duty , yet when it hath been revealed to us , we have at least in our works , said , we will not do all the lord hath spoken , but we will walk after the ways of our own hearts ; we will never live such strict and godly lives ; this is more ado than needs ; there is no such danger in following our lusts ; this is but the device of preachers to terrifie us . it was well enough with us , when we lived in those sins they keep such a stir against ; and we had never good world , since so much preaching and godliness came up . how have we mock'd god by our pretences to serve him , when our hearts have been far from him ? and those very persons , who in the church were confessing their sins , and praying , that they might live a godly and sober life ; when their devotions are ended , will do little less than deride godliness , and run into all excess of riot , and wonder at them as precise fools , who run not with them . and all this must be solved by crying , the temple of the lord , the temple of the lord ; the church , the church ; by being zealous of some ceremony or custom of little concernment , and railing at all that are not of their humour , as disobedient , factious , and phanatical . how is the service of god dwindled to a meer formality , and many understand no more by it , than a devout using some particular form or mode of prayers , and by this they think to purchase heaven sure enough , and make amends for all their neglect of personal and family-duties , for the earthliness of their hearts , for the vitiousness and disorder of their lives ? oh how have fools made a mock of sin , and look't on it as a trifling thing , that men need to be so shy of . how many pretty pleas and excuses have they got for whoredom , drunkenness , and the most monstrous pride ? if the plainest word of god contradict their lusts , it shall be of no value with them : some trick or other they 'l have to evade it ; or , if they have nothing to say , yet they 'l will set their wills against gods commands , and statly disobey them . have not we even wish't there was never a bible in the world , no god in heaven ; and lived as if indeed there was not ? and alas , how small a remnant is there that have escaped the common pollutions ? how few that have been deeply affected with the dishonours done to their heavenly father ? who have stood on the lords side , and been faithful to the cause of holiness ? these have been but as the gleaning of the vintage , as after the gathering of the summer-fruits , here and there one in a town ; and these ( even as the remnant of the faithful amongst the israelites ) have been the wonder and scorn of the rest . these have been the song of drunkards ; and they , together with that word they walk by , have been the sport of those whose hearts have been merry , as sampson was to the philistine lords . they and their scripture serve the profane gallant to shew his wit , and help the poet to matter for his play. these for the most part are looked at as the most pernicious to the places where they live . and upon them malice hath its narrowest eye . he that departs from evil , makes himself a prey ; they have hated , and put to silence him that hath reproved in the gate ; and abhorred him that spake uprightly ; and , after all , wiped their mouths , and said , let the lord be glorified . were not we arriv'd to a most doleful state , when the most exact obedience to the laws of god , was accounted less disgraceful , than the most open violation of them ; and few durst plead for , and practise holiness with that confidence , that others durst commit , and own known sins ? how hath god waited long , and made the power of his long-suffering to appear , striving with us in the ways of love , and mingling corrections with his mercies , that he might prevail with us to pity our selves , but all in vain ? he punish'd us with the sword , and kep't us long in the furnace , and we are com'n out less refined ; again , he tried us with mercies , but we improved them not . he hath threatned , when he might have destroyed , and born with us long to prevent our ruine , and yet nothing would work : but we have prest him with our iniquities , and even made him to serve with our sins ; we have grieved his spirit by our stubborness and rebellion ; and have began to think , because he kept silence , he was such one as we , and liked well enough of our ways ; and because his judgments were not speedily executed , our hearts have been fully set to do evil . and when we were come to this pass , and god was even weary with withholding , and there were so few to stand in the gap to turn away his wrath , and even of them , many in a great measure thrust out of it ; were we not ripe for destruction ? was not our ephah full ? is it then any wonder , if at length , god be risen to plead with us , in a manner that shall make us know and feel , that he ruleth in the world , who will by no means acquit the impenitent ? who , though he bear long , yet will not always bear wit h a stiff-necked generation ? could we expect any other , than that god should make bare his arm , and visit us for these things , and ease himself of his adversaries , and avenge himself of such obstinate contemners of his laws and authority ? and what , shall the lion roar , and not the beasts of the forest tremble ! is god angry , and shall not we fear ? doth he shake his rod over us , nay , lay it upon us , so that thousands feel it in their flesh , and all hear the sound of its terrible lashes ; and yet do we not tremble ? shall not our haughty countenances change , and the joynts of our loins be loosed , now there is an invisible hand come forth , writing such bitter things against us ? hath god such a sore controversie with us ? hath he done so much , and yet will he yet do these and these things against us , and wilt thou not yet prepare to meet thy god , oh england ? oh the dreadful senslessnesse and stupidity of the hearts of our people ! how few are yet careful to learn righteousnesse , by the judgments that are amongst us ! notwithstanding this day of adversity , how few will be brought to consider ? is not this a direful presage of farther wrath ? and that it is even an utter destruction , that is coming upon us ! oh what a spirit of slumber and sottishnesse hath possest the most ! if it is not so with those about thee , reader , thou dwellest in a happy place . though people hear of thousands dying about thee , and have daily reason to expect their turn should be next , yet how regardlesse do they appear of all due preparations for it as ever ? they flatter themselves with a conceit that yet they may escape , and that death shall not come nigh their dwellings , and so post off all thoughts of it , taken up with the very same businesses , designs , and pleasures , they were always wont . but what should we say , can sword , or famine , or plague , or any outward affliction work on them , who have been nothing bettered , but rather hardned by commands , promises and threatings ? can the rod plead with , and importune them , so as the word hath done ? will sickness inform , command , argue and beseech so affectionately as the minister was wont ? where moses and the prophets might not be heard , what can prevail ? if hewing them with the prophets , and slaying them with the words of his mouth , would not affect them , hos . . . shall the execution of his judgments bring light ? why , yes no doubt , god hath his chastisements which setting on , and enforcing his word , do often humble and reform souls , and he hath also those punishments by which he destroys . and if men will will strive against his spirit , and resist it's workings ; shut their eyes against the light , contemn instruction , yea , harden themselves under correction ; and rather hate the god who makes them smart , than the sins that procure it , like those in rev. . who blasphemed god when they were in anguish ; what can be expected but the final ruine of the people or persons , that are guilty of such stubbornnesse and impenitency ? and oh that this were not the case of multitudes amongst us ! the lord awaken those that are yet in a capacity , to a timely prevention of such a doleful misery . and thus i have given an account of those crying sins , that are to be found amongst us , which belong to the first branch , which comprehended under it those sins , that were more evident and notorious . and by this we have made way for the second ; to discover some such miscarriages , which may be lesse evident , but no lesse hainous than these , as being indeed in a great measure productive of them ; and therefore i thought it methodical enough to proceed from the sensible effects , to the somewhat more latent cause . all that i shall speak of the latter branch , i shall reduce to this one head ▪ namely , that it may very justly be presumed , to have a great influence in the procuring our miseries that so many able ministers of christ , have of late been silent , and in a manner useless , compared to what they might have been , had they continued their publick employments . thus far i hope none will be offended ; for if it be granted de facto , that there are many whom god had furnished with abilities to serve him in the ministery , which he had called them to , that have not exercised those abilities , to the best advantage in that function , ( and i think he must have a good stock of impudence who shall deny that many of those , who have been of late unserviceable , were so accomplish't ) then i shall easily evidence , that hereby god hath been much dishonoured and provoked , whosoever the fault hath been ; which is that i shall briefly inquire into and discover , and then give in full evidence of my assertion . i know it may so happen , that what i write , may displease one and another , but for that i am indifferent , as having resolved to give no allowance to my passion or prejudice ; but to use the same impartiality and faithfulfulnesse , to the utmost of my power , that i should do , if , so soon as ever i had finished my work , i was to receive my summons to appear before the just judge of heaven and earth . nor would i willingly speak any thing , but what the undoubted interest of christ and his gospel engage me to , and will warrant me in : and whilst i have the lord engaged in the whole cause which i undertake , and plead ; i value not a straw at my foot , what the most enraged potent malice can do . nay , i dare then bespeak all in the words of the king of egypt to josiah , a little varied , chron. . . what have i to do with thee , oh man , whoever thou art ? i come not against thee this day , but against sin , wherewith i have war ; for god commanded me to this work . forbear from medling with god , who is with me , that he destroy thee not . and i think a man may with as much comfort be a martyr for the unity and peace of the church , and advancement of holinesse , as ever any of our protestants were , for the defence of the reformed religion ( and indeed this was more their cause than christianity it self , if we consider it right ) yea , though he have a sheet of paper pinn'd to his back , that shall call him schismatical and seditious , and as such he be punished ; as they we know were burnt for hereticks . but to the businesse in hand . as to the matter of fact it s well enough known , what conditions were required , of all that would continue in the ministery , and still are exacted , of all that will enter upon it , which multitudes not submitting to , were suspended and silenced , and others , who both by their parents , and themselves were designed for that employment , and accordingly educated , were prevented of their intentions . the ill effects hereof i shall speak something to anon . now that i may deal fairly and plainly , this i must needs say ; that if there have been any of these dissenters , who were convinced in their consciences , that the things commanded were such , as all circumstances considered , they might lawfully have submitted to ; but yet out of faction , humour , obstinacy , a desire to gratifie , or promote a party , or any such carnal principle , did refuse such submission ; they cannot be excused from the guilt of deserting their charges , and of the many ill consequences of that desertion . what can any man in reason desire more ? for it is as such they suffer , and not meerly as misinformed , much lesse sure as invincibly ignorant , or as men that would not sin ; and if they have indeed been guilty of the crimes , for which their punishments are proportioned , i readily joyn with their most forward accusers ; but oh that the punishment had stayed , till the crime had been proved , and laid on those only that were found guilty ? but on the other hand , if there were any , who did use all probable means for their satisfaction , ( being earnestly desirous to have continued in the work of the lord ) and after all remained perswaded , that they could not comply with what was enjoyned them , without wilful sinning against god ; then they who by their impositions did necessitate them to forsake their ministry , are liable to the former charge , viz. are guilty of their ejection , and of the effects thereof ; except they had sufficient reason for so doing . would they have any thing spoke more candidly and gently ? now whether there be any of the former sort or not , i cannot , nor dare expresly affirm ; and i think , till they shall acknowledge , or some other way discover it ; ( more than i for my part have known them yet do ) it can be known only to him from whom no secret thoughts are hid ; but i desire them to deal faithfully with their own hearts , and if they are conscious to themselves of any such ill principles , and grounds of their not conforming to their rulers laws , to be humbled for , and expel them . that there are many such ejected , and prevented from the ministery , as i described in my latter supposition , i cannot but believe , as having for my self , the testimony of my own conscience , in the sight of god ; and for others such professions from men that have done nothing , that i know , to forfeit their credit ; and such reasons to make those professions appear credible ; that i am little less confident of it , then i am that there is such a place as rome or paris , which i know only by hear-say : i say , little less confident of this , that there are many who yield not a conformity to what was imposed , not out of hypocrisie or humour ▪ but out of a fear of displeasing god , and hurting their own souls . if this then be acknowledged , i think those who have cast and kept such out , have very great cause to be humbled for their severity toward them , according to the measure they were instrumental herein : except ( i added ) they had sufficient reason for their so doing . and that i shall grant they had , if they manifest either of these two things ; which are all the grounds i can imagine . . that there are as good effects of this their ejection , as i can produce ill ones . . or that the nature of thethings imposed on them was such , that it had been of as dreadful consequence to have dispenst with conformity to them , as thus to deal with them for not rendring such a conformity . but till either of these be proved , or some other satisfactory reason assigned ( giving leave soberly to debatethe case ) i shall for the conviction , and humiliation of the guilty , mention a very few of the many sad effects of this their exclusion . . the first is , the unreformednesse , and wickednesse of multitudes that through gods blessing upon their endeavours , might have been converted and reformed . and that this might have been in all probability accomplished , we may very reasonably argue , from that eminent successe which god gave to many of their publick labours , and by some fruits , since then , of their private endeavours . let none here willfully mistake and say , that by converting men , i mean nothing else but to turn them to a party , or an opinion : for i professe i intend no such thing ; but the very same that christ doth , when he tells us , that except we be converted , we cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven ; and that the apostle doth , when he speaks of our being turned from darknesse to light , and from the power of satan to god : even the turning the bent of mens hearts and lives , from sin and the creature , to god by jesus christ , and to the ways of holinesse , let them be of what opinion they will as to the several forms and modes amongst us . oh how many fewer drunkards , swearers , whoremongers , oppressors and cheaters might there have been amongst us ; had they had their liberty to have preached down these sins , whose only study and businesse it was to decry and shame them , and bring men from the love and practice of them ? how many more might there have been , who as true mourners in our zion , would have been humbled for their own , and the nations sins , and laboured by all means to have prevented gods wrath ; had they in all places enjoyed those means for their conversion , which they sometimes did , and might yet have done . if then the multitudes of provoking sinners , and the scarcity of humble , holy , praying christians , have been any ground of our sufferings , can it be doubted whether that which hath been so much the cause of those , hath done any thing to the procuring of these . oh for the lords sake bethink your selves , all you that are concerned ; was it just and equal dealing , when the prince of darkness was advanc'd with all his might into the field , then to disband , and put out of commission so many experienced leaders , that in their own persons , and by encouraging and guiding the several companies , would have done their best to resist him ? did you herein consult the pleasure of the great captain of our salvation , from whom you own your selves to have received your offices , only for the successful carrying on of his designs , and the fighting of his battels . nay , and all this you have done , because they submitted not to some things , which you your selves call indifferent , and which they believed , were contrary to the former instructions they had received from their lord and master . judge in your consciences , do you think it is more acceptable to christ , that the souls of men , whom he thought worth his precious hearts-blood , should perish , rather than some ceremony or injunction of yours be omitted ? did he ever in his actions or doctrine manifest such a contempt of souls , and such an esteem for a ceremony ? consider his life and death , and read his discourses to the pharisees , and then judge . are salvation and damnation indifferent things ? and shall they be less regarded than such ? oh how will you compensate for the disservice you have already done to the gospel ? it is not all your revenues can do it , though your repentance and reformation of such miscarriages for the future , may do much . be not offended with my freedom of speech : for ( god is my witness ) i speak not out of passion , nor a desire to make you odious ; but out of a just zeal for the cause of our dearest lord , and the concern of mens immortal souls . what amends will you ever be able to make to the poor creatures , who may now be tormented in hell , for want of those means of prevention , which you deprived them of ? though they may have had those other advantages which may leave them inexcusable before god ; yet how will you excuse the denying them the best you might have afforded ? you may deride , storm at , on contemn these expoftulations of a poor worm like your selves : but consider , i beseech you , what answer you will make the great judge of heaven and earth , who will come shortly in glory and power to plead his own and his peoples cause : when he will regard no man for the pompous titles he hath had , or great offices he hath born in his church ( for then , well fare the pope and his clergy ) but they who have done and taught his commands , let them be of never such diminutive titles and esteem here , shall be accounted great in his kingdom . and that , that 's our comfort , by his word we shall be judged at last , if here we may not be tried by it . then we shall all stand on equal terms , and the arbitrary determinations of frail men shall no more take place , but there abide an inquisition . to that bar we appeal , by that judgment let us stand or fall ; thither we refer our selves , and if we may not be heard here , we will patiently and chearfully wait that final , just decision of our cause . but now hear , for your own sakes at least , if neither our beseechings and tears , nor the cry and blood of souls may be regarded . do you think this is a slight matter ? and that you can easily shift it off , if they be required at your hands ▪ did christ die for souls , & shall they escape who murder them ? and do they do any less , who hinder those that would run to help and save them ? if the silent watchman be so damnably guilty , what are they that silence the watchmen ? to conclude , whether it had not been more acceptable to god , more correspondent to your commission , more beseeming your places and profession , more for the advancement of religion , and the eternal welfare of souls ; to have continued and encouraged faithful labourers in the vineyard of the lord , whose only delight was , to be employed in his service ; rather than to have offered them such terms , which christ never bid you , and then exclude them for not accepting those terms , i think , your own consciences may easily determine now , be sure the lord of the vineyard will , shortly . . another effect of their removal from the ministry , is , that many places are left destitute , and many are supplied with negligent , insufficient , scandalous men . had their rooms been fill'd with others as learned , pious , and industrious as they ; yet could they , who cast them forth , hardly evade the former charge , except they could manifest , that the harvest was not great enough , to have required all their utmost conjunct diligence . but it is beyond all contradiction evident , that in many places since their removal , there have been no ministers at all , in some as bad as none , in others worse than none . let none maliciously interpret my accusation largelier than i design it , which is not at all of the innocent . i censure no man as a conformist ; but reverence and esteem all those , who by their lives and doctrines , have apparently endeavoured to advance religion ; of which number , i am confident , there are many conformable men . and i abhor that uncharitable , censorious spirit , which condemns all that are not just of their own way . but on the other side , i think all are engag'd to be as far from palliating the notorious miscarriages of others . oh how many titular ministers have we got , that are far from deserving the name of christians ? that should rather be turned out of the church , than admitted into the pulpit ? this is so manifest , that sober men , though of their own way , acknowledge and lament it . how many are there , that more effectually preach for the devil all the week , than for god upon his day ? whose lives do more to set up profaneness , than their sermons to suppress it ? are there not many openly guilty of that drunkenness , wantonness , swearing , and such like loosness , which they are appointed to turn others from ? and are these wickednesses provoking in the people , and not in their teachers , who can never be guilty alone ? are any men capable of offering such an affront to god , and doing so much hurt to mens souls by their wickedness , as they , from whose lives should be learn't what is acceptable to god , and necessary for us ? 't is , i remember , the phrase of an excellent divine , a profane minister , is the devil in his pontificalibus . i list not here to blaze abroad all the disorders of our clergy ; i shall not insist upon the ignorance and insufficiency of any ; though in point of honour , they were concerned to have provided against such , who did lately with so much earnestness declaim against making priests of the lowest of the people . i will not meddle with that tribe that lives by the cathedrals . i will not tell of mens oblique preaching , against that holiness which they pretend to preach up . i shall not speak of the pride and covetousness , the laziness and negligence of pluralists , non-residents , and of all those , who too apparently seek their own honour and profit , from the places they enter upon , rather then the salvation of souls . these things i shall not dilate upon , because i would not too much swell my paper , and lest i should be thought to rail : only let me beg the guilty to charge these crimes home on their own consciences , as men that value their everlasting happiness ; for doubtless god is much displeased with the sins of those , whose callings hath so near a relation to him ; and especially with the most heinous sin , of making religion only as a stirrup , by it to get up into dignities and preferments ; which they who could see and censure in others , should be careful themselves to avoid . but those i mainly intend , are the grosly vicious , and debauch't , who are most unworthy to take gods name into thier mouths , to declare his covenants or statutes , who themselves hate to be reformed . good lord ! that ever it should come to this in a christian church , reformed from the corruptions that had overspread christendom ; that infamously loose and dissolute men should be ordained into , and continued in the ministry ; when godly , sober men are excluded , and kept out ! oh how might the romanist insult for such an acknowledgment , if the pope and his cardinals , with the rest of their hierarchy , were not known all the world over ? but with us , such doings are capable of far greater aggravations , than with them : oh that i could speak so sharply , as might displease our church-governours into a reformation of this corruption . what , are wolves fittest to be shepherds of the flocks ? can the devils vassals destroy his kingdom ? must stark mad men be made physitians , and sent to recover other men to their wits ? must they that have the plague-sores running upon them , be sent amongst others to prevent their infection ? is not a pest-house a fitter place for such a man , than a pulpit ? are traytors and incendiaries , the fittest men to reclaim others from their rebellion ? are they likely to honour god , and the gospel , and save mens souls , who do as it were , by their actions say , come , parishioners , follow me ; whatever i jest to you in the church , about god and christ , heaven and hell ; these are but idle dreams , or such matters as you need not much regard , god is an hard master , his laws are too strict ; it 's best to take our pleasures , and satisfie our lusts , come on it what will ; you entered into too strict a covenant in baptism , you had better serve the devil , than this jesus christ , who layes such hard things on his followers ; what need you regard his blood , he shed it , that you might have leave to live wickedly ; or however , 't is of no great worth ; for you had better be in an ale-house , or whore-house , than the heaven he hath purchas 't . are not these , think you , sweet preachers of the gospel ? and let them consider then how well they have discharged their trust , who set them up , and maintain them , whil'st they shut forth those who would make it their whole business , to carry on the very same design which christ came into the world for . if any should here object , and say , but these profane men are peaceable , whil'st your godly ones are turbulent and disobedient ? i shall wish him to stay till i come presently to speak a word or two to that ; only here let me answer , it seems strange to me , that those men must pass for peaceable and obedient , who are known rebels against the laws of christ ; when they must be accounted disobedient , who had rather lose their lives , than wilfully break one of the least of these his commands , only because they submit not to humane impositions ; which yet they would do , did they not think themselves pre-obliged by the laws of christ to the contrary . is this fair dealing ? i put it to thy own conscience , reader , be thou who thou wilt , and as partial as thou wilt . and if i went no farther , i suppose i have spoke enough to manifest , that there have been such sad consequences of the ejection of all who conformed not , that doubtless god hath hereby been dishonoured ▪ and displeased , and for this hath a controversie with our land. . i might moreover add , the feuds and animosities which have hereby been fomented and heightned , and are like to be still perpetuated ; whereas , had there been such an abatement of things required , as might well have been granted , in order to the retaining them in their places ; this might have been an happy mean for the composure of our greatest differences ; and people could not have taken notice of such divisions amongst us , nor could papists have had so much reason to hit us in the teeth with them ; nor could they whose spirits were too much exasperated , or judgments corrupted , have had so much occasion to make factions and parties , and so much sin had been prevented . . nor yet think it nothing , that so many innocent men and their families , are exposed to such great necessities , that some of them have scarce had bread and water to keep them alive ; and some have been glad to betake themselves to hard labour , to procure them a livelihood . certainly , the very cryes of their children for bread , sounding in the ears of a most just and merciful god , are not disregarded : and whether they who have reduc't them to these exigencies , have observed the great rule , not only of christianity , but even nature it self , to do as they would be done to , i would wish them well to consider . if any should retort , that they themselves were once so dealt with . i answer , i think they were used nothing near so harshly : but grant they were , the greater was their injustice which was the cause ; and the more inexcusable they , who inflict on others the hard measure , which they themselves lately groaned under ; and make them their pattern , whom they complain of and condemn . and had it been ( as it was not ) those persons who injured them , whom now they cause to suffer , i wonder where revenge is made their duty ; but this in a church-man , must sometimes pass for zeal for the church . it was easie to instance in more effects of this their ejection , which have been injurious to religion , and the souls of men . hence it 's come to pass , that their endeavours in a private way , by personal discourses , or writings , to reclaim sinners , are much frustrated ; for they are looked upon as a kind of distinct party , and so let them be never so careful to insist only on the most uncontroverted truths of religion , yet will many through prejudice misunderstand all they say , as if they were pleading their own cause , and endeavouring to gain proselytes to themselves , whil'st they are only striving to win souls to christ . when they are pressing men upon holiness and diligence for their salvation , some are prone to flatter themselves with a conceit , that this only is their strict and singular opinion ; and all that they say or do in religion , is put upon the score of a party , as if in these things they differed from others , and therefore are they disregarded . and thus it is also as to the people , who are known to love and adhere to them ; for their exact walking is look't on but as the following a sect , and which need not therefore be imitated ▪ and it can hardly be thought how many souls miscarry through these mistakes , which might have been much prevented , by that concord and mutual love which might have made all have been esteemed as brethren . moreover , hence it is , that these being now counted disaffected and discontented persons , many who bore them a spleen ( for their love 't is not impossible ) meet with pretences to vent it ; for they narrowly watch them in all their wayes ( and a little love to the commonwealth , with a dose of revenge and malice , how vigilant will it make men ? ) and are still ready to accuse them of something or other , they know not what , to bring them into trouble . and if they do but with all peaceableness meet together with their neighbours and friends , to quicken , comfort , and build up one another in their most holy faith ; yea , if they do but continue those meetings they were wont to have in times of greatest liberty ; presently they are liable to disturbance and punishment , as men holding unlawful assemblies ; whereas , had no such terms been put upon them , as necessarily put a difference betwixt them and others ; they might have been esteemed as loyal subjects , as they indeed are , and their actions had not been so obnoxious to groundless censures and accusations , nor they ever hurried to prison , or forc't some other way to suffer , for nothing but the meer surmises of the malicious . but i shall not give in more particulars : and whether these things i have mentioned are well-pleasing to god , or whether they may not rather have help't on his indignation against us , let all that are unbyas't determine . as to the truth of what i have spoke , i think it cannot be gain-sayed ; and what can be answered , i cannot devise , except what i before hinted , any should say , that by their removal , the peace of church and state is secured , which otherwise had been hazarded . to which i answer : . might not this peace have been procured better , by laying it upon those things whereon christ hath laid the peace of his church ? and not to make new laws , to which whil'st men in conscience cannot give obedience , they must be judged obstinate , as the courtiers served daniel : surely this is hard measure , when the things required are , in the judgment of the imposers , not necessary till they have commanded them , and so might have been left as indifferent , as they are in their own natures , and then how little contention had there been about them ? . might these persons be excused from those kind of subscriptions and declarations which are commanded them , they are ready to give in all that security , that can in reason he demanded , that they will be careful to preserve and promote the publick peace . if their oaths and promises may not be thought sufficient to oblige them to this , what hold could be taken of those other subscriptions and professions ? but if these were intended as a distinguishing shibboleth , that they might know whom to fall upon ; as a partition wall , to keep off those that may in some punctilio's differ from them ; as a test of a party , which serves to rank men under several divisions . if any in their impositions had such like designs as these , it is not all their power and policy combin'd , that can make such actings pass for current , with that god who is a lover of peace . and all at length shall be convinc't , that they who break the peace of the church , to promote the peace of a party , are not those peace-makers upon whom a blessing is pronounced . . i would fain know what disturbance of the peace there was , whil'st the liberty granted by his majesties declaration was enjoyed ; and upon what account it was likely to have been more violated , had that liberty been secured and perpetuated . . i am yet to learn how this restraint that is laid upon them , doth any whit the more incapacitate them for interruption of the peace , if a sense of their duty laid not a stronger obligation on them . it 's evident enough , that many of them have that influence upon their people , that it was no way difficult for them , to lead them into sects and separations , if they had a mind to 't ; and to lay such provoking pressures upon them , was not the way to prevent such miscarriages . but , blessed be god! their patience and moderation hath prevail'd over the smarting sense of those sufferings , which might have vex't them into extreams . if any have discovered too much impatience and bitterness of spirit , as i excuse it not , so neither are those proceedings which caus'd it , any more justifiable : but for many , it hath been their care , according to their capacities , to heal the distempers of their peoples spirits , to remove the too great prejudices many have conceived , and to reduce all whom they perceived inclined to a party : so that i dare confidently say , they have done more to preserve the peace of the church , than those who censure them , and cast them out of the ministry , as factious , and vnpeaceable . and as for raising any seditions or commotions in the state , not their most quick-sighted adversaries have , that i can hear or know , discovered them in the least guilty . and did his majesty but over-hear or know their daily privat'st prayers to god on his behalf , i am confident he would easily be convinc't , that his kingdom holds not more loyal , faithful subjects , than they , however they may be misrepresented , as deserving all that severity with which they are treated . by this time , i hope , i may on good grounds conclude , that the laying such restraints on so many faithful ministers , who might have been so eminently serviceable to their master , is one of those provocations of the divine majesty , under the effects whereof we groan ; and that therefore those who have been the procurers hereof , ought to lament their sin , and do their utmost to redress this grievance , and restore that liberty of which their brethren have been deprived . and if , when his majesty , out of his gracious nature , was inclined to have given that indulgence , which truly tender consciences did strongly hope for , and which would have rejoyc't the hearts of so many thousands of his best subjects ; if then there were any who stood in the gap to prevent the same , as we were publickly told ( in those very words ) there were ; let all such now soberly consider , what a breach they have help't to make upon us , and by their intercession with his majesty , for that liberty he is so willing to grant , as by one singular means , let them now stand in the gap , and turn away god's overflowing wrath , that we be not utterly consumed . and to you , reverend fathers , the rulers and guides of our church , give me leave to re-inforce my earnest request , in the name of our common saviour , that as you value his blood , and the purchase of it , and the precious souls for whom it was shed , you would yield a gracious audience to those , who beg of you nothing but a freedom to publish the glad tydings of salvation by christ our redeemer , to the lost sons of men . consider what a reasonable thing it is that is beg'd of you , no honours or preferments , but a liberty to serve your lord and ours in the work of the ministry . look over , i beseech you , your commission again and again , and see where you are commanded , yea , or allowed to cast out those whom god hath call'd to this work ; or keep out those , whom he hath in some measure fitted for , and strongly inclined to it , upon such grounds , and for such reasons , as we are thus dealt with . will you thrust and keep such labourers out of the harvest , whom our lord hath bid us pray might be sent forth into it ? was your power given you to any other purpose , than edification ? oh sirs , what is it you seek ? is it indeed to advance christs interest , to save poor souls from the devouring flames ? to set up holiness , and root out wickedness ? why then will you remain at distance from your brethren , whose very hearts are set upon these works ; who had rather than all the riches and honors in the world , be more in a capacity of employing themselves successfully herein ? oh , why will you restrain them from speaking , whose very bowels yearn over poor sinners that are just dropping into the burning lake , and think not where they are ? when the faces of so many thousands gather blackness , and they starve and swoon , and fall in the streets , why do you bind the hands of those who would so fain reach them forth the bread of life ? when their miseries and necessities cry aloud for help , why do you hinder those who would gladly afford them a seasonable supply ? who , though they may employ themselves according to their opportunities with particular mens souls , yet what 's that to the having their congregations to speak to ? review your patterns , i beseech you , and see whether you find any carriages of theirs , in their ruling of the church , which may justifie yours . our blessed lord would not have those forbid to do miracles in his name , who went not with him . nor doth paul intimate any desire to have silenc't those who preach't christ out of envy , much less such ( had there been any pastors of that mind ) who were for eating of herbs only , not meat . he speaks indeed of having the mouths of some stop't , tit. . . viz. they of the circumcision , who would have obtrutruded their mosaick ceremonies upon the christians , and judge whether our cause be like theirs ; and yet even their mouths were to be stop't by sound doctrine , and evidence of argument , ver . . oh how confident should i be of obtaining that liberty i am begging of you ( if reasons of another sort hindred not ) was christ himself alive amongst us , or any of his apostles our governours . had i had the happiness to have lived in st. pauls dayes , and addrest my self to him with all humility and earnestness , imploring a leave to preach the gospel , professing i had no carnal aim in it , but that my soul long'd to be disclosing those mysteries and treasures of love to poor sensless creatures , that were passing on to damnation , as not knowing or considering what christ had done to keep them thence , and that i would endeavour faithfully to declare the whole counsel of the lord , without adding to , or diminishing ought from it ; had i made such an address , do you think in your own consciences , he would have turned me away without my errand ? i have sometimes thought , that should i have put up such a petition to the king , i should have prevailed ; but fears of becoming ridiculous , have deter'd me . but let not this my sute , i beseech you , be rejected ; for what pretence of reason can be alledged against it . it is not i know the things themselves which are required , that you so much stand upon , as if they were in their own nature necessary antecedently to your commands . and was ever yet any answer given to those demands which have been made ( amongst others ) by a person of that judgment and moderation , that you can neither suspect him of prejudice or inclination to a party , when he asks what charter christ hath given the church to bind men up to more than himself hath done ? what grounds there are why christians should not stand upon the same terms now , which they did in the time of christ and his apostles ? and whether christ will ever thank men at the great day , for keeping such out from communion with his church ( we may well add from their service of the church ) whom he will receive into heaven , and vouchsafe not only crowns of glory to , but aureolae too , if there be any such things there ? he tells you there , that the commission the apostles were sent out with , was only to teach what christ had commanded , not the least intimation given of a power to impose any thing else , except what they might be directed to by the immediate guidance of the spirit of god ; and that they made an antecedent necessity , either absolute , or for the present state , the only ground of imposing their commands , and much more to the same purpose ; which , however they are regarded , may shew thus much , that it is not only humour and singularity which judges it most reasonable , that those things , which the defenders of them count indifferencies , should not be rigorously imposed on others , nor the peace of the church suspenaed upon them . but is it indeed the publick peace that by these things you consult for ? why will you then in the room of a submission to them , accept of any the most solemn engagements from those who will enter into them , that they will not disturb the peace either of church or state ? and if you find any acting contrarily , proceed against them as you please . let the world judge what reasonable offers we make . is it our obedience to authority you would have us manifest ? why let our submission in all other things speak for us . or lay on us what commands you will in civil things , or in any thing that may be no snare to our consciences , and by them prove whether we be obstinate or not . in a word , will you accept our promises , bonds , oaths , or what assurance can be desired , that we will labour in all things to act most agreeably to the gospel of our lord , which we all own as a sufficient rule ? and that we will not allow our selves in any prejudice , humour or perversness , but in all things , ( though we would not be made one a rule to another , in matters that will well allow diversity ) will comply with you , so far as possibly we can , without danger of displeasing god , and damning of our own souls ? and surely you have more tenderness than to desire us to do such things . i am bold thus to speak in others names ( though not one be privy to my work ) because i am perswaded there are few but will do thus much , and what can in reason be required more of any ? let none usurp the prerogative of searching hearts , and knowing mens meanings better than themselves , and say , these are fine words , and specious pretences , but the design of all is , but to get more liberty to strengthen a party : for i solemnly profess , and thou god , who standest over me whil'st i am writing these words , know'st it , i abhor such a design . if to raise men to the knowledge and love of god through the spirit of his son ; if to bring them to a careful observance of the precepts of our lord , that they may be obedient to their governours ecclesiastical and civil ; just and charitable to their brethren ; that they may be holy , humble , heavenly , patient , meek , pure , chaste and temperate ; abounding in all the graces and fruits of the spirit ; if this be to make men a party ; then let me be interpreted as earnestly desirous to promote it ; otherwise not . and shall those , who have no other aims than these , be kept out of the ministry , as turbulent , factious , and schismatical ? yea , some that were not born so soon as our civil confusions , and therefore sided with none , offended none ? if you indeed thought there were any thus innocent , and whose intentions were so upright , would you have no regard to them , but reject all their petitions , even such as i have made ? surely you would not . why be assured , if there may any faith be given to men , and if it be possible for men to know their own hearts , there are some , yea , i am confident , many such . well , however after all we may be censured and slandered , yet , whilest we can daily betake our selves to the all-knowing god , and profess before him ; that it is the grief of our souls , that we are deprived of those opportunities of serving him , which we once had or hoped for , which we beg may be restor'd and vouchsaf't rather than any outward advantages whatever ; and that we had rather serve him in the ministry , than ( for any interest of our own ) be made monarchs of the world , onely we dare not pretend his glory to justifie our lie ; we dare not ( for to him we may speak plainly ) say , we consent to those things we cannot find warrant for from his word ; nor that those who have vowed to reform his church , are not oblig'd by those vows , when corruptions are so many and great ; but we beseech him to lead us into all truth , and discover to us our duty , for that he knows we would do any thing but sin against him , to purchase a liberty publickly to serve him ; and therefore to his righteous judgment we wholly commit our cause ; whilst i say in our daily prayers to god , we can make such professions as these ( and that some can ) we may possess our souls in patience , and be comforted with the conscience of our integrity , whatever clamours there are without us , and whatever calumnies men may labour to fasten upon us . and i beseech you , who by your harshness , send such daily to god with tears and groans under the heavy pressures ; yea , and thousands more of the best christians in the land on their behalf , and on the behalf of their own souls , in so great a measure deprived of the precious quickning means they once enjoyed ; bethink your selves how grateful those your proceedings are to god , which thus occasion the just sorrows and complaints of his ministers and dearest people . and let me further put it to your conscience : , whether in your private addresses to god , you can say , that you are griev'd in heart for your brethren deprived of their liberties , and that you have condescended to them as far as possibly you could without sinning , and that you would do all that in you lies for their restauration , that might not provoke him , and be a burthen to your own consciences ; and that it is the interest of christ , and the edification and salvation of souls which you aimed at , in your proceedings against them . can you make such professions as these to god ? or to men , as you will answer it at the great and dreadful day of accounts ? i leave it to your calm and sober considerations . i shall no longer stand to importune you ; but ( as hoping i have not been speaking all this while to the wind ) entreat you to take into your serious review , the petition for peace , presented to you by the divines appointed by his majesty , to treat with you about church-affairs . there may you see what their requests are , and the pressing reasons with which they enforce them : requests so reasonable , that , nothing but experience could have convinced me , they were deniable ; reasons so evident , that i am perswaded they are unanswerable : and in this perswasion i am more confirm'd from their being railed at , and scribled against ( which was all the answer i ever heard of ) by a gentleman , from whom , if my present paper can escape a suppressing , it fears not an answer : for his violence is much more to be dreaded than his reason . now sleight not , i beg you , these entreaties , because you can easily deny them : for the cause i plead is just and equal , and of weighty moment , which i refer to your impartial debates , and leave the event to the disposure of that god , for whose honour it was ( if i know my self ) that i undertook this plea. and him i shall humbly follow with my prayers , that this supplication , which i am writing august . may through his good providence , and the favour of authority , do something to the reversing of the act , whose being in force , took date from this day three years since ) this fatal day that deserves to be wrote in black letters in england's calendar . grant this oh my god , for thy son christ jesus sake , i beseech thee , and let all that seek thy glory , and the prosperity of thy church , say , amen . if any upon the reading of this , should argue me , either of too great confidence in making such an attempt , or want of judgment to conceive there was any probability of the success , when much more likely endeavours have been uneffectual ; let such know , that when i had designed to do my utmost towards a discovery of those sins , which have provoked gods anger against us ; i should have thought my self unfaithful to the cause i undertook , had any fear or pretence of reason prevailed with me , to pass silently over a miscarriage of such a nature , as i have manifested this to be , so fruitful of , and complicate with , many others . and if any thing unequal to be framed by a law , i hope that alters not the nature of it so far , as to make it above a subject to call things by their own names . had an act pass'd for the toleration of drunkenness , or any the like sin , i should have taken the boldness to represent the ill nature and consequences of it . and though it is not impossible but prejudice may spy out very great faults , yet , i hope , both as to the matter and manner of discourse , i have not transgress't the bounds of sobriety , modesty , nor that duty which i owe my superiours . moreover , i conceived , that now god calls us all to search our hearts , and review our ways ; they who themselves put us upon this work , and exhort us to repentance and prayer , will not be unwilling to reflect upon themselves and their own actions , as remembring they are men subject to the same mistakes and frailties that the rest of the sons of lapst adam are . and if indeed it be made evident , that amongst other errands , one voice of the rod now upon us , is , let my people go , that they may serve me ; let my faithful ministers have liberty to advance my gospel . i hope , those , who are particularly called to from heaven , will not be disobedient . again , i was willing so far as was consistent with my main design , to represent to the world ( if any yet be ignorant of it ) the nature of the difference betwixt us ; however to manifest thus much , how willing , yea , how earnestly desirous some ( if not all ) of those suspended from their ministerial employments , are to be re-admitted to the same ; and what reasonable terms they beg ▪ and readily offer a submission to , if they might be heard , that so they , who are so forward to condemn them all as obstinate and perverse , may be more wary of their censures , and confine them to those only whom they know so guilty . and i hop't i might do something to quicken all those , whose hearts are affected with the concernments of the church , to more earnestness in their addresses to god , that he , in whose hands the heart of kings and all men are , would incline our superious to hearken to the requests , and graciously to regard the cause of so many of the servants of christ ; who , when his church so much needs their labours , and they would so willingly spend themselves in the service of souls , are to the sadning of their hearts , in a great measure rendered unserviceable in their generations . and lastly , thus much however i shall attain , viz ▪ the satisfaction of my conscience in the discharge of my duty ; that i can herein approve my self to god and my own soul , that i have done what in me lies , toward the procuring of my own and others liberty ; that , if it shall still be denied , i may have nothing to charge my self with in this respect : and may comfort my self in this , that the improvement of such a liberty , shall no more be required of me , by the righteous judge of heaven and earth , than the improvement of a great estate , or a place of honour , or some such talent , with which i was never entrusted . and if i obtain but thus much ( though i strongly hope for more ) i shall be far from repenting of my undertaken labour : for i must confess , that seems not to me a small thing , which any way conduceth to my having of boldness before my lord , at the day of his appearing . a word or two more i shall take liberty to add upon this head , before i relinquish it . if the removal of so many labourers out of the lords harvest is so grievous a sin , both in its self , and the sad consequences of it , then all others , and even they themselves , so far as they have contributed to this their removal , or have not since endeavoured to prevent those consequences have cause to be greatly humbled . and first , even all the people who have sinned their teachers into corners , by their pride , wantonness , and unfruitfulness under the means of grace . but especially those private persons , who by their malice either did , or at least endeavoured to contribute to their ejection , or to the hastning of it . what volumns might be composed ( even another book of martyrs or confessors rather ) of the sufferings many of these servants of christ have met with , from the arbitrary violence of unreasonable men ? for i speak not of what the law hath imposed on them . how have some been toss't from place to place , their houses searched , and they confined , and all this either upon groundless suspition , or false accusations : for where was the man of them that hath yet been proved guilty of treason or sedition ? oh the notorious gross lyes and perjuries , that some of their people have been guilty of , both before , and since their ejection ? and yet how readily accepted by many ? and what 's the ground of all ? why , alas , they had got many hearers , the great-ones especially , who were scandalized at the strictness of their doctrines and lives , and angry that they might not go to hell quietly , who studied to be revenged on them for the disturbance they had received from them in their sins . thus i dare confidently say , it hath been with many . and though such may have thought they have been doing god good service , whilest they have been persecuting his ministers , yet believe it , they shall have small thanks from him , that sent them upon that errand , the delivery whereof may have brought them so much trouble , and that they shall find to their smart without true repentance , if many of them have not already . what , could not men be content to reject the embassy god sent them , but they must injure and abuse his embassadors too ? shal not god proclaim war against that people that have thus violated the law of nations ? they would scarce have done thus to an embassadour sent from the turk , to perswade us to exchange christ for mahomet , and the gospel for the alcoran . but , oh , let let them alone , they are safe enough . 't is the factious non-conformist , not the christian minister they have medled with . not the holy jesus , that came from heaven to bring men thither , was crucified ; but ( if you will believe his adversaries ) an enemy to caesar , and a mover of sedition ; not paul a servant and worshipper of the most high god , but a certain pestilent fellow , a ringleader of a sect , was accused . the world hath still some policy and modesty in the drawing up its indictments , and dare not directly make holiness a crime . well , sirs , it will be happy for you , if you shall be found to have had so much wit in your anger , as that you shall at last be able to distinguish your selves out of gods displeasure : but if there should be any thing found in christianity , engaging to that you call non-conformity ; or if you have made this ▪ but a pretence for your malignity against that ; i would not for a thousand worlds be in your case , for all your distinctions , when god shall arise thorowly to plead his peoples cause : and even now sure he is beginning to do it . and if under the rod , you continue the sin for which you are lash't , bethink you how to answer that startling question , who ever hardned himself against god , and prosper'd ! and justly hath god suited his judgments to this sin of the people a famine of the word they feared not , and therefore may god have sent upon thousands what they account more dreadful , a famine of bread . 't is just that they who loath'd the manna , and were weary of the bread of life , should want bread to put into their mouths . and they who could not endure these terrible preachers , let them now speak , whether the threatning , or the execution , be the more terrible ? now , sirs , what say you to sin ? is it such a harmless thing as you thought it , or not ? doth not god now speak against it , in something a louder and harsher language , than your bawling preachers were wont ? under them you could sleep , but now sleep away this sermon if you can ; even this awakening sermon , which the plague of god makes to you . and if you go on in your hardness , you shall find to your cost , that the hell and damnation which their pulpits did so thunder against wickedness was but a painted fire , to that you shall eternally feel . but from others who have been the unjust causes of your sufferings , to your selves , i shall address my self : honoured fathers , and dear brethren , with whom my boldness will not , i am confident , be misconstrued . since you will readily acknowledge , that all that hath befal'n you , is just , as from god you cannot then but lay it on your sins ; and these , i hope , it is your daily business to reflect on , and beg pardon for . though i am well assu'd , the holiness , diligence and painfulness of many of you hath been such , that to men you may well acquit your selves , and may be worthy patterns to others , and shame and silence your accnsers ; yet to god you cannot so readily justifie your selves , i know you dare not . oh might not you have done more to promote the interest of your lord and master , than you did ? some of you i mean ; for i profess without all partialitie or flatterie , i think some did strive to the verie utmost of their power , to improve all opportunities for the good of souls , and now in their consciences they have the fruits of it ; but of these there were few , too few . oh be humbled then for all your negligence , covetousness , and self-seeking ; your pride and contentions ; that you were more averse from the offers of peace and union , than you ought ; that you kept so much ado about your own wayes and opinions , and stood wrangling about this trifle or that , whil'st greater works were left undone : and dailie make solemn engagements to god , that if once more he will entrust you with forfeited priviledges , you will be more faithful and vigorous than ever yet you have been , in the work of the gospel ; that you will no more take your ease , nor seek your selves , nor waste precious time in needless controversies ; nor confine godliness to any without book niceties of your own ; nor lay the peace of the church upon your particular opinions , but will readilie join with all that are willing , in the owning and pressing onlie the things that are necessarie to salvation ; and will use all means , both publick and private , for the conversion of souls . and if god grant your prayers , as in his due time he may , see that you remember these promises . but 't is the second branch i would have you chieflie to consider ; and that is your not endeavouring what you might , to prevent some of those sad consequences of your exclusion , which i before mentioned ; in that you have not embrac't all the opportunies that were yet afforded you , for the doing good to the people , to bring them from sin to god ; and so your negligence may have hastned and help't forward gods indignation . let me not be thought too sawcie , sirs , i beseech you , for in the same plain dealing i have used hitherto , i am resolved to conclude . i must needs say then , if they are not to be excused who have deprived you of your publick libertie , no more are you , if you have not improved that private libertie they left you for doing your masters work . i must profess it hath troubled me , to hear men pray so earnestlie , and talk so much for the restauration of their liberties , and to see them make so little use of those the law allow'd them . and it might too much tempt men to fear , that their secular interests went nearest to their hearts ; and that they chieflie mean a libertie , to receive their maintenance again , to live they and their families at their former rates ; or to be able to insult over , and give laws to those in the church , who now trample upon and despise them . i know daily bread may be pray'd for , but the coming of god's kingdom must have the prioritie , both in our prayers and endeavours . the case is weightie , sirs , and deserves your serious consideration , to go and preach the gospel you entered into an engagement , and received a commission , the validitie whereof ( though to some of you given , by the laying on of the hands of the presbyterie onlie ) i suppose you question not , nor i think scarce anie one else , till verie latelie . well , it being thus , i would know how you can shift off the necessitie that lies upon you to preach this gospel , and the woe in case of your negligence . you may replie , you have not leave given you , nor yet any maintenance allowed . but pray you , who give the apostles and primitive christians leave for three hundred years after christ , and who maintain'd them ? where was such a clause inserted in your commission , alwayes provided that the rulers of the world give you leave to perform your duties ? this would agree with the politicks of that gentleman , who being , i fear , design'd to take god out of the world , in courtesie to us , somewhat to prevent our confusion , would set up monarchs little less limited than he. but if our ancestors had gone by this rule , where had the gospel been ? or where is it excepted , that you must have such and such provisions , or else not to preach ? for my own part i acknowledge my self a verie mean casuist , and ignorant of twentie subtle distinctions , which here might be needful . and i am verie confident , i am speaking to few , but are more knowing , and better studied in this point , than my self ; and great difficulties there are to me , concerning the relation betwixt a pastor , and a people , as matters now stand with us ; how far it holds , and how far men are engaged to perform all the duties of that relation ; wherefore to that i shall say little or nothing ; onlie so far as concerns my self , and verie manie more , yea , all in part , i use thus plainlie to resolve the case to my self ; when my understanding is most help't , by a powerful apprehension of death and judgment near at hand . i take it for the indispensable duty of every man , to employ himself to the utmost in his place and calling , in answering the ends of his creation and redemption , the glorifying of god , in doing his best to save his own , and others souls . and if i have been solemnly consecrated to this work , to make it my verie particular calling , no command of the highest emperor iu the world can disoblige me from it : god must be honoured , the gospel proclaimed , souls saved , my vows performed , storm and rage , forbid and hinder it , who will or can . but if there happen such terms to be put upon me , as the condition of my more open exercise of the function i am devoted to , which terms , after the use of all due means for information , i judge i cannot lawfully submit to ; but yet others will , whose apprehensions vary from mine , who will in some competent measure carry on the publick work i was employed in , which i am forbid to meddle with : then , in such a case , ( which , if i mistake not , is ours ) i will cast about which way i may do most , for those ends i am obliged to carry on . and since christianity it self is not forbid to be preach't , only i must not do it , viz. not publickly ; but yet others will , and in many places do : and i foresee that by rushing upon the publick preaching , more hurt would come of my disobedience , than good ; and i should be more out of a capacity for future service , either by imprisonment , banishment , or the like ; ( which are not so much to be shun'd as sufferings , but as they hinder the attainment of my ends ) i will then see what private opportunities are afforded me for those ends , and these with all readiness i will accept , and diligently improve ; as in which , all circumstances considered , i may do most for the advancement of the gospel : and therefore is not to be thought an effect of cowardice , a baseness unworthy him that remembers what it sounds to be a christian ; but as my taking that way , which most conduceth to gods glory , and the interest of religion ▪ and this is no other than the course paul himself took , gal. . . when he communicated the gospel privately , to them that were of reputation ( and why ? for fear , or shame ? no , but ) lest he should run in vain . but if circumstances should so alter the case , that i see , venturing upon publick preaching , be the most probable way for the accomplishment of my just designs , then i will embrace that : or if i should be forbid privately to endeavour the salvation of souls , then i must , and will disobey , let what will be the event ; because such commands directly contradict those ends i must promote , and leave me no way for the attaining of them : yea , though i dye for it , i must tell those within my reach , who gave us our being , and keeps us alive , and to what end ; who shed his blood for us , and why ; and what we must do to be made partakers of the benefits he hath purchased : i must tell them of the evil and danger of sin , whither it leads , and what an heaven holiness will end in . these are matters that the world must know , though a thousand deaths attend upon the publishers : and i would no longer care for a tongue or hand , than whil'st i might speak or write of them ▪ one word more , and i shall conclude this : but it so happening since the loss of my liberty , that my self , and those that depend on me , may be reduc't to such pressing necessities , that i must be taken up much more than i was wont , some way or other for the procuring of a livelihood ( the sad case at present of many precious , eminent ministers ) then i will betake my self to such care and pains as is requisite hereto ; in the mean time not relinquishing my great work , but regarding the world ( as all ought to do , and indeed the most of what i have said , is appliable to private christians ) onlie with a subserriencie to it . and this again we may find justified by paul himself : whom , if you had found busie at work , in making his tents , yet you could not have charged him with neglect of the gospel : for even then he was contriving how to render it most acceptable . and thus i have given in my brief thoughts of this case , which , though it may seem a digression from the matter in hand , yet is it not so from my main design , if it may do the least to quicken any to a sense of their dutie , and the neglects of it , and to put them upon more carefulness for the future . and hence many may see , how guilty they have been , in not laying out themselves for the good of souls , so far as they might , without breaking any law , or running any hazard . oh sirs , you are men sure somewhat sensible of what worth a soul is : and what weighty things salvation and damnation are , which careless wretches do but jest with , as words of course . why have you not then laboured more in these matters ! let none misunderstand me , i speak to the negligent only . could we have done no more for god and mens souls , to inform the ignorant , convince the obstinate , quicken the godly , than we have done ? might there not have been , through the blessing of god even upon our private labours , fewer to provoke , and more to please him , more to strive with him by their prayers to turn away his wrath , than there are ? and upon the same account , i would beg all private christians to lay to heart their lamentable dulness , aud uselessness in the places and towns where they dwell . oh how little are their neighbours and acquaintance , i wish , i might not say their families , better for many of them ! so little do they make religion their business : but in all their converse are even like other men ; only plodding on in a life-less profession , and track of duties ; and appearing a little zealous for some by-opinions of their own . it was time for them to be raised out of their heavy , luke-warm temper , and to be made to mind and relish a little more the weighty truths and matters of religion . reader , art thou an honourer of christ , and a lover of mankind ? why tell me then , is it not a most lamentable thing to consider , that almost all the world , yea , almost all the christian , and reformed christian world is drowned in wickedness : and that there is so little savoury salt in it ; so few that study and labour to make the gospel obtain amongst men in the life and power of it ? how do the most seek their own things , how few the things of jesus christ ? oh that men were once throughly perswaded , that his things were theirs ! some are too busie about puppet-plays , the petty trifles of the world , which , yet to those , who are swallowed upin them , seem weighty and important ; to mind much what becomes of mens immortal souls . let the poor curate , that must live by it , see to such low affairs . others have so much to do to keep up their own parties , opinions and customs , that christ may look to his gospel himself for them , except as it lies in the way to the things they account most their concern . but all you the ministers of christ , if indeed you take his work it self for your honour , pleasure , and wages , though many of you may want those encouragements which are so requisite and desirable for your success ; yet , be awakened to do all the service you can to your lord and master ? let us not stand accusing any for the removal of our opportunities , whilest we have so many before us , if we had the hearts and skill to use them . how glad would the primitive christians , or our protestant martyrs have been of those priviledges we enjoy , though they might earnestly have desired more ? what sirs , are there no poor souls near you , that cry aloud for your help , to save them from the burning lake , to rescue them out of the jaws of death , and snares of the devil , by whom they are led captive at his will ? these , these are they , upon whom especially you ought to employ all your skill and pains , and from him that died for them , you shall have your reward . i know the godly also call for strengthning direction , comfort , and quickning ; but surely your principal ( much less your only ) work is not with them ; the miserable creatures that are just at the graves mouth , and yet know not what they came into the world for , require speedie and seasonable help . oh how many thousands may now be out of your reach , whom you once might have spoken to , but did not ! who hinders you from going to such , and discoursing to them the matters that concern their everlasting peace ? cannot you watch opportunities when they can best have while to hear you , and are most likelie to regard you ? you that live amongst your former people , cannot you go to their houses , and take all occasion of converse with them , and be inculcating on them the great truths and duties of the gospel ? if you never formerly took this course of private dealing with your people , set upon it now , and you know not but it may be more effectual than all your former labours were . some that have tried , have had good success . however , you will have comfort in doing your dutie . oh go often , as you have time , amongst you poor neighbours , and see in what a state their souls are , and be not so uncharitable and hard-hearted , as to see them dropping into hell , and yet do nothing to prevent it . though 't is amongst strangers you are cast , yet acquaint your selves with them , and do them all the good you can , as knowing every man 's your neighbour that needs your help . put then upon reading good books , and take account of them , and learn what their knowledge in religion is , and accordingly instruct and advise them . but far be it from me , to presume to give directions for the work , others have done it fully ; and you know it well enough if you would but set to it with all your might : oh follow then the example of paul , who went about from house to house , night and day , warning and beseething every one with tears . what do you think this is not preaching the gospel ? do you think that 's only , whilst you stand on a high place in the midst of an assemby ? did not christ preach the gospel to a woman alone , and philip to the eunuch ? in some respects 't is evident personal discourse hath much the advantage of publick preaching ; and why may we not expect gods blessing hereupon , as well as on the other ? now sirs , we have an happy opportunity of discovering what pure love to the gospel will do with us , without any hopes of a temporal reward . what moved you to preach to your people before ? i know you will not joyn with the quakers in accusing your selves , and say it was for your tythes . what then , was it a desire to save the souls of your people ? why i hope their salvation is as precious in your eyes now , as then ; and do not they as much need your assistance ? why then do not you continue it ? say not , the people will not bear it , for many will. try them once again , and where any are obstinate , let your love and courtesie do its utmost to overcome them . oh let us but work out own hearts into lively affectionate apprehensions of the great concernments of souls , and study more what god is , and why he made us ; what the death of christ imports , what it is for a soul to be saved or damned for ever ; and we shall scarce be able to refrain speaking to all we can light upon ; but we shall rather ask every man we meet , whether he hath yet done his best to make sure his everlasting happiness ? whether hee 's yet got from under the wrath of god , and out of danger of hell ? these things will be ready to burst from us in the very streets , or open congregations . oh had we but that zeal , and those affections which these matters deserve , and will very well warrant , what work might we make in the world , yet keeping in all due bounds of sobriety and prudence ? though perhaps we might be counted mad-men for our pains , as christ himself and the apostle paul were . but remember then , i would have you spend your zeal upon the things that are worth it ; proportion it to the weight of the truths you insist on . i would not have you take this pains to make men of your opinion , in controverted matters . beware of that , designing a party will spoil all your work . labour you to make them members of christ , what need you care then what particular church they are members of , or wherein they differ from you in matters , that concern not their salvation ? do the best you can to heal all breaches , make none , widen none . let men censure us as long as they will for schismatical and turbulent ; and if all our professions to the contrary may not be heard , yet let our practises witness to god , to the world , and to our own consciences , that we are true lovers of piety and peace . see that you have no other aims but gods glory , and hee 'l own , and crown you for your labour of love . say not now , this is a difficult work , but tell me whether it be not needful ? if the devil and his instruments sit still , then do you so to ; remember what a covenant you made in baptisme , beside all other engagements since . think what you live for , and where you expect to stand shortly , and tell me whether a life thus laid out for god , will not then be your comfort ? oh for the lords sake then all you his servants up and be doing , and fear not : for god will be with you , what are you afraid of enemies ? do you think this will procure you more hatred and sufferings ? and awaken powers to greater jealousies , and cause them to abridge you of the liberty yet reserved ? never fear it , sirs , why don't you know what i am pressing you to ? is it to propagate christianity ; and this is a work that must and shall be done : for god hath said it , and hee 'l see to it ; and for this the world is yet kept up . oh sirs , pure , simple , and uncorrupted christianity , deserves all our time and study , and pains to advance it . and it hath such comforts and crowns , for its resolved friends and persecuted followers , that would make a man even long to be suffering for it ; and the more he suffers , the more he will still love , the firmlier adhere to it . christianity , it is a religion of that force and excellency , that it defies oppositions , and scorns all banks and bounds . it awes its greatest adversaries , and a prisoner at the bar with it , may make his judge upon the bench to tremble , and the sturdy jaylour that even now whipt him , come quaking to beg a pardon . fear not prisons , for the gospel can never be bound . let this alone be your rule , and value not what law or will of man shall contradict it . kings and emperours with all their officers , and armies , edicts and authorities , are but trophee's to its power ; like dams they 'l make it rise the higher , and overbear all before it ; experience confirms what i say . this cake of barley bread will tumble down all the tents of a midianitish host ; the noise of its trumpets , the light of the lamps ( though the pitchers that bear them , these earthen vessels our bodies , be broken ) and crying out ; the word of the lord , and his son christ jesus , will discomfit innumerable armies , and make them run , and cry , and flee . this is the gospel , and let all that read these lines say , let it go on and prosper , let it run and be glorified , and strike its healing sword to the hearts of its adversaries . now this is it , and this alone , which i would beseech all to spend themselves for , and fear not but it will bear your charges . let your work be purely gods , and if he can bear you out he will ; and i hope you don't doubt that . but let me once again beg you , to see that you make the cause you work for , the same that christ and his apostles drove on in the world , and then how joyfully may you suffer for it , whatever men call your actions and designs . 't is nothing strange to suffer for christ from nominal christians ; nor for peace and truth , from men that call themselves orthodox and catholick ; this hath been often in the world ! let then the weighty , but much neglected doctrines and commands of the gospel be urged with all earnestnesse , but lesser things lesse regarded . talk lesse of the times , but more of eternity . stand not discoursing who should have power in the church to men , that are yet under the power of the devil ; nor of a ceremony or form of prayer , to those that know not god , nor their own souls . what strange things would these be to catechize an heathen in ; and are they much fitter for carnal ones ? but oh labour to work men into the true temper , and spirit of religion , which consists so much in love to god and our brethren ; and then the new nature that is in them , the inward relish of their souls , and renewed principles of light , will enable them to judge of things that differ , and all matters of moment god will reveal to them . again , i have need to request that i be not judged immodest , if the confused haste i now write in , have carried me out to a more than seemly earnestnesse ▪ nor yet count me pragmatical for venturing thus to advise , since i desire no more regard then what the reasonablenesse , and weight of the things proposed shall be found to deserve . and thus at length , through gods assistance , i am even com'n to the end of my task . i have endeavoured to shew , wherein it is , we have from the highest to the lowest done amiss , and provoked god against us ; i have also mingled directions , so far as my intended brevity would permit ; for the performance of those duties , that may appease his wrath , and make us happy in his favour . and oh that these weak endevaours might have an issue answerable to their design ! then how confidently durst i say we should be an happy people , by becoming holy , which is all i have aimed at . but what talk i of my endeavours ? what shall be now the issue of gods judgments that have been upon us ? shall we be bettered by them or not ? oh one would think there should scarce an obstinate sinner be left in the nation after this ? but that we should all with one consent return to the god who hath smitten us , from whom we have back-slidden ? one would think we should now imitate the children of israel , whom after eminent judgments we find entring into a covenant , to seek and serve the lord their god , to which their kings were wont to call them . and oh that god would put it into the heart of his majesty , to engage all his people even from one end of the land to the other , to enter into such a solemn vow ; that we will in all things be careful to walk in those ways god hath enjoyned us , and not in any thing voluntarily break his holy laws ? oh that some such an engagement was made the bond of our union ; our entrance into and observance of it the condition of our church-communion ? of what a blessed consequence would even this be ? but this and all other such great wishes , let us reserve for our prayers ; and give me leave with some jealousie to demand , whether all that god hath done shall be lost upon us ? what shall our nation still be drowned in sin ? so soon as ever the rod's from off us , shall we to our old courses again ? shall profaneness abound , and religion be despised again ? shall taverns , and brothel-houses , and play-houses be frequented , and gods worship slighted , and neglected again ? will the abominable and filthy be so still ? shall blasphemy , and swearing , and cursing , be as loud as ever ? will men again to the world , and their pleasures , as busily as ever ? and make as light of his threatnings and promises , and laugh at the talk of death and judgment , as they were wont to do ? shall god still be mock't with formalities , and dishonoured by mens lives ? will the hater of godliness still rise higher in his rage ? will the execution of justice be as much neglected as ever ? and will the man of violence swell his fingers into loyns , and exchange his rods for scorpions ? will men still close their eys against the clearest light , and reject the apparent and only means for the reconciling our differences , and establishing our peace upon sure foundations ? or will they yet strive to aggravate the bitterness of mens spirits , and pursue their design of crushing them into the very dirt ? shall we yet be rent and torn with animosities and divisions ? and shall they that ought to cure , keep up and encrease them ? shall we still , instead of accusing our selves and sin , dip our pens and tongues in gall , and cry out , one side on the tyrannical , cruel and oppressive ; the other , on the murmurers , male-contents , and fault-finders ? will these , and all other disorders be still continued ? oh god forbid that it should be thus , that we should grow worse under the physitians hand , and that none of his strongest medicines should work ? shall we cause god to complain of us , that he would have healed us , but we would not be healed ? that in vain hath he smitten us , for that we would not receive correction ? oh that such a poor worm as i , could do any thing to prevent such a sad conclusion ; for woe to us , if god depart from us , leaving us to our selves , resolving to strike us no more , but letting us alone till he destroy us in our sins . my words are like to spread but a little way , but oh that they might have some effect where they light . to thee , reader , let me betake my self : what have the workings of thy soul been , whil'st thou hast been reading these lines ? and what influence have they upon thee ? what , hath not they conscience smote thee , speak the truth , and told thee plainlie , thou hast been a troubler of the land , and hast help't to bring the plague upon us ? in the sight of god , i demand of thee , hast thou not been guilty of some of the sins here described , covetousness or pride , luxury or oppression , or the like ? and what now ? dost thou condemn thy self for thy follie ? wilt thou make all speed to get a peace confirmed betwixt god and thy soul , and a separation made betwixt thy soul and sin ? or on the other hand , art thou not in a rage , that thy sin hath been too plainlie displayed , and too much disgrac't ? thy darling sin which thou art resolved to keep , though thou have hell with it ? art thou not framing excuses , and saying , thou canst not believe that such and such things which thou hast a mind to , are such heinous matters , and so displeasing to god ? or else art thou remiss and stupid , never thinking this or that , onlie tossing over the book , and passing this censure on it , and throwing it down without anie more regard ? trulie this is it i most fear ; for this is the general prevailing temper : oh therefore that i could but rouze thee to an apprehension of thy self , and thy own estate . reader , sure thou art one that wouldst not willinglie be damn'd ; wilt thou then hearken to a most reasonable request i shall make to thee , before i conclude ? thou hast now been awhile reading these lines , which have been as a bill of indictment against our land , and have deciphered what our especial crying sins are . wilt thou now when thou shut'st the book , get alone , and spend but as much time in reading thy own heart and life , and search and see whether none of these sins be thine ? it may be this is a work thou never didst in thy life yet , but wilt thou now bring thy heart to it ? ' tisin vain to ask thee , whether thou wilt forsake thy sin , if thou wilt not set upon examining thy self to find it out . what say'st thou then in the name of god to this my earnest request ? what , shall i be denied ? is it a great matter i ask of thee , to withdraw thy self from the noise and busle of the world , and of thy own vain thoughts , and to make a diligent search into the state of thy own soul , that being sensible of thy sin and danger , thou may'st yet get help ? wil't thou do thus much , or tell me plainlie , wilt thou be damn'd first ? for i 'le assure thee , thy damnation is never like to be prevented without serious consideration , and that 's it i would beg thee to : which is it thou wilt choose ? to set upon thy dutie , or to venture upon helf ? sure thy mind cannot but answer one way or other . reader , be awakened , take not these for words of course ; from god i speak to thee , 't is god looks on thee ; he knows the thoughts and intentions of thy heart , upon thy reading these demands . and whatever course thou take , whether thou wilt examine thy self , and forsake thy sins , or not , yet thou canst not say but god hath given thee fair warning . he now stands over thee with his rod in his hand , and asks thee , whether yet thou wilt seek , and serve him ? if thy self-examinations shall have made way at all for such a demand , i would know in the next place , whether thou wilt strive to put away sin , every sin from thee , or wilt thou not ? art thou yet willing to be reconciled to god ? be it known to thee , oh sinner , whoever thou art , yet there is hopes ; from the lord thy maker and redeemer ▪ i tell thee so : what would the damned give for such a word ? if thou wilt but impartiallie consider thy wayes , bewail thy sin , and loath it ; turn from it , and from the world , to the lord thy god , with all thy heart , resting on his mercie in and through his son , setting upon a course of serious holiness , and continuing therein to the end , doing this , be assured thy soul shall live . something of this i spoke at the beginning , and cannot stand to say more on it now : here 's enough to inform thee ( if thou knewest it not ) what thy dutie is ? but art thou willing to perform it ? one would think thou shouldest soon be resolved what to do . the question is , whether thou wilt do thy utmost to change thy heart and life , that thou may'st be saved ? or whether thou wilt go in sin , and be damned ? i have told thee upon what terms thou may'st yet escape thy ruine : but withall know , this must be done . speedilie , or perhaps not at all . if thou delayest one hour , thou may'st be in hell the next . god nath born with thee long , now he is making shorter work ; he will not alwayes wait for nothing . they heart quicklie he demands , this he will have , or thy hearts-blood . away with thy sin then with all possible speed ; if thou retain it , it will be thy death ; for a hue and cry's gone out from heaven against it , and the man in whose hands 't is found , shall surelie dye : then cast it away , if thou love thy life , thy everlasting life . but what art thou one of those sensless , brutish , blockish souls , that a man had almost as good spend his breath upon a stone wall , as talk to thee ! art thou nothing moved with all thou readest or nearest , but takest all for words of course , which thou forgettest as soon as the noise is out of thy ears ? dost thou now lay aside the book , and go about thy wonted business , as if thou hadst not been reading for life or death ? but a kind of story , that no way concerns thee ? wilt thou now rise up , and go to thy worldly cares , thy company , or vain discourse , instead of getting alone to god with humble acknowledgments of thy sin , and earnest cryes for mercy ? if thou wast infected with the plague , and had ▪ st been reading what medicines thou should'st use , would'st thou lay by the book , and never mind more , as if thou hadst done enough to read them , without taking care to apply them ? and wilt thou now be guilty of a madness as much greater than this , as sin and hell , are worse than the plague and death ? art thou resolved though christ himself should kneel to thee , and beseech thee ( as he doth by me ) to search they heart , and review thy wayes , and detest thy sins , that he might save thee , that yet thou wouldest not grant his desire , nor ever put thy self to so much labour as conversion will cost thee ? if thou be such a stupid `resolved sinner , that wilt remain in thy old wayes , come on it what will ; yea , and believest all shall be well enough with thee for all that , what can i say to thee more ? god be judge between thee and me ; thou art destroyed , not because thou couldest have no help , nor because it was not offered thee , but because thou didst wilfully resuse it . but , poor creature , my heart even akes for thee , and loth i am to leave thee in this wretched ▪ dull , distracted temper ; wherein if death , that is now so busie abroad , should find thee , thou art undone for ever . oh that yet i could speak something that would make thee feel and fear . tell me then , thou who art now so bold and resolute , so sottish and careless , dost thou not think thou shalt dye ? why , what wilt thou do then ? think on it , and think again , i befeech thee . is it not great odds , but the contagion may shortly reach thee ? what course wilt thou then take , when thou shalt see the tokens of god upon thee ? which way wilt thou look , or what wilt thou do for help ? then go to the sins thou hast loved so dearly , and see what comfort they will afford . now call for a cup , or a whore ; never be daunted man. shall one of thy courage quail , that couldst have mockt at the threatnings of the almighty god! what so boon and jolly but now , and now down i th' mouth ? here 's a sudden change indeed ! where are thy companions ? all fled ? where are thy darling pleasures ? all forsaken thee ! what will thy bags , and bills , and bonds , do thee no good ? why shouldest thou be dejected ? thou art a man of worship , perhaps a lord , or a knight , or gentleman ; go chear thy self , review thy good purchases , think of thy high titles , and rich revenues ! go gallants , get to your galss ; powder and curle , paint and spot , deck and adorn you , as you were wont ? ' what , do you take no pleasure to view your pale faces ? do your hearts sink within you like a stone ? why how now poor creature , what hath the world left thee ? the world thou didst so dearly love , that heaven was but a trifle to it ! what , hast thou misplac't thy heart on a treacherous friend , that fails thee in thy greatest need ? must thou now all in silence and sadness groan forth thy wretched soul into another world ? now , now wretch , what hath thy sin and carelessness brought thee to ? now where is thy life of mirth and sport ? what wilt thou do now , when thy own comforts have left thee , and god loaths thee , and casts out thy death-bed howlings with disdain ? what dost begin to call upon him now ? dost think a few good words shall serve thy turn ? read jer. . . go get thee to thy own gods , see whether they can help and deliver thee . say not i would drive thee to despair ; no , i would fain prevent it ; and so may'st thou , if thou wilt but hearken in time ; and that time 's just now ; for death is even at thy back , and perhaps will take thee up as soon as the book 's laid down . but perhaps thou art one that think'st thy self safe , and that this nothing belongs to thee , because thou may'st be recovered from the sickness , or got out of the reach of it ; or it may be so abated , that thou dost not fear it ; and therefore thou art ready foolishly to cry with agag , the bitterness of death is past ; but oh be convinc't of thy lamentable sottishness ; for thou mayst yet be hew'n in pieces for all that . read amos . , , . and tell me whether god will not find thee out . thou art run away from the city perhaps , but not from thy sin ; and therefore thou carriest the plague along with thee , which sooner or later will break out . but though escape the plague , art thou then secure ? if thou canst but out-live this mortality , dost thou think all is well then ? all danger over ? no , hold there , sinner ; god hath not done with thee so ; believe it , the worst is yet to come . alas , man , death , judgment and hell are behind still . i , but coming they are apace , and overtake thee at last they will , even all of them , if thou look not about thee in time . patch and piece up thy mouldring carkass as long as thou canst ; and shift thee hither and thither , from this disease or that ; but after all be assured , thou shalt dye . and after death hath done its work upon thee , and the judgment past , and sentence executed , if thou then find all well with thee , boast , and spare not ; but till then be silent . but if yet thou art fully bent to keep thy sin , let me beg thee to think a little what is that hell thou art leaping into ; oh think what the wrath , the flaming , unquenchable wrath of god is . dost thou make a pish at it ? 't is because thou art an infidel , or hast lost thy wits . i know thou canst not awhile to think of it now , thou hast pleasanter things to take up thy thoughts , than death and hell ; and therefore thou laughest and singest , and merrily throwest away thy hours , as if no hurt was near thee , whilest thou standest tottering on the very brink of the bottomless pit ! and all this while , how many devils whom thou seest not , stand some gaping to receive thee , and some labouring to make thee sure , and till thee on ? and multitudes of deaths are waiting for a commission , any one of them to thrust thee in , and then farwell all hope for ever . oh spend but one hour , or half an hour in a day , in the sober thoughts of eternity , and go on in sin if thou canst . good reader , let me entreat thee to this course ; but if thou cryest , thou hast somewhat else to do : know , thou shalt shortly have nothing else to do , but to feel that which now thou wilt not be brought to think of , that thou mightest avoid it ; and then say , if thou hadst not good counsel given thee once , if thou hadst had the wit and the grace to take it ▪ one moments experience shall at length convince thee more , than all thy hearing or reading would . thou countest plague , famine and sword , earthquakes , thunder and lightning , terrible things ; oh then what 's hell , the very dregs , the ocean of that furie of which these are but small drops ? there it is that god will make the verie power of his hottest intolerable wrath to appear , and in those rivers of brimstone , those scorching flames of his anger must thou lie down for ever : oh for ever , ever , man , think but awhile how long is that . might but the undone souls return , to describe this place of torments to their old companions , what a language should we hear ? might but dives himself have been sent to his jovial brethren , that little thought where their departed brother was , nor what they themselves were hastning to , in what a passionate manner would he have beg'd them off from sin , that led to all that endless woe ! how would he have disturbed them in the midst of their merriments and feastings , and even have made their hearts to quake , and their hair stand an end with his terrible expressions ? but , reader , if thou art one , who wilt be frightned from hell by no descriptions , but of those that have seen it , thy feeling is like to prevent thy fear . what say'st thou then after all ? art thou yet resolved to prepare for death , and prevent damnation , or not ? if thou art , happie man thou , that ever thou wast born ; but if thou art not , i can stay to say no more , but even take thy course , and when thou seelest the event , then say , whether sound repentance , and an holy life , had not been a cheap and easie , a gainful and happy way , to have prevented everlasting misery . but the good lord have mercie upon thee , and work these convictions with power upon thy soul , whilst they may do thee any good . i shall finish all with a word or two to all those that trulie love and fear the lord : oh sirs , you that have known god , and are interessed in his favor , and are well acquainted at the throne of his grace , to which you have oft in time of trouble and need made your recourse , and thence have received seasonable comfort and supply ; all you to whom prayer is no strange work , now arise and betake your selves to god with all seriousness and speed ; cast your selves down before him , bewailing your own sins , and the sins of the land ; and lie in the gap to stop the farther proceedings of his wrath , that he may not root us up from being a people ; nor yet so far give us off , that we should continue to be a wicked and rebellious people ; for then destruction from the lord will certainly be our portion . strive with him to remove his rod , but above all , to work those ends whereto it is appointed . i have endeavoured to shew you , and your selves are sensible of it , what sins we are suffering for : oh pray that everie abominable thing may be cast forth from amongst us , and those blessed works accomplish't , which would make us in the eye of god and man a people glorious and happy . beg earnestly that the gospel may be advanc't , holiness encouraged , wickedness supprest and punish't , our divisions healed ; that from the prince upon the throne , to the beggar upon the dunghill , there may be an effectual reformation of all we have done amiss ; that we may yet find favour in the sight of god , and enjoy his residence , and gracious presence amongst us ; that he may delight in us , and rejoyce over us to do us good . both alone , and in companies , as you have opportunitie , besiege heaven with your humble and affectionate prayers . god will not be deaf to your cry , he knows your voice , which comes from your very soul ; he will not reject the petitions you present with pure hands ; your prayers are his delight , all you that are his humble , upright ones : 't is you must now prevail , or we are undone . though you may be a people , hated , derided and undervalued by those amongst whom you live , yet must your intercessions be accepted on their behalf , through our great intercessor , or else they are like to perish . 't is you that must run with your censers , and stand betwixt the living and the dead , that so the plague may be stayed . it is the incense and perfume of your prayers , that through christ , must appease an angrie god , and clear an infected air. it is not the lip ▪ service of the profane sinner , or the formal hypocrite , that will do us anie good ; let his prayers be by heart , or by rote , within-book , or without , that makes no great matter ; but if he be one whose heart is far from god , and whose life is a provocation to him , who still goes on in his sin , let him be never so devout in the church , or on his knees , and roar and weep with never so much passion and noise , the howling of a dog is as acceptable to god , as such hypocritical devotion . shall the tongue that was just now cursing and swearing , come presentlie and fall a praying , and think to be accepted ? doth god delight to hear his name taken in vain , as these sensless sinners do in their solemnest services ? no , no , but it is the fervent prayer of you who are indeed righteous , that 's like to be effectual and prevailing . you have the spirit of supplication interceding within you , assisting you with unutterable sighs and groans ; whether with a form , or without , makes not the difference ; and you have a powerful advocate enforcing your requests ▪ wherefore to god betake your selves , lie at his feet . plead with him for rulers and people , his church and ministers , your friends and enemies , city and countrey , your towns and familie ; and for your own souls : follow him day and night , and give him no rest , till he shall hear in heaven , and have mercy , and establish his zion a praise both amongst us , and in the whole earth . and be exhorted also now to lay about you all you can , 〈…〉 and convincing of the poor creatures that are near you , 〈…〉 may not find their souls unready . if you be in places where 〈…〉 on is , or is dailie sear'd , improve such a time with ignorant and 〈◊〉 ones ; manie may be willing to hear you now , who would have 〈…〉 at serious discourse a few dayes since . when they begin to 〈…〉 death as a real thing , and not far off , the fears of it will a little cure 〈◊〉 of their distractions ; and they 'l no longer take heaven and hell for jes●ing matters . this is not a time , sirs to be ashamed of religion ; now , if ever , holiness will be in request , and boldlie shew it self . afford your neighbours then all the helps you can for their precious souls . go to their houses , and lend them good books , and discourse of those matters that you may easily perceive do most concern dying men : and let that be your direction for the future in this work ; which i would never have you cease , whil'st your selves , and those about you , are mortal men , whose eternity either of happiness or woe , depends upon their well or ill improvement of this uncertain moment . and lastlie , all you holie souls , be encouraged chearfullie and confidentlie to receive the sentence of death within your selves . let your spirits revive within you , when you shall see the waggons that come to fetch you to your joseph , even your lord , who is gone before to prepare a place for you . let those that have lived estranged from god , careless of his service , mad of the world , and running after their pleasures , let them be dejected at the news ef dying ; the sad news , that they must leave all their treasures , and their joyes , and be carried into a state they thought not of , nor prepared for , there to be reckoned with for their worldlie , loose , and jollie life , and to bear the effects of their follie for ever . but all you to whom sin hath been a burden , and religion your work and pleasure ; whose hearts have been taken up with gods dealings with mankind , and deeplie affected with his mysterious love in christ ; who have taken it for the business of your lives , to work out your salvation : in a word , who have chosen god for your portion , and lov'd him more than all things here below , and closed with christ as your onlie saviour , to deliver you both from sin and hell , and have taken the holie spirit for your sanctifier and guide ; not allowing your selves in known sin , but labouring in all things to approve your selves to god , now lift up your heads , and comfort your hearts , when you see the day of death approach . let not carnal ones see you dismay'd , for this will make them suspect religion to be a fancie ; so much doth it contradict your profession , and disgrace both it and you . 〈…〉 kind of death by which you may be sent for hence , be 〈…〉 ground of your trouble and fear . why should not god 〈…〉 death for you , as well as all other things ? and let it be of 〈…〉 it will , you have very great reason quietly to submit to it . let 〈…〉 welcome and there is nothing in a plague that can hurt you , 〈…〉 daunt you . be very sensible of gods hand now stretcht out 〈◊〉 us , and so far manifest a reverence and awe ; and with a reliance ●n him , use all due means for self-preservation . but for your selves , dread not a plague , nor any thing it can do upon you ; it can but kill your bodies , and help your souls out of their prisons , and is there any hurt in that ? let the spots when you see them , be regarded by you , as no other then tokens of your fathers love , which he hath sent to shew he is mindful of you , and hath now sent to fetch you nearer to himself : what though it be a rough messenger , as jaylours use to be , yet the message may well make you entertain him with smiles . if it came to lead you forth to execution indeed , you might well tremble ; though not so much for its self , as the errand it came on . oh the stark madnesse of those blind and miserable ones , that are afraid of a plague , and not of hell ; that run away from the sicknesse , and run on in sin ? but talk not you of loathsome sores ? why sirs , do they go any deeper than your flesh ? let those that have made their carcasses their care , be troubled for this ? why what have you any thing more for your bodies to do ? any service for which you shall need them ? and need you care , how the old clothes are rent and torn , so long as you shall never wear , nor need them more ? part willingly with your rags , you have clothes a making , which shall soon silence your complaints . swell , and break , and stink flesh if thou wilt , i shall not be troubled with thee long ? when thou prosperest most , then i was at the worst ; thou hast been so much my enemy , that i cannot but rejoyce in thy ruines ? if my tongue must needs complain , and my sight , and smell be offended with my self , all this shall not reach my heart ? what care i for thy sores and pains , so long as my souls in health : go make hast , and get thee to thy grave , and there turn to rottenness and filth ? i pity thee not , nor will ever sympathize with thee more . nor yet complain of the suddennesse of this death . leave this to them that would serve god , when they had nothing else to do , that put off all to a lord have mercie upon me ; and a few good prayers at their last gasp . but what death can be sudden to you , who are not unprepared for death ; but have made it the businesse of your lives , to fit your selves for it ? nor let this be your trouble that your friends forsake you , and are all afraid to come nigh you . why what would you have them do , they cannot rebuke your disease , or delay your death , or doing any thing for you in the world you are going to ; nor do you need they should . councel i hope you have given them in time of health , and therefore it may the lesse trouble you , that you cannot speak to them now . to take a solemn leave of them , is a poor formality , to trouble the thoughts of a dying man. whatever help they could afford , you 'l quicklie be past all need of it , or them . bear the want of their companie or assistance a day or two , and you will never desire , or want it more . wherefore chear up your spirits , and be not cast down , but to the rock of ages betake your selves , who never fail'd you , nor anie that placed their confidence in him ; hee 's a present help in time of trouble ; hee 'l come in to you when your doors are shut up , hee 'l stand by your beds-side , when no other friend dare . now sirs , what 's your god , your saviour worth ? a god to support you , when the world fails you ; a saviour to relieve you , when you leave the world . now is not an holy life comfortable to your review ? do you now repent of the cost and pains you have been at , or the sufferings you have under-gone for god ? was it not worth while to be laught and wondered at for your holie diligence , which laid in store for such a day as this , and brings you support , when the hearts of others sink for fear ? now sirs , you are come to the end of your pilgrimage ; the long-long-lookt for day is come . sin and satan , the world and the flesh , shall never trouble you more for ever . now shall your prayers at length be all heard , your complainings ended , your expectations and longings satisfied , and accomplished . chear up , chear up , brave souls , but one step more , and then you are at your fathers house . methinks i see the arms of christ stretcht out to receive you , and angels waiting to conduct you to his arms. fear not , nor be dismaid , confidentlie resign your souls to him , who laid down his life for you . the darknesse lasts but a little while , and presentlie you will come into the open light ; oh the difference you will in a moment find , betwixt your dark and silent room , and the mansion that shall be assigned you in your fathers house ! to which the stateliest palace is a loathsom dungeon . oh what acclamations and hallelujahs , what crying , holie , holie , holie ! what glorious praises , and loud noises ! what crowns and scepters , what riches and beauties , will your ears and eyes be presentlie stricken with ! so that you will be amazed , and wonder whether you are come , and where you have been all this while , that you never heard , nor saw these things before . so infinitelie will they exceed your highest thoughts , when faith helpt you to the clearest views . but all your strangenesse and amazement will soon be over , surprisals of joy will dissipate and succeed them ! this is the glorie , the hopes whereof upheld you all your daies , and the glimmerings and fore-tasts did so oft revive you . now you shall at length see the lord who lov'd you , and gave himself for you , and whom your souls have loved . oh is there not life in his smiles ? and if he smiles upon you , all the angels and saints will bid you welcome : for his beck and pleasure it is that rules all . there you shall be entred into that throng of blessed spirits , yours shall their employments be , their priviledges shall be yours . then shall your understandings be enlightened , your affections raised , and all your capacities widened , and all be fill'd with suitable truth and goodnesse , the latent powers of your souls , shall then be awakened into that high celestial life . then shall you be nearer to your saviour , than john , when he leaned on his bosome ; and shall taste the full fruits of his dear and costlie love . then , then blessed soul thou shalt know , and see , and feel , and enjoy thy god , and be brought as near to him as thy soul can desire , and receive as much from him as thy nature is capable . the lord thy redeemer having by his blood and spirit , accomplished his whole designe upon thee , and fitted thee for , will lead thee into the fathers presence , and so thou shalt enter upon the state of constant and full communion with him . and shall be always spending an eternitie in contemplating , and admiring his excellencies and glories , and singing his praises ▪ in the warm-breathings and out-goings of thy heart after him , and in the ravishments of highest mutual love , and dearest complacency , betwixt thy enlarged soul , and infinite essential goodnesse , even the god of loves . this thou shalt have , but what this is , though i had leasure and skill , to say ten thousand times more then i have done , thou couldst not know the thousandth part , till thou doest enjoy it . wherefore with an holy impatience , and eager joy enter upon the possession of all the treasures of love , which death comes to translate thee to . bid it heartily welcome , open thy breast , and let it strike ; 't is but the prick of a pin , the smarts ceast assoon as its in , the pangs of it are gone in a trice . see they are over already , all pain was expired with that last groan , and now thou art entered upon thy joy. farewell blessed souls , whom i hope shortly to follow , and with you to celebrate an everlasting communion , in the presence , praise and love of the great jehovah , and his son christ jesus , to whom in the vnity of the spirit , be rendred all honour , power , and glory , now and eternally . amen . finis . the fanatick indulgence granted anno . by mr. ninian paterson. paterson, ninian, d. . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing p estc r this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) the fanatick indulgence granted anno . by mr. ninian paterson. paterson, ninian, d. . [ ], p. printed by david lindsay and his partners, at the foot of heriot's-bridge, edinburgh : . latin dedication to james ii (as future king) on verso of title page and at end of text. in verse. an appeal to the future king to renounce "indulgence" for protestant dissenters, especially the covenanters, followed by an enthusiastic welcome to scotland. copy stained. reproduction of the original in the british library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng james -- ii, -- king of england, - . covenanters -- controversial literature -- early works to . dissenters, religious -- scotland -- early works to . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - tcp staff (oxford) sampled and proofread - tcp staff (oxford) text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the fanatick indulgence granted , anno . si natura negat facit indignatio versum qualemcunque potest . juvenal . sat. . by m r. ninian paterson . edinbvrgh , printed by david lindsay and his partners , at the foot of heriot's bridge , . ad illustrissimum principem iacobvm albaniae et eboraci ducem . princeps magne meae tibi si placuere camoenae , muneris instat erit , quod plac●●re tibi . at si displiceant , metuendae praem●● poenae , damnum ingens claris displicuisse viris . principis est laus summa tamen , dare dona poëtis , vel magis ut placeant , displiceantve minus . to his royal highnes james duke of albanie . great sir , this poëm still conceal'd have i , till time hath christn'd it a prophesy . indulgence now unmasked , strives to tryst with john of leyden against antichrist . this is the trojan horse , wherein there lies catsbie and vaulx , with new conspiracies . this the shaftburian crockodil his blind to lure scotes rogues to english commons mind ; nor is this twattling fame , but sure as death , witness where welsh resign'd his latest breath . this meteor impregnated the air with some to usurp the throne , and sacred chair with a new faith , but not without its works : yet such as more beseemeth iews and turks . but now wee 'r fallen in that dismall time , wherein to utter truth 's an hainous crime . when squinteyed slander , and hypocrisy , in triumph bear away the verdant bay . protect me then , the galled brother-hood smart censures will reject , thô wise and good ; being swell'd with that same furie , which before glutted it self with our dread soveraings gore . noll is reviv'd , his ghost drinks our ill health , and we must once more try a common wealth , no more succession , rather be 't our fate to truckle under illegitimate . and then in our career , each friend , or foe , iust as we please , wee 'l call , or make him so . and like an hurrying flood wee 'l still increass , and swell our channel , as we mend our pace . wee 'l scorn hobs leviathan , whill we play our selves i' th ocean of stern tyrranny . begon religion , and be buried law , brittain must once more turn aceldama . but oft omnipotency lurkes , untill the creaturs pollicy , and prowess fail ; and god will joseph press , and gall , and wring . e're he advance him second to the king. and hath decreed this lot for every man , to pass the red sea e're he taste canaan . we see the soveraign , and imperial state is not exempted from the common fate , nay heavens impartial , and resistless brow frowns oftner on the scepter then the plough : when he securely whistles to his teem . the other fears a tottring diadem . all my desire , great sir , is that i may live like an atome in the radiant ray of your life-giving heat , and glorious light , whose crisping spires may make me warm and bright . princes ar prophets guardians , ye know , jacobus rex was , aris excubo . david was poët ; and king james they sing , was king of poets , and the poëts king. and this emblazons most a prince renown . when he with muses laurel crowns his crown . poets and prophets both inspir'd of god , were kings companions , till our late bownd rode : where reason and religion did invade a frantick passion , and prevailing made that giddie furie , that awaits the power of thy more sacred charming hellebore . and be 't thy fate , for to suppress this flamm , and be true majestie thy anagram ; which for thy anagram may justly passe , as wanting the dull omen of the a. s. and spite of envy may thy glory be confin'd to nothing but eternity . the fanatick indulgence , anno . juven . sat. . sed si mora longior hortum fanatico indulget non illi deerit amator , mittentur braccae , cultelli , fraena , flagellum , agmina sic veteres referent whigimiria mores . idem sat. . sic , sic , fanaticus oestro percussus bellona tuo pugnavit , & ingens abstulit omen adhuc clari magnique triumphi : nam regem cepit : sic de temone britanno excidit arviragus , sat not a est bellua , cerno erectas in terga sudes , ast absit ab illo dedecus hoc claverus ait . sat. . ver . . sic vetus indulget senibus clementia porcis . idem sat. . quae stimulat vos iam sibi materiam ducis indulgentia quaerit , spes nulla ulterior . idem sat. . iramque animosque a crimine sumunt . the fanatick indulgence . to the king . . indulgence ! thunder-clap ! medusa's head : which makes us all like stones , dumb , stupified . and with amazement confidently vow , the british isle it is grown africk now . it s crete , its crete , this island , and at length indulgence tells us what 's the labyrinth ; not in one town , but all the nation o're ten thousand sold to feed the minotaure . and which would make an heart of flint to bleed , no hope appears of ariadne's threed . wee are in monsters ●ertil ; after this impossible ? incredible what is ? what is 't that the fanatick askes so great transcends his hopes , or can his wish defeat ? when wee thy loyal subjects looked for some halcyonian dayes , the tempests roar : and to our eyes on every rising wave , death sits in triumph , and presents a grave , and in the mid'st of our dispaires , and fears , tears drowns our sighs , and sighs dries up our tears . wee are like iob's these ninteen years perplext , betwixt distractions , and destructions vext . and that ( dread sir ) tho not so strange , as true , by scabbs , and devils now indulg'd by you . . indulgence ! mercy lord ! from whence ? to whom ? from charles ; nay : to ripp his mothers womb as nero did , i 'le nee'r belive't ; like this ovid hath no such metamorphosis . charles both merciful and wise , to act the much deplored athamas mistake , to murder his own children , and to spare the loathsome vermin the * whole body tare . to set three kingdoms all again in flamm , and throw poor meleager in the same , to please some mad altheas : acts like those , may frett thy friends , not satisfie thy foes . to lay the tittle , faith's defender , down , the richest jewel of thy radiant crown . strike loyalty , law , and religion dumb , to please a fullsome , nastie , hairbraind scum , a furious spawn of fiends , by whom alone the devil doth blush to see himself outdone . i mean their master leaders , the rest all sees hes no more brains , then sillie butter-flies ; and yet can act such bloody monstrous crimes , not writ in registers of former times . rebellion , murder , sacriledg , a fault complext , not to be purg'd with fire , nor salt ! these to indulge , is scepter to resign , and let the bramble king it o'r the vine . o boundless mercy ! heaven and hell here lyes , in strange ( how ? ) reconcil'd antipathies . base unrelenting fate could thou not spare good major weir till now to have got a share . unhappy mitchel had thou liv'd so long , thou had escaped in this damned throng , and had been sentenc'd at the council table , the innocentest traitour of the rabble . iii. indulgence in the hebrew hamal is , yet hamilton swears this is none of his projecting , or procuring , or desire ; his grace would never kindle such a fire . the other great , and mighty duke , he vowes it came from hell for any thing he knowes . the legat , men suspected most , he sayes , he acted but as stickes in puppet playes ; he acted being acted , this was all his influence on its original . avant then snake unto these dismall deeps , where every thing but damned sorrow sleeps . iiii. indulgence is cains mark , or such another ; no man may kill him that hath kill'd his brother . and herein cain was scot : the duke like god , who sent the traitour to the land of nod ; and yet confind him home to this his nation ; a land of fugitives and trepidation , a land wherein disgrace , and loud toung'd shame , hath split the trumpet of our former fame , either for armes or artes. your huskoes yield , ye sons of mars its cowards gains the field , these only now the acts of grace commands , because no widow curst their swords , nor hands . an apple cleft in two is not more twin , then their religion and their fights have been ; whose chiefest properties lyes in their voice , like shearing of a sow , no wool but noise : for when with covenants they brag the starrs . unto their heels they do commend ther warrs . just as the forced air below , doth fall in noise and loathsom stink , and there is all . they are no witches , tho their exercise are parallels , murders and tragedies . they 'r alwayes grumbling , cruel , furious , ill looking , spiteful , and malitious , blood-thristy tigers , never pleas'd but when they swill like leeches in the blood of men . their baptism they renounce , or do as much ; they need no devils each of them is such : for being baptized to the trinitie , they dare sit mute to the doxologie . they dare not sing , what they dare say , like those despise in verse what they commend in prose . they to their souls in consciencious care preferr their babling to our saviours prayer . and take their grounds of fighting from the word , because our saviour said put up thy sword . just like that wylie jesuits mistake , that of saint peter did salt peter make . they say a bishops office is for a turk , because saint paul did call it a good work . it brings damnation for to resist , saint paul did say , they say its the cause of christ. strange estredg consciences that quick devours great camel-truths , fir'd with gnat-metaphors . be subject all for conscience sake ; these heroes can swallow that , and fight at curse ye meroz . but as of faith , and manhood , they are outted , their learning too it mightily is doubted ; their logick's out of date , for they do know no syllogisme , but in fer●o . and when their courage with their powder 's spent , indulgence closeth all in celarent . they 'r puddle-rithmers too , they dare we see discharge their bumbast at our poësie . and it s reported that they largely share in glistring guinies , for their paltrie ware . the famine in samaria we see makes slimie sordid doves dung sell so hie , they gave ( in ghuest accompt ) when wanting bread , near ten pound sterling for an asses head . ( had all our whiggs been there , from rear to van , they had happ't headless every mortal man ) muse burn thy bayes , gold and the laurell now is onely given to the thick brained crew . empiricks let alone , your market fall's , the revenues of close-stools and urinals . we need no potions to our paunch , nor purse ; trai●ours indulg'd , will gratis murder us . close up the muses courts , the colleges , a living vatican , each fanatick is . baronius and bellarmin ingrost , their first two syllables in his brains have lost . our musickes all in discords : acts of grace hath highest trebl's joyn'd with lowest base . we croak like ravens , and we screech like rats , and for one sharp we have ten thousand flats . out notes so dissonant will nee'r agree in church , nor state , to make an harmonie . our kirk's a new benjotral , which we call nor presbiterian , nor episcopal . all tend to the old chaos , our very laws are all ingulphed in the good old cause . no wonder , traitours make monopoly of the embalmed name of honesty ; and will admit no honest man but him , dare call a bishop antichristian limm : no honest man if not of their opinion , altho he were almighties dearest minion . saint paul himself they scorn to call him saint , because he never took their covenant . yea from fool-hatred of the organs they made poor bagpypes sing dumb , and out of play . v. indulgences ar popish things , then why should they be fancied by such saints as they ? since their foundation fails them ; for it s known that neither saints , nor merits they can own . and too , for which i verily am sorie , they are not yet come to their purgatorie . besides indulgences they have no place , if men be not into the state of grace , and they the very name of grace think vile , because it sometimes is a bishops stile . but now the case is stated amongst all , treason indulg'd makes all sins venial . may not the papist say what need of rome for pardons now , since charles is pope at home . had luthers minde run parallel with his , no strife had been about indulgences . martin had still been monk , nor had he yet in genial sheet protested with his kate. but yet to pardon those , by pardons worse , is heavens dire vengeance , and earths heavy curse . saw ye an ape , that a purgation took , before these news so did our whigmares look . now like a passenger that scapt a grave in the sweld womb of an impostum'd wave ; they knock the starrs with their advanced head , as phaeton when he the reins did guid . with that same success too , the world they 'l fire , by guiding ill , what they did ill desire . for they repent not what they late have done , vowing the second part of that same tune . clearing both throats and pypes ; it s not in vain , a well payed spring ought to be played again . if ancient sages saws with you have credite , to spare a vice , it is the way to spread it . tame mercie is the breast that suckls vice , till hydra like her heads she multiplies . in sparing thieves and murderers , all see , a privat favour 's publicque injurie . should pitie spare , and let the gangren spread , until the bodies wholly putrified ? what surgeon would do this , but he that 's mad ? he 's cruel to the good who spares the bad . cause feed them fatt , and give them flesh and wine , bring in a water pipe to wash the swine . cause light the western lamp , which when it died , was ay with fire and sacrifice supplied give them a power rebellions trump to blow , in that same breath forbid them to do so . give them all kirkes , reward them for their flight , encourage them to such another fight . when all is done , let the whole world view , they only hold kirk government of you . o power ( i l'e not blaspheme ) beyond divine , to make meer contradictions so combine ; things so discordant meekly to agree , the presbiterians and monarchie . the covenant , and the alledgeance oath , bear-chaff and butter , makes a choaking broath . no longer then , this prophesie is hid , the leopard must lie down with the kid . then wheel about , and as at first ye were , the court commands the haughtie presbiter . auspicious peace clapps her triumphant wings , betwixt the presbiterians cause and kings . that valiant heel runs from it self at last , that lately ran from bothwel-bridge so fast . yet who should challenge those the king will cocker * stay , stay , & then take up that ewe and yoak her . a companie of bloody mutineers , who alwayes set both church and state by th' ears . the planets , if we trust the astrologer , at their wretcht birth were all irregular ; a tribe that would that learned greek compel to bring metempsychosis too from hell . changing like weather cocks , still at the flight like metra daughter to the hungrie wight . still skittish finding fault with that , with this , making the bible metamorphosis . the hieroglyphicks of all ill ; no less then the perfection of all wickedness . for if uncleanness , lyes , and murders be the devils markes , they 're devils more then he . sleep pluto , sleep , thou has no more to do , wher 's one of those ther 's hell and legion too . all coxcomb , motly clowns , yet could invent a way to heaven called kirk government . where major wier , who galls their memories , is now call'd maximus , and bears the keyes . they 'r dan and bethels calfs , yet whom before ladyes not on their face prostrate adore . these she-fanaticks worst of papists be if creature worship be worst poperie . yet since sharp's slain , justice may fall asleep , and her revengful sword in scabbard keep , and it may be astrea's gainful trade , to use her ballance now , more then her blade . or since correction makes the rabble worse , its gallantrie to let them take their course . so lybian lyons in ther high wrought rage with bulls and panthers only will engage . while the dull snail , and painted butterflie glides through the air , or craw'ls securely by . we fear not then the caledonian boar , as the tangier his wanscot faced moor. for such indulgence , were he nee'r so wild , would make a tyger , or a panther mild . how many have severe proceedings ended ? whom such indulgence might perhaps amended . if iove dart thunder still when men revolt he quickly would not leave himself a bolt . vi. indulgence , if an act of pollicie , it s deep as hell , or as the heavens it's hie . to gather altogither in a train , and iehu and baals priests to act again . or else it 's like to jesus who did call from heaven , and pardoned a slaughtering saul . amen , good lord ; but let us never see , our king accurst for letting syria free . me thinks , i saw our trembling kirk for life . panting like isaack underneath the knife : and heard heavens cry , charles withdraw that blow , let not these ramms caught in the thickets go . but since it s done , heavens pardon all offence in pities , or in policies pretence ; yet we thought policy should taught you rather , to indulge them as they indulg'd your father : or , as he did , we fear , too late yee 'l see . there are extreams of gracious clemencie . since none may say what doest thou , i take leave , indulgeo seldom hes the accusative . mollis illa educatio quam indulgentiam vocamus , nervos omnes , & mentis , & corporis frangit . quintilianus . nimia principum clementiorum lenitas , innumer a mala , caedes , latrocima , in ipsorum ditionibus gignit , adeo principum indulgentia , quam inclementia publicè nocentior est . machiavellus de principe , cap. . o cruel , and wicked indulgence , that is now found guilty of the death , not only of the priests & people , but of religion ! unjust mercy can never end in less then blood ; and it were well , if only the body should have cause to complain of that kind cruelty . halls-works first vol. lib. . pag. . in mr. ninian paterson his book of epigrams , lib. . epi. . the ghost of king charles the first , is brought in , thus speaking , non scelus ingrati populi , non palma rebellis , me non ira poli , noxa , luesve soli ; non vis foeta dolis , non daemonis aestus . & astus , sed mea me pietas perdidit , atque fides esto tibi clemens , populo ( me teste ) rebelli impius es princeps , qui cupis esse pius . englished abus , nor crimes , nor sucoess of the rebell crue , nor yet heaven vengeance , nor earths curse me slew , valor not wiles , hells craft , nor rage annoy'd , me my indulgence , and my faith destroy'd , art thou a pious prince , learn this of me , kindness to rebels is impietie . a welcome to his royal highness iames duke of albanie , to the kingdom of scotland . novr. . . now , now , i know what made the eolian ●lave stern northern boreas lately so outbrave our hosts of mists and clouds , and sweep the sky with his swell'd cheeks ; to brush a canopy for justice princely stuard ; that none may know tempests above , or murmurs here below . welcome great sir , welcome as was the light to chaos after an eternal night : for in this distance from our charles his wayn , only lights elder brother here did raign . we were so dark , and in so great a thrall , egypt might well boast our original . and lesly make less-ly , who sayes we came from scota pharohs daughter ; whence our name . and make buchanans ghost for to recall both our ius regni , and original . shine then upon our poor cimmerian clime , make this our first of moneths , of years , of time ; all annals eternize this happy day , let it be rubrick and an epochee to all succeeding generations : since the blest arrival of that noble prince . let old men blesse their fates , that made them last till now , and young men , that they made such haste : for all dayes untill this , had lost their names in golden number , since our late king james . heavens grant our scotland once more the renown , to bring him furth shall wear the british crown . and since it 's thought good fortune lacqueys names , let him be rex pacificus , a james . that so this isle the worlds epitomee ( neptuns inclosure ) once more gods may be . yee 'r welcome then great sir , to put a date to the tempestuous tumults of our state , whose boiling billows to that hight did rise , like gyants , to wage warr against the skies . ambitious is that raging foaming main once more to exalt it self o're charles his wain . but all in vain , heavens will all storms defeat , where charles is pilot , & great james his mate , be our physician , all our fears appease , calm church distractions , and cure states disease , and crush them ( sir ) for they are your worst friends , who turns their publick power to private ends . ambitious phaetons may they have place , will gladly sacrifice their countries peace . ye will see royal sparkes amongst our smoak , wee 'l be your ivi , if yee 'l be our oak ; and faithfully we promise for our parts , tho we cannot give crowns , we will give hearts . let english be more fortunate throughout , bate us that ace , we scots are still as stout . nor power , nor honour is confin'd to place , the trojans ruins rais'd the roman race . nay we have some who fame and honour breath . dare gaze undaunton'd on the face of death ; who to the whispers of a palefac't fear , or dreadfull danger , never lent an ear . whose purchases altho not great , yet good , were bought with sweat , and sealed with their blood . all which in camp , or court , by night , or day , if you command , are ready to obey . may 't only please your highness quash these fears , we have conceiv'd from dalted whiggimares . and yet what e're these villains did presume , their flamm at last did only prove a sume . so may health , honour , saftie , still attend your royal highness to an happy end . and still like caesars may intrancing blisse crown your desires , or else prevent your wis●● and be it registrate in after storie , your presence , was our happiness , and glory . ad illustrissimum principem jacobum albaniae & eboraci ducem . dvx duce ubique deo , per te tua scotia sumit fracta ani●●s mores barbara , pa●per opes . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e james stuart anagr. true majeste ablato a. s. notes for div a -e * sanum . the bishops murder . kings . . vid. pell . de indulg : lib. . c. . lightfoots temple . service . c. . * this was fulfill'd in cameron , and his companie the spawn of the indulgence . pythagoras . si quoties peccant b●mines , &c. notes for div a -e at the arrival of his r. highnes it blew hard . the dutchess was reported with child . the english nonconformity as under king charles ii and king james ii truly stated and argued by richard baxter ; who earnestly beseecheth rulers and clergy not to divide and destroy the land and cast their own souls on the dreadful guilt and punishment of national perjury ... baxter, richard, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing b estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) the english nonconformity as under king charles ii and king james ii truly stated and argued by richard baxter ; who earnestly beseecheth rulers and clergy not to divide and destroy the land and cast their own souls on the dreadful guilt and punishment of national perjury ... baxter, richard, - . [ ], [i.e. ] p. printed for tho. parkhurst ..., london : . first ed. cf. nuc pre- . errata on p. 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ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng church of england -- controversial literature. dissenters, religious -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - jonathan blaney sampled and proofread - jonathan blaney text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the english nonconformity , as under king charles ii. and king iames ii. truly stated and argued , by richard baxter . who earnestly beseecheth rulers , and clergy , not to divide , and destroy the land , and cast their own souls on the dreadful guilt and punishment of national perjvry , lying , deliberate covenanting to sin against god , corrupt his church , and not amend , nor by laws or blind malignity , to reproach faithful ministers of christ , and judge them to scorn and beggery , and to lie and die in jails as rogues , and so to strengthen profaneness , popery and schism , and all for want of willingness and patience to read and hear their just defence ; while they can spend much more time in sin and vanity . the author humbly begs that he and his books of unconfutable defence of a mistaken persecuted cause may not be witnesses against them for such great and wilful sin to their condemnation . mat. . . every kingdom divided against it self is brought to desolation . luk. . . except ye repent , ye shall all likewise perish . london , printed for tho. parkhurst at the bible and three crowns , at the lower end of cheapside . . the preface . it is agreed on by all real christians , that man being made an intelligent free agent , not under bruitish necessitating determination by objects , is governed by god by the moral way of law ; that is by the signification of his ruler's will , making his duty , and not by meer natural or forcible motion : and it is agreed that god himself is his only absolute universal ruler , and his laws given in nature and by revelation are the only universal laws , which no humane power can abrogate or dispense with : and that kings and magistrates are his ministers for mens good , and have no power but from him , and none against him or his laws ; and that it is not man but god , by whom we must all be judged to everlasting reward or punishment : and therefore that all men must obey god before men , and must not fear them that can but kill the body , but him who is able to cast both soul and body into hell. and it is agreed on by all sober christians , that therefore as subjects must use their own reason as discerning self-governours , to iudge who is their king , and who is a usurper , and what actions are commanded or forbidden by man's laws ; so must they first and chiefly use their own reason , to judge discerningly what actions are commanded or forbidden by god , and must do accordingly whoever is against it . this iudgment is commonly called conscience ; which if it err not must be followed , but if it err , it must be rectified : for then it is not god indeed that is obeyed : for god's law changeth not as conscience doth : yet to go against such a conscience is sin , because it i● interpretatively to go against god , while the man thought this had been god's will. on supposition of this certain truth , all that ever i yet read that condemn the nonconformists , and preach for their reproach and ruine , do confess , that if any one thing required of us as necessary to our ministry or communion be sin , our nonconformity is but our duty ; and all the whole ministry of england , on whom this was imposed by the act of uniformity on ba●tholomew-day , . were bound in conscience to have been nonconformists : ( whether also to bave all ceased to preach the gospel , i leave to their consideration . ) this being the confession of all that silence us , and send us to gaols , and call out for our utter extirpation , i know no shorter or likelier way , to stop all this burning wrath , and end our mischievous dissentions , than to try whether no one thing required of us be sin. forty of the things required of ministers , and twelve of those required of the laity , in all fifty two , i have proposed to examination , not as accusing the laws or the conformists , whatever i think of them ; but only rendering briefly the reasons of our own refusals . and forty three points in which many falsly suppose we conform not ( and some may perhaps be found that do not conform to them all ) i have first instanced in , as being such as we oppose not , nor are any parts of our nonconformity . if all the iustices and ministers of england , who censure us , and prosecute us as intolerable sinners , for our fearing these as sin , have impartially tryed all these points , and reasons , or yet will do , and can find no sin in any one of the fifty two , and it prove so indeed , i must say that all the two thousand ministers that in . were silenced , were as unhappy and strangely blinded men , as most in the world that are true christians ; that after all their study and prayers , they should affright themselves into so calamitous a state , against all the reason of their worldly interests , as well as against the welfare of the church , and their duty to god : . but i must say , past doubt , that the accusing clergy are deeply guilty of it , who these twenty one years have no better answered the reasons of our fear , nor used more wisdom and charity for our just conviction . for our consciences are of such a temper , as will not be convinced with a scorn or a iail , nor take all writings or words as satisfactory , that are poured out with supercilious confidence , and called satisfactory by the self-esteeming authors . i am told by divers , that i have written enough already on these subjects , were it only my first and second plea for peace , my treatise of episcopacy , and that of concord , and my apology for our preaching . and they say , you must expect to do no good , nor so much as to be read by adversaries , much less with diligence and impartial willingness to know the truth ; but contrarily to be hated , and accused of some odious crime , and laid in iail , among malefactors till you die ; and a prison will be more grievous to one in your pain and languishing than to another . on the other side , i have been long importuned to give an account of the reasons of our nonconformity : i have by bishops been reproved for not doing it : lords and persons of great quality have been perswaded , that we keep up a dangerous schism in the land , to the cherishing of discontents and sedition , only for things which we confess to be indifferent , and no sin : the laws accuse us : the numerous addresses of counties , cities and corporations , revile us as the nurses of rebellion : no small number of preachers plead for our ruine on the same supposition , and tell the people that it is no sin that we stick at , but humour , pride and faction make us disobedient schismaticks without any reason for what we do . the iails are fill'd with nonconformists : nine ministers are now in newgate , and many more in other places . and almost all of them mulct and fined in far more than ever they were worth . their goods and books taken by distress : they are fain to fly or abscond that are not in prison : their wives and children in distress and want : they are judged by the iustices unworthy so much as to be summoned to answer for themselves before they are judged , or to be heard plead their own cause , or to know and question their accusers and witnesses ; but as i my self was distreined of all my goods and books on five convictions before ever i heard of any accusation , or saw a iudge , so is it with many others , and more . in a word , lords , knights and clergy-men take us for unsufferable persons in the land , unfit for humane society , enemies to monarchy , obedience and peace , and corporations promise to choose such parliament men as are for our extirpation . and all this is for our nonconformity , which they all confess to be our duty if it be any sin that by the impositions is required of us . and if so small and easie a task as proving one or many such sins required , would recover the charity and iustice of all these men , and save themselves and the land from the guilt of prosecuting and oppressing the innocent , and condemning men for obedience to god , and driving conscionable and loyal persons out of the land , or overwhelming them with false accusations , because of other mens treasons or sedition , is not he that will forbear his part and duty in so dreadful a case , a greater sinner than he that when the city is on fire , will not do his best to quench it ; or that will not put out his hand to save a friend or child in fire or water , for fear of some trouble to himself ? i did in my first plea for peace , only name the matters which we dare not conform to , and durst not give the reasons of our fear and nonconformity : whereupon many since have importuned me for those reasons , as without which i could not expect that men should understand our case . why should i deny this ? is it through despair that rulers and clergymen will not regard reason , or will not bear it , but answer it with contempt or prisons ? that is to accuse them of such injustice , uncharitableness , and inhumanity as i must not accuse any of that do not by open practice accuse themselves . is it lest i should suffer by them ? my life and labours have been long vowed to god : he hath preserved my life , and succeeded my labours above forty years , by a continued course of remarkable providence , beyond my own and other mens expectations . what he hath thus given me , is doubly due to his service ; which hath been still so good to me , that it hath made even a painful life , a continual pleasure . he never failed or forsook me : i dare not ask any longer life of him , but for more and longer service . and if my service be at an end , why not my life also ? if i refuse his service , i invite god to cut off my life : and what service else can i now do ? i have neither leave nor strength to preach . i have these fourteen months been disabled so much as to go to any publick or private church , or hear a sermon . my body with pain and languid feebleness is a daily heavy load to me . i suffer more by it every day , than from all my enemies in the world. and shall i be guilty of the heinous sin of the omission of my duty in a time of such urgent and crying necessity , to save so calamitous a life , which i am still looking when it endeth ? is not a prison as near a way to heaven as my own house ? i will not do as those christians that cyprian writes to comfort , who were greatly troubled at death , because they died not by martyrdom . but i take a death for so publick and pressing a cause of truth , love , innocency and peace , to be a more comfortable sort of martyrdom , than theirs that were burnt in smithfield for denying the real presence , and such like ; and if god will so end such a painful life when sickness and natural decay is ready to end it , i hope he will teach me neither to repine , nor to be utterly unthankful . and as to the uncertainty of success , he that observeth the wind shall not sow ; god must be trusted to bless our work while we plant and water ; it 's my part to do my duty , and god's part to give success : i commend my self living and dying into the hands of my creator and redeemer , and end this preface in the words of st. paul , act. . , . bonds and afflictions abide me : but none of these things move me , neither count i my life dear unto my self , so that i might finish my course with joy , and the ministry which i have received of the lord jesus , to testifie the gospel of the grace of god. richard baxter . london , sept. . . an instance of the accusations which call for our defence ; ( besides those in the act for banishment from corporations , &c. ) devon ss . ad general . quarterial . session . pacis dom. regis tent . apud castr. exon. in & pro comitat. praed . secundo die octobris , anno regni dom. nostri caroli secundi dei gratia angliae , scotiae , franciae , & hiberniae regis , fidei defensor . &c. tricessimo quinto , annoque dom. . we have been so abundantly convinced of the seditious and rebellious practices of the sectaries and phanaticks , who through the course of above one hundred years since we were first infested with 'em , have scarce afforded this unhappy kingdom any interval of rest from their horrid treasons , as that we must esteem 'em , not only the open enemies of our established government , but to all the common principles of society and humanity it self . wherefore , that we may prevent their horrid conspiracies for the time to come , and secure ( as much as in us lies ) our most gracious king and the government from the fury and malice of 'em , we resolve to put the severest of the laws ( which we find too easie and gentle , unless enlivened by a vigorous execution ) in force against ' em . . we agree and resolve , in every division of this county , to require sufficient sureties for the good abearing and peaceable behaviour of all such as we may justly suspect , or that we can receive any credible information against , that they have been at any conventicles and unlawful meetings , or at any factious or seditious clubs ; or that have by any discourses discovered themselves to be disaffected to the present established government , either in church or state ; or that have been the authors or publishers of any seditious libels ; or that shall not in all things duely conform themselves to the present established government . . because we have a sort of false men , and more perfidious than professed phanatiques , who either wanting courage to appear in their own shape , or the better to bring about their treasonable designs , privately associate with , and encourage the seditious clubs of the sectaries , and with them plot heartily against the government ; and yet , that they may pass unsuspected , sometime appear in the church with a false shew of conformity , only to save their money , and the better to serve their faction : that we may ( if possible ) distinguish and know all such dangerous enemies , we will strictly require all church-wardens and constables , at all our monthly meetings , to give us a full account of all such as do not every sunday resort to their own parish-churches , and are not at the beginning of divine service , and do not behave themselves orderly and soberly there , observing all such decent ceremonies as the laws enjoyn : and that they likewise present unto us the names of all such as have not received the holy sacrament of the lord's supper in their own parish-churches thrice in the year . . being fully satisfied , as well by the clear evidence of the late horrid plot , as by our own long and sad experience , that the nonconformist preachers are the authors and fome●●ers of this pestilent faction , and the implacable enemies of the established government , and to whom the late execrable treasons , which have had such dismal effects in this kingdom , are principally to be imputed , and who by their present obstinate refusing to take and subscribe an oath and declaration , that they do not hold it lawful to take up arms against the king , and that they will not endeavour any alteration of government either in church or state ; do necessarily enforce us to conclude , that they are still ready to engage themselves , ( if not acutally engaged ) in some rebellious conspiracy against the king , and to invade and subvert his government : wherefore we resolve in every parish of this county , to leave strict warrants in the hands of all constables , for the seizing of such persons . and as an encouragement to all officers and others , that shall be instrumental in the apprehending of any of them , so as they may be brought to justice , we will give and allow forty shillings , as a reward , for every nonconformist preacher that shall be so secured . and we resolve to prosecute them , and all other such dangerous enemies of the government , and common absenters from church , and frequenters of conventicles , according to the directions of a law made in the five and thirtieth year of the reign of queen elizabeth , entituled , an act for the keeping her majesties subjects in due obedience . lastly , that we may never forget the infinite mercies of almighty god , in the late wonderful deliverance of our gracious king , and his dearest brother , and all his loyal subjects , ( who were designed for a massacre ) from the horrid conspiracy of the phanatiques , and their accomplices ; and that we may perpetuate as well our own thankfulness , as their infamy , that the generations to come may know their treachery , and avoid and never trust men of such principles more ; and also , that we our selves may perform our publick duty to almighty god , before we enter upon the publick service of our countrey : we order , resolve , and agree , with the advice and concurrence of the right reverend father in god , our much honoured and worthy lord bishop , to give and bestow for the beautifying of the chappel in the castle of exon , and for the erecting of decent seats there , ten pounds : and we will likewise give and continue six pounds to be paid yearly to any one of the church of exon , whom the said lord bishop shall appoint , to read the divine service , with the prayers lately appointed for the day of thanksgiving on the ninth of september last , and to preach a sermon exhorting to obedience , in the said chappel , on the first day of every general quarter-sessions of the peace held in the said castle , to begin precisely at eight of the clock in the morning . and may the mercies of heaven ( which are infinite ) always protect our religious and gracious king , his dearest brother , and every branch of that royal family ; and may all the treasonable conspiracies of those rebellious schismaticks be always thus happily prevented . hugo vaughan , cler. pacis com. praed . that the continued care of his majesties iustices of the peace for the county of devon , for the safety of his majesties sacred person , the preservation of the publick peace , and advancement of true religion , may be fuller known , and have a better effect ; i do hereby order and require all the clergy of my diocess within the county of devon , deliberately to publish this order , the next sunday after it shall be tendred to them . tho. exon . ( now archbishop of york . ) the contents . chap. . the introductory conference . ch. . the things presupposed as agreed on . ch. . what our nonconformity is not , in instances . ch. . a brief enumeration of the things imposed on us , which are the matter of our nonconformity . ch. . i. of reordination . ch. . ii. of the oath and covenant of canonical obedience to bishops and ordinaries . ch. . iii. ordained ministers forbidden to preach , or expound any scripture , or matter or doctrine , can. . ch. . iv. and v. of subscribing that there is nothing in three books contrary to the word of god , and declaring assent and consent to all in the liturgy , &c. ch. . vi. of assenting that it is certain by the word of god , that infants baptized dying before actual sin , are undoubtedly saved ( qua tales ) not exceepting the seed of atheists , iews , or any . ch. . vii . of the english sort of godfathers at baptism and their vows . ch. . viii . of refusing to baptize such as have not such godfathers . ch. . ix . of the dedicating symbol of crossing at baptism . ch. . x. of denying baptism where crossing is refused . ch. . xi . of rejecting from communion all that dare not receive kneeling . ch. . xii . of consenting to the false rule , as true , for finding easter day always : whether small lyes be sin ? ch. . xiii . of pronouncing all saved that are buried , except the excommunicate , vnbaptized , and self-murderers . ch. . xiv . of consenting to read so much of the apocrypha . ch. . xv. of assenting to mis-translations of god's word , and subscribing that they are not contrary to it . ch. . xvi . of consenting to reject all from christian communion , who desire not the english manner of episcopal confirmation . c. . xvii . of consenting to all the ornaments of church and ministers which were in use in the second year of king edw. . ch. . xviii . of giving account to the ordinary of all that we keep from the sacrament , that he may proceed against them according to the canons : which leads us to consider those canons . ch. . xix . of publishing lay-chancellors excommunications and absolutions , according to the canons . ch. . xx. of publishing excommunications according to the fourth canon . ch. . xxi . of publishing excommunications according to the fifth canon . ch. . xxii . of publishing excommunications by the sixth canon . ch. . xxiii . of publishing excommunications by the seventh canon . ch. . xxiv . of publishing excommunications by the eighth canon : ch. . xxv . of excommunicating all that call dissenters a church , according to the th , th , and th canons . ch. . xxvi . of executing canon , rejecting nonconformists from communion . ch. . xxvii . of refusing others parishioners from communion according to can. . ch. . xxviii . of can. . excommunicating ministers for repenting of their subscribing . ch. . xxix . of can. . excommunicating men for going for baptism and communion from ministers that never preach to those that do . ch. . xxx . of can. . making the surplice necessary to ministration . ch. . xxxi . of forcing ministers by can. . to baptize all children without exception of atheists or insidels . ch. . xxxii . of can. . against fasts and prayer unlicensed . ch. . xxxiii . of excommunication by the three last canons . ch. . xxxiv . of renouncing all obligation by the covenant , as on me or any other , to endeavour any alteration of church government . ch. . xxxv . of the oxford oath , never to endeavor such al●●●io● . ch. . xxxvi . of subscribing and swearing that the position is traitorous of taking arms by the king's authority against those commissioned by him in pursuance of such commission ; without exception . a lord keeper's seal to a commission to conspirators to seize the king's forts , magazine and guards may so depose him . ch. . xxxvii . of assenting and consenting to the damning clauses in athanasius's creed . ch. . xxxviii . of saying common-prayer twice a day , every day in the year or dinarily . ch. . xxxix . of forcing unwilling men to the sacrament and accusing and excommunicating the refusers . ch. . xl. of forsaking our ministry and ceasing to preach the gospel ; whether it be not sacriledge and cruelty in us : and of banishment miles from all corporations , &c. ch. . of lay-conformity . i. whether all men must trust their souls on the pastoral conduct of all such , as our patrons will choose , and the bishops institute . ch. . ii. whether parents have not more right than our patrons , to choose pastors and church-communion for their children . ch. . iii. of forcing men to schism , by renouncing communion with true christians and true churches . chap. . iv. of binding all the laity to live without any more benefit of church-discipline , than is used by the bishops and their courts . ch. . v. of discountenancing the fear of sin , and the serious practice of godliness : divers instances . ch. . vi. the laity denied baptism , who refuse the foresaid sort of godfathers , excluding the parents . ch. . vii . baptism denied to them that dare not submit to the dedicating symbol of crossing . ch. . viii . of rejecting not-kneelers from church communion . ch. . ix . of denying lay-men communion in a neighbour parish-church , when they dare not communicate with their own parishes : for the reasons aforesaid . ch. . x. the laity must swear never to endeavour any alteration of government in the church , without exception . ch. . xi . the laity must swear an abhorrence of taking arms against any commissioned by the king , without exception : when they understand not whether every one be the king's commission that is signed by the lord chancellor or privy seal , though it be against law , and tend to overthrow king and kingdom . ch. . xii . whether all trusted in corporations may declare that there is no obligation on them or any other , from the oath call'd the solemn league and covenant , not so much as to repent of sin , or oppose profaneness , popery or schism , and defend the king : and so that g. monk's army , and all the rest of the three nations that restored the king as obliged to it by that vow , were all deceived , and not so obliged : and whether all the subjects must be sure of this ? ch. . of thirty tremendous circumstances and principles which all agree in , that affright men from conformity . ch. . the reasons for conformity considered . ch. . whether communion with so faulty a church be lawful . separation confuted . ch. . a draught ( in ten articles ) of that which the reconciling nonconformists desire for healing our church divisions : in the words which they judge meetest to that use . ch. . the reasons of those ten articles distinctly render'd . ch. . whether the extirpation of the nonconformists be not rather to be attempted , than a vnion with them by these means : handled with reference to a late treasonable plot against the king. ch. . fifty questions proposed to unjust silencers . errata . pag. . l. . for [ i ] read [ it ] p. . l. . for [ corners ] r. [ courts ] p. . l. . for [ is ] r. [ is not ] p. . l. . for [ our ] r. [ one ] l. . for [ clergy ] r. [ churches ] p. . l. penult . r. [ stoughton ] p. . l. . for [ our ] r. [ one ] p. . l. . for [ it is ] r. [ is it ] p. . l. . r. [ well as ] p. . l. . r. [ if it ] p. . l. . dele [ revoked . ] the true case of the english nonconformity . in a dialogue between a silenced minister and a lawyer . chap. i. the introductory conference . lawyer . sir , the danger of the kings dominions by our irreligious contentions about religion , possesseth the observers with just indignation ; but all know not on whom to lay the blame ; some lay it on the bishops , and some on the nonconformists , and some on both : i am unwilling to wrong any ; but when i think of our danger , and hear that it is but ceremonies , and things indifferent for which you break the law , and make a schism in the church , and weaken us by divisions ; i cannot but think you deeply guilty . minister . how long have you so judged ? l. these twenty years , ever since you were put out . m. did you ever by reading and conference with those that you censure , acquaint your self truly with their case . l. i have seen some of your books , but i have not talkt much of these matters with any of you , but i read and hear from the doctors of the church what you are , and what you hold . m. will you take us to be the just reporters what they are and hold ? l. no , you are adversaries and partial . m. and are not they as much so to us ? is not every man fitter to profess his own faith than his adversary is ? and have you done well to judge before you heard and tryed ? shall judges do so on the bench ? have you not all these years , continued guilty of false judging and uncharitableness , and that against a great number of the innocent ? and if you every day prayed for forgiveness but as you forgive , even an enemy and real injury , what have you done all this while in condemning the guiltless ? l. why have you not in writing given the world just satisfaction if you are guiltless ? what sin have you proved to be in the conformity required of you ? i see no such proof . m. you know what penalties the law layeth on any that deprave the common-prayer books , and that all are excommunicate ipso facto , that do but affirm any thing to be against gods word , in any office of your church government , in any word or ceremony in your liturgy , &c. can. . , , . and you know what follows excommunication here . and you know that till of late years the press was shut up to us : but have you seriously read and studyed what is written by us ? i my self have told you ; . in a book called a plea for peace , what things they be which nonconformists take to be sinful in conformity , and how great and hainous the sin is which they fear ; and what separation is unlawful and what is necessary . . in a full treatise of episcopacy i have shewed what episcopacy we are for , and what we are against , and why , and what antiquity held hereabout , and what we have to say to most of the learned men that have written for that diocesan form , which we cannot approve . in an apology , i have proved it our duty to preach , though forbidden , as far as we are able , and mens necessities require it . . in a second plea for peace , i have fully given the world an account of our doctrine , of magistrates power and subjects duties in matters civil and ecclesiastical , &c. . in a treatise of church concord , i have fully proved that the primitive simplicity in things divine , few , plain and sure is the only possible matter of universal christian unity and concord . i know not of any one of these that are answered , or any thing like an answer to them written , save that to some part of the first , some meer impertinent noise was made by some one that is confuted . l. we that have other employment have not leisure to read so many tedious writings : tell us your case in a few words if you would have us understand you . m. did you get your skill in law by so easie and so short a study ? or is any kind of knowledge so easily got , where controversie hath drowned the matter in contradicting words . you know that it is multitudes of volumes that are written on the other side : and it 's impossible to answer them all in a few words : and if they be unanswered , they will say , we have done nothing . but had you as seriously studyed but one or two of these books , ( e.g. my first plea for peace , and treatise of episcopacy ) as you do law books , i scarce think you would have been long unsatisfied . but if indeed you have no time to hear , read and study , say also you have no time to know or judge : and no more censure what you know not . l. how comes your case to be so little understood if you have done so much to open and justifie it ? m. you may know by your self . . men study their own matters in which they feel themselves concerned ; and as for ours they think they are not much concerned to know them . . at least not at the rate of any hard and diligent study , which neither love nor necessity leads them to . . most are strangers to us , even they that dwell near us , and converse not with us . . the rather because that as we are out of the rising way , and are under publick discountenance , and banished from corporations , and much from converse with men of publick place and interest , so our familiarity is become fearful , lest it brings those that are familiar with us into suspicion . . and they converse with those that through ignorance or malice do describe us and our cause and books , as they would have all men think of us ; and it is not good manners or safe to contradict them . and so the notice of our mind and case must be received , not from us , but from our accusers . do you observe this method in westminster minister-hall . . and how much interest can byas mens judgments , common experience too easily tells us : they that are uppermost seldom want applauders , nor dejected men accusers . every school-boy can tell you out of ovid. de trist. dum fueris foelix multos numerabis amicos : nullus ad amissas ibit amicus opes . aspicis ut veniunt ad candida tecta columbae : accipiet nullas sordida turris aves . a few serious believers that look for a more righteous and important judgment after death , do not lose the treasure of truth and innocency in shipwrack , it being as near them as themselves : but caetera fortunae non mea turba fuit . l. but if there be no cause , how come you to be so odious to others ? m. if you that dwell in england cannot answer that your self , when you have taken a survey of the quality and lifes of them that hate us , and them that they hate , and of their distinct interests and motives , i will not answer it to you ? l. but whence is it that clergy-men of the same profession so much disagree ? m. the former answer shall serve to this : whence is it that the clergy by disagreement about opinions and superiority have broken the whole christian world into that state of doleful division , in which in asia , africa and europe , it lyeth to this day ? if you know not read the history of the church . l. which part of you soever is guilty , the guilt must needs be very hainous , when the preachers of the gospel of love and peace , so hate each other , and perswade all to do the like , and will not let the world be quiet . m. no doubt but love and concord are so great duties and blessings , and there is so much of satan in the contrary , that you can hardly aggravate the guilt too much . if it were better for that man that offendeth or stumbleth one of the least , that he had never been born , or he had been cast with a millstone about his neck into the sea ; what a case are these church pastors in that tear the church , and preach down love , and harden thousands in ungodliness and cruelty , and endanger the loss of religion to the land. l. if i knew which of you had done most for love an peace , and least against them , i should know to whom to impute our troubles . m. we justifie not our selves , and we leave others to their judge : we have deserved worse from god , than we have suffered . but we must say ; . that we impose not our words , our books , our forms , our different rites on any , nor would do , by violence , had we power : we put no oaths , subscriptions , convenants , professions or practices doubtful upon any : to them that tell us we did so in former times , we still say , let them use no other so but those that used them so , and we are satisfied : i know not six in england of all the present nonconformists that did so : we are not for silencing or imprisoning them , nor forbidding them to worship god : in we motioned no change of church government , which should take down any of their lordships maintenance or episcopal power , but only arch-bishop vshers draught of the antient episcopacy , and thankfully accepted what the king then granted in his declaration of ecclesiastical affairs . . we never craved preferment of them , but leave to serve christ and his church in the office which we were vowed to . we certainly knew what impediments hindered the desired unity , and what divisions must needs follow were they not removed , which by others they might easily have been , without cost or danger . we pleaded , we wrote , we petitioned , and beg'd for peace , even for that which the king had granted : and what could we do more ? since then above twenty years we have laboured as we could , sometime to few , and sometime to more ; and have patiently lived upon charity , and suffered — i need not tell you what . l. but why could not you conform to the law as well as they ? m. . can men believe what others list because they bid us ? is there nothing that you or they would refuse if it be but commanded you ? what use have we for a law of god then ? if we must disobey it as oft as we are bid , that were to renounce god , and all religion and salvation . and we have not our own understandings at command ; we have offered them our oaths these twenty years , that we would obey them in all , except at the rate of sinning and damnation . . and if we had done as they did we must have profest our assent and consent to all things contained in and prescribed by a book which we never saw : for so did we suppose above seven thousand men , the book not coming out of the press till about the day that they were so to assent to it , aug. . so that no doubt they did it on an implicite trust in others ; except the few that were in or near london : this fully shews that , though almost all the nine thousand or more ministers that were in possession when the king came in , did before conform to the way of the directory , and not to the common-prayer book , yet there was a great latent difference between the seven thousand that conformed , and the two thousand that did not . l. but seeing all the stress lyeth upon the question , whether it be only things lawful , indifferent or good , which you refuse , or any thing which god forbiddeth : i pray tell me plainly , what it is that you take to be sinful in the conformity required ? and what it is that you would have as necessary in its stead . m. i will tell you on these conditions ; . that you pardon me for repeating here what i have already written . . that you bring not your self a conscience so laxe as will take nothing for sin , which men use to make light of , though god forbid it , and then think that our consciences should be as wide as yours . . that we may premise the things presupposed as agreed on . chap. ii. the things presupposed as agreed on . l. what are the agreements which you presuppose ? m. these following . . that god is the absolute soveraign ruler , and hath made in nature , and in the sacred scripture , universal laws for the whole church and world : and that kings are his subjects and officers , and have no power but what he giveth them directly or indirectly , and therefore none against him ; no more than a constable against the sovereign power ; and that he and all men are bound to obey gods lawes , whoever are against it or forbid it . l. i cannot deny this , without denying god to be god , and the law of nature and scripture to be his law and word . m. ii. that next to his government , god in order of nature and time made self-government and family-government before the government of republicks , kingdoms or cities : and that publick polity hath no authority to abrogate self-government or family-government , but only to over rule and use them for the common good and safety . l. this is undenyable , if you state the governments presupposed 〈◊〉 . m. iii. that it belongs to self-government to discern by reason , whether the commands of men be against the commands of god or not , which we call iudicium discretionis , by which all men must guide their actions . l. shall every man be a judge of the law , whether it be just and good ? how unfit are the vulgar to judge of lawes . m. they are no publick judges to decide the case for other men , nor doth their judgment restrain or bind the magistrate ; nor if they judge amiss will it justifie themselves , or suspend the execution of the law against them . but if they must not have the foresaid discerning judgment to guide their actions , it will follow ; . that they are not governed , nor must obey as men by reason and free-will , but as brutes . . that kings have absolute power against god , and must be obeyed in all that they command , e. g. if it be to curse or blaspheme , or renouce god or christ , to command the subject to live in murder , adultery , perjury , &c. and so to abrogate the law of nature . . it followeth , that there is no god ( that is , a supream ruler ) but the king. . and i pray you tell me what you will have the subjects do in case of usurpation or competition for the government , as between the houses of york and lancaster , iane and queen mary , &c. when one saith fight for me , and the other fight for me . if the subject have not a judgment of discretion to know which is his rightful sovereign , the king must be forsaken ? he that will stand to the command of another , must judge who his commander is . l. and will you have infants and idiots judge of their parents commands ? or children in their minority . m. . infants and idiots have not the use of reason , and so far are to be ruled by force as brutes : and children in that measure as they are short of reason . but . if they come to reason , and the king command them one thing , ( e. g. what church to go to . ) and their parents the contrary , would you not have them judge which they must obey . . much more if parents should command them to sin against god , to steal , lye , murder , blaspheme , and curse the king , &c. surely they must judge as far as they are able . l. i cannot deny it , proceed in your presuppositions . m. iv. that no men have power to command us to damn our souls , or to do any thing that tendeth to it . l. none will deny you that ; but perhaps some things may cease to be sin , and dangerous if commanded . m. none can dispense with the laws of god , but we grant that some things that are unlawful by some accident or circumstance may become a duty when commanded , when the good of obedience , order and concord therein , weighs down against the accident : it may be a sin to go on warfare before one is commanded , and a duty when he is commanded . it is a fault in a servant to go before he is sent , and a duty after . v. we presuppose that deliberate lying is a sin . l. is there any one doubts of that ? m. if they do not , our case will soon be decided . but indeed many deny it . the iansenists name you many jesuit casuists : and groti●● de iure belli , and bishop ier. taylor , deny that lying is any sin when it is profitable , and wrongeth none ; as in a physician to fice down a medicine . l. and what have you to say to the contrary ? m. i must not stay to dispute all such matters with you : i have fully answered it in my catechisme on the ninth commandment . briefly this may satisfie you : no ones private good must be sought by a means that would destroy all humane trust and converse : but if you give men leave to lye when they think it needful or harmless , it will destroy all humane trust and converse : for almost all will think their lyes are profitable . and we have had learned , moderate conformists that have trusted to this argument , and openly defended it : if knaves would take my purse , i may defend my self with my hands : ergo , if they would deprive me of my maintenance and ministry , i may defend my self with my tongue . l. and how do you answer them ? m. that no man must defend himself by means which will do more hurt than his ministry or life is worth : but to let men loose so to lying is such ; and more forbidden of god than ●anddefence : and sin ever doth more hurt than good . vi. we may suppose also that perjury is unlawful , and would much more destroy all mutual trust , and consequently humane converse . vii . and we may suppose that he that either commandeth or perswadeth others to be prejured , or that openly justifieth their perjury , by telling them that it is no perjury , or no sin , is guilty of their perjury . viii . and we suppose that to draw whole churches and kingdoms into perjury , by force , perswasion , example or justification of it , and telling them that they need not repent of it , is one of the hainousest sins that man can commit , except making it the very mark or stigma without which none may be magistrates , ministers or freemen . l. no one i hope will deny any of this . m. ix . we presuppose that all vows , oaths , covenants , professions , imposed by superiours , must be taken in that sence in which they any way expound them , without forcing them either by a laxe or an over-rigid interpretation : but if they do not otherwise expound them , they must be taken in the sence as those words are commonly used and understood , by such as treat of the subject which they belong to . l. you have so cautelously exprest it , that i cannot contradict you . m. i must not be tedious in writing the same things oft . if any doubt whether our expositions of oaths and subscriptions be not over-strict or rigid , i pray read the words of dr. sanderson , cited by me in the end of my first plea for peace , and know that we stand to his rules of exposition . x. we may suppose that , seeing repenting and amending is the condition of forgiveness , to make a covenant in any sin that we will never repent and amend , is so heinous a crime , as is next to the renouncing of pardon and salvation : and in national guilt and danger deliberately to covenant that we will never endeavour any amendment of the nations sin , is next to begging gods curse on the land ; e. g. if a man were a fornicator and perjured , and the land commonly guilty of the same , he that would make a bargain or covenant , and that deliberately , that he will never amend , nor ever endeavour to amend the land or any other — what would you think of that mans case ? l. what should i think but that he is a monster and miserable wretch ? but what 's that to us ? i hope there are none such in england , that worse than witches , would sell themselves and the nation to the devil . m. i pray over-run me not in the application : i do but tell you what i suppose we are agreed in : i shall tell you after why i speak it . xi . i also suppose that bare possession proveth not a bishop or pastors right to the place and power which he claimeth : nor is any disseized of his right by being disseized of separable accidents . l. that 's true : but what use you 'l make of it i know not . m. xii . lastly , i must desire you to remember , that as we profess to stick at nothing but sin against god ( and not things indifferent as we are slandered ) , so if but one of all the imposed acts of conformity be certainly sinful , and if but one of all the arguments which i shall use do prove it so , not only the two thousand that were ejected were bound to be nonconformists , but also all the english ministry , and the act of uniformity ( if conformity be sin ) did vertually , though not actually , turn out all the clergy at once , because all were bound rather to resign than sin . l. the truer and more dreadful the consequence is , the hardlyer will i believe the antecedent , till i needs must . m. you cannot expect that we affirm it : for . we know how cautelous we must be in meddling with the case of other men : let them judge themselves who are called to it . . and i told you before what the law threatens , and the canons , against them that affirm any of the impositions to be sinful ; much more that shall so deeply accuse the laws . . but sure no law or reason forbiddeth men to fear sinning against god themselves , nor to tell the world what it is that they fear , and why they dare not do it , without accusing any other . chap. ii. what our nonconformity is not ? m. before i tell you wherein our nonconformity doth consist , i must tell you wherein it doth not consist , to avoid the false reports that commonly go abroad against us . and therefore i must premise that i pretend not to tell you the opinion of every odd person that conformeth not ; no more than you justifie all that conform in all their opinions . i think few doubt not but that some atheists , sadducees , infidels , hobbists , soci●ians , if not papists , outwardly conform : yet we charge not their errours on the church ; and so on the other side . but those that were called by the king , and one another , and , to treat of concord , and that assembled at sion colledge , and elsewhere about it , did openly make known their minds : and i think they meddled not against any of these things following , by any accusation of them as sinful . i. they never denyed the lawfulness of a form of prayer or a liturgy : though some falsly so accuse them . ii. they denyed not the soundness of the matter of prayer , contained in the form of the english liturgy , in the main : they though it a good book , and the making of it a great reformation , and honoured the excellent men that made it ; but they thought it not such as could not or should not in any thing be amended , or that all might say was without fault . iii. they thought not the imposition of it a reason sufficient to prove it unlawful for them to use it were there no more . iv. they offered to use it when amended , and if that could not be had , they told you in their reply , their purpose rather to communicate in the use of it than not at all , and to have used all the lawful part themselves if they might be suffered in their publick places and ministry on such terms . v. they never accused the use of holy dayes , as dayes of thanksgiving to god , for giving such holy apostles to the church , and whose memory we honourable commemorate . vi. they never accused our kneeling at the lords supper as unlawful , but only the casting godly persons from communion for not using it , when they take it to be sin . about the kneeling the old nonconformists were not of one mind ; some thought that every objectum motivum of adoration was forbidden that was a creature : but others said that every creature in the world may be such an object : our meat is objectum motivum when we pray for a blessing on it . if i see the relicts or picture of a friend that i wronged while he was alive , i may well be moved by it to beg pardon of god. all his works must move me to adore and praise him ▪ but we may not make any image objectum terminativum , or ad quod , to which we direct our divine worship , as a medium of our sending it to god. the only great difficulty about this is from the argument of scandalous hardening the papists that live among us : though indeed our doctrine avoideth that scandal . vii . they never accused the ceremony of laying the hand on the book , and kissing it in taking an oath . viii . they never spake against the ring in marriage . ix . they meddled not with the surplice , tippet , hood , rochet , cope , but only the casting men out of the ministry that dare not use them , thinking them unlawful : though we justifie them not . x. they accused not all significant use of the cross , but only that in baptism it seemed to have all or most of the nature of a humane sacrament of the covenant of grace , as it is expounded in the liturgy and canon . xi . they spake not against episcopacy , as it is a presidency among and over presbyters differing in degree , and not in office , called order , and that in a church of the lowest species . xii . they opposed not arch-bishops as over many such churches and bishops , nor diocesans , as arch-bishops ruling but by gods word . xiii . they said nothing against metropolitans , patriarchs , lay-chancellors , commissaries , officials , surrogates , archdeacons , &c. as officers of the king , appointed to do nothing ( besides the sacred ministry , if they be clergy-men ) but what belongs to magistracy . xiv . they said nothing against any promise of obedience to them only in the capacities , and in the exercise of the power forementioned . xv. much less did they ever oppose or question swearing to the king , according to the oaths of allegiance and supremacy : and i with divers others also being ( for some ends ) entered as his chaplains in ordinary , took also that oath of fidelity which the kings houshold servants take . xvi . we never were for any dishonouring of kings by publick excommunications , much les by subjects or forreigners , whom kings never choose to be their pastors ; but only in case of necessity , for such a denyal of sacramental communion to them , as bishop andrews in fortura tor● , and bishop bilson plead for ; which is but to forbear our selves a sinful act . xvii . we never pleaded for any elders ( or chancellors ) power of the keys , who are but lay-men . xviii . we never held that magistrates are bound to add their force by the sword , to the censures of the church as such , and to punish men more because the church hath by excommunication cast them out , or because they are not reconciled . xix . we never thought that things indifferent do become unlawful to us , because the magistrate commandeth them . xx. we never held that the scripture is a particular rule , commanding every accident and circumstance about gods worship , but only a general rule ( requiring all to be done in love and peace , and to edification , and decently , &c. ) in those circumstances which must be some way determined , and god hath left to variable humane determination : such as are time , place , utensils , translations , sections , metres , tunes , methods and words in preaching and prayer , habit , gesture , and many such . xxi . we never held it unlawful to do one of these actions , though it were by mistake unlawfully commanded ; e. g. if the rulers prescribe a time , place , metre , tune , &c. unfit , if it be not so bad as to overthrow the ends and use of the worship , the fault of the commander will not disoblige us from the duty of obeying . and whereas some argue , that no man hath authority to sin , ergo , we are not bound to obey that which is no act of authority : i answer , rulers have authority to command that which is good , though not in a faulty manner ; and when we cannot do the good without the faulty manner , it is their fault and not ours : e. g. if an inconvenient time , place , text , tune , &c. be chosen , the union and concord which is held by agreeing in those ▪ modes is necessary : he that will not joyn in them cannot joyn in the worship . so that we obey the ruler or guide as a determiner of the means of concord , which is necessary , and not sub ratione erroris , as misdetermining , though in that which is misdetermined . if a master bid his servant go at an unseasonable time about his work , it 's his duty to go at that time . we never pray without some fault in the manner , and yet must rather do it so than not at all . the mistaken ruler bids us not sin : it 's his sin to choose a mis-circumstance ; and it is not his own action that he bids us do , but ours : and it s to us a lawful circumstance , because necessary to concord , and commanded though mistakingly . xxii . we never held it unlawful to joyn with a church or minister that hath some faults , both personal and in their acts of worship ; as if all that joyned were guilty of all the faults there committed : no not though we knew before hand that some false doctrine would be uttered , or fault committed : else we must separate from all the world , and all from us . xxiii . we never thought it a duty to separate from every church , that culpably neglecteth discipline , and hath open wicked men therein : if we be not guilty of it , and cannot lawfully live in the communion of a more obedient reformed church . xxiv . we never judged needless affected singularity a duty , but judge it best in lawful things for concord sake to conform to the custom of the churches where we live or come . xxv . though we think not that men may command us to destroy our neighbours souls by scandal , yet when disobedience to a rulers law is like to do more hurt than the scandal taken at it comes to , we are for avoiding the greater hurt . xxvi . we never separated from any tolerable parish ministers or churches , as if they were no true ministers or churches , nor perswaded any so to do , nor to take the communion of such churches for unlawful to us , either occasionally or constantly , when we can have no better without more hurt than benefit to our selves and others . xxvii . we hold it unlawful to reproach all churches that we see to be faulty ; but it is our duty to keep peace with all . xxviii . vve hold mental distant communion in faith and love , with many churches that by imposing sin do deny us local communion . xxix . though i here tell you once for all , that i justifie not all that i can thus bear with , yet we can submit by peaceable silence to many abuses in a church , which we dare not subscribe to and approve , and use also passive obedience where active is unlawful . xxx . vve are not against god-fathers and god-mothers , as used of old ; that is , when the parents are the covenanters for their child , and their death or apostasie is feared , for others to promise if they dye or apostatize to take care of the child ; or for any adopters or owners to do it that take the child as theirs . xxxi . vve are so far from being against true confirmation , as it is the taking persons that own their baptismal covenant , solemnly into the number of adult members and communicants , that we desire it ( and have written for it ) as a chief means of the true reformation of all our churches in the land. xxxii . vve differ not in faith or meer doctrine from the church of england , as it 's in the thirty nine articles , but only in one new article , put into the new liturgy , of the salvation of baptized infants , as undoubtedly certain by the word of god , without any exception , if they then dye . xxxiii . vve are not against reading the profitable part of the apocrypha , as other humane vvritings may be read , sufficiently distinguished from the word of god. xxxiv . vve are for corporal vvorship , as a due expression of spiritual : and we are against all undecent expressions in praying or preaching , and all undecent habits , gestures or actions . xxxv . vve blame not the liturgy for extending the words of charity and hope as far as there is any reasonable ground , in sacraments , absolution and buryal . xxxvi . vve are not for mens invading the ministry unordained , but believe that senior pastors or bishops are ordinarily the regular judges of the fitness of candidates for the ministry . xxxvii . vve are not for unlimited toleration : but that the rulers justly distinguish in law and license ; . the approved , whom they must own and maintain . . the tolerable , whom they must tolerate . . the intollerable , whom they must restrain from doing hurt . xxxviii . vve are for making true religion as national and extensive as may be ; and for a national church ; . as the associated community of churches in a nation is so called . . and as they are all accidentally united under one christian soveraign : though we abhor the casting out all that be not of our opinion and measure , and that cannot submit to all that i here enumerate , which i and others of my mind can submit to . xxxix . vve are so far from desiring to draw people from the parish churches into conventicles , that we would keep up the honour of them to the utmost of our power , as knowing how greatly the countenance and maintenance of rulers conduceth to the furtherance of religion ; and that the publick religion will be the common and national religion ; and most will be there : and if the protestant religion were reduced to tolerated conventicles , popery would possess its place , and become national , and soon withdraw even private toleration , as we see in france . xl. vve are not for preaching when we are forbidden , where there is not a real and evident need of our labours . xli . vve believe not that the scots covenant , or any other doth oblige us to sedition , rebellion , schism , or any sin ; nor doth disoblige us from any obedience due to any superior . xlii . vve refuse not the oxford oath , or any such , because it is an obligation to obey our rulers in lawful things , nor because it restraineth us from resisting authority ; for we give as much to humane soveraignty , and confess as much obedience due to them from subjects , . as any text of scripture speakes : . or any general council , save what they give to the pope and his vassals . . or as any confessions that we know of , of any christian churches agree in . . or which lawyers , politicians , and historians , protestants , papists or heathens agree in , as far as we are acquainted . xliii . vve are not against the use of synods or councils , nor against princes using their advice for such laws circa sacra as belong to them to make : vve believe councils should be used as far as the common good and communion of the catholick church requireth it ; though no foreigners have jurisdiction over us . and we hold that if they agree of any thing conducible to the common good , though their agreement be not a law , but a contract , yet the general command of keeping the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace , obligeth all to hold such concord for the ends sake , that have no special reason against it . in these forty three things we oppose not conformity . l. and if yet after all this agreement we must be destroyed by divisions , the heavy curse of god is on us , and will surely fall on them that are the causes of it , who ever they be . chap. iv. a brief enumeration of the things imposed on us which is the matter of our nonconformity . m. do you know what it is that we are required to conform to ? l. i know it is to use the liturgies , ceremonies and submit to the bishops , as your governours : i know no more . m. and yet dare you become our judge ? if you are no more exact and just in matters of law , your clients must pay for it ? before i come to handle the particulars , i will set together here the things required of us ; and how much of them we refuse , i will tell you when i try them , and give you our reasons against them . i. whereas few of the nonconforming ministers were at age , and ordained till diocesans were put down in england , and were ordained by an assembly of senior pastors , which were then in possession of the power , and had many years the approbation of the whole national assembly of divines at westminster , before they were admitted to any incumbency ; none of these may now exercise their ministry unless they be re-ordained by diocesans . ii. no man can be ordained by them , and admitted to any cure , that will not take the oath of canonical obedience ( as they call it ) and in his ordination covenant to obey his ordinary . iii. no man must preach the gospel by the authority of his ordination and office , till moreover he have got a licence from the bishop to preach : and till he have got that licence to preach , he may not take upon him to expound in his own cure , or elsewhere any scripture or matter or doctrine , but shall only study to read plainly and aptly without glossing or adding , the homilies already set forth , or hereafter to be published by lawful authority . can. . iv. no man may be ordained , or be a licenced preacher , or catechize who doth not subscribe these words , ex animo , that the book of common-prayer , and of ordaining of bishops , priests and deacons , containeth in it nothing contrary to the word of god , and that it may lawfully be used , and that he himself will use the form in the said books prescribed in publick prayer and administration of the sacraments , and no other . v. no man is to be ordained a minister , nor have any place or benefice or cure , that doth not openly and publickly before the congregation declare his unfeigned assent and consent to the use of all things in the said book contained and prescribed in these words and no other . [ i a. b. do here declare my unfeigned assent and consent to all and every thing contained and prescribed in , and by the book entitled , the book of common-prayer , and ordaining . ] and every lecturer also ; the first lecture and every month must publickly and openly declare his assent to , and approbation of the said book , and to the use of all the prayers , rites and ceremonies , forms and orders therein contained and prescribed . vi. by this all must assent and consent to this article of faith or doctrine . [ it is certain by the word of god that children which are baptized , dying before they commit actual sin , are undoubtedly saved . ] not excepting any , though the children of atheists , infidels or sadducees . vii . we must assent and consent , that at publick baptism , persons called godfathers and godmothers , who take not the child for their own , do in the name of the child covenant with god , without the parents , who are forbidden to be godfathers or godmothers , or to speak one word , nor must be urged to be present ; nor may the godfathers , &c. speak one word but what is written in the book . and they are there not only to promise for the future , but to profess in the name of the child at present [ i renounce them all ] ( the devil , world and flesh ) and [ all this i stedfastly believe ] and ( to be baptized ) [ this is my desire ] and for obedience [ i will. ] and these godfathers also engage as their parts and duty , to see that [ this infant be taught so soon as he shall be able to learn what a solemn vow , promise and profession he there made by them : and that they call on him to hear sermons , and chiefly that they provide that he may learn the crede , the lord's prayer , and the ten commandments in the vulgar tongue , and all other things that a christian ought to know and believe to his soul's health , and that the child may be vertuously brought up to lead a godly , and christian life ] . all this these three persons must promise as before god and the church , but the parent is not only excused from any such promise , but forbid it by the canon . viii . we must assent and consent to refuse to baptize the child of any godly christian , who bringeth not his child to be baptized with such undertaking godfathers ; either because he can get none that will seriously promise him to do what they must vow to do , and so dare not draw them into sacrilegious perfidiousness , or because he thinks it his own part to enter his child into god's covenant , and thus to promise for its education . ix . we must assent and consent to sign the infant with the transient image of the cross [ in token that hereafter he shall not be ashamed to confess the faith of christ crucified , and manfully to fight under his banner , against sin , the world , the devil , and to continue christs faithful souldier and servant to his lives end . which the canon farther expounds thus [ to dedicate them by that badge to his service , whose benefits bestowed on them in baptism the name of the cross doth represent ] [ an honourable badge whereby the infant is dedicated to the service of him who died on the cross. ] x. vve must assent and consent to baptize none publickly without this sign , but to deny christendom to all that dare not receive it , and their children . xi . vve must assent and consent to reject all that dare not receive it kneeling from the sacramental communion of the church . xii . vve must assent and consent to a false rule to find out easter-day for ever , in these words ; [ easter-day ( on which the rest depends ) is always the first sunday after the first full moon , which happens next after the one and twentieth day of march. ] the common almanacks tell you it is often false . xiii . vve must assent and consent to use words at the burial of all , except the vnbaptized , excommunicate and self-murtherers which plainly pronounce them saved , viz. [ for asmuch as it hath pleased almighty god to take to himself the soul of our dear brother here departed . ] and [ we give thee thanks , for that it hath pleased thee to deliver this our brother out of the miseries of this sinful world . ] and [ that we may rest in him , as our hope is this our brother doth . ] xiv . vve must assent and consent to read publick lessons out of iudith , bell and the dragon , tobit , and other apocryphal books , from sept. . till nov. . every day , except some proper lessons interposed . xv. vve must assent and consent to all the mistranslations of the psalms , &c. and not only use them ( which we refuse not ) but subscribe that none of them are contrary to the word of god. xvi . we must assent and consent to admit none to the holy communion till [ such time as he be confirmed , or be ready and desirous to be confirmed ] that is , by bishops in the english method . xvii . we must assent and consent that [ such ornaments of the church , and of the ministers thereof , at all times of their ministration shall be retained in use , as were in this church of england by that authority of parliament in the second year of edward vi. xviii . we must assent and consent to give an account within fourteen days of every one that we keep from the sacrament , to the ordinary . and that the ordinary proceed against the offending person according to the canons . xix . we must publish all such excommunications and absolutions , as are according to the canons decreed by lay chancellors . xx. this binds us to consent and publish the excommunication of all that affirm that the liturgy containeth any thing in it that is repugnant to the scriptures ] and the oath of canonical obedience binds us to such publication , if it be commanded us . xxi . and we are both these ways bound to publish all excommunicate , ipso facto , ( if commanded ) who affirm any of the rites and ceremonies such as may not be approved and used lawfully . xxii . and all that say any of the thirty nine articles in any part may not be subscribed , though it be but about traditions or ceremonies . xxiii . and we must , if required , publish all , ipso facto , excommunicate who say the church government by arch-bishops , bishops , deans , archdeacons , and the rest that bear office , is against god's word . xxiv . we must , if commanded , publish all excommunicate who affirm that the form and manner of making and consecrating bishops , priests or deacons containeth any thing in it that is repugnant to the word of god. ( though it assert that the bishops and priests are distinct orders , which even in k. aelfrick's days the church of england denyed . ) xxv . we must publish them excommunicate who affirm that the nonconformists may truly take the name of another church , &c. and that any assemblies of subjects not allowed by law , are true and lawful churches . xxvi . no minister must wittingly administer the sacrament to any but such as kneel , nor to any of the foresaid depravers of the liturgy , ceremonies , orders of the church , &c. can. . xxvii . none of other parishes are often to be admitted to communion . xxviii . all ministers that repent of conforming must be suspended , excommunicate and deposed at last , can. . xxix . we must give the sacrament to none that go for it from unpreaching ministers , but must send them home , can. . nor must baptize their children . xxx . ministers must not be suffered that wear not the surplice , can. . xxxi . no minister must refuse or delay to christen any child that 's brought to the church to him on sundays or holydays to be christened , without exception of atheists or infidels children . can. . xxxii . no minister may keep any fast in publick or at private houses , or be present at any ( on what necessity soever ) without the bishops license for it under hand and seal , or the laws appointment . xxxiii . we must if commanded publish all excommunicate that affirm that the sacred synod is not the true church of england by representation ; or that deprave it as a faction , &c. xxxiv . no man was to be ordained or suffered in the ministry for twenty years that did not subscribe thus [ i do declare that i do hold that there lies no obligation on me , or on any other person from the oath commonly called the solemn league and covenant , to endeavour any change or alteration of government in church or state. ] xxxv . all nonconformists must swear that they will never endeavour any alteration of the church government , or else be banished five miles from corporations and all places where ever they preached since the act of oblivion . xxxvi . all ministers must subscribe and nonconformists swear that they abhor the trayterous position of taking arms by the kings authority against those that are commissioned by him . xxxvii . we must assent and consent to the damnatory sentence in the creed called athanasius's . xxxviii . every minister consenteth to say the morning and evening service every day in the year , not being lett by sickness or other urgent cause . xxxix . ministers must concur to force the unwilling parishioners to the sacrament , or else to excommunicate and ruine them . xl. if we dare not conform for fear of sin we must forsake our ministry to which we are ordained and vowed , and give over preaching the gospel what ever need there be , and must also remove our dwelling from all places aforesaid . these are the parts of ministers conformity . lay mens conformity is as followeth ; i. they must trust their souls with the pastoral oversight of those , and only those as their fixed pastors , whom patrons will choose for them , and bishops institute : though the conformists accuse many patrons of such hainous sins , as speaketh them unfit for so strange a trust , besides those that are papists , and bishops say they have not power to keep out the unfit . ii. they are not only hereby deprived of the exercise of self-government for the saving of their own souls , but of due family government for the safety of wife and children , and servants , and must not bid them choose better pastors . iii. they are forced to forbear communion with all nonconformists , and to separate from all others besides conformists , though they account this schismatical separation . iv. when god commandeth them [ if thy brother trespass against thee tell him his fault between thee and him ; if he hear not tell the church , &c. and with drunkards , railers , fornicators , &c. not to eat . ] they are forced to have communion with parishes where no such discipline is exercised , nor can they perform any such duty , and to lose all the benefit of this christian order and discipline , none being so much cast out as conscionable dissenters . v. conscionable care to obey gods law is greatly discouraged and made a dangerous thing , while it must be mens utter ruine to deny conformity , even in a ceremony , to men , when it 's done for fear of sinning against god. vi. they are to be deprived of baptism and christendom for their children , if they dare not use the foresaid way of god-fathers , as described . vii . they are also to be unchristened if thinking our crossing is used as an unlawful humane sacrament , they dare not receive it as a dedicating badge of christianity . viii . if they think kneeling at receiving the sacrament an unlawful hardening the papists , they are denyed communion . ix . if any dissent but from confirmation , organs , kneeling at the rails , taking a reader or unfit man for their pastor , they must not be received to communion by a conformist in another parish . x. all the land is engaged ( ministers , vestries , corporations and militia ) by oaths or covenant never to endeavour any alteration of government in the church . xi . they are all engaged to abhor the position as trayterous , of taking armes by the kings authority against any commissioned by him in pursuit of such commission . xii . all corporation government and trust is confined to them that declare that there is no obligation on them or any other from the solemn covenant or vow , not excepting so much as to oppose schism , popery or prophaneness , to defend the king , or repent of sin , though these be vowed . i have now told you what conformity is , in ministers and people . chap. v. i. of re-ordination . l. yov have named a great number : but i doubt whether all these are imposed , and in many of them i see no harm . m. i told you that if any one of them ( imposed ) be sinful , nonconformity is a duty , which all the ministers in england were bound to . l. what sin can you find in re-ordination ? m. i must first state the controversie before i argue it . . the word [ ordination ] may signifie either the first dedication and ordination to the ministerial office as such , by which a man is separated from the laity to gods ministry : or else , a mission on some particular ministerial work , as paul and barnabas were sent abroad , acts . or a minister may be sent to america , &c. or else a fixed appointment to some one particular church or flock , which is done here by presentation , institution and induction . it is neither of the two last that we speak against . they may be often done : but it s only the first . . the word [ ordination ] may signifie ; . that moral action by which a man is made a minister of christ , which is , his solemn contract with christ , exprest by his consent , and by the ordainers investing action : this is it which we mean in the controversie , which may not be done twice . . or it may signifie the meer words of the ordainers and ordained , which make up the said moral action . we deny not but the same words repeated may make up one moral ordination : if the bishop by tautology repeat them twice or thrice : or if they should to satisfie men of divers languages that are present , be first spoken in english , and after in french , or when some that doubted require it , should go over them again ; all this is but one ordination . l. how prove you that our bishops intend any more , when they say , it is only to satisfie the law , that you may be capable in england . m. . that it is not a meer relation to some particular cure that they mean , is undenyable : . because they call that by the name of institution and induction , and not of ordination . . because they never ordain any over and over upon removals . . because the words of ordination in the book tell it us . . that they do it not as a repetition of the same valid ordination is past doubt . . because the same repeated by the same men will not serve . . it is to be done , again ten or twenty years after the first . . he is to be fined in an hundred pound that administreth the sacrament without it . . he is taken for no true minister without it , which cannot be true of a bare repetition of words : no reasonable men would lay so much on that . . it is undeniable that they take men for unordained , and no ministers till they ordain them : . because they all disown reordaining ; they know that the canons called the apostles , and the whole antient and later church condemn it as like anabaptistry ; and no one bishop in england will not renounce it : therefore its certain that they take the first ordination for null . . and they have so declared their judgment in many words and writings , and in the act of uniformity , it is plainly intimated in the penalty . l. and what harm is there in being twice ordained ? m. . ad hominem i need not dispute it ? all the bishops disclaim it as unlawfull , so that we have their confession . . it is the same fault as anabaptistry . if they be blameless why make you such a noise against the anabaptists . to be twice made a christian , and twice made a minister is of the like kind . . it is something causelesly to cast our selves under the censure of all the church that hath been against it , and to be condemned by them . . it is a plain prophanation of god's holy name , and of a great and holy ordinance , by lying and taking god●s name in vain . for they are said to be now admitted to the office , and this day to receive it , and god is told that they are now called to it . and all their examinations and answers imply that they were no ministers before , and the bishop saith [ receive the holy ghost , for the office and work of a priest now committed to thee by the imposition of our hands ] which all imply it not done before . and in so sacred a contract with god , to lie to him , and prophanely abuse his name , and the holy ghosts , and the duty of prayer and praise , is tremendous . be not deceived god is not mocked . . it is a confederacy with corrupters and usurpers , that arrogate and appropriate valid ordination to themselves , and a confirming all their injury to posterity , that all that shall hereafter imitate them may be encouraged , by alledging our re ordination . . it is a hainous injury to all the other reformed churches as if we degraded their ministers and separated from them all as no churches . for one part of them have no diocesans , and the rest have bishops , that at the reformation were ordained by presbyters . . it is contrary to one of the articles of our religion , . these we ought to judge them lawfully called and sent , which be chosen and called to this work , by men , who have publick authority given to them in the congregation to call and send ministers , &c. but in other countries , presbyters have publick authority , given them . and art. . the book of consecration doth contain all things necessary to such consecration and ordaining . but it hath nothing for re-ordaining those before ordained . . it is a plain condemnation of the church of england , which hath professed communion with the reformed abroad , as with true ministers and churches of christ. and we are now told that to communicate with schismaticks induceth the guilt of schism . . it introduceth anabaptistry , or utter confusion into the nation , leaving men in doubt whether for fourteen years the people had any true baptism ( while it's a controversie whether lay-mens baptizing be valid , and mr. dodwell maketh all men to be out of any covenant-title to salvation that have not the sacraments from a minister that hath successive episcopal ordination ) and all christians must question whether they have not so long here lived out of the church of christ , without ministery and communion . do you think that none of these nine reasons prove re-ordination sinful . l. but because the bishops deny it , let me hear your proof that the former ordination here by presbyters is not a nullity . m. i. ad hominem , the church of england hath , as i said , judged the like valid in the reformed churches , by holding communion with them . i cited a great number of bishops and doctors in my christian concord . l. but they say that necessity differeth their case from ours here ; and even doctour sherlock tells you that if god make necessity ; necessity will make ministers : but ours schismatically pull'd down the bishops and now disown the very order . m. there is a satisfactory concession in these words , but the accusations are made up of falsehood and deceit . . archbishop vsher and others that thought the ejectors of episcopacy were guilty of schism , yet maintained that their ordination was valid : he told me how he pleaded it to the king. . do they think that salmasius , blundel and all others that have written more against our prelacy than the english , were deprived of it against their wills by necessity . . what necessity can they pretend to the hollanders , helvetians , geneva , embden , bremen , the palatinate , and scotland heretofore ? might they not have had prelates when they would . . was not the necessity far more notorious to those that i now plead for . they lived in a land where episcopacy was cast out , and kept out by a potent army . i think there were but four or five bishops alive when it was restored . . it is false that they cast out the bishops . those ministers that joyned with the parliament to cast them out , were ordained by bishops , and therefore are none of the men that we are speaking of : these that were ordained by presbyters were then young men at school , or in the universities . and what are other mens actions to them ? l. but they are of the same mind and party . m. are you a lawyer , and do you accuse men in the temple without naming them , and bringing proof of their guilt . noxa caput sequitur , should all the clergy be called guilty if sibthorp , or manwaring , or heylin were proved so ? what error you accuse them of , prove and punish them for no other . . but i prove that the bishops themselves made other ordination necessary . because they would ordain none without sinful subscriptions and conditions , which must not be yielded to : if you can prove the terms lawful on which they ordain , i shall trie your skil anon . ii. i farther prove the ordination in question valid , thus , where there is a true notification of god's will that this person shall be a minister of the gospel , there is no want of validity in his ordination ; but those here ordained by presbyters might have such a true notification of god's will — ergo , the major is plain ; because god's will and man's consent are the fundamentum of the relation ; therefore nothing can be wanting to it 's being and validity . the minor is proved . those men that have laudable ability , and willingness , and the consent of a people in true necessity , and the approbation of a national assembly of learned divines ( of which many bishops were called to be members ) and the investing ordination of the gravest senior pastors , that were then to be had , had a true notification of god's will that they should be his ministers . but such were these in question . ergo. iii. the way of ordination , which was valid in the primitive church is now valid . — but such is that in question . ergo. as to the minor ; the ordination of such pastors as were but the rectors of single congregations , was it that was valid in the primitive church . but such is that in question . doctor hammond labours to prove that in scripture time there were no other bishops or presbyters but the single pastors of single assemblies : mr. clerkson hath fully proved , and i more fully in my treatise of episcopacy , that for a hundred and fifty years , if not much more , there were no particular churches bigger than our parishes . a bishop then was but the chief parish , or congregational pastor , who guided it with his assistance . and such are all our incumbents ( especially in great towns ) who have chapels and curates and lecturers to assist them . and grotius de imper. sum . pot. sheweth that really the chief pastor of a church is a bishop , whatever they call him . but i have so largely proved in my treatise of episcopacy , pag. , , &c. that our questioned ordainers were scripture bishops , and that those now called presbyters ordained long after , that i must not repeat the same things here again . iv. those that are in orders may confer orders : ordinis est ordinare , as vsher was wont to say ; as physicians make physicians , and philosophers make philosophers , and gene●ation propagateth the species : and our church consenteth to this . . in that presbyters must concur in ordination by imposition of hands , which is an act of authority and collation . . in that the convocation hath a greater power , even canon making ; and that convocation consisteth half and more of presbyters , and the canons excommunicateth all that deny it to be the represensative church of england . but presbyters have the power of order ( as bishop carlton de iurisdict . proveth it commonly acknowledged ) equal with bishops . pag. . and the church of england in king aelfrik's time ( ad wolf. in spelman , pag. . l. . ) affirm that bishops and presbyters are but one order . v. those may ordain validly whose ordination is more warrantable than that of roman bishops ( for our bishops own theirs as valid and ordain them not again when they turn protestants ) : but the presbyters that ordained here fourteen years , did it more warrantably than the roman bishops . ergo , . the papists ordain men to a false office ; to be mass-priests : but the said pastors ordained none but to the same office that christ instituted . . the papists have their power of ordination from the pope , whose own power and office in specie is a false usurpation : but it is not so here , where the ordaining pastors were lawfully called . . papists ordination enters them into a false church in specie ( a pretended catholick church headed by the pope ) ; but our pastors entered them into no church but christs . . papists make them take sinful oaths and conditions before they ordain them . but these pastors ( at least that imposed not the covenant ) did not . if yet any will nullifie the reformed churches and ministry and their ordination , and not the papists , we may understand what their mind and communion is . vi. that ordination is valid which is less culpable , than many diocesans : but such is that in question . ergo , to the proof of the minor ( which only needs proof here ) . . some diocesans here have been papists ( as godfrey goodman of gloucester ) and divers have pleaded for and owned a forreign iurisdiction , which the oath of supremacy abjureth . . i have fully proved in the said treatise of episcopacy that the office of pastors of single churches is more warrantable than our diocesans who are the sole bishops of many score or hundred churches . . the said presbyters ( at least who medled not with the covenant ) imposed no unlawful condition on the ordained , as too many bishops have done . . many bishops plead the derivation of their power from rome : and what theirs is i shewed before . but because i must not write a treatise on this one question , you may read it done copiously and unanswerably by voetius against comel . iansenius de desperata causa papatus . yet i add one difference more . the ordainers and ordained in question , had the consent of the flocks and neighbour ministers ; but the said bishops come in by the magistrate without the consent or knowledge of the flocks , and so do the ministers usually whom they ordain . and what the ancient church thought of this , abundance of canons shew . i 'le now cite but one , concil . nic. . can. . omnem electionem quae fit a magistratibus , episcopi presbyteri vel diaconi irritam manere ex canone dicente , siquis episcopus secularibus magistratibus usus , per eos ecclesiam obtinuerit , deponatur & segregetur , & omnes qui cum eo communicant . oportet enim eum qui est promovendus ad episcopatum ab episcopis eligi , quemadmodum a sanctis patribus nicaenis decretum est in can. qui dicit [ episcopum oportet maxime quidem ab omnibus qui sunt in provincia constitui . and many councils nullifie their episcopacy that come not in by the election or consent of clergy and people , which ad hominem is somewhat to them that urge such councils against us . l. i confess your reasons seem unanswerable , at least as to the case of necessity , which i am convinced was the case of those that were ordained when there were no bishops to whom they could have access , or no place in the ministry without presbyters ordination , and who then durst not be twice ordained : and for churchmen that must be strictly religious to suffer on such terms i cannot speak against . but we secular men think these too little things to suffer for . m. if your consciences can call such prophanation of gods name , such condemnation of protestant churches , such strengthening the hands of — a little thing , they shall be no measure for our consciences : for we believe that we must die , and that there is a god and a righteous final judgment . chap. vi. ii. of the covenant and oath of canonical obedience to our ordinary or bishop . l. what harm is there in your promising or swearing obedience to your ordinary , in things lawful and honest. what a man should do , he should not refuse to swear or promise . m. i will first tell you the words imposed , and then i will state the controversie , and then i will tell you our reasons . the words at ordination are these . . on deacons and priests . [ will you reverently obey your ordinary and other chief ministers to whom is committed the charge and government over you ; following with a glad mind and will their godly admonitions and submitting your selves to their godly iudgments ? answ. i will so do , the lord being my help . the form of the oath which they use to impose is this . ego a. b. iuro quod praestabo veram & canonicum obedientiam episcopo londinensi ejusque successoribus in omnibus licitis & honestis . ( and little know we of what religion their successors will be , or who will have the choosing of them ? i 'le not swear to i know not who . ) the bishops themselves also must take this oath of due obedience to the arch-bishop . in the name of god amen : i n. chosen bishop of the church and see of n. do profess and promise all due reverence and obedience to the arch-bishop and to the metropolitan church of n. and to their successors . so help me god through iesus christ. l. what is your controversie against any of this ? m. . we do not question the duty of obeying the king and all his officers , governing as magistrates by the power of the swords which the king may commit to them . if bishops or lay chancellors be made magistrates , we will obey them as such : and therefore when they summon us , we appear and answer , because the king authorizeth them . and many non-conformists have defended the taking the promise as supposing that the word [ ordinary ] signifieth only the judge of a court set up by the king as supream governor by the sword in matters and over persons ecclesiastical as well as civil , according to the true sence of the oath of supremacy . . we do not refuse to promise and swear due obedience to such as are our lawful pastors , ruling the church by the power of the keys according to the word of god : though we think that requiring such oaths is an irregularity in them , against the ancient canons , and a farr higher presumption than the independents covenant . . we do not deny a patient and quiet submission to unlawful persons and acts of government , not owning their sin our selves , and doing no evil at their command . but these are the things which we are not satisfied in . i. obedience hath essential relation to the laws and mandates of those that we obey : and the canons of england are the laws by which they openly profess to rule the church : and therefore they call it the oath of canonical obedience , that is , of obeying the church government according to the canons ; and when we know the canons before-hand , we know what government and obedience is meant . and we swear fraudulently if we take not the oath in the sence of the imposers : and they commonly tell us , that this is the meaning of [ due obedience ] , and if godly admonitions , or [ in licitis & honestis ] be put in , that doth but suppose that obedience according to the canons is godly and licitum & honestum , and not that we are left to choose which canons we will obey . all bishops i doubt not will stand to this exposition of the sence . now there are abundance of things in the canons which we think to be greater sins than we think meet to call them . ii. we know that the rule of the bishops is by chancellors courts and other such , where lay-men exercise the church keys , by decretive excommunications and absolutions : which wise men think to be sacrilegious usurpation , and a prophanation of a dreadful part of christs government : and lawyers and civilians tell us , that the word [ ordinary ] signifieth the appointed ordinary judge of the court , and so that we swear or covenant to obey lay-civilians using the keys . and [ other chief ministers ] can mean no less than all the archdeacons , officials , commissaries , surrogates , &c. whom we covenant to obey ; not in civil things or the circa sacra belonging to magistrates , which we refuse not , but in the exercise of the church keyes . iii. they that think they have fully proved that diocesans ruling many hundred churches without any bishops under them , are an office in specie contrary to gods word , and the practice of the primitive church , and that it corrupteth or excludeth true church discipline , do think it a sin to conform by an oath of allegiance or obedience to them , though they live peaceably under them . iv. they that think that by scripture , and reason , and universal church customs and canons , they are no bishops or pastors that come in by magistrates without the election or consent of the flocks and clergy , think that to swear obedience to them is to be guilty of their usurpation . these four be the things refused in this oath and covenant of obedience . l. and what have you against obeying according to the canon ? m. i. you may gather it from the foregoing enumeration of the canonical impositions : many things of a heinouser nature than liturgies , ceremonies or things indifferent . . we dare not obey an order for excommunication according to the th . canon , against any man that affirmeth that the book of cammon-prayer containeth any thing in it that is repugnant to the scriptures . judge that by the proof that i shall anon give . . the same i say of the excommunication in can. , , , . and many others , which are after to be particularly mentioned . . and there are many things in the canons which we dare not practice , and therefore dare not swear canonical obedience . l. that oath doth not oblige you to approve of all that is in the canons , no more than a iustices oath to execute the laws doth bind him to approve of , or execute every law. m. we would not be guilty of an over rigorous exposition : but had it been in the days of queen mary , when the six articles , and other lawes for murdering innocents were on foot , and were actually expounded by execution , i would not have been one of the justices that should have sworn to execute them . though a justice be not bound to approve every law , he is bound in the main to execute them in his place ; and if he know that the imposers of his oath did mean , that he should in a special manner execute e. g. the laws against protestants , he should not take that oath contrary to their sence . our canons make these things forementioned their principal part , as you may see by putting them first with that strange penalty of excommunication ipso facto . and indeed it is no small part of the whole book that we dissent from . ii. but moreover we dare not promise or swear obedience to our ordinaries , till we know that lay-men governing by the keys are not those ordinaries . i have consulted lawyers , and some say that only the bishop is meant by our [ ordinary ] ; but i think they are but few that say so . and indeed we are bound to believe the contrary , because terms of art or science are to be understood according to the use of the men of that art or science . but men of that profession commonly call other judges of their courts our ordinaries , besides the bishops : so doth r. cousins in his tables and others . . and other governing ministers whom we must obey , are mentioned in the ordination covenant also besides our ordinaries . our reasons against this are these . . it is unlawful to confederate with sacrilegious propha●ers of a great ordinance of god , in stablishing and practising that sacrilegious prophanation . but to covenant or swear obedience to lay-men in usurping the power of the keys of decretive excommunication and absolution , we fear is such ; and as to the minor the reason of our fear is , if it be sacrilegious prophanation for a lay-man to usurp the other parts of the pastoral office , then it is so for him to usurp the power of the keyes . but the antecedent is confest , as to the sacraments and the charge of ordinary teaching and guidance of the flocks , &c. . ad hominem . if the bishops take it for usurpation in presbyters to exercise this power , supposing it proper to themselves , they must judge it much more so in lay-men . l. the lay-men do it by the bishops authority and in his name ; and so he doth it by them : his name is to the excommunications . m. . the chancellors have their commissions from the king , which the bishops cannot alter . . if it be so it is the worse . . that the bishops name should be abused to a sentence , when he never heard or tryed the cause . if this be against the bishops will , it is a forgery ; if he consent , it seems he trusteth his conscience in the chancellors hands , and excommunicateth all at a venture that the chancellor excommunicateth , though he know not whom nor why , which is against the light of nature , and the common justice of the world. . and it is contrary to the nature of the pastoral office to execute it by men of another calling : either it is proper to bishops or not ; if not , presbyters or lay-men may use it ; if yea , then none , may be deputed to use it , that are not bishops . if the keys and not the sacraments may be used by lay-men , then the use of the keys is not proper to pastors , but only sacraments . but no man can give a just reason why lay-men may not give the sacraments as well as use the keys . yea indeed the sacramental administration cannot be proper to the pastoral office if the keys be not : for the ●se of the keys is to judge who shall be admitted to sacramental communion : and if only delivering and not iudging to whom , be proper to the pastor , then he is but a carrier or cryer and executioner of lay-mens judgment , perhaps lower than the deacon . barely to say over the words and do the action , is but an outward ministration , and no act of power at all . l. but it is not the chancellor but the surrogate that excommunicateth . m. . ask those that have been much among them , how oft they have heard a lay-civilian say at once , [ i admonish you , i admonish you , i admonish you , i excommunicate you ] . . hypocrisie is but an aggravation of sin : the lay-man decreeth the excommunication , which is the judicial act ; when they use a surrogate priest , it is but as a hireling servant to pronounce the decree , to mock the church with a formality . . if indeed it be the priest that excommunicateth and absolveth , when no bishop is there , then they confess that the power of the keys is not proper to a bishop , but may be validly used by a priest. l. but what have you against swearing obedience to the bishops themselves , supposing the canons were materially lawful . m. iii. we have nothing against a peaceable submission to them , if they were proved all usurpers . for my part , when i think how the high priests were made ( out of a wrong line , by roman power and purchase , &c. ) in christs time , and how much he was for submission to them , and a use of all that was good and lawful , done by those bad unlawful intruders , it resolveth me to regard bare possession , so far as our own edification and the common peace requireth . but as christ was a nonconformist to the pharisees vain traditions , so he was so far from swearing obedience to these usurpers , that he oft plainly and vehemently reproveth them . many , for the bonum publicum , which is suprema lex and finis regiminis , did live in quiet submission to the usurpers of civil power here , who yet would never have sworne obedience to them or justified their usurpation . that the frame of diocesans as the only bishops is unlawful tota specie , i have so largely proved in my treatise of episcopacy , that i must not here repeat it , as long as the diocesan party by not answering it seem to grant it . i have proved , . that this diocesan species destroyeth the old species of particular churches , turning the parishes into no churches , but parts of a diocesan church while they make a bishop essential to a church . . that they set up a false species instead of it , viz. a church infimae speciei , which hath many score parishes , if not many hundred in it , without any under-bishop to them . . that it deposeth the old species of bishops and presbyters both , which were [ to every church of the lowest species ] a bishop with his presbyters ejusdem ordinis ( if they could be had ) so that many score or hundred bishops are put down , on pretense of setting up episcopacy . . and they set up both bishop and presbyters of a humane unlawful sort instead of those deposed , viz. arch-bishop infimi ordinis , over a thousand or hundred carcasses of churches : and half presbyters that have not the power of the keys , nor are of the same order with the bishops . . that they deposed christs true church discipline , and made it as impossible as for one school-master alone to govern all the schools in a diocess , or one physician many hundred hospitals , or one mayor many hundred corporations , without any school-master ( but an usher or monitor ) or any physitian , or any mayor or justice under him . . that they have set up a false humane discipline ( before described ) instead of christ's , which they have taken down . and all this we dare not justifie by a confederacy by oath . iv. and we think that the fourth thing which we stick at needs no other reason ; suppose the species of diocesans were of god's appointment , and only the numerical bishops usurpers , we can submit and live peaceably , but we cannot swear obedience to them . they plead more than we for the power of ancient councils , and canons . i have elsewhere fully proved ( as paul of venice hath done , and mr. clarkson , and dr. burnet , and many others ) that many great councils nullified the episcopacy of all that came in without the election , or consent of the clergy and flocks : and we our selves cannot conceive how any man can be the pastor of those that consent not ; though we can easily conceive that dissenters may oft be obliged to consent when they do not ; so may a son or daughter be obliged to obey their parents in consenting to marry , such as parents choose for them , when yet it is no marriage till that consent . how few in a diocese ever know of the bishops election till it's past , and how few consent , i need not tell . we can submit to these , but not swear allegiance to them . v. and in all the foresaid cases , we have another disswasive . . it is so much of the king's prerogative that all subjects must swear allegiance and fidelity to him , that in almost all nations it hath been thought dangerous , to make the subjects also swear obedience to every justice or inferior officer , lest it should make them too like kings . . lest the subjects should be entangled between their oath to the king , and their oaths to all these officers , in case of the officers contradiction to the king 's . . lest so many oaths should make that government a snare to the conscientious , which should be for their ease and safety . . lest so much swearing make oaths contemptible , and bring in perjury , and endanger the king , who should by our oaths be secured . . and i have elsewhere named many councils , and canons which prohibit bishops this practice of making the clergy swear fidelity to them , and have condemned it , as of dangerous consequence . and they that are for councils should not engage us causelesly against them . . the present impositions greatly stop us , till we better know what it is that we must do . we have cause to make a stand , when we are all sworn [ never to endeavour any alteration of the government of the state ] which we readily obey , and yet seem to be called to do that which we are told by some is an alteration of it : that is , the making of our present species of archbishops , bishops , deans , archdeacons , yea chancellors , officials , commissaries , &c. as unchangeable a part of the government as monarchy it self is , and so disabling the king to make any alteration in them . for set all this together and consider , . all the clergy is bound or sworn to obey both bishops and every ordinary . . the canon ipso facto , excommunicates every man that affirmeth that the church government under his majesty by archbishops , bishops , deans , archdeacons and the rest that bear office in the same , is repugnant to the word of god ; so that all the lords and gentlemen in england that have affirmed that the government by the keys as used by diocesans over hundreds of churches , or by archdeacons , lay chancellors , &c. is repugnant to god's word , being already ipso facto excommunicate , how far they are capable of being parliament-men i know not : but i suppose if in parliament they shall affirm any such repugnancy they are excommunicate ; and without the act of king and parliament no alteration can be made . . and now to fix them all , the kingdom is sworn never to endeavour any alteration in the church government : viz. in the corporation act , the militia act , the vestry act , the oxford swearing act , after the act of vniformity . and is not every chancellor , or archdeacon , or bishop now made as immutable necessary a part of the kingdom as the king ? l. you speak ignorantly for want of acquaintance with the law : do you think king and parliament oblige themselves . it is only particular subjects out of parliament that they oblige . m. i. but when the parliament is dissolved , are they not all particular subjects save the king. and are they not all then hereby bound ? and do you think that it was the meaning of the act that they who swear never to endeavour alteration , may yet endeavour it , if they be chosen parliament men ? i will manifestly disprove it . all these oaths do joyn the government of church and state together : yea , and put the church-government first , as if it had the preeminence . but it was never the meaning of the oath , that the parliament may endeavour to alter monarchy , which is the state-government : ergo , it meant not that they may endeavour to alter prelacy or church-government . ii. but suppose it be as you say , they that know the present thing called the church of england know that their writers openly maintain that the obligation of the canons depends not on the parliament , save only as to the forceable execution of them , but on the authority of the church as a society empowred by christ : and therefore that king or parliaments at least may be excommunicated by them as well as others . all are excommunicate men that do but call their government sinful . chap. vii . ii. of the restraint of ordained ministers from preaching , and expounding any scripture , or matter or doctrine , can. . l. what is it that you have against conformity in this ? m. i. that men are at once made christ's ministers , and forbid to exercise that which they are ordained to . ii. that we are laid under the hainous guilt of breaking our vow , when they have engaged us to make it ; and of betraying mens souls , by omitting a vowed duty . . that we are forbidden that which is the duty of every lay christian that is able , as if they would suppress religion and charity it self . l. but you do not swear or subscribe to this canon . m. . but we are bound by them to obey this canon ; for it is the law of the whole church of england . . i have shewed you that swearing obedience to them must mean , obeying their laws which are far more of weight than particular mandates . l. but as long as you may have licenses , how doth this put you on any sin of omission or commission ? m. both their words and their deeds tell us that they ordain more than they licence to preach or expound any doctrine . and is it no sinful omission think you for all the rest to forbear all this ? . and many were ordained heretofore , who by the new act of uniformity , are denyed licenses without new professions and covenants and terms which they undertake to prove sinful . . and our ministry is by this made arbitrary to the bishops will. he may bind us to the office , and when he hath done keep us from it . l. if they deny you licenses they bind you not to preach . m. ordination is a vow and dedication to the sacred office : mark the covenant which they impose on us [ are you determined out of the scriptures to instruct the people committed to your charge , &c. answ. i have so determined by god's grace . q. will you give your faithful diligence always so to minister the doctrine and sacraments , and the discipline of christ as the lord hath commanded , &c. that you may teach the people committed to your care and charge , with all diligence to keep and observe the same . answ. i will so do by the help of the lord. q. will you be ready with all faithful diligence to banish and drive away all erroneous and strange doctrines contrary to god's word , and to use both publick and private monitions and exhortations , as well to the sick as to the whole within your cure , as need shall require , and occasion shall be given . answ. i will the lord being my helper . ] is it not treachery to draw men into all these vows , and then to command them never to preach nor expound any doctrine or matter any where ? doth it not come near to an atheistical prohibition of religion , may they not tell their people the meaning of baptism , or the creed , or lord's-prayer , or commandments ? may they not teach their own children and servants these . if a priest may not do it , much lesse the laity and vulgar . l. the meaning is not , against expounding to their children or wives at home , but in the church ? m. can the church of england tell such a meaning no plainer than by saying [ either in his own cure or elsewhere . ] is not his house or his neighbour's house elsewhere : if they can speak no plainer , i would they would make us no laws till god licence them . . but suppose that [ elsewhere ] speak only of churches , you know that other canons forbid them preaching in private houses . . and what a priest is that who must be forbidden to teach the people in the church : or there to tell children the meaning of the catechism ? how like is this to the moscovy state ? l. you know that many men are unable to preach , expound or speak sense about divinity if they should attempt it . m. and are such fit to be made the teachers and guides of the flock , shall the same men make a man physician to an hospital , and when they have done forbid him to do any more than read to them a physick book of their making ? is it not an ability to teach men , at least the essentials of christianity , essential to a minister ? do they not then make no-ministers and call them priests , if they ordain men that cannot teach the essentials . l. reading the scripture , and homilies is teaching . m. it is so : but if that only will qualifie one for the priesthood , one may be a priest that knows no more than an infidel or atheist : and if reading will qualifie men for a benefice , many will study for no more : and the people will value them accordingly . l. but you know that when the land came out of popery , we must have meer readers in most places , or worse . m. and you know that these canons were made in k. iames's days long after that , and that they are now continued as the church laws : did our last convocation alter them ? it is such excellent men as the world is not worthy of ( ames , bayn , parker , hildersham , dod , &c. ) that have been forbidden to preach , whilest these that could not preach were ordained and inducted . it is only the present things that i am speaking of . . and though men of mean abilities , if tolerable , may be tolerated , yet men that want essential qualifications should not be made ministers ; but if bare reading be necessary , they may read as lay-men . i conclude therefore that as making such priests and canons is a sin in them , so to obey them by omission of ministerial teaching , for want of a licence from the bishops would be sinful conformity in any true minister of christ if he live where his ministerial work is necessary . and to forbear all expounding any matter , or doctrine , save by reading our homilies , is sacriledge and perfidiousness , and uncharitable inhumanity . chap. viii . iv , and v. of subscribing and declaring assent and consent . l. what is your next exception to conformity . m. subscribing according to the canon , that there is nothing in the book of common-prayer contrary to the word of god. and that we will use no other form . . and publickly declaring our assent and consent to all things contained and prescribed in and by it , and our approbation of all the forms , orders , &c , as aforesaid . l. what have you against this approbation of the liturgy ? m. negatively , . we blame nothing in it that is good : and i take it for a good book , in the main , but not faultless . as you said of the canon of allowing readers , so say i of the liturgy ; it was better immediately after popery than it is now , that is , it was more congruous , and was a great reformation , and we honour the book and their memory that made it . . we do not think that there is any such faultiness in it , as maketh it unlawful to joyn in the publick worship , and ordinary communion , with the church where it is used , we honour them as true churches of christ. . i do not think it unlawful to read the ordinary lords day service , when the publick good requireth it , and we can have no better without greater hurt than benefit : our objections being most against the by-offices , especially of baptizing and burial . b●● , . we think it unlawful to covenant to use no other forms in publick prayer . ii. and unlawful to subscribe and declare that it is faultless . i. for the first we have these reasons . . the bishops themselves by the king's order , do upon special occasions of fasts and thanksgivings , prescribe , impose and use other forms ? and we must not covenant to disobey them . . the publick ministers have and do in the pulpits before sermon use other forms : and so break this covenant themselves . . it belongs to the office of a pastor , as well to word his own prayers as his own sermons : and it is sinful to renounce so much of the work of the office which we are vowed and ordained to . l. these instances are a clear exposition of the canon , and shew that by [ no other form ] they intended not to exclude other pulpit-prayers , or other forms , prescribed by the bishops . m. . if the whole church of england here also can speak no more intelligibly , than by [ no other forms ] to mean only [ till the bishop prescribe it , and except your own daily form in the pulpit ] i would they would leave us to god's own laws , and not take on them to be necessary interpreters of its great difficulties . if such men forbear that expounding , which they forbid others till they will do it better , the loss will be the less ; scripture speaketh plainlier than this . . but who giveth this exposition ? to expound the law by a common obligatory exposition , is proper to the law-makers : he that maketh the words maketh not a law if he make not the sense ; judges make not the sense but decide particular cases by it as they understand it . the canons are made by the convocation , which he that denyeth to be the representative church of england , is excommunicate . the pulpit preachers , nor the particular bishops are not the convocation , and therefore have not power to expound their canons , by any common obligatory exposition ; much less contrary to the express words . which way most of the clergy went under bishop parker , grindal and abbot , is well known : and yet now they are so far from being taken for the expositors of the churches sense , that they are openly scorned , as popular fautorer of puritans , and those of their mind called grindalizers . ii. but it is the second , that is the trojan horse whose name is legion , i mean that hath many more evils in the belly of it , viz. that we must profess that the three books , articles , liturgy and ordination are so utterly faultless that there is nothing in them contrary to the word of god , and that we assent and consent to all contained and prescribed in and by them . l. what have you against this ? what is there in it that is contrary to god's word ? m. god's word is perfect and forbids the least faulty errour , or defect . if we had never seen the book , we know that men made it , and that every one that made it had ignorance , error and sin , and can a perfect faultless volumn be made by such faulty men ? operari sequitur esse . they renounce all pretensions to infallibility in the articles of religion . l. you interpret the words rigorously : by [ nothing contrary ] they me●n nothing so contrary , as that one may not use the books . m. if by [ nothing ] they mean not [ nothing ] and if by [ contrary ] they mean not [ contrary ] we will better know what they mean before we subscribe , else you may make it lawful to subscribe to any thing in the world , and say that the , imposers mean better than they speak . l. and assent and consent is expresly confined to the use . m. . i shall prove that that is not true . . that if it were true it no whit amends the matter , nor maketh it lawful to us . i. it is not true : for. . the words of the declaration are as expresly universal as man can speak : and the foregoing words [ to the use ] do speak but de●fine , and the words of the declaration de mediis : and all lawyers agree that when the title of a law expresseth the end , that limiteth not the sense of the words of the law , because the means may be larger than the end. as the oxford act of confinement is in the title to keep nonconformists from corporations ; and yet lawyers resolve that it extendeth also to conformists , if one of them should but once preach in a conventicle . the parliament and prelates thought that the way to secure the vse , was to oblige them to assent and consent to all in the book contained and prescribed : . therefore they ty all to declare in that same form of words , and to add no other , least they should make any exposition that limits them . . and the word assent signifieth an act of the understanding , which must have truth for its object . . and it is after exprest by the word [ approbation ] whereas a man may use that which he doth not approve of . . oaths , covenants and professions must be taken in the most usual proper sense , unless another be exprest to be the imposers meaning ; which is not here done , and the words are most universal and without exception . . and to put all out of doubt , the parliament expounded themselves . . at the making of the act , this was debated , and reasons given against the limited expressions , which prevailed . . since then a new act against conventicles being made , it was moved in the lords house , that seeing non-conformists were thus far forbidden private worship , they should be so far invited to conformity , as that a proviso might be added to this act , that the declaration in the act of uniformity should be understood to oblige men but to the vse of the things required : and the commons rejecting that proviso , it came to a debate or conference between the two houses , where the commons gave their reasons against that sense and proviso : in which the lords acquiesc't . though i was not present , the parliament-men that were , reported this , and i never met with man that contradicted it , or questioned the truth of it . ii. but if it were otherwise , it were to us never the better . for , . it were an ignorant reproach of the church of england , to say that they have put any thing in their liturgy which is of no use . this will include every syllable . they themselves tell you in their prefaces , what use the very calender , and every other part are of . the use of the articles of faith and doctrines is our understanding , assent and belief of them in order to love and practice . the use of the orders in the rubrick is to oblige us to obedient practice , and so of all the rest . and to assent , approve and consent to every thing contained and prescribed practically , even to the use of them , is more than a bare speculative assent . l. wherein lyeth the sin of such a declaration ? m. . in general it is incredible , as i said before , in consideration of the matter , and the authors together : the book of articles , liturgie and ordination are a big volumn , and contain great variety of matter , and that high and mysterious ; the authors were every one of them men of imperfection , that had ignorance , error and sin : and operation exceedeth not power . who dare say that any sermon , or prayer that ever he maketh , hath nothing in it but what he may assent and consent to : much less so great a book . . the articles which must be subscribed as faultless , say art. . [ christ alone is without sin — but all we the rest ( though baptized and born again in christ ) yet offend in many things , and if we say that we have no sin , we deceive our selves , and the truth is not in us ] and art. . [ general councils . for as much they be an assembly of men whereof all be not governed with the spirit and word of god , they may err , and sometimes have erred , even in things pertaining to god ] . and are our convocation more infallible than general councils ? the church must be exemplary in humility ; and is it humility to say , we bishops and priests having written three books ; he shall not preach christ's gospel that will not declare that there is not a word in them that is faulty , or repugnant to god's word , and will not assent and consent to all therein . . the papists hereby scandalized , do scorn us , and say , the question is not now of an infallibility , or a judge that all must assent to . it is but who this infaliible iudge is : whether it be the pope and a general council , or the english convocation , which is liker to be of greater authority and infallibility ; we require no greater assent and consent of you to the canons of the universal church , than the state and church of england require to their books . . this seemeth to us to let the articles , liturgie and ordination book above the bible . . god himself hath not made the assent and consent to every thing contained and prescribed in the bible necessary to salvation , or to the ministry . . there are divers books in our bibles whose divine authority , many have questioned , who yet were not for that degraded . the apochryphal books are yet controverted by men tolerated on both sides . there are hundreds of various readings , where no one is necessitated to determine for this or that . translations are all faulty , being the work of faulty men : and no wise men will declare that this or that or any translation hath nothing in it contrary to the original word of god. and are our bishops books more faultless ? . it is a sin to confederate with and encourage such audacious lording it over the faith and souls of men , and such ill examples . l. your instances shew that you expound them too strictly : can you imagine them so insolent and impious as to impose their own books more strictly than the bible , and require more assent and consent . m. call it what you will : i must suppose that matter of fact which is undeniably evident to our senses : it 's an ill argument [ this is unreasonable and ungodly or inhumane . ergo , it was not done ] what is so false , absurd or impious that man may not do ? l. some say , they are articles of peace only , and not of faith. m. some brains will be cheated with a meer noise of words , as birds with a whistle : we deny not but peace is one of the ends of the impositions : but the question is what are the means : or whether they will take it for conformity to promise [ i will live peaceably ] or [ i assent that i should live in peace ] . are you not bound in order to peace , to assent and consent to all things in the books ? say , [ i assent that some things are true and good , and some things false and bad , which yet for peace i will use ] and try how it will be taken ? l. well : what is there in these books contrary to gods word , or which you may not assent and consent to ? m. the number is greater than we would have them . i will come to the chief of them , which i before named to you . l. i forgat to tell you , that it is not all contained , that is assented to , but all that is both contained and prescribed . m. . a meer quibble to cheat conscience : ask the bishop morley and bishop gunning yet living , whether this was the sence , and i will take their answer . . then [ assent and contained ] had been put in in vain and to deceive , if [ consent and prescribed ] signifie as much without them . . the word [ approbation ] in this act , and [ nothing contrary to gods word ] in the canon , confute this quibble . . i told you were it so it 's never the better . all in the book is prescribed to some use . they are outside men that think vse reacheth but the body : are articles of faith assertions of no use ? chap. ix . point vi. of the article of baptized infants salvation . m. the sixth point of our non-conformity is a new article of faith in these words , in a rubrick which we must profess , assent and consent to [ it is certain by the word of god , that children which are baptized and dying before they commit actual sin are undoubtedly saved ] . l. and what have you against assenting to this ? m. . that it is a new article of faith. . that it is arrogant and divisive , making a grand controversie one article of faith. . it is certainly false in most if not every one that declareth such assent . . it is a dangerous adding to the word of god. l. why call you a rubrick an article of faith ? m. it is most expresly made such : what is an article of faith but that which must be assented to as certain by the word of god ? will you deny the name where there is this definition ? l. but how do you prove it to be new ? m. because it was never made for us before ; you have the affirmative : if you say it was ever before , prove it . it 's not in the bible , it 's not in our articles , nor creed . l. are not the old words of the former book to the same sense ? m. not at all : if they were why did the new convocation alter them ? the old words plainly signifie no more than this that infants baptized have all ex parte ministri , and may be saved without confirmation , exorcism , chrysme , spittle , salt , milk and honey , and such other additions , supposing him ex parte sui under the promise of salvation , that is , to be the seed of the faithful : though i verily believe that after the making of the common-prayer book , our canon-makers in bancrofts dayes began to warp towards a worser sence . but our defenders of the liturgy expound it as i say ; and the tenor of the words may tell the reader that they meant no more . l. tell me first where it is that your controversie lyeth ? m. i. negatively , . it is not whether the infant seed of one believing parent should be baptized : this is agreed on . . it is not whether those may be dedicated to god as our children and baptized , who are adopted , or any way made our own children , as abrahams bought and born to him in his house as his propriety were . though we cannot say we are certain of this , yet we will not contradict them that say they are . . it is not whether hypocrites children have not so far a right to baptisme coram ecclesia as that the minister ought to baptize them if it be justly demanded . . it is not whether there be a certainty of the salvation of all the baptized infants of true faithful christians , that die before actual sin : though all good christians are not certain of this : yet with the synod of dort we hold that christians have no just cause to doubt of it . . it is not whether they may not be good men that think all baptized ones absolutely in a state of salvation . none of these are the controversie . ii. but it is . whether all infants without exception that be baptized , are saved if they then die . . whether this be certain by the word of god. . whether all that be not undoubtedly certain of it , should be no ministers ? l. but it is not said [ all infants ] , but [ infants ] indefinitely . m. . there is no place of doubting of their universal sence . for an indefinite term in re necessaria is equal to an vniversal . and they except the unbaptized from christian burial . . it is baptized infants as such that they speak of , and that under no other character , nor with the least exception . and a quatenus ad omnes valet argumentum . . the canon commandeth ministers to baptize all infants without exception that are brought to them on any sundays or holy-days to be baptized after the manner of the church of england . . i have spoken with the bishops that brought in and promoted this article , and they own the universal sence , supposing the true form of baptisme ; and say , that as any man hath right to take up an exposed infant in the streets and take it in , so hath any one to bring the child of a heathen , infidel , atheist or sadducee to baptisme . . if they had meant it only of some baptized infants and not all , they knew the non-conformists were of the same mind ; and then they would have told us , what sort they mean. l. i. and why may not an article of faith be newly declared ? we have not read the fathers ? it may not be unknown to them : and i have heard that they are for it . m. the most ancient churches were so much employed in baptizing the adult converted from infidelity , that we read little or nothing expresly and particularly what they did about infants in baptisme : they baptized none at age without a serious profession of true faith and repentance and holy dedication to christ : they used to keep these as learning catechumens long before they baptized them , save in case of necessity near death . therefore they had their set-times of the year for baptizing ( two or three times ) as our bishops have now for ordaining . and after all this strict preparation , they pronounced the baptized in a state of salvation , but it was only on supposition that he was a sincere penitent covenanting believer . even hildebrand ( pope greg. . ) in his time concludeth that baptisme saveth none that dissemble or have not the faith and repentance which they profess : which the papists do ordinarily confess , and protestants much more . and as for infants , the ancients compelled ▪ not christians themselves to baptize them , but left them to their own choice . tertullian is for long delay till-they understand , saying , cur festinat innocens at as : greg ▪ nazianzene would have them stay at least three years : in danger of death they alway hastened : augustine and many others that had christian parents were not baptized till at age. and they took christians infants , as paul did , to be not unclean but holy , and would receive others brought by such as adopted or owned them as pro-parents . but it was never the judgment of the ancient churches that all heathens or infidels children have right to baptisme and salvation if any will but offer them to baptism . much less that it is certain by gods word that all such are saved . . articles of faith are all contained in the scripture , and that is not new ; therefore nothing that is new can be an article of faith ; nor can it be said to be newly declared which was there from its beginning . l. ii. and why call you it arrogant and dividing ? m. because it presumptuously condemneth the reformed churches and the christian world , determining that to be so certain by gods word , that none should doubt of it that will be a minister , when the christian world is of many several opinions about it . l. what be those opinions about it ? m ▪ . some hold that the covenant being the same pardoning saving covenant that is made to the faithful and their seed , and their children expresly called holy , they are all in a state of pardon and salvation before baptisme , and baptisme doth but celebrate and invest them in it before the church ; and solemnly seal their covenant right . and that this saving right is given only to the seed of the sincerely faithful , or at most to those that have such pro-parents , though the seed of hypocrites must be received by the church , that know not mens hearts . and this i take to be the truth . . some others hold that this right to salvation belongeth to them that have grand-fathers and grand-mothers or remote ancestors that were truly godly christians . . some hold that it belongeth to all the seed of professed christians how bad soever the parents be . . some hold that it belongeth only to the children of true believers that are baptized , but not to the unbaptized . . some hold that it belongeth to hypocrites children that are baptized , but not to the unbaptized . . some hold that it belongeth to all baptized ones if they have god-fathers that profess christianity . . some hold that it belongeth to all baptized by a true believing minister , for the faith of the church . . some hold that it belongeth to none that by baptism are taken into any congregation guilty of heresie or schism . . some hold that it belongeth to all that are baptized by a minister who is ordained by bishops that have uninterrupted canonical succession , and not to others . . some hold that the baptisme of a lay-man or a woman may be effectual to the salvation of such . . some conformists hold that all infants in the world are saved , baptized and unbaptized . . the most of the papists hold that the baptized are saved both from the pain of sense and of loss , but the unbaptized are saved from the pain of sense only , but not of loss ; and so have neither joy nor sorrow . . many wise men hold that salvation is certain according to the first opinion to the seed of sincere believers , but that we have no certain notice at all , what god will do with all the rest ( baptized or unbaptized ) . . many think that god hath a certain number of infants elect whom he will save , and will cast away the rest , but that no man can know who they be ; though the faithful may have some uncertain hopes for their children more than others , but no promise . . some think that the common state of infants in the life to come is utterly unrevealed and unknown to us . i do not say that none of these opinions should be disclaimed : but among all which learned , godly men of all countries hold , to say he that is not certain of some one of them as god's word is unmeet to be a minister is dividing arrogance , of men that overvalue themselves . l. iii. how then can you make good your charge of falsehood ? may it not be true among many false ones ? m. i make it good two ways ; men must say they are certain that are not certain . . no man can be certain that god's word saith that which it doth not say : but god's word doth not say directly , or by consequence that all baptized dying infants are undoubtedly saved . he that saith there is such a word , let him produce it . it is suspicious that these same men that subscribe , that nothing is necessary to salvation , but what is contained in the scripture , or may be proved by it , would impose this belief on us , and never tell us so much as by a marginal citation of any one text of scripture where it may be found . all that ever by talk i could hear of them is , gal. . , . ye are all the children of god by faith in christ iesus , for as many of you as have been baptized into christ , have put on christ. as if they would have us believe . . that all atheists and infidels children have faith in christ iesus if they be but baptized . . or that all the galathians that paul wrote to were in a state of certain salvation , when it is apparent that he spake to the adult , whom elsewhere he saith he feareth lest he have bestowed on them labour in vain , and as bewitched men , they had disobeyed the truth , &c. . or that all that put on christ sacramentally by profession and baptism were in a state of certain salvation , even simon magus . how commonly when they confute the separatists , that alledge the titles of saints , holy , children of god , &c. given to all the churches by the apostles , do they themselves expound it of a sanctity of profession and relation as distinct from a saving state of grace , as to many of the visible members of the church . and must we now believe that the visible and the invisible membership are of equal extent . if this prove that all the baptized adult have put on christ savingly , and have right to heaven , it will confute the universal church that hath ever believed the contrary , and it will be good news to all worldly hypocrites : but st. peter saith , it is not the putting away the filth of the flesh , but the answer of a good conscience to god. and he told simon magus that he had no part in that matter , not for apostacy , but because his heart was not right in the sight of god. and sure it is no streight gate by which men enter into a state of salvation , if all the hypocrite flagitious sinners are in it , that will but be baptized . but if this text say not that all adult hypocrites baptized , so dying are saved , much less doth it say it of all the children of them , and of all infidels that are baptized . is this to give us proof of undoubted certainty ? they alledge also mar. . . he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved , what then . ergo , all infants that are baptized , that neither believe , nor are the seed of believers shall be saved . this is a new gospel , and no proof that the authors of it say true . another is ioh. . , . except a man be born again of water and of the spirit , he cannot enter into the kingdom of god. doth this prove that all are born again of the spirit that are baptized ? is this proving by god's word . l. what is your other proof , that it 's a false profession of them that declare assent to this doctrine . m. . it is this . he that saith a thing is undoubtedly certain by god's word which god's word contradicteth , doth certainly speak falsely . but so doth he that maketh this profession . that god's word contradicteth it , i have proved so fully in my two disputations of original sin , and my treatise of infant baptism , and methodus theologia , that i must not here repeat it , viz. by abundance of plain texts that appropriate the covenant-blessings to the faithful and their seed , and exclude or curse the seed of the wicked , at least as out of the covenant of god : i will now repeat but one . cor. . . else were your children unclean , but now are they holy . if the children of infidels are not holy but unclean , they have no right to the promise of life , or to the seal and investiture by baptism . but , &c. ergo. i know dr. hammond will have holiness here to be nothing but [ the church useth to baptize such on presumption that they will be educated to christianity : ] and uncleanness to be but [ the churches use to refuse such , supposing they will not be so educated . and so that the seed of the faithful have no special promise of pardon and life . but , . i have as aforecited and to mr. tombes proved many such promises to the seed of the faithful , which divines should not unthankfully like anabaptists deny . . and i ask such doctors what baptism doth for the infants at present and on what account ? doth it put them in a present right to salvation ? if not , why are they at present baptized , when god instituted no baptism but one , which is for signification and investiture in the present remission of sin● : and so saith the liturgie : and if so then on what account is an infant saved ? is it meerly because another undertaketh to teach him hereafter ? no man can undertake that he shall believe or live . if he could , that would but prove that he shall be pardoned when be believeth and not before . and if all infants , whom any christian will undertake hereafter to teach , though they never live to be taught , or will never believe , be by this put into a present right to salvation , a stranger's undertaking of meer teaching upon utter uncertainty of life and success , is supposed to have such a promise which yet these doctors deny to be made on the accounts of their own parents interest in christ and them ; and his dedicating them to christ. and if these promising godfathers be meer lyers , the child is supposed to be baptizable and savable by it . but if they say that the right to salvation comes , ex opero operato , by meer baptizing , whether the child have undertakers or not , i answer , that a prophanation of god's ordinance is not a saving act : god hath said no such thing , but that the children of infidels are unclean and unholy , and doth not say except some body will baptize them . and why should not the church baptize as many infidels children as they can catch up , though none undertake for them , if baptizing them do certainly save them if they so die . i conclude therefore that seeing no man can be certain that all the baptized children of heathens , infidels , jews , atheists or diabolists are in a state of salvation , god never promising it , but saying the contrary , whoever professeth this undoubted certainty , speaketh falsely , that which he hath not . l. but they say not [ i am undoubtedly certain of it ] but only that it is undoubtedly certain in it self . m. this is to jest with holy things ? to be certain is to be a truth that hath ascertaining evidence , if you mean objective certainty : and how can any man profess or affirm that who knoweth it not ? he that affirmeth that it is objectively certain , doth therefore affirm that he knoweth it to be so , and is subjectively certain , if he mean that it is evident and certain to others and not to him , it 's a contradiction : for if he know it not to be certain he cannot tell that another doth . l. but though you be not certain of it , the subscribers may . m. . i have proved that no man is certain of it , . judge by all the rest of their wisedom , whether every youth that comes for ordination from the universities , be so much wiser than we , that they are certain of this which we think uncertain or false . judge by their other qualifications , whether the seven thousand ministers that declared their assent to the book before they ever saw it , are like to be certainer than the two thousand that were cast out : and are they certain of this that are uncertain of many great and weighty truths through ignorance ? . yea many conformists and papists , say that infant baptism cannot be proved by scripture , but by tradition . and can ten thousand ministers then be certain by scripture that baptized infants are saved ? how gross a contradiction is this ? . and judge farther of the credit and modesty of such men : some divines say that faith it self hath not evidence , and that he that doubteth of christianity and the life to come may be saved , if his belief of it be but strong enough to make him trust and prefer it before all this world . and i hear their greatest divines say that few would be saved if none but they that are undoubtedly certain of the life to come , and of the truth of the gospel should be saved . and yet all must be cast or kept out of the ministry that will not affirm that they are more certain of a hard controversie if not of an untruth , than christ requireth us to be of our very christianity . l. iv. what is the fourth part of your reason against this point ? m. . we dare not father that on god which he never spake . . and we dread the curse , rev. . against them that shall add to his word , viz. that he will add his curses upon them . how terribly are false prophets threatned that say , thus saith the lord , when the lord never said it : this is to belie god and to take his name in vain . and for nine thousand or ten thousand ministers to affirm that this is certain by god's word that they are undoubtedly saved , and when they have done cannot to this day , shew us one word of god that saith it , is such an adding to his word as we had rather still be called all that 's naught , and imprisoned than be guilty of . we take it for a fanatick presumption in papists to pretend to be infallible in councils , in determining those things which out of the council through ignorance they understood not : and how it should be but by enthusiasm , or fanatick pretence of inspiration , that a multitude of raw ignorant fellows , or lads should come to find that in god's word as undoubtedly certain , which none of us in forty or fifty years search could ever find there , i cannot tell . l. i know not what to say to this : i would they had left it to mens free thoughts . m. and do you think now that it 's lawful for us deliberately to assent and consent that this is an undoubted certainty when we are not certain , nor believe it to be true . should we lie to be conformable , were there but this one thing it obligeth us to nonconformity whatever we suffer for it . chap. x. point vii . of the english sort of godfathers at baptism . l. what have you against our use of godfathers in baptism . m. i. negatively , we are not at all against the old sort of patrimi , susceptors , or sponsors that were used at baptism in the ancient churches ; though we think it but a prudential thing , and not of necessity to baptism . l. what mean you by the ancient sort ? what did they ? m. at first , the adult were themselves baptized : for their children had no right till the parent was a christian. and for three hundred years christians were under heathen persecution ; in which some forsook christ for fear by apostasie , and others died while their children were in infancy , who were thereby exposed to desertion , or to infidel education . wherefore to secure the education of these infants , the susceptors that joyned with the parents as their seconds . . did testifie their opinions of the parents , as serious christians , not like to apostatize . . and did promise that if the parents either die or apostatized , they should undertake the childrens education . but if the parents were dead already , they undertook to educate the child themselves as their own . but they were sponsors for no infidels child , unless they first adopted him , or took him for their own . l. and what doth our godfathers differ from this , for which you take them to be sinful , or not approveable . m. the difference is so great , and maketh so great a change in our christening , as i am loath to name to you . . with us godly christian parents themselves , are forbidden to be godfathers with the rest , and to speak one word , much more to profess that they dedicate them in covenant to christ : nor must the minister urge the parent to be present : lest his consent seem necessary . . the godfathers and godmothers are neither tyed to bring the children of christians only , nor only such as they take for their own ; but without difference may bring the infants of any atheists , sadducees , jews , infidels , or open enemies of christ and godliness , without taking them for their own . . they personate the child in promising and professing in his name , without authority so to do . . they do not only promise what the child shall do hereafter but they at present profess that the child by them , or they personating it , do believe , renounce sin , and desire baptism : as if the child were bound to do this by himself or by another . . godfathers too commonly covenant for the future education of the child , themselves to do it or cause it to be done , which they neither ever purposed to perform , or ever made the parents believe that they intended ; and so make christnening a perfidious vowing , or covenanting with god : these are not things indifferent , i think . l. . how prove you that the parents may not be prime covenanters , or sponsors for their own children ? are not they obliged to get godfathers and godmothers for them ? who are supposed to come by their procurement ? and doth not that signifie their own consent , to what these are to undertake . m. it signifieth only that the law constraineth them to let their children be baptized , to avoid their own punishment , and to get others to enter them into the christian covenant . but not that they either are christians , or consent to that covenant themselves , either for themselves , or children . for . known atheists , infidels , and sadducees that deny christianity , are bound by the law to get godfathers for their childrens baptism , as well as christians ; and such cannot be supposed to covenant for them with christ themselves . the sixty eight and sixty nine canons command ministers to refuse no child that is brought , nor to refuse or delay to baptize in private in case of danger who ever desireth him to do it . . the twenty nine canon saith [ no parent shall be urged to be present , nor be admitted to answer as godfather for his own child : nor any godfather or godmother shall be suffered to make any other answer or speech than by the book of common-prayer is prescribed in that behalf ] the parent may say what he will to god in secret . but at the christening of his child , if he should but say [ i believe god's promise to the faithful and their seed : i do devote my child to christ , and engage him in his covenant : or i promise to educate him to christianity ] he breaketh the canon , and goeth against the churches law. i did before the bishops at the savoy , . put the case to them , thus without fiction : an infidel of my parish that useth openly to talk against the scripture and life to come , to avoid inconveniencies , resolveth to send his child to be baptized ; and i must not refuse it by the law : hath the child right to baptism , and is it undoubtedly saved ? dr. sanderson in the chair answered , nemime contradicente , that if he brought him with godfathers according to the church of england , i need not doubt it . but there were but two in the parish that openly declared themselves to be of his opinion , and those two being his familliers are likest to be the godfathers . if the child have not right for infidel parents sake , how can infidel neighbours , called godfathers , give him right . l. but the canon saith that the godfathers shall be only such as have received the sacrament . m. alas none are forwarder than these to receive the sacrament , and laugh at it , and say they will obey the church . yet i doubt not but a faithful parent may be present if he will , and may tell the godfathers in private , that his presence shall signifie his devoting act ; and when the priest speaketh to the godfathers , he may bow his head whether the priest will or not , to signifie that act of his . but this is nothing to the sense of the church , nor to our assent and consent to their exclusion of the parent . l. i confess it sounds to me as unnatural . but what is your other reason against our sort of godfathers ? m. i● . my second reason is , that it is a prophanation of this great and sacred ordinance , to invest those in the visible state christianity ( and salvation pretendedly ) that have no right to such investiture , so they have but godfathers they are to baptize the children of any jews , or heathens , or open enemies to christ , as well as of christians ; which is a manifest prophanation . l. what is the fault of it . m. . it supposeth a false doctrine , that infidel children are within the covenant , and may be baptized as well as christians which in the books aforecited , i have fully disproved . . it is a dangerous adding to god's word and worship . . it is a deceiving of mens souls as to childrens state , to make them believe that their children dying when baptized are all saved , how bad soever the parents be . it is a dreadful belying of god , and prophanation of his name , if men shall in the name of god pronounce pardon and salvation to those whom he never gave them to . l. but god will not punish the children for their parents sin . m. not those that see their fathers sins and forsake them , and live not as their parents did : and that 's all that the scripture saith for such . but if you will read my two foresaid disputations for original sin you will see it fully proved that god punisheth infants , because they are the guilty , and corrupt seed of guilty and corrupt parents . do you believe our church articles and yet deny original sin ? if infants have no guilt and sin what need have they of baptism , or of a saviour ? if they have need of both , sure it is for no actual sin done by them , was not the world lost for adam's sin ? was not cain's posterity cursed for his sake ? were not all the infants of the old world , and all the infants of the sodamites burnt with fire from heaven , and the infants of the canaanites and amalakites , &c. killed for their parents sin . did not christ tell the jews , mat. . that all their forefathers persecutions should be punished on that generation ? the jews knew this that said , his blood be on us and on our children . our liturgy saith , remember not lord our offences nor the offences of our forefathers , &c. . and yet i tell you , that it is for their own sin that the seed of the wicked perish , sin is made their own , when soul and body were for guilty corrupt parents , made such by themselves . i do not say that god imputeth their parents infidelity to them . but this infidelity is the reason of their not being delivered from their own original guilt . if rebels forfeit life and estate , and so their children live in beggery , and the king offer to restore father and children , if the father will thankfully accept his grace : if the parent refuse this , his children will be beggars . not because the king punisheth them for their fathers fault , but because he first deprived himself of the estate which he should have left them , and next because he refused to deliver them . if a father will set the pox on his children , and after refuse a physician that would cure him and them , the physician doth not punish the children . all scripture and nature tell the world that it is so deep an interest that parents have in children , as being causes of their very essence by communication from their own essence , and it is so natural a power that parents have over their children , that it should seem no strange thing to christians , or infidels , that god maketh a very great difference between the seed of the faithful and of the infidels and wicked : and its strange that any men should rather lay their title to pardon and salvation upon a meer neighbour or stranger that perhaps is a wicked wretch himself , than on the parents of the child . l. but will god save children for their parents faith ? m. if he destroy infants for adam's sin , do you think that justice is so much more extensive then mercy , that he will shew no mercy for parents sake ? but the case is this , christ the second adam hath merited pardon and salvation to be given conditionally to all : not absolutely , for then all would be saved : what the condition is to the adult , we are agreed , viz. faith and repentance and dedication to christ by covenant consent : and do you think that infants pardon and salvation hath no condition ? if none , than all infants are saved ; if any condition , what is it ? . is it barely that they be baptized without any right but what all have . this is an injurious fiction , god never said it : and it s an unreasonable imputation on god , as if he would save thousands meerly for water and words , and comdemn thousands that had not the opportunity of these . and it is certain that christians never dream'd of this absurd opinion , or else godly emperours would have forced baptism on the children of all their heathen subjects , and would where their conquering armies came in charity have catcht up their children and baptized them . and bishops and doctors would have taught and intreated them so to do . to make meer baptising alone the condition of infant salvation , is to lay heaven on such a ceremony quite out of the infants power , as would but tempt the rational infidels to deride christianity . no sober men lay a childs estate or life on such a thing . . if there must be some condition of right to baptism antecedent to it , what is it . . it is not actual faith in that infant , that understands not ? . it must then be some others act or nothing ? if anothers , whose should it be so likely as the parents from whom the children have their essence ? whom nature hath taught to take them as almost parts of themselves ; and so hath the custom of all nations ; and who are obliged above all other to provide for them , and whose will in their infancy disposeth of them till they come to have a rational will of their own ( in act : ) and scripture from end to end confirmeth this . but besides this you know not whither to look for a title-conditione , unless to some pro-parent , whose the child is , upon the parents death or resignation . for . if you say it is the faith of the church ( as some ) that giveth the child title , what church mean you ? the universal , or national or diocesan or parochial . and how doth the church give right to pardon and life to infidels children . if it be meerly volendo , as if heaven were at their will , why do they not sit at home , and make a deed of gift of heaven to the infants at the antipodes and of all the world : if it be by baptizing them , i shewed before that baptism meerly as such , doth it not . and if it be the will of the baptizer they must mean the priest , deacon or another : and to say that these are the terms of infant title to baptism and salvation , that if the priests will they shall be baptized and saved ; or else not , seemeth a new gospel . . but it seems with us it is the god-fathers that give them title , else the church could save them when they will without godfathers : and if so , where is the proof of it , in scripture or reason , that god will accept and save infants because a meer neighbour will bring them to be baptized , and promiseth to bring them up well if they live . it is supposed that these sponsors own not the children , and how come they then to have the power to be their representatives , and to dispose of their souls ? l. but any beggars child hath right to be taken into your house , if you are so charitable as to do it ? and so much right to baptism and salvation by it , christ hath given to all . m. where is that deed of gift to be found . it is not a forgery ? he hath made a covenant to the faithful and their seed . but where hath he said , i will save all infidels children , if any priest or christian will but baptize them ? he that said go to the high-wayes and hedges and compel them to come in , excepted the refusers , and required none but perswading compulsion : and its parents that have power of their children . he that can believe to day that god hath made a gift of salvation to all infants that any body will baptize , may easily believe to morrow that he will not cast away the rest meerly because no carrier will bring them in , or because no body will wash them and say over them the words of baptisme . god hath made even in the second commandment , and in exodus . when he proclaimed his name and nature , so great a difference between the seed of the godly and the wicked , that we dare not consent to the confounding of them , nor with the anabaptists unthankfully to deny this mercy , nor to deny or corrupt pauls plain assertion , else were your children unclean but now are they holy . l. iii. what mean you by your third exception . m. i have told you while i opened the former . they personate the child without authority : and it is a great doubt whether the covenant and baptisme were not a meer nullity , did not parents besides the laws of conformity some way signifie their own agency therein . if any neighbour should make a covenant in the name of your child , binding him at age to marry an heiress , who hath a lordship to her portion , would this either oblige your son , or give him any present right to her or her estate ? l. if the donor or person empowered consent , it giveth a conditional right , which becometh actual when he marrieth her ; and so here if god consent its so far valid . m. god hath given christ and life conditionally to all before they believe or are baptized : but all must not therefore be baptized : this is not actual right , and so such infants have no right by this rule , till they believe in christ. but baptisme is an actual marriage with christ , and its a mockery where neither party doth consent . christ doth not consent : for he hath made no promise but to the faithful and their seed . let them that affirm more , show it . the infant doth not consent , having no will of his own in act , and the thing being done by one that had no power to personate or oblige him . and he may say , it was no act of mine , personally or legally . l. any one may accept a gift for another , and bind him to gratitude , which if he refuse he forfeits it . m. if the donor give it on those terms , it 's true . and if you can prove that god hath made his covenant gift of pardon and salvation to all the seed of infidels , atheists and wicked men , on condition that any body will but accept it in their names at present , and bind them to accept it at age , it will then i confess prove a valid act of charity : and i see not but why some good man should say [ lord , i accept of christ and salvation for all the infants on earth , and i bind them to accept it when they come to age ; and i hope the meer want of washing shall not deprive them of that which i have power to accept for them ] i never heard of valid contracts made for infants by any one that will but pretend to personate them . l. thus you would make rebaptizing necessary , if such baptism be a nullity . m. . not to any whose parents , though besides the laws of conformity own their agency , and dedicating their own child to christ , which i hope is the case of most , custom through god's mercy teacheth them better than the canons and common-prayer-book . . and i think not to any other , whose parents in infancy , and themselves at age do own the covenant , and think that it was valid baptism . for to such the end of baptism is attained . if it were no minister , or were one unauthorized that baptized him , it would not be a meer nullity as to the ends , if by mistake it were supposed well done . factum valet , was judged by some , when athanasius by a boy was baptized in sport. l. what is your fourth objection against our way of baptism ? m. that in personating the child , they say that they ( and so he by them ) doth at present believe , renounce , desire , &c. falsely intimating that infants are bound at present to do this by another : and yet the same men plead that god doth not accept him for the faith of his parents ; as if his godfathers faith were his , and not his parents : when as god requireth no faith , or repentance of infants , but only that [ they be the seed of penitent believers , devoted to christ. ] and in the catechism it is said that [ repentance and faith are required of persons to be baptized . ] ( and repentance and faith have a promise of life ) and that infants who cannot perform these are baptized because they promise them by their sureties , which promise when they come to age themselves are bound to perform . where note that the former book had [ they perform them by their sureties ] they perceived that having said faith and repentance are requisite : infants they saw must have at present what is requisite at present : and they knew that they had them not themselves ; and so were fain to hold that the sureties faith and repentance was theirs , and a performance of that required condition . but our new bookmakers saw that this would not hold , and so they say , though faith and repentance be required of persons to be baptized , yet infants are baptized because they promise them by their sureties to be hereafter performed ; amending the former errour by a greater , or a double one . . granting that faith and repentance are pre-requisit , and yet confessing that infants have neither , of their own or sureties imputed to them ; and yet are to be baptized : . or making a promise of future faith and repentance to be present faith and repentance . . or like the antimonians that say , all that are elected to believe hereafter are justified before they believe , so they imitate that ; though faith and repentance be requisite in baptizandis , yet god at present will justifie and save all that have it not in infancy , because they promise it hereafter . all plain contradictions : as if they said , it is requisite in persons to be baptized , and it is not requisite . l. how would you have them have answered these . m. professed faith and repentance are requisite in adult persons to be baptized : and in infants , that they be the seed of the faithful , devoted by them to god in christ , according to his offered covenant of grace . l. v. what mean you by your fifth objection ▪ m. alas , the worst is yet behind . the common perfidiousness that is committed under the name of godfathers baptismal vows and covenants : baptism is one of the greatest actions of all our religion and lives . our rising from death to life ; our visible new birth , our solemn covenanting with god the father , son and holy ghost : our solemn translation from darkness to light , and from the power of satan unto god , that we may receive remission of sin , and inheritance among the sanctified : what more holy , great and venerable action can be done by mortal man , than to enter a solemn covenant with god and our redeemer , in which we wholly give up our selves to him , and covenant for a holy life , and are to receive the pardon of all sin , and the gift of grace , and right to everlasting glory : and if men turn this great ordinance which is the summ of all our religion into perfidiousness and mockery , how heinous sin must this needs be ? and here let us consider , i. who these godfathers in england usually be . ii. what they do , iii. how they perform what they vow and undertake . l. i. they are usually some of the parents friends . m. they are usually such as these : . the poor that have no rich friends do sometimes intreat a poor neighbour to do the office , and sometimes hire any man that will do it : which i never knew tell in london , by begging they made me understand that men do it as labourer's work for their wages : about half a crown is the ordinary pay of beggers , or very poor folks godfathers . but the poor and middling sort do use to try some rich friend or neighbour ; if they have any such , in hopes of some small gift ; some give us for the child a shilling , some half a crown , some a silver spoon . the richer sort seek to persons rather above than below their rank , in expectation of a piece of plate , or some such bigger gift . and in other nations princes are godfathers to children whom they never see , nor perhaps the land of their nativity : and with us it is very often some that dwel not very near , who oft sevre as proxy to stand in their place , and they only give the expected gift and bear the name . ii. what they are to do , i told you before , . to personate the child , and take on them to say as in his name [ i believe , i renounce , i desire ] when they are three and the child but one , and so three persons by fiction represent one , and say that he doth that which he doth not , either , per se vel per alios . . they vow or promise solemnly to do all the things before named . ch. . numb . . viz. to see that the child be taught as soon as he shall be able to learn what a solemn vow , promise and profession he made by them ; and that they call on him to hear sermons , and chiefly that they provide that he may learn , the creed , the lord's prayer , and the ten commandments in the vulgar tongue , and all other things that a christian ought to know and believe to his souls health , and that he be virtu●usly brought up to lead a christian and godly life . all this they solemnly undertake to god and the church . iii. and so far are they usually from performing it . that . i never yet knew one parent that expected any such thing from them , or that ever seriously asked them , do you understand what you are to promise ? and do you resolve to do it . . i never in all my life knew one godfather that made the parent before hand believe that he intended any such thing . . if he had , it 's not credible that three persons should all intend to educate one child of another man's , and perform it ? . nor did i yet ever know to this th . year of my age , one godfather that before adopted the child , or took him for his own , and took him home with him , unless he was a grandfather and did it as such and not as godfather ; much less could all three do it . . nor did i ever to this day know one man or woman that performed this which all three undertake . a very few i have known that will ask how doth my godson , and say , you must be a good boy and learn your book , and perhaps give him a piece of silver : but usually they never look after them . i confess with shame that i have been godfather to four ; to one when i was a child and knew not what i did , but thought , it was only to be a witness of baptism . and to three more when i was twenty three years of age ; of all which i agreed beforehand with the parents to be but a witness , and that they should stand there themselves as the undertakers and signifie it . two of these i never saw since ; a third now dead , i never saw since his infancy till a little before he dyed , and the fourth never since till that lately he came a begging to me . i confess one bishop told me once that he knew one or more that had performed this vow , so did never i , who have lived in many parts of the land. those that perform it not , sure are guilty of heinous perfidiousness ; as breaking so solemn a vow to god. and if this be so common in england that to this age i could never know of one performer , is not the case doleful and dreadful ; that the nation should by such perfidiousness be made christians ? l. but this is the parents or godfathers fault : what 's this to the minister , or to your assent and consent ? m. if it be not nothing to the canons and to the liturgy , it is not nothing to him that must assent and consent to all things in that liturgy , and must swear canonial obedience . and . do you think that the nation can so commonly live in this sin , and the church governours and orders be innocent in it . can those canons and orders be blameless that without any more opposition , let such perfidiousness go to our christening ? can the medicine be laudable that so many miscarry in the use of it ? . by the canon all men are constrained to get some godfathers , and they can force none that is unwilling . . no conscionable persons will promise and undertake that which they never purpose to perform . i never in all my life met with one godly man , that if you opened all the undertaking plainly to him , would say seriously , i am resolved to do all this ? but would refuse the office when he knows it is expected . . if there be hundreds or thousands in a parish that are grosly ignorant of the nature of baptism , and what they do , or that ere atheists , infidels , wicked men not excommunicate , the minister can not deny to take them for godfathers , if they did but ever once receive the sacrament . and to this th year of my age , i never knew one godfather , or godmother questioned or refused by any minister . . if the parent can get no man to stand , he shall be ruined for it , as not bringing his child to be baptized according to the order of the church . . rich men will not give up their children to the god-father's propriety or education . poor mens children none will take . and is it lawful to assent and consent to such orders of baptism as cherish this ? if parents were the undertakers we might urge them to performance . but from such others who can expect it . chap. xi . point viii . of refusing to baptize without such godfathers . l. yov have been long on this point , i pray you be shorter on the next . m. it needs not many words it is so gross . we dare not assent and consent to deny baptism to all children of godly parents that have not such godfathers and godmothers , while the parent offereth to do his own part , professing his faith , and dedicating his child to god , and promising a faithful education . l. how prove you that you must put away all such . m. . did you ever know any baptized otherwise in the church . . the words of the rubrick are [ there shall be for every male child to be baptized , two godfathers , and one godmother ; and for every female one godfather and two godmothers . ] . the godfathers and godmothers only are to speak and covenant ; without which it is no baptism : meer washing without covenanting is no christian baptism , so that the church of england doth make godfathers essential to it . and what it is to add to the essentials of so great an ordinance of god as was instituted by christ's own mouth , for so high an use as our espousal to himself ; judge you . . the canon to which all must subscribe , saith [ that he himself will use the form in the said book prescribed in publick prayer and administration of the sacrament , and no other . . the act of conventicles maketh it l. the first time and , l. every time after for above four to meet to worship god otherwise than according to the liturgy , and practice of the church of england . and to baptize without godfathers is otherwise . . and then the oxford act banisheth them five miles from corporations . is not here sufficient proof . l. and why should any scruple so small a matter ? m. . did i not before tell you why ? . suppose they scrupled it through mistake ? shall every mistake or errour of parents deprive the child of baptism ? i 'll tell you why i dare no more assent and consent to this , than i dare consent to cut off a hand or foot of every such child . . baptising is christening , and dare i causelessly deprive a soul of visible christianity ? . they themselves make it an ascertaining means of salvation , as the forementioned rubrick sheweth . and would they have us shut infants from salvation for nothing ? yea they seem to confine salvation only to the baptized , while they conclude that they are saved as baptized ones , and except the unbaptized from christian burial : the best can be but to leave them as without any promise of life from christ : and how can we believe that god will give them that which he never promised them . and shall i damn souls for want of a humane unnecessary , if not corrupt invention . . it is against the interest of christ and the church ? shall i make a covenant to rob christ and the church of visible members for nothing ? murthering infants is death by god's laws and mans ? and innocents day is one of the christmas holy days . and is it a thing indifferent for me and all the ministers of the national church , to make a solemn bargain that we assent and consent to keep out all from the church and from the covenant ( and in their sense the hope ) of salvation on such an account as this . l. the thing were dismal and unexcusable if it were as you make it : but how can you say that they shut them out when they force all parents to bring them in , and to submit to their way ? when did you ever know any child refused on this account . m. many a hundred in my time . the law refuseth them , and it is in vain for the parents to send them to a minister who they know hath solemnly covenanted to reject them . hundreds have been baptized by nonconformists , because the church refuseth them . . and as to their compelling men to get godfathers i answer , . those that think it a sin will not obey that compulsion , but rather suffer . . if any yield against conscience to escape suffering , such compulsion doth but drive them towards damnation . . but those that yield to it by compulsion , do but seem to do it , and do it not : for they agree before hand with the godfathers , to represent them , and speak in their names , and to be themselves no undertakers . though all this is very hard shifting . l. i confess this is a case so distant from things indifferent , that were there but this one reason , i will no more persuade any to assent and consent to all things contained and prescribed , even to the use . m. and what think you if the same men that made these canons and subscribe to all this , are the sharp condemners of schism and anabaptistry . . what is schism , if this be not , causelessly to keep out so many from the church ? and have not the anabaptists a far more excusable pretence to deny the baptizing of infants , than this in question is : the case is of great difficulty to them , and it is christ's will that they doubt of . but here is no difficulty ? and these men set the will and devise of man against christ , who said forbid them not , and was angry with those that forbad them to come to him . chap. xii . point ix . of the cross in baptism . l. i have oft wondred what any man can say against the use of the cross in baptism , which signifieth our resolution to be true to a crucified christ. m. i have oft thought many things absurd in you lawyers , to which i have been reconciled when i was well informed of the reason of them . i ask you . . do you believe that jesus christ is the king and only universal lawgiver to his church . l. yes , but men under him may make local laws . m. . do you believe that he is the author of the christian baptism ? l. yes , no doubt , i find it , mat. . . m. . do you believe that he did it so defectively that men may amend it . l. no doubt but he did his own work perfectly . m. . do you not believe that it is his prerogative to institute sacraments of the covenant of grace ? l. yes , no doubt ; for our church holdeth that there are but two , and disowneth the five roman sacraments . and yet i think most of them may be called sacraments , especially ordination , and matrimony ( and so may the kings coronation ) but not sacraments of the covenant of grace . m. let us now enquire . . what a sacrament of the covenant of grace is . . whether our crossing be not such . i. the romans used the word [ sacraments ] for an external obliging covenanting ceremony : especially for the act of soldiers ceremony by binding themselves to military relation and fidelity to their captains . a sacrament of the covenant of grace is an outward visible act or ceremony ; by which we oblige our selves in covenant to christ as our saviour , promising fidelity and by which we are told by christs ministers , that his grace is signified which is given by his covenant . the catechism indeed saith [ it is an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace , given to us , ordained by christ himself , as a means whereby we receive the same , and a pledge to assure us thereof . ] but it 's obvious to any man of reason , that the words [ ordained by christ himself ] signifie not a sacrament as such , but [ as divine ] distinct from humane . else it were impossible for man to be guilty of making false humane sacraments : if they should make more , just such as baptism and the lords supper , they would be no sinful sacraments , if none be sacraments but christs . if there be all these things , there is a sacrament of the covenant of grace falsely instituted by man. . if there be an outward visible sign . . if both the purchased and conveyed grace of the covenant of christ be signified by it . . and so signified as to be an instituted means of conveying it . . if it be a sign obliging the covenanting person to his covenant duty . . and if thus it be a symbol , or badge of the order professed . i. the outward visible sign is crossing , or the transient image of a cross , made by one that acteth as a minister of christ by his pretended commission , and received in his forehead by the baptized . ii. the thing signified is both the work of redemption purchasing grace , and grace given by that purchase : both these are fully expressed can. . [ the holy ghost by the mouthes of the apostle did honour the name of the cross , so far that under it he comprehended not only christ crucified , but the force , effect and merits of his death and passion , with all the comforts , fruits and promises which we receive or expect thereby : the church of england hath retained still the sign of it in baptism , following therein the primitive and apostolical churches , and accounting it a lawful outward ceremony and honourable badge , whereby the infant is dedicated to the service of him that dyed on the cross , as by the words of the common-prayer book may appear ] which words are [ we receive this child into the congregation of christ's flock , and do sign him with the sign of the cross , in token that he shall not be ashamed to confess , the faith of christ crucified , and manfully to fight under his banner against sin , the world and the devil , and to continue christ's faithful souldier and servant to his lifes end . amen ] and in the preface of ceremonies [ they serve to a decent order , and godly discipline , and such as be apt to stir up the dull mind of man to the remembrance of his duty to god by some notable and spiritual signification , whereby he may be edified . ] so that the thing signified is christ crucified with the benefits of his cross , and the grace of edification by stirring up our dull minds by the moral causality of the cause , and binding us to constancy to christ. l. but moral causing by objects works not on infants . m. true , no more doth washing in water , and yet this is used for the benefit of the parents at present , and of infants when they are at the use of reason . indeed christ by his own sacrament giveth right and relative grace , which he will not do by mens inventions . iii. but man plainly appointeth the cross to work this grace by way of exciting signification . iv. and it is expresly made man's covenanting sign , by which he bindeth himself to covenant fidelity ; that he will not be ashamed to confess the faith of christ crucified , and manfully to fight , &c. the whole duty of the covenant on man's part is promised hereby . v. and the canon tells you it is a dedicating sign and badge of our profession . so that i see not what is wanting to a sacrament , as far as man can make one , by presumption , which we cannot consent to . l. but it 's said that baptism is perfect without it . m. so it is without the lord's supper ; and yet that is justly added : it saith not that mans covenanting with god is perfect without it : for it seemeth a sacrament of man 's added to that of christ , to tie men faster to him . l. ancient christians did use the cross without scruple . m. . it is not all use of the cross that we speak against ; but using it as a sacrament of the covenant , and badge of christianity : the king would not take it well if subjects presume to make a new badge of the order of knights of the garter , and add it to the garter and the star. to shew by an action as well as by a word to scorning heathens that they were not ashamed of a crucified saviour , might be more excusable that this . and they foresaw not to what abuse it would be after turned . . but suppose we mistook in these our fears of sinning . . do you think that the case hath not difficulty enough to excuse a man for fear of sinning ? . and do you think that for such fear , and not acting against them we deserve to be cast out as heinous uncapable delinquents ? chap. xiii . point x. of denying baptism to them that refuse the cross. m. but the practice of crossing is disputable , and i lay not so sharp a censure on them that differ from us in it : but what excuse can be made by a man of christian charity , and consideration for denying baptism to all that refuse this crossing , i confess i cannot imagine , nor could ever hear . l. their excuse is , that crossing being lawful , the refusers are disorderly schismaticks , and they and their children ( as theirs ) uncapable of baptism . they say it is not they , but you that are the refusers . they offer to baptize you or your child , and you refuse it . m. . they know that it is not baptism but crossing that is refused : and if they will not administer one without the other , they are the refusers . if one refuse the papists exorcism , salt , spittle , &c. and they will not baptize without it , do they not deny to baptize , unless one will receive all these ? if god will justifie them for rejecting all that think it a sin to receive their crossing , then it is not them to whom it is to be imputed . but can that be true ? . christ that instituted baptism , ordained the conditions of it , and the qualifications of such as shall be baptized , mat. . and mark . . he that believed was to be baptized . act. . if thou believe with all thy heart thou mayest : no , saith the canon you shall not , though you repent and believe , unless also you will take the covenanting badge of the cross. is not this to alter the terms of christ's covenant and sacrament , and directly to contradict his very fundamental law of christianity ? baptize all that are made disciples , saith christ , and all that repent and believe : no saith our convocation , baptize none of them that will not take the transient image of a cross , for their farther obligation . . do you that think it is necessary to christianity and salvation know that this federal crossing is lawful ? if you affirm it , you must say the same of all ceremonies of the same importance , and so must make a hundred new articles of faith , even of ceremonies and such little things , and make them all necessary to christianity and salvation ? and is not this to make a new gospel , christianity , and church , and to turn christ's easie yoke into a worse than the slavery of pharisaical traditions ? and is not this to shut all , or almost all men out of heaven ? no one on earth doth know that this , and all such ceremonies , and inventions of men are lawful : and must every one know it that will be a christian , or have his child made one ? or must we all ( as necessary to christianity ) believe all such things lawful if the clergy do but say they are ? and what if the clergy in one land say it is , and in another , say it is not : must both be believed ? have wise bishops no fitter penalty to enforce their usurping canons by , than denying christendom and salvation ? one would think it should be enough for the preachers of humility to say , [ we are so wise that he that differeth practically from us in that which we call an indifferent ceremony , and he calls a sinful corruption of baptism , shall be punished as much as swearers , drunkards and fornicators be , or shall be made a slave with his children ] without denying them christianity and salvation . but the best is , all cannot keep men out of heaven that boast of the power of the keys ; and there is one lawgiver who is able to save and to destroy . l. you make a heinous cruelty of it , as if it were oppression and tyranny to souls , and they say that they impose nothing on you but things indifferent . m. must their indifferent things be enforced with so great penalty as damnation ? if every one cannot love every dish that they love , or get down every pill that they give him , but he be famish'd therefore , or have his thro at cut wider ? i had rather live and die a chimney-sweeper , or a channel cleanser , or a keeper of swine , than a bishop that should put christ's disciples and their seed , whom he commandeth them to baptize , mat. . . from his covenant and church , and specially when themselves make baptism more necessary and certainly saving , than it is . l. but you may venture to baptize such if you will. m. what , when i have covenanted assent and consent to all things in their book , and subscribed to use no other form in baptizing ; and also must be cast out for it ? chap. xiv . point xi . of rejecting from communion all that dare not kneel in the act of receiving . l. i hear that you receive the eucharist kneeling your self , and take it for lawful : what then have you against the canon or liturgy for this ? m. i am my self for the lawfulness of organs , railes , and coming up to them , and for the lawfulness of kneeling when we sing psalms , or read the scripture , or hear the preacher . but i am not for the lawfulness of hanging or damning men that herein are not of my mind : nor for turning unnecessary things , because they are lawful into conditions , sine quibus non , of church communion , and engines for satan to divide christ's flock by , and persecute men for fearing sin . paul was for the lawfulness of using , or not using , the meats and days mentioned rom. . , . but he was not for either judging or despising one another about them , much less for casting men from the church and heaven for them ; nor for saying , except ye be circumcised ye cannot be saved . l. nor doth the church make kneeling in receiving necessary to salvation , but enjoyne it as a decent ceremony . m. they that make this kneeling necessary to church communion , and avoiding schism , and make church-communion and avoiding schism necessary to salvation , do make the said kneeling necessary to salvation . but so do the canonists here : ergo. how usually do they apply christ's words to the sacrament [ except ye eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood , ye have no life in you ] if communion herein be not necessary , how come all the dreadful sermons , and volumnes to thunder damnation against those that do but stay away through fear of unpreparedness , and they must be excommunicated that communicate not twice a year with them ; yea though they communicate elsewhere with nonconformists . l. wherein lyeth the sinfulness of conformity here ? m. i. in subscribing , assenting and consenting to this . ii. in practising it against godly believers . l. i have heard that . at the savoy they maintained that the liturgy did not bind you to put away them that do not kneel , and so you might subscribe to it . m. this quibble served mens turn that were resolved it should be served . the case was this : they required us to lay by inconveniencies , and name only flat sins which the liturgy required ; we gave them in a catalogue of eight . this was the first , denying the lord's supper to all that durst not receive it kneeling . they were hereupon divided among themselves : dr. pierson , and dr. gunning and sparrow who were the disputants , in policy finding that they should be hard put to it to justifie such rejections devised this evasion , that the liturgy did only bid them give it kneeling , but did not forbid them giving it to others . dr. morley and others were against their opinion , and so they were divided : but they permitted the disputers to go on ( it being the last day ) in the way that served their present turn . but the case is clear . . the canon forbids them on pain of suspension to give the sacrament to any that kneel not . and they all take the oath of canonical obedience : and though in licitis & honestis be added , the terms signifie that they are to take the canons as licita & honesta : and these canons , ipso facto , excommunicate all professed nonconformists . . they all subscribe to use the form of administrating sacraments in the common-prayer book , and no other . . the church therefore expounds its own meaning in the liturgy by the canon , that [ give it to them kneeling ] signifies give it only to such . . if any doubt of it let them try , and their suspension according to the canon will expound it to them . l. if the practice be sinful in rejecting such , assenting and consenting and subscribing to do it must be sinful . m. the sin lyeth in what i before said about refusing baptism . . it maketh new terms of church communion . . it contradicteth christ's appointed terms , which require all christians to receive each other in love and concord : and paul expresly decideth such cases , rom. , and . receive one another as christ received us to the glory of god. will christ that receiveth them to pardon , grace and endless glory , own these rejecters and condemners ? or will he not say , in as much as ye did it to one the least of these my brethren , ye did it to me ? and who is he that condemneth , when it is christ that justifieth . . they shall answer for depriving christ's members of their right , as truely as if they oppressed widows , and orphans , and turned them out of their houses , and inheritance . . they shall answer for schismatical tearing the church by their engines . . and for usurping a needless and hurtful dominion over mens faith , and consciences by their church legislation . . and for using that office which is made for the edifying and comfort of the faithful , to drive conscience and obedience to god out of the world , by making doubtful , ensnaring impositions , and then persecuting and rendring odious all that dare not obey them for fear of sin , while they bear with the rabble that hate serious godliness , and encourage them by preferring them in their communion . l. but what pretence have any against kneeling ? m. . it is not a necessary point of salvation or communion , and therefore if they err they are not therefore to be excommunicate , unless you will excommunicate all that have errour and sin , that is , your selves , and every living man. . they have the pretence of real fearing that it is a sin to differ in the gesture from christ's administration , thinking that a table gesture was intended by him to signifie his sacrifice-feast . . they fear breaking the second commandment , which is against corporal seeming to worship as idolaters do though the heart mean better ; and so against symbolizing with idolaters , and against scandalous hardening them in their sin : because papists are known to kneel to the bread as unto god and worship it . and these papists live among us , and are now hoping to set up their idolatry . though for my part i think that the publick doctrine of the church , takes off this argument of scandal , yet it is such as very learned and holy men think valid : as you may see in mr. rutherford's letters , and many others . . and ad hom̄inem , i see not what the excommunicators can say for themselves , while they condemn all of schism that obey not general councils , especially the four first , and that differ from the universal churches customes : and yet the very first nicene council , and divers after forbid all kneeling in adoration on any lord's day in the year , and on any weeks day between easter and whitsunday . and all the ancients assure us that this was one of the chief ceremonys that the church then called universal agreed in . and it was never put down by any other general council , but at rome grew out of custome by degrees , and that not till a thousand years after christ as dr. heylin confesseth . and shall these same men that cry up the church and the laws of councils excommunicate those that obey them as schismaticks , and pass for the followers of the church themselves ? in a word , i dare no more cast godly christians from christs sacrament , for fearing least kneeling in receiving be a symbolizing with idolaters contrary to the second commandment , than i durst turn widows and orphans out of their inheritance for not speaking the same language , or wearing the same fashions as i do . chap. xv. point xii . of consenting to the false rule to find out easter-day in the liturgy . m. the next point is materially a trifle , but formally so palpable an untruth , that we cannot deliberately declare that we assent to it , viz. they tell us in their calender truly how to find easter-day , and they add another rule to find it always which is frequently false , as every almanack will tell you : viz. that [ it is always the first sunday after the first full moon , which happens next after the one and twentith day of march. ] l. it is true for the most part , though not always . m ▪ and we will assent that it is true for the most part , but not always . l. this is but a mere mistake , and can you scruple conformity for such a trifle . m. is it lawful deliberately to lie in a trifle ? in them it was but an untruth , for they wrote what they thought had been true . but it would be a wilful lying in me who know it to be false . l. but you may in your subscribing , or declaring except that which you know the authors would have excepted , had they known them to be false . m. say you so ? then i may except all the rest which i here except against ; for truth is so naturally the object of the intellect , that i may suppose that the convocation would have put none of them on us , had they known them to be false . do you mean that i may except them in words or writing , or only mentally ? if the first , i have offered them to declare my assent and consent to all things in the book in which the authors were not mistaken : but that is refused with derision and is contrary to the act of uniformity , which saith , [ they shall declare in these words and no other . ] if you mean mentally then a man may covenant , or swear any falsehood with a mental exception ; and so any 〈◊〉 may subscribe , or covenant what you will. l. but you know those two most knowing men , grotius ( de iure beili ) and bishop jer. taylor ( duct . dubit . ) maintain that useful lying which hurts no one , is no sin : a man's life may be saved by a lie . m. and in my housholders catechism on the ninth commandment i have fully confuted it , to which i refer you● no man's private commodity or life must be preferred before the common welfare of mankind : why do souldiers hazard , their lives , and malefactors lose them , but for the common good and safety ? but if men had leave to lie when it is for their safety , or commodity it would utterly overthrow all humane converse and societies , by over-throwing all trust and justice : rulers and subjects , preachers and hearers , judges , jurors , witnesses , traders ▪ contractors , would all find some reason from their commodity to lie. laws are made chiefly for the common safety and profit , and must not allow a single persons to the common hurt . l. i confess the reason is weighty : but most men will but laugh at you , to suffer ruine rather then to assent to so harmless a lie as that is . m. it is to god's judgment that we stand or fall , who hath decreed to cast out of his kingdom all lyars , rev. , and . l. it 's a wonder to me that all the bishops , doctors , and church of england should publish and impose such a mistake , and never a man of them examine it , and detect it : and yet a greater wonder that the lords and bishops and commons in parliament should pass and impose it without examination ? m. neither of them is any wonder to me , considering who the men were , and in what circumstances , and what moved them ? no more than that they would rather england were in the case it is in , than to have forborn any of their impositions , called things indifferent , or than the king's declaration of ecclesiastical affairs , should have healed us . but do you think that such mens volumns are like to be so infallible in matters of faith , doctrine and right , who no more examine plain matters of fact , as that all the clergy may boldly declare assent and consent to all contained in , and ●●escribed by their book ? and that before they ever see it . and did not convocation , parliament , and the whole declaring clergy go one way , and notably trust some body , and are we not excusable for trying further ? doth this common belief deserve honour and preferment , and our unbelief of such things deserve silencing and ruine ? l. i marvail what they say to this , who expound their assent and consent as to the use : if they use this rule we must keep two easters oft , one at a right time , and another at a wrong . m. it 's enough to justifie themselves , to call refusers schismaticks , rogues , and disobedient to government , as the poor protestants are called in france chap. xvi . point xiii . of pronouncing all saved that are buried , except the vnbaptized , excommunicate and self-murtherers . l. what are the words hear that you dislike ? m. i told you before , [ for as much as it hath pleased almighty god to take to himself the soul of our dear brother , here deceased . ] and [ we give thee thanks for that it hath pleased thee to deliver this our brother out of the miseries of this sinful world ] and [ that we may rest in him as our hope is this our brother doth ] l. what harm is in these words ? must not charity be used in our judging of all mens final state . m. we like all the office , and these words very well , if used over the corpse of capable persons ; and if true discipline in the church did make a just separation of the capable and uncapable . l. then the fault is not in the liturgy , but the government . m. it only follows that the fault is primarily in the governours corruption , and neglect of discipline ; but it 's next also in the liturgy ? for the matter of fact and right is presupposed to the declaration of it : and it followeth not that because i may speak well of good men , i may do so of bad . christ will condemn those that feed not , visit not , harbour not his servants , mat. . all men ought to be his servants and deserve this . yet multitudes in scotland suffer now , for feeding and harbouring rebellious subjects : suppose they say now that the fault was not in us that fed them ; but in them that were rebells ; we were bound to feed honest men , and they were bound to be honest , and charity judgeth the best . i think this will not save some from the gallows . i think if the bishops were but to bury souldiers killed in fighting against the king , and at the grave should pronounce them all good subjects , it would be ill taken ; much more is it to pronounce them saved . charity is no excuse for dangerous errour and falshood . it must not follow a blind understanding . i am sure that the clergy in their sermons and writings , condemn abundance whom at the grave they pronounce saved . l. but what danger is it to judge too charitably ? m. it hath all these dangers . . the guilt of speaking falsely to god. . the contradicting of god's word , which saith , that no whoremonger , drunkard , railer , murtherer , shall enter into the kingdom of god , and that the impenitent shall perish . . the hardening of ungodly men against all fear of god , when they hear that the same men , that in the pulpit threaten damnation to them , recant it all in their application at the grave , and pronounce them saved . how could they more dangerously deceive men , who take that in deeper usually that is said at the grave , than in the pulpit . l. but some say none of those words signifie the persons salvation , but his removal hence . m. read them ; if those do not , none do . l. but some say , that by [ excommunicate ] is meant [ excommunicable ] or such as ought to be excommunicate , and then what more can you desire ? m. their saying is a presumptuous contradiction to that which they consent to , what reason have they for it : is excommunicate , and excommunicable all one ? or may they put what sense they list on laws ? if they do but tell the bishops this much , they will make them know that they are not made judges of who is excommunicable : when i have craved but the alteration of that word , they answered me with contempt , that so every priest or curate should have the power of damning whom he please . but sure si●encing our judgment of a man , is not damning him . but what place is there for any doubt , when the book nameth the three sorts excepted , & exceptio firmat regulam in non exceptis . yea the express exposition in the canon ● . is [ if he shall refuse to christen the one , or bury the other ( that is , any brought ) except the party deceased were denounced excommunicate , majori excommunicatione , for some grievous and notorious crime , and no man able to testifie of his repentance , he shall be suspended by the bishop of the diocese from his ministry by the space of three months . ] and alas how many thousand infidels , hobbists , sadducees , hereticks , adulterers , thieves , perjured , scorners at godliness , &c. are among us unexcommunicated . if all in england be saved , except the unbaptized , excommunicate , and self-murtherers ( which , de singulis , one by one must be said of all the rest ) either scripture and pulpits are much mistaken , or else we that live among men are in a dream , and our senses are all deceived . chap. xvii . point xiv . of consenting to read the apocrypha . l. what harm is there in reading the apocrypha ? m. i told you that we scruple not reading most of it in the place of homilies or other books ; especially the books called wisedom and ecclesiasticus . but , . many bishops and doctours of the church of england have accused the books of tobit of down right lies , and the books of iudith , bell and dragon , &c. as being meer fictions . . and when we read these , it is to be done in the same order as we read the scripture , by the name of lessons , which is the title given to the chapters read out of the old and new testament . . and , if we could yet read all these , that will not serve unless we declare our assent , consent , and approbation of the appointment of them in the book , which we cannot do . l. but they are for the most part to be read but on week days , or holy days . m. the conforming clergy consent and covenant to the imposition that requireth them to read the common-prayer every day in the week , unless they be hindred by sickness or some urgent cause . and so it is still the publick service . god's service is all to be done with holy reverence , and if the book of tobit and some others be guilty of so many gross falsehoods , as protestants have and do still accuse them of , i fear both to use them as lessons in the place of god's word , lest it be prophanation , and also to subscribe , or declare my approbation of the calender , and that use , lest i be guilty of the sin of all the ministers in england that so use it . and it 's dangerous to seem to tell the people that so many books are god's word that are not such : for they understand not the greek word apocrypha , and every reader at least that is not licensed to preach , is forbidden by the canon to expound even that one word to them . chap. xviii . point xv. of assenting to mistranslations , and subscribing that they are not contrary to the word of god. l. are not the epistles and gospels used according to the last translation ? m. yes , in the new books they are , but the psalms are not . l. what great mistranslations are there ? m. sometimes a whole verse or more is left out , and sometimes the translation is quite contrary to the text. as psal. . . [ they rebelled against his word ] instead of [ they rebelled not against his word ] and in the book ( which this justifieth ) are many in the epistles and gospels ; i have cited them at large elsewhere . l. how cometh there to be so many faults in the old translation ? m. the work was an excellent good work : but the authors ( it seems for want of skill in the hebrew ) followed the septuagint greek translation , which hath these and many such defects . l. sure it is lawful to use and follow the septuagint , for the apostles did so in the new testament . m. . the apostles some times use it , and sometimes follow the hebrew against it , and sometimes neither . . but to use it is one thing , and to justifie it is another thing . it was in common use in the time of christ and his apostles , and they used that in speaking to the people , which use made intelligible and acceptable . and we scruple not using it : but all the works of man are imperfect , as man is : and why must we subscribe that there is nothing in it contrary to the word of god ? when as every mistake in it is contrary to it . l. it seems then you would not subscribe to the bible , that there is nothing in it contrary to the word of god ? m. i will subscribe to the truth of all that is in the true copies of the original , if there by any such : and i will subscribe that the various lections in those copies that we have , are not the failing of the holy ghost , or apostles , nor are such as leave us in just doubt of any necessary truth ? and i will subscribe to the translation so far as it agreeth with the original . but i will not subscribe that any translation is perfect or faultless ▪ or to this or that hebrew or greek copie , as if in every word or lection it certainly agreed with the autographs . and why should men make snares for the church , by imposing professions , that any mere man's works are perfect , when all mortal men are confessedly imperfect ? is it not enough peaceable to use them , and to profess that all the word of god is infallible truth ? l. but i cannot think that an approbation of all the translations is intended in your assent and consent . m. are they no part of that which is contained in the book , and prescribed by it ? or could not the parliament speak sense . chap. xix . point xvi . of consenting to reject all from communion , who desire not our episcopal confirmation . l. me thinks you that have written a book for confirmation should not scruple consenting to this . m. i told you that i am so far from scrupling the true use of confirmation , that i think it is the want of it that is the greatest corruption of the church of any outward thing that i remember . but you must note , . that it is the english way of confirmation that we speak of . . and that it is not the thing it self , but the denying men church-communion that neither have it , nor desire it , which we here dissent from . l. what mislike you in the english way of confirmation ? m. i must first tell you how the case stands in matter of fact : . when christ sent forth preachers , he endued them , not all , with equal gifts and power : tho' most had some extraordinary gifts and inspiration , it was made , tho' not proper to the apostles , yet for the most part their priviledged above all others , that the holy ghost was given to those on whom they laid hands , for miraculous acts ; especially sudden speaking of tongues not learnt , and prophesying ; tho' the gift of sanctification necessary to salvation was given to all true believers , by whomsoever converted . . when the apostles were dead , and these miraculous insprirations grew rare first , and then ceased ( unless in some very rare instance ) yet the ordinary pastors continued the custom after baptism , to lay on their hands as for the giving of the holy ghost . as they did also the ceremony of anointing the sick , which had been used for miraculous cures . . the dead ceremonies of laying on of hands for the holy ghost , and of anointing , being used without the power and former effects , somewhat else must be though on to keep up their reputation . and as to that now in question , first they added more to the ceremony of it , and anointed the person with oyl , and made the sign of the cross on him , thereby to signifie his being anointed with the holy ghost , and fortified thereby to follow a crucified christ thro' sufferings . and when it was seen that the holy ghost was not thereby given for miracles , they thought that he was given in a double degree for corroboration : and some thought that he was not given at all in baptism , ( that did but wash away guilt ) but by confirmation after . . hereby confirmation got the name of a sacrament ( as anointing the sick also did ) and was used presently after baptism for the most part ; and the ceremonies of it were made more pompous , and it was appropriated to the bishop , for the most part ; or if presbyters did it , they must use no ointment to anoint and cross them with , but what the bishop made by mixture , and blest , to make it holy : and because he could not go himself to the sick , the presbyters must fetch all their ointment for this also , ready made and hallowed from the bishop . . when infants were baptized , they thus presently anointed them also , and called it their chrysm and confirmation , till then he was taken but for a half or imperfect christian , that was only baptized and not confirmed . . popery having turned most of christ ordinances into a dead image , used these called sacraments , to keep up a ceremonious shew of religion , and to keep up the power of bishops in that formal way . . when reformation prevailed , the papists seven sacraments were examined ; and only baptism and the lords supper found to be christs sacraments of the covenant of grace : ordination to be the ministerial sacrament of orders , or consecration to that office. matrimony to be a common domestick sacrament of marriage : confirmation and extream vnction , to be abusive imitations of antient miraculous acts : and pennance to be some expressions of repentance made more necessary than indeed they were , and arbitrarily imposed by mans invention to keep up the dominion of ambitious priests over the souls of deluded men : tho' at first only introduced by meer direction of ministers to men of troubled conscience , shewing what restitution and reparations of the hurt they had done by sin were necessary , and what expression of their repentance was most fit . . hereupon the reformers cast away the sacraments of pennance and extream vnction , and reduced the four first to their primitive state and use : and the abused way of confirmation they cast off , but some desired to make an advantage of the name , for another end and duty of great moment , which had been neglected to the great corruption of the church . and the church of england attempted to do this , reserving as much of the antient form as possibly they could . the adult were of old baptized before infants , and never without a most solemn personal profession of faith and repentance , and absolute dedication to christ. and that this might be done with the greatest weight and resolution they were usually taught as catechumens till they came to understanding and resolution , before they were admitted to baptism . their infants some brought to baptism , and some delayed till they came to age , all being left at liberty , and neither adult nor infant driven to baptism , nor accepted till it was desired . but as prelacy grew up to dominion , all were forced to be baptized in infancy ; and at last such growing up in ignorance , were all taken for christians , while few knew what christianity was , or what it was to be baptized , or what was there promised on their part , or on christs . and when these came to have children they were baptized and bred up as their parents were , and christianty for the most part turned into meer name and ceremony , the persons being mostly ignorant of its essentials . this corruption of the church seemed to many to come only from infant baptism ; whereupon they turned anabaptists , and taught that men should not be baptized till they seriously and solemnly professed their own faith and repentance . but wiser men saw that we must not deny infants their church state and right because of mens abuse , and their neglect of other duties : baptism is one thing , and personal confession and covenanting is another . it is the omission of these at age , that hath corrupted the church , and not infant baptism , which entreth them but into a church state suitable to their infancy . they need not repeat baptism which they had ; but to manifest actual faith and repentance which in infancy they had not . that which should be done , is to make their transition into the communion of adult christians to be a serious , solemn work , and not a delusory ceremony . that those baptized in infancy may learn what they did , and what christianity is , as to our faith , duty & hopes : and when they come to true resolution , to own the baptismal vow , and as solemnly renew it themselves , as others made it for them . the english reformers therefore did retain the ceremony of imposition of hands , and the appropriation of it to the bishop , and the name of confirmation , and stretcht the use of the sign ( imposition of hands ) to the utmost that they durst , but instead of applying it to infants they made it the owning of the baptismal covenant , and appointed catechizing to go before it , and call for a solemn performance of it . and were it used as a rational sober owning of the baptismal covenant indeed in an understanding , serious manner , for transition into the state of adult communicants , it would be the greatest means of a true reformation , and of union with the parties that now differ about church order , that can be used . divers of the highest episcopal divines write as earnestly for this as any of us : especially mr. elderfield and dr. hammond , and yet were it to prevent our continued division , and our ruin , there is no hope of obtaining it . l. why , what hinders if all sides desire it ? m. it is desired as holiness is desired ; seriously by the serious ; reservedly , and by halves by the half christian , and only the name , image and ceremony by the gross hypocrite , who hateth it at the heart , because it is above him , and against his carnal mind and interest . and indeed it is here made impossible to be done any otherwise ordinarily than as a ceremony . for . the diocesses are so vast that the bishop cannot do this and other his offices for the hundredth part of his undertaken flock . suppose this diocess have but five or six hundred thousand souls ( for when an hundred thousand died the last plague , i hope it was not above the ●ixth part : ) do you think that the bishop is able ( did he work as hard as any nonconformist ) to confirm six hundred thousand persons , or the twentieth part of them , or the hundredth , in that serious manner as belongs to the binding of a soul to christ in so solemn a covenant . it becometh me not to inquire whether bishops be men that are for so much seriousness in christianity themselves , and so much labour to attain it : some are far better than others : you know them as well as i. but i must say . that as far as i can learn there is not one of an hundred confirmed at all . . all the thousands that are unconfirmed live in the parishes as reputed christians , and may come to the sacrament when they will. . i never knew one minister of all that covenanted it , to keep one man from the sacrament for not being confirmed , or not being desirous of it ; nor one neighbour that ever was examined on this point , whether he were confirmed , or were ready and desired it . . some few elder votaries to the bishops perhaps may be serious in it ; but what a mere running ceremony it is usually made , i need not tell you . i have formerly said , that i was at years of age confirmed my self , by bishop morton ( one of the learned'st and best bishops that ever i knew ) and we ran thither from school , without the minister's knowledge , or one word from our master , to tell us what confirmation is ; and in a church yard in the path-way , as the bishop past by , we kneeled down , and laying his hands on every boys head , he said a few words , i knew not what ; nor did any one of my school-fellows , as far as i could perceive , know what he said ; nor know what confirmation is , any more than to have the bishop's blessing : nor were we ask'd by him , or any , whether we stood to our baptismal covenant , save only by saying by rote the catechism to our master : nor did i see any one make any more than a ceremony of it . when the bishops were down , i saw it made a serious work by divers ministers , who instructed young men till they found them seriously resolved for christ , and then taking the best of confirmation and penitence , caused them publickly before the congregation to profess their faith and repentance , and to renew the covenant they made in baptism to christ. and were it made the work of godly ministers to do it , or to prepare men personally for it , and not make it a game for boys , much good might be done by it . l. well , what have you against it besides abuse , which no body desireth you to subscribe to . m. were i a publick minister , i should be glad of that rubrick to enable me to keep away the grosly ignorant , which i know no other clause that enableth me to do : but i durst not use it , to turn from communion all godly persons whom it excludeth ; nor can i consent so to do . l. what can make godly persons scruple it as sinful ? m. many things : . the words make it seem to some to be yet made a sacrament , which are [ vpon whom after the example of thy holy apostles , we have now laid our hands to certifie them by this sign of thy favour and gracious goodness toward them . ] here is an outward visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace given to them , said to be done in imitation of christ's apostles , as a means whereby they receive the same , and a ● ledge to assure them thereof ; ( as the collects with it shew ) which is the catechisms definition of a sacrament . . they that are against our diocesan sort of prelacy , dare not seem to own it , by coming to them for confirmation , appropriated to them . . those that think that a great and holy duty is made a mere mockery to delude souls , and corrupt the church ( while every one in england that will but take this ceremony , is pronounced to god in prayer to be [ regenerate by the holy ghost , and all their sins forgiven them ; ] these dare not joyn themselves with the prophaners in their delusory way . be these scruples just or unjust , while the same persons are willing to own their own baptismal covenant , understandingly and seriously before the church and their own pastors , and to know those that labour among them , and are over them in the lord , and esteem them in love for their works sake , and to be at peace among themselves , i dare not for scrupling this diocesan ceremony , cast them from the communion of the church of christ. and therefore i dare not approve of the order that requireth it , nor assent and consent to it , nor subscribe that it is not contrary to the word of god. chap. xx. point xvii . of consenting to all the ornaments of church and ministers that were in use in the second year of king edw. . l. vvhat have you against this ? m. the words are , [ that such ornaments of the church , and of the ministers thereof at all times of their ministration , shall be retained in use as were in this church of england by the authority of parliament in the second year of king edw. . ] against this we have these exceptions . . we know not what was then in use , and therefore cannot consent to we know not what . . we are told that the albe , and many other ornaments were then in use that are since put down , and we must not consent to restore them , without more reason than we hear . and the canon enumerating the ornaments now , we suppose the addition of all those will contradict it . . we meet with few conformists that know what was then in use . and we see that all those that subscribe or consent to this , yet use them not . and we will not run for company into a solemn covenant-consent , to the use of those things that we see no body use . the second year of king edw. . was the minority of the reformation , and before we consent to make it our pattern , we must know what it was , and whether no act of parliament have since reversed that which then was used ? chap. xxi . point xviii . of giving an account to the ordinary of all that we keep from the sacrament , that he may proceed against them according to the canons . l. vvhy cannot you approve of , and consent to this ? m. for many and great reasons . . from the ordinary . . from our selves and our ministry . . from the people . . from the church . . from the nature of the matter . l. i. what have you against it from the ordinary . m. i told you before that , . some of the ordinaries are lay-men , sitting in corners to decree excommunications and absolutions , proper to the clergy . and we ought not to consent to the guilt of this . . other ordinaries are single presbyters that have no power of the keys from christ over their brethren , and over a multitude of churches . . other of the ordinaries are diocesans over hundreds of churches that have no bishops of their own under these . and we ought not to own any of all these . l. ii. what reasons have you from your selves ? m. if we should accuse to the ordinaries all that we ought to keep away , it will utterly destroy our ministry . . we are bound to keep away all that desire not episcopal confirmation . . all ignorant persons that are unready to be confirmed . . all atheists , infidels , hereticks , scandalous sinners , and that live in malice to others ( much more to the generality of godly men. ) . all the nonconformists whom they call schismaticks , that kneel not , &c. and in a parish of or in london , it 's well if of all these sorts there be not many thousands . and . the ordinaries courts are full of other work : and in the countrey they are oft far from most ministers . . ministers have usually much more work than they can do at home , and less money than they need : and the prosecution of all these , and bringing up witnesses , will take up all their time , and leave them none for their studies , or many other offices at home : and it will undo them in their estates . . it will make the people so much to hate them , that their preaching will do little good . . and when they know all this , none of the ministers will practice it , as experience tells us ; and so they will all live in the breach of the covenant which they made ; and when to get a living they have falsly professed consent to all this accusation and prosecution , self-love will not suffer them to do what they consented to . l. iii. what are your reasons against it from the people . m. . the multitude that makes it unpracticable . . the greatness of some of them that will ruine the ministers . . but especially because it will cross the just end of our ministry , and make them uncapable of receiving any profit by us : and our power is given us for their edification , and not for their destruction : this will but harden them against our doctrine . l. do not you by this condemn your selves that desire a stricter discipline , which would offend them more . m. no ; for . we would not turn our churches into prisons , nor bring in any under our discipline , but consenting volunteers . . we would have no lay-men , or forced ordinaries to do this , but pastors of their own choice , whom they well know . . we would have nothing done against any sinner magisterially and forcibly by the abuse of the keys ; but only humble ministerial convincing them by gods word of sin , and of gods wrath , and praying for their repentance , and meek and patient warning them , and waiting till they prove obstinately impenitent : and then only an exclusion of them declaratively from that communion from which they exclude themselves , without any force on their goods or persons . l. iv. what are your reasons from the church ? m. . we ought not to consent to so great a corruption of its discipline . . nor to a course that will render it odious to men . . and deprive it so much of the true work of a faithful ministry . l. . what mean you by your reasons from the matter ? m. the ordinary proceeding according to the canons must cast out a multitude of truly godly christians ; and then they must be further prosecuted and ruined ; as we shall see anon under the particulars . and we cannot covenant and consent to be prosecutors of such men , before such judges , for such an end , and to such direful effects . chap. xxii . point xix . of publishing the lay-chancellors excommunications and absolutions according to the canons . l. how are you bound to publish their excommunications ? m. . by our ordination-covenant to obey the ordinary . . by the oath of canonical obedience . . by this assent and consent to the words last mentioned , to accuse them , that the ordinary may proceed against them according to the canon . . by constant custom : if we do it not , we shall be suspended or cast our . l. but the oath of canonical obedience is but in licitis & honestis . m. i told you before , it implyeth that all that is canonical is licitum & honestum . and they will not allow us to be judges , but will suspend us if we refuse their commands as unlawful and dishonest . and the canon it self ipso facto excommunicateth all that say any of their governing offices are contrary to the word of god , or that the canons bind not dissenters . and so far is the church from taking this for unlawful or dishonest , as that it expresly commandeth it in these words , can. . [ all ordinaries shall in their several jurisdictions carefully see and give order , that as well those who for obstinate refusing to frequent divine service established by publick authority within this realm of england , as those also ( especially of the better sort and condition ) who for notorious contumacy , or other notable crimes stand lawfully excommunicated — be every six months ensuing , as well in the parish church as in the cathedral , by the minister openly in time of divine service , upon some sunday denounced and declared excommunicate , that others may thereby be admonished to refrain their company , — and excited the rather to procure out a writ de excommunicato capiendo ; ] so that no man can be a minister that will not practise it . l. and what have you against the practice of it ? m. . to be the agent of lay-mens excommunicating . . and the instruments of godly mens excommunications and ruins . you may as well ask us why we dare not oppress and destroy men without cause ; the publishers cannot be innocent . chap. xxiii . point xx. of publishing excommunications according to the th canon . m. the fourth canon saith , [ whosoever shall hereafter affirm that the form of gods worship in the church of england established by law , and contained in the book of common prayer and administration of sacraments , — containeth any thing in it that is repugnant to the scriptures , let him be excommunicated ipso facto , and not restored but by the bishop of the place , or arch-bishop , after his repentance , and publick revocation of such his wicked error . ] and when this excommunication is sent from the ordinary to the minister , you heard he must publish it twice a year . l. and what have you against this ? m. do i need to tell you ? . judge by this with what face the prelates call us puritanes or catharists , as if we pretended to perfection , and to be without sin . and whether it be not they that are far liker to the catharists . we confess that the best of our prayers , preaching or works hath somewhat in them repugnant to the word of god : for gods law is perfect , and every sin in matter , or manner , or end , or degree , is repugnant to it . far be it from us pharisaically to justifie any book that ever we write as if we had no sin in it . but these men that call themselves the church of england , do not only justify a large volume of forms , orders , rubricks and kalenders , &c. but also force all other men to justifie it all as sinless ; and he shall be no minister that will not do it , nor a christian member of the church that denieth it : as if the perfection of their works were an article of the creed , and necessary to salvation to be believed . is not this puritanism , pharisaical , and justification of works ? . judge by all that i have in this book cited , whether there be nothing at all in their books that is repugnant to the word of god. if i have made it past all modest denial , then what a dreadful thing is this renunciation of repentance ? when repentance is the condition of the pardon of all our sin , even that which cleaveth to our worship of god. but they that tell the world that their works have no sin , yea and force all the kingdom to stand to that justification , do in a very high degree renounce repentance : yea they not only forbid all men to call them to repent , or to amend any sin that is in their book , but excommunicate them as wicked that do it . . i told you before , that this excommunicating ipso facto , is in it self , a prophane subversion of the very nature of true excommunication , which supposeth due means to convince the person that his words or deeds are sin , and that of an intollerable degree , and that he be heard speak for himself , and be admonished and earnestly perswaded to repent ; and not excommunicated till after all this he continue impenitent . but here men are excommunicated for saying that there is somewhat faulty in mens works , and that before ever they are heard speak for themselves , or ever told of their sin , or called to repent : i before referr'd you to what spalatensis de rep. eccles. hath written to prove the great sinfulness of such excommunicating . bishop ier. taylor writing against it , yet feigneth this excuse , that it must be understood but of the minor excommunication . but excommunication it is ; and i do not think that they can make any good sense of their distinction of major & minor excommunication ; unless it be that the major declareth men to be no christians , and the minor only to be scandalous christians , not cut off from the catholick church , but only for the present suspended from being owned , while they are under patient tryal whether they will prove impenitent or not , that shame may drive them to repentance . but this suspension is properly called excommunication . but both of them require a just tryal . . it is a heinous injury and injustice to excommunicate and ruin men for truth and duty . he that robbeth them by the high-way , doth but take their money , and doth not also accuse them falsly , and make their duty to be their sin . doubtless he that will take all that i have because i do my duty to god in praying or preaching , doth me more wrong than he that will take all without accusing me . . it is a publick turning christs ordinance against himself , and serving satan by it , to make faithful christians odious in the world , as unworthy to live in humane society , out of jayls , if they do but exhort others to repent . if a man but know and detect the least sin in their books of service , he must be condemned of wicked error , and drunkards , and whore-mongers ; and perjured rogues , do seem to be no worse than he . . if it were an error to say that their book is not faultless , yet it can never be proved an error of that magnitude and wickedness as to deserve excommunication ipso facto : for all men on earth have errors worse than that ; and so by proportion they virutally or consequentially excommunicate all men . l. but all this is their fault , and not yours . m. it 's mine if i publish their excommunication . l. if an innocent man be hang'd , the hang-man is innocent : he doth but his office. m. whatever he may be in cases unknown to him , and which he was not bound to know , i will not believe you in a known or knowable case . if i had been commanded to crucifie christ , to stone stephen , to burn the martyrs ; i do not believe that i could have done it without the guilt of murder . else you may make a man's command to justifie the execution of any murder or injustice in the world. l. but you may shift off such wicked excommunications , and leave the publishing them to your curate . m. . i may not draw another into such heinous guilt , nor connive at his doing it in my charge . . there are but few country ministers that have curates . . if i do it not , i am guilty of it if i declare my consent to accuse all such within fourteen days , that the ordinary may do it ; and to covenant and swear canonical obedience to him . . what can be more pernicious to the church of god , than to cast good men out of it , and dismember christ's body , and lay those in jayls as unsufferable wicked men , whom christ takes for his members whom he will save ; and all this for telling prelates that their book is faulty , and desiring any amendment of their work : while swarms of flagitious men are endured , and by this encouraged to scorn at conscience and fear of sinning , and to take their wicked lives to be better than the godly conversation of those that are used far worse than they . thus christ foretold his apostles , that they should be cast out of the synagogues . but as he found and saved the healed man , ioh. . whom the pharisees had cast out ; so he will own and gather his flock , and take their wrong as done to him . chap. xxiv . point xxi . of publishing excommunications according to the fifth canon , about the articles . l. what is the fifth canon , and its excommunication ? m. [ whosoever shall affirm that any of the articles agreed on — . are in any part superstitious or erroneous , or such as he may not with a good conscience subscribe unto , let him be excommunicated ipso facto , and not restored but only by the arch-bishop after his repentance and publick revocation of such his wicked errors . l. i hope you that agree with the church in doctrine , have nothing against publishing such an excommunication . m. i subscribe to the doctrinal articles as true , because i judge of them by what i take to be the author's meaning : but . the words in the obvious sence , are divers of them liable to exceptions . . and some of them about traditions , ceremonies , &c. are of small moment and dubious . . and every word that is true , is not an article of the creed , nor necessary to church communion ; so that all men must be cast out of the church that dissent from it . and this excommunication extends to lay-men ( who are not bound to know as much as ministers . l. what is therein the articles that any good man can scruple ? m. article . learned men doubt of christ's going down into hell. art. . that christ's body in heaven hath flesh and bones , is contrary to two general councils , that of nice ? . and that before it at const. which it confuteth : and in this they agree . art. . that athanasius's creed ought to be omnino recipiendum & credendum , wholly received and believed : when the damning part is scrupled by many conformists . art. . bishop ieremy taylor was against that of original sin. art. many , called arminians , are against that [ no power to do good works . ] art. . many conformists are against the word [ we are accounted righteous before god only for the merit of christ ] because a subordinate righteousness is mentioned many score or hundred times in scripture . art. . many think that good works spring not necessarily from faith , but freely . art. . many think that merit of congruity may be held , and that men by natural or antecedent works , may be made meet to receive grace ; which dr. hammond in his annotations seemeth much to insist on , under the name of probity . art. . the said dr. hammond , and many other , write for good works over and above god's commandments , as only counselled by god , and voluntarily done , which this article calleth arrogancy and impiety ; and many follow dr. hammond , and yet subscribe this . art. . is denied by them , that think infants sinless when baptized . art. . many deny falling from grace given . art. . dr. hammond , and his followers , seem to deny the absolute election here described . art. . many good men think some are saved that live up to the light of nature ; and yet this article curseth them that say so . art. . the description of the visible church greatly disagreeth from that now given by many great church-men , not at all mentioning the bishops or their government in it . and some deny that the church of rome hath erred de fide. art. . the churches power to decree ceremonies , as not limited here , is doubted of by good christians . and they see not how that is not made necessary to salvation ( contrary to this article ) which is made necessary to avoid excommunication as for wicked errour . art. . too many deny what is said here against gathering councils witout the will of princes , and that councils may 〈◊〉 in things pertaining to god , &c. art. . seems defective about calling ministers to them that are for uninterrupted canonical succession , &c. art. . contrary to this article , some great church-men think that confirmation , at least , is a gospel sacrament , and that it hath a visible sign ordained by god. i will proceed no further herein . by this it is evident , that many subscribers are great nonconformists , and if they speak their minds , are excommunicated ipso facto . l. you make our articles of religion a doubtful thing ; what certainty then is there of the protestant religion ? m. the protestant religion is the holy scriptures , older than our form , called the articles ; which are a laudable sound account how we understand the scriptures , but not of such perfection , that all men must be excommunicate that say any word in them is faulty . chap. xxv . point xxii . of publishing the sixth canons excommunications . l. what is the sixth canons excommuication ? m. whosoever shall affirm , that the rites and ceremonies of the church of england by law established , are wicked , antichristian , or superstitious , or such as being commanded by lawful authority , men who are zealously and godly affected , may not with any good conscience approve them , use them , or , as occasion requireth , subscribe unto them ; let him be excommunicate ipso facto , and not restored till he repent , and publickly revoke such his wicked errors . l. i confess it sounds harshly to lay so great stress on every ceremony of the church , as to excommunicate every one that calleth any one of them unlawful . what could be said more of the ten commandements , or the creed ? if it be a wicked errour to mistake about a ceremony , or to account a cope or a pair of organs unlawful , the lord have mercy on us , what a case are we all in by wicked errours ! what shall my poor country neighbours and tenants do that few of them understand one half the creed ? m. yet . the articles and our ordination-vow oblige us to believe and teach that nothing is necessary to salvation , but what is contained in the scripture , or certainly proved by it . and that general councils , and all men are fallible : and sure they are very near to infallibility , who are so infallible about every rite and ceremony , that they dare bind all the land to justifie , or notblame them , on pain of ipso facto excommunication . . yet grotius , and bishop taylor , that justifie some lying , are men that deserve praise , with them ( and in truth ) : and oh! how many thousands live quietly in their communion , who err in greater matters than a ceremony ? . and judge by what i have said of the symbolical crossing in baptism , godfathers , &c. whether it be a wicked errour deserving excommunication and ruine , to charge any one of their rites with sin. . was it not enough to cast us out of ministry and maintenance for blaming a ceremony , but they must cast us out of the church ? what is pharisaical if this be not ? chap. xxv . point xxiii . of publishing the seventh canons excommunications . m. the seventh canon is [ whosoever shall hereafter affirm that the government of the church of england , under his majesty , by arch-bishops , bishops , deans , arch-deacons , and the rest that bear office in the same , is antichristian , or repugnant to the word of god ; let him be excommunicate ipso facto , and so continue till he repent and publickly revoke such his wicked errors . l. mark here that [ and ] connexeth all these offices , it is not [ or ] disjunctively : so that you fall not under this canon if you condemn every church office save one , if you condemn not all . m. that 's a meer violent unjust exposition . the government is the thing named as consisting of many offices , as a body of many members , or a chain of many links ; as we say , bonum est ex causis integris . and he that wounds any one member , wounds the man ; and he that breaketh one link , breaketh the chain : and he that accuseth any one part of the government , accuseth the government thereby : and there is no doubt in the world but they so intended that made this canon . l. and what have you against your obedience to this . m. you may easily know what , by what is already said ; . i have fully proved as aforesaid in my treatise of episcopacy , that if episcopacy were never so certainly of divine institution , this form of diocesan prelacy deposeth quantum in se , the old church form , the old episcopacy , the old presbytery , and almost all true discipline , and in stead of each , sets up that which is repugnant to the word of god. and must we all confederate to maintain this church corruption ; and all agree to renounce reformation , or any conviction tending to repentance ? . i have told you what it is for lay-men and courts to arrogate the decretive power of the church keys , and for single priests and officials to rule all the clergy and people as under them ; and for our prelate to undertake to be the sole bishop over many hundred clergy ; and then to govern per alios , in a secular manner , even by lay-men , that do that in his name which he knows not of , and this in order to gaols and ruine . if all this be agreeable to god's word , what is contrary to it ? . i have told you what it is to make every church officer so necessary , as that it should be excommunication to say any one of them is sinful , when as learned good men as most the world hath , have written to prove almost all of them sinful corrupt inventions of arrogance ; and that it 's far worse for men to presume to make new forms and offices of church government , than new ceremonies . . the parliament of england condemned the oath called the & caetera oath in the canon of . and the late long parliament of . never restored it , nor any since . and was it not formed according to this canon ? what 's [ &c. ] but [ and the rest that bear office therein ] ( reliquos ad ejusdem gubernaculum constitutos ) for my part , tho' i have oft read over cousins tables , and the canons , i do not yet know and remember all the church governing courts and offices ? how many there be besides the bishop , the chancellors court , the arches , the prerogative court , the arch-deacons , commissaries , officials , surrogates , i know not . and are every one of these become as necessary to be taken for lawful as the twelve apostles , or the articles of our creed . for my part i am far from thinking that those bishops and doctors should be excommunicated or damned , who by faction are drawn to deny the ministry and churches that have not prelatical ordination and government ; and shall all be condemned that think as ill of civilians excommunicatings ? . i have told you what it is for every lord , knight and gentleman that doth but say , that any of these church governing offices are against the word of god , to be ipso facto an excommunicate man. and for the people to be put to question whether they may chuse them for parliament men ? and whether they may sit in parliament while excommunicate ? l. this canon with the three or four adjoining make me begin to think hardlier of the canoneers than i thought i should ever have done , as to their honesty . m. i would not have you think too hardly of them ; but only to think truly of nonconformity . chap. xxvii . point xxiv . of publishing the th canons excommunications . l. vvhat is the eighth canon and its excommunication ? m. whoever shall hereafter affirm or teach that the form and manner of making and consecrating bishops , priests or deacons containeth any thing in it that is repugnant to the word of god , — let them be excommunicated ipso facto , and not to be restored until he repent , and publickly revoke such his wicked errors . l. what have you against the execution of this ? m. a great deal . in sum , it is unrighteous , oppressing and dividing , to cast out all persons from the church of christ , who think that nothing is faulty in the book of ordination , or in their principles or practice there expressed : and we dare not curse those that christ doth bless ; should we do this for a benefice , in what should we differ from the sin of balaam , who loved the wages of unrighteousness ? whose iniquity and madness his ass rebuked , saith st. peter , pet. . . yea , shall we not be far worse than he , that for an house full of silver and gold could not go beyond the word of the lord , and did not curse but bless gods people ? and it is not proud malignant tongues reviling gods servants , and calling their opinions wicked errors that will make christ disown his members , or will warrant balaam or us to curse them . o how unlike is this to the spirit and ministry of christ ! for prelates and priests to curse , and cast out the children of god , for saying that they go against his law. l. but what is amiss in the book of ordination ? m. i am anon to tell you that . but if there were nothing amiss in it , yet the belief of its innocency is not necessary to salvation . l. but if every man have leave to accuse the orders of the church , what order can be maintained ? m. . leave modestly , to express dissent in a doubtful case may stand with order . . if men do it disorderly , there be other penalties besides ipso facto excommunication : every breach of the peace is not rebellion , nor punisht with death . but i 'll tell you briefly what may occasion good men to say that their ordinations are sinful . . in that they thereby obtrude pastors on the churches upon the bare choice of a patron , without or against the peoples wills . . in that they professedly ordain such as their canon forbids to preach or expound any doctrine . . in that they determine that bishops , priests and deacons are three distinct orders , which yet is an undetermined controversie among even the learnedst papists . and must we damn , and cut off men for that which the very papists leave at liberty ? . in that they ordain men to an office which scripture maketh no mention of . dr. hammond saith , that it cannot be proved that there were any presbyters subject to bishops in scripture times , nor any but bishops : none that had not power of ordination and the keys ; nor any bishops of a multitude of churches and presbyters , both which are here ordained . . in that they swear obedience to arch-bishops and their sees ; and make priests covenant obedience to their ordinaries , as aforesaid . if a godly man do as bucer did to king edward the sixth , as you may see in his scripta anglic. and desire some of these faults to be amended , doth he deserve to be cast out as an impenitent wicked man for this ? when they that will say , all 's well that the bishops do , may live quietly in open vice or ungodliness . as dr. sloughton saith , if you strike a schismatick , and christ find a saint lye bleeding , and you be to answer for it , i would not be in your case for all your wealth . if you must kill a fly on the forehead of a child of god with a beetle , or a butchers axe , you shall not use my hand to give the blow . if chrysostom would rather have his hand cut off than give the sacrament to a wicked man , tho' a prince ; i will rather have mine cut off than reject a saint , or my tongue cut out than curse christs members , lest he say i cursed him in them . chap. xxviii . point xxv . of publishing the excommunications of canon th , th , th . of such as call dissenters a church . m. these canons made against schismaticks and conventicles do excommunicate all that say such are true churches that have groaned under the burden of grievances , &c. and is this a just cause of excommunication ? i wish they had no such burden laid on them to make them groan . but suppose them quite mistaken ; if a weak mistaken christian may be a true christian , tho' faulty , why may not a mistaken congregation be a true church tho' faulty ? i hope no man of protestant faith and charity will take the errors of such as they describe for worse than the papists ; and yet how many have written ( tho' confusedly ) to prove the very church of rome a true church , tho' sinful . yea i hope few protestants will say that our separatists have half so great ignorance , error and corruption , as the moscovites , greeks , abassines , copties , iacobites , nestorians , armenians , who yet are commonly by us confessed to be true churches . if they be no true churches , it is either because of the greatness of their errors , or because they go against the law or will of governors ; not the first , as the foresaid instances shew not the latter ; for no man ever yet owned that principle , that it can be no true ( tho' faulty ) church , that is gathered against the rulers wills . for many hundred years the orthodox did it justly ; and afterward when some did it unjustly , the culpability made it not a nullity . else what a case was the roman church in , that for many hundred years was kept up by rebellion against their lawful emperors and princes ? and how oft have a great part of the greek churches been guilty of it ? and do not the condemners hereby imitate the separatists in the sin , and reviling as they are reviled . the separatists falsly say that you are no true churches , and you requite them with saying falsly the same by them . chap xxix . point xxvi . of executing canon . rejecting nonconformists from communion . l. this is but the same that we heard before . m. before i speak against publishing excommunications : this canon commandeth the minister executively before they are excommunicated to give the sacrament to no one that receiveth it not kneeling , or that is guilty of any of the foresaid points of dissent , unless he confess his fault , and promise to do so no more . so that here the minister is to be himself the prime executioner against such dissenters , before the courts or ordinaries excommunicate or meddle with them . l. but none subscribe to this canon . m. i told you they swear canonical obedience ; and the canon suspendeth them if they do not do it : therefore it is a necessary part of conformity . but of this i spake before about assent and consent . chap. xxx point xxvii . of refusing communicants from other parishes , canon . l. vvhy may not this be obeyed ? m. in some cases it may , when persons straggle without cause : but there is frequent need that will justifie it as a duty : parish bounds are a humane order for conveniency ; but the benefit of an able faithful minister , and the choice and use of such where they may be had , is of divine appointment , and a matter of far greater weight . the canon supposeth ministers that neither can nor may be suffered , to preach or expound any doctrine : if a neighbour parish have an able teacher , must he drive away poor hungry souls that seek his consolatory communion and help ? if parishes that are bound to maintain their own poor , suffer any of them to be in danger of perishing by cold or hunger , a neighbour parish tho' forbidden by men , is bound by god to relieve them in distress : every christian is related to all the catholick church , and as he hath need , hath right to the communion of saints , out of his parish . in london , where some churches have excellent men , if a lord or gentleman live in a parish where a patron hath set over them , one that preacheth not sincerely but railingly in strife , contention , or gross error , why may not such a man go to a neighbour church ? and why must that neighbour minister repel him ? when yet our antagonists in this case , maintain that the catholick church , being but one , every christian must communicate in every place where he hath occasion : and that a diocess is the lowest sort of church , of which parishes are but parcels : and consequently a man never separateth from his church , that separateth not from the diocesan . chap. xxxi . point xxviii . of canon . excommunicating ministers that repent of subscribing . m. if subscribing prove a sin , ( of which i am past doubt ) this canon commandeth the excommunicating men for repenting of sin. whereas christ's law of excommunication is to excommunicate none but for not repenting of sin. are not these two very contrary ? and do you think that christ will stand to such an excommunication ? or disown them that are thus cast out ? some mens abuse of excommunication is such , as if at last , if all their canons be executed , they would tempt men to doubt whether they live like christians , because they are not excommunicate ; and would make it a good argument , [ he is cast out of the church for conscience sake : ergo , it is a good sign that he is a man of conscience . or as if they were but fulfilling [ they shall cast out your names as evil doers , &c. ] l. why should you put cases that may never come to pass ? i do not think you were ever commanded to publish an excommunication against any such . m. but to promise and swear canonical obedience , is a thing that is required of us all : and promising to sin , is sin , and oft worse than a sudden act . yea , if a minister do but omit some forms or ceremony by this canon , he must be first suspended , and then excommunicate , and i must publish it if required . chap. xxxii . point xxix . of the execution of the th canon . l. vvhat is the th canon , and its execution ? m. it suspendeth , and after a month excommunicateth all that go for baptism for their children , or communion themselves from their own parish , because the minister is no preacher , to another parish that hath a preaching minister . when if these be pastors , and feed the flock , they had more need to drive such men to preaching ministers , than from them . l. but the validity of the sacrament dependeth not on the worthiness or ability of the minister . m. . but the edification , and consequently the salvation of souls , hath no small dependance on the ability and ministration of skilful faithful pastors ; as mens health and lives do on skilful physicians . and no man should deny himself the benefit of such that can lawfully have it , nor should starve his soul in obedience to canons . if preaching , and that soundly and skilfully , be as needless as such men pretend , why did christ preach , and send out preachers ? and why did paul so dreadfully charge timothy , tim. . , . to preach the word , and be instant in season and out of season , &c. and why doth he so urge the ephesian elders , act. . to imitate him that taught them publickly and from house to house , day and night with tears . and why do the prelates make every priest covenant in their ordination to instruct the people out of the scripture , and with all faithful diligence to minister doctrine , and teach the people with all diligence to observe god's commandements , and to use both publick and private monitions and exhortations , as well to the sick as the whole , within their cures , as need shall require , and occasion shall be given . why do they ordain them all to be faithful dispensers of the word of god ? ] is all this done by mere reading that which a woman or a boy of years old can read as well as they ? do these men know what souls are worth ? how the reason and will of man are moved ? how strong sin is , and how blind and bad the heart of man ? l. but it is the sacraments that they are forbidden to go far from an unpreaching minister . m. . other canons also forbid them oft to hear in other parishes . . if my need and god's law oblige me to choose a better pastor than that ignorant reader , tho' in another parish ; is it not fit , and my duty to communicate with him that i justly take for my pastor ? moreover , i must tell you , that when an ignorant fellow taketh on him the sacred office which he is unfit for , and so liveth in the constant sin of omission , and of prophanation of holy things , and of betraying souls , i take it to be a sin to harden and encourage such a bold presumer in so great evil , and to encourage people that need better to be content with such a pastor ; tho' i determine not whether he have the essentials of the ministry , and tho' i doubt not but the sacraments are no nullities to them that take him for a true minister . and yet i must add , that there are some abilities essential , without which no man is truly a minister of christ : and this essential ability , as certainly reacheth to the work of teaching , as to administring sacraments : he is not worthy the name of a minister that denies this : i would not strain this necessity over high : but i say , that he is no minister that wants essential ability : and if the papists and their emissaries would make the people believe that all not ordained by prelates are no ministers , and that such excellent men as blondel , chamier , sadeel , dalle , and all such abroad are none , i think them more excusable who take him for none that cannot preach , and must be forbidden to expound any doctrine . if it were for want of tongue and voice he could not read : if it be for want of knowledge , can that man be by office a teacher of christian doctrine that knoweth it not , and cannot teach it ? and cannot do that for his flock that every parent and husband should do , whom the children and wives are commanded to learn of . l. a man may read sound doctrine that understands it not , and by reading may teach others . m. but he is not capable of the office of a teacher of christianity , that understands it not : no , nor so much as of christianity it self , or adult baptism . a turk that believeth not the gospel may read it : and you may write it on a pillar , and that may teach men , and yet pillars and books are not pastors . l. but what 's all this to your conformity ? m. . it 's unlawful for me to swear obedience to this . . or to publish an excommunication against good christians , for not despising their souls , and the preaching of the gospel . . or to repel such persons if they seek to me for any pastoral helps , and sacramental communion . chap. xxxiii . point xxx . of canon . that maketh the surplice necessary to ministration . m. i am not determining whether it be any sin to wear a surplice , nor censuring any man for it : but when it is known how many learned and excellent ministers have been against it , i take it for a greater sin than i will name , to eject them from the ministry for it ; and i cannot approve of such a canon . but enough of this before . chap. xxxiv . point xxxi . of christening all children without exception , according to canon . m. the words are [ no minister shall refuse or delay to christen any child according to the form of the book of common-prayer , that is brought to the church to him upon any sunday or holy-day to be christened . i have said so much of this before , that i here only say briefly , . this supposeth a false or unproved doctrine , that the infants of all atheists , infidels , jews , hereticks , blasphemers , &c. are in the covenant of grace , so far as to have right to be put by baptism into present possession of pardon , and of right to salvation . . when none must be delayed that are brought to church , the minister cannot so much as enquire whether the god-fathers know what christianity is , or are christians , or jews , or infidels . or whether ever they received the lord's supper ; which the canon makes necessary . . till they have given the church proof from god's word , that all infants in the world have right to baptism , it is too great domination over mens faith to command obedience on pain of suspension . had we given no better proof for the holiness and baptism of the seed of the faithful , than these men bring for the seed of infidels , most good ▪ christians had turned anabaptists long ago . chap. xxxv . point xxxii . of can. . against fasts and prayer . l. vvhat are the words of that canon ? m. [ no minister or ministers shall without license and direction of the bishop of the diocess first obtained and had under his hand and seal , appoint or keep any solemn fasts , either publickly or in private houses , other than such as by law are , or by publick authority shall be appointed ; nor shall be wittingly present at any of them , under pain of suspension for the first fault , of excommunication for the second , and of deposition from the ministry for the third . neither shall any minister ( not licensed as is aforesaid ) presume to appoint or hold any meetings for sermons , &c. — nor attempt by fasting and prayer to cast out any devil , &c. l. all this was done to prevent abuses . m. it fell out well that they did not forbid christianity or reading scripture in a known tongue , to prevent abusing it : and next , that they forbad not law and the use of reason , which is most of all abused . but do not you th●●k that they make very unworthy men ministers , or that they change or maim the pastoral office , when no minister , no not the wisest may be trusted to fast and pray with his neighbours ? should a master of a family be forbidden this in his house ? the iews forbad it not to cornelius . what jealousies have such a clergy of one another ? and of preaching , fasting and praying ? what if some neighbours have some great temptations , some great guilt , some great danger , by a plague , or the like , or some great affliction ( some friends near death● ) or some important business of great moment , ( as marriage , travel , navigation , &c. ) must the bishop know all their secrets that their pastor at home must know ? or is he a capable judge for many hundred parishes when they must fast or pray ? or did you ever know any go to him for such a license ? are not those unworthy ministers that be not fit to be trusted to fast and pray with their people , while the law is open to punish all abuses of it ? and are not those over-subject to prelacy that will swear obedience in this , any more than against preaching the gospel ? dan. . . we shall not find any occasion against this daniel , except we find it concerning the law of his god. chap. xxxvi . point xxxiii . of the excommunication of the three last canons . m. the quality of the rest of the canons resolve me , that it is unlawful for me , if commanded , to publish an excommunication against any upon the three last . l. what ●e the three last ? m. the th is [ whosoever shall hereafter affirm , that the sacred synod of this nation in the name of christ , and by the king's authority assembled , is not the true church of england by representation , let him be excommunicate , and not restored till he repent and publickly revoke this his wicked error . l. what fault can you find with this ? m. . no man can tell what is the church representative , till they know which is the church real . and this they tell us not , either as to matter or form. . whether the church real be only the clergy , or also the laity ? whether the king and parliament , nobles , gentry and commons , be all represented in the convocation ? if yea , by what law or power ? and may we say that king and parliament do what these do ? what need they then after to confirm their canons ? and they that hold the church laws bind in conscience as such before king and parliament confirm them , will bring king and parliament under their obedience , if not excommunication . but if they pretend not to represent the king and laity , they falsly exclude them from being part of the church . . they are utterly disagreed de forma what the church of england is : either it hath an ecclesiastical constitutive soveraign power , or not . if not , it is not an ecclesiastick body politick . and of late their disputing doctors , plainly confess that it hath no such specifying summa potestas , and so is formally no political governed church . the king's government of it by the sword , which none deny , they say , is but an accident of it , and not essential to the church . and so in sum , it is but a meer community , or a voluntary confederacy of many churches , that make no unifying politie . and that is , to be a church only in a loose and not proper sence , as the assembly at nimegen was a kingdom . . i doubt not but thousands of l●y-men , and many dissenting ministers , are true parts of the church of england ; and therefore that the convocation represented our part , only of that church . . if they be but a community , they can make no laws ; but only contracts : laws are only the acts and instruments of rulers . therefore we owe no obedience to them as being no commands of rulers , till the civil power make them laws : save as particular pastors may make them laws to their several flocks . . if they make them obligatory church-laws as the acts of the convocation , then it seems the representative church governeth the real ; and the presbyters in convocation exercise a legislative power , which is the highest that bishops can pretend to . . these being left thus in uncertainty in the dark , how comes that man to deserve excommunication , or be wickedly erroneous , that herein declareth his dissent . i dare not publish such an excommunication if commanded . l. what is the th canon ? m. whosoever shall affirm , that no manner of person , either of the clergy or laity , not being then particularly assembled in the said sacred synod , are to be subject to t●e decrees thereof in causes ecclesiastical ( made and ratifyed by the king's majesty's supream authority ) as not having given their voice to them , let him be excommunicated , and not restored , &c. here craftily in a parenthesis , they put in the king's authority , and if they mean only his obligation on us , no one of us denieth it : but because their disputing doctors take that but as an accident , we may say , that the papists themselves are oft put to say , that general councils bind not the absent , till they receive them ; and the french long received not the council of trent , nor many churches other councils . l. what is the last canon ? m. the st ( for so many church-commandments we have , god's ten being but a little part of our religion ) is , whoever shall affirm that the sacred synod assembled as aforesaid , was a company of such persons as did conspire together against godly and religious professors of the gospel , and that therefore both they and their proceedings in making canons and constitutions in causes ecclesiastical by the king's authority — let them be excommunicated and not restored , &c. here again we doubt not of the king 's obligatory power : but what the persons and their works were , i think a point that christians may differ about , and not deserve excommunication . it seems they could foresee what men would judge of them : and no wonder , tho' they had not the gift of prophecy . i am none of their judge , but leave god's work to himself : but i must say , that this book of canons doth no whit increase my esteem of council , of prelacy , of humane canons or clergies laws , nor of the particular bishops and clergy that made them . and that i will neither publish such excommunications , nor promise or swear to do it : tho' i know that stretching pretences satisfie some men ; like theirs that own the name of sacred to that synod , because sacrum quod sanctum , simul execrabile signat , a professed and relative sanctity may be granted them . chap. xxxvii . point xxxiv . of renouncing all obligations from the covenant , as on me or any other , to endeavour any alteration of church government . l. this is now ceased at the end of twenty years ; what need you mention this ? m. . i thought you had desired to know why we conformed not for the twenty years past . . i suppose that the like is still imposed on others , in the corporation act , the vestry act , the militia act , and the marrow of it still imposed on us in the oxford oath . l. and what have you against it ? m. first i 'll tell you what we have not against it , because we are commonly here falsly accused . . it is none of our controversie whether this oath or covenant was unlawfully made and imposed both on the people and the king ; we deny none of this . . it is none of our controversie , whether there be not some part of the matter of it that is unlawful : we deny not that . . it is none of our controversie , whether it was not unlawfully taken : we justifie not that as to our selves , tho' we are not judges of the sin of king and lords , and others whom we have no calling to condemn . . it is none of our controversie , whether this , or any other covenant or vow do bind us to rebellion , sedition , or any unlawful act ; we renounce all such obligation . . yea , we hold that neither this , nor any other vows of our own , can prevent any obligation that the king hath authority to impose upon us , in things great or small ; else men might disable magistrates to rule them , and exempt themselves from obedience by vowing before hand not to obey . . i add for my self , that i hold my self bound by this covenant to nothing , which i had not been bound to if i had never taken it . for i never thought that by vows we may make new religions or laws to our selves , but only bind our selves to that which god doth make our duty . l. where then is the danger or sin that you fear ? m. i. as to the obligation of the vow on my self . ii. as to the obligation of it on all others . iii. as to the matter of altering church government . . i am neither so blind , wicked or singular , as to deny the common doctrine of casuists , protestants and papists ; that tho' a vow be both sinfully imposed , and sinfully taken , yet it bindeth in materia necessaria & licita : yea , that if part of the matter be unlawful , yet it bindeth to that part which is lawful . else a knave might exempt himself from the performance of all his vows , by foisting in some unlawful matter , or by making them in an unlawful manner . therefore if there be any thing that is necessary or lawful in that vow , i believe that i am thereto bound . l. so rebels that think it lawful to rebel , will say that the covenant binds them to it . m. so he that thinks gods law doth bind him to murder or rebellion , will plead gods law for it : but doth it follow that gods law bindeth him to that or to nothing ? it is not mens false sayings that make or prove such obligation ? he that will say that gods laws , or the kings , or the covenant , binds him to sin , must be punished for his sin and lie , and yet all just obligations stand . l. but you are bound before by other obligations to all that is good in it , and not by the covenant ? m. that 's an inference contrary to reason and christianity ; can a man of any reason once dream that a man may not have many obligations to one and the same duty ? or that the second oath binds not to it because the first did ? you vowed your self to christ in baptism , and you renew the same in the lords supper : are all the latter null , because the first is valid ? what if you many times swear allegiance to the king ? do none of these bind you but the first ? l. ii. but do you think that endeavours to alter church government is any of your lawful or necessary matter ? m. you know that there is a law that maketh it a praemunire penalty , to say that the covenant bindeth one to endeavour any alteration of church government : and why then will you put such a question to me ? all that i will say is this , that as i say not that any one is bound to it by this covenant ; so i am not so good a casuist as to be able to justifie and acquit all other men from all such obligations . let them look to themselves , for my part i will be no voucher or surety for their indemnity . l. iii. this brings up to the other part of your reasons ; and why may you not say that none is so bound ? m. . because god never made me a casuist to determine the case for all men in three kingdoms . . because it is a new and monstrous thing for one private man ( yea many thousand private men ) to be forced to such an office and undertaking : every man must answer for himself before god and man : noxa caput sequitur . if i were commanded to be surety for everyman in england , scotland and ireland , but for the peace or good behaviour , i should think it a piece of as palpable injustice as most ever the world knew . but if i must undertake to answer for all their souls , in a case where thousands of learned men have been of the contrary mind , i 'll first think how to answer for my own . yet as to that part which i am certain of my self , i do not scruple it . i dare subscribe that the covenant bindeth no man to be false or rebellious against the king , or to endeavour to alter our monarchy , or to deprive the king of any of his rights ; nor to endeavour to change any part of church government which christ hath instituted for continuance in his church . and is not this enough ? but whether our diocesan frame , as distinct from that which arch-bishop vsher called the primitive government , be changeable ; or whether none of their courts , and lay-mens power of the keys be changeable , or ought to be changed ? and whether no man may endeavour it in his place and calling ? i think a man may be saved without knowing . and i think , if you ask a man , if king and parliament should change the office of an official , a commissary , a chancellor , &c. or should set up a bishop in every market town , is it a sin against god ? or is it unlawful to obey them ? or if it be lawful to do it , and any of them swear to endeavour it in his place , is he bound to perform that oath ? if to all this a man say , i cannot tell , i am not learned enough in law and divinity to resolve such cases ; but i am resolved my self to live in loyalty and peace . i would ask any man that hath not put off humanity , whether that man be fit to determine the case for all other men in three kingdoms , and to be a voucher for all their souls in a case that he understandeth not himself . l ▪ how doth this make you a voucher for their souls ? m. . the case is of exceeding weight : if i should publickly declare that no man is thus bound by a vow , and i should prove mistaken . . then i become guilty of all these mens sin by justifying it as no sin . . and i am guilty of cruelty to their souls in open telling them that they need not perform their vows , nor repent of non-performance . . and perjury is one of the heinousest sins on earth . . and the perjury of millions or nations is yet one of the grievousest degrees of guilt . . and i do my worst to make god destroy or forsake such a land. and what yet can i do worse ? i say , if in justifying them i should be mistaken , what a guilt should i incur ? and doth nature or scripture bind me to run so great a hazard for so many thousand others . besides , he that will be a casuist must know all the case : there are hundreds and thousands put upon these decisions , that being then children , knew not who made the covenant ; nor how it was imposed or taken , and many that know not what it is , and never saw it . and there are thousands , if not millions , that took it , whose faces i never saw , and know not what moved them , nor in what sence they took it ; and casuists say , that if a man mistake the imposers sence , he is bound to keep it in the sence that he understood it when he took it , if a lawful one ; especially if the imposers had no authority , or their sence was doubtful . and it is not uncharitable for me to think ●hat none of the kings compounding lords or clergy that after took it , did take it in a sence which they thought found ? and must i tell them all that none of them is bound to keep it in that sound sence ? i will not run the danger of having thousands in judgment to suffer for perjury , and saying , this man declared that it was no sin . if they are all innocent , what need they my justification , when they stand or fall by the judgment of god. if they prove guilty , my declaring it no sin , will not acquit them , but condemn my own soul by tempting them to impenitence . i do not say that they are obliged by this vow herein , nor i will not say they are not . there are many matters first to be known , if we agree in point of doctrine ; and i know that it 's an easie thing for confident men to multiply words to prove all lawful in this oath , and to swear that it is rebellious hearts that cause our doubtings : ( and so say the papists of the protestants ) but whatever they say or threat , i will not by their confidence and talk be drawn , to cast my soul into so great a hazard . all men are not so bold in such things as some . chap. xxxviii . point xxxv . of the oxford oath , that we will never endeavour any alteration of church government . m. the oxford act is not content that we say that we are not bound by the covenant to endeavour any alteration of church government , but we must say and swear that we never will endeavour it , as any other way obliged to it . l. the meaning is , that you will never endeavour it by rebellion , sedition , or unlawful means . m. the parliament knew how to speak their minds . by such expositions you may swear almost any thing in the world , and no government shall have any security by your oaths : the words are contrivedly as universal against all endeavour as can be spoken . . but i 'll presently confute you undeniably . you know church and state government are conjoined in the oath , and the church put first . will you say as to state government , that the meaning only is , that i will not endeavour to depose the king , or alter monarchy by rebellion , or any unlawful means , but only by lawful means ; if you do , you 'l soon be told home , that the oath doth mean , that no means is lawful to such an end , but the work it self as well as the means is forsnorn . l. but the meaning is only , that you will not endeavour to alter episcopacy , and not all other offices and courts . m. this is as palpable a falsification as the former : for . the words are a most express abjuration of endeavouring any alteration of government at all . and if you take the word [ alteration ] strictly , it more commonly signifieth a change of quality or manner , 〈◊〉 of essence . but if you take it largely , it comprehendeth both . . and i appeal to any mans conscience whether that was , or is the bishops sence : go ask them , my lords , if i endeavour but to reduce diocesans to every corporation , & to take down your lordships , and great revenues , and your chancellors courts , and all the rest of your humane officers , will you take it for no breach of my oath ? and i warrant you they will soon resolve you . . yet i shall fullier convince you : the bishops and parliament are of the mind of the church of england : and the canons do most fully speak the churches mind . and the seventh canon before cited , when it makes it ipso facto excommunication to call the church government sinful , tells you , that they extend this to [ arch-bishops , bishops , deans , arch-deacons , and the rest that bear office therein . . and i believe if you should say that i take my oath to bind me from endeavouring no change of the government of the state , but only of the essence of monarchy , you would quickly feel the error of your exposition . l. but i can assure you , that many able conforming ministers take the declaration in the act of vniformity , in such sences as aforesaid . m. our king is king of scotland as well as of england , and he hath thus declared his sence in the case of the earl of argyle , and the reasons of it are considerable . and do you think that it can be the true sence in england , and deserve preferment as to loyal and obedient ministers , which deserveth death it self in scotland ? can you wish for a clearer exposition ? l. and why will you not swear never to endeavour any alteration , if you be required so to do ? m. i have read dr. stillingfleet's irenicon , and many such books , in which i see how great a number of our greatest divines , as well arch-bishop cranmer , took the form of church government to be alterable , and not fixed by christ : and if the doctor have changed his judgment , that changeth not the authority of those that he citeth . . i have in my full treatise of episcopacy told you why i cannot but wish more than one thing in our ecclesiastical courts and government changed . . i take it for a matter that deserveth consideration , whether it be no change of the state government , to make all the church government unchangeable , and so to disable the king to change it : and how to reconcile the two parts of the oath ? and whether if the whole church government as fixed , must thus be sworn to as monarchy is , it alter not our constitution ? or at least be not a perillous innovation . . if the king and parliament should command men to endeavour an alteration , e. g. of lay-mens power of the keys , or the greatness of dioceses , i am afraid of being sworn beforehand to disobey them . l. but the parliament meant not to bind themselves herein . m. i grant it . ( tho' being church of england men , the th canon aforesaid maketh it doubtful . ) but when they have bound all the subjects in the land , and themselves among others , when out of parliament , and when it 's excommunication to charge any of the church-offices with sin ; i think the church-government is fixed as unalterable . i ask you , did the parliament bind themselves against altering monarchy , or the succession ? if they did , then it seems they did so by church-government , when they put it in many oaths before that of the state. if they did not , then they have fixed monarchy no more than church-government by this oath . therefore when they bind all in the same oath from endeavouring any alteration of church-government , they shew that they intend the fixing of it . and tho' some think it leaveth room for petitioning , i do not believe that the law or oath leave any men at liberty to petition against monarchy ; which is here conjoyned . but my great reason of non-conformity herein yet remaineth . if the faults of church-government should prove but the tenth part as great as is feared by many , and said by those that write about it , what a tremendous thing is it to make a deliberate solemn covenant and oath , never to endeavour any amendment of it , nor to perswade any man to repent or amend . if the germans , who are reported to be addicted to drunkenness , or other nations to whoredom or thievery , should take an oath that they will never repent or amend , nor perswade any other to it , what a case were this ? l. i confess if the corruptions of church-government should prove as great evils , as some conceive , it would be a heinous sin indeed to swear never to repent , or to endeavour to amend it . the old nonconformists thought that the frame of * english prelatical government was far worse than all their ceremonies and other corruptions set together . they thought it a platform fitted to exalt pride and covetousness , and to propagate all ungodliness , and to drive serious piety and conscience out of the land , upon the accounts before mentioned . . by the largeness of dioceses making discipline impossible , and so keeping almost all the wicked in the bosom of the church , secure from the power of the keys . . by putting down all bishops that should be in all the large dioceses , save that one , and restraining all the parish-ministers from true use of the keys , unless they will be ruin'd by it . . by setting up secular courts under the name of ecclesiastick , and making it their employment by canons , which are their self-made contrivances , to hinder and ruine laborious preachers , and men of tender consciences , and to cherish the contrary sort . . by putting the decretive power of the keys into the power of these lay-men . . by setting up pastors over all the land without the consent of the flock , by the meer will and election of great men and patrons . . by driving unfit and unwilling persons to eat and drink damnation in the sacrament . . by driving multitudes of good people from the needful means of their salvation . . by bringing good men that grieve for all this , into odium , for being against it . and if this prove the case , i had rather lie in gaol till death , than swear or promise never to endeavour that i or any should repent and amend it . do you think it not contrary to our baptismal vow , in which we promise obedience to christ to our lives end ? i read that the israelites were greatly reproved for worship in the high places , and that they seldom repented : but i read not that ever they took an oath or covenant never to endeavour to amend : i find that when israel was made to sin by the calves of dan and bethel , that they went on and amended not : but i read not that they covenanted or sware never to amend . i find that the pharisees were heinous sinners , that by their traditions made void the law of god : but many of them came to iohn's baptism , and professed some repentance ; and tho' obstinacy cut off the nation of the iews , i read not that they drew the nation into an oath or covenant never to amend . when christ came to save the world , it was by a covenant of faith and repentance . and if i should see the world once confederate in a covenant never to believe , repent and amend , i should call it the kingdom of satan , and thence date our accounts chronological , with a regnante diabolo , as in france they did a while , with a regnante christo. ( of which vide blondellum ) . i do not say that these old nonconformists were in the right , nor that bucer did no whit over-value the discipline which he proposed to king edward the sixth ; nor that this oath containeth all the foresaid guilt . but i say , if i should prove so , and venture on it in uncertainty , when the judgment of so many parliaments , lawyers , divines abroad and at home are against such kind of swearing : what a case should i bring my soul into ? national oaths , especially such as seem to me to fix every church-office , from the arch-bishop to the official , if not the apparitor , as unalterable in the very constitution of the kingdom ; even putting them before the state , are matters of greater consequence than to be rashly ventured on by me : even the long parliament that made the silencing acts , restored not the canon and et caetera oath of . which bound men never to consent to such alteration of church-government , by arch-bishops , bishops , deans and chapters , arch-deacons , &c. chap. xxxix . point xxxvi . of subscribing and swearing against the position as traiterous , of taking arms ly the king's authority against those that are commissioned by him in pursuance of such commission . l. i am sure you can have nothing against this , unless by forced exposition of the words . m. i am sure that i abhor all forced expositions , and all treason , rebellion and sedition . but here , because you are a lawyer , i will come to you only as a client or learner , intreating you to resolve all the common objections , that i may do what i do in truth , judgment and righteousness . l. i doubt not but i shall easily resolve them all . m. . do you not believe that the first clause , that it is unlawful to take arms against the king upon any pretence whatsoever , doth extend also to this taking arms against any commission'd by him on any pretence whatsoever ? l. no doubt of it : for this of not taking arms against those commission'd by him , is but expository of the former , not taking arms against the king. else men that fight against his army may say , they fight not against the king. and can the king make war without an army . m. i believe you are in the right . . i ask you , what is meant by the king's authority ? is it not by his laws that are the highest acts of his authority ? l. there is , no doubt ; but what 's done by law , is done by the king's authority . m. . how are we to know the king's commission ? l. by his seal . m. i never heard of many of the parliaments army that ever saw any sealed commission of those they fought against : and would that excuse them ? l. no , because it was notorious that the king owned the war. m. but suppose that any of his soldiers came to take free quarter , or horses , or plunder , or to possess any man's house or lands , how shall we know that they had commission for these ? and may they be resisted till they shew their commissions ? l. no ; because it will hinder the king's service . m. . what seal must it be that must make a commission ? l. either the great or little seal . m. . is it possible for the law and a commission to be contrary ? l. some say no , because it is no commission , if it be contrary to the law. and some say no , because it must be supposed that the king will grant no commission contrary to law. and some say yea ; but when they are contrary , the commission is to be obeyed against the law. and some say yea ; and that the law is to be obeyed against the commission . m. but if you are of so many minds , how are doubters resolved , what to swear and what to do ? . if you say , it 's no commission that is contrary to law , who shall be judge when it is contrary to law ? if every subject be judge , it is as easie to rebel , and say the king's commission is illegal , as it is to deny all the authority of his commissions ? l. the iudges and courts must judge what is legal . m. if the judges , yea , or the parliament shall judge the king's commissions illegal , will that make it lawful for the subjects to resist them . l. i dare not say so . therefore we must come to the later opinion , that the king himself is iudge , and that it is legal eo nomine , because it is his commission , and that commissions suspend all contrary laws . tho' i know many abhor this , that would not have the king's will to be above all laws , and rule to be arbitrary . m. but suppose it be so , the subjects know the laws to be the king 's by promulgation : how shall they be sure that commissions are not counterfeit if they be contrary to them ? must every fellow be believed that produceth a commission ? may it not be counterfeited ? l. the king's officers that keep his seals must be trusted by us , seeing the king trusteth them . m. . then the king's officers are set above all laws and judicatures , as well as the king. . and why then are judges sworn not to be moved from justice by the great or little seal ? . but must we trust every man that shews a seal , that he did not counterfeit it ? l. i confess that the laws are most publick and certain notifications of the king 's will. but it 's easie to raise more doubts than the wisest man can answer . m. is it not possible for two commissions to be contrary ? what if one man have a patent for life to be lord admiral , or lieutenant of the tower , or the like , and another come with a commission to put him out and take possession ; which must be obeyed ? l. he that hath the last commission . the former may not resist him : for the later nullifieth the former . m. is it not then in the power of the keeper of the seals to depose the king at his pleasure , by sealing new commissions to conspirators to seize on his garisons , guards , treasure , magazines , forts and navy ? l. it must be taken for granted that the king will give no commission against himself . m. but his former officers are not himself , and if they must resign to new commissioners , how know they but it is the king's will ? l. i tell you we must trust those that the king trusteth . m. then the question is , whether it shall be in the power of a lord keeper to depose the king , or betray the kingdom to whom he will , because the king trusteth him with the seal ; or in the power of a parliament to judge whether a commission be legal , or whether laws or commissions be of greater authority . l. there is no end of answering absurd suppositions : it is not to be supposed that the king will do wrong , or so far trust untrusty men. m . we must suppose that a parliament may do wrong . . izaakson and other historians say , that king iohn made over his kingdom to the pope , and offered it to the mahometan king of morocco , to help him against his lords . . is it not possible that a queen mary , or a charles the ninth of france might do what they did . . have not many kings been ruined by trusting traitors . did the king of portugal's brother and lords answer the trust reposed in them , when they deposed and imprisoned him ? is not history full of such examples ? who deposed the emperor ludovicus pius , but his trusted clergy and servants ? who deposed the empeperour henry . but his own son ? and his clergy and lords ? abundance of the greek emperours were so used , and some english and scottish kings . l. some body must be trusted ; and if they be traitors , who can help it ? m. but shall all entrusted lord-keepers or lord privy-seals be so far encouraged to treason , as to tell them , if you will depose the king , who can help it ? we are all sworn not to resist you ? ] how stands this with our oath of allegiance to the king ? and is not the king's life and welfare the interest of the kingdom ? and is he not an enemy to the kingdom who destroyeth the king ? and do you think that one lord-keeper is fitter to be trusted with the safety of the kingdom , than a parliament and all the courts of justice ? when was there a lord-chancellor more trusted and honoured than sir edward hyde earl of clarendon , who had long been faithful to the king ? and yet neither king nor parliament thought that he was more to be trusted with the safety of the king and kingdom , than the parliament was : else they had not banished him . l. a fool may ask more questions , than a wise man can answer ; and find knots that no one can untye . m. and are all we fools that never studied the law , fit to answer all those questions by an oath , which you that are a lawyer cannot answer by discourse ? will you become abler to answer them , when we have sworn them ? if you were at a loss about a law case in westminster-hall , would you set all the country and city housholders that are ignorant , to decide it by swearing which side is right ? were it not wiser to cast lots to determine it ? and have those men humanity and conscience , and do they believe there is a god , that will swear that of such law cases , which lawyers profess to be too hard for them , and which they are disagreed in as a common controversie in all lands . and i pray you , why are nations so sollicitous to have laws for their security , if a chancellor be above them all , and by a commission may cast them off at his pleasure ? l. we do not say the chancellor may do it , but the king. m. doth not the chancellor keep the seal ? and must we not take them for the kings commissions which he sealeth . l. if you know that the commission be notoriously against law , you may suspect that the king consenteth not , and may stay till you enquire of him whether it be his act and will ? m. but . if one come with a commission to take possession of the king's treasure , magazines , garisons ; navy , &c. and attempt it by force , may he be resisted by force till the king's mind be enquired of ? if not , he may depose the king and seize his strengths before we can come to enquire of the king. all have not access to the king. if it were the garison of new-castile , berwick , carlisle , &c. it will be too late to send to the king. but if such commissioners may so long be resisted , then how can we swear that upon no pretence whatsoever his commissioners may be resisted by his own authority ? . and if a highway-man shew a commission to take my purse , he will not stay till i know whether the king consent to his commission . l. you stretch the sence of the subscription and oath further than the parliament intended it . do you think that if half a dozen or more irishmen had come into the parliament house , and shewed a commission real or counterfeit to kill them all , lords and commons , that they would not have defended their lives with their swords ? and do you think then that ever they meant to bind all the subjects against that which they would do themselves . m. and do you think that we should all swear to that which they never meant to bind us to ? is there any limitation in the words ? or can any words be devised more to exclude exceptions than [ not on any pretence whatsoever . ] but self is near men , and is not so concerned in other mens cases as their own . for my part , i believe that they meant plainly and universally as they speak , tho' they might forget their own case : my proof is from the express words of the militia act , where they determine that neither the whole parliament or part , hath any power of offensive or defensive arms against the kings commissioners : much less have any single persons . l. do you think that ever they intended to destroy all mens property , and defence of life or goods , and to repeal all the laws that bind sheriffs by the posse comitatus to suppress riots , and to execute the decrees of the courts of iustice for possessions or dis-possessions , tho' any should shew commissions to the contrary , and to overthrow the iudges oaths . m. i can no way judge what they meant , but by what they did . i find they have absolutely denied all right of defensive arms in the subject or parliament , and that 's all that i speak of : from whence i must needs suppose , that their sence was , that all men have propriety in estates , wives , children and lives , and that the king ought to govern them by law , and wrong no man , and that judges ought to do right by sentence , tho' the king forbid them . and that sheriffs and justices must ordinarily execute the law : but if the king by force restrain them , or give commission to any subject by force to violate any law or sentence , or to take away any mens lives or estates , it is not lawful by defensive arms , for any sheriff , justices , or any others to resist . this is plainly the sence of the militia act , and of our oaths . l. i pray you let us end this tender controversy . m. i have yet a few more doubts to be resolved . politicks being the foundation of iuris-prudentia , i doubt not but you have studied politicks : i pray you tell me why all politicks placing a republick in the predicament of relation , do make the bonum publicum to be its essential terminus in the definition . l. because it is so indeed ; it being no civitas or respublica that is not for the common good ; and therefore they make it the difference between a king and a tyrant , that a king ruleth for the common good , and a tyrant for his private ends and interests . m. but by your leave i think that distinction ill and dangerously uttered : for every man hath some culpable selfishness ; and also the kings self-interest is lawfully intended : for commonwealths called kingdoms being at first constituted by contract , no doubt there was necessary the consent of both the contracting parties : none can be king against his will. and do you think any man would take a crown only for the good of others , without security for his own just interest , honour and prerogative , without which he cannot well govern ? therefore i think that those politicks too loosly describe tyranny , by self-interest , and can prove no man a proper tyrant in exercitio ( distinct from an usurper ) but him that seeks the destruction of the commonwealth , whose good he is bound to preserve . but i further ask you , do you think the law of man , or a commission can abrogate the law of nature ? l. no man ever affirmed it : for the law of nature is gods law ; yea his first and most fundamental law. m. i will not deny it as to the stable laws of nature , tho' i think that nature it self hath some mutable laws , where the nature of the matter is mutable . but then i would further know , whether to defend the life of your self , wife or children against injurious assault be any part of the law of nature . l. experience resolveth that ; what man will not defend his life that can ? yea what beast , or bird , even the most harmless will not use such weapons as nature hath given them , horns , feet , teeth , &c. m. but man hath reason to rule natural inclinations : and sure a malefactor if he could , should not defend his life against justice , i think not so much as by running away : nor many single innocent persons defend their lives by a publick war , because a war is more hurtful to the commonwealth than his death is : and the common good is better than a single persons , or a fews , and to be prefer'd . but i next ask , whether the body of a kingdom have by gods law of nature a self-defending power against its notorious assaulting foes ? l. do you think any man doubts of that ? may not the king and kingdom defend themselves against invaders ? if one man may defend his purse or life against another , a king and kingdom is more worth than one man : you can hardly name one principle in the law of nature more undoubted , than that kingdoms have a right to defend themselves if they can . m. and may they not defend themselves , against usurpers and rebels , and traytors at home , as well as against forreign foes ? l. to deny that is treason : how else should we defend the king ? was not jack straw , and many a rebellion lawfully resisted ? and did not the lord mayor of london lawfully kill wat. tyler ? and so of any other in his case . m. but what if the irish took on them to rise by the kings commission , and shew'd a counterfeit of it , was it lawful for the protestants to have resisted them to save their lives and cities ? l. they should have sent to the king to know whether that commission was counterfeit or not . m. but before they could do that , dublin had been lost , and all their lives and estates : and the two hundred thousand that were murdered were not restored to life again , when it was notified that they belied the king , and that they had not his commission . l. it was notorious by the nature of the case that they b●lied the king , and had none of his commission , because it was so greatly ogainst his own interest . m. will you allow any countrey to resist an army that shew the kings commission , if they are confident , or can prove that it is against his interest ? l. he is the iudge of his own interest , when the case cometh before him : till then a doubtful , or at least a certain commission may not be resisted : you would entangle the case with difficulties that seldom fall out ; but are you against resisting all known commissions ? m. you know that the oaths and subscriptions extend to all cases , and against any pretence whatsoever , not excepting rare cases : what i am for or against i 'll tell you more anon . but i ask further , tho' i am bound by the fifth commandment to believe that the irish belied the king , and that the scots belied him , who in their book called truths manifest affirm that he commissioned the irish by the scots broad seal , which was then in his possession in scotland ; do you think if the scots could have proved what they affirm , that it had been lawful to have resisted the irish , and defended the protestants lives and cities in ireland ? l. i will not answer such dangerous questions . m. but must all ignorant men then subscribe and swear to what you cannot , or dare not answer . but i further ask you , about not resisting commissions on any pretence whatsoever ; what was the sence of the old greek philosophers and orators in that cas● ? l. you know they were almost all bred up in aristocratical or democratical republicks ; and therefore no wonder if they are against us in this and more . m. what was the sence of the old ▪ roman orators , philosophers and historians as to this point ? l. they also were hatcht under popular government , and tho' the later sort magnifie such excellent monarchs as augustus , vespasian , titus , adrian , antoninus pius and anton. philos. and alexander severus , yet it is no wonder that they were too much for resisting and deposing such as opprest the commonwealth . m. what was the sence of the ancient bishops and clergy herein . l. they were long for patient suffering : but it is no wonder that when they grew worldly and strong , they not only resisted , but deposed emperors and princes . m. i pray which way go the papist casuists in this case of resistance . l. you cannot doubt of that when you know their councels laws for deposing kings on excommunication . and what wonder when they go on that false supposition , that the people give the prince his power for their own good , and may take it from him if he turn it against them to the hurt of the common-wealth . m. i pray what say politick writers , papists and protestants in this case ; i mean the eminent ones , such as bodin , althusius , arnisaeus , tholofanus , besoldus , choquierius , menochius , liebenthalius , contzen , koningh , timplerus , willius , berekringer , and such others . l. they commonly run one way , founding power in the people , as being the majestas realis , and giving the king 's and states a derived majestatem personalem , which being for the common good , they may resist when it would destroy it . they took their politicks by learning from aristotle , plato , cicero ; and such ancients , and no wonder if they follow them . m. and i pray you which way go our famous historians in this point , such as commines , iovius , guicciardine , pontanus , sleidan , thuanus , besoldus , iohnston , fregius , and our english math. paris , henry huntington , mat. westminster , malmsbury , hoveden , &c. l. you know they liv'd in times when civil wars were so frequent , and princes so bad , and one pulling down another , that it 's no wonder if they praise some resisters . but if you read those of our age that lived in quiet times and under good princes , such as cambden , speed and baker , you will find no such thing . m. i pray which way go the famous civilians herein , such as gothofred , hottoman , cujacius , wesenbcchius , pacius , duarenus , and such others ? l. you know that the civil law is fetcht from the romans , and it 's no wonder if it run in their strein . m. i pray which way go the canonists ? l. you know they are papists , and set up the pope's laws above the king's : but our english canons do not so . m. i pray which way go our late protestant lawyers , such as cook , and littleton , and the like ? l. they are all for loyalty , and for the preeminence of the law ; and yet for the king's prerogative . m. i find some of the greatest lawyers , that have defended monarchy , such as william barclay and grotius , do name many cases , in which it is lawful to resist : what think you of their writings ? l. i will be no judge of them . m. i pray what think you of those great prelatists that write , as bishop bilson , and ri. hooker , and ier. taylor do , and that joined with abbot and the parliament against dr. laud , sibthorpe and mainwaring : which of them think you was in the right ? l. you put too many questions . i will answer no more . m. and must we ignorant men swear that all these aforesaid were deceived , and knew less than we ? verily sir , it seems a bold oath for so great a number of unlearned men as are put upon it , and for us that are unlearned in the english laws . l. but i doubt all these hard questions are but raised as dust to hide some principles of rebellion ? what is your own judgment , and how will you give security for your loyalty ? m. they that think my oath security , take me for so honest , as that i will not be perjured . and if so , i have already taken the oaths of allegiance and supremacy , and an oath of fidelity as the king's chaplain in ordinary ( tho' never called to exercise it . ) and i have fully in a large volume , called , a second plea for peace , declared my political principles , which after all thoughts i stand to ; and no one hath given me a word of exceptions against them to this day , after so many years , but some in meer malice tell me of my aphorisms revok't , without taking notice of this . i here repeat that i am ready to engage to the utmost , that i renounce all rebellion , treason and sedition , and all principles tending thereto ; that i am for as much power of princes and obedience of subjects , as any text of scripture speaks for , or as is given or asserted by any general council , or the confession of any christian church that i have seen , except what is ascribed to the pope and his substitutes ; and i hold it unlawful to take arms at all against the king ; that is , against either his authority , person , rights or prerogative ; or against any lawfully commissioned by him , yea , or unlawfully , except in such cases as god's law of nature , or the king himself by law or contrary command shall bind men to resist . l. and so you will suppose that god's law of nature bindeth you in some cases to resist : and will not all rebels plead that law ? m. dare you say that there is no such case ? king iames writeth , that a king may not make war against his whole kingdom ? if ten irishmen pretend a commission to kill all the parliament and protestants in the land , or to seize on the king's garisons , or if king iohn give his kingdom to the pope , ask hooker , filson or parliaments , what the law of nature saith to these cases . chap. xl. point xxxvii . of assenting and consenting to the damnatory clauses of athanasius's creed . l. i hope you will not quarrel with the creed . m. i take the creed called athanasius's ( tho' the author is unknown ) to be an excellent explication of the doctrine of the trinity : and could wish that it were more used and learnt of all . but i am not so far to judge other men , as to conclude all men certainly damned for ever that are not so well skilled in that mystery , as to believe every word there written . l. i have heard learned men say , that the assent and consent is not to be extended to the damnatory clauses , but only the doctrinal articles . m. they that can make laws and oaths speak or mean what they list , need not stick at any thing . is not the damnatory part a part of the book of common-prayer , and contained in it ? l. but they prove thus , that it meaneth no such consent or approbation . the liturgy requireth you to read the apocrypha , and yet not to believe all things in it to be true ; for , say they , divers things in tobit are evidently false : and so tho' it bind you to use and read athanasius's creed , it binds you not to believe all in it to be true . m. this cheat is too gross to deceive a school-boy with . is athanasius's creed a real part of the common-prayer book , contain'd in it , or not ? l. yes , no doubt ; we there find it both contained and prescribed verbatim . m. is the apocrypha any part of the common-prayer book , and contained in it , or not ? l. if there be any sentences out of it there inserted , those are part ; else the apocrypha is no part of the book : it is only the order to read it that is a part . m. is not this a palpable deceit , to argue that we are not bound to assent and consent to that which is contained in the book , because we are not so bound to that which is not contained in it ? chap xli . point xxxviii . of saying common-prayer twice a day every day in the year ordinarily . l. it is but that you shall every day say the morning and evening service , not being lett by sickness , or other urgent cause . ] and what have you against this ? m. i think when the book was made , to help the ignorant vulgar out of popery , every day to use the common-prayer was a very good help to them . but the case is much altered , and people now have more suitable helps ; and ministers have so much other work to do in their studies , and with their neighbours every day , and some prayers to use more suitable to their families and closets , that it must needs be a sinful impediment against other duties , to say common-prayer twice a day . if they were commanded to preach twice a day , every day in the year , it would cause a sinful omission of other duties , how good soever preaching be in it self . l. but then you have urgent cause of forbearance . m. we are not for abusive dallying with covenants about sacred things : it is evident by the instance of sickness , that the authors of the imposition , meant only extraordinary causes as urgent , and not that we should take our ordinary work for such an urgent cause . as if a man that is bound to spend most of the day in his shop should covenant to go thirty miles every day , if he be not lett by urgent cause . l. but you see that almost no conformists do thus : therefore it 's certain that they do not so understand it . m. that 's a warning to take heed of promising that which we see so many that promised it not perform ; they are our monitors to take heed of such a playing with sacred covenants , and deceiving the law , instead of obeying it . chap. xlii . point xxxix . of forcing the unwilling parishioners to the sacrament , and accusing and excommunicating the refusers . l. how are you bound to this by conformity ? m. . we must assent and consent to the rubrick , which commandeth [ that every parishioner shall communicate three times a year at least . . the oath of canonical obedience binds us to obey the canon , as well as the rest ; which saith [ the minister , churchwardens , questmen and assistants of every parish-church and chappel , shall yearly within days after easter exhibit to the bishop or his chancellor , the names , and surnames of all the parishioners as well men as women , which being at the age of years , received not the communion at easter before . ] and then they are to be excommunicated if they refuse , and to lie in jail till they die , when taken by the writ de excommunicato capiendo . l. and why should not men be forced to their duty , and to their own good , if they are backward to it ? m. the internal part is the first and chief part of their duty , without which the external is not their duty , but their great sin. it is the duty of heathens to believe and be baptized , but not to be baptized till they believe . it is the duty of candidates for the ministry , to get ability and ordination and to officiate . but not to officiate before they get ability and ordination . it is the duty of every man to believe the truth of the gospel , and to profess that belief : but to say he believeth , when he doth not , is hypocrisie and lying . it is a sloathful man's duty to rise and dress him , and go to his work ; but not to work in bed , or go abroad naked . men that need marriage must marry , and then liberis operam dare , but not to do this before they marry . so persons that are unfit for the sacrament must be fit , and then receive it , but not before they are fit . now if you can force them by a gaol out of ignorance , unbelief and ungodliness , it will be a very charitable work : otherwise you force them upon sacriledge and profanation to their damnation . why else doth the common-prayer book perswade the blasphemers and hinderers of god's word , and the uncharitable not to come to that holy table , lest the devil enter into them as he did into judas , and fill them with all unrighteousness to the destruction of body and soul. l. but they that are forced to come , will be liker to take preparing care , than if they be let alone . m. look over the foregoing instances : will you make a law among heathens that all shall be baptized , that this may draw them to believe ? or will you command all students to administer the sacraments , that this may draw them to study and be ordained , &c. we disswade you not from forcing all to hear and learn : but do you think that it is so easie and small a matter to bring a man to repent and believe , and give up his heart and life to christ , and prefer heaven before earth , and a holy life before a fleshly and worldly life , as that it is but say , do it , or thou shalt go to iail . what need a saviour , a sanctifying spirit , a teaching ministry , &c. if it be so easily done at a command ? will the fear of a jail make men believe the gospel , or love god ? oh how little doth this way savour of any true knowledge of the state of man , or what faith or sanctification is ? l. wherein lyeth the sinfulness of such force ! m. . it seemeth to make a new gospel-condition , or contradict christ's . christ saith , that none can be his disciple , except he forsake all , and follow him : this course saith , thou shalt be saved by christ , if thou hadst rather communicate than lose all and lie in jail . the sacrament is an investing delivering of pardon and right to christ and salvation ; and none but those that desire them above all the world are capable of these . and to give them to the forced and unwilling is contrary to the gospel . . it seems to put a lie on christ , as if he had ever made any such gift . . it tendeth to deceive poor souls . . it forceth them on sacriledge , hypocrisie , prophanation and damnation . . it may distract those persons with terror who are conscious of their unfitness , or those melancholy christians that under temptation tremble for fear of taking their own damnation . . it polluteth the church , and confoundeth the infidels , catechumens and fideles . . it thereby filleth the church with such wicked men as prove worse enemies to the godly than those without . . in all elections the major part of wicked forced communicants will carry it , to chuse ministers like themselves , and carry church matters according to their wicked minds . . good men seeing this are ready to be frightned out of the church to separation , as men run out of a ruinous house , lest it fall on their heads , or fly from a noisome place with loathing . . and then the crowd that thus get church possession will revile them as schismaticks and sectaries , and hypocrites , and persecute and destroy them if they can . are not all those sad effects of turning a church into a prison , and forcing men to seem to take that which christ professeth he doth not give them ? and of casting holy things to dogs , and pearls before swine ; and cramming and drenching those with the body and blood of christ , who have no right till they desire and beg it , and can sell all to buy this precious pearl ? we dare not assent , consent or swear to such a course as this , nor publish an excommunication against such men on this account . it 's an odd thing to cast men out because they will not come in . and i pray you how can ministers in great cities and parishes perform this canonical obedience , to give in to the bishop or chancellor the names of all that communicated not at easter , when they know not the hundredth part of the parishioners in some places ? i do believe that in the two parishes that i last lived in , there are above fourscore thousand souls : and is it like that the ministers know twenty thousand of these ? i have been at their communion , even at easter and whitsuntide , and i never saw five hundred there . and if they gave in the names of but twenty or forty thousand non-communicants tho' it 's like there are nearer two hundred thousand ) in this diocess , what work would the bishop and chancellor have ? cannot you easily imagine what their discipline would be , and how they would exhort each person one by one to repentance , and plead with them for conviction , and resolve their doubts ? doth not this one thing tell you what the english diocesan episcopacy is , that giveth one man the disciplining of many hundred parishes ? l. you talk as if you would have a church of saints , and seem to make religion too serious a business : it is well if we could have a church of civil men and peaceable subjects , that will use religion for the civil interest , as far as will serve the will of governors , and the common peace . m. i am sure st. paul wrote to no church but such as he called saints ; and i am sure christ will save none but saints : an unsanctified christian , and a church not holy , are contradictions in adjecto . christ came not to set up a meer worldly kingdom , and to devise a religion to serve the will , ambition or interest of worldly men , nor meerly to promote civility , wealth and peace . if this be all that you would have , go to aristotle , plato , seneca , plutarch , cicero , &c. you need not be christians for this . but yet we pretend not to know mens hearts : it is visible saints that the visible church consisteth of ; and with whom we must have visible communion . and it is not left to the will of every pastor whom he will take for a saint ; for then churches would be of as many sorts or degrees , as ministers strict or loose opinions are . but christ hath himself made the articles essential to christian faith and practice , and the baptismal covenant , and required us to take those into the church who seriously profess belief , and consent , till they null that profession by a contrary profession or conversation ; which must be proved against any man before he is rejected : for the church is not a society to be arbitrarily made or unmade , at every ministers or bishops will , but hath from christ the fixed laws of its constitution and necessary administration ( better than our canons . ) but indeed you have toucht our sore : for my part i am past doubt that we should all live in peace , and christian piety , if all ( yea all bishops and priests ) were but agreed at the heart what it is to be a christian , and whether the gospel be certainly true , and whether christ be the son of god , or a deceiver , and whether there be a life after this , and a judgment of all according to their works : yea , were they but heartily agreed that there is a god , who is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him , and a punisher of the wicked . the dispute seems to me to be , whether we shall be christians indeed , or worldly hypocrites called christians ; and whether we shall use the name of god , christ and religion for christ and holiness , or for the flesh against christ. l. you are very severe in your censure . m. i doubt some will find christ more severe , and be less able to endure his censure than mine , when he shall call some men to account for turning sacred names , and offices , and ordinances against him , to banish conscience and serious godliness ( to say nothing of veracity , common honesty and humanity ) out of the church , and turn his house of prayer into a place of merchandise , and a den of thieves ; and tempt turks and heathens to hate christians for their wickedness , and to fly from the christian church , lest they should lose all religion , trustiness and honesty , or the reputation of them : but i speak not now of our governours , whom i leave to god. chap. xliii . point xl. of forsaking our ministry , and ceasing to preach the gospel , and banishment five miles from corporations . m. the last part of ministerial conformity which i named to you , is , that if we cannot conform to all aforesaid , for fear of damnation , we must cease our ministry , and must not preach christs gospel to any more than four besides our family , nor perform any worship of god with more , ( but in their way ) and we must neither dwell nor come within five miles of any ( burgess ) corporation , or any place where-ever we lived or travelled , and preached since the act of oblivion : otherwise we must lye in the common goal . l. doubtless they that made this law against you , thought you very wicked intolerable men , and thought your preaching very dangerous : and indeed so they say of you in the preface of the oxford act. m. they do so ; and i am glad to find that falseness , and wickedness as such is yet disowned in the world , and that men do not glory in the very names of them . it is a notable evidence that there is a life of retribution , that naughtiness is disowned by all mankind , and the worst would be thought and called honest , and true , and good ; and that the world would not crucifie christ , nor persecute and murder his apostles under the name of righteous holy men , but under the name of malefactors , enemies to caesar , breakers of the law , and pestilent fellows that troubled the peace , and turned the world upside down . the devil himself dare not own the name of lying , malignity and murder , nor of persecuting men for truth and goodness , and gods cause . and verily it seemeth the controversie of many in this age , whether they that scarce speak of god but in swearing and cursing , nor of religion , but in scorning or threatning the serious practisers of it , and that savour little but eating and drinking to the full , and playing , and getting riches , and hateing all that are stricter than they , or those that make gods law their rule , and obedience to him the work of their lives , and his serious worship their delight , and heaven their hope , and dare not wilfully sin against god , nor be perjured or lie ; i say , which of these be the honester men ? l. put you cannot deny that your party hath preached the nation into rebellion ( for the parliament against the king ) and therefore are justly s●spected till they repent . m. . what mean you by [ our party ? ] if you mean nonconformists to the present laws of conformity , you are easily confuted : for the rebellion was over , and the king restored before the present conformity was enacted : and when there was no such law , there were no nonconformists to it , nor any such party in being . if you mean the old nonconformists , i answer you . . they were part for the parliament , part against their war , and part neuters . . there was a multitude of conformist ministers for the parliament for one nonconformist : i have oft proved , that there was at the beginning of that parliament , not many more nonconformist ministers left in england , than were counties , if so many . in the westminster as●e●ly there were but seven or eight englishmen : most of the sermons before the parliament , which are now most blamed , were preached by conformists . . such as kept in , and obeyed the parliament and usurpers , did most of them conform , of or ministers , there were but two thousand that conformed not : and did meer turning to conformity manifest repentance ? . but i have oft , and oft said , if they will silence all that had any hand in wars , ( except the conformists ) and no more , we will thank them with great joy ? for i do not think there are forty , that i say not twenty , silenced ministers alive in all england , that had any hand in the war against the king. and it 's an odd kind of justice that should eject and accuse so great a number for other mens actions . . but if our doctrine be seditious , why should not we be allowed rather to preach openly where witnesses may convict us , and the law take hold on us , than in secret to four , where none can convict us ? . and how comes it to pass , that whilst so many hundred ministers are hunted and ruined for preaching , we hear of none at all punished for any false or seditious doctrine ? do those that watch , accuse and ruin us , want will to find out our false or ill doctrine ? while i am writing this , the common talk is , two poor fellows accused such a one , and two beggars , or poor women that stood at the doors , took their oaths against such , and such , and such , many . warrants granted to distrain for forty pound or sixty pound a sermon , on ministers and people ; the citizens goods seized , and carryed away , their shops made bare , many laid in jayls , and thousands waiting for utter ruin of all they have ; and all this on the account of their preaching and hearing as without the common prayer ; and not a word among all these of any false doctrine spoken . . and gods great mercy having of late years opened the press , the nonconformists have printed abundance of their sermons , that the world may see what doctrine they preached : there are two volumes of morning lectures at one place , and two at another , and one volume of lectures against popery . there is a great volume of mr. charnock's sermons , and a great one , and ma●y lesser of dr. manton's ; many folio●s of mr. anth. burgesses , divers of dr. bates , divers of mr. richard alleine's , dr. gilpin of temptations , and abundance more . you have an account of my own doctrine in above an hundred books , of which i leave posterity to judge . l. yes , we hear what is said against you for your rebellious doctrine in former times . m. i then gave the world an account in my book called political aphorisms , or a holy common-wealth written for monarchy by mr. harrington's provocation , what moved me to be on the parliaments side ; and i know nothing that they have charged on my doctrine , but the words of that book which i revoked long ago , and some clauses in my saints rest , which i expunged before the king came in : and if my later writings ( as my second plea for peace ) written purposely to satisfie them of my present judgment , be not regardable , why do they call me to retractations ? and if the act of indempnity have done nothing against our former actions , all general monk's army , and the rest , such that restored the king , must expect the like reward , if death deliver them not from mens wrath . l but why should you not give over preaching when you are silenced ? have not the bishops power to silence and degrade , as well as to ordain ; or the parliament at least ? m. we doubt not but the magistrate hath power to hinder preachers from doing mischief , and to restrain those that preach rebellion , sedition or heresie , or that do more hurt than good : but not on that pretence , to hinder good , and to forbid christs ministers to preach his gospel : bishops and senior pastors are investing ministers of christ , to ordain fit men to the ministry , and judge of their fitness to that end : and if men prove uncapable , by apostacy or heresie , or perfidiousness , they ought to do as cyprian did about martial and basilides , require the congregation in the name of christ to forsake them . but they have no power to forbid any faithful minister to do the office to which he is ordained , nor to forbid the people to hear them : and if they do , their commands are nullities as to any obligation to obedience . l. but they that give you the office may take it away . m. he that giveth it as a donor may , which is christ , but not he that only as a servant delivereth that which his master gives . if you send a servant to deliver a man possession of house , land , horse , money , &c. that servant cannot take it from him at his pleasure . i do not think that the priest that marryeth men , can unmarry them when he will : if he could , i think he would have more work . i scarce think the patron that giveth one a benefice can take it away when he will ; which is more alienable than the office. a man cannot renounce it himself when he will , who hath some more power of himself than the bishop hath . do you not know that all are agreed that the office of the ministry is as marriage , during life , and not for tryal or at pleasure , except in case of adultery ? therefore the papists say , that ordination maketh an indelible character : of this all parties are agreed . l. but why say you the ordainers do not give you the power , but as investing ministers ? you are not called immediately by christ as the apostles were ; who then doth give it you , if not the ordainers ? m. . the office lyeth in an obligation to great labour and great patience as well as in a gift of power . it is a power to work in a suffering state . and as the bishop can oblige no man to this against his will , so neither can he oblige any man farther than christ and his own consent oblige him . therefore it followeth that neither can he give the power farther than christ giveth it ; and the ordainers and people , and magistrates have each their part under christ , in the conveyance . l. how doth christ give ministers their office ? m. . he maketh a law that there shall be a ministry , and specifieth the office by describing their work , and the necessary qualification of the persons : so that it is not left to bishops nor any to alter the office , nor to admit any uncapable persons into it . . next christ blesseth mens preparatory studies and endeavours , and by his gifts and grace doth give them all ministerial abilities . . he maketh them desirous and willing of the office and work in love to the blessed effects , and so maketh them consenters . . his providence bringeth them where their labours are really needful . . he moveth the minds of the flock or electors to desire , chuse or accept them . . he commandeth the ordainers to approve and ordain those that are thus qualified as aforesaid . . he commandeth magistrates to protect and encourage them . . he commandeth the neighbour church-pastors to own them in their neighbourly communion . thus you may see how ministers are made by christ , tho' not without mans service . do you know how god maketh marriages ? . he instituteth the state , and by his law maketh the husband the ruler of the wife . . he causeth their natural capacity and inclination . . his providence acquainteth them with each other . and . he moveth them to consent . and . he maketh it the ministers duty to do his part ; so that the husbands power is of god. do you know who giveth the lord mayor and sheriffs of london their power ? . the king by charter determineth what , power , they shall have , and how they shall be qualified , and how chosen , and how sworn and invested . . the citizens accordingly choose them . . and the recorder sweareth them . who is it now that giveth them the power ? the king's charter , tho' not till they be duly qualified and chosen . the recorder cannot depose them again ; no , nor the citizens ( who may do more ) unless it be in the charter . l. but what sin fear you by ceasing your ministry ? m. . we fear the guilt of perfidious breaking of our ordination vow , by which we solemnly obliged our selves to diligent performing of our ministry . the bishops put those of us on this whom they ordained , who now would force us to violate it . . therein we fear the guilt of sacriledge , as alienating persons consecrated to god. and we can judge it to be no better than pharisaical hypocrisie , in them that aggravate the sacriledge of alienating consecrated utensils and lands , and yet will alienate consecrated persons , and take it to be well done : whereas the lands and goods are but to serve the persons who are nearer to god , while they serve him . . we fear the sin of cruelty , unmercifulness , and the guilt of damning souls . as if we were commanded to forbear feeding our children , or the poor , we should expect to be charg'd with murdering them , if they died of famine , by our neglect . . we fear being charged with fighting against christ , or as enemies to his kingdom , and to his saving work : he was so great an esteemer of souls and holiness , that by the greatest of miracles , he came in flesh to redeem , and sanctifie , and save men : and if we starve and betray them to satan by our neglect , we are enemies to his saving work and office. and he that condemneth them that do not feed , and clothe , and visit them , may condemn us more , if we betray their souls . . we fear being guilty of serving the devil , in deserting and betraying souls that are our trust : as a captain that should desert his station and fly , or should desert his garison and trust , doth let in the enemy : or as christ saith , the hireling fleeth and leaveth the flock to wolves : god saith to the negligent watchman , ezek. . their blood will i require at thy hands . . we shall be a temptation to the people to imitate us , and forsake the truth , and turn from christ : for if the captains fly , the soldiers are like to follow . and if we may cease ministerial piety , they may think they may as well cease family and private piety . . we may look for the doom of the sloathful servant that hid his master's talent , and was sentenced to be cast for it into outer darkness . . we cast away our hopes of salvation by christ , if we cast away our evidence of our title to his love : as he charged peter , three times , if he loved him to feed his sheep and lambs ; so the same extends to us : we tell him that we love him not , when we wilfully deny to feed his flock . . the charge is dreadful that paul lays on timothy , and consequently on us , tim. . . i charge thee therefore before god and the lord iesus christ , who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing , and his kingdom ; that thou preach the word , be instant , in season , out of season , reprove , rebuke , exhort with all long suffering and doctrine . when we recite paul● swords , necessity is laid upon me , and woe unto me if i preach not the gospel ; ] some are so vain as to say , that this woe belongs to none but those that christ called immediately , as if men ordinarily called had no such necessity . but timothy was not called immediately by christ. . christ himself hath told us , that he that puts his hand to the plow , and looks back , is not fit for the kingdom of god : and that the servant that will be blessed , must give the children their meat in season , and be found so doing . for these reasons we dare not forsake our office and work. l. but when you cannot do it , you are blameless . m. that 's true : but we must do what we can : christ foretold his ministers how they should be used , hated , scourged , killed , and yet will have them go on to the death . when they persecute you in one city , flee to another , was his charge ; what we cannot do in one place we may do in another ; and if we cannot preach to more , we must do it to fewer . no suffering will excuse us , ( much less bare prohibitions ) which do not disable us . l. but by this rule , every silenced heretick may go on , and make himself the iudge , that he is unjustly silenced . m. and by your rule of holding nothing which men may abuse , all good may be put down . usurpers may pretend that it 's them that we must obey : must not we therefore obey the king ? lyers will claim belief : must we therefore believe no body ? reason is pretended for every errour and wickedness : must we therefore renounce reason ? so false teachers may preach when they are forbidden : must therefore christ's ministers give over , because men forbid them . did the church do so for years ? l. then it had no christian magistrates ? m. have christian magistrates more right to silence the preaching of the gospel , destroy souls , and oppose christ's work , than heathens have ? . were not constantius , valens , theodosius d , anastasius , z●no , &c. christian emperors , and yet the bishops went on when they forbad them : read bishop bilson of christian subjection , and he will tell you that christian princes are to protect christ's ministers in their work : but if they forbid it them , they must go on , and suffer patiently what shall be done against them for it . l. but what need is there of your preaching ? have we not ministers 〈◊〉 without you ? hath not every parish one ? and some say many thousands are ordained of late that want benefices . m. whether our ministry be needful is matter of fact so easily discernable to englishmen , that i think him scarce meet for these debates that doubteth of it , if he know the land. . the supernumeraries that want benefices , do not help the needy parishes , but dwell in the universities , or as chaplains in great mens houses , to read the common-prayer and say grace at meat , till a benefice fall . . the greater sort of parishes have more work than many ministers can do : they have besides study and preaching , children to baptize , godfathers to examine whether ever they communicated , communicants must beforehand give them notice , the scandalous and contentious must be admonished ▪ all the communicants examined , whether they are confirmed or ready and desirous to be confirmed , all that communi●ate are not to have their names taken and sent in to the bishop ; all that a●e refused the sacrament to be notified to the count , and prosecuted , the sick to be visited , the ignorant and impe●itent to be t●ught and exhorted ; marrying , burying the poor to be taken care of , and much more . and about london it is credibly said , that there can be no less in the great parishes than two hundred thousand persons more than the parish-churches will hold : it s th●ught that martins , and giles's in the fields , and giles●s c●●pplegate , and stepney alone , have near an hundred and fourscore , if not two hundred thousand persons in them : a tender hearted man would be loth to famish , or otherwise kill two hundred thousand dogs : it was the greatest massacre that hath been heard of in any credible history of late ( if not at any time ) when the irish in so small a compass murdered two hundred thousand protestants : but to starve souls , or by omission of our duty to betray them to that ignorance and ungodliness which is the cause of damnation , is worse than to kill the body . there cannot past hear in these churches : yea , usually , not past can hear the preacher's voice , intelligently ; though or may come within the doors . and if you suppose that in these parishes , may hear one day , and those stay at home , and more hear the next day ( or time ) is but a small part of eightscore thousand : and if so far the greatest number must turn practical atheists , and not publickly worship god at all , why should not such places be denominated pagan or atheists from so much the greater part ? l. but what is four parishes to all the rest , and the common case ? m. i pray you enquire in clement danes , westminster , andrews holborn , sepulchres , christ-church , aldgate , shoreditch , white-chappel , olives and magdalenes southwa●k . &c. and you may hear how many others come near to the same case : and must so famous a city as l●ndon be paganized or made so atheistical ? l. you lay heavy charges on the parliament and bishops that have silenced you : you are best take heed what you say . m. no honest heed will secure a man in this age of malignity and perjury . but you mistake me : i meddle not with the parliament , laws , or bishops , much less with the king : i leave all men to their righteous judge , who is at the door : to his judgment they ▪ stand or fall : i only tell you what i think it would be in us that are vowed to the sacred ministry , if we desert our office and work for man's prohibition . l. but all these people that you talk of , may find room in other parish churches : many churches in london are half empty , or have room enough . m. do you not know that the london churches were burnt down , and to this day it 's but few of them that are built again : but ministers preach in small inconvenient tabernacles : and those that are built , the seats are commonly all taken up long ago , and lock'd up : i heard the last week an eminent esquire say , that he offer'd five pound for a seat , and could have none , and he was not able to stand so long with the lads in the alley . people will not let strangers into their seats , when they are crowded with the owners : i come into no church that hath a competent sober preacher , that is not full ; alleys and seats . and i pray you if ten thousand out of stepney , or martins , or giles would go about the city to seek for church-room : . how shall they know before hand in what churches to find it ? . when they miss it in three or four , the time will be over before they find it in a fifth . . few but strong men are able to stand so long in the alleys without seats . . and this supposeth them to be honest thirsty souls that have least need ; whereas the worser sort that have no such appetite are the multitude , who will stay at home if they have not convenience near them . . and the most willing people will hardly travel far to hear a man rail at them and slander them , as some do . l. but what great supply of this defect do your meetings make ? are not most of them in the parishes where there is room ? and are not most of your hearers such as you think have least need ? m. . as many meetings are held in the greater parishes as will be endured , and more would be , could they be suffered at any possible rate . . those that dwell in the greater parishes , can go further into the less , when they know before-hand that they have there room and hired seats . the meetings that have been kept up in the city parishes , were as much for others , as for the parishioners , and were there continued , because there was till of late the least disturbance , and gentlest prosecution . . those that have least need , yet have so great need , as is more regardable than any bodily want : souls and heaven are precious , and all men have sins and weaknesses and temptations , and all helps possible are little enough to secure our salvation . . when godly persons are at our assemblies , they take not up that room in the parish-churches which others would have , and so exclude not others . l. but after all your meetings , there are still as many thousands as you talk of that go to no church . m. we are unwilling to be found any cause of that . the more need there is , the greater is our guilt , if we neglect what we can do for the supply . l. but what 's this to the common case of country parishes ? m. for my part i would have no silenced minister preach where there is not evident need . but the country alas is not without need . . some parishes are so great , that part of the inhabitants have more miles to come to church , than the aged , women , weak and children can travel . . too many have such teachers as the people dare , not take for their pastors , any more than an ignorant quack for their physician , or one for their schoolmaster that cannot read . . some had able learned pastors turned out , and they cannot ▪ prove that their relation to them as such is dissolved . . some by the ruining prosecutions of the clergy and bishops counsils are cast into an over-great aversness to them , and will not take such for their pastors , as they think have the teeth and claws of wolves . and will not travel far to seek figs and grapes on thorns and thistles . and if these err and be to be blamed , they are not therefore to be forsaken , any more than our children , if they cannot eat cheese , are to be famished and denied all other food . but i must refer you to a full treatise which i have written to justifie our preaching , called , an apology for it : at least , i pray you study these texts of scripture , mat. . , , , . and . , . fph. . , to . tim. . , . cor. . , . mat. . , , , . act. . , and . . cor. . , . act. . . tim. . , , . tim. . , . tim. . , , , . tit. . . pet. . , , . tim. . , , . eph. . , . mat. . , . , , &c. and . . luk. . . and . . l. but why may you not keep away five miles from corporations and places where you have preached ? m. did you not say even now , that small countrey parishes have no need of us ? one man may serve for two hundred or a thousand , better than for many thousands . . the reasons of our preaching is men's real need , and the churches good : therefore we are most obliged , caeteris paribus , where there is most need , and most probability of doing good . . christ bids us , when they persecute you in one city , fly to another : and the apostles first planted their churches in cities . if you know the reasons of these , you know our reasons . to conclude , whose service is it , think you , to perswade such ministers to give over their preaching and ministry ? whose interest requireth it ? did christ or his apostles ever do or perswade such a thing ? but the way to bring us all to popery is to disable its chief adversaries , and to obliterate all religion first , that ignorance and unconscionableness may be receptive of a new form. you must take your church-bells , and break and melt them , if you will cast them anew to bring them to a new sound and use . chap. xliv . of lay conformity . point i. whether all men must trust their souls only on the pastoral care of such as our patrons choose , and bishops institute . l. i thought you would have objected only against forms and gestures , and you talk of matters that affright one at the very stating of the case : but how are all lay-men thus obliged ? m. i have before cited the express words of the canon : they must be presented and prosecuted if they come not to their parish-churches : they must be driven home from all neighbour-churches , if it be one that never preacheth that they go from , and must be excommunicate at last ; the minister must be suspended that admits them . l. but bishop gunning's chaplain saith well , that you may yet privately advise with other ministers . m. i take that from them for a great favour , that they drive us not from all christian converse , but give us leave to speak privately with more than the parish-priest : but even privately it must be no nonconformist , for they cannot be heard at five miles distance . but will you seriously tell me , . whether most parish-ministers have not so much work at home , that they have little time to spare for strangers ? . whether as men provide first for their own families before they relieve neighbours and the poor ; so ministers will not think themselves bound to do by their own parishes ? and scarce afford the scraps to others ? . do you think in conscience that all souls , and specially the most ignorant have not need of a constant pastor , and the help of his office , as well as of an occasional discourse with a stranger ? if not , what have we parish-priests for , and why pay we tythes to them ? l. but all places cannòt have profound casuists , and extraordinary learned holy men : few churches had an augustine , a chrysostome , a basil , or nazianzen . m. all men cannot have excellent physicians , nor rich trades , nor pleasant dwellings , nor excellent wives or servants , &c. but i think it 's lawful to have the best they can get : or at least to refuse the intolerable . i had rather trust nature for my physician , than an ignorant quack or a knave . l. but we have many sound and worthy ministers . m. and i perswade none to go from such , if their faithful diligence shew their worth . it is not these that we are speaking of . are there no other ? l. the meanest of them speak sound doctrine : even those that the canon forbids to preach or expound , do read the scriptures and sound homilies . m. so can a good woman or a child : and an ignorant man or woman can read a good physick or law-book . will you therefore take them for your physicians or lawyers ? do you know the case of our parishes or not ? tell me what you would do your self in this case . suppose a poor sinner is convinced of his great ignorance and dulness , and sinful inclinations , and strong temptations , and finds great difference between a clear judicious , skilful , serious minister and others , and yet that the best doth prove too little for his help : this man dwells in a parish where in the pulpit he heareth a young fellow sometime read a cento of impertinent shreds , as school-boys make an ignorant declamation : and sometimes he heareth him tell them what damnable hypocrites they are , and schismaticks , that scruple any thing commanded by the church , and then make long prayers , and talk religiously to hide it : and in company he hath not a serious word for a holy life , and to prepare men for another world , but sometimes reviles puritans , and at best talks of worldly things , or opinions or factions in religion ; and perhaps will be drunk and rant it with the most prophane . his parishioner in doubts and trouble of conscience comes to him for satisfaction ; and the best answer he can get is , [ what puritan put these fears or scruples in your head ? if you trouble your mind about such matters you will shortly turn schismatick or go mad : trust god , and follow your business , and be merry . the scripture is for divines , and not for such as you ; it is above your capacity . ] the parishioner having no better answer , goeth no more : and perhaps an hundred or a thousand in the parish have more need of pastoral help , than this man : and in the pulpit he preacheth them asleep , or into laughter , or into hatred of puritans ; and out of the pulpit doth drink , and talk , and live as they . . suppose these men hear the clergy tell why they silence and banish , and render odious such men as we are : and they think with themselves , we perceive by this that it is not indifferent what pastors we have : and if these reviled men be so bad , is our priest any better , or wise or honester , or more to be trusted ? . suppose these poor people had a teacher or years that is now cast out , whose preaching they found to be clear and edifying , and quickening ; that preacht all for faith , and hope , and love , and holiness , and peace , and heaven ; and lived in exemplary charity , piety , and righteously and soberly , and unweariedly taught them with tenderness publickly and from house to house . and the sense and experience of their souls tells them how great the change of their condition is ? . suppose these men hear the teacher called arminian , deriding infusions of the spirit and grace , and proving that god worketh on souls morally by the aptitude of means , and teacheth and changeth men as rational creatures ? can you blame this man if he conclude [ my soul is more to me than my life : my necessity is unquestionable : my experience what edifieth me is not to be born down by the scorn of a derider . i am dark and dull , and too bad under the best helps , but alas profit little by an insipid , sleepy or deriding speech . as no man hath power to tie me to marry an ugly-scold , or to trust a fool , or knave , or enemy for my physician ; so no man hath power to deprive me of the needful helps to my salvation , when i can have them . l. but they all preach the same word of god. m. do you think the mysterious invisible things of faith , and the multitude of hard cases in obedience , and the many dangerous distempers of a carnal , worldly , dead heart , have not need of as skilful a helper , as the profession of law and physick hath ? how vast a difference is there between an ignorant prater , and a skilful lawyer or physician ? and as i have more care of my soul than of my body , so mens laws have less power over it . l. i do not think the world hath a better clergy than the church of england . m. i do challenge oft any to name that nation under heaven out of the kings dominions that hath two thousand worthier ministers than those that were here silenced , and reviled , and hunted like rogues . but i pray you tell me , . do you know how many , and what sort of men the patrons in england are that chuse them ? the conformists oft say that many of them are simonists : it 's well known that many of them are taken for the famousest papists in the countrey . tho' they have the wit and faculty to keep off legal conviction , or else to manage their advowsons by trustees . and o how well were it with england if none or few of them were worldlings , gluttons , drunkards , whoremongers , or haters , or prosecutors of serious godly men ? is there any body doubts whether there be such ? and tho' good and sober lords and gentlemen will promote good and sober men , the propagation of the species is the most natural appetite ; and an evil tree will bring forth evil fruit , and a hater of godliness is unlike to chuse a godly pastor . and any man that hath money , be he never so bad or erroneous may buy an advowson or presentation . and must all p●or souls have no other pastors than these men will chuse ? and quo jure ? how came they by a right to chuse pastors for all the ●and ? did god ever give it them ? the people at first sinfully gave it them , in blind gratitude , for building and endowing temples . but mens grant many hundred years ago , being sinful , hath no power to bind our consciences : our fore fathers might give their lands from their posterit● ; but they could not give away gods ordinances , nor the means of our salvation . if patrons might ill dispose of temples and tythes , that 's nothing to prove that they may chuse pastors for all men against their wills . l. but the bishops have the power of institution , and they will keep out unworthy men. m. . do they de facto keep them out ? i told you truly what a company of ignorant drunken readers i was bred up under till i was thirteen years of age , or fourteen , and what a sort , were round about us : and yet the bishops were as good men as any i know now . bishop morton was our bishop . if we are so hardly agreed in a notorious matter of fact , viz. what pastors multitudes of parishes now have , it 's in vain to dispute of any thing else . . when we have told the conformists what men are instituted , their common answer is , that it 's long of the patrons , and the law , that enableth not the bishop to keep them out : and that if the bishop deny institution to any one that can but say some account of his faith in latin , a quare impedit will force him to institute him . but whether you will lay it on the bishops want of power , or their will , it 's no relief to the miserable people . and that which the bishop requireth more to ordination , is but a certificate of a good conversation ; which i never knew man so heretical or wicked in all my life , that could not get from three ministers . l. would you have patrons turned out of their right ? m. no , it is no right of gods giving to be the sole choosers of pastors for men souls . there is a threefold part in ministers admittance . . to judge who is fit to be by them ordained : and this is the ordainers part . . to chuse or consent who shall be the pastor of mens souls : and this is the peoples part . . to judge and chuse who shall have the publick places , maintenance , countenance and toleration : and this is the magistrates and patrons part . l. but these three may differ , and it 's like will do so ; how then shall ever the churches be provided ? m. there is nothing in this world without difficulties and inconveniences : but on so great a treasure a threefold lock is good security ; and hath less inconvenience than the way that we are against . it 's like necessity will at last make all consent , ( as the cities in belgium do in their government . ) but if they should not ; . none can chuse who shall be the pastor of this or that church , till the ordainers consent that he be in general a minister in the church universal : so that their consent so far is previous . . if the patron offer an unfit man , and the people refuse him , he may offer others : if they continue to disagree , it is but let the patron chuse who shall have the place and tythes , and the people chuse who shall be their pastor . l. what confusion will this bring in ? shall one that is no pastor have the benefice ? and whom shall the people chuse , and where shall they assemble ? m. if great men that should keep gods order , will obstinately break it , it 's they that cause the confusion , and inferiors cannot remedy it . but if you will lay by prejudice and have patience i shall open the case to you . i. the magistrate as the patron of the church , must see that every place have competent teaching : and over the meer catechumens or auditors , he may appoint who shall chuse these parish teachers , and to them as such he may give the publick place and maintenance ( if original dedication to pastors as such make it not sacriledge to alienate it . ) and these teachers are bound to preach , catechise , and do all that 's due to catechumens . ii. if these men be tolerable , no doubt the generality of the people will chuse them for their pastors , prudence requiring it ; rather than lose the advantage of the place , and of a countenanced maintained ministry . iii. if intolerable men get in , or such as the flock of communicants cannot submit to , it 's most like that the people will for the advantage of the publick place and countenance , take some neighbour pastor for theirs , and there communicate , paying their tythes at home . iv. if most chuse the parish teacher for their pastor , and a few dissenters go to the next parish church , the inconvenience will be comparatively small . v. if any number can consent to no parish minister near them , it is but to tolerate their communion in a place of their own preparing , if the magistrate find their principles and conversation tolerable , and this under laws of peace and good behaviour ; and what harm is in all this ? l. it seems then you take it for unlawful conformity to take the parish ministers for our pastors . m. no sir ; tho' any patron chuse them , and obtrude them , to whom god hath given no such right , yet if they be fit or tolerable men , the convenience of place , countenance , maintenance , and parish order , will teach men , as i said , finis gratiâ , in prudence to consent to them . but if such be unfit and intolerable , i will have better , if i can . and i take it for unlawful conformity to take all , or any that are intolerable for our pastors , because such patrons chuse them ; who i should be loth should chuse my servants , my cook , or my physician . and it 's unlawful to give away to a patron , the churches right of election or consent , if we can keep it . chap. xlv . point ii. whether parents have not more right than our patrons to chuse pastors and church communion for their children . m. ii. the next fault of lay-conformity is , that they are deprived of due family-government , while a stranger called patron , and not the parents , must chuse who shall be pastor to their children when they are at age ; and to what church their family shall go . l. did not you say before that the king may settle teachers in all the parishes , and force men to hear them ? why then may he not force you and your children , and servants to hear them , as catechumens ? m. i told you that he ought to take care that no parish want a fit teacher , whom the willing may hear . . and that the negligent and unwilling be forced to hear either them or some other allowed , or justly tolerated teacher . but i never said that . because the catechumens may be forced to hear their parish teacher , who are free-men , therefore those that are wives , children and servants may be forced to go to one church , when the husband , parent or master commands them to go with him to another . . nor yet that those masters that are communicants , and not catechumens , may be forced from hearing their own pastors , approved or tolerated . it 's enough that they be forced to hear either . and men ought not to be deprived of the due government of their families . l. is not the patron as fit to chuse a teacher or pastor for your wives , children and servants as you are ? m. no ; . a mans interest in , and power over his wife and children is earlier and greater than a patrons is . it is natural , and by a law , which no men have power to abrogate : self-government and family-government are antecedent to princes or states government , and they have no right to dissolve it . . i shall gain or lose more by the welfare or misery of my family than the patron will. . nature hath given me a greater love to wife and children , and bound me to a greater care for them , than it hath done a patron . . i know them better , and therefore know what they need , and what teacher and communion is fit for them , better than a patron that never saw them or me . . supposing that i am allowed to chuse my own pastor and communion , it will be inconsistent with family-government , that my wife , children and servants be forced to go to another place , where i can have no account of them what they do , and how they behave themselves . . if no man may justly chuse for my children a tutor , a trade , a physician , or diet , or cloathing , rather than my self , ( much less a worse when i chuse a better ; ) nor may impose husbands or wives on them , much less may any chuse for them against my will and choice , an office on which their salvation is so specially concerned . l. but if you may force your wife and children to what pastor you chuse for them , it seems then a man may be forced to one pastor , rather than another : and then why may not the magistrate force you , as well as you may force your family ? m. you mistake me ; i do not say i may force my family to any pastor : i say , if they that are not communicants but catechumens , may be forced to one teacher , it●s meeter for me to force them , than for a patron or any other . . but as to communion i will not force them to it at all ; nor to this or that pastor : but because different places and pastors for communion , signifieth different minds , and will be a great distracting inconvenience to a family , i will use all my reason and loving interest in them to bring them all to one place for communion : and it s very strange if i prevail not ; having better advantage to satisfie their reason , and to perswade them , than a stranger hath ; so that such breaches will be very rare . but if i be as injurious to them as some patrons are , and would draw them to chuse an intolerable pastor , or false teacher , it is their interest and duty not to be perswaded by me to their hurt . l. what confusion will this make in the world , when all people , even wives and servants may chuse on what pastor they will depend , and where they will communicate . m. it were a happy world if you , or any did deliver it from differences , yea , or confusion . but perfect concord is no where but where is perfect knowledge , holiness , righteousness and love . if it breed confusions in the world that every man chuse his own dwelling , trade , diet , cloathing , wife , servants , travels , company , physician , counsellor , tutor , master , books , &c. and so that their life , death and souls be more in their own power than anothers , there is no remedy : if you would devise any other chuser for them of all these , you would cure that disorder with madness and destruction ; who is it that should chuse all these for all other men ? he that chuseth for them must answer for them , and must be accordingly saved or damned for them . if god had appointed some pope that he would always make wise and good , to chuse for the kingdoms of china , pegu , tartary , iapan , sumatra , and all the rest of the world , what religion they should be of , and what they should love and hate , speak and do , it would have brought the world to a happy state , if all would stand to that mans choice : but who can teach god how to rule the world , and say , thou shouldst have made man otherwise . will you mark this : either it is only to command men what to chuse , or else to make them chuse by efficient determination of their wills ; or else to move them by force without or against their wills , that you would have the world saved from sin and confusion . there is but these three ways . and i. to move them against or without their wills , is natural motion or violent , and will make none of their actions good or bad in a moral sence : nil nisi voluntarium est morale : thus a horse , a watch , a ship is governed : and you may lay them in what order you will , when they are dead . ii. to make them good by physical efficient determination of mens wills , god can do it and doth not , at least , with most . man cannot do it : it 's madness to pretend to it . and i hope you will not accuse god , who only can do it , for not cureing the sin and confusions of the world this way . iii. it is therefore only the moral way of cure that remaineth , by laws , rewards and punishments : and hath not god made better laws for religion than man can make ? more infallible and perfect , with more aweful power , and with ten thousand fold greater rewards and punishments ? and now what mean you by saying that every man must not be left to chuse what religion he list ? . every man is a rational voluntary agent , and not a stone or brute . . every bad man is left undetermined by efficiency of god or man in all the evil that he doth . . every one in the world is left by god and man to chuse salvation or damnation in the means , and to speed as he chuseth . . no man is left lawless to chuse what he will without the obligation of a perfect divine law. l. but men that believe not a god , and a life to come , must be moved by temporal punishment which they can feel . let them stay till death , and they will deride religion , and live in wickedness . m. you are too confused while you talk against confusion . . do you think men that believe not a god and a life to come are fit for church communion , and may be forced to it ? no nor any that do not desire christ , grace and glory before all the baits of sin . . did you think i had pleaded that men may without punishment do what they list , and live in wickedness ? it 's one thing to restrain them from sin , and another to constrain them to sin under the name of religion . . nor did i speak against constraining atheists and infidels and malignant enemies to hear the gospel . . but your force cannot constrain them to believe . and . you ought not constrain them to lie and say they believe . . and you ought not prophanely to lie in christ's name , by telling an unwilling communicant that all his sins are pardoned , and that you seal it to him . do as much good by force as you can , but do no mischief . l. but hath not the king more power over your family than you have ? sure the highest power is the greatest , and containeth all the lower in it . the last words are a great mistake : political power doth not contain natural , personal and oeconomical , and ecclesiastical in it ; but supposeth them all unalterable and pre-existent , and only useth them to political ends , that is , the safety and good of the common-wealth : and as far as this end requireth , the king hath more power of my wife , children , estate , life , than i have : that is , he may see that i use my personal and family government so , as may not hurt the common●wealth , and do more harm than good . but that politick power doth neither contain nor abrogate the other is evident . . the king doth not eat and drink for me , nor digest my meat , nor rejoice or grieve for me . . the king doth not sin by my sinning , nor shall be judged , saved or damned for me . . the king may not chuse my wife , diet , &c. as aforesaid : nor hath he right to lye with your wife as you have , nor to dispose of your children or propriety . . the king that ruleth priests may not do what the priest doth , administer sacraments , use the church keys , &c. so that all that he can do , is to over-rule personal , family and church governors , to the common good , without destroying them . l. it is for the common good that all be forced to communion . m. yes , if you can first force them to faith and holiness , else it is for the common church-confusion , corruption , and mens deceit and damnation , and not the common good . chap. xlvi . point iii. of forcing men to schism , by renouncing communion with true churches and members of christ. m. iii. the third unlawful part of lay-conformity is , that they must be forced from local communion with all the nonconformists that assemble any where save in the parish-churches or chappels , and so under pretence of driving them from schism , they are driven into notorious schism . l. how prove you that it 's their duty to have any such communion with nonconformists conventicles ? if you are scismaticks , it 's a sin to communicate with you . m. . i prove communion with us a duty ; ( tho' it be not every man's duty to be locally present with us , it is every man's duty not to avoid it as an unlawful thing , but to be willing of it as he hath occasion ) . . it is a duty for all christians to own communion with all true members of the body of christ. but nonconformists and their assemblies for worship , are true members of the body of christ. ergo — the major is most fully proved by christ , ioh. . . and paul cor. . throughout , and eph. . , , , to the . and rom. . and . and many other scriptures . the minor i prove . all those are true members of the body of christ , who have all the essentials necessary to the constitution of such members . but so have the nonconformists and their church assemblies ( as afore described : ) ergo. the major none but the ignorant of logick will deny . as to the minor , they that have true christian faith , hope , and love , have all that is essential to personal members : and the churches that have pastors and people communicating in that faith , hope and love , in doctrine , worship , sacraments and tolerable discipline , are true churches , parts of the universal church . but such are many persons and churches of nonconformists . ergo. the major all sound and knowing christians grant . for the minor no proof is necessary but our profession , till it be disproved . and let the accusers of the brethren , as they love themselves , take this warning before they undertake to disprove it : do it by no argument that will ten times more condemn your selves and your church , than such nonconformists . . the second argument is this : it is a sin of schism to refuse communion with those that christ receiveth , so we own not any of their sin : rom. . . &c. but christ receiveth ( into his communion ) the foresaid nonconformists and their worshipping assemblies . proved as before . . it is a sin to deny the lawfulness of communion with christians and their assemblies , for lesser faults than those persons and assemblies had , whose communion christ and his apostles were for : but so must they that will deny the lawfulness of communion with the said nonconformists and their assemblies . — the major none will deny that take christ and his apostles for their teachers . the minor is easily proved : the church of the jews had priests unlawfully introduced , and corrupt teachers , and worship , and yet christ disowned not communion with them in synagogues , and temple and houses , save only that he conformed not to their sinful traditions and corruptions . the church of the corinthians had men guilty of schism , and faction , and quarrelling with the apostle , wronging each other , sinful law suits , scandalous persons , denying the resurrection , grosly abusing the sacrament and communion , &c. the churches of galatia , ephesus , smyrna , thyatira , sardis , &c. had such faults as i need not tell you of . yet no man is bid or allowed to disown communion with them . you can truly prove no such by those in question . arg. . ad hominem : it is lawful to communicate with the churches of england , that have more faults than the nonconformists : ergo it is lawful to communicate with them that have fewer . we challenge any to prove so many and such faults by us as i have here before proved by your church . and if for ours , separation from us be a duty from yours , it proves a duty much more . arg. . it is a schismatical doctrine which would teach men by parity of reason to renounce communion with all churches and christians on earth , or near all . but such is that which would teach men to renounce communion with all the nonconformists and their worshipping assemblies . the major is unquestionable . the minor is proved , in that all or near all the christians on earth have as great faults as the nonconformists and their assemblie● . o that god would so bless the world , as to make all the churches of the armenians , abassians , syrians , georgians , circassians , greeks , moscovites , papists , lutherans , and all other protestants , &c. but as knowing , sincere , faithful , obedient , &c. as those in england that you revile , cast out and prosecute . l. but communion in schism is unlawful : but you are accused of schism , and so are your assemblies . m. and the church of england is as loudly accused of schism and heresie by the papists : and too much by the greeks , if the patriarch ieremy spake their sence . art they therefore schismaticks indeed ? none forwarder to accuse than the ignorant or guilty ! judge by what i have said of our judgment in my search for the schismatick . we abhor schism , and have laboured to have healed the wounds of the church with all our power these years and more ; and who be they that have resisted it , and hate the only healing balsam ? . it is not true that we must have communion with no church that is guilty of schism , tho' we must not be guilty of schism it self . if the schism be apostasy that cuts them off from christ and the church universal , we must not have christian communion with such , that are no christians . but if they are only guilty of schism from some particular church , and of schism in the universal church , and not from it , wounding and not dismembring , we must not renounce communion with such , save only as with any other scandalous sins , so far as impenitence proveth ungodliness . the church of corinth was much guilty of schism , and so was that of galatia ; and yet none were therefore to renounce their communion . was not peter guilty of some schism ? gal. . i doubt there are few churches on earth that are not herein guilty , either in east , south , west or north. and must we renounce communion with them all ? that is , to commit tenfold greater schism for fear of schism . . read impartially my search for the schismatick , and if the prelates thus mentioned be not far more guilty of schism , than we are , i despair of ever understanding what schism is . this would be the strongest argument for separation from them : and is so used by many separatists . chap. xlvii . point iv. of obliging the laity to live without any more benefit of disciplin● than is in the publick churches . m. iv. the next part of lay-conformity is this : christ , who instituted ministry , word and sacraments , hath also instituted a certain determinate discipline in his church , of great use to the church , and to particular souls : and this is considerable , . as a duty . . as a benefit . and no man hath authority , . to disoblige us from a duty of christ's imposing ; . or to deprive us of a benefit of christ's giving . but conformity doth both these to the laity in a great degree . l. what mean you by that discipline ? i thought our church had rather too sharp discipline ? i hope you mean not the geneva discipline , or the scots presbyteries and stool of repentance . m. i mean nothing but what as to the matter , the episcopal party write for as the ordinance of christ : the true exercise of the keys , and the previous acts. that is , that god hath made the church to be as it were the porch of heaven , a society gathered out of the infidel world , sanctified to god , and prepared for glory ; and therefore he would have none in his church , but such as profess faith , love and holiness , and renounce a fleshly , sensual , worldly and profane life : and the pastors bear the keys of trust and government to judge of such ; that is , who are to be taken in , and who to be cast out , and who to be admonished and cured of scandalous sins : and all the members are bound to preserve the purity of themselves , and the society in their places ; and therefore if a brother live scandalously , contrary to his profession , his neighbour that hath notice of it , is to tell him of his fault , and if he hear not , and repent not , to warn and admonish him before witnesses : and if yet he repent not , to tell the church ; and if yet he repent not , and hear not the church , he is to be avoided , as one that is none of their communion . but if warning , perswasion , prayers and patience , bring him to repentance , the church is gladly to pronounce his forgiveness by god , and to receive him . this is the discipline which christ hath instituted , and the christian churches have professed . l. this calling men to repentance personally will but disturb and distract the parishes : men will never endure it : and that 's no duty that will do harm . m. they are not fit to be communicants or members of a christian church that will not endure it . it is the crime of the church-governours that they receive , yea , drive such into the church , as will not endure the laws of christ , and church-duties , and then cast by such duties , because men will not endure them . as if you took scholars into a school that will not endure government and correction , or soldiers into an army that will not endure command and discipline ; and then omit it , and leave them to their wills , because they will not endure it . or , as if you would take servants that will not be commanded , nor endure labour , and then let them be masterless and idle , because they will not endure service . who allow'd you to take and keep such in christ's church , that will not endure either to live obediently , or be called to repentance ? i confess that to let all men alone in their sin , is the way to some kind of peace in the parish : but it is not christ's peace , but the devils , by which he keeps possession of souls and countries , till christ break his peace , and cast him out ; such peace will end in endless sorrow . l. what reasons can you give for the necessity of such a sort of discipline , and why it may not be f●rborn ? m. . it is christ's law and institution , and that is the same reason that we give for our christianity it self . l. but i have read in erastus , selden , ludov. moulin and prin , that christ did but tell his disciples how they should carry themselves under the jewish government , and use their sanedrims or iudicatures , and did not institute any new sort of church-discipline . m. christ's taking occasion from the iewish judicatures to institute his discipline , doth no more prove that he did not obligatorily institute it , than his calling twelve apostles according to the number of the tribes , and his taking occasion from former practice , for baptism , ministry , elders , &c. doth prove that he ordained no such things . . what need christ command his disciples to use that iewish government which was in use before , and they could not avoid ? . christ knew that the iewish government was presently going down , and tells his disciples that they should be judged and scourged as malefactors in those synagogues . and is it like then that he is calling them to exercise their discipline in those synagogues . . if it were so , it will hold à fortiore , that if christ during the iewish policy command them to use such a discipline , much more in his own churches . l. what are your other reasons for it ? m. . the very nature of christ's church required it , which is a society separated from the world under special laws of holiness and love , and for special heavenly ends : if therefore it shall be confounded with the world , and not separated to christ , it is no church . . christ did it for the honour of himself , and his kingdom : if he be no more for holiness than the infidel and heathen world is , what is he better than they , or how is he a saviour , or what is the church better than infidels ? . it is needful to save heathens from deceit that would come into the church , and to convince them that their impure communion is insufficient . . it is needful to save christians from damning deceit , that they may not think that a dead , barren , unholy faith and name of christianity will save them , without a holy , obedient heart and life . . it is needful to keep christ's ordinances from falsifying profanation : if a sealed pardon and gift of life shall in the sacraments be given , as commonly to dogs as children , it is a taking god's name in vain , and profane belying jesus christ. . it is needful to bring sinners to repentance , that they may be pardoned and saved . . and it is needful to the comforting absolution of penitents . . accordingly god 's church in all ages hath owned it as their law of christ's institution , to this day . l. but some learned men say , this was but because there was at first no christian magistrate : but when there was such the discipline fell into their hands . m. the first christian magistrates finding the church in possession of it , confirmed it , and too much accumulated and added to it ; but took it not away . of this see a small book which i wrote of the magistrates power in religion , to dr. lud. moulin , which may end all this dispute . briefly , i ask you , qu. . would you have all infidels and pagans baptized , and communicate without any profession of the christian religion first ? l. god forbid : that 's a contradiction . m. shall any words go for a profession , or what must that profession be ? l. it must be a profession of christian faith and obedience . m. who must try and judge of that profession , whether it be christianity or not : is it magistrates or pastors ? l. magistrates have somewhat else to do : else they must study and exercise that work alone ; for they will have no time for civil government , if they undertake this . m. did not christ institute an office for it , and give them this power of the keyes ? and if one half that office cease as soon as magistrates were christians , why not the other half , and so magistrates must preach , baptize , and celebrate the sacrament . l. it must be no doubt the ministerial office , to judge who is fit to be in church communion : else they were slaves , if they must be forced to take all uncapable men to their charge and communion against their consciences and wills : no physician , tutor or school-master , will be forced to take such patients , pupils or scholars , as will not be ruled by him , and will make make him do what they list , against his will. m. you must confess the use of discipline , or else openly disown the word of god , the very being of the church , and the judgment of the universal church to this day . and do you think then that to deprive the church of this is a lawful part of conformity ? l. how prove you that the laity is deprived of it ? m. . in our great parishes , the people are few of them known to the priest or to one another . of the two parishes of my last abode , i do not think but there are fifty thousand unknown to the minister and to each other . and how can these admonish the offenders , or the minister exercise this discipline upon unknown persons ? . the people know that it is in vain to begin where there can be no progress . to what purpose is it to tell the church , when it 's sure to do more harm than good . . the swarm of the vicious is so great , that they cannot be prosecuted . . the minister himself forbeareth it as unpracticable . . the accused must be prosecuted at rates which men cannot bear . . and before bishops , that cannot possibly do this work to one of a thousand , any more than one school-master can try and correct all the faulty scholars in a diocess . . and men must be judges that will never call sinners to repentance with ministerial evidence , and love , and patience , but like secular courts , bid them recant or be excommunicate . . and the cause must be decided by lay-men that profanely usurp the power of the keys . and how is christ's discipline here possible ? polluted , common churches frighten away the religious conscionable people . l. do you not before complain of too much exercise of discipline by excommunications ? m. yes , of discipline against christ : it is not enough for your churches to be common and unclean without true discipline , but when you should drive out the dogs and swine , you turn out the children : witness all the fore-mentioned canons . as i said , you first force in all the ignorant ungodly multitude that are unfit ; then these are the strength and major part : then they cannot come under due discipline ; then this grieveth religious people , and they find fault with it . and then they must be taken for schismaticks , and condemn'd and ruin'd for finding fault . in short , what need there disputing : is it not notorious matter of fact that this discipline is not exercised against one drunkard , swearer , fornicator , &c. of a multitude ? and are not men then deprived of the use of it ? and when it 's known that they cannot have it in most or many parishes , how are they bound to live and die without the benefit of it ? l. do you think men are bound to separate from all churches that have not this discipline ? sure it is not essential to the church . m. i do not think that preaching , as distinct from reading , is essential to a church ; but that it may be at least for a time a sorry church without it , as those in moscovy are . but i would not continue in such a church that is without it , if i can have a better . it 's one thing what a man should endure that can have no better without more hurt than good ; and another thing what men should chuse in obedience to christ , and for their own and the churches good that can attain it . do you think it is lawful to omit all duty that is not essential to the church ? surely your many humane offices , your forms and ceremonies , your declarations and subscriptions to them , are further from being essential than true discipline is , and yet you think that the omission of these is unsufferable : is mans accidental inventions more necessary than christs ordinance and church government ? l. the presbyterians call their discipline the kingdom of christ , and feign their government to be christs . m. i speak for nothing proper to presbyterians : for no lay-elders , nor synods that by vote govern all the churches of the land , but only for that substance of parish discipline which all acknowledge , not resisting appeals from abusive ministers to bishops or magistrates . bucer was no adversary to moderate episcopacy yet if you will read him de regno dei , de confirmat . &c. to king edward . for parish discipline , i shall need to say no more to you this subject . chap. xlviii . point v. the discountenancing the fear of sin , and the practice of serious godliness . m. v. i will add next this aggravation which comprehendeth many parts of conformity . no true christian doubteth , but seriousness and diligence in serving god , and making our calling and election sure , and obedience to gods law , and fear of sinning , are of absolute necessity to salvation . and how greatly the laity is discouraged and frightned from all this by the course of conformity is notorious . l. who doth discourage them ? do not all our ministers preach for obedience and godliness ? doth not our liturgy pray that the rest of our lives hereafter may be pure and holy , that we may attain eternal life ? m. yes , and more than so , you read the scripture which is all for holiness : the deeper is the guilt of hypocrisie and malignity in them that seek to root it out : out of their own mouths will they be judged , and beaten with many stripes . judge by these instances . . how children are baptized with god-fathers , and how confirmed after , and admitted to communion , and forced to it , i shewed before . . so many humane institutions are imposed on men as necessary to communion , that he must be a man of more learning and understanding than i have , or with all the study of my life could obtain , who can discern them all to be lawful : and he that calls any of them sinful is excommunicate ipso jure . . it is certain that a great part of the laity understand not the creed , and those few that set themselves to seek for saving knowledge , attain so little in their secular course of life , as that we must be glad if they understand all the catechism , the creed , lords prayer and ten commandments , and take such for extraordinarily wife : and yet if one of these think a form , a ceremony , a lay chancellors discipline , &c. to be repugnant to the word of god , and say it , he is excommunicate . . by this it is absolutely necessary that the generality of men , even all england that know not more than i do , must blindly believe as the canon and priest bids them , barely on their word , or else they must falsly pretend to believe them , or be all liable to excommunication . and so an implicite faith in the canon-makers and bishops is become the necessary religion of the land. and then if the bishops turn we must all turn with them . . by this means wilful ignorance is made necessary . for it is a dangerous thing ( as i have found it ) to study for knowledge in gods word , lest it should lead us to differ from something in the canons , liturgy or bishops , and then we are liable to ruin . and so they that will be church members must take heed of studying gods word , or searching after truth . . if for thinking and saying any of the impositions are amiss , they be once excommunicated , or but noted as dissenters , they are rendered odious to the church-courts and priests , and by them to the credulous obsequious herd ; and it 's likely that in the pulpit they will be proclaimed hypocrites , schismaticks , unquiet spirits , phanaticks , and in as much danger of damnation as murderers or adulterers , who are as safe as they . . by this means fear of sinning , and the danger of dissenting being so usually conjunct , the avoiding of sin is made puritanism , and a suspicious sign , if not a common scorn . . by this means ignorant youth is quite discouraged from serious piety and fear of sin , lest they fall under common scorn ; and it 's well if they follow not the multitude and be scorners of obedience to god themselves . and the very plea of conscience ( which is but obeying god ) is made a disgrace or mockery , and a tender conscience , made equivalent with a self-conceited schismatick . . it is no danger to meet by hundreds at a play-house ; or by great numbers at taverns , ale-houses , coffee-houses , horse-races , &c. but if a few neighbours meet to pray or excite each other in the love of god and heaven , you know what the danger is . . if any minister will but leave preaching the gospel of christ , and turn physician , he may be quiet ; tho' hebe of the same judgment that he was before ; the forbearing of his ministry may preserve his peace . there are now in this city ejected ministers who have forsaken their function , and are doctors of physick , and they live in great wealth and acceptance : there are physicians and ministers of the same judgment , and perhaps dwell together in the same house ( it was the case of dr. micklethwait and me . ) the physician is honoured , and the minister call'd and used as a rogue , though they were of the same mind . there are some nonconforming ministers , that tho' they are doctors of physick , yet dare not cease their ministry , but practice both : these are welcomed to the sick , but the healthful banish them or hunt them away , notwithstanding their acceptance as physicians , the hatred of their preaching being more prevalent . l. sure they preach some dangerous doctrine . m. not a word of such is charged on them , tho' malicious persons come to hear them , and inform against them . their writings tell the world their doctrine . dr. clifford was one of them who hath written of the covenants : dr. gilpin is one of them who hath written of temptations , driven from newcastle . some ejected ministers educate their sons to physick , and tho' they be of their fathers mind , the sons are highly esteemed and honoured , and the aged fathers laid in jayl : this last week old dr. grew that is about or years of age , and almost blind , and hath lived there years and more , ( known by some writings ) a man of a calm , quiet , sober , peaceable temper , was sent to the common jayl at coventry for dwelling there , and sometimes exhorting his old hearers to fear god ; and he hath here a son , and a son-in-law , doctors of physick , deservedly honoured , who if they did but preach the gospel might speed as ill as he . . if an ejected minister would but teach the children of the laity , tho' it were but to read , and tho' there be no other school-master near , the people must rather have their children untaught , and must not be suffered to have so needful a help . . if a minister would give over preaching , yet if his old hearers desire his neighbour-hood , that they may have the benefit of his conference , they must not enjoy it , lest he whisper nonconformity to them , but he must be banished five miles not only from corporations , but from every place where-ever he preached these twenty years . i know some such who have travelled much abroad , who can hardly find a place in that part of england that is not within five miles of a corporation or some place where they have preached : and those few places have seldom any untenanted houses : and if rarely such a house be found , it 's like enough that the landlord will have no such tenant : or if he would , it 's ten to one the minister is not able to take it and pay his rent ; besides his undoing in removal , and putting off his former house and goods . . if any one that feareth sinning by conformity , be never so falsly accused , he usually accounteth it his wisdom to suffer patiently whatever men will say or do , without self-defence : i saw two warrants against a lay-man this week , which express'd his hearing two ministers as sworn by two poor beggarly women ; when i can witness that both their oaths were false , and that neither of those ministers preach't at the time and place that they swore they preached : for my house being at the next door , i heard that it was not they that then preached . but i suppose its all one : they dare not question it . i heard of one that said he woulp swear treason against a nonconformist : and being ask'd , what he said , and whether ever he heard him speak ? he said , no ; but he heard him whistle treason : and being ask'd , how whistling could be treason ? he said , that he whistled the same tune that a ballad was sung in , that they said had treasonable words in it . . in the mean time , let but men be utterly void of conscience and fear of sinning , and what can hinder them from saying , covenanting , swearing , doing , any thing that is required of them in order to a benefice , or to the estimation of an obedient son of the church . and then he can preach down nonconformists as intolerable rogues . and thus the laity that will fear sin , and search the scriptures , and have a faith of their own , must go through all these discouragements , if they be not so unhappily happy , as to attain to assurance or belief that all the impositions in conformity are lawful . chap. xlix . point vi. the laity denied baptism , who refuse the foresaid way of godfathers , as it excludeth the parents as unlawful . m. vi. i hope you will not say it is lawful to be unchristened , or to have their children unbaptized : and you cannot say it is lawful to obey the canon and rubrick about godfathers , against ones conscience . l. an erroneous conscience must be rectified . m. is it meerly at command ? can you do it ? or can any do it when they will ? there is no man without error : why do not all the clergy rectifie their own judgment , and presently free themselves from error ? if you can teach them this art of rectifying conscience , it 's best do it before they go to the university , or before they spend much time and labour in study . how many years study , and reading might this art save them ? presently rectifie all your erroneous opinions , and save the labour . l. but when men have sufficient help , they are unexcusable if they go on in error . m. then either no man living hath sufficient help , or else all men are unexcusable : for it 's most certain that all men go on in a multitude of errors . l. but every error hindereth not mens right to baptism . m. and do you think this doth ? will you try now and prove to me that i may be unexcuseable , . that children have right to baptism meerly upon the presentation of a neighbour or stranger that never owned them . . that it is not the parents duty to dedicate them solemnly to christ , and to be the person ( as having power of them ) that must covenant for them . . that it is lawful for neighbours or strangers , to undertake and vow that for the child's education , which they are neither able to perform , nor ever intended it ? . that it is lawful for parents either to give up their children to such sponsors for to educate them , or to seek or accept such to vow and covenant , that which the parents know they never meant to do , and which if asked , [ do you seriously intend to do all this for my child ? ] they will say , no : is it lawful thus to suborn men , and put them on so great a sin ? cure these errors in me if you can . l. i told you before that they may agree to speak as in your name . m. and i told you , so many do : but that 's nothing to conformity , it being none of the sence of the church , as i proved . was this any of the conditions of baptism of christ's making ? was this necessary when philip said to the eunuch , if thou believe with all thy heart , thou maist be baptized ? or when paul said , else were your children unclean , but now are they holy ? cor. . . l. but your child shall not be unbaptized for this : the church will constrain the baptizing of it . m. whom will they constrain ? . not the minister : he is not to baptize it unless it be brought and desired . . not the godfathers : for none can compel any to be a godfather , nor ever do . . but it is the parent that is compelled ? how ? those that hold it lawful will do it without compulsion , the baptizing of their child being desirable to them . but those that think it a sin , will rather be excommunicate and lie in jail ; and so they cannot compel them . and the anabaptists children are mostly unbaptized for all their compulsion . but the usual way of nonconformists is to elude the canon , and to agree privately with the godfathers to be but witnesses or seconds , and that the parent himself will be there present , and when the questions are put to the godfathers , will shew his consent by bowing , tho' he may not speak . but such shifts to avoid the evil of conformity , is no justification of conformity or the canon , nor of any that will deny baptism for an unnecessary if not an ungodly device of man ; and that when themselves seem to make baptism necessary to salvation ; and do clearly make it a means that ascertaineth salvation to infants . chap. l. point vii . of denying baptism to them that dare not submit to the use of the english crossing . m. vii . vvhat is said against our way of crossing , as a dedicating sign , and badge of christianity , if not a humane sacrament of the covenant of grace , i have said before , and must not repeat : and also what it is for ministers to assent and consent to reject all from baptism that are not submitted to it . i am now only to tell you that this submission is a part of the lay-conformit , for want of which they are punished with the denial of baptism . l. but they that are against it may yet let the minister use it on their children : that 's his act , and not theirs : and they cannot hinder him : they send their children to be baptized , and not to be cross'd . m. but we have many antipadobaptists , and converted iews to be baptized at age. . and tho' i am much of your mind in this , yet all wiser men are not ; and the case is very difficult as to infants : if one knew beforehand that the priest would use oil , and spittle , and exorcism , and invocate saints and angels over the baptized child , it were hard to say , i send him only to be baptized ] when he knew how sinfully it will be done . the truth is , i can justifie no man that will submit his child to such a crossing at baptism , that can caeteris paribus have it by another better done , tho' prohibited by man : we must not be guilty of other mens sins , nor of church corruptions . l. christ that will have mercy and not sacrifice , would not have men refuse christendom for fear of a cross. m. christ who would have teachers learn that lesson , i will have mercy and not sacrifice , would have no minister deny christendom to such as think their crossing sinful : and yet he would have no man commit any sin , to gain baptism : but will save the unbaptized that desired it , so they might have had it without ; and will himself shew mercy to such as consent not to a polluted sacrifice . and would have us prefer a lawful way when we can have it . baptism is our renunciation of sin. chap. li. point viii . of rejecting not-kneelers from communion . l. and well they deserve it that will not reverently receive so great a gift upon their knees from god. m. do you think it is for want of humble reverence ? do they not kneel after and longer to god in prayers publickly , and in their families and chambers , than most that blame them ? were christ's apostles unreverent that did not kneel at receiving it in his own visible presence ? was all the universal church unreverent , that for years , if not after christ forbad strictly all adoration by kneeling every lords day , because they would use a laudatory gesture , denoting their belief of christs resurrection ? do those men shew more reverence to god and religion , that will kneel at the altar , and scarce ever kneel to god at home , and seldom use his name but with prophanation ? it is not unreverence that causes their dissent . l. i know no just cause they have of this dissent . m. i confess , nor i , while the open doctrine of the church renounceth all bread-worship and idolatry : but were it among papists , where the doctrine expounds the action , i durst not do it . but i told you before what moveth them , which i must not again repeat . but i will repeat it , that it is a heinous injury to the church , and the particular persons , that on the account of so small and doubtful a circumstance , wherein all antiquity is against the imposers ; they should deny communion with christ and his church as much as in them lieth to faithful christians ; and should turn the sacrament of love for no just cause , into an occasion of hatred and persecution ; and the sacrament of unity , into an engine of division , by their own needless impositions to perplex mens consciences , and set people one against another : o what a snare and instrument of wrath and discord , and inhumane usage of other men , do many turn that blessed sacrament into , which is instituted for the communion of saints in unfeigned love. the more such magnify the sacrament as the very flesh and blood of christ , the more do they condemn themselves . chap. lii . point ix . of denying lay-men communion in a neighbour parish church , when they dare not communicate in their own parish , for the reasons aforesaid . m. ix do you think it is a sin deserving exclusion from christian communion , for a man to think it unlawful for him to own and encourage the ministry of an ignorant , insufficient , or grosly scandalous , or hurtful teacher . a poor christian that is unwilling to be damned , and readeth that he should love his neighbour as himself ; perhaps , heareth the priest tell the people what hypocrites and odious persons non-conformists are , and exhorts them to avoid such , and to prosecute them , and root them out as the intolerable enemies of church and state , and as unfit to be members of any society : he is acquainted with divers non-conformists , their lives , and their books and doctrines , and finds the clean contrary . he reads in scripture , [ see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently , ] he heareth from the pulpit , [ see that ye hate one another , and seek the destruction of one another , ] christ saith , [ love your enemies ] the priest exhorts them [ to root out their friends ] christ saith [ he that receiveth you , receiveth me : and shake off the dust of your feet against them that receive you not : it shall be easier for sodom and gomorrah than for such ] the priest saith [ he that receiveth such ministers , sinneth against christ , and he that hath any communion with them is a schismatick , ] the man readeth , [ beware of false prophets ; and thinks it a sin to encourage the teachers of lies and wickedness ] and he readeth [ he that hateth his brother is a murderer , and hath not eternal life : and if i have not charity , i am but as sounding brass , &c. ] he thinks him a false teacher , that contradicteth christ ; and that seeks to damn the hearers . and he thinks that no tongue can more contradict christ , than that which preacheth down love , and preacheth for hating godly men , tho' on slanderous pretences , and that no man can do more to damn the people , than he that draweth them from love , to such hatred . another liveth in a parish where a dry ignorant fellow affords him no such help as he is conscious his soul needeth , and where the common-prayer is so much better , than the sermon , that were it not for that , he might better stay at home . and where the priests conversation encourageth the drunkards and prophane , and vilifieth godly men. this man is for the church-way , but for a better minister : the question is , whether for this he be so great a sinner that all neighbouring ministers must drive him away , and deny him communion . another honest christian taketh it for a sin to kneel at the railes , or to join with the organs , or to receive or desire the diocesan manner of confirmation , or to forbear communion with all christians whom the church-men here condemn or cast out . the question is , whether it be no wrong to any of these to be denied communion at a neighbour parish , where his doubts are removed ? i prove that he hath right to such neighbour communion . . because he is a member of christs body , the catholick church , and therefore hath right to the communion of saints . and to believe that in the creed , and condemn it in practice , is to believe to condemnation . . they themselves teach that a true christian hath right to communion with all churches , where he hath just occasion to seek it . . they say that there is no church without a bishop , and that the diocesan-church is the least true political church : and if so , he separateth not from any church that separateth not from the diocesan . . these foresaid persons do nothing to forfeit the communion of neighbour churches ; therefore it is a sin and wrong to deny it them . if it were proved an errour to avoid that as a sin which they avoid , all mankind hath errours ; and to be over-fearful of fire , or water , or plague , or poyson , is a tolerable safe weakness , and not like the sins that swarm in multitudes of tolerated parishioners . l. that which is not so immoral , as fornication , drunkenness , cursing and swearing , may be more hurtful to the church , and so deserve greater severity from governours . m. the church-keys are to be used with due relation to heaven , and those are to be taken in , or cast out , that christ will take in , or cast out from heaven : and if you think he will damn an obedient godly christian for fearing to partake of the sin of wicked priests , or for fearing to be poysoned with love-killing doctrine , or for fearing the vain worship of mens traditions , rather than a prophane derider of conscience , and a filthy fornicator , drunkard or blasphemer ; i shall not think it worth my labour to dispute with you . but men that take the churches welfare to lie in the wealth and domination of such as they , more than in the holy obedience , conscience , and piety of the people , will object the same that you now do . chap. liii . point x. of swearing never to endeavour any alteration of government in the church . m. how far this extendeth objectively i before proved x. by . . the words of the oaths . . the consent of the bishops . . and the words of the seven canons ; and the et caetera canon in . so that there is no doubt of it . . how far it extendeth as to the persons obliged , i before told you , and you may read ; . in the corporation act , which imposeth it on all corporations . . in the vestry act , which imposeth it on all church-vestries . . in the act of vniformity , which imposeth the subscription on all the clergy . . in the oxford act of banishment , which imposeth the oath on non-conformists , and more . . in the militia act , which imposeth it on all the military commanders , and souldiers in the land ; so that you may well say , that is a national covenant or oath . . what is amiss in the church-government that needeth an amending alteration , i have so often told you , that i will not repeat it . judge then what this oath importeth . l. it could never be the meaning of the parliament , that no man shall endeavour to amend the faults of any officers , courts or actions ; for they often amend their own acts of parliament ; and they reserve a power in king and parliament , to make alterations even in church governments : but that belongs not to the people , nor should they endeavour it . m. . i hope you will not confound stated offices , and mens exercise of them in practice . i grant that they do not bind us by oath never to endeavour that bishops , and all the officers of their courts may be honest men , and slander , and injure no man against law , &c. but it is the offices , as here stated , that are made thus far unalterable , named in the canon [ arch-bishops , bishops , deans , arch-deacons , and the rest that bear office therein . ] . i grant , that the law is made to bind none but subjects ; and that an altering power is reserved to king and parliament : but it doth not follow , that all the subjects be not bound by it : though they may change laws , yet we may not : and as you say , they suppose that it belongeth not to the people to endeavour it : which we grant , as to any rebellious , seditious , or otherwise unlawful endeavour : but whether god bind not all men in their own place and calling , by prayer , conference , elections of officers , petition , &c. to endeavour to amend all crying , dangerous , common sins , is a farther question . l. they cannot mean to exclude petitioning , for that is the subjects right , and is by them allowed with restraints . m. . it is meant in opposition to the scots covenant , which tyed men to oppose popery , prelacy , and schisme , only in their several places and callings . . it is expres'd in the most universal terms , without the least exception , by men that knew how to speak . . reasons were given in parliament against any limitation , and those reasons carryed it . . they were men that were wholly for the church of england , whose canon had before excommunicated themselves , and all men , that accused any office in the church government as sinful . and they knew , that should any of them , when the parliament is risen ( yea , or there ) so say , he is an excommunicate man. . it is most certain that they intended to bind all subjects on whom these oaths are imposed , even from petitioning , or any other endeavour of alteration ; though they allow petitioning in other cases ; for they intended to fix and secure the church-government against all alterations . . therefore ( as i said before ) they joined it with , yea , and set it before state-government in all their oaths and covenants ; and do you think in conscience , they left men at liberty to petition against monarchy , or against the life , or power , or honour of the king : far be it from us to think so ill of them . i must profess to you that i do not think half so ill of well-order'd monasteries of men or women , as i do of our large diocesses , or our lay-excommunicators , according to the canons . and yet even in the times of popery , the nation was not sworn never to endeavour any alteration of monasteries . if you would have all corporations , soldiers , vestries , ministers sworn never to endeavour to cure the sick , to relieve the poor , to seek more wealth , to reform all play-houses , ale-houses and taverns , to catechize their families , &c. i would not join with you . national oaths and covenants are matters of great moment : we have deeply suffered by rashness in such already : and should any of them prove false and wicked , and the nation be stigmatized with perjury , you might more sadly write , lord have mercy on us , on the land , than on the doors where the most dreadful plague prevaileth . chap. liv. point xi . of swearing an abhorrence of taking arms against any commissionated by the king . m. this also i have said enough of in the case of the xi . ministers , and told you that we are far from scrupling it in disloyalty ; but in loyalty , only , . lest the keepers of the seals may by commissions depose the king , or deliver up the kingdom to whom they please . . because the authority of a commission , as above , and against the king 's own law , is not a matter that lawyers and judges themselves are agreed of , and therefore unfit for the unskilful vulgar to determine by their oath . l. the end is but to secure your loyalty . m. the end is one thing , and the means another : we are ready to give better security of our loyalty than this , which i before intimated to you . do you think in your conscience that all the souldiers in england , and all the corporation-officers , and entrusted persons , and all the vestry-men , and all the ministers are so well skill'd in politicks and law , above bishop bilson , grotius , barclay , and all the tribes of learned lawyers , casuists , canonists , philosophers , &c. before named , as that they can take such an oath in truth , iudgment , and righteousness ? swearing allegiance , and renouncing rebellion , is easily known to be every subjects duty . but to unty knotty controversies in law , is sure above every vulgar brain . why was not this way found out to prevent all the civil wars in the days of the two williams , of stephen , of henry the st . and d. of k. iohn , of edward d . of richard d . of henry th . and edward th . and henry th . and richard d. and to prevent the insurrections in the days of q. mary , and q. elizabeth ? why do they not this way decide all the controversies at liege , colen , &c. to make the people determine them by oath ? all politicks agree that the difference between near subjects and slaves , is , that the former have propriety which none can take from them , but by their consent , at least in their wives , children , and lives ; and that slaves have none such , nor may resist a commission to take them away , though causlesly , and laws are there but the will of the lord , who may cross them at his pleasure ; and that a ruler of subjects , and an owner of slaves thus differ . now if it be a controversy , whether the english be meer subjects or slaves , the ignorant vulgar are no fit judges to decide it , and that by oath ? chap. lv. point xii . whether all trusted in corporations may declare , that there is no obligation ▪ on them or any other person from the oath called , the league and covenant . m. i spake to this before but a little on the by ; it being no xii . part of the ministerial conformity . ministers are only to subscribe , or swear , that the said oath bindeth no man to endeavour any alteration of government ; but the corporations are to declare , that there is no obligation at all , from that oath on them , or any other . i have read much of the history of heathens , mahometans , and christians ; and i confess , i remember not that ever i read the like to this . the likest to it that i remember , was in the long wars and contentions between the pope and the german emperour , when they sware and unsware , and sware again , as either party got advantage : and that popes and councils have decreed the dissolving of oaths of fidelity to those kings whom the pope excommunicates , is commonly known ; but protestants know no such power . l. this declaration is to be expounded by the many following acts , which only say , there is no obligation to change the government . m. that 's gratis dictum without proof ; that several acts have the same meaning when the words so much differ , is not to be presumed . one of them is an universal negative without the least exception , and the other a particular negative only . . and the acts were made at several times , to several men , and the parliament in the latter , never pretended to limit or explain the former , which sure they would have done if they repented of the terms . . and parliament men tell us . that it was mentioned that the non-obligation of the covenant should be limited , and it was pleaded against it , that if men believe that they are bound by it to any thing , some will think that they are bound to all that is lawful , and that it 's lawful to take arms against the king , and so there is no securing them from rebellion , as by that covenant , but by renouncing all its obligation : and this carried the cause . . it is not lawful for subjects to put a particular sence on universal words imposed , unless the imposers first so expound the terms ; which they have refused to do after twenty years complaint of the dissenters , and do justifie the universal sence to this day . therefore such forced expositions of our rulers words in so tremendous a matter , are not to be feigned without good proof . l. we say bonum est ex causis integris : there is evil in that covenant , therefore it is an evil covenant . m. that 's none of the question ; it may be evil in that part that is evil , and the thing it self may thence be denominated faulty or evil , and yet not all that is in it be evil , nor it evil simpliciter but scundum quid . do you think all is evil that is there vowed ? l. if it be evil , no one is bound to keep it . m. no , not in the evil part : but do you think that the conjunction of some ill things in a vow or covenant , doth disoblige a man from all that 's good in it ? if so , mark what will follow . . man is so ignorant , and imperfect , and faulty , that he doth nothing that 's good without a mixture of some evil , how can sinless perfection come from sinful imperfection ? and so we should be bound by no vow , or oath , or contract at all . . if knaves once learn this lesson , they will be sure to foist in some ill clause into their vows to god , and their covenants with man ; that so they may be bound by none . . the oath of allegiance or fedelity to the king , and the king 's own oath at his coronation , in the time of popery , had ill clauses in it for the papal interest ; doth it follow that neither of them did bind ? . if an irish tory should , on the high-way , meet an english lord , and take his purse , pretend that he is against the king , and should force him at once to take an oath to be true to the king , and to give him his estate , and conceal his theft : the latter is evil , and yet even that oath bindeth to be true to the king. . if the clergy in their ordination , in time of popery , had divers sinful clauses and promises , doth it follow that their ordination was null , and obliged them to no ministerial duty ? . if the clergy in former ages , or in france or spain , be sworn to the king and the pope , doth it follow that this binds them not to the king , because it binds them not to the pope ? . if men were married in time of popery , with unlawful words and clauses , or lately in england by justices in new terms , was such marriage null ? . if a papist make to you a testament , or deed of sale of his estate , and put in some unlawful clauses appealing to angels , or wishing you to pray for the souls in purgatory ; i do not think you would take that will or deed for a nullity . . if in popery or here , some clauses at baptism prove bad , it doth not nullifie the baptismal vow . . if the king's souldiers at once swear to fight for the king , and to destroy or plunder some innocent men ; or the papist souldier should swear to be true to the king , and to pull down the protestant ministry and bishops ; the former part binds them , though the latter doth not . l. an oath unlawfully imposed binds no man. m. that 's only the doctrine of perjury , contrary to all sober christian casuists . an unlawful imposition that is made by an usurper without true power , binds no man to take the oath imposed ; but if he take it without being bound to take it , the oath binds him to the lawful part of the matter . . if a high-way robber make me swear to be true to the king , that oath binds , though he had no authority to impose it on me . . if an usurping minister baptize a man , and make him vow himself to christ , his vow binds him , though the usurper had no authority . . if a man make many voluntary vows , which no man bound him to make , he is bound to keep them if the matter be lawful . and the want of authority in the imposer doth but leave you as a volunteer , unobliged to take it . . and i would not have a popish clergy tempted to say , the king and parliament had no authority to impose the oaths of allegiance and supremacy on us without the pope ; therefore we be not bound to keep them . l. but the covenant was forced , and no man is bound by a promise or oath which he was forced to make . m. that 's a doctrine of gross perjury : it 's true , that no man that without authority forceth another to promise any thing to him , can lay any just clame to that which he forced a man to promise : for no mans own crime can give him right to a commodity ; nemini debetur commodum ex propria culpâ , and the promiser is not bound to give it him , because he hath no right to receive it ; but if you be injuriously forced to promise or vow your duty to god , or the king , or your neighbour , that vow and promise doth bind you to perform it . . if it be done without right by prince or prelates that force men to be baptized , yet that forced vow doth bind them . . if bishops unjustly force unfit men to the lord's supper , their vow there made obligeth them . . as i said , if a high-way robber force you to swear to be true to the king , or to restore ill gotten goods , or to recant a slander , that oath doth bind you . . if the king should unjustly force you to marry a woman , the covenant binds you . the reason is , because man hath free will , and doth all that he doth by that choice , which is true freedom . it 's no proper force of his will that moveth him , though we call it force from anothers act , who doth his best to force him ; a man may refuse though he die for it . he that casteth his goods into the sea to save the ship , is urged to it , but may choose . he that giveth a thief his purse to save his life , might have chosen . do not the martyrs freely lay down their lives ? and if any deny christ or his cause to save his life , and say i was forced , that will not save his soul. . and your doctrine will set up all unfaithfulness and rebellion . all men that under penalties are commanded to swear allegiance , or to take this corporation-oath , or the militia-oath , or the oath to the bishops , are hereby taught to say , we were forced to it by the king and prelates , and did it all against our wills , and therefore are not bound by it . such principles loose the bonds of all societies , loyalty and humane converse ; and married men will put away their wives when they are weary of them , and say , i was forced against my will by my parents , or by poverty , &c. l. but this covenant was unlawfully taken , as well as unlawfully imposed , and therefore bindeth not . m. this also is pernicious doctrine against all sober casuists . if the matter be good , the causeless and unlawful act of taking it , doth not nullifie the obligation to perform it . he that voweth an indifferent act , should not have done it ; for a vow must not be causeless ; but he must keep it when it is made . he that sinned in marriage when he ought not , yet must perform his marriage covenant . he that in meer hypocrisie maketh the baptismal vow , did sin and yet is bound to keep it . the truth is , wicked men have so much of ill principles , and ill ends , that they do all sinfully that they do oft as to the substance , and ever as to the manner : but they are not disobliged from all their contracts and vows , because they sinfully made them . else they will purposely do all sinfully , that they may , not be obliged . so that , . if the act of imposition . . the act of swearing . . and part of the matter sworn , be all unlawful ; yet a man is obliged to that part of the matter that is lawful . but part of the vow in question was good . l. what part of it was good as to the matter ? m. . the renouncing of popery . . and of schism . . and of prophaneness ▪ . the obligation to defend the king. . the profession to repent of sin , &c. l. but all this we are bound to otherwise before . m. then you confess that it is good ; and then the vow in question binds us to it . i hope you are not so ignorant as to think that vow binds not a man to do that which he is bound to before . i told you before , tho' a man be bound by his vow in baptism to christ , his renewing it at every sacrament layeth more and more obligation on him . if a man have taken the oath of allegiance , every time he taketh it , he is again bound to the same thing . one may have a thousand obligations to one and the same duty . l. but one thing is unanswerable : no man is bound by a vow that had not a self-obliging power : but the subjects of england and scotland , had no self-obliging power to take that covenant , because the king was against it . the . of levit proveth this at large . m. indeed if the act of vowing were not only sinful but a meer nullity , that vow being no vow , could not bind : but that levit. . doth no whit prove this , i have fully manifested in my christian directory in the chap. of vows , to which i referr you part . . cap. . where the whole case of vows is so largely opened , that i will here only say this little . the text of levit. . doth expresly speak only of women , that are in a parents or husbands house , and only of vows made freely to god of doing or offering something to him : yea it seemeth limitted to them , of which many reasons may be given . and many reasons i have there mentioned pag. . why it doth not extend to princes and magistrates for releasing their subjects from their vows , tho' some pretend a parity of reason . but these things are certain . . that even the parents make not the vow null at its first making , but only relax it after , and stop the confirmation of it , vers . , , , , , , . . that this power is about vows to god , as good or hurtful to the inferiours ; and that some vows are so certainly necessary to the inferiours good , that the father or husband ( whose power is only for their good , and not their hurt ) cannot dispense with it . as dr. sanderson , saith praelect . . § . . p. , . it belongeth only to that matter in which one is under another government , which hath § . . a double limitation , one in the person of the swearer , viz. there is scarce any one that hath the use of reason , that is so fully under anothers power , but that in some things he is fui juris . and there every man may do as pleases himself , without consulting his superiour , so at that by his own act ; without his superiours licence , he may bind himself . . as to the consent of a superior — a tacit consent antecedent or consequent suffices — quasi diceret , si dissensum suum vel uno die dissimulet votum in perpetuum stabilivit . and it is certain that to oppose prophaneness , schism , and popery , and to repent of sin , are things so necessary , and so much for every persons good , that no parent or husband can either forbid or nullify such a vow : no man can hinder any from vowing in baptism to be a christian , and to forbear murder , adultery , theft , idolatry , &c. nor can disoblige them after . it is certain that if a superiour dissent , and after consent , or he die , and the next superior ( e.g. a husband ) do consent , when a woman makes the same vow , it remaineth obligatory . and it is certain that if a parent or husband make the same vow himself , he cannot disoblige himself . and if once he consent , he can never after nullify it . and as to our case de facto it is agreed , . that parliament-men took and imposed this oath , when they were neither constrained , nor acknowledged the kings power to dissolve it . . that thousands in the nation knew not of the kings published profession against it . . that thousands , yea the far greatest number in england , took it after the death of the king. . that they thought the present king took it himself , and owned it by a declarantion ; in which , tho' for my part i doubt not but the scots sinfully abused him and the kingdom ; yet that alters not the case of the subjects obligation by that vow . . that multitudes of lords , knights , and others took it that had adhered to the king in his wars : all which undoubtedly puts it out of the case of dissolution in levit. . besides , the common protestant doctrine is , that neither popes , princes or prelates , can dispense with vows made in re necessaria . could kings disoblige all their subjects from their oaths and vows , it would make a great change in the religion , morality , and commerce of the world : so that hitherto we have no satisfaction . l. but this was a league and covenant between man and man , who are dead or changed , and not a vow to god ; as you pretend ; on which you lay the stress of the obligation . m. i have nothing to do with it as a league of men , to do any action towards each other ; but only as a vow to god , and covenant of duty to god : and tho' the name of a vow be not in it , i think him not worth the disputing with that on deliberation denieth it to be a vow to god. whom think you else do men make these promises to , of repentance and reformation , and opposing prophaneness , &c. the words signifie as solemn a vowing , as can well be made by words . l. you would make all the corporations of england constituted by the grossest perjury that men can be guilty of , even by disobliging or justifying themselves , and all others in three kingdoms whom they never saw , in the violating of a vow against heresy , schism , popery , and prophaneness , and impenitence : when as you know that our clergy cry down schism every day . m. i leave all men to answer for their own actions : i only tell you why the dissenters dare not take these oaths : i meddle not with other men. and you know a man that saith , this vow binds not , may yet hold that something else binds us against the same thing . but if i were for schism , and should argue from this topick of the non-obligation of the vow , i know not how you could answer me . l. let us try , what is your argument ? m. that which is no sin , is not to be avoided as sin . schism is no sin . ergo schism is not to be avoided as sin . remember that i do but plead their principles . l. i deny the minor. m. that which a man vowing to avoid it , is not by that vow bound to avoid , is no sin : but schism ( and so prophaneness , and popery ) is that which a man vowing to avoid it , is not bound by that vow to avoid ; ergo schism is no sin . l. i deny both major and minor , and first the major . m. a vow to avoid sin alwaies bindeth . ergo that is no sin which a man vowing to avoid is not thereby bound to avoid : est & non est are contradictory terms . l. i deny the major , and distinguish , a lawful vow to avoid sin ever bindeth , an unlawful one doth not . m. vnlawfulness is , . in the act of swearing . . in the act of imposing . . in the matter sworn . an oath unlawfully imposed and taken , bindeth to a lawful matter . but for an oath against sin to be materially unlawful is a contradiction : for to be sin and to be vnlawful is all one . l. i deny that a vow against schism binds not . m. the vow called the covenant bindeth no man. the vow called the covenant , is a vow against schism ( propaneness , and popery ; ) ergo a vow against schism , ( prophaneness and popery ) binds not . l. you argue à particulari : tho' this vow do not , another may . m. i argue ab essentia particularis ad communem essentiam . if this vow have all that is essential to a vow and yet binds not , then no vow as such essentially doth bind . if the anima hujus bovis vel ovis , be not anima rationalis , and yet have all that is essential to the anima brutorum , then it is not essential to any anima bruti to be rational : and it cannot be accidentally so here . if the vow against schism and prophaneness have all essential to a vow and yet bind not , then no vow bindeth qua talis as a vow . and if vows bind only by accident , or by something else that 's an adjunct , that 's nothing for their own essential obligation . and so much of the corporation-declaration . chap. lvi . of many agreed tremendous circumstances and principles which affright many from conformity . m. there are also many general and collateral and circumstantial considerations that make men fear the guilt of conformity the more . l. what are those ? i believe you will find as many of that sort of reasons on the other side to move you to conform , if you consider them . m. i will tell you what i mean , and then i will hear all that you have to say for it . i. we are all agreed that no sin must be done for any commodity , or on any pretence of good . ii. we are agreed that to pretend gods service , or name for our sin is a heinous aggravation : to say , i must do evil to please god , to preach and to win souls , is prophaneness and hypocrisy . iii. we are agreed that it is worse in a minister of christ than in others ; because he is bound to be an example to the flock , who are apt to imitate him . iv. it is granted that god is jealous about his worship , and that the profaning of holy things , and sinning openly in the sacred assemblies is , caecris paribus , worse than meer miscarriages in our conversation . v. lying is by most acknowledged a great sin , as overthrowing humane credit and converse : but especially in a preacher , because it will tempt men never to believe him : and to say that we assent and consent , and that ex animo when we do not , is heinous lying . vi. it is granted that man hath not a despotical power of his own understanding , to believe what he will : and that if any of his errours be vicious , vice and errour must have better cure than meer commands : and if men could know and believe what they will , they should will to believe nothing but what hath credible evidence , without a carnal biass . vii . it is agreed that all men have errour , and therefore that erring men or no men must be tolerated in our communion ; and he that thinks otherwise condemneth himself , and teacheth all men to condemn him . viii . it is granted that it is a very low degree of knowledge that the universality of vulgar christians do attain , who hardly learn the common catechism , much less can it be expected that they should all be able to understand all indifferent things to be indifferent , and to be judges of the minutissima . ix . if any errours be tolerable , it 's like to be the errours about things indifferent and small . x. st. paul hath expresly determined the controversy about loving and receiving such , rom. . & . xi . to encourage by compliance a generation and design of men that overthrow christ's and his apostles rule of communion , and by invented impositions of their own , would make church-concord impossible , and would propagate this way of certain schism , and stablish it in the world , is to confederate for tearing the church of christ , and making schism common and uncureable . xii . it is granted that he that after his greatest study is perswaded that unnecessary oaths , subscriptions , covenants , ceremonies are sinful ; is condemned if he go against his conscience , tho' he should mistake . xiii . those therefore that make such snares for souls , and then tell us [ if you go against your consciences you are damned for that , and if you do not you are damned as schismaticks , for disobeying us ] are far unlike the ministers of christ , or men that help to save our souls . xiv . we non-conformists offer cur solemn oaths that we have by prayer and earnest search and study , laboured to know the truth herein : and as our worldly interest would perswade us to conform , so we would readily do it , did we not believe that it is sin against god : yea we take it ( as to us ) to be no small but heinous sin , by the aggravations which i am mentioning . xv. seeing then the way of our condemners is either to cast all christians out of the church , that have not a greater degree of knowledge herein , than i have , and all men of my rank , or else to bring all men implicitly to believe all to be lawful that is commanded them , we cannot consent to either of these two measures for the church . xvi . it is agreed that perjury is so heinous a sin , as that few are greater : it so taketh god's name in vain , as to engage his justice in a special revenge . it depriveth kings of due security for their lives and crowns , by the oath of fidelity . it destroyeth all trust , and consequently all commerce among men ; as well as all hope of publick justice : it exposeth the estates and lives of all men to the will of perjur'd men ; so that he that dare be perjur'd , may be supposed liable to any other wickedness how great soever . therefore if we ministers should be perjured ; we should make our selves utterly unmeet for our office. xvii . it is agreed that to sin deliberately by a covenant under our hands , is one of the most heinous sorts of sinning ; and if it be done knowingly , sheweth the person to be a wilful servant of sin . to sin by the sudden surprize of a passion is too bad ; but to study it , resolve it , and covenant it , is most dangerous : to engage a mans self by covenant to be once a month drunk , or steal , or commit fornication , is far worse than the bare act. xviii . it is granted that repentance is the condition of forgiveness , and for a man to swear or covenant that he will never repent , or endeavour to amend , or alter any thing that is amiss , is to renounce forgiveness . xix . it is granted that publick , common , national sins , are far worse than private and personal , in few ; and if heinous , they are prognosticks of the sorest judgments ; and to promote them , is to be the enemy of the land. xx. it is granted that if that prove perjury , which some dissenters fear is such , and the kingdom should be stigmatized by it , there could scarce be any greater shame and danger befall the land , to make it odious to god and men , and recorded as such to all generations . as i said , the oaths and covenants to endeavour no alteration in church government , is imposed on all corporations , all souldiers in the militia , all vesteries , all non-conformist ministers that will take it , and all ministers as to covenant in the act of uniformity : and he that ( without accusing others ) only studieth to be innocent of so mortal a ( feared ) guilt , sure is therein excusable , if the fear of god , and the love of our souls , and of the church and state , be not an unexcusable crime . apply this no farther than i apply it . xxi . there is so much written for a foreign iurisdiction over england , in church affairs , by arch-bishop laud , arch-bishop bromhall , dr. heylin , mr. thorndike , dr. saywell , bishop gunning 's chaplain ( and many others ) whose words i am ready to produce ) as may assure us that it is in the same mens thoughts to introduce it as the only way to concord , and that they therefore desire the ejection and ruine of such as we , because we are against it . and how far , and how soon god will let these men prevail , we know not : but we are past doubt , that to subject a nation to a foreign iurisdiction , is to stigmatize it with the most odious perjury : seeing as the oath of supremacy sweareth all expresly against it , so the foresaid corporation oath , vestery oath , militia oath , oxford oath , and vniformity subscription , have sworn or engaged the nation never to endeavour any alteration of government , in church or state : and if a foreign iurisdiction be no alteration , we know nothing capable of that name . and when we see some of the same men at once endeavour to make us take such oaths on pain of ruin , and to design to bring all under the guilt of breaking them , when we have done , men think it best to take no more of them than is necessary , till they see whether they must be kept or broken . xxii . plagues , flames , poverty , convulsions that have befaln corporations of late years , makes us the more afraid of the sins which are like to be the cause : and the earl of argyle 's case makes us afraid of stretching expositions of oaths : and the londoners have sped so ill by such stretching expositions as confirmeth us in our purpose to avoid them . xxiii . if we wilfully sin on pretence of liberty to preach the gospel , we cannot expect god's blessing on our labours : and then what is our preaching worth ? xxiv . we read how joyfully many martyrs in queen mary's days endured the flames , rather than grant the real presence in the mass : and we that fear far greater sin , must rather suffer than commit them . xxv . as we dare not conform against conscience , so to lay by our ministry while we can exercise it , we take to be sacrilege , covenant-breaking with god , and treachery and cruelty to the souls of men. xxvi . we are sure if all the ministers should conform , it would be so far from healing the church , that it would widen the breach : for the dissenting people would be tempted to go the further from us all , and think that none of us were to be trusted ; as many have turn'd further already on some such accounts . xxvii . we are commonly agreed that no men have right from god to silence all the ministers in the land : and we are fully satisfyed that conformity to the things aforesaid being a sin , all the ministers in england ought to have been non-conformists , and then the act of uniformity had silenced them all . xxviii . lastly , the dreadful effects of canonical , and the like impositions , the sufferings of godly minsters , congregations , cities , countries , and persons thereupon ; our doleful divisions , especially among ministers , the evil spirit that possesseth multitudes to cry down love and call for vengeance , and the prospect of what is going on , do affright us from approving , consenting to , or using the engines that thus divide us , and the canons that are battering down our peace , and consequently to be guilty of all the atheism , prophaneness , malignity , popery , persecution and calamity to this land , which are like to come in at the breach of our walls , which the battery of those canons and engines make . a jayl , and a fire , or a gallows is an easier place , than a bed , where conscience shall charge such evils home upon us ; much more then the judgments which the true and righteous judge of the world will shortly execute on lyers , malignants , or persecutors of his flock ; yea , of the least of those that christ will call brethren at that day . i have oft said , if any church-history of one man be credible , st. martin wrought many miracles ; and when the bishops about him being bad men , to get down the priscillian gnosticks ( worse than our quakers ) did , . seek help of the magistrate's sword ; . and bring strict godly persons under suspicion of being priscillianists ; martin renounced their communion by resolved separation to his death ; save that once at the emperour's desire , he communicated with them on condition the emperour would spare the lives of some condemned as priscillianists ; and even for this was rebuked and chastized by an angel , if his scholar and companion sulpitius severus , a learned godly man , be to be believed . chap. lvii . of the reasons for conformity . l. now i will tell you what i hear said against your non-conformity , and i will give you leave to answer the objections as we go on . obj. i. it 's commonly said , that you are fanatick persons that build all your dissent on your own private spirits , and pretended impulses and in spirations . m. have i pleaded with you any such impulses or inspirations , as the reasons of our dissent ? is there any such thing in above books that i have written ? did we use any such argument in our dispute with the bishops ? but the papists call every mans faith that is his own , and not taken meerly on trust as the churches faith , by the name of a private spirit . l. obj. ii. they say you make a schism and stir for meer tristes and things indifferent , viz. ceremonies and liturgy ; confessing that they are not unlawful . m. . and what if they say that we are turks or heathens , or have horns and are brutes , what remedy have we ? to their honour be it spoken , we would not hope to confute them . . do you not know that so far are we from this , that even under the old easier impositions , we protested to the bishops in our petitions for peace , that we would yield to any thing but sin against god , and we endeavoured to prove conformity sinful ? and do they well agree with themselves , when dr. stilling fleet saith , that i would represent conformity such as should make them seem a company of perjur'd villains ? . i pray you tell me , whether the . points now opened by me , be nothing but liturgy and ceremonies , and whether you take them all to be things indifferent . is it not an odd sort of accusers that we have , that sometimes say we suspect the nation of common perjury , and the church of subverting , corruption , and overthrow of discipline , and excommunicating christs faithful servants ; and shortly after say , we dissent only about things indifferent ? god have mercy on those miserably souls that take such things for indifferent . . who is it troubles the land with their things indifferent ? is it we ? did we devise them ? do we impose them on any , and say , vse our things indifferent , or we will silence you , or excommunicate you , and lay you in iayl with rogues ? be such things imposed as indifferent ? l. iii. they say you hold your opinions in obstinate wilfulness , and have no reason to give for them , and therefore are not to be born with as weak brethren . m. so said the arians of the orthodox , and the heathens of the christians . it 's a fine world when ignorant ungodly lads are heard tell such men as were dr. reignolds , iohn fox , amesius , blondel , dailee , chamier , &c. we can't allow you so much as the esteem of weak brethren : i do not think but some of their school boys might soon be taught by a bishop to say thus to their masters . . but do all the young clergy that can talk thus , shew us by any good evidence , that in other things they are so much wiser & learneder than the dissenters ? are they all of greater learning than iohn reignolds , or better hebricians than hugh broughton , or better logicians than sadeel , or ramus , or sohnius , or of greater reading than blondel , &c. . do they know us better than we our selves ? we offer our oaths that we hold what we do by the cogency of appearing evidence , and are willing to know the truth . . have i here and elsewhere given no reasons for our dissent ? have they answered my treatise of episcopacy , my first and second plea for peace , my apology , my treatise of the terms of church-concord , or any one thing that i have written for our cause , save two or three by disputes , which when i have vindicated , they have let fall the disceptation ? what front have these men then that say we dissent without giving reason for it ? but you know how long the press was shut against our writings ; and yet then they that would not endure us to speak , accused us for being silent . l. obj. iv. they say you are non-conformists meerly to make good your former errours , because you will not confess that you did amiss , but will make the people justify you . m. . what are those errours ? if it be our dislike of any of the things before described , i confess it is because we will not renounce them : if it be an errour to be against their church-corruptions , and cruel excommunications , and denying christendom to the seed of the faithful , and communion to faithful christians , i confess we will not recant these errours , till they have better proved them such . the papists that swarm with errours , as a beggar doth with lice , yet burn the protestants as for errour . . i pray you wish those infallible men , that in the ditch of dirt are delivered from all the uncleanness of errour , to send only those those that are without errour to cast the first stone at us , or those that have no worse errour than ours to silence , excommunicate and destroy us . . have we given them no reasons of our dissent ? . do they not know that the argument that hath brought us all into the case that we are in , was thus given us . and oft since in print ? [ if we abate them any thing , they will say that our church was faulty , and needed that reformation ] who then is it that hath divided us to avoid confession of any former faultiness ? tho' good bishop hall pronounceth a heavy sentence on them that will justify the miscarriages of the prelates . l. obj. v. they say that you took part with the parliament against the king , and involved the land in blood , and have still the same rebellious principles . m. . i confess there were some among us that were of the mind of hooker , bilson , grotius , barclay , and the common sort of casuists , politicks , &c. and that thought that as in a doubt about physick , the college of physicians were most to be trusted , so in a doubt about law , the parliament had been most credible : and when the irish had murdered two hundred thousand protestants falsly pretending that they had the kings commission , and threatning to finish their works in england , there were many formerly tempted to fly in fear to the parliament for safety ; being ignorant that the kings bare word , notwithstanding the papists strength and interest , was more to be trusted with our laws , lives and religion , than all the lawyers , courts and pariament ; and that if all the protestants in england had been used as those in ireland , they ought to have died patiently , unless the killers would have given them time to send to the king to know whether he would have them live or die : they were ignorant that a lord proprietor may do with his own as he list . who accuseth the owner for killing his own sheep ? but the times of this ignorance are past : the long parliament that made the act of vniformity cured it : and shall not the act of oblivion be permitted to reconcile us , and continue our peace ? . but , sir , who be they that were thus deceived ? i told you , . that of near ten thousand that had churches under the parliament and cromwel , there was but two thousand that refused to conform : and is not seven thousand conformists more than two thousand dissenters . . many that were in the parliament's army conformed ; and some that were for the kings death , when the generality of those called presbyterians abhorred it , and the engagement ; and brought in the king on reasons of meer conscience . . i have told you that we will take it thankfully , if only those were silenced that had any hand in that war , believing that it will not now be twenty ministers in england . and why are the rest that were boys at school , accused for other mens opinions or actions ? for the time to come , you need not fear them . i heard some tell the members of the long parliament that called them rebels for saying , that a parliament may use defensive arms against the kings commissioned souldiers ; that if that would serve , they would promise , that if the king would but send a dozen irish-men to kill them all in the house , they would never be guilty of taking arms to defend them , nor perswading any else to do it . l. obj. vi. but they say that these non-conformists , tho' they had no hand in the late war , yet have the same principles that caused it , and that is , non-conformity . m. this is an argument a baculo ad angulum : a man is against the cross in baptism , or a lay-chancellor's excommunicating men for a ceremony , &c. ergo he is against the king , and for rebellion . the other side say , that the irish principles and the popish were the cause ; and must we therefore conclude all irish or papists to be against the king ? they were papists that raised the wars on both sides , in the aforesaid days of king william , k. stephen , h. . and h. . and ed. . and rich. . and h. . and rich. . and ed. . &c. doth it follow that all rapists are rebels ? . but i have elsewhere fully proved that the parliament when that war began , were of the church of england , and conformists ; and it 's strange that any should have the face to deny it , while so many are yet living that know them : whitlocke tells us in his memorials , that they voted , that every county should have a bishop and his presbytery : and were those then against episcopacy ? one would think that a county should be big enough to keep episcopacy from dwindling to nothing ; every bishop of old had but one city : many counties have ten , or near twenty towns that were then called cities . but when papists dare say that all are against kings that are against the pope , who is the ruler and deposer of kings ; it 's no wonder if every bishop , or chancellor , or official , &c. will say , if you be not for us you are against the king ; since all are sworn against altering the church-government before that of the state. mr. martin that lost an arm in the kings service in the war , lay in gaol at warwick , for preaching when silenced ; and mr. francis bampfield that was against the parliament's war , lay seven years in gaol for preaching as a non-conformist , and died in new-gate . non-conformists that have been , and are most for the king , do suffer as much as others . . read my second plea for peace , in which i declare our political principles ; and tell us what you there dislike . l. obj. vii . but why do you refuse to renounce all the obligation of the covenant , if you are not disloyal ? m. if you reduce your objection to an argument , it must run thus ; ( all those are disloyal to the king who think that this vow binds them to be against prophaneness , popery or schism , or to endeavour any amending or alteration of the prelatical way of church-government : but , &c. i deny the major . is he an honourer of the king that dare affirm this ? ) we are ready to renounce all obligation from that or any other covenant , to any disloyalty what ever . l. obj. viii . they say that your preaching is unnecessary , there being ministers enough without you , and therefore that you praech but to keep up a party , and your own reputation and interest in them . m. and i think that priest fitter for tears than for disputes , that so little knoweth england , or the work of the office they undertake : if i know the church that hath such a pastor , i shall be past doubt that they have need of help . i would as soon believe him if he undertook to build a castle alone , and said he had no need of help ; or that forty thousand of the poor of london have no need of relief , and that it is rebellion to relieve them ; as that the forementioned two hundred thousand have no need of teaching or ministerial help for their souls . l. obj. ix . there are some that have written that it is pride and covetousness that makes you non-conformists to seem godly , and to get livings for your sons . m. satan is so impudent a disputant , that i am aweary of answering him , tho' in self-defence : if it be pride to be scorn'd and toss'd about as rogues , why will these humble lord bishops and masters so be-rogue us to make us proud ? men use to take down that which feeds their enemies pride ; i pray get them to restore us from poverty , and prisons , and scorns , and slanders , to take down our pride . and for covetousness get them one year to take our turns , to have all their goods and books taken away , on the penalty of l. for every sermon , and that to be levied on their hearers which they cannot pay , and in this case to ly in gaol , and tell us when they have tried it whether it gratified their covetousness . as to mens charity to our selves or sons ; . i have said heretofore that the that were ejected were fit for bedlam , if they would go out and suffer , that so forty mens sons that conform against their fathers wills , might get benefices . . they will take it for a disgrace to their church , if we should not grant that the lords , knights , rich men and patrons , are far more of their church , than of dissenters ; and therefore liker to preferr conformists sons , than others : and a living for the father , another for the son , is more than a possibility for one . but brazen-faced impudence cannot be confuted . l. obj. x. they say you are meer hypocrites , that have learnt a shew of holiness and iustice , but have false , proud , self-conceited , rebellious hearts . m. and truly we cannot confute them any otherwise than by an appeal to the judge of hearts : we cannot shew them our hearts : and if they say that they see and know them , let men believe them as they see cause . they did not craftily so much to praise our out-side ; for those that take them not for gods will hardly believe that they see any deeper . but as far as i understand , their meaning is , that no man on earth is truly honest and godly ; and therefore all are hypocrites that profess it . and so they confess themselves hypocrites in professing christianity , if professing be the mark of hypocrites . l. obj. xi . they say that you are rebels and schismaticks against the church , and that 's as bad as murder , or adultery ; and so you are more vicious than they . m. it 's well they made their chancellours , officials , commissaries , &c. the church first : i confess i am not unapt to believe that they take it for worse than adultery , murder , persecution or perjury , to cross their wills and worldly interest . and if calling themselves ( the church ) would make any needy or ambitious pack of men , the masters of all mens consciences , and persons , and estates , i should not wonder if more than papists and prelatists strove to be called , the church . l. obj. xii . but they say all antiquity condemneth schism , and you are they that will not suffer the church to have vnity and peace , in disobeying the bishops ; and rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft , and disobedience as idolatery . m. the sence of this last clause is [ god calls it like witchcraft and idolatry to obey him , and rebel against his laws : ergo it is like witchcraft and idolatry not to rebel and disobey him if bishops command us . ] prove the consequence . . do not papists call them schismaticks and hereticks too , as long and as loud as they call us so ? and will this prove them such indeed ? we appeal to the common reason of mankind , whether they that make a multitude of sinful canons , to persecute christs church and servants , and add to his laws an hundred forty one of their own with inhumane penalties , casting out those that obey them not , be not rather schismaticks than they that say , we will hold concord in all that christ commandeth or his apostles practised , but we dare not obey you against god. read my search for the schismaticks , and the english schismatick detected and confuted , and then blame the schismatick and spare not . l. obj. xiii . but they say that it is but a company of self-conceited , bad , rebellious people that befriend or fellow you , and the sober people are for them . m. these things are unfit matter for a controversy with any english-men of this age , but only with foreigners and strangers . i thought once it would never have been so hard to know good men from bad , as these would make it . but i remember how bad christ and his apostles were thought by their persecutors . wherein doth such mens badness lie ? in not coming to their churches ? thousands do , and the rest go to other churches : but thousands of our adversaries go to none , but very rarely . is it in any other vice ? why do they then charge them with avoiding vice in hypocrisie ? and what is that vice ? here are , some say , many hundreds that practise physick in london : the posts , walls , and gates are stickt with physicians offers to cure the lecherous pox : to day i read kirleu's bill , that saith he hath cured eight hundred of that disease . i dare bet with you all the money i have , that if you enquire , not eight , or perhaps two of that eight hundred were puritans , or such as you now cast out for non-conformists , ( unless you call papists or such other , non-conformists ) except any of them were wives that catcht it of husbands that are of your church or parishes and not of us , or husbands that catcht it of such conformable ( or papist ) wives . but of these things we need no defence . . but if our hearers be bad , they have the more need of teaching ; and whether more are converted from ignorance , sensuality , worldliness and prophaneness , by their teaching or ours , ask others and not us . l. obj. xiv . but they say that it 's by you that we are in danger of popery , because you keep up their hopes of a toleration by your divisions weakning us . m. they may of the two say more probably it is we that bring in prelacy , lay excommunicators , ceremonies , liturgies : for of the two , we have done less against these than against popery , and stand not at so great a distance from them : the impudency of some men is the shame of depraved humane nature . they know that it is for being more against popery than they are , that our ruine is so implacably endeavoured . they know that the papists are our chiefest prosecutors , thinking that if they could destroy us as their greatest adversaries , they should bring the church of england to their will , and that it is but appropriating the name of popery to the italian faction that set the pope above councils , and calling the rest by a better name , and cutting off a few shreds named by heylin in the life of arch-bishop laud , and it 's done . they know that it is for drawing so near to popery that the non-conformists dissent from them ; and take it for granted that those men that are labouring to bring in popery , are the forwardest to make this putid accusation of us ; and that it hath been their labour these two and twenty years to have forc'd us to yield to an universal toleration , and to petition for it , that they might bring in popery , and then say it is we that did it , and that for denying this and being unreconcileable to popery , the papists are so unreconcileable to us , as that nothing will satisfy them but our utter extirpation , of which they would make blind , sensual , debauched , malignant men that call themselves protestants the instruments . and how many of their pillars have written for a foreign jurisdiction and defend grotius , i have told you before . and to this day that priest that is nearest to popery , is the bitterest enemy to the non-conformists , and most preacheth for their destruction : and these brazen-faced men cannot endure an honest conformist that doth but preferr protestants that dissent from their fetters before the papists : and those bishops and arch-bishops and the very church of england in their times , that were most against popery , are their scorn and hatred , as you may see in heylin's reproach of arch-bishop abbot , and the bishops and convocation , except six bishops in his days : and by the base scorns that they now pour out against good arch-bishop grindal , calling such men as would strengthen us against popery by reconciliation , by the names of grindalizers and trimmers , and such as would betray the church : and how they reproach and use dr. whitby for his protestant reconciler , and mr. bold for his sermon , and the author of the four pleas of the conformists for the non-conformists , and such others , you know : the author of the reflections , and the samaritan they have not yet found out . mr. tho. beverley feareth them not : the bishop of hereford , dr. crofts , ( the first man that ever i saw go forth with a troop raised by his brother for the king , and his sermon in my pulpit the first that ever i heard against the parliament , when the king was in yorkshire , and he himself had been a papist , and is still zealous for their church cause ) because he wrote the book called naked truth , to heal us and strengthen us against popery , they gnash the teeth at him ; and so they do at dr. barlow bishop of lincoln , that wrote of the treasonable principles of papists , tho' these bishops are too big for them yet to vilify , and openly oppose . l. you may be more against popery than they , and yet bring it in imprudently by dividing us . m. who do you think in your conscience is liker to bring it in , we or they ? who hath done and suffer'd more to keep it out ? we lay down all that we have to that end : they will not part with a ceremony , or one oath , or a re-ordination , or an excommunication of christs members to keep it out ; but plainly tell us , that they had rather popery came in than abate a jott of their self-made religion or impositions , or than such as i should preach the gospel . but i confess i am not able to deny it , that the non-conformists may be the occasion of bringing in popery , by way of antiperistasis ; some men hate us and all serious godliness so much , that they are like enough to be for popery , because godly men are against it : and i fear lest they that see the non-conformists would reform their prelacy and church-courts , and reduce them to the primitive episcopacy , described by bishop vsher , will be so much afraid , lest they lose some of their wealth and domination by it , that some of them will hearken to the papists , that will promise them an encrease of that which they so esteem . and indeed it is already no strange thing to hear them say , they had rather the papists came in with popery , than the dissenters with their reformation . i think ere long you are like to be convinced more effectually than by writing , which party is liker to bring in popery , and to turn papists . in the mean time i begin to praise stephen gardiner , and such others , for their modesty , that when they burnt cranmer , ridley , hooper , philpot , rogers , and the rest , that they did not charge them with bringing in popery , and say we burn you for that . l. xv. they say that you stretch the words of the oaths , declarations , subscriptions , liturgy and canons , to an ill sence , by a rigorous interpretation , which was never the meaning of the authors ; and on that you ground your dissent . m. . i hope you will grant , that when the things that men fear ( whether justly or mistakingly ) no less than deliberate lying , perjury , and contracting by justification the guilt of many hundred thousand perjuries , and swearing or covenanting never to repent or endeavour that the nation should repent of heinous church-corruptions , or amend them , and the nullifying of the ordination and ministry of thousands , and unchurching almost all the protestant churches , and more such like , a man should not play with matters of this moment , nor take god's dreadful name in vain , nor sport with the consuming fire . and i hope you grant , that words in caths and impositions , are to be taken in the properest usual sence , unless the authors otherwise expound them . and you know that they have been so far from expounding them otherwise , as that these twenty years they have refused it , and in scotland sentenc'd the earl of argyle to die for expounding them as some would have us do . and what do oaths or covenants signify , if the takers may put what sence they will on them , and if the most express universals , yea , the express exclusions of all exceptions , may be taken in a particular sence with exceptions , such swearers and subscribers give their rules no security . is it not enough to tell you we will willingly stand to bishop sanderson's own rules in his excellent prelections de iuramento , for expounding oaths and promises ? such as these expositions of stretchers , make oaths to be none , viz. [ it 's unlawful ] that is , against the king's law but not against god's [ to take arms against the king ] viz. as king , but say the papists , when the pope excommunicates and deposeth him , he is no king , [ on any pretence whatsoever , ] that is , any unjust pretence , [ by his authority against his person ] viz. it is to be done by gods authority and not by his , [ or against any commissioned by him , ] viz. lawfully commissioned , of which we are discerning iudges . the same i may say of all the rest : as assenting and consenting to all things , except many things : swearing canonical obedience in licitis & honestis , when we judge ten or twenty canons , if not the very frame to be illicita & inhonesta , &c. l. but as you have said that those great men , grotius , and bishop jeremy taylor were for profitable lying , so you know that worthy latitudinarian dr. who was wont to say , that if false knaves would turn him out of his ministry and living , by ensnaring impositions , he would take the words in the best sence he could subdue them to , whatever the authors meant ; and it was as lawful for him to defend himself against knaves with his tongue , as with his hands and sword. m. he is newly gone to his judge : nobis non licet — i told you that in my catechism on the ninth commandment , i have given unanswerable reasons against lying , for any benefit whatever . some say that all our articles of religion , are but articles of peace , and we subscribe not to believe them true , but not to preach against them . at this rate men need not stick at any oath , and may shake off the oath of allegiance , or any other when they have taken it . and if we are thought worthy to be hated , and ruined as rogues , for refusing self-saving , prudential , deliberate lying , and perjury , when oaths and veracity are so much of the security of the estates , names , and lives , of kings and subjects , and so necessary to all humane converse , we patiently commit our cause to him that shortly and righteously will determine all . chap. lviii . whether communion with so faulty a church be lawful . l. i shewed what you said against conformity to a friend , and when he had read it , he said , what a self-contradictor is this man , to lay all this charge on the church of england , and yet himself to hold communion with it , and perswade others so to do ? can we touch pitch and not be defiled ? and indeed if all this be as bad as you fear , i cannot see how any separatists are to be blamed , or how any may communicate with so bad a church . m. sic stulti vitia vitant , drunken men reel from side to side ; to keep one right tract , or to cut by a thred , seemeth impossible to them . i. you must distinguish between the diocesan churchs as constituted by their courts of government and canons , and the parish churches . ii. between those parish-churches which have godly or tolerable pastors , and those that have not . iii. between ministry and lay-communion . iv. between stated and occasional communion . v. between preferring their churches before better , and not avoiding them as null , or as unlawful to be communicated with . understand these five distinctions well , and i shall satisfy you . l. apply them , and let us hear your judgment . m. i. the diocesan churches , as they depose all inferiour bishops and churches , and rule by their lay-civilians , church-censures , i disown and hold no communion with in those errours , but only in their christianity . but i peaceably submit to them , and would live quietly under them , if i might . ii. those parishes that have notoriously uncapable priests , either through utter insufficiency , heresy or hurtfulness , doing more harm than good , i own not to be organized churches , nor have commmunion with their ministers as ministers , not owning them for such . iii. i hold it utterly unlawful to be ministers with them , on the terms now required of us ; and therefore i have no such ministerial communion with them . iv. i preferr them not before better . v. i hold not fixed communion as a fixed member of their churches , with all that i hold occasional communion with . l. what communion is it then that you hold with them ? m. i. with the diocesans and their officers , i hold mental communion as a christian and a protestant in all the essentials of christianity , and that reformation which they own . ii. with the parish-churches that have true ministers , i hold mental communion , as true particular churches of christ , ( tho' faulty ) and local communion on just occasions . iii. with the parish-assemblies that have intolerable ministers , i hold mental communion with the people as christians , and will not refuse on just occasion to join with them in any good exercise as lay-men . iv. with those churches that have ministers and liturgy as ours that need reformation , i profess to join with them as christians and protestants that own all the scriptures , and that promise to preach nothing as necessary to salvation but what is contained in it , or may be proved by it : and when i communicate with that church it is as a society so professing : but if their sermons , liturgy , or lives have any faults , being not idolatry , heresy , blasphemy , or such as rendreth their whole worship , and assembling unacceptable to god , i disown communion in any of those faults , tho' i be present . v. when i can have better , caeteris paribus , without greater hurt than good , i preferr it ; and only use occasional local communion , with the liturgy-churches , as i would do with strangers were i in foreign lands . vi. where i can have no better , without more hurt than good , i communicate constantly and only with the parish-church where i live , as to local-communion . l. but how can you do either of these without guilt , when they are as bad as you have described ? m. . i have not charged the parish-churches with that which i have charged the diocesans & their courts with ; many honest ministers , never troubled nor excommunicated a true servant of christ , nor ever owned intentionally the doing it by others . they lament the impositions , and would be glad we were united by their removal : they would fain have good men restored ; and they do their best to promote godliness . and the ordinary lords-day part of the liturgy tho' not faultless , containeth things true and good , and it was a very great and excellent degree of reformation , to make that book : and the most of all its faults are in the by-offices , baptism , confirmation , and burial , & the rubricks , which the lords-day common worship is not concerned in , nor do the congregation approve . . sin hath brought woeful faultiness into all the churches on earth : and there are very few on earth that have not worse doctrine and a worse liturgy than ours : what then ? must we either own or hide all their faults , or else disown and renounce them all ? no neither , but disown what is evil , and own what is good ; and separate from none of them further than they separate from christ. . but i pray you answer me a few questions : . do you think any church on earth to be faultless ? l. no : for all men are faulty , but the difference is great . m. no doubt it is great : but , . do you think that you are guilty of all the faults of the church that you join with ? l. they say , no , not of the secret faults : but of the open they say we are partakers by our presence . m. do you think there is any church on earth that hath no open faults ? and will you join with none ? l. but they say , it is not faults of conversation that they mean , but in ministry , doctrine , and worship . m. i am sure conversation faults are oft alledged for separation : but is there any minister or church that hath no open faults in ministry and worship ? l. they mean not small infirmities , such as weak , faulty expressions , methods , disorders , dullness , &c. but gross , intolerable faults . m. so then you are come to what i hold , i profess that if i see or hear any such blasphemy , idolatry , heresy , or malignity , as renders the worship abhorred of god , i will abhor it and avoid it . l. is none of all that such which you have described ? m. nothing in the ordinary lords-day worship , which the congregation must join in : yea i dare not say that their by-offices , viz. baptism it self , notwithstanding their kind of godfathers and crossing , doth frustrate the sacrament to the capable . and the sacrament of the lords supper is very piously administred in the words of the liturgy : and if they force men thither or admit them that are unfit , that maketh not the words of the liturgy unfit for the faithful , and their faults in discipline are none of mine . l. but faults known before hand become mine if i join with such a faulty worship . m. then you must join with none on earth : you know before hand your own faults , that you will be guilty of in prayer : must you therefore forbear to pray ? suppose i have a teacher that is an anabaptist , an antinomian , or hath some known tolerable errour , which i know before hand he holds , and useth to vend in his praying and preaching . is it unlawful to join with such ? then presbyterians , independants , and all that differ in judgment , must still run away from one another . l. but to commit a fault themselves makes it but their own , but if they impose it on me , it 's mine if i be present . m. you should have said only , it 's mine if i commit it . if you were commanded to burn a martyr , your presence maketh you not guilty if you do it not , nor consent to the doing of it . . it 's one thing to impose on you the committing of a fault , and another thing to impose on you to hear another man commit it . . and it 's one thing to impose that which you can refuse , and another to force you to do it . when an anabaptist , or an antinomian , or a preacher of undecent expressions or disorder , teacheth in the assembly , he imposeth on them all to hear his faults , but not to approve them or do the like : or if he command them to believe his errours , it is a refuseable imposition , and they may choose . l. but in the congregation i must do as they do . m. what must you do that is sin ? must you say all that the priest will say ? must you believe all his mistakes ? must you put up any unlawful request to god ? l. yes , say they ; we must pray for bishops . m. i think verily they have need of prayer : but they seem to be very humble petitioners themselves when they bid you pray for them , but as to a god that worketh great marvels . but mu●● you needs own every petition in the assembly ? by what obligation ? do you undertake to own every petition that your own preacher will put up , before you know what he will say ? yea , or if you knew he would speak amiss ? i have elsewhere told you that one of the zealousest non-conformists against prelacy , was old mr. humphrey f●n of coventry , and he was wont after every collect in the common-prayer to say amen aloud , except the prayer for the bishops : and he thought his silence was sufficient notice of his dissent . l. but the broken responses are ludicrous and intolerable . m. prejudice may make any thing seem so . but , . the iews church used such as the scriptures tell us . . they are the oldest part of all the liturgy , used by the church , when holy fervency would not endure to be silenced or restrained to a bare amen . . and if it were not that prophane men use them unreverently and so bring them into disgrace , but they were again used fervently by zealous christians , they would seem quite another thing . . and we do the same thing in effect , when all the people sing the psalm , save that the tune keepeth them better in time and order , and avoideth the confusion . l. but my friend saith that the apostle saith , with such no not to eat , and from such turn away : and you seem to suspect them ( tho' you only say what you avoid your self ) of lying , perjury , persecution , &c. and is it not a sin to communicate with such ? m. . i never told you that i took all the parish-ministers or people for persecutors . no , nor for lyers : for when they say that ex animo they hold that nothing in the liturgy or ceremonies , &c. is contrary to the word of god , they speak as they think . but it would be a lye in me who am otherwise perswaded . and for perjury ; it 's one thing gros●y to be perjured ; i charged them not with that : and it 's another thing to say or do somewhat that may make a man some way guilty of other mens perjury : this is it which affrights me from conformity ; but as to them , they understand the words of oaths , and promises and impositions otherwise than i do ( as i told you the earl of ar●yle did ) and i doubt not but many worthy men , such as mr. gurnal , and others known to us , were drawn in , by having leave to declare that they took the impositions in such a sence as they thought lawful ( as the arians at the council of seleuci● , and the acacians drew many in to them by giving them all leave to subscribe in their own sence ) : and though i can justifie none of this ; yet what ever their words were , and though they were not faultless , their hearts abhorred perjury . but i pray you ask your friend these questions . . did none that are for separation from the church of england take the corporation-oath and declaration ? you know that many of them did . . do they ever since avoid communion with all those men ? you know they do not . and yet none of the ministers subscriptions to me seem half so frightful as the corporation declaration . do they not then here shew partiality , and themselves justify our communion with the conformists ? yea when mr. eaton , and some other independants wrote against the obligation of the covenant , and of the oath of allegiance , and many called the covenant an almanack out of date ; did the rest avoid communion with these ? l. but briefly tell me why you communicate in the parish churches . m. briefly , . because christ hath commanded us to live in the utmost love , union and concord with all his church on earth , that we possibly can . . because they hold all the essentials of christianity , which constituteth them members of christ's church , and no errour that nullifieth their christianity , or maketh their communion unlawful to me . . because my own edification hath required it : i have long lived where i could have no better communion ; and after i found communion with both sorts most profitable to me ; i found the liturgy in the main , fit for my serious desires and praises to god , and the preachers that i heard were profitable preachers , and if some words were amiss , i past them by ; and the very concord and presence of christians ( though faulty ) is pleasant to me . . i lived where and when these parish churches were slandered by mistakes , to be such whose communion was unlawful ; and my constant avoiding them , would have made me seem a consenter to the slanders , and so to be guilty of scandal . . i lived in a time and place , where the rulers and laws commanded parish communion ; and to forbear it against such commands and penalties , seemeth plainly to tell the world that i hold it unlawful , which is an untruth . . i had seen whither this extream of separation had brought this nation , formerly , and of late ; and what a hopeful reformation it shamed and destroyed , and that by such rebellious and mad actions , as made them , and accidentally others , the scorn and hatred of the world , and have occasioned all our sufferings . . i lived where men that i thought guilty of our sinful persecution and the danger of the land , did discern the mistake of them that overcharged the liturgy and parish communion , and thereupon took them for a proud fanatick sort of people , worthy of all that doth befal them , and think they do god service in ruining us all , as if we were such : and i durst not thus scandalize and harden men in grievous persecutions . . i was loth to misguide others by my example ; and i doubted not but when necessity drove them to it , many would see cause to communicate with the parish churches . and i was willing that they should sooner see these reasons , and not seem to do it only to save themselves . . i had read the writings of those excellent men of god against brownists , or separation heretofore ; who then were the non-conformists that did suffer so much for reformation : he that will read what is written by mr. iohn paget , mr. william bradshaw , mr. gifford , mr. hildersham , mr. brightman , mr. iohn ball , mr. rathband , dr. ames first and second manuduction , &c. and lately mr. iohn tombes , the pillar of the anabaptists ; and for hearing by mr. philip nye , may see enough for just satisfaction ; especially in mr. ball 's trial of separation . and though the case of conformity be since made much harder to the ministers , to the laity the change is not so great as herein alters the case of lawfulness or duty . . i found that st. paul charged the church of corinth , as having among them men carnal , guilty of schism , slandering the apostles ; guilty of sinful law-suits , and defrauding each other , bearing with incest , disordered , profane and drunk at sacramental communions ; some decryed the resurrection , &c. the galatians seem more to be accused than they , as depraving the christian doctrine . the colossians faulty ; almost all the seven churches of asia charged with grievous corruption . and yet in all these , no man is commanded to separate from any one of these churches , nor blamed for not doing it . . and , which is most of all , i find that christ himself , who was certainly sinless , held open communion with the iewish church in synagogues and temples , and commanded the people their duty even to the falsly obtruded priests , and to hear the pharisees while they delivered moses's law ; though he condemned and separated from their false doctrine , and superstitious traditions and corruptions . these are my reasons for lay-parish-communion . l. but you did not answer [ from such turn away , and with such not to eat , &c. ] m. the answer is obvious ; . it is the duty of the church to cast out wicked impenitent men ; and this christ commandeth them ; but he never bids particular christians to separate from the church where some such are , because the church omits its duty : for then you should separate from duty , from gods worship and holy communion , on pretence of separating from sinners . . but for family and private converse , every christian is judge himself , and must refuse all familiarity with scandalous christians which encourageth them in sin or seemeth to own it . god commandeth no man to do that which is not in his power ; to put a scandalous impenitent man from the church , is in the churches power , and so that command belongs to them ; it is not in your power , and therefore belongs not to you , save to admonish men , and tell the church ; but to put men from your table and familiarity , is in your power and belongs to you . suppose the king write to the city of london to put all rebels out of their company and converse ; its easie to understand , that every one must do it only in his own place . every single man cannot turn such out of the common-council : the city rulers must do that , and till it be done , single men may not deny obedience to the governours : but all may turn them out of their houses , shops and familiarity . l. but they say it is a receding from our former reformation , and pulling down what we built . m. the separators pull'd it down with a witness ; but it is no such thing : did the covenant or our profession ever bind us to take the liturgy , to be worse than it is , or the parish churches to be no churches , or their communion utterly unlawful ? or did it bind us to preferr a desertion of all publick communion before it ? no , it did not ; but if it had , it had been sinful , and to be repented of . but , . we were bound by god's word ( and no covenant , or practices bind us to any more than scripture binds us to ) to avoid all that is sin . . and when we have our choice to preferr the best ; he that doth either turn to sin , or preferr a less good , when it is so , before a greater , goeth back ; but he that preferreth no publick worship , before the parish worship , goeth back indeed , and breaketh the covenant , by profaneness and schism . god's word is a clearer and surer test of our duty and controversies , than any humane covenants . when ministers were changed , . many places got out some tolerable weak ministers to get in abler men in great towns. when the bishops returned , their abler ministers being dead or ejected , they took the old ones again . did these go back from covenant reformation or duty , when they could have no better ? had not those been the revolters that would rather have had none ? l. but why go you to the parish-churches when you might have better ? m. . all non-conformists preach not better than many of them ; yea , the liturgy is better words of prayer , than some weak or faulty non-conformists oft use . . a brown loaf and a white one both , may be better than a white one alone ; i found both best ; and i knew it sin to renounce communion with any church for weakness , because they are not as good as others . . that is best at one time and place , that is not so at another ; praying in it self , is better than working , and eating , sleeping . and yet in their proper time , your servants working , and your eating and sleeping is better than praying at that time . one that is a son , a servant , a wife , who is commanded by ahe master of the family to hear a tolerable parish-minister , may then find it better than disorderly and disobediently to hear an abler man ; that may by variety of conditions be one mans duty , which is anothers sin . but alas ! i fear that communion with a non-conformist-church will quickly in england be so rare , as will end the controversy which you should preferr , and you must have parish-church communion or none : as it was before , when there was scarce more than one non-conformist that held any church-communion but parochial , in each county . i think , god's judgments will soon silence this dispute with all that will not renounce all local-church communion . i will conclude with another reason of my practice . almost every church on earth hath a worse liturgy ( as i said ) and people than ours : but i dare not separate from almost every church on earth : and therefore not from one for a reason that is common to almost all . chap. lix . a draught of ten articles containing that which the non-conforming reconcilers desire , to unite us , and heal the church , when god seeth this land meet for so great a mercy . l. i have one thing more to desire of you , that you will so far answer the common question , what would you have ? as to tell it us punctually , as to those things which you take to be necessary to our agreement : it may be hereafter they may be regarded and used , tho' not in our days . m. do you mean as to the ends and things desired of us or a form of words to be the containing means ? as to the former ; . we desire nothing but the promoting god's glory , kingdom and will , according to the three first petitions in the lord's prayer , for the information , sanctification , and salvation of the people ; by the pure , plentiful , and powerful pre●ching of the gospel , the true and spiritual worshipping of god , and the due exercise of church-discipline according to christ's laws . and that herein all christians may live in love , and peace , and as much concord as they can : and to that end that they may take god's word which they are all agreed in as the test of their concord , and as sufficient for all things necessary to salvation , and the only universal law : and that the churches may not be torn by the imposition of mens canonical engines as necessary to liberty or communion , in which all never did nor can unite . and that such course may be taken for the choice of church-pastors , that the flocks may be guided and fed by truth and love , and not famished nor opprest by malignants that hate the serious practice of what they preach . it is not wealth nor honour , nor any thing but this , that we desire ; but see small hopes of attaining by men. l. the desires are honest , but you all profess just desires in general , and de fine : but i desire you to leave to the world in writing the ipsissima verba , which you would wish in a healing law , with as little change as may be . m. i shall do it , premising , . that such a yielding form must contain but what 's of necessity to our concord , and not all that our well-being requireth . . that the words must not be too many , lest they seem too tedious , nor too few , lest they be not intelligible . . that they that will defeat them will pretend but to change the words , and thereby cross our sence and necessities ; but take them , tho' men give us no present hopes . a breviate of the ten articles desired by such non-conformists as treated for concord , . and . for such a reformation of the parish-churches as is needful to our union . i. that the profession of the christian faith , and consent to the baptismal covenant , by parents , or pro-parents or adopters for infants , and by the adult for themselves , be the terms of church-entrace by baptism . ii. that the terms of the communion and privileges of the adult , be , that they have personally owned and renewed solemnly the said christian covenant , and are not proved to have nulled that profession by apostasie , heresie , or an inconsistent wicked life ; and that they understandingly desire the said communion . iii. for the necessary notification of such understanding , consent and desire , the pastors that know them , after due catechizing shall try them ; and upon approbation admit them to the communion of the adult , or upon a just certificate that they have been so approved and received by any other orthodox pastor . iv. such as are proved to violate the baptismal covenant , by apostasie , heresie , or a wicked life , the pastor must ( wisely and compassionately ) admonish to repent and amend . and if after private and open admonition such remain obstinately impenitent , the pastor shall publickly declare them persons unfit for communion with the church ; or where so much is not permitted , shall at least forbear to give them the sacrament ; but shall receive them when they credibly profess repentance . v. no unnecessary oath , covenant , subscription , profession or promise , shall be made necessary to communion or ministry ; such being engines of division and persecution ; ( what promises are necessary , is further to be opened ) nor is re-ordination or re-baptizing to be forced on the truly ordained and baptized . vi. the just ordainers must needs be the discerning iudges whom they shall ordain to the ministry as such : and the magistrate is iudge whom he shall approve and maintain as publick teachers ; and whom to tolerate , as tolerable : and every man is a discerning iudge to whom he shall trust the pastoral care of his own-soul , as he doth what physician he shall use for his life ; to which self-love and self-government , do authorize , and oblige him ; and no erring judgment of superiors can disoblige him ; much less every patrons choice . vii . truly ordained and called ministers , must preach to their flocks , though they have no other licence ; and are by office authorized to choose their subject , due method , and word : and if a form of liturgy in prayers , praise , psalms , be imposed by agreement or authority , ( that all the church be not left at utter uncertainty what worship they meet to offer to god , till it be pass'd out of the minister's mouth ) let it be agreeable to scripture-direction in matter , method , and words ; blameless , orderly , and without just cause of suspicion or offence ; and let it not be made a snare for contention and division , by the rigorous urging of needless things ; nor worthy men be silenced and cast out , that cannot declare , assent , and consent to all things contained in it , and prescribed by it , by fallible men ; nor for every omission or abbreviation , through scruple or necessitated hast ; or for not officiating in a surplice : and let the canons . . . . and others that unjustly fetter the ministers and flock , be altered or repealed . viii . let no minister be silenced , suspended , or ejected for not publishing excommunications pass'd by bishops or lay-men , against any of his flock ( best known to the present pastor ) whom be judgeth not guilty , or for scrupleing a ceremony , especially upon such canons as the . . . &c. that excommunicate , ipso facto , every man ( not excepting parliament-ment , lords , iudges or iustices , parents , or wives , or children , ) that do but affirm , that any thing is unlawful or repugnant to the word of god , in the liturgy , or ceremonies , or ordination , or in the government of the church , by arch-bishops , bishops , arch-deacons , and the rest that bear office therein ; ] seeing wise and godly ministers judge such things too light to deserve an excommunication , and dare not so dishonour those superiors , whom god hath commanded us to honour ; yea , and think all excommunicating , ipso facto , sine sententia judicis , to be sinful , and contrary to the use of excommunication , which supposeth impenitence : and let no minister or people be forced to publish or execute any excommunication arbitrarily decreed , or against their consciences : and let none be forbidden to preach the gospel , who do not more hurt than good , while iustice may be done by other penalties . ix . as christianity , baptism , and sacramental communion are gifts from god , of unspeabahle value ; so none at age but willing consenters to the covenant of god , can have any right to them : therefore no unwilling person should be forced to baptism or the lord's supper , and so to profane gods holy ordinance , and corrupt the church : but in each parish the meer auditors or catechized , must be distinguished from the communicants ; as meer catechising and teaching is from pastoral oversight , and church-conduct . x. the kingdom consisteth of ministers and people approvable , tolerable and intolerable ; though the publick temples and maintenance be at the dispose of the sovereign power and magistrates , yet are not all laymen that can but buy or inherit a patronage , advowson , or presentation , either authorized by god , or qualifyed with sufficient wisdom and piety , to choose such as pastors , to whom ( though ordained by a bishop ) all men are bound to commit the pastoral care and conduct of their souls ( as is aforesaid ) . therefore to this relation , the peoples choice or consent is necessary : and because parish churches are by fixed neighbourhood , the most convenient order , the rulers should either make those the publick teachers , whom the people can take for their pastors , or the people after take those for their pastors who are truly capable , whom the rulers first choose for the publick teachers : but in case they cannot so agree , each man must be tolerated to choose and join with some other ( parochial or more private ) minister for his pastor ; so be it , . they fess the essentials of christianity , and church communion . . and live peaceably and loyally , in their preaching and practice . . and pay the publick teachers and magistrates their dues ; renouncing heresie and popery , and all foreign iurisdiction and treason . the test , or profession of the maintain'd ministers ( supposing the amendments of discipline . ) i do sincerly , as before god , profess , that i believe the canonical scriptures of the old and new testament , to be the true word of god , and ( supposing the light and law of nature ) the divine sufficient rule of faith and holy living , according to which we shall be iudged , which no humane laws or power can abrogate or suspend , being all but subordinate thereto . and i will preach nothing as necessary to salvation , which cannot be proved or warranted thereby . and more particularly , i believe all the articles of the creed , called the apostles , as a summary of our faith , and consent to the lord's prayer as the summary of our desires , and to the decalogue , as expounded by christ , as the summary of our obedient practice ; and i resolvedly consent to the gospel-covenant , with god the father , son , and holy ghost , which these summaries explain , and which is celebrated in baptism , and the lord's supper . and i do own , and honour the church of england ; that is , this christian reformed kingdom , containing the approved pastors and their flocks ; both the publickly maintained , and the duly licensed and united under one christian reformed sovereign , and renouncing all foreign jurisdiction . and i do honour , with thankfulness to god , the reformation and concord of this church , in doctrine , worship and discipline , and will labour to preserve its unity and peace , renouncing all treasons , seditions , popery , foreign iurisdiction , heresy , schism and profaneness : and i do promise to exercise my ministry with diligence for the edification of the church , and the saving of mens souls . the ministers being of three sorts . . the maintained or promoted . . the licensed to preach as candidates , or lecturers without the publick maintenance , or helpers to incumbents who desire them , or occasionally ( such as sound protestants continuing non-conformists should be . ) . the tolerated that have only a grant of protection and peace , without either mainterance or approving licence . i leave it to superiours how much of the aforesaid profession shall be required of the two latter . this would much reduce the kingdom to a holy , and happy unity and peace , which yet containeth nothing that protestants have any just cause to reject : and we are not forward to meddle with more publick church ▪ matters without our superiors invitation or consent ; but we may say that it is our judgment that these additions following would greatly strengthen the interest of religion , church and concord . i. that the parish churches be acknowledged true churches , and their ministers such overseers as are necessary to essentiate true churches ; that is , that all presbyters be episcopi gregis , overseers of the flock , and the incumbent the president among his curate presbyters , where there be such : and that the diocesan is not the sole essentiating church pastors ; and the diocesan church , the lowest particular church ; and the parish assemblies , but his chapels or parts of the lowest church ; and the parish ministers , his curates , and no true pastors . ii. that no lay-elder , chancellour or civilian , have or use the decretive power of excommunication , or absolution , called the keys . iii. that new , and more peaceable canons be made ( instead of that book , which now obtaineth ) according to the scripture canons : or that there be no canons but scripture , besides statute laws . iv. that bishops have no forcing power , nor the writ de excommunicato capiendo , or any force by the sword , be annexed to excommunication as such ; but that the magistrates hear and judge before they punish ; and obedience to bishops be unconstrained and voluntary . v. that bishops judge church-causes in session with their presbyters , and not alone , nor with some few of their own choice , or with lay-men , but in regular synods ; and ordain there by their consent , and after sufficient trial of them that seek ordination ; ( and so of institution . ) vi. that diocesses be not greater than the diocesan is able to oversee ; and that he forbid not the parish pastors their particular works , but only use his general overcight and power on appeals . vii . that bishops oft visit the inferior pastors and churches , and instruct the juniors , by direction and example how to preach , and guide the flock , and rebuke the erroneous , scandalous , unpeaceable , and negligent . viii . that the bishops be chosen by the diocesan synod , and consented to freely without force , by their city flocks , where they reside , and invested by the king , who hath the power of temporal privileges . ix . that the city , and neighbour pastors be the cathedral dean and prebends ; at least where city churches want maintenance ; or that they ambulatorily preach abroad where there is most need . x. if arch-bishop usher's form or reduction of government to the primitive state , or else king charles the second his declaration about ecclesiastical affairs be but setled by law , it will be a healing and great reformation ; inferior synods not hurtfully fettered being allowed under the diocesan synods : and whether the diocesans be called bishops or arch-bishops as successors to the apostles and evangelists , in the ordinary parts of their office ( a general care of many churches ) the name is to be left to each mans free judgment . as to the ignorant clamors for a real or seeming re-ordination ; . i have said so much against it in my treatise of episcopacy , and my disputation of ordination ; in my dispute of church-government , and my christian concord , that while the objectors by contempt refuse to read and answer them , it will be no cure of their pride and partiality to repeat the same again . but i say , that i have fully proved ( unanswered ) that they that were ordained by synods of incumbent pastors , and specially those also then approved by the westminster assembly , had a better ordination , and that by true bishops , than either papists or meer english diocesans that are not arch-bishops can give : and yet they re-ordain not papists . . either they take the parish-churches ( that is , the pastor and communicants distinct from the meer auditors and catechumens , and from the aliens ) to be true proper churches in political sense or not : if yea , then those churches have bishops ; for ecclesia est plebs episcopo adunata , & ubi episcopus ibi ecclesia : their own principle is , that it is no proper political church without a bishop . there are three degrees of bishops . . all presbyters are episcopi gregis ( by the consent of papists and protestants . ) . the chief incumbents that have curates or may have , are episcopi praesides : the ordination without diocesans was by these two sorts of bishops . . true diocesans are arch-bishops , episcopi generales plurium ecclesiarum ; we refuse not their ordination ; but men have true episcopal ordination without it . but if they say that the diocesan is the lowest bishop of a particular church , and that the parish-incumbent rectors are no true bishops , and their assemblies no true political churches formed of bishops , but only parts of one diocesan church infimi ordinis , we abhor such tyrannical , schismatical diocesans , and their pretence of proper power to ordain ; and the primitive church had never any such ordaniers or bishops : and i advise all ministers neither to be re-ordained by such , nor to yield to the appearance of such an evil , by coming under their equivocating imposition of hands ; lest they take god's name in vain , and harden papists and church-tyrants in their false condemnation of the reformed churches . if it be want of a legal right in england that they pretend , let the magistrate give you a licence or legal right . i write not this for my own interest , for i was ordained by a diocesan , and am past all hopes or fears of man. chap. lx. the reasons of these ten articles . l. yov must give me leave to tell you what objections are like to be raised against your proposed articles of reconciliation . and first your own party will be unsatisfied in them , and so they will do no good , because here is not a word against arch-bishops , bishops , deans , arch-deacons , and the rest that bear office in their courts , which yet is the thing that you your self seem most to dissent from , and which the covenant did renounce . m. . we have so much swearing and unswearing and forswearing , that i will meddle as little as i can in things that look like perjury . you know that as the last generation was sworn against prelacy , this new generation is sworn to it : yea in a manner the whole land is sworn or covenanted never to endeavour any alteration of it : and how much soever i am against that oath , yet i will meddle as little as i can in urging men to that which they take for perjury . and i have elsewhere told you that the covenant renounced not all episcopacy ; many of the assembly of divines declared their dissent from any such renunciation , and had entred their protestation against it ( as dr. cornel. burges told me ) had not the explication been added , which confineth the renunciation to the english frame . and that the present non-conformists would have thankfully received the primitive episcopacy , they shewed by their motion , . . we offer this form on supposition that we may not have what we think best , but what we can joyfully submit to , for our concord and the churches safety . . i have inserted those restraints of the hurt and abuse of the diocesan form and their courts , as may do much to secure religion : and if they be kept from doing harm , we have most of our end . their faults are not ours who cannot remedy them . . and you are mistaken in thinking that this form of reconciliation will cause no concord : less was accepted with published thanks to the king for his declaration , . and i believe that the dissenters would be so few , as that the concord of consenters would render them inconsiderable , or uncapable of being dangerous to our peace . l. but , . what makes you put in so much that no body denieth ? do you not seem hereby to intimate unjustly that all this is denied you ? m. . i have no hope of concord , but by disputing ex concessis , and improving mens own principles : do you think i am so foolish as to expect that adversaries so fierce should change their judgments by any thing that i can say , if their own interest or their own principles by inference change them not ? . we want nothing more in reality and practice than that which is most granted us in shadow and general words ; who grant not that we must obey god before man ? and must love god above all , our neighbours as our selves , and must do as we would be done by ? and must bear with the receive the weak , and persecute none , &c. and if this were done , we were all agreed . o happy england if all were granted practically and indeed , which men in general words approve ! but if they grant this , and yet will not grant it , but seek to ruine them that seek it , are they not unexcuseable ? l. why begin you with the qualifications requisite to baptism , as if you spake to infidels ? m. because i cannot build without a foundation : this is the chief thing necessary to our reformation , that the church may consist of capable persons . l. why name you parents and pro-parents instead of god-fathers and god-mothers ? m. because it belongs to him to covenant in the childs name or behalf , whose will may justly go as for the childs will ; and that is they whose ▪ he is , and who have the power of him , and whom god hath commanded and authorized to this office , and who are obliged to educate him and seek his well-fare : by pro-parents , i mean such as by adoption or otherwise justly take the child for theirs ; which when parents leave them orphans is usual . i say nothing against god-fathers as seconds , presupposing this much . l. but i pray you who shall be judge whether the profession be understanding which must be made by the adult , or by the parent ? by this trick you will make the priest the chief governour of the church ; and he shall keep out whom he pleases , as for want of understanding the words of the covenant . m. . i confess that this is the first and most momentous part of the power of the keys . but it tells us that it is not only bishops that have that power : but either some-body or no body must have this power or trust . . if no-body ; turks , heathens , sadducees , any may be baptized tho' in scorn ; and may be members of the church at pleasure , and the church shall indeed be no church , being confounded with the world. a parrot may be taught to say those words . a man of about years of age in the parish where i taught , being ask'd who iesus christ was , pointed to the sun and said , that was he ; and ask'd , wh was the holy ghost ? said , he thought the moon . what wiseman will be the pastor of such a church ? . christ hath instituted an office for this judgment , and given them the keys : therefore there must be some such judge ▪ . if some-body , who must it be ? . if it be every expectant for himself , it will be as before ; and there will be no church . any heathen may come in . . if it must be the magistrate , you call him to attend this service , and to teach and try all that are baptized at age , and all parents for their children : and if you lay on him the pastors office , you make him pastor . . if it must be the bishop , it is impossible , and no bishop will do it ; when he doth not so much as know or see one of an hundred in his diocess : it must then be the parish-minister , or no-body . . those must be trusted with it whom christ hath appointed for such trust : but that is the ministers : to them he hath commited the keys of his church or kingdom . . those must be trusted with it , that must execute it : it is the minister that must baptize : and therefore he must judge whom to baptize , or else he is but an executioner , like one that washeth any one that 's foul ; and not a judge of what he doth , nor must answer for it . . the universal church ever since christ's days hath agreed in this : and shall we now overthrow it ? and as to the exception against the power of the pastor . . all power may be abused ; shall we have no king , no judge , or justice , or bishops , because they may abuse their power ? . it is so natural to men to consult their own carnal interest , which will here most lie in pleasing the people , and sloathfully to omit so costly and troublesome a duty , that it 's enough to foretell that a hundred will sin in making the door too wide , for one that maketh it too narrow ; and doleful experience tells us this : we are confounded by the contrary extream . . he that is refused wrongfully by one minister , may find enough that will receive him . . we grant appeals to rulers in case of male-administration . . the setting open the church-doors without an examiner , will be an hundred fold worse : and you must be like the woman that would never have her house swept , lest her servant should chance to sweep out a pin . what think you of all the ancient churches that taught the adult long as catechumens before they would baptize even them that begg'd it ? l. . in your second article again you give the minister a power to judge of mens understanding : but i need no further answer to that . but do you not thus make examination by ministers necessary to the sacrament ? m. i make it needful to confirmation or adult-communion ; but that is but once in a man's life . l. but is it not enough that children own their baptismal covenant by coming to church , and not denying it , without any confirmation or other profession ? m. many come to hear that are no christians ; children are born in nescience , and when they come to age must be made knowing christians , and believe and obey for themselves if they will be saved ; and they cannot consent to their baptismal covenant if they understand it not : this is the thing that hath corrupted the church : those that were infant-christians , and at age were no christians , have filled many congregations . yet i confess that where confirmation and personal trial is by the sin of pastors omitted , the peoples ordinary attendance at church and desiring the sacrament , is an obscure profession , and may serve to the being of a church , tho' not to the well-being . l. but some of your non-conformists will as much blame you for requiring too little to communion , in that you demand not an account of mens conversation . m. . he that truly consenteth to the covenant of baptism , is converted or sanctified ; and he oweth the church no account of that consent but his own profession , not nulled by word or deed . and if you forsake this rule , you will never know what terms to take up with . . and as to the time or circumstances , whether god sanctified him in infancy and he grew up in grace , or when , or how god wrought upon him , he oweth no account to others . l. . in your third article again the chief exception will be against this trying men by the minister for communion . m. i have proved to you the necessity of it , ad bene esse . and may i not hope that the bishops will be for it ? when , . they order that the minister catechize and send to the bishop such as are to be confirmed . . that he give the sacrament to none but those that are confirmed , or are ready and willing to be confirmed : and how can they know this without trial ? . when they know that the bishops are not able to do it for all , or the hundredth part themselves . why then should they be against it ? l. if all the bishops in england be for it , the parish-priests will some be unfit for it , and few will be at so much labour and self-denial as it will cost them . m. if the bishops put or take in bad untrusty men , i cannot help that : let them be encouraged to do well that will. l. but why must they make their profession before others ? m. not but that the pastors word may satisfy the church , but it is much fitter that he that is to have communion with all , should be known to some besides the minister to be a professed christian. i should have desired that it might be done as baptism in the congregation , as best , but that of these men we must ask as little as may be . l. but many ignorant people have not words to express their own belief or thoughts . m. it is not ornamental unnecessary knowledge that must be demanded of them : they that want other words , may by yea , and nay make known their mind , when the minister expresseth the matter in his question . and the church requireth that they can answer as catechized . l. some other will say that you are too lax in admitting all confirmed formerly by bishops , or by other pastors . m. if we crave that each minister may try his flocks , we cannot in modesty refuse those tried and received by the bishop or other pastors . all churches should live in such communion with each other , as to receive each others members on just occasion , without trying them all again . and if bishops or any do it superficially , that 's their own fault . l. why do you impose the registring of communicants ? m. i impose it not , but only commend it as a help to memory . he that hath no more communicants than he can remember , needs it not . but bishop ier. taylor in his pref. to treatise of repentance , saith , that a man cannot take a pastoral charge , or give an account of them that he knoweth not . l. . your fourth article sets ministers on such work as few can well do , and few will ever faithfully do . and yet for every young , raw priest to have such power will never be granted by the bishops or the laity . m. you may as well speak out and say , that christ hath appointed such a ministerial office as the world will never endure . why then do they call themselves christians ? this is the proper work of a pastor , as it is of a physician , to look particularly to the sick , and not only to read a physick lecture to them . if bishops will put in ignorant lads or unfit men , i say again we cannot help it ; nor must we for that deny the ministerial office , any more than we must put down preaching and praying because some are unfit . the weight of this work should rather make all careful to get only fit men into the ministry . l. but shall every priest have power to put men from the sacrament ? m. if every priest must administer it , he must judge to whom : it is not a common food for all , but the childrens bread. if every priest must judge whom to baptize , so he must whom to give this sacrament to . . the canons allow this as to the scandalous , so we do but present them to the bishop or chancellour ; and it 's less offensive to suspend them without such prosecution . if he wrong any , they have their remedy . l. but why do you mention no more solemn excommunication , but this declarative one and suspension ? m. because i would ask no more than needs of men that will not grant so much . and i know no just excommunication but a ministerial declaring according to god's word , that a man hath made himself uncapable of church-communion and of the benefits of gods covenant , and binding him over to answer his impenitence at the barr of god , and requiring the church accordingly to avoid him . l. . the main charge will be against your fifth article , that cuts off so many oaths , subscriptions and professions . m. it 's pity that these will not serve the turn , whenas they are more than christ , or his apostles , or the church for years imposed . and yet must we have more , even as necessary to ministry ? will not the experience of years yet teach us to forbear tearing the church by unnecessary snares ? yet i deny not but the ordainers may try the ability of ministers , in more than the words that they must subscribe to : and if any will draw up such articles as none shall preach against , i oppose them not : the greater concord the better : but we must not cause perpetual discord , by unskilful , and impossible terms of concord . l. but for ought i see you will let in papists if they will but take the oath of supremacy , and renounce all in general that is contrary to the scripture and their profession . m. and all churches will let in heart-papists that renounce popery : who knows the heart ? but , . the oath of supremacy is a most express abjuring of the essence of popery ; especially as extended against the ecclesiastical as well as civil power of the pope . . and is not god's word a sufficient rule of religion ? deny this and you will turn papists to keep out papists . . if it be , if popery be against scripture , it 's here renounced : if not , why should we be against it ? l. but should they not distinctly renounce transubstantiation , p●rgatory , image-worship , merit , and the rest of their errours ? m. there is no end of enumerating errours : they are numerous like maggots in a carcase . a thousand will be unnamed when you have done your best at it . but the rule must not name every errour against it : the contrariety will be discernable . it is enough that men profess a perfect rule , and renounce all contrary , and be responsible to the church and their rulers when they corrupt religion contrary to the rule and their own profession . an errour not manifested hurts not others , and none is punishable till proved . if heresy be kept secret , the church must not make new laws and tests to make men confess it ; but punish it when it is vented . l. but shall ministers make no profession but what a papist or a heretick will make ? m. no , if a papist or heretick will profess all that is necessary , else we must make more . must we make new creeds or new scriptures as oft as dissemblers will falsely profess that already made ? this was the temptation to those multitudes of creeds , by which councils distracted the churches , which hilary decryeth . l. but the bishops will never take down the oath of canonical obedience , and all the other oaths and subscriptions that are formed to their interest . m. i cannot help that : over-doing is un-doing : if ever episcopacy be cast out , it will be by such over-doing , which will not let men live in peace that would not molest them . l. . why do you seem to grant the bishops and patrons votes in the choice of pastors , when before you seem to have much against them ? m. i have nothing against the ordainers judging of the fitness of the ordained , nor of magistrate or patrons disposal of temples and tithes : and because nothing but necessity will weigh down the great inconvenience of maintaining distinct pastors , while ● setled lecturer hath the temple and tithes , therefore i suppose that the bishop and patron will have their votes : and i suppose you know that it is vain to motion to patrons to resign this power , were it worse than it is ; else advowsons would not be sold at such rates as they are by many patrons : and my silence where speaking will do no good , is no sign of my approbation . l. but do you think that the communicants shall have a negative vote in choosing pastors . m. i think they will not , till god raise up better men , than many patrons are . but i am past doubt that god's law of nature and scripture , and the whole consent of ancient churches , fathers and councils , are for it : and methinks were not carnal interest stronger with them than religion , men that are professedly for god's law , and church-canons and customs , should not obstinately oppose them all : yea , the highest episcopal men are in this against them . mr. thorndike saith , that till the clergy and people again choose their own bishops , there needs no other reason be given of the contempt of episcopacy . yea , i have proved past denial oft , that no non-consenter can be a member of any pastoral church , nor any man be a mans pastor that doth not consent . it 's reason then to speak for the flocks consenting vote . l. but they may be forced to consent . m. i shall give you a reason against that anon . l. do you think the ignorant vulgar are fit to choose themselves a pastor ? the most are usually the worst . m. if the church-men will make the uncapable rabble communicants , and then deny them church-privileges , because they are uncapable , they condemn themselves for taking ( yea forcing ) in such uncapable men : even as the bishops that ordain ministers that cannot preach , and then by their canon forbid them to preach . . and yet i will say , that never knew any places , in city or country , that have oft had better pastors , for learning and all worth , than where the communicants were the choosers : yea , even the ignorant usually have a gust , that discerneth and valueth good and able men . . and yet , i speak not so high as for their power of first choice , but only of consent ; nor yet to choose who shall be a minister , but who shall be their pastor . the bishop asketh not their consent at ordination . l. but you know that if there must three consents go to it ; the ordainers , the patrons , and the communicants , they may never agree ▪ and frustrate all . m. humane faultiness puts inconveniences into all actions : but we must not cure it with a worse : if you would take no physick till three physicians agree , it 's a less mischief than to give any man that can buy that power , a right to impose what ignorant fellow or enemy he will , to be your sole physician . three locks and keys in three hands , to so great a trust , may be better than one in an untrusty hand . shall every papist or atheist choose me a physician as fitter than i ? . but if they should never agree , it is but every one stopping at his own part . the ordainers have done their part ; and the patron hath chosen a teacher for auditors , and a pastor for such as will accept him ; and the people that trust him not may go to one that they can trust ; and this is better than worse . l. but the patron will prevail against them , as long as he must nominate , though the bishop and people had a negative vote : for if they refuse one , he will still name another of his own complexion . m. uncurable evils i cannot help . i can but wish that no patron had ever built churches , or given glebes at so dear a rate , as thereby to buy from the church its privileges . l. but can you think that the bishops will ever abate re-ordination of thsoe ordained by presbyters ? m. i think not ; and therefore i have no hope of concord by their concession : but i know that former bishops would have done it , and the church of england still owned such since the reformation ; and god may send england such again ; and for such an age i write , and not for this with any great hope . and if you would not have the land confounded with doubts , whether they be baptized , or whether they had any valid sacraments , and whether the papists or protestants be the true church , &c. it concerns you all to regard the decision of this case . l. but you speak only against re-ordaining those that are already ordained , and nothing for the time to come . m. . you know it is hopeless to move for that . . and it 's meet that ordination should be well regulated . . and when all the unjust impositions are removed , as is here desired , few moderate men will scruple ordination . l. vii . your th . hath so much reason that i can say nothing against it , but that i doubt the bishops will never abate● their ceremonies , or any part of their liturgy , so far , to endure any to disuse it , though they meddle not against it . m. i know what 's necessary and just , but i know not what men will grant ; i am of your mind of those in possession , except some few : but if any man will make and keep up any instruments of division and hurt , on pretence of concord or decency in god's service , we can but wish and speak for better . l. but they say if nothing unlawful be imposed , it is disobedience to refuse it : and if disobedience be endured no government can stand . m. . judge by what is said whether no sin be imposed . . obedience to god being more necessary than to man , all just rulers should encourage a due fear of sin , and do nothing that tempts men from obeying god. . god himself doth not silence , eject , or condemn men for all disobedience , else none could be saved : all sin is disobedience to god. there is disobedience in small things as well as in great ; and of ignorance and infirmity , as well as of malicious wilfulness : and what smaller matter can there be than humane forms and ceremonies ? and where is ignorance more excuseable than in things so minute , and so uncertain and hard , that they must all be wiser than you and i that know them to be lawful ? and what unity will be in that church and kingdom , that will endure none but such as are wiser than you and i ? l. . your th . article preventeth all the objections against ministers power and liberty , while all are under law responsible ; but what if the rulers be bishops or men that distaste your desired discipline ? m. we are not choosing rulers ( by the sword ) but only pastors to guide us by god's word ; and if we shall have bad ones , we must patiently suffer ; we cannot remedy such infelicities . l. but both papists and many others say , that the iudgment of ministers doctrine and ministry , belongeth not to the magistrate , but to the church . m. iudgment is as various as execution , e. g. if one be a heretick or turbulent in schism ; . the magistrate is judge whether and how he shall be corporally punished . . the neighbour churches are judges whether they will owne his communion as approved . . his own flock are discerning iudges , whether he be fit to be trusted and owned as their pastor , or to be forsaken by them . we must not imitate papists in exempting ministers from the magistrates government . l. . i confess your reasons against constraining infidels to profess christianity are undeniable , and agree with the sence of the antient church and fathers ; but the papists , and many protestants hold that when once men are baptized , they may be forced to communion and all other christian duty . m. what if they openly apostatize and turn infidels , iews , or mahometans ; will they yet force them to communicate in the lord's supper ? l. no , but they will put them to death as they burn hereticks . m. that 's their way , but not christ's way . why should they put apostates or hereticks to death , any more than infidels that never believed ? l. because they break their covenant ; and because they sin against the laws which they consented to . m. and doth not sinning against god's law , in neither consenting to nor obeying it , deserve as bad ? if god , by many years preaching , call one man to christianity , and he derides it to the last ; and another took it up but by education and the law of the land , and never heard and understood the reasons of it , and turneth from it , being taken prisoner by the turks , which of these is the greater sinner ? god binds them to believe and consent that do not ; and they sin against god's law , which is more than to break their own covenant as such : but both these deserve death and worse from god : but if it were christ's way , to have men put one of them to death , i see not but why they should do so by the other . torment or death is no fitter way to make an apostate believe than other infidels . it 's known that all the ancient churches abhorred this forcing and punishing way . i have wondered at the impudence of baronius , binnius , and other papists and justifie martin for separating from the communion of the bishops that were for punishing the priscillianists by the sword , and canonize him as a saint , and condemn these bishops for it , and yet are for for more cruelties themselves , to far better men than the priscillianists . but where fleshly interest is a mans religion , no wonder if it have neither consistency with reason nor modesty . l. but if none but volunteers be christians or communicants most will despise the church and it will be empty . m. all that are fit to be there will come in : and those few will give the pastors more comfort and lesser trouble than the multitude of the uncapable . if your purse be not quite full of gold , will you fill it up with dung or stones ? the uncapable will do better for themselves , and the church among the audientes or catechumens . it is their forcing in the uncapable , that hath corrupted the church , and deprived the flock of their due privileges ( choosing their pastors , &c. ) because it 's made up of men unworthy of them . and doubtless if you but countenance and preferr the communicants before the rest , it will draw in more than are capable , without force . l. if the excommunicate be no further punished , nor forced to repent , the church censures will be despised : how little will men care for an excommunication ? m. this is commonly said , and much of it is true : but , . can you force men to repent , or rather lye ? you make him repent that he brought himself into your hands and into suffering : but that is not to repent of sin. will you tell a man before hand , if thou wilt but say thou repentest rather than lye in gaol till death , we will pronounce thee absolved and forgiven in christ's name ? who can think ill enough of such an absolution ? . do not they scorn christ that say he hath advanced his church to the dignity of government , by putting into their hands a reed for a scepter , and a leaden sword that will do nothing without the magistrate's sword of steel ? hath he set up an useless mock-power in the church ? . did the primitive-churches for years use any sword but spiritual ? or did they find it so uneffectual and vain ? . yea for some hundred years after there were christian magistrates , did not the church abhorr such a thing as forcing the excommunicate to repent by imprisonment or the sword ? . no man is meet to be a just member that careth not for a just excommunication ? and still this sheweth what a wickedness it is to force in the unmeet , that despise god's ordinance and the church that they are in : and then god's ordinance must be debauched for their unfitness . . the sword doth the keys much more hindrance than help , when it is thus annexed to them ; for then it cannot be discerned whether excommunication do any good or none ; or whether it be only the sword that doth the cure : and do not they that profess excommunication to be vain without the sword , teach men to call them as church governours vain , and to despise them ? and is it not all one , as to say , if any good be done by church-government , it is by the magistrate's sword , and not by ours by the keys ? . and is it not then ridiculous contradiction to dispute so hard about church-power , and against the presbyters claim , when you confess that it is an useless shadow that you dispute for , and it 's not it , but the sword that doth the deed . . is it not an odious defacing of princes and magistrates , to say , that they are bound to imprison and ruine a man as a meer lictor or executioner of the judgment of the clergy , or of a chancellor , without ever hearing or trying his cause ; and to punish him again because they punisht him before , or because he hath not got their pardon ? . if excommunication be grosly unjust ( as against christs members , for doing their duty , or for common humane infirmity ) they do well that set by it no more than it deserveth , and pretend not to repent when they do not , nor cannot , nor ought to repent . l. though you call it no punishment , to keep all the non-communicants from publick power and trust , i think it will pass for a notable penalty . m. i grant them as much as i can , as knowing how little they will yield to ; and indeed it 's my opinion that to deny all non-communicants magistracy and publick trust , would be to reform the common-wealth in the foundation , if the keys were but justly exercised : but then by this i exclude none but the intolerable , that neither communicate with the approved or the tolerated churches . l. but rulers will turn this against you , and shut out the tolerated with the intolerable . m. i cannot help that : must i not tell men what is right , because they will do wrong ? l. but you are for having all the subjects forced to be catechised , and to be auditors : and do you think that this will not force non-conformists to hear against their consciences ? m. i say not that they should be forced to hear in the parish church ; but either in a parish approved , or a tolerated church : how have they a toleration , that may not hear their tolerated pastors ? and he that is not for hearing at all , is not to be tolerated : and indeed , if those that are no members in communion of any church , but meer catechumens or auditors , should be forced to hear in their own parishes ordinarily , if there be meet teaching ; i oppose it not . l. but is it no● as injurious , to force men against their consciences to hear as to communicate ? m. no , the case is greatly different . nature bindeth all men to learn , that they may know what is good or evil to themselves . learning and knowledge is the common duty and interest of mankind ; and though no man can be forced to believe and repent ; he that is forced to hear , may hear that which may make him voluntarily believe and repent : you must force your children to learn , but not to communicate . i told you that to give a man the sacrament , is to give him a seal'd pardon and gift of christ and life , which no unwilling man is capable of , but he may be capable to hear and learn . and this being only to those that are refusers of all church-communion , or are uncapable , and are in none , either approved or tolerated , what conscience can such pretend against hearing , or against being restrained from crimes and profaning holy things , or reproaching religion , though they be not constrained to what they are uncapable of ? l. i am fully satisfied , that your way of dividing all the subjects into the approved , the tolerated and the intolerable , is of absolute necessity . and to conclude , i am satisfied , that you non-conformists have a cause so good , that you do well to suffer for it ; but were i in your case , i know not what i should do my self . the flesh and world are strong ; and it 's easier to be convinced that one should be a martyr , than to submit to martyrdom : god be merciful to our weakness . m. he trusteth not christ that thinks he shall be a loser by him ; and he that will save his life from him by sin , shall lose it ; and he that loseth it for him , shall save it . l. x. your th . for some toleration , will never be endured , though the truth is , your reasons for it are unanswerable , and your limitations so strict , as prevent most of the objections that might be made against it . m. god's law requireth forbearing and forgiving one another , and receiving the weak in faith. and they that cannot tolerate the tolerable , methinks should fear the thoughts of death , lest then god will not tolerate them , but cast them out as they cast out his children . l. i confess you convince me , that know what most patrons in england are , that it is unfit that all the peoples souls should be so far at the mercy of those patrons , that seem to care but little for their own , as that no man must have any other or better pastor than they will choose for him ; and that all mans duty , to care for his salvation , and all the judgment of the church of christ , from the apostles dayes , till a few hundred years agoe , should wholly give place to the pretended right of any fellow that can buy an advowso● or presentation : and it were to be wisht that it were wholly taken from them , and left to the clergy and people alone ; the magistrate being iudge whom he will approve or tolerate . but there is no hope that patrons will let go their supposed right , if an angel from heaven should speak against it ; but in all reason they should grant the communicants that small consequent vote of consent or dissent , that you pleaded for ; but if they will not do that , they should give them leave to go to another parish , or to choose a tolerated pastor whom they will maintain . but men are so set on their own ways , that they banish all sense of others case , and of what conduceth to the common good . m. we can but bring the truth to light , and shew a self-wounding people the balsam that must heal them , and stay till god will give them a heart to use it . l. but you are so careful , not to offend them by ●otioning 〈◊〉 wide a toleration , that i doubt it will do little good . for , . some will scruple some of the subscriptions , or oaths , which , you grant , shall be imposed on them . . if all the tolerated must be responsible for their doctrine and ministration , it 's two to one , but the rulers to whom they must give account , will be so contrary to them , that they will have no peace or safety . m. how would you have these dangers and inconveniences be avoided ? an unlimitted toleration of the intolerable , is it self intolerable ; and you can devise no safer limitation . the engagements which they are to take , tell you the terms of toleration ; and if men will-preach against those terms , that is , against the christian faith , or the holy scripture , or their allegiance to the king ; or if they use their meetings , to destroy love and peace , they ought to be restrained ; and there are lower punishments than depriving them of their toleration , which are for lower faults . . but if rulers will oppress , we cannot help that , and must not therefore be ungoverned . chap. lxi . whether the extirpation of the non-conformists , be not rather to be attempted , than an vnion with them by these means . l. it 's long since our former conference ; and now there is discovered a treasonable plot against the king and his brother ; and a multitude of addresses tell us , that it was the plot of the dissenters , and the product of conventicles , and therefore ●●ave the extripation of them all ; and that they may no more be trusted , as having principles were concileable to monarchy and subjection ; and the loudest cry now runs that way . m. what is the treasonable plot ? l. to kill the king and duke , and raise an army , and to change the government , or governours at least . m. who do they mean by dissenters or conventiclers ? l. all that conform not to the church of england as it is now setled by the law. m. the law setleth the essentials , integrals , and accidents of the church : do you mean every one that disliketh any one office , ( as lay-chancellors use of the keys ) or any ceremony or form ? if so , i do doubt most that come to church and communicate with it , dissent from some such circumstances . l. well , suppose it be those that separate from it . m. there are now these following sorts of known dissenters , called by many , conventiclers . i. those that like the way of episcopacy and liturgy best , as here setled ; but yet will also , occasionally join with other churches , as the french , dutch , lutheran , or some non-conformists . ii. the pacifick non-conformists , who at the king's return , petitioned for arch-bishop vsher's model of the primitive episcopal government , and thankfully accepted the king's declaration . iii. the presbyterians , who are for government only by synods of equal presbyters teaching joined with meer ruling ones . iv. the independants and separatists . v. the anabaptists ( who are half arminians , and half not ) . vi. the fifth-monarchy party ( most of which are anabaptists also ) . vii . the quakers . viii . the papists . ix . the infidels , iews , hobbists , and atheists . is the meaning , that all these are the guilty rebels to be destroyed , or which of them is it ? l. if all , i doubt the king would lose no small part of his subjects : but you know the papists are not numbred with the dissenters or conventiclers . m. say you so ? do those that differ but about a ceremony , or lay-mans use of the keys , or the largeness and paucity of bishops churches , dissent more from you than the papists , that would bring king and kingdom under a foreign jurisdiction , and introduce all the mass and doctrinal corruptions of their church . read bishop downham's catalogue of popish errours de anti-christo , or dr. willet's , chamier's , iewell 's , or any such , and judge . and do you think that the mass is no conventicle , or more lawful than the forbidden assemblies of protestants ? l. well , but it 's protestant-dissenters that . i mean. m. so then ; you would have protestant-dissenters rooted out , and not papists or infidels ? l. we would have those rooted out that were in the plot , which the papists were not . m. no doubt but such a plot as you describe deserveth the extirpation of those that were guilty of it : but i pray you compare not the innocency of papists in their principles , with the protestants : or read bishop barlow's and hen. fowlis's books , and prin's history of bishops treasons , and judge as you see cause . but it 's none of my business now to accuse the papists . do but grant that the innocent should not suffer for the crimes of the guilty , and we are agreed . l. but is it not justly supposed that the whole party is guilty of those principles which have caused particular mens rebellions ; and that it is their preachers and conventiclers that have caused all ? m. you that are a lawyer should know somewhat of the rules of iustice , or humanity at least . come on , and let you and i consider soberly of the case . and first , to your face i challenge you to name and prove any the least difference between the non-conformists who sought for concord at the king's restoration , or the party of meer non-conformists , and the protestants of the church of england , in their principles about the power of princes , and the subjection and patience of the people . name any difference if you can ? l. you would make one believe that great numbers are inhumanely impudent , that charge them with such heinous difference , if there be none . m. why do you not name the difference , if there be any ? contrarily , . we all take the same oaths of allegiance and supremacy . . we subscribe all the same articles of religion about the power of magistrates . . we have often professed our consent to all that is written for magistracy and subjection in all the scripture , in any general council ( save what is for the papal tyranny over princes and people ) or in any confession of any christian church , greek , papist , or protestant , that ever we saw ; and for all that ( for the power of kings , but not all against it ) which the generality of fathers , historians , philosophers , politick-writers , lawyers , canonists , or divines , are for . and is not all this yet enough ? . i have oft told you where ; e.g. bishop andrews in tortura torti , sir fran. bacon , lord st. albans , and many others , have vindicated the principles of the english non-conformists , as the same with the church's in point of loyalty against the papists accusations . l. but do not you know who wrote the political aphorisms , or holy common-wealth , condemned lately by the oxford convocation ? m. and do not you know , . that the author had never leave to confute his accusers about it ? . do you not know that he hath divers years ago written a large book called his second plea for peace , fully opening the principles which he and his consenters hold ; and no man hath writte● one word against any of them , that i hear of , to this day ? is this fair dealing then to silence what at large he owneth , and name only a writing years ago , which he never was heard about ? . do you not know that the famously learned tho. white a papist , wrote at the same time the like doctrine , and will you charge that on the party of papist● ▪ . the historians rule is distingue de temporibus , do you know in what times that was written ? and know you not that few men then living wrote and spake more plainly against the usurpation than he did ? . and you see that the oxford convocation condemn the writings and principles of the doctors of the church of england as well as others ? and as for knox and buchanan we are no more guilty of their words than of iewell 's , bilson's , hooker's , laud's , or any such . l. but if you differ not from the church of england in principles of loyalty , why do you not take the oxford-oath in the act of confinement , and the subscription in the act of vniformity ? m. i have told you fully before : not because we differ in doctrine , but in expounding the words of that oath and subscription . . were neither arch-bishop abbot , nor his clergy , nor the parliaments of those times of the church of england , as well as s●bthorp and mainwaring ? were not the laws made by those parliaments , made by the members , if not representatives of the church of england ? you know that our late great defenders of the church , describe the church of england to be those that worship god according to the law : and were the parliaments that made those laws none of the church themselves ? chillingworth would not subscribe without a limitting profession : was he therefore none of the church ? was bishop bilson none of the church ? was r. hooker none of the church ? the first dedicated his book to queen elizabeth , and the latter is dedicated to our king charles the second , and praised by his father . and yet the author of the holy common-wealth hath larglier than any man confuted hooker's popular principles . when william barclay a lawyer defended the king of france his temporal power , against the popes usurpation of a power to depose and restrain him , he is fain to profess that the contrary opinion was so common that he was taken to speak some strange and singular thing . and yet none doubts but he was of the same church of rome . i again challenge you to name that point in which we differ in this doctrine from the true church of england . l. you hold that kings may be resisted by arms. m. not so much as the aforesaid bishop and doctors of the church of england did , or the parliaments that made church-laws . again , see our second plea for peace ; how far we disclaim it . i profess that i am acquainted with no meer non-conformist ministers , that hold it at all lawful for subjects to resist the king , or any supream power by a war ; except in case that he notoriously declareth that he will if he can destroy the common-wealth , or deliver it up to a foreigner or destroyer that hath no right . l. sure the cry would never be for extirpating the dissenters , for this plot and their disloyalty , if they were not guilty ? m. nay , if that be your argument [ strangers to them say they are disloyal and guilty ; ergo they are so ] i leave you to god's answer , for i will not undertake to answer you . but will you use sobriety a little further ? . it is now twenty seven years since they were ejected and cast out of maintenance and countenance , and left to beg or crave their bread : long have they been laid in gaols , and fined deeply , the law laying on them twenty and forty pound a sermon : their goods , beds , books taken from them and they left destitute : how many in all these years have ever been accused and proved guilty of one disloyal or seditious sermon or word ? i know of none : certainly it was not for want of will in the accusers . those that by oaths have brought them under convictions and warrants for distress of five , ten , and much more forfeitures , even divers hundred pounds at once , before they were ever summoned to speak for themselves ; would sure have sworn some disloyal words against them , had they been able . and can many hundred ministers have a fuller proof of their innocency , than that they had no such prosecution twenty seven years from such a sort of adversaries , in so great sufferings ? . and now this plot is detected , it is divers months since , and many countries and corporations have accused the dissenters of it , and cry them down to extirpation : and to this day i cannot hear of any one english minister ( or at most not of two ) that is either an episcopal or presbyterian non-conformist , so much as accused , or named as guilty . the french and dutch churches in london are dissenting presbyterians . yet no man accuseth any of them for being in plots ; and yet must they also be destroyed ? but , sir , if any one or more of the episcopal or presbyterian non-conformists , ministers or people , had been found guilty , would you condemn thousands ( or any ) of the guiltless for their sakes ? on what account : is it for their relation to them ? they are mostly strangers to one another . come , and let us try your rule of justice . i. is there any relation nearer than that of father and son ? and can any minister be supposed to have more interest in , or influence on his hearers , than a father hath on his son ? and you know that the chief man accused is the kings eldest son : i hope you will not for this , charge the king , as if he principled him for treason against himself : nor as if he were to suffer for his sons faults . ii. the judges have oft declared that many iesuits and papists were plotters and traitors , and they died for it . i hope you will not make all papists guilty of their crime , nor extirpate them for it . and yet the papists are conventicling dissenters too . iii. the lords and great men accused of this plot and treason ( how justly god knoweth ) were of the church of england ; and shall all the church of england be destroyed for their sakes ? dr. whitby , and others now blamed by the oxford-convocation ; and bishop bilson , mr. hocker , &c. were of the church of england ; and shall all the english clergy be accused of their words ? iv. many of the accused were hobbists and infidels , and some common ill-living protestants : shall all the hobbists , and infidels , and ill-living protestants be extirpated for their faults ? v. many gentlemen of some late parliaments are accused ( not yet tried , and proved guilty ) : shall all the parliament-men therefore be extirpated as guilty ? vi. some lawyers and students at law are accused : shall all lawyers and students therefore be extirpated ? vii . divers of the nobility are accused : must all noble-men be therefore reproached ? viii . some that have been of the kings privy council were accused ▪ is his council therefore to be disgraced or destroyed ? ix . formerly many judges have been guilty : are judges therefore to be dishonoured ? x. by this justice you may next conclude , they were englishmen that were accused , therefore let all english-men be rooted out : or they were protestants and christians ; therefore away with all protestants and christians : whereas i think it an unjust conclusion , that because they were irish-men and papists that murdered two hundred thousand in ireland , therefore root out all irish-men and papists ; unless you will inferr , they are men that commit all sin ; therefore root out mankind . if it had been men that hate serious godliness , and are the seed of the serpent and of cain , that are at deadly enmity to the true fear of god , and thirst for the blood of the innocent , that are accused of this plot ; and if people had petitioned to have all this sort of men rooted out for it , it would have fallen on more than you and i are willing to name , or to have destroyed . but can you bear with me if i tell you truly and plainly what this extirpating motion of all called dissenters and conventiclers signifieth , and what it tendeth to ? l. i have had so much reason from you , as obligeth me to hear what you can further say . m. . the motion is so apparently from satan , that it will tempt those that are christians indeed , and know the devil's will and works , to take you for no other than his listed souldiers against christ , if you set your selves to do this work . truth , love , and doing good , are the christian state and life . lying , hatred , and hurtfulness , are diabolism , or satans work and image . all the art of prating and deceit of clergy or laity in the world , will never so far blind true christians , but that by your fruits they will know you . the pricks of thorns and thistles will be known from grapes and figs , in despight of all the craft of diabolists . and if children know not a wolf in sheeps-cloathing , they will know him that see him tear the flock ; yea , or that see his bloody jaws . and are you willing to renounce justice , humanity and christianity , and openly to profess diabolism ? men will see how malignity greedily picks quarrels with honest innocent men , while it beareth or cherisheth the debauched , ungodly , unconscionable rabble , whose god is their belly , or the world . and methinks men , so proud that they cannot bear with any that differ from their ignorant dictates , should scarce be willing that history should list them among the cainites or diabolists . any more than among man-eating cannibals . ii. you cannot extirpate or destroy all dissenters , if you do your worst . . so great a number will be true to their consciences , and suffer what ever you inflict on them , as will take you up much time and trouble , and render you more odious to the rest . . the common people that were indifferent , will enquire what these men have done , and will be turned from those that afflict so many of the innocent ; especially their neighbours , who know them better by experience , than by your reports . . those that fill not prisons , or die not as martyrs , will but conceal their minds , and not change them . and they will then be out of the reach of your hurting power : when they communicate with you , and give you no outward matter of accusation , what can you do to them ? or what pretence can you find to extirpate them ? the heart you know not : their actions they will keep out of the reach of the law : if you try them by oaths or unjust professions , by increasing the number of sufferers , you will increase your infamy and odium : and they that for fear do swear against their judgments , will hate you the more when they feel their wounded conscience smart . . and if you force them into secrecy , they will there speak more freely , and will educate their children into a hatred of your ways . and if you could destroy them , two for one will spring up as their successours . who would have thought that the great french massacre should have rather increased than diminished the protestants ? or that queen mary's bone-fire should have extinguished popery ? or that the two hundred thousand murdered by the irish should but have hastned the overthrow and ruine of the murderers ? in short , you cannot extirpate them . iii. the more you attempt it , and the more you succeed , the more you will do against your selves . . is not the king more safe , and strong , and honourable , and easy when he hath the hearts of all his subjects , than if he rule a people by divisions and persecutions shattered like a broken glass , or living in prosecution or fear , and hatred of one another , as if they were still in a state of hostility , and lived among their dangerous enemies ? if either christ or satan be to be believed , a divided kingdom in enmity cannot stand . l. methinks you argue against your self : for therefore it is that we would have all dissenters rooted out , because of the danger of division by tolerated dissenters . m. had you read a book called , the samaritan , and another called , the true and only terms of church-concord , you would need no further answer to that objection . if you would have all of one mind and way , it must be in that which it is necessary and possible for all men to agree in , and to make things unnecessary or impossible your terms , is the certain way of pernicious division . will you extirpate all that dissent in controversies of law , of philosophy , astronomy , physick , grammar ; or that differ in reason , constitution , statute ? &c. do you think that all will consent in all the mysteries of divinity , while knowledge is so low and rare ? yea , do you think that even in circumstances and things doubtful , all good christians will ever be so much of one measure of knowledge as to agree ? how happy are we if we all agree in great , plain , necessary things ? but to understand also all little circumstances , and humane orders and phrases ; which be lawful , and which not , supposeth all plow-men , trades-men and work-men , to be far more perfect in the knowledge of divinity , than the most learned philosophers are in physicks , who agree in little but a few principles , and things within the reach of sense : when yet alas , we can scarce teach half the vulgar , the meaning of the creed , or baptismal covenant . if the king would extirpate all lawyers , physicians , or philosophers , who in a multitude of little and controverted points , cannot tell which side is in the right ; he may have so much the more success in it , by how much the more men will be bold to dissemble their opinions in matters of such a nature . but about the matters of god and salvation , consciences will be more afraid to stretch and dissemble . it 's far less wise to take this way , than for school-masters and tutors to destroy or cast out all scholars and pupils , that have not just the same degree of knowledge . and at what age must this perfect knowledge begin , which must extend to the most minute things that men will command ? at sixteen years of age you compel them , volentes , nolentes , to receive the lords supper ; and do you think then that all at sixteen years old , in england , should be presumed to know more of the lawfulness of all your impositions on them , than i can reach to know at ( now near ) after the long and hard study of my life ? if you compel no more men , lads or women to communicate , but such as really understand the lawfulness of all such impositions , which i judge unlawful , sure it will make a great change in your communion and courts . l. by this talk you seem to intimate , that the people must not be constrained to obey in circumstantials or little things , because they may to them be doubtful ; and what worship of god can you perform without such little circumstances ? m. little or great , god in mercy hath made all necessary things intelligible and plain : it is the vnnecessary things that are most controvertible and doubtful . there are many circumstances that are so necessary to actions , that they cannot without them be performed ; e. g. he that will preach , must open his mouth ; he must speak audibly , he must use a language understood , he must have some capable place , and convenient time ; psalms must be sung in some tune , &c. some clothing , some posture of body must be used ; and all men know that to choose these according to the general rules of charity , edification , order , and decency , belongs to the guides of the assemblies . and where do you see any great division about any such things as these ; except in cases of accidental scandal ? and if any should be so childish or ignorant , as to think it unlawful ; e. g. to be vncovered , or to kneel at prayer ; due instruction , and gentle rebuke may easily cure such weakness , and is meeter than an extirpation . if any were so silly that they scrupled ; e. g. singing our metre or tunes of david's psalms , but are only for the cathedral singing of the prose ; it 's fitter to let them be silent , or let them go only to cathedrals , than to excommunicate or destroy them ; and if any be so weak , that they think a lawful form or gesture unlawful , it 's fitter , if they cannot be convinced , to let them be silent , or worship god among themselves in another form or gesture , than to excommunicate or extirpate them . but what are these easy intelligible circumstances to all the ceremonies unnecessary even in genere ? what are they to the vows of god-fathers without the parents , or to the dedicating symbol of the cross , or to adhering to a bare reader , when the next parish hath an able teacher whom the ignorant have great need to be instructed by ; to say no more now of all the oaths , declarations , subscriptions , covenants , and professions required of ministers ? i again say therefore , if you extirpate all subjects that cannot unite with you in all things required by the rubricks and canons , you will wrong the king by weakning his kingdom , and robbing him of more of his subjects , than he or the welfare of the land can spare . and you will keep the kingdom in a state of division ( and like antioch , that was so oft and terribly shaken by earthquakes , that it was in continual danger of ruine ) and even honest ●rajan lodging there , did hardly scape through a window , while the falling houses kill'd his souldiers . and the dissenters are not all of one mind and temper . all that are wise and good , will suffer patiently and peaceably ; for i incline to think , that the expositors mistake , who apply soloman's words to sufferers [ oppression maketh wise men mad ] ; and that as some criticks tell us , it rather meaneth rulers [ that an affectation of an oppressing power , and the exercise of it , maketh wise rulers forget the very obvious reasons of morality and interest , and to act as men distracted . ] but there be dissenters of dangerous principles , which are fitter to be restrained , than by d●speration to be enraged ; as hap is , the behmenists and quakers are against war , and the old anabaptists were so reported ; but some of them have shewed a contrary judgment ; but it 's known past doubt , that the papists are a sort of dissenting conventiclers , who have so strong a back beyond sea to encourage them , and are so instructed by multitudes of learned clergy-men and friars , and so taught by general councils , which are their very religion , that many of them will think it merits heaven to kill such kings as would extirpate them . king iames is deeply censured by some , for doing so much as he did towards a toleration , and for what the french bishop of ambrun writes of him . but for my part i verily believe that he did it in fear to secure his life : when queen eliza●eth's death had been so oft attempted , and when two great papist kings of france , had been murdered , because they were not zealous enough for the pope , and that so desperately by single men , that did it to merit heaven ; and when he had so narrowly escaped the horrid gun-powd●r plot , and when they still told him that he should not escape ; what wonder if he were afraid ? and so great confidence have the papal clergy , in this terrifying of kings as in constant danger of death , if they be against their church , that the pope and his close adherents could never to this day be procured to disown the decree of lateran , and other councils for deposing excommunicate heretick princes ; no , nor to deny the lawfulness of killing such ; yea , even in france , perron himself , their learned cardinal , so defends the pope's power of deposing kings that deserve it , that ( in his oration to the states ) he professeth , that , if it be not true , the pope is anti-christ , and the church anti-christian that hath so long owned and practised it . l. you seem to intimate in all this that you would have the papists tolerated , for fear least they should kill the king ; and so the worse that men and their principles are , the more they must be tolerated for fear of them : but who lived in greater safety than queen elizabeth who supprest them , even when the pope had excommunicated her ? m. i would have the king and kingdom ( church and state ) secured from a foreign iurisdiction , of pope or prelates ; and to that end , i would have papists kept out of government , civil , military , or ecclesiastick ; and i would wish that the king. . by the vnity of his subjects ; . by navies and military provision ; . and by just confederacies abroad , be still so strong as not to fear the force of foreigners ; and these things being secured , without fear of any mens censure , i say , . that i would have all men used as men , and all peaceable-men as peaceable , be they what they will. . i would have no hurt done to any papist for his religion , but defensive ; that is , such as is necessary to the forsaid ends , viz. to save king and kingdom from a foreign jurisdiction , and from invasion , and to save the souls of the people , from subversion by unreasonable liberty of seducers . . i would not have punishments excessive , that shall drive multitudes into desperation : lest undone desperate men be carried to revenge , or to think treason lawful , when they can no otherwise be saved from death and ruine . man hath not a despotical power over all passion : and some passions do almost necessitate errour of judgment , or else sudden action against judgment . take the most meek conscientious man , that knoweth the evil of revenge , and try his patience by buffetting him , and it 's two to one , but passion will make him strike you again . much more if you buffet him twenty year every day , patience may be overcome at last : there is scarce any creature , beast , bird , or venmin , but will use all the resistance it can in case of hurt and fear of death . the devil could say , skin for skin , and all that a man hath will he give for his life . and can you think that prince or kingdom is in safety , that shall destinate to destruction so great a number and of such quality , as are all the papists , infidels , iews , anabaptists , separatists , independants , presbyterians , and episcopal non-conformists , as are in england ? though i think the latter sort would suffer death rather than be disloyal ; i am sure rulers and adversaries think not so , who accuse them of intolerable disloyalty . and they that think so ill of them will expect ill at their hands . it 's true , that the worse men are and their principles , the more need there is of suppressing them . but destroying them is the chief means that i know to increase their principles of resistance . it 's ordinary with men that never suffered , to detest resisting governours ; and to change their opinions when they think they are implacably h●mted to destruction without desert or any remedy . draw your sword upon them , even on a quaker , and it 's two to one you will change his judgment , and make him think that self-defence is lawful . yea , if you could kill all that think resistance lawful , ( if it be half the kingdom ) it 's the likliest way to make all the rest that survive of the same mind , because of the inhumanity of the execution . i have met with few that thought that resistance at the french massacre on bartholomew-day , or at the greater in ireland , had been unlawful , whoever commanded them . yea , the lord bacon , chancellour of england , in his discourses of a holy war against the turks , and of a war with spain ; thought that their barbarous cruelties ( though the turks give liberty of conscience ) allow other princes to war upon them to vindicate mankind , the world being one kingdom of god in which every man oweth charity and due help to others ; which is honoured in tamerlane , when he relieved the greek emperour of another religion against bajazet that was of his own , and this in meer humanity and charity . i meddle not with the case of the lawfulness of such actions . but i say , all the world cannot devise a more effectual way , to make all men think that self-defence is lawful , than by great cruelty against multitudes to make it seem necessary . and if you will cure it by forced oaths , i heartily wish the king better security for his life , and the kingdom for its peace , than mens conscientious keeping of those oaths will be , unless conscience and patience were more universal and powerful than they are , and would make all sorts of dissenters choose martyrdom , rather than defensive resistance . and as for queen elizabeth's case , her dangers were many , her advantages were great , her executions for religion were so few , that the lord bacon and many other say , none suffered for any thing but treasons or such crimes : and god did wonderfully preserve her . but to say no more of the papists whose case quite differs from all the rest , if you will make many laws about doubtful words , and forms and ceremonies , and then extirpate all sober , godly , peaceable subjects , that for fear of sinning against god dare not obey them , what do you but mince and pulverize the nation , and dissolve its consisting and strength , and make it a cock-pit , or a prey to the cloven-footed deceiver and divider . the non-conformists in england lived quietly till the canons were made for their prosecution . the great counsellours of state , ( sir nic. bacon , throgmorton , sir amias paulet , the earl of leicester , sir francis knowles , sir francis walsingham , secretary beale , &c. except hatton and whitgift , were for lenity ; yea for such abatements as might have caused unity : and sir william cecil , lord burleigh ( though for episcopacy ) almost fell out with arch bishop whitgift for his hard usage of the non-conformists . and were all these fools , and you only the wise men ? but when bancroft , lest they should increase , would ruine them , and the canons were made , which ipso facto excommunicated all people in the land , high or low , that did but affirm that any thing in their liturgy , articles , ceremonies , ordination , or church offices ( from the arch-bishop to the apparitor ) was repugnant to the word of god , the church and kingdom presently felt that solutionem continui which these tearing racks had made : and when all must be ejected and silenced that durst not subscribe that [ there is nothing in the liturgy contrary to the word of god ] ( which i would not say of the bible it self as in any one translation ) then our over-zealous uniters tore all to pieces , and the shreds could never to this day be well set together to make one piece . yea all the parliaments of england have still been striving to restore the concord of protestants by laying bye some of these dividing , tearing engines : but whitgift ( though too great an anti-arminian ) and hatton , &c. prevailed still with the queen to prohibit them ; and they were loth to displease her , having had so great a deliverance from popery and persecution by her reign . the lord verulam ( bacon ) tells us of a reforming act in which himself had a hand , prepared in the parliament , but prohibited by the queen . and if any kings ( who should no more divide from their kingdom real or representative , than the husband from the wife , that i say not , than the head from the body ) should so far misunderstand their own and peoples interest , as to be jealous of parliaments as their enemies ; and if wise kings desire to keep the nobility from being ( as henry th . richard nevill and others have been ) too strong for their sovereigns , they cannot more cross their own ends , and serve the ambitious designs of these men , than by afflicting a great , a sober , and a religious part of the kingdom , whom these seditious men will be still serving themselves upon , by pretending to head them for their deliverance ; as many factious nobles did in france . it 's a great encouragement to rebellious great ones when they have always hope that a great body of distressed men , will be ready , as necessitated for self-defence , to accept of their offers for insurrections or at least to strengthen faction . l. it is for all these very reasons that we would destroy or extirpate all dissenters , that they may not be the serviceable instruments in such designs . m. for all these reasons , you should unite on the terms that christ and his apostles instituted as sufficient for christian love , communion and concord , that there may be no distressed , exasperated dissenters among us ; or only so few and culpable by the grossness of their errours , as that their shame and paucity may reader them no way dangerous . you should not take such men of extraordinary wisdom , as queen elizabeth 's councellours and parliaments , the lord bacon , judge hale , and such pacificators as davenant , hall , chillingworth , abbot , grindal , amycald , and most of the french , dutch , german protestants , to be all fools , and you to be wise men. a council in bedlam could scarce advise a madder way to root out faction , than to make canons or laws , that all the kings subjects shall be extirpated , that will not subscribe , there is not one word in all the statute book , or the most learned law-books contrary to the word of god ; and that the london dispensatory hath no errour in medicine ; and that no licensed book hath any errour in divinity : verily , if the bishops and clergy of england cannot give us better proofs of their infallibility , or that their publick imposed books are as free from errours as adam was before his fall , than by making all subscribe , or swear , or declare in the church that it is so , cowards may say , your lordships and reverences have never an erroneous word , but few men will believe it ever the more ; yea it will be the less believed , that needeth such a proof as this : even as men would take him to be never the more an unerring philosopher , lawyer or physician , who could force all the apprentice boys and women in the town , to swear that he is such . try first to make all the kings subjects of one opinion in all points of learning , law or trading , and of one degree of wit , and of stature and complexion , and then hope to make them all of one measure of understanding , not only in the substance of religion , but in all the little things that bishops call indifferent , and do or may impose . l. but you run upon the errour that all must have so great knowledge according to our rules , as to know the lawfulness of all lawful things : we know no church-men reach so high : but the way to concord must be by obeying the church in all cases that are doubtful to the subjects . m. . it 's well that you limit it to doubtful cases : but what if i am past all doubt ( e. g. ) that it is a sin to make our sort of god-fathers the vowing covenanters in baptism , excluding the parents , to cast out all from christian communion that scruple kneeling in the reception , to deny christendom to all that refuse our god-fathers and crossings , to pronounce all in england at burial saved , except the unbaptized , excommunicate and self-murderers , to profess that [ it is certain by the word of god that infants ( excepting none ) baptized and dying before actual sin , are undoubtedly saved ; to assent to a false rule to know easter-day ] with many such : what must i do in such undoubted cases ? . tell us plainly , is it all doubted cases or some only , in which you say we must obey ? if not all , till you tell us which , and how to know them , you talk in vain . if all , what if men doubt whether polygamy , lying , fornication , &c. be lawful ? or what if a papist doubt whether king-killing be lawful , and the clergy command it , must it therefore needs be done ? . and i pray you tell us where and when it is that men must obey this rule ? was it a duty in england in the days of thomas becket , anselm , dunstan , &c. or in the reign of all the kings that were papists ? is it a duty now in france , spain , italy , bavaria , austria , &c. or in the dominion of the turks , persians , tartarians , china , & c ? must all subjects every where do all commanded them ? if they have but ignorance enough to be in doubt themselves , sure they are bound to receive god's light to overcome those doubts , and in errour it is not obedience in evil , but seeking truth till they find it , that is their duty . but if you limit this rule to christians , is it to all christians ? if to orthodox rulers , are the subjects any fitter to judge whether their kings and bishops are orthodox or not , than whether the things imposed be good or bad ? if you dare say , that all subjects are bound to be of the religion which their kings or bishops say is right , speak out and you will need no confutation . it 's granted by all sober men , that as rulers have the judgment of publick decision , so every reasonable man must judge by private discerning whether his actions be agreeable to god's commands or not . it is not brutes and infants , but men that have the use of reason , that kings and bishops rule . . but if you are stiff in the contrary opinion , that all men must implicitely believe the king and prelates , in all that ignorance can but make them doubtful of , i hope you have more brains than once to dream , that ever you shall bring all the kingdom to unite in this opinion , and to lay by their reason , and confess themselves ideots or brutes , that must not labour to know whether they keep or break god's supream law ; or if you must rule men on these terms , you must keep them in fetters , and not at liberty . and i pray you dishonour not the king so much , as to make him a king of beasts and ideots , and not of men or christians ; or at least expose him not so much to the power of usurpers , as to say that his subjects are not the discerning iudges , who is their true and lawful soveraign , and who not ; and if they must judge whether all their actions be agreeable to the kings laws or not , lest they be hang'd or punished ; allow them also to judge whether or no they be agreeable to god's law , lest they be damned . if men once believe that god is not their supream governour , no wonder if they believe that kings have no governing right , nor any are bound in conscience to obey them ; for who can give governing authority , or who can bind conscience to obey it , but the absolute soveraign , the almighty god ? l. experience confuteth all that you have said ; what countries live in greater vnity , than those that have procured and kept it by violence , and do endure no dissenters ; as spain and italy ? m. it seems you know not what you say . . the pope , and spaniards , and italians allow greater differences , by many degrees than those that you condemn dissenters for ; their iesuits , and dominicans , thomists , scotists , nominals , durandists , &c. differ so much from each others in doctrinals , about god , and grace , and free-will , and providence , and the cause of sin , and many other points , that the volumes they have written for their several opinions , make up huge libraries , which employ the hard studies of the most learned men in the world , and are as far as ever from being ended . . the iansenists and iesuits differ , not only in such doctrines , about predestination , redemption , grace , free-will , perseverance , &c. but also about abundance of doctrines , commonly called moral ; as about murder , perjury , fornication , stealing , &c. as you may see in the books lately published by the iansenists against the iesuits . and though approved general councils , have made the doctrine of deposing excommunicated princes , and absolving their subjects from their allegiance , and giving their dominions to others , to be a very part of their religion , yet are not the papists agreed in it ; but the germans in the days of the emperours , frederick , otho , henry th , and th , &c. and the french to this day are much against it . and what learned men wrote against it , read but mich. goldastus his many volumes of collections , and you may see . yea , the papists are not agreed of the very essential form and constitution of their church , and therefore are indeed of several churches : one party thinks that the supremacy is in the pope , another that it is in a general-council , and a third that it is in the pope and general-council agreeing ; and yet all these so far bear with one another , as to cover over the difference with the name of one church , and to repute each other as true roman catholicks . yea more , it is , by an allowance of dissenters , or different ways of worship , that the pope doth chiefly keep up 〈◊〉 kingdom . when any religious people have fallen into a dissatisfaction with the loose discipline and conversation of the bishops and their churches , the pope alloweth them to set up by themselves , and exercise a stricter discipline , worship , and conversation of their own devising , which he alloweth , and no bishop shall have power to impeach . and thus he keepeth them in dependance on himself , as the only defender of their humours , inventions and liberties of different ways . on such accounts , there are multitudes of sects among them under the name of friars , and fathers , and sisters , &c. the benedictines , augustinians , dominicans , franciscans , iesuits , carthusians , &c. and all have their several ways of discipline ; but it sufficeth , that all depend upon one pope . in rome it self , philip nerius being a serious religious man , was unsatisfied with the dead formal way of the bishops and mass-priests ; and to bring men to knowledge and seriousness in religion he borrowed a church , and set up a lecture or course of serious extemporate worship , almost like the exercise called prophecying , that arch-bishop grindal was for , and the lord st. albans ( bacon ) writes for . four zealous men spent the whole day , one in extemporate praying , and one in preaching and expounding scripture , and one in telling the people the history of the church , and the lives and miracles of saints , and one in praying again , just like those here hated as extemporate puritans . the bishops said they were proud hypocrites that drew crowds of people after them for reputation of sanctity ; and they persecuted nerius , and accused them to the pope , and silenced him : the silencing bishop was presently struck with death , and nerius went on , baronius being his second . the crafty pope , instead of calling them fanatick rognes and rebels , thinks it policy to turn this stream of pious zeal into his own channel , to drive his own mill ; and he rescueth them from the prelates , and alloweth their exercises , and calleth them by the name of the oratorians , and honoureth the leaders , so that he drew them to depend on him , and baronius to write those many great volumes of ecclesiastical history , which have done rome greater service than any one writer that i know of in the world ; and to this day the oratorians are the most sober puritan papists . thus did he make use of the sectarian singularity of ignatius loyola , a souldier turned to superstition , allowing them ( as others ) to set up by themselves from under the power of the bishops , in dependance on the pope alone , whereby he hath mastered emperours , and kings , and kingdoms , and made great attempts on abbassines , greeks , yea on congo , iapan , china , and the heathen world. and i have credibly heard that dr. tho. goodwin , philip nye , and dr. owen the leaders of our independants , did tell the king , that as the pope allowed these orders of religious parties in meer dependance on himself , without subjection to the bishops , all that they desired was ( not to be the masters of others , ) but to hold their own liberty of worship and discipline , in sole dependance on the king , as the dutch and french churches do , so they may be saved from the bishops and ecclesiastical courts . . but further , do you forget that the spaniards by their sacred cruelty and inquisition have lost the low , countries , and had almost lost the seventeen provinces ? . and do you not know that ever since the days that the arrian gothes possessed spain , they have been like ireland , a blind superstitious people , whose ignorance most fitteth them for such a kind of concord ? and is there not a concord in their way among the enslaved ignorant muscovites , and among the turks , and many heathens ? satan himself is against the dividing of his kingdom . . and do you think that the effect of spanish and italian tyranny and concord , doth answer the cost ? the cruelty of their inquisition hath made their names as odious as of cannibals or wolves , insomuch that the lord bacon thought that an invasive war against them as the enemies of mankind , that violate the laws of nature and nations , was just . and the many millions that they most cruelly murdered , and tormented in mexico , peru , hispaniola , &c. ( among whom were divers kings ) do tell the world what are the fruits of their catholick fury , and arbitrary government : their arch-bishop barth . de casa and their jesuit ioseph . acosta , eye witnesses of undoubted credit , report that which renders them liker devils than men . and gage that lived there among them , seconds it . and it was no small infamy to their king philip that he put to death his son and heir charles . are these the patterns that you would have us imitate ? and as for italy , . read of all their histories , and then name that country on earth , if you can , that for many generations , hath been infested with so much civil war and blood , as italy hath been , yea rome it self . . and since policy hath setled it of late in peace , what a peace is it , and of what effect ? it is said by travellers that no country more aboundeth with atheists and infidels , that are indeed of no religion . and truly , if it be god and conscience that you would have banished out of england , and infidelity , sadduceism , hobbists , malignity , drunkenness , whoredom , perjury , that you would have take the place , i dare say that the devil will not fight against such concord , but will promote it withal his policy and power , by himself and all his agents ecclesiastical , civil , and military . . yet further , why look you not on all the rest of the world , as well as spain and italy ? indeed iapan restored concord , but it was by so devilish and cruel torments of christians and those that would not accuse them , as rendreth their names odious to mankind ( of which varenius will satisfy you . ) but what france , what ireland and others have got by cruelty , i have told you before . and though i am far from justifying the hungarians ( men that i know not or their case ) for flying to the turks for help , do you think that the countries now ruined by war , and the many thousands in austria , silesia , moravia , and hungary , killed and taken captives , and the thousands killed in fight , and the famine that the next year is like to come on the ruined countries , where corn and hay are all destroyed , and the bloody war that is yet like to follow before the end ; i say , do you think that all these are not a dear price to be paid , for hindering men to worship god only according to the scripture ? would leave to serve god only as christ and his apostles appointed and did themselves , have cost the emperour and people , dearer than all this amounteth to ? . and the world knoweth that ( as cromwel got his strength and usurpation in england by his liberty of conscience , so ) the turks won constantinople and the eastern empire , much by this . for when their emperours were become dissolute or cruel , killing and deposing one another , putting out their eyes , and thrusting them into monasteries ( forced saints ) ; and when ambitious ungodly bishops were still striving for superiority , and persecuting dissenters as not orthodox , and mutinous souldiers pulling down emperours , and setting up others , the poor christians thought that to defend such a government against the turks that gave all men the liberty of their own religion , would cost them dearer than it was worth ; and so were the more remiss in their resistance , and the easilier yielded to the conquerours : whereas had the turks done as the papists , who make our extermination by our own rulers , a very part of their religion , the greeks would have more resolutely resisted them , in necessary self-defence . and did not the turks still give liberty to christians ( only restraining them from speaking against mahometism ) do you think that the greeks in all their dominions would no more strive for their deliverance ? and that transilvania , hungary , walachia , maldavia , croates , and cossacks , armenians , georgians , circassians , mengrelians , nestorians , and iacobites , in so vast numbers , would live so long quietly and patiently under them as they do ? all the great conquerours of the world that are famous in history , ever observed that sober policy , to let conquered provinces enjoy their own religion , and mostly their own ancient laws and inferiour magistrates : and then the people find the change so tolerable in the supremacy , as they the more easily yield , with less resistance , and continue their subjection with the greater quietness and peace . the iews in christ's time , ( and till they rebelled afterwards under vespasian , titus and adrian ) had so much of their own religion and law allowed them , as was no small cause of their crucifying christ , lest the name of a king sent from god ( such as they expected the messiah to be ) should draw the people to such insurrections , as should provoke the romans to deprive them of their temples , religion and laws , and to destroy their place and nation . and i hear by travellers that where the turks yet allow their provinces ( as in transilvania ) their own magistrates and laws , religion prospereth almost as well as under christian sovereigns , and far better than under the extirpating zeal , or rather fury of persecuting papist princes . i desire you therefore before you plead experience for your desolating way of concord , to study history better , and be better informed of the case of the world. when i think but what men bishop wilkins and judge hale were , that on my knowledge drew up an act for the total cure of our english church differences , ( to which those called to it by the lord keeper bridgman , did on both sides consent ) i have thought it some defect of humility in some clergy-men , that took themselves to be so much wiser than these rare and excellent men , as to judge that all our distractions , sufferings , and dangers by divisions , are not so bad as the effect of these mens counsil would have been . but i do with greater confidence ask you , whether those men seem to be serious and understanding christians , who think all the bloody wars , and tormenting inquisition , and the destruction of love and justice , and good works , which are caused by church-divisions in the world , to be a less mischief than it would be to endvre christians to serve god ivst as christ prescribed by himself and his apostles , and to vnite on the terms only which he and they did ordain and practise ? shall we tell turks and heathens that it is no wiser a saviour that we trust in , and no wiser a heavenly king that we obey ? and no wiser law and gospel that he hath left us ? and is it any wonder then if they scorn both him and us ? l. you are too hard for me , i will talk with you no more . m. it is truth and light that is too hard for you ; and woe to the foolish enemies that are too hard for it , and overcome themselves , and their own happiness and hopes in overcoming it . and woe to the world , to churches and nations where such prevail . l. but i advise you , that you never think that all your truth and reason will do any great good on those that are against you : for you cannot have while to say all this to many that you have said to me ; and if you should print all this , the contrary minded will scarcely read the title page or contents , but scorn it before they know what you have said ; and if they read it , it will be all the way , with a militant spirit of prejudice and hatred , and only study what to say against it ; and ignorance , passion , interest and prejudice , will answer all with rage and confidence , and only conclude that the author is a fool , or rogue , or rebel ; and , it 's like enough , answer you with an excommunication , or iail , where among malefactors you shall lie and die . if you speak for , and not against their pr●conceived opinion and interest , they will h●ar you ; but if you speak agai●st any of their worldly wealth , or honour , or grande●r , you may almost as hopefully dispute an hungry dog from his carrion ; and you must not wonder if they snarl , or fly upon you and tear you . and though i confess , that all your proposals seem very consistent with your a●tagonists wealth and greatness , yet remember the truth of seneca's words , that men that have a sore , do not only start and complain when they are toucht , but even when they think that they are toucht , though it be not so . there is no expectation of justice from suspicious jealousie ; much less if it be animated by interest and malice . m. my expectations are not much higher than your description . but when my own life is so constantly a painful burden , and i am so near the grave , i am utterly unexcusable , if i think so short and painful a life too good to sacrifice by way of obedience to the will of god , who hath long and wonderfully preserved it ; and if i do not live and die with st. paul's resolution , acts . , . bonds and afflictions abide me , but none of these things move me , neither count i my life dear unto my self , so that i might finish my course with ioy , a●d the ministry which i have received of the lord iesus , to testifie the gospel of the grace of god. and indeed , if all our bad laws and ceremonies were reformed , and all granted therein which i have proposed , alas there is so much to be done for the reformation of the persons that must execute good laws , ( lords , bishops , patrons , priests , &c. ) without whom laws are but a dead letter , and against whose enmity and oppositions , they are unlikely to prevail , that i die the more willingly , because i see no appearance of any such golden age , or amiable reformation , and general concord , as might tempt me to desire to live much longer on earth . the reformation of our universities , clergy , nobility , gentry , and licencious youth , and malignant haters of serious godliness , is a work for omnipotency , and would afford me matter for a volume , were i to write on such a text as ezek . . son of man ! can these bones live ? and i answered , o lord god , thou knowest . in the mean time it giveth me matter for groans , tears and prayer , but no belief of that good man's prophecy , who confidently foretelleth us of that blessed age , about eight years hence . if the second part of my moral prognostication ( written with more doubt than hope ) should prove as true as the first part did ( of this progress of malice and divisions ) i doubt it is but some small rudiments or preparations for such a blessed change , that the men of the present times must see ▪ i should rejoice if they ( i mean god by them ) confute my fears . chap. lxii . fifty questions to unjust silencers . god is love , and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in god , and god in him , iohn . . the most fundamental and comprehensive article of natural and evangelical religion . how angels fell from love and became devils , malignant spirits , is not revealed fully to us ; but that such there are , both scripture and too great experience certify us . but how man fell , is told us in the scripture . it pleased god to make a rank of intellectual animals left to their understanding , self-determining free-will , between the brutes which are determined to things sensible , and the confirmed . angels who are determined to things spiritual . it pleased him to oblige and allure man by his blessings , to live still in the love of god ; but withal to permit the malignant tempter , to try whether by his allurement and deceit , he could win him from this holy love : as if a man should leave his daughter to be his wife , who could win her own consent . the malignant spirit prevailed and turned man from the reigning love of god , to the love of self , self-pleasing , self-ruling , and self-trusting ; and having won man's will , he is by just permission become his prince , as long as he can keep the will which he hath won . but infinite love , first promised , and then gave his son to be the prince of love , and so the captain of our salvation ; his incarnation , doctrine , life , and suffering ; his resurrection , ascension , intercession and government , are but the works of love for man's salvation , which is , to recover the will of man to the reigning love of god , from the carnal sensual self-love . a war is thus commenced between christ and satan ; christ's warfare is to conquer malignant enmity , and set up a kingdom of love. the devils work is to assimilate man to himself , and to make him a lyer , malicious , and a destroyer . thus two kingdoms are set up in this world , which are in continual war against each other . the subjects of each are discernible by their works : trvth , love , and doing good are the works and marks of the one ; and lying , hatred and hvrtfvlness , are the works and marks of the other ; and holiness and devilism constitute this world . cain and abel were the leading instances : heb. . . by faith abel offered a more excellent sacrifice unto god than cain , by which he obtained witness that he was righteous , god testifying of his gifts ; and by it , he being dead , yet speaketh . he conquered , but died , as did our saviour , ioh. . , . cain was of that wicked one , and slew his brother ; and why slew he him ? because his own works were evil , and his brothers righteous : in this warfare we must live and die . marvel not my brethren if the world hate you ; though we die as abel , we know that we have passed from death to life , because we love the brethren : he that loveth not his brother , abideth in death , though as cain , he kill and seem to conquer . all that believe not a better life , which will abundantly make up the loss of this , are his subjects who is called the god of this world , who blindeth the minds of unbelievers , cor. . . devils are called , the rulers of the darkness of this world , eph. . . the princes who set up a worldly interest , against or above the heavenly interest , are called , the princes of this world , that come to nought , cor. . . and to be wise only for an interest , is , the wisdom of the world , which is foolishness with god , . , . thus christ fighteth by love , to win souls to love for the glorious world of love ; and the devil by malice to destroy love and separate them from the god and world of love , by fighting as dogs about their carrion , for their fleshly interest in this deceitful world ; but the time is short , and the war will be short , but the victory sweet , and the crown everlasting . and it is greatly to be considered , that as christ's cause & subjects are contrary to the devils , so also is his manner of fight and conquest . christ and christians fight not by wrath and hatred against their haters , but by loving them as men ( and praying for them , even when they suffer by them : ) and in this course it is , that they are more than conquerours , rom. . . and heap coals of fire on their heads , which will burn them for ever that would not on earth be melted by them . it seemeth a strange thing to us to see the poor . french-men come hither from their own pleasant land , in raggs and bodily distress : and who expelleth them ? and for what ? who caused all the blood and banishments that have been exercised on christians , since the heathen persecutions ? and for what ? who destroyed those many thousands of christians called albigenses , and waldenses , and bohemians , in history mentioned ? and for what ? who set up the inquisition as against protestants , and tormented and burnt so many ? and for what ? who caused the french and irish , and other massacres and murders ? and for what ? who keep out truth and reformation from all kingdoms subject to the pope ? it is men in the sacred offices , ecclesiastical and civil . we all own reverence to magistrates and pastors . satan is not so foolish as to do his work in his own name , nor to put its proper name upon his work . did you ever hear or read of persecutors , who openly said , [ we are the servants of the devil , and come against you for his interest and in his name , to perswade or persecute you from christ and your obedience to god , and your salvation ? ] no , it is as for wickedness , that wicked men destroy the just ; and as for sinning that they persecute them that will not sin : it is for religion that religion is impugned ; and for the church that the true children of the church are persecuted : and is it for the gospel that the preachers of it are silenced and destroyed ? without the church a false religion is set up against christianity . but within it , an image of christ , and of the church , and of concord , and religion , is set up against christ , church , concord , and religion ; and men in the garb of magistrates and pastors , do prosecute the war as by christ's commission , and in his name : and sin is defended and propagated , by false , pretended opposition . if the iews had known him , they would not have crucified the lord of glory . heathens would not for idols fight against god , nor mahometans for a deceiver against christ , if they knew what it is that they are doing . christ who was crucified as a blasphemer and rebel , foretold his disciples , that they should be kill'd as an act of service to god. where the gospel is believed , it is a crime so horrid to silence and destroy christ's faithful ministers , and forbid his publick worship , and render his most conscionable servants odious , and plot their extirpation and ruine , that none dare do it but those that know not what they do . when christians as a sect were every where spoken against , paul was exceeding mad against them , and persecuted them to strange cities , and verily thought that he ought to do many things against the name of jesus , act. . but when he heard from heaven , why persecutest thou me ? it stopt his rage , and changed his judgment . but alas ! how slender a means will serve to deceive the wicked ? a meer nick-name , or malicious slander ; yea the avoiding of a sin which they think to be no sin , is enough with them to make the best men seem the worst ; while perjuries , adulteries , blasphemies , prophaneness , cruelty and persecution , are tolerable motes in the eyes of their companions . all the holiness , wisdom and miracles of christ and his apostles , would not serve to make them pass for good , yea or tolerable men ; while sadducees who denied spirits & the resurrection ; & ceremonious , hypocritical , blood-thirty pharisees , went for meet rulers of the flock . and how can it be expected that he who thinks not holiness desireable to himself , should think it any excellency in others ? or that he that thinks his own sin but a tolerable frailty , should much abhor it in the world ? satan then hath his army not only among infidels , but nominal christians : and it is commanded by honourable and venerable names , and he pretends a good and righteous cause , whereever he fighteth against christ , and holiness . but by the fruits he may be known in the greatest pretenders , whatever names he call them by . it is the most profitable preaching which he laboureth to suppress , and the most faithful pastors that he would silence ; the most conscionable christians whom he striveth to make hateful , and the more spiritual worship of god which he would hinders . and therefore even among christians we have great cause to warn men to fear least they be enticed into satan's service , against christ and their own profession and salvation . and especially in an age ; . where worldly and cross interests are set up against the interest of christ and conscience . . where these worldly and cross interests have already wasted christian love , and contentions have begun a mental war. . when these have prevailed by scorns and slanders to make conscionable christians pass for some contemptible , criminal , or erroneous sect ; and this reproach is fortified by honourable and reverend names . lest therefore such causes , too visible in the world , should draw the ignorant and rash into the dreadful sin of fighting against the interest of christ , and souls , by hindering christ's ministers from their necessary work , and faithful christians from worshipping god , i will humbly beseech all that are in danger of such temptations , but seriously to exercise their own reasons in the present consideration of these following questions , and to take up with no other answer to them , which will not bear weight at death and judgment , when worldly pomp and pleasures leave them ; and not worldly interest , wit , or grandeur , but the righteous lord , the lover of holiness , and holy souls , will be the dreadful and final judge . the questions to be well considered . quest. . are we not on all sides agreed that we are mortals posting to the grave ? doth any man think he shall not die ? and is striving or mutual love and quietness , a fitter passage to the dust ? do not all men , constrained by natural conscience , at a dying hour , repent of hurting others , and ask forgiveness of all the world ? yea , if you are not worse than most heathens , are we not agreed , that man's soul is immortal , and that we shall all be shortly in another world ; and that it shall be with us there , as we live on earth ? if any doubt of this , should not the least probability of such an everlasting life , of joy or misery , prevail against the certain vanity of such a shadow as this world ? or if yet they believe not another life , why should they not let those live in quietness that do believe it , and dare not hazard their everlasting hopes for nothing , as long as they do no hurt to others ? q. . do not all christians believe , that the knowledge of god , our creator and redeemer , and a holy heart , and life are of necessity to our salvation ? do we not see , that children are not born with knowledge , nor free from fleshly and worldly inclinations ? doth not the world's experience tell us , how hard , and how long a work it is , to make the ignorant understand the very articles of faith , and necessary duty to god and man ; and as hard to perswade their carnal minds to the hearty love and practice of them , and to save them from the damning love of sinful lust , and worldly vanities ; and how wofully the best teaching is frustrate with the most ? q. . are we not all vowed to god in our baptism , renouncing the seduction of the world , the flesh and the devil ? and do all understand and keep this vow ? and is not the perfidious violation of it , a most damning sin ? and when thousands of full age are yet to learn what baptism is , and what they vowed , have they not great need to be plainly taught it ? q. . is a baptized infidel , or ungodly person , any better or safer than the turks or the salvages in america ? will the name of christians save perfidious hypocrites ? or , will it not be easier for sodom than for such ? q. . if christian knowledge and practice be not necessary , why pray we for conversion of heathens and infidels ? and , why doth the article of the church of england condemn those that hold , that all may be saved in their several religions ? and what are we better than turks and heathens ? q. . are not all men on earth bound solemnly to worship the god that made them ? and do not all the idolatrous heathens , and the mahometans , offer their god some publick worship ? and must not christians publickly worship christ ? are not holy assemblies for doctrine , prayer , praise and communion , commanded to that end ; and the lord's day separated thereto , and all forbid to forsake such assembling ? q. . let the bills of mortality , and the knowing inhabitants tell you , whether there be not some hundred thousands in the great parishes , in and near this city , more than can come into their parish-churches , and hear . if they would all but shew their willingness to come in , if they could , and twenty thousand stood at st. martin's in the church-yard , and streets , and as many at stepney , and at st. giles cripplegate , and ten thousand at giles in the fields , and so of the rest , and should say , we are here desirous to come in , and cannot , what would you say to them ? are they not more miserable that are content to stay at home ? q. . what would you have all these thousands do ? multitudes of them are hardened already by this seeming necessity into self-excusing , and a custom of neglecting all publick worship : and how think you do they spend their time at home ? is it not the time for sinful practices , or idleness at the best ? and would you have all these thousands turn atheists , or live more impiously than mahometans ? and are not these to pay to the church , that cannot come in it ; and the weak that cannot stand and can get no seats ? and are not the church-wardens bound to present all these thousands , that have no room ? and shall all these suffer as recusants , while the rich that can pay for seats , escape ? if you say they should seek room in other parish churches , do you know what it is for a man to wander into the city , with his family , to seek room , he knoweth not where ? the tabernacles where churches stood are small ▪ and we see the church full already , where is profitable preaching , and the seats at least possest ; and the worse men are , the more need they have , but the less they feel it , and are unlikely to seek help at such a rate , who would come in , if it were near them . q. . are all these many thousands that stay at home ( or worse ) hunted and prosecuted , fined , and imprisoned for it , as seditious , and enemies to the king , or to the peace , as some are that worship god as wisely as they can ? and do you believe that such a worship of god , as hath nothing in it contrary to the holy scripture , or contrary to the practice of the apostles of christ , is worse than none at all , or than meeting at plays and taverns , and deserveth scorn , imprisonment , and ruine ? q. . suppose it be ignorance and errour in such ministers , as take it to be a sin against god ( yea , a heinous sin ) to take all the oaths , declarations , subscriptions , and covenants imposed for conformity ( while they willingly take the oaths of allegiance and supremacy ) ; and suppose it be an errour in those people , who think their souls need better pastoral helps than they can have in many parishes ; shall this errour be punished with keeping them from all god's publick worship , unless they will sin against their consciences , or change their judgments which they cannot change ? yea , suppose some communion or ceremony be indifferent , which they mistake for sin , will you forbid all men to worship god , till they have no sin or errour ? is there any one such a man on earth ? are you such your selves ? and shall all the world be driven therefore from worshipping god ? little do men know how great a part of the daily thoughts , even of orthodox learned men , are errours . q. . can there be a more horrid thing in the world , than either to condemn or excommunicate all men who dare not do that which after their best search , they think to be more heinous sin than they dare name , lest the very naming of it offend , and are desirous to have their reasons heard ; and to make it necessary to communion , or to their liberty to worship god , that all men and women must know even all indifferent things , to be indifferent or lawful in god's worship , which men may impose on them ? have not all sober peaceable divines agreed , that things necessary for ▪ all to know , are few ; and that christian concord can never be expected on any other terms , than by agreeing in those few , plain , necessary things ? and who knoweth not that indifferent things are numberless , as well as small ; no mortal man knoweth them all ? and if a poor christian that feareth the justice of god , do take that oath , that covenant , that declaration or subscription ; yea , or that humane symbolical badge of christianity , or other ceremony to be a heinous sin , which others say is a thing indifferent ; must all as atheists be kept from worshipping god , till they know all these things to be indifferent ? q. . did not the lord iesus himself make it his prime gospel law , that all that profess repentance and faith in god the father , son and holy ghost , should by baptism be made visible christians ; and all christians live in love to one another , and holy communion , and jointly worship god ? q. . was it not the nature of all the old heresies to depart from this universal christian love and unity , and that on pretence of some singular opinion of their own , in which they thought they were wiser than others , and would have had all to be of their mind ; and should those that cry down heresie , go the way of hereticks , if they can but get number and power to pretend catholicism ? q. . did not the holy ghost by st. paul , as plain as the pen of man can write , determine , rom. . and . and eph. . , , &c. and cor. . that christians should receive each other into communion , and live in love and peace , notwithstanding differences about meats , days , and such indifferent things ; yea , or weaknesses in faith and holiness ? and did not christ mind the ceremonious pharisees , that god will have mercy rather than sacrifice ; and that they worshipped god in vain , while they preferred their ceremonies and traditions to his word ? q. . had it been reason , or impudency rather , in the pharisees , if they had cryed out against christ and his apostles , for not conforming to their traditions , [ you are schismaticks , and disturb the church's and the nation 's peace , and cast all into confusion ] ? and was it not turbulent arrogancy that made the iewish christians so urgent with all the gentiles , to be circumcised , when they were left to their own ceremonies , and no body medled with them , or hindred them ? if men love that diet , let them use it : but must none live that cannot love the same ? q. . will you give men leave to open all the real faults they can find in the diocesan or parish churches ? and if they prove far more than they can prove in theirs , will you therefore silence all your teachers , and shut up all your church-doors , and give over worshipping god ? do you think that your priests and your worship are without fault ; yea , or the constitution of your churches ? we are not able well to know what a parish-church is , by its materials ; that is , who are of the churches , and who not . . if it be all the baptized parishioners , the papists and separatists are your members . if it be all such as are of no other church , then the atheists , infidels , seducers , and others that are of no church indeed are of it . . if it be only those that dwell and communicate there , how small a part of your great parishes are of the church ? yet are not these many thousands declared to be out , but are permitted without censure , and may come if they will : not only the members , but the minister himself knoweth not who are of his church , for the far greater part , till he see them come to the altar , and then most , if they come , must be utter strangers to him whom he never saw before . how great a number of hobbists , infidels , papists , and wicked livers are amongst us , your own pens proclaim . and may not these come to the altar when they please ? this is spoken only to convince you , that if all this may be born , the supposed sin of fearing sin in a thing call'd indifferent , deserveth not excommunication or destruction . q. . is not the fear of god the beginning of wisdom ? and doth not this contain a fear of sinning ? and is not this commendable , and to be cherished ? is not god above man , and first to be obeyed , and most feared ? hath man any power but what god hath given him , and hath god given any against himself , or his own laws , or for destruction of his fear ? if conscience towards god be once driven away , is any man to be trusted ? will not the unconscionable do any thing for worldly interest ? q . is it not an unmanly sort of impudence in them , that many years perswade the world , that those same men make schisms , by forbearing only such things as they confess to be no sin , who have twenty years ago protested , that nothing but sinning is refused by them , and did then give in a catalogue of several sins which they undertook to prove such ? and should those same men that have read , or may do the king 's gracious declaration about ecclesiastical affairs , . and the london ministers printed thanks-giving for it , and the many late books , in which we have told men what it is which we dare not conform to ; i say , should these still take on them , that they cannot know it , and call out still , [ what is it that you stick at ? and what is it that would satisfy you ? ] yea , those that cannot bear that we should tell them . q. . do you think that the king who then past that declaration ( in which the non-conformists who sought it with thankfulness acquiesc't , as in terms of happy concord ) and the house of commons who gave him thanks , or the bishops and clergy who after rejected it , and procured the new act of uniformity and such other , did take the way to have united protestants , and to have prevented our present sad divisions ? q. . hath not dr. burnet in his history of the regale fully proved that the choice of bishops and pastors for many hundred years was in the people and the clergy : and do you think in your consciences , that if a good gentleman build and endow a church , all men must ever after trust the pastoral conduct of their souls with such priests only as his posterity , or any man that will buy the advowson shall present ? will not drunkards , fornicators , malignant haters of holy life choose men as fit for their turn as will be admitted ? and do you think in your consciences that all the patrons now in england , are either fit , or by christ allowed , to be choosers of all those pastors that all men in england must take up with : do you not know that preaching converteth not like a charm , nor is the devil cast out of souls as by the words of an exorcist ? it requireth great skill and care to convince sinners , and instruct , resolve , confirm and comfort souls : there is as great difference of teachers as of physicians : and souls are unspeakably more precious than bodies . and it 's said of ( too many ) rash and unskillful physicians , that the difference between them and souldiers is that they kill their friends who pay them for it , when souldiers kill but their enemies . what power princes and patrons have of things dedicated to god , as temples and tithes , lands ; we presume not to dispute . but these are not to inseparable from the pastoral-office that the people must trust their souls only on their pastoral care , to whom the patron will give the tithes and temples . had men so setled maintenance on physicians for every parish , we would not therefore trust our lives on the unskillful or negligent , because either prince or patron choose him . and if you would not say to such , you shall have the physician which the patron chooseth or none ; why should you say so of the pastor ? q. . are we not of the same religion with the magistrates and bishops ? in what one article of faith do we differ ( except the new one of the undoubted salvation of all dying baptized infants , not excepting those of atheists or infidels , and this as certain by god's word , ) almost all parts of the christian world , greeks , papists , protestants , nestorians , iacobites , arminians , &c. do charge one another with heresy or false doctrine , while conformists charge no such thing on the non-conformists , but only dissenting from the modes of worship and discipline which they impose . and would you have all the christian world , forbid one another to worship god , till they all agree ? if not , where yet their differences are so great , why must they be forbidden it , who differ not in points of faith from the churches articles at all ? q. . it is forbidden that more than four meet to vvorship god [ in other manner than according to the liturgy and practice of the church of england . ] if by [ other manner ] be meant [ with any other positive manner of worship ] i see none that do it otherwise . for reading of scripture , praying , preaching , singing psalms , are all done in the parish-churches . but if [ o●her manner extend to every omission of any appointed part of the liturgy , all parish-churches where i come do it in other manner . ] and shall all the lords , gentlemen and people be therefore punished as conventiclers ? the non-conformists where i come , use most of the liturgy , ( that is ) the psalms , two chapters , the lords prayer , the creed , the commandments , the singing psalms , & some of them more . must all go out of the church , if the curate omit part ? if by [ otherwise ] be meant [ with any other accidents or circumstances ] the church of england agreeth not in all such , and can be no rule therein to the non-conformists : cathedral and parish-churches differ : some parishes have org●ns , altars , rails , &c. and some none : some worship in tabernacles , and some in unconsecrated places , ( as some chappels , the spittle , the prison , sturbridge-fair , &c. ) and almost all the christian sects on earth ( before-named ) differ in far greater matters than our difference from the liturgy is : and even in the time when the christian emperours and prelates were of greatest power and zeal for concord , they never appointed one liturgy for all the churches in the empire . nor did any bishops in councilor out , so magnify themselves , as to write down for all other bishops and priests the words which they must speak to god in all their prayers , as if none that are fit for the sacred office , knew what to say to god but they , or they only had the spirit of prayer ? q. . are there not some sorts of government antecedent in order of nature to publick government , and such as no prince or prelate can abrogate , viz. . self-government . . the husbands-government of the vvife . . and the parents-government of his children , in order to personal and family wellfare ? if princes or patrons on what pretence soever , would take on them to choose for all men , what food they shall eat , what physick they shall take and when , what trade they shall choose , what vvives or husbands they shall have , as to individuals , and what food , raiment , physick or calling , they shall give their children , &c. no prince can deprive men of self-governing , maternal or paternal power . and is this power more concerned in any thing than in the saving of our souls ? hath god laid our salvation on princes , and patrons choice , or on our own ? if we miscarry by their choice , will they be damned for us , and not we ? is it not our own salvation that lieth on our actions ? and if another say , you are unfit to judge , what food to eat , what physick to take , what wife to choose , and so what pastor to choose for the conduct of your souls ; will any man , not distracted , therefore make a prince or patron the absolute chooser , and trustee for his soul ? or doth it follow that i need not , or may not choose a skillfuller pastor than many thousand parishes in england have , because the patron is by law enabled to choose the parish-priest ? let him choose who shall have his tithes and temple , but he shall not make me trust an unfit man with the pastoral care of my soul. q. . if a wife or son say , my husband , or my father commandeth me to take this man and not that for my pastor . and you , say ( the prince or patron chooseth you another , and will imprison you if you submit not to his choice , ) which do you think the law of nature , and the fifth commandment will justify ? hath god made the king of france , spain , portugal , &c. the chooser of a pastor for all their subjects ? and consequently the chooser whether they shall be saved or damned , according to god's ordinary course of vvorking by the aptitude of means . if this power extend not to infidels , heathens , papists , hereticks , &c. how shall the subjects know to whom it extendeth ? must all subjects be made judges whether princes and patrons are orthodox and fit to choose ? is not this more arrogancy , than to judge who is fit to be my pastor or physician ? is it not sufficient that the prince and patrons so provide for teachers ( and physicians ) that none may want , nor neglect instruction in the essentials of religion ; but as many as need and are able may use better than the unskilful at their own charges ? q. . vvhereas some pretend that we ought to be silenced for preaching without the bishops licence , is that the true cause , when such are silenced and excommunicated that have licences ? mr. tho. gouge was excommunicated for preaching even in wales , where he laboured in such eminent works of charity , notwithstanding his university licence not-forfeited : for though he conformed not , he never refused conformity , and so fell not under the canon which maketh void the licences of refusers . and i that have the bishop of london's ( sheldon's ) licence , am hindered with the first . the same i say of episcopal ordination , which was no protection to him or me , or many others . q. . as to the common cry that we are justly silenced for our being for the parliament in the late vvars , . is that the meaning of the act of ob●ivion ? are they friends to king or kingdom that will not suffer our sores to heal ; but when all are returned to the love of peace , still fill mens ears with the noise and fears of vvar ? . did the king so judge of general monk and his army who restored him , who yet were hotly fighting in scotland against the king , while we were preaching against the usurpers ? . do not our long requests yet silence these incendiaries , while we offer and crave but that those may have leave to preach christ's gospel and vvorship god , who never had to do with any vvar against the king , and that they silence only all the rest , ( which we suppose are a number not very considerable ) ? q. . as to any other charge , is it not that which we crave our selves , that if any non-conformists be proved guilty of drunkenness , fornication , lying , perjury , oppression , or other immorality or rebellion or sedition , they may be punished as the crime deserveth ? q. . do you believe that the great parish ministers need no help ? can any man think so , who believeth the worth of a soul , and understandeth but one half a pastors work , and why it was that the primitive church had so many presbyters and deacons with a bishop , to churches of smaller number by far than our great parishes ? and do not all ministers of sense and forbriety , confess their need of many to help them , and say that it is the want of maintenance that hindereth it ? and if that be it , why may not we be endured to help them for nothing , while we preach the same gospel , and submit to beg our bread ? doth helping them freely deserve our destruction ? q. . whom did christ or any of his apostles ever silence , who preached only sound doctrine , for any difference about circumstantials of mans invention ? or where did they ever command or authorize any others so to do ? when some would have christ restrain some from useing his name who followed him not , he rebuked the motion , saying , he that is not against us , is for us . when some preached not sincerely , but enviously , and contentiously , to add affliction to his bonds , st. paul was glad yet that christ was preached , and professed that he did and would rejoice therein , phil. . . q. . do you think that any would silence , imprison or prosecute religious christians , for things which they themselves call indifferent , and others think to be great sin , if they loved their neighbours as themselves , and did by others as they would have others do by them ? q. . is not the office of the ministery to be stewards of the house , and mysteries of god , and to give the children their meat in season , luk. . . and to teach men publickly from house to house , act. . and is it not a calling fixed during life and ability , not to be cast off at pleasure ? and this in those that are called by men ? as a priest that hath marryed persons cannot unmarry them , and the arch-bishop who may anoint or crown a king , may not depose him , because he was not the donor or lord , but a ministerial invester ; so he that ordaineth a minister may not depose him , till he become uncapable of the office , and if he do , it doth not disoblige the minister . q. . did not the church for years , worship god against the will of princes , and afterward , when arrian , or other erroneous princes forbid them ? and hath a christian prince any more power to hinder the gospel and worship of christ , and the saving of souls , than heathens had ? or rather far greater obligations , as nursing fathers to promote them , which i ask only in answer to such as pretend law and human authority , to forbid what god commandeth ; in which case saith bishop bilson , we must go on with our work , and patiently suffer . q. . is it not a dreadful charge that is laid on timothy ( one called by men ) tim. . , . i charge thee before god and the lord iesus christ , who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom , that thou preach the word ; be instant in season and out of season ; reprove , rebuke , exhort with all long suffering and doctrine . have you so little mercy on our souls , as to drive us on such a flaming sword , and wish us to be condemned by christ , for disobeying such a charge , and to bid us obey any contrary charge of mortal worms ? q. . is the conformists ministery necessary or not ? if not , why is all this stir made about it , and all the church lands and tythes to maintain it ? if yea , why then is not our labour in preaching the same gospel as necessary as theirs , to such persons as cannot hear them for want of room , and to such who say that their true necessity commandeth them to use better pastors than many parishes have ? and if any of them have a scrupulous errour about a pastor , must they therefore be ruined , excommunicated or forsaken ? q. . is not the silencing of faithful ministers , a far greater loss & hurt to the people that need their ministery than to them ? what if it prove my fault , that all my most impartial studies and prayers did not serve to make me know , that all the imposed subscriptions , declarations , covenants , oaths and practices are lawful ? shall hundreds or thousands of innocent people suffer for my fault , and that in their souls ? should you for this have deprived all persons of any help , which they have had by all my preaching and vvritings this twenty or fourty years ? and is it just to wish it had been all undone , and the like of many hundred others ? if we preach false doctrine , accuse and punish us ; if the physicians were drunkards or fornicators you would not for that forbid them to help to save the sick . if the country farmers scrupled conformity , you would not therefore forbid the market to them , and let the poor famish . q. . if our not swearing , not subscribing , &c. be our fault , as long as we preach necessary truth , could not lovers of the gospel find some penalty for us , that did not hinder it ? is it worse than drunkenness or fornication ? twelve pence an oath , is thought enough for prophane swearers , and is there one in many hundreds pay it ? vve had far rather be any otherwise punished , so we be not hindred from serving christ in the work to which we are devoted . q. . do you think there is any such sin as sacrilege in the world ? if there be , is it not greater sacrilege for me , that am ordained and devoted to the ministery , to alienate my self , than to alienate church utensils , goods or lands ? these are devoted but for the pastor , who is consecrated to nearer and more holy service . vvhat think you of them that cry out against the alienation of large church revenues as sacrilege , and use them for worldly pomp , and fleshly fulness to their own pleasure , which are devoted to god's service ; but with a few confident words will prove it no sacrilege , for many thousand faithful ministers , to forsake their calling , if bishops forbid it them ? ( for what it is in the forbidders , we leave to god and them . ) q. . dare you undertake to justify at the bar of god , the many hundred ministers forbidden to preach , if they obey you and cease their ministery ? or will you answer for all the people whom some drive away from their worship of god , if they thereupon give over worshipping him , and as thousands others idle it at home , when all these say [ we preach no doctrine , nor offer god any worship , contrary to any word of god , or in any other manner than christ and his apostles did or allowed ] ? dare you give it under your hands that you will bear the punishment if we be condemned for obeying you and ceasing our work ? if you would , were that man well in his wits , who should trust his soul on your undertaking , who are so unable to save your selves ? q. . should things indifferent exclude things necessary , when christ saith , i will have mercy , and not sacrifice ? and is neither our preaching , nor the concord of the churches here necessary ? q. . have you thought what christ meant , when after his resurrection he thrice saith to peter ( and to others in him ) lovest thou me , feed my lambs and flock ? as if he had said , as ever you loved me , feed those whom i loved to the death : would you unmercifully wish us to renounce our love to christ ? and when paul saith , necessity is laid upon me , and woe unto me if i preach not the gospel : would you wish us to run upon such a woe , upon the meer chat of such as do but tell us , that we are not called as the apostles ; and that we are under bishops ? as if none but men called the apostles , were liable to that necessity or woe ; or god had allowed us to forsake his work when bishops please , and will forbid us . q. . god hath encouraged us in our work by his undeniable blessing on many souls . if you take it for nothing , for men to be turned from ignorance , worldliness , deceiving , lying , sensuality and fleshly lusts , to the serious belief of a life to come , and to the love of god and man , and to the joyful hopes of glory , and the obedience of christ , and confidence in his salvation ; we take this to be worth our labour and our lives . and would you have us so unthankful to god , who hath blest us , as to cast away our callings ? can you expect that all the threatnings of men , or the weekly reproach of pamphlet-writers , should make us wish all the sermons unpreach'd which we have preach'd , and all the books unwritten which we have written , and all the souls unconverted who have repented ? q. . vvhen ionas over-ran an unpleasing ministery , did not god overtake him with his judgment ? and if we prove ionasses , may we not expect to meet with storms more terrible than jails ? q. . can all this said and done against such in the world , ever make the sober that knew them , believe , that such a man as anthony burges , mr. porter , mr. hildersham ( the son ) mr. hughes , mr. richard allen , and hundreds much like them , were worthy silencing , imprisonment and shame , while such as fill some thousand churches are worthy of maintenance and honour ? or will sober posterity who read the lives and vvritings of such men as iohn corbet , ioseph allen , iames and iohn ianeway , and abundance such others , believe that they were as bad as their accusers make them ? there is but one way to bring them under the infamy and odium of posterity ; and that is the papists way to kill all that are of another mind , and to drive truth and conscience out of the world , and then who would stay behind ? q. . vvho did christ mean by the hypocrite that seeth a mote in his brothers eye , and could not see the beam in his own ? vvas it not the pharisee that blamed christ's disciples for crossing their ceremonies and traditions , and saw not all the crimes in themselves recited mat. . and is not the scrupling of a thing called by others indifferent , a mote in the eye of many truly godly persons ? i will not offend you by describing the beams . q. . have we not often offered , that as soon as any true reason can tell us , that our labours are here needless , by the sufficient number , and quality , and labours of others , we will joy fully be silent , and seek for work where there is need : till then , to starve souls is to be guilty of their damnation . and if meeting-chapels be wanting , why do not the great and rich conformists build them ? q. . is it not a pleasing advantage to papists , if they can see two thousand of those minister , who are most against them , silenced , and driven from cities and corporations , and made a hunting game and scorn , and the kingdom crackt by general divisions , as turned into guelphs and gibelines , weekly reviling and deriding each other as whiggs and tories ? is it not their design to banish conscience and absolute obedience to god ? and you know who ruleth where god and conscience doth not rule . and what is it that the unconscionable will not do , for worldly interest ? and did not the papists always know that our love and concord would be our strength , and their terrour ? q. . who is it that was , or is able to cure all these our divisions ? it never was in our power , nor yet is , unless damning our souls by willful sin must be the cure : for we have oft offered our oaths that nothing but fear of sin shall hinder us from conforming . if our fear come from ignorance , do the churches suffer none more ignorant than we ? but how easy were it with others , without sin , or cost to cure all ? q. . is it not god's great mercy to our land , that we have had twenty years peace , while other lands have been miserable by wars ? and if it be the preachers of the gospel that yet will give the land no peace , but cry out , execute , prosecute , suffer not , strike home , and their judgment be the executioners encouragment , who say , the clergy tells us it is our duty ; i had rather answer them with tears than words . q. . should not the long and universal experience of the christian vvorld be some warning to us , which these thousand years hath been broken into shreds , by the contentions of the clergy , and their magisterial needless impositions , and by forsaking the primitive purity and simplicity ? q. . are not these words in the liturgy before the sacrament very terrible : if any of you be a hinderer or slanderer of god's word — or be in malice or envy — repent of your sin , and come not to this holy table , lest after the taking of the sacrament , the devil enter into you as he did into iudas , and fill you full of iniquities , and bring you to destruction of body and soul ? and are not the words of our judge more terrible : mat. . depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels : for i was hungry , — thirsty , — a stranger , — naked , — in prison , &c. in as much as ye did it not to one of the least of these , ye did it not to me : and these shall go away into everlasting punishment ; but the righteous into life eternal ? o let me never be one of those , who for nothing shall run on such a doom ! q. . if yet objections or the mis-understanding of our cause do frustrate all these reasons , i have answered so many objections , and so far opened the cause already , as here is not to be repeated , viz. in the first and second pleas for peace , in the apology for our preaching , and in the treatise of episcopacy . and against the judgment of those reverend fathers who still cry [ abate nothing , and suffer them not ; do execution ] i set the judgment , i. of the king , . in his declaration from breda . . his healing gracious declaration about ecclesiastical affairs , . . and that of . ii. the judgment of the late house of commons , ian. . . resolved that it is the opinion of this house , that the prosecution of prot●stant . dissenters upon the penal-laws , is at this time grievous to the subjects , a weakning the protestant interest , and dangerous to the peace of the kingdom . iii. christ's canon-law , iohn . , . he that loveth not knoweth not god , for god is love : god is love , and he that dwelleth in love , dwelleth in god , and god in him . joh. . . by this shall all men know that ye are my disciples , if ye have love one to another . rom. . , . the kingdom of god is not meat and drink , but righteousness , and peace , and ioy in the holy ghost : for he that in these serveth christ is acceptable to god and approved of men. vers . . him that is weak in the faith , receive we , but not to doubtful disputations , &c. thes. . , . we beseech you brethren to know them which labovr among you and are over you in the lord , and to esteem them very highly in love for their work sake , and be at peace among your selves . sam. . . them that honour me i will honour , and they that despise-me shall be lightly esteemed . englands slavery . q. . is not silencing taking all we have , and lying in jaile among rogues from six months to six months till we die , greater slavery than the turks inflict on christians ? q. . what is this for ? and on what sort of men ? q. . who be they that have caused and continued it after years experience of the effects ? q. . what is diabolism if this be not ? q. . why is not publick repentance of it proclaimed ? notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e * and bucer thought so too , when ●e so earnestly wrote for another sort of discipl●ne to king edw. . notes for div a -e the story of the king of cappadocia and his brot●● , that conspired with some nobles to depose him , and take his kingdom , and how the senate of rome detected the plot , and defeated it by the help of cicero , then proconsul there , is worth the reading in cicero's epistles . notes for div a -e read the lord st. alban's considerations of reconciling and edification of the church of england , and his advertisement on the present church-controversies , and see whether he thought there was no need of reformation : and judge hales papers of religion . notes for div a -e see the lord bacon about subscription in his foresaid considerations dedicated to king iames. this was written . notes for div a -e this was ●ritten when ●he duke of monmouth's treason was most noised , and the dissenters cryed down . an apology for the church of england in point of separation from it by ... william lord bishop of st. davids. thomas, william, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing t estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) an apology for the church of england in point of separation from it by ... william lord bishop of st. davids. thomas, william, - . 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thorp r mo in christo p. & d. d. guliel . archi-episc . cant. à sacris domesticis . an apology for the church of england , in point of separation from it . by the reverend father in god , william lord bishop of st. davids . london , printed for william leach , at the crown in cornhil , near the stocks market , . to the reader . the design of this address is to recite the occasion of the writing , and of the publishing of this tract . hic rhodus , hic saltus . as for the rise of the composure of it . having had a conference , and therein an amicable dispute with a profest pastor of a separate church ( in the time of the protectors usurpation ) he shortly after sent to me a large letter fraught with arguments for vindicating his separation from the church of england . i determined for some months to wave any reply to it , being not the enquiry of a disciple or sceptick , for satisfaction , but rather the challenge ( in effect ) of an adversary , for victory , for triumph . i persisted in the same resolution , till i was advertised that my silence was interpreted conviction in judgment , and that the letter whilst unanswered , was concluded unanswerable . though i could have tacitly brooked a contempt , a contumely , as to my self ; yet my duty prompted me to assert the cause , the honour of my mother , the church of england , especially in the distress , the umbrage of her persecution , being no persian votary to adore the rising , to revile the setting sun. i have in this apology entirely avoyded not only virulency of passion , but also acrimony of style , recollecting the grave , candid animadversion of mr. hooker . there will come a time when three words uttered with charity and meekness , will receive a more blessed reward , than three thousand volumes written with disdainfull sharpness of mitt . as for the printing of this tract , it had still layd dormant in obscurity , had i not been lately informed , that the original ( conveigh'd out of my study above twenty years since without my knowledge ) was imperfectly copyed , thereby disadvantagiously disperst in many hands ; and that if i would not recommend a true copy to the press , a false would be obtruded , without my correction , or approbation . i alleged my incapacity of compliance , being destitute not only of my first draught , but indeed of any other . to remove this obstruction , the same transcript which was delivered to my antagonist was retrieved and produced to me , which is now exposed to the view of a censorious world , without any alteration . one reason that ( after much reluctancy ) sways me to a publication , is the charitable sentiment of several judicious persons , that this apology may , by the divine blessing , conduce to reclaim some who have unwarily separated from the church of england , at least to fix others , to prevent an unwarrantable recess , which i primarily aim at within my own episcopal charge , that those precious souls i am accountable for be not like clouds whifled about with every gust of wind ; with every novel fancy , as if their compass for religion had as many points to vary , as the mariners for navigation . i wish my dissenting brethren would pensively consider , what advantages they exhibit to our romish adversaries , who glory in the infamy of our divisions ( though fomented by themselves in varieries of disguises ) accounting our brands their ornaments , our rents their union . as themistius did recriminate , return the pagan objection of sects among the primitive christians to the philosophers , divided , bandied against each other ; so may i retort the same papal argument against the protestants ; to the modern romanists , whose jarring parties are not more linkt , cemented than ours , but their enmities , animosities more concealed smothered ( as to vulgar notice ) how confidently do they spread their plumes , whilst some separatists no less unadvisedly than invalidly attempt to justify their separation from the church of england , by the separation of the church of england from that of rome . par impar . in sum . they are not bottomed on the same solid important grounds . they are not empower'd by the same , or equal legal authority ( the one withdrawn from a foreign , indirect , unlawfull usurpation , the other from a genuine , direct , lawfull jurisdiction . ) they have not been managed by the same sedate , prudent , regular methods and expedients ( as i have assayed to demonstrate in this tract ) the one hath an amiable aspect by the unsullied colours and lineaments of a reformation ( the attractive beauty of truth , and holiness ) the other hath an uncomely feature , disfigured with the scars , the gashes of schism . i acknowledge , i received a speedy rejoynder to my apology , from my antagonist , the answering whereof i deliberately declined for three reasons . . because the rejoynder was not compleat , nor distinct to my apology , as this was to his letter . onely , some passages reflected on , wherein the material exceptions were discust before . . the rejoynder started new debates ( like hydra's heads ) with reiterated , sharp invectives against enormities of practice in ecclesiastical courts ; which probably sifted , might prove unweighed aspersions , no less readily credited , than reported . accusations are no evidences of crimes . barely to be impeacht makes no man a delinquent . however , i espoused no such quarrels . i neither was , nor am an advocate for the defailances or corruptions of any members or professors , but for the doctrine and discipline of the church of england , which upon mature examination , my conscience hath constantly dictated to me , to be the best constituted reformed church in the world , most untainted , unbyassed , for principles of piety and loyalty ( the pillars of church and state ) of exactest correspondence with christs signal precept . render unto caesar the things which are caesars , and unto god the things which are gods , matth. . . of nearest resemblance to primitive purity , so reputed by disinteressed persons , by eminently learned accomplisht foreiners , isaak casaubon , hugo grotius , and many others . whereas i scanned the arguments of my antagonist , which himself framed to syllogisms , by the rules of logick ( the most proper test ) having manifested their defects and blemishes in form and matter , having reduced them to several sorts of elenchs , of fallacyes , the better to unmask such specious pretences . he hath offered no other defence for himself , nor confutation of me but only this concise evasion , that he will not meddle with my fallacies . whereby i apprehended my self disengaged , as to further contest , which , at this rate , would prove fruitless and endless . errata . page . line . read wines . p. ib. in the margent r. infinitam , p. . l. r. no. p. . l. . r. renew , p. . r. damus veniam , p. . l. ● . dele the , p. . l. . r. imagination , p. . l. . r. initiation , p. . in the margent r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , p. . l. . dele of , ib. l. . r. , p. . l. . r. initiate , p. . in the marg . r. refers . p. . in the marg . r. scult . p. . l. . r. offerers , p. . l. . r. cherem , p. . in the matg . r. ludatur , p. . in the marg . r. notatam , p. . l. . dele or , p. . l. . r. concurrent , p. . l. . r. add is , ib. in the marg . r. sodomam , p. . l. ult . r. bursts , p. . the account of causabon touching hesychius , misplaced in the marg . p. . l. . r. reins . p. . l. . r. paint , ib. l. . r. solution , p. . l. . add a , p. . in the margin 〈◊〉 , p. . l. . r. add i , p. . l. . r. moderator , p. . l. . r. nyssen . ● . 〈◊〉 l. . add of , p. . . r. the , p. . l. . r. your , ib. l. . r. too , p. 〈◊〉 . r. conjure , p. . in the marg . r. nolint , p. . l. . dele that . ib , l. ●● r. earth , p. . l. . r. sit , p. ib. in the marg . dele aug. sir , sir henry wootton , who had studied men and books , versed in numerous cities and various manners ( like ulysses ) desired to be celebrated to posterity , only in being the author of this sage observation , the itch of disputing becomes the scab of the church . this scab is almost improved to a leprosie : differences not only started in points of indifferency , controversies touching circumstances , ceremonies , ( shadows of religion ) but the body , the substance is unsinewed by disputes , established doctrines being bandied queries , the principles of belief being entertained for problems of debate : whereby both the staves of zachary are broken , and the splinters of those staves have pierced to wounds and gashes , the church being become like s. epiphanius . bed of snakes . the sad apprehensions hereof inclined me to mourn for these divisions , rather than to stickle in them , for to cure contention by devotion , accounting my prayers and my tears my best weapons , that i might contribute my assistance to quench , not forment the flame . but recollecting that the grecians enacted severe sanctions against 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , such as rejected , quitted their shields and targets , though they tolerated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , such as abandoned their swords and spears . pondering also that apostolical precept to be ready always to give an answer , an apology to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you , with meekness , and fear , dreading lest my silence should confirm that errour i disprove not , lest it should be interpreted consent by man , and charged for guilt by god : having withal received an assurance , in our last discourse , of a candid reception , i vanquished my own resolution of waving any reply , assaying a particular answer to each part of your civil letter , in point of separation . wherein i pray god grant us discerning solid judgments , with humble , upright hearts , ( a prudence tempered with innocence ) that truth and peace may sincerely be promoted . the letter . that reverend opinion and christian perswasion which i have of your learning and piety , together with your moderate and sober disposition , which i lately perceived , towards those that differ from you in some circumstantials of religion , invites me to write to you . the answer . your undeserved character puts me to the mixture of a blush and anguish , who own nothing but defects and infirmities . as for literature , i dare pretend no claim , but that of the greek orator , of affection to it , not of the least perfection in it . as to piety , my sole interest is a deep sense of my impiety , a constant acknowledgment of a constant guilt , with the prophet david , my sin is ever before me . that of tertullian is my motto : born to drive on no design , to expedite no task but repentance . as to a moderate temper , i hope i shall not frustrate your expectation : religion needs not our passion to bolster it . the hearts of christians may be cemented , when their brains are not . non eadem sentire bonos de rebus iisdem incolumi licuit semper amicitia . it is s. paul's lecture , bear one anothers burdens . it is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . as the tenets of others are irksome , disgusting to us ( if different ) so are ours to them ; so that a mutual moderation ( discarding rancour and animosity ) is a debt reciprocally to be discharged and disburst . even in substantial differences , when i condemn any erroneous opinion , i shall commiserate the person who asserts it , though it were not his infirmity , but his obstinacy . for even this state of spiritual desertion is most to be condoled . as to you i shall not dip my pen in gall or oil , to revile , or flatter ; expect not a satyrist , or a parasite . as god's minister , i shall not dare not mince , nor shuffle in religion , ( as i hinted to you in my last conference ) but shall search the wound of separation with the tenderness , yet with the faithfulness of a spiritual chirurgion . the letter . wherein i have declared my present light of which i am convinced , to be a truth , according to the word of god , and therefore walk therein , yet i hope a heart ready to embrace further what god shall by any means from the law and the testimonies reveal . the answer . this present light is but a new light , i pray beware lest it prove the delusion of the old serpent . the spirit of darkness can transform himself into an angel of light. conviction may in this case tend to condemnation . the jews plead , that they are convinced , that their confident tenets are evident truths by the light of the prophets ; yet the dismal fatal veil is over their hearts . may the enlightning , sanctifying spirit cleanse our consciences , clear and rectifie our apprehensions , our opinions , that neither yours nor mine may be dimmed , depraved . whilst you are thus convinced to walk by this conduct , i blame you not . for an erroneous conscience is in a sort obligatory : though conscience ought to be sifted , that it be not erroneous ; gentilis the heretick pretended conscience for his blasphemy against the trinity . s. paul vindicates himself , i have in all good conscience served god until this day , not only when he was a pilot to steer the church , but when he was a pyrate to rifle it , when he was paul the apostle , and when he was saul the persecutor , in all good conscience , though for a time errante , with an erring , yet not repugnante , vel dubitante , with a clashing or scrupling conscience . your profession of a prompt , cordial submission to the law and the testimonies , is pious and commendable . though scripture be the purest , the exactest test for decision , yet not without some cautions . satan like hannibal can lay an ambush in the smoothest field . the apostle decyphers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , making the word of truth a passport for falshood , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that deal with scriptures as hucksters do with wares to corrupt , or as vintners do with wine to sophisticate them , that make earthly merchandise of heavenly oracles . the hereticks of all ages have cited the scriptures as patrons of their errours . the tempter , the grand patriarch of hereticks in his conflict with our redeemer , draws his arrows out of this sacred quiver . he obtruded scripture to our saviour , but wrested , curtled it . it is the orthodox maxim of tertullian ; truth is no less obstructed by adulterating , depraving the sense , than corrupting , perverting the letter . it is not the shell , but the kernel is the delicious word of life . some expedients are requisite for attaining the kernel . the expedients are inward and outward . the first inward expedient is interpretation , which is promoted by examining translations , consulting with originals . the second inward expedient is comparation by a survey of the context , to pick the sense out of the coherence , or else by analogy of texts ; for as one taper kindles , so one portion of scripture illustrates another . there are also external expedients , the outward helps of the arts , especially logick ( for apprehending the force and importance of the proofs in scripture ) rhetorick ( for discovering the flourishes , the ornaments of its tropes and figures ) of witnesses , wherein , though the modern are not to be excluded , the primitive are to be preferred . the most ancient are of best repute , being least tainted and biassed . moses and bildad , jeremiah and solomon recommend the inquiry of antiquities : it is christ's prescription against pharisaical , heretical novelties ; from the beginning it was not . se. though the fathers are not to be idolized with the papal gloss , yet are they not peremptorily to be contemned , or condemned in their opinions and expositions . though the romanists are veteratores , saith joseph scaliger , corrupters of antiquity , yet the reformed are no rejecters of it , not novatores , nor introducers of novelties : unanimous ecclesiastical antiquity cheeques not with purity . it is the golden rule of vincentius lyrineusis . that which is asserted in all christian churches in all ages is truly catholick and venerable . all these expedients being united , are to be improved by a fervent penitent devotion . scripture is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , of private interpretation , that every one hath liberty to impose his own fancy , but there ought to be sensus innatus pursued ( as the hugonot champion chamier distinguisheth ) not illatus . though the holy ghost only can truly expound what himself dictates , yet to pretend his comment on his own text with a neglect of all subservient helps , were not a holy confidence , but a haughty arrogance . i presume your modesty and ingenuity will not permit you to split on this rock , that you will not profess with abulardus , to run counter with all the fathers of the church ; nor with faustus ( infaustus ) socinus explode the track of primitive piety for guidance . i have dilated this point , because it is the lydius lapis , the touch-stone of the controversie . having premised these cautions , i joyn issue with you in s. bernard's close : to the gospel you have appealed , to the gospel you shall go . i may here review s. austin's challenge ; produce one voice of scripture in the behalf of donatus . the letter . for the searcher of all hearts can bear me witness , that it was not inconsiderately , or for any by-end , that i changed my former thoughts and practice . the answer . i cannot be so uncharitable as to boggle at that you ratifie with so sacred and solemn a seal . though your changes have been the impressions of your heart , yet be pleased to consider , there is no such pernicious sophister , as the heart of man. it is deceitful above all things . a supplanter according to the original , deep beyond our fathoming , wily beyond our kenning . your spiritual change still suiting with your temporal advantages , your own retired thoughts may admit a severe reflection on your integrity , so far as to examine it , though i shall not blast , nor scruple it . the enemy sowed his tares in the choicest grain ( the wheat ) like agrippina that distilled her poison into claudius's delicacies . satan may insert , rivet an advantageous separation into a pious intention ( whereby the serpent may insensibly swallow up the dove ) like julian , who caused the images of the heathen gods in the engraving to be intermingled with the images of the emperour , that so the christians , in affording a civil reverence to the one might exhibit an idolatrous to the other , though unwittingly . ecclesiastical histories are ample records of gracious men ungraciously swayed by secular interests to desert the best tenets . the most orthodox venerable fathers under constantine the emperour were swayed by the potent violent stream of the age under constantius , to embrace the arrian confession . this torrent bore away the grave , devout osius ( centenario major , saith the historian ) being above an hundred years old , as if more crazed and decrepit in soul than body , he renounced the sacred sanctions of the nicene council , which himself compiled and established . how rigid and dismal a doom did ecebolius pronounce against himself , who having still moulded his religion to the season , shifted sail with every propitious gale , at last he cast himself prostrate in the church with this expression of perplexity and horrour , trample on me as unsavory salt. i relate it not virulently with the least design of application , but affectionately hint it for caution . the letter . as my creed taught me , there is a communion of saints , so my desire was to find such a company ; whereby i may comfortably partake of the things of god according to his revealed will. the answer . i am glad you own that renowned christian badge of piety and antiquity , whereto this age affords not publick recital , scarce private repute . the foundation you lay , will not support the fabrick you erect thereon . the communion of saints will not prove a division , a fraction of separatists : 't is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 't is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it unsoders the church , untwists the article . this allows not society with good men in evil actions , it debars not society with evil men in good actions . s. paul enforceth his admonition of endeavouring the preservation of the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace by a paraphrase of this communion , one god , one faith , one baptism . this communion relates to the head or members . the communion of the head with the members consists in our partaking of christ's merits by adoption , by justification , in his partaking of our indignities by interpretation , of our iniquities by imputation , satisfaction . the communion of the saints deceased with the living , consists in their general prayers for us , in our general and particular praises for them . the former in the judgment of reformed divines consists with the excellency of their charity : the latter suits with the practice of the primitive church . the communion of the saints living consists in affection by sympathy of joy or grief , in edification , exercising our graces to the benefit of others , in distribution of outward talents . this bottom of communion of saints being thus unravelled , will not countenance or present the least thread of your separation . if you aver a communion with the saints as fellow members , i desire to be resolved , who those saints are ? not the reformed protestants , not the primitive christians , you exclude both , their church being not separate : if they be acknowledged members of the catholick church , they are interested in the communion of saints expressed in the creed . and then your separation from them amounts to a separation from the church , and the communion specified in the creed . to ascend higher , are the apostles the saints you own a communion with ? then prove they made such separations from christian congregations as you do . but you admit them not the title of saints ( let me inoffensively ask for my own satisfaction ) if they be real saints , why not titular ? if your selves as real assume the title , why may not the apostles be indulged that privilege ( in regard you plead to be saints of the same extraction ) especially since us to the judgment of others at least , there is greater certainty , infallibility of their saintship than of yours . as for your desire of company comfortably to partake the things of god , those assemblies you have quitted do afford those sacred comforts you have deserted them for ; wherein sacred ordinances are most comfortably , because most charitably celebrated . being private persons or pastors of a parochial church , we are principled to be converts , not judges ; to exercise severity in repentance , not censure ; to be inquisitors in our own breasts , to condemn none but our selves . religion is not tainted with faction among us , nor zeal stained with schism . we bewail the practical prophaneness of any , that the same tincture of grace is not visible in worship and in life : however , our wickedness is not in gilgal , as to this charge ; god's pure ordinances are not slurred , not vitiated , much less vacated ( rendred ineffectual ) by mens impure desailances , unless to themselves only . to the pure all things are pure . the letter . therefore do humbly offer these ensuing grounds to your serious consideration , desiring your judgement on them , and thoughts of them . the answer . i take no felicity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ( in nazianzens expression ) to mould divinity into a comedy . i shall not ( by the divine assistance ) fail of a serious discussion of your advertisements , weighing them in the ballance of reason and religion . i am not so improvident an enemy to a numerous family , as to be peevishly wedded to clouded tenets , could i be rationally and conscienciously divorced from them . i should not stick to pen my own retractations , according to the laudable example of st. austin . the letter . that there is a church of god here on earth all do agree in , concerning the matter and form in general there is no great difference ; that it is coetus fidelium , a company of people called out and segregated from the world by the word ; to walk together in the gospel of jesus , is granted . the answer . the quod sit , that there is a church is uncontrolled , undiscussed ; the quid sit , what that church is , is the subject of ancient and modern debates . here the logick rule is to be observed , ambiguous words are first to be distinguish'd , then defined . the church is either universal or particular ; grand differences being loudly prosecuted touching the matter and form of both . the romanists comprehend miscreants , reprobates for material parts and members of the catholick church ; the reformed allow only elect persons to be true and real members of this church ; yet they avouch vitious christians , nay scandalous ( till excommunicated ) to be members of a particular visible church , but the separatists do quite expunge , raze them out . the romanists exact , not as a consecutive , but a constitutive essential note ( as a formal mark of every particular church ) subjection to the pope . the separatists require a church covenant , an evidence , ( if not assurance ) of the grace of every member . the reformed protestants dissent from both . but not to tread out of your track ; your latin definition of the church ( coetus fidelium ) is accommodated to the inward church invisible . though an assembly , if particular be an object of sense , believers properly are not : but your english illustration of it is the character of the outward visible church ( that walk in the profession of the gospel of jesus ) if they walk whether in the notion of nature or scripture ; if they profess , they must be visible . this is to shuffle together disparata . the letter . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . saints by calling is scripture definition , rom. . . cor. . . but how far these terms may be understood how far extended , and wherein restrained , is the controversie . the answer . i shall not except at the etymologie , nor the scripture definition , but the restriction of it . that 's the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the main hinge of the question . if you understand saints by calling , of an inward effectual vocation , the testimony is an impertinency , as to our debate , touching an outward visible church . if you understand it of an outward vocation , remember our saviours uncontrolled maxime ( many are called , but few are chosen . ) this suites with a mixt communion , with an outward profession ; take aretius his rational descant on st. pauls character ; how are they called saints , since it is certain many novices in belief , yea , notorious lewd wretches in life were among them , whereto he frames a double answer . they were saints by calling , because called to sanctity , and endowed with preparatory graces : because the better part were holy , the rest were saints in the judgement of charity , though not of infallibility . it is the candor , the rhetorick of the apostle , that the title might be a lecture , the name a charm to holiness . zanchy under the name of saints apprehends titular professing christians , but the faithful distinguish'd , severed from these by the apostle to be sincere believers . thus your first citation is a nominal definition of christians , nominal professional , not real habitual , outwardly interested by baptism , though not inwardly regenerated ; saints by destination , by designation , not in conversation , not in the least perfection ( of parts , much less of degrees . ) . your second citation ( cor. . . ) is less advantageous to advance your design . god is not the author of confusion ( not of dissention in the vulgar latin ) not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of tumult , but of peace , as in all the churches of the saints . that is in all christian churches that are called , obliged to be saints . if you observe your separation to be the source of dissention , of confusion , admitting no dependance , no subordination , it will appear at a great distance from those apostolical churches of the saints ; especially if you note the coherence in the claromonte edition ( approved by beza and other reformed divines ) immediately adjoyning to the verse , the , , , , th . vers . and annexing , vers . to the th . what came the word of god from you or to you only . the ophylact thus illustrates it , you are neither the prime nor the sole believers . it behooves you to entertain that with affection , with submission , which hath the approbation of the christian world. st. paul conjures the corinthians by the examples of all churches . the same argument unsinews your separation , not to run counter with all christian churches . produce one christian undoubted church of your separate strain not universally branded for schismatical — — phyllida solus habebis . the true church shall be yours . you may derive your pedigree from the novatians and donatists , who boulted some of your tenets for separation and constitution . these will discover some lineaments of your complexion , not the intire proportion . however , if you are saints upon their account , they were not hereticks ; and if they were hereticks upon your account , your selves are not saints . if you acknowledge them not hereticks , you reject the judgement of all christian churches in all ages , since their heresies were broached . sysinnius counsel to theodosius was prudent , to move innovators to stand to the judgement of the church before division . i tender to you the determination of our question , by the suffrage and practice of the reformed churches before your separation was raked out of the embers it was enwrapped in , or else to the primitive churches , either before the flame of the novatians and donatists was kindled , or after it was extinguish'd ( by the vigorous confutations of the fathers , and the pious sanctions of christian emperors and councils . ) if in despight of these you will persist in contention , in separation ; my refuge is the apostles apology : we have no such custome , nor the churches of god. the letter . visible saints must be , but how far saints must be discovered ? the word i suppose carries in it a holy separation to god ; a people separated for his service , for his glory ; and how wicked men , having only a bare outward profession may be such , is unknown to me , whom the scripture speaks otherwise of , tit. . prov. . . the answer . there is not an exact necessity of that visibility , so far as to conclude no sanctity , if no visibility , no church if no lustre . there may be gold in the ore obscured , not yet resplendent , refined bullion . where was the visibility , when the primitive christians , during the brunt of pagan persecution , betook themselves for security to remote deserts , to obscure caves ; when prisons were the sole oratories and temples , when the churches were universally demolished ; the sacred scriptures burnt , the christians disrobed , disfranchised , stript of their dignities , immunities , deprived of their liberties and lives by the fierce edicts of dioclesian ? where was the church visible , when it was o'erspread with a cloud of arrianism ( athanasius against the whole world , and the whole world against athanasius ) eliah discovered not one saint but himself , yet god vindicated seven thousand , that had not bowed their knees to baal . we are not visible saints to you , nor you perhaps to us . — veniam damus petimusque vicissim . i pray god we may be all visible saints to him . i confess that to be a saint imports a holy separation , a people separated for the divine service and glory . those you have abandoned , are so servered , dedicated by baptism . they who demonstrate only a bare outward profession , may be saints outwardly , formally for profession , though not inwardly really as touching affection , touching sincere religion . yet in this defect of entire genuine purity , the good are not to be eschewed for the evil , but the evil are to be tolerated for the good . i shall wave your first quotation , tit. . ( no verse being specified ) i shall not contend in a roving conjecture , in a dark conflict like the andabates . i presume you intended not the whole chapter for a proof , this were a fondness of separation ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) like the vehement affection of the platonists , whose intellectuals being prepossest with numbers , imagined number an essential in every constitution . your second appeal is to prov. . , . the sacrifice of the wicked is abomination to the lord , but the prayer of the righteous is acceptable to him . the way of the wicked is abomination to the lord , but he loveth him that followeth righteousness . if you can dispense with charity to brand those you separate from , to be wicked ; if you can dispense with humility to repute your selves righteous , yet this is no argument for separation . the sacrifice of the wicked is abomination ; therefore the sacrifice of the godly mingled with the wicked is abomination , you conclude more than you premise . judas eating the paschal lamb ( as for his own personal action ) was an abomination , but this had no reflection on his associates ( in that oblation ) the apostles . their piety did not sanctifie and acquit him , nor did his iniquity defile and condemn them . the letter . the manner , also of their coming into such a condition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saints called , not saints compelled , or saints making their saintships their calling ; their profession , not enemies to holiness . this by the way . the answer . it is true , religion ought to be perswaded , not constrained , faith and innocence are not the products of power and violence . piety is not savoury if not voluntary . yet tempers are to be distinguished ( mens dispositions being as different as their complexions ) some are moulded like wax for the impressions of the sacred spirit . others are to be hewen like stones , to be squared and polished materials for the temples of the holy ghost . of some take compassion , making a difference ( or commiserate those that are staggering according to a famous manuscript ) others save with fear ( beza interprets it with terrour ) pulling them out of the fire . though compulsion is not allowable in the grafting , the planting of religion , yet it is in the fencing and pruning of it . it cannot be compelled , secundum actum imperatum , for the inward apprehension ; it may to outward profession , secundum actum elicitum . i grant that saints ought to make saintship their calling , or rather their calling makes them saints . when their conversation contradicts their vocation , their profession , the crime is the greater ; when our works confound our words , our lives check with our names . the title of a saint is the impeachment of a miscreant . your proof ( if logically examined ) is fallacious . wicked men are enemies to holiness , therefore not saints , members of a church . it is ignoratio elenchi . in the same consideration they are not saints and enemies to holiness . their saintship is in appearance , their enmity to sanctity in substance . holy at least as professors , though unholy as malefactors . this by the way ( as you express it ) is indeed a by way out of the orthodox road of the jews and christians . it is with new tenets ( saith st. epiphanius ) as with new ways , wherein when men are once engaged , they will proceed on with hazard of safety , rather than return with any fear of infamy . the letter . i shall briefly speak something , concerning a separation from the church of england , in propounding these two queries . first , whether ever the church of england was as a nation or national church , constituted according to the word of god , and primitive institution . the answer . such unnecessary queries have discarded necessary duties , which are become pastimes and triumphs to our romish adversaries , wounds and scandals to our reformed brethren . i shall not cavil at the terms of the question , though justly lyable to exception ( as a nation being a civil consideration , as a church a spiritual ) but i affirm the national church of england to be constituted according to the word of god , and primitive institution . i shall not act the samaritan , who would be reputed a jew , when judaism was resplendent , flourished ; but in its umbrage and captivity had no portion , no interest in israel . having owned and reverenced the church of england as a chaste matron , as a venerable mother in her lustre , i shall not desert , nor brand her as an impure harlot in her eclipse . i imagine her pathetically expostulating with you in this assault , as coriolanus's mother ( in livy ) did with her hostile son. the letter . if it was , whether it be not so degenerated and defaced from a true gospel institution , that a man cannot safely walk therein , and partake of the holy things of god without sin ? the answer . your twisted query is a fallacy ( fallacia plurium interrogationum ) a compound of variety , of contrariety ( at least in consequence ) of ingredients . a church is not degenerated without a charge of the corruption , the stain of depravation : a church may be defaced by the freckles of affliction , by the scars of persecutions . the beauty of the piety of the church of england is clouded , the feature disfigur'd , by the obstructions of the times . in this consideration of solemnity , seges est ubi troja fuit . but an afflicted eclipsed is not a degenerated , depraved church . if your self be degenerated from her profession , your question resembles the fond imaginations of harpaste , who being deprived of her sight , would not be perswaded , her self was blind , but that the room was dark . there may be in tertullians judgement , a confidence of two sorts of blindness intellectual , to discern a depravation which is not , and not to see that perfection which is . the calamities of the church of england are not to be imputed to her for crimes . is the less christian , because she owns christs badge , and wears his livery the cross. the participation of her holy things is not unholy . it is no sin to communicate with her in these , but to separate from her . to prevent an imaginary guilt of pollution by others ; beware lest you incur a real guilt of schism ( by separation ) in your self . it is the wily artifice of satan , though probably you neither ken , nor dread it . — sic notus ulysses . in this nicety of severity you supererogate exceeding the apostolical prescription , have no fellowship with the fruitless works of darkness , ( the works not the workers ) unless you intend to quit universally all society with the world. the sacred charge ( nay charm ) of a sacred life is cast in the same mould . let every one that nameth the name of christ depart from evil . from the quality the action not the agent , the sin not the sinner ; unless as constantinus reproved acesius , you will erect a ladder for your separation to mount heaven alone . the letter . touching the first query , i have this to say : first , primitive institution the first apostolical church , acts . . from the verses before i gather the matter of it , to be converts , and no ordinary work on their hearts neither , , , , verses joyning all together , it holds forth that they were , and so all to whom the promise belongs ( which is a church legacy ) ought to be called converts . the answer . that first apostolical institution doth not justifie your separation , your argument may be retorted . some have hence proved the lawful constitution of those churches you separate from . by an outward profession , which is the result of their communication , you alledge that they were converts . were they reall converts or professional ? if real , this ingrafts them in the invisible church , as professional they were interested in the visible church . this profession claimed the appellation to be called converts . but you argue that they were real converts , because no ordinary work wrought on their hearts . it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : they were pricked in their hearts : they had some sting of conscience , some gripings of remorse at st. peters sermon . reprobates are not always destitute of these corrosive anxieties . compunction of heart doth not amount to conversion ( unless you will confound the critical differences of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 warranted by the evangelists ) it is a preparative to it , it is not an accomplishment of it . in this instance it is expressed generally of all the auditors without any limitation , in verse ( now when they had heard this , they were pricked in their hearts ) but it is qualified , restrained , ( they that gladly received his word were baptized ) in the . verse . if both qualifications of a bitter compunction , and a chearful attention be linked , yet they will not compleat them to be true converts . ananias and saphira are computed members of this congregation , you will not grant a true conversion where there is a recidivation . their first profession is censured dissimulation . the letter . ( . ) how they were gathered into order , by withdrawing themselves , yea , and that from a church , not from heathens , but from a froward generation , such as many professing are , as great enemies to christ as ever they were , though not in the same manner . for those who will not have christ to be their king to rule over them , are as great enemies to christ , as those that will not have him their jesus to save them , matth. . , & . phil. . , . the answer . i grant they were gathered into order , though your medium doth not infer it . the text sets it out parainetically ( st. peters admonition ) not historically ( the execution the practice of it , in the verse ) however they withdrew themselves not from a church ( if you intend by a church a christian assembly ) but from a synagogue . if from a church in this notion , you contradict your self , this was not then the first primitive institution ( i suppose in your construction , first apostolical . ) before this numerous shole caught in the fisher of souls net , the church after our saviours passion is summed up , comprehending one hundred and twenty members . to collect three thousand out of a church , of an hundred and twenty were as prodigious logick , as arithmetick . i pray weigh the importance of the inference touching this primitive institution . they withdrew from a synagogue ; ( from jews ) therefore christians must withdraw from christians . they gathered to the church , therefore a church must be gathered from a church . such deductions are ropes of sand , arena sine calce , as domitian censured senecas concise uncemented expressions ( an incoherence more laudable in sentences than proofs ) but not to digress . that froward generation mentioned were especially the scribes and pharisees , our saviours profest embittered adversaries . himself titles them a generation of vipers , and the baptist so salutes them : it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the verse , escape from the temporal imminent destruction of jerusalem ( like the angels counsel to lot to quit sodom ) lest you actually perish in their infidelity , in their impenitency . because those disciples were advised to unshackle themselves of their judaical fetters , who disclaimed the messiah , crucified him , who reputed him an impostor , a conjurer , a malefactor . will you hence conclude a separating from those christian brethren , who acknowledge him the lamb of god ( both priest and sacrifice ) and the lyon of the tribe of judah ; both a saviour and avenger ? but here you blast and doom our professors ( many professing christ are as great enemies as they were ) our practical enmity ( in the church of england ) is too too great , however it is in infirmity , not in obstinacy ; we humbly appeal to the throne of grace , of candor with the apostle . what we would do , do we not , and what we would not , that do we . we dare not divorce those attributes god himself hath wedded . his mercy is sharpned with justice , that we be not presumptuous , and his justice candid with mercy ( like a sugred pill ) that we be not chilled with despair . we own we reverence him as a soveraign as christ , and when being clogged with frailties , our obedience faulters , we have recourse to him as jesus a saviour . without this divine sanctuary , both you and we are exposed to be condemned , as lewd wretched caitiffs . the sacred testimonies produced by you , are miserably misapplied . the first , matth. . . suffer little children to come unto me , and forbid them not . if you expound this literally , it is valid for the baptism of infants , it strikes not us , but the anabaptists . if you interpret it figuratively for those that are not plumed with pride , not envenomed with rancor . this character at the first blush suits not with the grain of your separation . though i shall not charge , not revile any ( per me equidem sint omnia protinus alba ) yet i would humbly admonish all . it is not the die of meekness and lowliness , to justifie your selves , and condemn others . your next testimony is matth. . . behold we have forsaken all , and followed thee . this squares better with the condition of the church of england , than of your separation , for that hath improved , not empaired your temporalities . plead this when you are confessors , or martyrs , not before . your third testimony is phil. . , . many walk , of whom i have told you often , and now tell you weeping , that they are enemies to the cross of christ , whose end is destruction , whose god is their belly , their shame , who mind earthly things . in the judgement of expositors the apostle there descyphers jewish seducers or christians judaising , enemies to the cross of christ , who would shelter their religion with circumcision to prevent persecution . ( judaism being tolerated after christianity was condemned ) who would not be damnified by the gospel , who like cameleons assumed all shapes ; fashioned their tenets and principles to emergencies , who eeked out christ with moses . though we are abundantly vicious in the church of england , yet this guilt is not to be fix'd on our score , let it stick where it will. i beseech you with melting bowels , do not thus dally with gods sacred oracles ( as you expect the solace of present grace , and future bliss ) let them not be heaped but weighed . deal not with the estimate of them , as of counters for to signifie what you fancy . the letter . ( ) by the means and manner of their conversion willingly ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , verse . ) verbo non ferro , which is gods way of planting : but antichrists volumus ; mandamus , statuimus , by humanc power and edicts , so i conceive most of englands converts are , the noise of axes and hammers , have been much heard in the building , be they what they will , knowledge , grace , conscience or none , come in they must , subject they must ; and thus whole nations become churches , and many churches in a day contrary to those , psal. . . es. . . zach. . . rev. . , . cor. . . the answer . my judgement ( at least my genius ) prompts me to approve much rather directive , than coactive expedients in religion ; yet the best worthies of the church ancient and modern , allow both to have their fit seasons and operations . the word is the planting , inoculating , but the sword is the cutting , pruning instrument . this may lop off dead branches , though it cannot graft the living : your instance of st. peters chearful auditors concerns the first structure , not the repair of religion ( the conversion , not the restauration ) we must distinguish the constituting , and the reforming of a church , betwixt infidels and hereticks ; betwixt the ignorance of unbelievers not informed , and the stubbornness of misbelievers , after they are convinced : betwixt those that being erroneous vent speculative innocent tenets , and these that broach pestilent fundamental heresies , or maintain practical impieties , enormities ; nay , even in these with lipsius betwixt errones and turbones , betwixt those that are bono animo errantes ( in lactantius words ) those that are imprudently seduced , and those that impudently seduce . as to some of the branches , the magistrate bears not the sword in vain : he may exercise a coercive penal power , as to the means , though not immediately to the end ; to the profession of what men believe , though he cannot constrain the belief of what men profess . the mosaical laws were capital against idolaters and blasphemers . this authoritative coercive severity in religion , as it was prescribed by god , so it was practised by nehemiah , nehem. . , . by josiah , chron. . , . by asa , chron. . . even manasses , after he was reclaimed , was enflamed with this zeal . christian princes trod their steps . the spiritual penalties enacted by the four first general councils ( against arrius , nestorius , macedonius , eutyches ) were ratified by temporal of christian emperors . to omit samosatenus , sentenced by aurelianus manes . — but i forbear . in this copious field , — inopem me copia fecit . i shall add only the donatists chastised by the sanctions of constantinus , constantius , valentinus , gratianus , theodosius . this reiterated , reinforced rigor against the donatists , was at first resented by st. austin , but upon second thoughts vindicated , it having proved effectual for the reclaiming of many donatists by their own confession . those very men , who have bitterly inveighed at an imperial , legal , moderate severity against the factors , for exploded , condemned heresies ; yet have embraced all opportunities , to act tumultuous , furious cruelties upon the assertors of the most approved renowned tenets . witness the arrians in egypt and palastine , the circumcelliones in africa , the anabaptists in germany . mr. cotton vehemently pressed this divinity in new england . i hope you will not brand all the recited precedents with the black aspersion of antichrists volumus , mandamus . converts of the church of england , though derided in your letter , were not captives , not fettered but taught , not hurried , enforced , but perswaded preached to their religion . you object the noise of axes and hammers to be heard in the building . this noise is no solecism in erecting a fabrick , no nor in repairing it , and reducing into order a beam that is starting out . but i pray unpartially recollect your own station . how edifying is the noise of drums and guns ? not the ordinances of the temple , but the camp ( a church militant without a trope ) had not regiments been arguments , and battels proofs , and victories demonstrations , your separation might have been scanted , for proselites in this climate , quickly have shifted scenes , and like cato on the theatre vanish'd as soon as it appeared . so that the church of england is rather conquered , than confuted , not foiled , gladio oris , sed ore gladii . power and terror are the pillars to support your separation , wealth and honour the allurements , the embellishments to engratiate it . such prevalent principles may fortifie , not justifie your separation . by this martial topick the bible must truckle to the alcoran in the greek churches . but you tax the church of england for a promiscuous , ungracious reception , compulsion ( without regard of knowledge , conscience , grace ) this confident objection seconds the virulent imputation of the romanists . were it so , that many churches were like mishromes of a days growth , that whole nations became churches ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) by heaps , god were to be the more magnified for so miraculous a conversion . were not three thousand souls the converts of one sermon . in so numerous a congregation there was no possibility of st. peters punctual satisfaction of the personal knowledge , conscience of each . if you look back to the baptists church , there appears a larger confluence . then went out to him jerusalem , and all judea , and all the region round about jordan , and they were baptised of him in jordan , confessing their sins . to close with you . do you charge the church of england in its first conversion , or reformation . in its first conversion there was no external force or power ( nor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) no influence but of conscience , no trumpet sounded , but of the word , ( that of isaiah ) no sword brandish'd , but of the spirit ( that of st. paul ) in its reformation catechisms and sermons took place of edicts and proclamations . the reformation was initiated by henry the eighth , improved by edward the sixth , compleated by queen elizabeth . the scriptures being translated into english , many gross errors were gradually discountenanced , and at length fairly discarded ( papal supremacy , pardons , merits , images , pilgrimages ) under henry the eighth , edward the sixth made a further progress . during the storm of the marian persecution , the blood of the martyrs became the seed of the church . after that tempest was blown over , the pious confessors reduced from confinement and banishment , became zealous propagators of the reformed religion . forrain protestant divines were entertained in england ( peter martyr and bucer for purging the universities , that those eminent fountains might be no longer corrupted ) moses and aaron both co-operated , commissioners assisted with preachers were disperst into every canton of the nation ( the bench being steered by the pulpit . ) the people were instructed , weaned , not constrained , not scared out of their superstition . if you aim at truth , not at triumph , to be furnish'd for satisfaction , not cavil ; the historical narratives of bishop goodwin and cambden : foxes acts and monuments will plentifully inform you , in the holy and wary steps of the reformation . happy it is for the church any way to be refined from its dross . it better becomes us to magnifie the divine mercy , for the effects , the fruits of so blessed a reformation , than to quarrel for the instruments , the formalities , punctilioes of it , and inconsiderately to gratifie our common adversary . after your light skirmish of invectives ( conscience or none , &c. ) you muster up your grand battalio texts of scripture , for a more vigorous assault , psal. . . thy people shall come willingly at the time of assembling . this testimony argues for voluntary assmbling , not separating . such were the crowds of the primitive congregations , whose allelujalis sounded like claps of thunder ( saith st. jerom ) thus gods people the jews thronged into his temple . some desert our congregations , because they seem holy ; disgusting our sacred publick ordinances out of their real prophaneness , and others abandon them , because our congregations , by reason of their mixtures , seem prophane , out of a formal critical holiness . these extremes exempted , the rest assemble with an alacrity of piety , who are affected with davids solace to rejoyce , when any say , let us go to the house of the lord. take the psalmist in what acception you please . because those that are regenerated , are convened , and not constrained . will you hence infer , that the unregenerate cannot by edicts of magistrates be constrained to the helps , and requisite means that they may be regenerated . they may be compelled to be assembled , though not to be reclaimed ( to come in , though not to worship when they are come in ) nay , unwilling auditors may become willing converts . st. aastin entred st. ambrose church with an itching ear to carp , he departed with a bleeding heart to relent . this answer sufficiently manifests the invalidity of your second testimony , es. . , . which is a prediction of the propagation of the gospel , all nations shall flow to it , in the . verse . they shall serve god as st. jerom expounds it . both verses flourish out the solemnity of an unanimous congregation , not the privacy of a disjoynted separation . if you will appropriate these prophesies to your selves ( like homers iliads contracted in a nut-shell ) i pray exclude not the next verse . swords broken to plowshares , and spears to pruning books . the next text cited is zach. . . neither by an army nor strength , but my spirit , saith the lord of hosts . this portion of scripture is the interpretation of a vision . commentators apprehend zorobabel , to whom the vision was interpreted to be the type of christ. it is , saith vatablus , a prophesie of his nativity , without humane concurrence . ( mary being over shadowed by the holy ghost ) others expound it historically of the jews rescued from their captivity , only by the divine power , or prophetically of the church , guided and guarded soly by the sacred spirit . however , this doth not cotten with the web of your separation , that hath a martial countenance and assistance . whereas the church of england hath no arm of flesh to strengthen it , no army but the heavenly militia , no general but the lord of hosts , no banners but the cross. your third citation , rev. . , . ) is a mystery , the application a riddle . i must desire you to be your own oedipus . and the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman : that he might cause her to be carryed away of the flood . and the earth helped the woman , and the earth opened her mouth , and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth . what will you hence conclude , therefore compulsion is not allowable in religion . indeed i understand not the inference , and blush not to confess it . upon this occasion , let me inoffensively become an humble importunate suiter , that since you piously detest vain oaths ( wherein i highly commend your severity , and passionately desire , and press the imitation among our selves ) so you would also dread the rash quotation of scriptures . they are offences of the same batch , breaches of the same precept . and if such citations be applied to erroneous opinions , it is to make god a stale for satan , to put the divine stamps to the devils merchandise , to make heaven a disguise , a varnish for hell. your last proof is cor. . . whiles by the experiment of this ministration they glorifie god for your professed subjection unto the gospel of christ , and for your liberal distribution unto them , and unto all men . it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , for the manifestation of compassion , god being glorified whilst the poor are relieved , graces being testified by alms. set this on the tenter-hooks to be rack'd , what deduction can you wrest to your advantage . the corinthians were voluntarily charitable ( no extorted bounty ) when they were converted , what is this to the means how they were converted ? if it were so , yet i formerly granted the means of the first conversion to christianity to be perswasive , not coactive . the letter . they are noted by their perseverance , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . the answer . to indulge to you , that they all persevered to the end ( though that is not recorded , and i formerly specified the revolt of some ) this doth not wound the constant members of the church of england , nor blemish the church for those that are inconstant . if you object this , as a cognizance of a separate church ; i answer , you must yet plead your innocence , and leave the apology of perseverance ( if you merit it ) to another generation . but alas , doth not the present generation testifie a daily apostasie among your selves . is not the abuse of liberty by a licentiousness of prophaneness turned blasphemy . brownists corrupted to anabaptists , anabaptists to seekers , seekers to quakers . what can the next lees be ? but the dreggs of atheism , and barbarism , unless the jesuit angle in our troubled waters . i relate not this scurrilously to scoff , but mournfully to condole . it is not the sarcasm of my pen , but the anguish of my soul. hereby god is dishonoured , weak christians perverted , the protestant religion scandalled , the church of england , which was the envy of christendom , become the obloquy of it . the letter . lastly , who were added verse . those that were in an outward appearance in a state of salvation , which we cannot say of most parochial churches , as yet they live , cor. . , . the answer . if you press the same instance of the first institution , as your method and conclusion imports , that addition is expressed in the verse . no description precedes in that verse , but that they willingly heard the word , and were baptized . and the same day were added ( to the church in bezas translation ) three thousand souls . the next verse denotes their progress after admittance to be members of the church . all those fruits recited of gods sacred ordinances . the apostles doctrine , fellowship , distribution , breaking of bread and prayers , grow in our parochial assemblies . though these our clusters may be sower grapes to your separate palats , yet we hope , being sweetned by christ merits , they may be accepted as delicious sacrifices by a gracious god. the . verse expresly insisted on in your letter , relates the succeeding daily spreading of the gospel , and therein the recompence of the converts , not the apparence of their conversion ( and the lord added to the church daily such as should be saved . ) you deny most of our parochial churches to be in the state of salvation . they stand or fall to their own master ; your self must appear before the same dreadful tribunal . judge nothing before the time , until the lord come , who will bring to light the hidden things of darkness . i pray suspend your judgement till the day of judgement . then the sheep shall be sorted , severed from the goats . till then touching the damnation of others it becomes you to be a sceptick rather than a critick . those you condemn have the seed of immortality ( the word of god ) they have the seals of the divine promises ( the sacraments ) they invoke god for remission , for whatever they offend him in . to prevent an eternal wrack , they cast anchor on the merits of their redeemer , ( whosoever believeth on him , shall not perish , but have everlasting life . ) they believe , though with much frailty ; yet they implore mercy for that frailty ; beseeching god to strengthen their weak belief , to help their unbelief , to pardon their misbelief . this is a state of infirmity , not of infidelity . as to your exception . there may be a doctrinal state of salvation , where there is not a practical evidence of sanctification . there may be sap in the root , when there is no verdure in the branches , as in david , who weltered in lust and blood for the space of a year ( as the jewish doctors compute ) and yet trod not out of the pale , even of the visible church : how deformed would the complexion of davids soul appear in the glass of your censure ( his lineaments being defaced with murther and adultery ) yet the divine character is a specious testimony of approbation . a man after gods own heart . to omit solomon , whom notwithstanding the uncomely hue of an unholy life , you will not confidently exclude from being interested ; owned among gods people , nor yet in a hovering suspence subscribe to the academick irresolution of petrus tenorius , who caused him to be painted in his chappel , one half in heaven , the other in hell. i shall recommend in this case to your serious consideration two pregnant instances . the first is of asa who is recorded by the holy ghost , that his heart was perfect all his days ( or upright as most translations express ) before the lord ( for the illustration of the original ) he worshipped god all his days , with a pure and sincere heart , saith vatablus . and yet in the next chapter , offences of a very black grain are charged upon him , his confidence in an army of flesh , resting on the king of aram , in the seventh verse his ungracious indignation , incensed he was against the prophet , whom he imprisoned ( then asa was wroth with the seer , and put him into prison , vers . . ) his tyrannical oppression ( he oppressed certain of the people at the same time , vers . . ) lastly , his desertion of god in his visitation ( he sought not the lord in his disease , but to the physicians , vers . my second instance is lot , who in his deportment towards abraham upon the difference started , acquitted himself neither humble nor charitable , whose magnified hospitality was tainted with impiety , an unholy overture ( to be his daughters pandor for to be a protector of strangers ) that checked with the principles of nature , and of grace . but his distemper and his incest were monstrous blemishes , as if he would transfer sodom to zoar ; a reiterated distemper and incest , wherein his drunkenness did not abate , but aggravate the guilt and horror of his wantonness ( the cause being directly voluntary , though not the effect . ) in this addition this cumulation of wickedness , the offence was the more heinous , because gods deliverance was exceeding gracious . the meditation of the burning of sodom should have kindled his zeal , not his lust , should have procured his holiness , not his dissoluteness ; yet notwithstanding these crimes and prodigies , st peter recites him with no branded epithet . 't is just lot , and vexed his righteous soul , ( not his incestuous . ) from these instances i observe , that god judgeth not as man , not according to the outward integrity , but the inward sincerity . a manifest offender may be a secret penitentiary . i press this only to moderate your rigor , to allay your acrimony in censuring , not to animate the security of others in sinning . i wish i could write and speak like pericles , thunder and lightning to terrifie , to blast their prophaneness . but you prove your black doom out of cor. . , . know you not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of god ? be not deceived , neither fornicators , nor idolators , nor adulterers , nor effeminate persons , nor abusers of themselves with mankind . nor thieves , nor covetous , nor drunkards , nor revilers , nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of god. parishes i hope are not idolaters , &c. suppose your application to some parochial members . the apostle threatned not so much actual as habitual customary sinners , as in st. johns determination ( he that committeth sin is of the devil ) 't is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , he that drives wickedness as a trade , contrives it as a design , pursues it as a delight . however you understand your quotation ( whether of such as are actually or habitually vitious ) the menace is not fix'd on the delinquent , unless impenitent . our parochial churches cannot be pronounced by you to have split on this rock of impenitency . the letter . thus far concerning that first institution , and so this practice was followed in all the churches , that were constituted , none admitted members but visibles , ( i do not mean real saints ) which is only known to god , and herein the apostles themselves , who had a far greater spirit of discerning than we have , were deceived , but as far as we can judge by a well guided , not blinded charity . the answer . if your rule for admission be rigorously pressed , how can men of different judgements , and repugnant spirits be admitted into separated churches ? are not contentions , divisions , carnal brands ? ( whereas there is among you envying , and strife , and divisions , are you not carnal ? ) the visibility of church members and saints is no more compatible with the profession of gross errours and heresies in doctrine , than the manifestation of foul vices of enormities in practice . and yet i presume you will not unchurch at once all the anabaptists , and other erroneous factious assemblies ; nor among your selves exclude all such who have been admitted , notwithstanding some spiritual sins , perhaps not undiscerned , which if granted are pollutions of visible sanctity , no less than justly blamed carnalities . as for the apostolical practice objected , as a pattern not copied out by the church of england in admission of members . i pray distinguish the times of the infancy of a church , and the proficiency , the growth of it . a proficiency of age was required in the infancy of the church , an infancy of age allowed to be admitted in the proficiency of the church ( by baptism . ) for i understand no other church admission or imitation but that . were persons in some measure ripen'd for years and intellectuals only to be admitted members of the church of england ( as in the apostles time ) the dispute of a visible qualification were no impertinency . i pray add to this consideration the constitution of the church of england in point of confirmation ( in imitation of the primitive purity of christianity ) without this debarring , any reception to the eucharist : which to a calm opponent , will vindicate her admitting of members , and embracing them . but to return more closely to your own track . the first constitution you insist on , doth not prop your separation , no nor yet the following practices you alledge , but instance in no particulars ( fallacies being fairly shrowded in generalities . ) what visibility of sanctity was in simon magus , acts . . he believed and was baptized , that is , he professed , pretended that he believed . there was no other visible saintship conspicuous in philip the eunuch , before his admission to the church , but a naked profession ( i believe that jesus christ is that son of god. ) the jaylor and his family were constituted members of the church ( baptized ) upon no other sanctified account than their attention to the gospel preached , and a single exercise of compassion ( washing the stripes of paul and silas . ) those additional testimonies of rejoycing , and believing recorded in the th . verse were improvements , perfections after their admission , not endowments , qualifications before it . it is indeed expressed of cornelius and his domesticks , that they were inspired , before they were baptized , ( the holy ghost fell on them which heard the word , acts . . ) besides the extraordinary season , well suiting with an extraordinary inspiration ; as for the appearing of this inspiring , speaking with tongues , it was gratia gratis data , not gratum faciens ( as the school-men distinguish ) a grace , a gift for the edification of others , not for the salvation of themselves . as touching real saints , you acknowledge that the apostles , who had a far greater spirit of discerning than your selves , were deceived : they had a more discerning , but under favour , a less condemning spirit . yours is the spirit of eliah , not of paul , of moses , not of christ : it savours of mount sina , not sion . the apostles were deceived in misapprehending evil men to be good , but you in misapprehending good men to be evil . they took wolves for sheep , because in sheeps cloathing , because doctrinally christians ; but you take sheep for wolves , because stragling , because practically pagan . nay , they are scarce allowed to be sheep , when themselves stray not out of the fold , because mingled with wolves . this is the less innocent misconstruction . but you alledge you are directed by a well guided , not blinded charity . that charity that hath the divine conduct is not like lamia in plutarch putting off the spectacles at home , and putting them on abroad , but is dim without , and quick sighted within . vaunts not it self , insults not , cor. . . ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) thinketh not evil , or imputeth not evil to any ( as valla and eras. interpret it ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) cor. . . charity shall cover a multitude of faults , ( pet. . . ) nay , an universality ; many for all , as all for many , being reciprocal phrases in the scripture idiome . it hath a present efficacy , doth cover ( according to the syriack and vulgar latin translations . ) this being compared with prov. . . ( whence it is probably esteemed , to be transcribed ) it must be understood of the offences of others . charity doth not light a torch to blaze , but spread a vail to conceal , to enwrap them in obscurity , and silence ; rather resembling briareus with an hundred hands to relieve distresses ; then argos , with an hundred eyes to espie offences . an humble merciful errour ( out of the sphere of our own chage ) is more reconcileable with a well guided charity , than an over severe censorious truth . this charity extenuates small lapses , aggravates not great , in doubtful cases is a candid interpreter , in manifest crimes mourns , but condemns not . take st. bernards descant on your own note ( for the guidance of charity ) in the failing of others , excuse the intention , if you cannot the action , charge it on the score of ignorance , surprizal , casualty ; if an offence be heinous , notorious , not to be defended or concealed , reflect upon your self with this application . the temptation was over vehement , if it had been in me thus prevalent , how had i been foiled . to conclude this point , which alone may serve to unsting your separation . in your rigorous sentencing of parochial churches , your zeal may be greater than your charity , and that zeal perhaps more enflamed than enlightned . gerson requires to the temperature of zeal , prudence , benevolence , perseverance . the letter . parochial churches , as confessed by mr. hooker and others , are not jure divino , therefore of a humane constitution . i speak not of conveniency but necessity , that every one of a parish , must be of a church . the answer . mr. hooker was a sober stickler for unity and uniformity , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . but if my memory be not a fraudulent record , there is no such passage extant in his ecclesiastical policy , though i confess it consonant to his weighty judgement , if rightly understood . the inconvenience of your separate churches is a consequence proved by your concession of the convenience of our parochial churches . a convenience it is of great antiquity , and importance . i shall take their rise in the western church from evaristus in the beginning of the second century . they were afterward more disperst and regulated by dionysius in the year , and by marcellus in the year . from which date the parochial division was generally embraced in all christian territories . constantine the great , the first christian emperour did by a solemn law suppress all separate churches , allowing no religious assemblies , but in cathedral or parochial churches for the prevention of clandestine heresies and schismes . simplicius was round with victorinus , a famous orator converted from paganism to christianity , but sequestring himself from parochial congregations ( i will not account you in the sacred list of christians , unless i see you in the church among them ) a penalty was enacted for absentors without necessary diversions by the elibertine council , the year . the great council of chalcedon did debar any ordination of ministers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , without a particular title , or interest , without a parochial charge . a provident course ( to restrain vagrant levites ) seconded , and reinforced by diverse succeeding councils . this was the wisdom of the primitive christians . but you object , this amounts only to a humane constitution . a parochial church is of a mixt nature ; partly divine , partly humane . there is a threefold consideration of a divine institution . first , for the matter as well as the power , the author of it . this is gods own law , simply and purely moral , its subject being absolutely good in it self , if commanded ( in an edict ) absolutely evil in its self , if countermanded ( in an interdict , a prohibition . ) this law is universally reducible to a natural dictate , a principle imprinted in the souls of men : of this stamp and mould are the branches of the moral law , the precepts of both tables . secondly . there is a divine constitution , not for the convincing equity of the matter , but the binding authority of the power , the external imposition of god , as a lawgiver . such was gods charge to our first parents touching the prohibited fruit in paradise ; the eating whereof was not forbidden because evil , but evil because forbidden . . thirdly , a constitution is divine for the matter , and not the power , not immediately , but mediately , when the precepts of men are grounded upon the laws of god , on the rules of divine equity . in the present question touching parochial churches , the constitution is not entirely humane or positive ( in the schoolmens expression ) it is divine in the third consideration , because of its foundation . for though the circumstantial individual respect ( the present limits of parishes as now sorted ) be humane , yet the substantial respect , that there be a regular limitation for bounds to ministers and people , is implicitely comprehended in these two grand apostolical canons , let all things be done to edification . let all things be done decently , and in order . the one being the spiritual canon , the other the ecclesiastical ; or the one diverting us from a pompous superstitious gayness , the other from a disordered , unbeautified rudeness in religion . there is yet a more special divine foundation touching the substantial part . that pastors and flocks should have their distinct relations and limits , this being warranted by apostolical precept and practice . when paul and barnabas had ordained elders in every church . they committed the churches they planted to several peculiar pastors , as junius and tremelius expound it . thus st. paul left titus in creet ( which is titled by homer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , dignified with an hundred cities , to ordain elders in every city , that so none should be destitute of its own presbyter , it s constituted pastor , its local setled minister . hereby the labour ( in the ministerial charge ) becomes lighter , the care the exacter , saith theoph. the apostle knits together the mutual special tye of duty , obey them that have the rule over you , and submit your selves , for they watch for your souls , as they that must give an account , that they may do it with joy , and not with grief , for that is not profitable for you . these duties cannot commodiously , conscienciously be discharged , without distinction of charges , designation , restriction of places . vigilance for souls is obstructed by distance . the account also must needs be hudled , when the charge is confused . the apostles had a general oecumenical commission qualified with unparallel'd endowments ( for languages , for miracles ) suitable to such dispersed , unbounded employments . the time , message , and messengers were extraordinary . this universall embassy is not exemplary . our bounded parochial churches are but copies of the jewish division by synagogues , which though they were not of divine right à priori by injunction , yet they were à posteriori by the approbation of christ , and the apostles , and of greater antiquity , than the temple it self . these parochial boundaries are singular expedients for piety and regularity , not only convenient but necessary ( as to order and obedience in this nation ) till there be a valid legal repeal of so valid and legal a constitution . the letter . if the godly in england , whether in the bound of parishes or not , i mean professors in doctrine , and practice , though failing in some circumstantials of discipline , be the churches , we own no separation from them , but a reformation we desire , and shall willingly sit down , and walk with such a people of such a parish , and then i suppose the separation lies on the other part , that have withdrawn themselves from their first covenant , jude . there described . such are most of our people , acts . . the answer . you profess you will embrace the society of godly professors in doctrine and practice , though parochial ; i demand how far , perhaps for united devotion and attention ( for publick prayers and sermons ) not for sacramental duties ( by the mildest principles of semiseparatism ) there must be a reformation of discipline , an exact shibboleth , a new covenant , a particular satisfaction for the holiness , the suitableness of disposition to precede , to qualifie for these . what do you indulge the most accomplish'd holiest parochial christian more , than to a mahumetan , an indian , whom you will not deprive of these expedients for conversion , as subservient to the collecting of a church . you will not separate from doctrinal , and practical professors in parishes ; but it is upon this tacite condition , that they separate from parochial congregations . you will not communicate with them in such a mixture . so that this solemn flourish , if sifted , will be resolved into the emptiest kind of fallacy , petitio principii . the begging of the question . you transfer the separation on our parochial churches . this divinity is as orthodox , as copernicus his philosophy ( that the earth moves , and the sun stands still ) it is not unlike the opt●ck mistake of those , that first set out to sea , who launching out of a haven , imagine the port the shore moves , departs from them , not they from the port the shore . — terraeq urbesque recedunt . beware lest your self be imbarqued in a floating vessel , whilst the church of england is fixt on a rock . it separates not from you , it was never a branch of your tree , a member of your body , but you of its . but you charge us with the cause of the separation , having withdrawn our selves from our first covenant . it is violated , not abrogated , though not punctually observed , yet not absolutely renounced , a disobedience , but not a defiance . though withdrawn , yet we make our penitent approaches to the throne of grace , to renew our covenant of baptism by the eucharist . what withdrawing do you pitch on to warrant your separating , not from discipline : we never embraced yours . this is confest by your selves , no foundation of separation ; not from doctrine : this you tax not . there remains for the sole cause , a practical prophaneness . this is a fallacious objection . non causa pro causa . a false cause for a true . were not the sons of eli practically vitious , scandalous sons of belial ? yet the people that communicated with them , were gods people in the th verse . though men were induced to abhor the sacrifices for the priests impieties in the th verse , yet thereby they were tempted to transgress ( you make the lords people to transgress , in the verse ) this transgression was a separation , a deserting the assembly . not to serve the lord ( according to the septuagint ) to wit , publickly with the congregation . this visible prophaneness being recorded in every visible church , specified in scripture without the effect , or attempt of severing , disjoynting in celebrating gods ordinances , renders your separation as unexcusable , as it is unwarrantable . adams family was the one and only visible church ( una & unica ) for a time ; therein there was a cain as well as an abel , both sacrificed , though both were not sanctified . cains pollution was not covert . abel brought of the firstlings of his flock , and the fat thereof , gen. . . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith philo , the first and the best . but of cain it is expressed , he brought of the fruit , not the first fruits , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith chrysostom , what first came to hand , his oblation was scanted for the quantity ( according to the sceptuagint , and the greek fathers ) at least tainted in quality . in abrahams family ( a visible church ) there was an ismael as well as isaac ( in isaac's house an esau , as well as jacob. among the patriarchs ( jacobs issue ) simeon and levi , with joseph and benjamin . in noahs ark ( a type of the church ) there was a cham , a judas among the apostles , a nicholas among the deacons . to omit the manifest mixtures of the jewish , corinthian , galatian , asian churches ( recited in the second and fifth chapters of the revel . ) each whereof was a grove wherein every tree was not a myrtle , an edifice , wherein every stone was not a marble . the church delineated by the apostles pencil , without spot and wrinkle , is to be apprehended as adorned by christs imputed merits , as with resplendent robes , not as dress'd with its own sordid raggs , not as clad with its own frailties , stained with its own deformities . 't is expressed in the front of the verse ( that he might present it to himself a glorious church ) christ presents the church specious , glorious in himself , but the church exhibits not it self thus to the world. the church described holy and without blemish , in the close of the same verse , is not militant but triumphant . the one is a casket of true and false pearls ; the other a cabinet of true diamonds and rubies to be selected and severed from the counterfeit and adulterate , in the day that god shall make up his jewels . but of this only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , by way of illustration , as an anticipation of an objection . i proceed to those texts you cite to justifie your separation , ep. of jude . these men separate themselves , being sensual , having not the spirit . this is generally applied by expositors to sectaries . take heed this is not brutum fulmen , if rightly apprehended , it is not to be sported but trembled at . we may play the sophisters with men , but cannot delude our god. this is a bill to indict , no plea to vindicate your separation ; it is active , not passive , you separate your selves , ( a spice of singularity ) discard others . the apostle shadows out the occasion of a real separation , an imaginary perfection keeping aloof from sensual men ( as refined from such dross ) as being spiritual . but the apostle asswageth this tumor , blasts this haughty fancy , checks it as a carnal symptom ( being sensual , having not the spirit . ) i shall recommend to you mr. perkins exposition of this testimony , comparing it with his comment to the same effect on the first chapter of the epistle to the galatians the verse , and his doctrinal observation is this ( i shall only abbreviate that descant he hath enlarged ) it is a great sin for a man to separate himself from the assembly of gods people , heb. . . it is our duty to keep unity , ephes. . . upon this occasion he starts this question . whether if there be errors in the church , we may separate our selves ? his judicious resolution is this . errors are either practical in manners , or doctrinal in tenets . for vitious manners we may not separate ; lot did it not . the jews might not do it from the scribes and pharisees , because they sate in moses chair . though we may not separate from such corrupt persons in the publick assemblies , yet we may in private conversation , cor. . . if the church err in doctrine , it is to be considered whether the error be in a point substantial , fundamental or not ? if in a point substantial , fundamental , whether upon infirmity , or obstinacy ? if of frailty , we may not separate , as in corinth and galatia . if a church err in the foundation openly , obstinately , a separation may be made , tim. . . ( yet the error being in some , not in all , it remains a church as corinth did . ) if the error be in smaller points , not fundamental , we may not separate : they which build upon the foundation of hay and stubble of erroneous opinon , may be saved , cor. . . mr. perkins concludeth that no man can separate from the church of england with a good conscience , since it teacheth , obeyeth , believeth the doctrine of the prophets and apostles . in the most justifiable cause of separation he requires examination , conviction , censure , ( or condemnation . ) to separate without examination is not piety but phrensie . no man can judge aright of that ( saith the philosopher ) whereof he is ignorant . no man can well determine , what he doth not well discuss . qui ad pauca respicit de facili pronunciat . . to separate without conviction is levity , to be like clouds , hovering with every sudden gale of doctrine . mr. perkins condemns the want of moderation in those , that condemn the church of england without sufficient conviction . if any object admonition by books ; take the same authors resolute assertion , his asseveration for a satisfactory reply . i say again , there are grosser faults in some of those books , than any of the faults that they reprove in the church of england , and that books are not fit to convince , especially a church . . to separate without a juridical censure , an authoritative , a synodical doom , is at least a hasty irregularity . otherwise separation paves a causey to confusion ; schisms will be endless , synods needless . if two or three members of your new collected church , should separate from your church , branding it to be a corrupt church , not lawfully to be communicated with ; your selves would esteem those two or three to be very inconsiderable for number or power , for to be ballanced with that collected church , whereof they are , or , as you alledge , ought to be members . i pray consider , the disproportion is far greater betwixt your collected church , and the national church of england . to wind up this bottom : that you have been prudent in examination , shall be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , pass for granted ; but it remains for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , whether your conviction of the church of england hath been sufficient , or your censure your condemnation . nay , it is a question put out of all question negatively , since that the church of england hath not been disproved by any demonstrative arguments upon scripture principles , to be no truly constituted church ; nor yet condemned by any synod . till then i pray forbear to separate from it . i shall add by way of prolepsis . if you here object , that in being thus scrupulous , you may be irrecoverably involved in guilt , for want of a synodical condemnation , which is not in your power . i answer , in case of this defect there is allowable only a partial separation in the church , not a total from the church . or a negative separation , by not asserting , abetting , countenancing , owning erroneous tenets , or vitious enormous practices ; not a positive separation by constituting a new visible church , by deserting the old in its religious duties and assemblies . the best christians in the church of corinth and galatia , nay , st. paul himself did separate no otherwise ; when there was conspicuous in the one a tincture of paganism , in the point of resurrection ; in the other a spot of judaism , in point of justification . they severed doctrinally ( as to those particulars ) not personally , as to the sacred publick ordinances . as to your quotation of st. jude , i shall fortifie mr. perkins judgement with mr. arthur hildershams ( upon john . . lect. . ) such as separate from our churches upon pretence of the corruptions , that are in them . these are marked with a black coal , by jude . these be they who separate themselves , being sensual , having not the spirit . but herein christians must learn wisely to distinguish such as are unjustly separated by others from the church assemblies ; and such as voluntarily separate themselves ; these deserve to be called schismaticks , and not the others . neither are they to be counted schismaticks , as though they dare not be agents or practisers of any corruption that remaineth in the church , yet can bear and tolerate them as burthens , without forsaking the church for them . to this sort i will say no more , but wish them well to weigh the examples of gods servants , that have been mentioned in this doctrine , which frequented so diligently the publick worship of god in jerusalem , when there were far greater corruptions , both in the priests , and people , and worship it self , than can be found in ours . what mr. hildersham here winds up is unravel'd in his thirty sixth lecture ; because the author is not lyable to your exception , and proceeds upon scripture principles ( your own appeal ) who hath been reputed by dr. willet , malleus schismaticorum qui vulgo vocantur brownistae , i shall here insert what himself hath dilated in his own language without contracting or altering it . upon john . . we know what we worship , for salvation is of the jews . hereupon mr. hildersham observeth , that our saviour in commending the worship and religion of the jews , makes himself one of their number , acknowledgeth himself a member of their church , professeth that himself did worship god as they did ; from whence this doctrine ariseth for our instruction . that those assemblies that enjoy the word and doctrine of salvation , though they have many corruptions remaining in them , are to be acknowledged the true churches of god , and such as none of the faithful may make separation from . we shall need no further proof of this doctrine , than the example of our saviour himself . if we consider of the one side how corrupt the state of the jews church was in his time , and on the other , how far our saviour did communicate with them . for the first , what the state of the church was in his time , we may know , if we consider . first , what the priests and teachers were themselves , that had the ordering of god's worship . secondly , what the people were with whom he was to joyn in gods worship . thirdly , what the worship it self was , wherein he was to communicate . first , the priests and teachers were ignorant and unlearned , matth. . . secondly , they were wicked and ungodly , matth. . . thirdly , they had a corrupt and unlawful entrance into their calling , yea , even the high priest himself . for whereas by gods ordinance he was to hold that office during life , their office was bought and sold , and made annual , john . . caiphas was high priest for that year . and what were the people ? surely the most of them in all places were notoriously and obstinately wicked . in nazareth , where he had lived most ; see what they were , luke . , . all that were in the synagogue , when they heard this doctrine , were filled with wrath , and rose up , and thrust him out of the city , and led him to the edge of an hill to cast him down headlong . but were they better in other places . he upbraided all the cities , where most of his great works were done . wo be to thee , chorazin , wo be to thee , bethsaiada , matth. . , . and were the people of jerusalem any better . you shall perceive that by that affection they shewed at the passion of our saviour , when pilate a gentile made such an offer to them . luke . . all the multitude cryed at once , not him , but barabbas . and matth. . . when pilate had washed his hands , and protested christs innocency , then answered all the people , and said desperately , his blood be on us and our children . thirdly , the worship it self that was used in the church , had many corruptions in it . they used many superstitions , the observation whereof they urged more strictly than the commandments and ordinances of god , mark . . the temple was prophaned , and made a den of thieves , matth. . , . the discipline and censures of the church were shamefully abused , john . . the jews had decreed , that if any did confess that jesus was christ , he should be excommunicated ipso facto . the doctrine was corrupt in many points , as you shall find , matth. . , . some corruptions also were crept into the administration of the sacraments ; for they kept a day after our saviour , who observed the just time appointed by god , john . . the day of his passion was but the day of the preparation to the passover . thus have we seen how corrupt the state of the church was : and yet mark how our saviour made no separation from it , but communicated with it in the worship of god. . when he was an infant , he was circumcised , and by that sacrament incorporated into the church , luke . . . when his mother was purified , he was brought into the temple , and presented to the lord , and an oblation was given for him as for other children , luke . . . he was content to be a hearer of such teachers , that taught in the church , luk. . . . he was every sabbath wont to joyn in publick prayer with the congregation that was at nazareth , luke . . . he received the sacrament of baptism in a congregation of the people , luke . . when all the people were baptized , he was baptized also . . he communicated in the passover with the people and the priests , john . . . he allowed his disciples to hear these teachers , matth. . . yea , he commanded the leper , whom he had cleansed , to go and shew himself to the priest , and offer his gift in the temple , matth. . . the reasons why all men are bound to count such assemblies true churches as enjoy the word and doctrine of salvation , and may not separate from them for their corruptions , are these . . so long as god continues his word and doctrine of salvation to a people , so long it is evident god dwells among them , and hath not forsaken them . i will set my tabernacle among you : by which he meaneth his solemn worship , whereof this is a principal part , levit. . , . psal. . . and till god hath forsaken a church , none may forsake it . for shall we be holier , and hate corruption more than the lord ? it is no sufficient warrant for any to separate from a church , because it is guilty of such sins and corruptions , as deserve god should forsake it , and for which god hath threatned in his word , that he will forsake it ; till it may appear to us god hath indeed forsaken it , and put in execution that which he hath justly threatned against it , no man may forsake it . though adultery ( either in man or wife ) be a just cause of separation , and that the bond of wedlock should be broken , so as the innocent party may justly forsake the offender , yet till a bill of divorcement have past between them , they still remain man and wife , notwithstanding that sin . the woman , whom her husband hath wronged in that kind , is called his wife , mal. . . esau justly deserved to loose the prerogative of his birth-right and superiority he had over his brother , when he had despised and sold it , gen. . . and saul to be deprived of his kingdom ; yea , god by his decree and oracle had said of esau and jacob : the elder shall serve the younger , gen. . . and of saul and david , that he had rejected the one , and appointed the other to reign in his stead , sam. . . and . , , . and yet till the lord saw it good to put this decree and oracle in execution , and actually to depose the one from his birth-right , and the other from his kingdom , jacob acknowledgeth esau his superior , his lord , gen. . , . and so did david saul , sam. . , . so though a church , for the many corruptions in it be unworthy the name of christs church , and be also such as the lord hath threatned to make no church , yet till the lord hath put this his threat in execution , and takes away his tabernacle and worship from it , it is still to be acknowledged and reverenced , as the church of christ. . because no separation may be made from those assemblies , where men may be assured to find and attain salvation . lord to whom shall we go , thou hast the word of eternal life ? saith peter to our saviour , accounting this as a sufficient reason why they might not leave him , john . . but men may be sure to find salvation in such assemblies , where the ministery of the word and doctrine of salvation is continued . for the word and doctrine of christ is called salvation here : and heb. . . because it is the ordinary means ordained of god to bring men to salvation , rom. . . cor. . . yea it is at one time or other effectual in all gods elect that do enjoy it . james . . calls it the engraftied word , which is able to save your souls . use . to teach us what to judge of our church , and the brownists that separate from it . . we cannot deny it , but there is just cause of fear that god may take away his tabernacle from amongst us , and remove our candlestick ; even the general decay of our first love may cause us to fear it , apoc. . . and that a great neglect of the censures of the church upon scandalous offenders , in respect of that the apostle saith , a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump , cor. . . but especially the general increase of all filthy abominable sins in the land , deut. . . eccles. . . though we acknowledge our church to be a true church , yet we may not communicate with it in any corruptions that shall be detected or approved to be in it . herein we have our saviours example to guide us , though he esteemed the church of the jews to be a true church , and joyned with it in gods worship , yet would he not communicate with it in the least corruption , he would not use so much as their superstitious purification , mark . , . when they put off the passover a day longer than god appointed , he would not joyn with them in that , matth. . . . we should mourn for , and shew our dislike to those things that are evil in our church , ezek. . . so did christ , luke . . but we may not separate our selves , nor deny it to be a true church , for the reasons above alledged . thus far mr. arthur hildersham proceeds in lect. your first citation out of st. jude hath hitherto detained me , and occasioned this copious digression not impertinent to the main of the question . your next testimony to acquit your selves , and to brand most of our people , is acts . . and of the rest durst no man joyn himself to them , but the people magnified them . none durst joyn in an hypocritical way , as ananias and saphira did . the rest may be expounded , either of the church members , who out of reverence kept distance from the apostles ( if compared with the verse ) or else the rest were the potent jewish adversaries of the apostles , who affrighted with that severe miracle of judicature , no sooner pronounced than executed on ananias and saphira , durst not assault or approach not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , not close , or not encounter . the syriack comprehends both . because after so rigorous miraculous a doom , the believers reverenced the apostles , or the unbelievers dreaded , and the promiscuous multitude extolled them : make what rational inference you please , it is an impertinence to this question . the letter . i do not find national churches promised and warranted in the day of the gospel , but many nations shall come into the church , not all of a nation , nor all in a nation to be a church , but of every people , kindred and nation god would make up his church ; acts. . . the answer . i have been often sadden'd and amazed at the tart confidence of some of your party in excepting , girding at a national church , as if it were a strange chimera , a ridiculous paradox ( like the antient fate of the opinion of the avouching the antipodes ) whereas there is a domestical church mentioned , rom. . . ( greet the church that is in their house ) and in cor. . . ( with the church that is in their house ) this notion of a church is your darling . i pray examine with sober reason without distemper of passion or prejudice . is there not a gradual ascent from a church oeconomical , to a church oecumenical ? what are cities , kingdoms , states , but families dilated , multiplied ? a domestical church is a national contracted ; a national church is a domestical enlarged . a parochial intervenes , of a larger extent than a domestical , a lesser than a national . such was the church as cenchrea . the professors of saving truth , if abridged within the narrow limits of a house are a domestical church , if more numerous disperst within the circuit , the territories of a nation , they are to be esteemed a national church , though all individuals of the nation were not professors . the pregnant scripture testimonies should silence all cavils touching this title . are there not recorded churches of judea , samaria , galilee ? act. , . a church of corinth , cor. . . ep. . . the church of the thessalonians , ep. . . . ep. . . the churches of ephesus , smyrna , pergamus , thyatira , rev. . , , , . the churches of sardi , philadelphia , rev. . , , . why then should the church of england sound so prodigious a name ? herein we swerve not from the language of the purest antiquity , nor the modern customary expression ( use being the solemn dictator for words , quem penes arbitrium , jusque est , & norma loquendi . ) you will probably retort , all of the nation are not of the church of england , nor yet were all the inhabitants of samaria , galilee , smyrna , philadelphia members of those churches . those that were , served to denominate . inde denominatio unde dominatio . after histories we need not enquire for prophesies , to examine whether national churches were foretold when they are fulfilled . that many nations shall come into the church , may be understood of the invisible church , for genera singulorum , of the visible church for singula generum . that of every nation , kindred and people , god will make up his church , is true of the church catholick , of which your first citation may be understood in the universal latitude propounded . ( all nations shall flow to it . ) your second sacred citation is act. ●● . but in every nation he that feareth god , and worketh righteousness , is accepted with him . this demolisheth the partition of judaism , repeals the engrossing priviledge of palestine : this invests every nation with a capacity of some members of the invisible church ; it doth divest no nation of a possibility of being an intire visible church , even as the jews were in an inclusive , though not as they were in an exclusive sense . the letter . we shall bring our selves back to the pedagogy of the jews , from which we are freed by christ. we must have national officers , national worship of divine institution . the answer . a national profession of christianity is no jewish paedagogy . it is oppositum , in apposito . christs freeing us , relates to the ceremonial , or the moral law. ( the judaical law being left indifferent to be renounced , or retained ) the ceremonial or mosaical law is annulled ( only the equity of it excepted ) the synagogue is deceased mortua & mortifera ( st. austin expresseth it ) dead and deadly under the gospel . the moral law is cancelled for the sting , the curse , not the rigor , the observance . it is still a pilot to steer , though no absolute judge to sentence . but this double specified liberty acquits nor person , nor nation from submission to the yoke of our redeemer , from being visibly , professionally christians . to your next charge , i answer briefly and summarily . the officers and worship asserted in the church of england ( and consequently in the nation ) are for the grounds and essentials of divine institution . ( when you attempt to disprove i shall be ready to ratifie what i assert ) these essentials are general for all , the additionals only are humane , and perhaps peculiar to the church of england : which additionals are accidental , ritual ceremonial . in these ceremonials the apostles forecited precepts are piously observed , and st. austins caveats judiciously not neglected ; for number not many ( no judaical excess ) for signification most weighty ( useful for edifying as well as beautifying ) for observation most easie ( that they be not plummets to depress , but wings to raise our affections in divine ordinances . ) the letter . our birth in the nation makes us members of the church . the answer . we avouch not the climate , but the parentage , the descent , a christian extraction in any nation gives right to the covenant , and seals of the covenant : this renders infants capable of being baptized , and therein imitate church members . in babes that are the issue of profest believers , we acknowledge a federal , though not a personal , actual holiness . they have seminal claim , a radical right of admission into the visible church . it is gods promise to abraham , the father of the faithful . i will establish my covenant between me and thy seed after thee . wherein though the invisible graces are assured to inward believers , yet the visible signs appertain to outward professors , the sons , the heirs apparent of abraham : the legal seal of the covenant ( circumcision ) being exchanged to the evangelical ( baptism ) st. peter builds the jews hereditary title , and interest as to baptismal reception into the church , upon this foundation . the promise is made to you and your children . the letter . i confess i have read some historians and writers , both ancient and modern , touching the first constituting , and appearing of a church and gospel in england , annis , and , but not to satisfaction . the answer . that in the year , was not the first conversion in this climate , though magnified by the romanists to heighten the saxon obligation to rome , because austin the monk was employed by pope gregory the first . nor yet was the complexion of christianity first discernable in the year , though the jesuits own the dawning of the gospel in the british climate about that time , for to vindicate the dependance of the british church upon the roman , because of king lucius baptized by a delegate from eleutherius . not to carp at your chronology , though i find not that punctual year of , fixed by any chronologer . ( polanus mentions , baron . . polyd. virg. . balaeus . mar. scotus . forsedia , &c. ) however not to insist on , or debate that nicity . the first evangelical apparence was of an elder date than the time specified in your letter ( the year . ) by above an entire century of years . gildas an ancient renowned historian ( as cited by balaeus cent. . ) doth testifie the morning beams of christianity , to have been darted among the britains . hence the british church hath been titled primogenita ecclesia ( the first born church ) of all the provinces , this is famed by sabbellicus , for the first celebrating of christianity . credible . testimonies of capgravius , scropus , polyd. virgil. do fix on the year , for the conversion of the british nation . from which epocha the british preserved the lustre of an uncorrupted purity , till o'ercast with the tempest of the dioclesian persecution , as beda acknowledgeth . but during this time , you will not allow a constituted church : as if tertullians flourish of the british being subdued to christ , not to caesar , the one having erected a throne , where the other durst not set his foot ( territa quaesitis ostendit terga britannis ) had been but an empty flourish , a windy vaunt . your dissatisfaction being expressed without your reason to confirm it , i need not dilate to confute it . the letter . concerning the second query , lest i tyre you with these at present very discomposed things ; i humbly offer . whether the church of england , and that there is a divine separation , or a separation warranted in the word , jer. . . ezek. . . matth. . . matth. . . acts . . rev. . cor. . . the answer . my replies will much more need an apology than your query , wherein i have been partly necessitated to be copious for discussion , for illustration , by examining those texts you quote only , unfolding what you enwrap , because i would not like heraclitus be entitled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a dark obscure sophister . one scripture genuine quotation , if pertinently , demonstratively pressed shall convince and captivate me , whereas a thousand , if loosely and inconsiderately applied , will not startle me from my station . there is i confess a divine separation , not in your notion , you raise separation to heaven ( as hortensius did eloquence in tullies censure ) to advance your self with it . i shall encounter with your texts in the rank you muster them . the first is jer. ● . . if thou take forth the precious from the vile , thou shalt be as my mouth , let them return to thee , but return not thou to them . this is a doctrinal , not a personal separation . it is gods special consolation to the prophet jeremy . if by thy instructions , thy sermons , thou shalt separate or distingush betwixt the sacred or the wicked , &c. so jerom expounds it . if by prophecying thou discernest what is good , from what is evil , &c. so junius and tremelius gloss it . or as others comment , if thou convertest those souls that are redeemed by the precious blood of christ , from vile , vitious courses , then thou shalt be as my mouth , thou shalt discharge the part of gods embassador ( in voce hominis tuba dei , as st. austin expresseth it ) in the voice of man there will be the trumpet of god. let them return to thee , but return not thou to them ; let them be reclaimed , be not thou depraved . the sense and scope of this text is an alien to the question , it is far separated from your separation . your second quotation is at as great a distance , and needs no other solution than the former . ezek. . . her priests have violated , and have prophaned my holy things , they have put no difference between the holy and prophane , neither have shewed difference between the unclean and the clean . some expositors understand this of ceremonial oblations ( the mosaical differences not observed betwixt clean and unclean beasts and sacrifices ) if this charge concerns moral actions ; god hereby reproves the priests , because the priests reproved not the people for their transgressions . the priests were indeed ordained , authorised by god , instructors of the people , and ordinary judges in these cases , who yet never sentenced , nor reprehended the holy for mingling with the prophane in a divine service or sacrifice . . i grant a ministerial or prophetical separation by declaring gods commandments , by denouncing his judgments . the neglect of this is taxed by jeremy and ezekiel in your instances . . i allow a professional separation , which may be branch'd to devotion , compunction , reprehension , by praying against wickedness , by mourning for it , by rebuking it . this was the frequent practice of the prophets and the apostles . . i yield an ecclesiastical or juridical separation , which is excommunication , to be of divine impression . but your local separation from those christian brethren you account unholy in those ordinances you acknowledge holy discovers no stamp of the sacred spirit , no warrant out of those prophets you cite , and therefore cannot pass for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ( in st. ignatius words ) for gods current uncontrolled coin , having not the true image , superscription of the sanctuary . your two next quotations , matth. . . matth. . are repeated and reinforced within a few lines where they shall be discussed . the th . quotation is acts . . but when divers were hardned , and believed not , but spake evil of the way before the multitude , he departed from them , and separated the disciples , disputing daily in the school of one tyrannus . after three months ineffectual trial , not a private ordinary person , but an apostle ( who had an immediate vocation and commission an infallible inspiration , an universal jurisdiction ) quitted , obdurate , obstinate jews , who undermined the foundation , who blasted the superstruction of christian religion : who were branded for notorious , scandalous , blasphemy , infidelity , impenitency . in this exigency he withdrew the disciples from a synagogue to the school of tyrannus ( a sort of seminary of piety and literature , according to maimonides ) a private collegiate academy for the prophets and the prophets sons , what will you hence infer ? therefore you ought to separate from profest christian believers for their practical defailances . the proof fits the conclusion as well as goliahs armour did davids body ; or elisha's demensions stretch'd upon the the child . the next citation is rev. . . come out of her my people , that ye be not partakers of her sins , and receive not of her plagues . i shall not examine the literal restriction ( as a prediction of alaricus siege , wherein the emperor honorius with others escaped from rome to ravenna ) take this testimony in the most advantageous latitude , yet there is to be distinguish'd a negative separation of not approving , and a positive of deserting . there may be an egress out of babylon , not by the paces of the body , but the affections of the souls . it is emphatically expressed ( that ye be not partakers of her sins ) of her sins , not of her virtues ; of her sinners , not with her sinners , especially in those exercises , wherein they are not sinners . i need not perplex my self to enervate the force of your argument . this will not prop your separation , till you prove the church of england to be babylon , at least in a figurative acception to be ranked , parallel'd with it for infidelity , for idolatry . till then your supposition is an imputation . it is aristotles maxime , one absurdity being granted , a thousand may be inferred . take heed lest you desert bethel for babel , jerusalem for samaria , lest like ixion you embrace a cloud for juno , lest you exchange a beautified paradise for a tohu bohu , a disordered chaos ; an uniform exquisite garden for an unnurtured confused wilderness , lest your flowers be not roses but nettles , your plants not vines but briars . the last citation is of the same grain , cor. . . wherefore come out from among them , and be ye separate , saith the lord , and touch no unclean thing , and i will receive you . this as the former testimony is a transcript of isaiah . . depart , depart ye ; go out from them , and touch no unclean thing : go out of the midst of her , be ye clean , that bear the vessels of the lord. this charge at the first blush is confined to the priests and levites . the jewish rabbines expound it as a precept not to wave the opportunity of cyrus consent for the jews returning from babylon to jerusalem . the fathers of the church enlarge this precept to a prophesie ( a mixture of both ) for the christians retiring from jerusalem to pella , before the destruction of it ( which is testified by eusebius to have been accomplish'd ) the further application of it extends not to your separation . take the english marginal annotations . he warns the faithful , not to pollute themselves with the superstitions of the babylonians . junius and tremelius interpret the departure repentance , the separation sanctification . what our english translation renders , be ye clean . the septuagint , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , be ye separated ; estius observes the separation prescribed to be for opinion and affection . the geneva divines run the same descant , that this separation ought to be purifying , sanctifying . the apostle doth no otherwise press it to the corinthians , for a mental not a local discession ; spiritual ( as aquinas distinguisheth ) not corporal . not to touch an unclean thing , is not like the jews shy distance from the gentiles & the samaritans ; who upon a sudden approach startled and admonish'd , touch me not : but not to touch is to disgust , to reprehend , not to gloze , not to palliate offences . i pray observe the object of the separation ( expressed by the apostle , in that sixth chapter of the second epistle to the corinthians , cited by you . ) it is the infidel in verse , darkness in verse . for the spirits of darkness ; idols in verse . for idolaters , according to theophylacts rule of exposition , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ( things for persons ) because the christian corinthians were required to separate from the damned fiends , from branded idolaters , pagan infidels , in their unrighteous , idolatrous sacrifices and feasts . will you hence induce a justification of your separation , from professors in christian sacramental actions : it is a very lame consequence . lastly , it is observable what kind of mixture is taxed , prohibited in the apostles perswasive , invective ( in the sixth chapter of the second epistle to the corinthians ) it is a yoking which imports binding and linking ( jugum à jungendo ) an unequal yoking of piety with infidelity , of christianity with paganism , like that of the tuscan tyrant ( of the living with the dead ) it is not only expressed a participation or fellowship , not only a communion , or rather communication 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in verse . but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not convention , according to the vulgar latin , but consent , not an assembly , but an harmony in verse . like several musical instruments tuned to an exact melody ( saith aretius ) nay , entituled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; not barely an agreement , not meerly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; an assimilation , a resemblance ( as the old scholiast illustrates it ) but it denotes an entire confederacy in infidelity . this variety of eloquence-is the apostles pregnant rhetorick to present an absolute correspendence heightned to complacence of society . this we allow not with profest believers , whose lives are notoriously vitious , scandalous . but this apostolical severity reflects upon pagan , not christian professors . i have sifted this testimony , the rather because as it hath been managed , it hath been a specious snare to men of honest upright hearts , though not of discerning , piercing intellectuals . the letter . who those are , and what the things are , we must separate from . i speak here of separation from men professing , not heathens . the persons are brethren , the things are offences , scandals . the unclean were to be separated of old , levit. . , . chron. . . matth. . , . wicked persons are called dogs , matth. . . compare this with pet. . . . they are apostatized , or degenerated persons cor. . , . thess. . . . tim. . . they are such as have a profession and no more . the answer . your proofs hitherto have extended only to pagans and jews , for the persons to be separated from , whom you cannot gild with the title of professors and brethren ; the things , or motives to be separated for , you state to be offences or scandals . but all scandals are not sufficient inducements of separation , not passive scandals ( taken ) but active scandals ( given ) nay , not active scandals , till they are legally convicted , doomed . your first refuge is to the jewish sanctuary ; but the sanctuary being abrogated , your argument is dissolv'd . the two first citations are of the same judaical batch , lev. . , . do not drink wine nor strong drink , thou nor thy sons with thee , when you go into the tabernacle of the congregation , lest you die ; it shall be a statute for ever through your generations . and that you put difference between the holy and the unholy , and between the unclean and clean . chron. . . and he set the porters at the gates of the house of the lord , that none which was unclean in any thing should enter in . the occasion of the prohibition urged out of levit. . is apprehended to be nadab and abihus strange fire . it seems they were distempered when they sacrificed , and were not qualified to distinguish betwixt clean and unclean . for the priests were obliged 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to examine the sacrifices , which could not well be effected , when they were debauched . quid hoc ad rhombum ? the historical narrative pleaded ( chron. . ) was jehojadas act the high priest , who set the porters . this may serve as a flourish for ecclesiastical jurisdiction for excommunication by authority , not as the least varnish for separation of themselves of any under authority . to take a fuller survey of this double testimony . the first ( of levit. ) is expounded of holy and prophane days , of clean and unclean beasts and sacrifices . st. austin is sceptical , hovering in suspence , whether to understand the persons or oblations , the officers or the offerings . grant the persons to he unclean , according to the second testimony ( out of the chronicles ) yet this was only a mosaical ceremonial pollution for the jew , which will not conclude a moral , evangelical pollution for the christian to be separated from . origen , who is titled the allegorizing father , is very shy , and useth a solemn apology , for that allegorical plication of this legal pollution . perhaps you will object that these outward defilements were types of inward , moral , habitual : however , these are but shadows of proofs , empty conjectural resemblances , not solid substantial arguments . but i shall gratifie you so far , as to examine the typical force of your testimonies . three sorts of judaical , eminent pollutions there were ; by the dead , by issue , by leprosie ; and three different separations , or purgations chalked out . out of the camp of god , of the priests , of israel . these were by jewish doctors reputed types of their gradual excommunications ; nidui , caerem , samatha ( in the syriack maran-atha ) figures of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in the greek church ; of the abstenti , excommunicati , anathematizati , in the western church . this typical force being displayed in its brightest colours , its fullest dimensions , will countenance a separation after excommunication , not before it . your next quotation is matth. . . . but if he will not hear thee , then take with thee one or two more ; that in the mouth of two or three witnesses , every word may be establish'd . and if he shall neglect to hear them , tell it to the church . but if he neglect to hear the church , let him be to thee as a heathen and a publican . this is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the apple of debate , the helena contended for , espoused by each party . i conceive with submission to more learned mature judgements , that though this testimony like a well drawn picture , may seem to fix an aspect on every spectator ( that looks on it ) yet it appears design'd for a special direction in point of particular , personal offences betwixt the jews : this sort of scandal being discernible , like a vein through the whole body of the chapter . if thy brother shall trespass against thee , in verse . how oft shall my brother sin against me , in verse . these queries sound particular offences betwixt the jews , because of the last result . let him be to thee as a heathen and a publican . an expression that suits with no other nation but the jew ; who being then left destitute of redress in case of injury by any that waved the jewish , mosaical , for the caesarean , roman government and tribunal , our saviour chalks out a gradual vindicative progress . first , a brotherly solitary admonition ( tell him his fault betwixt him and thee alone . ) secondly , a friendly private reprehension , a glympse of neighbourly arbitration ( then take with thee one or two more . ) thirdly , a publick judiciary convention ( tell it to the church , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to the assembly , 't is so interpreted , act. . , . . ) this was the jewish sanedrim , in the opinion of calvin and beza . lastly , if he be refractory to the authority of the sanedrim , then take liberty of caesars reparation , of being righted by the roman jurisdiction ( let him be to thee as a heathen and a publican . ) the main exception against this comment will be , that this undermines the foundation of church discipline , whereas this is elsewhere abundantly supported . the next words of binding and loosing , do not absolutely control this sense ; for as there may be a binding of obduration by god , of excommunication by the church , so of reprehension by a particular person , whose reproof binds , fetters in guilt , when it reclaims not ; as also it untwists the cords , loosens the manacles , when it effectually reforms . i dare not press with confidence any exposition that is eccentrical to the orb of the church , that hath the least apparence of novelty , of singularity ; i only tender this sense of the text alledged as probable , without a literal wrench , which if admitted renders the testimony an impertinency as to your drift . but suppose the words in the most indulgent acception to your advantage : because a heinous , notorious offender , after reiterated fruitless reproofs , having disregarded the charity of a brother , and the authority of his mother the church , is to be proceeded against , or reputed , rejected as a heathen and a publican , as an alien to religion ; will you hence argue that without these methods of varied addresses , without admonition ratified with conviction , you a private person may separate from the church , whereof you were a member , a son , and in effect explode the church it self , as if it were a heathen and a publican . there is no engine of logick or divinity will conclude it . this text stands at enmity with your opinion . for if a man trespassing were not to be accounted as ethnicus , or publicanus , till there preceded a dic ecclesiae ; not to be branded or deserted , till that authority be disesteemed ; then 't is unquestionable none can separate and judge a christian to be a heathen , any man to be a publican at his own pleasure . authority of the church must be appealed to , and disobeyed , or else no separation can be confirmed by this testimony . you charge afresh , wicked persons are called dogs , matth. . . the title of a dog is a branding obloquy , a name of reproach in all languages ( as criticks observe ) though the description , the comparison of the holy ghost is not to be scrupled at , yet your application may ( as to parochial members ) they may be sheep in gods estimate , who are dogs in yours . these dogs may be permitted to pick up the crumbs under the table . thus the turks in a zeal of mahumetanism debar christians from their moschos , reviling them to be dogs , because they do not ordinarily use bathes . the donatists , who deemed and termed the orthodox christians in the primitive church dogs , in a haughty contempt and contumely , flung the sacred elements of the eucharist to dogs ( in a literal sense ) which dogs enraged flew upon the donatists , and tore them in pieces , for to revenge so horrid an impiety and indignity . to return to your argument . the text you urge , forbids that which is holy to be given to dogs . that which is holy is there unvailed by the best commentators to be the evangelical doctrine : this debats sermons ( as well as sacraments ) to parochial members , which you allow to those whom you account dogs . st. chrysostom and euthymius understood these dogs to be infidels . in this notion it is not fit to take the childrens bread , and to cast it to dogs , who will not regard , but revile it . st. paul and barnabas exasperated by this snarling reception deserted the jews , and applied themselves to the gentiles . you reinforce your assault , pet. . , . to fix the aspersion of dogs on parochial members , being apostatized , degenerated persons . without further discussing of the texts , i confess as infidels are compared to dogs for barking , and tearing ; so are apostates for a recidivation of trangression , like dogs licking up what they disgorge . but since a reiterated offence doth plead no absolute incapacity of repentance ( that was the condemned novatian disconsolate heresie . ) a lapsed , relapsed sinner , if allowed to be a penitent , is not restrained , but in capacity to be a communicant . our blessed saviour prescribes remission to st. peter seventy times seven times . origen understood it literally , but the rest of the fathers expound it siguratively : a definite number for an indefinite , for an infinite . this is the duty of an earthly brother , which is much exceeded by the transcendent mercy of an heavenly father . his candor is the perfect pattern , ours the imperfect copy . be you merciful as your father is merciful . as for similitude , though not for equality , as no less in an extensive than intensive consideration ; no less for frequency than sincerity . your next citation , cor. . . ( purge out therefore the old leaven ) verse . put away from among you the wicked person , prima facie , at the first blush hath the apparence of an ecclesiastical censure , and is generally so interpreted by commentators ; that the doom which was determined , pronounced by the apostles , should be executed by the corinthians . this proves that an incestuous person and such scandalous offenders are to be excommunicated , and separated from , being excommunicated , but not before . if separation be precedent , excommunication needs not be consequent . it were a superfluity of severity . — stat magni nominis umbra . i pray observe that the incestuous person was a member of the particular church of corinth , till he was excommunicated , otherwise he could not be ejected out of it : as heinsius rationally observes . for to be excluded , undeniably presupposeth to be interested . the consequence is the same , for every heinous sinner , who is a profest believer till sentence to be excommunicated . your double succeeding testimony , thess. . . ( that you withdraw your selves from every brother that walketh disorderly ) verse . ( note that man , and have no company with him ) amounts to the same single force of excommunication , if most commentators rightly understand it , here note ( saith aquinas ) the sentence is inflicted for disobedience . zanchy raiseth as a doctrinal observation , whom the church should excommunicate . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a military metaphor for disorder'd , disbanded soldiers . there is an admonition precedent , warn them that are unruly . a second admonition , we command and exhort you by the lord jesus . aquinas collects conviction , and manifestation from the charge . 't is no ordinary mark , not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , set , as it were , a mark on the forehead . it is a note of excommunication , saith beza . some few expositors understand a prohibition of familiar conversation , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , not to be mingled , incorporated . it denotes the entire conjunction of wedlock or friendship , junius and tremelius link both expositions . the familiarity of the excommunicated is to be eschewed . your last citation , tim. . . having a form of godliness , but denying the power thereof , from such turn away : whence you collect , they are such then as have but a profession , and no more . this is indeed the character of a hypocrite , who is like a swan , that hath white feathers , but a black skin . the hypocrite must be unmask'd ( as the swan unfeather'd ) he must be convicted , before separated from . till then the semblance of innocence ( the form of godliness ) ranks him in the visible church . lyra glosseth this formal piety to be a sacramental society of pure and impure profest christians . i need not add more weight to this position , since your passages of your letter admit the hypocrite . take the close of your quotation ( from such turn away ) in its largest capacity , as relating to the black catalogue in the former verses ( , , . ) it is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , avoid , according to the remists ; but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , turn away ; not affording the least countenance , or connivance . this denotes a high disgust , a resentment of their vitious courses , a distance for a defiance ; an aversation for a detestation , not of the men , but of their corrupt manners . grant this to be applied to the persons , that acted the abominations ( from such turn away , or according to the syriack , remove such far from thee . ) this discards a private carnal conversing in the chamber , not a publick spiritual communicating in the church . that we receive not those into our houses , into our bosoms , that we entertain them not for our intimate friends , who proclaim themselves to be gods obdurate enemies . in this sence the apostles caveat tends to prevent the insensible catching , infection of a pestilent , ungratious conversation . uvaque contactu livorem ducit ab uva . this caution may be byast with a further scope , more peculiarly reflecting upon timothy ; that he should turn away from such offenders of steeled faces , that being habitually depraved , obstinately hardned , they should not ineffectually be exhorted , argued with . the patient may be quitted , when the cure is despaired . junius and tremelius thus descant on the caveat . estius parallels it with the apostolical precept to titus . , . a man that is an heretick , after the first and second admonition reject : knowing that he that is such is subverted and sinneth , being condemned by himself . the letter . we cannot communicate with those whom we are commanded by god to separate from without sin . but scandalous and offending brethren are such as we are commanded to separate from — cor. . . if not to keep company in the lesser , as ordinary commerce , & eating , much less may we in the greater . the answer . distinguish betwixt separation in communion and conversation , and there will evidently appear four terms in your argument , which will discover it not a fallacy only in divinity , but a prodigie in logick . the major proposition is true only , as to separating in communion : the minor proposition is true only , as to separating in conversation . to prevent ambiguity , amphibology . i shall crave leave to new mould your syllogism . we may not communicate with such , whom we are commanded by god to separate from in communion . but from scandalous sinners we are commanded by god to separate from in communion . therefore we may not communicate with scandalous sinners . i deny the minor proposition . this you assay to confirm by the apostles prohibition , cor. . . ( with such a one no not to eat ) you hence fortifie your argument . if not to keep company in the lesser , as ordinary commerce , and eating , much less may we in the greater . i answer . the topick canon , from the lesser to the greater , is a valid proof , when both are of the same tribe ( of the same stock and nature ) when they are cloathed with the dress of the same circumstances . but your instances are not . take the illustration from calvin . the one is arbitrary , it is in our power not to eat with a scandalous brother . the other is necessary , to communicate with him ( in the lords supper ) he can till excommunicated , plead an interest in the lords table , ( which is secund● post naufragium tabula , the second plank after shipwrack ) he can plead no interest in yours . if the church ( saith calvin ) tolerate an unworthy person ; it is commendable to be shy of his society , so far as may consist with a mans duty ; so that hereby no schism , no separation as to church communion be introduced . aretius manifests the fallacious abuse of your topick maxime by this reason . private familiarity of repast with the wicked may taint in point of conversation , at least tempt , molest , but not so for the publick piety of the sacrament . in the one the holy encourage the impiety of the prophane : in the other the prophane countenance the piety of the holy . their access , if impenitent needs not scare , nor divert your approach if penitent , ( a foil to set off your lustre of religion ) your joynt prayers and graces may be helps to purge them ; their defect and blemishes cannot annoy and soil you in the sacramental devotion . like a bee you may suck honey out of that herb , out of which others like spiders extract poyson . as the fragrancy of that oyntment deadens the fly , which enlivens the dove . the principle , quicquid recipitur recipitur ad modum recipientis , is no less appliable to a sacrament than a sermon : both admit different repugnant operations , according to the capacities of auditors , and receivers . as a reverent auditor is not less edified , because of irreverent auditors in the same church , so a faithful communicant is not less sanctified , because an unfaithful dissolute brother , partakes of the same table . remember the apostles caution , wherein ( in the judgement of expositors ) he pricks the bladder of pharisaical censure , let every man prove his own work , and then shall he have cause of rejoycing in himself alone , and not in another . it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , not against another , saith st. chrysostom , to tax , to condemn him . the apostle enforceth this caution with a prediction , which may unplume any spiritual arrogance , and turn the edge of any censorious rigor . for every man shall bear his own burden . this personal clog of guilt hath weight and terror enough to cause you and me to sigh and tremble for our selves . alas , there needs no panick affrightment of being loaded and polluted with the corruptions of others , in uncorrupt actions , unless such only as are committed to our charge , whose vitious courses may reflect stains , if promoted by our neglects , by our defaults . the letter . it is called a communion , cor. . , , . i suppose meant a communion of saints , as far as our charity guided by the word may discern , but to say , that a company of ignorant drunkards , swearers , sabbath breakers are saints , is contrary to the word of god , cor. . . joh. . , . matth . . let us take heed of it , esa. . . prov. . . they profess christ , cor. . . . therefore such make not the communion : a mixt communion is not for christ. his members must be homogeneal , or else a monster , cor. . . the answer . to prove a communion of saints in the eucharist you cite , cor. . . ( the cup of blessing , which we bless , is it not the communion of the blood of christ , the bread which we break , is it not the communion of the body of christ ) this relates to the matter of the communion , not to the quality of the communicant . you add ( vers . , . but i say that the things which the gentiles sacrifice , they sacrifice to devils , and not to god , i would not that you should have fellowship with devils . ) the apostle here brands the oblations of depraved gentiles to damned spirits , and forbids those that communicate in a christian pious sacrament to partake of a pagan idolatrous feast , this is remote eccentrical to our question . i hope your judgement as well as your charity better guided than to rank those you separate from with heathens , idolaters , or to repute their sacrifice of thanksgiving to god , to be an offering to satan . you aggravate it as a soloecism in religion , to say , that a company of ignorant drunkards , swearers , sabbath breakers are saints . is this your best character to descypher a parochial , ecclesiastical assembly . the sharpest invectives are the slightest proofs . it was but a frothy confutation of a fiery spirit in lucian — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thou cursed wretch . we may in these , saith st. austin to petilianus , a donatist , be alike copious , but we will not be alike vain . as if like those of china you fancied your selves only to have two eyes , ( of reason and of religion ) and the rest of the world but one , your first brand is ignorant . i pray set down what proportion of knowledge is precisely requisite in a communicant , and how far that phrase of discerning of the lords body is necessarily to be extended . after constant catechisms and sermons in parochial churches , mens ignorance is not so great in not knowing what to practice , as their prophaneness in not practising what they know . where catechisms and sermons are not frequent , where the expedients of saving knowledge are not tendred , your charity may determine this ignorance of a pure negation , not of a depraved disposition ; an involuntary necessitated , not a voluntary affected ignorance . however you deem , there is a gratious high priest , after the order of melchisedeck , who can have compassion on the ignorant , heb . . it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which according to theophylact imports commensuration , compassion , condescention , condonation ( to match , to melt , to bend , to stoop , ( so the syriack ) to pardon ) this compassion is not confined to the ignorant , but extended to the delinquent . ( and on them that are out of the way ) 't is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , such as swerve deviate from the narrow path of integrity ; such as are seduced by the wiles , the impostures of satan . this notion comprehends your description of the black rabble , ( swearers , drunkards , &c. ) especially if the transgressions be not predominant , if the transgressors be not impenitent . they may be titled saints professional , though not actual , for their tenets , though not for their lives ; as to the outward administration of the general covenant of grace , though not as to the inward special participation . yet in the strictest consideration they are to be enrolled saints , till they are convicted to be miscreants : till then , though they are not such really in themselves , yet they are judicially in the eye of the law , in the censure of the church . not only by the rule of charity , but equity ; every man is presumed , supposed to be good , till he be legally proved to be evil . to twist together your objections of ignorance and prophaneness ( drunkards , &c. ) which you press as inconsistent with saintship ; i confess not reconcileable with practical , yet reconcileable with federal sanctity to be interested in a visible church . the israelites were charged for ignorance , worse than brutish ( the ox knows his owner , the asse his masters crib : but israel hath not known , my people hath not understood ) so universally , signally corrupted for conversation , the whole nation is decypher'd , branch'd out to be princes of sodom , and people of gomorrah , and yet titled the children of god in vers . . the vineyard of the lord of hosts in is. . . yet the fruits were not delitious , oppression in vers . . covetous in vers . . drunkenness in vers . . . security and impenitency in verse . deliberate , obstinate iniquity in vers . , . though sodom and samaria were outvied in guilt by israel , yet were they a people relating to god by covenant , though forfeited by their defailance , disobedience ; yet by gods indulgence , not deserted , disclaimed by himself ( i will remember my covenant made with thee , in the days of thy youth ) it is hoseah's black enditement , no truth , no mercy , no knowledge of god in the land . by lying , and swearing , and killing , and stealing , and whoring blood toucheth blood , ) and yet it is appropriated , my people in the sixth and twelfth verses of that chapter ; not ironically , but truly as ( zanchy expounds it , ) in regard of an external adoption , of outward symboles expresses of religion ; which served as publick badges and cognizances to manifest the jews ecclesiastical visible priviledges , not to be a people uncovenanted , unchurched . suppose this nation more depraved than sodom and samaria , yet is it but ballanc'd with israel ; and it is no greater soloecism in scripture language to entitle this nation to be saints ( for its parochial members ) for the profession of true religion , than to entitle the jews to be gods people on the same account . they are like parallel lines proportionable , suitable to each other . the people of israel were sanctified by a federal relation , were circumcised ; they owned gods oracles , but disobeyed his laws . the scene of circumcision being shifted to baptism , our case holds resemblance ( as to a visible church ) as face answers face in water . i shall add by way of surplusage , the apostles themselves were not absolutely acquitted from ignorance of scandal ; even in a remarkable conjuncture , notwithstanding the celebrating of our saviours last supper , and the approaching of the last scene of our saviours tragedy , they were contentious , and ambitious , tainted with pride and variance . ( there a rose a strife among them , which should be greatest . ) ignorant they were of the saving mysteries of christs passion , his resurrection ; notwithstanding the predictions of the prophets , the sermons of our saviour , yet they understood the scepter only , not the cross of christ , the apprehension of a temporal , not a spirituall messiah fluttered in their brains , yet were still listed , reputed disciples , apostles . nay , judas himself , when he was declared , pointed out a traitor ( being not excommunicated ) was not debarred the name or the seal of a disciple ( the sacrament ) as it is recorded by three evangelists . a truth written radio solari , in tertullians phrase , with a sun-beam , manifest to discerning judgement , not dimmed with prejudice or cavil . since that judas ( his treason being discovered , but not doomed ) was reckoned among christs disciples , why may not vitious persons uncensured by the church , who profess christianity , as to that profession be named saints . you pretend this is contrary to gods word , cor. . . this text hath been already sifted . as to your present application of it , i answer , this debars such offenders from being members of the mystical church , of that part of it which is triumphant in heaven , not of the church militant , so far as it is visible here on earth . your next text is , john . . ( if we say that we have fellowship with him , and walk in darkness , we lie , and do not the truth . ) this excludes practical , habitual malefactors ( such as walk in darkness ) from being comprehended in the catholick invisible church , not in a particular visible church . the next verse points out as an evidence of this innocence ( fellowship one with another ) an united congregation , not a disjoynted separation . your third citation is matth. . , . and when he saw many of the pharisees come to his baptism ; he said to them , o generation of vipers , who had warned you to flee from the wrath to come . bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance . this by way of analogy ( betwixt baptism , and the eucharist ) proves that every communicant ought to be a real penitent , not that we ought not to communicate with him , who is a real impenitent . you seem to deal with these texts , to form and fit them to your opinion , as procustes did with his guests , to proportion their dimensions to his bed ; some he hack'd and cut shorter , others he rack'd and stretch'd out . you annex a caveat , is. . . wo unto them that call evil good , and good evil ; that put darkness for light , and light for darkness ; that put bitter for sweet , and sweet for bitter . i pray god be merciful to any of either party ( tros rutulusve fuit ) who is justly liable to this commination . when ever your separation is demonstrated to be good , when your doctrine is manifested to be light , i shall not presume to misname , nor disesteem it . but if the blaze of comets be accounted the splendor of stars ; if a new light , that diverts to schism , extinguish the old orthodox ; if division , distraction , confusion in religion be gilded with the title , the varnish of reformation , if sects that are to be bewailed , lamented for , be applauded , gloried in ( as some ladies imagine their little black spots to be grand beauties ) then this caution affords a retortion , and may be weighed by your selves . you enforce this caveat of isaiah with solomons aphorism , prov. . . he that justifieth the wicked , and he that condemneth the just , they both are abominable to the lord. whether this is to be interpreted of publick judicature , or private censure , i shall not discuss . if you appropriate the epithet just , as you do saints to your selves ; we honor whatever hath the true savour of sanctity in you : we are ready to embrace you in our bowels , in our church . upon your aversness we condemn not the separatist , but the separation , because erected upon an unwarrantable foundation , upon a pharisaical presumption . if you apply the wicked , mentioned solomon , to a parochial assembly formerly asperst by you to be a company of drunkards , swearers , sabbath-breakers ; i am no advocate to plead for any crimes or scandals . i resent , bewail , and detest them , and upon all fit opportunities shall present the guilt and horror of them to the consciences of the offenders , in the sharpest accents : though when ever acted , they are sufficient grounds for the ministers general reprehension in the pulpit , yet not of your particular separation from the lords table , till they are declared , sentenced by the church . you proceed . they profess christ , cor. . , . ( know ye not that your bodies are the members of christ ? shall i then take the members of christ , and make them the members of a harlot ? god forbid , verse . but he that is joyned to the lord is one spirit , vers . . ) the apostle doth here by the elegant charm of sacred rhetorick disswade , deter the christian corinthians from lasciviousness , being the darling sin of corinth , where a thousand beautiful damosels were the votaries of venus ( as herodotus and strabo testifie ) so that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , became proverbial to be wanton : the spreading contagion of uncleanness there occasioned the apostles piercing expostulation , for a searching , healing , at least a preventing physick , you may hence argue , that fornication severs a profest christian inwardly from christ , when ever committed , and not repented of , but not outwardly from the church , without conviction and promulgation . you object such make not the communion , because a mixt communion is not fit for christ , his members must be homogeneal , or else a monster . this argument is fallacious , ab ignoratione elenchi . wicked men so far as they are christs members , are homogeneal , to wit , in profession , though heterogeneal in conversation , wherein they are not christ's members . your objection is not ejusdem secundum idem . real , actual believers are members homogeneal inwardly , sincerely : verbal , professional believers are members homogeneal outwardly , formally . if this professional consideration will not serve , how do you confess hypocrites to be members of the church , since they are no otherwise homogeneal , than a glass eye , or a wooden leg is to a true body , than a painted face is to a genuine complexion , than the fucus , the paint of art is to the beauty of nature . lastly , you conclude the church , if not homogeneal , a monster ; whereas , impiety in church members is not monstrosity till emproved to impenitenoy : such monsters are to be cut off , to be excommunicated . your citation in the close , cor. . . hath been already discuss'd . the apostle there forbids the corinthians to be yoked with pagan unbelievers , because of the profest idolatry : therefore you will be separate from christian believers for their practick iniquity . the letter . a mixt communion may do no hurt , what is it to me , what others are ? ans. yes , it will be hurt to him that commucates with scandalous brethren , cor. . . it is not meant there the sin , but the incestuous person . the danger is in vers . . so gal. . . which is , it may become sin to me in neglecting my duty , if i have not endeavoured the casting out of a scandalous person , as far as it lyeth in me , and in following the rule , matth. . , , . the answer . you plead it noxious to communicate with scandalous brethren , from cor. . . compared with vers . . i have already vindicated this text from your gloss , being to be understood of excommunication , not separation without it ▪ you add , gal. . . ( a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump ) it is a recital of the same maxime , but not with the same scope , or drift . in the fifth chapter of the first epistle to the corinthians , it is applied to the incestuous person , but in the fifth to the galatians , to the infection of circumcision , a contagious doctrine . it is our saviours lecture . beware of the leaven of the pharisees . their singularity , their hypocrisie like leaven had a double influence , to swell and sower ( arrogance and virulence ) if this leaven be entirely purged out , the question of separation will be completely stated , absolutely determined . if we will separate from the pharisee , in the secret mortification of our own bosoms , we cannot separate from the publican , in the publick pious devotion of the temple . this primary duty being conscientiously observed ( of purging the corruption of our own hearts ) the secondary duty will much more dextrously he discharged to endeavour so far as in us lyeth ( within the compass of our own sphere , our calling ) to cleanse the congregation of its corruption ( a scandalous person . ) the rule proposed , matth. . , , . hath been copiously examined , though by your selves scantily observed . the letter . if i have gone so far by professing and witnessing against it , i discharged my duty , or else i sin , and if the church will not do it after long patience and waiting , i know no warrant to continue in such a diseased body , that will not , nor cannot purge out its infectious humours , that wants such a precious ordinance of jesus christ , of separating the precious from the vile , hag. . , , . that the unholy do defile , and unhallow the holy in such a way , as i said before , so that to communicate in such a way is sin . the answer . it ought to be our prime care in this exigency , not to partake of the sins of other men ( when they are vitious and scandalous ) not to be engaged in them by precept , or precedent , by advice or example , by assistance or countenance , nay , not by connivence , silence . if the church doth not excommunicate , yet are not we commissioned to separate . but you know no warrant to continue in a diseased body that cannot , will not purge out her infectious humours . the desire of the church of england is fervent , though impotent for her power ; impotent not in actu primo for constitution , but actu secundo for execution . ecclesiastical censure is not imposed , because opposed . will you charge outward impediments for inward defects of the church . you tax the want of the pretious ordinance of separating the pretious from the vile , to be a ground for your separating and offer for a proof . hag. . , , . if one bear holy flesh in the skirt of his garment , and with his skirt do touch bread or pottage , or wine , or oyl , or any meat , shall it be holy ? and the priest answered and said , no. then said haggai , if one that is unclean by a dead body touch any of these , shall it be unclean ? and the priest answered and said , it shall be unclean . then answered haggai , and said , so is this people , and so is this nation before me , saith the lord , and so is every work of their hands , and that which they offer there is unclean . the judgement of the priest was not erroneous , if any unclean person touch bread , it shall be unclean to him that is unclean , not to him that is clean . thus an impenitent person polluteth what he receiveth to himself in the communion , not what the penitent receiveth . to the pure all things are pure , tit. . this testimony of haggai concerns a judaical , ceremonial , ritual defilement ; which is not directly argumentative to infer a moral , an evangelical . as for the application of it , the prophet manifests the sacrifices of the jews to be impure , because their hearts were ; resembling them to those that contract impurity by the dead . thus junius and tremelius understood it . this text admits no consequence , no inference to your advantage . if one unclean by a dead body , &c. this might be so covertly managed , that it might be concealed , not discerned ; and yet the thing he touch'd was unclean . whence what can you deduce except it be that even hypocrites undiscovered do pollute the sacraments , and render them unclean to every one that communicates with them ? ( a position you will not assert ) if from some mens uncleanness the holy institutions of god should be defiled to others , who can be unsoiled . god help us , with whom should any man communicate to assure himself of exemption from this pollution . yea , but i know the man is unclean . that i cannot peremptorily determine , because of his being present , his desire and design to receive the seal of his salvation in charity induces me to a perswasion , at least prompts me to a hope , that he is penitent . hezekiahs candor deserves a serious consideration , a pious imitation ( for a multitude of people , even many of ephraim and manasseh , issachar and zebulun , had not cleansed themselves : yet did they eat the passover otherwise than it was written . but hezekiah prayed for them , saying , the good lord pardon every one , that prepareth his heart to seek god , the lord god of his fathers , though he be not cleansed according to the purification of the sanctuary . ) this prayer , that abounded in charity , was not scanted for success . a great compassion of man was owned , and crowned by a greater of god. 't is recorded in the next verse , and the lord hearkned to hezekiah , and healed the people . though our congregations are not cleansed according to the purification of the sanctuary , yet i wish you would rather commiserate , than separate , exercise yearning bowels to bemoan , rather than branding epithets to doom ; that you would rather pray for us , than censure ; this will neither hallow our people , nor your self . but ( à diverticulo ad viam ) to return to your objection , the rational force whereof is sophistical , non causa pro causa . the want of excommunication in the church of england , is no sufficient warrant for your separation . this at most imports an imperfection , not an abolition . i appeal to calvins judgement . we do no less esteem it a church ( for this defect ) we persist in its communion , we aver it not lawful for men to segregate , to separate themselves from it . this also is paraeus decision , where ecclesiastical censures cannot be obtained by the iniquity of the governours , or the obstinacy of the people , he recommends prudence and patience to all , to pastors a special diligence ( to support the of want rigorous discipline , with the power of vigorous doctrine ) considering our saviours consolation . blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness , for they shall be satisfied . but he admonisheth to shun the pestilent opinion of the donatists , as if there were no true church , where there is not this severe discipline . polanus confidently resolves , that a church is not immediately to be disavowed upon neglect or cessation of ecclesiastical discipline . to omit other numerous testimonies , i shall add only zanchies determination ( the reformed learned schoolman ) in what churches soever the fundamental summary of apostolical doctrine is retained , and therein no manifest idolatry admitted , peace and communion is to be regarded with those assemblies , as the true churches of christ. so greatly is ecclesiasticall unity to be esteemed . were this sober moderate rule assented to , it would put your separation to the blush ; which it self alone , ( being the fertile womb of a various prodigious issue of sects in this climate ) is a greater scandal to the reformed religion , than all those vitious , notorious practices , ( not punish'd with church censures , whereby it is pretended to be justified . ) this is the harmonious opinion of reformed divines . if these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , these inartificial arguments , if their authority sway not ; i shall add 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , artificial from the grand topick , the end of excommunication , which spreads it self into three eminent branches , ( . that the church may be vindicated . . that the offender may be reclaimed . . that others may not be infected . ) neither design is advanced by separation . the church of england is by you unjustly scandall'd , branded ( being indeed not corrupted in its self as rejecting excommunication , but disabled , restrained from executing it . ) offenders are hereby more exasperated , tempted to be more depraved , being deserted in those acts , wherein they are not offenders , being doomed unheard , unsummon'd ) lastly , others are more endangered to be infected , being abandon'd unwarrantably by those , by whose exemplary graces they might be preserved untained . the letter . so then i conclude thus . that to communicate with such persons , and in a church that generally consists of such as we are commanded above to withdraw , and separate from , is sin . to communicate in and with the parishes of england , is so to communicate , therefore 't is sin . the answer . i have already discovered the invalidity of your major , in those instances produced ; whence it is collected . i deny your minor proposition . to communicate in and with the parishes of the church of england , is not to communicate with those we are commanded by god to separate from , your proof is fallacia accidentis . the wickedness wherein we are to separate is extrinsecal , accidental to the holiness wherein we communicate . were our parishes such as you decypher them , yet were it no sin to communicate in and with them for acts of necessary duty , of piety ; but of unnecessary familiarity , intimacy , impiety . it is no sin to communicate with such sinners sacramentally , whilst such sinners are not excommunicated . the letter . a church that generally consists of ignorant , prophane and scandalous persons , and scoffers therein , is a degenerate church , and not safely to he communicated with , when other lawful ways are offered . but such are generally the people of the parishes of england and wales , as sad experience testifieth , and so a degenerated church . therefore not safely to be communicated with . it was gods controversie with the church , rev. . . the answer . i may except against your major proposition . for a church is not to be estimated by the errors , the erailties , nay , the enormities , the prodigies of some members , but by its own laws ( establishments , acknowledgements ) and by the manners , the practices of the better , the sounder part , saith peter martyr . the bent of your argument is fallacious , a dicto secundum quid ad dictum simpliciter , whilst you tax the constitution of the church for the corruption of its members . however , i deny your minor proposition , which is illogically expressed , and helps to shape your syllogism a paralogism by excrescence of terms . i shall crave leave to rectifie , to regulate it . let [ testified by sad experience ] be inserted in your major proposition . a church that , testified by sad experience , consists of ignorant , prophane , scandalous persons , is not safely to be communicated with , when other lawful ways are offered . let your minor be thus framed . such are generally the people of the parishes of england , as sad experience testifieth , when other lawful ways are offered . i presume it was not your inadvertency to omit this clause ( when other ways are offered ) being in this controversie of special importance . your minor proposition being thus enlarged , contains a charge of the church of england , and a discharge of your selves from its communion , a redress by other lawful ways offered . the first part is not so properly a proposition , as an aspersion . this is to calumniate , not demonstrate ( the church of england generally consists of ignorant , prophane , scandalous persons and scoffers . ) hoc ithacus velit , & magno mercentur atridae . the jesuit will congratulate and applaud this invective , which partly justifies bellermines censorious condemnation . it is notorious manifest to all , that among hereticks ( he means protestants ) there is not one good gratious person . you here reinforce your former impeachment of ignorance , as if a separate church were the goshen of a new sacred light , and the church of england were like the rest of egypt overspread with superstitious darkness . i have already endeavoured to vindicate it from this imputation . to ignorant you add the brand of prophane , scandalous scoffers , as if your separation were like gideons fleece , besprinkled with the dew of heaven , whilst the church of england is parch'd with barbarism of infidelity . be it so , yet be not high minded , but fear ; lest your spiritual tumor alter the scene , remove the candlestick . pride tainted adam in paradise , the angels in heaven ( once blessed spirits , now damned fiends . ) remember the second part of the miracle , gideons fleece partch'd , all about it bedewed . mary magdalen , who was once possessed with devils , was afterward replenish'd with graces . these scoffers you tax may ( by gods grace ) mourn for their scoffs : those prophane persons , who o'erflow in their cups , may o'erflow in their sorrows , and exchange a deluge of distempers for tears , their frequent oaths and imprecations , for penitent prayers and supplications . and though the outward fruit be blasted , to your eye ; yet there may be secret buds and blossoms discernible to god , and acceptable in christ , notwithstanding those apparent witherings . there may be deep sighs and sobs of spirit , passionate yernings , and pantings for grace , where there are no manifest effects of it . will you deny the balm of gilead to these bleeding wounds of souls ? the sound have no need of the physician but the sick . our captivity interests us in a redeemer , our iniquity in a saviour , who summons , attracts , those who are heavy laden , clogged with their transgressions , to be disburdned of this weight and pressure , who came not to call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , just persons , who justifie themselves ; but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , heinous , scandalous sinners to repentance ; that so where sin abounds ( for apprehension , conviction , as well as commission ) there grace ( of remission ) may much more abound . to conclude , as to the first part of your minor proposition : those ignorant prophane persons in the church of england , are of christs visible floor , your pen is not the fan of that floor , to dispel , to reject them as chaff ; nor are they to be deemed so by you , till doomed so by the church . the second part of your minor proposition asserts other lawful ways offered besides communicating with the church of england degenerated . separation is no lawful way , this is petitio principii , the begging , not the proving of the question . this loud vaunt of other lawful ways is not unlike the cyclops clamor in homer , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . it is but an empty sound . it is the grave caveat of dr. kellet , take it in his own expression . reasons more than ordinary , will be expected by god and good men from him , who leapeth out of the church , in which he was born and bred , kicking at the breasts of his mother , running with the bit in his teeth , his own ways . he chalks out these paths as the most lawful ways , and expedients . first , integrity , to wash the heart from wickedness . ( a church is ill contradicted by ill depraved men . ) . to pray for , and practice humility . first cast out the beam out of thy own eye , and thou shalt see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brothers eye , ( so likewise out of thy mothers eye . ) a second expedient is conference ( without prejudice ) with learned pious pastors of a different opinion ; that truth ( not interest or faction ) may impartially be promoted . if our addresses be made to , our discourses held only with those , who are byast with our own tenets , we must expect to be soothed , applauded in our judgements , not informed and rectified . if after these assays having been sanctified , humbled , having conferred we remain yet unsatisfied , he prescribes a retired mourning and silence ; wherein he pleads the current judgement of jerome , ockam , and dr. field . thus without separation may the peace of the church , and our own innocence be secured inviolable . thus with unity and humility of spirit may we uprightly renounce the errors and vices of any members of the church , but not renounce the church it self for the errors and vices of any of its members . lastly , you affix to your conclusion , as an appendant to your argument , as a corollary naturally resulting ( though of a far different extraction and linage , ) rev. . . notwithstanding i have a few things against thee , because thou sufferest the woman jesabel , which calleth her self a prophetess to teach , and to seduce my servants to commit fornication , and to eat things sacrificed to idols . i shall not dispute whether the woman jesabel be meant helena ( simon magus lascivious darling ) or priscilla , the wanton minion of montanus , or any gnostick unchast favourite ( wherein learned expositors vary in their conjectures ) beza and junius understood fornication in that verse , to be an idolatrous sacrifice or worship seconded expresly with an idolatrous feast , to eat things sacrificed to idols . because the angel of the church of thyatyra is reproved for permitting idolatry ; will you hence conclude , that the church of england is not to be communicated by a private person in her sacramental piety . you object , it was gods controversie . i grant a controversie it was , not a judgement , ( 't is lis sub judice ) no sentence past , no bill of divorce , no separation . this instance is very inconsiderately obtruded . how gentle is the controversie ( i have a few things against thee , ) it is no sharp indictment . in the immediately precedent verse , god vouchsafes a high elogy . i know thy works , and charity , and service , and faith , and patience . though jesabel was suffered , connived at , yet others were not corrupted , not counsell'd to separate from the church for that permission , but their perseverance in good is instructed , and a recompence promised , vers . , , . blemishes are recited in other churches , specified in the same chapter , but the unblemish'd are not advised to a separation , to a schism , for any stain or corruption . the letter . god never instituted such a church , wherein his whole worship , and all his ordinances might not be injoyed . but some , if not many of the parishes are such , that all his ordinances cannot be enjoyed . to prove this , i will instance in the ordinance of excommunication . if all should be excommunicated , as the word requires , i could make it appear ( though i heartily desire it were otherwise ) that most , if not all , in many parishes should be excommunicated , and then where will the church of england be , and other ordinances enjoyed . the answer . this argument is lyable to logical exception ( the terms being varyed , and thereby multiplied . ) but i shall not scruple at the form , but answer to the matter of your syllogism . the major proposition is not absolutely true to be granted , nor absolutely false to be denied , but ambiguous to be distinguish'd . gods ordinances is an equivocal expression . some ordinances are essential , requisite to the constitution , the very being of the church , others are accidental ornaments to conduce to its perfection , it s well being : of the first sort are the preaching of the word only , and the administration of the sacraments ( in the judgement of the best reformed worthies , in direct opposition to the romanists . ) of the later sort is the ordinance of excommunication . that church which entirely wants the former sort , is not of divine institution , or approbation : in the later we must distinguish betwixt not approving excommunication to be practised , and not practising it , being approved ; and in the not practising , there is a vast difference betwixt a willing consent , and an unwilling restraint . this last is the case of the church of england , which desires to enjoy the ordinance of excommunication , according to the primitive , apostolical purity , and vehemently bewails its not enjoying . so that the substance of your argument is a sophism , a dicto secundum quid ad dictum simpliciter . from an outward impediment , to an inward defect in the church of england ; from its disaster , to its default ; from its calamity , to its impiety , its nullity . i may tender the retortion of your argument for its refutation . god never instituted such a church , wherein his whole worship , and all his ordinances cannot be enjoyed . but some , if not all , of the collected churches are such , that all his ordinances cannot be enjoyed . therefore . to prove the minor , i will instance in singing psalms , reading the scripture , baptising infants , which are not allowed , nor practised in some collected churches . i only hint this retortion , and proceed to your illustration , which is over severe like dracos law written in blood , accented with horror ; that you could make it appear , that if we should be excommunicated , that the word requires , that most , if not all , in many parishes should be excommunicated . tertius è coelo cecidit cato — give me leave to allay your rigor , as a prudent senator did cato's , that he expected a platonick commonwealth in the dreggs of romulus . here you sentence most , if not all , in many parishes , to have merited excommunication ; in a former objection you widely , expresly charge the parishes of the churches of england generally to consist of ignorant , prophane , scandalous scoffers . you have been no vicar general to visit all the parochial churches , having resided in a nook of the nation , and cannot in that angle judge exactly of the whole , like him who discovered the measure of hercules body by his foot . but it is not in point of quality of actions , as of quantity and dimensions . the body natural , political , and ecclesiastical are not alike discern'd . your harsh censure hath its foundation in conjecture or rumour ; neither will warrant its stability , or integrity in such cases , if false , your judgement perverse ; if true , 't is precipitate , 't is rash ( as aquinas state it . ) god examined , endicted before h● doomed adam , or cain , though th● sin of sodom was heinous , and clamorous , ascended from earth to heaven though it pierced the clouds , and was conspicuous in the face of the sun ▪ yet god resolved to descend from heaven to earth , to proceed to inquisition , before condemnation ( i will go down and see ) though not to satisfie himself ; yet to instruct us . he prescribes a singular exemplary , legal candor , in deut. . , , . a damosel guilty of actual uncleanness in the city is condemned , but charged with that impure act in the field is acquitted , because if she had cryed , opposed in the city , she might have been heard , relieved ; but in the remote field ( the case being doubtful ) with a mixture of equity and charity , it is decided that she cryed , was ravish'd , because not evidently to be disproved . the rule of the civil law is not inconsistent with the evangelical . in doubtful cases the milder interpretation is to be esteemed the better . if you will still persist with confidence to brand our parishes upon the experience , perhaps of others ; i shall reply only , let him that is without sin ( exempted from the present iniquity , and future capacity of it , as the pregnancy of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 imports ) cast the first stone , — iliacos intra muros pecatur & extra . — i must confess with horror and anguish of soul , that the practical corruptions , the abominations of many in our parishes are too great , which calls for the sharpest contrition of our souls in groans and agonies ; with the vilest humiliation of our bodies , the most abject prostration in sack-cloath and ashes . yet we are not the sole offenders . there is little , too little sincerity of christianity among the sons of men ; who make choice of opposite vertues and vices to serve secular interests , to satisfie sensual appetites . i wish from my soul your separation were as guiltless for spiritual trespasses , as our parishes are guilty of carnal : that the maturity of our iniquity ( as you urge ) may prevent yours , that there were no tincture , of avarice or malice out of our parochial congregations : that the voice being jacobs voice , there might be no hands of esau ; that you were all endowed as well as titled saints , to be heavenly men , according to the greek etymology , sequestred , refined from earthly dregs . but the detestation of our gross offences is no priviledge , nor plea before gods dreadful tribunal , for the prosecution of your own , though spun with a finer thread . i pray god of all hands pierce us with a deep mournful apprehension of our own personal offences ; that our parochial assemblies may be more sober and devout ; and that your separate churches may be more humble and charitable . before i quit this argument , let me admonish your candor and suspense in point of excommunication . — tantae ne animis caelestibus irae ? it is no prudent soul chirurgery ; nor innocent , to be too busie tampering with the saw . the spiritual sword of excommunication , is not hastily to be unsheathed , it savours of the papal violence to thunder out anathemaes against whole reformed churches . st. iraeneus justly blames victor for his fierceness of spirit , his proneness to excommunicate the churches of asia . the primitive church herein proceeded with much wary weighty deliberation ( saith tertullian ) as in the solemn presence of god. paraeus adviseth special moderation , because of humane infirmity , and contingency of dubious events ; it is a corrosive medicine , as very grievous , so very perillous . in this particular , — fas est & ab hoste doceri . it was a good sanction , though of no good council ( that of trent ) although the sword of excommunication be the sinew of ecclesiastical discipline , and very wholesome to contain the people in their duty , yet is soberly , and very circumspectly to be exercised . since experience tutors us , that if managed with rash passion upon light occasion , it is rather contemned than dreaded , rather destructive than preservative . father paul the venetian ( the author of the excellent history of that council of trent ) reputed this canon worthy to be engraven with letters of gold. it is in effect confest both by primitive and modern divines , that obstinacy against the authority of the church is causa primo movens , first moving ; at least promovens , promoting excommunication . your own arguments frequently intimate it . if so , what greater contumely , contumacy against the church of england , than of her own separated members ( in whom her just interest is not cancelled , though not esteemed ) if she proceeds to excommunication you disclaim , spurn at it ; if she proceeds not to excommunication , you quarrel for this neglect . separation is ( in some respects at least ) more excommunicable , than prophanation , schism than distemper . a debosh'd man , if discreetly reprehended ( otherwise it is a reproach , not a reproof ) will blush or tremble , but a separatist disdain , insult ; he disturbs the peace of the church , tears its unity : the other perverts himself , disquiets his own conscience . the apostle so passionately resents the wound of ecclesiastical faction , that he burst out . i would they were even cut off that trouble you . 't is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that are unsetling , removing you from your first station in the church . that they were cut off that trouble you . 't is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the greek phrase in the primitive church for excommunication . the apostle prescribes a recess , a distance as from excommunicated persons . mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine you have learned , and avoid them : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to observe diligently , to ken them , as enemies from a watch tower ; and when they are discovered , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , decline , wave them ; theophylacts gloss is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , recoyl . the method is observed by st. chrysostom , and oecumenius : first , divisions , then scandals , division being the prime subversion of the church . whilst it is united , satan is not admitted , scandals are not started . these offences are expounded heresies by the same fathers . heresies are in the apostles carnal list , as well as sensual vices , they are alike execrable , titled damnable by the holy ghost . it is an apostolical constitution , never to be abrogated . though we , or an angel from heaven preach any other doctrine , than that which we have preach'd to you , let him be accurst . not that an angel from heaven can preach any heretical doctrine , but mortal men on earth may , who pretend an angelical heavenly sanctity : if any such be , the doom is determined . let him be anathema . it is a sort of excommunication , hesychius , the first christian grammarian glosseth it by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , excommunicated . are not all the doctrinals of christian religion exploded by some or other separated members , who in this climate , in a few years have vented more heresies and blasphemies than any age , perhaps more than all the ages since the apostles . tantum religio potuit suadere malorum . i never yet heard of any excommunicated for a heretick out of any separate church . even in point of practical conversation , the donatists , who pressed the same objection against the african orthodox churches , yet embraced in their own vitious and scandalous gildorinians , primians , circumcelliones , indulging each other in impieties , obscuring their own crimes by defaming others . i shall not offer to revive any such black impeachment , that may reflect on the present separation . — per me equidem sint omnia protinus alba . i have enlarged this meditation , not out of the least desire that the church of england , if in its full power and lustre , should exercise its severe jurisdiction towards those of your opinion , but only to blunt your keen edge , and allay your rigor . i am no boanerges , no son of thunder towards any that are conscienciously erroneous . lastly , because the defect of excommunication is the main hinge of your separating from the church of england , i pray recollect your self , and consider the true tenor and rigor of excommunication , with the ancient practice of it . that which you account excommunication , is rather to be named excommunion . that spreading generation of men , which reject all sacred ordinances , do not dread but deride this doom . it is not to them a thunder-bolt , but a rattle . those prophane persons in the church of england excepted against ( and for them the church it self ) are either such as resent their ungracious courses , relent for them ( these being not justly to be excommunicated ) or else they are habitual obdurate offenders . this sentence ( as you seem to understand ) is to them an indulgence ; it serves to gratifie , not terrifie them , depriving them of that sacrament , whereof they deprived themselves . if you cast an eye upon the judaical , and the ancient christian discipline ( ecclesiastical ) this appears but the first gradation of excommunication , nay , scarce that . the first step among the jews was niddui , which signifies separation ( twenty four causes whereof are recited . ) this was in some measure and degree a remotion , not only from ecclesiastical , but civil and domestick society , such was not to be approached to within four paces , of this sort probably was cains excommunication . those who were excommunicated , were the menudde , who were discerned by their lips cover'd , and confined to the gate of the mourners , not admitted to the gate of the bridgegrooms . this is that separation mention'd , luk. . . the exclusion putting out of the synagogue , john . . the . . and . . this was a limited censure for three days . such was the restraint of the abstenti ( mention'd by st. cyprian ) but the offenders persevering obstinate , there was a second gradation , an aggravation of censure , without limitation of time . cherem with the addition of solemn mosaical execration , without capacity of being rabby or disciple ( neither being debarred in the former gradation ) without liberty of access to any part of the temple or synagogue . this judgement proving ineffectual , the delinquent persisting impenitent . the third gradation , samatha , ( or schammatha ) is an intire proscription , a banishing from any society of gods people , an ultimate appeal , an immediate surrender to divine vengeance . the canonists and schoolmen distinguish a lesser , and a greater excommunication ( how warrantably as to scripture rules i discuss not ) the lesser is a suspension from the sacrament ; but the greater from all holy assemblies and duties ( as prayers and sermons in the congregation . ) this is a delivering to satan to be destitute of the spiritual armory , for resisting , rejecting satan , and in the primitive apostolical church to be outwardly afflicted , corporally tormented by him . this greater excommunication doth dispriviledge the living from legal judicature , and the dead from solemn christian sepulture● , not admitting the excommunicated till absolv'd into the church for any act of communion , devotion , or attention : not into civil courts for any testimonies , not into private houses for repast ( unless in special exigencies and relations ) allowing them neither the commodity of commerce of traffick , nor the familiarity of converse , of discourse ( there being a glimmering resemblance hereof among the heathens in orestes adrastus , in the judgement of melanchthon . ) the schoolmen express these restraints in a poetical summary . si pro delictis anathema quis efficiatur , os , orare , vale , communio , mensa negatur . even in relaxation of this severe censure , there was in the greek church a gradual progress chalk'd out before a plenary absolution . the first station is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to be weepers without the gate of the church , in a doleful note to supplicate for the prayers of those that enter in ( who passionately mourn for them , saith origen , as for the dead . ) the second station is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to be auditors within the gate . the third station is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , for an humiliation of devotion to pray , and depart with the catechumeni . the fourth station is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to be rank'd with the faithful in the congregation . the last station , the perfection of the rest , is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to be re-admitted to the sacred encharist . these gradual abatements , and inhancements of judiciary severity , may be singular restraints to curb the loose reigns of prophaneness in those that retain any reverence to the ordinance of church discipline . however , to be debarred civil enfranchising , and domestick offices will bridle the most insolent extravagant offenders ▪ who have the least ingenuity of nature . to conclude this point insensibly spun out beyond my intention . — currente rota — as for your objection of whole parishes that have deserved to be excommunicated , st. austin doth not approve the excommunication of a community , a multitude , because such a sentence will fail of obedience , it invites contempt , and rather steels and hardens , than scares and saddens malefactors . aquinas seconds st. austin with this reason , lest the pure ear be rooted up with the tare . the canon law fortifies the same caution , lest the innocent be exterminated out of the church , together with the delinquent . when in a community all are engaged in the act of wickedness , yet not all alike in the guilt ; some primarily interested , others secondarily : some with delight , others with regret . however a vitious multitude professing christianity , if uncensured , is not unchurch'd . the letter . there are scandalous persons in corinth , yet a church . what they were in the first constitution appears , cor. . where the apostle brings them back to the consideration of , as if he should have said : is it not a shame you should be thus and thus now , consider what you were , and upon what account you were received at first . . it s true , there were wicked men among them , but they were enjoyn'd by the apostle to cast out those wicked men , and if they did not do it , it was their sin , and they were defiled by it , so that they remained such a church still as might excommunicate their corrupt members . the answer . you start an objection , and quickly startle from it , as willing to be rid of it ; it is propounded to its own disadvantage , contracted and disfigured : like one who contrives the disesteem of a choice piece of tapestry , by discovering the wrong side , and that not folded but rufled . you could have displayed it in a fuller measure , for proportion , in a brighter lustre for view . the whole church of corinth was discompos'd ( in its members corrupted ) for doctrine , discipline , practice . the resurrection , a principle , a fundamental of religion contradicted , scoffed . a heinous prodigious incest not only not censured , but not mourned for . carnal stains of animosities , parties , sects . contentions , injurious suits , scandalously prosecuted before pagan tribunals . intimation of christian liberty abused , chastity violated . the wounding of consciences . spiritual murther , baning of souls . idolatrous pollutions . the decency of ecclesiastical ceremies slurred . the piety of ecclesiastical assemblies blemish'd . disorderly riot , and distemper recorded . the sacrament of the lords supper prophaned , and the diffusive guilt evidenced by a diffusive judgement . ohè lassatum juvate posteri ! the church of corinth was an augean stable to be purged . can any separatist point out the church of england with a more uncomely feature . indeed the church of england doth not discover more scandal , than that of corinth , but you express less charity than the apostle . he entitled the church of corinth thus depraved , the church of god. to this objection you frame a double resolution . first , as if the apostle had reflected on their first constitution past , not their present condition and qualification . this is ( as bembus blasphemed ) to make scripture a nose of wax . you confidently boult out an unwarranted , uncountenanced gloss ; unwarranted , because it checks with the literal grammatical expression . it is to the church of god in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ▪ a participle of the present tense , nor is there the least plausible plea for a tropical evasion to flee to an enallage temporis . since the holy ghost vouchsafes the same title to the corinthians of corinth , in the ep. v. of galatia , gal. . . of ephesus , rev. . . of pergamus , rev ▪ . . of thyatyra . rev. . . of sardis , rev. . . of laodicea , rev. . . and yet all soyl'd with scandals . do not your self vindicate an authority of excommunication at corinth , when this epistle was written ? where there was a true power of excommunication , you must grant a true church . the consequence is infallible . though there may in some cases , which i have already manifested be a true church , where there is not the exercise of excommunication ( the terms being not reciprocal ) yet wheresoever there is a lawful exercise of excommunication , or a lawful right for that exercise ( though diverted ) there is true church . as your exposition is unwarranted , so uncountenanced by primitive , by reformed , or even romish commentators . produce but one of any repute , and your strained gloss shall pass more smooth and solemn . in the mean time i shall subscribe to the universal comment . all deceive none , none deceive all ( saith pliny . ) the fathers generally flourish out the description of the present condition of the christians at corinth ( the church of god ) as a perswasive spell to conjure their unity , not to be divided , and their piety not to be defiled , depraved . reformed expositors raise as a natural genuine observation on this title , a reproof of your church separation . your second answer closeth with the former . for if they must cast out , then they must be a church , and the scandalous then of the church ( till ejection , excommunication ) for else they could not be cast out . as for the excommunicating of their corrupt members , the historical evidence is very scanty ; the sole instance is the incestuous person : wherein the judgement was determined , the sentence pronounced by the apostle , cor. . . but recommended to the church of corinth , to be attested , to be effectually executed . some eminent divines , both anciently and lately have conjectured , that at the writing of this first epistle to the corinthians , the apostle st. paul had not fully establish'd the ecclesiastical jurisdiction in the church of corinth , but retain'd the reins of government in his own hands . however , i shall not obtrude that opinion , not question the commission of the church of corinth for excommunication : nor can you justly the jurisdiction of the church of england , which i have amply cleared from administring any cause of just desertion upon this account , though there may be vented an unjust imputation . whether the church of corinth might excommunicate its own corrupt members , is not controverted betwixt us . but whether ( these being not excommunicated ) the sound part was bound to separate locally from the unsound in religious exercise . let it be proved that this was effected at corinth . — et eris mihi magnus apollo . the letter . object . can there be a perfect church on earth , it is compared to the tares and wheat , a draw net , a barn floor . answ. grant it be the church meant there , which is to be proved , for the preaching of the gospel is called the kingdom of heaven , but how came in the tares , not by gods allowance , but by the devil , and by the carelesness , and negligence of the keepers of the field , matth. . . . they are tares , that is something as most expositors have it , as i have been acquainted with , very like to wheat , that they could hardly be discerned from the wheat , without endangering it , and so far close cunning hypocrites may be left alone : but that there should be no way left to cast out those that are venomous weeds , which do hurt and mischief , i deny . i would answer particularly to each of these , but i shall say only this , if christ should allow of the wicked to be taken into his church , he would contradict himself , as hath been proved . but christ doth not contradict himself , ergo . the answer . the double answer to this parabolical objection is like mephibosheth , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , halting with both feet . first , you mince it as an unnecessary concession , that it is to be proved by me , and assay'd to be disproved by your self . in other passages , in other parables , recited in this chapter the kingdom of heaven is the church , why not in this ? this is the ordinary gloss , this is the exposition of the primitive fathers , ( the donatists excepted ) but you offer rationally to evince the contrary . the church is not the kingdom of heaven , because the preaching of the gospel is . this exception is ignoratio elenchi . both may be so titled in different considerations . the church on earth is the kingdom of heaven initiate , and the kingdom of heaven is the church consummate ; the preaching of the gospel is the efficient instrumental cause for propagating the church on earth , for promoting to the kingdom of heaven , and may metonymically be so named . after this objection you question ( but how came in the tares ? ) it concerns not our controversie to sift the original , for the admittance of the tares , but the peril of their continuance : or whether a field , because it hath good ears , ought to be quitted , because it hath tares intermingled ? i shall dismiss this curiosity , touching the original of the tares , as st. austin did an enquiry touching original sin , with the pert reply of one plunged in a deep pit , who being demanded by a passenger the occasion of that disaster : he replyed , be sollicitous how i may be rescued out of this pit , not how i came to be ingulfed in it . the second part of your answer observes the likeness of tares to wheat , scarce to be discerned . 't is true , in the blade , but not in the ear . the text doth manifestly assert their manifestation . ( but when the blade was sprung up , and brought forth fruit , then the tares appeared also . ) they were not permitted to be served before harvest , not because they were obscur'd , not sufficiently discover'd ; but lest the pure grain should be hazarded to be rooted up , being so intermingled with the tares . when this mischief of a promiscuous extirpation may be prevented , tares ought not to be suffer'd , ( i confess ) but tares do often improve to be so numerous and vigorous in such strength and multitude , that they prevail above the wheat , in this case both must be reserved till harvest to be separated . should the church of england address it self by ecclesiastical severity , to root out the quakers , ranters , anabaptists , &c. whom you will allow to be tares , it were a fruitless attempt , a phrensie of piety . there being so populous an increase , they must be suffered to grow together till the harvest . this demonstrates , that the church militant is not exempted , acquitted from tares , and that the wheat grows with them in the same field . i shall not examine for the literal sense , whether these tares are to be understood thorns ( as aretius imagines ) or spreading plants ( as diodati fancies ) peculiar to the soyl of palestine , noxious to corn ; whether parched corn on the same stalk , with the purest grain , or a distinct cockle , a kind of darnel or eaver . — cynthius aurem vellit . it is isidore pelosiots caution , not to take 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , not scan syllables and circumstances in parables ; wherein only the scope is properly argumentative . the three parables couch'd up in your objection , are like different lines that meet in one and the same center , the same drift or design to discover the mixt condition of the church militant , of various colours like a rain-bow : the season of separation of condemnation , being the day of judgement , which as the italian speaks of the day of death , ( leva tutte lemaschere ) takes of all masks . st. cyprian hence infers , because we discern tares in the church , we must not therefore depart from the church . it is the observation of junius and tremelius translated exactly in our english marginal annotation . ( the church shall never be free from offences , both in doctrine and manners , till the day appointed for the restoring of all things do come ; and therefore the faithful have to arm themselves with patience and constancy . this instructs an humble , holy ▪ toleration , not a stern , haughty separation . in the conflict betwixt the reformed and the romish , when the romish disputants object these three parables to confirm that reprobates are members of the catholick church ; our reformed champions do unanimously reply , that these parables are hieroglyphicks , representatievs of a particular visible church , not to be stretch'd , and applied to the catholick and invisible . if you question the truth of my recital of this responsal , i will produce for your satisfaction a full particular catalogue . instance at present only in whitakers determination touching these three parables . we do not deny in the floor , that is in every visible church , there is chaff mixt with the wheat ; but notwithstanding , we aver with st. austin in the . epistle , the church to be preserved in the lords grain , not in the chaff , but with the chaff , that the church groweth among the tares , yet is not a field of tares . in the renowned dispute the carthage , betwixt the catholick bishops , and the donatist bishops , assembled by the edict of the emperour ( our controversie being then in solemn agitation ) the parable of the net collecting the good and bad fish being pressed by the catholick bishops , the donatists were pinch'd so far , as to confess good and wicked persons to be in the church , but the wicked only covertly , as in a net in the sea , whilst the good fish are not distinguish'd from the bad : but the catholick bishops reinforc'd their parabolical argument . the church is not only compared to a net , hut also to a floor , wherein the chaff is more apparent that the corn. the donatists , though convinced , yet were not silenced , but clamor'd . this were to constitute two churches , one on earth mingled with sacred and prophane : the other in heaven severed , sanctified , refined from dress and mixtures . the catholick bishops vindicated the church to be one and the same , but not in one and the same state militant and triumphant . the church may in some considerations be expressed mortal , because consisting of mortal members on earth , but immortal in heaven : as christ himself was mortal before his passion , but immortal after his resurrection . hereupon the donatists reviled rather than argued , and triumph'd ( or rather vapor'd ) when themselves were conquered ; as if a strange paradox had been vented in asserting the church is mortal . the catholick bishops candidly reply : times ought to be distinguish'd . the church in its present condition admits corruptible saints , in its future incorruptible ; when a mortal dress shall be exchanged for a robe of immortality . the judge ( or mediator ) herewith satisfied , set a period to the debate in that particular , and in the final close of that grand disputation , the said day he pronounced , that the donatists were manifestly confuted by the catholick bishops . but you are still unsatisfied , that though tares be permitted ( as undiscerned , covert hyppocrites ) yet that no way be left that pernicious weeds should be ejected . i grant they may be rooted out by excommunication , but i deny a separation without it . the wholesome herbs and fragrant flowers in the garden are not to be neglected , abandon'd , because some pestilent weeds are not rooted up . beware left your separating be the weeding of our garden . if you wave humility and charity , your selected flowers are but perfumed thistles ; like the ibides in alexandria , which exclude one stench , but create another . lastly , you syllogise . if christ should allow of wicked men to be taken into his church , and to be continued in , he would contradict himself , as hath been proved . but christ doth not contradict himself . therefore , not to except against the illogical composure of your syllogism in an hypothetical form , which being reduced to categorical ( the logical exactest ) its want of genuine artifice will be evident ▪ but not to sift punctilioes of art , of mood , and figure . i answer , your major proposition is a false supposition , you obtrude a tenet which we own not , that god allows the taking and continuing of wicked men into his church . i pray distinguish betwixt permission and approbation ; and for the admittance and continuance of the wicked , betwixt the visible and invisible church : this permitting in the visible church is not the acquitting of the men , but the protracting of the doom . if your major be understood of the approbation of wicked men in the invisible ( the catholick church ) it is an impertinence , we disclaim any such assertion . if your major be meant of the toleration of wicked men in a particular , in a visible church , it is an inconsequence : christ doth not herein contradict himself . so that the force of your smart proof is but the flourish of sophistry . 't is fallacia consequentis . the letter . object . let a man examine himself , and look to himself . answ. 't is true , for his own particular benefit , he must look to himself especially , but i am so far bound to look to him , as to keep my self clean , if any thing offends me , i am bound to go to him , and deal with him according to the rule of christ ; if he be wicked , i am bound to see him purged from the congregation , cor. . , . i am not to suffer sin to lye on my brother , much less on my self , levit. . . it was the speech of cain , am i my brothers keeper ? the answer . though the argument you slightly propose hath not efficacy enough to demonstrate , yet it wants not probability to perswade , unless interest or prejudice suggest that of the comoedian . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . the concurrence of texts and circumstances renders the apostolical precept ( let a man examine himself cor. . . ) more pregnant and important . the subject of the latter part of this chapter , from the seventh to the end , is the reprehension of the prophanation of the lords supper , a reproof of mental abuses at corinth ) wherein , notwithstanding spreading notorious corruptions , yet the apostle prescribes only a self examination , without reflection upon others : this emphatical restriction of the object ( himself ) is repeated , reinforced , not only in point of scrutiny , of search ; but in regard of penalty , of peril in vers . . he that eateth and drinketh unworthily , eateth and drinketh damnation to himself , and in vers . . if we judge our selves . 't is our selves exclusively of others . ( otherwise it were a spice of arrogance , not repentance . ) from the limitation himself thus varied calvin raiseth a double observation . . to eat the lords bread unworthily , is not to communicate with the unworthy , but without due preparation of ones self , without discussion of ones own faith and repentance . . when we intend to be communicants , let us not take our rise abroad to sift others , but our selves . certainly ( saith the same author ) if all things be exactly considered , they who have so much vacancy to be inquisitive after others , are frequently negligent , and forgetful as to themselves , their own lapses , the sharpness of their intellectuals and memories , being exercised at distance , out of their own sphere . you answer , . you are bound to look to another , to keep your self clean , that is by not partaking of his uncleanness , by act , or by consent , direct , or indirect . . you are bound to deal with him , if he offend , according to the rule of christ. i have already copiously discuss'd that rule , and cleared it from your misapprehension . . if he be wicked , i am bound to see him purged from the congregation , cor. . , . this objection hath been formerly debated , and satisfied . . i am not bound to suffer sin to lye on my brother , much less on my self . that sin may not lye on your self , you ought to prevent the commission , if not thus to be a prometheus , yet to be an epimetheus by contrition and reformation . that sin may not lye on your brother ( as you express it ) you ought at fit opportunities to reprove , and to pray that your reproof may be effectual ; if it be ineffectual , you ought to mourn , not to depart . god vouchsafed an asterisk , a mark to be set upon the foreheads of them that mourn , and are sorry for all the abominations that be done in jerusalem ; yet those holy mourners separated not from the persons of those that acted the abominations . the testimony you cite , levit. . . ( thou shalt not discover shame , &c. ) relates to nuptial , not to sacramental union or separation ; it concerns affinity in marriage , but hath no affinity , no consanguinity with our controversie . you object cains language , am i my brothers keeper , an answer more horrid than his murther in gregory nazianzens judgement , an aggravation of his crime by expostulation . to be a deserter , is not to be a brothers keeper , much less to be his accuser . 't is satans title and office , the accuser of the brethren . schism is no spiritual guard , separation no brotherly protection , unless like the parthian soldier , you will make your flight a defensive fight , and will vindicate your brother , whilst you retreat , you separate from him . the letter . gods ministes are to put a difference , jer. . . it is their charge , matth. . . they kill souls if they do it not , ezek. . , . jer. . . . they are like good stewards to divide the word aright , and to give every man his portion , tim. . . cor. . , , . gods church is to look to it , cor. . , . cor. . . the answer . gods ministers ought doctrinally to decypher the sheep and the goats , not judicially to discriminate to sever the sheep from the goats , this being the censure of the last day . they claim a discretive judgement in religion as christians , a directive as ministers ( to borrow occhams distinction ) but not absolutely a decretive judgement , much less an executive to proceed disorderly to execution ( to separate ) before the church hath proceeded to condemnation ( to excommunicate ) your scripture citations have been already examined ( jer. . . matth. . . ) you object , they kill souls , if they do it not , ezek. . , . and will you pollute me among my people for handfuls of barly , and for pieces of bread , to slay the souls that should not die , in lying to my people that hear your lies ? wherefore , thus saith the lord god , behold i will have to do with your pillow , wherewith you hurt the souls to make them to fly . ) this is entirely , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , an impertinency . this primarily concerns the female predictions of female sorcerers , whose magical deceits were cheap merchandise among the jews . if by the wrench of comparison , of allusion you make application of this to the clergy of the church of england ; i shall answer only , that we may , and ought to refer it by appeal to the judgement of the grand session , and of the universal monarch , whose ambassadors we are to determine , whose prophesie is most sordid and mercenary , ( hinc panis fumusque domi — ) yours or ours . i pray god be merciful to any who that day shall appear guilty , when our hearts shall be as visible as our faces : when we shall not list nor dare to canonize our selves , nor anathematize others . your next testimony is jer. . , . ( every one from the least even to the greatest is given to covetousness , and from the prophet to the priest , every one deals falsly . for they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people , with sweet words , saying , peace , peace , when there is no peace . ) if you intend this citation as a proof , it is not pertinent to the controversie , if you intend it as a charge , as an invective ( given to covetousness ) i shall not retort it , and shape one calumny , an apology for another ( like the scorpions inwards prescribed , a physical cure against its sting ) but i shall pray , that you and we may purge both our hands , and our hearts from this guilt . that neither of us may sacrifice our souls to our fortunes , nor ever repair a subsistence with the least breach of conscience . as for the next impeachment of levites that turn parasites ( saying , peace , peace , when there is no peace ) we tax your own to applaud schism , whilst you separate from our parochial congregations ; you indict us as accessories to prophanation , whilst we do not separate . i shall not dismiss this debated problem , with the rabbinical dilatory evasion in such disputes , when elias comes , he will resolve us . in the mean time , we are countenanced by the uncontrolled practice of the synagogue and temple of the jews , of all christian churches in all ages , excepting such as have been universally resented and recorded for schismatical at least , if not heretical . you argue , that ministers are like good stewards to divide the word aright , and to give every man his portion . in this you bicker only with your own shadow . i shall not discuss the confirmation by text , tim. . . cor. . , , . since i grant the whole assertion . it is their duty to divide the word aright , or to handle it , according to the remists . ( the latin fathers calling their expositions , tracts , as the greek tomes ) to preach the word aright ( according to the syriack . ) to preach with life and voice ( saith primasius ) when the conversation is a constant sermon . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 imports artificial exactness , and spiritual uprightness , like a mathematician to draw a streight line ( which can be but one ( saith euclid ) betwixt two points , but many oblique , bending ) to chalk out the streight way to heaven , to cut out the direct path , or like a cook to prepare , and temper , and proportion viands to all sorts of guests , or like a steward to give every one his portion , to the wounded conscience , a lenitive ( consolation ) to the festred , ulcer'd soul , a corrosive ( reprehension ) but can you resolve the apostles interrogatory , who is sufficient for these things ? this requires singular ability , and integrity , the mixture of endowments , seraphims and cherubims . these meditations should excite sorrow , and anguish , and astonishment , no motives of justification , of separation . we may be faithful dispensers of divine mysteries , and yet not be deserters of christian assemblies for offences not convicted . i may apply that to my self for the sacramental communion ( which is especially started at ) what averroes spoke of his physick ; that he never administred a purgation , but his heart trembled some days before : and though i would neglect no sacred expedients to prepare and qualifie others , to promote the penitent , and to deterr the impenitent ; yet after all assays , i apprehend my self the greatest offender in the congregation . being most acquainted with the corruptions of my own heart , being bound to be a severe inquisitor in my own bosom ( not in other mens ) my depraved condition being aggravated by my sacred function ; which renders the indifferencies of others my infirmities , the frailties of others my crimes and prodigies ( there being as large a sacrifice prescribed in the mosaical law , for the priest , as for the whole congregation ) so dilated , multiplied is my guilt , chargeable with that ignorance i inform not , with that negligence i rouze not , with every offence i reprove not , with every errour i confute not ( within my domestical and parochial bounds at least ) so that approaching to the lords table , with these searching perplexities , and agonies of spirit , i doom my self more unworthy to administer , that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ( as st. chrysostom expresseth it ) that dread mystery , than any christian communicant to receive it at my hands . you conduct my pen from the ministers to the church , alledging gods church to look to it , cor. . , . this objection hath already past the anvil . neither the active care nor cure of ecclesiastical discipline doth properly belong to the whole church collectively , nor to the particular distinct members severally and individually , as to subjectum adaequatum . this exercise of this power doth appertain to those , that stear , that guide in the pinnace of the church , not to those that tug and row : unless you will consound the helm and the ore. the submission enjoyned by the apostle , heb. . . ( obey them that have the over-sight of you , and submit your selves , for they watch for your souls ) is not to be confined to their spiritual doctrines ; but extended to their ecclesiastical censure . as to your objection . grant your own expression in your own interpretation ( that the church is to look to it ) this warrants the church to censure its members , it doth not justifie the member to censure the church , to separate from it . lastly , you add , cor. . . it is sufficient to the same man that he was rebuked by many . 't is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , under , or in the presence of many , which is a gloss best reconcileable to the phrase of the same apostle , cor. . . ( you being gathered together ) 't is by many , because of the publick solemnity attested by the whole congregation . however you expound it , this confirms a jurisdiction in the church , not a discession out of it . the letter . much more i might say and enlarge on every particular going before . i purposed , and have cut some things short , lest i should over-trouble you with my tediousness , knowing you are able to judge by little , and hoping you will accept of all kindly , and in love , as it is offered . i confess i had but little time to recollect my thoughts for the composing of it , yet as it is i present you with it , desiring to hear and receive your judgement upon it , for which i shall not only be thankful , but shall promise to weigh it in the ballance of the sanctuary , and endeavour to bend my conscience to receive and embrace whatever is of faith and bears the scriptum est . however i shall be perswaded , i shall truly love you and remain , march . . sir , your christian friend and servant , in the work of the lord . p. l. the answer . that you are brief , suits with the grace and artifice of an epistle , which if voluminous is monstrous . my over copious answer needs your ample candor to excuse it . i would not be concise , because i might not be too obscure . — dum brevis esse laboro obscurus fio — having aimed to unty each knot , not to cut it , not to evade but satisfie . if it appear so material , prove so effectual , as in the least degree to procure the end designed , i shall account this reply compendious enough . this being pliny's plea for the prolixity of homer and virgil , setting out the arms and exploits of achilles and aeneas . if in this my intention is frustrated ; this is much too profuse of ink and time . it wants brevity , if it wants efficacy . yet in this case , vna litura sat est . give me leave in the close friendly and brotherly to advise , that you beware of new tenets ; they are like new wines ; they sume up to mens heads , make them light and giddy . it is the apostles grave charge , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . be not carryed about with divers and strange doctrines . or if you look back , do not dote on that part , that blemish of antiquity , which the church of christ hath in all ages exploded for heresie . i pray examine well before you determine or censure , without some grains of holy compliance you will not edifie aright . it is an italian proverb ( duro con duro non fa bon muro ) rough stones will never make a firm structure , without a yielding material , without cement to close them . the apostle dictates moderation towards all men . it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , lenity , gentleness in opposition to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to exactness of rigor . you may live to acknowledge my words prophetical : when future years and various occurrences shall improve you spiritual prudence and experience ( especially if god shall vouchsafe a sanctified calamity ) you will confess the unity , the peace of the church , to conduce more to the saving of souls , than the most specious sects varnish'd with the most pious , glorious pretences . you cannot be to cautelous in rending the church of england . if you dissect her bowels , sift her articles , her constitutions ; you may perhaps discover more beauty of purity , than you imagined ( like neroes acknowledgment ) however cast not dirt upon the dugs that gave you milk ( the sincere milk of the gospel ) tear not the womb of your christian birth by baptism . let me recommend to you the apostolical charm , endeavouring to keep the unity of the spirit , in the bond of peace . it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . hastily endeavouring , lest the wounds of a bleeding languishing church become uncurable . let me censure you with abrahams powerful rhetorick . let there be no strife between me and thee , for we are brethren . the precedent words enforce , enliven the spell of this sacred eloquence . moreover the canaanites and perezites dwelled at that time in the land. then said abraham to lot , &c. there are men of romish principles in the land , lately titled recusants , but now i am to enquire how to name them : consider whose hands you weaken , your brethren : so you are to us as parmenianus was to optatus . recollect your self whom you fortifie , our common romish adversaries . the eclipse of the church of england is their splendor . they are united by our divisions , justified by our mutual reproaches ; our scandals and schisms objected , proclaimed by our selves , are their renowned , gloried victories and triumphs : i hope in these cautions , and all other passages , i shall have no cause to revive theodorus complaint ; that what is tendred with the right hand , is received with the left . you have my judgement requested , sincerely discovered without any wily , windy collusion ; as weighing , i must pass an account on the dreadsul day of judgement , for every word hath past my pen in this debate . as to your promise of weighing this in the ballance of the sanctuary , i am not diffident of your performance , but i pray remember in phocylides expression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , let the scales be held even , not bended with a singular prejudice . for in scripture , as in a glass , our prejudicate opinion discerns only its own complexion . like the indulgent phansie of that athenian thrasilaus , who walking on the key of athens , conceited that every ship which arrived was his own . as to your engagement of embracing whatever bears the scriptum est ; i shall only offer to your consideration st. austin's maxime . there is no exposition of sacred writ proceeded from the holy ghost , unless it tend to charity : and if you please to annex to this canon the same fathers pithy ejaculations . that in perusing and citing the scriptures . grant , o lord , that i my self be not deceived in them , that i deceive not others by them . lastly , i shall assure you of a reciprocal love. our affections may be link'd , though our opinions are not . and though we are not both members of a separated church on each ; yet i hope ( by the sacred merits of our blessed redeemer ) we shall be both in the same congregated church in heaven : where in a full quire of angels , all notes shall be tuned to an exact harmony , no jar of faction , no descant of division , but entire unisons : where our anathemaes shall be exchanged to anthems , our censures to allelujah . laughern decemb. the last , . sir , your truly affectionate friend to serve you , william thomas . non ego tibi sed causae causa respondit . et si culpa est respondisse quaeso ut patienter , audias , multo major est provocasse . sed facessant istiusmodi querimoniae . sic inter nos pura germanitas , & deinceps non quastionum sed charitatis nos scripta mittamus . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . pet. . . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . isoc . ad dem. psal. . . non ulli rei nisi poenitentiae natus . tertull. l. de poenit. c. ult . gal. . . conscientia erronia ligat . aqu. act. . . cor. . . cor. . . videns eos hireticos volare per singula quaeque sancta legis volumina — nihil unquam de suo proferunt , quod non etiam scripturae verbis adumbrare conentur . lege pauli samosateni opuscula , prisciliani , eunomii , joviniani reliquarumque pestium , cernes infinita exemplorum congeriem prope nullam omitti paginam quae non novi aut veteris testamenti sententiis fucata & colorata sit . vincent . lyr. ad haeres . mat. . . luke . . non minus veritati obstrepit adulter sensus quam corruptus stylus . tertull. de praes . c. . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . arist. rhet. l. . deut. . . job . . jer. . : prov. . . mat. . . id teneamus quod ubique , quod semper , quod ab omnibus creditum est . vincen. lyr. advers . haeres . pet. . . omnes patres sit , sed ego non sic . abul . ego neminem agnosco patrem , neminem magistrum . socin . ad evangelium appellasti , ad evangelium ibis . bernard . ede mihi unam scripturae vocem pro parte donati . aug. de pasc . c. . jerem. . . sozom. l. . p. sulpit. senec. hist. l. . socrat. eccl. hist. l. . c. . ephes. . . gal. . . rom. . , , . rom. . . . col. . . es. . . . pet. . , . that importunate appeal for judgment to persecutors , rev. . . doth infallibly infer a compassionate suit , as to their fellow members . rom. . . rom. . . thes. . . acts . . acts . . tit. . sancti titulus , non virtutis sed professionis . erasm. in cor. . matth. . . quomodo sancti dicantur , cum certum sit apud eos multos rudes in fide , imo palam impios fuisse ? respon . rectè dici sanctos propter finem vocationis ad sanctitatem vocati sunt ; w. e. ut tales sint , aret. in rom. vers . . zanch. in eph. . . the same distinction is expressed , col. . . socrat. in hist. eccl. l. . c. . cor . . . euseb. eccl. hist. l. . c. . ingemuit totus orbis & se arrianum esse miratus est . hier. advers . luc. kings . . non deserendi boni propter malos sed tolerandi mali propter bonos . aug. ep. . nec alii obest aut prodest alterius religio , tert. in l. adv . scap. nec religionis est cogere religionem quae sponte suscipi debeat non vi . tert. in l. adv . scap. jude . . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in the k. m. s. reatus impii nomen pii . salvian . joseph . antiq. l. . c. . l. . c. . duae caecitatis species concurrunt , ut qui non vident quae●unt , videre videautur quae non sunt . tert. in apol . ad gent. virgil. ephes. . . ergo non prohibetur omnis consuetudo cum impiis sed omne commercium cum operibus corum impiis & tenebrosis , zanch. in eph. . . . tim. . . signainter dixit , ib iniquitate non iniquis estius . sacrat . ecc. hist. l. . c. . sozom. l. . c. . matth. . . . . semper cum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cohacret 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , declarat post aliquem tem factam anxium esse , beza in matth. . vide erasm. in cor. . matth. . . matth. . . gen. . . sub nomine christi judaismum praedicantes colendum amb. m. . pa. . inimici crucis quia ne quid paterentur propter christum , miscebant cum christo mosem , & praedicabant necessariam esse circumcisionem , gal. . hac in parte gratificantes judaeis . zanch. in . ph . vide aquin. estium . aret. pisc. &c. lips. in polite ▪ levit. . , . deut. . . euseh . hist. bech . l. . c. . aug. iph. . 〈…〉 august . l. . contra petis . ca. . . baron . tom. . anno . sleidan . de cottons d. vial . p. . . acts . . matth. . , . sanguis martyrum semen ecclesiae , tertul. statim ad obsequium praesto , licet violento imperio non cogantur . calv. in . . august . in confess . zerub . typus christi jun. & tremel . in ann . de zerubbabil ( i. ) de christo nativitatem christi praedicit qui nullo opere humano sed ex spiritu sancto conceptus , & natus ex virgine . vatabl. . cap. . zach. v. . non in exercitu neque in multitudine bellatorum sed in spiritu dei reductum populum & plenius reducendum & adversarios vastandos . hier. in zach. . , quot verba , tot mysteria , hieron . 〈…〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , hoc charitatis officio palam declarata , beza in cor. . . acts. . . cor. . . job . . . lovin . in proleg . in eccles. . chron. . . puro corde deum coluit . vatabl . pet. . , . joh. . . cor. . . acts . , . acts. . , . vox à perperie fratribus conficta quorum procacitas fabulis nobilitata . erasm. vel à nomine , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 qu. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , secundum hesych . excusa intentiōnem si opus non potes ; puta ignorantiam , puta subreptionem , puta casum . quod si omnem omnino dissimulationem rei certitudo recusat , suade nihilominus ipse tibi , & dicito apud temet ipsum : vehemens nimis tentatio : quid de me illa fecisset si accepisset in me similiter potestatem . bernard . serm . . in cantic . sit zelus discretus , benevolus , constans . gers. sabell . enn. . l. . platina in vit . evarist . & dion . besides the testimony of damas. onuph . polyd. virg. de invent . elib . conc. cant. . conc. chalced. can. . cor. . , . acts . . apostoli plantatas ecclesias commiserunt propriis pastoribus , jun. & trem. il. . tit. . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . theoph. heb. . . psal. . . virgil. sam. . . efficitis ne hic populus veniat ad oblatas victimas . vatabl. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . sept. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . sept. ephes. . . ubicunque in his libris commemoravi ecclesiam non habentem maculam aut rugam , non sic accipiendum est quasi jam sit , sed que praeparatur , ut sit quando apparebit etiam gloriosa . august . retract . l. . c. . sine macula & ruga non est in praesentia sed erit in die jesu christi . pet. mart. in l. com. mr. perkins , on the epistle of st jude v. . it is mr. perkins express amplification on the epistle to the galations the first chapter and second verse . is faults appear in the lives of ministers and people , so long as true religion is taught , it is a church , and so to be esteemed , and the ministers must be heard , matth. . . arist. l. . eth. mr. perkins on the epistle to the galatians the first chapter and second verse . cor. . , . gen. . . acts. . . gildas monachus testatur britannos ab initio orti evangelii christianam accepisse religionem , bal. in cent. . de jos. arimath . britannia omnium provinciarum primi publiciter christi nomen recepit , sabbell . enn. . l. . susceptam fidem britanni usque ad tempora dioclesiani principis inviolatam , integramque quieta pace servabant . beda eccl. hist. l. . c. . brit annorum inaccessa romanis loca christo subdita . tertul. adv . judios . si sermonibus segregaveris hieron . in hier. . . si prophetando discernis quicquid bonum à malo , & sine acceptione personarum verum do●es & falsum abdicas , tanquam si ego ipse loquerer , &c. jun. & tremel . in her. . . si separaveris pretiosum à vili i. e. si animas christi sanguine pretioso redemptas à vilitate peccati per tuam doctrinam , &c. lyra in hier. . . the geneva fr. notes refer us to levit. . . indifferenter immolantes animalia immunda & munda , lyra. in ezek. . . non docuerunt plebem quae esset differentia puri & immundi , vatabl. in ezek. . . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , act. . . dr. hammond in his annot. on rev. . . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad judaeos ut quamprimum exeant à babylone quòd multi ●se miscuerant babyloniis . nihil idolatricum assumite : ita praecones evangelii dicunt discedite , quod fit dupliciter . primò cum discedimus à babyl . spir . à papismo . secundo , cum nos segregamus ah impuris confessione , conversione . scull . in is. . . euseb. in eccles. hist. l. . c. . eripite vos resipiscentia è tantis malis in quibus adhuc versati estis , & sanctificationi vestrae incumbite , jun. & trem. in is. . . adonnez vous à sainctetè . voyez sus , vers . . the gen. fr. notes on es. . . and on the first referred to seras entirement sanctifiée & repurgée de tous scandales . quod apostolus dicit intelligendum de separatione spirituali . aq. in ep. ad cor. . . judaei cum obviam venirent gentili aut samaritano dicebant ne attingas me . drus. in l. . praec . immundum non tangit qui ad peccatum nulli consentit . aug. in l. . contra parm. displicere est non tangere . lyra in cor. . . oecumen . in cor. . . mr. weemes in his christian synagogue . calvin . in harmon . evangelista ' pro seniorum collegio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dixit beza in annot. in matt. . moryson in his travels . jusserunt eucharistiam canibus fundi ; non sine signo divini judicti : nam iidem canes accensi rabie ipsōs dominos suos quasi latrones sancti corporis reos dente vindice tanquam ignotos & inimicos laniaverunt , optat. l. . matth. . . acts . . matth. . . vicibus innumerabiliter innumerabilibus , aug. qui nisi in ecclesia fuisset tolli ex ea non poterat . heins . in ep. ad cor. . thess. . . thess. . . familiaritas cum excommunicatis est vitanda , jun. & trem. habentes speciem quia eadem sacramenta cum piis , lyra in ep. ad tim. . , . non est quod ludetur opera jun. & tremel . in tim. . . hic locus ex alio interpretandus ( tit. . ) neque existimaverim idcircò hoc praeceptum dari timotheo ne colloquiis inficeretur , sed ob causam tit● communem . estius . respondeo in libertate nostra & sacultate positum esse , an familiariter versemur cum sceleratis ▪ quo fit ut unicuique ab eo sit abstinendum . at non est ita in nostro arbitrio positum , an caenam recipiamus necne . itaque diversa est ratio . notemus ergo , si ecclesia hominem indignum ferat & toleret , probè facturos eos qui talem noverint , si ab ejus consuetudine abstineant , idque quoad poterit facere debere , modo ne schisma ullum , aut separationem in ecclesiae communicatione inducat . calv. in instruct . adv . anabap. privatus convictus corrumpit mores conversantium non perinde communis sacramentorum usus . aret. in ep. ad thess. . , gal. . , . in his possumus esse pariter copiosi sed nolumus esse pariter vani . aug. adv . petil. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , theophyl . is. . . is. . . ezech. . , . hos. . , . nec tamen ironice appellavit cum suum populum , sed verè quoad externam adoptionem . luk. . . matth. . , , . mar. . . luk. . , . herodot . in clio. strabo , l. , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , theophyl . in gal. . matth. . . luk . . quibus typis innuit deus illorum judiciorum causas quae in judaeis hactenus exercuerat , nimirum quod nullam sanctitatem in uncto aut rebus sanctificatis deo percepissent , quia impuri animis suis fuerant non minus quam illi qui ex cadavere impuritatem contraxerant . jun. & tyem . in hag. . vers . , , . chron. . , . chron . . si hic ordo ( scil . excom . ) alicui ecclisiae desit , imperfectione eam , & prava macula notatum esse , sed , non to minus pro ecclesiae ipsam habemus , ac per sistimus in ejus communione , atque affirmamus singulis ab ea segregare non licere , calv. adv . anabap. nec censuras ecclesiasticas sive superiorum iniquitate sive populi pervicacia habere possunt ad patientiam sese cum prudentia christiana hoc modo componant ; ut primo quidem defectum disciplinaram docendi officio ac sedulitate pensare studeant cogitentque ex ore dei beatos esse qui esuriunt & fitiunt justitiam quia sacurabuntur . deinde caveant in eam ire sententiam aut venire opinionem , quasi ecclesia esse non possit , aut non sit , ubi nulla est excommunicationis disciplina . haec permeniani & donatistarum olim erat pestilens opinio . paraeus in ep. ad corinth . cap. . non propter disciplinae ecclesiasticae neglectum aut cessatioinem statim ecclesia est neganda . polan . in synt . l. . c. . quanquam errores & defectus nunquam sunt dissimulandi : in quibuscunque tamen fundamentum & summa doctrinae apostolicae retinetur , eoque nulla manifesta commititur idolatria cum lis caetibus tanquam vtris christi ecclesiis pacem & communionem colendam esse sentimus . tanti facienda est unio ecclesiarum . zanch. de christ. cap. . sect . . si damnaremus excommunicationem aut suaderemus inutilem esse & supervacaneam tunc murmurandi adversum nos occasionem haberent . calv. ad . an. ecclesiae non ex quorundum erroribus , infirmitatibus , flagitiis , sed ex legibus & sanioris partis moribus aestimanda . pet. mart. in loc . com. ecclesiae aestimandae ex eo quod communissime & latissime tenetur . whitak . de not. eccl. ex haereticis nullus est bonus . res ipsa est notissima . bellar. de not . eccl. l. . c. . rom. . . matth. . . homo sum de area christi ▪ hujus ar●ae ventilabrum non est lingua petiliani . aug. contra petil. l. . c. . dr. kellett in the first b. of his miscel. chap. . jer. . . mat. . . revel . . . gen. . , . gen. . , . gen. . . cum omnia nuda & aperta sint mala , tamen sodomae noluit ante judicare quam probare nos instruere ne mala hominum ante presumeremus credere quam probare . greg. hom. . in evang . st. johns gosp. chap. . vers . . nulli christianorum facilis communio deneganda , leo ep● . nam & judicatur magno cum pondere ut apud certos de dei conspectu . tert. adv . gent. qui habere possunt moderate ea utantur , & caveant à rigore , quia ob infirmitatem humanam eventusque dubios , medicina est ut valde dolorifica , sic admodum periculosa . par. in cor. c. . quamvis excommunicatio●●s gladius nervus sit ecclesiasticae disciplinae , & ad continendos in officio populos valde salutaris , sobrie tamen magnaque cum circumspectione exercendus . cum experientia doceat , si temere aut levibus ex rebus incutiatur , magis contemni quam formidari , & perniciem potius parere quam salutem . cont. trid. sect. . c. . spirituali gladio superbi & contumaces necantur . cypr. li. ep. . pertinaces esse excommunicandos tantum idque cum pertinacia eorum toti ecclesiae nota fuerit facta . ait zanch. in quartum praecept . gal. . . est noanihil emphaseos in conjunctione 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( i. ) amputentur , sive reiecentur , non solum judicentur , sed etiam anathema siant . erasin . in gal. . rom. . . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est attente , diligenter quasi hostes è specula observetis , beza in rom. . . that you exclude them as prophane out of your publick assemblies by excommunication , diodati on rom. . . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . o●cum . rom. . gal. . , , . pet. . ep. . ch . v. . gal. . . so accounted by is. casaubon upon athenaeus . anathema sit , id est segregatus , separatus , exclusus . vincent . lyrin . adv . haeres . indulgentiam sibi invicem tribuerunt , ut crimina in silentium mitterent sua , vitam infamare conati sunt alienam , optat. l. . de schis . donat. ● . juda in si. mos. . . buxtorf . in just. epist. cor. . . tim. . . si quis deliquerit ut à communicatione orationis , & conventus & omnis sancti commercii religetur . tert. in apol. adv . gent. & cap. . excommunicatio minor separat tantum à participatione sacramentorum ; major excommunicatio separat hominem & à sacramentis ecclesiae & à communione fidelium , aquin. in suppl . . part . qu. . act. . vide formam excommunicationis in concil . fransic . & apud gratian. . . . canonica instituta ( a gremio sanctae matris ecclesiae , & à consortio totius christianitatis elimnamus . ) vide canonem , greg. neo-caesariensis de ● loc . penit. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . orig. contra celsum l. . supersedendum est excommunicatione quando tota plebs eodem laborat morbo . august . nunquam tota communitas excommunicari debet , ne cum loliis & zizaniis simul eradicetur & triticum . aquin. in suppl . . part . qu. . act. . cor. . . cor. . . cor. . cor. . . cor. . . cor. . , , . cor. . , , ▪ cor. . . cor. . , , . cor. . , , . cor. . . cor. . . cor. . , . omnes fallunt neminem , nemo omnes , plin. hunc titulum corinthiis reliquit quod scilicet sic dei ecclesia cum tot erroribus laboraret , &c. facit id contra eos qui puram quaerunt ecclesiam in terris , quam cum non reperiunt , omnibus caetibus solent nomen ecclesiae adimere & alios damnent . non tam rigidus censor est apost . aqud corinthios . aret. in cor. . sed mirum paulum agnoscere ecclesiam dei ( sanctificatos ) quos paulo post ut schismaticos carnales reprehendit ; sic vero testatum facit ubicunque nomen christi invocatur , ibi ecclesiam dei agnoscendum esse charitatis judicio quantumvis naevis & morbis caetus ille laboret . par. in cor. . ecclesia dei quae magnis vitiis laborat , modo admonentibus pareat . jun & irem . though among many faults , worthy reprehension , yet the apostle doth acknowledge them to be a church , diodat . in cor. . regnum caelorum ( i. ) status ecclesiae militantis , gl. ord. in matth. . . cogita , quomodo hinc me liberes , non quomodo huc recid●rem quaeras , august . ep. . ad hier. matth. . . quia zizania cernimus in ecclesia non ideo recedendum est ab ecclesia , cypr. l. . ep. . ad max. christus docet nunquam penitus liberam fore ecclesiam ab offendiculis tum in doctrina & moribus , &c. jun. & trem. in matth. . nos non negamus in area , id est , in ecclesia quaquae visibili , esse paleam cum tritico mistam . sed cum aug. tamen dicimus , in ep. . ecclesiam in frumentis dominicis conservatum esse non in pal●is ; & ecclesiam crescere inter zizania , sed non esse agrum zizaniorum . whitak . in praelect . contr. . qu. . c. . de ecclesia . confutatos à catholicis donatistas omnium documentorum manifestatione pronuncians , aug. in op . brev. collat. cum donat. in fine . diei coll . aristoph . primum disce , probationem nostri non alterius requiri . aret. in cor. . . in quibus verbis duo sunt observanda : primum indigne panem domini edere non esse cum iis qui indigni sunt communicare , sed non rite praeparare seipsum , nec expendere fidem propriam & paenitentiam . alterum cum caena recipienda est , ne initium facimus ab aliis quo examinemus ipsos , sed nosmet ipsos probemus , & certe si accurate considerentur omnia , qui ita otia abundant , ut inquirant in alios , saepius in re sua sunt negligentes & obliviosi . calv. curiosi ad cognoscendam vitam alienam , desidiosi ad corrigendam suam . aug. in cont. l. . c. . ezek. . . cor. . . vide quot versibus homerus , quot virgilius arma , hic aentae , achillis ille describat , brevis tamen uterque est , quia facit quod instituit , plin. ep. l. . ad apollinarem . heb. . . phil. . . nesciebam mihi adeo pulchram fuisse matrom xiphilin . in vita neronis . eph. . . gen. . . non sint collegae , si noluit , tamen fratres sunt . frater meus igitur parmenianus , &c. optat. de schism , donat. l. . ne fallar in iis , ne fallam ex iis . aug. hier. ep . . aug. aug. . edict . a peace-offering in the temple; or, a seasonable plea for unity among dissenting brethren: in a sermon at st. paul's church, london, before the right honouable the lord mayor, &c. on the th of october, . by richard henchman, rectour of st. james-garlick-hyth. henchman, richard, d. . this text is an enriched version of the tcp digital transcription a of text r in the english short title catalog (thomason e _ ). textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. the text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with morphadorner. the annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. this text has not been fully proofread approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. earlyprint project evanston,il, notre dame, in, st. louis, mo a wing h thomason e _ estc r this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (thomason tracts ; :e [ ]) a peace-offering in the temple; or, a seasonable plea for unity among dissenting brethren: in a sermon at st. paul's church, london, before the right honouable the lord mayor, &c. on the th of october, . by richard henchman, rectour of st. james-garlick-hyth. henchman, richard, d. . [ ], , [ ] p. printed by thomas roycroft, for william grantham, at the sign of the black bear in st. paul's church-yard near the little north-door, london : mdclxi. [ , i.e. ] thomason copy bound with items from . annotation on thomason copy: "nou. ". reproduction of the original in the british library. eng sermons, english -- th century. peace -- early works to . dissenters, religious -- england -- early works to . a r (thomason e _ ). civilwar no a peace-offering in the temple; or, a seasonable plea for unity among dissenting brethren:: in a sermon at st. paul's church, london, befor henchman, richard d the rate of defects per , words puts this text in the d category of texts with between and defects per , words. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - john pas sampled and proofread - john pas text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a peace-offering in the temple or , a seasonable plea for unity among dissenting brethren : in a sermon at st. paul's church , london , before the right honourable the lord mayor , &c. on the th of october , . by richard henchman , rectour of st. james-garlick-hyth . {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} rom. xii . . if it be possible , as much as lyeth in you , live peaceably with all men . hebr. xii . . follow peace with all men , and holiness , &c. per discordias civiles , externi tollunt animos . livy . london , printed by thomas roycroft , for william grantham , at the sign of the black bear in st. paul's church-yard near the little north-door , mdclxi . honoratissimo domino , dno . hvmphredo , episcopo sarisbvriensi , patruo , & patrono meo colendissimo . quamprimum hanc concionem , almae pacis sobolem , ad sancti pauli editam , exponendam concesserim ; favoris vestri clientelae submitten . dam consului , praesul venerande qui es & ipse ex alumnis pacis primogenitis , pacisquefiliorum pater juxta , ac pateonus clementissimus . si insolens nimis videatur , atque importunum , chartulâ tam minutâ , seriae vestra , & graviora interpellare ; eo amplius debetur excellentiae vestrae , quo minsugrave ; s tenuitas nostra , & indigentia , promereri possit : ea siquidem est virtutis , nobilitatisque indoles , faciendi , benevolendique argumenta à seipsa expetere : nec in alio quopiam , viri principes , similiores estis altissimo , qui misellos nos homunciones , non ad merita nostia , sed ad gratiam suam rependit . sicolim doctor ille gentium ad coe . lum usque laudibus effert divinam {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} quae {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} potiùs , & {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} , quam {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} commendat , & pro eo , quod habemus , non pro eo , quod non habemus , nos dignabundus accipie , animus modo promptus adsit , & liberalis . sic etiam magnus ille animarum episcopus viduae paupellae dodrantem in arcam sui foederis benevolus recepit . sic infantulorum hosannah non seciùs quam angelorum sanctorumque hallelujah in libro vitae commemorat . sic denique ( ne in infinitis immorer ) poculum frigidae solum , prophetae suo nomine erogatum , non minùs sibi gratum fore pollicetur , quam poculum aureum , aut thesauros̄ ingentiores . non despondeam itaque , praesul honorande , quin ad pedes vestros devolutus gratus accedam , eoque gratior , & excusatior , quo magis me profiteor ambirionem hanc captare , non ad favorem vestrum in me conciliandum , quam ad merita tua in me collata beneficia gratis memoranda . pluribus certè nomimbus dominationi vestrae me agnosco obaeratum , quam aut voto , aut studio , solvendo siem . deus optimus maximus ut dominationem vestram salvam servet , & incolumem , & ad regnum coeleste , regnum pacis , tandem perducat , supplex , & obnixe petit , & est sem. per petiturus , honorande praesul , humillimus vester , tuique observantissimus , ri. henchman . to the reader . a word spoken in season ( says solomon ) is both gratefull , and success full : which is the blessing , that i beg of god upon these poor , and mean endeavours . it was the fittest subject , that in this juncture of time , i could fix my thoughts upon , to preach , and pray for unity among dissenting brethren ; especially seeing some men so strangely averse , and indisposed to an agreement , and conformity in things indifferent , that they rather endeavor to widen , then close up ; to make new breaches , then heal the old . what tends this to , think you : but to lay our selves open to the scorn , and reproach of our enemies at home , and abroad ; that both parties being zealously busied , one against another , may spend themselves in endless , and unnecessary debates , and controversies , while a third secretly , and insensibly , grow up , and destroy us ? blessed be god , our differences are not yet so great , seeing we agree in the vitals , and fundamentals of religion , that we should stand at such a distance , for some opinions , and ceremonies ; and hazard the welfare , and happiness of our church . besides , his most excellent majesty , our gracious sovereign , like a good nursing father , having sweetly , and prudently indulged some froward , and peevish children , by his late seasonable declaration , concerning ecclesiastical affairs , that so ( if possible ) he may compose the spirits , and allay the rigidness of some violent tempers , till a learned , and pious synod can be convened to determine matters : but , if after all these means men shall continue obstinate , and refractory , and will not submit to the wholesom orders of decency in the church , it will be just with god , and man , to punish us more severely for our peevishness . thus parents use to do : if children cannot agree among themselves , they whip them both into better manners . and every one knows , that no man shall gain by the differences between brethren , but he , that is an enemy to both . for my part , i alwaies feared our own divisions , more then all our enemies combinations , or conspiracies . and what was once said of england , may be as truly said of all , that fear god in it ; it is a mighty creature , that can never die , unless it kill it self . in saint cyprian's time , they could keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace , with those , that did not onely think , but teach that , which was contrary to what was received , in things of lesser concernment : and surely we might in our differences at least so far agree , as to act together , if pride , and party were laid aside , and we acted by the same spirit of humility , and brotherly-love , that the antient saints , and churches did . god knows my heart , i should rejoyce exceedingly from my soul , if i could but see that primitive order , and unity take place again . oh , that i may ( in that small sphere i move in ) be any whit instrumental to this great work , either by preaching , praying , or writing ! for this very end , i first set upon this ensuing subject : and for the same i was perswaded to set it forth . correct with thy pen , what thou findest amiss in the printing . pardon my weakness in the composure , amd accept of my willingness in doing good . if thou reapest any benefit by it , thank not me , but the lord , who enabled me ; and think of me in thy prayers , as of the poorest , unworthy minister of christ , who shall ever be ready upon all occasions to contribute my mite to this good work of peace , and unity , among christian brethren , and study to approve my self a true son of the church of england , and from my study , novemb. . . thy true friend in all christian offices to be commanded , r. henchman . rom. xv . , . {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} , &c. now the god of patience , and consolation , grant you to be like-minded one towards another , according to christ jesus , &c the searcher of all hearts knows , i have no other design in making choice of this subject , in this place ; but that i might cast in my mite , and apply some sovereign balsame to cure the epidemical distemper of this age : that so ( if it be possible ) i may be instrumental to the healing of the hurts ; to the closing up of those wounds , and rents ; which many empericks , and mountebanks in religion have caused in this our church . the romanes , to whom the apostle , saint paul , wrote this epistle , were at this time , at much variance , and discord amongst themselves , censoriously condemning , and passionately contemning too , one another for things indifferent . now the apostle , fearing that this difference in opinions , would breed an alienation in affections , and afterwards increase into more bitter oppositions , he frames a very prevalent argument , by way of caution , to avoid such offences , in the precedent chapter , at the th verse . so then ( saith he ) every one of us shall give an account of himself to god : let us not therefore judg one another any more . an admirall inference that ! they kept such a stir about days , and meats , censuring , and controling one another , nodum in scirpo , quaerentes , for toys and trifles , they did so vex , and offend , one another conilnually : and therefore the apostle ( in that chapter ) uses both his rhetorick , and his logick too , to allay those storms , and appease those contentions , as you may read at large in the th , th , and th , verses . and here , in this chapter , he goes on , and prosecutes his argument in the first verse . we then ( saith he ) that are strong ( that is , strong in faith , strong in knowledg , strong in grace ) ought to bear the infirmities of the weak . we , that have received a greater measure of gifts , ought to exercise more charity towards our christian brethren , then others . if they be hasty , or froward , or peevish , or vexatious ; let us use indulgence towards them , bear with them , help and relieve them ; their deportment is inconsiderable ; because they are not so well-grounded , and instructed , as we are . let us not therefore judg them , censure , disdain , or scorn them . if such * be overtaken in a fault , we , that are spiritual , should endeavour to restore them with the spirit of meekness . if they be impatient ; yet in your christian patience possess ye your souls . this is the sum , and substance of the apostle's former discourse . and having used these weighty arguments , to evince them ; he closes up with fervent prayer ( in the words i have read ) for unity , peace , and concord amongst them . now the god of patience , and consolation , grant , &c. an excellent sweet close indeed ! and it is brought in by a prolepsis : as if some should object to the apostle thus much . true indeed ; you have brought many strong reasons , and notable arguments to perswade us to unity , & concord : but there is such a vast difference amongst us ; our wounds are so festered , that they seem incurable ; we are so much divided , that it seems impossible . for can you imagine to bring the weak to yield to the strong , or the strong to forbear the weak , by reasons , or arguments ? no ; i fear we are too much heated already , to hearken to reason . now to this the apostle here may be supposed to reply . true indeed ; i see it so to my great grief . ye are very much to pieces , strangely disjoynted , and distracted ; yet , though your passions may seem to impede an harmonious agreement in things indifferent , my fervent prayers may obtain it . if i cannot effect it by reason ; i 'le endeavour to do it for you , by my hearty supplication to god . and , if any thing in the world will prevail , i am sure this will . now the god of patience , &c. thus you see the cohaerence , and dependance of these words with the former . before i proceed to the opening of them , give me but leave to hint this observation to you by the way . observ. . that 't is the duty of every faithfull minister of god in their several places , when they perceive there are divisions , strifes , and contentions amongst the people , if sound and solid arguments will not prevail with them to unity , and concord , to add hearty and fervent prayers to god , to move their hearts to it . this ( you see ) here is praxis apostolica ; 't was the apostle paul's practice , and it is the duty of every minister . oh , that we could all endeavour to write after this copy ! the words themselves contain a prayer , and in this prayer there are two things most remarkable . first , the thing that is prayed for ; and that is unity , and concord : that they may be alike-minded , one towards another ; that is , mind the same thing among one another ; as learned doctour hammond glosses . {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} . that they may be united in thoughts , judgments , and affections : that , as they are concorporated into one outward profession , so they may be coanimated into one inward love in christ . paraeus interprets it consensum in fide , a mutual consent in faith . he prays , ( says he ) that they may be of one judgment , and opinion , concerning the use of indifferent things . but i rather understand , and referr it to consent in jugment , and also concord in affection : because 't is expressed one towards another ; where he touches all the causes of this concord . first , the authour , and efficient cause ; god : secondly , the material ; to be alike-minded , one towards another . thirdly , the formal ; according to christ jesus . fourthly , the final ; that ye may with one voice glorifie god . that 's the first here considerable ; the thing prayed for : viz. vnity , and concord . secondly , here 's the amplification , or enlargment of this prayer : and that is ( briefly ) in these three particulars . first , from the authour , god ; who is here described by two admirable properties ; patience , and consolation . now the god of patience , and consolation . origen says , that he stiles the lord , the god of patience , and consolation ; quia deus cum his est , &c. because god especially is most with such , who inherit such virtues . but i rather adhere to haymo's opinion , who says , he is therefore called a god of patience , and consolation ; quia ipse tribuit patientiam , & ab illo solatia veniunt , & in illorum cordibus habitat : that is , because it is he , that gives us patience in our tribulations , and comforts us in all our afflictions : according to that of the apostle , cor. i. . the god of patience , and comfort ; because the authour , approver , and rewarder of patience , and hope , and comfort . and therefore incomparable grotius hath this excellent note upon this place : genitivus , ( says he ) in his libris , modò objectum , modò causam effectricem denotat . though these graces come from us instrumentally , yet effectually they are from god ; as the giver of all good gifts . object . but why here stiled the god of patience , before the god of consolation ? answ. i answer , by giving you this to observe : because the way to true , solid , and serious comfort is patiently to endure the cross . the way to mount tabor , is by mount calvary . the way to a canaan of joy , and consolation , is through a wilderness of sorrow , and lamentation . per saxa , per ignes , tendimus ad superos , &c. but you may object again ; and say , why is god termed here a god of patience , and consolation , and not a god of faith , or hope , or love , or peace , as elsewhere ? to this i also answer ; that in prayer it is most comely to suit the thing we pray for with attributes to god accordingly . now here the apostle prays for unity , and concord amongst them , that were at difference . the strong were not patient towards the weak , nor the weak towards the strong . they were furious , hot spirits , of fiery , cholerick tempers , very peevish , and impatient , one towards another : and therefore the apostle applies suitable epithetes in his prayers to cure their distempers . he prays to the god of all graces to grant them those graces of all other . no unity without patience ; no comfort without concord . now the god of patience ( says he ) and consolation , grant you , &c. secondly , this prayer is amplified by another note of unity . it must be according to christ , that is , according to christ's rule , example , and commandment : that they may be united in truth , and holiness ; not in sin , and wickedness ; in order , decency , and godliness ; not in faction , disorder , and prophaneness . never think of unity any other way , or terms , unless it be according to christ . there can be no true christian unity ; but in christ , the redeemer , and head of the church . for how can the members be united , but in the head ? or the scholars , but in the teacher ? or the subjects , but in their sovereign ? can the dead be united to the living ? what concord between light , and darkness ? christ , and belial ? whilest some are for earth , and others for heaven ; it is not possible they should go one way . if an angel from heaven should preach another gospel , he must be accursed . gal. i. . christ must be the glue , the cement , and band of our unity . the agreement of sinners in mischievous practices , is against christ , not according to christ ; psal. ii . . the rulers take counsel together against the lord , and against his anointed . all agreements , which are not founded upon christ , are rather conspiracies , then agreements ; like the agreement of simeon and levi , brethen in iniquity : or absalom , and achitophel , banding against david : or herod , and pilate , shaking hands against christ . all such are cursed agreements . let us therefore hold fast together for the defence of christ , his truth , his laws , his gospel . this is that , which the apostle prays for here , to be alike-minded according to christ . that 's a second thing here considerable . thirdly , and lastly , his prayer is amplified , and enlarged , in regard of the end of unity , and concord . it must be to glorifie god . and this also is here amplified , and illustrated , two manner of ways : . inwardly , that ye may with one mind — . outwardly , with one mouth , perform all to his glory . in a word ; god is not glorified , where there is no unity . where men agree not in affection ; god takes no delight to be amongst them . by strifes , and contentions , god is not glorified ; but blasphemed . he cannot endure them , which call him father , and will not live quietly , and peaceably with their christian brethren . and therefore , seeing there is so near a relation , having one lord , one faith , one baptism , let it be a stronger tye , and obligation , to unity , and concord : and let us endeavour to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace . ephes. iv . , and . we are all of one nation , of the same church , baptized into one body ; we have one god , and father of all ; who is above all , and through all , and in you all . let this move us all to be one ( as it were ) because the god , and father of us all , is one . and thus our blessed saviour prays pathetically in that last prayer of his : john xvii . , and . father , i pray , that they may be one , as we are one . and , if none of my arguments will prevail to unite you together , this day , in a firm and lasting bond of amity , unity , and concord ; i will not onely now , but all the days of my life , continue my prayers , and supplications for you , in the words of my text , and according to the practice of this blessed apostle , st. paul ; saying , the god of patience , and consolation , grant you to be alike-minded , one towards another . thus i have ( as briefly as i well could ) given you both the logical division , and theological explication of the words . i should be too tedious , if i should insist on every particular , and from thence raise several observations ; i shall therefore , as god shall enable me , and the time permit me , extract one suitable , and seasonable doctrine , as the marrow , and quintessence of the whose text , which is this : i pray , observe it . obs. . vnity , or vnanimity , amongst believers , is very necessary ; that thereby god may be glorified . or thus ; christians ought to be firmly lincked in a bond of amity , concord , and affection all their days , that god may be glorified . see this first proved by scripture . cor. . . there the same apostle prays , that the corinthians may all speak the same thing , that there be no divisions amongst them : but that they may be perfectly * joyned together in the same mind , and in the same judgment . first , he prays , that they may speak the same thing ; that there may be a unity in their language . the anatomists tell us of an artery , which goes from the heart to the tongue : if our tongues jarr , our hearts cannot make harmony . vt sitis aptè compacti ; so theophylact. now the more sure course to bring this to pass , is for all of us to be of one mind , and of one meaning , to speak as we mean , and to mean as we speak ; else we cannot be perfectly joyned together , but shall remain a tottered , a dismembered , and mishapen body . secondly , he prays there , that they may be perfectly joyned together in one mind , and one judgment ; that so they may praise god , non tantùm eodem verborum sono , sed animo pleno mutuae charitatis ; as one glosses . god will not have onely of us a little lip-service ; an outward agreement : but an hearty , and unfeined affection , one towards another . we must be joyned together in one mind , and judgment . again , see some more places of scripture to confirm this truth . phil. iii . . let us walk by the same rule , and let us mind the same thing . and , ephes. iv . . let us endeavour to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace . we must labour to our utmost , to preserve that unity in the church , which is kept in the body , by being animated by the same spirit ; loving , and living peaceably together . we must use our utmost endeavour after this unity ; so the word imports . {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} . satagite servantes ; so the syriack translatour . it notes not a slight , overly , and perfunctory endeavour ; but it signifies an earnest , diligent , and industrious endeavour for the preservation of this unity . solicitè servantes ; so st. ambrose : tanquam pro aris , & focis . satan will endeavour by making division to get dominion ; therefore let us endeavour after unity . again , in another place , he presses home this point ; witness that rhetorical , and pathetical observation of his , which we meet with , in phil. ii . . if therefore there be any consolation in christ , if any comfort of love , if any fellowship of the spirit , if any bowels , and mercies . did you ever hear more importunity , or earnestness , in any cause ? well , what 's the matter ? i pray observe , in the second verse , fullfill ye my joy ; that ye be like-minded , having the same love , being of one accord , and of one mind . and again , in the fifteenth verse of the third chapter ; as many , as be perfect , be like-minded ; and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded , yet be patient , and god shall reveal even this unto you . i might multiply places for the proof of this point ; but i must hasten . beloved brethren , let me tell you ; that there is nothing in the world , that satan ( that envious wretch ) labours more for , then to sow his tares of dissension amongst christian brethren ; he seeks nothing more , then to impede unity , and concord amongst them ; he strives nothing more , then to disband the church . if he can but once accomplish this design , to cut the sinows of our affections , one towards another , into pieces ; he has enough . and this we finde ( by sad experience ) he endeavours daily to effect : witness the lamentable divisions amongst us of this nation , at this day . he made us first to differ in opinion , and then afterwards in affection , till at last it came to a most bitter opposition ; and separation . as light vapours , and exhalations , being drawn from the earth , come down many times with great showres , and tempests : so from light differences at first to proceed oftentimes great storms of wrath , envy , and malice . a spark many times breaks out into an open flame . if he can but divide us in opinion , he will quickly disjoint us in affection . and god knows we are to prone to division , and separation ; go walk as men : because they are the fruits of the flesh . see cor. iii . , , , . whereas there is amongst you envyings , and strifes , and divisions , are ye not carnal , and walk as men ? see , strifes , and quarrelling contentions amongst christians , argue them to be so far carnal . it 's not from god , nor his spirit ; it 's not from christ , and his word : that men are given to such froward , malicious , and turbulent dispositions . james iv . i. whence come ( those {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} ) wars , and fightings ? do they not come from the lusts , that war in you members ? man by nature is a spider , a toad ; he spits nothing but venome , he is a bramble , that tears every one , that comes near him . so that ( you see ) strifes , and cotentions are made manifest the works of the flesh ; and these quickly creep into the best , and purest churches . the church of corinth was a garden , planted by saint paul yet , notwithstanding all his care , and constant inspection , these weeds grew up in it . experience teaches us , how prone those worms are to breed in the sweetest roses . whereas one saies , i am of paul , and another , i am of apollo : are ye not carnal ? observe there , they we of several parties , and sides : some for this minister , and some for that . are ye not carnal ? saies the apostle . who then is paul , or apollo , or peter ; but ministers , by whom ye believed ? and at the ninth verse , we are labourers together with god ; ye are god's building . we do but fit you , and dispose you : t is god , that builds you up in the most holy faith ; 't is he , that compleats you , and makes you a spiritual building . now ( you know ) a building is compact , and united , one room another , and all under one roof : so should we be , that are members of the same body , of one mind , compacted , and cemented by love ; that god , who is our creatour , and master-builder , may thereby be glorified . come we now to lay down the grounds , and reasons of this point ; that so i may hasten to the application . that vnity amongst christians is very necessary ; that god thereby might be glorified : it appears by that vehement , and affectionate prayer of christ for it , john xvii . , . certainly that thing , which our blessed saviour does so much press , and urge , must needs be of very great moment , and concernment : and by this ( sayes our saviour ) shall all men know , ye are my disciples ; if ye love one another : not , if ye work miracles , or cast out devils ; but if ye cast out discord , and variance . and therefore there is not a greater scandal to religion , and holiness ; then when those , that do believe , are as the levite's concubine , that was cut into many pieces . pasalm cxxvii . . behold how good , and pleasant a thing it is for brethren to live together in vnity ! 't is a credit to religion , and a very great scandal if not . 't was that , which the heathens objected to the christians , and t is that , which the papists , at this day , lay in our dish , our differences , and dissentions : quare non consentitis inter vos ? hoc est opprobrium gentium . shall we be contentious , and fall out by the way , are we not brethren ? we should rather imitate those primitive-christians , that we read of in acts iv . . and the multitude of them , that believed , were of one heart , and of one soul . and it is one of the apostle , saint paul's qualifications , which he requires in a deacon ; tim. iii . . he must not be {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} , double-tongued . so i am sure it is that , which god requires of christians , that they should not have divided hearts : but that they should be {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} , having one , and the same soul , dwelling in several bodies . hence is that excellent saying of saint ambrose ; quibus erat una fides , esset & una substantia ; & quibus erat communis christus , communis esset & sumptus , &c. and it is very observable , and worthy our notice , the placing of the eyes in the head ; that look which way you will with one eye , the other will be fixed upon the same object . there are many reasons given : but , me thinks , anselm hits upon the most proper , and genuine . omnes ( saith he ) justi concordiae tantae erunt ; quantae sunt in praesenti oculi nostri . this should teach us unity in all our actions . and it's saint bernard's observation upon john xxi . . where christ commited his whole flock onely to st. peter ; saying there , feed my sheep : committens ( saith he ) uni , unitatem omnibus commendavit ; that is , in committing his flock to one ; he commended unity to all . and therefore it was , that he prayed so earnestly for his disciples , before he left them ; that they may be on . that 's the first . secondly , vnity amongst christians is very necessary ; that god thereby may be glorified : because it is a special means to bring the world to believe the truth , and receive christ . see , this is twice affirmed to be the consequent of unity , joh. xvii , , . that the world may believe thou hast sent me . it is a special way to convince all the enemies of the truth . what confirms the papists , and hereticks , and prophane persons in errours , and wickedness ? nothing more , then the differences , and strange opinions , that are amongst us ? do they not by books , and otherwise , in derision , say ; one sect says , that ha's the spirit of god ; another saith , that hath : and yet both are contrary one to another . can the spirit of god be contrary to it self ? can it be a spirit of truth in one , and a spirit of falshood in others ? this is a great stumbling-block in their way , and confirms them in their evil ways . so that , if nothing else should make us tender about causing any breaches in the church of god , this should . wo be unto us , if we hinder others , from embracing the faith , by our divisions ! oh then ! in these times of differences , and breaches amongst us ; what should we run unto ? what should we plead for in prayer ; but this o lord , it is a sad judgement to be thus miserably divided , as we are ; to have altar against altar , church against church , minister against minister : what is preached one day , is decryed the next . is this to have one heart , and one way ? is this to be alike-minded one towards another according to christ ? lord , what will become of us , if we continue thus ? oh , that all those , that do confess thy holy name , may agree in the truth of thy holy word , and live in unity , and godly love : because this is a special means to bring the world to believe the truth , and receive christ ! that 's a second . thirdly , vnity amongst christians is very necessary ; that god thereby may be glorified : because hereby a serviceable , and beneficial helping one another in spiritual things is preserved . there is strength in unity . vis unita fortior . a kingdom , divided against it self , cannot stand ; says our saviour . when one piece of the wall divides from the other , it foretells ruin . as that heathen to his sons , giving them a quiver of arrows ; intimating thereby , as long as they agreed , they were invincible . all the united power of the church is little enough against their common enemies , and shall they weaken themselves ? the people of god are compared to living stones , built up together : now whilest the stones keep in the building , they bear up one another ; but , if once removed , it falls down . they are compared to members in the body : while they are joyned togather ; there is a mutual ministration to each other ; but when divided from the body , no part can receive any nourishment . thus it is with us , while we are in union . oh , the wonderfull help we shall be one to another ! we provoke one another to love , and to good works ; but take these coals from one another , and the fire goes out . fourthly , vnity amongst christians is necessary ; that thereby god may be glorified : because god many times suffers sad , and heavie persecutions to befall them ; that thereby their discords , and divisions may be removed , and they be more endeared to one another . times of prosperity in the church made the greatest heresies , and schisms ; but the times of bloody persecution made the godly more united . thus the martyrs , some of them in queen mary's days , did bewail their differences , and contests , they had formerly , one with another : but the prison , and persecution , made them highly prize one another . joseph's brethren , in their plenty , envied , and fell out with one another ; but in their distress they were glad to cleave together : and truly so it may one day come to pass with many of us ; who are now so shie , and strange to one another . god may in time work so ; that we may be glad to enjoy one another's company , to have society , and communion , one with another . the sheep , that are scattered one from another , when a sudden storm arises , it makes them company together . and therefore , if love , and godliness do not unite us ; take heed god does not make some outward trouble , and affliction to put us together . if we will not embrace one another willingly ; he may bind us in chains together ; and then we 'le be glad to hug one another . that 's a fourth . lastly , there ought to be unity , and concord , amongst christian brethren , that god may be glorified thereby : because they are but a few in comparison to those , that bandy themselves against the church ; therefore they had need united . * fear not ( says christ ) little flock . christ's flock is but a little flock : the divel 's is a great herd . and one says excellently upon that place : justorum tanta paucitas , ut unitas videatur . and the apostle tells us , cor. ix . . all run in a race ; but one receives the prize : to teach us unity in all our undertakings . and luke xvii . . when ten lepers were cleansed , there was but one returned to give thanks : intimating to us , that we should join unanimously in blessing , and praising god for his mercies . deo grata vnitas , ingrata divisio . it 's worth our notice ; that , when christ's body was rent , and crucified , they did not suffer them to break his legs : john xix . . now expositours give an excellent reason for this . they understand the church christ to be as his bones : signifying , that he suffered his real body to be rent , and torn , and wounded ; but his mystical body ( which is his church ) he would not have any discord , or rent amongst them . his coat was without seam , they said therefore amongst themselves , let us not rent it , john xix . . intimating to us , that we should not onely be united , but as one ; as many members in one body . though a multitude of spiritual gifts ; yet joyned in the unity of the spirit . and therefore , when the apostle heard there were divisions amongst the corinthians , he tells them ; ex parte credit , non ex toto : that he partly believed it ; he could not altogether . it seemed almost an incredible thing , that members of one , and the same church should be so much to pieces . you see the wicked multitude unites in sin , and prophaness . oh , that we were once united in truth , and holiness ! now the god of patience , and consolation , grant you to be alike-minded , one towards another . so much shall serve for the proof of the point . come we now to make some practical improvement of it to our selves . vse . is it so , that christian unity is to be preserved ; that thereby god may be glorified , then there are a great many people amongst us liable to a sharp reproof , who delight to sow the tares of strife , and contention , amongst their christian brethren . who , because all things go not according to their minds , presently fly out into open railings against authority . because some differ a little from their humours , fancies , and opinions , they quickly make a separation , and disagreement , in society , and conversation . and that , which at first ( perhaps . ) begun in a friendly , and neighbourly dispute , by degrees takes flame , and grows up to a mortal feud , and hatred . this is not according to christ . such are incendiaries , and firebrands of christian society . such , as boggle at a few ceremonies and make no conscience of committing sacrilege . such , as cry down an organ in a church , but are pleased with it in a private house . such , as are afraid of a gown , or a surplice , or a canonical habit : but make nothing of being cloathed with malice , envy , and vncharitableness . such , as cry down all forms , but a form of godliness ( which they onely have ) and deny the power of it . this is not to be alike-minded according to christ . it 's a sad thing , that people of the next door should be no longer neighbours one of another , but ready to devour , and pull out one another's throats for a few shadows , or husks of religion ; a few senceless , aery , sapless , empty notions ; and opinions : whereas the life , substance , kernel , pith , and marrow of christianity , the power of holiness in our lives , a conformity of our wills to god's will , is not so zealously contended for , but ( god knows ) is too much neglected by us . this is not to be alike-minded according to christ . there is nothing can prevail , to bring us to an happy agreement , or union , untill we unite in the spirit of holiness , and righteousness . if we once could prevail to bring men to this ; we should be the more easily able to bear with one another under all our lesser differences , untill the time of full agreement come . we should hold our differences with love and compassion ; and not with hatred , and division . we should lovingly consult together upon rules , or-terms , on which we might manage our unavoidable differences to the least disadvantage to the cause of christ , or those common fundamental truths , which we all maintain . oh , that we would but observe that apostolical canon ; let all things be done decently , and in order ! let not the foot , or the hand , take upon them to govern the head ; but let us submit to our civil , and ecclesiastical superiours ; and not disturb the peace of the church , by crying popery is coming in ; when they , that say so , are the greatest . idolaters , and worshippers of their own imaginations . and , seeing we agree in things of the greatest moment , and weight , let us bear , one with another , in smaller matters , and manage our differences with more meekness , and peace , and christian charity . this is to be alike-minded according to christ . if we were once united ( i say ) thus in the spirit of holiness , we should not differ so much , as we do . the very fore-thought of an everlasting union in heaven would have a continual influence upon our hearts for the healing of our breaches . we should be thinking with our selves ; shall we not shortly be of one mind , and one heart ? and all be perfected with the blessed vision , and reconciling light of the face of god ? there will then be no dissension , or division , or unbrotherly censures , or separations . and shall we now live so unlike our future life ? shall we now be so unlike to what we must be for ever ? shall we now cherish those heart-burnings , and dissensions ; that must not enter with us into heaven ; but be cast off among the rest of our miseries , and shut out with the rest of our enemies . must we there be cloathed in perfect love , and vnity , and be all imployed in the same holy praise of god , and our redeemer : and does it beseem us now , to be censuring , contending , and separating from each other . oh ( beloved brethren ) let me tell you , it had been better , you had never been born , then to make any sinfull divisions in the church . as joshuah once faid to achan ; joshua , vii . . why hast thou troubled vs ? the lord shall trouble thee this day . so i may say to some troublers of our churche's peace ; why trouble ye the church , and hinder unity ? you shall one day have trouble your selves for this . mark them ( saith the apostle ) that cause dissensions , and avoid them : who they are , that make our breaches , and keep them open ; and shun them . vve are willing to agree to any thing , that is reasonable , or possible ; and yet they make us the authours of our present divisions . as nero set rome on fire : and then persecuted the poor christians for it ; as if it had been done by them : they pluck up the hedg ; and yet complain , that others let in wilde beasts into the vineyard . if they heartily desired vnity , and peace with us , they durst not make so great a breach in charity , nor so arrogantly condemn , or sleight their brethren ; whose piety , and soberness , they cannot deny . beloved , if any man desire to be contentious , we have no such custom , neither the churches of god , cor. xi . . that 's the first vse . secondly , give me leave to lay down some few rules , by way of direction to peace , and vnity , and then i will close up in a word of exhortation . first , so far , as there is an agreement in judgment ; let us close heartily , and embrace one another in that . it 's a mercy , that the difference is not in the very fundamentals , and vitals of religion , seeing therefore there are common opinions , wherein the godly do agree ; let that unity be nourished , and this will be a means to produce further vnion amongst us . it 's a great frowardness in the rigid lutherans , that they will not own the calvinists , as brethren ? so far as men do retain christ , and fundamental truths , with an humble , godly disposition ; desiring to be further informed : let not the want of what they should have , make us despise the good things they have . so far , as there is an agreement in judgment , let us close heartily , and embrace one another in that . that 's the first . secondly , let private christians highly esteem , and submit to the ministry god hath set over them . for commonly there begins the breach . when they begin to be offended at them ; when men will not own that publick office , which god hath appointed : then they wander into by-paths . see eph. iv . , . there you may see a twofold end of the ministers of christ . the one is to keep them from being carried about with every wind of doctrine . the other for a spiritual edification , till we come in the vnity of the faith . so that a due , and fit obedience , and ackowledgment of them would in a special manner prevent divisions . thirdly , get a pitifull , and compassionate spirit to those that go astray . we are indeed ( i confess ) to have zeal , and an holy impatience in the things of god . yet this is to be accompanied with pity , and compassion . of some have compassion , ( saith the apostle ) making a difference . certainly , when we shall seriously consider , how prone it is for men to receive errour for truth ; how naturally blind , and opposite the mind of a man is to the revealed truths of god ; and how that it 's the spirit of god , that leads thee into truth , that keeps thee from the errours , and heresies , that others are carried aside with : these things ( if any thing ) will greatly move thee to tender bowels . fourthly , candidly , and truly report , or lay down the opinions of others , that do dissent from us . there is nothing ( i am confident ) hath made the gap wider , and more raked into the sores of the church ; then such a malevolent , and ill-disposition , to pervert the opinions of others , and to make them hold such monstrous things , as they do with all their hearts , detest : and thefore i desire you candidly , and truly , to report or lay down , the opinions of others that do dissent from you . that 's a fourth . fifthly , question , and examine your own hearts : do not presently believe your own hearts in every opinion ; but have modest doubtings . see how modestly the apostle determines the case about marriage ; cor. vii . at the last verse , i think , i have the spirit of god . he was not so confident , as many ignorant zealots . the same spirit , that leads into all truth , leads likewise into all humility . consult with those , that are able , orthodox , and learned . conferr with the chief pillars of the church ; and they will resolve thy doubts . the spirit of the prophets is subject to the prophets . sixthly , highly labour to prize , and delight in the known & plain truths of christ . hold fast your christian profession the verb there translated hold fast ( {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} ) signifies to hold a thing so fast , as not to let it go again ; with might and main , totis viribus . , with our utmost endeavours . shall others hold errours fast , and shall not we the truth ? shall we strive to hold money fast , and let loose our religion ? shall others hold a few empty notions fast ; and shall we let go the substantial truths of the gospel ? shall others affect a few nisities , and quirks in religion , and shall we be weary of the plain and practical truths of god's word ? saint paul , that was snatch'd up into the third heavens , yet desired to know nothing but christ , and him crucified . saint peter thought it not in convenient to write the same things they knew already . certainly , there is nothing hath more rent , and torn the church of god , then affectation of singular high things ; to bring in some unheard , and unknown notions . oh! this is the pride of some mens hearts ; to have it said , such a man was the first , that brought this notion into the world : as the jesuit of his scientia media said , ego primus inveni : or like that arch-heretick herrtick arius ; who , as hilary reports of him , had menstruam fidem , for every moneth a new faith . it 's a sad thing to see how many men in these days , forsaking old truths , have wandered from brownism to anabaptism , from that to socinianism , from that to quakerism , and god knows whether they will go at last . so wild a thing is errour . to be weary of the known truth , is in effect to be weary of the same god , the same christ . vvhy do not we desire a new sun , a new earth , a new world ; as well as new truths . that 's a sixth . lastly ( to name no more ) if such should be the corruptions of the church , that thou canst not keep fellowship with her ; but by partaking of her sins : then , before thou leavest her , be assured , that it is not for small matters ; but that , which does eat up the very vitals of religion . do not you dare to leave it ; till god leave it . do not thou nchurch it , till god does . but let thy endeavours be , in thy place , to inform , and heal ; before thou presume to depart , or separate . plead , and strive , with thy mother ; because she ha's committed whoredom : hos : ii . . oh , let thy secession be very unwillingly ! till thou art compell'd to depart ; do not . and though the papists charges us with schism ; because we have with-drawn our selves from the obedience of the pope , as head of the church . i , but we say ours was not a schism , but a secession . they were schismaticks in falling from the primitive order , and institutions in the church : insomuch , that the pope is the grandest schismatick , that ever was in the church . and further , we departed not from rome , because of petty corruptions : no , she was a babylon , e're we left her , and then we left her unwillingly . they drave us out from them , persecuting us with fire , & faggot . take heed therefore of leaving the church for some petty differences . but suppose there be many corruptions in government , and administrations : yet thou art not to make sinfull breaches , and rents ; for these do plus perturbare infirmos bonos ; quàm corrigere animosos malos ; at st. angustine well . take heed therefore of pride , ambition , and seeking great things in the church . it 's reported , that most of those , who made the greatest rents in the church , did it upon discontent ; missing that preferment they looked for . the spirit of diotrephes , who loved preheminences , made great divisions . yea , even the disciples themselves began to quarrel with one another de primatu , who should be the chiefest : therefore does our saviour so often press humility , and submission . and i pray god i may learn that lesson . let others hunt , and gape after the preferments of this world : i bless god , i neither seek , nor sue for any ; but shall say , as once mephibosheth said , ( with a little addition ) sam. xix . . for as much as my lord , the king , is come again in peace unto his own house : and the poor church , which ha's been for many years ragged , and torn with divisions , and contentions , is like to put on a better dress , in hopes of a future settlement , let them take all ; i shall be contented . that 's a second use . the third and last vse shall be by way of exhortation . let me beseech you ( brethren ) in the name of our lord jesus christ ; that there be no divisions among you ; but that ye be perfectly joyned together in the same mind , and in the same judgment . live as christians in that holy unity , as your principles , and profession engages you unto . do you not pity , those places , where divisions have made religion to be a scorn , and the tender love , and unity of god●s people is turned into uncharitable censures , and separations ? take warning therefore , , that you come not to the like . suspect those doctrines , that tend to divisions in the church . if it be not for unity , it is not for god . christ came to heal , and to reconcile : and therefore sends not his servants on a contrary errand . let us all agree in the great , certain , and necessary points of religion , and let us compassionately tolerate the differences , that are tolerable ; as his majesty does in his late seasonable declaration enjoyn . we have but one god ; and therefore we must worship by one rule . we have but one sepherd ; and therefore must be commanded by one voice . we have one head ; and therefore must follow one direction . he , that rends himself from the church of god in god's worship ; and service here , will one day be rent from christ , and the church for ever hereafter . cain was the first separatist we read of ; and what became of him ? when he went out of god's presence ( the text says , gen , iv . , , . ) he was a fugitive , and a vagabond , and a mark of infamy was set upon him all his days . corah , and his rebellious company , they were the second sort : and they made a cleft in the congregation ; and god made the earth to cleave , and open upon them , and swallowed them up ; numb. xvi . oh , let us take heed of their sins ; lest we also partake of their punishments ! the * good mother ( you know ) had rather lose her childe , then divide it : so a good son of the church will rather suffer any thing , then cause divisions . oh , therefore let us be alike-minded , one towards another , according to christ jesus , and let us endeavour to keep this unity of the spirit in the bond of peace ! this is the crown , honour , ornament , and glory of a christian ; a salt seasoning all our actions . we read , that there was a kind of concord between the stones in solomon's temple , they were so fitted , and disposed ; that there was no noise heard in the building thereof : such a sweet conjunction of affections should there be betwixt god's people ; that no noise , no clamour , no brawlings should be heard amongst us . oh , that the lord would cement us thus once again ! this would sweeten all our possessions , and all our afflictions ; as the tree sweetened the waters of marah . indeed , my brethren , without this love , unity , peace , and concord , the fulness of the world will be uncomforatable to us : and with this , the greatest afflictions will seem but light , and inconsiderable . a wilderness , with peace , and unity , is better then a paradise with discord , and dissension . i beseech you remember , that your god is a god of peace ; your jesus is the prince of peace ; your gospel is the gospel of peace ; your calling , the calling of peace ; and your way to heaven , the way of peace . i beseech you therefore seek , and pursue it . acquaint your selves with god ; and be at peace one with another . follow the example of the apostolical primitive church ; acts ii . . they were all with one accord in one place . oh , what sweet , and heavenly harmony must there needs be , when all the strings were so in tune ! i would to god it were so with us of this miserable , divided kingdom . oh ( my brethren ) we must never expect the spirit of vnityto enter into our hearts ; but where there is vinity of spirits : there cannot ( i am sure ) be a more fatal , and forceable opposition to the holy spirit's entry ; then discord , & disunited hearts . i remember what homer observes of agamemnon , that , whilst he was in love , and amity with all , and bare no malice , he was like jupiter in feature , mars in valour , &c. but when once he became passionate , envirous , malicious , he was as a lion , tigre , or savage beast so it is with us : so long as we are unanimous , ruled by reason , correcting our inordinate appetites , and conforming our selves to the rule of god's word ; we are as so many living saints , nothing can prejudice us : but when once we let loose the reins óf our affections to lust , anger , ambition , pride , envy , malice , or uncharitableness , then we overthrow all , and bring in a chaos of confusion amongst us , provoke god's anger against us , and are like so many divels , roaring , and ranging about , seeking whom we may devour . it is recorded of a city in spain , that there was not known any quarrellings , law-suits , or contentions , for twenty years together : but all quiet and peaceable , having excellent trading , and commerce . oh , that this , and all our cities were thus disposed ! how contentedly might we live , and enjoy god's blessings sweetly , and have a more free , and blessed intercourse amongst us ! it was the praise of the primitive church , that they sang their confessions joyntly , and aloud : and their amens , ( as saint hierome reports ) were like a clap of thunder ; and their hallelujahs were as the roaring of the sea . oh that we would imitate those primitive christians ; that we may praise god , with one heart , and one mouth ! this was their practice ( oh , that it was ours ! ) when they prayed , they prayed all together ; when they brake bread , they communicated together ; when they heard , t was all together . * they were all , with one accord , in one place , met together to perform god's worship , and service . now the god of patience , and consolation , grant you to be alike-minded , one towards another , according to christ jesus . the same spirit , that loves unity , loves uniformity . thus the church was began , and thus it should be continued . that we may be ( as st. paul speaks , ephes. iv . , , . ) one body , and one spirit : having one lord , one faith , one baptism , one god and father of all . that yet it may be said of us protestants in england ; which now are the scorn , the hissing , and by-word of other nations , because of our divisions : that it may yet be said of us , as of the children of israel in judges xx . . a congregation gathered together as one man . now the god of patience , and consolation , grant you to be alike-minded , one towards another , according to christ jesus . if after all this , that i have said , there be any so proud , and selfish , and uncharitable ; that they will set up their own conceits , and wills , against the plain commands of christ , and hinder christian unity , impede the peace of their brethren , and the unity of the church , and will have no agreement ; unless all others will be conformed to their wills : i shall say no more to such ; but that these are not the sons of peace , nor the living , compassionate members of the church : but self-idolaters , that god is engaged to pull down . and let me tell you , that 't is not by such , as these , that the church must be headed , and repaired ; but it is by them , that are sensible of their own infirmities , and compassionate to others ; by them , that are of a meek , humble , christian spirit , principles , and affections : whom i pray god bless , that they may endeavour to settle this poor , distracted church . now the god of patience , and consolation , grant us all to be thus minded . let all bitterness , and wrath , anger , and clamour , and evil-speaking , be put away from you , with all malice . and be ye kinde , one towards another , tender-hearted , forgiving one another ; even as god , for christ's sake , hath forgiven you . let there be no divisions amongst you , that hear me this day . let us be alike-minded , one towards another , according to christ jesus . there are jars , discords , and divisions too many ( god knows ) amongst others : the lord stand in the gap , and save us , that we be not utterly destroyed by ours . for our divisions , we have great reason ( if we have any grace ) to have sad thoughts of heart ; to see so glorious a church , and people , as once we were , so miserably shattered , and divided , as now we are ; to see our dear mother thus set upon the rack , and her bones ( as it were ) put out of joynt : surely this , if any thing , must needs make a good christian's heart to bleed , and to wish his eyes were a fountain of tears , &c. and to pray and weep , and weep and pray , for the peace of this our jerusalem ; that all they , that confess thy holy name in this city , and nation , may yet agree , &c. now the god of patientce , and consolation , grant you to be alike-minded , one towards another , according to christ jesus . i 'le conclude with that excellent conclusion of st. paul , in the second epistle to the corinthians , chap. xiii . ii. farewell brethren , be prefect , be of good comfort , be of one mind , live in peace , and the god of love , and peace , shall be with you . and let all of us jointly to this say , amen , amen , so be it . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a e- prov. xxv , ii vide cyprian ad jubajan . epist. . notes for div a e- the occasion . * gal. vi . . he seals up his former exhortation with a word of benediction : so should we pray for the people , as well as instruct them ; so would our labours bring more comfort to our selves , and more profit to our hearers . it is either meant of god's patience , or ours : that is , either of that patience , which god uses towards us ; or of that patience , which god , by his grace , and holy spirit , works in us . now he is the god of both . and the god of consolation , because sound comfort is from god alone : and therefore the holy ghost is called by his proper name , when he is called {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} . vide psal. xxiii . . patience is an help to vnity : for what is it but pride , and heat of mens spirits , that both sets contentions afoot at first , and afterwards keeps them so ? see prov. xiii . . and prov. xv . . patience is the true peace-maker . and as patience is an help to unity ; so is comfort a special fruit , and effect of it . see hebr. x. . pax cum bonis custodienda est , non cum sceleratis , & iniquis : qui pacem inter se habent in peccatis suis . pax cum bonis : bellum cum vitiis semper habendum est . aug. tom. . de temp. ser. . maneat potius nobis adversus manichaeos pro veritate certamen ; quam cum illis in falsitate concordia . aug. tom. . contra faustum manich. lib. . cap. . charitas laudat deum : discordia blasphemat aug. in psal. . * {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} coagmentati , sive coadunati , at compacti : as learned beza reads it . satanae triumphus est christianorum dissentio . aug. tom. . serm , à l●van . edit. serm. . it is a shame for christians to be like other men , as sampson was , after he had lost his hair . it ill becomes them to contend , and quarrel , as those terrigenae fratres use to do . these overflowings of the gall , and spleen , dom● from a fullness of bad humours . christians should be , as s●ul was , higher then the people by head , and shoulders . something singular is expected from them . if ye wrangle , and quarrel ; the world will think you mad . vide locum . ecce quám bonum , & ●●●cundum ! gen. xiii . . gen. xlv . . scilurus that scythian king in plutarch , de garr . * luke xii . . see dr. sanderson , bishop of lincoln , in his sermon ad c●erum on rom. xiv . and pag. , , . men must grant ( though they be unwilling ) that every particular church hath power for decency ; and order's sake , to ordain , and constitute ceremonies . see salv. lib. . instit. 〈◊〉 . , . alass , whereto serves all this ado about gestures , and vestures , and other outward rites , and formalities , that for such things men should make such clamours against the times ? i say whereto serves all this ; but to give scandal to the enemies of our church , and religion ? believe it ; we shall never grow to christian unanimity in any tolerable measure ; so long as every man seeks but to please himself onely ; following his own liking ; and is not desirous withall to please his neighbor . dr. sanderson pag. . {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} , i cor. xv . ult. . v. see arch-bishop laud's speech at his death ; ne veniant romani , &c. jude . heb. iv . . cor. . . how have the divisions among the christians made may for , and given advantage , not a little , to the turk , for the making of and inrode into christendom ? vlysses demonstrates it to achilles , that the discord between him , and agamemnon , would in probability prove the ruin of the greeks , hom , iliad . {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} . frangimur , si collidi . mur . simul colligamus ; neè dividendo perdamus . aug. de . haeres . cap. . we should be insupe rabiles ; if we were once inseparabiles . quisquis ab ecclesia catholica fuerit separatus . &c. ab unitate christi disjunctus ext , &c. aug. epist. . ad pop. fact . don. * kings iii . . kings vi . . exod. xv . . ubi pax , ibi christus ; quia christus pax : saith st. ambrose , tom. . epist. . if ye bite , and devour , one another , take heed , that ye he not consumed one of another . gal. v. . i remember saint augustine thus argues against the schism of the donatists ; tom . in psal. lv . fratres sumus ( saith the there , ) vnum deum incocamus , in unum christum credimus , unum evangelium audimus , unum psalmum cantamus , &c. quid in foris , ego intus sum , & c ? and elswhere , qui adoramus unum patrem ; cur non agnoscimus unam matrem ? tom . de . haeres . cap. . * acts ii . . ephes. iv . . jer. ix . . a true and impartial narrative of some illegal and arbitrary proceedings by certain justices of the peace and others, against several innocent and peaceable nonconformists in and near the town of bedford, upon pretence of putting in execution the late act against conventicles together with a brief account of the late sudden and strange death of the grand informer, and one of the most violent malicious prosecutors against these poor people. bunyan, john, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; 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(eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a true and impartial narrative of some illegal and arbitrary proceedings by certain justices of the peace and others, against several innocent and peaceable nonconformists in and near the town of bedford, upon pretence of putting in execution the late act against conventicles together with a brief account of the late sudden and strange death of the grand informer, and one of the most violent malicious prosecutors against these poor people. bunyan, john, - . p. s.n.], [london : . attributed to bunyan by wing and halkett and laing. reproduction of original in huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng dissenters, religious -- england -- bedford. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - emma (leeson) huber sampled and proofread - emma (leeson) huber text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a true and impartial narrative of some illegal and arbitrary proceedings by certain justices of the peace and others , against several innocent and peaceable nonconformists in and near the town of bedford , upon pretence of putting in execution the late act against conventicles . together with a brief account of the late sudden and strange death of the grand informer , and one of the most violent malicious prosecutors against these poor people . published for general information . — they which hate us , spoyl for themselves . ps. . . — as deceivers , and yet true , &c. as poor , yet making many rich ; as having nothing , and yet possessing all things . cor. . , , . — and took joyfully the spoyling of your goods , knowing in your selves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance . heb. . . printed in the year , . sir , some proceedings at bedford , pursuant to the late act of parliament , ( a true narrative whereof is herein enclosed ) afford matter both of wonder and dislike to such that have observed them . when you have perused the paper , you will conclude with me and others , that this text needs no comment ; it is plain , that in despight of magna charta , and in defiance to all laws and rules of righteousness , neighbourhood and humanity they resolve to ruine the nonconformists , though the instruments are no wayes able to recompence the king and kingdoms damage thereby . the sufferers are chearful and peaceable ; their immediate persecutors are the scum of the people , and chiefly the appurtenants of the commissaries court. the most forward instrument of that sort is one that hath openly avowed and declared his esteem for popery above other religions . if some check be not given to these extravagancies , many families will suddenly be ruined , and the publique trade and welfare endangered , which the interest of some , the rage , revenge and enmity of others will not admit regard to . pardon this trouble , when i have told you the particulars of the narrative are all true , and will be proved in every part . so i have remaining at present only to tell you , i am , sir , your assured friend . the narrative . on lords-day ( may . ) at the dwelling-house of one john fen , a haberdasher of hatts , many persons being assembled for religious exercise ; one west and feckman ( two apparitors ) by a warrant from one mr. foster , who is a justice of peace , and the commissaries deputy , did enter the house , and force the meeters to mr. fosters house , who fined every one of them severally , according to their reputed abilities ; and committed the preacher to prison , for words he spake against the church of england , then occasioned by the discourse of mr. foster . the apparitors charged ( by vertue of their warrant ) a constable , and a church-warden , to assist them ; but they neglecting , ( being not willing to the work , as they themselves declared ) were fined each of them five pounds ; though by intercession of friends , the fines are not yet levied . on friday following , one thomas battison another churchwarden , and the most active and busie in the work , having with much labour and difficulty called together the overseers of the poor , and the constables of the several wards , to levy the several fines upon the goods of the meeters , did fitst attempt to levy the fine of ten pounds upon the goods of one john bardolf a maltster , who having sold all his malt before the act commenced , and delivered his malt and malt-house into his possession to whom he had sold them , none of the officers would joyn with battison to break open the door of the malt-house , or to distrain the malt , though he most importunately charged and besought them to do it , promising to bear them harmless . whilst battison and the other officers were debating in the open yard before the malthouse door , a great number of all sorts of persons were gathered about them , expressing ( by turns ) their indignation against him , for attempting this against bardolf ; whom the whole town knew to be a just and harmless man ; and the common sort of people covertly fixing a calves tayl to battisons back , and deriding him with shouts and hollows , he departed without taking any distress there ; and advanced with other officers to edward covingtons shop , a grocer , to levy five shillings , for his wife being at the meeting , where none of the officers would distreyn but battison , who took a brass kettle , but when he had brought it to the street-door , none of the officers would carry it away ; neither could he hire any to do it in two hours time , though he offered money to such needy persons among the company as wanted bread ; at last he got a youth for sixpence to carry the kettle less way than a stones-throw , to an inn-yard where before he had hired a room to lodge such goods , under pretence to lodge grain : but when the youth had carried the kettle to the inn-gate , ( being hooted at all the way by the common spectators ) the inn-keeper would not suffer the kettle to be brought into his yard ; and so his man set it out in the middle of the street , none regarding it , till towards night a poor woman that receiveth alms was caused by an overseer to carry it away . from hence , battison , with the rest of the officers at his heels , proceeds to distrein one john spencer a grocer , for a fine of forty shillings ; but his shop-door being lockt , battison could not prevail with the officers to joyn with him in breaking it open : and so this day ended , without any other distress than that of the kettle . the next day , which was the market-day , the justices understanding how battison was discouraged in his work by the backwardness of the other officers , and the open discountenance of the other people , commanded the officers to break open the doors , and levy the distresses , and promised them to bear them harmless : immediately old battison , with a file of soldiers and the constables , in the middle of market-time advanced again to the malt-house of john bardolfe , ( scituate in an inn-yard in the middle of the market-place ) and breaks open the doors , but not without long time and trouble , all people refusing to lend either bars or hammers , which they sent from place to place to borrow for that purpose : when the doors were broken open , battison distreyned fourteen quarters of malt , but it was night before he could carry them away ; for though the market-place was then full of porters ( it being a great corn-market ) yet none of them would assist , though charged strictly by battison and the constables , but ran all away , and left their fares ; some of them saying , they would be hang'd drawn and quarterd before they would assist in that work ; for which cause the justices committed two of them ( which they could take ) to the gaol . the next day , being lords-day , fines were doubled upon the meeters , before the first could be levied ; for they assembling again at the same house , according to their custom ; battison with the two apparitors , by another warrant from mr. foster , entred the meeting-place about nine of the clock in the morning : but the mèeters refusing to depart before their exercise was ended ( unless forced ) battison sends word of it to mr. foster , who returns a verbal order , that battison should charge certain gentlemen of the town ( whose names he had sent by the messenger ) to assist him ; which battison accordingly did , going to their houses to call them , though there were near a hundred common people spectators in the streets , and none of them then charged to assist , and also trained-band souldiers ready in town for this service , partly at the charge of these gentlemen whom battison had so warned to assist , and who were so warned ( as is supposed ) upon design , to have them incur the penalties of five pounds for their refusing . about ten of the clock in the morning the meeters went with battison and the apparitors ( being constrained so to do ) to the swan in bedford , where being kept till four of the clock in the afternoon , and their names taken by the justices , they were set at liberty . next morning mr. foster the justice appears early in the streets , with old battison and the two apparitors , a file of souldiers and some constables , to see the fines levied upon the meeters goods ; charging to his assistance such persons he sees , and sending for others to their houses , but got few or none besides his first company ; most of the tradesmen , journeymen , labourers and servants having either left the town , or hid themselves , to avoid his call . the town was so thin of people , that it looked more like a country village than a corporation ; and the shops being generally shut down , it seemed like a place visited with the pest , where usually is written upon the door , lord have mercy upon us ! the first distress was attempted upon the goods of one nicholas hawkins a cutler , who was fined forty shillings ; but his goods being removed beforehand , and his house visited with the small-pox , the officers declined entring . mr. foster meeting here on john croker ( that was also fined three pounds ) commanded his assistance ; who refusing , was therefore by mr. foster commanded into the custody of one of the town-sergeants , then present . from hence mr. foster went into the house of one michael shepheard a shoomaker , who was fined five shillings ; where a distress was made , not only for five shillings , but also for d . more ; because the said shepheard being asked the same time by mr. foster , if he was at church the day before ? and not answering , only desired to know who accused him , or would swear it . the next house in their way was one thomas honyloves , a journy-man - shoomaker , fined twenty shillings or more ; whose children lying sick of the small-pox , in the house where his goods lay , the officers were unwilling to enter , and so mr. foster drew them off to one thomas cowpers a heelmaker , fined forty shillings ; distreyning three cart-load of wood , cut especially for his working ; which was of more value than any of his houshold goods , he being a poor man , and living only upon making heels and lasts . the next remove was to one john crokers house before mentioned , a dealer in linen drapery , and fined three pounds ; who having removed his shop-goods to another place , to secure them from the distress , old battison would not trouble himself to distrein then , but said he would take a better opportunity to get his goods . near this place lived one daniel rich , a tanner , and constable of that ward ; who being fined five shillings for his wife , had his best wearing-coat distreyned the same time , by immediate order of mr , foster . from hence mr. foster marcheth to john spencer , a grocer ; whose goods he distreyned for a fine of about forty shillings . the next neighbour was william jay , a baker , who was also distreyned for five shillings . and next to him lived one edward isaae , a blacksmith , fined forty shillings for himself and his wife ; from whom they took away locks , shovels , and the very anvil upon which he forgeth his work ; and battison would have pulled down the forge-bellows also , but that it required more time and labour , than his itch to greater prizes in other places would allow him : hastening therefore to their market , they leave ( for a time ) the parish of pauls , invading the parish of cuthberts ; where they find the door of one thomas arthur a pipe-maker , locked , who was fined five pounds ; before they had broken the door open by attempts they made at it , the same was unlocked on the in-side ; mr. foster enters , and distreyning all the goods within doors and without , the said arthur desired to know , how much money he had distreyned for ? to whom the said mr. foster replied , that they distreyned for eleven pounds : thereupon thomas arthur desired to see the warrant ; which being produced , he seeing himself therein but six pound , told mr. foster so : to which m. foster answered , that there was five pound more for keeping his door locked . when thomas arthur perceived that mr. foster would distreyn all his goods ; he said , sir , what shall my children do , shall they starve ? mr. foster replied , that so long as he was a rebel , his children should starve . and so on wednesday following , old battison , the two apparitors , with a file of musquetiers , and a cart , carried away what houshold goods they thought fit , and all the wood both within doors and without , necessary to his trade , by three cart-load , not leaving so much as to suffice for the burning of a kiln of pipes , ready set , though earnestly desired by the poor pipemaker himself , and also by others of battisons company . mr. foster having done his work at the pipemakers , proceeds in the parish to one robert browns a gardener , distreyning all his houshold goods , for a fine supposed to be three pounds : making haste to the chiefest place they aimed at , for their turn , they passed into peters parish , to the house of mris. mary tilney , widow , a gentlewoman well descended , and of a good estate , who was fined twenty pounds ; and to make her exemplary in suffering for that offence , mr. foster himself , being attended by his publick notary , will see the fine effectually levied upon her goods ; and indeed the same was effectually done ; for ( a cart being provided for that purpose ) they distreyned and carried away all the goods in her house they thought worth their labour , as tables , cupboards , chairs , irons , feather-beds , blankets , the very hangings of the room , and the sheets off her bed , insomuch that the widow was forced that night to borrow sheets of her neighbours to lie in , being not willing to lodge out of her own house , though invited by her friendly neighbours ; nor did they leave her one featherbed of her own ( having taken three away ) whereon to spread those sheets she borrowed , but she was forced to make use of a bed and bolster of anothers , left in her house : it is true the gentlewoman had more good houshold-stuff of her own , than was at this time found in her house ; but foreseeing the waste intended upon her , prudently secured the best of them abroad ; and therefore cannot with safety possess them for her necessary use : and as for the value of those goods taken away , it is supposed to be betwixt forty and fifty pounds . yet the said mris tilney was more troubled at the crying and sighing of her poor neighbours about her , ( who were much affected with her sufferings , she being very charitable ) than for the loss of her goods , which she took very chearfully . and so the officers left her , having finished this dayes work . the next day , being tuesday , more fines were to be levied on the goods of the rest of the meeters ; but battison finding it would lie hard upon him and the two apparitors , for want of more help than they had the day before ; and fore-knowing that if he deferred charging assistance till he began his work , all people would get out of the way , as they did ; therefore early in the morning he walked alone in the streets , looking into the shops , to charge men beforehand to be ready : which being soon perceived by the people , most of the tradesmen and other inhabitants , instantly either deserted the town , or hid themselves as before . about ten of the clock , old battison , with the souldiers , and some constables , whom he had warned over-night to be in readiness , marcheth up the high-street ; where he levieth the fine of five pounds upon john fen , the haberdasher of hatts before-mentioned , at whose house the meeting was ; taking away all the hats in his shop , and the next day carted away his houshold-goods , because there was but twenty nine hats in the shop , beside hatbands , that they took away . having thus dealt with this hatter , he proceeds to deal the same measure to another hatter , one samuel fen , who was also fined five pounds , and dealt with as his brother before him , finding no more favour from them than the former . the next fine they proceed to levy , was forty shillings upon the goods of one thomas woodward , a malster : but one richard layfield being in possession of the malthouse , to whom the maltster had ( some time before ) sold all his malt , and quitted the possession ; old battison met with a stop , and was perswaded to defer distreyning , till richard layfield , who had bought the malt , had spoken with the justices , then met at the swan : forthwith the said layfield applyed to the justices , ●cquaints them that thomas woodward ( bona fide ) did owe him sixty pounds , that he had formerly lent him in money , and that the said thomas woodward was bound to deliver two hundred ninety odd quarters of malt to others , for money and barley received of them ; and therefore upon condition that the said layfield should acquit him of the said sixty pound debt , and oblige himself to deliver the two hundred ninety odd quarters of malt to the several persons interessed in them , he did sell and deliver to him the said richard layfield , all the malt lying in his malthouse , and barley left , and that there was no fraud herein ; all the persons to whom the two hundred ninety and odd quarters of malt were due , were ready to make oath of the truth of their debts ; the said richard layfield did also produce the deed to the justices , and averred that the reason of making this bargain , was to secure his sixty pound , which he thought might otherwise be hazarded . but notwithstanding all this , sir george blundell , one of the justices , said ; that richard layfield went about herein to defraud the king , and therefore bound him over to the next assizes ; and further said , that so long as thomas woodward aforesaid offended , the malt should be distreyned , and that he would leave them ( meaning the meeters ) worth nothing ; and when he had done that , he would fill the p●isons with them : adding moreover , if they do not like it , let them stand up and defend themselves , as we did . there were no further distresses made the last week ; it is conjectured that some falling out betwixt the mayor and mr. foster on wednesday , was the occasion to delay their proceedings ; it seems the mayor was not willing that battison ( who is churchwarden for pauls ) should distreyn in the two parishes on the other side of the river where the mayor lived : but on monday the th instant , feckman the chief apparitor , with the churchwarden , constable , and overseer of mary's parish in bedford , began to distrein . the persons name is joseph ruffhead at whose house they first began ; the fine they levied upon him was three pound ; the said ruffhead upon their approach to him desired to see their warrant , wherein not finding feckmans name , he discharged him from coming upon his ground , and therefore was had to one of the justices ; before whom making good his practice in keeping feckman from his ground , because not in the warrant , was told by the justice , that feckman came only as an assistant to the officers . whereupon the said ruffhead returning back permitted them to take their distress ; who took two timber-trees of about seven pound value , for the three pound . the same day the same officers went to distreyn one john clerke , a grocer , for forty shillings ; and breaking open his doors , they took his houshold-goods , not medling with those in his shop , being but of little value . and from thence the same officers went to the house of john rush waggoner , to levy a distress of three pounds set upon him , where they seized a new cart and wheels for the same . the same day at part of a village called cotten-end , near bedford , the officers of the same , by warrant from the justices , distreyned several persons , who had been convicted by the justices , for having a meeting at the house of one thomas thorowgood ; which persons were fined to a greater value than the whole of their estates did amount to ; and this day they are stripped of their whole substance ; and the said thorowgood hath not left him so much as his loom to work with , being a weaver ; and by his labour therein supporting himself and his family . but because there are several remarkable circumstances relating to this matter , which do clearly evince the undue and most inhumane dealings of some of the justices , especially of sir george blundell , with the poor people last mentioned ; here is therefore inserted a particular and exact account of the whole proceeding , as followeth . from the discourse of a little child , who said there had been a meeting at the house of thomas thorowgood in cotten-end ; the wife of john pryor victualler , resorts to sir g. b. and makes oath of the child's report to her , who issues a warrant for the appearance of several persons of that en●ship , suspected to have been there , who appeared before several justices at the swan in bedford , before whom none that were examined confessed a meeting to have been , or that they were there : the justices dealt with them severally , assuring them that such of them as would confess who was the preacher , should be acquitted : but no confession was made ; and generally they did refer to any proof that could be brought against them , not being willing to accuse themselves or others . the justices upon consideration did conclude , that there was ground sufficient to convict them ; and did assess fines upon them severally . thomas thorowgood's fine ( at whose house the meeting was said to be ) was nineteen pounds ; who was by the officers distreyned , and all that he had , with the implements of his trade ( he being a weaver ) taken from him , and the said thorowgood with his wife is since departed away from their dwelling and gone . the wife of one george winright , and a son-in-law of winrights , were fined ten pounds five shillings , as having been at the meeting . the said george winright is tenant to the earl of exeter , and being in arrears of rent to his said landlord , about michelmas last , for his said landlords security of receiving rent then due , and such further as for the year ensuing would be accrewing , the said winright prevailed with two sons-in-law of his , to become bound for him to the earl's steward , then upon the place , for his quarterly payment of money due ; and for the indempnity of his two sons , in respect of the said bond , the said winright by bill of sale passeth over all his goods and chattels to the two sons , one whereof lived with him , in the possession of what was so sold , from the time of the said sale ; but it happened that the son who lived with him , staying out from home at a fair the third of may , kept at a village about two miles from cotten-end , the father-in-law took such displeasure that he broke open the son's coffer standing in the house , took out the writing and destroyed it : the son remains still with his father , and was fined ten pounds for being at a meeting . the father pleads there were no goods of the son 's there , though they were once his with his brothers , yet the writing was since destroyed , and sets forth the matter of fact. the cancelling of the writing was deemed collusion , and the officers were ordered to proceed in the distress . winright thereupon driveth away his cattel , sells several of them at potten market , and some not sold there , he sells to one miller , an inhabitant of the same parish , for a valuable rate ; who paid good part of the money , and gave bond for the remainer to winright ( the said cattel being in miller's grounds and possession several dayes ) which being heard of , sir g. b. sends a warrant for both the buyer and seller to appear before him , to whom they gave information of the sale and the payment . but all their pleas being unregarded , the said knight demanded sureties of them for their appearance at the assizes , declaring with his wonted vehemence he would bind them both over , and distreyn the cattel likewise : whereat the said winright being affrighted , promised to pay the ten pounds , and accordingly did so ; but some few dayes after , being told by a lawyer that he had wrong in so doing , he repairs to sir g. b. acquainting him with what the lawyer had said , entreating his favour : which without delay he imparted , beating him well for his pains . thomas langley , an inhabitant of cotton-end , likewise being fined five pound ten shillings , for his being at the aforesaid suspected meeting , presuming upon the favour of sir g. b. ( to whom he stood in late relation as a servant ) told the officers he would pay the money , if he could not get abatement of sir g. b. to whom repairing , and not prevailing for any such-like kindness , he was unwilling to pay the said fine , having very little stock , and owing for the greatest part of that , and much likewise in arrears to his landlord : but the officers having strict charge to go take all he had , and sell it for five pounds ten shillings , they distreyned his three cows , really worth ten pound , and going to sell them , a neighbour in compassion to the distreyned , paid the officer five pound ten shillings , and sent the cows home to the right owner . some other persons of the said endship were distreyned by the officers , and had that little substance they had taken from them , and deposited by the officers in the house of the aforesaid pryor , whose wife did at first inform of the said meeting , where they yet remain to be sold to any willing to buy the same , that with the proportion allotted to the informer , the said pryor may again have some money to put into his purse , having prodigally and brutishly wasted all , that he lately sold a considerable estate for , that lay in the aforesaid endship . a true relation of the sudden and strange death of one feckman , a malicious persecutor of the good people at bedford . of a like complexion with that beastly creature john pryor , last mentioned , was one feckman a most violent and thirsty persecutor at bedford ; whose father living at turvy in the county of bedford , left him a very considerable estate , who at his marriage did receive a good addition thereto , by a portion with his wife ; but giving no limits to his lusts and extravagancies , in some few years he had spent all , and for his last refuge became an apparitor , to which the calling of an alehouse-keeper being by special favour added , he by the gains from both was enabled to live as a hous-keeper in bedford ; but at the coming forth of this late act , he blessed himself with the hopes of recovering an estate , and raising himself a fabrick out of the ruines of those whose kindnesses had refreshed him ; and pursuant to this purpose , he engages with all his might both in taking the meeters , and levying the distress upon their goods ; in the former , manifesting more than usual diligence ; and in the latter , expressing extraordinary rage and violence , so that by his fierceness and cruelty ( wherein he seemed delighted ) he appeared rather a purveyor for , and a resemblant of satan , than an officer of a court christian ( as some men stile the commissaries . ) but some few dayes after , viz june . . at a visitation ( where he , as a necessary and endeared appurtenant ▪ was attending ) at ampthill , he was taken there ill , and coming thence to his home , fell very far amiss , issuing blood in great abundance both by vomit and seige , continuing so to do till his death ( which was the th day after his first sickness ) during all which time he was in very great pain and anguish of body , and for the most part unwilling to speak , and not very sensible , sometimes speaking words of threatning against phanaticks ; and sometimes blaming mr. foster for setting him in the office. after whose death his wife , in complyance with her husbands desire of being buried at turvey , endeavoured to borrow a coach of the neighbour gentlemen , to carry his corps ; but all that were asked , refused to lend ; and the two carriers who live in the town ( each of which keeps two coaches , that they let for hire to persons desiring them ) did both of them refuse for hire to let theirs for his conveyance ; so that his wife was constrained to send his corps in a cart to the place designed for his burial . a postscript . this instance of the execution of the late act against meetings for religious worship , is not thus made publick , as though there were no other of the same kind in other places ; for it is well known that in many of the principal cities and towns in the nation , there have been proceedings on the same account , with no less outrage , illegality and violence ; which may in due time be published also : only this is one of the first , whose tragical acts have been collected , every particular whereof will readily be attested on oath , by those that suffered , and others who were spectators of the whole proceeding . nor is the design of publishing hereof , to cast any reflection on the act it self , let it stand or fall in the providence of god , as it shall be found complyant with , or opposite to , the honour and interest of his majesty , with the peace , welfare and prosperity of the kingdoms . councels for publick good , are the province of our superiours ; ready obedience , or peaceable sufferings , are the lot of private men : but least of all is there any design in this narrative , to insinuate further discomposures into the minds of men than what are already evident , or to attempt a disposal of them , into irregular , and disorderly actings , to the disturbance of the publick peace : this indeed ( as it appears in the narrative ) some of their adversaries do openly declare , that they would willingly , by their unjust and oppressive usage of them , hurry them into . but all endeavours of that kind will be in vain , and the hopes of some about it , wholly frustrate . for as this people , by their peaceable deportment for many years together , have given all the satisfaction , that any men in the like circumstances are able to give , of their harmless and quiet inclinations ; so they intend not ( by the grace of god ) to gratifie their adversaries , by transgressing the obligation of their own consciences unto peace , and all due subjection unto magistrates . it is nothing else but the authority of god in their consciences , which imposes a necessity upon them to practise those things in their christian profession for which they are made obnoxious to so great sufferings , and gives them a supportment under them . the violation thereof , by any disorderly and seditious behaviour , to the disturbance of the publick peace , would be at once , to renounce the principle of their actings , and to deprive themselves of the comfort of their sufferings . nor do they in the least suspect , that the declaration of their resolutions in this kind , will prompt many to renue and multiply their violent proceedings against them , upon security of freedom from opposition ; none but vile and ignoble spirits will entertain a thought of so doing , upon such grounds ; wise and generous persons will rather take hold of it , as a fit and honourable occasion , to exercise their clemency and forbearance . and indeed all unquiet storms , thundrings and lightnings , are in and from the lower regions ; but amongst the higher spheres and more celestial bodies , all things are alwayes peaceable and serene , and by their influences are the other raging and noxious disturbances quell'd and scattered : and such an end do we hope and pray for , of our present disquietments . the ends therefore of publishing this account are plainly and only these : first , to prepare others , of the same way and practice in the things of religion , with the persons so roughly treated at bedford , not to think strange of the like tryals when they befal them , and to bear them patiently , quietly , and peaceably , notwithstanding all provocations to the contrary , as they have done . dly , humbly to demand of our legislators , whether this be the garment of their off-spring ? it doth not appear that there is any thing in the act it self , that doth direct to , or will bear any man out in , such an execution of it , as that which is here most truly and impartially represented . and we suppose that the secret intentions of some , ought not to influence publick administrations , wherein all are concerned . and it may not unbecome the wisdom of those who have power , speedily to revise those laws , which may easily be perverted , so as to give too much countenance unto , and be made instrumental in , gratifying the lusts and revenge of private men . dly , to give a clear prospect into the sad effects of the prosecution of this act , in the way and manner as hath herein been made known ; in which it appears , that there hath been very little regard to law , equity , peace , love , humanity , or indeed any thing that is desirable or useful among mankind . it is evident already , how that by these means , no small disturbances , distractions and confusions , have filled the minds , and exercised the thoughts of all sorts of men ; some forsake their callings , and all industry in them ; in which number are not only the prosecutors of this act , and those prosecuted by them , but others also , who withdraw themselves , or forsake their habitations , that they may have no concernment in these proceedings , or at least not to contribute their assistance in them . poor industrious families are utterly ruined , and some made wholly incapable to provide for their future subsistance , ( the utensils and implements of their respective callings ( contrary to law ) being most barbarously taken from them : ) and besides all this , opportunities are hereby given to thieves and robbers to countenance their villanies , with pretences of executing this act , which have actually by some already been made use of in hartfordshire , not far from the town of hartford ; the truth whereof will evidently appear upon enquiry . moreover , also , the minds of the residue of men are filled with mutual animosities , heats , jealousies and suspicions , things no way conducing to publick tranquillity and advantage , and all this is brought about by this only means ; and that too in a time otherwise of the highest peace , calmness , and sedateness of mind amongst all sorts of people throughout the nation . whether these , and innumerable other evils of the like kind , will be recompenced unto the kingdom , by the satisfaction given to the envy and jealousies of some men , ( whose usefulness unto themselves is very well known , but not so as to the publick advantage of the nation ) men wise , peaceable and sober , will in their own minds judge and determine . finis . the vanity of the dissenters plea for their separation from the church of england a sermon preached before the king at windsor, september the th. / by robert creyghton ... creighton, robert, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; 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(eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) the vanity of the dissenters plea for their separation from the church of england a sermon preached before the king at windsor, september the th. / by robert creyghton ... creighton, robert, - . [ ], p. printed by j. wallis for benj. tooke ..., london : . "published by his majesties command." reproduction of original in the union theological seminary library, new york. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng bible. -- n.t. -- corinthians, st, i, -- sermons. sermons, english -- th century. dissenters, religious. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - celeste ng sampled and proofread - celeste ng text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a sermon preached before the king at windsor , september the th . . by robert creyghton , d. d. chaplain in ordinary to his majesty . published by his majesties command . london , printed by j. wallis , for benj. tooke , at the ship in st. pauls church-yard , . cor. . . now i beseech you brethren by the name of our lord jesus christ , that ye all spake the same thing , and that there be no divisions among you : but that ye be perfectly joyned together in the same mind , and in the same judgement . what ! the great apostle stoop so low as to beseech ! and so passionately too , by the name of our lord and saviour christ . be the people never so impatient , boyl and toss and roar like a raging sea , sure here 's charm enough to strike the world immediately into a calm . beseech ! 't is tantamount to a command : he beseeches by a name that cannot but prevail , a name whom storm and tempest it self must obey . but beseech or command , 't is all one : the world is deaf to all such charms , to all such commands . be joyn'd together in the same and in the same judgement ! and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 too , united in a beautiful order and symmetry of parts ? alass when will this be ? epicurus his atoms will as soon by cross interfering motions , weave themselves into a beautiful system of a world , as mens thoughts , variously cross and running counter , unite in one discipline , one doctrine , one church . we shall never see peace , so long as there are rough uneven tempers in the world , as unfit for societies , as some rough unhew'n stones , or knotty crooked pieces of timber , unfit for building . there are certain tempers naturally sour enough to break through mountains and rocks like hanibal's vinegar , and to dissolve the firmest foundations of government and order . and there is especially a pharisaical leven sour enough , to put whole societies and kingdoms into a perfect fermentation . we shall never be all alike , till the different humors of our several constitutions be quite spent , and we are mouldred away in our graves to rotten bones and skulls ; then and not till then exactly all alike with half noses , hollow-ey'd , and grinning , as lucian describes skulls of wise-men , mad-men , fools , cynicks , politicians , hero's , beggers , blended together in charnel houses . but especially in religion , men never yet wanted pretences to disagree : cain and abel , though brothers , agree not in the same kinds of sacrifices . contention once intruded into heaven amongst the gods , that 's romance ; but 't is too true , she hath more than once intruded into the church , a bold and troublesome guest . what ? and will religion then , religion , which is or should be the very bond and cement of societies , will that also crumble us to pieces ? nay then there 's little hope of unity in this world. our corinthians divide upon pretences specious enough , even of honouring some apollos , others paul , others cephas . the least pretence of dividing will serve the turn , when men are resolved to be quarrelsome : especially in citties of great trade , such as corinth was , the metropolis of achaia , rich , populous , and proud : where , as they traffick'd with forreigners , goods for goods ; so they seem to have barter'd religion for religion too , the seller basely prostituting his judgement to the buyers , either heresie or schism , to set off goods the better , and to advance trade . our apostle st. paul , though by degrees he deals very plainly with these corinthians , yet at the beginning of his persuasive to unity , he deals with them with all the tenderness immaginable . but what shall we do now ? our modern shismaticks are grown so stiff and stubborn , that 't is to little purpose to entreat them . begg or command , weep or thunder , 't is all one ; they are inexorable , they are inflexible . if the mercy of god in settling religion here upon so good grounds , by so legal and warrantable methods , according to the model of the primimitive church ; if the bloud of our late dread sovereign , the church of englands martyr ; if this king 's incomparable clemency can prevail nothing ; all the passion of our sacred oratour st. paul , is utterly cast away . they have been gently dealt with these many years , and they are but the more hardned in the schism . the warm sunbeams will sometimes but harden that clay , which heavier storms may soften and make pliable to the government . but i must remember the apostles condescension , i must remember his pitty , and his good nature , and with all the moderation i can , endeavour to remove some of the prejudices they have taken up against this church . and i must be so far free with them as to charge them with the following mistakes , three especially , the ground of all the rest ; a false notion of christian liberty : a false notion of tender conscience : a false notion of the nature and measures of a due reformation . first , a false notion of christian liberty . the church , we apprehend , hath a liberty infeoffed in her to determine this way or that in matters of decency and order . if this be the churches prerogative , conveyed to her by scripture , particularly that of the apostle , let all things be done decently and in order ; it is certainly my christian liberty to obey , warranted and secured to me virtually by the same scripture . when i am satisfied in conscience that the church maintains the faith , sound in all the doctrines she professes ( which to say truth are the proper objects about which conscience acts ) 't is my priviledge to be govern'd by her in other matters of less moment , which do not directly and immediately concern conscience farther then as a general rule of charity obliges me to obey . for as the apostles leaving out particulars , there is a general warrant for the church to prescribe ; so is it a warrant to me , who am a member of an orthodox , visible church-branch of christs holy catholick church , to submit to that which makes it a visible church , i mean government and order . so that the schismatick is so far wide in his notion of liberty , that if i refuse to obey , i in a manner fell away my christian birth-right , and basely betray my own liberty . for tho' we have often heard much talk to little purpose of christian liberty , yet as the apostle uses the word liberty , we are able to understand no morethan this , that christians under the gospel are redeemed from the bondage of the law. so that i am at perfect liberty to be govern'd by a christian church , the obligation to the mosaick law being cancell'd . else there would be a visible church-government in general terms , settled upon the apostles successors , without obedience to that government , which is an absurd chimera . now then if the schismatick tell us , his conscience will not suffer him to submit ; where then is his liberty of conscience ? who put those fetters upon his conscience , but himself ; what cyclops made those fetters ? where were they forged ? in what vulcans shop ? in what aetna ; but in his own zealous over-heated brain ? does the scripture fetter his conscience ? shew where ? if it be truly conscience he pretends , he is bound to shew , either that to obey or not to obey , is made by some positive rule of scripture indifferent , as marrying , or not marrying is ; or that the thing he boggles at , is either morally ill , or ill because forbidden by a law. shew the law , or i shall without breach of charity tell him , 't is humour not conscience . if he would have things of decency and order , left as indifferent as marrying , or not marrying ; he roves ex-travegantly wide from the case . for in the one case the thing is by a law indifferent , and so is what it is necessarily , indispensably , and unalterably indifferent ; in the other , 't is left to the churches prudence to determine : there the indifferency being the immediate effect of that law ; here , the churches determination , the immediate effect of this law. and therefore the apostles general rule is a warrant to conscience , to secure it from all superstitious fear of being defiled when the church is obeyed , in things not repugnant to any particular express rule of scripture . secondly , a false notion of tender conscience . if the conscience be tender , 't is because there appears at least some ill . but unless some law or other convince me that a thing is sinful , in truth i count i am in some danger of incurring a sin , if i make that evil which is not evil. for who gave me authority to call that evil which god almighty hath not by some law or other declared to be so ? 't is a piece of pride and presumption in me to call that evil which is not , and i extort from god a part of his sovereignty in doing so . there is as black a woe denounced by the prophet against him that calls good , evil , as against him that calls evil , good. and therefore , whatever the schismatick apprehends of tender conscience startling at the appearance of evil , conscience is as much in danger of being defiled by calling that evil which is not evil , as by calling that not evil which is really evil. liberty of conscience , and tenderness of conscience , and i fear god , and i am afraid of sin , and i confess my weakness , my conscience will not allow it ! these are the words , sweet as honey , whereby the ringleaders of our schismaticks do insinuate their poyson : by so sweet a breath do they convey a holy contagion through a whole conventicle presently , as they say pestilential distempers are spread the farther by sweet perfumes . tender conscience ! who can withstand the charm ? and , acknowledge my weakness ! who can resist the power of the invincible argument ? the tender conscience 't is confessed , naturally moves pity : but then it must be the tender conscience of such , who make it a case of conscience to hearken to reason : who will withal be tender , least they have a conscience too tender in punctilio's that really concern not conscience immediately . for otherwise , there is a tenderness of conscience which is caused by a certain sour , fretting , grating humor , that corrodes , that sours like the leven of the pharisee , i mean perfect ill nature ; which mixed with a few unlucky grains of intemperate zeal , frets and galls the very heart of the man , and so he easily mistakes in truth his sore for the tenderness of his conscience . may not their weakness deserve some pitty too ? yes : charity may cover my brother's failings : but that weakness will not be covered , which resolves to break out into rebellion the next opportunity . truth now , and never till now , do i passionately and heartily deprecate . none can more wish to be undeceived , than we to be deceived in what we say of those , whose hands were they as strong as their heads weak , would quickly satisfie the world what principles they are of : then you should see that same weak conscience all in armour , strong enough to manage a sword against their king , in an army of rebells . some of their late scribling champions flourishing a little in print , to give their own party satisfaction , not us ; after some sine harangues of inconveniency , burdens and remitting ; being by us pressed to come to the main point to tell us downright , what in our church is in it self unlawful , and then prove it ; not a word : they are not bound to give reasons , they are above the low dispensation . is this weakness ? 't is pride and inflexible stubborness : to them , scotus and aquinas are sots , cardinals veil your caps : a conventicle can furnish you with doctors more seraphick , more irrefragable . the phanatick that they say went to convert the pope , doubtless outfaced the old chair at rome , with much more infallibility than ever pretended to sit there . for most of those that dissent from us , are infallibly sure they are in the right : and by the way , it may be noted , that ever since the church of england renounced the popes infallibility , they have lest us , and resolve to keep us company no longer . these are the men whose uncontroulable conscience is above all law : or but for one law ; and that is , that it should be passed into a law , that their conscience shall be bound up by no law. shall mahomet go to the mountain , or the mountain come to mahomet ? shall these mens conscience come to the law , or the law to these mens conscience ? a garment may be as soon sitted to the moon , as such a system of laws fram'd as shall fit every man's conscience . it pinches here , widen the law : now it pinches as much there , widen that too ; till at last the laws grown so much too wide , as that the man's conscience having got noom enough to turn it self with freedome , wholly shakes off all law , and that which at first pretended only to liberty , shall very fairly end in licentiousness . thirdly , a false notion of the nature and measure of a due reformation . there is such a thing certainly as an obligation lying upon all churches , in all ages since the first preaching of the gospel , to maintain a unity in some measure with the primitive church , and to regulate all our reformations by the general ruled and laws of the most ancient church , if we are in earnest when we profess we believe one catholick and apostolick church . now if the new models of the pretended reformers of our reformation should take place , they would so pare away from the church of england , every thing almost that ever the primitive church used , that being reduced to a thing so utterly unlike what the christian church was at first , we should seem totally to have broken the unity . the not weighing this , hath made us run so headlong from the church of rome , that we scarce own that to be a reformation , which rejects not almost every thing that ever was in use in that church , right or wrong . we retain no not one thing but what was before that churches apostacy , either exactly the same , or very near it in the most ancient church : and to reform otherwise then this , ( i crave leave to say ) is to break charity with the good primitive church . these men may possibly mean well , but they seem only to consider how to go far enough from rome , never consider to what we are in charity bound to reduce our selves , i mean to that state whence by degrees rome fell away . in truth our controversies with the romanists move most upon this hinge , that we reject their novelties , which against them is one of our best pleas. so that should we frame against them arguments from such topicks as our schismaticks , some of them , would suggest , we must tamely give up the cause . for if we maintain not our ground , if we keep not to the first ages , and the four first general councils , if we secure not as far as may be , our conformity with the most ancient church ; we give them the greatest advantage immaginable . at our reformation , had we ( i condemn not other churches ) had we i say , renounced episcopacy , the ancient model of church-government , that bears date long before infallibility , supremacy , transubstantiation , &c. were thought of ; what would the romanists have said ? how could we have avoided the just imputation of a most uncharitable separation from the ancient church ? but now our reformation may be an object of the romanists envy , because we did thereby as it were reconcile our selves to the most ancient church : and our return is in truth to upbrayd them with schism , and the most honourable way to justisie our departure from them , in points wherein we and they had so long departed from the ancient church : which we should never be able to effect , were not our constituted as now it is . for let the model be any other , not known to the ancient christians , men of such principles may rayl at popery , but the arguments they must be forced to use , will be such , as will be scorn'd , and make the roman catholicks but the more obstinate . and therefore , if under pretence of flying farther from rome , we ruin this church of england ; we shall have neither arguments enough left us to defend our selves against romes novelties , nor loyalty enough left us i am sure , to secure any prince in his throne , defender of the faith. but what do we talk of a primitive church ? away with this dull old way ; tell us schismaticks something brisk and new : these sons of the church of england can tell us nothing new ; they say no more than old ignatius and polycarp , ireneus , clement of alexandria , tertullian and cyprian : they can fight with nothing but old rusty weapons of antiquity : we have swords new burnished at geneva , and francford : nay , we have antiquity too on our side , we have donatists and novatians , and there we gain a point . yet old schismaticks were dull heavy phlegmatick sots , to ours : they never durst attempt a schism , but they would set up a bishop of their own making , and remain in the state of their separation , right episcopal however , as to the government of the church : never hoping to gain any proselytes , should they not pretend at least to episcopacy . but ours run down episcopacy , and then cry they have discovered new wonders to the world , and found out better methods of church-government , than their idle predecessors , donatists and novatians , could ever dream of . indeed epiphanius mentions a dear friend of our schismaticks , one aerius of precious memory , who turn'd leveller because he could not get a bishoprick . but i must tell them for his credit , he had but few proselytes , and they hooted at as the owl , by the more ingenious of his winged brethren , when he appears with his gravity among the airy witts . i am sorry for the sake of some of our schismaticks , who would fain be nibbling at this story , that aerius was not a leveller out of pure conscience , because then the presbyterian parity might claim some kindred with antiquity . thus i have briefly discoursed of liberty , tender conscience , reformation , the three fairest pretences of schism . now if this one single text prevail nothing , if neither our great apostles frowns nor charms , nor his excommunications , nor his embraces , nor his apostolical authority , nor the passion of his oratorie prevail with the schismatick , but he will tear the church to pieces , ungratefully rend the very bowels of that church that gave him life , whose breasts he suck'd ; what expedients for unity further to propose , i cannot imagine . 't is the temper's policy too , to divide that he may rule , to break the churches ranks and files , that he may enter and conquer with ease . our quarrels are his conquests , the ruins of our churches are his trophies , 't is only our peace that he dreads , pax vestra bellum est illi , said tertullian . in all the apostles writings there are not more cautions against any one thing than against schism . for though schism in it self consider'd does not directly destroy any one article of the faith , yet by destroying the churches unity , it will in time destroy the faith : because 't is a false phantastick light hovering in the air , that will lead thousands after it into errors , over bogs and precipices : and will have in time so fatal an influence upon the whole body of the catholick church , as not only to weaken that , by drawing off great numbers from it ; but also put the schismaticks themselves out of a capacity of being at least confirmed in the truths they have received ; and so they will lie open to all the temptations immaginable , of being debauched in the very principles of their christian faith. for this seems one design at least , of the first plantations of churches under such a model of episcopacy , as might unite christians in larger bodies , and prevent the breaking of their numbers into little junto's and conventicles ; that so they might like great armies united in government and order , both secure their own faith by their greater union , and also make more effectual conquests upon the unconverted parts of the world , to whom it must needs be one great motive to come in , when they should see christians so strongly knit together , in so large societies , with so much charity , order and harmony . why then do our schismaticks by going off from our church , from the common safe path , ( to say no more ) expose themselves to so great dangers ? did they not forsake us , we might hope one day by calm reasoning to reform their judgement . why do they thus fight with us disengeniously and basely , like parthians , who turning their backs , scatter'd their arrows from behind them ? why do they thus scatter their envenom'd arrows , even bitter words , and never turn their faces , either to survey our strength , or stay to hear what we can say for our seives ? why do they amuse us with accusations of popery , like atalantas ball , with accusations back upon us , that they might get the start in the race , and get to rome first ? is it superstition they dread ? but have not they themselves some tincture of that too , at least while they ( i may venture to say ) superstitiously avoid it ? have we not known the time , when they honour'd their factious preachers even to superstition ? when they honour'd the double lin'd cap , equal to the triple crown ; when they payed honours to the handerchef about his neck , as to the holy rag of some legend saint ; and took the short cloak hanging on one fide of the pulpit , while the warm orator was transported with zeal , and enthusiastick fire , for the mantle of elijah just dropping down from the fiery chariot ? do they depart from us that they may worship god more in spirit and in truth ? but with all their most glorious zeal , they will never be able to expiate for their pride and their uncharitableness . the strictest life of a shismatick could never in the judgement of sober men , especially st. austin , make apology for the scandal of being a schismatick , did he lead the life of an angel. do they depart from us , because they cannot joyn in our publick prayers , with devotion enough ? shall i be first guilty of sin , a remisness at my prayers ; and then make my sin an apology for my schism ? do they disobey because the thing is indifferent ? or because commanded ? if the latter ; you see where the shoe pinches , 't is not the ceremony their conscience boggles at , but the imposition of that ceremony , for ( by the way ) they abhor obedience as bad as idolatry : then must the methods of government be revers'd , and the quite contrary must be commanded , to make these antipodes proselytes : if the former , the more unpardonable still their disobedience , one of the greatest trials of our obedience to government being the indifferency of the thing commanded : for if we may not obey a governour in things otherwise indifferent , and if a governour may not command what is not forbidden by gods law ; there will be nothing left for gods vicegerent on earth to command , and there will be no such thing in the world as obedience to a prince . let such men have a care that they place not too much religion in meer notions . for 't is possible men of such factious principles may talk and think too of practical religion it self in a meer notional way . for when men can neither talk nor think of their christian duties abstractedly from this or that mode of worship that accompanies them , the duties run out into certain excrescencies bigger than themselves , and such as will in time destroy the life thereof , while these men would level the clergy , change the churches ornaments into rudeness and nastiness , and would seem great patrons of humility , but how , by bringing us down to the dust ; let them ask themselves this question , whether it be not some fond conceit of their extraordinary either knowledge or holiness , or both , that makes them scorn to stoop to the government . if they depart from us because they know better things than we ; if they cannot convince us , let them confess their weakness ; if they will not convince us , let them own their ill nature . if they depart from us because they are holier than we ; let them evidence to the world that they are better christians , at least by being more loyal subjects than we . if their talent be extraordinary above other mens , let them fairly shew us that the first four or five ages after christ and his apostles , were all in an error : for they must not think their malice is levell'd at us alone , it wounds the primitive church : it pretends to strike at popery , but the poyson'd arrows fly over the papists heads , over all those ages between , and wound far beyond , at the distance of fourteen , fifteen , or sixteen ages : the ashes of the holy primitive martyrs are disturb'd , the noble constantine's ghost summon'd to appear before their sour tribunal , the acts of the four first general councils reseinded , the fathers writings all defaced , cancell'd and burnt , and they , good men , condemn'd to suffer now a second martyrdom . if these men have new illuminations , and will make it appear to the world that the most ancient christian churches , long , long before the date of a corrupted one at rome , were all mistaken ; let 's e'ne blot out of the churches records , four or five hundred years , and let them pass for nothing , and begin christianity anew : down with our universities , set fire to all our libraries , with triumphant bonfires in solemnity to welcome into the world these new lights . must we be thus angry with the primitive church , because we find too much loyalty there ? if that be the crime ; 't is the primitive churches unhappiness , but our honour , that they in us their humble imitators , must at this great distance of so many ages , suffer as it were in effigie . in short , if they are resolved to quarrel , they may be pleased , as becomes all good christians , to divert their anger upon what far more deserves it , their own sins . if immoderate zeal must raise in their hearts and heads turbulent exhalations , and make them sons of thunder , ever fall tempests heaviest at home : strike here , here 's a mountain , here 's a rock , here 's a proud thought , and here 's an unrelenting heart : here lodge undervaluing thoughts of the king and the government , here lurks spiritual pride under the colour of self-denyal , and mortification , something of the publican , more of the pharisee ; and ( if they have humility to own but common human infirmities ) sins of all sorts , whereby gods holy spirit is grieved , and his infinite love abused . here are objects indeed , that call aloud for their just indignation : here if they employ their zeal at home against their own sins , they will have but little either inclination or leisure to quarrel with any man , much less with the constitutions of an excellent well-govern'd church . we and they , all of us hope to attain the same end of our faith , a heavenly canaan is all our journeys end , we are brethren , why should we fall out by the way ? why all this noise ? it will not , it cannot be long , e're we all lye quiet in our graves : thence we hope all to pass to such a state , where there will be nothing but unity , uniformity and harmony : where a full choir of saints , in a beautiful church triumphant , and a noble hierarchy of angels shall sing alelujah's and worship god in the beauties of holiness , for ever and ever . amen . to thee o holy , &c. be all &c. the end . the non-conformists champion, his challenge accepted, or, an answer to mr. baxter's petition for peace written long since, but now first published upon his repeated provocations and importune clamors, that it was never answered : whereunto is prefixed an epistle to mr. baxter with some remarks upon his holy common-wealth, upon his sermon to the house of commons, upon his non-conformists plea for peace and upon his answer to dr. stillingfleet. / by ri. hooke. r. h. (richard hooke) approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing h estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) the non-conformists champion, his challenge accepted, or, an answer to mr. baxter's petition for peace written long since, but now first published upon his repeated provocations and importune clamors, that it was never answered : whereunto is prefixed an epistle to mr. baxter with some remarks upon his holy common-wealth, upon his sermon to the house of commons, upon his non-conformists plea for peace and upon his answer to dr. stillingfleet. / by ri. hooke. r. h. (richard hooke) baxter, richard, - . petition for peace. baxter, richard, - . holy commonwealth. baxter, richard, - . sermon of repentance. [ ], p. printed for tho. flesher, london : . reproduction of original in the union theological seminary library, new york. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng dissenters, religious -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - ali jakobson sampled and proofread - ali jakobson text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the non-conformist's champion his challenge accepted ; or , an answer to mr. baxter's petition for peace , written long since , but now first published , upon his repeated provocations and importune clamors , that it was never answered . whereunto is prefixed an epistle to mr. baxter ; with some remarks upon his holy common-wealth , upon his sermon to the house of commons , upon his non-conformists plea for peace , and upon his answer to dr. stillingfleet . by ri. hooke , d. d. vicar of halyfax . london , printed for tho. flesher , at the angel and crown , in st. paul's church-yard . anno dom. . to the reader . you will find the following letter to mr. baxter long enough , and therefore i shall say little by way of preface . but to advertise you , that this answer to the petition for peace was written a. . the same year the petition was published by mr. baxter , in the name of the non-conforming commissioners , by his majesty impowered to treat with the right reverend bishops , touching some alterations to be made in the liturgy : and 't is now onely transcribed and published without any material alteration : this if you carry in your mind in the reading thereof , 't will prevent divers mistakes , which otherwise may be made in the mis-timing it , and particularly about the pretended great sufferings of the non-conformists , of which , in the petition , they make loud and frequent , but false complaints . the episcopal party having by them deeply suffered for many years . but the non-conformists at that time , having not suffered in the least , and being as capable as the conformists , would they have submitted to the wholesome orders of the church of england , of enjoying favor and preferment ; unto which mr. baxter boasts that himself was courted . as to my remarks upon his commonwealth , if he shall object , that he published to the world his desire that book may be look'd upon as non scriptus ; and so he is not concern'd in the seditious theses by him laid down , and by me laid open . i leave it to himself to judge whether such an insignificant nothing ( the wiping his mouth after so black a crime ) be to him a sufficient purgation , to the world a sufficient satisfaction , and ( which is most considerable ) whether his bare wish , his book were not written , be sufficient to undeceive and bring to repentance the many whom it may have corrupted and tempted to rebellion . 't is the wish of one of mr. baxter's own party for him , what nero wisht for himself , that he had never known letters . truly it were to be wisht , that , when ( labouring under sickness , as he saith ) he had written his everlasting rest , he had gon to it : he hath been so restless ever since , and so great a troubler of israel ; that without a deep repentance of his dangerous errors and actings , i fear he will come short of that blessed rest . there goes a story , that hugh peters , riding in querpo by oliver's coach , in a great rain , and he offered to lend him his coat ; he told him , he would not be in his coat for a thousand pound . seriously , i would not be in mr. baxter's condition for a thousand worlds ( holding his principles ) for all his great pretensions of godliness , and frequent appeals to the last judgment ; where those who are contentious , uncharitable , fierce , heady , high-minded , who speak evil of dignities , and resist the higher powers , though they have the form of godliness , will be condemned , as well as the openly ungodly and profane . if he think me severe , 't is onely in order to his repentance ( which i heartily desire ) that i display his errors with some plainness . and truly i judge complements and soft words not fit for bigots and perturbers of church and state , and open revilers of the laws and the government . i have oft wondred at and pitied an old statesman , who , when he might live in honour and peace , is ever in trouble , and cannot go quietly to his grave . and i have the same passion for mr. baxter , a statesman too , but the salamander can live no where but in the fire . and a person who loves suits , though they have wasted his whole estate , if he had another , would spend it all in law. i would some of mr. baxter's friends could persuade him to leave off controversies , and imploy the remainder of his life in writing retractations , a work proper and necessary for him , if for any other in this quarreling and contradictious age. i have offered you some reasons why the episcopal commissioners thought not fit to make answer to the petition for peace . the reason why i have answered it is , to take down mr. baxter's confident and frequent boastings in his late passionate writings , as if it were unanswerable ; and , to vindicate the church of england ; which , as one truly saith , whosoever hath the learning and temper to consider and understand , doth know to be the brightest image of primitive purity and worship , and the most perfect conjuncture of the most ancient and most holy faith , that , since the primitive times of persecution , any man had ever the honor of suffering for or defending . the god of peace and truth continue the true religion with our peace , and cast out that spirit of contention , division and disobedience which possesseth the dissenters ; and give them the spirit of meekness , humility and christian subjection unto authority . errata . p. . for greeting reade grotius . p. . for caution , canton . p. . for shortly , surely . p. . after loud this stroke — p. . for savoy , sawcy , p. . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . p. . for those apostles , the apostles . p. . for that will contribute , that you will contri . p. . l. . dele that . p. . l. . dele england . p. . for reverend , reverenc'd . p. . in marian , in the marian. p. . for vobis , nobis . to mr. richard baxter . sir , if this paper shall doe any good or harm , you will have a share of the praise or blame , since it had never seen the light , had it not been brought forth by your midwifery . meeting lately with your non-conformist pleas , i found the petition for peace often in them mentioned ; and again , more than once in your answer to dr. stillingfleet ; and as oft as you name it , you are pleas'd to say , 't was never answered ; whereby you would make the world believe 't is unanswerable : this brought to my remembrance , that i had by me your petition for peace , and had answer'd it the same year 't was published , but kept it private , in expectation of an answer from the episcopal commissioners , who were most able and most concerned ; but they not thinking fit to doe it , for reasons best known to themselves , and perhaps for some hereafter mentioned ; and the liturgy of the church , with some alterations of the convocation , being shortly after by law established ; i laid by my answer as needless , and scarce thought of it more , till your bold and angry plea caused me to seek it out among many scattered papers , and to review , transcribe , and expose it . i expect ( but without fear of its defensibleness ) that you will quarrel at it ; you are known to be of a polemical humour and temper , of a hot brain and hasty pen ; the hector of the old cause , the non-conformists pope : i wrong you not in the appellation : you have more than proved it in acting the pope . yours are the two swords ; and you have , with mighty valour , drawn them both . the temporal sword you have drawn against the king in the late rebellion , and you glory that you drew in with you many thousands : and in cold bloud , near twenty years after , you tell the world , you cannot see you were mistaken , nor dare you repent of it , nor forbear the same if it were to doe again in the same state of things . and , sir , may i be so bold as to ask you , are you not this day of the same mind , and wish the state of things were now the same , that you might be doing again ? blessed be god , who hath by miracle taken from you the temporal sword , and restored it to the king whose it is . but the spiritual sword cannot be wrested from you , and this you are so daring as to draw still against the church , upon which you are ever and anon making new assaults : and here too you muster your holy army , two thousand ministers , and by the number of those centurions , we may guess how many are your legions . shall demonstrate to you further , how you take upon you the pope , in both his claims of highest power ? one over kings , in your holy common-wealth ; bounding them all by your laws for government ; or rather , binding them in your long and heavy chain of links . the other claim of highest power over the whole church you do in effect make , of being its universal , infallible head and guide ; where , you say , you have written a treatise of the onely true terms of concord of all christian churches , and of the false terms , which they will never unite in , but are the causes of schism . here speaks an oracle ; the onely terms of true and false concord and schism are in your breast , and given out from your infallible chair ; a rare and happy catholicon ; o that it may work the cure. sorry i am it comes forth a little too late : had you published it in the vacancy of the see of canterbury , you had infallibly been made papa alterius orbis . when you penned the petition for peace , you proclaim to the world , you onely had the spirit of fortitude , telling us how stoutly you stood up against the bishops for the old cause , when deserted by all your brethren in the conflict : but , i hope , you had not then attained the spirit of infallibility , ( if so , i am upon a vain attempt ; and your petition , as you suggest , is unanswerable ; ) and i have some ground to hope it ; since the pious old gentleman who wrote doctour sanderson's life assures us , that the present bishop of chester told him very lately , that one of the dissenters ( whom he forbears to name , but you intimately know him ) appeared to dr. sanderson to be so bold , so troublesome , and so illogical in the dispute at the savoy , as forced the patient bishop , then moderatour to say , with an unusual earnestness , that he never met with a man of more pertinacious confidence , and less abilities in all his conversation . sir , you talk much of peace and love , concord and vnion , and the cure of divisions and they are the title of divers of your books , yet abundance of judicious and peaceable person do think and say , that you have more opposed the peace of the church ( and state too ) and contributed to its divisions , than any , or all the party of your profession : nay , that you are not at peace with your own party , and where they express their dissent from you , though , never so modestly , you treat them rudely and insolently ; as anon i may give you an instance . at present i shall take the liberty to consider and offer you some of my sentiments upon two of those discourses i now named , your holy commonwealth , and your plea for peace . for the first , truly i was seised with wonder and grief at the sight of your commonwealth , that seventeen years after our late troubles began , and they yet continuing , you having in prospect our lamentable confusions , and leisure to reflect upon the ruins of the church and state , and seeing the kingdom overturned by rebellion , sedition , murther and plunder , the violation of all the laws and of all mens rights , and the seising , sequestring and selling , the estates of the king , the bishops , and the most eminently loyal subjects , and after the horrid assassination of the king himself , turned into several monstrous forms , as the several powers and ambitious of several parties prevailed ; and seeing also the church rent all into sects and factions , its holy doctrine polluted with monstrous heresies , its apostolical government pluckt up root and branch , its most religious form of publick worship abolished , and every gifted brother left to his private mode ; you could have so little sense and pitty ( that i say , not piety ) as not in the least to deplore the calamities of our zion ; that god , in the indignation of his anger , had despised the king and the priest , cast off his altar , abhorred his sanctuary ; his enemies roaring in the midst of his congregations , and setting up their banners for tokens : that in all your tedious book you not once lament our josiah , the lord 's anointed , taken in the snares of wicked men . though in the beginning of it you resent the ill useage of the usurping protector , to whom you give flattering titles . nay , that you could cry up those who had contrived and acted all these mischiefs and miseries , to be the godly party , and theirs the good cause ; and , as if there had been never such a thing as a kingdom in england , you should form as utopian common-wealth by centuries of wild and seditious maxims . i may hereafter make some animadversions upon your common-wealth : i will now onely recall to your second thoughts a few of your theses , which speak it not very holy . in your preface , romans the th . being objected unto you , you avow resistence of the king , with an offer of your head to justice as a rebel , if any can prove , that the king was the highest power in the time of division , and had power to make that war : that is , if any can prove , the king was in authortiy above those who , even when opposing him , acknowledged themselves his subjects ; and , turning rebels , he had right by war to defend himself , and reduce them to obedience . ( sir , you may bless god , that the king's son and successour was like him ; a most mercifull prince , else your offer might by his justice have been taken . ) all writers think saint paul means by the higher powers the emperour ( or , which is all one , the king ) and name him ; and your self name him elsewhere , [ if a heathen persecuting nero must be obeyed , ] and saint peter calls the king supreme , and yet you miserably shuffie off both , with saying , the romans hated the name of a king ( as the party you sided with did ) and that it was neither the intent of paul or peter to determine whether the emperour or senate was supreme . but where the king is supreme , it is the will of god that the people should obey him . may i remind you that st. paul did determine it , when he appealead not to the senate , but to caesar ; and st. peter did determine it , when he calls the king supreme , and other governours those who are sent by him . you challenge any man to let you know now one nation upon all the earth that hath better governours , in sovereign power as to wisedom and holiness conjunct , than the powers last laid by , that have been resisted and deposed in england : and you tell us who you mean when you say , the lord protector , prudently , piously , faithfully , to his immortal honour , did exercise the government . but how he came in you say not : blessed be god , he went out soon ; his goverment was not immortal ; and thanks to the king , not mortal to himself : against his piousness i have nothing to object , but that he was protectour : his prudence , i readily with you acknowledge and his honesty too , in acknowledging the king his father's land-lord and his own , and being ready to remove when the land-lord demanded possession , which saved him his head ; he being wiser than you , not to offer it so rashly : as for your challenge of the wisedom and holiness of your governours above all upon earth ; please you to send it into holland or geneva , it will doubtless be accepted : but , though it displease you , i must tell you the earth never saw more wicked and cruel vsurpers than they , nor a more vain and idle challenge than yours . shall leave you and mr. harrington to argue , whether the army or richard and his senate were the wiser or holier governours , and , passing by centuries , shall onely remind you of a few of your theses which speak your loyalty . if providence statedly disable him that was the sovereign from executing the laws , protecting the just ; it maketh him an uncapable subject of the power , and so deposeth him ; for a governour so impotent is none ; and if the people disable him sinfully , by deserting him ; yet he is dismissed and disobliged from the charge of government ; and innocent members are disobliged from being governed by him , though through the sin of others . when providence thus maketh any uncapable or indisposed , it destroyeth the power as in such . 't is the duty of a very weak though tolerable governour , for the common good , to resign his place to one that is every way more fit , and liker to obtain the ends of government in a more excellent degree . if the person dispossest , though it were unjustly , do after become uncapable of government ; 't is not the duty of his subjects to seek his restoration . if an army of neighbours or inhabitants , or whoever , ( turk or pope ) do though injuriously expell the sovereign , and resolve to ruine the common-wealth rather than he shall be restored , and if the common-wealth may prosper without his restoration ; 't is the duty of such an injured prince , for the common good , to resign his government : and if he will not : the people ought to judge him as made uncapable by providence , and not to seek his restoration . to the apparent ruin of the common-wealth , a prince must give up his government , rather than fight for his right to the spilling of bloud . a rare encouragement to rebellion : 't is mr. b's divinity , the longest sword must carry it right or wrong ; and rebels may spill bloud to destroy their king , but a lawfull king may not , to preserve himself and his kingdom . it seems david was to blame to fight with absalom for the recovery of his crown and kingdom . what horrid theses are these ! onely the common-wealth and common-good ( of which the common people , are judges ) comes in ever as a salvo . name me a jesuite that ever wrote at a higher rate . when a people are without a governour , it may be the duty of such as have most strength ex charitate to protect the rest from injury . just protectour oliver's case , he found out a way that the people should be without a governour , and then his most strength was a mighty impulse to this great charity , to protect the people . providence , by conquest and other means , doth use so to qualifie some persons above others for the government , when the place is void , that no other persons shall be capable competitours , and the persons shall be as good as named by providence whom the people are bound by god to choose or consent to . examples massianello . the rump , oliver , richard , multitudes of wicked , criminous persons how rich soever , should much rather be excluded from choosing governours than honest beggars . this , this , this is the great point that the welfare of most common-wealths doth depend upon . this , this , this will set kingdoms and common-wealths all on fire , he who is wicked to one party is godly to another ; and to be rich when your party reigned was to be criminous and malignant , if loyal . but to prevent contention and injustice , your high wisdom hath found out an excellent law. let all pastours in england that are approved or tolerated have an instrument of approbation or toleration , and let no man be a chuser or ruler who is not signified under the pastour's hand to be a member of his church , or that shall be cast out . let every parish have one or two of the wisest men , by the superiour rulers , made church-justices or censours , to meet with the church-officers , and to take cognizance of the cause ; and let all that are cast out by the church-justices and churches consent be registred and disabled to vote . if a people that by oath and duty are obliged to a sovereign shall sinfully dispossess him , and , contrary to their covenants , choose and covenant with another , they may be obliged by their later covenants , notwithstanding the former ; and particular subjects , that consented not with them in the breaking of their former covenants , may yet be obliged by occasion of their later choice to the person whom they choose ; when men by contrary covenants have cast themselves into a necessity of sinning , it may be a duty to choose the lesser sin. though a nation wrong their king , yet may he not lawfully war against the publick good on that account , nor any help him in such a war. princes , if their injuries by their subjects are too great to be born , they may lay down their crowns at their pleasure . if a nation injuriously deprive themselves of a worthy prince , the hurt will be their own , and they punish themselves . but if it be necessary to their welfare , it is no injury to him . was ever any thing more seditious , wild and contradictious to it self ? horresco referens : 't is no injury ( saith mr. baxter ) to a prince , to deprive him , though worthy : 't is no sin : onely the subjects hurt themselves . it may be necessary to the subjects welfare to injure a worthy prince , and to hurt and punish themselves . is of the same bran. though some injury to the king be the occasion of the war , it is the duty of all the people to defend the common-wealth against him , yet so as they protest against that injury . this protestation washes them white , and they now owe him no satisfaction for their injury , but may add injury to injury . the people must side with the parliament , against the king , till it be notorious that the parliament have deceived and betrayed them . this you think not yet notorious , though the parliament have murthered the king , abjured his successour and usurped the government . names are not the onely notes of sovereignty : if a king have the title of supreme head or onely sovereign of his dominions ; and yet a senate have an essential part without the name ; they lose not their part , nor is it to be judged by the name : if the whole family with whom the people were in covenant be extirpated or become incapable ( by a stronger power injuriously expelling the family however or by whom soever , as before you have told us ) the people may new form the government as they please : that is , the good people of the army , by whom the royal family is extirpated . many more of your theses , such as these , i might expose , but these are too many : and 't is next to incredible , that a person professing godliness should expose to the world such ungodly positions , and endeavour to render supreme majesty and sovereign power cheap and vile , ambulatory and open , to any invader , when god hath declared kings to be sacred , not to be touched ; will have none to rise up against them ; to all who resist them hath threatned damnation . well mr. baxter , you shall take it for a polititian , and all sober and knowing persons will say , that machiavel was no body to you ; your holy common-wealth hath infinitely out-done his profane prince . but , sir , i must doe you that right , to publish unto your honour , that there is one fair pearl found in your dunghill ; one thesis , among abundance wretchedly wicked , which is hugely honest and pious . it is the subjects duty to defend their prince with their strength and hazard of their lives against all foreign and domestick enemies that seek his life and ruine : the reason , every man is to doe it in his place and calling , fidelity requireth it , the common good requireth it ; else no man that is wise would be a king or governour ; for if the people be not bound to defend him , he is but set up to be the object of envy and a bait to the ambitious , to entice men to invade him , and execute their fury on him . i leave you to reconcile your other principles and your practice with this ; and so i shall take leave of your holy common-wealth , when i have considered your reasons of taking up arms for the parliament : and , i must tell you , the most of those you call reasons are undutifull and uncharitable reflexions upon the king , his council , his army , and all his loyal subjects , who stood up in defence of his majesty , the established religion , and the laws , against the pretended parliament , who by impious arms invaded and violated them all . you are pleased to bestow the good names of ignorant , drunken , and vngodly , upon those who approved not the puritans intemperate heat and fiery zeal , and the parliaments bloudy reformation ; and , very mannerly , you call the king's council delinquent ; and , as charitably , his armies impious and popish ; and yet you confess your own godly-army as bad & worse . in the armies some of our hopefull professours turned drunkards , some turned away from ministers , ordinances , scripture godliness , from christ , and from common sobriety and civility ; some , that sped best , lament their coolings and distempers . you will not believe the parliament began the war though the king gives you a demonstration of it ; but you determine the question rarely well , in telling us , your self begun it , and were the first incendiary : the war , you say , was begun in our streets before the king or parliament had an army ; and so you had the honour first to be a general of your own creating , before essex , without commission from king or parliament . the parliaments causeless jealousies you justifie ; but the king 's just fears you slight . to the objection , the tumults at westminster drove him away ; you answer , onely by displeasing him , not by endangering him or medling with him . so the parliaments army , their cannons and muskets only affrighted , did not endanger him . you have all faith for the parliament , but none for the king , who in his meditations tells you he was more than displeased . you say , the parliament did not raise war against the person or authority of the king. you might have as truly said , their army did not fight where the king was in person ; at edghill , newbery , and naseby . o but , their commissions ran for king and parliament , and their souldiers , if askt who they were for , answered , for king and parliament and the solemn league and covenant , all run for king and parliament . what talk you of commissions , equivocating covenants , and dissembling declarations ; when you fought against the king's person , took him , imprisoned him , and , at last , murthered him . you may wash your hands with pilate , and tell us , your horrid cruelties were onely consequents , not effects of the war : but the bloud of the king , and his loyal subjects , which you spilt , will be upon you , unless you wash it away by a deep repentance . for your taking up arms against the king , you rely upon the authority of mr. prin , who pleaded the parliaments cause in revenge for his ears , and in gratitude for their releasing and bringing him to london in triumph ; of greeting one of a foreign countrey and a great common-wealths-man ; of barkly a papist : and indeed from them you learnt this wicked doctrine . you might , had you been impartial , consulted judge jenkins , your friend hales , dudly digs , and , the never to be answered , royal apology . these would have taught you , that the laws of god and the land forbid in all cases resistance against the king , command subjection ; but let these and your other shews and faint shadows of reason vanish . the most substantial one , which you chiefly urge and enlarge on , is , that the king is not ( as all his good subjects have been taught to believe ) the sovereign ; but that the parliament hath a part in the supremacy ; an assertion directly contrary to the oath of supremacy , which you elsewhere confess secures the king's title against all foreign claims of pope or any other , and consequently against all home-bread vsurpers , and every member of parliament takes that oath , and the long parliament , even when making war against the king , confess themselves in their declarations his majestie 's most loyal and humble subjects . i dare not with you presume to talk at pleasure of kings and parliaments . i have all due veneration for parliaments next unto and under the king. but i never learnt , that they were sharers in the supremacy , and , i believe , it would be a flattery as displeasing to a parliament , as injurious to the king , to ascribe unto it a part of the sovereignty . one of yours tells us that formerly the name of a king was an idol unto his subjects ; but now , by the courage of the parliament , 't is death to that man , and his father's house , that durst name a king ; and you make an idol of the name of a parliament , and dare to say , that if you had known the parliament had been the beginners , and in most fault ; yet their ruin is a punishment greater than any fault against a king ( his murther , and the ruin of his family , and all his loyal subjects ) can from him deserve . and now , sir , your audacity begets in me the confidence to tell you , that your rebellion was most foul , and the arms you bare were against both king and parliament , for that you call so was an idol , a nothing , no parliament ; but onely some corrupted members of it , which had by tumults and threats frighted away , as the king , so all the sound and loyal members of parliament , both lords and commons , and that in so great a number , that they made a parliament in oxford . now , seeing the parliament thus divided , a part against the king , a part as great for him , prudence and loyalty might have taught you either to have sat still and bewailed the unhappy rupture and division , and prayed for a closure and reconciliation ; or to have joyned with the king and the loyal part of his parliament : but of the sovereignty of parliaments enough . i pray god grant the king and kingdom may nevermore see the like to that you plead for , and served under with such a perseverance that , you say , you would doe it again in the same state of things . your honest friend , when he saw here a leg and there and arm in the way , saith , as you tell us , it was time for him to stop . 't was in him a poor pusillanimity : but such was your magnanimity , that legs and arms could not stop your career , you could undauntedly march on through bloud and slaughters . 't was a cowardly , cruel triumph in your other honest friend . mr. love , to flourish his handkerchief dipt in the bloud of that great prelate , when dead , whose venerable face he durst not have lookt on when alive . but your valiant sword drencht it self in bloud in the field of mars . you were as bold as the brutish brave horse in job , you cloathed your neck with thunder ; the glory of your nostrils was terrible ; you rejoyced in your strength ; you went on to meet the armed man ; you mocked at fear , were not affrighted , nor turned your back to the sword ; you said among the trumpets , ha , ha ; and your trumpet sounded as loud as they , curse ye meroz , curse ye bitterly . cursed be the man that doth the work of the lord negligently ; cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from bloud . but 't is time to sound a retreat . valiant sir , had your arms been no stouter than your arguments , you had forsaken the field , as you plainly do , when in the close of your reasons for the late war you confess , that every one of your reasons is not a sufficient medium to infer your conclusion : but altogether shew upon what grounds you proceed to dispute the point : so that you justifie treason upon the very same grounds on which the noble earl of strafford was condemned , on pretence of it . when none could be prov'd against him single , he must die for treason accumulative . i shall ease your patience upon this subject , when i have reminded you , that you have much mis-timed your holy common-wealth : therein you shew your self a great dictatour , but little a polititian , and less a prophet ; when you send it forth in the dark and dismal night of confusion , and could not stay to take a prospect of the morning ; when ( the blazing and affrighting comets pestiferous matter being spent ) the sun was ariseing in brightness and returning in glory . but your zeal for the restoring your prudent and pious richard blinded your eyes , and that heat put out the light , and so you thought the common-wealth would bring him in again . well , yet you were not wholly forsaken in your politicks : but when , though late , you discovered the protectorship and the common-wealth expiring , and the king like to be restored , you expiated your little errours by a great merit ; you preached to the honourable house of commons in parliament , and as in your epistle , and elsewhere you boast , god and they put upon you a great honour ; the next morning after they acknowledged his majestie 's authority : but surely , sir , 't was no effect of your sermon , but their own loyalty which wrought upon them to make that acknowledgment . you all along in your sermon reflect on the royal party as profane , and censuring the puritans and precisians who dare not be so bad as they : nay , you implicitly accuse that honourable house , as if there were some among them ( and 't is easie to guess whom you mean ) that would take that man as a puritan and phanatick , who would employ half so much time for his soul and the service of the lord , as they do in unnecessary sports and pleasures , and pampering their flesh . and you freely tell them that , god must have the precedency , and , as our calamities began with differencies in religion , and still , that 's the wound , that most needs closing ; and , with grief and shame we see this work so long undone : which plainly implies , you would have this work done according to your covenant by the parliament , before the king come in ; and , putting a high value on your self , and all of your mind , you declare , they shut you out , if they would enforce you to administer sacraments without discipline , and the conduct of your own discretion ; and , say you , give first to god the things that are god's , and then give unto caesar the things that are caesar's : that is , first set up the discipline before you admit caesar : this was the method of your brethren in scotland . and you here again caution and share the sovereignty . 't is right indeed as you say , a papist must cease to be a papist , if he be truly and fully loyal to his sovereign : and 't is as true , a presbyterian must cease to be a presbyterian , if he be truly and fully loyal to his sovereign : but you hide him under the general name of protestant , and tell us , so a protestant must so far cease to be a protestant , before he can be disloyal : ( you should have said , a protestant truly conformable to the church of england ) such a one can never be disloyal : but behold how rarely you prove your non-conforming protestant cannot be disloyal ; for rom. the th . is part of the rule of his religion : but unhappily there hath been a difference among us , which is the higher power , when those which have their shares in the sovereignty are divided ? but whether we should be subject to the higher power is no question to us . very pretty pure jesuitism . sir , true protestants of the church of england were never so unhappy as to differ about the higher power . they all agreed it was the king ; and that none did or ought to share with him in the sovereignty . 't is the papist ( whom you confess to be in your counsels and armies ) and you who unhappily differ , which is the higher power . they say , not the king , but the pope ; you say , not the king , but the parliament ; and rom. the th . is part of the rule of their religion as well as yours ; and whether they should be subject to the higher power is no more a question with them than with you , and so you prove the papists as good subjects as your selves . this then is your argument for your loyalty . 't is no question with you , whether you should be subject to the higher power ; but unhappily you differ , and are ignorant who is the higher power , to whom you should be subject ? you did not know whether england was a kingdom or a common-wealth , whether the king was higher than the parliament , whom he hath power to convoke and dissolve when he thinks fit : who call themselves his subjects , and recognise his sovereignty , by swearing unto him allegiance : thus your unhappy and invincible ignorance , who was the higher power , hath led you more unhappily to take part with the lower , but stronger power , and to resist and destroy the higher . may your timely repentance prevent the doom denounced romans the th . but this , and your other little slips in arguing , proceeded from your present want of advantages for study . having and using book but a bible and a concordance , as you say in your epistle ; how vain , how false , how rankly smells it of the pharisee ? what want of advantages for study in london ? could not all the publick libraries or booksellers shop furnish you with books for a sermon of repentance ? but advantages though you wanted , you needed not . i must with you collaud your sermon , and cofess you have spoken well of repentance , and home to diverse particular sins , and powerfully prest several duties : but that which was the duty of the day , to lay open the sin and deprecate the guilt of the late unparallel'd rebellion , and the murther of his late majesty , our most gracious and religious king , and the most injurious expulsion of his present majesty from his crown and kingdoms , and to press his speedy restoration ; this hath no place in your sermon . surely your topical head , had your heart been for it , and had you that respect for the king as for richard , could from your bible and concordance alone have so laid open the sin and laid home the duty , as at once to have pricked and bowed the hearts of all israel forthwith to send unto the king , and say , return thou and all thy servants : this , indeed , you faintly confess was some little part of your duty , to have minded your auditours what sins of the land must be remembred and loathed in order to peace and healing , but your glass forbad you . it seems your time for a whole hour was imployed in a work more proper and necessary than that which would conduce to the peace and healing of the nation . but , sir , i fear 't was another kind of glass forbad you , which would have reflected them on you with so ugly a countenance , that you could not endure the sight . the sins of the land you should have minded them of were gainfull sins , the goods and lands the godly party had won by the sword from the wicked and delinquents , and to remember , so as to loath and vomit up these ; oh , it would break their tender hearts shortly . though in your other tenets you are , they say , volatile , yet , as to your politicks , you are constant to your self : the very same in your sermon as in your common-wealth . and you are still the same in your plea for peace : as the review of the calamities and cofusions of the church and state , after seventeen years , could work in you then no change , nor reconcile you to the banished king and church of england ; so now , that for seventeen years more you have beheld the king and the church restored , which was the lord's doing , and even done by miracle , and is marvelous in our eyes ; it is grievous in yours ; and , by a pretended plea for peace , you proclaim a new war. never did any man talk of peace and cast about , as you do , fire-brands , arrows , and death . your petition for peace is advanced to a plea , and that plea is all satyr . others , you say , are answering your book , i shall onely take notice of your epistle : and you begin with a furious charge against the government : it is near seventeen years since two thousand ministers of christ were , by law , forbidden the exercise of their office unless they did conform ; which they durst not doe ; because they feared god : foreseeing what conformity would doe to the destroying of love and concord , and of men's souls ; weakning the land , encouraging popery , heresie and schism . could ever any thing be said in so few words by the greatest boautefew in the world , more seditiously , undutifully and uncharitably ? did ever the world see such a defiance of the laws by a pretended pleader for peace , of which the laws are conservatours , as this herauld denounces in the name of his thousands ? ministers of christ ! no minister of anti-christ could bring such a railing accusation against rulers . these are they that speak evil of dignities . what can you say worse against a dioclesian , than to forbid the ministers of christ , not conforming , the exercise of their office ? to make laws which they who feared god durst not obey ; laws which tend to the destroying love , concord , yea , mens souls ; laws encouraging popery , heresie and schism ; laws weakning the land. 't is great pitty the land is not govern'd by the laws of your holy common-wealth . that law of christ , of loving enemies , our most mercifull king doth but too strictly observe ; he loves them but too much : else ere this you had been called to a severe account for your vile aspersion of the laws and violation of the majesty of the law-giver . . you accuse the magistrates as persecutours , and cry out of your parties , and your own sufferings , which in your petition for peace you repeat ad ravim usque . the penalties of forty pounds a sermon , and long imprisonment in common gaols , and driving us five miles from corporations , and places where we lately preacht . the laws and canons imprison and excommunicate us ipso facto if we do but give the reasons of our non-conformity . a loud name the law ( or canon ) that does so , for onely giving the reasons of your non-conformity . we are made their scorn , and many want bread , and they choose beggery and scorn , and live onely on mens charity ; therefore cannot be , as they are accused , covetous or proud . the romish fryars not onely choose , but vow poverty and scorn , yet you may perhaps think them covetous and proud . but , sir , how 't is in your parts i know not , and am sorry to see you accuse the rich and numerous disciples of your separated congregations of covetousness and want of charity , in suffering their teachers to want bread and live in beggery . i must tell you , in our colder climate their charity is much warmer . the non-conforming ministers are generally fat and full , rich , and build , and buy land. i profess , i know not any one , in the countrey where i live , but is able in estate : and your self , blessed be god , have bread enough and to spare . but yet you are a sufferer too under bitter accusations and persecutions , and have lain in a gaol among malefactors — you tell us not how long . and your lying in a gaol , being for your disobedience against the law , you were , as they among whom you lay , a malefactor . you know well , as you will be told anon , who suffered by your sovereign masters all this , and the loss of all their estates besides , for their obedience to the laws : and , sir , i doubt not but , in your gaol , you had the like visits and comforts with mr. calamy from the sisters . . you talk most scornfully and uncharitably of the conforming clergy , calling them , the accusing clergy , charging them with false reports , wrath , cross interest , and tantum non with malignity and diabolism , and with urging rulers to confine , imprison , excommunicate , silence , undoe — and of the writings of the most able for conformity , whom you name , and tell us you have read many more such : sitting in the scorners chair you say , mr. tombs hath said more for anabaptistry ; the late hungarian for polygamy : many for drunkenness , stealing and lying in cases of necessity than you ever yet read , for the lawfulness of all you have here described . o modesty ! you should have said , than you ever yet writ against the lawfullness of all you have here opposed . but you are most concerned about the counterminer . i hope you charge him not with those bloudy words you blot your paper with ; they are your own , not his ; why then do you so suspiciously bring them in with this invidious preface , but i must say , if such as the counterminer will say ? the counterminer , indeed , calls things by their own names : what is such , he calls treason , rebellion , schism , faction , pride , obstinacy ; and you , of all men , may pardon him , who speaks truth just as you speak your errors ; a little imperiously and insultingly . thus your self ease your mind , as you say some men do , by pouring out a torrent of reproachfull and scornfull words . nay , you go higher , and give threatning words , not to suspect that ill boding one , this unarmed account is easily trampled upon : by which some may think you would be preaching again in a buff coat , and with a sword by your side . nor to mention again the legs and arms in the way ; you conclude in terrible , dangerous , menacing language ; if you will not hear , those will , whom god will use to the healing of these churches . sir , i shall not comment on these strange words . but we have now ( as you formerly had ) jealousies and fears from the timing of your plea for peace , which you send forth after years silence , and in the name of your thousands ; in this critical conjuncture of affairs ; that there is some design on foot more than ordinary ; and for that you were resolute to put it out , notwithstanding your prudent friends persuaded you , silently to leave all to god , and assured you , it would but exasperate : but persuaded you would not be ; and exasperate you would , even by a plea for peace ; and with your pretious balms you break our heads ; and while you embrace , you smite under the fifth rib ; and you encrease our doubts by your quarrelling , and some of you libelling the excellently learned dean of st. paul's , a strong pillar of the church , whom you once caressed . i have done with your epistle , and , as i told you , will not meddle with your plea. onely i ask you , is this a likely plea for peace ? wherein , not content to urge the old objections , you strain and set your wit and invention on the rack , to find out new exceptions , and torture every joint and member of the liturgy ; and multiply little scruples against conformity , in infinitum ; and the poor calendar cannot scape you . to shew your skill in astronomy , you pick quarrels with the almanack , which , as your con. non. non. con. brother cheny tells you , you had better let alone , and referre the matter to a jury of almanack-makers . but this was a piece of savoy wit , and you will not pardon it in a brother : he writing a very meek and modest answer to your plea , with all deference to your person and worth ; you expose him , deride him as a coward for flying , and not daring as you to choose the goal : you insult over him , trample upon him , and render him the most pittifull thing that ever peept abroad in print : and , in your petulant answer to him , you let fly also very boldly against the government : and yet , sir , he is too hard for you in divers points of greater difference between you , as those of episicopacy , re-ordination , renunciation on of the covenant — and you in effect fly the field , and leave him the victory : and though you slight him , you confess you fear him . being a brother , though weak , yet you say , his concessions and coming so near the truth doth give him more advantage against your party than the ablest of the conformists , who will assault you with less success than he : they having a kindness for him , will read him ; but not the other , having against them a prejudice . and for that reason , the greater men , who you say are about to confute your book , may spare their labour ; there being no hope to doe good on your party , as you cunningly insinuatè , to prevent a confutation ; and truly , for another reason , they may let it alone ; you having a singular way of writing ( which your intimate acquaintance with schism hath taught you ) to divide and subdivide in semper divisibilia : you are a great captain , and never march into the field but with hundreds following you ; in your holy common-wealth , in your pleas , first and second , in your answer to dr. stillingfleet , and generally , in all your books ( besides your very frequent excursions to other matter ) you do so multiply quaeries , propositions , and aphorisms , and have so many little heads and minute particulars , that those who write against your books must measure and number atoms to trace you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which few will have the pleasure to doe ; and if they onely make remarks and animadversions , you will say , they do but nible and cavil , and dare not fairly attack you by a full and just confutation . and i may add another reason : the excellent dean of canterbury hath done your work , and compleatly answered your plea in two pages of his sermon . your whole business in your plea is to make the world believe , you are bound in conscience to preach and exercise your office , as you call it , after your own mode , contrary to the laws and orders in the church established . he there most clearly demonstrates your error , and with it that of the papists . i can not think that any pretence of conscience warrants any man that is not extraordinarily commissioned , as the apostles and first publishers of the gospel were , and can not justifie that commission by miracles , as they did , to affront the established religion of a nation ( though it be false ) and openly to draw men off from the profession of it , in contempt of the magistrate and the law. all that persons of a different religion can in such a case reasonably pretend unto , is , to enjoy their private liberty and exercise of their own conscience and religion ; for which they ought to be very thankfull , and to forbear the open making of proselytes to their own religion ( though they be never so sure they are in the right ) till they have either an extraordinary commission from god to that purpose , or the providence of god make way for it , by the permission of the magistrate . but this you call a slip of his pen , and pretend you have rectified it , telling us , 't is the duty of those who are set apart to the office of the ministery , to preach the gospel by way of discharge of that office : we have the apostles express authority and example for this , who when they were threatned and commanded to speak no more in christ 's name , have left us their answer upon record , we ought to obey god rather than man. we have also the precedent of the first three hundred years after these apostles , when the gospel was nevev preached , but contrary to the will of the magistrate , that is , against the laws and edicts of the emperors . instead of mending a supposed slip of dr. tillotson's pen , you have made a foul blot with your own : his position is , no man , unless he hath an extraordinary commission as the apostles , ought to preach or make proselytes in affront to the established religion of a nation , and in contempt of the magistrate , and the law prohibiting it . you affirm the contrary , that all who have an ordinary call to the office ministerial , ought to preach , though prohibited by the laws and edicts of the magistrate . and the medium you make use of to prove it is the example of the apostles , who had an extraordinary call and commission . this is your argument , the apostles ( having an immediate and extraordinary call and commission from christ to preach the gospel ) did preach it ; notwithstanding the commands and threatnings of the magistrate ; therefore all ministers , having an ordinary call , may preach , though by the magistrate prohibited . thus you confirm the doctor 's assertion , pretending to confute it . having no proof or instance of ordinary ministers preaching contrary to the command of the magistrate ; you fly to the example of extra-ordinary ministers , the apostles , the very thing that he asserts , that they may ; others , not called as they , may not preach against the laws and the edict of the magistrate . what you add of the precedent of the first three hundred years after the apostles , is as impertinent as the other is weak , and nothing parallel to this case . the emperors then were heathens , persecutors of the christian religion , made laws against all preaching of the gospel ; yet all the ministers preached notwithstanding those laws and edicts . the king is now a christian , the defender of the faith , commands by his laws the preaching of the gospel ; onely the laws require all preachers to walk by the same rule , and submit to the same order . you refuse to preach according to rule and order in communion with the church ; but will preach in division from the church , and in defiance of the laws of a christian prince and the orders in the church established . sir , in your reply to dr. stillingfleet you provoke any person to name that principle cherishing rebellion which you have not renounced . i must tell you , this principle of the obligation of ministers to preach and doe divine offices after their own mode , in separated congregations , against the laws of the christian magistrate and the church , is a principle cherishing rebellion , and you have not renounced it . and , in the said reply , i do charge you of dilivering a principle more than cherishing rebellion , the very same with those in your holy common-wealth , and your sermon to the house of commons . but i pray the learned doctors pardon in thrusting my sickle into their corn , you will find them well able to defend themselves against your angry assaults ; i shall take the boldness onely to mention two or three of your exceeding vanities , and extravagances in your answers to the worhty dean of st. paul's . you tell him , his logical faculty runs lamentably low ; but , sir , men think yours runs miserably low , even to dotage . when in your epistle , you are so idle as to muster up above twenty sorts of disputants too hard for you , of which , one you call the universalist , who will prove you an ass , because you are an animal . sure , by this vniversalist , you mean mr. l'estrange , who is a little too free with you in his answer to your petition for peace , which i doubt not you have seen , though you forget your self , and call it unanswered ; he is a pleasant gentleman , and you , being now upon the merry pin , might easily prevail with him for an ingenious descant upon the several qualifications you give of your one and twenty disputants . another sort of those disputants you tell us are , such as will not reade or answer your fullest defence already written , but look you should begin a new . here , sir , we think you are greatly out in your account ; we believe there are no disputants of this sort ; men are so far from looking you should begin a new , that they wish you had never begun at all , and fear you will never end the world's trouble and your own contentious disputing : and , how know you they will not or have not read your defence ? and if they will not read or answer it , why are you angry ? are all men bound to read your books ? and if none will answer you , you have the last word , and you know whom that pleases . but how those who will not reade nor answer you should be a sort of disputants too hard for you passes our shallow understanding . pray , in your next , resolve this ridle ; and be pleased to tell us , which of your many is your fullest defence , and then perhaps some may be so kind to you as to reade and answer it . another flash of wit and piece of gayety i cannot but remark , coming from a person of your gravity , if you be , as i suppose you are , the compiler . we cannot but appeal to the higher powers to have it revised and judge — when we have been ordained already , as timothy , by laying on of the hands of the presbytery , whether the lawn be de essentia to the ceremony , and the hands avail nothing without the sleeves on . sir , st. paul appealed to caesar ; you cannot but appeal to the higher powers . it seems with you there are higher powers than caesar . and as you mistake the object , so you do the subject matter or case of your appeal , which should be , whether timothy who was ordained by the laying on of the hands of the prebytery — was not again ordained by the laying on of the hands of st. paul , and the higher powers may put you to prove your selves ordained as was timothy , which will be a little difficult , and your quoeries will be to them as hard ; whether the hands of the presbytery were without sleeves ? whether saint paul had lawn sleeves ? whether ordination be a ceremony ? whether a ceremony hath any thing belonging to it de essentia ? important quoeries all these verily , and fit to be revised and judged by the higher powers , if you knew who they were ; but alas you do not ; as you complain in your sermon to the house of commons . if then you would take my counsel , refer it brother cheny . one thing i am mighty sorry to see and say , this wise case is ushered in with a gross leasing , when just before you affirm the case was such , that there was no other than presbyterian ordination to be had here in the late times . truly , if your good will , might be taken for the deed , there was no other to be had . but in the late times my self and hundreds more had episcopal ordination . but quoere whether it were valid , you having taken away their lawn sleeves and rochets and rochets to which might be de essentia to the ceremony . one thing more i must observe , and then i shall end your trouble ; and 't is my own great trouble that i must observe it , and rebuke you for it ; you say in your preface , ans . to dr. stillingfleet , i am past doubt , that richard hooker , bishop bilson , and bishopvsher , where they now alive , would be non-conformists . and you said it before , as i remember , elsewhere . sir , your being past doubt , puts us past our faith in your assertions ; no body will believe what you say while you talk at this rate , and blemish the precious memory of such venerable persons , two of them having been the highest assertors of conformity since the reformation , and have left us for it their monuments in writing incomparable and unanswerable . pray , sir , how came you by this plerophy ? have their ghosts appeared unto you , and informed you that they have been convinced in another world that they erred , in thinking there ought to be church order and vniformity in this ? and , have they told you ( for no body else could ) what sort of non-conformists they would be ? those of the first edition in forty two , or those of the second , in sixty two . would they , when non-conformity , was rampant , have risen up against the king and church , and , with you , cryed up the good cause , and pluckt up the perpetual government of christ's church and the ecclesiastical polity root and branch ; and , in order to a thorough beformation , taken the solemn , league and covenant ; and , with you , taken up arms for the parliament ? or , would they now ( having answered onely , the old objections when alive ) be so stagger'd with your new ones , that that one alone of the erroneous kalendar would be a flaming sword to keep them from entring ? sir , hereafter talk things crediible ; such romances become you not , what would your censure be , should we affirm , we are past doubt that mr. cartwright , traverse and brown , were they now alive , would turn conformists ? one thing , in the epistle to your plea i omitted , is fit here to be remarked ; your complaint ; that you have been called on to tell what it is that you would have ; as if you had told it and we well knew it : but truly , sir , 't is a very hard question , which we think you neither have nor can tell . one thing you would have to day , another to morrow ; a little will content you when you are under ; but nothing will content you when you are uppermost . when you writ your petition for peace you would have bishop usher's model ; and could yield to bishops and archbishops . when you writ your answer to dr. stillingfleet , you would have your grievances proposed to the higher powers , and would have the higher powers strip the bishops of their lawn sleeves . we know by what measures you proceeded in forty one : from petitioning to protestation ; thence to covenanting , to arming , to sequestring ; till you had levelled all before you , and overturned the government of both church and state. i am very unwilling to mention your past actings , but that you give us great cause to think you would be acting the same things again ; and do in effect tell us , what you would have . but , what you would not have , you can better tell us . no bishops , no liturgy , no canons for decency and order in the publick worship : no king but upon such terms ; if you be the casuists who resolved upon the prospect of the king's restoration ; that in that state of things the king could not justifie the resuming of his government , nor his people the submitting to it . but your non-conforming brethren best know your minde . let them tell you and us what you would have had , when you had all . you complain of your misery , bondage and slavery ; of oppressions , sorrows and troubles of the church , that is doubtless , of the church presbyterian , and no other . what doth all you ? what troubles you ? who doth oppress you ? have you not authority on your side ? have you not all the church livings in the kingdom ? have you not declaration upon declaration , ordinance upon ordinance , order upon order to back you ? is there the least shew of oppression , sorrow or cause of complaint administred unto you , except it be because you are not suffered to oppress , vex and gall your brethren that joyn not with you ? can you feed upon nothing but bloud , yea , the bloud of your brethren ? that though you have every thing else , ( that onely prohibited , ) you complain of sorrow , slavery and oppression ; that you cannot enslave and lead into captivity . is this to kill you with the sword , that you cannot kill your brethren with the sword ? the non-conformists champion his challenge accepted . . when god had , in mercy and faithfulness unto david , delivered him from the sword of saul , and set him upon the throne of israel , the first thing he esteemed himself obliged unto in duty and gratitude , was , to set up god's kingdom and settle his true worship in israel , who had set up and settled him in that kingdom : to this end he brings the ark of god in a religious state and triumph to jerusalem , which had been taken by the philistines , and remained some time with them in captivity , and after lodged in obscurity in the houses of aminadab and obededom . his gracious majesty , our david , who hath been a parallel to king david both in his persecution , and restoration , is as truly his parallel in piety and holy zeal for the true religion ; and hath made it his first care , as soon as god brought him back to his kingdom , to bring back the ark of god to jerusalem , to restore the holy doctrin , worship , and government of our church which had with himself been long banished : and , having in the happy examples of his most royal and religious predecessors observed how exceedingly this church hath florished under the established order for many years , how eminently her faith hath been spread abroad in every place , how all her sisters of the reformed church rejoiced to behold her order and stedfastness towards christ , the daughters all calling her blessed ; as also , finding by sad experience that in these times of trouble and confusion ( of which we may truly wish with job , that they were blotted out of times , and might not come into the number of years ) the plucking up of the established order hath been the loss at once of truth and peace in the church , and the cause of all the bitter dissentions and lamentable divisions wherewith it hath been wounded and dilacerated , and which never could be cured or closed by any the balms and healing medicins applied by presbyterians , independents , or any other who pretended to be our physicians ; this , i say , his majesty in his princely and pious wisedom observing , hath restored to god's glory and his own great honour that religion which had before this rupture obtained and long flourished . . but there is nothing can be so well devised , so warily composed , so innocently established as to satisfie all judgments , and anticipate all objections . that manna wherewith god himself fed his people from heaven , that angels food was soon loathed and despised . as it was at king james his coming to this crown , so at his present majestie 's , there are dissenters and complainers , who , with great and loud importunities , vehement accusations , and a mighty specious zeal , cry out against the publick worship and order to be restored : his majesty , imitating in the like case the example of that our english solomon , was pleased to give commission for a conference or treaty between some select persons of the episcopal and presbyterian judgment , to consider of the form of publick worship , the common prayers of this church ; and , if occasion be , to make such reasonable alterations , corrections and amendments therein , as should be jointly agreed upon to be needfull and expedient ; and doubtless for the same reason with that of king james : not but that any thing in the common prayer contained might very well have been born with by men who would have made a reasonable construction of things . but for that in a matter concerning the service of god we were nice or rather jealous that the publick form thereof should be free not onely from blame but from suspicion , so as neither the common adversary should have advantage to wrest ought therein contained to other sense than the church of england intendeth , nor any troublesome or ignorant person of this church be able to take the least occasion against it . the treaty wanting that issue his majesty and all good men desired , and no accommodation thereby effected , it is enquired and diversly censured where the blame lies . . the presbyterians charge the episcopal commissioners to be wholly in the fault ; and say , they have petitioned the bishops , proposed their alterations , made their objections against the liturgy , replied upon the bishops answers ; finally , have cleared themselves , and given account to his majesty of the whole transaction . but the bishops have answered nothing to their petition , have not considered their alterations , have said little to their objections , and granted as little by way of concession : therefore they profess , the disappointment hath not been on their part , and that they have quiet in their minds , having discharged their duty , and been seekers and followers of peace . but for all this fair flourish , it will appear to any judgment that is not forestalled , that 't is on the score of the presbyterians , and for the fault of their undue managing thereof , that the treaty hath proved ineffectual ; and this i shall manifest by , first , answering their pretensions , and then considering their petition . . that the bishops answered not their petition , it was for good causes ; what they ask was not in the power of the bishops to grant , the matter was unreasonable , the motives weak and not worthy an answer , being in number many , but light in weight ( as when they come to be examined will appear ) and however directed to the bishops , the petition was intended to gratifie the people of their own party , the design of it being popular , and the aim of it apparent to keep up their interest . . that they answer nothing to their new form ( which they call their alterations ) a perfect abolition of the churches form , was not their fault , but their favour . they were obliged to the bishops for their silence who might justly have convented them instead of answering them ; the very publishing of that form being a high attempt against the laws and a plain violation of his majestie 's directions in his commission . . that they say little to their objections is , for that many of them had little in them , were trivial and stramineous , and little or nothing have they said in their objections , but what had been said before by cartwright and others ; and by archbishop ▪ whitgift and mr. hooker abundantly answered . . that they granted little by way of concession , they had great reason , and great precedents : great reason ; for , . the compilers of the common prayer book were holy , able , zealous and orthodox persons ; and such an alteration as they desired ( as i said ) in effect an abolition , had been to question their piety and ability , and to cast dirt in the faces of those venerable fathers , confessors and martyrs . . the common prayer book was revised , approved and confirmed by divers . acts of parliament and proclamations , in several princes reigns ; to alter it after their model , had been also to cast dirt in the face of supream authority , and to question the wisedom and piety of the wisest and most pious kings and parliaments . . it would have opened a gap to the papists , who cry out against us for novelty and inconstancy . . it was his majestie 's order , that there should be as little alteration as might be , for that the people were acquainted with and accustomed to the form established . . they had great precedents ; for , . in queen elizabeth's time , it being revised , very few alterations or additions were made : and , . in king james his time also , who judged the form so compleat , that he would have some small things rather explained than changed : nay more , admonisheth all men , that hereafter they shall not expect nor attempt any farther alteration . . for that the bishops have said little , and the presbyterians much , it makes nothing for the one nor against the other ; they are not the fullest vessels that make the greatest sound ; 't is not the best cause that is most clamorous ; the bishops cause was not their own more than the king 's , the parliaments , and the churches , having been by law established and continued ( except in the popish and presbyterian persecutions ) ever since the reformation . therefore the bishops judged it needless to give themselves and the world the trouble of any tedious defence . but the presbyterians , pleading against the laws and established order , thought it necessary to bestir themselves and to make long apologies for so high an attempt : therefore they have left no stone unturned , have sent paper after paper and posted them through all parts of the nation , to keep up their interest in the party , and their party's prejudice against the churches liturgy . i suppose , it is hereby plain to all indifferent judges , that the blame is not on the bishops , but the presbyterians , that the treaty had not its desired success . and to manifest it farther , since they justifie themselves , and wash their hands , and cry , we are innocent : they must be told , . that they have not duly prepared for an accommodation before the treaty : . they have not demeaned themselves candidly and ingeniously in the treaty . . they have not duly prepared for an accommodation before the treaty . there is no hope of a fair agreement between two dissenting parties , so long as on the one part there remain causes of jealousie which will not be removed . now since the prebyterians do lie under the scandal of holding divers tenets in reference to his majesty , episcopacy , and the liturgy , to which if they still adhere , they render themselves uncapable of a treaty ; it highly concerns them to purge themselves , by a full and free declaration of their judgments in those particulars which have an immediate influence upon the treaty . . since the presbyterians both from the pulpit and the press have taught , that it is lawfull to resist kings , and have stirred up the people to arm against their lawfull sovereign upon pretence of reformation in religion ; herein joyning with the jesuits , that heretical kings may be resisted and deposed , as many of their books and sermons declare . for the undeceiving of the people , and clearing themselves of the guilt of that antichristian and impious tenet , they were bound in duty and conscience to have publickly disavowed that doctrine , and to have published to the world , that they hold the doctrine of our church , that kings are sacred ; above all coercive power : that they are supreme ; the highest powers : onely punishable by god ; and not , upon any pretence of liberty , property , law , or religion , be it never so specious , nay , be it never so real , to be resisted or opposed . . for that they maintain and publickly teach , the civil magistrate not to be superior to the ecclesiastical governors . they were obliged to make a publick acknowledgment of the king's supremacy in all causes , and over all persons ecclesiastical ; in short , to have offered to take the oath of supremacy . the denial of which is a second opinion wherein some of them symbolize with the papists . . for that they have in their writings so publickly opposed the episcopal government , covenanted against it , taken it away ; and in the place thereof set up another government ; they should expresly have owned the episcopal government now restored , and have promised to be obedient unto it . . for that they had cast out and laid aside all set forms of publick prayer , ordination , and other administrations , ( their directory being a very cypher , neither used by themselves , nor imposed upon any other , ) every minister being left to his own dictates in publick holy offices , they should previously have declared their judgments , that a set form of publick prayer is in every church necessary , to which all in that church should be obliged . . for that their party have taken away the form of prayer by law appointed , and forbidden all ministers under great penalty to use it ; they should have declared , that the substance of it was agreeable to god's word , onely they judged it needed some alteration , and that if his majesty with the bishops should consent to the amendment of such things as by their joint judgments should be thought needfull , they would submit unto it , and be obliged ever to use it in their ministrations . these things were necessary should have been precedaneous to the treaty , and would much have conduced to an happy accommodation : such an ingenuous confession and retractation beseemed them , and would have melted his majesty and the bishops ; and all good christians would have wept with them , and rejoyced for them , and embraced them with the same affection that joseph did his repenting brethren ; and indeed it was a wonderfull condescention in his majesty to appoint the bishops , and a high obedience in the bishops to his majesty to treat at all with them without and before such a confession . surely till they do retract those not onely erroneous , but some of them prodigious and most dangerous and unchristian opinions , they in vain go about to persuade the world that ●●ey cannot submit to our liturgy upon the principles of conscience . 't is not conscience that swallows camels , and streins at gnats : 't is not conscience that sees motes , and winks at beams : 't is not conscience that neglects the weighty things of the law , and tithes mint and cummin . certainly they must have abundance of charity that can believe ( be their words never so smooth ) that these men have no motive but conscience to oppose our church ceremonies , do out of conscience scruple at a surplice , a gesture , a set form , a word obsolete or improper , whose conscience could swallow sedition , rebellion , could make war against their sovereign king , could overturn all order both civil and sacred , and fill the church and state with bloud and confusion . one thing more which evidences their insincerity as to an amicable treaty , as if they resolved it should take no effect , and feared lest duty , piety , conscience and reason should work upon their brethren to submit to the form of worship now likely to be restored ; they sent to all of their judgments in the nation , to send up wha● objections they could make against the common-prayer , and advised them to hold off , and not to conform by any means , for their standing out was the onely way to obtain their own terms and liberty , their numbers being so considerable , that , in case of their deprivation , there were not conformable ministers enough to supply their places , and so the king and the church must be forced to indulge and continue them . surely this was not consciencious , and discovered their design , to continue a division and keep up a party : though herein their politicks failed them ; the bishops sented the design , and provided for the churches against the vacancy . . they have not demeaned themselves candidly and fairly in the treaty ; which themselves in their two papers ( the petition for peace , and the grand debate ) do make appear to all who are impartial and unprejudicate : their publishing them being directly against his majestie 's commission which is , our will and pleasure is , that when you , with the said archbishops , &c. shall have drawn your consultations to any resolution , that you forthwith certifie and present to us in writing under your several hands the matters and things whereupon you shall so determine . . his majestie 's will and pleasure is , that what is done by virtue of this commission , should be done jointly , by the commissioners on both sides ; but the presbyterian commissioners set forth their papers by themselves , without those of the episcopal . . that they should certifie them in writing to his majesty : they wave his majesty , and scatter their papers abroad in print among the people . . that they should present them under their several hands ; here are no hands , no names , but the general one of commissioners . . that they should certifie when their consultations were drawn to any resolution , and present the matters whereupon they should determine . they , ahimaaz like , run without their errand , and presume to certifie ( us the people , not us the king ) before any resolusion , without any determination : whether this be agreeable to the king's commission , and conformable to his order and appointment ; let the world judge , let themselves judge . nay , whether it was not to appeal from his majesty to those of their own party . but to close with their papers : and , first , i shall consider the objections they make against the common prayers in general in their grand debate . . they say , they look upon the common-prayer-book as an excellent and worthy work for that time , and after they contradict themselves and recall their charity , and stifle that truth which brake from them ; and say , as to our consciences , if we thought not the common-prayer-book to be guilty — and again , we take it to be a defective , disorderly , inconvenient mode . what , excellent and worthy , and yet guilty and disorderly , defective , inconvenient , — how are these consistent ? yes , for that time excellent and worthy : but at this time guilty , defective , — but pray what 's the difference between that time and this ? must we change our religion with the times ? we have the same doctrine , the same sacraments , the same government ; and why should not we have the same worship ? must we have a temporizing worship ? must our devotions as our garments be changed after the new fashions or modes of times ? what guilt hath our liturgy contracted by time ? o that the times and men were such now for zeal and piety as when the common prayers were composed . . they make objections against the whole as well as the parts : and , is this fair , to object against the whole of that , some parts whereof they were onely to amend ? their commission was , that , if occasion be , they should make such reasonable and necessary alterations , corrections and amendments therein as shall be agreed upon to be needfull and expedient , — with an express advice to avoid , as much as may be , all unnecessary abbreviations of the forms and liturgy , wherewith the people are altogether acquainted , and have so long been received in the church of england : where his majesty would have onely some parts amended and corrected , if need be , and all unnecessary abbreviations of the form avoided , they fly at the whole ; their usual way of reformation being root and branch . for , . instead of the old book amended they offer us a new model , not a syllable of the old in it ; not one of the churches prayers is judged worthy to be joined with theirs : these wise master-builders can with less trouble and charge pull down the house and build a new one , than repair the old ; as if it had not one room convenient , all must down to the ground , and not so much as one stone in the old building must be used in the new . . they complain of the length of the common-prayer-book , and make theirs in the ordinary offices much longer , but for this they have a salvo , that it may be left to the discretion of the minister to omit it as occasion shall require . behold their liturgy , with a liberty , that he who will use it may , and he that will not may choose . . they would have it left to the ministers choice to use their new form or the old , which is as much as to say , all of their judgment shall be free from using the common-prayer ; for you will easily believe they will like this new directory better ; and then , what need this treaty ? and yet , give them their due , they have no great fancy to their own form : for , . they will have a farther liberty . they desire there may be no such imposition of the liturgy , as the exercise of the gift of prayer be totally excluded in any part of god's worship : so then , a set prayer there shall be in every part of god's worship , and in every part the minister may exercise his gifts and shew his parts , and strive to out-go this set prayer ; and so the prayer shall be despised , and his gifts extolled . is the church a place , the worship of god a season to exercise such gifts in ? our graces indeed should be there exercised , which are best done in a set-form . gift of prayer there is none spiritual . that which is cried up to be such is nothing but an acquired art or habit of ready speech , and tends more to ostentation than edification . the spirit of prayer the prophet tels us what it is , a spirit of grace and supplication , looking on christ by faith and love , whom by sin and unbelief we have pierced ; and by a deep repentance mourning for our sins , and beseeching god's grace to be delivered from them by christ's most meritorious sufferings . we may pray without the spirit when we exercise the gift of prayer ; we may pray with the spirit when we use a form of prayer . sure the spirit doth not ever withdraw or deny the assistence of his grace to our devotion when we pray the lord's prayer . the spirit of prayer requires not new words , but new affections . should i make it my end , or any part of it , when i pray in publick , to exercise my gifts , i should justly fear to be judged of god , and men ( if they knew it ) an abominable hypocrite and pharisee . . they object , the whole body of the common prayer consists very much of many generals , as , to have our prayers heard ; to be kept from all evil , from all enemies and adversities ; that we may doe god's will ; without any mention of the particulars wherein these generals do consist . ans . . they make that an objection which is a propriety and excellency . the common prayers of the church should be for common and general mercies of which the whole church stands in need . . daniel's prayer for the church in the babylonian captivity doth consist not very much , but altogether of meer generals , without any mention of particulars , and yet it was graciously heard : and , do they not hereby accuse our lord himself ? is not his prayer made up of meer generals ? sure so many grave divines should not make their objections by number , but by weight , and due and sober consideration . how little they considered this will farther appear in that , . they confess their objection to be untrue , when they tell us that the litany is for grace , peace , rain , fair-weather , &c. and indeed i may challenge our brethren to shew any particulars needfull for the church to petition at the hands of god in her publick worship omitted in the litany . . they desire , that all obsolete words may be altered . ans . that may be soon done ; for few or no obsolete words are in the liturgy : but doth not god , do not we understand old and plain words ? must we coin new ones to please him and our selves ? must we be rhetorical , quaint and curious ; complement god in our prayers ? let us take unto us those words the church hath from god's word put into our mouths , and join with them our hearts , and let us not doubt but god will hear us graciously . . it troubles them , that the publick worship of god may not be administred by any that dares not wear a surplice . ans . who are those tender ones that dare not ? what a frightfull bugg is a surplice , that you dare not wear it in the administration of the publick worship ? nay , you dare refuse to administer in god's publick worship , rather than wear a surplice . your master beza was not so timerous , or dainty , mihi videtur ecclesias minime deserendas propter pileum , aut vestes , aut aliquid aliud hujusmodi vere medium aut indifferens : to me it seemeth that we ought not to forsake the churches for caps , or vestments , or any other such like thing of a nature mixt and indifferent . mr. moulin was not so tender ; could ( as he professed ) willingly wear a fool's-coat and cap , so he might freely and publickly administer god's true and holy worship . are not different and decent vestures by god himself appointed to his priests in their publick and holy ministrations ? and , why may not the governors of the church command under the gospel the like decent and distinct habits to ministers which god commanded under the law ? so as no religion or sanctity be placed in them , as we declare there is not ; but they are onely enjoined for comeliness and gravity , suitable to such solemnities : solemn actions of royalty and justice have their suitable ornaments enjoyned , and they are unto them a beauty , and beget from the people a veneration ; are they onely a stain in religion ? these general objections against the common prayers in their grand debate i thought good to consider , together with their reasons in their petition of peace , that they may see we do not slight nor fear any of their forces , but dare encounter their whole strength . their particular objections against the parts of the liturgy are long since by mr. hooker , and others so convincingly answered ; those which are old : and the new are so weak and inconsiderable that they deserve not a sober animadversion , and therefore i shall not give the reader the trouble of a confutation . to expose a few of them is enough , and he may judge of the rest by their assize . . they desire , the word minister , which is used in the absolution and divers other places , may be used throughout , and not priest and curate . . the confession ( they tell us ) is very defective , not clearly expressing original sin , nor sufficiently enumerating actual sins with their aggravations ; but consisting onely of generals ; whereas confession , being the exercise of repentance , ought to be more particular : this is already answered . . the often repeating the lord's prayer , and the gloria patri comes within compass of those vain repetitions our saviour condemns ; a vain objection — and may be as well made against david , psal . . and against many other his psalms , as also against moses , solomon , and our saviour himself . . they would have that petition in the litany , good lord deliver us from sudden death , to be altered thus , good lord deliver us from dying suddenly and unpreparedly . . they would have that prayer , that it may please god to preserve all that travel by land or by water , to be changed , and expressed indefinitely , all that travel . . they express their dislike of kneeling at the reading of the commandments ; did they never break any of them ? and , is there not a prayer subsequent to each of them ? lord have mercy upon us . . they are offended at that expression in the first prayer before baptism , that god , by his son our saviour's being baptized in the river jordan , hath sanctified that and all other waters , to the mystical washing away of sin. to satisfie this nice scruple , 't is changed , and the word all left out . i shall no further pursue these trifles , professing my great grief and astonishment , that persons pretending to so great gravity can possibly be guilty of such lightnesses . 't was a piece of pride and weakness in calvin to charge our liturgy as containing in it tolerabiles ineptias . these and such like light and trivial exceptions of our brethren will to any sober judgment appear ineptiae intolerabiles . leaving their grand debate , which i think , in the prophets and apostles sense , may without uncharitableness be affixed not onely as the title , but is much the subject and design too of their paper . i goe on to the consideration of their petition for peace . sweet is the name of peace , and now , if ever , sweet is the peace of the state , after so long civil war , and the peace of the church , after so long division and persecution . peace is a blessing of blessings , not a single , but a complicated blessing . 't is peace that puts us into , and keeps us in possession of all we enjoy . saint paul tels us of a bond of peace . peace is the bond of our liberties , properties , estates and lives , and of that which should be to us dearer than all these , our religion . 't is this religious peace for which they petition . o that they had hearkned to the petitions of others before : but then they prepared for war , and sounded the trumpet to battel : then to talk of peace and accommodation was the mark of a malignant : then curse ye meroz was the text : and , o take heed of treaties : well 't is happy if at last thoughts of peace may be entertained . but , my brethren , why petition you for peace ? is it not peace ? if not , where is the blame ? who are those which hinder peace ? then is it peace in the church , when the magistrate is at peace with the church and a defender of the faith ; when ministers are at peace with themselves and join regularly in their holy ministrations , when ministers and their people are at peace , the one teaching , and the other embracing sound doctrine ; when magistrates , ministers and people do publickly , openly , freely , uniformly profess and hold the true christian religion , do join and unite in the publick worship of god , serving him with one mind and with one mouth , having the same doctrine , the same worship , the same government . now consider who they are which hinder this peace . you need not petition the bishops ; 't is in your own power to grant your own petition ; and truly a petition for peace though it have a pleasing sound , yet carries a sad supposition ; it suposes , . that you are not in peace with the church ; and , . it implicitly accuses his majesty of persecution . but to come to the matter of your petition , two things you pray : . that the bishops will grant what you have in your preface proposed , and craved their consent unto , the alterations and additions to the liturgy now tendred unto them , that being inserted as you have expressed , it may be left to the ministers choice to use one or other at his discretion , upon his majestie 's approbation , according to his gracious declaration concerning ecclesiastical affairs . here they desire , that it may be left to the ministers choice to use one or other , the new or the old form , and 't is not hard to judge which will be chosen ; the old by all who are episcopal , the new by all the presbyterians : so shall we have altar against altar ; common-prayer-book against common-prayer-book , confusion in all parishes and division ; those who are for the old , if the new be read , will leave their minister , and go where the old is read ; and the like will they doe who are for the new : so shall there be endless contestations between ministers and ministers , people and people ; one pleading for the old form , and exploding the new ; the other arguing for the new , and despising the old : is this to petition for peace ? nothing can be more against peace . certainly we shall ever be two , and the church divided , if we have two liturgies . and whereas they appeal to his majestie 's declaration , his majesty speaks plainly enough his meaning , and more plainly in his commission , that he intends not two liturgies be established , but onely some alterations in one and the same liturgy , some additional forms to be left unto the ministers choice , to use one or the other at his discretion ; and these alterations and additional forms not to be made by the one part separately , as yours are ; but by those of both persuasions . you farther petition , since we cannot obtain the form of episcopal government described by the late reverend primate ireland , and approved by many episcopal divines , we may at least enjoy those benefits of reformation in discipline , and that freedom from subscription , oaths and ceremonies which are granted in the said declaration by the means of your charitable mediation and request . answ . . why did you not then ( when it was in your power , and the staff in your hands ) hearken to bishop vsher and those episcopal divines ? did you not covenant against episcopacy ? do you not still judge your selves obliged to keep your covenant ? did not a prime leader of your party , in his sermon at the treaty at vxbridge , call episcopacy and the common-prayer-book , the plague-soars of the nation ? did not his late majesty of blessed memory offer as great condescentions as could be desired to your divines at the isle of wight ? and , did they not oppose and disown all episcopal government ? hear his majesty : i was willing to grant or restore to presbytery what with reason or discretion it can pretend to in a conjuncture , with episcopacy , but for that wholly to invade the power , and by the sword to arrogate and quite abrogate the authority of that ancient order , i think neither just as to episcopacy , nor safe for presbytery , nor yet any way convenient for this church and state. behold what his majesty was willing to doe in yieldance to presbytery ; so as episcopacy might not be abrogated . behold what the presbyterians will doe , they will goe no lower than to abrogate episcopacy , and since they could not doe it by the word , they will doe it by the sword. but , . have you now really changed your minds ? are you in good earnest ? do you speak verbo sacerdotum when you make us believe you desire to obtain an episcopacy ? how doth this consist with your profession in your grand debate ? there you utterly disclaim all episcopacy . these are your words , we doubt whether men in the same order do , by divine appointment , owe obedience unto those that gradually goe before them ; and they may scruple whether such making themselves the governours of their brethren , make not themselves indeed of a different order or office , and so incroach not upon the authority of christ , who onely maketh officers purely ecclesiastical , and whether it be no disloyalty to christ , to own such officers : again , 't is a matter of very great doubt , whether a fixed diocesan , being the pastor of many hundred churches , be indeed a governour of christ 's appointment or approbation ; and whether christ will give us any more thanks for owning them as such , than the king will gives us for owning an vsurper . he who can reconcile their petition for peace with their grand debate , the one pretending for episcopacy , the other renouncing all episcopacy , erit mihi magnus apollo . but the instance you might have let alone of owning an vsurper . did you not own and set up an usurping parliament against the king ? and , will you not disown the most lawfull king that shall deny your will and way ; and own the greatest usurper that will set up and yield his neck to your presbyterian government ? but if you cannot gain your own , you would be free from obedience to any other ; that we may at least enjoy freedom from subscription , oaths , and ceremonies , by the means of your charitable mediation . a modest and merry request , that the bishops will mediate with his majesty , that the presbyterians may be free from obedience to episcopal government . were your presbyterian government set up , would you allow the freedom you ask ? you have preached and printed against toleration : you would bind kings with your chains , and nobles with links of iron ; you would be very shy to give the indulgencies and dispensations your selves desire : nay , you refuse them to your independent brethren . your second petition is ; seeing some hundreds of able , holy and faithfull ministers are of late cast out , and abundance of congregations in england , ireland and wales are overspread with lamentable ignorance , and are destitute of able , faithfull teachers ; and seeing too many that are insufficient , negligent or scandalous are over the flocks , we take this opportunity earnestly to beseech you , that will contribute your endeavours to the removal of those that are the shame and burthens of the churches , and to the restoration of such as may be an honour and blessing unto them , and to that end that it be not imputed unto them as their unpardonable crime , that they were born in an age and countrey which required ordination by parochial pastors without diocesans . ans . . is not this a pharisaical strain through all your papers , to cry up your own holiness , faithfulness , piety and painfulness , and to reproach the conformists as insufficient , negligent , the shame and burthen of the churches ? comparisons are odious unto you , but we dare appeal to the world , and to him who can judge of hypocrisie and sincerity , that there are episcopal persons many far more able , holy , painfull and faithfull ministers than any of the presbyterians ; and many of the presbyterians more insufficient , negligent and scandalous than any of the episcopal ; and if accusations of others were a vindication of our selves , we could write centuries as well as your white , and name abundance of those you count and call godly who are the shame and burthen of churches . and , to be plain with you , who trust in your selves , that you are righteous , and despise others , you are all ( none excepted ) the shame and burthen of the church : if to preach up rebellion against the king , the nursing father of the church , to cast off the apostolical government of the church , to eject all the true sons of the church , to invade and possess your selves by violence of all the revenues of the church be any shame , or sin , or burthen to your tender consciences ; whether it be so or no , 't is so certainly to all who are truly consciencious ; and god grant your deep resentment and timely repentance may by god's mercy wash away the sin and shame , and ease the burthen , which if not now , you will one day feel very heavy and uneasie . . how can you tell us of hundreds of yours cast out , and your guilt not fly in your faces ? did you not foresee we could retort , that thousands of episcopal men were cast out for their loyalty and constancy to the religion in the church of england established , for not covenanting , for not contributing to the schism and rebellion ; we could name if need were thousands whose learning , piety and painfulness in their places envy it self cannot accuse . their onely crime being their ample revenues and competent livings . . seeing some hundreds are of late cast out , your consciences know you affirm an untruth , that there are none cast out , but such as were unjust intruders into other mens charges , those who without and against law were deprived , are now by law restored , and if any of them be unworthy , the law is open , and may they be prosecuted , and , if they deserve it , impartially punished ; we justifie not any that are scandalous . o that all were holy who serve in the holy ministry ; and here on my knees i beseech the most reverend fathers of the church , that those ministers who are conformists , but whose lives are vicious and scandalous , may notwithstanding their conformity fall under the severest censures : episcopacie hath no such great enemies as these pretended friends . . but why all this complaint of your being cast out by the bishops ? as if they had cast you out , when you know and the whole nation knows , that they were cast out by act of parliament ( the bishops not sitting in that parliament ) or rather removed from the unjust possession of other mens churches , and the lawfull incumbents restored . so that you smite his majesty and the parliament through the bishops sides . you go on ; being conscious that we seek not great things for our selves or for our brethren ; that we are ambitious of no greater wealth and honour than our daily bread . . do not those seek great things for themselves , in respect of honour who would be co-ordinate with kings , and who would not be subordinate to bishops , disowning their authority , their ordination and government , and challenging to themselves an equal right to both ? and for wealth , you cannot but be conscious that you have sought great things ; the greatest livings ( though with the ruin of the lawfull owners ) the most wealthy places in cities , universities , and the country . many of you had a rich benefice , and a fat lecture , or a government in some college : so that whatever you profess you lie as deeply under the scandal of ambition and covetousness as you would bring those who are episcopal . these are their requests ; . that they may have a government and a liturgie of their own , different from that established ; and if not , that they may be free from that in the church established . . that all presbyterians may be placed in the choicest livings , as holy , able and faithfull ; and that episcopal men , as they have been by them cast out , may be kept out of their own livings as scandalous , negligent and insufficient . how can these requests be denyed , in number so few , in nature so modest , religious and rational ? for with twenty reasons are these two requests enforced ; yet , when well considered , will shrink up into almost as few as their requests , and will prove as ponderous . r. . they tell us , they dare not use a cross or surplice , or worship god in a form which they judge disorderly , defective or corrupt , when they have better to offer him , malachi , . . to that scruple of the surplice i have already answered ; and to that of the cross the church hath answered , canon , . and those whom the church cannot satisfie , 't is in vain for any private person to attempt it ; and , whereas they say their form of worship is better than ours , we must give every one leave to have a love for the creature of their own production , and the text they alledge malachi , . . as the reason why they judge our form defective , and their own better , speaks alowd the fondness of their affection , blinding their judgment . nothing could have been said more for our form or against their own ( supposing the words any way applicable to either . ) are not you they that say the table of the lord is polluted , his meat is contemptible ? do not you say , what a weariness is it ? and ye have snuffed at it , and ye have brought ( instead of it your new form ) that which is torn , and lame , and sick ; thus ye have brought an offering . the d , d , th and th reasons , we had all before in their request and are now repeated as the reasons of it , their holiness , their ableness , their being cast out , their great sufferings , their tender consciences . but though i have spoken to them before , i shall pass on them some remarks , lest they should judge we could not answer them . . there are few nations under the heavens of god , as far as we can learn , that have more able , holy , faithfull , laborious and truly peaceable preachers of the gospel , proportionably then those that are now cast out in england ; and are like in england , scotland , and ireland , to be cast out , if the old conformity be urged . and , . whether it be equal to bring upon so many of them so great calamities . again , . we would here remember you how great and considerable a part of the three nations there is that must incur those sufferings . and again , . we may plead the nature of their cause , to move you to commiserate your afflicted brethren in their sufferings . ans . the bishops and episcopal and loyal clergy have learned by their own sufferings to compassionate the sufferings of others . but this complaint of the presbyterians sufferings is like that of children who bite and cry , some can endure much and complain little , some will cry out for little or nothing ; and they say they are most impatient in the least sickness who have lived long in health , not knowing what sickness meant . let me be bold to ask , who of you are the men that have suffered ? what have you suffered ? how long ? and , under whom ? who have been your persecutors ? . who are the men ? are all the presbyterians ejected and sequestred ? all the bishops and loyal clergy were generally cast out ; unless poverty were their protection . . what have they suffered ? have they been deprived of their livings wherewith the law invested them ? have they been silenced , plundered of their goods , books , papers , shut up in prisons , banished , martyred ? you know who suffered thus . . how long ? the conformists have suffered in silence and patience near twenty years together , and your pretended sufferings a few months ( being in a capacity to be restored when ever you will return to your duty ) make more noise than all the sufferings of all the episcopal persons all these years . . from whom ? have you suffered from your brethren , from your fellow subjects without and against law ? there are , you know , who have thus suffered : but you cannot say you have suffered any thing but what the law inflicts , and surely that is no note of innocency and sincerity , as you insinuate . if your sincerity be no more than your sufferings , you have as little cause to boast of that as to complain of the other , non cruciatus , sed causa — let it not displease you , if i lay before you and the world a true and just account of your sufferings and calamities : 't is shortly this ; you and your party had by arms and violence , against all law , conscience , justice and charity , seised and possessed your selves of the estates of your king , divers of the nobility and gentry , the bishops , deans and chapters , the dignities and livings of the loyal clergy , all the honourable and wealthy offices ecclesiastical and civil by sea and land ; these you held and enjoyed until god turned our captivity , and the king and the church was happily restored , and then their estates and rights were restored , and you enforced to quit them without the demand of arrears or restitution for the time you enjoyed them , which was so long and the revenues so large , that abundance of you , being good husbands and great improvers , have provided well against a storm and got out of your sequestrations and purchases plentifull estates ; so that of the calamity of our suffering brethren , and the cruelty of the restored king , church and laws , this is the most deplored and lamentable account ; the king , the church and the suffering loyal party will needs have their rights again ; and so the godly party who invaded them must no longer injoy them ; the prey is plucked out of their teeth , and they must vomit up the sweet morsell . you must pardon me if , against my genius , your loud and redoubled outcries of your mighty sufferings enforce me to be plain with you , and tell you your own . in their fifth , after their preface mentioning their sufferings , and in their sixth , they argue from the meanness of the things imposed in the judgment of the bishops , and the ponderousness in their own . it is in your own account , but for refusing conformity to things indifferent , or at the most of no necessity to salvation : it is in their account , for the sake of christ . do you think the lord that died for souls , and hath sent us to learn what that meaneth , i will have mercy , and not sacrifice , is better pleased with re-ordination , subscription and ceremonies , than with the saving of souls by the means of his own appointment ? ans . . do you think that the lord who died for souls , and hath sent us to learn what that meaneth , i will have mercy , and not sacrifice , is better pleased with your refusal to save souls by the means of his own appointment , upon the scruple of ordination by bishops , ceremonies and indifferent things , than he would be if , submitting to them , you would preach the gospel and save souls ? will this be a good answer to the lord at the great day of accounts ? lord , i would have preached the gospel , i would have endeavoured the salvation of souls ; but i durst not wear a surplice , i durst not use that declared indifferent ceremony of the cross , i durst not kneel before thee at thy holy table , i durst not be obedient to my lawfull superiours who required these things , and though i know that necessity is laid upon me , yea , wo is unto me , if i preach not the gospel ; yet i thought my self obliged rather to dispense with that necessity thou hast laid upon me than submit to those indifferent things they would lay upon me against my christian liberty , and to let thousands of souls perish , than hazard my own by subscription and ceremonies . but , . the offence of refusing conformity in things indifferent , is not to be measured according to the things unto which we are to conform , which the church hath declared her judgment in that they are not to be valued for their own sakes . but 't is pride , contempt , and disobedience to lawfull authority to oppose its orders , and these are not so slight faults as you imagin ; it was but a light fault that shimei made , in going out of the city , but he lost his head for it ; it was but a light fault that vzza made in touching the ark , but he lost his life for it . but , say you , though the bishops call the things they enjoin indifferent , yet our sentiments are otherwise . 't is in our account for the sake of christ , because we dare not consent to that which we judge an usurpation of his kingly power , and an accusation of his laws , as insufficient . answ . 't is worth our observation , that of dr. sanderson , that all their arguments against our ceremonies are drawn from the head of christian liberty , and then with the same breath they deny them to be things indifferent , and often do they use this topick in this address . . he and others have proved the things to be indifferent ( as the church declares them ) which they can never disprove . . 't is for the sake of christ that you disobey the command and example of christ ; that you disobey the magistrates of christ , and the government of christ , and the orders of his church . . you judge the bishops injunction of things indifferent an usurpation of christ's kingly power , and accusation of his laws as insufficient . but your apostle , mr. calvin , judges otherwise , as do the bishops , that christ hath given laws for all things necessary in the divine worship . but as to things pertaining to outward order and comeliness he hath taught nothing expresly . those he hath left to the churches prudence . hath christ given such laws ? open our eyes , shew us , and let us see them : ( hath he not ) then , not the governours of the church , but you , who judge he ought , do accuse christ's laws as insufficient . in their fifth reason they say , suppose they be mistaken , in thinking the things to be so displeasing to god : yet it is commendable in them to be fearfull in displeasing him , and carefull to obey him . ans . we see , be they right or wrong , whatever they opine and act is commendable . suppose they mistook in preaching us into rebellion , in pulling down bishops , in taking away the liturgy , in overturning the foundations of church and state , yet their zeal is commendable . may not all zealots plead thus ? suppose the papists were mistaken in their fiery zeal to blow up the king and parliament , and in the irish massacre , yet their zeal was commendable , in designing to destroy those they judged the enemies of their church . suppose they be mistaken in worshipping the saints , and their images and reliques , yet , since they think they please god , 't is commendable . suppose the quakers mistaken in denying magistrates and ministers , and all authority in church and state , yet , in that they think they should displease god in owning those powers , 't is in them commendable to disown them . is this the counsel you would give to one who doubts and seeks your resolution ? will this satisfie and deliver him from doubting , to tell him , suppose you were mistaken ; yet , if you think you are in the right , pursue your opion , 't is commendable ? saint paul is a better casuist , and gives other counsel , prove all things , hold fast that which is good , abstain from all appearance of evil . . that , because men are forbidden to preach unless they conform , they are tempted to infer , that preaching being necessary to salvation , and those things called indifferent , being made necessary to preaching , and preferred before it ; therefore they are made necessary to salvation , and preferred before that which god hath made necessary . ans . the accusation is most untrue ; those indifferent things are not made necessary to preaching , much less preferred before it ; and those who are tempted thus to infer , because men are forbidden to preach , unless they dare subscribe and use those things , therefore those things ( called indifferent ) are made necessary to preaching , and preferred before it , are very weak logicians . every thing that is required , is not required as necessary , as you have been often told . many things are required as expedient , as decent , as comely , as orderly ; so are our ceremonies . ministers are forbidden to reade prayers without the surplice , to preach without a gown : the judges are forbidden to sit in judgment , till they reade their commission ; and are required to sit in their scarlet ; will any hence be tempted to infer , that the surplice and gown are made necessary to and preferred before prayer and preaching ; and reading a commission , and wearing scarlet robes are made necessary to and preferred before doing justice ? . every thing that is made necessary to any end or action , is not thereby preferred before it . methinks so many learned divines should know , that though these indifferent things should be made necessary by the command of the church to preaching , yet , it no way follows , they are preffered before it . the means sure is made necessary to the obtaining the end , yet is not preffered before it . 't is , you will confess , justly forbidden , that ordination should be given to any without examination and imposition of hands , or that any should preached without ordination ; yet , i think , you are not tempted to infer , that examination , imposition of hands and ordination it self , though necessary , are to be preffered before preaching . follows their . r. which implies , we lay our religion upon our particular liturgy , and so teach the papists to insult , where was our religion years ago ? the common-prayer-book , as differing from the mass-book , being not so old . . we thank you for your ingenuous acknowledgment , that our common-prayer-book differs from the mass-book . a mass-priest , ( now yours ) turning from popery to presbyterianism , most impudently affirms them to be the same . . religion is made up of doctrine , worship and government ; our liturgy is our form of publick worship , and so a part of our religion ; and , being agreeable to god's word , nor papists , nor your selves , can justly except against it . for their question , where was our religion years ago ? you might know , they make it not so much upon the change of our liturgy ( themselves in queen elizabeth's time for many years joining in it ) as upon pretence we have changed our doctrine ; and the question as it hath been oft , & ad ravim usque , by them asked , it hath been by us as oft and satisfactorily answered ; and if we should ( as we do not ) lay our religion upon our liturgy , 't is most agreeable to the scriptures , where our religion is , and contains all the fundamentals of religion ; and your mr. calvin doth witness it for us , that the common-prayer-book doth excellently contain the chief heads of our religion . the . is , a request for liberty upon on an insinuation , that no liturgical forms were imposed on any church in the primitive times . ans . . then sure , the now named , your much reverend mr. calvin was either ignorant of the constitutions of the primitive times , or had other sentiments of them then you , who declares his judgment contrary to you , quoad formulam precum & rituum ecclesiasticorum , valde probo ut certa illa exstet , à qua pastoribus discedere in functione sua non liceat . as to the form of prayers and ecclesiastical rights , i greatly approve that it be settled , from which it may not be lawfull for the pastors in their function to vary or depart . . you have surely heard of the liturgies of s. peter , s. james , and s. mark , and that of s. mark , s. cyril owns and comments upon in his catechism , and s. cyril was a bishop in the primitive times , living about the year of christ . and s. basil , a famous and primitive bishop too , was deeply censured and put to make painfull apologies for a little change he made in the usual church-liturgy : it was thought in him ( saith our authour ) an unpardonable offence to alter any thing , in us , as intolerable , that we suffer any thing unaltered in the liturgy . r. . and if you should reject ( which god forbid ) the moderate proposals which now and formerly we have made , we humbly crave leave to offer it to your consideration , what judgment all the protestant churches are likely to pass on your proceedings , and how your cause and ours will stand represented to them and to all succeeding ages . answ . their moderate proposals we have heard , which they now make , that they may be free from the established government and liturgy of the church , and they , as able and godly , continued in the choicest livings they had invaded ; and the episcopal kept out , as scandalous , negligent and insufficient . what moderate proposals they made formerly i am to learn , they know his late majesty made to them moderate proposals , but was refused ; and , they confess , the lord primate of ireland made moderate proposals , but by them never accepted . as to their bold appeal to all protestant churches , presuming they will give their judgments for them , and against the church of england's established constitutions ; which they have the huge confidence to prophesie even of the judgment of all succeeding ages . they might , without a revelation , by their jugdment past and present have foreseen their judgment for the future . the past age hath cryed grace , grace to our happy , orderly and moderate reformation in doctrine , government and worship ; the protestant churches have given us the right-hand of fellowship , have maintained sweet communion with us , have in marian persecution , received our exiles ; their most eminent lights have sent us high congratulations ; their ablest ministers have , divers of them , come over , and with joy beheld our order ; and some have lived and died amongst us . what judgment did mr. beza give ? let himself speak , quod si nunc , — if now the reformed churches of england , being underprop'd with the authority of bishops and archbishops , do continue as this hath hapened to that church in our memory , that she hath had men of that calling , not onely most notable martyrs , but also excellent pastors and doctors ; let them truly enjoy that singular blessing of god , which i wish may be perpetual unto her . what judgment did peter martyr pass in the case of bishop hooper , about the ceremonies ? did he not answer his arguments ? vindicate the lawfulness of them ? exhort him to submit unto them ? the judgment of doctor moulin you have heard , and much more might be told you of the high honour he had for the church of england . and , to come nearer , what judgment the protestant churches passed upon your covenant , your reforming the church by the sword , and in the bloud of the nursing father and the prime pastour of it , with many thousands more , you have surely heard . were they not ashamed , confounded and astonished at our schisms and seditions , and violations of all authority sacred and civil ? and , have not your actions in the late lamentable times cast a blemish upon the honour of our nation never to be washed off ? an english-man daring scarce to look another man in the face in a foreign countrey , being under the objection and reproach of rebellion , murthering their king , changing the best tempered monarchy in the world into a puny common-wealth , and that swallowed up soon into a barbarous protectourship ; and abasing the most primitive and venerable episcopacy into a novel and contemptible parity and linsy-woolsey presbytery , made up of preachers and lay-elders , and that too straight undermined and baffled by a mushrome independency : pudet haec opprobria vobis & dici potuisse , & non potuisse refelli . this is the past judgment of the protestant churches abroad concerning our church established , and you who ruined it , till god in mercy restored it . for the churches of succeeding ages ; i think they will hardly believe the history of ours . that such men as you , professing highest godliness , should , in a pretended zeal for it , preach up sedition and schism , and embroil the church and nation wherein you were born and baptized in bloud and confusion : and , which seems more incredible , appeal to all protestant churches in your own justification : nay , supplicate the king ( whose royal father was martyred , and himself long banished for standing up in defence of the church which you opposed and by force destroyed ) to screen you from the churche's power , to grant you the chief benefices in the church , and give you liberty to be of another church , to enjoy a worship and government of your own mode and model . but , my brethren , how come you to make this lowd challenge ? why enquire you , or rather , why presume you , what judgment the protestant churches will make of our churches proceedings ? sure your mighty zeal and ardent affection to your cause hath clouded your own judgment , and quite bereaved you of your memory . you mention often , and with seeming regard , his majestie 's gracious declaration touching ecclesiastical affairs : he therein tells you the present judgment of the reformed churches abroad , and , had you faith to believe his royal word , you might have spared this argument and out-cry , which you may blush for , and wish you had suppressed . hear his majesty speaking their judgment . we do think our self the more competent to propose , and , with god's assistence , to determine many things now in difference , from the time we have spent , and the experience we have had in most of the reformed churches abroad , in france , the low-countries , and germany ; where we have had frequent conference with the most learned men , who have unanimously lamented the great reproach the protestant religion undergoes from the distempers and too notorious schisms in matters of religion in england : and as the most learned among them have alwaies , with great submission and reverence , acknowledged and magnified the established government of the church of england , and the great countenance and shelter the protestant religion received from it before these unhappy times : so many of the have , with great ingenuity and sorrow , confessed , that they were too easily mis-led , by mis-information and prejudice , into some disesteem of it , as if it had too much complyed with the church of rome ; whereas they now acknowledg it to be the best fence god hath yet raised against popery in the world ; and we are persuaded they do with great zeal wish it restored to its old dignity and veneration . you see what judgment the protestant churches have passed upon the church of england , and her former proceedings , and thereby may take an estimate , what judgment they will pass on her present proceedings , and how the churche's cause and yours will be represented to them : they will acknowledg and magnifie , with great submission and reverence , the established government of the church of england , if you dare believe his majesty , and consequently will censure you as schismatical and disobedient , to refuse to submit unto it . but i must not misrepresent you your submission you profess . if after our submission to his majesty's declaration , and after our own proposals of the primitive episcopacy , and of such a liturgy as we here tender , we may not be permitted to exercise our ministry , the pens of those moderate bishops will bear witness against you , that were once employed as the chief defenders of that cause , ( we mean such as reverend bishop hall and usher ) who have published to the world , that much less than this might have served to our fraternal vnity and peace . ans . you before appealed to the protestant churches abroad , now unto two bishops of our own , and with like success . . you say you have submitted to his majestie 's declaration , you should have instanced wherein . his majesty there declares , that , having seen all the liturgies that are extant and used in this part of the world , he esteems that of the church of england to be the best , and well knows the reverence the most , or at least the most learned in the reformed churches , have for it ; he heartily wishes and desires , until it be reviewed , and some alterations and additional forms made , the ministers , who dislike some clauses and expressions , would not therefore totally lay aside the use of the book of common-prayer , but reade those parts against which there can be no exception , which would be the best instance of declyning those marks of distinction which his majesty so much labours and desires to remove . have you herein submitted to his majestie 's declaration ? have you read any thing of the common prayers , and thereby instanced your desire in compliance with his majestie 's , to remove and decline those marks of distinction ? what you can lay hold of to your purpose in his declaration , you greedily catch at , the rest you pass by . however you pretend to submit to his majestie 's declaration , he therein complains , your party ( of which you are the leaders ) have not dealt candidly with him , that there are amongst them unquiet and restless spirits who continue their bitterness against the church , and indeavour to raise jealousies against his majesty , and have unseasonably printed , published and dispersed a declaration to his majestie 's reproach ; and since the printing this declaration ( you say you submit to ) several seditious pamphlets and quaeries have been published and scattered abroad , to infuse dislike and jealousies into the hearts of the people . behold your submission to his majestie 's declaration . you next tell us of your own proposals of the primitive episcopacy , and your own liturgy . what your primitive episcopacy is , your jus divinum ministrii anglicani speaks , that there is no bishop in the sense of our church , no episcopus pastorum , but all presbyters are equally , and in a parity , episcopi gregis : and what your own liturgy is , you have let us see such a one as you would have for your selves , in opposition to that of the church ; and yet , though you would have it , you will not be bound to use it neither ; which is as much as to say , if you may not have your own fancied frame of government and publick worship , and that with liberty too , to throw them off when your fancie changeth , you receive mighty wrong , and , as you said before , all the protestant churches , so you say now , all the world will think it strange . bishop vsher you mentioned before , you now bring him in again after bishop hall , and give them the titles of reverend , learned and moderate . 't is well bishop hall ( now he is at rest ) hath from you so kind a character : time was when your combined forces were bent singly against him ; you fought neither with small nor great , but onely with bishop hall ; and when smectymnuus was not able to dispute him down , your rabshakeh railed him down ; and however you now complement him , you have shewn your present esteem of him and of the primitive episcopacy , in reprinting your smectymnuus now , since his majestie 's restoration ; and if , as you say , he and bishop vsher have published to the world , that much less than that would have served to a fraternal peace ; you publish to the world , you have been obstinate and averse to peace and unity ; who , when you had the law in your hands , would not hearken to those , by you confessed , moderate terms of unity and peace , and your own pens will bear witness against you , that you are now justly repulsed , who would not yield when fair means of accommodation were offered as to re-ordination , which you often mention , and here it comes in again . . we deny your presbyterian and independent ( so called ) ordination to be really and indeed any ordination at all ; and till you prove it such , you charge the bishops falsely wih requiring re-ordination . . many who have been under your hands have of themselves ( without being required ) judging your pretended ordination a nullity , desired ordination from the bishops . . the canon ( supposed ) of the apostles toucheth not this case , nor our bishops , who neither do re-ordain nor allow it . re-ordaining , rightly so called , being the ordaining again of a deacon or priest by a bishop , who was by him known to have been by a bishop before ordained . . bishop bancrost speaks of those who were ordained by presbyters , where were no bishops to ordain them , as in many of the reformed churches abroad . but we had bishops till you pull'd them down : nay , blessed be god , we had bishops after you had pull'd them down , and till his majesty set them up again , and those who would , in all the late times , might have had , and very many had ordination from their hands : 't is therefore a most gross untruth , and 't is strange , such godly men as you should dare to utter and publish it , that your young preachers , by the old presbyters sent , were born in an age and countrey which required ordination by parochial pastors without diocesans : if there had been no bishops , you might then have said , the age and countrey required ( lest the church should fail ) ordination from parochial pastors ; but i say , and you to your sorrow know , there were bishops all that time , divers english and also scotish and irish bishops , who , though many of them were latent , yet were and might be addressed to , and did all along confer holy orders : there are at least five english bishops living to my knowledge , and you may know more , having the honour to be joyned with them in commission , which all good men are sorry is not on your part managed temperately and humbly , prudently and piously , to the peace of the church , by your selves chiefly ( but for all our sins ) long and lamentably divided . r. . is a repeated complaint of their afflictions , and an accusation of the bishops as their afflictors , which is already answered . the twelfth and fourteenth are the same , and shall be considered together . the th is hammered on the same anvil with the th ; that they are the godly party , and afflicted ; the episcopal are cruel , and persecute them for the cause of christ : how will christ : take it of you to cast out from the ministery , or communion of the church , or to grieve and punish all that dare not conform to you in these matters ? ans . how will christ take it from you to cast out all bishops and episcopal men who durst not conform to you in your matters ? the bishops proceedings are by gentle methods : . they admonish ; . suspend ; . silence ; before they deprive any ; and none are deprived , but for foul and incorrigible crimes : but you eject at first , and totally , for no crime , for no breach of the laws and orders , but even for that the episcopal persons stand for the laws and orders established . you trod down the stars of christ's planting as the stones in the street : all those places of scripture misapplied by you , may against you be rightly applied . and whereas elsewhere they say to this purpose , sad experience tels the world , that if the ministers we are pleading for be laid aside , there are not competent men enough to supply their room . ans . their care , that there be a supply of competent men to serve the church , is commendable and pious : but why did they not take that care when it was in their power , when themselves laid aside and cast out thousands , to provide competent men to supply their rooms ? indeed for competent and great livings they provided ; but the places that were poor , if empty they filled them not , if full by persons never so incompetent they amended it not . i believe it is a measured truth , never were so many places unprovided , never so many meanly provided , as in those times since the first times of queen elizabeth , when competent ministers ( as now required to be qualified ) could not be had for many places ; one indeed i have heard of , having in zeal helped to eject his minister out of a small living , desired the clerk of the committee for plundered ministers , to commend a minister unto them ; he answered , o , none of us will accept of that , you must provided as you can . the th reason , the same as i told you , and you may find with the th , tels us the constitutions of the church are against their judgment ; and they have not their judgments at command ; and were they never so willing to believe they ought to obey them , they cannot therefore believe the impositions lawfull because they would , the intellect being not free . ans . what is every body's argument is no argument . thus may the jew , the turk , the papists , the quakers plead for their own , and against the true religion ; and thus your independent brethren have argued in their pleas for toleration , which once you opposed ; but now you sharpen your goads at their forges : you bring an objection , as made by us , that we may say , 't is your own fault , that your judgments are not changed , and that the means have been sufficient , to which you shape an answer , such as it is , but which may make your selves blush . that the sword can easilier take this for granted , than the tongue or pen of man prove . my brethren , quorsum haec ? you might well have spared the mention of the sword ; why do you expose your own miscarriages to the review of the world ? who were those that drew the sword for reformation ? who called to arm ? who promised heaven to all that would take up the sword in that blessed cause of the covenant ? when you were then told of the word and of the laws , you could answer with that roman , nunquamne nobis gladiis succinctis leges recitare desinetis ? tell you us , who have our swords by our sides , of the laws ? we tell you , we have drawn our swords to cut in sunder those gordian knots , your parchment laws . so of late your heroick oliver to those who pleaded the laws and ancient charters granted and confirmed by our kings , magna charta , magna far — but , i pray you , what sword do the bishops , whom you plead with , use , but the spiritual ? they are no popes , who challenge potestatem utriusque gladii ; they are no presbyterians , who are co-ordinate powers with kings and princes ; and for their tongues and pens , you must strike sail , till you shall be able to encounter and conquer those worthies , bishop whitgift , bishop bilson , dr. sanderson , mr. hooker , mr. mason , and many more such generals in the lord's host , with whom your hildersham , baines , parker , ames , dod , ball , nichols , are not to be named the same day . . we crave leave to ask , whether your selves do not in some things mistake ? good leave have you , and you ask a wise question , with a consequence as wild : in your covenant you yoake popery with prelacy , and now you wittily and merrily ask the prelates , whether they think themselves , as the pope , infallible ; and yet your party proclaim themselves next to infallible . i need not remember you where they say , loath we are to think that they who are most sound in doctrine should mistake in discipline : well , but the prelates will confess , they may mistake , are not infallible ; what 's the consequence ? if you may mistake in any thing , may it not be in such great things as these ? and in the same breath you say , these great things are the smallest , ceremonies and circumstances of worship . i conceive you speak this ironically , otherwise your inference is in you a foul mistake : understanding men may mistake in great things ; ergo they may mistake in small things . however , on this supposition you destroy all power in men to make laws in great or small things , because governours are men , and may err and mistake in some things ; ergo they may make laws in nothing . . whether this be doing as you would be done by ? would you be cast out for every fault that is as bad as this ? put your selves in their case , and suppose you had studied , conferred and prayed , and done your best to know whether god would have you to be re-ordained , and to use these forms , ceremonies , subscriptions , or not ; and , having done all , you think that god would be displeased if you should use them ; would you then be used your selves as your dissenting brethren are now used or like to be ? ans . this is their strongest and fairest argument , drawn from the general rule of equity and charity , and 't is easie to retort it , being much more strong on the bishops part . put your selves in the bishops case , and suppose you had studied , conferred , prayed , and done your best to know whether god would have you to preach resistence against your sovereign , renounce episcopacy , cast out the church liturgy ; and , having done all , you think ( nay , are sure , for thinking will not doe ) that god would be displeased if you should doe so ; would you be used your selves as your party used the bishops ? imprisoned , beheaded , sequestred . . reason is drawn from the divisions caused by imposing things unnecessary , and the unity and peace which would follow , if men might enjoy their liberty , and might have leave to serve god as his apostles did ; and upon these they enlarge in four whole pages : nothing more affecteth us than to think of the lamentable divisions that have been caused and are still like to be , while things unnecessary are so imposed ; and on the contrary , how blessed an vnity and peace we might enjoy , if these occasions of division were removed , and we might but have leave to serve god as the apostles did . ans . if it affect you so much to think upon the divisions , it should affect you to think that you have been and are the chief cause of them , and you might , if your will stood not in your way , remove them ; but you mightily mistake both the cause and cure of our divisions , which are the direct contrary to what you surmise . the cause of our divisions is the liberty you desire ; the cure would be your obedience to the churche's lawfull impositions , and this not onely reason but your own experience might have taught you . you cast off the reins of church government , you set your selves at liberty . did this cure your divisions and create among you peace and unity ? no , after you had divided from the church , and cast off its rule and orders ; you subdivided among your selves , and broke all into pieces and parties ; never did any age see such lamentable divisions in this church and nation . but you accuse the bishops , as if they will not give you leave to serve god as his apostles did : god forgive you this as false as foul an accusation . do not the bishops maintain , and the church stedfastly continue in the apostles doctrine ? do they not against the romanists , who would obtrude upon us their traditions in conjunction with the scriptures , assert the scripture alone to be a most perfect rule of faith and manners ? do they not serve god as the apostles have taught ? and so many you in communion with our church . truly if your meaning be , that they give you not leave to serve god as apostles , and no less or lower will serve you , than to be as they , to give laws to all the churches , and to be under the laws of none ; you must prove your selves to be such before you crave that leave : but though you are not apostles , yet you are prophets , you foresee and foretell the sufferings of your innocent party — strange ! what a noise they make in almost every paragraph , lamenting and repeating their sufferings ? we are , against our wills , enforced as often to let them know , and i wish they would rightly resent , and lay it to heart , that the bishops and conformable clergy have been really sufferers for many years , and in the loss of all they had , and they the causes of their sufferings , and for all those years enjoyed all ease and plenty , and at this time of their present loud complaint they have yet suffered nothing , and are certain they shall not doe , if they will return to their duty , all their former miscarriages , being by his majestie 's mercy buried in oblivion ; and if they will doe so , they may be received into favour , and are as capable of all preferments as any the truest sons of the church . i am unwilling to remark the other part of their prophecie , ripping up our divisions ( by their party raised and continued ever since the reformation ) they in effect threaten , they will be their sons and heirs , and that we must not expect peace , but look for misery and division , unless they may have their demands , to be as free and high as the apostles : and here , as their manner is , they heap up a multitude of scriptures , you may judge how pertinently by the first they alledge , philippians , . there st. paul saith , many of the brethren in the lord , waxing confident by his bonds , were much more bold to speak the word without fear . this text they cite to prove that the bonds and burthens and displeasure which is upon them from their superiours , hinders them from serving the lord without fear . saint paul's bonds made these brethren confident , and set them above fear . but our brethren , upon their meer fancy of bonds and burthens , are faint-hearted , and with fear even distracted . the other scriptures make as little for them or against the bishops : and so i shall pass them over . the th and th reasons are of the same bran , yet again and again they cry up their abilities and their godliness , and cry out of their sufferings and persecutions , and the ungodliness of all who are not of their way . i cannot conceive the reason , why this one topick of their sufferings makes up more than ten of their twenty reasons , and they bring it in over and over so very often , but that they think no body knows or will believe they have suffered any thing , and therefore they say it so often ; or else by the loud and repeated cry of their own , they would drown the loud cry of the bishops sufferings by them and their party , which yet the bishops themselves pass by in silence ; but the world cannot but take notice of with much concernment . let us yet hear them again . in the th they call themselves the holy seed , and so many able ministers laid aside ; and that many of them suffer ; and that the ungodly add affliction to their affliction . and in the th , so many truly fearing god , being cast or trodden down , are tempted to think ill of that which themselves and the church thus suffer by ; and when so many of the worst befriend this way , because it gratifieth them , it tendeth to make your cause judged of , according to the qualities of its friends or adversaries . of their sufferings enough , and too much of their godliness and the ungodliness of all who are not of their party . we have heard often too , 't is their strain and way , with the pharisee , to stand on their tiptoes , and say , god i thank thee i am not thus and thus , i am not such as this publican . the worst , they say , befriend that way . . that 's no proof of the evil of that way , rather of the goodness which shines forth so apparently , that it convinces and even enforces the worst of men to approve it , video meliora , probóque . . who are those worst ? the king , the parliament , and all the obedient sons of the church , of all estates and qualities . this is usually their great proof , that themselves truly fear god , their dislike of established order ; this their evidence , that others have not the fear of god , their obedience to those whom god hath set over them in church and state. by the one they commend themselves , by the other they condemn all but themselves ; and that this is no untrue accusation they have made appear , in that they made no difference between the best and the worst , but cast out all of the episcopal way : nay , as one of them pleading before them the sobriety and unblameableness of his life and conversation , they told him to his effect , he should fare the worse for that , they liked not so well a sober as a scandalous malignant , who gave their proceedings against him some colour of justice . . they tell us they are tempted to think ill of that they suffer by . ans . 't is easie to guess whence that temptation is , a criminal is tempted to think ill of the law , because he suffers by it ; ungodly men are tempted to think ill of god , and murmur at him , because they suffer by his just judgments for their wickedness : you are taught otherwise , matt. . . . we repeat what formerly we have said , that the holy ghost hath already so plainly decided the point in controversie in the instance of meats and days , rom. . . that it seemeth strange to us that yet it should remain a controversie . a weak brother , that maketh an unnecessary difference of meats and days , is not to be cast out , but so to be received , and not to be troubled with such doubtfull disputations ; despising and judging the servants of the lord whom he receiveth , and can make to stand , and that upon such small occasion , is unbeseeming true believers . their th reason is delivered with so mighty confidence , that they would make us believe it looks like a demonstration . but 't is scarce worthy the name of a reason . they tell us , the holy ghost hath decided the point in controversie between us — that they think it strange 't is yet a controversie . a strange presumption , whereby they at once condemn all the conformists and non-conformists too in this church ever since the reformation . they think it strange , 't is a controversie ; and yet know , 't is the great controversie of these years : what volumes have been written pro and con upon this subject , the churche's power in things indifferent ? their own it seems wanted the illumination of the holy ghost , who could not see and shew that his plain decision , and so were fain to argue against the churche's orders with their slender probabilities : and ours , in these charitable mens judgment , were resisters of the holy ghost , in asserting the churche's power to command for decency and order , the holy ghost having plainly decided the point against them , that they had no such power , the most reverend whitgift , morton , hall , hooker , mason , sanderson . i wonder you did not demonstrate to this last , dr. sanderson ( who , i suppose , was a commissioner on the bishops part ) his wilfull sin and errour , in preaching and writing so earnestly for the churche's ceremonies , from this very th chapter of the romans : we look upon him as the great casuist of the age ; a most rare preacher and textuary ; his temper truly christian and primitive , charitable , humble , meek , modest even to diffidence ; his discourses profound , and yet plain to the meanest capacity ; nothing more clear , more clean , more cogent and convincing : and we judge those two sermons of his , one upon the first of st. peter , . . the other upon romans , . . do fully assert the churche's constitutions by the non-conformists opposed , and fairly represent , and fully answer their objections ; and master hooker had with as much meekness and strength done it before : you have time and numbers , if you resolve to stand out , and not conform , to answer mr. hooker point by point ; your many hands may make the work light : but to make it short and easie , i challenge a whole smectymnuus of you to answer onely dr. sanderson solidly and soundly , and i shall promise you to renounce conformity , and if you cannot ( as i know you cannot ) you are self-condemned if you renounce not non-conformity ; and now i shall be as highly confident as your selves , and shall affirm in a direct contradiction to yours , that the holy ghost hath so plainly decided the point in controversie on the churche's part , that she hath power to command things indifferent for decency and order in god's worship , in the corinth . c. . v. . that 't is strange it should be yet a controversie : nay , the church had that power as to outward order and decency to appoint rites and ceremonies even when god himself had made laws for ceremonies , and those so many , that we might have thought none could or might be added . the religious kings and governors of the jewish church enjoyned divers things concerning god's worship which were not by god commanded . there was no commandment of god assigning the priests order , manner and times of attendance in the service of the temple ; yet david and solomon appointed them , and the priests conformed and observed them . there was no commandment for singers , psalteries , organs , cimbals , harps ; yet david appointed for the temple this musick vocal and instrumental . there was no commandment for the feast of purim ; yet mordecai enjoined it , hester set it forward , and the jews established it for succeeding generations . there was no commandment for the feast of dedication ; yet our saviour observed it . if therefore the jewish church , when god himself had instituted abundance of ceremonies , might and did appoint others , besides those by god commanded , which were generally by all without contradiction observed ; surely à fortiori , the christian church , having no law of particular ceremonies and rites given by christ , ( since without religious rites god cannot be publickly worshipped in any orderly and decent manner ) may , especially having a general law to authorize her , corinth . c. . constitute and appoint such rites , and we must obey her constitutions in things neither commanded nor prohibited . but to come closely to their th reason , since , ad triarios ventum est , 't is their last , and that in which they place their greatest strength . the holy ghost ( say they ) hath plainly decided the point in controversie in the instance of meats and days , rom. . & . a weak brother that maketh an unnecessary difference of meats and days is not to be cast out , but so to be received . i shall here premise the weighty monition of dr. sanderson , o beware of misapplying scripture , it is a thing easily done ; but not so easily answered . i know not any one gap that hath let in more and more dangerous errours into the church than this , that men take the words of the sacred text fitted to particular occasions , and to the condition of the time wherein they were written , and then apply them to themselves and others , as they find them , without due respect had to the differences that may be between those times and cases , and the present . sundry things spoken in the scripture , agreeable to the infancy of the church , would sort very ill with the church in her fulness of strength and stature . this caution , directs me to tell the petitioners , that the point and case in controversie between us and them is hugely different from that rom. c. . v. . in respect of the time , the persons , and matter in difference . . for the time ; the jewish church was now expiring , its constitution dissolved ; the christian church , succeeding it , was in planting , in its infancy ; in this time , when the church was not settled , and its order not fully established , the new converts , being tender plants , were to be tenderly used , and all sorts , in pious prudence , to be indulged ; but not so in a church planted and settled , then and there all its members are obliged to obey its orders , and not to cast them off upon pretence of conscience or ( christian liberty ; the troubles at francford they mention , though much to the hindrance of the reformation , because in the infancy and beginning of it ; yet because in the beginning of it , that party which opposed the new-made constitutions of our church were not so culpable as these troublers , who , a hundred years after the orders of the church had obtained and happily flourished , have invaded and overturned all order and government , and now , that 't is restoring , keep up the same humour of opposing it . . the case is different in respect of the persons differing about meats and days ; the one party were weak , the other strong in faith and judgment of their christian liberty : now of whether endsort are our non-conformists ? the strong , in modesty , they will not call themselves ; and the weak , they will take it ill to be called , being the chieftains and chosen ones of their party , and giving themselves the title of able and godly , and who are now contesting with reasons ( and this last in their esteem irrefragable ) against the most learned defenders of the churche's orders . but if ( as they seem to insinuate ) they are the weak brethren , then their weakness deserves compassion , yet for that very reason ( their weakness ) owes submission to the better judgment of the strong , especially , they being ●ut subjects and private persons , and obedience to the formerly established and now to be restored order : an yieldance there must be on the one part , and whether the weak ought to submit to the strong , and obey the laws , or the strong must submit to the weak , and give them leave to trample the laws under their feet , let the weakest judge . but how long will these brethren be weak ? will they be children of a hundred years , after so long time and teaching , and means of instruction ? the church ( as saith the excellent dr. sanderson ) hath sufficiently declared and published the innocency of her purpose and meaning in enjoyning the ceremonies ; nor so onely ; but hath been content to hear , receive and admit the objections and reasons of the refusers ; and hath taken pains to answer and satisfie to the full all that ever could be said in that behalf ; and therefore it is vanity in these men to alledge weakness where all good means have been plentifully used for full information in the points in doubt ; so that we may , without breach of charity , conclude from so plain premisses , that not their weakness , but wilfullness is the real cause of their refusal to conform . . the case is different in the matter and thing it self in controversie . those meats and days about whose observation there was variance , rom. c. . were once , and a long time , not indifferent , but under divine precept , the one commanded , the other prohibited ; but our ceremonies were alwaies indifferent , never under any divine precept , nor commanded , nor prohibited : the reason why those weak brethren observed the days and abstained from the meats was , they knew there was a law of god for it , and they knew not that it was abolished : but our weak brethren have no such reason to refuse the ceremonies by the church enjoined , since they were never by any law of god forbidden . those weak brethren feared to sin where god had made a law ; our weak brethren fear to sin where god hath made no law , or rather , where he hath made a general and standing law , that we should obey our governours in their ordinances which are not contrary to his laws . let me add , the point is greatly different in this respect also ; that the apostle gives a liberty onely for a time , to use or not to use those legal ceremonies , for afterwards he cuts off that liberty , and forbids those legal observations to the colossians and to the galatians , and that with great severity : they were before mortua , and allowed a decent burial : but now , after full instruction that they were nailed to christ's cross and buried in his grave , they were mortifera , 't was deadly to raise or revive them ; and now , upon second thoughts , our brethren , i hope , will see they have cause to abate their confidence ; the point in controversie being very different about the jewish rites and the ceremonies of our church . herein we cannot but discern and allow them to be like ; in that , first , those brethren , who judged the other , were weak , and so are these , though their reason stronger by much , they having the law for them , these no law. secondly , those weak brethren were in the errour , so are ours . but , thirdly , the errour of those directly contrary to the errour of these . those brethren were zealous for the ceremonies , these brethren are zealous against the ceremonies . i shall end this point in that solid and convincing answer of mr. l'estrange to this their th reason , and i beseech them to reade and weigh it without prejudice to his person and manner of writing ; he is smart and pleasant , and doth , i confess , ludere cum sanctis , ( i mean onely with such saints as our brethren , ) but i appeal to themselves whether he be not here serious , and hath not rightly interpreted the place , and stated the case , and determined the point in controversie . would our divines persuade us , that the case of meats and days , whereof the apostle speaks , is of the same nature with that of ceremonies which we are now debating , or that a weak brother is not to be distinguished from a peevish ? see how vast a difference lies between them , under the law god himself put a difference between meats and days , which difference ceast upon the coming of our blessed saviour : some thought it still a point of conscience to observe the law , and these the apostle calls , weak brethren : others again , that knew the law was abrogated , quitted these scruples ; and of these it is that st. paul saies , we which are strong ought to bear the infirmity of the weak : now mark , that which was formerly imposed is now become a thing indiffrent , that is , indifferent to the strong and knowing , not to those who were not convinc'd of the determination of the former ty and duty ; and this is the true ground of the apostle's tenderness here concerning scandal , destroy not him with thy meat for whom christ died . see how their case now matches ours ; they durst not eat , because they knew that once they were bound , and they did not know likewise that they were now discharged . let our reformers shew as much for ceremonies ; either that humane impositions ( for decency and order he means ) were ever forbidden , or that those practis'd in our church are in themselves unlawfull . they next would father an objection upon the assertors of the churche's orders and impositions — if you say — rulers , imposition maketh indifferent things cease to be indifferent — we answer — but till they say as you would make them , you may save your answer , they are not obliged to a reply ; you may see the churche's sense to be quite another thing than this you would impose upon them , in dr. sanderson's sermon , pet. . . to what you add from cor. . . paul was a ruler of the church himself , and yet would deny his own liberty rather than offend the weak : so far was he from taking away the liberty of others . the answer is made already , the case being foreign , and nothing to our controversie ; the same now mentioned about eating meats offered to idols wherewith the weak were offended . what is this to the point in controversie ? we must deny our liberty rather than offend the weak , ergo , the church may not prescribe rules about indifferent things ; and that invidious and reflecting passage added — so far was he from taking away the liberty of others — is as little to your purpose ; you have been taught , and might learn , that the church , in prescribing indifferent things , takes away no man's liberty : the things prescribed are in their own nature , and in the judgment both of the imposer and the intelligent observer of them the same they were before , indifferent . i obey the church , yet preserve my liberty , still judging the thing indifferent which it commands ; and i obey not the command as any necessary part of religion , but as the church commands it , which i am bound to obey for decency and order . they that make laws concerning indifferent things have no intention at all to meddle with the nature of them , they leave that in medio as they found it ; but onely for some reasons of conveniency , order the use of them , the indifferency of their nature still being where it was . they are very unhappy in alledging that scripture , acts . . which concludes directly for the church , against them , we may tell them in their own words , the holy ghost hath there so plainly decided the point in controversie , that it seems strange to us , that yet it should remain a controversie ; they have here thrown down all they have built ; all their reasons fall and are broken in pieces , as dagon before the ark. this chapter acquaints us , that some jews , though converted to the christian faith and embracing the gospel , yet thought themselves bound to the observation of the whole mosaical law , and they thought the converted gentiles so bound also , and told them that , except they were circumcized , and kept the law of moses , they could not be saved . hereupon arises dissention and disputation , and an appeal is made to a council at jerusalem , which upon the hearing and debating the question determines , that the converted gentiles should not be obliged to circumcision nor to the ceremonial law , but in yieldance to the converted jews , who were zealous of the law , and to keep peace with them , they should abstain from some few things in their nature indifferent , but necessary in order to peace and charity , from meats offered to idols , from bloud , and from things strangled . behold here the first and greatest council that ever was in the christian church , to compose a difference , meets , and makes a law of abstinence from some things indifferent , and otherwise in themselves lawfull . this is plainly the case , the act of the council and decision of the question , and yet these men alledge the act of the council to prove the quite contrary . i am amazed to see how they change and clip the words , and pervert the sense of the scripture they cite for their ends , and , i fear , against their conscience . they say , the apostles and elders , act. . . declare unto the churches , that it seemed good unto the holy ghost and them to lay upon them no greater burthen than necessary things ; do the apostles and elders so declare ? then we yield the cause . do they not ? then ought they with sin and shame to yield it . they leave out the word ( these ) because they know it made against them ; limiting the churche's order to some few particular things , there presently named , things offered to idols , bloud , &c. now whereas the church makes a temporary order for some particular things , and declares thus , it seemed good to the holy ghost and to us to lay upon you no greater burthen necessary besides these things or ( these ) necessary things : they leave out that word ( these ) of main importance , and hugely against them , and would make a standing canon of their own , and father it upon the apostles : that the church ought to impose no other then necessary things , and yet too by their own confession , these things imposed were not simply in their own nature unchangeably necessary , but by accident , pro tempore & loco ; and whereas they say , the council imposed them , because antecedently necessary , the contrary is most true : these things were not antecedently necessary , but onely , as themselves say , pro tempore , for the time . there being at this time a difference risen about the jewish ceremonies , it was not necessary before the council now so determined , that the converted gentiles should abstain from things offered to idols , strangled , and bloud ; that law belonging onely to the jews , never to the gentiles . behold how rarely well these men argue , to prove church-governours may not determine in things indifferent for order and unity , but all ought to be left to their own liberty : they produce a scripture which proves most plainly , that church-governours have , and may determine and restrain those under them from the use of things indifferent ; all the things touching which the council they produce do give order being indifferent , except one , fornication , which is of another nature , but with these prohibited , for that the gentiles allowed themselves in it , and scarce looked on it as a sin : this of their th and last reason which i have thus at large considered , for that they lay so much weight upon it , though it prove , as the rest , light in the balance ; i shall , for a conclusion of all , clearly evidence the churche's power to prescribe external rites and ceremonies for order and decency , and our obligation to conform unto them from the judgment of two ancient fathers , for whom i suppose our brethren have some reverence ; and if those cannot move them , from the judgment of a modern father , for whom i am sure they have a high veneration ; 't is st. augustine's rule , prudenti christiano eo modo agendum esse quo agit ecclesia ad quam devenerit , and his mother having used , when she was in africk , to fast on the saturday , and coming to millan , where that fast was not observed , was doubtfull what to doe ; hereupon her son consulted saint ambrose , who thus answered , when i am here at millan , i do not fast on the saturday ; when i am at rome , i do fast on the saturday ; and unto what church soever ye come , keep the custom of it , if you be willing neither to give nor take scandal : from which rule of st. augustine and advice of st. ambrose , a learned person maketh these remarks : . that divers countries , professing the same religion , may have divers ceremonies . . that in churches independent one is not bound of necessity to follow another . . that 't is the duty of every private person to conform himself to the laudable customs and constitutions of the church wherein he liveth or wherever he cometh . you have heard the judgment of these ancient fathers . will you hear your modern father mr. calvin , and he delivers his judgment so fully , and with so much strength and clearness asserts the churche's power to ordain external rites and ceremonies , that master hooker himself could not say more or better . whereas many unskilfull men , when they hear that consciences are wickedly bound , and god worshipped in vain , by the traditions of men , do at once blot out altogether all laws whereby the order of the church is set in frame . therefore it is convenient also to meet with their errour . verily in this point it is easie to be deceived , because at first sight it doth not by and by appear what difference there is between the one sort and the other : but i will so plainly in few words set out the whole matter that the likeness may deceive no man. first let us hold this , that if we see in every society of men some policy to be necessary which may serve to nourish common peace , and to retain concord , if we see that in the doing of things there is alwaies some orderly form which is behoofefull for publick honesty , and for very humanity not to be refused , the same ought chiefly to be observed in churches , which are both best maintained by a well framed disposition of all things , and without agreement are no churches at all . therefore , if we will have the safety of the church well provided for , we must altogether diligently procure that which st. paul commandeth , that all things be done comely and according to order . but forasmuch as there is so great diversity in the manners of men , so great variety in minds , so great disagreements in judgments and witts ; neither is there any policy stedfast enough , unless it be stablished by certain laws ; nor any orderly usage can be observed , without a certain appointed form : therefore we are so far off from condemning the laws that are profitable to this purpose , that we affirm , that when these be taken away , churches are dissolved from their sinewes , and utterly deformed and scattered abroad ; for this which st. paul requireth , that all things be done decently and in order , cannot be had , unless the order it self and comeliness be established , with observations adjoyned as with certain bonds . but this onely thing is alway to be excepted in those observations , that they be not either believed to be necessary to salvation , and so bind consciences with religion , or be applied to the worshipping of god , and so godliness be reposed in them . we have therefore a very good and most faithfull mark , which putteth difference between those wicked ordinances by which we have said , that the true religion is darkned , and consciences subverted , and the lawfull observations of the church , if we remember that the lawfull observations tend alway to one of these two things or to both together , that in the holy assembly of the faithfull all things be done comely , and with such dignity as beseemeth , and that the very common fellowship of men should be kept in order , as it were by certain bonds of humanity and moderation ; for when it is once understood that the law is made for publick honesty's sake , the superstition is now taken away , into which they fall that measure the worshiping of god by the inventions of men . again , when it is known , that it pertaineth to common uses , then that false opinion of bond and necessity is overthrown , which did strike a great terror into consciences when traditions were thought necessary to salvation ; for herein is nothing required , but that charity should with common dutifull doing be nourished amongst us . but it is good yet to define more plainly what is comprehended under that comeliness which paul commendeth , and also what under order . the end of comeliness is partly , that when such ceremonies are used as may procure a reverence to holy things , we may by such helps be stirred up to godliness ; partly also , that the modesty and gravity which ought to be seen in all honest doings may therein principally appear . in order this is the first point , that they which govern may know the rule and law to govern well , and the people which are governed may be accustomed to obeying of god , and to right discipline : then that the state of the church being well framed , peace and quietness may be provided for . verily because the lord hath in his holy oracles both faithfully contained and clearly set forth both the whole sum of true righteousness , and all the parts of the worshipping of his divine majesty , and whatsoever was necessary to salvation ; therefore in these things he is onely to be heard as our schoolmaster . but because in outward discipline and ceremonies his will was not to prescribe each thing particularly , what we ought to follow , because he foresaw this to hang upon the state of times , and did not think one form to be fit for all ages , herein we must flee to those general rules which he hath given , that thereby all those things should be tried which the necessity of the church shall require to be commanded for order and comeliness ; finally , forasmuch as he hath therefore taught nothing expresly , because these things are not necessary to salvation , and according to the manners of every nation and age ought diversly to be applied to the edifying of the church : therefore as the profit of the church shall require , it shall be convenient as well to change and abrogate those that be used , as to institute new . i grant indeed , that we ought not rashly , nor oft , nor for light causes to run to innovation , but what may hurt or edifie , charity shall best judge , which if we suffer to be the governess , all shall be safe . now it is the duty of christian people to keep such things as have been ordained according to this rule with a free conscience , and without any superstition , but yet with a godly and easie readiness to obey , not to despise them , nor to pass them over with careless negligence ; so far is it off , that they ought by pride and obstinacy openly to break them . what manner of liberty of conscience , wilt thou say , may there be in so great observation and wariness ? yes , it shall stand excellently well ; when we shall consider that they are not stedfast and perpetual stayed laws whereunto we are bound , but outward rudiments for the weakness of men , which though we do not all need , yet we do all use them ; because we are mutually bound to one another to nourish charity among us . thus mr. calvin delivers his judgment directly contrary to yours , perfectly consentient to the church of england , and we find his practice according with his judgment ; he put the yoke of discipline upon the neck of the senate and people of geneva , and bound them to it with an oath ; and he declares for a form of prayers and ecclesiastical rites , and greatly approves that it be fixed , from which it may not be lawfull for the pastors to depart in their function : you may now go and accuse mr. calvin ( with our church ) as judging and acting contrary to romans . and to the decree of the apostolical council , laying both upon pastors and people a great burthen of things not necessary ; and if you please to take a view of the scotish discipline , you will find there also a huge and heavy burthen , abundance of things which you dare not say are necessary . and to come home . the solemn league and covenant , imposed by the long parliament upon the whole kingdom , and taken i doubt not by your selves , is a most heavy burthen of things , so far from necessary , that they are not lawfull , nay highly sinfull ; and if you have still the confidence to say the matter of it was necessary , yet you cannot affirm it of the ceremonies enjoyned with strictness at the taking of it , which are more than all the ceremonies by the church enjoyned to the people in the whole liturgy : they are no less than five . those who took the covenant were ordered , . to stand ; . uncovered ; . with the hand lifted up ; . the right hand ; . and that bared . and may i here presume to ask you , suppose a weak brother , whose tender conscience could not swallow these solemn rites , should affirm 't was sinfull in the parliament to lay upon them the burthen of these not necessary things , and that he could not take the covenant , unless you would allow him his christian liberty to doe it without these superstitious ceremonies ; whether would you and the parliament indulge him for his tenderness , or reject and sequester him ( if well fleeced ) for his non-conformity ? but whatever becomes of this case , you have in a solemn part of god's worship ( for so you judge the solemn league and covenant ) strictly enjoyned several unnecessary rites and ceremonies , and so you must necessarily condemn your selves , and renounce at least the ceremonies of your covenant , or cease for ever to declaim against the rites and ceremonies of the church of england . the end . books printed for and sold by thomas flesher , at the angel and crown in st. paul's church-yard . an exact description of all the birds hitherto known ; the descriptions illustrated by most elegant figures , nearly resembling the live birds engraven on copper plates , with three considerable discourses , viz. . of the art fowling , . the ordering of singing birds , and , . of falconry . by francis willoughby , esquire . fol. glossographia , or , a dictionary interpreting the hard words of whatsoever language , now used in our refined english tongue ; with etymologies , definitions , and historical observations on the same : also the terms of divinity , law , physick , musick , mathematicks , war , heraldry , and other arts and sciences explicated . the fifth edition , with many additions . by t. blount of the inner-temple , esq ; . the policy of rome , or , the true sentiments of the court and cardinals there concerning religion and the gospel , as they are delivered by cardinal palavicini , in his history of the council of trent ; englished out of french. with a preface . by gil. burnet , d. d. vade mecum , or , a companion for a chirurgion : fitted for sea or land , peace or war : shewing the vse of his instruments , and virtues of medicines simple and compound most in use , and how to make them up after the best method : with the manner of making reports to a magistrate , or coroner's inquest . a treatise of bleeding at the nose : with directions for bleeding , purging , vomiting , &c. by tho. brugis , doctor in physick . the seventh edition , amended and augmented . with an institution of physick , and seven new treatises , viz. of tumours , wounds , vlcers , fractures , dislocations , lues-venerea , anatomy . by ellis prat , m. d. the poetical history , being a compleat collection of all the stories necessary for a perfect understanding of the greek and latin poets , and other ancient authors . by the learned jesuit p. galtruchius . the fourth edition . o. the history and fall of caius marius , a tragedy . by tho. otway . o. the painter's voyage of italy , in which all the famous paintings of the most eminent masters are particularized , as they are preserved in the several cities of italy , illustrated with the heads of some of the most renowned painters . by will. lodge , gent. o. euclidis elementorum libri xv. breviter demonstrati , operâ isa . barrow , cantabr . col. trin. soc. o. a modern account of scotland , with a true character of the people and their manners . o. patience and its perfect work under sudden and sore tryals . by tho. goodwin . the christian man , or , the reparation of nature by grace . by j. f. senault . reprinting , the anatomy of the body of man , by alex. reade , m. d. with many additions , in large o. illustrated with many sculptures . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e the unanswered writings of . a petition for peace to the bishops , which they never answered to this day . epist . to non-con . plea. mr. walton . lam. . , . psal . . . thesis . thesis . thesis , . . . . thesis , . the people are with you the king's judges . . thesis , . . in . . . . . . mr. masterson's sermon of thanks for defeat of the earl of derby . epist . to n. c. plea for peace . job . , &c. judg. . . jer. . . pag. . pag. . being excommunicate . pag. . see more of this in answer to the petit. for peace . baxt. case . con. thes . , . pulpit incend . printed . page . directed to the presb. ministers . notes for div a -e colos . . . job . . rom. . . . pet. . . divine right of church government . zach. . v. . hooker . vide baxter's holy common-wealth . luk. . . thes . . . 〈…〉 the creed , commandments , the lord's prayer and sacraments . first and second book of discipline . a letter to the earl of shaftsbury this th of july, from tom tell-troth, a downright englishman. tel-troth, tom. approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing l estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a letter to the earl of shaftsbury this th of july, from tom tell-troth, a downright englishman. tel-troth, tom. shaftesbury, anthony ashley cooper, earl of, - . p. s.n., [london : ] "... to lay before you the great mischiefs that both the monarchy and protestant religion do suffer in respect of the present designs of papist and commonwealths-man ..."--p. . caption title. place and date of publication from bm. reproduction of original in huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng church and state -- england. dissenters, religious -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - emma (leeson) huber sampled and proofread - emma (leeson) huber text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a letter to the earl of shaftsbury this th . of july , . from tom tell-troth a downright englishman . my lord , i have lived to see your lordship great as well as popular , and a stout assertor of the protestant religion and interest . wherefore to your lordship have i thought fit , in this time of danger to our native countrey , to lay before you the great mischiefs that both the monarchy and protestant religion do suffer , in respect of the present designs of papist and commonwealths-man : and when i have discover'd to your lordship their intrigues , as far as my strict scrutiny and search into them ( besides sufficient testimonies from others truely informed ) have satisfied me , i hope we shall take such adequate measures from them , to satisfie both your lordship and this kingdom , that ruine and desolation will come swift on us , confusion and every evil work , if some speedy remedy be not instantly proposed by the wisdom of the great councel of this nation . and first , my lord , your lordship will please to give me leave to make a parallel , between the past actions of the designing men before and after . to the happy restoration of the king , by it i shall be able to satisfie your lordship , that what was then designed and effected upon the person of the late king , church of england , and government , were the results of such pernicious counsels and designs , as are now hatching by these sons of belial , to the present disturbance , if not ruine of our flourishing church and kingdoms . now 't is obvious to all that have had any knowledge of the late transactions before . and after , that the papist seeing our church so well guarded with purity of doctrine and faith , with innocent ceremonies , to defend her from the invasion of slovenly and dishonourable worshipping of the great god ; as well also to avoid the superstition and foppery of the worship of the church of rome . behold what emissaries were there sent out , and with what cloathing to deceive ; the puritan must be drawn in to make an outcry against canons , ceremonies , and whatever was enjoyned by law in the worship of god must be antichristian , at least it must be said unlawfully imposed on their tender consciences . from sowing these doctrines , the poor and the ignorant were taught to believe bishops to be the very limbs of antichrist , and superstition and idolatry brought by them into the church ; and many worthy patriots , such as pryn , bastwick , and burton , &c. would smell popery and superstition in gown , surplice , cross in baptism , worshipping god towards the east , ( a primitive custom in the church of god ) &c. then publish to the world the great care they had to bring things to a due reformation both in church and state. but behold the consequence of this undertaking ; they had no sooner gone about to undermine the church of england , but then 't was fit time to call in question too the miscarriages of state , and to be sure archbishop laud , who was the most eminent assertor of the rights of the church , and as true a protestant as ever lived , must be the first man cryed down by the teachers and the rabble , for being popishly inclined , or rather for being a papist , and must be butcher'd too for that supposition ; by his death ended the tranquillity of the once flourishing church of england : thus far had papist hand in hand with fanatick rage and zeal triumphed over us . but after this , 't was not enough to bring our church low , but we must yet go higher — well ! what encouragement has the king given to papists of late , by preferring them to places of great consequence in the government , such as were strafford , &c. — these persons , ay those , must be removed for evil counsellors , or we shall have no peace in our israel ; accordingly our zealous teachers sent their disciples abroad in all avenues of the city , to cry down evil counsellors , for that their design was to bring in popery , and destroy liberty , ay the liberty of the subject . and then forsooth ship-money , ( a huge burden to what we have felt since ) was ( against magna harta ) indeed every thing in the government found fault with , as either popishly or arbitraily inclin'd , then cry out for reformation , reformation . and when for peace-sake , our good king had granted many of their unreasonable demands , and had deliver'd to their fury innocent bloud , to prevent , as he thought , the shedding much more , yet would not their rage stop here , but at last king , church , and all brought to destruction , by the most horrid rebellion and villany , as can scarce be paralell'd in any kingdom in the world in all its circumstances . and now , my lord , one would think , that this pretended glorious reformation , should have produced some settlement by this time to the tottering kingdom : no truly ; we found nothing but sect springing out of sect , and they that once prayed and fought together against the peace of the kingdom in one body , and as it were , under one denomination , are presently dwindled into many little parties and saintships , and every one crying to his neighbour , i am holyer than thou art ; so that from papist sprung puritan , from puritan presbyterian , from presbyterian independent , from thence anabaptists , antinomians , fifth-monarchists , sweet singers in israel , quakers , muggletonians , and the lord knows what , till by and through the inconstancy of their persons and judgements , and the various frekes of the several humours , all was reduced to a chaos ; so that neither a single usurper , nor a parliament without a king , nor committee of safety , nor keepers of the liberties , or councels of officers , and strength of arms , could produce any quiet , till god wonderfully restored him , whose undoubted right it was to sway the sceptre of these kingdoms . and thus , my lord , i have in short given your lordship an account of what has been acted in those times : let me now crave leave further to make the parallel with the present times ; and therein if i reflect on some of the busie and designing men , i hope i shall not break the laws of decorum , because things are brought to that crisis , that if an honest english heart will not now speak home to the purpose , ( for ought i can see ) he may evermore hold his peace . well then , my lord , do we not now perceive as clear as the sun at noon day , that the same men , or men of the same principles are again hard at work to undermine , and destroy both our church and state too ? what divided interests and factions have there been for seven years last past , and more , to bring the king and governours into disgrace , by frequent clubs at coffee-houses and taverns , on purpose to break the bonds of unity among us . from these places , and sinks of sedition and rebellion , have there not been many of a higher form , who through discontent , or love of faction , and change of government , or for not being continued or preferr'd to the highest and most honourable places therein , have endeavoured all they can to breed differences between the two houses of parliament , by throwing in some little matter with a ball of contention at the end on 't , purposely to hinder the prosecution of what should tend to the advancement of the publick weal ; and what can be more plain , than that such designs were like those of . since , because the bishops would not herd with common-wealth-mens interests , ( yet my lord , i do believe the bishops are as prudent men , and can as well tell the nature of an oath , together with the design as well as the consequence thereof , ) as any states-man i know of in the kingdom , let them pretend to what they will ; and besides , i am sure their interest is so interwoven in the monarchy of england , that neither popery , nor any other interest besides that of their own church as established by law , can any ways preserve them , unless they will all as one man fall down and worship the great image , and be all things to all men , that they may be sure to get something , as many ( my lord ) pretended famous statesmen have done in the several changes of government in these kingdoms ; ( but that is not to be supposed of them , ) since they would not , or did ever joyn with any such interest as oppos'd church or state ; and thus how did both city and country , clubs , and coffee-houses ring , that the bishops were the only opposers of the true interest of the kingdom , and the great occasion why justice could not be done on capital and notorious offenders . this , my lord , is a true spice of old . and your lordship cannot but observe , that it hath brought the bishops into suspition with the vulgar sort , that they are driving on the popish design , and that there is not above two protestant bishops amongst them all , as they give out . well , but this will not do yet ; 't is not so long since laud was murder'd , and strafford : people sufficiently smarted under covenanting reformers , and army-saints , and 't is not easy to play the same game over again the same way ; and this the designing men see , and so are said to have other artifices to rend the government in pieces , and reduce it to its former chaos or designed commonwealth ; so that if neither disquieting or dividing parliaments , nor secret combining clubs against great ministers of state , nor a seeming weariness of the monarchy of england , nor disgracing the governours of the church , nor suspition of popery , and the introducing thereof , will do the business to exasperate the people , as in . why truly then comes forth a plot full of treason and popery ; then forsooth the d. must needs be the foundation of this damnable plot , and the discoverers ( who no doubt have been blessed instruments to save us at this time from the paw of antichrist , ) must be revered as demy-gods among the vulgar , but more especially among the precious independant and anabaptist faction ; but not to reflect on the kings evidence , for no doubt deservedly did those suffer who were condemned by the justice of our laws , and many more deservedly may that have had a hand in that pernicious and bloody design against his majesties sacred person and government . in this hurly burly what a confusion did it bring the kingdom into ? how did it necessitate the king to prorogue and adjourn , yea , and dissolve parliaments from time to time ? when he could not but so do for the preservation of the peace of the kingdom , and defeating the designs both of popish and self-designing men who sought to disturb it ; and so apparent this was , that no loyal heart but trembled at it . then again forsooth all miscarriages of this nature must be attributed to the d. and his party , and given out by the designing men , that no parliaments should ever sit again , but all would be arbitrary , and accordingly guards must be doubled to defend us from jesuits , and popery , and this bugbear of arbitrary government . now in the name of machiavel where are we going next ? oh! cries the first and deepest among the designers , let us but keep off the king from parliaments till his revenue will not answer the charge of the crown , and put him into the condition his father of blessed memory was , that he will be necessitated to call one , then he shall be obliged to redress all the grievances , hang all plotters , ( provided they be none but such as are popishly inclin'd , ) punish church offenders , and saint persecutors ; then shall he be obliged to hearken to every thing we shall propose about the succession ; then we shall be able to make our own terms with him , either we will have m. or we will know why ; we will have one black box or other found wherein the writing is that will prove what we would have legitimate , and successor to the crown , in opposition to royal word , and whatever demonstrations shall be to the contrary , provided it effectually hinders , and deprives the known , true and lawful successor that 's popishly affected ; and we will never leave clubbing nor meeting , till we have effected this , maugre all former designs by popish councels , or protestants whatsoever . indeed my lord , it were to be wisht for the quiet and welfare of the nation , that these , and such like designs were laid aside , and every one study to do his own business , to obey wholsom laws , then to trust again to new law-makers : for my part , my lord , i wonder what it is these men would have , if they think that ever popery or arbitrary government can govern in this kingdom , then they have reason to be thus concern'd : but my lord , though i am a plain old english-man , i can see as far it may be as one that sees less ; and i protest , my lord , that after having read over abundance of such ware as little andrew marvel's unhoopable wit and polity , and the independent comment amongst it , together with the growth of popery , &c. as also the naked truth , treatises about french interests , and the succession of the crown , and all this bustle they have made amongst us . to say the truth , my lord , i am tom tell troth , and between your lordship and i , i do not believe there 's any need of such books , or any such jealousies ; for in gods name , what can preserve us , but being zealous for our religion , and obedient to our superiors ? and what can preserve them , but the love of their subjects , and governing according to the laws they have made , and are oblig'd to maintain ? and for my part , i don't see any invasion of liberty & property as they term it ; i see indeed a sort of men , will be always restless and buzzing the vulgar ear with strange fears and jealousies , which tends to nothing but destruction both of prince and people . truly , my lord , ( your lordship being a person of such eminent parts , and having known most of the publick humours of this land and people this years ) i think your lordship would do well to find out some of these underminers of the publick peace of the kingdom , that meet in taverns , and other publick houses , and by your strong arguments convince them , that this is not the way to bring about their designs , whatsoever mixture of councels they may have ; and since your lordship lives in that great city wherein these persons are said to reside , your lordship would send them such unquestionable rules to walk by , as may tend to the securing of the peace of the kingdom , rooting out all jealousies and fears of popery and arbitrary government , as also to endeavour to fix them to the old ways of loyalty and obdedience , which are the only paths of peace to dwell in : then shall we see that 't will be our interests ( whatever we imagine liberty and property to be , ) to promote the honour of god , and the religion of this kingdom as established by law , to honour and obey the king according to the laws , to love one another as men and christians , and to lay all our heads , hearts and hands together to support the same . my lord , i shall now conclude this long epistle without any other complement , than that i am , your lordships most humble servant , tom tell-troth . wilts . the th . of july . a discourse concerning liberty of conscience in which are contain'd proposalls, about what liberty in this kind is now politically expedient to be given, and severall reasons to shew how much the peace and welfare of the nation is concern'd therein. by r.t. pett, peter, sir, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing p a estc r this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ; : ) a discourse concerning liberty of conscience in which are contain'd proposalls, about what liberty in this kind is now politically expedient to be given, and severall reasons to shew how much the peace and welfare of the nation is concern'd therein. by r.t. pett, peter, sir, - . dury, john, - . [ ], , [ ] p. printed for nathaniel brook, and are to be sold at his shop at the angel in cornhill, london : . r.t. = sir peter pett. author attribution from wing. "a discourse representing the liberty of conscience, that is practised in forreign parts. by n.y." (i.e. john dury) has separate dated title page; register and pagination are continuous. part identified on umi microfilm (early english books, - ) reel as wing ( nd ed.) d . item at reel contains only part of bodleian library copy. reproduction of the original in the bodleian library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng liberty of conscience -- early works to . dissenters, religious -- early works to . religious tolerance -- england -- early works to . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - rina kor sampled and proofread - rina kor text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a discourse concerning liberty of conscience , in which are contain'd proposalls . about what liberty in this kind is now politically expedient to be given , and severall reasons to shew how much the peace and welfare of the nation is concern'd therein . by r. t. london , printed for nathaniel brook , and are to be sold at his shop at the angel in cornhill . . a discourse concerning liberty of conscience , &c. i am not ignorant that it is the fate of those who propound modells concerning affaires of state or religion , to be usually look'd on as knaves or fools , and as such who either do not know the incurable defects of humane nature , or by pretending to cure them , would only mend their own fortunes . leaving therefore the makers of plat-forms about morall things to such censures as attend them , i shall not here in this following discourse of liberty of conscience , so much resemble him that draws the modell of an house , as one that applies an engin to quench one a fire . and indeed the security of the nation is so concerned in the granting of this liberty , that any who shall by the contrary practice pretend to promote that , will most truly deserve the name of a projector . moreover , i know that in nothing more then about liberty of conscience querulous persons have shewn a childishness in their complaints , without telling what the very thing is that troubles them , and how far they would have it removed ; and so complaining for want of liberty of conscience in generall , have been as ridiculous as a plaintiff would be , that brought his action about anothers owing him money in generall , or a judge that accordingly order'd some money in generall to be paid . when therefore any subjects have exprest the due liberty their consciences need , then is a king in a capacity to shew a god-like benignity and power in granting the things they ask , as far as they conduce to his honour and the peoples good . nor is it rationall that this liberty should be granted on other termes : for a king that gives to all men all the liberty of conscience they beg from him this day , will be forced to beg it from them the next . as i shall therefore decline such an offer of the ways of securing liberty to the consciences of the severall parties among us , as might amount to the exactness of a modell , and seem to impose upon the magistrate , and tempt other men into an opposition of those methods whereof they were not the inventors , so shall i likewise avoid the error of those who cry out for want of liberty , before they know their own minds fully in this affaire , or take care that the magistrate shall know them otherwise then by inspiration . nor shall i at all in these papers consider what liberty to the consciences of others religion , but purely what politicall interest prompts us to give . it is , i confess , none of the most renowned principles for nations to preserve a fair entercourse with one another , and with their respective members , because 't is their interest so to do ; but 't is a thing much more shamefull for a people to be so infatuated , as not to see their interest when it is most obvious to them ; as in this case of the due liberty of conscience it so eminently is , that it can be the reall concernment of none but souldiers of fortune to oppose it . 't is pity but those miseries which some mens pedantick incivilities to the consciences of others have formerly overwhelm'd the nation with , should be so instructive to us , as to convince us of the necessity of setting out the true bounds of liberty of conscience , as the egyptians of old by the overflowing of their nile were forc'd upon the study of geometry , that so the certain bounds and proprieties of lands might afterward be retrived . i shall therefore without any more prefatory words addresse my self to the proposalls about the freedom that is now fit to be given to the severall protestant parties , differing in lesser matters of religion among us ; whose perswasions being different from those own'd by the reverend divines of our old hierarchy , do put them in a present necessity of having some liberty granted to them . first then i shall propound , that ( if there be not a coalition of those that are call'd the presbyterians , and the assertors of the former hierarchy among us , into the same form of church-government , and thereby the presbyterians so call'd be put in a capacity to divide the highest preferments of the church with others , ) however no ministers may be devested of their present livings , or be made uncapable of being presented to other , meerly because they have been ordain'd by presbyters without bishops . secondly , that any publick preachers of the independent perswasion , may not meerly because of that discriminating opinion of theirs , be render'd uncapable of being lecturers in any parish where the major part of the parish , and the minister shall desire them so to be . more liberty is not desired in their behalf , because , according to their principles , it is not lawfull for them to take tithes , and to do the usuall offices of a minister in a parish . the reasons why i judge it convenient that the pastors and teachers of independent churches should thus ( if nothing be alledged against them but their particular opinion ) be permitted to preach publickly , are , because as to the doctrinall part of religion , they concur with the . articles of the church of england , and they are generally men of strict lives , and are such as have been bred up in the universities ; and if they have not the liberty allow'd them to preach publickly , it will necessarily occasion their preaching to their churches in private meetings , which may be of worse consequence to the magistrate then their publick preaching can be . and again , their opinions about church-government , though possibly not true , are not unworthy of good and learned men ; for by such they have been own'd , as namely by ames , ainsworth , and cotton of new-england . thirdly , that those of these perswasions that are not ministers , i mean gentlemen and tradesmen , presbyterian or independent , may not for their opinions sake as to church-government be debar'd of any civil employment in the nation they are otherwise capable of . fourthly , that anabaptists may not be punish'd meerly for their opinion of administring baptism as they do , and their meeting to pray and preach , and take the sacrament of the lords supper together . for though those of that perswasion were in germany as so many fire-ships among the states of the empire , it doth not follow that others here must necessarily prove incendiaries in the same manner : 〈◊〉 the acts of reasonable creatures may much more vary in severall places , then lightning and thunder happen to be more hurtfull in some countreys then other , and some plants more or less poysonous in severall places . fifthly , that the quakers may for a while be tolerated , till we have seen what effects their light within them will produce . a present and a speedy punishing so numerous a party would not be prudent , because the persecution of one party would alarme all the others , and make them fear that their turnes would be next . this is a party that none have reason to fear as long-liv'd according to the course of nature ; for it doth not cherish the hopes of its followers by any sensuall pleasures in this world , nor can its principles assure men of any reward in the world to come ; because the quakers having degenerated from the light of the scripture to that within them , they can have no grounded assurance of any good terms in another world. those of them that are idle , and go from town to town , neglecting their callings , may without any injury or provocation to the rest of the parties he compell'd to work . and i am confident that these poor enthusiastick people , by hard labour and diligence in their callings , might be at once curd of their melancholy and errours , and be thus induced no longer to call a bad spleen a good conscience . undoubtedly any enthusiast that had been tired in some mechanicall trade by very hard labour in the day , would find little gusto in reading iacob behmon's works at night . sixthly , that those who professe the belief of a fifth monarchy , that is , of christs reigning personally on the earth a thousand yeares , and draw no consequences from thence about their duty in promoting that fifth kingdom , by being active in dethroning any magistrates , or devesting bishops and ministers of their places , because they are said to be of the fourth , may not for that opinion be liable to any punishment . for as ill uses as this opinion hath been put to in our dayes , it was believed by almost all the fathers of the church before the first nicene councell . and therefore i do so state this sixth proposall , that only those now that believe a millennium , and draw no more consequences of rebellion and sedition from it then its primitive assertors did , may have the benefit of liberty . as for those who by this innocent opinion would occasionally disturb civil societies , it is fit they should be dealt with as enemies of mankind , and as such who would found the fifth monarchy in a colluvies of more vile people then romulus did the fourth , and would multiply confusions and disorders in the world , by destroying propriety , and producing innumerable swarmes of hypocrites ; in so much that if the devil were to reign personally on the earth , he would not fill the world with more prodigious impieties . for 't is likely that he would not take away more mens lives then they , but rather be willing that severall generations of men should still succeed one another ; and that he would account the most provoking indignities that could be offer'd god in the world , were only to be shewn by those men who would advance their temporall designes by religion ; it being a greater affront to a king to be put to servile and ignominious uses in his kingdom , then to be banish'd from it . till any factious assertors of the fifth monarchy can shew gods warrant for their having donations from him of our estates , as the israelites could for their seising on those of the egyptians , we have reason to look on them as the nations exterminated by ioshuah out of their countries did on him , who , as procopius saith in the second book of his vandalics , caus'd pillars to be erected with words on them in the phanician language , which he thus renders , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . i.e. we fly from the face of ioshuah the thief , the son of nun. but without doubt these mens design is not to claim our goods by such a right as gods people , the israelites , ( who yet were weary of the theocracy they liv'd under ) did the egyptians first of all , but as the mammelucs did since , whose government is the true example of theirs who would rule us by a nation within a nation . and indeed those men may be asham'd to ask liberty of conscience , who in their principles proclaim they will never give it ; from whom all the favour such as are not of their opinions can hope is to be kept so well in heart , as to be able to hew their wood and draw their water for them . moreover , their abusing those words of the saints inheriting the earth , or , which is all one , founding dominion in grace , would leave us still in a state of war. for every man pretending to have grace , nothing can decide the controversie but the sword where there is no infallible judge . among the papists there is a pretended one , and so the opinion of giving the ballance of land to the party preponderating in grace , where there is a steady hand to hold the scales , is not among them so mischievous as here it would be . seventhly , that neither the old discipline , nor the ceremonies of the church of england , nor an acknowledgment of the lawfulness or expediency therof be obtruded on any of the fore-mention'd parties ; nor that any censures from ecclesiasticall courts , by fines or excommunication may be extended against them for non-conformity . for though excommunication from a church which a man doth not own as true , or having authority over him ; doth terrifie him no more then predictions of thunder from almanacks , yet it makes that tremendous punishment of the the gospel , that judgement precursory of the last , cease to be formidable . but truly according to the custom of our church , and much more according to the church of scoland , an excommunicate person is some way obnoxious to outward punishments . and as our barbarous custom is for the lord of a mannor to seize upon all the goods of any shipwrack'd persons that were thrown up by the sea on his ground , so in scotland often the goods of those men who fall as wrecks on the shore of the church , accrue to it . and thus accidentally trouble is created to the magistrate about tempering the rigour of the church by his power : as one not many yeares since excommunicated in scotland , procur'd his excommunication to be taken off by a counsell of war ; and so it was revers'd errante gladio , as laid on possibly errante clave . having thus presented the proposalls to be considered , and therein occasionally given some reasons for liberty of conscience , as it concerns some of the respective parties among us ; it remains now that more generall reasons be produced , and such as are comprehensive of the concernments of all or most of the parties differing in lesser matters of religion : to prove how much a due liberty granted to them will conduce to the peace and safety of the nation , and what publick inconveniences will follow from the contrary . the first reason shall be taken from the necessary connexion between civil liberty , and that which is spiritual ; and therefore they that would devest any of their spirituall liberties , do alarm them with just causes of fear about their losing civil liberties by the same hands . for , first , it must necessarily be presumed that such persons intend to be judges how far mens civil and spirituall liberties reach , and what are the frontires of both . nothing we see is more common among the romish priests , then to pick the pockets of the people , in ordine ad spiritualla . and 't is most certain that he who doth impose any thing upon the people under the species of religion , would not leave them a power to judge whether it be in order to it or no. for if they are the judges of it , they will say that any thing in religion which displeaseth them opposeth their civil liberty , and so nothing at all will therein be enjoyned . secondly , those that take away from others their spirituall liberties , shew that they can take away part of their civill at least , or else the whole of them , accordingly as they valued their spirituall liberty . if it be said that mens civil liberties are thought more important then their spirituall , yet it may be replyed , that in the thoughts of very many men their spirituall liberties are as considerable as part of their civill : so that the totall destroyers of spirituall liberty shew that part of the civill is at their mercy . and if they are able to take away one part of mens civill liberties , they are by that means in a better capacity to take away another ; just as he that is able to take away one limb from a mans body , is the more able to take away another , because by the losse of that a man hath the less strength to defend himself against a further assault . but although in some parts of the world men have not the same high esteem for spirituall liberty as for civil , just as the par or proportion of silver to gold in severall countries doth differ , it may be affirm'd that in this nation generally they have . 't is true that broken-fortun'd men do not value civil liberty , nor men of debauch'd consciences spirituall ; but neither of these qualifications hath produced a generall undervaluing of either sort of liberty among us . as to what may be objected concerning some popish countries , as venice , &c. where they have not a proportion of esteem for spirituall liberty equall to their civil ; i answer , that their religion obligeth them to perform a servile obedience to the bishop of rome in things sacred , and they looking on him as infallible , have no reason to prize a liberty of not obeying him : yet even in those places obedience to the roman catholick religion is not maintain'd by the severe discipline of an inquisition . the policy of the french nation is in this respect exactly good , the liberty of the gallican church being so cautiously asserted in order to the liberty of the gallican kingdom , where their courts of parliament in case of appeals do declare void and null the popes bulls and excommunications ; and forbid the execution of them when they are found contrary to the liberty of the french church , and the kings prerogative . nor without cause were the severall european princes jealous of the popes designs to invade their civil liberties , when , as mr. selden observes in his dissertatio ad fletam , innocent the second being very earnest with them to admit the canon law into their territories , they received the civil law , to keep out the canon . in which law the bishops of rome have severall titles , de emptione & venditione , de locato & conducto , and severall other titles that concern temporall affaires between man and man. thirdly , they engage themselves to be in readiness by temporall power to maintain their conquests over mens spiritual liberties : for he that takes away a feather out of a mans hat , is obliged in interest to take away his sword from his side . if it be said that a man may think himself bound in conscience to oppresse people in spiritual things , but not in civil ; i answer , most certainly then his conscience will lead him to put them out of a condition to assert their spiritual liberties so opprest . it is with restraining the freedom of conscience as the denying a mare liberum to neigbouring nations , which any prince that doth must not trust to prescription of long time , or imaginary lines in the heavens whereby the compasse of his dominion of the sea may be determined , but to powerfull fleets . fourthly , they give men just cause to think that they will be willing to invade their civil liberties , whenever their consciences or their interests shall prompt them to it . from what hath been said in this first reason about the connexion of civil and spiritual liberty , and mens concernednesse in the valuation of both , i shall occasionally affirm , that the next best way to liberty of conscience for the preservation of the publick peace of a country , where spirituall liberty is regarded in any high measure by the people , is an inquisition . but he hath much to learn in politicks , who thinks that an inquisition is practicable among us as 't is in spain , where one religion hath had quiet possession in the countrey so many yeares . the second reason to prove that the peace and safety of the nation will be very considerably advanced by the allowance of freedom to mens consciences , shall be this ; as long as there is such a due liberty of conscience granted , 't is hardly possible for any civil wars to happen on the account of religion , which for want of this freedom may . if there are but two parties in a nation that differ from one another in religion , 't is not unlikely but that a civil war may arise on the account of religion , though the one doth tolerate the other ; because either of them that thinks its share in the chief magistrates savour least , may for that reason attempt a forcible suppression of the other : but any such war can hardly be where the parties differing in religion are many ; for they are not likely to know the exact strength of one another , and their severall animosities will keep them from joyning together against any one that doth not invade their liberty in generall . nothing but extreme necessity can bring them to meet amicably and consult together . for the nearer they seem to one another in opinion , the sharper their mutuall hatreds are ; just as people of severall countreys that live in the frontires of each , do hate one another with a greater vehemence then those more remotely situated do . besides , 't is probable that if any one of the parties tolerated should go about to make it self uppermost , ( which design only could make it fly out into a civil war ) the rest would immediately joyne to suppresse it . for they are not sure they shall have that from the conquering party , after all the horrors of war , which they already possesse , to wit , a fair liberty . which if it be competently allow'd to the severall parties , seditious persons at home , and the ministers of state to our enemies abroad , will be deprived of their old benefit from our divisions in religion , which they accidentally made use of as a handle to draw us into civil war ; just as by the spanish counsells formerly the kings of france have been excited to persecute the huguenots sometimes , and the huguenots been fed with money and advice to resist their persecutors ; and as in like manner richelieu is thought to have encouraged the last arch-bishop of canterbury to increase his severity toward the puritans , and to have animated the scotch and english puritans to do as they did . i grant that in respect of forreign invasion it is somewhat dangerous for a prince to tolerate any religion in his countrey that his neighbours are of , and those potent , and likely to invade him . for then such an invader would expect assistance from those of his opinion in religion , who would promise to themselves the advantage of having their opinions the paramount state-religion upon the invaders success . and for this reason we are obliged to be wary in the toleration we allow papists . we have no reason to be afraid of the toleration of calvinists , because the united provinces in the low countries are of that perswasion , for they are not a common-wealth of increase by armes but trade . nor would they take our countrey if we should offer it them , for they would not know what to do with it , as their affaires at present are , and likely to be . in this second reason i consider , that as there is hardly a possibility of a civill war arising on the account of religion , if there be a fair liberty of conscience established ; so there is danger in this particular from the severall parties if there be no such liberty . i grant that 't is the principle and practice of some of these parties , and especially those call'd presbyterian ( by far the most considerable of them ) to suffer for religion , rather then to resist meerly for it ; and therefore we have no reason to charge them with taking up of armes purely for religion . but yet i think , had it not been for religions sake , and for the greater freedom of their consciences , they would not formerly have pretended that necessity or lawfulnesse to take up arms on a civil account as they did . for though their right in civil things was , as they pretended , the constituent cause of the war , yet religion was the impulsive , or that which inclined them to make use of the other ; of which though they thought lawfully they could , yet but for this impulsive cause they would not have made use . and truly any man that considers the addictednesse of the english nation to religion in generall , will not wonder at mens being stimulated thereby to do what in civill things they think they lawfully may . of this propension of the english not onely to religion , but vehemence in it , barclay doth well take notice , who saith of them , nec quicquam in numinis cultu modicum possunt ; and afterward speaking how ridiculously narrow in their principles our severall sects were , saith , they thought unos se coelestium rerum participes , exortes caeteros omnes esse . i. e. nor can they in the worship of god do any thing without excesse , they think themselves the only sharers of heavenly things , and all other persons to be no way concern'd in partaking of them . nor is the strong and passionate inclination of this kingdom to religion , a humour bred lately among us since the introduction of protestancy ; for the greatest part of the decretal epistles in the books of the canon-law were sent to the english as rescripts occasioned by their addresses to the pope , for his determination in several matters of religion . besides , it may be attributed much to the efficacy of religion in general among us , that no epidemical vice is charged upon our nation , as upon others . but that which is most important in the confirmation of the tendency that the liberty propounded hath to promote the safety and peace of the nation , is the consideration of the prevalent interest these severall parties have therein , and consequently ability to do harm or good ; which i shall make use of as a third reason of the above-mentioned assertion . now here i shall begin with the sort of divines call'd presbyterian , ( though more truly meriting to be styled those that are for moderate episcopacy ) and shall consider their interest and strength . and first , the whole kingdom of scotland is united in a solemn league with them : nor is the federall union likely to be dissolved between that nation and them , because they have submitted to the form of primitive episcopacy described by the bishop of armagh , their covenant binding them only against that high prelacy formerly in use among us . secondly , the way of their preaching being very practicall , and accompanied with zeal and vehemence , doth leave generally deep impressions on the minds of men , and consequently creates among the people a reverentiall esteem for their persons . and indeed so many preachers as there are of the moderate episcopall or presbyterian way , there are so many orators , whereby they influence the people more then if they were so many postillers . every one of them almost doth , as tully saith , aculeos relinquere in animis audientium . their way of preaching is not whining , like that of the sectaries ; and though far from being in most of them conformable to the rules of rhetorick , yet i count it suitable to oratory , because it doth perswade . 't is beyond dispute , that this way of puritanicall preaching hath insinuated it self much into the affections of many , by that civility and emendation of manners it hath proselyted them into , and so hath obtain'd respect both from them and their relations . nor can it but be supposed that the common sort of men , i mean such as live by trade , whose being either rich or beggers depends much on the honesty of their servants , should like that sort of preachers best , who are most passionate and loud against vice , and the appearances of it . and the impressions of this practicall way of preaching are the more permanent in their hearers , because these preachers do propagate the belief of the morality of the sabbath , and do oblige their hearers to discourse on that day chiefly of religious things , and to pass their time in prayer , and repetition of the sermons then preach'd . thirdly , they are highly esteem'd by a great part of the people for the strictnesse and austority of their lives . and by nothing more then unstain'd lives can ministers attract reverence for their persons and doctrines . how much mens affections cool toward a religion many of the teachers whereof are debauch'd , appeares by that common observation of travellers , that the people who live at a great distance from rome are more superstitious then those who live in rome , where they see so much prophanenesse among the grandees of the church . fourthly , being for the most part of them not much immerst in the studies of school-divinity , and indeed more polite literature , as philology , &c. they are enabled to preach oftner , and have more sermons of practicall divinity to print , then the reverend divines of the old hierarchy ; and by this means to adde to their repute and credit with the people . fifthly , they converse more generally with one another , and with the common people , then the reverend divines that are for the former prelacy do . and indeed men that are resolved students , and habitually bookish , have regrets against conversation , especially that of those men they can gain no knowledg by . nor indeed is the company of illiterate lay-men ordinarily acceptable to any scholars , but such as pursue knowledg in mechanicks . now so great and generall is the conversation of the divines call'd presbyterian with one another , that not one of them can come to live in any countrey , but in a few weeks is known to all the ministers of that party there , whom he meets at lectures , or publick fasts . on the other side , it is usuall for the divines of the former prelatical perswasion , to admit only those to a freedom of converse with them that are in ecclesiastical or civil dignity equal to them . moreover , the divines call'd presbyterian do more then the others converse with their hearers , and by this means have the interest of confessors among lay-people , from whom they hear related the most secret passages of their lives and consciences , and of the spiritual maladies and desertions they languish under . and here it may be observ'd how the non-conforming divines were heretofore necessarily more then the other obliged to be much in the company of their lay-hearers ; for by being so , most of them got those church-preferments they had : their opinions causing them to be put by from fellowships of colledges in the universities , they betook themselves for shelter to the lay-puritans in several parts of the nation , and so compass'd the being lecturers in corporations and market-townes . and hereby they became of more active tempers , saw more of the world , were more harden'd , either for the resisting what troubles they could , and bearing what they could not resist , then others that in quest of knowledg and the highest dignities of the church , had been long in universities accustom'd to private and sedentary lives . sixthly , by their dis-esteem of ceremonies and external pomp in the worship of god , they are the more endear'd to corporations , and the greater part of persons engaged in trade and traffick , who hate ceremonies in generall , that is , forms and set behaviours that are not necessary , as being not at leisure for them , and as they are expenceful , and as contrary to their genius and education . and indeed men that live amidst the continual dispatches of business in a way of trade , do naturally grow into a hatred of what doth unnecessarily take up time . we see therefore in holland , that funerals ( the last solemn offices the dead can have paid them , and of which the observation in less trading countries doth with its ceremonies devoure so much time ) are there to be celebrated before two i' th' afternoon ; and for every houre that a herse is kept in a house after that time , somewhat what is paid to the state. nor can it otherwise be , but that the same persons who nauseate ceremonies in civil things , will loath them likewise in religious : just as a man that hath an antipathy against muskadine in his parlour , cannot love it at the sacrament . the fathers , upon whose writings those that would now recommend ceremonies to the church do build their assertions of them , were such as did live in the southern parts of the world , where ceremonies are more lov'd in civil and religious things , then by us northern people they are . and besides , the people there being of sharper wits then among us they are , the artifices of ceremonies are requisite to raise mists before their understanding faculties , and to detain them from as much knowledg as they can by admiration , lest they should become the less obedient by being the more knowing . the eminency of the southern wits above the northern appeares to us from the constant and just complaints of northern nations , that the southern have still over-reach'd them in treaties , after they had defeated their armies in the field . and what i here observe concerning these nations , is attested by bodin in his fifth book de republicâ : where he shews what his observation of the genius and subtle understandings of southern people was , and how it was fit they should be awed into the doing of things by a solemn and pompous managery of religion . 't is further observable concerning northern nations , that they are more addicted to trade then southern ; which they are necessitated to be , because the things that of their own accord , that is , without industry , grow out of the earth , are fewer among them then southern ; and because they are more populous : and while they are more then the other nations addicted to trade , they must needs be less addicted to ceremonies . the hollanders may serve as an instance to evince the truth of this , who having scarce any native commodities , & being a populous countrey , for their quantity of ground , and being forced to advance trade , can hardly abstain from markets on the lords day , and do account it a piece of devotion to cover their wares in sermon time . much less could they , or indeed any trading countrey , admit so many holy-days as our church of england did abound with . the lutheran religion being profest chiefly in countries that subsist by trade , though it owns an episcopall form of church-government , hath annex'd to it but few ceremonies ; and i think except bowing at the name of iesus , and standing up at the creed , none considerable . nor are there in any church of calvin's perswasion responsalls to be used by the people in their liturgies , as in ours : nor in the lutheran churches , do any but the chatechis'd boys mind them much . and in holland the lutheran church doth admit men to the sacrament without private confession and absolution , which in less trading places it strictly requires . while i am now inquiring into the disposition of trading countries , i shall by the way observe , that the interest which the protestant religion hath in them , is its greatest visible security and defence . for though princes of the popish religion do command a greater quantity of ground then protestant princes , yet they have not an interest in maritime townes and trading places equall to them . and and as the present state of christendom is , he that commands the sea commands the shore , and the dominion of the sea through gods mercy is in protestant hands . but to return from whence i digrest . if we reflect on those that did most love ceremonies heretofore in our nation , we shall find them to have been persons of the greatest rank and quality among us , who did affect ceremonies in civil things ; or of the poorest sort , who did get their daily bread by the charity of the other . the midling sort of men , and especially the substantial trades-men of corporations , did generally disgust them . so natural is it for men to paint god in colours suitable to their own fancies , that i do not wonder at trading persons who hate ceremonies , that they thus think god in respect of this hatred altogether such as themselves . and therefore almighty god designing his worship from the jewish church to be full of ceremonies , and such as were typical of his son , did divert that nation from the utmost promoting of trade . to this end they were not planted , except a few of them by the sea-side , but in in-land places , and thereby were the better enabled to advance shepherdry , and the multiplying of various kinds of cattel in order to their sacrifices . they were forbid to take use money of one another , not that there was any reall evil or injustice in usury , but that it would have drawn them on to the advancement of trade , and consequently have interrupted the course of their solemn rites and ceremonies : religion would then have suffer'd by trade , whereas the contrary thing hath since happen'd from it . for beside those vices that are concomitant of idleness , which trade repels , the increase of navigation must necessarily propagate the knowledg of christian religion , as well as humane arts and sciences . thus , multi pertransibunt , & augebitur scientia . if in opposition to what hath been said about trading persons , being generally disaffected to ceremonies in religion ; any shall urge , that in the popish republicks trade and ceremonies are both us'd : it may be answer d , that the many ceremonies there are rather endured then loved , and that if mens understandings were not there mis-guided by a belief of their being necessary to salvation , the practice of them would quickly be abated ; just as we see the motion of a lock to be alter'd when the hand is removed that held back the spring . let but the protestant religion get ground there , and so consequently the tributes of their time be no more demanded for their present ceremonies , and we shall soon find how unwilling they will be to pay them . i shall now briefly speak of the other parties , as the independents , &c. and take notice of their considerableness , and hopes of bidding fair for an interest in the hearts of any of the people . and here i shall observe , that if these sects had got no ground in the nation , that yet they want not their likelyhoods of doing it ; and that first by reason of the ready inclination of many among us to mutability , in nothing more then their opinions about controverted things in religion . for opinions held by the english are held by islanders ; and therefore bodin in his methodus ad facilem historiarum cognitionem , and fifth chapter of it , doth very judiciously shew how people are to be moderated by different laws , according to their climates and situations , which he confirmes by mentioning the severall vices and vertues of countries remotely distant from one another ; saying , how that ventosa loca ferociores homines & mobiliores reddunt , quieta verò humaniores & constantiores . i. e. countries disturb'd with frequent winds make men more fierce and mutable ; but countries that are free from such , do make men more civil and constant . and secondly , because the protestant religion doth indemnifie us in the court of conscience , for believing in matters of religion according to the dictates of our private judgements , or rather oblige us to it . doubtless , if it be not lawful for every man to be guided by his private judgement in things of religion , t' will be hardly possible to acquit our separation from the romish church from the guilt of schism . the genius of the protestant religion doth make it as naturall to us to weigh and consider any notions , though recommended to us by our ministers , as 't is to tell money after our spiritual fathers , which we shall be as ready to do as after our naturall . nor can the decisions of synods and generall councils terminate our inquiries in religion , or keep single divines from recommending notions de fide . and therefore as any judge is concern'd to be wary how he gives sentence in a cause , or inforceth the execution of it , when there lie appeales from his to severall other judicatories ; so doth it likewise import synods or conventions of divines to be cautious in their deciding matters of faith , since every such cause is to be carryed from their bar to the examination of more then ten thousand chancellours , as many being judges of the cause as there are rational men . it hath been long since observ'd by many , that christian religion hath moderated the extremity of servitude as to civil things in the places where it hath been receiv'd . and certainly it is much more consonant to that religion , and especially that form of it which hath asserted its spirituall freedom from the impositions of others , to allow spiritual liberty to others . nor doth it seem worthy of christ , who hath left us a religion full of mysteries , and not any visible judge of them , to have design'd about those any visible executioners . if any man thinks otherwise let him say so . i might further shew how these sects caresse the vulgar , in giving the power of the keys to the people in their gather'd churches ; and how likely 't is that many busie men , and of good natural parts , who have not learning enough to procure any good church-preferment from the old or modern episcopall men , and it may be any such learned men as have been repuls'd by them as to preferment , will be gathering churches . but this present inquiry concerning the interest the severall sects among us have in the hearts of many , needs no further prosecution . we find too many places swarming with them : and such is the peculiar temper and complexion of most people of these perswasions , and the melancholy of them more fix'd and sharp then that of any other party , that this concurring with religion ( of which i doubt not but very many of them have a true sense ) will incline them to persist in their present practises . of the heighth and setledness of these mens discontents we had experience , in their voluntary removal out of the nation , carrying their estates with them , some to holland , and others to new england ; when the other more sagacious party of non-conformists , since call'd presbyterians , chose to weather out the storm at home , and to get for themselves as good terms as they could . the fourth reason that i shall urge to prove how much the peace and security of the nation will be advanc'd by the liberty propounded , may be taken from the inclinations of orders and degrees of other men among us , and such as are not much engaged in these parties ; who account it their interest to be free from any religious impositions of the clergy , and to have the power of bishops so moderated , as that they may not be able to make any suffer for not being of their opinions in lesser matters of religion . and here i shall observe , first , how the judges of the land and the lawyers generally have been ready to curb the excess of power in any bishops . the bishops judging of ecclesiastical causes according to the canon law , ( a law of which albericus gentilis , that renown'd civilian , saith in the th . chap. of his second book de nuptiis , sed hoc jus brutumque & barbarum sane est , natum in tenebris seculorum spississimis , productum a monacho tenebrione , &c. ) was an occasion of our lawyers contrasts with them . and what may well create suspicions , that the bishops keeping of courts as they did was not according to law , may be had from those words of the arch-bishop of canterbury , in his epistle dedicatory to the king before his speech in the star-chamber . i do humbly in the churches name desire of your majesty , that it may be resolv'd by all the reverend iudges of england , and then publish d by your majesty , that our keeping courts and issuing processe in our own names , and the like exceptions formerly taken , and now renew'd , are not against the law of the realm , &c. and how ready the lawyers have been to check the severity of ecclesiastical courts , their innumerable prohibitions shew . in the dayes of popery the prelates could awe the judges with excommunication , for such crimes as the church call'd so . but how little of terrour the application of that censure hath had since , appears from the frequent denouncing of it against the same man. and therefore that learned lawyer judge ienkins , in the second part of his works , saith , that for opposing the excesses of one of the bishops , he lay under three excommunications . secondly , the substantial body of the gentry heretofore was , and is still likely to be for the moderating the exercise of episcopal power , and for the opposing its extravagance . the oath ex officio , and commuting for penance , and other such kind of things , cannot but be thought troublesome to them . but that which i shall here chiefly take notice of , is , how a considerable part of the gentry of england is grown more inquisitive in matters of religion within these late yeares then formerly . where this inquiring temper is not , no opinion so horrid but may be universally believ'd . thus the turks may be induced to think that there is a devil in the juyce of grapes , and the papists that there may be a god therein . but when men are neither by religion or temper restrain'd from searching into the causes of things , they will not in civility to other mens understandings believe propositions to be true or false . and that which makes me ( beside my own observation ) to conclude that many of the gentry of late are grown more inquisitive in religious things then formerly , and are likely so to continue , is , because they are more then heretofore inquisitive in civil things . as when the polish'd knowledg of philologie had obtain'd a conquest over the insignificant learning of the school-men , no man was thought worthy the name of a scholar but he who understood the greek tongue ; so since the late introduction of reall learning into the world by galilaus , tycho brahe , my lord bacon , gassendus , & des cartes , neither the knowledg of elegant words , or nice speculations , wil yield any man the reputation of being learn'd that is altogether rude in mathematicks ; which as they were formerly counted the black art , and their professors , such as roger bacon , conjurers , so may possibly school-divinity and school-divines hereafter be . having thus asserted the present searching disposition of a great part of our ingenious gentry , it may well be hence inferr'd that liberty of conscience may be of high use to them , and that if any ecclesiasticall persons determine any thing contrary to their reasons , they will not believe them , or , if against their safety , not obey them . i think therefore by the way , it was very politickly done of the consistory of cardinalls to imprison galilaeus for affirming the motion of the earth , since that notion of his might fill the world with several new debates and inquiries , and so ignorance the mother of devotion be destroy'd . to prevent which , effectuall care is taken by the iesuites , as appeares by the instructions given them in the directory of their order , call'd directorium exercit . spirit . ignatii loyolae , part . p. . where there are , regulae aliquae tenendae ut cum orthodoxâ ecclesiâ sentiamus . and the first rule is , vt sublato proprio omni judicio , teneamus semper promptum paratumque animum ad obediendum catholicae & hierarchicae ecclesiae . it followes p. . reg. . ut ecclesiae conformes simus , si quid quod oculis nostris appareat album nigrum illa definiverit , debemus itidem quod nigrum sit pronuntiare . this is in the edition of that book at tholou , anno . and confirm'd by the bull of pope paul the third . in short , he that hath had but any conversation with that ingenious part of the gentry who have concern'd themselves in the consideration of church-government , cannot but take notice of these two assertions being in vogue among them ; which whether true or no 't is not here pertinent to determine . the first , that 't is possible for monarchy to subsist here without that high power our bishops formerly had , and so that maxim , no bishop no king , hath been disbelieved . this maxim seems to them true concerning turky , no mufti no grand signior , because the mufti can with the screen of religion as he pleases hide the ugliness of those actions the grandeur of the turkish empire is supported by . but our kings govern according to law , and so the engin of superstition is not here of use for the amusing people into slavery . i confess , any party of men that wil not own the kings supremacy in ecclesiastical causes as well as civil , is not fit to be allow'd as the state-religion . but that supremacy of the kings in ecclesiastical matters and in civil , is acknowledged by the divines that are for the lord primates form of episcopacy , as much as by any other . a second assertion very much receiv'd among them is , that no particular form of church-government is of divine right . of this opinion my lord bacon shews himself to be expresly in his considerations touching the edification and pacification of the church of england : and so my lord falkland , in one of his printed speeches , where speaking of bishops , he saith , i do not believe them to be jure divino , nay i believe them to be not jure divino , but neither do i believe them to be injuria humana . so that it is no wonder that among our ordinary enquirers after knowledg this notion is believed , which was so by those two incomparably learned persons . and it may seem much more to gratifie the power of princes , then the maxim , no bishop no king can do . the author of the history of the council of trent , makes mention how laymez , generall of the jesuits , spent a whole congregation in proving that bishops are jure pontificio , and not jure divino ; and said , that the power of iurisdiction was given wholly to the bishop of rome , and that none in the church hath any spark of it but from him . 't is there said how the legats were of opinion that the question of the divine right of bishops was set on foot to gratifie the authority of bishops , and that the importance of that might be to inferre that the keys were not given to peter onely , that the council was above the pope , and the bishops equall to him ; they saw that the dignity of cardinals superiour to bishops was quite taken away , and the court brought to nothing ; that the preventions and reservations were remov'd , and the collation of benefices drawn to the bishops . thus we see how apt men are to make use of divine right , as fire , and to count it a good servant , but a bad master . nor are some without their feares , that if bishops were here publickly own'd as by divine right , that the king would quickly lose his power of nominating them , and subjects the benefit of appeals from their courts to the king in chancery . i acknowledg that a moderate episcopacy is generally reputed of church-governments the best : but the believers of the divine right of it are of late years grown very few . for the skirmishes in the presse and pulpit concerning it , between the divines of severall parties , have occasion'd two popular reasons to be brought against it ; which how valid they are , is not my task to determine . the first is this , that is not likely to be of divine positive right ( which is the right here meant ) about which christians equally considerable for strength of parts , both naturall and acquired , and for time spent in that part of controversiall divinity that concerns church-discipline , and withall for holinesse in their lives , do at last disagree . the second reason drawn from the eager disputes of church-men about their severall divine rights is this ; nothing really oppressive of civil societies , or destructive of their welfare , is of divine right : but so these forms of church-government have been by the opposite divines of each perswasion accused to be , and likewise by other persons . it hath been further observ'd by many , that though severall things were once confirm'd in the church by an apostolicall precept or practise , they are like lawes abolish'd by desuetude , and do not now oblige the christian world , according to the vogue of all our church-men : as namely the diaconissae , the anointing the sick with oyle , the peoples saying amen after the ministers prayers , and preaching with the head uncover'd , &c. to conclude the examination then of this particular ; a considerable number of the laity , whose fortunes and parts do keep them from standing up and drawing their swords to maintain other mens creeds in every circumstance of them , having by the contests of the clergy found out ( as they think ) the vanity of all their pretendings to divine right , will not encourage immoderate and high behaviours in any one party of them ; but upon this their imagin'd detection adhere to that form of church-government that shall seem to them most consistent with the nations good ; just as the roman emperours were sometimes chosen in the camp , evulgato ( as tacitus saith ) imperiarcano , principem alibi quam romae fieri posse . thirdly , it is naturall to parliaments to check any power that invades a due liberty of conscience , themselves wanting it as well as those whom they represent . nor can any body of men be well without it , as we see in the late assembly of divines , that party which joyn'd against the independents did want liberty of conscience about no mean points in religion ; some of those presbyterian divines ( as they were call'd ) being of calvins , and others of bishop davenants opinions , concerning election and reprobation . and moreover , the parliament that call'd that synod was in matters of religion much more divided . but i shall chuse to look further back on the nature of our parliaments in reference to religion . it cannot be expected that while popery was prevalent in england , much liberty of conscience should be granted ; the pope being then reputed the vicar of christ in spirituall things , was necessarily to be obey'd therein . and yet notwithstanding the authority he had here , no man suffer'd death for opposing his dictates in religion , till the second of henry the fourth . nor are there wanting lawyers , and those both learned in their profession , and in this case uninteressed , who deny that this statute was ever more then a pretended one , and say that it was never assented to by the commons ; and that whereas in the act it self it is said , praelati & clerus supradicti , ac etiam communitates dicti regni supplicarunt , that those words , communitates dicti regni , are not in the parliament-roll , in which when the law comes to be enacted it runs in this form of words , qui quidem dominus rex ex assensu magnatum , & aliorum procerum ejusdem regni , concessit & statuit , &c. where the commons are not at all named . see mr. bagshaw of the temple his reading on the statute of . edward the iii. call'd , statutum pro clero , p. . but that de facto this statute went currant for law , the cruell effects of it did too clearly shew . yet as high as the popish clergy then was , with whom that usurping king complyed , the commons petition'd the king to take away their temporal possessions , and that the statute made against lollards in the second year of the king might be repeal'd . and by the complaint of the commons , as appeares by the statute of . henry the viii , it was then in part repeal'd . afterward in a parliament held vicesimo octavo of the queen the commons quarrell'd with the excessive power of the clergy , desiring to have it restrain'd both in the conferring of orders , and in their censures and oath ex officio . 't is true , the foundation of the high commission is built upon the statute of the first of queen elizabeth ; but the design of that was chiefly to destroy the interest of the popish clergy then not exterminated . in the reigns of following princes , a party known by the name of puritan had obtain'd a large vogue in parliament , insomuch that that party , and another call'd the patriots ( a sort of men who were zealots for the welfare of the nation , though not for any religion ) being frequently in conjunction , were the over-ballancing party in the house of commons . and in the last parliament on the fifteenth of december , . it was resolv'd , nemine contradicen●e , that the clergy of england convented in any convocation or synod , or otherwise , have no power to make any constitutions , canons or acts whatsoever , in matter of doctrine , or otherwise , to bind the clergy or layety of this land , without the commons consent in parliament ; and that the severall constitutions and canons ecclesiasticall , treated upon by the arch-bishops of canterbury and york , and the rest of the bishops and clergie of those provinces , and agreed upon by the kings majesties licence , in their severall synods began at london and york , . do not bind the clergy or laiety of this land , or either of them . which vote of that house may seem to be grounded on this consideration , that a legislative power is inseparable from the king and parliament ; and that if a parliament would transmit their interest in the legislative power to any other order of men , they cannot do it , more then a judge can delegate his authority to his clerks , or any be a deputies deputy . i shall onely here further observe , that the lawyers ( whose obligations on the account of interest to moderate the power of bishops i have before spoke of ) are still likely to be a great part of the house of commons , and to have the conduct of parliamentary affaires much in their hands , and to concur with any party against the bishops , if they should invade the due liberty of mens consciences , or endeavour to make themselves formidable in the nation . the last reason i shall urge to prove what advantages will redound to the nation from the allowance of a due liberty of conscience , is , that it will necessarily produce an advancement of our trade and traffick , the hinderance whereof must needs follow from the contrary practice . the largenesse of trade in any countrey is most certainly founded in the populousnesse of it . 't is onely in populous countries that the wages of work-men are cheap , whereby a greater store of manufactures is prepared for exportation . in populous countries onely they fell their own commodities dear , and buy foreign cheap . 't is there that land is worth twice as many yeares purchase as elsewhere . and in such countries onely is the fishing trade carryed on , which none will employ themselves in that can live upon the shore reasonably well ; and which in populous countries enough will not be able to do . this then being laid down as a principle , that the wealth of any nation depends on its populousnesse , i may confidently affirm , that the populousnesse of a countrey doth much depend upon the liberty of conscience that is there granted . the kingdom of spain may here serve for this to be exemplified in , where there are not men enough to manufacture their own wooll , and where there is more black mony , brass or copper coin used then in other nations , notwithstanding all the silver that comes thither from the west-indies . it was the rigour of the inquisition that brought that monarch , who would have been an universall one , to send ambassadours to his high and mighty subjects . but we need not look out of our own countrey for instances of trades suffering together with freedom of conscience : for by reason of the former severity exercised on those that would not conform to the ceremonies imposed , many thousands of people bred up in a way of trade and traffick left the kingdom , going , some of them to america , and others to holland , where our countrey-men did compensate to the hollanders for severall manufactures which they directed us to , when the rage of duke alva's persecution occasion'd their residence among us . and what could more prejudice the trade of our countrey i know not , then the peopleing other countries with our artificers , and the teaching them our arts and manufactures . and it is considerable that the sort of trading men on whom the shock of persecution did seem to light most heavily , was that of those whose trades did lie chiefly in advancing our staple-commodity of wooll , and preparing our old and new draperies for exportation : to which trades the ordinary sort of puritan non-conformists were rather inclined then to ploughing and digging , because in these trades of theirs ; as namely weaving , spinning , dressing , &c. their children might read chapters to them as they were at work , and they might think or speak of religious things , or sing psalmes , and yet pursue their trades . besides , these trades were more suitable to their constitutions , which were generally not so robust as of others ; and to the melancholy of their tempers . now these men being frequently disturb'd by apparitors , and summon'd to ecclesiasticall courts for working on holy-days perhaps , or going on a sunday to some neighbouring parish when they had no sermon in their own , or for some such causes , were so hinder'd in the course of their trades , that they were necessitated to remove out of the kingdom . they could not expect that merchants or other trading persons would imploy them and take their work , unlesse they could bring it in at such a set time that it might be as occasion required exported , and sent to faires and markets abroad at punctuall times likewise ; which merchants are concern'd in taking care of , lest their commodities be undersold . now these puritan traders were not in a capacity to dispatch the sending in of their manufactures to others at the time agreed on , by reason of their frequent citations to , and delays at , the bishops courts . and since other nations have now the way of making cloath , as namely france , holland and flanders , if we do not sell it cheaper then they , we shall hardly have any abroad sold at all . to conclude the examination of this particular affaire ; not any that hath search'd at all into the nature of the trade of this nation , but believes that the best way to advance it would be to call in and invite any protestant strangers to come and live among us ; and to encourage artists of all nations to come and plant themselves here : which cannot be done without the giving them a due liberty of conscience , and if it be our interest to encourage strangers , and give them this liberty , this dealing may much more be expected by our own natives . but , 't is needlesse to insist longer in giving plain reasons for a plain proposition . i shall onely therefore before i now draw this discourse about the due liberty of conscience that is fit to be practised in this nation toward an end , shew that thereby the reverend fathers of the churche , the bishops , will find their inter●st advanc'd in particular , as well as the interest of the nation in generall . if any man shall say that the government of the church by bishops is the most pure and apostolicall , i am firmly of his opinion ; yet as no bishop no king is now no uncontradicted maxim , so is it lesse unquestion'd , that no force in matters of religion , no bishop . but notwithstanding the severity that hath been exercised on mens consciences by former prelats , such is the prudence of some of the present fathers of the church , that they will i believe see it to be as much their interest to give liberty of conscience , as it can be the interest of any men to receive it . and indeed if this were but in a fair manner distributed among the severall sects i have spoken of , they would no more endeavour the destruction of the episcopall clergy , then the iews at rome tolerated do design the ruine of the pope . nay further , these sects having liberty under their government would serve them as a ballance against popular envy . i have often wish'd that our nobility would dispose the education of some of their sonnes in order to ecclesiasticall preferments , and that a great deal of envy might be diverted by the same persons , being lords spirituall and temporall . but it cannot be expected that persons nobly descended should be engaged in holy orders , till they could see the way of administring things in the church to be as much in the affections of the people here , or above danger from their hatred , as in other countries it is , where the nobless are many of them church-men . now then the reverend fathers the bishops , may compasse the affections of the people by liberty of conscience , and security from the danger of their hatred by an inquisition ; but ( as i said before ) that cannot it self be compast here . indeed our ecclesiasticall rulers have reason to steer us cautiously , since they sit at helm in such a ship as hath thrown very many pilots over-board . and it may well become those worthy divines that have been of late releast through gods good providence from the extremity of their sufferings , to be of most calm , quiet and sedate spirits , just as persons taken from the rack do presently fall asleep . the great alteration in the body of the people since these last twenty years , requires that our old ends of promoting the welfare of the church of england , should be attain'd by the conduct of new means . for the greatest part of the old assertors of all the ceremonies of the church are lodged in graves , many of the zealous lovers of them are now in heaven , where calvinists and episcopal men agree ; and the present major part of this land consists of those , to whom the introducing the old church-government will seem an innovation . i grant the inconveniences which we suffer'd for want of church-government in generall have been many , and those which we should have suffer'd from a scotch presbytery would have been more . but yet it must likewise be granted , that the undistinguishing vulgar will be but too ready to endeavour the removall of any church-government which doth at present inconvenience them , without considering that the miseries they formerly felt will thereby recur upon them ; just as a horse will strive to fling any rider that doth at present gall and spur him too much , without considering that the next rider may possibly gall him worse ; or as a man would try to repell the hand of one who held a burning coal to his flesh , though he should tell him that if that coal were removed he would apply a hotter . they therefore that would endeare any form of church-government to the majority of the people , are concern'd to make it largely diffusive of advantage to them . 't is very apparent how many parties among us have been ruin'd by narrowing their interest , and not making it nationall . and god grant that after all our enquiries about church-discipline , the gentry of england be not by any divisions the present clergy may cause , tempted to cry up the divine right of erastianisme , and say no erastian no king ; which opinion doth as much exceed the episcopal in giving power to the king , as the episcopal doth the presbyterian , or that the independent perswasion . it is therefore the true interest of the clergy here so to temper the government of the church , that it may be accommodated to the content and satisfaction of the gentry or other lay-persons , and of its own members . and 't is very irrationall to think that any church-government in a protestant countrey can be so , which doth restrain a large and almost absolute power to the hands of a few . nor is it more prudent for france to own no distinction between a gentry and a nobility , but to allow equal priviledges to such as we reduce to two orders here , that it may effectually curb the insolence of the peasants , then for the whole clergy here to grow into one body or form of government , and all the parts thereof to be influenced with a convenient power , that so it may be in no danger from the enemies of a ministry in generall . nor was there ever any thing propounded as a means to make the clergy of england very considerable , that can be thought comparable to the form of episcopacy described by the bishop of armagh . and therefore i do not wonder that its publickly own'd by the divines formerly call'd presbyterian ( who now deserve a name less odious , and to be call'd the divines that are for moderate episcopacy , as i said before ) but rather that it is not as generally contended for by all their brethren of the church , excepting a few that are actually invested with the highest dignities therein . now if we divide the clergy here into 〈◊〉 parts , not one in three hath these great dignities , or is likely in any time to attain to them . but that which the bishop of armaghs model of episcopacy offers to more then three parts of four , is an accession of power , or a gaining of that authority in ecclesiasticall matters , as namely in ordination and church-censures , which before they had not . and certainly , the grasping of present power must needs to any ingenious men of the clergy seem more delightfull then the tedious expectation of distant preferments , and the servile licking up of any mens spittle , that others hereafter may do so with theirs . by the practice of this modell the spirit of the clergy would be kept from being embased , and the ordinary sort of vicars would be cured of affecting servility , laziness and ignorance . industry , parts , learning , would be likewise thereby encouraged . for the power of the keys being thus given to the bishop and all the presbyters in any precinct or dioces , those men that could offer the best reasons for things , and shew the greatest strength of parts , would be most swaying in ecclesiastical conventions . nor is it likely that the gentry would be aggrieved at the practice of this way of episcopacy , or every church-censure's passing through a consistory of divines . for 't is not probable that in such an assembly there should be a combination to execute any censure on any man , to gratifie the lusts or private piques of another . besides , there is no such way that a divine can use to make himself considerable with the laiety as his being eminent for power in the sphere of his own profession ; just as a mercer that would by any sway influence the company of drapers , must first obtain a large interest in his own company . in short , the clergy by this fair distribution of ecclesiastical power among them will not be in danger of ruine by the discontents of any of its members , or of any of the laiety while liberty of conscience is secured to them , and ceremonies are not imposed . nor is there any way by which the incoveniences of the presbyterian government can again invade us , but by the engrossing of ecclesiasticall power in the hands but of few persons , and by their using rigour and violence . i know 't is ridiculous to imagin that a presbyterian government can under that notion find many to own it now in this kingdom . yet are the non-conformists likely still to increase , as from edward the sixths time to this they have gradually done . and some that are weary of our former presbytery , may yet be willing to return to it , if they find episcopacy afflictive to them ; though thereby they onely shift their pain . for nothing so much as persecution makes men set up , altare contra altare , every man choosing rather to be a sacrificer on his own altar , then a sacrifice upon anothers . if any ecclesiastical persons therefore shall design to gratifie the peace and welfare of the nation without the allowance of a due liberty of conscience , i shall think their onely aime hereby is to confirm the truth of their doctrine and discipline by a miracle . i cannot but judge them too sagacious , to believe that they can convince mens understandings of the truth of any assertions by torturing their bodies . for men by the rage of passion to conduct knowledg into the world , is as unlikely as the lighting of a candle with gun-powder . how ridiculous is it to think that truth got any thing by the writings that pass'd between luther and henry the eight ? there are severall erroneous opinions , that if we wish the world well rid of , we shall find to die away of their own accord , if we do not exasperate the maintainers of them ; just as nature makes us amends for the ugliness of monsters in their being short-lived . yet even in the case of naturall unhandsomenesse , i have seen the vulgar vary from their common rule of judging it , when a deform'd malefactor hath been going to execution . nor do the words of cheaters that die on gibbets want belief among the rabble . and if the common people are alwaies so ready to believe what is affirm'd by infamous persons , because they are dying , we may well suppose they will give credit to the words of such as liv'd demurely when they are to die , because such and such thing were affirm'd by them . i believe that hardly more priests have been cut off by the law then papists thereby made . that faith hath been given to the assertors of popish opinions , because they have been dying , which they could just have drawn from me by raising the dead . nor is it a thing unobserv'd by any lookers into antiquity , that the christian religion hath still got ground in the world , not by persecuting but being persecuted . but that which i cannot without horror observe , is , that the not allowing a due liberty of conscience , hath instead of advancing the cause of truth , propagated atheism in this nation . this doth but too clearly appear from that irreligion many of our gentry have been infected with by the reverend divines of the church of england not having had freedom to worship god in publick according to their consciences . for severall persons of the gentry not being able to hear a liturgy , ( a way of prayer which every church in the christian world but ours then had ) and sermons from such divines as were not puritans , chose rather not to go to church at all then be there present at the worship they disgusted ; and no marvell that thus neglecting gods publick service , they at last grew unconcern'd in any religion . the like temptations to atheism would be incident to many that are not of the gentry , if liberty as has been propounded , should not be given to the non-conformist divines . for though severall of this sort of men would exercise their devotion in private meetings , and some would joyn with such publick worship as was to be had , yet many would hear no sermons at all , as possibly not likeing that which looks like a conventicle , and more disliking the way of praying and preaching us'd by very many divines that adhere to the former episcopacy . now t' were pity that this disease of speculative irreligion should infect the commonalty as well as others , and that by the persecution of ministers , who differed from us in lesser things , we should as it were naile those canons that might be employ'd in battering the atheism of the age , because they are not all of the same length and shape . which atheism i fear hath occasionally been not a little advanced by the disagreements of ministers about the divine right of severall forms of church-government . for things to be believed and done in order to salvation , can have no more then a divine right , and their opinions of discipline have claim'd so much ; and by this means they have made some foolish men apt to think that the trumpet of religion giveth an uncertain sound , and that nothing at all is of any divine right . i account the body politick of the nation to be as well concern'd in the upholding religion as the souls of men ; the majesty whereof would be sufficiently kept up , if the teachers of it did either agree in all points about it , or else in this one thing , that the dissenters in lesser controversies of religion are obliged to allow a mutuall toleration . and indeed when i consider what opinions men call one another hereticks for not agreeing in , it seems to me the same thing , as if after the pope had pronounced virgilius the bishop of saltsburg heretick , for saying there were antipodes , he should have call'd the pope heretick too for saying there were none . these parties that differ so in the circumstantial points of religion are equally antipodes to one another , and alike near heaven , and in the revolution of a few houres they see the same fun , though not the same stars ; i mean , they have the same fundamentall , though not lesse considerable truths . the popish religion among all the different ritualls our fore-fathers used was accounted the same , some worshipping god , secundum usum sarum , and others , secundum usum bangor , &c. why then may not the protestant religion be so esteem'd here among our little varyings ? though possibly some very few divines of all parties here for want of prudence and goodnesse of nature may endeavour the rigorous imposing of things not necessary , that is , such as we may be without , and which all protestant churches but ours are without ; yet will the laiety probably , and i hope a great part of the clergy of severall perswasions be far from concurring with them as abettors of such an odious work as may produce further mischiefes to church and state , meerly to gratifie the blind zeal or unpurged choler of a few . if gods ambassadors have a mind to quarrell about precedency or ceremonies in religious things , pretendding that it is necessary to observe them most strictly , the people are now grown so wise as not to think it necessary for themselves to encounter hazards , to make some of these legats of heaven submit to the punctilio's of others ; just as severall ambassadours from one prince falling out in a strange countrey about ceremonies in civil things , which one of them being of a loftier humour would reduce the rest to practice , would hardly find any of the natives of the place concern'd in their debate , whatever love they bore to their master . finis . a discourse representing the liberty of conscience , that is practised in forreign parts . by n.y. london , printed for nathaniel brook , and are to be sold at his shop at the angel in cornhill , . the liberty of religion , which is in use amongst protestants . t is first inquir'd what liberty the states which profess the protestant religion give to different opinions within their dominions ? to this i shall briefly answer , and begin with the northern climate , going along and relating what i have observed in every different jurisdiction . when i was in sweden , i found the administrators of that kingdom very much inclined to moderation towards the reformed party , for they suffered them not only to have school-masters of their own to teach their children , but also they permitted them to have private meetings in their distinct colonies , wherein they had the free use of holy ordinances in their own way without disturbance : and although the clergy of the nation did not willingly allow this ; yet whiles the king gustavus and his daughter the queen christina ruled , their liberty was not abridged ; but when charles came to the crown by the resignation of christina , the old chancellour oxenstiern , in favour of the clergy , caused the king to take an oath at his coronation , whereby he was obliged not only to restrain all publick exercise different from the lutheran , but also to abridg the reformed party of the liberty which they had formerly enjoyed ; which hath had some operation upon their freedom : but how far they are abridged of it now , i am uncertain . in denmark there is no liberty granted to any that differs in judgment , so far as i have been acquainted with that state , only in holstein , when the remonstrants after the synod of dort , had not that liberty which they desired in holland , they planted themselves in eidersh at fridericksburg , where they and others also obtained the prviledg of the exercise of their profession without control , which is continued unto them still . moreover , in holstein at altena , the high and the low dutch , and the french reformed churches have the liberty of publick meetings in their profession ; who dwelling in hamburg , and not obtaining that liberty within the city , have procured it within a little english mile from the gates thereof . in dantzick , the three professions , viz. reformed , lutherans , and papists , have , or rather had , an equall liberty in the time of keckermannus . the reformed party had the preeminence of the government , and then they did in a friendly manner admit of some lutherans to share with them in it ( for in religious concernments all were alike ; ) but since they have been admitted to partake with them in the government , they have found a way to worm the reformed party out of power , by which means they have abridged them of their ancient priviledges and liberties ; so that before these late troubles they were forced to appeal to the king of poland , who made decrees in favour of the reformed party ; but in these late troubles the waies of redress have been obstructed . and at elbing , when i was there the chief of the magistrates , and the regents of the school also , being of the reformed religion , the liberty was so equal that no party had any perceptible power over the other , but all was carried with that moderation , that no offence was either taken or given whiles i was there : but since ( i fear ) it is fallen out otherwise , a fierce lutheran minister succeeding in the room of him that then was there , who by dividing practises , and distinguishing forms , hath disturbed their peace . in poland there was an absolute freedom for the exercise of all professions , and the venting of all opinions ; the papists , the protestant , calvinists , lutherans , anabaptists , socinians , &c. all had an equal liberty : and because the protestants in former time found that by their divisions , and distance in communion from each other they were much weakned , therefore in the year they agreed at sendo●●ire , in a synod of the three parties , viz. the confession of helvetia , of bohemia , and of ausburg , to unite and make up but one body ▪ to which effect they established afterward at many national synods severall orders , to remove and prevent scandalls and disorderliness from amongst themselves , and to confirm their unity by the means of mutual edification . in transylvania both the reformed and the lutheran profession are equally free , and in nationall synods they meet together , and consult in common , concerning the means of mutual edification ; whereof i have a large proofe in the business of peace and unity , concerning which they have done more then any of the churches in europe , by answering all the doubts which were proposed unto them as cases of conscience to be resolved . in germany heretofore the reformed party did freely exercise their religion under the protection of the princes of their own profession ; but the lutherans did always make it a matter of dispute , whether that liberty did belong unto them yea or no ? yet now the treaty of peace lately concluded at munster and osnabrugge hath decided fully that controversy ; for , by a statute-law it is determined that the reformed party shall have the same right and priviledge of free exercise which lutheranes and papists have ; and this is thus determined by the th article of the instrument of peace . quoniam verò controversiae religionis , &c. now because the controversies of religion , which are in agitation at this time amongst the forenamed protestants , have not been hitherto reconciled , but have been referred to a further endeavour of agreement , so that they still make two parties ; therefore concerning the right of reforming , it is thus agreed between them ; that if any prince , or other lord of the territorie , or patron of any church , shall hereafter change his religion , or obtain , or recover a principality or dominion , either by the right of succession , or by vertue of this present treaty , or by any other title whatsoever , where the publick exercise of religion of the other party is at present in use , it shall be free to him to have his court-chaplains of his own confession about him in the place of his residence , without any burden or prejudice to his subjects ● but it shall not be lawfull for him to change the publick exercise of religion , or the laws or ecclesiasticall constitutions which have been there hitherto in use , or take from these that formerly were there their churches , their schooles , their hospitals , or the revenues , persians and stipends belonging thereunto , or apply them to the men of their own profession ; or obtrude ministers of another confession unto their subjects , under the pretence of a territoriall , episcopal or patronall right , or under any other pretext whatsoever ; or bring about any other hinderance or prejudice , directly or indirectly , to the religion of the other party . and that this agreement may be the more firm , in the case of such a change , it is lawfull for the communalties themselves to present ; or such as have not the right of presentation , they shall have the right to name fit school-masters , and ministers of the churches to be examined by the publick consistory or ministry , if they be of the same religion with the commu●alties , which nominate and present ; or if they be not of the same religion , they shall be examined in the place which the communalties shall chuse ; whom the prince or lord shall afterwards without any denial confirm . this statute-law of the empire is the ground of all that freedome which the reformed , or the lutheran party , can lay claim to , when they fall under magistrates of a different profession . as for the observation of this law , it is found that the reformed magistrate is almost every where more equitable towards lutherans , then these are unto those : for in the palatinate , at heidelberg , and other places ; in hessen , at smalcalden , and at marpurg , and in some places of anhalt ; in all the territories of the elector of brandenburg , and in the principalities of nassaw , where the reformed have the supreme power , the lutherans have their full liberty without interruption ; but where the lutherans have the supreme authority in germanie , i know no places where they permit the free exercise of the reformed profession ; but in the places named heretofore in holstein , at fridericksburg and altena ; and in hamburg the english have their freedome within the city , but none else ; nor doe i know any imperiall city where the magistrate is lutheran , which permits the reformed party to have the liberty of publick profession within their walls : there is one of the lutheran earls of hanaw , who hath given of late years to the reformed party dwelling in strasburg , the liberty to build a church upon his territory , and to have their publick meetings therein : and one of the lutheran marquesses of brandenburg hath done the like a year or two ago to the reformed inhabitants of noimberg . at bremen , where the magistrate is wholly reformed , within the city the lutherans have the possession of the cathedrall church , where they exercise their religious worship in publick ; but there are complaints made of the late king of sweden , that in the territory under his jurisdiction he hath suffered the statute of the empire touching the freedom of religion to be violated , by casting out the reformed ministers , and imposing lutherans upon the reformed professors , depriving them of the liberty which they have enjoyed ever since the first reformation of these places from popery . in the low countries of the united provinces , the lutherans , the remonstrants , and the anabaptists have a freedom to meet in a publick way ; others of all sorts do meet in private : and the difference which is made between the professors of severall parties is chiefly this ; that the reformed party , which doth own the national confession , and are owned to be members of the national congregations , have only the priviledge and preeminence of being admitted to places of trust in the state , from which all others are excluded . and this liberty of religion which the united provinces have yielded and maintained unto all sorts ; hath made that little spot of ground to be the centre of the trade of europe , having onely three sea-ports , the wicling , the mase , and the texel : and these ports are not easie neither , but difficult to be entred . in the cantons of switzerland and geneva there is no different profession publickly tolerated : although in the circumstantial way of the administration of ordinances , and in the particular order of discipline and government , each canton is different from another ; yet they fell not out about their differences , but correspond in a friendly manner in matters of common concernment . in france the protestant churches are to be considered within themselves , for the liberty which they enjoy under their popish magistrate is not under our consideration ; but the liberty which their nationall synod doth give to particular men to protesse different opinions without bleach of unity in the church , is that which is to be observed , and may be a president to teach others moderation ; for in the late controversies between monsieur du moulin and monsieur amyraut concerning predestination , wherein many others were engaged on both sides , although some hears did begin to break forth ; yet the nationall synod hath allayed the distemper , and preserved peace and unity in the churches , notwithstanding the difference of judgment which was found amongst them . the freedome which the particular churches have to depute some of their members from their consistories to the colloques and provinciall synods is the means to preserve their unity and peace . in switzerland the freedome which the churches enjoy doth wholly depend upon the constitution of their order , as ratified by the civil magistrate , who in each canton is sovereign ; and upon the correspondency between the churches , which is ordinarily managed by those of zurich towards all the rest : for as the canton of zurich hath the precedency , and direction in all civil matters of common concernment , so hath the antistes and consistory of zurich in matters ecclesiasticall a kind of trust put upon them to communicate to the rest , by way of correspondency , matters to be advised on for mutuall concurrence . in germany there is no such correspondency between the churches , but their freedome , in the exercise of discipline and government depends wholly upon the sanction which the prince and his ecclesiasticall senate or consistory doth make concerning the order and way of administring all things . in the low-countries the freedome of meeting in classes and in synods ; in classes every month , or oftner , if need be , according as the classes are divided ) in synods provinciall every year once ) is the preservation of these churches in unity ; for the six provinces , viz. gelderland , holland , ulrecht , friesland , groning , and overyssell , hold their synods so consecutively , that they can send from each synod deputies to another , to correspond with them , and to communicate matters of deliberation , that there may be no causes of breaches between them ; the province of zeeland hath no setled time of synodicall meeting , but the classes of middelburg upon all emergencies doth give notice to the other classes , of the adjacent islands of matters to be taken into consideration : so that in the low-countries the liberty to meet for the ordering of all things within themselves , which preserves the churches in france ; and the liberty to correspond and to communicate one with another the things which they settle by order , which preserves the churches in switzerland , is more complete then any where else ; and because the deputies , or rather commissioners from the civil magistrate are always present at the provinciall synods , therefore their decrees are more valid , and yet altogether free in matters of spirituall concernment . this is the liberty which i have observed to be in use amongst protestants within themselves , in the exercise of their profession , by publick meetings , by the administration of government within themselves , by classes and synods , and by a correspondency with one another in religious matters . as for the liberty which particular members have in each congregation , and which the congregations have in each classis or colloque , and by what rules that liberty is limited , is a matter of more diffuse consideration , and perhaps of little use for the end for which this information is desired : therefore i shall not inlarge upon that subject . of the liberty of religion in use between protestants & papists . if it be inquired what liberty papists have where protestants bear rule , or papists give to protestants when they have all the power : it may be answered by the consideration of the places where each power is prevalent . on the one side , in sweden and denmark , and in all the territories of the lower and upper saxony , where-ever protestants have the sole power , no papists are permitted to have any publick exercise of their religion ; and on the other side , in austria , bohemia ; moravia , and all the heritable lands of the house of austria , in franconia , bavaria , and the upper palatinat where the papists have the sole power , no protestants are permitted to have the publick exercise of their religion . these whole territories forenamed on each side being entire bodies within themselves , under one head either of the one or the other profession , without the intermixture of different dominions , are uniform in the exercise of their religion respectively different . but the intermediate parts of the german empire are interwoven under severall princes of different religions , and therefore are of a mixt profession : my meaning is not , that the professions and forms of religion's worship are mixed and jumbled together in one ; but that both professions are exercised , some here and some there , in different places . and because the inhabitants of the intermediate territories being mixed , and pretending to have each of them a right to the same places of worship , quarrells and strife did arise amongst them , therefore when they deprived one another of the freedome to exercise their profession , the treaty of peace at munster and osnabrugge did appoint the restitution of places for the publick exercise of religion on both sides , and ordered that all matters of this kind should be settled thenceforward as they were in use heretofore in the year . which order occasioned a deputation from all the states of the empire at francford in the years , . and following , to see that decree and other matters put in execution . now the intermediate territories are the circles of westphalia , of the rhine , of the welterans , of franconia , and of suaben ; containing many principalities and great cities depending immediately upon tht empire ; which being of different professions , and mixed one with another in respect of their territories and jurisdictions , in the time of war none that was prevalent did suffer a different religion to be exercised : but since the instrument of the peace made at munster and osnabrug was published , the liberty of religion is to be regulated universally by the seventh article , and some other articles determining matters between protestants and papists ; and according to this constitution , although some territories which formerly were under protestant princes are now under a popish power , and vice versa , yet the liberty of religion is to be left unto each party as it was used in the year . thus the duke of newburg , and one of the landgraves of hessen , and a prince of nassaw , and some others , are obliged to leave unto the protestants within their dominions the free exercise of their religion which formerly they had . in like manner in some of the imperiall cities , as in francford , ausburg , and others , the papists have their free exercise restored unto them amongst the protestants ; at ausburg also the magistrate is half of the one and half of the other profession ; but in all the other imperiall cities , so far as i remember , the magistrates are wholly protestants , except at collen and heilbron , where they are wholly papists . thus matters of freedome stand in the german empire . in poland , hungaria and transylvania , the protestants and papists have heretofore had a promiscuous liberty ; onely whensoever of later times either of the parties did grow more prevalent in power , they have abridged each other of their liberties : and now at this time the protestants of transylvania have put themselves under the protection of the turke , to maintain the liberty of their conscience , because the jesuits by the power of the emperour , which they can command to bring about their designes , would have forced them to embrace their superstition . in switzerland the protestants and papists when they made their league at first to maintain joyntly their liberties against the house of austria , or any other pretenders to have jurisdiction over them , they agreed mutually upon this also , that if any of the natives living in the cantons of either side should change their religion , ( for then they were perfectly divided and separated upon the interest of religion , and so have continued still , that no papists have any free exercise of religion among protestants , nor protestants among papists ; ) that then they should be permitted respectively to sell their goods , and transport themselves unto the party whose religion they should embrace : but of late the popish canton switz did break this agreement , and would not suffer some of their native inhabitants to partake of this freedome , but finding that some families had changed their religion , they did confiscate their goods ; and taking hold of some of them , by the instigation of the friers and jesuits , they condemned some of them to death , and others to the gallies ; which was the cause of the late war which broke forth amongst them ; and although they cease from open hostility , yet this business is not fully composed . and because there are some places of common jurisdiction , wherein there are inhabitants of both parties , and the cantons of each profession put governors by turns for some years over them , it falls often out that the protestant inhabitants in these jurisdictions are commonly abridged of their liberty by the popish governours ; which gives continuall occasion of complaints and disputes between the cantons , and at last may break forth to some violent rupture , and to a totall suppression either of the one or the other . in france , by vertue of the edict of nantes , the protestants ought to have the full liberty of their religion in the places of their abode , and enjoy all the rights and priviledges which belong to natives ; but since the time of our troubles in england they have been very much abridged thereof in severall places ; yet in oliver the protector his time they got some enlargement , which now since the peace is made with spain doth cease , so that they are under the danger of being persecuted every where , as being expoposed to the fury of the multitude , without any assurance of safety , further then it is an inconveniency to the society of papists themselves with whom they live ; otherwise the jesuits and popish emissaries are restless to stir up their zelots to molest them , and do what they can to extirpate them ; witness that which fell out of late at montauban , at bourdeaux , at dieppe , and and elsewhere . in the vallies of piemont the poor churches there since the peace made have still been molested more or less without intermission ; for besides other matters , that which is their chief concernment , namely the liberty to meet at st. giovanni , to exercise their catechisme , that not only the youth may be instructed , but those of riper years confirmed in the protestant religion , is wholly taken from them . this liberty is in a manner the whole substance or chief part of their publick exercise ; this formerly they have always had , and by this last treaty of peace it hath been confirmed unto them ; nevertheless they are deprived of it , and new matters of quarrell are formed against them for other pretences , and chiefly against their ministers ; for the designe is to fright away their leaders , that being scattered like lost sheep upon the mountains , they may become a prey to the wolves that seek to devour them . in the low-countries both of the united and of the spanish provinces , there is a certain reciprocall liberty for the papists in the dominions of the states , and for the protestants in the dominions of the spaniard ; but the liberty is not equal , for in the united provinces the states allow the papists a certain number of priests to administer unto them the things belonging to their conscience in a private way , which is done by an express concession or condescension ; but in the spanish dominions no such thing is granted unto the protestants who live amongst them , but the ministers who administer holy things unto them privately , do it at their perill ; they have no concession to attend any private meetings , but only they are winked at , and suffered to doe ( what they venture upon ) by way of connivence ; so that the difference is , that the papists in the united provinces have an assurance of freedome which they enjoy , but the protestants in the other provinces have no such freedome assured unto them ; which makes the papists increase and multiply in the dominion of the states , and the protestants diminish in the other provinces : and the effect of this may be , that when some of the papists shall creep into places of power , and finding the protestants divided amongst themselves , and their own party strong enough to make a head with the assistance of neighbour foregin forces , they may make a totall change of government in that common-wealth . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e barclay in the th . book of his euphormio . some remarks upon a speech made to the grand jury for the county of middlesex concerning the execution of penalties upon the churches of christ, which worship god in meeting-houses, for their so doing : and may serve for an answer to part of the order of the justices, jan. to the same purpose : in a letter to sir w.s. their speaker. j. w. approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; 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(eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) some remarks upon a speech made to the grand jury for the county of middlesex concerning the execution of penalties upon the churches of christ, which worship god in meeting-houses, for their so doing : and may serve for an answer to part of the order of the justices, jan. to the same purpose : in a letter to sir w.s. their speaker. j. w. smith, william, sir, or - . , [ ] p. printed for elea. harris, london : . signed: j.w. reproduction of original in huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng church and state -- england. dissenters, religious -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - jonathan blaney sampled and proofread - jonathan blaney text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion some remarks upon a speech made to the grand jury for the county of middlesex , concerning the execution of penalties upon the churches of christ , which worship god in meeting-houses , for their so doing . and may serve for an answer to part of the order of the justices , jan. . to the same purpose . in a letter to sir w. s. their speaker . for all the law is fulfilled in one word , in this , thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self . but if ye bite and devour one another , take heed that you be not consumed one of another , gal. . , . but it is evident by the sad experience of twelve years , that there is very little fruit of all those forceable courses , [ many and frequent ways of coertion . ] kings declaration , march . . london , printed for elea. harris . . sir , since your speech made at the session of the peace , to the grand jury there , is by your , and the rest of the justices order printed and published , i hope you will not take it ill , that a private person gives his opinion concerning it , especially considering , that your modesty has premised , you should discover that weakness which by your silence might have been concealed . sir , as for that worthy character you give of your self , your generosity and publick spirit abstracted from all private considerations whatsoever , your proof and protestation of it , i have this to say , that you are to me much a stranger . i am unwilling to make enquiry into your life and actions , and therefore shall give as much credit to what you say , as one can reasonably give to him that praiseth himself — but could not vindicate himself in the eyes of the commons of england in parliament : otherwise i should have wondred that a gentleman ( who had approv'd himself to his country , by the experience of so great a number of years , and in two parliaments of such different qualifications ( wherein every member was tryed oftner and more severely than the purest gold ) of such excellent integrity , parts and vertues , should be neglected in the three late parliaments . the country is not wont in these cases to cast of those that have done them eminent services ; sure i am there was a very great number of the same persons in all these parliaments , and in the greatest honour and esteem by those that elected them , and by others also . in the next paragraph , you tell us , this kingdom is at present under very sad circumstances ; and upon enquiry into the cause , you say ( and i think boldly enough ) we have lost the jewel of government . i perceive sir w.s. may say what he pleases ; but i doubt it would have been dangerous for a grand inquest to have writ . billa vera upon such a presentment . what! his majesty upon the throne in peace , and yet the government lost ! it is dreadful , like belshazzar's hand writing upon the wall. mene mene , god hath numbred thy kingdom and finished it . i hope sir , you are no skilful state physician : god forbid you should in this diagnostick . you may if you please see more to this matter in the courant of dec. . i expected next the proof of your assertion , but you defer that , and tell us of our princes mercy in the act of oblivion . i suppose there 's no man in england , that understands things to any purpose , that is not sensible of his majesties grace in the act of oblivion , wherein he had the councel of his parliament ; but there are a sort of men that labour much to turn the act of oblivion into an act of remembrance ; there 's no act that ever the king pass'd , more grievous to them than that ; and the reason is not , because the king has pardoned his enemies , but because they cannot by his power wreck their malice upon their hated neighbours . i am perswaded sir , when you consider the sad state of the kingdom better , you will find that mens envy at their neighbours liberty and enjoyments , and a strange ill will they foster against them , is the great cause of our sad divisions . it is not because the government is lost , but because it is not lost , that men rage as they do . there are not a few who long for nothing more than the confusion of the government ; for they reckon that the only way to effect their revenge , than which nothing would more rejoice their hearts . nay , they could well be content to undergo the hazards of a combustion in prospect of the satisfaction they hope for in conclusion , by the ruine of their maligned neighbours and countrymen . and the true reason why they believe so little of the popish plot , is because the discovery of it justifies the fears of those they have so long scorn'd upon that account . i must acknowledge the papists and their dissembling agents have wrought strongly upon these passions , and have at length rais'd them to such a height , that , in my opinion , they cannot be allayed without a parliament , which i take to be a part of the government . but if a popish successor come first , ( which god of his great mercy prevent ) i cannot think that those enraged people , who have already made use of subornations and perjuries to shed bloud by , will stick at a parisian bartholomew feast , if they can find no readier way of destroying those they hate . you go on in setting forth the goodness of his majesties government ( which is an odd way of shewing the government to be lost . ) he takes nothing from any man , doth not oppress the meanest of his subjects , nor interposeth his authority to obstruct justice . we joyfully grant all this , and more concerning the king ; but we cannot excuse his ministers ; your last long parliament found cause to complain of divers publick grievances , to provide laws against some , and to charge one great man with high treason in many particulars . next you tell us , the mischief of the loss of the government , but all your instances , instead of proving we have no government , prove the quite contrary , that we have a good government . for no man can take a pair of shoes or any thing else out of a shop , without payment , but he is punisht for it , if he can be found out , and no government can punish those that are conceal'd , bene vixit , qui bene latuit . nor can any man pass through lombard street , and supply his pockets without good consideration . indeed we have heard of some that took a great many hundred thousand pounds out of lombard street upon good consideration , which was afterwards made invalid ; but his majesty was graciously pleased to grant an equivalent ; but i read in some publick prints , of obstructions in the issuing of that equivalent , which yet i am far from imputing to the king , but know not how to defend all his ministers . in the beginning of your next period you tell us , that god almighty knew this [ the calamities of being without government ] when he created man , and therefore gave him a law by which he should live and govern himself and printed it in his heart called the law of nature , &c. this is a surprising way of discourse ; for the natural import of it is this , viz. that to prevent the mischief of being without government , god had made every man his own governor ; so that he has no need of any other government . again , it proceeds somewhat incoherently : god knew when he created man what evils he would incur notwithstanding the law of nature in his heart , if there was not also an outward government ; therefore he gave him the law of nature , and printed it in his heart . i suppose sir , you spake extemporary , but i then wonder you should be against extemporary prayers and extemporary sermons , and use an extemporary speech upon such a solemn occasion . you proceed , if man had attended to this law , there would have been no contentions or quarrels , no nor fears and jealousies , which are the devils engines to batter down the peace of the world ; but the devil made man forget his god — and grow to such wickedness , that god swept them away by an universal deluge , &c. here is a special remark upon fears and jealousies in the old world : but i find no such mentioned in the holy history ; it was past that , the mighty men executed according to their lusts , so that the earth was filled with violence effectually , and if they feared it before it came upon them , they had cause enough , and those fears were not in vain . it seems it was in your mind to expose the phrase of fears and jealousies , and therefore you must needs bring it in here by head and shoulders . but if you please to call to mind some of the addresses of your loyal long parliament , you will find they did not abhor from such like expressions . in their address against the duke of york's marriage , they pray his majesty to relieve his good subjects from those fears and apprehensions which they ly under , from the progress had been made in the treaty . and they further say , we greatly fear , &c. that for another age at the least , this kingdom will be under continual apprehensions of the growth of popery , and the danger of the protestant religion . in their address of march / they advise his majesty , that for the satisfying the minds of his good subjects , who are much disquieted with the apprehensions of the dangers arising to this kingdom from the growth and power of the french king , &c. i could cite you more of this kind , but my resolved brevity hinders . thus sir , you were a member of that loyal house of parliament , which had the presumption to tell his majesty of the fears and jealousies of his good subjects : but what is the matter now , after a horrid popish plot against his majesty , and a great many plots against his good subjects , that now it must be a breach of the peace to talk of fears and jealousies ? i fear sir , you have taken it ill you were not chosen in these late parliaments , and that you are fallen out both with parliament and people upon that score . you go on : this rebellion [ of corah ] you may observe as all other rebellions almost that i have heard of , began upon the pretence of religion and liberty . here you have a mind to expose the terms of religion and liberty , as before you did fears and jealousies , and you pick out the rebellion of corah , as a singular instance of the prevalence of the devil in that tract of time between noah and our blessed saviour : one would have thought that the kings of egypt keeping in bondage , and evil entreating the children of israel four hundred years together , who at last commanded the male infants to be killed , and upon their demand in the name of the lord god , and upon their petition to him for liberty of religion , encreased their affliction and bondage , forcing them to make bricks without straw , and still exacting the same tale of bricks as before , beating them if they performed it not ; and the king said , ye are idle , ye are idle , therefore ye say , let us go and do sacrifice to the lord. and pharaoh hardened his heart to such a degree , that god raised him up or made him stand to shew his power , and that his name might be declared throughout all the earth . one would have thought i say , that this example af wickedness against the law of nature , and gods stupendious vengeance that pursued the egyptians to almost their utter destruction for the same , should have been as ready to your mind as the rebellion of corah ; i hope you do not think that moses and the people of israel , being subjects to pharaoh , were therefore rebels for being of another religion , and craving-liberty upon that account . but now i think on 't , this of corah was brought in as an instance of great sin after the law of nature was written in two tables ; but he must be wonderfully sagacious , that can find in the law of nature or ten commandments , that the priesthood was to be entailed to the sons of aaron , and none else of levi's family , of which corah was . under favour , i think this was a rebellion against a special revelation as saul's aso was , when he destroyed not king agag and the cattle with the amalekites , sam. . a proper example is this of corah , to be urged by the pope against those princes and others that rebel against him as high priest upon earth of all gods people . but religion and rebellion must be made to depend one upon another : a neat way of making atheists ; and when all 's done , i reckon it a very false notion , that all rebellions almost you have heard of , began upon pretence of religion and liberty ; for take we but a view of the wars and rebellions that have been in england since william the first , and how few of them have began upon pretence of religion and liberty , in comparison with them that have been commenc'd upon pretence of title to the crown ? the bloudy contest between the houses of york and lancaster alone lasted about a hundred years . and the wars of our english kings in france , which dured long , and brought great desolation upon that country , had the same ground ; perhaps you will not call these rebellions except religion had been pretended ; but that were to beg the question . and if you respect the wars occasion'd and fomented by the pope , he will fairly tell you that all his wars are of a priestly sovereign against rebels and hereticks . but that which lies coucht in these two passages is , that to fear the coming in of popery by a popish successor to the subverting our religion ; and to be jealous of our liberty from a series of treasonous actions in great men against the government , is a breach of the peace , and at least bordering upon rebellion . next you are pleas'd to make merry with appeals to the people [ excellent arbiters in matters relating to government ] methinks sir , you come too near the declaration against the two last parliaments , and manifold addresses of the justices and some grand juries and a great many burroughs , that were easily taken with it . you seem sir , to be a little out in your divinity , whilst you introduce god almighty in creation , giving man a law , and printing it on his heart , and by our lord christ restoring that law , by instruction , and the sending of bishops to govern the church by ceremonies , and liturgies , which have the sanction of a parliament , whereas gods giving his laws into mens minds , and writing them in their hearts , is made both by the prophet jeremy and the divine author to the hebrews , the special promise and priviledge of the new covenant , whereof christ is mediator . and if christ has not written his laws in mens hearts by the gospel , sir wm's argument doth equally justifie all the papists of spain , italy , france , &c. as the protestants of the church of england , and equally condemn the protestants in those countrys , as the dissenters here in england ; for they have their bishops by a continued succession as well as we , and they have their ceremonies and liturgy ( called the mass ) as well as we ; and these have the sanction of their parliaments ; the agreement both of kings and people , as well as ours . thus sir , you have made popery as much the religion of christ as protestantism , and justifie all persecutions of christians , that are made by bishops and laws . the french king is beholding to you for vindicating him in his present persecution of the poor protestants , to whom yet ( thanks be to god and the king ) we give entertainment . but when you seriously think of , this establishment by bishops , and the agreement in parliament , it raiseth your admiration how any man can think himself hardly dealt with , when he is required to comply with that which he hath before agreed . pray sir , were you never on the negative side in any law that was pass'd in those parliaments wherein you sate ? if you were , then you did not agree to that law , now suppose that that law had been the law of conformity to the mass , as it was in queen maries days , would you have thought your self obliged to have yielded obedience to it , because you were over voted ? sir , sanctions of king and parliament cannot make a thing good , which in its nature is not so : neither can it make an indifferent thing lawful to me , if i in my conscience think it otherwise , for whatsoever is not of faith is sin . christ has not given bishops to be lords over his heritage , which they will be , if you give them power to make laws and enforce them against the conscience of believers , in things not necessary to be determin'd , and much less in things already otherwise determin'd in the doctrine of christ. you admire again , that any should think it reasonable that publick conventicles should be permitted in opposition to the said established government . i have said something before that is applicable to this , to allay this admiration . i add , that many conventiclers do think their pastors to be bishops 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or overseers ( as your self note ) which they are as much obliged to obey , as if there were an humane law for it . again , some are greatly offended at the rancour and bitterness they perceive in many high-flown men of the church , against those that dissent from them , who would have those severe laws executed against them , whilst in the mean time , they are not more certain of any thing , than that they heartily desire their own salvation , and endeavour honestly to find out , and to walk in the right way to it ; and hence they are most certain it is contrary to the mind of christ , any of his followers should punish them for their meeting together in his name , in pursuance of those ends ; and consequently that church that does so , offends against a fundamental point of christian practice , for they have the like perswasion concerning the integrity of others that differ from them , as they have of themselves , and are therefore sure , that if they be so , they can no more execute penalties upon them , than they upon others . they ought to have the same love and respect for them , as they have for conformists ; and to do unto them as they would have them do unto themselves , if they be otherwise minded , they offend both against the law of nature and the law of christ. if either they or the dissenters offend against the necessary principles and laws of government , though it be never so much their consciences so to do , they deny not the magistrates right to punish them : but they are certain this is none of those cases . it is an excellent passage of the late lord chief justice , sir matthew hale p. . bserved in his life , relating to the quakers ; he considered marriage and succession as a right of nature ( there is the same reason of other rights of nature ) from which none ought to be barred , what mistake soever they might be under in the points of revealed religion . surely the publick meeting together to worship god is a natural right ; which therefore men ought not to be deprived of , though they mistake in the circumstances of their so meeting and worshiping but i will leave the defence of publick meetings to publick prints , specially i refer you to the conformists plea for the nonconformists , the first and second parts ; for that in reason should be read by you with less prejudice , than those things they say in their own behalf . you cannot understand , but that the conventiclers allow their teachers both infallibility and supremacy : what sir , more then you allow to your bishops ? you would not have said this , but that you had a mind to make an odious parallel between papists and dissenters . but who knows not , that dissenters do all maintain this as the great principle of protestantism , viz. that every man ought to be satisfied in his own judgment concerning his religion , and not to pin his faith upon any man , or number of men , further than they are perswaded from the infallible word of god. and this is the chief reason why they frequent gathered churches , and not parish churches ; and sometimes go from one congregation to another , as they find it more conducing to the great end of their eternal salvation . you say , the romish church is an united body , and not to be withstood but by another united body , and if the people were united and reconciled to this true protestant church of england , it was not possible that popery should prevail here . first sir , the people are so far united to this church , that they have the same faith , and the same doctrine for substance ; and they worship god in no other manner than is allowed by the practice of the church of england ; so that i would fain be informed what better capacity the church of england would be in , if all come to the parish-church , than she is now . if there was not one protestant dissenter in england , how would that hinder a popish successor from bringing in popery ? we see that under our present protestant prince ( to whom god grant a long and happy r●ign ) we can scarce keep our selves from being over-run and destroyed by assassinations , sham-plots , and suborned witnesses , with other engines of mischiefs , to which the parish church men , as well as others , are equally subject : we see that even in the church it self , they have raised a strong enmity , one against another , according as they are either more fierce against protestants , and more moderate against papists , or on the contrary more moderate to protestants , and more zealous against papists ; what then would be done under a popish successor ? should all dissenters be reconciled to the church , would that extinguish the animosities among the bishops and other clergy and laity ( as they call 'um ) of the church it self ? i pray consider it . our divisions , you say , give boldness to the common enemy to make attempts upon us ; you say very true , for whilst he sees a party that pretends to the church , so desperately mad against those ( whether in the church or out of it ) that being deeply concerned for their religion , king and government , are zealous against the papists and their fautors , it cannot but incourage the papists to go on in their devilish plots and machinations against us . is 't not wonderful , that since the discovery of a most horrid popish plot against all protestants , some of that name that were gentle before , should now be violent in the prosecution of their brethren ? as if the dissenting protestants were to be punished for the popish plot . o unhappy titus ! hadst thou suffered the popish plot to proceed to effect , thou mightest have reap't a great share in the profits of their success : but now thou hast discovered their treachery and saved thy king and country , thou art scorned , and reproached ; thou art in jeopardy of thy life every hour , either by assassination or false accusation ! and thy wretched country is in worse circumstances to withstand the popish and malicious enemies of its religion and government than before . the luxury and security of asia — gave alexander the great hopes of conquest , ergo , our worshipping of god , some in churches , some in meetings , encourages the french king : a natural consequence ; did the french carry on their war the worse , because they permitted protestants , though at the same time they made war against protestants ? but he 's afraid of it for the future ; and must we needs tread in his steps , and act by his policies : surely he that prosecutes protestants with penalties for being so , does the pope and french king's work ; for what can they desire more at present ? and i heartily wish that the ill consequences , which may easily be foreseen to arise therefrom , to use your words , may prevail with men that pretend to love their king and country , and religion , not to be guilty of any thing that will bring ruin upon them : for when they have ruined the dissenters , they will next fall upon those of the church that favour them , and when they are ruin'd , it will be easie for a popish successor either to turn them to popery , or ruine the remainder . as for the diberty you say they have — according to law , of exercising religion in their own houses . first , that is denied where protestants are prosecuted to confiscation of their estates , as popish recusants for not going to church . and secondly , the same passions and councils that now endeavour to suppress their meetings , would then prosecute them as rioters for meeting above three besides the family , to do an unlawful action , as i have known it done by some of your bench. it is easily said by you , rather humor than conscience , when they will yet offend against the law , by these publick conventicles , [ but they would be very glad to find it such an humor , as they could correct with satisfaction to conscience ; it would be a great ease to their minds , besides the advantage to their outward concerns ] which are so destructive to the peace and safety of the kingdom . there was a time when his majesty was pleas'd to declare , that it was evident by the sad experience of twelve years , that there is very little fruit of all those forceable courses [ many and frequent ways of coertion ] and therefore ( saith he ) we do now issue this our declaration , as well for the quieting , of the minds of our good subjects in th●se points , for inviting strangers , in this conjuncture , to come and live under us , and for the better encouragement of all to a chearful following of their trades and callings , from whence we hope , by the blessing of god , to have many good and happy advantages to our government : as also for preventing for the future , the danger that might otherwise arise from private meetings and seditious conventicles . his majesty you see sir w. was not then of your mind , after twelve years experience and observation , that publick conventicles were so destructive to the peace and safety of the kingdom , but the very contrary . what tho his majesty was graciously pleased to cancel that declaration , at the humble request of his loyal long parliament , because it did not ground it self upon a legal authority ; yet i hope his majesties reason and judgment exprest in it , may be of weight to the justices of middlesex and london too ; especially when the opinion of the commons of england in parliament concurs with it ; [ besides who knows that if there be any favourite at court , who designes against the people ( as there seldom wants such as cannot endure the breath of a parliament ) he or she has the recommendation of justices , which therefore being their creatures , must serve their ill purposes ? and how easie it is for one or two such justices to get the approbation of the bench to their nomination of jury-men , and then wo be to the people ] for they declare in their vote of luna . januar . that it is the opinion of this house , that the presecution of protestant dissenters upon the penal laws , is at this time grievous to the subject , a weakning of the protestant interest , an encouragement to popery , and dangerovs to the peace of the kingdom . now i am clearly of opinion , that the king and commons of england together , their judgment is rather to be taken in this matter than sir w. s's . and all the bench of justices assenting . you will say perhaps , that the popish plot , since the time of his majesties declaration , discover'd , has render'd them unworthy of that toleration ; i grant it , but what have the dissenters done to confute the king's judgment in this point ; i hope that toleration was not given for the sake of the papists alone ; so that because they cannot have benefit by his majesties reasoning , no body else shall ; that were a hard thing to impute to our sovereign : however it was , i presume sir w. and his fellow justices did not then put in execution the penal statutes against dissenters , neither for some years afterward ; such deference did they give to his majesties reason , tho his authority was with-drawn ! publick conventicles were not then thought so destructive to the peace and safety of the kingdom ; and i know nothing the dissenters are guilty of , but a strong desire and earnest endeavour to keep out popery , which they think cannot be done , if a popish successor be let in ; and in this they follow the judgment of three several houses of commons in parliament . and now i am speaking of the declaration for indulgence , i pray sir , what shall hinder a popish successor from setting forth such another edict with more ample graces to the roman catholicks , whereby they shall not only have the liberty of publick meetings ; but also access to parish churches , and all this by virtue of that supream power in ecclesiastical matters , which is not only inherent in him , but hath been declar'd and recogniz'd to be so by several statutes and acts of parliament ; as in the said declaration ; what tho his present majesty was graciously pleas'd to recal his declaration , do you think the popish successor would do so ? and if he should command such an indulgence , i am perswaded never a justice of middlesex , would dare ( as sir james hales in queen maries days ) to put the laws in execution against them . poor sir james , who had merited highly of the queen , yet suffer'd deeply for his legal zeal , and i doubt is too sad an example to be followed , however zealous men are now against protestants . it follows in your speech , [ these publick conventicles ] are not suffer'd in any country or kingdoms as i know of ▪ i have no measure of your knowledge , but there was not long since publisht in english a piece , entituled : the religion of the dutch , the author pretends himself a protestant : what credit is to be given him i know not , but i know that in many things he gives a very exact and true account : he says p. . there is an express prohibition of allowing any other religion then the reformed in the provinces , and yet ( saith he ) we there find the publick exercise of another religions [ so he is pleas'd to call different meetings of those that differ in some opinions ] besides the reformed ; there are roman catholicks , lutherans , brownists , independants , arminians , anabaptists , socinians , arrians , enthusiasts , quakers , borelists , armenians , muscovites , libertins and others ; i suppose you will scarce find so many sorts of publick meetings here in england . having thus shewed the weakness of these reasons , upon which you built your discourse , there appears no cause why you should so patheticaly adjure men for gods sake , and their own to lay aside these publick conventicles &c. neither that you should say , they are one cause and a great one of our present troubles ; or that you should invite the bench and grand jury kindly to agree together in the remedy of this evil : moreover , if according to the th article of the church of england , these conventicles or some of them be congregations of faithful men , in which the pure word of god is preached , and the sacraments duly administred , according to christs ordinance , in all those things that of necessity are requisite to the same ; then are they , visible churches of christ , and they that punish them for so doing , do unkindly agree in persecuting the churches of christ , which christians ought to be very wary of . take heed sir , you are not infallible . the next thing you recommend , is the consideration of juries , and the statute of . hen. viii . an act of reformation of impannels for the king , touching which i shall leave you to the consideration of a paper , set out some moneths ago in an answer to a speech of yours also printed upon this subject . the subtility and mighty endeavours of the papists , to divert people from the prosecution of themselves , have rais'd a great enmity in a party or faction against the body of the people , represented in parliaments ; the city of london which hath the choice of sheriffs for london and middlesex are careful to chuse such sheriffs as they can trust , and that are not of that party : whereas the justices of middlesex or some of them by their abhorring , addressing and the like actions appear to be too favourable to that faction ; and therefore the citizens had rather by much the choice of juries should be in the sheriffs than in the partial justices , especially at this time , when their liberties , lives and religion are in such eminent danger from sham-plots , subornations and perjuries , the preservation of all which concerns we owe under god and his majesty to our honest sheriffs . it looks strangely that out of about persons of the pannel , ( against one man of which the justices cannot object any thing that may argue untrue demeanor in the sheriff in his return ) the justices should not find to make a grand jury , without putting in other of their own nomination . i appeal to the next parliament , whether the security and liberty of the people of england be not at this time more in danger by the justices , than by the sheriffs . i might observe upon other parts of your speech : but i presume i have done enough already to shew the weakness of your reasoning . i hope you will please to consider things over again , and to pardon the freedom , taken by one that has due respects for you , and has learn'd to pass by the errors of men , being conscious of his own fallibility , but would gladly have malice and ill will rooted out . sir , your very humble servant j. w. postscript . all considering people will now see that conventiclers are not punished and ruin'd for holding conventicles , but for being zealous for the protestant religion and government by advice of parliament , against popery and clandestine arbitrary councels . their prosecutors know it to be so . i fear there are some justices of the peace and others who either by their ill management , or otherwise in the late unhappy warrs suffer'd themselves and party to fall into the hands of their enemies , which would now under colour of law and after oblivion take revenge upon those few of them that survive , by ruining the whole party of non-conformists . they , like haman , think it below them to crush mordecai alone , except they involve the whole people of the jews in that destruction . but let them remember there is a god that judgeth the earth : his kingdom ruleth over all in spight of them . he can deliver , and if he will not , they suffer in a very good cause , for a good conscience toward god , and for what has been declared to be reasonable by the king , and by the commons of england in parliament . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e octo. . . witness doctor fowler , & gregory prebends of gloucester . tempora mutantur . but you would have call'd it hypocrisie in a presbiterian to alter his voice thus , the reasons remaining the same . a cluster of coxcombes, or, cinquepace of five sorts of knaves and fooles namely, the domatists, publicans, disciplinarians, anabaptists, and brownists, their originals, opinions, confutations, and, in a word, their heads roundly jolted together : also shewing how in the raignes of sundry kings, and in the late q. elizabeths raign the anabaptists have bin burnt as hereticks, and otherwayes punished : and that the sect of the brownists is so new, that many are alive who knew the beginning of it : with other sects displayed / by john taylor. taylor, john, - . this text is an enriched version of the tcp digital transcription a of text r in the english short title catalog (wing t ). textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. the text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with morphadorner. the annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. this text has not been fully proofread approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. earlyprint project evanston,il, notre dame, in, st. louis, mo a wing t estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; :e , no ) a cluster of coxcombes, or, cinquepace of five sorts of knaves and fooles namely, the domatists, publicans, disciplinarians, anabaptists, and brownists, their originals, opinions, confutations, and, in a word, their heads roundly jolted together : also shewing how in the raignes of sundry kings, and in the late q. elizabeths raign the anabaptists have bin burnt as hereticks, and otherwayes punished : and that the sect of the brownists is so new, that many are alive who knew the beginning of it : with other sects displayed / by john taylor. taylor, john, - . [ ] p. ... printed for richard webb, [london] : iuly , . illustrated t.p. reproduction of original in thomason collection, british library. eng dissenters, religious -- england. a r (wing t ). civilwar no a cluster of coxcombes, or, a cinquepace of five sorts of knaves and fooles: namely, the domatists, publicans, disciplinarians, anabaptists, taylor, john c the rate of defects per , words puts this text in the c category of texts with between and defects per , words. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - judith siefring sampled and proofread - judith siefring text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a cluster of coxcombes ; or , a cinquepace of five sorts of knaves and fooles : namely , the donatists , publicans , disciplinarians , anabaptists , and brownists ; their originals , opinions , confutations , and ( in a word ) their heads roundly jolted together . also shewing how in the raignes of sundry kings , and in the late q. elizabeths raign the anabaptists have bin burnt as hereticks , and otherwayes punished . and that the sect of the brownists is so new , that many are alive who knew the beginning of it . with other sects displayed . by john taylor . iuly . printed for richard webb , . donatists . the author of this heresie was one donatus born in numidia a province of affrica , their opinion was that they and none but they were the only pure christian congregation and that they ( especially ) were the true church , such as embraced their discipline and come to them , they baptized again of what age or sect soever , they affirmed that the church consisted all of good people , and that no bad christian was a member of it , this heresie was in an. . look bishop coopers dictionarie . publican . in the . year of the reign of k. h. . anno , there came into this kingdom one gerrard , a german , with more with him , and they called themselvs publicans , they denyed matrimony and both the sacraments . gerrard himself had some learning , the rest were ignorant persons whom he missed ; they were examined and found guilty , and obstinate heretiques , for which they were marked in the fore-heads with a hot iron , their leader was marked in the chin and fore-head ; after that they were all sharply whip'd , which punishments they seemed to receive joyfully . lastly , by command of the king and state , they were turned out of prison , and all people were forbidden either to harbour or relieve them , so that with the extremity of the cold winter , and want of food and harbour they all dyed , miserably starved with cold , and famished with hunger , stow page . disciplinarians . there came and persons from holland , zealand , and those parts , through flanders to london , where it was their daily exercise to pray and whip themselves twice a day in pauls , and ●n the streets , their body being naked from the waste upwards , the whip being whipcords with knots , so that the blood ran down their shoulders , arms and sides , and as they marched in this bloody procession , every one of them had a red crosse in his hat and of their companions went singing before them , this sect was in the reign of king e. . anno . stow chronicle . anabaptists of these latter times . on the . of april , in the . yeare of the raigne of henry the . anno . one mandevill and one collins ( both anabaptists ) were examined at saint margaret , church at the hill in southwarke , and there they were condemned and judged to be burned as hereticks ; which was executed on them accordingly , in the high way betwixt southwarke and newington . in the . yeare of queene elizabeths raigne , anno . there was one man and . women judged to be burned for being anabaptists , but after much suit made one woman recanted and all the rest were banished . and in the same yeare , the . of iune . englishmen of the sweet sect called , the family of love , did pennance at pauls-crosse , and there confessed and detested their wicked and damnable heresies . and on the of iuly following two , dutchmen anabaptists were burnt in smithfield . also the same yeare ( in may● . ) . anabaptists were taken and imprisoned , and . of them bare faggots for penance at pauls-crosse , and recanted . stow , pag. , . and in these our dayes the said anabaptisticall sect is exceeding rise , for they doe swarme here and there without feare of either god or man , law or order . in the . yeare of queen elizabeths raigne , anno . one edmund copinger gent. and henry arthington gent. these two on the . of iuly in the morning in the yeare aforesaid went to one iohn walkers house at broken-wharfe , london , where they found a yeoman of northamptonshire in the parish of oundle , named william hacket , to whom the said copinger and arthington said , that they were come to anoint him king , but hacket replyed againe that they needed not so to doe , for he was already anointed in heaven by the holy ghost ; the said hacket caused copinger and arthington to beleeve that he was iesus christ , and to proclaime him so in london , and at last for these horrible blasphemies and some wicked treasons against the queene , hacket was hangd and quartered in cheap-side , . his two prophets , one of them starvd himself to death wilfully , in bridewell , the other lay a long time languishing and repenting in the counter in woodstreet : he that list to reade more of this at large , shall find it truly related in mr. stowes chronicle , page , . also one francis ket was burnt at norwich , in the . yeare of queene elizabeth , . he was a master of art , and justly dyed for holding most wicked opinions of our saviour iesus christ . in the . yeare of the rsigne of king iames , anno . one iohn traske denyed and despised our church government , refused our christian sabbath , and affirmed that brawne , porke , bacon pigge , and all swines flesh was abhominable , for which errours the said traske was on the of june in the yeare aforesaid , mounted to the pillory at westminster , and from thence whipt to the pleet , where ( repenting and recanting ) hee was beneficed , and became an honest , diligent , and painefull preacher , stow . pag. brownists . this sect sprung from one named brown , who is of that antiquity , that many ( yet alive ) did know him when hee was a schoole-master to the free schoole in saint olaves in southwarke : this man ( browne ) in his browne study , did plod to preach , and did practise and exercise in woods , thickets , fields and under hedges , to a great many of poore people , whom hee seduced to be as wise as himselfe : hee said that the church of england was not a church ( perhaps his meaning was it was not a true church ) but when he was preferred to the benefice of a parsonage in northamptonshire , the parish being called a church , then the church of england was a church with him , and his parish church of a church , was a conformable and a true canonicell church , and he lived till within these yeares there , and dyed a conformable church man , but he hath left a most pernitious and seditious traine of his sect behind him , of all trades , ages , sexes , and conditions , and when all trades faile they can make a shift to be all preachers amongst all these hereticks and heresies , sects and sectaries , and schismatickes , i have not medled or mentioned the puritan . the reason is , that i doe not know any that either deserves or dares to take the name or title of puritan upon them . it is an epithite of reproach , which rash or malitious men do cast upon many persons who do strive to live in gods fear , & desire to dye in his favour , and it is likewise a name which covers a great deal of craft and villany under the veil and vizard of hypocriticall sincerity , and my opniion is , that if there be any that are to be so called , they must be such romane catholicks that doe presume to be saved by their own good works , which pure , most impure , doctrine is one of the grounds and tenent of the popish religion , and of no church else in the world , so that my conclusion is that none deserves the name of a puritan , but such as dare presume by their purity to save themselves and others : thus have i briefly shewed that the church of christ hath in all ages been opposed and oppressed by heretiques and schismaticks , i could name many more opinions of men , who were all great and glorious lights in the church , and most illustrious instruments for the advancement of christian relig●on ; and yet they have in some points differed one from the other , as wickliffe , luther , beza , calvin , bucer , melancton , oeclampadius ; yet for all other great diversities , they have alwayes agreed in the main fundamentall points of christian doctrine , so that the outsides of ceremonies of religion did not shake the peace of the church . but in these times the church and church-government is not only shaken , but shattered in pieces , almost for nothing else but outward indifferent ceremonies , such as in themselves seemed offencelesse hand-maids for their order and decency , to wait and attend the church as ornaments , and not for superstious adoration these shaddows have not only bin with violence pu●'d down , but the substance which is gods ordinance hath bin sacrilegiously intruded and usurped upon by an imdudent rabble of ignorant mechanicks , who have dared to prefume to preach , not being cal'd or sent , nor knowing how , or when , eyther to speak or hold their peace . i have read that the grand senior , or great turk at constantinople , did demand due of an english ambassadour , this question , quoth he , if i would be a christian , there are so many sorts and sects of them , which christian should i be , to whom the ambass●dour replyed , that it was the only safe way to be a protestant ; but a french nobleman standing by , being a roman catholicke , and he demanded of the englishman that if he would be a protestant , that hee would tell him which protestant he should be , by this may be perceived , that the turke takes notice of the divisions of christian religion , and the papists do take advantages at our d●sunion and contentions ; yet the protestant religion in it selfe is in a most sweet harmonious uniformity , but the crew of corah , dathan , and abiram , have done , daily do , and will do , their uttermost malice and mischiefe to rend all in pieces , whilst he is accounted the best member in a common-wealth , that can either libell most scandalously , revile most despightfully , or teare and spoile most couragiously , and villanously . and it is to be wondered at the many unlicenced licentious pamphlets that have been scattered about the kingdome within these . months , wherein neither religion , church , king , peeres , priest , or people have escaped railing , libelling , and transcendent traducing , so that it may be supposed , that the paper that hath beene wasted by those pestiferous pamphleteeres , would goe neere ( if it were laid sheet by sheet ) to cover the whole kingdome ; and this is certaine , that they have drawne many thousands of poore idle people from all parts of england to london , where without serving any apprentiship , they take a freedom to sell bookes , so that the book-sellers are encreased ten fold in number within these two yeares : and what stuffe doe they sell ( for sooth ) things new lye come forth and things either of no worth , or else speeches fathered upon men that never knew of them , or newes out of scotland or ireland , made over night in an ale-house , and printed in the morning cum privilegio , . then are the streetes embroidered with lyes , lice , and beggers , to the great abuse of true writers , the scandall of this honourable citie of london , and the universall injury to the whole kingdome , for that such numberlesse numbers of lyes and fables are scattered and disperst ( not onely here in our owu couutrey , but in all parts else they are transported over the christian world . to conclude this booke of errours and heresies , seeing there have beene , are , and will be such to the end of the world , and that amongst all these wayes there is but one right way . it is a griefe to any christian heart to consider how many thousands are out of the way , that doe dare to presume to call themselves christians ; some are so farre blinded , that they hold all manners , decencie , order , comely gesture , or ceremony , as standing at the bel●efe , kneeling at the lords prayer , or at the receiving of the sacrament , bowing at the name of iesus , or reverence in be●ng uncovered at the entring into the house of god , all these are accounted superstition , idolatry , and popery : but to come to the church boldly or rudely as into a taverne , an ale-house or stable ; i am sure there is no popery in that , and for christianity a man may finde as much amongst the barbarous canniballs . so that some men are jeered out of true and sincere religion , for feare of being called puritans , and too many have laid by all order , manners , and decencie in the church , because they will not be accounted papists . besides all these wayes of heresie ( which are all out of gods way ) let us consider the infinite numbers of atheists , heathens , pagans , jewes , turkes , infidels , and divellish idolators , that are upon the face of the earth ; if these things be but ponders in a mans heart that feares god , it will strike terrour and amazement into him , to consider how little service the almighty hath from ingratefull mankinde , for that he by his power , providence and mercie , made all , conserves all , and redeemed all true beleevers , yet for all these all 's , that good god hath not the tithe of halfe , either in meere thankfulnesse or acknowledgement . finis . the lavvyers plea, in the behalf of young tom of lincoln. being an answer to a late scandalous ballad, entituled, merry news from lincolns-inn. adrest to the author of the said ballad, by tom of lincoln. to the tune of, help lords and commons, &c. tom of lincoln. approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page image. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). b wing l interim tract supplement guide c. .f. [ ] ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. b ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books; tract supplement ; a : [ ]) the lavvyers plea, in the behalf of young tom of lincoln. being an answer to a late scandalous ballad, entituled, merry news from lincolns-inn. adrest to the author of the said ballad, by tom of lincoln. to the tune of, help lords and commons, &c. tom of lincoln. sheet ([ ] p.). s.n., [london : ?] imprint suggested by wing. verse: "lord help us all! what story's this ..." "merry news from lincolns-inn" has not been found. reproduction of original in the british library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng merry news from lincolns-inn. ballads, english -- th century. adultery -- england -- early works to . dissenters, religious -- england -- controversial literature -- early works to . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - john pas sampled and proofread - john pas text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the lavvyers plea , in the behalf of young tom of lincoln . being an answer to a late scandalous ballad , entituled , merry news from lincolns-inn . adrest to the author of the said ballad , by tom of lincoln . to the tune of , help lords and commons , &c. lord help us all ! what story 's this , that makes so great a stir ? forsooth who ever keeps a miss , must fear this barking cut ; as if no place but lincolns-inn , did harbour she destroyers , with puritans he might begin , they wench as well as lawyers : you nonconformist - crop-ears , peace , and rail not against wenchers , vvith you , fanatick babes encrease , far more than with the benchers . thou who want'st judgement talk'st of it , like a vile canting varlet , and exercisest thy no-wit against an honest harlot , out of our house should she depart , she 'l learn to be more fickle , lifting up whorish eyes with art , at zealous conventicle . you , &c. she went up stairs thou sayest at ten , and what of that you tony , at twelve the learned'st of your men tip'd over the balcony : to this so strange a sight there came a hundred pious sticklers , but all went off again with shame , like crop-ear'd conventiclers : you , &c. it seems he call'd himself a cat , and would have been a gibing , her husband understanding that , came in and spoil'd his nibing : says he , cats fall upon their feet , when downwards they are tumbled , so down he threw him in the street , till his proud flesh was humbled : you , &c. but for the wench and laundress ruth , i must confess the story , that there was something in 't of truth , but all is for our glory : we keep the child we have begot , and able are to bear it , whilst others , do , or do it not , are ready to forswear it : you , &c. is not this better than to go at night to the peatches , reeling and rambling to and fro , in danger of the vvatches : and meet at last a drab or so , with petticoats bedagled , or with a pocky barren-doe , that from the park has stragled : you , &c. vvoe and alas ! your rudder's spoil'd , i pitty your mishap , and though you get not her with child , you get your self with clap : then you go home and curse the whore , with all her art-full dry-blows , finding one pox to cost you more , than keeping twenty by-blows : you nonconformist - crop-ears , peace , and rail not against vvenchers , vvith you , fanatick babes encrease , for more than with the benchers . thus you abroad with hazard roam , to find out harlots fulsome , vvhile we more safely prey at home , upon a girl that 's wholsome : look to your selves , your case is worse , dry up your slubbring ink-horn , i 'le warrant you we 'l find a nurse , for our young yom-a-lincoln ; you , &c. a bencher's grand-child ! you mistake , you silly rogue , i scorn ye , if a lawyers son a lawyer makes , his bastard's an attourney : and thus our tom in little time , shall grow to be our brother , as a bawds daughter whores betime , t' enrich her greasie mother ; you , &c. as for the woman , i confess we wrapt her in a gown , and whosoever had done less , had been an arrant clown ; for being to be call'd to 'th bar , and turn a female pleader , 't was reason we should have a care , she should not shame our reader ; you , &c. long may she live a merry crack , brisk , airy , gay , and fruitful , she never any thing shall lack , so long as she is youthful : grown old , her daughters shall turn up , to please our youthful vvenchers , as when we 've eat our commons up , we fall upon our trenchers ; you , &c. as for young tom i doubt is not , he 'l make some learned spark , more wit he has already got , then an attourneys clerk ; before that ever he could speak , he su'd for alimony , instead of mothers-milk , he 'd take no liquor but stipony ; you , &c. then blame not us of lincolns-inn , for what has hapned to us , such wenching is a gainful sin , that never will undoe us ; for we shall keep the bantling cheap , among so many purses , like citizens that take a leap amongst their country nurses . god bless the king and queen , likewise the house of lords and commons , but truly we shall ne'r despise some thing that is a womans , for should she laws cart every one , that loves a little cracking , the city would be quite undone , their vvives must all be packing . finis . a sermon preached before the right honourable the lord mayor, and aldermen of the city of london, at the guild-hall chappel, october . by john williams ... williams, john, ?- . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing w estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a sermon preached before the right honourable the lord mayor, and aldermen of the city of london, at the guild-hall chappel, october . by john williams ... williams, john, ?- . [ ], p. printed by m. clark, for r. chiswel, and w. kettilby ..., london : . reproduction of original in huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng dissenters, religious -- great britain -- sermons. sermons, english -- th century. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - emma (leeson) huber sampled and proofread - emma (leeson) huber text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion edwards mayor . martis . die octobris , . annoque regni regis caroli secundi , angliae , &c. xxxi . this court doth desire mr. williams to print his sermon preached at the guild-hall chappel , on sunday last , before the lord mayor and aldermen of this city . wagstaffe . a sermon preached before the right honourable the lord mayor , and aldermen of the city of london , at the guild-hall chappel , october . . by john williams , rector of st. mildreds poultrey , london . london : printed by m. clark , for r. chiswel , and w. kettilby , at the rose and crown , and at the bishops head in st. pauls church-yard . . to the right honourable sir james edwards , lord mayor of london , and to the court of aldermen : right honourable , what the terms are upon which our church hath stood , with the church of rome , since the reformation , and how well it hath acquitted it self in the matters disputed betwixt us , is very well known to the world. but notwithstanding the power of truth , and the success that hath aforetime attended the endeavours of such as have amongst us maintained it , we have found by experience , that we have of late gained little upon them by all our diligence . what political reasons there are for it besides becomes not me to enquire ; but that our divisions amongst our selves have been a principal one , and given our adversaries both the confidence to set upon us afresh , and also an opportunity of so doing with greater security , is what no one can be ignorant of . this is one evident cause of our present danger , and what we can therefore never hope to avoid , without uniting upon some common principle and foundation . it is this that i have endeavoured to point and make out in the ensuing discourse , with what success i must leave others to judg ; but which i hope may be the better received as it had your approbation , and hath now your order and desire to have it made more publick . in obedience to which i have ventured it abroad , that i may thereby publish how much i am , right honourable , your humble servant john williams . a sermon on ephes. iv . . from whom the whole body fitly joyned together , and compacted by that which every joynt supplieth , according to the effectual working in the measure of every part , maketh increase of the body , unto the edifying of it self in love . in the beginning of this chapter the apostle doth exhort the ephesians to the christian duty of charity ; and that he may come upon them with the greater advantage , doth make use of several arguments to inforce it , v. , , . taken from the state they are in , and the profession they are of ; that there is one body of which they are members , one spirit by which they are quickned , one hope of eternal life by which they are excited , one lord whom they profess to obey , one faith and form of belief that they imbrace , one baptism by which they are initiated into the church , and one god whom they do depend upon , and from whom they do receive all temporal and spiritual gifts and blessings . and whereas it may be thought that the variety of gifts and officers in the church should minister to contention , he adds , that however they may be abused , and the persons in those circumstances may happen to pervert them , yet as they were primarily intended by christ the dispenser and disposer of all for the order , the safety , and the edification of the church , so they do make much for it , v. , , , . for it is from him that the whole body fitly joyned together and compacted , &c. maketh increase of the body , &c. in which words there is a comparison implyed betwixt the natural body , and the christian church , called the body of christ , v. . that as the natural body doth consist of several parts , and those parts have a dependence upon the head , and are so fitly compacted and united among themselves , that there is a distribution of nourishment to all of them according to their measure and capacity : so there is in the church ( . ) a supream power in christ the head , ( . ) a due subordination of the several parts to the head , ( . ) a strict relation betwixt these several parts to the head and to each other , ( . ) a derivation of all necessary supply from the head ; and from each communicated to the other according to their measure , proportion and relation . all that i shall at present take notice of from hence , is , . the firmness of the union that is to be amongst christians , they are joyned and compacted together ; not only as they are at large members of the catholick church , called here the whole body ; but also as they are more strictly combined , according to the places of their residence , in particular societies and churches ; having officers to guide and minister unto them , and laws by which they regulate themselves in such combinations . this i take to be signified in this verse , ( ) in the phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , every joynt , which i conceive hath respect to the officers of the church , whether extraordinary , as apostles , prophets and evangelists ; or ordinary , as pastors and teachers , v. . which the apostle saith , v. . were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , for the perfecting and compacting of the saints , and upon whom the gifts did primarily descend for the edifying of the body of christ , v. . these are as ligaments and joynts to the body , that do move , strengthen , preserve , and secure it , ( . ) it 's further signified in the phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , every part , by which i conceive is to be understood , with respect to the limbs of a natural body , the particular churches which christians according to their convenience of abode and affairs were cast and distributed into . and this i the rather think , because i find particular christians called often in scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 members of christ , cor. xii . , . but this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , part , is never so applied to any particular person ; and when on other occasions it is made use of , it constantly hath a respect to number and multitude , as , acts xxiii . . one part were jews , &c. and this may further be presumed from what the apostle saith , chap. ii . , . where after he had spoken of the catholick church , of which all christians are fellow-citizens , he proceeds to their particular union as a christian church in that place , v. . in whom ye also are built together for an habitation of god through the spirit . . here is the advantage of such an union , it maketh increase of the body ; and is for the preservation of it , as ver . . doth imply , that we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro , and carried about with every wind of doctrine , &c. which was to be prevented by the compacting the saints together , ver . . from what hath been hitherto said i observe , . that a constitution or fixed order in the church doth make much for the increase and safety of it , and is necessary towards the propagating and securing of religion . . that a constitution which takes in these ends is to be regarded . i shall at this time chiefly apply my self to the latter , viz. the securing of religion , and i shall do it in this following order . . by shewing that the preservation of a church and religion , is mainly depending upon a setled order and constitution . . by considering what that constitution is , particularly with respect to our selves , in this nation , and our present circumstances . . by shewing what regard is to be given to such a constitution , and how far it 's the interest of every true protestant to comply with it . first , i shall shew that the preservation of a church and religion is mainly depending upon a setled order and constitution . when i speak of the great security of the church , the respect which it hath therein primarily to god the great patron of it , is to be supposed , who can and will protect it against the most formidable powers which may threaten and invade it : and when i speak of other security , i am to be understood of prudential and rational means , and what is to be done in that way on our part in order thereunto : and of this sort i take a constitution to be . without this there cannot be a church , i.e. without laws and officers for direction ; without having the work of those officers set forth and described ; and without a people that bear such a respect to those officers , and to each other as the laws agreed upon do require . for if every person be at liberty to be what he will and do as he please ; either to rule or to be ruled , to teach or to be taught , to act or forbear , the church would be none , and from being like a city that is compact together , it would be no better than a field of contention and confusion . and what particular persons are with respect to a church , such are particular churches with respect to the whole ; and therefore as every christian is to look upon himself as a member of the church , and to bear a due respect to the body of which he is : so are particular churches as parts of a greater body to have a regard to it . it 's for the safety and edification of every particular christian not to stand alone , but to be united to a body ; and it 's for the security and advantage of particular churches to draw into more general combinations , that so they may upon all emergencies receive mutual advice and assistance . and this is to be done according to the nations they are of , the government they are under , the times they are in ; which kind of combination is usually known by the name of a national church , that is , when there is an union of particular churches under one common form. this is in it self a thing most decent , and what , as it doth unite the hearts of a people or nation more firmly to one another , so doth also provide for their security : for as all good order doth contribute to safety ; so the more general that order is , the greater security must redound from it . and therefore however some may in speculation please themselves with particular churches altogether independent upon others ; yet whenever it comes to practice , they are forced to take other measures , and to enter into larger combinations , as it happened in new england . and from hence it is that the quakers themselves how much soever they pretend to be against all forms , are fallen into such a kind of order , and have several laws amongst themselves , which become binding to the rest , and are more or less as extensive as their party is . which is therefore in print complained of by several amongst them , as usurpation and arbitrary imposition * . the usefulness of order to the purposes spoken of is what nature and reason do dictate , and what in all other cases no man doth dispute ; it 's that which brought men into societies , and is the great preserver of them . it 's that which is the safety of nations , and armies , cities , and families ; and it would be the opinion of all men in the present case , were but their own religion and constitution to be the measure prescribed . no man can deny , but if the nation was all in one way , and the people all of one mind in matters of religion , it would be as much for our peace and mutual satisfaction , our welfare and security , as it is lovely in it self . and then methinks no man should deny but that a constitution of one sort or another , which may reach the general part of the nation , and most sute the government of it , doth in its degree tend the same way , and that it 's more for our safety to have that which is a national constitution than to be without it . and this is the more necessary in regard of a potent enemy that we have to encounter , against whom all the force that we can raise , and the care that we can take will be little enough to secure us . for the church of rome is so strongly compacted , and so well provided of whatever may support it at home , or enlarge its conquests abroad , that it will vie with any constitution in the world. there is first an universal head who challengeth the supream power over all churches in the world , and whom all in their communion are bound to acknowledg as such . it 's he that hath the power of calling councils , arbitrating differences , passing decrees , granting dispensations , issuing out indulgences , making expositions , and of bringing all things to a certainty and determination in their church . it 's he whom all the bishops and priests amongst them do swear particular obedience to , and which they hold so sacred and inviolable , that it shall cancel all obligations to , and defend them against all impositions of any secular prince whatsoever . it 's his commands all the several orders of monks and friers do observe , and his pleasure they attend ; and by their vast numbers spread through the christian world , and the intire dependence which they have upon him , he hath both an opportunity of gaining intelligence , and of obtaining ordinarily what he designs with greater facility and success than any prince by his ambassadors , agents and correspondents whatsoever . for these are the constant emissaries of the church , and by whose generals residing at rome all orders that may be for the common good , are immediately dispersed , and so religiously received , that where-ever these persons are sent they immediately go , whatever they are commanded they out of hand do , which they do with the greater resolution bend themselves to , as they have cast off all relations , and have no expectations from them ; have no posterity to take care of , or that have any dependence upon them , and so if they miscarry , the mischief of it lights wholly upon themselves . and these that are chosen out for that purpose , being persons of inquisitive and active tempers , capable of looking into affairs , considering circumstances , and finding out the interests , designs and inclinations of others , and supplied with all things that may be necessary for such an undertaking , have a great advantage over any people that are without such instruments . ( . ) there are besides great preferments and hopes of gaining them , to whet their industry and encourage their endeavours : for those of all kinds that church doth abound in , and flows with that wealth gathered from first fruits , tenths , appeals , dispensations , pardons , jubilees , pilgrimages and other innumerable ways of advantage , as that no design shall fail for want of succour in that kind . ( . ) there is a setled conformity throughout that church , and all agree in their service as it 's now establisht , that whatever differences there are among them , yet they seem to be one to others , and are really so in what makes for their own advantage and security . ( . ) they have a great power over the laity in the interests they make among them for the reasons abovesaid ; and by obliging them to auricular confession , by which their secrets are poured into the priests bosom ; and so as they are under a tye not to do any thing which they would not trust him with the knowledg of ; so if they have committed a secret to him , dare not disoblige him for fear he should disclose it . by which means men dare not own their doubt , or so much as entertain a thought of doing otherwise than the church will allow . lastly , there are such permissions and allowances in their church , that for the service and good of it men may shape their course as they please , take up any garb , and fashion themselves to any temper of men or state of people whatsoever , for such an end . so that from a church thus constituted , and established with power and policy , there needs all the industry , consideration , and unity , that can be to preserve those that are threatned by it . and this without a setled general and national constitution i see not how it may be . we may as well think to go out against a veterane and well disciplined host , and hope to overcome them without any known orders to be observed , or officers to lead and command , as to defend our selves against the invasion of so powerful and formed a church as that is . for had we no form at all , or were there different petty forms without submission to one as supream , there would , it 's likely , be as many factions as forms , and those so furiously contending with each other , that the very approach of the enemy would hardly be able to curb the violence with w ch each would bear upon the other : or however there could not be that good understanding , that necessary intelligence , that sober advice , that mutual care for each others safety , and that ability to advance it as when there is but one . the adversary would have an opportunity of sowing dissensions , of widning differences , and of infecting the multitude with such principles as should make them a fit prey , for his own power , when there is a fit season for it . from all which the necessity of having a general and national constitution doth appear where it is not , and of maintaining one where it is . . i shall consider what that constitution is that may best preserve a church , and a church whose welfare is maligned by such an adversary as i have before described . and that i shall do by laying down some characters which may belong to such a constitution , and then by searching for such a church as may have a correspondence to these characters . . that constitution which is agreeable to scripture , and the practice of the primitive and universal church , is most likely to maintain it self against all opposition . for then it is able to encounter an adversary with great advantage , and beat him from his strongest holds , so far as authority is admitted to the decision of the case . if we have the scripture on our side , none can ever warrantably throw us out of possession , or make good any charge against us : since whatever we hold or do by vertue of its authority will remain firm and unshaken , and which none can touch upon but they must strike at the foundation of truth and religion . and if we have the primitive church , and the records of the first ages to stand by us , as we have thereby the best expositors of scripture , so the best authority next to it ; and which none can wholly reject without great rashness and arrogance . . that 's to be supposed a constitution of this nature , which the adversaries do most of all oppose , and seek the downfal of . if we see an enemy bending all his force against a particular place , and passing by others with all hast and diligence imaginable seeks to surprize it by stratagem , or overthrow it by violence , we may well suppose it to be of great importance , and what he is most of all apprehensive of danger from . and if we find the church of rome always undermining and assaulting some particular establishment amongst us , or some one church more than others in the world , we have good cause to think such a church and constitution to be considerable in it self , and what is also a great affliction and obstruction to them . . that is likely to be a constitution of this kind which best sutes the civil government , that hath such a dependence upon it , and is so complicated with it , that it cannot cannot carry on a different interest from , or seek the trouble and ruin of the state , but it must also trouble and ruin it self . whereas if these two are divided , or have several centers to respect , there will be a continual contention , which can end in nothing but destruction . . that is likely to be a constitution for this purpose which is most generally suted to the temper of the people , and which even the greatest part of dissenters will choose to dwell under , rather than another . there cannot be a constitution which all will equally like , approve of , and agree in ; and since a national constitution is necessary for our preservation , that which will come nearest to this is most eligible . . that constitution may be presumed to be fit for this end which we have had good experience of and know what it 's able to do and is sufficient for . for whatever semblance another may have of great vertue and sufficiency , yet nothing can be positively concluded , because that which hath not been at all , or not fully tried , is very uncertain , and so unsafe , especially in a dangerous season . it may then be what people may as much slight as they did before desire it , and as soon grow weary of it as before they were forward to embrace it . it may come for ought we know to yield the cause instead of maintaining it , and be so far from resisting popery , that it may be swallowed up by it . . that constitution seems most fitted to this end , which is capable of the best consultation and most vigorous prosecution ; where the persons concerned in preserving it , neither want education , nor experience to know what may be for the welfare of the church ; and have also a sufficient power and authority to provide it . for without these advantages of training them up in the ways of knowledg and experience , those to whom the care of the church is committed would rather ruin than preserve it , rather betray than rescue it , by their weakness or their ignorance . . i may add to this , that which hath encouragements for learning and industry , and ways to bring them up in the one , and quicken them to the other . without these , learning would be scarce , and the spirits of men sluggish and he●●● : and without these a church that is eminent ●●●rein , as rome is , would quickly espy and make their advantage ; as she hath already done in the eastern churches , which in little more than an age are almost over-run by her : and that though they had a setled and ancient constitution , and were generally sufficiently prejudiced against the romish usurpation ; yet what from their poverty , and their ignorance ( which follows from the former . ) the supremacy of the pope is now there in very many parts their avowed principle . and if at that distance they have thus far prevailed , they must necessarily meet with the like success in a church when nearer to them , if learning be not encouraged by an honourable maintenance . . that constitution is likely to answer this end which by-standers , and so the most impartial persons have given their verdict for , and which they promise themselves greater security by , if they could obtain it . . that is best for us which in such a time of fear , as this , is most likely to create least disturbance , and expose us to the least danger . for the particular case , now , is to give us a rule , and that is best to us which will best secure us against the publick mischief . having gon thus far to shew that a setl'd national and general constitution is necessary towards our preservation , and to find out such characters as in the opinion of all unbyassed and considering persons may fit such a constitution as is best for us . i have nothing else to do but to find out a constitution which may fit those characters . but by this time you will prevent me in your thoughts , and perceive how these things do agree with our present constitution , and what reason we have to maintain it . but before i proceed to draw the parallel , and set it before you , i shall premise first , that we are to take the several characters before laid down together , for that is the best , which all agree in . secondly , that these characters are not to be applied to any single part of the constitution , but to the whole . for we are not obliged to maintain that every particular thing in our church is the best , and that nothing in it can be mended . for it 's freely declared otherwise , as particularly in the commination to be used the first day of lent. it is sufficient that the constitution is in the whole agreeable to those characters . thirdly , much less do i think my self obliged to defend the miscarriages that may be in the administration of what belongs to the constitution , when they flow not from the constitution it self . for they are the faults of the persons , not the faults of the constitution . but , fourthly , i say that the present constitution amongst us , best sutes those characters , and as it 's in it self the best constitution that i know of upon the face of the earth , so it 's most fit for us , and is to be best thought of by us . and this will appear by comparing our constitution with the characters before laid down . . our constitution is agreeable to scripture and the practice of the primitive and universal church . it 's agreeable to scripture : for it owns nothing for canonical , but what is divinely inspired , and makes nothing necessary , but what is thereby made necessary . whatever things indifferent , and of a middle nature are taken in , are only used as indifferent , and what are therefore alterable in themselves , and upon just causes may be altered and changed , and therefore are not to be esteemed equal with god's law , as our church declares * . and those that are in use are what she hath the ancient church for her pattern in . her government in the substance and essential parts of it , is , what was unanimously and universally the government in the church , according to the most ancient and authentick records that we have in being . . this constitution of ours is the more considerable , as it is what our adversaries of rome do most inveigh against , and labour to overthrow . it is the weakness of some to accuse us of popery , because of episcopacy and a liturgy , and other things in which we do agree . for although they have episcopacy and a liturgy in the church of rome , yet our episcopacy and liturgy is what they bear an immortal hatred unto , neither owning the former , nor suffering their people to be present at the latter . for as long as episcopacy doth not acknowledge the pope's supremacy ; and as long as our liturgy is discharged of the fopperies and idolatry that theirs is stuffed with , it 's to their reproach . this of ours is not only an established , but also a very regular constitution , and bears in it so great a conformity to the ancient order of the church , that there is none in the world which they so much try their skill and their practices upon . and therefore whereas they let the writings of other parties amongst us , lye by with such a kind of contempt , that i remember not above two that for this twenty years they have vouchsafed to take notice of , and to reply to ( and for which i could give a particular reason ; ) in the mean time they have run upon the church with all their might , and picked out the goliahs of their party to encounter the writers amongst us : as well knowing if they could make them to give ground and retreat , the day was like to be their own . this i observe , not to disparage the labours of our dissenting brethren in that kind , but to shew wherein the strength of the protestant religion is thought , even by our adversaries , to consist . . our constitution doth best sute the civil government , as it doth maintain the king in his just rights , and doth not invade the liberty of the subject . the case in these nations formerly was , that the church-constitution rendred the condition of princes and people unsafe and perplexed ; for having a dependance upon , and giving themselves over to a blind obedience to a foreign power , viz. the pope , there were always jealousies of each other , and very turbulent factions maintained to the great prejudice of the kingdom ; as in the time of king henry the i. by anselm , and in the time of henry the ii. by becket arch-bishops of canterbury . but now the supremacy being setled upon the king , and maintained by the church , there is but one interest , and the peace of the publick is thereby provided for * . for the church hath now laws made for the clergy , as well as others , by the supreme council of the nation , and is as much obliged to submit to them when made . but it is evident how little these things are considered and respected by any other parties , in comparison of ours , and what i choose rather to refer you to others for satisfaction in * . . our present constitution doth best sute the temper of the nation , and which the greatest part even of dissenters would choose to dwell under , rather than another . that which pretends mostly to a competition with ours is the presbyterian , as it is a national form . but if we should come to enquire into the inclinations of those that pass under that name , i dare be confident that there are very few of them ( if any ) that are satisfied with the frame that is laid down , and the orders and rules that have been observed in the churches , where that way of government hath been established : or if they are , it is that at which the people are generally prejudiced and which the rest of dissenters do unanimously complain of , and protest against : should we come to the congregational way , then the churches must be consisting of such persons as are gathered out of churches , and who are presumed from some good grounds to be in a state of grace , and that must oblige themselves by a particular covenant at their first admission . by which means all that scruple these terms , or that are not really converted , or not so thought by them , will have no relation to the church , and they and their children be no members of it . and how this would relish with the nation in general , or other dissenters , may be well conceived . so that either we must have no constitution , or the present , if we will gratifie the greatest part of the nation , and even that of the dissenters themselves . for whatever other constitution is uppermost will have more adversaries than ours , as it will have , besides the other dissenters , the present church and the members of it to be against it , who are more in number than any other party , and i think i may say , than all others put together . . ours is a constitution which we have had good experience of , and have seen how it hath kept its ground , and bid such constant defiance to the church of rome , that they of that church have not been able to run it down with all their prowess : and over whom , were it not for our divisions at home , which take up the thoughts of those that are the guardians of it , we should have had such advantage , as might have made them weary of attempting us . there was no reformation in the world that was more orderly begun , more regularly pursued , and more stedfastly maintained than ours . it was that which was water'd with the blood of the reformers , and hath for above this hundred years been still upheld by the unwearied endeavours of those that were in place amongst us . and notwithstanding all the popery that hath been charged upon us , i dare challenge any to shew such monuments of learning and industry ; such clear detections of the apostasie , and such solid consutations of the arguments of that church , as are extant , and have been writ by the bishops , the clergy , and even the laity of ours . . in our constitution there is a capacity of the best consultation and most vigorous prosecution . in respect of the church it self , as there is a due subordination in it , where the inferiour are under the inspection and command of their superiours . and where the superiours are often present at debates in councils , have an hand in making and passing laws , are conversant in affairs of the nation ; and so are in a better capacity of espying out and providing against the attempts of the enemy , than if they were to reside upon particular cures , and to attend the business of them . for then for want of such we should be an easie prey to those that had a will and power to seize us . . i might insist upon the encouragements amongst us for learning and industry , both in preparation for the service of the church in the universities , and after they are admitted to it , in livings , and dignities ; by which means the clergy may be in a capacity to furnish themselves with books , and all necessary accomplishments . and then again upon the care that is taken , or might be , that none but such as are competently learned be received and entertained . . our constitution hath the good opinion of impartial persons , such as learned protestants abroad , many of whom it hath courteously received , cherished and maintained . indeed our church is looked upon as the top of the reformation , and to which in difficult cases others have made their appeals . it hath been honoured by our friends , feared by our enemies , and contemned by none but our selves at home : and how much that hath been , and is to the damage and hazard of the protestant religion , both at home and abroad , might easily be made to appear . . our constitution at this juncture and season is our great security , and what will expose us to the least disturbance and danger : for whilst this stands we cannot be worse than we are , but if this be thrown down , god knows into what confusions we may be cast , or whether ever we may come to a settlement again . i am sensible that there are some that do with all their might endeavour the total subversion of it , and whom nothing less will content , than with edom , to say , ps. . . rase it , rase it , even to the foundation thereof . but i would fain know what is hereby intended , whether such would bring us to confusion or settlement ? if the former , i hope all good protestants of what perswasion soever , will look upon them as their mortal enemies ; since nothing then can be the issue but destruction , both to religion and our selves : for whatever they may pretend , they are far from the temper and spirit of the gospel , where we are told , cor. . . that god is not the author of confusion , but of peace in all the churches of the saints . if a settlement be intended , i would as willingly know where they will fix ? for it 's a most wretched imprudence to pull down the old mound , before they are provided of another , and to expose us to the boar out of the wood , and the wild beast of the field to enter in , and to make havock of the church of god , for want of a fence and security . if they are come to any issue , and are provided of a constitution to set up , are they secure that this project of theirs shall without delay be taken into consideration , and considered without partiality ? will there no controversies arise about the terms of communion , or the nature and parts of that government , which they would substitute in the room of what they now quarrel at ? can they secure us , that the frame which they have laid will be better than that which they seek to overthrow , and that upon experience , and in the current of as many years it shall not prove as faulty as what falls under their present censure ? can they secure us , that their model will take , and that all parties that now joyn against ours , will center in theirs ? or that those that dissent from them shall meet with better quarter , or fairer usage , when theirs is advanced to the supremacy , than they do under ours ? if this cannot be assured , or so much as made probable , we had as good be where we are . but suppose there could be a better constitution than what we have , and that matters might be better regulated ; yet we must consider our present circumstances , in which without doubt it is better to bear with an inconvenience than a mischief , and to be content to be secure with what we have , than to venture all for somewhat that we have not . for a dissolution cannot be at this time without greater mischiefs , than what can be conceived to be in the constitution . it being as in a fort , where perhaps the fortifications may be made more regular , and contrived to the greater security of it ; but though this might be done in a time of peace and leisure , yet to pull down the old for this purpose , whilst the enemy is before it , would be to throw it into his possession , and he that should advise to it , and adventure upon it , though with a good intention , would do as great a mischief , as if he conspired with the enemy . we are now in the midst of danger , and have an enemy that is deeply concerned to let no opportunity slip that may be to our damage ; and if we now pull down our constitution , which is the bulwark of our religion , we expose our selves to his mercy , and he that should attempt it is in these circumstances to be looked upon as no less dangerous an enemy , than if he were of the party , and equally concerned in the plotting our ruine . for my part , i had rather continue in a town that is defensible , though not fortified altogether to my mind , than neglect the present use of that , and betake my self to great consultation to amend it , and in the midst of all my curiosity be with archimedes knockt o' th' head by the enemy . so that the preservation of the present constitution , how irregular soever it may seem to some , will less expose us than the dissolution of it . but yet how far it is from being really so , i have before shewed . and now i shall proceed to the . third general , to shew what regard is to be had to such a constitution . if what i have said be true , that the present constitution be the best qualified for making resistence to , and defending us against the church of rome ; if it be the common bulwark of the protestant religion amongst us , and the great security of it abroad , it becomes every one that is a true lover of our religion , to seek and promote the welfare of our constitution . i know this will be a great piece of self-denial in those that do dissent from it , and that perhaps in so doing they may not increase or derive any particular power to themselves : but if it be really the interest of our religion , i hope they will see it to be their duty , and make it their endeavour . when the jews were carried captive to babylon , they were required to seek the peace of the city , whither they were carried captive , and to pray unto the lord for it : for , saith the text , in the peace thereof shall ye have peace : jerem. . . when in a state of captivity , and amongst heathens , they were thus obliged to have a respect to the welfare of the place and government . and then much more should we , when our religion is the same in its fundamentals , and the civil liberties are , what all are alike partakers of . we all agree in the vital parts of our religion , we agree that popery is a common enemy , we agree that it is our interest to joyn against it . and where shall we meet , if it be not in some settlement : and in what shall we agree , if the present constitution will not so far unite us ? i am sensible that there are many that will not understand this ; that are like those , lament . . . that would not have believed that the adversary and the enemy should have entered into the gates of jerusalem ; that do the church of rome what it can , it can never make its way , and set up its standard amongst us . they think if they can clear themselves of our church at home , that they are sufficiently provided against danger from abroad . they are ready to say , as tyrus of jerusalem , ezek , . . aha she is broken , that was the gates of the people , she is turned unto me , i shall be replenished now she is laid wast : and each party is apt to promise much to it self upon such a victory and change . such as these do watch to break down the carved work thereof with axes and hammers . these labour to cast fire into the sanctuary , and attempt all ways to alienate the affections of the people from the present establishment , and to raise slanders upon any that appear in its defence . they are these that load the present ministry with contempt , and are continually in their pamphlets exposing them , as well knowing that if they can remove the shepherds , or make the people to believe them to be wolves , they have done their business , and the whole flock is likely to lye at their mercy . these are they that make way for popery to enter in . for is it not the ministry of the church of england , that appears in the breach upon all occasions , that either flings down or takes up the gantlet , and that hath hitherto so far prevailed , that the romish party hath at last almost quitted the way of argument , and hath attempted the conquest of us by blood and violence , when they could not do it by learning and reason ? if we had nothing but a worldly interest to move us , if that were the compass we steer by , ( as some do basely insinuate ) if there were nothing of duty in the contention , we might be as quiet as others , and make our terms upon as good advantage with a church that hath store of preferments to reward us , and where the clergy hath a reverence paid to them beyond what we do meet with , or may expect in ours . if we would shew quarter to them , we are sensible enough that they would shew it to us . but when notwithstanding all our industry and care , all our pains and hazard we shall be papists , there can no security be given that any are not such , and much less those gentlemen that take the liberty thus to asperse us . but it is not with us the boldness of these persons hath stopped , but they will bring others into the same condemnation : if the mischief had staid with us we might be silent , or if the state and religion may be secured , and we be ruined alone , it might not be so material . let them proceed in their calumnies and mischievous designs : if that were all , i hope god will give us patience to bear whatever they may throw or inflict upon us . but when the government it self is assaulted , and things are come to this pass , that any one that will not strike in with them in all points shall be a papist , and what not , when a man must not speak for the church of england , but he must be hoysing up sails for the church of rome , it 's time to refel such a calumny , and to expose the design . o what a pleasant sight is this to the church of rome , to see the storm diverting from themselves , and that the work which hath cost them such consultation , expence and labour , shall be done to their hands ; and instead of the sore disappointment , which they did hourly expect , have no more to do but to stand still , and see the destruction of their greatest enemy . to see us by such an artifice made so jealous one of another , that we know not whom to trust , and each party ready to turn the plot upon the other . it is fit that mens eyes should be opened , and be made to see whither they are driving . it 's fit to put a stop to the danger which is coming upon us . i do not charge this upon all dissenters ; i know there are many of them that are so wise to observe it , and so sincere as to abhor it , as well as we ; such that see into the mischievous consequences of these proceedings . i may well say , is not the hand of the jesuit in all this ? what either proceeds from them , or men of their temper . it 's high time then for all sober persons to look about them , and rather to think of what is fit and necessary to be done for our common safety , than for a private satisfaction . let them lay aside all little grudges and animosities , and their present dissatisfactions , till it is a time to find relief for them . it would be an happy time to find the nation of the temper that it was generally in , in the time of queen elizabeth , to have all conspiring and serving god in the same way . but since this is not likely to be ; let all however be over-ruled by a principle of common safety and interest , and do what may best serve to promote it ; which is , in defending what is the bulwark of our religion , by commending what we like in it , by joyning with it in what we can , and by dissenting with modesty where we cannot . for next to the being of one mind in religion , there would nothing more daunt and strike a greater terrour into our adversaries , than to see us stand up for one constitution , and unanimously resolved to maintain that which is the general mound and security . hereby our dissenting brethren will give satisfaction to the government they live under , they will shew that they are christians and protestants indeed . they will then shew themselves worthy of favour , and will prompt authority to find out a way to extend it to them . we shall then begin to be one , and from being tossed to and fro , we shall be growing towards the temper and state of the text , when the whole body fitly joyned together , and compacted by that which every joynt supplieth , according to the effectual working in the measure of every part , maketh increase of the body , unto the edifying of it self in love . o lord , we beseech thee , let thy continual pity cleanse and defend thy church ; and because it cannot continue in safety without thy succour , preserve it evermore by thy help and goodness , through jesus christ our lord. amen . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e * spirit of the hat. hidden things brought to light . bullocks tracts . q. spiritual court. * rubr. of ceremonies , why some abolished , &c. * of this , v. dr. puller's moderation of the church of england . c. . * dr. puller ut supra . p. . the casuist uncas'd, in a dialogue betwixt richard and baxter, with a moderator between them, for quietnesse sake by roger l'estrange. l'estrange, roger, sir, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing l estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) the casuist uncas'd, in a dialogue betwixt richard and baxter, with a moderator between them, for quietnesse sake by roger l'estrange. l'estrange, roger, sir, - . the second edition. [ ], p. printed for h. brome ..., london : . includes bibliographical references. a satire on richard baxter. reproduction of original in huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng baxter, richard, - . church and state -- england. dissenters, religious -- england. great britain -- politics and government -- - . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - john latta sampled and proofread - john latta text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the casuist uncas'd , in a dialogue betwixt richard and baxter , with a moderator between them , for quietnesse sake . by roger l' estrange . the second edition . london , ●rinted for h. brome at the signe of the gun in s. pauls church-yard . . upon the manners , as well as the services of the royall party . what can i do better , then to face him with the acts of the assembly , and the proceedings of the two houses , to the contrary ? and to produce his own act and deed in evidence against his profession ? on the one hand , you have mr. baxter valuing himself up●● his principles of loyalty , and obedience ; and on the other ha●● , you have the very same mr. baxter , ( according to the outward man ) not only pleading the cause , but celebrating the justice , and canonizing ( as in his saints rest , pa. . of the old editions ) the prime directors and instruments of the late rebellion : asserting the very doctrine of those positions , whereupon it was founded . when mr. baxter sets up for a toleration ; wh●● can be fairer then to shew him his own arguments against it ? or to ask him , how he , ( a kinde of heteroclite in his opinions , ) that has chalk'd out so singular a plat-form of church-regiment 〈◊〉 himself , comes now to be a common advocate for all the dissenting parties ? take him in one mood , ( as in his five disputations , and elsewhere ) and he tells ye , that a diocesan prelacy is plainly antichristian , and intolerable . and yet in his no●-conformists plea , and other parts of his writings , he tells ye aga●n , that the nonconformists would have submitted to it . now if the constitution was so abominable , why should they submit to it ▪ and if it was not so , why does mr. baxter say that it was ? an● why does he still persist , in debauching and alienating the hea●● of the people from their rulers , in matters which he himself acknowledges to be warrantable , and established by law ? and so for 〈◊〉 liturgy and ceremonies , he 's at the same variance with himself , about the lawfulnesse , or vnlawfulnesse of those points also . now since mr. baxter has been pleased to take upon himself , the patronage of the non-conformists cause , and to put forth his plea , and his plea again for that interest ; what can be more ob●iging then to take him at his word , and consider him under the publick character of their representative ? at this rate , mr. baxters works will be as good as a non-conformists dictionary to us : and assist the world toward the vnderstanding of the holy dialect , i● a wonderful manner . for the purity of the gospell ; the ways of christ : the ordinances of the lord ; the power of godlynesse ; the foundations of faith ; the holy discipline : a blessed reformation , &c. these are words , and expressions , that signify quite another thing to them , then they do to us. faithful pastors ; laborious ministers ; heavenly guides ; zealous protestants ; the upright in the land : humble petitioners ; just priviledges ; higher powers ; glorious kings ; holy covenanting unto the lord , &c. this is not to be taken now , as the language c●rrant of the nation , but only as a privy cypher of intelligence betwixt themselves , and the cant , or jargon of the party . nay , they fly from us in their speech , their manners , their meaning , as well as in their profession . the very christ-crosse in the horn-book is as much a scandal to them , as the crosse in baptisme ; and they make it a point of honour to maintain the freedome of their own tongue , in token , that they are not as yet a conquer'd nation . but are the non-conformists agreed upon it , or not ; that mr. baxter shall be their speaker ; and that what he delivers in their name , shall be taken and deemed as the sense of the party ? if it be so ; we have no more to do then to consult mr. baxter himself , and from his o●n writings , ( which i have here cited , and apply'd , with exact faith , and justice ) to take our measures of the dissenting brethren . no man presses obedience to the higher powers , more imperiously then he does : but then he makes those higher powers to be still the usurpers , one after another , as they get into actual possession . [ prove ( says he ) in the preface to his holy common-wealth ) that the king was the highest power , in the time of division , — and i will offer my head to justice , as a rebell . ] his meaning must inevitably be this ; either that the king had no right to the crown before the divisions , or that he forfeited his title , by the rebellion ; which is an admirable way of transition , from rank treason , to lawfull authority . but in all th●se cases , he has still a recourse for a salvo to his box of distinctions : and tells ye , that they shot at charles stuart in the field , for the honour and safety of the king in the two houses : and then , good lord ! how he runs himself out of breath with detesting , and renouncing , and renouncing , and detesting king-killing ! and yet upon occasion when oliver the king-killer falls in his way ; how does he lay himself out in euloyges , upon the pious defunct ! praying , ( as the highest instance of the veneration he had for that usurper ) that the spirit of the father might descend upon the son. [ we pray ( says he to richard ) that you may inherit a tender care of the cause of christ ] key for catholicks , ep. ded. but then in another fit , he shall advance ye into , his politicks , with a troop of aphorismes ; lay principalities and powers levell with the ground , and tear up the very ordinance it self of government by the roots . [ if providence ( says he ) statedly , disable him that was the governour &c. ] ho. com. thes. . [ and yet he does not down-right ●vow the doctrine of king-killing ; he does indeed approve of giving battle to the kings will : but whether to aym at it , in his maiestys head , or in his heart , is not , as yet , statedly determin'd . now t● moderate the matter , the presbyterians only cut off his majestys hands , and feet , so that he could neither help nor shift for himself , and then gave him ( sold him i should say ) to the independents , who cut off his head. if mr. baxter speaks the sence of the non-consormists , as he pretends to do , then must this serve for an exposition of their loyalty ; but if not ; why does not the party either disown or take away his commission ? this is it , which the restlesse , and implacable adversaries of our common repose , make such a noyse in the world with , as the work of the spirit of persecution ; the enflaming of differences ; the widening of breaches ; and the violation of the act of oblivion . whereas , in truth , there 's nothing in it of a spiteful invective , but on the other side , it is only a playn , and a necessary defence . mr. baxter , in his non-conformists pleas , delivers ( in his way ) a kind of deduction of the war. particularly , under the head of [ matters of fact to be fore-known , to the true understanding of the cause . ] d part. pag. . in this chapter , from the question of the constitution of churches ; the powers of princes , and pastors in eccclesiastical matters , and cases of lawful separation ; he makes a sally , without any manner of connexion , or provocation , into the state and right of the war. pa. . he charges it upon a faction among the bishops , and the falling in of the majority of the parliaments , to the popular part of them ; in that division : which is a calumny , as remote from the subject of his discourse as it is from truth . if it had been as he woud have it ; how comes the whole order of bishops to be assaulted ? their persons affronted ; and their votes in parliament taken away ; without distinction ? was the feud so deadly , as to make them destroy themselves ; and ruine the whole hierarchy in revenge ? how came it to pass , that bishop hall , a person celebrated even by mr baxter himself for his piety and moderation : how came this reverend prelate i say , te be so coursly handled by the corporation of the smectymnuans , marshall , calamy , young , newcomen , and spurstow : and treated by five of the most eminent men of the par●y , with scurrilitys fitter for the priests of priapus , then the ministers of the gospell . pa. . he goes on with his remarks upon bishop laud , over and over . the book of sports , on the lords day , the business of [ altars , rayls , and bowing towards them . afternoon-sermons and lectures put down ; imprisonments , stigmatisings , removals , &c. ] and then pa. . he p●oceeds to [ the new liturgy imposed on the scots , &c. ] but says he , ( a little below ) we are vnwilling to be the mentioners of any more then concerneth our present cause , and the things are commonly known . ] which is such a way of mentioning no more , as gives to understand without speaking , all the ill imaginable that was left unsaid . methinks mr. baxter might have let this most reverend , pious , loyal and antipapal arch-bishop have slept quietly in ●is grave , and out of pure gratitude to our present sovereign , to whose mercy this very gentleman owes his life , setting aside the veneration that belongs to majesty , and truth ; m●thinks mr. baxter might have spared this l●bell , ander the government of the son , against the administrations of the father . but it is no new thing , ●or criminals to arraign innocents ; or for those that a●e pardon'd for subverting the government , to shoot th●ir arrows ( ●v●n ●itter words ) against those that h●ve been persecuted and murther'd for endeavouring to defend it . and now after all thes● imputations upon the king , the church , and the loyall party , ●v●n to the degree of making them a●swera●le for all the blood that has been spilt : we must not so much as presume to say that we are innocent . but every vindication of the king , the church , and the law from the insults of the common enemy , is exclaimed against as an inrode upon the act of indemnity . if mr. baxter will needs be laying the r●b●llion at the wrong d●or , and discharging the presbyterians : why m●y not any honest man reply upon him ; and say , ( in agreement with mr. baxter himself , non-conformists plea , i. part. pa. . that it was the solemn league and covenant that did the work : which solemn league was not only an expr●sse oath of allegianc● to presbytery , but to the most tyrannical of all presbyteri●s , th●t of t●e scottish kirk it self . but why do i call it an oath of allegiance to presbytery ? when it was in truth , a direct conjuration against the government , both ecclesiastical , and civil , for the introducing of it ? it would be tedious , and superfluous , to crowd all the particulars of this pamphlet into a preface ; so that i shall rather refer the reader , to the book , for the rest ; where he may compare mr. baxter with himself : for it is , effectually , but an abstract out of mr. baxter's writings . by the paradoxes , disagreements , and contradictions he will be able to iudge of the authour ; and by the authour , in a great measure of the party . he that would see them drawn more to the life , may repair to the original of our saviours for the pharisees , in the gospell . examin them narrowly and you shall not find so much as the semblance of a colourable argument ; but they are still changing their battery , and pretense , according to the various accidents , and dispositions of state : and it is but tracing the history of the late times to find every round of the ladder , that advanc'd them from petitioners to rulers . they plead the cause of thousands in the land , they tell us , and yet there 's not a single man in all those thousands , that understands one bit of the controversy . they cry aloud against idolatry , superstition , abominations , symbolical ceremonies , will-worship , humane inventions , and order their disciples just as they do their children : they dresse up a terrible thing of clouts , and call it a bull-begger , which is no other then a mormo of their own creating . they have a certain routin of words , and sayings , that have the tone of magique in the very sound of them , and serve only ( without any other meaning ) like the drum , and the trumpet , to rouse up the multitude to battle . but the lords ordinance , and the primitive pattern stand them in mighty stead . for though they have been foyld as often as encountred upon this question ; yet the very terms of the controversy being is good as syriack , to the common people ; there is a mist cast before their eyes , and they are never in so good time , to see visions as when they are stark blind . to conclude , i have exposed these she●●s to the ●●●●ck , rather as mr. baxters work , then my own . if 〈…〉 , it was none of my fault that my authour would not me 〈…〉 . nor have i any more to say upon the whole matter , but that i have been as fair to mr. baxter , as he hath been to himself . a dialogue , &c. moderator . richard and baxter . moderator . yes , yes . i remember the conference at the savoy perfectly well ; by this token , that dr. gunning and dr. pearson ( the bishops of ely and chester ) deliver'd you this very proposition . that command which commandeth an act in it self lawfull , and no other act whereby any unjust penalty is enjoyned , nor any circumstance whence directly , or per accidens , any sin is consequent which the commander ought to provide against , hath in it all things requis●●● to the lawfulnesse of a command , and particularly cannot be guilty of commanding an act per accidens unlawfull ; nor of commanding an act under an unjust penalty . [ b of worcesters letter , in his vindication against m. baxter . p. . ] ri. very good ; and i gave them under my hand my opinion to the contrary . [ because ( said i ) the fi●st act commanded may be per accidens unlawful , and be commanded by an vnjust penalty ; tho' no other act or circumstance commanded be such . ] ibid. pa. . ba. nay hold you brother , i 'm of another opinion . [ if the thing commanded be such as is simply ill , and forbidden us by god in all cases whatsoever , then no ones commands can make it lawfull : but if it it be a thing that is only inconvenient , or unlawful by some lesser accident ; then the command of authority may pre-ponderate , as a more weighty accident ] r. b's church-divisions , p. . nay [ many a ruler sinneth in his commands , when it is no sin , but a duty of the inferior to obey them . as if a magistrate command religious duties in meer policy : or if he force a lawful command with unlawful penalties ; and yet it will be the subjects duty to obey . ] ibid. [ nor is any ruler bound to suspect , and prevent such unusual dangers of mens sin , or ruine , as fall out beyond all rational foresight , or expectation ; of whose probable event ( or possible at least ) , there was no just evidence . ] r. b's non-conformists iudgment . p. . mo. your argument ( mr. richard ) has cut off all magistracy at a blow : for there is not any command imaginable that falls not within the reach of your exception . and mr. baxter is in the right on 't . but what do ye think now ( gentlemen ) of the operation , or further extent of such a power ? ri. if you mean as to matters concerning religion [ no man 〈◊〉 any authority to make laws about gods worship , but 〈◊〉 christ hath given him . ] non-conformists plea d part. p. . ba. pray'e hold me a little excus'd there too ; for [ we renounce the opinion of them that hold that circa sacra the king hath no power to command the circumstances of worship . ] n●●-conformists plea. part d. p. . mo. there is but a right and a wrong in the case ( my masters ) and you have hit them both again , i make no doubt on 't , but your circa sacra comprehends liturgies , ceremonies , and other circumstances of order , relating to the church , pray'e tell me how your consciences stand affected that way : not as to the merits of the cause ( for the world is allready clogg'd with that controversy ) but i would willingly know what thoughts , you , and the party you plead for , entertain of our ecclesiastical matters . ri. [ when the king call'd us to signify our desires in . the ministers of london were commonly invited to come to sion colledge , that their common consent might be known : and there we agreed , to desire or offer nothing for church-government but a.b. ushers modell of the primitive episcopal government . when his majesty would not grant us that modell , nor the bishops once treat about it , he was pleased in his gratious declaration about ecclesiastical affairs to offer and prescribe the episcopacy of england as it stood , with little alteration , &c. ( a government ( says his majesty ) fol. . which is established by law , and with which the monarchy hath flourished through so many ages , and which is in truth as ancient in this island as the christian monarchy thereof . ) [ this declaration we ioyfully and thankfully accepted , as a ●opefull means of a common conformity and concord . ] non-con's plea , d . part pref. ba. [ the english prelacy ( i tell you ) is the product of proud ambition and arrogancy ; and contrary to the expresse command of christ. ] r. b's . five disputations p. . bishops are thorns and thistles , and the military instruments of the devil . ] r. b's . concord . p. . how could you ●ustify then a submission to such a prelacy ? mo. if an angel from heaven i perceive were employ'd to bring 〈◊〉 two to an agreement , he shoul● lose his labo●r ; fo● that which is highly acceptable to the one , and the hopefull foundation of a common concord , is ant●christian , diaboli●al , and uns●fferable to the other . you a●e up ( i find ) at every turn with the 〈◊〉 projectpunc ; and in such a manner too , as if the most ●●●●onable thing in the world ●ad been offer'd o● the one 〈◊〉 ▪ and refused on the other : whereat that 〈◊〉 was 〈◊〉 accommodated to the ●ard 〈…〉 the kings affairs , at the time of framing 〈…〉 any man , in a case of extremity , 〈…〉 of an arm ●r a leg , for the 〈…〉 yet he a very strange request to ask a man in a state of freedome , and safety , to part with a leg or an arm from his body : and as wild a thing , on the other side , to grant it . but the very offer at it under a pretense of conscience , was highly disingenuous , especially when upon the issue the scruple was remov'd by the ref●sal ; and this satisfaction given to the world , by your own acknowledgment , that conformity and episcopacy may stand well enough together , when you please . ri. i c●nnot deny but that [ ma●y proposed to have yi●lded to prelacy , liturgy , and ceremonies . ] non-con . plea , part i. p. . ba. why truly [ a certain episcopacy may be yielded to , for the peace ( if not for the right order ) of the church ; ] [ but the diocesan episcopacy which was lately in england , and is now laid by may not be lawfully reassumed , or readmitted , as a means for the right order or peace of the church . ] r. b's . five disputation , p. . . [ a government which gratif●eth the devil , and wicked men . ] ibid. p. . mo. still upon the contradiction . but if they were so well dispos'd to come in , what was it i beseech you that put them off again ? ri. when they saw the new act for uniformity , th●ir deliberations were at an end. ibid. p. . ba. [ after proving prelacy to be against the ●ill of christ ▪ and the wellfare of the churches , five disp. pref. ● . and contrary to the word of god , and apostolical institution , ibid p. . what need was there then of any further disswasion ? mo. pray'e tell me mr. richard ; was prelacy lawfull before the act for uniformity , and not after ? you are angry at the one , and therefore you renounce the other ; for it was no longer prelacy , liturgy , or ceremonies , it seems that you boggled at , but the new act. now since you your selves were convinc'd , that such a conformity as aforesaid would have been warrantable , and only transfer'd your exceptions to the new act ; how comes it that you go on still decrying the state , rites , and offices of the church to the multitude ; and make that a matter of conscience in one breath which you left at liberty in another ? the uniformity does not alter the case one jot to the common people ; but the layety may as lawfully submit to prelacy , liturgy and ceremonies , after the act , as they did before . ri. [ the people who now adhere to the non-conformists , who were at age before the wars , had very hard thoughts of the bishops persons ; and some , of episcopacy it self ; because of the silencing of ministers , and ruining of honest men about sundays-sports , reading that book , and other su●h things , beside nonconformity , &c. non-con . plea. part i. p. . mo. the bishops and episcopacy it self you say were thought hardly of ; partly for s●lencing your mi●isters . which was yet a way of proceeding conformable to the directions of the law ; and in part , ( among other provocations ) for the book of sports upon the lords day . be it spoken with reverence to the honour and duty of that holy day ; i should have thought that the rebells assaulting of their sovereign at edge hill upon that day , might have given your scrupulists as hard thoughts of the faction that did it , and of those sanguinary casuists that sounded the trumpet to that battle . but how came they off i beseech you , from that froward humour ? ri. [ when the ministers that guided them , began to seem more reconciled to the episcopal party , and upon the r●ports and promises which they had heard , that the next bishops would prove more moderate , pious , and peaceable then the former , and would by experience avoid divisions and persecution ; the said people began to be inclin'd to more reverent and favourable thoughts of the bishops , and were upon experience of the late confusions in a far fairer way to vnion and submission to them then before . non-con . plea , part i. p. . mo. if it be true that the people were induced to have a more charitable opinion of the prelates , by the hopes which their guides gave them of having better bishops next bout ▪ it appears , fi●st that the quarrel was not to the office , but to the persons . and secondly , it shews that the ministers menage the multitude , for or against their superiours , as they please : which lays a stronger obligation upon the government , to secure a well-affected ministry , when the publique peace lyes at the mercy of the dissenting clergy . but what becomes of us next ? ri. when they saw their teachers taken from them , and some 〈◊〉 set over them against their wills who were better known to them th●●●o the obtruders : and when they heard of about , silenced at once , this so much alienated them from the bishops , that it was never since in our power to bring them to so much esteem of them , and re●●rence for them as might have been . non-con . plea , part i. p. mo. so that upon the upshot , there pass'd an act for uniformity , ergo , episcopacy and common-pray●r are vnlawfull . see now what it is that you call silencin● of so many ministers . it is no more then a fair revival of those necessary provisions for the safety of the government , which had been viol●ntly overborn and discontinu'd in our late troubles : upon which violation , ensued our deplor●ble confusio●s and to take the businesse aright , ●he law does not s●e●ce your ministers more then it does ours : but holds forth one comm●n rule indifferently to all men , with a respect to politicall , as well as eccl●siast●●al-concord . every man sees before him the conditions of his freedom ; and he that either cannot , or will not comply with the terms of a general rule , silenceth himself . and is not the man neither that is silenced by this law , but this or that incongruous practice or opinion . if richard thinks fit to come in , there 's no body hinders him ; and if iohn will not come in , who can help it ? in short , this way of silencing amounts to no more then a very gentle expedient for the stopping of those mouthes that would be blowing the coal towards a rebellion . wherefore i beseech ye gentlemen for the act of oblivions sake , which has done a great deal more for you then this comes to , have some pitty for the poor act of uniformity . as to your account of about two thousand silenc'd ministers , a matter of ● or . difference shall break no squares betwixt you and me . but what yet if they were two thousand ? must the divine ordinance of government be prophan'd , and the harmony of order dissolv'd , in favour of that inconsiderable party of irregulars ; and to the scandal of six times as many consciencious and obedient subjects of the state both ecclesiastical , and civill ? ri. for my own part [ i do not know that i differ in any point of worship , ceremonies , or discipline , from the learned dr. john reignolds ] r. b's letter to mr. hinckley , p. . and my judgement is , that [ a peace with the divines of the episcopal judgement is much to be desired , and earnestly endeavour'd . ] five disp. pag. . mo. if you agree in the conclusion with that reverend dr. you are safe ; and take this for a rule ; out of the ways of love and peace there can be no comfort . ri. alas [ it is a sect , as a sect , and a f●ction , as a faction , and not this or that sect or faction which i blame : it is unity , love , and peace which i am pleading for ; and he that is angry with me for calling men to love , is angry for calling them to holynesse , to god , and heaven . holynesse which is against love , is a contradiction ; it is a deceiptfull name which satan put●eth upon unholynesse . church divisions . ●ref . ba. your churches bear with drunkards , whoremong●●● , railers , open scorners at godlynesse , five disp. p. . [ t●e most ungodly of the land are the forwardest for your ways . you may have allmost all the drunkards , blasphemers , and ignorant haters of godlynesse in the country to vote for you . ] five disp. pref. pag. . to the adherers to prelacy . ri. [ he is as mortal an enemy to love , who back-biteth , and s●ith he 's profane ; or he is an e●●ty formalist , or he is a luke-warm , temporizing , complying man-pleaser ; as he that sait● he is a peevish , factious hy●ocrite . ] to preach without love , and to hear without love , and to pray without love , and to communicate without love to any that differ from your sect , oh what a loathsome sacrifice is it to the god of love ! ] church-divisions . preface . love is the fulfilling of all the law ; the end of the gospel ; the nature , and mark of christs disciples , the divine nature ; the su● of holynesse to the lord ; the proper note by which to know what is the man , and what his state ; and how far any of his other acts are acceptable unto god. ibid. ba. how many years have we beg'd for peace of those that should have been the preachers and wisest promoters of peace ; and cannot yet obtain it ; nor quiet them that call for fire and sword , not knowing what spirit they are of ? non-con . ●lea , pref. [ the declaration about ecclesiastical affairs telleth us , that the king would have given the people peace , but with vnpeacea●●● clergy-men , no petition could prevail . ] ibid. [ and all this is out of a bitter ●nmity to gods word and ways ; for they will be at more pains then this , in any way that is evill ; or in any worship of mans devising . they are as zealous for crosses and surpl●ces , processions , and p●rambulations , reading a gospell at a crosse-way , the observa●ion of holy days , the repeating of the litany , or the like forms in the common prayer , the bowing at the name of the word iesus , ( while they reject his worship ) the receiving of the secrament when they have no right to it , and that upon their knees , as if they were more reverent and devout then the true laborious servants of christ ; with a multitude of things which are only the traditions of their fathers ; i say they are as zealous for these , as if eternal life consisted in them . where god forbids them , there they are as forward as if they could never do enough , and where god commands them , there they are as backward to it ; yea as much against it as if they were the commands of the devil himself . and for the discipline of christ , tho all parts of the world have much opposed it , yet where hath it been so fiercely and powerfully resisted ? the lord grant that this harden'd , willful , malicious nation fall not under that heavy doom , luke . . but those mine enemies which would not that i should reign over them , bring them hither and slay them before me . r. b's . saints rest , part. . p. . mo. to see the difference now gentlemen , betwixt your two spirits ! the one , so meek , and like a christian , the other , so clamorous , and so uncharitable . what hopes of unity and peace ; or what pretence to 't ; so long as these dividing and defaming liberties are kept a foot ? your friend richard tells you very well ( mr. baxter ) that such holynesse is a deceiptfull name that s●tan puts upon unholynesse , and a loathsom sacrifice to the god of love. you revile the government , and those that conform to it , and yet at the same time you tell the people that you are persecuted . you would be thought kinder to his majesty however , in devolving the severity from the king upon the clergy ; and yet his majesty is pleased to minde you that [ since the printin this declaration , severall seditious pamphlets and quaeres have been published , and scatter'd abroad , to infuse dislike and iealousies into the hearts of the people ; and of the army , and some who ought rather to have repented the former mischief they have wrought , then to have endeavour'd to emprove it , have had the hardynesse to publish that the doctrine of the 〈◊〉 ( against which no man with whom we have conferred 〈◊〉 excepted ) ought to be reformed as well as the discipline . ● so that all this yielding was too little , it seems to stop the mouths of an insatiable faction . but what is it at last that you would be at ? ri. i beg of the clergy that before they any more render odi●●s these whom they never heard , and vrge rulers to execute the laws against them ; that is , to confine , imprison , excommunicate , sil●nce , and vndo th●m , they would be sure , what manner of spirit they are of . non-con . plea , part i. epistle . mo. [ sure of what spirit you are ] do ye say ! why certainly your own conscience tells you that we are sure of that , as hearing , seeing , feeling , and understanding can make us . you are by your own professions of the presbyterian spirit . the spirit that made perjury the condition of life , liberty and estate , to every man in the case of your covenant . the spirit that entred upon sequestred livings , and left not the loyal clergy the freedome , so much as of teaching a school , to supply themselves , and their miserable families with bread. the spirit that deny'd the king in his distresses , the comfort of so much as a common-prayer book , or the assistance of his own chaplains . [ a greater rigour and barbarity then is ever used by christians , to the meanest prisoners , and greatest malefactors ; whom though the iustice of the law , deprive of worldly comforts , yet the mercy of religion allows them the benefit of their clergy , as not ayming at once to destroy their bodies , and to damn their souls , eik. bas . . [ they that envy my being a king , are loth i should be a christian ; while they seek to deprive me of all things else , they are affraid i should save my soul. ibid. ] behold here in a few words the spirit that you plead for . 〈◊〉 . 〈…〉 poor creatures , [ we would [ only ] have a toleration of all ●ha●'s tolerable [ he that will tol●rate all , is bad ; and he that will tolerate ▪ none that differ , is madd . ] r. b's . answer to dr. stillingfleet . p. . mo. if the church may be iudge , all that are tolerable are tolerated allready ; if the people must be the iudges , the intolerable must be tolerated for company . for so long as every party makes , or pretends it self , to be in the right , all the dissenters have one common plea. but in case of any indulgence to be allow'd , it is certainly due to these in preference , that are quietest without it . i cannot but have great compassion for any party that labours under a religious and invincible disagreement , and modesty applies to authority for relief : for so long as they only tell their own tale , i cannot but in ●harity believe that they have no other design then to do their own businesse . but when a conscientious pretense comes to be carry'd on by scandall , invective , reproach , and such methods as are directly irreligious ; the dispute is no longer matter of scruple , or worship , but superiority , and power . there may be religion in telling the government what you desire , but the exposing of your superiours to the people ▪ is down right sedition . and , as you have handled the matter , you might e'en with as good a grace tell the rabble in plain english : look ye my mas●ers , here 's a company of anti-christian swearing , drinking fellows , that will not let us have liberty of conscience ; but i would fain hear you two debate the business of tolera●on a little betwixt your selves . ri. what [ if you shall smite or cast out a supposed schismatique , and christ shall find an able , holy peaceable minister , or other christian wounded , or mourning out of doors . pet. for peace . p. . [ or see a schismatique wounded and a saint found bleeding , &c. saints rest. p. ●● . ba ▪ and now you talk of saints , richard [ to think of such a friend dyed at such a time , and such a one at another time , such a pretious christian slain in such a fight , and such a one at ●uch a fight , ( o what a number of them could i name ) and that all these are enter'd into rest ; and we shall surely go to them , but they shall not return to us. saints rest. p. . in that state of rest , angells as well as saints will be our bless●d associates . ibid. p. . [ i think christians , this will be a more honourable assembly then you ever here beheld , and a more happy society then you were ever of before . surely py● and white , &c. are now members of a more knowing , vnerri●g , well-order'd , right-aiming , self-denying , vnanimous , honourable , tryumphant senate , then this from whence they were taken , is or ever parliament will be . it is better to be door-keeper to that assembly whither twisse &c. are translated ; then to have continu'd here the moderator of this. saints rest. p. . [ nay how many professors will rashly rail and lye in their passions ? how few will take well a reproof , but rather defend their sin ? how many in these times that we doubt not to be godly have been guilty of disobedience to their guides , and of schism , and doing much more to the hurt of the church , a very great sin. peter , lot , and 't is like david did oft commit greater sins , r. b's five disdutes ▪ of right to sacraments p. . but a man must be guilty of more sins then peter was in denying and forswearing christ , that is notoriously ungodly ; yea , then lot was , who was drunk two nights together , and committed incest twice with his own daughters ; and that after the miraculous destruction of sodom , of his own wife , and his own miraculous deliverance . nay , a man that is notoriously ungodly ( in the sense in hand ) or unsanctify'd , must be a greater sinner then solomon was with his seven hundred wives , three hundred concubines , and gross● idolatries , p. . . mo. and are these the saints ( gentlemen ) that you are afraid should be cast out , for schismatiques ? they must be of your own canonizing then , for i assure you i finde no such saints in our kalendar . but let me hear i beseech you whom we are to keep out , and whom to take in . ri. we must either tolerate all men to do what they will , which they will make a matter of conscience or religion ; and then some may offer their children in sacrifice to the devil ; and some may think they do god service in killing his servants , &c. [ or else you must tolerate no errour or fault in religion ; and then you must advise what measure of penalty you will inflict . church-divis . p. , . mo the two great difficulties will be to say what errours are tolerable , and what not ; and then to bring the magistrate and the people to an agreement upon the matter . ri , [ if no errour were to be a tolerated , no men were to be tolerated and the wisest in the world must be numbred with the intolerable , as well as the rest . church divis. p. . ba. [ but some people make those things to be duties which are no duties , and sins which are no sins , calling evil good , and good evil ; and having made a religion of their own , confidently think that it is of god , valuing all men that they have to do with according as they are nearer or further off from this , which they account the way of god ; chusing a church or party to joyn with , by the test of this religion , which their pride has c●osen . church divis. p. . [ thus they divide the kingdom and family of christ ; destroying first the love of brethren and neighbours in themselves , and then labouring to destroy it in all others ; by speaking against those that are not in their own way with contempt , and obloquy , to represent them as an unlovely sort of men ; and if the interest of their cause and party require it , perhaps they will next destroy their persons : and yet all this is done in zeal of god , and as an acceptable service to him . ibid. p. . [ and they think it a resisting of the spirit to resist their judgment . p. . [ i have known too many very honest-hearted christians , especially melancholique persons and women who have been in great doubt about the opinions of the millenaries , the separatists , the anabaptists , the seekers , and such like ; and after earnest prayer to god , they have been strongly resolved for the way of errour , and confident by the strong impression that it was the spirits answer to their prayers , and thereupon they have set themselves into a course of sin. ibid. p. . and [ in truth it is very ordinary with poor phancyfull women , and melancholy persons to take all their deep apprehensions for revelations . ibid. p. . mo. well ; but these people all this while take themselves to be in the right . ba. but as for that which is contrary to scripture , i am sure it is contrary to the will of god. church divis. p. . mo. out of all doubt ; but what if they expound the scripture one way , and you another ? ba. [ why if they believe that themselves which they can give you no reason to believe , they must be content to keep their belief to themselves ; and not for shame perswade any other to it without proof . if they say that god hath revealed it to them , tell them that he hath not revealed it to you , and therefore that 's nothing to you , till they prove their divine revelation . if god reveal it to them , but for themselves they must keep it to themselves . ibid. p. . [ if they say that the spirit hath told them the meaning of the scripture , say as before that it is not told to you which is not proved to you . ibid . [ but if we do through weaknesse or perversnesse take lawful things to be unlawfull , that will not excuse us in our disobedience . our errour is our sin , and one sin will not excuse another r. b's . five disput. p. . [ he that mistakingly thinks any thing is good or bad , duty or sin which is not so , will be zealous in persute of his mistake if he be serious for god. cath. theol. pref. [ it is an ill sign when your zeal is beyond the proportion of your understanding : and your prudence and experience is much lesse then other mens , as your zeal is greater . church divis. p. . [ beside that the more weak and worthlesse , and erroneous any ones judgment is , usually the more furious are they in the prosecution of it , as if all were most certain truth which they apprehend . these are the boldest both in schisms , and persecutions . ibid. . mo. but you will say , that in cases where the common people may be imposed upon by cred●lity , phancy , or weaknesse , they may repair to their teachers to set them right . ba. even the most of teachers take abundance of things for true and good that are false and evill , and for false and bad , which are true and good : much more are godly vulgar people ignorant , and consequently erre in many things , cath. theol. pref. [ and i my self was mistaken in my aphorisms of iustification and the cov●nants , as i have acknowledged in the same preface . mo. you have had very ill luck , sir , with your aphorisms . ri. [ i must confess that when god had first brought me from among the more ignorant sort of people , and when i heard religious persons pray without form , and speak affectionately , and seriously of spiritual and heavenly things , i thought verily that they were all undoubted saints , till e're long , of those whom i so m●ch honoured , one fell of to sensuality , and to persecuting formality ; and another fell to the foulest heresy , and another to disturb the churches peace , by turbulent animositys and divisions . church divil . p. . . &c. ri. [ i thought once , that all the talk against schisme and sects , did but vent their malice against the best christians , u●der those names ; but since then , i have seen what love-killing-principles have done . i have long stood by while churches have been divided , and subdivided ; one congregation of the division labouring to make the other contemptible , and odious ; and this called , the teaching of truth , and the purer worshiping of god ; church-divisions . pref. ba. [ when so great a man as tertullian was deceived by montanus , and his prophetesse : when such a one as hacket could deceive not only coppinger , and arthington , but abundance more ; when david george in holland , iohn of leiden in munster , &c. could deceive so many persons as they did ; when the pretended revelations of the ranters , first , and the quakers after , could so marvellously transport many thousands of professors of religion in this land , i think we have fair warning to take the counsell of st. iohn . believe not every spirit , but try the spirit whether they be of god. church divis. p. . [ alas ? how common was this in the army , to set up and pull down , do an undo , own and disown , as by the spirit of god! there was mr. erbery , mr. saltmarsh , mr. dell , mr. william sedgwick , who as from god wrote one week to the army , against their putting the king to death , and the next week wrote to them quite on the other side , and that set london by a prophecy or vision on looking for the day of judgement , on a set day . second . admon . to bagshaw . p. . vavasor powell at clifton upon thame in worcestershire , quickly after worcester fight , said in his sermon that he would tell them these things as from god that they should have no more kings , nor any more taxes , nor pay any more tithes . ibid. p. . mo. pray'e do but consider now , if your particular pastors disagree among themselves ; if you your self , mr. baxter , have been mistaken in your judgement as well of truth in notion , as of persons ; if those that you took for saints , proved schismaticks ; and persecutors , those that you took for conscientious professors , are we not much better in the hand of a known and impartiall law that cannot deceive us , then at the mercy of a wilde multitude , unknown and prepossess'd , who in all probability will impose upon us ? ri. a fear of sinning is necessary in all that will be obedient to god , and will be saved : it is that fear of god which is the beginning of wisdom . it is therefore to be loved and cherished , even when scrupulousness mistaketh the matter . non-con . plea. d . part. p. . ba. there 's no trusting to scruples . [ i have known some that have liv'd long in douhts and fears of damnation who have turn'd anabaptists , and sodainly had comfort ; and yet in a short time they forsook that sect , and turn'd to another . i have known those also that have liv'd many years in timorous complaints , and fears of hell , and they have turned to the antinomians , and sodainly been comforted ; and others have turned arminians ( which is clear contrary ) and been comforted ; and others have but heard of that doctrine of perfection in this life , and sodainly been past their fears , as if hearing of perfection had made them perfect : and from thence they have turned familists , and at last shew'd their perfection by fornication , , and licentiousnesse and mere apostacy ; who yet liv'd very conscientiously and blamelessely , as long as they liv'd in their fears and troubles , p. . chu●ch divis. [ could i have believed him that would have told me five years ago ( this bearing date ian. . . ) that when the * scorners of godlinesse were subdu'd , and the bitter persecutors of the church overthrown ; that such should succeed them who suffered with us , who were our intimate friends , with whom we took sweet counsel , and went up together to the house of god ? did i think it had been in the hearts of men professing such zeal to religion , and the ways of christ to draw their swords against each other : and to seek each others bloud so fiercely ? alas ! if the judgment be once perverted , and errour hath perverted the supreme faculty , whether will men go , and what will they do ? o what a potent instrumen● for satan is a misguid●d conscience ! it will make a man kill his dearest friend , yea father or mother , yea , the holyest saint , and think he doth god good service by it : and to facilitate the work , it will first blot out the reputation of their holinesse , and make them take a saint for a devil ▪ saints rest. p. . [ whence can it be , but for want of self-denyall , that magistrates pro●●ssing a zeal for holynesse r●gard no more the interest of christ ; but that the name ( and but the name ) of liberty , ( a liberty that hath neither moral good , or evill in it ) is set in the ballance against the things of everlasting consequence , and thought sufficient to over weigh th●m ; and that the meer pretense of this indifferent carnal liberty is thought an argument of sufficient weight for the introduction of a wicked , damning liberty , even a liberty to deceive , and destroy as many as they can , and to hinder those that desire mens salvation . r. b's self-denyal epist. monitory . [ shall every man have leave to do evill , that can be ignorant enough to think ( or say he thinks ) that he doth well ? and must magistrates rule as men that are uncertain whether there be a christ , or a church , or heaven , or hell ; because some are found in their dominions so foolish , or impious as to be uncertain of it ? ibid. [ will mercyfull rulers set up a trade for butchering of souls , and allow men to set up a shop of poyson , for all men to buy and take that will , yea to proclaim this poyson for souls in streets , and church assemblies ? &c. i●i● . but the same argument that tempts the sensuall to hell ; doth tempt such magistrates to set up liberty for drawing men to hell. ibid. is faith and holynesse propagated by perswasion , and not by force ? surely then infidelity , popery and ungodlynesse ar● propagated by perswasion too ; again i tell yo● , self-love doth make such rulers wiser then to grant commission at liberty to all that will , to tice the souldiers to mutinies and rebellion , &c. ibid. liberty , in all mat ers of worship , and of faith , is the open and apparent way to set up popery in the land. n●●-con . plea. pref. m● . well mr. richard : after this frank and sensible d●claration of your self upon this chapter , do but teach me which way in the world to reconcile your practice and your conscience ; for you are a person certainly of all men living , the most improper advocate for a toleration ; and the most unfit sollicitor of a popular petition . first , as your iudgement lie● directly against the thing you pleade for . secondly , as you are conscious of the danger , as well as the injusti●● of such a license . thirdly , you have been a very u●happy instrument already betwixt his majesty and his subjects . and lastly , in demanding that over again from this king , by which his father was destroy'd , you make your self suspected to have some ill designe : for to triumph and rejoyce ( as you do ) after the thing is done , is lesse , a great deal , then to forethink the doing of it . and it is not only that you are sufficiently convinc'd of the mischiefs of a toleration , but your conscience ( if i be not much mistaken ) will make as good a shift as any mans without it . ri. w● are against no bishop or church-government of gods appointment . prof. of non-consormists p. . [ we hold it not unlawful to take oathes , and make covenants , subscriptions , or declarations of things lawfull , when authority commandeth us . ibid. p. . we readily subscribe the doctrine of the . articles . ib. . we are far from condemning all forms of prayer , and publick liturgy , p. . we pick no quarrells about forms and words . church-div . p. . [ tell me if you can , where god forbids you to use good and lawfull words in prayer , meerly because the magistrate , or pastor bids you use them . is this the meaning of all the precepts of honouring , and obeying your superiours ? [ do nothing which they bid you do , though otherwise lawful ] o strange exposition of the th commandement ? p. . [ i take the common prayer to be incomparably better then the prayers or sermons , of many that i hear ; and to be the best that i expect in many places when i go to church . r.bs. letter to mr. hinckly p. . [ it 's like , the pharisees long liturgy , was in many things worse then ours , though the psalmes were a great part of it : and yet christ , and his apostles oft joyned with them , and never condemned them . ch. div. p. . [ he is void of common sense that thinketh that his extemporary prayer is not as truly a form to all the people , as if it had been written in a book . and every publick minister imposeth a form of prayer upon all the congregation . ibid. . [ we hold , not all the use of images , even the images of holy persons , to be vnlawfull . profession of nonconformists . p. . [ we hold not a gown , or other meer distinctive garment for ministers to be vnlawful . and some of us hold a surplice rather to be used , then the ministry forsak●● . ibid. [ many of us hold it lawfull to communicate kneeling ibid. p. . [ we all hold that god must be orderly , and decently worshipped with the body , as well as spiritually , with the minde . and that reverend gestures , and behaviours are fit , not only to expresse mental reverence to god , but also to excite it , in our selves and others . ibid. . we are for the use of the creed , commandements , and lords prayer . p. . ba. [ it is now about twenty years since i preach'd at a fast to the parliament for loyalty ; the king the next morning was voted home to his crown , and government , d part● of non-con . plea. preface . in this sermon , i have given the world a tast of my affections to the church . [ gentlemen , i have nothing to ask of you for my self , nor any of my brethren , as for themselves ; but that you will be friends to serious preaching , and holy living , and will not ensnare our consciences with any vnscripturall inventions of men . this i would beg of you as on my knees . . as for the sake of christ. . for the sake of thousands of poor souls . . for the sake of thousands of the dear friends of the lord. . for your own sakes . . for the sake of your posterity . . for the honour of the nation and your selves . . for the honour of sound doctrine , and church-government . &c. pa. . and . for if you frown on godlynesse , under pretense of vniformity in vnnecessary things ; and make things worse then when libertinism , and schisme so prevail'd : the people will look back with groans , and say ; what happy times did we once see! and so will honour schisme , and libertinisme , and vsurpation , through your oppression . . i beg this of you for the honour of sovereignty , and the nations peace . ibid. and then for your [ new-made religions , and needless scandalous inventions , and an adoring of your titles and robes of honour , covering your ignorance , pride , and sensuality , which church tyrants call the order of the church . &c. [ all the images of piety , government , unity , peace , and order , which hypocrites and pharisees sat up , are despised engines to destroy the life and serious practi●e of the things themselves , and are set up in enmity against spirituality , and holyness , that there might be no other piety , government , unity , peace , or order in the church , but these liveless images . ch. div. pa. . & . ri. [ though we are not satisfied of the lawfullness of using the transient image of the crosse , as a dedicating sign , and symbol of christianity , so much sacramental ( much lesse to refuse from baptisme , and christendome , all christian infants , unlesse they will have them so crossed , no more then if a crucifix were so imposed , and used ) yet do we not condemn all use of either crosse , or crucifix . nor do we presume conscientiously to reproach , and dishonour the antient christians , who living among pagans that derided christ crucify'd , did shew them , by oft using this sign , that they were not ashamed of the crosse. and though we find , that they used more rites , and significations , devised signs , and ceremonies , then we think they should have done , yet we judg it our duty to love and honour their memorial ; nor do we take all rites to be sinfull that are significant . non-conformists profession pa. . . ba. you are not satisfy'd of the lawfulnesse , &c. you say . but are you convinc'd of the vnlawfulnesse ? for [ we must obey magistrates though we know not that their commands are lawful , so long as they are so indeed , and we have no sufficient reason to believe them unlawfull . holy c●m . thesis . . for [ it is not our erroneous conceits , that a lawfull command is unlawfull , that will excuse any man from the guilt of disobedience . ibid. . [ but if a thing seem to you very needfull to a good end , and yet the word be against it , avoid it : &c. [ and if you ●hink that the scripture commandeth you this or that positive means , if nature and true reason assure you that it is against the end , and is like to do much more harm , then good , be assured that you mistake that scripture ▪ ch. divis. pa. . mo. it is a strange thing mr richard , that your consci●nce should be so easy to your self , and yet so troublesome to the government . but your reserve of leaving every pivate man to judge , first , of the condition of the law , by the word ; and then , of his iudgment of that scripture , whether it be right or wrong , by nature and right reason : this reserve i say undoes all again : for every man that does ill , with a good intention , reckons that he has nature and right reason on his side . now for you mr. baxter ; you tell us over and over so often of your fast s●rmon to the h●●se of commons , and the kings being called in the n●xt day , as if that very sermon had wrought his majestiss restauration , but i find up●● perusall of it ●hat you are just as kind to the church in this piece of . as you were a litle before to his majesty in your holy common wealth of . that is to say ; you are begging , arguing , and casing of it all that is in you , to keep them both out ; and truly this particular piece of yours makes almost as bold with the king himself , as with the episcopal clergy : as you shall hear by and by . was it not enough for you to adjure the commons into an opposition o● that order in the church , which ( as he t●lls you ) is as antient as the monarchy of this island ? an order , that you and your confederates most undu●ifully destroy'd ? but could you now have the confidence to demand the spoyls again , which you first ravish'd from the church , and the independents afterward took from you , as the reward of your sedition , and schism ? and could you yet have the greater confidence , in case of a disappointment , to break out into this most unchristian excl●mation , on the behalf of the people ? oh : [ what happy times did we on●● see ! that is to say ; when the kingdome was laid in bl●od , and ashes ; all that was sacred , trampled under foot , and all this confusion , only to heave the presbyter into the saddle . ri. i have described the iudgment of such non-conformists 〈◊〉 i have conversed with , ( not undertaking for every odd person wh●● i know not ) i do desire those that seek our bloud , and ruine , by the false accusation of rebellious principles , to tell me if they can , [ wh●t bodies , or party of men on earth have more sound and loya●● principles of government , and obedience . d . part. non-co● . plea. pref. [ our accusations are . . that we are presbyteria●s , and phanatiques . . that we began the war in . and ●● ▪ . that we destroy'd the king. . that our principles are disl●●al . . that we are plo●ting a rebellion . ibid. but what is a pr●●byterian ? mo. a presbyterian is a member of a state faction , under a religious denomination . for by that 〈◊〉 we do not understand such as are really of that cl●ss●cal and whymsical profession ; but a sort of people tha● drive on a political design , under the colour of an ecclesiastical scruple of perswasion . and in as extensive a latitude do you take the word , your selves . for all the sects are presbyterians ( or dissenting protestants , as you call them ) when you have need of them in con●●ederacy against the government ; though the presby●terians spews all the rest up again , ( as they did in . when they had done th●ir work ; ) but pray what say ye to the b●ginning o● the war ? ri. [ in . the lamentable civil war ●●ok● out ; at which time as far as ●ver we could l●arn by a●qu●intance with s●m● of them , and report of others , excepting an in●onsid●rable number , the houses of lords and commons consisted of those that had still lived in con●ormity to the church of england , and the episcopa●l government , &c. part. non-conform . plea. p. . [ the lord li●utenants whom the parliament chos● , were almost all epis●opal conformists , ibid. [ the ●ar greater part of the gene●all officers , colonells , li●utenant-colonells , and majors of the earl o● essex his army ; and of the sea-cap●ai●s , and of the m●jor-g●nerals of brigades , and counties about the land , bid [ the assembly of divines at westminster also , were m●n that had liv●● in conformity , except about . or . and the scots , p. ● . mo. you do well richard to say that ●hey had lived in conformity , for the complying humour was now going off apace ; insomuch that a profe●t opposition to the orders of the church became q●●ckly a distinguishing mark of the disloyal party : and all those parliament men , o●●icers , and assembly-div●nes , contributed unanimously in their several s●at●●n● toward the common ruine . on [ fryd●y d●c . ● . . a petition was brought into the 〈…〉 all●derman pennington from the citizens of lon●●n ▪ in 〈◊〉 name of . complaining of the church - 〈◊〉 , in having arch-bishops , b●shops , &c. usin● the cr●sse in baptisme ; kneeling at the communion-table , 〈◊〉 unlawfull in the protestant church . diurnal occurrences . pa. . ian . petition against the government of bishops from several counties . p. . ian. . the remonstrance with . hands against the bishops and their prelacy was read , p. . march . a bill against episcopacy read in the house of commons , &c. pa. . mar. . . bishops votes in parliament taken away , pa. . in novem. . several tumults against bishops , and dec. , . bishops accused of high-treason . the bishops in the mean time petitioning his majesty , and entring a protest of their priviledges , and against tumults . apr. . . a due and necessary reformation of the government and liturgy of the church pretended . ex. col. p. . it is to be hoped , that all these violences upon the ecclesiastical state , and the persons of the bishops , were not acted by conformists . and it will not be deny'd , i suppose that after the posting and proscribing of the greater part of the clergi●s friends , ( as well as the kings ) the schismatical int●rest was carry'd on by the major vote of the rem●ining fragment ; and all this was before the eruption of the war ; the earl of essex not receiving his commission , till iuly . . unless you 'le say that epis●opal men themselves , were for the extirpation o● bishops . ri. [ when the parliaments armys were worsted and weakned by the king , and they found thems●lves in dang●r of being ov●rcome , th●y intreat●d help from the ●cots ( 't is true ) who taking advantage of thei● streights , brought in the covenant , as the condition of their help . non-conf . part . p. . and ●or the assembly [ i think i have not read of m●ny assemblies o● worthier men since the apostles days . answ. to dr. stillingfle●t . p . the covenant ●●d vow , was taken by the parliament , and by their garisons , ●nd soldiers that would voluntarily take it as a test whom they mig●● trust non-conf . plea. p. . [ the assembly never endeavoured to turn the independents out of the parish-churches , and benefices , nor to silence them ; forbidding them publick preaching , as you do us , &c. answ. to dr. stillingf . p. . they imposed no liturgy , no one ceremony ; no practice on them , contrary to their conscience , p. . the presbytery being only a tolerated , or intended thing , without any imposition that ●ver we knew of . mo. it is very well known what pains your celebrated assembly took to make the city bleed for that scottish expidition , and we have the guild hall harangues on that occasion , still upon record . but i shall rather mind you of some proceedings which you would be thought to have forgotten ; to the immortal honour of your confederates . only half a dozen words in the way to it - it is no wonder for men that have so low an esteem for generall counsells , as both you sir , and mr. baxter professe to have , in several of your writings , to entertain yet very reverend thoughts of the pybald assembly . his late majesty had quite another opinion of them . see his proclamation , inhibiting the assembly of divines , an● others summoned to westminster , by an ordinance of both houses of parliament . bibliotheca regia . p. . iun. . . whereas there hath been a long time , a desperate and seditious design amongst diverse factious persons , to alter the whole frame , constitution , and government of this church ; so long and so happily established within this kingdome ; in pursuance whereof they have discountenanceed , and in a manner suppressed the book of common prayer , settled by law ; driven away , imprisoned , removed , very many learned , orthodox , godly divines , and ministers from their cures , for discharging their duty and conscience in preaching : and in their places , without the least colour or shadow of lawfull authority , have instituted , or deputed mean factious persons unqualify'd with learning or virtue ; to corrupt and poyson the minds of our good subjects , with principles of reason and rebellion , and have seized the rents and revenues of our bishops , deans , and chapters , for their own private lucre , or benefit , and for the maintenance of the army in rebellion against us . pray observe my friends , that this was before the scots were call'd in ; and the work of men too in opposition to the church : i come now to your apostolical assembly . since these bloudy distempers , and when so many armies are on foot in several parts of the kingdom , a bill hath been presented to us for the calling of an assembly , of such divines , as are mentioned in the said bill , the far greater part whereof are men of no reputation or learning ; and eminently disaffected to the government of the church of england ▪ and very many of them are persons who have openly pr●ached rebellion , and incited the people to take up armes against us , and so are not like to be proper instruments of peace , in church , or state ; which bill having many claus●s in it very derogatory to our honour , and iust rights , and very scandalous to the reformed protestant religion : not so much as any part being left to us , either in the choice of the persons , or in adjo●rning or dissolving the assembly . bib. regia . pa. . what do you think now of the worthy assembly ? your [ men of sound , and loyall principles of government , and obedience . these are the men that you declare your selves resolved to stand or fall by ; ( and out of your own mouths a man may warrant this assertion ; that you are no better friends to this king , then that parliament and that assembly were to the la●● . methinks this testimony of his late majesty against your designes , and proceedings , should move your consciences and stare you in the faces , as if it were his ghost . you would have the world believe that the covenant was never imposed , but that people might take it , or let it alone , as they pleased ; that the assembly silenced no body ; forced nothing ; and that presbytery was only as a tolerated , or intended thing , &c. now how great an abuse this is upon that part of the nation that does not know the story , will appear out of the memorials of these times , under the authority of the faction it self . the lords and commons took the vow and covenant iun. . . husbands collections . fol. . and thought fit to have it taken by the ar●ie● , and kingdome . ibid. arch-bishop of canterbu●●●● temporal livings , dignities , and ecclesi●st●●●● p●●motions sequestered , iune . . 〈…〉 for calling an assembly of learned 〈…〉 ( thirty of the layety , in the commission . ) iune . . an order for ministers upon the fast-day to pray for a blessing on this assembly . iune . . the assembly petitions both houses for a fast , and the removing of blind guides , and scandalous ministers ; destroying monuments of idolatry , &c. iuly . ● . fol. . [ an order for divines that attend the assembly , to go into the country to stir up the people to rise for their defense . aug. . . fol. . [ an ordinance for taking away of superstitious monuments . aug. . . fol. . an ordinance to examine witnesses against scandalous ministers , sep. . ● . fol. . souldiers to take the covenant , octob. fol. . an order for the assembly of divines , to treat of a discipline and government , the present to be abo●ished , and to prepare a directory ▪ octo. ● . ●● . 〈…〉 an order for returning the names of such as take not the covenant to the house of commons , nov. . . fol. . an order for diverse persons to take the covenant at margarets westminster . dec. . . fol. . an ordinance disabling any person within the city of london , from any place of trust , that shall not take the covenant . dec. . . fol. . an exhortation for taking the covenant , &c. feb. . . fol. . an order for taking it throughout the kingdomes of england , and scotland , with instructions ▪ feb. . . fol. . a second order for demolishing superstitious monuments . may . . fol. . an order for none to preach , but ordained ministers , except allowed by both houses of parliament , may . . fol. . an order for putting the directory in execution . aug. . . fol. . severall votes for choice of elders throughout all england , and wales . feb. . . fol. . an order for taking the negative oath , and national covenant . iun. . . fol. . an order for putting the orders of church-government in execution . iun. . . fol. . an order for dividing the county of lancashire , into . classes , octob. . , fol. . an order for abolishing arch-bishops , and bishops , and settling their lands upon trustees for the use of the common-wealth . octob. . . fol. . an order for the speedy dividing and settling of several counties of this kingdome , into distinct classical presbyteries , and congregational elderships . ian. . . scobells acts , . the form of church-government to be used in the church of england , and ireland , agreed upon by the lords and commons , assembled in parliament , after advice had with the assembly of divines . aug. . . fol. . by this time i hope you are satisfy'd that it was a presbyterian war according to the very letter , or if the nonconformists did not begin the war , pray'e who bid ? ri. our calamities began in differences about religion , and still that 's the wound that most needs closing , &c , r. b's . fast sermon . . p. . ba. do not you know , that write about the cause , that the war was not founded in theologicall differences , but in law differences ? r. b's . letter to mr. hi●ckly . p. . ri. the first open beginning was the militia , non. conf. plea. p. . ba. i know how unsatisfy'd many are concerning the lawfullnesse of the war ; i cannot yet perceive by any thing which they object , but that we undertook our defence upon warrantable grounds . the extirpation of piety was the then great designe , which had so far succeeded , that very many of the most able ministers were silenced ; lecturers , and evening-sermons on the lords day suppressed ; christians imprisoned , dismembred , and banished ; the lords day reproached , and devoted to pastimes ; that it was as much as a mans estate ( at least ) was worth , to hear a sermon abroad , when he had none , or worse at home ; to meet for prayer , or any godly exercise ; and that it was a matter of credit , and a way to perferment to revile at , and be enemies against those that were most conscientious ; and every where safer to be a drunkard , or an adulterer , then a painfull christian : and that multitudes of humane ceremonies took place , when the worship of christs institution was cast out , besides the slavery that invaded us in civil respects : so am i most certain that this was the work which we took up arms to resist : and these were the offenders whom we endeavoured to offend . and many of those that scruple the lawfulness of our war , did never scruple the lawfullness of destroying us ; nor of that dolefull havock , and subversion that was made in the church of christ amongst us . the fault was , that we would not more willingly change the gospel for ignorance , and our religion for a fardel of ceremonies . r. b's . saints rest. p. . . ri. [ but the kings subjects may not enter into leagues , c●●●nants and arms against him , without his consent , and laws , m●●ly to propagate religion and reformation in the kingdom . non-conf . plea , d . part , pa. . [ if governors command us to sin against g●● , subjects must not obey , but yet not resist ; much less take up arm● 〈◊〉 reform others , or even to bring in a true religion by vnauthoris●● violence . ibid. p. . ba. it is but a delusory course of some in these times t●●t write many vol●mns , to p●ove , that subjects may not be●t arms against th●i● pri●ces fo● religion . ho. common-wealth , p. ● . [ it is either confusion and ignorance of the state of th●●uestion , or pal●a●le errour in them that maintain , that it is 〈◊〉 lawfull to fight for religion . it is one thing to fight to ma●e o●●ers religious , and another thin● to sight to preserve 〈◊〉 ●wn religion , and to preserve t●e means of religion , to us , ●nd the nation , and our posterity , ibid. persecutors 〈◊〉 ta●e away our lives or liberties , if we worship god accordi●●●o his will , and use the necessary means of salvation . it ●●ghting a●●inst this persecuti●n ▪ we sight principally , and ultimately , for our own , and posterities salvation , and nex● , for the necessary means the●eto , and proximately for 〈◊〉 lives and liberties . ibid. mo. the rancour , and inhumanity of this scandal makes me take the lesse notice of your shifts and contradictions ; so that i shall wave the course of your reasoning , and speak a word to your conscience . pray'e cast a back thought upon the piety , the modera●ion , the unexampled sufferings and constancy of that incomparable prince , whose government , and administration is here so diabolicall ▪ traduc'd . it is a wonderfull thi●g to me , that th● legal justice that was exec●●ed upon two or thr●● contumacious schismatiques , should be so fresh in your memory , and yet the tragedy of that royal , and protestant martyr that fell a sacrifice to the idol of your enthusiastical reformation should be so utterly forgotten . how can you so call to mind the silencing of a stubborn cabal of lawless mutineers ; and the bloud of canterbury , your sacrilegious robbing , and taking possession , not fly in the ●aces of your complices ? especially considering how much you your selves have contributed to the common fate . ri. [ how far the ●arliament was f●om being presbyterians , may b● s●●n in t●e propositions sent from them by the earl of essex , to the king at ●otin●ham , and pa●tly their defeating all the desires and endeav●urs of ●hose that would have presbytery settl●d thorow the land. we know of no places , but london and lanca●hire , where it was commonly taken up , and some little of 〈◊〉 at coventry , and some few such places , non-cons . plea , ●st . part , . ba. [ it is not known that the presbyterian government hath been exercised in london , in lancashire , and in many counties these many years ? . disp. pr●f . . . [ look into this county where i live , and you shall finde a faithful , humble , laborious ministry , associated , and walking in as great unity as ever i read of since the apostles days : no difference , no quarrels , but sweet and amicable correspondency , and communion , that i hear of . was there such a ministry , or such love and concord , or such a godly people under them in the prelates reign ? there was not : where we had ten drunken readers then , we have not one now ; and where we had one able , godly preacher then , we have many now : and this is our loss and misery in these times , which yo● so much lament . ibid. mo. this last passage i finde in a preface entitled [ to those of the nobility , gentry , and commons of this land that adhere to prelacy : publ●shed in the year . and usher'd in , by an epistle dedicatory , [ to his ●ighness richard lord protector of the common wealth of england , scotland , and ireland : with this expression in the last page . [ your zeal for god will kindle in your subjects a zeal for you : and for a farewell , [ a faithfull subject to your highness , as you are an officer of the universal king. richard baxter . it is worthy of a note mr. baxter , that your pen cuts more still in . then it did in seven years before , and that your humour runs much , ( about that season ) upon casuistical points , and the collation of affairs , and times . now all the reason i can discern for your change of topique still upon that crisis , is this. the wheel was almost come round again , and rebellion upon the very point of finishing its course . ●or they had run the monorchy down , into an aristocracy ; that , into a democracy ; cromwell took up the government next , in a single person . but all these successive usurpations were so grievous , and insupportable to the people , that necessarily the next remove must be the restoring of the king , to perfect the revolution . now so soon as ever you discover'd the dawning but of the least hope for his majesties restauration . what mists did you presently cast before the peoples eyes in your political aphorismes , upon the question of authority , and obedience ? what pains did you take to possesse the nation with an opinion of the blessed differences betwixt the state of matters uoder richard the usurper , and charls the martyr ? and to hammer into the heads of the multitude , the danger of re-admitting their lawfull soverei●n ? pray'e tell me sir , was mr. dance's sequestred living , and your little worcestershire association so inestimable a prize , that you could part with the bloud of a most religious prince ; the lives of at least fourscore thousand christians ; the order of the government , both in church and state ; your lives , liberties , and estates ; the peace , honour , and well being of three kingdoms , and all this , in exchange for infamy , beggery , and bondage , and yet reckon your self a gainer by the bargain ? ri. the common-wealths-men persecuted me and others , so far as to make orders to sequester us , for not taking the engageme●● ▪ and for not keeping their fasts and thanksgivings for the 〈◊〉 ●●gainst scotland . r. b's . d . admonition to bagshaw . p. ● . ba. [ it is a dreadfull observation to see so much of the spirit of malignity possessing those that once said they sought against malignants ; and that the ●inisters and servants of the lord , are rayled at by 〈…〉 as ●orme●ly they were by the worst of those 〈…〉 ●es●royed ; and with this d●●●dfull aggravation , that then it ●as but some that were reviled , and now , wi●h many , 〈◊〉 is all. th●● , it was but under the name of puritan● , and roun●●eads ; and now it is openly , as ministers , under the name of priests , and black-c●ats , and presbyters and pulpiteers . s●lf-d●●yal , ep. monitory . mo. this is to intimate that the p●●sbyterians were under a persecution , who were the persecutors , i beseech ye ? even your own io●rney men ; who when they had wrought sedit●●n long enough under you , took the trad● into their own hands , and set up for themselves . and that you may not value your selves upon the merits of your sufferings ; pray'e what was it that you suffer'd for ? presbytery is too tyrannical for the spirit of an indepe●dent to bear . the stomack of that party would not brook it , and so they cast it up again : for there is , though a licentious , yet somewhat of a practical , and accomodable generosity in that party . but are not you aware , gentlemen , that the worse you speak of these people , the greater is your condemnation ; for making the episcopal party still , more insupportable then these , at the very worst ? ri. [ was it not persecution , when many anabaptists and separatists made such work in england , scotland , and ireland , in cromwells time , and after , as they did ? when so many were turn'd out of the universities for not engaging , and so many out of the magistracy , and corporation-priviledges ? and when an ordinance was made to cast out all ministers who would not pray for the success of the wars against scotland , or that would not give god thanks for their victories . when i have heard them pro●ess , that there were many thousand godly men , that were kill'd at dunba● ( 〈◊〉 instance in no other ) and yet we were all by their ordinance to be cast out , that would not give god thanks for this. ch. div. pa. . . what more harsh kinde of persecution could there be then to force men to go hypocritically to god against their consciences , and take on them to beg for the success of a war which they iudg'd vnlawfull . and to return him a publick counterfeit thanks for bloodshed ; yea , for the bloud of thousands ? &c. ibid. ba. only see to this brethren , that none of you suffer as an evill-doer ; as a busy-body in other mens matters ; as a resister of the commands of lawfull authority ; as ungratefull to those that have been instruments of our good ; as evill-speakers against dignities ; as opposers of the discipline , and ordinances of christ ; as scornfull revilers of you● christian brethren ; as reproachers of a laborious , judicious , conscientious ministry , &c. saints rest. pa. . mo. you do not speak i suppose of the seven or eight and twenty cathedralls that were defaced ; the . ministers forced out of their livings within the bills of mortality : nor of the history of querela cantabrigiensis . you accounted it no persecution the forcing of men to pray for the successe of a rebellion against their sovereign ; and to give god thanks for the victories over the king , and the loyal assertors of his majesties , and the churches rights and government . as for you , mr. baxter , your counsell is very good , if it were not that in the dignities , and lawfull powers you have plac'd the crown upon the wrong head : and directed an obedience to the faction , in stead of the king : after your usual method of crushing the one , to advance the other . but it will be a hard matter i believe to convince you that the presbyterians destroy'd the king , and that they did it as presbyterians too , though i reckon it to be very easily probable both from their practises , and positions . and t●is i should not at this time have made the question , but that your self mr. baxter , have been pleased to bring it upon the carpet . ba. [ the generality of the orthodox , sober ministers , and godly people of this nation , did never consent to king-killing , and resisting sovereign power , nor to the change of the antient government of this land. but they have been true to their allegiance , and detesters of unfaithfullness and ambition in subjects ; and resisters of heresy and schisme in the church , and of anarchy , and democraticall confusions in the common-wealth . r.b. sermon before the commons , anno. ● . . pa. . ri. it is most certain brother , that we did never directly consent , ( as you say ) but vnhappily there hath been a difference among us which is the higher power , when those that have their share in the sovereignty , are divided : but whether we should be subject to the higher power , is no question with us . ibid. . mo. if by your orthodox , sober ministers you mean , the episcopal divines , your assertion holds good , or in a litterall construction either ; but if you intend the non-conformists , under these two epithets of orthodox , and sober ; what do ye think of mr , manton , calamy , case , douglas , burton , herle , goodwyn , woodcock , brooks , bridges , marshall , cockayn , faircloath , saltmarsh , sterry , strictland , newcomen ? and for brevity sake , i. o. w. i. and r. b. shall make them up an even score . i could shew ye how these reverend authors have traced the king killing cause , from the very egg to the apple ; ( as they say ) preach'd the lawfullness of the war ; the people into a rebellion ; the kings head to the block ; and then justify'd all when they had done . and yet who but these men of bloud , to quarrell with the government , because they cannot get themselves priviledg'd above the peaceable and obedient sons of the church ? what do ye think of the author of celeusma ; that told the commons in a sermon sept. . . [ that the remove of prelatical innovations countervail'd for the bloud and treasure shed and spent in the late distractions : ] is not this person now with his clamor ad coelum , a very hopefull solicitor for a second reformation ? he that has solemnly declared , that [ if the re-imposing of ceremonies could have brought the late king to life again , he would never have yielded to it . ] at the rate of computation , why shall not a ceremony at this day , out-weigh the life of the son , as formerly it did that of the father ? but what needs more proof then the very order of aug. . . for the assembly-divines to 〈◊〉 the people to rise for their defence ? there is another person also who is engaged i● this present controversy , to whom i would gladly recommend a due consideration of this following extract . [ when kings command unrighteous things , and people suit them with willing commplyance , none doubts but the destruction of them both , is just and righteous ] a fast sermon to the house of commons . ian. . . pa. . he that is entrusted with the sword , and dares not do justice , on every one that dares do jnjustice , is affraid of the creature , but makes very bold with the creator . pa. . [ the kings of the ea●th have given their power to anti christ. how have they earn'd their titles ? eldest son of the chuach ; the catholick , and most christian king ; defender of the faith ; and the like . hath it not been by the bloud of saints ? is there not in every corner of these kingdomes , the slain and the banish'd ones of christ to answer for ? a fast sermon of apr. . . pa. . do not the kings of all these nations stand up in the room of their progenitors ; with the same implacable enmity to the power of the gospel ? pa. . there are great and mighty works in hand , in this nation . tyrants are punish'd ; the jaws of oppressors are broken ; bloudy revengefull people in wars , disappointed , a thanksgiving sermon for the scots defeat at worcester , octo , . . p. . [ what is this prelacy ? a meer antichristian encroachment upon the inheritance of christ , pa. . [ a monarchy of some hundred years continuance , allways affecting , and at length wholly degenerated into tyranny ; destroy'd , pull'd down . swallow'd up a great mighty potentate that had caused terrour in the land of the living , and laid his sword under his head , brought to punishment for blood , p. . [ if any persons in the world had cause to sing the song of moses , and the lamb , we have this day . the bondage prepared for us was both in spirituals , and temporalls , about a tyrant full of revenge ; and a discipline full of persecution , hath been our contest : whether the yoke of the one and the other , should by the sword and violence , be put upon our necks , and consciences , is our controversy , pa. . is it not a prodigious boldness for such spirits as these , to obtrude themselves , either upon the government , or the people , as men of scruple , and the most competent agents for the promoting of vnity , and peace ? and you your self mr. baxter , have not been out neither at this great work of reforming confusion , as your own confessions in some measure , but your conversation and writings do abundantly bear witness . mr. richard here i must confess , furnishes you with a salvo that ignatious loyola himself would have blush'd at . you were ever true to the king , you say , but you did not know who was king. some would have him to be where he was not , and others would not allow him to be where he was. sir , this doctrine might have done well enough in a pulpit at coventry , when you were helping the lord against the mighty ; but from such a restauration sermon , the lord deliver us ! there is first not one word of restoring the king in 't , though it was a fast that had a particular regard to that debate . . it asserts the loyalty of the presbyterians , and yet at the same time , supposes the supreme power in the two houses , which , in few words makes the late king both a subject , and ( with reverence ) a rebell . . the setling of the presbytery , for that 's allways the english of their sound doctrine , and church government , pa. . ) is violently prest as the first thing to be done . give first to god , the things that are gods. . with a pharisaical ostentation of the conscionable , prudent , godly , people of the land , pa. . in opposition to the prophane . you could not do any thing in the world more to obstruct his majestys return , and yet you are pleased to make this sermon an instance of your zeal to advance it . ri· [ the parliament did not raise war against the person or authority of the king , nor did i ever serve them on any such account : but to defend themselves against the kings mis-guided will. holy common-wealth . pa. . their commissions , ( all that ever i saw ) were for king and parliament . we had two protestations , and a solemn league and covenant impos'd upon the nation , to be for king and parliament . and if d●cla●ations , professions , commissions , and national oaths and covenants will not tell us , what the cause of the war was , th●n there is no discovery . ibid. pa. . mo. these commissions , oathes and covenants tell you the pretext of the war , but you must go to their proceedings , and practices to find the cause of it . the two houses seize the kings towns , magazins , forts , and shipping . they violently take the militia into their own hands ; vote an ordinance of both houses as binding as an act of parliament . declare his majestys commissions voyd , issue out orders for securing the kingdome : vote the maintaining of a war , and the seizing of his majestys magazins ; sequester the church and crown revenues : and justify all these injuries , as done in pursuance of their protestations , and covenants , and this is your way now of being for the king. suppose that any man had beaten you , and plundred ye , and imprison'd ye , and abus'd your friends for your sake , and a body should tell you all this while that this man was for mr. baxter . if you were really for the king : why would not for the king according to the oath of allegiance do the businesse as well as for the king according to the covenant ? or how came you to alienate your self from his majesties iurisdictino , and to turh subject , to the two houses ? who absolv'd you from the one oath , or who authoris'd you in the other ? or when you found that the king in the covenant clash'd with the king in the oath of allegeance , why did you not rather comply with the law , then with the usurpation ? for it is impossible to be true to both interests , under so manifest an opposition . you see the colour of the war , and i shall not need to tell you that the cause of it was ambition , of dominion , which was exercised to the highest degree of tyranny . ri. if a people that by oath and duty are obliged to a sovereign , shall sinfully dispossess him , and contrary to their covenants , chuse and covenant with another ; they may be obliged by their latter covenants , notwithstanding the former . holy-common-wealth . pag. . ba. that cannot be , my friend ; for we hold it [ impious and papal to pretend to absolve subjects from their oaths to their sovereign . holy com. pa. . [ it is not in subjects power , by vows to with-draw themselves from obedience to authority . non-confor . plea. p. . mo. but why can ye not now dispense with your covenants , as well as you did formerly with the oath of allegeance ? ri. part of this covenant is [ against popery , superstition , and profaneness ; and all that is against sound doctrine and godlinesse , &c. which the non-conformists take to be lawful and necessary things . non-conf . plea. st . part. p. . but the controversy is not this , and that , but whether as a vow made to god , it binde to things necessary . p. . ba. soft a little . this that you speak of is the league and covenant , not the vow , and covenant . the latter was only a bond of confederacy to assist the parliaments forces against the king ; and taken by the lords ane commons iun. . . and then ordred iun. . to be taken all over the kingdome . but the other was composed afterwards and upon closing with the scots accomodated to the scottish model , and order'd , feb. . . to be taken throughout england and wales , and entitled , for r●formation , and d●fence of reli●ion ; the honour and happiness of the king , &c. [ by this covenant , you are bound , not only to an extirpation of bishops , but to endeavou● the introducing of a scottish presbytery : how can you then dispence with an admittance of the primates episcopacy , as you propounded , in contradiction to the terms of that engagement ? mo. favour me with a word i pray'e . did ye not covenant [ to preserve and defend the kings majestys person , and authority ? ] ri. yes , [ in the preservation and defence of the true religion . ba. but in case of the kings opposing it , we are still obliged [ to continue therein , against all opposition , and ●o promote the sam● , according to our power , against all lets , and impediments whatsoever . see the covenant . mo. let it suffice gentlemen that your party destroy'd the king ; it is no great matter how. ri. [ as to the death of the king , i have in the times of vsurpation , proved that the presbyterians detest●d it . that it was a proud conquering army , by the contrivance of ol. cromwell , and the applause of a few phanatiques that did it by the consent of a small care of the old parliament , called the rump , that durst not trust the king in power . non-conf . plea. part . . preface . ba. prethee dick speak truth and shame the devil . what did we raise armyes for ? and attaque the king himself in the head of his troops ? wee 'l maintain that , by our principles , and aphorisms . [ war is not an act of government , but hostility . men are not in reason to be supposed to intend their enemies good , if they fight we are to b●lieve , they would kill : and nature believeth not killing to be an act of friendship . holy common-wealth . pa. . ● do unfeignedly repent that i did no more for ●eace in my place then i did ; and that i did not pray more heartily again●t con●●ntion ▪ and w●r , b●for● it cam● : and spake no more against it th●n i 〈…〉 that i spa●e so much to blow the coals . for ●his 〈…〉 for●iven●sse of the lord , through the pretious b●o●d of t●● gr●●t reconciler . the hatred of strife , and war , a●d love of p●a●e , and obs●rvation of the lamentable miscariages si●ce , have call'd me often to search my heart , and try my ways by the word of god ; whether i did lawfully engage in that war , or not : ( which i was confident then , was the greatest outward service that ever i performed to god. and whether i lawfully encouraged so many thousands to it . holy common-wealth . pa. . . [ but yet i cannot see that i was mistaken in the main cause ; nor dare i repent of it , nor forbear the same , if it were to do again , in the same state of things . i should do all i could to prevent such a war , but if it could not be prevented , i must take the same side as then i did . and my judgment tells me , that if i should do otherwise , i should be guilty of treason or disloyalty against the sovereign power of the land , and of per●idiousnesse to the common-wealth , and of preferring offending subjects , before the laws , and justice ; and the will of the king above the safety of the common-wealth , and consequently above his own wellfare . ibid , and then for you so impudently and impertinently — mo. nay , let 's have none of this , gentlemen i beseech ye , why you two are old acquaintances ; fellow-labourers , fellow-sufferers , and one womans children as we say . — ba. i shall not eat my words i assure ye ; i may forget my self perhaps , but i am not a man for recantations . i say again , that it was impudently and impertin●●tly done to reflect upon oliver cromwell , as if he had done an ill thing . my holy common-wealth [ was written while the lord prot●ctor ( ●rudently , piously , faithfully , to his immortal horrour , how ill soever you have used him ) did exercise the government . holy common wealth , preface to the army . [ and i have forborn to change any one word of it all , that you may see the worst of my intendments . and that true principles will stand in all times , and changes , though to the shame of those changes that make bad times . ibid. these are my own words , and do you think that i would ever have bestowed upon a detestable wretch , the epithetes of prudent , pious and faithful ? and again ; if oliver had not been a religious , and gratious prince , can you imagine that i should ever have treated his son richard with this complement ? [ we pray that you may inherit a tender care of the cause of christ. key for catholiques , ep. ded. which shews both that oliver had a tendernesse for christs cause ; and necessarily implys that the cause he managed was the cause of christ. and then you shuffle it again upon the phanatiques , and the rump , that durst not trust the king with power . why prethee what power did we allow him ? we took away his arms and his men , and his money , and his credit , and his towns , and his ships , and his laws , and his liberty , and all the ensignes of royalty : and the maxims whereupon we supported our proceedings , did his besinesse . the two houses and the army were no more then the gun and the ball ; the one gave fire and the other kill'd him . mo. mr. baxter ; i ( as you say ) you do vnfeignedly repent , that you spake so much formerly to blow the coals . why are ye blowing of them again ? you carry'd thousands you say , into the war , and eng●ged in it your self , and would do the same thing over again upon the like occ●sion : and your judgment tells you that it were treason against the sovereign power of the land to do otherwise . according to this doctrine , a remnant of the lords and commons may do as much to this k●●g as they did to his father , and the presbyterians pulpi●s shall justify the prooc●eding . you do generously however to own your positions . but yet methinks you should have some regard to the dismal consequences that have ●nsu'd upon this controversy . ba. [ it were too great folly , by following accide●ts , that were then unknown , for me to judge of the former cause . that which is calamitous in the event , is not allways sinfull in the enterprize . should the change of times make me forget the state that we were formerly in , and change my judgment , by losing the sense of what then conduced to it's enformation , this folly and forgetfullnesse would be the way to a sinfull , and not an obedient repentance . nor can i be so unthankful as to say , for all the sins and miscarriages of men since , that we have not received much mercy from the lord : holy common-wealth . pa. . when godlynesse was the common scorn , the prejudice , and shame most lamen●ably prevail'd to k●ep men from it , and so encouraged them in wickednesse : but through the great mercy of god , many thousands have been converted to a holy , upright life , proportionably more then were before , since the reproach did cease , and the prejudice was removed , and faithfull preachers took the place of scandalous ones , or ignorant readers . when i look upon the place where i live , and see that the families of the ungodly are here one , and there one in a street , as the families of the godly were heretofore ( though my own endeavours have been too weak and cold ) it ●orceth me to set up the stone of remembrance , and to say [ hitherto hath the lord helped us . ibid. [ oh the sad , and heart-piercing spectacles that mine eyes have seen in four years space . [ this was jan. . . ] [ in this fight , a dear friend falls down by me : from another , a pretious christian b●ought home wounded , or dead : scarce a month , scarce a week , without the sight or noise of bloud . saints rest , p. . mo. here 's first a most evangelicall accompt of the blessed effects of a civill war : [ the propagation of holynesse . and then , a most remarkable calculation of the date of your calamities , which commences precisely from the armies getting the ascendent of the two houses , without any respect to the outrages both upon the church and state , while the presbyterians govern'd . ri. pray'e will ye [ patiently read over the representation , ●r letter of the london ministers to the lord generall , jan. . . mo. very well , and since you are pleas'd to cast the cause , and the integrity of your party upon that issue , wee 'l see what they say . [ it is allready sufficiently known ( besides all former miscarriages ) what attempts of late have been put in practice against lawfull authority : letter p. . [ this lawfull authority was a faction of the two houses ] especially by the late remonstrance , and declaration , published in opposition to the proceedings in parliament . [ h●re's the crimen lesae majestatis . ] [ as also by seizing , and imprisoning the kings person without the knowledge , and consent of parliament . ibid. [ here 's only a plain seizure of the kings person , without the parliaments privity or leave ; no cond●mnation of the thing it self , furth●r then as it was done without his masters consent . nor was the king more a prisoner in the hands of the army , then he had been at newcastle , in the hands of the presbyterians . ] but now they come to [ that late vnparall'd violence offer'd to the members of it ; forcibly hind●ing above one hundred of them ( if we mistake not the number ) from sitting in parliament : imprisoning many of their persons ; though many of them are known to us to be men of eminent worth , and integrity ; and who have given most ample testimony of their real affection to the good of the kingdome . ibid. pray'e take notice , that it was upon the members , an unparallel'd violence ; upon the king , no more then a simple seizure ; and methinks they might have bestowed some kind epithete upon his majesty , as well as upon the eminent and worthy members . but 't is only the bare king ; and that 's all. [ and besides all this , [ there is an intent of framing and contriving a new model , as well of the laws , and government of the kingdom , as of the constitution of a new kind of representative . all which practices we cannot but judge , to be manifestly opposite to the lawfull authority of those majestrates which god hath set over us ; and to the duty and obedience , which by the laws of god and man , and by our manifold oaths , and covenants , we stand obliged to render to them . ibid. you are not aware , mr. richard , that to justify the doctrine of these letters falls very little short of justifying downright treason ; unlesse you can shew a law that places the supreme power in the two houses . [ the fear of god therefore , ( whose ordinance is violated , when magistracy is opposed ) makes us affraid of medling with those who without any colour of legal authority , meerly upon the presumption of strength , shall attempt such changes as these are . and we ●annot but be deeply affected with grief and astonishment , to see that an army raised by authority of parliament , for the preservation of the priviledges thereof , and of our religion , laws , and liberties , should contrary to their trust , and many engagements , do that which tends to the manifest subversion of them all. p. . pray'e where was the fear of cod , when the king was opposed ? what legal authority had the two houses over his majesty , more th●n the army had over the two houses ! or by what law did that parliament raise that army ? [ we have not forgotten those declared grounds and principles , upon which the parliament first took up arms : and upon which we were induced to joyn with them : ( from which we have not hitherto declared , and we trust through gods grace , we never shall . ) pa. . we have here in few words , the judgment , and the resolution of the presbyterian divines , and the standard of their loyalty , from the lips of the very oracle of the party . i would fain know now which wa● the fouler breach of trust , that of the two houses toward his majesty , to whom both by law and conscience they were obliged , ( besides so many gratious concessio●s ) or that of the army , to the two houses ! the one being like the robbing of an honest man , and the other , the pillaging of that thief : over and above that the army was trayn'd up in the trade of turning out their masters . [ and moreover ; although the parliament thus too● up arms for the defence of their persons & priviledges , and the preservation of religion , laws , and liberties ; yet was it not their intention , thereby to do violence to the person of the king , or divest him of ●is regal authority , and what of right belongeth to him . pa. . do but shew me now any one essential of sovereignty which those people left hi● , if they could take it away , and i will be answerable to forfei● my head for 't . but still it is but what [ of righ● ] b●longeth to him ; and that 's a salvo for all the violences imaginable . [ we disclam , detest , and abhor the wicked , and bloudy te●ents , and practices of iesuits ( the whrst of papists ) concerning the opposing of magistrates , by private persons , and the murthering of kings by any , though under the most specious , and colourable pretenses . pa. . this is all , which upon that desperate crisis of state was said for that pious and unfortunate prince : the saving of the king , being ( if any ) incomparably the least part of the ministers business . beside that the dethroning of him was more criminal then the beheading of him . and in such a case , it would have been no longer a murther , when they should once have voted the fact to be an execution of justice . [ we desire ( say they ) that you would not be too confident on former successes . if god have made you prosper while you were in his way , this can be no warrant for you to walk in ways of your own. p. . [ so that the old cause is gods still , to this very day . ] and besides ; [ you have e●gaged your selves by an oath to preserve his majestys person , and the priviledges of parliament ; and this is most clear , that no necessity can justify perjury , or dispense with lawfull oaths . pa. . i should be glad to know now , how you came to be absolv'd of the oath of allegiance , or how you can honestly pretend to stand up for any interest , that renders the king accountable to his subjects . ba. [ yet if i had taken up arms against the parliament in that war , my conscience tells me i had been a traytor , and guilty of resisting the highest powers . holy com. pa. . mo. at this rate , the king was a traytor on the other side . ba. why do you cite the holy common wealth , so often ? for i have desired that the book be taken as non scriptus . non-con . ●lea d part . pref. mo. and would not any malefactor that were deprehended in the manner , say as much as this amounts to ; and wish that the thing might be taken as non factum ? this is rather a shift , then a retractation . and then again ; it is a wonderfull thing that you should overshoot your self so much upon a subject that was expresly [ suited to the demands , and doubts of th●se tim●s , ] holy com. pa. . that is to say ; the restoring of the king was the point then in agitation , and out comes your book of aphoris●s expresly to possesse the people against it . ba. if you would have a recantation more in form , [ i do here freely profess that i repent of all that ●●er i thoug●t , sayd , wrote , or did , since i was born , against the ●●ace of church or state , against the king , his person , or ●●thority , as s●preme in himself ; or as d●●●vative in any of his officers , m●gistrats , or any commissioned by him . d admonition to bagshaw . pa. . mo. this mock repentance is a trick that will not pass either upon god or man. the kings headsman might have sayd as much , and yet account that execrable office a meritorious work . you are at your fast sermon again ; always obedient to the highest powers , but divided somewhere about the receptacle of the sovereignty . you ask god forgivenesse for all that ever you thought , sayd , wrote , or did , against the king , and the publick-peace . and what signifies this repentance , so long as you persist in maintaining , that all the violences acted upon the person , crown and dignity of his sacred majesty , in the name of the king and parliament , were not against the king , but for him , this is all , but the hypothesis of a transgression . lord forgive me all that ever i did amiss . that is to say , if ever i did any thing amiss . but i charge my self with no particulars . why do ye not touch the thesis that you condemn ; and say this , that , and tother aphorisme i renounce ? nay , why do ye not reform and correct your mistakes , and state the matter aright , toward the bringing of these people into their wits again , that have been intoxicated by your false doctrine , and poyson'd from your very pulpit ? ba. [ if you quarrell with my repentance as not in particulars enow ; i answer you , that as in the revocation of the book , i thought it best to revoke the whole , ( though not as retracting all the doctrine of it ) because if i had named the particular passages , some would have said i had mentioned too few , and some too many , and few would have been satisfi'd . admon . to bagshaw . pag. . mo. you have mark'd [ revoke , ] and [ retract ] with an emphatical character , to give to understand , that you do not retract , though you do revoke , and you have put them in italique , to shew that there lies a stresse upon those two words . you revoke the whole [ book ] you say , not as retracting all the doctrine of it : if by revoke you mean call in , or suppr●ss ; you might as well call back your breath again , as the venome that was diffused by those aphorisms . and then to say that you do not [ retract all the doctrine of it ] does not necessarily imply , that you retract any part of it . or if you do , your repentance is yet frivolous , for want of distinguishing the right from the wrong ; that your disciples may not take the one from the other . your apprehension indeed of saying too much , or too little if you should come to particulars , is very reasonable : for to please the lovers to their prince , church , and countrey , you must not leave one seditious , or schismatical principle behind ye . but then on the other side , if you come to pronounce the levying of arms , the making of a great seal , and exercising other acts of sovereignty , without , and against the kings commission , to be high treason by the established law , you are lost to all intents and purposes , with your own party . so that for fear of disobliging the one side or the other , by confessing too much , or too little , you have resolved upon the middle way of confessing just nothing at all . ba. [ i do repent ( again ) that i no more discouraged the spirit of p●evish quarrelling with superiours , and church-orders ; and ( though i ever disliked and opposed it , yet ) that i som●times did too much encourage such , as were of this temper , by speaking too sharply against those things which i thought to be church-corruptions : and was too loth to displease the contentious , for fear of being uncapable of doing them good , ( knowing the prophane to be much worse then they ) and meeting with too few religious persons , that were not too much pleased with such invectives . ibid. mo. this clause of repentance , is every jot as much a riddle to me as the former . you did not sufficiently discourage the spirit of quarrelling with superiours . [ which spirit you your self raised . ] you were a little too sharp upon what you thought to be church-corruptions , [ so that here 's a bit , and a knock , you were a little too sharp ; but it was against corrup●ions in the church ; your very repentances are calumnies . but you were willing to oblige a contentious religious party that was pleased with invectives , you could have done them no good else . and what good i beseech ye did you do them by it , but mislead , and confirm them in principles of disobedience ? only you consider'd you say , that the prophane were much worse then the other . what is the reason that mr. baxter will be perpetually thus inconsistent with himself ; first you repent for no more discouraging , and then ( by a side wind ) for encouraging ; and before the repentance is out of your mouth , you are at it again , with your church-corruptions , and your opposition of the prophane forsooth to the godly , to enflame the d●vision , and to harden the non-conformists in their dissent . now as to your stigmatizing character of prophane , there is a personal prophanenesse , and there is a prophanenesse of association , and confederacy . there are many men i know , that have gotten so diabolical a habit of swearing , cursing and blaspheming the holy name of god , that they can hardly speak ten words without an oath , or a curse : this is witho●t dispute a most abominable sin ; but it is withall so disagreeable , and so offensive , that it gives a man a horrour for the imitation , and practice , of so unprofitable , and so monstrous a crime ; and though it be a grievous wickedness , it is not of so dangerous an example . but what say you to sacramental leagues against order , and law ? to the forcing of a whole nation either to swear or starve ? to the calling god into a conspiracy against government and religion ? to the robbing of altars ; demolishing of temples ; dethroning of kings ; degrading of bishops ? &c. and all this , in the name of the most high god , and with hands held up unto the lord. but go on with your repentance . ba. [ i do repent ( also ) that i had not more impartially and dilligently consulted with the best lawyers that were against the parliaments cause , ( for i know of no controversy in divinity about it , but in politiques and law ; ) and that i did not use all possible means of full acquaintance with the case . ibid. [ and that for a little while the authority of such writers as mr. richard hooker , lib. i. eccles. polit. and bishop bilson , and other episcopal divines did too much sway my judgment toward the principles of popular power . [ and seeing the parliament episcopal , and erastian ; and not hearing when the war began , of two presbyterians amongst them all , nor among all their lord li●utenants , generalls , major generalls , or colonells , till long after ; i was the easilyer drawn to think , that hookers political principles had been commonly received by all ; which i discerned soon after upon stricter enquiry , to be unsound , and have my self written a confutation of them . pa. . mo. this way of dodging , in one of the prophane ( as you stile us ) would have been iesuitical . here 's only a bare wish that you had made a stricter enquiry into the cause , but no acknowledgment that you were in the wrong . and again , if you knew of no controversy in divinity about it ; why are all your writings stuffed with such a huddl● of texts for obedience to the two houses ? what did you search the word of god for , in the case ? holy com. pa. . 〈…〉 were misled by mr. hookers first book of ecclesiastical 〈…〉 favour of popular power ; why would ye not let him set the right in your ecclesiastical ●olitiques , and in your duty to the authority , and discipline of the church , to make ye some amends ? the biasse which you will have him to take , in favour of popular power , being not one jot to your purpose , but regarding only the specification of government , and not the fountain ; and who●ly forrein to your phansy of a co-ordination : whereas that great mans discourse in vindication of the rites and injunctions of the church comes directly to your point : and stands as sirm as a rock against all the insults of calumny , and opposition ; without any pretense to a reply . but you serve mr. hooker in this , and the king himself , and the english clergy in oth●r cases , as you do the bishops in your church-history : you turn over indexes and common-places for matter of reproach against them , and then obtrude upon the world , the frailties of some , and your own most uncharitable mistakes of others , for the history of the order ; but not one word of their virtues . ( it would make a black book , the story of the presbytery drawn up at the same rate . ) it is your way still , under a pretext of advancing the mistical church , to depress the visible , and to put the people out of love w●th both civill and ecclesiastical constitutions . ba. [ pray'e do but observe and see of what manner of persons the visible church hath be●n constituted , in all ages of the world , till now . in the first church , in adams family , a cain , in a church of eight persons , the father and pastor overtaken with grosse drunkenness , and one of his sons was a cursed cham. in a church of six persons , two of them perish'd ( in sodom ( in the flames among the unbelievers , and a third turn'd into a pillar of salt : the two remaining daughters , committed incest . in abrahams family , an ishmael ; in isaac●s , an esau : even rebecca , and iacob guilty of deceitfull equivocation ; an abraham and isaac deny'd their wives to save themselves in their unbelief . in iacobs family a simeon and levi , that sold their brother ioseph . of the church of the isralites in the wilderness but two permitted to enter into the land of promise , &c. [ the ten tribes were drawn by ieroboa● to sin , by setting up calves at dan in bethel , and making priests of the vilest of the people ; and forsaking the temple , and the true worship of god and the lawfull priests . and these lawfull priests at ierusalem were ravening wolves and greed● dogs , and careless , and cruell shepherds . the false pro phets who deceived the people were most accepted . ] ch div. pa. . ● . . and if you run through the churches of rome , corinth , galatia , colosse , ephesus , pergamus , thyatira , sardis , laodicea . ] pa. . . . you 'le finde it to be the same case . mo. but what 's your end in all this ? ba. [ not to make sin less odious , nor the church or godly less esteemed : but to shew you the frame of the visible church , in all generations , and how it differeth from the iewish ; lest you should take on you to be wiser then god , and to build his house after a better rule then his gospel and the primitive pattern . ibid. pa. . mo. this is by interpretation , the non-conformists are the invisible church ; and the episcopall clergy are the ravening wolves , and the greedy dogs , and all the sons of the church of england , are the church visible , according to your most obliging way of allusion . but there 's one thing i forgot . you say , the presbyterians did not begin the war ; which with your favour is a great mistake , and yet not a pin matter to the case in question ; whether they did or not . did not the kirk lead the dance , and the republican faction in england pay them their wages , and call them their dear brethren for their pains ? and then the presbyterian war was denounc'd in the pulpi● , and in the parliament-house too , long before the republican broke out openly in the field . what if the first publick sticklers , were not at that time declar'd presbyterians ? they were yet in the conspiracy against bishops , though under another notion ; and quickly after they listed themselves under that very profession , as the best cover in nature for their purpose ; for that schisme was never without a state-faction in the belly on 't . but nothing is more notorious , then the intelligence that was held , from the beginning , betwixt the republican caball , and the presbyterian divines ! the one drew the bellowes , and the other play'd the tune . and take notice likewise , that presbyterian was a mark of the faction rather then a note of the religion , and used in contradistinction to royallist . but pray'e finish your repentance . ba. for [ all the rest of my sins in this business , which i know not of particularly , i do implicitly and generally repe●● of , and ask of god to give me a particular conversion , &c. ] ibid . mo. if you have told all the particulars you know of , yo●● account , mr. baxter , is soon cast up . you begin with a gen●rall supposition . all that ever i thou●●● , said , &c. without any one instance ; or acknowledgement . if you had sayd , i have committed many sins of this kinde , and 〈◊〉 that , it had been something . your second branch of repentance , is for no more discouragi●● peevishnesse toward superiours ; and then sometimes too 〈◊〉 encouraging it by being too sharp your self against what yo● took to be church corruptions . why sorry for no more discouraging , when you were so far from discouraging at all , th●● on the contrary , you repent in the same period , for too 〈◊〉 encouraging ? this is , at the best ; but a lame and a gene●●● particular repentance . that which you make no more of th●● the spirit of peevish quarrelling ( as if the people had only 〈◊〉 upon a nettle ) you should have spoken out , and call'd it the spirit of contumacy , and rebellion . and what is it that yo● charge upon your self here , more then that you were a little too mealy-mouth'd ? but wher 's your vindication of the ch●r●●-orders you mention ? where 's your determination which 〈◊〉 the right superiours . why do ye not tell the people that yo● were mistaken in the opinion of our church-corruptions ; and instruct them in their duties of obedience to god , and the king ? without so doing , that which you call repentance , is o●l● a snare to the multitude , and a scandal to the government . your next pang of repentance , is for not consulting t●e best lawyers that were against the parliament , more impartially and dilligently then you did . is this the repentance , mr. baxter , of a confessor ? a r●pentance , without a confession : an arrant peice of artifice , a●d design , to put on the disguise of a recantation , and witho●● any charge or discharge of conscience , to keep in with bo●h parties . the sin does not ly in your not advising with lawyers concerning the state of the controversy , but in plungi●g your self and others into bloud , hand over head , contrary to the laws of god and man , without so much as consulting the grounds of the quarrell . to the royallists it looks like an excuse of your disloyalty to the king ; as who should say ; 't is true , i was to blame : it was a poynt of law , and i should have taken better advise upon 't . and if the other side accuse you as a desertor of the cause , you can acquit your self there too , that you have not repented of any one poynt to their prejudice . if it be not as i say , and that you mean good faith , do but publish your loyalty to the world , in the manner , or to the effect following , and i 'le ask your pardon . i do declare , that the lords and commons assembled in parliament , are still the kings subjects , and that it is not lawfull for them to exercise any act of sovereign power , without or against the kings command , or consent . i do l●kewise declare that the war , raised by the pretended authority of the lords and commons in . with all their orders , ordinances , and impositions in pursuance thereof , were also unlawfull : and that all acts of hostility done by them or their order , against the king , or the party commssioned by h●m , during the command of the earl of essex , were acts of disloyalty , and rebellion . if you be really the man that you would be thought to be , you 'le never boggle at this test : but if this will not down with ye , ( let me tell you sir , that to my knowledge worse then this , has ) you will make me think of the lady in the proverbs , that [ eateth , and wipeth her mouth , and saith i have done no wic●ednesse . ba. you reflect in these reproaches either upon my particular principles , or upon the principles of the party , or upon both. as to my self ; [ if any man can prove , that i was guilty of , hurt to the person , or destruction of the power of the king , or of changing the fundamental constitution of the common-wealth ] &c. holy com. pa. . . [ i will never gain-s●y him if he call me a most persidious rebell ; and tell me that i am guilty of far greater sin , then murther , whoredome , drunkenesse , or such like . ibid. or if they can solidly confute my grounds , i will tha●● them , and confesse my sin to all the world. ibid. ri. nay brother baxter , you must give me leave to put in ● word now ; and first to your practice , then to your grounds . di● not you animate the party that was in arms against the king ; 〈◊〉 much as any man , and was that no hurt to his person ? [ remem●● ( say you to the army ) how far i have gone with you in the w●● — and shall i be affraid of my old most intimate friends ? &c. holy com. pref. will you have it now that this army , your o●● , and intimate friends , did no hurt to his majesties person ? a●● now bethink your self , of your challenge in the preface to your ho●● common wealth . [ prove that the king was the highest pow●● , in the time of divisions , and that he had power to make 〈◊〉 war , which he made , and i will offer my head to iustice as a ●●bell . ] is not this destructive of the kings power ? and is not 〈◊〉 a change of the fundamental constitution of the common-wea●●● , 〈◊〉 say that [ the members of parliament considered disjunctly , 〈…〉 subjects , but that conjunctly , as a house or body , they 〈◊〉 the sovereignty . ] holy com. pa. . and again , pa. . [ te●● the parliament hath a part of the legislative power , ( eve● 〈◊〉 enacting , and not only of proposing ) is undoubted . ba. nay if you go to that richard , i shall call you to a●compt for your practises and propositions too . do not you remember a certain dedicatory epistle , to richard protector , i● your key for catholiques , where you have these words ? [ gi●● not leave to every seducer to do his worst to damn mens so●l● when you will not tolerate every traytor to draw your am●ie● or people into rebellion . ] and again , [ this is one th●t rejoyceth in the present happiness of england , and honoureth all the providences of god , by which we have been brought 〈◊〉 what we are . ] do not you here acknowledge richard the pr●tectors sovereignty ? and blesse all the providences that have brought matters so comfortably about ? ri. ay , ay , baxter ; that 's a doctrine you taught me in your commonwealth . [ i am bound to submit to the present government , as set over us by god , and to obey for conscience-sak● , and to behave my self as a loyal subject towards them. for a full and free parliament hath own'd it , and so there is notoriously the consent of the people , which is the evidence that former princes had to iustify their best titles . pa. . whereas in truth neither was this a free parliament , nor any parliament at all ; neither w●s your submission to the present power , an act of conscience , for the same conscience would have oblig'd you as well to the king , upon the same grounds . ba. in good time mr. richard : and who taught ye , i wonder your complements to prince richard in the five disputations ? where you addresse your self [ to his highnesse , richard , lord protectour of the common-wealth of england , scotland , and ireland . ] ep. ded. and further [ your zeal for god will kindle in your subjects , a zeal for you . the more your life & government is divine , the more divine will you appear ; and therefore , the more amiable , and honourable to the good , and reverend to the evill . parliaments will love and honour you , and abhor the motions that tend to a division , or your iust displeasure . ministers will heartily pray for you , and prayse the lord for his mercies by you , and teach all the people to love , honour and obey you . the people will rejoyce in you ; and you will be lov'd or fear'd of all. such happinesse attendeth serious piety , when impiety , selfishnesse , and neglect of christ , is the shame and ruine of prince and people . i crave your highnesse pardon for this boldness , and your favourable acceptance of the tender'd service of , a faithfull subject to your highness , as you are an officer of the universal king , richard baxter . ri. i' keep still to my old master doctour of the aphorisms , [ if a person enter into a military state against the people , and by them be conquered , they are not obliged to restore him , unless there be some other special obligation upon them , beside their allegeance . ] thes. . and moreover [ if the person dispossest , though it were vnjustly ▪ do afterward become vncapable of government , it is not the subjects du●y to seek his restitution . ] thes. . and yet again [ whosoever exp●lls the sovereign , though injuri●usly , and resolves to revive the common-wealth , rather then he shall be restored : and if the common-wealth may prosper without his restauration , it is the duty of such an injur'd prince , for the common good to resign his government ; and if he w●ll not , the people ought to iudge him as m●de incable by providence , and not to seek his restitution to the apparent ruine of the common-wealth . ] thes. . mo. praye let me put in a word betwixt ye . what do you call incapacitys ? ba. [ when providence depriveth a man of his vnderstanding , he is materia indisposita , and vncapable of government , though not of the name . ] thes. . [ if god permits princes to turn so wicked , as to be uncapable of governing , so as is consis●ent with the ends of government , he permits them to depose themselves . ] thes. . again ; [ if providence statedly disable him that was the sovereign , from the executing of laws , protecting the just , and other ends of government , it maketh him an uncapable subject of the power and so deposeth him . ] for a government so impotent , is none . a capacity for the work and ends is necessary in the person ; and when that ceaseth , the power ceaseth . ] h●l . comm. pag. . . ri. and then you say further , thes. . that [ any thing that is a sufficient sign of the will of god , that this is the person , by whom we should be governed , is enough ( as ioyned to gods laws ) to oblige us to consent , and obey him , as our governour . ) vpon which ground , you your self do iustify all that i have either said , or do●e , in submission to richard. and so you do likewise in your thesis . [ if the rightfull governour be so long dispossest , that the common-wealth can be no longer be without government , but to the appar●nt hazzard of it's ruine , we ought to iudge that providence has disp●●sest the former , and presently consent to another . ] we must not say , that [ because we cannot have such a man , wee 'l have none , but be vngoverned ; this is to break an express commandement , and to cast off the order and ordinance of god , for a persons sake . ] p. . and then there 's another thing ; you put all the cases that ever you could muster up , against the kings return . [ if a king ( you say ) dissolves the government he can be no governour . if an enemy , no king. a destroyer cannot be a ruler , and defender ; he proclaimeth hostility , and is therefore not to be trusted . ] pa. . ba. well , well ? richard. if you had pleased , you might have found out some other aphorismes , where i have done as much right i 'm sure to sovereign power as any man living . do not i say thes. . that [ it is the subjects duty to defend their prince , with their strength , and hazzard of their lives , against all forreign and domestique enemies , that seek his life , or ruine ? ] ri. if you speak this to the cause in question ; how will you come off where you say [ if i had known that the parliament had been the beginners ; and in most fa●●t , yet the ruine of our trustees , and representives , and so of all the security of the nation , is a punishment greater then any fault of theirs against a king , can from him deserve : and that their saul●s cannot disoblige me from defending the common-wealth . ● owned not all that ever they did : but i took it to be my duty to look to the mayn end. and i kn●w that the king had all his power for the common good , and therefore had none against it ; and therefore that no cause can warrant him , to make the common-wealth the party , which he shall exercise hostility against . ] ho. com. pa. . [ all this s●●med plain to me ] and [ when i found so many things conjunct , as two of the three estates against the will of the king alone , the kingdoms representatives and trustees assaulted in the guarding of our liberties , and the highest court defending them against offending subjects , and se●king to bring them to a legal tryal ; and the kingdoms safety , and the common good , involved in their cause ( which may be more fully manifested , but that i would not stir too much in the evils of times past ; ) all these , and many m●re concurring , perswaded me , that it was sinfull to be neutrals , and treach●rous to be against the parliament in that cause . ] — [ it were a wonder if so many humble , honest christians , fearful of sinning , and praying for direction , should be all mistaken in so weighty a case , and so many damme's all in the right . ] pa. . ba. very learnedly apply'd . but do not i say pa. ▪ that [ if a parliament would wrong a king , and depose him unjustly , and change the government , for which they have no power , the body of the nation may refuse to serve them in it , yea , may forcibly restrayn them ? if they not●riously betray their trust , not in some tolerable matters , but in the fundamentalls , or points that the common good dependeth on , and engage in a cause that would destroy the happynesse of the common-wealth ; it is then the peoples duty to forsake them , an● cleave to the king against them , if they be enemies to the common-wealth . ] pag. . ri. now i beseech ye mr. baxter be pleased to compare pa. ● . with pa. . where you lay down this thes●● [ though some inj●ry to the king be the occasion of the war , it is the duty of all the p●●ple to defend the common-wealth against him ; y●t so , as th●t t●●y protest against that injury . ] ba. but what say ye all this while to the case of making co●nt to an usurper ? [ when it is notorious ( say i ) that where a ma● has no right to govern , people are not bound to obey him , unlesse by accident . ] thesis . ri. [ we detest their o●inion , who think that a strong and pr●sperous vsurper , may be defended , against the king , or that the ki●g is not to be def●nd●d against him , to the hazzard of our estates , 〈◊〉 lives . ] non-conf . d . part . pa. . [ meer conquest with●●● consent , is no just title . ] ibid. p. . and again , [ vs●rp●● have no true power , nor do their commands bind anb one in consc●ence to formal obedience : nor may they be set up and defended agai●●● the lawfull governour . ] pa. . [ and those are vsurpers 〈◊〉 by force or fraud depose the lawfull governour and take his place . ibid. [ if vsurpers claim the crown , the su●ject must iudge wh●● is their king and must defend his right . ] non-con . plea. . ba. but what if the people shall miss-judge ? [ all things are not destructive to the common-wealth , that are judg'd so by dissenting subjects . ] holy com. pref. [ nor are subje●ts allow'd to resist , whenever they are consident that rulers would destroy the common-wealth . ] ibid. [ oh how happy would the best of nations under heaven be , if they had the rulers that our ingratitude hath cast off . ] [ our old constitution , was king , lords , and commons , which we were sworn and sworn , and sworn again to be faithfull to , and to defend . the king with-drawing , the lords and commons ruled alone , though they attempted not the change of the species of government . next this , we had the major part of the house of commons in the exercise of sovereign power , the corrupt majority , ( as the army call'd them ) being cast out . ] ibid. &c. 't is no matter for the following revolutions ; [ to resist , or depose the best governours in all the world , that have the supremacy , is forbidden to subjects on point of damnation . ibid. ri. pray'e hold your hand a little mr. baxter . if the government was i● king , lords , and commons , how came the two houses ●o rule alone , with an vsurpation ? and without changing the species of the government ? or how came we , that you say were sworn over and over to all three , to depose the head , and submit to the other two ; and to let the government sink from a mona●chy , into a● aristocracy ? and why might not the commons , cast out the lords , and the army the commons , as well as the two houses cast off the king ? especially by your own comment upon , [ let every soul be subject to the higher powers . ] ho. com. e . where you expound the higher power , to be intended of the governours in actual possession . what hindred this a●gument from holding , when the king was in actual possession ? ba. [ a people may give an honourary title to the prince , and not give the same to others , that have part in the sovereignty . ] [ so that names are not the only notes of sovereignty . wherefore one must not judge of the power of princes by their titles , or names . ] ho. com. pa. . [ the law saith the king , shall have the power of the militia , supposing it to be against enemies , and not against the common-wealth , nor them that have part of the sovereignty with him . to resist him here is not to resist power , but usurpation , and private will. in such a case , the parliament is no more to be resisted then he , because they are also the higher power . ] ho. com. pa. . and there 's more in 't yet . [ if a prince be statedly made a begger , or forsaken , or ejected by a conqueror , and so uncapable of governing , if it be but pro tempore , the subjects for that time , ( that have no opportunity to restore him ) are disobliged from his actual government . [ pa. . ri. so that the s●izing of a prince's revenue , deposes him from 〈◊〉 sover●ignty , and descharges his subjects of their obedience . but i took [ inferior magistrates to be subjects of the king as well as the meanest men ; and to have no more power to depose , or take up arm● against him , then other subjects . ] non-con . plea , d . part p. ● . and [ in all the times of vsurpation , and since , i said , and wrote , that the kings person is inviolable , and to be iudg'd by none , either pe●r , or parliament , and that it is none but subjects , that they m●y call to account , iudge , and punish . ] pref. ba. i shall leave [ others to judge , in what cases subje●●s may resist kings by arms ; we shall only conclude , that no humane power can abrogate the law of nature , non-c●● . plea. d. part pa. . ri. and may not the two houses be resisted by the law of nature as well as they oppo●●● the king ? [ mod●●● subj●cts should rather study what laws god hath made for themselves , then what 〈◊〉 he hath made for kings ; and what 〈…〉 own duty th●● wh●t i● the kings : [ th●ugh 〈…〉 are not bound to be 〈◊〉 . ] non-con . plea , d. part. pa. . ba. nay i am as little for restraining of sovereign power as any ●lesh breathing . [ it is not sa●e or lawfull for the people to limit , or restrain the sovereign power , from dispos●●g so far of the estates of all , as is necessary to the safety of a●l , which is the end of government . ] thesis . nay [ a governour cannot law●ully be restrayned by the people from preserving them . ] thes. . [ for the multitude are covetous , tenacious , injudicious , and incompetent judges of the necessities , or commodity of the common-wealth . ] pa. . ri. but what was it you were saying e'en now of the best governours in the world ? ba. i was saying , that [ the best governours in all the world that have the supremacy have been resisted or deposed in england . i mean . them that the army called the c●rrupt majority : or an hundred forty and three imprison'd , and secluded members of the long parliament , who , as the majority , had , you know what power . . the powers that were last layd by . i should with great rejoycing give a thousand thanks to that man , that will acquaint me of one nation upon all the earth , that hath better governours in sovereign power ( as to wisdome and holyness conjun●t ) then those that have been resisted , or deposed in engl●●● . ho. com. pref. ri. you speak of the secluded members , and the two cromwells . but they all came in by violence ; and [ i know none of the non-conformists that take it not for rebellion , to pull down or s●t up ●orcibly by the sword , any thing against the supreme r●ler , or without him ] r. bs. letter to mr. hinckly . pa. ● . ba. [ the parliament did remonstrate to the kingdom , the danger of the subversion of religion , and liberties , and of the common good and interest of the people whose trustees they were ] ho. com. pa. . and [ if a nation regularly chuse a representative body , of the most noble , prudent , interested members , to discern their dangers and the remedies , and preserve their liberties and safety , the people t●emselves are to discern these dangers , and remedies by their eyes . ] thes. . and i think [ it was time for us to believe a parliament concerning our danger , and theirs , when we heard so many impious persons rage against them ] pa. . [ the irish professing to raise arms for the king , to defend his prerogative and their own religion against the parliament . i say , in such a time as this , we had reason to believe our entrusted watchmen , that told us of the danger , and no reason to suffer our lives and libertyes to be taken out of their trust , and wholly put into the hands of the king. we had rather of the two , be put upon the inconvenience of justifying our defence , then to have been butcher'd by thousands , and fall into such hands as ireland did . ] pa. . but [ all the wars that have been since the opposition to the parliament , and violence done to the person of the king : were far from being own'd by the common sort of the now non-conformists , &c. ] non-conf . plea. pa. . ri. you were saying a while agoe as i remember , that a parliament that destroys fundamentals , is an enemy to the common-wealth , and the people ought to oppose them . pray'e say : 〈◊〉 not the freedome and right of the electors , as much a fundamental , as the priviledge , and trust of the elected ? how comes it then that you propound the reducing of elections to the faithf●●l , honest upright men , ] &c. pref. to the ho. com. ba. let me speak afterwards of the necessity , and of the utility of this cause . . [ it is known that parliaments quà tales , are not divine , religious , protestant , or just. the six articles by which the martyrs were burnt , were made by a parliament . all the laws for the papal interests in the days of popery ▪ have been made by them . they have often followed the wills of princes to and fro , and therefore they are not indefectible , nor immutable , as such . ho. com. pa. . mo. very right ; and all the late orders and ordinances 〈◊〉 sequestring crown and church-revenues , commitments , plunders , decimations and the like , were made by that which you call a parliament . but see now in what a condition th●t people must be , that sees with the parliaments eyes , in ca●● of such parliaments , as you suppose : and the remedy you prescribe , is worse then the disease ; for take away the freedome of choyce , and the persons chosen are a faction rather then a parliament . ba. . [ it is known that there are mambers of vario●● minds in them all , and sometime , the miscarrying party is so strong , that by a few more voices they might brsng misery o● the common-wealth . ] ibid. mo. this we have found in severall cases upon experiment ; to the ruine of three kingdomes . ba. . [ it is well known that in most parts , the majo●-vote of the vulgar that are chusers are ignorant , selfish , of private spirits , ruled by mony , and therefore by their landlords , and other great and powerful men , and withall , they are bitterly distasted against the serious , diligent practice of religion , according to the rules of christ. ] ibid. . [ it is therefore apparent , that if they had their liberty , they would chuse such as are of their minds ; and it was by providence , and accident that heretofore they did not so . ] ibid. mo. here 's a compendious model mr. baxter of your project [ for the due regulation of the electours , and elections of parliament ] thes. . first , you propound to take away from the people of england , their ancient , and undoubted right of chusing their own representatives . . to unqualify all the nobility , gentry , and commonalty of the land that are well affected to the government of church and state. and ly . to pack a faction under the name of a parliament of your own leaven . or if that will not doe , 't is but employing the rabble again to give the house a swinging purge , and you are at your journeys end. proceed . ba. . [ it is certain , that the wars , the change of church-government , and forms of worship , the differences of religious men , and the many sects that have lately risen up among us , and the strict laws of parliament about the lords day , &c. and specially their taxes , have deeply discontented them , and exasperated them against such as they think have caused these , so that many would now purposely design their ruine . ] ibid. in fine , [ without regulating elections , what probability is there , but the next that is chosen by a majority of votes , with absolute freedom , will undoe all that hath been done ; and be revenged to the full on all that were so odious to them , and settle our calamity by a law ? mo. this is a more candid account mr. baxter , then you intended it . for the people may well be allow'd to have cursed the authours of those bloudy broyles ; the prophaning of our temples ; the suppressing of our church-government , and liturgy , the propagating of so many sects and schisms ; and bringing the nation to grone under their taxes , like the asse under the burthen . but how is that the peoples representative , that shuts the people out of the election , and acts both without , and against their consent ? the tenth part of this encroachment upon the common liberty , from the king , would have been cry'd out against , as arbitrary and tyrannicall . but what way would you direct for the limiting of the qualifications ? ba. [ let all pastors in england , that are approved , have an instrument of approbation , and all that are tolerated , an instrument of toleration ; and let no man be a chuser or a ruler that holdeth not communion with an approved or tolerated church , and is not signify'd under the pastors hand , to be a member thereof . ] thes. . mo. a most excellent invention to advance the empire of presbytery , and enslave all other degrees and perswasions of men whatsoever . ba. [ the humble petition and advice determineth , that under the penalty of a thousand pounds , and imprisonment till it be paid , no person be elected and sit in parliament but ] [ such as are persons of known integrity , fear god , and of good conversation . they are sworn also for fidelity to the protector , &c. ] a more excellent act hath not been made , for the happynesse of england , concerning parliaments , at least , since the reformation . ] ho. com. . . mo. but what is it that you mean by this known integrity ? or who are to be the iudges of it ? i take that man that publickly sacrifices his life , his fortune , his family , and his freedome to the service of his prince and countrey , according to the law , to be a man of known integrity : and him that acts in opposition to the law , and to his duty , to be clearly the contrary . i take the publican , that smites his breast , and crys , lord be merciful unto me a sinner ; to have more of the fear of god in him , then the pharisee , that prays in the market place , and thanks god that he is not as other men are : and i take him to be of as good a conversation , that submits quietly to the rules of the government ; reverences authority , and contents himself with his lawful lot , as he is that values himself upon out-braving publique order , reviling his betters ; living upon the spoil , and devouring the bread of the oppressed . what would you say now to the turning of the tables , and setting up of your qualifications on the other side ? and to the kings excluding of the non-conformists by an oath of fidelity to himself , as your richard [ excluded delinquents in the late eections . ] ho. com. p. . [ so that the people durst not go according otheir inclinations . ] ibid. but why do i argue from your practises , when your positions do naturally leade to the same undutyfull ends ? ba. [ my dull brain could never find out any one point of difference in theology , about the power of kings , and the duty of obedience in the people , between the divines called presbyterians , and episcopal . if you know any , name them me , and tell me your proofs . r. b's . letter to mr. hinckly , ] pa. . ri. 't is a confounding of your metaphysicks methinks with your politiques , to talk of points of theology , in matters of civil power and obedience ; without distinguishing between our credenda and agenda , notion and practice ; supernaturall truths and moral duties . and why [ the divines called presbyterians ] and not rather the presbyterian divines ? for they are not all , presbyterians , that are so called ; and there 's a great deal of difference betwixt the principles of presbyterian divines , as presbyterian , and the 〈◊〉 of those very presbyterians , as they are range● und●r ●he b●nner of a civil interest . but over and above all thi● , you have carry'd it a great deal ●oo far , to say that the episcopal , and the presbyterian divines hold the same principles in the point of king and subject . you sh●uld rather have acknowledg'd ▪ the disagreements , and maintain'd the p●i●ciple . we hold , . [ th●t the parliament by the constitution , have part of the sovere●●●t● . ] ho. com. pa. . [ . that the sovereignty is joyntly i● k●●g , lords and commons , as three estates . ] . [ . the parlia●ent have a power of enacting laws as well as of ●roposing them . ] pa. . whereas the episcopal party prono●●ce the sovereignty to be only in the king ; . they assert the kings sole supremacy in all causes , and over all persons , whatsoever as well ecclesiastical , as civill , and . that the two houses have no share at all in the sanction . we hold likewise that it was treason to resist the parliament , as the enemy did , apparently in order to their subversion . ] ho. com. . [ that the parliament was the highest interpreter of laws that was then existent , in the division . ] ibid. and so we find that every step of the parliamentary war was iustify'd by the assembly , and the whole current of the presbyterian-divines : the episcopal clergy vnanimously declaring themselves to the contrary . who but the assembly july . . in the names of themselves and others , to call for the execution of iustice , on all delinquents ? husband d . vol. of collections , . and who again , aug. . . but the divines of the assembly that are re●iants of the associated counties , and now attending the assembly , are desired to go down into their several counties , to stir up the people in those severall counties , to rise for their defence . ] ibid. . so that in the main , we differ upon the very constitution of the government ; the power of the prince , the duty of the subject , and upon every point of the parliamentary war : and we are no lesse divided upon the scheme of forms , and ceremonies . ba. [ prove that i or any of my acquaintance ever practised ejecting , silencing , ruining men for things unnecessary ; yea or for greater things . whom did we ever forbid to preach the truth ? whom did we cast out of all church-maintenance ? whom did we imprison ! ] r. r's . answ. to dr. stillingfleet . pa. . ri. you forget your self brother : and i am for speaking the truth , though i shame the devill . pray look into mercurius rusticus his accompt of the london clergy that were ejected , silenced , and ruin'd by order of parliament : see his querela cantabrigiensis , for the heads , fellows , and students , of colledges , that were there ejected , plunder'd , imprison'd , or banish'd for their affections to the king , and the establish'd religion . consider th●● you your self took the liberty to graze upon another mans past●re : and all these violence were carry'd on by your encouragement , influenced by your approbation ; and the principal directors of the● , extold to the skyes , as the [ best governours for wisdome a●d holynesse , ] ho. com. pref. under the cope of heaven . ba. but however , [ either they must prove that we hold rebellious principles , or they shew that they do but in plot accuse us . ] i know very well that [ the transproser rehearsed , pa. . saith mr. baxter in his holy common-wealth mayntainteth that he ( the king ) may be called to account by any single peer . ] [ must we say nothing to such bloudly slanders ? never such a thought was in my mind , nor word spoken or written by me . but ▪ all is a meer false-fiction : nay in all the times of usurpation , and since , i said and wrote , that the kings person is inviolable , and to be judg'd by none , either peer , or parliament , and that it is none but subjects that they may call to accompt , and judge , and punish ; and that neither the king may destroy or hurt the kingdome , nor the kingdome the king , ( much lesse a peer ) but their union is the kingdomes life . and the very book accused , goeth on such principles , and hath not a word meet to tempt a man in his witts to this accusation . judge now by this one instance , and by the cry of the plotters now against us , [ catilina cethegum , ] seeking our destruction , and the parliaments , as supposed to favour us ( which for ought i know never did any thing for our relief , or ease ) whether it be meet , that i should dye in silence under such horrid accusations : against which i appeal to the great and righteous judge , before whom i am shortly to appear , begging his pardon and reforming conviction whereever i erre . ] apr. . . non-con . plea , d part. preface . last page . mo. be not so transported mr baxter at the bloudy slander , as you call it : for the very excusing of your self after this manner , falls heavier upon you , then the accusation it self . there was a gentleman of a good family , that had stol'n a silver-spoon ; and it was layd home to him , as a mighty aggravation of the crime , t●at a man of his quality could let himself so low , as to pilfer for such a trifle . ay sir , says he , you say very right , if that had been all ; but in good faith sir , my aym was at the great tankard , if it had been a single peer , it had been indeed a bloudy slander ; but your ayme was the calling of the king to an account , by the authority of the two houses . and then you are pleased to blesse god for the next change that call'd them to account too : for you give the two vsurpers much better words , then any you could afford to the lords annoynted . you call them the higher powers , and enjoyn obedience to them upon the pain of damnation ; which is a favour you would never allow to his late majesty . any government but the right will down with ye , and still that which was a rebellion in the enterprize , proves to be a providence in the execution . but do you say mt baxter , that you have allways asserted the kings person to be inviolable , &c. and that the very bo●● accused goeth on such pronciples ? why then it is no hurt to the king , to be assaulted , despoyl'd of his regalitys ; deposed , imprisoned , try'd , condemn'd and executed . for the king you say is but a title of respect , not a character of power : a nominal , empty businesse . a kinde of dignity , party-perpale , half-prince , half-subject ; and 't is but taking him on the popular side , and you may do what you will with him . this is the chimera of a prince , according to your aphorismes : a kind of mock-majes●● set up , for every seditious libertine to throw a cudgell at . you make his authority to be so conditional , and precarious , that he is upon his good behaviour for his crown . if his administration be not answerable to the ends of government : if he wants either power , or money , or grace , or vnderstanding ; or ( which is worst of all ) if the licentious rabble will but say , that he wants this , or that , hee 's gone , and deposed , ●pso facto , as an unqualifi'd person . for according to your thes● , the multitude are to be the judges of these incapacities ▪ i● is a hardy adventure , m. baxter ( unless you can make alm●nacks ) to set up such positions as these , at this time of day . 't is true , they were printed in fifty-nine , but they are no● resum'd , and avow'd in eighty . but your patience yet a little further sir. is it such a horrid accusation , to say that mr baxter m●i●tains the king , may be call'd to account by a single peer ? cons●der first , that it is a church-man charges it upon you , and yo● are before-hand with him : for you have over and over , set forth those of the church-way ( without exception either of king , lords , or commons ) to be a crew of superstitious , form●l , prophane wretches that out of a meer enmity to godlynesse , set themselves in opposition to the ways of christ. take notice again , if you have not deliver'd the doctrine aforesaid in expresse termes , it is already made appear that you have said as much as that amounts to . and over and above the whyms●● of your aphorismes ; your thirteenth chapter , of the late wars is one of the rudest and the falsest pieces of calumny against the late king , that i know anywhere extant . your appeal upon this one instance ( as you call it ) for equity of iudgement , and liberty of speech , would move the very stones in the walls , to give you a hearing . and yet if , i had been of your counsell mr. baxter , you should have bethought your self , before you exclaim'd , whether the enquiry into the subject-matter of your complaint , might not possibly lay open something that was worse , as undoubtedly it has ; for this holy commonwealth of yours , is a kind of ( send me well deliver'd of the word ) a kind of theologico-political whole-sale shop ; and furnished with cases , of all sorts and sizes . for the consciences of the weak , and the pretentions of the malitious . in one case , the king is dispossest by providence ; in another , he is deposed for incapacity ; in a third , he must not so much as dare to return , even if the door wer set open to him : in such or such a case , the people are bound not to re-admit him ; and in such another , they may if they please , but they are not oblig'd to 't : and every one of these cases , calculated for this very poynt , which was at that time in agitation . insomuch , that the application of your arguments was yet more criminal then the errour of them . but what do ye mean , i beseech ye , by the cry of the plotters against ye ? as if they knew their friends no better then so. their business is the subversion of the government , and of the protestant religion , that falls with it . what should they cry out for against the separatists , that are all this while , doing the papists business to their hands ? the kings wittnesses speak no such matter ; but on the contrary ; that the priests and jesuits make use of the schismatiques toward our common ruine . so that by plotters in this place mr. baxter , it is intended ( i presume , ) according to your wonted benignity ) not the popish plotters , but the episcopal plotters against ye ; which ( as you would gladly have the world to believe ) seek your destruction , and the parliaments , as supposed to favour ye &c. now to my thinking , the parliaments destruction , and ours , would have run every jot as well , as our destruction and the parliaments . beside that it is not yet come to that pass i hope , that parliaments , and schismatiques , must stand or fall together . neither can i imagine why this parliament should be suppos'd more inclinable to favour ye , then former parliaments have been . the reasons for vniformity are the same now that ever they were ; and the same , here , as in other places . and then the boldnesse , and importunity of the dividers encrease the necessity of the injunction . if you have forgotten the common votes , and addresse of feb . . upon this subject , pray let me remember you of them . resolved , &c. nemine contradicente . that the humble thanks of this house , be returned to his majesty , for his resolution to maintain , the act of vniformity . resolved , &c. that it be presented to the kings majesty , as the humble advise of the house , that no indulgence be granted to the dissent●● from the act of vniformity . for these reasons . . it will establish schisme , by a law , amd make the 〈◊〉 government of the church precaeious , and the censures of it , of no moment or consideration at all . . it will no way become the gravity or wisdome of a parli●ment to passe a law at one session for vniformity , and 〈◊〉 the next session , ( the reasons of vniformity continuing still the same , ) to passe another law to frustrate , or weaken the execution of it . . it will expose your majesty to the restlesse importunity of every sect or opinion , and of every single person also , who shal presume to dissent from the church of england . . it will be a cause of encreasing sects , and sectaries , 〈◊〉 numbers will weaken the true protestant religion so far , th●t it will at least be difficult for it , to defend it self against the● . and which is yet further considerable , those numbers which by being troublesome to the government , find they can arrive to 〈◊〉 indulgence , will as their numbers encrease , be yet more troub●●some , that so at length they may arrive to a general toleration ; which your majesty hath declar'd against ; and in time , some pre●●lent sect , will at last contend for an establishment , which for 〈◊〉 can be fore-seen , may end in popery . . it is a thing altogether without precedent , and will take away all means of convicting recusants , and be inconsistent with the method , and proceedings of the laws of england . lastly , it is humbly conceived , that the indulgence proposed will be so far from tending to the peace of the kingdome , that it is rather likely to occasion great disturbance . and on the contrary ; that the asserting of the laws , and the religion established , according to the act of uniformity , is the most probable means to produce a settled peace , and obedience throughout your kingdome : because the variety of professions in religion , when openly divulged , doth directly distinguish men into parties , and withall gives them opportunity to count their numbers ; which considering the animosities that out of a religious pride will be kept on foot , by the severall factions , doth tend directly , and inevitably to open disturbance . nor can your majesty have any security , that the doctrine or worship of the severall factions , which are all govern'd by a severall rule , shall be consistent with the peace of your kingdome . and if any persons shall presume to disturb the peace of the kingdome , we do in all humility d●clare , that we will for ever and in all occasions , be ready with our utmost endeavours , and assistance , to adhere to , and serve your majesty , according to our bounden duty , and allegiance . only one word more : and that must be to tax you with infinite ingratitude ; in saying , that [ parliaments , for ought you know , never did any thing for your relief or ease ] what do ye think of the act of indemnity , i beseech ye ? was it nothing ? to give you your lives , liberties , and estates again , when all was forfeited ? nay and it is come to that point now too ; that those very instruments that were forgiven by the king , for the ruin of the church and three kingdoms , will not at this day forgive his majesty , for endeavouring according to the advice of his parliament , to re-establish and preserve them . ri. if you would understand us aright , you must repair to our [ declarations , professions , commissions , national oaths and covenants , ] and the like . ho , com. pag. . and pray observe the tenor of our stile , addresse . protestations , and other proceedings . [ your majesties most humble , and loyal subjects , the lords and commons , dec. . . [ most humble and faithf●●● subjects , ] dec. . [ most humble and obedient subjects , ] exact collections . ●a . . mo. and now put that libellous remonstrance of dec. . in the scale against three or four words of course , of the same date . ri. the knights , citizens , and burgesses of the house of commons , your faithful and loyall subjects , &c. ibid. pa ▪ . dec. . . mo. this was a message to his majesty for a guard , which the king most graciously offer'd them , but one of his chusing it seems would not do the businesse . ri. [ your most faithful and obedient subjects , the lords and commons in this present parliament . ] &c. ibid. pa. . jan. . mo. they petition'd to have the tower of london , and all oeher forts , and the whole militia of the kingdom to be forthwith put into the hands of such persons , as both houses should recommend , &c , ex. coll. jan. . . and what did his majesty now get by the complement ? ri. [ your humble and loyal subjects , the lords and commons , ] &c. ibid. feb. . . pa. . mo. his majesties humble and loyal subjects , are pleas'd to declare in this petition ; that if the king does not instantly grant them their petition about the militia , they are bound by the laws of god and man to take the militia into their own hands . ri. your majesties most loyal , and obedient subjects , the lords and commons ; ] &c. ib. mar. . . pa. . mo. in this petition they threaten to dispose of the militia by the authority of the two houses . they order his majesty where to dispose of his person : and absolutely deny the kings pow●● of the militia , but by authority and consent of parliament . ri. your most dutyful and loyal subjects , the lords and commons , ] &c. ib. . apr. . your majesties most loyal and faithful subjects , the lords and commons , &c. ] ib. apr. . . pa. . mo. very good ! and the former of these was for leave to remove the magazin at hull , to the tower of london : and the other was to divert the king from going into ireland to supptesse the irish rebellion : ( which had certainly been done ) and to tell him , that if he went contrary to the advice of his parliament , they were resolved , in his absence , not to submit to any commissioners he should appoint : but to preserve , and govern the kingdome by the counsell and advice of parliament . ] &c. ri. your majesties loyal subjects the lords and commons in his parliament . ] ibid. . may . mo. here his majesties loyal subjects presse the king to disband his troops at york , or otherwise they 'le take the quiet of the kingdome into their own care. and passe these following votes . resolved upon the question . . that it appears that the king ( seduced by wicked counsells ) intends to make war against the parliament . &c. . that whensoever the king maketh war upon the parliament , it is a breach of the trust reposed in him by his people , contrary to his oath , and tending to the dissolution of this government . . that whosoever shall serve , or assist him in such wars , are traytors by the fundamental laws of this kingdome , and have been so adjudg'd by two acts of parliaments , and ought to suffer as traytors . ] &c. ri. your majesties most humble and faithful subjects , the lords and commons in parliament . ] &c. ib. jun. . . pa. . mo. this was the petition that accompanied the nineteen propositions : demanding from the king [ the discharge of all his ministers and embassadors , and none to be taken into their places but what the parliament shall approve . that all matters of state may be transacted only in parliament ; the privy counsell to be by them approved from time to time and supply'd . all great officers to b● chosen by their approbation : they to have the education of the kings children , and the choyce of their servants . no ma●ch to be treated of without them . a reformation of church-government and liturgy to be contrived by their advice : the militia to be settled in them till settled by a bill ; and all proclamations against it to be recalled . new oaths for privy councellors , and iudges . all iudges and officers to hold their places , quamdi● se bene gesserint : parliament-iustice upon all delinquents . an amnestry with such exceptions as the parliament shall advise . all forts and castles under gouernours approved by parliament . all forces to be disbanded ; and a prohibition of any peers hereaft●● to be made , from sitting or voting in parliament , without the consent of both houses . ] are not these the propositions think ye , of most humble and faithful subjects ? ri. yo ur majesties loyal subjects , the lords and commons in parliament , ibid. sept. . . pa. . mo. his majesties loyal subjects had now sent the earl of essex to fall upon the kings army , and desired his majesty to leave them and come to his parliament : and they petition'd his majesty to the same purpose again . pa. . and so as the humour took them , to the very treaty at the isle of wight : but whether these were the actions of rebells , or loyall subjects , be you your self the judge . ri. well , but what say ye to the stile of [ we your humble and loyal subjects of both kingdomes . ] appendix to husbands ex. coll. d. part. fol. . jan. . . mo. these were the humble , and loyal subjects , that , in the same paper , refused his majestys proffer of a personal trea●● with them at westminster . [ your majesty ( say they ) desires 〈◊〉 engagement , not only of the parliament , but of the lord mayor , alderm●n , common-councill and militia of the city of london ; 〈◊〉 chief commanders of sir. tho. fairfaxes army ; and those of the scots army ; which is against the privileges and honour of the p●●liamen● , those being ioyn'd with them , who are subject and subordinate to their authority . at the same rate they proceeded in their professions ; [ they desire only to lay a foundation of honour , safety , and happiness to the kings person and throne . ] ex. coll. dec . . . [ the greatnesse and prosperity of his majesty , and his royal posterity . ] ib. dec. . pa. . [ his majestys greatnesse and honour ] ●b . mar. . . pa. . [ honour and greatn●sse ] mar. . p. . [ honour , safety , and prosperity of your majesty ] mar. . p. . [ we seek nothing but your majesties honour ] mar. . p. . [ the safety of his majesties person , and his royal posterity ] may . . pa. . [ our most dutyfull care for the safety of your royal person ] may . p. . [ for the preserving and mayntaining the royal honour , greatness , and safety of your majesty , and posterity ] jan. . . p. . and then see their remarkable protestation of octob. . . [ we the lords and commons in this present parliament assembled , do in the presence of almighty god , for the satisfaction of our cons●i●nces , and the discharge of that great trust which lyes upon us , make this protestation and declaration to the kingdome and nation , and to the whole world ; that no private passion or respect , no evill intention to his majestys person , no design to the prejudice of his iust honour and authority , engaged us to rayse forces , and take up arms against the authours of this war , wherewith the kingdome is now enflamed ] ibid. pa. . [ without any intention or desire , ( as we do here professe before the ever-living god ) to hurt , or injure his majesty , either in his person , or iust power . ] b. p. . i could give you instances of this kind , without end , and as many , of the gross and unquestionable violations of these professions ; for every order they past , and every ●istol that they fired , was a poynt-blank contradiction , to their pretensions . beside that in the same breath , they usurped all the regalities of the crown , and yet wrote themselves , his majesties most obedient subjects . so that this stile of loyalty was at the same time a blind to the well-meaning multitude , and a note of confederacy among themselves : a loyal subject , according to the covenant , importing , in plain terms , a traytor , in the eye of the law. and yet the cause , and the obligation of this covenant , and the proceedings upon it , are openly asserted at this very day . ba. yes , yes ; there 's the counterminer , the popish dialogue , and many others , that continue lowdly to accuse us , and make men believe that we are plotting a new war , and that our principles are rebellious &c. ] non conf. plea. d part. pref. mo. what do ye think of maintaining , that [ whatsoever the tw● houses declare for law , must pass for law , without controul , both upon king and people ] ex. coll. . [ that they may do whatever they please ] ibid. [ that the major part of both houses are the absolute masters of the lives and liberties of the subject ? ] ibid. [ that no member of the house of comm●ns be medled with for treason , felony &c. without leave of the house . ] ibid. [ that th● s●v●reignty resides in the two houses , and that the king has no neg●tiv● voice ] ibid. that there lyes no treason against the person of the king. ibid. [ that the two houses may depose the king and not be blame● for so doing . ibid. now in calling those people that did all this , [ the bell governors in the world ] as in the preface to your holy common-wealth : and in vindicating that book , from any principles of disloyalty toward the person of the king , as you do , toward the close of your preface as to the d. part of the non-conformists ple● apri . . . what is this , but the asserting of rebellio●● principles ? and the preaching of the old doctrine to the people over again , what is it but the preface to another war ? ba. [ what have we done these twenty years against the king or state ? unless it be our crime to live under reproach , and scorn , and poverty . and sometime imprisonments ; and never once so much as petition a parliament , either to pitty us , or to hear us once speak for our selves &c. ] ibid. if any odd persons , or whosoever have said or done any thing against the king or kingdome , or their neighbours right or peace , or have been guilty of any fraud , drunkennesse , perjury or immorality besides their vnavoidable non-conformity , let them be punisht as the law requires , but let not the innocent , yea thousands be slandered , and designed to destruction for them. ] ibid. mo. if you speak of the nonconformists , they have justifi'd , from sixty to eighty , all the indignities that were put upon the government , from forty , to sixty : and there is not any one seditious , or schismatical principle of the old stamp , which they have not afresh , reviv'd , and recommended to the people . and for the moderation you boast of , i dare be answerable to produce almost as many hundreds of clamorous libels against a●thority from the dissenting party , as you reckon years of silence , and forbearance . but these are odd persons you say ; and so is every dissenter in the kingdom : for ten millions of men , are but as so many individuals , when disencorporate , and l●pp'd off from the body . if i durst be so bold sir , i should venture to say that mr. baxter himself is one of the oddest persons that i know in the whole party . you have first , a perswasion , to your self ; for you are neither a presbyterian , nor an independent , nor an anabaptist , nor of any tribe of the division that ever yet had a nam● to be known by ; but a pure original , and a ●●ristian of your own making : you have secondly , as peculiar a conscience too ; that had rather leap a precipice , then keep the kings high-way . it rises and falls like a weather-glasse , upon change of ayre : and makes st. paul blow hot or cold at pleas●re : [ let every soul be subject to the higher powers ] requires obedience to dick cromwell , upon pain of damnation , and disobedience to charles the first , upon the same penalty , ( as we have had it already . ) and then you have this further advantage , sir , that you are your own king , and your own pope ; you prescribe your own laws , and grant your own pardons . ba. you may prate as long as you will. [ i am against the imposing of mystical ceremonies , as crossing , or surplice ] &c. five disp. pa. . [ for to impose new symbolicall rites upon the church , which christ hath not imposed , doth seem to me an vsurpation of his sovereign power . ] ibid. [ and to accuse christ of ignorance , or negligence , in that he himself hath not imposed them . ] and so doth it imply an accusation of his laws , and of the holy scriptures , as if they were insufficient , ] ibid. . [ and these impositions seem to be plain violations ●f these prohibitions of god , in which we are forbidden to add to his worship , or diminish from it . ] . and moreover ; [ god hath allready given us so perfect a directory for his worship , that there is nothing more that we can reasonably desire . ] ib. . ri. now for my part , i am for the amiable way . [ christians should not be over-busy in prying into the work of their governours ; nor too forward to suspect their d●terminations . ] [ the duty of obeying them being certain , and the sinfulnesse of the thing commanded , being uncertain , and unknown , and only suspected ; we must go on the surer side . ] ibid. . [ in disobeying the lawfull commands of our superiours , we disobey christ. ] ibid. . beside that [ disobedience in matters of circumstance , will exclude , and overthrow the substance of the worship it self . pa. . postscript , to the reader mr. baxter has certainly given , in this extract , the 〈◊〉 blow to the non-conformists that ever they 〈◊〉 for there are no arguments against that party like their 〈…〉 against themselves . to the clearest evidences of 〈◊〉 , and reason , they 'le oppose clamour , and passion ; 〈◊〉 make a shift to wriggle themselves off and on , with 〈◊〉 drawn texts and riddling distinctions . but when the very 〈◊〉 of that interest comes to play fast and loose , and shift 〈◊〉 conscience with the season , the masque is then taken off ; 〈◊〉 there can be no denyal of the fact , so there can be no 〈◊〉 the hypocrisy . how comes toleration to be a sin , under 〈◊〉 presbyterians , and a duty under the bishops ? how comes it 〈◊〉 be damnation , in the case of the late king , and richard 〈◊〉 well , to obey the former , and destroy the latter ? even 〈◊〉 to mr. baxters own exposition , which is , that by st. 〈◊〉 higher powers , is intended those in actual poss●ssion ? how 〈◊〉 bishops to be antichristian , at one time , and warrantable at 〈◊〉 ? or the civil magistrate to have more power in 〈◊〉 matters , under an vsurper , then under a lawful 〈◊〉 how comes an episcopal vniformity to be more a persecution 〈◊〉 a presbyterian ? or a common prayer-book more intolerable 〈◊〉 a directory ? what can more expose the credit of the 〈◊〉 then this double-dealing in the foreman of the party ? to 〈◊〉 mr. baxter lye down in one opinion , and rise , in another ▪ 〈◊〉 accomodating his scruples to every crisis of state ? and consummate the iniquity of the pretense ; he has no soone● veigled the people into a schisme , but he presently 〈◊〉 with a plat-form of sedition : and having wrought a 〈◊〉 from the ecclesiastical , he falls to work , in his cases and 〈◊〉 , upon the foundations of the civill government . the end. notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e the proposition at the savoy about the command of lawful superiours . richards resolution ●●●●er his hand . baxter of another opinion . many commands anlawful which the subject ought yet to obey . no rule● is bound ●o provide against events not to be foreseen . magistracy cut off at a blow . the civil power must not make laws about gods worship . but baxter says , that circa sacra he may . richard and baxter still at variance . richards account of the savoy-conference . vshers primitive episcopacy offer'd , but rejected , the english episcopacy submitted to by richard , &c but held antichristian and diabolica● by baxter . richard and baxter never 〈◊〉 ●e reconcil'd . the ground of a.b. vsher project of episcopacy . many would have yielded to prelacy , &c the diocesan episcopacy gratifies the devil , says baxter , and not to be re-admitted . r. and b. still clashing . the new uniformity spoil d all . prelacy unlawful in it s●lf says baxter . why not prelacy as ●awful after the act , as before ? it is the same case still to the people . hard thoughts of epi●copacy and bishops , and upon what groun●● a gr●●ter scandall to tr●vell upon the lords day then to give theking ba●●le . richard confesses that the mini●ters gu●ded the peo●le ▪ and says that the non-conformists undertook for the next bishops good behaviour . the quarrel not to the office of bishops but to the persons . richard● reasons why the people sell from the chu●ch again the uniformi●y made episcopacy and common-p●ayer unlawf●ll . 't is the law that silences , an● not the bishops . non-conformists silence themselves . berter particulars suffer then 〈◊〉 order o●●●vernment be dissolved . richard ag●ees with dr ▪ reynolds 〈◊〉 conform'd . richard pleads altogether for love. ba●ters way of e●pressing . ●ichard against rash ●●nsuring 〈…〉 . baxter ag●inst rich●rd mr ba●ters cha●ity to the clergy and discip●ine of ●he chu●ch his brotherly love. church ann state arraign d. richard and baxter of two quite different spirits . the persecuted are the perssecutors . be sure first of what spirit ●he non-confo●mists are . the spirit of the non-conformists . his late majesties judgement & experience upon it . the spirit that richard pl●ads , ●or . richards ●oleration . who are the judges , the government , or the people . modest dissenters deserve pity . the dispute is not scruple but power . plain ▪ dealing . richard puts the case of a saint and a schismatick . baxters saints baxter sully resolved to go to them that dy'd in rebellion . he joys to think what company he shall have . baxter says , that professors will rail , and lye , &c. but that neither perjury , drunkennesse , incest , concubines , nor idols , can make them dotoriously ungodly . the saints that are cast out for hereticks . either tolerate all or none , but upon a penalty ▪ no men must be tolerated , if no errour . baxter shews the inconveniences of toleration . pride makes one mans religion . faction anothe●s . which ends in bloud . and yet pass●● for doing god good service . and the motion of the spirit . enthusiastick ▪ zea● ▪ dotage●●a●en fo● re●elations . scripture the ru●e . but who must expound it ? one mans faith must not impose upon anot●ers . mistake will not justifie the errour , nor ex●use a disobedience . men will be zealous even in errour . more zeal then understanding is not good . none so fierce and bold as ●he ignorant . even teachers themselves are false guides . m● . baxter himself has been mistaken ▪ ill luck with his aphorisms . how richard was wheedled in . i. e. he was reconci ' d to the church . richards best christians found to ●e schismaticks . great m●n misled , and why not 〈…〉 . believe not every spirit . t●e dissenters cause is still gods cause . their false prophets . t●e kings death directed by a revelation . sedgwicks day of judgment . vavas●r powe●s prophecy of no more kings or taxe● . rather the law of the land then the humour of the people . a fear of sinning ought to be cherished , even in a mistake . dangerous trusting to scruples . who would have thought it ? th● episcopal clergy . simeon and levi. o the force of a misguided con●cience ! the very case of the seduced mu●●i●ude . the name of libe●ty does mo●e ●●en ●he conside●atio● 〈◊〉 heaven it self . baxt●r against liberty . and toleration . liberty the way to set up popery ▪ mr. richard an improper advocate for toleration . richard is a conformist . mr. baxters sermon that brought the king in . presbytery for the lords sake oh the happy times when presbyterians rul'd . have a care of scandalous inventions . the ignorant church-tyrants . richard not absolutely against the cross. ●axters a loyallist . errour is no e●cuse for disobedience . the pre●eoce of natu●e , and true reason avoids ●ll law a popu●ar fallacy . the presby●eri●n way of b●in●ing in ●he king. richards challenge , in justification o● the non-conformis●s . the non-conformists charge . a presbyterian defin'd . presbyterians swallow ap all othe● sect● at ●irst , and t●en sp●w the● up ag●in . richard say● that the episc●pal m●n b●gan ●he war. t●e two hous●s , lord ●ieu●e●●n●s . o●●ic●r , civil and mi●i●●●y , assemb●y 〈◊〉 divine● , a●m●st all episcop●l m●n . the kings ●●gag'd enem●●●●ere all 〈◊〉 . 〈…〉 the parliament b●ought in the scots . few worthier assemblies since the apostles days . their good na●u●e toward the independents . the guild-hall ha●●ngue● 〈◊〉 brought in the scots . his majesties proclamation against the assembly of divines . jun ▪ . . painful , able , laborious ministers . the loyall presbyterians . the 〈…〉 . kings proclamation . a dutiful proposition . the worthy 〈◊〉 . the 〈…〉 an abuse put upon the nation . an extract of par●iament proceedings . the assembly stir up the people to rise . prov'd to he a presbyterian war. richard says , the war began about religion . baxter says , it began about matter of law. richard says , 't was about the militia . baxter says , the war was made for reformation . a lewd scandal upon the late kings government . r●c●ard will not allow of war ●ot religion . baxter i● for a re●igious wer. they are fools that think ●ther 〈◊〉 . in ca●● o● p●r●secuti●● we figh●●or our own , and our pos●eri●●●●●al●ation . the late kings s●ffe●ings forgot en among g●eater 〈…〉 . pryn , burton , and bastwick lamented , but not a word ●f the royal mar●yr . presbytery not setled , say● rich●rd . baxter contradicts hi● , and co●fo●●s himsel● with comparing 〈◊〉 day of richard p●otector wi●h charle . ● . ten 〈◊〉 hypocrites now 〈◊〉 one 〈◊〉 baxters comp●e●en● to the sons of the 〈◊〉 . richard cromwells fait●full subiects . mr. baxters , political aphorismes composed expresly to keep out the king. poor r●chard like 〈…〉 and pr●ying again●t the scots . the spirit of malignity has taken 〈◊〉 the army . the presbyterians per●ecuted . the presbyterians journey-men ( the army ) se● up for themselves . somewhat of an accomoda-generosi●y in the independents . the poor presbyterians persecuted by the army , for not joyning against the scots . oh the persecution o● forcing men against their conscien●es . but so long as ●hey do not suffer as evil-doers . no persecution to oppresse the church and all that love it . mr. baxt●r places the crown upon the wrong head. the king destroy'd by presbyterians , as presbyterians . the loyalty of ●axters orthodox sober ministers . richard subject to the higher power , but not resolv'd which it is . an even score of orthodox sober divines . the last kings bloud not valu'd at a ceremony . ☞ the kings murther justify'd the day after it was committed . all christian kings anti-christianiz'd ▪ ☜ a reflection upon ●is majes●y a●●er his de●e●t at wo●cester . prelacy anti-christian . a pedant triumphing over charles the ii. and monarchy it self . and calling the king tyrant . are these fit agents for unity and peace ? richard true to the king , but he mistook the king. baxters re●stauration sermon . asserts the presbyterian loyalty . makes the king a subject , and worse . pleads for presbytery , without a word of restoring the king. the war rais●d for king and par●ia●ent . their oaths & covenants were fast and loose at pleasure . the pretext of the war , religion ; the cause , ambition . the loyal presbyte●ians usurp sovereign power . the two houses were the king in the covenant . no reconciling of the covenant king & the legal . richard holds oaths to princes to be dispensable baxter holds oaths of allegiance to be indispensable . richard will hate the covenant binding as it is a vow . the league and covenant and vow and covenant . the league and covenant impos d. baxter is his own on●essor ●nd bsolves himse●f . the covenan● for the king , qualify'd for re●igion . if the king be against religion the covenant is against him . richard lays the death of the king to oliver . the baxterians attack'd the king. and they fough● to kill . baxt●rs unfeigne● repen●ance . mr. baxter consulted the word of god about opposing the king. mr baxter would be the same man if another king were to be depos'd and murthered . mr. baxter very cautious of treason against the two houses . baxter fails foul upon richard . the moderator interposes baxter vindicates oliver . a prudent , pious , faithful prince . baxter prays that richard cromwell may ▪ inherit the piety of his father . the presbyterians disarm'd the king , and the independents kill'd him . baxter repen●s , and then ●epents of his repentance . baxter thanks god for his blessings upon this nation in consequence of the rebellion . the blessed difference betwixt the government of the late king , & of cromwell baxters comfortable effects of a civill war. the blessed times we had till the army got the better of the two houses london-ministe●s letter to the lord-general . ian . . the armies crime wa● the opposing of the parliament , and imprisoning t●e king without leave . only a s●izure of the kings person . but an vnparall●l'd violen●e upon t●e members of the house . being men of eminent worth and in●eg●ity . a factious re●nant , th● magistra●es which god h●t● set ove● us . the london· ministers mediation little lesse then treason . gods ordinance violated when magistr●cy is oppos'd . the divines fear ull of opposing god , in an ordinance of the two houses . none of these scruples in the case of the king. th● presbyterians ●rue to the faction from the beginn●ng . the standard of the presbyte●ian loyalty why not as tender of a breach of trust , according to law , as against it ? there was no intent to divest the king of hi● legal right . but he had a righ● to nothing then , for t●e●●ook all away . the presbyterians ●ell us they are no jes●it● . not one word for the king in the whole letter . the army in gods way w●ile they joyn'd with the presby●erians . sworn to preserve his majesties· perso● and priviledges of parliament . w●o absolv'd the presbyteri●ns of their former oaths . if baxt●r had serv'd the king he had been a traytor . baxters holy com. wealth , to ●e taken as non-scriptus . a sh●ft , not a recantation . for the apho●isms ●ere ●e●el'd directly against the king. ba●te●● recantation . a repentance that will passe neither upon god , nor man baxter re●sons why his repen●ance is not particular mr. baxters pi● fraus . a jesuitism . for fear of too much or too little , mr. ba●ter confesses just nothing at all . mr. baxter proceeds in ●is repentance he ever opposeth what he sometimes encouraged . a baxterism . ●'s very repentances are calumnies . he repents and relapses in the same breath . prophanness in habit , and in conspiracy a covenanting prophannesse worse then a personal . he repents that he did not advise with lawyers . an invidious refle●ion upon hooker . jesuitical dodging ▪ why could not hooker set him right to the church , as well as wrong to the state. hookers popular po●er nothing to co-ordination . baxters writings a●e a direct satyr upon government . b's quarrel to the visible church . the reasons of b's unkindness to the visible church ▪ he makes dissenters the invisible church and conformists the visib●● . presbyterians began the war a state faction as well as a schisme . b's implicite repentance . b's account soon cast up . a general particular repentance . rebellion and peevishnesse . b. repents of being too mealy-mouth'd . a repentance wi●hout a confession . and an abuse upon both parties . mr. baxter's test. mr baxter's challenge . richard takes him up and proves him guilty as ●o the kings person . an opposer of the kings power . and the fundamental constitution . he acknowl●dgeth the protectors soveraignty . and blesseth the providences that brought richard to the government . richard had his principles from baxter . baxter make● the protect●rs title as good as the kings . baxters addresses to richard protector . ba●ters resolution in ●●ree cases , expresly to keep out the king. baxters incapaci●ies for government . dominion is founded in grace . want of power deposes a prince . a case against his majesties ●estauration . cases of forfeiture . baxter asserts obedience at all hazzards . baxter against the king though the parliament had been in the wrong . ● . does n●● love to rub old sores . neutrality a sin , and treachery ●o serv● the king. t●e praying rebels against the loyall damme's . a just way of deposing a king imply'd . a parliament may betray their trust . tho a prince be injur'd , the people may joyn with his enemies . no obedience due to an usurper . usurpr rsmust be oppos'd they have no true power . who are usurpers . the people to be judges . the people may mis-judge . baxt. laments the losse of the late rule●s . sworn , and sworn , to king lords ●nd commons . the lords & commons rule alone , and ●he government not changed . baxter charg'd wi●h con●radiction . the higher po●ers 〈◊〉 the gove●nor● in possession . 't is not th● n●me th●t makes the king. the peop●e judges of the king and o● the law. seize the kings revenue , and ●e is no longer a king. inferiour magistr●tes still subje●●s . richard e●er true to t●e crown . the law of natu●e i● above the law of the land. modest subjects study their own duty not t●e kings . sovereign power not to be re●tr●ined by t●e people . the multitude no judges of government . the seclu●ed members and the ●wo cr●mwells t●e be●t governors . rebellion to oppose the s●preme rulers . the par●iame●● to●d us our danger . and we we●e b●und to 〈◊〉 with their eyes ▪ theking himsel● opposed and baxte● ●e●o●ved to jus●ify it . a fundamental de●troy'd . baxter defends it . parliaments may be corrupt . instances of parliamentary co●ruptions . votes may be c●rried by faction . a● appe●rs to our cost . the major part of electors are ill me● . and will chuse others like thems●lves . baxter's model for reg●lation of elections . the peoples right of election taken away by partial qualifications . a faction packt under he name of a parliament . the people are disoblig'd , and not trusted with chusing their own representative . the peo●le sick of their representative . the pastors to approve of the electors . the empire of presbytery . the petition and advice concerning elections . baxters admirable expedient . ☞ his qualifications accepted . the pharisee and the publican . what if the king should take upon him so ? baxt●r f●●des presbyterian and episcopal loyalty the same . baxter confounds hism●taphsiycks with his poli●icks . presbyterian positions . episcopal positions . presbyt . posit . episc. posit . the assembly crys out for bloud . and stir up the people . mr. ●axter never wrong'd any man. richard refreshes his memory . mr. baxters governours . a plot upon the presbyte●ians . a bloudy slander . alas ! the ho. com. a most innocent book . mr. baxter lies under horrid accusations . mr. baxter transported . any government but the right . a king is a name of respect not power . the kings authority made precarious . and under several incapacities . baxters horrid accusation . his character of ou● church-men . baxters damnable cases of conscience . baxt. dreams of a plot upon him . the cart before the horse votes for uniformity . reasons against to●eration . ☜ mr baxters ingratitude . how to understand the presbyterians . words . practises . words . practises . words . practises . words . practises . words . practises . words . practises ▪ words : practis●s . the war charg'd upon the king. treason to serve the king. words . the . deposing propositions . words . practises . words . pract●ses . their professions . in the presence of the almighty . a rebellion in t●ename of the everlasting god. covenant . loyalty . slanders upon ●he ha●m es● presbyterians . presbyte●i●ns positions . mr. baxters best go●ernors in the world . the innocent non-conformists . the principles of the late rebellion revived . mr. ●axters odd persons . he himsel● one. mr. baxter his o●n king and pop● . baxters agument against ce●●monies . the c●se w●ll resolved . a hue and cry after bloodshed, or, a short relation of that inhuman, barbarous, cruel, and bloody tragedy acted upon the innocent people of god called quakers at their meeting at bull and mouth within aldersgate, upon the and the th month, , by some of the trained bands of the city of london r. c. 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(eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a hue and cry after bloodshed, or, a short relation of that inhuman, barbarous, cruel, and bloody tragedy acted upon the innocent people of god called quakers at their meeting at bull and mouth within aldersgate, upon the and the th month, , by some of the trained bands of the city of london r. c. (richard crane) broadside. s.n.], [s.l. : . signed: rich. crane. reproduction of original in the huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng society of friends -- great britain -- history. persecution -- great britain. dissenters, religious -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - megan marion sampled and proofread - megan marion text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a hue and cry after bloodshed ; or , a short relation of that inhuman , barbarous , cruel , and bloody tragedy , acted upon the innocent people of god called qvakers , at their meeting , at bull and mouth within aldersgate , upon the . of the th . month , . by some of the trained bands of the city of london . hearken and give heed , ye that are called magistrates , and likewise all people , of what condition soever , of this great city of london and elsewhere : what have we the poor innocent people of god called quakers done , that such cruel and bloody usage we should receive from your hands ? have we been at any time found plotters against the life of any person ? or have we been sowers of sedition ? or have we been peace-breakers , or tumult-raisers ? or any that have in the least fomented mischief , or trouble to the government ? i say , the god of our life cleareth us in all such cases . therefore who is not astonished at such bloody actions , to have persons come with swords drawn , and other weapons , and with unheard of violence , to cut and hew , and knock down , sparing neither age nor sex , spilling so much blood as there was ; who will not blush at such actions ? and as though we were appointed for nothing else , but to satiate the minds of blood-thirsty men , and to do it by order , as they say . oh fear , dread and tremble , ye citizens of london , and others ; and as if there were no law in england , but club law : was there ever such things acted in times of peace , and at such time as it is said , the restoration of the antient laws of england is ? i tell you , i have read the history of the martyrs in queen maries dayes , but then they dealt with them by law , though exceeding wicked and cruel , yet not by club-law , as now ; doth not this exceed bonner and gardnor's cruelty ? for they would still endeavour to convince before they murdered ; but you wil kil before you convince , all which considered , far exceeds their cruelty : must innocent blood be the cry in this great city , that must bring down the fierce vengeance of the eternal god upon you , and to make an utter desolation , devastation , and to lay it on heaps ? i tell you , the cry is heard , and judgement is at hand ; therefore lay it to heart all people : and as for the acters of this bloody tragedy , your portion you will have in the lake , amongst your brethren . o london , london , is there no bowels of compassion left in thee ! is all given up to obduracy and hardness of heart ? wo is me for thee ; dost thou sport thy self , and make such actions thy mirth ? and must our innocent blood be mingled with thy daily sacrifices ? why do you hunt our lives , as a partridge is hunted upon the mountain ? and is it because our religion is different from yours ? do you think to force us to yours by sheding our bloods ? i tell you nay , that will never be ; we abhor in our souls all such actions , and do also loath that cursed way of ( heaven driving ) which never was practised by true christians , but by cruel heathens altogether , and such as were professed enemies to every appearance of god ; and will ye of this generation practice their cursed bloody works , that ye may pull down the plagues of god upon you and your posterity , as they did ? and have ye not read , how that the wicked and blood-thirsty shall not live out half their dayes ? think ye god eternal is not as just as he hath been , and that he will not recompence your work into your bosom ? oh london , london , how am i smitten for thee ! oh , how am i bowed down under the unheard of wickedness that is committed and practised daily , and then covered up in thy skirt ! oh , where is the man in power , that seeks to suppress vice ! i say , he need not hunt it in the twy-light , or search into corners and holes for it ; but at mid-day , and high-noon , in the chief streets of thy city , and every where else doth it appear ? is it past the magistrates power , or cannot his sword comprehend it ? i say , if so , then an overflowing scourge from the hand of the lord , is as natural for you as your food and sustenance ; and i faithfully believe from god it attends you . oh my soul , my soul , mourn and weep till thou hast emptied thy cisterns of sorrow ! oh , that ever a city , a professing city , a city whose inhabitants are called christians ; ( and besides , the cry that is now , that the antient laws are restored , and true religion again setled on its basis , ) should see her inhabitants blood laid upon the pavements , for their unpolluted consciences in the worship of their god ; yea , and by their own neighbours , and by authority and order ( as is said . ) oh , my very soul bleeds within me for these things ! where are you that call your selves overseers or bishops , and by some ( reverend fathers in god ? ) where are you that you come not forth in this great day of scattering , and of gathering , and seek out the poor , hunted , worried , and driven sheep , and carry them on your shoulders to your fold . if we be in an error , why do not you come and convince us of that error ? if we be deluded , why do not you come amongst us , and tell us wherein ? i tell you , it would be worth your while , to come into our meetings , and there both openly confute us , and convince us , before the people ; which actions , in meekness and pure moderation performed , would make you honourable in the places wherein you are set , and then those names wherewith you are entituled , would not be vain and a lye , ( which otherwise seems to be ) and by that means you might haply convert many to your faith , which you say is the true faith ; and we much question it , because of the fruits , which manifests it : but alas , alas , instead of your coming with humility , in your own persons , your messengers treat us far otherwise ; for they come to kill , and not to convince , and to shed our bloods , and not to convert us . behold ye bishops , ye cannot be ignorant of this , for known be it to you , it hath not been once or twice , nor many times more , that the like tragedy hath been acted in that place , though not altogether so bloody as on the day precited ; for it was taken notice of , at that time and place , there came one or more papists to the assistance of the party , and one was seen to take a drawn sword out of a soldiers hand , who cut and hewed all that in his way stood , which made that daies work more bloodie than usual ; [ but in prudence to his cause , he might have had more patience ; ] these were by-standers , and no soldiers , but well-wishers to that bloodie work , which was that day perpetrated by those that cry out , we will make you conform to the church of england , and the laws . now o ye men , that bear the name of bishops , do you justifie these men in these actions , or do you think that conformity will ever be wrought by that means , and in that way , by spilling of innocent blood ? oh , what shall i say , if these be some of the fruits of your religion , that you would have us conform to , i must and do call it a bloodie religion ; we are not ignorant what true religion , pure , and undefiled before god is , viz. to visit the fatherless and widows in their afflictions , &c. which religion we own , love , and are in , and for which we suffer this day ; and i do aver in gods fear to this religion , there is no law , either secular or military ; for it wholly consists of love and charity , which never was , is , or shall be forced or compelled , nor ever did it mix it self with any coercive power since the world began , but hath remained a pure , chaste virgin from eternitie , and will remain to eternitie : but what shall i say ? this is a mysterie to you learned ones ; and if at any time it be told you , ye call it ( canting , or chymical divinitie ) but that matters little what you call it ; i aver it to be so , and the spirit of the eternal god , which hath instructed and guided me therein , hath sealed it unto me . and further , know you that presume to set your posts by the posts of the lords house , your religion , and not only yours , but the religion of the whole world , from head to tail , not being instituted by the spirit of the eternal god , and founded upon love [ which is free from force ] i tell you , it is all a lye , and a juggle , and indeed the great cheat of the world ; for the eternal being is neither to be limited to time , place , as when , and where , or by quantitie measured , so much and no more , so little and no less : i say and do aver , god eternal knoweth no such service , as to be limited or comprehended . oh vain man , what art thou doing ! wilt thou that comes forth of time , and ends in time , go about to comprehend eternitie in thy vain imaginations ? thou pot-sheard , thou heap of dust , thou attome of dust , not seen but in the suns ray , for littleness ; hast thou not read , that the nations of the earth are as grashoppers about his throne ? how darest thou then go about to limit and set bounds to his holy spirit , in any appearance whatsoever in his people ? now consider these things in the pure fear of god , for they are wonderful weighty , and if you can , stop those bloody incursions and inroads that are daily made upon gods innocent people in their meetings , it may be well for you ; but if you persist and persevere in these tragical works , know this , and be it known unto you from the lord god , that as you thirst after blood , blood shall be given you to drink , with which you shall be choaked , and you shall be spewed out of every mind , as nautious , unsavoury , indigested meat is cast out of the stomack , when it is burdened with it . this is gods eternal truth to you , which will stand on your heads for ever : and as for us , who are the only objects of your cruelty , many and great have been the provokations wherewith we have been provoked , not only from you , but from the powers gone also , though our provokations from you are much more vehement and cruel , and i may say , more barbarous and inhuman , many degrees ; and though it hath been your intents , both of you , to make us break forth into rebellion , that you might have but one stroke at us , and no more , and so cut us off from the face of the earth , from being a people ; i know in gods fear , this is , and hath been your ends , but the lord hath prevented you , and doth prevent you even to this day ; for the lord god hath brought us forth in his lamb like spirit : and know you this , we have not the envy that is said to be in a worm , which being trod upon , will turn again ; and the lord hath cloathed us with his patience , which was before your cruelty , or any cruelty in the world was , and i do aver , will also out-live your fury , be it as hot as hell fire ; and so in the strength of god , which is the patient suffering seed in us , we bid all cruelty and fury of men defiance ; for we well know the power that gives you power , and we further know , he can restrain the wrath and fury of man when he pleaseth , and can turn it to his praise , and in his due time he wil also accomplish what he hath determined , concerning the enemies of his holy seed , not only in this nation , but throughout the whole world , which this day groans for deliverance , from under that horrid and cruel oppression of conscience , in matters of religion . therefore be awakened all you magistrates of both orders , and people of all sorts , lest you dip and plunge your selves into the blood of the innocent , as some did , not many generations since , the stench of which remains upon the face of earth to this day , and is yet not wiped away ; therefore what they left undone , do not you finish , lest you bear the burden of their wickedness upon your shoulders , and so go out of your generation with a stench , as they did ; and what hard measure we have received from you , if it be the will of the lord , that ye may , both high and low , and every soul who hath contributed to our troubles , be forgiven . rich. crane . printed in the year . proposals tender'd to the consideration of both houses of parliament for uniting the protestant interest for the present, and preventing divisions for the future together with the declaration of k. charles ii, concerning ecclesiastical affairs, and some proposals of terms of union between the church of england and dissenters / long since published by the reverend dean of s. pauls. stillingfleet, edward, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing s estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) proposals tender'd to the consideration of both houses of parliament for uniting the protestant interest for the present, and preventing divisions for the future together with the declaration of k. charles ii, concerning ecclesiastical affairs, and some proposals of terms of union between the church of england and dissenters / long since published by the reverend dean of s. pauls. stillingfleet, edward, - . charles ii, king of england, - . england and wales. sovereign ( - : charles ii). declaration to all his loving subjects of his kingdom of england and dominion of wales concerning ecclesiastical affairs. p. printed for henry clark and sold by the booksellers of london and westminister, london : . reproduction of original in huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng dissenters, religious -- england -- early works to . dissenters, religious -- early works to . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - rachel losh sampled and proofread - rachel losh text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion proposals tender'd to the consideration of both houses of parliament , for uniting the protestant interest for the present ; and preventing divisions for the future . together with the declaration of k. charles ii. concerning ecclesiastical affairs . and some proposals of terms of union between the church of england and dissenters , long since published by the reverend dean of s. pauls . london , printed for henry clark , and sold by the book-sellers of london and westminster , m dc lxxx ix . humble and modest proposals for uniting the protestant interest . i doubt not but every pious and sober protestant of this nation , cannot but be heartily troubled to observe those passionate differences and unchristian dissentions which daily increase among brethren , who are united in one and the same doctrin of their religion , and reformed from the errors and superstitions of the church of rome : upon the due consideration of which , every one who wisheth peace and prosperity to the kingdom he lives in , ought to consider what should be the occasion of those unhappy and ruinous divisions we have so long suffered under , and to offer probable means for composing them . as to their first rise , i doubt not but they ow their original to the different manner of the reformation , and the establishing of the orders which each church did think fit and convenient for it self , ( as the reverend and pious mr. hooker acquaints us ) which were so peremptorily established under that high commanding form , which rendered them to the people as things everlastingly required by the law of that lord of lords , against whose statutes there is no exception to be taken ; by which means it came to pass , that one church could not but accuse and condemn another of disobedience to the will of christ , in those things where manifest difference was between them : whereas the self-same orders allowed , but yet established in more wary and suspense manner , as being to stand in force till god should give the opportunity of some general conference what might be best for them afterwards to do ; this , i say , had both prevented all occasion of just dislike which others might take , and reserved a greater liberty unto the authors themselves of entring into farther consultation afterwards ; which , though never so necessary , they could easily now admit , without some fear of derogation from their credit : and therefore that which once they had done , they became for ever after resolute to maintain . now if we consider the shortness of that time wherein our first reformation continued under edward the sixth ; and the persecution in queen mary's reign , which forced many pious and learned clergymen of the church of england , to flee into foreign countries ( as zurick , embden , basil , strasburg , frankford , geneva , &c. ) for the preservation of their religion and lives , where they frequently conversed with those eminent divines , who were the great reformers there ; 't is no wonder that some of them should return better pleased with their discipline than their own , especially considering that several of them had intimate acquaintance and conversation with one of the reformers , whom the reverend mr. hooker thought incomparably the wisest man man that ever the french church did enjoy since the hour it enjoyed him . in queen elizabeth's , king iames , and k. charles the first 's reigns , 't is well known how our differences increased , until that unhappy war broke out ; by which the non-conforming interest prevailed ; so that the presbyterian discipline was endeavoured to be fixed as the established form of government in this nation ; our universities , preachers , writings , education , &c. were generally modelled thereto ; by which means , the greatest number of the trading part of the kingdom , several of the gentry , and some few of the nobility ( observing the precepts and practices , lifes and deaths of many of that clergy to be pious and exemplary ( joyned with them of this , or the like perswasion . since which time , it pleasing god to restore king charles ii. the parliament thought it convenient to establish the same discipline which our first reformers judged prudential , and that ( as the dissenters do complain ) upon stricter subscriptions than formerly , not abating or laying aside any of those ceremonies which have been matters of dispute and contention betwixt them and the church of england ever since our blessed reformation from popery and superstition : upon which account , many of the non-conforming divines laid down their livings , and the old controversies began afresh to be revived ; and so are like to be continued , until we be either ruined by popery , or healed by moderation , which is the only salve to cure the churches wounds , and that admirable remedy formerly proposed to the wisdom of superiours by the reverend dr. stillingfleet ; who having highly commended the prudence and temper of the french churches in composing their publick forms of prayer , that they were so far from inserting any thing controversial into them , that papists themselves would use them . and saith he , the same temper was used by our reformers in the composing our liturgy in reference to the papists , to whom they had an especial eye , as being the only party then appearing ; whom they desired to draw into their communion , by coming as near them as they well and safely could . and certainly those holy men who did seek by any means to draw in others at such a distance from their principles as the papists were , did never intend by what they did for that end , to exclude any truly tender consciences from their communion . that which they laid as a bait for them , was never intended by them as a hook for those of their own profession . but the same or greater reason which made them at that time yield so far to them then , would now have perswaded them to alter and lay aside those things which yield matter of offence to any of the same profession with themselves now : for surely none will be so uncharitable toward those ; of his own profession , as not to think there is as much reason to yield in compliance with them , as with the papists . and it cannot but be looked upon as a token of god's severe displeasure against us , if any , though unreasonable proposals of peace between us and the papists , should meet with such entertainment among many , and yet any fair offers of vnion and accomodation among our selves be so coldly embraced and entertained . thus far our reverend and learned dean of pauls delivered his opinion as to these matters of dispute near thirty years a-gone , before the laws were established against dissenters . and in his book , entituled , the unreasonableness of separation , ( wrote twenty years after the former ) he hath given the world such a testimony of his real kindness to dissenters , ( notwithstanding his hard usuage from them ) and of his sincere and hearty desire to heal our unhappy breaches , and unite our unchristian divisions , as will for ever consecrate his memory to posterity . upon these and some other like considerations , i should humbly propose to the wisdom of this present parliament , some probable means to put an end to our present differences , and to unite us for the future ; that so we may become a flourishing nation , free from the factions and divisions of former ages . proposals for our present vniting . . i humbly propose , that the ceremonies at present enjoyned by law , might be left to the liberty of the clergy to use or lay aside , and that , because the dissenters on the one hand are perswaded that their conformity to them would be sinful ; and the church of england on the other hand hath declared at several times that they are things indifferent , and may be changed . upon our first reformation in the account she hath given of ceremonies , why some be abolished , and some retained , she saith thus , that as those ceremonies were taken away which were most abused , and did burthen mens consciences without any cause ; so the other that remain are retained for discipline and order , which ( upon just causes may be altered , and changed . again , since his majesties restauration , in her preface to the common-prayer , are these words , that the particular forms of divine worship , and the rites and ceremonies appointed to be used , being things in their own nature indifferent and alterable , and so acknowledged ; it is but reasonable that upon weighty and important considerations , according to the various exigency of times and occasions , such changes should be made therein , as to those that are in place of authority , should from time to time seem either necessary or expedient . accordingly we find that in the reigns of several princes of blessed memory since the reformation , the church upon just and weighty considerations her thereunto moving , hath yielded to make such alterations in some some particulars , as in their respective times were thought convenient . thus far the church of england . and of late i find that a very eminent member thereof , the reverend dean of canterbury , hath aequainted us in a publick sermon preached by him at the yorkshire-feast , that though it was not for private persons to undertake in matters of publick concernment , yet he thought he had no cause to doubt but the governours of our church ( notwithstanding all the advantages of authority and reason too , as they thought , on their side ) were persons of that piety and prudence , that for peace sake , and in order to a firm vnion amongst protestants , they would be content , if that would do it , not to insist upon little things , but to yield them up , whether to the infirmity or importunity , or , perhaps , in some very few things , to the plausible exceptions of those who differed from them . the reverend dr. sherlock , in a sermon lately preached before the lord mayor , hath likewise most charitably and piously declared his thoughts about these matters of difference in the following words . we have reason to hope , that the church of england , which at the beginning of the reformation took such prudent care not to offend the papists going farther from them , than was necessary ; will , whenever it is likely to do good , condescend a great deal farther than it is necessary to reform , to meet the dissenter ; for while the external decency , gravity , and solemnity of worship is secured ; no wise and good man will think much to change a changeable ceremony , when it will heal the breaches and divisions of the church . and let us all heartily pray to god that there may be this good and peaceable disposition of mind in all conformists , and non-conformists towards a happy re-union ; and all considering men will think it time to lay aside such little disputes , when it is not meerly the church of england , nor any particular sect of protestants , whose ruin is aimed at , but the whole protestant faith. and as a farther confirmation of the readiness , not only of our divines , but of the fathers of our church to incourage so glorious a work , his grace of canterbury , and the rest of the petitioning bishops , did in their famous petition ( for which they were sent prisoners to the tower ) assure his majesty , that they did not refuse to distribute and publish his declaration for liberty of conscience , from any want of due tenderness to dissenters ; in relation to whom they were willing to come to such a temper , as should be thought fit , when that matter should be considered and setled in parliament and convocation . and not long after another company of bishops who were sent for by the late king iames , to give him their advice , ( in ( in several important affairs of the nation ) among other things , proposed , that a free parliament should establish a due liberty of conscience . the archbishop of canterbury was to earnest to promote this so christian design , that among those admirable articles recommended by his grace to all the bishops within his province , ( which were to be more fully insisted upon in their addresses to the clergy and people of their respective diocesses ) this was one : that they also walk in wisdom towards those that are not of our communion : and if there be in their parishes any such , that they neglect not frequently to confer with them in the spirit of meekness , seeking by all good ways and means to gain and win them over to our communion : more especially that they have a very tender regard to our brethren the protestant dissenters ; that upon occasion offered , they visit them at their houses , and receive them kindly at their own , and treat them fairly wherever they meet them ; perswading them ( if it may be ) to a full compliance with our church , or at least , that whereunto we have already attained , we may all walk by the same rule and mind the same thing . and in order hereunto , that they take all opportunities of assuring and convincing them , that the bishops of this church are really and sincerely irreconcilable to the errors , superstitions , idolatries and tyrannies of the church of rome . and that they warmly and most affectionately exhort them , to joyn with us in daily fervent prayer to the god of peace , for an vniversal blessed vnion of all the reformed churches both at home and abroad , against our common enemies , and that all they who do confess the holy name of our dear lord , and do agree in the truth of his holy word , may also meet in one holy communion , and live in perfect vnity and godly love. now seeing the church of england once and again declared her excellent temper and moderation for the preservation of peace and unity ( the great end and design of all church-government ) we have little reason to question her readiness ( at such a time as this is ) to comply with so modest a proposal , as a liberty of using or refusing those ceremonies , which she saith , in their own nature are indifferent and alterable , and upon weighty and important considerations , may be changed , &c. or to grant her consent to such a subscription , in relation to those articles which concern the government and discipline of the church , as are proposed by the learned dean of s. paul's , in the appendix ; especially considering that by this condescention of hers , she will certainly bring into her communion a great number of pious , moderate , and more considerative non-conformists : which will not only add strength to her self , but give a great joy and content to all those who have wish'd well to the peace , unity , and prosperity of this our church and nation ; to which end it would not be amiss that a strict injunction should be laid on the clergy and people to forbear all harsh and unchristian language one towards another , and to observe the apostles rule , of not judging one another . . i would likewise humbly propose , that the rest of the protestant dissenters might be indulged by act of parliament ; provided they neither preached , wrote , nor discours'd against the doctrine or government of the church as by law established ; and that , because charity , which is kind , and thinks no evil , would oblige a sober and indifferent person to believe that the reason of their separation from our church , did chiefly proceed from a tenderness of conscience ( impressed upon them by the force of their education , study , conversation , &c. ) lest in complying with the present established form of worship , they should sin against god , and wound the peace of their own souls : for otherwise , their own present quiet and interest must necessarily have obliged ▪ them to a compliance , they having been under a continual danger and hazard of the execution of the laws established against them ; whereby they have been not only deprived of that maintenance which by the countenance of authority they might otherwise have expected and publickly enjoyed , but exposed to many wants , difficulties , and sufferings . proposals for preventing future divisions . i humbly propose to the wisdom of this present parliament , that an act might be passed , whereby every person ( after a limited term of years ) intending to take holy orders should be incapacitated for any church-preferment , or for a license to preach in private congregations ; who could not give a satisfactory account to the bishop of the diocess where he intended to settle , of his proficiency and ability in church-history and primitive learning , whereby he might be able to give a clear and plain account of what discipline and order were used in the church of god nearest our saviour's and the apostles days ; when differences and errours in doctrine or church-government began first to arise ; with the authors , occasion , and effects thereof . the advantages which must necessarily attend the making of such a law , would be very great both to our interest in church and state ; amongst which i beg leave to name the following . . we might hereby ( for the future ) more assuredly hope for , and expect peace and union amongst our church-men , who having been all well acquainted with primitive learning and practice , with the rise and growth of all heresies , schisms , and divisions in the church , and with the fatal consequences which have attended them ; they would not more rationally than unanimously make choice of one and the same form of worship and discipline , but most heartily unite in their affections to one another , endeavouring with all their strength and power to maintain the church in peace and unity . . by this means we might be assured to enjoy the most learned clergy that ever this nation brought forth , who would not only prove a great bulwark against popery on the one hand , but schism and faction on the other ; and being to well accomplished for the ministerial function ( before they enter into it ) might much more assuredly engage the affection and hearts of their people , by spending ( in private ) the greatest part of the week in instructing them in the principles , and encouraging them in the practice of the christian religion ; a duty , alas , too much neglected in our days ! . we may then hope for preferments to answer every man's merit ; one of the principal reasons why we have more clergy-men than livings , seeming to be this , that a great number of ordinary tradesmen and farmers do send their children to the universities ( being ambitious to make them gentlemen ) though they are unable to maintain them there above three or four years ; in which time such accomplishments are not to be attained as are required by this proposal ; if therefore such a law ( as this ) were once established , they would be willing to bring them up to honest professions and trades , much more suitable for them ; and persons of better estate and quality would be encouraged to bring up their children in the universities , and continue them there until they arrived to that pitch of learning , which would not only render them the honour of their own , but the envy of foreign nations , and also capacitate them for the enjoyment of a preferment suitable to their parents charge , and their own pains and industry ; especially if the king would appropriate the first-fruits and tenths of all ecclesiastical preferments ; or the parliament should think fit to raise a sum of mony for the purchasing impropriations , and endowing livings with such a competency as might enable the incumbents to provide comfortably for themselves and families , and to keep up decent hospitality in their neighbourhood , and would annex those impropriations ( when purchased ) to the bishops and chapters of each diocess , who are to be presumed to be the most competent judges of the abilities of all persons to be entrusted with the care of souls : and for the more effectual success of this important affair , let the bishops be obliged every year to call upon the universities for the names of the most pious , learned and industrious persons in their several colleges . in short , i heartily wish that we might often and seriously remember our blessed saviours prediction , that a kingdom divided against it self , cannot stand ; and likewise consider that fate which attended the faction and division of the iews ; which grew to that height , that they could not forbear destroying each other , even when their declared enemies the romans were coming to besiege their city . from which , good lord deliver us . appendix . his majesty's declaration to all his loving subjects of his kingdom of england and dominion of wales , concerning ecclesiastical affairs . charles r. how much the peace of the state is concerned in the peace of the church , and how difficult a thing it is to preserve order and government in civil , whilest there is no order or government in ecclesiastical affairs , is evident to the world ; and this little part of the world , our own dominions , hath had so late experience of it , that we may very well acquiesce in the conclusion , without enlarging our self in discourse upon it , it being a subject we have had frequent occasion to contemplate upon , and to lament , abroad as well as at home . in our letter to the speaker of the house of commons from breda , we declared how much we desired the advancement and propagation of the protestant religion ; that neither the unkindness of those of the same faith towards us , nor the civilities and obligations from those of a contrary profession ( of both which we have had abundant evidence ) could in the least degree startle us , or make us swerve from it , and that nothing can be proposed to manifest our zeal and affection for it , to which we will not readily consent , and we said then , that we did hope in due time , our self to propose somewhat for the propagation of it , that will satisfie the world , that we have always made it both our care and our study , and have enough observed what is most like to bring disadvantage to it . and the truth is , we do think our self the more competent to propose , and with god's assistance to determine many things now in difference , from the time we have spent , and the experience we have had in most of the reformed churches abroad , in france , in the low-countries , and in germany , where we have had frequent conferences , with the most learned men , who have unanimously lamented the great reproach the protestant religion undergoes from the distempers and too notorious schisms in matters of religion in england : and as the most learned among them have always with great submission and reverence acknowledged and magnified the established government of the church of england , and the great countenance and shelter the protestant religion received from it , before these unhappy times ; so many of them have with great ingenuity and sorrow confessed , that they were too easily misled by mis-information and prejudice into some dis-esteem of it , as if it had too much complyed with the church of rome ; whereas they now acknowledg it to be the best fence god hath yet raised against popery in the world ; and we are perswaded they do with great zeal wish it restored to its old dignity and veneration . when we were in holland , we were attended by many grave and learned ministers from hence , who were looked upon as the most able and principal assertors of the presbyterian opinions , with whom we had as much conference as the multitude of affairs which were then upon us would permit us to have ; and to our great satisfaction and comfort found them persons full of affection to us , of zeal for the peace of the church and state , and neither enemies ( as they have been given out to be ) to episcopacy or liturgy , but modestly to desire such alterations in either , as without shaking foundations , might best allay the present distempers , which the indisposition of the time , and the tenderness of some mens consciences had contracted ; for the better doing whereof , we did intend , upon our first arrival in this kingdom to call a synod of divines , as the most proper expedient to provide a proper remedy for all those differences and dis-satisfactions which had or should arise in matters of religion ; and in the mean time , we published in our declaration from breda a liberty to tender consciences , and that no man should be disquieted or called in question for differences of opinion in matter of religion , which do not disturb the peace of the kingdom , and that we shall be ready to consent to such an act of parliament as upon mature deliberation shall be offered to us , for the full granting that indulgence . whilest we continued in this temper of mind and resolution , and have so far complyed with the perswasion of particular persons , and the distemper of the time , as to be contented with the exercise of our religion in our own chapel , according to the constant practice and laws established , without enjoyning that practice , and the observation of those laws in the churches of the kingdom ; in which we have undergone the censure of many , as if we were without that zeal for the church which we ought to have , and which by god's grace , we shall always retain ; we have found our self not so candidly dealt with as we have deserved , and that there are unquiet and restless spirits , who without abating any of their own distemper in recompence of the moderation they find in us , continue their bitterness against the church , and endeavour to raise jealousies of us , and to lessen our reputation by their reproaches , as if we were not true to the professions vve have made : and in ●●der thereunto , they have very unseasonably caused to be printed , published , and dispersed throughout the kingdom a declaration heretofore printed in our name during the time of our being in scotland , of which we shall say no more than that the circumstances by which we were enforced to sign that declaration , are enough known to the world ; and that the worthiest and greatest part of that nation did even then detest and abhorr the ill usage of us in that particular , when the same tyranny was exercised there by the power of a few ill men , which at that time had spread it self over this kingdom , and therefore we had no reason to expect that we should at this season , when we are doing all we can to wipe out the memory of all that hath been done amiss by other men , and , we thank god , have wiped it out of our own remembrance , have been our self assaulted with those reproaches ; which we will likewise forget . since the printing this declaration , several seditious pamphlets and quaeries have been published and scattered abroad , to infuse dislike and jealousies into the hearts of the people , and of the army , and some who ought rather to have repented the former mischief they have wrought , than to have endeavoured to improve it , have had the hardiness to publish , that the doctrine of the church , against which , no man with whom we have conferred hath excepted , ought to be reformed as well as the discipline . this over-passionate and turbulent way of proceeding , and the impatience we find in many for some speedy determination in these matters , whereby the minds of men may be composed , and the peace of the church established , hath prevailed with us to invert the method we had proposed to our self , and even in order to the better calling and composing of a synod ( which the present jealousies will hardly agree upon ) by the assistance of god's blessed spirit , which we daily invoke and supplicate , to give some determination our self to the matters in difference , until such a synod may be called , as may without passion or prejudice , give us such farther assistance towards a perfect union of affections , as well as submission to authority , as is necessary : and we are the rather induced to take this upon us , by finding upon the full conference we have had with the learned men of several perswasions , that the mischiefs , under which both the church and state do at present suffer , do not result from any form'd doctrine or conclusion which either party mainta●● 〈◊〉 avows , but from the passion and appetite , and interest of particular persons , who contract greater prejudice to each other , from those affections , than would naturally rise from their opinions ; and those distempers must be in some degree allayed , before the meeting in a synod can be attended with better success , than their meeting in other places , and their discourses in pulpits have hitherto been ; and till all thoughts of victory are laid aside , the humble and necessary thoughts for the vindication of truth cannot be enough entertained . we must for the honour of all those of either perswasion with whom we have conferred , declare that the professions and desires of all for the advancement of piety and true godliness , are the same ; their professions of zeal for the peace of the church , the same ; of affection and duty to us , the same ; they all approve episcopacy ; they all approve a set form of liturgy ; and they all disprove and dislike the sin of sacriledge , and the alienation of the revenue of the church ; and if upon these excellent foundations , in submission to which there is such a harmony of affections , any superstructures should be raised , to the shaking those foundations , and to the contracting and lessening the blessed gift of charity , which is a vital part of christian religion , we shall think our self very unfortunate , and even suspect that we are defective in that administration of government , with which god hath entrusted us. we need not profess the high affection and esteem we have for the church of england as it is established by law ; the reverence to which hath supported us with gods blessing , against many temptations ; nor do we think that reverence in the least degree diminished by our condescentions , not peremptorily to insist on some particulars of ceremony , which , however introduced by the piety and devotion ; and order of former times , may not be so agreeable to the present , but may even lessen that piety and devotion , for the improvement whereof they might happily be first introduced , and consequently may well be dispensed with ; and we hope this charitable compliance of ours will dispose the minds of all men to a chearful submission to that authority , the preservation whereof is so necessary for the unity and peace of the church ; and that they will acknowledge the support of the episcopal authority , to be the best support of religion , by being the best means to contain the minds of men within the rules of government : and they who would restrain the exercise of that holy function within the rules which were observed in the primitive times , must remember and consider , that the ecclesiastical power being in those blessed times always subordinate and subject to the civil ; it was likewise proportioned to such an extent of jurisdiction as was most agreeable to that ; and as the sanctity and simplicity , and resignation of that age , did then refer many things to the bishops , which the policy of succeeding ages would not admit , at least did otherwise provide for ; so it can be no reproach to primitive episcopacy , if where there have been great alterations in the civil government , from what was then , there have been likewise some difference and alteration in the ecclesiastical , the essence and foundation being still preserved . and upon this ground , without taking upon us to censure the government of the church in other countries , where the government of the state is different from what it is here , or enlarging our self upon the reasons why , whilst there was an imagination of erecting a democratical government here in the state , they should be willing to continue an aristocratical government in the church ; it shall suffice to say , that since by the wonderful blessing of god , the hearts of this whole nation are returned to an obedience to monarchick government in the state , it must be very reasonable to support that government in the church which is established by law , and with which the monarchy hath flourished through so many ages , and which is in truth as ancient in this island as the christian monarchy thereof ; and which hath always in some respects or degrees been enlarged or restrained , as hath been thought most conducing to the peace and happiness of the kingdom ; and therefore we have not the least doubt but that the present bishops will think the present concessions now made by us to allay the present distempers , very just and reasonable , and will very chearfully conform themselves thereunto . . we do in the first place declare our purpose and resolution is and shall be , to promote the power of godliness , to encourage the exercises of religion , both publick and private , and to take care that the lord's day be applied to holy exercises , without unnecessary divertisments ; and that insufficient , negligent , and scandalous ministers be not permitted in the church ; and that as the present bishops are known to be men of great and exemplar piety in their lives , which they have manifested in their notorious and unexampled sufferings during these late distempers ; and of great and known sufficiency of learning ; so we shall take special care , by the assistance of god , to prefer no men to that office and charge , but men of learning , vertue , and piety , who may be themselves the best examples to those who are to be governed by them ; and we shall expect , and provide the best we can , that the bishops be frequent preachers , and that they do very often preach themselves in some church of their diocess , except they be hindred by sickness , or other bodily infirmities , or some other justifiable occasion , which shall not be thought justifiable if it be requent . . because the diocesses , especially some of them , are thought to be of too large extent : we will appoint such a number of suffragan bishops in every diocess as shall be sufficient for the due performance of their work . . no bishop shall ordain , or exercise any part of jurisdiction which appertains to the censures of the church , without the advice and assistance of the presbyters ; and no chancellors , commissaries , or officials , as such , shall exercise any act of spiritual jurisdiction in these cases ( viz. ) excommunication , absolution , or wherein any of the ministry are concerned , with reference to their pastoral charge . however our intent and meaning is to uphold and maintein the profession of the civil law so far and in such matters as it hath been of use and practice within our kingdoms and dominions ; albeit as to excommunication , our will and pleasure is , that no chancellor , commissary , or official shall decree any sentence of excommunication or absolution , or be judges in those things wherein any of the ministry are concerned , as is aforesaid . nor shall the arch-deacon exercise any jurisdiction without the advice and assistance of six ministers of his arch-deaconcy , whereof three to be nominated by the bishop , and three by the election of the major part of the presbyters within the arch-deaconry . . to the end that the deans and chapters may be the better fitted to afford counsel and assistance to the bishops , both in ordination and the other offices mentioned before ; we will take care that those preferments be given to the most learned and pious presbyters of the diocess ; and moreover that an equal number ( to those of the chapter ) of the most learned , pious , and discreet presbyters of the same diocess , annually chosen by the major vote of all the presbyters of that diocess present at such elections , shall be always advising and assisting , together with those of the chapter , in all ordinations , and in every part of jurisdiction which appertains to the censures of the church , and at all other solemn and important actions in the exercise of the ecclesiastical jurisdiction , wherein any of the ministry are concerned : provided that at all such meetings , the number of the ministers so elected , and those present of the chapter shall be equal , and not exceed one the other , and that to make the numbers equal , the juniors of the exceeding number be withdrawn that the most ancient may take place : nor shall any suffragan bishop ordain or exercise the fore-mentioned offices and acts of spiritual jurisdiction , but with the advice and assistance of a sufficient number of the most judicious and pious presbyters annually chosen as aforesaid within his precincts : and our will is that the great work of ordination be constantly and solemnly performed by the bishop and his aforesaid presbytery , at the four set times and seasons appointed by the church for that purpose . . we will take care that confirmation be rightly and solemnly performed , by the information , and with the consent of the minister of the place ; who shall admit none to the lord's supper , till they have made a credible profession of their faith , and promised obedience to the will of god ; according as is expressed in the considerations of the rubrick before the catechism ; and that all possible diligence be used for the instruction and reformation of scandalous offenders , whom the minister shall not suffer to partake of the lord's table , until they have openly declared themselves to have truly repented and amended their former naughty lives , as is partly exprest in the rubrick , and more fully in the canons ; provided there be place for due appeals to superiour powers . but besides the suffragans and their presbytery , every rural dean ( those deans , as heretofore , to be nominated by the bishop of the diocess ) together with three or four ministers of that deanery , chosen by the major part of all the ministers within the same , shall meet once in every month , to receive such complaints as shall be presented to them by the ministers or church-wardens of the respective parishes ; and also to compose all such differences betwixt party and party , as shall be referred unto them by way of arbitration , and to convince offenders , and reform all such things as they find amiss by their pastoral reproofs and admonitions , if they may be so reformed : and such matters as they cannot by this pastoral and perswasive way compose and reform , are by them to be prepared for , and presented to the bishop ; at which meeting any other ministers of that deanery , may , if they please , be present and assist . moreover , the rural dean and his assistants are in their respective divisions to see that the children and younger sort be carefully instructed by the respective ministers of every parish , in the grounds of christian religon , and be able to give a good account of their faith and knowledge , and also of their christian conversation conformable thereunto , before they be confirmed by the bishop , or admitted to the sacrament of the lord's supper . . no bishop shall exercise any arbitrary power , or do or impose any thing upon the clergy or the people , but what is according to the known law of the land. . we are very glad to find , that all with whom we have conferred , do in their judgments approve a liturgy , or set form of publick worship , to be lawful ; which in our judgment , for the preservation of unity and uniformity , we conceive to be very necessary : and though we do esteem the liturgy of the church of england , conteined in the book of common prayer , and by law established , to be the best we have seen ; and we believe that we have seen all that are extant and used in this part of the world , and well know what reverence most of the reformed churches , or at least the most learned men in those churches have for it ; yet since we find some exceptions made against several things therein . we will appoint an equal number of learned divines of both perswasions , to re-view the same , and to make such alterations as shall be thought most necessary ; and some additional forms ( in the scripture phrase , as near as may be ) suited unto the nature of the several parts of worship , and that it be left to the ministers choice to use one or other at his discretion . in the mean time , and till this be done , although we do heartily wish and desire , that the ministers in their several churches , because they dislike some clauses and expressions , would not totally lay aside the use of the book of common prayer , but read those parts against which there can be no exception ; which would be the best instance of declining those marks of distinction , which we so much labour and desire to remove ; yet in compassion to divers of our good subjects , who scruple the use of it , as now it is . our will and pleasure is , that none be punished or troubled for not using it , until it be reviewed , and effectually reformed , as aforesaid . . lastly , concerning ceremonies , which have administred so much matter of difference and contention , and which have been introduced by the wisdom and authority of the church , for edification , and the improvement of piety : we shall say no more , but that we have the more esteem of all , and reverence for many of them , by having been present in many of those churches where they are most abolished , or discountenanced ; and it cannot be doubted , but that , as the universal church cannot introduce one ceremony in the worship of god , that is contrary to god's word expressed in the scripture ; so every national church , with the approbation and consent of the sovereign power , may , and hath always introduced such particular ceremonies , as in that conjuncture of time are thought most proper for edification and the necessary improvement of piety and devotion in the people , though the necessary practice thereof cannot be deduced from scripture ; and that which before was , and in it self is indifferent , ceases to be indifferent , after it is once established by law : and therefore our present consideration and work is , to gratifie the private consciences of those who are grieved with the use of some ceremonies , by indulging to , and dispensing with their omitting those ceremonies ; not utterly to abolish any which are established by law , ( if any are practised contrary to law , the same shall cease ) which would be unjust , and of ill example ; and to impose upon the conscience of some , for the satisfaction of the conscience of others , which is otherwise provided for . as it could not be reasonable that men should expect , that we should our self decline , or enjoyn others to do so , to receive the blessed sacrament upon our knees , which in our conscience is the most humble , most devout , and most agreeable posture for that holy duty , because some other men , upon reasons best , if not only known to themselves , choose rather to do it fitting or standing : we shall leave all decisions and determinations of that kind , if they shall be thought necessary for a perfect and entire unity and uniformity throughout the nation , to the advice of a national synod , which shall be duly called , after a little time , and a mutual conversation between persons of different perswasions , hath mollified those distempers , abated those sharpnesses , and extinguished those jealousies which make men unfit for those consultations ; and upon such advice , we shall use our best endeavor that such laws may be established , as may best provide for the peace of the church and state. provided that none shall be denied the sacrament of the lord's supper , though they do not use the gesture of kneeling in the act of receiving . in the mean time , out of compassion and compliance towards those who would forbear the cross in baptism , we are content that no man shall be compelled to use the same , or suffer for not doing it : but if any parent desire to have his child christned according to the form used , and the minister will not use the sign , it shall be lawful for that parent to procure another minister to do it : and if the proper minister shall refuse to omit that ceremony of the cross , it shall be lawful for the parent , who would not have his child so baptised , to procure another minister to do it , who will do it according to his desire . no man shall be compelled to bow at the name of jesus , or suffer in any degree for not doing it , without reproaching those who out of their devotion continue that ancient ceremony of the church . for the use of the surplice , we are contented that all men be left to their liberty to do as they shall think fit , without suffering in the least degree for wearing , or not wearing it ; provided , that this liberty do not extend to our own chappel , cathedral , or collegiate churches , or to any colledge in either of our universities ; but that the several statutes and customs for the use thereof in the said places , be there observed as formerly . and because some men , otherwise pious and learned , say , they cannot conform unto the subscription required by the canon , nor take the oath of canonical obedience ; we are content , and it is our will and pleasure , ( so they take the oaths of allegiance and supremacy ) that they shall receive ordination , institution , and induction , and shall be permitted to exercise their function , and to enjoy the profits of their livings , without the said subscription or oath of canonical obedience : and moreover , that no persons in the universities shall for the want of such subscription be hindred in the taking of their degrees . lastly , that none be judged to forfeit his presentation or benefice , or be deprived of it , upon the statute of the thirteenth of queen elizabeth , chapter the twelth , so he read and declare his assent to all the articles of religion , which only concern the confession of the true christian faith , and the doctrine of the sacraments comprised in the book of articles in the said statute mentioned . in a word , we do again renew what we have formerly said in our declaration from breda , for the liberty of tender consciences , that no man shall be disquieted or called in question for differences of opinion in matters of religion , which do not disturb the peace of the kingdom ; and if any have been disturbed in that kind since our arrival here , it hath not proceeded from any direction of ours . to conclude , and in this place to explain what we mentioned before , and said in our letter to the house of commons from breda , that we hoped in due time , our self to propose somewhat for the propagation of the protestant religion , that will satisfie the world , that we have always made it both our care and our study , and have enough observed what is most like to bring disadvantage to it : we do conjure all our loving subjects to acquiesce in , and submit this our declaration concerning those differences which have so much disquieted the nation at home , and given such offence to the protestant churches abroad , and brought such reproach upon the protestant religion in general , from the enemies thereof ; as if upon obscure notions of faith and fancy , it did admit the practice of christian duties and obedience to be discountenanced and suspended , and introduce a licence in opinions and manners , to the prejudice of the christian faith. and let us all endeavour , and emulate each other in those endeavours , to countenance and advance the protestant religion abroad , which will be best done by supporting the dignity and reverence due to the best reformed protestant church at home ; and which being once freed from the calumnies and reproaches it hath undergone from these late ill times , will be the best shelter for those abroad , which will by that countenance both be the better protected against their enemies , and be the more easily induced to compose the differences amongst themselves , which give their enemies more advantage against them : and we hope and expect that all men will henceforward forbear to vent any such doctrine in the pulpit , or to endeavour to work in such manner upon the affections of the people , as may dispose them to an ill opinion of us and the government , and to disturb the peace of the kingdom . which if all men will in their several vocations endeavour to preserve with the same affection and zeal we our self will do ; all our good subjects will by gods blessing upon us enjoy as great a measure of felicity , as this nation hath ever done , and which we shall constantly labour to procure for them , as the greatest blessing god can bestow upon us in this world. given at our court at whitehall this twenty fifth day of october . . the reverend dean of pauls his proposals or terms of vnion , betwixt the church of england and the dissenters : taken out of his preface to the vnreasonableness of separation , pag. , , , , , , , , , , , , , . is there nothing to be done for dissenting protestants , who agree with us in all doctrinal articles of our church , and only scruple the use of a few ceremonies , and some late impositions ? shall these differences still be continued , when they may be so easily removed ? and so many useful men be encouraged , and taken into the constitution ? do we value a few indifferent ceremonies , and some late declarations , and doubtful expressions , beyond the satisfaction of mens consciences , and the peace and stability of this church ? as to this material question , i shall crave leave to deliver my opinion freely and impartially ; and that , i. with respect to the case of the people ; the terms of whose union with us , is acknowledged by our brethren to be so much easier than their own . but these are of two sorts : . some allow the use of the liturgy , but say they cannot joyn in communion with us , because the participation of the sacraments hath such rites and ceremonies annexed to it , which they think unlawful ; and therefore till these be removed , or left indifferent , they dare not joyn with us in baptism or the lord's supper ; because in the one the cross is used , and in the other kneeling is required . as to these i answer , ( . ) upon the most diligent search i could make into these things , i find no good ground for any scruple of conscience , as to to the use of these ceremonies ; and as little as any as to the sign of the cross , as it is used in our church ; notwithstanding all the noise that hath been made about its being a new sacrament , and i knew not what ; but of this at large in the following treatise . ( . ) i see no ground for the peoples separation from other acts of communion , on the account of some rites they suspect to be unlawful : and especially when the use of such rites is none of their own act , as the cross in baptism is not ; and when such an explication is annexed concerning the intention of kneeling at the lord's supper , as is in the rubrick after the communion . ( . ) notwithstanding , because the use of sacraments in a christian church , ought to be the most free from all exceptions , and they ought to be so administred , as rather to invite than discourage scrupulous persons from joyning in them : i do think it would be a part of christian wisdom and condescention in the governors of our church , to remove those bars from a freedom in joyning in full communion with us . which may be done , either by wholly taking away the sign of the cross ; or if that may give offence to others , by confining the use of it to the publick administration of baptism ; or by leaving it indifferent , as the parents desire it . as to kneeling at the lord's supper , since some posture is necessary , and many devout people scruple any other , and the primitive church did in ancient times receive it in the posture of adoration , there is no reason to take this away , even in parochial churches ; provided that those who scruple kneelling , do receive it with the least offence to others , and rather standing than sitting , because the former is most agreeable to the practice of antiquity , and of our neighbour-reformed churches . as to the surplice in parochial churches , it is not of that consequ●nce as to bear a dispute one way or other ; and as to cathedr●l churches , there is no necessity of alteration . but there is another thing which seems to be of late much scrupled in baptism , viz. the use of god fathers and god-mothers exc●●●ing the parents . although i do not question , but the practice of our church may be justified , ( as i have done it towards the end of the following treatise , ) yet i see no necessity of adhering 〈◊〉 strictly to the canon herein , but that a little alteration may ●revent these scruples , either by permitting the parents to joyn with the sponsors ; or by the parents publickly desiring the sponsors to represent them in offering the child to baptism ; or which seems most agreeable to reason , that the parents offer the child to baptism , and then the sponsors perform the covenanting part ; representing the child ; and the charge after baptism be given in common to the parents and sponsors . these things being allowed , i see no obstruction remaining as to a full union of the body of such dissenters with us , in all acts of divine worship , and christian communion , as do not reject all communion with us as unlawful . . but because there are many of those , who are become zealous protestants , and plead much their communion with us in faith and doctrine , although they cannot joyn with us in worship , because they deny the lawfulness of liturgies , and the right constitution of our churches ; their case deserves some consideration , whether and how far they are capable of being made serviceable to the common interest , and to the support of the protestant religion among us . to their case i answer , first , that a general unlimited toleration to dissenting protestants , will soon bring confusion among us , and in the end popery , as i have shewed already ; and a suspension of all the penal laws that relate to dissenters is the same thing with a boundless toleration . secondly , if any present favours be granted to such , in consideration of our circumstances , and to prevent their conjunction with the papists , for a general toleration , ( for if ever the papists obtain it , it must be under their name : ) if , i say , such favour be thought fit to be shewed them , it ought to be with such restrictions and limitations as may prevent the mischief which may easily follow upon it : for all such meetings are a perpetual reproach to our churches , by their declaring , that our churches are no true churches ; that our manner of worship is unlawful ; and that our church-government is antichristian ; and that on these accounts they separate from us , and worship god by themselves . but if such an indulgence be thought fit to be granted , i humbly offer these things to consideration . . that none be permitted to enjoy the priviledge of it , who do not declare , that they do hold communion with our churches to be unlawful . for it seems unreasonable to allow it to others , and will give countenance to endless and causeless separations . . that all who enjoy it , besides taking the test against popery , do subscribe the thirty six articles of our faith , because the pretence of this liberty , is joyning with us in points of faith ; and this may more probably prevent papists getting in amongst them . . that all such as enjoy it , must declare the particular congregations they are of and enter their names before such commissioners as shall be authorized for that purpose ; that so this may be no pretence for idle , loose , and prophane persons , never going to any church at all . . that both preachers and congregations be liable to severe penalties , if they use any bitter or reproachful words , either in sermons or writings , against the established constitution of our churches ; because they desire only the freedom of their own consciences ; and the using this liberty , will discover it is not conscience , but a turbulent , factious humour , which makes them separate from our communion . . that all indulged persons be particularly obliged to pay all legal duties to the parochial churches , ( lest meer covetousness tempt men to run among them ) and no persons so indulged , be capable of any publick office. it not being reasonable that such should be trusted with government , who look upon the worship established by law as unlawful . . that no other penalty be laid on such indulged persons , but that of twelve pence a sunday for their absence from their parochial churches , which ought to be duly collected for the use of the poor , and cannot be complained of as any heavy burthen , considering the liberty they do enjoy by it . . that the bishops , as visitors appointed by law , have an exact account given to them , of the rule of their worship and discipline , and of all the persons belonging to the indulged congregations , with their qualities and places of abode ; and that none be admitted a member of any such congregation without acquainting their visitor with it , that so means may be used to prevent their leaving our communion , by giving satisfaction to their scruples . this power of the bishops cannot be scrupled by them , since herein they are considered as commissioners appointed by law. . that no indulged persons presume under severe penalties to breed up scholars , or to teach gentlemens sons university-learning ; because this may be justly looked on as a design to propagate schism to posterity , and to lay a foundation for the disturbance of future generations . ii. as to the case of the ejected ministers , i have these things to offer : . that bare subscription of the thirty six articles concerning doctrinal points , be not allowed as sufficient to qualifie any man for a living , or any church-preferment , for these reasons . first , any lay-man upon these terms may not only be capable of a living , but may take upon him to administer the sacraments ; which was never allowed in any well-constituted church in the christian world. and such an allowance among us , instead of setling and uniting us , will immediately bring things into great confusion , and give mighty advantage to the papists against our church . and we have reason to fear , a design of this nature , under a pretence of union of protestants , tends to the subversion of this church , and throwing all things into confusion , which at last will end in popery . secondly , this will bring a faction into the church , which will more endanger it than external opposition . for such men will come in triumphantly , having beaten down three of the thirty nine articles ; and being in legal possession of their places , will be ready to defie and contemn those who submitted to the rest , and to glory in their conquests , and draw followers after them , as the victorious confessors against prelacy and ceremonies . and can they imagine those of the church of england will see the reputation of the church , or their own , to suffer so much , and not appear in their own vindication ? things are not come to that pass , nor will they suddenly be , that the friends , of the church of england will be either afraid , or ashamed to own her cause , we do heartily and sincerely desire union with our brethren , if it may be had on just and reasonable terms ; but they must not think , that we will give up the cause of the church for it , so as to condemn its constitution , or make the ceremonies unlawful , which have been hitherto observed and practised in it . if any expedient can be found out for the ease of other mens consciences , without reflecting on our own ; if they can be taken in , without reproach or dishonour to the reformation of the church ; i hope no true son of the church of england will oppose it . but if the design be to bring them in as a faction to bridle and controll the episcopal power , by setting up forty bishops in a diocess against one ; if it be for them to trample upon the church of england , and not to submit to its order and government upon fair and moderate terms , let them not call this a design of union , but the giving law to a party to oppose the church of england . and what the success of this will be , let wise men judge . thirdly , if a subscription to thirty six articles were sufficient by the statute eliz. c. . i do not understand how by virtue of that statute a man is bound publickly to read the thirty nine articles in the church , and the testimonial of his subscription , on pain of being deprived ipso facto , if he do not . for the l. ch. i. coke saith , that subscription to the articles is required by force of the act of parliament , eliz : c. . and he adds , that the delinquent is disabled and deprived ipso facto ; and that a conditional subscription to them was not sufficient , was resolved by all the judges in england . but how a man should be depriued ipso facto for not subscribing , and reading the articles , as appears by the cases mentioned in coke , and yet be required only to subscribe to , by the same statute , is a thing too hard for me to conceive . . but notwithstanding this , if any temper can be found out , as to the manner of subscription , that may give ease to the scruples of our brethren , and secure the peace of the church , the desired union may be attained without that apparent danger of increasing the factions among us . and this i suppose may be done , by an absolute subscription to all those articles which concern the doctrine of the true christian faith , and the use of the sacraments ; and a solemn promise under their hand , or subscription of peaceable submission , as to the rest , so as not to oppose or contradict them , either in preaching or writing ; upon the same penalty as if they had not subscribed to the . which may be a more probable means to keep the church in quiet , than forcing a more rigorous subscription upon them , or leaving them at their full liberty . . as to the other subscription required , jac. to the articles . the first is provided for by the oaths of allegiance and supremacy . the third is the same with the subscription to the articles . and as to the second , about the book of common-prayer , &c. it ought to be considered , ( . ) whether , for the satisfaction of the scrupulous , some more doubtful and obscure passages may not yet be explained or amended ? whether the new translation of the psalms were not fitter to be used , at least in parochial churches ? whether portions of canonical scripture were not better put in stead of apocrypha lessons ? whether the rubrick about salvation of infants , might not be restored to its former place , in the office of confirmation , and so the present exceptions against it be removed ? whether those expressions which suppose the strict exercise of discipline , in burying the dead , were not better left at liberty in our present case ? such a review made by wise and peaceable men , not given to wrath and disputing , may be so far from being a dishonour to this church , that it may add to the glory of it . ( . ) upon such a review , whether it be not great reason that all persons who officiate in the church , be not only tied to a constant use of it in all publick offices , ( as often as they administer them ) which they ought in person frequently to do ; but to declare at their first entrance upon a parochial charge , their approbation of the use of it , after their own reading of it , that so the people may not suspect them to carry on a factious design , under an outward pretence of conformity to the rules of the church they live in . ( . ) whether , such a solemn using the liturgy , and approbation and promise of the use of it , may not be sufficient , in stead of the late form of declaring their assent and consent , which hath been so much scrupled by our brethren ? these are all the things which appear to me reasonable to be allowed in order to an union , and which i suppose may be granted without detriment or dishonour to our church . there are other things very desirable towards the happiness and flourishing of this church ; as the exercise of discipline in parochial churches , in a due subordination to the bishop ; the reforming the ecclesiastical courts as to excommunication , without prejudice to the excellent profession of the civil law ; the building of more churches in great parishes , especially about the city of london ; the retrenching pluralities ; the strictness and solemnity of ordinations ; the making a book of canons suitable to this age , for the better regulating the conversations of the clergy . such things as these , might facilitate our union , and make our church in spight of all its enemies become a praise in the whole earth . a specimen of a bill , for vniting protestants ; being a rough draught of such terms , as seem equal for the conformist to grant , and the non-conformist to yield to , for peace sake , provided a good while , and published on purpose only for the farther , better , and more easie consideration of the parliament . whereas , there are many jealousies risen about : popery , which makes it even necessary to the peace of the nation , that the protestant interest be united and strengthened by all good and lawful means : and to this end , there being this one proper expedient ; to wit ; the removing the occasion of divisions , which several persons do find to themselves in those late injunctions , which yet were intended to the same purpose of concord in the nation : be it enacted — that an explanation of these impositions , and such alleviations , be allowed to the tenderly considerate , and peaceably scrupulous , as follow . in the act of uniformity , by the declaration of assent and consent to all things , and every thing contained in , and prescribed by the two books of common prayer , and of ordering priests and deacons , we understand not , that these books are in every minute particular , infallible , or free from that defect , which is incident to all human composure : but that they are in the main contents , to be sincerely approved and used . and we do therefore allow this declaration to be sufficient , if it be made to the use of the book , in the ordinary constant lords-days-service , notwithstanding any exceptions some may have against some things in the by-offices , and occasional service , the rubrick , and otherwise . and for the ceremonies which are made , and have been always , and on all hands , held to be only indifferent things , we think fit that they be left to the consciences and prudence of ministers , and people , every where ( excepting the cathedrals ) to use them , or forbear them , as they judge it most meet for their own and others edification , provided that if any person will have his child baptized with the sign of the cross , or stands upon any thing else , hitherto required by the service-book , if the minister himself scruple the performance , he shall permit another to do it . in the same act , by those words in the subscription , that it is not lawful to take arms against the king , upon any pretence whatsoever ; we intend no new or strange thing , but the rightful maintenance only of the king's authority against rebellion , according to the common determination of learned writers , in the case of subjection to princes . by the words , i abhor the position of taking arms by the authority of the king , against any commissionated by him , we never thought of advancing the arbitrary commissions of the king above law ; but by those commissionated by him , we understand such as are legally commissionated , and in the legal pursuit of such commissions . by the clause which follows , that requires a renunciation of all endeavour of any alteration of government in the church or state , we never meant to deny any free-born subject his right , of choosing parliament-men , or acting in in his place for the common good any way , according to law ; but that he shall renounce all such endeavour , as is seditious , or not warranted by the constitution of the nation ; and particularly , such an endeavour as was assumed in the late times , without , and against the consent of the king : and for the rest of the subscription , which is enjoyned but to the year . be it enacted , that it cease presently , and be no longer enjoyned . and forasmuch as there is an oath prescribed and required of all non-conformists preachers , that reside in any corporate town , by a certain act of the former parliament , made at oxford in the th . year of his now majesties reign , entituled , an act for restraining non-conformists , from inhabiting corporations : we do further declare , that it shall suffice any man , for the enjoyment of his free born liberty , of inhabiting where he thinks best ; and serve him also instead of the fore-mentioned subscription ; to take that oath in this form of words following . i a. b. do swear , that i hold it unlawful upon any pretence , to take arms against the king , his government or laws : and that i disclaim that dangerous position , of taking arms by his authority , against his person , or any legally commissionated by him , in the legal pursuit of such commissions : and that i will not endeavour any alteration of government in the church or state , in any way or manner , not warrantted by the constitution of the kingdom , or any otherwise than by act of parliament : and as soon as any man has taken the oath thus , he shall be discharged of all penalty for his omission before . we do declare moreover , that whereas it is required also in the act of uniformity , that every minister who injoys any living or ecclesiastical preferment , shall be ordained by a bishop ; and there are several persons of late , who in case of necessity , for want of bishops took presbyterian-orders : our meaning is not in any wise to disgust the reformed churches beyond the seas , and make it necessary for such to be re-ordained to the office ; but that they receive this second imposition of hands to the exercise of their office in the new charge , unto which they are , or shall be called ; and that the bishop shall frame his words accordingly . and whereas there is a subscription also in the canons , and the canonical-oath of obedience , imposed on most ministers by the bishops , that have given some of the greatest occasion to non-conformity heretofore ; which yet never passed into law by any act of parliament : we do further declare , that nothing more of that kind shall be required of ministers hence forward , than was made and held necessary by the act of the thirteenth of elizabeth . and in regard there hath been great offence taken by conscientious ministers , at the bishops , ( or their courts ) commanding them to read the sentence of excommunication against some or other of their parish , for such faults as they think not at all worthy of so great a censure : we declare it but a just thing , that every minister be first satisfied in the cause , or else be exempted from the execution of that charge ; and that the bishop ( or his court ) provide some other person that is satisfied about it , to do it . and to the intent that a free search after truth may not be discouraged in the pursuit of concord , and many other scruples avoided upon that account : we declare , that though an authentick interpretation be required , as to the substance of all laws , yet in the articles of the church , ( which are theses for agreement , and not laws ) and the homilies , a doctrinal interpretation shall be held sufficient for an assent or subscription to them . and because the very superintendency of bishops , and that subjection to them which is required by the constitution of the realm , is , or may be an hindrance to many sober ministers , and other protestants , of coming into the church , who are ready to consent to the doctrine , but not to the discipline or government of it : we do declare , that so long as any person or party do acknowledge the king's supremacy , as head of the church in this nation , and obey their ordinary , or the bishops , in licitis & honestis , upon the account of his authority , ( committed to them for the exercise of that external regiment , circa sacra , which is granted by all our divines to the higher powers in every nation ) it is enough for the owning episcopal iurisdiction ( so far as they do own it , in the declaration of assent and consent , or in any other part of conformity ; ) and shall serve them to all intents and purposes in law , no lets than a professed belief and acknowledgment of the immediate divine right of it . be it therefore enacted by this present parliament , that if any person be willing to conform to the present establishment of the church of england , and her service appointed according to these explanations , alleviations , declarations , lenitives , or cautions , he shall be admitted to any ecclesiastical preferment , and enjoy the use of his ministry without any molestation : all statutes , canons , or laws to the contrary notwithstanding . and for the making this act of better signification to the concerned , and the prevention of that scandal which is raised on the clergy , through the covetousness of some , in heaping up to themselves all the preferments they can get , when others have scarce subsistence for their families , and the souls of many people are thereby neglected : be it farther enacted , that no clergy-men for the three next years ensuing , be suffered to enjoy any more than one living or cure of souls , and one dignity , ( or other ecclesiastical preferment ) at one time ; and that every man ( without exception ) that hath more than one of either , shall immediately give up the rest to be distributed among those who shall be brought off from their non-conformity , upon the terms of this act , into the established order . which that they may also be obtained , and possessed with a clean conscience , and that grievous curruption of simony may be extirpate out of the land : be it enacted moreover , that every patron that shall hence forward present his clerk to any living , shall have the oath , called the simonical oath , imposed on him , no less than on the incumbent : and if he refuses to take it , that then the bishop shall have immediate power ( taking only the same oath ) of presentation in his room . and forasmuch , as there are some ministers of a good life , that cannot ( according to their judgments ) allow of our parochial churches , nor a book of liturgy : but do choose to worship god , and jesus christ in the way of their gathered or separate congregations , and crave the protection and clemency of the king , upon their allegiance , as other subjects : be it finally enacted , for the happiness and quiet of the realm , and the reduction of these men by other means than those which have hitherto proved unsuccessful ; that every christian subject throughout the land , that profess the reformed religion , and be not convict of popery , be pardoned all faults and penalties , incurred upon the account of any fore-passed non-conformity ; and that they shall not , during these seven years next ensuing , be prosecuted upon any penal law , for their consciences , in the matter of religion ; they carrying themselves innocently and peaceably , with submission to the civil , and without disturbance to the ecclesiastical government , now settled in the nation : all statutes to the contrary notwithstanding . in short , a repeal of our laws about conformity unto the th of elizabeth ; or , a new act of uniformity ; or , the king's declaration concerning ecclesiastical affairs , at his first coming in , turn'd into a law , were comprehension . his latter declaration to all his loving subjects , ( some few things in both , yet a little considered ) made so , were indulgence . a bill of comprehension with indulgence , both together , will do our business . an addition , or clause in it against pluralities , will do it with supererogation . deo gloria . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e hooker's preface to his ecclesiastical polity , printed anno . p. , . hooker's preface to his ecclesiastical polity , p. . dr. stillingfleet's irenicu● p. . . preface to the common-prayer . dr. tillotson's sermon , preached at the yorkshire-feast . an. . p. . dr. sherlock's sermon , preached before the lord mayor . nov. . notes for div a -e co. inst. . part. , the bishop busied beside the business, or, that eminent overseer, dr. john gauden, bishop of exeter, so eminently overseen as to wound his own cause well nigh to death with his own weapon in his late so super-eminently-applauded appearance for the [brace] liberty of tender consciences, legitimacy of solemn swearings, entituled, a discourse concerning publick oaths, and the lawfulness of swearing in judicial proceedings, in order to answer the scruples of the quakers ... / by samuel fisher ... fisher, samuel, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; 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(eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) the bishop busied beside the business, or, that eminent overseer, dr. john gauden, bishop of exeter, so eminently overseen as to wound his own cause well nigh to death with his own weapon in his late so super-eminently-applauded appearance for the [brace] liberty of tender consciences, legitimacy of solemn swearings, entituled, a discourse concerning publick oaths, and the lawfulness of swearing in judicial proceedings, in order to answer the scruples of the quakers ... / by samuel fisher ... fisher, samuel, - . [ ], , [ ], p. [s.n.], [london] printed : . at head of title: epischopos aposchopos [greek transliterated]. place of publication suggested by wing. error in paging: p. of nd pt. misnumbered . imperfect: print show-through with considerable loss of print. errata: p. at end. reproduction of original in the huntington library. includes bibliographical references. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to 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illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng gauden, john, - . -- discourse concerning publick oaths. church of england -- controversial literature. dissenters, religious -- england. society of friends -- apologetic works. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - judith siefring sampled and proofread - judith siefring text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the bishop busied beside the businesse : or that eminent overseer , dr. iohn gauden , bishop of exeter so eminently overseen , as to wound his own cause well nigh to death with his own weapon , in his late so super-eminently-applauded appearance for the liberty of tender consciences . for the legitimacy of solemn swearings . entituled , a discourse concerning publick oaths , and the lawfulness of swearing in iudicial proceedings , in order to answer the scruples of the quakers . which singularly double discourse is , in the two parts of this following animadversion of it , both seriously , and singly discoursed with , and discovered to be not more ( pretendedly ) against persecution for conscience , than ( really ) for it ; nor more ( intentionally ) for solemn swearing among christians , than ( effectually ) against it . by samuel fisher , prisoner in newgate , for the truth of iesus . quis non ridet ? qui non videt . suo se iugulavit gladio . evangelica veritas non recipit iuramentum . hieron . non oportet ut vir , qui evangelicè vivit , iuret omnino . chrisost. printed in the month , called august , in the year , . to the reader . reader , to say nothing here how far the bishop's book ( which this relates to as an answer ) fall's short of that beauty and strength of true religion , spiritual sense , and sound reason it pretends to , which it scarcely seems in some parts of it to have so much as the ordinary lineaments , and symmetry of ; at least in our apprehensions , who are wholly strangers ( save that we see it in sundry of those polemical pieces , that by the parochial p. p. priest's of all the three postures ; viz. papal , prelatical , and presbyterial , have been put forth against us , and that eternal truth of god still testified to by us ) to any such self-subverting sermons , and unsaid sayings , as the said book consists of ; had we discerned in it any considerable weight of argument , or sufficient evidence to evince the main point undertaken ( i. e. the lawfulness of swearing ) to the conviction of our consciences , we should very likely either in print have signified our subscription to it , or else have sate down in silence , and thereby at least signified our satisfaction . and ( even as nothing as it is to its propounded purpose ) we could ( but that we must say for truths sake , with him of old , who of a priest , was made a prophetical reprover of the priests , ierem. . . wo is me my mother , fon thou hast born me a man of strife and contention to the whole earth , ) be very well contented to be silent , rather than to be found ore and ore again contending with every new opposer of those old truths , the old encounterers , and their most critical encounters of which have been profligated by us long ago . moreover ( to let pass those other disadvantages we adventure upon , of [ caeteris imparibus ] our present low , streitned , imprisoned , and in a manner condemned con●…ition , by reason whereof , as damnati lingua vocem habet , vim non habet , so we may expect our words , how true soever , should gain but small credit against the bishops ) we have so much the smaller encouragement to reply at this time , sith , by so doing we expose our selves to the lash and severity of a sharp law , some of the executioners of which are ( in their blind zeal and malicious minds ) far more rigid , sharpe , and severe in their hyperbolical * prosecution of it , then we are yet apt to believe the most supream enactors of it ●…ere , at their enacting it , in their intentions . all which notwithstanding , for as much as the internal , eternal truth of our god , which we have known , received and belived , is very pretious , honourable and of great esteem with us , yea , far more than either life , liberty , estate , or any external treasure , or enjoyment whatsoever , and considering how it lies at stake so in this case , that our total silence might not unlikely be mistaken for consent , and how apt some are to deem all their aspersions of us , assertions and arguments against us to be owned and assented to by us , if they be not answered ( though else it might have been more prudential , as to the expedience of our liberties , and estates , to have forborn in such a juncture ) we could do n●… less ( in order to the clearing of our selves from the c●…lumnies , which continue to be oast upon us by both priests and people of different principles and perswasions , and the clearing of that truth we hold forth both more generally ( as concerning the light ) and more particularly ( as to the case of oaths , about which we are so angrily contested with ) than enter our dissent in publick in such wise , as in the book ensuing . which book in both the parts thereof , into which it stands divided ( respectively to the two sorts of matter , which is handled in the bishops ( viz. ) that about liberty , and compulsion of conscience , and that of swearing before courts of judicature ) is devoted ( reader ) to thy most serious , and impartial perusal , that thou mayest see how the bishop in the self same work wherein he labours earnestly to bring all men to ( be conformitants to him , is found a most egregious non-couformitant to himself : for in his epistle , and in the former part of his undertakings , which is more positive , this bishop seems in very many passages of it to be much what of the temper of his ( quondam ) predecessor in the same see , * and reasons much against the inhumanity , anti-christianity , uneffectualness , unsafeness , unlawfulness , tyrannousness , irreligiousness , unrighteousness , unreasonableness of meer plagiary counsels , punitive courses , sharpe penalties , flagellant methods , the cudgel , sword , prisons , banishments , plunderings , sequestrations and such like , as if he had indeed so much native candor , and true christian charity , as did constrain him , after the genius of primitive christians , ( who were never exercised in the inflictions of any such ( as carnal , as cruel ) censures on the outward man , whereby to convince the conscience ) he did utterly abhor and detest all such doing's upon the score of region only : nevertheless , considering not only various passages intermingled among the above said matter , standing as it were diametrically opposite thereunto , wherein he pleads the destructiveness and injuriousness of lenity , and no less than even a necessity of the use of such severities more or less to the most modest and moderate dissenters , to the peace , safety and happiness of the community , but more especially considering his confessed consent to that acknowledged unseasonable issuing out of that act for the non-toleration , coercion , compulsion of the quakers themselves , whom he deems to be the innocentest of modern dissenters , together with such other concurrent circumstances , as are onely thus hinted at here ; seeing they are more largely handled in the book it self , to which the reader is hereby referred ; saving all his fair and formall shews of so much favour and facility to tender consciences , as he would fain seem to be found in , his charitable endeavours ( as he calls them ) do more truly tend ( what ever they pretend to ) to the re-establishing , than to the total removing of that antichristian yoak of persecution for conscience ( complain'd on and cried out against by the bishops themselves , as well as others , when they felt the weight of it ) from off the necks of christ's truest disciples ; whom ( for as much as their possessors slay them , and hold themselves not guilty , yea , count , and sell them all the day long , as sheep for the slaughter , and then say , blessed be the lord , for i am rich , yea , their own shepherds pitty them not ) christ jesus therefore , the great shepherd and overseer of their souls , to whom they are now returned , from whom they once ment astray after the other , who fed them in the barren places of the forrest , and drove them from mountain to hill in their dark and gloomy day , will most assuredly feed and gather , and destroy that yoak from off their necks , and that heavy burden from off their shoulders by means of the anointing : and as to those shepherds among whom the poor of his flock are as the flock of the slaughter : i will eat the flesh of the fat ( saith the lord ) and tear their claws in pieces , yea i will destroy the fat and the strong , and feed them with judgement so that that which dieth let it die , and that which is to be cut off , let it be cut off ; yet those three s. s. shepherds , whose soul hath abhorred me saith the lord , and my soul loatheth them , i will cut off in one month ; they have been as a swift dromadary traversing her way as a wild ass , used to the wilderness , snuffing up the wind , so that in her occasion none can reverss her , yet in her month she shall be found ; they have dealt treacherously with the lord , they have begotten strange children , now shall a month destroy them with their portions , ezek. . . hos. . . zach. . , , . yea this we say in the lord , their feet , which stand on slipery places in the dark , shall slide in due time , and the things that come upon them make haste ; and by how much the more in their subtilty , by giving goodly words , they deceive the hearts of the simple , and seek to seem more fair and favourable than in truth they are , to implead all persecution whatever ( even doctrinally ) and yet practice it , by so much the sooner will wrath and ruin be upon them suddenly from the lord , and so much the sorer and sharper will the stroak be , when the lord once shall arise to smite them with the rod of his mouth , and to rebuke with equity for all the meek of the earth . indeed it cannot be denied , but many of their words are soft as butter , and smooth as oyl ; yea speciem agninam , pellem ovinam pre se ferunt , yet intus & in cute mordent ; even while they cry peace , if men please them not so as to conform to whatever constitutions , are according to their own coveteous conceptions , they bite with their teeth , and prepare war against them by speaking out the proud things , that are in their hearts , proudly , contemptuously , and disdainfully against the righteous : thus , under a shew of serving them , secretly shooting at the sincere servants of god ; so as we may say truly , they are for a toleration in all cases ( excepting wherein they are against it ) and against all persecution of tender consciences ( those cases onely excepted , wherein they are for it ) in a word they bait us with now a bit , and then a bite , kill us with a kind of cruell kindnesse , cal d christian charity ; and as he of old , who in more spite then real pitty , with a complement commended christ to condemnation , so do they at this day , who under a feigned face of friendship in the persons of his people betray him into the hands of his open adversaries with a kisse : but such linsey wolsey webs as these , will never become garments wherewith to hide their inward enmity against the truth . as for the last part of the doings of this bishop , with whom we have here to do , wherein he is more argumentative for that solemn swearing now us'd in judicature , what litle strength he is likely to appear in for it , who himself sayes so much against it as bishop gauden does , let the reader iudge by his own , and other authors sayings , by him cited and here recited to that purpose , viz. evangelica veritas non recipit juramentum . hieron . the gospel verity doth not admit of an oath , non oportet , ut vir qui evangelice vivit , juret omnino , chrisost. it is not meet , that a man who lives according to the gospel should swear at all . rarus apud veteres jurandi usus in judiciis , sed crescen●…e perfidia crevit juris jurandi usus . in the better and simpler ages of the world , oathes were seldom used in judicatures , but after that perfidy and lying increased , the use of oathes increased . bishop gauden out of polibius . there was no need of an oath among primitive christians , it was security enough in all cases to say christianus sum , i am a christian , bishop gaud. p. . christians ( truly such ) need no oathes in publick or private , bishop gaud. p. . nor can credit be given any more then to a lyar , to any man that swears never so solemnly , and in iudicature , who is a common swearer , and hath no reverence of the majesty of god , bishop gaud. p. . certainly the affairs of christians , both publick and private , would be no lesse to their honour and ease , if there were in no case any need , or use of oathes or swearing , but onely such an authentick veracity and just credulity on all sides , as might well spare even the most true , sincere and lawful oathes , keeping on all sides as great a distance from lying , as from false swearing , bish. gaud. p. . quis legit haec , & c ? he that can read all this , need not go further then bishop gauden to find matter wherewith to answer bishop gauden concerning the unlawfulnesse , at least the needlesnesse of any swearing . to conclude then ( for i am in an epistle only here , and not in the book it self ) as it 's an ill bird ( as the proverb speaks ) that bewrayes his own nest , so it 's an ill wind that blowes no body no profit : and so though the whirl-wind of the bishops doctrine ( wherein he whiffles to and fro , in and out , and sometimes round about ) cannot well serve his own ill turn against the truth testified to by the quakers , yet 't is one good turn at least , that it doth very well serve the quakers wherewith to serve the truths good turn against himself . sam . fisher . the first part . there being a book lately put forth , intituled , a discourse concerning publick oaths , and the lawfulness of swearing in iudicial proceedings , by doctor gawden , bishop of exeter ; written ( as he saith ) to answer the scruples of the quakers ; we having seriously perused the said book with an upright heart , and impartial eye , to the end that we might own what is good in it , and refute , or at least refuse what is evil ; not being espoused to any opinion or iudgment , but what carries demonstration of truth with it unto and upon our consciences ( it being our principle to keep them alwayes void of offence towards god and towards man ) do here profess in the sight of god and all men , that , notwithstanding what ever is therein written to the contrary , our belief is , that christ's and the apostles words , mat. . iames . who say , swear not at all , by heaven , nor by earth , nor any other oath , &c. are still to be understood , as formerly upon occasion we have declared , and do now again declare in this our return and reply to the book aforesaid , not out of obstinacy and wilfulness , but duty and conscience to god and his truth , which is dearer to us than all we have to loose for the sake of it ; for as we had no scruples in our selves before his book came forth ( as the bishop supposeth we had ) about swearing , in order to the resolution of which he pretends to write , being sufficiently clear in our iudgements against it : so we have met with nothing in our serious perusal of this bishops book , but what hath rather contributed to the strengthning of us in our former belief and perswasion , than in the least either to the shaking of our confidence , or the convincing us of error in this our way and practice , of denying to swear at all . the insufficiency of the book aforesaid , & of the matter therein contained to convi●…ce us , or any , that sincerely seek the truth in this particular , appears to us , and may appear unto any , who are impartial , both by the sundry confusions , and contradictions , that are to be found in it , to it self , in more points than one , and also by the weakness of the arguments thereof , to evince the thing pretended to ; both of which we have here with as much brevity and plainness , as might well be , presented to publick view , in such-wise as hereafter followeth . i. whereas the bishop promises very many things in order ( as he supposes ) to the better understanding of these two t●…ts , after his way of 〈◊〉 , it may not be amis●… for us to take some notice , and make some useful observations of sundry of those precedent passages , both in his book , and his epistle to it ; which ( for orders sake ) we shall consider of , under those three general heads , into which he seem●… to have moulded all that matter of his book , which is ante●…dent to his discourse concerning swearing , viz. first , his christian charity to — the quakers . secondly , his pitty to — the quakers . thirdly , his commendations of — the quakers . in each of which , it 's not uneasie both to discern and to discover him to be more pretended , then real , yea , more uncharitable , abusive , ironical , and condemnatory , than either truly charitable , or compassionate , or commendatory towards the quakers : yea , we cannot but see ( unless we will close our eyes ) how a vein of scorn , reproach , defamation and contempt , persecution and spoile , ●…ns along throughout both his epistle , and all the fore-part of his book notwithstanding the most faire and specious pretences of it to pitty , compassion , mercy , moderation , commiseration and commendation ; and howbeit , it guilds and plaisters it self over in many places , with some seeming shewes of love , bowels to , and applauses of the quakers , and those tender termes of lenity , facility , gentleness , humanity , cand●…r , christian charity , &c. superficially sprinkled up and down here and there ( as a vail ) upon the face of it , yet it goes no●… so disguised , but that there are eyes , which through all those thin tiffany pretexts , see clearly such a frowni●…g face , and course complexion , such a sour visage of severity , rigor , yea , and cruelty it self , as in case of ( immedicabile vulnus ) the quakers non-conviction of that for truth , which they have tried the truthlesness of already , by a surer touch-stone than that of the bishops traditional talk , or in ca●…e of non-submission ( even against conviction , which himself confesseth would not be pleasing to god ) to the bishops bare conceptions upon a text or two ( when once held forth to them by him so , or so interpreted ) as to some un●…rring cano●… ( por quem cuncta prius tendand a ) could heartily wish ( notwithstanding the 〈◊〉 voice of iacob ) that the ●…ough hands of esa●… might be laid on to no less than very amputation and abscision . for first , as to that point of liberty of conscience , which in his epistle , and the first part of his book also he treats much about , though he would be thought to be in his pitty and christian charity , ●… pleader for it , at least on the behalf of those poor silly quakers ( as he 〈◊〉 terms them ) as if he were indeed some compassionate moderator of mens ●…rathful and hasty spirits towards them , yet considering how ( like the lizard , which what ever good prints he makes with his feet on the sand , when he runs , dashes them all out again with his bushie taile that comes behind ) this charitable and pittiful bishop interlines his pitty and christian charity , with so much unchristian , antichristian cruelty , so many corrosives among his cordialls , flings so many firebrands after his favourable fomentations , and seconds his lenitives with so many sharpe and supercillious lancings , all he utters to the mollyfiing of mens minds and manners towards us , amounts to as much , as if he had said just nothing . his charity and his pitty also , for the expression of which , and his paines therein , though he expect it not ( as he sayes ) because of out ingratitude , yet he seems to himself to have deserved thanks , was expressed ( as the bishop himself intimates ) in that his intercession for us to the house of lords ( not obliged , but unspoken to by the quakers ) before the exhibition of the edict against us●… , that it might be forborn , till some course might be taken for our information . secondly , in this present course of putting forth this his book , in order to such an information of the quakers , as aforesaid : which first way of the expression of his charity , is by himself testified to , pag. , , . in these words . bish. finding lately in the most honourable house of peers , that a 〈◊〉 was likely to pass in order to punish with great penalties those english subjects , who under the name of quakers , shall refuse to take , as other legal oaths , so those which are usually required in judicial proceedings , &c. i was hereupon bold thus far to intercede with that honourable house , in the behalfe of those poor people , who are likely to fall under the penalties of the law , that i craved so far a respite for some time , as to the execution of those penalties upon any of them as offenders , until some such rational and religious course were taken , 〈◊〉 might best inform those men of the lawfulness , by god's aswel as man's law , of imposing and taking such publick oathes , that so answering first their scruples , and fairely removing their difficulties , either they might be brought to a cheerful obedience in that particular , or else be left without excuse before god and man , while the truth of the law was justified against their errors , and the severity of it only imputable to their own obstinacy . i further recommended this previous method of christian charity , or meekness of wisdom , as best becoming the piety , humanity , and honour of that house . secondly , as most agreeable to the wonted . clemency of his majesty to all his good subjects . thirdly , as the aptest means to reclaim such as were gone astray from their duty , by the errour of their fancy . fourthly , to stop for the future the spreading of this and other dangerous opinions , which are usually known under the name of quakerism , &c. fifthly , as very sutable to my profession as a minister of the gospel , as the special care of the bishops and fathers of the church , relations which carry in them great obligations to humanity , charity , ministerial duties , episcopal vigilancy and paternal compassion to any men , especially christians , who are weak or ignorant , erroneous in their iudgement , or dangerous in their actions . lastly , i urged the pattern of divine justice , whose usual fore-runn●…r is mercy ; vengeance rarely following , but where patience hath gone before , instructing men of their duty , warning them of the danger of their sins , bearing with their manners for a time , and calling them to repentance before ●…he decree come forth to execution : to this purpose i am sure i spake , &c. answ. it is confest the bishop uses here many good arguments , in which we cannot but agree with him , that they are cogent ; not only so far as he makes use of them ( viz. ) for the procuring of respite for a time only , but for the putting of a stop also for ever to such an altogether unchristian , and antichristian course as it is ; for christians by outward penalties to persecute any men , meerly for their consciences about religion , specially christians , who , how they can be dangerous in their actions ( as he supposes they may ) and yet be truly christians ( since he who is owned by christ to be so indeed , must depart from all iniquity ) we are yet to learn : yea undoubtedly , if we were in any dangerous opinions ( which yet is more than all the bishops , were they as willing as they are averse to it ; will ever be able to make proof of to our faces ) it had been an apter means to reclaim us from them , and to stop the growth of what he in his wonted emphatical way scornes at under the name of quakerism , and more suitable to the profession of gospel ministers , bishops and fathers of the church , more answerable to divine iustice , more becoming the professed piety , humanity , and honour of that house , and the other also , more agreeable to the kings wonted clemency , if not to have quitted those more riged inflictions by penalties altogether , yet at least to have used first those rational and religious courses , which the bishop calls softer applications , for our information of the lawfulness by god's , aswel as man's law , of both those things , which by the said act , on pain of spoile and banishment , are strictly imposed on us , which are not only that of swearing , which the bishop would fain seem to have said something ( though hoc aliquid nihil est ) more then was ever said before in proof of the lawfulness of , but also that sin of forbearing to meet together to worship god publickly , according to our consciences , and his own will concerning us . yea and lastly , to add one thing more , which ( whether the bishop forgot to urge it or no , i know not , but sure i am ) had as great weight of a reason in it as any of the rest , to have byassed and swa●…ed both houses another way , whereupon the king himself in his wisdom saw fit , as in reference to himself and them , to urge it so often in his speeches to them , aswel as the chancellor in one of his , may the th , . more evidently and eminently consistent with that signal credit and affection , that high repute and honourable esteem in the hearts of his truest subjects , which the first making of such promises , crowned the king withal , aswell as with his truth and faithfulness in the performance of all those promises he hath so fully and freely made , and so frequently reiterated concerning such a continued liberty , to the tender consciences of such as should not disturb the kingdoms peace ( as on our parts we have not ) that no such should be disquieted , or so much questioned for their differences of opinions in matters of religion ; and that he should be ready to consent to such an act of parliament , as upon mature deliberation should be offered to him for the full granting of such indulgence . * we say the urging of all these promises had been an argument of as much force in it self , and as much likely to have prevailed with the house , as any of the rest , had it been in the mind of the bishop to have made use of it ( as it seems it was not ) for this is enough to render the word of the king less creditable among all ( save such as are yet unwilling to believe any otherwise of him , than that he once truly intended what was then by him so solemnly avouched ) that instead of an act for the full granting of the liberty so often promised , there is an act now out for the final taking away of the same . nevertheless , though the bishop made no mention of these matters in his speech , ( whether for fear least in so doing his intercession should take more effect then he truly desired it should , or no , god knows , i will not say so , but by some other passages of the bishops book , many a one may be apt to think so for all that ) yet his own arguments might have moved ( if not the house ) yet at least himself , not at all to have consented to so sudden a passing of that bill , the forbearance of which ( for a far longer time then was allotted , to so great a work as our information ) himself seemed so sincerely , and seriously to plead for . but behold , how , notwithstanding that favourable acceptance , which ( he saith ) his motion had in the house from many lords temporal , and some of his brethren the bishops also , yet , contrarily thereunto the decree is both passed and come forth against us , even before any of the aforesaid rational or religious courses , which he judges ought to have been used , were at all used towards us for our conviction of our errour and mistake . insomuch that howbeit his chartible intercession , and his pittiful motion in the house , who ( as he saith of himself , pag. . ) is thought to be no barren nor diffident speaker , is rather to be accepted of , and commended , than either condemned , or despised ( if it were indeed as he relates it , and also made in the integrity , and sincerity of his heart ) albeit it hath not accomplisht its pretended end , yet we appeal to his own conscience whether he hath not manifested , not only some pittilesness and want of charity ( saving all his fair pretences of so much love and compassion ) but also much falsness and faithlesness to the quakers , aswell as unsutableness to his episcopal capacity , and that in these three respects . * ( . ) in not putting forth himself in that interval of time between the da●…e of the bill , and the publication of it , to use the means aforesaid for our information , which himself confesseth had been suitable to their profession , as ministers of the gospel , and as bishops and fathers of the church ( relations , which he also sai●…h carry in them great obligations to humanity , charity , ministerial duty , episcopal vigliancy , and paternal comp●…ssion to any men , especially christians , who are weak or ignorant , erroneous in their iudgement , or dangerous in ●…heir actions ) for ●…o this very day we know of no such rational and religious courses taken by him , or his brethren to inform us of the lawfulness by gods , as well as by mans law , of imposing and taking of publick oaths ; yea himself confesseth , pag. . he hath never had so much as one hours conversation with any of that way : neither can the writing of this his book with a private and single hand , or any thing that is found written therein , be truely said ( as pag. . he deems it may ) to make good such an undertaking , for these three reasons . ( ) because if there had been any thing it of force to our conviction , yet it is born out of due time , for the act commencing ( and that not without his own consent , if the bishop will believe himself ) from the th . of march last past , was in i●…s force against us , a long time before his book was extant in order to our instruction . ( ) because in his whole book he brings no proof at all , to justifie the imposing of oathes upon any , under penalty : all that he pretends to prove ( any other way then by some few mens examples , which cannot be all mens rule ) being onely the lawfulness of taking oathes : and no marvel why he meddles so little with the former , since in all the law of god , there is not so much as one command or example for the imposing of any oath , under pains or penalties to the refusers . ( ) because even in that part of his book , where he pretends to prove the lawfulness of taking oathes , in order to the taking away of our soruples ( as he calls them ) he hath not medled with any of those arguments extant to the contrary , in sundry books heretofore written by us , but onely gives us his own thoughts on those texts , which we have disproved the lawfulness of swearing from long ago , and would have us take those thoughts of his for truth , more from the authority ( for ought we see ) of his prelatical , paternal dignity , then any weight of right , or solid reason that is found in them ; now until the said course be taken , and that respite the bishop hath craved from all outward inflictions , till the said course hath been taken , be granted , we appeal to all wise men , whether the bishop hath by his practice , faithfully answered his own pretended desires to the house , and whether ( while he is altogether inexcusable therein himself ) we remain not as yet excusable in our sufferings ? sith the very thing which the bishop saith , must leave us without excuse , is the taking of the aforesaid course , until which we are excusable by his own intimation ; and when the said course shall be taken with the quakers by the bishops , who have never yet so much as given way to discourses with them , then the men , who ( as the case now stands ) are deeply and doubly guilty in runing violently upon them , will at least be more excusable , and less guilty than now they are , in their proceedings with them according to the rigor of the act. * in this respect ( in which also the bishop cannot but stand condemned within himself ) viz. in that quite contrary to the confessed constitution of his own iudgement and conscience , by which he stood by so many arguments convinced cleerly to the contrary ; even that the way which was beyond all controversie the best way , at least to let the quakers alone some time , as to the execution of those penalties upon any of them , as offenders , till some rational and religious courses were taken with them , he hath condescended so far below the call of god in his conscience , as ( all evidence and counsel to the contrary therein notwithstanding ) to give his own personal and ep●…scopal consent to the passing of the bill , and consequently to the execution of all those penalties upon them all as offenders ( unlesse he will rather say he consents to have them suffer that imprisonment , impoverishment , banishment the act inflicts , not at all as offenders , but as innocent , ( as elsewhere in effect he does ) and so mends his matter as much , as one that makes it much worse then it was before ) before it was possible for such means to be used , as himself affirms ought to be the first , and judges every way to be the best and fittest for information ; here the bishop is far from teaching facienda faciendo , from justifying the real truth and soundness , which was in a great part of his doctrine to the house , by his own example ; no marvel then ( though it found some acceptance among many ) that it was seconded with so little successe as it was among the most , who acted contrary to it , whilst himself was found so easily drawn aside , to side in such a practice , as was utterly contrary to his own professed principles : for what wise men will give heed to follow the wind of that mans words and wisdom , in whom they see ( while he yet speaks ) so little stability , he is ready to row one way whilst he looks another , and willingly to assent to act against his own opinion and assertions , for thus the bishop doth in the case in hand ; he sets himself in at least a seeming zeal of moderation towards the quakers to stir up others to compassion and patience to them , yet is himself so incompassionate and impatient , as to consent to the ruine of them in all haste , before the means of his own prescribing , and that previous method of christian charity , and meekness of wisdom ( recommended by himself to be used first , under so many weighty reasons and considerations , and such as are of force not with himself onely , but many lords temporal , and some of his brethren also ) were used to them ; and here ( we say ) how ever he covers himself over with the figg-leaves of many fair forms of speech , about his pitty and christian charity , he discovers in very deed , not onely a spirit of uncharibleness , cruelty , malignity and enmity , but also of deceit , falshood and unfaithfulness to god and men ; sith by his own confession of his previous intimation thereof to the house , we understand his consent was given to the passing of the bill against us : * for if the bishop had judged it either reasonable or seasonable for the bill to passe against us when it did , he might more excusably have acted according to his iudgement , and forborn to have urged so much against it : but if it were against the conviction of his conscience , that it should passe till such a time , he hath the more inexcusably before the time of using softer courses , so easily and earnestly consented against his conscience to the passing of it , and must go condemned in himself of such unfaithfulness , as is a shame that it should be found in one of his profession ; for as , qui statuit aliquid parte inaudita altera , aequumlicet statuerit hand aequus fuerit , he must needs passe sentence against himself , as unequal in his ways , who ( though the thing determined should be an equal thing ) determines it before he hath had a fair and full hearing of all parties , much more may such a one as assents to the acting of that severity against which , but just before himself very eagerly argued , say with shame enough of himself , video meliora proboque , deteriora sequor ; i see the best way , but chuse the worst ; and whether this bishop may not say of himself the same ( as to the case in hand ) we appeal to the light of god in his own and all mens consciences , since he confesseth , that fo●… many reasons we ought to have had respite for a time , as to the execution of the penalties of the act upon us , and yet confesseth his consent to the act for our suppression before we had it . object . but the bishop sayes , pag. . he might consent to the passing of the bill , out of the iustice and charity , which he owes to the publick peace , to which all private parties , interests , and charities , must submit . ans. if that be iustice and charity to the publick ▪ peace , for any to suppresse all interests and private parties but their own , we are yet to learn what iustice and charity is ; for the iustice and charity , which we who are called quakers do even owe and exercise towards the publick peace , is ( as to the point of liberty of conscience ) to plead the civil interest of all private parties ( they behaving themselves peaceably in their respective religions ) in the same equality with our own ; though the bishops we see ( might they be their own carvers ) would prove such impropriators , as to engross all publick countenance and encouragements , by the injunction and protection of the law , all favour of princes , all publick maintenance and honour , and use of publick oratories , publick offices , and employments of authority , forreign and domestique , yea all advantages of what sort soever ( as their proper honoraries ) appropriated to one interest , that is their own : yea to it ( and it only ) as bishop gauden expresseth it , in pag. . of his epistle ; yet as ( universalia nec existant , nec apparent nisi in singularibus suis ) he cannot appear to be a well wisher to the publick peace and welfare , who denies it to any particular , much more to all particular parties and interests , but his own ; so if all private parties , charities and interests must submit to the publick peace , and welfare , we shall then believe the bishops to have that iustice and charity , they owe to the publick peace and welfare , when we see them submit theirs , so at least as to let others live quietly in the land besides them , but not before : that being ( whatever largeness of love and liberality it may pretend to ) a private , narrow , selfish , pinching , churlish spirit , and not that truly charitable , publick , peaceable , universal , liberal soul , that deviseth liberal things , and by liberal things shall stand , that cannot bear all other professions of the same religion with it self , to stand quietly , and live peaceably by it self in the same land or nation ; nor are they any more true seekers of the publick peace , who to preserve it , destroy the private peace of those many thousands that seek it more seriously then themselves , and with no small denyal of their own , then those are true seekers of the publick safety of the whole ship ; who would fain sink all other mens cabbins , dreaming by so doing , to save their own . * in this respect , in that after the softer applications and rational and religious courses , used for our information about oathes , it s taken for granted by him , that it is no less then obstinancy in us , if we be not ( ipso facto ) brought into a chearful obedience in that particular , and that we are left without excuse before god and man , and both the truth of the law justified against our error , and the severity of it onely imputable to our obstinancy ; so that after some small respite , in case of non-conviction concerning the lawfulness of that swearing they impose ; or in case of our non-submission , even against conviction ( which conviction is the work of god , and not of man , and never likely to be effected whilst the world stands , so clearly are many thousands from god himself convinced to the contrary , by all that slender evidence this bishop can for swearing hold forth from scripture ) then the vengeance decreed , is to fall without remedy , without mercy , pitty or commiseration , with a heavier stroke upon the quakers then before , not now as offenders onely , but as obstinate offenders , as wilful refusers and resecters of the truth , and of the patience exercised and mercy tendered , and all this without any colour of excuse or ground of plea for themselves , under all their tribulations in the sight of god , as well as men ; thus such as are not unwilling to see it , may easily see , that though the bishops book viewed only by some running reader , that eyes it not very wa●…ily , may seem by some passages of it to have the fair face of nothing else but charity , and of nothing less then such a thing as cruelty ; nevertheless being well viewed in other passages of it , and in that most ultimate end , which it most strenuously ayms at , which is primus in intentione , though ultimus in executione , first in his intention , though last in execution ; then it may appear very easily to any one that lat●…t anguis in herba , it carries the sting of severity in the tayle of , it , at least not so much zeal , charity , and pitty by far , as it pretends to . though then the bishop would fain seem to be very slow and backward to have rigidity used towards the poor , silly , harmless , unwary quakers ( as he calls them ) whom he much puties as a people possibly of no evil minds , and such like , yet his desire of forbearance towards them mainly is , that they ( for all the leaden heels he moves on with ) might at last be the more cruelly handled with iron hands ; let them alone for a while , let them be vo●…chsafed , so much honour and favour in order to their reducement , as to have some rational and religious course exercised to them , by those that are so high above them , as the bishops and fathers of the church , and then , for not seeing with their eyes , alias not believing ( as they do at rome ) as the church believes , whose spiritual fathers are the representatives of it ) be turned over to be destroyed , as wilfully and obstinately rebellious against god : the sum then of this bishops christian charity , and pious pitty to the quakers , amounts to as much , as if he should have said , tolerate them yet a little , that they may be taken away totally at the last ; in altum tollantur , protempore tolerentur , ut laps●… craviore cadant . but that which is more observable yet in the passage above spoken to , is the bishops contradiction herein to himself , and to what he himself holds forth for truth in other passages ; for howbeit here he condemns and objects it against us as matter of obstinate offending , if after some respite given , as to execution of penalties , and rational courses taken ( though succeslesly ) for our information , we be found ( though unconvinced ) not conforming cheerfully to what is imposed ; yet elsewhere ( as namely , page , . ) he commends and praises it as good in the quakers , in that they choose , where they remain unconvinced , rather to suffer , than sin against their consciences ; which to do , he himself saith , were to sin against god , whose holy will ( saith he there ) shining on the soul in reason and religion , either seeming or real , is indeed the present rule of conscience : nor may any man ( saith he ) act contrary to these dictates , which he judges to be god's , though he err as to the truth of the rule , yet his iudgement binds so far as it represents ( though in a false glass ) the supposed light of god's will ; for he that will venture to act against conscience , though erroneous , will also act against it , though it be never so cleer and perspicuous ; if conscience act according to its error , it sins materially against the truth of god ; if it act contrary to its appearing principles , it sins formally , and malitiously , as wilfully rebelling against the supposed will of god. mark well the confusion of this man , we do not deny , but that ( to his own great disadvantage , aswell as the perpetual shame of himself , and all such of his brethren as go about by outward penalties to fright and force men to act against their consciences ) in these last words of his , he utters a most undeniable truth ; but how grievously he interfeers and thwarts himself and his own sayings in the place above spoken to , he that is not s●…ark blind cannot choose but see . one while if the quakers do not cheerfully obey after the bishops rational applications to them for their conviction ( which , in reality , rather are irrational , if they all have no more , then bishop gauden hath yet said , to say for swearing ) the laws of men imposing oaths upon them against their consciences , they are to be condemned and punished as evil deers , that sin wilfully and obstinately against god , and so are under the rigid inflictions , and severe penalties of mens laws most iustly , as wilfully rebellious against both , and inexcusably before both god and man. otherwiles again , to sin against their consciences , though 〈◊〉 is to be condemned as evildoing , is to sin against god , yea to act contrary to its appearing principles , or against the holy will of god no more then s●…ming ●…o shine on the soul , which ( saith he ) is indeed the present rule of conscience , though they err as to the truth of the rule , and to act contrary , to those dictates , which ( though falsly ) they iudge to be gods , or contrary to what his judgement represents ( though but in a false glass ) the supposed light of god's will , is that which n●… man 〈◊〉 do , is to act contrary to what every man stands bound to , and ought to act , is a sign of an unconscionable man , or one that makes no conscienie at all in things that are never so true , plain , cleere and prospicuous , is a sign of one that hath not so much as integrity of intention , without which , there is no mitigation of any fault ; yea , is to sin formally , yea malitiously , yea a wilful or obstinate rebelling against god : which sort of sinning formally , wickedly or wilfully , by how much it is worse than to sin no more than materially ( as he speaks ) or weakly , for want only of knowledge of what is good ; by so much the greater ( say we ) is the guilt and punishment that is by right to be inflicted for the sin ( as to take away a man's life materially only , unawares , and with no ill mind , is not so bad as to do it formally , malitiously and wilfully against the known will of god to the contrary ) and by so much the more are they good , praise-worthy and commendable , ( saith the bishop himself ) who will rather choose to suffer , than so to sin ; upon which ground it is that the bishop , who condemns it as evil with a witness , and as sin in the highest degree , for any men to sin against their consciences , expresses himself in way of praise and commendation of the quakers , and in way of friendship and high approbation of this , as a good thing in them , in as much as they choose by their profession thereof , in those papers given in one day to some of the lords , rather to suffer than to sin against their consciences , and so against god , page . which choice of suffering under the presecuting hands of men , rather then to violate the conscience before god , if it be so highly to be commended , ●…o good and praise worthy a matter , as the bishop ( truly enough ? ) owner it to be ; then how little they are to be commended , who f●… fear of the wrath of men , choose to save themselves from it , by sinning against god , and their own consciences , much more how greatly and justly they stand condemned at the tribunal of god himself , who without any iust cause ( unless innocency be a cause ) ministred to them so to do , by threats and penalties , seek to cause honest men so to sin , we leave to the bishop himself to judge , who hath given his consent to such transactions . howbeit , we desire him to judge it by the light of god , which in his own heart shewes which is good and commendable , and which is evil ; for want of attendance unto which , he hath in the blin●…ness and darkness of his understanding , run himself hitherto into such a mist of confusion , and self contradiction , as not only to commend the quakers as a generation of iust ones , for choosing , rather then to sin against conviction , to undergo the penalties , which man's law , for god and conscience sake , inflicts upon them ; but also to commend these as a generation of iust ouer that do afflict them : for so he doth , page . whilst he commends those penalties , as just penalties , which , for doing no other thing then what himself before commended in them , a●…e by men's laws ins●…icted on them ; which two things ( to wit ) the quakers choosing to suffer the penalties inflicted on them for their consciences , and their adversaries choosing to inflict penalties on them for their consciences , that they should be both good , both praise-worthy , both commendable , both justifiable and just in the sight of god , is as impossible , as 't is for good to be evil , and evil good ; for if it be good in the quakers , to choose to suffer , rather then sin against it , then it cannot be good in others by penalties to seek to prevaile with them to sin against conscience , rather then to suffer . object . but if bishop gauden shall say he would not have men sin formally against conscience , nor suffer for their not so sinning , but for their sinning materially through the error of their conscience ; against the ( yet unknown ) rectitude it self , against the truth of the rule , as he sayes , page . men do when the [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ] iudgement is not according to truth , whose sin of the action ( however the integrity of intention may be commendable , and so mitigate the fault ) may be great , as it is an enormity , or aberration from the rule of eternal truth and iustice ; this being ( as bishop gauden sayes ) the snare or dilemma of the devil , which a conscience thus erring falls into , viz. that it cannot ( whilst so ) but sin one way or other , either materially against the intrinsecal iustice and truth of god , and his holy will , or else formally and wilfully against the supposed will of god. answer . we reply , this will in no wise relieve him from the just consute of absurdity , falshood and confusion , which he still falls under , as he pleads that principle of any persecution , or infliction of outward penalties for cause of conscience , though yet erring , as to its knowledge of what is truth ; for asmuch as he commends it as good in the quakers ▪ for chusing rather to suffer , then to sin , against even an erring conscience ; and yet justifies that also as good in those , who cause them to suffer for nothing but for non-conforming , and makes it the greater : evil of the two to conform against conviction , than not to conform ( meerly for want of conviction of it ) to the very truth , for hereby he still evinces the quakers suffering , to be a suffering for good , and consequently their work to be evil , who for that good only , do make them suffer . ob●… . and if he say it is good and commendable comparatively only , or in respect to a greater evil●… , as it is from such an integrity of the intention as mitiga●…es the fault , but in it self it is an evil , as here 's error in the iudgement ; albeit a lesser evil , than to act against the iudgment , and so justly punishable with penalties by outward powers . answ. we reply ( and he that hath an eare , let him hear , what b. g. confesseth to be the just cause of the quakers sufferings ) at least it amounts to no less than this however , that the bishop would have quakers suffer for choosing of two evils , whereof he sayes one of necessity must be taken ) that which is the lesser , and consequently for doing that which is comparatively better , and for their declaring that , which without all controversie is the worse , which is as just , good and true a thing in the quakers ( were their iudgements as erroneous , as the bishop would make them , and as it 's most certain they are cleere ) as that maxime is true , viz. ex duobus malis minimum est eligendum . see then , and behold the sum and substance of bishop gaude●…s divinity , and of his pitty and christian charity to the quakers ; though he praises , approves , and commends it as good in the quakers , for choosing to suffer for acting and sinning materially only ( which in reference to that other sort of sinning formally , he calls good and commendable ) rather then to sin formally , malitiously , and wilfully against their consciences ; yet contrariwise he condemns it , not only as erroneous , but also such obstinacy and wilfulness in their errors , as justly deserves the severity of the law , and its rigid inflictions and penalties to be executed on them , if after a little respite ( though they never be convinced ) they conform not contrary to their consciences . bish. and whereas he sayes , this is the snare and dilemma of the devil , that an erring conscience falls under , viz. that it must sin either the one way or the other ; instancing in the case of paul , when he persecuted and blasphemed the christian religion , being verily perswaded that he ought so to do against that way ; and of others , who should think they did god good service while they killed christ's disciples . answ. we grant that an erring conscience is indeed in such a snare : but this is that very snare and dilemma of the devil , that ( not the conscience of the quakers , which are truly enlightned , and so escaped out of the snare of that old fowler , but ) the erring consciences of their adversaries , who persecute them in their blind zeal , are fallen into at this day ; as paul ( while he was yet saul , breathing out threatnings and slaughter against the saints ) was before the time of his conversion to the light , in which principle of persecution of men for conscience , while they own it , it 's impossible for them to escape without being iudged one way or other , let them do what they will , or to escape so , but that they must fall into condemnation and the snare of the devil ; for if they persecute the lord's servants , and take crafty counsel against his hidden ones , to destroy and root them out , then wrath is upon them from the lord , who also will give kingdoms for their ransom , and nations for their life , rather then let their causless sufferings go unrequired ; but if they cease to persecute the saints , of whom the world is not worthy , whom in their be-nighted minds , they think to be such mischievous misoreants as are not worthy to move , and have their ●…eing in it , then they are afraid they are too negligent in doing god that good service , which ( according to their consciences thus crookedly constituted , and erroneously opinionated ) they , for want of ●…eeding the light , verily think they ought to do : thus , as error 〈◊〉 in principio fit semper major in medio , maximus in fi●… ; and as posit●…●…no absurdo sequuntur millia ; so the powers and professo●…rs of the christian world , both temporal and spiritual ; princes , priests and people being gone off , and degenerated from that pure , primitive tender temper of liberty of conscience , or tolleration of all religions in civil states ( men behaving themselves ( respectively ) no otherwise then peaceably and honestly therein ) into that , as blin●…t , as bloody principle of persecution of honest men , meerly for a meer conscientious non-conformity to the priests needless superfluous ceremonies , and endless impositions and inventions , have involved themselves in such inex●…ricable snares , and deep dilemma's of the devil , that we may truly say of some of them , but most especially of some of the clergy , who are the stirrers up of the strife ( as christ said of old of those chief priests , who were the chief persecutors of his disciples , and of those scribes and pharisees , whom he called serpents , and a generation of vipers ) how can they escape the condemnation of hell ? for if they 〈◊〉 not according to their professed principle , so as with outward penalties to punish and persecute the saints , who to themselves , who are not of the light and day , but night and darkness , seem sinners , then they are condemned in themselves , as men not faithful , trusty or honest to their yet erring consciences about those lawes of men against christs disciples , in the execution of which they dinily divine they do god service ; but if they do act according to their own thoughts , whilst they think in their conscience , as paul once did , they do god good service , when they kill his servants , then they can never flee from that wrath , which is to come upon all the ungodly and children of disobedience , who are found rebelling against the light , and revelling in the ruines of its children , which wrath is no other then the condemnation of hell it self , the lake of fire , the due portion of all the abominable ones , which is the second death , rev. . rev. . the best way to escape this snare , is for all men to take heed ( which must be by following the light within , of that spirit of truth it self , which by degrees leadeth all that faithfully follow it into all truth ) that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or iudgement of their conscience be according to truth first , and then ( as b. g. sayes truly indeed ) to act accordingly ; for while men say they have fellowship with god , and do him service , & yet walk in darkness , besides the light of god in themselves , in which god himself is manifesting his own minde more or less in each mans conscience , they lie , and do not the truth , . iohn . howbeit there is the most hopes of them , that , when in the same zeal , as saul of old , they persecute the true church of god , do it yet ignorantly and in unbelief ; that all such as have now any hand in persecuting and spoiling us , who ( excepting that ▪ new-nick name of quakers , by reason of which we are not yet known so to be ) are in truth the self same church and sort of christians , as were of old persecuted by saul and others , and in imprisoning and impoverishing us , through simple ignorance , may obtain the same mercy that paul did , is the hearty wish , and true desire of our souls , who can say of such , as christ also did , father forgive them for they know not what they do ; and with stephen , while they were stoning him , lord lay not this their sin to their charge : but if there be any that believe we are the people of god , and yet persecute us out of meer malice against his image , which they hate , having by long custome , and exercise of themselves , in murderous and bloody wayes contracted so compleatly to themselves that image of their father the devil , who hath begotten them from god and goodness to the doing of his own will , who was a murderer and a lyar from the beginning ; so that now they cannot but contradict the known truth , and blaspheme against the holy spirit of it , through what vessel soever it utters it self , the sin of such being evidently unto death , we are not bid to pray for that , it having forgiveness , neither in this world , nor in that to come ; yet we leave them to stand or fall to their own master . having in part discovered the pittifulness of some of those pious and specious pretences of pitty , and christian charity to the quakers , which bish , gauden makes , and under which , as under a vizard , he seeks to hide the severity of his visage , we shall proceed to unmask him further by some observation of some other passages , much what to the same purpose , in both his book and his epistle . bish. he saith in his epistle , pag. . thus the cudgol , sword prisons , and banishments , plundring and sequestrations , were the late cruel and flagellant methods , of our most tyrannous times , which had nothing of reason , law or religion to support them : but these are not in my iudgement , either the first or the fittest means to confute the falsities of mens private opinions , or to rectifie the obliquities of their inconform , but innocent actions flowing from them , upon the account of conscience and plea of religion . answ. by these words bish. gauden seems to give his countrymen and fellow christians to understand , that as the times are changed , so in his opinion , ought to be also the method of proceeding against the quakers , and other dissenters from themselves , and that as we were dealt with then ( but very unjustly ) by the cudgel , sword , prison , banishment , plundrings , and sequestrations , proceeding from the tyrannousness of those times , from men void of reason , law and religion ; so now it ought to be onely by good life and sound doctrine , from such as have true reason , law and religion , intimating also , that the case is not so desperate as to need any such sharp inflictions , seeing it is but to confute the falsities of mens private opinions , and to rectifie the obliquities of their inconform yet innocent actions , unto ( which saith he there must be more tender and softer applications ) accounting it no less then even unreasonable and unchristian , to follow the example of tyrants in such proceedings ; so that hereby one would think , there were some good ground to judge that this bishop and father of the church ( so called ) would prove a tender , nursing father indeed , that did with no small disdain decline all kinds of cruelty and persecution , yet notwithstanding , behold how in the very next words , he unsaith in effect all that again ; in this wise , viz. bish. it may be as just , as necessary , to represse by legal coerci●…ns and penalties , those petulant obstinacies , which do resist all safter applications , and endanger the publick tranquility , by giving affro●…ts to setled religion , or obstructions to the proceeding of iustice by established lawes ▪ by which words , he not onely gives us to discern ( as ex ped●… herculem , ex unque leonem ) what is his rigid resolution , and harsh disposition towards tender consciences ( notwithstanding his desire to be counted of a contrary complexion ) but also like an unskilful builder plueks down with one hand , what he built up newly with the other , for howbeit these words of his are not ( de sure ) applicable to us , who are called quakers ( we having never been found in any petulant obstinacies , nor resisted in any sence all softer applications , nor ever yet endangered the publick tranquility by affronts ) yet the bishop writing the said words with reference to them , and falsely applying them ( de facto ) to the quakers ( whom throughout his book , as well as here , he seeds with a bit and a knock ) makes void , as well to the contradicting of himself , as to the interdicting of that liberty he would ●…ain be believed to allow the quakers , what he himself had said immediatly before , & so ministreth to us just occasion of iealousie that by those words of his ( viz. ) resist , affronts , obstructions , &c. he intends no other then our denyal of obedience , the bishops meere minds and wills , and bare non-submission to such lawes of men , as without wounding and offending of a good conscience we can in no wise submit to ; so that ( whatever he would seem to grant ) yet all the liberty to the utmost he is really willing should be granted us , is only his , and his brethrens intimating to us , what is their mind and iudgement in religious matters , and the enacting of some outward law , to require our conformity , upon the not yielding of which we are to be supprest by coercions and penalties , as resisters of softer applications , as affronters of setled religion , as obstructers of the proceedings of iustice by established lawes : and this is that cuncta prius tentanda , which he is for , & all the appeal that he will allow , we being now in his judgement unexcusable , because we cannot see with his ey●…s ; and this is his quid amplius peteram ? what could i have done more ? and these are all the lenitives he affords us , before lancings and fomentations ; before incisions , or amputations , and no other remedy before rigor and severity : so that now upon meer non-submission to his and his brethrens counsell ( which yet was never at all ministred to us any other way , then in this his book , thrust forth above a month after the date of the late sharp act against us ) it is not to be reckoned any more the scratch of a petty opinion , but the gangreen of an obstinate and rebellions humour , which forceth the abscision , under pretence of preventing a deadly contagion to the whole body ; but ( blessed be the lord ) they who are made partakers of his saving health ( as we are through his goodness and mercy ) need none of these episcopall paternal remedies , for such are under the cure of the great shepherd , overseer or bishop of their souls , who will make the wrath of men turn to his praise , and the remainder of it will then restrain . bish. again it is yet further manifested , what the bishop intends by liberty and softer applications unto dissenters , from the religion established by outwara lawes , in the next page , wherein he declares , how he would have them , as no better then layers of the fou●…dations of distractions , division , destruction and confusion , to be deprived of all publick countenance and encouragement , and of the protection of the lawes , of the favour of princes , and not only of publick maintenance and honour , but also of the use of publick churches ( as he calls them ) and oratories of publick offices and employments of honour , and authority , forreign , and domestick , eclesiastical , civil and military , and all such like advantages , which he would have appropriated only to themselves , as their proper honoraries , who can conform to whatsoever religion by law may be established . answ. as for the advantages of publick maintenance and honour , and those ecclesiastical offices , imployments and preferments , which pertain to those publick places , which they call churches , we neither look nor seek after them , but leave them to those ministers , who look more after the eleece then the flock , unto whom the hon●…s is more desireable then the onus , and the benefice prized beyond the office of the ministry : nevertheless , sith the bishop would have dissenters deprived not only of these ecclesiastial , but of all other civil advantages also ; we would have him take notice , that the deprivations of all these priviledges , were the flagellant methods of those most tyrannous times ; which by the bishops own confession in his words before cited to his own shame , confutation and confusion , ( for asmuch as he would have the same used , and yet would seem to be against them too ) had nothing of reason , law or religion to support them . bish. the bishop saith further in the next words thus , with these outward advantages added to that internal power of truth and holiness , which are in the established religion , it may ( as i think ) not only be happily supported , but easily prevaile against all factions and feeble opposition , unless the scandal , negligence , levity , and luxury of its ministers , bishops , presbyters and professors , overthrow it by casting such inmoral disgraces upon it as make people disbelieve and abhorr both it and them ; as was in the case of elies sons . answ. that is a very weak and crasie religion indeed , which hath not internal power of truth and holiness , enough in it to support it , and that against but feeble opposition , without the addition of outward force , and the other external helps , 〈◊〉 advantages before mentioned : whether the bishops religion be such a feeble form or no , we leave them to consider , and examine ▪ but this we are sure of , that the true religion , not only hath been , and ever will be supported , and will prevail without these advantages and priviledges , but also in the midst of as deep disadvantages and deprivations . witness , . cor. . , . where the apostle sayes , we are troubled on every side , yet not distressed , perplexed , but not in despaire , persecuted , but not forsaken , cast down , but not destroyed . cor. . , ●… , &c. in all things approving our selves as the ministers of god , in much patience , in afflictions , in necessities , in distresses , in stripes , in imprisonments , in tumults , &c. by honour and dishonour , by evil report , and good report , as deceivers , yet true , as unknown , yet well known , as dying , yet behold we live , as chastened , yet not killed , as sorrowful , yet alwayes re●…oycing , as poor , yet making many rich , as having nothing , yet possessing all things . secondly , we observe that the bishop is very doubtful , jealous and fearful ( and that not altogether surely without a cause ) least the scandal , negligence , levity , and luxury of the bishops themselves , and of the ministers , presbyters , and professors of it , should overthrow their religion now established : but if it had that internal power of truth and holiness in it , as he pretends it hath , he need not fear its being disgraced , disbelieved , abhorred , and overthrown by the wickedness of its own ministers ( as he doubts theirs may ) for the truth will be honoured , believed , loved and established , ma●…gre not only the contradictions of sinners , and the wickedness of all such bishops , ministers , presbyters and professors that oppose it ; but also if all those that profess and promote it in its power , and not in empty formes only ( as others do ) should ( as god forbid , and as they are never likely at all to do ) become as wicked and negligent , as any prelatical ministers are , and as themselves have once been faithful and diligent in the service of it : for the true and pure religion , which is undefiled before god , whereby its children ( of whom alone its justified ) are kept unspotted from the world , stands not upon the sandy and slippery foundation of outward props , and advantages , but upon the inward principle of gods power , which is the power of an endless life ; but the children of such religions , as ( how fair so ever they seem before men ) stand not on that rock of ages , and are no better stablished then on the outside , frivolous forms of mens inventions , derived downward by tradition from fore-fathers , without that inward power of the endless life , may labour in the fire of their own fierce wrath and fury , to hold up all their own forms ( respectively ) yet weary themselves for very vanity , and to as little purpose as those , who have that endless task in hand , of striving to make a dead carcass stand , which ( howbeit , it hath all the outward proportion , shape , parts , limbs and leggs of a living man ) can never possibly stand longer , than it 's held up on every side by some external props or other , because ( as one said ) deest aliquid intus , there wants the main wheel , the master piece of all ( viz. ) the spring of that powerful principle of the life within . bish. but i confess ( saith he ) i would not have this legal and avowed religion of the nation , so rigorous , sharpe and severe ( as sarah to hagar ) by the suddain overawing , or violent overlaying of all other different perswasions in peaceable men , as not to let them breath in the same common air , or not to enjoy their lives , civil liberties and estates , with their dissenting consciences in all modest privacy and safety ; i abhorr as much as i dread all racks and tortures of mens souls , or those cruel , no less than curious scrutinies of mens consciences , which covet first ( like god ) to search mens hearts , and then ( like the devil ) delight to torment them in their estates and liberties , only because they are not so wise as themselves , but as honest perhaps , and sincere in the sight of god. answ. hence we may take notice of sundry things . but first by the way , whereas the bishop stiles the avowed religion of the nation , legal ; how legal it is in one sense , we matter not much for enquiring , but we grant ( how little evangellical soever it is ) it is legal enough ( if not too much ) in another , for it seems to us by the pompe , and pay of its priesthood , who talk for tithes , and a number more of its levitical ceremonious services , to smell much more of the law , than of the gospel , secondly , it is very observable here , that the bishop would seem to be against , not only the killing , but also the banishing of tender , consoientious dissenters , in that he saith , he would have them have their lives , and to breath also in the same common air , and not only so , but also against both the fining , and imprisoning them for ( saith he ) i would have them have their civil liberties and estates : notwithstanding , all which this bishop ( with whom confusion is as frequent as contradiction to himself ) intimateth , page . how he gives his consent to the passing of that very bill , which inflicteth on them , both fines , imprisonments , and banishments from their native country , and so from breathing in the same common air with other people . * but in very deed , what kind of liberty and enjoyment it is , that in his pitty and christian charity to the quakers , he would have granted to them , we have shewed somewhat of before , though himself ( seeking of sweeten all his foure sayings , and to sugar over all his bitter pills , with the fair , speeches of love , and lenity ) is loath to speak it out plainly ; however it here very plainly appears , either that this bishop hath assent 〈◊〉 with all his heart , to what he sayes he would not have , but dissent●… from , and desires the contrary to with all his heart ; or else that he heartily dissents ( for so he seems to do by his wishes here ) from that which he as heartily assented to , when he passed his yea to the late bill , while it passed against us . utrum horum mavis accipe . thirdly , whether the bishops wishings and wouldings here to have it otherwise , be true or counterfeit , yea or nay , we shall not take ▪ upon us to determine ; but this we are well assured of , that , notwithstanding his express desires to the contrary , there is executed at this day ( but it is from the seed of hagar , towards the seed of sarah ) such a suddain overawing , and violent overlaying of the different perswasions , from that more legal , than evangelical , yet avowed religion of this nation , in those most peaceable men , called quakers , as not to let them breath quietly in the same english common air , nor scatcely to enjoy their lives without hazard of loosing them , not onely by the pistols , and naked swords of rude souldiers , from whom ( though iohn the bapist taught them to do violence to no man ) no less than violenoe is acted , but by the hands also of some , called iustices of the peace , who by kicking and smiting the quakers with their own feet and fists , break the peace more then the quakers , who cannot strike , and as much ( perhaps as the worst of men that are brought before them ▪ much less to enjoy their civil liberty and estates : witness the present filling of the prisons with them , throughout this city of london , in order to the fining of them in their estases , and all this extempore , without the praeuious use of any of those rational and religious courses to them , or resistance ( on their parts ) of the softer applications , the bishop seems so much to plead for ; unless by softer ▪ applications he means summoning to their spiritual courts , spoiling of their goods , imprisoning of their persons ( under which also they have never yet resisted ) for if by softer applications , he intends any gentle christian addresses ( excepting his own invective book , which came out of due season ) to convince them of any error he believes they hold , of this sort they have received none as yet from the bishops , though discourses have been as often desired by them , and by others for them , as it 's here once for all seriously again desired by themselves ; who are alwayes ready , as well publickly as privately , to render an account of what they believe and practise , and to prostrate themselves at the feet of right reason and true religion : howbeit , the guilt of that suddain overawing , and violent overlaying aforesaid , cannot be in any common ingenuity by us made ( immediately at least ) imputable to this bishop or his brethren , who are supream more directive than corrective , and for whom it 's enough to determine what is truth , and direct the civil ministers of iustice , what is to be inflicted on such as err against it , and too much to be the executioners also of their own conceptions and appointments ; but we rather impure it to the haa●…nitish humour of some few haughty spirits in subordinate power , who ( while all prudent and patient men look well before they leap ) having not that more expected , then deserved homage of the hat ( an honour , the denyal of which the king himself ( so express is his humility in that particular ) takes not so much notice of a●… some sub-subs do ) from the seed of the iewes , run on on a suddain ( with as great hast , as little speed ) to the overawing of the quakers , who stand more in awe of god , than in awe of them , and to such a violent overlaying of the different perswasions of those peaceable honest men , as whereby they overcharge and overset themselves ( through eagerness ) so egregiously in their undertakings , as to loose themselves in ipso limine ( and it 's ill stumbling at the threshold ) and ( as canis festinans coecos parit catulos ) to bring forth such blind businesses in their hast , as when god and man come to call them to account , they must assuredly repent of by leisure , their eyes ( though too late ) being enlightned then to see how they kept neither the pure lawes of god , nor those very laws and acts of men neither , which they pretend to act by . fourthly , we observe that the bishop likens them to the devil , who first search mens hearts , and then torment them in their estates and liberties , only because they are not so wise , or of the same perswasion with themselves ; little dreaming how far forth in so doing , he likens himself to the devil unawares , as whether ( consequentially ) he doth not yea or nay , we appeal to himself , while in the next words he says , that some little pecuniary mulct for every lord's days absence from the publick church or assembly , may be justly t●…ld ( as a mark of publick dislike ) upon dissenters and seperaters from the established religion : and if he deems , he sufficiently salves this sore by that di●…initive manner of speech , in which he speaks concerning the 〈◊〉 or fining of men in their estares , ●…ith he would have but some little mulct or fine of one or two shillings for every lords day . answ. let him remember that as gradus non ●…riant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 degrees do in no wise vary the nature of any case , the spoiting a ma●… of a penny being contrary to his enjoyment of his estate , and a tormenting him therein as truly and really , though not so 〈◊〉 , not so abundantly as the spoiling him of a pound ; so secondly , two shillings a week as ( if not p●…id ) exposes a man to prison , and so to be ●…mented as to his liberty , so ( if paid ) amounts to more then five pound●… throughout the year , and that is more then many conscientions persons have in all to live on . object . or if secondly , he shall say , we wrong him in his senc●… because it is not for their private difference in iudgement ( which possibly ▪ ( saith he ) is not their fault ) but for their publick deformity in practice that i would have them so punisht . answ. we reply , this will not at all relieve him from , but subject him more to the just censure of contradiction to himself ; sith , i●… private difference in judgement be not the dissenters own fault , then his open practising according thereunto , is so far from being his fault , that it is praised and commended as good in the quakers by the bishop himself , pag. . and so it were rather a fault in him to do otherwise , ( all men yeelding together with himself * that ( consotentia errans obligat ) an erring conscience binds to act according to its evidence , till it be further or more truly enlightened : and secondly , if it be not his own fault , then , if he be punisht , it must be either for the f●…lt of some other which is not just , or , which is far more unjust , for that which is no fault at all . fifthly , we observe by the bishops own confession that the dissenters may be as honest and sincere in the sight of god , as the imposors ; and this we yield to be indeed as true as that way of imposing under outward penalties on mens consciences about religion , is a way universally false ; but this of the bishop may serve however as a caution to himself , and to all imposers , upon mens consciences in religions ●…ters , to beware least they be found fighters against god , un●…wares to themselves , as assuredly they will be , if they be found persecutors of the innocent , and of such as are more sincere than themselves ▪ ●…oreover it yet further appears , how little liberty that is , which the bishop ( notwithstanding his fair pretences ) is willing to have allowed ; by these woeds of his ( viz. ) bish. onely such an arbitrary connivance and conditional indulgence , 〈◊〉 gives no trouble for their private and untrouble some opinions , while they are kept within their breasts and closets , or in their private houses and families , without any convention of strangers to them , and so as to be kept within parochial bounds , or to such a number of persons , &c. but for dissenters to have multitudinous conventicles , as it were mustering of their forces , when , where , and as many as they please , cannot be safe , for thereby they not only affront the religion established , but confirm each other in their opinion , as char-coals in heaps , they more kindle and enflame each other by their numbers , &c. answ. we never knew truth yet untroublesome to a truthless , faithless and hypocritical generation , though it 's justified and witnessed to be the most peaceable thing in all the world , by its own children . but are not the multitudinous meetings , conventions and mustenings together of rude , wild , wicked people , to drinking , and revellings , wakes and whitsun-ales , may-games and morrice-dancings , fencings , and cudgel-playings , cock-fightings and bear-baitings , bowlings , and other games , carding , dicing , dancing , vain-shewes , sights and stage ▪ playes , in the streets , markets , and faires , iuglers , puppets , iack puddings , where they kindle and enflame one another in lust , want●…nness , and wickedness , as char-coals in heaps by their numbers , and thrive in swearing , whoredom , dissoluteness , and all manner of debaue●…ery and prophaness , much more inconsistant with the nations safety , disturbing its peace ( which if ever it be true , must be the effect and fruit of righteousness ) affronting your established religion ( unless it be a religion that allows all ir-religion ) then for the people that fear the lord to meet together to worship god in spirit and truth ▪ and to preach up the power of godliness , that would bring people out of all these ungodly courses to that grace of god in themselves , that teaches to live godly , righteously and soberly in this world : yet where do we find the bishops and the fathers of the church , so appearing in declamations against these things ? and , though there are laws and statutes extant against them , yet where so●… we the iustices so busie in execution of them , as some are ( even to rage and madness ) in execution of one act to make the quakers swear against , and ●…ase to worship god according to god's will and their own consciences . . this is only such a liberty as is not in the bishops , nor in any mans power to deprive men of , for thoughts are free , and opinion is no crime punishable by mans l●…r , being not declared by word or actions ; so that this learned doctor , hath here unlearnedly exprest himself , in that he talks of indulgence to dissenters , where there is no law of man at all broken ( as in the case of opinion and thought unexpressed , or undeclared there is not ) no law of man being made against the thoughts , and where there is no law , there is no transgression , and so no indulgence at all needed ; the bishop might better therefore have spared his pains than talkt of indulgence here , unless it had been to better purpose ; for flourishing with windy words , cannot satisfie upright hearts , for they must have truth and substance to feed upon , and not mee●… ●…pty shewes and pretences ▪ . whereas he would have them confined to private houses and families , without any convention of strangers t●… them ; must not then so much as their friends and relations come in unrou●… this is so fat from allowing that christian liberty ▪ which ●…he biship in his christian charity would seem to plead for , and from 〈◊〉 religion , and divi●…ity , that it deprives men of common liberty , destroyes common society and humanity ; yea this private confinement ▪ would be worse then the publick imprisonment of ●…ant by the heathens , acts . ●… . who did not then forbid any of his ac●…int 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 him . and acts . ▪ ●…t rom●… it self , where he had liberty under the emperor ( yet a heathen ) to receive all that came in 〈◊〉 him , during his confinement , in his own hired house for two whole years together , and to preath the kingdom of god to all that cam●… him , with all authority , no man forbiding him ▪ but that he may seem at least ( cum ati●…e insa●…ire ) not to be so fierce against dissent 〈◊〉 meetings without some cause , as a reason why he would have their multitudinous conventioles ( as he calls them ) forcibly restrain'd , he urges thus ( viz. ) bill●… it is the ambitious aim of all parties ( except that which is wholly resolved into suffering principle ▪ ) to seek to set up their factions a●… supream , not onely in repu●…e of religion , but in civil rowex ) and this cannot be safe . answ. of that sort which the bishop excepts from among all the rest ( whether papists , presbyter●…s , anabaptists or independents , who all ( saith he ; leaving out the party that is now treading on the head of all , as if it never affected any such thing ) affect ( summ●… imp●…rii ) as di●…repties to have the preheminence , as lucifer and antichrist to exa●…t themselves over all ) of that sort ( we say ) are the quakers ; a people . who preach and practice that gospel of peace , which in it self is not consistent with that bitter enveying and strife about those empty forms of worship , external rites , worldly elements , beggarly rudiments , bodily exercises , carnal ordinances , perishing words of mans wisdom , outward observations , in which the kingdom of ( god , which is the inward power of the endless life ( as christ and the apostles said ) neither stands nor comes ; concerning which yet there is such ●…onfused noises among the nations , and such a direful deal of da , & such destructive contentions th●…ughout the world ; a people , 〈◊〉 who much less mak●… such ●… prating , as others do , with m●…icious words against each other about earthly prrheminences , dominations , advantages , priviledges , enjoyments , preferments , dignities , maintenances , and advan●…ements . . a people ( as the house of iacob ) walking in the light of the lord , who though they are that mountain of the lords house , which is at last to be established in the top of all the mountains , and exalted above the hills , so that all nations shall flow unto it ▪ yet at present , while all other people are walking every one in the name of his god , walk quietly and peaceably in the name of the lord their god ; and till he himself alone arises for their help against the mighty that oppr●…ss them , 〈◊〉 whally resolved un●…o suffering principles , as knowing that it is only by the blood of the 〈◊〉 , and the word of his testimony that the overcoming must be , and by not loving their lives unto the death ; and that the quakers are o●… this fort , there needs no other testimony to be used in proof hereof , then what the bishop himself gives of them , pag. . where he not onely pittieth the quakers , but praises them also , &c. for their chusing to suffer : seeing then he excepts them from having any such ambitious aimes , as he saith all other parties have had hitherto , he ought in righteousness and reason to except them from the foresaid forcible restraint ; nevertheless instead of so doing , pag. . he sayes thus , even of them also as expresty , as of all the rest thus , ( viz. ) bish. it will became the publick care and wisdom , never to trust them , though never so soft and seemingly innocent at the first : har●…s ( as in others creat●…s ) growing out of 〈◊〉 heads and hands too , as their 〈◊〉 and sinne●… gr●…w stronger , 〈◊〉 their strength and 〈◊〉 answ. which argues not onely the truthlesness , but the mercilesness too of this mans mind ( saying all his talk of pittifulness towards the quakers ) in not regarding what becomes of the wheat , nor how it s rooted out ( contrarily to christs command , under that old clerical , ecclesiastical and spiritual pre●…ence , of plucking up and r●…ing out the tares . . the unstableness and unsetledness of his mind , and gives us ground to conclude , that as he knowes not yet what spirit he is of , so he knowes not well what it is he would have himself , whilst he reels to and fro in a certain mingle mangle of words , whereby he darkens his own counsel , running along sometimes in such a vein of savour , forbearance , pitty , connivance , indulgence , patience , im●…ssion , recommendation of the quakers , and of their conditions as good , in that they will not sin against god , though their condition be sad in that for their conscience they are put to suffer ; and after a while again in such a sharp , strict strain of severity , coercion , penalties , pecuniary mulcts , consinements , suppressions , villification , false accusation , disdain , derision , discommendation , for a long way together , as makes all that ever was said before in a way of more moderation , void and of none effect . bish. and howbeit in a sound of words he sayes again , his native temper and candor , may perhaps contribute something toward that christian charity of his toward sober dissenters , which abhors , after the genius of primitive christians , all severity and rigors onely upon the score of religion , which he sayes may seem to some too great facility and gentleness in him , an error on the right hand , and nearest the medium both of humanity as a man , and of charity as a christan , measuring all policies by christs golden rule , to do as he would be done unto ; as if nothing but jacob's smoothness , and nothing of esau's roughness , from either education or complextion , had influence upon his opinion or conversation . yet , answ. as most men love to bruit abr●…d every one his own praise , but a faithful man who can find ? so this bishop ( who should have ●…et another praised him , and not himself , a stranger and not his own mouth , as the wise man sayes ) egregiously mistakes ( as egregiously as he magnifies himself ) as touching his own genius , temper and candor , inclining him to too great facility and gentleness , which he calls his error on the right hand , for if he did err a great deal more then he does after the genius of the primitive christians , he would not in words only , but in deed and truth , abhor all severity or rigors only upon the score of religion , without such an exceptions clause as he intermingles among this his most merciful and pittiful matter , whereby he snatches back again all his christian charity and pitty , and ingrosseth it onely to himself and his own party ( viz. farther then is necessary for the cure of offenders , and the conservation of the publick peace ) under which clause of curing offenders , and preserving the publick peace , the very pope himself , who pretends to pitty and christian charity , as much in words as the prelates does , not onely ushers in , but secures it self amongst his own children , from the censure of that bloody tenet of persecution for cause of conscience , under all that severity wrath , and rigor that he hath ever exercised towards those dissenters from his see and counsel chair , that have at any time fallen under his clerical cruelties : then he would not err on the right hand ( as he seems to do to himself , though in reality he is far from it , his error being yet very much rather on the left ) but walk uprightly by that right golden rule of chaist , which he commends , but comes not near the practice of , which onely hath in it the true humanity of a man , and the charity of a christian ; viz. to do as he would be done unto ; for the primitive christians did so indeed : and as they would not have had the iewes their own country-men persecute them as they did ; so they never did persecute any ( nor would they , had they had the outward power so to do ) no not iews that denyed christ , upon the score of that both then and still blasphemous religion of theirs , in order to such an end as the cure of offenders , and preservation of the publick peace ; for they knew 't was the publick preservation of truth , which was the onely thing that would break that nations publick peace , and that nothing was so safe for the civil powers , and so clearly consistent with their peace , as to let the truth and its children alone , for the sufferings of which by persecution among them , when they had filled up the measure of their fathers , who slew the prophets , wrath at last came upon them to the uttermost ; but this bishop , who i am sure would have his own way have perfect liberty , would have it , and it , only , to have not onely all liberty , but all outward emoluments and advantages also , in a way exclusive of all others , to whom he would indeed have facility and gontleness exercised , with abhorency of all severity and rigors upon the score of religion onely ; yet with this bit in their mouth , whereby he can pull in all he gives and grants , viz. so far onely , but no further than is necessary to the curing of offenders ( as he counts all dissenters are in one sence , though ( to go round again ) some not offending , but obeying god in another ) and than is for the conservation of the publick peace : neither is he less unrighteous in condemning the innocent with the guilty , and giving sentence against a people , whom he confesses to be ( as elsewhere he doth ) possibly of no evil minds at present , for what they may be in future time , before they are so ; he would think it unjust if we should say , he and his brethren ( let them say what they will , and speak in never so much simplicity , and appear never so harmless , yet ) are not to be trusted in their most innocent smiles on us , because , as some called bishops have formerly , so these in present being , though facile and gentle , yet may hereafter prove bloody and deceitful : and thus he manifests himself , though called a father , to be not only without compassion , but without the spirit of iudgement , and a sonnd mind also ; and if we were indeed ignorant , and out of the way of truth ( as we are not ) we find him not such a high-priest , as is truly touched with the feeling of our infirmities , as knowes how to have compassion on the ignorant , and on such as are out of the way : nevertheless that he may seem the more excusa●…ble ( after he hath pleaded seemingly for indulgence ) in his counterplea for non-indulgence again , he covers and coulers himself over very frequently , with such pretences as this that followes . bish. the insolent and seditious expressions , that bring 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and violent actions , especially in pulpits and presses , ought with great penalties to be suppressed , there being nothing more unreasonable than for any man rudely to blaspheme and reproach that religion , which his prince and country profess . answ to blaspheme and reproach that religion which the scripture doth profess to be the true one , as iames . and which christ the king of all princes of the earth , and his people profess , which is to keep unspotted of the world , is more unreasonable than to blaspheme that , which ( at a venture ) a mans prince and country professes ; for that most assuredly is the true and pure religion , undefiled before god , while 't is more then possible that this last may be a false one , and by so much the more unreasonable , by how much more it 's unreasonable to speak evil of good , than of evil it self . secondly , as to this passage , let every other dissenting party , as far as they are found innocent , vindicate themselves ; but if this be spoken with reference to the quakers , to whom the bishops book mainly doth relate , the thing is sooner said than proved , that any such insolent or seditious expressions , from whence , as from the cause thereof , any tumultiousness or violence hath proceeded , have been yet found among the quakers , or that we are found such rude blasphemers or reproachers ; which things we justisie not in any where they are found ; yet are able to justisie our selves , as not guilty of ought that can justly come under such a notion on a true account ; but since we , who look better both to our spirits , and to our speeches , than to give way by either to the sowing of sedition , tumults , rudeness , blasphemy , reproach , or violence against any men for their religion , are falsely counted as sowers of such things , as blasphemers , and reproachers of that religion which our prince and country do profess , for no other cause then our testifying to the truth , and our publishing that gospel of peace , that brings out of all war and strife , and for declaring against the meer traditions and inventions of men ; we would know the bishops mind , if he be able to resolve us . first , whether his meaning be , as his words here import , of every prince and country ( as a prince and country ) as well as of any one , without respect to this or that form of religion in it ? if yea , then secondly , whether will not this shift serve the chief priests of the turke , pope , tartar , pagan , and all other ethnick princes , to their several sorts of religious people , as well as the bishops of england , to say , nothing is more unreasonable than for men to reproach that religion , which their prince and country do profess ? and so thirdly , whether by consequence this doth not block up the way for ever ( unless unreasonableness it self must make the way ) against turks and heathens ever rejecting their own false religions , for the true one ? sith every man who shall come to be any further enlightned in the truth , than the dark body of the whole nation he belongs to , must stop his mouth from ever declaring it in order to the illumination of others , and say as that divine heathen , or prophetical poet of old , who rebuked the rude manners of his generation at rome , me mutire nefas , nec clam , nec cum serobe nusquam . fourthly , whether the apostles , who very roughly reproved the religious superstition of the iews , which their then king and country also did profess ( calling them stiff necked , and uncircumcised resistters of the holy spirit , calling the high priest ( now out of date , though supposing himself to stand then by divine institution , as those did before christ crucified ) whited wall , stiling the circumcision the concision , preaching against the prohibitions of the high priests , and their threatnings of them for speaking in the name of iesus ( from whence often tumultuousnesse was occasioned , though caused only by the malice of the priests themselves , still stiring up their people to strife and wrath against them ) were truely to be counted what by the priests they then were counted , and as we are now by the same generation ( viz. ) so insolent and seditious in their expressions , as to be the causers of tumultuous and violent actions ; whether they were truely counted unreasonable , ru●…e blasphemers , and reproachers of the religion of their prince and country ? and , fifthly , whether this bishop himself , and such of his brethren , who count us as such , for doing no other than the very same in the same spirit and power , would not have counted the apostles so then , as the high priests then did , had these hapned to have lived in their times , and in the religion of their prince and country : but no marvel if great penalties be called for against men as seditious and tumultuous , who ( but that they are so nicknamed ) are more peaceable people than their accusers , where only self-interest , self-safety , and outward security in prosperity are sought after : but why had we not this mans mind herein before ? it may be thought surely that either this , that n●…w is so , was not his mind in the late times he speaks of , or else that , those times not favouring the episcopal religion so much as these do , he had not then so much zeal for it as now he hath , being made a bishop himself , nor so much courage as to bear witness to it , and appear so eager against dissenters from it as now he doth , in the juncture of these late times of his own exaltation : and no marvel there is such a loud cry for the suppressing under penalties to dissenters , of both their pulpits and their presses , * for then all that is either preached or printed by the clergy alone , may pass for truth without reply , controul or examination , and so that people , whose principle it is ( aut solus , aut ●…ullus ) to stand alone , or not at all , may ( all others that pretend to it being removed out of the way ) have alone that title of christs and the gospels ministers , for they usually win all in the dispute , who have none to contradict them , but themselves : nevertheless how suspitious the truth of that religion , and its ministry is , that fears reproof , and is loath to stand the tryal , by whatever in preaching or printing may never so openly appear against it , all such may easily discern who know that * truth seeks not to creep in corners : and how far from the true one that religion is that by violence oppresseth others , the bishops own forecited words tells us , in which he saith , it was the genius of primitive christians to abhor all severity and rigors , onely upon the score of religion , &c. out of whose practice they must needs be found , who seek ( contrary unto that which he calls christ's golden rule , of doing to others as they would by others be done unto ) to cause men to become christians by compulsion , and to oure such as are made offenders ( only for not being so ) by cutting th●…s off from their common priviledges as men , and to conserve the publick peace by that common succes●…ess conserve of publick persecution . bish. there are but those four wayes of treating any party , that dissents from the publick establishment of religion and its laws , in any church and kingdom . first , either to impoverish , imprisan , banish and destroy all dissenters , as the king of castile did the moores of granada , which is a very rough , barbarous , unwelcom and unchristian way , disallowed by all wise men of all perswasions . answ. turpe est doctori cum culpa rederguit ipsum . that there hath been no other way of treating us , as dissenters , but this first way of the four , which is as yet also likely to continue , is evident enough by the act 's commencement against the quakers , on the th . of march ( so called ) long before the bishops book , which he may possibly call a more gentle way of treating , came forth in publick ; which book had it been the f●…test , yet therefore was not the first , sith it comes ( and so to little purpose ) so long a time after the other : which way of proceeding , by impoverishment , imprisonment , ●…anishment , which is the very way of the bill , to the passing of which he hath consented , 't is so much the more shame to him that he did consent , seeing he here also passes so severe a sentence on it , as to compare it , to the king of castiles destroying the moores of granada , which himself condemneth , as a very rough , barbarous , unwelcome and unchristian way , disallowed by all wise men of all perswasions . and we also appeal to himself and all wise men of all perswasions , whether , as he consented to that very thing he here so much condemneth , so he hath not greatly condemned himself , as one acting , and so sinning against his own conscience , and so against god the very contrary to which he commendeth the quakers for ) in his so consenting , and whether he doth not in his sentencing the quakers to distruction , by fines , prisons , banishments , sentence himself also to be both cruel , rough , barbarous , unwelcome , and unchristian , and unlike to all wise men of all perswasions , and also contrary to that charitable method and temper ( as he calls it ) of those ancient fathers of the church , irenaeus , turtullian , cyprian , austin , prosper , cyrill , hillary , optatus , ierom , and others , guided by the word and spirit of god , who ( as he saith ) never used any other means but the sword of the spirit , the word of truth , in meekness of wisdom , and did not call the severity of the secular sword to their assistance ( as many now do ) before , or until they found that depraved opinions , put men upon desperate actions , which as yet neither hath , nor can be justly charged upon the quakers ; so that here is a cloud of witnesses , all added by himself , against his own and his brethrens present practice , who before they have used all those rational and religious means , which they then used in meekness of wisdom to convince them of any error or mistake , have given their consent by bill to the ruining of the quakers , and also , before the passing of the said bill , have permitted their apparitors and other officers , who have hunted poor innocents from place to place , as it were on purpose to weary them out like tormentors , by summoning them to courts far remote from each other , and that onely for either not coming to the publick place of worship , or for not paying of mortuaries , smoak-pennies , peter-pence , easter reckonings , with other such like spiritual impositions , which seeing we find them not mentioned at all in the scriptures , nor practiced among primitive christians , whether they are not meerly mens traditions and inventions , yea and relicks of the church of rome , we desire to be informed by the bishop , in all plainness , if he judges they are not . bish. or secondly , by rationall convincing them of their error , which is a work of time and dexterity , not to be done on the suddain , though very worthy to bear a part in the discipline of the church , which should require of every one a reason why they differ from , and forsake the establisht religion . answ. we appeal to the bishop himself , where ever there hath been as yet any such rational proceedings of the bishops with us , in order to the convincing us of error , with such time and dexterity as he speakes of ? yea , rather have they not run upon us on the suddain without using any of there own prescribed remedies , without exercising that , which he calls a part of the discipline of the church , without requiring ( as they say they ought to do ) of every one a reason why we differ from them in religion ? although we have been alwayes ready to render , not only to them , but to every one that asketh us , a reason of our faith and practice , but that the deficiency hath been ever on their part ; witness the bishops own words , pag. . where he saith , of himself at least , who hath had as much to do with the quakers as any one of them all hath had , i never conversed with any of their persons : and pag. . with the quakers i have so little correspondency , that i have not any acquaintance , not knowing any of that way by face or name , or so much as one hours conversation . but the bishop who hath a plaister ready at hand to apply to every wound , that he gives himself unawares , by his unwary conflicts with the quakers , hath one pittiful put-off for this oversight also ; for saith he ( in the same place ) of the quakers . bish. they are a generation of people so supercilious , or so shie , that they are scarce sociable or accessible ; speaking much in their conventicles , behind mens backs , but seldom arguing any thing in presence , of those that are best able to answer or satisfie them . answ. to which we reply , that it is very well known that they are a people not so supercilious , or so shie as he would make them , for shieness , superciliousness , unsociableness , unaccessibleness , is the usual deportment of the bishops themselves towards the quakers , whom , while they seem to themselves to be some sons of anak , they look upon as grashoppers with disdain , whose greatness will scarce stoop to entertain any conference with the poor silly quakers ( as he terms them ) in order to their conviction of the errors they deem them to be in , although the holy men and ancient fathers of the church above named ( as this bishop himself testifies of them ) did not at any time so despise the meanest of any christians outward condition , or the fatuity of their opinions , as not to set a great value on their souls for whom christ dyed : neither do the quakers seek corners , to speak in behind mens backs ( as he falsely charges them with the doing of in their conventicles , which are places open to all comers ) but appear as publickly as possibly they can in their testimony to the truth , of which they are not ashamed , neither do they refuse to argue any thing , but rather offer often to argue every thing , in presence of those , even the bishops themselves , who judge themselves best able to answer , or satisfie them , & who are indeed so wise in their own eyes , and prudent in their own sight , as to take upon them to impose things , to be believed and done , on seventy-times seven men , that are able ( were the bishops as willing to condescend by word of mouth to render their reasons for them ) to render a sufficient reason to the contrary . by the bishops own prescription then of this second remedy , as well as of the first ; sith in this second , which he commends , he is found defective , while he condemns the first , which alone he is found active in , he stands altogether condemned by himself , not onely in what he condemns , but in what he ●…wes . bish. or thirdly , by changing the established lawes for their sake , which is not for the piety , prudence , honour and safety of a nation , and church , when it judgeth its constitutions to be religious , righteous , and convenient . answ. this were an effectuall way to end and mend all indeed , to change the lawes established , which are for the establishing of persecution , for the sake of the persecuted sufferers , that dissent out of tenderness of conscience , and to establish in their stead such as allow a liberty to all religions ( while they keep righteousness and peace amongst each other in outward matters ) whether ethnicks , turks , iewes , papists or protestants of what form or profession soever ; the civil power interposing between them all , to no other end , then the bare preserving of the civil peace , and of equity , innocency , honesty and truth in their dealings each with other in meer externall affaires : yea doubless no nation will ever stand firm in the time that is now to come , till their foundation be that love , that allowes to all men the same liberty of their consciences , which each man desires to enjoy himself , till all people be permitted to walk in the name of his god , and the lords own people , to walk in the name of the lord their god , without any molestation or prohibition , for conscience being that truly tender part , in which ( those onely excepted by the bishop himself , which being wholly resolved into suffering principles cannot make resistance ) all others ( though never so conformable through fear for a timè ) being trod upon will turn again , and ( when they can ) relieve themselves from the heavy hands of their oppressors : and , besides all those mischievous and ill consequences of war , which ariseth mostly about religion , 't is the express command of christ , ( which what nation soever violates will first or last dearly rue their violation of it ) mat. . that the tares , viz. false worshippers should stand and be let alone , though not in the garden , or true church , yet at least in the field , which is the world , and the civil states , and several nations thereof , which ( howbeit the bishop takes nations for churches by whole-sale here , as if the words church , and nation were synonima's , yet ( qua nations ) are not churches ) to grow together with the wheat until the harvest , or end of the world ; and that with this caveat , least men , in the midst of their busslings and busie minds mistaking , should under a pretence of plucking up the tares , root out the wheat it self also , which what kingdom or people soever doth ( bishop gaudens counsel and caveat to the contrary notwithstanding , who sayes he is not for such a ●…ame permission of tares to be among the wheat , least that good seed of religion , which is sown by the publick ministry ( by which he means no other then their own ) and fenced by legal authority should be ●…hoaked ) had better busie it self wholly about other and meer secular matters of wrong and wicked lewdness , which reason wills they should be totally taken up with in the exercise of their civil power , those being the things , which not onely properly , but indeed alone appertain to them to be exercised in , or take congnizance of : for if the wheat , which are indeed those true worshippers only , who worship the father of spirits ( who is a spirit and seeketh such onely to worship him ) in spirit and in truth , in reference unto whom all other outside worshippers are as nothing ( for what is the chaff to the wheat , saith the lord ) and which onely must go into the garner , when all chaffy formalists must ( in this day wherein the lord is sifting out the house of israel from among the nations , or several sorts of professions , as corn is sifted in a sieve ) fall to the ground , be driven away with the wind , and burnt up with the unquenchable fire , of that great day of the lord , which now burns as a oven against all flesh and fleshly christianities ; if ( we say ) the foresaid true worshippers be of god , then they cannot be withstood in a way of safety to it self by any nation ; sith to withstand●… them , is not onely to resist that people , which are the chariots and horsmen thereof , but also to be found fighters against god himself , against whom and his people , it is as impossible finally to prevail , as it was for egypt to prevail against israel , which , when god ▪ arose to redeem them from their bondage , increased upon them so much the more , by how much the more they were opressed , and intended to be for ever suppressed * by them , god himself taking part with his own chosen against the other , who hath said he will give kingdoms for their ransome , and nations for their life , rather then his own seed shall go unredeemed . we say that this were the way to setle all in peace , to change all setled lawes that are for persecution , into a law for the tolleration of all religions , much more of that one , which though it be struck at both by and before all the rest , will be found at last to be the onely true one , which yet must unavoidably suffer violence in some place or other , while that principle of persecution hath place in peoples hearts , for as all nations are not of one and the same , but of many ( respectively ) so all men are not of one and the same religion , in any one nation ; whereupon in case it happen that any nation by law establish that religion , which is not truth , that nation suppressing by outward violence all religions besides its own ( whether that be heathenish , turkish , iewish , popish , prelatical , presby erian , or any other ) must necessarily ( ex officio ) in point of duty persecute and tread down the truth it self ; for if the civil magistracy ( as such ) ought de jure to root out all religions , but that which it judges to be righteous , and convenient , then even those that are heathen magistrates , ( who would be no more , as to that capacity of magistrates then now they are , if they should turn christians ) must root out ( quoad posse ) all that 's christian , and every magistrate being a magistrate as well as any one ( the notion of christian adding nothing to mens power as civil governors ) according to that rule of quatenus ipsum , which includes de omni , what ever belongs to any thing ( as so ) belongs also to every thing that is so , not onely those nations , which happen to be of the true religion must persecute all those that are found in false ones , but each nation that is found in any false religion , must seek the utter ruine not only of all the rest , but even of those also which are established in the truth ; but this is the way which the bishop in no wise approves of , for any nation ( or at least for this ) to renounce the unsound principle of forcing ( under penalties ) all dissenters to conformity in religion unto it self , because ( saith he ) it is not consistent with the piety , prudence , honour , or safety of a nation and church , when it judgeth its constitutions to be religious , righteous and convenient : but what a contrary conclusion is this , not only to all scripture reason ( as is shewed above ) but also to all common experience in this our nation ? in which it hath been seen in the dayes both of edward the sixth , elizabeth , and iames his times ( neither can it be denyed by the bishops themselves , unless they will deny themselves to be conscientious dissenters from that popery which stood here of old ) how much it was for the piety , prudence , honour and safety of the nation , which did before generally judge those popish constitutions , it was then establisht in to be religious , righteous and convenient , and yet upon further and more mature deliberation , saw good ground , for the sake of that small ( yet more enlightned ) protestant party that dissented , to change the then and long before establisht lawes concerning their mass , and many other matters , as the statutes themselves declare at large : the bishop therefore by this reasonless reason , both condemns that course of all the protestant princes of england that changed the popish laws before establisht , for the sake of tender , protestant dissenters , as not savouring of piety , prudence , nor yet either safe , honourable , or convenient for the nation ; but also secondly , justifies the pope himself , and all popish princes in persecuting such protestants against him , as are found within these precincts and dominions , and in not changing their establisht laws against the truth for their sakes ; sith ( as the bishops judge the english constitutions so to be , whereby they stand : ) so other nations judge their own constitutions to be religious , righteous and convenient ; and thirdly , makes a fence against the spreading of all sorts of protestanism , not that only which is so at large , but of that which is christianity , so truly called . moreover , where ever the alteration of any suppressive lawes for the sake of a few dissenters , tends to the encrease of love and amity , peace and unity , which is a better thing than uniformity in a nation , the preservation of which is the main end of all civil goverment , it cannot truly be supposed to be prejudicious to either the piety , honour and safety of that nation , to alter its establisht lawes for the sake of those few , which ( for conscience meerly ) cannot conform in meer outward matters : and so the case is here , for , as that people that are most truly tender of keeping the truth and peace ( which are the party that though they least deserve it , yet suffer most alwayes , and for the most part only under those laws that are made to force the conscience in case of religion ) cannot be forced to do against their faith , and so with more pitty , piety , prudence , peace , safety and honour , every way may be let alone to live a quiet life under all civil governments , in all godliness and honesty , the disturbing them under the pretence of their being disturbers , being the true cause of most disturbance in most nations ; so the generallity of the ruder sort that make no such conscience about religion , as the upright ones do , can without scruple change their worship , if men will have them , and ( as people did by the lump worship that image , which was set up , on pain of ruine , if they bowed not to it , eccepting three that did dissent , for whose sake they found good cause soon after to change the edict ) can conform quietly to and fro without scruple or controul ( as they did in edward's , maryes , and elizabeth's dayes ) to what forms of worship shall be required of them ; and so a toleration by law to the rest at least that cannot , cannot be so far from a nations , piety , prudence , honour and safety as this bp. imagines , and cannot but be most tending to its security ; for those nations which weave the spiders webb , which catches and hampers the small harmless gnats and flies , while hornets and venemous creatures that have strong stings and great strength , that know how to foot it thorow every form , and suite their peace to every profession , crawl over them without being caught or tangled , do draw down upon themselves that vengeance from the lord , which he will as assuredly , recompence on them in due time , as ever he foretold it by his prophet , who said , isai. . , , , , . none calleth for iustice , nor any pleadeth for truth , they trust in vanity and speak lies , they conceive mischief and bring forth iniquity ; they hatch cockatrice eggs , and weave the spiders webb : he th●… eateth of their eggs dieth , and that which is crushed breaketh out into a viper . their webbs shall not become garments , neither shall they cover themselves with their workes ; their works are works of iniquity , and the act of violence is in their hands . their feet run to evil , and hey make hast to shed innocent blood : their thoughts are the thoughts of iniquity , wasting and destruction are in their pathes . the way of peace they know not , and there is no judgement in their goings : they have made them crooked pathes ; whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace . lastly , though indeed it is not consistent , with the piety , prudence , honour and safety of the true church , to alter its laws and constitutions , for the sake of such as are not of it , because christ himself is their law-giver , who hath not put it into her power to make her own laws , much lesse to impose her laws under outward penalties , with carnal weapons on the consciences of other people ; and by his law allowes a latitude , as to outward observations , in whicih his kingdom stands not to do as every one is by him perswaded and required in his own mind ; so be that he , who observes , or observes not dayes , or outward things , does , and does it not unto the lord ; neither need the ●…asse-church change her orders for the sakes of such as dissent from it , and are not of it ( as the quakers are not ) either of the bishops or the popes , each of which if they please themselves , shall not disprease us in their acts and orders for superfluous ceremonies , so be they let us alone ; with whom ( as being not of their church ) they have nought to do ( de jure ) as with members of it , yet so far is it from being against the piety , prudence , honour and safety of any nation or earthly kingdom , to repeal such laws as they have made by their priests direction , to bind men to conform to religions contrary to their consciences ; that if any happen to err aster that sort of priests , which do direct them ( and the bishop without the light ) which we call all men to , and which he opposes , is no more infallible , but as fallible to the full as the pope and presbyter , ( yea none of the three do so much as pretend to infallibility , save the pope ) then it 's neither godly , prudent , honourable , nor so much as safe for any nation not to change its establisht lawes for the sake of dissenters from its error , sith in not changing them , god himself is rebelled against in such a case ; whether those lawes be made for swearing or against true worship , which are the two things only aimed at in the act against the quakers ; about one of which there 's the self same reason , as about the other ; and in proof of this we have the authority of the bishops own true testimony to the one , which is as true , when given forth in a way of evidence to the other , whose words concerning swearing , which ( with the bishops consent to it ) mans law now commands , pag. . are as followes , if it do appear that all swearing is absolutely by our lord christ forbidden to his disciples , god forbid we should not obey his word , and rather change the lawes of man than violate his commands , to whom we christians owe the highest love , loyalty , and obedience , but if it appear ( as say we , it doth not by any thing said in the bishops book , or any where else ) to religious reason , that the words of christ do not import an absolute forbidding of all swearing , we must not be so much slaves to the letter , as to leade truth and reason captive , or to deprive our selves of that religious liberty which is left us , and so not only lawful for christians to use , but in some cases ( prudentially ) necessary , as to the expediences of mens iealousies , lives , liberties , estates and good names , even in private , much more in the dispensations of iustice , to the publick peace and general satisfaction of whole polities and communities , wherein men live sociably under law and government . to which words of the bishops concerning swearing ( mutatis mutandis ) we subjoyn concerning our meeting together to worship god in spirit and in truth , which ( with the bishops consent thereunto ) mans law now forbids ( viz. ) if it do appear that all meeting together in christ's name , of above five of his disciples at one time , to worship him in spirit and in truth in any one place ( except in some such churches or chappels , as are of mans , and for the most part of the popes consecrating of old for his service ( though since devoted to a somewhat more refined service ) is absolutely by our lord christ forbidden to his disciples , god forbid we quakers should not obey his word , and submit to every ordinance of man for his sake , whether to the king , as supream , or those that are sent by him , and ought to be a praise to them that do well , and for the punishment onely of evil d●…ers , against whom onely god's law is , rather then violate not only the kings command , but christs also , to whom we christians owe the highest love , loyalty and obedience . but if it shall appear ( as it ●…asily may in any one that is of the true religion iames speak of , that is undefiled before god , and to keep unspotted of the lusts and superstitions of the world to religious reason , that the words of christ neither in the conscience , nor in the scriptures express or import any such absolute forbiding of all meetings to worship him , any where , or in any wise , saving in the times , places and forms aforesaid , but by the scope of them and the analogy of scripture , they have no such limited meaning ( as the bishop had when he consented to the act for the suppressing of the quakers meetings to worship god , and when he wrote those words in his epistle ( viz. ) for dissenters , i. e. from the bishops ( meaning quakers as well as others ) to have multitudinous conventicles when , where , and as many as they please , cannot be safe ) then we must not be so much slaves to mens wills , which are below the letter of the scripture , which is a declaration of the will of god , as to lead truth and reason captive , or to deprive our selves of that religious liberty , which is left us by christ , and so is not only lawful for christians to use , but in some cases ( as namely that of conscience obliging thereunto ) necessary , though else it may be prudential to forbear our meetings , as to the expediences of our lives , liberties , estates and good names among evil men , not only in private , but much more in our publick dispensations of the word of truth ; which is of most moment and concernment to the publick peace , and to the general satisfaction about the truth of the whole polity and community , wherein we live sociably enough under the civil laws and governments of men , so far as we can be both under them and under christ. but alas , why talk we of changing of the law for our sakes , eleven points of the twelve of which is possession ? which when once the clergy of any of the three sorts at any time have eminently obtained , they tell us it 's then too late for us to expect dispute , or any other change of establisht law for our sakes , then that which the bishop hath of late been necessary to by his own suffrage , which is no repeal of any old laws for the punishment of dissenters ( which were establisht so long ago , that they were well nigh worn out and forgotten and ready to die out of date of themselves ) but a rev●…ving of them into their former force , and an addition of new ones to the same end and purpose ; so that if our cause be better then the clergies , yet their clawes are longer than ours , and that 's cause enough whereupon for lambs to be devoured : and now that the sentence passed against us as erroneous , and seditious , should be repealed , upon the account of whatever strength of reason is by us rendered at so great a disadvantage , as we ( who stand already both imprisoned and condemned ) do appear in against such an eminent accuser of us as a bishop , who is so highly esteemed as iohn gauden , who sayes , he is thought to be no barren nor diffident speaker , pag. . when he speakes for us , and is also as fluent , as fervent , and blindly confident when he talks against us , how little is it to be expected ? ( unless the lord set home some of the quakers honest plainness to the consciences of the present powers , in whose hands the hearts of kings are , so that he can turn them as the rivers of waters ) sith damnati lingua vocem habet , vim non habet . besides it is the manner of all those parties in these latter dayes , whose professed principle it is by penalties to prosecute all dissenters from what religion shall be established in this nation , and who are not wholly resolved ( as the quakers are ) into suffering principles , however they cry out of the morosness , and tyrannousness of those times wherein they are underlings , respectively and mutually to each other , and plead with all earnestness , and evident demonstration the liberty of their own consciences , to plead down the liberty of others , yet not without some subtile pretence , some nice distinction between persecution and preservation of publick peace , or some kind of odd secundum quid or other : and how exquisitely soever they exclaim of others sharpness and cruelty , while they feel the blowes , yet to lay on themselves with less compassion than those they complain on , when the backs of others are to bear them , witness , not onely the grievious groans that were uttered for liberty of conscience , out of smectimnuus his own mouth , while he was under the hatches , who yet lorded it over all others , as well as over god's heritage , when he obtained to sit at the stern and handle the helm himself . but also the cryes of the prelatick party , both against smectimnuus , and against the pope , according as they have at any time ( respectively ) suffered under either , who yet give no small symptomes by this bishops book ( as smooth as 't is ) that how soft and silently soever they went in the late dayes of their humiliation ( which 'twere not amiss for them yet to beware they do not forget ) as cats and lions do on their pawes , yet they have sharpe fangs , and reserved talons , as the others have , who never do shew till they find a fit prey and opportunity , wherein to shew their cruel clawes . obj. and if any say , were you quakers once in power you would also do the same . answ. we reply on the behalf of our own consciences , and the consentient sence of all the truly christian ( and not unchristian , nor antichristian ) church , from christ's time to this very day , even that general assembly and church of the first-born which is in god , whose names are written in heaven , to which we are come as they were , heb. . that after the genius of the primitive christians , which was ( as all that will live godly in christ iesus must do ) to suffer persecution , and not to persecute , and after that divine nature , of which we are made par●…akers , and that native temper we are begotten into by the word of christ , whose mind we have as they had of old , . cor. . phil. . we abhorr ( without such reserves and exceptions , as bishop gauden makes , when he sayes so of himself ( all such sever●…ty and rigon , as i●… pleaded for by the fame bishop , that pleads against it , upon the score of religion only , and as king iames said in one of his speeches to his parliament . it is a pure rule in divinity , that god never loves to plant his church with violence and blood , and that it was usually the condition of christians to be persecuted , and not to persecut●… ; and king charles the first in his eikon basilike , pag. . in his complaint to god , thou feest how much cruelty amongst christians is acted under the colour of religion , as if we could not be christians unless we crucifie one another : and pag. . make them at length seriously to consider , that nothing violent or injurious can be religious . so is it ( god knowes what ever mistrustful minds may think , who measure others corn by their own bushel ) a pure rule , principle and resolution in our church ( as knowing nothing else but patience toward all , even ill men , will prosper finally and overcome , and that we are not to be overcome of evil , but to overcome evil with good ) to make no violent resistance ( if we could ) against those under whom we suffer singly for our consciences , much less to exercise violence , in order to the forcing of any against their consciences to be of us : nor do we build up the city zion by blood , nor ierusalem by any iniquity and deceit ; and who ever are otherwise minded ( how apostolick so ever they may pretend to be ) have relinquisht , aposta●…ized , and degenerated from , not that which is ours alone , but from that pure principle of the primitive pastors ( who had no dominion over the faith of any that were within , much less any that were without the pale of their church , whom they left to god to iudge ) which said principle can possibly stand no more with persecution , than god himself can stand in union with the devil . bish. or fourthly , by way of discreet connivance , and charitable indulgence , so far as the civil peace of the nation will bear , untill reason and religion ( of whose prevalency wise and good men never dispair ) have by ealme and charitable methods recovered people from the error of their waies by the sacred doctrine , and good examples of those who conform to the established laws in church and state. ans. it is remarkeable , that all of those four waies of treating any party that dissen●…s from themselves , which this bishop hath prescribed , three whereof are discreet , good and justifiable , and two of them justified by himself , and but one very bad and condemned by him , as barbarous , and unchristian , he himself is found ( witnesse his assent to the act ) following and assenting to no other then the very worst , ( viz. ) to impoverish , imprison , banish , and so destroy dissenters , a course dissallowed ( as he confesses ) by all wise men of all perswasions : for i appeal to all wise men to judge , whether so much discreet connivance and charitable indulgence , hath been used as yet to the quakers , untill reason and religion ( of whose prevalent ey wise and good men ( we confesse ) never dispair ( though evil men dispair of overcoming by their evil manners , and so betake themselves to sharper courses , ) have by calme and charitable methods , recovered the people from that , which he calls the error of their way , by any either sacred doctrines or good examples of such as conform so freely to that religion that is now establisht ? what such sound doctrine have we seen delivered by any of the bishops , or by this bishop either , in these his pretended undertakings thereof , sufficient to convince any rational man of the legality of that sort of swearing , he so pleads for ? . what good examples have we from the lives and conversations of the conformists , to gain us to the belief of it , that their most solemn swearing is the will of god ; concerning whom ( though they speak much against the quakers ) the bishop himself by way of discommendation saith , pag. . that the quakers shall rise in iudgement at the last day , against many of those their accusers , for this very thing , in that whilest others are common swearers against gods own command , and so such as are disposed to false swearing , and grosse perjury , sins of the first magnitude ; yea such as to whom when they swear never so solemnly in iudicature , no more credit is to be given then to lyars , the quakers ( for which no good men can blame them as he saith ) have a just abhorrency of the sin of prophane , easie , trivial , familiar , false and inconsiderate swearing , for which the land mourneth ; and whilest the others have no reverence of the majestie of god , nor the sacrednesse of an oath , the quakers have so great a fear of an oath , that out of a jealousie of swearing amiss , they will not swear at all ? do we not see iniquity abounding beyond all bounds of modesty , and common honesty ? people wallowing in the mire of lust , voluptuousnesse , uncleannesse , drunkennesse , excesse of riot , pride , prophane and predigious swearing , by new coyn'd , new invented , and before unheard of oaths , in a way of bravado , as if they would dare god to damne them , and engage him to do it before their time ; lying , consening , chea●…ing , defrauding , countenancing all manner of lewdnesse and debauchery among that people who are found the most forward and zealous conformitants to what ever image the bishops shall set up in the church ? . will the ill and beas●…ly manners of bruitish minded men , ever win the quakers , from that good conversation which they have in christ iesus , which is the end of all that religion that lies in outwards , yea ( as christ sayes ) the very law and the prophets , will it ever gain them back to the old forms , upon which god hath stretched forth the line of confusion , and the stones of emptinesse , to live there with the old meer formalists , their old , wretched and unprofitable lives over gain ? doth not that sound doctrine , and good example the bishop speakes of remain yet invisible to the eyes of any , save such as call evil good , and good evill , put darknesse for light , and light for darknesse ? hath it ever yet been seen among the generality of parish people , whereby to render dissenters from them inexcusable , and justifie that severity , which is now by law to be inflicted on the oppinions and actions of those which are true , just , honest , and in no wise so extravagant to the prejudice of the kingdome , as the bishop makes them ? but the bishop who is so wise , as to insert in the midst of every of them , some odd clause or other , whereby to make himself a creep-hole out of the censure of that absurdity , which otherwise would fall upon his sayings , hath one here also , whereby to escape . ob●… . for ( saith he ) discreet connivance , and charitable indulgence is to be used , so far onely , as the civil peace of the nation will bear , but the permission of the quakers opinions and actions ( unlesse they be reduced to obedience ) do many wayes perturb the publike peace ▪ affront the established religion , threaten to subvert our laws by their disobedience thereunto , and to obstruct all iudiciall proceedings . ans. the civil peace hath been ever , and is at this day a thousand fold more disturbed , and that true religion , that was long since establisht by christ himself and his apostles , upon the true foundation , which the quakers stand on at this day , more palpably affronted , and equity it self which is the end * of all law subverted , and so truly , all right iudiciall proceedings obstructed , and even mans laws , as well as gods , more apparently disobeyed , by hunting them up and down , and haling them out of their own private houses , as well as out of open meeting-places , without warrants into prisons ( as the experience of those hurli-burlies , that are seen in this city at this day , do evidently declare ) then ever they would have been or could possibly be if the quakers were let alone to declare the truth , and to worship god in spirit and truth , and to live a peaceable and quiet life ( as they would do ) under the king in all godliness and honesty : neither is it possible that the quakers should be otherwise opinioned or acted then they are , or the nation in peace setled , or your own ( if it were as truely as ye suppose it to be , right ) religion established , till these rigid inflictions have an end ; and to this the bishop himself witnesseth in the very next words , which are thus , ( viz. ) in this particular case of the quakers who refuse all legall oathes upon scruples of conscience , no sober man can think by meer penalties to reduce them to the conformity with our laws , or to stop the spreading of their opinions , until it be plainly shewed ( and that , say we still , never will , be unless more be done , then ever yet hath been done by the bishops book in order to it ) that it is not true religion , but onely s●…perstition in them , a fear where no fear is , a being righteous over much , a mistake of christs meaning , a wresting of scripture by their own unlearnedness and unstableness to their own dectruction , as well as to the publick parturbation : yea sad experience ( saith another author ) hath clearly and plainly shewn us , that forcing of conscience , and persecuting about religion is not onely in vain , but a direct contrary means , and a cause of sects , and disturbances , and of many evils , as the chronicles of germany , france , and the low countrys do abundautly testifie ; the states of holland also affirmed that it was not possible to find out means of any good and certain peace , otherwise then by tollerating more religions then one ; some say indeed that people of different opinions cannot live together in a kingdom without continuall contention , and therefore say they , must that be prevented with fire and sword : but what though there be vertue and filthiness in a kingdom , good and bad men , which are one contrary to the other ? one must not therefore ( saith a wise man ) to prevent it , bring a whole kingdom or land into confusion by stirring up the people one against another ; moreover it is evident , that in dutchland , poland , and in the low countries more religions then one are suffered , and yet there are not continual uproars , and tumults , as some imagine such toleration would occasion in a kingdom : therefore may we conclude , that it is not the tolleration of more religons then one , which produceth uproar in a kingdom , but rather the untowardness , and perversness of them that seek to obstruct this tolleration . moreover it was the saying of calvin in his iust : if any one reprove or rebuke mens evils , and teach any thing contrary to what they teach , then they account that to be the cause of uproars , when they themselves are the tumultuous , and if they themselves did not stir up the mighty to shed blood , there would never arise so many uproars among the people . and it was luthers mind also ( however both the luth●…rans and calvinists so called , growing numerous and potent , have since degenerated from the first professed principles of those , after whom they are respectively denominated ) that those , who stirred up the princes to persecute about religion , they still raised the uproars . neither is it such a means , as bishop gauden accounts it , to preserve the religion established from affronts by the quakers , for as for them they do not so affront it , or endeavour to unsettle it , but that it may stand long enough for them , among such as can own it to be true , if it can stand on its own legs , without the interposition of any extrinsical or foraneous force to uphold it ; but if like dagon it fall of it self before the ark of gods testament , what reason is there to the contrary , but that it should lie there , as not the true one ( as dagon did as no true god ) unless it can help it self up again by its own intrinsical power , without the outward heterogeneous assistance or help of men , making lawes and penalties to impose it . furthermore , how ineffectual utterly and of dangerous consequence to any nation , the practice of violence and persecution is , is to be seen not onely by the testimony of well nigh innumerable famous men of all sorts and capacities in their several generations ( whose unanimous perswasion in this particular is to be understood , by their respective sayings , comprized together in one book entituled , the testimony of a cloud of witnesses , * &c. ) but also by sundry more of the prudential sayings of king charles the first , besides those forecited out of his book called , eikon basilike ▪ as namely pag. . nor is it so proper to hew out religious reformations by the sword , as to polish them by fair and equal disputations among those that are most concerned in the differences , whom not force but reason ought to convince ; sure in matters of religion , those truthes gain most upon mens iudgements , which are least urged by secular violence , which weakens truth with prejudices , p. . it being an office not onely of humanity , rather to use , reason then force , but also of christianity to seek peace and ensue it , pag. . in point of true conscientiousness and tenderness , i have often declared , how little i desire my lawes and scepter should intre●…ch on gods soveraignity , which is the onely king of mens consciences . and pag. . nor do i desire any man , should be further subject unto me , then all of us may be subject unto god. pag. . the enjoyning oathes upon people must needs in things doubtful be dangerous , as in things unlawful damnable . and in pag. . in his advice to his son charles the second , now raigning ; my counsell and charge to you is , that you seriously consider the real and objected miscarriages , which might occasion my trouble , that you might avoid them , beware of exasperating any faction by the rashness and asperity of some mens passions , humors and private opinions , imployed by them , grounded onely upon religion , where a charitable conn●…vance and christian toleration often dissipates their strength , where rougher opposition fortifies , and puts the despised and oppressed party into such a combination , as may most enable them to get a full revenge on those they count their persecutors . and p. . your prerogative is best shewed and exercised in remitting , rather then exacting the rigor of the lawes , there being nothing worse then legal tyranny . but we need not go so far abroad , to fetch in testimonies of others to the truth of this , seeing we have the bishops own testimony herein siding with us neerer home , whose words in that . & . pages of his epistle are these , in point of state policy or methods of true government , i do conceive that meer plagiary counsels and punitive courses , are never likely to obtain the main end , which is to stop the contagion of errors , and to extirpate those depraved opinions which are justly thought to be the spawn of dangerous actions ; for unless the generality of credulous people , who are spectators of those that differ , and suffer for their opinions and consciences , do also see so much light of reason and cl●…er religion , as may justifie the severity of the lawes executed upon those offenders , who profess conscience for their disobedience , and scripture for their consciences , it is most certain , that the spectators of their sufferings will very much soften to a compassion for them , and by sympathizing with their persons in affliction , they will by degrees symbolize with their opinions , easily runing as metal that is melted , into the fame mould : at length the popu●…acy , if not fortified by pregnant demonstrations of truth , against those spreading errors , and their pseudo-martyrs , will mightily cry up their piety , admire their courage , and magnifie their constancy : at last they will conclude , those sufferers to have some special support or diviner spirit above ordinary men , because they seem to be so much above the ordinary passions of fear and hope , self-love and preservation , which prospect of patience justine martyr tells us , was the first occasion of his examining the doctrine of christians , that he might see on what ground so fixed a constancy grew , which shewed a divine security midst humane infirmity : by such popular pitty and applause not onely sufferers will be confirmed in their pertinacy , but their spectators also will dayly increase and multiply , as the shoot's of trees do by the lopping of their branches , especially i●… the lives and actions of such dissenters and sufferers be morrally just , and civilly honest . and pag. . where harmlesness of life sets a gloss on opinions , and errours thereby grow more lusty and rank , there meer robust power , or punitive severity , can no more pull them up , then a strong arm doth thorns and bushes , when they are deeply rooted , breaking of the stemme or top of them , but leaving the roots still in the ground , which will spring again and spread farther . all this the bishop writes in pursuit of the proof of that truth we affirm , in justification of the above said indulgence and tolleration , and in condemnation of the rashness of them who hastily run into rigor , severity and persecution , as such as make more hast then good speed to the end they aim at , and are more mischievous and injurious then successful to themselves in their own undertakings ; only with this difference from us , which we may not passe by without some notice ( viz. ) that whereas we look upon such conscientious dissenters ( as are morally righteous , civilly innocent , and of harmless lives , and are also sufferers meerly for their consciences , under what dark form soever because , for want of conviction only , they cannot conform to another form , that is false and darker ) as true martyrs , whether papists suffering for not turning turks and iewes , or protestants not turning papists ( as in the marian dayes those that owned not the real presence ) or any people more reformed in matter of form , for non-conformity●…o ●…o those that remain behind more superstitious & unreformed ; the bp. mean while looks on all such kind of suffering dissenters , though never so morally honest , just civilly innocent and harmles●… in their lives , * as contagious , dangerous , disobedient offenders , spreaders of errors , and pseudo-martyrs . in confutation of which episcopal error and mistake , in that particular , we need go no further than this self same section of the bishops sayings , in which he is found confounding himself , while he sayes , that same prospect of patience which is found among meer modern sufferers , and is at this day ( and thereby many like lyons are become as lambs to them ) seen among the quakers of all others , whom yet with others the bishop seems to conclude as disobedient offenders , spreaders of errors , and pseudo-martyrs , was seen among the primitive christians , and was the first occasion of iust. mart. examining the christian doctrin that he might see on what ground , so fixed a constancy grew , and which shewed a divine security midst of humane infirmity : for if it be the same patience , piety , courage , and constancy , as was in the primitive christians , that now appears in the quakers , by which they are kept above the ordinary passions of fear , self-love , and preservation ( as himself saith it was ) then bishop gauden must either prove , that all those vertues in those christians , by which iust. mart. ( as by the occasion of it ) was convinced , was no true ground , whereupon to conclude them to be true christians , but ( that all those things notwithstanding ) they might be erroneous , contagious , dangerous , depraved , disobedient offenders , spreaders of errors , and pseudo-martyrs , or else upon the same gro●…nd and prospect of their patient sufferings , must he conclude and acknowledge that the quakers are proved to be true christians , and neither contagious , nor dangerous , ●…or deproved in their oppinions or actions , nor offenders , nor spreaders of errors , nor pseudo-martyrs . and in prosecution of the proof of the point afore spoken to , ( viz. ) how not only ineffectual , but also dangerous , and disturbing it is to nations , to persecute and not tolerate dissenters from the religion establisht , the bishop saith moreover in the th . page of his epistle , thus . i am not for heavy mulcts , and rigorous e●…actions , which shall imprison , banish , impoverish , or destroy modest dissenters and their families , onely for the variety of their iudgment , when their civil actions are otherwise moral , just and inoffensive , this severity would in some countries , and possibly now in england , be not only destructive to many thousands , but very disadvantagious to the king and kingdom , to the trade and commerce of the nation , by opening a little wicket of royal clemency only to some , and shuting the great gate to many , whose tender and unsatisfied or scrupulous consciences , do as much need and deserve it , as those that have it in petty matters , while all other scruples are driven to discontent and dispair , by denyal of all indulgence to them in greater scruples . thus far the bishop goes along hand in hand with the quakers in his pleas for liberty of scrupulous consciences , impleading tooth and nail the principle of non-toleration and persecution , as if he were most earnestly desirous to impede the parctice of it from the consideration of its dangerousness to the king and kingdom , as well as its succeslesness to its own end , and likeliness much rather to encrease and support , then either to diminish , or suppress the modest dissenters from the establisht religion , and to gender to tumultuousness and commotions ; yea , he even fears destruction , if they be not let alone , and others also , and if there be not only the opening of a little wicket of clemency to indulge some , but of the great gate also , to let in many other dissenting parties , into a participation of the same indulgence and toleration . yet behold by and by again , as if he were magor-misabib , fear round about , and a kind of terror to himself , and one that between two , wat 's not well which is best and most desireable , he seems to side with another sort against the quakers , even with those some men ( as he calls them ) whereof no doubt himself is one , that fear the toleration of the quakers ( whom he seems elsewhere to recommend as the modestest among the dissenters ) may be unsafe , and so insinuates somewhat ●…taeitly towards the exasperation again of the powers against them as followeth . bish. some men i find look upon these quakers with an eye of publick fear and jealousie , least the leaven of their opinions and practises spreading far among the meaner sort of people , to whose humour that rude and confident way is very agreeable , while in a moment all their defects of reason , learning , education , religion , loyalty , civility , are made up by a presumed spirit and light within them , should after the manner of other sects both later and elder , give occasion and confidence to common people , to run to tumults and commotions , under pr●…tence of setting up god and christ and the spirit , by way of new powers , new lights , and new models in church and state ; of which rare fancies we have had of late so many tragical experiments in england under other names , notions , and pretensions . certainly , it will become the publick care and wisdom , as not easily to permit the rise and spreading of any novel humours , and wayes contrary to the good constitutions and well tryed laws of this church and kingdom ; so never to trust them , though never so soft and seemingly innocent at the first . and pag. . speaking of the quakers , as a people that may be pittied ( as wrapped up in a kind of clownish garb , and ignorant plainness●…y but not trusted . i should forfeit my prudence ( saith he ) much to trust their hands , &c. answ. some men are more afraid then hurt in some cases , whilst they are more hurt than they are either afraid , or well aware of in some others ; and so is the bishop here and those ( some men ) he speaks of , who look upon the quakers with his , that is , with an evil and jealous eye : and this , as was said before , is that dangerous dilemma and snare of the devil , which the children of darkness fall into , who hate the light : he who is the light of the world , and the door of salvation to the sons of men , hath set before his people within their own hearts , where his light shineth , an open door , whereby to enter into his heavenly kingdom ; which door no man can shut against them , which light no man can blow out ( though many seek to do it ) any more than he can forbid the sun from rising , and shining forth in its season : nay it seems so dangerous and destructive to some men , as to their ( at least ) ecclesiastical intrests to attempt it , that they are afraid on the one hand to be found too forward to shut that door , or suppress the shining of that light , which opens and makes manifest the dens and deeds of darkness ; whereupon they some times plead ( at least seemingly ) an allowance of it . and yet on the other hand , if they let it alone to shine forth , to open and display it self , without seeking to put a slop to it , and ecclipse it ; then they see the day dawns out , which darkens the glory of their life-less forms and invented worships , and that morning appearing , which to the adulterer , that 's gone a whoring from god's counsel , and christ's own commands , into mans vain institutions and traditions , is as the shadow of death , in which they cannot walk without dread and terrour at they scarce know well what themselves ; in which they are surprized with many dangerless fears , as well as with many fearless dangers . what tragical experiments have been of late from the fancies of other men in england , under other names , notions , and pretensions , we have as nothing to do with , as we were as little accessary to them as the bishop himself , who would if not father , yet fain fasten some of the fault of them on the quakers : some men lookt upon christ himself , and his apostles with an eye of publick fear and jealousie , least the leaven of their opinions and practices , spreading far among the meaner sort of people , who were they that commonly received truth , when high priests , scribes , and pharisees mostly rejected it , should after the pattern of other sects ( as theudas and iudas of gallilee ) occasion tumults and commotions under pretence of setting up god , christ , the spirit , &c. and on such an account as this , when christ's birth was enquired after by wise men from the east , that came to enquire after him , herod himself was troubled and all ierusalem with him ; and when christ came into ierusalem , all the city was in an uproar , and so was it at the preachings of peter , iohn , stephen , &c. and also the cities of corinth , ephesus and others , at pauls preaching the gospel of peace , which never caused , but ever occasioned , and was ever accompanied with the tumultuousness of rude people that attended it ; but what then ? was christ therefore not the christ ? his gospel no gospel of peace , because tumults ( as paul speaks , cor. . ) attended the ministers of it ? was the truth ever the less the truth , or ever the less to be testified to , because its testimony troubled the deceitful and truthless nations ? if so , how had truth been propagated downward through all times of turbulent oppositions against it to this day ? and were they therefore ever the more excusable , who with threatnings charged christs ministers to preach no more in the name of iesus ? and had christ's ministers done well , had they ( as they did the contrary ) forborn it , and obeyed man forbiding , rather than god commanding them , to preach yet more in that name ? and did they do well who took crafty counsel to suppress them and their meetings , by pains and penalties ; or those rather who counselled ( as gamaliel did , acts . ) to let them alone , lest haply they should be found fighters against god , and would not meddle with them at their iudgements seats ( as gallio the governour of achaia would not , acts . ) seeing no matter of wrong or wicked lewdness was charged upon them , but only matters about religion , and gods law , which he confessed himself to be no competent iudge of ? we appeal to god and all sober minded christians to judge between the bishop and our selves in this matter ; and further , whereas the bishop supposes such a sutableness to be between the quakers rude and confident way ( as he calls it ) and the humour of the meaner sort of people . if by meaner sort he means such of the ruder and baser sort , as made insurrection against paul at ephesus , by the instigation of the silver-smiths , who by that craft of making shrines for diana's temple , got their wealth ; he egregiously mistakes himself , and it s not for want of ignorance in the bishop , both of the quakers and their way , that he is so jealous and suspitious of them ; for verily our way ( as confident as it is , yea , and more then confident , for we are infallibly assured it is the truth , and are able in the power of god , as infallibly to make it good so to be to such as do not wink against the light ) is so far from any real rudeness , and so from all agreeableness to the humours of the rude ones , that however those who are meanly accounted of , and dis●…ain'd by the supercilious shool-men , because they are poor and illiterate ( as to secular sciences ) though of honest hearts , embrace and own it , yet such is the guise and humour of the rude and ignorant rabble aforesaid , of the baser sort , that if their mouths be not held with bit and bridle ( yea and though they are bridled by those laws that are extant , as a curb to routs and riots ) they tumultuously fall upon us , with stones and brick-bats , swords and staves , in so much , that as there is no hast to hang true men , nor need to bid mad-folks run , so there 's little need by penal laws to subject us more to their wrath and malice , who could never yet with patience wait for the word of command , nor tarry for a law , whereby with leave to vent and execute it : how much more may we now expect ( but that god is able to stop the lions mouths ) to be spoyled by them ? seeing that as the christians of old were cloathed with wild beasts skins , and covered with draff , and then thrown to doggs and hoggs to be baited and devoured : so we are now stigmatized with those ( as false , as foul , and ignominious ) terms , of a people defective in reason , learning , education , religion , loyalty and civillity , in all which the quakers will at last upon a serious reveiw , and true account , be found far beyond their accusers ] and then also left by law to the lusts of lawlesse , lewd liv'd ones , to be made a prey of . bish. nothing but truly christian and evangellical principles , ( which are in the good old way ) do secure kings or bind subjects to their good behaviour . answ. as the bishop hath commended the quakers in some respects ; so we shall freely justifie him so far as he confesses to the truth ; and that he doth plainly , and sufficiently enough in this place , but that ( as elsewhere , where tollite , is his tone af●…er tolerate ) he starts aside again from his own position , and stands not stedfastly to it when he has done ▪ for if he did , the quakers should hear no more from him such words concerning them as he uses in the same page a little before , pag. . ( viz. ) never trust the most innocent smiles , and harmless simplicities of innovators , dissenrers , novellizing humourists , * though at first like serpents in winter , they seem very tame and meek , as to their principles and practices . but whatever he means , for the truths sake we shall take him here however at his word ; for in very deed no other but those truly christian and evangelical principles , which are in the good old way , can either secure kings o●… bind subjects to their good behaviour ; nevertheless , that either that furious way which some priests would perswade their princes to drive on in ( iehu-like ) or the practice of such iustices , as before the quakers have any way mis-behaved themselves , demand sureties of them for their good behavour , or else send them to prison , is that good old way , or the principles of such as perswade , or practise persecution , are these truly christian and evangelical principles , whereby either kings are best secured , or subjects best bound to their good behaviour , this we altogether do deny , affirming first , that good old way , which in worth , and time , was before all other wayes , is that of the spirit and light of christ within men , which we in as much clearness and plainness bear our testimony unto , as its dark opponents do , in their ignorant plainness , appear against it in one taunting term or other , in which our more beloved , than in this point believed friend , bishop gauden himself , is not found wanting ; who pag. . derides it , as a presumed spirit and light within them , new powers , new lights , pretended inspirations , or inward lights of which they vapour ; as if [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ] whatsoever is to be known of god were not ( though paul saith it is in the very heathens , rom. . . ) manifest in them ; as if there were no spirit of god in man that giveth wisdom , and no inspiration of the almighty ( though iob sayes there is , job . , , . ) that giveth understanding ; as if god did not now speak to man himself at all ( though it 's said he doth once , yea twice , job . ) because man in whom he speaks , perceiveth him not ; as if there were no such light come into the whole world ( as christ sayes there is , john . ) which is , in it self , sufficient to save those that perish , because the world , mostly loves the darkness , more than that light that lusts against it in their hearts , and so resists it to their condemnation ; and as if because every individual takes not heed to the workings , and shinings of it , therefore there were no true power , nor true light ( as it 's said there is ) that enlightens every man that comes into the world , but only some certain fictitious new power , and new light , promoted by the quakers , some non-entity , which is ( as the bishop sancies it to be ) nothing else but some mee●… new nothing : but this we say , ( what ere he thinks ) is that goold old way , yea , that truly christian and evangelical inward principle , from which all truly christian doctrine , gospel principles , and practices do proceed ; this is that internal good princiciple , by which ( as by ministers without to many , ad extra , so ad intra , the gospel of love ▪ and pitty , peace , and mercy , gentleness and innocency , truth and equity , purity and piety , is ( as paul saith , col. . . ) preached , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in every creature under heaven , this is that new and novel way ( as the bishop counts it ) which if we prove it not to be of all wayes , as well the antientest as the truest , when ever called to it by the bishops ( as we never yet were ) we shall be as ready to recant it , as retain it : this light was that way from the beginning , in which ab●…l , enoch , and noah walked with god ▪ and were found perfect , which was . years before the letter , which came from it , had its being , which the scripture is a testimony to , as those , who wrote it , did testifie to it by word of mouth , as well as by it , and were sent to turn all men from darkness to , ier. . acts . iohn . tthat way which was before allwayes , that say they are before it , and stile it upstar●… , of which each other way that seems to it self to be elder than it , and is now scuffling against the rest about its pedigree from peter , and other kind of antiquity , may say as truly in reference to it self , as iohn did ( iohn . ) in reference to himself , of christ ( who is that true light , whose light this is we speak of , and from whom it comes , this is it , which though it cometh after me , yet it is preferred before me , for it was before me : and as this of the light and spirit of god is that old way , in which all holy men ever walked , and we are bid now to walk in , gal. . so , whoever walk't in it , and according to those truly christian , and evangelical principles , pathes , and practices it leads into ( which were those bowels of love , pitty , meckness , mercy , tenderness , and compassion , as could admit of no consent to the violent persecution of any others , either for not professing their religion , or for open professing from meer principles of conscience ] the very contrary ) were led , as to do no injury to others , which they would not have done to themselves ( and sure we are , no men would willingly be f●…rc't against their faith ) so whatever they would that others should do unto them , to do even so unto others , which ( saith christ is [ i. e. as to the sum and substance thereof ] the law and the prophets , mat. . ) which golden rule ( as bishop gauden himself calls it , and also intimates of it ) is the best measure of all pollicy , and this is it whereby all persons of what sort soever , even all kings and their people , that follow it , are bound to such a good behaving of themselves according to it , as in which they shall assuredly be secured and preserved , when those princes , priests , and people , that walk beside it in that darkness that comprehends it not , in those dark wayes and places of the earth , which it condemns , which are full of the habitations of cruelty , psal. . . as simeon and levi did of old , who sl●…w men in their anger , and had the instruments of cruelty in their habitations , will at last be divided in their counsels , and scattered in the imaginations of their own hearts , however they may seek to secure themselves for a time by such outward wayes , as seeking to divide and scatter god's truly tender-hearted israel , for keeping their conscience pure , and without offence in the sight of god and men. for kings , not when the righteous , but when the wicked are taken away from before them , their thrones shall be established in righteousness , prov. . ▪ yea the king that faithfully judgeth the poor , his throne shall be establisht for ever , prov. . . yea , this we dare determine for a truth , which we find the bish. himself not denying , but confirming , * that as such christians as by gods grace are taught to be truly honest , need no imposition of oaths , nor outward sureties , nor outward securities , nor outward severities , nor outward penalties , whereby to bind them to their good behaviour ; for such are bound by a strictèr tye then an humane law , to behave themselves as becometh the gospel , in all righteousnesse , peaceableness , truth , and innocency towards all men ; so such as are not bound by that of god within themselves to that peace , truth and equity , which it strictly calls to , may swear , and swallow oaths as fast as they can be imposed upon them , yet will ( as occasion serves them to help themselves ) be of little the better good behaviour toward the king , or any else for that obligation ; * and least of all , then when they are not obliged also by that bond of love ( which is begotten among subjects , when without violence , or being forc't to a violation of them , they may enjoy the true liberty of their consciences ) but rather are touched in that most tender part , which such as are free to fight had rather resist and kill , and such as are not free to resist , had rather be killed and die , than suffer rape in . so that as it's truth it self that tyes such as attend to it , while it talks to them within themselves , to their good behaviour to god , the king , and to one another , so that alone , whereby kings and kingdoms can be kept in safety , without subjection to change , or shakings , is that same truth which calls for mercy , taken heed to by kings themselves , as 't is said , prov. . . mercy and truth preserve the king , and his throne is upholden by mercy , which is indeed that truly christian , and evangellical principle , and good old way of god , which was before any of that cruelty ( which , at the will of the devil , was ever acted by cain , ishmael , esau , and their envious , malitious , wild and wicked , rough and rigid race , against the righteous race of abel , isaac , and iacob , had any being at all in the world. neverthelesse , though the bishop is sometimes a very great pretender to this principle , and seems in sundry places ( above spoken to ) to be for respite , lenity , and mercy , and to be a very pittifull pleader for it ; yet contrarily , not onely to gods wisdome , but to his own pleadings for it in other passages , he is found , pag. , . [ though stiling his adresses to the king in his book his charitable endeavours , on behalf of the quakers , yet ( to go round again ) under a pretence of exposing himself and his kingdomes to those great troubles and dangers , which in his own words above cited , he had said would accrue to both king , and kingdom , through their sufferings , if the quakers should passe unpunished and permitted ] stirring up the king to those severities against the quakers , which himself sayes are not sutable to his royal clemency , nor native gentlenesse , in such like words . bish. the publick necessity will require those severities of a wise and iust king , whose lenity to any party of his subjects contrary to law , will soon become an injury to the community , which cannot be fafe , or happy , but by an uniform obedience to the same laws , which must be the rules , and measures to all mens publick actions , the tryers of their failings , and inflicters of their punishments . answ. we say , we appeal to all honest men to judge , whether the bishop is not here found in oppossition to himself , and to those many places of his book before mentioned , where he would be thought to advise to lenity , forbearance , and indulgence to dissenters : for above he intimates it to us a●… his iudgement , that flagellant methods have nothing of reason , or religion in them , neither are the fittest means to rectifie the obliquities of inconforme , but innocent actions ; also that to force dissenters into conformity , by impoverishing , imprisoning , banishing , &c. is a very rough , barbarous , unwelcome , unchristian way , disallowed by all wise men of all perswasions ; that mear plagiary counsels , and punitive courses , are never likely to obtain , &c. that he is against heavy mulcts , rigorous exactions , &c. and that such severity possibly now in england , would be not onely destructive to many thousands , but very disadvantagious to the king and his kingdomes , to the trade and commerce of the nation ; and much more on this part to the same tune : yet contrariwise , here ( to go round again ) he intimates it to be no lesse then folly , and injustice , necessarily injurious to the community , utterly inconsistent with the safety and happinesse of it , for any king not to use such like severities , but to exercise the same lenity to any party of his dissenting subjects ; moreover , as if he were wedded to his wonted way of walking the rounds , whereas before he gave us to understand , that actions , though inconform to the lawes establisht , may be innocent actions ; yet here he gives us to understand the clean contrary , ( viz. ) that non-conformity of all parties to the same laws about religion , cannot possibly be innocent , or in a community consistent without injury , thus ( diruit , aedisicat , mutat quadrata rotundis ) what he calls innocency in one place , that he calls injury in another ; and what he holds out to be wisdome and iustice in one page , that he holds out to be irreligion , unreasonablenesse , folly , and unrighteousnesse in another . to conclude , whereas he sayes , the laws must be the rules and measures of all mens publick actions ; if by lawes he means those that men in their own wills and wisdomes make , as touching religion ; we deny his assertion for these reasons ; first , because the light of the spirit of god , according to the scriptures of truth , is and ought to be the onely rule , and measure of all mens publick actions , in all spiritual and religious matters . secondly , because by dayly experience , it appears that the lawes of men are liable to mutations , alteratio●…s , and repea●…s , according to the prevalency , and constitution ( respectively ) of those that make them , and yet ( though such ) may lawfully be the rules , and measures of mens manners in meer outward , mutable , and civil matters , when altered not for the worse , but for the better ; but that which is to be the standard , and measure in matters meerly spiritual , as faith and worship are , must be something that is ●…xt , ●…irm , immutable , ( as no outward letter , writing , or scripture is , without liablenesse to mis-interpretation ) not subject to be rep●…aled by man : for the foundation of god stands sure , and all his requirings must , and ought to be answered , notwithstanding any of mans lawes and edicts to the contrary . by this time it is sufficiently apparent , how the bishops rabbinicab rigidity to the quakers ( as well as others ) to whom he would be thought a greater friend , and far more favourable then to other dissenters , hath bewrayed it self , and so much the more shamefully , first , by how much he slyly betrayes them before-hand ( by his consent to the act ) into a tasting of the same cup of excommunication from the comfortable enjoyment of their native countries ; and from the commerce with the community of english subjects , from participating of that native gentlenesse , and royal clemency , which the king hath seemed alwayes ready to expresse to all , of what prosession of religion soever , that live peaceably in his dominions ( as the quakers do , save onely that they cannot sin against their consciences , and so against god ; for which the bishop praises them ) and secondly , by how much he would shrowd all his doings and sayings , under that shelterlesse shrub of such empty expressions , and non-enticall notions , as his charitable endeavours , humanity , facility , gentlenesse , lenity , paternal compassion , &c. for all the courses he consents ( at least ) and sometimes incites to of fines , prisons , banishment ( like those of the king of castile , which himself calls barbarous , and unchristian , which yet himself diminishes , when he is found inciting to them , and will admit to be stiled by no harsher or stricter name ( being as blind at home , as eagle-ey'd abroad ) then those severities which the kings native gentlenesse may be compelled to use at last ( and it may be too late , * and which ( not the kings benignity ) but publick necessity doth require of a wise and iust king , whose lenity to any non-conforming party of his subjects , will soon be injury to the safety and happinesse of the community . pag. , . ) we say all this his unchristian cruelty comes marching in under a mask of christian charity , to which his native temper , and candor ( which abhors after the genius of primitive christians all severity , or rigors onely upon the sco●…e of religion ) doth incline him . and thirdly , by how much he deems he hath deserved so well from that people , as that ( saving onely their morosness , in respect of which he does not ) he might very justly expect thanks from them for his pains , as appears by his words that follow . bish. nor do i expect any thanks for my pains , from any of that faction , while they continue in their morose opinions , in their surly , rude , and uncourteous manners ; i do not hear that they are generally a people of so soft and ingenious tempers , as to take any thing kindly , or thankfully from those that are not of their own perswasion : many of them seem to affect a reserved , and rustical way of clownish , yea , of scornful demeanour , prone to censure , despise , and reproach not onely their betters , but even their benefactors , and instructors . answ. this course of thanking clergy-men for their pains , that won●…ed gratulation , they have long had from the great ones , when they have done any thing that is counted by themselves a piece of service to god or men ( in which , if they did all that they ought to do , and that 's more too then they believe in this world they shall be ever inabled to do ) they ought of right , rather to say we are but unprofitable servants , we have done what we ought ) that it is now become a matter wel-nigh of custome among such of them , as love the praise of men , more then the praise of god , to expect , yea to exact it as their right , and that so ridgidly , that it s counted a surly , rude , uncourteous , rusticall way , of clownish , yea scornful demeanour , not to use it : yea , with such a strictnesse , as in the case of tythes ( and other of their priviledges and proper honoraries ) which being once of old given , and received on no other account , then as the almes to all the churches poor , out of which the poor priests and curates had their part , that gratuity and benevolence of the people is now laid claime to , with such eagernesse , and earnestnesse , as their own ( not onely , jure humano , but divino ) that they condemn it as no lesse then injustice in people that deny to pay it , as that which is as due to them as any mans estate is due to him , and as not onely allowed but ordained of the lord himself , cor. . . * as the set proportion to be paid them by all people , whether owning them as their ministers , yea or nay , in way of iustice , as well as gratitude ; as due wages and hire , as well as homage to them for their service in holy ministrations . for much to this tune the bishop talkes , pag. . taxing the q●…akers , who are not at all of their church and flock , not wholly void of the evill principles of coveteousnesse , and injustice , for not maintaining the parish priests by tyths . but for our parts as in this last case of tyths ( what ●…ver laws any lands may have made for the payment of them , since the pope having an i●…ch given him , hath got an ell in the christian nations ) if any man list to be contentious ▪ we have no such custom as to pay them , nor had the churches of christ in the primitive times ; if they had , we will learn it of the bishop , if he can prove it ; so as to that case of thanks from the quakers , which half an eye may see he deems to be his due from them , for his charitable endeavours ( though indeed all his hard sp●…eches against them , and male representations of them to the powers and people in his book , as unsafe and dangerous to pass unpunisht , and such like , well considered , he much more disserves , calumniates , and abuses , then either helps , or r●…lieves them ) we are not so surly rude , clownish , and uncourteous , but that we can , and do take any thing kindly and thankfully from such as are not , as well as from such as are of our ow●… perswasions ▪ and how be it , we are come out of , not only ●…ny others , but out of that superfluo●…s formallity of those , who ( for customs sake ) say they thank men and god often when they think not of them ; yet the bishop's charge , which we perceive he makes upon hear-say , ( which makes many call that truth heresie , which they never heard themselves ) will prove to over-reach his proof of it , while he taxes us so heavily ( for ingracum dixeris et omnia dixer●…s ) as a people pro●…e to co●…sure , dispise , and reproach , not only our be●…ters , but ben●…factors and instructors ▪ but to speak the 〈◊〉 in the plainness and simplicity of heart , without flattering , which we are far from ▪ as we groundlesly censure him not of such a thing , but leave him to the light of god in his own conscience , which only is able to shew him how far forth he hath hovered , halted , and claudicared between the quakers , and those who are down-right for their destruction , and whether he would not please , so as to have praise from them both , if he could tell how ; much less ●…are we reproach him , or despise his doings , but rather accept them , so far forth as we see ought in them of integrity and good intention towards god , and us ; so we find little that is much thank-worthy , and not so much as satisdiction to our satisfaction there ( be it where it will be ) where malefaction malediction , and destruction●…shers ●…shers it self in upon us , so that it may the more ●…lausibly , and undiscernably surprize us , under the fair and specious colours of benefaction and instruction , prov. . , faithful are the wounds of a friend , but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful ; and whether as his condemnations are more than his commendations can make up ; so the bishop's pious pit●…y , of which he speaks so much ; saying , i have a great pitty for the quakers , pag. . much compassion for them , pag. . be not made up as much of matter of false calumniation , as of true commiseration , let it be judged by much more of that kind of ●…alk of his here talkt with . bish. their rude and levelling humour denyes to shew common courtesie and wonted tokens of civil respect to their superiours , contrary to the reverent , gentle and humble behaviour of all gods people in all ages , jewes and gentiles , then whom none were more full of inward humility , or of outward respect , and civility , according to the custom of their countreys , answ. if by this rude and levelling humour , the bishop intends the not putting off the hat , not cringing to the ground , nor using such flattering ●…les as are according to the vain custom of this and other countreys , as , your servant sir , if it like your honour my lord , may it please your grac●… , and such like flattering congees , and me●… complementall , pedantick postures , as people ●… yea sometimes such as hate one another at their hearts , and are even ready to cut each others throats ) use now a-days one to another , as if their bodi●…s , wherewith ▪ they are to serve , glorifie , and worship the lord alone , were made for men m●…rly to worship each other withall ; for th●…se things we have no co●…and in scripture , nor practice of any man therein proposed to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our rule ; but examples rather of the people of god , both iewes and gentiles , to the contrary ; witness iob . , . where young el●…hu ▪ taxing the ignorance of those three friends of iob , who in years were elder than himself , saying , vers . . dayes should speak , and multitude of years teach wisdom ▪ but vers . . great men are not alwayes wise , neither do the aged understand iudgement . adds also vers . . therefore i also will shew mine opinion . and vers . . i will open my lips and answer ; yet vers . . . let me not i pray you accept any mans person , neither let me give flattering titles unto man ; for i know not to give flattering titles , in so doing , my maker w●…nld soon take me away . witness mordecai also , one of the iewes , who could not give that honour , homage , civil respect , and revereuce ( as they then counted it , and now also do ) which haman the second man in the kingdom , as angrily as eagerly expected from him , hester . , . though his refusall endangered the cutting off the whole race of the iewes ; yet was it not his r●…e and levelling humour , that moved h●…m to deny to shew that common courtesie , and those wonted tokens of civil respect ; but on the contrary , it was the haughty humour , pride , and ambition of haman himself , which at length wrought the kings wrath , and his own ruine on his own head , that moved him to be offended thereat , and so to stomack it , as by his false accusations , and heavy charge against the whole people of the same ( as he counted it ) odd and unwonted strain , to seek their extirpation , in these words ; there is a certain people scattered abroad , and despersed among the people in all the provinces of thy kingdom ; and their lawes are diverse from all people , neither keep they the kings lawes ; therefore it is not for the kings profit to suffer them . and to desire their ●…nine , in these words , vers . . if it please the king ; let it be written that they may be destroyed , and i will pay ten thousand tal●…nts of silver , to the hands of those that have the charge of the business , to bring it into the kings treasury : and as concerning gods people among the gentiles , as well as the iews , we find no such command to them , not such example of the primitive christian gentiles practicing such respect , as the bishop quarrels with the quakers for want of , mentioned in the scripture ; we find christ and his apostles so far from exhorting others to respecting mans person , that they practiced no such thing themselves , yea the very enemies of christ confest thus of him , mat. . . we know that thou art true , and teachest the way of god in truth , neither carest thou for any man , for thou regardest not the persons of men ; the apostle iames also is so far from pleading ( as this bishop doth ) against our practice in this particular , that he declares it as inconsistent ( de jure ) with the faith of our lord iesus christ to have respect to the persons of men , because of gold rings , goodly apparrel , and gay clothing , riches , high places , and such other accomplishments ; when the poor because of vile raiment are slighted and despised ; and that it is contrary to the royal law of the scripture , and that it is commission of sin , and transgression . iude also declares it to be the guise of the ungodly scoffers , and complainers of the last times , that should walk after their own lusts , while their mouth speaketh great swelling words , to have mens persons in admiration because of advantage . jude , . moreover christs disciples were commanded by him in their itinerary ministry to the truth , to salute no man by the way , luke . . so that here is instance enough of gods people , both among the iewes and others ( as in the case of elihu ) refusing themselves , and reproving in others the shewing of the said outward respect to superiors , whose iust power yet they obeyed and were subject to , as children to parents , hired sorvanes to masters in their business , in which they were faithful , or subjects to kings and princes , under whom they had protection , to whom they paid tribute also to that end and purpose , & whom in so doing they honored . see rom. . . pet. . . to the . eph. . . tim. . . . howbeit they neither did , nor durst adore their persons , according to all the frivolous fashions of their countreys : herein therefore is the bishop found speaking contrary to the truth ( and 't is too bad for a bishop to be found besides it ) when he sayes the quakers denyal of civil respect , is contrary to the reverent and humble behaviour of all gods people in all ag●…s iewes and gentiles , then whom none were more full of outward 〈◊〉 , according to the custom of their countreys : moreover we appeal to the bishop himself , whether i●… would nor have been grossly rediculous and absurd , for paul who was a good gospel minister , in those dayes to have said with his hat in his hand , and his body bowing to the ground ▪ to timothy or titu●… ▪ who were bishops as well worthy of honour as any in these dayes , may it please your grace right reverent father , or if it like your honour my lord. obj. but the bishop perhaps may tell us ( according to the usual strain , when ever called to give any account of that excessive , eminent earthly glory , reverence , and preferments , which are their proper honoraries in these times , in compatison of what was either injoyed , o●… expected by the pure gospel ministers of the primitive times ) that then the church was as yet but in her infancy , non-age , child-hood , and weak estate , and had not yet obtained to that perfection of glory , strength of beauty , hight of dignity , &c. as it hath since grown to and attained . answ. when we talk to have all things according to the primitive pattern indeed in matter of true beauty , holiness , righteousness , innocency , patience , long-suffering , truth , humility , love ; and talk concerning growth in grace to the measure of those first , best , and purest people of god in former times , that were his blessed ones , in whose hearts was no guile , who were undefiled in the way , and walkt in gods law , , and did no iniquity , as we read psal. . , , . and concerning the perfection of holiness so far as to dominion over sin , and living by the more inward revelation of god's mind to men out of his own mouth ; then we are told that we must not presume to expect in these dayes , such high attainments in the knowledge of gods mind , and will , such immediate manifestations of it to us , such a powerful presence of god amongst us , such a full measure of his spirit powred out upon us , such eminent gifts as the corinthians and other churches then had , nor growth to such a measure of grace , wisdom and understanding , such clear illuminations , and intimate asquaintance with gods counsel , and those internal dictates of his spirit , so as to discern them from delusions , nor such perfect ability to walk so exactly with god as they then did ; and why ? namely because the church in the apostles times was eminently shining forth in its prime , lustre , and full vigour , perfect glory and beauty , and the saints then were fathers , strong men , and well grown christians , in comparison of whom those in afer ages , especially we of these latter ages , are but as children , weaklings , infants , that must suck what knowledge , and attainment in christianity we have , as it were from their breasts , so that in the respects fore mentioned , the church with them , which now is grown young again , and back into its childhood , into a state and stature of infancy , was then as it were in a state of man-hood : but when we query , and expostulate with that clergy that is but falsly so called , as in contradistinction to them they call the laity , * concerning that pomp and lordliness they now appear in , that high preheminence , honourable titles , of popes , cardinals , arch-bishops , arch-deacons , the deans , worship , my lords grace , &c. superabundant maintenance , as innumerable , as unprofitable traditions , as supersluous , as superstitious ceremonies , orders , offices , and officials , parsons , vicars , curats , chapters , prebends , canons , registers , apparitors , proctors , organists , singers , choristers , and outward observations concerning meats , drinks , dayes , times , postures , gestures , hats , habits , and other not more multitudinous than immomentary formallities in their worships , of meer legal concernment and consideration , never known , not heard of in the pure dayes of the apostles ; then , in order to our resolution in this , we are by them given to un●…stand that , which can never stand under the animadversion of an impartial observer of their absurdities , without a just censure of confusion and contradiction to themselves , to this purpose , ( viz. ) that in the apostles times the church was then but in her non ●…age , weakness infancy , immature , unpollished condition , and could not be seded in that compleatnesse , as to all those outward decencies , orders , and accomplishments , which now it hath ; that was but the day of the christian churches nativity , wherein her navil was not cut , neither was she washt in water to supple her , nor salted at all , nor swadled at all , she was under persecution , no eye pittying her , to do any of those great things for her , which have since been done by christian emperours , kings , and princes , who have bestowed great revenues on her , but since she hath multiplyed , as the bud of the field , is increased and ●…axen great , and come to excellent ornaments , her breasts are fashioned ▪ her hair grown , whereas she was naked and bare , she is cloa●…hed with broid●…red work girded about with fine linnen , deckt with gold and silver , eates fine flower , honey and oyl , is exceeding beautiful , perfect in 〈◊〉 , is attained to maturity , hath a crown upon her head , and is prospered into a kingdom ; and hath changed those earthen vessels ( viz. illitterate men , or meer mean mechanicks ) into silver chalices , and golden cups , academically educated preachers , scholastick rabbies , and hath ascended beyond the minority , inferiority , poverty , pusilanimity of those suffering times : and thus , cum ecclesia peporit divitias silia superavit , i. e. ( in one sense , as well as in another ) devoravit matrem . bish. possibly the quakers may in a fit , fear and slatter some men in power , &c. answ. the quakers cannot justly be charged with flattering of any men , or fearing with that fear , that is consistent with flattery , the persons of any men in power : this is the practice of those that seek outward promotions , and greatness in the world , as the quakers do not ; for if they could have either fear'd , or flattered , they had not suffered what they have hitherto undergone , but might have had as many priviledges , and earthly advantages as others have , their sufferings being often on no other account , but because they could neither fear nor flatter ( as others can , who have mens persons in admiration , meerly for their own advantage ) the persons of such as are in power ; so that the bishop hath under a pretence of pitty to us , not a little wronged us herein also , for we believe that if we could eith●… fear or flatter this bishop and his bre●…hren , we should be better thought of by them then we are : and as he hath injured u●… , so is he not altogether free in this place , of comradiction to himself , if experience it self may serve in proof hereof , for if fear and flattery be ( as we well know it is ) that outward respect and civillity , which according to the custom of this country is used among men ( most men putting off the hat , bowing , cringing to superiors , giving flattering titles upon no other account commonly , but either because of gay cloaths , fear of frowns , or hope of favour ) then the bishop ( as well as often elsewhere ) hath contradicted himself here , for as much as he first saith , the quakers resuse to give outward respect , and civility , according to the custom of their country ; and yet in the next words , saith , possibly the quakers may fear and flatter some men in power , which is that customary respect and civillity of the country which stands well nigh universally in feare and flattery ; but if they cannot be prov'd to fear and flatter ( as in truth they cannot ) then the bishop must needs be guilty of either ●…alsuy , or self-contradiction , seeing the quakers are free , not only from fear and flattery , whereof he chargeth them , but consequently also from denying due respect to superiors , according to the custom of the country . but whereunto may the quakers liken this bishop , who is pleased with them neither full nor fasting ? for when he speaks concerning that plainness , and down right demeanour , which , in conscience to god , and not in contempt of any man , we use towards all n●…n ; this he stiles a rude , rustical , clownish , levelling humour in us , and denial of common courtesie , and civil respects to superiors , contrary ( but falsly as is shewed above ) to the reverent behaviour of all gods people in all ages ; but when he supposes ( as he doth , but falsly ) of us , that in some fit we yield that vain customary , and wanted respect of the country , to men in power ; this likes him so little on the other hand , that it comes with a censure from him , under the denomination of fear and flattery . bish. page . i have seen indeed some of their papers , and received some of their letters , written to my self , truly not very rudely , nor malepertly , yet with so abrupt and obscure a way ( so blindly censorious , and boldly dictating ) that saving a few good words and godly phrases in them , i found very little of rational , on scriptrual demonstration , many passages so far from beauty and strength of religion , that they had not the ordinary symmetry of ▪ reason , or the lineaments of common sense in them , at least in m●… apprehension , who am wholly a stranger to any canting , or chimical ▪ divinity , which bubbles forth many specious notions , sine fancies , and short liv'd conceptions , floating a little in a●… airy empty brain , but not enduring the firm touch , or breath of any serious iudgement ; and pag. . there appears to me so nothing of an excellent spirit in them , that there is much silliness , and never well catechised ignorance set off with great confidence , an odd way of folly dressed up with some scripture phrases ; like sepulchers painted with sweet flowers , and fair colours , but void of any true life within , as convincing of sin and error ▪ or as vindicating any truth , or necessary point of duty and morallity ; they seem a busie , petulant , pragmatick sort of people , &c. a kind of dreamers , deceiving and deceived , d●…ting in their rude and contemptuous carriage , in which is pride and ambition , &c. and pag. . nor is it a smal insolence in them , to endeavour , in an age of so mu●…h light and learning , to obtrude , yea , oppose the rudeness and silliness of their covetous and crude fancies , against the prudence , iustice , and piety of this church and kingdom . answ. there is a generation that are pure in their own eyes , and yet is not washed from their filthiness ; and that is the generation of such as call themselves saints in this world , yet neither believe they can be , nor mean to be so till the world to come : there is a generation , oh! how lofty are their eyes , and their eye-lids are lifted up ? and of this sort were of old those lofty laodicean lord beggars , who seemed to themselves to be rich , and increas'd with goods , and to have need of nothing , whilst for want of standing in christ's own counsel , and not buying of him gold that they might be rich , and rayment that they might be cloathed , and not anointing their eyes with that eye-salve of his own spirit of grace , they were indeed ( however outwardly accomplished ) inwardly poor , wretched , miserable , blind , and naked : and how far forth the church of england ( so called ) that calleth her self a queen , and her self-boasting angel , are found in that same loachsome , luke-warm temper , we leave to her self impartially to examine in the sight of god , who seeth all her works , and will ( unless she be yet more zealous and repent , and open unto christ , while he stands at the door and knocks ) most assuredly spue her out of his mouth ; but if we were to take a true cognizance of her state , by those lof●…y , scornful strains of derogation and deep defiance , into which this bishop launcheth forth at large against the quakers , in these , and some other of his words that follow , we might ( without censuring beyond what is meet ) conclude her to be of such a vaunting and self-glory strain . the bishop seems ( and that scarce without some indignation at the quakers insolency ) to wonder ( our hearty desire for him is , that he may not be found among them that despise , and wonder , and perish ) at that work that god is working in these dayes , which ( it seems ) he does not believe yet ( as obvious as it is to any eye over which the vail does not remain in the very letter of the scripture , which he accounts himself , in comparison of the quakers , to be not a little skilled in ) ( viz. ) that men so mean as the quakers , so abrupt and obscure , so far from that beauty and strength of religion , which he dreams is among themselves , because ( perhaps ) of some outward eloquence of speech , in respect of which he is counted ( as he sayes of himself , at least ) not a barren , or difident speaker , so far below the ordinary symmetry of reason , lineam●…nts of common sence in their writings , so rude , silly , ignorant , uncatechised , and crude in ther 〈◊〉 ; should with so great confidence , in an age of so much light and learning , take upon them to be ( as he at least supposes they are ) so blindly censorious , such bold dictators of things for truth , which he deems to be but their own dreames , deceptions , and dotages , to men of such renown as himself , for beauty and strength of religion , sence , and reason ; but surely if he did not read the scriptures by whole-sale , more then by retail , or did but heed the inside of that book which he is so busie about the back-side of , unless he be one of those learned ones to whom that book is sealed , he might easily understand that it is those low , silly , mean wayes , whereby god ever delights to do the greatest matters , that no flesh might glory in his presence , nor any man , nor mans parts , strength , learning education , or wisdom be accounted of : have you never read , o ( obtuse acuti academici , ye profound , prudential , renowned rabbies ) how great goliah of gath , that defied the armies of israel and the living god , was of old brought down by a sling and stone , in the hands of a stripling , that came not to him with sword nor spear , but in the name of the god of that people whom he defied ? have ye never 〈◊〉 in the last dayes of the deliverance of his people , he will do 〈◊〉 like , and make his weaklings as david , to go forth and subdue wi●… aling-stones ? zach. . . how he will draw out that crooked serpent , lev●… with a hook ? yea how the least of that little stock of his shee●… 〈◊〉 hear his voice , which the learned scribes had not heard at a●…ime , though they pretended to great skill in searching the scriptures , should draw him out ? how , out of the mouths of babes and sucklings he will perfect his own praise , and ordain strength against the persecutors , to still the enemy and the avenger ? psal. . although the chief priests and scribes , mat. . , . luke . . . were sore displeased at it , and would fain have had them been rebuked , and commanded to hold their peace ? how he will speak to the drunkards of epbraim , that , through the wine of their own wise dom , and through strong drink , are out of the way , even the priest and the prophet that are out of the way , through the strong drink of their own vain divinations , and err in vision , and stumble in iudgement , how he will speak to them with stammering lips , and another tongue than they look for ? and how the word of the lord out of the mouths of his weaned children , shall be precept upon precept , precept upon precept , line upon line , line upon line , here a little , and there a little , that they may go and fall backward , and be broken ▪ and snared and taken ? isai. . how it seems good in his fight to hide the glorious mysteries of his gospel and kingdom , from the wise and prudent , while he reveals them unto babes , mat. . how christ himself , and that excellent glory of his , which was the fulness of that grace and truth , that came and comes to his saints in the light by him ( the shadow onely of which substantial image of the father , came by moses , and is found among all that are learned , no higher then the letter ) was hid under that mean outward appearance , and occupation of the carpenter , mark . . and did any of the rulers of the pharisees believe in him , but onely that people of whom they said , according as they also thought , they knew not the law , and were accursed ? how , by the foolishness of preaching , sith in the wisdom of god , the world by wisdom knowes not god , it pleased him to save them that believe ? how he will save the tents of iudah , rude rusticks , honest poor plain-hearted country men first , that the glory of the house of david , and of the inhabitants of ierusalem , kings and princes , chief priests , renowned doctors , wise counsellors , deep studied schollars , noble , rich , proud , self-conceited citizens , and such like , may not magnifie themselves against judah ? how , he makes foolish the wisd●… of the wise , and prudent●…ow ●…ow he sends his treasure which is the vessels●…hen ●…hen the babylonish trash of abomination and filthiness , 〈◊〉 whores spiritual fornications is exhibited in the golden cup 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 her hand , rev. . how he delights to provoke a nation that ha●… ●…rovoked him to anger by their own inventions , to iealousie by a foolish nation , and to weary them by a people that are not a people in their eyes , deut. . . rom. . . how he made use of aquila a tent-maker , and priscilla his wife , to take to them apollo ( then a more eminent preacher of christ then any parish priest is in these dayes , though he knew him yet but as it were after the flesh ) and to instruct him in the way of god more perfectly ? and what if god , who ( as to the substance of it ) is eternal , and unchangeable in his way , will go the same way now as ever he has done , and befool the learned grecian , the scholastical scribe , and disputer ●…f this world , by his foolishness , which is wiser then man , and by his weakness which is stronger then man , and put out the eyes of those men , that are so wise in their own eyes , and prudent in their own sight , as the whole fraternity of the clergy are , that seem to themselves as so●…s of anack , whilst the quakers are lookt upon by them with disdain , as no other then meer grashoppers in their eyes , so that they shall call good evil , and evil good , put darkness for light , and light for darkness , bitter for sweet , and sweet for bitter ? what if he will turn wise men backward , and make their knowledge foolish and carry away counsellors spoiled , and send his son ( a new ) as a light into the world , that those that see not may see , and that those that see ( as the seers seem to themselves to do ) may be made blind ? does he any more then was wont to be done of old ? is there any new thing thereby done under the sun ? is it any more then what hath said he will do ? and must he cease to do as he ever hath done , and hath said he ever will do , because the wise men in their own eyes cannot trace him in his footsteps , which are in the great deep ? alas poor foolish men , that are glorying in your own wisdom , and strong men in your strength , while gods people glory in the lord alone , and rejoyce in his highness , who is the god of their salvation ; little do you think how he that sits in heaven hath them that oppose his image in derision , how the virgin daughter of zion shakes her head ( as she did of old against the insolent assyrian ) at the arogant antichristian , which reproaches , and blasphems , and exhalts himself , and lifts up his haughty eyes on high ( for so the eminent ecclesiasticks now do ) against the light of israel , that is as a fire , and his holy one that is as a flame , that shall kindle upon thickets of the forrest , even all that vast ▪ wast wilderness of external , t●…tionary religion , that is sprung up out of the bottomless pit of ●…er mans invention , and imagination , which knows no bounds of adding ceremony to ceremony , till the substance and power of godliness is eaten out of doors , as pharoahs seven thin ears of corn , and lean kine did devour the fat and and well-liking ; yea verily , a little of that honesty , simplicity , and truth in the inward parts , which is the sacrifice god delights in , and of that harmless simplicity , which , with the bishop goes for silliness , and never well catechised ignorance , plain breeding , unpollished manners , and suck like , & of that wisdom that makes poor men and women wise to the salvation of their souls from their sin , will in the day that 's coming weigh down in the ballance of the sanstuary all that subtilty , pollicy , prudential piety , and wisdom of words , wherein the greatest doctors and dictators , who are out of the spirit , are found teaching and dictating , by which they never obtain , or bring others to obtain the conquest over their own hearts lusts and corruptions , nor bring themselves , or others , forth of all iniquity into god's righteousness , nor ( as that primitive bishop timothy was bid to do ) ever save either themselves or those that hear them ; witness their belief of a necessity of sinning , and non-belief of any possible attainment ( by the gift of gods grace ) to live without sin , while there is any being in the body : so that however the bishop jeers at the quakers writings and undertakings , as some odd way of folly , drest up with some scripture phrases , void of any true life and beauty within ; yet so much more efficacious are the meanest of their testimonies to the light , not only to the convincing , but converting men from sin and errour , and to the vindicating of truth , and ( omiting the impertinencies of outward ceremonies , which are not so much as accessary to salvation ) the necessary points of duty , and morallity ; then all the life-less preachings of those painted sepulchers , which flourish their sermons ( as with sweet flowers , and fair colours ) with phrases of iunior fathers , and sententious sayings of more modern authors , that in the name of the whole body of that people we say to the bishop , of that strange hidden divinity of the quakers , which he scoffs at , as nothing but canting , and chymical , in the words of the poet , hoc ego opertum . hoc ridere meum ( tam nil ) nulla tibi vendo iliade . bish. my design is not to ravel into all the petty opinions , enthusiastick raptures , and odd practises of the q●…ers , nor will i severely perstringe them , &c. answ. we would have the bishop to understand , that there is not any , no not the most petty opinion , nor odd practice that is owned by the body of that people called quakers , ( though every thing that 's done by every one , that may possibly bear that name , may not be owned by them ) which ( however jeer'd at by him under that old scholastick scoffing term of enthusiastick rapture ) will not be made good against the whole body of those bishops , that believe they have so much ground to except against it , were they once made as willing to condescend from their high-mindednesse ( as the scriptures require they should , rom. . ) in all plainnesse of speech , which most becomes the weighty matters of the gospel to be discussed in , to confer with men of no evill minds , though of such low estates , plain breading , and unpollished manners , as the quakers for the most part seem to him to be , and whom he perstringes much more severely , by his condemning of their opinions , and practises by whole-sale , and in the lump , as odd , heriticall , and erroneous , which yet is the wonted way of all the clergy with those they quarrel with , then if he took account of us concerning them in particular . bish. i have a great pitty for them ; first , because i perceive them to be very unlearned , and unstable people , ever learning , but never coming to any solid knowledge of the truth , or any great improvements in christian gifts , men of low parts , and small capacities , as to any point of true wisdome and understanding in things humane , or divine , tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine , easily seduced with specious pretentions , and strange notions , even to raptures , and enthusiasms , which are presented to them as novellies , by some that are masters of that art , and agitators for that party , for what designe private , or publick , forreign , or domestick , god knowes , some suspect iesuitick arts to be amongst them . answ. if these , and such like contemptuous , disdainfull , and i●…onicall terms , as he uses here , as well as before and after , were at all seemly from a bishop , yet are they so much the lesse sav●…ry and seemly from him in sundry respects : first , because these expressions , which savour of nothing lesse then such a thing , proceed from him under a pious pretence of his great pitty towards the quakers . secondly , because himself hath declared this his own practice , to be contrary to that of the holy men , and fathers of old ; whom he commends as men guided by the word , and spirit , and so worthy to be imitated by him ; for those holy men ( saith he ) did not at any time despise the meannes of any christians outward condition , or the fatuity of their opinions . thirdly , for as much as himself elsewhere , brands it as a prophant , and atheisticall carriage , to disdain the plainnesse of the way , which the wisdome of god sees fit to hold forth the gospel of salvation in ; witnesse his own words , then which we scarce need any other in most cases against himself , in the d. page of his epistle , where by way of commendation of robert boyl , to whom he dedicates his book , for vindicating that homely stile , and mean way of speech , wherein the spirit of god hath chosen to hold forth the holy misteries of the gospel in the scriptures , he speaks thus , your self lately cleared the fountains of divinitie , in vindicating the sacred , yet unaffected stile of the scriptures , against some mens prophane and atheistical cavils , who are so ●…ittily wicked , as to disdain , even salvation it self in that plain , but sure way , which the wisdome of god sees fittest for humane capacities , whereas few i believe of those curious gallants , would be so foolishly morose , as to refuse a fair estate , which were setled upon them in the ordinary legall way of deeds , because it is not conveyed to them in such oratorious harangues , and flourishes of speech as they most fancy : exore tuo , &c. who would think the man that writes these words in reproof , and condemnation against such as dispise gods speakings forth of truth , through the stammering lips of such as are ( as to secular sciences ) unlearned , and ignorant ( as peter and iohn were , act. . ) and rude in speech ( as paul confesses he was ) though not in knowledge , cor. and in such a rustical way of clownish demeanour , wherein amos the heards-man , in an age , place and presence so promising as the kings chappel , obiruded and opposed the rudenesse , and sillynesse of his crude fancy ( as it seemed to amaziah the priest ) against the prudence , iustice , and piety of the church and kingdome ; we say , who would think that he who condemns it as prophane , atheistical cavillation in others , to slight the lownesse of those earthen vessels whom god chuses , by word or writing , to bear his name to the nations ; should so far forget himself , as in the self same book , to fly out so far as the bishop does , into the self same fault of scorning of good men , under colour of pittying them , for their low parts , and small capacities , and so fall of himself into the self same condemnation ? so let every tongue that riseth up in judgement against thine israel , o god , and every lip that is opened to speak proud things , proudly , contemptuously , and disdainfully against the righteous , and despiseth not men but thee , who to the poorest and meanest of men hast given thy holy spirit , be left of thee ( till it learn to know how desperate it is to despise thy day of small things ) to be cut off , and confuted , contradicted , and condemned of it self . howbeit , saving all this bishop's high deifying of themselves ( as he doth implicitly whilst he defies the quakers as persons unlearned , unstab●…e , never coming to any solid knowledge of truth , or any great improvements in christian gifts , of low parts , and small capacities , as to any point of true wisdome or understanding in things humane or divine , tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine , easily seduced with specious pretentions , &c. ) we do not see any such solidity of knowledge in the saving truth among the deepest of men cal'd divines , but rather that they are deeply lost from it in the thick woods of their own thoughts , fore-fathers traditions , and certain outside bodily exercises , and beggarly rudiments ( as paul calls them ) about which they busie themselves , feeding only on the theory of the things of god , which yet they have but a slender , superficial sight of , on the meer rind or shell of the letter , and gnawing the bone of the bare words , never coming at the kernel , marrow , or inward substance , nor witnessing the power of god opperating to the bringing forth , and perfecting of his image in themselves ; when as ( in aperto & facili posita est salus ) the salvation of god , which is of the soul from its sins , lyes in a little compasse , and is seen and found in an easie , plain , honest-hearted attendance to the teachings of gods grace nigh in the heart , and not so much in an ability of disputing and preaching over this or that particular unprofitable point , and imp●…rtinent proposition : neither do we discern such an eminent improvement among them in christian gifts , of either preaching ( without notes ) or praying ( without book ) with the help of which , men of very low parts , and mean capacities ( as to any point of true wisdome or understanding in things humane or divine ( if they have but ability enough to steal good words from their neighbours , or to compose the godly sentences , and formall supplications of others , into the accustomed order , and to read them over when they have done , and can al●…o be so far befriended , as to procure a parchment for it ) may serve to make sufficient pastors for countrey parishes , though perhaps they be scarce able so much as to read the scripture , in both those original languages , wherein it was given forth , if that were the learning so absolutely necessary , as our clergy ( so called ) to the utter unministring thereby of most ministers of their own making , do solemnly assert it is : and as to the kind of learning , which is ●…o necessary , that no man can be a gospel minister without it , which ignorant and unlearned peter ( as the priests truly enough as to any university improvement accounted him , act. . ) said such as wanted were unstable , and wrested the scriptures to their own ruine , ( viz. ) the infallible guidance of the infallible spirit of god , who hath no fallible spirit , nor any fallible guidance of his church by that infallible spirit , that we know of ▪ which spirit the quakers confess with paul , that if they have not , they are none of christ's : this our modern divines , and scripture searching scribes , are so far from being skil'd in , that as they deny , and do not so much as pretend to it themselves , so they little less than damn the quakers as heriticks , for pretending to it : neither do we see so much stability and stedfastness to their principles among the priests , as may iustifie them in their iudging of the quakers as unstable people , tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine , easily seduced , &c. for whereas the generality of the national priest-hood have been easily drawn aside with the specious pretensions , and strange notions of self-preservation , provision for their families , escaping imprisonments , possibility of preferments , and such like fleshly dreams , worldly raptures , and earthly ethusiasm's , presented to them upon condition of their closing with the rare novelties , that are countenanced under every new catastrophe that comes into their native countries , to turn to and fro like a reed shaken with the wind , and leaning along with the tyde , which way ere the one blows , and the other runs , and to yield forth and back , to this and that and tother form of imposed worship , rather then be pluckt up from the fruitful soyle of their ecclesiastical patrimonies wherein they have taken root , unstable as water , conforming it self to the round or square figure of all vessels it is respectively put into ; yet the quakers could never yet be seduced back again , nor ever will be , from that true primitive doctrine , and principle of the light of iesus , nor from that foundation of god on which their faith is built , by all those various winds of priestly doctrine , about the forms of their several woiships , for which they contend with one another , more than for the power of godliness ; which winds have blown now this way , now that way of latter years in this nation , nor by any of that cunning craftiness , whereby the clergy hath lain in wait to deceive them , nor by any of those above said , or any other specious pretensions whatsoever . and as for those transactions of the quakers , which ( like some great master of that art of taunting , and agitators for his party against the quakers ) he flouts at under the wonted ironical terms of raptures and enthusiasms , by which what he intends god knowes , but if thereby he quips at the quakers petty opinions , and odd practises ( as he speaks above ) of blindly censuring , boldly dictating in their abrupt , and obscure way , their good words and godly phrases , b●…bbling forth many specious notions , short-liv'd conceptions , obtruding their rudeness , silliness , and crude fancies in an ag●… of so much learning , against their ecclesiastical prudence : we give the bishop to understand , that ( though it grieve him that it is not ; yet ) the spirit of the lord , which blows where , and on whom it lists , will be never the more straitned for his forbidding it , though he knows not the way of it , nor which way it goes from himself ; who smites the lords prophets , to speak unto those prophets of his , who are smitten by him ; nay verily , as little as the bishop's eyes are open to see , and their hearts to believe , what is so palb●…bly declared to them of these last dayes in the very scripture , of which they deem themselves to be such divine interpreters , yet upon young men who shall see visions , as well as old men who shall dream dreams , will the lord pour out of his spirit , even the fulness of that in these latter ages , which the primitive churches had but the first fruits of ; so that the glory of this second house , that is crected after the long treading down of the holy city and true worship , by the nations that have got into the outer court , ( viz. ) the meer name of christians , and external forms of christian worship , shall exceed the glory of the former that was before the romish ruinations of it , yea , upon his daughters and hand-maids , as well as on his sons and servants ; ( though the mockers shall say , as of old they did , acts . they are drunk and mad ) and they shall prophefie , and grand gamaliels , and great high priests that have pass'd for prophets , shall cover their lips , because they have no answer of god , and either learn or m●…urn in silence , while ( doctorem et dictraorem induit ●…xor ) not only young and mean men ( as timothy and titus ) shall be old in sober-mindedness , examples of gravity , paterns of purity , honourable for their honesty , regenerated into primitive innocency , grace and glory , beautiful for holiness , eminent in righteousness , fathers for experience of gods power upon their spirits , but very women also be as mothers in gods israel , though they seem ( at least in the apprehensions of some that go for fathers , who are yet strangers to that chimical divinity , that god is declaring forth the misteries of his kingdom by ) to be no better than meer can●…ens , bablers , and bubblers forth of such fine fancies , and short liv'd conceptions from an empty airy brain , as cannot endure the firm touch or breath of any serious iudgement . finally , as to that insinuation , and suspition of iesuitick acts to be among the quakers , in order to some designe , but whether publick or private , forreign or domestick , god knowes ; we say god knows , and it is well for us ( sith men are , and yet will be willingly ignorant of it , let them have never so much experience of our integrity ) that he does know it , who will also once clear our innocency as the light , and our righteousness as the noon day ; to whom principally we appeal to judge between us and our mis-representers : we say , god knowes we have no other designe at all , but to promote the truth and power of godliness , liberty of tender consciences , and the gospel of peace , in the flourishing of all which the peace of this nation is so eminently concerned , that if ever it come to know perfect peace , if any one ecclesiastical power , whether papal , prelatical , or presbyterial , shall be permitted by the civil power , which is supream ( de jure ) to exercise such a superintendency and supreamacy ( de facto ) as to suppress as well the quakers , as all others called christians , but it self , then the lord hath not spoken at all by us : mean while this is the ioy and rejoycing of our hearts ( whatever the bishops count of us , or can do to us ) the testimony of our consciences , that in simplicity , and godly sincerity , we have our conversation both towards god and among all men ; being far from so much as seeming ( save that the bishop looks upon us with an eye of groundless and needless jealousie ) to conspire with any crafty loiolists , or to bear an implacable hatred to the church of england ; the worst evil that we do ( as 't is the best good in love we can wish to which is that it might once arise purely out of that grand apostacy into the hundreds of pithless forms of it , up into the life and power of truth it self , and become as apostolical as the quakers are ; much less under any religious pretensions whatever , do we seek to undermine the civil peace amongst any factions , or factions ones whatever ; nevertheless , if this bishop had been such a wise man , and sober christian , as we perceive he accounts himself to be in comparison of the quakers , his wisdom would certainly have justly restrained him here , and have instructed him better , than to seem so publickly ( as he does in his book ) to be so much afraid of such a mean company of silly fools , or to suspect iesuitick acts among such sensless simpletons , un-catechized ignoramus's , such home spun , plain-bred , unpollisht manner'd , petulant , incapacious , shallow brained , easie , unwary , blind people , as he counts the quakers , seeing iesuits are known and own'd to be rabbies of no small renown for parts and pollicy , as well as their pretended piety throughout the world : herein the bishop hath utterly loosened his own tackling , so that he cannot well strengthen his mast to bear him up in this battle against the quakers but that he 'l sink before them , as to one or other of his assertions , which can no more , than two contradictories , be both true at once , ( ad hominem ) what can such mean people , as the bishop represents the quakers to be , for birth and breeding , for reason and understanding , as well as estates , men so unlearn'd and unstable , of such rudenesse , sillinesse , and crudity of fancy , and possibly of no evil minds , people that have neither wealth nor wit to agita●…e with , be such deep , dreadful agitaters of such grand iesuitick arts and designes , as the undermining of the peace of kingdoms ; herein the bishop must quit the quakers of one or other , or of both these his false charges , if he will quit himself as a man of reason , and understanding : either let him say we are crude , foolish , silly , ignorant , abrupt , unlearned , plain , unpolisht , unwary , and so no iesuites ; or else falsly as he does , that we smel of iesuits , and so are no such non-sensical novices as he holds us out to be ; for his matter is no better than untempered morter here , and let him dawb which way he will to make it good , and to stand sound , yet will it hang together as well , but no better then butter and an hot oven . bish. as for the bishop's next squeamish piece of delineation of the quakers , which he makes the second ground of his pitty towards them , viz. in that they are a sect lately bred as vermine out of the putrid matter , and corruptions of former times , out of that spawn and filth which other factions cast forth to the deformity and confusion of all things , and had their beginning from the very rabble and dregs of unchatechized , undiciplin'd , ungovern'd people in england , had their original , and extraction out of that squalor , mud , and fedity of times , which destroyed all fear of god , &c. answ. this is such a deformed mess of meer medley and confusion , such a pitriful piece of putrid matter , spawn , filth , squalor , mudd , fedity , foul , and false aspersion , as we have no mind to ravel into , if we should , how easie were it for us to convict it not onely first of much falshood ; for our first original , and beginning , is not ( as is shewed above ) from so low and loathsome a dunghill , and dungeon of dirt and darkness as that rabble , and dregs of people , of which he sayes we were hatched , ( if we were of that world , that world would love her own , but because we are not of that sort of men , but chosen out from among them , therefore that rabble , and dregs of people hate us , ) but we are a people born of god from above , of the immortal seed of his word , and spirit , who hath begotten us back to himself , from the devils image , which once we bare with others , that are still in the degeneration ; not by an equivocal generation , but a true regeneration , and renewing of his holy spirit ; and our beginning is from him who is the beginning and ●…nd of all things ; but secondly of much 〈◊〉 also , while he makes all that loathsomness which in his christian charity , and little love he loads us withall , a ground of his pure pitty to the quakers , for howbeit it manifested the falshood and wickedness of their adversaries plain enough , when the apostl●…s vvere despised , reviled , and defamed by them , and made as the filth of the world , and the s●…um and off-scouring of all things ; yet it would have savoured of hypocrisie , de●…it , and dissimulation in the abstract , should they have pretended to have rendered them thus vile to men , in pitty to them ; so it 's bad enough in the bishop to bespatter gods holy people , but deceit of a deeper die , and guile in grain , to pretend in all this he acts in pitty to them ; yet behold all this last most putrid part of his discourse against the quakers ( as mulier formosa superne desinit in turpem pisc●… ) fronts it self under the fair face , specious form , and pre●…ence of pitty , of which pretended pitty of the bishop to quakers his last pretended ground is as followeth . bish. lastly , i pitty them , because to me 't is no wonder if they were soared from all swearing by the frequent forfeited oaths , and repeated perjuries of those times , in which the cruel , ambitious , and disorderly spirits of some men , like the demonaicks in the gospel , brake all bonds of lawful oaths , by which they were bound to god and the king , dayly imposing the super-foetations of new and illegal oaths , monstrous vows , sactious covenants , desperate ingagements , and damnable abjurations . poor men , the quakers as well as others , had cause to fear , least if they took an oath to day , they should to morrow be forced to renounce and abjure it ; yea , to renounce , and abjure the undoubted rights of others , to attest even by oath , the usurpation of those as lawful , which were most diametrically contrary to the laws of god and man. this great temptation , under which the quakers then lived , makes me have much compassion for them , it being not only easie , and obvious , but venial , and almost commendable for them to be carried to an utter aversation from all swearing whatsoever , when they saw such desperate abuse , and breaking of publick , and solemn oaths , in those dismal dayes . answ. we muse why the bishop does not as well pitty the quakers , if they be scared from all swearing , by the frequent , prop●…am , and repeated prodigions swearing of these times , in which all places are full of vomit , so that there 's no place clean , in which the c●…el , ●…alitious , and disorderly spirits of many men , like the demo●… in the gospel , break all bonds of those good and wholsomes lawes against unlawful oathes , from which they are bound ( but that they obey not ) by the express prohibitions both of god , and of the king ; not onely frequently imposing ore and ore again a superfluity of that oath of allegiance , which according to the law of man by which it is pretended to be imposed , is as illegally imposed upon the quakers , in reference to whom it was never made , as it is universally omitted , and neglected to be imposed on popish recusants ( palpably known so to be ) in reference to whom onely , and not for the other , the said oath was at first instituted and appointed ; but also dayly using on all occasions , and for the most part without any occasion the supersoesations of new invented , monstrous , desperate , and damnable kinds of oathes , iurations , cursings , and execrations . poormen , the quakers as well as others , have cause to fear , lest if they take the oath of allegiance before some magistrates in one place , for fear of men , to day , they shall be forced , before other magistrates to reiterate it to morrow in another , since , though men can prove they have ●…worn it ost heretofore , ( as some quakers can ) and once taking it is as much as by law , can be required of one man , * yet it shall be required of them again anew , as oft as any magistrate out of malice hath a mind ( as a snare ) to make tender thereof unto them ; and so they must come under the guilt of vain , needness , common and frequent swearing : and so not onely encourage men by their example to swear more consaiently in courts , where they both swear and for swear themselves already , but strengthen the hands of those thousands of wicked , prophane swearers , that they cannot return from that course of wickedness , which is diamerrically contrary to the lawes of god and man. this great temptation , under which the quakers now live , as well as others , one would think should make the bishop have much compailion for them , it being not onely easie and obvious , but venial and commendable , for them to be carryed to an utter aversation from all swearing whatsoever ; when they see among men not onely such desperate abuses of themselves , in vain needlesly multiplying of publick and solemn oaths : but also in their dayly multiplying every where , as many abo●…inable oaths , almost , as other words , in these dismal dayes . but alas , his pious 〈◊〉 to pitty , being but pittiful speers of the quakers , ●…ather than 〈◊〉 expressions of any such real pitty as he ought to beat toward them from a real ground : to me it is no wonder , that the bishop does not so much as pretend to any pitty to them , in such temptations of theirs as now most truly call for it : and as the bishop's pretended compassions , are but a certain sort of 〈◊〉 pouring out of contempt , and exprobation upon us , so ( as far almost as 't is possible ●…hao 〈◊〉 in uni●… fit vituperatio alterius ) all his more real praises and commendations of the quakers , do pull down no small dispraise and discommendation ( not to say condemnation ) upon himself and all his sides-men against them , since while he praise●… them , pag. . for chusing rather to suffer than to sin against their consciences , and so against god the more s●…ame it is sor himself the while , and for those whom he spurs on by othersome ( for all his seeming shewes of bridling them by some ) expressions of his book , to a foreing of them by mulcts and penalties to swear , and so ( what in him is ) to sin against their consciences , and so against god , for fear of the threats of men , and to escape such sufferings ; which practice of the bishop and the quakers adversaries , is in such a degree as condemnable in themselves , as that which the bishop commends in them , is truly commendable in the quakers . and secondly , while he praises the quakers , pag. . for their declared esteem of the authority of the holy scripture , as the rule of faith and holy life , and their fearing to sin against the command there given by christ against swearing , and ( however they are by many suspected to slight the scriptures ) their strictness in doing what therein is required of them , as to truths to be believed , and duties to be done to god and man , the bishop is so much the more liable to discommendation himself , who in the same page doth himself ( virtually and in effect ) deny the scripture to be the perfect rule of faith and holy life : and whether the bishop doth not so , we appeal to all wise men to judge ; for that which is a perfect rule of faith and holy life must be not only standing , inalterable , immutable , and not liable to any depravation , but also of such latitude as to stretch forth itself to the regulating of all men , in all truths to be believed , and duties to be done , or left undone , by each particular man , as well but accessary , as absolutely necessary , or else it 's not so perfect a rule , but that it needs another to be added to it , and so there must be two rules of things to be believed and done , viz. one to direct and guide men in truths and matters of lesser , another in truths and matters of greater moment ; which is as absurd as that of the papists , who make christ's righteousness ( as the bishop makes the christians rule , like a ladder , that is not long enough to reach to heaven of i●… self , without another lesser ladder at the top of it to reach it out with ) the main thing ; but their own works , and will worships so concurrent with it , that without them it cannot save them ; sor sayes the bishop , scripture is indeed sufficient for the substance of all necessary truths to be believed , and duties to be done or left undone , but it doth not stretch it self forth to the instances of every particular circumstance or ceremony , which private prudence , or publick laws may regulate according to order and decency to edisication ; which is as much as to say , scripture is not a perfect rule of faith and holy life : for what is so must be a rule of all things that are to be tryed , regula et regulatum mesura et mesuratum debent esse adaequata : but the scripture according to the bishop is not adaequate to all things to be tryed , stretches not out it self to every circumstance or ceremony ( and so not to direct in swearing which is a ceremony ) but the private prudence , and publick laws of men must regulate them to edification , to supply the defects of the scriptures : siccine episcopi agnoscunt scripturas esse regulam ? thirdly , page . he adds this by way of commendation to the quakers , viz. that they seem to have so great a fear of an oath , that out of a jealousie of swearing amiss , they will not swear at all ; which commendation as it tends to his own condemnation , sor as much as himself there says , that in this respect they shall rise up in iudgement against many of those ( among whom himself is not the least ) that speak much against them ; so much more to the condemnation of that generation of swearers he so much sides with against the quakers , who seem to have so little fe●…r of an oath , that out of a jealousie lest that evil custom of swearing amiss should die out altogether , in order to the upholding of it , do accustom themselves to nothing so much as to a custom of swearing ; who shall not stand in judgement at the last day , wherein every idle word must come to account ; how e're they may now scorn the reproofs of any of those quakers , or those reprovers thereof , who speak much against them . the second part. having hitherto noted some of those many meandrous turnings and twinings of the bishop's book , whereby ( not unlike to leviathan that crooked serpent ) i●… sometimes shrinks it self ( as it were ) out of the figh●… of such as are not wise as serpents , as well as innocent as doves , and so perspicacious enough to discern the design thereof , in order to the more advantagious laying out of it self at length , to a deeper and stronger stinging of those whom ( as a friend to them ) it pretend●… to have most to do with , as if it would wash its hands from having ought to do with any rigorous , sharp and severe ways against different perswasions , but specially , of all men , against the quakers , as a more innocent people , and possibly not of such evil minds as others , while yet under the disdainful terms of surly , rude , uncourteous , rustical , clownish , silly , ignorant , uncatechized , undisciplin'd , ungovern'd , rude , unlearned , impollish'd , and such like ; yea , under the vile names of vermin generated out of putrid matter , and corruption extracted out of the rabble and dregs of people , out of that spawn , filth , squalor , mud and foedity of times , void of all fear of god , he delivers them over ( so far as his consent to a bill for that purpose , and concurrence of , his book can contribute thereunto ) as undeservedly , as 't is undesired by thousands of sober people that are not of them , to be sold as a prey to the rabble and dregs of people , to be destroyed ; we come now ( omitting several things for brevity sake , which otherwise we might make some useful observations of , ●…bout his further pity to us , praises of us , and other pro●…ix and previous passages ) to the point it self propounded by him to be proved , and to an examination of that little part of the book , wherein its author ( having pretended before to act the part of a benefactor ) interposeth himself on behalf of the bishops ( whose piety and charity so far as to their joint suffrages and consent with him in his work , he presuming of pag. . we may presume it is all their sence , and the sum of what may be expected to be said by the whole body of the bishops in that point ) by his own privat●… and single hand , to act the part ( as to the lawfulness of swearing ) of a convincer , or infallible instructor to the quakers . and having already rased his outworks , and subdued his suburbs , passing at present through the gates , which are as large , as of little force to afford any aid or assistance to the city they lead to ; we enter upon the city it self , and come directly to a brief , honest , pla●…n animadversion of what the bishop utters upon that subject , and of the utmost which he urges in proof of the la●…fulness of swearing : which part of whose discourse in that point , howbeit ( consideratis considerandis ) it looks big , and bears a direful frontispice enough , at first sight , to fright all feeble-minded folk into the faith and sudden following of all that for truth , which is therein attested , being a birth brought forth by no less than an applauded doctor , and much admired bishop , backt also by no less now than a law , that subpoena's any that shall in any wise appear against it , under the patronage of which law the controversie between him and the quakers is by the bishop himself as boldly determined against them , as disputed ; yet , how formidable a face soever it seems to have amongst meer formalists , who ( their faith standing not purely in the power of god , but in the wisdom of g●…eat men , whose persons , wonds and works ( tam nil ) they have in admiration because of outward advantage ) are easily frown'd or flatter'd into at least a seeming to see strength , truth and reason there where in truth they see none , it hath ( as brief as it is ) more bulk than bulwark in it , to bear the brunt of those discourses to the contrary ( had he been minded to have answered them ) whereby the quakers in their books extant against swearing , before his own was extant for it , may be truly said by way of praeoccupation , or anticipation , to have confuted the bishop's book , and enervated the strongest of his arguments before he uttered them ; and such as are under the power and teachings of him , who is the truth it self , and cannot dote upon any ipse dixit , so as implicitly iurare in ipsius sententiam , to take truth more upon trust , than tryal from naked talk or conjectural discourses , that discuss things at uncertainty , and can pretend no higher than probability , but neither to any plain ●…tunal , or truly scientifical demonstration , cannot but be●…old ( though parturiunt montes ) how little or nothing at all of weight ( comparatively to what was by some , and well might by all be expected , when 't was nois'd that the mountains were in travel , and about to bring forth somewhat that way ) is indeed brought forth to so weighty and mighty a purpose as his book pretends to , viz. the proof of the lawfulness of swearing in iudicial proceedings , in answer to the scruples of the quakers , of whom there are many thousands ( besides the many thousands that are not of them , yet assenting herein with them ) that are upon more sufficient grounds than the bishop's slender reasonings against them can remove , well satisfied how contrary it is to christ's command , and far short of that evangelical perfection , which his gospel calls to , for his disciples to swear at all , not onely in trivials , in usual discourses , but also in iudicial proceedings . in order to a manifestation of it , how meanly he manages the matter towards that , which is the main end of his undertaking , we shall first take notice of what was ( by right ) the whole of the bishops business ( since he hath taken the transaction of that affair upon him ) as in reference to the quakers in all the several particulars of it . . how weakly and imperfectly he hath answered it , not in some onely but even in every one of those said several particular●… , under the consideration of which ( as of so many particular heads to which it is all respect vely reducible ) we shall find occasion , one where or other , to take cognizance of the whole train of the bishop's talk , so ●…ar as it seems to be of any true tendency to the point in question . as then to the main ●…uestion it self , the proof of which in the affirmative , to the satisfaction of the quakers in all the particulars wherein they except against it , and that so , as either to convince them , or else to convict them as justly deserving to suffer the severity of the late act for the requiring of it , as wilful and obstinate offendors , if not so convinced thereof , as pract●…vally to submit to it . first , it is not whether prophane or trivial swearing , dly , nor whether swearing by any creature ( as such ) not relating by it , and through it unto god be lawful or no ? for these the bishop confesses for himself and his brethren , p. . they all agree with the quakers to be unlawful . nor dly , whether an oath by any creature as in relation to , depend●…g on , & derived from god be lawful ? for howbeit the bishop would ●…ain ( if 't were possible ) find out such a far fetcht sense , and scrue the quakers into a closing with him in his con●…ectural conceit , p. , . . ( which conceit of his i●… indeed the very basis which the weight of his whole discourse so leanes upon , that if it prove a misconceit ( as sure enough it will do ) his corner-stone fails , and his whole castle , which he build●… in the air upon it , comes down to the ground ) viz. that the iews either upon a seeming to themselves to have some divine indulgence and connivance , or temporary disponsation heretofore granted them for it , or by the hardness of their own hearts , or the customary depravedness of those times and , manners , presuming to take to themselves such a dispensation , and to indulge themselves in that kind of creature-swearing , as a thing then lawful ; and that that was the sort of swearing which christ and james both do aim at in their prohibitions of swearing , which fancy we shall shew the ●…rivolously of by and by ; yet the bishop agrees fully with us in this however , and whatever the iews then thought of them , that those irregular forms of oaths , as he terms them , both were then ( saving the iews conceit to the contrary ) as well as they are at this day unlawful : nor hly , is the question whether such oaths by any creature being once rashly taken , be obliging to performance in a lawful matter or no ? for howbeit the bishop says , that all agree they bind , that in this case q●…od fieri non debuit factum valet , and that like bastards they should not have been begot , but must be kept , and th●…e the iews though they ought not so to have sworn , yet having so sworn , were obliged thereby , and were not excused from perjury in non-performance ; which saying of the bishop that all agree to this , confutes that saying of the same bishop , wherein he confesses , p. , . ( quoting that of august . in proof of it ) * that all the iews disagreed from this , and fancied such oaths were not binding uyon their souls either as to truth or right ; yet that is neither here nor there to the question . nor is the question ( as it lies in its full latitude between the bishop and the quakers ) to be coop●…d ●…p into this narrow room , as the bishop sayes it will come into ▪ p. , . viz. whether those words of christ and the apostle , mat. ●… , i●… d●… ●…terly f●…bid all swearing in any case whatsoever , to all christians ; so that by the law of christ it is a sin to swear , as in privates , so in publike transactions or courts of iudicature , &c. the cishop states the question too straitly , while he ties it up to the interpretation of those two texts onely ; for though it must needs be granted that the whole stress of the controversie stands so strictly upon the right or wrong understanding and rendition of those scriptures , that they are very well worthy to have the preheminin●…e , as to the final determination of the point ; and we are willing to refer it wholly thither ▪ and to stand or fall in our conflict , by a candid , sober , clear , christian , unprejudicate , impartial animadversion of those texts , with the several circumstances attending them , and as they stand in relation to their contexts and other scriptures , ( and very well we may , seeing the bishop himself gives ground to us so far , as to confess , p. . that we have of them two such notable texts in our way , which see●… to stand as the angel of the lord against balaam , with a sword in their hand , to stop the way of any swearing whatsoever ; all agreeing that the words are a divine and strict prohibition against the sin of swearing ; and therefore the fears and scruples of the quakers in point of swearing , are not to be wholly despised , but in all charity the words ought to be cleared , and their scruples removed ) yet whereas the bishop sayes p. . that the quakers do not argue any thing further by way of rational deduction , moral grounds , or religious principles , either from the nature of an oath , or consent of other scriptures , or from the divine attributes , or glory ; but barely insist upon the words , and urge the ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) letter as an absolute or universal negative ; we do him , to wit , that as we own and know indeed the words to be an absolute universal negative , without any limitation or dispensation , so we are not under such an absolute limitation of our selves to the bare letter of those two texts , but that if any thing of a rational consideration be offered , whereby to divert us from ou●… sense of them ▪ or ou●… judgement in that case of swearing ▪ we are ready to receive it , or to return our reasons why we cannot ; and as our books already extant are not without much of rational deduction , both from those texts , and other topicks , so we may find somewhat more to offer , than our sense on those two scriptures . and thereupon we propound the q●…stion somewhat larger than it stands stated in the bishop's book , that he may have the more field-room against us ; it he can find ought of solid reason , wherewith to fight us . . the question then i●… ( the other , as he states it , not excluded , but included ) whether it be lawful for christians to impose swearing under penalties , o●… to swear either by god himself , or any creature in any case whatsoever , in private or in publike transactions , or any courts of iudicature , be the matter of the oath ever so just and true , and the manner or form of it ( as ordained by man ) ever so solemn , and the authority ( humane ) requiring them , ever so lawful in civil respects , any thing in those two texts , or any thing any otherwise whatsoever to the contrary notwithstanding . this the bishop affirms on behalf of his own conscience , and the consentient sense of this church and kingdom , yea of all christian and reformed churches of any renown , that the use of swearing in iudicial proceedings is lawful for christians , and that christs words are to be understood with such a limited sense , and strict interpretation , as not to forbid the use of swearing in a religious and lawful way * on the other side professing , that we are led thereto no otherwise then by the conscience of that obedience we owe to christ ▪ we have denied that either imposing oaths under penalties , or that swearing even in iudicial●… proceedings i●… lawful for christ's disciples , and that absolutely and universally christs will is declared to the contrary to all his disciples in those two scriptures . this being the question , the negative part of which is held by the quakers , it was the ministerial duty of the bishops , who are sound in the affirmative , very suitable to their profession and paternal compassion ( by bish. gaudens own confession , p. , . in his motion to the house ●…or some respite , till it were discharged ) in order to the quakers information , and such sufficient instruction as might answer their arguments , remove their difficulties , 〈◊〉 their c●…sciences , and either bring them into a chearful obedience in that particular , or else leave them without excuse before god and man , so as to justifie the truth of the law against the quaker , error , and render them justly suffering the severity of it for obstinate offending , we say it was the bishops duty in prosecution of the e●…s aforesaid , either per se , or per alios , before their assenting to the edition of the law against us ( at least of b. gauden himself , whose own motion and confession that was ) to have discharged it in every one of these subsequent particulars . . he ought to have perform'd that business of instruction , in order to the quakers information concerning the lawfulness of imposing under penalty , as well as of taking oaths in courts of iudicature . . of both these in such wise and manner , cases and places as they are at this day in england impos'd and taken . . now in the dayes of the gospel since the ending or fulfilling of the law in christ. . among true saints , christians , christs own disciples , or in his true church . . by way of proof , and not by meer affirmation onely , or bare position . . this proof not by way of meer probable argumentation only , but by way of plain scriptural evidence , and scientifical demonstration , that is able to give an infallible eviction . . this scriptural demonstration from the scriptures of the new testament , not of the old onely . . any thing in any books put out out by the quakers , or in those two texts matth. iam. . to the contrary notwithstanding . . such as must succeed so as effectually to produce its immediate end , viz removing all difficulties , such clear conviction and infallible satisfaction to their consciences , as actually leaves them without any doubt , cloud or exception in themselves against the truth of the thing imposed , and to be practised . . or else in case of non-conviction , or of non-submission against conviction , after the bishop's so full and effectual endeavo●… of their information , denominate them undoubtedly such wilful resisters , and obstinate offenders against the law , as fall , and that so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the severe penalties thereof , as to he left in their sufferings without plea for themselves , and without any just excuse before god and man. these being the particulars of the bishop's professed work , it remains now that we onely take some account of the residue of his book , how accordingly he hath accomplish'd it , which if it appear to right reason that he hath , god forbid that we should wilfully deprive our selves of that religious liberty is left us , and obstinately refuse that which is not onely lawful for christians to use , but ( as the case stands ) prudentially necessary , 〈◊〉 the expedienc●… of our lives , outward liberties , estates , gond 〈◊〉 and enjoyments ; but if otherwise it be so that our bow , like ioseph's , at least abides in the same strength it did before , however the arch-archers of all have shot sorely at us , to the wounding of our reputation among such as are apt to be more ●…way'd by the bishop's proofless positions , than by the quakers evident demonstrations , and that our testimony heretofore given , stands extant in the for●…●…d ●…d vigour as before , then ( what ever others do , and what ever the contray cost us ) god forbid that we should turn aside from following the lord , so , as to lead truth and reason captive after mens 〈◊〉 conjectures and conceits , and not suffer violence quietly , without violent resistance , under the laws of men , rather than do that which the bishop sayes p. , . no man may do , i. e. act contrary to those dictates we judge , or but suppose to be gods , and sin formally and maliciously against but appearing principles of truth , and so wilfully rebel against the truth , or but supposed will of god , whose ●…ly will shining on the soul in reason or religion , seeming or real , is indeed the present rule of conscience , which binds so far a●… it represents ( though in a false glass , and though it err , as to the truth of the rule ) and so violate both our own consciences , and his commands , to whom we christians owe the highest love , loyalty and obedience . first then as to the lawfulness of imposition of publike oaths under penalties in iudicial proceedings , he professes it's fit , p. . we should be informed thereof ( before we suffer as offenders ) by the law of god as well as man : but we profess we cannot find throughout his book any proof at all for imposing oaths under penalties , unless he should count upon his instancing in abraham , iacob , ioshua , david and others , requiring or desiring an oath of 〈◊〉 they entrusted , but not under penalties , which is not demonstrative neither , being drawn but ( ab exemplo ) from the example of 〈◊〉 ▪ and that under the law too , whose practice in many things , or indeed in any thing ( though they were good men ) is not our rule , but god's own precept under the gospel , whose permission of sundry things then , is no commission●…or ●…or the doing of the same things now ; whereupon if there were any ground from which to prove it lawful for christians now to swear in some cases with a good conscience , that 's far from justifying it as lawful in christians by penalties to force other christians to swear against their consciences in courts of iudicature ; so that therein he hath done his work but by the halves . . as for that kind , form or manner of poenal imposing , and taking oaths in such cases and places as 't is now used in , and so strictly pleaded for by our english professors , there 's not one inch o●… evidence about the warrantableness of that , although it 's not onely possible , but exceeding probable , that thousands of people ( if they were well satisfied as to the thing , in some form or other of it , which the powers , priests and people of this nation call swearing , though the qu. do not so call it ) who can never with good conscience to god , conform to those many cumbersom , customary , superfl●…ous , fidling formalities of handling , fingering , kissing of a book , with so help me god , and the contents of this book , and suck like , by which meer ceremonious , accidental , odd , petty practises , postures and gestures , as by the substantial and essential form thereof , they ( at least ) must be supposed to define an oath , who confine men so to them , as that they will punish them as not swearing to their satisfaction ( though offering that which is ten times more evangelical and substantial , as i call god to record upon my soul ; or i speak as in the presence , or in the sight of god ; or i speak truth before god , and lye not , my conscience bearing me witness d●… in the sight of god ; or god is my witness , or some such solemn form of words as may be suggested to the person at the time of his attestation ) unless the other adventitious , inventious forms aforesaid , of touching , or talking by road after some clark or cryer , be conform'd to ; yea , which makes the matter the more ( either renownedly or ridiculously ) remarkable on the part of those rabbies , by whose opinions some subordinate rulers are in this point irregularly ruled , though they almost in all their boo●… tell us , that an oath is no more than a calling god to witness , as a special honor , or appeal to him * ; yet if we ( who do not count it swearing by god , to call god to witness , any more than it is swearing by a man , to call a man to witness , unless there be such a form of speech us'd , as to say , by god , and then that 's an oath , whether by god , by man , or by any other creature , as by heaven , by earth , &c. ) if we say , god is my witness , i speak before god , i appeal to god , i call god to record , or such like ( not stinting nor limiting our selves syllabically to those very monosyllables onely ▪ of yea , yea , nay , nay ; which words the bishop sayes p. . ( but on his own head , or by hear say onely , for it 's not so ) the quakers so much affect to use , as if they would fancy themselves literally or verbally tyed to these monosyllables , and those to be repeated in all their assertions or prom●…ses , nor scrupling to use such paraphrases or enlargements of speech as the matter , or the parties understanding or diffidence may require ) unless there be a punctual observation of well-nigh every tittle of those other trifling impertinencies , we are not excus'd , ●… swearing , but punisht , as not swearing satisfactorily to them , even by them , who yet tell us that to say , i call god to witness , or such a thing , is swearing ; which is enough to make any sober men think that the acts for imposing and taking of oaths ( though perhaps not so intended to be by such as made them , are yet ( being once m●…de ) made use of sometimes by many of those that pretend to execute them on the quakers , more as an engine to ●…nsnare and entra●… such innocent , honest and tender-hearted p●…rsons , as envious-minded men have a mind to be aveng'd on , than out of any such honest and good intents , as either to secure the king , or remove the obstructions from iudicial proceedings , which , for ought we ye●… s●…e , might go on better than they do without that needless use of 〈◊〉 ▪ unless there were care taken by those that requir●… oaths , to 〈◊〉 less prophane swearing than there is , notwithstanding all the good acts and proclamations that are out against it ; since the bishop himself confesses with us at large the utter uselesness of oaths ▪ whilst he intimates , that honest mens oaths are as needless , as wicked 〈◊〉 oaths are creditless ; and we would that all should take notice how he little less than gives us the whole cause thereby , while he ●…yes concerning the testimony of good men , or true primitive christians , thus , p. . * possibly as christians ( truly such ) we should need no swearing in publike or private . and p. . in private conversation ( primitive ) christians were then esteemed so strict , exact and cautious of their words in asserting or promising that there was no need of an oath among them ; yea they so kept up the sanctity and credit of their profession among unbelievers , that it was security enough in all cases to say christianus sum , i am a christian . if they urged them further to any oath for matter or manner , or authority unlawful , they repeated this as the onely satisfaction they could give , there needed no more than the veracity of their bare record : they thought it not lawful for them in such cases to swear , being in this case emulators of the esseni among the jews , of whom josephus tells us , that their word was as sure as an oath ; and that they avoided not onely all forswearing , but all swearing , as that which brought their fidelity in question , and lessened the reputation of their sect . thus christians , that they might not come short of the esseni among the jews , who would not swear but in iudicature , or of any men in this pious severity , especially ▪ in abstaining from all unlawful swearing , did keep themselves from all kind of swearing , especially heathenish and idolatrous , their profession and reputation being test enough to their words . nor did they think any men under heaven were so worthy as christians , to make good some of the ancient and sober : heathens dictates * in this kind , ●…oh as were that of menander , so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 evil swearing , as not to swear in things just and true : and that of solon , a good man should have that credit , that no man should believe him any more for his swearing , it being some diminution to his reputation to be put to swear , or to need an oath to gain credit . diogenes lacrt. tells ●… , that the athenians would not suffer xenocrate●… , a man of great integrity 〈◊〉 honor , to take an oath at the 〈◊〉 , as a thing unworthy of his reputation . nor did the romans exact oaths of their chief priests , indignum credentes viro tantae sanctimoniae sine j●…ramento non credere . hence we find some of the ancient fathers , as origen , chrysostom , theophilact , o●…cumenius , hillary , athanasius , st. j●…rom , theodoret , lactantius , and others frequently inveighing , without any limitation or re●…erve against christians swearing as to private conversation : st. basil commends clymas a famous greek , that he rather suffered a mulct of three talents , than he would save it by swearing , to the loss of his honor ▪ which he thought caution sufficient for his honesty . and as concerning the testimony of wicked men , and p●…ophane swe●…rers , the bishop sayes thus , p. . the sin of prophane , easie , trivial , familiar , inconsiderate swearing , for which the land mourns , 〈◊〉 . . . disposeth men , as st. a●…yar ●…yar , to any man that swears never so solemnly , and in judicature , who is a common swearer , & hath no reverence of the majesty of god. all which words of the bishop are here recited at large , with a rendition of two or three of his greek and latine marginal quotation●… ▪ into english * , ( which the bishop might as well have englished himself , for the quakers sakes , whom he relates to be strangers to all learning , but that possibly he fear'd they had too much plain truth in them to be uttered in plain ▪ english to plain-hearted people ) that all may see how the bishop hath here , 〈◊〉 well as in more places , turn'd the mouth of his own canôn against himself , wounded his cause well-nigh to death with his own weapon ; and in confirmation of the necessity of swearing , confirm'd rather , first the needlesness thereof among good men , their word being tantamount to ●…n oath without it ; and the invalidity of it among propha●…e ones , forasmuch as their testimony is of no credit with it ; and consequently the utter uselesness of it among any men whatever . obj. but perhaps the bishop thinks he makes up that gap sufficiently with this bush , viz. this testimony of theirs against swearing , extended onely so far as to private conversation , not so far as to swearing in iudica●…ure ; for thus he expresses himself in two o●… three clauses of that parcel of his matter above ci●…ed , saying , in private conversation no need of an oath , p. ▪ fathers inveighing against christian swearing in private conve●…sation , p. . and the esseni would not swear but in iudicature . ans. we reply , these are but ●…earms of his own shuffling in among those testimonies of the fathers , and the other wise men whom he mentions , in repeating of whose words , he hath but made his own rod , wherewith he would also as roundly have lash'●… himself , had he but exhibited their witness in their own words , without mangling them by mingling them , for his own ends , with his own ; for there 's no such distinction made by them , as he makes between swearing in private converse a●…d publike iudicature : for it 's plain their judgement and witness was against all swearing ▪ whatever ▪ and 〈◊〉 for the esseni , of whom he sayes they would not swear but in iudicature , it 's evident enough by what we have witnessed of them out of iosephus in our books , ( see the antidote ▪ against swearing , p . ) that they would not swear in iudicature , any more than out of iudicature ; for iosephus sayes of them , that whatsoever they say , is firmer than an oath , and to swear , is among them counted as a thing superfluous : this the bishop might have noted in that book call'd the antidote ( as well as many more matters , which by sundry passages of his book it seems to us ●…e hath ▪ read there ) save onely that he is loath to seem to cite any thing ▪ out of our books , lest thereby his weakness in not answering ▪ them , should the more bewray it self . and perhaps , what we ▪ quote out of iosephus in english , he ( to hide both himself and it , quotes in greek ▪ both in the , and . pages of his ●…ook , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . iosephus de essenis . and now it comes under consideration , since the bishop states the case upon those terms of swearing in iudicial proceedings , as if he were ( 〈◊〉 really so he seems to be sometimes , and sometimes not again 〈◊〉 ▪ against all swearing whatever , whether rash or serious , prophane or solemn , private or publike , save onely in publike iudicature , or iudicial proceedings ; we have often marvelled in our selves to see the bishop state his question so narrow concerning that ( by which he entitles his book on the top of every page , from one end thereof to the other●… ) viz. the lawfulness of swearing in iudicial proceedings ▪ and yet wanders so wide off from it , a●… he does in his disputation for it : for he comes not ( whatever the matter is ) so much as near any proof of the warra●…tableness of such kind of swearing ; but all that p●…tty proof he puts forth at all for the lawfulness of present swearing , if it were of weight to warrant any swearing at all , is more pertinent to prove the lawfulness of oaths in private , ordinary conversation , and common communication , than of oaths in publike courts and consistories , in order to judicial proceedings there : indeed , if by courts of iudicature , he should mean ( as we see not how he can ) the synodical councils of clergy-men in inferior ages ; 't is true , he tells us of oaths imposed and taken , as in the 〈◊〉 , the ephesine council 't was so and so ordered ; and in the sixth synod of constantinople : yea , nor did any canons of the church ( saith he , p. . ) forbid such swearing : yea , we read of old , ( saith he p. . ) some condemned by the orthodox part of the church for this error , that they denied all swearing to be lawful : and we know th●… bishops , that were so backward ( as basilius was at calceden ) to be done to as they did to others , and ( looking on themselves to be priviledg'd to the contrary ) unwilling to take and be imposed upon in the point of oaths , were ever ( or else were not like their wonted selves ) free and forward to impose oaths on others , and to bind that heavy burd●…n upon other mens backs , which they were not willing to touc●… with the least of their own fingers : but what 's all this to us , as to convince us of the warrantableness so to do , because those men who call'd themselves the orthodox still , as they sa●…e at the 〈◊〉 , condemned of old all others as heterodox , that did not dance after their pipe , and sing to the same tune with them in swearing , and every thing else , when they had once got up into a 〈◊〉 , lordly dominion over mens faith ? and what is that consonant iudgement of those mordern , eminent divines , ( as he calls them ) of the romanists , as well as reformists , agreeing against p●…rjury , and pr●…phane oa●…hes , and yet assenting to the lawfullness of iudicious and solemn swearing , and not thinking them by any positive law of christ , become unlawfull , what 's this in respect of the quakers satisfaction ? who know hundreds of things wherein ( as much as they fall out and fight , even to blood , with each other about their fan●…ied formalities ) they all agree against the light of god , the power of godliness , and the very appearance o●… the ●…mage of him in his holiness , who is the substantial truth it self : we say , what is that 〈◊〉 rather tri - 〈◊〉 ecclesiastical authority & agreement of the clergy to the quakers , whose faith standing higher than the wisdom and thoughts of men , cannot ( as the bishop both thinks and sayes truly enough , p. . . ) value them , not much be moved by any such engine , so as to lead their faith and reason captives after them , 〈◊〉 any lydium lapidem , or infallible touch stone , whereby to try this or any other truth . but if by swearing in iudic●…ture , in judicial proceedings , he intends that sort of swearing that is now impos'd and us'd , by and before iustices , men in authority , or magistrates in their civil courts ( saving that its one ) of those many customs of the nations , which the scripture sayes , ier. . . are vain ) where does the bishop produce any evidence , or so much as an inch of inst●…nce , out of the scriptures of either testament , of such a thing , in order to the quakers satisfaction ? 't is true , he tells us , as others tell him , p. . certain stories , which make more against , than for him , that other christians were impos'd upon , and had oaths by officers civil and military exacted of them ; some whereof ▪ 〈◊〉 swear ( as he sayes ) being required by authority ; and some did not , as 〈◊〉 , who when promised dismission by the prefect if he would swear by the fortune of caesar , refus'd , saying , christianus sum , i am a christian. and 〈◊〉 the martyr , who replied to the officers * it is not lawful for me to swear at all , being a christian ; and he tells us ( as 〈◊〉 tell●… him ) that the christian 〈◊〉 took oaths in the name of the father , son and holy spirit to obey their commanders , not to dissert their colours , and dye for the common welfare , which was called sacramentum militare , before , and so after christianity prevail'd in the empir●… whence that name sacrament came to be apply'd to christian misteries * but where 's his proof of the warrantableness of such exactions of oaths by officers , and of such swearings of those christians from whom they were exacted in courts of judicature , from either old or new testament , or in order to iudicial proceedings ? among all the texts , which he ●…russes together , and thwacks one upon another , out of the old-testament , p. , . in proof of what we deny not , ( viz. ) that swearing by god himself was then lawful , not one of them speaks out the legallty of that solemn swearing by gods name any more in iudicial proceedings , than in private communication and conversation . and as for what he alledges out of the new , p. , , . from the example of gods * christs , pauls , angels swearing ▪ if any o●… all that would prove any swearing lawful for us now , as we have shew'd heretofore in our books at 〈◊〉 it possibly cannot for the reasons therein sufficiently rendered ; or if those words of christ ▪ amen , amen , verily , verily , were an oath ( as the bishop would sain r●…ad them ( if possibly he could ) under that a●…nomination by his marginal citation of capellus his words out of rabbi ionah [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ] in veritate forma 〈◊〉 ap●…d 〈◊〉 ; though he sayes no more on his own head , but that it's next degree to swearing : ) and if that of paul charging timothy , and calling god to witness , saying , before god i lye not , and the rest , if any of them were either ●…on or adjuration , swearing , or exacting oaths , ( as by reasons that remain as unanswerable , as they are as yet unanswered by the bishop , rendered by us in the books above said , it 's prov'd they cannot be ) yet those that shall say , those examples then would either not prove the lawfulness of swearing ordinarily , frequently , needlesly , and so vainly , in letters , as well as by word of mouth , in that common communication , and private conversation , which christians have each with other , in which kind of familiar entercourse paul uses those oaths ▪ and adjurations ( as the bish ▪ call them ) and not in courts , and that without need , and so in vain , since unrequired by magistrates , and also among such as would take his word without swearing , and do what he required without adjuring ; or those that shall say they prove ab exemplo the lawfulness of swearing in courts of iudicature before magistrates in iudicial proceedings , will be found disputing and 〈◊〉 so far besides all sence and reason , that nescio an antyciram ratio illis destinet omnem . and as much strangers to all learning , as the bish sayes the quakers are ( and truly 't is not much of that perishing thing he call●… learning ( what e're we have had ) that we now pretend to , or care much for , a little honesty , integrity and uprightness , being of more weigh●… , worth , and validity to salvation in the day of god , than all that inferior literature of those , who drink to drunkenness , and divine to do●…age from the golden cup of their own carnal counsels and conceptions ) yet the quakers would be so deeply besotted , as not to se●… wo●…d for trees ▪ if they were not able to see the nonsensical absurdities that demonstrate themselves from such an inconsequen●… ▪ piece of disputation and demonstration as that above said ▪ yea , this would not onely demonstrate paul to have been a common , ord●…nary , needless swearer in his familiar communication with the saints he wrote to , utterly uncall'd , to it by any magistrates , but also demonstrate the magistrates of these dayes , whom our ecclesiastical 〈◊〉 ( call'd ministers ) justifie therein , to be rather monsters of men , than ministers of true civil iustice , that will take the ●…uakers words in their courts neither with , nor without an oath , so but that they shall be punish●… by them for not swearing , not onely when they do not swear , but when they do swear also : for ( ad hominem ) though all these phrases of christ and paul , are ( as the bishop says ) oaths , and none of them , which ( as occasion is ) they are not as free to use ( not as impos'd by men , tying them at their wills to any one of them , but as mov'd to any one of them , as the lord gives utter●…nce ▪ as they a●…e to use yea and nay it ●…elf : yet though 〈◊〉 say , god is 〈◊〉 witness , or any of the rest , they will not take 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an oath before their courts ; bu●… fi●…e and prison , without 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a using of the foremention'd outward rites : thus ( o how ●…giously do absurdities , confusions and self-contradictions multiply among a people that by a predominant priesthood are peg'd●…p ●…p 〈◊〉 that narrow principle of persecution of all those , that are more ●…ender of keeping truth , than themselves ) among the ministers at their churches , and in their books , verily , verily , god is my witness , i call god to record , i speak the truth before god , and lye not , i 〈◊〉 as in the presence of god , and such like , are oaths , and forms of swearing ; but among the magistrates in their courts , and at their benches ( why else are the quakers fin'd , imprison'd , and con●…iscated for not swearing , though they can use them ) those , and 〈◊〉 like forms of speech are not a swearing . dly , as to the time wherein the bish ▪ is to prove swearing by the name of god to be lawful , it is now in these dayes of the gospel , since ●…hrist crucified , for otherwise the bish ▪ ●…ights without an adversary , the quakors themselves granting both oaths of several sorts , and and many more formalities and ceremonious 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 sacrifices , circumeision , &c. to have been in force , and to have been done in the name of god , and by command from him 〈◊〉 the law before christ , which are not warrantable and justifiable●…ince ●…ince ; for the law said many things by way of precep●… and commission ( at least permission from god ) during the time thereof , which are ended and abolished by christ , and would be irregularities grosly reproveable in mens manners in mo●…al matters , 〈◊〉 , civil transactions and communications should they be used among them who profess the gospel . the law said , an eye for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a tooth for a to●…th ; the gospel , avenge not your ●…elves , resist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , put up , forgive , forbear . the law , thou shalt love thy neighbour , and 〈◊〉 thy enemy , ( yea it was lawful under the law , and according to it ▪ for the iews to spoyle their enemies , the aegyptians●…nd ●…nd the 〈◊〉 ) the gospel sayes onely , love thy 〈◊〉 , if he hunger , 〈◊〉 him ; if he thirst , give him drink . but the bish ▪ beats the air for a great way together , and 〈◊〉 not so much 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ●…s he does 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , busying himself ( and more than he need to have done , if he had read , or been willing to seem to have re●…d those books of ours , wherein we have 〈◊〉 enough to have saved him that labour ) very much besides his 〈◊〉 ▪ to prove that which we know no quakers denying , viz ▪ that swearing by the name of god was commanded under the law , to which end he piles one text upon another , out of moses and the prophets , p. , . bish. exod , . . deut. . . deut. . . deut. . . numb . . . deut. . . isa. . . jer. , . adding , nor doth the lord 〈◊〉 by his prophets condemn the jews for swearing simply and sincerely , but onely for vain , false , perfidious and perjurious swearing . answerably we read the unblamed practice of many holy men , abraham , jacob , joshua , david , that sware without sin and offence in such serious and mighty cases , which the law of god did permit or require . among the sons all publike testimonies were ratified by oath , as buxtorf , drusius * and others , who write of the civil administrations of iustice among them . ans. as if that were any part of the question between him and the quakers , whether the iews had any command to swear by gods name when occasion was to end their strifes ▪ which thing we deny 〈◊〉 , any more then himself ; but this we say , though the lord by 〈◊〉 moses nor the prophets that lived under the law , and were ministers of it , while they lived under it as well as throw it of the gospel , condemn'd not the jews for swearing simply ; but for swearing vainly , and for for swearing yet by his son , who was made under the law , and a minister to reform it for a time , and after a time put an end to it , and to the transgression and sin , variance , strife , &c. because of which it was added , by bringing in the everlasting righteousnes , he condemns somewhat more th●…n was condemned by moses , and the prophets , who yet by the bishops own confession , have condemnd both vain swearing , and forswearing , therefore that could be no other then the very thing call'd swearing it self , even by gods own name , as well as by any creature , altogether , as is seen hereafter . but if the bishop say he uses those old-testament texts and examples , as mediums onely , and premises , by which ultimately to prove the lawfulness of swearing under the gospel , as one of the moral , and so perpetual precepts of the law which end not in christ , nor are abolished , but established by his coming ; for thus indeed ( that we may do him no wrong , ●…ut right to the utmost , so far as 〈◊〉 words can help themselves ) he comes to speak in the passage following , p. , . bp. if from all these premises it be clear , that some swearing 〈◊〉 morally lawful ▪ agreeable to the express law of god , even in the third commandment ▪ in which we are not onely forbidden to propha●… the name of god , but the affirmative also is included , of sanctisying his name by all ways , of praying , praising , vowing and swearing ; if in doing thus upon just occasion , private or publike , we sin not against any moral law , &c. it must under●…ably follow , that christ did not forbid or annul the old law , as to the sanctity and morality of an oath , but onely take away the corruption and abuse , it being no desigh of christ to destroy or diminish , but to fulfil the law ( moral ) however he came in the way of fulfilling , to abrogate the ceremonial , yea and the politick laws too , so far as they were peculiar ▪ to the jewish policy in church and state , &c. — swearing was a part of that moral law , which christ signally tells shem he did not come , nor ever intended to abolish , but to maintain , so far as the love of god and our neighbour are great accomplishments of all laws ; to both which religious swearing is most conform ; it being to god's glory , and our neighbo●…s good . there is no danger then of doing hurt to our ▪ own consciences , any more than in serio●…s affirmation and negati●…us 〈◊〉 oath having nothing but the attestation of god in it , who is ●…iness ●…f all we say and do . ans ▪ of what the bish. speaks , this i●… the sum , the 〈◊〉 for swearing was moral , as those for praying , praising , these standing under the gospel in force , as well as under the law. to which we return , let the bish. take away the shadow , and plead nothing but the substance of things , and leave nothing but the morality of the whole law , and we will grant him that it may , and must be used at this day ; but that 〈◊〉 not done in all things , if it be in anything , by the popish , nor yet by the protestant bishops , to this very day . the law , which had the shadow of the good things to come , but not the very image or substance it self , that came by moses , but the 〈◊〉 things themselves , 〈◊〉 , the grace , and the truth , is that which 〈◊〉 gospel hath , and that came by iesus christ. moses and the 〈◊〉 prescribed , and enjoined the ceremony of all service to god , and the figures of the true , but as the day breaks , the shadow vanishes , the figures flee away , and the maked truth it self of them stands only ( de ju●…e ) under christ now . how beit i undervalue not the law , so as to liken it thereto , as being in worth infinitely above them ; yet as all aesops fables , which vvere but fancies , had some moral or other after them , the shevving of vvhich they pointed at ; so much more had all moses his outward forms and figures , some moral ▪ substantial , more evangelical , spiritual , and eternal truth , and true things , which they vvere but the shadows , shews and figures of ▪ and as the ceremoniality of the service of praying and praising , was the offering of incense , and sacrifice , singing , &c. and other formal supersluities , which then attended those services , but the substance it self is the lifting up of the heart to the lord , in sighs and groans , from the movings of his own pure spirit , and singing , and making melody in the heart to the lord under the gospel , in which time the offering up of sweep incense , and other sacrifices , would be but the offering of swines blood ; and the substance of circumcision is that of the heart , rom. . which being come by in christ , the other is but the concision , phil. ●… . and christ the passeover in the substance , in respect of whom the other killing of a lamb , once in force , is but the cutting off a dogs neck ; so the substance of that ceremouy of swearing that now abides ( as the bish. himself confesses ) is no other than what we are free to , viz. the testifying the known truth from the heart , with an addition of no more then ( as occasion may require it ) some kind of attcstation of god , who is witness of all we say or do ; and that no more than confession or denial by yea and nay , with onely some attestation , or calling ●…o witness , to strengthen the asseveration ( which is no oath , as is shewed above ) is that stauding substance that answers to that shadowy , ceremonious way of swearing in use under the law , is most evident by the paul's rendering of that term swearing , as it 's spoken of in way of prophesie concerning its continuance then , as isa. . . to me every tongue shall swear , under that term of confessing onely under the gospel , rom. . . every knee shall bow , and every tongue shall confess to god : confession under the gospel , is made aequivalent with an oath under the law. and because the bish. mentions the third commandment in proof of the morality and perpetuity of all that swearing that was commanded under the law , without annulling any tittle of it , as if he judg'd every letter and tittle of the ten commandments were moral , and so in all respects unchangeable , and uncapable of any unihilation by christ's coming ; he much forget●… himself in that vain imagiuation ; for all things in those ten words ( in the first table of them ) are not so moral or perpetual , without some cer●…nrality and subjection to alteration by christ's coming , as he imagi●… and if he had but remembred the very fourth commandment that is next to it , he would have remembred that , remember to keep holy the sabbath-day , which then was the very seventh day of the week , which god had sanctified , was but a sign , type , shadow , figure and ceremony of the seventh day of the worlds rest from its labour , and of keeping after it under christ an everlasting sabbath to the lord , by mans cessation from his own works , as god did from his , isa ▪ . ult . heb. . which iewish observation of the seventh day , as a sabbath now , who so attends to , never so solemnly , ( though once sanctified and commanded to be kept ) will have as much acceptation with god ( that is none at all ) as he that never so solemnly swears by the name of god in such ceremonious wayes , as the jews did of old , or goes beyond the bounds of bare asseveration , with attestation , which to do , we not onley think , ( as the bish. sayes of us , p. . ) but know to be an old iudaick superfluity , now circumcised , and by christ precisely cut off from the lips of christians . besides , how that third commandment can be so immediately and peculiarly made use of , as by the bish. and the priests it is in proof of the morality of oaths , or in proof of the legitimacy of them , upon any , whether moral , political , or ceremonial account either , more than other places , which more directly and expresly ( as deut. . . ) by way of precept command to swear by god's name , as if that were the most capital and cardinal text , we do not see , ( save onely that the priests have insinuated that notion of moral into peoples minds concerning all those ten words wrote with god's finger meerly as a figure of what he writes by his spirit in mens hearts , cor. . as if those were onely moral , and all moses writings by gods own appointment , had nothing in them but ceremoniality , or politycism beside them ; and as if there were no morality in all moses law , but in them ) for it's clear to all but the blind , and their blind leaders , that there 's morality elsewhere , and ceremonials , and politicals , or iudiclals commanded there , as well as in other parts of moses law , among vvhich ceremonials and politicals , that of oaths to end controversies , while that nature was standing ( as it was yet among the iews that affected strife ) being a part , however christ came to fulfil the law ( moral ) yet he coming in the way of fulfilling that ( as the bish. says ) to abrogate the ceremonial . yea and politick laws too , it must necessarily follow he hath abrogated all laws for swearing , which the bish. cannot deny to be pertaining ( whether peculiarly or no , that 's nothing to true christians ) to the iewish polity in church and state. and as for those words , thou shalt not take the name of the lord thy god in vain , they rather forbid all , than command any swearing , if the bish. words be true ( as they are ) who sayes , a true christians oath is needless , his word being as firm as it , p. . and an evil mans oath worthy of no more credit than a lyar , p. . since upon that account , whoever swears by the name of god , swears in vain , and to no purpose , whether he be a true man , or one deceitful , his word amounting to as much as his oath ; for frustra fit per plura quod potest sieri per pauciora . and so whereas the bish. says , there is no danger of doing hurt to our own consciences , any more in oaths , than in serious affirmations and negations , we say there is , if swearing needlesly by god's name be ( as it is ) a taking gods name in vain , fith the lord will not hold him guiltless who taketh his name in vain . moreover , whether the bish. who insists so much upon the morality of the command for swearing under the law , and so consequently for the perpetnity of it under the gospel , doth not in effect quit and desist from that kind of plea for iudicial swearing , of his own accord , we appeal to discerning men , whilst p. . he pleads the necessity of such solemn swearing , upon no other account than as in order to cure many christians ( good christians the whilst ) of ill diseases , jealousies , distrusts , dissimulations , frauds , uncharitableness , unsatisfactions , insecurities ; for ( saith he , quoting grotius in his margent ) * iudicial swearing's necessary ; not absolutely and morally , or preceptively ( as the shool-men note well ) but by way of consequence and remedy , as good new laws are necessary for the curb or cure of new evils in in polities and kingdoms . possibly as christians ( truly such ) we should need no swearings in publick or private , but as men weak and unworthy , we cannot 〈◊〉 without such oaths to end controversies , and to secure as much as man can do , the exact proceedings of justice ; seeing then he says oaths stands non ex necessitate precepti , but medii onely : see whether the bishop do not here with his own hands take that course of swearing off from the file of the gospel , which he could not do if it were a moral precept ( for than secundum se , what is moral being evangelical , it must abide unabolisht under the gospel ) and put it upon the score of the law onely , which being added onely because of transgression , must end in christ , and under the gospel , by whom the strife and all transgression is ended ; as is to be shewed more at large by and by . so that whereas he says thus ; swearing is a part of that moral law , which christ signally tells , he came not , nor ever intended to abolish , but maintain ; he may as well say , christ came not , nor ever intended by his coming to abolish strife and transgression , which is the end of oaths ; for if he came to finish transgression , and make an end of sin among his people , and to bring in everlasting righteousness , then to end oaths also among his disciples , which stand for no other end then to end strife , while and where it stands ; for , absente aliquo sine , ( de jure ) cessat medium tendens ad istum sinem . finally , in that he says , christ maintains oaths , so far as the love of god , and our neighbour are great accomplishments of all laws , to both which religious swearing is most conform ; herein he palpably contradicts not onely the truth , but himself also , who says , swearing is to be no where , but where strife is , which is a work of the flesh , inconsistent with true love to the neighbour , and not most conform to it ; for love fulfills the law , works no ill to the neigbour , ends all strife , and so puts swearing ( the means to end strife ) out of place and date . . the bishops said information according to the state of the question , ought to be of the legality of judicial swearing in the church of christ among true christians , and christs disciples ( truly so called ) who are not under the law , that came by moses , but under the grace and truth of the gospel , that came by iesus christ ; otherwise he reaches not at all ad rem substratam , comes not close to the case in question , between himself and the quakers , whom he would convince ; who grant the lawfulness of oaths of old among the iews : what the bishop says p. . he supposes is true enough ; viz. that it is so clear even to the sylliest and most scrupulous among the quakers , that they do not doubt of the lawfulness of swearing lawfully among the jews ; not only as permitted , but commanded ; but quid hoc ad rhombum ? we have this at least to say ( which all men have not ) against himself , and al●… those that are impositive of oaths upon them which himself says the primitive christians and disciples of had ; viz. christiani sumus , we are christians , to the silencing of them from exaction , and himself , without any more adoe , from further troubling himself toward their conviction ; for the question is not concerning the use , legulity , or necessity of oaths to end strife among in●…urious , contentious people , that love , and yet live in strife , and other works of the flesh , and so not under the teachings and power of that gospel of the grace of god that leads out of strife , and all other ungodliness and worldly lusts , but under the power of that evil spirit in them that lusts to envy . strife , hatred , variance , deceit , and every other evill , and so under the law , which hath dominion over a man so long as the old man with his deeds liveth in him , and he lies yet in his trespasses and sins , how far forth iudicial swearing may be of a legal , necessary use among evil , unconscionable men , that make no conscience of any thing , swallow every thing , and strein at nothing , to tye them to speak the truth , is not our business to contest with any about ; we are willing to let that alone to men ; nor need we dispute against the thing ( if we be against it ) since the bishop , to the confuting of himself , who pleads for it , says thus much against it , to the invalidating his own plea for ( at least ) that asserted necessity of it ; viz. that no more credit can be given , then to a lyar , to a prophane purson that fears not god , though he swear never so solemnly in judicial proceedings ; which if so , then , what use , need or necessity there is of those mens oaeths in judicial proceedings , whose most solemn swearing , even there , is of no credit , and nothing worth , we see not , nor any else whose eyes are open , let the bishop seem to himself to see what he pleases : yet for quietness sake , to avoid all jangling about jurations , so be they let us alone to live peaceably out of strife , in truth it self , and so beyond that so necessary medium ( as they count it ) of oaths , and from whom men need no more , when we are called to give our witness , then the very veracity of our bare words , since christiani sumus ; we can freely leave them to swear , and exact , and take oaths , as much as they will , who can't believe one another out of a mutual jealousie that they are all lyars , and yet can give credit one to another , no more than to a lyar neither , though swearing never so solemnly in iudicial proceedings , an oath being ( as the bish. urges out of heb. . ) among ( not saints , not christians , but among ) men a means to end strife , ( whether they judge one another worthy to be believ'd by each other , when they swear yea or nay , that 's little to us ) let those men who are in strife , make use of oaths to end them , if they will , or can ▪ we should be glad to see all men to agree , and to live in peace , as 't is our desire to do with all , and in that love that works no ill to the neighbour , but believes all things , and bears all things , and so carries beyond strife and oaths also . but if they cannot , they may swear on for us , in courts and iudicatures ; as they ought not to exact swearing of us , so we should not ( were it in our power ) force them to a forbearance of it in courts , in order to end their strifes , against their ( though yet clouded and erring ) consciences . nay rather , how best we own oaths to be of no other than of a iewish and legal , and not of any immediate , christian , or evangelical consideration ; yet as to the whole world which lyes in wickedness , and stands , though under some form or other of religion , still in strife , under the dominion of sin , and not of grace , as the iews did ; they may stand if they will for us , as they did under those legal institutions , which were added because of their transgressions , and in order to end their strifes ; for if the law in any of the ordinances of it , be yet remaining in any force , power or dominion , it is among those that are not yet come out of sin and deceit , to that everlasting righteousness and truth of the gospel , which christ , who puts an end to sin ▪ brings in among his disciples , who seek his kingdom , and the righteousness of it , but not among the saints that obtain by participation of christ's power , spirit and righteousness , to a dominion over sin , and so over the law ; for where sin hath not dominion over men ( as it had before ) there men are no more under the law , but under grace , rom. . . such over whom the law had dominion while they lived , and were in the flesh , and under the prevalent workings of the motions of sin in their members , to bring forth the evil fruits of strife , variance , &c. unto death and bondage , are then delivered from the law , being deatd to that in which they were once held , they bring forth fruits of the spirit unto god , love , peace , meckness , without envy , hatr●…d , strife , and serve in the ●…wness of the spirit , and not in that legal oldness of the letter , rom. . wherein those walk , who notwithstanding all their profession of religion and christianity in words , yet bite and devour one another , till at last they be consumed one of another with their lying , deceit , bitter envying and strife , for all their oaths ; yea gal. . . . if men be led of the spirit , they are not under the law ; and those that bring forth the fruits of the spirit , against such there is no law . so though the law is good , if men could tell how to use it lawfully , yet we know ( as paul did , . tim. . , , . ) that the law is not made for a righteous man , but for the lawless and disobedient , for the ungodly and for sinners , for unholy and prophaue , for murderers of fathers and mothers , men-slayers , whoremongers , them that defile themselves , for men-stealers , for lyars , for persured persons and any other thing that is contrary to the sound doctrine of the glorious gospel of the blessed god , which is witnessed among the quakers to be the power of god , to the salvation of them from those unrighteousnesses ; for whom therefore , neither the law , nor the curbs and cures provided in it ( as remedies against mens diseases ) 〈◊〉 justly applicable , or to be imposed . but now the bish. beats all besides the iron upon the anvil , disputes besides the question , and makes it his main drift to prove the necessary use of oaths , either among the iews , among whom the quakers deny it not to have been lawful ; to which purpose he troubles himself to no purpose ( because without need ) p. . to prove them practised warrantably of old among the iews , or else , if now , then among evil men mainly , if not onely , who are in strife and envy among themselves , which where they are , there is lying , swearing , prophane oaths , for swearing , cozening , cheating , defaming , defrauding , confusion , and every evil work ▪ and there we meddle little to perswade men to one thing or other about swearing , unless the light of god in their own hearts lead them out of their vain , unchristian lives , to the life and likeness of christ ; some things among them may be better than some , but all they do , whether s●…aring in their courts , or serving in their churches , must all once come to judgement ; for the sins and sacrifices of such are both alike , being both abomination to the lord. here the bish. might have let the quakers alone fi ( he had pleas'd ) to whom it's much at one what they see unchristian men doing in that particular of oaths ; who ( lor ought we ●…ee by the bishop's words ) whether swearing or not swearing , are not counted worth being believed one by another : but the body of his business r●…ns that way , to evince the necessity of oaths from the wickedness of mens hearts and manners who are call'd christians , in which c●…se indeed t●…e law condescended far in matter of divorce , and other points , to indulge the iews ; and how far sorth we will condescend to him in that case of the hardness of christians hearts ( not truly such ) to let things be so , as they scarce ought to be , and were not from the beginning , he shall see by and by . but as for the proof of the lawfulness , usefulness or necessity of them among true christians indeed , that not onely name christ's name , but ( as every one ought to do that names it ) depart from iniquity , and are found in his nature and image , and that do not onely call him lord , lord , ( for he hath too many such disciples , unless they learnt of him ) but also do the things that he sayes ; the bishop brings no proof of the usefulness , but rather of the needlesness of oaths amongst them ; yea some would scarce discern on a sudden whether his arguments for the needfulness of oaths among false christians , or his arguments for the needlesness of them among such true christians as will be found among the quakers , be of the two the most forcible ; but we having had good occasion to make serious perusal of his book , by several passages , whereby he often trips up his own heels for hast as he runs , and hacks one of his legs against the other , do find more strength by far in what the bish. himself sayes against a true christians , than in what he says for any false christians most solemn swearing . and to this end that it may be seen , let it be considered what is the main bottom on which he builds , & the medium from which he concludes a necessiey of swearing ●…mong men , meerly call'd by the name of christians , and we shall find it 's this , to wi●… the abundance of wickedness that is among them ; thus p. ▪ the evils of mens hearts and manners , the jealousies and distructs , the dissimulations and fraud of many christians , their uncharitableness , unsatisfactions and insecurities are such , as by their diseases do make these applications of solemn oaths , and iudicial swearings necessary ; not absolutely and morally , or preceptively ( as the school-men note well ) but by way of consequence and remedy , as good new laws are for the curb and cure of new evils in polities and kingdoms ; as men weak and vnworthy , we cannot well be without such oaths to end the controversies , and to secure ( as much as man can do ) the exact proceedings of iustice. but when he speaks of no necessity , but a needlesness of true christians swearing , the medium he uses to prove that , is no other than this ( to wit ) their being ( truly christians ) in the self-same page and place , possibly ( saith he ) as christians ( truly such ) we should need no swearing in publike or private . so also p. . he sayes the foundation for swearing now , is the wickedness of men : polybius ( saith he ) observes that * in the better and simpler ages of the world , oaths were seldom used in iudicatures , but after that perfidy and lying encreased , oaths encreased , as the onely remedy to restrain those mischiefs , &c. so p. , . speaking of true primitive christians ( as before we have more at large trans-printed his words , p. . whither we refer the reader back again ) he saies they were so strict and exact , &c. that there was no need of an oath among them ; yea they so kept up the sanctity , and credit of their profession among ▪ unbelievers , that it was security enough in all cases to say , christianus sum , i am a christian. if any urged them further to any oath for matter or manner , or authority unlawful , they repeated this as the onely satisfaction they could give , there needed no more than the veracity of their bare word , they thought it not lawful for them in such cases to swear . and then naming many famous men for antiquity and sobriety , of sundry sorts , as the essaeans , wise heathens , and christian fathers , and of their sayings , he still drives on for a whole page together the same subject , viz how dishonourable and needless a thing it was for good and holy men , and true christians , to be so much as once required to swear , seeing their profession and reputation was test enough to their words , and 't was diminution to their reputation to be put to swear , & indignum viro sanctimoniae sine juramento non credere , an unworthy thing not to believe an holy man without an oath ; & flamini doiali jurare nefas , no less than wickedness for one that was counted such a one , to swear ; & non opporter ut vir qui evangelice vivit , juret omnino , it 's not meet that a man who lives according to the gospel , should swear ; and the fathers frequently inveighed without any limitation against christians swearing , some saying , evangelica veritas non recipit juramentum , the gospel truth admits not of an oath . and p. . speaking of basilides the martyr , who when officers exacted an oath of him , replyed , it is not lawful for me being a christian , to swear at all ; and if other christians did swear in publike cases , yet the bishops of the church were not put to swear ; whereupon basilius a bishop pleaded his priviledge of exemption from it , from the sanctity of his life , that being sufficient assurance for his truth . all this the bishop himself alledges ( so that what need we bring any further witness against good mens swearing , sith all men may read so much out of his own book ? ) in evidence of the unworthiness of that course of exacting oaths of chief priests , the wickedness of their swearing , the indignity done to the reputation of a good man , a man of integrity to be put to swear , and of a man of honor , which is a caution sufficient for his honesty , so that he will rather suffer a mulct , than save it by swearing ; the uselesness , needlesness , yea plain unlawfulness for a christian that's ( truly such ) to swear ; the strictness , exactness , holiness and sanctity of whose profession needs no oath in either asserting or promising ; the frequent invectives of the chief antient fathers , orig. chrysost. theophil . oecum . hila. athan. hier. theod. lactant. without any limitation or reserve against christians swearing . and lastly , that security enough that is all cases , wherein a man is mistrusted , for him to be capable to say truly of himself , i am a christian : which all are arguments of weight and sorce , so sufficiently cogent , and clearly convincing to our consciences , that if we had no more , we should need no more to satisfie us of the warrantablenest of swearing , or of exacting oaths among such as are truly christians . but as for what the bish. argues in evidence of a usefulness and necessity of swearing among such christians * , the evils of whose hearts and manners , jealousies , distrusts , dissimulations , frauds , uncharitableness , as diseases , do make solemn oaths necessary ( not absolutely , morally , or preceptively ) but by way of consequence and remedy , for the curb and cure of their evils ; and who are so rude and ignorant as horse and mule , that their mouths must be held with oaths ( as with bit and bridle ) lest they fall upon one another with lyes , false witnesses , injuries , thefts , rapes , murders , ●…heating , and all manner of unrighteousnesses , there is so much seeming shew of reason in that , as satisfies himself , and many mor●… it 's like at least ; and as for us , if so be that we quakers who speak the truth from our hearts , and dare not lye ( as all god's people also will not , whose saviour he is , ) and desires to live a peaceable and quiet life under all governments , and among all men , in all godliness and honesty , and to give our testimony in all cases , as we be call'd to bear witness to the truth , in all truth , sincerity and integrity , as in the sight of god , without those evil diseases o●… dissimulations and frauds in our hearts ; we say , if we may not be impos'd upon under penalties to swear against them , who cannot so much as speak against our consciences , we shall not so much trouble our selves as to entertain much entercourse , much less dispute about the other : but we are willing so to divide the business between the quakers and other christians ( so call'd ) as to meet the bish. half way in the controversie , in order to an agreement with him upon his own terms ; and we are content to agree with him in his consequence out of polybius for the use of oaths to curb evil-minded , and evil-manner'd men from lying and false-witness-bearing , the necessary use of which among such , he concludes from the excess of sin , iniquity and deceit that is among them , whilst he agrees with us ( as in his words above-cited he doth ) in our consequence , which is not ours onely , but also that of the ancient fathers , wisest of heathens , and primitive christians , and even his own also ) for the uselesness , needlesness , and unlawfulness of exacting and taking oaths among true , just , honest , good , faithful , righteous , holy men , drawn from the diminution and destruction of that iniquity and deceit which dwells in others , and once dwelt in them , and they in it . and so as he agrees with us when we argue from polybius thus : among the good , honest , ●…ust , righteous , faithful , holy saints of god , and true chaistians ( if there be any such in the world , as such there are , and they are well known , though unknown ) oaths need n●…t be used ; yea , are unworthy , wicked , injurious , vain , superfluous , unlawful to be used ; it being security enough in all cases for a man ( truly such ) to say , i am a christian ; for rarus apnd veteres jurandi usus in judiciis ; absente perfidia , absit jurisjurandi usus : in the better and simpler ages of the world oaths were seldom used in iudicatures , where no perfidionsness is found , there 's no place found for the use of oaths . so we agree with him in his consequence from polybius , crescente perfidia crevit jurisjurandi usus : where there 's increase of treachery , sin , iniquity , deceit , &c. there that cumbersom use of oaths increaseth , where christian mens hearts and manners are evil , full of dissimulation , there ( not absolutely , morally , nor preceptively ( as the bish. with the schoolmen ( against himself ) well notes ) but by way of consequence and remedy to curb and cure that disease of dissimulation and deceit ( when otherwise possibly if they were christians ( truly such ) they should need none in publick or private ) the application of solemn oaths is necessary : and so as contrariorum tum similis , tum contraria est ratio , so decrescente perfidiâ decrescit , but crescente perfidia , crescit jurandi asus : where ther 's a decrease and dying out of sin , as there is among the quakers , there 's ( de jure ) a due decrease , and dying out of the use of oaths ; but where sin , perfidiousness , and deceit abound and increase , there possibly might be some place for the use of oaths , to make men that are not true , that have not the fear of god , and would else be lyars , speak the truth ; we could afford to yield thus far to the bishops plea for an usefulness of oaths then , were it not for one rub , which the bish , lays in his own way , and ours too , which stumbles us , and is a gnat , at which we cannot but strein ; though such as can swallow camels , and can connive at their own contradictions , strein little at it ; and that is the cross-whet , which he gives to this consequence of his , for the necessity of oaths among false christians , from the consideration of their prophaneness , dissimulations frauds , evil hearts , by his representation of the uncreditableness and invalidity of their most solemn oaths , who are common swearers , and prophane persons that fear not god ; witness his own words again , p. . nor can much credit be given ( any more then to a lyar ) to any man that swears never so solemnly , and in judicature , who is a common swearer , and hath no reverence of the majesty of god. for by this he so absolutely break ; the neck of his own consequence , that we cannot so cordially close with it , as else we could do . nevertheless that we be not further troublesom to the bish. then needs must , nor seem so pragmatick as he would represent us to be ; nor to be such busie-bodies in other mens matters , manners , conversations and consciences , but purely and singly to mind the keeping clear before god of our own , lest medling with a strife that concerns us not ( as the case of others being impos'd upon in the point of oaths does not half so much , as the exaction of them from our selves ) we be found ( as wisdom sayes such one is ) like to him that taketh a dog by the ears ; nor to remove the heavy stones of such long standing , as those impositions of oaths are , from off the consciences of any that are not burden'd with them , but onely from our own , that are ; we are pretty well content to part stakes with the bish. in the controversie ; and as he sayes of himself and his sort of christians , viz. as christians of evil hearts & manners , full of dissimulation and fraud , abounding in iniquity , encreasing in persidiousness , uncharitableness , distrusts , jealousies , unsatisfactions , insecurities , as weak and unworthy to be trusted , they cannot be without oaths , but oaths are necessary ( not absolutely , nor morally or preceptively , but as a remedy against those diseases ; when yet possibly , were they christians ( truly such ) they would need no swearing in publike or private : so we say of our selves , and those true christians call'd quakers , as christians ( truly such ) in whom is no iniquity ▪ guile , fraud , dissimulation , deceit , who walk in truth , out of strife , who can say in truth , we are christians indeed , non nomine tantum tenus , sed reapse , which is security enough in all cases ; we need no oaths to be us'd among , or impos'd upon us : but this being that snare and dilemma that hypocritical formalists and christians ( not truly such ) but so in name onely , not in nature , fall into , that one sin that they are fallen into begets a necessity of another , one inconvenience and mischief subjects inavoidably to another , as posito uno absurdo sequntur millia , such being yet under the bondage of their own corruptions and lying dead in their trespasses and sins , pull thereby upon themselves a number of cumbersome remedies , which are oft as bad as the diseases , but at best needless , if the diseases were not ; and thus god's law is added as a lash to the lawless liver or transgressor , and as a school-master to bring to christ the life , and to his life who is the truth it self : and such christians living in all dishonesty , ●…righteousness , ●…ying , falseness , theft , cozening , cheating , enmity , hatred , malice , envy and strife , the heavy yoke , bondage and charge of mans laws and lawyers , hireling priests , and covetous preachers are put upon them , to keep them in peace and honesty , ●…ill they come to know and ●…e led by that light of him in themselves , who onely guides their feet in the way of truth and true peace , which they yet yet know not , there we say with the bish. oaths ( as , de facto , they are ) so , de jure , might be used at least , if credit could be given any more than to lyars , to such christians solemn swearing , for posita causa ponitur effectus . and so if the church of england be not a church of christians ( truly such ) ( as the bish. seems to intimate by his own words it is not ( we have the less to say to them as concerning their swearing , they have a liberty for us ( and they would have so much the less to answer for , in the day when god takes a final account of them , if they would let us have the same liberty from them to decline it , rather than force men to sin against their consciences ▪ to swear , as they do , and as much as they will , and that not onely solemnly , but prophanely , since none of their own laws against that can reclaim nor restrain them from it ; for while men are yet the servants of sin , as christians ( not truly such ) are ( as much , if not more then heathens so called ) they are free from that righteousness that christ requires of his , which is that of the gospel , which far exceeds that of the law , and all legal chief priests , scribes and pharisees : but such christians as are by christ made free from sin , as the quakers are , ( though once as well as others under the power and dominion of it ) these are bound as servants to that perfect righteousness of the gospel , which , as that of the law , to the natural , deceitful , contentious iew , was forswear not , but perform thy oaths to god , if thou make oaths to end strife and controversies , is , to the true spiritual iew or israelite , in whose heart is no guile , even to christs disciples , neither , go to law one with another , nor swear at all . and if england ever come to be a church constituted of such christians , as are truly such , as the primitive christians were , and as the quakers are , who by the light are led out of strife , into the love that casts out all fea●…s and jealousies , and work●… no ill to the neighbour , we shall expect ( as god does ) another matter , and other fruits than that of swearing , and forcing each other to swear on pain of ruine ; and we shall not need to clear our selves of that which they call our crime of not swearing , for the light of christ will lead all that follow it , into the same ▪ and so as posita causa ponitur , so sublata causa tolli●…r effectus , sin and deceit standing , oaths stand ( though to little purpose , where solemn swearers , being prophane swearers also , are no more to be believed than lyars . ) but where sin , deceit and strife cease ; there swearing hath no use nor place : and so the bish. doth confess while he says p. . the eutopian desire and aim of these quakers is not to be found fault with if it were feisable ; and feisable we say it is , if perfection so far as to freedom from sin , deceit , hatred , malice and strife is attainable ; and that that is attainable in the body , even in this very humane nature , if the light of christ , which is that of the gospel , be attended to , what need we prove it against our adversaries in that point , when the bishop confess●…s it to our hands ? and that he so does , let him take his own words at large as they lye , p. , . where speaking of the design of christs sermon matth. . and how the righteousness he calls to , must exceed that of scribes and pharisees . he says , our saviour gives many singular lessons or precepts of more eminent diligence , patience , charity , mortification , self-denial , sincerity , conspicuity , perseverance , and perfection of obedience , required now under the gospel , above ( mark ) what either the letter of the mosaical law seemed to exact * , or by the pharisaical interpretations nere taught to the jews ; and however by divine indulgence and connivance , or by the hardness and uncharitableness of their own hearts , and the customary depravedness of times and manners , they might seem to have some temporary dispensation heretofore granted to them , or at least to take it to themselves ; yet now under the evangelical strictness to which christ came to restore or raise the church , they might not fancy to themselves any such liberty , but were to keep themselves in thought , look , desire , word and deed , to that sanctity and severity that was required by the law , and most conform to the holy will , attributes and nature of that god whom they ought to imitate as their heavenly father in all sacred perfections , which humane nature assisted by the light of the gospel , the grace of gods spirit , and the visible example of christ was capable to attain , at least sincerely to aim at , and endeavour : which whoever doth ( say we ) shall attain ; for god , whose grace is sufficient to save from sin such as submit to be taught by the gift of it in their own hearts , tit. . . is in no wise wanting to any , but willing to have all men saved that are willing sincerely so to be , and are not wanting to themselves . thly , the bishops undertaken work of instruction and information of the quakers , ought to be by way of confirmation and probation of what he speaks , as to the main point , not by way of position and affirmation onely , nor by way of a magisterial imposing , or insolent obtruding upon a numerous enlightened people , in an age of so much light and learning in those mysteries of god , christ ; godliness and the gospel , that are hid from the scholastick , and revealed to the rude rustick , or russet rabbies , ( as they speak ) the flashy conceptions , incogitancies , meer crude , we will not say ( as he sayes of us , p. . what ere we think ) but rather uncertain conjectures of his own fancy ; the mint of humane fancies , not only melancholly and timorous , ( saith the bish. p. . ) but pragmatick and adventurous , is but an adulteration of religion , and a kind of stuprating of conscience : both are injurious usurpations upon the soveraignty of god , whose scepter is infallible truth . this the bish. himself yeilds is not cogent enough ( though he be a bish ▪ ) to conviction , p. . thus : it is not sufficient in order to my design ( which is to justifie the legal proceeding of this kingdoms iustice by oaths , and to satisfie the scruples of the quakers ) to oppose my nay to their yea , or to offer the husk and chaff of words , void of such rsasons as either ●…low from the nature of all things , and all actions , as good or evil morally , or from the will of god revealed in the scriptures , which is a treasury of right reason , as well as a rule of true religion . but now considering how much ( as is shew'd above by his own words and others , whom he quotes concerning the needlesness of true christians , and the worthlesness of false christians oaths ) the bish ▪ weakens his own words , and sides with us against himself , to the ●…saying in a manner of all that little that he doth say , for the most solemn swearing , we see not upon the most solemn , serious , sincere and single-ey'd perusal of his most polemical matter , how he os●…ers any more than the meer husk and chaff of changeable words , void of real proof . or any right-drawn reason from the nature of that action of swearing , or from the scripture either , and renders his nay , which ( coeteris paribu●… at least ) were tant amount thereunto , of far less credit ( as inferior to him as we else are ) to our yea , which is alwayes yea , while his is ( as ours are not , and the apostles words never were , cor. . ) about one and the same thing , at o●…t and the same time , both yea and nay . thly , that proof the bish. ( de jure ) should bring in order to the information of the quakers , ( if erring ) and to the satisfaction of their tender consciences , ought to be no less than clearly and infallibly , in it self at least , demonstrative of the lawfulness of oaths now among christians ▪ without any palbably apparent just ground of exception , and such onely as is capable to put th●… case to a clear , as well as tender conscience , out of question , and not to yeild no more to the utmost , than some probable evidence to the enquirer ▪ against which there may be , and is brought by him as clear , or clearer evidence to the contrary ; for this leaves conscientious men liable like children , even in the things of god , which are of such grand concernment , that he that doubteth is damned if he do them ( because they are not of faith , of which whatever is not , is sin ) to be whissled up and down , and tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine , after the cunning craftiness of self-seeking men , who for their own interests lye in wait to deceive , and ministers nothing but occasion of endless jauglings about questions and strifes of words , whereof come the perverse disputings of the men of corrupt minds , that know not godliness it self to be great gain , but suppose it godliness enough to get great gain by their profession of it . but now whereas we are along time before-hand with him in this matter of account , concerning our gain-saying to swear at all , having not onely in a plain , positive way proved the warrant ableness thereof from right reason , and scriptural demonstration in our books ( which for ought we find he is more pleas'd to pass by , than to take so much notice of , as to reply thereto ) the bi ▪ under a most specious and preheminent pretence of answering the scruples of the quakers , and such a fair removing their difficulties , and justifying of oaths to be now lawful , as in case of not yeilding their chearful obedience , shall leave them in sufferings without excuse before god and man , p. . comes forth at last p. . with no more then i will endeavour to give those reasons which induce me to believe that the quakers do err , not knowing , or not right understanding the mind of christ in those scriptures , viz. mat. . jam. . which is not to forbid all swearing , nor such as the just and religious laws of england do require . which promised endeavour ( not for want of outward prudence we believe , for he hath so much of that , as whereby he stands not a little in his own light , and hinders himself from the plain sight of the plain simple truth , as it is in iesus ; but for want of furniture from the scripture , such a barren cause as he pleads , not furnishing the most capacious brain from thence sufficiently towards its own maintenance ) the bishop performs as well as one , that , when his proof should be no less then demonstration , and that his demonstration à notioribus & certioribus conclusione , proves ignotum per aeque ignotum , dubium per magis dubium ; or , incertum per incertius . ly . this scriptural demonstration must be out of the scriptures of the new testament , it being confessed by the quakers , to the saving of all men that wonted labour of tumbling o're their concordances to find and heap up testimonies out of the other , that in the scriptures of moses and the prophets there are texts enough , no less then commanding the iews to swear by the name of god onely , as much as prohibiting them to swear by both it and malcham , or ought else . ly . any thing in the books of the quakers , or in those two texts , matth. . jam. . to the contrary notwithstanding . but the bishop not seeming so much as to take cognizance of any of the quakers books in particular , or of those particulars in them , that are of most moment in order to his end to be throwly replied to , though from other places hereof which give light to mat. . & iam. . he promises p. such weighty , pregnant , and plain reasons as shal carry the cause , and brings no more out of the new testament ( not because he was not capable to have found them , had they been there , but because they were not there to be found ) no more in demonstration of the lawful use of oaths among christians in judicial proceedings , but the fore-nam'd places that speak of christ's saying , verily , verily ; and of panl's charging , protesting , and calling god to witness , which we have o're , and o're , and o're again ( being anew put to it ) prov'd to be no oaths , nor adjuarations : and the angels swearing , rev. . whose example the bishop says indeed p. . justifies the lawfulness of some swearing ; which we have shewed also , if it could be to any men , yet could not be to us any president , who are under the gospel of the son that is greater then the angels , by the dispensation of whom the law for oaths , tithes , and many other legal rites and rud ments was given ; which son also all the angels of god are bid to worship . and lastly , that of heb. . where the apostle speaking of an oath among men ( not medling there to shew ( de jure ) that it should be so among saints ▪ who as concerning strife , the occasion of swearing , and consequentially concerning swearing , should not walk as men , cor. . , , . ) says ( de facto only ) that it is an end of strife , not heeding that when men once in strife come once into christ , and to be in him , new creatures , christians , and to walk no more as carnal , nor as men , but as spiritual , and as true saints and christians , they come both out of strife , and out of swearing . and as for those two texts , mat. . iam. . to which the bish. sayes , he would alledge other texts that should give light ; he might as well have said , he would light a candle to see the sun by ; for they of themselves give such clear , undeniable evidence to the truth that 's maintained by us , and against the lawfulness of swearing among christians ; that as the bright shining of the sun gives light to all the stars , and causes them to shine out , and be seen in their proper lustre ; so these two , to all other texts in the new-testament , which may be truly said from these , as from two cardinal and capital ones , to borrow all that evidence they have , whether one way or other , as to this point : and the bish is so far from darkening the testimony against all swearing , which in answer to others we have already held sorth therefrom , that ( save that p. . he passes in gross a gross censure upon our writing●… private or publick , as savouring of much silliness , never well catechised ignorance and folly ) one would think he had never so much as seen any such matter , as any publick appearances of ours in that cause , as from these two scriptures ; insomuch that as the bish. makes such quick dispatch in in his business , that for hast he hath well-nigh left it all behind him , so we might without much prejudice to the cause in controversie among some wise men , referring him to what 's written ; take as little notice of that little or nothing which is done by the bish. in disproof thereof , as he seems to take of our proofs from thence , about the unlawfulness of swearing ; nevertheless , because some are apt to judge that nothing can be said , if nothing be said , something ( and no more than needs ) may be said to what notions the bishop offers in proof of his conjectures and conceptions , why christ and his apostles words , matth. . iam. . are not intended as an absolute ▪ universal prohibition of all swearing , and so draw on to our conclusion . . at preparative to the delivery of his sence upon the places , the bishop , who makes a long harvest of a little corn , before he comes plainly and positively to speak out his mind in the negative , as in opposition to us ( as he does briefly in p. . ) spends about , or above thirty pages in preambles , long popular passages , and plausible pretences of sundry prudentials ( as he calls them , p. . ) that we must observe in searching the mind , and taking the true meaning of the scripture ; many things in some scriptures being expressed darkly , metaphorically , figuratively , parabolically , comparatively , by way of allusions in metonymies , synechdoches , ironies , hyperbolies , extraordinary commands , in universalities , which are limited to the subject intended , &c. lest erronious minds , like glasses of refraction or false mediums , pervert them from the simplicity , to their own destruction ( as st. peter speaks ) it being endless ( saith he ) to enumerate those places of scripture , which have something or other in their meaning and design , more than the letter seems to hold forth in the bare words of it . which swelling sayings of the bish. may have a shew of wisdom among an implicit-faith't people ; but alas , ●…ll that sound is but like a cask full of emptiness , with the great noise whereof ▪ many that are ever learning , never knowing truth , may be s●…un'd from , more than establish't in the truth ; neither hath it more plenty of words , than little pertinency of matter , to the purpose ; for if it should be so , ( as the bish. says it is ) that innumerable scriptures should speak one thing , and mean another , ( which yet is little less than to make the spirit in the penman , who used all plainnesse of speech , like to such deceivers and seducers as those unlearned and unstable ones , which unlearned * peter speaks of , that with the abundance of their ambages and circumlocutions , lead people about , to the losing of them from the simplicity of truth , in the wilderness of their own wisdom ) must those texts therefore be a mockery of men , and needs mean some other thing than they express ? and what if some texts have so ? must therefore these two have in them dark sayings , metaphors , figures , parables , comparisons , allusions , metonymies , synechdoches , hyperbolies , extaordinary commands , limited universalities , &c. which both are so plain , that he must be either no●… able , or not willing to see the sun when it shines in his face , that fee●… any such thing in them . though then the bish. to the amazing of their minds , leads men about in a wood of wonderments for so many leaves together , that had his discourse been a sermon preach't on either of those verses , by word of mouth , and stinted by a glass , it would have run out before he had come at his text ; yet ( taking the counsel of him , who said , ne immittas pecus tuuns in pratum ubi no●… est sepes , passing by the boundless preambulations and superfluity of superstitious fears of this and that danger of perverting them to our destruction ) we shall come to the texts , which have enough in them to clear themselves , and christ's meaning in them , without such a deal of do , as we see divines make about christ's doctrine , which hath not so much difficulty in it , but that his disciples , who learn of him , and are willing to be led by him in a cross to their own wills , into the doing of the whole will and counsel of god , may easily know it . and when we shall have sifted off that overgrown husk and chaff of words , and left behind us all that heap of light grain that lies about it , we shall see that what he urges immediately , as in proof of his conclusion , will not be forced to amount in worth to the weight of one grain of such corn as is fit to go into the garner . bish. indeed the bish. says p. . if the quakers will admit such cautions and limitations as they do to other places , in the interpreting of these scriptures , which they chiefly alledge to justifie their denial of all swearing whatever , i shall not doabt to reconcile them to my sense of them . ans. which is as much as to say , if the quakers will grant those scriptures to have such limitations in them , are an exceptive of that swearing i plead for against them , ( for that is my sence thereof , viz. that they forbid not all swearing , but some onely ) then , per petitione in principij by a begging the question , and desiring them to grant that my ( wrong ) sence is right , and their ( right ) sence wrong ▪ i have gun'd the cause . but for all his taking it of us , before we give him the cause , which is god's , and not ours to give away , we must tell the bish. much what in his own words following , that whether we ever yeild to his sence or no , and whether he ever commend us for it or no , we have such due regard to the scriptures , that we are willing , as by a rule of christians actions in this cale of oaths , to stand to a tryal of it by the scriptures ; but then those scriptures which the bish. beats so much about in a circumference of cautions and conceptions , but scarce comes near , as if he were afraid too critically to examine them ▪ or to enter within the bark or rind of the context , to sind out christ's true intent in the texts themselves , must be duly examined , exactly weighed , & aptly reduced to that standard of truth , which is the scriptures themselves , and not any mens false glosses on them , in both morals and fiducials ; which standard of truth admits of no strife among those that stand and walk uprightly according to it , and consequently of no oaths in order to the ending of it . in order to a true examination of them , and a clear discovery how the bish. falls short of the utmost of christs purpose in them ; let them first be seriously read , as they stand ( rightly enough ) translated , for any thing the bish , puts in to the contrary : the words of christ , matth. . , , , . are these , ye have heard it hath been said by them of old time , thou shalt not forswear thy self , but shalt perform unto the lord thine oaths : but i say unto you , swear not at all , neither by heaven , for it is gods tbrone , nor by earth , for it is his footstool , neither by ierusalem , for it is the city of the great king , neither shalt thou swear by thy head , because thou canst not make one hair white or black ; but let your communication be yea , yea , nay , nay , for whatsoever is more than these , cometh of evil . and jam. . thus : but above all things my brethren , swear not , neither by heaven , neither by earth , neither by any other oath , but let your yea be yea , and your nay nay , lest ye fall into condemnation . in these texts the quakers say , all swevring is forbidden ; the bishop says , no , but some oaths onely : in evidence of the first , which is ours , we say several things , which the bishop doth not deny , but confess to as fully wel-nigh as we would desire him ; and some which we judg he neither will , nor can deny . first , that the words are truly enough translated . ly . that the words are expresly , as to the ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) or letter of them , an absolute universal negative ; without any limitation , dispensation , or exception , pag. . ly . that at the first view they have a shrewd shew of our sense , or ( to speak in no other then the bishops own words , pag. . ) both places seem at first sight point blank ( as some commentators observe ) to forbid all manner of swearing among christians ; both have emphatical , or vehement words . ly . the first hath christs authority , reforming not onely the pharisaick corruptions of the times ; but even the mosaick indulgences , in some things , for the hardness of the iews hearts . ly . that they are notable texts , which seem to stand as the angel of the lord against balaam , with a sword in their hand to stop the way of all swearing whatsoever . ly . they are agreed by all to be a divine and strict prohibition of that sin of swearing . ly . places not so clear on the bishop's part , but like the pillar of fire that gave light to israel ( as clear to the contrary as they are to us , and cogent to our consciences ) they are ( as the same pillar , that was as a cloud to the egyptians ) by the bishop's own confession , both dark and dubious . all which grants of the bishop ( were there no more at all to be said ) are of weight enough upon the bare reading thereof at random , to cast the scales for the quaker's-cause against the bishop ; how much more ( if all he says be pre cisely and strictly weighed in the ballance of the sanctuary , and truly tried by the rule of right reason ) will it be found too light to serve his purpose against the quakers . . we say the texts are truly enough translated , as they are above transcribed ; nor doth the bishop put in any exception against it . indeed h. den with whom we have had very much to do already , as to matth. . makes an unjust exception against that true translation of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by [ at all ] ; but the ground of his exception being long since removed ; we have no more to do with him here , then with the bishop in that particular . . as to iam. . some except against that last clause , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as not rightly translated nor englished by [ lest ye fall into condemnation ] affirming the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to signifie onely ipsissimam iudicandi actionem , the very act of judging , or determining of a thing , and not the punishment , or execution of the sentence , as to the suffering of it ; . that that clause 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , signifies not alwayes [ ne ] [ lest ] but sometimes [ ●…isi ] i. e. [ except ] and so they would have the apostles meaning to be thus , swear notby heaven , earth , nor by any other oath , &c. except it be when ye come before a iudgement-seat , or except it be in order to the determination of a matter in some court of iudicature ; so making the words exclusive onely of swearing by creatures in ordinary discourse , but not prohibitive of all swearing by the name of god in cases of weight before magistrates . which sence hath indeed a fairer shew in it of some allowance of solemn oaths in iudicial proceedings , and ( could it be cleared to be the spirit 's meaning ) would serve the bishop's turn ( though it is but of a learned lay-man's starting , that is of some present considerable sway in this city ) then all that the bishop hath serv'd it by himself . but this cannot possibly be the mind of the apostle , nor the true interpretation , as it is not the true translation of the words , for the divers reasons hereunder ensuing . . howbeit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifie●… that very action of judging of things in order to the passing of a verdict or sentence , yet not exclusively , but conclusively of the iudgement , verdict and sentence it self , given or pass'd against one to such or such punishment ; yea also sometimes it is used , as well as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the very execution of the sentence of condemnation pass'd against a man , or his suffering of the punishment to which he is adjudged according to the said sentence so passing against him ; witness those places ioh. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. and this is the condemnation , that light is come , &c. and matth. . . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : where the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cannot possibly be understood so restrictively , as to signifie no more than the single action of judging , by way of animadversion or debate upon a matter , but also both the sentencing of a man to the suffering , and the suffering of the vengeance of 〈◊〉 , according to the sentence . so here in iames , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not , as that fore-named friend would have it , unless , or except ye come under the examination of a court of iudicature , but ( as it 's rendered ) lest ye fall under iudgment , or into condemnation . again , that they are rightly rendered as we read them , is evident by that conjunction which is copulative of this sentence with those foregoing , which if it were [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ] which properly signifie●… [ nisi ] [ unless ] or [ except ] it would have so much the more shew however of possibility to be translated that way ; but it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which howbeit it may possibly perhaps in some cases ( but improperly ever ) be used ( as it is in hower's ●…iads , for the verses sake , in which cases poets oft take liberty to lanch out from the native sence of the words ) for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that is nisi ; or except ; yet most properly and primarily , as well as most commonly , ordinarily , usually , and almost universally , signies ne , lest that ; for these two words , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , non , are two conjunctions , which when they are together in conjunction or composition , do naturally sound forth as much as ne , or ut non , lest that ye fall , or that ye may not fall into condemnation : and we are not ( without such a palbable necessity , as is not here found , to depart from the prime , proper , genuine and native signification of any words , into that which is improper and forraign . moreover ( whatever any poet might do ) yet if we consult the sence , wherein the apostle throughout the new testament uses these phrases , we shall never find 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , put for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so as to signifie nisi , except , but either 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , used all along , and never 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to express unless , or except , as mat. . . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. unless , or except your righteousness exceeds that of the pharise●… ▪ . . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. except for fornication , iohn . , . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. [ except ] a man be born from above . luk. . , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. [ except ] ye repent , ye shall all likewise perish . and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , where-ever it is used , is truly translated ( as here ) ne , ut non , lest , lest that , but never englisht by unless , or except , as matt. . . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , iudge not , lest ye be judged ; will any knowing man read that thus , viz. judge not , unless , or except ye be judged ? so cor. . . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. lest satan tempt you for your incontinency , &c. so heb. . . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. lest any of you be hardened , &c. moreover , that that clause 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , is not in any wise an exception from the foregoing prohibition not to swear , but rather a caution not to swear on pain of judgement or condemnation , is yet more evident by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which being of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cado , prosternor , incido , &c. signifies properly a falling into some kind of mischief or danger , which attends the doing of some matter prohibited , and not a coming as a witness before a court ▪ of iudicature , and 't is nonsensical to express such an appearance by a verb of such signification : for what sence were it to say , never swear except you fall into , alias incur the danger of a iudgment-seat ? but it 's good sence to say , lest ye fall under iudgment , or into condemnation : in full and final evidence of this yet further , that it 's a caution not to swear on pain of condemnation , and not an exception from the command not to swear ; we have one place much like to this in phrase and sence , viz. tim. . . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , lest being puft up with pride , he fall into the condemnation of the devil . and ver . . ' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the de ▪ vil . again , if it were to be rendered so , except ye come before a iudgement-seat , it would argue it to be permitted as lawful to swear in all manners , kinds and cases before specified , in a court ; but that cannot possibly be , for then these two absurdities would follow : . whereas iames sayes , swear not by heaven , nor by earth , nor by any other oath , except before a court of iudicature , it would follow , that in case men do come before a court of iudicat●…re , then they may lawfully swear either by heaven , or by earth , or by any other oath , as well as by god alone ; which were most gross and absurd to imagine . . whereas iames sayes , let your yea be yea , and your nay , nay ; and gauden's interpretation of those clauses , let your yea be yea , and your nay , nay , is this , p. . viz. that they import that plainness and simplicity of christians meaning and doing as may be consonant to their words in truth and honesty , without fraud or falsity ; 't would follow thus , viz. use all simplicity and plainness , and let your meaning and doing be consonant to your words , except ye come before a iudgement-seat , and then ye need not let your yea be yea , or your nay , nay , that is , need not let your meaning be consonant to your words in truth and honesty , without fraud or falslty , which were an absurdity more exceedingly gross than the former . seeing then they are an universal negative , expresly exclusive of all swearing , without limitation or exception , what hinders why they may not punctually be taken in that plain way wherein they are exprest , we see not . but the bish. who rather darkens than opens the clear counsel of god , by words without knowledge , enters his dissent , and puts in his exception to the contrary here in such wise as others , who are already confuted , have done before ; for as ier. ives sayes , those general terms , swear not at all , admit of an exception , sometimes universal propositions are taken with restrictions ; so says the bish. p. . many things in some scriptures are expressed in universalities , which are limited to the subject intended . and p. , . as for that absolute and universal negative of not swearing at all , noching is more clear and usual in scripture , than to confine the meaning of such generals , to the particular subject and scope intended : negatives and affirmatives in scripture , are limited in the sence , though seeming universal in the letter or words . ans. . what if it be so sometimes , and in some places , will it follow infallibly ( as it must do if the bish. reach his end in reference to the quakers , which is undeniable demonstration in order to their infallible convinction ) that it is so ever ? so every where ? so here at this time , or in this place ? divines use to tell us , that the literal sence of the words must not be departed from for a figurative or forreign , without an evident necessity forcing thereunto ; but here is as little evident necessity of such a thing , as there is of any swearing at all , which the bish. himself confessing that it is neither needed among true christians , nor to be heeded among false ones , concludes the non-necessity or uselesness of altogether , . whereas he sayes , nothing is more clear and usual in scripture , than to confine general terms to particular meanings , that 's utterly untrue , for if there be any , as there are many parables and proverbs , ( which wayes of wisdom are all plain to him that understands , though dark sayings to him that knows not the mystery of god's kingdom ) and if some general rules do admit of some exception & some universal terms limited in their sence , yet something is more clear and usual then that ; for it 's far more clear when things are intended literally , as they are expressed , for that 's a more cloudy and dark saying in which one thing is spoken , and another intended . . more usual also for the spirit of god to mean plainly , as he speaks , and to intend as universally as he talks , and not ( as some divines , whom we haue had to do with , tell us ) that in terminis he offers salvation unto all , but intends it onely to a few ; for then who can tell ordinarily what he means in any thing ? . if 't were never so usual elswhere , yet it 's of all places the least likely to be so here in these two texts , in both which the bishop out of commentators observs , that there seems at first sight to be such divine , strict , point-blank prohibition of all manner of swearing among christians , and that by christ's own authority , who calls his discipels so strictly in the following words out of strife●…t ●…t self , the ending of which is the end of oaths , that he would have no resisting evil , nor striving at law in his church , cor. . , . and consequently out of oaths , that were for the ending of strife under the law where it stood , and so out of , over and above that law of the servant moses , that indu●…g'd and allowed both oaths and strife , into that gospel of love , which works no ill to the neighbour , and so fulfills the law , is the most excellent way , yea the price of the high call of god in christ iesus , whose call is not to such uncleaness , as evil hearts and manners , dissimulations , defraudings , over-reacings , thefts , injurious●…ess , unrighteousness , distrusts , insecurities , and janglings , but unto holiness before him , and peace one with another : and lastly with such emphatical and vehement words ( as 't is also confessed ) as make the two texts not onely to seem by the words to be universal in their sence , nor onely to seem strict and point-blank against all swearing on pain of evil and condemnation , nor onely to seem to stand as the angel of the lord against balaam , with a sword in their hand to stop the way of all swearing whatever ; ( and we have little reason to believe those two texts to be such a pair of apochryptal ( much less hypocritical ) pieces , as to seem to be what they are not , or speak another matter than they intend . ) but also in reallity are ( ex confesso ) both dark and dubious to the discourser himself , that discourses for that unchristian course of christians swearing : all which considerations , though many false prophets who ( balaam-like ) love the wages of unrighteousness , more than either to bless , or to be blessed with god's israel , as unconscionably as inconsiderately pos●… on ▪ may possibly cause not onely the civil powers , whom they ●…awn on , to wax weary of them , but also to force the poor spur gall'd people , whom the said false prophets so unmercifully ride , like so many dull and dumb asses to fall down at last under the burden of their spiritual tyrannie , and being smitten by them , because they can go no farther for fear of the angel of the lord , to open their mouths , and with man's voice rebuke the madness of the prophets . . though we own that sometimes general rules and universal expressions admit of exceptions and limitations ; yet then those limitations , exceptions and restrictions , are either expressed , or at least those manifestly and undeniably implyed in the same text , or in the same testament , where those general expressions are , as is so abundantly shewed already in our answers to others * , that for the avoiding of tedious repetitions of what remains still unanswered , we shall say no more here in that particular . but as to the universal prohibition in this text , matt. . there is not onely no expression of any such exception , nor yet in any other part of all the scriptures of the new-testament , but rather in the same text a fuller explication of the same universal expression by sundry of such particulars of it , as are ( if any can so be ) as expressive●… so far more forcibly , and even utterly exclusive and exceptive of all sorts of swearing , as sin and evil , from the whole conversation and communication of christians , which such transactions , as they may be conversant in in courts of iudicature , are surely a part of , as well as any other ; swear not at all , by heaven , earth , ierusalem , the head , &c. but let your communication be yea , yea , nay , nay , what is more than these , cometh of evil . and . there is in the same testament by the apostle iam. . a re-inforcement of the same universal prohibition of that sin of swearing , in terms more universally and strictly exclusive of all oaths ( and then surely of oaths by the name of god , as wel as ought else ) on pain of condemnation , swear not by heaven , earth , &c. nor any other oath , but let your yea be yea , your nay , nay , lest ye fall into condemnation . . and because the bish. sayes , it 's agreed on all all hands that both places are a strict prohibition against the sin of swearing , but not against such swearing , as is no sin ; taking it for granted before it be given him by us , that there is now ( as under the law there was ) some swearing , which is no sin , but an act of duty , according to which conceit of his he states p. . a threefold question about the interpretation , scope and meaning of the two texts . . whether all swearing be utterly forbidden , because it is , and ever was in its nature a sin against morality ? or . whether all swearing is therefore now a sin , because thus forbidden by a positive law of christ under the gospel ? 〈◊〉 . whether onely some sort of swearing , which is a sin , is forbidden , but not such swearing as is no sin , but an act of veneration ? to all this we reply , . that howbeit we affirm net all swearing is forbidden , because it is , and ever was in its nature a sin against morality ; ( for swearing that now is sin , was one of those ceremo●…ialities of the law , which in their nature were not sin , but duty , for the time then being , being as all legal rites were , subservient to , but not against the morality of the gospel , for the shadows were not against the substance , nor the ceremonials against the morals and fiducials , nor of them so , as to be de esse to them , as paul sayes the law is not of faith , yet not against it : for as ministerial as the law was to the gospel then , yet the gospel may be , and now is without it . ) yet dly , we own not any swearing to be now a duty , or act of iustice , as some swearing once was under the law , but affirm all swearing to be now a sin upon the second account , viz. because thus forbidden by a positive law of christ under the gospel , who by his death ended the iu●… , or right of that , and many more legal rites and rudiments , so that however they may de facto be continued , not more without the guilt and sin , at least , of superstition , then pompous high-priests sacrificings and circumcisings , new moons , days , meats , drinks , and other holinesses of the law , which though accessiry to the gospel , yet so little pertinent to it , that whoso pleads the necessary practice and performance of them now among christ's disciples , made christ of so little effect to himself , as that he shall profit them nothing . so then , even that sort of swearing , which was not sin ( simpliciter , and ex suâ natura ) in its nature under the law , as a thing against the morality of the gospel , is now a sin upon the account of his universal prohibition of all swearing , who was of authority to put an end ( as he did also by his death ) unto the law. and as some things are prohibita qui●… mala ( as they speak ) forbidden because they are sin and evil in their very nature , as envy , hatred , deceit , injury , unrighteousness , being all not onely not of the gospel , grace and truth that came by christ , but eternally against the morality of it ; so some things are mala quia prohibita , sin and evil , because they are forbidden ; and of this sort are these ceremonies , circumcisings , sacrifices , swearings , and other ordinances of the law , once commanded by moses , since ended and forbidden under christ , of an indifferent nature in themselves , having so much good in them , that they have no evil ; and so much evil , that they 〈◊〉 no good , but meerly according as they are ( respectively ) commanded by the servant , or prohibited by the son in their ▪ respective houses . now against that universal acceptation of the texts as a general prohibition of all swearing , seeing no exception can be found in all the scripture ; the bish. puts in three things by way of exception : he presumes ( p. . ) those after-evidences in the gospel , ( as he calls them ) of christ's verily , verily , and paul's calling god to witness , do sufficiently clear the limited meaning of our saviour . but his presumption in that particular to be vain , is sufficiently proved ●…bove . he urges also against the said universal acceptation by way of ●…xception , the moral nature , end and use of an oath , which saith he , p. ▪ god hath instituted , without any repeal by christ or his apostles . in disproof of which morality of the nature of an oath , we have said enough before , as also how , whatever oaths god instituted of old by moses the servant , ( who de novo gave out , and so was said to g●…ve or institute sundry things that were before him , and n●…t of him , but of the fathers , as circumcision , john . . sabbath , sacrifice as well as swearing ) those he ended in his son , and hath repealed both by him , matth. . and his apostle , jam. . which texts , whether they be repeals or not ( sub judice lis est ) is the main point in question , in evidence of which that they are , we have said so much already for our yea , in confutation of what the bish. hath brought for his nay . but whereas he urges by way of exception , against the universal sence of the prohibition . the occasion , scope and end of christ's and the apostles words , to which his own instance by way of explication of his meaning , do best direct us , as to what he forbids and enjoins . we say , those matters rightly weighed , do all plead the cause of the quakers , more than the bishops , and that is evidently manifest by sundry passages , wherein the bish. in his examination of the said matters , most manifestly manages his own business against himself . in order to the opening of the true occasion of christ's words , the bish. siyes thus of the whole sermon , of which these words , swear not at all , &c. are a part , viz. bish. our saviour gives many singular precepts of more eminent diligence , patience , charity , mortification , self-denial , sincerity , conspicuity , perseverance , and perfection of obedience , required now under the gospel , above what either the letter of the mosaick law seem'd to exact , or by the pharisaical interpretations the●…ws ●…ws , &c. and p. , . however by divine indulgence and connivance , they might seem to have some temporary dispensation heretofore granted them ; yet now under the evangelical strictness to which christ came to restore or raise the church , they might not fancy to themselves any such liberty , but were to keep themselves in thought , look , desire , word and deed , [ mark , not onely ] to that sanctity and severity , which was required by the law , ( but also ) most conform to the holy will , attributes and nature of god , whom they ought to imitate , as their heavenly father , in all sacred perfections , which humane nature , assisted by the light of the gospel , the grace of god's spirit , and the visible example of christ , was capable to attain . ans. in which sayings , let all men that are of any spiritual understanding , see if the bish. himself do not speak as one that interprets the words of christ ( in that point of swearing ) as universally exclusive of all swearing , even that which by divine indulgence was conniv'd at under the law , as well as that prophane swearing , which was then forbidden , as wel as now , whilst he says christ requires greater perfection of patience , love , self-denial , strictness , sanctity , severity , than moses law , even such perfection of obedience as conforms to god's holy will and nature , to the light of the gospel , the grace of god's spirit , and the visible example of christ , to the measure of the stature of the fulness of whom the saints are capable by the true ministry to be built up , eph. . whose example was not to strive , matth. . pet. . whose humane nature attain'd to a state beyond strife , whose light , spirit and grace , leads into the love that admits of doing no ill to the neighbour ; whose gospel calls so far out of strife , the cause of oaths , that it requires not to be overcome with , nor to resist evil , but overcome it with good , to love , and do good to enemies , when the letter of the law of moses ( which the bish. sayes the gospel must exceed ) allowed to hate , to be aveng'd on enemies , aegyptians , amalekites , to take an eye for an eye , a tooth for a tooth ; whose gospel in othee points forbids and condemns rash anger , lust after women , polygamy , divorce ( except for fornication * ) rendring evil for evil , &c. ( while the letter no more than actual murder , adultery , indulging & conniving at polygamy , humorous divorces , stripe for stripe , wound for wound ; and in that point of swearing , forbids and condemns not onely for swearing , but all swearing ) while the law allowed of , indulg'd conniv'd at , commanded , and gave dispensation ( for the whole law of moses was given by the dispensation of angels , in the hand of that mediator ) for a time to some swearing , and such swearing even by god , as was us'd in order to end strife , where it was yet standing , ( so be they perform'd their oaths to god , or one another , that they made by him ) condemning no more than creature-swearing , ( as the bish calls it ) as by malcam , ( as well as god ) by heaven , earth , &c. and forswearing , or not performing what oaths by the name of god , they had made to god , or to each other . it 's most evident then by the bishops confession here , that christ in every point condemns something , which not onely the pharisees by their false glosses , and abusive , loose interpretations of the law allowed , but what the law it self , even divine indulgence dispensed with , connived at , and by moses suffered , i. e. commanded , so to be * , because of the hardness of their hearts , which ( as to the point of swearing ) was swearing by his name alone ( if they must needs swear ) as a way to end the strife and envying , which by reason of their distrusts and jealousies , and the hardness of their hearts , they were full of , and fallen into . otherwise let the bish. or any man living , shew us wherein christ commands a righteousness or perfection that exceeds that of the law , ( as it 's confest he does ) for the law said , swear not by any creature , but by god onely , and for swear not ; and if the gospel say no more , but swear not by any creature , as heaven , earth , &c. but by god onely , and for swear not , where 's that higher state of perfection ? that love that excludes strife , ( and consequently oaths , which are but to end strife where it is ) and that perfect conformity to christ , who neither strove nor sware , and to his humane nature , light , spirit and grace , that leads up out of strife , the occasion of oaths ? all which high attainments the bish. confesses christ come to bring men up to under the gospel . bish. but the bi. hath yet one more strong string to his bow ( as he judges ) which is indeed his ultimum refugium , which if it fail , all his tackling is loosned , and his whole talk about the limitation of the universal negative in those texts , must be take it self to its heels , for any help it can hope to have from himself or any other ; and that is a strong conceit , begotten in his mind from some few authors , testifying of a certain sort of vulgar familiar oaths , or forms of common swearing by whatever came next to their hands and tongues , as by the temply , holy city , their own and others heads , hands , lives , and souls , by heaven , earth , the light , waving the attestation of god , and swearing by his name , and putting the character of divinity upon the creature ; and not only upon small and light occasions , but even in things of concern , as to that charity , justice , and equity , which they owed to others , of old in use among the iews , ( as among many christians now ) which way of creature-swearing they chose ( saith he ) because they sancied such oaths , being not with the solemn invocating of gods name , were not binding upon their souls , but such as they might play fast and loose with as their own interest , or pleasure sway'd them ; as they could not do with oaths made according to the laws command by gods name , for those they thought binding . ●… on this occasion ( saith the bp. p. , . ) and to reform these gross abuses , christ gives that command , swear not at all : that is not after those usual , presumptuous , unlawful forms , by the names of creatures , of which he gives so many instances to express his meaning , when he doth not instance in the lawful use of religious oaths by the name of god : telling them there was in those oaths by any creature , heaven , earth , jerusalem , the temple , &c. a tacit , calling of god to witness , since every creature depends on god , and is in relation to him , as heaven is his throne , earth his footstool , ierusalem his city ; and lastly , implying that however such oaths were at to the manner unlawful , yet they obliged , if the matter of them were lawful ; so that they were not excus'd from perjury in not performing , and p. . for these their new , and customary forms of swearing , it being the almost only swearing in fashion among them , christ blaming in them , and aiming at , gives such a prohibition of sweat not at all , that is , ( saith the bish. p. . ) not by those oaths , in which you now make no scruple to swear and forswear : not at all for matter and manner as ye have accustomed your selves to swear contrary or beyond what god allowed in his law : answ. in this place we confess the bish. though he streins hard for it , hath made as fair a flourish , and spread as broad sails , as in any part of all his book besides it , yet all will not help to carry him on to the accomplishment of that work at first undertaken by him against the quakers , viz. the justification of the lawfulness of any swearing , or the defence of that limited sense , he would put upon the universal terms in the two texts , wherein christ and his apostle forbid all swearing ; sith it 's most evident to any but such as wrack their inventions on the tenter to find out , wherewith to draw them their own way for their own interest , that ( as in the other points immediately next both before it , and behind it , viz. of divorce , and of loving deportment towards injurious ones and enemies ) so in this of oaths christ prohibits and condemns not only those gross abuses of those things that by divine indulgence they had a dispention for under the law , which abuses crept in by the pharisaical false glosses , too much loosning the meaning of gods law by moses , by their depraved examples , or popular custome , but prohibits and condemns also those very things which , in regard of their hardness of heart , distrusts and wicked cruelties , god himself in the very letter of the law it self then indulg'd them in , and gave them both a dispensation and a precept for at that time by the law : and so as the law of old time ( before the false glosses and selfish senses of the scribes and pharises came in ) whereby they wrested and perverted it to their own wills and lusts , said in somethings so as it was not said from the beginning , in the state of innocency , while man was merciful as his heavenly father is merciful : if a man like not his wife on a light occasion let him put her away : and in case of injury , as he hath done so shall it be done to him again , eye for eye , tooth for tooth , stripe for stripe , wound for wound : and in case of enmity , hate thine enemy ( for the iew might spoil the egyptian , and might not spare amaleck ) but the gospel saith , god hates putting away ( except for fornication ) love enemies , resist not evil , do good to them that hate you , be like your father that begets out of that old image and nature of the devil , into his own , be perfect as he is perfect , &c. in case of strifes , and misbelief , dissatisfactions , jealousies , insecurities among themselves , in which case oaths were then allowed , god said by moses in the law , fear the lord thy god and swear by his name , deut. . . but swear not falsly by his name , levit. . . for swear not , but perform : so by christ his son , and his apostle in the gospel swear not at all , not only not by creatures , heaven , earth , &c. but also not by god himself ; for whereas the bish. says christs instancing of creatures , shews his meaning is to forbid only that kind of creature-swearing , but not swearing by god , for he doth not instance in the use of oaths by his name , we say iames uses an exclusive expression aequivalent to an instancing in that form of swearing by the name of god , while ( for brevities sake ) he addeth neither by any other oath . therefore if swearing by the name of god be an oath , he must of necessity intend the forbidding of that oath , which is the most notable oath of all , or else of necessity have some way or other plainly excepted it , otherwise he had much darkned that counsel of god in the gospel , which his scope , aim , and end was to make more clear , whilst he then had left them in doubts about the thing , which though they practically erred in , yet , as to the theory of it , was most manifest in the letter of their law before , for the law expresly condemned all prophane irregular creature-swearing , though they wickedly us'd it ( as christians ( so call'd ) now do ) and all for swearing , but as expresly allowed and commanded swearing by god himself . but the gospel , which is a clarer promulgation of gods will ( must upon the bishops principles ) have been such an obscure declaration of it , as leaves it more dubious and difficult to be understood , as to the truth of it , then it was before , extending one thing ( in words ) and in sense intending another . . christs own expressions , is well as iames's in the affirmative part , shew his meaning in the negative to be a prohihition of all swearing as well as any : and here we must take leave to leave seeing with the bishops eyes , and follow what we most clearly see with our own , and to use one of the bishops argumentative mediums to conclude the clean contrary to what he concludes from it , and to argue with it against himself . for whereas p. . the bish. says , that his limited sence of christs words against some swearing only , not all , was christs meaning in the negative part of his words , appears and is proved by the affirmative part of them . answ. we shall shoot his own arrow wherewith he thinks he hath hit us , back again to him out of his own bow , and say quite contrary to him thus , viz. that the universal sence of christs words against all swearing , not some only , was christs meaning in the negative part of his words , appears and is proved by the affirmative part of them ; which howbeit , he says , the quakers themselves will ( he supposes ) confess , must not be taken in an exclusive latitude , or a broad universality of command ; yet ( ex fals●… supposuis ) he much mistakes himself , for the quakers affirm that the affirmative parts of both their speeches , which are , let your communication be yea , yea ; nay , nay ; for what ever is more then that , is of evil : let your yea , be yea , and your nay , nay ; lest ye fall into condemnation , must be taken in an exclusive latitute or broad way of comand : howbeit not indeed such an odd conceited kind of universality of command , as the bish. fancies as enjoyns to use no other words in any communication , by way of affirming or denyiag , but barely and only those syllables of yea , and nay : for the quakers ( as very fools as the bish. would make them ) are not so silly as to affect to use ( as he fancies they do ) those very monosyllables , as if they fancied themselves verbally tied to them , ( any more then they fancy themselves , ( as some others do ) syllabically tied no to patter over their pater noster in tot●…lem verbis without variation from that individual form of words , mat. . , , , , . luk. . , , . our father which art in heaven , &c. which if men pray after that manner , or to that same effect , they may so vary from , as to use different words ; neither do the quakers scruple to use such paraphrases or enlargements of speech , as the matter or the parties understanding , or diffidence may stand in need of , as god is witness , we speak as in his presence , or the like . but the quakers affirm christs words must be taken ( though not in such an exclusive latitude , as to forbid more ample expressions of their sence , then the bare syllables yea , and nay ; or such an universality of command , as ties precisely thereunto ) yet in such universality of command , as limits christians to affirmations and negations , or solemn asseverations , without any oath , and in such an exclusive latitude , a●… shuts out all swearing whatsoever , even that which once was , as well as that which never was lawful , on pain and perit of falling into sin and condemnation●… ●… for these words , but let your communication , that is , the whole of it not only private but publick , be yea , and nay ; do not only import , that plainness , and simplicity of christians meaning and doing , as may be consenant to their words in truth and honesty , without fraud or falfity ; but also that forbearance and freedome of their speech from all oaths , by heaven , earth ; or any other oath , whether of old forbidden or required ; and that appears undeniably to any by its being brought i●… in both texts , by this adsative particle [ but ] by the emphasis of which it stands opposed ( as an affirmative to its negative ) not onely to those words that are prohibitive of for swearing , viz. thou shalt not for swear thy self ; but to those sentences that are prohihitive of all oaths ; vi●… . swear not at all , not by heaven , nor earth , nor any other oath , but let your communication be yea , nay , i. e. be without all oaths ; for what 's more then that , i. e. then solemn asseveration and negation , is of evil , which is as much as if he had said , for whatsoever oaths or swearings are us'd now , as well as for swearing , comes of evil . otherwise ; if the affirmative part be interpreted , as standing in opposition to that part of the negative onely , that prohibits for swearing , it must be such tautological non-sence as ( absit ) far be it from us to think christ should ever speak : since then this must be the sence , viz. of old'twas said , thou shalt not for swear thy self ; but let your yea be yea , nay , nay ; that is , perform to god thy oaths in truth and honesty , without fraud ; but i ( who say more than was said of old ) say unto you , swear not at all , but perform to god thy oaths in truth and honesty , without fraud ; which idem per idem whoever utters , is found more in insano sensu , than insano : but the other way 't is sound sense , viz. i say unto you , swear not at all by any oath , but let your communication be yea and nay . as then the affirmative part of christ's words must be taken in such an universality and latitude of command , as confines to bare , solemn asseverations , assertions or denials exclusively of swearing by heaven , earth , or any other oath , when he sayes , but let your communication be yea , yea , nay , nay . so the negative part of his words , swear not at all , must be understood in such an universally exclusive latitude , as admits of 〈◊〉 oaths whatsoever among his disciples . . the adversative particle [ but ] which stands between those two prohibitions of moses , saying , for swear not , but perform to god thine oaths ; and of christ saying , [ but ] i say unto you , swear not at all , do little less than infallibly manifest it . that christ forbids all swearing , as much as any ; and even such swearing as was not indulg'd to them by the pharisees onely , but by moses and god himself , who by his servant dispensed with them in , and instituted even their swearing by god's own name , who never indulg'd , conniv'd at , nor dispensed with any of that creature-swearing the bishop talks of ; but threatned woes to it ever under the law , and by the law. otherwise again , if all oaths be not forbidden by christ , as well as any , wherein ( as to the point of swearing ) does he prescribe a righteousness and perfection above , or beyond that of his servant moses , whom he was to exceed ? by which moses god in the law it self so universally forbad all other oaths , save solemn swearing by his own name , that there was no more swearing left for christ to forbid his disciples , than what moses had before forbidden to his own disciples , if he might not forbid all that swearing by god himself which the law allowed of . besides the non-sence that he must be suppos'd to speak , if he forbid not some swearing which of old was commanded , appears in the particle [ but ] for thus it must run ( according to the bishop's supposition ) ye have heard of old from moses in the law , ye must not for swear your selves ; but i ( who forbid more than moses ever did ) say thus unto you , swear not at all by any of those oaths which moses forbad before me , but onely by such as he allows you . we say on this account ( as to swearing ) christ indulges and dispenses with as much as moses , and god under the gospel , as much as god under the law ; for neither god nor moses in the law , ( howe're the iews ( de facto us'd it ) ever ( de sure ) indulg'd , allow'd or approved of any irregular , prophane , or creature-swearing ; and god and christ in the gospel ( at that rate the bish. reckons ) disallow no other : the opposition then which lies intimated in that adversative particle [ but ] being not between for swearing , and prophane swearing , but between for swearing then , and no swearing now , shews christ's intent to be to prohibit all swearing : for 't is indeed as if he had said thus : god under the law commanded you to swear by his name ; and when you had sworn by him in truth , to perform the oaths ye made by him , whether to him , or any other . but i say now , god allows you not to swear at all , nor by heaven , earth , nor any other oath , no not those oaths which ye did , and might of old make unto the lord your god in things lawful ( but no oath by a creature did god count as an oath made to him any more than he counted their solemn fastings to be unto him , 〈◊〉 ●… . . ) provided ye perform'd it when ye had done . . christ doth instance in the use of swearing by the name of god virtually , though not formally , whilst he instances in the use of snearing by heaven , earth , &c. forasmuch as swearing by heaven ( as christ sayes matth. . . is a swearing by the throne of god , and by him that sits thereon ; therefore swearing by god is implicitly , if not expresly excluded : and this the bish. himself also confesses , p. . viz. that even in those oaths , which were a●…tested onely by th●… naming of any c●…eature , as by heaven , earth , jerusalem , the head , &c. there was a tacit calling god to witness , which if there be , then ( according to the bish. who sayes an oath is no more than an attestation of god , who is witness to all we say and do , p. . ) swearing by the name of god , which was once allowed and required , is here excluded and prohibited . but however that the bish ▪ may not have occasion to say we deal sophistically with him , and not so sincerely and plainly a●… becomes the truth , we will confess with him , that that was but a kind of prophane creature-swearing , an irregular form of swearing by the name of god , the iews i●…dulg'd themselves in , which he also confesses with us , is here forbidden ; seeing it was but a kind of tacit or implicit swearing by him , and not that plain express swearing by his name , which the law commanded , while it for●…ad the other . but what will the bishop be advantaged in his cause by this our concession , so long as he asserts it is onely this tacit swearing by god under the express attestation of some creature , which the iews were accustomed to , in the breach of which oaths , they deem'd they did not forswear themselves , that is by christ and iames here forbidden , for the reformation of which abuse onely , and to reduce and restore them to that right legal form of swearing onely and expresly by god's name , christ speaks thus , swear not at all ? nemp●… no more than the just censure of fastning such an absurd sense upon their words , a●… we judge no wise m●…n will own to be the true sence of either christ or the apostle ; for at that rate the sence and sum of their words must be to this effect : ye have heard it said to you by the law of old time ▪ ye shall not forswear your selves , but perform to the lord your god those oaths which you made tacitly by him while ye s●…are rashly , ordinarily , commonly and expresly by some creature●… which oaths by the creature , though they were a tacit ▪ swearing by god , ye held your selves not obliged to perform : but now i say unto you , swear not at all ; i mean , swear no more so tacitly , so implicitly by the name of god , as ye were wont to do , but when ever ye 〈◊〉 ( provided ye perform your oaths ) swear out aloud ▪ more soundly , more expresly , more plainly , more openly by gods name than ye have done formerly . . it 's evident enough by the bishops own words , that as well solemn oaths by god himself , as those familiar oaths by creatures ( in which the bish , sayes they tacitly sware by god , are forbidden by christ ; for swear not at all is ( sayes the bish. p. . ) as much as to say , not by those oaths in which you make now no scruple to swear and forswear . a●…s . which if so , then solemn oaths by the name of god expresly ; being such oaths as in which the iews made no scruple to swear and forswear , those are forbidden as well as the other . and whereas the bish. tells us ( as philo and iosephus tell him ) they pretended a great reverence of the name of god , and seem'd to make great conscience of swearing in leviculis , in small matters by the name of the lord , according to the letter of the scripture , and made scruple to swear at all by ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) the ▪ lord liveth . we say , they might well be scrupulous of taking the name of god in vain upon every trivial , frivolous matter , and so decline the mentioning of it , and flye to the nomination of some creature , what came next to mind and tongue . but in solemn and we●…ghty cases of concern , and in iudicaturs , as they need not , it being so expresly required according to the letter of the law , so they did not scruple swearing by gods own name ; the name 〈◊〉 they might possibly scruple and strain at the naming of , 〈◊〉 they did , ●…nd do at the naming of the name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 iehovah . but that name adonai they oft as superstitiously repeat that in their much babling , as they superstitiously decline so much as the bare mentioning of the other . but that in serious cases and occasions of concern , a●… to that charity , justice and equity they awed to others , they should decline , scrupl●… and 〈◊〉 , ( at the bish. says they did , p. . ) to swear by the name of god , when their scripture was so express for it , and chuse that way of creature swearing , there 's not onely no reason at all to believe it , but one grand reason of the bishops own ( reasonless ) rendering for it , but against himself , whereupon to believe the contrary , viz. because ( as the bish. sayes , p. . ) they fancied such oaths , being not with that solemnity of invocating gods name , not to be binding upon their souls either as to truth or right , but they might play fast and loose with them , according as their own pleasure and interest did sway them ; which if it have as much of truth in it , as it hath of weight and strength , hath reason enough to perswade any reasonable men , that the iews in their solemn swearings in weighty matters , did not scruple nor wave swearings by gods name ( which oaths they all thought binding and wave that swearing by creatures in order to the satisfaction and security of each other , and by such oaths as they judg'd not to be so obligatory , but that they might safely either break or keep them at their pleasure ; for such oaths instead of putting an end unto their jealousies , distrusts , unsatisfactions , insecuritie●… would have assuredly created them far more than before , forasmuch as no more credit is to be given than to a lyar , toone that swears never so solemnly and in iud●…cature , whose most solemn oaths are such as the swearer believes himself to be no more bound by , than if he had not sworn at all , and such as by which the persons for whose satisfaction & security such a one swears , can have no more hold as to know what to trust to , then he hath who holds a wet ecl●… by the tayle . beside ( not to use more words than need ) the bishop himself knocks the nail on the head for us here ; and ( though against himself , as in most other cases ) proves it to our hands , that the iews did not scruple to swear by gods own name ; yea , were so far from scrupling it , that in all cases they us'd it ; witness his own words , p. . cited out of drusius apud iudaeos in iudicils omnia iuris-jurandi religione 〈◊〉 , dei , nomine interposito ▪ drus. among the jews , all things in iudicials were confirmed by the religion of an oath , wherein the name of god was interposed . and that they made no more scruple of forswearing , and non-performing what they sware to by the name of god , than of forswearing or non-performing when and what they rashly , prophanely , irregularly , trivially , yet commonly sware to by the name of some creatuces , is evident also by the bishops own words last recited ▪ for asmuch as a common swearer by other oaths is commonly a false swearer , when swearing seriously by god himself , the wontedness of easie & ordinary swearing ( as the bi. observes out of lactantius and austin , p. . * in cases never so true & honest , begetting a proneness to swear falsly : nor is there more credit to be given than to a lyar , p. . to any that swears never so solemnly , and in iudicature , who is a common swearer , &c. the bish. then confessing , that christ forbids matth. . to swear by such oaths in which they made no scruple to swear and forswear , therein confesses oaths by the name of god ( which were commanded in the law ) to be by christ forbidden there , as well as other oaths , since the iews made not so much scruple as he imagines to swear by god , nor yet ( being common swearers also , by any thing that came next to heart and tongue ) to lye and break those their oaths by creatures when they had done . and finally , if christs words were exclusive and prohibitive of all irregular oaths by creatures , because those they scrupled not to make , but inclusive and exceptive of solemn oaths , in solemn cases , by gods name upon this score , because they scrupled to swear by them : then ( ecce mentem ) the mind of christ in those words must be this , viz. ye have heard of old , ye should not forswear your selves , but perform your oaths to god ; but i say unto you , swear not at all by those oaths in which ye now make no scruple to swear ; but swear onely by such oaths in which ye now do make scruple to swear ; which sense he that can find any sound sence , seriousness , or solidity in ▪ — erit hic mihi magnus apollo . having thus at last sawn ●…sunder , and broke to pieces that supposed strong , but really rotten stilt which bore the stress of the bishop's cause against the quakers in the case of swearing , viz. his meer conjectural , and more common than proper commentations upon those 〈◊〉 scriptures , matth ▪ . jam. . out of which from that universal prohibition of all swearing therein expressed , he would fain except some solemn swearing , at least in iudicial proceedings : we leave them rightly rendred by us , to the review of all reasonable and understanding men , by whom they will be seen to stand against all the canon-shot which the bish. hath shattered out against them ( some of which hath done most execution upon himself ) as that strong hold out of which the quakers cannot be stormed , so as to surrender that interest they have therein , as to their plea for no swearing among true christians ; and as iachin and boaz , that stood as strength and stability it self , before the true spiritual temple of the lord , against the faces of all that would enter to defile it with their own inventions and impositions in point of oaths . and as for that which he sayes ( p. . ) he adds to his reasons ( by way of f●…ll measure , heaped up , and running over ) viz. the conc●…rrent iudgement of other christians and churches : 't is true , he fills up his measure , ( for his reasons are too short to hold out ) by heaping up the sayings of many christians , which are so far from such concurrence as he speaks of , that indeed they rather run against , and concur to the contradicting of one another , some ( if not most of them , as is shewed above ) testifying more plainly and groundedly against all swearing , than the rest whom the bishop sides with , do for any swear●…g . seeing then there remains no more to make up his scanty measure with , but the empty husk and ●…haff of words of some councils & churches of romanists and reformists ; and of christians , ( perhaps not truly such ) whose saying●… are profligated by many wise man , ancient fathers and christians of the bishops citing , perhaps more truly such , we shall save our selves and the world the labour respectively of writing and reading what is of as little value with as , is it is of small importance to the purpose . and now at last seriously and solemnly again professing as at first that the bishops undertakings ( not for want of willingness in 〈◊〉 to see it to be truth , if that were the truth indeed , which is pleaded by him against the qudkers , but for want of true demonstration in ●…ll he sayes to shew it so to be ) hath not succeeded to either the removing of our difficulties , or satisfaction of our 〈◊〉 , that any swearing at all is either needed , or ought to be used among us , or any that are christians ( truly such ) under the gospel , though under that dispens●…tion of the law , some swearing was then 〈◊〉 with , which was the professed , immediate end of his book , and the 〈◊〉 of those ten particulars of which his work to us-ward ( if ever effectually accomplisht ) doth consist . we thly and lastly , appeal to all wise and sober-minded men , who shall impartially peruse and weigh what is above-said , whether in this case of our non-conviction by the bishop's as defective as successess endeavours to inform us , or of our non-subscription to his conception , and non-submission to swear against conviction , according to the foresaid impo●…ition , we are undoubtedly without more ado to be denominated such wilful resisters , and obstinate offend●…rs against the law , as worthily fall under the severe penalties of the late act , whereby ( though yet contrary to the te●…or and true intent thereof , in respect of their execution , who never heed that maxime in law , that iudicium penale nunquam excedit casum ) we now so sorely suffer ; and also whether we suffer in so doing so justly as to be left without plea for our selves , and without any just excuse before both god and man. nevertheless however the second page of the bishops book speaks out his ultimate design to be ( in case our difficulties be not so re●…ov'd by this course of his discourse concerning publike oaths ▪ that we can swallow such swearings without streining , as fast as they are impos'd on us ) that we may inexcusably suffer severity for our obstinacy ; yet seeing in the close of his book he sayes at least , he hath no design to us-ward , but to dispel our needless scruples and superstitious fears ( as he calls them ) to shew us our safe liberty to obey , and how we may scape the penalties for disobeying the laws , &c. in answer to which , he expects his pains and charity should be accepted . we declare , that his pains is full as acceptable to us call'd quakers , as that pity to us , and charity he pretends to , is true and real , ( which how far forth it is , we leave to god and his own conscience to judge of ) though first it hath not obtain'd its professed end to us-ward , so far as to clear our understandings , any other than the clean contrary way to what he aims at , by the sight of how little demonstration the bishops are able to make for that swearing they consent and concur to have impos'd : nor dly , to remove our scruples , since ( as was said ) we we were before without scruple or doubt of it , that our denial of that swearing that's impos'd on us , is lawful and right before god , howere it seems so or so in the sight of men : nor dly , so as to reduce us to our due obedience , for we are not out of it , seeing as if swearing be not lawful before god , it 's due obedience to him not to obey men actively , who impose it * , so if swearing were lawful , yet at least our consciences being not convinc'd that it is , we obey god , to whom ( as the bishop sayes pag. . ) we christians owe the highest love , loyalty and obedience ; our obedience to whom cannot be disobedience to those laws of men that are just and agreeable to his laws , and besides where we obey not actively , we do it passively , by suffering violence without making any violent resistance , which passive obedience all wise men own to be true obedience , as well as active . nor thly , so as to rectifie our iudgements , which were once irregular , when we made no conscience thereof , but return'd to their rectitude , when we became so tender as to fear an oath . nor thly ▪ so as to stop that , which he is pleas'd ( not for want of mistake , error and superstition ) to miscall the contagion of our error and superstition , to others in this point ; for we are perswaded many will be convinced ( as well as some are already confirm'd ) against all swearing , seeing how little the bishops have to say , and shew in confirmation of it . nor thly , so as to the redeeming us from the penalties of the law ; for they are now with full measure heaped up , and running over , even beyond the bounds of the law it self , executing and insticting upon several of us . nor thly and lastly , so as to redeem us into safety and peace ; for howbeit we seem in the eyes of the unrighteous , and of some religious ones , to be in danger of perishing in our troubles ; yet ( come what evil can come to us for our consciences ) we ●…earkening still unto christ dwell safely , and are at quiet from the fear of evil , being ( as the same seed and sort of saints before us also were , cor . ) though troubled on every side , yet not distressed , perplexed , yet not in despair , persecuted , yet not forsaken , cast down , yet not destroyed . dated and dedicated in service to the truth , in the month called july . by samuel fisher , imprisoned for conscience by the space of about fifteen months of the two years last past , first in the counter , dly , in newgate . dly , in the gate-house . thly , in old-bridewell . thly , now in newgate again ; where ( without the least crime prov'd against him , or so much as said to his charge ) he stands ( with many more so recorded in the very calender ) discharged by the kings late special favour , notwithstanding which he is not released , but retained . finis . errata . in the first part , in the epistle , p l , for yet r. yea , p l r. tentanda , p. l. . r. in it , p. . l. . r was at least , ●… . . ●… . . r. that he is , p. . l. . & p. . l . r. obstinacy ▪ p. . l. . r graviore , p. . l. . for his r. their , p. . l. . for 〈◊〉 r. declining , p. . l. . r. ungue , p. . l. . r to the bishops , p. l. ●… . r. to sweeten , p. l. r. do , p. l. r. redarguit , p. l. r. what he hath , p. ●… ▪ l. r. agitator , p. l. r dictatorem , p. l. r. 〈◊〉 . in the second part , p. l. r presumed , l r. frivoulosity , p. l. r. inventitious , p. l. r. christians , p. l. . read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. , l. for by in . r. in by , p. l. for in r. is , p l. , for we , r. they , p. l. for of , r. of old , p. l. r. ( is , p ) l. ●… diali , p. l. for is all , r. is in all , p. l. ●… . petitionem , p. l. r signifies , p. l for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. l. r. yet not , l r. yet are so , l. r. makes . l. r ▪ r. him , p. . l. r. dispersation , p. . l , . r. as well as , p. . l. . for wave , r. use . reader , find no fault with what faults thou find'st with th' press ; correct the greater thus , the rest lack less . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e * though iuditium paenale [ de jure ] nunquam excedit casum . * viz. joseph hall , once bishop of exeter , who allowed of variety in outward forms of worship , saying , in pag. . of his susur●…ium thus , it is a great and i●…solent wrong in those who shall think to reduce all dispositions , and forms of devotion and usages into their own , since in all these there may be much variety , and all those different fashions may receive a gratious acceptation in heaven . one thinks it best to hold himself to a set form of invocation , another deems it far better to be 〈◊〉 to his arbitrary and un-premoditated expressions , &c. and pag. . o god , let my main care be to look to the sincerity of my soul ; and to the sure ground of warrant for my actions ; for other circumstantial appertenances , where thou art pleased to be liberal , let not me be strait-handed . and pag. . it is a true word of the apostle , god is greater than our conscience , and surely none but he , under that great god the supream power on earth is the conscience ; every man is a little world within himself , and in this little world there is a court of judicature erected , wherein next under god the conscience sits as the supream judge , from whom there is no appeal , that passeth sentence upon all our actions ; upon all our intentions , for our persons absolving one condemning another , for our actions allowing one forbidding another ; if that condemn in vain , shall all the world besides acquic us , if that clear us , the doom which the world passeth upon us is frivoulous and ineffectual . i grant this iudge is sometimes corrupted with the bribes of hope , with the weak fears of loss , with an undue respect of persons , with powerful importunities , with false witnesses , with forged evidences to pass a wrong sentence upon the person , or cause for which he shall be answerable to him that is higher than the highest ; but yet this doom ( though reversible by the tribunal of heaven ) is still obligatory here on earth : so as it 's my fault that my conscience is misled , but it 's not my fault to follow my conscience . notes for div a -e * witness the kings letter from breda , sent to the house of p●…eres ; and read in the house , may the st ▪ . and ordered to be printed for the service of the house , and satisfaction of the kingdom , and now to be seen in the . page of the book of collections of his speeches ; whose words are these , viz. we do declare a liberty to tender consciences , that no man shall be disquieted or called in question for differences in ●…pinions , or in matters of religion , which do not disturb the peace of the kingdom ; and that we shall be ready to consent to such an act of parliament , as upon ma●…ine deliberation , shall be offered to us for the full granting of that indulgence . also in the kings declaration concerning ecclesiastical affaires , dated october the th . . it is said thi●… ▪ in a word , we do again renew what we have formerly said in our declaration from 〈◊〉 ; for the liberty of tender consciences : no man shall be disqui●…red or called in question for differences of opinion in matters of religion , which do not distrub the peace of the kingdom : and if any have been disturbed in that kind since our arrival here , it hath not proceeded from any directions of ours . and page . we do in the first place declare our purpose and resolution ; is and shall be , to promote the power of godliness , and to encourage the exercises of religion , both in publick and private . and page the . we do in the second place take into consideration ; and our present work is to gratifie the private consciences of those that are grieved with the use of 〈◊〉 ceremonies , by indulging to , and di●…pensing with their omitting those ceremonies . and in the kings speech to both houses , iuly the th . ●… . it is to put my self in mind as well as you , that i so often ( i think as of●…en as i come to you ) mention to you my declaration from breda ; and let me put you in mind of another declaration published by your selves about the same time , which i am perswaded made mi●…e the more effectual . an honest generous and christian declaration signed by the most eminent persons , who had been the most eminent sufferers , in which you renounced all former animosities , and memory of former unkindness : my lords and gentlemen , let it be in no mans power to charge me or you with breach of our words or promises , which can never be a good ingredient to our future security . and in the chancellors speech to both houses , may the th . . page . he told you but now , that he values himself much upon keeping his words , and upon performing all his promises to his people . * the first respect . * the second respect . * for ( saith he ) however i might consent to the passing of the bill . * the third respect . the bishop contradicting himself . * celum non animum mutant qui trans mare currunt . * witness his words before , p. ▪ cited and spoken to . witness also jos. hall , once bishop of exeten , ( the same see where i. gauden is now bishop ) who saith that the doo●… of conscience is obligatory here on earth ▪ so that though ●… mans conscience be misled , yet it s not a mans fault to follow his conscience , sus. pag. . * this was the very self same counsel that the papists themselves gave to the emperor , princes and states , that they should obstruct the writing and printing of books , and also disputing or preaching otherwise than according to the interpretation and approba●…on of the church , and that the 〈◊〉 of such books should be punisht ; see the hist ▪ of the council of trent , page , . this the protestants liked not when 〈◊〉 under papists , yet approve of , promote , and give out as good counsel , when they have got others under themselves . this course of commanding their ordinaries to search for earnestly , and after to burn the books of iohn husse , as heritical ; was used by the popish prelates at the councel of constance , when and where the said husse himself also was ( as we are ) 〈◊〉 of o●…stinacy ( the old phrase ) and condemned to be burnt as an obstinate heretick . see fox . acts and monum . pag. . * veritas non querit angulos . * premi ha●…d supprimi potest . see dr. gauden . pag. . quid rides ? mutato nomine de te fabula narratur . finis legis est le●… . * collected by william caton , which is , or is to be printed . * which things ( say we ) are not consistent with any dangerous errors , or damnable opinions ( and so will the bishop say too , when he confiders well that morality , i. e. quod tibi nevis fieri alteri ne feceris , to do , as one would be done to , is purer and more substantial christianity , then that outward ceremony , which the papists and protestants christianity is mostly made up of , and that a blameloss life is the end of all external profession and religion , in which who ere is found , can never err nor lead others to err after his example to damnation . * by which the bishop seems to intend , not only the greater hornets of rigid presbyterians , and the lesser wasps of independants , and the gad-flies and musketo's of anabaptists ( as he calls them ) but the quakers also , whom we may well judge he jerks at , under that term of other insects . * page . primitive christians were so exact and cautious of their words ; in asserting ; or promising , that there was no need of an oath amongst them , it was security enough in all cases to say christianus sum ; i am a christian. * as bishop gauden himself also very well observes , to the weakening of his own proof of a necessity of imposing oaths upon all men , in order to the doing of justice according to truth , sith as good men need not be forc't to swear ( as he sayes ) in order to the awing of them to speak the truth ; so ill men's swearing is of little credit . whose word 's , page . are these , nor can much credit he given any more than to a lyar , to any man that swears never so solemnly and in-judicature , who is a common swearer , and hath no reverence of the majesty of god. * mark how hasty the bishop is in some places to quicken to the use of severity , lest it be too late ; notwithstanding his paternal compassionate pleas else-where for forbearance , and respite , at least for some longer time . * meerly mistaking that text , in which that clause , even so ( which bears the stresse of the whole city of babylon , as to this point ) relates to the matter , not the manner of a true ministers maintenance , to the portion , not the proportion of a gospel preachers pay ▪ which , first if it had been tyth according to the law of levies tribe , had been for the poor widows , fatherless and strangers , door-keepers and other temple-servitors , as well as priests ; who had but the tenth or tyth of the tyth ▪ secondly , was not tyth , for then the apostle could not have dispensed ( as he did ) with the nonpaymen●… of it to himself and others , had that set sum of tyths been the ordinance of god ; but it 's evident , he sayes they used not such power , nor wrote that it should be so done to him or them . thirdly , was by way of free gift . fourthly , from that flock they fed , and stood pastors to , not anothers shepherds sheep , that are fed by others . fifthly , much less from the people not yet converted by them , for they went forth freely for his names sake , taking nothing of the nations . sixthly , so far as to supply necessities only , and not alwayes that ( for paul's own hands oft ministred to his necessities , yet preacht more gospel in a year , than many bishops or priests in all their lives ) not to the setting up of such boundless superfluity , as many thousands per annum , which some have here , while their yearly hirelings , who take all that little pains that is taken for poor peoples souls , have not the tenth part of the tenth of those large crops , which are reaped by them ▪ * for the scri●…e calls the flock the clergy , ●…ritage , a●… in contradistinction ●…o the presbitery , pastoraly or episcopacy , pet. . , , . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * as the iudges said in the case of john crook , on the bench in the old bayly , telling him , once taking the oath was sufficient , yet sentencing him to a pruminire for not taking it there again , though he offered to prove he had taken it once before . notes for div a -e * p. . ●…urabant ●…udaei per creaturas obvias ; nec se istis teneri credebant , &c. et . non putabant iud●…i se teneri iure ju●…do si per ista jurassent , nec redden ▪ dum domino tale iuram●…ntum * vve see the bishop however loves to speak safely , though he speaks little less then sophistically , concluding not contradictorily to us ( as he ought to do ) but aliud a negato , another thing tha●… what we deny , and no other than what we may yeild to ▪ and do our cause no harm ; for who deni●…s but that swearing in a lawful way ●… lawful , and not forbidden by christ ; but that any swearing is lawful , is the question , which he would sain beg , before we see cause to give it him . * so the bish p. . all the nations have used some form of swearing by their respective dei●…ies , as a special honor and appeal to their soveraignty , as the only means in cases dubious , to give satisfaction , gain credit , and make men assured of the verity and honesty of the speaker in their promises and testimonies , in their leagues and contracts and p : . an oath is only the attestation of god , who is witness of all we say and do . * bishop gauden himself confessing the needlesness of swearing among christians . iust. mart. assert . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 plat. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . menand . iuris jurandi fidem nec promittas nec exigas ▪ fi●…icus ad lollianums flamini diali iurare nesas . plu●… . ea esto probitate ut nec iurato tibi credant . * see how all along the clergy cr●…ep their necks out of the collar ; for if this be by the bishop propounded as a patter●… ( since the old roman empire became christian ) for the clergy or christian priests , its wickedness not to credit the chief of them , it seems , without oath ▪ when it 's made a punishable piece of wickedness for others ( though it 's ●…onfest , above that the dissenter●… and 〈◊〉 may be as ●…incere as the im●…oser ) to refuse an oath when they impose it . for so p. also , the bishop ●…ays , when other christians did in publik●… swear , required by authority , yet the bishops of the church were not put to swear . basilius a bishop , pleaded his priviledge , when in the councel of ▪ calced●…n●…e ●…e was required to ●…ive o●…th , the sanctity of his life , and ●…onor of his 〈◊〉 being assurance ●…ufficient for his truth . but whether the bishop by citing this . pleads the p●…iviledge of the 〈◊〉 spi●…itual ( so called ) above the lords . temporal , or no , i know not : however ●…il ultra quae●… plebe●…us ▪ * as that of origen ▪ it be●… not a man , who lives according to the gospel , to swear at all . that of chrysost. he forbids not onely forswearing , but to swear at all . that of ierom. the gospel truth admits 〈◊〉 of an o●…th . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * see how the mysterie of iniquity began to work in those ▪ dayes of the empires turning christian●…y ●…y the lump and by whole-sale , to the corrupting of christianity and and christians , so ●…ar as to cause th●…m to call the holy 〈◊〉 of the gospel after the names of the old hea●…henish customs , whence ( at first ) came that name sacrament , which is never found in all the scriptures , nor was in use among the apostles . * though the lord himself 〈◊〉 more then once by himself , yet that his own example ( as the bishop calls it ) of swearing , was no example for us now to imitate , and was in ●…owise a confi●…ming of that old legal ceremony of o●…ths as a practice legiti●… to his saints for ever ( as the bishop wo●…ld make 〈◊〉 believe it was , and that his oath , which ended in christ , in wh●…m all his promises confirm'd by oath , were yea , and in him amen , was also to end all strife between him and men , and to put an end to all strife and oath●… also , that are among men 〈◊〉 ●…nd strife , is ●…vinced in our books , ( see one antidote more , &c ) which till the bishop , more punctua●…ly then be 〈◊〉 done , disproves the truth of , stands still on our ●…arts unshaken by him . * apud 〈◊〉 i●… iudiciis omnia jurisjurando religione f●…mata , dei 〈◊〉 interp●…sito buxt . * iuramentum non aliter quam medicamenium urgente necessitate usurpandum , non adhibetur iusjurandum nisi ad subveniendum desictui levitas hominum & incoaconstantia dissidentiam genuit cui remedium quaesitum est jure jurando . * rarus apud veteres jurandi usus in iudiciis sed crescente persidi●…crevit iurandi usus . * if yet there be any such ●…ue christians in the world , ( as we do not know that there are ) yea ( absit absuidum ) let it never be said now , that those are christians that name christs name , and name themselves after it , and yet depart not from such iniquities as those . * the perfection of moses law in the letter , was , swear not vainly , nor by any creature , but by god onely , forswear not ( whatever the pharisees false glosses allowed ) therefore either christ must in the point of swearing call them not to swear at all , or else in that point he calls to no higher perfection of obedience , than the letter of the mosaick law did . * compare acts . with pet. . sor peter was unlearned , as to that the bishop now calls learning . * se●… the antid . p. , , . * for according to the gospel , though the law it self expresly allowed it , the lord sayes by the prophet , mal. . . he hates putting away . * for moses of himself ( the servant that knows not what his master does ) could not give dispensation against any command of god , for then he had not been faithful , as he was in all his house , according to the pattern of gods precepts shewed him in the holy mount. the more shame therefore to christians ( so call'd ) that have no such great reverenes of the name of god ( 〈◊〉 the iews had , whom they should exceed in strictness ) but that they can swear in every ioy and trifle , by gods name , ●… thousand times , when they never ▪ think on him . * viz. 〈◊〉 ne jurabit , ne vel 〈◊〉 in perjurium cadat , lact n●… facilitate jurandi in perjurium prolabamur , aust. * and so sayes the bishop himself , p. . no laws of men contrary to gods word , are to be actively obeyed . a new-years-gift to the tories, or, a few sober queries concerning them by an honest trimmer. honest trimmer. approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page image. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing n estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a new-years-gift to the tories, or, a few sober queries concerning them by an honest trimmer. honest trimmer. sheet ([ ] p.) printed for francis smith london : . reproduction of original in huntington library. broadside. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng dissenters, religious -- england. tories, english -- anecdotes broadsides - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - emma (leeson) huber sampled and proofread - spi global rekeyed and resubmitted - megan marion sampled and proofread - megan marion text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a new-years-gift to the tories : or a few sober queries concerning them . by an honest trimmer . i. whether the tories debauching the sacrament to such base and low ends , as to procure licenses for ale-houses , be any part of our religion established by law ? ii. whether the tories by forcing the dissenters to come to church , do make them any jot the more for the church of england than they were before ? and if not , iii. whether any man ever saw such a deal of fooling for nothing ? and yet , iiii. whether dissenters ought not in prudence ( to prevent their own and the nations ruine ) rather play the fool with their neighbours , and conform , and trust god with their souls , than such k — s with their rights , liberties and estates , as gape after them . v. whether the tories are not more mad with dissenters for coming to church , than they were for their going to conventicles ? and therefore , vi. the dissenters cannot go to church out of piety , yet whether they ought not to go out of spight ? vii . whether the jews at dukes-place , and the papists all the land over , are of the religion established by law , or it for them , for not one man of them suffers for their dissenting ? and then , viii . whether it be not a notable tory-protestant-religion established by law , that can be so kind to jews and papists , and so curst only to dissenting-protestants ? ix . whether any thing but a tory understanding could ever have thought that the only expedient to keep out popery was to fall upon and ruine protestants , and the best way to secure the protestant religion to make sure of a popish prince ? x. whether the tender-hearted tories ( that cry out , god forbid that the d. of y. should suffer because he differs in his religion ) are not the engines that so barbarously prosecute dissenting-protestants , because they differ only in religion ? xi . whether while the prohibiting act is in force , and our church takes the communion in claret , we are of the religion established by law ? xii . whether poor parson duffee be not rather to be pittyed as a fool than punished as a knave , for his so unseasonable going to mass , just as the mass was coming to him . xiii . whether the severe usage of that fop ought not to be a warning to all his tantive brethren not to go before their betters , nor like ill entered whelps to yelp and open before their time ? xiiii . whether roger lestrange did well con over his politicks in snarling so horribly against the trimmers ? xv. whether it be not enough to make a prudent man spew , to hear hodge and his tories tattle gravely of policy and religion ? xvi . whether any tory in england be of any other religion than the tories in ireland . xvii . whether any man ever trusted one tory that did not betray him ? and therefore , xviii . whether all true english-men do not now see ( god be thanked ) that tories and traitors are terms synonimous , and that the divel is as soon to be trusted as they ? xix . whether ever any tory desired any trust from the people , for any other end than that by betraying them he might make up his market , and purchase to himself some place of preferment ? xx. whether a tory talks sence of any other thing but of drink and a whore ? and if not , xxi . whether he were not better to keep to his own tallent the whore and the bottle , than to make such a bawling about religion and government , which he understands not ? xxii . whether it be not more than an equal wager that our tories are plum at a stand , and at such an utter loss , that the wisest amongst them cannot tell what step to take next ? and if so . xxiii . whether the government will not be finely brought to bed , and handed down to posterity under a brave reputation , that shall yield it self up to the conduct of such bruits ? london , printed for francis smith sen. at the elephant and castle in cornhil , / . a proclamation, anent field conventicles and house-meetings proclamations. - - scotland. sovereign ( - : charles ii) approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page image. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing s estc r this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a proclamation, anent field conventicles and house-meetings proclamations. - - scotland. sovereign ( - : charles ii) james ii, king of england, - . aut. sheet ([ ] p.) printed by the heir of andrew anderson, printer to his most sacred majesty, edinburgh : anno dom. . dated at end: edinburgh, the fifth day of october one thousand six hundred eights seven. and of our reign the third year. arms ; steele notation: defen- fit name. reproduction of original in the folger shakespeare library, washington, d.c.. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng dissenters, religious -- scotland -- early works to . liberty of conscience -- early works to . liberty -- religious aspects -- early works to . great britain -- history -- james ii, - -- early works to . broadsides -- scotland - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - mona logarbo sampled and proofread - mona logarbo text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion i r honi soit qui mal y pense royal blazon or coat of arms a proclamation , anent field conventicles and house-meetings . james , by the grace of god , king of great-britain , france and ireland , defender of the faith , to macers of our privy council , or messengers at arms , our sheriffs in that part , conjunctly and severally , specially constitute , and to all and sundry our leidges and subjects , whom it effeirs ; greeting : whereas , we having by our proclamation of the twentieth of february last past , and our other proclamation of the twenty eight of june thereafter , explaining and extending the same in favours of all our subjects of this kingdom , of whatsoever profession , granted full liberty to them to meet , and serve god in their own way and manner , on the terms therein expresly mentioned ; yet we understanding , that several seditious preachers , and others declared fugitives , do , nevertheless of that our great and unexpected clemency and favour , meet in the open fields , aud there keep conventicles ( these rendevouzes of rebellion ) and that great numbers of persons of all sorts , do frequent these seditious meetings , and many in arms : we have thought fit therefore , with advice of our privy council , hereby to declare , that not only all such persons ( whether preachers or hearers , that shall presume to be at any conventicle in the open fields ) but also , all dissenting ministers , who shall take upon them to preach in houses , without observing such directions as are prescribed by our said late proclamation ▪ viz. that nothing be preached or taught among them , which may any way tend to alienat the hearts of our people from vs , or our government , and that their meetings be peaceable , openly , and publickly held , and all persons freely admitted to them , and that they do signifie and make known to some one or moe of our next privy counsellors , sheriffs , stewarts , baillies , justices of peace , or magistrats of royal burrows , what place or places they set apart for these uses , with the names of the preachers ; shall be prosecuted with the utmost rigor and severity that our laws , acts of parliament , and constitutions of this our ancient kingdom , will allow : requiring hereby all our officers , civil and military , and al● other our good subjects , who are , or may be any way concerned in the execution thereof , to see this our royal will and pleasure duly performed , and put in execution , conform to our saids laws , acts of parliament , and constitutions aforesaid , every manner of way , as is thereby prescribed , and under the pains and certifications therein-mentioned ; and to the end our said proclamation of the twenty eight of june last , may receive due obedience , we , with advice foresaid , do strictly require all such as shall preach , by vertue thereof , at any time , or in any place , to make intimat●on of their preaching , as to the time and place before their meetings ▪ to some one , or moe of our next privy counsellors , sheriffs , stewarts , baillies , justices of peace , or magistrats of our royal burrows , and of their fixing their abodes there , which shall be sufficient to them during their residence at that place , or places , only ; and in case they be transient preachers , that they give the same intimation to some one , or moe of our privy council , or others aforesaid , both , as they will be answereable . and further , we , in prosecution of our said late proclamation , do hereby require all and every person aforesaid , to whom such intimation shall be given respectivè , to send in to the clerks of our privy council , once every moneth , the name and sirname of the persons preachers , and the times and places of their meetings , as they will answer the contrary at their peril ; and that our royal pleasure in the premisses may be known , and due and exact obedience given thereto ; our will is herefore , and we charge you strictly and command , that incontinent , these our letters seen , ye pass to the mercat cross of edinburgh , and all the other mercat-crosses of the head-burghs of the shires of this kingdom , and other places needful , and there , in our name and authority , by open proclamation , make publication of our pleasure in the premisses , that none may pretend ignorance . given under our signet at edinburgh , the fifth day of october one thousand six hundred eighty seven . and of our reign the third year . per actum dominorum secreti concilii . col . m ckenzie , cls. sti. concilii . god save the king . edinburgh , printed by the heir of andrew anderson , printer to his most sacred majesty , anno dom. . the wisdom of the earthly wife confounded, or, a manifestation of the spirits of some envious professors who are ready to prefer the hireling priests works of darkness, whose works are against the revelation and coming of christ in spirit, as their fore-fathers works of cruelty and murder were against him in the dayes of his flesh, as may be seen at large in the scriptures of truth ... this was chiefly occasioned by some nonconformists promoting the works of darkness of a conformist (or chief priest of warsick-shire, called, thomas willson, in his book, ... who slanderously charges the people called quakers to be false interpreters of the holy scriptures) wherein is something of answer to such as have any true tenderness left in them, and would receive the truth if they knew it, but its like to the hard-hearted, stubborn and rebellious (like those, matth. . . who said, his blood be upon us and upon our children) it will be foolishness, as is the preaching of the cross to them that perish ... / by william smith. smith, william, d. . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing s estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) the wisdom of the earthly wife confounded, or, a manifestation of the spirits of some envious professors who are ready to prefer the hireling priests works of darkness, whose works are against the revelation and coming of christ in spirit, as their fore-fathers works of cruelty and murder were against him in the dayes of his flesh, as may be seen at large in the scriptures of truth ... this was chiefly occasioned by some nonconformists promoting the works of darkness of a conformist (or chief priest of warsick-shire, called, thomas willson, in his book, ... who slanderously charges the people called quakers to be false interpreters of the holy scriptures) wherein is something of answer to such as have any true tenderness left in them, and would receive the truth if they knew it, but its like to the hard-hearted, stubborn and rebellious (like those, matth. . . who said, his blood be upon us and upon our children) it will be foolishness, as is the preaching of the cross to them that perish ... / by william smith. smith, william, d. . p. s.n.], [london : . reproduction of original in huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng wilson, thomas, th cent. society of friends -- controversial literature. dissenters, religious -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - tcp staff (michigan) sampled and proofread - tcp staff (michigan) text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the wisdom of the earthly wise confounded , or , a manifestation of the spirits of some envious professors , who are ready to prefer the hireling priests works of darkness , whose works are against the revelation and coming of christ in spirit , as their fore-fathers works of cruelty and murder were against him in the dayes of his flesh , as may be seen at large in the scriptures of truth . this was chiefly occasioned by some nonconformists promoting the works of darkness of a conformist ( or chief priest of warwick-shire , called , thomas willson , in his book , who slanderously charges the people called quakers to be false interpreters of the holy scriptures ) wherein is something of answer to such as have any true tenderness left in them , and would receive the truth if they knew it : but its like to the hard-hearted , stubborn and rebellious ( like those , matth. . . who said , his blood be upon us and upon our children ) it will be foolishness , as is the preaching of the cross to them that perish : by william smith . printed in the year . the wisdom of the earthly wise confounded , &c. we , whom the heavenly day-spring of god from on high hath visited , who were once in darkness and the shadow of death , as well as others : i say , we do not marvel to see ( the literal outside professors of this generation , of all sorts and perswasions ( out of the truth ) as well as chief-priests ( the old enemies of christ ) though they so much differ and disagree amongst themselves ) how ready they are to joyn hand in hand against the lord and his blessed heritage , whom he hath blessed , and will bless above all the families of the earth : yea , how ready are you to catch up and imbrace any piece of darkness and confusion that ariseth out of the bottomles . pit of the deceived , envious and babylonish hearts of such as hate the witness or light of christ in their own consciences ; and also envy such , who by believing in the light of christ within are witnesses of his spiritual appearance . so all you malicious papists , chief-priests , presbyterians , independents , and baptists of all sorts ; &c. that do not believe in christ , the true light , who lighteth every one that cometh into the world , according to iohn . . & . . & . . are all wrong in the ground , and you are all against us , and we are against you all , till you come out of deceit , envy and unbelief ; we know your spirits will concur against us , as did your progenitors ( the chief-priests , the hard-hearted iews , scribes , pharisees , saduces , &c. ) against christ and his followers in the days of his coming in the flesh , who as christ told them , they did err , not knowing the scriptures , nor the power of god , mat. . . and even so do ye , who will not abide his spiritual appearance in your selves , nor in such as are witnesses of it . so in this state you are all from the highest to the lowest , of all sorts , both priests , teachers aad people far from the true interpretations of holy scriptures ; and if ever you come truly to it , you must come down from climbing up another way , to christ the door and light of the world , who lighteth every man that cometh into the world. and also , if you will be true followers of him , that you may have life and treasure in heaven , you must with the young man , matth. . ( which i believe will be as hard for many of you rich ones in your natural wisdoms , as for him ) sell all your great possessions of that wisdom which is from below , which is earthly , sensual and devilish , in which you have given false interpretation upon the holy scriptures , and thereby wofully wrested them to justifie or indulge your selves in a continuance in sin to the end of your days ; the wages of which is death , as faith the apostle , but the spirit gives life , and leads to true interpretations of holy scriptures ; though contrary to your natural , dark conceptions and imaginations : the natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of god , they are foolishness unto him ; neither can he know them , because they are spiritually discerned ; see cor. . now , i would have all you outside , literal imitaters of all sorts ( that are not too high & too swelled with your vain notions and imaginations ) to lay them by a while , and consider seriously , since there is but one ●ay to god , and one truth , one lord , one faith , one baptism , ( which is spiritual , and only known to the true spiritual worshippers ) mark , one god and father of all , who is above all , and through all , and in you all , ephes. . . and a mystery to you all , and ever will be while strangers to the light of christ within , which will give a right understanding of scriptures to them that believe in it and follows it , and will lead to a right use of them , &c. but how many ways , worships , faiths , baptisms , &c. are there amongst you , every one crying up his own way and form , pretending to the scriptures for it : oh! what distractions and confusions are here ! and where must they be charged , upon the scriptures or upon you , with your many lo here 's and lo there 's ? every one for his own way , in opposition to the way of god , which is but one and his people one in it . now look upon your selves and among your selves , and behold the fruits of your interpreting scripture ; is it not to make the world or people like a wilderness ? lo here , lo there ; see here , see there ! but what saith christ ? believe them not , go not after them , nor follow them ; for behold the kingdom of god is within you , luke . . . thus saith our lord christ jesus , and we have believed him , and in our measures have infallibly found it so . and if this should seem strange doctrine to any , to whose hands these may come , though of the many ways , forms and perswasions , since you all profess the scriptures to be your rule ; i would know how you interpret these following scriptures . god is a spirit , ( as christ said ) and is to be worshipped in the spirit and in the truth . god is light , and in him there is no darkness at all . if we say , that we have fellowship with him , and walk in darkness , we lye , and do not the truth ; but if we walk in the light , as he is in the light , then have we fellowship one with another , and the blood of iesus christ his son cleanseth us from all sin. christ said , i am the light of the world , he that follows me shall not walk in darkness , but he shall have the light of life : and said , believe in the light , that ye may be the children of the light. the grace of god which bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men , teaching us that denying vngodliness & worldly lusts , we should live godly , righteously , &c. in this present world : this grace appearing unto all , is , that all might believe therein , and obey it , and be saved ; but some of old did dispight unto the spirit of grace ( as many do now ) against whom the apostle testified , and iude in his epistle witnesses against such . the apostle said unto the saints , by grace ye are saved , through faith , &c. and said , it s a good thing that the heart be established with grace : and the lord said to paul , my grace is sufficient for thee , &c. christ in his parable of the talents , and of the pearl , and of the field , and of the sower , and of the good seed , which fell upon the divers grounds , doth clearly hold forth the universal love of god unto all people . god said by the prophet , look unto me , o all the ends of the earth , and be ye saved , &c. as many as are led by the spirit of god they are the sons of god. the spirit of truth , which doth lead the saints into all truth , the same doth convince the world of sin , as christ hath promised . christ said , this is the condemnation , that light is come into the world , and men loved darkness rather than light , because their deeds were evil ; for every one that doth evil , hateth the light , neither cometh to the light , lest his deeds should be reproved ; but he that doth truth , cometh to the light , that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in god : see john . , , . & . . & . . first epistle of john . , , . john . , , , , , , . jer. . . psal. . . mal. . . john . . isa. . . rom. . , . psal. . , to the end. acts . . & . , . cor. . , . let us hear what interpretations you will give to these scriptures . again , the apostle iohn saith , god is love , he that dwelleth in love , dwelleth in god , and god in him . again , he that hateth his brother is a murtherer , and no murtherer hath eternal life abiding in him . again , christ said unto the saints , i and my father will come , and make our abode with you . and god hath promised , that he will dwell in his people , and that he will write his law in their hearts , and put his spirit in their minds , &c. let us see how skilful you are in interpreting these heavenly comfortable sayings . the lord god said by the mouth of the true prophet concerning the false , wo unto the foolish prophets , who follow their own spirit , and have seen nothing , eccles. . . but the true apostle said , the spirit it self beareth witness with our spirit , that we are the children of god. this spirit was and is all the true christians guide : this did of old , and now doth bear witness with , or unto the spirits of all true believers , that they are the children of god , who are led thereby ; for it leads them to do those things which please god. the apostle saith , the scriptures came not in old time by the will of man , but holy men of god spoke them as they were moved by the holy ghost , or spirit ; and he saith , they are of no private interpretation . so you who deny immediate revelation , and deny and hate the universal , infallible spirit of god and christ , you have nothing to interpret the scriptures with or by , but your own fallible private spirits , and the wicked spirit , the prince of the power of the air , which works in the hearts of the children of disobedience , as saith the apostle , and with these joynt workers in wickedness you cannot rightly interpret the holy scriptures ; but by the help of this dark spirit you are taught to wrest them to your own destruction : the lord in mercy deliver you from this false teacher . the kingdom of heaven is likened to a man that gave to his servants talents , &c. matth. . . a manifestation of the spirit is given to every man to profit withal , cor. . . whatsoever makes manifest is light , and christ is that light , ephes. . . he that declareth to man his thoughts , the lord the god of hosts is his name , amos . . elihu was constrained by the spirit within , job . . the word of god is within , deut. . . psal. . . the law and the covenant of life is within , jer. . . the word of faith that purifieth the heart is within , rom. . . heb. . . the sure word of prophecy , and the day-star is to arise within , pet. . . god , christ and the spirit of truth that leadeth into all truth , are to be known within , john . . know ye not your own selves , how that iesus christ is in you , except you be reprobates , cor. . . the mystery that hath been hid from ages and generations is christ within , col. . . the anointing the true teacher that shall never be removed into a corner is within , john . . isa. . . that which may be known of god is manifest within , rom. . . i thank thee , o father lord of heaven and earth , because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent , and hast revealed them unto babes , matth. . . see cor. . . we are not led by our own conceivings nor imaginations ( as the carnal-minded out-side professors are ) to interpret the holy scriptures but by a measure of the same spirit of truth , from which they were given forth , in and by which they can be only and alone truly read and known , by which spirit we are made living witnesses to the truth of them , and can read them within , which is far more then the bare outward reading . and we know that the son of god is come , and hath given us an understanding that we may know him that is true , john . . and greater is he that is in us ( that teaches true reading and right interpretations of holy scriptures ) then he that 's in the world , john . . and hereby know we that we dwell in him , and he in us , because he hath given us of his spirit , john . . and we are sure it is he , for he hath done that in us and for us that none other could do . and he that believeth , hath the witness in himself , john . . so our god is a god at hand , a just , righteous and a merciful god , who in his everlasting love hath committed a talent or measure of his grace ( and giveth his light for a witness and a leader , isa. . . ) to every man and woman that cometh into the world , and according to their improving or not improving of it , believing or not believing in it , is the salvation or condemnation of all mankind . now to speak comparatively after the manner of men , if a man should demand a sum of money with usury of another , that never had any of him , and condemn him for want of it , would it not be altogether unjust ? but the true god is just and righteous in all his wayes , and man's destruction is of himself . and further we say , that god in his endless love hath offered a day or time of visitation to all mankind , and that by his secret reproofs at times in their consciences for self-righteousness , as well as their other ungodliness , that they might turn to his grace , ( which hath appeared to all men ) light or witness within them , and live . and all you confused builders of babel , with your many lo here 's and lo there 's , you have rejected the head or chief corner-stone and true foundation ; and if you will be truly wise , that you may know him , you must first become fools that you may be wise , and then you will throw down and lay waste all your lofty buildings of self righteousness , and dig deeper then ever you have done yet to the true rock and foundation , and whoso bui'ds truly thereupon shall be safe . but all you talkative letter-wise people and professors of all sorts , that have no other ru'e to try spirits and doctrines but the scriptures , [ in your natural carnal reasons , and fallen degenerated wisdoms ] though you neither know them nor the power of god , but are putting darkness for light , and light for darkness , justifying the wicked and condemning the righteous , as did they whose steps you follow : what! did you never read or take notice of the fruits of trying spirits and doctrines by the scriptures in their carnal reasons & degenerate wisdoms ( being out of the spirit which gives a right understanding of them ) was it not to condemn the saviour of the world , and his blessed followers to death ? oh! outside , literal professors of this generation ! take heed ye be not found spiritually in the same steps : the holy scriptures we more dearly & truly own , in their places , than you do , and do esteem them above all other outward writings , because of the great plenty and variety of sweet , sound , heavenly sayings , uttered by god in and through christ jesus , who was filled with the spirit without measure , and anointed with the oyl of gladness above his fellows , as it s written of him ; and also uttered through moses , and the rest of the holy prophets & apostles : but we cannot set them above the spirit : we say , they are a testimony or declaration of what the primitive saints were made living witnesses of , by the working of the mighty power of god in them , whereby they came to put off the old man with his deeds , and put no that new man , christ iesus which is after god created in righteousness and true holiness , in whom only was and is the perfection of saints : and without witnessing of more or less of this spirit that wrought in them , that gave forth the scriptures , there is no saving benefit nor comfort to be had from them ; for they , viz. the scriptures do answer to the witness of god , or light within people ; and they are given forth to be read and believed , and only can be rightly understood in a measure of the same spirit that gave them forth ; and they testifie how , where and by what means people may attain to that infallible spirit , that always was & is the saints chief rule , guide & leader , who leads in the same path they were in , that gave them forth ; and these only are the truly learned , that can read them without wresting , and to such they are profitable for doctrine , for reproof , &c. but they were not given forth [ to be set above the spirit of god ] they were not given forth to be wrested by covetous , carnal-minded men to uphold their carnal sects , opinions , judgments and religions , to war against the true spiritual worshippers , whom the father seeks to worship him in the spirit & in the truth . and inasmuch as the invisible wise god , creator of all things , is to be honoured and esteemed above any visible created thing , so is his holy invisible spirit to be honoured and esteemed above the scriptures ; are not all holy declarations made by the holy spirit of truth ? and who dare say , that the maker is not greater , and more to be looked at and esteemed , than the thing made ? how now porfessors ( that in your natural reasons set your selves as judges , both of scriptures and the spirit that gave them forth ) and in setting the scriptures above the spirit of god , your darkness is largely manifest : and may you not be justly compared to those that built the tombs of the prophets , and garnished the sepulchers of the righteous , and were the children of them that killed them ? the scripture saith , believe not every spirit , but try the spirits whether they be of god ; because many false prophets are gone out into the world , john . . i say , the infallible spirit of god must try all spirits , and without that none can try them : come professors , what say you , have you that infallible spirit to try the fallible with ? if you say , nay , but we have the scriptures to try them by ( i never yet heard any of you say otherwise ) i hope you will not deny , but that the spirit of christ is infallible ; and the scriptures say , he that hath not the spirit of christ is none of his , rom. . . and he that 's spiritual judgeth all things , cor. . . so you fallible-spirited natural men , what have you to do with the scriptures , you being the unlearned men , who have not learned of christ , you do but wrest them to your own destruction , because you have no true judgment in your goings , and make to your selves crooked paths , lo here , lo there ! and in your own private spirits give your corrupt meanings to the scriptures & oppose the spirit that gave them forth . the apostle saith , he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him , and he in him : and hereby we know that he dwelled in us , by the spirit which he hath given us , iohn . . the lord god said by the true prophet , concerning the false , wo unto the foolish-prophets , who follow their own spirit , and have seen nothing , ezek. . . and these are the true confessors of christ come in the flesh , [ and in the spirit ] whatever fallible-spirited men ( that are rending and wresting the scriptures ) may judge of them . and whereas some envious dark spirits ( seeing their glorying in their literal knowledge so hard beset ) may suggest , that i design to possess people against ( or would beget them into a low esteem of ) the scriptures . god knoweth , if any such there be , they greatly wrong themselves and me , and all those who believe their false suggestions ; for my only end is , that people might be possessed with the spirit of truth , that leads into all truth , and teaches the true knowledge of scriptures , and to set them in their places , and not to be ever learning , and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth ; so that you all might come to christ , and learn of him , that you may have life , is the desire of your friend written in the th moneth from market-harborough , . william smith . postscript . having considered that some dark spirits , like this priest's may take occasion at my so much judging his works to be works of darkness , without any plain proof made thereof , to answer my present business at this time , is not so much to concern my self with his darkness ( it is so palpably gross , to all that have the least spiritual discerning ) as to shew the confusion and darkness of such professors that separate from such priests , as not owning them to be ministers of christ , and yet in envy prefer and promote their works in opposition to the truth of god. now since his works , viz. the priest's , seems to be chiefly about true and false interpretations of scriptures , i may compare them , and see which he most resembles : the true interpreters do it by the spiritual vnderstanding received by the inspiration of the almighty : the false interpreters do it by natural reason or earthly wisdom of fallen degenerate man. i may touch at a passage or two in his book ( passing by many such like ) with the ground of his matter in general ( with as much brevity as i can , because i would not be tedious to the reader ) from which i can prove his whole heap of confusion and darkness of one hundred sixty and six pages to be founded upon a shadow , and down must it tumble and vanish away like smoak before the wind. so having perused his tedious tautologies , or rather bundle of dark impertenent cavils against god's truth and people : i find the scope and drift of his matter is to make void or cry down ( as now ceased ) immediate revelation , inspiration , vision and the truth in the inward parts , or the spiritual in-being of christ in the hearts and souls of his people ( there to work their salvation ) all which is still continued and truly witnessed by the true spiritual worshippers , without which , we affirm , there is no true interpretations of holy scriptures . oh! all people , that have the least spiritual understanding , behold the darkness of such priests and professors , where there is no revelation , there is no true saving knowledge of god ; see mat. . . object . but we have it by the scriptures . answ. i prove by the scriptures that it must be immediate from the son christ iesus , or you have no life ; search the scriptures , for in them you think ye have eternal life ; they testifie of me , but ye will not come unto me that ye may have life , iohn . . [ see page , & . of this priest's book ] we ( saith he ) like honest men , have no vision , pretend none ; if we were knaves we might pretend inspiration as well as others . ah! poor blind guides indeed ! then you perish , and have no heavenly understanding ; where there is no vision the people perish , prov. . . there is a spirit in man , and the inspiration of the almighty giveth them vnderstanding , job . . when it pleased god to reveal his son in me , &c. gal. . . i was not disobedient to the heavenly vision , acts . . i will come to visions and revelations of the lord , cor. . . and also , paul prayed , that the people might receive the spirit of wisdom and revelation : what was paul a knave for this ? and how often doth paul say , be ye followers of me , even as i also am of christ ? and if we do so , and in our measures witness the same spirit of wisdom , revelation , inspiration and vision , must we therefore be knaves for that ? oh darkness ! who is so blind that they cannot see it ! we say , all holy scripture is given by the inspiration of god , and can never be rightly known nor understood , but by the inspiration of the almighty , which gives an understanding to know them , without which they can never be truly known nor interpreted . and in the latter dayes ( saith god ) i will pour out my spirit upon all flesh ; sons and daughters shall prophesie , young men shall see visions , and old men shall dream dreams , ioel . . acts . . many more scriptures might have been instanced , as full and pertinent to this purpose ; but these are sufficient to manifest the ignorance , darkness and blindness of such priests and professors : and who have believed in christ as a light within them know him to be the same to his people yesterday , to day , and forever . so all honour , praises and thanks forever be given to him who hath hid these things from the wise and prudent of this world , and revealed them to babes and sucklings . and as to christ's spiritual being within , it is before sufficiently proved ; but i perceive such priests , and professors do only or chiefly talk of christ without them , which is well-pleasing to the devil , that so he may do his work within them without disturbance , while he that is stronger then he may not be received to cast him out and spoil his works : and such ministers or teachers , of what sort soever , are not of christ , but of anti-christ , as well as the pope . now i charge all , or any one of the blind guides , of all sorts in the whole world ( to whom the spirit of true wisdom , revelation , inspiration and vision is ceased ) to give one plain scripture that it ever was , is , or ever will be ceased to the people of god ( who did and do fear and obey him ) while upon earth . why did the chief priests and outward professors of the letter in days past slight and set at nought christ jesus , in his outward appearance to them ? because he reproved their self-righteousness , and said , he was the son of god and light of the world , and said , his kingdom was not of this world , neither was it to be found in observations , where they were seeking it , but it was to be found within in the spirit : so making clean the out-side of cup and platter would not serve them then , neither will it now . and why do the chief priests and outward professors of the letter in this day slight and reject him in his inward appearance , as light within in their consciences ? because he condemned their self-righteousness , which they are also getting in the outward observations , and many of them see that if they should hearken or lend an ear to him or his light within , he would break their false peace , and bring spiritual war , division and a sword within to spoil and cut down their self-righteousness , as well as the rest of their . ungodliness , and that which would not that he should reign in his kingdom within , to subject man and woman to himself , who will admit of no righteousness but his own , and therefore the hypocrites and formal professors will not abide him , but love the darkness rather then light , and in their darkness judge his light within to be a spirit of delusion , and what not , as their fore-fathers did of old ; yet he that is the searcher of hearts and tryer of reins , hath not left himself without a witness in you , to which i now appeal , what any of you from the highest to the lowest know more by your long professing of the true god ( mark ) whom to know is life eternal , ( john . ) then you did at your first beginning to profess him ? o! friends and people , that have any regard to your immortal souls , this is of great weight for you all deeply to ponder , and let gods witness speak in you , that will deal plainly with you , and tell you the truth . and since the life of man and woman here is full of trouble , short and uncertain , attended with temptations , oh! how doth it concern all that truly desire a better and more durable inheritance to weigh & consider that great and double caution of christ & his apostles , take heed that no man deceive you ; and let no man deceive himself , in which deceit all men are ( how conceited and confident soever they may be ) till they come out of their vain and dead faiths into the living faith in god & christ , which is to believe in ( as sufficient for the salvation of man ) his spirit , grace , talent , light or kingdom within , which is likeed to a grain of mustard-seed ; indeed too low and too small a thing for the lofty professors of this generation to find or receive , as was his outward appearance to your fore-fathers , when he was found in the manger : i know your inns are taken up with other guests , and there is yet no room for him ; so full of vain imaginations and high conceits are you , that you will not bow down so low as to receive & own him as a reprover in your consciences , for whoso do come to have their understandings opened , and to be enlightned with the light of life ; so that they come to see the blind guides of all sorts , that are boasting in other mens lines , of things made ready to their hands , and how they strive to keep people from believing in this heavenly principle within , lest they with their chargeable unprofitable preaching should be discovered , and their running unsent , speaking of themselves , seek their own glory , the praise of men , self-interest , their gain from their quarter , &c. all which with much more the light within doth discover , judge and condemn , and that makes such hireling teachers of all sorts to hate it , and prejudice their people against it . oh! people of all sorts beware of such teachers , for they make a prey upon you , & deceive you ; therefore no longer spend your money for that which is not bread , nor your labour for that which satisfieth not your hungry pined souls , but come home to your teacher within , to the law , testimony , commandment or light within you , which made david wiser then all his teachers ; and so it will you , if you can receive it , believe in it , and follow it . w. s. the end . annimadversions on the apology of the clamorous squire against the duke of buckinghams seconds, as men of no conscience penn, william, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing p estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) annimadversions on the apology of the clamorous squire against the duke of buckinghams seconds, as men of no conscience penn, william, - . p. s.n., [london : ] reproduction of original in huntington library. caption title. a plea for dissenters. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng buckingham, george villiers, -- duke of, - . dissenters, religious -- great britain. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - emma (leeson) huber sampled and proofread - emma (leeson) huber text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion annimadversions on the apology of the clamorous squire against the duke of buckinghams seconds , as men of no conscience . the introduction . it is a judgment upon some men , not only to mistake , but to refuse to be informed ; as it is the worst of natures to be afraid that other men should be in the right . all dissenters must be in the wrong , whether they be or no : and they must not mean any thing that is good , by good words , whether they do or no. though it were that they should say they would not have the government or national church destroy'd , and only pray for a little room to exercise their own way quietly , and that they will pray for , and pay tribute cheerfully to their auspicious caesar . and why all this unkindness and injustice , but for fear such men of wrath and interest should want a pretence to destroy them ? which in my opinion shews them ill sons of the church , that unwillingly believe well of another , and had rather they were in the wrong than in the right . for in all the late pamphlets against liberty of conscience , there 's not one word of winning one poor dissenter to the church , no more than of tolerating them out of the church . but how peaceable soever he be , he is cast out for a vessel of wrath , good for nothing but to be hang'd here , and damn'd hereafter . it is a melancholly prospect for him , but not without instruction , and some hope . for extreams do the authors of them no good : and these flashes may be but a lightning before death , i mean , of severity . it is always darkest before day : ease and liberty of conscience , for all this , may yet dawn under the government of our brave king. and who would not hope a little longer , that has stay'd all this while ? will other princes give better terms in their countries , or keep them better ? let 's then be patient and humble , and pray god to mollifie the hearts , even of them that hate us . vincit qui patitur . and so i come to the severe gentleman against the dvke of bvckingham and his seconds , for men of no conscience ; in which we shall have a measure of his , of his own giving , and that will show it to be none of the best . he begins , page . with the loyalty of the house of commons , and the reason of his judgment , to wit , if we consider , who has chosen them , and who are chosen . now , no body doubts their loyalty , without this lucky reason given by the squire , of who chose them , and who are chosen . the case is plain , and needed not his officious note upon the house , for spectacles to the people . but if it be so , the dissenters insolence is insufferable in their pleas for liberty of conscience . which i take to be a reflection upon that great assembly ; it prejudges their wisdom and goodness . what knows he which way reason of state may incline their judgment ; or what motives may induce their debates and resolves . is it insolence , and that unsufferable too , for men to humbly pray , they may have leave to say their prayers in another way than that which is common ? if any man has done ill , must the principle suffer , and the party pay the reckoning , especially if neither be in the fault ? here 's a loyal parliament , ergo , a million of people must be ruin'd . a fine christian , and as good a states-man . i hope , there 's preference of one , without destruction of the rest , and rebuke without ruin. the dissenter may live , though the church-man only be preferr'd . and only let him be preferrd , so that t'other may not be confounded . he says , pag. , . liberty of conscience has imbroyl'd three nations in blood , and yet the patrons of it allow'd it not to one another , as presbyterians , independents , &c. nor did they to king charles the first , the church of england , or roman catholicks . he might have added the quakers too , that suffer'd more cruelties than any other party , under them . but i pray , how does this shake the reasonableness of liberty of conscience ? for , first , that was not any part of the stated quarrel between the king and parliament . secondly , if they that made the war , disown'd it , and deny'd it , how were they patrons of it ? or how did that principle come to lay three kingdoms in blood ? it seems then that liberty of conscience must pay the reckoning of the men that are against it ; or that because those men were against it ( and therein doubtless did very ill ) therefore the church of england would do ill to give it . make this good , and he shall be my oracle . but why ? for fear they should be undone by giving it , because they were undone that did not give it . mighty well argued ! this gentleman bids for the first doctor next act at oxford . you would not give it to me , that you wou'd not , and therefore why should i give it to you ? no such matter ; truly i don't intend it . this is pretty logick ! 't is demonstration , backward . but passion , though it rules women , it should not rule in the church . wise and good men , consider the right and prudence of a thing , to which private passions are made submit . pag. . but the protestant dissenters deserve no liberty , because in seventy two they were for liberty with the papists , in eighty without them , and now in eighty five it is not only lawful , but necessary that the roman catholicks have their liberty too . granting this to be so , what 's that to liberty of conscience ? it only shows the partiality of the men , and perhaps that would have been granted him for a word 's asking . this proves nothing against the principle , though the squire upon this so fiercely concludes , all the villanies in the world against liberty of conscience . but when he has done all he can , they were not dissenters , under correction , that in eighty prosecuted the roman catholicks , and refused them liberty , but church of england-men , and such of them too , as would not allow it to some protestant dissenters , for fear that papists should hide themselves amongst them , and that they therefore must swallow the most severe tests that could be fram'd to show themselves not friends to that communion . and to tell truth , and i beseech the gentleman , not to take it amiss that i say , the dissenters were invited to the share they had in opposition to popery , by church-men , ay , they were for a comprehension , to make the church stand broader , the better to receive the assaults of rome without hazard . and had the dissenter been more modest to his mistress , and not so malepert and officious , he had doubtless been upon better terms with her now . however , her anger must not endure forever , nor destroy her servant for being too busie or eager in the service she call'd him to . well , but the duke of buckingham's seconds are men of no conscience because they charge the exclusion upon the members of the church of england , this is so bitterly resented , that we are told , that an honest turk would have scorn'd so base a practice , within five years after the fact , and in a case wherein the whole nation knows the contrary . if exclusion , or no exclusion , be to determine the true from the false church of england men , as pag. . the proposition will be doubly false ; for there are men that were not for exclusion , that were not members of the church of england , and there are members of the church of england , that were for the exclusion . and to this charge in the reply and the defence , he gives no answer , but anger , which for a man to avoid , when the question lies upon it , & that grounded upon matter of fact , shows his fear of success , and that , the weakness of his cause . but since the dissenters by whole-sale are to bear the blame , i do affirm the excluders were conformists , and are yet communicants of your church , and the greatest part of them upon education and constant practice too . and that this is truth , and no slander , read the list , and 't is a demonstration . nay , i challenge the gentleman to name six persons of all the excluders , that dissent from the established church . nor is this of yesterday ; for if we look back , we shall see the most celebrated bishops of our church barring the succession in the law of the th and th of q. eliz. and when that queen pleaded conscience in not assenting to a law to put our king 's great grand mother , mary queen of scots to death , the same reverend bishops undertook to remove the scruple ; yet nothing but , away with those disloyal dissenters . own them then ingenuously , that they are members of your own church , and that their defection began within your selves , and that , for all your invectives , and turning them over now to the dissenters , because your are ashamed of them , they are in communion with you still , and daily conformists to the worship , and as such , are admitted to the accustomed rites and priviledges of your church . page . to charge all addresses and the oxford parliament to the account of dissenters , is not wise , any more than true , for it is to give the greater numbers to the dissenting party , since it is plain , how unequal they were that fell in with that excluding humor in the kingdom . but this is not all he has said , to prevent the legislative goodness to diss●nters . they must not have liberty , lest it be charged upon the government as a design to bring in popery and arbitrary power . i remember a story of harry martin , that when cromwell came to dissolve the rump , to justifie his action , among other things , he accused some of their members of an evil life , saying , here sits a drunkard , and there ( pointing to him ) sits an whore-master ; harry martin sitting between two sober grave men , jogg'd them , saying , which of you two does he mean ? the dissenters must be blam'd of those that are guilty . 't is hard to suffer for faults , and be chid of them that did them . no , 't was the gentlemen of that communion that impeach'd the prerogative , in the declaration of indulgence , and set the political capacity of the king in opposition to his national , and to make their business more popular , bestow'd that comment upon it , of a design in the court to let in popery and arbitrary government . upon the whole matter , 't is not unworthy of some thought , that this way of making whigs and fanaticks of all , that in every point come not up to a hair , though otherwise men of virtue , piety , wisdom , and perfectly church-men , may prove of ill consequence : for it narrows , where it is wisdom to enlarge , and greatens , where prudence enclines to lessen , i mean the credit of number . this makes me the more admire one expression , viz pag. . that the members of the church of england have turn'd over to the dissenters all the excluders , and lay'd the bill of exclusion at their doors , and wash'd her hands of them , as pilot did of our saviours blood , where , besides the false politicks of making so many thousand d●ss●nters in two lines , and that without all hope of recovery , he unhappily makes the church of england men cowardly pilot , and the excluders to answer the place of our blessed saviour . a pretty allusion to credit the church , and disgrace excluders . this is not the happiest part of his apology . but i would have hoped that a man who shows not to want a share of wit and expression , should be so disingenious as from the author of the defensive sheet , saying , take off the thing that pinches , and see then whether the church men or the fanaticks and catholicks will be most governable . to infer , pers●cute the church men , bestow the bishopricks and church revenues amongst the catholicks and phanaticks , and see which will be the best qualifi●d , and most dutiful subjects . a rare expedient . may i not better say , a rare consequence ? as if easing dissenters , and not wringing their backs , were stripping the church , and cloathing diss●nters in velvit , then which , nothing less was thought of . this incharity and injustice ruin all . such men cannot hope to escape the judgment of god , that are so injurious in their judgment to men . but he is angry with his grace , the d. of buckingham for leading the dance , and if a dance it must be , it is an old country one , at which he has been excellent of long time , and who would not dance to such a fidler ? but how transubstantiation comes to be beholding to the duke , whose conclusion excludes it utterly , of which a boy of seven years old is judge , let the gentleman consider once more . however , his grace may happen to ask this gentleman once in his life , if he be the man that charges him with leading the dance to men of no honour , no conscience , no honesty , and that advocates a cause of so much treason and impiety , as is laid to the charge of liberty of conscience . to the dissenters objection , pag. . he says , in their name , that all the ill things they have done , is because there are laws made against them , and that they would be quiet , if they might have their liberty ; and tells us , that their ill and disloyal practices in queen elizabeth's time , drew the first law upon them , and that was the th of the queen . but that is no answer to the objection , for they were made dangerous , as conventicles are now , by suspition and prevention , not that they did any ill thing deserving that severity ; but church refractoriness , bishop whitgist was pleased to translate into sedition : the old way , indeed , my lord , they are enemies to caesar , and exalters of another king , one jesus . so that 't is begging the question , to ground this law on the seditious practices of the dissenters ; and we are to learn when any of our time had a toleration to abuse , or when any such thing was in beeing , to charge our political or ecclesiastical calamities upon . i only pray to be informed , i say , when , where and how ? for i am intirely of his mind , pag. . that wise men will try as few conclusions in government ( if settled ) as is possible ; and yet when only one conclusion is left to be tryed , and that so necessarily prayed and prest , methinks 't is not unwise to make the experiment , when mercy , goodness and charity are on that side . but alas ! the author of this apology is not contented to fasten upon an occasion given , and improve it with all the aggravation of an unkind nature , but turns fortune-teller , and reads us a lecture by the slying of his jack-daw , of our own insides & future devices : a down-right divination and enthusiasm , as if he had been on an errand to delphos . hear him , pag. . that we were all thunder-struck , dreaded a prince we had offended , and that had so much diligence and courage to repay us , and therefore turned trimers , went to church , took the sacrament , gave up the game , set up for loyal : and that in this melancholly frame , it was his grace found us when he publisht his ess●y , and that no meaner person durst do it , though enough follow him . now the first part of the story is false , and the last silly and saucy as well as untrue . i see dissenters vertues ( as few as they are ) must be their vices for a need : their quietness is from the stroke of guilt , and their conformity only hypocrisie for safety : they have a fine time of it , and are mightily oblig'd to this gentleman's goodness and justice , much good may it do'um . but the duke out of measure is made brave in a bad cause , a ca●aline at least , or if you will , a cor●h , that is leading them back to egypt again : a mighty charge ; and but that it is not true , 't were an impeachable business ; and because it is not , let this gentleman take heed of a scandalum magnatum . but this cry for liberty here , is to break out with argile's plot in scotland . this is shrewdly hit . politick every bit of it i thought argile's presbyterians and liberty had not agreed so well together : i have heard such folks hold as ill an opinion of it , as this gentleman , for his ears . but bes●des all this , he tells us , our time is short , we must in pure dispair do fears ; and what are they but to maul and disgrace the church party at any rate ? but if they will give us as good quarter as they have received from the three or four pamphlets for liberty , i dare make the bargain , that the dissenters shall look no farther after bishopricks , nor church livings , and i would to god it might rest there . what a stir is here that men pray to be quiet ? o! but we know you won't be quiet , and therefore you shan't be quiet : there is nothing so idle , as being very cunning , and making every thing a plot. so tacitus makes tiberius to have a deep one , in going to the house of office : to be sure it was a necessary one . his conclusion is hard upon us that advocates the cause of tender consciences , saying , we are men of no honour , no conscience , nor honesty , but leaves the proof to be understood . certainly he cannot have too much of those good qualities , that advocates tertullus like , against tender consciences , and to give him his due , he is sensible of it ; for he presently acknowledges his sharpness , but excuses it with the baseness of those that dare affirm the excluders were church of england men. but for all that , it falls out to be true , and nothing but truth pinches any body . he concludes in defence of the church of england's severity , and says , tell me how christ can be head of opposite bodies ? but what then ? must you persecute where your head forbids it ? though he is not head of opposite bodies , he does not destroy the bodies of which he is not head. but what does this man think of an opposite head and body , the head of one mind , and the body of another ? an head and no member . riddle me , riddle me , what 's this ? he bids us , consider this following place of scripture , and bless the world with a comment , rev. . . notwithstanding i have a few things against thee , because thou sufferest ( or toleratest ) that woman jezabel , which calleth her self a prophetess , ( a godly woman ) to teach and seduce my servants to commit fornication , and to eat things sacrificed to idols . now says he , i would fain know how long ●oleration has been a christian virtue , rev. . by this never trust me , one would think him a divine , every inch of him , that can so cleaverly take not tolerating in communion , for not tolerating out of communion . but is this the dissenters case ? have they askt for the churches , or do they usurp the pulpits ? or out of your communion either , do they teach the use of fornication , and idolatrous food ? what stuff is this for a man of some wit and words ? besides , jezabel was a persecutor , and believed a whore , which , with all the manners i have , i would fain know to whose church it is the most part of our english jezabels go ? for his query , how long toleration has been a christian virtue ? 't is plain , ever since christ came , that bid the tares should grow with the wheat till the harvest , which his own blessed comment says , is the end of the world , where i should be glad to meet this gentleman , upon my word . till then , i would fain have him and his friends let us alone , and then do their worst . luke , , . they said , lord , wilt thou that we command that fire come down from heaven , and consume them , even as elias did ? but jesus turned about , and rebuked them , and said , ye know not what spirit ye are of : for the son of man is not come to destroy mens lives , but to save them . an exposition upon which , because the question is perfectly in the text , is humbly begg'd , of his to command with liberty of conscience . finis notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e see sir sim. dew . pag. . & . a resolution of two cases of conscience in two discourses : the first, of the lawfulness of compliance with all the ceremonies of the church of england : the second, of the necessity of the use of common-prayer in publick. francklin, john, d. . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing f estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a resolution of two cases of conscience in two discourses : the first, of the lawfulness of compliance with all the ceremonies of the church of england : the second, of the necessity of the use of common-prayer in publick. francklin, john, d. . [ ], p. printed for walter kettilby ..., london : . attributed by john francklin. cf. halkett & laing ( nd ed.) reproduction of original in the university of illinois (urbana-champaign campus). library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng church of england -- liturgy. dissenters, religious -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - john latta sampled and proofread - john latta text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a resolution of two cases of conscience , in two discourses . the first , of the lawfulness of compliance with all the ceremonies of the church of england . the second , of the necessity of the use of common-prayer in publick . london , printed for walter kettilby , at the bishop's head in st. paul's church-yard , . the bookseller to the reader . these two following tracts were sent up hither to be printed , by a learned friend of the acute , and judicious authour , who lately preached them to a country-cure . they have been perused by competent judges , who think them very worthy to accompany the other little treatises , which have been lately published in great charity for the better information of the dissenters , and in hopes to reconcile the ingenuous , and inquisitive among them unto the church . they are , as i am informed , short , full , solid , and clear discourses , and fit for those , who desire to reade much in little , or whose occasions will not let them spend much time in reading books . this character i have received of them , and if it may contribute to the better dispersing of them , i shall be glad , not so much upon the account of my private interest , which cannot be much advanced by so little a book , as for the publick good ; which i desire to serve in my profession , and will ever prefer before any private gain , as every good christian , and loyal subject ought to do . walter kettilby . a discourse of the lawfulness of compliance with all the ceremonies of the church of england . here it may be demanded in the first place , how indifferent actions , or actions of a middle nature betwixt moral good and evil , which are neither necessary , nor unlawfull , neither commanded nor forbidden by the word of god , and in the performance of which we can shew neither obedience nor disobedience , but are left to our discretion , can lay any obligation upon the consciences of men . answer . they may oblige the conscience upon a fourfold account ; as first . when we bind our selves with a vow to god to doe such things , to which we were not before obliged . if the thing be lawfull and indifferent in it self , we are bound to perform it , not for the things sake , but for the vows sake . for whensoever the vow is not unlawfull , the bond or tye of religion is contained in it ; and therefore that which before was free , is now by reason of the vow made due worship to god , or at least for us necessary to be done . although the subject-matter , or the thing it self vowed , be indifferent , yet the observation of that vow , doth directly belong to that honour , which by our religion we owe to god. of this nature were the vows and laws of the nazarites , of which we reade numb . . and by such a vow jephthah was entangled ; having rashly made a vow to offer unto god , whatsoever thing came out first to meet him , after his return from battel and victory , for a burnt-offering ; which proved to be his own daughter : and therefore was necessitated by his vow , though not to offer her up for a burnt-sacrifice , which was an abomination in the sight of god ; yet to doe to her so much , as he thought the law of god would permit , to shut her up , and to keep her in perpetual virginity , which the daughters of israel bewailed , judges . secondly , indifferent rites and ceremonies , are then to be observed , and oblige the conscience , when any for want of sufficient information , and instruction is fully persuaded in his conscience that they are not things indifferent , but necessary duties : this was the case of the jews , when st. paul wrote his epistles : the ceremonies commanded by moses were abolished by the death of christ ; and therefore no man was any longer bound to conform to them : yet they being otherwise strongly persuaded , it was sinfull to act against the dictates of their conscience . so rom. . . let every one be fully persuaded in his own mind : it was lawfull for a christian to esteem the jewish festivals all one with other days ; but unlawfull to profane those days which he thought holy . v. . i know and am persuaded by the lord jesus that , &c. it was an indifferent thing to eat swines flesh , or not to eat it ; yet if any man was persuaded in his conscience the eating to be unlawfull , he ought to forbear . v. . for whatsoever is not of faith , is sin . where by faith we are to understand a particular persuasion concerning things about which we are exercised ; as that it was lawfull to eat , or unlawfull to eat such or such meats ; not true saving faith , by which we become christians , and lay hold on our saviour for life and salvation , and which also the believing jews , mispersuaded in some such particulars , as i have already mentioned , were endued with . thirdly , the third case is of evident and manifest scandal ; that is , when the observation , or not observation of things indifferent , doth manifestly endanger the faith of weak christians , and harden others in their unbelief . see cor. . , . cor. . , , . and indeed one great design of the apostle st. paul was to persuade the strong christians , not to put a stumbling block before the weak jews , who still adhered to mosaical ceremonies . so also rom. . , , , , , , . such was the condition of the believing jews , that though they embraced the christian faith , yet they supposed that our saviour came not to abolish ceremonies , but onely to reveal a farther light ; and that the gospel was not to terminate , or give a period to the law of moses , but onely that it was a superstructure upon the foundation of moses and the prophets : and therefore they thought , that they might as well part with their christianity , as with their ancient rites and customs . so that the total neglect of them by the faithfull among the gentiles , deterred the unbelieving jews from embracing the gospel ; and tempted almost those who already believed to renounce their faith. and therefore the apostle doth exhort the believing gentiles , to abate their liberty , and not to endanger the faith , and salvation of so many souls . fourthly , although indifferent rites do not oblige us to their observation directly of themselves , or of their own account , yet our consciences are obliged to the observation of them indirectly and by consequence when they are commanded and enjoined by the supreme civil magistrate , and our sovereign lord. and this is by virtue of that divine precept , let every soul be subject to the higher powers , which bindeth the conscience directly . the command of god to obey the king , as supreme in all lawfull things ( and such all indifferent things are ) doth oblige the conscience directly , and of it self , as all the commands of god do ; and therefore all things commanded by him , if not unlawfull , do likewise bind the conscience indirectly by virtue of the command of god. so when parents employ their children , and masters their servants about any business , the business it self doth not oblige the conscience directly , because not commanded by god ; but it doth indirectly and by consequence , by virtue of the command of god to honour parents , and obey our masters in all things . and that the magistrate may impose in religion things lawfull in themselves will appear ; because if he think the imposition of them expedient some ways or other , as for the peace , and quietness , or the uniformity , and the settlement of the people , whom he governs , and the keeping of them from distractions , and innovations , &c. he may certainly impose them , because he doeth it as a good and expedient thing . and what a private man may doe by himself in things lawfull , if he think the use of them to be expedient for his better service of god ; that also may the magistrate impose for uniformity on his subjects . otherwise i suppose that no prince would impose ceremonies on his people against their will , merely because they are indifferent things , unless he thought them also some way fit and expedient . now although ecclesiastical persons may be thought the fittest judges , of what ceremonies are most convenient for the church , yet in imposing them they ought to have regard to the supreme magistrate , and not to act without , much less against his consent . under the old testament the legal ministery , which consisted in ceremonies , and sacrifices , was not ordered by the hand of aaron the high-priest , but by the hand of moses who was king in jeshurun , deut. . . and after him david , solomon , asa , jehosaphat , ezekiah , josiah kings of israel , and judah , instituted the tabernacle and temple service , ordered and regulated several things in which they varied from the law of moses , chron. . . lev. . , . erected altars , and dedicated them to the lord , destroyed idolatry , reformed abuses in the worship of god ; setled both the standing worship of god , with occasional thanksgivings , and humiliations . the like power have christian kings and emperours had since christ , as might be made evident and apparent by history . and therefore it is an article of the church of england , which likewise all do acknowledge in the oaths of allegiance and supremacy , that the king's majesty within his dominions and countries is in all causes , and over all persons , as well ecclesiastical as civil , next under god supreme moderatour , and governour . and therefore it is by his authority that ecclesiastical canons are made , and enacted laws of the nation ; without which men of differing judgments might excommunicate each other but to little purpose . i shall now in the next place briefly compare these obligations together , which many times cross and contradict each other . the obligation then to observe indifferent ceremonies which ariseth from the command of superiour powers is generally greater than any which ariseth upon other accounts . and here first as to vows and covenants , we have the case stated between father and child , husband and wife , numb . . and the same is the reason between princes and subjects : for no man ought to bind himself with a vow , unless in such cases which god and his superiours have left to his liberty . otherwise children , servants and subjects might by making vows shake off all obedience to parents , masters and princes . whensoever therefore he knows the will of the prince , or the laws of the land to be contrary to the intention of the vow , the vow is unlawfull ; and if his will be unknown , it ought to be made conditionally , and be of no longer force than it is permitted by the superiours . for as if there should be a contrary command of god , it would immediately take off the obligation to the vow , and make it null and void ; so also a contradictory command of parents , masters , princes , to which last we ought to be obedient , and not to resist upon pain of damnation , doth also , though not immediately , yet consequentially by virtue of the divine precept concerning subjection , cause it to cease . it being not to be supposed in lawfull vows and oaths , that they are against the will of god or of superiour powers , whom by our oaths we are bound to obey . secondly , as to an erring and doubtfull conscience ; 't is true that if a man through an erroneous judgment , which is by reason of education or otherways invincibly such , be fully persuaded that to be unlawfull which is in it self lawfull , although the commands of superiours lay an obligation , yet the greater sin is to act against conscience . so rom. . . whatsoever is not of faith is sin ; and the apostle adds , that he that eateth and doubteth is damned ; though not always in the world to come , yet he is condemned in his own conscience ; which how great a punishment it is we may know by divers examples . but if there be onely small inconsiderable scruples , or arguments , which draw the mind equally , so that the judgment is rendered uncertain , but cannot peremptorily determine the thing to be absolutely unlawfull , the safest way is to obey the command , and the duty we owe to the superiour powers ought to turn the scales : disobedience being one of the greatest sins , and obedience a necessary duty ; and therefore ought not to be neglected , for trivial scruples and objections , but upon very considerable and weighty reasons . thirdly , as for case of scandal ; we must first discharge our duty to our sovereign , and prefer obedience to the king before satisfaction of fellow-subjects . and to let pass that usual argument which is brought , that obedience to higher powers is an act of justice , it being their due right given to them from god the king of kings ; but the condescention to the infirmities of a weak brother is an act onely of charity , and acts of charity must give place to acts of justice onely ; nay , charity supposeth that we rob not others of their dues : but in this case of obedience there is a concurrence both of justice and charity , which surely should be of more prevalent obligation than a single one , and that the weaker too ; to let this pass ; i say that the case is far different from what it was when the apostle st. paul wrote his epistles , for then their faith was so much endangered , that they could not tell well which sooner to part with , their faith in christ , or mosaical ceremonies . but the dissenters faith now-a-days is not so much endangered , but they seem to be the more confirmed and obstinate in their resolutions , and affirm themselves almost to be the onely christians . but forasmuch as this point hath been vehemently insisted on , by several separatists , who having first made others to be scandalized at the ceremonies and orders of our church ; and then pretend they cannot conform for fear of destroying the souls of their weak brethren , whose ruine they accuse our church to endeavour ; i shall retort the argument on themselves , and affirm in the next place , that disobedience to the higher powers is it self the greatest scandal to christian religion , and endangereth the salvation of most souls . it was by this jealousie , rashly and without ground taken up ; viz. that christ and christian religion , were an enemy to government , that the devil hath in all ages , stirred up men to persecute the church ; upon this pretence our blessed saviour , the most innocent person , who lived upon earth , who payed tribute to caesar with the expence of a miracle , was yet condemned and executed : if thou let him go , thou art not caesar's friend , said the jews to pilate . it was on this account that the apostles endured bonds , and imprisonments , as men that would turn the world upside down . it was upon this pretence that the primitive christians for above years together , were oppressed with the rage of heathen emperours , because thought disturbers of the publick peace . so we see how the very pretence of indisposing men for subjection , which notwithstanding the apostles by their doctrine , and the primitive christians by their example clearly resured , is apt to bring religion into disesteem , and render it odious . but these disobeyed onely where god's law was contrary to the emperour 's , and when they could not obey they patiently suffered . but if we will stand out against our king in those things , which god requires not of us , if we will disobey our sovereign , and be never the more obedient to god , if every scruple be an excuse from subjection and obedience ; these pretences will be turned into realities , and we shall be left without excuse , if we will have no regard to the laws of men , which are the bond of humane society , though no ways hindered by the fear of the laws of god. if tumults and insurrections shall be the appendixes of every command we find not expresly and in so many words contained in the word of god ; we may fear that the frequent calamities which will attend men on this account , may cause , to say no worse , a great decay of christian religion . let us a little consider what the effects of mens contumacy and opposition of decent ceremonies established by law , by which our late wars were begun , maintained and carried on in england , hath been in our own nation . how much religion hath been established and propagated , by stumbling at straws and leaping over blocks , by loathing indifferent ceremonies , when the great duties of holiness and righteousness required conformity ? hath not this been the introduction of atheism and irreligion , the greatest distemper among us ? hath not this been the original of all sects and schisms ? hath it not nourished those manifold errours and heresies , which caused profane persons to sit down in the seat of the scorners ? and therefore as we tender the honour of our religion , and would vindicate it from being an enemy to government , and destructive to humane society preserved by government , unless we would drive the same design with the devil , the common enemy of mankind , and especially of christians , to bring an universal scandal on our profession , and render it odious to mankind ; we must not be refractary or disobedient to humane laws , when the laws of god permit us to obey them , and give an eedless occasion of offence to those , whom god hath placed in authority over us . and therefore in this case , though ecclesiastical persons are the best judges of what ought to be introduced into the church , yet if there should arise a dissention , for the avoiding scandal , the fathers of the church ought to give place to the father of their country . st. paul teacheth us , cor. . , . that unto the jews he became as a jew , that he might gain the jews ; to them under the law , as under the law ; to them without the law , as , &c. to the weak , as weak , to all men all things , that he might by all means save some . what think you he would have done , nay , what would he not have done , if the emperours by his condescensions should have become christians , by which means a free passage to the gospel would be laid open throughout the whole world ? would he that so severely injoined obedience to the higher powers on pain of damnation , and that so readily and willingly complied with all sorts of men for the salvation of their souls , have scrupled a few indifferent ceremonies , whereby governours and magistrates might be alienated from the love of christianity ? he had the same reason to comply with these , as with all other sorts of people for their good . and thus these things being premised , i shall come to shew the lawfulness of compliance with all the ceremonies of the church of england ; and this i shall doe by one general and comprehensive argument . if then the jewish ceremonies commanded in the levitical law , were indifferent , and might lawfully be observed , after the death , resurrection and ascension of our saviour , who put a period unto them , even by those who knew the levitical law abolished at that time ; much more are the ceremonies of the church of england indifferent , and may be lawfully used ; but the jewish ceremonies , &c. and therefore , &c. of these propositions in order ; now the sequel or consequence will evidently appear , if we compare theirs and ours together . 't is true indeed , the jewish ceremonies had their institution , and signification given unto them at first immediately from god himself . and the jews still thought that this obligation from god remained on them . but however , they were instituted onely for a certain time , till christ should come in the flesh , and by oblation of himself once , purchase the remission of our sins . and then their signification together with the obligation to observe and perform them utterly perished , so far forth as it was from god. for this was the end of the institution of the sacrifices , and most of the ceremonies , to signify christ to come , and the offering him up as a sacrifice for us all , heb. . , . and therefore the continuation of them afterwards was not from divine authority , but depended on the ignorance of the jews , and prudence of the apostles ; the jews were zealous of the law , and the apostles were willing to permit it , as long as they embraced christianity . but god's institution and injunction being then expired , they were for the time they were afterwards used , as much humane and depending on the will of man , as our ceremonies are now ; and so in this case there is an equality ; and it is all one to think that to be appointed by god , which is not appointed by him , and to know it to be appointed by god's vicegerent . but if we will consider other circumstances , we shall find , that those which attended the jewish ceremonies , were very dangerous , and had such tendency to evil , which ours are exempted from . for first , they might well be accounted vain , and as the passover sacrifices for sin unreasonable , christ being already offered . secondly , it might seem to be a mocking of god , and abusing his institution , to use ceremonies signifying christ to come , who was then ascended into heaven , and which represented his merits as future , when they were already consummated . thirdly , the use of them was joined in most jews , with this erroneous opinion , that they were necessary parts of god's worship . see rom. . fourthly , our ceremonies signify onely ex parte hominis , or on the part of man ; they either signify our duty , and what we are , or serve to put us in mind of what we should be ; but the jewish ceremonies did signify not onely ex parte hominis , but ex parte dei too ; they were used , not onely as signs to put us in mind of our obedience to god , but as means of conveying divine benediction upon us ; they were used not onely as mere ceremonies , but as sacraments too , and as proper parts of divine worship , and as seals of the covenant , as circumcision and the passover . fifthly , the observing of them among the jews by the allowance of the apostles might endanger , as indeed it did , the intrusion of them on the gentiles . and it being impossible for the gentiles to observe all the ceremonial law of moses , and come up all of them to jerusalem , to keep the passover , and offer sacrifice , it might cause them utterly to reject the gospel , which was incumbred with such impossible observations . and here , by the way , i suppose that christ came not onely to abolish the jewish ceremonies , but also to leave all people to the indifferent use of such ceremonies , which were consistent with the service of god , and agreeable to their own country and temper ; which is a true kind of liberty . sixthly , it might stir up the jews to seek righteousness , and justification by them . of how dangerous consequence the observation of these ceremonies was , may be gathered out of the epistle to the galatians . the main design of the apostle in that whole epistle is to reclaim the galatians from adhering to mosaical ceremonies , by putting them in mind of the gospel of christ , gal. . , . he blameth them for observing the jewish festivals , to which the jews living among them persuaded them ; which were however the most inconsiderable ceremonies . and in gal. . , . behold i : paul testify unto you , &c. that is , if those who were circumcised looked on circumcision , as that to which they were bound by the law of moses ; then they must observe the whole law , for à quatenus ad de omni valet consequentia . and also if they stood upon that , as a work of the law by which they should be justified , then christ would profit them nothing , they being debtours to doe the whole law , and therefore would have no benefit by the death of christ . so that you see , that though these ceremonies , considered absolutely in themselves , were indifferent , yet by reason of some circumstances , which might be annexed to them , they were very perilous , and of dangerous consequence . wherefore as some indifferent actions ( though absolutely in their own nature all may be said to be equally indifferent ) by reason of good circumstances usually attending them , are of good report , as tilling the ground , and the like ; and some , by reason of evil circumstances usually annexed to them , are of ill report , as performing the office of an hangman , or an executioner , which though lawfull , is yet accounted infamous : so if we compare the ceremonies of the church of england with the levitical ceremonies , as used after the ascension of our saviour , and promulgation of the gospel by the apostles , we may say that ours are as the former , theirs as the latter . some indeed excuse the jewish ceremonies in that they being instituted by god at first , ought to have a decent sepulture ; that the jews being persuaded of their necessity , must be tolerated , and born with in their opinion . but these excuses are nothing pertinent to the business in hand ; god's institution when expired was extrinsecal , and they were no longer to be observed by his appointment , being abolished by the death of christ , col. . . now , if a master appoint business for so long time , and no longer , if his servant continue in it afterwards , what he doeth , is of his own will , and he may be punished for it . and that the jews must be born with , i do not deny ; but however , this proveth not but that the observation of the mosaical ceremonies for that time was of very dangerous consequence . and though ignorance might excuse the generality of the converted jews , yet it could not excuse the apostles and elders , who knew them to be abolished by the death of christ . neither is the question whether the jewish ceremonies ought to have a decent scpulture , or no , but whether such ceremonies of so dangerous consequence , and so highly bordering on unlawfulness , might not however be born with upon other more important causes ? so much of the first proposition , or demonstration of the sequel ; by which it is manifest , that if the jewish ceremonies , which signified christ to come , who was already come , and did abolish them by his death , which were vain repetitions of sacrifices for sin , christ being already offered up for all , which were used as sacraments , looked on as necessary parts of divine worship , were thought significant not onely on our part , but god's too ; whose observation among the jews did endanger their intrusion upon the gentiles ; for whom it was utterly impossible to observe them all ; nay , whose observation did tend to confirm the jews in seeking righteousness by the works of the law ; did infect many gentiles , as the galatians with the same errour , insomuch that christ was like to profit them nothing , and their faith to be in vain ; if these ceremonies might at any time under such circumstances be lawfully used ; certainly much more the ceremonies of the church of england , which are not liable to such inconveniences , and many of which have been derived down unto us from the primitive christians . so i come now to prove the second proposition or assumption ; but these jewish ceremonies were sometimes lawfully used even by those who assuredly knew them to be abolished by the death of christ ▪ i shall not here instance in the generality of the converted jews , especially those who lived in judea , who observed them all , because they might not at that time , and so soon , be fully instructed , nor yet till the temple it self was destroyed ; nor yet understand the extent of christian liberty . but i shall prove my assertion , as by the other apostles , so also by the doctrine of st. paul and his example , conformable to his precepts , who knew the obligation to all these things to be abolished by the death of christ , and did among the gentiles , to whom their observation must needs prove an intolerable yoke and burthen , most oppose them . as for the apostles , we see their conformity , acts . . and st. paul tells us how he reproved st. peter for being carried away with dissimulation among the gentiles , as we reade , gal. . and as for st. paul himself , we may see his precepts , rom. . , , , , , , . wherein he exhorteth the strong among the gentiles , not to offend their brethren the jews by their overmuch freedom . secondly , let us take notice of his glorying as it were in his compliance and conformity with all sorts of men for their salvation in these indifferent ceremonies , cor. . , , , , . where we may note , that as long as the gospel is propagated , we need not stand upon indifferences ; the apostle did in these matters observe that rule , dum fueris romoe romano vivito more , si fueris alibi vivito sicut ibi . now how the apostle did put his doctrine of compliance and conformity in practice , will be seen by these particular instances . first , by his circumcising timothy , acts . , , . where we find that ceremony which the apostle declared so much against in his epistle to the galatians , telling them , that if they were circumcised christ should profit them nothing ; gal. . . was now by him applied to timothy notwithstanding . that he might not give offence to the jews , he took and circumcised him . the fault was not then in the materiality of the action , which was lawfull enough in it self , but in the formality of the application among the galatians . and therefore circumcision certainly was not unlawfull in it self , though it was unlawfull to put any confidence in it , as a work of the law , which the galatians did . for otherwise paul would never have circumcised timothy . and so in like manner , if any one should put any trust and confidence , or think there is any merit , or efficacy in the sign of the cross , if he should adore and worship it , as his god , he might well be counted an idolater ; but as long as it is used , as an indifferent ceremony , according to the directions of the church of england , none ought to be offended . for it was borrowed from the primitive christians , who gloried in the sign of the cross . but we have yet an higher example of conformity and compliance in the apostle , which he did not out of his single judgment , but with the advice of an assembly of apostles and elders . as in the acts , . , , , , , , , . where we see , that though the elders received with much joy the news concerning the conversion of the gentiles to the faith , yet considering how many jews there were who believed , and yet were also zealous for the law of moses , and that they were offended with paul for preaching among the gentiles against moses and his ceremonial law , and that therefore his person would not be acceptable to them ; they advised him by all means to shew his compliance with them in his conformity to their rites and ceremonies , as doth there appear . now v. . we find the apostle following and obeying their counsel ; he did not onely comply with them in shewing reverence to the temple , observing rites about vows and purification ; but likewise in their offerings and typical oblations . certainly , should any men doe half so much now , as st. paul did then , some furious zealots , who place their religion as much in opposing ceremonies , as the jews did in observing them , would cry out against him as they did against st. paul on another occasion , acts . . away with such a fellow from the earth ; for it is not fit he should live . and here , farther , we cannot imagine that this was ill done by the apople , because he was never guilty of sinfull compliance in the greatest danger , and because it was agreeable to his precepts , and course of life all along , and because this counsel proceeded from the joint consent of the apostles and elders , in whose assemblies the holy ghost was always present . wherefore it followeth that the jewish ceremonies , liable to so many exceptions , were not however so odious and sinfull absolutely considered , but that , as occasion required , they might be observed , and lawfully used , even by those who knew them abolished by the death of christ . and therefore surely the ceremonies of the church of england , which are harmless and innocent , if not pious ; which are as no-ways burthensome in themselves , so instituted onely for decency and uniformity , ought to be observed . for by thus doing faction and schism will be avoided , brotherly love maintaintained , peace and unity , the glory of our profession , preserved . of the necessity of the use of common-prayer in publick . the apostle st. paul lays down two rules to guide our prayers by ; cor. . . what is it then ? i will pray with the spirit , and i will pray with the understanding also ; i will sing with the spirit , and i will sing with the understanding also . and in the . and . verses presseth the praying with the understanding also ; because otherwise , he that occupieth the place of the unlearned could not say amen at his giving of thanks , seeing he understood not what was said ; and was not at all edified thereby . and v. . he tells us , that he had rather spake five words with understanding , that the church might be edified , than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue . it seems the corinthians did much affect praying with the spirit , as they thought it to be ; though they regarded not the understandings and edification of their hearers . i wish the like may not be said of many among our selves , who cry up extemporary praying for the onely praying with the spirit , and condemning common-prayer as carnal and formal ; but if we will examine these two sorts of prayers , with the rules laid down by the apostle , we shall find that common-prayer , or forms of prayer , are every way as consistent with praying by the spirit , and are best for edification , and the understanding of the hearers . 't is true , our understandings and inventions too , both of speaker and people , ought to be under the guidance , directions , and assistence of the spirit ; as well as our affections ; the former being the nobler , and the latter the more ignoble , and lower faculties of the soul. and therefore as to praying with the spirit , it 's requisite that these too be sanctified , that we may clearly discerne , apprehend , and find out those truths which god hath revealed , and those sins which are apt to beset us , and those mercies we stand in need of . but however , it 's not to be expected that in all our prayers the spirit should help our inventions in finding out new matter , much less new words . for the sanctification of the understanding doth not consist in these . we ought to judge the quite contrary ; for the same judgments we pray against , the same mercies we pray for in one prayer , we must pray for often ; and though god's spirit may discover more and more our sinfulness to us , yet the same sinfulness on one hand , and grace on the other , which afford matter for prayer now , may afford us matter to our lives end . as for particular occasions , they have their particular prayers . but he is in a very sad and strange condition , that when he comes to pray to almighty god , knows nothing at all before-hand what he should pray for , nor what he should pray a-against , but expects that the spirit should furnish him with new matter for his prayer , or else he will be at a loss . for 't is to be supposed , that we are acquainted with our own wants before-hand ; and the sense of our misery and wretchedness in our selves , is usually the first motive and inducement to prayer . and therefore the assistence of the spirit , and operation on the understanding , and invention , is not to furnish us with new matter , and words at prayers ; but in keeping alive a serious and constant apprehension of our condition , which should remain with us , not onely in times of our devotion , but also be a continual guide throughout the course of our life . he is to be accounted rather an infidel , heathen or unbeliever , than a true christian , a man altogether unacquainted with his spiritual estate , and condition , that knows no attributes of god to be celebrated , no sins he is guilty of , no judgments he is afraid of , no graces in which he is deficient , no mercies he stands in need of ; but all of these are the matter of prayer , and all of these , every one that knows any thing of christianity , must be in some measure acquainted with before he performs the duty of prayer . the knowledge of them being not onely requisite to that duty , but necessary to constitute , and denominate him a christian . and though some may think they have new discoveries in time of prayer , which i shall not now dispute of what nature they are , yet the general ground and foundation of their prayer , is no new-invented matter , but such which before-hand they must be acquainted with : and so invention of new matter , is not requisite to the spiritual performance of the duty . and as for new words , to think the change of these so needfull , would be to place the excellency of this divine duty in a tone ; and to turn this spiritual into formal and lip-service ; besides , if the spirit should dictate every new word to us , all these prayers might pass for canonical , and be accounted the word of god indeed . and yet most people through their ignorance have placed the spiritual performance of this duty in invention of new matter and words ; which is quite otherwise , and consists in the sanctification of the whole man , as to body , soul , and spirit : in the sanctification of the understanding , memory , will , and affections by the spirit of god. and yet farther , that we may pray with the spirit , using a form of words , may appear from that prayer which christ taught his disciples , luke . . when ye pray , say thus : which was spoken in answer to the desire of one of christ's disciples to teach them to pray . secondly , that in singing of psalms , we sing with the spirit ; and yet almost all the psalms are petitions or thanksgivings to god ; that is also , prayers which comprehend both petitions and thanksgivings . and the apostle joineth both together , praying with the spirit , and singing with the spirit . no sect yet however have been so distracted as to venture on singing extempore . and it is the practice of those who condemn forms of prayer , to use notwithstanding psalms , which although they owe their matter to divine inspiration , yet their composition afterwards to the art of man. and very good reason , for if they undertook to sing extempore , every body would presently perceive that they were out of tune , or rather never in it ; and that their songs were as void of rhime as reason . and therefore , if verses and metre , though composed forms by humane invention , are fit for , and consistent with the spiritual elevation of our hearts to god by way of thanksgiving , why is not prose in elevation of our hearts by way of petition ; not to say , that some psalms are perfect petitions ; as the psalm . thirdly , i would willingly be resolved by those who are altogether for extempore-praying ministers , because those ministers pray by the spirit , whether they themselves , when they hear them , pray with the spirit or no. and i suppose that they have a better esteem of themselves than to think otherwise , or to deny that they pray with the spirit . praying by , or with the spirit , as it respects the spiritual performance of the duty , is actually incumbent on the people , as well as the minister . but yet they themselves have no extemporary expressions , nor will be allowed to have extemporary enlargements of heart . their spirits are bound up by the spirit of their minister , who , if they should not diligently heed his words , and give their full assent and consent , and go along with him in every sentence , would doubtless accuse them of negligence , profaneness , or hypocrisie ; because they do not mind the ordinances of the lord , that is , that prayer which he dictates to them , and tieth up their spirits and thoughts , that they keep close to it without wandring . should any of his congregation pretend that god had put holy thoughts into his heart , that he could not attend to all that he said , this pretence would be so far from being made a note of the spirit , that it would be thought some diabolical suggestion , which withdrew his heart from giving attention to his prayer . so this people by the same breath they cry up their minister , condemn themselves . for if it be legal and carnal to be tied to a form of sound works , which others have composed for us , without enlargements of our own ; if it be carnal , not to make use of our own parts and inventions , in offering up our petitions ; if it be carnal to have our spirits bound up , limited , and confined by words which others have dictated to us , then are all the congregation carnal , no spiritual person , not onely in respect of office , but also of real qualifications , beside the minister , who is their mouth and spokesman ; for , dare any of his hearers pretend to other revelations ? are not their spirits confined to his spirit , words , and sentences ? for enlargement of matter is denied , onely that of affections in admiration of his matter allowed . deviations from it , or digressions , would be a note of profaneness and irreligion , the sowing of tares among the wheat . but if their ministers were not partial , they should , by their own principle , allow every member of their congregation , that liberty at the same time , which they challenge to themselves ; leave every man to his particular enlargement , and not confine them to his own prayer , lest the spirit be stinted in his brethren , who may have at the same time several motions , raptures , and illuminations : much like the corinthian church : cor. . . how is it , brethren ? when ye come together , every man hath a psalm , hath a tongue , hath a doctrine , hath a revelation , hath an interpretation . but seeing we must join in prayer , or else the congregation be left distracted , it followeth even hence , that praying with the spirit consists not in new invention of matter and words . i now come to consider the second qualification of publick prayer , by which all our spiritual gifts in their use and exercise ought to be directed and regulated , that is , the good and edification of the hearers . this is that which the apostle , cor. . , &c. and throughout the whole chapter aims at ; that let mens pretences to the spirit be what they will , yet neither they , nor their pretences are to be regarded , if they intend not edification . the great care of the minister should be , that the people may understand him , and be profited by him . this is also farther evident from the verse , which doth explain the former ; else when thou shalt bless with the spirit , how shall he that occupieth the room of the unlearned say amen at thy giving of thanks , seeing he understandeth not what thou sayest . this is also evident from the protestation of st. paul in the . v. to speak five intelligible words in the church , than a multitude unintelligible . this is also evident out of the precedent verses ; the design of the apostle being , that by plain preaching and praying , they should edifie the church of god. so v. . so likewise ye , except ye utter by the tongue , words easie to be understood , how shall it be known what is spoken ? for ye shall speak into the air . now that forms of prayer , as they are composed , may best be understood , by all sorts of people , is so evident , that it needs no demonstration . 't is true , men may , if they please , compose such forms , which are unintelligible , as the popish prayers , which are in an unknown tongue , and not understood by the generality ; or we may compose such intricate forms in our own tongue , which few can understand . but whatsoever qualification is desired for clearness of understanding , may better be done in a set form , which is made upon mature deliberation , than in extempore prayers , which are composed on a sudden , whether we respect the propriety of words , the easiness and significancy of the phrases , the plainness of the style , the distinction of the sentences , and the methodical disposition of the whole . and besides , set forms publickly and constantly read in the church , have this advantage , that though some expressions should not be very clear in themselves , yet long use , whereby people become acquainted with them , will render them intelligible . but there are but few that can speak on a sudden so pertinently and clearly to any business , as they can upon mature deliberation . and in this case , as set forms are likely to go beyond unstudied prayers , so those allowed and composed by the fathers of the church , are likely to excel the compositions of any single person . and if we seriously consider the composition of our own publick prayers , there cannot well be any better framed for perspicuity and information of the judgment , or moving the affections . the words are plain , familiar , and easie to be understood , the method is distinct and perspicuous . the prayers being digested into several collects , so that we know when we are to confess our sins , when to give thanks , when to pray for grace , and when for peace , and when for the king and state , &c. and , qui bene distinguit , bene docet . in the litany we have a brief and pathetical enumeration of those sins and judgments we should pray against , of those mercies spiritual and temporal we should pray for , and this in plain terms , not obscure to those who understand their mother-tongue . in the second service , we have the commands of god , the sum of what we have to doe , and throughout , a frequent intermixture of the creed , epistles , and gospels , by which in all points we may be sufficiently instructed . but now , for other prayers , which men make without premeditation , although this should be granted , that every prayer be coherent , and that every word and sentence in the prayer , might be understood by judicious auditours ; yet if we consider how hard it is , to make the generality of people to understand those truths necessary to salvation , what can we expect from them , when , besides the things themselves , their memories must be burthened with variety of expressions , and they must be more perplexed to understand variety of words , than variety of matter ; every new prayer more and more amazing their thoughts , and confounding their apprehensions , in which , notwithstanding , its requisite that every member of the congregation should join . whereas one comprehensive prayer , which should be used in all our solemn assemblies significantly expressed , might by care and study in time be understood of all . nay , though variety may delight the fancy , and draw the affections the more to the speaker , yet it will be apt to distract the thoughts , and a little disturb the affections , as to the matter , even in those who are understanding . for it 's not in hearing prayers as in hearing sermons , when we come to learn and be instructed in the will of god , where , if any thing be not truly and clearly delivered , we may leisurely consider of it , without offence to god , or ill performance of the duty ; but in prayer we are to offer up our petitions , which if not clearly exprest , and our apprehensions are not easie , so that the things delivered be no sooner heard , but understood and assented to , and pass immediately to the affections , we shall be at a loss for joining . now these things cannot be so well attained to even by those of competent understanding in extempore prayers , as in set forms : for in these latter we may understand things before-hand , and so have nothing to doe , but to join in putting up our petitions , which is the proper work of prayer . but extempore prayers are obnoxious to several impediments , which arise from the nature of the prayers themselves . for here is a necessity of an instantaneous weighing and judging the several expressions , continually following each other ; together with the application of them to the will , for the stirring up the affections to embrace them , which is not easily done , unless by those who have their faculties well exercised : as the greatest part of the auditours usually have not . for whilst the understanding is considering and estimating the truth of things , the goodness is not represented to the will , as desirable . and besides , the due understanding of a prayer , depending on the connexion of one part , and one sentence with another , there will be need of ready animadversion to take notice of it , and a competency of memory to retain it ; which qualifications , many persons , otherwise godly and intelligent , may be destitute of . and yet farther , the errours to which such prayers may be liable and obnoxious , from the defects of the person praying , are manifold ; but i shall not now instance in any . and therefore i conclude , that set forms are such which the best may join heartily with , and without which the generality cannot come to knowledge very well , and that they are the surest ground for the understanding to proceed upon . but yet there remains an objection to be resolved , which must be , if they understand themselves , the foundation both of their ministers plea , and of the peoples admiration of them ; which is thus : though the using of set forms may consist with praying with the spirit , formalitèr , yet it doth not effectivè so much as extempore prayers . it 's according to the known rules of oratory , that speeches read out of a book , are not apt to affect so much , as when retained memoriter , and delivered with a lively and gratefull pronunciation . that which seems to flow from the heart of the speaker , works the more effectually on the hearts of the hearers . now , forasmuch as god worketh by means , in our conversion and edification , which are suted and accommodated to our capacities and natures , we ought to make use of those which are most apt to excite our devotion . our inferiour faculties have need of assistence , and a meet help , as well as our superiour . and who would not condemn on this account a careless and supine reading of common-prayer it self , as a thing tending to alienate mens affections from it , and to quench their devotions . and therefore such ministers , who suppose themselves thus gifted , as to be able to excite mens affections by their rhetorical prayers , and lively pronunciation and actions , conclude it necessary , that they should make use of their talent , and not lay it up in a napkin . this argument or objection at first sight may seem specious and plausible , but if throughly examined , will appear as a rotten-fabrick , built on a sandy foundation ; or , as a painted sepulchre , which , though beautifull to look on , yet within is full of dead-mens bones . i confess , if we compare reading prayers , and a delivery of an eloquent prayer without-book , abstractedly and absolutely , onely in order to the exciting of the affections , the latter may take place ; but if we consider them with those circumstances , which in general and publick use must attend them , set forms will challenge the preheminence . but for answer , in the first place ; i have already shewed , that the use of forms is best for the instruction of the generality , and settled information of the judgment , and therefore on that account may at least be laid in equal ballance with exciting the sensitive affections with present heats and sudden commotions , which are not durable . good affections are but one requisite to praying with the spirit , and according to those who place all almost in new inventions , should be the least ; and must be directed by the illumination of the understanding . secondly , because set forms are best for instruction , and fixing the judgment ; they are best also for a due excitation of the affections , so that they may be acceptable and well-pleasing to god. for here is to be observed , that there is a great difference between divine and heathen oratory . a roman oratour cared not so much for information of the judgment , all his designs were to engage mens affections to his cause , though by blinding their understanding and reason . such arts as these the apostle declares against in the beginning of the first epistle to the corinthians , and elsewhere , calling them the wisedom of words , and of the flesh . but in offering up our petitions to god , our affections ought not to be led by tones and gestures , but proceed from the sense and apprehension of god's majesty , and our own wants . if we will pray acceptably to god , we must have our hearts and minds before-hand enflamed with a due consideration of his glory , and our own misery . this ought to be had in the first place ; and then for quickning the outward man , a lively , serious , and decent pronunciation of publick prayers will be sufficient , which every minister should endeavour after . but when mens affections rise and fall according to the variation of the speaker's tone , it must needs be their measure and foundation . now these affections , moved after this manner , being onely turbulent commotions of the bloud and spirits , and not real longings of the soul after god , are little more of themselves regarded by him , than mere bodily service ; being but the next step higher . nay , many times they may become prejudicial to spiritual service ; for , as it hath been observed , perit omne judicium cùm abit in affectus , so in this case , when the tide of mens affections is up , and they carried by external action and pronunciation , without due understanding of the matter , they will have but little room for the true sense of want and misery . and common people being unable to pass a ready judgment on the things delivered , and unacquainted with new expressions , must be led wholly by the gesture , tone , and pronunciation ; and if they be prejudiced for the man , and the delivery be good , all goes down , all passeth with them for gold that glisters . but god is in those affections which are more settled and composed , ( as in the still small voice we reade of , kings . , . ) though they do not flame , consume , and break down so much ; as those more violent affections did indeed in our last wars , by miserably destroying both church and state ; and of such we may say , that god is not in them . i do not deny , but that our affections ought to be sometimes fervent , and vehement , but so as they subvert not , but are regulated by our judgments ; and when the height of them depends on the depth of the sense , and apprehension of god's majesty , and our own misery by nature , and not kindled by the loudness of an enthusiastick voice , or tone . thirdly , hence also it will appear , that the whole case is clearly mistaken ; for prayer is by its essential definition a representation , or a religious representation of our wills and desires to god. and then certainly , if it be a representation of our wills to god , we must have some desires in our wills to represent to god , when we come to pray to him . and therefore every one that prays , should either pray to god , by putting up his own petitions by himself , or should be acquainted with the matter before-hand which another puts up for him , that he may say , he represents his own will to god ; so far forth as it is conformable to the will of god. as it hath been the custome , when any one is to be particularly prayed for , not onely the minister is acquainted with his desire , but he also gives notice to the people of the same . prayer is the action of the church ; not the declaration of the mind of god to us , but the representation of ours to him ; and therefore doth suppose our affections already engaged . there is none who needs excite a beggars affections , who is sensible of his wants ; these will make him pathetical . and therefore all the compositions in our prayers should be rather to express , and not to incite our affections so much , because we come to put up our desires to god. i confess , that in preaching , the case is quite otherwise , and a greater latitude may be allowed as to these things , because it is ordained , not onely for the edification of the church , but conversion of unbelievers , who may be drawn by the love of the expressions , to the love of the things themselves . and herein every one that is endued with the gift , may exercise his rhetorick , and not bury his talent in a napkin . and likewise , because hereby the will of god is declared to us , spiritual things , by sensible representations , may become familiar to us ; and make the better impression upon us ; yet the apostle used all plainness of speech in preaching , and therefore certainly likewise in praying . the apostle tells us , rom. . . likewise the spirit also helpeth our infirmities ; for we know not what we should pray for , as we ought ; but the spirit it self maketh intercession for us with groanings , which cannot be uttered . where , i suppose , the apostle speaketh in the person of weak christians , or new converts , who could not well express their minds to god ; but yet they knew in general what was to be prayed for , though they could not particularly express themselves ; for we know not , &c. which doth suppose , that they knew however in general , though not in particular , before-hand , what they should pray for . and therefore to the due performance of this duty , there is requisite in the first place a scala descensoria from the superiour faculties to the inferiour , and not a scala ascensoria from the inferiour faculties to the superiour . and hence the inventive faculty of the minister , or those gifts and abilities which god hath given him , whereby he is able to express his mind in more full and significant phrases , than ordinary people , should not be employed in praying extempore , so much as in composing set forms before-hand , both private , wherein those who would speak out of the abundance of the heart , but by reason of ignorance to express themselves cannot , may be furnished with apt and meet sentences ; and publick , that those whose affections are engaged might , knowing and understanding the prayer before-hand , with more freedom , and without hesitancy join with mutual conspiration of thoughts , spirits , and affections . and hence liturgies were in use early in the church , as soon as they could well be composed ; as is also done in the other part of worship , in praising god , where psalms and hymns are composed and accented for the sweeter melody , harmony , and consent . and when this is done , he that prayeth should endeavour after the best pronunciation , and most decent delivery ; that though these should not be the first motives , yet that hereby the outward man , and lower faculties may be so far quickned , as not to be an impediment to the superiour . but to begin , and lay the foundation upon these , would be like the affections of a person raised by the noise of organs and singing-men , who yet knows not a word of the hymns composed . but , if any pretend that the very use of a form is apt to dull the affections , and produce formality and lip-service , it 's a sign that words and phrases lead their affections , and are not expressive of them : for otherwise , the words being significant , and their hearts seriously engaged , they would be no more wearied with the using the same good form , than the abderites were , when , after a play written in their own language , they heard , o cupido , prince of gods and men ! cried out incessantly , o cupido , prince of gods and men , till it cast them all almost into violent fevers . or than the ephesians were , acts . . who cried out , for the space of two hours , great is diana of the ephesians . certainly , had those , who condemn our saying , good lord deliver us ; we beseech thee to hear us good lord ; lord have mercy upon us ; christ have mercy upon us ; lord have mercy upon us , often in our prayers , had they but half so much zeal for god and christ , as these men for cupid and diana , they might easily be of a better mind , and join with us in our litany , which hath had the approbation , even of some presbyterian ministers , for an affectionate prayer . so far is the reiterating or repeating of the same expressions , suitable to our affections , from dulling and quenching them , that it doth rather kindle them anew , and cause them to burn with the greater flame . the sum then , and result of these answers is this ; that forasmuch as clearness of understanding and judgment is annexed for the most part to forms , which we may know before-hand , ordinary people being not able to pass a ready judgment on new inventions ; that forms are necessary for the due excitation and regulation of our affections , because best understood ; that the exciting the sensitive affections merely by elocution and pronunciation , may be sometimes rather an impediment than a furtherance of the spiritual performance of the duty ; that prayers are the representation of our wills to god ; and the intent of vocal prayer is rather to express , than raise our affections ; and as far as may be , those unutterable groans of the spirit , which by forms may be done most significantly , and most for the understanding : and yet the use of them doth nothing tend to abate the affections , but to unfold distinctly those desires of the soul , which were laid before , wrapped up , as it were , in a napkin ; it therefore followeth , that nothing is more necessary , than a comprehensive form of prayer to be used in all publick assemblies ; which all being acquainted with , may better understand , and may the more freely , knowingly , and cordially join with . and so i have given a sufficient answer to the objection , but yet i shall , ex abundanti , add another argument or two , to confirm this discourse . fourthly , it may be considered , that in order to the exciting the affections themselves , thô an excellent delivery and invention may go beyond bare reading , yet these gifts are to be considered in the use of them , not onely in abstracto , but in concreto , as to the persons themselves , who are endowed with them . now thô we may grant that some of them are able to pray for a long time significantly , methodically , and comprehensively , yet , have all of them , have most of them , these abilities ? can they always have ready a new prayer comprehensive of matter , and yet cloathed with new phrases and expressions , and brought forth pertinently without hesitancy or confusion ? have all of them at their fingers or tongues-end , erasmus de copiâ rerum & verborum ? no ; surely we shall find most of them destitute of these faculties , and that the efficacy of their prayers depends on the peoples fancy , and their own confident delivery . fifthly , forasmuch as people may be as duly affected , and as much edified by forms , as by extempore prayers , we must not forget in the last place , the peace of the church and state , which is by far more exposed by the use of the latter than the former . the effect of the one is unity and uniformity , brotherly love , and joining together in mutual building of our selves up in our most holy faith : of the other , for the most part , divisions in church , and rebellions in state ; when it is left to every one to doe what is right and good in his own eyes , as our late times have sufficiently demonstrated . the presbyterians themselves would not leave us without a directory but , if private men and ministers be left to themselves , to pray as they please , both church and state had need of very good security for their integrity , as well as their ability . an heretical , factious , and schismatical minister , the more eloquent oratour he is , the more dangerous impostour and firebrand he may prove . and so it is incumbent , both on the prince , in regard of the state , and on the bishop , in regard of the church , to have an eye to such persons . and were not our common-prayer sufficient in it self , yet being free from all just exceptions , the very command of king and parliament should commend it to our use . and therefore let us not imitate , by giddiness and wantonness , the israelites in the wilderness , who loathed heavenly manna , angels food , because it was common ; wherefore , though god sent them quails to satisfie their lusts , yet he destroyed many of them , whilst the meat was in their mouths . we may all know what ensued the abolishing common-prayer among us ; let us sin no more , lest a worse thing come upon us . the end . charis kai eirēnē, or, some considerations upon the act of uniformity with an expedient for the satisfaction of the clergy within the province of canterbury / by a servant of the god of peace. gauden, john, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing g estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) charis kai eirēnē, or, some considerations upon the act of uniformity with an expedient for the satisfaction of the clergy within the province of canterbury / by a servant of the god of peace. gauden, john, - . p. printed for edward thomas, london : . first three words of title in greek characters. reproduction of original in the bodleian library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on 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site . eng act of uniformity ( ) dissenters, religious -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - ali jakobson sampled and proofread - ali jakobson text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : or some considerations upon the act of uniformity ; with an expedient for the satisfaction of the clergy within the province of canterbury . by a servant of the god of peace . london printed for edward thomas , and henry marsh , . some serious considerations upon the act of vniformitie : with an expedient for the satisfaction of the clergy , within the province of canterbury . k. charles i. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . . neither do i desire any man should be further subject to me , then all of us may be subject to god. sect . i. although fraile nature below , heavenly grace above , and the common float of all things round about me , ( the lively emblems of mortality ) summoned me to dye dayly ; the misery of late time giving leisure enough , their injustice allowing occasion more then enough , to those contemplations of mortality , which are never unseasonable , because this is alwaies uncertain : death being an eclipse which often happeneth as well in a clear , as in a cloudy day . although the common burden of mortality , that lyeth upon me as a man ; the clear apprehensions of another world , that i am indued with as a christian ; and the serious observation of the successive revolutions of nature , that i am capable of as an inhabitant of the world , have put me most of the dayes of my appointed time to wait when my change should come : when i should say , i shall not see the lord , even the lord in the land of the living ; i shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world : the keepers of the house trembling , the strong men bowing themselves , the grinders ceasing , because they are few , and those that look out at the windows , being darkened : this dust of mine expected that it should return to the dust from whence it came , and this spirit of mine should return to god that gave it : i was willing that god should hide me in the grave , and that he should keep me secret untill his wrath and our calamity was overpast . although i was thus willing to retire to another world , while that darknesse covered the face of this . yet when by a wonderfull revolution of providence , managed by nothing lesse then an omnipotence , that perplexed chaos of affairs , and confused heap , was admirably disposed to a sweet order and beauty , and a new frame of another world , viz. a new heaven , and a new earth , wherein dwelleth righteousnesse : i was in a strait betwixt two , having a desire to depart , and to be with christ , which is far better ; neverthelesse to abide in the flesh i thought might be more needfull for the church , whose sad breaches i hoped should now be carefully repaired , whose sacred order , peace , honour , unity , and happinesse , i hoped should now be recovered to a glory becoming so antient , so holy , so true , so venerable , so divine a religion as ours , in its nature , author , end , center and circumference ; so one ; so deserving to be most united , and uniform in the catholick truth , which is according to holinesse , justice , order and charity , after the primitive pattern , and constant practice of all true churches , preachers , and professors , founded upon verity , fortified with charity , edified in unity , reverend for antiquity , permanent in their constancy , according to the particular constitutions of every church , which still kept the great and catholick communion as to the main , every christian catechumene , penitent , communicant , deacon , and presbyter , keeping the peculiar place wherein god , nature , and the church hath set them ; every member keeping to its congregation , every congregation to their lawfull minister set over them , to watch over their souls , every minister to his own bishop , obeying them that have the rule over them , and submitting themselves ; every bishop to his metropolitan , upon whom is the care of all the churches , and the metropolitan to his soveraign , as supreme , and he to god , over all blessed for ever . the faith delivered to the saints i thought might have been solemnly established ; the worship in spirit and truth decent and in order legally settled ; the primitive discipline orderly restored ; and our antient church recovered to that beauty , order , glory , and majesty , for which it was spoken of throughout the reformed world , that rejoyced to behold our faith and order ; and therefore i was contented , if it stood with the good pleasure and will of god , to be absent a while from that church , which christ presented to himself , that glorious church , not having spot or wrinkle , or any such thing , ( that it should be holy , and without blemish ) that city of the living god , that heavenly jerusalem , from an innumerable company of angels , from the generall assembly and church of the first born , which are written in heaven , and from god the judge of all , and from the spirits of just men made perfect , which i well hoped to enjoy , that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that heaven upon earth , the church in rest and peace round about , with the beauty of holinesse without , as well as all-glorious within ; in its doctrine apostolical , in its government primitive , in its order venerable , in its members holy and devout , in its worship heavenly , in its laws exact and prudent , which preserved every christian , every family , every city , every country , every province , not only in a church way , communion , and correspondence , as to their particular bounds , and nearer relations in every parish , congregation , city , or country , but as to that generall bond of charity , that catholick unity of an universal spirit in a bond of peace , which binds all christians in one fellowship , of one body , whose head is christ , to whom every true believer , and visible professor in the whole latitude of the church , being by the word of god , and spirit of christ fitly joyned together , and compacted by that which every joynt supplieth , according to the effectual working in the measure of every part , doth both edifie and increase it self and others in truth and love . . instead of the immediate presence of god , ( whom blessed are the eyes who see ) which i hope to enjoy with these eyes face to face : one thing have i desired of the lord , that will i seek after , that i may dwell in the house of the lord all the dayes of my life , to behold the beauty of the lord , and to enquire in his temple ; for i have loved the habitation of his house , and the place where his honour dwelleth , ever since i have gone with the multitude , ever since i have gone with them into the house of god , with the voyce of joy and praise , with a multitude that kept holy day . how amiable are thy tabernacles , o lord god of hosts ! my soul longeth , yea even fainteth for the courts of the lord ; my heart and my flesh cryeth out for the living god , blessed are they that dwell in thine house , for they will be still praising thee . . instead of that perfection of soul , nature , faculty , gifts and graces which i hope for , i am contented to stay here a while , growing in grace , and in the knowledge of god , perfecting holinesse in the fear of the lord , and withall in my place to contribute towards the work of the ministry , and the edifying of the body of christ , till we all come in the unity of the faith , and of the knowledge of the son of god , unto a perfect man , unto the measure of the stature of the fullnesse of christ , by promoting a powerfull preaching , by erecting a severe discipline , by exercising an impartiall authority , by shewing an exemplary conversation , in order to the restoring of that purity , decency , order , and uniformity of christian religion , which becomes the wisedom and honour of this nation , by the exactest conformity with the catholick church , in its purest and primitive constitution , a happinesse to be effected and enjoyed by the pious councils , devout prayers , potent preaching , and learned writings of good and great men , owned by all churches , loved by all people , supported by all princes , according to all right reason , all due order , all politick honour , all scripturall patterns and divine presidents , besides the laws and antient customs of this church and state , which had allwaies a due regard to the greatnesse of their learning , the soundness of their judgement , the gravity of their ages , the sanctity of their lives , and the dignity of their calling . . instead of the excellent society of saints and angells , which i hoped for in heaven : i was content to be with the excellent that are in the earth , who content themselves with that plain and pristine holynesle , which is taught in the scripture , deposited in the church , preserved by an holy ministry , expressed in christian lives ; most eminently manifested in jesus christ : and his apostles , the great and famous teachers and examples of holy truth , holy duties , holy sacraments , holy orders , and holy ministry in the church to this time : that holinesse by which we obey the command , embrace the truth , fear the threatnings , observe the duties , preserve the institutions , continue the orders , reverence the embassadours , joy in the graces , hope in the promises , and in all things are conformable to christ by his blessed spirit , who transforms us from glory to glory : i mean those holy men , . that hear the word with trembling ; . that pray with understanding ; constancy , fervency , reverence , and comlinesle ; . that receive the pledges of gods love in christ , from the hands of reverend men , called of god by the church with care , preparednesse , and thankfullnesse . . those holy men who love in sincerity , give with cheerfullnesse , rejoyce in well doing , suffer with patience , live by faith , act by charity : and live in order , contentednesse and humility , a communion of these saints is part of the glory to be revealed : o happy those who enjoy the benefit of their comprehensive abilities , their astonishing accomplishments , their powerfull discourses , their obliging conversations , their enflamed devotion , their exact piety , their remarkable integrity , their innocent and large prudence , their servent zeal , and their publick spirit : o it is good for us to be here . . even the high-prayses of god , which we hope shall be in our mouthes with angels , and arch-angells : we may enjoy in the holy church , which throughout all the world doth acknowledge god with heavenly prayses , they on earth answering one another as they in heaven ; holy , holy , holy , lord god of sabbath : not without those excellencies , to which the ingenuous industry of christians , hath attained for singing , and the use of musick , orall and organicall , in consort or solitary , whereby god is glorified both in private and in publick , either by the skillfull or attentive christians , whose hearts are turned and framed after gods own heart ; who are by this heavenly way , pleased into a spirituall , holy , humble , and calm frame of spirit , and sweet meditations , which are the usuall effects of good and grave musick on sober and devout soules , who in hearing , or reading , psalmes , hymnes , and spirituall songs , in which the divine truth of the matter affects the enlightned judgement , and the quieted conscience by a close , pleasant , and heavenly virtue , with the neerest conformity to the holy minds and spirits of those sacred writs , inspired of god , for the composures of those holy psalmodies . . neither was it the least recompence for the delay of that perfect state where sin is quite removed , sorrow cast away , teares wiped from mens eyes , to hope for that state of the church , wherein we might be kept regularly to mortifie the deeds of the body , where we might have learned to swallow up our sorrow , with the graces of patience and joy , our fears with a blessed hope , our wants with a foreseeing faith , our shame with a conquest over the world ; in a word , enjoying by a gratious gonverse , a heaven of happinesse in this vale of misery , and an eternall life in this shadow of death . . these and the like particulars , made up that happinesse , in the hope whereof , i flattered my self , to some comfort in my few dayes full of trouble : the happinesse that we should all have to rejoyce with jerusalem , and be glad with her ; all we that loved her , and to rejoyce for joy , with all we that mourned for her . a happinesse we thought unquestionable , when our god who seemed to be angry but for a moment returned to embrace us with everlasting kindnesse ; when . assisted by his grace and blessing , . countenanced with the presence and authority of a gratious soveraign , . furnished with an incomparably pious , prudent and learned clergy , . befriended by persons of true piety , honour , and prudence , who excelled in virtue ; . provided for by just , equal , and exact laws : . supported with the effectuall fervent prayer of devout sons . the church in all probability was likely to recover her ancient life , vigour , beauty and glory ; . by the spirit of god , allaying animosities , and softning the hearts of men to a peaceable and quiet frame : . by the prudence of man reconciling interests , closing differences , and filling up distances ; . by severe laws , rooting up those principles , testraining and condemning those practiles that ruined us , those abominations that made desolate : . by that cheerfull submission for conscience sake , which all men promised to his majesties government , upon his miraculous restauration , with that generall applause and joy ( when the providence and hand of god restored him , whom they thought by the providence and hand of god excluded ) what could we have answered the messengers of the nations , but that the lord hath founded sion , and that the poor of his people should trust therein ? sect . ii. but that we may be satisfied ( as nature informes , reason dictates , and our faith instructs us ) in the vanity and vexation of spirit , that is written upon all things under the snn ; that there is that disproportion in the worth , that weaknesse in the nature , that uncertainty in the being , that shortnesse in the duration , that deceitfullnesse as to all expectations from all things under heaven , that make them unworthy worthy of our hope , unfit for our confidence , and below our trust , being subject to an uncertainty below , and a providence above : and so not capable of giving that finall security , we may rest in both , because they are weak , and because they are mutable , that we may learn not out of weak grounds , and out of too high conceit of those means we use to build our selves peremptory imaginations of future events , which the least circumstance neglected , or misplaced , may disappoint , . the not timing or placing our actions right . . the not accomodating our meanes to the variety of occasions . . the miscarrying in one circumstance . . having our minds too light or voluble , or too fixed and constant . . too large and wandering , too narrow and contracted . . too credulous and facile , or too diffident and suspicious . . too peremptory , resolute , and hasty , too slow , anxious , and discoursive . . too witty and facetious , too serious and morose : with many other emergencies , may endanger our endeavours and successe , that we may depend wholly upon god , with patience and humility . these uncertainties are but further essayes which god would have us make of the worlds vanity , the more to fix us on himself , who never faileth us that trust in him : gods providence commands us to retire from all to himself , that in him we may enjoy our selves , which we lose while we let out our hopes to others ; though the reeds of aegypt brake under the hands of him that leans on them , yet the rock of aegypt will be an everlasting stay and defence . . that we may learn that all people are so unconstant in their minds , so uncertain in their fancies , so ballanced with their interest , so mutable in their humour , so depending upon the changeable things of this world , so swayed by the private concern of some publick guides , that the life and soul of government is that real power and resolution , which is in the hand of one or more wise and potent , who are all waies intent to deserve well of the people , yet allwaies able to curbe and represse their insolency and inconstancy ; it s indeed a point of wisdome and true honour to deserve well of the good people , to gain their love , but the highest and safest principle of policy , is to command them by power to that just fear , which is the surest ground of their love : no condition of government ever pleased all subjects , most are unsatisfied with the present , a change allwaies promising them a better ; the true temperament is when just and indisputable power is so wisely managed , as may render the governors rather august then dreadfull , rather venerable then formidable , setting bounds to mens activity and unquietnesse , to the raging of the waters , and the madnesse of the people . . that we may learn that this capacity of the people of all impressions , . to relapse to prophanesse ; . to rest in hypocrisie ; . to run out to extravagancies ; . to persist in errours , for want of discipline to cure , of principles to establish , ingenuity to restrain their unsettled natures , is a peculiar temper of the english , who being of quick and high spirits , of various and vehement fancies , inclined to find out many inventions , given to change , to admire novelties , and with most inconsiderate violence to persue them : whom god bring to christ a safe way , where with holy and just restraints , ( becoming order , justice , and religion ) there are also the most ingenious liberties , and the most liberall fruitions . i pray god that neither the cares of this world , nor their dullnesse and incapacity , nor their want and weaknesses , nor their lusts and passions , nor their prejudice and misunderstanding , may keep the way of true religion before god , wherein they may have rest for their souls . . and lastly , that we may know that personal and private sins , may oftentimes ballance the justice and hopefulnesse of publick designes , and so walk humbly with god ; for these and other reasons it pleaseth god , that . notwithstanding his majesties great condescention and care for publike good and peace , by impartial calmnesse and charity , endeavouring to remove all differences and offences in wayes agreeable to the true principles of government , raised to its full stature and perfection , as also to the primitive apostolical pattern , and the practise of the universal church conform thereunto : so that he might say with his royal father , i have offered all for reformation and safety , that in reason , honour , or conscience i can , reserving only what i cannot consent to without an irrepairable injury to my own soul , the church , and my people , and also to the next and undoubted heir of my kingdoms . . notwithstanding the endeavours of learned , grave , and godly men , who were ablest for gifts , most eminent for their labours , and the highest for their place to reconcile differences , to satisfie scruples and doubts , and so heal our divisions by their prudent counsells , by their rational arguments , by their powerfull perswasions ; notwithstanding that his sacred majestie , knowing that in multitude of counsellors there is wisdome , honour and safety , called those sober persons of both wayes and perswasions , hoping by an healing conference ( after a tolleration of mutual converse and correspondence ) to have satisfied all reasonable men , when that which seemed good to these men assembled together , might have been communicated to the kingdome , and as act. . . so the church might be established in the faith , and increase in number daily . . notwithstanding the many acts of grace and favour , for the persons , liberties , & estates , of those that had forfeited all by a generall rebellion and guilt : vigorously interposing between them and the justice of an exasperated kingdome , and using all princely art , and clemency , to heal the wounds , to repair the breaches , by an unparalel'd act of indempnity , that included all that could but suspect themselves to be any way obnoxious to the laws , which might have excluded all future jealousies and insecurities ; rationally hoping that none would be more loyall and faithfull to him , then those who sensible of their errors , and his favour , would feel in their own soules most vehement motives to repentance , and earnest desires to make some restaurations for former defects : the more conscious he was to his own merits upon his people , the more prone he was to expect all love and loyalty from them ; charitably expecting that christian ingenuity in all his subjects , that when much was forgiven , would have loved much . yet behold instead of that generall submission and compliance , that might have hushed all things into an universall calme and quiet , god ( in whose hearts are the hearts of all men ) bowing their hearts as one man , to the fear of god , and the obedience due to their king ; behold a generall discontent , fear , sorrow , and sullen sadnesse upon the face of the kingdome ! behold a catholique murmur , and complaint whispered throughout the nation ! a contempt of dominion , a speaking evil of dignities , a cursing the king in their hearts , a carrying of tales to shed blood ; so that if his majesty had not his own innocence , and gods protection , it were hard for him to stand out against these stratagems and conflicts of malice , which by falsities seeks to oppresse the truth , and by jealousies to supply the defect of reall causes , which might seem to justifie a new engagement against him . o those foul and false aspersions , those secret engines , employed against the peoples love : that undermining there opinion , and just value of his majesties enemies and theirs too , might blow up their affection and their loyalty ; o the sin and danger of poor peoples soules , whose eyes once blinded with mists of suspitions and fears , they are soon misled into the most desperat precipices of action ! alas ! for that loose , licentious , and languishing posture , whereunto ( notwithstanding all means of settlement ) some mens distempers and indifferences , allready have , and farther seek to reduce this nation , as to any setled doctrine , uniforme professions , catholique order , and nationall communion . o what dividings , shatterings , schisms , separatings , sidings , strifes , envies , animosities , and contempts , whence grow confusion , & every evil work ! o that loose and indifferent way of christian administration and profession , that is insisted upon by some for themselves and posterity , according to every mans private fancy , choice and humour , without such solemn establishment , and publick union as hath in all ages and nations best edified and fortified , counselled and corrected , excited and increased both gifts and graces in a most comely and most christian order , with such harmony , unity , majesty , and authority , as best becomes the servants , religion , and church of christ ! o what beauty , what order , what harmony , what unity , what gravity , what solidity , what candor , what charity , what sobriety , what correspondence is offered , is endeavoured by the judicious affections , tender compassions , prudent councils , conscientious care , attended with discreet zeal , fervent prayers , and unfeigned tears of good men , whose aim is to promote sound knowledge , fruitfull faith , hearty love , discreet zeal , severe repenting , fervent prayer , just fears , unspeakable comforts , well grounded hope , spiritual joy , heavenly meditation , holy conversation , tender compassions , meekness of obedience , and conscientious submission ; in a word , a frame of christian carriage to god and to others , in order to mens own souls , and their neighbours good . o the excellent wayes proposed , that learning might flourish , knowledge multiply , graces abound , excellent preaching thrive , sacraments be duly administred , and devoutly received , the fruits of gods spirit mightily diffused in common honesty , hospitable kindness , christian charity , plain-hearted sincerity , o the crafts and policies , the frauds and factions , the jealousies and distances , the malice and animosities , the rudeness and disorders , the insolencies and hypocrisie , the rashness and uncharitableness , the envies and emnities , the rapes and out-rages still pleaded for and upheld ! by prophets that prophesie falsly , that the priests might bear rule by their means , and the people will have it so : what will they do in the end therof ? sect . iii. now it pleased god , by the publick counsells of king , lords , and commons , to give all just satisfaction to modest and sober desires , to prevent all misunderstandings and miscarriages by the act of uniformity , composed with that gravity , and discretion of pious , moderate , and wise men : as might allay , and fix the people to a due temperament , guiding their well meaning zeal , by such rules of moderetion , as might best preserve and restore the happiness of church and state ; a neglect of due obedience to this act , ( in such way as shall hereafter be expressed ) a contempt of its authority , a discontent under it restraints , evil thoughts and discourses of the authors and imposers , and a generall opposition to its blessed design of peace and settlement , i appeal to the tender consciences of sober men , who live within sight of the great day of the revelation of the righteous judgement of god , whether they be not , . exceeding sinfull : . desperately mischievous : . very dangerous . . they seem to be very sinfull , because they seem against the consciences of good men , which are guided , . by the word of god , which sayes expresly ( o consider it ye tender-conscienced men ) submit your selves to every ordinance of man for the lords sake , pet. . . ye must needs be subject not only for wrath , but for conscience sake , rom. . . though not for conscience of the thing commanded , yet for conscience of the power commanding : the thing it self may be indifferent , yet your obedience necessary ; obey them that are over you in the lord , & submit your selves . it was a holy mans advice , that we should take heed how we before-hand take up resolutions , whether of opposing , or not obeying ; certainly , however quiet & conscientious not obeying , both may and ought to have a very favourable and indulgent interpretation , yet presumptuous disobedience justly subjects a man to the highest censure : expresse for this purpose is that judicial law ( which hath a great deal of morality couched in it ) deut. . . the man that will doe presumptuously , and will not hearken to the priest , or to the judge , even that man shall die , and thou shalt put away the evil from israel . take we heed then how we entertain any thoughts that way , but rather prepare our ears and hearts to hear what the lord will say unto us ; or see what message he will send by the hands of these his servants , who have been so long time enquiring after his pleasure , which being made known unto us , resolve ( in what we may ) to submit and obey : so did the churches to whom paul and silas delivered their decrees , they delivered them to be kept by them , and so they were : and so were the churches established : now i praise you brethren , ( saith st. paul ) that you remember all things , and keep the ordinances delivered unto you , cor. . . be obedient as to christ ; that is , by the same necessity , for the same reason , to avoid the same punishment , to have the same reward , by the same religion : that you may not prevaricate the lawes of god , or do violence to your own consciences : nothing can adde light to these so clear words , they are bright as the sunne , clear as an article of faith , easy and intelligible , according to the nature of universal divine commandements . . this opposition to the act of uniformity , is against the oath of supremacy , which is this , that we declare the kings highnesse supreme governor of this realm , and swear to assist and obey him and all authorities united or annexed to the imperial crown of this realm . a religious attestation , which most that oppose this act have made before god the searcher of hearts , with an imprecation of his heavy wrath upon them if they break it or abuse his name in it , that they owned his majesties authority in ecclesiastical affairs . which oath i hope they took in truth , righteousness , and judgement : do not they fear an oath ? do not they know , that for oathes the land mourned ? i hope i speak to men fearing god , that walk uprightly , work righteousness , and speak the truth in their heart , and though they swear to their hurt yet change not : now alas ! you deny the supremacy you have sworn to , if you allow not his majesty power to impose a ceremony , to settle a discipline , to establish an ecclesiastical law , alas he cannot shew his authority in things necessary , for his subjects are tyed to them already , nor in things sinfull , for they are forbidden already , nor in things indifferent , for there all men must be at liberty : wherein have you sworn to him as supream ? o be not deceived , god will not be mocked : shall the laws of one solemnly acknowledged supream magistrate , which are . scriptural as to the main ground , rule , and end of them ; . rational , as to the order , decency & gravity of them ; . primitive and catholick , be disowned , repined at and complained of , by men sworn to observe those laws : o men fearing god , when you have vowed a vew deferr not to pay it , for he hath no pleasure in fools : suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin ; neither say thou before the angel it is an error , wherefore should god be angry at thy voice and destroy the works of thine hands : for in many words which may be alleged to excuse the violation of this oath there is vanity : but fear thou god. . this opposition to his majesties authority in matters ecclesiastical , is against their own conscience , ( and unhappy are they that condemn themselves in others , in those things which they allow ) you that disown authority in matters of religion , did not you exercise it ? you that repine at the imposing of the liturgy , did not you impose the directory ? you that are troubled for deprivation upon non-subscription , did not you turn out holy , pious , painfull ministers , because they durst not take the covenant , or subscribe the engagement ? only the same measure that you measured out to others , shall be measured to you , you shall suffer but what you have done : neither is his majesty more severe in supporting his government by laws , then the parliament was to support theirs by an ordinance : thus i see ( saith the royal martyr ) those who were the most rigorous exactors upon others to conform to their illegal novelties , are least disposed to the due obedience of lawfull constitutions , so that i know not whether they sinned more against their own consciences , by violently opposing our established order , or by violently imposing their own : o suffer others to deal with you , as you have dealt with others , this is the law , this is the prophets . . this discontent of yours to the present establishment , is very partiall , ( for men that know they should have no respect of persons , and that nothing should be done through partiality ) you who could call an usurping tyranny a liberty ; who could be contented with that variety of governments and factions , that exercised the nations patience , can discern nothing in a lawfull prince but jealousies , in a settled church but superstition , nothing in antient laws but persecution , nothing in an established religion but popery ; are ye not ( brethren ) partiall in your selves , and become judges of evil thoughts : jac. . . if ye fulfill the royal law according to the scripture , you do well ; but if ye have respect to persons , ye commit sin , and are convinced of the law for transgressors . . this unexpected discontent seems to be a great scandall and offence to his majesty , the defender of our faith , and all other kings and governours , who will now look upon protestants as unpatient of government , enemies of orders , and disturbers of peace : when they are thus unquiet under an innocent government , how will they behave themselves under a severer tyranny ? if they are thus impatient of their good and gentle , how impatient will they be of their morose and austere masters ? it s an offence to the church to see its laudable customs decryed , its venerable laws neglected , its antient canons despised , its great example despised ; and that he is now the best christian , who was formerly the worst infidell , that did not hear the church : it s a grief to good men that have many sad thoughts of heart for the divisions of reuben ; and a joy to the bad , who cry , aha , so would we have it . — o woe to the world because of offences ; woe to those men by whom offences come ; brethren , you are called to liberty , but it is a great sin to use your liberty for an occasion to the flesh , but by love serve one another : it s not good to do any thing whereby thy brother , much lesse whereby the whole church stumbleth , or is offended ; if the primitive christians , when it was at their own choice , whether they should use some indifferent thing , or whether they would not use them , complyed in their practise with their brethren , determining their liberty , so as to give no offence : what shall they answer to the god of peace , whose liberty though determined by superiors , is used by them to the disobedience of those superiours , and the offence of their brethren ? . the present distemper seems to be ungratefull , in regard of other favours of his majesty ; his majesty hath saved our lives , and now do we stand upon our liberty ? now we had been many dayes without a king , without a prince , and without a sacrifice , and newly return to seek the lord and david our king ; shall we so far sin against the lord , as to run back again to our former method of sin and misery ? god forbid ! are we newly pardoned and saved to return with the dog to his vomit , and with the sow to her wallowing in uncle annesse , do live by his mercy , and shall we not make him that natural , equal , and easic return to live in his obedience . . this non-conformity is not only sinfull in its nature , but as mischievous in its apparent effects : which are , . a needless breach of the communion of saints ; o sad , that men professing one religion , acknowledging one god , partaking of one faith , initiated by one baptism , joyned together with one spirit , redeemed with one precious bloud , called to one hope , looking for one common salvation , should for things confessed indifferent keep up divisions , foment distances , and refuse to be of one heart , one mind , and one way , that the lord may be one , and his name one . . a dishonor to the gospel , whose design is peace , whose author is a prince of peace , whose preachers are embassadors of peace , whose spirit is a spirit of peace , whose highest honour was meeknesse and peace : but alas ! is become now the great make-bate of the world , the enemy of government , the subverter of laws , the pretence of faction , that which turnes the world upside down . wo is us when our excellent religion is ill-spoken of , by reason of our unworthy conversation ; the heathen whom we should convert , will be jealous of us ; the turk whom we should convince , will keep at distance from us ; the papist whom we should reform , will persecute , when we cannot live under lawfull , mild , and just governments , but are disobedient , unthankfull , unholy , truce-breakers , traytors , heady , high-minded , having a form of godliness , and denying the power thereof . . this non-conformity will continue those distractions which endangered the first reformers at francford : disturbed the state in queen elizabeths time , disquieted the church in king james his dayes , and ruined the church and state in king charles his time , that time of the best temper , and the health fullest constitution , made up of sincere truth , unfeigned charity , liberal piety , unaffected decency with just authority and uninterrupted succession : entertained with holy moderation and humble prosperity . come not thou my soul into their secret , unto their assemblies mine honour be not thou united , who maintain a perpetual dissention , and cherish the grounds of an endless schism , as serves to give both occasion and confidence to different parties , both to excite their private ambitions , and in time ●o exert them in wayes of open hostility , whensoever opportunity is given by any negligence , offence , or distemper in government or governors . . this non-conformity , will obstruct the promotion of true piety , while men are to much engaged in the circumstances they neglect , the substance of religion , while by a sullen separation , they withdraw from one another , to an incapacity of exhorting one another while it is called to day , least any be hardned through the deceitfullness of sin ; of provoking one another to love , and to good works : and of following after the things that make for peace , and things wherewith one may edifie another . this publick disagreement will be a great obstruction to the progresse of the gospel , which will never be received by others , untill we are agreed in the profession of it our selves : while we thus unhappily engaged one against another , we cannot all end that publick service of making the way of god to be known upon earth , his saving health among all nations . it s too great an advantage to the common enemy , who making use of parties reasons and passions , against other , thereby overthrows all . it was the advice of cardinall allen to the persons that undertook to reduce ireland back again to popery , that they should apply themselves to the nonconformist , and possesse them with the covetousnesse , ambition , and superstition of the conformists on the one hand : and on the other they should apply themselves to the conformists , and possesse them with the factiousnesse , disobedience , and disorders of the nonconformists ; that so they might be provoked to spend their fury upon each other , to their mutual ruine . i speak as to wise men , judge you what i say . . this rupture is dangerous to our native country , for besides the roman advantage , which is greatest and last , the private passions and various interests of factions and parts will hazard the civil peace by endeavours to promote their several opinions and pretences under any specious name whatsoever ; alas ! if these separations continue , men knowing there is but one religion , as there is but one god , and his holy will but one , every one is prone to presume that he is in the right . next hee growes so partial to his own perswasions , to imagine this above all others best , and onely pleasing to god ; then he concludes all other wayes of religion as displeasing to god as to himself : hence zeal and impotent impulses to propagate his own way , and overthrow all others , as an acceptable service and sacrifice to god : which is done , first by words , disputing , writing , rayling , and reviling ; if that will not serve to reform the obstinate world , then he first wisheth , afterwards useth the sword , as soon as he and his party can get number and power sufficient to act with probable safety : such an opportunity he counts a call of god , an hand of providence inviting and directing what to do to establish his own way against all others , never so approved of good men , and prospered by gods grace and blessing : yea , therefore we may observe that they are unwilling to grant that freedom to others their inferiors in number and power , which they once desired of their superiors upon a reason of state , that dictates to all men thus much : that publick differings in matter of religion are very dangerous to the civil peace of those that enjoy power , and are quiet under it ; which every party secretly envieth , repines at , and endeavors to obtain for it self : and therefore make no more conscience of any civil or ecclesiastical subjection , or christian patience and submission , longer then they are so ballanced by the power and prudence of superiors , that they cannot subdue all things under their feet : oh , its pity that those more minute opinions and perswasions ( when religion which should restrain , stirs up mens passions ) should have more power to divide , than all the agreements in other main matters , hath to preserve love and unity , as men , countrey-men , and christians : in so much that the church of england which was grown to that height of beauty , piety , order , moderation , and honor , as became the glory of god , the majesty of christian religion , and the wisdom of this nation , hath often in h. . ed. . q. eliz and king james time bin endangered by these struglings in religion ( which the publick power , policy , and vigilancy of those times repressed ) and at last was undone by such breaches that are unparalleled in former , and will be scarce credible in after ages . . this reluctancy of some against the present establishment , threatens all government which consists in a full power to establish and maintain laws , equity , justice , and religion : on the one hand , that we may lead peaceable and quiet lives , in all godliness and honesty : and on the other hand , in due obedience for conscience sake , to those laws and methods of government , every one studying to be quiet , and to follow his own business . if you now refuse the seasonable and well-advis'd law , order , and decency proposed by the church , under pretence of liberty of conscience , you will teach others to refuse laws of the same nature from you : with the same arguments that you oppose the directions of the liturgy , others did arise who oppose the rubrick of the directory ; and there is no stop in setting up private opinions against publick determinations ; but in confusion , disorder , & ruine to your private judgement : you cannot allow present laws , others private judgement cannot allow your ordinances : it s your thoughts that you are above forms , its others thoughts they are above ordinances : you dislike a surplice , they dislike a gown : you cannot approve the bishops double honor of reverence and revenue , and they cannot approve yours of reverence and tythe : you cannot use the cross in baptism , they cannot use baptism it self : you cannot admit some innocent circumstances in the lords supper , they cast off the lords supper it self : you cannot away with musick , nor they with psalms : what end would there be of dissensions , unless the magistrate did interpose for outward peace and order ? men surely would grow worse and worse , deceiving and being deceived , till their folly be made manifest to all men . what dissolution of order ? what novelties of opinions ? what undecencies of administration ? what sacrilegious invasions of the church ? what contempt of the clergy ? what overthrows of magistrates , and all government , have been managed by the principles now contended for , all sober men have beheld with sorrow of heart , and can bear witness to with their sighs , teares , and ruine ? o tell it not in gath , publish it not in askelon ! i pray god give us all moderation and impartiality , the best tempers in religion , unpassionately to consider from whence we are fallen by humane policies , and to what we are transported by popular zeal , that all distempers may be laid aside by free converse , and a christian correspondence , whereby those sad principles of everlasting schism might be removed : by which on our side men think , because in many things they are right , therefore they can erre in nothing : and on the other side , because in some things men have mistaken and erred , therefore they can be in nothing right , without regard so that truth and charity which is the life and quintessence of christian religion . . it s of very dangerous consequence , that you , who should promote the joy and thankfulness of his majesties loving subjects for his happy restauration , should now occasion these fears , jealousies , and publick sorrow : that when all rejoyce to see things grow up to a publick order and symmetry , you should be discontent , ( as when all the people cryed hosanna , the pharisees murmured ) is a sin against that , deut . where it is said , because thou servest not the lord thy god with joyfulness , and with gladness of heart , for the abundance of all things , therefore ( which is the danger ) shalt thou serve thine enemy in hunger , in thirst , in nakedness , and in want of all things , and he shall put a yoke of iron upon thee , till he have destroyed thee . these are the dangerous conseqences of non-conformity , viz. . hiding your talents in a napkin , and putting your light under a bushel , and becoming unserviceable in your generations . . the grief of many good people who value high your persons and gifts , who thought you would have died for them under persecutors , and therefore you would much more obey for their sakes , under a lawful prince . . the disadvantage of the church , which by your unexpected revolt , will miss your gifts , and services which were devoted to it . . the disparagement of your brethren , who are censured as unworthy , for practising those things , which rather then you will do , you will resist unto blood , whereby their labor is rendered unserviceable for those souls , from whom your labor is withdrawn . . the undoing of your families for whom ye are to provide , unless ye will be worse then infidels : o your wives and children , what have they done ? that while you are disputing whether you should wear a gown , or whether you should stand or kneel : whether you had best use these sorts of words , or those , to god almighty ? in a word , whether you shall obey or rebel ? these should perish . if you should go out ( which god forbid ) it 's you that will be thought to turn out your selves , for men judge that the law intends onely obedience and peace , and that the offenders cause the punishment : the parliament would have you live orderly , and obediently in your places , you will not , who is to be blamed ? but you cannot believe the orders of the church to be lawful and obliging , and the whole kingdom in parliament cannot believe that non-conformity is lawful . you cannot submit , and the whole kingdom in parliament , cannot think you fit to be encouraged with ecclesiastical livings , unless you submit : whether it is more fitting the whole kingdom , should submit to you , or you to the whole kingdom , judge ye . in a word , if you do reject the moderate impositions the church layes upon you , i humbly crave leave to offer it to your consideration , what judgement the protestant churches are likely to make of your proceedings ? and how your cause , and the churches , will stand represented to them , and to all future ages ? the present danger is this . as in disaffected bodies , the humors fall to the weakest part : so in a distempered kingdom , the ill disposed persons , fall in with the discontented part . upon this falling off of your party , there are persons exasperated by just punishment on themselves and relations . . there are thousands purchasers of delinquents , deans , chapters , bishops , king and queen , and princes lands , unsatisfied . . there are thousands of cavaliers , notwithstanding all care to provide for them , dejected . . there are abundance of atheists and neuters , expecting some trouble and alteration , and persons of desperate fortunes , wishes they may once more fish in troubled waters . . there are several persons turned out of livings by the proper owners thereof , and notwithstanding they are willing to submit , are not likely to be admitted to so good again . . there are many of the old army , that want employment . . there are thousands of disobliged sectaries . . there are too many that for want of trading , are not able in this dead time to provide for themselves and families , who would be all willing to hazzard themselves , in the engagement of . they are in their method already , popery preached against , ceremonies and lyturgies are cried down , the reverend clergy afftonted , non-conformists are pittied , the silencing of them is resented : trading is dead , taxes are complained of , meetings are appointed , plots discovered , and all things by your dissent tend to a confusion . these thoughts i leave to your cooler and more moderate intervals , to meditate upon between your selves , and the great searcher of hearts . the expedient . but my business is not so much to exasperate , as to accomodate dissenters , and therefore i shall intreat those reverend persons concerned , seriously to consider the following propositions , ( which if assented to , will bring them up to the design of the act of uniformity ) agreed upon by all sober protestants . prop. . that since the first plantation of true religion , which is a judicious and sincere devoting of the whole soul to god , as the supream good offered us in jesus christ , and the right performance of that duty we ow to that god , upon such grounds , to such ends , and after such manner , as he requires it of us : there have been an holy company called by his word , to the knowledge of god in christ who in all holy ways , and orderly institutions , publickly profess their inward sence of duty and devotion , which they ow to god , by believing and obeying his word , and also that charity which they ow to all men , especially to that houshold of the faith that holds communion with christs body , the catholick church . prop. . it s agreed , that this outward profession of religion , as it is held forth in the word , in its truth , zeals , duties , and ministry , makes one church catholick of all christians , joyned in a mysterious , inward , and religious communion with god , and one another in christ , by the word and spirit , in the inward part of religion , and in obedience , charity , and comely order as to the outward part of that religion , and that any part of this church distinct by civil limits and relations from others , may own and establish such a church power , relation , and association in matters of religion , as may best perserve themselves , in true doctrine , holy order , christian peace , and good manners , by joynt counsel , and more vigorous power , and mutual charity : ( such a church at corinth , cor. . . act. . . antioch , act. . . tit. seven churches of asia . ) prop. . it s agreed upon , that in the outward profession of religion , there are many circumstantial ceremonies of order and decency to be determined by the church , according to the general rule of the scripture , and the primitive practice of the church , and that all members of the church are to rest satisfied with that determination : if any be contentious , we have no such custom , nor the churches of god. prop. . we are agreed , that besides the spiritual power of the church , over her particular members , there is a coercive power belonging to the magistrate under christ , by whom kings reign , to regulate mens lives and conversations , according to the faith professed , the worship established , and the order observed in that church , as a nursing father to the church : it 's the duty and happiness of kings to make their subjects fear god , that they may be blessed of god , and under them , as under the good kings of the old testament , lead peaceable , and quiet lives in all godliness , and honesty . these keepers of both tables are to be a terror to all evil doers , and an encouragement to them that do well , having the law of god before their eyes : religion that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , being the first care of princes . prop. . the magistrate ( whom the people are to pray for , that god would direct his heart , shew him the way wherein he should go , and make his pathes plain before ) is to make use of his conscience in enacting laws according to his judgement well advised , as well as his subjects make use of their consciences in obeying them according to their opinion : they that would not be blamed because they cannot in conscience submit to an uniformity imposed , must not blame his majesty , if he could not in conscience but impose an uniformity . prop. . we are all agreed , that as we should convince those meekly that oppose themselves so . . the church by a wise , grave charitable , and solemn discipline dispenced by worthy men . . the magistrate , by just laws and penalties should restrain men from saying , or doing any thing publickly scandalous to , or derogating from the honour , peace , and order of that religion which is esteemed , and therefore settled , as the best and truest . to charge that they teach no other doctrine . tim. . . to charge men not to strive about words to no profit , but the subverting of the hearers , tim. . . to stop their mouths who subvert whole houses : to restrain any man that teacheth otherwise , and consenteth not to wholesom words , who are proud , not knowing nothing , but doting about questions , and strifes of words , whereof cometh envy , strife , raylings , evil surmizings , tim. . not suffering them who call themselves prophets , to teach and seduce gods servants , rev . . jure deorum majestas vindicatur ab eo qui solo deo minor , saith nature , cic. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . jos . cont ap. . nes alio more , aut novo colat : leg. . zab. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it was the grave ▪ advice to augustus , and the care of heathen and jewish government . prop. . we are all agreed , that these restraints ought to be by such penalties , as may be a terror to evil doers : and the king sitting in the throne of judgement , may scatter away all evil with his eyes , especially when an uniformity is prest , not upon the conscience upon pain of damnation , but upon their outward practice , upon pain of the loss of some priviledge , which a publick society can allow to none but those that are true to its interest , and sure to its peace and order enjoyned by god , who is not the author of confusion , but of order , as in all the churches of the saints : to which penalties we are to submit with meekness , possessing our souls with patience , taking care we be not murmurers , or complainers : and though the spirit of the governor be stirred against us , yet let us , not stir out of our place , but by a modest courage pacifie wrath . magnum mundo documentum datum est , parrere . prop. . we are agreed , that as god is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , owing no rule or measure of his actions , but his own good pleasure ; so all his creatures depending upon him , as greater , wiser , and juster then themselves , have their holy limits and bounds set them by god ; which the more they observe , the more rational and divine liberty they enjoy the true and eternal liberty consisting in this , viz. in being freed from chains of darkness and sin : . ignorance of minde . . error of understanding . . perverseness of will. excess of passion . . violence of temptation . . depravedness of custom , prevalency of interest , or delusion of examples wherewith the soul is enthralled , and by the wisdom of the word and power of christ , in being willing to that which we know god would have us , and in doing willingly what ever we so will and know , as most conformable to his will. true liberty is to guide us privately and publickly alone , and with others to guide our thoughts , opinions , judgement , conscience , speech and action , as sober men , by the ingenuous restraints of reason and religion , of modesty , humanity , honor , civility , charity and society : and as sober christians , by the law of god , the established order , good laws , just power and government in things civil and sacred : its fa● from christian liberty to think , speak , act , write , and dispute what he pleases privately and publickly , according as his private perswasions , his prevailing lust , interest and temptations , which other mens importunities may guide him , without regard to right , reason , common order , publick peace , reverence of men , or fear of god , as if they had no yoke of christ upon them , no care of the duties of patience , self denyal , mortification , meekness , charity , modesty , sobriety , together with that comeliness that beseems religion and a christian spirit ; as if it were christian liberty to be led captive to all impudencies and violences , by the devil at his will : and to have that sad misery of doing what we will , by following vain , erroneous , and blasphemous thoughts , raw , undigested and rash fancies and opinions , with irregular , disorderly and unwarrantable ways , whereby men are servants to their lusts , pet. . and are in danger of making it a cloak of maliciousness , to the dissolution of humane societies , with the mutual relations of superiors and inferiors that uphold them , whereas true liberty , that glorious liberty of the sons of god is , . to do such things constantly , cheerfully , and without sinful impediment , which are most proper , and advantageous to the excellent nature of man towards god , in devout piety . . to do those things charitably , orderly , and gravely , and soberly , which are duties of obedience publick or private , which god hath commanded every one , not onely in general , but in particular places , and callings as god hath set them in as free from that malice , uncharitableness , those envys , discontents , and worldly disorders in any kind , as they may have dominion over meer natural , and sinful man : to be free out of a principle of love to obey god and man for the lords sake , in order to gods glory , the p●ace , good example , and benefit of others , in any humane , or christian society . prop. . we are agreed , that there is a liberty of wisdom , piety and charity , which ought to be exercised by governors in church and state , according to their consciences , making such laws and restraints as they in conscience think fit for the publick welfare , although those laws and restraints are against the private opinions and liberties of singular men . publick men thoughts and conscience , and not private , are to be the rule of publick lawes and good : it were as unreasonable as it is impossible , for magistrates to frame lawes according to their subjects consciences , and not their own : and so when they do not regard the pleas of private liberty , to overthrow publick order , they are not to be spoken against as persecuting men , when they onely keep them from those exorbitances that may undo them ; or as oppressing other mens consciences , when they are onely discharging their own duty and consciences which they bear to gods glory and the publick good , for which they must be accountable to god. according to the magistrates conscience , christians truly blessed with tender consciences and meekness of wisdom , are most willing to be kept within christian bounds , and most unwilling to take any liberty either in opinion or manners , beyond what in the truth of the word , or in charity unto the publick peace is permitted , and most thankful for all just restraints . prop . we are agreed , that it is net enough for us to please our selves , rom. . . and satisfie our own consciences , that we do but what we lawfully may , but we ought also to bear one anothers burthen , and do for o hers sake what we may otherwise , and are willing to leave undone , and so fulfill the law of christ , and by love serving one another : omnia libera per fidem , omnia serva per charitatem , in indifferent things ( and that there are some things indifferent we all agree ) we should know and be fully perswaded that all things are lawful : and to purpose and fully resolve for charity and peace ; to use , or forbear the use of those things , as we finde them expedient or inexpedient ▪ he that will have his own way in every thing whatsoever , though others will take offence at it , maketh his liberty but a cloak of maliciousness , by using it uncharitably : we may retain our judgement concerning things indifferent with christian liberty , but we m●st conform our pract●ce for christian charity . i am free ●● my judgement for anyhabit , gesture , &c i will submit in my practice to that which is publickly imposed : i am free in my conscience and opinion by the law of man , concerning things commanded , i may think of them what i please , i am bound in my conscience to submission , active or passive , by the law of god : and i must not do what i please , when orderly ceremonies are enjoyned , not as the party , but as the decencies and becoming circumstances of worship , ( which all allow ) a man may be free to think that there might be more decent ceremonies pitched upon by himself or others , if they were in place or power , and in the mean time submit to the wisdom of those in authority that imposed . prop. . we are agreed , that as the publick constitutions enjoyning orders , decency , and uniformity , tending to edification , restrain not the liberty of conscience , whereby men are free to do , or leave undone some things : so the suggestions of men against those constitutions , do restrain mens liberty , exercise dominion over their mindes , by forbidding them that which we say they are free to : as it is in superstition , to enjoyn that as necessary which is indifferent ; so its superstition to forbid that as sinful , which is in truth indifferent , and therefore lawful ; so making that sin which god never made , and ensnaring mens consciences , and teaching for doctrines the commandments of men ; and therefore we should stand fast in the liberty wherewith christ hath made us free . prop. . we are agreed , that they who can submit some impositions about things , may submit to all which are imposed by the same authority , in the same manner , to the same end . prop. . we are agreed , that no authority can in conscience , or with safety , allow men liberty in ways of worship different from the publick profession and conscience . . not in conscience , because as the good kings of judah , he is to allow no known evil . not in safety , because differences in religion are dangerous to the state , ( when that which should restrain , stirs up mens passions ) therefore josiah , and the king in the gospel , compelled them to come in , to serve the god of their fathers : inde furor vulgo . indeed for men furnish'd with just power in church or state , to leave men in a full liberty of seducing and being seduced , is to concur with the malice of the devil , and the folly , vanity , and madness of mens hearts to the ruine of multitudes . i leave it your own consciences , whether it would not be thought safe , and conscientious by them , if power were in their own hands , and church-affairs left to their ordering , to forbid those things they now mislike , with as much rigor , and necessity of imposition , as the church now enjoyneth them . prop. . we are agreed , that though many godly men should refuse to conform , yet should we submit to order , peace , reason and law , not suffering our selves to be carried away with the high estimation of any men , as to subject our selves to their judgement and wits , without questioning the truth of what they teach , or the lawfulness of what they enjoyn , having not mens persons in admiration , knowing that they are subject to such infirmities as we are . prop . we are agreed , that it is lawful for the magistrate to impose severe punishments upon the small faults of dangerous men of dangerous principles knowing that men of such dispositions who disobey in this , are prepared to disturb in all : so it s not lawful for the people upon the least offence ▪ to cast off necessary duty , as knowing that they are at liberty to pray , preach , &c. with what gesture or garment they will , yet refusing to pray kneeling , or preach in a surplice . o when our clergy at the dreadful day , shall make their audit ; when the judge shall say give your accompts : what , have my lambs been fed , say , do they all stand found ? is there none dead by your defaults ? come shepherds bring them forth that i may crown your labors in their worth , o what an answer will be given by some ! we have been silenc'd : canons strucuks dumb ; the great ones would not let us feed thy flock , unless we play'd the fools and wore a frock : we were forbid unless wee 'd yeeld to sign and cross their brows , they say , a mark of thine . to say the truth , great judge , they were not sed , lord , here they be ; but , lord , they be all dead , ah cruel shepherds ! could your conscience serve not to be fools , and yet to let them starve ? what if your fiery spirits had been bound to antick habits , or your heads been crown'd with peacocks plumes ; had yet been forc'd to feed your saviors dear-bought flock in a fools weed ; he that was scorn'd , revil'd , endur'll the curse of a base death , in your behalfs ; nay worse ; swallow'd the cup of wrath charg'd up to th' brim ; durst ye not stoop to play the fools for him ? prop. . where it is said , that it is wonderful to see so many men rational and sober , to hazard all they have , and refuse the way to rise , which they know as well as others . we are agreed , that this is not the first time that men have sacrificed their present happiness to the honor of their way , living by faith in hope of better times . it was as hazardous to oppose publick authority . as it is now , yet men ventured it with too good success . alas ! they that have so much wisdom a , to controul their superiors , may have so much wisdom too as to cast off some present advantage , for a future hope . prop. . whereas men say , that a general conformity of the ministers , would be general scandal to the people . we are agreed , that we are to please the people onely for their good , while things are in agitation , its lawful for private men to offer their thoughts , with the reasons thereof , modesty and meekly , but after things are once established , as the people must submit , so the ministers should take more care , not to disobey a publick governor , then not to offend a private people , least while we fear to offend one or two private men , we really offend a hundred , affront the magistrate , and despise authority , we must rather offend others , then sin our selves , we must pay depts of justice , before debts of charity , debts of justice in obeying , the magistrate before debts of charity , in pleasing our brethren . prop. . whereas some say , that they could submit to the things , that are established , but that they fear the impositions of more . we are agreed , that we should obey us , for as we may , for peace , and quiet , and leave it to god , what may be further imposed , and let us not suffer our obedience to be superseded by our fears . prop. . whereas it s commonly discoursed , that if the thiugs now imposed were necessary , why were not they constantly practised , if not why were they now so rigorously imposed . we are agreed , that when for decency order , and uniformities-sake , any laws are made there , is the same necessity of obeying them , as their is , of obeying any other laws made for the good of the common-wealth , that such necessity either in the one or the other , ariseth not immediately from the authority of the lawgiver , but from the ordinance of god , who hath commanded us to obey , the ordinances of man for his sake , as long as there is an ordinance of man concerning them is in being . prop. . whereas it offends some men , that they think that laws in matters of religion derogate from the sufficiency of scripture , and the wisdom of god , who have , they think , without such constitutions , sufficiently provided for the church of god , we are agreed , that in actions of common life , as eating , drinking , &c. and in the circumstances of religious actions , we are left to private or publick reason and discretion , guided by the general rule of the scripture : that all things should be done decently , and in order : as good men before the word was written , did by nature the things contained in the law. it was the wisdom of god that appointed us to submit to the wisdom of our superiours in the use of indifferent things , and they derogate from the authority of the scripture , who will not obey them that are to set in order the things that are wanting , according to the customs of the churches of god. prop. . whereas the great offence is , that whatsoever is not of faith , is sin : and that men doubt of the lawfulness of some things , therefore they cannot use them , we are agreed : that ordinarily there is no need of any more warrant for what we do , then this onely , that there is not to our knowledge any law , either of nature or scripture , against them : we are to believe all things indifferent lawful for us to do which are not by good evidence of scripture and reason , declared unlawful : and men whose livelyhood depends upon it , would do well to satisfie their scruples about things imposed , with the solemn consideration of this question : where is this , and this in forbidden ? provided that we have not neglected to inform our judgements the best we could for the time past , and that we are ever ready withal to yield our selves to better information for the time to come : and we are strongly to suspect the principles and grounds that conscience goeth upon , when it putteth us upon the necessity , either of disobeying authority , or of sinning against our judgement . he that resteth his conscience upon this perswasion , that so long as he is unfeignedly desirous to do for the best , and hath not been negligent to use all requisite diligence to inform himself a●ight , god will accept of his good intention therein , and pardon his error if he shall be mistaken in his choice : let him do what he will , he sinnoth not , cor. . . this we are perswaded of , that our own doubts must give place to our superiors commands , which must be obeyed in all things , not manifestly contrary to the revealed will of god : a good conscience feareth not onely to use this , or that ceremony , but feareth also to disobey . sect. particular expedients , in reference to what is enjoyned in the act of uniformity . prop whereas we are required to assent and subscribe , we are agreed that we must consent . with the heart believing , rom. . . . with the mouth professing . . with the hand subscribing , es . . ● . josh . , . kings . . ) to the wholesom words of our lord jesus christ , and to the doctrine which is according to godliness . of which kinde , are the three things to be subscribed to in the aforesaid act , whereof the first is : i a. b. do here unfeignedly declare my unfeigned consent to all , and every thing contained and prescribed in a book , entituled , the book of common prayer , and administration of the sacraments , and other rites and ceremonies of the church of england , according to the use of the church of england ; together with the psalter or psalms of david , pointed as they are to be said or sung in churches , and the form and mauner of making priests and deacons . prop. . we are agreed , that a form of prayer is lawful , . grounded upon the word , numb . . . hos . . . math. . agreeable to the general custom of the church which useth liturgies , liturgy , james , basil , chrysostom ; liturgy of the church of scotland , liturgy of geneva ; the liturgies of the french churches for the instruction of the ignorant , the maintenance of truth , unity and peace ; yea , according to the opinion of the non-conformists liturgies are lawful ; for they composed no less than three in queen elizabeths time , and one since the king came in . prop. . we are agreed , that upon search our lyturgy , comes neerest the primitive ones of any established , beginning with sentences and exhortations according to the scripture , . that the confession is orthodox , that the absolution , the lords prayers , the hymns , the psalms , the chapters , creed , with all the prayers , are such as may be allowed by any that judge charitably . we are agreed , that the people may as well repeate the words of the prayer after the ministers , as say amen after them , to stir up their affections , to declare their consort , to keep up their fervency , suis quisque verbis resipiscentium profiteatur , & preces repetat , and repeat the psalms as moses and mirian , exod. . . and as the angels answer one another , saying , holy , holy , holy , lord god of sabbath . prop. . we are agreed , that the gestures of standing in confession , of kneeling , are our reasonable service , and that the vestures imposed may be used decently according to the rules in st. jerome , divine religion hath one kind of habit , wherein to minister before the lord , and another for ordinary uses belonging to common life , in this we approve st. basils counsel , let him that approveth not his governors ordinances , plainly yet privately shew his dislike , if he have a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the true will of god , and meaning of the scripture , or else let him quietly with silence , do that which is enjoyned . prop. . we are agreed , . that we may safely say those words , when thou didest overcome the sharpness of death , virtually at the beginning of the world : and actually in the fullness of time , thou didest open the kingdom of heaven to all believers . . that we may safely say , god deliver us from sudden death ; that death when it cometh may give us time with david , moses , &c. leisurely to end our lives in peace , praying for posterity , confirming , conforting , and instructing our relutions , dying the death of the righteous , and having our latter ends like his , or if death come suddenly we may prepar for it in our lives . . that we may say , that for our unworthiness we cannot ask , what for the merits of christ we do ask , looking inward we are silencedby our sins , looking upward we speak and prevail . . that we may say , o lord deliver us from all adversity ; if it be possible yet resolving , that not our will , but the will of god be done , in earth as it is in heaven . . that we may safely pray , that god would have mercy upon all men , when the apostle would have supplication to be made for all men , because god was willing that all men should come to the knowledge of the truth and be saved , tim. . . and our charity hopeth all things , cor. . . rom. . . . . math. , , . jer. . . . that we may say , the childe hath all things , that its capable of which are necessary to salvation , when he is baptised . . that we may say according to the scripture , john . that the baptized is regenerated of water , and we hope of the holy ghost , if it die before the commission of actual sin : rom. . . &c. . that we may say , of any particular person , dying in the faith that we bury him in hope of resurrection unto life , by that charity that hopeth all things . prop. . we are agreed , to use the cross and other innocent ceremonies , and ancient as signal marks of faith , humility , purity , courage , and constancy in some parts of the worship and service of the church , as not conferring grace , but as reverential in the solemn calling upon gods name , as decent in gods publick worship , and as instances of our obedience to superiors in church and state , commanding things not contrary to gods word in faith , mysteries , and manners , and thereby reducing the uncertainty of necessary circumstances , ( as time , place , vesture , gesture , measure , and manner , to that fixed unity and comliness as seems to the church most decent , for the nature of the duty , the conveniency of the people , and the beauty of holiness . in a word , we are agreed to submit to the established liturgy , as agreeable to the word of god , joel . . . eccl. . . as agreeable to the custom of the ancient churches , as agreeable to the custom of modern churches , who retain liturgies to this day , as exact as any of theirs , if compared ; and allowed by the foreign churches , by learned doctors , and holy martyrs , who sealed it with their blood ; especially considering that we shall not be so strictly tyed to the liturgy , but that we may use our own gifts before and after sermon . . whereas we are obliged in the next place to declare , that it is not lawful upon any pretence whatsoever , to take arms against the king ; and that we do abhor that traiterous of taking arms by his authority against his person , or against those that are commissionated by him. prop. . we are agreed , that its scandalous to our religion , whose doctrine is obedience . . that its dangerous to our profession , ( such positions provoking rulers to root us out of the earth . ) . that it is contrary to the profession and practice of good men in all ages , whose way was prayer and patience . . that it is contrary to the scripture to resist , and that whosoever resisteth , 't is his own damnation : if any kill with the sword , he shall be killed with the sword : here is the patience of the saints . . that it s originally jesuitical for subjects to raise war against their king. prop. . we are agreed , that the scripture provides not onely for the safety of the royal government , but of the royal person , when we are forbid to despise dominion , to speak evil of dignities , not to resist the powers ordamed of god : o its absurd to follow the kings person with arms in one place , and to preserve his authority in another : miserable is that power that cannot protect the person in whom it is . . whereas we are obliged in the third place to renounce the covenant : prop. . we are agreed , that an unlawful oath cannot tye us to the performances of it , ( because nothing can tye us to sin ) but rather to a repentance for it : as a double sin , . the one , the intention of an evil : the other , swearing of it so intended . prop. . we are agreed , that the solemn league and covenant was unlawful , because it was imposed contrary to the liberty the subject had sworn in the protestation to defend ; to which liberty , the imposition of a new oath , other then is established by act of parliament , king , lords and commons , is said in the petition of right , and in the declaration of the lords and commons , to be contrary . . it was against the consent of the supream magistrate , without whom no publick resolution can be taken contrary to his government , no more then we must allow a childe or servant , to resolve any thing contrary to the welfare of the family where they are , without the father or masters consent . . because it was in the manner of it violent , wherein men had uot power over their own will. . because it was in the matter of it sinful ; as . obliging us to things disorderly beyond our measure , to meddle with things too high for us : . as obliging us to cast out episcopacy as tyrannical , and the liturgy as superstitious : to the scandal of the papist , to whom the cause is hereby yielded , which our learned writers have maintained against them . . to the justifying them in the scorn and reproach of our religion . . to a confession that the laws and punishments made and inflicted against papists here , are unjust . . to the violation of our own consciences , . who approved both , as agreeable to the word of god in our subscriptions at our ordination , and otherwise : who swore to both in our protestation , to defend the true protestant religion expressed in the doctrine of the church of england , and in the oath of supremacy . . who know both to be of apostolical institution , and of ancient practise , and so owned by us , in our subscription to the articles . . as obliging men to extirpate that , which the parliament declared they would not abolish rem . . dec. . decl. . apr. . . unlawful , because obliging us to what is unpossible . because , limiting our care of his majesty , to the defence of true religion , whereas we must be loyal to him , let him profess what religion he please . . it was unlawful in the end of it , which was war , turmult , and sedition , and the ruine of the kingdom , because of that oath the land mourned , and we did many sad things with herod , because of the oath . prop. we are agreed , that as if a woman vowed a vow to the lord , which her father dissalloweth in the day that he heareth of it , not any of her bonds , or vowes shall stand , num. . so now we have vowed a vow , and the father of our countrey disalloweth it , the vow wherewith we have bound our selfs should not stand . prop. . we agree all herein , viz. that the dangerous position abovesaid , and the covenant are of such desperate tendences that if we abjure them not , as we may be deprived by the statute of conformity so we may be proceeded against as dangerous persons , by the statutes of treason , the kingdom will think that he that hath a covenant in his heart hath a war there too , and so must not onely loose his employment but his protection too , as a person not onely to be silenced but confined too . thus at a conference it was agreed how far we ought to submit to a christian magistrates authority , in matters of religion , upon such principles as are owned by mr. baxter , mr. calamy , mr. jenkins , mr. manton , mr. crofton , mr. edwards , mr. case , mr. caryl , and many others , in print before the world . blessed is he that condemneth not himself in that which he alloweth . rom. . . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e §. . §. . ☞ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . thucyd. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . muson . anglorum in genia voria & mobilia : bodinapud ep. worces . hierasp scaliger apud greg. not. ☞ s §. . mr. brinsley . ☞ rutherford's church-governmen . eaxter of church government . hudson , of the church . reyn. peace of the church . baxter , church-government . calvin instit . de ecclesia . mr. jenkins sermon before the parliament on psal . . ward on rom. ● . . bishop reynolds peace of church mr. edwards of toleration . mr. rutherford of toleration . mr. jackson of toleration . mr. vines sermon of heresies . mr. marshal of toleration . mr. caryls sermon before the parliament . mr. crofton of liberty . mr. baxters saints rest . part. . mr. case's sermon of cov●nant breaking . mr. nalton . mr. cheynell . mr. leyford . boltons extent of christian liberty . mr. manton on james . cradocks liberty . mr. gurnals compleat army part . mr. marshal's se●mon before th h. peers . . downham christ : liberty beza de magistrat . zwing . lib. & obed. calvin oposs . gelespysrod . bishop ●eyn ▪ vnity cum verba . mr. cranford , mr. gataker jus divin . regim . ecclesiast . chron. . chron. . rev. . . mr. love. mr. jenkin . mr. case . jus divinum . minist . evang. dr. sandersons preface . ames . fresh suit against ceremoni●s . mr. jeaneys scholast . divinity . part . mr. baxters sheet against the quakers . stillingfleet irenicum . mr. dyke of conscience . dr. harris look , to thy conscience . theodor. eccl. hist . l. . cap. . mr. ball against cann . mr. baxter . basil , ep. . hierom. ezek. . advers . pel. . . chrys . ad pop . antioch . to. irsom . gr. naz. mr. sanders church-government . see mr. jenkins on jvde , ver . . mr. manton , jude . mr. baxter's church-government . mr. brinsley of subjection . amesius case of conscience . mr. downham of oathes . dr. saunderson de juramento . bishop gaudens analysis . bishop tailor conscience . baldwin , de conscientia . se at for defence of his majesty person . love and truth in two modest and peaceable letters concerning the distempers of the present times / written from a quiet and conformable citizen of london to two busie and factious shop-keepers in coventry. walton, izaak, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford 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(eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) love and truth in two modest and peaceable letters concerning the distempers of the present times / written from a quiet and conformable citizen of london to two busie and factious shop-keepers in coventry. walton, izaak, - . [ ], [i.e. ] p. printed by m.c. for henry brome ..., london : . attributed to walton by wing and nuc pre- imprints. error in paging: numbers - omitted; text continuous. reproduction of original in the huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng church of england -- apologetic works. dissenters, religious -- controversial literature. great britain -- politics and government -- - . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - tcp staff (michigan) sampled and proofread - tcp staff (michigan) text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion love and truth : in two modest and peaceable letters . concerning the distempers of the present times . written from a quiet and conformable citizen of london , to two busie and factious shop-keepers in conventry . pet. . . but let none of you suffer as a busie-body in other mens matters . london , printed by m. c. for h●nry brome at the gun in st. pauls church-yard . . to mr. henry brome in st. paul's churchyard , london . sir , i here send you two letters , ( the first writ in the year . ) both writ by a prudent and conformable quiet citizen of london , to two brothers , that now are , or were zealous , and busie shop-keepers in conventry ; to which place i came lately ; and by accident met with a grave divine , who commended them to my reading : and having done what he desired ; i thought them to speak so much real truth , and clear reason , and both so lovingly and so plainly , that i thought them worth my transcribing ; and now , upon second thoughts , think them worth printing , in order to the unbeguiling many men that mean well , and yet have been too busie in medling , and decrying things they understand not . pray , get them to be read by some person of honesty and judgment : and if he shall think as i do , then let them be printed ; for i hope they may turn somewhat to your own profit , but mnch more to the benefit of any reader that has been mistaken , and is willing to be unbeguiled . may . . god keep you sir , your friend . n. n. the first letter concerning comprehension , written . good consin , i am sorry , that the parliaments casting out the bill of comprehension should so much concern you as to put you into such a passion as you exprest against them , and me , at our last nights meeting . sure the company you now converse with , and the strange principles with which they have now possest you , have alter'd your nature , pue turn'd your former reason into prejudice , and unbelief ; if not , you would have believed what i did so seriously affirm to be a known truth : namely , i bat this age is not more severe against the disturbers of the settled peace and government of the church and state , than they were in the very happy days of our late and good queen elizabeth some of the reasons why i said so i do with very much affection tender to your consideration , and to your censure too ; and , that the last may be the more charitable , and you not apt to make the errours or failings of your governours , seem more or greater than indeed they are ; let me intreat that you remember what i have very often said to you ; namely , that malicious men ( of whom really i do not take you to be one ) are the best accusers , and the worst judges . and indeed i fear it would prove to be a very bitter truth , if some did attain that power which too many labour for in these days , in which schism and sedition are taken to be no sins ; even by men who pretend a tenderness of conscience in much smaller matters . and , that i may keep some order , and you be the better satisfied in what i intend in this letter ; i earnestly intreat that you will at your next leisure read in mr. cambdens true history of the life and reign of our good queen elizabeth ; in which you may find , what care was then taken to prevent schism , and the sad confusion that attends it ; and , how the contrivers of libels , and dispersers of them , have been severely punish ; many of them even to death ; as namely , henry barrow , and many of his sectaries for disturbing the publick peace of the nation , by scattering abroad their monsterous opinions ; as also , for affirming the church of england to be no true church ; and the like : which you may find written by the said mr. cambden in the thirty-sixth year of that good queens reign . but , i commend more especially to your consideration , the story and sad death of hacket , and his adherents ; as namely , of wigirton , arthington , and copinger , all schismaticks , and of one sect and brotherhood : but i say , i do most seriously commend to your consideration the beginning and death of the said hacket ; who was first a pretender to a tenderness of conscience , but a schismatick ; and stopt not there , but became by degrees , so fully possest by the evil spirit , the spirit of pride and opposition , that he publickly reviled the queen , the archbishop of canterbury , and the lord chanceilour ; and being transported with a furious zeal did at last become from a schismatick to be so infamous an heretick , that he was condemned to death for his abominable errors ; at which time he reviled and curs'd his judges ; and died blaspheming and reproaching his creator : this you may read in the thirty-fourth year of queen elizabeth , as it is written by honest learned mr. cambden , who concludes this sad story of hachet with this observation , thus doth the enemy of mankind bewitch those men whom he seeth are not concent to he wise unto sobriety . these stories i say , and too many like them , you may find in mr. cambdens history of queen elizabeth ; and you may find the like in bishop spotswoods history of the church of scotland ; and also find the like in mr. fullers history of the church of great frittain ; in which you may observe what labour hath been used by the discontented non-conformists to unsettle the government of the church of england , and consequently of the state ; and may there also find , how severely many of them have been punished : so that you need not wonder at what ; said last night ; nor think these the only times of persecuting men of tender consciences . and for the better confirmation of what i now write , i will refer you to one testimony more , in the time of our late peaceful king james : which testimony you may view in the second volume of the reports of judge crook , a man very learned in the law. but , i shall first tell you the occasion of that report , which was this , the non-conformists ( which are in that report called by the name of puritans ) had given out that the king had an intent to set up or give a toleration to popery ; and , they had also compos'd a large petition complaining of the severity of some usage , and of some laws that concerned themselves ; and defired that the severity of those laws might be mitigated ; these and other like desires were in the said petition ; to which they had procured not less than seven hundred hands ; and the close of the petition was , that if these desires were not granted , many thousands of his subjects would be discontented : which indeed was not a threatning , but was understood to be somewhat like it . this report of his majesties intent to set up or tolerate popery , begot many fears and discontents in the nation , and to prevent greater disturbances the king did appoint many of his privy council , and all the judges of the land , to meet together in the star-chamber , in which assembly the lord chancellour declared to them the occasion of this their publick convention ; and asked the judges this following question : ( as you may read it in the very same words in the said learned judges reports in the second year of the reign of king james . ) whether it were an offence punishable , and what punishment they deserved , who fra●ed petitions and collected a multitude of bands thereto , to prefer to the king in a publick cause as the puritans had done , with an intimation to the king , that if be denied their suit , many thousands of his subjects would be discontented . whereto all the judges answered , that it was an offence finable at discretion , and very near treason and felony in the punishment ; for , they tended to the raising sedition , rebellion , and discontent among the people : to which resolution all the lords agreed . and then many of the lords declared , that some of the puritans bad raised a false rumour of the king. that he intended to grans a toleration to papists : which offence the judges conceived to be h●inously finable by the rules of the common law , either in the kings bench , or by the king and his council ; or now , ( since the statute of the third of henry the seventh ) in the star-chamber . and thelords severally declared , how much the king was discontented with the said false rumour and had made but the day before a protestation to them , that be never intendedit ; and , that he would spend the last drop of bloud in his body , before he would do it ; and prayed , that before he or any of his issue should maintain any other religion than what he truly professed and maintained , that god would take them out of the world. this you may find in that report of that learned judge , as it was left among many other of reports , all exactly written with his own hand ; and , as they are now publisht by sir hirebottle grimstone , who is now the worthy master of the rolls . and you may note , that the said reports were publisht in the year . at which time , oliver the tyrant was in his full power ; and , you may there find , that even all olivers judges allowed these reports to be made publick , and subseribed their names to them ; and with oliver's consent doubtless . for , he had found , that those very non conformists , whose sedition helpt him into his power ; became after a short time as restless and discontent with him , as they had been with their lawful king ; and indeed as willi g to pull him down , as they had been diligent to set him up . dear cousin ! these places , to which i have referred you , for a testimony of what i said , are not to be doubted ; and , though you would not then give any credit to what i assured you i knew to be a truth ; yet i hope you now will : if not , search , and you shall find them true . and now seriously sir ! let me appeal to your own conscience , and ask ( though you would not then believe me ) how easily would you have given credit to any stranger , that had brought you news of any error committed by any bishop or their chaplains ; or by any of the conformable clergy , though there were not any reasonable probability for it . dear cousin , consider what i say , and consider there is a great stock of innocent bloud to be answered for ; not only the bloud of our late vertuous king and the bloud of the archbishop of canterbury , and the lord strafford , whose deaths were occasioned by the indiscreet zeal and restless fury and clamours of the non-conformists : and not only the bloud of these , but the ruine of many good and innocent families , that now eat the bread of sorrow , by being impoverished and undon by these troublesom pretenders to conscience : and which is worse , there is a corruption of the innocence and manners of the greatest part of the nation to be answered for ; and all this occasioned by our late civil war , and that war , occasioned by the fury and zeal of the discontented restiess non conformists ; and them only ; and note , that till then we knew not the name of independent , or of seeker , or qusker . cousin these are the sad effects of these busie-bodies ; many of whom god hath still so blinded that they cannot yet see the errors they have run themselves and the nation into ; nay , that would imbroil it again into greater ruine than not be complied with in their peevish desires , which they miscall tenderness of conscience . dear cousin , i will not say all , but indeed , too many of the men with whom you comply , and do so much magnifie , are too like simeon and levi that were brethren in this iniquity . and as you love the peace of the church , in which you were baptized ; and the peace of the land in which you were born , and the laws by which you enjoy what you have ; nay , as you love the peace of your own soul , draw back , and let it not enter any more into their councils or confederacy ; but at last take notice that though neither you , nor any of your associates scruple at the sin of scbism or sedition , but rush into it without consideration or fear , even as a horse rushes into the battel ; yet , i pray take notice that st. paul in his epistle to the galatians , reckons it with the deeds of the flesh , even with murder and witchcrast , which you so much abhor ; and let me tell you , many think sedition a more hainous sin than they , by reason of the more evil and destructive effects of it : for , murder may become so by taking away the life of but one single person : and witchcraft hath its limits and bounds set to it , perhaps so as not to take away the life of any man , but only to do mischief to a single person , or a family , and must end there . but who knows the limits of sedition ? or , when the fire is kindled , which is intended by seditious men , who can , who is able to quench it ? and for some proofs of the miserable effects of it , though i might give you too many instances of them in former times ; yet i will only refer you to the late long parliament now fresh in memory , and the woful effects of that civil war , begot and maintained by schismatical , seditious , discontenced men , that believed themselves fit to be reformers , when god knows well they were not . and for the sorrow you express for those men of tender consciences , that are scandalized at wearing a surplice , kneeling at receiving the sacrament , the cross in baptism , and the like ; and would have them therefore taken away , that so many , so learned , and so godly men might by taking them away , be brought to a conformity . and made capable of preaching the gospel , which otherwise they cannot do , by being scandalized at these ceremonies : i now ask you , what if more men , and more learned men , and more godly men , and as tender-conscienced men , shall be scandalized by their being taken away ? what care will you , or those of your party , take for their tender consciences ? nay , i ask again , what if we forget or neglect the tender consciences of our own party , and comply with yours ? what security can you or they give us , that this shall satisfie them so as to ask no more when this is granted ? or , that a year hence their disciples , or their successours shall rest satisfied with what is now desired or granted ? really , i cannot think any security can be given , but that all this being granted , yet any man of a melancholly , or a malicious , or a peevish , or a santastical , or a wanton conscience ; or a conscience that inclines to get reputation , and court applause , may call his own a tender conscience , and become seditious , and restless , if his tender conscience be not complied with : and so no end of their desires , nor any more safety by granting what is desired . i shall next endeavour to satisfie your desire , or rather your challenge , why i go so constantly to the church service ; and my answer shall be all in love and in sincerity . i go to adore and worship my god who hath made me of nothing and preserved me from being worse than nothing . and this worship and adoration i do pay him inwardly in my soul , and testifie it outwardly by my behaviour ; as namely , by my adoration , in my forbearing to cover my head in that place dedicated to god , and only to his service ; and also , by standing up at the profession of the creed , which contains the several articles that i and all true christians profess and believe ; and also by my standing up 〈◊〉 giving glory to the father , the son , and to the holy ghost ; and confessing them to be three persous , and but one god. and ( secondly ) i go to church to praise my god for my creation and redemption , and for his many deliverances of me from the many dangers of my body , and more especially of my soul in sending me redemption by the death of his son my saviour ; and for the constant assistance of his holy spirit ; a part of which praise i perform frequently in the psalms , which are daily read in the publick congregation . and ( thirdly ) i go to church publickly to confess and bewail my sins , and to beg pardon for them , for his merits who died to reconcile me and all mankind unto god , who is both his and my father ; and as for the words in which i beg this mercy , they be the letany and collects of the church , composed by those learned and devout men whom you and i have t●usted to tell us which is , and which is not the written word of god ; and trusted also to translate those scriptures into english. and in these collects you may note , that i pray absolutely for pardon of sin , and for grace to believe and serve god : but i pray for health and peace , and plenty , conditionally , even so far as they may tend to his glory , and the good of my soul , and not further : and this confessing my sins , and begging mercy and pardon for them ; i do in my adoring my god , and by the humble posture of kneeling on my knees before him : and in this manner , and , by reverend sitting to hear some chosen parts of gods word read in the publick assembly i spend one hour of the lords day every forenoon ; and half so much time every evening . and since this uniform and devout custom , of joyning together in publick onfession , and praise , and prayer , and adoration of god , and in one manner , hath been neglected , the power of christianity and humble piety is so much decayed , that it ought not to be thought on , but with sorrow and lameutation : and , i think especially by the non-conformists . and lattly , ( for i am tedious beyond my intention ) whereas you , and your party , would have the bishops and cathedral-church lands sold to supply the present necessities of the nation ; i say , first , god prevent the nation from such necessities , as shall make them guilty of so many curses as have been by the doners of those lands intailed with thole lands upon those men , that alienate them to any other use than for the use of those that shall serve at god's altar , to which end the priests portion was kept with care and conscience till the days of king henry the eighth , who is noted , to make the first breach of those oaths that were always taken and kept by his predecessors , and taken by himself too , to preserve the church-lands ; and it is noted , that he was the first violator of those many laws made also to preserve them ; out of which lands he took , at the dissolution of the abbies , a part for himself ; exchanged a part with others , that thirsted to thrive by the dissolution ; and gave the rest to be shar d amongst the complying nobility , and other families , that then were in greatest power and favour with him ; concerning which ( if you desire a further information ) i refer you to a little treatise written by the learned sir henry spelman , ( called de non temerandis ecclesiis , ) and especial'y to the preface before it ; in which you may find many sad observations of the said king ; and find there also , that more of the nobility , and those other families , and their children that then shared the church lands , came to die by the sword of justice , and other eminent misfortunes in twenty years , than had suffered in four hundred years before the dissolution ; and for a proof of which , he refers you to the parliament rolls of the twenty-seventh of that king. and to me it seems fit that the observations of the ruine , and misfortune of the other families that were sharers of the church-lands , made by that pious and learned knight since the said twenty years , ( which he left written ) are not also made publick ; but , possibly they may pare too near the quick , and are therefore yet forborn . i will say nothing of queen elizabeth ; but for king james , i will say he did neither follow king henry's , nor her president ; and his childrens children sit this day upon his throne . and for his son , charles the first , ( who is justly called the martyr for the church : ) he had also well considered the oaths taken by all his ancestors , and by himself too at his coronation , to preserve the lands and rights of the church ; and therefore in his book of penitential meditations and vows , made in his sad solitude and imprisonment at holmby ; you may , in that chapter of the covenant there find , that at that time when he apprehended himself in danger of death , yet , that this was then his resolution . the principal end of some men in this covenant is the abasing of episcopacy into presbytery , and of robbing the church of its lands and revenues ; but i thank god as no man lay more open to the sacrilegious temptation of usurping them , ( which issuing chiefly from the crown , are held of it , and can legally revert only to the crown with my consent ) so i have always had such a perfect abborrence of it in my soul , that i never found the least inclination to such sacrilegious reformings ; and yet no man hath a greater desire to have bishops and all church-men so reformed , that they may best deserve and use , not only what the pious munificence of my predecessors have given to god and the church , but all other additions of christian bounty . but no necessity shall ever ( i hope ) drive me or mine to invade or sell the priests lands ; which pharaoh's divinity and joseph's true piety abborred to do . i had rather live , as my predecessor henry the third sometimes did , on the churches alms , than violently to take the bread out of the bishops and ministers mouths . there are ways enough to repair the breaches of the state without the ruins of the church ; as i would be a restorer of the one , so i would not be an oppressor of the other , under the pretence of publick debts ; the occasions of contracting them were bad enough , but such a discharging of them would be much worse . i pray god neither i nor mine may be accessary of either . sir , i have been longer than i intended ; for which i crave your pardon ; and beg of god , that you may at last see and well consider the many errors that your indiscreet zeal hath led you into ; and that you and your party may see also the many miseries it hath helpt to bring upon others ; and that for the remainder of your days you and they may redeem the time past , by repenting your indiscreet zeal , and study to be quiet , and to do your own business ; to this i shall encourage you , and that done , to live as unoffensively to others , and as strictly to your self as you do intend , and by god's grace added to your endeavours , he shall make you able ; and i humbly beseech almighty god , that you and i may daily practice an humble and a peaceable piety , so humble and peaceable a piety as may stop the mouths of all gain-sayers ; for , it is certain such holy and quiet living will bring peace at the last . and in this the almighty god give me grace to be like you . study to be quiet , and to do your own business , thes. . . february the . . your affectionate friend , and cosin , r. w. the second letter . dear cousin , i return you , my unfeigned thanks for your letter of the . instant , which i received three days past ; it was mixt with love and anger , but i shall in this my answer , observe what you so earnestly desire ; namely , not to justifie the errors or irregularities of those that you call my party , or my clergy . and for some testimony , that i will do what i prosess , i will begin with a confession , that i think as you say ; that when a clergy-man appears in a long , curled , trim periwig a large tippet , and a silk cassock , or the like vain and costly cloathing : if he preaches against pride , and for mortification , his hearers are neither like to believe him , or practise what he preaches , either then , or at other times , though what he says be an undoubted truth : because example is of greater power to incline men to vice , than precepts have to persuade to virtue . and i wish as heartily as you do , that all such clergy-mens wives as have silk cloaths , be-daubed with lace , and their heads hanged about with painted ribands , were enjoyned penance for their pride : and their husbands punisht for being so tame , or so lovingly-simple , as to suffer them ; for , by such cloaths , they proclaim their own ambition , and their husbands folly . and i say the like , concerning their striving for precedency ; and for the highest places in church pews . and i wish as heartily as you do , that double benefices were not dispensed with , to such an inconvenience as is now too visible . and that no dispensations might be granted for any man to be prebend , or , canon-residentiary of two churches : such as westminster and durham ; or windsor and wells : because residence , and the other duties , required in those places , is not consistent with their distance from each other ; nor , with the donors inteution : and also , because such a single prebend , is a fair support for an humble clergy-man , and if he be proud or covetous , he deserves not so much . and , i confess also , what you say of a clergy-mans bidding to fast on the eves of holy-days , in lent , and the ember weeks : and i wish those biddings were forborn , or better practised by themselves ; for it is too visible they do not what the church for good reasons enjoyns them ; and they others , in the churches name . and , i wish as heartily as you can , that they would not only read , but pray , the common prayer ; and , not huddle it up so fast , ( as too many do ) by getting into a middle of a second collect , before a devout hearer can say amen to the first . but , you ought to consider , that there be ten thousand clergy-men in this nation , ( for there are nine thousand parish churches in it , besides colledges and chappels ) and the number of them that be thus faulty are not many , when compared with those that be grave , and regular : and , i could name many of the episcopal clergy , whose lives are so charitable , humble , and innocent , that they might say to their parishioners , as st. paul of himself to his philippians , walk so as you have me for an example . but , i must confess there are too many that do not live so ; and , with whom i am as much offended , as you express your self to be . and now , having unbowelled my very soul thus freely to you , and i protest , as sincerely and truly as i can express my self : my hope is , that i shall in what follows appear to be so uninterested in any party , that where i speak evident truth and reason , you will assent unto it ; in which hope , i will endeavour to lay before you , in my plain way , the many inconveniences , that would i think follow , if that liberty were granted which you and your party have so long , and do still so earnestly strive for ; the effects of which liberty would be schism , heresie , rebellion , and misery , from which god prevent us . i did in a letter , writ now some years past , endeavour to unbeguile your brother : and , though it did not at that present wholly do what i designed ; yet it abated so much of that furious zeal that had prepossest him , that he declared on his death-bed , the remembrance of those hours spent in devotion , and acts of charity , were then his comfort , and those spent in disputes , and opposition to government , were now a corrosive , or ( as solomon says of ill-gotten riches ) like gravel in his teeth . and my dear cozen , in hope of the like good success , i shall , in the following part of my letter , commend the same , or like arguments to your consideration in order to the undeceiving you : and i shall not be so curious for words or method , as diligent to speak reason and truth plainly , and without provocation . and first , i will consider our happiness that were born , baptized , and do now live in the church of england , which is believed by the most learned of all foreign churches , to be the most orthodox and apostolical , both for doctrine and discipline , of all those very many that have reformed from the corruptions of the church of rome . and i think it is worthy your noting ; that those bishops and martyrs , that assisted in this reformation , did not ( as sir henry wotton said wisely ) think the farther they went from the church of rome , the nearer they got to heaven , ( for they might go too far ) but , they did with prudent and deliberate consideration , retain what was consistent with gods word , and the practice of the most apostolical , primitive , and purest times ; as may appear by the many unanswerable reasons that have been given against both the non-conformists and papists that have excepted against our reformation : the first , for retaining too much ; and the latter , for not enough . for you ought to note , that neither of them have ever writ against the doctrine or discipline of this church , but they have received answers to their damage . and this being considered , you ought to lay to heart the disturbance that many of you , that pretend to tenderness of conscience , have formerly made , and do still make , in this church and state , even at this present time . and you ought to consider , that if this church were overthrown , the church of rome would make it their great advantage ; and therefore many of them do encourage and assit you in this present disturbance , and for no other end : and therefore , look about you in time , and do not say , when it is too late , you meant not to bring in popery : but remember i once told you , there was a lawyer that was so ignorant . that he thought he spoke against his clients adversary , when he spoke for him , and meant it not . and after such a manner you act for the church of rome : for let me tell you that if ever popery or a standing army , be set up in this nation , ( which god grant i may never see ) it is the indiscrect zeal , and restless activity of you and your party that will bring both in , though you mean it not . let me ask you seriously , can you think the powerful man , that is now become of the romish church , did love you so much , or , like your principles so well , as to get a suspension of the laws against conventicles , because he liked your opinions , or your practices , when the power was in your hands , in the time of the late mischievous long parliament ? or can you think , he or his party did hold a correspondence with some of the chief of your party , for any other end , but to assist in the ruine of the english church ? no doubtless ; for they know , and , you ought to consider , that if that were but down , there were no visible bank to stop the stream of popery : and then , farewel the liberty and care of tender consciences : there would be an end of that cajouling and flattery . and next , let me ask you this friendly question : do you think there is such a sin as heresie ? and if you think there be , let me ask you , whether he that holds heretical opinions should be suffered to go up and down to poyson and persuade others to his belief ? and if you believe he ought not so to do , then i ask , whether heresie can be known to be heresie , or prevented , or punisht , but by some power trusted in the hands of some person or persons whom the highest power hath chosen and trusted to judg what is heresie : and then , prevent , or suppress and punish it . and if you grant this , which no man of reason will deny ) i hope you will grant clergy-men , whose time hath been spent in such studies as have enabled them to know truth and falshood , are the fittest to judg what is heresie : and if you grant this , then these judges must have some name to distinguish them from others of the inferiour clergy . and , if by a name of distinction ? i hope the known name of bishop ( or church governour ) which is so frequently used in scripture , and the writings of all the fathers of the church , and so well known in this and all nations , will not be by you excepted against . and this is told you in order to remembring you , that in the time of the late long parliament , . the common citizens had been so madded , by the discourse and sermons of the nonconforming ministers , ( which pretended tenderness of conscience ) that they , being possest with a furious zeal , went by troops to the parliament at westminster , clamoured , and assronted the bishops , as they went thither , and cried out , no bishops ! no bishops ! that is to say , no judges of heresie or schism : no punishing of these , which you call sins ; but , we know are not : we know what is truth , and resolve to do what is good in our own eyes . and by such clamours , and the malicious , misguided , and active zeal that then possest those people , and a minor part of the parliament then sitting : the major and more prudent part of it , were so affronted , and threatned , that they appeared not ; and in their absence , the bishops voted as useless , as the said zealous and ignorant common people had desir'd . and now the hedge of government , and punishment being broken down : dell , the arch-heretick , printed his book against the holy ghost ; and that , and so many such other haeresies and blasphemies were then vented , printed , and justifified : as i am neither willing to remember , or name . my good cousin , this was the effect of that ignorant zeal then ; and , to this it tends now again : and to this it will come , if god be not so good to this sinful nation , as to make the women , the shop-keepers , and the middle-witted people of it , jest busie , and more humble and lowly in their own eyes , and to think that they are neither called , nor are fit to meddle with , and judge of the most hidden and mysterious points in divinity , and government of the church and state : and instead of being busie bodies , ( which st. peter accounts to be a sin , pet. . . ) to follow that counsel which st. paul gives to his thessalonians , to study to be quiet , and to do their own business , thes. . . i have told you , how the major part of the parliament , and the bishops were used by the minor part , and those pretenders to conscience , that were of their party . now , give me leave to tell you , how these zealous men , having gotten into all power , used the two universities of this nation , and those of the beneficed clergy , that would not violate those oaths they had taken , both when they took their degrees in the university , and at their entring into holy orders , at their being made deacons and priests : as also , their oaths to the bishop at their admission into their spiritual livings , and the care of souls . and first for the usage of the universities : doubtless , all rational and uninterested men cannot but think the universities fittest to make or judge of all lawful or unlawful oaths : as also , of obedience to governours : but it was so far otherwise , that very unlearned , and very unfit men , were sent to visit , judge , and reform them . and , by them was also sent the covenant , and other oaths to be taken without disputing ; to be taken , even by all , from the lowest graduate to the highest in order or power ; or to lose their subsistence by being expelled both their colledges and the university . and this was executed with very great strictness , and as much cruelty , by these pretenders to tenderness of conscience . and in like manner were all conformable beneficed ministers used by a committee of cruel and ignorant triers ; who were to examine and judge of their learning , and their measures of grace : and if they were by them judged defective in either , then they were unfit to hold their good livings ; and by this means , and their imposing the covenant and other oaths , and their refusing to take them , those good livings became void , and fit for those tryers themselves , or their friends , that had learning and grace ; ( and gratitude too . ) and they were quickly got into possession , and the right owners as quickly imprisoned for not taking the covenant , and other oaths , contrary both to their consciences , and the many oaths they had formerly taken . solomon in his book of wisdom , chap. . makes the wickedness of the ungodly first to blind them ; and then he makes them to say , our power is the law of righteousness . and such was the power and law of these tryers , and such was their cruel usage of that power ; as was too sadly testified by the great suffering of the consormable clergy : many , whose great poverty and other sufferings were such , and undergone with so much patience , and so calm a fortitude ( for many had wives , and many children ) that i protest , i heard a very considerable papist say in those times , that if their clergy would have suffered half so much in the days of king edward the sixth , the religion of the protestants had never prevailed in england . which saying scemed to me very considerable . and i think this to be considerable also ; that those tryers , and their brethren of the several committees , came by degrees to distinghish themselves from others , by calling themselves . the godly party : and by degrees came to such a confidence that they only were so ; that they made god to be as cruel and ill natured a god as they were men : not allowing him to save any , but themselves , and their party . but i will urge this no farther ; lest the truth i write seem too bitter . but i return to what may seem more considerable , and probably less provoking . i do observe , that your party that scruple many small things , scruple not at the great sin of schism : i think , they do scarce consider , or think there is such a sin . and this is the more to be wondred at , because , in all the reformed churches in foreign nations they think otherwise , and punish it . and they think the doctrine , and discipline , and publick worship of god in our church to be most apostolical , and most agreeable to the word of god : and many of them wish theirs were like to ours . and , for a testimony of this , i refer you to a view of their several approbations of it , as they be collected and summed up , and lately published by dr. durell , sometimes preacher of the reformed french church in the savoy in london . and for one testimony that the sin of schism ought to be better considered , and carefully avoided by all people , i shall in what follows give you a relation that may prove i am not singular in this opinion : wishing most affectionately that it may proveas useful as it is true ; and as i intend it . in the late persecution of the conformable clergy , there was dr. eleazer duncon , a prebend , ( i think of ely , or durham ) a man of singular learning , and of an unblemisht life ; but sequested he was ; and you may guess why . this good man being sequested , and so made useless as to the service of gods church publickly : and being independent of the world , as to wife and children ; and weary of beholding the ruine of so many sacred structures , the cruel usage , contempt , and poverty of the conformable clergy , ( for many of them had wives and children ) resolved to spend some part of the remaining part of his life in travel : and thereby to inform himself by conference and observation , what the belief and publick worship of god was , both in the greek and all the latine churches ; not only those that depend , but those that be independent on the church of rome ; and he did so , to his great satisfaction : and after some years so spent , in his return homeward ( which was in the year . ) he took venice in his way : to which place he came indisposed as to his health ; and immediately fell into a dangerous fever . this good man was in his long travel so noted for his learning , and the sanctity of his life , that the day after his arrival in venice he was sent to by father fulgentio , who had been the pupil , and was now the successor to father paul in his colledge of the service ( father paul and fulgentio are both so known and valued by all the learned of italy , and all other christian nations , that they neither need my character or commendations ) to enquire his health , and an offer of advice to procure it . and , in order to both , he would wait on him next day , if he pleased to allow it . the last of which being thankfully accepted ; the father did the next day at a scasonable hour make him a charitable visit : and after a loving and quiet conference , the father having treated him with words of christian compassion , offered him a supply of money if he needed ; and being ready to take his leave , told the doctor , he and-his colledge should pary for him both day and night . which good office the doctor most humbly accepted of , and after giving thanks , added this : father , your charity is the more perfect , in that you will do this christian office for one that your church accounts an heretick . to which the father's reply was ; but i do not : i look upon you as a true catholick ; yea , as a confessor , forced out of your native country for the profession of the most true religion ; for , i look upon the church of england , as i know it by your liturgy , articles and canons ( i know not your practice ) to be the most apostolical church in the whole world , and the church of rome to be at this time the most impure . after which ingenuous profession , the father observing the doctor to grow faint and uneasie , left him for that time ; but , after the doctors recovery , and during his stay in venice , the father and he had many free and friendly discourses , of the same subject , in one of which , the doctor said : father , your confession of the impurity of the roman church and the . of your own objections , lately shew'd to me against it , require an apology for your continuing in that communion . to which the fathers reply was : a man may live in an inficted city , and not have the plague ; my judgment and publick practice in religion are both so well known here , and at rome , ( and both to my danger and damage ) that i may continue in it with more safety than others : and , separation may be a sin in me , who judge the unity of the church in which i was baptized and confirmed , and the peace of the state in which i was born , to be preforred before my private opinion , interest , or satisfaction ; and i think , to commit a schisin , and separate from that church , would make me guilty of the sin of a scandal justly given ; and therefore live in it , and die in it i must , though it be the impurest of christian churches . but let him that now is not of it , never be of that church , which is so far departed from the primitive purity , and now maintained only by splendour , and the maxims , and practice of polity . if you doubt the truth * of this relation , i will give you unquestionable confirmation of it at our next meeting . it has been longer than i intended , and i beg your pardon ; and beg you also , to consider , with what inconsiderable zeal you and your party rush into schism , and give just cause of scandal by opposing government , and affronting that church in which you were born , and baptized , ( and i hope confirmed by a bishop . ) i think the doing so , requires your sad and serious consideration . for if there be such sins as schism and scandal ( and if there were not , they could not have names in scripture : ) then , give me leave to tell you , i cannot but wonder that you and the scruple-mongers of your party , should rush into them , without any tenderness , or scruple of conscience . and here let me tell you , the church of england , which you oppose , enjoyns nothing contrary to gods word ; and hath summed up in her creeds and catechism , what is necessary for every christian to know and to do : and can you , that are a shop-keeper , or private man , think that you are fit to teach and judge the church , or the church fit to teach and judge you ? or can you think the safety or peace of the state or church in which you live should depend upon the scruples and mistakes of a party of the common people , whose indiscreet and active zeal makes them like the restless scribes and pharisees , mat. . who compass sea and land to get parties to be of their opinions , and by that means beget confusion in both ? no , doubtless : common reason will not allow of this belief ; for a liberty to preach and persuade to your dangerous principles , would enflame the too hot and furious zeal of so many of your party ; and beget so many more restless and dangerous contentions , that there could be neither quiet or safety in a nation , but by keeping a standing army * , which i know you detest , and from the cause of which god deliver us . i have told you often , that samuel says , sam. . . rebellion is like the sin of witchcraft ; and i cannot tell you too often that schism is too like that mysterious sin ; for when the fire of schism and rebellion is kindled , no man knows where it will end . consider this , and remember , that st. jude accounts them that make sects , to be fleshly ; and not to have the spirit of god , which too many of your fraternity pretend to . and now , after so long seriousness , give me liberty to be so pleasant as to tell you a tale , by which i intend not to provoke you , but to explain my meaning . there was a north-country man , that came young and poor to london , to seek that which he call'd his fortune , and it proved to be an hostler in an inn of good note in that city , in which condition he continued some years , and by diligence and frugality get and saved so much money , that in time he became the master of that inn. and not long after his arrival to that happiness , he sent for three of his neeces , one to serve him in his kitchin ; and the other two did serve for some years in a like condition in other houses , 'till mine host their unkle died ; who , at his death , left to each of them a hundred pound , to buy each of them a north-country husband ; and also to each of them ten pound to buy new cloaths , and bear their charges into the north , to see their mother . the three sisters resolved to go together ; and the day being appointed , two of them bought very fantastical cloaths , and as gaudy ribbands , intending thereby to be noted and admired ; but the third was of a more frugal humour , ( yet aimed at admiration too ) and said she would save her money , wear her old cloaths , and yet be noted and get reputation at a cheaper rate : for she would hold some singular new fantastical opinion in religion , and thereby get admirers , and as many as they should ; and it proved so . and doubtless this is the ambition of many women , shop-keepers , and other of the common people of very mean parts , who would not be admired or noted if they did not trouble themselves and others , by holding some odd , impertinent , singular opinions . and tell me freely , do not you think that silence would become our cosin mrs. b — than to talk so much and so boldly , against those clergy-men , and others that bow at the altar , ( she says to the altar ) and use other like reverence in churches , where she and her party are so familiar with god as to use none ? and concerning which let me tell you my thoughts , and then leave you to judge . almighty god in the second commandment says , he would have none to bow down or worship a graven image : intimating , as i suppose , a jealousie , lest that reverence or worship , which belongs only to him , be ascribed or given to an idol , or image . but , that reverence and worship does belong to him , and was always paid to him , is to me manifest by what the prophet david says , psal. . i will in thy fear worship towards thy holy temple . and again , i will praise thy name , and worship towards thy holy temple . and again , psal. . . o let us worship , and fall down , and kneel before the lord these and many more might be urged out of the old testament . and in the new , you may see it is a duty to worship god. first , st. paul says , heb. . . we have an altar . and you may note , rev. . . where the angel that had shewed st. john a vision , forbad him to fall down to him , but bad him fall down and worship god. and again , chap. . . worship him that made heaven and earth . i omit more testimonies which might be multiplied , and shall tell you next , that churches are sacred , and not to be used prophancely : for you may note , that our saviour did , with a divine indignation , whip the money-changers out of the temple for polluting it ; and said , his house should be called the house of prayer . and let me tell you , that in the primitive times , many of those humble and devout christians , whose sudden journeys , or businesses of present necessity , were such as not to allow them time to attend the publick worship and prayers of the church , would yet express their devotion by going into a church or oratory , and there how at the altar , then kneel and beg of god to pardon their sins past : and to be their director and protector that day ; and having again bowed toward the east at the altar , begin their journey , or business , and they thought god well pleased with so short a prayer , and such a sacrifice . much more might be said for bowing at the altar , and bowing toward the east : but i forbear . and now let me ask you seriously ; do you think this , which i think to be a duty , ought to be forborn , because our cosin and her party are scandalized at it ? or do you think when i , in a late discourse , told her , how restless and active her unkle , and father , and the rest of the presbyterian party had been in promoting the late consusions , and placing all power in that parliament , . that murthered dr. laud , the late religious bishop of canterbury , the late good and pious king charles , and were the cause of spilling so much innocent bloud , and ruine of so many harmless familles ? can you think hers to be a reasonable excuse : that god had determined or appointed this , because we were a sinful nation . it shall be granted , that we were ( god knows we still are ) a sinful nation : and deserved a heavy punishment ; and god did punish us justly ; but they had no appointment to be the executioners of that justice : they appointed themselves , first to judge , and then to be the executioners of his will. and before i pass further , i pray observe , it was gods will , that his only son our saviour should be betrayed : but who would be the judas to do it ? or the souldiers that crucified him ? or could judas look back with comfort that he was used in betraying him ? i hope it is far from your thought to think or say so . let me tell you , that the learned dr. abbot , the late lord archbishop of canterbury , that was next before dr. laud , ( whose head your long parliament cut off ) intended to kill a buck , . but the arrow did so glance , that he kill'd the keeper immediately . the church of england judges sudden death to be punishment , and therefore prays against it . and though it is certain god would not have punished that keeper with a sudden death if the keeper had not deserved it ; and certain also that the good bishop thought so ; yet he lamented to the last hour of his own life , that his hand was used to bring sudden death upon another . and he testified his sorrow , by what i shall relate to you . after that restless night , which followed this sad accident , he sent early in the morning for the keepers wife ; bemoan'd himself to her , and begg'd her pardon ; which being obtained , he setled upon her an annuity , by which she was enabled to live with much more ease and plenty , though probly with less comfort , than if she had still enjoyed her husband . for her two daughters , he provided competent portions ; and a better education and settlement for her three sons , than the father could probably have made if he had still lived . this he did for them . and as for himself , this sad accident begot in him that which st. paul rejoyced to find in his corinthians , cor. . . even a godly sorrow , and revenge ; for he kept a severe weekly fast , the day that this sad accident befel him , during the remainder of his life ; and died lamenting it . let me stop here , and tell you , it is far otherways with you and your presbyterian party , than with this penitent bishop : for , though it is most certain you were the cause of the late confusion in the church , and of the war and bloud that followed it ; yet i do not find one of you that lays his hand upon his breast , and says : lord what have i done ? lord pardon me . no , you are far from that temper : and , he that considers the temper of the present times , and your restless activity in it , may conclude , you are as willing to begin new commotions , as you are senseless of the old . my meaning is not , in saying this to upbraid , or provoke you ; but rather to convince and unbeguile you . and that i may the better do that , i will in what follows answer some of the most material of your common objections . you say , the bishops have great revenues , and preach not for it , to which i will answer you in love : first , you say that the bishops revenues are much greater than indeed they are : and you seem to repine , because you do not consider , how much must go out of them , by first-fruits , tenths , and other payments of necessity . and you ought to consider , much must go out in bounty and charity , and some in hospitality and state. i say in state and attendance : for is it fit that the judge of all the inferiour clergy of his diocess , and of many of the laity , should not have a liberal revenue , and live in more plenty and splendour than the common people do , or can do ? doubtless it is necessary ; for let him be never so prudent and diligent ; so inwardly humble , and outwardly meek , yet if he have not a revenue to live above the common people , he must make himself a companion for them , and lose the reverence due to his dignity ; and , by that , make himself both cheap , and contemptible ; and he that will consider the necessity of a bishop's living thus , and the small revenue that most of the bishops have , may turn his maligning them their revenue , into a wonder , how they make their revenue to do it , and a pity it is no more . there are indeed , some few of them , whose revenues do abound ; and i think i shall not be mistaken if i say , there have been by them more high-ways mended , and more hospitals , schools , and colledges built and endowed , than by five times their number of lay lords , or by all the physicians and lawyers of this nation , though very many of their employments , turn to much more profit ; and yet , theirs is not repined at . and let me tell you also , it is not often that any is made a bishop till the age of sixty years ; and then he undertakes the care and toyl of government , to prevent heresie and schism , or suppress and punish them ; and , as occasion serves , by his writing to defend this church from the clamours of the church of rome , or the resiless sectaries of this . and may not the revenue of a bishop be thought a just reward for his forty years past study , and his present care , though he preach not ? and yet many of them do preach often , though not weekly . and let me add this to what is said ; what if the king should give the revenue to a bishop only because he is learned , and condition with him not to preach ; or make a doctor of the civil law a bishop , who is not in orders , and should not preach , but govern , ( which i think he may do , ) what is this to you or your party ? you ought to consider this , and that the bishops revenues was never theirs , nor yours , nor your predecessors , nor can any man now living claim it for his . it is only and most certainly gods ; given to him by our kings predecessors , and our king appoints who shall govern the church under him , and have the churches revenue for their reward . more might be added , but i am as weary of saying this , as you will be to read it . now for preaching , i praise god i understand my duty both to him and my neighbour , the better by hearing of sermons . and though i be defective in the performance of both ( for which i beseech almighty god to pardon me ) yet , i had been a much worse christian if i had not frequented the blessed ordinance of preaching , which has convinced me of my many sins past , and begot such terrours of conscience as have begot in me holy resolutions to amend my life , and earnest prayers to almighty god , the giver of all grace , to enable me by his grace to perform those holy resolutions : this benefit , and many other like benefits , i , and other christians have had by preaching : and god forbid we should ever use it so , or so provoke him by our other sins as to withdraw this blessed ordinance from us , or trun it into a curse by preaching heresie and schism , which too many have done in the late time of rebellion , and indeed now do in many conventicles , and their auditors think such preaching is serving god ; when god knows it is contrary . for can you think to sit an hour in a warm room , upon an easie seat , your head covered . your mind at rest , and your malicious humour pleased to hear your governours scandalized , and with their scandals some new needless notions offered to your consideration ; and then their truth or falshood left for you to judge and determine ? can you think you are at this time scrving god , or satisfying your own curiosity or malicious humour ? doubtless not serving god. nay , let it be granted , that you hear nothing but truth preach'd , yet i question whether the direction how you should honour and serve god , be honouring and serving him . for example , if a master calls his servant , and gives him positive directions what he shall do the day following , and the servant hears him with good attention , but neglects to do what he is directed ? can you think the hearing his masters direction is serving him ? no doubtless , it is not ; it is granted he could not have known his masters will without hearing it , but he serves him not by hearing his direction , but doing his will. and the like may be observed , concerning your magnifying extemp●rary prayer by gifted men in publick : and contempt of the church liturgy . the first of which you call praying by the spirit ; but doubtless , it was an evil spirit that john lilbourn , hugh peters , and many others of your party prayed by , in the days of cromwel the tyrant , when they prayed to god to prolong his life , to streugthen his arm , and inable him with zeal and courage , to perfect what he had so happily begun , and make a thorow reformation in the church and whole nation . and in the same prayer to libel our late vertuous king , by praying to god , that if he had not wholly withdrawn his grace , and given him over to a reprobate sense , that he would at last bring him back from his present evil council to his great council the present godly parliament . thus , or to this purpose , was that pious and prudent king libelled in your publick extemporary prayers , and the tyrant magnified by those that were so shameless as to call themselves the godly party . and many well-meaning people were so beguiled as to say amen to what was thus prayed . and by this means the church liturgy came to be abhorred by some , and neglected by almost all : and can you think , praying thus , and appointing god in their prayers what he was to do for them , and their cause , and when , and by what manner and means he was to do it , was honouring and serving him ? no doubtless . god forbid , that private christians should be so tied to set forms of prayer , as not in their retired and private devotions to make their private confessions of their private sins to the searcher of all hearts : and beg their pardon of him , and pray extempore for such a measure of his assisting grace so to strengthen them , that they may never relapse into those , or the like sins : this doubtless is to honour and serve god , but this is but to honour and serve him privately : and if i be mistaken in my private prayers my mistakes concern only my self , and end there . but it is not so in your publick extemporray prayers , the mischief is not ended when the prayers are . and that these should justle out the well-known , and approved prayers of the church , which were composed , and so pathetically and properly worded by the assistance of gods spirit , in many of those blessed martyrs and consessors , whom he made his instruments to settle and resorm the church of england from the gross corruptions of that of rome : i say , that you and your party should not when you consider this , grieve to think it was done by you , is to me a wonder ; and i praise god that he makes me look upon it with a thankful detestation . and now , good cosin , give me leave to tell you , ( as i did your brother in a letter writ some years past ) what i do ( or ought in duty to do ) when i make my self a member of any christian congregation , assembled to pay reverence to almighty god , and pray and praise him according to the injunction and custom of our church . first , we all do , i am sure , they that know best , and are most devout do , all kneel , and as many as well may with their faces toward the east , and in that order , and humble posture , and , with one consent , all make their general and humble confession of their unworthiness to appear before god , by reason of their many and grievous sins past : and we beg pardon for them , and his grace to serve him the remaining part of our lives with more purity and holiness : and having confest , and prayed thus ; if the searcher of all hearts does bear witness with us , that this confession and these prayers be sincere , and that our purpose is to amend our lives , and obey him better : we do , and may put on a modest confidence , that he will assist us with his grace ; and be assured , that he is at peace with us , and loves us . and this being done in an humble and ardent manner , we proceed to laud and magnifie our god in a joynt repeating a part of the psalms , which are all composed of gratitude , and mercy . and then apply our selves to the hearing some part of gods holy word read , for our information and comfort . and then to a publick profession of our christian faith. and then we again betake our selves to beg of god , that by his preventing grace we may be that day delivered from the temptations and miseries that threaten our souls and bodies ; and beg for his assisting grace to strengthen us so , that we may oppose and overcome both . and having thus humbly confest our sins , and thus profest our christian faith , and thus begg'd his pardon , and both his preventing and assisting grace for the time to come : and all these in such a manner as they be all , most pathetically exprest in the several collects of our church-prayers : the congregation is dissolv'd with the priests blessing ; and all betake themselves to their several employments . and for my part i think god and his holy angels look down with joy when they behold a christian congregation thus in one manner adoring , and praising god , and praying for the remission of their sins . your being so much a stranger to our church prayers , has inclined me to give you this large account of them , and of my own thoughts . i might here undertake also to satisfie your scruples of kneeling at the sacrament , and the ring in marriage ; but there has been so many good reasons given of them , in several small treatises , for the justification of them , that i will decline that trouble , both for yours and my own sake : and offer unto you the few following observations , and so put an end both of yours and my own trouble . and , in order to doing this , i desire you to look back with me to the beginning of the late long parliament . at which time we were the quietest and happiest people in the christian world : ( and praised be god we yet are so , ) we had then a prudent and consciencious king , whose life was a pattern of temperance , patience , piety , and indeed of all the christian graces . he governed i think by the known laws of the nation : every man sate then under the shadow of his own vine , and did eat his own grapes : that is , enjoy'd the benefit of his own labour , and eat his own bread in peace . we had then no need of a court of guard to keep the discontented inferiour people from rising against government : we had then no need to raise those monthly taxes to pay those courts of guard , and other charges , that are now come to be of necessity , to secure us from the yet unseen commotions of a malicious , restless , discountented party , which were first made so by the example of the ill-natured presbyterians : and continue to be so by retaining the destructive principles they then taught them ; and which do still threaten us with new commotions ; thus happy we were then ; and he that considers the present miseries of germany , poland , france ; and indeed , of all christian nations , how many cities lately were , and at this time are besieged , what devastations , and ravishings , and fears follow running armies , what terrours and wants those poor distressed people now groan under ! he that considers all this , and compares our present condition with theirs , ought to say , that england is at this time the happiest nation in the christian world : but our unhappiness is , that peace and plenty will not suffer us to think so , and study to be quiet and thankful . this , i beseech you to consider seriously ; and good cosin , let me advise you to be one of the thankful and quiet party ; for it will bring peace at last . let neither your discourse or practice be to encourage , or assist in making a schism in that church in which you were baptized , and adopted a christian , for you may continue in it with safety to your soul ; you may in it study sanctification , and practise it to what degree god by his grace shall enable you : you may fast as much as you will ; be as humble as you will ; pray both publickly and privately as much as you will ; visit and comfort as many distressed and dejected families as you will ; be as liberal and charitable to the poor as you think fit , and are able . these , and all other of those undoubted christian graces , that accompany salvation you may practise , either publickly or privately , as much , and as often as you think fit ; and yet keep in the communion of that church of which you were made a member at your baptism . these graces you may practise , and not be a busie-body , in promoting schism and faction : as god knows your fathers friends , hugh peters and john lilbourn did , to the ruine of themselves , and many of their disciples . their turbulent lives , and uncomfortable deaths are not i hope yet worn out of the memory of many . he that compares them with the holy life and happy death of mr. george herbert , as it is plainly and i hope truly writ by mr. isaac walton , may in it find a perfect pattern for an humble and devout christian to imitate : and he that considers the restless lives , and uncomfortable deaths of the other two , ( who always liv'd like the salamander in the fire of contention ) and considers the dismal consequences of schism and sedition , will ( if prejudice , or a malicious zeal have not so blinded him , that he cannot see reason ) be so convinc'd as to beg to god to give him a meek and quiet spirit , and that he may by his grace be prevented from being a busie-body in what concerns him not . the reasons that i have offered to your consideration , have crouded so fast into my present memory , that they have made my letter more perplext , and longer , and indeed some expressions in it bitterer than i intended when i began it : but i beg your pardon for both . and supposing i have it , i will close all with this friendly advice and caution . remember you and i are but citizens , and must take much that concerns our religion and salvation upon trust : i will explain my meaning for what i say , and have said , by this following parable . there was a man , that was and continued under so great a mistake , that though he thought and granted his neighbour to be strong enough to lift a hundred pound weight from the ground , yet could not be brought to believe , or grant , that he was able to lift fifty pound weight from it ; which was doubtless a great mistake . but , if you will give me leave , i will explain my self by a more proper parable , and then make my application . the same mistaking-man offered , and was willing to lend his neighbour a hundred pound ( though it were his whole estate ) upon his single bond , but being desired to lend him fifty pound upon his bond , he durst not trust him with that lesser sum , lest the borrower should not be able to repay him : and so he ( the lender ) prove to be undone by the borrowers inability to repay him . before i make my application of what i have told you , give me leave to tell you , the papists would obtrude upon all christians a belief that all those doubtful books , which the church of england calls apocryphal , were certainly writ by divine inspiration , and ought to be of equal authority with those which we call canonical scripture ; and that the foundation for our faith and manners to god and man may , and must be laid equally upon both . but i think we agree with the papists concerning all the books of the new testament , that is , that all were writ by divine inspiration . but the lutherans deny some part of the new testament , which both the papists and we believe and grant to be writ by divine inspiration . and now for my application ; let me ask you seriously , are not you like this mistaking-man , that durst trust a greater , but not trust the borrower with a lesser sum of money ? you have trusted the bishops , and a select clergy in a convocation to tell you , these you shall take to be canonical books of scripture , and no other : upon the truth of those , and only those , that they declare to be the holy scripture , you lay the foundation of your faith , and hope of salvation . you have trusted the bishops , that is , the church of england ; first , their learning and wisdom to know , and then their integrity to tell you truly which is the blessed and holy scripture : with these great and necessary concerns of your faith and salvation you have trusted them ; and yet , like the mistaking man , you dare not trust them with what is of less concern : namely , you do not believe them when they tell you how the primitive christians did worship , and praise , and pray to god : and though you have trusted them to translate the scriptures into english , as being best learned in the original languages ; yet you dare not , or do not trust them with the explanation of many words which have in the original an ambiguous or doubtful meaning , especially to us of the laity , who cannot know the customs and phrases of those nations where our saviour and his disciples preached the glad tidings of our common salvation . cosin , i hope i have in this made some unforc'd , and so useful observations , as an humble and good christian will not gainsay : and , doubtless , a soul truly humble , will both think and say , almighty god hath appointed me to live in an age , in which contention increases , and charity decays ; and it is certain , that variety of opinions and controversies in religion declare difficulty to know them truly ; but my comfort is , that without controversie , there is so much religion without controversie , as by the true practice of what is so i may save my ; soul. and therefore , to make sure of that , i will first become an humble christian , and conclude , that i will in all doubtful things obey my governours , for sure they see a reason , which i neither can , or need to know , why they command them : i will be sure to be humble , to fast and pray , to be charitable , to visit and comfort dejected families , to love my neighbours , to pardon my enemies , and to do good to all mankind , as far as god shall enable me : for i am sure these be sacrifices which please almighty god , and will bring peace at last : and , i am sure , that by using these graces , these graces , and my faith in christs merits for my salvation , will be more and more confirmed ; and by still using them , more , and more new graces will be still added ; and all be still more and more confirmed ; so confirmed , as to bear witness with me , and be my comfort when i must make my last and great account to the searcher of all hearts . almighty god give me grace to practise what i have commended to your consideration ; for this , and this only , can , and will make my life quiet and comfortable , and my death happy . and , my dear cosin , as i wish my own , so i wish yours may be . september . . your affectionate kinsman , r. w. the end . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e * the truth needs not be doubted , by any that shall first know that father paul writ the history of the council of trent : and then , reads his life as it is truly writ by his disciple and successour , this father fulgentio●● and now printed before the said distory . * witness the late murther of the scotch bishop . the independants declaration delivered in to the assembly. by thomas goodwin, william greenhill, william bridge, philip nie, sydrach simpson, and william carter. declaring their grounds and full resolutions concerning church-government. this text is an enriched version of the tcp digital transcription a of text r in the english short title catalog (thomason e _ ). textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. the text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with morphadorner. the annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. this text has not been fully proofread approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. earlyprint project evanston,il, notre dame, in, st. louis, mo a wing i thomason e _ estc r this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (thomason tracts ; :e [ ]) the independants declaration delivered in to the assembly. by thomas goodwin, william greenhill, william bridge, philip nie, sydrach simpson, and william carter. declaring their grounds and full resolutions concerning church-government. goodwin, thomas, - . greenhill, william, - . bridge, william, ?- . nye, philip, ?- . simpson, sidrach, ?- . carter, w. (william) [ ], p. printed for b.t., london, : in the yeer. . annotation on thomason copy: "july ". reproduction of the original in the british library. eng church polity -- early works to . independent churches -- england -- early works to . dissenters, religious -- england -- early works to . congregationalism -- early works to . a r (thomason e _ ). civilwar no the independants declaration delivered in to the assembly.: by thomas goodwin, william greenhill, william bridge, philip nie, sydrach simps goodwin, thomas c the rate of defects per , words puts this text in the c category of texts with between and defects per , words. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - emma (leeson) huber sampled and proofread - emma (leeson) huber text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the independants declaration delivered in to the assembly . by thomas goodwin , william greenhill , william bridge , philip nie , sydrach simpson , and william carter . declaring their grounds and full resolutions concerning church-government . london , printed for b. t. in the yeer . . a copy of the independants declaration to the assembly of divines . to make known what ever we hold , concerning church-government , as wee have had publique testimony in this assembly , so we have manifold instances and evidences of it ; witnesse that constant , free , and open expressing our selves upon all occasions , and in all questions propounded to the debate , with offers to give an open account at any time , in what ever should be asked us by any brother . our proffering divers times to bring in propositions , stated to our sense for the dispute , and when we were made a committee to that purpose , in the point of ordination , and did bring our iudgements concerning it for a dispute , it was laid aside . and at another time , when we our selves brought in papers , giving the state of the question , about that extraordinary way of ordination , which were read , and returned back unto us , it being publiquely professed that that was not an allowed way and course of this assembly , for any of the brethren to bring in papers , unlesse they were made a committee by the assembly it selfe . and so we were prevented of doing the like for time to come . likewise our frequent complainings of the stating of questions , so that we could not fully argue for our iudgements , wee being bound up to the questions as stated by you . the usuall answer to our complaints herein being , that the assembly sate not to argue the opinions of a few men , but if wee had any thing to say to the assertion brought in , we might . as also our earnest contending to have some questions ( which you all know are the greatest and most fundamentall points ) fairly disputed and debated , is a sufficient testimony of this our willingnesse . as in the entrance into the dispute of government , the first day , we pressed the handling of this , that there is a platform of government for the churches , under the gospel , laid down in the scripture , and desired to have discussed , what are the sure and certain wayes , whereby wee may judge what of government is held forth iure divino therein , which should have been fundamentall to all the disputes that were to follow : and this was professedly laid aside by you , which therefore in none of the subsequent debates , we could renew , and thus arguments were cut off , it being that great and necessary medium , by which the patticulars should be confirmed , and in a manner the whole controversie decided ; the greatest difference that were likely to grow betwixt us , being this , that the forms of government , you pretend to , and we deny , are asserted to be iure divino . in like manner , that other next great question , about the intire power in congregations , that have a sufficient presbytery for all censures , which as it is in order the first that presents it selfe for discussion ( as was urged ) so also it is one of the greatest points in difference betwixt us & you : yet the debate of this was not only denyed the first place in the dispute , but was to this day declined by you ; although to have it argued was contended for by us ▪ and not by us only , but by many of those , that are for a subordinate government thereof to synods . and though earnest desires and motions for it were renewed and inculcated , yet were they as often laid aside . yea and this , although it was once expresly commended by the grand committee of the hon. members of both houses , joyned with twelve divines of the assembly , to be next disputed , as the best means , both of expedition , and of ending the controversie . and over and above all this , to argue this our willingnesse to dispute our way , in the aforesaid honourable committeee appointed by an order of the honourable house of commons , to find out wayes , of accommodating different iudgements in the assembly , the sub-committee of divines , consisting of two of us , and foure others , appointed by that honourable committee to prepare wayes and propositions of accommodation , brought in the main and most of what practically we desired , and we therein added , that if such a liberty shall seem in the wisdome of this honorable committee , to be so prejudicical to the peace of the church as not to be permitted , we humbly desire , the doctrinall principles wherein we differ about church-government , may be taken into serious consideration , and some other way of accommodation in practise thought upon , as shall seem fit to this honourable committee : and this was presented to that honorable committee and those twelve of the assembly , to be transmitted , whether to the honorable houses , or the assembly as they should think meet . after this , when upon occasion of something brought in by one brother , and entertained , we took hold of that example , and one of us , with consent of the rest , brought in propositions , which contained matter of difference betwixt us , professing , that if this reverend assembly would debate them , or any one of them , we would bring in more , untill we had brought in all the frame , and the assembly themselves should pick and chuse what they would debate , & what not . but these propositions were rejected with a refusall to debate any one of them . and after all this , though the main parts of a presbyteriall government ▪ had been then voted by the assembly , and sent up to the honorable houses ( as , namely , that about ordination , and the presbyteriall government over many congregations , as also concerning the subordination of nationall , provinciall and classicall assemblies ) and there was not much remaining about church-government , to be concluded in this assembly : yet this reverend assembly requiring , ( by occasion of a book published , that reflected on these proceedings , that we had no hand in nor knowledge of ) a whole frame of government , with the grounds and reasons thereof , to be brought in by us , and voted us hereto to be a committee , we yeilded our selves to be a committee to bring in part by part , in like manner as the presbyteriall government was brought into the assembly , and disputed : but that was not accepted . and then it being said , that there was something in church-government , remaining undiscussed , and unresolved ; and it being further alledged that the assembly had not sent up all that which they had concluded , but meant to present an entire frame and body to the honourable houses : and that we might take away all occasions of any such jealousies that we were unwilling to discover what we held ( which were commonly in mens mouths abroad ) we yeilded to be a committee , to bring in the whole to this assembly , though upon all the fore-mentioned disadvantages , & were purposed & resolved amongst our selves so to do , and that in as convenient a time as a work of such a compasse could , ( in such a manner as was proposed by you ) be dispatched by us . and as in the debate about making us a committee , the assembly would not declare ( though pressed by us ) what they would do with that modell , and those reasons we should bring in ; so the voting of what yet remained in church-government , was hastened by you . and when not long after , upon occasion of the debate of one particular point , in which we differed from this assembly , we moved it might be deferred , because we should present our judgements and reasons about it , with the rest , ( for therein lay that which we accounted the favour of being made a committee by you ) it was publiquely answered , that therefore the assembly should the rather go on to the concluding of it , because we intended to bring it in ; and before we could dispatch that body we intended , so as to report it unto you according to your order ; ( the collection of the materials whereof , spent us two or three months , and we could not obtain the liberty to bring in any thing but the whole ) this assembly had presented to the honourable houses , as well what had been sent up by peeces afore , as what was since concluded , in one intire frame . by all which we perceived , that that which was the main end and use of presenting such a modell to this assembly , would be frustrated . and furthermore , we having given in ( as this assembly knows ) but two heads of dissenting reasons : the one against the presbyteriall government over many congregations : the other against the subordination of synods . by the successe of the latter we see , that this assembly can assume the liberty ( if it so please ) to reserve those we shall now present , unanswered , as they have done those our dissenting reasons against subordination of synods , although it contain a great and main part of that wherein we differ , as also is of all other , the greatest moment , both to this church and state , and hath been given in to this assembly ten months since , and their votes concerning these subordinations , as long since presented to the honourable houses , but have not been answered by any reply brought into this assembly , and so not ready to have been sent up to the hon. houses . and if these we might now bring in , should be undertaken to be answered by this assembly , yet we still retain the sense of so much remedilesse prejudice , by being bound from replying again , as doth make us justly wary : we may for ever lie under whatever mis-interpretations may happen , ( suppose but through mistake of yours , or imperfection of our expression ) without clearing our meaning , and wee may be bound up from further urging or driving home that wherein the strength of any argumenr lies , if the dint thereof should be avoided by some specious diversion . and although our former reasons given in after dispute to both the honourable houses , according to their order , were therefore not our own , but to be disposed of according to their appointment ; yet what we should now give in , we conceive to be in our own power . upon these considerations we think that this assembly , hath no cause now to require a report of us , nor will that our report be of any use , seeing that reports are for debates , and debates are for results to be sent up to the honorable houses , who have already voted another forme of government then what we shall present . however it may be of more use some other way , which by this course may be prevented , and therefore we are resolved to wait for some further opportunity to improve what we have prepared . finis . the nonconformists advocate, or, a farther account of their judgment in certain things in which they are misunderstood written principally in vindication of a letter from a minister to a person of quality, shewing some reasons for his nonconformity, modesty answering the exceptions of two violent opposers of the said reasons. baxter, richard, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing b estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) the nonconformists advocate, or, a farther account of their judgment in certain things in which they are misunderstood written principally in vindication of a letter from a minister to a person of quality, shewing some reasons for his nonconformity, modesty answering the exceptions of two violent opposers of the said reasons. baxter, richard, - . [ ], p. printed for thomas simmons ..., london : . written by richard baxter. cf. halkett & laing ( nd ed.). errata: p. [ ]. reproduction of original in huntington library. marginal notes. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng letter from a minister to a person of quality, shewing some reasons for his non-conformity. dissenters, religious -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - emma (leeson) huber sampled and proofread - emma (leeson) huber text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the nonconformists advocate : or , a farther account of their judgment in certain things in which they are misunderstood . written principally in vindication of a letter from a minister to a person of quality , shewing some reasons for his nonconformity , modestly answering the exceptions of two violent opposers of the said reasons . london , printed for thomas simmons , at the prince's arms in ludgate-street , mdclxxx . the epistle to the reader courteous reader , some years since i was called upon by a person of quality , to acquaint her ladyship with the reasons of my non-conformity : for it had been suggested to her ladyship , that i had none ; but only was swayed by the example of some others , much reverenced by me , to tread in their steps , at all adventures . as if i had been one of those mentioned by origen in his first book against celsus , who chose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be of this sect and party , not out of any sound mind and judgment , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but by a certain illogical hurry of determination without all deliberation . vpon this i was necessitated , to put pen to paper , and give her ladyship such an hasty account , as the time would permit : which was under the limit of five or six days . i could not therefore search into all things affording matter of scruple , they being too large and numerous ; but only singled out those mentioned in my letter , as being next at hand , and moreover obvious , and easie to be understood by her ladyship , at the first reading of them . a copy of this letter , such as it was , without adding , diminishing , or the least alteration , was appointed to be printed about three months since : but printed it was not a long time after ; at least i supposed so . but when i deemed no such matter , my copy was brought unto me printed , together with a printed confutation of it at the same time in quarto . this seemed strange to me , but i being in that instant oppressed with bitter grief , by the death of a darling-child , was not in a condition to read it over , much less to justifie my self against it . and now within less than a week after , another second confutation was directed to me , upon which i thought i had a loud call , notwithstanding my great indisposition , to undertake mine opponents , and make good my reasons against all their gainsayings . with what evidence of truth , i must leave you and others to judge , my sheets are now ready for the press , but when that will give them a more publique passport , i know not . farewell . october , . . errata . page , . the four last lines must not be read . p. . l. . quae tales , r. quâ tales , p. . l. . after the word likewise the word is must be put in , p. . l. . after the word condition the word of must be put in , p. . l. . aucupare r. aucupari . several other faults about the stops left to be corrected by the reader . a refutation , &c. sir , before you would confute me , you thought meet to defame me , in these words ; being lately in a book sellers shop , i met with a letter pretended to be writ from a minister to a person of quality , shewing some reasons of his non-conformity . and you add , i have often observed this humour in some mean , but vain people , who dare not look upon persons of quality , when they are present , to talk of them with great familiarity , and as their peculiar intimates and confidents . but i answer ; why should you a minister be so censorious and uncharitable , as to charge one who is stiled a minister , and i suppose utterly unknown to your self , with pride and lying at the first dash ? with pride , in a vain humour of aspiring unto acquaintance with persons of quality ; with lying , in pretending unto such a familiarity , when indeed there is no such matter . the printer , or some other , affixed this title , for my copy had none at all ; but yet it is altogether truth ; though i have reason to blush , and crave pardon for being no more mannerly and courtly in my stile and address to such a person of honour . by this , and what follows , i observe in you a strange spirit , which i pray god convince you of , and deliver me from : a spirit haughty and scornful , bitter and revengeful , and yet elsewhere too too friendly and amicable . sir , you stile me gentleman , again and again , ironically and contemptuously enough ; and what i have written , you call it stuff to impose upon the injudicious rabble , and parallel it with poor robin ; and many such opprobrious reflections you fasten upon it . this is pride and scorning ; which can never satisfie ( as you would be thought to aim at ) an honest impartial inquirer , but much rather cloud his eyes from beholding , and harden his heart from receiving , whatsoever can be offered ( though with far more powerful and perswading oratory than your own ) to change his mind , or turn him into another path. sir , you alarm the magistrates and governours to a jealousie against us : wherein you sufficiently signifie , not only your grief and grudging at our present indulgency , but also your desire to have us made examples for daring to mutter a word , and pleading on our own behalf , though purposely to shew that we are not wilful , fanatical , and obstinate in our non-conformity ( which is commonly objected against us ) but have in our own apprehensions insuperable objections blocking up the way , and obstructing us from complying . but what is it not enough that we are removed ab officio & beneficio , unless also we be further persecuted and torn in pieces by the secular powers ? what must a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , our utter ruine and destruction be the epilogue ? this is bitter malice in extremity , far from the good spirit of god , which was seen in the shape of a dove , but never in the appearance of a vulture , or bird of prey . sir , you plead for the truth of apocrypha , yea of the most exploded parts of it : here your fierce frowns against poor non-conformists are turned into sweet and gracious smiles upon the roman party , as if father parsons , campian , and such others , had your heart already ; and you hereby intimate before-hand ( if the wind shall ever turn to that corner , which god in his great mercy keep off ) how willingly and easily you could turn about with it into their tents . sir , you quarrel my introduction , and charge it with the want of sense and grammar , but you shew not wherein , and i am pretty confident you cannot ; both the syntax of it , and my mind in it being plain and obvious to every school-boy ; but i well perceive the very first sight of my sheet , fronted with the mostodious word of non-conformity ( so great is your distast against us ) immediately rufled your patience , and like the appearance of purple or scarlet before the eyes of an elephant , put you presently in apassion ; which misted your understanding , and hindered you from discerning , what , to an unprejudiced person , would be most clear and intelligible . our great difference is in making a just comment , and in finding out the true sense and meaning of the words of the first declaration . here by the way there is just matter of complaint , that the said words should need any comment ; for i look upon this declaration ( thus openly to be made before the face of god , and the whole congregation ) of the same nature , and congenerous with an oath ; wherein things ought to be expressed perspicuously and evidently , the sense of them easie and fixedly the same to every understanding ; and this , if possible , beyond all scruple or hesitation ; and not like delph oracles , with their meaning doubtful , intricate , and involved ; and as occasion shall serve , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quickly to be turned from what at the first hearing they seemingly imported and intended . you say assent and consent intend no more than vse and submission , and that this is all in effect which is required of the conforming clergy : i wish it had been so worded in the declaration , and instead of saying , i a.b. do declare my unfeigned assent and consent to all and every thing contained and prescribed in and by the book , entituled the book of common prayer ; we might have said , i a.b. will submit to the use of all and everything contained in , &c. because for peace sake i can submit , where i do not like and chuse ; and in this sense ( notwithstanding your scorn of a very wise and grave observation ) i do yet take the words assent and consent , and am not removed from my first apprehension and explanation of them . in the words of the declaration there is an agent , an act , the object : the agent is the person or minister declaring , and this unfeignedly and sincerely from his heart ; the act is this person his assenting and consenting : now this act of assenting , as to the party declaring , relates to his understanding ; and as to the thing assented to , relates to the truth and rightfulness of it : so likewise again , the act of consenting relates to his will , and as to the thing consented to , to the goodness , expediency , and behooffulness of it . this is what you deride , and hold that the intervention of truth and goodness need not be supposed as a necessary ingredient to what we declare we assent and consent unto ; but in so declaring we mean and intend only this , that we will submit to the use of all and every thing contained and prescribed , &c. whether they be in their own nature ( if strictly examin'd ) most eligible and behoofful to be observed and practised , yea or not . now this your exposition of assent and consent , i look upon as weak and faulty , no more coming up to the full purport of the words considered in themselves , than to the purpose of the law-makers , who framed and injoyned them to be declared . for i take it for granted , that this declaration was thus worded by the most reverend clergy , archbishops , bishops , deans , and such other divines , and this too for divines and ministers of the gospel to be declared by them , as the test of their worthiness and meetness for the ministerial function ; accordingly therefore such persons may rationally and well be supposed to use the words in sensu theologico , in a divine or scriptural sense , and not otherwise : now in the scripture phrase we find assent and consent , fully and altogether according to the exposition which i have given of them . as for example sake , we have found this man a pestilent fellow , and a mover of sedition among the jews ; and the jews assented , saying , these things were so . assented , that is , they avouched what tertull●s had witnessed against paul , was the very truth . shall not their cattel , and their substance , and every beast of theirs be ours ? let us consent unto them , and they will dwell with us . let us consent unto them , that is , let us willingly and readily chuse and imbrace their terms , since the end obtained by them will be so good and gainful , so beneficial and profitable for us . thus s. paul saith , i consent unto the law , that it is good , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , eo quod , or therefore , because it is good . thus generally these words are taken in the description of faith among divines , who tell and teach us , that faith is made up of these three parts , assent , consent , and affiance . faith , as it is assent , acknowledgeth and avoweth the truth and certainty of gospel-revelation , especially concerning the messiah , and the promise of life by and through him : faith as it is consent , imbraceth and receiveth the blessing and goodness of this promise , as most behoofful and advantagious unto us : and from hence is excited readily , chearfully , and thankfully to close in with christ upon his own conditions and proposals , as the only way to happiness : faith , as it is affiance , resteth and relieth upon the veracity of the speaker , and stability of the covenant to felicitate our state , and save us from all the evil and misery sin hath brought upon us . by what i have spoken , we may the better perceive the genuine force and meaning of assent and consent ; the object of these acts now therefore offers it self to our consideration , which i say ( according to the declaration ) is all and every thing contained and prescribed in and by the book intituled the book of common prayer ; whereas you , as a general salvo , suppose the word use to be the next object or matter of those acts on which they terminate ; as thus , i assent and consent to the use , ordoing of all those things contained in , and prescribed by , &c. but now is this seemly or tolerable in a most solemn protestation , oran oath , to have the main matter of it brought in only by the blind wicket and back-door of a supposition ? why was not this word openly mentioned and expressed ? why was it not enjoyned us thus to declare , i assent and consent to the use and doing of all and every thing contained , & c ? how can we know the law-makers intended , or will admit of any such a subaudi ? what you mention as their preface to the declaration is somewhat , but not sufficient ; my reason is this ; because in the book of common-prayer there are credenda , as well as agenda ; things of faith , as well as of practice ; yea , some things only of faith , and not of practice : now i cannot but think our law-m●kers in commanding this declaration , did as zealously and carefully design the conformity of our faith , even as of our practice , to the frame and model of theology contained in the liturgy : i am sure , in right reason , the first ought to be aimed at by them , before the last and the last only as the result of the first , unless they thought all conformists 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bruit animals , rather than rational creatures ; surely they would not thus reproach them of their own coat , who bear themselves high upon their own understanding above others , and think it but justice to be reputed the most sapient and judicious amongst men . it appears by the woful event , that more than a thousand non-conforming ministers could not thus construe the words of the declaration , when it was first put unto them , and required of them ; which ( with some other things commanded ) made them to turn out , and lose all , rather than lose their souls , in doing what was clearly against their consciences . so that it is not perverseness and folly ( what-ever you say or think ) to stick at the words assent and consent , but rather from the dictates of a sound mind , influenced and awed by the fear of the lord. sir , far beyond my desert , by the good providence of god , i have had the favour and countenance of several great persons of quality , who have received me very lovingly and familiarly : this i speak ( my witness is in heaven ) neither to vaunt my self with the glory of it , nor yet to put you under any disarray again by the vanity of my pretension , but to acquaint you with something to our purpose in the matter before us . a little before the black bartholomew , one of the foresaid in discourse enquired of me , what mine intentions were ? and whither i would conform , yea or not ? i answered his lordship , such things were required and enjoyned , as i could not swallow , and therefore should be necessitated to march off , and sound a retreat . his lordship seemed to be much concerned for me , using many arguments ( as good as ever i have heard or read from any ) to reconcile me to a compliance ; but perceiving me not to be overcome by them , while i urged some of these things now mentioned as a just cause of my refusing ; at last he said with a sigh , i wish it had been otherwise ; but they were resolved either to reproach you , or undo you . of which wise and weighty apothegm i leave you to be the interpreter . was not conformity contrived in such a way and manner on purpose , either to expose us to common infamy , as persons who would say , and swear , and do any thing , rather than lose our livings ? or else to ruine and undo us , by turning us out a grazing in the woful wild of extreme poverty and want ? about a year after another great peer ordered me to wait on his lordship , and proposed something to be done by me with reference to the liturgy , which ( as i thought ) in my then present circumstances , having neither call nor necessity to do , i humbly craved leave of his lordship to be excused therein ; and speaking yet further , about the strict and hard terms of conformity , his lordship replied , i confess i should scarcely do so much for the bible , as they require for the common-prayer . both these , i assure you , are great and learned noble-men , and as far from being presbyterians as your self ; yet you may see their resentments , as to what was commanded , how little they were pleased with such high and rigorous proceedings , and how in the bottom of their hearts , they were rather the advocates , than the accusers of the non-consenters : yea , i perswade my self , that many among your selves had scruples more than a few , or easie , and would then with all their hearts have declined the test of assent and consent , if by any other means they could have escaped the danger : it is well for them if they tentured not their consciences , while they tendered their worldly interests and necessities ; but to chuse to do it from any free act of their own option and will , as what was desired and delighted in by them ( setting aside some high prelatical church-men , who returned in anger and meditated retaliation ) was not to be found in the bosom of many ; yet even these are called forth to declare their unfeigned assent and consent , &c. than which words , i know none more significant of heart and good will , of love and choice , as to all and every thing contained in and prescribed by the book of common-prayer . for i pray , sir , were you to express your judgment and affection in any matter , and how your whole soul and mind is fully pleased , satisfied , and gratified therein , and this beyond all demur and exception ; how could you more clearly discover your 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , than by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of an unfeigned , assent and consent unto it ? for mine own part , i profess i know not : therefore it is well remarked by you , that assent and consent , and approve , are words synonymous . but you say , cannot we approve of the use of a book , or approve of a book , as lawful to be used , as well as assent and consent to the use of it ? yes surely : but you mistake me , for i neither can assent nor consent , nor approve of the book , or the use of the book , so as hereby to witness mine own will or desire for the same ; yet i can use it in submission to command , if i shall judge it not simply unlawful and sinful to do it : i , can , as i have said , silently and patiently swallow down some gnats , if my superiours will have it so ; but if i shall be required to say , i assent and consent , and approve of swallowing down gnats , this alters the case ; and now i can no more swallow them down , than if they were camels . wherefore , eo nomine , upon the very same account , as you ingenuously confess , you would be a non-conformist to any church in the world , i am at this present to the church of england . and upon the same score i think present conformity harder than formerly , the now declaration being much more comprehensive in its own nature , and taking in much more of our mind , will , and approbation , as to all and every thing recounted and specified therein , than any foregoing subscription ; especially than that mentioned by your self in the time of queen elizabeth , wherein the clergy were only required to subscribe this promise ; i shall read the service appointed plainly , distinctly , and audibly , that all people may hear and understand . as for the articles published by the authority of king edward the vi. and particularly that concerning the book of common-prayer , with subscription thereunto , i have not seen them , except in your quotation , and therefore can say nothing in the case , one way or other : but i have two books of common-prayer printed in his days , the first about the middle , the second in the last year of his reign ; in neither of which is to be found any rubrick asserting the certainty of childrens undoubted salvation out of gods word , though they are baptized and die before actual sins ; there is not , i say , one syllable to the said purpose in either of them . even this very particular would have rendred subscription more facile and passable to me , had i lived in those days . as for the subscription of the three articles in the time of king james , i acknowledge this was one , quod liber publicae liturgiae , &c. that the book of common-prayer contains in it nothing contrary to the word of god , &c. unto which i had rather , and should much sooner subscribe , than declare my unfeigned assent and consent ( supposing the same book of common-prayer ) to all and every thing contained in , and prescribed by it . for though i cannot prove such and such things to be absolutely contrary to , or against gods word , yet i cannot therefore presently affirm them to be according to gods word , either as expresly revealed , or positively commanded by the sacred canon ; which yet i must be able to do , before i can declare my unfeigned assent and consent to the said particulars ; else i should strangely violate my conscience , and blindly rush forward at all adventures , without all reason or judgment . as for example , though i cannot say concerning children baptized , and dying before actual sin , that their undoubted salvation is absolutely contrary to the word of god ; yet never the more can i affirm , that their undoubted salvation is certain and express by the same . therefore though perhaps i might subscribe to the former , yet i could not declare my unfeigned assent and consent to the latter . one thing i take notice of in these subscriptions , and i wish you would also for your better information ; viz. that assent and consent , relate unto the acknowledgment or avouching the truth and goodness of the things assented and consented to , as well as to the use the great ends generally mentioned for these declarations and subscriptions , are unity and uniformity in the matters of religion and worship ; whereas the contrary effects of animosity and difference have wofully followed hereupon , time after time , as we have seen by long and sad experience in continual breaches and dissentions . there is , and will be , a judicium discretionis in every person , who will be a judge in his own concern contra gentes ; his own mind and apprehension shall and will dictate to him what is right , and what is wrong , what is good , and what evil , both to be believed and practised by him ; the greatest authority of his superiours , and the wisest models of their devised forms for his devotion , in any wise notwithstanding ; nothing shall be able further to subjugate his thoughts to any idea or system of service , than to what may be truly said to be his own , i mean according to his own understanding ; and therefore much less to an oneness and sameness of opinion and judgment of it with those that are above him ( though commending and commanding it to be received and observed ) meerly because they are so . wherefore as it is the wisdome of the church to chuse such a creed , as all who stile themselves christians do universally agree in ; so likewise it would be the highest prudence , to pitch upon such a declaration which all ministers might securely and freely assent and consent unto , without all scruple or hesitation , as the test of their conformity . i will not presume to mention the nature and quality of such an one ; but shall leave it wholly to my superiours and betters : and let these , in gods name , enjoyn all ministers both to declare and do whatsoever the word of god requires of them , to capacitate them for church-work , and no more ; then should i expect unity and uniformity in all things of moment , with peaceable toleration and forbearance in the rest , to the glory of god , and the greatest edification of the church , and never before : then also i would be among the first , who would humbly offer my self as a candidate to that high and holy function , though in the meanest and poorest place of preferment . but it is high time to come to particulars : i cannot approve of the order appointed for the reading of the scriptures ; my reason was , because many books of apocrypha are commanded to be read for the lessons of the day , as the fabulous legends of tobit and his dog , bell and the dragon , &c. while some books of the sacred canon are wholly left out , &c. this i perceive touches you to the quick ; this is confidence and impudence , this is matter of exclamation against our invenomed tongues and pens , and against our persons as pharisaical schismaticks , and what not ? i see your zeal for apocrypha will cause you presently to fly on the faces of those who shall dare to speak a word in any diminution or derogation of it , and this only too as it rivals the holy canon : yet say what you can in the justification of apocrypha ( how the stories therein were received by many of the ancient fathers for truth and reality , and how ( supposing them fiction and fancy ) profitable they are for instruction , comfort , reproof , as the parables of christ himself ; ( so many say , they can profit as much at a play , as at a sermon ) yet apocrypha is apocrypha still , and those very books appointed ro be read , full of absurdities and impossibilities , as i could easily demonstrate in several notorious circumstances ; but this would be actum agere , since it hath been sufficiently manifested by many protestant pens against the papists ; here therefore i shall leave you to be censured and chastised of all , who are not of the red letter , or looking that way : as for mine own part , i ran over the kalender , and saw there one whole month together : viz. october , filled with apocryphal books , forenoon and afternoon , appointed for the lessons of the day ; the same likewise in november , unto the twenty fourth day of it , besides what went before in september of the same kind , while some books canonical are wholly left out , which i did not approve of ; neither can i find any thing of better information from your self to change my mind : and the rather , because i am fully perswaded some parts of scripture are omitted and shut out , which contain in them more to the profit and edification of the hearers , than all the books of apocrypha put together ; yea , it were little less than a blasphemy to say and think otherwise : let us not presume to be wiser than god. but you say , nothing of apocrypha is appointed for sundays ; whoever laid this to your charge ? yet if you speak truth , then some of your ministers are not well skill'd in the order of reading , who , as i am told by ear-witnesses , do sometimes on sundays read out of apocrypha ; whether they then read according to the common monthly kalender , and not according to the proper lessons appointed for sundays , or whether they so read when an holy-day , whose proper lesson is out of apocrypha , falls to be on a sunday , when there is proper against proper , and the minister left at discretion which of the propers he will chuse ; i shall not trouble my self about it , but leave it in medio , to the wise and learned in the case . you say in our conventicles we read little of scripture ; indeed too little ! pudet haec opprobria nobis , and wish it were otherwise with all mine heart ; for i am as far from assenting and consenting to any such omission and neglect , as i would be to all and every thing contained in , and commanded by the book of common-prayer : should i be required to give my approbation of this fault , or else could not be admitted into society with them , i would rather bear their excommunication , and like an hermit serve god in the wilderness by my self alone , than joyn myself to them . so vast a difference there is between being in communion where faults are ( for what church is free from them ? ) and owning those faults ; yea , making such an owning and approbation the lydius lapis , whether we are fit for communion yea or not . now this is the very case of poor non-conformists , with those who have outed them . but to return , recrimination is no self-justification : besides , in most of our meetings , there is on lords-days , at least , constant reading of the scripture , besides the exposition , and giving of the sense of it , with much care and pains , to the edification of the hearers . i cannot approve of the order appointed for the ministration of baptism , because of the strict requiring of godfathers and godmothers to stand as bounden sureties and undertakers for the child , viz. that he shall renounce the devil , and all his works , &c. you say , godfathers and godmothers are not so strictly required as to make it essential to the nature of baptism , as is evident in private baptism , which is declared valid without it . i never objected any such essential strictness ; this therefore is meer impertinency : yet reading over the ministration of private baptism , as it is appointed to be further and fully compleated by the minister , there i find godfathers and godmothers interrogated , and fully ingaging on the childs behalf , as well as in publick . but suppose godfathers and godmothers are not called upon in private baptism to make such a promise ; this is only in a rare extraordinary case of extremity , and out of the general usual road : we know some others , in the like exigency , will grant a greater liberty ; so much do they attribute to the opus operatum , that they will give leave to the midwife to baptize , rather than fail : one swallow makes no summer . herein also you run from the matter in hand . i say , godfathers and godmothers are usually brought to the font to avouch a great untruth ; for though they make such a solemn promise on the childs behalf , they seldome perform it . this you fully acknowledge past contradiction , but charge it as a fault upon the godfathers and godmothers , and not at all upon the constitution ; yea , you highly applaud the prudence and piety of the church in taking such a care for the vertuous education of the children baptized . but quo warranto ? who hath authorized the church to lay such a charge upon any , besides the parents upon whom god has laid it ? and if upon any , why upon those who are called godfathers and godmothers , rather than upon others of the congregation , who are all eye-witnesses of the baptizing of the child , as well as they ? as we may not make more sins than god has made sins , so neither more duties than god has made duties : why therefore in particular should we impose the duty on godfathers and godmothers , to look to the well education of the child baptized , when god has not imposed it ? especially we may not do it , where the fulfilling this duty is an utter impossibility , as sometimes it falls out in the matter before us . sometimes persons are sureties for children by their proxies , themselves living in another country ; how can these see the said children vertuously brought up , when they never see them ? sometimes boys and girls stand as godfathers and godmothers for the infant at the font ; these are very likely to make good their promise , when they are scarce in a capacity to understand what they say ; so far are they from a right apprehension of the matter they ingage in : whereby it appears , that the great care of the church for the health and safety of those she receives into her bosom , ( which is so much spoken of , and magnified ) is no more than a meer pretence , and dwindles into a sorry shadow of words and names : for if there was such a true and real care as is given out , and vaunted , why will ye , the ministers , admit of any such , as i have now mentioned , to be godfathers and godmothers ? ye except against none , that i hear of . and why will you lay a charge upon these , of doing what in reason ye cannot but be convinced they are not in a condition to perform ? verily , if a man should judge according to your quotidian practice , i should be prone to believe , ye your selves scarce think it an absolute necessity , for godfathers and godmothers to perform their font-promises ; for setting aside only what is there barely read before them , i never met with any book , sermon , or discourse , wherein the duty of godfathers and godmothers is pressed upon them , with reference to their god-children , not any thing to mind them of their obligation , or move them to the fulfilling of it : who therefore can imagine ye think it much material , further than the pomp and ceremony of their appearing , whether such godfathers and godmothers look to the good manners of the children baptized , yea or not ? if men and women were throughly convinced by the word of god , what great bonds they lye under by being godfathers and godmothers , according to their own oral protestation , and form of speech there dictated to their hands , notwithstanding what you speak of the easiness of the performance of the promise , it would be hard to find out such voluntary stipulators , or collateral security in the case ; but the minister and his clerk should be necessitated to undertake that province from time to time . again , i approve not of the order appointed for the ministration of baptism , because the father of the child is left out , not mentioned and taken notice of at all in the publick stipulation , as if he had no concern in it , though it is his proper place to undertake this charge for his own child , according to the law of god and nature . with the highest scorn you justifie this way , by the similitude of a debtor , and sureties bound with him for an hundred pounds : but i never yet saw such a bond , where the principal , and indeed the sole debtor , is not expresly , and in the first place named ; for if he be not expresly named , how can any notice at all be taken , that the money was lent unto him , which is , as you know , your own concession ? yea , if he be not expresly named as a debtor , in point of law , he has nothing to do with the bond , or the bond with him ; which yet is the thing you would expose me for . your comparison affects me not , nor makes against me , but rather on my side : for let the father be the chief debtor to bring up his own child in the nurture and admonition of the lord , and some of his friends ( i mean godfathers and godmothers ) be sureties with him , that this debt shall faithfully be paid and discharged ; shall not this chief , and indeed sole debtor , be called upon , and that too in the first place , to pay his debt ? in right reason he should ; and you your self would be of the same mind , were you in some great bond only collateral security to a friend , and this too in little more than a complement . now therefore that the principal and sole debtor is not once mentioned or called upon for the payment of the debt , but only the collaterals ; this is my exception , and i think not without cause . but you say , nature and religion call upon the principal debtor , viz. the father of the child , and that is sufficient , without any further call from the minister . i know what you would reply in the case , but i am not so spirited . nature and religion call upon us to keep the moral law , or ten commandments ; and therefore the ministers call to keep them is needless , and out of doors . this is to make composita to be opposita : the more obligations are upon us from religion and nature to fulfill any duty , the more we are to be called upon by arguments out of those topicks to perform the same , and all little enough : if not always nature , yet always religion does bind godfathers and godmothers quae tales to perform the promise made on the behalf of the child baptized , for if it be not from religion , there can be no tye in the case ; yet the church thinks not religion enough to bind them , without the further help of additional exhortation : why therefore should not the same be thought necessary to the father himself , to bind him also to his duty , notwithstanding any preceding obligation of nature ? i approve not of the sign of the cross , nor that sacramental mystical way of signing with this sign , as if baptizing with water in the name of the father , and of the son , and of the holy ghost , were not sufficient ; but moreover , the sign of the cross needful , to bind the conscience , and confer the blessing . you say , the sum of my argument against signing with the cross is , because lest by a perverse interpretation it may seem to the vulgar people what it is not , and what i my self dare not affirm it to be : but herein you are either wilfully blind , or grosly in the dark ; for though i mentioned my fear , lest the action then done by the minister ( for then the priest shall make a cross upon the childs forehead ) and the words then uttered by him , ( we receive this child into the congregation of christs flock , and do sign him with the sign of the cross , in token that hereafter he shall not be ashamed to confess the faith of christ crucified , and manfully to fight under his banner against sin , the world , and the devil , and to continue christs faithful souldier unto his lives end ) might be taken in a wrong sense , and mistaken by the generality , and do fear it still ; yet the presumptuous addition of the cross to baptism , and this too after the manner of another sacrament , the devised sacrament of man to the instituted sacrament of god was the grand cause of my exception against it : for if we may add at our pleasure the sign of the cross ▪ why not also with some others cream , salt , and spittle ; yea , whatsoever else the daring invention of man shall think meet to devise and conjoyn ? who , in this case , shall set the limits , and say , ne plus ultra ? as for mine own part , i would sooner yield to have my child baptized with cream , salt , and spittle , yea , though snow and sope also were put into the laver , than to have it signed with the sign of the cross in such a mystical manner . we are neither to add nor diminish in the matter of gods worship ; and particularly this holds good in the sacraments of the gospel , which in their own nature are signs and ceremonies ; wherefore if we shall arrogate to our selves the license of adding sign to sign , and ceremony to ceremony , in so doing we boldly set threshold against threshold , and proudly usurp no less than the place , and dictatorship of god himself . this likewise more than faintly and covertly speaks the baptism of water to be lame , and wanting of it self alone ; which i have the courage to speak out in the hearing of all , according to your command ; yea , i promise you , if you will be at the charge to procure me one of sir samuel moreland's stentorean tubes , i will take the pains to go up to the monument , and at the top of it i will trumpet it out as a truth all over the city ; and if i could , i would cause it to ring and eccho from one end of the nation to another : why else is this dedicating sign of the cross , at the time of the infants dedication , by washing in the name of the father , son , and holy ghost , thought so necessary , and constantly co-applied ? but you have a church-canon by you , mounted and bent on purpose to discharge upon me , prim'd with the rubrick , and ready to give fire , upon all occasions , with a loud contrary report : well , be it so ; yet after all , it is but brutum fulmen , i mean only protestatio contra factum , and therefore ipso facto void , and of none effect . as if you should vow and protest you were no idolater , and yet at the same time worship a crucifix , adore the host , or bow your knee to the image of baal . you indeed baptize the child with water in the name of the father , son , and holy ghost ; and you say , the child so baptized , is lawfully and sufficiently baptized ; yet notwithstanding , at the same time , you sign him with the sign of the cross , in token hereafter he shall not be ashamed to confess the faith of christ crucified , and manfully fight under his banner against sin , the world , and the devil , &c. now this is the answer of a good conscience , and the main end and obligation of baptism , as to the party baptized , which the cross , and the signing him with that sign ( and not washing alone ) must at least mind him of , if not spirit him in , and ingage him to with the greatest manhood and courage ; else signing with the sign of the cross is a meer insignificancy , and a ridiculous nothing . entia non sunt multiplicanda sine necessitate . what need the cross , if washing with water could sufficiently bring about its own ends ? the cross therefore , as it is there used , loudly proclaims , washing of and by it self incompleat , and imperfect . something was spoken further by me , about laying aside the use and custom of signing with the sign of the cross , to distinguish our selves from the idolatrous papists , who superstitiously adore the cross , foolishly , fondly , and wickedly signing themselves with it , upon every occasion , putting no little confidence in it , to free them from evil , and to furnish them with all good . but upon this score , to leave off crossing , you call it vanity and affectation , which is peculiar to the pharisees , and some other people who are very like them . i understand your elegant periphrasis , and the biting sarcasme in it : oh how sweet are your lips ! honey and milk are under your tongue ; yet what is the reason of all this rancour and bitterness ? what is the cause ye cannot speak peaceably of us , or to us ? what is our desert ? what our provocation ? are we not abased sufficiently ? have ye not all in possession ? do ye envy our being and breathing amongst you ? death hath eased you of many of us already ; and cannot you quietly expect a little longer , and we shall all retire , and trouble you no more ? i grieve , and am sad to see you of this spirit , but rejoyce and am glad my soul is not under your power ; for if it were , i might fear unplacable wrath , never to be appeased , would never forgive me , neither in this world , nor in the world to come . but to come to our business ; you say , i am much mistaken in the temper of the church of england , ( verily i am not at all mistaken , for i see it evidently in her children , the sons of the church , especially if all be of your temper ) for the church of england neither does any thing , nor leaves any thing undone , meerly for a note of distinction and separation . i know not what weight and stress you put upon the word meerly , or else as good a church , and better than ever the church of england was , notwithstanding its grandeur and glory with the pomp of that name , has ( and that too by the counsel and command of infinite wisdom and reason ) upon the account of distinction and separation from others , not more idolatrous and sinful than the papists in their worship , left off several rites and customs , not only sinful and unlawful , ( so some will dare to say of signing with the cross ) but in themselves otherwise innocent and harmless . i have a most unhappy memory , and cannot recover the name of the author , a christian jew , who apodictically , and most elaborately discovers , that many things were directed in their law by god , both to be done and left undone by the nation of the jews , chiefly to difuse and take them off from the ways and practices of the gentiles that were round about them . but let infallible truth be the judge in this matter , levit. . . after the doings of the land of egypt , wherein ye dwelt , ye shall not do ; and after the doings of the land of canaan , whither i bring you , shall ye not do , neithet shall ye walk in their ordinances . then moses , all along the chapter , enumerates many of those heathenish doings , from which the people of god were most religiously to abstain : but in the next chapter following some other things are mentioned ; which in themselves absolutely considered , were neither sinful nor unlawful , yet upon the score of non conformity , were forbidden them , ver . . ye shall not round the corners of your heads , neither shalt thou mar the corners of thy beard . but why ? what evil in it ? ainsworth gives us the true reason of this inhibition ; this , saith he , is likely to be the manner of the heathens , especially in their mourning , as these laws compared with , chap. . v. . seem to imply ; and he brings in the authority of maimonides , in these words , it was the manner of idolatrous priests to mar their beards ; therefore the law forbiddeth to mar the beard . so again , v. . ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead , nor print any marks upon you . the aforesaid most learned expositor here again , out of the same maimonides , informs us , what these prints or marks were ; viz. when one did cut open his flesh , and filled the cut place with stibium , or with ink , or some other colour ; and this was the custom at the heathens ; and particularly this they were wont to do in sorrow , and mourning for a s●ul departed , as it is in thargum jonathan : now from these , and other like heathenish rites , god will keep his people ; and therefore it is said , ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead . i could easily produce much more to the same purpose , but i think it needless . i excepted against what is annexed at the end of the sacrament ; it is certain by gods word , that children which are baptized , dying before they commit actual sin , are undoubtedly saved . you say , had you a mind , you might wave the dispute : surely it would be your prudence so to do ; for though you affirm it evidently to be the doctrine of your church , as appears from the homilies , and several passages in the office of baptism it self ; yet i apprehend it beyond the wisdom and learning of all the fathers and sons of the church together , to make good the enunciation , especially it being so indefinite and unlimited , concerning the children baptized , without all restriction , and yet so positive and peremptory in the predicate . i called for the u●i out of gods word , viz. wherein i might be satisfied , beyond all doubt , of christened childrens salvation before actual sin : you should have designed the holy page ; this had been a direct and easie way of confutation , by which i must have been convinced and silenced , and there had been an end of the contest : but i see you cannot bring your proof , nor indeed offer any thing like unto it out of scripture ; wherefore my objection is just , and i suppose unanswerable . secret things belong unto the lord ; and surely the salvation of infants , even as of the adult , is inter arcana , one of gods secrets : why therefore should any presume to intermeddle with it , and confidently pronounce concerning the whole genus of such a sort of infants . that they are all undoubtedly saved ? though they are young , do they not make a number in computation ? which if they do , certainly their number is great , very great , especially if that observation be true , that well nigh half of all born and christned among us , depart this life before they have committed actual sin . these are a swarming multitude ; and yet shall all these undoubtedly be saved ? far be it from me to limit the grace and mercy of god ; yet methinks , even from this consideration , we have some ground of a contrary suspition out of gods word , at least of suspending our judgment in the matter before us . for though the number of the children of israel be as the sand of the sea , a remnant shall be saved , rom. . . there are few that are saved ; only a remnant , a little end of the whole piece ; some few choice ones only among those who are stiled the israel of god ▪ shall be thought worthy of eternal life . but i forbear to bring in any new objections , only give me leave to ask you this question , how you can fairly wave this dispute ? how can you think it not incumbent upon you to make good the assertion , and justifie what you have assented and consented unto ? you tell me upon what account , because though it be contained in , yet it is not prescribed by the book of common-prayer ; that is , it is never to be used ; and we assent and consent only to the use of those things which are both contained in , and prescribed by that book . this word both , thrust in by your self , as you imagine , gives you your quietus est . hitherto i have taken you for a divine , but now one would think you some cunning subtil lawyer with your tricks and quirks ; you have found out an unexpected loop-hole to escape , and baffle your bond , which hath lost all force and vertue of obligation in sensu diviso , because it only binds in sensu composito . yet pardon me , sir , for i must assume the liberty to keep this yoke still upon your neck , shake it off how you can . but how ? thus ; you dare not but acknowledge that the great and learned sages of the church , who composed and worded this declaration , were compotes mentis , and understood what they did better than your self , or any such expositor ; and therefore had , as it hath been shewn already , when they put in these words , assent and consent , into the said declaration , credenda as well as agenda in their thoughts and intentions , they had equally an eye to both these in the time of the composing it . besides what is there spoken for the clearing of this truth , i am now further confirmed in my opinion by the two following participles , contained in , and prescribed by , which very naturally , and almost necessarily , answer the foregoing substantives assent and consent , to such an end and purpose ; as thus , i declare my unfeigned assent to all and every thing ( as truth and right to be believed ) which is contained in the book of common-prayer : and i declare my unfeigned consent to all and every thing ( as good and eligible to be practised and observed ) which is prescribed by the book of common-prayer . here is grammar and sense , and i suppose the very sense intended by the law-makers . surely they well weighed every several and distinct word in such a set and solemn protestation ; and therefore every several distinct word in it , hath its several distinct weight and purpose ; for far be it from me to charge such considerate composers as guilty of any tautology , much less of battology ; unto which you will cause them to approach too near , if assent and consent unfeigned assent and consent to all and every thing contained and prescribed in and by the book , &c. do refer to , and terminate upon use and practice only , without any further aim ; then it had been fully enough to say , i declare my unfeigned consent to all and every thing prescribed by the book of common-prayer , and no need at all either of the word assent , or of the word contained in , to be once mentioned or thought upon . you therefore deserve a rebuke from your superiours for your presumptuous intrusion ; who made you of their counsel ? why should you leave out , or put in any thing without their commission ? why should you insert the word use , which they never inserted ? but then you go further ; for having inserted the word use , you say confidently enough , that assent and consent to all and every thing contained in , and prescribed by , centre wholly upon the word use , and have no other matter to respect ; and then again from hence you think you have gained another point ( concesso uno absurdo , &c. ) of freeing your self from the difficulty and pressing force of the exception against christned infants , their certain and undoubted salvation , dying without actual sin , by saying , you are not bound to give assent and consent to this rubrick ; because though it be contained in , yet it is not prescribed by the book of common-prayer , that is , it is never to be used ; and we assent and consent only to the use of those things which are both contained in , and prescribed by that book . but this is a deep fetch , and a fine subtilty of your own , never to be allowed : what think you of the church catechism , wherein we have a compendium of the churches faith ? what does not the declaration bind you to believe it your self , as well as to teach it the children ? what think you of the creed ? does the declaration only bind you to rehearse the articles of it before the congregation , and not believe them your self ? surely to the latter , as well as the former : every collect , every prayer has in it a credendum , as well as an orandum ; and without the first the last cannot be performed , since faith is of the very essence of prayer , properly so called ? but what do you imagine , the declaration binds the minister only to say over those prayers , and not to pray them , or pray in them ? that is , not to believe what he prays for to be right , and according to gods holy will and pleasure ? this seems to me highly paradox , and of a most dangerous consequence . grant you this postulate , and you spoil the whole declaration , as to the great intents and purposes of it ; for who may not declare in these words , i assent and consent to all and every thing , &c. if nothing of belief , but only use and submission be intended by them ? i have heard of some jews , continuing such , without any change of their religion , officiating as priests among the papists , and celebrating mass ; now why may not such jews , yea turks also , thrust in among our clergy , if by declaring their unfeigned assent and consent to all and every thing contained and prescribed in and by the book of common prayer , they signifie no more , than that they will read over those prayers , perform those offices and ceremonies , and submit to the use and doing of every thing enjoyned ; but in the interim , without being obliged at all to believe the things so contained in , and prescribed by the book , and so said and done by them , to be right , good , and justifiable ? they may act as upon a stage for a livelihood , and have no concern about the thing acted , or whom they personate : therefore sir , i tell you again , you cannot wave the dispute , but are bound to believe , as well as to do all and every thing contained in , and prescribed by the book of common-prayer , and to believe this in particular , concerning the undoubted salvation of children baptized , and dying before actual sin ; and this too as a truth asserted plainly and evidently out of gods word , past all cavil , or gain saying . wherefore i humbly and earnestly entreat you , as a most learned textuary , to quote the place , and satisfie my scruple ; for until then , i dare not declare my unfeigned assent and consent unto such a doubtful and questioned proposition contained in the book . but you would know of me , whether nothing be undoubtedly certain by scripture , but what we have an express text for ? yes ▪ many things are undoubtedly certain by scripture , not only in terminis express●s but also by an undeniable consequence : wherefore let what is asserted concerning the undoubted salvation of such infants , be confirmed and demonstrated out of gods word , in the true sense and meaning of it , or by any certain and necessary in●erence and reason from it , and our business is at an end . this therefore you attempt as it were syllogistically . if those who are regularly admitted into the church of christ ▪ have a right to the blessings of the covenant , then they have a title to salvation . i answer , there is no such word in the rubrick as regularly admitted ; which makes me wonder at your confidence , to add what you please , from time to time , to serve your turn . 't is an hard question , whether all children in england be regularly admitted ( as you may expound the words ) by baptism into the church , yea or not ? i cannot divine what are your thoughts in the case , nor what an avenue and start-hole you would find from regularly admitted , rather than be set up , and mated . there is a great ambiguity in the word regularly admitted , which must be ascertained : wherefore we must suppose all infants baptized in the church of england , according to the liturgy , are regularly admitted into the church of christ , for the rubrick intends at least all of them ; yea , it speaks of children indefinitely : wherefore if these being regularly admitted ( as we suppose they are ) into the church of christ , have a right unto the blessings of the covenant , then they have a title to salvation . i answer , if by having a right to the blessings of the covenant , you mean all the blessings of the covenant , even to the ultimate and great blessing of all , viz. salvation , then there is petitio principii not to be granted , until it be proved , as being the bone of contention : but if by having a right to the blessings of the covenant , you mean some blessings of the covenant , i shall readily concede ; for even their admission into the church , as visible church-members , is a great covenant-blessing , immediately investing them with the actual priviledge of having god for their god , in a more peculiar manner , than those without the pale ; besides , with a foundation right of enjoying the oracles , ordinances , communion of saints , &c. their admission into the church by baptism , gives them from that time forward jus in re , though not jus ad rem , by reason of their present incapacity . but you further argue ; if they have not a right to the blessings of the covenant , through a regular admission into the church by baptism , then baptism is an insignificant ceremony , and not the seal of the covenant . i answer , they have many blessings of the covenant ( as i have now shown ) though yet they may fall short of the greatest of all ; and therefore baptism notwithstanding is not an insignificant ceremony , but a seal of the covenant . shortly , baptism supplied the room of circumcision , which was a seal of the righteousness of faith ; yet we cannot avouch , that all who were regularly circumcised , should have been undoubtedly saved , had they died in their infancy ; for esau was circumcised as well as jacob , concerning whom , without all respect either of their doing good or evil , that the purpose of god might stand according to election , it is written , jacob have i loved , and esau have i hated : esau was hated both before and after circumcision ; which therefore could never have been his sure convoy to happiness , had he immediately expired upon the receiving of this seal : salvation depends upon election , and not at all upon our sooner or later dying after we are baptized . these are your arguments , unto which i will not say with a just return in your own dialect , the man is mad , and raving , but his logick is weak , and will not do the work : yet it may be from your civility and good nature thus to mollifie and lenefie your hard speeches with soft arguments : in the interim , we are now still under the same doubt , about the undoubted salvation of christned infants dying before actual sin , as we were in the beginning , and so shall continue , until we see better reasons to the contrary ; and therefore cannot assent and consent . my following queries are neither captious nor impertinent , but natural and apposite , if we look upon the words of the rubrick , as considered in themselves ; viz. it is certain by gods word , that children which are baptized , dying before they commit actual sin , are undoubtedly saved ; for here is the opus operatum , children baptized , and dying before actual sin ; here is the effect , at least , the sure consequent of it , such are undoubtedly saved ; here is nothing mentioned concerning the modus , how and in what manner the work is or ought to be done to produce such an effect or fore-signifie such a consequent . now therefore , if such a consequent do necessarily follow after such a cause ; then if it be in the power of man to be such a cause ( as to kill a poor infant presently after baptism ) it will be in his power also to bring about such an effect , viz. the salvation of such an infant . but you say , regularly admitted by baptism , which the church of england supposes , answers most of my captious queries . i answer , let me have liberty to put in and out , and suppose what i please in all cases , ( as you do from time to time ) and i will , nullo negotio , untye every gordion knot ; i will affirm or deny any proposition , be it in it self true or false , right or wrong , without any scruple or hesitation ; no priest or jesuite shall be able to out-do me . how know you that the church supposeth these words , regularly admitted by baptism ? why should you presume to set such limits , to put such a close hedge about the rubrick , when it lies open , and in common ? but if you will thus incroach presumptuously from your own head and heart , why am i bound to give credit unto you ? or govern my faith and practice by your private sentiments ? yet i wish these words , regularly admitted by baptism , had been expressed in the rubrick ; which perhaps might have saved me the trouble of objecting , and so you of confuting . but granting the truth of the rubrick in its latitude ; i said , that a minister would be very cruel and unmerciful , to deny any children their christendom , though their parents out of weakness or tenderness of conscience scrupled godfathers and godmothers , and the sign of the cross , and durst not upon that score bring their children to be baptized ; yet , as i added , if he were a true son of the church , and punctually observed his prescribed rule , he must not baptize any infant without godfathers and godmothers , without signing of it with the sign of the cross , whether it be saved or damned . here you say , i am a man of conscience , that is of no conscience at all , of a tender conscience , that is cauteriz'd : but why ? for bringing in such a false and unjust charge against the practice of the church of england ; which , as plainly appeareth in the form of private baptism , has expresly ordered her ministers to baptize children without godfathers and godmothers , or the sign of the cross : you know not what remark to make on this , but leave it to my self , and every impartial reader , to think on it . though you do not know what remark to make on my objection , yet i know what remarks to make on your confutation ; for plainly , i observe in it falseness , and weakness : first , there is a great untruth in it ; for though you say , the church of england has expresly ordered ( in that private form of baptizing ) to baptize children without godfathers and godmothers , or the sign of the cross ; yet there is no such thing expressed or mentioned in the order , but at the uttermost it is only supposed by a mute ; and will you call silence expression ? here i leave you to your self , and serious thoughts ; so likewise to the thoughts of the impartial reader , how far you can stretch to bring in an accusation . if the minister in private baptism should sign the infant baptized with the sign of the cross , would he cross the intent of that silent ( which you call express ) order , yea or not ? i believe nothing at all ; which to do , had it been an expressed or declared order , would have been a manifest violation of the same : and then as to godfathers and godmothers , they are both mentioned , and interrogated , and as clearly brought in for the consummation of private baptism , as in publick . secondly , there is a great weakness in our confutation ; for my objection lies against the manner of baptizing in ordinary , and you answer me from the manner of baptizing in extraordinary , as in case of any apparent danger of death . what ? can only parents ( whose children are in danger of death ) have these scruples , mentioned by me , against godfathers and godmothers , and against the sign of the cross , and not multitudes besides them ? how shall the children of these , how scrupulous soever they be , ( as you avouch they may ) come to their christendom ? what shall these , whether these children be in imminent peril of death , yea or not , come with a lye in their mouths to the minister , and say , pray , sir , baptize our children according to the private order of baptism , for they are ready to die , though they are not ? well , he comes , and on the contrary sees their children strong and well ; ought he now to baptize them according to the private or publick form ? surely according to the publick , because the pretended necessity of the private is found a falsity : here ergo the scrupulous parents are at the same bar as at the beginning , and their children as far from being baptized as ever ; and this too because the minister will not , and , according to order , ought not to baptize their children without godfathers and godmothers , and the sign of the cross . now what i have here spoken is not an idle supposition , and ● meer imagination , but i have reason to believe it a real truth , i● matter of fact ; for i know the person very well , who has again and again been desired by parents to baptize their children , and being unwilling and averse to intermeddle in that affair , hath sincerely counselled the said parents to have a recourse to their own parish-minister to do it for them , whose proper office it was : but they have replied , he will not baptize our children without godfathers and godmothers , and we know not where to get them . my last scruple was against the order and office for the burial of the dead ; wherein we have as much said , as can well be signified and expressed by word or tongue , concerning the most certain salvation and happiness of every one buried by the minister , though of the worst of men , though of the most flagitious and facinorous persons , so living , and so dying . what think you of s. coleman the traytor ? i am assured from an eye and ear-witness , that he was buried in s. giles's church-yard by one of the readers , and by the common-prayer book ; and so perhaps were the rest , not of the loyal , but liolan and lying saints after him : at every such interment , the minister saith , forasmuch as it hath pleased god of his great mercy , to take unto himself the soul of our dear brother here departed , &c. what can more plainly signifie the safety and bliss of such a soul ? what can more fully declare the love and favour of god towards it , and place it in heaven ? you say , it is no more than that of solomon in the ecclesiastes , chap. . . then shall the dust return to the earth as it was , and the spirit shall return unto god who gave it . but surely , in my judgment , god his taking to himself ( and this too in mercy , in great mercy ) every such particular soul , ( whose body is committed to the ground ) sounds and imports much more than solomon intended , by his returning , of the spirit unto god after death ; for the whole verse is but a general description of death , and to give us to understand , that after death the body goes one way , and the soul another ; the body to the ground , and the soul unto god ; that is , ad deum judicem , unto god as unto a judge , before whose dreadful tribunal the soul immediately after death shall be brought to appear , and there shall be sentenced according to desert , either to weal or woe , for ever and ever . this is quite another thing from god his receiving of every soul departed in great mercy to himself ; which implies the happy and setled state and abode of such a soul , in the place of gods abode to all eternity . you say , to return to god , and to be taken to him , signifies to be put in the immediate disposal of god ; and for your authority and vouch , you quote one mr. falkner : i see by your often quotations of him , you securely rely upon him , as if he were an unerring oracle , and an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , an unanswerable demonstration ; nevertheless i know not the man , nor ever yet set eye upon any of his learned lucubrations ; and therefore how truly or how falsly you have quo●ed , or perhaps transcribed him , i can neither affirm , or deny . i freely grant him to be a reverend person , of great abilities , according as you have reported him ; notwithstanding my faith and perswasion depend not upon his sense and judgment , nor indeed of any mans else , though otherwise the most renowned for learning in the age , but only upon the infallible truth of gods word ; and therefore will follow him , and you also , as far as ye follow that , but no further . he saith , according to your quotation , our church acknowledgeth to be an act of mercy in god , through the grace of christ , who hath the keys of hell and death , that dying persons do not forthwith go into the power of the devil , who had the power of death , but do immediately go into the hands of the great god , and our saviour jesus christ , to be disposed of by him , according to the promises and conditions of the gospel-covenant , &c. these are his words : but can these be verified of every wicked and profligate wretch buried by the liturgy ? truth saith concerning such persons , tim. . . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that while they were alive ( as the word imports ) they were taken captive by the devil : who therefore can believe , that they made an escape from him , and got out of his clutches by death , and not rather then fell under his power in a more fearful manner ? the devil had , and has still , the power of death , in respect of all impenitent sinners , as the carnifex , or executioner , has power over those who are condemned to die ; and accordingly put into his hands , that the sentence may be actually fulfilled . but now are the condemned ever known to escape from the hangman , after he has noosed them in the halter , and actually trussed them up ? i think not . so again , who can believe that abominable wicked workers ( against whom i make the objection ) go immediately after death into the hands of the great god , to be disposed of by him according to the promises of the gospel-covenant ; when the said persons had never the least qualification of grace and holiness to entitle them to the covenant of grace , or the promise of the gospel , but utterly the contrary ? what therefore is this harangue and flourish of words ( were they not only uttered by mr. falkner , but also by an angel ) to satisfie my scruple , or give me a licence when i am to bury the worst and most vile amongst men , to say , forasmuch as it hath pleased god of his great mercy , to take unto himself the soul of our dear brother ? neither is there then place or season to mention any thing of a sure and certain hope of the resurrection unto eternal life , unless to imbolden wicked livers to continue stil● in their sins ? much less to use any such expression in prayer , that when we shall depart this life , we may rest in him ( christ ) as our hope is this our brother doth . alas ! what well-grounded hopes can either minister or people have and h●rbour of drunkards , whoremongers , adulterers , cursed swearers , and the like , their resting in christ , who every day are brought unto the ground , and buried by the liturgy ? you say , there are various degrees of hopes , and some of them so little , that we can hardly deny them to any person , though never so wicked . i confess , in this particular , your charity and hope is much beyond mine , and yet i think mine is regulated according to the gospel . but your fullest justification of your church in this matter , is by supposing this office of burial to be performed only to persons dying in communion with the church . i look upon it as the best apology , and i have heard it again and again , yet it is not equal nor satisfactory ; because it supposeth , if not an impossibility , yet the greatest improbability : for it is known upon matter of fact , that excommunication was never duly exercised , nor church-discipline ever duly administred , nor indeed likely to be for the future ; while in the interim multitudes , multitudes of ungodly men are brought to the ground , and there the last office done unto them , as if they were the most godly , and approved by the church . the church supposeth or maketh a foundation which is not , and then buildeth her practice upon it , against all right and seemliness : it is as if i certainly knowing such and such persons to be really mad , and out of their wits by a long quotidian experience , and yet from time to time would treat and converse with them , as persons most sober and discreet , because being men , it must be supposed that they have exercise of reason and understanding . but rather than not justifie the office for the dead , and not to help out the defect of due excommunication , you say , i doubt not but whosoever shall leave out that sentence , as our hope is this our brother doth , at the burial of some notorious profligate sinners , complies with the intention of the church , and may justifie himself to his superiours for doing so . i answer , antiquum obtines , you are semper idem , beginning and ending with the same mind , and in the same way . you can put in , and leave out , to serve a turn , according to your pleasure , and yet not be a transgressor , but comply with the intention of the church . surely there is no such matter ; for the church hath expresly ordered concerning the last prayers for the office , whereof these words , as our hope is this our brother doth , are a part , in this manner , then the priest shall say , shall say , that is , he must and ought to say them , and never omit them . here the minister is expresly commanded , and much more , than to baptize without the sign of the cross , as you could urge in the case of private baptism , though most illogically , and most remotely from true reason , as far as a privative is from a positive , and a non-entity from a being . to conclude , if you do not when you bury the dead ( though known beyond all peradventure to die in their sins ) use these very words , as our hope is this our brother doth , you are a transgressor against the church , inasmuch as you directly disobey her express order and rule , and you contradict your own declaration , and little less than give the lye to your own solemn oath and asseveration ; for then and there you declared your unfeigned assent and consent to all and every thing contained and prescribed in and by the book , entituled , the book of common-prayer ; and therefore to all and every thing contained in and prescribed by the said book for the burial of the dead ; which yet you like not , nor approve in such and such cases that too often occur , as to such and such persons , which are every day upon the biere ; but rather you think it right and meet to omit and skip them over , as not proper to be applied , not good to be mentioned . on the other side , if you use these words , as our hope is this our brother doth , viz. rest in christ , at the sepultures of the sons of belial , while you obey the churches order , you are a transgressor against your own conscience , in uttering what you believe not ; and a transgressor against god , in mentioning this your hope before him in your prayers , as if you had good ground and authority for it out of his holy word , concerning the persons deceased ; when as in reality there is nothing in the scriptures of truth to intimate or countenance such an hope , but altogether , on the contrary , to strike a fear in our hearts of their most miserable restless state under eternal death and damnation . sir , what in your conclusion you are pleased to stile the only piece of ingenuity in me , is still my mind and judgment , and i do not retract from it in the least , let it displease whom it shall displease , as i believe it will do many . and what you say , i acknowledge to be a great truth ( whether properly and directly inferred from my concession , yea or not ) viz. that there is a real difference between that conformity which is requir'd of a clergy man , and that which is required of a lay-man . you add further , the use i would make of this acknowlodgment is this , that whatever objections there may be against conforming as a minister , there are none against conforming as a private christian ; and therefore that nothing he hath said ought to disswade private christians from conforming to the church of england , by his own confession . i answer , let the persons concerned judge , and do according as god and a good conscience shall dictate unto them ; but as for mine own part , were i one of them , i should not cordially chuse and approve of him to be my shepherd , nor easily assent and consent to sit under his pastoral charge ( if good pasture might be found and had elsewhere ) who entreth not by the door into the sheepfold , but climbeth up some other way ; especially if this other way appeared to me to be too too like the way which david most devoutly prayed against , psal . . . remove from me the way of lying . amen . the second part. after a confutation in quarto , another is brought to my hands in folio : i have kill'd him for a villain , said he on the stage , and made him an example . what ? have you kill'd him ? kill him again . i was kill'd sufficiently , as one would think , by my first antagonist ; notwithstanding to make sure work , another comes in with his deadly stab , and will needs kill me the second time ; and yet i find and feel a quite contrary effect , and even return into life by this renewed death ; while the first of these , as it were , with a strong puff of wind blows out my candle , and the second with a sharper blows it in again , and my candle burns still as bright as ever : for comparing one confutation with another , i am the better informed to answer them both , and continue more stedfastly the same , what i was , in my first opinion ; inasmuch as in several things mine opponents are not more contrary to me , than contrary to themselves , in what they write against me : though yet in their spirit and temper they are one , full of wrath , censure , and bitterness ; a man that shall touch them must be fenced with iron , and the staff of a spear , else they will pierce and gore intollerably . i have scuffled with the first as well as i could , and am now come to encounter the last . sir , your introduction is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , from the common place called , revi●ing and reproaching ; and though it be particularly calculated for a preface against me , yet it may indifferently serve as a general exordium to any philippick against the whole tribe of the non conformists in all controversies whatsoever . i have heard of one beholding a great pair of gates to a very little city , said facetiously to the citizens , pray shut your gates , lest the city run out , and be lost ; such me thinks is your large beginning above the proportion of the following matter , it being more than a sixth of the whole . o how copious and fluent are you in this kind of rhetorick ! how is your pen as the tongue of a ready speaker ! none , i dare say , about the bridge can out-do you , or put you down ; but i check my self , for i have a better answer prepared to my hand , in which i shall acquiesce , not rendring evil for evil , or rai●ing for railing , but contrariwise blessing . i bless the lord jesus that i am accounted worthy among my brethren to suffer shame for his name ; and i pray god to bless you , in turning your heart from your causless prejudice and wrathful indignation against us . this is all i have to reply to your premises , and now come to the work before us . i could not declare my assent and consent , mine unfeigned assent and consent to all and every thing contained in and prescribed by the book of common-prayer . this , you say , may be one of my chief scruples , that i could not prevaricate with authority ; had there been allowed a l●ttle equivocation , and might i have been permitted to give an assent and consent which were not unfeigned , the task had not been so intollerable ; but to require such an assent and consent , searches men to the bottom , and beats the hypocrite out of all his subterfugies ; who can bear it ? i answer , the declaring of my unfeigned assent and consent is a great scruple to me , though not hereby to be kept from a little equivocation with man , but from a down-right lying before god , and against mine own conscience ; and the rather ( as you truly observe ) because such an unfeigned assent and consent search me to the bottom , yet not because i am an hypocrite ( according to your supposition ) but because i am none ; my tongue and my heart being , as they ought to be , perfect unisons , and going together : for if i were an hypocrite indeed , i could easily find my several subterfugies , and no such declaration should be ever able to bear me out of them . herein therefore you are out : but in the interim , upon the whole matter you plainly infer , what was denied by your fore-man , that conformity is now much stricter than in former days ; and this also designedly . you say , because of some possible errata or faults that may escape in the printing of the book of common-prayer , or otherwise , i scruple to give my unfeigned assent and consent unto all and every thing contained in it ; but this is a weak foundation , and the cavil trivial , and therefore you leave me to be noted in my folly . i answer , it is you , and not i , who make such errata , properly so called ( which may be found in the common-prayer book , as well as in any other book , wholly besides the intention of the composers of them ) to be the true , proper , and main ground of my bogling at the declaration ; for i plainly by name except against the order appointed for reading the holy scriptures , against the order appointed for the administration of baptism , and so against the order appointed for the burying of the dead : now the things wherein i except against these , in my apprehension , are not errata , but errors , not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; however , i am sure they are not escapes by accident , and besides the intention of the law-makers , but are both contained in , and prescribed by the book , as some of the substance and chief matter of it ; and this too confirmed by the rubrick . by what i have now spoken , i clearly free my self from the absurdity of calling errata the contents of any book or writing , as you would fasten upon me , against all apparent truth and reason : and whereas you say , my scruple cannot affect you here , because though such errata may be contained in , yet they are not prescribed by the book of common-prayer . i have evidenced the contrary in the instances forementioned : wherefore the coat you would put upon me is more proper for another , who lets the true enemy alone , and fights against his own shadow , as if it were an armed man ; and then triumphs like a thraso in his wonderful manhood for vanquishing such an appearance . but , say you , do we not think we may safely assent and consent to the contents of any writings that pass an estate for fear of errata , which by frequent copying out , and transcribing the enrolled deeds , may happen to be there ? i answer , i never yet heard of any such writings of conveyance , or charters of liberties and properties , where the parties concerned were called to declare their unfeigned assent and consent to all and every thing contained in them , or else should be punished with the loss of their temporal rights , which yet is the penalty of all those who will not assent and consent to all and every thing contained in the book of common-prayer . i have sometimes seen the accounts of merchants adjusted , and subscribed by their names , but with this proviso , saving all errours in them unknown to our selves . now upon this condition you and i will quickly compromise the difference ; let me insert these words , saving all errours which may be found therein , ( as your fore-man was good at inserting ) and i will readily declare my unfeigned assent and consent to all and every thing contained in , and prescribed by the book of common-prayer . but i charge my governours , at least by insinuation , with a pretending to an infallibility , in their requiring an unfeigned assent and consent to all things devised and prescribed by them ; but this is an odious inference . i answer , how odious soever , yet if the charge be true , the odiousness is not at all to be imputed to the insinuation , but wholly to the injunction . but , say you , this is destructive to the reason of all laws ; and by this argument every law-giver must be supposed to be infallible ; the end of all whose injunctions are to be assented and consented to . i answer , this is nothing destructive to other laws ; because law-makers in making those laws , never require of the people any such unfeigned assent and consent to all and every thing contained in , and prescribed by their institutes , but only submission and obedience , secular laws reach only to compliance of the outward man , and not meddle with our thoughts and conscience ; whereas this declaration requires the inward approbation of the mind , will , and heart , as well as the outward observation in matter of practise , which is one great ground of our quarrel against it . but , say you , if it be necessary there should be a rule of uniformity , 't is necessary that men subscribe to it , not as an absolute rule of conscience , but as a rule of peace and ordor : and this is all the church requires , that they so far submit their wills and understandings to their governours , as for these ends to conform to what they have prescribed . i answer , we must and ought to submit our will and understanding to the prescription of our governours , both in conformity , and in every case , so far forth as conscience will allow us , and no further . conscience will intermeddle , and be inquisitive into all our actions , whether we will or no ; and if truth and right be not at the bottom , peace and order ( which otherwise in general should prevail much with us ) will never be able to free and justifie us from the inward severe censure and condemnation of it . the composers of this book of common-prayer , thought all things therein right and good in every particular : but unto this i replied , though this was their perswasion , yet it might not be every mans perswasion ; and therefore i said , i thought it not equal to compel all others ▪ jurare in verba magistri , to declare themselves to be fully of the same mind and judgment with them : my reason was , hast thou faith ? have it to thy self ; force it not upon others , compel them not to think as thou thinkest , and to declare as thou declarest . now you would know of the scrupulous non-conformist , whether this rule be given to the publick officers of the church , or to the private christian ? i answer , this rule is given to all christians , whether publick or private ; according to the several occurences which may befal them . you should have rather queried , about what this rule is given ? i would have told you , that it was given concerning things which are not evidently and certainly true and good in their own nature , beyond all doubtful disputation : now such are many things contained in the liturgy , as the reading of apocrypha , signing with the sign of the cross , &c. these things are not of an infallible truth , nor are we sure of the goodness of them in their own nature by the word of god : wherefore here the forementioned rule is most apposite and necessary , hast thou faith ? have it to thy self : in these uncertain doubtful matters compel not others to judge as thou judgest , nor to affirm what thou affirmest . but , say you , why , or how then can there be any publick sanctions in the world ? i answer , there should be no publick sanctions , especially in the matters of god , and his worship , unto which every private professor shall be called , and necessitated to give his unfeigned assent and consent ( as we are bound to do in all things , with reference to the liturgy ) but the truth and goodness of them , in their own nature , should instantly and apparently be seen by every eye , beyond all scruple , or doubtful hesitation ; for otherwise , whosoever shall so declare his unfeigned assent and consent , will either do it blindly , at all adventures , or else unfaithfully , with a wavering uncertain judgment , or else wickedly , against his own mind and thoughts . wherefore the highest of publick magistrates may not abuse their power into any oppressive compulsion , but are bound for peace sake , and for conscience sake , not to bind the consciences of the people to believe and imbrace their private particular sentiments , as if they were oracular , and beyond all questioning ; but leave them to their own liberty to judge as they please , until such time as they are better informed , and more fully convinced . but , say you , a publick church-officer may reject an heretick . i answer , what is this to the matter before us ? because he may reject an heretick , that is , one who denies the fundamentals of religion and godliness , therefore he is above this rule , hast thou faith ? have it to thy self ; and may compel those under him to believe what he believes , and say what he saith : from such a kind of wild reasoning , libera nos ! i profess i am at my wits end here , as in several other places , to find what you drive at ; how then shall i fence my self against you ? i wished , as to the liturgy , our law-givers had required no more than use and submission , as preceding governours , h●d done before them . you say , and what is more required ? i answer , very much : for when i declare my unfeigned assent and consent to all and every thing , &c. i speak as much as can be spoken in words , to express my love , approbation , and choice , concerning all and every thing contained in , and prescribed by the book , as most true and unquestionable to be believed , as most eligible and desirable to be observed in every office , service , rite , ceremony , and circumstance thereof ; but when i only submit to the use of the liturgy , i yield , for peace and order's sake to my superiours , in things not simply sinful and unlawful , though in themselves far from perfection , and far from my desire in my own free choice and election . and what i have now asserted with little less than a contradiction to your self , you have acknowledged already in your foregoing discourse , paragraph . and in this very paragraph you do it again ; when you say , 't is our zeal too they are offended at , that beyond what our preceding governours did , with reference to this book of common-prayer , we thus strictly enjoyn , that ministers do declare their unfeigned assent and consent ; but are not the men we have to deal with , those that are gone off from all obedience to church and state , and is it not reason we take some pledge of them for their future integrity ? is any man found guilty of a much less hainous indictment , and yet discharged without giving sureties for his behaviour ? shall men who have broken through oaths of allegiance , shall such men be displeased , if we cannot take the viper into our breast without pulling out the sting ? that we dare not admit men of these principles and practices to come into the church , without giving such caution of their being in good earnest , as may justifie those in admitting them , who have the care of the publick ? now what is the purport and meaning of all these words , and many more of the same nature , but plainly to tell us , that an harder yoke is now put upon our necks , than upon ministers in former days ? and that our governours had all reason to make our bonds stronger , as for the punishment of by-past miscarriages , so for the prevention of future relapses ? here therefore you forget your self . but , you say , it is not necessary to the assent and consent here required , that every particular person should take upon him expresly to determine in all these points , 't is sufficient that nothing is sinful ; much less doth it become his humility to oppose the opinion he hath of a thing 's being good and expedient , to the sense and reason of his governours ; 't is matter of obedience belongs unto him , &c. i answer , though this be your mind and judgment , i am clearly of another opinion ; i must determine , in all points , whether the things be right and good , yea or not , before i can assent and consent unto them ; i must be well ascertained what i affirm for a truth , to be a truth indeed , else i may be guilty of some degree of lying in speaking the very truth . it is not contrary to humility , but the just and due exercise of reason , to search into the goodness and expediency of whatsoever i am called to assent and consent unto , by whomsoever commanded ; yea , and to oppose my private opinion to the sense and reason of my governours , if what they stile sense and reason , shall evidently appear to be without sense and reason , and at the widest distance in a contrary way . every man is bound to see with his own eyes , and to judge from his own understandings , if he will act like a rational creature ; it is not the part of gospel-humility , but of sheepish stupidity to follow our leaders , not at all considering or judging of the way , but by a blind implicit faith and submission , yielding to be turned into every path , meerly because it is their pleasure and appointment . thus far in general , now in particular . i excepted against the order and appointment for the reading of the holy scriptures , because many books of apocrypha are commanded to be read for the lessons of the day , as the book of tobit , bell and the dragon , &c. while some of the sacred canon are wholly left out , &c. now for the removing this exception , you say , we desire that our governours be not blamed , if according to their best discretion they have chosen out such parts of scripture to be read in the congregation , which are most intelligible ; and if they have omitted others , which they thought would not be for the edification of a vulgar auditory ; and if they have mixed some of apocrypha , as may be of wholesome instruction . i answer , though you would not have your governours blamed for this mixture , yet some others will question their zeal and discretion herein , and think they have just reason so to do : for who shall presume to be wiser than christ for the good nurture of his church ? who shall take on them to determine which is most intelligible , and most edifying to the people , either the holy scripture , or any other writings ? i am sure he that knows it , hath said , all scripture ( and therefore that part of scripture also , which is left out of the kalendar ) is given by inspiration of god , and is profitable for doctrine , for reproof , for correction , for instruction in righteousness , that the man of god may be perfect , throughly furnished to all good works . there is no such testimony left on record , concerning any of the best parts of apocrypha , though some of those appointed to be read in the congregation are far from the best ; to say no more : therefore this appointment by our governours may well be scrupled ; but then the other appointment upon this appointment is most highly to be blamed , i mean in their requiring all ministers to declare an unfeigned assent and consent to this their appointment , though in their own hearts ( at least many of them ) do not approve of this order , but wish it were otherwise . but is this a reason , say you , to break communion with a church , let any man judge ? to this i have answered already ; for though i would read some books of apocrypha , rather than break communion with the church , as possibly not being in it self sinful and unlawful ; yet i would rather break communion a thousand times over with the best church in the world , than be a wilful transgressor ; and such should i be in a notorious manner , if a lye be a transgression ; and i should lye most egregiously to declare my unfeigned assent and consent , that is , my will and desire to read the apocrypha , rather than scripture in the hearing of the people ; for in the bottom of my soul , and in the truth of my reins , i am utterly against it . i excepted against the order appointed for the ministration of baptism , because of the strict requiring of godfathers and godmothers , to stand as sureties and undertakers for the child brought to his christendom , and this upon several accounts ; as , first , because it is unscriptural : unto this you say , it cannot be supposed that this order of godfathers and godmothers should be prescribed in scripture , the receiving of persons by baptism there being upon their own actual faith , and before there was any national church wherein this order could be observed ; and it was sufficient that the children were then admitted to baptism , as they were in the covenant ; that is , by the faith of the parents . i answer , in these words there seems to me to be a plain contradiction in themselves , but nothing of reason , why godfathers and godmothers are not mentioned in scripture for the baptizing of infants . there is a contradiction in them ; for you say , persons in those times were received upon their own actual faith ; and yet you presently add further , that children were then admitted to baptism by the faith of their parents . there is nothing of reason in them for what they are propounded ; for though parents were received by their own actual faith , and children by the faith of such parents , what is this of bar and impediment to godfathers and godmothers at the baptizing of infants ? or why they should not be mentioned and appointed in scripture ? surely , in my weak apprehension , nothing at all : but the adult , as you truly speak , in scripture-times were admitted into the church by baptism through their own actual faith , and their children were invested with the same priviledge , by virtue of the covenant , as being there declared in that royal charter and patent , fellow-inheritors of the same promise together with their parents . and are not children in our days received by baptism in the same way , and upon the same terms and conditions , as from the beginning ? since therefore ( according to your own concession ) their children then had no sureties when they were baptized , neither need ours in the like circumstances . you would confute me , and you confute your self . but you say , abundans cautela should not be scrupled , but rather commended . i answer , let us not pretend to be more careful than god , in the receiving of those into his family , whom he commands us to receive ; but leave him wholly to his own most sapient providence , and admit of all such upon his own conditions , and consult no better . secondly , i objected , that the father of the child is left out , not mentioned , nor at all taken notice of at the baptizing . for the vacating of this objection , you say , the receiving the child , supposes the father concerned in it , because it is through his faith he is in covenant . i answer , you speak so much in the clouds , that i am utterly at a loss what arrow you let fly at me , or what you intend . every child i know supposeth a father , and every baptized child a believing parent ; yet this believing parent is left out ; who notwithstanding is and ought to be the main susceptor and surety for his child 's good abearing : on him , i say , it is incumbent , to promise and vow to bring up his child in the knowledge and obedience of the christian faith , much rather than upon godfathers and godmothers . but you say , as to the particular ingaging of the father for the childs education , he must be worse than an infidel , if he do not take care for those of his own house . i answer , though i will not , yet some would be ready to reply , and therefore the minister is worse than an infidel , if he do not mind him of his duty ; especially at such a proper and peculiar season , when this parent may well be supposed to bring his babe to the minister , desiring him to receive it , and make it a visible church-member : but in the whole office of baptism , the father is not considered , nor any thing of his duty signified unto him . but you say , not to admit godfathers and godmothers , might in some cases be totally to debar the child of baptism , because it may so fall out that the father may be dead before the child is born ; and then how shall he be offered to baptism ? i answer , though the father of the child be dead , yet some one or other at all times , either by nature , as being next of kin , or by deputation from the person deceased , or some other way , will appear as a propater , a second father to the child , to offer him to baptism : but put the case that none should appear , yet for want of such a sponsor , the babe must not be debarred of its right , but ought by the care of the church both to be baptized , and edoctrinated in the christian faith. thirdly , i objected , that godfathers and godmothers are generally brought to the font to a vouch a great untruth , and make themselves obnoxious of lying and perjury in the face of god , and the church . you say , if they be guilty of this , this is their abuse of what is well intended . i answer , whatsoever is found by along quotidian experience to be the occasion of much sin , ( if it be not in it self absolutely necessary to be done and continued ) in prudence and piety also it ought to be disused . but say you , the child also may not answer the intents and purposes of that solemn vow in baptism , neither the father make good his promise on the behalf of him ; and therefore if godfathers and godmothers shall be detained from ingaging , for fear and danger of falsifying their promises and ingagements , with parity of reason the child also upon the same account may be detained from being baptized , and the father likewise from being a surety for him . i answer , what god commands is one thing , and what man commands is another : whatsoever god commands to be observed , must be observed without regarding consequences ( and such i hope you apprehend at least the ordinance of infant-baptism , if not also of the father his then being chief sponsor ; ) but in all humane commands and appointments consequences are much to be weighed and considered , either as a motive for them , or a bar against them ; and therefore such humane commands should not be imposed which are never likely to be performed , much less those which ( as such , and such circumstances may and often do arise and occur ) are tantum non , next to an impossibility ; now of this nature are those duties required of godfathers and godmothers , with reference to their god-children , and of this kind is the task imposed upon them , which yet rashly and inconsiderately enough they undertake to make good and fulfil . you know the charge then given them by the minister , and have given it your self , i suppose , many and many a time , in these words ; forasmuch as this child hath promised by you , his sureties , to renounce the devil , and all his works , to believe in god , and to serve him : ye must remember , that is your parts and duties to see that this infant be taught , so soon as he shall be able to learn , what a solemn promise and profession he hath here made by you : and that he may know these things the better , ye shall call upon him to hear sermons , and chiefly ye shall provide that he may learn the creed , the lords prayer , and the ten commandments in the vulgar tongue , and all other things which a christian ought to know and believe to his souls health , and that this child may be vertuously brought up , lead a godly and christian life . speak now , sir , your consciscience , and let not prejudice blind you , but tell me , bona fide , do you believe when you give this charge to godfathers and godmothers , that they are ever likely to perform it ? do you think when you call them to this arduous province , they can answer the ends of it according to the trust committed to their hands , or according to their ingagements ; and not be found lyars ? godfathers and godmothers , you know sometimes live far from their god ▪ children in another hamlet , village , town , city , county , country ▪ generally they are at a distance in another house , and in another street : how therefore is it possible for them to see the said children to be taught as soon as they are able to learn ? and particularly to be instructed concerning the nature and quality of those solemn baptismal promises made on their behalf ? how is it possible for them to provide that the said children shall learn the creed , &c. with all other things which a christian ought to know and believe to his souls health ? can these things be brought to pass , and effected , while god-children are down upon their knees , and ask their godfathers blessing ? or do they not require continuance of time , with a continual care and diligence ? these words which i command thee this day shall be in thine heart , and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children ( not god-children ) and talk of them , when thou sittest in thine house , when thou liest down , and when thou risest up . parents who are daily and hourly conversant with their children by often talking in their hearing concerning the matters of religion both of law and gospel , and by a frequent catechising and instructing them in the rudiments thereof , may cause the knowledge of christianity guttatim to instill into their minds ; and so train them up in the right way for their souls health ; but for others to see this diligently prosecuted , and faithfully discharged , it is scarce feasible , but rather on the contrary utterly impracticable . therefore although you say , this objection cannot bear any weight with considering men , it will be found , to be otherwise . before i pass on to what follows , if it might not displease you , i would ask you one question more about godfathers and godmothers , whether when you give them the forementioned charge , your self hold them bound to perform the obligation of it ? did you ever in good earnest , either in the pulpit ; or out of the pulpit , mind them of their duty ? did you ever confer with them in private about the greatness and momentousness of their font-ingagements ? one mr. falkner , i perceive , has written much in the high commendation of the liturgy ; has he any word of conviction to chide with godfathers and godmothers for their quotidian neglect , and to shew them the sin and danger of it ? has he any word of exhortation to stir them up to pay their vows , and bind their consciences to a due care and faithfulness herein ? what , are we in earnest , or in jest ? what , is all meer formality without reality ? at non ludendum est in sacris ; this scene is not seemly , and i wish it might not continue . you say , my reasoning against the cross is so trifling , that you wonder with what face any can urge it ? i answer , be it so ; but withall , pray let us see what ponderous reasons you can bring for it ? they follow in these words , did the ancient fathers plead so much for it in any other sense than christ commanded his disciples , to take up their cross , and follow him ? are they to imitate their master in doing this , in the whole course of their life , and may they not use so much as a sign of it to express it to others , or bring them in mind of their duty themselves ? davus sum non oedipus : i neither understand the sense nor the scope of these words , much less how they are urged either against me , or for the good and expediency of the sign of the cross in the ministration of baptism . if the ancient fathers did plead so much for the cross in no other sense , but in christs sense , then in your sense they pleaded not for it at all ; that is , for the sign of the cross to be made in the forehead by the finger of a minister : for was this the cross christ commanded his disciples to take up , and follow him ? are they again , say you , to imitate their master in doing this , and may they ( his disciples ) not use so much as a sign of it , to express it to others , ( i suppose you mean by others , the children baptized ) or to bring them ( these children ) in mind of their duty themselves ? i answer , god never ordained the sign of the cross , to bring us in mind or remembrance of bearing christs cross , that is of sustaining 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; and drinking what remains behind of that bitter cup , which the lord jesus did propine to all his followers : neither can i see any aptitude in the sign of the cross , as it is there applied in baptism , to any such purpose . for , first , the cross is aiery and transient upon the flesh , and not inured in the flesh ; how therefore shall that that is vanished bring the child hereafter in mind of his duty , as to confess the faith of christ crucified , and manfully to fight under his banner ? &c. secondly , because the child baptized is then not a subject capable of knowing , regarding , or minding what crossing imports . surely therefore if the sign of the cross shall be thought at all requisite and expedient , it would be much better deferred and reserved for the time of confirmation ; for then children may well be supposed to have attained and gained the use of reason , to know and remark what is said and done unto them : yet i confess if many of them be not , yet they may and ought to be confirmed ( though wholly besides the true intent and end of that church-constitution ) while they are very children ; for this is according to the order in that case , which runs in these words , ye ( godfathers and godmothers ) are to take care that this child be brought to the bishop , to be confirmed by him so soon as he can say the creed , the lords prayer , and ten commandments in the vulgar tongue , &c. my children , i thank my god , could say all these as perfectly as my self before they were four years old , and i assure you too in the vulgar tongue ; for i pray tell me , what protestants now teach them their children in latin ? what need therefore of that grave item and caution ? only we must still go on in the old road , when the customs of things are altered and antiquated , and the reason of them utterly annihilated : but in the interim , i thought not my children then fit for confirmation , but wish they may be found worthy ten years after . and now , notwithstanding what has been spoken to the contrary , i will grant you your plea , viz. that the sign of the cross is to bring the children baptized in mind of their duty , to confess the faith of christ crucified , &c. but then will it not be too too like a sacrament upon a sacrament , thus to add the sign of the cross unto baptism ; though for me to say so , you stile it frivolous ? for what is a sacrament ? is it not , according to the catechism , an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace ? is not the sign of the cross an outward and visible sign ? and is not the minding of our duty , or the practical remembrance of confessing of the faith of christ crucified , and of manfully fighting under christs banner , the inward and spiritual grace ? i leave it to your consideration . baptizing it self , i said , ipso facto , does oblige the person baptized , and withall exhibits a vertue to every worthy partaker , to confess the faith , and to fight against sin , the world , and the devil . here you except against me , and say , the expression looks too like the sacrament's conserring grace , ex opere operato . i answer , if the expression be fairly and candidly interpreted , it signifies nothing less in the true sense and meaning of those words , as they are commonly spoken , and taken among divines . you would pick something out of the words ipso facto , which yet there imply no more than this , when the baptizing is over , or the washing of water in the name of the father , son , and holy ghost , is done or performed by the minister , without any future or further signing with the sign of the cross . and yet after all , the sacraments are not nuda signa , sed signa exhibentia & obsignantia to every worthy partaker of them ; and who are thus worthy , i will acquaint you in something which shall be spoken to by and by . but to requite you for your kindness , i pray sir , let me know whether my saying , that baptizing in the name of the father , &c. obliges the person , and exhibits the power , &c. does import and imply the sacraments conferring grace ex opere operato , and not your rubrick much more , which saith , it is certain by gods word , that children which are baptized , dying before they have committed actual sin , are undoubtedly saved ? qui alterum accusat probri , ipsum se intueri oportet . for the justification of this rubrick i called for scripture , and you say to that purpose , what think we of s. peter's telling us , epist . . , . where speaking of those who were saved in noah 's ark by water , he subjoyns , the like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us ? i answer , i think s. peter speaks nothing to the justification of the rubrick ; but only thus far in general , that as noah and his family in the ark were saved from the deluge , so people by baptism are saved from the worser deep ; and these not only children before actual sin , but even the adult also after the perpetration of the same ; for such were all they who were housed and saved in the ark. if therefore you will frame an argument from hence for the salvation of infants baptized before actual sin , the argument is of like force for men and women baptized , though actually guilty : and then from hence it will follow , that all persons baptized are undoubtedly saved . here is opus operatum , conferring grace with a witness , and without all failure : though it is far otherwise , as we may see even in that type of baptism ; for notwithstanding cham was saved in the ark with an ark salvation , yet we think him a cast-away ; so thousands may be saved with a baptism-salvation , and yet perish eternally . but you add further , christ saith of such ( i. e. of little children that come unto him , and it is by baptism only that th●y can come ) is the kingdom of heaven . i answer , granting this coming to christ is intended of baptism ( as i am wholly of your mind , and glad to find another of mine in this particular ) yet this is spoken indefinitely of all little children , as well as of the baptized , and before their baptizing , and not after ; for christ saith , because they are of the kingdom of god , let them come unto me ; and not , that they may be so ; let them come and be signed and sealed , because they are of such a number and order , who shall inherit the kingdom . again , though christ saith , of such is the kingdom of god ; yet of such , does not necessarily include all children in general , though coming unto christ , but may well be understood of some particulars among them . your strongest argument i have reserved to the last , taken out of s. mark , chap. . . is not baptism said to be for remission of sins , such it is in it self , such it cannot cut be to those who rightly partake of it ; and if children do this , if by this they are actually brought into the covenant of grace , whilst they break no law , as 't is only by actual transgression they can do this ; is it any question that they are undoubtedly saved , that is put at least in a salvable condition ? he has better learned aristotle's organon than ever i can do , who knows to reduce this confused heap of both of words and matter into any just syllogism . i see indeed you are a very cunning sophister , if in nothing else , yet in this , that you quote scripture by halves ( i will not tell you like unto whom ) leaving out that part of it which would destroy your argument , as he those words which would have overthrown his temptation . you say , is not baptism said to be for remission of sins ? whereas the text is thus ; john did baptize in the wilderness , and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins . the baptism therefore here spoken of belongs not properly to infants ; for , first , it is a baptism of repentance , of which infants are not capable : secondly , it is for remission of sins , which therefore imply actual sins , whereas infants are only guilty of original sin , and that is but one . and besides all this , remission of sins , there spoken of , relates not so much unto baptism , as unto repentance ; for john baptist his great work was to call people to repentance , in those days came the baptist preaching , and saying , repent ye , for the kingdom of god is at hand ; upon this account his baptism is stiled , the baptism of repentance ; and he himself saith , matth. . . i indeed baptize you with water unto repentance : and as a testimony of their true repentance , he called them to his baptism , and not otherwise ; and accordingly if their repentance were unfeigned and sincere , answerable to the outward sign of it in baptism , their sins should be remitted unto them , else abide upon them , notwithstanding that washing . this is the true intent of the place , as we have it explained from the mouth of peter , act. . . repent and be baptized , every one of you , in the name of jesus christ , for the remission of sins . but notwithstanding what i have now answered , i will yet acknowledge , that true and real gospel-baptism is for remission of sins : but then we must well understand and find out , what this true and real gospel-baptism is , and wherein it consists ; for john baptist himself saith , i indeed baptize with water unto repentance , but he that cometh after me is mightier than i , he shall baptize you with the holy ghost , and with fire . there is baptisma flu●i●●● , & b●●tisma flaminis , an outward and inward baptism , the one of water , and the other of the spirit ; the one to purge away the filth of the body , the other to purge away the filth of the soul . now there is a wide and vast difference between these two , which are not only distinguishable , but separable , and often separated the one from the other . the baptism of water is often without the baptism of the spirit , and the baptism of the spirit without the baptism of water . where these two happily meet together in the same person , there the blessed result and consequence hereof is sure pardon , and remission of sins , and the final issue , undoubted salvation ; otherwise not . but now who shall presume to tell , as to hic & nunc ( when this and another child is baptized ) concerning the certain concurrence of both these ? who hath known the mind of god herein ? who can discover this inscrutable secret ? but yet let me not be mistaken when i said , otherwise not ; for it is to be restrained only to the first baptism : for though this cannot seal unto us the pardon of sins without the last , yet the last can do it by it self alone without the first . all the ancient patriarchs , and prophets , and holy confessors , and saints before christ's incarnation , had only the last baptism ; and since that time , all those infant-martyrs under the butchery of herod , had only this last baptism ; thousands of the seed of believing parents , some of them dying before they were born , and some of them immediately after , have had only this last baptism : that blessed babe which brake out of the womb , while the mother of it was now sacrificing her body in the flames , for a testimony to the truth against cursed papists , ( who most cruelly and unnaturally forthwith condemned this young heretick to be burnt , together with the old one ) had only this last baptism ; notwithstanding the sins of all these ( and of all others in the same circumstances ) were undoubtedly remitted , and their souls undoubtedly saved . though they were not made partakers of the outward washing , yet the inward washing was graciously vouchsafed to them unto life everlasting : this therefore is that which i would call the true and real gospel-baptism , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , by way of eminency ; whereas the outward baptism of water , which is only in the power of man to administer , can never do away sin , neither can it assure us of the remission of the same . he is not a jew who is one outwardly , neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh ; but he is a jew who is one inwardly , and circumcision is that of the heart , and in the spirit , rom. . . in like manner , he is not a christian who is one outwardly , neither is that baptism which is outward on the flesh , but he is a christian who is one inwardly , and baptism is that of the heart , and in the spirit : this , this only is the unerring infallible sign and seal unto us of our interest in the covenant of grace , and the great blessing annexed to it : i will be merciful unto their unrighteousness , and their sins and iniquities i will remember no more , heb. . . but now who knows , whether all and every one among the multitude of young children that have the baptism of the flesh , have also the baptism of the heart , and in the spirit ? this is thick darkness , and we cannot pierce through it . since therefore here we are left at uncertainty , though the said children be baptized , and though they die before they have committed actual sin , yet never the more can we be certain by gods word , that they are undoubtedly saved . yet for all this , the baptism on the flesh , or washing with water , is not an insignificant ceremony , but has its weighty and momentous ends , according to the wise counsel of him that ordained it , handing forth many general , blessings to all that are baptized ; and besides these , more special favours to every worthy partaker of it ; and this signal one among others , remission of sins . and now why tarriest thou ? arise and be baptized , and wash away thy sins , calling on the name of the lord. but then we must carefully single out who are the worthy partakers ; there is therefore a double worthiness , the one external , and the other internal : now these special blessings are imparted not to those who are only worthy with an external worthiness , but with an internal also . all they may be said to be externally worthy , who have an outward call , and are duly qualified , according to the rules of the gospel , to participate of that ordinance ; and among others , the children of professors , or the children of believing parents : all they , and only they have an inward worthiness , who are the called of god according to his purpose , and chosen in christ before the foundation of the world : now unto all these , and only unto these , the sacrament does sign , seal , exhibit , and convey the grace of the gospel . when i say , exhibit and convey , i mean only in suo genere , according to the nature of the ordinance , as an instrument in the hand of omnipotency , who worketh in , and by , and with whatsoever means he will , and effecteth all his counsels and stupendious works , in this way and manner , with never failing success ; as when with the blast of rams horns he tumbled down the walls of jerico , or to come nearer to the matter in hand , when with the waters of jordan he healed the syrian of his leprosie . you see therefore , that it is not the sacrament it self , as it is opus operatum in the administration of it , but the omnipotency and faithfulness of god in the application of it , conferring grace ; and yet not unto all , but only unto the worthy partakers , and these also with an inward worthiness . to conclude therefore , as baptism is for remission of sins , so likewise the lords supper , this cup is the new testament in my blood , shed for many for the remission of sins . it was indeed for remission of sins unto the eleven , but not unto judas , though he drank of that cup as well as his colleagues , yea and had a worthiness for it , that is an outward worthiness , and was rightly admitted unto it , but wanted the inward : to the inwardly worthy the blessing is communicated , but from all others the blessing is suspended . among other things you say , children by baptism are actually brought into the covenant of grace . here again i might fasten upon you the opus operatum conferring grace , as well as you upon me from a lesser cause : but i pass it by to tell you of another errour ; for children of believers were actually , i.e. really and truly in the covenant of grace before their baptism , because it is by vertue of their interest in that covenant , that they are admitted to that ordinance : baptism is but an open declaration of that which before was more latent and implicit ; it strengthens our claim to the covenant , but our title was good and sure before . in a word , baptism is as the mutual sealing , when both sides are agreed ; the articles are drawn up , all things are concluded , and now only to be consummated , by setting their hands and seals . children , say you , baptized , and dying before actual sin , are undoubtedly saved , that is , put at least in a salvable condition . i answer , after all your strong proofs and arguments , you faint in your great assertion and very tamely are contented to come down to lower terms . vndoubtedly saved , that is , to be in a salvable condition . you are like the wise steward , who instead of an hundred talents willed the debtor to write down fifty . vndoubtedly saved , and to be put into a salvable condition , are no synonyma's ; for the last is far short from an equipolency to the first . there is a vast difference between a non posse non vivere , and a posse non mori , between a necessary enjoyment of life with the utmost security from death , and the most possible yea probable attainment of life , cum formidine contrarij , with the hazzard of the contrary . of these two , undoubtedly saved is the first , and a salvable condition is the last . you know the proverb , a bird in the hand . undoubtedly saved is a ship arrived , put in and safely come to shore , past all danger ; a salvable condition is a ship far off on the main ; though she be a stout and strong built vessel , with all her tacklings firme and compleat , and in a good and likely way to make a prosperous voyage yet she may miscarry and perish in the deep . your paraphrase therefore is paradox to the text , though sound and orthodox in it self ; children baptized are indeed in a salvable condition , not only before , but also after they have committed actual sin : yea ( according to the doctrine of the liturgy , in the order appointed for the burial of the dead ) not only children , but grown up men , committing actual sins ( sins of the deepest die , most gross immoralities , not to be named among christians , heaven-daring and hell-deserving sins , all the days of their lives , unto their last exit ) are still in a salvable condition : or else how can they be thought to be in an hope-able condition ? you know what is read over all such , when they are brought to the grave . that when we shall depart this life we may rest in him ( in christ ) as our hope is this our brother doth . there is a gospel without an hope to relie upon the promise of it , and there is an hope , i see , without a gospel to justifie the reason of it . but that remains yet to be discussed : i therefore return to the matter before us . children baptized are in a salvable condition , that is in a right , hopeful , and probable way of salvation , according to the gospel . for though christ hath said it , many are called , and few are chosen ; and though from hence , even because of the multitude who are called into gods family continually by baptisme , as from other objections , some scruples may arise in our minds , powerful enough to take off , and hinder the full assurance , and certain belief of the undoubted salvation of all such ; yet because the secret things of election belong wholly to god , and the revealed things of the outward call only unto us , we according to what is revealed unto us in that outward call , may and ought to judge charitably concerning all infants baptized , and hope well of their eternal state. in the general , we have good reason to believe , that god will own and bless his own ordinances , and grant salvation to his people in his own ways and institutions appointed for such an end . truth hath said it , he that believeth and his baptized shall be saved . children , i confess cannot actually believe , and so perhaps this promise is not properly theirs : yet they cannot wholly be debarred of it ; for even in their infancy , the seed of grace , and the seed of faith , may be sown and rooted in their hearts ; but however they are actually baptized , which leads on directly to the blessing there mentioned , and has such a full and fair aspect upon the same , that i would not be wanting of the ordinance of baptisme my self , nor deprive my children of it for thousands of gold and silver ; and the rather because wisdom hath said again , except a man be born of water , and of the spirit , he cannot enter into the kingdom of god. you have therefore my vote and suffrage , for the salvable condition children baptized : i leave them in the way of life , while yet they are living : in via salutis , dum viatores , but how they can be thought or said to be so in termino , after they are gone to their long , lasting , everlasting home ; or how you can apply this for the vindication of the rubrick , is beyond my understanding . it is certain by gods word , that children which are baptized , dying before they commit actual sin , are undoubtedly saved ; that is , say you , in your explanation , they are put at least in a salvable condition , what are they still but in a salvable condition after dying ? i shall make no remark upon this remarkable — but am ready to trespass another way , even volens nolens . quis tale legendo temperet a risu ? nevertheless this shall be spoken for your honour , that you are a more generous opponent than the former ; for you intrepedly and heroickly own justifie the truth of the rubrick ; when as he most basely and sneakingly would have shuffled it off by the slight of evasion : not allowing it any place in his assent and consent , though it hath evidently a place in the liturgy and is a part of the whole . but then on the other side , i think him more sober than your self , though he call a certain query of mine , a raving question : which was this , since baptizing gives such an unquestionable title unto heaven , may a minister deny the ordinance to any infant whatsoever , if he might be permitted to administer it ? in particular i brought down the question to a true believer , whose child had an unquestionable right unto gospel baptisme according to the terms and conditions of the gospel ; whether , if such a believer should bring his child to the font , and desire the minister to have it baptized , but yet either out of weakness or tenderness of conscience , scruples god-fathers and god-mothers , and the sign of the cross , and dares not admit of them , the minister may and ought upon that score deny his babe christendom ? he saith in such a case the answer is plain , that he ought not . though here he speaks without book , i mean the common-prayer book , and against the order of it in the baptizing of infants . whereas you say on the contrary in these words , that odium he ( meaning me ) would load the minister with , that shall deny to administer baptism to them , who come not according to the rule of the church — are ( surely it should be , is , referring to odium ) besides our argument , 't is sufficient he ( the minister ) hath no title ( i think you mean hath no right , for i am often at a loss to unriddle you ) so to do it , that he is more serious in his function , than to be knowingly unjust , either to the trust the church or god himself , as i may say , hath reposed in him . if a father come to have his child baptized , but not according to the rules of the church : the minister has no title so to do it , and therefore in such circumstances will be more just to the trust reposed in him than to baptize the said child . if this be not the purport and intention of your words , you speak unintelligibly : but if they be , you fight against your fellow souldier , yea and against truth it self . shall we obey god or man ? christ hath said , go and disciple all naions , baptizing them in the name of the father , &c. and among others , the children of believing professing parents , simply because they are so : this is the true gospel trust put into the hands of gospel ministers ; well , but the church or man commands , to baptize them with god-fathers and god mothers , and the sign of the cross , meer accidents and accessories , forreign from the nature and essence of baptism , but only invented and imposed from humane tradition ; which therefore some weak and scrupelous believers , question and fear as a profanation of that holy ordinance , and accordingly dare not so address themselves with their children unto baptism . but now shall their babes upon this account be denyed their birth-right ? shall they be denyed a priviledge so excellent and so desirable ? shall a pitiful order of the church in comparison over-rule and obtain ? shall it be heeded and observed by the minister more than the regia placita of heaven it self ? god forbid . i objected against the order for the burial of the dead ; because what is there spoken to god and man , though often at the interment of the worst of sinners , is spoken of them as if they had been saints . and most devout holy persons , and their souls then in a safe and happy state. for first the congregation by the mouth of the minister speaks as it were to themselves one to another , concerning the party deceased , forasmuch as it hath pleased god of his great mercy to take unto himself the soul of our dear brother . he is a brother , a dear brother , his soul is now taken by god , taken in mercy , in great mercy , and it is taken to himself . and then when corps is put into the grave , he continues his speech in these words , we therefore commit his body to the ground , in a sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life . then secondly the congregation , in the close of the office , by the mouth of the minister , speaks unanimously to god , we meekly beseech the o father , to raise us from the death of sin to the life of righteousness ; that when we shall depart this life we may rest in him , christ jesus , as our hope is this our brother doth . what can be said more , if the most holy martyr , or confessour , if stephen again were carried to his burial ? let him be a nabal , a cain , a judas , yet here is ( if i might use the word ) his apotheosis , his enthronization among the crowned in celestial glory . you say i have only this to say , that it is in the judgment of charity we prenounce this of all . i answer , charity with judgment , is a gracious excellency , but without judgment , it is the greatest absurdity , and nothing else but the vain opinion of an over-pittiful simplicity . but if charity be with judgment , then it must have some rule of judging : and if the right golden rule , then this rule is the word , for i know no other ; now if charity hath this golden rule of the word to judge by , then charity can have no hope for some ( many ) flagitious abominable sinners , so living and so dying , when they are brought to be buried ; as suppose two hectors falling out , and fighting for a miss , and both killing one another in the place ; or let it be one of them : which happens too too often : suppose some high-way gentlemen in the very act of robbery , shot down stark dead the same moment by the honest traveller , and thus i might instance in many like cases . here , if we will speak soberly and according to truth , we can have no hope : nothing being written in the whole bible , from end to end , to ground the least of any such hope upon . here to mention , what happened to the thief upon the cross , and what may be the dealings of god with the most profane wretch at the last minute , as you do ; and what may befall the most profligate persons , inter pontem & fontem , as some others ; is a vain execuse , and cannot afford the least shew or shadow of a just apology . as for the thief upon the cross , a wonderful act of mercy was extended to him at the last , by an extraordinary priviledge , at an extraordinary occasion ; but withal we know what a wonderful extraordinary testimony he gave of his faith , and of the change of his heart before expiration . the order for the burial of the dead , might have been proper enough at his interment : but would it also have been as proper at the interment of the other his copartner in sin ? had he suffered in england ( supposing all things then as now ) he might have then been buried according to liturgy . for i see none else excluded , but the unbaptized , excommunicate , and laying violent hands upon themselves ; and yet even these also upon your grounds may equally be admitted to christian burial ; i am sure the first of them , the unbaptized , may upon far better ; and as for the worst of the other , who knows how gracious god may be in his dealings with them in the last minute ? who knows ? none can know : and because none can know , therefore none can hope : for hope without knowledge is a meer nullity . as for what we know concerning such abominable wicked workers ( if we believe the holy scripture , which saith , neither fornicators , nor idolaters , nor adulterers , nor thieves , nor covetous , nor drunkards , nor revilers , nor extortioners shall ever inherit the kingdome of god ; which saith , without regeneration and holiness no man shall see the lord , and every where to the like purpose ) it speaks their condition desperate and damned ; and therefore with silence , but without hope , we must leave them wholly to the disposition and determination of god their judge . and this also you seem to to acknowledge and concede : for in making good those words , since it hath pleased god of his great mercy to take unto himself — you say , that it is not necessary the words in great mercy should refer to the persons taken away , for it may be mercy , and a great mercy , to them who suffered by their injury , or ill examples , supposing them to be such in whom no shew of goodness did appear . i answer , i thank you heartily for this new notion , which never before came upon the imagination of my thoughts , nor perhaps of any other : so that you may say in a boast as zabbarel ( if i hit right upon his name ) ego primus hoc inveni . verily the gens togata , i mean all of the clergy , are much your debtors , and i hope in gratitude will highly extoll the acumen of your wit , and the pregnancy of your invention . for a recompence , i think my self bound to tell you a story , which this rare piece of fancy of yours brought fresh into my remembrance . in those days ( when the book of sports and pastimes , as lawful and expedient to be indulged to youth , and fit to be exercised on the lords day ) was commanded to be published , and accordingly was read in most congregations ; deus bone ! what are the best of men , the tribe of levi , the sons of the church themselves , when they come to be tryed ! yet there were some of them non-conformists to the rest , who neither could nor would do what was then required , what ever they suffered . one of them a most worthy preacher , was desired by some of his chief parishoners to visit his friends in another county , and to absent himself from them three weeks or a month together : and in the interim they procured an old certain saint john ( a very obscure person , who neglected his dress , but cherished the hair of his face and beard at a strange rate ) to do this good turn for him : who by the like crotchet of an extraordinary fancy was ready at their service , and made no bones of it . he comes therefore , and appears in the desk , after the manner of some wild satyr out of a wood , and for the better grace of the matter , what he spake was with a twanging tone out of his nose . well ; he sets upon the performance of the work , and reads over the book of sports distinctly and audibly : but when he had done , he added as followeth ; beloved brethren ! here the king gives you liberty to play on sundays , and to exercise youth in vain sports and pastimes , which to do is aprofanation of the sabbath , and a breach of gods holy commandment : but now , brethren ! do you understand the kings mind , and his true intent and meaning herein ? why , i will tell you , my brethren ! a father has a stubborn rebellious child , and he sees his temper , and spirit from time to time , aukward and cross to do any thing he is bidden , but rather more resolved and forward to do the contrary ; wherefore the father , when he would have anything done by this perverse and froward boy , forbids him the doing of it : but what indeed he would not have done , he charges him to do it . thus in like manner , my brethren ! our good and gracious king has commanded us to observe the sabbath in coming to church , and in a religious serving and worshipping of god , by many good preceeding laws , and orders for that end and purpose : but still such is our contumacy and wickedness , that we drink and play , and have our dances and revels on that blessed day , in a shameful manner : wherefore he seeing our perverse rebellious carriage , against his former good precepts , he speaks unto us by contraries , he bids now play on sundays , but his true meaning is , that we should no longer play , as formerly we have done , but keep god's sabbath better , and more religiously ; this is all our good and gracious king ( judging of us according to our wonted crosseness ) intended in publishing this book of liberty , and i hope will follow upon the reading of it . here was a strange unexpected , and unlooked for enucleation of the mind of the king , as now yours is of the words of the liturgy . when i heard this relation first , i was hugely pleased with it : and said , it was pity some courtier had not not acquainted the king with it ; who certainly would have rewarded this rare interpreter with a dean's or prebend's place , for his eminent understanding and service herein : i wish you the same success in your parallel atchievement . but in the interim we must consider , whether those words in great mercy can admit of any such avulsion from the words following , which relate unto the dead , to be an apostrophe to them that are living ? let us read them and weigh them , for as much as it hath pleased god of his great mercy , to take to himself the soul of our dear brother here departed , &c. therefore the person here spoken of cannot be ( as you would suppose him ) a man of an ill example , an injurious person , and in whom no shew of goodness did ever appear , for he is a brother , a dear brother , and his soul now taken to god and accordingly these words , in great mercy , must refer unto himself the person taken away , and not unto others ; unto whom this his being taken away , was rather in judgment , and for correction , by the loss of such a dear brother . notwithstanding procure a rubrick to confirm your interpretation , for until then ( according to your own look ) i may not believe it : but when i shall see that once affixed , let the turning of these words , in great mercy , from the dead to the living , be proper or improper , it shall be all one in the case ; for your sense of them shall be most authentick with me . you have yet another salve for the sore place , to justifieth is last office for the dead , in these words , nor have i ever thought the person officiating , obliged to use this form of burials intirely in all cases — something i conceive may be left to the discretion of the priest , especially with the advice of his ordinary , &c. your meaning plainly is this , that you may leave out some part of what is appointed to be read for the burial of the dead , if the persons buried be not subjects proper for it , but utterly the contrary . as for example , if the person to be buried , has been a notorious flagitious offender from first to last , then after your own discretion , especially with the advice of your ordinanry , you may leave out the words , in great mercy , and to himself dear , and the like , and read only thus , for asmuch as it hath pleased god to take the soul of our brother , we therefore commit his body , &c. thus likewise in the close , you may omit those words , as our hope is this our brother doth , and read it thus , that when we shall depart this life , we may rest in him , and at the general resurrection be found acceptable in his sight , &c. i answer , it would be well , if the minister might thus be left to his own discretion , supposing all parties agreed , and that there would be no scandal in the case ; which i look upon as an impossibility . for put the case , after you have declared your unfeigned assent and consent to all and every thing contained in the book of common-prayers , before the face of god , and the congregation , one of them should immediately step forth and say , sir do you like and approve of all , and every thing contained in , and prescribed by the order for the burial of the dead ? e're long your office will call you to bury as cursed , reprobate wretches as ever breathed ; for too too many such are among us . do you think it lawful and expedient to stile every one of that sort , dear brother ? can you then with a good conscience say , god in great mercy hath taken his soul to himself ? or can you express your hope before god , even sure and certain hope , of his resting in christ , and eternal happiness ? what now will you answer to his questions ? will you bring in your last mentioned plea , and think to help and justifie your self by it ? will you replie thus , friend , i have indeed in your hearing , as in the hearing of the whole congregation , declared my unfeigned assent and consent to all , and every thing contained in , and prescribed by the book of common-prayer , and by consequence , as you justly infer , to all and every thing appointed for the burial of the dead ; but yet you must know , i have a mental reservation according to my own discretion ; and besides , my ordinary , though i have avouched i will do this and that , has given me a secret licence , to leave it undone insuch and such cases ; and in this very case in particular about burying the dead ; and therefore when i shall judge it meet and necessary , i will omit several expressions , when they shall not be proper nor applicable to the persons to be buried , or at least i will take the words in a contrary sense , according to what they are usally taken ? should this be your answer ? but with what forehead could you utter it ? how quickly might the said person reply upon you , to your shame and confusion , in this or the like manner ? belike , sir , though you have declared your unfeigned assent and consent to all , and every thing contained in and prescribed by the book of common-prayer , you have but jugled in all you have declared ; you have your private reservations and exceptions , and your ordinary has given you a licence to profess one thing , and do another ; i see your heart and mouth have not gone together , but you speak and think two several ways . i took you for a good protestant minister , but i perceive you are a meer jesuite : an ireland , a gavan can do no more . what way you could devise , to free your self from this impeachment , is altogether beyond my thoughts . sir , you well observed a certain sort of ministers among your selves , pitied in their non conformity , as doing , good men , what they would not do , if they were not forced to it , and therefore they huddle up and curtail the prayers , and shew industriously by the manner of performance how little they like and approve of what they do . this what you say , i have heard my self spoken in their praise , and themselves much commended for it ; but i have always thought them so far from being worthy of praise , that i have esteem'd them most worthy of censure and condemnation ; and my heart has risen against them beyond all others . this is wretched simulation , and a base pitiful disguise . surely after i had declared my unfeigned assent and consent to all and every thing contained in the liturgy , before the whole congregation , i would be faithful to mine own word , and justifie my profession by a consonant practice : i would not curtail the prayers , but have the courage before all the world to read them distinctly and reverently , and do all in a most ample manner , as the matter did require , scorning aucupare famam , to get the good opinion of any , by shewing my self an hypocrite . and thus , sir , it should be with you in your own concern ; after your declaration , it behoves you to be true unto it in every iota and tittle , frankly , roundly , and entirely coming up to the full performance of it , and of all and every thing required by it , yea even in the order for the burial of the dead , any word , phrase , expression , or passage therein in any wise notwithstanding . moreover , besides this scandal ( arising from your last contrivance of ●●earing your self ) a worse yet might follow in the event and issue : even sometimes to the peril and danger of your life , should you indeed do , as you say you have liberty ; that is , should you leave out those words , phrases , and expressions , wherein the piety and felicity of the party deceased is signified and declared , it would never be endured : suppose the person interred , some lord , knight , or gentleman ; a person , of worth i cannot say , but of wealth and quality , though in the time of his life , he was never so wicked and ungodly , yet now that he is dead , he must be reputed a worthy good man in all kinds , and nothing thought or said amiss of him : a pompous funeral is prepared for him , and his friends with much solemnity , follow the bier , expecting for him the due and accustomed honour of christian burial , and that every word be there spoken over him by the minister in the very form and manner as it is prescribed ; if therefore you shall presume to take your liberty , and use your discretion to skip over any thing in the sepulture of him , which of others you do not ; it will be taken as an affront , and an unpardonable trespass by his then present relations ; and so perhaps some son , brother , or fellow hector , shall be ready to tumble you into the grave after him , or offer some other abuse , to your great mischief and evil . yea the meanest will not endure such a reproachful reflection upon their relations , but will hate you for it in their hearts . you see therefore this stratagem of leaving out at discretion will challenge your discretion , but never do your work . and consequently as things are now ordered in the liturgy , and as you have unfeignedly assented and consented to them in the declaration , you must be again and again a transgressour either to god or man , in the burials of the dead . but , you say , the church must frame her offices to suit those , who are her real members . i answer , here is the wisdom of the church to frame all her offices and services in such a manner as may be furthest from all scandal in one kind or other ; and count that most sutable , that is most conducible to such an end . to speak therefore about the office for the burial of the dead , it is known upon matter of fact , that all men have not faith , 't is known that most , who are named professors , and live in church-communion , are yet graceless , christless persons ; and in this wretched woful condition go commonly out of the world. shall it now notwithstanding be thought suitable and seemly , in the burying of all these , to speak of them , as if they were saints , and true sincere approved disciples of christ ? surely , sir , if you would freely declare your mind from the unprejudiced sentiments of an unforestalled judgment , you must needs bring in your negative , and say , it is far from being suitable , but rather insufferable . what therefore of help and remedy shall be found in the case ? surely methinks some forme of words in general , concerning death , and judgment , and the other world , with good and wholsome prayers corresponding , and to the same purpose , might be so contrived ( for the edification of the hearers , without intermedling at all with the particular condition of the party deceased , either to his praise or dispraise ) that no just offence might be either given or taken by any . this is the sudden and extempore effusion of my pen in this matter . until some such course be taken , i am well pleased that i have no call to bury the dead , nor can i , rebus sic stantibus , ever declare my unfeigned assent and consent unto them . a postscript . i have yet two queries to propound to mine opponents , to each of them their question , and so i shall take my leave of them for the present . you therefore , sir , who appeared first against me , highly applaud the writings of the apochrypha , and plead much for the verity of them in themselves , and the usefulness of them as to the reading of them to the people ; for you say , few protestant writers of any note , ( i would you had named some of those noted men ) but have commended , at least have allowed of the reading of them ; that is , in the publique assembly , and congregation , as well as other scripture ; and you except against me for stiling them , fabulous legends , and say , many of the ancient fathers did believe them to be true stories , ( as true as gospel ) and though he ( a.b. ) is pleased to call them fabulous legends , i never yet saw any arguments to prove them fables , but what would admit of a fair solution , and when this author produces any , i shall consider them . and you add , but supposing them fables , they are nevertheless fit for all that to be read in the christian assemblies : since they may serve for instruction , or comfort , or reproof , as the parables of our saviour do . what , sir , do you think what you speak ? what as the parables of our saviour do ? what , shall the fables of apochrypha beavouched , to serve for instruction , comfort and reproof as the parables of our saviour do ? is this as a conjunction of equality , or onely of aliquality ? to my best remembrance it is aquinas his distinction , and it is needful here to free you from an horrid blasphemy : you might well therefore have affixed some word of rebate to your word as , to have avoided all imputation of it . yet this is not the question i have to propound : but since you declare your mind and judgment , for the truth and goodness of the apochryphal writings , i would enquire of you , q. what strong convincing , and cogent motives of credence wrought you into this perswasion , and brought you into this mind ? the reading of this paragraph set me a wondring ; but certainly you have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 somthing hidden in your brest beyond vulgar knowledge to justifie apocrypha ; which i would gladly understand for my better information . for i confess unto this day , i have entertained a quite different , yea utterly a contrary apprehension of them . among many others these are two of my reasons : first , because they contain in them several doctrines , not only inconsistent with themselves , but also repugnant to the scriptures of the old and new testament . secondly , because they report and witness many things as really transacted and done , which sound reason and common sense ( if they may beheard to speak ) will unanswerably tell you , can be nothing else but monstrous and incredible fiction , impossible in nature , and at as great an elongation from faith and verity , as whatsoever was hatched in the brains , or mentioned by the pens of hesiod , homer , or any other of the greatest and most famous of those lying poets , i remember very well , when i was but a little young school-boy in reading over the books of the maccabees , many of those strange stories found as little belief in me ; but that of one razis , a jew i judged to be a notorious untruth , and continue to be of the same mind unto this day . for thus it is written of him , maccab. chap. . v. . now there was accused unto nicanor one razis one of the elders of jerusalem , a lover of his country men and a man of very good report , who for his kindness was called , a father of the jews — so nicanor willing to declare the hate he bare unto the jews sent above five hundred men of war to take him — now when the multitude would have taken the tower , and violently broken into the utter door , and bid the fire should be brought to burn it , he being ready to be taken on every sde , fell upon his sword chusing rather to die manfully ( that is to be guilty of self murder ) then to come into the hands of the wicked , to be abused otherwise then beseemed his noble birth : but missing his stroak through hast , the multitude also rushing within the doors , he ran boldly up to the wall , and cast himself down manfully amongst the thickest of them ; but they quickly giving place , and a space being made , he fell down into the midst of the void place . nevertheless while there was yet breath within him , being inflamed with anger he rose up , and though his blood gashed out like spouts of water , and his wounds were grievous ; yet he ran through the midst of the throng , and standing upon a steep rock , when as his blood was now quite gone , he pluckt out his bowels , and taking them in both his hands , he cast them upon the throng , and calling upon the lord of life and spirit to restore him those again , thus he died . here is such a concatenation of prodigies , in this one narration , that nothing less than a prodigy of credulity can assent to any one particular of them . it is marvellous that the fall of razis , from the top of the high wall of the castle ( especially he casting himself down violently from thence , and falling upon the bare ground or pavement , for they quickly gave place , and did not bear him up ) had not immediately done his business for him upon the spot ; had not immediately beaten his brains out of his head , his bowels out of his belly , and breath out of his body ; at least put him out of all capacity of rising and running ; and this through a throng of people , and these a throng of souldiers and armed men , and they also assayling him on every side ; for they were sent to seize his person , and to bring him prisoner . alas our george , and arthur are not so much , if compared with this great heroe razis , as a grashopper with goliah ! the most renowned of such knights have lost their spurs ; ecce homines homunciones blancati quasi libia , as he said merrily in another case : which will more notoriously appear in the conclusion of this most astonishing tragical exploit : for behold though his blood gushed out like spouts of water , yea when his blood was now quite gone , and not one drop of it left in the veins , ( which might befall him , either by the violence of the aforesaid fall , or from the many wounds he had received from the swords of the souldiers , or othewise ; for we are left at uncertainties . ) yet even then he called upon the lord of life ! it is written indeed of our saviour , that after he had lost much blood upon the cross , he cryed out with a loud voice , saying , eli , eli , lama-sabachthani , and yeilded up the ghost . but this was wholly and altogether above the power of nature , and therefore worthily counted one of his last miracles ; because great effusion of blood does necessarily enervate the parts of the body instrumental and requisite to speech , beyond the possibility of framing or uttering any articulate voice , or indeed any sound at all . which therefore ( as some have thought ) the centurion hearing and observing , being ( as well he might be ) a naturalist and a philosoper , did convince him , that the person then suffering was not only a just and righteous man , but also much more then , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , meer man ; for he said , truly this was the son of god , mat. . v. . compared with luk. . v. . though it is evident that our saviour had yet much of his blood remaining within him , when he loudly lowed out ( if i may so speak with all due reverence ) that bitter lamentation ; for afterward it is said , one of the souldiers with a spear pierced his side , and forthwith came there out blood and water , joh. . . wherefore as for our razis , it may be said , if it could be without unpardonable blasphemy , behold a greater than christ is here ; for now when his blood was quite all gone , he called upon the lord of life and spirit : yet this is no great matter , if considered with what is still further reported of him : for now notwithstanding all his blood was gone , he had not only power and vigour to call upon god , but also to pluck out his own bowels , surely they hung very loose , and take them with both his hands ; it is strange that neither of them was hurt and disabled by his fall ; and cast them upon the throng . if this be not a thumper , i never heard one in my life . but you will object , and say , these books of the maccabees are not in the kalendar , neither are they appointed to be read . i answer , though they are not in the kalendar , yet they are in apochrypha ; of which in the whole lump you are a strenuous propugnator , without any limitation or exception . nevertheless to give you all fair play imaginable , i will return from the maccabees to the history of tobit and his dog , which hath its course in the desk , and that too by order , as well as any part of the holy bible it self , tobit , i say , and his dog : for though you were pleased to flurt at me for mentioning of his dog , and say , i suppose this author does not know that the fifth chapter of tobit is left out , ( that is , out of the kalendar ) where tobit and his dog are found together ; yet how causelesly and weakly you do it , will instantly appear ; insomuch that if tobit's dog were yet alive he had reason enough to resent the injury with asnarl , and not only so , but also bite you by the heels , for putting such a slight and affront upon him ; for why should you shut him out of the holy place , as an unclean thing ; since he is admitted and received as well as his master ? yet suppose i had not known that the fifth chapter was left out , it would have no more challenged my knowledg or understanding , then if you should be ▪ upbraided with ignorance , because you know not to handle your needle , nor how to cut out a gown in right mode & fashion , as well as any french taylour in the town ; for what have you to do with such a knowledg ? and so what have i to do with the curiosity and intreague of the kalendar in this particular ? yea , i believe your self would be put to a stand , to give a good and satisfactory account , why only that fifth chapter of the whole book of tobit , should be left out ? why this rather then any of the rest , which are altogether ejusdem farinae of the same leven ? and the rather , because if you observe it in this fifth chapter , the main plot and foundation of the whole tragick-comedy is brought in and laid , as it is usual upon the stage , in some of the first scens . for here is raphael a great angel of heaven , if you have faith to believe , brought in under the disguise of a servant , and professes himself to be * azarias the son of ananias the great ; by what latitude of speech , i will not undertake to resolve , nor yet how decorously : for it is not usual nor slightly , that the son of so great a man should need to turn serving-man . well , notwithstanding he profers his service to tobit the son , v. . and is entertained to waite upon him in his travail ; and so they went forth both and the young mans dog with him , ver . . and it is this raphael , this servant which teaches his young master those unheard of rarities , and puts him upon the performing those wonderful exploits in the following acts. davus omnia : raphael is all in all , and young tobit is nothing without him . why therefore this necessary scene of introduction , should be left out and omitted , and this busie davus and most extraordinary servant should abruptly and suddenly appear , none understanding from whence or how , is wholly beyond my apprehension . i would gladly know , whether mr. falkner , ( unto whom you owe much ) in any of his great labours , and learned exercitations about the liturgy , has given us the true reason of this chasme and hiulcan leap in the kalendar ? surely there is some mystery in it : but what , raphael knows for all me . in the interim it may well purple your cheeks , that you should rather then not twit me with ignorance , betray your own ; for though the fifth chapter is left out , and consequently tobit , and his dog , yet if you had looked forward unto the eleventh chapter ( ordered to be read ) there you shall find tobit and his dog again : for thus it is recorded , v. . so they went their way , and the dog went after them . and for the better convincing you of the truth of what i now speak , be pleased , if you count it worth the while , to go to any of our cathedral-churches , next third day of october , in the forenoon in the year one thousand six hundred and eighty , and so quotannis for the future , and you will be satisfied . saint paul's is not yet reedified , therefore that of west-minster is nearest ; where if you will do your devotions in that grave and solemn assembly , graced with the presence of a great and generous bishop : together with his prebends , priests , and deacons , besides a loud chorus of singing men , and singing boys alternatly responding ; you shall see the reverend reader in due time and place coming out of his seat , first making his lowlie obeisance , with his face to the earth towards the holy altar , though without a sacrifice ; and therefore why he so bows , is not a little mysterious ; and then turning about to shew the same reverence to the presul of the quire , and going into the pew , you shall hear him pronounce with a loud voice , these or the like words , the holy lesson appointed , for this morning service is the eleventh chapter of the book of tobit ; and then he proceeds to his work . after these things tobias went his ways praising god , that had given him aprosperous journey , and blessed raguel and edna his wife , and went on his way till he drew near to ninive . then rapahel said to tobias ; thou knowest brother , how thou didst leave thy father ; let us hast before thy wife , and prepare the house ; and take in thine hand the gaul of the fish . so they went their way , and the dog went after them . i wonder there is no asterisk or finger in the margent pointing to the place , for it is valde notabile ; and then you could not have so easily over looked it . give me leave , for i think it innocent and harmless , and i am sure 't is opportune , to impart unto you a merriment . i once heard a young lord ( now a great and grave senator ) whose tongue is excellently well hung , who to exercise his faculty of speaking , would needs take upon him to preach extempore ( as he said but too loosly , ) and what should be his text , but this very verse , though not exactly repeated to a letter , but in this manner , so tobit went out , and his dog followed him . i remember his first work was to make inquiry , for he said it was of great importance , what kind of dog this might be , whether a spaniel , gray-hound , water-dog , or some other : for from hence said he , we may very probably find out the temper and genious of his master . if this dog were a spaniel , then young tobit in all likelihood was a gentleman , and one who delighted in hawking ; but why then do we not read of an hawk on his fist , as well as a dog at his heel ? if this dog were a grayhound , then young tobit took his pleasure in coursing : if this dog were a water-spaniel , then young tobit's recreation was ducking . but yet perhaps the dog was none of all these , but rather a meer pedlars-cur ; for it is said , the dog followed after him , just like such a cur ; for as for the forementioned they are seen to be more aiery , metalsom and sprightly than heavily to follow after , but range up and down the fields far from their masters feet , and hunt after prey ; and such a dog might well sute with his masters mean condition for the present , because his mother was but a kind of chair-woman , as old tobit the father reports of her , chap. . v. . and my wife anna did take womans work to do , by which she earned her livelihood , v. . this and much more was his oratory , which i list not further to repeat , and the rather , because what i have said already , is indeed more than sufficient to convince you of your mistake about tobit and his dog . but besides , i have several doubts still remaining concerning old tobit the father , and young tobit the son ; which how they can be solved , and received by others , as true and real , do utterly mate and non plus my thoughts . concerning old tobit the father we read thus , chap. . v . . the same night i returned from the burial , and slept by the wall of my court-yard , being polluted , and my face was uncovered ; and i knew not that there were sparrows in the wall , and mine eyes being open , the sparrows muted warm dung into mine eyes , and a whiteness came into mine eyes ; whereby he became blind . if he slept , how came it to pass that his eyes were open ? i have heard this to be the property of an hare ( but i suppose it a vulgar error ) and of nothing else living upon the earth . but though the good man slept with his eyes open , how could two sparrows joyn by a conspiracy against him to make him blind ? one sparrow could not work him this mischief alone by its single muting ; what did they secretly whisper , and soby consent , in one and the same moment , turn up their tailes , and let fall this into one eye , and that into the other , and put them out together ? oh hateful unhappy birds ! else though such a shrewd mischance had befallen one of his eyes , yet the other might have been preserved : surely he would have been more watchful for the future , after he had understood the danger of it . concerning young tobit the son we read thus , chap. . , , . and as they went on their journey , they came in the evening to the river tigris , and they lodged there , and when the young man went down to wash himself , a fish leaped out of the river , and would have devoured him ; then the angel ( his servant raphael ) said unto him , take the fish ; and the young man laid hold of the fish , and drew it to land . this was a strangebold fish to forsake its own element to devour a man. forté hippopotamus , saith grotius upon the place : but it is forty to one that it was not ; since that kind of water-beast ( for so it may be called rather then a fish ) is reported to live only in the river nile , * and not in tigris ; and besides it is of greater bigness and fierceness , than tamely to be laid hold on by the hand of any , and brought to land ; only our young tobit's excepted ; who had the strength and valour to atchive this great enterprize . well ; drawn this fish is upon the bank , and by the appointment of the servant ( for here the man commands the master ) it is gutted , or rather unbowelled , the heart , liver , and gaul being taken out , and carefully preserved , v. . and not without cause , for in due time they will be found to be of an astonishing quality and vertue , working wonders . all the tetragammatons , soleo-terrenos , withall other the terrible hard names boasted of by your mountebanks , are not to be named the same day with them , as you shall hear , v. . then the young man said to the angel , to what use is the heart , the liver , and gall of the fish ? and he said unto him , touching the heart and the liver , if a devil , or any evil spirit trouble any , we must make a smoak thereof before the man or the woman , and the party shall be no more vexed : as for the gall it is good to anoint a man that hath whiteness in his eyes , and he shall be healed . this is repeated again , v. . when thou shalt come into the marriage chamber , thou shalt take the ashes of perfume , and shalt lay upon them some of the heart and liver of the fish , and shalt make a smoak with it : and the devil shall smel it , and and flee away , and never come again anymore . the reason of this ( as you know ) was thus ; a match was resolved upon by the angel between young tobit and a young virgin that was lov'd by a devil ; i assure you by all the faith of apocrypha the devil asmodoeus , for that is his name , was desperately in love with her , and as a most jealous lover impatient of rivals , had murdered and torn in peices , no less then seven men one after another , for pretending unto her ; for so her father raguel like an honest good man , plainly told this ignorant wooer ( as he supposed ) when he first brake his mind to him about the buness . chap. . v. . and raguel said to tobias it is meet , that thou shouldest marry my daughter ; nevertheless i will declare unto thee the truth ; i have given my daughter in marriage to seven men , who dyed that night they came in unto her . for a wicked spirit loved her . chap. . . and whosoever offered to touch her was sure to go to pot for it . nevertheless to this frightful , fatal , and deadly bride young tobit is designed and resolved to be the bridegroom : but how comes he to be so hardy and adventrous ? because he had the heart and liver of the foresaid fish in a readiness by him , as a sure and safe amulet to fray away the foul fiend , and send him packing . i dare be bold to say , the devil of mascon was not , as he said himself , more terrified with the cross and holy water , then this evil spirit with the smoak , arising from the heart and liver of that watery monster . for so we read it , chap. . v. . and when they had supped , they brought tobias in unto her ; and as he went , he remembred the words of raphael , and took the ashes of the perfumes , and put the heart and the liver of the fish thereupon , and made a smoak therewith ; the which smel , when the evil spirit had smelled , he fled into the uttermost parts of egypt , and the angel bound him . surely this smoak was a most hellish fogg , darker than ever any from the bottomless pit ; and this smel a most divelish strong smel to out-stink the devil , and put him thus to flight ; no assa foetida could be a thousand part near so noisome . it is commonly reported , that when the devil appears and frights people , at his departure for a farewell , he leaves an horrible sulphureous stink behind him , ready to poyson all in the room : but here was a more dreadful damnable breath , so that old nick the stinker was afraid to be poisoned himself , and forced to hurry away , and remove farther off at a distance sufficient , as will presently appear . but in the interim i wonder how the bride and the bridegroom could abide by it ? yet possibly they had the cunning to stop their noses , until the smoak and smel was past and vanished ; and so might the devil , if he had not been a stark fool . a silly devil indeed , to be frighted with smoak , and to be driven from his amasia with a smel ! could he not ( as i have said ) have stopped his nose , and kept out the stink ? could he not have gone and opened the window for a little while , and relieved himself with the fresh and sweet air ? could he not have smelled out before hand what was consulted against him ? could he not have provided himself with a counter-charm ? could he not have furnished himself with some rare civet , musk , or other such like perfume on the knob of his staff : by whose sweet and odoriferous sent , he might easily have secured himself from those baneful and killing exhalations , and not received the least dammage from them ? had he not been a meer fungus and dolt of a devil , he would have set his brains a work , and tryed a thousand conclusions before he would have so meekly and patiently parted with his admired adored mistress ; and left her in the bosome , and embraces of a stranger before his eyes . yet possibly there might be an antipathy , and a particular aversion in his nature against this foul fetour and venemous vapour ; which therefore no sooner did steam into his nostrils but presently put him into a cold sweat , and made his face look as pale as a white cloth . alas poor devil ! what would you have him to do ? he was ready to have fallen down into a sown ; therefore he had no remedy , as soon as ever he came to himself , but to flie for his life . but whether ? the text saith , he fled to the uttermost parts of egypt . from whence ? from ecbatane . ecbatane was the place where the great exploit was acted , a city of the medes : media is a country not far from the caspian sea ; between which and egypt lieth all assyria , and all the desarts of arabia , and the red-sea , and then the hither most parts of egypt , and then over nilus , and then the uttermost parts of egypt — thither asmodeus fled and took sanctuary in montanis illis locis quibus aegyptus a lybia dirimitur , in those vast range of mountaines , by which egypt and lybia are divided . this was an huge long post , above a thousand miles , as i guess , in a right line ; but how many windings and turnings he made , whether he went by the string or the bow , who knows ? asmodeus certainly wanted his box of snush ; for had he but soundly sneezed , it would have perfectly cleared his nose of that pestilent whiff , without going the hundred part of such a tedious journy . but i would gladly be informed how , and in what manner this evil spirit fled ? whether by any magical operation he changed himself into the shape of any beast , dromedary , gray-hound or the like ? or whether he changed himself into the shape of any fowl , stork , long wing'd hawk or the like ? or whether into the shape of an ostrich , and so by the help both of wings and heeles together ran faster and swifter then any race-horse , straining out himself to the greatest speed to beat his fellow ? or if he continued in his old form without metamorphosie , whether he went on horse-back , or in a chariot , or made use of any other vehicle for his more suddain passage ? well ; though we know not the manner how , yet the place whether he fled for shelter , is plainly told us , the uttermost parts of egypt ; so great was his fright , that he durst never stand still nor look back until he was at that distance , and fully recovered that asylum . and yet his peril is not past ; for no sooner stood he still , but the angel bound him . alas poor asmodeus , this was very severe after such sore travail ! but asmodeus must patiently endure it : for bound he was , not able to move hand or foot , not able to stir or turn himself this way or another ; but perhaps continue in the same place and posture unto this day . but it is now more than high time to be serious ; has therefore a spirit flesh and bones ? our saviour saith , it hath not . has a spirit corporal parts , and bodily members ? has a devil the organs of carnal sense ? has he eyes to see , as man seeth ? has he ears to hear , as man heareth ? has he fingers to touch , as man toucheth ? has he a palat to taste , as man tasteth ? or has he a nose to smel , as man smelleth ? thou shalt make a smoak with the liver and heart of the fish , and the devil shall smel it , and flee away , very true : his smelling and fleeing , are both of the same certainty ; no sooner did he one , but he did the other also . but is the devil capable of smelling ? even as much as the great huge stone ( in an open street of the town , wherein i was born ) is capable of hearing : whereof it was commonly said , as i well remember , to poor little children , that whensoever it heard the clock strike twelve it turned thrice round ; and it was puzling enough to them . but is it possible for smoak or any material fume to affect , and excruciate an immaterial and spiritual being or essence , or put such an existency under the least consternation ? oh how does the devil laugh behind the curtain ! oh how is he pleased , that such ludicrous representations , and ridiculous stories should be given out and credited concerning himself ! here is the old heathenish doctrine revived and continued under gospel light ( which teacheth us better things ) of the gods or daimons their burning in love , their burning in filthy lust , with young beautiful virgins and women ; as jupiter was deeply in love with danae the daughter of acrisius , apollo with daphne the daughter of peneus , and others in like manner : so here this daimon or devil is with sarah the daughter of raguel . an evil spirit loveth her , saith tobias unto raphael , when he first mentioned the match unto him , chap. . v. . but why ? because the maid was fair and witty , v. . so here again we have the doctrine of binding of spirits , and of keeping them from walking and haunting our houses and chambers , with several other ethnick poetical tales . all which , how they may admit of a fair solution from being pure fable , and impure imposture and be reconciled to truth and reality as to matter of fact , you have it in a readiness ; and as for all objections to the contrary you have promised to consider . in the interim i would gladly learn what profit , and edification can be propounded to the people in reading , and in hearing the whole legend of tobit , so likewise of judith , bell and the dragon and the rest , which you say are fit to be read in the christian assembly ? shall this christian assembly believe what is read unto them , or shall they not believe ? if they believe , their minds are corrupted from the truth , and they believe lyes : if they believe not , what spiritual good and advantage can they reap and receive from such light , frothy , vain , yea even almost defiling romances ? but that such stuff ( to use your own word in another case ) such paultry pitiful stuff should be named and avouched to serve for instruction , comfort , and reproof as the parables of our saviour do , filles me with wonder and astonishment . what , shall the fable of the virgin , sweet-heart , and miss to the devil , who flew several innocent persons in the nuptial chamber , lest they should touch her , serve as much for instruction as the parable of our saviour , concerning the ten virgins , whereof five were wise and five foolish , and these last shut out , and eternally repudiated for want of watchfulness and due preparation ? or as the parable of our saviour , concerning a certain king making a marriage for his son , and inviting many to the wedding , who would not come , but spightfully intreated the messengers ; and were therefore destroyed and their city burnt up ? what , shall the fable of the smoak , and fuliginous steam from the heart and liver of the fish frighting , and quite routing the devil , serve for consolation as the parable of our saviour , concerningthe strong man armed and keeping the palace , yet overcome and cast out by a stronger than himself ? or like that parable of our saviour ( for so i think it may be stiled ) when he said to his disciples , i beheld satan as lightening fall from heaven ; behold i give you power to tread on serpents , and scorpions , and over all the power of the enemy . what shall the condescension of raphael one of the seven holy angels , which present the prayers of the saints , and which go in and out before the glory of the holy one , shall i say his stooping down to become a serving man to young tobias ; or the humility reported of raguel his mother , in taking woman's work to do ; serve for reproof to those proud and haughty ones , who will not stoop down to the lowest and meanest services , for the good of others , as the infinite abasement of our blessed saviour , when be made himself of no reputation , but took upon him the form of a servant ; and when he took a towel and girded himself , poured water into a bason , washed his disciples feet , and wiped them with the towel wherewith he was girded ? certainly such comparisons are not only odious , but most execrable and accursed . wherefore what you have here spoken and uttered , was only i hope in a transport of indiscret zeal to your cause in hand , and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 your second and more considerate thoughts will bring you into a better understanding . god grant it . amen . a word or two more to my last confuter , and i have done . sir , in your large introduction towards the close of it , you tax me as one guilty of sacriledge , and who , when time was , according to common fame , would have greedily swallowed down a steeple , only i could not do it either with the spire downward , lest it should have pricked my conscience , nor with the tower downwards , lest the weather cock should have appeared at the top , and shewn how the wind blew : a very witty conceit , i promise you . and then you charge the whole generation of non-conformists , as making no scruple of swallowing church and church lands ; yea you say , they have already , if they be not belied ( that is well put in ) divided the spoil , and taken into their possession the houses of god , by a sacrilegious prolepsin . but as for you and your party , ye can wash you hands in innocency from any thing , every thing of like imputation , and nothing can tempt you to such an hainous wickedness . wherefore i would humbly and peaceably enquire of you , whether conformists may not be sacrilegious as well as non-conformists ? or rather , let this be the little question , whether persons may not be guilty of sacriledge , that are stampt with a sacerdotal character as well as any other ? sacriledge in the greek is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which properly signifies a prey or a making of a prey of holy things . the latine word saecrilegium signifies a stealing of sacred things : sacrilegium , say some , is quasi sacrilaedium , the violation , the abuse , the hurt of what is hallowed and devoted . from all ; this may be a discription of it , viz. sacriledge is the alienating and wresting of things devoted , and set apart to holy and sacred uses and ends , unto other , and contrary purposes . here therefore we must enquire , to what uses and ends the wealth , riches and the great revenues of the church , were given and granted primarily and principally from god himself , and secondarily from the piety and charity of bountiful benefactours ? and then we must search again , whether they are piously and punctually appropriated to those uses , and expended upon those ends , and not misused any other way ? church riches , i take it pro confesso , were given and granted to carry on church work . now what is church work , i mean eminently such , but animarum cura , a looking diligently to the souls of men , that they may not miscarry and perish eternally ? church work is to instruct the people , shewing them the way they are to walk in , and the thing they are to do . church work is by a sedulous study and endeavour in word , doctrine , example , prayer , and often renewed exhortation to turn people from darkness to light , from the power of satan unto god , that they may receive forgiveness of sins , and an inheritance among those that are sanctified by the faith of christ . church work is to bring people to the knowledg and obedience of the truth , to make them a people fitted for the lord , to put them in a due capacity to serve him in this world , and to enjoy him in the world to come . church men therefore who reap the harvest of these donations , who possess this wealth , and divide these revenues among themselves , ought wholly to give themselves unto this service , and make the saving of precious souls , and gaining them to christ , their main work and business . but now is this their chief study and intendment ? is this their constant imploy and negotiation ? do they look upon themselves as intrusted and honoured with church-offices , maintained and enriched with church-goods to prosecute and expedite this high design , and most important affair with a most watchful and unwearied solicitude ? o vtinam would to god there were such an heart in them , but i am afraid it is far otherwise ! do we not see great names in the church accumulating living upon living , even the fattest benefices , and some of them dean's , and prebend's places besides to the value of three , four , five , six hundred pounds per annum and more , and yet are never satisfied . they run greedily after the errour of balaam for a reward . o sordid covetousness utterly beneath the height , and sublimity of raised winds ! but how much abhorrent is it from the rare and heavenly philosophy of the gospel , which saith , love not the world , nor the things of this world ; feed the flock of god — not for filthy lucre , but of a ready mind — and when the chief shepherd shall appear , ye shall receive a crown of glory , which fadeth not away . true and good church-men should be better versed in these , and in the like golden sayings of the spirit , than basely to covet such an evil covetousness , which casteth no little shame and reproach upon their persons and profession . what shall all your generous studies , and great acquirements of learning , for which ye are renowned and dignified , teach you no other lesson , but inhiare pecuniae to quest after mony , quarry upon the dross and dung of this world , and load your selves with thick clay ! surely you understand higher matters . the sons of the earth , who never knew more than the cart and plough , can attain to this excellency , almost as well as your selves : conformity therefore here is a most debasing deformity , which ye ought to reject with an holy haughtiness of disdain . and the rather , because herein also ye are very injurious and grievous oppressours . of whom ? even of your fellow brethren , the tribe of levi ; not suffering them to have any lot , share , and portion with you in the good things of the church , against all right and equity . ye grasp and run away with all , and they can get nothing to their great discouragement . how many sad complaints have these ears of mine heard against pluralities , from the mouths of those that are as conforming , and some of them as meriting as your selves ! they wait and wait till their hearts ake , even as the impotent and lame at the pool of bethesda , for the stirring of the waters , i mean for an opportunity of preferment , but in vain ; for no sooner can the blessed angel appear , any such place known to be vacant , but another instantly steppeth in before them , and bereaves them of their hope . some famed doctor or court-favourite like the sharp eyed eagle seeth the prey afar of , trusseth it in his talons , and swiftly hurries it away to his former heap ; while these poor wretches lie languishing with vexing dispair in their continual disappointments . the heart of man is deceitful , yet surely if i can know any thing by my self , were i in your stead , i would have so much goodness and kindness , for those of mine own coat and function , as to be willing they should live by me , yea , and live comfortably upon the altar as well as my self , according to the mind and appointment of the first donour in the case . i would not be an oppressour but a comforter unto them , seeking by all good ways and means to keep them up in heart and countenance , and strengthen their hands in the work before them . but to return to our purpose . what signal service do such great doctors , and pluralists perform unto god and his church ? what use do they make of their vast incomes and salaries ? how do they answer the trust reposed in them ? how good and faithful are they in their steward-ship ? we see them rem facere purchasing estates , we see them riding up and down with coach and horses in great pomp and glory . but is nothing more expected from them ? is this the end of the church's bounty and liberality ? their wages plainly point out to another work , as most necessary incumbent upon them without dispensation ; which yet they can easily obtain to their great ease and content . as for teaching the people the good knowledg of god , and a constant conscientious instructing them in the way of salvation , they can do it by a proxy . it is enough for some of them , to eat of the fat and drink of the sweet , while others labour in the word and doctrine ; to fleece the flock , while others feed them . but now who are their under-shepherds ? who their substitutes , and under-feeders ? many of them sorry feeders , god wot ! pitiful hirelings , whose salaries are so smal , as utterly to discourage and disenable them , from any chearful , and vigorous attending upon sacred things : alas several of them are necessitated , to turn petty ▪ scriveners writing bills and bonds , and stoop to such servile offices to patch up a livelihood . what reverence and honour can be paid to such persons by the people ; which is most absolutely necessary for the success of their ministry ? hobb and john the meanest plowman in the parish , is ready to behave himself insolently against them , and thinks himself as good a man , as he who talks to him out of the pulpit ; why ! he is but the poor curate , and not the principal man ; he is but the usher and the school-boys regard him not , for the master , whom they only fear and reverence , is absent and elsewhere . a noble lord , then lately returned from his long travail , among other things told me , that the french did wonderfully vilifie , and set at naught such substitutes sent amongst them to officiate from the lord abbots , and great clergy-men , styling them commonly , poures diables , poor devils , in scorn and derision . but now shall these be thought worthy to be the embassadours of god , and the representatives of christ ? can these rule over the house of god ? can these be supposed to have a throne in the hearts of the people , and to speak unto them with all authority and power ? alas their persons are vile , their preaching vaine , and their oratory contemptible ! oh what disservice , instead of service , is hereby done unto christ and his church ! oh how are the people hereby prompted to atheism and impenitency , and so sent thronging to hell , rather than awfully awakened with fear and repentance , and so brought home unto god! i wonder conscience flies not in the face of some persons concerned ; who cannot but be sensible , that what i now write in great measure is according to truth . i would not bring such guilt of the blood of souls upon mine own soul , to reap the whole profit now in the hands of all the church-men of england put together . but in the interim , are not they guilty of sacriledge ? i think , if any other , these may be arraigned for it with a witness , and stand charged with it in a most notorious manner . suppose a knight , or gentleman , has a parsonage or living in his gift , of two or three hundred pounds per annum ; he puts in a parson or minister , but yet by some clancular pact and condition , reserves a third of the profits to himself ; the clerk presented is of most approved abilities for the place , and carries himself worthily in it . notwithstanding , if this thing be known , the patron shall be sharply , and severely censured , as one that hath unpardonably violated the rights of the church , and bainous sacriledge shall be imputed to him ; the poor minister shall be outed for simony , and another will quickly force in upon the premises . but who is the man ? perhaps some great doctor , who has several church-promotions already , but he must , and will have another , since it falls so luckily in his way . well ; he comes , and according to law takes full and quiet possession ; but then he being elsewhere richly accommodated , and pleasantly seated , cannot think of removing , but sends his curate to do the work for him ; and for his salary allows him not half so much , as the true patron did the former incumbent : he has found out a ten pound levite , and that shall suffice , all the rest must come to his own purse , to keep up his port , and for other certain uses best known to himself ; nevertheless here is nothing of sacriledge in the case ; who dares to think , or speak such a word ? no , here is nothing but what is right and praise-worthy in the whole procedure . fye upon it ! how does covetousness blind our eyes ? how does evil custom impose upon our reason and judgment ? is it odious and detestable sacriledge in one person , and not in another ? can meerly taking holy orders , take away the name and thing of what we call sacriledge ? can the putting on a canonical habit , put off all guilt and demerit in that kind ? then let the aforesaid knight , or gentleman , be made a clergy-man , and immediately he is rectus in curia , and no longer sacrilegious . be not deceived , god is not mocked . to conclude , the curate , or person substituted , who ever he be , that actually performs the office , and does the duty of the minister , either he is worthy or else he is unworthy of the place . if he be unworthy , then much more unworthy you to thrust such an unable and unmeet man upon the people , to their apparent ruin and destruction . he said haughtily like himself , viderit utilitas , hang gain , i will look to mine honour : and you say in your actions , not only sordidly but impiously . viderint animae , let souls be damn'd if they will ; i must and will look to my gain , and to have a good income . but if he be worthy , then the dues and profits arising from the said place , both by the law of god , and of the land ( if pure justice and right might not be wrested from its direct and first intention ) do , ipso facto , belong unto the said minister or curate , as in the reward of his service ; and i think it both oppression and sacriledge , by any plea or pretext ( though of being legally the rector or parson of the parish ) to detain them from him . thus much in requital , for your charge of sacriledge , and my swallowing down a steeple , when time was , with the spire upward or downward , whether you please . farewell . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e page . p. l. . p. l. , , . p. . l. . . l. anpenult . ● . . p. . l. . p. . l. p. . l. . p. . l. . . p. . l. ● . act. . . gen. . . ro. . . p. . l. . p. . l. . p.o.l. . p. . l. , , . p. . l. . p. . l. . . . p. . l. . p. . l. . l. . p. . l. . p. . l. . p. . l. . p. . l. . p. . l. penult . ● . . , . ● . . l. . l. . l. . l. . p. . l. , . ● ▪ . ●● , . p. . l. . p. . l. . p. . l. . p. . l. . p. . l. . l. . p. . l. . p. . l. . p. . l. . l. . l. ● . p. . l. . l. ult . p. . l ▪ ● . ● , , ● . p. . l. . p. . l. . p. ▪ l. . p. . l. . p. . l. . l. . p. . l. . p. . l. . p. . l. . p. . l. . p. . l. . p. . l. . p. . l. . ● . . ● . . ● . . ● . . ● . . ● . . p. . l. ●● . p. . l. , . p. . l. . notes for div a -e p. . l. . p. . l. penult . p. . l. . l. p. . l. . p. . l. . p. . l. . p. . l. . ● . l. . rom. . . p. . l. . p. l. . p. . l. . p. . l. . p. . l. . p. . l. . p. . l. . p. . l. . p. . l. . p. . l. . p. . l. . p. . l. p. l. . p. . l. . deut. . . p. . l. . p. . l. . p. . l. . col. . . p. . l. . p. . l p. . l. . p. . l. . mark . . p. . . p. . l. . p. . . p. . l. . ● . . l. . p. . l. . p. . l. . p. . l. . p. . l. . l. . p. . l. . p. . p. . l. . notes for div a -e p. . l. . 〈…〉 p. . l. . c. . . c. . v. . * hoc autem mendacium est , quo neque deus neque veriipsius angeli , in canonicis libris leguntur usi : quodmendacium , ut excusemus , non magnopere pu●amus esse laborandum : qui●●●ut multae rationes ●inc inde comportentur ) mendacium est mendacium , a deo & ab electis ejus angelis alienissimum ▪ so a true expositor upon the place . c. . v. . * plinie in his natural history having spoken of the crocodile , saith further , major altitudine in eodem nilo bellua hippopotamus editur caudâ & dentibus aprorum , tergorisad scuta galeasque impenetrabilis . c.p. . v. . . . v. ● . ● . . job . . ● . the lancashire levite rebuk'd, or, a farther vindication of the dissenters from popery, superstition, ignorance and knavery unjustly charged on them by mr. zachary taylor in his two books about the surey demoniak in a letter to himself. carrington, john, d. . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; 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(eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : or : ) the lancashire levite rebuk'd, or, a farther vindication of the dissenters from popery, superstition, ignorance and knavery unjustly charged on them by mr. zachary taylor in his two books about the surey demoniak in a letter to himself. carrington, john, d. . [ ], p. printed by r.j. and sold by a. baldwin ..., london : . attributed to john carrington by nuc pre- imprints. the "surrey demoniac" was richard dugdale. this item is incorrectly identified as wing c at reel : and as l (number cancelled) at reel : . reproduction of originals in the university of illinois (urbana-champaign campus). library and the harvard university library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng taylor, zachary, - . -- surey demoniak. dissenters, religious -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - ali jakobson sampled and proofread - ali jakobson text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the lancashire levite rebuk'd : or , a farther vindication of the dissenters from popery , superstition , ignorance and knavery ; unjustly charged on them , by mr. zachary taylor , in his two books about the surey demoniack . in a second letter to himself . london : printed by r. j. and sold by a. baldwin , near the oxford-arms in warwick-lane . . preface . mr. taylor , i received your letter , may . to your apostate friend , n. n. sir , i was much startled at the first sight of the direction , and wondered who it should be , that was become an apostate . and i thought of all those persons i had heard of , who were reputed the authors of the letter , called , the lancashire levite rebuk'd : thought i , is there any of them turn'd turk , or papist ? i never heard any such thing . but may be mr. t. thinks the author is quite gone from the communion of the c. of e. because he could not pray with them formerly , that god would strengthen k. j. in the true worshipping , &c. but this , i can assure you , is not so . for i can now keep on my knees at that petition for k. w. ( tho' some others will not ) and heartily say , we beseech thee to hear us , good lord. but i was presently satisfied , this was not the reason ; but , because i had denied my christian name . my first wonder then ceased , but a second arose in its stead ; that you should say , that i had denied my christian name , or at least were ashamed of it . pray' mr. t. when was the time , where was the place , who was the person , to whom i deny'd my christian name ? i remember not that i ever did deny it , &c. i have not been re-baptized , nor taken a new name , nor am i ashamed of that which was given me in baptism . but i confess , i concealed my name in my letter to you . and if it will please or pleasure you , i 'll give you some reasons , why ( tho' the fortune of caesar or pompey be not concerned therein ) i concealed it . . to avoid the blows of the contending parties . for it 's often the fate of them that interpose as friend to both , not only to fail of their desired success , to make them friends ; but to disoblige both , and to make themselves more enemies of those , who out of kindness they endeavoured to reconcile . and this i find too true from both parties . but , am i become your enemy , because i tell you the truth ? gal. iv. . . i was not willing to disoblige you ; for i feared , in some heat , upon the reading of your book i might be so far transported , to give words that i might find cause to repent of ; for i am a man subject to like passions as you are . yet ( whatever misapprehensions you may have of me ) i have a greater respect for your self , and another angry man that spits fire against dissenters , than i doubt i can make you believe . and it was your tart censures and reflections upon dissenters , that extorted from me some expressions , that you may think are not friendly . and for these reasons , and another you have in my p. s. i gave you to understand , that if any unbecoming words had overslipt me , i beg'd your pardon . pag. . in this i hope i shall treat you with all the civility that is meet for your character , ( tho' there are many provocations ; ) and some epithets in my former , &c. i wish were expunged . and i was really concerned , soon after it was out of my hands , because having occasion to go to manchester , i there in discourse heard a very learned and judicious man , no dissenter , commend a sermon you had preached there . so i was troubled , lest any thing in my latter should be an occasion of lessening your reputation , and so be a prejudice to your ministry . but after i understood , that others less judicious were offended at your sermon , because , they said , it was like a presbyterian sermon . these were the high tories and jacobites , who called you taylor upon titus . such blades there are , that nothing pleaseth them that is serious . again , i have been told , that your father was sometimes hasty , ( as we say ) but his passion was soon over : insomuch , that a man-servant that lived with him would say , i am glad when my master gives me a lauke , ( a lancash . word , which you understand ) for i am sure presently after have a piece of silver from him . and i supposed you might be of the like constitution , the sign of a good nature , as we say . therefore i concealed my name , that i might not provoke to that you might afterward see cause to be troubled at , and could not be remedied ; for , — litera scripta manet . . i did also conceal my name , to avoid the ill-will of such as might mistake any thing in it , towards my person . and to prevent the censures of all , and to save my self the trouble of answering impertinent questions ; and avoid the fruitless discourse of one or other about the letter . . possibly there might be some apprehensions of club-law from some malignant spirits , by innuendo's ; remembring poor de laune , mr. baxter , &c. and what you had said about crab-tree . and if this do not satisfy why i conceal my name , i want not 〈◊〉 examples of good men ; amongst whom i know you will , with me , own the author of the whole duty of man , to be one . mr. t. you hint at another reason , why i am an apostate , because i chang'd the presbyter into levite . for this i must tell you , i did not know of that title , 'till i heard of it by a friend , who had it from ephraim johnston , for whom your letter is printed , nor saw it , 'till the letter came down printed . mr. t. the next thing you blame me for , is , that i make personal reflections upon the morals of men that are dead ; for , de mortuis nil nisi bonum . to this i say : . your maxim is not universally to be observed . for then we must have no histories of bad mens lives , and vices , to deterr the living from such enormities , as the dead have been guilty of . . i must give you to understand , that it 's ill chidden , for your reflections upon the dead . hildersham and jesse , bee , and , for ought i know , worthy men gave me the occasion to reflect on w. c. in vindication , not only of dissenters , but the c. of e. lev. p. , . and you have done it i● with a witness in this letter to mr. pendlebury , in words at length , and not in figures . whereas i did but put two letters , which could not affect him much farther , than where he was known , or the places where he acted his villanies . . i did it in faithfulness : to intimate to the reverend b. of c. for future caution ; for i heard a dissenter say , he had sent the b. word by a rev. divine , that it was not for his honour , to permit such a one as w. c. in a place , which he supposed , was in his own gift . i am perswaded that ingenious man forgot to tell him . but i know not how to excuse some , that are more peculiarly called in the canon law the b. eyes , who knew of his tricks immediately before he went to motteram , and ( i doubt ) were not faithful to that good man. and therefore i am still of the same mind , in pitying the worthy b. b. that cannot see at distance without others eyes , &c. lev. p. . and thus i have acquitted my self from blame , for reflecting on the morals of w. c. tho' dead . besides , his were villanies notorious ; not like your insinuations , which follow to be considered . you say , should i engage you my friend , upon the same ground that you do w. c. i could name as many of your ministers , and put c's and n's to them too , who are yet alive , that labour under the same guilt , &c. and so you threaten the living and the dead ; but for the dead , you will be modest . de mortuis . — but for the living , you are very free of your blows , and are prepared for more . but had you not need to consider well before-hand , whether it be lawful or convenient for your self to cast firebrands , lest some should fall upon your own house or head , and you not be able to quench it . yet if you have a mind of billingsgate-stuff , let me as a friend advise you , not to be too rash , but look to it ; that it be for the honour of god , and the service of the church , and your own reputation ; and that it be true , and well attested ; remembring , your own , and every other man's name and reputation is in another man's hand and power . and that there have been , and are evil surmisings , and groundless suspitions , which are mischievous , and of ill consequence ; and that many a good man hath suffered unjustly , and been heavily burthened under it , tho' innocent ; as the learned hooke● ▪ that wrote the ecclesiastical policy , &c. and that if it be not true ▪ you can make no restitution . and supposing it should be true , it may be it was secret , and not scandalous ; and it may be ( if persons be old ) it is long since repented of , and never reiterated . these evil surmises and invidious reflections , are an indication of a corrupt and rotten heart , and of a weak cause ; and the persons whose cause , and in whose excuse you threaten , cannot be justified by a recrimination : and this might beget a recrimination with letters in some angry persons , that might think themselves touched . and indeed it 's to be lamented , that there may be found too many instances . there are some yet living , no mean clergy-men , guilty in that kind . and if i loved a stink , it 's easy to tell you of one that was worse than gr. and l. that never married the party . and in another case , to parallel your story of mr. pendlebury ; ( as true , as that he married his wife without parents consent , ) whose name lives , and will , when others shall be written in the earth . i can tell you of one , who gave himself the title of a. m. to his patron , when on enquiry he proved undergraduate . but i hope he hath long since repented of all ; and i hear he preaches well and lives well , and therefore i●ll not give so much as one letter of his name . but there is another old stallion , that could not be content with his own wife , that neither lived caste , nor cau●e ; but his miscarriage was brought unto , and sworn before a justice of peace . but alas ! what 's all this to the matter in hand ? i 'll leave him also without a letter , to stand or fall to his own master ; the lord give him repentance . yet i am grieved to think , what work such stuff as this makes among the prophane ; what sport they make over their glass and cups ▪ and hence take occasion to lessen their own crimes , and grow impudent ; and make a mock of their own and others sins ; which is , or should be , the grief all good men. for my own part , i fear god , but fear not any of your reflections . chap. i. dissenters not guilty of popery . in the letter , which somebody ( i know not who ) intituled , the lancashire levite rebuk'd , i undertook to vindicate dissenters from the charge of popery , or errours looking that way . mr. t. you seem to deny your charge in pag. . of your letter to apost . fr. for you say , my friend either could not find one place in all my book , to fix the charge on ; or else he found it so fully proved , that he saw it necessary to connive at it . and you farther say , you own dissenting ministers were tools of popery . and this was all i charged them with , upon this head of popery . pag. . mr. t. you are in so much haste , that you have overlooked or forgotten your charge ; therefore i shall take leave , ( lest i should be thought to bear false witness against you ) to shew you , this was not all you charged them withal . but i 'll tell you , . what you charge them with more of popery . . how they are acquitted in my letter . for which you say , i have the impertinence to ask , what errours in doctrine , looking that way ? in your pag. . . your charge of popery , is in the first lines of your preface , next after your names ; and it 's in these words , the foundation , whereof i am an unworthy member , being intended for the preservation of his majesty's subjects from falling into errours , especially such as tend to popery . and a late scandalous pamphlet , intituled , the surey demoniack , looking that way , &c. here is your charge . . i now shew you , how i endeavoured to discharge them . . by taking notice , you did not prosecute your own charge put in against them ; for you indict them of errours tending to popery ; and when you should prove , you drop your charge , and bring no evidence . so they are in course acquitted . but the defendants not satisfied , expect the accuser should acknowledge his fault , for scandalizing of them . and to clear themselves , they put in their plea , and prove themselves not guilty ; by answering the particular instances , that can be thought could affect the case . and therefore , . i anticipated what i thought could be said against the dissenters , and only two things could with any reason be objected . . either that they held some errours in doctrine . . or , that they practised some things tending that way ; viz. towards popery . now if you prove neither , the bill ought to be quasht ; and so you come under the crimination your self , which you would have fixed on me ; of bearing false witness . now for errours in doctrine , the matter was soon over , being none was objected in particular . and i suppose you did not expect that i should find any tending to popery , when your self could find none ; tho' you had charg'd their book with such errours . . i enquired what they had done , that tended altogether towards popery ; here you lay in a particular charge . . that they were constant tools of papists and popery . . they pray'd on supposition ; and such praying justifying the papists prayers to saints . objection . you object , they are constant tools of popery . and for my information , you bring a book called philanax anglicus ; to prove , they cut off the royal martyr's head. pag. . solution . i answer , excepting against the witness a papist . we have mischief too much from such villanous witnesses , who account nothing unlawful to say or do against hereticks , to promote the catholick cause . this book was written , with a design to cast the odium of k. ch. i. on the prorestants ; except some few , whom he calls ( if i remember right ) protestants of integrity : i suppose he may mean such as b. goodman , parker of oxf. or barrow ; to whom add , if you will , your dr. heylin . this book was answered so well by dr. owen , that he was highly caressed by some great ministers of state in king charles the second's time ; that for certain were no dissenters . but if you except against him , as a party , i shall refer you to a canon of canterbury in the same reign , and chaplain to k. ch. ii. dr. peter du moulin , who answered that book , and calls it , purum putum mendacium , right metal of untruth ; and calls the author , philopapa ; and dedicates it to the then b. of london , sheldon . now would you not be angry , if i should call you tool of popery ; because from them you derive your authority to call dissenters so . again , you refer me to a book , i suppose , called foxes and firebrands ; an author , may be , of the same kidney . now to be even with you , i have already given you two for two ; and to gratify you , i 'll add a third , viz. king charles the second's declaration or proclamation , appointed to be read in churches annually , before jan. xxx . obj. but you send me also to fresher instances ; to prove , that dissenters are tools of popery ; viz. addresses and speeches to the late k. j. solut. i will refer you to cart-loads of addresses , and abhorrences , and sermons , cursings , exclusioners , and their posterities ; which may be as much worth , as dissenters addresses and speeches . besides , you may add if you will , r. rev. and rev. caresses and speeches at chester , and the clergy meeting him also . and whose tools were they ? i am ashamed to name these things , but you extort them . dat veniam corvis . now how should dissenters please some fools ? one while they are the papists tools , for their disloyalty ; and in the next breath , they are tools for their loyalty . now since the happy establishment of king william on the throne , i suppose you and dissenters are agreed in your loyalty . but some jacobite would , if he durst , ask you , how you could dispence with your doctrine of non-resistance and passive-obedience , and your subscription , that it 's not lawful , &c. but dissenters do heartily bless god for such a revolution . and for mr. jolly's speech , and dissenters addresses at that time you mention ; there was none presented , nor did mr. j. make a speech . . farther , i had said , lev. pag. . what are they to be blamed for ? are they to be blamed for their fasting and praying ? did they use popish exorcisms , or popish ceremonies ? now to prove they had done nothing to be blamed for , in their fasting and praying ; because whether it was a cheat , or whether it was a natural distemper , yet they supposing and believing here was a devil , and the man really being under a great affliction , they fasted and prayed ; ( according to the advice of st. james , chap. v. if any be afflicted , let him pray . ) and what is here to be blamed , or what was here done tending to popery ? now what say you now ? . you blame their prayers , because they were upon a supposition ; and would justify papists prayers to saints . . you charge me with misrepresenting your words , and with fabulous stories . obj. you say , if the supposition be false , the worship is superstition . and by asserting this , i am a friend to quakers and papists , if a supposition be the ground of devotion . for papists pay adoration to the sacrament of the altar , on the belief that christ is personally there ; and they pray to saints and angels on supposition they can hear . lett. to apost . p. . with several impertinent reflections , nothing to the argument . sol. to this i say : . mr. j. and the rest did not make a supposition of it ; for they did verily believe that d. was a demoniack ; and thought there were the same symptoms with some demoniack in the gospel , which ( i remember not that ) you have offered any thing against . . but because i said , they pray'd on that supposition , that dugd. was a demoniack , they were not to be blamed therefore . i answer , that all worship upon a supposition , is not superstition . for their prayers were not supersticion : because , . their prayers for dugd. were to a lawful object , god , in the name of christ ; and not like the papists adoration of the sacrament . now here some fanatick would fall upon you , and say , whether is more excusable , he that adores the sacrament of the altar , that believes christ is there personally , &c. or he that adores the altar , or before it , when christ is not there , either personally or representatively . unless they suppose him there , when there is no reason to believe it , this indeed is superstition with a witness . . dissenters prayers were not only to a lawful object , but for a lawful thing ; that god would release an afflicted man , and one they thought a demoniack , from the power of satan . and that their prayers were not superstition upon this supposition , may appear by alike instances ; as , suppose you be absent from your wife and children , i hope you pray for them when at a distance , supposing and believing them to be alive ; but it 's possible at the same time some of them may be dead , and you know it not . will this supposition , which is not then true , make your prayers superstition ? k. ch. ii. was pray'd for publickly after he was dead , for it could not be known at this distance . were your publick prayers then for him , superstition ? obj. . you charge me with misrepresenting your words and fabulous stories , pag. . because i had said , that you deny , that a natural or preternatural distemper can be attended with a devil ; and that it was no good argument to prove that dick's was no possession , because a distemper . lev. pag. , . sol. . i did not say these particular words were yours . but i 'll tell you why i judg'd the argument to be yours : . from p. . of sur. imp. to p. . you go about to prove dugd. 's fits to be a cheat , or that there was nothing in his fits , but what was natural . doth it not hence follow , that here was no devil ? which to prove , you fetch in the authority of dr. willis , ratcliff , and buckley . ratcliff saith , pag. . these strange gestures and actions were not diabolical , but preternatural . whence you draw this conclusion ; you see by the help of my good friends , i may hope to parallel the surey gambals , and satisfy all unbiass'd persons ; from the symptoms that attend convulsive distempers ; of what ? that for any feats shewn by dick , there was no necessity for , and therefore no reason to admit the presence of rich. ludicrous daemon , to play the merry-andrew . sur. imp. pag. . now this was either to prove from these medium's , that it was a cheat , or natural distemper , and therefore no daemon ; or it was not . . if it was not , to what end was it produced ? and what signifies your authorities ? for i have told you , it might be a cheat and combination , and yet a daemon ; as in the case of ananias and sapphira ; and be sure there was a distemper , as in those demoniacks in mat. . and mark . and if this was all you intended to prove , why do you lay such heavy charges against the dissenters , for believing here was a daemon ; which you say , but do not yet prove , is an imposture , and not to be believed to be a daemon ; but a wild story . . if it was to prove that there was no daemon , which your words above seem to imply , then my charge is not unjust . and if your whalley-sermon advance the quite contrary opinion , as you say , lett. p. . which contrary opinion is , if i mistake not , that because a distemper , therefore attended with a devil ; and that you affirm , that natural and preternatural distempers may be attended with a devil . and if this be so , you quite give up the cause . and why here might not be a daemon , ( for you have no other argument i can find ) i yet understand not from you . thus you kindly gratify the dissenters ; and with the leave of your concession , they may ( if they please ) still believe a surey-demoniack ; only you severely treat them about matters of fact , and the manner of their management of the affair . and indeed , if you had in the spirit of meekness , blamed them for it , and admonished them as mistaken brethren ; ( tho' you be not their diocesan ; ) and not hectored , and treated them with so much scorn and disdain , to render them and their party contemptible , i would not have blamed you . but , i admonish , i admonish , i admonish ; and then immediately , take them derick ; i like not . meekness and forbearance , is better than a word and a blow . the apostle's canon is better . gal. . . chap. ii. nor of superstition . having vindicated dissenters from your charge of errours tending to popery , i proceed farther to vindicate them from your charge of superstition ; which was undertaken , lev. pag. , . now you say i impute to you , the charging dissenters with superstition , but produce not so much as one place in all your book , to prove this charge . lett. pag. . to this , mr. taylor , hear my defence . . i did , in the lev. p. . give you part of the words where you charge them with superstition , in different characters ; and , but that i grudge the toil of transcribing your sayings , i might have added more . but now i will let the world have it . in your preface , p. . this trade which you have learned from the papists , was designed to ensnare honest and well-meaning , but easy people ; ( here you judge hearts ) for since neither you nor they can justify by arguments , ( here is their ignorance ) your superstitions , ( here is the present charge ) and divisions from the established church ; ( here is the next charge ) you were forced to fly to little shifts and tricks , that by working on weak peoples fancies , you might win those to your party by craft and wiles , ( here 's another charge ) which you could not by reason and religion . now let any impartial man judge , whether i , or you , my unfriendly friend , are to be blamed . is there no word in all your book , nor one place to prove the charge ? i think you are too young to need spectacles , else i could very well afford to buy a pair , to read your own book ; provided i might be saved the trouble of transcribing . but at last , you honestly confess the charge , lett. p. . but with some unmannerly rhetorick , which is no logick . but you have a high charge against me , pag. . which i must not over-run ; and it 's no less than blasphemy . i perceive i must be at the drudgery of transcribing again , or else you will say , i produce not one place in your book , to prove this ; and then they that read your book , and not mine , will say i belye you . now your charge is this . i must rank him either amongst the class of ignoramus's , or i must make him to blaspheme christ . lett. p. . really mr. t. i will give you leave to call me an ignoramus a thousand times , rather than to blaspheme christ ; tho' i should hear of it out of pulpits and coffee-houses , &c. as once befel a jury , because out of compliment to their superiours , they would not find innocent persons guilty , were called ignoramus's . and to make me blaspeme , you never shall ; i hope i should rather suffer my tongue to be pull'd out of my mouth . but i suppose you mean , you will prove me a balsphemer . and if that be it , put in your charge , and i will answer . and let 's put it to an impartial jury . o yes ! hear the indictment . if the greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signify wholly , as he saith , a fearing of daemons , or worshipping of devils ; christ himself being called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 acts . . let him tell me , if according to his exposition of it , the fearing of christ may not be expounded by jews and pagans , for worshipping of devils . lett. p. . and what then ? am i a blasphemer ? god forbid ! now gentlemen , hear my defence . . take notice , he falsly accuseth me . i did not say the greek word signifieth wholly a worshipping or fearing of daemons . the heathens did take it in a good sence , with respect to their own daemons , which they worshipped ; yet in this very place , acts . . they took it in a bad sence , as a strange daemon ; as when we say a false god ; and paul so took it , verse . . i will yet tell you for once , seeing you ask it , whether fearing of christ , may not be expounded by jews and pagans , worshipping of devils ? i say , it may by them be so expounded , wickedly . nay i 'll tell you more ; that they call christ here , in acts . . a daemon ; and so did the jews , joh. . . but pray' friend what 's that to me , that jews and pagans blasphemously call christ a daemon ; or the worshipping of christ , the worshipping of devils ? did i ever call christ a daemon ? . do you think that jews and pagans did rightly call christ a daemon ? or is this one of his names ? ( i hope , not to bow the knee to , when it 's pronounc'd ; ) for then indeed your accusation of blasphemy might have had some colour ; and so to worship a daemon , might be to worship christ . and then to have called the worshipping of christ in a good sence , as a true object of worship , a worshipping of devils , would have been blasphemy . . but again , if you think that christ was properly and truly called a daemon , then paul was as great a blasphemer after his conversion , as before : for he called the pagans worship , a sacrificing to daemons , not to god ; and he would not have the corinthians have fellowship with daemons . cor. . , . what paul ! would you not have men to worship daemons ? why christ is a daemon , and i hope we may worship christ . . now according to your logick , you might very justly charge dissenters with the greatest villanies and blaspemies . what wretches ! offer to cast a daemon out of dicky ? vvhy christ is a daemon , ( by a very good token , jews and pagans call him so , and used the word properly ; for mr. t. hath told you , christ himself is so called , acts . . ) and cast out christ ? so paul comes under correction , by such a reason . vvhat , have no fellowship with daemons ? vvhy christ is a daemon , and must we not have fellowship with him ? ( is this the reason , why some in the pulpits cry out against dissenters , for talking of communion with christ . ) nay christ himself will come under correction of jews and pagans , and mr. t. for he cast out a daemon : did he cast out himself ? such divinity is like christ eating himself . and now gentlemen , without favour or affection , give in your verdict , vvhether am i , or my accuser , more guilty of blasphemy ? i remember a story ( for a diversion ) of a young scholar in the university , when examined , what he remembred of a sermon preached by the head of the colledge ; the said head of the colledge asked him , what was first , second , or third grace that he had mentioned to one , being asked , vvhat was my second grace ? the boy answered , ignorance : no , said he , that 's thy grace , it 's none of mine . so i fear the blasphemy will be yours , not mine . mr. t. i would not willingly lay any thing to your charge unjustly ; and therefore i read , and read again , and thought to see if i could put any other more favourable construction upon your words ; and i am apt to think , ( in charity to you ) there is some mistake , either in writer or printer . but the charge being of so high a nature , i cannot tell how it can be proved in what you have said , but by this meaning , which is partly expressed , and partly necessarily implied in your words , without forcing of them into nonsence . and if i mistake , i will once more beg your pardon , ( provided you quit me of so heinous a crime ) altho' you very unkindly denied me once before , when i desired it . for i perceive your pardons are as hard to be obtained for love , as popish indulgences , or an absolution for some folks without money ; unless it be to scotch converts . one thing more , under this head. i did tell you , that some persons would retort upon you the charge of superstition ; for doing things in the worship of god , which are neither commanded by god or men ; and are not necessary circumstances of decency or order . and it was queried ; where are you commanded , to bow to the east ? or before the altar to make curt'sies ? where commanded to stand up at te deum , benedictus , magnificat ; or at reading of psalms ? and bouncing and racketing , priest one verse , and people another ? is this for edification ? lev. p. . i have sought for an answer , but yet find none ; for which in civility i thank you , for easing me of so much pains , of transcribing your answer , and replying ; which i could easily have done , by the very authority of a b. s articles of enquiry , into these crimes before-mentioned , and some other probation-ceremonies of the same nature . farther , doth not he transgress a rule or canon , that goes beyond what 's commanded , as he that comes short ? else , what a gap would this open to an inundation of heathenish and popish rites , in the worship of god , and all the offices therein ? for why not salt , spittle , and cream , and chrisom in baptism ? why not crossing upon crossing in all parts of divine worship ? and many other ridiculous fopperies used in the church of rome . and for ought i know , if the parson , vicar , or curate have a mind to use them , he may do it as lawfully , as bow at the altar , stand-up at te deum , &c. and racket the psalms ▪ which are no way for edification , nor are commanded by the ch. of engl. and now i think i have cleared my self from being a false accuser and blasphemer , and dissenters from superstition . and leave you to vindicate your self , or those that use uncommanded rites and ceremonies , from the crime of superstition . rom. ii. . and if silence to what was offered in the lev. be consent , i know on what hand superstition lyes , by your consent . chap. iii. nor of schismatical divisions . now i proceed to your charge of divisions ▪ and am glad , you have once acknowledged , that i charge you not unjustly . i endeavoured to clear them from sinful , schismatical divisions : and what say you to it ? you say , i pretend not to vindicate them , as in other cases , from the guilt of it ; but endeavour to justify them in it . lett. p. . to this i say : . it 's true thus far , that i vindicate them not from some divisions ; but justify them : i. e. going to another place , from your church of wigan to billinge-chapel or st. elms. for i think i need not , i understand no crime in either ; and i gave you my reason . . i justify them from divisions in doctrine , from the establish'd church ; for they subscribe all the articles concerning doctrine , and do not preach against them when they have done . and so they divide not from you in doctrine . obj. but corah , dathan and abiram , &c. did subscribe all the artiticles of the jewish faith. p. . and what then ? sol. . i have very often heard of these three men , ( as pertinently may be , as that of rebellion being witchcraft , which was saul's sin ; ) and i think them as bad men as you can . but if really they subscribed the articles of the jewish faith , then in that they were neither hereticks nor schismaticks . . dissenters say , they separate not from their lawful church-governours ; and 'till they be proved such separatists , they are not to be charged with sinful divisions . obj. but you call their conventicles schismatical , p. . sur. imp. and their divisions , unchristian . p. . ibid. sol. you may call their conventicles what you please ; but it 's one thing to say , and another to prove : for i remember not any thing steely enough to force such a conclusion , and flinty words will not do it . obj. again , you are about it , and about it ; and say , hark my friend , are not your divisions unchristian ? do not your conventicles make a division ? and so are schismatical ; for these are both one . sol. here 's learning , to puzzle dissenters ; but i dare venture it with some of the lower classes in mr. frank. academy to answer ; will he not presently say , syllogizari non est ex particulari . then i 'll venture to tell you , that all divisions are not unchristian , nor schismatical ; for if so , then they that in this diocese divide from chester-cathedral , and go to worship god in other churches and chapels , are unchristian and schismatical . but i suppose you have some other meaning . obj. but , its dissenters divisions are schismatical and unchristian . sol. . in answer to this i had given , lev. p. . a learned man , no dissenter , had call'd schism an ecclesiastical scare-crow , and you call him a socinian . but what 's that to dissenters ? he was certainly a ch. of e. man. and let him be socinian , arminian , calvinist , papist , millenary , in doctrine ; if he hath but a large swallow , and can but subscribe the articles in dr. bramhall's , and some others new-invented sence ; and say he doth it ex animo , he is no schismatick . and yet heretick and schismatick seem with st. paul to be the same , cor. . and if dissenters durst but say what they believe not , they would be no schismaticks . . i told you , lev. p. . that i had often heard and read , protestants excuse themselves from the guilt of schism , which the church of rome charges them with , as you do dissenters . because that church required as . terms of communion , things doubtful , unlawful , and sinful ; and make the papists the schismaticks , who are the culpable cause of divisions ; and produce rom. . . and i am apt to think , that if those that have the rule in the church would impose no other terms of communion , but what christ the chief ruler hath enjoyned , all serious christians would live in unity , tho' not in every thing in uniformity . and what authority any have , to impose more than christ hath , i am yet to seek . and this would be a means to take away all causes of divisions , amongst the pious , and humble , and charitable christians . but for the prophane , irreligious , and immoral , they will readily comply with that party which either indulgeth them in their lusts ; or are most easy in overlooking , or censuring their crimes . and if any others be unruly , in breaking that unity and concord which christ hath bounded , let the pastors of the churches , according to christ's appointment , make use of the spiritual sword committed to them ; and then , valeat , quantum valere potest . and for those enormities peculiarly under the jurisdiction of the civil magistrate , let them use their sword , for the punishment of evil-doers . . dissenters think the protestants arguments against the church of rome , will justify their present partial withdrawing from the ch. of e. and of this their general argument you take no notice , tho' you had said , they cannot by arguments justify their divisions . pref. p. . surey imp. the ch. of e. have it in their power at any time , to remove the schism so much complain'd of . take but away all that christ hath not commanded , as terms of communion , and the schism ceases . and it 's hard , that men should make those things sin , which god hath not . chap. iv. nor of ignorance . the next charge . they cannot by arguments justify their divisions from the establish●d church . in answer to this , two things were said in the lev. . many dissenters do not totally divide from the establish'd church ; they frequent their publick assemblies , hear the word , join in their prayers , and some in the lord●s supper , and in all things that christ hath enjoyned as terms of communion ; and leave them only in those things they think to be unlawful , that are of meer humane institution . . it was also said , that dissenters are not so ignorant , but they have something to say for themselves . and four arguments were produced . and what do you say ? . you acknowledge , you charge them home with ignorance . pag. . and , that you are still of the same mind . and give your reasons , why you charged them with ignorance ; because they could not understand arabick characters , and some cyphers , and suffered a female-friend to be call'd ishcol ; and at last you crow , what saith my friend ? profound silence ! and you say true in that ; for i never undertook to meddle with matters of fact. and it was only undertaken to vindicate them from ignorance in matter of argument , to prove that they can justify themselves from the charge of divisions , &c. but for matters of fact , i am still of the same mind , and i will not meddle , tho' you call me ignoramus for it ; but shall leave it to mr. c. and you , if you think it worth the while to wrangle it out ; for such pedantry is no way edifying to me . . but what say you to their arguments i am content here to attend a tryal of skill . obj. . their first argument was : they cannot think it lawful for any body to command things in the worship of god , of the same nature , use , significancy and end , with god's own appointments ; when there is no difference , but god commands the one , and men the other ; and make them necessary terms of communion . and they instance in the cross about baptism , a humane sacrament . lev. p. . sol. to this you say : . if i knew not the doctrine of the church of eng. i am still an ignoramus ; if i do know , 't is a damnable scandal . i shall be now gored sure , with the one horn ; yet i 'll go on , here 's yet no blood. of this afterward . . they calling the cross a humane sacrament , you are in a huff , and cry out , a humane sacrament ! prythee friend talk sence . repl. i reply , pray you friend be not too hasty ; i perceive you know not who you speak to . but i 'll not take ill your familiarity , provided you will have patience to hear my defence . for i cannot easily be perswaded i talk nonsence ; if i find i have done so , i 'll ask dissenters pardon , for representing their arguments in nonsence ; and it shall be hard but you and i will part friends about this matter . mr. t. why may not i , betwixt you and me , call the cross a humane sacrament ? . you are book-learned , and therefore know the general notion of a sacrament ; you know in the greek it signifies a mystery ▪ and amongst the latins it was a military term , something like our press-money . now suppose i should say , there are sacraments humane , divine , and diabolical , i hope you would not again accuse me of blasphemy . now the heathens mysteries and sacraments were diabolical , because instituted by the devil , who enjoined them by his oracles . the romans sacraments of old were humane , whereby they engaged their soldiers ; tho' may be sometimes , by some of their religious ceremonies , as an oath for confirmation . however , they were but of mens institution . but there are other sacraments amongst christians , of which two are of divine institution . but pray' what are the other five , which the papists add ? why will you not admit them to be sacraments ? is not one reason , because they are but of humane institution ? and what contradiction in terms , if they be called humane sacraments ? at best , the cross is divine in its end , use and significancy , but humane in its institution . but if that term will not yet please , i told you we would yet part friends , or it shall be your fault ; for i love not to contend de lana caprina . therefore , if you will , call it a humane appointment ; and then , is it lawful for any body to command things in the worship of god , of the same nature ? &c. obj. . and now dissenters say , the cross is such a humane appointment ; and how do you answer this ? sol. i might have found the cross in baptism to be no humane sacrament , if i would have consulted can. . p. . say you . repl. sir , i am not so prejudiced against the c. of e. but i will very willingly hear what she can say for her self ; yea i would justify her as far as i am able . and if you knew me , i think you would not be so harsh in your censures of me . therefore that i might not be partial or unjust , i did consult her rubrick , and offices , and canons , particularly can. . and this you will find anon . obj. . their second argument was , they think it not lawful ( some of them ) to kneel in receiving the bread and wine in the lord's supper . sol. to this you say , my friend is bewildred , &c. and you ask me a very important question , do the papists receive wine in that sacrament ? now for this time , rather than fall out with you , i 'll answer you , the papists do receive wine in that sacrament , unless the priests be no papists ? just such a learned question once was asked , in as good earnest as yours . pray' sir , will you tell me one thing ; what 's that ? is the pope a papist ? am i now bewildred ? having told you of dissenters offence at kneeling , i thought good to conceal their argument ; not that they are contemptible , but that i durst not vouch for them ; and so eased you of the trouble of answering them : yet desired modestly your help to answer one thing i had heard some of them object , which i could not answer my self . obj. the thing was this . some of them think it hard , that for doing , or offering to do as the apostles did at the sacrament of the lord●s supper , they should be peremptorily denied that ordinance : when by the same reason , if the apostles were on earth , and offered to do as they did , even in the presence , and with the approbation of their master , they must be denied it . now really mr. t. you are very unkind here ; for you give me no help to answer them ; but twit me with my ignorance , when i had confessed it in this case ; and had told you , i was not able to answer them . was this ingenuous ? when in earnest , i would have thanked you , according to promise . but what say you to this scruple of dissenters ? sol. you cry , a sad story ! if it be true ; and is this all ? no , here 's more . when-ever you can prove that the apostles used the posture that the presbyterians now do , i will engage our church shall indulge you and your brethren in the capricious liberty of their pretended consciences . really , a great and kind undertaking . for my self , you know , i need not the indulgence ; but i should be glad of it , for honest dissenters sake . yet i much question the performance . for , if you should give it to any that kneel not , the penalty is suspension , by can. . and i doubt you would scarce run such a hazard , for the capricious scruplers . repl. yet i fancy the presbyterians will say , they do use the same posture , for they sit : which was their table-gesture . you will say , i know the apostles posture was discumbency ; or a kind of leaning and lolling in one another's bosom . but again they will say , whatever the manner was , whether cross-leg'd , or with their feet under them , or leaning sideway on their elbow , still it was sitting however . yet still my scruple remains . for if christ's apostles were now on earth , and would receive it in the same gesture they did receive it from their master , and not kneel , they must be denied it , by the c. of e. on pain of suspension . for let men be never so pious , holy , and good , they must kneel , or else be left in the same predicament with the most prophane drunkards , swearers , &c. yea much worse , ( which i almost tremble to write ▪ ) for these , if they will but kneel , cannot be denied ; nor are they , that ever i heard of . obj. . dissenters third argument . the imposing and tying of men to a particular form of worship , ( without authority from god ) from which none shall vary , is an invasion of god's prerogative ; and an impeaching of his wisdom ; as if men knew better than himself , what form or manner of service were fittest for him . and what say you to this ? sol. . you tell me of a parliament , &c. repl. but i think dissenters here meddle not with parliaments , but with the ch. of engl. in their canons and book of common prayers , and other rites and ceremonies , &c. sol. . you say , i am a pleasant spark indeed ; and then ask me another grave question . tell me , is reading god's word , repeating his own commandments , professing our christian faith , addressing our selves to him in his beloved son 's own name , making laws for him to obey ? repl. i answer , this is not making laws for him no obey . but why did you ask this question ? i could also ask you questions ; but why should we trouble our selves and others , with asking and answering impertinent questions ? this looks like a blind , to escape the force of dissenters arguments unobserved . for they will say , . that it's terms of communion which god hath not commanded in his word , and it 's the ch. of engl.'s form of worship , which they mean , which is imposed ; which god must have , or none ; and which all must use , or be punished . this is making laws , for god to obey . . for reading of god's word , and praying in his own son's name , they do constantly so worship god , because god himself hath enjoined it . but what 's this to their argument ? i think i may promise , in behalf of dissenters , if the c. of e. will impose no more on them , than these necessary things , they will chearfully obey , and thankfully comply . . but if god must not have his worship in baptism , unless the minister do also sign with the sign of the cross ; and god shall not have his worship in the lord's supper , unless men will receive the bread and wine kneeling ; or if god shall not have his worship in prayer , unless the minister say over so many pater-nosters , and observe so many ups and downs , so many cringes and different postures , in one and the same service ; standing up at the same scripture read at one time , not at another ; saying aloud at one time , not at another : then dissenters think this an imposing upon god , making laws for him to obey ; and that with a penalty ; for he must have this , or none . and 'till you have fairly answer'd this , i shall not think dissenters so ignorant as you represent them , as not to be able by arguments to to justify , what you call , their superstitions , and divisions from the established church . sur. imp. pref. p. . i must again be tormented with answering a wise question , or else i shall disoblige you , and forfeit the kind appellation you give me , of good man. friend , what 's this cramp question ? qu. pray' tell me , ( this is mannerly ) what you call them , that make god to be content with whatever comes next their tongues-end ? lett. p. . answ . . i answer , if men swear and lie , or engage themselves in the name of god to do any unlawful thing , or rashly take an oath , without any regard to the matter , whether right or wrong ; or whether they know what it is , or not : yet rather than lose their preferment , will say what comes next tongues-end . i 'll give you leave to name them ; and it shall be a very hard one , if i consent not . but not to escape in the dark , i will be open with you . answ . . if in their prayers , any make god content with whatever comes next to their tongues-end , and not from their heart ; i think , with your leave , they cannot make god content with them ; for he requires truth in the inward parts . and if you will , call them takers of god's name in vain . qu. yet another question . how i 'll call them , that will not be at the pains to compose a sober form of worship for god , but too often foam out their own shame , and yet are not ashamed to entitle it to , but will needs have god admit it , for the groans of his spirit . p. . answ . . if you mean by sober , a grave and serious form of prayer , if any person do compose a form in apt and pertinent , intelligible words , fit to express the lawful desires of the heart , and to raise their affections of hope and confidence in god , i would highly commend them . but if they should be so in love with their own prayer , as to tye all others to their very words , and none other ; especially if they mix with their form uncommanded rites and ceremonies , under a pretence of decency ; i would say they are proud and conceited , and assume an authority that doth not belong to them . answ . . i did never hear any such prayers , as you speak of ; nor any affirm , that what comes next tongues-end , or that foam out their shame , and call them , the groans of the spirit . but i doubt too many say and read their prayers , only at their tongues-end ; that have no more to think of , but how to turn-over their book-leaves , and read right . answ . . if any minister in publick conceive a prayer , and speak it in apt words , ( especially in scripture-words ) with humility and reverence ; and the matter be lawful , and in the name of christ offered up to the throne of grace , i would very heartily say amen to it ; and believe god will graciously accept it from an honest heart . and 't is strange , that ministers should be discouraged from improving their gifts , either in composing or conceiving such prayers , as ( i think ) have been found by experience , so much tending to edification and consolation ; and ( i suppose ) so esteemed formerly , by the most serious men of the c. of e. who , 'till of late , constantly used them in the pulpit . and some b's put it into their articles of enquiry , at their visitations : do you know of any parson , vicar , or curate , that never pray before their sermons ? the restraining of which , or discouraging at least , is thought by some one occasion of so many raw divines , weak and ignorant , while they need no other qualification to perform their office , than to be able to read well ; that being the chief work. and for preaching , the reading of homilies and other mens sermons , recommended by a r. r. b. to young ones , with a grace , or with the spirit of confidence , ( as a dignitary used to pray , in a composed form ) is sufficient . tho' this is by others thought a discouragement to industry , and an occasion of sloth , idleness , and worse . obj. . the fourth argument of dissenters was this , lev. p. . some of them think it no less than sacriledge , to transfer the ends of god's sacraments to their own appointments : for they think we are baptized , in token , hereafter we shall not be ashamed , &c. and that baptism is the honourable badge , whereby the infant is dedicated to the service of him that died on the cross ; and should not be attributed to the sign of the cross . what say you to this argument of dissenters ? answ . . you say , that baptism is perfect without the cross , can. . and you say true . but they will reply , repl. . they therefore think it unlawful for men to add something of their own , to that which is well and perfect already , according to divine appointment . pray friend , for once , let me ask a question . quest . what is crossing good for ? sol. why you 'll say , it 's an honourable badge , whereby the infant is dedicated to the service of him that died on the cross . repl. . this is another thing , dissenters are offended at : that the same honour should be put upon an aerial transient sign of the cross , of men's institution , that belongs to baptism , a sacrament of god's institution . and they think it inexcusable presumption and arrogance , to set a man's badge , cheek by chawl , with christ's badge . answ . . you say , the canon refers not to the sign of the cross , more than baptism . repl. . but the canon speaks only of the sign of the cross , when it says , it 's a lawful outward ceremony , and honourable badge , &c. dissenters have objected , these ends of baptism should not be attributed to the sign of the cross . the child is dedicated already by baptism , and therefore needs not , should not be dedicated by the cross . answ . . to this you say ; i should have given this malicious reflection a hard name , but that i pity my friend's ignorance . repl. . truly mr. t. it 's not well done to pity , and give no help to answer dissenters . i doubt something pinches , that provokes you . but may be i may have some relief ; for , answ . . you say , dedicate , among other things , is to deliver up , with some solemnity , what belongs to another . and so the child , by the sign of the cross is solemnly dedicated to christ , to whom he doth belong by baptism . rep. . this is fine indeed : the child is dedicated by the cross , who was before dedicated by baptism : so you take upon you to mend what was perfect before . and this is another instance of your impeaching the wisdom of god. lastly , dissenters said , that infants are baptized , in token hereafter , they shall not be ashamed , &c. and so should not be cross'd for the same thing . but you have cross enough , and say nothing to this . now suppose a person comes , with authority , under the k.'s broad seal , to execute an office ; and some man should come and say , you shall not act , unless you have my seal also . would not this be accounted a crime of an high nature ? and if you will not take it ill , i 'll tell you of a fifth argument . they cannot read that which tells you , the angel raphael was the son of ananias the great . an angel , begotten by man ! and call it a lesson ; and justify , that it 's either the pure word of god , or , that which is agreeable to the same . but every body is in haste to over-run this . chap. v. nor of knavery ; nor the author guilty of what mr. t. accuses him of . another thing charged by you on dissenters , was , knavery . to this you confess the charge ; but say , so conscious is he , that he cannot acquit them of it , that in his book he drops it . p. . now i 'll tell you , why i dropt it . . i found a general charge of knavery ; sur. imp. pref. p. . this their knavery , as well as yours , was discovered . but i found no particular instances : and would you have me to forge for you instances , to prove your general charge . . i looked upon your word knavery , as only billinsgate-rhetorick ; or a malignant reflection upon the party ; where i thought you very unjust , and therefore dropt it . and you needed not to have given your self so much trouble , in searching your book for all the crimes , mentioned to be charged upon them ; all are in the very first page of the preface of your sur. impostor . and the next charge of injustice also , in reflecting upon the whole party of dissenters , for the miscarriages of a few . in pag. . of your lett. you say , there is one thing remains , and that most plausible in all my friend's book , that i have charged on the whole party , the miscarriages of a few . and farther you say , tho' my friend lay this to my charge , yet he produceth not one instance . now mr. t. in answer to this , i will shew you the reason , why i accused you of laying the miscarriages of a few on the whole party ; and let the reader judge , whether i have wronged you . . the reason of the charge , was from your words in the preface , pag. . i must , say you , acquaint ( viz. the reader ) that it 's an old juggle that your predecessors the puritans practised ; but their knavery , as well as yours , was discovered . here 's puritans and dissenters , indefinitely . and pref. pag. . the party , i imagine , ceased from such religious interludes . by which we have reason to suspect , the party to play-over an old game . and p. . which you mention : if we be found tripping herein , we expose not only our selves , but our whole party ; especially if the leaders of them , as in the present case , be conspiring with us , to promote the intrigue . now mr. t. if you did not reflect upon the party , what means th●se expressions ? i would not willingly put worst constructions upon words . but let any impartial man that reads this , and observes the whole scope of your book besides , judge whether you be unjustly charged with reflecting on the whole party , for the sake of a few . . the reason why i brought no instance , you had before . but are you not to blame , to call a man a thief , tho you bring no instances ; and the more faulty , if you can find none ? and yet you still go about to vindicate your charge , and fall foul on the dissenters , because they are not of your mind , to think the demoniack was a cheat ; ( and your self charge not this upon dissenters truly , unless you contradict your self ) and that they did not by some overt-act , censure it . as if every idle book and story , published by men of c. of e. and not censured by an overt-act , did involve them in the same guilt with the editors . and you go on , here were ministers , one way or another , concerned in the narrative . and what of all this ? here were two compilers of the narrative ; but you charge them not with being the authors of the imposture , nor contrivers of it . six you call assisters . how are they assisting ? not to carry on an intrigue or a cheat , you are not so hardy as to affirm it . but they fasted and pray'd , or preach●d , and what hurt in this ? seven you call attestors . but what do they attest ? not the truth of the imposture , but they believe the truth of the affidavits ; and that d.'s strange fits were by a diabolical power . and where is their fault ? believing men , upon their oaths and declarations , who were eye-winesses , and whom they had no reason to suspect of falshood ; attesting nothing but what many others saw , and which your self deny not to be true . again , there might be hearers , and for ought i know , hearers and seers at one time or other : must these be all dissenters , and accessaries ? some it may be , will say , it 's so much liker to be no cheat , when all was done above-board ; and many , not only seers and hearers , but of the witnesses , c. of e. men. and when all 's done , how can you tell here was no devil in the case ? ( some arguments looking that way , to prove no devil , you disclaim ) and whether you have any more . i find not . and in fine , you self quit all dissenters from the imposture , only so far as they were credulous , and were imposed upon ; and as guilty of pride , and vain glory , and insincerity . and if they were credulous , it 's not the only property of dissenters ; for b. hall , you hear , was so ; and tho you pretend his youth , when the thing was done ; yet when he wrote his book , he was old enough to judge ; and it 's probable had seen or heard of harsnet's book . but for their pride , vain-glory , and insincer●ty , lyes and forgeries , which are all i remember you charge them with , ( excepting what hath been spoken to already ) if they , or any of them can be proved guilty , ( which will be hard for some of those crimes to be , unless you could see into hearts ) then i shall heartily say amen to your prayer , that god would open their eyes , that they may repent , ( the almost only serious words i have met with in both your books ; ) and i would pray farther , that god would pardon them , tho' i doubt you will not . and now , whether dugdale's tricks were from a cheat , or a distemper , or from possession , obsession , or all these , i am not concerned . but something here was strange , and unusual , and unaccountable , by what i can judge from what all parties say . but in one thing i take my self concerned , which is , whether the word obsession be a ch. of e. word ; for i had said , that it 's to be found in can. . mr. t. to this you say , p. . the dissenters finding the pretence there censured , out of that spirit of contradiction to the ch. of e. which they mostly act by , ( this is very charitable ) may be supposed not only to make use of the word , but the imposture also , which is there condemned . here i confess i am bewildred , and by a croud of words brought into such a cloud , that i know not where to find you , or what you intend . let the canon be consulted , and i find not , either , . that they made a canon to condemn obsession , word or thing , no more than possession ; nor do they say it 's a popish word . . nor do they condemn fasting and prayer , upon such occasion ; but with the b.'s licence , they may fast and pray ; as some did in norwich , ( if i remember the place ) with a boy that was supposed to be obsessed or possessed ; ( here was prayer , upon a supposition : for how could they be sure ? ) with the licence of the then b. of chester . and now take heed of belying your mother . and i wish ( not for any virtue in a b.'s licence ) for caution , dissenters had acquainted the b. or some others of the ch. of engl. and advised with more learned physicians , about this case . pag. . you charge me unjustly , mr. t. in saying , i would make the world believe , that you were intimate to w. c.'s intrigue . and tho' you never saw the man , you might hear of his hypocritical carriage at kirkham , where i suppose you have some relations . and the things were not done in secret , but generally known , and spoken of . and i had heard you were informed of his tricks , about that business ; and withal , that you said you would inform the b. which was honest . and it never entred into my thought , that you were accessary to the intrigue . i see your eyes are not yet cured , prejudice is powerful . again , i had said , p. . lev. the b. of c. would never have connived at w. c. if he had known such things of him , &c. much less collated him . here you catch me ; for it seems he was not collated . now i 'll easily confess my ignorance and mistake : for he being in the place near two years , i thought it rational to believe he was collated , however the other word connived you acknowledge . and if w. c. gave any good satisfaction , or did any penance proportionable to his offences committed , so little a while before he went thither , i am glad of it . and being gone , you shall hear no more of him from me , farther than in my own necessary vindication . but there are some passages in your lett. p. . you charge on me , as an untruth ; viz. that i would insinnate a licence to another cure , viz. n. chappel ; mr. taylor , this is your untruth . i said he was introduced , you say this is notoriously false . pray' sir , what is false ? did he not preach at n. chappel ? and some tell me , sometimes at manchester church . but say you , ibid. all that was done , was at the importunity of the presbyterian party . you here take a travellers liberty . for the presbyterians at newton kept up their distinct meetings all the time , and so did the presbyterians in mott parish , and do still to this day . and is this like the presb. party importuning for him or grey ? and then follows a doleful story of a vicar , &c. and i can tell you of another story , of one that in a vicar's church sate weeping , while the communion-office was in hand ; to see the symbols of christ's body broken , and his blood shed ; tho' he must not eat of that bread , and drink of that cup , because he durst not kneel . and what good man had not cause to be grieved , when he durst not administer to such a pious man , as i believe he esteemed this to be , for fear of suspension ? now i return to your p. . and i am accused of bringing in an argument , which you say is mine , not yours . to this , i would not willingly misrepresent what you have written , nor would i mistake your meaning ; but i ll tell you what led me so to understand you , and if i be mistaken , i 'll not persist in it . you , p. . of sur. imp. undertook to shew two things . . that dugd. was not possessed by the devil . . that if he was , he found no benefit at all by those erroneously religious offices that they performed for him . . to the first i expected your proof , and you go over his tricks , &c. and at last conclude , p. . i can find nothing in our surey-spark , from whence we may conclude him a demoniack . but then to gratify ministers , i will suppose he was so ; and shew , . that he found no benefit by their prayers , &c. a very bold attempt . now how do you shew this ? first , you bring in dicky as a true prophet , who had said , they were not able to perform what they had promised . then you bring in dugd. the father , saying , that after the ministers had left him , he had several fits. then walmsley says , notwithstanding m. j. c. and others preach'd and pray'd by ri. his fits continued as violent as before , to the last fit. upon which you make this inference , p. . doth this look like casting out the devil ? now if this be not your argument to prove your assertion , i find none , viz. to prove , that dick found no benefit by their prayers . which was to be proved . so you undertake to shew , what you either cannot , or will not . again , i had said , what were those offices which you call erroneously religious , were they fasting and prayers ? if you exclude fasting from being religious worship , ( erroneously there is among the errata ) dissenters will not quarrel with you . to this you have a witty reflection , p. . which i 'll leave to those that are disposed to make merry with your rhetorick : but must tell you , dissenters are not against fasting , to keep under the body ; nor as a help in religious worship . and methinks this might have passed , when many c. of e. will not allow preaching to be religious worship . your next witticism is ; if it was conceived in a barn , viz. prayers , it was the fittest place for them to be begotten in . good sir , is the worship of god any worse , because in a barn ? did not david worship god acceptably on a barn-floor ? sam. . , . was not a stable the first place where christ , after his incarnation , was worshipped . again , i am here blamed , for not having wit to stop at a proverb , but marr●d it with an explanation . and indeed here you are in the right ; for if the explanation had been mine , it had been marr'd . but i believe e. johnston your publisher , can assure you , ( and i wonder he did not ) that presently after he had received the lev. he had a note of errata's , one of which was this ; p. . l. . after sands , add an absurd inference , vid. ray's prov. p. . ibid. dele the four next lines , which were not in the m. s. and who put them there , i cannot tell . yet p. . i have a flirt for something in my lett. p. . that i am blind as tobit . i perceive something pleaseth not ; but you have the prudence to pass it over , and are in haste , as well as another of your friends . and for dr. chew's certificate i need not tarry , for dick never had fit after the first dose . but you say , p. . i have a fling at the largeness of dioceses , in lev. p. . to this you say , but he would do well to consider , whether he doth not by this spit in the face of christ , ( god forbid ) and his apostles ; whose oecumenical provinces were something larger than the largest of our dioceses . mr. t. are you here in earnest ? or you thought to try whether you could put a trick upon your ignorant friend ; if this latter , you should not have jested at the name of christ , when you bow at the name jesus . but if you are in earnest , to justify your large dioceses , by the examples of christ and his apostles , then you have spun a fine thread for your self and many of your worthy brethren . for if b's must have as large dioceses as christ and his apostles , as a h. . would make merry with a great revenue of b's lands , and have something to say ; one b. in england is enough , and more than needs , when thirteen will serve all the world. and then you and many of your worthy brethren are like never to wear lawn sleeves . yet i am not so wedded to my own opinion , but if you can find one to succeed christ in his oecumenical province , of the same natures , gifts , wisdom , abilities and authority , for the performance of the function , i will not spit in his face , but submit . and if you can find men with the same commission , endowed with the same extraordinary gifts , and so filled with the spirit of god , as the apostles , i 'll submit , and we 'll be friends still . in the same , p. . you are in a huff ; and i observe , where i need most of your help , you are most out of humor . i told you , lev. p. . i had a scruple about a prayer in the litany , used generally in k. j.'s time , who was a papist , viz. that it may please thee to keep and strengthen in the true worshipping of thee , in righteousness and holiness of life thy servant , our most gracious k. and governour . and the reason of my scruple was , because popish worship is idolatrous ; and it seemed hard for protestants , to pray that he might be kept and strengthened in idolatry . to this you say , is popery such a mass of idolatry , that there is no piece of true worship in it ? do they not worship god , &c. and was not this that true worship we prayed god to keep him in ? here you are in haste again , but i must tarry by it ; for my scruple is increased , by multiplied thoughts of some things following . . by the by , i observe how tenderly you deal by the papists ; their worship is true , when dissenters is erroneously religious worship . but let that pass . . i have been told , ( but not learned it from mr. frankl . ) that the popish worship is idolatrous . . i have been told also by more than dissenters , that idolatrous worship mixed with something of true worship , doth defile the whole . and their liturgy is idolatrous , as denominated from the worst part , ( and perhaps the greatest ) as a drop of poison in a cup of wine . . doth not the church of rome worship by their breviary and mass-book , as the c. of e. by their common prayer , which they call divine service ? and is not their missal and breviary idolatrous worship ? tho' in some part of it they pray to god in the name of christ ; tho' it may be , oftener to saints and angels , or to god through their intercession . and is this a sufficient reason to justify protestants praying to keep them . and strengthen them in the true worshipping ? &c. yes , when it 's safe for you to drink a glass of wine with poison in it , because it 's but a drop ; but there is a great deal of good wine . . do you think this of yours , was the sence of the first composers of this petition ; that it might be prayed for a popish k. or q ? . but here is implied a positive assertion , that k. j. worships god truly , and not a bare supposition . but if it were but upon supposition , that you pray thus for him , then it 's superstition at the best , according to your own doctrine . . a papist will say , if our worshipping god be such , that you can lawfully pray god to keep and strengthen us in it ; why did you separate from our worship ? you 'll say , we separate not , so far as it 's true . and so will dissenters say , we separate not from ch. of engl. so far as their vvorship is good ; only from uncommanded rites and ceremonies . . did you not mean , when you prayed for c. ii. ( best of k's said many ) a protestant k. that he might be kept and strengthened in the true protestant worship , or the common prayer worship , and not turn from it . and must not the words still have the same sence ? ob. but farther you say , was not thus praying for him , the best means to reclaim him from his false worship ? a means , the best means , thus to pray . sol. . this might be pretended a means to keep him from turning turk or infidel , if the prayer had been , to keep and strengthen him in the christian vvorship and religion . . was not this liker to harden him in his false worship ? when you at the same time acknowledge his vvorshipping , without ifs or and 's , to be true , and pray that he may be strengthened in it . . vvould not this be an odd way to convert a papist , by praying thus with him , and for him ? lord keep him in the true worshipping of thee ; might he not say , i thank you sir for your good prayers , for i perceive i am already in the true worshipping of god , and so have no need to change my church . . but was this the best means ? verily i think you are not so ignorant , but you can readily think of many better means . and in my mind , the one honest priest of the c. of e. found out a much better means , when he changed those words into such as these ; that god would direct ; and bring him into , and keep and strengthen him , in the true worshipping of him . in a word , would it not be a strange hearing , for men in the liturgy to pray for the pope , that god would keep and strengthen him in the true worshipping of him ; and to say this is the best means to reclaim him . the israelites might thus have prayed for jeroboam , for ahaz , &c. yea , may you not thus pray for the turk , that god would keep and strengthen him , &c. if you say he doth not worship god truly ; yes , may it be answered , he owns the true god , and worships him . and this is the best means to reclaim him from that part of his worship that is false . the sum of all is , if men have but the conscience to subscribe to they know not what , that they never read ; or may have the liberty to put their own fancied meanings upon things commanded , and subscribed to ; they may subscribe to the alchoran , and make a shift to put a plausible sence upon it ; ( as s. clara , who makes the articles of the c. of e. agree with the articles of the council of trent ; ) and it seems may also lawfully pray for the turk and pope ; and say to god , that it may please thee to keep and strengthen them in the true worshipping of thee , &c. and according to mr. t. as the best means to reclaim them from their false vvorship . your last thing observable , is p. . where you justify your self for all your ill words and hard speeches ; from the examples and doctrine of christ and his apostles . really mr. t. this is a boldness that some tender-hooft men ( as they call them in derision ) would startle and boggle at . what , compare your self with christ and his apostles ? i 'll say this , when you know mens hearts as christ did , when you have the spirit of discerning , as the apostle had ; you shall have my consent , to call men hypocrites and insincere , &c. provided always you be not too hasty , as some of the disciples were , luke . , . and be sure it be in a good cause , gal. . . and that you have a call to it ; lest some of your brethren should blame you for arrogating to your self , from tit. . , . that which they account the proper work of your diocesan . and if you have a mind to assume the authority of christ , to call men satan , ( for it seems you 'll allow peter to have a devil , tho' dugd. none ) it may possibly be as good a warrant for others to call you a devil ; that is , a false-accuser , or slanderer . . tim. . . chap. vi. answer , to p. s. i am now arrived at your p. s. and you produce two letters , to justify the r. r. the l. b. of c. &c. and mr. gr. mr. t. whatever you insinuate , i have a tenderness for the reputation of that worthy person ; and therefore when i understood that a lover of him had sent him word , that it was not for his honour to suffer w. c. &c. i hoped it might be a sufficient caution . and therefore in the lev. i did lay the blame where i think it still lies : viz. on those that should have been more faithful to him ; and i am the more confirmed in my opinion , by these very letters you produce , in justice to the b. and to mr. gray . for in the first lett. who this r. t. is , or who his worship is , i am not concerned : but i suppose he is not the presbyterian party you spake of at p. . at whose request , the b. admitted g. to the order of deacon . but whoever he is , i doubt he is partial ; he told the bishop of gr's crime , but did he tell him of any satisfaction he had made , for so publick a scandal ? yes , he turned conformist , and all on a push skipped over to the c. of e. doubtless by immediate inspiration , by the hopes of better preferment than among dissenters . is this satisfaction ? this r. t. reflects on dissenters , and therefore cannot be thought their representative to the b. but he formerly observed , ( i perceive he 's a man of observation , and may be an observable man too ) when some weak or debauch'd minister served in the place , there was but little reflection : a debauch'd , and no reflection ; it may be , not by his society ; but there might by dissenters , sorrowing and mourning , for what they could not reform : nor when a weak minister ; truly a weak minister might be pious and godly , and might do his best , and then charity forbad reflection . but now mr. gray , a very able minister , ( sure this is some fit judge ) he was not reflected at thirske ; no , they knew nothing of him , but as he appeared to be a zealous : dissenter , 'till he had a design for mot. and conformity , and what then ? they reflect on him , that is , they called to mind his former offence , for which he had never testified any repentance . let 's see then what the next letter will do , for this is small game ? the letter is mr. gray ' s own . . but is this fair , to admit a man to be witness in his own cause ? altho' , upon the severest examination , as to his morals , p. . of the letter , would he accuse himself ? this marrs the proof . . this very letter of his , is a ground of suspicion . . he acknowledges not the justice of his censure . . he calls the telling of his faults , calumnies belched out against him . . he saith ( for ought i know ) a manifest untruth ; that the b. of ch. is struck at for his sake . . he falsly suggests the cause of divulging his crime : for was it not divulged where he was not known before ; and how could it be divulg'd where he secretly sculk'd ? . he falsly and spitefully reflects upon dissenters ; and says , he might have lived quietly , if he had not conformed . . but did he live quietly when he was a dissenter , without censure for his sin ? . had they not cause to reflect on him , who in so long time never signified his repentance to them that censured him . . he charges dissenters roundly with a position i never heard , nor read ; and have reason to suspect his veracity . however , doth recriminating justify him ? . he saith , he fears it's malice , more than matter . what impudence is this ? is it malice , who gave thee authority to judge mens hearts ? more than matter ? was there not a cause , was not the crime open , notorious , scandalous ; and yet no matter ? now mr. t. are these things signs of repentance , and of an humble and broken spirit ? and yet after all , if the man be sincerely a true penitent , and live well , and preach well , i shall say , the lord give a blessing , and success to his labours ; for the conversion of sinners , and the edification of saints . so far am i from envying any pious , holy minister , whether of the ch. of engl. or dissenters ; and very heartily will obey your canon . gal. . . but mr. t. you have a strange comment upon that text. i will not , say you , reflect upon my friend , this is honest ; tho' if he be a man named to me , ( i am confident , no man living but my self can be sure , who he is you call your friend , but your friend himself ; no not the transcriber of the levite . ) it 's supposed he is as much as the scots . man interested in the lenity of this canon . it 's supposed ! here was doubtless some reluctancy . but out it comes . mr. ● i was astonished when i read this ; a story came into my mind , of a french b. taken by the english in armour . the pope sends to the k. of england , to release his son. whereupon the k. sends his armour to the pope , and ordered this question to be asked , is this thy son's coat ? to which the pope answered , he 's not my son , but the son of mars ; and leaves him to the k. to do with him what he pleased . i 'll refer it to your diocesan , to apply it . and for my self , i have need enough of indulgence of paul's canon , yet not in gray's case . i appeal to the righteous judge of all the world. but for you my friend , if i were your diocesan , i would reprove you sharply ; but i 'll do it in the spirit of meekness . for ought you know , you have one way or other wounded more innocent persons , than samson did with the jaw-bone . for there are many conjectures of the author of that which is called lanc lev. some say it's sir such a one , and name , others a learned and moderate c. of e. man , others m. d. and others a bookish country gentleman ; others father it on no fewer than five or six dissenting ministers , and name all according to each man's fancy so many as these are , you have exposed them and their reputation . besides , occasioned the sin and censures of so many , as believe any of these to be the author ; who live , some of them miles distant from one another now how many may from hence , be filled with unchristian and uncharitable surmises of innocent persons ; especially , such as are willing to believe any thing that 's ill , of the dissenter . good sir , retire , and think what you have done . ( for i profess , i never heard the least charge of this nature , against any that are reputed authors , and as i know my self , innocent ; to i believe are all the rest . ) and read the author of 〈…〉 of the government , if the t●ngue , and the b. of c. of revenge ; and the lord give you a more meek , humble , and charitable heart . may . . finis . a message from the spirit of the lord to the people called anabaptists and to the rest of the sects who are scattered up and down these nations and in the army, that they may read and consider why the lords controversie is against them, and that they may understand what the lords purpose is concerning them. j. c. (john collens), d. . this text is an enriched version of the tcp digital transcription a of text r in the english short title catalog (wing c ). textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. the text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with morphadorner. the annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. this text has not been fully proofread approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. earlyprint project evanston,il, notre dame, in, st. louis, mo a wing c estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a message from the spirit of the lord to the people called anabaptists and to the rest of the sects who are scattered up and down these nations and in the army, that they may read and consider why the lords controversie is against them, and that they may understand what the lords purpose is concerning them. j. c. (john collens), d. . p. printed by m.i. for robert wilson, london : . caption title. signed: john collens. reproduction of original in the harvard university library. eng anabaptists -- controversial literature. dissenters, religious -- great britain. a r (wing c ). civilwar no a message from the spirit of the lord to the people called anabaptists, and to the rest of the sects who are scattered up and down these nat j. c b the rate of defects per , words puts this text in the b category of texts with fewer than defects per , words. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - judith siefring sampled and proofread - judith siefring text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a message from the spirit of the lord to the people called anabaptists , and to the rest of the sects who are scattered up and down these nations , and in the army ; that they may read and consider why the lords controversie is against them , and that they may understand what the lords purpose is concerning them . how is my bowels filled with grief , and my heart compassed about with sorrow ? wo is me for you , i am even undone for your sakes who despise reproof , and reject the counsel of the holy one ; surely you are a rebellious house , and a gain-saying people , saith the lord : all the day long have i stretched out my hands unto you , and visited you in loving kindness , and called upon you to return ; but you have stopped your ears , & hardened your hearts against me , saith the lord ; you have despised my messengers , and set at nought those who have been sent unto you , and have not regarded my word : how many of my servants have been as a sign , a by-word , and as a proverb and a reproach amongst you ? and you have not considered the evil day that is to come upon all the inhabitants of the earth : why had you not seen ? why had you not beheld my goings out in my servants in this day , even amongst all the sons of men ? how have i made them to bear the iniquities of this nation , and have suffered the rulers thereof to afflict them , even from day to day , and from time to time ? yet have they not ceased to warn this nation in their towns and villages , in their markets , and in their streets ; in their goals , and in their assemblies : how many of my servants have dyed in prison , and you have not visited them , even for the word of god , and for the testimony of jesus , even the exercise of their pure consciences ? these things have not been done in a corner , but in the sight of the sun , before your eyes , and you have not laid it to heart , but ready to add affliction to their bonds , and to join your hands with their persecutors in your bookes and pamphlets , in your preachings and pretended prayers , and in your places of justice ; and you have strengthened the hands of the wicked , and persecuted , slandered & reproached my servants . wherefore thus saith the lord , i am now arisen in jealousie even for the meek of the earth , & i will be avenged of my adversaries , and plead the cause of my despised remnant , even by sword and by fire wil i plead with my enemies ; i wil overturn their counsels , and wil blow upon their whole strength , and they shall not be : but as for your parts , you have had a day , and a price put into your hands , but had not hearts to use it , you forgot me saith the lord , and did not remember the cause of the innocent , but every one sought his own honor and his own advantage , and forgot me and the cause of my people : therefore did i cause your sun to set at noon , even in the midst of your day , and did deliver you up into the hands of your enemies , even without a sword or a spear ; but by my own might and power , that you might know that i am god , and that i can do whatsoever i will in the kingdoms of men . look back now , & see if your fathers could ever remember , or the generations that are past could ever declare , that the lord did greater wonders , or that my arm hath brought stranger things to pass then your eyes have seen , & your ears have heard . but will all this awake you ? will all this make you to consider ? why do you not break off your sins by repentance , and turn unto me ( saith the lord ) that i may heal your backslidings , and wash away your sins ? what advantage is it unto you , that you set your selves against me , and devise mischief against my chosen ? what do you reap unto your selves to make peace with your enemies , to destroy my heritage ? surely this people have forgotten me , and they trust unto an arm of flesh , and a number of men , and their own fear overcomes them : can you not look back , & call to your remembrance the former dayes , how i was with you in the day of distress , how i girded you with strength , and made you a terror to your enemies , even to them unto whom now you are become servants ? and why is all this come to pass ? because you vowed a vow unto me in your distress , in that day when many enemies had compassed you about , from whom i delivered you ; but you forgot the vow & the promise that you had made , and thought not upon my cause , and the cause of my people , but rejoiced and sate down in the spoil of your enemies , and corrupted your selves with those things , until your hearts became fat , and you fill'd and corrupted with all the abominations of them which were cast out before you , so that no deliverance was wrought in the earth , but like treacherous dealers have dealt very treacherously ; and so your reward must be according to your works . and now what is man that you should trust in him , or the sons of men that you should regard them , and forget me , saith the lord ? yet once more return , return unto me , that i may once more build you up , and not pluck you down ; humble your selves before me , and consider of your backslidings . consider that ye have forgotten me , and trusted to lying vanities ; and slight not the day of your visitation , neither despise my messengers , nor reproach my servants ; for he that despiseth them , despiseth me ; for they are as deare unto me as the apple of mine eye ; & whosoever riseth up against them , shall be confounded ; but he that blesseth them , shall be blessed ; because they have chosen me to be their feare , and they have not sought themselves , nor defiled themselves with the world nor its vanities , nor its fading and perishing glory but have walked before me with an upright heart in the midst of a perverse generation , amongst whom they have been as sheep for the slaughter , and have been killed even all the day long ; & who have pleaded their cause , or who have stood up in their defence ? but even all people , all professors , and all powers have combined together to root out their name , and to blot out their memorial from the earth , had not my power upheld them , and my own arm made bare for their deliverance : how often had they been devoured by the teeth of their adversaries , and by the jaws of their cruel & oppressing enemies ? had not i arisen for them , and put my hook into the nose , and my br●dle into the teeth of their enemies , and turned them backwards , confounded their enterprises , overturned rulers , and powers , and armies ; yea reproved kings for their sakes : and this let it be known unto you , he that blesseth them , shall be blessed ; but he that curseth them , shall not prosper ; for , for their sakes is all this come to pass , because i will make them the oy of many nations ; and they shall tread upon the high places of the earth . and although i may suffer them to be tryed even as gold in the fire , that they may be purged and purified , that their beauty may shine out of obscurity , & their praise may return unto me ; yet will i never forsake them , my loving kindness will i never take from them , but will return unto them in tender mercy , and in the midst of the fire will i be with them , and my power and my presence shall accompany them , and i will plead with all their adversaries , & consume their enemies , and will crown them with dominion in the sight of them that rise up against them . wherefore once more this is a call and a warning unto you to return unto me , and to seek me with your whole heart , that you may not for ever be a prey to your enemies , nor that the rod of the wicked should for ever remain upon the back of the righteous ; wherefore if you will return unto me , and consider of your backslidings an repent of the evil of your former doings , i will yet make use of you for my glory , and for my own name sake , that this aegyptian power , even pharoah & all his host may be overwhelmed , that i may cause my righteou● branch to prosper , and to spread , and to go over the earth , and to give unto my chosen the land which i have promised unto them , even a land that flows with milk and honey . therefore now arise , and put on courage and boldness , and fear not the face of your enemies ; for though they be many in number , yet i am the lord , and all power and might is in my hand : and every one of you make war in righteousness against the enemies of your own souls which are within you , ( to wit ) the lusts that warrs in your members , and take the sword of the spirit , which is my word in your hearts , which discerneth the lusts in your hearts , and every thought , and every intent in your hearts ; and by this sword shall you become more than conquerors ; this will cut down your lust , your pride , ambition , and self-seeking ; your covetousness , and your wantonness , and all such abomination , for which my hand is against you ; and this my word is within you , and this must purge and purifie you , if ever you are purged ; even that within you , which lets you see your abominations , which have caused me to hide my face from you , and to visit you in judgment : and when you have repented of the evil of your waies , and are returned unto that which lets you see your self-seeking , proud , persecuting , covetous , worldly , treacherous , deceitful spirit ; that by the same which lets you see it , you may be humbled in my presence , and return unto your first love , that which first visited you for your sins , that by it you may be truly purged , and may truly deny yourselvs , and not seek the worlds glory , but my glory ; and not your own interest , but the good old cause , the cause of my people : that truth and righteousness may flourish in these nations , and that the land may be swept of evil-doers , and that all superstition and idolatry may be rooted out , and all oppression and tyranny amongst people may be clean done away . if you thus return unto me in the uprightness of your hearts , then will i return unto you , and my presence shall be with you , and your strength shall return as in the daies of your youth ; and i will yet prosper you , and you shall take root downward , and bear fruit upward , and your flesh shall be fresh as the flesh of a child , and you shall be the joy of many nations ▪ but if you refuse to return unto me , and to seek me with your whole heart , and to be obedient unto my voice , and not take counsel at me , but follow the counsel of your own hearts , and offer unto me your wonted hypocritical praiers and fastings , and your hearts after your covetousness , envie , pride , self-seeking , and vain-glory ; though you may make many praiers , yet i will not hear , neither will i answer , but suffer a lying spirit to go forth amongst you , which shall deceive you , and speak peace when there is no peace , and you shall be lifted up to that end you may be destroied ; for i will give you into the hands of your enemies , and they shall do unto you according unto that which is in their hearts , and my loving kindness will i for ever take from you , and my habitation will i utterly remove from amongst you , and nothing but misery shall attend you , even one wo upon another , untill you are scattered and driven away , confounded and consumed from the face of the earth ; but my chosen will i deliver in that day , i will cover them , and i will hide them under the hollow of my hand , and my arm shall compass them about , because they have chosen me to be their fear , and have had regard unto my word , and have walked in my statutes , and observed my ordinances , and have despised the glory , honor , riches and preferment of this world , even for me , and for my kingdoms sake , for whom i have ordained a kingdom everlasting and eternal , where all the power of darkness shall not touch them therefore take heed unto the word which i have spoken , and no longer be of a proud and perverse spirit , nor of an uncircumcised heart ; but let your ears be open unto reproof , that you may learn righteousness , that in truth you may be established , that my power and my presence may be with you , that you may arise as a lion out of his thicket , or as a giant refreshed with wine ; that you may plead my cause with the men of the earth , that the whore which hath made all nations drunk with the cup of her fornications , and hath drunk the blood of the saints and martyrs , that you may give unto her double , even blood to drink ; and that her children may be dasht against the stones : for the hour of her judgment is come , and great babylon is now come in remembrance before the lord , and the cup of his fury and indignation is in his hand , which shall be powred out without mixture , and the dregs there of shall she drink : for now is the angel gone forth with the everlasting gospel to preach , saying , fear god , and give glory to him ; wherefore blessed and happy shall he be that receives the everlasting gospel of god , who are brought into his fear that keeps clean their hearts ; who gives the glory unto god , who do not seek glory unto themselves , nor seek honor unto themselves ; for the lord god is arisen to stain the glory of all flesh , and the loftiness of man shall be abased , and the haughtiness of man shall be laid low , and the lord alone shall be exalted : for he will overturn , overturn , overturn , until he comes whose right it is , and he will give it him ; for the kingdom and the government shall be his ; for the lambsday is come , and his kingdom and his government shall be established : though all the powers of darkness rise up against him , yet shall the lamb and the saints have the victory , though gog and magog join together in battel against him . therefore be ye warned , and take heed of giving your power unto the beast , and the false prophet ; for the wrath and vengeance of the lord is against him , and the day of babylons destruction is near , in which all her merchants that have traded with her shall weep and howl ; for none shall buy their wares any more , saying ; alas , alas , for that great city is faln by which so many were made rich through her merchandize ; for now is the lord arisen to uncover her skirts , and to make her shame and her nakedness appear in the sight of all men . therefore be not of a fearful heart , but be valiant for the lord , for he will bring mighty things to pass , such as your eyes hath not seen , nor your ears heard , nor hath entered into your hearts to believe ; for he is working a work and a wonder ; the understanding of the wise shall be confounded , and the wisdom of the prudent shall be hid ; for the lord hath purposed , and he will certainly bring it to pass ; for he hath seen , he hath seen the affliction of his people , and his eye hath beheld the cruelty of their enemies , & all their purposes are before him , and his soul hath pittyed his remnant , and his anger is kindled against his adversaries , and the day of their recompence is near , wherein he will reward them , even as they thought to do unto his chosen ; and their own mischief which they imagined in their own hearts , even with the same shall their ovvn bovvels be filled ; that as they have thirsted for , and greedily desired the blood of the innocent , even so shall it be done unto them . the lord hath spoken , and it shall surely come to pass . and now take heed unto your selves , and let the fall of others be a warning unto you , and see you build upon a right foundation ; for there is nothing but truth and righteousness shall stand , all other buildings shall certainly be overthrown : therefore in humility and meekness consider with your selves , that the lord hath not left himself without a witness in the hearts of every one of you , that the people who have been despised and hated , reproached and cruelly intreated , hath not been so dealt withall for any evil that they have done , but for bearing a true and faithfull testimony for the lord , against all the pride , ambition and vain-glory of this wicked and untoward generation , and against all the superstitious , idolatrous and vain worships , and against all the hireling , greedy , devouring , idol , dumb shepherds ; and against all the vain heathenish customs , fashions and traditions that hath been set up by the will and pride of man , contrary to the scriptures , and out of the fear of god ; and for keeping christs command . hath not this been the cause why we have been hated , persecuted , imprisoned , slandered , murthered , and all manner of evil done unto us ; because we are not of this world , even as he is not of this world , but hath chosen us out of the world , to bear testimony against the deeds thereof that they are evil ? therefore try now and throughly examine the ground and reason of all the hatred , evil-speaking and dealing that hath been against us ; and in moderation , and the fear of god , without prejudice , see wherein our practice is not agreeable with the scriptures , and let not your minds be any longer blinded through an evil heart of unbelief ; but let the long-suffering of our god lead you to repentance ; and not by resisting his spirit to hardness of heart , and his righteous judgments overtake you , and there be no remedy . the d . of the last month , : john collens . london , printed by m. i. for robert wilson , at the sign of the black-spread-eagle in martins l'grand , . advice to freeholders and other electors of members to serve in parliament in relation to the penal laws and the tests : in a letter to a friend in the conntry [sic]. penn, william, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing p estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) advice to freeholders and other electors of members to serve in parliament in relation to the penal laws and the tests : in a letter to a friend in the conntry [sic]. penn, william, - . p. printed, and sold, by andrew sowle ..., [london : ] caption title. imprint from colophon. attributed to william penn by wing. reproduction of original in bodleian library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng freedom of religion. dissenters, religious -- legal status, laws, etc. -- england. church and state -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - emma (leeson) huber sampled and proofread - emma (leeson) huber text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion advice to freeholders and other electors of members to serve in parliament ▪ in relation to the penal laws and the tests . in a letter to a friend in the country . with allowance . sir . it having pleased the king , to emit a gracious declaration for liberty of conscience , and it being more than probable , that the matter thereof , may be the subject of the next parliament ; i do here present you ( my old friend ) with some of the motives , inclining me to exert my self to my ability , when called to it ( whatsoever opposition or censure , may therein attend me ) for the election of such members as may concur with his majesty , in giving sanction to this indulgence ( it being what we have long wanted , and wished for ) and in securing it to after ages , which is as undoubtedly the king 's royal purpose , as it is our common interest ; my reasons are . . that herein i shall be found to act in consistency with my constant principle , for i always esteemed it , to be a glorious work , to set conscience free from church-tyranny , and to extricate the nation from the intolerable burden of destructive penal laws . . that in the present undertaking ; i see my security , we have in this happy juncture , the advantage of promoting what we highly prize , and that with his majestie 's royal recommendation ; so we are safe ( whosoever snarles ) in conforming , to so great , so good , and so wise a resolution , as the king has propitiously taken . and moreover , . gratitude to his majesty for this declaration , and for his gracious proclamation of pardon of the th , of march , engages and spurs me ( as i hope it will do multitudes ) to promote with my utmost might , this present work , as it is a thing acceptable to the king. to add no more , these reasons are prevalent with me , and if they may dispose you to contribute to the making proper elections , so that his majestie 's gracious purpose , for the relief and tranquility of his people , may not be frustrated , by unreasonable malecontents , it will be most grateful to me ; for i know you to be very capable , of contributing significantly to this publick good. i perceive that some of your neighbours are beating their brains for arguments , to justify the upholding the persecuting laws , and the discriminating , and most unreasonable tests : with me it is out of question , that those men , are very narrow soul'd , and their maxims ill grounded ; pray therefore bear with me , that i present you with my thoughts , of the great point now agitated , liberty of conscience , or toleration . i am well satisfied , of the truth , and stability of the following positions , and he that is so , must cease to love persecution . . liberty of conscience is consonant to the gospel which no where countenances force and compulsion . . to grant this liberty , is the true interest both of prince and people , to evince the truth of these , let it be considered as to the first : that liberty of conscience is consonant to the gospel . it is a gospel of peace , and not of force and fury : if so , it is most unbeseeming this gospel , to do things rashly and violently , for its advancement , it is not to be so propagated : its language is , he that believes shall be saved . and our blessed lord , and his apostles ( who had the command of all power ) to bring men to this faith , used instruction , perswasion , and reasoning , but never went about to deal with mens consciences , by violence ; they used no sword but that of the spirit , and left every man to his own light. error , as well as truth , is seated in the mind of man , and we are without one instance since the creation , where compulsion ever wrought a change in any ones principles , tho it hath wrought on many , to deny or conceal their opinions . the soul of man is out of the reach of the magistrates sword , and therefore 't is as vain to pretend to direct what i shall believe , and to force in me a faith of any thing , as 't is to attempt to bring the angels under an outward secular power . compulsion undoubtedly will dispose a man to hate whatsoever is so proposed , and not better evinced . to proceed , . that liberty of conscience is the interest both of the king and his people , this is well proved , by the invincible reasons in his majesties gratious declaration , which are these . . the glory of the king. . the peoples peace . . union between the king and his people . . the unreasonableness of constraining conscience , and forceing people in matters of meer religion . . the mischiefs of compulsion by spoiling trade , depopulating countries , and discouraging strangers . and lastly , the ill success which force has had in religious matters , which shews the invincible difficulties which attend those methods . . the glory of the king. will any member of the church of england ( so fam'd for loyalty ) repine at his majesties being truly glorious ? surely no ; and hath not this his act of tenderness , added highly to his glory ? it undoubtedly hath : it secures not only common homage of obedience , and subjection to his majesty ; but with it , that more noble , of the hearts and affections , of a very great multitude of his people , who are sober , serious , industrious , and also wealthy ; these by persecution have been made heartless in themselves , and useless in a very great measure , to the king , and kingdom : i say this indulgence hath secured to the king the hearts of his dissenting subjects , who are brought to depend upon him , and they will love him , who favours and protects them , and hath put them into a posture , than which they can never hope for a better ; and seeing the church of england cannot but love him , and be loyal , he is without controversy become the most glorious , because the greatest , and most beloved prince , that ever yet swayed the english scepter . . the peoples peace . do not we know by sad experience , how greatly coercion in things relating to god and conscience , has disturbed the peace of mankind , and created terrible concussions in these kingdoms ? what lamentable divisions and animosities , have we beheld to spring from the execution of the penal laws , and how dismally sad have been their effects ? it is not reasonable to imagine that persecution should not disgust those who suffer ; and by-slanders ( tho otherwise perswaded as to religion ) are dissatisfied , to behold their peaceable honest dealing neighbours , torn to pieces for conscience sake , such are disposed to pity the sufferers , and to dislike the severities wherewith they are exercised . . union between the king and his people . it is most evident that the disaffection , which not long since had overspread our horizon , did spring from the severities of the laws , and of their execution . the happy union between prince and people has been ( if not broken ) to a very great degree weakened , by a mistaken maxim , that but one part of his majesties subjects ( and that a much lesser part , than some are willing they should be thought ) deserved to live , and to be protected : this too predominant opinion , did manifestly narrow the interest of the king , by confining it to one party ; but blessed be god , and the king , that we have out lived that fond conceit , and that we see , that liberty of conscience hath united the dissenters to his majesty , and that he becomes the common father of all his people . . the unreasonableness of constraining conscience , and forcing people in matters of meer religion . conscience is god's peculiar , and so out of man's jurisdiction : is it not then most unreasonable , to have it floating about at the will of humane powers , and to oblige christians to suffer or to fall in with all changes of religion ? it is unreasonable , because impossible , to compel a man to the belief of any thing , out of the compass of his knowledg ; our lord left neither precept nor president for such a practice : men under the gospel are first to be enlightned , and then to practice in conformity thereto : the way of dealing with men by violence , was in all ages unsuccessful , therefore 't is more than time to explode it ; & ad hominem , to give one irrefragible argument to our church of england ( which at this day , is , or would be the persecutor of her brethren ; ) is it not unreasonable , nay absur'd , that that church which in its doctrin allows judicium discretionis , a liberty of judging for our selves , and pretends not to infallibility ; should require me to change my opinion , and to be of hers , when i conceive my self to be in the right , and she hath no infallible assurance that she is not in the wrong ? . the mischiefs of compulsion , in spoiling trade , depopulating the country , and discouraging strangers , amongst the many mischievous events which we have seen , from the denyal of liberty of conscience , that upon trade is not the least , nor to be last mentioned : imposition in religion damps mens undertakings , and hath drove multitudes into forreign parts , and not a few to a retirement from their trades , and vocations , who would otherwise have been very useful to the common-wealth ▪ conscientious men have a very sow esteem of all things , compared with their religious liberty ; who will lay out his estate and trade freely , where the bare exercising his religion , gives vile informers a power to dispoil him of his substance ? toleration in the united netherlands , hath brought them from all parts of europe , a confluence of people , and by consequence of treasure , and trade ; wherefore their policy , has heretofore , as much approved our pressing a uniformity here , as they now seem disturbed at our liberty of conscience , it being that , which with so great advantage they have long monopolized . and lastly , the ill success which force in religious matters has always been attended with : compulsion never attained the intended end , it may , and hath too often made hypocrites , never sincere converts . the earnest desire of liberty when refused , creates discontents , which boile in the breasts of men , and have too often broken out , to the endangering governments ; for persons of differing sentiments in religion will unite in an opposition to the force about religious things , which renders every dissenting party uneasy , so that the danger seems to lye in persecution for conscience sake , and not in the having under one government several perswasions and parties in religion . i shall now proceed to the objections made against this liberty of conscience , and the repeal of the penal laws , by some very warm clergy men ( for the church is not a little divided in this point , and the best , possibly the greatest part thereof , will be found not to approve persecution . ) . they say , their opposition arises from a dread of popery . to answer these gentlemen , and dissipate their fears . . can the church of england ( circumstances considered ) possibly invent a better security than she hath by his majesties declaration ? that first of all declares , that the king will protect and maintain her , in the free exercise of her religion , as , by law established , and in the quiet and full enjoyment of all her possessions without any molestation or disturbance whatsoever . what would she further have ? will she call into question the sincerity of his majesties promise ? the king intends the concurrence of a parliament for the establishing the indulgence , and the abolishing the tests and penal laws : it will be then seasonable , for the church of england to ask her further security , if she will pretend to stand in need thereof . . let the church consider that the king only takes from her the power of doing mischief . she will not pretend to deny his majesty liberty of conscience ; if she doth not , can she expect by his permission and authority to cudgel her fellow subjects into a communion which he doth not approve , and that after he hath so solemnly declared his royal judgment to be against all persecution for conscience sake ? he intends not to deprive the church of england of such laws as are defensive of her religion and possessions , but only to abrogate such statutes , as the iniquity or short-sightedness of past ages hath armed her with to annoy and offend her neighbours ; laws wicked in themselves , and which she hath too long , very wickedly executed , and therefore very fit to be yielded up . the objectors fear of popery , by the repeal of the penal statutes , is not easily to be comprehended ; let the papists , with all other the kings subjects , be restored to what ought to be theirs , by the laws of god , and let them have their birth-rights , and we have them in the common interest of the nation . such who are in love with persecution , may not think to make the romanists uneasy , in the reign of the present king ; let us then weigh it , whether it be not the best discretion , to secure them of ease in the next reign . another objection brought for keeping up the penal laws is , that they for whom liberty is desired , are factious , and that it will strengthen those who have always been for a common-wealth . of what force this objection is , will be seen , if it be considered . that persecution foments faction , but liberty wins over the malecontent , if not , it lays him open , and will make every body ready to be his executioner . violence may have forced many to factious practises , who were not , nor would not chuse be factious , oppression making the wise man mad : give men security in their worshipping god , and you may soon distinguish between conscience and faction . it hath been well observed , that no government is endangered by the people it seeks to preserve : did not the church , by rigour and severity in time past , drive many dissenters from their native country , and force those who remained , to shelter themselves under the enemies of the crown ? i justify not the practice , nor can the fact be denyed : the king is at this day , by his transcendent grace & tenderness to consciences become master of the hearts , and by consequence of the lives and estates of his dissenting subjects . i shall in the next place take the liberty of offering some things to the consideration of all our country-men , both of such as are members of the church of england , and of dissenters . . the gentlemen of the established church may please to remember , that their church , when brought under , pleaded for liberty , and thankfully accepted it from the late usurpers ; surely then , they will , or ought to deport themselves decently in this juncture , to their lawful soveraign ( differing from them in religion ) and not censure , or repine at his resolution to make all his people easy , when that same clemency of the kings , secures them in their religion , with the comfortable addition of their large possessions . let them consider their antient loyalty ( interwoven with their religion ) and approve themselves ( against those , who begin to accuse them of turning upon the government ) what they have always boasted , unalterably loyal . shall the fanaticks with alacrity come into the king's interest , and will the church of england appear sullen , soure and averse thereto ? i am confident she will not : to clear up my meaning herein , let me tell you , i take not the clergy to constitute the church of england : no , not in conjunction with some cloudy , morose & ambitious great men , who seem at this day to abet their discontents , but the people who joyn in her communion , will be found to be the best , & by far the greatest part of that church . the ecclesiasticks and some of their designing adherents , are indeed angry , and why ? because his majesty resolves they shall not confound their neighbours : but did you ever observe a violent persecuting minister , to enjoy the hearts of the people who lent him their ears ? you may remember , that in our late highly contested elections of parliament men , we saw in many parts of the kingdom the rigid , siery parson abandoned his by flock , and galloping to give his single voice , which was all that he and his horse could bring in ; the parish certainly falling in with the side which he opposed , and why ? because detesting his spirit and principles , they could not be disposed to esteem him a good man for whom their minister voted . may this go for some sort of measure of the churches interest ? i think we cannot readily have a better , than that of the freedom of voting in elections , how miserably then will that interest be found to dwindle , when the clergy shall come stript of the advantage of compelling men into it , by making use of the kings name ( to that they were formerly owing their success where they found it , and not to the esteem they had with their own members . ) i have heard some compute , that not above one th or th . part of the known world is christian : it will be found that his majesties interest in his people , vastly excels that of the clergies , and that the church of england in the point now discussed , liberty of conscience , will not be found to comprehend such a part of the nation , as the christians make of the world. would our militant church-men but put on temper , and sequester so much time , as to weigh with calmness and deliberation , the opinions of the most eminent divines of their church , in the point of imposition , they would be found no friends to persecution . reverend dr. taylor , late bishop of downe , thus expressed himself for liberty of conscience , viz , i do earnestly contend , that another mans opinion shall be no rule to mine , and that my opinion shall be no snare or prejudice to my self . in another place that learned man proceeds thus ; it is a part of christian religion , that the liberty of mens consciences should be preserved in all things , where god hath not set a limit . and further — the same meekess and charity should be preserved in propagating christianity , which was in its first publication . the reverend and learned dr. stillingfleet did once apprehend the mischief of imposition , when he declared his opinion to be , that non-conformity to any suspected practise , required by any church governor , as the condition of her communion , was lawful , if the thing so required , was judged unwarrantable by a man 's own conscience . i have been told and doubt not the truth thereof , that a late reverend prelate , dr. brownrig ( who lived to see the restoration of his late majesty , and of the church of england secured , tho' not actually accomplished ) did upon his death-bed lament the imposing presecuting spirit , which he foresaw would return with the church : and i think i have good ground to say , that at a late conference between a bishop ( whose health is drank throughout the kingdom ) and some of his clergy of great note , a dignified doctor of eminent learning , and candor of spirit , did very freely declare , that he thought the church was under gods displeasure for her severity to dissenters , and that thereupon the bishop lamented that he ever had his hand in that work , and declared , that should he be restored to power , he would use it better than he had done : i wish all the clergymen then present and throughout the kingdom , were so resolved , and would shew themselves for peace , by throwing away their weapons of war. . i propose to the consideration of dissenters , and that of every denomination , that as when a town is on fire every man ( without any great regard to what intimacy or distance hath been amongst neighbours ) doth his best to extinguish the devouring flames , so that they would with unanimity joyn in this common cause , of removing , and that for ever , the undistinguishing instruments of mischief , the penal statutes : they do equally extend to all , and may by turns reach every dissenter . hath not the church of england persisted to exercise her severities upon all dissenters within her reach , even in the present reign ? are the roman catholicks ( tho sheltered by the kings religion ) willing to deliver other dissenters with themselves from those destroying laws , and to secure them , from what hath been of so terrifying an aspect in popery , persecution ? and will they refuse to be unshakled ? i cannot imagine they should , especially when i observe amongst them such a universal serenity since his majesties declaration . they owe their ease to the kings princely clemency , he invites them out of slavery ; if they will , their liberty may be established ; his majesty is resolved to do that which the church never would when she had power , nor can we think she would now , if it be true that she accosts the king with heat against it : let then all dissenters see their common interest , to approach the king with duty and affection , and to evidence their affection , by closing with the happy opportunity which now offers , of setting themselves free by law , seeing his majesty calls them to it : but , the fanaticks are told by church-men , that it is not now either seasonable or safe ( i doubt in their opinion it never will ) and they promise that they will do the work. affliction is the best school , and i do hope the fanaticks have learn'd therein better , than to be tampered withal , and decoy'd into an opposition to his majesties so gracious disposition : they know the king never broke his word , that the church hath , and that with them in this very point of indulgence . i appeal herein to the memories of some men of note now living , who were of so clear credit , and so great reputation in the house of commons ( tho dissenters ) that without their concurrence , an address had not been obtained for the recalling the late king's declaration of indulgence , which for the time made the kingdom happy ; it must be acknowledged by these honest well meaning gentlemen , that they were wheedled and cheated of that indulgence , by the fair promises and caeresses of some , who are now also living , and attempting to play that game over again : i conclude therefore , with difference to their qualities , that they are not to be again trusted . to provoke dissenters to avoid the rock , and gain a safe harbour , i shall remind them ( tho' i would not have it remembered for vengeance , but for prevention sake ) what and how they have suffered by the penal laws , which some so highly struggle to keep up . how many families have we seen ruined , by the vexation of citations , and what quickly followed , excommunications , in the courts ecclesiastick : the lawyers say that excommunication is a disability to sue for debts , and many honest men have found that wicked advantage made thereof ; i know the name of a clergy-man , who to supply his occasions , borrowed money of a neighbour , a dissenter , and to defraud him of the money ( instead of payment ) pleaded that his creditor stood excommunicate : a more severe step of those courts was , the burying the dissenter alive in a goal by a writ de excommunicato capiendo , from which there was no redemption , but at the price of his conscience . indeed where men had money , and would farm their liberty ( not of conscience but ) from prison , i have seen the tender hearted gentlemen of doctors commons ( since the death of his late majesty ) for fifteen or twenty pound paid , half yearly , to respit the claping up of an industrious man , and they have permitted him , till the next rent day , to work for his family . that the dissenters have been tenants to under sheriffs , clerks of the peace , town clerks , apparitors , bailiffs , &c. is too well known throughout the kingdom , the first came but twice a year , the others quarterly or monthly . if these devourers left any thing , the informer followed , and very often swept all , and sometimes stock'd a justices house or farm with beds , horses , cowes , or what else the gentleman wanted , and that at very reasonable rates . are there not also , to make the dissenter compleatly miserable , imprisoning , banishing , murdering laws ? to them , what can the invention of cruelty it self add ? have we not , with regret beheld the execution of these laws ? it may possibly be said that none have been hanged for nonconformity , if so , we may say , thanks to the kings mercy , for restraining the churches foolish rage , but 't is not a small number both of ministers and others , whose lives have been destroyed by lingering pining deaths in noisom goals and dungeons . nay the rigorous execution of these too rigid laws , did not suffice , we have known many informers swear by guess , and very fasly , and the perjured protected and rewarded , of which take an instance : an informer ( by trade a tinker ) having manifestly perjured himself in swearing against an honest gentleman upon the conventicle act , and being indicted for the perjury , the prosecutor was hurried by the procurement of the informers patron , into no less prison than the tower of london , and there closely detain'd : the villain was rewarded with a place worth twenty pound per annum , and still enjoys it . but why should i argue with dissenters from particular instances , to make them out of love with their shackles , when 't is evident the whole kingdom groans under , and would gladly throw off the burthen of these oppressive bloody laws . i shall therefore take my leave of the dissenters with the story of the jews in good nehemiah's time . he being informed of the very deplorable case , of those who were left of the captivity , made an address to the king , representing the sad state of jerusalem , and petitioned for leave to rebuild it : the king ( who was the great artaxerxes ) gave a gracious answer , and not only permitted it , but contributed to the work ; and nehemiah ( to the grief of courtiers ) went cheerfully about it . sanballat and tobiah , ( men of great power under the king ) appeared grieved that there was come a man to seek the welfare of israel ; however nehemiah invited the jews to build the wall , and they came unanimously and cheerfully into the work. sanballat and tobiah having drawn into their faction , geshem an arabian , laughed the jews to scorn , and termed the work rebellion against the king. nehemiah , knowing that god would prosper him , ( mangre opposition ) proceeded to build , and all the people assisted , but the nobles contributed not to the worke of the lord , but held correspondance with the enemy tobiah , and betrayed to him nehemiah's counsels . sanballat and tobiah , that they might obstruct the work , resolved to fight the jews : in this great distress god fought for them , and brought the enemies counsel to nought , and the jews made up the breaches in the wall : then sanballat and his confederates , betook themselves to flattery and dissimulation , and invited nehemiah again and again to a conference , but he declines the invitation , answering , that he was doing a great work , and would not leave it . thereupon sanballat ( still pretending friendship ) informed nehemiah by letter , that the heathen reported , and geshem said it , that he and the jews thought to rebel , and to make nehemiah king , and that this would be told the king , and therefore sanballat offered to counsel him how to obviate this heinous charge . but nehemiah ( seeing the snake in the grass ) refused to take counsel of him , and answered sanballat , that no such things were doing , and that he feigned the accusation out of his own heart : then these men of mischief , hire false prophets to prophesy nehemiah's death , in case he did not withdraw : this plot also failed ; nehemiah saying , should such a man as i flee : so persisting , the wall was finished , to the enemies confusion , who perceived at length , that the work was of god. i have made the history too long , the application shall be shorter . has god put it into the king's heart to pitty them , who are left of the captivity , such whom penal laws have not destroyed ? let us return due thanks to god and the king. are there sanballats , tobiah's , and geshem's , who vex themselves that there is come a man to seek the welfare of all his israel ? do they in confederacy with the arabians , and false prophets , and with tobiah's correspondents undermine and discourage the great work of delivering conscience from the pernicious penal laws ? let us with heart and hand unite therein , and not be seduced by flattery or threats , to leave this glorious work half done : do the heathen report , and gesham say , or doth false sanballat so pretend , that we are overturning the government , and introducing a common-wealth ? let us deport our selves with such duty and affection to the king , that his majesty , and his successors also , may tell sanballat , that no such things , as he suggested , were doing by the kings peaceable dissenting subjects , but that the accusation was a fiction of his own wicked brain ; and when this blessed work shall be finished , may the enemies thereof be cast down in their own eyes , perceiving that this work was wrought of our god ; i am , what i always was , and therefore most certainly , yours posts●●ipt . i would beseech the church of e●●land to yield to christ , his own throne in the kingdom of god , and to magistrates their thrones in the kingdoms of the world ; the whole inward man is under christ's power , and the whole outward man is under the magistrates ; if so , the inward and outward man being disposed of before , what room is there left for ecclesiastical power ? the clergy indeed have long pretended to lift up the magistrate to the throne of christ over conscience , not that they would have him sit there , but place them upon it , and we have seen the power ecclesiastick , interweaving it self with the power of princes , that their power which was not of god ; might be supported by the power which was of god : but it may be worth consideration whether they do not exalt themselves in christ's stead in the church , and set under their feet the magistrates power in the world ; and whether they are friends to magistracy , further than it is serviceable to their ends , who is it that discerns them not at this day , venting their discontents against the king in pamphlets and discourses , and in spreading very false news ( in which , with too great boldness they take their full swing ) and why ? because he will not do all that they would have him do , and restrains their power in religious things . and when they mind his majesty of the services they have done him , do they not do it , in such a manner , as hints what they can do against him , as well as for him , if he will not serve their designs ? but these gentlemen demand , would you have no laws : yes , but no other in god's kingdom , but his own laws , those only being proper , and adequate , and therefore a thousand times better than all the laws of men , which never acquired any other sort of proselytes , than such as the young man in the story in frithe's answer to the bishop of rochester ; which is this ; a young man having beheld his fathers martyrdom ; the officers ( laying hold of him , and of that opportunity to work his conversion ) examined him of his faith ; the youth dismay'd , and fearing his father's fate , answered , gentlemen , i believe even as it pleaseth you . our church hath of late years ( by breathing out threatnings , punishments , imprisonments , &c. ) made too many such converts . once more adieu . london , printed , and sold , by andrew sowle , at the crooked-billet in holloway-lane in shoreditch , and at the three keys , in nags head court , in grace-church-street , overagainst the conduit , . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e ☜ ☜ ☞ ☞ ☜ ☜ ☜ by the king, a proclamation for suppression of popery england and wales. sovereign ( - : charles ii) approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page image. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing c wing c a_cancelled estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : or : ) by the king, a proclamation for suppression of popery england and wales. sovereign ( - : charles ii) charles ii, king of england, - . broadside. printed by the assigns of john bill and christopher barker ..., london : . "given at our court at whitehall the twentieth day of november, . in the twenty fifth year of our reign." ordering enforcement of the penal laws against recusants. item at reel : identified as wing c a (number cancelled). reproduction of originals in the harvard university library and the huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng dissenters, religious -- legal status, laws, etc. -- england. catholics -- england. great britain -- history -- charles ii, - . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - mona logarbo sampled and proofread - mona logarbo text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion c r diev et mon droit honi soit qvi mal y pense royal blazon or coat of arms by the king. a proclamation for suppression of popery . charles r. whereas in pursuance of our gracious assurances to both houses of parliament at the late prorogation , to let all our subjects see that no care can be greater then our own , in the effectual suppressing of popery , we were pleased the fourteenth of this instant november , in council , to direct and command the lord steward and lord chamberlain of our household to hinder all papists , and popish recusants , or reputed papists and popish recusants from having access to our presence , or to our palace , or the place where our court shall be , from and after the eighteenth day of this instant november , and did then likewise command the iudges of our courts at westminster , to consider of the most effectual means of putting the laws in execution for preventing the growth of popery , and speedily to report the same to vs : now for the more effectual suppression of popery in all parts of our kingdom , and preservation of the true religion established , we do hereby declare and publish our further will and pleasure , and also strictly charge and command all the iudges of our courts at westminster , iustices of the peace , mayors , sheriffs , bayliffs , and other our officers and ministers of iustice whatsoever , that they do forthwith take effectual care for the prosecution of all papists and popish recusants , according to the laws and statutes of this realm ; and for that purpose , that they give the said laws in charge at their respective assizes , gaol-deliveries and quarter-sessions , and then and there take order that such papists and popish recusants , or persons suspected to be so , may be speedily presented , indicted and convicted according to law , and that due process be from time to time issued thereupon . given at our court at whitehall the twentieth day of november . in the twenty fifth year of our reign . god save the king. london , printed by the assigns of john bill and christopher barker , printers to the kings most excellent majesty . . the bloody tenent yet more bloody: by mr cottons endevour to wash it white in the blood of the lambe; of whose precious blood, spilt in the blood of his servants; and of the blood of millions spilt in fromer and later wars for conscience sake, that most bloody tenent of presecution for cause of conscience, upon a second tryal, is found now more apparently and more notoriously guilty. in this rejoynder to mr cotton, are principally i. the nature of persecution, ii. the power of the civill sword in spirituals examined; iii. the parliaments permission of dissenting consciences justified. also (as a testimony to mr clarks narrative) is added a letter to mr endicot governor of the massachusets in n.e. by r. williams of providence in new-england. williams, roger, ?- . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing w thomason e _ estc r this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (thomason tracts ; :e [ ]) the bloody tenent yet more bloody: by mr cottons endevour to wash it white in the blood of the lambe; of whose precious blood, spilt in the blood of his servants; and of the blood of millions spilt in fromer and later wars for conscience sake, that most bloody tenent of presecution for cause of conscience, upon a second tryal, is found now more apparently and more notoriously guilty. in this rejoynder to mr cotton, are principally i. the nature of persecution, ii. the power of the civill sword in spirituals examined; iii. the parliaments permission of dissenting consciences justified. also (as a testimony to mr clarks narrative) is added a letter to mr endicot governor of the massachusets in n.e. by r. williams of providence in new-england. williams, roger, ?- . [ ], , [ ] p. printed for giles calvert, and are to be sold at the black-spread-eagle at the west-end of pauls, london : . the sentences labeled 'i.' and 'ii.' are enclosed by a right bracket with the word 'examined' on the left side of the bracket. the sentence labeled 'iii.' is also enclosed by a right bracket with the word 'justified.' on the right side of the bracket. a reply to cotton, john. the bloudy tenent, washed. . the final leaves are a table of contents. annotation on thomason copy: "aprill. ". reproduction of the original in the british library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng cotton, john, - . -- bloudy tenent, washed. dissenters, religious -- england -- early works to . persecution -- early works to . new england -- church history -- th century. great britain -- church history -- th century. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - jonathan blaney sampled and proofread - jonathan blaney text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the bloody tenent yet more bloody : by mr cottons endevour to wash it white in the blood of the lambe ; of whose precious blood , spilt in the blood of his servants ; and of the blood of millions spilt in former and later wars for conscience sake , that most bloody tenent of persecution for cause of conscience , upon a second tryal , is found now more apparently and more notoriously guilty . in this rejoynder to mr cotton , are principally i. the nature of persecution , examined ; ii. the power of the civill sword in spirituals examined ; iii. the parliaments permission of dissenting consciences justified . also ( as a testimony to mr clarks narrative ) is added a letter to mr endicet governor of the massachusets in n. e. by r. williams of providence in new-england . london , printed for giles calvert , and are to be sold at the black-spread-eagle at the west-end of pauls , . to the most honorable the parliament of the common-wealth of england . most noble senators , one of the greatest spirits , and as active as later times have yeelded , charles the fifth , tired out with affairs of state , resigns up all , and sits down to end his dayes in quiet contemplation . i doubt not but many of your honorable heads have felt the thorny crown ( of these late years troubles ) so sharp , so weighty , that your tired spirits would joyfully embrace , if not ( with charles the fifth ) a totall cessation , yet like some faithfull tired judge , ( after so long and troublesome a tearm ) at least some breathing short vacation . although i dare not ( as to englands peace and safety ) admit desires of your totall . cessation , or long vacation : yet common gratitude for such incomparable labours , expences , hazards , &c. from whence the god of heaven hath vouchsafed such rare and incomparable preservations , deliverances , enjoyments , &c. i say common gratitude cannot onely wish you heartily & pray for earnestly your eternal rest , and most joyfull harvest in the heavens , but also , all the possible breathing hours , and cool retired shades of contemplation and self-enjoyment amidst the scorching travels of so many vexing and tedious actions . you cannot ( ever renowned patriots ) but like some grave commanders of fleets and armies , who have brought their ships and followers through tempestuous st●rms and bloody fights , to joyful rest and harbours ! you cannot but look back with admirings , with praisings , with resolvings to cast you crowns , and heads , and hearts , and hands , ( for the remaining minutes of the short candle of your life ) at his feet , in whose most high and most gracious hands have all your breaths and wayes been . in the review of the multitude of your actings and sufferings , your battells and victories , dangers ▪ and deliverances , you cannot , ( no man can ) but observe and see ( a naked ) ▪ arm from heaven fighting for you , but most especially since the times and houres you gratified the most high eternall king of kings ( now more then ever englands king ) with these two famous subsidies ( if i may in humble reverence so call them . ) the first , of mercy and moderation to the poor oppressed consciences of the english nation , amidst the throng of which he graciously will , yea he hath acknowledged , that some of his own dear children ( the sonnes and daughters of the god of heaven ) have been relieved and succoured by you . the second your high and impartiall drawing of the sword of justice upon the great and highest offendors : since which two wonderfull subsidies , the most wilfully blind must be forced to see the glorious goings of the god of heaven with your councels and armies , and the discharge of his holy promise in honouring you , who have so highly , ( in so rare and unparalleld travels and hazards ) honored him . concerning the first of these subsidies , i was humbly bold some few yeares since , to present you with a conference between peace and truth , touching a most bloudy murtherous malefactor , the bloody tenent of persecution for cause of conscience : ( a notorious and common pyrate , that takes and robbs , that fires and sinkes the ( spirituall shipps and vessels ) the consciences of all men , of all sorts , of all religions and perswasions whatsoever . it hath pleased master cotton , ( a man incomparably too worthy for such a service ) to attempt the washing of this bloody tenent , ( as hee speakes ) in the blood of the lamb christ jesus ( though one part of the conference , to wit , the examination of a n. english modell of church and civill power , he leaveth to the washing of some other of the n. english ministers , the authors of that modell , of whose washings as yet i have not heard of : ) this present discourse presents your honours with the second part of the conference between peace and truth , and hath examined mr. cottons reply and washings . i summe up the multitude of my thoughts touching your honours consideration of this point , in these three most humble petitions . first , i most humbly and earnestly beseech your honours to mind the difference between state necessity of freedome to different consciences , and the equity and piety of such a freedome . state policie and necessity of affairs drew from great constantine ( with his colleague licinius ) that famous edict of freedome to all mens consciences , whom yet afterward he persecuted : but a successor of his ( of late years ) maximilian the second , comes neerer the life of the businesse , when he conscientiously profest in a solemne speech to the bishop of olmuts in bohemia , there is no sin ordinarily greater against god , said he , then to use violence against the consciences of men . your honours will find ( if the father of spirits please to spare you time and spirits , to mind this cause and controversie , that all violence to conscience turns upon these two hinges . first , of restraining from that worshipping of a god or gods , which the consciences of men in their respective worships ( all the world over ) believes to be true . secondly , of constraining to the practising or countenancing of that whereof their consciences are not perswaded . in the practice of both these , the histories of our own nation will tell us ( besides the forraigne ) how sharp and zealous the strongest swords of england have ever us'd to be . and yet of the practice of both , what a propheticall passage of our late troubles and king , did the foresaid maximilian expresse to henry the third of france , ( in his passage from poland to france to claim the french crown ) to this effect , sir , remember that when men think to get heaven by using violence to the consciences of men , they oftentimes lose that which they might peaceably have kept on earth . some have said that worldly policie perswaded , as well as state-necessity compelled the states of holland to a prudent permission of different consciences . and that the said state-policie perswaded some dutch to wish that england might not tolerate , least a permission of conscience in england should break down the bridge and passage into their parts of freedome in causes of conscience . those prudent and prosperous states have gone far ( though driven by spanish persecution ) to it ) in taking off the yoak from the necks of dutch & english , french yea , popish & jewish consciences . for all which ( though but mercy , though but justice and humanity to fellow mankind ) he that runs may read the truth of gods never failing promises , blessed are the mercifull for they shall obtain mercy . their own chronicles tell us of a wonderfull walk of the god of heaven between three of their most eminent towns or cities , first stafore was the wondrous wealthy city , their golden citie , til a proud wealthy , merchants widow , caused a whole ships loading of wheat ( which her ship brought home and she despised ) to be thrown over into the harbour , which ( with other accidents of water and weather , gods most righteous providences ) so choak'd up the haven , that vessels of burthen durst never frequent that citie ( by this occasion ) most wondrously impoverish'd ) since . from stafore god carries all the shipping and wealth to enchuysin , whose zealous , over-zealous and furious clergie provoke the civil magistrates to persecute dissenting , non conforming consciences : amongst the rest 't is rare ( if ever ) that the most glorious son of god himself escapes . from enchuysin therefore ( a den of persecuting lyons , and mountain of leopards ) the persecuted fled to amsterdam , a poor fishing town , yet harborous and favourable to the flying , though dissenting consciences : this confluence of the persecuted , by gods most gracious coming with them , drew boats , drew trade , drew shipping , and that so mightily in so short a time , that shipping , trading , wealth , greatnesse , honour ( almost to astonishment in the eyes of all europe , and the world ) have appeared to fall as out of heaven in a crown or garland upon the head of that poor fisher-town . o ye the prime of english men and english worthies , whose sences have so oft perceived the everlasting arms of the invincible and eternal king , when your ships hold hath been full with water , yea with blood , when storms without , fires and mutinies within , whence he hath beaten upon some rocky hearts and passages , as if she would have staved and split into a thousand pieces ; yet this so neer stav'd , so neer fired , so neer split , foundred , sinking nation , hath the god of heaven ( by your most valiant and carefull hands ) brought safe to peace her harbour ! why now should any duty possible be impossible ? yea , why not impossibilities possible ? why should your english seas contend with a neighbour dutchman for the motion of a piece of silk , &c ▪ and not ten thousand fold much more your english spirits with theirs for the crown of that state-piety and wisdome which may make your faces more to shine , not only with a common lustre after a dutch presisident , but ( if it be the holy will of god , and i humbly hope it may be ) with a glory far transcending all your fairest neighbours copies . the states of holland having smarted deeply , and paid so dearly for the purchase of their freedomes , reach to the neighbour nations and the world , a tast of such their dainties . and yet ( with due reverence to so wise a state , and with due thankfulnesse for mercy and relief to many poor oppressed consciences ) i say their piety nor policie could ever yet reach so far , nor could they in all their school of warre ( as their countries have been call'd , learn that one poor lesson of setting absolutely the consciences of all men free . 't is true , they vouchsafed to the papists and arminians the liberty ( as i may so speak ) of the prison , and sometimes to go abroad ( as i may say ) with a keeper , &c. but why should not such a parliament as england never had , ( and who knows whether ever will the like ) why should not the piety and policie of such statesmen out shoot and teach their neighbours , by framing a safe communication of freedome of conscience in worship , even to them to whom with good security of civill peace ) it is as due as to any other consciences or worshippers in the world ) the papists and arminians themselves . of the piety and policie of such a freedom i have discoursed more largely in the answering of some objections of mr. cotton in chapter . of this book : and proved that such a freedom of the conscience of each member of the commonweal , and such a commonweal as englands now is , especially , cannot in all probability prove so dangerous and prejudiciall as many do imagine and discourse , but contrarily many wayes prove beneficiall , and marvellously advantageous . your honors know what bloody bickerings and bloodsheds have been in later times in germany , in the low-countries , in france , in england , in polonia , in hungaria , bohemia , transilvania , &c. about the freedome of mens consciences and worship ? the god of heaven may also please graciously to remember you , that it hath been the fatall errour of all reformers that england or other states have seen , to doe as the portugals did in the east-indies , who pull'd down the images of the pagans whom they conquered , and set up their own images of portugall in their stead and places . it is agreed on all hands that subscribe to one god , that his worship is but one , and that all besides that one true god , are idols , and all worship beside his own ( but one ) are images : and you know the fiery jealousie of the eternall will not ever endure an image ( though never so fair ) his rivall : hence in the many former changes of estates , and state-worships ( by gods just and jealous permission ) the childrens work hath been to tumble down their fathers buildings . nor can your most prudent heads , and potent hands possibly erect that fabrick , which the next age ( it may be the next parliament ) may not tumble down . and yet so may the god of heaven so please to guide you in the high matters that concern the worship of god , and the consciences of men , that ( what ever be the present or future consequences ) your own consciences may reap the joyfull harvest of their present and eternall requiems . the pope , the turk , the king of spain , the emperour , and the rest of persecutors , build among the eagles , and the starres , yet while they practice violence to the souls of men , and make their swords of steele corrivals with the two-edged spirituall sword of the sonne of god : the basis of their highest pillars , the foundation of their glorious palaces , are but drosse and rottennesse . and however in our poore arithmeticke , their kingdomes number seem great , yet in the onely wise account of the eternall , their ages are but minutes , and their short periods are neer accomplished ; for herein the maxime is most true ( in the matters of religion and consciences of men , especially : ) the violent motion must break . but light from the father of lights hath shined on your eyes : mercy from the father of mercies hath softned your breasts , to be tender of the tenderest part of man , his conscience : for indeed there is no true reason of policy or piety ( as this discourse discovereth ) why that man that will subscribe ( and give assurance for honest meaning ) to that most prudent act of civill engagement , ( what ever his conscience be ) should be depriv'd and rob'd of the liberty of it , in spirituall and religious matters . i have ( i fear ) been long in my first petition , my second shall be brief , is this . i most humbly and earnestly beseech your honours in all the straits and difficulties which yet you are to passe ( concerning this great point of mens consciences , or other high affairs ) steere carefuly off from one sunk rock , on which so many gallant vessels have miscarried . this rock lies deeper then others , and seldom hath appeared but at some dead-low water , when the most high judge of the whole world reckons with men or states ; in low condititions and debasements . i humbly beg from god the gracious continuance of his mighty angels guard about your sitting , to preserve your honours from the flames of wars abroad , and from such flames at home : from risings , from tumults , from mutini●s , from pistols , from stabs , from powder-plots , from poyson , &c. but above all , from your own wisdome and policies in straits and difficulties . the holy history tells , that on this rock ( in a state strait ) strook the great statist jeroboam , to the ruine of himself and his posterity . on this rock split that famous and zealous reformer jehu . this pluckt the crown from sauls high head , when his own wisdome in straits made him presumtuous about the worship of god. this pluckt off the crown , and pluck out the eyes of zedekiah , when in a strait he trusted not in god , as solomon speaks , but leaned to his own understanding for his safety . to which purpose my third petition is , that in the midst of so many great negotiations of justice , of mercy to the bodies and estates , or spirits & consciences of so many thousands and ten thousand , you forget not to deal justly , & to shew mercy to your selves : oh how lamentable and dreadful wil it prove , if after all your high employments ( as the state-agents & factors for the commonweal ! ) if in the midst of all your cares and fears , and tossings about the souls and consciences and salvations of others , your own most dear and pretious selves make an eternal shipwrack ? your honors know , that although men have chosen and cull'd you out as wise and noble , yet god hath not chosen ( if paul say true ) many wise and noble to eternall life and blessednesse . who can love and honor you , and not cry to the god of heaven for you , and to your selves for your selves : be not so busie about the earthly estate , no nor the heavenly estate of others , as to forget to make sure your own vocation and election , & to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling . oh let not this bold cry offend , and though offend , yet let it throughly awake your noble spirits to know your dangers & hindrances ( more then other mens ) from a world of distractions from without , from pride & self-confidence from within , from the flatteries of such who ( hoping for rewards & morsels from you ) proclaim abroad ( that you may hear it ) o blessed christian magistrates , christian kings & queens , christian states , christian parliaments , christian armies , so lulling your pretious souls into an eternall sleep . i need not remember your honours of that most wonderful summa totalis of all the castings up of solomons choice particulars ( his wisdom , works , riches , peace and pleasures , ) vanity and vexation of spirit . i need not remember you of that wonderfull confession of philip the nd of spain ( neer his last ) to his successor and son philip the rd , to this effect : i have had and expended ( about the time of these years ) . millions of treasure , and yet gained nothing for my self but heart sorrow , and vexation of spirit . your own observant eyes and ears ( in the late most wonderfull changes and tossings of all affairs and things ) cannot but read a thousand lectures to your most serious midnight and morning thoughts of the most certain uncertainties of friends , treasures , revenues , armies , forts , magazines , castles , ships and navies , crowns and lives . why then should your renowned wisdom & prudence excel the folly of others as much as light excelleth darkness , in searching of the root and causes of matters , in fore-seeing events and consequences , in raising monies and armies , in choosing agents , in framing laws , in managing great affairs at home & abroad , in discovering plots , in preventing dangers , & finall overthrows by sure retreats , &c. if yet , alas , that wisdome make not out a saving discovery of the most holy and only wise , the alpha & omega , the first of causes and last of ends ( in whose hand is all your breath and ways : ) in raising spiritual supplies against your spiritually devouring adversaries , in discovering their methods , designes , deceits , in preventing that ( that ) fatall overthrow , and eternall defeat ( remediless , hopeless ) where the worm never dies , and the fire never goes out ? o why should your renowned valors so glory in the conquest of cities , castles , ships & armies , if your selves are led capti●e in the spiritual chains of lusts & passions , a more lamentable , and more to be deplored object , then the poorest slaves in the spanish and turkish gallies . what shall avail your admired diligence and activity in managing & quick dispatching so many and so high affairs , by day and night , catching hold of all occasions , redeeming all oportunities , improving all advantages , if you lose the fair gales , and oreslip and sleep away the pretious and inestimable seasons and calls , and knocks and offers of your own eternal mercies ? what boots your exemplary and impartiall justice on so many and so high delinquents , if your own bosomes are found traiterous to the state of heaven , rebellious to the king , to the god of spirits , and if in that most high court of justice from gods most dreadful tribunal you hear that thunder ( which oh that you may never hear ) ●o ye cursed , &c. 't is true your mercies have been eminent to the poor , to the opressed , to the captive , to the maimed , to the wounded , to the fatherless , widows , &c. but will you now be cruel to your selves , incompassionate to your own bowels , insensible of your own wounds and miseries ? o search and see , and be perswaded of your infinite want of crummes falling from your table of mercy ! of the infinite price and value of the wine & oyl of the mercifull ( though despised samaritan ) to ease and supple , to cleanse and heale your broken hearts and wounded spirits . the flames of your zeal for the god of israel ( as that famous iehu said ) have been so bright , and mounted so high against two mighty factions of the kings and queens ( the prelats & the popes ) that those flames have not only dazled and amazed all british eys ( the english & the scotch ) but or'e the seas , and or'e the alps , and or'e the pirenean mountains , and romes own hils haue flown & fild all protestant and popish ears , and hearts , and tongues , with either admiration & exulting , or furious rage and indignation ! yet what avails these glorious flames , and furious whirling of your zealous chariots , if yet they are but jehu's ? if sathan the god of this world possesse the throne of pride and ostentation in your bosoms ( come see my zeal which i have for the god of israel ) yea though you should go on where jehu left , and shoot home where he fell short , yet what avails it that the god of israel be in iehu's mouth , when god-selfe , god-honour , &c. fill his breast & heart ? what gains he by the slaughter of princes , priests and gods , when israel it self is but an apostate state from the true worship of the god of israel , and iehu himself ( according to the purity of gods word and ordinances at ierusalem ) reformed not so much as his own priv●t heart & censcience ? alas , what solid joy ( most zealous worthies ) shall a crown of leaves ( a temporal reward , iehu's wages ) bring to your noble heads & breasts , if you heare not at last that saving call to all humble and selfe-denying followers of jesus come ye blessed of my father , inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world . your admired publick patience so wonderfully assaulted , so wonderfully loaden with such mightie trials from mans , from gods hand , with such mighty losses , mighty defeats , mighty labours & hazards , mighty reproaches , &c. i say your unwearied patience hath stood ( like some mighty rock , or anvill ) invincible : yet who can stile this patince , or state-policie ! if your private howses and breasts swell and swarm with rebellious passions , impatiences , revenges ! if in the furnaces of your own private afflictions , and in the powrings out and changes of the most high upon you , your drosse and lees of unmortified , unsanctified spirits remain uncleansed ! if you most humbly kisse not the rods of the most high chastising you by sicknesses , by lesses , and other trialls , humbly thankfull , and longing to declare the spirits of true children , truly desiring more and more to partake of his divine nature and holinesse ? yea , what avails the crown of your enduring constancy , that have rid out so long a storm , held out so long a siege , not fainted in such tedious travels , labours , oppositions , treacheries , discouragements , but gloriously cast anchor in the port of patience ; if yet your personall righteousness passe away as the morning dew melted with the warme beams of victorious and prosperous success ? if your own professions of christ jesus prove but a fading colour , and not died in the right grain of the pretious blood of the son of god ? your honours well remember , that the main point of luthers reformation , ( and before him of the hussites in germany and bohemia , and before them of the wicklevists in england , and before them of the waldenses in france , consisted chiefly about repentance and faith in the blood of christ : that the main contentions of calvin , and since him of the most reformers , have turn'd upon the hinge of the form of the church , and the administrations thereof , the lamentable though pretious fuell of those fires of strife among the wisest , holiest , and learnedst of the followers of christ jesus in these times . you know the lord jesus prophesied , that many false christs should arise , and the scriptures more then once give the title of christ to the ghurch ; whence it is evident , that every severall modell , platform , and profession of a church , is the profession of a various and different christ . your honours also know he spake most true ( being truth it selfe ) that said , that which is most highly esteemed amongst men , is abomination in the sight of god , luke . hence , such may the glorious profession of christs or churches be , as may ravish the eyes and hearts of men , and from which the jealous eys of the true lord jesus turn away as from the false and counterfeit with indignation . beside the counterfeit in holy scripture , how famous was the pageant of that counterfeit king of england , which so haunted with long vexations one of the wisest of englands kings ( henry the seventh ? ) how wonderfully ( even to astonishment ) did the imposture of richard duke of york ( proclaiming henry an usurper and ●alse . ) i say , how wonderfully did that monstrous imposture take , that not onely foraigners where that counterfeit most kept ( the arch-duke , the king of france , the king of scots , the king of romanes , the irish nation , &c. ) were deceived with that feigned king , but also so many gallant men of our own nation , even to the wisest and highest ( as that famous stanley lord chamberlain , the preserver and r●iser of king henry himselfe ) lamentably lost their heads and lives about that pretended king ? now counterfeit spirituall delusions of false and counterfeit christs , as they are deeper and stronger , so they find more easie possession of the ears and souls of men , so wofully prepared by naturall self-deceivings . on six principall pillars or * foundations ( saith the holy spirit , heb. . . ) is built the fabrick of of true christianity : on repentance , on faith , on baptismes , on laying on of hands , on the resurrection , and the eternall judgement . concerning the two middle ones of these there are and have been mighty and lamentable differences among the scholars of jesus , who yet agree in the other foure , of repentance and faith , the resurrection and eternall judgement . whatsoever your honours apprehensions are of the foure last , i beseech you ( as you love your lives to eternity ) make sure of the two first , and ply ( with sails and oars ) day and nights , and give not rest to your souls till you have anchored in some blessed assurance , that although you find not satisfaction in the many frames of churches pretending ; yet that you have saved ( as once you know a wise and honorable personage said ) the bird in your bosome : and that those your very eyes which have seen so much of christ jesus , and so many wonderfull changes , and have been rotten awhile in their holes ( in death ) shall joyfully possesse , and fill their holes again , and be gloriously blessed with the sight of a redeemer , when these heavens and this earth shal passe away . for which humbly and uncessantly prayes your honours most unworthy , yet unfainedly devoted , roger williams . your honours ( wanting time to read much ) may please to view in a few minutes the portraicture and map of the whole bloody tenent in the latter end of the last chapt. chap. . to the several respective general courts , especially that of the massachusets in n. england . honored and beloved friends and countreymen , while you sit drie on your safe american shoars ( by gods most gracious providence ) and have beheld the dolefull tossings of so many of europs nations , yea of our dearest mother , aged england , in a sea of tears and bloud , i am humbly bold to present your eyes and hearts with this ( not unseasonable ) discourse of bloud , of the bloudy tenents of persecution , oppression , and violence , in the cause and matters of conscience and religion . it is a second conference of peace and truth , an examination of the worthily honoured and beloved mr. cottons reply to a former conference and treatise of this subject . and although it concern all nations , which have persecuted and shed the bloud of jesus , the bloudie roman empire , with all the savage lyons thereof , emperours and popes , the bloudie monarchies of spain and france , and the rest of europs kingdoms and states ( which under their several vizards and preteness of service to god , have in so many thousands of his servants , murthered so many thousand times over , his dear son ) yea although it concern that bloudie turkish monarchy , and all the nations of the world who practise violence to the conscience of any christian , or antichristians , jews or pagans ; yet it concerns your selves ( with all due respect otherwise be it spoken ) in some more eminent degrees : partly , as so many of yours of chief note ( beside mr. cotton ) are engaged in it ; partly as n. england ( in respect of spiritual and civil state ) professeth to draw nearer to christ jesus then other states and churches , and partly as n. england is believed to hold and practise such a bloudie doctrine , notwithstanding mr cottons vails and pretences of not persecuting men for conscience , but punishing them only for sinning against conscience ! and of but so and so , not persecuting , but punishing hereticks , blasphemers , idolators , seducers , &c. it is mr. cottons great mistake and forgetfulnesse , to charge me with a publick examination of his privat letter to me ; whereas in truth , there never passed such letters between himself and me about this subject ; as he alledgeth : but the prisoners arguments against persecution , with mr. cottons answer thereunto ( which i examined ) i say these were unexpectedly , and solemnly sent to me , as no privat thing , with earnest desire of my consideration or animadversions on them . these agitations between mr. cotton and others , so sent unto me , as also the model of church and civil power by gods providence coming to hand , i say they seem'd to me to be of too too publick a nature : and in which my soul not only heard the dolefull cry of the souls under the altar to the lord for vengeance , but their earnest sollicitations , yea and the command of the lord jesus for vindication of their blouds and lives spilt and destroyed , by this bloudie tenent , though under never so fair and glorious shewes and colours . the most holy and allseeing knowes how bitterly i resent the least difference with mr. cotton , yea with the least of the followers of jesus , of what conscience or worship soever : how mournfully i remember this stroak ( as i believe ) on mr. cottons eye , and the eyes of so many of gods precious children and servants , in these and other parts ; that those eyes so peircing and heavenly ( in other holy and precious truths of god ) should yet be so over-clouded and bloudshotten in this : i grieve i must contest , and maintain this contestation with ( in other respects ) so dearly beloved and so worthy adversaries . and yet why mention i or respect i man that is but grass , and the children of men that must die , whose brains , eyes and tongues ( even the holyest and the highest ) must shortly sink and rot in their skuls and holes . without remembring therefore who my adversarie is , nor all the wormwood and the gall so frequently in mr. cottons reply against me ; i fully and only level with an upright and single eye ( the lord jesus graciously assisting ) against that fowl and monstrous bloudie tenent and doctrin , which hath so slily ( like the old serpent the author of it ) crept under the shade and shelter of mr. cottons patronage and protection . my end is to discover and proclaim the crying and horrible guilt of the bloudie doctrin , as one of the most seditious , destructive , blasphemous , and bloudiest in any or in all the nations of the world , notwithstanding the many fine vails , pretences and colours of not persecuting christ jesus , but hereticks , not gods truth or servants , but blasphemers , seducers : not persecuting men for their conscience , but for sinning against their conscience , &c. my end is to perswade gods judah ( especially ) to wash their hands from bloud , to cleanse their hearts and wayes from such vnchristian practices , toward all that is man , capable of a religion and a conscience , but most of all toward christ jesus , who cries out ( as he did to saul ) in the sufferings of the least of his servants : old england , old england , new england , new england , king , king , parliaments , parliaments , general courts , general courts , presbyterians , presbyterians , independents , independents , &c. why persecute you me ? it is hard for you to kick against the pricks . my end is to prepare the servants and witnesses of jesus ( what truth soever of his they testifie ) for that great and general and most dreadfull slaughter of the witnesses , which i cannot but humbly fear , and almost believe , is near approaching , and will be vshered in , provoak'd and hastned by the preud security , worldly pomp , fleshly confidence , and bloudy violences of gods own children , wofully exercised each against other , and so rendred wofully ripe for such an vniversal and dreadfull storm and tempest ! my end and scope is to put a christian barr , and just and merciful spoaks in the wheels of such zealous reforming jehues , who ( under the vizard and name of baals priests ) may possibly be induced to account it good service unto god , to kill and burn his precious servants . my end is , that the greatest sons of bloud ( the papists ) may know , when ever ( as the saints in queen maries days confessed ) when ever it shall please the jealous god for the sins of his saints to turn the wheels of his most deep and holy providences , and to give the power to the paw of the beast , against his saints and truths , for their last dreadfull slaughter ( as daniel and john do clearly seem to tell us ) i say those sons of bloud , the bloudie papists , may know , that their bloudy doctrin of persecution , was disclaimed by some , whom they call sectaries : that equall and impartiall favour was pleaded to the catholicks , as wel as to their own or other mens souls and consciences : and that if that great whore shall yet proceed not only to drink the wine of their carnal jollitie , in the bowles of the holy ordinances of christs temple and sanctuary ; but also to drink more drunk in the bloud of his saints and witnesses ! this testimony may stand as a character of bloud , fixed by the hand of gods eternal truth and peace , upon the gates of their bloudie courts , and upon the forehead of their bloudie judges , who ( under what pretence soever ) hunt and persecute the souls and consciences of any child of god or man. my truly honoured and beloved countrimen , vouchsafe me i beseech you that humane and christian libertie to say , that i fear your spirits are lock'd up in a double prison from any serious audience to ought of mine presented to you . the first of prejudice against such and such a person . the second of conscience , against such and such a matter ; and that while my conscience or another mans saith , let me be heretick , blasphemer , idolater , seducer , with christ jesus , with his apostles , saints and witnesses : let me ( for his sake ) bear frowns , censures , and persecutions , from men so dear , so excellent , so holy ! your consciences plead for equall libertie of opposing in your way , all such erroneous or wandring consciences . for answer , it is but humanity , it is but christianity to exercise meeknesse and moderation to all men : it is humane and christian wisdom to listen to a serious alarm against a common enemy : prove the alarm false , it may be but troublesome : prove it true , it may be destruction to have despised it . as the wounds of a lover are better then the kisses of an enemy : so saith the same spirit , an open rebuke is better then secret love. but yet your consciences ( as all mens ) must be satisfied , i have therefore in all these agitations humbly presented ( amongst others ) two foundamental hints or considerations . first that the people ( the original of all free power and government ) are not invested with power from christ jesus , to rule his wife or church , to keep it pure , to punish opposites by force of armes , &c. secondly , that the pattern of the national church of israel , was a none-such , unimitable by any civil state , in all or any of the nations of the world beside : in this latter hint i insisted more largely in my former considerations upon church and civil power in n. e. unto which mr. cotton replyed not ( and of any other replyes of any ( to whom mr. cotton refers it ) do i yet not know of . ) i add , it is a glorious character of every true disciple or scholler of christ jesus , to be never too old to learn. it is the command of christ jesus to his schollars , to try all things : and libertie of trying what a friend , yea what an ( esteemed ) enemie presents , hath ever ( in point of christianity ) proved one especiall means of attaining to the truth of christ . for i dare confidently appeal to the consciences of gods most knowing servants , if that observation be not true , to wit , that it hath been the common way of the father of lights , to inclose the light of his holy truths , in dark and obscure , yea and ordinarily in forbidden books , persons and meetings , by sathan stiled conventicles . new english voyages , have taught most of our old english spirits , how to put due prices upon the most common and ordinary undervalued mercies ; how precious with some hath been a little water ? how dainty with others a piece of bread : how welcome to some the poorest howsing ? yea the very land and earth , after long and tedious passages ? there is one commoditie for the sake of which most of gods children in n. england have run their mighty hazards ; a commoditie marvellously scarce in former times ( though in some late years by gods most gracious and mighty hand more plentifull ) in our native countrey : it is a libertie of searching after gods most holy mind and pleasure . out of this most precious and invaluable jewel , if you suffer sathan ( that grand thief and cheater to bereave you , and that it shall be a crime , humbly and peaceably to question even lawes and statutes , or what ever is even publickly taught and delivered , you will most certainly find your selves after all your long run ( like that little frenchman who kill'd the duke of guise , and was taken next morning neare the place from whence he had fled upon a swift horse all night ) i say you will most certainly find your selves , but where you were , enslav'd and captivated in the chains of those popish darknesses , [ to wit , ignorance is the mother of devotion , and we must believe as the church believes , &c. ] remember therefore ( o ye the cream and flower of english plantations in america ) what a black and direfull a cole it was with which it pleased the spirit of god in habacuck , to brand the assirian monarchie , to wit [ a bitter and hastie nation ] but in the spirit of meeknesse , in the meeknesse of wisdom , be pleased to remember that possible it is for gods visible , only people in the world to have very foul and bloudie hands , full of bloud ( isa . . ) ! to build up zion and jerusalem ( that is , to erect the visible church and kingdom of god ) with bloud ( mic. . ) and with iniquitie , that the heads and judges of gods people , may judge for a reward ( and the deceitfull heart of man graspeth at rewards more then of one sort ) that the priests and prophets thereof may teach and prophesie ( and it may be frequently and excellently , but yet for ) an hire and for money ; and that yet their consciences may lean upon jehovah , and they may say with confidence , is not the lord amongst us ? none evil shall come unto us ; &c. o remember that your gifts are rare , your professions of religion ( in such way ) rare , your persecutions and hidings from the storms abroad , rare and wonderfull : so in proportion your transgressions , estate and publicksins cannot but be of a rare and extraordinary guilt : nor will new england's sorrowes ( when sins are ripe and full ) be other then the dregs of germanie's , of ireland's , of england's , and of scotland's tears and calamities . amongst the crying sins of our own or other sinfull nations : those two are ever amongst the lowdest , to wit , invented devotions to the god of heaven . secondly , violence and oppression on the sons of men ( especially ( if his sons ) for dissenting , and against both these , and that the impartial and dreadfull hand of the most holy and jealous god ( a consuming fire ) tear and burn not up at last the roots of these plantations , but graciously discovering the plants which are not his , he may graciously fructifie and cause to flourish what his right hand will own : i say this is the humble and unfeigned desire and cry ( at the throne of grace ) of your so long despised out-cast : roger williams . to the merciful and compassinate reader . while the unmercifull priests and levits turn away their cruel eyes and feet from their poor wounded neighbours ( the oppressed for matters of religion and worship ) it will be no ingratefull act to present thy tender heart and ear ( compassionate samaritane ) with the dolefull cry of the souls under the altar [ how long lord before thou avenge our bloud on them that dwell upon the earth ] and to pray thy mournfull view of the akeldemae's and fields of blood , where thousands and ten thousand times ten thousands of the pretious saints ( servants and witnesses of jesus ) lie slaughtered in their bloudie gore , in all ages and in all nations , where the trumpet of the son of god hath sounded : here and there among these slaughtered heaps of saints lie ( thin and rare ) the slaughtered carkasses of some poor arrians or papists , or other poor deluding and deluded souls : this seeming colour of impartiall justice serves ( wofully ) that murtherous enemy of all mankind for a stale or covert under which his bloudie game goes on , of persecuting ( or hunting ) the harmless deer , the children of the living god. for the sake then of the dear saints and followers of jesus , for his holy sake and truth , for the holy name and truth of the most holy father of lights , the god of it , thy compassionate eye is here presented with a second conference and view of mr. cottons reply , and artificial bloudie washing of the bloudie tenent . the battel about any truth of god in christ , is fought and managed by that most high and glorious michael the arch-angel and son of god , attended with all his holy angels , the messengers and witnesses of his truth on the one side : on the other side by that great red dragon , whose bloudie followers , devils and men of all sorts and nations , but especially the roman bloudie emperor , and roman popes ( with lyon-like furie , and fox-like craft ) have suck'd the bloud and broke the bones , and devoured the flesh of so many hundred thousand , thousands of the king of kings his spiritual hinds and roes in this their bloudie hunting : so that aptly ( i had almost said prophetically ) wrote one of their own roman poets of the lamentable condition of the harmlesse deer above other creatures : dente tuetur aper , defendunt , cornua taurum , imbelles damae quid nisi praeda sumus ? 't is a lamentable and cruel sight to see the sons of one poor man and woman , ( all the globe of the world over ( like babels builders ) so vastly disagreeing about a god and his worship . 't is lamentable to see these one mans sons murthered and massacred ( in mutual slaughters ) as for other pretended causes : so this especially of conscience and religion . 't is yet more lamentable and never enough to be lamented , that while the sons of men do but their kind ! the sons of god , the sons of the god of place , the lillies , doves and spouses of jesus should thus discord and jart about this christ their hope ! that ( like the very turks and persians contending about their mahomet his successors ) the children of god should tear out each others throats about the last will and testament of the son of god their elder brother : that ephraim should be against manasseh , and manasseh against ephraim , and both against judah ; yet all sons of one , and professors of one god of israel : but oh the low and shallow comprehensions of the sons of men , who as a rotten thing ( saith job ) consumeth ▪ oh the depths of the councels and workings of the most high , most holy , and only wise , outshooting all the generations of men , who heat and know no more then jonathans lad , is not the arrow beyond thee ? &c. his holy wisdom hath an heavenly reason ( to touch a little upon this sorrowfull string ) of that bloudie device and sale of innocent joseph by his own brethren , the sons of one israel and god. he knowes why so holy a leader of such a miraculous people ( as i may truly call them ) why aaron ( i say ) was so left to the horrible , ungratefull , and outragious importunities of this ( then the only ) people of god , as to frame a beastly worship , and to turn the most glorious and dreadfull godhead into the similitude of a beast that ea●eth grasse . he knowes why the israel of god ) rebels , as moses passionately called them ) should so often grieve the holy spirit of god with their murmurings , and be so near to dash out the brains of their most faithfull leaders . he knowes why two parts or angles of that heavenly triangle ( moses , aaron , and miriam so neer in earthly and heavenly relations ) i say why that rare pair , aaron and miriam should yet envie and mutiny against their so dear a brother , and so meek and heavenly a ruler , moses . his heavenly wisdom hath a reason of that wonderfull shrinking of an army of thousand israelits , into one poor left behind , and found only fit for gods battels against the midianits . a reason why those two famous champions , samson and david should find so great discouragement to their fighting of gods battels , the men of judah basely binding samson , and the chief of davids own brethren flying in his face with open railings . a reason of that all most utter consumption of one whole tribe of israels . by the furious flames of the zeal and indignation of the eleven . these things happened not by chance , but as the apostle speaks in types ( in curious and wonderfull figures ) so that his holy wisdom knowes : why israel must be so weary of samuel and himself , and ( like the nations of the world ) must have a king to be their champion and fight their battels : why saul this desired king , the king of gods own choice and israels , why yet he must hunt an innocent david , as a flea in the bosom , or a partridg on the mountains , until he hath slain himself to set the crown on davids head . a reason of that long continued faction of so many tribes against this davids crown , and that israel ( so importunate , so impatient for a king ) should now powre out each others blood about a successor , whether a david , or ( the son of persecution , saul ) ishbosheth . a reason ( when david wears both crowns in one , and hath all that a most gracious god could espie out fit for david to receive , that yet he wants a wife that had so many , and rather then a davids sinfull desires and whordomes shall want a covering , the blood of vriah ( that is fire or zeal of god ) shall die and make up one to cover them . o the depths of the councels of the holy one of israel why ( there being but tribes in all ) tribes of his own people should tear away from , and after many captivities of the one and the other , both the one and the other now are scattered from each other upon the face of the earth , and as yet no certain tidings what 's befaln to the tribes of the israel of god. he knowes why to leave an upright perfect asa●'s heart to such folly and wrath , as to lay a faithfull prophet ( admonishing him from god ) by the heels . yea , why the followers of the meek lamb of god , should burn in such vnchristian flames , as to call for fire from heaven to consume the contemners and despis●rs of their lord and master , who quencheth the fire of their rash zeal with this mild check , you know not of what spirit you are of . why such 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( bitternesse as the word is ) should rise between two turtle doves , paul and barrabas , and that about their most laborious and most dangerous ministeries . why one cries paul , another apollo , another caphas , another christ , even in the first established churches . this holy plot , this heavenly designe of the most holy and only wise god , thus to permit the contentions and divisions of his own servants , as it displaies himself only perfect and excellent , and all ( the best of ) men in all ages , but farthing-candles , yea smoaking firebrands : as it brightly proves the admirable consent and angelical harmony of the holy scripture , relating histories , and in those histories infolding prophesies , fulfill'd before mens daily view thousands of years after : as it makes us see our spiritual povertie and beggary , and infinit need of mercy and grace , and peace from heaven , and drives us to continual prayers and cries , for mercifull supplies from thence ! as it disrelisheth this present sweetest life , yea the very life of spiritual love , in the communion of the saints of god themselves , if compared with the most pure and spiritual and absolute joyes and life approaching . so doth this heavenly councel of the most high , aboundantly stop the mouths of all malicious , who ( although they delight to scratch their athenian itch of hearing novelties , new things , newes , yet ) stumble they at this stumbling-block of novelties , new churches , new ministers , new discipline , new baptism , new light : the ancient of days ( say they ) the god of peace and love cannot be in such divisions : the old bishops were better , the old popes themselves more tollerable . but this is but the barking of malice against gods holyness which his true servants desire to partake of ! against gods truth , which his servants must contend for , ( yea though it be one against another ) against gods councels who hath so laid his holy project , that what he now sets out in a clear light and fairer print , is the very same ( had we inlightned eyes to see it ( with the old edition of former times , more dark and rude in ceremonies , types , and figures . i cannot but foresee variety of divers passions and affections , in a variety of beholders of this present controversie : some will please themselves and their curiosities in the noveltie of such discourses : some will rejoice to see the light appear , and yet mourn in the lamentable differences of such who profess the same god and christ about it : some will be angry and cry out of blasphemy against their gods , their bellies , and their titles , &c. some will fear disturbances of the civil , and some of the spiritual peace and christianity : yet some will truely desire , to search and know the will of god , humbly desirous to do it on earth , as the angels doe it in heaven . the courteous reader may please to see , that in the first conference of peace and truth , there was discust , a modell of new english church and civill power , which mr. cotton in his reply waved and referred to others of the new english elders to reply unto , which whether they have so done as yet i have not heard : together with mr. cottons reply to the bloudy tenent , there was also added a reply of mr. cotton to an answer of his letter : the examination of this reply i desired , and intended should have been here presented ; but the streights of time ( being constantly drunk up by necessary labours for bread for many depending on me , the discharge of engagements , and wanting helps of transcribing ) i say the streights of time were such , that the examination of that reply could not together with this , be fitted for publick view , though with the lords assistance will not delay to follow : touching mr. cotton i present two words : first for his person , secondly for his work. for his person , although i rejoyce that since it pleased god to lay a command on my conscience to come in as his poor witnesse in this great cause : i say i rejoice it hath pleased him to appoint so able , and excellent , and conscionable an instrument to bolt out the truth to the bran : so i can humbly say it in his holy presence , it is my constant heaviness and souls grief as to differ from any fearing god ; so much more ten thousand times from mr : cotton , whom i have ever desired and still desire highly to esteem , and dearly to respect , for so great a portion of mercy and grace vouchsafed unto him , and so many truths of christ iesus maintained by him . and therefore ( notwithstanding that some ( of no common judgement and respect to him , have said , that he wrote his washing of the bloudie tenent in bloud against christ iesus , and gall against me , yet ) if upon so slippery and narrow a passage i have slpit ( notwithstanding my constant resolution to the contrary ) into any tearm or expression unbeseeming his person , or the matter ( the cause of the most high in hand considered ) i humbly crave pardon of god , and mr. cotton also . secondly concerning his work , i call to mind a speech of one of eminent note in n. england ( observing a disposition in men for one man to deifie another , and that some of no small note had said they could hardly believe that god would suffer mr. cotton to err ) the speech was this [ i fear that god may leave mr. cotton to some great error , that men may see he is a man ] &c. but concerning his work , the observant reader will soon discover , that whatever mr. cottons stand is , yet he most weakly provides himself of very strange reserves , and retreats : to point with the finger at or most frequent and remarkable . first when he seems to be overwhelmed with the lamentable and doleful cries of the souls under the altar , crying out for vengeance on their persecutors that dwell upon the earth ! he often retreats , and professeth to hold no such doctrin of persecuting the saints , no nor of any for cause of conscience , nor that the magistrate should draw forth his sword in matters of religion . when it is urged that through this whole book he persecutes or hunts ( by name ) the idolater , the blasphemer , the heretick , the seducer , and that to death or banishment : and amongst other expressions useth this for one [ if there be stones in the streets , the magistrate need not run for a sword to the smiths shop , nor to the ropier for an halter to punish hereticks , &c. ] mr. cotton retreats into the land of israel , and calls up moses and his laws against idolaters , blasphemers , seducers , &c : when he is challenged ( and that by his own frequent confession in his book ) for producing the pattern of a national church when he stands only for a congregationall ! for producing that national church of israel , so miraculous , so typical , as a copie or samplar for the nations and peoples of the world ( who have no such miraculous and typicall respect upon them ) mr. cotton retreats to moral equity , that the seducer and he that kills a soul should die . when it is urged that christ iesus at his so long typed out coming , abolished those national shadowes , and erected his spiritual kingdom of israel , appinted spiritual officers , punishments , &c. and that those scriptures , tit. ▪ against the hereticks ; and rev. . against baalam and iezabel prove only a spiritual death and cutting off from christ jesus his holy land of life and peace , his church & kingdom . mr. cotton retreats and confesseth christs kingdom is spiritual , not national , but congregational , and that those scriptures hold forth a spiritual cutting off , and he so produceth them to prove the heretick so to be cut off , alledging that the question was put in general tearms , that he knew not what persecution should be intended , and that an unjust excommunication is as sore a persecution as an unjust banishment . when he is urged with the nature of the consciences ( even of all men to god or gods in their worships , he professeth that he is wronged , & that he doth not hold that any man should be persecuted for his conscience , but for sinning against his conscience . when al the consciences in the world cry out against him for setting up the civil power & officers , and courts of civil iustice , to judg of the conviction of mens souls and consciences ! mr. cotton retreats to his last refuge , and saith that although this be the duty of all the magistrates in the world , yet not any of them must meddle to punish in religion , untill they be informed which is ( upon the point ) untill he is sure they will draw their swords for his conscience , church , &c. against all other as heretical , blasphemous . the monstrous partiality of such suspending , &c. of hanging up all the magistrates in the world , ( except a few of his own perswasion ) and that from so principall and main a part of their office , and that so many thousands in the nations of the world all the world over , and that constantly and perpetually all their dayes . if it please the most jealous and righteous god to hide it ( i say the monstrousnesse of such a suspension ) from mr. cottons eyes , yet thousand and ten thousands will behold and wonder at it . but ( fearing to exceed in discourse at dore ) let every mercifull and compassionate reader freely enter in , and search the in most rooms and closets : if thou truly love the truth and peace , thou art too neer of kin to the prince of peace and truth it self , long to escape the hunters . if the fourty two moneths of the beasts reign , and the two hundred and threescore dayes of the prophesie of the witnesses of jesus in sackcloth be expired : yet i fear the three dayes and a halfe of the greatest slaughter of the witnesses is not over : yet fear not what must be suffered , although the devill cast ( not onely some , but ) all christs witnesses into prison : yea , although he murther and fling out the karkasses of the saints to shame and injury , yet the mighty spirit of god will raise them on their feet again , and into heavenly glory , out of this shame shall they ascend in the sight of their bloody enemies . how many and how various are the disputings , &c. about what should be this three dayes and a halfes calamity ? how many hope this storm is over ? how many fear it is now a breeding ? yet why should we fear so short a draught ( though ) of a bitter cup , when tempered by the gracious hand of an heavenly father , begun by so dear an elder brother , so sweet a saviour ? the revelations of john , and the revelations of gods wonderfull providences , seem to proclaim wonderfull and dreadfull discoveries of the son of god approaching . and it is as sure as that there is a lord jesus christ , that god will subdue all his enemies , that he will shortly break ( and make all his followers tread on ) the proudest necks born up this day in the world , even the grandest seigniories of the turkish and popish empires , the two so mighty opposers of the son of god. and it is not improbable , both their ruines and downfall must be from some top and pinacle of glorious prosperity and furious outrage against their ( antichristian and christian ) enemies . the chiefest european enemies of the all devouring turk ( though all that bear the name of christ are his enemies ) are more especially the pope , the emperour , the king of spain and the venetians , by whom christ jesus ( probably ) will dash that mighty empire into pieces , as he seems to have prophesied of old by his servant daniel : yet probably , as i said before , this downfall must be from some more eminent height of turkish bloody pride and glory , which that blasphemous and bloody monarchy shall immediatly before attain unto . the sorest enemies of the roman popes , are the witnesses of the truths of jesus , whom he hath not left himself without , during the moneths of the reign of this mighty and dreadfull beast . against these blessed followers of the lamb must ( probably ) the rage of this bloody beast rise high in that his great slaughter of them and triumph three days and an half over them , ( rev. . ) and this not long before his own eternall downfall . many have been the interpretations of that prophesie , and some late applications of the witnesses and time to particular persons and times of late . but ( with all due respect to the apprehensions of any studious of the truth of jesus ) i conceive the matter is of a more generall consideration . for in all that world over that wondred after the beast , hath christ jesus raised up a generation or kind of witnesses bearing testimony against him . this witnesse ( more or lesse ) to the severall truths of jesus , he hath been pleased to maintain , before and since luthers time , especially : the finishing of the testimony must ( probably ) be generall , not only in england , but in the rest of the protestant nations ; which finishing of the witnesse ( probably ) wil consist in the matters of the purity of his worship , and the government of the lord jesus in his own holy appointments and institutions . the slaughter of these witnesses must also ( probably ) be generall , and in the three dayes and half triumph over them generall : upon which follows that most glorious and generall rising of the witnesses unto their glory promised , rev. . i confess in this plea for freedom to all consciences in matters ( meerly ) of worship , i have impartially pleaded for the freedom of the consciences of the papists themselves , the greatest enemies and persecutors ( in europe ) of the saints and truths of jesus : yet i have pleaded for no more then is their due and right , and ( what ever else shall be the consequent ) it shall stand for a monument and testimony against them , and be an aggravation of their former , present , or future cruelties against christ jesus the head , and all that uprightly love him , his true disciples and followers . it is true , i have not satisfaction in the clear discovery of those holy prophesies & periods set down and prefixed by the holy spirit in daniel , john , &c. concerning the kingdom of christ jesus : yet two things i professe in the holy presence of god , angels and men. first , my humble desires and resolution ( the lord assisting ) to contend for the true and visible worship of the true and living god , according to the institution and appointment of the last will and testament of christ jesus . . i beleeve and profess , that such persons , such churches are got neerest to christ jesus , on whose forehead are written these blessed characters of the true lord jesus christ ; first , content with a poor and low condition in worldly things . . an holy cleansing from the filthines of false worships and worldly conversations . . an humble and constant endeavour to attain ( in their simplicity & purity ) to the ordinances and appointments of christ iesus . . are so far from smiting , killing , and wounding the opposites of their profession and worship , that they resolve themselves patiently to bear and carry the cross and gallows of their lord and master , and patiently to suffer with him . in the number of such his poor servants who as unfeignedly desire ( notwithstanding my plea against persecutors and persecution ) i say as unfeignedly desire to suffer as cheerfully with christ iesus , as gloriously to reign with him , desires to be , thine unfeigned , though unworthiest of all the followers of iesus . roger williams . the bloody tenent yet more bloody , by master cottons attempting to wash it with the blood of the lambe . examination of chap. i. truth . blest be the god of truth and peace ( sweet peace ) that once againe , we finde a corner and a few hours to entertaine our sweet embraces and discourses about that bloody tenent of persecution for cause of conscience . peace . it is indeed jehovah's work , and it is marvellous in our eyes , that ' midst this worlds combustions , such a corner and such hours are found . truth . dear friends , the longer absent , meet the sweeter ; and have cause to spend each minute to his praise , who wonders works , and this not the least , that we two see each others face at all in these tempestuous dayes and vale of tears . how harshly were our last conferrings entertained by some ? how were our selves suspected , and traduced for counterfeits ; and our pious and peaceable meditations , cruelly condemned to the devouring flames ? truth . that ever was our portion , ever since the earthen pots arose against their glorious potter ; and no better lot we must expect , while the time doth last that is determined . peace . mean while t is yet our lamentation , that so many of our darlings , whom we have tendred as our eyes , have both in print and pulpit , cried out against us ; and amongst the rest , one of thy dearest eldest children , ( too too worthy to be ) the defender of the bloody tenent of persecution . truth . our love shall cover his shame and nakedness ; and our wisdoms pity his heavy labour , blackamore-washings , and so great expence of precious time and spirit , in labouring to wash this so deeply bloody , and blackamore - tenent , in the blood of the lamb of god. peace . so parents and true friends love and pity theirs , though sick , though froward and distracted ; and let our bowels yearne over him , who teares out ours : who knows but once before he sleep his last , in the pit of rottenness , he may awake and give glory to the god of peace and truth , of patience and long suffering ; whose thoughts , whose wayes , whose love , whose pity hath no bounds , nor limits , toward them whom he hath loved before the worlds foundation . o let these blessed buds , of hope and sweet desires ( dear truth ) put forth in pious fruits of renewed endeavors , and let me once againe prefer my suit for your impartial weighing of what replies , objections , pleadings , he hath brought against us . truth . for the god of peace , for the prince of peace his sake , yea for his servants sake , for zions sake , i will not be silent , and know ( at last ) i shall prevaile to scatter and dispell the mists and fogs , that for a while arise to cloud and choak us . peace . first , then , what cause should move this so able a defendant to leap over all our first addresses both to the high court of parliament , and to every reader ? and what may be conjectured , why himself directs a word to neither in this controversie ? truth . i desire my rejoynder may be as full of love as truth ; yet some say master cotton is wise , and knows in what door the wind blows of late ; he is not ignorant what sad complaints in letters , printings , conferences , so many of gods people ( and of his own conscience and judgement of independency ) have poured forth against new englands persecuting , &c. he knows what bars new englands bloody tenent and practice may put to his brethrens just desires and suits for moderation and toleration , to non-conforming consciences . t is true , his conscience , and the credit of his way , compels his reply , but the times advise him , with as little noise as may be , and it seems with no great willingness , that that high and searching house of englands parliament should search and scan his meditations . peace . well , if the name of god were truely called upon them and ( as his title intimateth ) the great controversies of these present times are herein handled ; if all that is here presented , be truly practised ; and he desire to buy and sell by one measure and to be no otherwaies measured unto , then he measureth unto others : why should not that renowned court be more particularly and expresly attended with so high and needful examinations ? but now enough of that , i long to see that weighed , which is presented , take up those holy weights of thine , which may faithfully discover how light or ponderous each parcel is in gods most holy presence . master cotton first complaines against the publishing of his private letter , with an answer thereunto : he faulteth the discusser for punishing his conscience , against the discussers own tenent of liberty of conscience , for breach of rule , in first publishing to the world before private admonition , and telling the church . truth . how justly may i begin with the defenders own conclusion of this first chapter ! he that setteth forth of his way in the first entrance of his journey , no marvel if he wander all the day after . for , first , the discusser never wrote any such letter to master cotton , as master cotton so often affirms , and mentioneth throughout his book . the like mistake he fals into , in some other passages , which shall be gently toucht at , and passed by , as the failing of memory . peace . it is often seen , that small matters in the first steps and entrance of a business , prove ominous ; and although love bids us lay the blame on memory : yet since nil sine providentia & deus est maximus in minimis , and not a sparow nor a haire fals without him ; methinks such a stumble in the threshold should have one sad consideration in master cottons brest , so long as he resides in the chamber of this discourse . truth . to my knowledge there was no such letter or intercourse passed between master cotton and the discusser ; but what i have heard , is this ▪ one master hall of roxbury , presented the prisoners arguments against persecution to master cotton , who gave this present controverted answer ; with the which master hall not being satisfied , he sends them unto the discusser , who never saw the said hall , nor those arguments in writing ; ( though he well remember that he saw them in print some yeers since ) and apprehending no other , but that master cottons answer was as publike , as master cottons profession and practice of the same tenent was and is , what breach of rule can master cotton say it was , to answer that in the streets which master cotton proclaimeth on the house top ? peace . but grant it had been a private letter , and the discourse and the opinion private : yet why doth he charge the discusser with breach of rule , in not using orderly wayes of admonition , and telling the church , when master cotton himself in this book blames the discusser for disclaiming communion with their church , and they also ( after he was driven by banishment from civil habitation amongst them ) had sent forth a bull of excommunication against him in his absence . such practise the lord jesus and his first apostles or messengers never taught , nor any that are truely their successors ever will. but to end this chapter , in the last place , why doth master cotton complaine of the loss of the liberty of his conscience , and of the punishing of his conscience , by the publishing of his letter ; aggravating it , because the discusser pleads for liberty of conscience ? is he indeed on the lord jesus mind for the sparing mens bodies , and present life , for their souls and eternal lives sake ? doth he indeed plead for liberty of conscience ? let the following discourse , and this present passage manifest how tender he is of his own conscience , and of the liberty of it ; but how censorious and senseless of the pangs and agonies of other mens conscience and spirits , and sorrows ? as if his alone were the apple of his eye , but theirs like the brawny hoofs of the roaring bulls of bashan . peace . complaines master cotton of persecution for such dealing against him ? i never heard that disputing , discoursing and examining mens tenents or doctrines by the word of god , was ( in proper english acceptation of the word ) persecution for conscience : well had it been for new england , that no servant of god , nor witness of christ jesus , could justly take up no other complaint against new england for other kinds of persecution : surely the voice of christ jesus to paul ; saul , saul , why persecutest thou me ? was for another kind of persecution . truth . deare peace if the bishops of old england or new had never stirred up the civil magistrate to any other suppressing of mens consciences , nor no other persecuting , then discussing , disputing &c. they should never have needed to have been charged so publikely in the face of the world , with the bloody tenent of persecution for cause of conscience . examination of chap. ii. peace . in this chapter master cotton much complaines , that he is charged in the title to maintaine persecution for cause of conscience , and professeth , that he would have none be punished for conscience , unless his errour be fundamental , or seditiously ; or turbulenly promoted , and that after due conviction of conscience , and that it may appear he is not punished for his conscience , but for sinning against his conscience . truth . persecution for conscience , is in plaine english , hunting for conscience ; and master cotton being a son of wine ( as the jews speak in their proverb ) is loth to be counted a son of vinegar , and therefore would avoid the word persecuting or hunting ( as something too wilde and fierce an expression , more sutable to the bloody sons of vinegar and gall the roman emperors , popes and bishops ) and he much desires to have the word persecuting changed for the word punishing , a tearm more proper to true justice . but is not this the guise and profession of all that ever persecuted or hunted men for their religion and conscience ? are not all histories and experiences full of the pathetical speeches of persecutors to this purpose ? you will say you are persecuted for your conscience , you plead conscience ; thou art a heretick the devil hath deceived thee , thy conscience is deluded , &c. and . whether such punishing as master cotton assigneth to that threefold degree of heretical wickedness , chap. . to wit. to hold a fundamental error , to persist therein after conviction , and lastly , to seduce others thereunto , or these five summed up ( page of his book ) subverters of the christian faith , persisters therein after conviction , blasphemers , idolaters , seducers ; i say , such a punishing which he affirmes to be death and killing , will not amount to make up a persecution for cause of conscience let the spanish inquisitions be an instance , who when they torture and rack , and kill and burn for such crimes , yet varnish they and guild all over with the painted title of gods glory , holy zeal , just punishment of hereticks , blasphemers , &c. peace . but master cotton blameth , that he should be charged with the doctrine of persecution by consequence . truth . let his whole book , and the prosecuting of this controversie be judge , whether it be only drawn from consequences , and not express tearms . and for the washing of this bloody tenent in the blood of the lambe , time hath and will discover that such a blackamore cannot be washed in the blood of christ himself , without repentance ; for they that washed their robes in the blood of the lamb ( revelations the . ) were true penitents : untill therefore that persecutors repent of this bloody doctrine and practice , they must hear ( as the men of judah did ) the prophet isaiahs thunder , isa . . your hands are defiled with blood ; wash you , make you clean . &c. examination of chap. iii. peace . but what knot in a bulrush is that , which master cotton observes the discusser findes in his first distinction of persecution for cause of conscience ? truth . for the matter upon the point , they both agree , as master cotton hath penned himself , that persecution for cause of conscience , is not onely when a man is punished for professing such doctrines and worships , as he believes to be of god , but also when he is punished for renouncing such doctrine , and not practising such worships , which he believes are not of god , &c. all the difference is this that the discusser saith . this should have been expressed in the distinction ; master cotton saith , it was implied , and therefore the observing of the not expressing of it , was but a knot in a bulrush . peace . t is wofully true , that the peace of the saints , and the peace of the world , hath been lamentably , broake and distracted , in punishing or persecuting of men , but especially the saints , upon both these grounds : but yet the records of time and experience will tell us , that since the apostasie from the truth of jesus , the rising of antichrist , and the setting up of many state - religions , the forest and frequentest punishing or hunting of the children of god hath been ( as in the case of nebuchadnezzars image ) for not bowing down to the state-images , for not coming to church , for not obeying the laws , for withstanding the kings , o● queens , or parliaments proceedings . truth . your observation is most serious and seasonable , and your complaint as true as lamentable : for since all states and governments of the world ( which lies in wickedness ) set up their state or commonweal-religions , nebuchadnezzars golden images , and jeroboams golden calves ( the types of the state-worships of after ages ) whereby others are made to sin and bow down to their seeming glorious worships ; and since the dissenters , refusers , non-conformers , non-covenanters ( the witnesses of god against such abominations ) are but few ; and what positive worship they hold or practice ( commonly ) is most retired , and flying into private corners by reason of the violence of the persecution ; they are hence , soonest in all places of their abode , and more speedily and immediately called for and sought out , in the several parish-towns where they live to bow down to the common-image , the beastly and calvish inventions of the ieroboams of this perishing world ; and for refusing to subscribe , to conforme , to come to church , to do as their neighbours , for being wiser then their teachers , their fathers , their magistrates , the country , the parliament , the kingdome ( and sometimes the whole world , in their oecumenical , or worldly councels ) they are thus punished and hunted for their conscience , for gods , for jesus sake ; which is a point master cotton will say ( if the blood of his dear redeemer split in the blood of his servants , kindly affect him ) of greater weight then knots in bulrushes . examination of chap. iv. peace . in the second distinction ( to wit , of fundamentals , without right belief whereof , a man cannot be saved ) master cotton upon the point confesseth it was a just reproof , and saith , that he meant only of the first sort of foundations , that concern salvation , and not of those that concerne the foundation of the church , and christian religion . truth . it is strange that master cotton should so distinguish of foundations , when the holy scripture attributes salvation to those foundations of the church , and the order of it : the lord added to the church such as should be saved , and the like figure whereunto baptisme now saveth us ; and concerning the resurrection that we are saved by hope , rom. . besides , are not those first foundations , which he saith concerne salvation , foundations also of the christian religion ? if not of the christian , then i demand of what religion are they foundations ? peace . it cannot therefore be denyed , but that his distinction of fundamentals , was most dangerous , tending directly to condemne the generation of the righteous , who have been generally for many generations ignorant of the christian way of worship . but what say you to this reply , touching how far the new english ( implicite ) parishes compare and partake with those of old ? truth . how far those churches cannot be cleered from not comming out from the parish-worship , from being themselves ( implicitely ) parish-churches ( notwithstanding their fig-leaves , &c. ) and from being persecutors of such as endeavour to cover their nakedness with better clothing , will appear , with christs assistance , in the examination of his reply to the answer of his letter . examination of chap. v. peace . the discourse of this chapter is larger and more controversial , and therefore ( dear truth ) requires your most serious and deeper examination of it . master cotton here distinguisheth worship into true and false , and infers , that if true worship , fellowship with god is held ; but if false , fellowship with god is lost . and whereas he was thereupon minded by the discusser to have lived in a false ministery in england , and to have practised the false worship of the common prayer , he labours to clear both , and in particular he saith , it is not truly said , that the spirit of god maketh the ministery one of the foundations of the christian religion , ( heb. . ) for it is ( saith he ) only a foundation of christian order , not of faith or religion : and he adds , the apostle puts an express difference between faith and order , col. . . what can be said thereunto ? truth . . alas , what buildings can weak souls expect from such master-builders , when master cotton is so confounded about the very foundations ? in the former chapter , he distinguisheth between foundations that concern salvation , and those that concern the the church and christian religion : here he distinguisheth between those of christian order , and those of faith , or christian religion . in the former , he opposeth faith against religion and order ; here he opposeth faith and religion to order . grant his memory ( in so short a turn ) failed him , yet doubtless his mistakes about the foundation of christian religion , are most gross and inexcusable . truth . . i finde no such distinction in the testament of christ jesus , between the christian order , and the christian religion ; as if the order of the church of god ( i might say , the church it self , and the ministery of it ) were no part of the christian religion . it is true , coloss . . speaks of faith and order , but yet denies not the christian church , and the order of it , to be any part of the christian religion . it is true , that sometimes faith implies the particular grace of believing , and yet sometimes it is put for the whole christian religion ( as jude . contend for the faith once delivered ) so that if master cotton confesseth the ministery of the word ( heb. . ) to be a foundation of christian or church-order , he cannot deny it to be a foundation of the christian religion or worship reduced to those two , of faith and order . peace . what answer you to his saying , it is not a true and a safe speech , to call the fellowship and blessing of god vouchsafed to corrupt churches or ministers , or ministrations unpromised , or beyond a word of promise , of god ? against which he alleadgeth ( ier. . ) that god will be merciful to his peoples iniquities , and chron. . gods mercy to every one that prepareth his heart , &c. although he be not cleansed after the preparation , &c. truth . the promises hold forth no blessing or fellowship of god to false worships ; against which all the holy scripture denounceth cursings , both in the old and new testament ; nor in particular doth that of ieremy promise any pardon of sin , but to the repentant , though most true also is that distinction of particular repentance for known sins , and general for sins unknown . such was the sin ( it may be ) of the israelites , chron. . in their want of such their legal cleansing . but i add , how can that one act of covering or conniving at ceremoniall uncleanness ( about a true worship ) be brought to prove a promise of gods blessing and fellowship , to a constant course of a false and invented way of prayer by the latine or english masse-book , as some have rightly called it ? peace . concerning ordination , master cotton saith , that it is no essential part of a call to the ministery ; no more then coronation is essential to the office of a king ▪ and jehoshua the high priest did not lose fellowship with god , though he was clothed with filthy garments , zech. . truth . i answer , ordination or laying on of hands , comprizeth the whole ministery , heb. . wherein if election or ordination be false , i see not how the ministery is true , any more then a marriage can be true , where either consent o● solemnity by a true power is wanting : or a king rightly instituted in his kingly office , when either election or coronation is given or made by a false power . . but further , ordination is not well represented by a kings coronation ( to say nothing of the statcliness of the simile ) for a king may administer by successive election and consent ( in some states ) before coronation , and coronation is but for publike state and ceremony ; but a minister cannot administer before ordination ( no more then a husband enjoy his spouse before marriage ) which is the puting of him into , and the investing of him with his authority , as we see both in the priests of the law , and the ministers of the gospel . concerning jehoshua his garments ; this kind of confession is not after the patterne of ezra , nehemiah , david , daniel . &c. but with mincing and excusing . moreover , in this place of zechary , god only comforts his people with the promise of better times , and more new and costly garments : for the high priest now returning from captivity , his garments were torne , foule and filthy . lastly , these were the garments of the lords appointing , though in a poor and afflicted condition : what is this to a fools cap or coate ( the cap or surplice ) what is this to the office of ieroboams priests , which never were of god , though happily some of them might studiously give themselves to attaine and teach the knowledge of god , and might ( in a kind ) separate from the false , chron. . and some good thing might be found in some , as in ieroboams child , and happily many others as in these our times ? peace . concerning common prayer , he pleades the time of their ignorance ; as also that the high places were removed , chron. . and knows not of any such faithful admonition as was mentioned . truth . god winketh at some ignorance , but is not blind to pass by all : the high places were an high sin , and in gods time discovered , repented of , and removed ; but ever by god disclaimed , &c. and although the discusser acknowledgeth himself unworthy to speak for god to master cotton or any , yet possibly master cotton may call to minde , that the discusser ( riding with himself and one other of precious memorie ( master hooker ) to and from sempringham ) presented his arguments from scripture , why he durst not joyn with them in their use of common prayer ; and all the answer that yet can be remembred the discusser received from master cotton , was , that he selected the good and best prayers in his use of that book , as the author of the councel of trent was used to do , in his using of the masse-book . peace . yea but further ( saith master cotton ) numbers . moses used an unwarrantable way of prophesying , and yet god gave water ; therefore set formes of prayer may bring a blessing down . truth . moses his calling was true in a true church ; his failing was in point of passion and unbeliefe . what is this to the common prayer , where all were idols , both the society or communion ; in which the priest himself , and the worship were but inventions ? &c. peace . but , saith he , common prayer is not such a fundamentall errour . truth . the word and prayer are those two great services of god , which even the apostles themselves gave themselves unto : and if master cotton intend not that his argument shall stand good against master ball , to prove the falseness of such a maine worship of god , let him shew what that worship of god is , which he intendeth , when he so distinguisheth of some false worship wherein fellowship with god is lost . peace . to end this chapter , master cotton , to clear himself from partiality , and that he never useth to measure that to any , which he would not have measured to himself ▪ he proposeth a threefold wickedness , which he saith god never left him to fall into . first , any fundamental errour . secondly , persisting therein after admonition and conviction . thirdly , seducing of others . and lastly , he professeth ; that if he should so fall , it were better for him to be cut off by death or banishment , then the flocke of christ to be seduced by his heretical wickedness . truth . i here first observe ( as also in other places ) master cottons acknowledgement and profession of what a man may be punished for : to wit , a fundamental errour , persisting in it , and seducing others ; all which are spiritual matters , of religion and worship , for which he decrees from the magistrate , death or banishment ; and yet elsewhere in many other passages , he professeth against all persecution for conscience . secondly , if master cotton should so fall , and be so dealt withall by the civil state . first , would not master cotton conscientiously be perswaded of the truth of what he held , though accounted by others fundamental error , obstinacy , heresie ? &c. secondly , will master cotton think that death or banishment would be wholesome and christian meanes and remedies to change and heal his conscience ? thirdly , he ( to prevent the infection of others ) granting the civil magistrate must punish him with death or banishment , doth he not make the magistrate , yea the civil state ( what state soever he live in ) the judge of his conscience and errors ? fourthly , confessing it now , that to worship god with a common prayer , was his sin , and yet it was his conscience , that he might so do : if the magistrate had judged it to be a fundamental error , he grants he might then have put him to death or banishment , if persisting , &c. though yet he hath a proviso , and a retreat against this assault , professing , that if the magistrate be not rightly informed , he must stay his proceedings : of which afterward . peace . what is this , but , in plaine english , to profess that all the magistrates and civil powers , throughout the whole world , although they have command and power from christ jesus , to judge in matters of conscience , religion , and worship , and live in daily sin , that they do not cut off the heretick , blasphemer , seducer , &c. yet except they be of master cottons minde and conscience , to account and judge to be , they must suspend their duty and office in this case , until they be better informed , that is , untill they be of his mind ? examination of chap. vi. peace . but to proceed to the sixth chapter , in which is handled that which more especially concerns my self . it is too lamentably known , how the furious troopes of persecutors in all states , cities , towns &c. have ever marched under my name , the white colours of peace , civil peace , publike peace . truth . yet master cotton confesseth , that the cities peace is an humane and civil peace , as was further explained in many instances from babylon , ephesus , smyrna , &c. against which master cotton excepts not . peace . the difference or controversie in this chapter lies in two things . first , in the similitudes used from companies and societies , voluntarily entering into combinations , which are distinct from the city . . in the nature of the church , which he maintaines to be a society , whose order the city is bound to preserve , as well as any of their civil orders or societies . truth . to begin with the first , master cotton replies , that although such societies be not of the essence of the city , yet they are of the integral and conservant causes of the city , and so the disturbance of any of those orders or societies in the city , disturbes the city it self . but i answer , the similitude was used more especially from a colledge of physitians , or a society of merchants , turkish , east-endies , &c. and consequently any other of that kinde , voluntarily combining together for the better inriching of themselves in the improvement of their faculties for publike good ( at least so pretended . ) it was never intended , that if such necessary trades , callings &c. as he mentioneth , be dissolved and ruined , that there would be no disturbance of the peace of the city : but that if such o● such a way and order of men of those faculties i mentioned , voluntarily combine , and voluntarily also dissolve ; yet all this may may be , without any breach of civil and publike peace . peace . if so , much more the church of christ , which is a spiritual society voluntarily uniting , may dissolve ; i say , much more , without the breach of the peace of the city , which is of a civil and humane nature , as is confessed , and was urged in the instances of ephesus &c. truth . . we are wont when we speak of keeping or breaking the peace , to speake of words or actions of violence , sedition , vproare , &c. for , actions of the cases , pleas , and traverses may be , and yet no peace broken , when men submit to the rule of state , for the composing of such differences , &c. therefore it is that i affirme , that if any of christs church have difference with any other man in civill and humane things , he ought to be judged by the law : but if the church have spiritual controversies among themselves or with any other , or if god take away the candlestick as he threatned the church in ephesus , all this may be , and yet no civil peace broken : yea , amongst those that profess the same god and christ , as the papists and protestants , or the same mahomet , as the turks and persians , there would no civil peace be broken , notwithstanding their differences in religion , were it not for the bloody doctrine of persecution , which alone breaks the bounds of civil peace , and makes spiritual causes the causes of their bloodie dissentions . i observe therefore , a twofold fallacie in master cottons reply . first , he fallaciously mingles peace and prosperity together : for though it be true , that under the terme peace all good things are sometimes concluded , yet when we speak of hereticks or schismaticks breaking the civil peace , or strowing doctrines tending to break the civill peace , we must understand some such words or acts of violence , wherein the bounds and orders of the city , laws , and courts are violated ; taking it for granted ( for this is the supposition ) that the lawes of the city be meerly civil and humane . hence then i affirme , that there is no doctrine , no tenent so directly tending to break the cities peace , as this doctrine of persecuting or punishing each other for the cause of conscience or religion . againe , it is a second fallacie to urge your order of the church , and the excellency thereof , and that therefore it is a breach of the civil peace , when the order of the church is not preserved : for although it is most true , that sooner or later the god of heaven punisheth the nations of the world ▪ for their idolatries , superstitions , &c. yet master cotton himself acknowledgeth ( as was affirmed ) that many glorious flourishing cities there are all the world over , wherein no church of christ is extant : yea , that the common-weale of rome flourished five hundred years together , before ever the name of christ was heard in it ; which so great a glory of so great a continuance , mightily evinceth the distinction of the civill peace of a state from that which is christian religion . it is true ( as master cotton tells us ) that the turks have plagued the antichristian world , for their idolatries : yet history tels us , that one of their emperours ( mahomet ) was the man that first broke up and desolated two most glorious ancient cities , constantinople ( which had flourished yeares ( since its first building by constantine ) and athens , which from solons giving of it laws , had flourished two thousand yeares , notwithstanding their idolatries , &c. truth . it is apparent that then the christian religion gloriously flourished ( contrary to master cottons observation ) when the roman emperours too not power to themselves to reform the abuses in the christian church , but persecuted it ; and then the church was ruined and overwhelmed with apostacy and antichristianism , when the emperours took that power unto themselves : and then it was ( as master cotton elsewhere confesseth ) that christianitie lost more , even in constantines time , then under bloody nero , domitian , &c. peace . it cannot be denied ( dear truth ) but that the peace of a civil state ( of all states , excepting that of typical israel ) was and is meerly and essentially civil . but master cotton saith further , although the inward peace of a church is spiritual , yet the outward peace of it , magistrates must keep in a way of godliness and honestie , tim. . . truth . the peace of a church of christ ( the onely true christian state , nation , kingdom , or city ) is spiritual , whether internal in the soul , or external in the administration of it ; as the peace of a civil state is civil , internal in the mindes of men , and external in the administration and conversation of it ; and for that place of timothy , it hath been fully spoken to in this discourse , and the discusser hath as yet seen no exception against what hath been spoken . peace . but further , saith master cotton , although the peace of a country be civil , yet it is distracted by disturbing the peace of the church for god cut short the coasts of the civil state when jehu shortned his reformation , king. . , . truth . master cotton denies not ( but confessed in his discourse concerning baptism ) that canaan was typical , and to be cast out of that land , was to be cast out of gods ●ight : which proves thus much , that the church of christ , the israel now , neglecting to reform , god will cut this israel short . but what is this to a meerly civil state , which may flourish many hundreds , yea some thousands of yeers together ( as i before instanced ) when the name of the true lord jesus christ is not so much as heard of within it ? peace . lastly , ( saith he ) the church is a society , as well as the societies of merchants , drapers , &c. and it is just to preserve the society of the church , as well as any other society . truth . when we speak of the balances of justice , we must distinguish between the balances of the sanctuary and the balances of the world or civil states . it is spiritual justice to preserve spiritual right ; and for that end , the spiritual king thereof hath taken care . it is civil justice to preserve the civil rights ; and the rights of a civil society ought justly to be preserved by a civil state : ( and yet if a company of men combine themselves into a civil society by voluntary agreement , and voluntarily dissolve it , it is not justice to force them to continue together . ) peace . the church can least of all be forced : for as it is a spiritual society , and not subject to any civil judicature ; ( though some say that a church in new england was cited to appear before a civil court : ) so is the combination of it voluntary , and the dissolution of it in part or whole is voluntary , and endures no civil violence , but as a virgin ( in point of marriage ) nec cogit , nec cogitur , she forceth not , nor can be forced by any civil power . truth . but lastly , if it be justice to preserve the society of the church , is it not partiality in a meer civil state to preserve one onely society , and not the persons of other religious societies and consciences also ? but the truth is , this mingling of the church and the world together , and their orders and societies together , doth plainly discover , that such churches were never called out from the world , and that this is only a secret policy of flesh and blood , to get protection from the world , and so to keep ( with some little stilling of conscience ) from the cross or gallowes of jesus christ . truth . yea , but hear ( saith master cotton ) those excellent penmen of the spirit ( both the father and the son ) david and solomon . first david ( psalme ) they shall prosper that love the peace of jerusalem : and solomon , where the righteous rejoyce , there is great glory , prov. . now ( saith he ) what is the church but a congregation of righteous men ? if the rejoycing of the church be the glory of a nation , surely the disturbing , and destroying , and dissolving the church is the shame and confusion of a nation . truth . the outward prosperity of a nation , was a typical figurative blessing , of that national and figurative church of israel in canaan . it is now made good spiritually to them that love the spiritual jerusalem : for though godliness hath a promise of things of this life convenient ; yet persecution is the common and ordinary portion of the saints under the gospel , though● that cup be infinitely sweetned also to them that drink of it with christ jesus , by the measure and increase of a hundred fold for one , even with persecution in this life . . it is true , the rejoycing of a church of christ , is the glory of any nation , and the contrary a shame : yet this proveth not that god vouchsafeth to no state , civil peace , and temporal glory , except it establish and keep up a church of christ by force of armes ; for the contrary we have mentioned , and master cotton confesseth the flourishing of states ignorant of christ , from age to age , yea , and as i have mentioned , even to two thousand yeers in athens ; six generations before it heard of christ , and fourteen generations since ▪ with the sprinking ( for some time ) of the knowledge of christ jesus in it . peace . . but consider ( saith master cotton ) the excellency and preheminence of the church , that the world is for it , and would not subsist but for it , &c. truth . t is true , glorious things are spoken of the city of god , &c. yet for many ages together master cotton confesseth the nations of the world may subsist & flourish without it ; and though it be the duty of the nations of the world to countenance and cherish the church of christ ; yet where is there any commission , either in the new or old testament , that the nations of the world should be the judges , governors , and defenders of christ iesus his spiritual kingdome , and so bound to take up armes and smite with the civil sword ( among so many pretenders ) for that which they believe to be the church of christ ? peace . . ( saith he ) it is matter of just displeasure to god , and sad grief of heart to the church , when civil states looke at the state of the church , as of little or no concernment to themselves , zech. . . lam. . . truth . grant this , and that the most jealous god will awake in his season , for these sins , and for the persecutions , idolatries , and blasphemies ; which the nations live in : yet what is this for warrant to the nations ( as before ) to judge and rule the church of christ , yea , and under the colour of defending christs faith , and preserving christs church pure , to tear christ out of heaven , by persecuting of his saints on earth ; and to fire the world with devouring flames of bloody wars , and this onely for the sweet sake of the prince of peace ? peace . dear truth , we are now upon an high point , and that which neerly concerns my self , the peace of the world , and the nations of it . master cotton saith further , god winketh at the nations in the time of their ignorance , and suffers the nation to flourish many hundred yeers together , as did the empire of rome ; yet when the church of christ comes to be planted amongst them , then , as he brought the turkes upon the romans , for their persecuting the church , and not preserving it in purity ; so consequently will he do unto the nations of the world . truth . i answer , the most righteous judge of the whole world hath plauged the nations of the world , both before christs coming , and since , for their pride and cruelty against his people , for their idolateries , blasphemies , &c. yet master cotton acknowledgeth that many states have flourished many hundred yeers together , when no true church of christ hath been found in them : and master cotton will never prove , that god ever commanded the nations and governments of the world , to gather or constitute his churches , and to preserve them in purity : for god gave his ordinances , both before and since christ , to his people onely , whom he chuseth and calleth out of the world , and the nations of it : and he hath punished and dissolved them for their obstinate neglect thereof . and for the roman empire , and the emperors thereof , the christian religion , and the purity thereof , never lost so much , as when the emperors were perswaded of master cottons bloody tenent , as master cotton and all men seen in history and christianity must confess . peace . but further , although ( saith master cotton ) the peace of the church be a spiritual inward peace , yet there is an outward peace of the church due to them from princes and magistrates , in a way of godliness and honesty , tim. . but in a way of ungodliness and idolatry , it is an wholesome faithfulness to the church , if princes trouble the outward peace of the church , that so the church finding themselves wounded , and pricked in the house of their friends , they may repent , and return to their first husband , zech. . hof . . truth . the peace of the church is not only inward , between god and themselves ; but as the argument importeth , to which master cotton answereth , the peace of the church external and outward , is spiritual , essentially differing from the peace of the civil state , which is meerly civil and humane . when the peace of the churches , antioch , corinth , galatia , was disturbed by spiritual oppositions , the lord never sent his saints for civil help to maintaine their spirituall peace , though the lord did send paul to the higher civil powers , to preserve his civil peace , when he was molested and oppressed by the jews and romans . . for that place of timothy , though i have fully spoken to it in this discourse elswhere , yet this now : it proves not , because the church must pray for civil rulers , that so they may live a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty , that therefore civil rulers are supream rulers and judges ecclesiastical , next unto christ jesus , of what is godliness , holiness , &c. since god hath chosen few wise or noble , to know godliness : and although it is true that gods end of vouchsafing peace and quietness , is , that his churches might walk in his fear , and in the wayes of godliness ; yet it doth not hence follow , that magistrates were the causes of the churches walking in the fear of god , and being edified , but only of enjoying rest from persecution , act. . . although gods chastisement call to repentance , and although the false prophet in the church of israel was to be wounded and slaine ( as they are now to be cut off spiritually from the church of spiritual israel ) yet was it so in all the other nations of the world ? or did christ iesus appoint it to be so in all the nations of the world , since his coming , which is the great question in difference ? . and indeed , what is this , but to add coals to coals , and wood to fire , to teach the nations of the world , to be briars and thorns , butchers and tormentors to the lilies and lambes of the most holy and innocent lamb of god christ iesus ? peace . but god ( saith master cotton ) cut israel short in their civil state or nation , when they cut short their reformation , king. . truth . master cotton elswhere denying a national church , which is bounded with natural and earthly limits , it is a wonder how he can apply that instance of national israel , to the now spiritual nation and israel of god ? may he not as well promise earthly peace and prosperity then most to abound to gods people , when they most prosper and flourish in holiness , zeal , &c. the contrary whereof , to wit , persecution , is most evident in all the new testament , and all mens new and fresh experience . peace . to end this chapter , master cotton affirmes , that civil peace ( to speak properly ) is not only a peace in civil things for the object , but the peace of all the persons in the city for the subject . the church is one society in the city , as well as the society of merchants , drapers &c. and if it be civil justice to protect one , then the other also . truth . civil peace will never be proved to be the peace of all the subjects or citizens of a city in spiritual things : the civil state may bring into order , make orders , preserve in civil order all her members : but who ordained , that either the spiritual estate should bring in and force the civil state to keep civil order , o● that the civil state should sit , judge , and force any of her subjects to keep spiritual order ? the true and living god , is the god of order , spiritual , civil and natural : natural is the same ever and perpetual : civil alters according to the constitutions of peoples and nations : spiritual he hath changed from the national in one figurative-land of canaan , to particular and congregational churches all the world over ; which order spiritual , natural or civil ▪ to confound and abrogate , is to exalt mans folly against the most holy and incomprehensible wisdome of god , &c. examination of chap. vii . peace . in his description of arrogancy and impetuousness , master cotton tels us , that he that refuseth to subject his spirit to the spirit of the prophets , that shall oppose such as dissent with clubs swords and censorious reproaches , or reject communion with the church , &c. his practise tends to the disturbing of civil or church-peace , or both . truth . it is a fallacious mingling of clubs , swords , reproaches , &c. with refusing to submit to the spirit of prophecie in the prophets , and rejecting of communion , &c. for a man may out of true and upright conscience to god ( as master cotton will not deny ) refuse to submit to a whole true church , having the truth of god on his side ; and may withdraw from communion with a church obstinate in sin , and this without breach of civil peace ; and therefore the mingling or confounding of these spiritual resistances or disturbances with guns , swords , &c. is a mingling and confounding of heaven and earth together . . in that he saith , these wayes tend to the disturbance of either civil or church-peace , or both ; he speakes too like the doubtful oracles of apollo , which will be true however the event fall out ; but yet he toucheth not the truth of the question , which concernes civil peace only ; against the disturbers of which , i grant the civil powers to be armed with a civil sword , not in vaine , and concerning which divers cases were propounded of seeming arrogance and impetuousness in gods servants , and yet they fell not justly under any censure of breach of civil peace . peace . t is true ( saith master cotton ) because they were not wayes of arrogance not impetuousness . truth . but will master cotton give way that any conscience but his own may freely preach and dispute against the state-religion , freely reprove the highest , in sharpest language , for matter of religion , refuse conformity to the common established religion and worship , disclaime subjection to the civil powers , in spiritual cases , preach against the common policy and seeming wisdome of the state , even to a seeming hazarding of all , and lastly occasion great tumults and uproars ( which were the six cases alleadged ? ) if master cotton granteth this freedome to other consciences beside his own , why preacheth he persecution against such a liberty , which other consciences beside his own , believe they justly challenge ? if to no other conscience then his own , it is not his saying ten thousand times , that his conscience is true , and others false , nor any other distinction in the world , can clear him from most unrighteous and unchristian partiality . examination of chap. viii . peace . in this chapter ( dear truth ) lies a charge concerning thy self . for whereas thou answerest an objection , that this distinction concerns not truth or errour , but the manner of holding or divulging , master cotton affirmes the distinction to speak expresly of things unlawfull and erroneous , and therefore that it cannot be said with truth , that the distinction concernes not truth and error . truth . the truth is this , the former distinction speakes of matter , and this distinction seems wholly to intend the manner of holding forth . the words were these : [ again , in points of doctrine and worship less principal , either they are held forth in a meek and peaceable way ( though the things be erroneous and unlawful ) or they are held forth with such arrogance and impetuousness as tendeth to the disturbance of civil peace . ] in which although things erroneous and unlawful are mentioned ; yet who sees not but that those words are brought in by the way of parenthesis , which may or may not be left out , and the distinction be whole and intire ? and therefore master cotton doth not well to spend precious time and life upon seeming advantages . peace . yea , but ( saith he ) why is this distinction blamed , when the discusser himself acknowledgeth , that there may be a way and manner of holding forth , which may tend to break the civil peace . truth . that which was excepted most against in the distinction , was the persecuting language of [ arrogance , impetuousness , boisterousness , ] without declaring what that was : to which master cotton answers , that the discussers request , was not that he should compile a discourse , but return an answer to the letter of his friend ; as also that he charged none of gods children with such things . i reply ( as formerly ) master cotton's memory ( though otherwise excellent ) herein faileth ; for , such a request the discusser never made unto him , by letter or otherwise . . although he charged not gods people with arrogance and impetuousness , yet mostly and commonly gods children ( though meek and peaceable ) are accused to be arrogant , impetuous &c. and 't is the common notorious language of persecutors against them . peace . concering those six instances wherein gods children were occasion of great opposition and spiritual hostility , yea and of breach of civil peace , notwithstanding the matter delivered was holy , and the manner peaceable , master cotton answers , they nothing concern the distinction which speaks of holding forth things erroneous and unlawful for the matter , and for the manner in a way of arrogance and impetuousness , to the disturbance of civil peace . truth . i reply , first , it speaks not only of erroneous and unlawful things ( though erroneous and unlawful things be admitted in way of parenthesis , as before . ) . he describes not what this arrogance and impetuousness is , but wraps up all in one general dark cloud , wherein the best and most zealous of gods prophets and servants are easily wrapt up as proud , arrogant , and impetuous . examination of chap. ix . peace . in this chapter i remember you affirmed , that one cause of civil dissention and uproar , was the lying of a state under false worship , whence it endures not the preaching of light and truth , &c. master cotton answers , this is not to the purpose , because this is by accident . truth . it is as much to the purpose to declare ( in the examination of the breach of civil peace about matters of religion ) i say , to declare the true cause of such troubles and uproares , as it is in the search after the leaks of a ship , to declare where the leake is indeed , when many are said to be where they are not . . whereas he confesseth that vigilant and faithful ones are not so troubled at the false religion of jew or gentile , as not to tolerate them amongst them in a civil body , he alleadgeth for instance , that the indians subjected to their government , are not compelled to the confession or acknowledgement of their religion : i reply , first , who sees not herein unchristian partiality , that pagans , barbarians ( who happily might more easily be brought from their natural religion to a new forme , then any other ) i say , that they should be tolerated in their hideous worships of creatures and devils , while civil people ( his countrymen yea it may be the precious sons and daughters of the most high god ) shall be courted fined , whipt banished &c. for the matters of their conscience and worship to the true and living god ? . is not this passage contradictory to all master cottons whole discourse in this book , which pleades for the purity of religion to be maintained by all magistrates and civil governments within their jurisdictions , and the suppressing of the contrary , under the penalty of the destruction of their lands and countries , and accordingly hath not the practice of new england answered such a doctrine ? and yet , saith he , we tolerate the false religion of jew or gentile . peace . possibly ( dear truth ) the distinction between jew , pagan , and christian , may satisfie ( for the present ) master cottons conscience so to write and practise : for thus he addeth , but if christians shall apostate , or if jews and pagans be blasphemous and seducing , then &c. truth . who knows not but that the very religion of jew or pagan is a blaspheming of the true religion ? revel . . i know the blasphemy of them that say they are jews , and are not , but are the synagogue or church of sathan . and whereas master cotton alleadgeth for proof of this , pauls blaming of false teachers , for being troublers to the churches of galatia , gal. . and acts &c. who , that puts this inference into christs balance , but will see the lightness of it , thus ? the churches of christ are to draw forth the sword and power of christ , and are not to suffer such as with false doctrine trouble their peace , ergo : therefore the civil state must not permit such persons to live in the world , &c. peace . the second cause i remember , you alleadged of civil disturbances and hubbubs about religion , was the praeposterous way of healing of corruptions in religion , as by whips , stocks , imprisonment , &c. unto this master cotton answers , then the mariners casting jonah over-boord , for his sin was the cause of the storme . truth . i answer , if that extraordinary and miraculous instance , be sufficient ground for magistrates casting over-boord whomsoever they judge hereticks , then all civil states and ships must so practise in stormes and troubles on sea or shore , to wit , throw over-boord , put to death , not only hereticks , blasphemers , seducers &c. but the best of gods prophets or servants , for neglect of their duty , ministery , &c. which was jonahs case . and if so , doth not this set up ( and all the world over ) by land or sea , all kings and magistrates , all masters of ships and captaines , to be the spiritual and ecclesiastical judges of the religion and spiritual neglects of all their subjects or passengers ? such doctrine i cannot imagine would have relished with master cotton in his passage to new england ; and i humbly desire of god , that he may never tast the bitter fruit of this tree , of which yet so many thousands of gods servants have fed , and himself not a little ( to the lords praise and his own ) in former times . peace . whereas you argued it to be light alone , that was able to dispell and scatter the mists and fogs of darkness in the souls and consciences of men , master cotton answers , the judgements of god are as light that goeth forth , hos . . . isa . . . and the false prophet repenting will acknowledge this zech. . . thus was i wounded in the house of my friends . truth . but doth master cotton indeed believe that not only publike magistrates , but also each private father and mother ( as that place of zechary , literately , taken carries it ) must now in the dayes of the gospel wound and pierce ; yea run through and kill their son the false prophet ? would he justifie a parent so practising though it were in the neglect of the publike magistrate , who happily may be of the same religion with the false prophet ? will not this doctrine reach & extend to the pulling down deposing and killing of all such governors and governments , which god in his gracious providence hath set up amongst all peoples in all parts and dominions of the world , yea and harden the heart of pharoah , the very pope himself , in his king-killing and state-killing doctrine ? peace . if ever master cotton wake in this point , he will tell all the world , that it is more gospel-like that parents , brethren , fathers , friends , impartially fulfill this of zechary . and deut. . spiritually , in the friendly wounding , yea and zealous slaying by the two-edged sword of the spirit of god , which is the word of god comming forth of the mouth of christ jesus , ephes . . revel . . truth . and it is most true ( as master cotton saith ) that the judgements of god , legally executed , or more terribly poured forth in the vials of sword , plague , and famine , they are as heavenly lights shining out from the father of lights , teaching the inhabitants of the world righteousness . yea the creation it self , or each creature , are as candles and glasses to light and shew us the invisible god and creator : but yet these are not the ordinances of christ jesus given to his church . these are not the preachings of the word , and the opening of the mysteries of salvation , which give light and understanding to the simple , and convert the soul : these are nor that marvailous light unto which the call of christ jesus , in the preaching of the word , had brought the saints unto whom peter writes : the weapons of pauls fighting , whereby to batter down the high thoughts and imaginations of the sons of men against the sons of god , were of another nature , cor. . and his directions to timothy and titus , how to deal with hereticks and gainsayers were never heard of to be such , till the son of man , and son of perdition , brought forth such bloody weapons and bloody doctrines in the affaires of christ jesus . examination of chap. x. peace . in this passage master cotton will subscribe to the whole matter , saying , this chapter may stand for us without impeachment , and yet in this chapter is reported the persecution , which both rightly informed and erroneous consciences suffer , and the blind estate of such blinde guides and blinded consciences who so preach and practice . truth . these first words [ we approve no persecution for conscience ] fight against his whole endeavour in this book , which is to set up the civil throne and judgement-seat over the consciences and soules of men , under the pretence of preserving the church of christ pure , and punishing the evil of heresie , blasphemy &c. . they fight against their fellows , which follow , thus [ unless the conscience be convinced of the error and perniciousness thereof ] which is all one , as to say , we hold no man is to be persecuted for his conscience , unless it be for a conscience which we judge dangerous to our religion . no man is to be persecuted for his conscience , unless we judge that we have convinced or conquered his conscience . t is true , all errour is perniciots many wayes to gods glory , to a mans owne soul , to other mens souls and consciences : yet i understand master cotton to say , except we judge the error to be so and so mischievous . t is true , there is a self-conviction which some consciences smite and wound themselves with ? but to submit these consciences to the tribunal of the civil magistrate , and powers of the world , how can master cotton do this , and yet say no man is to be persecuted for his conscience ? peace . alas , how many thousands and millions of consciences have been persecuted in all ages and times i● a judicial war , and how have their judges pretended victory and triumph , crying out , we have convinced ( or conquered ) them , and yet are they obstinate . truth . hence came that hellish proverb , that nothing was more obstinate then a christian : under which cloud of reproach hath been overwhelmed the most faithful , zealous , and constant witnesses of jesus christ . peace . but saith master cotton , some blinded consciences are so judicially punished by god , as his in irelond that burnt his child in imitation of abraham . truth . in such cases it may be truly said , the magistrate beares not the sword in vaine , either for the punishing or preventing of such sins , whether uncleanness , theft , cruelty , or persecution . and therefore such consciences as are so hardned by gods judgement , as to smite their fellow-servants , under the pretence of zeale and conscience ( as in the instance of saul his zeal for the children of israel against the gibeonites ) they ought to be supprest and punished , to be restrained and prevented . and hence is seasonable the saying of king iames , that he desired to be secured of the papists concerning civil obedience , which security , by wholesome lawes , and other wayes : according to the wisdome of each state , each state is to provide for it self even against the delusions of hardned consciences , in any attempt which meerly concernes the civil state and common-weale . examination of chap. xi . peace . in this chapter master cotton takes himself wronged , that he should be thought to lay this down , as a conclusion , viz. that it is not lawful to persecute iesus christ . truth . what difference is there in saying , it is not lawful to persecute a conscience rightly informed , and to say , it is not lawful to persecute christ iesus ; was it not all one in effect for christ to say , take up thy bed and walk , as to say , thy sins are forgiven thee ? peace . he adds , it is no matter of wonder to lay down the principles of religion for a proof , as gamaliel did . truth . who sees not a vast difference between master cottons and gamaliels speech ? gamaliel speaks of that particular controversie concerning christs person and profession , which the iews so gainsayed and persecuted . gamaliel fitly aggravateth their opposition by the danger of their course , if possibly it might prove to be the truth , which they persecuted . master cotton is to lay down not a particular answer , but general conclusions ; and notwithstanding that in the course of his book he maintaines such and such persecution , yet he layes this down as his first conclusion : it is not lawful to persecute a conscience rightly informed , that is , christ iesus in his truths and servants ; and that , i say never persecutor professed to do without a maske or covering . peace . what of that saith master cotton , for although they do not persecute christ as christ , yet they do it , and it is no matter of wonder to tell them as christ tells paul , it is not lawful for them so to do . truth . doubtless whatever persecutors profess , and what apologies soever they make in all the particular cases for which gods servants are persecuted ; yet the saints of god have dealt faithfully to tell persecuters that they persecute christ himself , and to breath out the fire of gods judgements against them , even out of their own mouth . but what is this to a conclusion laid down ? for so christ laid not down his expostulation with paul as a conclusion , as master cotton doth by way of teaching , but as a conviction , by way of reproofe . peace . yet persecutors ( saith he ) have persecuted christ as christ ; for the scribes and pharises said , this is the heir , come , let us kill him : and iulian persecuted iesus as iesus : and if a christian in turkie shall seek to gaine a turke to christianity , they will persecute such a christian , and in him iesus as iesus . truth . it is said acts . that the iews persecuted christ out of ignorance ; for though they had sufficient knowledge to convince them , yet did they not persecute christ out of a clearely convinced conscience , for then it could not be out of ignorance . and yet it was sufficient , that so great a power of gods spirit appeared in the evidence of christs works , as to make their sin to be against the spirit of god : yet had they their mask and covering ( as is evident : ) for , this is not the true christ or messiah , say they , but a deceiver , a witch , working by the power of the devil , a blasphemer , a seducer , a traitor , &c. againe , although wretched iulian persecuted the very name of christ and iesus ( whom formerly he had acknowledged and professed ) yet was it still under a mask or covering , to wit , that he was not the true son of god , nor his worship the truth , but his roman gods were true &c. and the same say the turkes in persecuting christians , and in them christ iesus as a● prophet inferiour to their onely great and true prophet mahomet . and lastly , neither scribes , nor pharisees , nor iulian , nor turkes did or do persecute christ iesus otherwise then as they were and are bound so to do by master cottons doctrine , as shall further appear , notwithstanding his plea , that such magistrates must forbeare to punish untill they be better informed . peace . but let tyrants and persecutors profess what they will ( saith master cotton , ) yet this varieth not the truth , nor impeacheth the wisdome of the conclusion . truth . sweet peace , how can i here chuse , but in the first place observe that great mystery of the waking sleep of the most precious servants of the most high god , in the affaires of his worship ; and the kingdome of his dear son ? awake ; for what fiery censures justly poureth forth this our excellent adversarie against the oppressours of conscience , entituling them with the names of tyrants and persecutors , notwithstanding their vaine professions , pretences , apologies and pleas for their tyranny and bloodshed ? againe , how fast asleep , in his so zealous pleading for the greatest tyranny in the world ( throughout his whole book ) though painted and washed over with faire pretences & c ? . he granteth upon the point the truth , which was affirmed , and he denyed , to wit , that no persecutor of christ ever persecuted him as the son of god ▪ as iesus ▪ but under some mask or covering as thousands of black and bloody clouds of persecuting witnesses in this case most lamentably make it evident and apparent . peace . master cottons next charge is very heavy against the discusser , for exalting himself above god in the discerning of master cottons fellowship with persecutors , notwithstanding his profession against such persecution . truth . the lord jesus saw in the iews such a contrariety between their professions and practises ( even in this case of persecution ) mat. . . himself in effect , but even now , said the same of all persecutors : what ever pretences they make , saith he ▪ and they will pretend great things of love to christ , and kiss him ten thousand times , when treasons and slaughters are is in their courses . and will master cotton say that christ iesus exalted himself above god , inspying out so great a mystery ? it is no new thing , that master cotton should be apt to say with david . that man that hath done this thing shall die , not duely considering and pondering that our selves are sons of blood , and children of death , condemned by our own mouth , if the righteous iudge of the whole world should deal severely with us . peace . but master cotton ( for a close of this chapter ) complaines of his own suffering of bitter persecution , and the lord iesus in him , being unjustly slandered , except the discusser can prove , that any doctrine of his tendeth to persecute any of the servants of christ . truth . let a mans doctrine and practise be his witnesses , and let every soul judge in the fear of god , whether the doctrine of this book maintaining such and such a persecution to be an holy wash'd white in the blood of the lamb , agree not lamentably with all their imprisonings , banishings &c. inflicted upon so many several sorts of their own countrimen friends and brethren in the wilderness , for matter of religion and conscience ; amongst which the lord jesus will be heard at last to have said , why persecutest thou me ? why banishest and whippest thou me ▪ & c ? . will not all persecuting prelates , popes &c. take heart from hence ( according to their several religions and consciences ) to persecute the heretick , blasphemer , seducer &c. although they all will say with master cotton , it is not lawful to persecute a conscience rightly informed , that is , christ jesus in his truths or servants ? peace . but the discusser ( saith master cotton ) is a bitter persecutor , in slandering him , and christ jesus in him , for a persecutor . truth . i see not but master cotton ( though of davids spirit ) may be guilty of sauls lamentable complaint , that david persecuted him , and that he could finde none to pity him ? who knows not that all and our own popish bishops in queen maries , yea and of late times our protestant bishops against the non-conformists have been wont to cry out , what bitter persecution themselves have suffered from the slanderous censures and reproaches of the servants of christ jesus against them ? who yet have shot no other arrowes at them but the faithful declarations and discoveries of gods holy truth , and the evil of the opposing and persecuting of it , and the professors of it ? and how neer will master cotton be found to close with that late bloody woolfe ( so far as his chaine reached ) bishop laud , who being an instrument of the bloody hunting and worrying of those three famous witnesses of christ , master prin , master bastwick , and master burton ; yet at their publike sentence in the star-chamber , he lamentably complained that those poor lambs did bark and bite him with unjust reproaches , slanders , &c , examination of chap. xii . peace . master cotton here first complaineth that his words are misreported concerning the punishment of the heretick after once or twice admonition , tit. . . truth . i desire that others may judge in three particulars . first , whether the summ and pith of the words are not rendred . . whether this titus . was brought by master cotton to prove ( as is now pretended ) that an heretick might be persecuted with an excommunication after once or twice admonition : or whether the question be not of another kind of persecution . . whether that tit. . . do hold forth , that although a man be a heretick , blasphemer , seducer , he may be punished with a civil or corporeal punishment , yea though he sin against his own conscience . i add a fourth , whether indeed ( as master cotton intimates ) the discusser makes this tit. , a refuge for hereticks . great sound and noise makes this word heretick , heretick . i dare appeal to master cottons conscience and memory , whether the reading of histories , and the experience of time will not evince and prove , that hereticks and christians , hereticks and martyrs ( or witnesses of christ ) have not been the same men and women : i say againe , that such as have been ordinarily and commonly accounted and persecuted for hereticks , have been the servants of the most high god , and the followers and witnesses of the lord jesus christ . peace . you know ( dear truth ) the catalogues of heresies and hereticks extant &c. truth . grant it ( sweet peace ) that some in all times have suffered for erroneous conscience . yet i dare challenge the father of lies himself to disprove this assertion , that the most of such ( beyond all comparison ) that have ever suffered in this world for hereticks , have been the disciples and followers of christ jesus . and on that not only the lions , leopards , the bears , woolves , and tygers ( the bloody pharoahs , sauls , herods , neroes , popes , prelates &c. ) should fetch from hence , their persecuting arrows and commissions , but that even the davids , the men after gods own heart , the asa's ( whose hearts are perfect with god ) that such as are the sheep and lambs of christ , should be so monstrously changed and transformed into lyons , beares , &c. yea and should flie to this holy scripture of tit. . for this their unnatural and monstrous change and transformation . examination of chap. xiii . peace . in this chapter , dear truth , you argue the great mistake of the world in their common clamour , an heretick , an heretick , a person obstinate in fundamentals ; and you prove that this word heretick intends no more then a person obstinate against the admonitions of the lord , although in lesser matters : upon this master cotton concludes in this chapter , that the discusser gives a larger allowance for proceeding against erroneous persons then himself did . truth . i must deny that the discusser gives a larger allowance then master cotton , or any at all , that the hereticks or obstinate person should be dealt withall by the civil magistrates of crete , but onely by the spiritual power of the lord jesus . . for first , what though i granted that an obstinate person , contending about genealogies , ought not to be suffered , but after once or twice admonition ought to be rejected ? and , . what though i grant that after such faithful admonitions once or twice , he cannot but be condemned of himself ? yet according to his third answer , how will it appear that i grant , that an heretick is rightly defined to be one obstinate in fundamentals , when i maintaine , and master cotton seemeth to grant , that the heretick may be such an one as is obstinate in lesser points and practises ? . further , let the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 imply an overturning , yet will it not follow , that therefore an heretick is he , who is wilfully obstinate , in holding forth such errors as subvert the foundation of the christian religion : for however that master cotton saith , that such disputes may tend to overthrow christianity , yet that is but in remote possibility , as the prick of a finger may kill the heart , if it ranckle and fester , and so go on from member to member without means applyed : yet this cannot be said to be a mortal wound at first . so is it in the body of christ . peace . the apostle discoursing of meats and drinks , of eating and drinking with offence , calls an offensive eating a destruction of the soul for which christ died ▪ and yet i suppose he will not say that that difference was a fundamental difference . truth . it hath been a gross and barbarous mistake of the monopolizers of learning , both divine and humane , the clergy both of popish and protestant factions and worships : and how many are the thousands of millions of abuses , prophanations and blasphemies against the god of heaven in all ( the antichristian ) christendome , in all preachings , writings , proceedings , and processes , touching this name heretick , heresie , & c ? by the impartial censure of the lord , he is an heretick , who wilfully persists in any sinful doctrine against the due admonitions of the lord ; for every bit and parcell of leaven is to be purged out of the house of god , as well as the greater and fundamentall lumps . examination of chap. xiv . peace . it is a falshood ( saith master cotton ) that i call the slight listnings of gods people to the checks of their consciences , their sinning against their conscience : for i speak not ( saith he ) of the sinning of gods people against conscience , but of an heretick subverted , much less do i call their slight listening to conscience an heretical sinning against conscience , least of all do i say , that for slight listening to the checks of conscience , he may lawfully be persecuted as for sinning against his conscience . and he adds this gall to the former vinegar , thus men that have time and leasure at will , set up images of clouts ▪ and then shoot at them . truth . master cotton , elsewhere , granteth that gods children may ( through passion , &c. ) be carried on to despise admonition , and may be excommunicated , and if so , how can they refusing of christs admonition in the church , be excused from sinning against the self - condemning of themselves ? for if a child of god may possibly be excommunicated for obstinacy in some passion , temptations &c. then may he be this heretick or wilfull man in this tit. . t is true , that in an houre of great temptations , gods people may sin against clear light of conviction , and sentence of conscience , as david and peter , &c. but ( as i conceive ) the holy spirit of god in this of titns intends not such a clearness of self-condemning , but either that the admonitions of the lord are so evident and clear , that either if he in his own conscience before god improved them seriously and duely , they would clear up the truth of god unto him : or else the checks of conscience are such as are recorded to have been ( cant. . ) in the members of christ , in the church of the jews ; and master cotton cannot render a sufficient reason , why they may not also be found in the members of the churches of the christians . peace . i perceive indeed ( dear truth ) the wonderful effects of a strange tongue , in the church of christ : the noise and sound of a greek word heretick , in poor english●ares ●ares , hath begot a conclusion that a person refusing once or twice admonition for some point of doctrine , is such an heretick or monster , that he cannot possibly be a child of god ; whereas master cotton granting that a child of god may possibly refuse once and twice admonition , and so come to be excommunicated ; what doth he then in plaine english , but say , that a child of god may be obstinate to excommunication or rejection ( that is in greek ) be an heretick ? and what is this but contrary to his former assertion , that a childe of god cannot be heretically obstinate to rejection , &c. truth . questionless no child of god , but in temptation , may sin heretically , that is , obstinately upon once or twice admonition , against the checks and whisperings of his own conscience , and against that evidence of light , which ( afterward ) he wondreth how he could despise ▪ and this rejecting or casting forth of the visible society of christ jesus and his servants , is not for destruction but humiliation and salvation , in the day of the lord jesus . peace . i judge , that no son of peace , in a sober and peaceable minde , can judge , as master cotton here doth , this to be an image of clouts . truth . nor can i learn , that the discusser so abounded in time and leasure , as to make such images ( as master cotton insinuates . ) it is not unknown to many witnesses in plymmouth , salem , and providence , that the discussers time hath not been spent ( though as much as any others whosoever ) altogether in spiritual labours , and publike exercise of the word , but day and night ▪ at home and abroad , on the land and water , at the how , at the oare , for bread ; yea and i can tell , that when these discussions were prepared for publike in london , his time was eaten up in attendance upon the service of the parliament and city , for the supply of the poor of the city with wood ( during the stop of coale from newcastle , and the mutinies of the poor for firing . ) t is true , he might have run the rode of preferment , as well in old as new england , and have had the leasure and time of such who eat and drink with the drunken , and smite with the fist of wickedness their fellow servants ; but god is a most holy witness , that these meditations were fitted for publike view in change of roomes and corners , yea sometimes ( upon occasion of travel in the country , concering that business of fuell ) in variety of strange houses , sometimes in the fields , in the midst of travel ; where he hath been forced to gather and scatter his loose thoughts and papers . peace . well ( notwithstanding master cottons bitter censure ) some persons of no contemptible note nor intelligence , have by letters from england , informed the discusser , that these images of clouts it hath pleased god to make use of to stop no small leakes of persecution , that lately began to flow in upon dissenting consciences , and ( amongst others ) to master cottons own , and to the peace and quietness of the independants , which they have so long , and so wonderfully enjoyed . truth . i will end this chapter , with that famous distinction of the lord jesus ; * digging , begging , stealing , are the three wayes by the which all that pretend to be christs stewards are maintained . they that cannot digg can begg the glittering preferments of this present evil world , and the wages of balaam . they that cannot dig , can steal , in the wayes of fraud oppression , extortion , &c. but by the mercy of the most high , the discusser hath been inabled to get his bread by as hard digging , as most diggers in new or old england have been put to : and let all men judge , whether such as can beg or steal and cannot dig ; or such as chuse neither to beg nor steal , but dig , have most time and leasure to make such images of clouts , &c. examination of chap. xv. peace . in this passage ( dear truth ) we hear a sound of agreement ; master cotton consenteth , that this third of titus evinceth no civil rejection , but excommunication out of the church of christ ; and he saith , that no sillable of his conclusion lookes at more . and whereas it might be objected , that excommunication cannot fitly be called persecution : he answers yes , and quotes luk. . . john . . truth . were it not for the fierce hands of angry esaus , this shril sweet voice might pass for jacobs . what ever master cottons ends and intentions were ( of which i cannot but judge chatitably ) the eye of god alone discerneth , but for master cottons words , sillables and arguings , let all impartial readers and consciences judge of these four considerations . first , whether the word persecution , do not in all proper and ordinary speech signifie penal and corporal punishment and affliction . . whether the point in question agitated between the prisoner and master cotton throughout the book , concern not only penal and corporal afliction : and whether it can be imagined , that the prisoner , or the discusser , or any that plead for the purity of christs ordinances , could ever plead against excommunicating an heretick or wilful offendor out of the church of christ : and although the scriptures by master cotton quoted , do mention excommunication , as an unjust oppression ; yet they speak also o● corporal afflictions , imprisonments , bringing before judgement-seats , and killing also . . it could be told in what countrey , at a publike sentence of banishment of a certaine person , a text of scripture , rom. . . ( parrallel with this of tit. . ) was alleadged by the chief judge in court for a ground ( not of spiritual excommunication , but ) of civil , out of the commonweal . . were it not more for the name of god , for the honour of his truth , and the comfort of master cotton , plainely and ingenuously to acknowledge his misapplying of this holy scripture of tit. . then to cover it by so thin and poor a plea , viz. that he intends by persecution , excommunication out of the church of christ ? examination of chap. xvi . peace . master cotton here grants a toleration to jews , turkes , pagans , yea and antichristians , with one exception , to wit , so that they continue not to seduce &c. truth . but it must be remembred , that before and after he maintaines persecution against apostates , blasphemers , and idolatours , and then who knows not how all these four sorts , jews , turkes , pagans , and antichristians , are full of blasphemy and idolatry ? now in case rhey seduce not , they are to be persecuted as idolaters and blasphemers , how then are they to be tolerated ? peace . it could not be ( had not this holy man been catcht with sipping at the bloody cup of the great whore ) that master cottons affirmations and doctrines should thus quarrel among themselves . but further , i see not the equality of his yoaking the oxe and the asse together , when he further coupleth seducing of people into worship of false gods , confidence of a mans own merit , &c. ( which are spiritual matters ) with seducing into seditions conspiracies against the lives and estates of such princes as will not submit their conscience to the bishop of rome . truth . your observation ( dear peace ) is seasonable ; the former are meer religious and spiritual , the latter are meerly civil , against which the civil state is bound to defend it self with civil weapons . peace . in the next place master cotton chargeth the discusser with want of reason truth , and candor , for observing how unfitly those scriptures of phil. . rom. . are produced to prove a tolleration of lesser errors : and he affirmes , that he never intended , that what the churches might not tolerate , the cities might not , &c. truth . the point is tolerating or persecuting by the civil state ; whatever therefore be master cottons intentions , it is apparant , unless the cities and churches of rome and philippi be confounded together ( as commonly they are in case of persecution ) i say it is then apparent that there is no scripture brought for the civil state its tolerating of points of lesser moment , nor are these scriptures brought to any purpose in hand , but prophaned . peace . but observe his argument , the civil state tollerates petty theeves and lyers , to live in towns , cities &c. truth . no well ordered state or city can suffer petty theeves and lyers without some punishment , and we know how severely in the state of england , even theeves have been punished even with death it self ; but master cotton is against such cruelty , for he pleades for tollerating of lesser errors , even in points of religion and worship . . if tollerating of lesser errours be granted upon this ground , viz. till god may be pleased to manifest his truth ; is not the same a ground for tollerating of greater , as the holy spirit of god argues tim. . trying if god may be pleased to give repentance ? peace . yea but ( saith he ) the greater will infect , and so is more dangerous , and the tolleration is the more unmerciful and cruel to the souls of many . truth . lyars and theeves infect also , even the civil state , and a little leaven will leaven the whole lumpe , and therefore as the commonweal ought not upon that ground to tollerate petty theeves and lyars , so hath christ jesus provided in his holy kingdom and city against lesser evils , and upon this ground , that a little leaven will leaven the whole lumpe . but yet christ jesus hath not spoken ( where he gives command for this thing to the corinthians or galatians , that such persons so leavened , should ( together with their being put out of the church for obstinacy in a little leaven ) be put out of the world or civil state : ( the one ( the church ( being his garden , the other , the commonweal , being the high wayes , field , &c. the proper place for men as men to abide in . ) examination of chap. xvii . peace . concerning the holding forth of errour with an arrogant and boysterous spirit to the disturbance of civil peace , master cotton moderates the matter , that he would not have such put to death , unless the civil peace be destroyed , to the destruction of the lives and souls of men . truth . i cannot but here first observe the confounding of heaven and earth together , the church and the world , lives and souls , &c. as if all were of one nature . . neither blessed paul , nor i , need to be accused of cruelty in that grant of paul , if alleadged ( acts . ) for there will not be found ought but a willingness to bear a righteous sentence of death in some crimes committed against the civil state . . master cotton may here observe , how justly ( as he speaks of the heretick ) he condemnes himself , for it is too bloody a tenent ( saith he ) that every man that holdeth errour in a boysterous and arrogant way , to the disturbance of civil peace , ought to be punished with death . is not this the whole scope of his discourse from deut. . and other abrogated repealed laws , to prove ( what was just and righteous in the land of israel ) so bloody a tenent and course to be inforced in all nations all the world over ? peace . master cotton excepteth against that speech [ but if the matter be of a spiritual or divine nature . ] there is no error , saith he , can be of divine nature , though it may be spiritual . truth . master cotton may hear solomon here saying unto him . be not overwise &c. for first , the words are not , if the errour be of a divine nature , but if the matter ( that is , the controversie , cause &c. ) be of a spiritual or divine nature : which distinction between humane and divine things , i conceive is the same with that of wisdome it self dividing between god and caesar : give to god , &c. and so , though no errour be of a spiritual or divine nature ( taking the words in their highth ) yet the matter in question may be of some spiritual or divine consideration , belonging to god , and his worship ; and not concerning the commonweal or civil state of men , which belong to caesars care . . taking spiritual as it is used sometimes in the holy scripture as opposite to flesh and blood , i see no ground for that distinction , between spiritual and divine : god is a spirit , and the spiritual man discerneth all things : in such places and their like ( to my understanding ) spiritual and divine are the same thing . peace . but i marvel at the next passage : how can master cotton with any colour of reason or charity conceive the discusser so reasonless and senceless , as to intend by these words , ▪ such onely break the cities or kingdomes peace , as call for prison , and sword against hereticks ? ▪ as if ( as master cotton infers and saith ) that murtherers , seditious persons , rebels , traitors , were none of them such , viz. peace-breakers . truth . this word [ onely ] can onely have a faire respect to such as are charged by their opinions of religion and worship to break the peace of the commonweale , who ( of what conscience soever they are ) may freely enjoy their conscience and worship ( either of many and false gods , or of the true god in a false way ) and yet not be guilty of the breach of civil peace , but onely they ( i say they onely in this consideration ) who by their doctrine and practice cry out for prison , and fire and sword , against hereticks , &c. peace . as the devil appeared an angel of light in samuels mantle , so john hus and jerome of prage , are declared for devils with the pictured devils upon their heads ; and under this cloud of heresie and black name of hereticks , most commonly have suffered in all ages the true messengers of christ jesus . thus cryed they out , acts . these are they that have turned the world upside down , and are come hither also ; and thus did they set the city all on an uproare . and acts . not the worshippers of christ fill'd the whole city with confusion , but the worshipers of diana , who filled the heavens with that bedlam outery of two houres continuance , great is diana of the ephesians . truth . with as little reason and peaceableness of spirit hath our english nation used to cry great is the church of rome , great is our holy father the pope , great the mass , great the virgin mary , great the general councels &c. and in later times , great the church of england , great the christian magistrate , great the ministery and bishops of england , great the swearing and covenant of the people , &c. and such as dissent from us in these points and practices , persecute them as hereticks , and disturbers of the common civil peace . peace . in the rest of this chapter , master cotton makes three grants with his exceptions annexed . truth . please you ( dear peace ) to mention them in one , and accordingly i shall weigh them in the balance together . peace . . saith he , the many causes which the discusser before wrote of , are all of them allowed , but none of them concern holding forth of errors , which is the point in hand . . saith he , it is easily granted that they do break the cities or kingdoms peace , who cry out for prisons and swords against such who cross their judgement or practice in religion , to wit , saith he , unless their religion be of god , and the crossing of it be such as destroyeth and subverteth the religion of god. . it is also easily granted ( saith he ) that many complaine most who are most in fault themselves . truth . to these three i may answer thus in one . the mystery of preaching or holding forth the witness of the truth of jesus , is interpreted by many to be the mystery of the first seal , the white horse ; and the being persecuted or slaughtered for the word of god and testimony of jesus , to be the mystery of the third seal , where the souls under the altar cry to the lord for vengeance against their persecutors . these mysteries are sealed up , and they are the lords letters , not to be opened and read by every one , but ( as sealed letters be ) by such to whom they are directed . peace . it follows therefore , that in the midst of all the cries of iews , pagans , turkes , and antichristians [ our religion is the religion of god : you are an heretick , you are a persecutor , we are true christians , we are persecuted , &c. ] that the hearts of gods children must be comforted and staid up with the sight of this mystery . and doubtless it is most commonly ( though not alwayes ) true , that the imprisoned , fined , whipt , banished , hanged , burned , &c. in point of religion have been so inhumanely oppressed for the word of god and the testimony of iesus . our own chronicles , records of england , and blessed master fox will in part evidence to us , that scarce a king or queen of england hath past since richard the second his time , but the blood of the witnesses of iesus more or less hath been spilt in their raignes , as the blood of hereticks , schismaticks &c. and but few drops of the blood of any heretick indeed have faln to the ground . truth . the discusser therefore humbly ( to my knowledge ) desireth according to master cottons wish to reflect upon his own way , and humbly to beg of god two things for himself , and all in any measure censured and persecuted as hereticks . first , iosephs innocency , purity , chastity , in all those points and questions wherein they are charged and condemned unclean . secondly , iesephs patience to bear the accusations , censures , imprisonments &c. from the tongues and hands of them who are notoriously unclean and guilty before the zealous and revenging eye and hand of god. examination of chap. xviii . peace . many of the following leaves and chapters ( dear truth ) are spent upon that great and heavenly parable of the tares , a knot about which so many holy fingers , dead and living , have been so laboriously exercised , all professing to unty , yet some by seeming to untie , have tyed the knot the faster . truth . it is no wonder ( sweet peace ) to finde master cotton so intangled both in his answers and replies touching this parable ; for men of all sorts in former ages , have been so intangled before him : to which purpose , with thy patience i shall relate a notable passage recorded by that excellent witness ( or martyr ) of god , master fox in his book of acts and monuments : t is this . in the story of master george wisehart ( that famous scotch witness of christ iesus ) in the dayes of king henry the eighth , there preached at the arraignment of the said wiseheart , one iohn winryme , subprior of the abbey of saint andrews , he discoursed on the parable of the tares , he interpreted the tares to be hereticks ; and yet contrary to this very scripture ( as master fox himself observeth , though elswhere himself also maintaining it the duty of the civil magistrate to suppress hereticks ) i say the said winryme concludeth that hereticks ought not to be let alone until the harvest , but to be supprest by the power of the civil magistrate : so that memorable it is that both the popish prior , and that truely christian fox , were intangled in contradictions to their own writings about the interpreting of this heavenly scripture . peace . o what cause therefore have all that follow iesus to beg of iesus ( as the disciples did ) the blessed key of david to unloose this holy mistery ? in the entrance therefore of this discourse , the discusser observing master cottons exposition to be fallacious , and the tares to be interpreted , either persons , or doctrines , or practices , he blames that master cotton gives no argument for proof of such an interpretation : master cotton replies . first , neither did the author of the letter give reason for his interpretation . . that they both gave one interpretation . for the author of the letter said , that some expounded the wheat and tares , to signifie such as walk in truth , and such as walk in lyes : now are not ( saith master cotton ) hypocrites and some corrupt doctrines and practices coincident with such as walk in lyes , & c ? truth . i answer , first it might be both their failing , not to strengthen their interpretations with some light and evidence from scripture or reason , although the prisoners failing the less , as being forced to write by shifts and difficulties in prison , and so the shorter , when master cotton had free liberty to inlarge and confirm without control , &c. . when the prisoner interprets the tares to be such as walk in lyes , it will be found evident upon examination , that he meaneth such as manifestly , openly , visibly walk in the true profession of christianity ; and such as openly and visibly walk in the lyes of false and antichristian doctrine and worship . that distinction of secret and open hypocrisie is seasonable : secret , implies such a dissimulation as may lie hid under the true outward profession of christ jesus , as in judas , simon magus , ananias and sapphira &c. open hypocrisie implies the profession of the man of sin , sitting in the temple of god ( or over the temple of god ) pretending the name of christ , and yet apparantly and visibly , false and counterfeit , and but pretending , when such pretences and shewes are brought to the touchstone of true christianity . peace . your observation is true , as also a second , that these hypocritical doctrines and practices are to be tollerated to the end of the world , this he sets down in general , not instancing in particular what doctrine and practises are to be tollerated : and on the other hand , the whole drift of his booke maintaineth , that such persons , doctrines or practices , that are idolatrous , or blasphemous , or infectious , are not to be tollerated or permitted at all ; which passages to my understanding have not harmony among themselves : for what is all the whole religion of every antichrist , but a mass or chaos of hypocrisie , idolatry , heresie , blasphemy , poysons ? &c. besides , master cotton had dealt more plainly with this holy scripture , if he had explained what he meant by such doctrines and practises [ comming neer the truth ] and set down the bounds , how neer as to make them tares . truth . dear peace , who knows not that the weeds of the wilderness come neer the flowers of the garden , the counterfeit may come neer the life , and the false mettal the true gold ? and though it be true that some doctrines and practices be not so gross as other , yet they differ but ( as the scripture speaks ) as whores and whoremongers , amongst themselves ; some are more proper , and fine , and young , and painted ; some are old , deformed &c. and yet the finest weeds , counterfeits and whores are unsufferable in the garden , in the commonweale , house , and bed of christ : though yet in the civil commonweale , the vilest spiritual strumpet may challenge a civil being , if in civil things unreproveable . examination of chap. xix . peace . but in this chapter , master cotton in the issue granteth , that the tares signifie persons , by christs own interpretation : for [ them that do iniquity ] may seem to be an explanation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , all scandals , that is , persons holding forth of scandalous and corrupt doctrines and practices , like unto true and sound . truth . yet withall he chargeth the discusser with lightness and inconstancy , for endeavouring to prove that corrupt doctrines and practices ▪ are not to be tollerated , and yet , saith he , the discusser pleades that such persons ought to be tollerated . whereas the discusser twice in this chapter expresly distinguisheth between toleration in the church , and tolleration in the world , and affirmeth , that although the church of christ jesus cannot tollerate either persons or practices which are false and antichristian , yet the civil state , the world , ought to tolerate and permit both . and therefore master cottons inconsiderate charge of contradiction will not stick , because of those divers respects or states , the spiritual and civil , as it was no contradiction in christ iesus , to affirme that iohn baptist was elias , when iohn himself affirmeth , that he was not elias ▪ for in several respects the negative of john , and the affirmative of jesus were both true . examination of chap. xx. peace . in this passage ( to my understanding ) master cotton after much seeming contestation and disagreement , yet in conclusion he shakes hands and agrees with the discusser in the maine point in question . truth . your observation reacheth home ; for let it be granted , that the greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should not signifie all weeds sprung up with the wheat , but one kind of weed , and that in special which master cotton saith dioscorides describeth : let it be granted to be the same with lolium , and that there is a great similitude between the tares and the wheat , while they are in the blade ( some of which particulars are controversial : ) yet it no way opposeth that which the discusser maintaineth , to wit , the easiness of discerning these tares to be tares , when they are grown up to blade and fruit . and therefore master cotton at the last , confesseth that even these tares ( unknown hypocrites ) ( according to his own exposition ) ought to be suffered in the church of christ to the harvest or end of the world . peace . i cannot but wonder how master cotton should once imagine , that it might possibly stand with the order , piety , and safety of the profession of christ jesus , that such a generation of known hypocrites should be perpetually suffered . truth . doubtless the lord jesus was not of master cottons minde , who so vehemently warned his followers to take heed of the leaven of hypocrisie . beside , if known hypocrites may be suffered and not cast out , why may not known hypocrites be taken in ? and what is then become of the true matter of the church , to wit , true living stones of a spiritual life and nature , so far as outwardly can be discerned ? peace . this assertion hath so foule a representation , that master cotton is forced to draw this vaile over , and therefore he adds , untill the fruits of hypocrites grow notoriously scandalous . truth . i cannot fathom how these two agree : first , known hypocrites may be tolerated untill the worlds end ; . tolerated no longer , then untill the fruits of the hypocrisie grow notoriously scandalous : for will not all reason and experience ask this question : how comes it that this friend , subject , and spouse of christ is now a known dissembler , traitor , whore , unless by some scandalous fruits so declaring and uncasing of them ? if the shameful fruits of the unclean person , cor. . were sufficient to denominate him a wicked person , why were they not sufficient to warrant paul to say , put away therefore that wicked person from amongst you ? peace . but let us mind the scripture quoted : if ( saith master cotton ) foolish virgins be cast out of the church , the wise virgins may be found sometimes sleeping as well as they . truth . neither good wheate , nor wise virgins are to be cast out of the church of christ , while they appear to be so : yet since master cotton elsewhere grants , that a child of god ( good wheat , and a wise virgin ) may so stand out against the church of christ ( in some passion ) that he may be cast out . &c. how much more then ought the tares and foolish virgins ( while so appearing ) be excluded ? . if the wise virgins be received into heaven , as the foolish shut out , will it not evidently follow ( even the contrary to that for which master cotton alleadgeth this scripture ) to wit. that when hypocrites are discovered , they are to be kept out , and consequently to be cast out of the church of christ ? except master cotton will say , that the kingdome of christ on earth , may receive and keep in her bosome such stinking weedes , declared so to be , which the kingdome of christ in heaven abhors . who questions , but while the hypocrisie of these foolish virgins lay hid in their empty vessels , that outwardly they appeared as wise as the wise virgins ? but when the fruits of their hypocrisie discovered them to be fools , how can master cotton ( according to the truth as it is in jesus ) affirme , that foolish virgins ( known hypocrites ) are to be kept in and not cast out of the church of christ unto the end of the world ? peace . o how contrary is this to the very fundamentals , essence , nature and being of a church or spouse of christ jesus , which is ( by the confession of papists and protestants ) a society of wise virgins , visibly saints holy and faithful persons , a society of such persons as outwardly profess to love christ jesus uprightly ( cant. . ) and to be espoused to him , cor. . truth . yea , and how contrary is this to the nature of christ iesus , whose heart is all one fire towards the daughters of ierusalem ( cant. . ) and how contrary to the charge , that great and solemn charge of the lord iesus to all his followers , to take heed of that leaven which is hypocrisie , which if suffered , will leaven the whole lumpe , and render the garden and spouse of christ a filthy dunghill and whore-house of rotten and stinking whores and hypocrites . examination of chap. xxi . peace . master cotton here endeavors to prove ( as many have done before ) that the field which the lord iesus interprets the world , was meant by him to be the church , as he is said to love the world , iohn . to be propitiation for the sins of the world , ioh. . truth . in these and many other places of like nature , it pleaseth the spirit of god to set forth his love to mankinde , distinct from all other creatures : as also the impartiality of his love , calling his chosen out of all sorts of sinners , mankinde all the world over : and yet it cannot be denyed , but that the scriptures speak frequently of the world and of the church in a far distinct and contrary acceptation . so , as when he nameth the church , it cannot signifie the world ; and when the world , he cannot be said to intend the church , the reasons therefore on either side must be expended and weighed in the fear of god , why the field here called by christ the world , cannot be intended to be the church of christ . peace . your right distinguishing , is a right dividing of the word of truth ; but ( saith master cotton ) it cannot be the world in proper signification ; for which he aleadgeth three reasons . first . because there had been ( saith he ) no place for the servants wonder at the appearing of the tares verse . for what wonder that the world should be so full of fornicators , & c ? was it ever otherwise ? truth . it is true , that the world lyeth in wickedness , and is full of fornicators , idolaters &c. and yet it was some thousands of yeers when the world was not full of christian , that is , anointed , or holy fornicators , holy idolaters &c. that is indeed and truth antichristian , and that alone is the point in question , about which this answer of master cotton hovers , but comes not neer it . this is indeed a most dreadful and wonderful point of the wisdome , justice , and patience of god , so to suffer so many millions of men and women , to arrogate to themselves the name and profession of the most holy living god , and his holy son christ iesus , to be called christians , anointed or holy , and yet upon the point to hate the holiness , truth , and spirit of christ iesus . truth . this is doubtless to me ( what ere master cotton imagines ) a wonderful mystery in all ages since these tares were first sown , to see , i say , so many millions of holy idolaters , holy murtherers , holy whoremongers , holy theeves &c. the blasphemy of this is so wonderful and dreadful , that i cannot sufficiently wonder at him that wonders , not how this comes to pass . truth . the like i answer to his second reason , that it is true that we read not that ever any of the ministers or prophets of christ ever essayed to pluck up all such vicious notorious persons out of the world , as they demanded concerning the tares , for then indeed as the spirit implies , cor. . the whole state of the world would be overthrown ; but yet this hinders not , but there may be a desire in gods servants to pluck up this or that sect or sort of people , jews , turks , or antichristians . peace . dear truth , you make me call to minde the desire of christs disciples , that fire might descend from heaven , not to consume all fornicators , idolaters , all cruel and unclean persons out of the world , yet that particular , unmerciful , superstitions town of the samaritans , they desired that fire might come from heaven and consume them . truth . indeed this desire of the disciples is no strange desire , for what else do all they desire , which permit not in the civil state , any religion , worship or conscience but their own ? nay far beyond that , were the whole worlds neck under their imperial yoake ( the many millions of millions of blasphemers , and idolaters of all sorts ) if they will not be convinced at their word , must be cut off from all natural and civil being in the world , by fire and sword. peace . his third reason is , that the discusser reckoned up as paralel goats and sheep , wheate and tares ( as generally , said he , others do ) and he addeth , that in the purest church after the ruine of antichrist , there shall be goats and sheep , wise and foolish virgins , untill the coming of christ to judgement , mat. . truth . although the discusser spake of that eternal separation between wheat and tares , sheep and goats approaching ; yet he never said , that the tares and goats signified hypocrites in the church , which is the point in question : nor dare i subscribe to that opinion , that after the destruction of antichrist , when purest times of the church shall come , that there shall be such a mixt estate in the church of christ , untill the coming of christ to judgement . for first , although goats were clean for food and sacrifice , yet it is apparant , that as they are for the left hand , so they are visibly known by every child , where goats and sheep are kept . and to image that visible hypocrites , such as tares goats , unprofitable servants , foolish virgins &c. shall in a mixt way make up christs churoh , and that in the purest times of the church , of which there are so many and wonderful prophecies , is to me not onely to frame a church estate point blank cross to the purity of those churches , but even to the first apostolical churches , yea and against that frame of church estate in new england , where master cotton hath professed ( though now it is said the door is wider ) against ▪ receiving in such members as are visibly foolish virgins , goats &c. peace . master cottons second answer is , that if the field be the world , as the tares antichristians and false christians , yet they were first sown in the field of the church . truth . not so : for although there might be many infirmities and distempers , yea some great corruptions in the first christian body the church of christ ; notwithstanding that antichrist is an apostate , yet it will not follow , that the tares were first sown in the true church , because sathan might easily raise up some professors of the name of christ , which the true church would never admit . and as sathan might raise up persons , congregations , worships , which were not according to christ ; so might he easily raise up churches , congregations and societies of such tares with whom the churches of christ might refuse society . so saith john , there are many antichrists , whom yet we cannot well imagine that they were in the churches of the lord jesus . there came false apostles to the church at ephesus , but yet that church examined and found them lyars . and so long as the churches were watchful , those tares kept in the world . but when the churches began to be sleepy , the tares might undiscerned creep into the church this may be as well , as when apostates fall off from the church , go out from it , because they were never of it : and also as well as that the church of christ may drowzily neglect to purge out the old leaven of persons and things , which may soon overspread and over-run the whole lumpe and garden of the church of christ , untill it be turned againe into one common field of the world together . peace . master cottons third answer is , that antichristians must not be tolerated unto the end of the world , because god will put it into the heart of faithful princes to hate the whore ; and after that , we read of a visible state of new jerusalem before the end of the world , rev. . , . truth . it is not said , that those princes that shall hate the whore shall be faithful princes : and since master cotton seems to hold that by way of ordinance ( and so in obedience ) the kings of the earth shall with the sword destroy antichrist , i desire his proof for any such prophecy . for , . it is not said , that god will put it into their hearts , to hate the whore . and we finde that they shall hate the lambe , as well as hate the whore . for they shall make war with the lambe , and the lamb shall overcome them , as comes to pass after the ruine of the who●e , rev. . . judgement may be executed upon the whore by way of mutual judgement each upon others , when in the midst of their spiritual whoredoms , and drunkenness with the saints blood , they shall fall out with the whore ( as useth to be in whoredome ) and turn their whorish loves into outragious fury ; and the very description of their fury looks this way , for it is not the property of sober and faithful men ( though repenting of their whoredoms ) to make a woman naked ( though a whore ) and to eat her flesh , as it is said , those shall do . but grant ( as we most hopefully do ) the whores consumption by the ten hornes of the beast , and the flourishing of new jerusalem upon the earth ( rev. . , . ) before the end of the world ( all which are great disputes among the people of god ) yet i judge it necessary that two or three queries be satisfied for the further clearing of the holy minde of the lord in this particular . . whether ( as some have and do argue ) the end of the world in this parable and other scriptures do expresly and undeniably signifie the end of the world and judgement-day literally , and not some other mystical period of time , since the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( usually translated world ) is of various signification , and sometimes signifies and age. . whether those ten kings which shall destroy the whore , shall be absolutely christian , true saints , followers of jesus they and their armies , or else remaining antichristian hornes of the beast , shall yet execute the judgement of god upon the great whore : as jehu remaining both hypocritical and idolatrous , yet dashe out the braines of that great whore iezabel , and executed judgement upon baals priests : yea and even as henry the eighth tumbled the pope out of his chaire in england , and thousands of his popelings with him , he supprest and threw the whore iezabel the church of rome out of englands window , and yet continued to burn the saints of iesus upon his six popish and bloody articles . . whether that mighty army of gog and magog , which is mustered up after the thousand yeers raigne of christ , be not in part made up of the ●en hornes , even after the whore of romes consumption ( as before in henry the eighth his case ) which horns with their peoples christ will have yet to be tolerated as tares in the field of the world , though not in the church of christ . peace . what think you of master cottons grant , that the first fruits of antichristians may be tares sown in the field of the church , which afterwards grow to be briars and thornes ? truth . i observe that to be tares , of antichristian worshippers , and briars and thornes ( oppressers and persecutors ) are both of them of a false and antichristian nature , which ought to be far from imitation of the rose of sharon , or the lily of the vallies . but . are there no tares , that is , hypocrites , but in the church ; and must all the briars and thornes ( oppressors and persecutors , &c. ) have no root from the wilde world , but from the garden of christs church ? peace . now whereas it was urged , that it stood not with the wisdome and love of christ , interpreting this parable , and opening what the field was , to call the field the world , when he meant the church : master cotton answers , that paul by the same wisdome useth the same word , cor. . god was in christ reconciling the world unto himself . truth . paul in using that figure of the world for all sorts of men in the world , doth not undertake to interpret a parable , which before he had proposed unto ( and at the request of ) the corinthians , as the lord iesus doth at the request of his disciples . and where master cotton saith , that it is no more an improper speech to call the church the world , then to speak of christ as dying for the world , when he dyed for the church . truth . i finde it not to be said , that christ died for the world , but grant that it hath pleased the lord in his most infinite wisdome , to cause the tearm of the world to be used in various significations ; yet let any instance be given of any scripture , wherein the lord opposing the church to the world , the wheat to tares , doth not distinguish between the church redeemed out of the world , and the world it self , which is said to lye in wickedness , and to be such as for which christ jesus would not pray , iohn . examination of chap. xxii . peace . in this chapter was urged the scope of the lord jesus , to wit , to foretell the antichristian state opposing the true christian church and worship as also to comfort and strengthen the hearts of his followers , against the grievances ari●ing therefrom ; and where it was urged that the church consisteth onely of good ground , and that the three sorts of bad ground visibly so declared , are properly in the world , and not in the church , master cotton answers , first , did not christ preach to all these sorts of hearers in the church of the jews ? truth . that national church of the iews , in its first visible constitution , consisted onely of good ground . now that the other three sorts of hearers were in the church of the iews , it was an accident and corruption : when they grew incurable , and received not the admonitions of the lord , by the lord iesus and his servants , preaching unto them , the lord cast them out of his sight , destroyed that nationall church , and established the christian church . now what is this to the permitting of known hypocrites in the christian church to the worlds end ? since that the proper seat of known hypocrisie , and of all other wickedness , is the world , which indeed properly consisteth of the three sorts of bad ground , as the church and garden of christ , of the honest and good ground . peace . but further , if ( saith master cotton ) the children of the church-members be in the church , then they growing up to yeers , become some of them like the high-way , and some like the stony , and some like the thorny ground . truth . admit the christian church were constituted of the natural seed and off-spring ( which yet master cotton knows will never be granted to him , and i believe will never be proved by him : ) yet he knows , that upon the discovery of any such portion of ground in the church , the church is bound to admonish , and upon impenitency ( after admonition ) to cast them into the world , the proper place of such kind of hearers and professors . peace . master cotton proceeds to a third answer , to wit , though it be not the proper work of the church to bring up their own children to become the sincere people of god , and christ hath given his church and his gospel preached to it , to lye like leaven in three pecks of meal , till all be leavened , mat. . . and he hath given pastors and teachers , as well for the gathering of the saints , as for the edification of the body of christ . truth . i answer , the proper work of the pastors and teachers , is to feed the sheep and flock , and not the heards , the wild beasts in the world . and although it is the duty of parents to bring up their children in the nurture and fear of the lord ; yet what if those children refuse to frequent the assemblies of the church , and what if those three sorts of bad ground or hearers will not come within the bounds of the pastors and teachers feeding ; hath not the lord iesus appointed other officers ( in the same ephes . . ) for the gathering of the saints , that is sending out of the church of christ , apostles , or messengers , to preach christ iesus to the three sorts of bad ground , to labour to turn them into good ground ? but alas , to salve up all this , the civil sword is commonly run for , to force all sorts of ground to come to church , instead of the sending forth ( rom. . ) the heavenly sowers , according to the ordinance of christ iesus . peace . but what say you to his fourth answer , viz. there is no such resemblance between the high-way-ground and good ground , as between the tares and the wheate , nor would the servants wonder at tares in the high-way , nor ask about their plucking up . truth . i answer , let the high-way , stony , and thorny ground be considered in their several qualities of prophaneness , stouiness and worldliness , and all the sons of men throughout the whole world naturally are such ; and t is no wonder , nor would the servants of christ be so troubled , as to desire their plucking up out of the world . but yet againe consider all these sorts of men as professing the name and anointing of christ iesus in a false and counterfeit antichristian way , and then it may well be wondred , whence such monstrous kind of christians or anointed ones arose : and gods people may easily be tempted rather to desire their rooting out of the world , then the rooting out of any such sorts of ground or men professing any other religion , jewish , mahometan or pagan , antichristian and false christians being more opposite to the kingdome of christ jesus , and more dangerous , by how much more a counterfeit and traytor is worse then a professed fox , an antichristian ( whether papist or protestant ) worse then a jew , a pagan , whether indian , turke or persian . examination of chap. xxiii . peace . still of the tares . these tares ( saith master cotton ) are not such sinners as are opposite and contrary , for then none should be opposite or contrary but they . truth . i acknowledge ( as master cotton here observeth ) two sorts of persons opposite and contrary to christ jesus and his kingdome . first , all sorts of sinners scandalous in their lives and courses . . more especially opposite in point of religion and worship , as all idolaters , and especially antichristians . now every man by nature , the best and wisest , is opposite and contrary to christ , his word and kingdome ; but an idolater and antichristian is more especially opposite to his glorious name , truth , and ordinances . and therein properly lyes the mystery of iniquity , brought in by the man of sin , that lawless person , thess . . most opposite or contrary to christ jesus the son of god , and son of righteousness . peace . but this is a begging of the question ( saith master cotton ) for the question is about visible worshippers , such as were discovered and declared to be what they were , as well by their fruit as by their clads , and therefore againe ( saith master cotton ) these tares were the seed and children of the devil ; for why should they be called the seed of the one , and the children of the other ? truth . i answer , the lord jesus distinguisheth , thus , he that soweth the good seed , is the son of man ; and the good seed are the children of the kingdome : he that soweth the tares is the devil , and these tares are the children of the evil or evil one ; hence by way of opposition , these children of evil or evil ones being visibly such as are opposite to the children of the kingdome , they cannot be hypocrites in the church , untill they are discovered : these children therefore of the evil one opposite to the visible kingdome , and so to visible christ jesus in point of his kingdome , church , and worship ( though they be the children of the devil in a sence , yet ) can they be no other , but the children of the false christ or antichrist , in the way of a false church and worship . peace . yea but lastly ( saith master cotton ) that word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 translated the children of the wicked one or wickedness , will agree to hypocrites . truth . it will indeed , if we respect their inside , which is only visible to the invisible king , as judas in his profession : but it cannot agree to such hypocrites as are undiscovered by their fruits in the church , but unto such hypocrites as are discovered in their blades and fruit , and so consequently are not fit to live with other sinners in the world : i doubt not but master cotton will say , that although a member of a church prove a theife , adulterer , murtherer , in the eyes of a brother , that sees and knows his secret wickedness , yet that brother is censurable as a slanderer , if he should report these evils , though to the church , untill according to visible order he could produce good proof and evidence . examination of chap. xxiv . peace . still of the tares . master cotton here seems to me ( with the familists ) to confound heaven and earth together , the matters of worship , and ordinances of religion , with the affaires and businesses of this life : for saith he , such as stand for the kingdome of satan ( as all evil men do ) they stand in opposition to the kingdome of christ . truth . master cotton is not now to be taught the distinction between the church and commonweale ; nor that a national church is not of christ jesus his institution : yet as this discourse strongly inclines to erect a national church , so doth this present answer to the confusion both of church and commonweale . it is true , a covetuous iew , that blasphemeth christ jesus , stands for satan against christ . but by his covetousness in one kinde , as covetousness is opposite to righteousness and contentation , &c. and for sathan against christ in another sence , that is in a religious and spiritual sence , as he prefers moses before christ jesus , and denies the true messiah to be yet come in the flesh . a cruel turk stands for satan against christ , by his cruelty in one sence , to wit , in opposition to christs mercy , gentleness , patience , &c. but by his belief in mahomet , preferring him before christ , he opposeth him in his kingdome and worship . to come neerer , a drunken english , dutch or frenchman , stands for satan against christ , as their drunkenness is opposite to christs sobriety , temperance , &c. but against christ in another sence , as they profess the wayes of antichristian idolatry and superstition : and not to observe this distinction , is ( with some familists ) to run upon quick-sands of confounding the spiritual kingdome of christ jesus , his worship and ordinances , with the kingdomes of this world , and the common affaires thereof in natural and civil consideration . peace . but though christ ( saith master cotton ) should command other offenders to be let alone beside antichristians , yet he should not contradict any ordinances for the punishment of offenders &c. because , saith he , no law of god , nor just law of man commands the the rooting out of hypocrites , though the church be bound to endeavour ( as much as in them lies ) to heale their hypocrisie . truth . hypocrisie discovered in the fruit of it , is not to be let alone in the church or state : for neither church of christ nor civil state can long continue safe , if hypocrites or traitors ( under what pretence soever ) be permitted to break forth in them , without due punishment and rooting out ; this hypocrisie being especially that great sin against which christ iesus so frequently and so vehemently inveighed , and against which he denounced the sorest of plagues●nd ●nd judgements . truth . by whose command , and by what meanes and ordinances , by whose power and authority , but by the command , meanes and power of christ jesus ? and i further aske , if faithful admonition be not one good means of healing , and if that lye not in the churches power ; and if the hypocrite after faithful admonition once or twice , submit not to the voice of christ iesus , i ask where the lord iesus commandeth to make a stop , and not to cast forth and reject whomsoever wilfully obstinate ? peace . doubtless ( dear truth ) many will be apt to say master cotton intends secret and close hypocrisie . truth . and i doubt not but himself will say , that this is not our question , but of known and unmasked hypocrisie , as himself hath formerly declared , and such as here he expresseth come under ordinances of healing . peace . but further ( saith master cotton ) it is not true , that antichristians are to be let alone untill the end of the world , why ? because christ commanded excommunication , &c. truth . i am astonisht , and wonder why master cotton here speaketh of excommunication , a spiritual ordinance of christ iesus in his spiritual kingdome or city , when the dispute onely concerns temporal excommunication or cutting off ? let them alone , that is , in civil state ? i wonder also how he should imagine the discusser in this chapter to affirme , that antichristians are to be let alone in the church unto the end of the world , when it was the very scope of his argument in this chapter , to prove , that the speech of christ jesus , [ let them alone ] must needs be understood of letting idolaters and antichristians alone in the civil state , and in the world , because otherwise , if he had meant , [ let them alone in the church ] he should contradict himself , who hath appointed meanes for the disturbing and purging out the corrupt leaven both of persons and practices out of his church and kingdome . peace . the same answer indeed will easily be returned to his last supposition of any popish spirit conspiring against the life of king and parliament . the whole scope of this book professeth , and in this chapter the discusser professedly argueth , that christ jesus hath appointed that civil offenders against the civil state , ought not to be let alone . but master cotton adds , if popish priests and jesuits be rightly expounded to be the rivers and fountaines of water , which drive the dead sea of antichristian pollutions up and down all nations in europe , and in some cases are to drink blood ; then are they not to be let alone , but duely supprest and cut off from conveying up and down idolatrous , heretical and seditious wickedness , rev. . . . truth . the exposition of this scripture will be further examined in the sequel , and found no true exposition ▪ that rivers and fountaines of water drive the sea up and down : for rivers and fountaines however they come from the salt-water , yet lose they the savour of the salt-sea , and yeeld a savour of the earth through which they make their passages ; and again they run into the sea , and are themselves driven up and down , and swallowed up in the sea : nor will it be found a true exposition according to godliness and christianity , which commandeth patience and waiting , not fire and sword to gaine sayers and opposites : nor lastly , will it be found a true exposition agreeing with master cottons own profession in some passage of this book , wherein he holds forth great toleration and gentleness to other consciences , both english and barbarians . examination of chap. xxv . peace . in this chapter master cotton affirms , that hypocrites ( even ) they that are discerned to be such , yet they are not to be purged out , except they break forth into such notorious fruits of hypocrisie as tend to the leavening of the whole lumpe : for otherwise ( saith he ) we may roote out the best wheate in gods field , &c. truth . i answer , s●●●● hypocrites and all hypocrisie is so odious in gods sight , and so vehemently inveighed against by christ jesus , what should be the cause why the leaven of the pharisees , which is hypocrisie , should finde greater favour and connivence in the church of christ , then the leaven of any other sin , since all ought to be purged out ? cor. . . contrary to what master cotton saith , [ to wit , that no man meerly for hypocrisie and want of life and power of godliness ought to be proceeded against ] the spirit of god by paul saith , that such kind of professours of the name of christ should arise , that should pretend a form of godliness , but not shew forth the power thereof , from which he commandeth us to turn away , tim. . peace . but master cotton excepteth , except ( saith he ) they break forth into some notorious scandalous fruits of hypocrisie . truth . how shall an hypocrite be discovered and known to be an hypocrite or traitor in church or civil state , but by some such notorious scandalous fruits as tend to the leavening of the whole lumpe ? come to particulars ; was iudas , ananias and sapphira , simon magus , demas , or any other discovered to be hypocrites , when they broke forth into treachery , lying , covetousness ? and might the church proceed against such ? if it be denied , i ask to what end the lord hath given those holy rules of admonition ? &c. will it prove ought but prophaning of the name of the lord , to pretend our clear discerning of the scripture and ordinances , and not to practise them ? if it be yeelded against these fruits of hypocrisie , discovering men to be hypocrites , why do we plead for a dispensation , and ( not for the wheat of the field , and flowers of the garden , but ) for the most stinking and loathsome tares and weeds to be continued in the holy garden of christ jesus ? peace . but many hypocrites ( saith master cotton ) fall not within the censure of that scripture , thess . . . withdraw from every brother that walketh disorderly ; for many hypocrites follow their callings , and are so far from being burthensome unto others , that they are after choaked with the cares and businesses of the world , and yet are not behind in liberal contribution to pious uses . truth . but is not this halting between god and baal ? yea is not this pleading for baal , for hypocrisie , hypocrites and dissemblers , false and antichristian counterfeits , to be permitted not onely in the wilderness of the world ( which i contend for ) but also even in the garden , house , bed , and bosome of god ? what if men be civil and follow their callings ? men that know not god , so do . what though they be liberal to pious uses ( millions of papists are and have been so according to their consciences ) when as yet they are choaked with cares and businesses of this world ? how express is the charge of the lord jesus , to with-draw from such , notwithstanding their forme of godliness , and contribution to godly uses , when they declare not the power of godliness , tim. . . not to eate with them , and therefore to seperate from such a brother as is covetuous , cor. . as well as from an idolater , drunkard , &c. the church of christ is a congregation of saints , a flock of sheep , humble , meek , patient , contented , with whom it is monstrous and impossible , to couple cruel and persecuting lyons , subtle and hypocritical foxes , contentious biting dogs or greedy and rooting swine , so visibly declared and apparant . examination of chap. xxi . peace . in this chapter four answers were given by the discusser to that great objection of the mischief that the tares will do in the field of the world , if let alone and not pluckt up . the first was , that if the tares offend against civility or civil state , god hath armed the civil state with a civil sword , &c. master cotton replies , what if their conscience incite them to civil offences ? i answer , the conscience of the civil magistrate must incite him to civil punishment , as a lord maior of london once answered , that he was born to be a judge , to a thief that pleaded he was born to be a thief . if the conscience of the worshippers of the beast incite them to prejudice prince or state , although these consciences be not as the conscience of a thief ( commonly convinced of the evil of his fact , but ) perswaded of the lawfulness of their actions ; yet so far as the civil state is endammaged or endangered , i say the sword of god in the hand of civil authority is strong enough to defend it self , either by imprisoning or disarming , or other wholesome meanes , &c. while yet their consciences ought to be permitted in what is meerly point of worship , as prayer , and other services and administrations . hence the wisdome of god , in that rom. ( reckoned by master cotton the mag●a charta for civil magistrates dealing in matters of religion ) i say , there it pleaseth god expresly to reckon up the particulars of the second table , chalking out ( as it were ) by his own finger , the civil sphear or circle , in which the civil magistrate ought to act and execute his civil power and authority . peace . the second answer of the discusser was , that the church or spiritual city hath laws and armories to defend it self . master cotton excepteth , saying , that if their members be leavened with antichristian idolatry and superstition , and yet must be tolerated in their idolatry , and superstitious worship , will not a litle leaven leaven the whole lumpe ? and how then is the church guarded ? truth . the question is , whether idolatrous and antichristian worshippers may be tolerated in civil state , in the city , in the kingdome , &c. under any civil power : master cotton answers no , they will do mischief . the reply is , against any civil mischief ( though wrought conscientiously ) the civil state is strongly guarded . secondly , against the spiritual mischief , the church or city of christ is guarded with heavenly armories , wherein there hang a thousand bucklers ▪ cant. . and most mighty weapons , cor. . in the church of christ such worshippers ought not to be tolerated , but cast out , &c. that is true , saith master cotton , but yet their leaven will spread . i answer , what is this , but to make the most powerful appointments of christ jesus , those mighty weapons of god , terrible censures and soul - punishments in his kingdome , but as so many woodden daggers and leaden swords , childrens bull-beggars , and scarcrows , and upon the point so base and beggarly , that without the help of the cutlers shop or smiths forge , the church or kingdome of christ cannot be purged from the leaven of idolatry and superstition ? peace . me thinks the lord jesus was of another mind ▪ mat. . when he accounted it sufficient to cut off the obstinate , let him be as a gentile or publican : and in the very similitude of leaven ( here used by master cotton ) paul counted it sufficient to purge out the leaven , cor. . if that evil person were put away from the midst of them , that is , from their holy and spiritual society . paul never asks ( as master cotton doth ) since we have not to our spiritual armes , armes of flesh , and a civil sword to help our spiritual , how shall the safety of the church be guarded ? but let 's proceed . the third answer was , that the elect cannot be finally deceived : master cotton replies . it is true , but god provides meanes of preservation , &c. and jezabels tolerating in thiatira made the church guilty . truth . this argument was not used in derogation of gods meanes , spiritual in spiritual things , civil in civil , &c. but by way of supposition of the worst , as job spake in another case , how helpest thou the arme that hath no strength ? not but that in ordinary submission to means , man ought to help the lord against the mighty . the sum is this , rather let the lord alone to help himself without meanes , then to help the lord to save his elect ( who cannot by vertue of his love and decree finally be deceived ) by any such means as are none of his own appointing . . it is true , that the church at thyatira , tolerating jezabel to seduce , was guilty , yea and i add the city of thiatira was guilty also if it tolerated iezabel to seduce to fornication . but what is this to the point of the issue [ to wit , whether the city of thiatria should be guilty or not in tolerating iezabel in that which the city judgeth to be idolatry and false worship ? jezabels corporal whoredoms ( sinning against civility or state of the city ) the city by her officers ought to punish , lest civil order be broken , and civility be infected &c. but iezabels spiritual whoredomes , the civil state ought not to deal with but ( there being a church of christ then in thiatria , and the spiritual whoredomes there taught and practised ) i say the church in thyatira , which in the name and power of christ was armed sufficiently to pass and inflict a dreadful spiritual censure , which god will confirme and ratifie most assuredly and undoubtedly in heaven . peace . two reasons more were alleadged out of the text. the first was , that by plucking up the tares , the good wheate it self by such hurries and persecutions about religion , should be indangered to be plucked up ; which master cotton salveth thus : to wit , if gods people themselves , for their idolatry and superstition , should be cut off , it will be for warning unto others , &c. truth . oh ungodly , unchristian , that is bloody and antichristian doctrin , by which ( under pretence of punishing hereticks , schis●aticks , and seditious persons ) the son of god , the lord of lords , and king of kings , hath so many millions of times , in his servants been persecuted , slaine , and crucified ! as for the world , it lies in wickedness , is a wilderness of sin over-grown with idolatry and superstition . the antichristian ( falsly called christian world ) in most abundant and over-flowing measure hath wondred after and magnified the beast , rev. . the two witnesses prophesie in sackcloth against this beast , in all parts of his dominion , by whom also they are persecuted and slaine , and yet we read not that they judge or censure , or fight for themselves with any other weapons then by the word of their prophecie , the blood of the lamb , their patient sufferings , the not loving of their lives unto the death . peace . the second reason out of the parable was , that the ▪ angels of god have in charge to bundle up these tares for the burning . master cotton replies two things . first , so these angels will gather into bundles for the burning murtherers robbers , &c. who are not yet to be tolerated . truth . i answer , if a man call master cotton murtherer , witch , &c. with respect to civil matters , i say the civil state must judge and punish the offender , else the civil state cannot stand , but must return to barbarisme . but if a man call master cotton murtherer , witch &c. in spirttual matters , as deceiving and bewitching the peoples souls , if he can prove his charge , master cotton ought to give god the glory , and and repent of such wickedness . if he cannot prove his charge , but slander master cotton , yet is the slander of no civil nature , and so not proper to any civil court , but is to be cast out ( as we see commonly suits of law are rejected , when brought into courts which take no proper cognizance of such cases . ) peace . what relief then hath master cotton or any so charged in this case ? truth . the court of heaven , the church of christ , calls such a slanderer to repentance ( whether he be within the church or without , though orderly proceeding lies only against him that is within ) if he be obstinate , how dreadful is the sentence against such a slanderer , both in earth and in heaven ? how dreadful the delivering up to hardness of heart ( a greater plague on pharaoh , then all the devouring plagues of egypt ) how dreadful the delivering up to satan , the paw and jaw of the roaring lyon ( infinitely far more terrible , had we eyes to see it , then to be thrown with daniel to the devouring lyon : ) there is no reason in the world therefore , for theeves and murtherers to be tolerated unto the last day without sentence and punishment , because transgressors against spiritual state may be tolerated to live in the world , yet punished for spiritual transgression with a greater censure and sorer punishment , then if all their bones and flesh were rackt and torn in pieces with burning pincers . peace . master cotton and others will say . the idolaters and seducers were censured spiritually under moses , and yet were they also put to death . truth . i desire master cotton to shew me under moses , such spiritual censures and punishments beside the cutting off by the civil sword : which if he cannot do , and that since the christian church antitypes the israelitish , and the christian laws and punishments the laws and punishments of israel concerning religion , i may truely affirme , that that civil state which may not justly tolerate civil offenders , &c. yet may most justly tolerate spiritual offenders , of whose delinquency it hath no proper cognizance . peace . lastly , master cotton urgeth , that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( thess . . ) should rather be translated presence then coming . truth . admit it ( though many able translators in divers languages rather translate it coming ) and that antichrist shall not be consumed by the breath of the mouth of the lord jesus before his last coming to judgement ; yet then master cotton must give another interpretation of this end of the world , and the angels , and the fire , then is usually given : however the tares shall be bundled up for the everlasting burnings , and are at present under a dreadful sentence and punishment , and therefore ( not offending in civil things ) the civil state may the better tolerate them in matters of religion and conscience ; and paul himself ( if opposed by them ) might the better wait with patience , if god peradventure will give them repentance &c. examination of chap. xxvii . peace . in this chapter , those three particulars by which the ministers of christ are commanded to let the tares alone , master cotton evades by calling them so many slippery evasions , &c. truth . i believe neither the interpretations nor the intentions of the author were evasive : for a faithful witness will not lye though a false witness will utter deceit ; however the fire shall try . the truth is , the greater part , and especially the former of master cottons answer in this chapter , comes not neer the point of the issue , for that is not whether the saints may pray or prophecy against idolaters and false worshippers , but whether or no for their present temporal destruction and extirpation . perce . unto this master cotton saith , yes , for the present destruction of some or other antichristian idolaters in every age : and he adds , it might as well be said , that a minister of christ should not denounce present or speedy destruction to any murtherers , whoremongers , &c. because though some of them may fall under grievous plagues , yet there will never want a company of such evil doers , untill the great harvest or end of the world . againe , saith he , though a minister denounce not present destruction , yet he cannot let them alone , no more then the feller of an oake , that gives many a stroake before the last , &c. . it is not credible ( saith he ) that some of the angels that poure out their vials upon the antichristian state , shall not be ministers : and when the ten horns shall burn the city of rome , it is not credible , that they will do it without some excitement from the angels . truth . the instance brought of murtherers , whoremongers &c. is most improper , because we all agree that present corporal or civil punishment is due to murtherers , whoremongers , &c. and other like transgressors against the civil state of all nations and peoples all the world over , and this in all ages and times : but master cotton himself acknowledgeth , that many prophecies and periods are set for the continuance of the antichristian state , and the idolatry and desolations thereof , and that those perieds shall be accomplished before the judgement day : nor will it appear that those ten kings that shall in the fulfilling of this prophecy burn the whore , shall do it by way of ordinance and obedience to gods command , otherwise then he permitted nebuchadnezzar and cyrus , and other tyrants of the world ( as the fishes of the sea one to devoure and swallow up another . ) and for that instance of the wood-man selling of the oake , i grant that the prayers of the saints ▪ hasten the whores downfal , and the opening of these prophecies make way for gods time ; but what is this to a present downfal before the time appointed ? againe , that it is not credible but that some of the angels should be messengers of the gospel , i answer , master cotton knows that the english word messengers , and the greek word apostles , are the same ; but no such messengers master cotton allows of : and that the word messengers in the apostles sence should imply . pastors and teachers ( which master cotton now only allows of ) i finde not in the testament of christ jesus . that those angels should be the witnesses , and the prophets in sackcloth , seemes more credible . and i may well affirme the contrary to master cottons credible , that it is incredible that any servant or messenger of the king of peace should stir up the civil magistrate to cut off those by the civil sword , whose repentance he is bound to wait for with patience , bearing in the interim their oppositions and gainsayings , tim. . peace . t is most true , according to the testimony of christ jesus ( and most contrary to the tenents and practice of the romish bloody popes , and their followers ) that christs ministers are wisdomes maidens ( prov. . ) sent forth in heavenly beauty and chastity , with meek and loving , yet vehement perswasions , to call in the foolish of the world to partake of wisdomes dainties : but ( dear truth ) deliver your minde concerning the last passage , to wit , elijahs act in stirring up ahab to kill all the priests and prophets of baal : this act ( saith master cotton ) was not figurative , but moral ; for ( saith he ) ahab could not be a figure of christ , nor israel after their apostacie , a type of the true church : beside , blasphemers ought to die by the law , and ahab forfeited his own life , because he did not put benhadad to death for his blasphemy , kings . truth . christ jesus is considered two wayes , christ in his person , and christ mystical in his church , represented by the governors thereof . some say , that israel was not in ahabs time excommunicated and cut off from gods sight , untill their final carrying out of the land of canaan , kings . and that israel remained ( though none of gods in respect of her apostacy , yet ) gods in respect of covenant , untill the execution of the sentence of excommunication or divorce : and therefore that ahab , as king of israel , gods people ( untill israel ceased to be israel ) was a figure of christ , that is , christ in his presence , in his governors , in his church , though faln to idolatry under admonition , not yet cast off . but ( . ) grant the church false , and ahab king of a false church , how will it appear that elijahs act was a moral act , and so presidential to all kings and nations ? peace . because ( saith master cotton ) it is moral equity , that blasphemers , and apostate idolaters , seducing others to idolatry , should be put to death ; levit. . . deut. . . truth . those scriptures concern a ceremonial land in a ceremonial time , before christ ; and in the same lev. . the command is equally given for the lampe in the tabernacle , and the shew-bread , as well as for the idolater . peace . but benhadad ( saith master cotton ) was no israelite , nor was his blasphemy belched out in the land of israel . truth . it is most true , that blasphemers in israel , and blasphemers against israel and the god of it , were put to death . it is also true in the antitype and substance since the coming of christ , that blasphemers in israel , and blasphemers against israel ( the church of god ) are spiritually to be put to death by the two-edged sword coming forth of the mouth of christ , rev. . and this gospel-punishment is much more dreadful and terrible , then the punishment of the first blasphemers under moses or the prephets . peace . methinks also , if ahab were now presidentiall , and that which he should have done to benhadad presidential ▪ then is there now no spiritual or mystical israel , no spiritual canaan , but the letter , ceremony , and figure yet in force , and christ jesus the mystical and spiritual king of israel is not yet come in the flesh . truth . yea then not onely a few in a city or kingdome ( suppose hundreths or thousands ) but millions of millions of blasphemers , idolaters , seducers , throughout the whole wide world , ought corporally to be put to death . peace . against this methinks master cotton should be ▪ and i am sure against this christ iesus was , who professed in answer to the rash zeal of his disciples ( luk. . ) that he came not to destroy mens lives , but to save them : but how relish you master cottons interpretation , of let them alone ( which he sees pleaseth some so well ) to wit , let them alone is no precept , but permission ? truth . i answer , if let them alone were onely by permission in way of providence , why is also a word of prohibition added , to wit ▪ that such should not be medled with , for these and these reasons , whereas although god permitteth evil doers in spiritual and eivil state in the world , yet there lies a word of ordinance to purge them out . here is no ordinance for their plucking up , but for their letting alone , and that in a merciful respect of sparing the good wheate ▪ who might be indangered to be pluckt up by the roots out of the world , by such rash and furious zeale of plucking up the tares . examination of chap. xxix . peace . master cotton referring the chapter to former agitations , seems to invite us to pass on to chapter . truth . let the chapter recapitulating the former , and the whole controversies , be referred to the consciences of such to whom these passages by any providence of the most holy wise shall be presented , and let it graciously please the father of lights , to help all his sons of light , to be truely studious of his truth in the love of it , to cast up all particulars aright in his fear , by the onely arithmetick of his own most holy and unerring spirit . peace . in this chapter first ariseth a question concerning the apostles privacy . truth . master cotton acknowledgeth them to be called to a publike ministery , let others judge then of their privacy . peace . but they were not sent ( saith master cotton ) ●o the scribes and pharisees , and so consequently were to let them alone . truth . i answer , let it be considered , how he that grants men are sent to the sheep , can rightly say they have nothing to do with the wolves and foxes . peace . in this controversie , master cotton elsewhere , will not onely have sheep sed , but the wolves driven from the sold , their braines beaten out , &c. and that not onely by the pastors or sheapherds spiritually , but also by the civil magistrate , and to that end , he is to be stirred up by the shepherds and ministers of christ . truth . such exciting and stirring up of the civil magistrate if it were christs will , how can the apostles be excused , or the lord jesus himself , for not stirring up the civil magistrate to his duty against these scribes and pharisees , the wolves and foxes , as master cotton here cals them ? peace . neither the doctrine , nor their offence at it ( saith master cotton ) was fundamental ; nor had the civil magistrate a law established about doctrine or offences of this nature . besides , christ gave his disciples a charge to be wise as serpents , and himself would not meddle with the pharisees , untill the last year of his ministery , lest their exasperation might have been some hinderance to his minstery before his hour was come . truth . i should desire master cotton againe to ponder whether the notorious hypocrisie of the pharisees ( now brought into a proverb ) and also whether the notorious transgressing ( and upon the point abolishing ) of the fifth commandment , and so consequently of all civil obedience ( with the papists ) under pretence of gods service ( although indeed but their own superstition ) be not of a fundamental guilt , both against spiritual and civil state . peace . i remember master cotton argued against tolleration of the papists , because their conscience excites them against the civil powers . truth . and whither tended these principles of the pharisees , but to overthrow all family , yea and ( if they be followed home ) all towne , or city , and kingdome-government ? peace . yea , but the romane magistrate ( saith he ) had no established law about doctrines or offences of that nature . truth . master cotton in all this controversie , pleades , that they ought to have : and though he saith , that magistrates may suspend their duty ▪ untill they be informed , yet he never saith , that the ministers of christ may suspend their duty of humble information , and stirring up them up to so high a part of their duty ; as concerns the souls of their subjects and the worship of god ▪ peace . i remember , that gardiner and boner , &c. could not make the fire burn to consume the people of god , and witnesses of jesus , untill edwards laws were repealed , and maries bloody laws were established ; and so they were forced to suspend a while untill they had conjured up a parliament to do both the one and the other , as their slaves and drudges , for them : and t is true , what the spirit of god in david pronounceth ( psal . . ) that under the maske or colour of a law ( which carries with it the name and sound of reason and righteousness ) the wickedness of the world is established : and hence the people and servants , and saints of the most high god , feele the weight of the violence of the nimrod persecutors or hunters . but this i wonder at , that master cotton subjoyneth , that christ jesus himself , and his disciples ( under the notion of not exasperating the pharisees ) should not reprove the scribes and pharisees . truth . it cannot sink with me , that the spirit of god in christ jesus himself , and his messengers , should so far differ from himself in all his former messengers and prophets , who spared not to reprove the highest priests , princes , kings and kingdoms ; nor doth the practice of the lord jesus in so many places of matthew ( before his thunder bolts shot forth against them , mat. . ) give any countenance to so loose an opinion . peace . master cotton , who argues so much against the permitting ▪ of blasphemers to live in the world , may here call to minde , that if ever blasphemy were uttered against the son of god , it was uttered by the pharisees in the of matthew , when they imputed the casting out of the devils to the power of the devil in christ jesus , and yet we finde not that christ jesus stirred up the civil magistrates to any such duty of his to put the blasphemers to death , nor the hereticks the sadduces , who denied that fundamental , the resurrection . truth . it is most true , that the cause needeth no such weapons , nor spared he the pharisees for fear of their exasperations , but poured forth on their faces and bosoms the sorest vials of the heaviest doom and censure that can be suffered by the children of men , to wit , an impossibility of repentance and forgiveness of sins either in this or the world to come . and for the present , at every turn he concludes them hypocrites , blind guides , which could not escape the judgement of hell. so that all other sences of those words [ let them alone ] that is , of not reprooving them cannot stand : nor if it were the duty of the ministers of christ to stir up the civil magistrate against such hypocritical and blasphemous pharisees , could christ jesus himself or his servants the apostles be excused for not complaining to the romane state against them ; so leaving the blame upon the conscience of the governors , if the land were not purged of such blasphemers and fundamental opposers of the son of god. let me me end ( sweet peace ) with the bottome of all such persecutions , satan rageth against god and his christ ; that devil that cast the saints into prison , rev. . ( * what instruments soever he useth ) would cast christ himself into prison againe , and to the gallows againe , if he came again in person into any ( the most refined ) persecuting state in the world . examination of chap. xxx . peace . i doubt not ( dear truth ) in the first place , but you cast an observant eye on master cottons collections in this chapter , from pauls words acts . . i will mention the two first . . that a man may be such an offender in matters of religion against the law of god ( against the church ) as well as in civil matters against caesar , as to be worthy of death . . that if a servant of god should commit any such offence , he would not refuse judgement to the death , vers . . truth . paul onely saith in the general ▪ if i have committed ought worthy of death , i refuse not to die : now therefore as paul said , no man ( that is , no man justly ) may deliver me to the jews ; so say i , no man from these words of paul ( without wronging him and his master the god of truth ) can draw such a conclusion , as if paul had acknowledged it evil in him to have preached against the laws of the jews or the temple , which the lord jesus and his servants after him , so abundantly did , although at this time ( in point of fact ) paul might well say , he had not done ought against the law of the jews . i mean the ceremonial law and the temple , for he had now observed the ceremonies of the law , and the holiness of the temple : although for this some use to blame him ▪ not discerning that paul knew there was a time to honour those ceremonies , even after christs death , and a time as much to debase , dishonour , and abolish them . peace . his third collection is , that it is lawfull even in ecclesiastical causes to appeale to a pagan magistrate . truth . as i utterly renounce such a conclusion ( any otherwise then in respect of civil violence offered for a mans conscience , which violence caesar ought to see revenged and punished ) so neither will this instance of paul prove it : for in appealing to an higher judge , a man alwayes presupposeth ( if not skill perfect , yet ) competent skill , and a true power committed from god , to judge in such cases , which paul for many reasons , both in this chapter , and elsewhere manifested , could not suppose in the romane caesars , or any civil magistrate . peace . master cotton urgeth , that these words ( verse . ) [ these things ] imply matters of religion as well as civil things . truth . those words [ these things ] were not the words of paul , but the words of festus . . grant them pauls words , yet if for those things the jews seek his life , paul well appeals to caesar against them , for caesar is bound to protect the bodies , goods , or good names of his subjects , either from false accusations in civil things , or persecution for matters of conscience , which is a violence against the civil state , of which caesar was the supreme officer . peace . his fourth collection is , that civil magistrates may and ought to ●e acquainted with all matters of religion , especially capital . truth . in twenty five parts of the world of thirty , civil magistrates cannot possibly be thus acquainted ; for the sound of christ jesus is not there to be heard , as the best historians and cosmographers yeeld . peace . it seemes strange , if christ jesus had intended any such delegation of spiritual power to civil magistrates , that he should keep the very sound of his name from them . againe , in the other five parts of the world ▪ where his name is sounded , how rarely hath he acquainted any civil magistrate with the saving knowledge of his will ? truth . i add , that such rare ones , that savingly know christ jesus and his will , are no judges in such cases over the consciences of their brethren , or any , by way of civil judicature , this very instance of pauls appealing to caesar hath and shall further declare and mainfest . peace . but what should be the reason why master cotton affirmeth , that the civil magistrate ought to be able to judge of all capital offences against religion , but not of all questions ? truth . the truth is , if the civil magistrate were a surgeon appointed of christ iesus to judge in causes that concern cutting of life and limbe , &c. he would beyond all question be able to judge of petty cuts , wounds , &c. but satan that old deceiver , that knew ( by gods permission ) how to cozen adam , david , solomon , peter ( the most perfect , wise , and holiest of gods servants ) is not now to learn how to cheat master cotton also : satan well ●ees , if master cotton should grant it the magistrates duty to judge in lesser questions , the hope of benefices and livings were gone , and the trade of synods would down : and if he should not grant it to be the magistrates duty to judge in capitals , the pope , the bishops , and all persecuting priests , would want the secular power , the servile executioners of their most wicked and most bloody decrees and sentences . peace . in the next place master cotton seemes to charge a contradiction upon the discusser , for saying , that civil magistrates were never appointed by god defenders of the faith of iesus , and yet every one is bound to put forth his utmost powers in gods business . truth . love hath charged the discusser to spare the ●●●rm of contradiction in many passages of master cottons writing , where he hath ( to his understanding ) observed them , to prevent exasperations &c. contrarily master cotton against the discusser , straines the text and margin to sound out contradictions , contradictions , to all passengers . but let us examine . and first , master cotton will not deny , but the son of perdition , the pope of rome ( whose coming and practice is by the work of the devil ) was the blasphemous author ( he and his cardinals in councel together ) of that title defender of the faith sent with great gratitude and solemnity to henry the eighth , as a kingly popelike reward , for penning ( or bearing the name of ) a blasphemous writing against christ iesus in his holy truth proclaimed by luther . peace . with what eyes and eares such blasphemous and bloody titles are to be lookt upon and heard by the chaste eyes and ears of christs doves , christ iesus will one day , and shortly make appear . truth . but what contradiction will be in the later , to wit , [ that every one must do his utmost in gods business ] when this former ( to wit , to be a defender of the faith ) is constantly denied to be any of the businesses of civil officers , and the preservation of the civil state , which charge and worke by the civil state can only lawfully ( and therefore possibly ) be committed to them ? for otherwise to take these words in a literal sence , without respect to the rules and limits of gods order and righteonsness , what is it but to fire the world with wild-fire of blind zeale , and to tumble down all gods beauteous structures and buildings into a chaos and confusion of antichristian babylon ? and this especially by the meanes of such who think and say , that they cannot serve god with all their might except they punish blaspemers , and fight against blasphemous nations , and subdue ( not only the holy land from the turk , but ) even all the world from their idolatries and blasphemies , if it lie in their power ; which spirit whether it be the spirit of the son of god , and prince of peace , or the spirit of the world , the spirit of the son of perdition , let every mans own spirit search and judge in the holy fear and presence of god. peace . but further ( saith master cotton ) it was unnecessary , yea folly and preposterous to have complained to herod , pilate , caesar , against the heresies of the pharisees : for if a poor sheep should complain to the wolves of the wolves heresies , would not the whole kennel of wolves rise up against him , & c ? would it not have disturbed the civil state , by putting them into jealousies of a new kingdome , and it was necessary the gospel should first be known and received , believed and professed , before any could be complained of for apostacie from it into heresie . truth . master cotton cannot deny , but that most of the magistrates of the world ( by far ) are such as herod , pilate , caesar were , without god , and enemies to him , yea also in that little pa●t of the world which is called protestant . now if they are but kennels of wolves ( compared with christs sheep ) as master cotton expresseth , i first demand how poorely hath christ jesus in all ages provided for and furnished his people with such main pillars of their spiritual joyes , light and confidence , as godly and christian magistrates ? peace . it is as cleer as the sun beams , that if ever christ jesus had intended such an ordinance in and over his church , he would never have been so mistaken , as to supply his sheep in all ages , and in all parts of the world , with kennels of wolves in stead of godly and christian shepherds . truth . but secondly , grant them to be kennels of wolves in master cottons sence , yet what bar is this to any from presenting , and to them from receiving such complaints as are proper to their cognizance , to their duty and calling ( were they truely called of god and christ to such a service ) to wit , to govern in spiritual , ecclesiastical or church causes ? what though a magistrate be a drunkard , whoremonger , opperssour , is it not the duty of the people to complain to him of drunkards , thieves , whoremongers , oppressors ? whom if he punish not , but countenance , &c. yet have such petitioners discharged their consciences , and left the guilt upon the right head , who should be an head of civil righteousness , but is an head of wickedness and iniquity . peace . by this argument of master cottons , the poor widow , that sued for right to the unjust judge , that neither feared god , nor regarded man , took a foolish and a prestoperous course , though commended by the lord jesus , luk. . truth . indeed ( as master cotton saith ) if we look at the probability of any wholesome fruit from such trees , we cannot expect grapes from such briars , not figs from such thistles : but looking at the providence of god , who ruleth and over ruleth the hearts of kings and all magistrates ( as in the case of the poor widow and thousand others ) as also at what is their duty and profession , to wit , to invite cheerfully their subjects to bring their complaints to them ; as also what is the duty of the wronged and oppressed , to wit , to deliver and discharge their own souls ▪ i see not but it is safe , sea sonable , and a duty , to cry even to the unjust judge for justice , as that poor woman did . peace . yea , were caesar , herod ▪ pilate ( by virtue of their places , offices , and duties ) ecclesiastical judges , and ought to have suppressed the heresies and blasphemies of the pharisees ? why should it be impossible , but they might have removed the pharisees offence , as many kings of england and france ( though evil themselves ) have stirred mightily upon complaints of their subjects against the popish pharisees of their times , yea the highest of them the pope himself ? and if master cottons doctrine be true , why must not the magistrate be sought unto , that a true gospel be received and believed ? why may not the civil power be a judge in the first receiving of the gospel , as afterward for the preserving and restoring of it ? truth . such is the brightness of the gospel of christ iesus , and the dread and the power of the two-edged sword coming out of his mouth , subduing and slaying the highest opposites and adversaries , that it will prove to be unnecessary , foolish and preposterous to run to any other sword or censures , then those alone of christs , so mighty , and so powerful , were they rightly administred , as the popish and protestant world pretendeth . peace . lastly , master cotton professeth he knows not how magistrates can know the son , and kiss him , and acknowledge his kingdome , and submit their crowns to it , love his truth , be nursing fathers and mothers to his church , and yet not be defenders of it . truth . if kings must submit their crowns to this kingdome of christ , must it not undeniablly follow , that the kingdom of christ iesus is far greater and higher then their thrones and crowns ? ( for none will submit to the lesser , weaker , &c. ) and if so , what weakness is it yet to expect , that the inferiour power and authority , to wit , civil and earthly , must defend the highest and most glorious crown and throne of christ iesus ? like as if a poor indian canon should submit it self to some royal navy , and yet must be this navies defender ; or a few naked americans submit to some army or kingdome , and yet these poor naked ones must bear ( and that seriously without i●sting ) the title of their defenders . truth . master cotton and those of his bloody judgement are not contented that the civil powers defend the bodies and goods of the saints from oppressors , from persecutors , &c. that love and affection by all gracious means be exprest more to the saints then to other people of their dominions , that all true christian meanes be used for the spreading of the name and truth of the lord iesus ; i say , this serves not the turn , and gives not content , except also the magistrate defend by civil sword , the purity of the doctrine , and the ordinances of christ iesus in his church , in punishing and suppressing the contrary by arme of flesh , whether within or without the church . peace . in this last respect i must speak an high and bold word , to wit , that the poorest youth or maid , who hath more knowledge and gra●e of christ then a king or emperour hath ( as well sometimes it hath and may come to pass ) may be a greater contender for the truth , and a great defender of the faith of iesus , then the king or emperor , and so consequently then all the kings of the whole world . truth . paul was set for the defence of the gospel and consequently every believer in iesus ( according to his measure of grace received ) and therefore , your word is not more bold then true . for spiritual defences are most proper to a spiritual estate , and so accordingly most potent , prevalent , and mighty . examination of chap. xxxi . peace . here first master cotton will not own it , that the title of iudges of spiritual causes be given to civil magistrate . truth . the parliament of england established king henry the eighth supreame head and governor over the church of england , and what is this but supreme iudge in all ecclesiastical causes ? what though the tearme judge be stumbled at by some , and the tearm head will not down with others ? yet take but what master cotton grant● : and ( as the devil himself , lay hid under samuels mantle , so ) under master cottons tearm of fathers , mothers , shepherds ( that is , spiritual fathers , mothers , shepherds ) must of necessity be concluded an headship , and power , and office of judging , when this child doth a miss , when these sheep go astray , who are schismaticks , who hereticks , who sheep , who wolves , that the sheep may be corrected and reduced , and the wolves braines knockt out . peace . they may judge ( saith master cotton ) but ( not with a church ) but politick power , and for want of which , and for giving their kingdome to the beast ( revel . . , . ) god ( saith he ) opened a way for the turkes to break in and destroy the third part of christendome , rev. . . to . truth . let it be under what cloake , or colour , or notion soever , let it be politick ( indeed ) and subtle , or plaine and simple , yet it seemes it is true , that he must judge , which will not be owned in plaine tearms , but as a protector , a father or a shepheard . secondly , those scriptures quoted do not lay a guilt upon the ten horns or kings for suffering the beast in their dominions , but for giving their power and authority unto him . thirdly , the civil peace was not dissolved but preserved for many hundred yeers before the turkes rose , to punish either the eastern or western part of antichristian christendome : so that a false religion doth not immediately and instantly dissolve the civil peace , but kingdomes and states professing false religions may flourish . t is true , god in his deep councels and times brings judgements , eternal and temporal , upon false worshipping states , especially where the truth of christ is presented and persecuted ; yet divers ages of temporal prosperity to the antichristian kingdom , prove that common assumption and maxime false , to wit , that the church and commonweale ▪ are like hipocrates twins , weep and laugh , flourish and fade , live and ▪ die together . peace . i cannot reach the bottome of this next passage of master cotton , viz. that magistrates may be subject to the church , and lick the dust of her feet , and yet be supreme governors of the church also : in spiritual matters ( saith he ) and in a right administration of them , he is subject ; but is civil things , and in the corrupt administration of church-affaires ( so far corrupt as tendeth to the disturbance of civil peace ) there the magistrates ( saith he ) are supream governors , even over the churches in their own dominions . truth . who sees not here , but by this doctrine magistrates must judge , when the church is rightly administred , and when it is corruptly administred : and that whatever the ministers of the church , or the whole church judge , that is nothing , for the magistrate if he be supream governor , he must judge ? and what is this but even in the very same respect , i say in one and the same respect , to make them high and low up and down , mountaines and vallies ? supream governors , and so above the church , anon age● to lick the dust of the feet of the church ; which master cotton will as soon make good , as bring the east and the west together . besides ( as elsewhere i observed ) what if the people will have no kings , governors &c. nay no parliament , nor general courts , but leave vast interregnums or ruptures of government , yea conclude upon frequent changes ( as all nations of the world have had great changes this way ) shall the churches of christ jesus be without an head , a governor , defender , protector ? what a slavery doth this bloody doctrine bring the faire spouse of christ into ? peace . in the passage concerning saul , master cotton observeth , that saul was not taken away for exercising civil power against spiritual wickedness in the case of witches ▪ truth . saul was king of israel , the church of god , and a typical king , the anointed or christ of god ; and master cotton himself will subcribe to the confession of nathaniel to christ iesus ▪ thou art the king of israel , which he was and is in his own most holy person , as also in his ministers and governors during his absence . it was now sauls duty to put literal witches to death in his christian israel , his church and congregation . it is true , saul forsaking the god of israel , perished for other wickedness , and among other his sins ▪ for persecuting or hunting righteous david , and therein saul is a type and warning to all the apostates and persecuting sauls of the earth , that desperation and desperate self-destruction attend them . peace . but whither tends this last passage concerning david ? we read not ( saith master cotton ) that he did exercise any spiritual power as a king , but as a prophet . will he commend sauls kingly acting in spiritual things , as just ; and shall not david ( whose name and throne were most eminently figurative of christ jesus ) be found a king in israel , the house and church of god ? truth . the patern of david , solomon , and the good kings of israel and judah , is the common and great argument of all that plead for magistrates power in spiritual cases : and indeed , what power was that but spiritual , which he exercised in bringing up the arke , expresly said to be done by king david ? sam. . what power was that but kingly , put forth in ordering and disposing the services of the priests and levites , and singers , chron. ? peace . master cotton not ignorant of this , it may be was not pleased with that passage , viz. [ that god will take away such stayes , upon whom gods people rest in his wrath , that king david , that is , christ jesus the antitype , in his own spiritual power in the hands of his saints , may spiritually , and for ever be advanced . ] truth . this power the general councels , the popes , the prelates , the kings of the earth , the civil courts and magistrates , lay claime unto , and most of them with bloody hands , yea and gods servants have too long leaned unto , and longed after , such an arme of flesh , which proves ( most commonly ) but sauls arme , an oppressing and persecuting , and a self - killing and destroying power at the last . examination of chap. xxxii . peace . this chapter containes , a twofold denyal : first ( saith master cotton ) we hold it not lawful for a christian magistrate to compell by civil sword , either pharisee , or pagan , or jew , to profess his religion . truth . he that is deceived himself with a bad commodity , puts it off as good to others : master cotton believes , and would make others believe , that it is no compulsion , to make laws with penalties for all to come to church , and to publike worship ; which was ever in our fathers dayes , held a sufficient trial of their religion , and of consenting to or dissenting from the religion of the times . hence by some is that of luk. . alledged compel them to come in , sufficiently fulfilled , if they be so far compelled , as to be conformable to come to church , though it be under the pretence and mask of comming only to hear the word , whereby they may be converted . but it is needless to stand guessing and guessing at the weight , when the scales are at hand , the holy word of god , by which we all profess to have our weight , or to be found too light . peace . master cotton therefore ( secondly ) denies that a blind pharisee may be a good subject , and as peaceable and profitable to the civil state as any , since they destroyed the civil state by destroying christ . truth . when we speak of civil state , and their administrations , it is most improper and fallacious to wind or weave in the consideration of their true or false religions . it is true , idolatry brings judgement in gods time ( and so do other sins , for we read not of idolatry in sodoms punishment , ezek. . ) notwithstanding there is a present civil state of men combined to live together there in a commonweale , which gods people are commanded to pray for ( jerm . . ) whatever be the religion there publikly professed . beside , the pharisees destroying christ , were guilty of blood and persecution , which is more then idolatry , &c. and cries to heaven for vengeance . peace . it cannot therefore with any shew of charity be denyed , but that divers priests of babel , might be civil and peaceable , notwithstanding their religion and conscience . truth . yea it is known by experience , that many thousands of mahumetan , popish and pagan priests are in their persons both of as civil and courteous and peaceable a nature , as any of the subjects in the state they live in . the truth is , that herein all the priests in the world , mahumetan , pepish , pagan and protestant , are the greatest peace-breakers in the world as they ( fearing their own cause ) never rest stirring up princes and people against any ( whether gods or the devils instruments ) that shall oppose their own religion and conscience , that is in plaine english , their profits , honours and bellies . examination of chap. xxxiii . peace . the entrance of this chapter ( dear truth ) looks in mine eye like one of the bloody fathers of the inquisition , and breaths ( like paul in his mad zeal and frenzy ) slaughters against the son of god himself , though under the name or brand of a seducer , as all persecutors have ever done : for ( saith master cotton ) he that corrupteth a soul with a corrupt religion layeth a spreading leaven which corrupteth a state , as michals idolatry corrupted laish ▪ judg. . and that apostacy was the captivity of the land ; and the worshipping of images brought the plague of the turkes , and therefore it is lex talionis , that calleth for not only soul for soul , but life for life . truth . thy tender braine and heart cannot let flie an arrow sharpe enough to pierce the bowels of such a bloody tenent . peace . the flaming jealousie of that most holy and righteous judge , who is a consuming fire , will not ever hear such tenents , and behold such practices in silence . truth . sweet peace , long and long may the almond-tree flourish on master cottons head in the armes of true christianity and true christian honour ; and let new - englands colonies flourish also ( if christ so please ) untill he come againe the second time : but that he who is love it self , would please to tell master cotton and the colonies , and the world , the untrueness , uncharitableness , numercifulness , and unpeaceableness of such conclusions ▪ for is not this the plaine , english and the bottome , to wit , if the spirit of christ jesus in any of his servants , sons o● daughters , witnessing against the abominations or stinks of antichrist , shall perswade one soul , man or woman , to fear god , to come out of babell &c. to refuse to bow down to , and to come out from communion with a state-golden-image , and not to touch what it is perswaded is an unclean thing . that man or woman who was the lambs and the spirits instruments thus to inlighten and perswade one soul , he hath ( saith this tenent ) laid a leaven , which corrupteth the state , that is , the laud , town , city , kingdome , or empire of the world ; that leaven shall bring the captivity , ruine and destruction of the state , and therefore lex talionis , not only soul for soul in the next , but life for life also in this present world . peace . all thy witnesses ( dear truth ) in all ages have borne the brand and black mark of seducers , and still shall , even christ jesus himself , to the last of his holy army and followers against his enemies . truth . how famous , or rather abominably infamous hath been the practice of all persecutors this way ? i shall pick out one instance , a very stinking weed out of babels desart ( to let pass all the bloody , bulls and their roarings and threatning of councels , popes and emperors , kings , bishops , commissaries &c. against the waldensians , wicklevia●s , the hussites , hugonites , lutheraus , calvinists &c. ) their infections and seducings . to let pass former and latter persecutions in our own english nation , which hath been ( as france , spaine , italy , low-countries , &c. also ) a slaughter-house of christs lambs ; one instance more pertinent then many , we have ( in the raigne of that wise and mighty prince henry the eighth ) of bloody longland , lincolnes bishop , acting to the life master cottons tenent against seducers throughout his diocess . what oaths did he exact ? what articles did he invent , to find out the meetings the conventicles , the conferences , of any poor servants of god , men and women , day or night ; whether the father read to the child , or the childe to the father , the husband to the wife , or the wife to the husband ? yea , whether they spake any thing ( though never so little ) out of any line of holy scriptures , or any of wickliffes books , or any good english writings : by which abhorred practices , the fathers ( caught in this bloody bishops oath , vehemently forced upon all suspected ) the fathers , i say were forced to accuse and betray their children , the children their fathers , husbands their wives , wives their husbands , for fear of horrible death on the one side , or else of running upon the rocks of perjury on the other side . peace . hold ( dear truth ) and stop ; my spirit is wounded with such relations . truth . o how were the saints , and christ jesus in them , wounded with such tenents and practices ! peace . master cotton will salve this up ( with what he elsewhere saith ) thus : longlands , and the papists religion , and the religion of england , was then false in that kings time . truth , what then ? no pious and sober man can hold all m●n devoid of conscience to god , except himself . in all religions , sects , and consciences , the sons of men are more or less zealous and precise , though it be in falshood . . but let it be granted , that the religion persecuted is false , and that a false religion like leaven , will spread , as did this idolatry of michal , jeroboam , and others ; and grant that this idolatry will bring judgements from heaven in the end , yet i desire master cotton , or any knowing man , to answer to these two questions . . where finde we , since the comming of christ jesus , a land like canaan , a state-religion , a city , or town-religion , wherein the townes , or cities , or kingdomes apostacie may be feared ( as master cotton here writes of l●●sh ) and consequently the townes or cities captivity for that sin ? . where read we of the destruction of a land for idolatry , or images , without a ripeness in other sins , and especially of violence and oppression ( of which persecution is the greatest ? ) and therefore to follow master cottons instance of the turks beside idolatry ( which saith master cotton brought the plague of the turks , rev. . ) read we not also in that scripture , and in all histories , of their detestable and wonderful whoredomes , witchcrafts , thefts , slaughters , and murthers , amongst which this bloody tenent of persecution was ever in most high esteem ? &c. peace . indeed b●●●● hath been filled with blood of all sorts r●●●lations the . but in especial manner hath the wh●re been drunk with the blood of the saints , and witnesses of jesus , revel . . truth . hence then not idolatry onely , but that bloody doctrine of persecution ( the great fire-brand and incendiary of all nations and commonweals ) brought in the bloody turkes to revenge gods truth and witnesses slaine by the idolatrous and bloody antichristians . peace . i something question , that it can be proved , that the most righteous judge of the whole world ever destroyed state or nation for idolatry ; but where this bloody doctrine of persecution was joyned with it , that is , until he had graciously sent witnesses against such idolatries , and till such witnesses were despised and persecuted , and therefore here comes in seasonably the sad exprobration of the lord jesus , against jerusalem , threatning the ruine and desolation of it , oh ierusalem , ierusalem , which killest the prophets ; and stonest them which were sent unto thee & c ! truth . i add lastly , let it be granted that a soul is corrupted with a false religion , and that that false religion , like a leaven , in time hath corrupted the state ; yet first , that state or land is none else but a part of the world , and if so ( since every part more or less in degree follows the nature of the whole ) it is but natural , and so lieth as the whole world doth in wickedness ; and so , as a state or part of the world , cannot but alter from one false way or path to another ( upon this supposition ( as before ) that no whole state , kingdome , city , or town is christian in the new testament . secondly , grant this state to be so corrupted or altered from one corrupt religion to another , yet that state may many ages enjoy civil peace and worldly prosperity , as all histories and experience testifies . thirdly , that idolatry may be rooted out , and another idolatrous religion of the conquerer ( as in the ro●a●e and other conquests ) brought : in or the religion may be changed something to the better ▪ by the coming of new princes to the crown , as we see in henry the eighth , king edward , and queen elizabeth , in our own nation , and of late times ▪ lastly , a soul o● souls thus leavened , may be reduced by repentance ( as often it pleaseth god so to work , why then should there ( as master cotton intimates ) such a peremptory bloody sentence be thundred out as life for life , &c. peace . but , saith master cotton , false prophets , in the old testament , were to die , but for attempting ; and the reason was not from any typical holiness of the land , but from the dangerous wickedness of the attempting to thrust away a soul from god , which is a greater injury , then to deprive a man of bodily life . truth . the reason to me appears plainly typical , with respect to that holy nation , and the seducers seeking to turn the soul away from the lord their god , who had brought them forth from the land of egypt , by such signes , miracles , &c. let master cotton now produce any such nation in the whole world , whom god in the new testament hath literally and miraculously brought forth of egypt , or from one land into another , to the truth and purity of his worship , &c. then far be it , but i should acknowledge that the seducer is fit to be put to death . but draw away the curtaine of the shadow , and let the substance appear , not a whole nation , city , &c. but the christian church , brought by spiritual signes and wonders from the egypt of this world in all nations of the world , where the gospel comes . justly therefore he that seduceth a soul from his god in christ , and so endangereth to leaven that only true christian state or kingdome the church of christ , he ought to die ( upon his obstinacy ) without mercy , as well under christ , as under moses . yea , he is worthy of a sorer punishment ( as saith the spirit of god ) who trampleth under feet the blood of christ : such a deceiver or seducer ( except he repent ) is to be cut from the presence of the lord , and to lose an eternal life : he that is cut off from material israel , might yet repent and live eternally , but he that is cut off from mystical israel under the gospel , that is , for obstinacy in sin ( the proper hereticke ) he is cut off to all eternity ; which punishment as it is infinitely transcendent and more dreadful in the nature and kind of it , so answereth it fully and infinitely that clause of master cotton , to wit , to thrust a soul from god is a greater injury then to deprive a man of his bodily life . peace . now whereas the discusser added , that dead men cannot die , nor be infected with false doctrine , and such is the state of all men , all nations , all the world over , until the life of christ jesus quicken them ; master cotten replies , first , dead men may be made worse , and more the children of hell then before , mat. . and therefore such as so corrupt them , are worthy in a way of due proceeding of a twofold death . secondly , such as profess the truth of the doctrine and worship of christ , they live a kind of spiritual life , though not such as accompany salvation , else how are false teachers , and such as are led by them , said to be twice dead , pluckt up by the roots , jud. . truth . dead men may be made worse , that is , more to rot and stink ; yet this is no taking away of any life . and therefore there is no proportionable reason , why the seducers should suffer a temporal death , having neither taken away spiritual nor natural life ; only thus he may be justly liable to a spiritual death , for endeavouring to hinder a spiritual life , by furthering any in their natural state of spiritual death . . for that place of iude , master cotton knows that beza propounds two senses . first , twice dead , that is a certaine number for an uncertaine . secondly , this sence urged by master cotton , which if it be to be admitted , yet is it but in appearance , as his life which in hypocrisie he professed , was but in shew and appearance , he being never raised up from the spiritual death to a spiritual life , and therefore really never suffered the loss of a spiritual life , which he never had : and yet as in typical israel , it stood with gods justice to take away the life of the seducer , which seduced an israelite from the god of israel , or but attempted to do it : so stands it with the holy justice of god , to cut him off eternally , who but attempteth to take away or hinders the spiritual and eternal life of any . peace . master cotton in the next place presumes on advantage that the discusser should say , that none are infected with natural plagues or spiritual , but such are thereto appointed , &c. truth . it is plaine that the discusser alleadged not that , to diminish or lessen sin ( let it have its due aggravation ) but as was said before in case of the not final deceiving of the elect , so was it here spoken not to derogate f●om gods meanes and remedies against natural or spiritual infection , but to abate the needless feares of men , who are apt to cry out , except the civil sword be drawn ( and so therewith the world set together by the eares ) the world cannot be preserved from infection . peace . whereas the discusser had affirmed , that christ jesus had not left his people destitute of spiritual means against spiritual infections ; this is true ( saith master cotton ) but it falleth out sometimes , that when the church hath cast out an heretick , yet he may destroy the faith of many , as did hymeneus and philetus ( tim. . . ) and if the magistrates sword do here rust , &c. such leaven may leaven the whole country &c. as arrianisme leavened the world by constantines indulgence . againe , saith he , it may be the heretick was never a member of the church ; how then shall the church do ? truth . who can marvel at this , that the dunghill of this world , worldly men under the power of satan , unto whom the obstinate person the heretick is cast , i say , that they , many of them , receive worldly doctrine , which the church as filth casts out ? &c. . as paul saith concerning the salvation of gods children : let the world perish , yet the foundation of god remaineth sure , he knows who are his , and how to provide meanes to save them , though the world still act it self , wallowing and tumbling ( like swine ) in one puddle of wickedness after another . . master cotton should read a little further in the same scripture quoted by him , where he finds not a tittle of pauls directing timothy to stir up the secular power ( as the pope speakes ) to cut off hymeneus and philetus , to prevent infection ; but tels him , that the servants of god must not strive , but must quiet themselves with patience , waiting if peradventure god will please to give repentance . peace . methinks this answer may also ●ully satisfie his second supposition ▪ to wit , if that the heretick was never of the church . truth . yea what hath the church to do ( that is , judicially ) with him that is without ? and what hath the civil state to judge him for who in civil matters hath not transgrest ? in vaine therefore doth master cotton suggest a persecuting or hunting after the souls or lives of such , as being cast out of the church , keep private conventicles &c. peace . how grievous is this language of master cotton , as if he had been nourished in the chappels and cloisters of persecuting prelates ▪ and priests , the scribes and pharisees ? as if he never had heard of jesus christ in truth and meekness : for surely ( as the discusser observed ) christ jesus never appointed the civil sword an antidote or remedy in such a case , notwithstanding master cotton replies that the civil sword was appointed a remedy in this case , by moses , not christ , deut. . truth . moses in the old testament was christs servant , yet moses being but a servant , dispensed his power by carnal rites and ceremonies , laws , rewards and punishments in that holy nation , and that one land of canaan : but when the lord jesus the son and lord himself was come , to bring the truth , and life , and substance of all those shadowes , to break down the partition-wall between jew and gentile , and to establish the christian worship and kingdome in all nations of the world , master cotton will never prove from any of the books and institutions of the new testament , that unto those spiritual remedies appointed by christ jesus against spiritual maladies , he added the help of the carnal sword . peace . but christ ( saith master cotton ) never abrogated the carnal sword in the new , which he appointed in the old testament , and the reason of the law , to wit , an offence of thrusting away from the lord , is perpetual . truth . if it appear ( as evidently it doth ) that this king ( jesus the king of israel , wears his sword ( the antitype of the kings of israel their swords ) in his mouth , being a sharpe two-edged sword , then the answer is as clear as the sun , that scatters the clouds and darkeness of the night . besides , master cotton needs not flie to the popes argument for childrens baptisme , to wit , to say that christ never abrogated d●●● . . therefore , &c. for master cotton knows the profession of the lord jesus , iohn . that his kingdome was not earththly , and therefore his sword cannot be earthly : master cotton knows that christ iesus commanded a sword to be put up when it was drawn in the cause of christ , and addeth a dreadful threatning , that all that take the sword ( that is the carnal sword for his cause ) shall perish by it . peace . and for the perpetuity of the reason of the law , you formerly fully satisfied , that even in the dayes of grace , for him that shall thrust away an israelite from his god , there is upon his obstinacy a greater punishment beyond all imagination ( to wit , a spiritual cutting off from the land of canaan ) then under moses , which was but from the temporall , the type and shadow . but master cotton proceedeth , alleadging , that the minister of god must have in a readiness to execute vengeance on him that doth evil ; and evil it is ( saith he ) to thurst away gods people from him . truth . every lawful magistrate , whether succeeding or elected , is not only the minister of god , but the minister or servant of the people also ( what people or nation soever they be all the world over ) and that minister or magistrate goes beyond his commission , who intermeddles with that which cannot be given him in commission from the people , unless master cotton can prove that all the people and inhabitants of all nations in the world have spiritual power , christs power , naturally , fundamentally and originally residing in them ( as they are people and inhabitants of this world ) to rule christs spouse the church , and to give spiritual power to their officers to exercise their spiritual laws and commands ; otherwise it is but prophaning the holy name of the most high . it is but flattering of magistrates , it is but the accursed trusting to an arme of flesh , to perswade the rulers of the earth , that they are kings of the israel or church of god , who were in their institutions and government immediately from god , the rulers and gavernors of his holy church and people . peace . grant ( saith master cotton ) that the evil be spiritual , and concern the inner man , and not the civil state , yet that evill will be destructive to such a city , it shall not rise up the second ●ime , n●h●●s . . . truth . although that it pleaseth god sometimes to bring a people to utter destruction for their idolatry against himself , and cruelty against his people ; yet we see the lord doth not presently and instantly do this , but after a long course of many ages and generations , as was seen in nineve her self , and since in athens , constantinople , and rome both pagan and antichristian . and therefore the example here by master cotton produced , gives not the least colour of warrant for the civil state presently and immediately to execute vengeance for idolatry or heresie upon persons or cities now all the world over , as he gave commandment to that typical nation of israel , which is now also to be fulfilled spiritually upon the spiritual israelite , or israelitish city , a particular church or people falling away from the living god in christ jesus . peace . whereas it was said by the discusser , that the civil magistrate hath the charge of the bodies and goods of the subjects , and the spiritual officers of the church or kingdome of christ , the charge of their souls and soul safety , master cotton answers , first , if it were so that the civil magistrate had the charge of the bodies and goods onely of the subject , yet that might justly excite to watchfulness against such pollution of religion as tends to apostacy , for god will visit city and country with publike calamity , if not with captivity , for the churches sake . the idolatry and worship of christians ( saith he ) brought the turkish captivity upon the citys and countries of asia . truth . by soul and soul safety , i think master cotton understands the same with the discusser , to wit , the matters of religion and spiritual worship . if the magistrate hath received any such charge or commission from god in spiritual things , doubtless ( as before ) the people have received it originally and fundamentally as they are a people : but now if neither the nations of the world , as peoples and nations , have received this power originally , and fundamentally ; nor can they derive it ministerially , to their civil officers ( by what name or title , high or low , soever they be distinguished ) oh what presumption , what prophaning of gods most holy name , what usurpation over the souls and consciences of men , though it come under the vaile or vizard of saving the city or kingdome , yea of saving of souls , and honoring of god himself ? beside , god is not wont to visit any country or people in general for the sin of his people but for their own idolatries and cruelty toward his people , as all histories will prove . and for this instance of the turkes , i say it was not the idolatry and image-worship alone of the antichristians , but joyned with their other sins , which brought gods vengeance by the turks upon them as was said above , from revel . . and especially their antichristian cruelty grounded upon this bloody doctrine of persecution . both these antichristian states , and since also the turkish monarchy , have flourished many generations in external and outward prosperity and glory , notwithstanding their religion is false , and although it is true , that in the time and period appointed , all nations shall drink of the cup of gods wrath , for their nationall sins , both against the first and second table , in matters concerning god and man. peace . how satisfie you master cottons second answer or question , to wit , did ever god commit the charge of the body to any governor , to whom he did not commit in his way the care of their souls also ? truth . there is a twofold care and charge of souls manifested in holy scripture . first , that which in common belongs to all , to love our neighbor as our selves , to endeavor the present and eternal welfare both of superiors , inferiors , equals , friends and enemies ; and this by prayers , exhortations , reproofs , examples of justice , loving kindness , sobriety , godliness &c. but what is this to the second charge by way of office , which in the old testament was given ▪ not only to priests and levites , but to the governors and rulers of the iewish state : of which state ( being mixed of spiritual and civil ) they were the head and governors , as it was israel , a nation of worshippers of the true god : and therein were they the types and forerunners of christ jesus the true king of israel , as he is called , joh. . the cure and charge of souls , now ( saith master cotton ) in this chapter , belongeth by vertue of office to the spiritual officers of christs kingdom : i add , and during the desolation of zion , and the time of the apostacy from christs visible kingdome , belongeth to the two prophets and witnesses of truth , rev. . but not to the kings , rulers , nations , and civil states of the world , who can be no true parallel or antitype to the israel or people of god. peace . master cotton objects jehosaphat sent abroad preachers throughout all the cities ▪ of judah ; and if that were a type of christ , it were to act that now , which typed out christ , and he fulfilled in his own person . truth . christ jesus sends out preachers three waies . first , in his own person , as the twelve and the seventy . secondly , by his visible , kingly power , left in the hand of his true churches , and the officers and governors thereof : in which sence that church of antioch , and the governors thereof , rightly invested with the kingly power of christ jesus , sent forth paul and barnabas with prayer and fasting , and saying on of hands : and paul and others of christs messengers ▪ being furnished with this kingly power , not only planted churches , but also ordained elders visited these churches or visible cities of judah ; that knowledge and teaching , and the word of god might dwel plenteously among them . thirdly , christ iesus as king of his church , and head of his body , during the distractions of his house and kingdome under antichrists apostacy , immediately by his own holy spirit , stirs up and sends out those fiery witnesses ( rev. . ) to testifie against antichrist and his several abominations : for as for lawful calling to a true ordinary ministery , neither wickliff in england , nor wald●● in france , nor iohn hus and ierome of prauge in bohemia , nor luther in germany , nor multitudes more ▪ of famous preachers and prophets of christ , both in these countries and also in spaine , italy &c. i say , no true ordinary ministerial calling can they ever shew ; but christ jesus by the secret motion of his own holy spirit extraordinarily excited , in couraged and sent them abroad as an angel or messenger ( rev. . ) with the everlasting gospel &c. peace . to apply these three wayes , or any of them , to the civil magistrates and rulers of the world ( of whom iehosaphat in that his act should be a type ) is but to prophane the holy name of god , to leane upon and ●dolize an arme of flesh , &c. truth . i grant , the civil magistrate is bound to countenance the true ministers of christ iesus , to incourage , protect , and defend them from injuries , but to send them armed ( as the popes legats and priests ) with a sword of steel , and to compel people to hear and obey them , this savours more of the spirit of the pope , his courses and practises , yea of mahomet his mussel-men , d●rg●es , &c. then the lambe of god and his followers . peace . what iehosophat . asa . hezekiah , iosiah , &c. did , they did not only by perswasion , countenance , example ( by which all are bound to further the preaching of christ iesus ) but also by force of armes and corporal punishments . truth . yea even to the death it self ▪ and this is not a bare sending out of ministers ( as master cotton gives the instance : ) for by his argument , all rulers , kings , and emperors , and other states of the world ought to embrue their hands in the blood of the many thousands and millions of millions of the poor people , if they forsake not their idolatry and embrace the religion which they say is christian and the only true . peace . no , saith master cotton , this ought not to be , because only godly and truly christian magistrates may so put forth this power of christ ; others must stay until they be informed . truth . can it enter into any christian heart , to believe , that christ jesus should so loosly provide for his affaires , so slightly for his name and fathers work and so regardlesly for his dearest spouse , as to leave so high a care and charge with such as ( generally and constantly throughout the whole world ) are ignorant of , yea and opposite to the very name of christ and true christianity ? peace . surely if this payment were offered to the governour ( as malachy saith ) to the world , or governments of it , it would not pass . truth . i never knew a king or captaine councellor or constable , officers of high or low condition , rightly called according to to god , who were not invested with ability more or less for the maine and principal points of their charge and duty . peace . it seemes indeed a marvelous , and yet it is master cottons ) conclusion , that such magistrates , yea all or most of the magistrates that ever have been since christ , and now extant upon the face of the earth , must sit down , stay and suspend , and that all their life long , from the executing of the maine and principal part of their office , to wit ▪ in matters concerning the conscience , religion , and worship ▪ of the people . truth . yea ( secondly ) in a due survey of the whole universe and globe of this world , will one of a thousand or ten thousand ( according to master cottons disabling of them from the chief part of their office ) be found ▪ i will not say fit to be , but to be at all lawful civil magistrates or rulers according to gods ordinance of magistracy but meer shadows or images set on high with empty names or titles only of magistrates ? peace . master cotton adds , although the good of souls is the proper or adequate object of the spiritual officers of christ , and the bodies and goods of the people , the proper or adequate object of the civil magistrate ; yet in order to the good of their souls ▪ he ought to procure spiritual helpes , and to prevent spiritual evils . truth . i reply , if he mean ( as it is clear he doth ) that the civil magistrate ought to do this not only as a christian by spiritual meanes , but as a civil magistrate by force of armes , it is not in order , but monstrous disorder , for then he ( the civil magistrate ) must sit judge ( judicially and formally ) in those spiritual causes and cases , which master cotton grants are proper and adequate objects of the spiritual officers which christ hath appointed . peace . yea , why may not ( saith master cotton ) the magistrate use his power ( spiritually ) in order to the good of bodies , as the officers of christ dehort from idleness and intemperance of meats and drinks &c. in order to the good of souls ? truth . the spiritual officers in dehorting from these evils or any other of that kind , interfere not , nor take cognizance of that which belongs not to their spiritual court ; for holiness in all manner of conversation is the circle wherein they ought to see all their spiritual subjects to walk . if the spiritual officers should cause by force of armes their people to walk justly , temperately , &c. as master cotton saith the civil magistrate in order to the good of bodies ought to deal in spiritual and soul-matters , i say then the eyes of the civil magistrate would begin to open and to see the horrible disorder and babylonish confusion of that which is here masked under the abused name of order . peace . master cotton closeth up this chapter with very bitter censures against the discusser . truth . the discusser may well reply , that although since the apostacy he sees not the visible thrones and tribunals of christ jesus ( according to his first institution ) erected , and although the civil magistrate hath not the power of christ in matters of religion , yet they that slay the lords sheep are not exempted from all judgement : for , if the offenders slay them corporally , the lord hath armed the civil magistrate with the sword of god to take vengeance on them . in which respect god hath crowned the supream court of parliament with everlasting honour , in breaking the jaws of the oppressing bishops , &c. oh that such glorious justice may not be blemished , by erecting in their stead a more refined , but yet as cruel an episcopacy . . if the offence be of a spiritual nature , is there no spiritual way of judging , except the church of christ be granted visible during antichrists apostacy ? hath not christ jesus given power to his two prophets ( even all the raigne of the beast ) to speak fire , revelations the . to shut up heaven , to turn the waters into blood , to smite the earth with all manner of plagues , and this untill the time of the finishing of their prophecie or testimony , when their great slaughters shall prepare the way for the downfal of antichrist and their own most glorious raising and exaltation ? there was no chapter ( which probably was master cottons oversight , or the printers ) therefore i pass to chapter . examination of chap. xxxv . peace . here , whereas it was said , if it were the magistrates duty or office to punish hereticks &c. then he is both a temporal and ecclesiastical officers : master cotton answers , it follows not : except the magistrate were to punish with ecclesiastical censures , his punishment is meerly civil , whether imprisonment , banishment , or death . truth . i reply , first , the statutes of the english nation , and the oath of supremacy , have proved the kings and queens of england heads and governors of the church of england : and if to be an head or governor be not an office , let master cotton be againe requested to ponder the instance given , which he passeth by in silence ; deny it ingenuously he cannot , and to justifie it i hope his light from heaven will not suffer him , although yet he would ●aine excuse it , by saying , they punish only with civil punishment , imprisonment , banishment or death . therefore , . here lies the mystery of iniquity , and the babel and confusion of it , that either according to popish tenents the kings of the earth must give their power to the beast , and enslave themselves under the name and vizard of the secular power to be the popes executioners , or according to protestant tenents , to wit , that kings and governours be heads of the church and yet be furnished with no church-power nor spirituall censures . peace . it would be thought some mystical and monstrous thing , that kings and governors should be obliged to act in civil judicature , and yet be furnished with no civil power , but ought to punish onely with spirituall or church-censures . truth . the blinde and the lame mans robbing the orchard is here verified . the minister ( though a blindeguide ) he is the seer , but wanting legs and strength of civil power , he is carried upon the civil magistrates shoulders , whose blindness the subtle clergy abuseth , &c. but both together rob the orchard of the most high and surea●enging god. truth . i conceive it true , that the kings and governors of the national church of israel had a national power ; and had the kord jesus been pleased to have continued national churches the lings and governors of such states might well ( as they of israel were ) have been both temporal and ecclesiastical officers . peace . but now the lord jesus abolishing that national state , and instituting and appointing his worshippers and followers to be the israel of god , the holy nation and proper antitype of the former israel ; it seems most unchristian , that either the work or the title should remaine , whether with open or a masked face or vizard . truth . therefore as it pleased god in wonderful wisdome and inconcei●eable depths of councel for a while to continue a national church national covenant &c. and to take them away as unsufficient , beggarly , and weak , either for the further advancement of his own glory , or salvation of men : so hath he taken away the administration thereof by carnal weapons , armes of flesh &c. in stead of fire and sword , and stoning the opposit●es in stead of imprisonment , banishment death , he hath appointed exhortations , reprehensions , denunciations ▪ excommunications , and together with preaching , patient waiting , if god peradventure will give repentance . lastly , if the civil magistrate must imprison and banish ▪ and put to death in spiritual cases ; and the civil magistrate , is but a minister or servant of the people ( and so of god ) and if the people make the laws , and give the magistrate his commission and power ; doth it not follow by this doctrine , that the people of the nations of the world ▪ are fundamentally and originally both temporal and ecclesiastical ? and then what is become of the foundations of the christian faith ? and also are not hereby the people and nations of the world ( whatever care be had to the contrary to restraine ) incouraged , according to their several consciences , i say encouraged and hardened in their bloody wars , imprisonings , banishings , and putting to death for cause of conscience ? peace . whereas it was said to be babel or confusion , for the church to punish the offences of such as are not within its jurisdiction with spiritual censures , or the civil state spiritual offences with corporal or temporal weapons , master cotton answers , no confusion , for so paul directs the church of corinth . truth . that very parenthesis which master cotton stumbleth at , takes away his answer . for as it would be confusion for the church to censure such matters , and of such persons as belong not to the church : so is it confusion for the state to punish spiritual offenders , for they are not within the sphear of a civil jurisdiction . the body or commonweal is meerly civil , the magistrate or head is a civil head , and each member is a civil member : and so far forth as any of this civil body are spiritual , or act spiritually , they and their actions fall under a spiritual cognizance and judicature . peace . the reason ( saith master cotton ) is the same , for there be offences which tend to provoke wrath against the civil state , ezra . why should there be wrath against the king or his sons ? truth . this reason indeed master cotton often inculcates and beates upon it , that the pagan kings of persia were of his mind ● i believe master cotton out of a zeal to god , but the pagan kings out of a slavish terror , which never prevailed so far ( that i know of ) as to bring them to a kindly repentance of their own idolatries , or a true love to the god of israel or his people . peace . however your former answer is to me sufficient ; to wit , that thousands of famous towns , cities and kingdomes have flourished in peace and tranquillity for many ages and generations , where god hath had no house , and not only where it was by the civil state neglected , but also wholly persecuted . truth . in the time appointed and full ripeness of their sins , the vengeance of god ( after patience many generations abused ) hath surely and fearefully visited , yet in the interim , it is clear it is no ground of a necessity of present punishing of false worshippers and idolaters , least present wrath fall upon the king or his son. peace . now whereas it was said an intollerable burthen laid upon the magistrates back , together with the care of the commonweal to be charged also with the spiritual , &c. master cotton answers , . that the magistrate ought to seek out meane● of grace for the people . . to remove idolatry and idolatrous teachers . . it is commonly added , that he ought to preserve the church pure by reformation . truth . i reply , this work charged upon the kings , governors , and magistrates in the world , makes the weight of their care and charge far greater , then ever was the charge of the kings of israel and judah , for their people were miraculously brought into covenant with god , to their hands , like a bridge , or house , or ship ready built ; and needed only keeping up in reparation : yea an heavier yoak ▪ then either their or our fathers were able to bear , considering all the several different consciences , religions , and worships of all mankind naturally , and the many different opinions , factions , and sects , which daily do arise , and that conscientiously and zealously unto death : all these must by master cottons doctrine ) lie before the bar , beside all civil cases , &c. peace . t is memorable that paul himself , that had the care of all the churches , would not be intangled with civil affaires , further then his own necessities did call for ; and sometimes the necessities of his companions : but this yoak put upon the necks of magistrates , is as full of temporal as spiritual care : and as it is impossible for them to bear ▪ so the lord in his holy season , may please to teach them ( as he hath taught some already through his grace ) to lay that spiritual burthen upon the shoulders of their only king of saints christ jesus , to whom the supream power and care of souls and churches doth alone belong . whereas it was further said , that the magistrate is to cherish , and to cleave unto the saints , and to defend them from civil violence , but the spiritual care of them belongs to spiritual officers appointed by christ jesus to that end , master cotton replies , this is but a pretence , because the discusser acknowledgeth no churches extant , &c. truth . although amongst so many pretending churches , the discusser be not able to satisfie himself in the rightly gathering of the churches , according to the true order of christ jesus , yet this is far from a pretence ▪ because the institution of any state government , order , &c. is one thing , and the administration and execution , which may be interrupted and eclipsed , is another . peace . indeed ieremy could not rightly have been judged a pretender , when he mourned for , and lamented the desolations of the temple , priests , elders , altar , sacrifice , &c. and neither he nor daniel , nor any of gods prophets or servants , could ( during the time of the desolation and captivity ) acknowledge either temple , or altar , or sacrifice right , extant upon the face of the earth . truth . he that saith the sun ( christ jesus ) is not to be seen in our horizon or hemisphere , in his absence , or when he suffers an eclipse , cannot be said to deny that the lord jesus his holy ordinances ought to be visible in the worship and service of god : although the discusser be not satisfied in the period of the times , and the manner of his glorious appearing , yet his soul uprightly desires to see and adore , and to be thankful to master cotton , yea to the least of the disciples of christ jesus , for any coal or sparke of true light , amongst so many false and pretended candles and candlesticks , pretending the glorious name of the lord jesus christ . peace . next , master cotton demands what reason can be given , why the magistrate ought to break the teeth of lyons ( ought to suppress such as offer civil violence ) and not of the wolves , that make havock of their souls , who are more mischievous then the lyon , as the pope of rome , then the pagan emperors ? he wonders the discusser should favor the pope more then the emperour , except it be that he symbolizeth rather with antichrist then with caesar . truth . it may here suffice to say two things ( not to repeat other passages . ) first , the civil state and magistrate are meerly and essentially civil ; and therefore cannot reach ( without the transgressing the bounds of civility ) to judge in matters spiritual , which are of another sphere and nature then civility is : now it is most just and proper , that if any member of a civil body be opprest , the body should relieve it : as also it is just and proper , that the spirituall state or body should relieve the soul of any in that spiritual combination oppressed . therefore ( secondly ) for spiritual and religious oppressions , the king of kings christ iesus hath sufficient providedly in his spiritual kingdome : therefore ( acts ) paul gives the charge against those spiritual wolves to the elders of the church at ephesus , and not to civil magistrates of the city , which paul should have done ( notwithstanding they were worshippers of diana ) if it had been their duty to have broke the teeth of those spirituall wolves &c. peace . it is ( indeed ) one thing to prohibite the pope , the prelates , the presbyterians , the independents , or any from forcing any in the matters of their respective consciences , and accordingly to take the sword from such mens hands , or ( as their executioners ) to refuse to use it for them : it is another thing to leave them freely to their own consciences , to defend themselves as well as they can , by the two-edged sword of the spirit , which is the word of god , which all the several sorts of pretenders say they have received from iesus christ . truth . the renowned parliament of england hath justly deserved a crown of honour to all posterity , for breaking the teeth of the oppressing bishops and their courts ; but to wring the sword out of the hands of a few prelates , and to suffer it ( willingly ) to be wrung out of their own hands , by many thousand presbyterians , or independants , what is it but to change one wolfe or lyon for another , or in stead of one , to let loose the dens of thousands ? peace . but why should master cotton insinuate the discusser to glance a more obsequious eye upon the pope , then upon the emperor ? truth . i fear master cotton would create some evil opinion in the heart of the civil magistrate , that the discusser is ( as the bloody iews told pilate ) no friend to caesar : whereas upon a due search it will be sound clear as the light , that it is impossible that any that subscribe ex animo to the bloody tenent of persecution , can ( ex animo ) be a friend to magistracy . the reason is , all persecutors , whether priests or people , care onely for such magistrates as suite the end , the great bloody end of persecution , of whom they either hope to borrow the sword , or whom they hope to make their executioners . their very principles also ( papist and protestant ) lead them necessarily to dispose and kill their heretical , apostate , blaspheming magistrates . peace . but why should master cotton●● ●● sinuate any affection in the discusser to that tyrant of all earthly tyrants , the pope ? truth . to my knowledge master cotton and others have thought the discusser too zealous against the bloody beast : yea , and who knows not this to be the ground of so much sorrowful difference between master cotton and the discusser , to wit that the discusser grounds his separation from their churches upon their not seperating from that man of sin ? for old england having compelled all to church , compel'd the papists ▪ and the pope himself in them : the daughter new england , separaring from her mother in old england , yet maintaines and practises communion with the parishes in old ▪ who sees not then , but by the links of this mystical chaine , new england churches are still fastned to the pope himself ? peace . master cottons third reply is this ▪ that it is not like that such christians will be faithful to their prince , who grow false and disloyal to their god ▪ and therefore consequently the civil magistrate must see that the church degenerate and apostate not , at least so far as to provoke christ to depart from them . truth . this is indeed the down right most bloody and popish tenent of persecuting the degenerate , heretical and apostate people : of deposing , yea and killing apostatical and heretical princee and rulers . the truth is , the great gods of this world are god-belly god-peace ▪ god-wealth , god-honour , god-pleasure &c. these gods must not be blasphemed , that is ▪ evil spoke of , no not provoked , &c. the servants of the living god being true to their lord and master , have opposed his glory , greatness , honour &c. to these gods , and to such religions , worships , and services , as commonly are made but as a mask or vaile , or covering of these gods. peace . i have long been satisfied , that hence proceeds the mad cry of every demetrius and crafts-master of false worship in the world , great is our diana &c. these men blaspheme our goddess , disturbe our city ▪ they are false to our gods , how ▪ will they be true to us ? hence that bloody act of parliament in henry the fifth his dayes made purposely against that true servant and witness of god ( in those points of christianity which he knew ) and other servants of god with him , the lord cobham , concluding lollardy not only to be heresie , ( that is , indeed true christianity ) but also treason against the kings person : whence it followed , that these poor lollards ( the servants of the most high god ) were not only to be burnt as hereticks , but hanged as traitors . truth . accordingly it pleased god to honour that noble lord cobham , both with hanging and burning , as an heretick against the church , as a traiter against the king : and hence those divelish accusations and bloody huntings of the poor servants of god in the reign of francis the second in paris , because it was said that their meetings were to cousult and act against the life of the king . peace . if this be the touchstone of all obedience , will it not be the cut-throat of all civil relations , unions and covenants between princes and people , and between the people and people ? for may not master cotton also say , he will not be a faithful servant , nor she a faithful wife , nor he a faithful husband , who grow false and disloyal to their god ? and indeed what doth this , yea , what hath this truly-ranting doctrine ( that plucks up all relations ) wrought but confusion and combustion all the world over ? truth . concerning faithfulness , it is most true , that godliness is profitable for all things , all estates , all relations : yet there is a civil faithfulness , obedience , honesty , chastity , &c. even amongst such as own not god nor christ : else abraham and isaac dealt foolishly to make leagues with ungodly princes . besides , the whole scripture commands a continuance in all relations of government , marriage , service , notwithstanding that the grace of christ had appeared to some , and the rest ( it may be an husband , a wife , a magistrate , a master , a servant ) were false and disloyal in their several kinds and wayes unto god , or wholly ignorant of him . . grant people and princes to be like iulian , apostate from the true service of god , and consequently to grow less faithful in their places and respective services , yet what ground is there , from the testament of christ jesus , upon this ground of their apostacie , to prosecute them , as master cotton saith , the civil magistrate must keep the church from apostatizing so , as to cause christ to depart from them . . can the sword of steel or arme of flesh make men faithful or loyal to god ? or careth god for the outward loyalty or faithfullness , when the inward-man is false and treacherous ? or is there not more danger ( in all matters of trust in this world ) from an hyyocrite , a dissembler , a turncoat in his religion ( from the fear or favour of men ) then from a resolved jew , turke or papist , who holds firme unto his principles ? &c. or lastly , if one magistrate , king or parliament call this or that heresie , apostacie , &c. and make men ●ay so will not a stronger magistrate , king , parliament , army ( that is , a stronger arm , or longer and more prosperous sword ) call that heresie and apostacie truth and christianity , and make men call it so ? and do not all experiences , and our own most lamentable , in the changes of our english religions , confirme this ? . lastly , as carnal policy ever fals into the pit , it digs and trips up its own heels , so i shall end this passage with two paradoxes , and yet ( dear peace ) thou and i have found them most lamentably true in all ages . peace . god delights to befool the wise and high in their own conceit with paradoxes , even such as the wisdome of this world thinks madness : but i attend to hear them . truth . first then , the straining of mens cinsciences by civil power , is so far from making men faithful to god or man , that it is the ready way to render a man false to both : my ground is this : civil and corporal punishment do usually cause men to play the hypocrite , and dissemble in their religion , to turn and return with the tide , as all experience in the nations of the world doth testifie now . this binding and rebinding of conscience , contrary or without its own perswasion , so weakens and defiles it , that it ( as all other faculties ) loseth its strength , and the very nature of a common honest conscience : hence it is , that even our own histories testifie , that where the civil sword , and carnal power , hath made a change upon the consciences of men , those consciences have been given up , not only to spiritual , but even to corporal filthiness , and bloody , and mad oppressing each other , as in the marian bloody times &c. peace . indeed no people so inforced as the papists and the mahume●ans : and no people more filthy in soul and body , and no people in the world more bloody and persecuting : but i listen for your second paradox . truth . secondly , this tenent of the magistrates keeping the church from apostatizing , by practising civil force upon the consciences of men , is so far from preserving religion pure , that it is a mighty bulwark or barricado to keep out all true religion ▪ yea and all godly magistrates for ever coming into the world. peace . doubtless this will seem a hard riddle , yet i presume not too hard for the fingers of time and truth to unty , and render easie . truth . thus i unty it : if the civil magistrate must keep the church pure , then all the people of the cities , nations , and kingdomes of the world must do the same much more , for primarily and fundamentally they are the civil magistrate : now the world ( saith john ) lyeth or is situated in wickedness , and conscquently according to its disposition endures not the light of christ , nor his golden candlestick the true church , nor easily chooseth a true christian to be her officer or megistrate , for she accounts such false to her gods and religion , and suspects their faithfulness &c. peace . hence indeed is it ( as i now conceive ) that so rarely this world admit●eth or not long continueth a true servant of god in any place of trust●●d ●●d credit , except some extraordinary hand of god over-power , or else his servants by some base staires of flattery or worldly compliance , ascend the chaire of civil-power . but ( to proceed ) saith master cotton , it was the duty of jehosaphat ▪ hezekiah &c. to reduce the people of israel from their backslidings because they were an holy people , and is it not the duty of godly princes to reduce their backsliding churches to their primitive purity ? it is true ( saith he ) david and solomon were types of christ , but so were not the other kings of israel and judah , who were the one ( the kings of israel ) all apostates , and the other ( the kings of judah ) many of them apostate from christ : and secondly , if they were ( saith he ) all types of christ , yet christ being the antitype , christ hath abolished them all , and so it were sacriledge or antichristian usurpation for any king to be set over christians : or if they were types of christ in respect of their kingly office over the church alone was it typical in solomon to put joab a murtherer to death , or adonijah a traitor ? and so consequently unlawful for christian princes to put murtherers and traitors to death ? further , saith he , what those kings might do in type , christ jesus might much more do in his own person , as the antitype : but he put no man to death in his own person , and therefore they were not types but servants of christ , and paterns and examples to christian magistrates , yea , ahab , who should have put benhadad to death for his blasphemy . truth . i understand those kings of israel and judah , untill their cutting off or excommunicating out of the land of canaan , to be yet visible members of the church of israel and judah , and as kings of israel and judah types of christ jesus , partly in his own person , who did that ( being the true spiritual king of israel ) which they did or should have done , in that typical national church or land of israel ▪ and ( ) partly in the officers of his kingly power and government of his church , which officers and church falling away , untill an absolute cutting off , are the antitypes ( in respect of visible government ) of those former kings of israel and judah . peace . can it be imagined that those wicked kings , jeroboam ▪ baasha , ahab &c. were figures of christ jesus ? truth . master cotton himself grants david and solomon types of christ jesus , and yet , how abominable and monstrous some of their practices ? we must therefore distinguish between their persons , and sins , and frailties . as kings of israel ( gods church and people ) doubtless they were the figures of ( the k. of israel ) christ iesus : yea it is probable that the land of canaan , with the officers and governors thereof , before christ time , was but a figure of the spiritual land or christian church , with the officers governors & administrations therof good and evil : although the applying of the times and persons each to other requires a more then ordinary guidance of the finger or holy spirit of god. peace . i remember that some of eminent note for knowledge and godliness have not stuck to affirme , that the gentile prince cyrus as he was called gods servant , anointed , or christ ( isa . ) i say , that he in a respect , as a restorer of gods people was a figure of christ iesus . truth . it is not improbable , but that the most holy and only wise ( whose works are known unto himself from the beginning of the world ) did by such famous instruments of mercy to the literal iew , type out christ iesus and his heavenly instruments , mercy and goodness to the mystical and spiritual , christian iews &c. examination of chap. xxxvi , and xxxvii . peace . in these passages master cotton first questions ( having not his copy by him ) the truth of some expressions printed as his . truth . it is at hand for master cotton or any to see that copy which he gave forth and corrected in some places with his own hand , and every word verbati●● here published . . to the answer it self , or reproof of the lord iesus given to his disciples for their bloody and rash zeal desiring fire to come down from heaven , &c. we both agree that christs rebuking of his disciples did not hinder the ministers of the gospel from proceeding in a church-way &c. . that false ●persecution in a churchway is as odious and dreadful a persecution , as any prosecution● a court of civil justice , as also that this is not the point intended , though it be reckoned up with the rest . peace . i marvel at that which follows , where master cotton saith , that it never fell from his pen in any writing of his , viz. that it is lawful for a eivil magistrate to inflict corporal punishment upon such as are contrary indeed in matters of religion : and therefore he passeth by the discussers reasons as which might well have been spared , being brought but against a shadow of his own fancy . truth . i am not able to imagine what master cotton meanes by such as are contrary minded , against whom he will not ( in this chapter ) maintaine any corporal punishment to be inflicted , when in so many of his writings , and throughout his whole book he maintaines corporal punishment , and that to death it self in many cases , against the idolatrous , the blasphemous , the heretical , the seducing , yea the degenerate and apostate . peace . love bids us take this passage as a pang of reluctancy ( in his other wise-holy and peaceable breast ) against such unholy bloody tenents . but what say you to the passage about the second beast , bringing fire from heaven ? ( rev. . ) this was no wonder ( saith master cotton ) for constantine had done the like before to hereticks , the arrian bishops against the orthodox saints . also , it is related as a different matter from the former ( vers . . ) that he had power to cause , that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed . and this fire comes not down upon the saints , but the earth . truth . master cotton i think knows that the discusser is not alone in this interpretation : if he propose any other more suitable to christ iesus , i hope the discusser desires thankfully to embrace it . but this fire being not literal , but mystical , in imitation of the true prophet elijah , and also as the true witnesses cause fiery judgements descend from heaven upon the enemies of the truth : so the false witnesses cause fire to descend against the faithful : and sure it is ( as the discusser related ) that the popish bishops in france , and england and other places have ever constantly cryed out , that the just judgements of god are brought down by them upon the hereticks , which is no smal wonder that the hearts of the sons of men should be so hardened against the light of truth in truths witnesses , notwithstanding the acts of constantine and the arrian bishops long before . peace . but this fire ( saith master cotton ) comes down from heaven upon the earth . truth . true , but it may well imply no more , then in the open view and face of all men in this world . peace . and lastly ( saith he ) it is said , that he causeth that as as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed , which is a different effect . truth . because it comes from a different cause , with respect , not to the first beast himself , but only to his picture or image , and implies , that fiery judgements descend not onely upon such as refuse to worship the first or second beast , but the very picture of the beast likewise . examination of chap. xxxviii . peace . master cotton here first observing the discussers agreement with him , that this instruction ( tim. . ) to be meek and patient to all men , is properly directive to the ministers of the gospel , he concludes that therefore hitherto his answer was not perplext and ravelled . truth . many plaine threads may be drawn forth of a perplext and ravelled string , as it seemes to me the many particulars of different natures here wrapt up together were . peace . yea , but he seems to disown those words [ unconverted christians in crete ) and more then once in the chapter toucheth the discussers credit , &c. truth . i know the discusser desires unfainedly ( with the lords assistance ) rather to die a thousand deaths , then willingly to impeach the least of holy or civil truths ; and therefore affirmeth in this case , that at his pleasure the copy ( not which he received from master cotton for there never passed such writings between them as master cotton often affirmeth , but ) which he received from another , with the correction of master cottons own hand to it , shall be ready for himself or any to view . peace . however , master cotton maintaining the tearms of unconverted converts from ier. . . ( iudah turned unto me , but not with all her heart , but fainedly : ) so iudas , an●●●as , and sapphira , balaam , the ni●●laitans , iezabel in thyatira , as also the children of believing parents born in the church , who though holy , yet cannot be conceived to be truely holy . truth . were the question about hypocrites , counterfeits and trayters in the church and kingdome of christ , these words might here rightly be alleadged ; but master cottons words being these [ unconverted christians in crete ▪ whom titus as an evangelist was to seek and to convert ] i conceive that master cotton will not affirm that the office of an evangelist was to seek to convert the church ( though possibly an hypocrite may be turned from his hypocrisie by an evangelist or private man in the church . ) . he makes in the very words a distinction between these , unconverted christians , and those iews and gentiles in the church , who ( saith he ) though carnal , yet were not convinced of the error of their way . and to conclude this chapter , the discusser readily with thanks acknowledgeth master cottons words , that it is not probable that timothy was now at ephesus , and that the subscription added to the second epistle of timothy in the english translation , is justly to be suspected . examination of chap. xxxix . peace . master cotton here argues , that if the magistrate be a prophet , and opposed in his doctrine , he ought ( from this scripture , tim. . ) meekly to bear the opposition , waiting if god peradventure will give repentance ; yet withal by the way he observeth , that if the magistrate be a prophet , he may do some things as a magistrate , which he may not do as a prophet . truth . of this no question ? but what is this to a coercive magisterial power in spiritual things , which is the question ? . since that master cotton acknowledgeth that magistrates may be prophets , and that divers magistrates of new english churches have spoken as prophets ( eminently able in their churches ) what should be the reason ( i ask by the way ) that their churches hear no more of such their propheticall gifts , but that their talent's wrapt up ? &c. peace . of this let their consciences give account to jesus christ ▪ whom they call the king of their churches , and the fountaine of such heavenly abilities : but to proceed , master cotton grants that magistrates ought to bear in the church oppositions against their prophecyings , but not continued opposings nor , seduings &c. truth . what is then the waiting here commanded , until god peradventure will give repentance ? peace . it is true ( saith master cotton ) it is not in the power of man to give repentance but god alone : neither is it in mans power ( saith he ) to give repentance to scandalous persons against the civil state ; and yet the discusser acknowledgeth that the civil magistrate ought to punish these . truth . it is not the magistrates work and office in the civil state , to convert the heart in true repentance unto god and christ : the civil state respecteth conformity and obedience to civil laws , though indeed the works and office of the ministers of christ jesus are commonly laid upon the magistrates shoulders , and they pretending themselves the ministers of christ jesus , armed with the two-edged sword of the spirit of god ( the word of god ) do commonly flye unto and put more confidence in the sword of steel in the hand of their civil ministers , the magistrates . peace . the sword of steel hath done wonderful things throughout the whole world in matters of religion ▪ and woful and wonderful ( as was formerly observed ) hath religious changes been in the english nation , and that by the power of the civil sword ▪ backward and forward ▪ and that in the space of a few yeers , in the reigne of four or five princes : but this ( saith master cotton ) is no more then befell the church of iudah in the dayes of ahaz , hezekiah , manasseh , and iosiah . truth . englands changes will be found upon examination incomparably greater , and wrought in the eighth part of the time that the changes of the church of iudah were . and yet this instance will not infringe that the civil sword of the magistrate , in a national way , is ordinarily able to turn about a nation to and againe , to and from a truth of god , in national hypocrisie , and therefore most wisely hath the most holy and only wise , by the most golrious brightness of his person and wisdom of the father ( christ jesus ) abolished his own national and state - church , whether explicit or implicit , that the two-edged sword of the word of the lord in the mouths of his true messengers , might alone be brandished and magnified . peace . master cotton concludeth this chapter with the observation ▪ that the revolt of england againe to popery wanteth scripture-light . truth . he that loves christ iesus in sincerity , cannot but long ▪ that christ iesus would speedily be pleased with the breath of his mouth to consume that man of sin : but yet that worthy servant of god ( according to his conscience ) master archer ▪ doth not barely propose his opinion ▪ but also his scripture-grounds , which i believe , compared with all former experiences , will seem to be of great and weighty consideration , and call all that wait for christ iesus to beg his spirit deeply to weigh and ponder them . examination of chap. xl. peace . to the several allegations concerning the woful slavery of all opposites of christ iesus , and the mighty power of free grace , only able to release them ; master cotton replies ▪ so is it with scandalous offenders against the civil state ▪ and yet this doth not restraine magistrates from executing just judgements upon them &c. and he adds , that better a dead soul in a dead body , and that seducers die without faith , then murther and seduce many precious souls from the faith . truth . the lord iesus commanding to give god the things that be gods ▪ and to caesar the things that be caesars ▪ gives all his followers a clear and glorious torch of light to distinguish between offenders against god in a spiritual way , and offenders against caesar , his lawes , state and government in a civil way . t is true , slatterers and time-servers use to make religion and justice , the two pillars of a state , and so indeed do all such states in the world as maintaine a state-religion , invented and maintained in civil policy to maintaine a civil state . but all men that have tasted of history or travel , are witnesses sufficient of these two particulars . first concerning justice , that if the sword and balances ▪ of justice ( in a sort or measure ) be not drawn and held forth , against scandalous offenders against civil state , that civil state must dissolve by little and little from civility to barbarisme , which is a wilderness of life and manners . peace . yea the very barbarians and pagans of the world themselves are forced for their holding and hanging together in barbarous compaines , to use the ties and knots , and bands of a kind of civil justice against scandalous offenders against their commonweale and profit . truth . but too many thousands of cities and states in the world have and do flourish for many generations and ages of men , wherein ( whatever caesar gets ) god cannot get one penny of his due in any bare permission or toleration of his religion and worship . peace . dear truth ▪ these two points being so constantly proved , i can but wonder that master cotton or any servant of christ iesus , should cry out to the caesars of this world to help the eternal god to get his due , because christ iesus grants them a civil sword in civil cases , to preserve their civil states from barbarisme and confusion . truth . that worthy emperor , antoninus pius , in his letters for the christians , plainly tels the governors of his provinces , that the gods were able to punish those that sinned against their worship ; evidently declaring , by that light of conscience and knowledge which god had lighted up in his soul , the vast difference between offenders in the civil state , and offendors against the true and only religion and worship , about which the whole world disagreeth , and is hist together ( by this bloody tenent ) i say hist together by the ears and throat , in blood and fire , as the tide of times , major vote armies and armes of flesh prevaile . peace . ah ( dear truth ) is there is no balme in g●●ead , no balances , no sword of spiritual justice in the city , and kingdome of christ jesus , but that the officers thereof must run to borrow caesar ? are the armories of the true king solomon christ jesus disarmed ? are there no spiritual swords girt upon the thighs of those valiant ones , that should guard his heavenly bed , except the sword of steel be run for from the cutlers shop ? is the religion of christ jesus so poor and so weak and feeble grown , so cowardly and base ( since paul spake so gloriously of it , and the weapons of it ( cor. . ) that neither the souldiers nor commanders in christs army have any courage or skill to withstand sufficiently in all points a false teacher , a false prophet , a spiritual cheater or deceiver ? truth . this must all that follow jesus bitterly lament , that not a spiritual sword or spear is to be found in the spiritual israel of god , but that his poor israelites are forced down to the philistins of this worlds smiths ▪ &c. and that the princes of zion are become feeble like harts without pasture , as jeremy complaineth in his lamentations . peace . now whereas it was added , that a civil sword hardens the followers of false teachers in the suffering of their leaders , and begets an impression of the falshood of that religion , which cannot uphold it self all the world over , but with such instruments of violence , &c. master cotton replies , that the magistrate ought not to draw out his sword against seducers , untill he hath used all good means for conviction , &c. and then ( saith he ) he should be cruel to christs lambs in sparing the foxes , &c. truth . who knows not this to be the plea and practise of all popish persecutors in all ages , to compass sea and land to reduce the heretick to the union and bosome of the church , not only with promises ▪ threatnings ▪ &c , but oftimes with solemn disputations , and sometimes writings and waitings , before they come to the definitive sentence and deliver him to the secular power ▪ and so to the use of those desperate remedies of hanging , burning , &c. how do the bloody popes and the bloody bonners in their hypocritical letters and bloody sentences , profess their lamentable grief at errors and heresies ; their clemency and mercy , and great pains taken to reduce that wandring , to return the lost childe , to heal the scabbed sheep ? yea and when they are forced ( as they say ) for the saving of the flock from infection to deliver such sheep to the secular power , as their butchers and executioners ; yet beseech they that power , and that ( most hypocritically without shame ) in the bowels of christ jesus ▪ to minister justice with such moderation , that if it be possible the hereticks soul may be saved ▪ but however the flock may be preserved from such ●damnable doctrine . peace . master cotton will here blame the alleadging of this : for the popish religion is false , but their true &c. truth . t is true , the papists religion is false , yet master cotton cannot pass without suspition to be too neer of kin to the bloody papist , to whom they are so neer in practice : the lord jesus gave an everlasting rule to his poor servants , to discern all false prophets by , to wit , their fruits and bloody practices . but , secondly , the holy spirit of god in this to tim. now insisted on , not only commands timothy to exhort the opposite , but patiently to wait and attend gods will ▪ if peradventure god will give repentance , and that they may recover themselves &c. peace . master cotton will not deny , together with meek exhortation , patient waiting , &c. truth . why then doth he limit the holy one of israel to dayes or moneths ? three months was by the law ( in massachusets in new england ) the time of patience to the excommunicate , before the secular power was to deal with him : but we finde no time limited , nor no direction given to timothy or his successors to prosecute the opposite before caesar bar , in case god vouchsafed not repentance upon their means and waiting . . christ jesus hath not been without bowels of compassion in all his gracious care and provision he hath made for his sheep and lambs , against the spiritual wolves and foxes ; although we read not a word of the arme of flesh and sword of steel appointed by himself for their defence in his most blessed last will and testament . . lastly , to that instance of the donatists and papists suppressed by the civil sword , no question but ( as before ) a civil sword is able , among civil people , to make a whole nation , or world of hypocrites : and yet experience also testifies ( however master cotton makes it but accidental ) that it is the common and ordinary ●ffect of the civil sword drawn forth ( as they speak ) against hereticks seducers &c. to harden the seducers and seduced by their sufferings , and to beget no other opinion in their hearts , then of the cruelty and weakness of the heart and cause of their persecutors . peace . there hath been no small noise of master go●●ons and his friends being disciplined ( or as the papists call it , discipled in the schoole of the new english churches : it is worth the inquiry to ask what conviction and conversion hath all their hostilities , captivatings , courtings , imprisonings ▪ chainings , banishings , &c. wrought upon them ? truth . shall i speak my thoughts without partiality ? i am no more of master gortons religion then of master cottons : and yet if master cotton complaine of their obstinacy in their way , i cannot but impute it to this bloody tenent and practice , which ordinarily doth give strength and vigour , spirit and resolution to the most erroneous , when such unrighteous and most unchristian proceedings are exercised against them . peace . touching the edict of antoninus pius concerning persecution of christians , and the opinion it begat in their hearts of the cruelty of their persecutors , master cotton answers , first the pagan religion is not of god but the religion of christians came down from heaven in the gospel-truth . truth . this is most true , to him that believeth that there is but one god , one lord , one spirit , one baptism , one body , &c. according to christ jesus his institution ; and that from that blessed estate the apostacy hath been made ; and that all other gods , lords , spirits faiths , baptisms or churches , are false : but what is this to many millions of men and women , in so many kingdomes and nations , cities and parts of the world , who believe as confidently their lies of many gods and christs , all which they believe ( as the ephesians of their diana , and of the image of jupiter , and ( as master cotton of the way of his religion ) that they come down from heaven ? peace . doubtless , according to their belief , all the peoples of those nations , kingdoms and countries , wherein the name of christ is sounded , whether of the greek church or the latine , whether of popish or protestant profession , will say as master cotton , my religion came down from heaven in the gospel of truth , &c. truth . now then either the sword of steel must decide this controversie ( according to the bloody tenent of persecution ) in the suppressing of hereticks , blasphemers , idolaters and seducers , by the strength of an arme of flesh : or else the two-edged-sword of the spirit of god , the word of god coming out of the mouth of christ jesus in the mouths of his servants , which will either humble and subdue the rebels , or cut most deep , and kill with an eternal vengeance . peace . but ( saith master cotton ) it will beget an opinion of cruelty to murther innocents , but not to put to death murtherers of souls . truth . i answer , beside that great and common difference of civil murther , and spiritual ▪ there is a second , to wit , that in the murther of an innocent , the conscience of a murtherer is opened , and commonly the mouth confesseth i am a murtherer , i have killed an innocent : but run through all the coasts and quarters of the whole world , and the very consciences of so many thousands of soul - murtherers are rootedly satisfied and perswaded , that they are so far from being murtherers as that they are so many saviours of the souls of men , and priests and ministers of the most high god or gods , &c. peace . for instance , if a man say master cotton is a subject of the state of england , and a minister of that worship , which he believeth to be true , confirmed by argument and light sufficient to his understanding soul and conscience : how many thousand are there fellow - subjects with master cotton to the english state ▪ yet of a contrary mind to master cotton in matter of gods worship ? yea how many are there ( it may be thousands ) professing a ministery contrary to master cottons ? and the like may be found in other nations and parts of the world . truth . what true reason of justice , peace ▪ or common safety of the whole , can be rendred to the world why master cottons conscience and ministry must be maintained by the sword , more then the consciences and ministeries of his other fellow-subjects ? why should he be accounted ( i mean at the bar of civil justice ) i say accounted a soul saviour , and all other ministers of other religions and consciences , soul-murtherers , and so be executed as murtherers , or forced to temporize or turn from their religion , which is but hypocrisie in religion against their conscience , which is ten thousand times worse , and renders men , when they sin against their conscience , not only hypocrites , but atheists , and so fit for the practise of any evil , murthers , adulteries , treasons , & c ? peace . master cottons second answer is that the persecuting emperors and governors of provinces under them , attended not to the conviction of christians ▪ nor did they endeavour to make it appear that the christians sinned against the light of their consciences , and therefore no marvel if it bred in the people a just opinion of the cruelty of persecutors , and of the innocency of christians . truth . let it be granted that the roman emperors did not attend to , nor endeavour this , yet the roman popes , and all the antichrist governors of their mystical provinces , bishops and preists , have professedly compassed sea and land to make a proselyte . peace . t is true , the history of the death of the saints , slaughtered by such persecutors abundantly testifie this , and yet their persecution will be found no other then cruelty and murther , and the opinion of it will never be razed out of the heart of gods people , whatever the whole world ( which wonders after and worships the beast ) think to the contrary . truth . and i add , that herein master cottons former position , to wit [ that hereticks must be punished by the civil sword , for sinning against the light of their own conscience ] accords fully with the popish clamors , [ the hereticks mouths are stopped , they are convinced , they have not a word to say , and yet they are obstinate ; away with them , hang them ▪ burn them . ] peace . master cotton saith , it is an untrue intimation of the discusser , that antoninus forbod the persecuting of christians upon any such ground . truth . that it may not rest upon the discussers credit or discredit , i think it not unseasonable if i present to english eyes the english testimony of the diligent and praise worthy-chronicler john speede , who also ingageth eusebi●s his credit , and thus relateth the effect of antoninus his mind in these words ▪ the emperor caesar , marcus , au●●l●us , antoninus , &c. unto the commons of asia , sendeth greeting . i doudt not , but the gods themselves have a care that wicked persons shall be brought to light ; for it doth much more appertaine to them , then it doth to you , to punish such as refuse to yeeld them worship : but this course which you take , doth confirme them whom you persecute in this their opinion of you , that you are impious men , and meer atheists ; whereby it commeth to pass , that they desire in the quarrel of their god , rather to die then to yeeld to the will of such as you are , and to embrace your form of religion : let it not seem unseasonable to call to your remembrance the earthquakes which lately have happsned , and which are yet , to your great terrour and grief ; because i understand , that in such like accidents , you ●ast the envy of such common misfortune , upon their shoulders ; whereby their confidence , and trust in their god is much the more increased : whereas , you being ignorant of the true causes of such things , do both neglect the worship of the other gods , and also banish and persecute the servants of the immortal god , whom the christians do worship ; and you persecute to the death all the embracers of that profession . in the behalf of these men , many of the provinces president have written before to my father of famous memory , to whom he answered , that they should not be molested , unless they were proved to have practised treason against the imperial state ; and concerning the same matter , some have given notice to me , to whom i answered with like moderation as my father did before me : and by our edict , do ordaine , that if any hereafter be found thus busie in molesting these kind of men , without any their offence , we command that he that is accused upon this point , be absolved ; albeit he be proved to be such an one as he is charged to be , that is , a christian ; and he that is his accuser , shall suffer the san●e punishment which he sought to procure unto the other . in this passage the wise and experienced emperor observeth many reasons for the toleration of christians , and insinuates that the persecuting of the christians , confirmed them in their opinion , that their persecutors were not only cruel ( for that is the least that can be implied in persecution ) but also as the words run , impious men and meer atheists . peace . dear truth , your observation forceth from my peaceable mind , this testimony , which oft to my grief and horror , mine eares have heard many persons ( i hope in their persons chosen of the lord ) having as they conceived , suffered persecution from the hands , and by the means of many worthy men both of magistracy and ministry of new england : i say , they have been by such persecution so far from being wrought on &c. that they have been moulded into a strong apprehension , that it was impossible that such their persecutors should be men of any fear of god ▪ but meer dissemblers , time-servers , jehues reformers , for their own ends of honor ease , and liberty from the cross of christ : which apprehension although the discusser ( to my knowledge ) hath often labored to root out of many , yet could he hardly prevaile to stir it , so groslly , odious ▪ unchristian , or antichristian , appears the ugly face of persecution &c. examination of chap. xli . peace . in the discussing of the prophecy of isaiah and micah , concerning the breaking of swords into plowshares , and speares into pruning-hooks , truely interpreted to foretell the meek temper of christians in bringing others to christ jesus , master cotton excepts against the discussers observation upon master cottons similitude from wolves which he would have driven out from the sheepfold : the observation was this , or to this effect , [ that if civil power might force the wolves out , it might force the sheep in . ] truth . the discusser denied not the use of christs spiritual power for the life of his sheep , and destruction of the wolves : but heaven and earth shall fall before this truth , to wit , [ that power that driveth wolves out , may drive sheep in . ] if spiritual power drive out the wolfe spiritual , also drives in the sheep ▪ but if civil power ( to wit , by swords whips , prisons , burnings &c. ) drives out the spiritual or mystical wolfe , the same undeniably must drive in the sheep . peace . yea , but master cotton ( too too weakly ) would please himself upon the word [ same : ] a father , saith he , with a staffe or sword may drive away dogs that might by the way worry or bite his children going to school , may he therefore with a staffe or sword drive his children to school ? and are wolves to be driven away , and sheep brought into the fold by the same instruments ? the dog that teares a wolfe , if he tear the sheep also , will finde an halter , &c. truth . master cotton hath had a name for a man of moses spirit , of a meek and gentle temper ; he cannot but know he hath lost that name with thousands ●earing god , by not putting that difference , between the wolves and the sheep , the egyptians and the israelites , as moses did : moses killed the egyptian , he reproves the israelite : all that contradict master cottons church way ( though before dear brethren , familiar and intimate ) he not only drives them out , as wolves blasphemers ▪ seducers &c. by his pretended spiritual weapons of christ jesus , but also by civil sword , imprisoning banishing , whipping &c. but more particularly , the discusser indeed useth this word the same power , but not as master cotton seemeth to understand it , for the same weapon . he hath in this very place printed the discussers words , that a staff is for the wolfe , and a rod or hook for the sheep . the dog that teares the wolf , is but to affright the sheep and consequently the father that hath a stick or rod for the child ; but yet these swords , staves-sticks , and rods , are all of the same nature in general , that is of a material , temporal and civil nature , which may be used about natural wolves ▪ sheep , children &c. and if they may be used also about spiritual or mystical wolves , to force them out ; it is as cleare as the sun-beames , that they may be used , that is such civil weapons as are fit for mystical wolves , to force them into the sheepfold : and thus have all popish persecutors practised in our own and other countries , to wit , by civil power ( as well as by their own pretended spiritual ) in forcing their supposed sheep to church , and to conformity , as well as by whips , and prisons , ropes and fires , driving out the supposed wolves or hereticks . peace . in the close of this , master cotton adds ▪ that ( rev. . . ) the antichristian wolves shall drink blood , for they are worthy . truth . i have in former passages declared the misconceit of master cotton and others ▪ as touching that scripture and that , although they shall drink blood filled out of the cups of gods righteous vengeance , yet not by judicial prosecution in civil courts for spiritual offences , although yet it is most righteous for the kings and powers of the earth ▪ meerly with respect to these wolves their oppressions and bloodsheddings , to repay them again with the like smart and paine , and kinds of punishment . peace . yea and t is for ever memorable , that while the kings of the earth have given their power to the beast , against the bodies of the saints , what cups of blood hath the righteous hand of the most high filled to antichristian kings and kingdomes , by the bloody turkes , and by their own more bloody wars ▪ sometimes for the empty puffs of their titles and honors , but as frequently for god ( as they pretend ) and for his religion . examination of chap. xlii . peace . in this chapter master cotton chargeth the discusser for making work , to wit , for examining more particularly the similitude of wolves brought in by master cotton himself : yet he consenteth with him in the first quaery , that those wolves of which paul warns the elders at ephesus , were mystical and spiritual wolves ; yet he adds that such cannot be good subjects , loving neighbors , faire dealers , because they spiritually are not such ; and he argues , that then it will be no advantage to civil states ▪ when the kingdomes of the earth shall become the kingdomes of the lord : and that then they may do as good service to the civil state , who bring the wrath of god upon them by their apostacy , as they that bring dow blessings from heaven by profession and practise of the true religion in purity . truth . i desire that this reply be well pondred , for it will be found dangerously dest●●ctive to the very roots of all civil relations , converse and dealing ; yea , and any civil being of the world it self . for , if none be peaceable subjects , loving neighbors , faire dealers , but such of master cottons conscience and religion ( which he conceives to be the only true religion ) what will become of all other states , governments , cities , towns , peoples families neighbors , upon the face of the earth ? i say , what will become of them ( especially if power were in master cottons hand to deal with them as wolves ? ) peace . alas , too too frequent experience tels us in all parts of the world , that many thousands are far more peaceable subjects , more loving and helpful neighbors , and more true and fair dealers in civil conversation , then many who account themselves to be the only religious people in the world . truth . but againe , what the state of things shall be , and what the manner of the administration of christs kingdome , when the kingdomes of the earth shall become the kingdomes of the lord master cotton doth not express : and for wrath brought upon civil states for their apostacy , i' desire master cotton to shew , where ever god destroyed any nation in the world ( one only excepted ) for apostacy from his truth and worship ? yea and where was ever israel ( the only true national church that master cotton will acknowledge ) meerly for apostasie destroyed , without general ripeness in other sins also , and especially for their persecuting of such , as declared their apostasie , superstition , and will-worship from god unto them . peace . in the next place master cotton granting that the charge given to watch against these wolves , was not given to the magistrates of the city of ephesus , but to the elders of the church of christ in ephesus , he yet chargeth the discusser with a palpable and notorious slander , for saying , that many of those charges and exhortations given by the lord jesus to the shepherds and ministers of the churches , are commonly attributed by the answerer in this discourse to the civil magistrate . truth . this heavy charge of master cottons against the discusser , will be found to be a fruit of anger and passion , and not of reason and moderation ; as also his denyal that one of those charges given to ministers , were directed by him to magistrates . for if master cotton , or any please to view over master cottons allegations from the new testament in this discourse , he shall finde that ( tit. . ) reject the heretick a charge given by the lord jesus to titus and the church at crete is brought for the proof of the magistrates punishing , imprisoning banishing , killing the heretick idolater &c. the like charges of christ jesus sent to the ministers and churches of asia , for tolerating amongst them balaam and jezabel ▪ are produced to prove prosecutions against false prophets and professors in the city and commonweal . yea although master cotton name not act. . yet in that master cotton affirmeth that magistrates with the civil sword must drive away wolves from the sheepfold of christ the church , meaning spiritual wolves , false teachers , he may be truly said to quote all such scriptures as give charge against such wolves . peace . indeed master cotton more then once pleaseth himself with this similitude of wolves ▪ to prove the magistrates piety and pity to the sheep , in slaying and driving away the wolves ▪ false teachers , &c. truth . hence was it ( for commonly where state-religions are set up , the magistrate is but the ministers cane through whom the clergy speaks ) i say probably hence from such misapplyed scriptures in their churches , that in their solemn civil general court , at the banishment of one poor man amongst them , hunted out as a wolf or heretick , the governor who then was , standing up alleadged for a ground of their duty to drive away such by banishment , that famous charge of christ jesus to his ministers and church at rome ( rom. ) marke them that cause divisions contrary to the doctrine which you have received , and avoid , that is , by banishment : by all which and more it may be found , how sathan hath abused their godly minds and apprehensions in causing them so to abuse the holy writings of truth and testament of christ jesus , and that how ever they deny it in express tearms , yet by most impregnable consequence and implication they make up a kind of national church , and ( as the phrase is ) a christian state and government of church and commonweale , that is , of christ and the world together . peace . to proceed , it being further inquired into , whether in all the new testament of christ jesus there be any such word of christ , either by way of command , promise , or example ▪ countenancing the civil state to meddle with these mystical wolves , if in civil things peaceable and obedient . master cotton replieth , that this condition of peaceable and obedient , implies a contradiction to the nature and practise of wolves . how can , saith he , wolves be peaceable and obedient , unless restrained ? can there be peace , jehu ▪ so long as the whoredomes of jezabel and her witchcrafts are so many ? and when it might be objected that spiritual whoredomes and witchcrafts might stand with civil peace , he answers , no verily ▪ for the whoredomes and witchcrafts of the jezabel of rome took away civil peace from the earth , and brought the turks to oppress both the peace of christian churches and commonweals , rev. . , . truth . i wonder since master cotton in this very passage mentioneth the spiritual wolves , whores , and witches , as well as natural and moral ▪ how he can imagine that a spiritual wolf or witch ( to wit so or so in matters of spiritual worship and religion ) might not possibly be peaceable and obedient in civil things . peace . yea but he alleadgeth the whoredomes of the jezabel of rome . truth . why , was not the state of england , the kings and queens ▪ and parliaments thereof , lawful as kings and states , though overwhelmed and overspread universally with the romish abominations ? if such wolves , whores , and witches could yeeld no civil obedience , could they then exercise ( by the same argument ) any civil authority ? and shall we then conclude all the former popish kings and parliaments ( and consequently lawes ) unlawful , because in spiritual things they were as wolves , &c. tearing and burning the poor sheep of christ ? will it not then be unlawful for any man , that is perswaded the whole nation where he lives is idolatrous , spiritually whorish , &c. i say unlawful for him to live in such a state , although he might with freedome to his own conscience ? whither will such kind of arguing drive at last , but to pluck up up the roots of all states and peoples in the world , as not capable to yeeld civil obedience , or exercise civil authority , except such people , magistrates , &c. as are of master cottons church and religion . peace . methinks experience ( were there no scripture nor reason ) might tell us how peaceable and just neighbors and dealers many thousands and millions of jews , turks , antichristians , and pagans are to be found , notwithstanding their spiritual whoredoms ▪ witchcrafts , &c. truth . yea , and why doth master cotton alleadge the jezabel of rome , and the comming in of the turks ? it is true , god brought in the armies of the turkes upon the eastern empire , which yet flourished many ages ( even in their apostacies ) before their destruction by the turkes . and how many ages and generations hath iezabel of rome sitten as a queen in triumphant peace and glory , even since the rising of the turks ( and so shall sit probably in greater and greater , untill the time of her appointed judgement and downfal ? if christ jesus were a true prophet ( iohn . ) outward peace , prosperity ▪ riches , honor , is the portion of this world , notwithanding their idolatries , apostacies , blasphemies : but the portion of christs followers ( like his own , and both like a woman in travel ) paine and sorrow , yea poverty and persecution , untill the great day of refreshing , neer approaching . peace . master cotton againe sends us to revelations the . , , , . truth . and i must also send master cotton and the reader to our disproving of that proof abovesaid . further , whereas he calls rom. . the great charter for all magistrates to deal in spiritual matters , i have and shall manifest in the examinations upon that place , how weak a warrant it is for the civil state ▪ and the officers thereof , to conceive themselves spiritual physitians , by vertue of their office , appointed by god , in spiritual and soul-evils . peace . whereas it was urged , that magistrates beside their skil in civil laws and government , must be able ( if master cottons bloody tenent be true ) as judges and heads to determine spiritual causes and controversies ▪ and that by the sight of his own eyes , and not other mens ; master cotton replies , that magistrates ought to be skilled in the fundamentals of religion , and that their ignorance excuseth not . truth . in this passage master cotton wa●eth that inference [ that then magistrates must be heads and judges in spiritual causes : ] that inference cannot possibly be avoided if we grant it their duty ( as master cotton seemes to do ) to pass sentence in the fundamentals of religion , and in those points which have been and are so greatly controverted among all sorts of men that name the name of christ . . if magistrates must thus judge , reforme &c. where hath been the care of christ iesus to appoint in all parts of the world , such magistrates as might take care of his religion and worship ? why hath he not furnished them with some capacity and ability to the work ? peace . it is lamentable to think that most of the magistrates in the world ( beyond compare ) know not so much as whether there be a christ or no. truth . if christ iesus had forgotten himself for three hundred yeers together , furnishing his church with no other heads , but of wolves , bear , lyons , and tygers , the romane emperors yet ( after a little refreshing by constantine , theodosius &c. ) why should he still forget himself ( even a thousand yeers together , providing no other heads , but bloody and popish kings and emperors ? peace . what think you ( dear truth ) of master cottons grant of gallios not being bound to judge in matters of religion , because he had no law from caesar whose deputy he was ? truth . i answer what if he had not a law from caesar , if yet he had a law from christ iesus , as master cotton implies ? or will master cotton suspend the execution of christs will , upon the kings states , or peoples minds that choose such magistrates to be their deputies in the commonweale ? but the truth is , concerning gallio ▪ whatever he was in his person , and however he did evil in suffering the peace to be broken ; yet will master cotton never prove , that he had calling from either god or man , to go beyond his civil magistracy and office to intermeddle with matters of a spiritual nature and that gallio knew well enough , and other magistrates of the world shall know in the lords most gracious appointed season . peace . the discusser ending this chapter with the infallible safety of gods chosen , notwithstanding all ravenous wolves , &c. master cotton replies from deut. . that god was able to keep his sheep in israel , yet they that seduced them were to be put to death . truth . that argument was not alleadged with the derogation to any of gods holy ordinances , which concern the calling or preserving of such whom god hath chosen to salvation , but only to discover the over-busie fear of gods loosing any of his chosen to salvation , by the jaws of spiritual wolves , &c. for deut. . let master cotton produce such a miraculous nation or people ( as i may call it ) so brought out of the land of egypt into covenant with god &c. and i shall readily grant that seducers of such a people from such a god , are worthy to die a thousand deaths : but if master cotton will now tell me that the christian congregational church is the israel of god , and the coming forth of egypt is now mystical and spiritual , why will he not content himself with a mystical and spiritual death to be inflicted upon him that shall seduce an israelite from the lord his god ? examination of chap. xliii . peace . upon the fifth query to wit , whether the elders of the church at ephesus were not sufficiently furnished by the lord jesus to drive away these spiritual and mystical wolves , master cotton replies , by granting , that they were furnished with sufficient power to cast them out of the church ; but being cast out , they had not sufficient power to drive them away from conferring and corrupting the members of the church , or other godly ones out of the church ; and he adds , that it is no dishonour to christ , nor impeachment to the sufficiency of his ordinances left by christ , that in such a case the minister of justice in the civil state , should assist the ministers of the gospel in the church state . truth . this grant and this addition do as ill agree , as light and darkeness , christ and belial together . for , is the church or kingdome of christ jesus sufficiently furnished ( that is , in it self without the help of the civil magistrate ) to excommunicate , to cast these wolves out of the fold : oh let m. cotton then , and all that love christ jesus in truth , observe what evidently follows ▪ then is this church of christ sufficiently furnished to receive such persons in againe upon repentance , then sufficiently furnished at first to be congregated together by christs means to ordaine their officers , to judge of doctrines and persons , and all this ( necessarily upon master cottons grant ) without the help of the civil magistrates . peace . yea , and it seemes to me incredible , and unreasonable , that christ jesus should have left power and authority sufficient to take and bind a rebel against his kingdome , to arraigne him and pass sentence upon him ▪ yea and execute him in the cutting off such an offendor from the land of the living , delivering him over into the power of that roaring lyon the devil ; and yet that christ iesus should not have left power sufficient ( in such publick ▪ high and solmne actions of his kingdome ) to declare sufficient cause of such proceedings , by which all men may see , the goings of the son of god in his church and kingdome , or if willfully blind , may justly be further hardned . truth . the place from titus alleadged ( unto which many other scriptures testifie ) i say that place doth evidently shew , that the power of christ iesus left in the hand of his churches and elders , was not only sufficient to cast out such wolves , but even to stop or muzzle their mouthes ( whatever their gainsaying be , whether by conferring , preaching , printing &c. ) which takes off the plea of the great need of the civil sword , to correct the conference of such persons &c. when by the words of paul it is here plaine , that they can perform such conferences , no otherwise , but with a stopt or muzled mouth . let it be produced where christ iesus in such cases writes to the magistrates ( either of crete , or ephesus , or any other civil jurisdiction where the churches were resident ) to help the ministers and churches with their civil powers , after they had cast forth any person obstinate : doubtless christ iesus in paul and other of his servants would have written to some or such magistrates in some place or others having occasion to write to so many churches about such cases . peace . it will ( possibly ) be said , it had been in vaine , for they were idolaters and persecutors . truth . the lord is pleased throughout the whole scripture in the mouths of his servants and prophets to call for duties at the hands of all men , notwithstanding their natural hardness and inability , that so he might drive them to see their duty and misery , and remedy alone in god by christ jesus . peace . i see now , that this hindring of conference &c. by the civil sword is nothing else but a conformity with the pope in defending his canons , and with the turk in guarding his alcoran by fire and sword ; with whom , and their ways christ jesus hath no conformity nor communion , nor with their carnal sword , his two-edged sword that proceedeth out of his mouth rev. . beside ▪ christ jesus hath not onely furnished his church with power sufficient to excommunicate , but every one of his followers with a compleat armour from head to foot ( helmet ▪ breast-plate sword and target , and and spiritual shoes ( ephes . . ) in which respect the least of christs servants are inabled to stop the mouth of papists , pope , turks and devils . peace . yea all experience shews how christ jesus ( little david ) in the least of his servants , hath been able with those plaine smooth stones out of the brook of holy scripture , to lay groveling in their spiritual gore , the stoutest champions ( popes , cardinals , bishops , doctors ) of the antichristian philistins . truth . i add , if the elders , and churches , and ordinances of christ have such need of the civil sword for their maintenance and protection ( i mean in spiritual things ) sure the lord jesus christ cannot be excused for not being careful either to express this great ordinance in his will and testament , or else to have furnished the civil state and officers thereof with ability and hearts for this their great duty and employment , to which he hath called them ; the contrary whereof in all ages , in all nations , and in all experience , hath ever been most lamentably true . peace . i am not clear ( dear truth ) in the distinction , master cotton makes of christs ministers in the gospel , and christs ministers in the civil state . truth . there is a mistake in it , for although christ hath all power delivered to him in heave and earth , yet as touching his spiritual church or kingdome he disclaimes it to be of the world , or worldly . hence cannot the civil state or officers thereof be called christs ▪ as if they were of christs institution and appointment , himself being their spiritual head . and therefore it is that the spirit of god cals him the head of the body , which is the church , and the ministers and officers of this his kingdome and body christs ministers or servants . beside , master cotton will not say that the kingdomes of the world are yet become the lord christs : in what manner also those kingdomes shall become his , we have need of the holy spirit to evidence and demonstrate to us . peace . to the fifth query , whether ( as men deal with wolves ) these wolves at ephesus were intended by paul to be killed , their braines dasht out with stones , staves , halberts , guns , &c. in the hands of the elders of ephesus : master cotton replies , elders must keep within the bounds of their calling : but such courses were commanded the people of god by order from the judges , deut. . and where it was added , that comparing things spiritual with spiritual , spiritual and mystical wolves should be spiritually and mystically slaine . master cotton replies true , but in destroying religion they also disturbe the civil state , and accordingly are to be dealt withal by civil justice , as achan was for troubling israel , iosh . . . truth . this acknowledgement of master cotton , that these wolves must spiritually be killed , their braines dasht out by the elders and saints might ( if the lord should graciously so please ) easily satisfie himself and all men , that the type of israel stoning and killing corporally , is here fulfilled in all dreadful abundance spiritually . peace . yea , but saith master cotton , they disturbe the civil state as achan did . truth . i answer , achan troubling of israel , the people of the lord , must figure out any such like troubling gods israel , the church of christ , for which he is accordingly to be spiritually stoned or executed : for , as touching the civil state of the nations of the world , who can prove ( and master cotton will not affirme ) that they are as the national church of the iews was ? but being meerly civil , are armed with civil power and weapons for their civil defence against all disturbers of their civil state , as also master cotton confesseth the spiritual state is furnished with spiritual power against all the disturbers of its spiritual peace and safety . peace . now whereas it was further added , that under pretence of driving away the wolves , and preserving the sheep that streams of the blood of saints have been spilt &c. master cotton replies , belike it is a milky , and peaceable , and gospel-like doctrine , that the wolves ( hereticks ) are to be tolerated , not an haire strook from their heads ; but for the poor sheep , for whom christ died , let them perish , unless christ mean to preserve them alone with his immediate hand and no care of them belongs to the civil magistrate . truth . i have here in this discourse shewed with what honorable and tender respect every civil magistrate is bound to honor and tender christ iesus in his christian sheep and shepherds , but withall , that it is against christianity for the civil magistrate or civil state , to imagine that all a whole nation was or ever will be called to the union of gods spirit in communion with god in christ : also , that it is against civil justice for the civil state or officers thereof to deal so partially in matters of god , as to permit to some the freedome of their consciences and worships , but to curbe and suppress the consciences and souls of all others of their free-born people &c. peace . to end this chapter : whereas it was said , is not this to take christ ▪ and to make him a temporal king by force ? is not this to make his kingdom of this world , and to set up a civil and temporal israel ? to bound out a new holy land of canaan ? yea and to set up a spanish inquisition in all parts of the world , to the speedy destruction of millions of souls , and to the frustrating of the sweet end of the coming of the lord iesus , which was to save mens souls ( and to that end not to destroy mens bodies ) by his own blood . to this master cotton replies , when the kingdomes of the earth shall become the kingdomes of the lord ( rev. . ) it is not by making christ a temporal king , but by making temporal kings nursing fathers to the church . truth . if the scripture [ at the sound of the seventh trumpet ] which is the last of the great woes , when the time of gods wrath shall be come , be to be understood of the removing of the kingdomes of the world unto christ , master cotton cannot excuse christ iesus from being a temporal king , and the kings of the earth to be but as inferior and subordinate officers : for if they administer christs kingdome temporally , as deputies officers or ministers temporally , he is much more then himself a temporal king and monarch . peace . methinks also ; if that committing of all judgement to the son ( iohn . ) be meant of temporal judgement in spiritual things , then can he not be said , not to be a temporal king , then can he not be said ( when those words were spoken and ever since ) not to have exercised a temporal government . the contrary whereof is most true , both at his first coming , and ever since , in all generations , it having been his portion , and the portion of his followers to be judged by this world , although himself and his judge the world spiritually , and will shortly pass an eternal sentence upon all the children of men . peace . master cotton addeth , this will not set up a civil or temporal israel , unless all the members of the commonwealth be compelled to be members of the church . truth . if that will do it then christ must be a temporal king , i say ▪ then , when the kingdomes of the earth shall become the kingdoms of the lord , for shall not the kings of the earth compel all christs sheep to submit unto christ iesus their heavenly shepherd ? peace . yea secondly , will it not prove that all those common-weals , where men are compelled explicitly or implicitly to be members of the church , are holy lands of canaan , and if so , oh that master cotton and other worthy servants of god , may timely consider , whether an explicit forcing of all men to come to church , because men cannot be denied to be members ( at least by implication ) with such members and congregations , with whom they do ordinarily assemble and congregate ▪ although they be injuriously ( indeed but injuriously ) kept off from communion and participation of all ordinances , which is indeed their right and due if they be ( though but implicitly ) constrained and forced to partake of any . againe ( saith master cotton ) it is no spanish inquisition to preserve the sheep of christ from the ravening of the wolves , but this rather ( which is the practice of the discusser ) to promote the principal end of the spanish inquisition , to advance the romish tyranny , idolatry and apostacie ▪ by proclaiming impunity to their whorish and wolvish emissaries . truth . if the nations of the world must judge ( as they must by master cottons doctrine ) who are christs sheep , and who are wolves , which is a whore ( spiritually ) and which the true spouse of christ , and accordingly persecute the whores and wolves , this then they must do according to their conscience , or else ( as master cotton elsewhere ) they must suspend . what is this but either to set up a spanish inquisition in all territories , or else to hang up all matters of religion ( by this suspension he speakes of ) untill the civil states of the world become christian , and godly , and able to judge , &c. and what is this in effect , but to practise the very thing which he chargeth on the discusser , to wit , a proclaimning an impunity , all the world over , except only in some very few and rare places , where some few godly magistrates may be found rightly informed , that is according to his own conscience and religion . peace . yea further ( which i cannot without great horror observe ) what is this but to give a woful occasion at least to all magistrates in the world ( who will not suspend their bloody hands from persecuting , until master cotton shall absolve them from their suspension , and declare them godly , and informed , and fit to draw their swords in matters of religion ) i say occasion ( at least ) to all the civil powers in the world , to persecute ( as most commonly they have ever done and do ) christ himself , the son of god in his poor saints and servants . truth . yea , if master cotton and his friends of his conscience should be cast by gods providence ( whose wheels turn about continually in the depth of his councels wonderfully ) i say should they be cast under the reach of opposite swords , will they not produce master cottons own bloody tenent and doctrine to warrant them ( according to their consciences ) to deal with him as a wolfe ▪ an idolater , an heretick , and as dangerous an emissary and seducer as any whom master cotton so accounteth ? but lastly , master cotton hath no reason to charge the discusser with an indulgence or partiality toward romish and wolvish emissaries , his judgement and practise is known so far different , that for departing too far from them ( as is pretended ) he suffers the brands and bears the marks of one of christs poor persecuted hereticks to this day : all that he pleaded for ▪ is an impartial liberty to their consciences in worshiping god as well as to the consciences and worships of other their fellow-subjects . peace . when mathias the second king of hungary bohemia &c. ( afterward emperor ) granted to his protestant subjects the liberty of their consciences , doubtless it had been neither prudence nor justice ▪ to have denyed equal liberty to all of them impartially . but to finish this chapter , master cotton lastly affirmeth , that it is not frustrating of the sweet end of christs coming which was to save souls , but rather a direct advancing of it , to destroy ( if need be ) the bodies of those wolves , who seek to destroy the souls of those for whom christ died , and whom he bought with his own blood . truth . the place referred to , was luk. . where the lord jesus professeth unto the rash zeal of his disciples ( desiring that fire might come down from heaven upon the refusers of christ ) that he came not to destroy mens lives but to save them : from whence it appears that christ jesus had no such intent ( as master cotton seems to make him to have had ) to wit , to save souls by destroying of bodies : but to save soul and body , and that for soul sake , for religion sake , for his sake , the bodies of none should be destroyed , but permitted to enjoy a temporal being ▪ which also might prove a means of their eternal life and salvation , as it may be was the very case of some of those samaritans . examination of chap. xliv . peace . the next scripture produced by the prisoner against persecution for cause of conscience was cor. . the weapons of our warfare are not carnal , but mighty through god , &c. unto which master cotton answers , that he speaks not there of civil magistrates . it was replied , true , for in spiritual things the civil weapons were improper , though in civil things most proper and suitable . master cotton now replying grants , that it is indeed improper for a magistrate to draw his sword in matters spiritual , yet saith he , about matters spiritual they may , as to protect in peace , and to stave of disturbers and destroyers of them : and he adds , if it were unfitting for carpenters to bring axes and hammers to build up the spiritual kingdome of the church of christ , yet their tooles are fit to build scaffolds for hearing . truth . it is strange , and in my understanding suits not with the rest of master cottons discurse , to wit , that which master cotton here acknowledgeth , that a magistrate is not to draw his sword in spiritual things , but only about them : when throughout the discourse he maintaines , that the magistrate must suppress the heretick ▪ blasphemer , idolater , seducer ▪ that he must reforme the church , punish the apostate , and keep the church in her purity ; which whether they be spiritual matters or no , let such as be spiritual judge . peace . he is ( saith master cotton ) to draw his sword about spiritual matters , to protect in peace , as a carpenter may build scaffolds , &c. truth . if master cotton mean civil peace , he knows we agree , for all the officers of peace and justice ought to attend that work : but if he mean spiritual , to wit , that by his sword he is to provide , that no man dispute against his religion , that no man preach nor write against it , let it be well weighed , whether the sword be not now used in spiritual matters : as also whether in such cases and others before mentioned ; the civil magistrate be not bound by master cottons doctrine to interpose as judge in these controversies , to pass sentence and to punish whom he judgeth delinquent , notwithstanding that both parties and both religions are right , and righteous and holy in their own perswasions and consciences . peace . beside , i know you deny not civil conveniences in gods worship , and ( therefore when there is need upon occasion ) the help of a carpenter to build scaffolds . truth . true , but since master cotton compares the work of the magistrate to the building of a carpenters scaffold , let us in the fear of god consider , if this similitude ( like some scaffolds ) be not all too weak ▪ whereon to hazard so mighty a weight and burthen : for what should we think of such a carpenter , that after he hath built his scaffold for people more conveniently to hear the word of god suffers no man to preach in the whole country ( where his scaffolds are set up ) but whom he pleaseth , nor no doctrine to be taught but what he liketh ; no church to be gathered , no persons to make up this church , no persons to receive the sacrament but what he approves of : yea and further with broad axes and hammers ▪ and other tooles of violence ▪ should compel all persons ( directly or indirectly ) to come to church , to make use of his scaffold &c. whether this be not the true state of the business ▪ the carpenters son christ jesus will shortly more and more discover , and break , and tumble down those painted scaffolds and fairest houses ▪ which are not built and framed according to the first most blessed line and rule of his holy institution and appointments . examination of chap. xlv . peace . upon the unfitness ( alleadged ) of spiritual weapons to batter a natural or artificial hold , and consequently the unfitness of natural and carnal weapons to batter the spiritual strong holds in the heart , master cotton replies , that he allows not the civil state to make use of their civil weapons to batter down idolatry and heresie in the souls of men : but if ( saith he ) the idolater or heretick grow obstinate , worseand worse , deceiving himself , &c. now , he maketh not use of stocks and whips ( which will but exasperate the malady ) but of death and banishment , that may cut him off from the opportunity of spreading his leaven , &c. truth . methinks in this passage , master cotton resembleth an armed man , who being almost convinced , or overcome by the spirit of god in the former part of this passage ( granting how unproper and unfit carnal weapons be in spiritual matters ) yet being loath to yeeld , and holding up the goodness of his cause , he recovers again , and grows more fierce and violent : for bearing more gentle stroaks of stocks and whips , he cuts deeper with no less then quick and dreadful gashings of death or banishment , that the world ( were he one of the worlds monarchs ) may be rid of such 〈…〉 peace . oh , how can master cotton wash this tenent from blood ! truth . yea whether this tenent be not invented ( as once that learned chancellor of england said of all violence against conscience ) for an end or interest : or as ( that incarnate devil ) the pope said more plainly of the fable of christ , for honor and profit , shall further be examined . peace . but who can read the bloody colour in this book , and yet believe what master cotton elsewhere saith , that he holds not persecution for cause of conscience ? truth . lastly , i aske , whether is it not the same skill and power of physick and surgery , that preserves the body and each member in health and welfare , with that which cuts off ( as master cotton speaks ) the gangrene & c ? and ( since also t is in vaine to go about when the next way is as good or better ) what means then master cotton to bring in the magistrate using spiritual means in all lenity and wisdome against heresie and idolatry in the souls of men , since death or banishment will effect the cure so quickely ? peace . to proceed , whereas it was urged , that although civil weapons were proper in spiritual matters , yet they were not necessary &c. master cotton replies , this is but a meer pretence , because the discusser ( saith he ) denies all church officers and church weapons . truth . this formerly was cleered from all appearance of pretence , because during all the reign of the beast ▪ the discusser granteth the impregnable power of the spiritual weapons of christs witnesses , rev. . although he see not extant the true form and order of the kingdome of christ jesus which at first he was pleased to establish . peace . master cotton adds , although spiritual weapons are mighty to purge out leaven , and to mortifie the flesh of offenders ▪ yet that is not a supersedeas to civil magistrates to neglect to punish those sins , which the church hath censured , if the person censured do proceed to subvert the truth of the gospel , or the peace of the church , or the souls of the people . truth . why must the magistrate stay until the party censured do proceed so and so ? why could not he have spared the drawing forth of any spiritual weapons ; since they are so effectual to do that which was not in the power and reach of the spiritual ? why was not the first obstinacy ( which merited the spiritual stroaks and cersures ) worthy of the exercise of the civil magistrates power and zeale ? peace . me thinks this is an evident demonstration that men repose more confidence ( however they deceive themselves to the contrary ) in the sword of steel that hangs by the side of the civil officer , then in the two-edged sword proceeding out of the mouth of christ jesus , rev. . truth . the truth is , such doctrine makes christs spiritual sword but serviceable and subordinate unto the temporal or worldly powers : and presents the church but making essayes and trials of that cure which death and banishment ( gilded over with pretence of gods glory , &c. ) they think will not faile to effect , &c. peace . more plainly therefore writes another author ( of master cottons mind ) thus : it is known by experience that one reproof or threatning from the magistrate , hath been known to do more then an hundred admonitions from the minister . truth . yea no question , to force a nation or a world of men to play the idolaters ▪ hypocrites , &c. but gods true servants ( of whom these three famous jews are type ▪ dan. . ) know that god whom they serve is able to deliver them from such fiery threatnings and executions . but if he please to try them ( as his gold ) in such fiery tryals , they will not bow down to invented gods or worships . peace . methinks ( dear truth ) such ministers deal upon the point and in effect with the civil magistrate ▪ just as that ambitious pope with the emperors to wit , make them hold the stirrop while they mount , &c. but i grieve &c. what think you therefore of master cottons censure of the rest of the discourse in this chapter , to wit , that it is but ( as jude speaks ) clouds without waters , words without matter , &c. truth . i will say no more , but this ▪ happily ( through gods mercy ) master cottons censure may occasion some to view what he despiseth , yea and happily to finde some heavenly drops out of those contemned empty clouds ▪ examination of chap. xlvi . peace . the to the rom. which the answerer quotes , is a fort of of such importance ▪ in so many controversies depending between the papist and the protestant , and between many protestants among themselves , that all seek to gaine and win it : in this present controversive i finde a wonderful wresting of this holy scripture even by many holy and peaceable ( though herein violent and sinful ) hands : and let the charge be examined in the fear of god , whether slanderous ( as master cotton intimates ) or true and righteous . master cotton freely grants , that this to the rom. exhorteth unto subjection to magistrates , and love to all men , which are duties of the second table : but yet withal he answers , that is will not follow , that magistrates have nothing to do with the violation of the first table ; and further saith , that it is a plaine case that amongst the duties of the second table , people may be exhorted to honor their magistrates , and children may be exhorted to honour their parents ; but will it ( saith he ) thence follow , that magistrates have nothing to do with matters of religion in the church , or parents in the family ? truth . i answer , the scope of the discourse was to prove , that it pleaseth the spirit of god in paul here only to treat of the duties of the second table , unto which limitation or restriction master cotton speaks not at all , but only granteth in general , that it speaketh of the duties of the second table : and i still urge and argue , that the spirit of god discoursing so largely in this scripture of the duties of magistrates and people , and treating only of civil things , in that civil relation between magistrates and people , points as with a finger of god at their error , that wrest this scripture to maintaine the power of magistrates and civil states in the spiritual and church estate of the kingdome of christ . peace . but what may be said to master cottons argument ? truth . i answer , if people are bound to yeeld obedience in civil things to civil officers of the state , christians are much more bound to yeeld obedience ( according to god , to the spiritual officers of christs kingdome : but how weak is this argument to prove that therefore the civil officers of the state are constituted rulers or governors , preservers and reformers of the christian and spiritual state , which differs as much from the civil , as the heavens are out of the reach of this earthly globe and element ? examination of chap. xlvii . peace . against the judgement of those blessed worthies alleadged , ( calvin and beza ) confining this passage of rom. . to the second table , master cotton here opposeth their judgement for the magistrates power in matters of religion in other writings of theirs ▪ yea and from this very scripture . truth . this their judgement for the magistrates power was granted and premised before ; yet let the expressions of those worthy men ( produced by the discusser on this chapter ) be faithfully weighed , and it will cleerly appear , that ( as james speaks ) those excellent men endeavoured to bring from the same fountaines sweet water and bitter , which is monstrous and contradictory . peace . the pith of what master cotton further saith in this chapter , i conceive is couched in these demands : are not ( saith he ) all duties of righteousness to man commanded in the second table , as well as all duties of holiness to god are commanded in the first table ? is it not a duty of righteousness belonging to the people of god , to enjoy the free passage of religion ? &c. is it not an injurious dealing to the people of god , to disturbe the truth of religion with heresie , the holiness of worship with idolatry , the purity of government with tyranny ? and he concludes , if so , then these wayes of unrighteousness are justly punishable by the second table . truth . i answer , it hath pleased the father of lights to open the eyes of thousands of his servants in th●se later times to discerne a fine spun fallacy in the tearm of unrighteousness and injury which being twofold spiritual against religion or spiritual state , civil against the worldly or civil state : it is no civil injury ( which he grants is the business of this to the romanes in matters of the second table ) for any man to disturbe or oppose a doctrine worship or government spiritual : christ jesus and his messengers and servants did ▪ and do profess a spiritual war against the doctrine , worship and government of the jewish the turkish and other pagan and antichristian religions of all sorts and sects , churches and societies : these all againe oppose and fight against his doctrine , worship , government : and yet this war may be so managed ( were men but humane civil and peaceable ) that no civil injury may be commieted on either side . peace . we may then well take up ( as master cotton doth ) beza's own words on rom. . . the civil sword must take vengeance on them that do evil : it must therefore follow that hereticks are not evil doers ( which is gross &c. ) or else that pauls speech is to be restrained to a certaine sort of evil deeds , to wit , such as they call corporal sins , of which he saith , he disputeth largely elsewhere . truth . and so ( through the help of the most high ) shall i ▪ in proving , that the second sort , to wit , external , corporal , civil evils between man and man ▪ city and city , kingdomes and nations ( in this faln estate of mankind ▪ wherein all civility , and humanity it self are violated ) are alone , and only intended in this scripture by the holy spirit of god and paul his penman . examination of chap. xlviii . peace . to the second argument , to wit , the incompetency of those higher powers to which paul requires subjection , which in his time were the ignorant and pagan persecuting emperors , and their subordinate governors under them , master cotton replies . first , it is one thing to yeeld subjection to the righteous decrees of ignorant and pagan magistrates : and another thing to obey their ordinances in matters of faith and worship , and government of the church : the former of these , christians did yeeld unto the romane magistrates , even subjection unto the death ; the other they did not , nor ought to yeeld , as knowing god was rather to be obeyed then man. truth . subjection may be either to lawful governors , or but pretenders and usurpers : again subjection to lawful rulers may be in cases pertaining to their cognizance , or in cases which belong not to their ▪ but another court or tribunal ; which undue proceeding is not tolerable in all well-ordered states . we use also to say , that subjection is either ▪ active or passive : now although we finde the lord requiring and his servants yeelding , all active or passive obedience to the romane emperors , and their deputies , yet finde we not a tittle of the lords requiring , or his people yeelding any kind of subjection to those romane emperors or their deputies in the matters of christian religion , except it be of so many hundred thousand of their bodies , as the bodies of lambs to the devouring jaws of those bloody lyons and devillish monsters , of more then barbarous cruelty . peace . but ( secondly , saith master cotton ) although the roman emperors were incompetent judges , yet the word of christ which commandeth a duty , commandeth also the necessary means which tend to that duty , and therefore giving them a power and charge to execute vengeance on evil doers , and that in matters of spiritual unrighteousness against the church , as in matters of civil unrighteousness against the commonweal , it behooved them to try and listen after the true religion , to heare and try all . truth . master cotton may here be intreated to take notice of his own distinction of unrighteousness ( which a little before he seemed to me to forget ) for here he rightly distinguisheth between spiritual matters of unrighteousness against the church , and civil unrighteousness against the commonweal : i therefore urge ( as before ) that the civil magistrate , although he punish ( according to his civil place and calling ) civil unrighteousness against the state , yet he hath no warrant from master cottons argument , nor any from the lord jesus christ , to punish spiritual unrighteousness against the church ; and why then should that tearm of unrighteousness so generally and fallaciously go undistinguished , and master cotton thus promis●uo●sly proclaime idolatry is unrighteousness , heresie is unrighteonsness , and therefore the civil magistrate is bound to punish , & c ? . but oh that this maxime alleadged by master cotton might receive its due weight and consideration ! hath christ commanded all means , as well as the duty ? what then is the reason that since ( as master cotton argues ) that christ hath commanded all the civil powers of the world such a spiritual duty , and yet ( i say ) that all or most of the civil states of the world ( beyond comparison ) are not furnished by christ with those chief means , of grace and light , whereby to try and search , as master cotton exhorteth ? or ▪ ( in some few places , where means of light are vouchsafed ) with hearts and spirits unto such a duty ? may we not here say , that men make christ jesus ( in appointing such officers , such a duty , without furnishing them accordingly ) to forget that maxime of his type solomon ( prov. . ) he that sendeth a message by the hand of a fool cutteth off the leg , and drinketh dammage ? did not christ know ( as well as john ) that all the world lay in wickedness , that all the world ( in a respect ) was then roman paganish ▪ and that all the world in after-ages would wonder after the beast , and become roman popish ? or can we imagine that christ jesus did not foresee the cutting off of legs , and the cup of dammage and loss which he must drink , in sending his minde and will into the world by such foolish instruments ? peace . surely master cotton would never advise the civil state ty send a weighty cause and the lives of souldiers with such captaines : nor will he set an unruly childe under the rod of such teachers or reformers : he will not set forth his farme or betrust his cattel no not his very hogs to such keepers . truth . on the other hand ▪ let the government of christs kingdome be laid upon the right shoulders , and we shall finde the admirable wisdome and care of christ , in the affaires of his kingdom , in appointing such messengers or apostles to gather and found his churches , as also ordinary pastors shepherds or teachers , for their feeding and building up &c. the qualification of these the spirit of god hath expresly and exactly recorded wherein ( according to the principle mentioned by master cotton ) christ jesus his highest care and wisdome shines most gloriously in appointing the means as well as the duty it self . peace . but master cotton addeth , that the causes of religion , wherein we allow the civil magistrate to be judges , are so fundamental and palpable ▪ that no magistrate studious of religion in the fear of god , cannot but judge : such as cannot , they ought to forbear , &c. the exercise of their power , either in protecting or punishing matters of religion ▪ till they learn so much knowledge of the truth , as may inable them to discerne of things that differ . this forbearance of theirs ( saith he ) is not for want of authority in their callings , nor for want of duty in their consciences ▪ but want of evidence to them in the cause : in which case magistrates are wont to forbear their exercise of power and judgement even in civil cases . truth . o the miserable allowance which master cotton hath brought the kings and governors of the world unto ! we allow them ( saith he ) to judge in such fundamentals and palpable causes , &c. oh with what proud and domineering feet do all popes tread upon the necks even of the highest kings and emperors ! the magistrate must wait at their gates for their poor allowance : they shall judge , and they shall not judge : they shall judge that which is gross and palpable , and enough to hold the people in slavery , and to force them to sacrifice to the priests belly ; but the more sublime and nicer mysteries they must not judge or touch , but attend upon the tables of the priests infallibility . peace . concerning fundamentals ( dear truth ) you have well observed , that since the apostacy , and the worlds wondring after the beast , even gods servants themselves ( untill yesterday ) have not so much as heard of such a kind of church ( and so consequently of such a christ the head of it ) as master cotton now professeth : for ▪ no other matter and forme of a church ( about which master cotton justly contends ) was known i say among gods people themselves , ( till yesterday ) then the matter and form of the stone or woodden parish-church . truth . yea an happy man were mr. cotton could he rectifie and settle those foundations which are yet so controverted amongst gods servants , to wit , the doctrine of baptismes , and laying on of hands . peace . you may also mention other foundations , which want not their great disputes among the servants of christ . truth . but further , that christ jesus the wisdome of the father , should commit his wife , his church ▪ to be governed in his absence by such who generally know not the church and saints but cruelly and blasphemously persecute them with fire and sword , and this with charge to suspend most magistrates of the world , and that all their dayes from generation to generation , as appeareth in all parts of the world which is such a monstrous and blasphemous paradox , that common reason cannot digest , nor suffer . peace . if merchants and owners of ships should commit their vessels to such men as wanted ability to steer their courses , nay could not tell what a ship was yea were never like to know all their dayes surely it were not only matter of admiration , but even of laughter and derision , among all the sons of men . truth . but further , how weak is that distinstion which master cotton makes between authority of calling , and duty and evidence in the cause , when in all judicatures in the whole world , even amongst the pagans , there is necessarily supposed beside these three , a fourth to wit , ability or skill of discerning or judging in such cases : now cognizance of the cause or evidence of the cause may be wanting in most able judges , where matters are not proper or not ripe for hearing and trials ; whereas our dispute is of the very ability or skil of judging , which master cotton himself confesseth is wanting , except in such magistrates as fear god , which will be found to be but a little flock , especially compared with the many thousands and ten thousands of those who neither know god nor christ , nor care to know them , and this in all the states , regions and civil governments of the world . eamination of chap. xlix . peace . concerning pauls appeale to caesar ▪ it was argued that paul appealed to caesar even in spiritual things ; which that paul did not nor could not do without the committing of five great evils , was pleaded in this chapter , master cotton●●phes ●●phes no more but this the reasons are but bulrushes . truth . whether they are so or no , or rather the bulrushes and weak things of god , which the gates of hell shall never be able to shake ▪ let the saints judge in the fear of god. peace . master cotton adds further in this chapter ▪ that paul pleadeth he was not guilty in any of those things whereof the jews accused him : those things ( saith he ) concerned the law of the jews and the temple , which were matters of religion ; and for trial thereof he appealed to caesar . truth . lysias the chief captaine in his letter to felix the governor ( chap. . ) distinguisheth ( vers . . ) into questions of the jews , law ▪ and ( secondly ) matters worthy of death or bonds : now t is true the jews charged paul with offences against religion their law and the temple : secondly , against the civil state , and with sedition . for the first although it is apparent that all the scope of pauls preaching ▪ was to exalt christ jesus , and to preach down moses●aw ●aw ; yet at this present time of his apprehension , he had seen cause to honour moses his institutions at jerusalem ( which was the wisdome of god in him for a season , for the jews sake , and his own glory-sake : ) and he had not at this present so much as disputed with any in the temple ( which was not so hainous a matter in pauls eye , as it is well known by his constant practice . ) secondly , for matters of civil crime , he pleadeth that he stirred up no m●n ▪ ●o● in the synagogue nor city , and prefesseth ( chap. . ) that if he had committed ought worthy of death , he would not wave death : t is true that paul was charged by the iews with both these kinds of offences , religious and civil ( according to lysius his distinction ) but that paul appealed to caesar for tryal , that is , for trial of his person and cause in any religious respect , as it cannot be collected from the scripture or paul own words : so those five reasons against it ▪ will evidently disprove it , if they be well and throughly weighed in the balance of the sanctuary in the sight and fear of god. peace . i cannot in my understanding clear master cottons own words from destroying one another . t is true ( saith he ) those five sins might have been charged upon paul with some colour , if he had appealed to caesar whether his religion or ministery , or ministration were of god or no ? but yet ( saith he ) he might appeal whether his religion , ministry or ministration were guilty of any capital crime against the law of the iews , or the temple , or against caesar . truth . indeed what difference is there between the judging whether this ministery deserve death ( supposing a false ministery is worthy of death ) or judging whether it be of god , or false and idolatrous ? must not he that sits judge of the desert and punishment , judge also of the crime and fact , whether so or not ? peace . when master cotton shall affirme ( and truly ) that the magistrates of israel were to judge a false prophet to death , will he not also grant that they were to judge whether such persons so charged were false prophets or no ? truth . yea , and when master cotton shall affirme ( as unjustly ) that civil magistrates in all nations of the world ought to kill or banish hereticks , blasphemers , seducers , out of their dominions and jurisdictions , doth he intend that they shall try and examine , whether they be such and such or no ? but blessed be the father of lights , who hath now opened the eyes of so many thousands of his people to discern the difference between the forts and bulwarks of god ▪ here called bulrushes , and those strong holds and high imaginations of men ( erected against the crown and kingdome of the lord iesus ) which in gods holy season shall more and more be found to be but straws and bulrushes . examination of chap. l. peace . to the arguing against the magistrates civil power in spiritual causes taken from the nature of the magistrates weapons ( a material earthly and worldly sword , distinguished from the two-edged sword of christs spiritual power in the mouth of christ ) master cotton replies . first , the magistrate must governe his people in righteousness , and it is righteous to defend his people in their spiritual rights , as well as in their civil rights . this distinction of spiritual and civil righteousness doth truely anatomize the cause ; it is righteous for the magistrates to defend their subjects in their civil rights , for it is within the compass of his calling , being essentially civil : and unless we also grant him a spiritual calling and office ( which is the point denied ) 't is beyond his calling and compass to judge of what is spiritual right and wrong , and accordingly to pass a spiritual sentence , and and execute and inflict spiritual punishment . peace . methinks i may add , if the magistrate be bound to defend his subjects in their spiritual rights , then as he is bound impartially to defend all his subjects in their several and respective civil rights , so is he bound as impartially to defend all his subjects in their several and respective spiritual rights ; and so accordingly to defend the iews , the papists , and all several sores of protestants in their severall and respective consciences ; or else , he must sit down in christs stead , and produce a royal charter from the new testament of christ iesus to judge difinitively which is the onely right , to pass sentence , and execute spiritual punishment on all offenders &c. peace . but master cotton adds a second , the sword was material and civil in the old testament . i answer , if master cotton granted a national church under the gospel ▪ his argument were good ; but when he grants that national church under the jews ( as afterward in this chapter he doth ) did type ▪ out the christian church or churches in the gospel , why must he not grant that material sword of the church of israel types out the spiritual sword of christ iesus ▪ proceeding out of his mouth , and cutting off offenders spiritually with spiritual and soul - punishments ? and i add , as the sword was material , so also was the tabernacle and temple worldly and material ; which he denies not to be typical of the spiritual temple of christ and his church in the new testament . peace . master cotton adds ( thirdly ) that the magistrates sword may well be call'd the sword of god , as the sword of war , iudg. . truth . as it was call'd iehovahs sword in that typical land ; so must it needs be typical as well as the land it self , which is also called by the prophets ichovah's land emanuels land ; which names and titles i think master cotton will not say are competent and appliable to any other lands or countries under the gospel but onely to the spiritual canaan or israel , the church and people of god , the true and onely christendome . peace . but ( fourthly ) saith he , they are called gods , and shall they not attend gods work ? truth . in the state of israel they were gods deputies to attend the causes of israel , the then onely church of god : but master cotton can produce no parallel to that , but the christian churches and people of god , not national but congregational ▪ &c. . grant the magistrates to be as gods , or strong ones in a resemblance to god in all nations of the world , yet that is still within the compass of their calling , which being confessed to be essentially civil the civil work of these servants of the common-weal is gods work , as well as paul calls ( in a sence ) the work of the servants of the family , gods work , for which he pays the wages , eph. . lastly , for spiritual causes we know the lord iesus is call'd god , psal . . heb. . whose scepter and kingdome being essentially spiritual ▪ the administrations which he hath appointed are also spiritual , and of an heavenly and soul nature . peace . master cotton ( fifthly ) adds , revel . . the kingdoms of the world are become the kingdoms of the lord , and of his christ . truth . how the kingdomes of the world ▪ shall become the kingdomes of christ , is no smal mystery and controversie ; but grant it to be true , that either christ iesus personally , or by his deputies the saints , shall rule all the nations of the world in hearing and determining all civil controversies : yet why doth master cotton draw an argument from this prophecie , of what shall be in one age or time of the world , and to come , to prove an vniversal power and exercise of such power in all ages and times since christ iesus his first comming to this day ? peace . me thinks master cotton may as well argue , that because it was prophesied that a virgin should conceive , and bring forth a child in gods appointed season , that therefore all virgins must so conceive and so being in forth all ages of the world . but , ( lastly ) saith master cotton ▪ although the nations have not that typical holiness which the nation of israel had ; yet all the churches of the saints have as much truth and realty of holiness as israel had : and therefore , what holy care of religion lay upon the kings of israel in the old testament , the same lyeth now upon christian kings in the new testament , to protect the same in their churches . truth . oh how neer the precious iewels , and bargains of truth , come sometimes gods saints , and yet miss of the finding and going through with it ! the chucrhes of the new testament , master cotton grants succeed the church of israel ; the kings and governours therefore of the churches of christ must succeed those kings what king and governours of israel are now to be found in the gospel , but christ iesus and his servants , deputed in his absence , which are all of a spiritual consideration ? what is this to the nations , kings , and governours of the world ; where few kings ▪ few nobles , few wise , are cald to profess christ ? is not christ iesus the onely king of israel ; and are not all his holy ones made kings and priests unto god ? and unto his saints ▪ and his spiritual officers administration in the midst of them , is his kingdomes power committed in his absence . this spiritual power , however the pope and prelates , kings and princes . parliaments and general courts , and their respective officers of justice ( to be honoured and obeyed in civil things , ) i say however they have challenged and assumed this kingly power of the son of god ▪ yet the king ▪ of kings ▪ christ jesus hath begun to discover , and will never leave until he hath made it clear as the sun beames that he is robd of his crown , and will shake , and break ▪ all the nations and powers of the world until his heavenly crown be again restored . examination of chap. li. peace . to the fourth argument ( rom. . ) from the civil rewards due to magistrates ; to wit ▪ custom ▪ tribute &c. master cotton replies ▪ that even the contributions of the saints , are called carnal things ; shall therefore their work be called carnal ? it is true ( saith he ) the contributions of the saints are called holy , because they are given to god for his service about holy things ; so the reward given to magistrates , is for their service about righteous things : and it is righteous ( saith he ) to preserve the purity of doctrine vvorship and government ▪ which if magistrates do not , they do not deserve all their wages . truth . it is true that money or monies-worth is the same for value in the contribution of the saints , and in that of custome , tribute and yet master cotton grants a holiness of the saints contribution , which he doth not affirme of custome , tribute , &c. there is also a two fold way disputed , of preserving of the purity of doctrine ▪ worship , &c. first , that which i plead for , by spiritual weapons appointed by christ iesus . secondly , that of civil weapons , force of armes &c. which master cotton affirmes , and i deny to be ever appointed by christ iesus , or able to accomplish a spiritual end , but the contrary . peace . me thinks master cottons addition not a little concernes my self in the peace of all citties and kingdomes : for if ( as master cotton saith ) magistrates shall not deserve all their wages except they preserve the purity of doctrine , worship &c. ( which upon the point is that doctrine worship and government master cotton approves of ) what is this ( in effect ) but to deny tribute , custome subsidies , &c. to caesar , the kings and governours of the earth , if they prove hereticks , idolaters ? &c. i cannot see , but this in plaine english tendeth to little less then the popish bloudy doctrine of deposing heretical kings &c. but master cotton further adds , that spiritual wages are to be paid to magistrates . tim. . to wit , prayers , intercessions &c. if therefore ( saith he ) the magistrates suffer their subjects to live a quiet life in ungodliness and dishanesty , the magistrate fals short of returning spiritual recompence for the spiritual duties and services performed for them . truth . those prayers are not the proper wages paid to magistrates for their work ; for then should they not be paid ( as the spirit of god there exhorteth ) to all men , whether magistrates or not . peace . and i may add , nor paid to those magistrates that are idolatrous , blasphemous , persecutors : but those prayers were to be poured forth for such magistrates ( such as most of the magistrates in the world then were and are . ) those prayers then were a general duty to be paid to all men , and especially to the chiefe and principal , kings and all that are in authority . truth . now further , wherein it is said , that such magistrates as suffer the people to live in ungodliness , fall short in returning spiritual recompence : i answer , by this doctrine , most of the free inhabitants of the world who live in ignorance of god and in abominable religions without him must yet be supposed to choose and set up such ministers or servants of civil justice amongst them , who during their termes of administration or service , should not suffer their choosers and makers to enjoy their owne conscience , but force them to that , which their officers shall judge to be godliness ; but the neck of no free people can bow to such a yoak and tyrany . peace . but ( lastly ) to that argument of rom. . from the title which god gives to magistrates to wit , gods ministers , and to the distinction of spiritual ministers for spiritual , and civil ministers for civil matters ; master cotton replies . if magistrates be gods ministers or servants then must they do his work , and be for god in matters of religion : and further saith he , magistracy is of god , for light of nature , and not onely for civil things ▪ but also in matters of religion ▪ and he produceth divers instantces of pagans zeal for their religion , and worship . truth . because magistrates are gods servants ▪ or ministers civil , and receive civil wages for their civil service ; will it therefore follow that they must attend , and that chiefly , and principally a spiritual work ? that noble-man or lord , that sets one to keep his children , and another to keep his sheep ▪ expects not of him appointed to keep his sheep ( though a minister or servant ) to attend upon the keeping of his children , nor expects he of the waiter on his children , to attend the keeping of his sheep . t is true , that magistrasie is of god , but yet no otherwise then mariage is being an estate meerly civil and humane , and lawfull to all nations of the world , that know not god. t is true that magistrates be of god from the light of nature ; but yet , as the religions of the world , and the worlds zealous contending for them , with persecuting of others , are from the father of lies and murther from the beginning ; so seldome is it seen , that the nations of the world have persecuted or punished any for error , but for the truth , condemned for error . peace . alas , who sees not that all nations and people bow down to idels and images ( as all the world did to nebuchaduezzars image . ) if any amongst them differ from them , it is commonly in in some truths , which god hath sent amongst them , for witnessing of which they are persecuted . truth . your observation ( deare peace ) is evident from the cases of those philosophers , by master cotton alledged ; how weak and poor therefore is that argument from the zeal of pagans , &c. it is evident that such builders , frame by no other then that of nature depraved and rotten , and not by the goulden reed of the glorious gospel of christ jesus . examination of chap. li. peace . in the discourse concerning that terme , evil , master cotton produceth pareus , who makes that evil punishable by the magistrate , fourfold , natural , civil , moral , and spiritual . truth . that excellent and holy witness of christ jesus ( in many of his precious truths ) pareus being here produced without scripture or argument , for the magistrates punishing of the fourth sort of evil ; to wit spiritual : nor answering my arguments brought against such an interpretation , gives me occasion of no further answer to master cotton or him in this place . peace . whereas it was alleadged , that the elders of the new english churches , in the model prohibite ( expresly ) the magistrates from the punishing or taking notice of some evils , and that therefore as they ascribe to the civil magistrates , more then god gives , so they take away and disrobe him of that authority , which god hath cloathed him with : master cotton replies , when we say that the magistrate is an avenger of evil , we mean of all sorts or kindes of evil , and not every particular of each kind ; and further he saith , that domestick evils may be healed in a domestick way . truth . i readily concur with him , that the magistrate may not punish evils that he knowes not of in a due and orderly way sufficiently proved before him ; as also , that many domestick evils are best healed in a domestick way ; but yet that limitation added , to wit , without acquainting the church first ) seems to bind the magistrates hand , where no true church of christ is , to acquaint with such things ) yea and further where it is why should the magistrate be denied , to exercise his power in cases meerly civil ( the old practice of the popish church ? ) and to whom should the servant or child or wife , petition and complaine against oppression , unless to the publike father , master , and husband of the common-weal ? and therefore from their own interpretation ▪ they may well spare that strict and literal aception of the word evil ▪ and cease to cry heresie is evil , idolatrie evil , blasphemie evill , &c. examination of chap. liii ; answering to chap. liii , liv , lv. peace . in these three chapters , the last reason which the author of the arguments against persecution produced was discussed ; to wit , that the dis●●ples of christ should be so far from persecuting , that contrariwise they ought to bless such as curse them , &c. and that because of the freeness of gods grace , and the deepness of his counsels , calling home them that be enemies , persecutors , no people , yea some at the last hour . in answer to which , master cotton complaineth that two of his answers were omitted ; and suspecteth that as children skip over hard places , so they were skipt over , &c. truth . it is true , those two answers were omitted , not because the chapter was too hard &c. but because the discusser saw ( nor sees ) not any controversie or difference between master cotton and himself in those passages ; and also studying brevity and contraction , as master cotton himself hath done omitting far more , and contracting three chapters in one in this very passage . upon the same ground , i see no need of mentioning his reply in these three chapters , wherein master cotton concurs in the point of the necessity of tolerating even notorious offenders in the state in some cases . peace . the result of all agitations in this passage is this : master cotton denies not but that in some cases a notorious malefactor may be tolerated , and consequently ( as i understand him ) an ●●re●i●k , seducer , &c. but that ordinarily it is not lawful to tolerate a seducing teacher , and that from the clearness of gods command deut. . and from the reason of it , vers . , because he hath sought to turn thee away from the lord thy god. withal he concludes , that all moses capital politicks are eternal . truth . thus far is gained , that it was no vain exception against master cotton's general proposition ▪ to wit , that it is evil to tolerate notorious evil doers , seducing teachers , scandalous livers , because he sees cause of toleration in some cases . peace . yea but , saith he , in ordinary cases it is not lawful to tolerate , from deut. . truth . i am of master cotton's minde : it is not lawful for israel that is , the church of god , to tolerate : and the reason it pleaseth the lord to alleadge , is eternal . but what is this to the nations of the world , the states , cities ▪ and kingdoms thereof ? let master cotton finde out any such land or state that is the church and israel of god : yea master cotton confesseth in a fore-going passage , that the church is the israel of god : then must he with me acknowledge that this deut. . only concerns the israel or church of god , whom christ jesus furnished with spiritual weapons against such spiritual offenders . peace . but i wonder that master cotton should say that moses capitals are eternal . truth . i wonder not , because i have seen in print sixteen or seventeen capital evils ( a great part of them of a spiritual nature ) censured with death in new england . and yet again , me thinks it is wonderful , since master cotton knows how many of moses capitals were of a ceremonial nature . the breach of the sabbath , the not coming to keep the passeover , ( for neglect whereof the israelites were to be put to death ) how can master cotton make these eternal in all nations ? peace . how many millions of millions of heads ( and not a few of the highest ) in our own and other nations , would soon feel the capital calamity of such a capital bloody tenent , if master cotton swayed the scepter of some of the worlds former or present caesars ? truth . and yet i readily affirm , that spiritually and mystically in the church and kingdom of christ , such evils are to be spiritually ( and so eternally ) punished . chap. liv , replying to chap. lvi . examined . peace . in this chap. were observed two evils in mr. cottons conjoyning of seducing teachers , and scandalous livers , as the proper and adequate object of the magistrates care and work to suppress and punish : unto which master cotton replies , first , that he no where makes it the proper and adequate object of the magistrates care and work to suppress seducing teachers , and scandalous livers saying , that it ought to be the care of the church to suppress and punish seducing teachers , and scandalous livers in a church-way , as well as the magistrates in a civil way . truth . by this doctrine , master cotton will seem to deny it , to be the magistrates proper and adequate object to punish scandalous livers , because the church also ( saith he ) is to make it her work also . it is true , if a scandalous liver be of the church , and fall into any scandal , she by the ruls and power of christ ought to recover him in the spirit of meekness : but yet the punishing of him with temporal punishment , who will deny it to be the proper work of the civil state ? but ( secondly ) what if the seducing teacher , or scandalous liver , be neither of them members of the church ( and the church hath nought to do to judge them without ) will not master cotton then affirm the seducing teacher , or scandalous , liver to be the proper and adequate object of the magistrates care and work ? peace . when it was excepted against that things of such a different nature and kind , as seducing teachers , and scandalous livers , should be coupled together at the civil bar ? master cotton replies ▪ that both these agree in one common kind , to wit , they are evil and destructive to the common good of gods people , which ought to be preserved both in church and commonweal : if a man shall say ( saith he ) that the work of creation on the sixth day , was either of man or of beast , is here any such commi●ture . truth . were master cotton the worlds monarch , what bloody reformations or destructions rather , would he fill the world withal ▪ if he walk by such rules and principles ? for , what religions or almost men ( all the world over ) would he finde not opposite and destructive to gods people . . but ( secondly ) an historical narration of gods works on man or beast , birds , fishes , and all creatures coelestial and terrestial is one thing : but to mix them together in doings or sufferings inconsistent with ▪ and improper to their kinds is another thing , far different and insufferable : as for a man to affirme that a man and a beast ●in'd against their maker , and therefore were justly punished with spiritual blindness and hardness of heart , loss of gods image &c. the same difference and no less is between transgressors against the heavenly state and kingdome of christ , and the earthly state or commonweal of cities , kingdomes , &c. peace . master cotton adds , that it is more tolerable for seducing teachers to seduce those who are in the same gall of bitterness , as for pagans to seduce pagans &c. truth . that is but in the degree , and so ( according to his supposition ) must be punished gradually ; but what is this to prove seducing teachers as well as scandalous livers , the joynt object of the civil sword ? peace . why doth master say it is more tolerable for pagans to seduce pagans antichristians antichristians ? what scripture doth he produce for this toleration this indulgence , this partiality ? all that is here said , is this , we look at it as more tolerable ? truth . one thing is shroudly to be suspect in this matter , and that is a most unchristian partiality , in directing the sword of the magistrate to fall heaviest on such seducers only , as trouble his conscience , his doctrine ▪ worship , and government : suppose in some of the cities of holland , poland , or turkie ( where some freedome is ) that jews ▪ pagans , antichristians and christians ( that is christians of master cottons conscience ) together with turkes were commingled in civil cohabitation and commerce together : why now shall that turke that hath seduced one of master cottons conscience to mahumetani●me be more punished for that crime then for turning a jew ▪ pagan or papist to his relief and worship ? what warrant shall the magistrate of such a city or place finde to their souls , either for striking at all with the civil sword in such a case ? or else in dealing such partial blows among the people ? peace . i fear that gods own people ( of this opinion ) see not the deceitfulness of their own heart , crying up the christian magistrate , the christian magistrate , nursing fathers , nursing mothers ▪ &c. when all is but to escape the bitter sweeting of christs cross , so dashing in pieces the most wise councels of the father , concerning his blessed son and his followers , to whom he hath ( ordinarily ) alotted in this world , the portion of sorrow and suffering , and of raigning and triumphing , after the battel fought and victory obtained in the world approaching . peace . but master cotton will say , that in such fore-mentioned cases , such magistrates must suspend punishments for religion , &c. truth . i say , consequently all or most of the magistrates in the world must suspend and none but some few of his conscience ( by his doctrine ) shall be found fit , to use the civil sword , in matter of religion , and that is ( in plaine english ) to fight only for his conscience . peace . but to proceed it will be hard ( saith master cotton ) for the discusser to finde antichristian seducers clear from disobedience to the civil laws of the state , in case that antichrist ( to whom they are sworn ) shall excommunicate the civil magistrate , and prescribe the civil state to the invasion of his followers . truth . most properly seducing teachers sin against the church and spiritual kingdome of christ jesus , which if erected and governed according to christ jesus , she is a castel or fort sufficiently provided with all sorts of heavenly ammunition against all sorts of her spiritual adversaries : yea and in the desolation of the churches ( during the apostacy ) christ jesus ( as i have elsewhere observed ) hath not left his witnesses destitute of terrible defence against all gainesayers : but grant ( what master cotton supposeth ) such seducers from obedience to the civil state &c. such as the seminaries and bringers over of pope pius the his bul against queen elizabeth &c. the answer is short and pla●● ▪ civil officers bear not the sword in vain , when the civil state is assaulted as the spiritual officers and governors of the church bear not in vain the spiritual and two-edged sword coming out of the mouth of christ . peace . whereas now ( secondly ) there ▪ was observed by the discusser in such coupling of [ seducing teachers & scandalous livers ] a silent and implicite justification of the jews and gentiles their coupling christ jesus and his followers , as seducing teachers with scandalous livers , christ between two thieves , &c. the sum of what master cotton replies , is ▪ that the lord jesus and his followers suffering under those names , weakens not the hand of authority to punish such who are seducing teachers & scandalous livers . truth . it hath ever been the portion of the lord jesus and his followers ( for the most part theirs onely ) to be accounted seducing teachers , deceivers and cheaters of the people , blasphemous against god , seditious against the state ; and accordingly to be numbred ( as christ jesus between two thieves ) both in esteem and punishment with scandalous and notorious malefactors ; and this for no other cause , but cause of conscience in spiritual matters , and most commonly for differing from and witnessing against the several state and city-religions and worships wherein they lived . peace . if the jews ( notwithstanding their fair colours to the contrary ) walking in the doctrine of persecution for conscience , justified their fathers for murthering the prophets , &c. i cannot ( dear truth ) but subscribe to your sorrowful observation that master cotton and others ( otherwise excellent servants of god ) in coupling seducing teachers and scandalous livers , as the proper object for the civil sword to strike at , they do no other but act the jews true antitype , coupling christ jesus the seducing teacher with barabbas the scandalous liver and murtherer . truth . yea , and who sees not how often barabbas the scandalous liver is cried out of the magistrates hands by the scandalous people , while christ jesus in his servants is cried to the cross , to the gallows , to the stake , to banishment , &c. their persecutors also are applauded , for ( not persecuting men for their consciences , but ) righteously , legally ( and with great sorrow ) punishing them for sinning against their own conscience , for disturbing of the civil state and peace , for contemning of magistrates , kings queens , and parliaments , for blaspheming god , and for seducing and destroying the souls of the people . chap. . replying to chap. . exam : peace . the discusser admired in this chap : how mr. cotton should alledge ( revel . . ) christs charge against the church of pergamus for tollerating them that hould the doctrine of balaam , and against the church of thiatira for tollerating jezabell to teach and seduce : mr cotton here replies , that he meant not in alledging those scriptures to prove it unlawfull for magistrates to tollerate seducing teachers , but unlawfull for churches : adding that the letter of the prisoner was so stated , in generall tearmes that he knew not ( upon the point ) what tolleration or persecution should be meant or intended , otherwise then generall against all persecution for conscience , withall affirming that an unjust excommunication is as true persecution as unjust banishment . truth . it is true what mr cotton saith , an unjust excommunication is as true persecution as an unjust banishment , and therefore some may justly complaine against mr cotton and others , for practicing such persecution in both kindes , being not onely banished from their civill state , but unjustly ( and after the popes way ) excommunicated also , from their churches , but of that more elsewhere . . we doe not in ordinarie english read , but that the word persecution is taken for civill corporall violence and punishment inflicted on the body for some spirituall and religious matter ; according to the lord christ his words to paul , act● . saul , saul , why persecutest thou me ? . the passages in the letter shew that the whole scope of the letter was to contend against outward violence and corporall affliction in matters of conscience ▪ peace . it may not be a lost labour ( deare truth ) to draw a taste of some passages in the letter . truth . for further satisfaction , my paines shall be a pleasure ; and first from the arguments from holy scripture , observe luc. . the lord christ reproving his two zealous disciples , you know not of what spirit you are of : the son of man is not come to destroy mens lives , but to save them . againe , that of the prophets , isaiah and micah , they shall breake their swords into mattocks , and their speares into sithes . againe , christs charge unto his disciples , that they should be so farre from persecuting those that would not be of their religion , that when they were persecuted , they should pray and blesse , &c. peace . these holy passages ( me thinks ) are not unlike the stones in davids sling , smooth and plaine enough , yet powerfull and dreadfull , both against this goliah tenent of persecution , and also prove a corporall persecution intended . truth . now a taste of the speeches of severall kings produced by the prisoner . . that of king james ; god never loves to plant his church by violence and bloudshed . . that of stephen king of poland ; i am king of men , not of consciences , of bodies , not of soules . . of the king of bohemia ; when ever men have attempted any thing in this violent course , the issue hath been ever pernicious , and the cause of great and wonderfull innovations . . another of king james ; that he was resolved not to persecute or molest , or suffer to be persecuted or molested any person whatsoever , for matter of religion . in the third place , a taste of the speeches of the ancient writers produced by the prisoner . . that of hilarius : that church which formerly by enduring misery and imprisonment , was knowne to be the true church , doth now terrifie others by imprisonment , banishment , and miserie . . of jerome ; heresie must be cut off with the sword of the spirit , let us strike through with the arrowes of the spirit ; implying , not with other weapons . . of luther in his booke of the civill magistrate ; the lawes of the civill magistrate extend no further , then over the bodies and goods . and againe upon luk. . it is not the true catholike church which is defended by the secular arme or humane power . lastly , the papists in their booke for tolleration ; when christ bids his disciples to say , peace to this house , he doth not send pursevants to ransack or spoyle the house . lastly , the prisoner in answering some objections , concludeth ; it is no prejudice to the common-wealth , if libertie of conscience were granted to such as feare god indeed : he also alledged that many sects lived under the government of caesar , being nothing hurtfull unto the common-weale . peace . from these severall tasts ( deare truth ) i cannot imagine how the prisoner can be understood to cast the least glance unto spirituall persecution or prosecution , as mr cotton in this chap : calls it : but to end this chapter : when as the power of christ jesus in his church was argued sufficient for spirituall ends , mr cotton grants both for the healing of sinners , and for keeping of the church from guilt , but not for the preventing of the spreading of false doctrine , among those out of the church , and in private among church-members : nor sufficient to cleare the magistrates of a christian state from the guilt of apostasie in suffering such apostates amongst them , &c. truth . i have in other passages of this discourse proved ; . that christ jesus ( whiles his churches and ordinances flourished , and since the apostasie of antichrist in the hands of his witnesses ) hath gloriously and sufficiently furnished his servants for all spirituall cases of all sorts , defending , offending , &c. . that there is no other christian state acknowledged in the new testament , but that of the christian church or kingdome , and that not nationall but congregationall . . that the apostles or messengers of christ jesus never addressed themselves by word or writing to any of the civill states wherein they lived and taught , and were mightily opposed and blasphemed . i say they never ran to borrow the civill sword , to helpe the two edged sword of christ jesus , against opposers , schismaticks , hereticks . the lord jesus was a wiser king then solomon , even wisdome it selfe , and cannot without great dishonour and derogation to his wisdome and love , be imagined to leave open such gaps , such leakes , such breaches in the ship and garden of his church and kingdome . the exam : of chap. . replying to . & . peace . to the first observation , that mr cotton urgeth that princes are nurcing fathers to feede and correct ( and consequently must judge of feeding and correction , and all men are bound to submit to such their feeding and correction : ) mr cotton sayth , this is false and fraudulent so to collect , and these are devised calumnies . truth . it will evidently appeare , how greatly mr cotton forgets the matter and himselfe , when he so deeply chargeth , for all this he granteth in this his reply , onely with this limitation , that subjects are bound to submit to them herein when they judge according to the word . this limitation takes not away the observation , for it is alway implyed in subjection to all civill rulers , fathers , husbands , masters , that it be according to the word . peace . yea but sayth he , it is a notorious calumnie so to represent mr cottons dealing with princes , as if he made his owne judgement and practice the rule of the proceeding of princes . truth . let it be laid in the ballance , and seene where the calumnie or slander lies : princes or civill rulers , saith mr cotton , are fathers to feed and correct , and their judgement ought therein to be obeyed according to the word . now some princes and rulers declare themselves against mr cottons tenent of persecution for conscience . mr cotton will answer ; the profession and practice of princes is no rule to conscience . i reply , and ask , who shall judge of princes profession and practice , when they thus feed and judge in spirituall matters ? whether their profession and practice be according to the word or no ? mr cotton ( when princes are alleadged against his judgement and conscience ) pleads , that princes profession and practice is no rule : let all men judge whether his judgement and conscience be not made the rule to the consciences and practices of princes , whom yet he makes the nurcing fathers . peace . when it was further demanded , whether mr cotton and others of his minde could submit in spirituall cases to any magistrates in the world , but onely to those just of his owne conscience ? he answers , they will submit to any in active or passive obedience . truth . but how can mr cotton suppose active obedience in spirituall things to such magistrates , who are pagans , turkish , antichristian , and unable to judge , and bound ( by his doctrine ) to suspend their dealings upon matter of religion , untill they be better informed ? what active obedience can i be supposed to give to him that hath no activitie nor abilitie to command and rule me ? and must it not evidently follow , that active obedience in these cases ( according to his judgement ) must onely be yeelded to such magistrates as are able to judge the true religion and way of worship ; that is , the religion and worship which he takes to be of god. peace . whereas it was said , will it not follow that all other consciences in the world , besides their owne must be persecuted by such their magistrates ( were power in their hand ) ? mr cotton replyes , no ; except all mens consciences in the world did erre fundamentally against the principles of christian religion , or fundamentally against church-order , and civill order , and that in a tumultuous and factious manner ; for in these cases onely ( sayth he ) we allow magistrates to punish in matters of religion . truth . i have and must observe the evill of that distinction between christian religion and christian order , as not finding any such in the testament of the sonne of god , but finding church-order a principall part of the christian religion , as well as repentance and faith , heb. . but ( . ) grant once mr cottons religion and way of worship to be the onely true religion and way of gods worship , and all other religions and wayes of worship false , how can that errour be otherwise then fundamentall ? and if other mens consciences attend not to mr cottons convictions , but obstinately maintaine their blasphemous religions , how can the magistrates of his conscience be dispenced with and absolved from persecuting such obstinate consciences throughout the whole world beside ? peace . when it was further demanded ▪ if this were not to make magistrates staires and stirrops for themselves ( the clergie ) to mount up in the seats and sadles of their great and setled maintenance ? mr cotton replyes , this is rather to make them swords and staves to punish them ( if need be ) for hereticall delinquencie : . their magistrates themselves fall short of great and setled maintenance : and lastly , himselfe liveth upon no great and setled maintenance . truth . it is true mr cotton allowes the same power to magistrates to punish all hereticks , blasphemers , seducers , one as well as another : but what if it should fall out that his magistrates should declare themselves for the pope , or for the prelates , or for the presbyters , yea , or for some other way then is professed : and left it free for each mans conscience to worship as he believed , and to pay or not pay toward this or that worship or ministrie , according to his owne perswasion more or lesse , any thing or nothing , will not mr cotton then plead that such magistrates themselves ( apostatizing from the truth of god , and turning enemies ( as the pope clamours ) to the holy church ) i say , that such ought not onely to be accursed with the lesser and greater censures of suspention and excommunication , but also punished with imprisonment , banishment , and death : or if they finde the mercy of life and favour of an office ( by some over-ruling providence ) will not mr cotton then pleade that such magistrates ought to suspend their power to hould their hands , and not to medle untill they be better informed , &c. into such poore withered strawes and reedes will the allowance of swords and staves , mr cotton here speakes of come to ? concerning the seats and sadles of great and setled maintenance of magistrates , the discusser spake not , but heartily wisheth their maintenance as great and setled , as he knowes their labours and travells and dangers be : he spake onely of ministers great ▪ and setled maintenance . peace . o truth , this is the apple of the eye , the true cause of so much combustion all the world over , especially popish and protestants . truth . indeed this was the cause ( as erasmus told the duke of saxonie , that luther was so stormed at ) because he medled with the popes crowne and the monkes bellies . to obtaine these warme and soft and rich seats and sadles ( who ever stand or goe on foote , or creepe , or beg , or starve ) the prelates practices all ages know . yea and other practices of some of late , who ( with the evill steward providing wisely ) first made sure of an ordinance of parliament for tithes and maintenance , before any ordinance for god himselfe . peace . this is that indeed which the politick state of holland well foresaw , when they were lamentably whipt by the king of spaines ( and gods ) scourge , duke d'alva , into a toleration of other mens consciences : the politick states-men , i say , saw a necessitie of stopping their dominies mouths with sure and setled maintenance out of the states purse . hence it is the dutch ministers zeale is not so hot against the toleration of hereticks in the civill state , as the english hath been . truth . to this purpose ( sweet peace ) how fitly did that learned prideaux once tell his sons the oxford doctors , at one of their superstitious creations , that since they could not dig , and were ashamed to beg , they had great need ( therefore ) of setled maintenance , this was but the evil stewards device , and ( i adde ) little better then stealing . peace . yea but sayth mr cotton , i live not so , &c. truth . one swallow makes not a summer : what others have done and doe , and what practices have been and are for a forced setled maintenance ( as firme and setled as ever was the parish maintenance of old england ) hath been , to the shame of christianitie , too apparant : for mr cotton himselfe , as i envie not the faines of his morsells , nor the sweetnes of his cups , but wish him as large a purse , as i beleeve he hath an heart , and a desire to doe good with it : yet it hath been said , that his case is no praesident , because what he looseth in the shire , he gets in the hundreth , and sits in as soft and rich a sadle as any throughout the whole countrey , through the greatnes and richnes of the marchandize of the towne of boston , above other parts of the land. the truth is , there is no tryall of the good or evill servant in this case , untill it comes to digging or begging , or the third way , viz : of couzening of the great lord & master christ jesus ; by running to carnall meanes and carnall weapons , to force mens purses for a rich and setled maintenance . chap. . ( replying to chap. . ) examined . peace . concerning princes mr cotton addeth , that princes out of state policie , doe sometimes tollerate what suits not with christianitie ( as david did joab ) against their wills . unto this it was answered , that this agrees not with his former generall proposition , to wit , that it was evill to tollerate seducing teachers , and scandalous livers ; mr cotton replyes ; yes , for moses laid downe in generall , who so sheddeth mans blood , by man shall his blood be shed ; yet joab was tollerated to live , &c. truth . if moses had said ; it is not lawfull to tollerate a murtherer ; and yet afterward had tollerated a murtherer , his later practice would not have seemed harmonious to his former speech , but moses did not so , and therefore i conceive is not rightly alledged . peace . whereas it was further alledged , that that state policie , and state necessitie , which permitted the consciences of men , will be found to agree most punctually with the rules of the best politician that ever the world saw ( the lord jesus himselfe ) who commanded the permitting of the tares . mr cotton replyes , that he is not against the permitting of some antichristians , or false christians , unlesse they maintaine fundamentall heresie against the foundation of religion , and that obstinately after conviction , and withall seduce others : but for such hereticks and seducing teachers , they are none of those tares , of which christ sayth , let them alone . besides , sayth he , if by tares are meant grosse offenders : then the speech of christ , let them alone , is not a word of command , but a word of permission and praediction ; like that luc. . . he that hath no sword , let him sell his garment and buy a sword. truth . i answer , that there should be antichristians , or false christians , which maintaine not fundamentall heresie against foundation of religion , i thinke is new to the new testament of christ jesus , and to the tryalls the holy spirit proposeth by john in his epistles , discovering such to be the hereticks and apostates , as deny the lord jesus ( as all antichristians or false christians doe more or lesse ) to be come in the flesh the true messiah , and anointed king , priest , and teacher to his church . peace . if mr cotton will make good his word , to wit , that he will permit some antichristians or false christians , methinks , the whole tryall of this matter might well turne upon this hinge , so that the true or false christian be tryed by the rules of the new testament . truth . if so , he must undeniably subscribe to this great and christian policie of permission or tolleration : as for the exceptions following [ unlesse they maintaine fundamentall heresie , and unlesse they sin actually ] these pull backe againe with the left hand what merciful freedome he had given before with the right . . but lastly , by this interpretation of , let them alone , by way of permission and praediction , it appeares that mr cottons thoughts are not without checks and doubtings what these tares might be : for ( sayth he ) [ if by tares are meant grosse offendours ] whereas before he spent much precious time to prove the tares to be a kinde of closer hypocrite . moreover , all permission is of evill , for some good , so he , the permission of tares for the wheate sake : in which respect ( as i conceive ) the good wheate is not so tendred , nor the word of christ so attended to by such , as presume ( in pretence for the good wheate sake ) to pluck up those tares , unto whom christ jesus for ▪ the good wheate sake , hath for a time granted a permission . exam : of chap. . replying to chap. . peace . vvhereas the discusser professedly waved any argument from the number of princes witnessing in profession or practice against persecution for cause of conscience , mr cotton replyes , that this is a yeelding of the invaliditie of the argument : but . that he urgeth not the number , but the greater pietie and presence of god with those princes who have professed and practiced against tolleration . truth . as i would not use an argument from the number of princes about an heavenly matter ( as knowing that the kings and rulers of the earth commonly minde their ▪ owne crownes , honours , and dominions , more then gods ; and such princes as are called christian , use gods name , crowne , and ordinances , as jeroboam used gods name , and jezabell used fasting and prayer , for the advancement of their owne crownes , and persecuting of the innocent and righteous ) so neither would i rest in the qualitie , greatnes or goodnes of any . that which i attend in this argument is the ground and reasons of their speeches ; which may also have this consideration to boote , that they are the speeches of such who sit at the helme of great states , and were not ignorant of the affaires of states , and what might conduce to the peace or disturbance , to the wealth or woe of a common-weale . to their ground and reasons therefore i attend in the next chapter . exam : of chap. . replying to chap. . peace . in this chap. the consideration of the speeches themselves , mr cotton sayth , he passed by , because , either the reasons wanted waight , or did not impugne the cause in hand , as first , that speech of king james ; god never loved to plant his church by bloud : it is farre from us ( sayth mr cotton ) to compell men to yeeld to the fellowship of the church by bloudie lawes or penalties : neverthelesse , this hindreth not but that his blood may justly fall upon his owne head that shall goe about to supplant and destroy the church of christ . truth . how light or how impertinent soever these speeches may seems to mr cotton , yet to others ( fearing god also ) they are most sollid and waighty . this speech of king james seemes impertinent in this cause ▪ because ( sayth mr cotton ) we compell no man by bloudy lawes and penalties to yeeld themselves to the fellowship of the church . i answer , as saul by persecuting of david in the land of canaan , and thrusting him forth of gods heritage , did as it were bid him goe serve other gods in other countries : so he that shall by bloudie lawes and penalties force any man from his owne conscience and worship , doth upon the point , say unto him , in a language ▪ of bloud , come be of my religion , &c. . peace . why should not men as well be forced to the truth , as forced from their errours and erroneous practices ? since ( to keepe to the similitude ) it is the same power that sets a plant , and plucks up weedes , which is true ( mystically ) in the spirituall worke of christ jesus , in his heavenly planting by his word and spirit . . truth . i adde , if men be compelled to come to church under such a penaltie , for absence ( as hath been practiced in old and new england ) how can mr cotton say , there is no forcing to the fellowship of the church ; when ( howsoever with the papists ) he makes so great difference , which christ never made , between the lords supper , and the word and prayer , and say , that men may be forced to the hearing of the word , but not to the supper . yet the consciences of thousands will testifie , that it is as truely grievous to them to be forced to the one as to the other , and that they had as lief be forced to the meat as to the broth , to the more inward and retired chambers and closets , as into the hall or parlor , being but part● of the same house , &c. peace . and i may adde ( deare truth ) that the bloudie imprisonments , whippings and banishments , that have cryed , and will cry in new england , will not be stild untill the cry of repentance , and the bloud of the lambe christ jesus , put that cry to silence . but to the second speech of king james , no marvell ( sayth mr cotton ) that i past by that speech , to wit , [ that civill obedience may be performed by the papists , ] for i found it not in the letter ; and beside , how can civill obedience be performed by papists , when the bishop of rome shall excommunicate a protestant prince , dissolve the subjects oath , &c. truth . i answer ; king james professing concerning the oath of allegiance ( which he tendred to the papists , and which so many papists tooke , ) that he desired onely to be secured for civill obedience ▪ to my understanding did as much as say , that he beleeved that a papist might yeeld civill obedience , as they did in taking this oath , as quiet and peaceable subjects , some of them being employed in places of trust , both in his and in queene elizabeths dayes ▪ what though it be a popish te●e●● , that the pope may so doe , and what though bellarmine ▪ and others , have maintained such bloudie tenents , yet it is no generall tenent of all papists , and it is well knowne that a famous popish kingdome , the whole kingdome of france assembled in parliament in the yeare ( so calld ) . condemned to the fire the booke of johannes marianus for mainteining that very tenent . and two moneths after bellarmines booke it selfe was condemned to the fire also , by the same parliament for the same detestable doctrine , as the parliament calld it , as tending to destroy the higher powers , which god hath ordained , stirring up the subjects against their princes , absolving them from their obedience , stirring them up to attempt against their persons , and to disturbe the common peace and quiet : therefore all persons who ever under paine of high treason , were forbidden to print , sell , or keepe that booke , &c. peace . this passage being so late , and so famous in so neere a popish countrie , i wonder how mr cotton could chaine up all papists in an impossibilitie of yeelding civill obedience , when a whole popish kingdome breakes and abhorres the chaines of such bloudy and unpeaceable doctrines and practices . . experience hath proved it possible for men to hould other maine and fundamentall doctrines of that religion , and yet renounce the authoritie of the pope , as all england did under king henry . when the six bloudie articles were maintained and practiced , and in them the substance of that idolatrous religion , although the power of the pope of rome was generally acknowledged no other , then of a forreigne bishop in his owne diocesse . . but grant the english catholicks maintaine the supreame authoritie of the pope , even in england , it must be considered and declared how farre : if so farre , as to owne his power of absolving from obedience ( against which the aforesaid parliament of paris declared ) the wisdome of the state knowes how to secure it selfe against such persons . but if onely as head of the church in spirituall matters , & they give assurance for civill obedience , why should their consciences more then others be oppressed ? peace . mr cotton , ( as all men and too justly in this controversie ) alledgeth the papists practices , what ever professions otherwise have been ▪ so long as they hould the pope , they are sure of a dispensation to take any oath , subscribe to any engagement , and of absolution for the acting of any crime of treason or murther against the chiefest states-men , and the state it selfe . truth . what is it that hath rendred the papists so inraged and desperate in england , ireland , & c ? what is it that hath so imbittered and exasperated their minds , but the lawes against their consciences and worships ? peace . the two sisters lawes compared , maries and elizabeths , concerning mens consciences , while maries were certainly written with bloud against the protestants , elizabeths may seeme to be written with milke against the papists . truth . deare peace , chaines of gold and diamonds are chaines , and may pinch and gall as sore and deepe , as those of brasse and iron , &c. all lawes to force even the grossest conscience ( of the most besotted idolaters in the world , jew or turke , papist or pagan ) i say , all such lawes , restraining from or constraining to worship , and in matters meerly spirituall , and of no civill nature , such lawes , such acts , are chaine● , are yoakes , not possibly to be fitted to the soules neck , without oppression , and exasperation . peace . it is no wonder indeed that the brains of those of the popish faith are so distempered and enraged by yoakes clapt on the neck of their consciences , when solomon the wisest observes it common : that civill oppression ( how much more soule-oppression , the most grievous and intollerable ) doth use to render the braines of men ( otherwayes most sober and judicious ) madde and desperate . . truth . i answer ( secondly ) grant the practices of the papists against the civill state , fowle , dangerous , &c. yet why should there not be hope ( according to the rules of pietie in scripture , and policie in experience ) that the coales of mercy and moderation may melt the head of an enemie , as hard as any stone or mettall , and render imbittered enemies , loving friends , combined and resolved for their common safetie and liberties . thirdly , against the feare of evill practices the wisdome of the state may securely provide , by just cautions and provisoes , as of subscribing the civill engagement ▪ of yeelding up their armes , the instruments of mischiefe and disturbance ; of being noted ( as the jewes are in some parts ) by some distinction of or on their garments , or otherwise , according to the wisdome of the state. and without such or the like sufficient cautions given , it is not civill justice to permit justly suspected persons , dangerous to the civill peace , to abide out of places of securitie and safe restraint . peace . if such a course were steered with the consciences of that religion , yet are there some objections waighty concerning the body of the people . first , there will be alwayes danger of tum●l●s and uproares between the papists and the protestants ▪ . truth . sweet peace , thou mayst justly be tender of the quiet repose and secure tranquilitie of all men , and with all men ( if it be possible , as the scripture speakes ) as thou art ●n heavenly daughter of the god of peace and love . but yet thou knowest the wisdome of the english state need● not be taught from abroad ( where li●ertie abroad is granted to the popish o● protestan● consciences ) of making safe and sufficient provision against all tumults , and feare of uproares . . but secondly , it is too too fully and lamentably true , that the congregations or churches of the severall sort● of such as in whole or in part seperate from the parish worship and ●orshipper● , are ●arr● more odious to , and doe more ex●sper●●e a thousand times , the parish assemblies , then the papist● or catholiques themselues are or doe : so that if the people were let loose to take their choice of exercising violence and furie , either upon ▪ a ●opish o● a protestant seperate assembly , it is cleare from the greater corrivation and competition ( made by the protestants that seperate ▪ ) to the true church , true government , true worship , true ministrie , true seales , &c. the rage of the people would mount up incomparably fiercer against the one then the other . hence i● was the papists ever found more favour with the last two kings and thei● bishops , then the puritants ( so called ) did , and the seperate assembl●es were not so maligned by them as the noncon●ormists , no● they so much as the very conforming puritants . and therefore suitably it was b●lcht out from a fowle-mouth 〈…〉 a chapl●ine to one of the late bishops ; a●plagu● ( said ●● ) on all conforming puritants , they doe us most mischiefe ▪ notwithstanding all this , and the bitter indignation of people against these sectaries ( so called ) and their assemblies , yet the most holy wisdome of the father of lights hath taught the parliament of england that wonderfull skill ( in the midst of so many spirituall oppositions ) to preserve the civill peace from the danger● and occasions of civill tumults and distractions . peace . admit the civill peace be kept inviolate , yet how satisfie we the feares and jealousies of many who cry out of danger of infection , and that jezabels doctrine will leaven and seduce the land , &c. truth . i will not here repeate what in other parts of this booke i have presented touching that point of infection . at present , i answer ; first , it is to me most improbable , that ( except the body of the nation face about from protestanisme to poperie ) ( as in queene maries dayes ) that the number of protestants turning papists , will be great in a protestant nation , especially if such securitie be taken , as was above-mentioned , and otherwise , as the state shall order , &c. together with such publick notes and markes ( before mentioned ) on the people of that way , because of their former practices . secondly , yea , why should not rather the glorious beames of the sunne of righteousnesse in the free conferrings , disputings and preachings of the gospel of truth , be more hopefully like to expell those mists and fogs out of the minds of men , and that papists , jewes , turkes , pagans , be brought home , not onely into the common roade and way of protestanisme , but to the grace of true repentance and life in christ . i say , why not this more likely , by farre , then that the mists and fogs of poperie should over cloud and conquer that most glorious light. peace . 't is true , the holy historie tells us of one sampson laying heapes upon heapes of the proudest philistims ; of one david , and of his worthies , encountring with and slaying their stoutest gyant● and champions , yet it is feared such is the depraved nature of all mankinde ( and not of the english onely ) that like a corrupted full body , it sooner sucks in a poysoned breath of infection , then the purest ayre of truth , &c. truth . grant this , i answer therefore ( thirdly ) if any of many conscientiously turne papists . i alledge the experience of a holy , wise , and learned man , experienced in our owne and other states affaires , who affirmes that he knew but few papists increase , where much libertie to papists was granted , yea fewer then where they were restrained : yet further , that in his conscience and judgement he believed and observed that such persons as conscientiously turned papists , ( as believing poperie the truer way to heaven and salvation ) i say , such persons were ordinarily more conscionable , loving , and peaceable in their dealings , and neerer to heaven then thousands that follow a bare common trade and roade and name of protestant religion , and yet live without all life of conscience and devotion to god , and consequently with as little love and faithfulnesse unto men. peace . but now to proceed ; a third speech of king james was , [ persecution is the note of a false church , the wicked are besiegers , the faithfull are besieged , upon revel . . ] mr cotton here grants , that it is indeed a note of a false church , but not a certaine one ; for , sayth he , which of all the prophets did not the church of the old testament persecute ? truth . mr cotton granting persecution to be a degree of falsehood and apostacie , as he doth in his following words , he must also grant , that where such a doctrine and practice prevailes , and the church growes obstinate after all the lords meanes used to reclaime , such a church will proceede to further degrees , untill the whole be leavened with falshood and apostacie , and the lord divorceth her , and casts her out of his heart and sight ; as he dealt with israel and judah : and it will be found no false , but a dutifull part of a faithfull childe to abhorre the whoredomes of such an one , though his own mother , who for her obstinacie in whoredomes is justly put away by his heavenly father , but of that ( the lord assisting ) more in its place . peace . further , whereas it was said , that mr cotton had passed by king stephen of poland his speech , to wit , the true difference between the civill and spirituall government , mr cotton answers , that it is true , that the magistrate cannot command their soules , nor binde their consciences , nor punish their spirits : all that he can doe is to punish the bodies of men for destroying or disturbing religion . truth . it is true , the lord alone reacheth the soules or spirits of men , but he doth it two wayes . first , immediately stirring up the spirits of the prophets , by visions , dreames , &c. secondly , by instituted meanes and ordinances : of which is the question : now stephen king of poland professed that he was king of bodies , and not of consciences : it being most true , that the lord jesus hath appointed spirituall rulers and governours , to binde and loose soules and consciences , to wound and kill , comfort and save alive the spirits and consciences of men. this power christ jesus committed to his true messengers ; but oh , how many are there that pretend to this apostleship or ministrie , who yet have sold away this spirituall power to the earthly or worldly powers , upon an ( implyed secret ) condition or proviso , to receive a broken reed an arme of flesh , ( in stead of the everlasting armes of mercy , ) to protect them . peace . with your leave ( deare truth ) let me adde a second : if the magistrate ( as mr cotton sayth ) punish the body for a spirituall offence , why doth he not punish by a spirituall power as a spirituall officer , with a spirituall censure and punishment ? truth . mr cotton will tell us that the bodies of the israelites were punished for spirituall offences : and we may againe truely affirme , that the very cutting off by the materiall sword out of the typicall land of canaan , was in the type , a spirituall punishment . peace . mr cotton is not ignorant of this , and hath often taught of these types from passages on genesis and other bookes of moses , &c. truth . the father of lights graciously be pleased to set home the light he hath vouchsafed him , & fix and imprint the beames thereof in his heart and affections also . peace . this argument ( of punishing the body for the soules good ) i remember was feelingly resented by an honourable gentleman in the parliament against the bishops , urging how contrary unto christ jesus those prelates were ; for christ jesus did make way for his working upon mens soules , by shewing kindnesse to their bodies , &c. but prelates contrarily , &c. truth . all the angells ' of god will one day witnesse , that christ jesus was never captain to pope , nor prelate , presbyter , no nor independent , emperour nor king , parliament , nor generall court , who punish and afflict , persecute and torture the bodies of men under pretence of a spirituall and religious medicine . peace . yea , but sayth mr cotton , religion is disturbed and destroyed , what shall be done ? truth . religion is disturbed and destroyed two wayes . first , when the professors or assemblies thereof are persecuted , that is hunted and driven up and downe out of the world : against such destroyers or disturbers ( being tyrants and oppressours , ) the civill sword ought to be drawen . peace . the drawing of the sword of justice against such tyrants , i believe hath prevailed in heaven , for the parliaments successes and prosperitie : the turning from the violence that was in the hands of those men of bloud the bishops , ( as in the men of ninivies case ) hath laid the long and violent storme of fire and bloud , &c. truth . yea let the most renowned parliament of england , and all england know , that when they cease to listen to daniells counsell to belshazzar , to wit , to shew mercy to the poore , ( even the poorest and most afflicted in the world ) the consciences of men , then is their parliamentarie glory and tranquillitie ecclipsed : till then i confidently believe , their government ( which hath now so many yeares with so many wonders continued ) shall not be numbred , nor another fatall change surprize them . but now ( ) the disturbance or destruction of religion is spirituall , by false teachers , false prophets , by spirituall rebells and traytors against the worship and kingdome of christ jesus : against which disturbers or destroyers , if christ jesus have not provided sufficient spirituall defence , let moses ( his ancient type , ) be said to exceede him in faithfulnesse , david in holy zeale and affection to the house of god , and solomon in wisdome and heavenly prudence , in ordering the affaires of the holy worship of god. peace . but further , whereas it was said , that to confound these ( to wit , a civill and spirituall government ) was babell and jewish : mr cotton replyes , that is babell to tollerate and advance idolatrie . . ( sayth he ) though christ hath abolished a nationall church-state , which moses set up in the land of canaan , yet christ never abolished a nationall civill state , nor the judiciall lawes of moses , which were of morall equitie , and therefore ( sayth he ) if the true christs bloud goe for the planting of the church , let the false christs goe for supplanting it . truth . i answer ; babell was infamous for pride , for confusion or disorder , for idolatrie , for tyrannie : now let all persecuting cities and kingdomes be examined and see if they have been cleare from any of these : and especially from babells confusion and disorder , from monstrous mingling of spirituall and civill , the devills worship with gods vessells : it was no confusion in the nationall church of israel for the power of that nation , in the hands of kings and civill rulers , to purge that nationall church by nationall force of weapons and death : but since mr cotton acknowledgeth that christ hath abolished that nationall church , and established congregationall churches , ( in some of which possibly may be no civill magistrate fearing god , for few wise or noble are called , and consequently few godly or christian magistrates professing christ jesus ▪ ) what is this but babell or a babylonish mixture of the old and new testament , nationall and congregationall churches power and practices together ? peace . . what if christ jesus have not abolished a nationall church state , it is sufficient that he hath abolished a nationall church . and if so , then in church matters those nationall judicialls , and the use of those nationall weapons and punishments , in attending upon such a nationall church : yea what colour of morall equitie is there that all the nations of the world ( most of which never heard of christ ) should be ruled by such lawes and punishments as were peculiarly and miraculously given and appointed to one selected and culd out nation , conceived , borne , and brought up ( as i may so speake ) from first to last , by extraordinarie , and miraculous dispensation ? peace . there may be ( sayth mr cotton ) difference between the nations professing christianitie , and other nations . truth . there is indeed great difference : there are two sorts of nations or peoples of the world , which shall be fewell for the devouring flames of the lord jesus , thess . . first , such as know not christ jesus , of which sort the greatest part of the nations of the world ( beyond all colour of comparison ) consist . . such as have heard a sound , and make some profession of the name of christ jesus , and yet obey him not as lord and king , &c. now it is true at the tribunall of this dreadfull judge , tyre and sidon , sodome and gomorra , shall finde an easier doome , then shall bethsaida , chorazin , capernaum , jerusalem , &c. and mr cotton need not feare the escaping of a false christ , when all nations professing christianitie ( papist or protestant ▪ ) ( if yet found disobedient to the true christ ) shall passe under a more fierie sentence then all mahumetane and pagan countries . peace . mr cotton will not stick to subscribe to this ; but , the false christs bloud ( sayth he ) ought now , to be spilt . truth . since there are so many false christs ( as the true christ prophesied ) mr cotton must unavoydably name and detect and convict those false christs , popish and protestant , &c. upon whom he passeth such a present sentence . he must also direct the way how the true christ may shed the bloud of the false christs . when mr cotton hath done this faithfully and impartially ( according to his conscience and present judgement ) what reader will not at first view see rising up from such premises these foure conclusions ? first , amongst so many christs extant ( that is visible christs head and body ) in the christian antichristian world , there can but one christ be found to be true . secondly , that christ which mr cotton professeth ( according to his conscience ) will be he. thirdly , all such christs as are extant , beside mr cottons , head and body , ought impartially to be put to death , as false , counterfeit , blasphemous , &c. fourthly , such as embrace his christ , that is , be of his church and conscience , are bound ( if they once get power in their hands ) to pursue with fire and sword , and to shed the bloud of all the false christs , that is , the severall sorts of false or antichristian worshippers . peace . oh how wise and righteous is the lord , in letting loose the wolfe and lyon ( persecutors and hunters ) upon his sheepe and people , that by their owne painfull sence of such bloudie violence and crueltie , he may graciously purge out the malignant venemous humours of such fowle antichristian and bloudie doctrines ? but to the next , the king of bohemia his saying . whereas it was said that in this kings speech mr cotton had passed by that foundation in grace and nature , to wit , that conscience ought not to be violated or forced , and that such forcing is no other then a spirituall rape . mr cotton replyes , it was not passed by , but prevented in stating the question , where it was said , it is not lawfull to censure any , no not for errour in fundamentall points of doctrine or worship , till the conscience of the offendour be first convinced ( out of the word of god ) of the dangerous errour of his way , and then if he will persist , it is not out of conscience , but against his conscience , as the apostle sayth , ( tit. . . ) and so he is not persecuted for cause of conscience , but for sinning against his conscience . . truth . i answer , the forcing of a woman , that is , the violent acting of uneleannesse upon her bodie against her will , we count a rape : by proportion that is a spirituall or soule-rape , which is a forcing of the conscience of any person , to acts of worship , which the scripture entitles by the name of the marriage bed , cant. . this forcing of conscience was in an high measure the branded sinne of that great typicall machiavel jeroboam , who made israel to worship before the golden calves : and this is the abominable practice of the second beast , who compells all to take the marke of the first beast , and this is the sinne of ( the mysticall ammon ) the princes of europe , and of the antichristian world , those mysticall effeminate ahabs , who give their power to the beast , themselves ( together with that man of sinne and filthinesse ( the pope ) practicing most odious spirituall uncleannesse upon the consciences of the nations of the earth . . peace . deare truth , who knowes not whose voyce and song this is , but that , of all the bloudie bonners , gardiners , and most devouring persecutours that ever have or shall legally in way and pretence of justice , persecute . [ you pretend conscience that you dare not come to church because of conscience , that so to sweare , submit , subscribe , or conforme , is against your conscience , that you are persecuted for your conscience , and forced against your conscience . truth . indeed , what is this before the flaming eyes of christ ; but as ( amnon-like in the type ) some lustfull ravisher deales with a beautifull woman , first●using all subtle arguments and gentle perswasions , to allure unto their spirituall lust and filthinesse , and where the conscience freely cannot yeeld to such lust and folly ( as tamar said to amnon ) then a forcing it by penalties , penall lawes and statutes ? yea , what is this but more filthy and abominable then is commonly practiced against ravished women , to wit , a perswading a conscience that it is obstinate , obstinate against its knowledge , that a man might lawfully have yeelded , that he is convinced of the lawfulnesse of the act , and therefore may justly be punished for repelling such arguments , and resisting such perswasions against the conviction of his owne conscience . . peace . it is a common question , made by most , who shall be judge of this convicted conscience ; shall the lustfull ravisher ( the persecutor ) be judge ? will the burning rage of his spirituall filthinesse and antichristian beastialitie cause no shaking of the scales of justice ? and will mr cotton indeed ( except he suspend them ) have all the civill magistrates , or civill states , or generall assemblies , or courts of people in the world ( according to their severall constitutions ) sit judges o're conscience , to wit , when the poore ravished consciences of men are convinced . truth . what is this , but ( in truth ) to submit the soules and consciences of the saints ( yea the conscience of the lord jesus in them , ) unto the world that lyes in wickednesse ( and to the devill in it ) out of which god hath chosen ; but few , that are wise , or that are great , rich , or noble . . and to end this passage , what is this , but to destroy that distinction of a true and false conscience , which the holy spirit expressely maketh , relling ( thessal : . ) of antichristians that make conscience of lyes , believing them conscientiously for truths . what is it now to force a papist to church , but a rape , a soule-rape ? he comes to church , that is , comes to that worship , which his conscience tells him is false , and this to save his estate , credit , &c. what is this in a papist , but a yeelding unwillingly to be forced and ravished ? take an instance of holy cranmer , and many other faithfull witnesses of the truth of jesus , who being forced or ravished by terrour of death , subscribed , abjured , went to masse , but yet against their wills and consciences . in both these instances of papist and protestant , mr cotton must confesse a soule-ravishment ; for , th● conscience of a papist is not convinced that it is his dutie to worship god by the english common prayer-booke , or directorie , &c. and the consciences of many are not convinced but that it is their sinne to come at either the papists or common protestants worship . so both papist and protestant are forced and ravished by force of armes , ( as a woman by a lustfull ravisher ) against their soules and consciences . peace . againe , in that king of bohemia's speech mr cotton passed by that most true and lamentable experience of all ages , to wit , that persecution , for cause of conscience , hath ever proved pernicious , and hath been the cause of great alterations and changes in states and kingdomes . to this mr cotton replyes , no experience in any age did ever prove it pernicious to punish seducing apostates , after due conviction of the errour of their way : and he asks , wherein did the burning of servetus prove pernicious to geneva , or the just execution of many popish priests to queene elizabeth , or the english state ? truth . i answer , though no historie did expresse what horrible and pernicious mischiefes the persecuting of the arians and others caused in the world : yet is it lamentably sufficient to the point , that all ages testifie ( and i had almost said all nations ) how pernicious this doctrine hath been in raising the devouring flames of fire and sword , about hereticks , apostates , idolaters , blasphemers , &c. peace . later times have rendred the observation of that king most lamentably true , in the many great desolations , in germany , poland , hungaria , transilvania , bohemia , france , england , scotland , ireland , low countries ( not to speake of the mighty warres between those dreafull monarchies of the turkes and persians , and other nations ) to the flames where of although other causes have intermingled , the matters of heresie , blasphemie , idolatrie , &c. have been the chiefest sparkes and bellowes . truth . it is true ( as mr cotton sayth , ) it hath pleased the god of heaven to spare some particular places , and to preserve wonderfully for his name and mercy sake , geneva , england , &c. &c. when they have been besieged and invaded : yet mr cotton confesseth , that queene elizabeth by that course had like to have fired the christian world in combustion , which though it pleased god to prevent , yet later times have shewen how pernicious this doctrine hath proved unto england , scotland , ireland , &c. in the slaughter of so many hundreth thousand papists and protestants , upon the very point ( principally ) of heresie , idolatrie , &c. peace . to end this chapter : to that observation that persecution for cause of conscience was practiced most in england , and such places where poperie reignes , implying that such practices proceed from the great whore , and her daughters : mr cotton replyes , it is no marvaile he passed by this observation in the kings speech , for it was not the speech of the king , but of the prisoner , and it was not the persecuting of antichristians , but of nicknamed puritans , and of them too without conviction of the errour of their way : he addeth that he could never see warrant to call that church an whore , that worshipped the true god onely in the name of jesus , and depended on him alone for righteousnesse and salvation , and that it is ( at least ) a base part of a childe to call his mother whore , who bred him and bred him to know no other father , but her lawfull husband the lord jesus christ truth . whether the observation was the kings , or the prisoners , yet it was passed by : and if those puritants or protestants persecuted , were not convinced , himselfe ( as he here sayth ) never saw warrant , that is , was convinced , for to call such a church as he here describeth , an whore , yet not a few of his opposites will say , and that aloud , that he and they were or might have been convinced , what ever he or they themselves thought . the truth is , the carnall sword is commonly the judge of the conviction or obstinacie of all supposed hereticks . hence the faithfull witnesses of christ , cranmer , ridley , latimer , had not a word to say in the disputations at oxford : hence the non-conformists were cryed out as obstinate men , abundantly convinced by the writings of whitgift and others : and so in the conference before king james at hampton court , &c. but concerning the church of england , whether a daughter or no of the great whore of rome , it is not here seasonable to repeate what the witnesses of christ to bonds , banishments , and death ( whom mr cotton here calls the rigid seperation ) have alledged in this case . i thinke it here sufficient to say two things . first , mr cotton himselfe is thought to believe that it is not a profession of words containing many fundamentall doctrines that makes a people a true church , who professing to know god , yet in workes deny him ; notwithstanding that amongst them by gods gracious dispensation much good may be wrought by many . . mr cotton himselfe will not say that ever christ jesus was married to a nationall church ▪ which all men know the church of england ever was , and mr cotton elsewhere acknowledgeth ( as nationall ) to be none of christs , but onely churches congregationall . exam : of chap. . concerning the romane emperours , which did or did not persecute . peace . vvhereas it was answered , that godly persons ( as some godly emperours ) might doe evill , to wit , in persecuting : and ungodly emperours in not persecuting , might doe well , &c. mr cotton replyes , this begs the question , to say that kings alledged by the prisoner did that which was good , but kings alledged by mr cotton ( though better persons ) did that which was evill . truth . i think mr cotton mistakes the poore prisoner if he conceives him to have argued from the number , or ( by way of comparison ) the qualitie or goodnesse of the kings . i am sure he mistaketh the discusser , who argues neither from their persons , nor number , nor practices , but from the waight of their speeches , qualified onely with the consideration of their state : their speeches mr cotton passed by , but now hath waighed , though not so fully as it may please god to cause himselfe , or others to doe hereafter . peace . i conceive it to be a further mistake , to thinke the discusser accounted the persons alledged by mr cotton better persons then those alledged by the prisoner . truth . the discusser compared them not , but desired that their speeches and arguments might have their just and due waight , and then i believe it will be found , not a begging , but a winning of the question , even from the testimonie of some kings themselves . chap. . replying to chap. . examined . peace . in this chapter god is pleased to leave mr cotton to fall into two evills , then which ( ordinarily ) greater cannot be among the sonnes of men : i speake not of the aggravations of malice and obstinacie , which i hope the most gracious lord will keepe him from , but of the sinnes themselves in themselves : the one is monstrous blasphemie and abominable profanation of the most holy name of his most high and holy maker , &c. the second extreamest crueltie and tyrannie against men his fellow creatures . for the first , after a new refined fashion and dress , he projects how to turne this whole dunghill of the corrupt and rotten world , into a most sweet and fragrant garden of the church , or dove of christ . for the second , he contents not himselfe with the severitie and crueltie of former times exercised by the emperours professing the name of christ , against such , whom they reputed hereticks , but blames them for applying too favourable and gentle medicines of exile and banishment , and in plaine tearmes he sayth , it had been better they had put them to death . truth . your observation ( sweet peace ) is full of pietie and mercy : it is most true , that a private opinion , or an act of antichristianisme and idolatrie , like a dead flie , may cause a sweet pot of christian oyntment , to yeeld a stincking savour , but such a doctrine , of such a generall nature and extent , as reaches to all men , to all the world ( in my apprehension ) should cause men to feare and tremble at such rocks , against which such gallant vessells may strike , and split , if the most holy and jealous god , be pleased a little to withdraw his holy hand from the steering of them . peace . let me ( deare truth ) summe up the heads , to which i shall request your consideration . it is true ( sayth mr cotton : ) when god advanced constantine and other christian emperours to sit on the throne , the church soone became a wildernesse , and he also seemeth to consent that the unknowing zeale of constantine and other good emperours did more hurt to christianitie , then the raging fury of bloudie neroes : but withall he addeth that their unknowing zeale did not lye in punishing notorious hereticks , seducers , &c. and he sayth , that the church never had hurt by such punishments . he affirmeth that it is no sollecisme in religion for the whole world to become christian : that the world became antichristian by the tolleration of princes , and their advancing of church affaires , together with the unwatchfullnesse of such being advanced : that if the world had renounced paganisme , and professed christ to be the sonne of god , but yet had been kept from the fellowship of the church till they had approved their profession by a sincere conversation , it had been no sollecisme , &c. further , he sayth , the christian emperours did permit hereticks ; to live in the field of the world , that they seldome or never put them to death for hereticall pravitie ( though it had been better ( sayth he ) they had so done with some of them , but onely expelled them from populous cities and countries , where the gangrene might spread , &c. truth . you have well summd up ( sweet peace ) i shall briefly touch these heads , with gods assistance ; and first concerning the zeale of the romane emperours . it is confest by mr cotton , that upon the good emperours coming to the throne , the church soone became a wildernesse , and that was a greater hurt and mischiefe then ever befell the saints and churches under the fierie persecution of the most bloudie neroes ; surely such zeale that brought forth such fruit to christianitie might seeme justly to be suspected not to be kindled from heaven , but from men. . it seemes not reasonable to the weakest understanding , nor suitable to the wisdome and constant care and love of christ jesus to his wife and spouse in his absence , that the romane emperours should be such godly persons , and that also neither by christ jesus nor his apostles or messengers the least word should be directed to them , when , as yet , they were extant , in christs and his messengers times ; and ( by the bloudie tenent ) must be supposed invested with so high a calling too , so high a worke and dutie , as higher is not to be performed in the whole world ( and that ex officio ) to wit , the establishing , governing , reforming , &c. the church , the spouse , and kingdome of christ jesus . peace . . the church and servants of christ had great hurt ( notwithstanding mr cottons contrary beliefe ) by the emperours persecuting , of whom they judged hereticall , partly in that the arrians were hardned by their sufferings , and arrianisme increased by the sufferings of the professours of it ; as also that the christians were more severely persecuted ( as hath often also come to passe ( in the interchanges between the papist and the protestant ) when the arrians came to weare the sword , and the orthodox christians were under hatches . truth . . but that the whole world that wonders after and worshippeth the beast , should yet possibly be of the small number , that follow the lambe , and stand opposite to the beast , on mount zion : that the world upon whom the vialls of plagues and vengeance are to be powred according to the infallible prophecies ( not to speak of the world from other scriptures ) that this whole world ( i say ) should be brought into such an onenes with christ jesus , seemes so crosse to the fundamentall enmitie between christs seede and the serpents , to the priviledges of the saints , to the puritie of christ , to the streame of scripture , and in particular to the sweete last will and testament of the lord jesus , and the nature of his particular flocks , &c. that i cannot wonder sufficiently , how any man professing but a small knowledge of the mysteries and kingdome of christ jesus , should be so vailed , so obscured , so to write of the state of christs church and the world , as mr cotton doth ? peace . christ jesus ( blessed truth ) gave not thankes to his most holy , most wise father in vaine , for hiding from wise and prudent , and opening to babes and sucklings . truth . . but further , such a conversion of people from idolatrie to christianitie , as fits them to be professours of the sonne of god , but yet not fits them for the fellowship of christians in church state , i finde not in the testament of christ jesus . surely the conversion of the thessalonians was not such , thess . . who turned not onely from idolls ; but to serve the living and true god , which service of god in christ no soule uprightly in love with christ jesus , but ( in its measure ) longs after , as vehemently and cordially as ever chast spouse after her dearest earthly husbands presence and enjoyment , cant. . & . & . peace . gods spirit ( in john ) describes one difference , &c. between the true spirit and professours , and the f●●se , to wit , that such as acknowledge ( that is truely as i conceive ) christ jesus to become in the flesh , are borne of god. truth . yea therefore consequently such a spirit cannot be of jesus , that makes such a profession of christ jesus as the devills themselves may make , and ( even for want of regeneration and personall grace , ) the professours are not fit for the fellowship of the true christian worship , and worshippers . . but lastly , if mr cotton , or any of his bloudie judgement woare the imperiall crowne of the worlds majestie , what slaughters shall we imagine the world should heare and feele ? whether would such fierie zeale transport men ? yea what an earthly dunghill religion and worship should the most high god be served with , fit onely for the dunghill gods and goddesses , whom all asi● ( as the towne-clarke speakes ) and the world worshippeth . peace . if the report of mr cottons interpreting that scripture of serving god with all our might , &c. be true , to wit , of employing our civill armes and forces to the utmost , and that against other peoples professing idolatrie and antichristianisme : his conscience ( as i conceive ) must needs force on and presse after , an universall conquest of all consciences , and under that ( like those bloudie spaniards , turkes and popes ) lay under that faire cloake , the rule and dominion over all the nations of the earth . truth . but may not mr cotton better listen to the voyce of the lord jesus , saying to him and such of his bloudie tenent , you know not of what spirit you are of : were the emperours too favourable ( as mr cotton sayth ) in but banishing ? how keene a sword would mr cotton draw against so many millions of gangreene soules throughout the turkish and the popish world ? peace . oh , how farre different would mr cottons sword be from the sword of the spirit of god , proceeding from the mouth of christ jesus , yet sharpe enough with two edges , piercing between soule and spirit , &c. truth . yea how farre different from the meeke spirit of the lambe of god , who came not to destroy mens lives , but to save them , yea how different from the former make and noted gentle temper of mr cottons own spirit , now over-heat and enflamed by his unmercifull and bloudie tenent ? exam : of chap. . replying to chap. . peace . vvhen mr cotton was justly observed to use the language of lyon-like persecution in these words , [ more and greater princes then these you mention have not tollerated hereticks and schismaticks , notwithstanding their pretence of conscience , and their arrogating the crowne of martyrdome to their suffrings ] he defendeth such language by the scripture freedome in such tearmes against sinners , which sayth he , the discusser acknowledgeth . truth . in holy scripture are many expressions full of holinesse , gravitie , love , meeknesse , &c. which yet are wrested by us poore men to unholy and unchristian ends and purposes . how many wofully pervert many grave and heavenly passages and expressions of holy scripture to base and filthy jeasting ? how many from some sharp expressions of christ jesus and paul ( in cases ) take licence to raile and call men all to naught , in wrath , revenge , and passion ? and how many out of pride and false zeale trampling upon the heads and consciences of all men , are ready ( not in an holy meeke and christian way but ) in a pharisaicall , bishop-like and pope-like way , to roare and thunder out against gods meekest servants the odious tearmes of hereticks , schismaticks , blasphemers , seducers , &c. which tearmes though used in holy scripture , yet never in such a way , as commonly and constantly the bloudie and persecuting expresse themselves in . peace . but what or whom meanes mr cotton in this passage , what language have they learned , who in point of worship have left zion , but not the gates and suburbes of babylon , for they set up bull-warkes of impunitie to secure them . truth . surely mr cotton knowes that none that plead against the civill power and weapons in spirituall matters , but they also maintaine , that , there ought to be in vigorous use the spirituall and two edged sword that comes forth of christs mouth ( not for the impunitie but ) for the ruine and destruction of all babells ●ra●s and abominations . peace . mr cotton spends many lines , and quotes austin to prove , that julians end of tollerating heresie to grow , was to choake christianitie . truth . what ever were julians end , yet i deny that tolleration of the weedes of heresie and blasphemous religion ( paganish , turkish , jewish , popish ) in the field of the civill state and world , hath power to choake the vitalls of christianitie in the garden or bodie the church of christ jesus . and concerning infection , it is to be observed that when the holy scripture speakes by the similitudes of leaven , gangrene , or poysonfull weedes , of wolves , or scabbed sheepe , &c. it is commonly with respect to such evills got in among the saints and churches , the flocks and gardens of christ , where such leaven , weedes , &c. tollerated may spread and infect : but what is this to the lyons , beares , or wolves , not to be suffered in the wildernesse , or swine , or dogs , in the common high wayes ; or weedes in the common or forest , which all may be , and yet the garden , body , and flock of christ be pure and safe from such infection . peace . one passage more is very considerable . in former discourse about the tares mr cotton was large in proving the permission of weedes , even in the church of christ , and that untill christs comming , and that after they be discovered to be hypocrites . truth . o what a distance is between that doctrine and this here ? there the tares must not be touched in the garden of the church , here they must not be suffred abroad in the field of the world , for feare of choaking the good plants in the garden of christ . who can finde out how these doctrines suit with godlinesse , with reason , or themselves ? peace . but now you speake of suiting : it is ( sayth mr cotton ) ( for a close ) a plaine contradiction of the discussers former speech to say , that persecuting of others was a meanes of choaking christianitie , whereas he had said , that constantines unknowing zeale did more hurt to christs kingdome , then the raging furie of the most bloudie neroes . truth . let the words be well weighed , and no such affirmation will be found : the words are , [ it was not when christians lodged in cold prisons , but in down● beds of ease , and persecuted others . ] the discusser made not persecution to be a meanes of choaking christianitie , but attributes the losse of christians life and love , to those beds of their abused sweete prosperitie . . if he had made persecution a meanes to choake christianitie , it had been the persecution of christians among themselves , and not the persecution of bloudie neroes : which yet if it had been so , it might yet be no contradiction , for neroes persecution might doe hurt , although constantines unknowing zeale might doe much more . exam : of chap. . replying to chap. . peace . master cotton here being understood to smile on q : elizabeth for persecuting the papists , and to ●●●wne on k : james for persecuting the ( so named ) puritans , he denies neither , but insists onely upon the number , that as many and as great princes are against tolleration as for it , and in particular q : elizabeth and k : james . truth . i say ( as before ) i should never use an argument from the number of princes ( no more then from the number of any other men ) for any truth of christ jesus : who as he was not pleased himselfe to be borne of the sons of nobles , so hath he not chosen many nobles and wise men of this world to be borne of him : yet . if that be his argument , he hath not satisfied , in naming these two , for more were named by the prisoner , and besides one of those witnesses , k : james abundantly declared himselfe , not onely against persecuting of papists , but against all persecution in generall , what ever otherwise or afterwards his practices were against some persons , as mr cotton too truely alledgeth . truth . in the next passage the discusser having objected that both q : elizabeth and k : james did persecute according to their consciences , and arguing why should the one ( namely ) k : james be more blamed for persecuting according to his conscience , then q : elizabeth for persecuting according to hers : mr cotton distinguisheth of consciences : the queenes sayth he , was rightly informed , but the kings was not . when it was replyed , that either k : james , and such princes whose consciences ( according to mr cottons conscience ) are ill informed , must act according to their consciences , or else they want the qualification and fitnes for such places : mr cotton answers two things . first , that such qualifications are not essentiall , but integrall . secondly , that such princes must forbeare all civill censures in matters of religion untill they be better informed . truth . it is most true as mr cotton sayth , if we speake of the right of succession , a childe may be a lawfull king ( as k. james himselfe was being but a yeare old ) but if we speake of the qualifications of the minde , by which a king is enabled to rule his state ( as is supposed ecclesiasticall and civill , and to judge under christ jesus in all causes ecclesiasticall as well as civill : surely , he that knowes not which is the true church , true ministrie , true ordinances ; yea and persecutes the true church , ministrie , and worship , what ever his qualifications be for the government of the civill state , yet can it never be made good that he is furnished with any essentiall qualification for the spirituall administration , any more then he that undertakes to be a guide , and yet is blinde , and never set foote in the way , and knowes not the true from the false : or to be a captaine generall , yea or but a shepheard , &c. . beside , christ jesus never calld any person to any employment of his , to any worke , whom he inables not in a measure proportionably , &c. peace . in such cases ( sayth mr cotton ) princes are called to suspend and forbeare all execution of civill censures in the matters of religion , till they be better informed , least they doe persecute the son of god in stead of the son of perdition . truth . i answer : first , then mr cotton hath cut off k : james from acting , though so long esteemed and sworne supreame in all causes ecclesiasticall . secondly , i aske , how many shall forbeare , and how long , for evident then it is that most ( beyond all comparison ) of all the princes and magistrates in the world , must not meddle with this pretended chiefe part of their dutie and office , and that ( if they convert not ) for the whole course and race of their life : in particular , that no pagan magistrate ( of all the ten thousands in the world , no persian , turkish , popish , nor protestant ( if prelaticall or presbyterian , ) ought to exercise any of this high and glorious power , but onely such princes and magistrates as are of mr cottons conscience ; for otherwise what prince in the world more learned king in his time then king james , yet was not he of mr cottons conscience . peace . deare truth : the fall of this partialitie is so apparant , and withall so fowle , that i thinke it impossible , but ere long it must needs be condemned by men on earth , as doubtless it is abhord by the most holy and impartiall god , and his holy angells in heaven : upon this occasion i call to minde that famous act of the so greatly renowned constantine , who in his first wearing of the diademe , put forth ( his colleauge licinius concurring also ) a famous and most solemne charter and edict , that no man throughout the whole empire should be constraind in his religion . truth . mr cotton ( according to his proviso of suspension ) must doubtles applaud constantine for this his forbearance untill he were better informed , whereas afterward his edicts against arrius and arrianisme , testifie his practice to the contrary . but he that shall reade seriously in gods presence that first edict of constantine and licinius , will there finde constantine to use such arguments , as might for ever have caused him to have forbore persecution , to have still suspended , to have gratified the subjects of all his empire with libertie and freedome in the point of worship and religion . but i will end this passage with this querie ; if christ jesus have left such power with the civill rulers of the world , kingdomes , and countries , of or for the establishing , governing , and reforming his church , what is become of his care and love , wisdome and faithfulnesse , since in all ages ( since he left the earth ) for the generall , beyond all exception , he hath left her destitute of such qualified princes and governours , and in the course of his providence furnished her with such , whom he knew would be , and all men finde as fit , as wolves to protect and feede his sheepe and people . exam : of chap. . replying to chap. . peace . vvhen it was questioned , what good to the soules or bodies of their subjects did those princes bring in persecuting ! mr cotton produceth a good ●i●●fold that is brought to princes and subjects by the due punishment of apostates , seducers , idolaters , and blasphemers . truth . let all that feare god and mr cotton himselfe be perswaded to observe , whether under this faire cloake of punishing these and these spirituall sinners , he maintaine not strongly ( what elsewhere he denies ) to wit , persecution for cause of conscience . but we know the evasion . it is not for apostatizing , seducing out of conscience , but after conviction , against their conscience , &c. peace . you have before satisfied me ( besides other passages ) with this one , that to this end of discerning the poore hereticks sinning against his conscience , the civill state , the earth , the world must necessarily erect its tribunall , to judge not onely civill things , but even the heart and conscience also ; but now to mr cottons five-fold good . first ( sayth he ) it puts away evill from the people , by cutting off a gangrene which would spread to further ungodlinesse , deut. . . tim. . . . . . truth . i answer , these scriptures ( though pure and holy in their places , yet ) are here coupled together as linsey wollsey , contrary to the law. deut. . which concerns the typicall nationall church , using nationall & temporall weapons : the tim. . concernes the particular congregations or churches of christians , using onely the sword of gods spirit , the word of god , &c. beside , deut. . concerned such a people whom the lord brought forth of aegypt with miracles , into canaan , &c. let any such people be now produced , excepting the christian ( particular ) churches . why doth mr cotton then alledge this scripture so frequently , and in these five reasons brings two from hence ; this the first ; and the third , to wit , that all the people may heare and feare , &c. which is alone made good in the antitype or christian church ; according to that tim. . . rebuke them that sinne openly , that others may learne to feare . . peace . mr cotton mentioneth a second good , which is driving away wolves from worrying and scattering the sheepe of christ . truth . this was largely answered in discoursing the nature of mysticall or spirituall wolves , upon that very place which he quotes , acts . from whence it may evidently appeare that from the literall urging of such mysticall scriptures , all peoples and nations are enforced ( and that conscientiously ) like wolves and lyons to teare and devoure each other . . peace . mr cotton addes , that punishments are wholesome medicines to such as are curable of such evills , zach. . , , . truth . i answer ; all the holy appointments of god are most powerfull ( in their severall respective seasons , and manner of dispensations , to his owne most holy ends and purposes , &c. the materiall nationall sword in the nationall church of israel before christ : and the spirituall sword , in the spirituall and christian church since his comming to abolish those shadowes . as it was therefore in vaine to have cut off or excommunicated spiritually in that nationall state : so is it in vaine to use the materiall or carnall sword in the spirituall . wherefore ( according to this place of zach. ) a true penitent will blesse god for the wounds of friends and lovers ( faithfull and sharpe dealing ) and for deliverance from the kisse of deceitfull flatterie : but what is this to prove ( that which is so much denied ) to wit , corporall death or wounds now to be inflicted upon false teachers in these times of the gospel , and that in all parts and nations of the world. . peace . the punishment , sayth mr cotton , executed upon false prophets and seducing teachers , doe bring downe showres of gods blessing upon the civill state , king. . , . truth . if that nationall state of israell , and that nationall or corporeall killing of so many hundreth false prophets , and that literall drouth and literall showres of raine and plentie were figures of no other prophets and slaughters , drouth and showers , but literall , materiall , and corporeall , ( now since the body and substance christ jesus is come ) : what should hinder but that those priests of israel , and sacrifices , and temple , and nationall church should all be in force , for our imitation , literally , the one as well as ●he other ? peace . i cannot possibly conceive but that ( all being of the same nature , ) the one is typicall as well as the other , and that they must flourish and be glorious ( as gods ordinances , ) or vanish and disappeare ( giving place to brighter dispensations ) at the arising of christ jesus the son of righteousnesse . truth . hence false apostles , false teachers , false prophets , are spiritually cut off , revel . . pet. . gal. . and spirituall showres of blessings descend upon the israel of god ; for although corporeall blessings of food and raiment and plentie , are gods blessings , yet principally under the gospel god blesseth his israel , the antitype with spirituall blessings , eph. . houses , lands , fathers , mothers , children , &c. with persecution , mark. . peace . me thinks ( deare truth ) if christ jesus had appointed such punishments , such executions , literall , in the christian church , he would also have appointed offices and officers suitable and proper for such ends and purposes , such punishments , such executions . truth . it cannot otherwise with reason and common prudence be supposed , but that , if christ jesus had appointed ( which we finde not in his holy testament ) holy and christian magistrates for those great decrees and sentences , wee should also have read of his holy constables , holy sergeants , holy prisons , holy stocks , holy whipping posts , holy gibbets , and holy tyburnes ; together also with holy hangmen , the spirituall instruments and officers of christ jesus , for the executions of his holy punishments upon apostates , hereticks , blasphemers , idolaters , seducers , &c. . peace . gods justice ( sayth mr cotton ) is honoured in the execution of such judgements , revel . . , . . truth . i have ( to my understanding ) formerly shewed mr cottons mistake in his expounding of this third violl , and have presented an exposition more agreeable with the scope of this prophecie . peace . . god was honoured in all his judgements which the tyrants of the world have executed , ( the babylonian , persian , grecian , romane ) yet not by way of law and ordinance , but in the way of his holy providence and just permission . . truth . yea the witnesses of jesus , by the two-edged sword of god in their mouths , execute gods judgements , to the vindicating of gods glory , and their innocencie , ( revel . . ) although they used no carnall weapon . . the holy name of god is much dishonoured and prophaned , when the inventions of men are set up , against his holy appointments , and when the sword of steele ( in spirituall cases ) is drawen in stead of the spirituall sword , proceeding out of the mouth of christ jesus in his servants testimonie . all such worship , is but vaine or idle worship ( mark. . ) and such is the carnall sword and executions of it . peace . whereas it was observed , that mr cotton acknowledged that queene elizabeth had well neere fired all europe , by such executions , mr cotton answers , god bore witnesse to his truth in deliverances : and when it was replyed , that successe doth not prove causes true , mr cotton answers , yes ; psal . . , . jer. . , , . truth . i reply , temporall prosperitie , successe , &c. were proper in that temporall and civill state , of that nationall church , and spirituall blessing and prosperitie proper in the gospel now , ephes . . peace . . it was answered that god had given victorie to the papists , especially against the waldenses ( and the beast makes warre against the witnesses , revel . . and overcomes them , &c. ) mr cotton herein first observeth a contradiction , in the words , to wit , that the papists ever had the victorie , and yet their successe hath been various . truth . i reply ; the words are not that the papists had ever the victory , but that they ever had both victory and dominion ; which words may be true , although that the event were sometimes various . . peace . againe ( sayth mr cotton ) queene elizabeth ever had the victorie against the papists . truth . i answer ; many gracious deliverances god vouchsafed to q : elizabeth , yet sometimes her armies prospered not against the papists , as in that famous expedition of essex , drake and norris ( though in a most righteous cause , ) against the papists of spaine and portugall , as also against the papists in ireland and the low countries , at sometimes . . grant not onely deliverances , but victories and successe , her cause ( how ever intermingled ) was civill defence of her kingdome , against invation and ambition , dominion and conquest , by practices of tyrannie and oppression , both against the english and the hollanders ( especially ) as appeared by the horrible exactions , outrages , murthers and slaughters committed upon them by d'alva the king of spaines generall . peace . but although the papists ( sayth mr cotton ) fought with various successe , yet it is gods manner to nurture his people with some crosses , to teach them not to fight in their owne strength , &c. truth . yea and it might also teach them not to fight but with christs weapons in christs cause ; who hath said , that all that take the sword , that is , ( as i conceive ) in christs cause , shall perish by it , matth. . . . peace . concerning the walldenses mr cotton sayth , they never lost victorie , but when they complied with the papists , and trusted more to their false praetences , then to the lord. and he adds , that it is not true , that the finall successe of victorie fell to the papists , to the utter extirpation of those walldenses ; for sayth he , those witnesses were not extirpated but dispersed . truth . for their complying with papists , alas , what can gods little flock , his two witnesses doe with carnall weapons , unlesse assisted by carnall men , to whom this carnall course causeth them to bow downe , dissemble , lye , &c. as holy david with achish and his philistims . . for the successe it is evident that the waldenses and their adherents , were so defeated by the popes armies , that in respect of any power to resist , the armies of the waldenses were wholly extirpated , although it is true ( through gods o're-powring hand ) the truths of christ ( which the holy waldensian witnesses testified ) were more and more propagated by their dispersions , christ jesus gaines more by preaching his truth in a flying persecuted dispersion , then by fighting on horsbacke with carnall weapons in carnall companies , &c. . peace . but , whereas it was observed from daniell and john their prophecies , that antichrist was foretold to obtaine great successe against christ jesus , for a time determined : mr cotton sayth , not against christ jesus , but his servants , and that either in suffring for his truth , or when they ill handled his cause . truth . be it so , yet the prophesies were true , and truely were fullfilled , and it is gods counsell that for the time appointed , christ jesus in his truths and servants is despised , psal . . &c. how can then temporall victorie and prosperitie be expected by christs followers for christs cause , or the temporall sword be an ordinance for christs spirituall kingdome and worship ? . peace . now lastly , when the weapons of the saints victories were mentioned three ; ( revel . . ) . christs bloud . . the word of their testimonie . . their owne bloud : mr cotton answers ; this is true in private christians : but ( sayth he ) the sword of gideon , the publike magistrate is the lords sword , &c. when drawen out for gods cause and worship , according to god , is victorious , revel . . with revel . . . , . truth . i answer ; gideons sword ( if well examined ) will be found a figure of that sharpe sword of that great captaine and generall christ jesus . this sword comes forth of his mouth in the preachings and writings of his servants : other sword we never finde he used in all his battells against all his adversaries : yea even against the devill himselfe and his instruments . peace . yea , those very victories of the saints , revel . . are expressely won with that sword which comes forth of his mouth : and his owne white horse , and the horses of his followers , and the white linnen with which they are clothed , cannot with any shew of christian reason hould forth the carnall praeparation of white horses , ( literally ) guns , swords , &c. but of the word of meeknesse , innocencie and righteousnesse ( which is interpreted the fine linnen , vers . . ) truth . to shut up this chapter , gideons armie and artillerie and victorie , cannot be type of such materiall armies , artillerie , and victories , but of a spirituall armie , fighting with the light and testimonie of gods truth openly proclaimed , and the chearefull breaking of the earthen vessells of their bodies for christs cause , when in conclusion , the antichristian midianites ( by their divisions and combustions ) run their swords in each others bowells , with mutuall slaughters and destructions ; as woefull experiences hath declared . exam : of chap. . replying to chap. . peace . from the argument of the testimonie of kings and princes concerning persecution for matters of religion in their kingdomes and dominions , the prisoner descended to the argument from ancient writers : unto some of which sayth the discusser , the answerer pleaseth to make answer : unto this mr cotton replyes ; as if any of them were omitted , or as if all of them were not answered : compare the prisoners letter and mine together , and see if i have balked any one of them . truth . mr cotton would here insinuate a false charge : i have compared the prisoners letter , and the answer , and although mr cotton hath said some-thing to some-thing , which every one of them spake : yet he that impartially will view the passages shall finde , that although in strictnesse of gammar rules , he may not be said to omit to say something to each of them , yet in respect of matter and argument , he hath toucht but some , and that but lightly , as the candle of examination will make it appeare . peace . hilarius words in the letter are these : the christian church doth not persecute , but is persecuted : and lamentable it is to see the great folly of these times , and to figh at the foolish opinion of this world , in that men thinke by humane ayde to helpe god , and with worldly pompe and power to undertake to defend the christian church : i aske you bishops , what helpe used the apostles in the publishing of the gospel ? with the ayde of what power did they preach christ , and convert the heathen from their idolatrie to god ? when they were in prisons , and lay in chaines , did they praise or give thankes to god for any dignities or graces and favours received from the court ? or doe you thinke that paul went about with regall mandates or kingly authoritie , to gather and establish the church of christ ? sought he protection from nero , vespatian , & c ? the apostles wrought with their own hands for their maintenance , travelled by land , and wandred from towne to citie to preach christ : yea the more they were forbidden , the more they taught and preached christ : but now alas humane helpe must assist and protect the faith , and give countenance to it , and by vaine and worldly honours doe men seeke to defend the church of christ , as if he by his power were unable to performe it . truth . how many goulden heavenly sentences ( like so many precious jewells ) are treasured up , in the cabinet of this holy testimonie of hilarius ? and yet , but some of them , nay onely one of them doth mr cotton choose to answer , to wit , this , the christian church doth not persecute , but is persecuted . truth . deare peace , each inch and shread of heavenly gold is precious , forget not therefore the addition in the letter , hilarie against the arrians thus : the church which formerly by enduring miserie and imprisonment , was knowne to be the true church , doth now terrifie others by imprisonment , banishment , and miserie , and boasteth that ●hee is highly esteemed of the world , whereas the true church cannot but be hated of the same . in which and other passages of hilarius mr cotton might see as in a glasse , the foule spots of his owne and new englands face , in a most lively testimonie against both bloudie tenents and practices . peace . to close upon the point : mr cotton sayth , he cannot make it a marke of a christian church to be persecuted , for ( acts . ) the churches had rest , &c. nor a marke of a false church to persecute ; for , asa persecuted the prophet ( chron. . . ) acts . . the true church persecuted the prophets . truth . when the scripture or common reason speakes of a common marke or character , proper to one they deny not ; but in an act , or unusuall cases that marke or character may be worne by the contraries . noah was drunk ; abraham lyes ; david commits adulterie : yet lying , drunkennesse and whoredome were not their ordinarie characters , but the markes of the common lyars , drunkards and adulterers of this world : david stobd vriah with his pen , and asa imprisoned the prophet ; yet these acts were not their ordinarie badges , but rather spots or blemishes , warts , or scabs , which grew on and were cast off ( like pauls viper ) without the note of a constant marke or character . it is the propertie of fire to ascend , and water to descend , yet the scripture relates of the descending of fire , and the ascending of water , which takes not away the ordinarie nature of the marke and character of fires ascending , and waters descending the hills and mountaines . an arrant whore is not alwayes in actuall whoredome and bloud , though both are her markes and dispositions : a chast wife or virgin abhorres both , and yet by force or great temptation , may be vanquished ( as bathsheba ) which afterwards the teares of godly sorrow and repentance wash away . peace . yea but , the question is ( sayth mr cotton ) whether magistrates may not punish arrogant hereticks and seducers ? truth . in all ages god hath permitted , goulden images ( like nebuchadnezzars ) to be set up , i say state worships and religions ! and he hath also provided his witnesses to testifie his truth against such abominations : such witnesses dissenting , non-conforming , and refusing to come to the common assemblies of such worshippers ( to come to church in plaine english ) to yeeld conformitie , to subscribe , to sweare , &c. are commonly cryed downe for hereticks , schismaticks , &c. and if they open their lips in defence of their owne conscience , and profession of gods truth ! seducers , seducers , blasphemers , blasphemers . . peace . but . sayth mr cotton ) it is another begging of the question , to take it for granted , that it is a marke of no true church to procure the civill punishment of incorrigible , obstinate hereticks and seducers . truth . i intend by a marke of character , an inbred constant disposition , put forth in a constant and ordinarie practice : and then i dare challenge mr cotton to produce any true church of christ , eyther in scripture or historie , that did ordinarily and constantly professe and practice to stirre up the civill magistrate against such whom they judged incorrigible obstinate hereticks and seducers . peace . that which follows is full of wonder and astonishment , for mr cotton confessing the christian church doth not persecute , that is ( sayth he ) persecute in excommunicating the heretick ) it was replyed ; this is but an evasion , for who denies power to christs church to excommunicate ? or who understands by excommunication , persecution for conscience ? mr cotton answers ; the prisoner did nōt expresse himselfe , what persecution he meant , and also since false excommunication is a great persecution , and so christ jesus himselfe esteemes of it , luk. . . truth . i have formerly and must againe appeale to the nature of the word , commonly used and taken , and aske , if persecution properly so taken be not a corporeall violence , or hunting for religion and conscience sake ! and then halfe an eye will see through this poore and thin excuse and covering , notwithstanding that false excommunication be a spirituall persecution , and the abuse of the spirituall sword be also deeper and fouler then the abuse of the civill and materiall . peace . to this ( upon the point ) mr cotton consented , to wit , that hilarius complaint , speaketh not to excommunication , but civill censures , and therefore answers , first by proportion that excommunication of an heretick is no persecution , and therefore by proportion neither is the civill punishment of an heretick , persecution . by concession of hilaries words , that the apostles did not , and we may not propagate religion by the sword. truth . the question with hilarie was not whether a true church did persecute an heretick idolater , blasphemer , &c. but whether a true church persecuted at all by civill censures : now there being two states , the civill or corporeall , and the ecclesiasticall or spirituall : there are conseqnently two sorts of lawes , two sorts of transgressions , two sorts of punishments , to wit , civill and spirituall , and there must of necessitie be two sorts of false or corrupt punishments , which are not just punishments , but oppressions , persecutions or huntings , to wit , the civill persecution and the spirituall : now mr cotton ( confounding heaven and earth together ) deceives himselfe and others by a notion of spirituall persecution , to wit , by excommunication , contrary to hilaries scope , and the scope of this whole dispute and controversie . i may illustrate it thus : some tutours of kings children , not being authorized to correct the bodies of such young princes , are said sometimes ( not without some desert ) to correct the bodies of inferiours ( the young princes favourites , ) by which the minds of such young princes smarted sufficiently , if not exceedingly . i parallell not the similitude in all respects , but to illustrate the difference and distinction , between a spirituall punishment of the minde , and spirit , soule and affections , with which christ jesus hath furnished his churches : and that civill or corporall punishment , which he never gave them power to inflict ( unlesse in miraculous dispensation ) over the bodies of any , directly or indirectly by themselves or others . peace . it is an everlasting truth ; rightly distinguish , rightly teach : but let us view mr cottons second answer , he grante that the christian religion was not , nor is not to be propagated by the sword. truth . then let heaven and earth judge , if mr cotton may not ( in this case ) out of his owne mouth be judged , since in this whole discourse he sets the visible headship of christ jesus ( that golden head , cant. . ) over the church and all her officers , doctrines and practices , ( in the power of correcting , reforming , &c. ) on the shoulders of the civill state , the ministers and officers thereof : provided that they execute not this headship or government , except they be able to judge , that is , ( in english ) provided they be of his conscience and judgement , and so consequently will judge and execute , according to the clergies ( though implicite ) decree and sentence . peace . it is not much unlike that mr cotton affirmeth in the words following : for although he confesseth it is not proper for christian churches to inflict civill punishments by themselves , yet makes he ( as all popes and popish persecutours have done ) the magistrates and civill powers , their servants and slaves for execution , &c. truth . this mr cotton covers over with this similitude , saying that although it is not proper for lambes to teare wolves , yet if they were reasonable they would run to their shepheards to send out their dogs after them . now under this fine paint and vizard of lambe like dispositions of shepheards , the bishops , presbyterians , and independents , may render the civill magistrate not as shepheards , but no other upon the point and in plaine english , then their servants and executioners , to punish such on whom the clergie first have past their sentence . the bloudie papists have commonly used to persecute christ jesus formally and judicially , delivering over christ jesus ( in his servants , ) orderly to pontius pilate , the secular power . the protestant persecutors use a finer vaile ( every ugly vizard will not so deceive ) for though they practice not so above boord , in respect of a formall and judiciall delivering of christ ( the heretick ) unto their shepheard pontius pilate the secular power , yet they doe it , and doe it as substantially and fully by preaching and chalking out to then servants the magistrates , their task , i say , as fully as ever the bloudie popes , the bishops ; or their chancellours did . peace . but why ( sayth mr cotton ) should a christian church spare an idolater tempting of her now , any more then the eye of an holy israelite was to spare the like tempters in the dayes of old , deut. . ? truth . mr cotton cannot get over this block , though it be but a shadow , yea the shadow of a shadow , abolished by christ jesus : mr cotton a little before grants that the power of spirituall chaines far exceeds the power of materiall , and if so how cleere is it , that the spirituall impartialitie and severitie of a virgin israelite now , is incomparablie sharper and more dreadfull , by putting spiritually to death such as tempt them from the lord their god , who hath brought them forth of aegypt into spirituall canaan , then the impartialitie and severitie of any literall israelite , against such as tempted them from the lord , who in a type had brought them forth of materiall aegypt into materiall canaan ? i adde ( sweete peace ) to end this chapter , if the father of lights graciously please to open a crevis of light to that ( otherwise ) excellent and piercing eye of mr cotton in this controversie , he will confesse concerning this cutting off in israel these two things . first , that the cutting off in materiall israel , was by swords , stones , &c. a cutting off from the holy land , and a casting out of gods sight , which cutting off god executed either by legall judgement and sentence among themselves , or by furious hand of persecutours and oppressours , slaughtering or captivating that people . secondly , that there is no other cutting off in the gospel , but by the spirituall sword of the word & ordinances of christ , or the violent hand of oppressours , antichristians , &c. carrying gods israel captive into mysticall babylon , or aegypt of false worship , or worldly corruption , which is ten thousand-fold more terrible and dreadfull , then the literall and materiall captivitie of israel . exam : of chap. . replying to chap. . peace . here mr cotton complaines of wrong , in that the discusser chargeth him to plead for persecution , and yet confesseth that he agrees with hilarie . truth . mr cotton indeed agrees with hilarie in generall profession , that the gospel is not to be propagated by sword , but in particulars he affirmes , the blasphemer , the idolater , the heretick , the seducer is to be persecuted . in the generall he saith , the magistrate may not constraine any to believe & professe the truth , yet in particulars ; thus far saith he , a man may be constrained by the magistrates withdrawing countenance and favour , incouragement and employment from him , which affirming , what doth he else but affirme that he may be constrained , deposed , punished , that is , persecuted . peace . indeed such kinde of punishment , as to displace men , to keepe them out from all offices , or places of trust and credit ( because of difference of conscience ) may prove in the particular a greater affliction and punishment , then a censure , a fine , imprisonment , yea sometimes more bitter to some spirits then death it selfe . truth . yea and mr cottons ground is both unsafe and darke , and needs a candle of light to discover the bottome and compasse of it : such , saith he , as walke not according to their light , are neither true servants to god nor man , but first , what meanes here mr cotton by light ? light in this sence is commonly taken two wayes . first , for that is light indeed , to wit , the precious light of gods revealed will. secondly , that which so appeares to be , to a mans minde and conscience , but may be a falshood , a lye , a mistake , and darknesse . mr cotton had done well to have distinguished , for ( before ) he blamed king james for walking according to his light : and although ( upon the point ) he makes the civill magistrates in all parts of the world , the heads , protectours , and governours of christs church , yet if the eyes of these heads see not by his light , he cuts off these heads , forbidding them to act as heads , and to walke according to their light , they must ( as often he tells us ) suspend , untill they have light , &c. . peace . beside , it comes oft to passe , that the light which shines by preaching or practice of others , although it be a meane sufficient to convince , if god please to blesse it , yet untill the consciences of men be convinced of the light of it , i judge it cannot properly be said to be the light of their consciences , nor they to sin against the light of their consciences . . truth . yea , and there is a morall vertue , a morall fidelitie , abilitie and honestie , which other men ( beside church members ) are , by good nature and education , by good lawes and good examples nourished and trained up in , that civill places of trust and credit need not to be monopolized into the hands of church-members ( who sometimes are not fitted for them ) and all others deprived and despoiled of their naturall & civill rights and liberties . peace . but what say you ( deare truth ) to mr cottons apologie for new england ( for as for constraint in old he is silent ) he sayth he knowes not of any constraint upon any to come to church , to pay church duties , and sayth it is not so in his towne . truth . if mr cotton be forgetfull , sure he can hardly be ignorant of the lawes and penalties extant in new england that are ( or if repeald have been ) against such as absent themselves from church morning and evening , and for non-payment of church-duties , although no members . for a freedome of not paying in his towne , it is to their commendation and gods praise , who hath shewed him and others more of his holy truth : yet who can be ignorant of the sessments upon all in other townes , of the many suits and sentences in courts ( for non-payment of church-duties ) even against such as are no church members ? of the motions and pleadings of some ( not the meanest of their ministers ) for tithes ? and how ever for my part i beleeve mr cotton ingeniously willing , that none be forced expresly to pay to his maintenance , yet i question whether he would work if he were not well payd : and i could relate also what is commonly reported abroad , to wit , that the rich merchants and people of boston would never give so freely , if they were forced , yet now they are forced to give for shame ( i take it ) in the publike congregation . the indians of this countrie have a way calld nanówwe , or giving their commodities freely , by which they get better bargaines , then if they stood stiffly on their tearmes of anaqúshento , or trading : and when not satisfied to the utmost , they grudge , revile , &c. it cannot be , but that to such deceitfulnesse of heart mr cotton is subject as well as others , though love bids me , and others , to hope the best . peace . the close of this chapter seemes strange and wonderfull , for mr cotton acknowledged that propagation of religion ought not to be by the sword , and yet instantly againe maintaines he the use of the sword when persons ( which then must be judged by the civill state ) blaspheme the true god and the true religion , and also seduce others to damnable heresie and idolatrie : but this ( sayth he ) is not the propagation of religion , but the preserving of it , and if it doe conduce to propagation , it is onely removendo prohibens . truth . what is this removendo prohibens , but as the weeding of a field or garden ? and every husbandman will say , that the end of such his work , is the propagation and increase of his graine and fruit , as well as the making of his fence , and planting and sowing of his field or garden : what therefore is this confession , ( though with this distinction ) but in truth an acknowledgement of what in words and tearmes , he yet denies ( with hilarie ) to wit , a propagating of christian religion and truth by the civill sword ? . besides it is the same hand and power that plucks up the weedes , and plants the corne , and consequently , that same hand and sword that destroyes the heretick , may make the christian , &c. exam : of chap. . replying to chap. . peace . concerning tertullians speech , and especially that branch , to win , that [ by the law of naturall equitie , men are not to be compelled to any religion , but permitted to believe or not believe at all ] mr. cotton answers , that they doe permit the indians , but it will not therefore be safe to toller ▪ te the publicke worship of devills or idolls . the discusser replied , that they doe permit the indians in their paganish worship , and therefore were partiall to their countrymen and others : mr cotton answers ; that it is not true , that they doe so permit the indians , what ever they may doe privately : that the indians submit to the ten commandements , and that some of their ministers have preached to them in english , which hath been interpreted : that one now preacheth in their owne language : further , that they permit strangers in their worship . and for their countrymen , for the most part that they worship god with them : they which are distant have libertie of publike prayer and preaching , by such as themselves choose without disturbance . truth . concerning the indians , it is most true , that the monahigganéucks , mishawomêucks , pawtuckséucks , and cawsumséucks ( who professe to submit to the english ) continue in their publike paganish worship of devills , i say openly and constantly . peace . yea but ( saith mr cotton ) they have submitted to the ten commandements . truth . i answer ; the ten commandements containe a renunciation of all salse gods and worships , and a worshipping of the true god , according to his owne institutions and appointments , which their practice is as farre from , as mid-night is from mid-day . . to put men upon observations of gods worship , as prayer , &c. before the foundations of repentance from dead workes ( their worshipping of idolls , &c. ) is as farre from the order of christ jesus , and his christian principles ( whereof repentance from dead workes is the first ) as the building of an house or palace , without the first groundsell or foundation laid . peace . mr cotton therefore saith , they preach unto them . truth . i from my soule wish that all the lords people in new england were prophets , yea true apostolicall ministers or preachers , truely furnished with christs abilities , and christs commission , to goe forth to convert and baptize the nations , even these wildest of the nations of adams children : but conversion of nations mr cotton sayth ( upon revel . . ) untill the seaven plagues of the seaven angells be fullfilled , will not be great . this interpretation i acknowledge to be very probable , so far as concernes any great conversion of the nations before the downfall of antichrist , and in the meane season i commend the pious endeavours of any ( professing ministery or not ) to doe good to the soules of all men as we have opportunitie . but that any of the ministers spoken of are furnished with true apostolicall commission ( matth. . ) i see not for these reasons . first , the minister or ministers , whom mr cotton i conceive intends , professe an ordinarie office in the church of christ , which is cleerely distinct , yea and another thing from the office of an apostle , or one sent forth to preach and baptize , ephes . . & cor. . secondly , such churches as are invested with the power of christ , and so authoriz'd to send forth , are seperate from the world , which many thousands of gods people ( dead and living ) have seene just reasons to deny those churches so to be . thirdly , were the church true , and the messenger or apostle rightly sent forth with prayer and fasting , according to act. . yet i believe that none of the ministers of new england , nor any person in the whole countrey is able to open the mysteries of christ jesus in any proprietie of their speech or language , without which proprietie it cannot be imagined that christ jesus sent forth his first apostles or messengers , and without which no people in the world are long willing to heare of difficult and heavenly matters . that none is so fitted ; first , the natives themselves affirme , as i could instance in many particulars . secondly , the experience of the discusser and of many others testifie how hard it is for any man to attaine a little proprietie of their language in common things ( so as to escape derision amongst them ) in many yeares , without abundance of conversing with them , in eating , travelling and lodging with them , &c. which none of their ministers ( other affaires not permitting ) ever could doe . peace . there being no helpes of art and learning amongst them , i see not how without constant use or a miracle , any man is able to attaine to any proprietie of speech amongst them , even in common things . and without proprietie ( as before ) who knowes not how hardly all men ( especially barbarians ) are brought to heare matters of heaven ( so strange and contrary to nature ) yea , even matters of the earth , except profit and other worldly ends compell them to spell out mens minds and meaning ? truth . . i may truely adde a third , an instance in the booke of their conversion , written by mr tho : shepheard , there mr eliot ( the ablest amongst them in the indian speech ) promising an old indian a suit of cloths , the man ( sayth the relation ) not well understanding mr eliots speech , asked another indian what mr eliot said . peace . me thinks , the native not understanding such a common and wellcome promise of cloths upon gift , would farre more hardly understand mr eliots preaching of the garment of righteousnesse christ jesus , unto which men mutually turne the deafe eare , &c. truth . neither you ( sweet peace ) nor i expresse thus much to dampe mr eliot or any from doing all the good they can , whiles opportunitie lasts in any truely christian way , but to shew how great that mistake is , that pretends such a true preaching of christ jesus to them in their owne language . peace . but to proceed , in the next passage mr cotton affirmes their impartialitie in permitting others as well as the indians . truth . i answer ; it is one thing to connive at a strange papist in private devotions on shoare , or in their vessells at anchor , &c. another thing to permit papists , jewes , turkes , &c. the free and constant exercise of their religion and worship , in their respective orders and assemblies , were such inhabitants amongst them . peace . doubtlesse the bloudie tenent cannot permit this libertie , neither to the papists , jewes , turkes , &c. nor to the indians , nor doth their practice toward their countrymen hould forth a shew of such a freedome or permission . truth . i wonder why mr cotton writes , that the most part of the english worship god with them , and the rest absent have libertie to choose their preachers ! since mr cotton knowes the petition and petitions that have been presented for libertie of conscience in new england , and he cannot but also know the imprisoning and fining of some of the petitioners , &c. peace . it may be mr cotton will use the common objection , that some part of their petition tended to disturbance in civill things . truth . some of their petitions were purely for libertie of conscience , which some in office , both in church and state favoured , as is reported , if not promoted . if others or some part of them might be judged offensive against lawes made , yet why then hath not the libertie of their conscience ( in point of worship ) been granted to them ? when they have complained ( amongst other passages ) that they have been forced to stay the baptizing of other mens children , while their owne might not be admitted , and therefore earnestly sued for ministers and congregations after their owne free choice and consciences , which have ever been denyed to them . peace . it is said , that their ministers being consulted with , utterly denied to yeeld to any such libertie . truth . they might justly feare , that if such a window were opened ( as once bishop gardiner spake in another case ) that the new english congregations and churches would be as thin ; as the presbyterians complained theirs to have been , when the people once began to taste the freedome and libertie of their consciences , from the slaves whip , &c. peace . in the next passage , the discusser having excepted against mr cottons distinguishing betweene members of the church , and such as have given their names to christ ; mr cotton replies ; they are not all one , and quotes , esa . . , . truth . let the place be viewed , and that place will be found to speake of no such difference : it speaks of the lords promise to eunuches and strangers , laying hould on the lords covenant , and joyning themselves to the lord , which i conceive mr cotton will not deny to be in a church way ; in which condition the lord gives the eunuches a name better then of sonnes and daughters . peace . in the next passage mr cotton upon tertullians speech , affirmes , that a false religion will hurt , because the red horse followes the white , &c. truth . i answer ; gods judgements ( by warre , famine , pestilence ) plaguing false religions in his time ( though after many hundreth yeares patience , as hath form ●ly been opened ) is one thing : and the present hurting or profiting of others , is another . peace . in the next place mr cotton takes offence that the discusser should insinuate mr cotton to have a hand in the modell of church government . truth . i answer ; mr cottons words in the end of his answer to the prisoner , ( where he speakes of this treatise or modell , sent to some of the brethren of salem ) seemed to hould out the probabilitie of it . how ever mr cotton subscribeth to the rest of the elders , ( as he here sayth ) their words being rightly understood . peace . further , mr cotton here affirmes , that the want of a law for religion in any state provokes the wrath of god , as the want of a king in israel , judg. . . truth . this scripture proves no more , but that the want of a king , magistrate , governour , or civill officer of justice , provokes the wrath of god , and endangereth the people , against which the discusser never affirmed , but against their kingly or civill authoritie in spirituall cases , since christ jesus abolished that nationall church . peace . but sayth mr cotton , the best good of a citie is religion , and therefore there should be a law for it . truth . to this i have spoken largely in discussing of that modell , unto which i know not of any reply yet made by himselfe , or any of those worthy men whom he makes the authours of it . peace . but further , whereas the discusser had said that the weedes of the wildernesse will not hurt the garden , nor poyson the body , if not suffred to grow in the garden , nor taken into the body , mr cotton grants that christ hath ordained gardiners for his garden , and physick and physicians for his body : yet withall he makes the civill officers , to be as supervisors , superintendents , and consequently , bishops , governours , and heads of the church or churches , and over the spirituall officers of christ jesus . truth . what is this but to establish henry the . a spirituall civill magistrate , and head of the church , in the roome of the pope ? contrary to which i have discoursed in the discussing of the modell in the bloudie tenent . peace . but what thinke you of mr cottons interpretation of tertullians minde , to wit , that tertullian should meane , that the christian religion would not hurt nor disturbe the romane civill state ? truth . i conceive it cannot stand , for although it be true that the christian religion hurts no civill state ( but infinitly the contrary ) yet mr cotton will not deny that the christian religion ( not of it selfe , but through the corruption of the civill state ) may provoke a civill state many wayes , and therefore tertullian must meane otherwayes , to wit , every man must stand or fall in his owne religion , and the religion of one man will neither hurt nor save another : therefore ( to end this passage ) tertullians words may not unfitly be thus applied : the religion of the protestants , if permitted by the papists , will neither hurt nor profit the papists : the religion of the independents will nether hurt nor profit the presbyterians , if they permitted it : and the religion and worship of other consciences in old or new england , will neither hurt nor profit the independents , where the power of tollerating or not tollerating lies in the hands and power of the independents . exam : of chap. . replying to chap. . peace . here mr cotton urgeth two mistakes : first in the quoting of jerome : secondly , in naming tertullian for jerome . truth . possible it is , they are neither the mistakes of the prisoner , nor discusser , but either the scribe or printers may share with them ; or if they were their owne mistakes ( although the prisoner wrote in close prison in newgate , and the discusser in multitude of distractions , yet ) they are justly to be blamed for their least sleepines in the handling of the matters of the most high. peace . but , jeromes words ( saith mr cotton ) imply more then a spirituall cutting off ; for jerome immediatly subjoyneth these words ! arius was but a sparke , but because he was not speedily supprest , his flame depopulated all the world , which cannot be meant ( sayth he ) of cutting off by excommunication , which proceeded against him once and twice . truth . i cannot be easily induced to believe that jerome intended to complaine of constantine , who was not sparing at the first to put forth his temporall arme and power against arrius : but this is certaine , his words are these , [ heresie must be cut off with the sword of the spirit : and the scriptures quoted by him ( cor. . gal. . ) as mr cotton yeeldeth ] prove onely a spirituall cutting off : so that it seemes not rationall for jerome to run from the spirituall sword , about which he is now conversant , to the carnall and temporall sword , of which those scriptures ( as mr cotton acknowledgeth ) discourse not . peace . but let no man say ( sayth mr cotton ) that this grant of his [ that heresie must be cut off by the sword of the spirit ] doth imply an absolute sufficiencie in the sword of the spirit , to cut it downe according to cor. . ●● . for though spirituall weapons be absolutely sufficient to the end for which god hath appointed them , as hath been opened above , to wit , for the conviction , and ( if he belong to god ) for the conversion of the offendour , for the mortifying of his flesh , and for the saving of his soule , and for the cleansing of the church from the fellowship of that guilt : yet if an heretick will still continue obstinate , and persist in seducing , creepe into houses , leade captive sillie soules , and destroy the faith of some , it may be of many , such * gangrenes would be cut off by another sword , which in the hand of the magistrate is not borne in vaine . truth . this answer of mr cotton lookes too too like that distinction of the bloudie bishop against the poore martyr or witnes of jesus ( which mr fox mentioneth ) the scripture is sufficient for salvation , but not for instruction : there is need of tradition , &c. the sword of the spirit ( sayth mr cotton ) is absolutely sufficient , for these foure , to wit , the conviction , conversion , mortification , and salvation of the offendour , the heretick , yea , and for a fifth , for expiation , and cleansing of the church from the fellowship of that guilt , but there is a sixth , to wit , infection , and there the sword of the spirit is too weake , and the sword of the magistrate must helpe . peace . what sound and modest reason can be ( almost ) pretended , why the holy ordinances , appointments and provisions of the lord jesus ( who is the wisdome of the father , whose is all power in heaven and in earth , and whose heart is all on fire with love to his people ) should be so weake in suppressing the enemies of his kingdome , that , all the counsell , order , and power he hath left in his absence , are not able to resist the infection of false doctrine , without the helpe of the powers of the world his professed enemie , unto whom who so is a friend ( sayth john ) he cannot but be an enemie unto god. oh what should be the mysterie that the two-edged sword of gods mighty spirit , is sufficient for conviction , for conversion , mortification , expiation , salvation , but yet not powerfull enough against infection ? truth . there is written evidently , on the forehead of this plea , as on the forehead of the great whore ( revel . . ) mysterie . the aegyptian onions ( as i may so speake ) are full of spirituall infoldings , or mysteries : one or two i shall briefly unfold or peele . first , the clergie ( sacrilegiously so called ) in all ages since the apostasie , have ( like some proud and daintie servants ) disdain'd to serve a poore despised christ , a carpenter , one that came at last to the gallowes , &c. and therefore have they ever framed to themselves rich and lordly , pompous and princely , temporall and worldly christs , in stead of the true lord jesus christ , the spirituall king of his saints and people . and however it suits well the common end to retaine the name of christ ( as the lord jesus prophesied many false christs , should arise , and many should come in his name , &c. ) yet most sure it will be found , that a temporall crowne and dignitie , sword and authoritie , wealth and prosperitie , is the white that most of those called scholars , ministers , bishops , aime and levell at : how many thousand of them will readily subscribe to the pleas of the french bishops against the lord peter , disputing before philip the french king for temporall jurisdiction , and peters two swords in the hands of christs ministers ? peace . mr cotton is not far off , for howsoever he and some will say with him , one sword is enough for a presbyter or elder , enough for conviction , conversion , mortification , expiation , and salvation , yet one sword is not enough against infection , and therefore it is needfull ( though we are not of the opinion of those french prelates and others , that challenged to themselves the sword of temporall jurisdiction into their owne hands , yet ) it is needfull that it be at our call in the hands of our executioners the civill magistrates . truth . it is impossible that temporal and worldly christs should walke with the legs of a spirituall supportment , but as ( in respect of outward government ) they spring from the earth and the world , it is impossible i say but their feeding and aliment , defence and protection should be of the nature of the root and eliment from whence they arise . peace . it is objected , was the church of the jewes temporall that was assisted and protected with a temporall sword ? truth . the spirit of god tels us ( heb. & . ) of a worldly sanctuary , of a weake and old vanishing : covenant , to wit , a nationall covenant , and ordinances of a jewish church . peace . it is againe said how can the discusser extoll the sword of the spirit only , and acknowledge no churches . truth . although the discusser cannot to his souls satisfaction conclude any of the various and severall sorts of churches extant to be those pure golden candlesticks framed after the first patterne , rev. . yet doth he acknowledge golden candlesticks of christ jesus extant ; those golden olive trees and candlesticks , his martyrs or witnesses , standing before the lord , and testifying his holy truth during all the reign of the beast , rev. . hence , although we have not satisfaction that luther or calvin , or other precious witnesses of christ jesus , erected churches or ministeries , after the first patterne ( as they conceived they did ) yet doth he affirm them to have been prophets and witnesses against the beast , and furnished sufficiently with spirituall fire in their mouthes , mightily able to consume or humble their enemies , as eliah did with the captains sent out against him . peace . i will object no more , please you ( dear truth ) to passe on to the nd . viz. the ministry of the spirits pretended insufficiency against infection : why should not the spiritual power of the lord jesus be powerful enough against creepers into houses , against such as lead captive silly souls , against such as destroy the faith of some , &c. as well as in the first churches and assemblies , professing his holy name and worship ? truth . search his will and testament , and we find no other but spiritual means prescribed and bequeathed by the lord jesus , to paul to peter , or any of the holy apostles or messengers . peace . i must needs acknowledge that the poor servants of christ , for some hundereth of years after the departure of the lord enjoyed no other power , no other sword nor shield but spirituall , until it pleased the lord to try his children with liberty and ease under constantine ( a soarer tryall then befell them in years persecution ) under which temporall protection , munificence and bounty of constantine , together with his temporall sword , drawne out against her spirituall enemies , the church of christ soon surfeited of the too much honey of worldly ease , authority , profit , pleasure , &c. truth . deare peace , the second mistery is this . in all ages , the world hath been o'respread with the delusions and abominations of false worship , invented by sathan and his instruments in opposition to the pure worship of the god of heaven : against these the lord jesus hath not been wanting to stir up his witnesses , servants and souldiers , fighting for their lord and master spiritually , &c. these witnesses , when sathan hath not been able to vanquish and overcome them by disputing , writing , &c. ( but hath ever lost that way ) he hath been forced to run to the fleshly armories of temporall weapons and punishments , and to fetch in the powers of the world ; so hoping to dash out the candle of truth and break the candlesticks thereof the witnesses of christ jesus : this sathan hath ever practised one of these two wayes , sometimes by ( pretended ) legall tryals and executions of justice , sometimes by most horrid and dreadfull murthers and massacres peace . thus hath christ jesus indeed been vanquished , and driven out of this world by the powers of caesars , kings and other earthly governours and rulers . truth . 't is a fresh and bleeding history of that famous disputation between the cardinal and prelates of france and beza with his protestant assistants under charles the th . and not long after of that most barbarous and horrible murther and massacre of about innocents , to finish and compleat that victory which the pretended disputation and spirituall arme could never effect . peace . yea in the bloody marian dayes , there must be convocations cald at london , and downe must these famous witnesses of jesus , cranmer , ridley , latimer to dispute at oxford but faithfull philpot for his free disputing in the convocation at london , and cranmer , latimer and ridley for not yeelding away the truth at oxford , they must all feel the rage of the fiery furnace , who bow not downe to the golden image . and ( without offence of civill authority , or disrespect against any mans person be it spoken ) in the late great disputes between the presbyterians and independents at vvestminster ; what a tempest raised , what earthquakes and thunders cal'd for , from earth and heaven , ihat the second sword of the magistrate ( herein the presbiterians servant and executioner ) might effect that which all the power of the pretended sword of gods spirit was never able to reach to . pea. to proceed , m cot. is greatly offended at this word : to wit [ the eye of the answerer could never be so obscured , as to run to the smiths-shop for a sword of iron , and steel to help the sword , of the spirit ; if the sun of ryghteousnes had pleased to shew him that a nationall church , &c. ] and his anger breaths forth , first against all hereticks thus : if there be stones of the streets , the magistrate need not run for a sword from the smiths shop , nor an halter from the ropiers to punish an heretick . truth . it is true , the warehouse of persecution is so abundantly filled with all sorts of bloody instruments , besides swords and ropes , that the primitive and latter times have told us how many severall sorts of sorrows , pains and torments the servants of the living god , have felt by severall instruments of blood and death , besides ropes and swords , &c. and all to punish ( as master cotton sayth ) the heretick , the heretick , blasphemer , seducer &c. peace . what is this anger but fury , ira furor brevis est ? and what weapons can be wanting to fury , not the stones in the streets ( saith master cotton ) furor arma ministrat , for the magistrate needs not ( saith he ) stay so long as to run to a smiths-shop for a sword , or to the ropiers for a halter , &c. peace . o the mysteries of iniquitie and cozenage of sin , that a lambe of christ should thus roar out like a lyon , and ( at the speech may be construed by some ) so far as in him lies to provoke the civill powers , yea the people in the streets to furious outrage , and not so much as to attend proceedings in pretended legal trials and executions , but in the madnesse of barbarous murthers and massacres , and that even upon himselfe and the independants in their meetings , &c. peace . but dly . he finds fault with the discussers wit , for bringing such light conceits into grave discourses and disputes about the holy things of god. truth . if there be any thing savouring of wit in the discussors speech , let all men judge whether there be not a double , yea a treble portion in this of master cottons ; i acknowledge , non est major confusio quam serij & joci . the discussor dares not willingly to prophane the holy name of the most high with lightnes , no not with those fine turnings of wit which the word forbids , ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ephes . . ) which becomes not christs schollars , but rather the giving of thanks : and yet there is an holy wit and pleasantnes in samsons riddle , in jothams and jesus his parables , yea , and in eliah his sharpe and cutting language , which cut as deep to their deluding consciences , as the knives and lances of their idolatrous backs and bodies : yet none of these were ( as mast . cotton insinuates against the discusser ) for naming of smiths-shop ) playings with feathers , &c. peace . but what think you of his confidence , touching his new-england diana , to wit , that the discusser will never be able to make it good : that the church in new-england is implicitly , a nationall and state church ? truth . his own words seem to prove it , for if it be a church and not churches of n. england , as elsewhere he speaks ( and as the scripture ordinarily speaks , the churches of judea , galatia , &c. ) it cannot be no other but a nationall , as the english-church , scotch-church , french-church , &c. but possibly it being a mistake , i answer , a nation in the common and large extent , i dare not call new-england , but thus , the severall plantations or colonies of one religion , or way of worship make up one colonie or province of english-men in this part or tract of america . i cannot therefore call the church of new-england ( properly ) a nationall church , but a provinciall church , a state-church ; cast into the mould of a nationall church , distinct into so many parishes , i say not expresly and explicitly , but implicitly and secretly , which the son of righteousnesse will at last reveal , as clearly and brightly in the eyes of all men , as the sun that shines at noon-day . at present , i affirm ( what ever are the pretences , pleas and coverings to the contrary ) that that church estate , that religion and worship which is commanded or permitted to be but one in a country , nation or province ( as was the jews religion in that typical land of canan ) that church is not in the nature of the particular churches of christ , but in the nature of a nationall or state church : the nature of a particular church of christ , is to be one , or ( more or lesse ) in townes or cities ( as in all the instances of the new-testament , but the nature of the state church is when the whole state is turn'd into a state church in so many parishes or divisions of worshippers : and it is made odious & intolerable for any part of this city , state , & ce . not to attend the common worship of the city , sanctifie the holy times , and contribute to the holy officers , and to walke in another way , which is the generall state and practise of new-england . that is a nationall and state church where the civill power is constituted the head thereof , to see to the conforming or reforming of the church , the truth or falshood of the churches , ministries or ministrations , ordinances , doctrine , &c. in the particular churches of christ jesus , wee finde not a tittle of the power of the civill magistrate or civill sword in spirituall cases . it is impossible but a nationall and civil head must be head of a nationall or state church , which ( upon the point is but a civill or temporall church ( like the head thereof ) and not a heavenly and spirituall : i say , a civil or temporall church , subject to the changes of a changeable court or countrey , and the interpretings and expoundings of scripture , to what the court or countrey is subject to approve ot disprove of . it is a nationall or state church , where the opposite or gain-sayer , the pretended heretick , blasphemer , seducer , &c. is some way or other punished , put forth of the state or countrey it selfe by death or banishment : whereas particular churches put forth no further then from their particular societies , and the heretick , &c. may still live in the countrey or countreys unmolested by them . that church cannot be otherwise then a nationall or state church , where the maintenance of the worship , priests and officers , is a state maintenance , provided by the care and power of the state , who ( upon the point ) payes their ministers or servants their wages ; whereas the maintenance of the worship and officers of a particular church , we finde by christs testament to be cared for sufficiently by christs power , and meanes in his church . that church is a nationall or state church , whose whole assemblies , in synods , councells , provinciall , nationall , &c. if mr cotton can disprove the truth and substance of these and other particulars alledged , so farre as concernes the generall and body of the countrey combined ( whatsoever little variation some particular townes may make ) the discusser must acknowledge his errour , but if mr cotton cannot doe it , as i believe he cannot ( what ever flourish a wit may pretend ) the god of mercy pardon what by mr cotton is done in ignorance , and awaken him and others , who cause his people to goe astray ; according to that of the prophet ; their shepheards cause this people to goe astray . peace . o that all gods sheepe in new england , and such as judge themselves their shepheards , may truely judge themselves at the tribunall of their owne consciences in the presence of the lord , in the upright examination of these particulars : but to leave new england , and to returne to the land of israel : i should thinke ( sayth mr cotton ) not onely mine eye obscured , but the sight of it utterly put out , if i should conceive ( as the discusser doth ) that the nationall church state of the jewes did necessarily call for such weapons to punish heretiques more then the congregationall state of particular churches doth call for the same now in the dayes of the new testament . truth . it is a strange speech to proceede from so knowing a man , but let us ponder his reasons in the feare of god. peace . was not ( sayth mr cotton ) the nationall church of the jewes compleatly furnished with spirituall armour to defend it selfe , and oppose men and devills , as well as particular churches of the new testament ? had they not power to convince false prophets , as elijah did the prophets of baal ? had they not power to seperate evill doers from the fellowship of their congregations ? and he addeth , an uncleane person , although he might not enter into the temple , with the rest of the israelites to worship the lord , yet he was permitted to live in the common-weale of israel , men uncircumcised both in heart and flesh . he addeth further , that the nationall church of israel was powerfully able by the sword of the spirit to defend it selfe , and to offend men and devills , for which he quoteth , zach. . . and he asketh , doth not the discusser himselfe observe that time was , in the nationall church of the land of canaan , when there was neither carnall sword nor speare to be found , sam. ? and was not then the nationall church powerfully able by the spirit of god to defend it selfe , and to offend men and devills as well as particular churches now ? truth . i answer : first , as much as the shadow of a man falls short of a man himselfe , so did all their ordinances ( which were but shadowes of spirituall things to come ) fall short of that bright enjoyment of christ jesus , and spirituall and heavenly things in him , now brought to light by christ jesus in the gospel or new testament . . mr cotton will never demonstrate that the putting forth , or excommunicating of a person from the church of god amongst them , was other then cutting off from the land by death , and the civill sword , the same being spiritually executed now in the israel of god , cor. . gal. . . thirdly , although the stranger uncircumcised might live amongst them , yet none of the native israelites might so live , nor yet might the stranger prophane the holinesse of the lord by labour on the sabbath , which mr cotton will never prove ought now to be kept by all countries of the world , and that under such penalties , as was in the land of canaan , the holy land : nor that they had spirituall power sufficient to punish the willfull breach of any morall or ceremoniall dutie , without the helpe of the carnall sword , the contrary to which is plaine in the new testament , cor. . cor. . fourthly , for the scripture , zach. . . not by might nor power , &c. the prophet doth not here oppose the spirit to might or power , so as to deny the use of carnall weapons , might or power , which god had vouchsafed to them against all enemies within and without , but sheweth it to be the work of gods own finger or spirit in the use of carnall meanes which they used for the raising of the materiall temple and civill defence of themselves against all opposers , hinderers , &c. whereas cor. . the apostle flatly opposeth spirituall weapons against carnall , and mr cotton will never prove that the corinthians or any of the saints of christ , did enjoy other weapons , in that first or the ages next after , but onely the spirituall weapons and artillery which the apostle mentioneth . lastly , to that of sam. . i answer , that when there was no speare nor sword in israell , the israelites were not powerfully able to defend themselves against their enemies , except that god was pleased extraordinarily to stirre up meanes of their preservation , as wee see in the case of jonathan and his armour-bearer against the philistims . in like manner i believe that where the ordinary power of gods hand in his holy ordinances is withdrawen , it is his extraordinarie and immediate power that preserveth and supporteth his people against men and devills ; as in particular , during the reigne of antichrist in stirring up and supporting the two witnesses . exam : of chap. . replying to chap. . touching the testimony of brentius . peace . it is untrue , sayth mr cotton , that we restraine men from worship according to conscience , or constraine them to worship against conscience , or that such is my tenent or practice . truth . notwithstanding mr cottons cloake , to wit , that they will not meddle with the heretick before he hath sinned against his owne conscience , and so persecute him onely for sinning against his owne conscience , yet i earnestly beseech every reader seriously to ponder the whole streame and series of mr cottons ▪ discourse , propositions , affirmations , &c. through the whole booke , and he shall then be able to judge whether it be untrue that his doctrine tends not to constraine , nor restraine conscience . . for the matter of fact , how can he with any humilitie before the staming eyes of the most high , cry out , no such practice , when first , their lawes cry out a command under penaltie for all to come to church , though not to be members , which in truth ( as hath been opened ) is but a colour and visard , deceiving himselfe and others : and a cruell law is yet extant against christ jesus , muffled up under the hood or vaile of a law against anabaptistrie , &c. secondly , their practice cryes , their imprisonments , finings , whippings , banishments cry in the eares of the lord of hosts , and the louder because of such unchristian figleave , cloakes , &c. peace . let it be granted ( sayth mr cotton ) that we did both , yet this did not make lawes to binde conscience , but the outward man onely ! nor would we ( sayth he ) think it fit to binde the outward man against conscience . truth . i cannot discerne the coherence of these three affirmations : . we restraine no man from worship according to conscience . . we make lawes but to binde the outward man onely . and yet againe ( ) we thinke not meete to binde the outward man against conscience . mr cotton lived once under a popish law , to weare a fooles coat or surplice on his back , and to make a conjuring crosse with his fingers , why should he say , that this law went beyond his back and his fingers , and came even to his conscience ? if these pettie bonds did binde his conscience , as well as his back and his fingers ; oh let not mr cotton so farre put off the bowells of compassion toward christ jesus and his followers , yea toward all men , as to binde their backs , and their necks , their knees and hands backward and forward , to or from worship , and yet say he binds but the outward man , &c. yea and oh let not such uprightnes , candor , and integritie , as mr cotton hath been noted for , be blemished with such an evasion as this , to wit , when it comes to selfe , that conscience his owne or his friends be offred to be bound , &c. then he shall flie to his third evasion , saying , we think it not meete to binde the outward man against conscience , that is , against our consciences , &c. what ever becomes ( sinck or swim ) of other mens . peace . in the next passage , god needs not ( sayth mr cotton ) the helpe of the magistrate more in the second , then in the first table . truth . god needeth not absolutely for the matters of the second table , though respectively , because he hath appointed ordinances , unto which he hath graciously referd himselfe . but for the first table , he hath no neede at all , of carnall weapons , no not respectively , because he hath appointed ordinances to thousand-fold more potent , suitable and sufficient . peace . whereas it was urged , that if magistrates must use their materiall sword in keeping of both tables , they must be able to judge of both : mr cotton replies , that it is enough , that they be able to judge in principles and foundations , and of the arrogancie of a tumultuous spirit ; for such want not judgement to censure apostasie or heresie , idolatrie , &c. truth . it is not like that a carpenter who hath skill sufficient to judge the principles and foundations of a house or building , should be unable to judge about the beames , posts , &c. . with what great darknes , have the best of gods children themselves been covered these many hundreth yeares , touching the very fundamentalls of gods worship ! peace . whereas it was said further , that either they are not fitly qualified magistrates and common-weales , that want this abilitie to judge , &c. or else they must judge according to their conscience ! mr cotton replyes ; many qualifications are required in husbands , wives , children , servants , ministers , churches , the want whereof may make them sinfull , but not unlawfull . truth . i answer ; some relations are passive , as that of children , who may be true and lawfull children , although they know not that they are children . but , such relations as are active in their choice and consent , as of husband , wife , magistrate , &c. these cannot be lawfull , unles they be fitted and qualified to performe the maine and essentiall duties of husbands , wives , servants , magistrates . that husband , wife , servant cannot be lawfull , that are engaged to other husbands , wives , masters : nor can that magistrate be lawfull , who is a mad-man or ideot , not able to discerne between right and wrong : and truely ( were magistrates bound , as to the chiefe part of their dutie and office ) to establish the true religion , &c. he were no more then a mad-man ( as to the first table ) that were not spiritually indued with ability of discerning the true church , ministry , worship , &c. peace . now whereas it was further urged that then the common-weale , the civil , naturall state , hath more light concerning the church of christ then the church it self , &c master cotton replies , it followes not , because that is a weak church that knowes no more light then that of the principles ; and beside ; what light the common-wealth hath it may have received from the church . truth . i answer , if kings and queens , &c. be nurcing fathers and mothers ( in a spirituall respect ) over the church , as is usually alleadged ; can it be expected but that the nurse , father or physician should know more of the childs state then the child or patient himselfe , who oftentimes knows not his sicknesse , nor that he is sick , ( as oft may be the case of a church of christ ) it is impossible , but they must have more light then the child , yea and much more impossible that they should receive their light and direction from the child , &c. peace . we see , saith master cotton , that magistrates sometimes have more light in matters of religion then the church it self , as david and hezekiah . truth . this ( ) confirmes what i said , that these kings being appointed by god , formers and reformers of the church of judah , they must needs have more light in the matter of reformation then the church it selfe to be reformed . i must deny that david and hezekiah were other then types of christ jesus , both in his owne person and in such , who in his absence are by him deputed to manage the spirituall power and sword of his holy and spirituall kingdome . peace . yea , but alas , saith master cotton , there is no colour , that because magistrates are bound to discerne and serve christ with their power , that therefore they may punish christ and christians . truth . true , therefore , master cotton elsewhere saith , they must suspend to deal in church matters untill they can judge , &c. and this , first implies their light and judgement ( absolutely necessary ) in all such matters of the church , about which they are to judge and act as often i affirme i aske what kind of spirituall physicians will master cotton have , who shall be bound to suspend their power , all their lives long , unlesse they have skill to judge of diseases ? will not the similitude hold against such spirituall fathers , nurces , physicians , who all their life long ( yea the greatest number beyond compare of all their spirituall fathers upon the face of the earth ) must wholly suspend from acting in spirituall diseases or cases , to wit , in reforming , establishing , &c. although it excuseth not ( 't is true ) such magistates , princes common-wealths , for making this doctrine their ground of persecuting christ and christians , yet doubtlesse it makes their sin the greater who feed them with such bloody doctrines , and so consequently occasion them upon the rocks of such fals and dangerous and bloudy practices . exam : of chap. . replying to chap. . peace . in this chap. ( dear truth ) lye many stones of offence , at which the feet of the unwary most easily many stumble ; i hope your carefull and steady hand may be a blessed instrument of their removall : as first , although master cotton subscribe unto luther that the government of the civill magistrate doth extend no further , then over the bodies and goods of the subject , yet ( saith he ) he may and ought to improve that power over their bodies and goods to the good of their souls . truth . sweet peace my hand ( the hand of christ assisting ) shall not be wanting : but what offence can be taken at the propositions ? pea. the proposition like an aple of sodom , is fair and specious untill you crush it by examination : for , by maintaining the magistrates power over the bodies and goods of the subject , for the good of his soul , it is clear in this chapter and others foregoing and following , that master cottons words drive at no lesse then a seising upon , and plundering of the goods , the imprisoning , whipping , banishing and killing the bodies , of the poor people , and this under the cloak and colour of saving their souls in the day of the lord jesus . truth . the civil state , and common-weal may be compared to a peice of tapistry , or rich arras , made up of the severall parts and parcels of the families thereof . now by the law of god , nature and nations ▪ a father hath a power over his child , the husband over the wife , the master over , &c. and doubtlesse they are to improve that power and authority for the good of the souls of their children , yoak-fellows , &c. but shall we therefore say that the father and the husband hath power under christ over the conscienies and religion of the child or wife , as a father or husband had under moses numb . . parents are commanded in the gospel to bring up their children in the instruction and fear of the lord ; the husband is commanded to labour to win and save his wife ( with no other power then the wife also her husband ) whether turke or jew , antichristian or pagan : but such a power and sword to be improved ( as mr. cotton here pretends ) for soul-good , master cotton will never finde in the testament of christ jesus . the plain english is ( what ever be the cloak or cover which the states , kings and rulers of this world use in this case ) this terme [ for souls good ] is no more then the old popish jesabels painting , pro salute animae , pro redemptione animae , or as that noble st. john observed in a speech at guild-hall , that the kings party made use of the name of peace , as the papists used the name of god , in nomine domini , &c. peace . it is most lamentable to see how the kings of the earth are grosly flattered by their clergy , into as grosse a belief that they are most catholick kings as in spain , most christian kings as in france , defendors of the faith in england . hence those two bloody persecutors of luther , charles the fifth , and henry the eighth , were celebrated even upon the posts of the doors in guild-hall : carolus , henricus vivant , defensor uturque , henricus fidei , carolus ecclesiae . peace . and yet to what other end have or doe ( ordinarily ) the kings of the earth use their power and authority over the bodies and goods of their subjects , but for the filling of their pau●ches like wolves or lions , never pacified unlesse the peoples bodies , goods and souls be sacrificed to their god-belly , and their owne gods of profit , honour , pleasure &c. peace . but in the second place master cotton affirmes , that by procuring the good of their souls , they may much advance the good of their bodies and outward man also . truth . this proposition is as fair as the former , but in the searching and crushing is as rotten , for however it is most true ( as he quoteth tim. . ) that godlinesse hath the promise of this life , and of a better , and also that such as seek first the kingdome of god , may expect outward mercies to be cast upon them , yet these promises can never by any rule of christ , be stretched to proue outward prosperity and flourishing to the followers of christ jesus in this present evill world . peace . he that is in a pleasant bed and dreame , though he talke idly and insensibly , yet is loath to be awaked . truth . those sweet promises supply gods servants with what outward blessings his holy wisdome seeth they have need of for his service : but when wil master cotton indeed witnesse against a nationall church , and cease to mingle heaven and earth , the church and worldly state together ? when will he cease to propose the rich and peaceable , victorious and flourishing nationall state of the jewes as the type of the carnall peace and worldly ▪ wealth and honour of the spirituall nation and kingdome of christ jesus ? when will he more plainely and simply conforme the members to the head christ jesus in the holinesse , glory of his spirituall poverty , shame and sufferings ? peace . i have in the experience of many ages observed the flourishing prosperity of many cities , common wealths and nations , where no sound of christ hath come , and that for hundreths , yea , some thousands of years together , as hath formerin this discourse been instanced . truth . you have found that when the red and black and pale horse of war , famine and death have thundered upon the nations , it hath not been upon the decay of a state religion , but most commonly upon the rejecting and persecuting of the preachers and witnesses against it . peace . yea master cotton himselfe observeth that such of gods servants as grow fattest in godlinesse , grow not outwardly in wealth , but god keepeth them low in outward estate . truth . i conclude this passage with an observation of constant experience , ever since the son of god ascended the heauens . the neerer christs followers have approached to worldly wealth , ease , liberty , honour , pleasure , &c. the neerer they have approached to impatience , pride , anger and violence against such as are opposite to their doctrine and profession of religion : and ( ) the further and further have they departed from god , from his truth , from the simplicitie , power and puritie of christ jesus and true christianitie . peace . in the next passage mr cotton ( though with another heart , yet ) in the language and tongue of the pharisees , seemes to take part with the prophets against the persecuting fathers , and amongst many things he prohibites magistrates this one , to wit , that he must not make lawes to binde conscience . truth . what is a law , but a binding word , a commandement ? what is a law to binde conscience , but a commandement that calls for obedience ? and must wee raise up such tumults , such tragedies , and fill the face of the world with streames of bloud , about the christian m●gistrates reforming religion , establishing religion , killing the heretick , blasphemer , idolater , seducer , and yet all this without a law , that may in the name of christ exact obedience ? peace . i wonder what we shall thinke of those lawes and statutes of parliament , in old or new england that have bound the peoples consciences , at least so farre , as to come to the parish church , improving ( as mr cotton sayth ) the power and authoritie over their bodies , for their soules good ? what shall wee call all those lawes , commandements , statutes , injunctions , directions , and orders , that concerne religion and conscience ? truth . the plaine truth is , mr cottons former reforming zeale , cannot be so utterly extinguished , as to forget the name and notion of christian libertie , although in this bloudie discourse , he hath well nigh , ( if not wholly ) sold away the thing ! the conscience ( sayth he ) must not be bound to a ceremonie ( to a pretended indifferent ceremonie ) : and yet loe , throughout this discourse , he pleades for the binding of it from these and these doctrines , from these and these worships , and binding to this or that worship , i meane , to come to the publike towne or countrey worship ! just for all the world , as if a woman should not be bound to make a curtsie , or salutation to such a man , but yet shee should be bound ( will she nill she ) to come to his bed at his pleasure . worship is a true of false bed , cant. . . peace . it is observable in the next place , what mr cotton observeth , concerning the principles of saving truth , to wit , that no good christian , much l●sse good magistrate can be ignorant of them . truth . in the consideration of the modell , this goodnesse or badnes of the magistrate is examined , and easily it is proved ( to my understanding ) that this assertion confounding the nature of civill and morall goodnesse with religious , is as farre from goodnes as darknes is from light. peace . to this issue tends mr cottons conclusion of this passage [ verily the lord will build up and establish the house and kingdome of such princes , as doe thus build up his . ] truth . the promise of god to david concerning his house and kingdome in the letter , is most true in the mystery and antitype , as to the spirituall house and kingdome of king david , king jesus , in such princes or propheticall kingly spirits , who spiritually , in the word of prophesie ( the sword of gods spirit ) contend , for the spirituall kingdome of christ jesus : god will establish them in spirituall dignitie and authoritie : but take this literally ( as mr cotton carries it ) and as he never will finde any such dutie lying upon princes in the gospell , nor any such promise of temporall prosperitie , but holy praedictions & foretellings of the crosse and persecution ordinarily to all that will live godly in christ jesus , and the greater persecution to the most zealous and faithfull servants of christ jesus : so neither can he give any true instance ( truely proper and parallell ) to this purpose . peace . me thinks 〈…〉 hough successe be no constant rule to walke by , yet gods providence in successe of journies , victories , &c. are with great care and feare to be attended to and pondered , and the hand and eye of god to be observed in them , of what sort or nature so ever they be . truth . two instances of greatest successe and temporall prosperitie we have presented to us on the publike stage of this world , before our owne dores , crowning the heads of such states and states-men , as have attended to mercy and freedome toward oppressed consciences . the first is that of the state of holland : the second of our owne native england , whose renowned parliament and victorious armie never so prospered , as since their declaration and practice of pitie and mercy to consciences oppressed by mr cottons bloudie tenent . peace . in the next passage , it being a grievance that mr cotton should grant with luther the magistrates power to extend no further then the bodies and goods of the subject , and yet withall maintaineth , that they must punish christians for sinning against the light of faith and conscience : mr cotton answers ; first ; he supposeth the chiefe good to be that of christian faith and good conscience . secondly ; suppose ( sayth he ) by goods were meant outward goods , yet the magistrate may punish such in their bodies and goods , as seduce , &c. for ( sayth he ) in seeking gods kingdome and the righteousnesse thereof , men prosper in their outward estates , matth. . . otherwise they decay . lastly , he remembers not the proposition to be his , [ the magistrates power extendeth no further , then the bodies and goods of the subject ] he answereth it is true in respect of the object , though not in respect of the end , which ( sayth he ) is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , bene administrare rempublicam . and he asketh if it be well with a common-weale , enjoying bodily health and worldly wealth , without a church , without christ ! and he concludes with the instance of the romane empire , which had it not cast away idolatrie ( sayth he ) had been ruined . truth . for answer ; first , the distinction is famous among all men of the bona or goods of animi , corporis , fortunae : and againe , that of the minde , soule , and conscience within , and that of the body and goods without , that it can be no lesse then a civill as well as a spirituall babell to confound them . secondly , to his supposition , suppose ( sayth he ) by goods were meant outward goods , yet the magistrate may punish such in their bodies and goods , as doe seduce , &c. i see not how these cohere any better then the grant of some papists , that the churches power extends no further then the matters of faith and conscience : but yet ( say they ) they may punish such in their bodies and goods as seduce , &c. mr cottons suppositions and the papists come both out of the same babylonian quiver . but thirdly , let us minde his reason from matth. . in seeking gods kingdome men prosper in outward estate , otherwise not : i answer , this proposition would better befit the pen of a jew then a christian , a follower of moses , then of jesus christ , who although he will not fayle to take care for his in earthly providences , that make it their chiefe worke to seeke his kingdome , yet he maketh ( as i may say ) christs crosse the first figure in his alphabet , taking up his crosse and gallowes ( in most ordinarie persecution , ) which with selfe-deniall , are the assured tearmes his servants must resolve to looke for . 't is true , he promiseth and makes good , an hundreth fathers , mothers , brothers , sisters , wives , children , houses and lands : but mr cotton well knowes , it is [ with persecution ] . and how this outward prosperitie , agrees with imprisonments , banishments , hanging , burning , for christs sake : the martyrs or witnes of jesus in all ages , and the cry of the soules under the altar , may bring againe to his remembrance , if new englands peace , profit , pleasure and honour , have lulld him into a forgetfulnesse of the principles of the true lord jesus christ . peace . but mr cotton remembreth not the proposition to be his , to wit , that the magistrates power extendeth no further then the bodies and goods of the subject . truth . mr cotton hinted not his least dissent from luther ( as he otherwayes useth to doe if he disowne , ) &c. secondly , he grants it true in the object , to wit , that the object of the magistrates power is the body and goods of the subject , though not in the end which he saith is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , well to administer the common-weale : now i aske what is this common-weale ? peace . the spirit of god distinguisheth in the new testament between the common weales of the nations of the world , and the common-weale of israel . the common-weale of israel , mr cotton will not affirme now to be a church provinciall , nationall , o●cumenicall , but particular and congregationall . truth . if so , then the finall cause of both these common weales or states cannot be the same . but although the end of the civill magistrate be excellent , to wit , well to administer the common-weale , yet the end of the spirituall common-weale of israel and the officers thereof , is as different and transcendent as the heaven is from the earth . peace . but how ( sayth mr cotton ) can it be well with the common-wealth that injoyes bodily health , and worldly wealth , if there be no christ , no church there ? and how was it with the romane empire which the red-horse of war , and black horse of famine , and pale horse of pestilence would have ruined , if she had not cast away her idols . truth . concerning this instance of rome master cotton here acknowledgeth it abounded in worldly blessings , till the lord jesus came riding forth upon the white horse of the gospel . and master cotton may remember that from the foundation of her rising and glory , laid by romulus untill christs time , it flourished about years in a long chaine of generations succeeding each other in worldly prosperity , and yet no church nor christ to uphold it , so far is master cottons romish instance from countenancing mr. cottons roman doctrine . peace . but when christ came ( saith master cotton ) and was neglected , then the red and black and pale horse had almost destroyed her , if she had not cast away her idols . truth . i answer , rome the head of the empire cannot be said to neglect christ ( untill the bloody tenent of persecution arose amongst them ) i say , not to neglect christ more , nor so much as other states , for there were so many of the romanes , and so glorious professors of christ jesus , that all the world over the faith and christian obedience of the romanes was renowned . the roman impire cannot be said to cast away her idols , but to change ( as the portugals did in the east-indies ) her idols her more grosse and pagan idols , for more refined & beautified idols , painted over with the name of christ , the true god , holines , &c. and this in the glorious dayes of constantine , or not long after . the church of christ jesus which under persecution remained a wise and spouse of christ jesus , now degenerates and apostates into an whore , in the times of her ease , security and prosperity . ( whole cities , nations , and the whole world forced and ravished into a whore or antichristian christian . ) as far as the east is from the west , so far is the world and nations and empire of it from the holinesse of christ jesus , holy spirit ▪ truth and saints : with what appearance then of christs holinesse , glory , &c. can master cotton advance the world ( the roman empire ) to be ( as he here speaks ) the advancer of the scepter of christ jesus ? peace . if this roman empire be that dreadfull beast , ( in daniels prophecy ) more strange and terrible then the rest , yea , and more terrible to christ jesus and his servants , then was the former babilonian lion , or persian beare , or grecian leopard , what truth of jesus is this , that advanceth this dreadfull bloody beast to be the advancer of the scepter , that is , the church and government , the truth and saints of christ jesus . peace . glorious things ( dear truth ) are recorded of constantine and other glorious emperors . truth . the beast was ( sweet peace ) the beast still , although it pleased god to give some refreshing and reviving to his persecuted servants , by constantine and other blessed instruments yet constantines favour was a bitter sweeting , his superstiti●us zeal laying the foundation for after vsurpations and abominations . but further , for neer years together , both before and after christs time , rome grew and flourished ( with little alterations of her glory in comparison ) untill this very time that master cotton cals the casting away of her idols : for not before , but after constantines advancing of christians to wealth and honour , &c. i say neer about years together ( interchangably ) after his time , untill pipinus , and charles the great , the city and state of rome was almost ruined and destroyed , by the often dreadfull incursions of the goths and vandals , huns , longobards , and other furious nations : so contrary to the truth of jesus is this fleshly doctrine of worldly wealth and prosperity , and also this very instance of rome and her glory here discussed . peace . master cotton ends with prayer and blessing to god ( as james speakes ) and bitter and cutting cursings and censures to man , the poor discusser , who ( saith master cotton ) seduceth himselfe and others and delights to doe it , and against the light of grace and conscience , against reason and experience . truth . the discusser is as humbly confident of grace and conscience , reason and experience , yea , the god of all grace , christ jesus , his holy spirit , angels , truth and saints to be on his side , as master cotton otherwise can be : but the day shall try , the fire and time shall try which is the gold of truth and faithfulnesse , and which the drosse and stubble of lyes and errour . in the meane time i dare pronounce from the testimony of christ jesus , that in all controversies of religion : that soul that most possesseth it selfe in patient suffering , and dependeth not on the arme of flesh , but upon the arme of god , christ jesus , for his comfort and protection , that soul is most likely ( in my observation ) to see and stand for the truth of christ jesus . peace . in the next place master cotton denyes to compell to the truth by penalties , but onely by withdrawing such favours as are comely and safe for such persons . truth . i have formerly answered , and doe , that a great load may be made up by parcels and particulars , as well as by one masse or bulke ; and that the backs of some men , especially merchants may be broke , by a withdrawing from them some civill priviledges and rights ( which are their due ) as well as by afflicting them in their purses , or flesh upon their backs . christ jesus was of another opinion ( who distinguisheth between gods due and caesars due : and therfore ( with respect to god his cause and religion ) it is not lawfull to deprive caesar the civil magisteate , nor any that belong to him of their civil and earthly rights . i say in this respect , although that a man is not godly , a christian , sincere , a church member , yet to deprive him of any civill right or priviledge , due to him as a man , a subject , a citizen , is to take from caesar , that which is caesars , which god indures not though it be given to himselfe . peace . experience oft-times tell us , that however the stream of just priviledges and rights hath ( out of carnal policy ) been stopt by gods people , when they ▪ have got the staffe ▪ into their hands ( in divers lands and countreys ) yet hath that streame ever returned , to the greater calamity and tryal of gods people . truth . but ( thirdly ) it hath been noted that even in new-england , penalties by law have been set to force all to come to church , which will appear upon a due search to be nothing else but an outward profession of force and violence , for that doctrine which they suppose is the truth . peace . concerning coming to church : wee tolerate ( saith master cotton ) indians , presbyterians , antinomians , and anabaptists : and compell none to come to church against their conscience , and none are restrained from hearing even in england . truth . compelling to come to church is apparant whether with or against their conscience , let every man look to it . the toleration of indians is against professed principles , and against the stream of all his present dispute as before i proved . touching the magistrates duty of suppressing idolatry , witchcraft , blasphemy , &c. such indians as are ( pofessedly subject to english ) in n. england , notoriously continue and abound in the same which if they should not permit , it as apparant , their subjection is hazarded . t is true , this toleration is a duty from god , but a sin in them because they professe it their duty to suppresse idolatry , blasphemy ; ( adde , master cotton may say , we not onely tolerate the indians in their abominable and barbarous worships , but ( which may seem most incredible ) we tolerate the indians also in that which by our civil principles we ought to tolerate no subject in , that is , in abominable lying , whoring , cursing , thieving , without any active course of restraint , &c. t is true , those indians submitting to their government ( as it may be master cotton will say to the ten commandements ) yet living in all kind of barbarisme , live some miles more remote : how ever they are ( they say ) their subjects ) were every miles distance an hundreth . peace . but is there any such and professed tolleration of antinomians , presbyterians , anabaptists , as is here insinuated ? truth . i know of no toleration of presbyterian , antinomians , anabaptists , worshipping god in any meetings , separate from the common assemblies . if any such persons be amongst them ( like church-papists ) it is their sin , that they separate not from such opposite assemblies and worships , and it is the sin of such assemblies to tolerate such persons after due admonitions , in the name of christ , rejected . but further , master cotton grants a communion in hearing in a church-estate by church members , but not in any as are no church-members , but come in as the pagan , infidell , cor. . truth . communion is twofold ▪ first ; open and professed among church-members : secondly , secret and implicite in all such as give their presence to such worships without witnessing against them . for otherwise , how can a church-papist satisfie the law , compelling him to come to church , or a protestant satisfie a popish law in popish countries , but by this cloake or covering , hiding and saving of themselves by bodily presence at worship , though their heart be farre from it . peace . whereas it was said , that conscionable papists , and all protestants have suffered upon this ground , especially of refusing to come to each others church or meeting . mr cotton replies ; they have suffred upon other points , and such as have refused to come to church , have not refused because such hearing implanted them into church-estate , but out of feare to be leavened . truth . 't is true , many have suffred upon other points , but upon due examination it will appeare that the great and most universall tryall hath been , amongst both papists and protestants about coming to church , and that not out of feare of being leavened ( for what religion is ordinarily so distrustfull of its owne strength ? ) as of countenancing what they believe false , by their presence and appearance . exam : of chap. . replying to chap. . peace . concerning the papists testimonie against persecution ; mr cotton replyes : first , why may not their testimonie be wicked , as well as their booke , confest so to be ? secondly , he grants , that conversion of soules ought not to be but by spirituall meanes . truth . it is true , the authour of the letter calls their booke wicked , and themselves the authours of persecution , yet their testimonie is in part acknowledged by mr cotton to be true , and will further appeare so to be upon examination : but whether mr cotton allow of no other armes , then spirituall to be used about spirituall conversion , it hath and will be further examined . peace . whereas the papists alledge ( matth. . ) that christ jesus sent his ministers as sheepe among wolves , not as wolves among sheepe , to kill , imprison , &c. mr cotton grants this true , yet adds that this hindreth not excommunication , tit. . nor miraculous vengeance against spirituall wolves ( acts . ) where there is a gift : nor their prayers against such , tim. . . nor their stirring up of the civill power against them , as elijah did ahab and the people against the prophets of baal , kings . . truth . concerning the two first we agree , for the third , the prayers of gods people against gods enemies , we finde two-fold : first , generall against all ; secondly , particular against some ; and that two-fold ; first , for gods vengeance in gods time , leaving it to his holy wisdome ; as paul prayd against alexander . secondly , for present vengeance ; as the disciples desired in the case of christ , luke . and against such prayers the discusser did and doth contend . for the fourth , in stirring up of the civill state against false prophets , i must answer as before , let mr cotton produce any such civill state in the world , as that extraordinarie and miraculous state of israel was , and i yeeld it : otherwise , if the passage be extraordinarie and typing , why doth mr cotton adde fuell to nebuchadnezzars fierie furnace , which hath been so dreadfully hot already , and hath devoured so many millions of gods people ? peace . further out of matth. . whereas the papists booke says , christs ministers should be delivered , but should not deliver up , those whom they are sent unto to convert , unto councells or prisons , or to make their religion felonie or treason ; mr cotton answers ; what is this to apostates , who seeke to subvert the faith they have profest ? what is this to them that seeke to subvert states , and kill kings ; which doctrine , in downe-right tearmes , he at last chargeth upon the authour of the letter , and the discusser . truth . but how falls an antichristian or apostate more directly under the stroake of the civill sword , then a jew or turke or pagan ? by what rule of god or christ hath a magistrate of this world , authoritie , so to punish the one above the other ? and where hath mr cotton found one title , either in the letter or in the discusser , which forbids the magistrate to punish felonie or treason , whether it be in practice , or in doctrine , leading to it ? doth not every leafe and line breath the contrary to what mr cotton here insinuateth ? the truth is , as potiphars wife accusing joseph was not cleare her selfe , so let this charge be well examined , and this will be the result of it ; the papists and the discusser agree together in asserting one truth in this chapter , to wit , that gods messengers ought not to deliver any to prisons or councells . but in the doctrine of killing hereticall kings or magistrates , who sees not but such papists as ●hould that doctrine , and mr cotton meete in the end ? for if the magistrate prove an apostate , blasphemer , idolater , heretick , seducer ( according to mr cottons doctrine , as well as the papists ) such kings and magistrates ought ( as well as thousands of his subjects in like case ) be put to death . peace . againe , where the papists booke argued from matth. that christ bids his ministers to salute an house with peace , he sends no pursevant to ransack and spoile it : mr cotton answers : true , but if seducers be there , or rebells or conspiratours be there , god hath armed the magistrate , rom. . truth . mr cotton ( too too like the bloudie persecutours of christ jesus in all ages ) still couples the seducer and the rebells together , as the jewes coupled christ and barrabbas , though barrabbas finds more favor then the son of god , for christ as a seducer , a d●ceiver , &c. is commonly executed , & barrabas released . 't is true the magistrates commission is from god , even in the time of the gospel , but christ jesus never gave commission to magistrates to send pursevants to ransack an house , to search for seducers and idolaters , who transgresse onely against the spirituall kingdome of christ jesus , but not against civilitie and the civill state. peace . this distinction of evills ▪ i remember it pleased god to open some of the romane emperours eyes to see , upon the occasion of his poore servants apologies presented unto them . truth . you seasonably remember this ( deare peace ) for although we finde not antoninus pius or aurelius antoninus to have been believers in christ jesus , yet they gave forth their edicts , tha● no christian should be punished meerely for that he was a christian , except some other crime against the civill state were proved against him : and the later of these gave in expresse charge , that such as were their accusers should be burnt alive . peace . if such an edict or any farre more moderate should come forth in our time , against the great troublers of all civill states , to wit , informers , accusers and maintainers of the bloudie doctrine of persecution : doubtles thousands and ten thousands of men , yea not a few of the most zealous hunters or persecutors would easily submit to the truth of the distinction between the crime of a religion contrary to a state religion , and a crime against the civill state thereof . but to the papists againe , they ( lastly ) alledged , john . that the true shepheard comes not to kill the sheepe , &c. upon this master cotton queries . but what if the wolfe , the thiefe come , shall the shepheard use spirituall censures , when they are not capeable of such stroakes , or shall he not seeke helpe from the magistrate , who is to see gods people live a quiet and peaceable life in all godlines and honestie , tim. . ? truth . i answer , and cry out , how long , how long lord , before thou avenge the bloud of thy holy ones , against them that dwell on the earth , both bloudie papists and bloudie protestants ? out of their owne mouthes shall papists and protestants be condemned , for slaughtering christ jesus ( the shepheard ) in his poore sheepe and servants , and especially the bloudie papist , for alledging that scripture , for the popes bloudie butcherie , [ arise peter , kill and eate : ] yet all pretending to save the sheepe , and onely to resist wolves , thieves , &c. but more punctually master cotton well knowes , that in the mysterie of antichristianisme , many thousand antichristian wolves pretend strongly to be the harmeles sheepe of christ jesus , yea his tender and carefull shepheards , yet are but antichristian thieves and robbers , who cannot dig and to beg are ashamed , and therefore finde it best to steale and rob● , whole parishes and provinces , whole nations , &c. for livings , for benefices , for bishopricks , cardinalships , popedomes , &c. peace . what kinde of sheepe and shepheards ( christ jesus will finde out shortly ) are all those hirelings , papists or protestant , who no longer peny , no longer paternoster , no longer pay , no longer pray , no● preach , no● fast , nor convert , &c. truth . these babylonian rivers shall at last be stopt : god and man shall agree to stop them : the truth of that holy mysterie of that great exchange shall be opened , revel . . and peoples eyes shall be opened to see , how these mysticall marchants of the earth ( pretending to be the great sellers of truth ) have been the greatest deceivers , and cheators , the greatest thieves and robbers in the world. peace . but mr cotton will say , gods people would live at peace in godlinesse and honestie , tim. . . as paul professeth , acts . . truth . i remember when old chaucer puts this querie to the foure chiefe sorts of fryers in his time [ which of the foure sorts is the best ] he finds every sort applauding it selfe , and concluding the other three sorts of fryers to be liars : whence in conclusion he finds them all guilty of lying ( in a round ) before god , for all profest themselves to be the only godly men . i may now ask , who among all the sorts of churches and ministers applaud not themselves ( like the fryars in chaucers dayes ) to be christs onely churches , christs ministers , &c. and who among the severall sorts of such as are gods people indeed , believe not their own godlines ( or worshipping of god ) to be onely right and christian ? peace . what now if each sort should enjoy magistrates of their owne profession and way ? truth . the bloudie tenent will unavoydably set them altogether by the eares , to try out by the longest sword , and strongest arme , which godlines must live in peace and quietnes : but as for that scripture , tim. . i have ( as i believe ) fully debated it , in the examination of the modell , and made it evident how farre from all godlines and honestie that holy scripture is perverted . peace . mr cotton in the next passage being charged with partiall dealing , and a double waight and measure , one for himselfe and another for others ; mr cotton in effect answereth , that it is a true and just complaint against persecution and persecutours , but not against them , for they are righteous and not apostates , seducers , hereticks , idolaters , blasphemers , &c. peace . what doth master cotton answer , but what all religions , sects ▪ and severall sorts of worshippers in the world ▪ all religious priests and church-men plead , we are righteous ? peace . yea , the very turkes and mahumetans challenge to themselves true faith in god , yea , whether jews , antichristians or christians , they all call themselves muselmanni that is the right beleevers . truth . it is not so great wonder then if the popish and protestant sects , and ministers of worship cry out ( as men use to doe in suits of law and pretences to the crowne ) we are righteous , my title is good , and the best . we are holy , we are orthodox and godly : you must spare us , beleeve us , honour us , feed us , protect and defend us in peace and quietnesse . others are hereticks , apostates , seducers , idolators , blasphemers , starve them , imprison them , banish them , yea hang them , burne them with fire and sword pursue them . peace . when it was urged ( by way of prevention ) that persons truly professing christ jesus be his sheep , and they cannot persecute ; first , because it is against the nature of sheep to hunt , no not the wolves that have hunted themselves , &c. master cotton answers , first if the similitude be so stretched , then if a magistrate be a sheep , he ought not to punish , robbers , adulterers , murtherers , &c. paul was a sheep , and yet he strook elimas with blindnesse , acts . ( saith he ) when the wolfe runs upon the sheep , it is not against the nature of the true sheep to run to the true sheepherd , and is it against the nature of the true sheepherd to send forth his dogs , to worrie such a vvolfe , without incurring the reproach of a persecutour . truth . to the first , the finger of true distinction will easily untie these seeming knots . sheep therefore are two-fold , naturall and misticall . againe , misticall are two-fold , first , civill , and so all magistrates have rightly been called sheepherds and the people sheep . spirituall , and so christ jesus gave pastors , that is sheepheards and teachers , and all believers and followers of jesus are sheep ▪ on the contrary there are naturall and misticall wolves : of misticall some oppose the spirituall , and some the civill state , and some both , who must be resisted by the proper sheepheads , and proper weapons in each kind , and to confound these is to deceive and to be deceived . peace . upon the ground of this distinction we may easily perceive , that a shepheard in civil state , of what religion soever he be , as a shepheard of the people he ought to defend them by force of civill arms , from all oppressions of body , goods , chastily , name , &c. this doth the magistrate as a shepheard of the civil state and people , considered in a civil respect and capacity , and this ought all the magistrates in the world to doe , whether they be sheep or no themselves in another respect , that is in a spirituall and christian . truth . yea , and if a magistrate be a sheep or a true christian , who seeth not that he punisheth not the robber , adulterer , murtherer as a spirituall shepheard with spirituall weapons , but as a civil shepheard with a c●vill stasse , sword , & c ? t is true , paul was a sheep , that is , a spirituall sheep ; he also was a spirituall shepheard , and elimas was a wolfe opposing spiritually , and paul in his opposition strook him blind . striking is two-fold , spirituall and corporall : and all the sheep of christ as spirituall , are also lyons and armed men , and so doe strike spiritually . peace . it will be said that paul strook both spiritually and corporally . truth . corporal stroaks may be considered either ordinary or mediate , by force of armes , fire and sword , &c. or extraordinary and immediate , such as it pleased god to use himselfe , and his holy prophets and apostles by his power : now 't is true , in this second way , ( even in spirituall cases ) gods sheep which have been inducd with power above nature , that is of miracles , have plagued egypt , have burnt up captaines and their fifties , yea pluckt up nations and kingdomes as jeremie : peter kild ananias and his wife , paul strook elimas blind , and the two witnesses consume their enemies with fire out of their mouths . if either of these should doe this ordinarily , that is , by ordinary means ( for instance , if peter had killed ananias with a sword , or paul beat out elimas his eyes with a fist or stone ) they ought to have been punished by the civil state , as oppressors of the people , and transgressors against civill peace , &c. but performing these executions , by a spirituall , divine and miraculous power , above humane reach : all that heard were to acknowledge , and feare and tremble at the holy spirits might : of this gift of miracles , i say as the lord jesus spake touching the gift of continency , he that can receive it , let him receive it . peace . by what hath been said , i see master cottons last answer will be more easily satisfied : when the vvolfe runneth ravenously ( saith he ) upon the sheep , is it against the nature of the true sheep to run to their shepheards ? and it is not against the nature of the true sheepherd to send forth his doggs to worrie such a vvolfe , & c ? truth . master cotton ( doubtlesse ) here intends misticall sheep , and shepheards , and vvolves and doggs , and presseth the similitude from the naturall sheep in civill respect , he cannot here mean ( for that is not the question ) whether wolvish-men oppressing the civill state are to be resisted and suppressed by civill weapons , &c. concerning spiritual sheep then : the first question is : if the wolfe runs ravenously upon the sheep , is it against the nature of the true sheep to run to their shepheard ? i answer , a spiritual wolfe ( a false teacher , &c. ) may be said to run ravenously upon a spirituall sheep , by spiritual assault of argument , dispute , reproach , &c. the same man as a civil wolfe ( for so we must speake to speake properly ) may also run upon a sheep of christ by civill armes , that is in a civil respect , upon body and go●●● , &c , if now the wolfe ravin the first way , the sh●ep of christ may and ought to run , to the lord jesus ( the great mr. shepheard ) and to such under and in inferiour shepheards as he hath appointed ( if he can attain to them . ) if the second way , the sheep ( beside running to christ jesus by prayer , and to his ordinances and officers for advice and comfort ) may run to the civil magistrate ( appealing to caesar , &c. ) against such uncivill violence and oppression . peace . mine heart joyfully acknowledgeth the light mine eye seeth , in that true and necessary distinction : now to the second question , is it against the nature of the true shepheard ( saith mr. cotton ) to send forth his doggs to worrie such a wolfe , &c. truth . mr cotton here discoursing of christs sheepe , and christs shepheards , reason would perswade , that the shepheards or pastours here intended should be the shepheards or pastours appointed by christ jesus , ephes . . peace . if so he should intend , it well suits with the spirit of some proud and scornfull ( pretended ) shepheards of christ jesus in the world , who have used to call their clarkes , sumners , proctors , and pursevants , their hunting dogs , &c. truth . but such dogs , ( as yet ) the independent pastours or shepheards , keepe not . peace . yea but the pope ( to speake in mr cottons phrase , yet with all humble respect to civill authoritie , the blessed ordinance of god and man ) i say the pope keeps such dogs good store , yea dogs of all sorts , not onely of those lesser kindes , but whom he useth as his dogs , the emperours , kings , and magistrates of the world , whom he teacheth and forceth to crouch , to lie downe , to creepe , and kisse his foote , and from thence at his beck to flie upon such greedie wolves , as the waldenses , wicklevists , hussites , hugonites , lutherans , calvinists , protestants , puritans , sectaries , &c. to imprison , to whip , to banish , to hang , to head , to burne , to blow up such vile hereticks , apostates , seducers , blasphemers , &c. but i forget , it will be said , the protestants grounds and practices differ from the popes as far as light from darknes , and how ever the pope useth the secular power and magistrates thereof , but as dogs and hangmen , yet the reformed churches teach and practice better . truth . 't is true ( sweet peace ) the protestants professe greater honour and subjection to the civill magistrate : but let plaine english be spoken and it will be found that the protestant cleargie ( as they will be calld ) ride the backs and necks of civill magistrates , as fully and as heavily ( though not so pompously ) as ever the great whore sat the backs of popish princes . peace . the protestant cleargie hath yeelded up the temporall sword into the hand of the temporall state , kings , governours , &c. they proclaime the magistrates , head of the church , defenders of their faith , the supreame judges in all causes as well ecclesiasticall as civill . truth . 't is true , they make the magistrate head of the church , but yet of what church they please to make and fashion . they make him defendour of the faith , but of what faith , what doctrine , what discipline , what members they please to admit and account of : and this under the penaltie of being accounted either hereticall ( and so magistrates worthy themselves to be put to death ) or ignorant , and so not fit to act ( as mr cotton sayth ) but must suspend their power , untill they submit to the cleargies pretended light , and so be learnd to see and read with the cleargies spectacles . peace . to this purpose ( indeed ) agrees the next passage , wherein mr cotton affirmeth , that although all the magistrates in the world , ought to punish blasphemers , idolaters , seducers , yet this must they not doe while their consciences are blinde and ignorant of the truth , and yet they cease not to be magistrates ( sayth he ) although they cannot performe all the duties of magistrates . truth . concerning this stated dutie of all magistrates , and yet suspending of all ignorant magistrates from acting , according to this their dutie i have spoken to before and often , i now add , according to mr cottons similitude , if the errours of others be as motes in comparison of the beames of this ignorance and blindnesse in magistrates , which he calleth beames , it will be found that he renders thousands of the magistrates of the world as uncapable to be true magistrates , as an heape of timber to be an house , which wants the beames and principalls . peace . the summe of the difference in the last passage is not great , nor any in words , for sayth mr cottons conclusion , if the difference be onely in the way and manner of the administration of christ , and the difference be held forth in a peaceable and christian way , god forbid a staffe should be shaken against such , or a sword unsheathed . truth . alas , where hath lien the great difference between the prelates and presbyterians , the presbyterians and independants , but about the way and administration of christs kingdome ( for as for matter of doctrine according to the articles of the church of england , they have little differd ) ? yea wherein for matter of doctrine , of faith , repentance and holinesse ) have the churches which make whole seperation , or such as goe further to a new baptisme , wherein have they differd from the former ? and yet we know what lawes have been and are extant in old and new england against them , and what practices have been felt , and may justly be expected both from the mother and the daughter , if a jealous god and heavenly father ( for our unthankfullnesse ) should once be pleased to finish this late and wonderfull calme and moderation : which yet may justly be feard to prove , ( as sea-men use to observe ) but a winters calme , and they ray , a winters calme ( for then stormes are breeding ) is as bad as a summers storme . exam : of chap. . replying to chap. . concerning the testimonie of austin . peace . master cotton finds two faults in the first entrance . first , that antichrist should be said to be too hard for christ at voting : . that austins testimonie should be put off as a rhetoricall evasion . truth . to the first , it will shortly appeare as the light at noone day , what packing of votes , and listing , and mustring up of numbers have been in all ages , in all councells , in all synods , in all parliaments , and in all ( falsely so called ) christian countries , against the lord , his christ and servants . peace . but mr cotton marvailes that when the case concernes tolleration of hereticks and antichristians , that antichrist should procure more votes against antichristians , and that christ should procure any vote , though fewer , for them . truth . to expound this ridle ; it was never affirmed , that christ hath any votes for the tollerating of hereticks or antichristians in the religious state or church of christ , but in the civil state or common-weale , that is , in the common field of the world together . secondly , not onely antichrist may oppose some antichristians , but the israel of god may oppose israel : ephraim may be against manasseh , and manasseh against ephraim , and both against judah in severall respects . have not the presbyterians been against the independents , and the independents against the presbyterians , and both against such a● seperate from the uncleannesses of them both ? no wonder then when one antichristian faction prevailes to crush another , ( and therein wraps up christ jesus himselfe as an antichristian , ) that christ jesus should finde some friends and votes against the oppressing faction , though the number of the oppressours doe farre exceede , and cast the cause ( most commonly ) against christ jesus , as a male factor , a drunkard , a glutton , a deceiver , a mad-man possest with a devill , a seducer , a blasphemer , &c. peace . but to the second , let us examine the reasons against austins argument with mr cottons defence of them . the first answer was , that soule-killing was of a large extent in scripture , which may reach to many sins that are not capitall ; mr cotton replyes ; the answer reacheth not the point ; for as every killing of the body is not a capitall crime , so neither is every killing of the soule , but such as is more voluntary and presumptuous , and joyned with some grosse and murtherous intent . truth . austin and mr cotton spake in generall , without distinction of soule-murther and killing : the title and sound of soule-murther and soule-killing , should not be cast abroad like thunder and lightning , with a late excuse that we intend not every soule-murther and killing . peace . your second argument was from the dissimilitude of bodily and spirituall death : body-killing is but once and for ever , but a soule killed may recover , &c. mr cotton replyes , that the very attempt of soule-killing is capitall , deut. . . truth . first , then the dissimilitude or difference remaines good , between the murthering of the body , and the killing of the soule or inner man ; contrary to his answer foregoing . secondly , concerning this attempting i have spoken elsewhere , and proved that spiritually it may be made good , against a christian israelite , falling away from christ , and seducing others ; but literally , against such attempting against any mans present religion or worship , ( in any civill state all the world over ) it cannot be taken , because the whole world , the nations and peoples of it cannot parallell this state of israel , whence this plea is taken . peace . i presume ( deare truth ) you would not excuse and extenuate the punishment of a soule-traitour and seducer , now under the gospel . truth . no ; i aggravate the least attempt of soule-murther , and the least prejudice or hindrance to eternall life , infinitly above what is temporall and corporall murther , when either husband or wife , brother or sister , king or queene , synod or parliament shall lay a stumbling block in the heavenly way , or grieve or offend the least of the littles ones of christ jesus , and such dreadfull punishment shall all even the highest and greatest finde , who now seeme to forget the millstone . peace . the third argument was from the different punishment which christ jesus hath appointed for soul-killing , to wit , by the two edged sword , which comes out of christs mouth , which is able to cut downe heresie , and to slay the soul of hereticks everlastingly . master cotton replies , this answer hath been removed above : church censures are sufficient to heal the heretick , if he belong to god , and to remove the guilt of his wickednesse from the church , but not to prevent spreading , &c. nor to cle●se the common-wealth from such rebellion as hath been taught by him against the lord. truth . above hath also been shewen the soveraigne excellency and power of christs spirituall meanes against spirituall infection : above hath also been shewen the two-fold common-wealth ; first , the civil and natural ; secondly , the spiritual , religious and christian . rebellion also against the lord hath been proved , two-fold , first , spirituall , against himselfe in point of his more immediate worship and service , for which he hath provided not onely the vengeance of eternall fire approaching ( according to the degrees and hainousnesse of such rebellion ) but also present spirituall punishment , far exceeding all corporall punishment and torment in the world . rebellion against god is temporall and more mediate , as it is a resistance , opposition or violation of any civil state or order appointed by god or men. now to confound these together , ( and to hover in generall tearms of rebellion against the lord ) is to blow out the candle or light , and to make a noise in the dark , with a sound and cry of a guilty land ; a guilty state , soul-murtherers , soul-killers , hereticks , blasphemers , seducers , rebels against the lord , kill them , kill them , &c. suppose these soul-murthering hereticks , seducers , &c. be as full of vexation and mischief as the musketoes or wolves in new england or other countries ; it were to be wished , ( but never can be hoped in this world ) that every civil state , city and towne in the world , were free from such mysticall and soul-vermin : the poor planter and farmer is glad , if his house and chamber , if his yard and field , his family and cattel , may be tolerably clear from such annoyances , however the woods and wildernes abound with them : they that are of such fierie pragmaticall restles spirits , that they content not themselves to keep the farme and house of the church of christ free from such infection & annoyance , but rage that such vermin are suffered in the worlds wood , &c. it is pity but they had their ful employment and taske , to catch and kill even all the swarmes and heards of all the muskeetoes and wolves , which either the wildernes of america , or the whole world can afford them . . peace . accordingly the fourth argument was from christs tolerating of soule-killers to live in the field of the world , though not in the garden of the church : mr cotton replyes , this hath been largely and fully refeld above . truth . it is true , the discusser alledged , and mr cotton refuted the exposition of this parable , but whether of them according to the minde of christ jesus , let every reader uprightly judge with feare and trembling at the word of the lord. peace . the fifth argument was from the impossibilitie of killing and soule by a heretick : mr cotton answers , this is against paul himselfe , cor. . . truth . as i spake unto the argument of the impossibilitie of the perishing of any of gods elect , so here , the using of such an argument is far from undervaluing or neglecting of any of the meanes or ordinances , naturall or spirituall , which god hath graciously appointed , but to condemne the over-wise and over-busie heads and hands of men , adding their inventions to gods appointments , as if weake and insufficient : whereas gods number of living and dead are certaine , and though the meanes which he hath appointed for life should faile , and notwithstanding all other meanes in the world used by men as helps and hindrances , yet his holy end shall not be disappointed , but fulfilled . beside the difference between soule-killing and body-killing , is but ( as mr cotton here useth the word ) so much as in us lieth , that is , by attempt or endeavour , which may be many wayes frustrated , and disappointed by the holy hand of god , and the soule yet saved and live in the day of the lord jesus . peace . whereas you said , that the imprisoning of men in a nationall or state religion is guiltie of their destruction , together with the monstrous sword of civill warres , which cuts off men from all meanes of repentance . mr cotton answers ; if the religion be good , it is no imprisonment : if it be naught , then there should be no imprisonment . to the second ( sayth he ) this feare is causeles , for if men belong to god , he will give repentance , and how ever ( sayth he ) god● revealed will is fullfilled in their just executions . truth . i could here ask mr cotton where ( amongst all the religions and worships of the sonnes of men ) he ever met in the whole world , with above one nation , which nationally profest a true religion ; and where ever , since christ jesus , ending of the shadowes , any state , religion , or nationall worship can be found true ; notwithstanding mr cotton knowes i grant gods people , in kingdomes , nations , cities , townes , &c. to be gods kingdome , nation , citie , &c. peace . and since mr cotton speakes thus of imprisonment , me-thinkes that every peaceable man and woman may bring in here against him , at the tribunall of christ jesus , an action of false imprisonment ( indeed false every way ) not onely of the sensible and outward man , but of the most noble and inner part , the minde , the spirit , and conscience ; for who knowes not that jerusalem it selfe may be a prison to false-hearted shimei ? who hath not found a pallace a prison , when forc't to keepe within it ? yea confine a man to his own house and home , though deare and familiar , and most intimate to him , his owne house during that force and restraint , is a prison to him . truth . yea it is most wofully found evident , that the best religion ( like the fairest whores , and the most golden and costlie images ) yea the most holy and pure and onely true religion and worship , appointed by god himselfe , is a torment to that soule and conscience , that is forc't against its owne free love , and choice , to embrace and observe it : and therefore whether the religion be good o●●aught ( as mr cotton here distinguisheth ) there ought to be no forcing , but the soule and minde and conscience of man , that is indeed the man , ought to be left free , as in his earthly marriage-choice , so here ten thousand times rather in his heavenly and spirituall . peace . but what say you to his unmercifull conclusion , in the bloudshed and destruction of so many thousands and millions , formerly and lately slaine and murthered by this bloudie tenent of persecution ? yea the late and lamentable streames of english bloud , and the bloud of our neighbours , friends , brethren , parents , powred forth by these late episcopall or bishops warres ? mr cottons conclusion is , the revealed will of god ( sayth he ) is fullfilled in their just execution , whether they belong to god or no. truth . i wish mr cotton more mercy from god , and a more mercifull minde toward the afflicted , and i say as the lord jesus said in the case of offence : great offences , nationall offences will come for religions sake , for nationall religion sake , but woe unto those that beare the guilt of so many thousand slaughters , murthers , ravishings , plunderings , &c. the pope , the bishops , the presbyterians , the independants , so farre as they have been authours or actors in these horrible calamities , out of the perswasion of the bloudie tenent of persecution for religion and conscience ; the voyce of so many rivers of bloud cry to heaven for vengeance against them . peace . but may not ( blessed truth ) the sword of civill power which is from god ( rom. . ) be drawne and drunke with bloud for christ his sake . what say you ( among the many examples of religions warres ) to the most famous battles of constantine against the bloudie persecutour maxentius ? was not constantine christs champion , as once that valiant scanderbeg cald himselfe against the bloudie turks ? truth . sweet peace , the sword of civill power was gods sword committed by gods most wise providence into the hands of that famous constantine : doubtles his warre was righteous and pious , so farre as he broke the jawes of the oppressing persecuting lyons that devoured christs tender lambes and sheepe : and famous was his christian edict ( wherein licinius joyned with him ) when he put forth that imperiall christian decree , that no mane conscience should be forced , and for his religion ( whether to the romane gods , or the christian ) no man should be persecuted or hunted : when constantine broke the bounds of this his owne and gods edict , and drawes the sword of civill power in the suppressing of other consciences for the establishing of the christian , then began the great mysterie of the churches sleepe , the gardens of christs churches turned into the wildernesse of nationall religion , and the world ( under constantines dominion ) to the most unchristian christendome . peace . i am unquestionably satisfied , that there was never any nationall religion good in this world but one , and since the desolation of that nation , there was never , there shall be never any nationall religion good againe : and this will be most evident to such as hould the truth of the continuance of christs visible church in the way of particular congregations . . but now to the sixt argument , which mr cotton thus repeats from the possibilitie of a false teacher , & a spirituall wolves recoverie from the estate of a soule-killer to become a soule-saviour , as it was in the case of paul : and thus he answers ; if men be such blasphemers , and such wolves , as paul was before his conversion , neither the law of god nor man would put such a man to death , who sinned of ignorance , and walked ( as himselfe professed ) in all good conscience , even in his former evill times , acts . but as for such as apostate from the knowne truth of religion , and seeke to subvert the foundation of it , and to draw away others from it , to plead for their tolleration in hope of their conversion , is as much as to proclaime a generall pardon to all malefactours ( save onely such as sin against the holy spirit ) for he that is a willfull murtherer and adulterer now , may come to be converted , and die a martyr hereafter . truth . i see not why mr cotton should passe a more charitable censure on pauls conscience , then on other mens professing conscience also and the feare of god : nor an harder censure upon other men ( to wit , that they are convinced , and sinne against their owne conscience ) more then upon paul himselfe : heard he not that famous powerfull sermon of stephen ? saw he not his glorious and most heavenly death ? and having so much to doe with the saints , could he otherwise choose , but heare and see many heavenly passages tending to his soules conviction ? peace . yea why should mr cotton pinch upon apostates from the truth of religion and seducers ? he cannot choose but know how many thousands and millions of men and women in the world , are hereticall , blasphemers , seducers , that never yet made profession of that which he accounteth true religion ? true. yea and ( to plead thy case deare peace ) why should mr cotton couple murtherers and adulterers with apostates and seducers ? doth not even the naturall conscience and reason of all men put a difference ? doe not even the most bloudie popes and cardinalls , gardiners and bonners , put a difference between the crimes of murther , treason , adulterie ( for which although the offendour repent , &c. yet he suffers punishment ) and the crimes of heresie , blasphemie , &c. which upon recantation and confession , are frequently remitted ? peace . i remember it was high treason in h. . his dayes to deny the kings spirituall supremacie , as well as to kill his person , and yet upon confession and recantation we finde , that the very conscience of those bloudy men could distinguish between these treasons . truth . 't is true this bloudie tenent of persecution was lamentably drunke with bloud in the dayes of that henry , as well as afterwards in the dayes of his bloudie daughter marie , and yet in henry his dayes we finde john haywood recanting his ( so cald ) treason against the kings supreamacie in spirituall things , and is cleared . when famous and faithfull cromwell , for words pretended to be spoken by him against the kings person , must pay his noble head. but to end this chapter , most true it is , that multitudes of people in all parts of bloudie christendome , and not a few in england in henry the . and henry the . his dayes ; have escaped with a recantation and abjuration , for spirituall treasons , when principles of reason and civill government have taught men , for their common safetie , to thinke of other punishments for murtherers , adulterers , traytours . exam : of chap. . replying to chap. . discussing the testimonie of optatus . peace . master cotton having alledged optatus , justifying macarius his putting hereticks to death , from the example of moses , phinehas , and elijah ; it was answered , that these shafts were drawen not out of christs , but moses quiver : mr cotton replyes ; did ever any apostle or evangelist make the judiciall lawes of moses concerning life and death ceremoniall and typicall ? truth . what ever the apostles of christ did in this matter , yet sure it is evident , that mr cotton himselfe makes some of moses lawes , which he calls judiciall , to be but ceremoniall and typicall . peace . me thinks mr cotton should never grant that , who layes so much waight upon moses practices , and the morall and perpetuall ground of them . truth . well take for an instance this very case of putting to death , idolaters and false prophets , he grants this in this very chapter to be typicall in the state of the jewes ; for israell ( sayth he ) being the church of god , and in convenant with god , their example will onely extend to the like execution of all the false prophets in the church of god. peace . such a candle lighted up in the conscience and judgement and confession of mr cotton , may ( if the father of lights so please , ) light up many candles more , to mr cottons owne and the eyes of others . truth . yea if the father of lights so please , mr cotton will looke back and see , that if the example of israel extend no further then to the church of god , then those lawes of moses concerning religion , cannot but be typicall and ceremoniall ; for , what is morall and perpetuall , none can deny to concerne all men in all nations , where no church or house of god was ever erected . . peace . if mr cotton say it extends but to the church of god , what church of god can mr cotton meane , but a particular congregation ( for he professeth against nationall , provinciall , &c. ) and yet how can he meane a particular church , since he grants the church of christ armed with no other weapons then spirituall , like unto the head and king thereof christ jesus ? . truth . if mr cotton will grant the church of christ to have been extant upon earth during the first three hundred yeares of her fiery tryalls , he must grant that then the church of christ was furnished by christ jesus with no other weapons but spirituall , for all the civill powers of the world seemed to be against them . all which time by mr cottons doctrine , the church of christ his heavenly garden must needs be over-growne with hereticks , idolaters , false prophets , for want of a civill sword , &c. or if they were not ( as sure it is , the spouse and garden of christ was never fairer since ) : as mr cotton grants the example typicall , and extending onely to the church of god , so must he then also grant these false prophets and idolaters to be put to death by the churches power , which is onely spirituall , and israels materiall sword will then appeare to be a type of the two-edged sword of christ jesus in the gospel . peace . it is true ( sayth master cotton , ) what the discusser sayth , that christ jesus gave no ordinance , precept or president in the gospel for killing men for religion , and no more ( sayth he ) for the breach of civill justice : civill magistrates therefore must either walke without rule , or fetch their rules of righteousnesse from moses and the prophets , who have expounded him in the old testament . truth . if mr cotton please more awfully to observe & weigh the minde of christ jesus his new testament in this point , he will not onely heare himselfe subscribing to caesars right in civill matters , but also by his servant peter establishing all other formes of civill government , which the peoples or nations of the world shall invent or create for their civill being , common-weale or wellfare . yea he may remember that christ jesus by his servant paul commandeth the magistrate , to punish murther , theft , adulterie , &c. for he expresly nameth these civill transgressions together with the civill sword the avenger of them , rom. . peace . i cannot well conceive what mr cotton meanes by saying , that moses and the prophets expounded christ jesus in the old testament . truth . nor i : they did speake or prophecie of christ , they did type or figure him to come , with his sufferings and glory , but ( as john sayth ) grace and truth came by jesus christ , that is , the fullfilling , opening , and expounding came by jesus christ . peace . hence indeed i remember that christ jesus ( luc. . ) expounded to his disciples , out of moses and the prophets , the things written of him . but more particularly touching moses : macarius did well ( sayth mr cotton ) in putting hereticks to death , from the example of moses putting idolaters to death , exod . and the idolater to death , levit. . truth . these instances ( by mr cottons confession ) extend no further then the church of god , and then i desire my abovesaid answer may be uprightly weighed . and i adde the former instance of putting death the three thousand israelites about the goulden c●lfe by the hand of the levites , may most lively seeme to typifie , the zealous execution of spirituall justice in ( the israel of god ) the church of christ , by the true ministers of christ jesus , the true antitype of that zealous tribe of levi. peace . concerning phineas , whereas it was said that the flaying of the israelitish prince and daughter of midian , was not for spirituall but for corporall fulthinesse , master cotton answereth and urgeth the israelites eating of their sacrifices , and joyning to baal-peor : also that single fornication was no capitall crime . truth . it is most true , the people committed both spirituall and corporall filthines ( as very often they goe together ) but the justice of god reckoned with these two sinners , for and in the midst of their corporall filthines , which although it were not capitall in israell , yet the committing of it with so high an hand of presumption ( and small sinnes committed presumptuously in israell were death ) was enough to make it worthy of so sharpe and sudden a destruction . peace . concerning phineas his act mr cotton acknowledgeth that it is no president for ministers of the gospel so to act , but withall sayth it is praesidentiall for magistrates . truth . phineas his act ( whether of ordinarie or extraordinary justice ) how can it be praesidentiall to the civill magistrate in a particular church , where the weapons are onely spirituall ? and mr cotton grants these examples extend no further then the church : such as maintaine a nationall church ( which mr cotton doth not ) have some colour to urge this example for a president : for in a civill state , civill officers , civill lawes , civill weapons , civill punishments and rewards are proper , as are also ( and onely ) spirituall officers , spirituall lawes , spirituall punishments and rewards in a spirituall state. peace . concerning eliah , mr cotton excepteth against the number eight hundred and fiftie , as too many by halfe . truth . it is true , the number of baals prophets were foure hundred and fiftie ( false prophets enough to one poore true ) but yet eliah numbers jezabells foure hundred trencher chaplins with them ; for , sayth he , now therefore send and gather unto me all israel unto mount carmel , and the prophets of baal foure hundred and fiftie , and the prophets of the grove foure hundred , which eate at jezabells table . peace . but how ever ( sayth mr cotton ) here was no type nor figure for actions of morall justice , ( though sometimes extraordinary ) yet they are never figurative , but with such as turne all the scripture into an allegorie . truth . to make the shadowes of the old testament and the substance or body of the new , all one , is but to confound and mingle heaven and earth together , for the state of the law was ceremoniall and figurative , having a worldly tabernacle with vanishing and beggarly rudiments : and i believe it might not onely be said , that abrahams lying with his handmaid hagar , was an allegorie , but that the whole church of israell , roote and branch , from first to last included figurative and allegoricall kernells , were the husks and shells disclosed with more humbly diligent and spirituall teeth and fingers . peace . i cannot but assent unto you , that to render the old testament allegoricall in an humble sobrietie , your instance with many more give sufficient warrant . truth . yet i adde ( in answer to mr cottons charge of turning all scripture into an allegorie ) that to deny the historie of either old or new testament , or to render the new testament ( which expounds and fullfills the ancient figures ) allegoricalls are both absurd and impious . peace . but how ( sayth mr cotton ) can an act of morall righteousnesse be figurative ? truth . there is a fallacie in this tearme [ morall righteousnesse ] for mr cotton himselfe hath ●●knowledged a righteousnesse two-fold , a spirituall righteousnesse of the church , and a civill of the common-weale : mr cotton also acknowledgeth israel to be a typicall people , their land a typicall land , their ministry and worship typicall ! how can mr cotton then deny , but that the weapons of this people , their punishments and rewards , &c. ( so far as concerned this their mixed figurative and typicall state ) were figurative and ceremoniall also ? and so not parts of morall civill righteousnesse , or common to all other nations and peoples in the world. peace . i cannot readily assent to mr cotton , that morall actions of civill righteousnesse could not be figurative with this ceremoniall , typicall and figurative people : for their warre it selfe ( which if lawfull , is an act of civill morall righteousnesse ) paul seemes to make figurative of the spirituall warres of the christian israel and church of god. truth . yea and it is easie to observe that not onely their spirituall worship , &c. not onely acts of morall and civill righteousnesse in peace and warre , &c. but even their very naturall actions and excrements ( in warres against their enemies ) were figurative and typicall , full of heavenly and spirituall instruction , which the unbelieving jewes then saw not , but the believing saw , as they saw christ jesus in the sacrifices , and all their observations leading to the blessed son of god , the messiah , the annointed , or christ to come , and his eternall kingdome . peace . mr cotton in the next place takes offence that the fact of elijah should be called miraculous , and askes if it be a miracle for elijah with the aide of so many thousand israelites to put to death foure hundred and fiftie men ? truth . mr cotton mistakes the word , for the word is not fact but passage , which compriseth not onely the slaughter of these their priests , but the whole matter and busines , as the putting of the worship of the true god , to the tryall of fire from heaven , the descending of fire from heaven , the devouring of the sacrifice , and licking up of so much water , and upon this so great a number of their priests ( the fathers , shepheards , and gods of the people ) so thunder-smitten as from heaven , with so sudden and dreadfull a slaughter , what can these be but an extraordinary inspiration in the prophet , a supernaturall descent and operation of fire , yea and an extraordinary and wonderfull change in the heart of the people ? and i doubt not but mr cotton doth sometimes give an heavenly and spirituall signification , to all these figurative and miraculous mysteries . peace . but i wonder at the next words ; though christ ( sayth he ) gave no such commission to ministers of the gospel to put false prophets to death , as elijah did , yet the act of dutie was an ordinary dutie of morall righteousnesse , belonging to such as beare the sword. anon againe he writes ; this example will not extend to the idolaters of the world. first , because many thousand thousand of them are exempt from the civill magistracie of christians . secondly , they were never in covenant with god , to whom onely the law of moses concerning the punishment of idolaters extended . thirdly , though the israelites were idolaters , yet elijah spared them , because of their simplicitie and ignorance . truth . i answer , first , if christ jesus gave no such commission ( as is confessed ) then woe to all those popish and protestant priests , who have ( by theft , or flatterie , or other evill meanes ) got commissions from the civill powers of the world , whereby ( to maintaine their own honours , and profits of bishopricks and benefices , &c. ) they smite with the fist and sword , of wickednes : or under a pretence of holy orders in themselves , put over the drudgery of execution to their enslaved seculars ! secondly , if these need no commission , because to put to death the false prophets and idolaters , is an act of morall righteousnesse , how agrees that position and these three together . first , onely christian magistrates ( said mr cotton ) must act in these cases . secondly , they must act against such onely as are church-members . thirdly , they must not act against such church-members as commit idolatrie out of simplicitie or ignorance . peace . deare truth , if it passe your capacitie to reconcile these in point of truth , it must needs passe mine to see how such doctrines can stand with any civill peace or order in the world . truth . to affirme such actions to be ordinarie duties of morall righteousnesse , belonging to such as beare the sword , and yet not to be practiced but by such magistrates as are most rarely found in the world , and on such a people in such an order as is most rare in the nations of the world , is to me all one , as to call all fathers and masters in the world to such ordinary duties as belong to every father and master of a familie : or to call masters and commanders of ships to such ordinary duties as belong to all masters of ships in the world : or captaines and commanders in warre to such ordinarie duties as belong to all captaines and commanders in the world , and then at last to tell them : it is true , the duties are ordinary and common , to all fathers , masters , commanders , captaines , but these duties are to be performed onely by such fathers , masters , captaines and commanders , and in such families , ships , and armies as are not ordinarie to be found in the world. peace . i see not but the similitude doth fully reach , for indeed although such a people so and so in covenant with god , according to mr cotton , were true visible churches according to christs institution , and so consequently their magistrates truely christian , yet compare such magistrates with the rest of the magistrates of the world , who as lawfully beare the sword as themselves , and compare such a people so and so in church-covenant , with the rest of the people and nations of the world , and we shall not finde them ordinary and common , but rather as six fingers , wonders and monsters to all other parts of the world , yea even to the very popish and protestant parts of the world also . but to end this chapter ; the other fact of elijah in slaying the captaines with their fifties , mr cotton acknowledgeth not to be alledged by any other authour in this controversie , but onely by the discusser , to make himselfe work in such cobweb-evasions . truth . mr cotton forgetteth , for elijah his act ( from luc. . ) hath been mentioned by others , and answered too by master cotton in this present booke and controversie . and for the cob-webs , let the poore witnesses of christ be esteemed as spiders , and their testimonie and witnes but as cob-webs , yet let them not be discouraged , but lay hould ( like solomons spider ) with the hand of spirituall diligence , and let all such their heavenly cob-webs be in kings pallaces . and let them know their cobwebs be of such a strength , that how ever the cruell beezome of persceution may sweepe them downe , out of this world , yet in pomt of truth and true christian power and worth , neither pope nor prelate , neither presbyterian , nor independent persecutour , nor baalzebub himselfe ( the god of flies ) shall ever be able to sweepe them downe , or breake through them . exam : of chap. . and . replying to chap. . and . peace . in chap. . one passage cannot be past by , to wit , [ god hath laid this charge upon magistrates in the old testament to punish seducers , and the lord jesus never tooke off this charge in the new testament : who is this discusser , that he should account paul himselfe , or an angel from heaven accursed , that should leave this charge upon magistrates , which god laid on , and christ never tooke off ? ] truth . this is but a repetition of what hath formerly been examined : unto which therefore i briefly say , it will never be found true , that god hath laid this charge upon all magistrates in the world , as he did upon the magistrates in israel , to punish seducers . secondly , god laying this charge upon the governours and magistrates in israel , the church of god ( in the type ) lays it still upon christ jesus and his governours spirituall under him in his spirituall israel , which kingdome he administreth , with lawes , punishments and weapons spirituall . all this mr cotton in this controversie hath acknowledged . thirdly , when he saith , christ jesus never tooke off this charge . first , i answer , let that parable which he mentioneth be the tryall of it in the feare of god. secondly , god having now in these last times declared his will by his sonne : where hath his blessed sonne spoken to us , to build no more temples , to erect no more altars , to offer no more sacrifices ? and yet these and the whole frame of that typicall state we justly abrogate , both from the words of christ and his first messengers , which are plaine and easie enough to such whose eyes it pleaseth god to open , although ( in expresse tearmes ) christ jesus hath not given an expresse catalogue of all such particulars to be abolished . peace . in the next passage mr cotton deeply chargeth the poore discusser with partialitie & falshood ; upon which grounds he turnes off all the consequences , which the discusser observed to follow upon mr cottons conclusions . truth . it is true , the authour of the letter expresseth libertie of conscience to such as feare god indeed : mr cotton subscribes , but presently razeth out his subscription in these words following , which he hath againe now reprinted , to wit , but the question is whether an heretick after once or twice admonition ( and so after conviction ) and any other scandalous and hainous offendour , may be tollerated , either in the church without excommunication , or in the common-weale without such punishment , as may preserve others from dangerous and damnable infection . peace . who sees not but this bloudie tenent ( i meane these words now recited ) doth not onely restraine libertie of conscience to such as feare god indeed , and speakes fire and fagot to all the world beside : but also ( under the name of heretick and seducer ) throwes into the furnace ( most commonly and ordinarily ) all such as feare god ( christ jesus and his messengers and ministers not excepted ) who have alwayes been and are accounted , the chiefest hereticks , blasphemers , deceivers and seducers in this world ? truth . i adde the consequences therefore remaine good , that either all the inhabitants of the world must come into the estate of men fearing god : or else dissemble religion , and fearing god , in hypocrisie : or else , be driven out of the world. then also the civill state must judge of the spirituall , and of magistrates fearing or not fearing god : the people must judge ( i say ) who feare god indeed , and are by them to be permitted , and who are the hereticks , and to be punished , which who may not see to be the driving of the world out of it selfe , and the bloudie routing up of all societies of men ? peace . this charge of partialitie and falshood , you have ( deare truth ) to my understanding shielded the poore discusser from , can you now helpe his forehead , and his heart , which mr gotton in the next passage chargeth with another notorious and impudent falshood , in relating out of a printed booke an answer of the new english ministers to questions sent unto them from their brethren in old , which answer mr cotton sayth he cannot finde . truth . so much gall and vinegar hath mr cotton powred forth in this whole passage from the first to the last of it , that no sober minded man fearing god , and knowing mr cottons former temper of spirit , but will confesse two things : first , that this bloudie tenent of persecution hath infected and inflamed his very naturall temper and former sweet peaceable disposition . secondly , his eye ( being thus bloudshot ) is so weakened in its former ( and otherwise excellent sight ) that it now questions no difference between the mountaines and the molehills , for at the worst , in common probabilitie of reason , there can be but a mistake in the discusser concerning this passage . peace . if the discusser have no sparke of the feare of god , yet if but common crvilitie and honestie , or least respect of common credit among men , it were impossible for him to forge so grossely in matters lately printed , publike and obvious to every eye . truth . the truth is , whether there be different editions or different copies printed , let mr cotton and whom it concerns take care of it , for the discusser is confidently resolved that if this passage ( for the substance of it ) be not printed and to be read in print of all men , in their names , he will then willingly beare and lye under the charge of a false forehead and heart , which mr cotton in such heate and anger imputes unto him . exam : of chap. . replying to chap. . peace . in this short chapter the discusser is charged with ignorance and uncharitablenes , for thinking amisse of the penmen of the answer to the questions , to wit , that he should conceive that the passage to new england should change the judgement or consciences of men. truth . the discusser professeth ( and i know in truth ) to bewaile his ignorance and uncharitablenes , yet upon a second review of the words , it will be found there was not an imputation of such a conceit , to those worthy authors , or any man , but an item unto all men , occasioned by the confidence expressed , that they doubted not , but those godly brethren of old england should agree with them here in new , if they were in new england together . this item or caveat will appeare to be given , not by way of positive charge , nor in the least derogating from the holy and blessed use of free and humble conference , but to take off the edge of such confidence of agreeing in new england , when the differences of gods people have been and are yet so great in old and new , and so many conferences and disputations of truth and peace have not yet raised that blessed agreement of which the answer to the questions would make no doubt . peace . me-thinkes there should be little hope of their comming to new-england when the new-english ministers had got the advantage of the higher ground , and carnall sword for their religion to friend , and had exprest their judgement of their conceiving it not safe , that , ( if they should not agree , ) their severall wayes of worshipping god , should be permitted in one common-weale . truth . yea and i believe still the consequence was truely gathered by the discusser ( how ever mr cotton hath so charged his forehead and heart for it ) to wit , that the new english ministers could not ( as their conscience stood ) advise the magistrates of new-england to permit that which their consciences and judgements taught them was not safe , &c. peace . these passages occasion me to remember a serious question which many fearing god have made , to wit , whether the promise of gods spirit , blessing conferences , be so comfortably to be expected in new-england , because of those many publike sinnes which most of gods people in new-england lye under , and one especially , to wit , the framing a gospel or christ to themselves without a crosse , not professing nor practicing that in old ( except of late in times of libertie ) which they professedly come over to enjoy with peace and libertie from any crosse of christ in new. truth . i know those thoughts have deeply possessed , not a few , considering also the sinne of the pattents , wherein christian kings ( so calld ) are invested with right by virtue of their christianitie , to take and give away the lands and countries of other men ; as also considering , the unchristian oaths swallowed downe , at their comming forth from old england , especially in superstitious land his time and domineering . and i know these thoughts so deeply afflicted the soule and conscience of the discusser in the time of his walking in the way of new englands worship , that at last he came to a perswasion , that such sinnes could not be expiated , without returning againe into england : or a publike acknowledgement and confession of the evill of so and so departing : to this purpose before his troubles and banishment , he drew up a letter ( not without the approbation of some of the chiefe of new-england , then tender also upon this point before god ) directed unto the king himselfe , humbly acknowledging the evill of that part of the pattent which respects the donation of land , &c. this letter and other endeavours ( tending to wash off publike sinnes , to give warning to others , and above all , to pacifie and to give glory unto god ) it may be that councell from flesh and bloud supprest , and worldly policie at last prevailed : for this very cause ( amongst others afterward re-examined ) to banish the discusser from such their coasts and territories . peace . but from violence to the discusser , or any other , mr cotton ( in the next passage ) protests his innocencie , and insinuates the discusser to be no other then ( a devill ) an accuser of the brethren , for imputing to them any such evill , &c. truth . he that reads how hard the heart of holy david grew , in the sinne of whoredome and murther , untill the lord awakened him , will lesse wonder , that spirituall whoredome and murtherous violence , may possesse the heart of gods davids and holiest servants now , and that without blush , or shame , or least appearance of relenting : doth not all this whole traverse of mr cotton maintaine a persecution even unto death , of such whom the civill state shall judge hereticks , blasphemers , idolaters , seducers , &c. doth not this very chapter expressely justifie persecution upon the subverters of the christian faith , obstinate after conviction ? upon blasphemers , idolaters , seducers ? and is mr cotton not informed , what successe his doctrine hath had , that ( if a mercifull god had not prevented ) not courting , nor fining , nor imprisoning , nor whipping nor banishing had been punishment sufficient , to men and women , for cause of conscience in new-england , but even death it selfe , ( according to the principles of persecution ) had been inflicted . peace . mr cotton will urge that gods people will not be such hereticks , &c. truth . i might urge mr cottons owne grant of such sinnes in gods owne people , for which they may be justly excommunicated ; but i will rather produce an instance in our nation of england . none fearing god will easily deny the eminent godlines of cranmer & cromwell in king henry the eight his dayes ; at that very time when king henry himselfe disputed in so famous an assembly against the blessed witnesse of christ jesus , john lambert ! finde we not also holy cranmer disputing before the king and that stately assembly , against this poore servant of god , for that horrible and monstrous idoll of transubstantiation ? peace . finde we not then also holy and zealous cromwell ( at the kings command ) reading that bloudie sentence of death against that blessed lambe of christ jesus , who was thus worried to death , not onely by the bloudie wolves the bishops , but even by those holy lambes of christ , cranmer and cromwell also ! truth . this was that blessed lambert , a true follower of the lambe of god christ jesus , who cryed out in the midst of the flames , none but christ , none but christ : and well might he so cry : not cranmer , not cromwell , who after so much light in disputations , yet persisted in their heresie and idolatry , and partaking with violence against this holy man , that he might well cry out , none but christ , none but christ . exam : of chap. . replying to chap. . peace . as it is ( deare truth ) oftentimes in journies , the worst way and saddest weather attends the journies end : so here mr cotton ( neere our close ) chargeth upon the discusser a threefold wresting of his words , and accordingly so much false-dealing . truth . it is sad on the discussers part , if this be done by him , either by a willfull or a negligent hand . peace . yea and it is sad on mr cottons part , if the charge be not reall and substantiall . truth . mr cotton acknowledgeth his words to be these the godly will not persist in heresie or turbulent schisme , when they are convinced in conscience of the sinfullnesse of their way ] the first charge therefore against the discusser is that he confoundeth admonition with conviction , for ( saith mr cotton ) admonition ought not to be dispenced , untill the offendour be convinced in his own conscience of the sinfullnesse of his way . truth . for answer hereunto the discusser to my knowledge humbly appealeth to the searcher of all hearts , that he hath not willingly nor wittingly falsified mr cottons words in a tearme or syllable . and indeed whether he hath wronged him at all , or be not rather unjustly trampled under the feete of weake and passionate charges , the discusser appealeth to mr cottons owne conscience , awaked ( if god so please ) out of this bloudie dreame . peace . yea but ( sayth mr cotton ) admonition is one thing , and conviction in their owne conscience is another ; for though sayth he , admonition ought not to be dispenced till after conviction , yet it may fall out that the church ( through mistake ) proceedeth to admonition before the offendour be convinced in his own conscience of the sinfulnesse of his way . truth . passing gently by the want of equitie in mr cotton to the discusser , in condemning him of falshood , for taking admonition for conviction , when he makes it but a mistake in the church to practice the one for , or before the other : i answer , i know not that sutable distinction between admonition and conviction , as mr cotton carrieth it , saying , that how ever the church may through mistake practice admonition before conviction , yet admonition ought not to proceede , untill after conviction in a mans owne conscience , for finde we not the words of reprooving , rebuking , admonishing , exhorting a brother , indifferently used both in the old and new testament ? and doth not that very word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( matth. . reprove him ) imply conviction as well as reproofe or admonition , for doth it not signifie convincingly reprove him ? peace . i have heard indeed , that conviction is twofold : first , externall and legall before men in civill or spirituall judicature . secondly , effectuall and inward in the court of a mans own conscience before god , which internall , alwayes followes not the externall . truth . no , such externall conviction may be legall before men , but not in the fight of god , and a mans owne conscience , as we see in the case of naboth , who was legally convict of blasphemy , when acquitted by god and his owne conscience : as also in those consciences ( of which paul speakes ) seared with hot irons , which consciences ( notwithstanding the abundance of light from heaven convincing , yet ) are not brought from believing lyes . peace . yea , but it seemes by mr cottons words , that the church , that is , ( according to his way ) the major part of the church must judge that the heretick is convinced in his own conscience of the sinfullnesse of his way before she proceedeth to admonition . truth . for my part i cannot reconcile these three propositions , comprized by mr cotton in these few lines . first , the godly will not persist in heresie , or turbulent schisme , when they are convinced in conscience of the sinfullnesse thereof . secondly , the church is to judge of the conviction of such a godly mans conscience . thirdly , although such a godly man be convinced of the sinfulnesse of his way , yea although he will not persist in heresie or turbulent schisme , when he is thus convinced in conscience of the sinfulnesse thereof , yet then is the church to proceede to admonition . for thus he sayth , admonition ought not to be dispenced till after conviction . peace . if mr cotton spake of the first conviction , to wit , the externall , i could subscribe , but now speaking of that internall in a mans owne conscience , i see it pleaseth god , most holy and onely wise to permit the best and wisest of his servants , to intrap , intangle , and bewilder themselves , that they may learne to confesse him onely and infinitly wise , and be more humble in themselves , as fooles and lyars , and lesse bitter in their judgements and censures on the poore vnderlings and outcasts . truth . o that mr cotton , who grants the godly may fall into such fowle sinnes of heresie and schisme , may also be godly jealous over himselfe and others fearing god in old or new england , that also possibly they may fall , into the very sinne of persecuting the sonne of god himselfe , especially since it is the lot of christ jesus ( beyond all compare ) both in himselfe and his followers , to be accounted the greatest heretick , blasphemer , seducer and deceiver . peace . to the second and third charge mr cotton complains of false dealing , in that the discusser should render his words , as if he charged such to be obstinate persons , that yeelded not to once or twice admonition , and that for every errour , when he speakes onely of persisting in heresie , or turbulent schisme . truth . for answer , let mr cottons conclusions in the beginning of this booke be remembred . wherein he maintaines that a man of an erroueous and blind conscience in fundamentall and weighty points , and persisting in the errour of his way , is not persecuted for cause of conscience , but for sinning against his conscience . whence it followes that the civill courts of the world must judge : whether the matter be fundamentall and weighty : whether the partie have been rightly once and twice admonished : and whether he persist in the errour of his way : that is , whether he be obstinate after such admonition , and must then be persecuted , though ( as the conclusion wofully concludeth ) not for cause of conscience , but for sinning against his conscience . peace . yea but the discusser ( sayth mr cotton ) dealeth falsly , in carrying my words , as if i had said , that godly persons in whatsoever errour they hould , if they yeeld not to once or twice admonition , they must needs be obstinate : whereas ( he saith ) he speakes not of every errour , but of persisting in heresie and turbulent schisme . truth . the discusser did not so say , or so carry it as mr cotton insinuates , but this he saith , that even in the place of righteousnesse and judgement ( as salomon saith ) iniquitie , and such iniquitie ( in all civill courts of the world , and in all ages of the world ) usually hath been found , that as in multiplying glasses a flea is made an elephant , &c. so the poore witnesses of christ have been proclaimed and persecuted for hereticks , blasphemers , seducers , &c. not onely for not houlding the popes transubstantiation , auricular confession , purgatorie , and those waightier points of the beasts worship : but reading a piece of a leafe of scripture or any good booke is heresie . eating a piece of flesh in lent , yea the slight breaches of the smallest traditions of the elders and state worships , accounted heresie , blasphemie , &c. peace . hence was it i think , that the naturalist could tell us in the fable of the fox and the lyon , that the fox ran not away in vaine upon the proclamation of the departure of all horned beasts , as knowing that if the bloudie persecutours of the world shall say , the plainest ears are hornes ( that is , the smallest errours , yea the plainest truths are heresies ) it is in vaine for any innocent to plead they are but eares , &c. truth . yea hence it was that in that famous , or rather most infamous councell of constance , the blessed servant and witnes of christ jesus , john hus , was as it were stobd to death ( before his burning ) with tearmes of heresie , heretick , heresiarck , yea though he held as the pope and the councell held , even in those points for which they condemned him , because ( beside their hatred of his holines , witnessing against their filthines ) themselves would say from his writings , that he did hould so and so against their popish tenents , which he himselfe profest he never did . peace . in the next place ( deare truth ) are two passages related by the discusser from new england . to which mr cotton gives no credit . . he sayth , if such words were spoken , they might be spoken upon such waights as might hould waight , &c. truth . for the stories and the discussers mistakes ( willing mistakes , as mr cotton seemes to insinuate ) i know the discusser humbly desires like a true traveller to his heavenly countrey , to heare of , and see and acknowledge , and forsake every false path and step ( by the helpe of christ ) that the poorest childe , though but a naked pagan shall hint him of : but why should the stories seeme incredible that suite so wofully fit with the common tenents ? peace . it may be mr cotton will not believe it , nor approve it : but there are not two , but ten witnesses , to testifie such stories , were it seasonable to relate and inlarge such particulars . truth . let mr cotton then please to understand ( to passe by particular names of the former stories , which are ready to be declared to any charitable and loving enquirie ) that his bloudie tenent is a bitter roote of many bitter branches , not onely bitter to spirituall tasts , but even to the tast of civilitie and humanitie it selfe . but since the names of persons are so desired , i shall relate ( not out of any personall disrespect to mr streete and the people of cohannet , aliàs taunton , my loving friends ) what many testifie , that the said ( reputed ) minister mr streete , publikely and earnestly perswaded his church-members to give land to none but such , as might be fit for church-members : yea not to receive such english into the towne , or if in the towne , yet not to land , that if they lived in the towne or place , yet they might be knowne to be but as gibeonites , hewers of wood , and drawers of water for the service of them that were of the church . peace . i know what troublesome effects followed in the same place , and what breaches of civill and humane societie ? what departures of divers , and barres to the comming of others , to the spoile and hindrance of a most likely and growing plantation . but to proceede ( deare truth ) you cannot more faithfully and carefully labour to discharge the discusser of falshoods , then mr cotton endeavours to lay them on : for to the former three , behould in the next passage foure more . for , first the discusser is charged to report mr cotton as expressing confidence in this cause , which mr cotton sayth he expressed not . secondly , he reports mr cotton to say , that he ( to wit , mr cotton ) had removed the grounds of this errour , whereas mr cotton ( saith he ) said not so , but that he had spoken so much for that end. thirdly , he foisteth in the name of great errour , which though it be so , yet mr cotton did not so stile it . fourthly , that mr cotton should conclude , that to be a great errour , that persons are not to be persecuted for cause of conscience , when he states the question so , that none ought to be persecuted at all for cause of conscience , but for sinning against their conscience . truth . sweet peace , he that hath a minde to beate a dog , will soone finde a cudgell , &c. if mr cotton had not esteemed the discusser as a dog , and had not had as great a minde as a dog to use him , he would never have so catcht at every line and word , to finde out ( such ) the discussers lyes and falshoods . for , first , it is apparant that the discusser here undertooke not to repeate mr cottons words , but upon such and such words of mr cottons ( compared with all former agitations ) to collect according to his understanding such a conclusion . peace . but whether he hath rightly and without breach of truth or love so and so collected , let it be ( briefly ) in the feare of god examined . truth . first then , hath not mr cotton through all this discourse , exprest a confidence ( some have called it imperious and insulting ) against the poore hereticks , blasphemers , seducers ? and doo not these words [ for avoyding the grounds of your errour ] import so much ? secondly , doth not mr cottons words imply that in his opinion such a tenent is an errour , and that by speaking so much against it , he hath removed it , what ever his opponent thinks to the contrary ? thirdly , why may not the discusser , or any man say , that mr cotton counts that a great errour , which mr cotton endeavours so to represent to all men ? peace . but the fourth ( sayth mr cotton ) is an evident falshood in the discusser to say , that mr cotton should conclude this to be the great errour , that persons are not to be persecuted for cause of conscience . truth . the father of lights hath of late been graciously pleased to open the eyes of not a few of his servants to see that mr cottons distinction [ of not persecuting a man for his conscience , but for sinning against his conscience ] is but a figleafe to hide the nakednes of that bloudie tenent , for , the civill court must then judge when a man sinnes against his conscience , or els he must take it from the cleargie upon trust , that the poore reputed heretick doth so sinne . peace . mr cotton adds that it is an aggravation of sinne to hould or practice evill out of conscience . truth . true , but i also aske , doth not that persecutour that hunts or persecuteth a turke , a jew , a pagan , an antichristian ( under pretence that this pagan , this turke , this jew , this antichristian sins against his owne conscience , ) doth not this persecutour , i say , hould a greater errour then any of the foure , because he hardens such consciences in their errours by such his persecution , and that also to the overthrowing of the civill and humane societie of the nations of the world , in point of civill peace ? peace . well you may ( deare truth ) enjoy your owne holy and peaceable thoughts , but mr cotton ends this chapter with hope that the reputed bloudie tenent , appeares now whiled in the bloud of the lambe , and tends to save christs sheepe from devouring , to defend christs truth , and to maintaine and preserve peace in church and common-weale . truth . sweet peace , that which hath in all ages powred out the precious bloud of the sonne of god , in the bloud of his poore sheepe , shall never be found whited ( as mr cotton insinuates ) in the bloud of this most heavenly shepheard : that which hath maintained the workes of darknes yeares under the bloudie romane emperours , and more bloudie romane popes , hath never tended to destroy , but build and fortifie such hellish workes . that which all experience ( since christs time ) hath shewen to be the great fire-brand or incendiarie of the nations , hath powred out so many rivers of bloud about religion , and that amongst the ( so called ) christian nations . that tenent , i say , will never be found a preserver , but a bloudie destroyer both of spirituall and civill peace . exam : of chap. . replying to chap. . peace . vve are now ( deare truth ) through the mercie of the father of mercies , arrived , at the last chapter of this sorrowfull agitation : mr cotton finds nothing in this worth the while to speake to : yet thinks he it good to finde time to blame the discusser for selfe . applauses , vaine-glorious triumph , and confident perswasion , which before he had noted mr cotton for . truth . that which was noted in mr cotton was not meerly a perswasion or confidence , but indeed an imperious and insulting confidence , over the poore and oppressed , and an adding of v●megar to the gall of the sonne of god , persecuted in his poore saints and members . peace . but may there not seeme to be too in the discusser , too great a confidence of the converting and turning of the bloudie storme of warres about conscience , into mercifull calmes of peace , and of the returne of christs dove , with olive branches of civill peace ? truth . then let thousands and ten thousands , french , polonians , hungarians , transilvanians , bohemians , netherlanders , and others , and now at last ( through gods gracious smiling upon this holy truth of his ) i say , many thousand english men set to their seale and witnes , to wit , that freedome to the consciences of men , ( from all other but spirituall opposition ) hath stuck many millions of browes and houses with olive branches , that were before beblubbered and overwhelmed with teares and bloud . peace . i cannot but confidently see and say , that doubtles , had not the prudent and zealous care of englands parliament and armie subscribed to this blessed meanes of peace , restored to lands and countries embroyled in bloudie civill warres about religion , doubtles , the streame of warre which hath run so long with bloud between the prelates and the puritans ( so calld ) had run as fresh and furious in all devouring flames between the presbyterians and the independents . truth . oh blessed be the god of peace , who hath more pitie upon the unpeaceable sonnes of men , then they have on themselves . peace . mr cotton in the next place addeth , that one passage he may not let passe , because the name of christ is interessed in it , and dishonoured by it , to wit , [ christ delighteth not in the bloud of men , but shed his own bloud for his bloudiest enemies : ] mr cotton answers ; it is true that christ delighteth not in the bloud of men , while they gainsay and bloudily persecute him and his , out of ignorance : but he delights in the bloud of such , who after the acknowledgement of his truth , doe tread the bloud of his covenant under-foote , and wittingly and willingly reject him from raigning over them : the contrary whereof he sayth proclaimes the gospel to the seede of the serpent : sows pillowes under all ellbowes , makes the heart of the righteous sad , strengthens the hand of the wicked , and proclaimes peace to jezabell , and her whoredomes and witchcrafts , and concludes with prayer against such a bewitching of the whores cup , where , by open profession she is rejected , but let in by the back-doore of tolleration . truth . i perceive ( sweet peace ) that in the winding up of this discourse mr cotton winds up , resolveth and reduceth his former pleaded for persecuting of hereticks , blasphemers , idolaters , seducers , into the persecuting onely of apostates , who after the acknowledging of the truth , doe tread the bloud of christs covenant underfoote , &c. to which i answer : if so then the discerning & judging between such as gainsay christ , and blaspheame him out of ignorance , ( such as mr cotton makes the jewes , who put him to death ) and such as willingly and wittingly reject him : i say , the judging of this must then rest at the barre of the civill courts and judicatures of the world , which necessarily implies a supposition of power of judging in all the nations of the world , and so consequently in naturall men contrary to the scriptures , which conclude all mankinde ( while in their naturall estate , ) uncapable of the things of gods spirit . peace . yea and also ( to my understanding ) it implies , a submitting and subjecting of the crowne and scepter and affaires of christ jesus , to the civill and humane crownes and scepters and tribunalls of the nations of this world , and that in spirituall and heavenly things , the proper affaires of his owne spirituall kingdome , in the which , the wisest of this world are ignorant , and extreamly opposite . truth . for this , you know mr cotton hath a broken refuge , to wit , [ the nations of the world , & naturall men must not judge untill they be better informed ] in which , what a wonderfull and menstrous suspension doth he put upon the affaires of christ jesus all the world over , and leaves the matters of christ jesus in worse case , and more poorely provided for by christ jesus , then the matters and affaires of any king or kingdome in the world , beyond compare and imagination . peace . yet , me-thinks those scriptures quoted by mr cotton luc. . those mine enemies , &c. and revel . . bloudie vengeance upon antichristian emissaries , are very considerable . truth . doubtles all scripture seriously alledged by the most ignorant and unworthy ( how much more from so learned and conscientious ) ought seriously and awfully to be pondered in the holy presence of god : the warrants and authorities of civill powers ( though but pretended ) are not without due respect to be examined , although rejected ( in the end ) as insufficient , &c. but consider in the examination of those scriptures : is it credible that all that resist christ jesus , his kingdome and government , are apostate and antichristian emissaries , against whom he powres out that violl ? have they first acknowledged the covenant of jesus , and then trod the precious bloud of that high covenant under feete ? peace . the east is not so farre from the west , as those scriptures from such a conclusion . truth . yea how many hundreth thousands of jewes and turkes and antichristians perish temporally and eternally , and that for refusing christ jesus to be king , and for shedding his bloud in his servants , who can never be brought under this guilt of apostacie , after they have once acknowledged the truth of christs government and kingdome . peace . me-thinks to understand the scriptures in mr cottons sence , were a wonderfull penning up and straightning the holy scripture . truth . sweet peace , as soone may we immure the glorious sun in a darke dungeon , as confine those bright scriptures in the dark cels of apostacie : but i further observe , that christ jesus not only praid and dyed for his enemies , who bloudily persecuted him and his out of ignorance , but gave this reason against bodily death to be inflicted on any for his cause and sake , luc. . the son of man is not come to destroy mens lives : and i might returne the question to mr cotton , not unfitly , are not these the words o● him that delighteth not in the bloud of his bloudiest enemies and gainsayers ? peace . it will be said , what slaughters , what drinking of bloud is that which christ jesus in these scriptures intendeth ? truth . i answer , although the sword of christs kingdome , that sharpe sword with two edges is a spirituall sword , and is carried in his mouth , yet all power in heaven and earth being given into his hands by his father , he ruleth and over-ruleth in a way of power and providence , all the powers of the world. there is therefore a great sword given to him that rideth upon the white horse , ( revel . . ) by which , for the resisting of him that rideth upon the white horse , ( in the gainsaying and persecuting of christ in his members ) christ jesus takes peace from the earth , and suffers the turkes to plague the antichristian world , ( papists and carnall protestants ) to plague each other , and to fill cups of bloud each to other , while they contend and fight , first against god , and then one against another , for their severall false prophets and religions . peace . me-thinks then mr cotton might have spared to charge the discusser with proclaiming of peace to jezabell , &c. truth . there is a spirituall peace in the matters of christs kingdome and worship , and in the particular consciences and soules of his servants . there is a civill peace in the quiet enjoyment of each mans proprietie , in the combination of townes , cities , kingdomes , &c. but neither of these three will mr cotton prove the discusser proclaimeth to such antichristians or enemies of christ jesus , who persecute and oppresse jew or gentile upon any civill or spirituall pretence . 't is true , the consciences and worships of all men peaceable in their way , he affirmes ought not to be molested , and though not approved yet permitted , and ( although no spirituall , yet ) a civill peace proclaimed to their outward man while peaceable in civill commerce . to persecutours , he not onely proclaimes gods judgements spirituall and eternall , but temporall also , and affirmeth that all persecutours of all sorts ( and especially the bloudie whore of rome ( who hath so long been drunk with the bloud of the saints , ) ought by the civill sword to be restrained and punished ( as the destroyers of mankinde and all civill and peaceable being in the world , ) according to the hight of their cruell and murtherous oppressions . peace . but tolleration of her ( sayth mr cotton brings ) her in at the back dore , and so we may come to drink deeply of the cup of the lords wrath , and be filled with the cup of her plagues . truth . there are two opinions which have bewitched the nations professing the name of christ . first , that a nationall church or state , is of christs appointing . secondly , that such a nationall church or state must be maintained pure by the power of the sword. while mr cotton prayes against the bewitching of the whores cup , o that the father of lights might graciously please to shew him the depth of her witchcrafts , and his owne most wofull delusions in both these . in vaine doth mr cotton feare partaking of her sinnes and plagues by a tollerating ( meerly ) of her worship in a civill state , while he forgets the three great causes of her downfall and desolation , and partakes of any of them ( revel . . ) to wit , her worldly pompe and pleasure : her spirituall whoredomes and invented worships , and her crueltie and bloudshed , more especially against the consciences of the saints or holy ones of jesus . exam : of chap. . touching the modell of church and civill power , examined in the first part of the bloudie tenent , but not defended by mr cotton , or any , that the discusser knowes of . peace . i had hoped ( deare truth ) that we had gained a peaceable and quiet harbour , after all our tempestuous tossings in the boysterous seas of this bloudie tenent , yet now behold a sharpe and cutting winde of mr cottons continuall censures ; for i was not ( sayth mr cotton ) of those that composed the modell : and secondly , the ministers say it was not sent by them to salem , and therefore the discusser is left of god to a double falshood . truth . sweete peace , till sweete death , in and ( often ) for christ , close up the eyes of his servants , they must not expect to rest fully from their labours , and expect their workes to follow them . once againe therefore let us heare the discussers plea for himselfe against this blustering charge of double falshood . master cottons owne words in the end of his answer to the prisoners ▪ letter , are these ; i forbeare adding reasons to justifie the truth , because you may finde that done to your hand in a treatise sent to some of the brethren , late of salem , who doubted as * you doe . truth . to my knowledge it was reported ( according to this hint of mr cottons ) that from the ministers of the churches ( pretended ) such a modell composed by them was sent to salem : hereupon it was that the discusser wrote on purpose to his worthy friend mr sharpe ( elder of the church of salem , ( so called ) for the sight of it , who accordingly sent it to him . peace . if this modell , of such consequence , were so composed and so sent to salem , if mr cotton directs others thither to repaire to make use of it , if he thus approve and promote it , i see not why it might not probably be collected , that mr cotton ( not the last in such great and publike matters ) was amongst , if not chiefe amongst the composers of it , and that he and they were not ignorant of the conveyance of it to salem . truth . but grant mr cotton should have been imagined to have been left out in this so great and publike a service , and that all the former probabilities faile : yet doubtles mr cotton will be cast at the barre of christian love and moderation , for so bitter a charge upon the poore discusser for so easie and harmles mistakes . peace . such fierce flashes might well issue from the bloudie french cardinalls against the poore hugenots , from the english bloudie bishops against the poore lollards , from the bloudie popes against the hereticks and lutherans : but a gentler breath and stile might well beseeme a protestant to a protestant , engaged in common principles and testimonies and sufferings of jesus against those bloudie tyrants . but to the modell , mr cotton seemes highly offended , that the discusser should say , that the modell awaketh moses from his unknowne grave , and denies jesus yet to have seene the earth . for , moses his lawes were of force ( sayth he ) to the israelites in the land of canaan , when moses was dead : and againe , christ came not to destroy the law of moses , not the morall law , nor the judicialls , such as are of common equitie : or els ( sayth he ) the conscience of the civill magistrate could never doe any act of civill justice out of faith , because he should have no word of god to be the ground of his act , if the lawes of judgement were abrogated , and none extant in the new. truth . i answer ; that speech of the discusser was neither unreasonable , nor untrue , as mr cotton alledgeth : for grant christ came not to destroy the morall law of the ten commands ( for the substance of it , for all materiall circumstances therein mr cotton will not urge nor practice ) . nor secondly , the judicialls of morall equitie , that is , such as in deed concerne life and manners , according to the nature and constitution of the severall nations and peoples of the world. peace . pardon me ( deare truth ) before you proceede , a word of explication : your addition [ according to the nature and constitution of the peoples and nations of the world ] will not he allowed of . truth . without this i cannot allow of moses his judicialls to binde all nations of the world , then before , or since christ jesus : my reason is : that people of israel ( to which those judiciall lawes and punishments were prescribed ) was as i may say , a miraculous people or nation , miraculously brought from one nation , ( the land of aegypt ) into another ( the land of canaan ) both types , a people furnished with miraculous food and cloathing during their fortie yeares travell through the wildernes : the seaven nations of canaan wondrously and miraculously destroyed before them ; their lawes and institutions miraculously delivered to them , &c. beside ( not to wade deeper into this controversie , as in the examination of the modell i have done ) their land was typically holy , and that people the church of god , the onely church of god in the world. and therefore being a people of such miraculous considerations , meanes and obligations , the breach even of morall lawes concerning life and manners and civill estate , might be more transcendently hainous and odious in them , then in the other severall nations and peoples of the world , many thousands and millions whereof never so much as heard of the name of the god of israel . peace . if men see cause to ordaine a court of chancerie , and erect a mercy-seate to moderate the rigour of lawes , which cannot be justly executed , without the moderate and equall consideration of persons and other circumstances ! me-thinks , the father of mercies ( though he be justice it selfe , yet ) cannot be justly imagined to carrie all judiciall or civill lawes or sentences , by one universall strictnes through all the nations of the earth . truth . the lord jesus tells us of a more tollerable sentence , ( even for the sodomites in the day of judgement , then for the jewes , who were the people and church of god : and paul his servant layes heavier load ( rom. . ) upon such adulterers , thieves , as professe to be teachers unto others , &c. of the contrary graces and vertues . peace . deare truth , the scriptures are full , and many arguments might be drawne out this way , but please you to pitch upon an instance , whereby we may the sooner finish this digression . truth . take that great case of the punishment of adulterie , and i confidently affirme , that the conscience of the magistrate , may out of faith , execute other punishments beside ( stoning to ) death , which was the punishment of that sinne in israell . for although ( as mr cotton sayth ) that was the law of judgement in the old testament , and there is no other particularly exprest in the new , yet the conscience of the magistrate may know , first , that the carriage of the lord jesus about this case , when the question was precisely put to him , was extraordinary and strange : for ( although unto other questions , even of the pharisees , herodians , sadduces , the high priest , and pilate , he gave more or lesse , first or last , punctuall resolutions , yet ) here , he condemnes the sinne , yet he neither confirmes , nor disanulls this punishment , but leaves the question ( in all probabilitie ) and leaves the severall nations of the world , to their owne severall lawes and agreements ( as is most probable ) according to their severall natures , dispositions and constitutions , and their common peace and wellfare . secondly , the lord jesus ( pet. . ) approveth of the severall humane ordinances ( or creations ) which the severall peoples and nations of the world shall agree upon for their common peace and subsistence . hence are the severall sorts of governments in the nations of the world , which are not framed after israels patterne . and hence consequently , the lawes , rewards and punishments of severall nations vastly differ from those of israell , which doubtles were unlawfull for gods people to submit unto , except christ jesus had ( at least in generall ) approved such humane ordinances and creations of men for their common peace and wellfare . peace . me-thinks mr cotton , and such as literally stick to the punishment of adultery , witchcraft , &c. by death , must either deny the severall governments of the world to be lawfull ( according to that of peter ) and that the nature and constitutions of peoples and nations , are not to be respected , but all promiscuously forced to one common law , or els they must see cause to moderate this their tenent , which else proves as bloudie a tenent in civill affaires , as persecution in affaires religious . truth . yea , of what wofull consequence must this prove to the state of holland and low-countries , to the state of venice , to the cantons of switzerland , to our owne deare state of england , and others who have no king , as israells last established government had , especially no king immediately designed , as israells ( in the roote ) was ? yea what becomes of all christianitie , and of christs church and kingdome in the world for ever , if it want the government of a king : for sayth bishop hall ( in his contemplation on michaes idolatrie ) in plaine and expresse words : no king , therefore no church . peace . to end this passage , upon the former grounds , methinks the conscience of a new english magistrate ( being calld to be a magistrate in old england ) may in faith execute any other punishment ( according to law established ) beside death , upon adulterers . and the new english colonies may be exhorted to rectifie their wayes , and to moderate such their lawes , which cannot possibly put on the face of morall equitie from moses , &c. truth . your satisfaction ( deare peace ) now praesupposed i proceed and grant ( with that limitation forementioned ) that christ jesus neither abrogated moses moralls , nor judicialls , yet who will deny that moses established , ( beside the two former ) a third , to wit , lawes meerly figurative , typicall and ceremoniall , proper and peculiar to that land and people of israel ? those lawes necessarily wrapt up that nation and people in a mixt constitution , of spirituall and temporall , religious and civill , so that their governours of civill state were governours of the church , and the very land and people were by such governours to be compelled to observe a ceremoniall puritie and holines . but christ jesus erected another common-weale , the common-weale of israel , the christian common-weale or church , to wit , not whole nations , but in every nation ( where he pleaseth ) his christian congregation , &c. peace . deare truth , i cannot count him a peaceable childe of mine , that rests not herewith satisfied : mr cottons next exception is against your excepting against a magistrates membership in a church-estate , joyned with an head-ship over it , to establish , reforme , &c. ( as being impossible that a magistrate should sit head and supreame on the spirituall bench , & yet stand as a delinquent at the spirituall barre of christ jesus ) mr cotton answers , that in severall respects , a magistrate may be a nursing father and judge in causes ecclesiastiall , and yet be subject to christs censure in the offensive government of himselfe against the rules of the gospel . and where it might be said , that the church is subject to the magistrate in civill causes , and the magistrate is subject to the church in spirituall cases , mr cotton answers , this easeth not the difficultie , for suppose , sayth he , the magistrate fall into murther , adulterie , &c. which are civill abuses , shall the church tollerate him herein ? and he concludes , let the like power be granted to the civill magistrate to deale faithfully with the church in the notorious transgression of the first table , as is granted to the church to deale with the magistrate in the notorious transgression of the second table , and the controversie is ended . truth . this answer and instance of mr cotton carries a seeming beautie with it , but bring it to the triall of the testament of christ jesus , and it will appeare to be , but a vanishing colour . for , there is a vast difference : the sins of each church-member , whether against the first or second table , are proper to the cognizance and judgement of the church , as the sinne of the incestuous person was punished by christs ordinances ( in the church at corinth ) as well as the abuse of the lords supper . but it is not so with the civill magistrate , whose office is essentially civill , one and the same , all the world over , among all nations and people : for , having no spirituall power ( as the authours of the modell afterwards acknowledge ) he cannot possibly act as a civill magistrate in spirituall matters , though as a church-member , he may in church-estate , as also may the rest of the members of that spirituall body . peace . me-thinks it it cleare as the light , that if that incestuous person in the church of corinth had beene a magistrate of the citie of corinth , the church might justly have proceeded against him , because all sinne is directly opposite to the holy kingdome of christ . but in that abuse of the lords supper ( which was meerly unchristian ) neither that magistrate , nor all the magistrates of corinth , or the world to helpe him , could justly punish the church , because that supper ( in the institution , and spirituall use of it ) was not onely of the nature of the suppers , of the meates and drinks of the citie of corinth , but also of a divine and spirituall institution , of a heavenly and mysticall nature and observation . but to conclude this piece and the whole , mr cotton corrects himselfe for putting in his sickle into the harvest of his brethren , unto whom he refers the defence of their modell , and for himselfe ends with desires that christ jesus would blast that peace which he sayth the examiner proclaimeth to all the wayes of false religion , to heresie in doctrine , &c. truth . if christ jesus shall please ( for the further manifestation of his holy truth and glory ) to permit those able and worthy men , to proceed to fortifie and defend their modell : i hope he will also please to assist the discusser , or some other of his poore servants , to batter downe ( with the spirituall artillerie of his word and testament ) such weake and loose and unchristian fortifications . peace . but with what a deepe and unrighteous charge doth mr cotton end against the poore discusser , as a proclaimer of peace to all the wayes of false religion , to heresie in doctrine , &c. truth . grant mr cotton ( in many excellent truths of jesus ) a sweet sounding silver trumpet : grant the discusser as base a rams-horne harsh and contemptible : grant that ( for the peace of the civill state , the being of the nations , and the world , the safetie of the good wheate the righteous , and the calling home of the elect to god , jewes and gentiles ! ) the discusser proclaimes a civill being , and civill peace to erroneous consciences , not sinning against humane and civill principles : yet what peace hath this rams-horne proclaimed ( as mr cotton insinuates ) when throughout this whole booke , from first to last , the proclamation soundeth ou● open warre against all false worshippers . peace . i am a joyfull witnes of warre proclaimed from the god of truth , from the sun of righteousnesse , from the spirit of holines , from the flames of fire , those mighty angells , from all the saints and witnesses of jesus , from all his holy truths and ordinances . warre to their consciences , preachings , writings , disputations , a warre present , a warre perpetuall , and ( without repentance ) a warre eternall and everlasting . truth . deare peace , our goulden sand is out , we now must part with an holy kisse of heavenly peace and love : mr cotton speakes and writes his conscience : yet the father of lights may please to shew him that what he highly esteemes as a tenent washt white in the lambes bloud , is yet more black and abominable , in the most pure and jealous eye of god. peace . the blackmores darknes differs not in the darke from the fayrest white . truth . christ jesus the sun of righteousnesse hath broke forth , and dayly , will , to a brighter and brighter discoverie of this deformed ethiopian : and for my selfe i must proclaime , before the most holy god , angells and men , that ( what ever other white and heavenly tenents mr cotton houlds ) yet this is a fowle , a black , and a bloudie tenent . a tenent of high blasphemie against the god of peace , the god of order , who hath of one bloud , made all mankinde , to dwell upon the face of the earth , now , all confounded and destroyed in their civill beings and subsistences , by mutuall flames o● warre from their severall respective religions and consciences . a tenent warring against the prince of peace , christ jesus , denying his appearance and comming in the flesh , to put an end to , and abolish the shadowes of that ceremoniall and typicall land of canaan . a tenent fighting against the sweete end of his comming , which was not to destroy mens lives , for their religions , out to save them , by the meeke and peaceable invitations and perswasions of his peaceable wisdomes maide●● . a tenent fowly charging his wisedome , faithfullnes and love , in so poorly providing such magistrates and civill powers all the world over , as might effect so great a charge pretended to be committed to them . a tenent lamentably guilty of his most precious bloud , shed in the bloud of so many hundreth thousand of his poore servants by the civill powers of the world , pretending to suppresse blasphemies , heresies , idolatries , superstition , &c. a tenent fighting with the spirit of love , holines , and meeknes , by kindling fiery spirits of false zeale and furie , when yet such spirits know not of what spirit they are . a tenent fighting with those mighty angels who stand up for the peace of the saints , against persia , grecia , &c. and so consequently , all other nations , who fighting for their severall religions , and against the truth , leave no roome for such as feare and love the lord on the earth . a tenent , against which the blessed soules under the altar cry loud for vengeance , this tenent having cut their throats , torne out their hearts , and powred forth their bloud in all ages , as the onely heretickes and blasphemers in the world. a tenent which no vncleannes , no adulterie , incest , sodomie , or beastialitie can equall , this ravishing and forcing ( explicitly or implicitly ) the very soules and consciences of all the nations and inhabitants of the world. a tenent that puts out the very eye of all true faith , which cannot but be as free and voluntarie as any virgin in the world , in refusing or embracing any spirituall offer or object . a tenent loathsome and ugly ( in the eyes of the god of heaven , and serious sonnes of men ) i say , loathsome with the palpable filihs of grosse dissimulation and bypocrisie : thousands of peoples and whole nations , compelled by this tenent to put on the fowle vizard of religious bypocrisie , for feare of lawes , losses and punishments , and for the keeping and hoping for of favour , libertie , worldly commoditie , &c. a tenent wofully guiltie of hardning all false and deluded consciences ( of whatsoever sect , faction , heresie , or idolatrie , though never so horrid and blasphemous ) by cruelties and violences practiced against them : all false teachers and their followers ( ordinarily ) contracting a brawnie and steelie hardnesse from their sufferings for their consciences . a tenent that shuts and bars out the gracious prophesies and promises and discoveries of the most glorious sun of righteousues , christ jesus , that burnes up the holy scriptures , and forbids them ( upon the point ) to be read in english , or that any tryall or search , or ( truly ) free disquisition be made by them : when the most able , diligent and conscionable readers must pluck forth their owne eyes , and be forced to reade by the ( which soever praedominant ) cleargies spectacles . a tenent that seales up the spirituall graves of all men , jewes and gentiles , ( and consequently stands guiltie of the damnation of all men ) since no preachers , nor trumpets of christ himselfe may call them out , but such as the severall and respective nations of the world themselves allow of . a tenent that fights against the common principles of all civilitie , and the very civill being and combinations of men in nations , cities , &c. by commixing ( explicitly or implicitly ) a spirituall and civill state together , and so confounding and overthrowing the puritie and strength of both . a tenent that kindles the devouring flames of combustions and warres in most nations of the world , and ( if god were not infinitly gracious ) had almost ruind the english , french , the scotch and irish , and many other nations , germane , polonian , hungarian , bohemian , &c. a tenent that bowes downe the backs and necks of all civill states and magistrates , kings and emperours , under the proud feete of that man and monster of sinne and pride the pope , and all popish and proud cleargie-men , rendring such laicks and seculars ( as they call them ) but slavish executioners ( upon the point ) of their most imperious synodicall decrees and sentences . a tenent that renders the highest civill magistrates and ministers of justice ( the fathers and gods of their countries ) either odious or lamentably grievous unto the very best subjects by either elapping or keeping on , the iron yoakes of cruellest oppression . no yoake or bondage comparably so grievous , as that upon the soules necke of mens religion and consciences . a tenent , all besprinckled with the bloudie murthers , stob● , poysonings , pistollings , powder-plots , &c. against many famous kings , princes , and states , either actually performed or attempted , in france , england , scotland , low-countries , and other nations . a tenent all red and bloudie with those most barbarous and tyger like massacres , of so many thousand and ten thousands formerly in france , and other parts , and so lately and so horribly in ireland : of which , what ever causes be assigned , this chiefly will be found the true , and while this continues ( to wit , violence against conscience ) this bloudie issue , sooner or later , must breake forth againe ( except god wonderfully stop it ) in ireland and other places too . a tenent that stunts the growth and flourishing of the most likely and hopefullest common weales and countries , while consciences , the best , and the best deserving subjects are forct to flie ( by enforced or voluntary banishment ) from their native countries ; the lamentable proofe whereof england hath felt in the flight of so many worthy english , into the low countries and new-england , and from new-england into old againe and other forraigne parts . a tenent whose grosse partialitie denies the principles of common justice , while men waigh out to the consciences of all others , that which they judge not fit not right to be waighed out to their owne : since the persecutours rule is , to take and persecute all consciences , onely , himselfe must not be touched . a tenent that is but machevilisme , and makes a religion , but a cloake o● stalking horse to policie and private ends of jeroboams crowne , and the priests benefice , &c. a tenent that corrupts and spoiles the very civill honestie and naturall conscience of a nation . since conscience to god violated , proves ( without repentance ) ever after , a very jade , a drug , loose and unconscionable in all converse with men . lastly , a tenent in england most unseasonable , as powring oyle upon those flames which the high wisedome of the parliament , ( by easing the yoakes on mens consciences ) had begun to quench . in the sad consideration of all which ( deare peace ) let heaven and earth judge of the washing and colour of this tenent . for thee ( sweete heavenly guest ) goe lodge thee in the breasts of the peaceable and humble witnesses of jesus , that love the truth in peace ! hide thee from the worlds tumults and combustions , in the breasts of thy truely noble children , who professe and endeavour to breake the irony and insupportable yoakes upon the soules and consciences of any of the sonnes of men. peace . me-thinks ( deare truth ) if any of the least of these deepe charges be found against this tenent , you doe not wrong it when you stile it bloudie : but since , in the wofull proofe of all ages past , since nimrod ( the hunter or persecutour before the lord ) these and more are lamentably evident and undeniable : it gives me wonder that so many and so excellent eyes of gods servants should not espie so fowle a monster , especially considering the universall opposition this tenent makes against gods glory , and the good of all mankinde . truth . there have been many fowle opinions , with which the old serpent hath infected and bewitched the sonnes of men ( touching god , christ the spirit , the church , against holines , against peace , against civill obedience , against chastitie ) in so much , that even sodomie it selfe hath been a tenent maintained in print by some of the very pillars of the church of rome : but this tenent is so universally opposite to god and man , so pernicious and destructive to both ( as hath been declared ) that like the powder-plot , it threatens to blow up all religion , all civilitie , all humanitie , yea the very being of the world , and the nations thereof at once . peace . he that is the father of lies , and a murtherer from the beginning , he knowes this well , and that this ugly blackmore needs a maske or vizard . truth . yea the bloudines and inhumanitie of it is such , that not onely mr cottons more tender and holy breast , but even the most bloudie bonners and gardiners have been forced to arme themselves with the faire shewes and glorious pretences , of the glory of god , and zeale for that glory , the love of his truth , the gospel of christ jesus , love and pitie to mens soules , the peace of the church , uniformitie , order , the peace of the common-weale , the wisedome of the state , the kings , queenes , and parliaments proceedings , the odiousnesse of sects , heresies , blasphemies , novelties , seducers , and their infections : the obstinacie of heretick● , after all meanes , disputations , examinations , synods , yea and after conviction in the poore hereticks owne conscience : add to these the flattring sound of those glosing titles , the godly magistrate , the christian magistrate , the nurcing fathers and mothers of the church , christian kings and queenes . but all other kings and magistrates ( even all the nations of the world over , as mr cotton pleads ) must suspend and hould their hands , and not meddle in matters of religion , untill they be informed , &c. peace . the dreadfull righteous hand of god , the eternall and avenging god , is pulling off these maskes and vizards , that thousands , and the world may see this bloudie tenents beautie . truth . but see ( my heavenly sister , and true stranger in this sea-like restles , raging world ) see here what fires and swords are come to part us ! well ; our meetings in the heavens shall not thus be interrupted , our kisses thus distracted , and our eyes and cheekes thus we● , unwiped : for me , though censured , threatned , persecuted , i must professe , while heaven and earth lasts , that no one tenent that either london , england , or the world doth harbour , is so hereticall , blasphemous , seditious , and dangerous to the corporall , to the spirituall , to the present , to the eternall good of all m●n , as is the bloudie tenent ( how ever wash't and whited ) i say , as is the bloudie tenent of persecution for cause of conscience . the copie of a letter of r. williams of providence in new england , to major endicot , governour of the massachusets , upon occasion of the late persecution against mr clarke and obadiah holmes , and others at boston the chiefe towne of the massachusets in new england . sir , having done with our transitorie earthly * affaires ( as touching the english and the indians ) which in comparison of heavenly and eternall you will say are but as dung and drosse , &c. let me now be humbly bold to remember that humanitie and pietie , which i and others have formerly observed in you , and in that hopefull remembrance to crave your gentle audience with patience and mildnes , with ingenuitie , equanimitie and candour , to him that ever truely and deeply loved you and yours , and as in the awfull presence of his holy eye , whose dreadfull hand hath formed us to the praise of his mercy or justice to all eternitie . sir , i have often feared and said within my soule , have i so deeply loved and respected ? was i also so well beloved ? or was all counterfeit , and but guilded or'e with earthly respects , worldly ends , &c. why am i silent ? my letters are not banished ! may be wellcome , may be seene and heard , and if neither , yet will back againe ( together with my prayers and cries ) into my bosome . thus while i have sometimes mused and resolved ! objections , obstructi●ns , and a thousand hindrances ( i feare from sathan as paul said ) have prest in , held my hand , &c. sir , it hath pleased the father of spirits at this present to smite my heart in the very breaking up of your letter : this * deaths head tells that loving hand that seald it , and mine that opens your letter , that our eyes , our hands , our tongues , our braines are flying hence to the hole or pit of rottennes : why should not therefore such our letters , such our speeches , such our actings be ▪ as may become our last minutes , our death-beds ? &c. if so , how meeke and humble , how plaine and serious , how faithfull and zealous , and yet how tender and loving should the spirits and speeches be of dying and departing men ? sir , while something of this nature i muse over your deaths head , i meete ( in the entrance of your letter ) with this passage [ were i as free in my spirit as formerly i have been to write unto you , you should have received another manner of salutation then now with a good conscience i can expresse ; however god knoweth who are his , and what he is pleased to hide from sinfull man in this life , shall in that great day be manifested to all. ] sir , at the reading of this line , ( i cannot but hope i have your leave to tell you ) the speech of that wise woman of tekoah unto david came fresh unto my thoughts : speakes not the king this thing as one that is guiltie ? for will my honoured and beloved friend not know me for feare of being disowned by his conscience ? shall the goodnes and integritie of his conscience to god cause him to forget me ? doth he quiet his minde with this ; [ god knoweth who are his ? god hides from sinfull man , god will reveale before all ? ] oh how comes it then that i have heard so often , and heard so lately , and heard so much , that he that speakes so tenderly for his owne , hath yet so little respect , mercie or pitie to the like consciencious perswasions of other men ? are all the thousands of millions of millions of consciences , at home and abroad , fuell onely for a prison , for a whip , for a stake , for a gallowes ? are no consciences to breath the aire , but such as suit and sample his ? may not the most high be pleased to hide from his as well as from the eyes of his fellow - servants , fellow - mankinde , fellow - english ? and if god hide from his , from any , who can discover ? who can shut when he will open ? and who can open , when he that hath the key of david will shut ? all this and more ( honoured sir ) your words will warrant me to say , without any just offence or straining . object . but what makes this to heretickes , blasphemers , seducers , to them that sin against their conscience ( as mr cotton sayth ) after conviction ? what makes this to stobbers of kings and princes , to blowers up of parliaments out of conscience ? first , i answer , he was a tyrant that put an innocent man into a beares-skin , and so caused him as a wild beast to be baited to death . secondly , i say , this is the common cry of hunters or persecutours [ hereticks , hereticks , blasphemers , &c. ] and why , but for crossing the persecutours consciences , ( it may be but their superstitions , &c. ) whether turkish , popish , protestant , &c. this is the outcry of the pope and prelates , and of the scotch presbyterians , who would fire all the world , to be avenged on the sectarian heretickes , the blasphemous heretickes , the seducing heretickes , &c. had it not pleased the god of heaven who bounds the insolent rage of the furious ocean , to raise up a second cromwell ( like a mighty and mercifull wall or bullwark ) to stay the furie of the oppressour , whether english , scottish , popish , presbyterian , independent , &c. lastly , i have said much and lately , and given particular answers to all such pleas , in my second reply or answer to mr cottons washing of the bloudie tenent in the lambes bloud , which it may be is not yet come to your sight and hand . 't is true , i have to say elsewhere about the causes of my banishment : as to the calling of naturall men to the exercise of those holy ordinances of prayers , oathes , &c. as to the frequenting of parish churches , under the pretence of hearing some ministers : as to the matter of the patent , and king james his christianitie and title to these parts , and bestowing it on his subjects by vertue of his being a christian king , &c. at present , let it not be offensive in your eyes , that i single out another , a fourth point , a cause of my banishment also , wherein i greatly feare one or two sad evills , which have befallen your soule and conscience . the point is that of the civill magistrates dealing in matters of conscience and religion , as also of persecuting and hunting any for any matter meerly spirituall and religious . the two evills intimated are these ; first , i feare you cannot after so much light , and so much profession to the contrary ( not onely to my selfe , and so often in private , but ) before so many witnesses ; i say , i feare you cannot say and act so much , against so many severall consciences , former and later , but with great checks , great threatnings , great blowes and throwes of inward conscience . secondly , if you shall thanke god , that it is not so with you , but that you doe what conscience bids you in gods presence , upon gods warrant , i must then be humbly faithfull to tell you , that i feare your underprizing of holy light , hath put out the candle , and the eye of conscience in these particulars , and that delusions , strong delusions , and that from god ( by sathans subtletie ) hath seasd upon your very soules beliefe , because you priz'd not lov'd not the indangered persecuted son of god in his despised truths and servants . sir , with man ( as the lord jesus said of the rich man ) i know it is impossible for the ( otherwise piercing ) eye of your understanding to see into these things , for it is discoloured , as in some diseases and glasses ; it is impossible for your will to be willing to see , for that 's in a thousand chaines resolved ( as once you spake heroically and heavenly in a better way ) to spend your dearest heart bloud in your way , &c. yet with god all things are possible , and they that laughed the lord jesus to scorne when he said , the damsell is not dead but sleepeth , were afterwards confounded , when they saw her raised by his heavenly voice . his holy pleasure i know not , nor doe i know which way the glory of his great name will more appeare , either in finally suffering so great a fall and ruine of so strong a pillar , that flesh may not glory , but that his strength and glory onely may be seene in weaknesse . or else in your holy rising and reviving from the bed of so much spirituall filthines , and from so bloudie a minde , and lip , and hand , against all withstanders or disturbers in it . that so the short remainder of your candle may hould out to the world , the riches of his mercy , at whose words the holyest of his servants ought to tremble , and to work out their salvation with feare and trembling : i say ( i desire to say it ; tremblingly and mournfully ) i know not which way he will please to raise his glory ) onely i know my dutie , my constience , my love , all which inforce me to knock , to call to cry at the gate of heaven , and at yours , and to present you with this loving , though lowd and faithfull noyse and sound of a few grounds of deeper examination of both our soules and consciences uprightly and impartially at the holy and dreadfull tribunall of him that is appointed the judge of all the living and the dead . be pleased then ( honoured sir ) to remember that that thing which we call conscience is of such a nature ( especially in english-men ) as once a pope of rome at the suffering of an english-man in rome , himselfe observed ) that although it be groundles , false , and deluded , yet is it not by any arguments or torments easily removed . i speake not of the streame of the multitude of all nations , which have their ebbings and flowings in religion , ( as the longest sword , and strongest arme of flesh carries it ) but i speake of conscience , a perswasion fixed in the minde and heart of a man , which inforceth him to judge ( as paul said of himselfe a persecutour ) and to doe so and so , with respect to god , his worship , &c. this conscience is found in all mankinde , more or lesse , in jewes , turkes , papists , protestants , pagans , &c. and to this purpose let me freely without offence remember you ( as i did mr clarke newly come up from his sufferings amongst you ) i say , remember you of the same story i did him , t was that of william hartly in queene elizabeth her dayes , who receiving the sentence of hanging , drawing , &c. spake confidently ( as afterward he suffered ) what tell you me of hanging , &c. if i had ten thousand millions of lives , i would spend them all for the faith of rome , &c. sir , i am far from glancing the least countenance on the consciences of papists , yea or on some scotch and english protestants too , who turne up all rootes , and lay all levell and in bloud , for exaltation of their owne way and conscience . all that i observe is , that boldnes and confidence , zeale and resolution , as it is commendable in a kinde when it seriously respects a dietie , so also , the greatest confidence hath sometimes need of the greatest search and examination . i confesse , that for confidence no romish priest hath ever exceeded the holy martyrs or witnesses of jesus : witnes ( amongst so many ) that holy english woman , who cryed out , that if every haire of her head were a life or man , they should burne for the name of the lord jesus : but sir , your principles and conscience binde you , not to respect romish or english , saints or sinners : william heartly , and that woman , with all their lives , you are bound by your conscience to punish ( and it may be ) to hang or burne , if they transgresse against your conscience , and that because ( according to mr cottons monstrous distinction ( as some of his chiefe brethren to my knowledge have called it ) not because they sinne in matters of conscience , ( which he denies the magistrate to deale in ) but because they sinne against their conscience . secondly , it is so notoriously knowne , that the consciences of the most holy men , zealous for god & his christ to death and admiration , yea even in our owne countrey , and in queen maries dayes especially , have been so grossly mislead by mistaken consciences in matters concerning the worship of god , the comming out of the antichristian babell , and the rebuilding of the spirituall jerusalem , that i need but hint who were they that pend the common prayer ( in its time , as glorious an idoll , and as much adored by godly persons , as any invention now extant ) i say , who they were that lived and dyed ( five in the flames ) zealous for their bishopricks , yea and some too too zealous for their popish ceremonies , against the doubting consciences of their brethren : at which and more , we that now have risen in our fath●rs stead , wonder and admire how such piercing eyes could be deceived , such watchmen blinded and deluded . but thirdly , we shall not so much wonder when we lift up our trembling eyes to heaven , and remember our selves ( poore dust ) that our thoughts are not as the thoughts of our maker , that , that which in the eyes of man ( as the lord jesus tells us , luc. . ) is of high and sweet esteeme , it stincks and is abomination with god : hence such worships , such churches , such glorious professions & practices may be , as may ravish themselves and the behoulders , when with the piercing eyes of the most high , they may looke counterfeit and ugly , and be found but ( spiritually ) whores , and abominations . fourthly , wise men use to inquire , what motives , what occasions , what snares , what temptations were there , which mooved , which drew , which allured , &c. this is the apologie which the five apologists ( mr goodwin , mr nye , &c. ) made to the parliament , to wit , that they were not tempted with the moulding of new common-wealths , after which they might be mooved to frame their religion , &c. surely sir , the baits , the temptations , the snares laid to catch you , were not few , nor common , nor laid to every foote . saul pretended zeale to the name of god , and love to israel in persecuting the poore gibeonites to death , but honour me before the people , was the maine engine that turned the wheeles of all his actions and devotions . what set jeroboams braines to consult and plot the invention of a new religion , worship , priests , &c. but honour , & the feare of the losse of his gained honour ? what moved jehu to be false and halting with god after so much glorious zeale in reformation ? yea i had almost said , what mooved david to stob vriah ( the fire of god ) with his pen , but the feare of dishonour in the discovery of his sin , though doubtles there was some mixtures of the feare of his gods displeasure and dishonour also ? sir , it is no small offer , the choice and applause and rule over so many townes , so many holy , so many wise , in such a holy way as you believe you are in : to say nothing of strong drinkes and wines , the fat and sweet of this and other lands : these and others are snares which without abundant strength from god will catch and hould the strongest feete : sir , i have knowne you strong , in repelling strong temptations , but i cannot but feare and lament , that some of these and others have been too strong and potent with you . fifthly , we not onely use to say proverbially , but the spirit of god expressly tells us , that there is a minde-bewitching , a betwitching of the very consciences and spirits of men . that as in witchcraft , a stronger and supernaturall power layes hould upon the powers of nature , with a suppressing or elevating of those powers beneath or above themselves : so is it with the very spirits and consciences of the most intelligent and conscientious , when the father of spirits is pleased in his righteous displeasure and jealousie , so to suffer it to be with ours . sir , i from my soule honour and love the persons of such , whom i , you , and themselves may see have been instrumentall in your bewitchin● ▪ why should it be thought inconsistent with the holy wisdome of god to permit wise and holy and learned persons to wander themselves and mislead others ; when the holy scripture and experience tells us of the dangerous councells and wayes of as wife and learned and holy as now breath in either old or new english aire ? sir , i had thought to have named one or two , who may justly be suspected ( though otherwise worthily beloved ) but i have chose rather to present an hint , for that 's enough to so intelligent a breast , if but willing to make an impartiall review and examination of passages between the most high and your in most soule in secret . therefore sixthly , for a sixt ground of suspecting your soule and spirit and conscience in this particular of persecution , which i now instance in , may you please , sir , without offence to remember , that as it is in such as have exceeded in wine , their speech will bewray them : so it is in spirituall cups and intoxications . the maker and searcher of our hearts knowes with what bitternes i write , as with bitternes of soule i have heard such language as this to proceed from your selfe and others , who formerly have fled from ( with crying out against ) persecutours ! [ you will say , this is your conscience : you will say , you are persecuted , and you are persecuted for your conscience : no , you are conventiclers , hereticks , blasphemers , seducers : you deserve to be hanged , rather then one shall be wanting to hang him i will hang him my selfe : i am resolved not to leave an heretick in the countrey ; i had rather so many whores and vvhoremongers and thieves came amongst us : ] oh sir , you cannot forget what language and dialect this is , whether not the same unsavourie , and ungodly , blasphemous and bloudie , which the gardiners and bonners both former and later used to all that bowed not to the state goulden image of what conscience soever they were . and indetd , sir , if the most high be pleased to awaken you to render unto his holy majestie his due praises , in your truely broken-hearted confessions and supplications , you will then proclaime to all the vvorld , that what profession soever you made of the lambe , yet these expressions could not proceed but from the dragons mouth . oh remember , and the most holy lord bring it to your remembrance , that you have now a great price in your hand , to bring great glory to his holy name , great rejoycing to so gracious a redeemer ( in whom you professe is all your healing and salvation ) great rejoycing to the holy spirit of all true consolation , whom yet so long you have grieved and sadded , great rejoycing to those blessed spirits ( attending upon the lambe , and all his , and terrible to his persecutours ) great rejoycing and instruction to all that love , the true lord jesus ( notwithstanding their wandrings among so many false christs ) mourning and lamenting after him in all parts of the world where his name is sounded : your tallents are great , your fall hath been so : your eminencie is great , the glory of the most high in mercy or justice toward you will be great also . oh remember it is a dangerous combat for the potsheards of the earth to fight with their dreadfull potter : it is a dismall battle for poore naked feete to kick against the pricks ; it is a dreadfull voyce from the king of kings , and lord of lords , endicot , endicot , why huntest thou me ? why imprisonest thou me ? why finest , why so bloudily whippest , why wouldest thou ( did not i hould thy bloudie hands ) hang and burne me ? yea sir , i beseech you remember that it is a dangerous thing to put this to the may be , to the venture or hazzard , to the possibilitie : is it possible ( may you well say ) that since i hunt , i hunt not the life of my saviour , and the bloud of the lambe of god : i have fought against many severall sorts of consciences , is it beyond all possibilitie and hazard , that i have not fought against god , that i have not persecuted jesus in some of them ? sir , i must be humbly bold to say , that 't is impossible for any man or men to maintaine their christ by the sword , and to worship a true christ ! to fight against all consciences opposite to theirs , and not to fight against god in some of them , and to hunt after the precious life of the true lord jesus christ . oh remember whether your principles and consciences must in time and opportunitie force you . 't is but worldly policie and compliance with men and times ( gods mercy over-ruling ) that houlds your hands from murthering of thousands and ten thousands were your power and command as great as once the bloudie roman emperours was . the truth is ( and your selfe and others have said it ) by your principles such whom you count hereticks , blasphemers , seducers , ought to be put to death ; you cannot be faithfull to your principles and consciences , if you satisfie them with but imprisoning , fining , whipping and banishing the hereticks , and by saying that banishing is a kinde of death , as some chiefe with you ( in my case formerly ) have said it . sir , 't is like you knew or have heard of the man that said he would never conforme publikely , although he did subscribe in private for his libertie sake of preaching : that , although he did conforme in some things , yet in all he never would : that , although he did himselfe yeeld , yet he would not molest and inforce others : that although he yeelded , that others did molest them , yet himselfe would never persecute , and yet did all . but oh poore dust and ashes , like stones once roling downe the alpes , like the indian canoes or english boats loose and adrist , where stop we untill infinite mercy stop us , especially when a false fire of zeale and conscience drives us , ( though against the most holy and eternall himselfe ? ) oh remember the black catalogues it hath pleased the most jealous and righteous god to make of his fierie judgements and most dreadfull stoakes on eminent and remarkeable persecutours even in this life . it hath been his way and course in all countries , in germanie , france and england , ( especially ) what ever their pretences have been against hereticks , rebells , schismaticks , blasphemers , seducers , &c. how hath he left them to be their owne accusers , judges , executioners , some by hanging , some by stobbing , some by drowning and poysoning themselves , some by running mad , and some by drinking in the very same cup which they had filld to others ? some may say , such persecutours hunted god and christ , but i , but we , &c. i answer , the lord jesus christ foretold how wonderfully the wisest of the world , should be mistaken in the things of christ , and a true visible christ jesus ! when did we see thee naked , hungry , thirstie , sicke , inprison , & . how easie , how common , how dreadfull these mistakes ? oh remember once againe ( as i began ) and i humbly desire to remember with you , that every gray haire now on both our heads , is a boanerges , a sonne of thunder , and a warning piece to prepare us , for the waighing of our last anchors , and to be gone from hence , as if we had never been . 't was mercy infinite , that stopt provoked justice from blowing out our candles in our youths , but now the feeding substance of the candle 's gone , and 't is impossible ( without repentance , ) to recall our actions ! nay , with repentance , to recall our minutes past us . sir , i know i have much presumed upon your many waighty affaires and thoughts , i end with an humble cry to the father of mercies , that you may take davids counsell , and silently commune with your owne heart upon your bed , reflect upon your owne spirit , and believe him that said it to his over-zealous disciples , you know not what spirit you are of : that , no sleepe may seize upon your eyes , nor slumber upon your eye-lids , untill your serious thoughts have seriously , calmely , and unchangeably ( through helpe from christ jesus ) fixed . first , on a moderation toward the spirits and consciences of all mankinde , meerly differing from or opposing yours with onely religious and spirituall opposition . secondly , a deepe and cordiall resolution ( in these wonderfull searching , disputing , and dissenting times ) to search , to listen , to pray , to fast , and more fearefully , more tremblingly to enquire what the holy pleasure , and the holy mysteries of the most holy are ; in whom i humbly desire to be your poore fellow-servant , unfainedly , respective and faithfull , r. vvilliams . an appendix : to the cleargie of the foure great parties ( professing the name of christ jesus ) in england , scotland , and ireland , viz. the popish , prelaticall , presbyterian , and independent . worthy sirs ; i have pleaded the cause of your severall and respective consciences ( against the bloudie doctrine of persecution ) in my former labours , and in this my present rejoynder to mr cotton : and yet i must pray leave without offence to say , i have impartially oppos'd and charg'd your consciences also , so farre as guiltie of that bloudie doctrine of persecuting each other for your consciences . you foure have torne the seameles coate of the son of god into foure pieces , and ( to say nothing of former times and tearings ) you foure have torne the three nations into thousands of pieces and distractions . the two former of you , the popish and ( protestant ) prelaticall , are brethren : so are the latter , the presbyterian and independent : but , oh , how rara est , & c ? what concord , what love , what pitie hath ever yet appear'd amongst you , when the providence of the most high and onely wise hath granted you your pattents of mutuall and successive dominion and precedencie ? just like two men , whom i have knowne breake out to blowes and wrastling , so have the protestant bishops fought and wrastled with the popish , and the popish with the protestant ! the presbyterian ▪ with the independent , and the independent with the presbyterian ! and our chronicles and experiences have told this nation , and the world , how he whose turne it is to be brought under , hath ever felt an heavie wrathfull hand of an unbrotherly and unchristian persecutour : meane while , what outcries for a sword , a sword at any price , on any tearmes , wherewith to take finall revenges , on such their blasphemous and hereticall adversaries and corrivalls ? hence is it , that the magistrate hath been so courted , his person adored and deified , and his religion magnified and exalted . amongst the people , some have thought and said , how hath the shining of the magistrates money and sword , out-shin'd the nobilitie of his person , or the christianitie of his conscience ? for when the person changes and religion too , how grossely notorious have been the cleargies changes also ? for instance , how have they pernified , tack't and turn'd about ( as the wind hath blowne ) from poperie to protestanisme , from protestanisme to poperie , and from poperie to protestanisme againe , and this within the compasse of about a dozen yeares ; as the purse and sword-bearers were changed , what ever the persons of those princes ( male or female , men or children , or their consciences , popish or protestant ) were . yea , how justly in the late kings book ( if his ) are the cleargie of england charged with horrible breach of vows and oaths of canonicall obedience to their fathers the bishops , against whom ( in the turne of the times and the sword-bearers ) they turned to the scotch presbyters , their fathers dreadful enemies and persecutours ? now as to the persecuting each of other , i confesse the wolfe ( the persecutour , ) devoures the goate , the swine , yea the very fox , and other creatures , as well as the inoffensive sheepe and lambe ? yet ( as the lord jesus made use of that excellent fable or similitude of a wolfe getting on a sheepes-skin , so ) may i not unseasonably make use of that of the wolfe and the poore lambe coming downe to drinke , upon the same brooke and streame together : the wolfe cruell and strong drinks above and aloft : the lambe innocent and weake , drinks upon the streame below : the wolfe questions and quarrells the lambe for corrupting and defiling the waters : the lambe ( not daring to plead how easily the wolfe drinking higher might transfer defilement downeward , but ) pleads improbabilitie and impossibilitie , that the waters descending could convey defilement upwards : this is the controversie , this the plea : but who shall judge ? be the lambe never so innocent , his plea never so just , his adversary the wolfe will be his judge , and being so cruell and so strong soone teares the lambe in pieces . thus the cruell beast arm'd with the power of the kings ( revel . . ) sits judge in his owne quarrels against the lambe , about the drinking at the waters . and thus ( sayth mr cotton ) the judgement ought to passe upon the heretick , not for matter of conscience , but for sinning against his conscience . object . m● ▪ thinks i heare , the great charge against the independent partie to be the great pleaders for libertie of conscience , &c. answ . oh the horrible deceipt of the hearts of the sons of men ! and , what excellent physick can we prescribe to others , till our soule ( as job said ) come to be in their soules cases ? what need have we to be more vile ( with job ) before god , to walke in holy sence of selfe ▪ insufficiencie , to cry for the blessed leadings of the holy spirit of god , to guide and leade our heads and hearts uprightly ? for ( to draw the curtaine , and let in the light alittle ) doe not all persecutours themselves zealously plead for freedome , for libertie , for mercie to mens consciences , when themselves are in the grates , and pits , and under hatches ? doth not ges●er tell us of a gentleman in germanie , who fitting his pitfall for wilde beasts , found in the morning a woman , a wolfe , and a fox in three severall corners , as full of feare , and as quiet , and as desirous of libertie one as well as another ? thus bloudie gardiner and bonner ( prisoners , during king edwards dayes ) yea and that bloudie queene mary her selfe , all plead the freedome of their consciences . what most humble supplications , and indeed unanswerable arguments for libertie of conscience have the papists ( when in restraint ) presented , ( and especially ) in king james his time ? yea what excellent subscriptions to this soule-freedome , are interwoven in many passages of the late kings booke ( if his ) ? yea and one of his chaplaines ( so cald ) doctor jer. taylour , what an everlasting monumentall testimony did he publish to this truth , in that his excellent discourse , of the libertie of prophesying ? yea the ( formerly ) non-conforming presbyterian and independent , scotch and english , old and new , what most humble and pious addresses have they made before the whole world , to princes and parliaments , for just mercy ( in true petitions of right ) to their consciences ? but , let this present discourse , and mr cottons fig-leave evasions and distinctions : let the practices ( of the massachusets ) in new england , in twenty yeares persecution : and this last of mr clarke , obadiah holmes , and others be examined : yea let the independent ministers late proposalls be waighed , with the double waight of gods sanctuary , and it will appeare what mercy the poore soules of all men , and jesus christ in any of them , may expect from the very independents cleargie themselves . object . but doth not their proposalls provide a libertie to such as feare god , viz. that they may freely preach without an ordination ! and that such as are not free to the publike assemblies may have libertie to meete in private . answ . it may so please the father of lights to shew them that their lines and modells , and new-englands copie also ( after which they write and pensill , ) are but more and more refined images , whereby to worship the invisible god : and that still ( as before ) the wolfe ( the persecutour ) must judge of the lambes drinking ! for instance ; new englands lawes ( lately published in mr clarks narrative ) tell us how free it shall be for people to gather themselves into church-estate ? how free to choose their owne ministers ? how free to enjoy all the ordinances of christ jesus , & c ? but yet , provided , so - and so ( upon the point ) that the civill state must judge of the spirituall , to wit , whether persons be ▪ fit for church-estate , whether the gathering be right , whether the peoples choice be right , doctrines right , and what is this in truth , but to sweare that blasphemous oath of supremacie againe , to the kings and queenes and magistrates of this and other nations in stead of the pope , & c ? into these prisons , and cages , doe those ( otherwise worthy and excellent men , the ) independents , put all the children of god , and all the children of men in the whole world , and then bid them flie and walke at libertie ( to wit , within the conjured circle ) so far as they please . to particularize briefely : when they have in their six severall circuits ejected ( according to their proposalls ) it may be hundreths , it may be thousands ( if impartiall ) of episcopall and presbyterian ministers , and that without & against their peoples consent , to the present distressing of thousands , and inraging ( through such soul-oppressions ) the whole nation ! then , say they , it shal be free for all that be able , &c. to be preachers , though not ordained , &c. but , provided , that two ministers hands ( at least , which upon the point , is instead of an ordination ) be to their approbation , &c. upon this lock any shall be free to preach christ jesus , upon this point of the compasse ( as i may in humble reverence , and with sorrow speake it ) the spirit of god shall be free to breath and operate in the soules of men ! by this plummet and line , rule and square , and ( seeming ) goulden reede and meetewand , the sanctuary must be built and measured , &c. but further , if any shall be of tender consciences , and that the common size will not serve their foote , if they shall thinke the independents foundations too weak , or it may be too strong for their weake beliefe , if they cannot bow downe to their goulden image , though of the finest and latest edition and fashion : why god forbid they should be forc'd to church as others , they shall enjoy their libertie , and meeteapart in private : but , provided , they acquaint the civill magistrate , that is , as it may fall out ( who knows how soon ? ) and too too often hath faln out , the poore sheepe and deere of christ must take licence of and betray themselves unto the pawes and jawes of their lyon-like persecutours . heare oh heavens , give eare o earth ! what is this but like the treacherous dutchmen , who capitulate of leagues of peace and amitie , with their neighbour english , and in the midst of state complements ( some say , out of malicious wrath , others say t was out of drunken intoxications at the best ) thunder out broad-sides of fire and smoake of persecution ? object . some possibly may say , your just suffring from the independents in new england makes you speake revenges against them in old. answ . what i have suffred in my estate , body , name , spirit , i hope through helpe from christ , and for his sake i have desired to beare with a spirit of patience and of respect and love , even to my persecutours . as to particulars , i have , and must ( if god so will ) further debate them with my truely honoured and beloved adversarie mr cotton . but as to you , worthy sirs , ( men of learning , and men of personall holines many of you ) i truely desire to be far from envying your honours , pleasures , and revenues , from whence the two former popish & prelaticall are ejected , unto which the two later presbyterian and independent are advanced : nor would i move a tongue or pen that any of you now possessed , should be removed or disturbed , untill your consciences by the holy spirit of god , or the consciences of the people , to whom you serve or minister , shall be otherwayes ( then as you are yet ) perswaded . much rather would i make another humble plea ( and that i believe with all the reason and justice in the world ) that such who are ejected , undone , impoverished , might some way from the state or you receive reliefe and succour : considering , that the very nations constitution hath occasioned parents to traine up , & persons to give themselves to studies ( though in truth , but in a way of trade & bargaining , before god ) yet , 't is according to the custome of the nation , who ought therefore to share also , in the fault of such priests and ministers who in all changes are ejected . i end with humble begging to the father of spirits , to perswade and possesse yours with a true sence of three particulars . first , of the yoakes of soule-oppression , which lye upon the necks of most of the inhabitants of the nations , & of the whole world : as if chams curse from noah were upon them , servants of servants are they , and that in the matters of the soules affection unto god , which call for the purest libertie : i confesse the world lyes in wickednesse , and loveth darknesse more then light : but why should you helpe on those yoaks , and force them to receive a doctrine , to pray , to give thanks , &c. without an heart ? yea and ( in the many changes and cases incident ) against their heart and soules consent ? secondly , of the bloudines of that most bloudie doctrine of persecution for cause of conscience , with all the winding staires and back dores of it , &c. some professors true and false , sheepe and goats , are daily found to differ in their apprehensions , perswasions , professions , and that to bonds and death . what now , shall these be wrackt , their soules , their bodies , their purses , & c ? yea if they refuse , deny , oppose the doctrine of christ jesus , whether jewes or gentiles , why should you call for fire from heaven , which suits not with christ jesus his spirit or ends ? why should you compell them to come in , with any other sword , but that of the spirit of god , who alone perswaded japhet to come into the tents of shem , and can in his holy season prevaile with shem to come into the tents of japhet ? thirdly , of that biass of selfe-love which hales and swayes our minds to hould so fast this bloudie tenent : you know it is the spirit of love from christ jesus , that turns our feete from the tradition of fathers , &c. that sets the heart and tongue and pen and hands too ( as pauls ) day and night to work , rather then the progresse and puritie and simplicitie of the crowne of christ jesus should be debased or hindred . this spirit will cause you leave ( with joy ) benefices , and bishopricks , worlds and lives for his sake : the heights and depths , lengths and breadths , of whose love you know doth infinitely passe your most knowing comprehensions and imaginations . there is but little of this spirit extant , i feare will not be , untill we see christ jesus slaine in the slaughter of the witnesses : then joseph will goe boldly unto pilate for the slaughtered bodie of most precious saviour : and nicodemus , will goe by day , to buy and bestow his sweetest spices , on his infinitly sweeter soules beloved . the full breathings of that heavenly spirit , unfeinedly and heartily wisheth you , your most unworthy countriman , r. williams . finis . the principal contents . truth and peace rarely meet page many excellent men plead for persecution p. new englands persecution guilty of the persecution in old p. the first occasion of publishing the bloody tenent p master cotton complains of being persecuted , and yet writes so much for persecution p. the word persecution ( in plain english ) what it is ibi . master cotton would change the word persecuting into punishing . p. state worships the ordinary occasion of persecution p. ordination of ministers and coronation of kings unfitly compared p. master cotton pleading for common prayer p. , three causes for which master cotton pleads for persecution p. christs church may be gathered and dissolved with no disturbance of civil peace p. persecution breaks all civil peace p. civil peace may be kept long and flourish even where christ is not heard of , yea disowned , &c. p. christianity lost most under reforming emperors ibid. the societies or churches of saints are meerly voluntary in combining or dissolving p. christs spouse is chosen out of this world p. no civil state can judge the spiritual p. the difference of spiritual and civil peace p. when gods people flourish most in godliness , then most persecuted ; and , when most persecuted , then flourish most in godliness p. a monstrous mingling of spiritual and civil disturbance p. six instances of zeal in scripture ( charged with , yet ) free from breach of civil peace p. the indians ( subjected to the english ) permitted , while english fearing god in new england persecuted p. jonah's casting over board , pleaded by master cotton as a ground for persecution , examined p. the killing of the false prophet , zech. . . p. conviction of conscience p. the violation of civil peace , though out of conscience , to be punished . p. gamaliells councel considered p. christ jesus never persecuted as christ , but as a deceiver , blasphemer , seducer , &c. p. gods people fast asleep , and yet awake ibid : a deep mystery in persecution p. wolves complaining of being persecuted by the sheep p. the blood of the souls under the altar is a sealed mystery p. a challenge to the devil himself , touching the persecution of hereticks p. all antichristian hunters make titus the third their den or fortress p. the horrible abusing and prophaning of that word heretick p. a child of god may possible be an heretick p. the straights in which the bloody tenent ( and this rejoynder also ) were composed p. th●se preachers who will not preach without money , must beg or steal ibid. christ jesus his distinction of diggers , beggers , stealers p. persecution usually taken for a corporal , not a spiritual punishment ibid. very severe , but not christian , and more then judaical punishment of theeves in england p. the civil and spirituall life confounded p. gods right and caesars p. the great peace breakers ibid. english diana's p. . gross partiality to private interests ibid. england in all ages guilty of much persecution p. two seasonable petitions of any persecuted ibid. the parable of the tares grosly abused p. hypocrisie both open and secret p. spiritual whoredome against god in his worship , may be in the midst of pure civil relations . p. the parable of the wise and foolish virgins p. . a true church or society of christ cannot consist of visible hypocrites p. the field of the world ibid : the mystery of christians and antichriastians p. the first rise of antichristians argued p. touching the judgement of the great whore p. christs church by institution properly consisting of good ground p. . the nature of the jewish church ibid. the nature of christs true apostles or messengers p. antichristians , monsters in religion p. two sorts of sinners p. two sorts of hypocrites ibid. two sorts of opposites to christ jesus p. the rivers and fountaines of blood , rev. . p. of hypocrites in the profession of christianity p. corrupt consciences distinguished p. toleration of idolaters considered ibid. civil weapons in spirituals blur and slight the spiritual p. the toleration of jezabel in thyatria p. the difference between spiritual and civil slander p. the dreadful nature of christs spiritual punishments ibi . the punishments in the national church of israel were material and corporeal p. touching prayer against present destruction of the tares p. pastors and teachers are not apostles or messengers ib. elijah stirring up ahab to slay the baalites p. touching the state of israel in the apostacy of jeroboam , and more of the baalites p. touching apostles or messengers p. touching fundamentals p. persecuting of christ jesus by a law p. the greatest blasphemy against christ jesus that ever was , yet not punished but spiritually ibid. pauls appeal to caesar more examined p. few magistrates in the world that bear the very name of of christ jesus . p. fewer truely christians ibid. mystical and most cruel surgery ibid. to serve god with all our might , literally taken , horribly abused p. the title of defender of the faith in england p. a bold , but true word touching defend or of the faith p. the title of supream head of the church examined p. the plague of the turkes upon the antichristian world p. whether saul was a type of christ , and the kings of israel , &c. p. the priests and clergy in all nations the greatest peace-breakers p. touching the seducer and seducing p. bishop longlands subtle and bloody oaths of inquisition against seducing ( christians ) ibid. causes of destruction to a nation p. all nations , cities , and towns of the world , parts of the world &c. p. changes of state religions ibid. the state of israel unparalleled p. the punishments of christ sorer then the punishments of moses ibi . that of jude , twice dead , examined p. of spiritual infection p. the sword of typical israel a type of christs spiritual sword p. magistrates cannot receive from the people a spiritual power p. the proper charge of the civil magistrate p. the plague of the turke upon the antichristian world p. a twofoldcare and charge of souls ibid. christ the true king of israel ibid. christs threefold sending of preachers p. no true office of ministery , since the apostacy , but that of prophesie ibid. great neglects charged on christ jesus . p. pretended order , monstrous disorder p. the parliaments high justice against oppressors p. the title head of the church p. the civil magistrate no spiritual officer now , as in israel p. all commonweals that ever have been , are , or shall be in the world ( excepting that of typical israel ) meerly civil p. the decrees of pagan kings for israel and the god of it , considered ibid. the ministers lay heavy load upon the magistrates back ibid. the great desolation of the visible order of christs saints and servants p. the wolves at ephesus considered , act. p. the duty of the civil magistrate in spirituals ibid. the changing of persecutors is one thing , the abolishing of persecution another ibid. the persecuting cleargy no cordial friends to magistracy ibid : master cotton and bellarmine all one for the deposing heretical princes p the lord cobham his troubles in henry the fifths dayes p civil society plucke up by the roots ibid. a turn-coat in religion more faithless then a resolved jew , turk or papist doctor pearnes turning and returning , and turning againe in religion p. consciences yeelding to be forced lose all conscience ibid. two strange paradoxes about force in spirituals p. how the kings of israel and judah were types ●f jesus christ to come p. cyrus called christ , a figure of christ p. the fire from heaven , revel . . p. all truth , not only heavenly , but moral , civil , &c. precious p. many excellent prophets in eminency and power , and yet may not use a civil but a spiritual sword in spirituals p. more confidence commonly put in the civil sword then the spiritual p. englands changes in religion compared with those of judah ibid. whether england may not possibly receive the pope againe the religions of the world , politick inventions to maintaine a civil state p. the absolute necessity of some order of government all the world over ibid. the emperor antoninus pius his distinction and edict against persecution p. , the degeneracy of christianity now professed p. the horrible d●ss●mbling of some persecutors ibid. too short a time set for repentance in new england p. false teachers commonly hardned by persecution ibid. the great sufferings of master gotton and his friends in england p. the difference between spiritual and corporal murther p. civil justice ought impartially to permit one conscience as well as another p. the difference of the persecution of the romane emperors and roman popes p. the difference between the persecuted for conscience , and punished for civil crimes p. every true moses will make a difference between israelites and egyptians p. whether a commonweal may prosper in the permission of divers religions p. cups of blood given into the hand of persecuting nations p. scripture perverted from the spiritual to the civil state p. the magistrate usually but the clergies cane and trumpet ibid. rom. . . grosly abused by a governor in new england ibid. the bloody tenent plucks up the nations and all civil being p. romes glory and downfal p. the civil state and officers thereof cannot be spiritual judges ibid. the case of gallio p. the sufficiency of christs spiritual weapons p. a vaine fear of false teachers p christ iesus nor paul addrest themselves to the civil state ibid. turke and pope and the generality of all protestants against free conference p. david and goliah types ibid. difference between spiritual and civil ministers p. israels corporcal killing , types of spiritual ibid. the duty of the civil state in spirituals p. the kingdomes of the world becoming christs ibid. touching forcing men to church p. a spanish inquisition all the world over p. master cotton kindling a twofold fire ibid. mathias the second emperor , granting liberty of conscience p. christian weapons considered ibid. a fallacious distinction of using the civil sword , not in , but about spiritual matters p. wonderful strange carpenters p. master cotton slights stocks and whips , &c. and provokes to banish and kil hereticks &c. ibid. all civil violence in spirituals , is for an interest p. the civil sword esteemed more powerful then the spiritual p. that great fort of rom. . considered p. the civil magistrate not charged with the keeping of two tables ibid. calvin and beza's judgement on rom. . p. vnrighteousness civil and spiritual ibid. spiritual wars without civil disturbance p. of the romane emperors power in spirituals p. foul imputation against christ jesus , and yet his wise provision for his kingdome p. the clergies evil dealing with the civil magistrate p. the nature of the church , and of christs true order , but lately discovered since the apostacy ibid. spiritual courts and judges p. touching pauls appeal to caesar p. , . spiritual rights and civil p. the true and only christendome p. christ jesus robbed of his crown p. of custome tribute , &c. p. of praying for magistrates p. civil ministers and spiritual ibid. the god of heaven hath many sorts of ministers p. ordinarily the truth is persecuted ibid. touching the tearm evil , rom. . p. the civil magistrate robbed of his civil power ibid. of toleration , which master cotton in cases makes large enough p. the land of israel a type p. touching false and seducing teachers p. the great difference of sin against the civil or spiritual estate p. the gross partiality of the bloody doctrine of persecution ibid. gods children much labor to shift off the cross of christ p. christ jesus between two theeves p. the horrible hyp●c●isie of all persecutors ibid. christs charge to pergamus and thyatira against toleration , examined p. the word persecution how ordinarily taken ibid. famous speeches of some kings against persecution p. no civil state or country can be truly called christian , although true christians be in it p. nursing fathers dealt with all as children p. persecutors , if it were in their power would and are bound to persecute all consciences and religions in the world p. all persecutors hold the popes traiterous doctrine of deposing hereticks , &c. p. the popish and protestant clargy , set the popish and protestant world on fire for their maintenance ibid. the dutch device to win their clergy to toleration of other religions p. all that profess to be christs ministers , must resolve to dig or beg , or steal ibid. all antichristians are fundamentally opposite to christ jesus p. of letting the tares alone p. a speech of king james considered p. touching compelling to come to church to hear p. a second speech of king james proving it possible that a papist may yeeld civil obedience ibid. the parliament at paris , although popish , yet condemned books against civil obedience p. all england was catholick , and yet the pope renounced ibid. a twofold holding the pope as head ibid. the two english sisters laws concerning conscience p. cautions for preventing disturbance by papists ibid. other nations well provide against distractions and tumults from opposite consciences p. neerer competitors to the truth among our selves , then the papist ibid. the admired prudence of the parliament in preserving civil peace p. . increase of papists unlikely ( as things stand ) in england ibid master jo. robinson from holland as touching permission of papists , his testimony p. a third speech of king james considered ibid. persecution ( ordinarily ) the mark of a false church ibid. stephen king of poland his speech ibid. the spiritual power of christ intrusted , not with civil but spiritual ministers p. an excellent argument used in parliament against the persecuting bishops ibid. two wayes of disturbing and destroying religion p. the bishops as tyrants justly suppressed , and the parliament therein prospered from heaven ibid. daniels councel to belshazzar , preserveth parliaments and nations ibid. israel a miraculous nation p. two sorts of nations in the world ibid. touching the true christ , and the false p. the king of bohemia his speech p. spiritual rapts and violence upon conscience p. amnon his ravishing of tamat a type p. the judge of conviction of conscience ibid. wars for religion p. the bloody tenent guilty of all the blood of papists and protestants formerly and lately spilt p. touching national churches ibid. practical denying of christ jesus the greatest p. two high transgressions objected against master cotton p. touching julian his toleration p. touching the infection of false doctrine ibid. king james and queen elizabeth their persecutions compared p. fit qualification of princes p. master cotton suspends most part of the magistrates in the world from acting in matters of religion ib. constantines edict as to religion p. foule imputations cast on christ jesus ibid. vnchristian tribunals and proceedings p. touching excommunication in israel p. spiritual blessings and cursings the antitypes of corporal in israel p. holy and spiritual constables , prisons , stocks , posts , gibbets , tyburnes , &c. ibid. a true christ , a true sword ; a false christ , a false sword p. queen elizabeth her wars against the papists ibid. the wars of the waldenses p. christian weapons , wars and victories p. gideons army typical ibid. the christian church doth not persecute , but is persecuted p. poverty and persecution , the most common companions of gods church . p. the sins of gods children ibid. christs witnesses in all ages . p. a true wife of christ no persecuter ibid. the difference between excommunication and persecution ibid. difference between a spiritual and civil state p. the civil powers made the clergies executioners p. spiritual judgements more terrible since christ , then corporal before his coming p. a twofold way of constraint p. what it is to walk according to mans light ibid. conviction twofold p. the maintenance of the new english ministers ibid. of propagating religion by the sword p. touching the indians of new england p. , propriety of language necessary to all preachers p. ▪ conscience a close prisoner in new england , &c. p. publike marriage of a soul to christ ibid. spream authority in spirituals p. mysteries of false christs p. the true christ despised for his poverty ibid. a base esteem of the spiritual sword ibid. earthly christs need earthly supports p. the state of christianity during the reigne of antichrist ibid. satans two wayes of quenching the candle of christianity p. a note of the french massacre ibid. the pretended disputes in queen maries dayes p. the late synodical disputes ibid. a bloody and most unchristian speech ibid. the rash madness of persecutors against themselves p. pleasantness of wit sanctified , &c. ibid. the churches of new england proved an implicite national church ibid. a civil state maintenance proveth a state church p. synods assembled by civil power , cannot be but civil also p. the holy land and country of canaan a none-such p. the weapons of the jews and christians compared p. new english loath to be accounted persecutors p. laws concerning gods worship p. , touching the magistrates keeping of both tables p. of magistrates suspending in matters of religion p. soul-saving ibid. the tearm [ souls good ] commonly but a paint p. worldly prosperity ever dangerous to gods children p. holland and england wonderfully prospered upon mercy shewn to consciences p. bodies and goods ( not conscience ) subject to civil powers p. what is the commonweal of isreal p. the romane emperor flourished long , though without christ p. christs spouse most chast under persecution ibid. constantine a friend and an enemy to christs spouse p. concerning toleration in new england p. papists and protestants both force to church p. prayers for vengeance upon persecutors p. the bloody tenent of persecution is a king-killing and sure killing p. p●rsecutors pretend to save but kill p. hireling ministers . ibid. friers in chaucers time , and the clergy in our time considered the turkes will be muselmanni , that is , true believers p. mystical sheep and wolves p. , pauls striking elimas blind considered p. the clergy using the magistrate as dogs p. the great spiritual differences of these times p. gods children may possibly fight each against other p. spiritual murtherers and seducers p. , commonweal common-woe twofold p. mystical wolves and muskeeto's p. a state and forc't religion a prison p. of constantines wars for the christians p. never any true religion in the world , but one p. touching pauls blasphemy before his conversion ibid. an instance from john haywood and the lord cromwel in k. henry the eighth his days p. of moses judicials p. the first christians the purest and yet the civil sword was against them p. the levites killing , exod. , typical . p. phineas● his act considered ibid. elijah and the baalites , and other figurative passages of the old testament p. , strange and monstrous duties of moral righteousness p. gods children are monsters accounted , &c. p. elijah his slaying the captains and their fifties ibid. wonderful spiders and cobwebs ibid. touching seducers and their punishments p. the sad effects of the bloody tenent on m. cotton's own spirit p. , the differences of gods people in old and new england p. the great sin of new englands former patents p. , old england curbing new englands persecutions ibid. holy cranmer , and cromwel , joyning with bloody persecutors in hen. . his days p. the famous passages of cromwel and lambert in hen. . his days p. conviction twofold p. , christ jesus accounted the greatest heretick , blasphemer , and seducer in the world p. small matters accounted heresies ibid. the barbarous usage of john hus in the councel at constance p. the bloody tenent destroys civility out of the world p. , all men confident in their own way p. he that persecutes jews , turks pagans , or antichristians , is in a greater errour then any of them ibid. freedom of conscience a great peace-maker p. , of persecuting apostates p. ▪ two woful opinions bewitching the nations p. three great causes of the downfal of the church of rome p. touching the new english model of church and civil power p. m. cotton ' s too deep censuring p. israel a miraculous people p. touching the punishment of adultery among the jews p. all civil government gods ordinance ibid. true commonweals many without kings p. a wonderful saying of bishop hall ibid. magistrates nursing fathers and their sins p. , the pourtraicture of the bloody tenent p. , &c. compared with other opinions and practices p , . the maskes and vizards of the bloody tenent p. . truth and peace their meeting seldom , and short in this world ibid. the letter of r. w. to major endico● governor of the massachuset ( in n. e. ) upon occasion of the late persecution at boston p. persecutors approve no persecution in the world but their own p. all persecutors render the innocent most odious p. cromwel the d a refuge for the oppessed p. this rejoynder formerly sent out of n. eng. but not till now published ibid. abuse of light most dangerous ibid. the power of conscience though erroneous p. the common prayer and the composers of it p. perfumes with man , stinks with god ibid. of spiritual baites and snares p. spiritual witchcraft ibid. spiritual drunkenness and the persecuting language of it p. the horrible path which persecutors walk in p. the least beginning of persecution tends to blood. gods dreadful judgement against persecutors p. gray haires are gods alarums p. an appendix to the cleargie of ( old and new ) england scotland and ireland p. the cleargie court the magistrate for his sword and his money the late kings charge against his clergie ibid. the woolf pleading with the lamb will be judge ibid. all prosecutors ( in their turns ) plead for libertie of conscience p. king charles and his chaplaias subscribe to libertie of conscience ibid. about twenty years persecution in new england p. the persecution of the new and old english independent cleargie p. a briefe touch upon the fifteen proposals of the ( so called ) independent ministers p. they silently challenge the power of ordination in all england , &c. ibid. they sell the spiritual libertie of christ ibid finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e the parliaments labours and labyri●ths , two subsidies granted by the parliament to the king of kings . the first subsidy . the second subsid● . the bloody tenent a common pyrat . mr. cottons reply . the first petition . difference between the piety and mercy , and state-necessity of granting freed●m to mens consciences . constantines and maximilians acts compared , two wayes of oppressing conscience in religion . the late king charles his conscience to oppresse the consciences of others , no small occasion of the ruine of him and his . the bishops kild the king. hollands policy . the permission of conscience in holland . gods wonderful goings in holland from stafore , undone by pride and unthankfulness , to enchuysin , undone by the bloody tenent of persecution : from enchuysin to amsterdam , raised to its present hight and glory , by mercy to the persecuted . englands ship got into harbour . striking of colours . the states of holland yet to seek in the matters of liberty of conscience . touching absolute freedome to every mans conscience impartially . freedome of popish consciences . s●● chap. more particularly . old images puld down , and new set up . all images must down . all violent courses must break . the act for civill engagement of great necessity . the second pettion . worldly wisdome in straits a most dangerous rock . the third petition . soul shipwrack . dangers of parliament men . wonderfull confessions of two mighty kings . true heavenly wisdome . the onely valour or cowardize . true and best diligence . true justice and righteousness . heavenly mercy . late zealous reformations . jehu his zeal and reward . of the parliaments patience . of the crown of true constancy . the controversies of late years about religion . so many opposite churches , so many opposite christs to the onely true . the pageant of perken warbeck in k. h. . his dayes , a picture of false christs , or churches . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . the six fundamentals of christian religion . heb. . with or without the first two , salvation or no salvation . notes for div a -e n , england priviledge . whole nation of lyons or persecutors . the bloudy tenent more especially concerns n. e. the occasion of the present con●●●versie . this contestation is not with persons , but against their bloody doctrins and tenents . the end of this treatise . the cry of the lord jesus . a bar against persecution . or a testimony against it , especially in the papists . a double prison , of prejudice and conscience . foundamentall hints against persecution . libertie of trying forbidden books , &c. new englands lessons . liberty of searching our truth , hardly got , and as hardly kept . jan le petit . the wonderfull deceitfulnesse of the hearts of gods only people . mic. . n. england must be singular , as in mercies , so in judgments . of the loudest state. crying sins . notes for div a -e soul wounds , the deepest . the akeldamaes , or fields of bloud , caused by the bloudy tenent of persecution . michael , the son of god , and sathan the red dragon , the two great generals . lamentable discord● about religion , even among the servants of the true and living god. the israelites divided . joseph sold by his brethren . israel force aaron to make them gods. israels murmurings . aaron and miriam against moses . an armie of israelites shrunk into . samson and david discouraged by their own brethren . benjamin almost destroyed by the tribes . israels rejecting of samuel & the lord himself . saul persecuting david . ishbosheth and israel against david and judah . david stabbing vriah with his pen. the divisions & dispersions of the tribes . asa imprisoning the prophet . christs disciples destrous of fire from heaven , &c bitterness between saul and barrabas . gods mercy drawes one many sweet fruits from the bitter contentions of his servants . various affections of readers expected . the model of n. english church and civil power . of mr. cottons reply to the answer to his letter . gods wisdom adored in the discussing of the bloudie tenent . a memorable speech touching mr. cotton . the strange retreats mr. cotton makes in this controversie . the rearing of lyon like persecution , pag. the strange reluctancies of the lamb. like spirit of mr. cotton forced to against the persecuting lyon. monstrous partiality , as touching the magistracy . the slaughter of the witnesses , revel . . . christ jesus shortly ruining the two dreadfull empites of the bloody turk and pope . the turks sorest enemies in euope . the popes sorest enemies . freedome of conscience in worship due even to the papists themselvs . see chap. notes for div a -e truth & peace rarely meet in this vale of tears . many dear saints of god plead for persecution : oh how righteous is it with god to send them persecution ! quaere why master cotton leaps over the epistles to the parliament and reader . n. e. persecution guilty of the persecution in old , especially ( since this rejoynder ) by their law for banishing such as hold not childrens baptisme , and their late fourscore and ten bloody lashes to the body of the lord jesus in the sufferings of his faithful witness , obadiah holines at boston , meerly about that point of baptisme . ●he occasion of ●●blishing the ●●oody tenent . master cotton blames the discusser for not walking in contradictions . vnchristian partiality . master cotton complaining of being persecuted by the discusser . notes for div a -e persecution in plaine english is hunting . master cottons tender conscience , can hardly digest to be a persecutor , but a punisher . notes for div a -e gods children commonly persecuted for not yeelding to state-worships . notes for div a -e act. . pet. . notes for div a -e ordination of christs ministry undfily compared to the coronation of kings . master cotton pleads for common prayer . examination of num. . . acts . three causes for which master-cotton maintaines persecution . notes for div a -e christs church may be gathered and dissolved without disturbance of civil peace . the doctrine and practise of persecution , breaks the peace where-ever it comes . the civil peace of a place or people is one thing , and the welfare or presperity in health wealth , &c. another . the cities of the world enjoy peace and prosperity , where christ is not heard of . christianity lost most under such emperours as claimed christs power to reform the church , &c. the societies or churches of the saints are meerly voluntary in combinning or , dissolving . christs church is called out of the world . the flourishing of civil states . no civil state can either by christs testimony , or true reason , be judge of the ecclesiastical and spiritual . difference of spiritual and civil peace . when gods people flourish most in godliness then most persecuted . notes for div a -e a monstrous mingling of spiritual and civil resistance or disturbance . six instances of holy zeal in scripture , far from arrogance or impetuousness . these were aleadged from scripture in the bloody tenent and acknowledged by master cotton . notes for div a -e the indians prosessing subjection to the english in new england permited in their devillish worships , when english fearing god , persecuted . vnchristian conclusions . jonahs casting over-boord , a ground of persecution , &c. examined . the killing of the false prophet . zech. . . examined . esa . . & hos . . . examined . cor. . notes for div a -e conviction of conscience . the violation of civil peace though out of conscienc● ▪ to be punished . notes for div a -e an over-ruling finger of god , ordering master cotton to alleadge gamaliel , sure he had forgotten master john goodwins excellent labour in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or fighting against god. christ jesus never persecuted as christ but as a deceiver , brasphemer , seduced . cant. . i sleep yet my heart waketh . a deep mystery in persecution . wolves complaining that the sheep persecute them . notes for div a -e the blood of the souls under the altar is a sealed mystery , rev. . a challenge to the devil himself . all antichristian 〈…〉 persecutors make tit. . their den and fortress . notes for div a -e tit. . discussed . the horrible abusing and profaning of that word heretick . great sins of gods own children . notes for div a -e a child of god may possibly be an heretick . for which service through the hurry of the times , and the necessity of his departure , he lost his recompence to this day . the straights of the discussers time in composing of the bloody tenent . * i prejudice not the free and comfortable supplies of temporals , which the saints ought to make so their teachers in spirituals ▪ only i affirme , that such as will not teach will out money , they must and do beg or steal . christ jesus his distinction of diggers , beggers , stealers . notes for div a -e persecution , not properly , no● usually taken for any spiritual punishment . notes for div a -e examination of phil. . and rom. . very severe , but not christian , more then judaical punishment of theeves in england . notes for div a -e the civil and spiritual life confounded . god & caesar . the great peace breakers . english diana's . gross partiality to private interests . england in all ages guilty of much persecution . two seasonable petitions of any pers●outed . notes for div a -e the parable of the tares . the parable of tares grosly abused . hypocrisie secret and open hypocrisie . spiritual whoredome in worship may and doth in all nations subsist with civil beings , relations , &c. notes for div a -e of the tares . of the wise and foolish virgius . no true church of christ consisting of visible hypocrites . notes for div a -e the field of the world. the mystery of antichristians or false christians . master cotton knows not his own desire . the first rise of antichristians argued . the judgement of the great whore . notes for div a -e christs church by 〈…〉 properly consisting of good ground . the ●●●u●e of jewish church . the nature of christs true apostles . antichristians monsters in rereligion . notes for div a -e two sorts of sinners . two sorts of hypocrites . notes for div a -e two sorts of opposites to christ jesus . the rivers and fountaines of blood , rev. . notes for div a -e of hypocrites in profession of christianity . notes for div a -e corrupt consciences distinguished . tolleration of idolaters considered . civil weapons in spirituals , blur and flight the spiritual . the tolleration of jezabel in thyatira . christ jesus under pretence persecuted . the weapons of the saints , rev. the difference between civil and spiritual slander . the dreadful nature of christs spiritual punishments . not such spiritual punishments in the national church of israel . notes for div a -e prayer against present destruction of tares . pastors and teachers not apostles and messengers . elijah stirring up ahab to slay the baalites . concerning israel in the apostacy of jeroboam . * hence baalls priests , monks , friars , and bishops have not been civilly actually slaine in england , &c. but spiritually by gods word , the sword of his spirit cashiered and cut off eternally . notes for div a -e touching christs apostles or messengers . touching fundamentals . laws for persecuting of christ jesus . the pharisees blaspheming of christ jesus . * magistrates , kings , high priests : herod , ●ad kings , good kings , &c. notes for div a -e acts . . considered . no appeals to the civil powers in matters meerly spiritual . few magistrates in the world know christ jesus . mystical and cruel surgery . the title of defender of the faith . to serve god withal our might , literally taken , horribly abused . christ jesus hath rarely furnished his people with godly magistrates . defendor of the faith . a bold , but a true word . notes for div a -e the title of supream head , oath of supremacy , &c. the plague of the turkes upon the antichrististian world . the civil magistrate no governor over the spiritual kingdome of christ . whether saul a type of christ . the kings of israel and judah types . notes for div a -e the priests and clergy in all nations the greatest peace-breakers . notes for div a -e touching the seducer . of seducing . bishop longlands subtle oaths of inquisition . canses of destruction to a nation . all nations cities , towns , &c. are part of the world . change of religions . the state of israel unparlleld . the punishments of christ sorer then the punishments of moses . of seducing . what meant by twice dead . of infection . the sword of typical israel a type of christs spiritual sword . magistrates cannot receive from the people a spiritual power . the charge of the civil magistrate . the plague of the turkes . a twofold care and charge of souls . christ the true king of israel . christs threefold sending of preachers . ●o other true office of the ministery , since the apostacie , but that of prophecy and opening the testament of christ against the falshood of antichrist . a foule imputation put upon christ jesus . pretended order , mo●●t●o●s disorder . the parliaments high justice aggainst oppressors . notes for div a -e the title head of the church . the civil megistrate no spiritual officer , now as in israel . the peoples power . all commonweals that ever have been , are or shal be in the world ( excepting that of typical israel ) meerly civil . the decrees of pagan kings for israel , and the god of it , considered . the ministers lay heavy loads upon the magistrates back . a time when no visible church of god in the world for the right forme and order , &c. the wolves at ephesus , act. . the duty of civil power in matters of religion . the changing of persecutors is onething , the abolishing of persecution another . the persecuting cleargy no cordial friends to magistracie . neither old nor new england statechurches separate from the pope . master cotton and bellarmine all one , for the deposing heretical princes , &c. the gods of this world. the lord cobham his troubles in henry the . dayes . the best of our late bishops , as bishop hall have not spared to render hereticks and traitors all one . civil society pluckt up by the rootes . civil honesty may stand with dishonesty against god and christ in matters of religion . a turn-coat in religion more faithless then a resolved jew , turk or papist . heresie and apostacie often change their names to truth , and christianity , &c. who knows not that the many turnings of do. pearne in cambridge , brought it into a proverb , to wit , to p●●nifie . consciences yeelding to be forced or ravished , loosen all conscience . paradoxes . how the kings of israel and judah were types and figures of christ to come . the types of the old testament many and deep . cyrus called christ , a figure of christ . notes for div a -e the fire from heaven , rev. notes for div a -e all truth , heavenly , moral , civil , &c. precious . vnconverted christians visibly a paradox . notes for div a -e many excellent magistrates of the parliament , of the councel , of the army , of the city , of the country , are also excellent prophets or interpreters of scripture , & yet may not use a civil but a spiritual sword in spirituals . magistrates may be prophets in christs church . more confidence commonly put in the civil sword then the spiritual . engl. changes in religion excused by those of judah , but not justly . whether england may ●●● receive the po●● againe . notes for div a -e things of god and caesar . religions of the world , politick inventions to maintaine a civil state . the a●so●u●e necessi●y of some order of government all the world over . antoninus pius his distinction . the degeneracy of christianity now professed . the loathsome hypocrisie of persecutors . in their bloody sentence , and proceedings with the persecuted . too short a time set for repentance in new england . false teachers commonly hardned by persecution . the great sufferings of master gorton and his friends in new england . antoninus pius his edict against persecution . the difference between spiritual and corporal murther . civil justice ought impartially to permit one conscience as well as another . the difference of the persecution of the roman emperors and the roman popes . antoninus pius his famo●●●●●dict for liberty to the christians related by that praise-worthy master john speede out of eusebi●s . the persecuted ever no●●ish an h●rd con●●it of 〈…〉 and tyranay in their persecutors , whereas malefactors confess frequently the justice of their condemners . notes for div a -e if civil power may force cut of the church , it may also force in . every true moses will make a difference between israelites and egyptians . cups of blood given into the hand of persecuting nations . notes for div a -e whether a commonweal prosper in divers religions permitted . men may be very faire and peaceable , though not of the only one religion . scriptures perverted from the church to the civil state . the magistrate usually the cleargies cane , &c. rom. . . grosly abused by a governor in new england . the bloody tenent plucks up the nations and all civil being , &c. the plague of the turkes . romes glory and downfal . the civil state and officers thereof cannot be spiritual judges . foul neglects cast upon christ jesus . the case of gallio . notes for div a -e shameful weakness cast upon the spiritual artillery of christ jesus . the spiritual liberties of christs people in spiritual causes . the mighty power of spiritual weapons . a vaine fear of false teachers . christ jesus nor paul adrest themselves to the civil state . turk and pope and all prostants against free conference . the ammunition of christs souldiers . david and goliah types . difference between spiritual and civil ministers . israels corporal killing types of spiritual . achans troubling of israel a figure of troubling the israel or church of christ now . the day of the civil state in ma●ters of worship . concerning the kingdomes of the world becoming the kingdoms of christ rev. . christ no temporal king. touching forcing men to church . a spanish inquisition all the world . a twofold fire kindled . that may consume the kindlers . mathias the second emperor granting liberty of conscience . christ came not to destroy mens bodies , though to save their souls . notes for div a -e christian weapons considered . a fallacious distinction of using the civil sword , not in , but about spiritual matters . strange carpenters . notes for div a -e the bloody tenent in plaine english . all civil violence in spirituals , is for interest . christs spiritual weapons never wanting . the civil ▪ sword esteemed more powerful then the spiritual . notes for div a -e rom. . considered . the great fort of the civil magistrate not charged with the keeping of the seed tables . notes for div a -e calvin and beza's judgement on rom. . vn●ighteousness civil and spiritual . spiritual wars without civil disturbance . notes for div a -e the nature of twice subjection to civil powers . of the roman emperors power in spirituals . foule imputations against christ jesus . christ permiteth tyrants over his churches saints , but appointeth none but his true spiritual ministers . christ jesus his careful and most wise provision for his kingdome . the cleargies evil dealing with the civil magistrate . the nature of a church , but lately discovered since the apostasie . monstrous suspentions . spiritual courts and judges . notes for div a -e touching paul appealing to caesar . pauls appeal to caesar . notes for div a -e spiritual rights and civil . the civil magistrate not bound to defend spiritual rights . israel a type of the chrristian church . the ●●me and odely christendome . christ jesus in himself and his spiritual officers the onely key of israel . christ jesus ro●d of his crown . notes for div a -e of custome tribute , &c. spiritual defence for spiritual right , &c. touching prayer for all authority ● tim. ● . cross slavery . civil ministers and spiritual . the god of heaven hath several sorts of ministers . ordinarily the truth is persecuted . notes for div a -e touching the ●●ar●● evil , rom. . the civil magistrate robbed of his civil power . notes for div a -e of tolleration which master cotton in cases makes large enough . the land of israel a type . notes for div a -e touching false and seducing teachers . monstrous mixture . the great difference of evil and sin , as against the civil or spiritual estate . gross partiality the bloody doctrine of persebution . great shifting ●o ●s●●● : christs cross . christian weapons . christ jesus betwen two thieves . the horible hypocrisie of all persecutors notes for div a -e christs charge to pergamus and thiatira against . tolleration examined . false excommunication one kinde of persecution . the word persecution how ordinarily it is taken . persecution ordinarily implies corporall violence . speeches of princes against persecution . no civill christian state. christs sword. notes for div a -e nurcing fathers-dealt withall as children . active obedience cannot be given but to a competent judge . persecutors , if it were in their power , would , and are bound to persecute all consciences and religions in the world. all persecutors hould the popes trayterous doctrine of deposing haereticall princes . the popish and protestant clergie set the popish and protestant world on fire for their maintenance . the dutch device to winne their clergie to tolleration of other religions . all that professe to be christs ministers , must dig , or beg , or steale . notes for div a -e all antichristians are fundamentally opposite to christ jesus . touching the tares . notes for div a -e policie store , but pietie rare in princes . notes for div a -e a speech of king james considered . no man to he forced from his owne worship , 〈…〉 &c. touching compelling to come to church and to heare . a second speech of king james . papists may yeeld civill obedience . the parliament at paris , although popish , yet condemned bookes and tenents against civill obedience . all england papists , and yet the pope renounced . a twofold holding the pope as head. the two sisters lawes concerning conscience . ceales of moderation and kindnesse , may melt an enemie , as david melted saul , &c. cautions for preventing of disturbance by papists , &c. sufficient provisions are made in other nations , against distractions and tumults from opposite consciences and worships . n●er●● com●●tition ▪ & home-bred oppositions most of all ex●sperate , &c. the admired prudence of the parliament in preserving civill peace . increase of papists unlikely in england . mr john robinson ( deceased ) his testimonie in a manus : from holland . a third speech of king james considered . persecution ordinarily the marke of a false church . stephen king ▪ poland his 〈…〉 the spirituall power of christ jesus betrusted not with civill but spirituall ministers . an argument used in parliament against the persecuting bishops . of disturbance of religion . the bishops as tyrants justly suppressed , and the parliament therein prospered from heaven . daniells counsel to bel-shazzar preserveth parliaments & kingdomes . touching the nationall church of israell . israell a miraculous nation . two sorts of the nations of the world. touching the true and false christs . king of bohemia his speech . spirituall rapes . all persecutours contumeliously object against conscience . amnon his ravishing of tamar , a type . a query , who shall judge , whether conscience be convict . church papists and protestants also ravished . wars for religion . the bloudie tenent guiltie of all the bloud of papists and protestants lately spilt . the strongest arme & sword the ordinarie judge of the conviction of conscience . touching the nationall church of england . reall denying , the greatest denying of christ jesus . notes for div a -e two high transgressions objected against mr cotton . touching the romane emperours practices in religious . affaires . christs garden gaines by violent stormes , and looseth by sweete sun-shines . the romane emperours . the arrians persecuted and persecuting . the great difference between this world and christ . a christianitie strange from christ . antichristian christianitie . the bloudie tenent tends to an universall conquest of the whole world. the bloudie tenent in its colours . notes for div a -e no booke or writing ever so abused as the holy writing & scripture of god is . the language of persecutours . julian his tolleration . touching infection of false doctrine , &c. hypocrites tollerated in the church , but not in the world. notes for div a -e touching the persecution of k : james and q : elizabeth . touching the qualification of princes . touching magistrates suspending from acting in matters of religion . monstrous partialitie . constantines edict . foule imputations cast on christ jesus . notes for div a -e vnchristian tribunalls . dent. . . & tim. . . vnchristianly conjoyned . touching excommunication in israel . ans : spirituall blessings and curses the antitypes of corporall before christ . great oversight imputed to christ jesus . if civill punishments for spirituall offences : they must be inflicted by holy and christian instruments and officers . a true christ , a true sword ; a false christ , a false sword. q : elizabeth her wars against the papists . the warres of the waldenses . acts . & . christian weapons . christs sword. christs warres and victories , revel . . gideons army typicall . notes for div a -e the christian church doth not persecute , but is persecuted . worldly glory and persecution characters of the false church . the sins of gods children . christs witnesses . a true wife of christ no persecutour . touching persecution what it is . difference between a civill and spirituall state. the nature of spirituall punishment . the nature of christs spirituall government . the civill powers and officers the clergies executioners . spirituall judgements more terrible since christ , then corporall before his coming . the cutting off or excommunicating from the holy land of israel figurative and typicall . notes for div a -e a twofold w●y of constraint . what it is to walke according to a mans light. conviction twofold : sufficient in it selfe : or to the partie efficacious . touching the maintenance of the new english ministers . of propagating religion by the sword. notes for div a -e touching the indians of new-england worshipping of god and christ before the foundation of repentance , is nothing but antichristian disorder . touching preaching to the indians in new-england . proprietie of language necessary to the true preaching of christ jesus to any people . conscience to god in worship a close prisoner in new-england , and no petitioner could obtaine its libertie . publik● marriage , or giving ones selfe to christ . judges . considered . supreame authoritie in spiritualls . tertullians speech of one religion , not hurting or profiting another considered . notes for div a -e * mr cottons and mr edwards gangrenes have little differd blasphemie against the holy scripture . mysteries of false christs . the true christ despised for his povertie . a base esteeme of the spirituall sword. earthly christs need earthly supports . the state of christianity during the reigne of antichrist . constantines peace a greater tryal and danger to christians , then years persecution . sathans two wayes of quenching the candle of christianity . the french massacre must doe what their pretended disputation could not ▪ effect . pretended disputes in q. maries days , ending in fiery flames . the late synodicall disputes . a bloody and most unchristian speech . the rash fury and madnesse of persecutors even against themselves . pleasantnesse of wit sanctified , glorifies the giver . the pretended particul●r churches of n. e. indeed but a nationall church . no permission of any religion or worship but one in n. e. therefore are the churches , but a nationall church in the mould them , &c. where the supream authority in a church is civill , the body cannot but be like the head , and all make up but one civil or nationall mixt church , like the jewish nationall church . the purging a countrey of hereticks declares that countrey is explicitly or implicitly a national church . a state maintenance proveth a state church . synods assembled by civill power , prove the churches of the same nature with the head that acts and calls them . touching the difference between the church of the jewes and the christian churches . the holy land of canaan a nonesuch . a figure of the chr●stian . the weapons of the jewes and christians compared . no speare nor sword in israel . notes for div a -e new-england loath to be accounted persecutours . lawes concerning gods worship . dangerous distinctions . touching keeping of both tables . of magistrates judgement in spirituals , &c. of qualifications of magistrates . of magistrates abilities . david and hezekiah figurative kings , &c. magistrates suspending in matters of religion . notes for div a -e wofull soul-saving . the power of parents , husbands , magistrates in spirituals . cor. . the tearme [ souls-good ] commonly but a paint , &c. the promises of temporall mercies considered . worldly prosperity ever dangerous to gods children . of lawes binding conscience . persecution the ordinarie portion of christs followers . two states wonderfully favoured by god , upon mercy shewed to oppressed consciences , formerly holland and now the state of england . bodies and goods the magistrates object . oppression in bodies goods and minde . wealth , honour , and prosperitie seldome attending christs true followers . what is the cōmon weale of israel . the roman empire flourisheth in worldly glory without christ the citie of rome famous for prosessing christ jesus . christs spouse most chast under persecution . the roman monarchy bloody to the saints . constantine a friend and enemy to christs spouse . the state of the romane empire before and after christ . god will not wrong , nor have caesar wronged . concerning toleration in new england . witnesse the bloody whipping of obadiah homes for the point of baptisme lately at boston● communion spirituall , two-fold . the great triall among papists & protestants concerning comming to church . notes for div a -e touching prayers for vengeance upon gods enemies . stirring up of the civill state to persecure . the bloudie tenent of persecution is alone the king killing and stare-killing doctrine . amoninus pius his edict for the christians . transgression against the spirituall or civill peace . persecutours of christs sheepe pretend to save them and kill none but wolves . antichristian ministers great thieves . hireling ministers . fryars in chancers time and the cleargie in our time considered . the turkes themselves will be muslemanni , or right beleevers . the horrible partialite of persecutors . misticall sheep . paul his striking elimas blind considered . of the power of miracles . spirituall sheep and wolves considered . the pope and , all proud popish priests and cleargie use the civill powers but as dogs . the protestant cleargie their dealing with magistrates . a suspending or hanging up of magistrates the great spirituall differences of these late times . of rest from persecution . notes for div a -e gods children may possibly fight each against the other . 〈…〉 antichristians against antichristians , but principally against christ . touching spirituall murther . touching seducers . the hainousnes of spirituall stumbling blocks . punishing of seducers . common-weale twofold , and rebellion twofold . mysticall wolves and muskeetoes . of soule-killing . touching state religions . gods children gods citie , nation and kingdome . a state religion a prison . a forc't religion . of the late warres . the bloudie tenent guilty of the rivers of bloud , &c. warres for religion . constantines warres for the christians . constantines edict against forcing in religion . never any true nationall religion in the world but one . touching pauls blasphemy before his conversion . of apostates . fallacious mixture and confusion . spirituall treason recanted , forgiven : but not so ( by way ofcourse ) the civill . an instance from ●● : haywood and the lord cromwell in king henry the . his dayes . notes for div a -e of moses judicialls . the first three hundred years after christ . the primitive church the purest , and yet without a civill sword. christ no author of civill violence for religion . the levites killing . exod . typicall . phineas his act. the spirituall & civill state vastly different in their frame , lawes , officers , &c. elijah and the baalites . the types and figures of the old testament righteousnes two fold . the state o● israel typicall . not only morall but naturall actions of the israelites typicall . whether eliahs procuring the slaughter of the baalites was typicall or morall . no commission from christ for corporall punishment in religious matters . strange and monstrous ▪ duties of morall righteousnesse . gods children are wonders and monsters accounted . elijah his slaying the captaines and their fifties . wonderfull spiders and cobwebs . prov ▪ ▪ notes for div a -e touching seducers , and their punishments . christ jesus abolished former figures , though he name not each of them in particular . the mysterie of the bloudy tenent . the bloudie consequences of the bloudy tenent . the sad effects of the bloudie tenent on mr cottons owne spirit . a lamentable character of the change of mr cottons spirit . notes for div a -e differences of gods own children in old and new england . profession of christ jesus in new-england , not so like to be true as that ( which was persecuted ) in old. the great ●in of new-englands former pattents . the authours tryalls about the pattents of new-england . gods children may be guilty of bloudy persecution for the hiding of their spirituall uncleannessee . gods mercy in stopping new-englands persecution , by the mercy of old england , the mother to dissenting consciences . holy cranmer and cromwell joyning with persecutours of christ jesus out of great weaknes in h. . his dayes . the most famous passages of cromwell & lambert in h. the . his dayes . notes for div a -e of admonition and conviction . conviction two-fold . of conviction of hereticks . conviction sufficient , externall by the word , and efficient internall by gods spirit . christ jesus ( accounted ) the greatest heretick , blasphemer , seducer , and deceiver that ever was in this world . small matters accounted heresies . the barbarous usage of john hus in the councell at constance . the bloudie tenent destroying civilitie and humane societie out of the world. all men are confident in their owne opinions . the persecutour of turks , pagans , jewes , or antichristiane , is in a greater errour then any of them . the bloudie fruits of the bloudie tenent . notes for div a -e touching confidence in opinions . freedome of conscience hath ever been a peace-maker in all natiōs where it hath appeared . and especially at this houre in england . how christ delights in bloud . of persecuting apostates . a monstrous suspension or hanging up of magistrates . allegations of scriptures ought seriously to be mad and answered . millions of turks , jewes , and antichristians are far from the due charge of apostasie . the mysterie of the red horse of war. a spirituall and civill peace . two wofull opinions bewitching the nations . the great causes of the downfall of the church of rome . notes for div a -e touching a new english modell of church and civill power . * writing to ●●● mr hall. deepe censures for none or innocent mistakes . touching moses his judicialls . israel in a kinde a miraculous people . touching punishment of adulterie . all civill government gods ordinance . true republikes & common-weales without kings . a wonderfull● saying of bishop hall. the state of israel . of magistrates being nursing fathers , &c. of magistrates power in spiritualls . of the sins of magistrates . a case touching the magistrates punishing the sin of church members . the direfull state of false worshippers . the portraiture of the bloudie tenent . euc. . prov. . the portraiture of the bloudie tenent . the portraiture of the bloudie tenent . the portraiture of the bloudie tenent . the portraiture of the bloudie tenent . the portraiture of the bloudie tenent . the portraiture of the bloudie tenent . peace her repose and tabernacle . the bloudie tenent of persecution compared . the maskes and vizards of the bloudie tenent . truth & peace , their meetings seldome and short in this world . notes for div a -e * matters touching the p●●ce of the english and indians , about which the said governour did write to r. w. great love formerly between the said governour endicot , and r. w. before his banishment . * the seale wherewith the governours leter to r. w. was sealed . persecutours conclude no conscience in the whole world but their owne . all persecutours render the most innocent most odious . cromwell the second , a refuge of the oppressed . this rejoynder was sent to england long since , and hoped to have been published . abuse of light most dangerous . the power of conscience though erroneous . true & false witnesses both confident . the common prayers & the composers of it . what 's sweet with man , st●nks ( often ) in gods nostrills . sathans policie in proposing motives and baits to wise and excellent saints . spirituall witchcraft . mysticall drunkennesse and the drunken language of it . the language of persecutours . a price and a heart blessed companions . the horrible & dangerous path which all persecutours or hunters walke in . the least 〈…〉 sparke of persecution tends to bloud , and will proceed , except god mightlly stop it . gods most dreadfull judgements against persecutours . death is a boanerges . gray hayres are gods alarums . notes for div a -e the seameles coat of christ jesus torne into foure pieces , and the three nations torne into thousands . the battells of the cleargie . all court the magistrate for his sword , & his money . for which , any person and religion hath serv'd the turne . the late k. charging his cleargie , &c. the wolfe in plea with the lambe , will be alwaies judge . the wonderfull mysterie of libertie of conscience . which all persecutours themselves ( in their turnes ) plead for . k. charles and his chaplains forced to subscribe to libertie of conscience . about twenty years persecution in new england . the persecution of the new and old english independent cleargie . a briefe touch upon the proposalls of the ( so calld ) independent ministers . the independents implicitly and silently challenge the power of ordination . the danger of pawning spirituall liberties to civill powers . the dutch attempts , and the independents , on their friends , compared . the authours desire as to the ministrie of the land now possessed . and as to that ejected . the authour begs three things of god for the cleargie of england . soule bondage the greatest . the bloudinesse of the bloudie tenent . little of the spirit of love from christ jesus yet extant , and our selfe-love biasseth us to inventions , traditions , and doctrines of persecutions . good advice to the church of england, roman catholick and protestant dissenter, in which it is endeavoured to be made appear that it is their duty, principle & interest to abolish the penal laws and tests penn, william, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing p estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing 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(eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : or : ) good advice to the church of england, roman catholick and protestant dissenter, in which it is endeavoured to be made appear that it is their duty, principle & interest to abolish the penal laws and tests penn, william, - . [ ], p. printed and sold, by andrew sowle ..., london : . reproductions of originals in huntington library (reel ) and harvard university library (reel ). attributed to william penn. cf. bm. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng dissenters, religious -- great britain. oaths. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - emma (leeson) huber sampled and proofread - emma (leeson) huber text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion good advice to the church of england , roman catholick , and protestant dissenter . in which it is endeavoured to be made appear that it is their duty , principles & interest to abolish the penal laws and tests . beati pacifici . licenced june the th . london , printed , and sold , by andrew sowle , at the crooked-billet in holloway-lane in shoreditch , and at the three keys in nags-head-court in grace-church-street , over-against the conduit , . the prefacf . reader , no matter who , but what ; and yet if thou wouldst know the author , he is an english-man , and therefore obliged to this country , and the laws that made him free. that single consideration were enough to command this vndertaking ; for 't is to perswade his country men to be delivered of the greatest yoke a nation can well suffer under ; penal laws for religion , i mean. and now thou hast , both the who , and what ; if thou art wise and good , thou art above my epethites , and more my flatteries ; if not , i am in the right to let 'um alone . read , think and judge . liberty , english and christian , is all that is sought in the ensuing discourse . adieu . good advice , &c. part i. i must own , it is my aversion at this time , to meddle with publick matters , and yet my duty to the publick will not let me be silent . they that move by principles must not regard times nor factions , but what is just , and what is honourable ; and that no man ought to scruple , nor no time nor interest to contest . the single question i go upon , and which does immediately concern and exercise the minds of the thinking , as well as talking men of this kingdom , is , whether it be fit to repeal the penal laws and tests , in matters of religion , or not . i take the affirmative of the question , and humbly submit my reasons to every reasonable conscience . i say reasonable , because that which knows not its own duty , principles and interest , is not so , and that which is not willing to do to others as it would be done by , less deserves to be thought so . now there are three sorts of people that will find themselves concerned in this question ; the church of england , the roman catholick , and the protestant dissenter , and these make up the whole body of the kingdom ; if it appear to be their duty , principles and interest , the question is gain'd , and no body is left to complain ; and if i am mistaken , it is with so great an inclination to serve them all , that their good nature cannot but plead my excuse , especially when they consider i am neither mov'd by hopes nor fears . private loss or gain being farther from my thought , then i hope they are from a good understanding . i say , first , then it is the duty of all of them , because they all profess that religion which makes it their common duty to do it ; christianity , i mean : for no christian ought to deprive any man of his native right for matters of faith and worship towards god , in the way that he thinks most agreeable to the will of god ; because it is necessary to a christian to believe that faith is the gift of god alone , and that he only is lord of conscience , and is able truly to enlighten , perswade , and establish it ; and consequently that prejudicing men in their persons or estates , or depriving them of any station in the government , they might otherwise , in their turn , be capable to serve the publick in , is contrary to the tenderness and equity of that religion ; which will yet further appear , if we consider that christianity is the sole religion of the world , that is built on the principles of love ; which brought with it the greatest evidences of truth . equally convincing our understandings with its light , and bearing down our sences with its miracles : which silenc'd the oracles of the heathens by the divine power present with it , and vanquisht their hearts , that had left nothing else to conquer , leading kings and emperors with their courts and armies in triumph after the despised cross of him , who was the holy and blessed author of it . it was he that laid not his religion in worldly empire , nor used the methods of worldly princes to propagate it ; as it came from heaven , so that only should have the honour of protecting and promoting it . his whole business to mankind , from first to last , was love. 't was first love in his father to send him ( as st. john teaches ) god so loved the world that he sent his son , &c. it was love in jesus christ to ▪ come on that arrand ; that he , who thought it no robbery to be equal with god , should take the form of a servant to adopt us children , and make himself of no reputation with the world , that he might make us of reputation with god his father . and he did not only come in much love , but preach't it and prest it both to friends and foes ; love one another , love enemies , do good to them that hate you , forgive them that trespass against you ; what you would that other men should do unto you , do that unto them ; by these things shall all men know you are my disciples ; for i came not to destroy mens lives , no , not for religion it self ; for my kingdom , power , force , weapons , and victory are not of this world. in all this love prevails . it was his great , his new , his last commandment ; of all his disciples , the most persued by his beloved one , that in his bosom had learn'd his heart , as his divine doctrine of love in his epistle tells us . as he liv'd in love , so he died in love , with us , and for us , and that while we were rebellious too ; ay , he pray'd and dy'd for them who put him to death , shewing us ( says st. peter ) an example that we also should follow his steps . and what are they ? doubtless the steps of love , the path he trod : to do good to mankind , enemies as well as friends , that we may be like our heavenly father , that causes his sun to shine , and his rain to fall upon the just and vnjust . this must be the apostles meaning , for the rest of his passion was inimitable . now if this be the doctrine of christ , the nature of christ●anity , the practice of the primitive church , that , like adam , was created in full strength , beauty and wisdom , and so an example to succeeding ages of religion , and to which we so often refer as our original ; with what pretence to a christian conscience can any one stickle to keep imprisoning , banishing , impoverishing , hanging and quartering law● on ●oot for religion sake , but especially against such as are by creed professors of christianity as well as themselves . i know the case is put hard by those that have the laws on their side , we do this to save our selves ; but an harder case than christs can never be put , whose answer in his , ought to resolve theirs fully . christ is sent by his father for the salvation of the world : he introduces and proves his mission by miracles , and the great authority of his word and doctrine ; his followers fully satisfied who he was , whence he came , what he taught , and how eminently confirm'd , grew impatient at contradiction ; they could not bear the least dissent ; for when some of the samaritans refused to entertain their lord , because they thought he was going for jerusalem , the place of their greatest aversion ; these disciples were for having but the word from his mouth , and they would , in imitation of elijah , have called for fire from heaven to have destroy'd them . but he turned and rebuked them , and said , ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of , for the son of man is not come to destroy mens lives but to save them . this answer is to purpose , and for all times , to be sure christian ones ; and the higher the pretentions of any party are to christianity , the more inexcusable if they practice the contrary , would not christ then hurt them that refused him , and can we hurt our neighbors for not receiving us ? he condemned that spirit in his disciples , and shall we uphold the same spirit , and that by law too , which he condemned by his gospel ? this is killing for gods sake , expresly charg'd by christ with impiety . they shall think , says he to his disciples , they do god good service to kill you ; who should think so ? why the christian persecutors . is it their property to do so ? yes , what shall one think then of those christians that profess it . the jews were grievously punished of god , for that abomination of sacrificing their children to moloch , but these 〈◊〉 though they change the object , they have not lessen'd the sin ; for they offer up man , woman and child , and tho they say 't is to god , no matter for that , since it makes their case worse , for 't is to imagine that so good , so just , so sensible , so merciful a beeing can take pleasure in so much cruelty . well , but if we must not knock folks on the head , what must we do with them ? take an answer at the mouth of truth and wisdom . let the tears and wheat grow together till the harvest ; what 's that ? he tells you , 't is the end of the world ; so that whatever the church of england is , 't is certain christ is for a toleration , and his doctrine is always in fashion ; what he was , he is , and will be ; he went not by reasons of state , or customs of countries ; his judgment was better built , who came to give law , and not to receive it , and 't is a light and rule to all times : and he that loves father , or mother , or wife , or children , or house , or land better than him , that is , his doctrine ( of which this is so great a part ) is not worthy of him ; and i fear no other reason induces the church of england to decline it . to confirm what has been said , tho i design brevity , let me not lose another passage very pregnant to our purpose ; when his disciples had accomplisht their first mission , at their return they gave him the history of their travels : among the rest , they tell him of one they met with , that in his name cast out devils , but because he would not follow with them , they forbad him ; here is at least a dissenting christian , tho a believer , yet it seems not one of that closer congregation ; we also see their zeal and sentence . but what says the master , yet alive , and with them , the infallible doctor , in whose mouth was no guile , who had not the spirit by measure , and was the great wisdom of god to his people , was he of the same mind , or did he leave them without rule in the point ? his answer is this . and jesus said to them , forbid him not , for he that is not against us is for us . the prohibition is taken off , and their judgment revers'd , and from his , to be sure , there lies no appeal . for tho a power of decision were allow'd to some one or more on earth , in matters obscure and undetermin'd , yet in cases already adjudged by the son of god himself , who had the chair , and could not err , there can be no room for another judge . now to apply it , i must first say , i find no such disciples among those that are of the side of keeping up the penal laws , god knows , the disparity is but too unequal . but next , if they were all twelve in westminster abby , and should be of the side of upholding the penal laws ( which is the wrong side they were of before ) i should beg their pardon , if i were of their masters mind , and objected his wisdom to their zeal , and his gentle rule to their harsh and narrow judgment . and i beseech the church of england to consider , that no pretence can excuse her dissent , and less her cross practice to the judgment of her saviour : a judgment that seems given and setled for the conduct of the church on the like occasions in succeeding times . and 't is pitty any worldly thing should have place with her to divert her obedience . did christ then come to save mens lives , and not to destroy them ? and should she ( she i say , that pretends to be a reformed church ) uphold those laws that do destroy them ? he , alas ! went to another village instead of burning them , or theirs , for refusing him : and she forbids any , that belongs to any other , to lodge in hers , upon pain of loosing life or estate ; this may make her a samaritan indeed ; but not the good one , whose example would have taught her , instead of these sharp and ruder remedies , to have poured the oyle of peace and gladness into those chops and wounds that time and heats of all hands had made in every religious party of men. nor does she lose anything by repealing those laws , but the power of persecuting , and a good church would never have the temptation . come some body must begin to forgive , let her not leave that honour to another , nor draw upon her self the guilt and mischief of refusing it . she pretends to fear the strokes of the romanists , but i would fain know of her , if following their example will convert them , or secure her ? does she hope to keep them out by the weapons that have fail'd in their hands , or can she honourably censure persecution in them , and yet use it her self ? but she is extreamly scandal'd and scared at the severity upon protestants in france . 't is certainly very ill ; but do not the laws she is so fond of point at the same work , conformity , or ruin. and don't we know , that in some places , and upon some parties her magistrates have plow'd as deep furrows , especially within these six and twenty years ▪ husbands separated from their wives , parents from their children , the widdows bed and the orphans milk made a prize for religion , houses stript , barns and fields swept clean , prisons crowded without regard to sex or age , and some of both sorts dungin'd to death , and all for religion . if she says they were peevish men , biggots , or mov'd by private interest , she still made the laws , and says no more for her self than the french say for their king , which yet she refuses to take for an answer . perhaps i could parralel some of the severest passages in that kingdom out of the actions of some members of the church of england in cool blood , that are even yet for continuing the penal laws upon their plunder'd neighbours ; so that this reflection of hers upon france , is more popular than just from her . but i beseech her to look upon a country four times bigger than france ; germany i mean , and she will there see both religions practis'd with great ease and amity , yet of this we must not hear one word : i hope it is not for fear of imitating it . however 't is disingenious to object the mischiefs of popery to a general ease , when we see it is the way to prevent them . this is but in the name of popery to keep all to herself , as well from protestant dissenters , as roman catholicks . how christian , how equal , how safe , that narrow method is , becomes her well to consider , and methinks she ought not to be long about it . i know she flatters herself and others to believe , she is a bulwork against popery ; and with that , without any further security to other protestants , wipes her mouth of all old scores , and makes her present court for assistance . but when that word bulwork is examined , i fear it appears too mean no more than this , that she would keep out popery for that reason for which she apprehends popery would turn her out , viz. temporal interest . but may i without offence ask her , when she kept persecution out ? or if she keeps out popery for any bodies sake but her own ? nay , if it be not to hold the power she has in her hands , that she would frighten other parties ( now she has done her worst ) with what mischief popery would do them when it has power . but to speak freely , can she be a bulwork in the case , that has been bringing the worst part of popery in these six and twenty years , if persecution be so as she says it is ? this would be call'd canting to the world in others . but i hear she begins to see her fault , is heartily sorry for it , and promises to do so no more : and why may not popery be as wise , that has also burnt her fingers with the same work ? their praying for ease by law looks as if they chose that rather than power for security ; and if so , why may not the papists live , as well as she reign ? i am none of their advocate , i am no papist , but i would be just and merciful too . however , i must tell her , that keeping the laws on foot , by which she did the mischief , is none of the plainest evidences of her repentance : they that can believe it , have little reason to quarrel the unaccountableness of transubstantiation . is it unjust in popery to invade her priviledges , and can it be just in her to provoke it , by denying a christian liberty ? or can she expect what she will not give ? or not do as she would be done by , because she fears others will not observe the same rule to her ? is not this doing evil that good may come of it , and that uncertain too , against an express command as well as common charity ? but to speak freely , whether we regard the circumstances of the king , the relation of his children , the inequality of the number and strength of those of each of their communions , we must conclude , that the aversion of the church of england to this intreated liberty , cannot reasonably be thought to come from the fear she has of the prevalency of popery , but the loss of that power the law gives her to domineer over all dissenters . and is not this a rare motive for a christian church to continue penal laws for religion ? if her piety be not able to maintain her upon equal terms , methinks her having so much the whip hand and start of all others , should satisfy her ambition , and quiet her fears ; for 't is possible for her to keep the churches if the laws were abolished ; all the difference is , she could not force : she might perswade and convince what she could : and pray , is not that enough for a true church , without goales , whips , halters and gibbets ? o what corruption is this that has prevail'd over men of such pretensions to light and conscience ? that they do not , or will not , see nor feel their own principles one remove from themselves ; but sacrifice the noblest part of the reformation to ambition , and compel men to truckle their tender consciences to the grandure and dominion of their doctors . but because the sons of the church of england keep at this time , such a stir in her favour , and fix her excellency in her opposition to popery , it is worth while to consider a little further , if really the most feared and disagreeable part of popery in her own opinion , does not belong to her , and if it does , should we not be in a fine condition , to be in love with our fetters , and to court our misery ? that part of popery which the church of england with most success objects against , is her violence . this is that she can only pretend to fear : her doctrines she partly professes or thinks she can easily refute . she does not think her doctors conjurers ▪ for their transubstantiation , or dangerous to the state for their beads , or their purgatory . but forcing others to their faith , or ruining them for refusing it , is the terrible thing we are taught by her to apprehend . now granting this to be the case , in reference to the roman religion , where it is in the chair : i ask , if the church of england , with her better doctrines , has not been guilty of this impiety , and for that cause more blameable the the church she opposes so much ? if we look into her acts of state , we find them many , and bitter , against all sorts of dissenters . there is nigh twenty laws made , and yet in force , to constrain conformity , and they have been executed too , as far and as often as she thought it fit for her interest to let them . some have been hang'd , many banish't , more imprisoned , and some to death ; and abundance impoverish't ; and all this meerly for religion : tho , by a base and barbarous use of words , it has been call'd treason , sedition , routs and riots ; the worst of aggravations , since they are not contented to make people unhappy for their dissent , but rob them of all they had left , their innocency . this has been her state craft , to coin guilt , and make men dangerous , to have her ends upon them . but that way of palliating persecution , by rendring a thing that it is not , and punishing men for crimes they never committed , show but little conscience in the projectors . the church of england crys out against transubstantiation , because of the invisibility of the change. she don't see christ there , and therefore he is not there , and yet her sons do the same thing . for tho all the tokens of a riot are as invisible in a dissenters meeting , as christ in the transubstantiation , yet it must be a riot without any more to do : the english of which is , 't is a riot to pray to god in the humblest and peaceablest manner in a conventicle . i know it is said , the blood-shed in the fore-going raign , and the plots of the papists against queen elizabeth , drew those laws from the church of england . but this was no reason why she should do ill because they had done so : besides , it may be answered , that that religion having so long intermixt it self with worldly power , it gave way to take the revenges of it . and certainly the great men of the church of england endeavouring to intercept queen mary , by proclaiming the lady jane gray , and the apprehension the papists had of the better title of mary queen of scots , together with a long possession , were scurvy temptations to kindle ill designs against that extraordinary queen . but tho nothing can excuse and less justifie those cruel proceedings ; yet if there were any reason for the laws , it is plainly removed ; for the interests are joyn'd , and have been since king james the first came to the crown . however , 't is certain there were laws enough , or they might have had them , to punish all civil enormities , without the necessity of making any against them as papists . and so the civil government had stood upon its own legs , and vices only against it had been punishable by it . in short , it was the falsest step that was made in all that great queens raign , & the most dishonourable to the principles of the first reformers , and therefore i know no better reason why it should be continued , than that which made the cardinal in the history of the council of trent oppose the reformation at rome ; that tho it was true that they were in the wrong , yet the admitting of it approved the judgment of their enemies , and so good-night to infallibility . let not this be the practice of the church ▪ of england , and the rather , because she does not pretend to it : but let her reflect , that she has lost her king from her religion , and they that have got him , naturally hope for ease for theirs by him , that 't is the end they labour'd , and the great use they have for him , and i would fain wonder that she never saw it before ; but whether she did or no , why should she begrudg it , at least refuse it now ? since 't is plain , that there is nothing we esteem dangerous in popery that other laws are not sufficient to secure us from : have we not enough of them ? let her think of more , and do the best she can to discover plotters , punish traitors , suppress the seditious , and keep the peace better than those we have can enable us to do : but , for gods sake , let us never direct laws against men for the cause of religion , or punish them before they have otherwise done amiss . let mens works , not their opinions , turn the edg of the magistrates sword against them , else 't is beheading them before they are born. by the common law of this kingdom there must be some real and proper overt act that proves treason ; some malice that proves sedition ; and some violent action that proves a rout or riot . if so , to call any sort of religious orders , the one , or praying to god in a way out of fashion , the other , is prepostrous , and punishing people for it , down right murther , or breach of the peace , according to the true use of words , and the old law of england . if the church of england fears the growth of popery , let her be true to the religion she owns , and betake her self to faith , rather than force , by a pious , humble , and a good example : to convince and perswade , which is the highest honour to any church , and the greatest victory over men. i am for a national church as well as she , so it be by consent , and not by constraint . but coercive churches have the same principle , tho not the same interest . a church , by law established , is a state church , and that is no argument of verity , unless the state that makes her so be infallible ; and because that will not be asserted , the other can never oblige the conscience , and consequently the compulsion she uses , is unreasonable . this very principle justifies the king of france , and the inquisition . for laws being equally of force in all countries where they are made , it must be as much fault in the church of englands judgment to be a protestant at rome , or a calvanist at paris , as to be a papist at london : then where is truth or conscience but in the laws of countries ! which renders her an hobbist , notwithstanding her long and loud clamours against the leviathan : i beg her , for the love of christ , that she would think of these things , and not esteem me her enemy for performing the part of so good a friend . plain dealing becomes that caracter ; no matter whether the way be agreeable , so it be right : we are all to do our duty , and leave the rest to god : he can best answer for our obedience , that commands it ; and our dependance upon his word , will be our security in our conduct . what weight is it to a church , that she is the church by law established , when no humane law can make a true church ? a true church is of christs making , and is by gospel established . 't is a reflection to a church that would be thought true , to stoop to humane law for her establishment . i have been often scandal'd at that expression from the sons of the church of england , especially those of the robe , what do you talk for ? our religion is by law established , as if that determin'd the question of its truth against all other perswasions . the jews had this to say against our saviour , we have a law , and by our law he ought to dye . the primitive christians , and some of our first reformers dyed as by law established , if that would mend the matter ; but does that make it lawful to a christian conscience ? we must ever demur to this plea. no greater argument of a churches defection from christianity than turning persecutor . 't is true , the scripture says , the earth shall help the woman , but that was to save her self , not to destroy others : for 't is the token that 's given by the holy ghost of a false church ; that none must buy or sell in her dominions that will not receive her mark in their forehead , or right-hand . that is by going to church against conscience , or bribing lustily to stay at home . things don't change , tho men do . persecution is still the same , let the hand alter never so often ; but the sin may not : for doubtless it is greatest in those that make the highest claim to reformation . for while they plead their own light for doing so , they hereby endeavour to extinguish anothers light that can't concur . what a man can't do , it is not his fault he don't do , nor should he be compell'd to do it , and at least of all be punished for not doing it . no church can give faith , and therefore can't force it ; for what is constrain'd is not believed ; since faith is in that sence free , and constraint gives no time to assent ; i say , what i don't will is not i , and what i don't choose is none of mine , and anothers can't save me , tho it should save him . so that this method never obtains the end design'd , since it saves no body , because it converts no body ; it may breed hypocrisie , but that is quite another thing than salvation . what then is the use of penal laws ? only to show the sincerity of them that suffer , and cruelty of those that make and execute them . and all time tells us they have ever fail'd those that have lean'd upon them : they have always been loosers at last : besides , it is a most unaccountable obstinacy in the church of england to stickle to uphold them , for after having made it a matter of religion and conscience to address the late king in behalf of this , to think he should leave his conscience behind him in flanders , or when they waited on him to the crown , that he should send it thither upon a pilgrimage , is want of wit at best , pardon the censure . could they conscientiously oppose his exclusion for his religion , and now his religion because he will not leave it ? or can they reasonably maintain those tests that were contrived to exclude him when duke of york , while they endured none to hinder him from the crown ? i heartily beg the church of englands excuse , if i say i can't comprehend her : perhaps the fault is mine , but sure i am she is extreamly dark . how could she hope for this king without his conscience ? or conceive that his honour or conscience would let him leave the members of his communion under the lash of so many destroying laws ? would she be so serv'd by a prince of her own religion , and she in the like circumstances ? she would not , let her talk till dooms-day . to object the kings promise , when he came to the crown , against the repeal of the penal laws , shows not his insincerity , but her uncharitableness , or that really she has a very weak place : for it is plain the king first declared his own religion , and then promised to maintain hers ; but was that to be without , or together with his own ? his words shows he intended that his own should live , tho t'other might raign . i say again , it is not credible that a prince of any sincerity can refuse a being to his own religion , when he continues another in its well being . this were to act upon state not conscience , and to make more conscience to uphold a religion he cannot be of , than of giving ease to one his conscience obliges him to be of . i cannot imagin how this thought could enter into any head that had brains , or heart that had honesty ▪ and to say true , they must be a sort of state consciences , consciences as by law establish'd , that can follow the law against their convictions . but this is not all i have to observe from that objection : it implies too evidently , first , that she thinks her self shaken , if the penal laws be repeal'd ; then by law established she must mean , established by those penal laws . secondly , that the king having promised to maintain her , as by law established , he ought not to endeavour their repeal by which she is established . i confess this is very close arguing , but then she must not take it ill , if all men think her ill founded ; for any thing must be so , that is established by destroying laws ? laws , that time and practice have declared enemies to property and conscience . o let her not hold by that charter , nor point thither for her establishment and defence , if she would be thought a christian church . plutarch had rather one should think there never was such a man in the world , than that plutarch was an ill man. shall the church of england , that glories in a great light , be more concern'd for her power , than her credit ? to be , than to be that which she should be ? i would say , far be it from her , for her own sake , and which is of much more moment , for the sake of the general cause of religion . let us see therefore if there be not another way of understanding those words , more decent to the king , and more honourable for her , viz. that she is in the national chair , has the churches and revenues , and is mother of those that do not adhere to any separate communion , and that the king has promised to maintain her in this post from the invasions of any other perswasion that would wrest these priviledges out of her hands : this he promised formerly ; this he has very particularly repeated in his gracious declaration : but to ruin men that would not conform , while himself was so great a dissenter , and came such , to her knowledge , to the crown , can be no part of his promises in the opinion of common sence and charity . is there no difference to be observed between not turning her out , and destroying all others not of her communion : he will not turn her out , there 's his promise , and he has not done there 's his performance : nor will he do it , am confident , if she pleases . but there is no manner of necessity from this engagement that all parties else are to be confounded . tho if it were so , 't is ill divinity to pr●ss such promises upon a princes conscience , that can't be perform'd with a good one by any body . let her remember how often she has upbraided her dissenters with this , render to caesar the things that are caesars , whilst they have returned upon her t'other half of the text , and render unto god the things that are gods. it happens now that god and caesar are both of a mind , which perhaps does not alwayes fall out , at least about the point in hand . will she dissent from both now ? her case , believe me , will be doubtful then . i beg her to be considerate . 't is the greatest time of tryal she has met with since she was a church ▪ to acquit her self like a member of christs universal one let her keep nothing that voids her pretentions . the babilonish garment will undo her . practices inconsistant with her reformation will ruin her . the martyrs blood won the day , and her severity has almost lost it . they suffer'd by law , she makes laws for suffering . is this an immitation of their practice , to uphold the weapons of their destruction ? i must tell her , 't is being a martyr for persecution , and not by it . another path then that the holy ancients , and our humble ancestors trod , and which wll lead her to be deserted and contemn'd of every body that counts it safer to follow the blessed rule and practice of christ and his inspr'd messengers , then her narrow and worldly policies . but that which heighthens the reproach , is the offer of the romanists themselves to make a perpetual civil peace with her , and that she refuses , would the martyrs have done this ? surely no. let her remember the first argument honest old fox advances against that church , is the church of englands present darling , viz. penal laws for religion ; as she may see at the beginning of his first volumn : doubtless he was much in the right , which makes her extreamly in the wrong . nothing , says the prophet , must harm in gods holy mountain , and that 's the church sayes fox , and therefore he says , christ's church never persecutes . leave then god with his own work , and christ with his own kingdom . as it is not of the world , let not the world touch it ; no , not to uphold it , tho they that bear it should trip by the way . remember vzza , he would needs support the ark when the oxen stumbled ; but was struck dead for his pains . the presumption is more than parralel . christ promis'd to be present with his church to the end of the world. he bid them fear not , and told them , that sufficient was the day for the evil thereof . how ? with penal laws ? no such matter ; but his divine persence . therefore it was , he call'd not for legions to fight for him , because his work needed it not they that want them have an other sort of work to do : and 't is too plain , that empire , and not religion , has been too much the business . but , o let it not be so any more ! to be a true church is better then to be a national one ; especially as so uphold . press vertue , punish vice , dispence with opinion ; perswade , but don't impose . are there tares in opinion ? let them alone ; you heard they are to grow with the wheat till harvest , that is , the end of the world. should they not be pluckt up before ? no ; and 't is angles work at last too . christ that knew all men , saw no hand on earth fit for that business . let us not then usurp their office besides , we are to love enemies ; this is the great law of our religion ; by what law then are we to persecute them ? and if not enemies , not friends and neighbours certainly . the apostle rejoyced that christ was preached out of envy , if so , i am sure we ought not to envy christians the enjoyment of the liberty of their consciences . christianity should be propagated by the spirit of christianity , and not by violence or persecution , for that 's the spirit of antichristianity . nor for fear of it , should we , of christians , become antichristians . where is faith in god ? where is trust in providence ? let us do our duty , and leave the rest with him ; and not do evil that good may come of it ; for that shows a distrust in god , and a confidence in our own inventions for security . no reason of state can excuse our disobedience to his rule ; and we desert the principles of our heavenly master when we decline it . the question is about conscience , about this we can none of us be too tender nor exemplary . 't is in right doing that christians can hope for success ; and for true victory only through faith and patience . but if to avoid what we fear , we contradict our principles , we may justly apprehend that god will desert us in an unlawful way of maintaining them . perhaps this may be gods time of trying all parties , what we will do ; whether we well rely upon him or our own feeble provisions ; whether we will allow what we our selves in our turn have all of us desired ; if not , may we not expect to suffer the thing we would inflict ? for our penal laws cannot secure us from the turns of providence , and less support us under them . let us consider the true ground of the difficulty that is made , if it be not partial and light in gods scale ; for to that tryal all things must come , and his judgment is inevitable as well as infallible . besides , if we have not tryed all other methods , we are inexcusable in being so tenacious for this . i do therefore , in all humility , beseech all sorts of professors of christianity in these kingdoms , to abstract themselves from those jealousies which worldly motives are apt to kindle in their minds , and with an even and undisturbed soul pursue their christian duty in this great conjuncture : considering the race is not to the swife , nor the battle to the strong , and that for all our watchmen , 't is god alone ( at last ) that keeps the city . not that i would decline a fitting , but an unchristian provision : for though the foundation were never so true , yet if our superstructure be hay and stuble ( our own narrow devices ) the fire will consume it , and our labour will be worse then in vain . let us not therefore sow what we would not reap , because we must reap what we sow : and remember who told us , what we measure to others shall be meeted to us again . let us therefore do unto all parties of men , as we would be done unto by them in their tu●n of power : least our fear of their undutifulness , should tempt us out of our duty , and so draw upon our selves the mischiefs we are afraid of . sacred writ is full of this , in the doctrine of both testaments ; and as we profess to believe it , we are inexcusable if we do not practice it . let the spirit then of christian religion prevail . let our policies give way to our duty , and our fears will be overcome of our hopes , which will not make us asham'd at the last and great judgment : where , o god! let us all appear with comfort . i could yet enlarge upon this subject ; for nothing can be more fruitful . i could say , that a church that denies infallibility , cannot force , because she cannot be certain , and so penal laws ( tho it were possible that they could be lawful in others ) in her , would be vnjust . that scripture leaves men to conviction and perswasion . that the true chruch-weapons are light and grace ; and her punishments , censure and excommunication . that goals and gibbets are inadiquated methods for conversion , and that they never succeeded . that this forbids all further light to come into the world , and so limits the holy one , which in scripture is made a great sin. and lastly , that such ensnare their own posterity that may be of an other mind , and forfit by it the estates they have so carefully transmitted to them . thus far against imposition . and against compliance ▪ i could say , that it s to betray gods soveraignty over conscience ; to deify men ; gratifie presumption ; foil and extinguish truth in the mind ; obey blindfold ; make over the soul without security ; turn hipocrite , and abundance more ; each of which heads might well merit an whole chapter . but this having been well and seasonably consider'd elsewhere , i shall now proceed to the second part of this discourse in which i will be as brief , and yet as full as i can . part ii. that 't is the principle of men of note of all parties . but what need is there of this , may some say , when all parties profess to be of the same judgment , that conscience ought not to be forced , nor religion imposed upon men at their civil peril ? i own they are all of that mind , at one time or other , and therefore that i may purge my self of any animosity to the doctrine of the church of england , i will ingeniously confess ▪ the severe conduct i have argued against , is not to be imputed to her principles ; but then her evil will be the greater , that in fact has so notoriously contradicted them . i know some of her defenders will hardly allow that too ; tho the more candid give us their silence or confession : for they tell us , 't is not the church that has done it , which , unless they mean , the laws were not made a church , must needs be false , since those that made and executed them were of her own communion , and are that great body of members that constitute her a church ; but by her shifting them off , 't is but reasonable to conclude that she tacitly condemns what she publickly disowns . one would think then it should not be so hard to perswade her to quit them , in the way she made them , or to injoyn her sons to do it , if that language be to harsh for her . this story she must hear of some way , and i pray god she may endeavour to do her duty in it . she is not alone ; for every party in power has too evidently lapst into this evil ; tho under the prevalency and persecution of another interest they have ever writ against club law for religion . and to the end that i may do the reformation right , and the principles of the church of england , justice , i must say , that hardly one person of any note , dyed in the time of queen mary , that did not pass sentance upon persecution as antichristian , particularly latimer , philpot , bradford , rogers , very eminent reformers . the apologies that were writ in those times , are of the same strain , as may be seen in jewel , haddon , reynalds , &c. and the papists were with reason thought much in the wrong by those primative protestants , for the persecution that they raised against them , for matters of pure religion . but what need we go so far back ? is it not recent in memory , that bishop vsher was employ'd to o. cromwell by some of the clergy of the church of england for liberty of conscience ? dr parr , in the life of dr vsher primate of armagh , fol. . has that passage thus . cromwell forbidding the clergy , under great penalties , to teach schools , or to perform any part of their ministerial function ; some of the most considerable episcopal clergy in and about london , desired my lord primate that he would use his interest with cromwell , ( since they heard he pretended a great respect for him ) that as he granted liberty of conscience to almost all sorts of religions , so the episcopal divines might have the same freedom of serving god in their private congregations ( since they were not premitted the publick churches ) according to the liturgie of the church of england ; and that neither the ministers , nor those that frequented that service , might be any more hindered , or disturbed by his souldiers : so according to their desire , he went and used his utmost endeavours with cromwell , for the taking off this restraint , which was at last promised ( tho with some difficulty ) that they should not be molested , provided they meddled not with any matters relating to his government . certainly those gentlemen were of my mind . and to give dr hammond his due , who i understand was one of them , he left it to the witnesses of his end , as his dying counsel to the church of england , that they displaced no man out of the university or present church , but that by love , and an holy life they should prevail upon those in possession to come into their church . but this lookt so littie like the policy and ambition of the living , that they resolved it should be buried with him . this i had from an eminent hand in oxford , a year or two after his death . an older man out liv'd him , and one of the most learned and pious of that communion , bishop sande son i mean : they were the two great men of their sort that was of the party . let us see what this reverend man says to our point . the word of god doth expressly forbid us to subject our consciences to the judgment of any other , or to usurp a dominion over the consciences of any one. several cases of conscience discussed in ten lectures in the divinity school at oxford , lect. sect. pag. ● . printed . he is not worthy to be christs disciple , who is not the disciple of christ alone . the simplicity and sincerity of the christian faith , hath suffered a great prejudice since we have been divided into parties , neither is their any hope that religion should be restored to her former original and purity , until the wounds that were made wider by our daily quarrels and dissentions , being anointed with the olye of brotherly love , as with a balsom , shall begin to close again , and to grow entire into the same unity of faith and charity , ibid sect. . the obligation of conscience doth not signifie any compulsion , for , to speak properly , the conscience can no more be compelled than the free-will . ibid . lecture sect. . pag. . the express commandment of god doth oblige the conscience properly by it self and by its own force ; and this obligation is absolute , because it doth directly and always oblige ▪ and because it obligeth all persons ▪ and the obligation of it is never to be cancelled . no●e but god alone hath power to impose a law upon the conscience of any man , to which it ought to be subjected , as obliging by it s●lf , — this conclusion is proved by the words of the apostle , there is but one law-giver , who can both save and destroy , in which words two arguments do profer themselves to our observation ; in the first place they assert there is but one legislator ; not one picked out amongst many ; not one above many ; but one exclusively , that is to say , one , and but one only . the apostle otherwise had made use of a very ineffectual argument , to prove what he had propounded ; for he rebuketh those who unadvisedly did pass their judgment either on the persons , or the deeds of other men , as the invaders of their rights . who art thou ( saith he ) who dost judge another ? as if he should have said , dost thou know thy self , what thou art , and what thou dost ? it doth not belong to thee to thrust thy sawcy sickle into the harvest of another man , much less boldly to fling thy self into the throne of almighty god. if already thou art ignorant of it , then know , that it belongeth to him alone to judge of the consciences of men , to whom alone it doth belong to impose laws upon the consciences of men , which none can do but god alone . ibid pag. , , . the condition and natural estate of the conscience it self is so placed as it were in the middle betwixt god and the will of man , as that which is usually and truly spoken of kings and emperors , may as truly be verified of the consciences of every man , solo deo minores esse , nec aliquam in terris superiorem ag noscere ; they are less than god only , and on earth do acknowledge no superior . that speech of the emperor maximilian the first is very memorable , consciencij dominari velle , est arcem coeli invadere ; to exercise a domination over consciences , is to invade the tower of heaven . he is a plunderer of the glory of god , and a nefarious invader of the power that is due unto him , whosoever he is that shall claim a right to the consciences of men , or practice an usurpation over them . ibid. sect. . pag. . and yet this is the sad consequence of imposing religion upon conscience , and punishing non-conformity with worldly penalties . let us now hear what the late bishop of down says in his lib. of prophesie to our point , i am very much displeased that so many opinions and new doctrines are commenced amongst us , but more troubled , that every man that hath an opinion thinks his own and other mens salvation is concerned in its maintenance , but most of all , that men should be persecuted and afflicted for disagreeing in such opinions , which they cannot with sufficient grounds obtrude upon others necessarily , because they cannot propound them infallibly , and because they have no warrant from scripture so to do ; for if i shall tye other men to believe my opinion , because i think i have a place of scripture which seems to warrant it to my understanding ; why may he not serve up another dish to me in the same dress , and exact the same task of me to believe the contradictory ? liberty of prophesie , epist . dedic . pag. , . the experience which christendom hath had in this last age is argument enough that toleration of differing opinions is so far from disturbing the publick peace , or destroying the interest of princes and common-wealths , that it does advantage to the publick , it secures peace , because there is not so much as the pretence of religion left to such persons to contend for , it being already indulged to them . ibid. p. . it is a proverbial saying , quod nimia familiaritas servorum est conspiratio adversus dominum , and they who for their security run in grots and cellers , and retirements , think that they being upon the defensive , those princes and those laws that drive them to it are their enemies , and therefore they cannot be secure , unless the power of the one , and the obligation of the other be lessened and rescinded ; and then the being restrained and made miserable indears the discontented persons mutually , and makes more hearty and dangerous confederations . ibid. pag. . no man speaks more unreasonably , than he that denies to men the use of their reason in choice of their religion . ibid. pag. . no christian is to be put to death , dis-membred , or otherwise directly persecuted for his opinion , which does not teach impiety or blasphemy . ibid. pag. . there is a popular pity that follows all persons in misery and that compassion breeds likeness of affections , and that very often produces likeness of perswasion ; and so much the rather because there arises a jealousie and pregnant suspition that they who persecute an opinion are destitute of sufficient arguments to confute it , and that the hangman is the best disputant . ibid. pag. , . if a man cannot change his opinion when he lists , nor ever does heartily or resolutely , but when he cannot do otherwise , then to use force , may make him a hypocrite , but never to be a right believer , and so instead of erecting a trophee to god and true religion , we build a monument for the devil . ibid. pag. . the trick of giving persons differing in opinion over to the secular power , at the best is no better than hypocrisie , removing envy from themselves , and laying it upon others , a refusing to do that in external act , which they do in council and approbation . ibid. pag. . thus far bishop tayl●r , and one of the most learned men of the church of england in his time . let me add another bishop , held learn'd by all , and in great reputation with the men of his communion , and among them the lords spiritual and temporal in parlioment assembled , who have sufficiently declared against this persecuting spirit on the account of religion by their full approbation of , and thanks returned to the bishop of st asaph for his sermon preached before them november the th . . and their desire that he would print and publish that sermon . the bishop says , that , they who are most given to hate and destroy others , especially those others who differ from them in religion , they are not the church of god , or at least they are so far corrupt in that particular . pag. . again he says , that of societies of men , christians , of all others are most averse from ways of violence and blood ; especially from using any such ways upon the account of religion : and among christian churches , where they differ among themselves , if either of them use those ways upon the account of religion , they give a strong presumption against themselves that they are not truly christians . ibid. pag. . there is reason for this , because , we know that christ gave love for the caracter by which his disciples were to be known . john . . by this shall all men know that you are my disciples , if you have love to one another . and least men should unchristen others first , that they may hate them , and destroy them afterwards , christ enlarged his precept of love , and extended it even to enemies , and not only to ours , but to the enemies of our religion , matt. . , . ibid. pag. . as our holy religion excels all others in this admirable temper , so by this we may usually judge who they are that excel among christian churches , when there happens any difference between them , whether touching the faith , or the terms of communion . they that were the more fierce , they generally had the worst cause . ibid. pag. , . the council of nice suppressed the arians by no other force , but putting arians out of their bishopricks ; they could not think hereticks fit to be trusted with cure of souls ; but otherwise , as to temporal things , i do not find that they inflicted any kind of punishment ; but when the arians came to have the power in their hands , when theirs was come to be the imperial religion , then depriving was nothing , banishment was the least that they inflicted . ibid. pag. . neither our religion , nor our church , is of a persecuting spirit . i know not how it may be in particular persons ; but i say again , it is not in the genius of our church : she hath no doctrine that teacheth persecution . ibid. pag. . i would have no man punished for his religion , no not them that destroy men for religion . ibid. pag. . dr stillingfleet comes short of none of them on this subject . our saviour , says he , never pressed followers as men do souldiers , but said , if any man will come after me , let him take up his cross ( not his sword ) and follow me . his was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , his very commands shewed his meekness ; his laws were sweet and gentle laws ; not like draco's that were writ in blood , unless it were his own that gave them . his design was to ease men of their former burdens , and not lay on more ; the duties he required were no other but such as were necessary , and withal very just and reasonable . he that came to take away the insupportable yoke of jewish ceremonies , certainly did never intend to gall the necks of his disciples with another instead of it . and it would be strange the church should require more than christ himsel● did ; and make other conditions of her communion , than our saviour did of discipleship . what possible reason can be assigned or given why such things should not be sufficient for communion with a church , which are sufficient for eternal salvation ? and certainly those things are sufficient for that ; which are laid down as necessary duties for christianity by our lord and saviour in his word . what ground can there be why christians should not stand upon the same terms now which they did in the time of christ and his apostles ? was not religion sufficiently guarded and fenced in ●hem ? was there ever more true and cordial reverence in the worship of god ? what charter hath christ given the church to bind men up to more than himself hath done ? or to exclude those from her society who may be admitted into heaven ? will christ ▪ ever thank men at the great day for keeping such out from communion with his church , when he will vouchsafe not only crowns of glory to , but it may be aureolae too , if there be any such things there ? the grand commission the apostles were sent out with , was only to teach what christ had commanded them . not the least intimation of any power given them to impose or require any thing beyond what himself had spoken to them , or they were directed to by the immediate guidance of the spirit of god. without all controversie , the main inlet of all the distractions , confusions and divisions of the christian world , hath been by adding other conditions of church communion than christ hath done . there is nothing the primitive church deserves greater imitation by us in , than in that admirable temper , moderation and condesention which was used in it towards all the members of it . this admirable temper in the primitive church might be largely cleared from that liberty they allowed freely to dissenters from them in matters of practice and opinion ; as might be cleared from cyprian , austin , jerome , and others . — leaving the men to be won by observing the true decency and order of churches , whereby those who act upon a true principle of christian ingenuity may be sooner drawn to a compliance in all lawful things , than by force and rigorous impositions , which make men suspect the weight of the thing it self , when such force is used to make it enter . in preface . the same is in effect declared by the house of commons , when they returned their thanks to dr. t●llotson , dean of canterbury , for his sermon preached before them november the th . . desiring him to print that sermon , where he says , upon our saviours words , ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of , ye own your selves to be my disciples , but do you consider what spirit now acts and governs you ? not that surely which my doctrine designes to mould and fashion you into , which is not a furious and persecuting , and destructive spirit , but mild and gentle , and saving ; tender of the lives and interests of men , even of those who are our greatest enemies . pag. , . no difference of religion , no pretence of zeal for god and christ can warrant and justifie this passionate and fierce , this vindictive and exterminating spirit . ibid. pag. . he ( i. e. christ ) came to introduce a religion , which consults not only the eternal salvation of mens souls , but their temporal peace and security , their comfort and happiness in this world , ibid ▪ pag. . in seemed good to the author of this institution to compel no man to it by temporal punishment . ibid. pag. . to seperate goodness and mercy from god , compassion and charity from religion , is to make the two best things in the world , god and religion , good for nothing . idid . pag. . true christianity is not noly the best , but the best natured institution in the world ; and so far as any church is departed from good nature , and become cruel and barbarous , so far it is degenerated from christianity . idid . pag. . thus far dr tillotson , who to be sure , deserves not to be thought the least eminent in the present church of england . let us hear what doctor burnet says to it . men are not masters of their own perswasions , and cannot change their thoughts as they please ; he that believes any thing concerning religion , cannot turn as the prince commands him , or accomodate himself to the law or his persent interests , unless he arrive at that pitch of atheism , as to look on religion only as a matter of policy , and an engine for civil government ; dr burnet's history of the rights of princes , &c. in his preface , pag. . 't is to this doctor 's pains she ows the very history of her reformation , and as by it he has perpetuated his name with hers , certainly he must have credit with her , or we can deserve none with any body else , for no man could well go further to oblige her . let me here bring in a lay member of the church of england , sir robert pointz , in his vindication of monarchy , who yeilds us an excellent testimony to the matter in hand , the sword availeth little with the souls of men , unless to destroy them together with their bodies , and to make men desperate , or dissemblers in religion , and when they find oppertunity to fall into rebellion , as there are many examples . p. . in the ancient times of christianity , such means were not used as might make hereticks and schismaticks more obstinate than docible , through the preposterous proceedings of the magistrates and ministers of justice in the execution of penal laws , used rather as snares for gaining of money and pecuniary mulcts impos'd , rather as prices set upon offences , than as punishments for the reformation of manners ▪ ibid. pag. . the ancient christians were forbidden by the imperial law , as also by the laws of other christian nations , under a great penalty to meddle with the goods of the jews or pagans living peaceably ibid. pag. . for , the goods of the jews , although enemies to the christian religion , cannot for the cause of religion come , by escheat unto christian princes , under whom they live . ibid. pag. . it is truly said , that peace , a messenger whereof , an angel hath been chosen to be , is scarce ever established by the sword ; and the gospel , the blessed peace , cannot be published by the sound of the cannon ; neither the sacred word be conveyed unto us by the impious hands of souldiers ; neither tranquility be brought to the persons and consciences of men , by that which bringeth ruin unto nations . ibid. pag. . he has said much in a little , the talent and honour of men truly great . i give this still to the church of englands principles , which yet makes it harder for her to justifie her practice in her use of power . but let us hear a king speak , and one the church of england is bound to hear by many obligations . king charles the first , out of his tender and princely sence of the sad and bleeding condition of the kingdom , and his unwearied desires to apply such remedies , as by the blessing of almighty god , might settle it in peace ; by the advice of his lords and commons of parliament assembled at oxford , propounded and desired , that all the members of both houses might securely meet in a full and free convention of parliament , there to treat , consult and agree upon such things , as may conduce to the maintenance and defence of the reformed protestant religion , with due consideration to all just and reasonable ease to tender consciences . the kings message of a treaty , march . . from oxford , superscribed to the lords and commons of parliament assembled at westminster . in the kings twentieth message for peace , january . . he has these words , that by the liberty offered in his message of the th . present , for the ease of their consciences who will not communicate in the service already established by act of parliament in this kingdom , he intends that all other protestants behaving themselves peaceable in and towards the civil government , shall have the free exercise of their religion according to their own way . in the thirty third message for peace , november . . there are these words , his majesty considering the great present distempers concerning church discipline , and that the presbyterian government is now in practice , his majesty to eschew confusion , as much as may be , and for the satisfaction of his two houses , is content that the said government be legally permitted to stand in the same condition it now is , for three years ; provided , that his majesty and those of his judgment ( or any other who cannot in conscience submit thereunto ) be not obliged to comply with the presbyterian government , but have free practice of their own profession without receiving any prejudice thereby . from the isle of wight . in his declaration to all his people , january . . from carisbrook castle , after the votes of no address , he says , i have sacrificed to my two houses of parliament , for the peace of the kingdom , all , but what is much more dear to me then my life , my conscience and my honour . in his letter to the lords , gentlemen and committee of the scotch parliament , together with the officers of the army , july . . from carisbrook castle . — as the best foundation of loyalty is christianity , so true christianity is perfect loyalty . vi. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon his majesties retirement from westminster . — sure it ceases to be counsel , when not reason is used , as to men to perswade , but force and terror as to beasts , to drive and compel men to whatever tumultary patrons shall project . he deserves to be a slave without pity or redemption , that is content to have his rational soveraignty of his soul , and liberty of his will and words so captivated . — again , ibid. sure that man cannot be blameable to god or man , who seriously indeavours to see the best reason of things , and faithfully follows what he takes for reason ; the uprightness of his intentions will excuse the possible failings of his understanding . — again , ibid. i know no resolutions more worthy a christian king , then to prefer his conscience before his kingdoms . xii . upon the rebellion and troubles in ireland , — some kind of zeal counts all merciful moderation lukewarmness , and had rather be cruel than accounted cold , and is not seldom more greedy to kill the bear for her skin , than for any harm he hath done . — ibid , o my god , thou seest how much cruelty among christians is acted under the colour of religion , as if we could not be christians unless we crucifie one another . xiii . upon the calling the scots and their coming . — sure in matters of religion those truth 's gain most on mens judgments and consciences which are least urged with secular violence , which weakens truth with prejudices ; and is unreasonable to be used , till such means of rational conviction hath been appli'd , as leaving no excuse for ignorance condemns mens obstinacy to deserv'd penalties . — violent motions are neither manly , christian nor loyal . — the proper engine of faction is force ; the arbitrator of beasts , not of reasonable men , much less of humble christians and loyal subjects , in matters of religion . xiv . upon the covenant . — religion requires charity and candor to others of different opinions . — nothing violent and injurious can be religions . xv. upon the many jealousies raised , and scandals cast upon the king to stir up the people against him . — in point of true conscientious tenderness ( attended with humility and meekness , not with proud or arrogant activity , which seeks to hatch every egge of indifferent opinion to faction or schism ) i have oft declared how little i desire my laws and scepter should intrench over gods soveraignty , which is the only king of mens consciences . xxvii . to the prince of wales . — take heed of abetting to any factions ; your partial adhereing to any one side gains you not so great advantages in some mens hearts ( who are prone to be of their kings religion ) as it looseth you in others , who think themselves , and their profession , first despised , then persecuted by you . — my counsel and charge to you is , that you seriously consider the former real or objected miscarriages , which might occasion my troubles , that you may avoid them . — a charitable connivance and christian toleration , often dissipates their strength whom rougher opposition fortifies . — always keep up sollid piety and those fundamental truths ( which mend both hearts and lives of men ) with impartial favour and justice . — your prerogative is best shewed and exercised in remitting rather then exacting the rigour of the law , there being nothing worse than legal tyranny . and as this was the sence and judgment of a king that time and the greatest troubles had inform'd with a superiour judgment , ( and which to be sure highly justifies the measures that are now taken ) so dr. hudson his plain-dealing chaplain must not be forgotten by us on this occasion , who took the freedom to tell his royal master , that he lookt upon the calamities he laboured under , to be the hand of god upon him , for not having given god his due over conscience . one can easily imagin this to be reformation language , and then it is not hard to think how low that church must be fallen , that from so free and excellent a principle , is come to make , execute and uphold penal laws for religion , against her conscientious neighbours ; but it is to be hoped , that like nebuchadnezzar's image , whose feet was a mixture of iron and clay , and therefore could not stand for ever ; persecution will not be able to mix so with the seed of men but that humanity will overcome it , and mankind one day be delivered from that iron hard and fierce nature . i have done with my church of englands evidences against persecution . and for the judgment of all sorts of dissenters in that point , let their practice have been what it will , nothing is clearer than that they disallow of persecution , of which their daily addresses of thanks to the king , for his general ease by his excellent declaration are an undoubted proof . thus then we see it is evident , that it is not only the duty of all parties , as they would be thought christians , to repeal penal laws for religion , but upon a fair enquiry , we see it is the avowed principle of every party at one time or other that conscience ought not to be compel'd , nor religion impos'd upon worldly penalties . and so i come to the third and last part of this discourse . part iii. it is the interest of all parties , and especially the church of england . as i take all men to be unwillingly separated from their interests , and consequently ought only to be sought and discours'd in them , so it must be granted me on all hands , that interests change as well as times , and 't is the wisdom of a man to observe the courses , and humor the motions of his interest , as the best way to preserve it . and least any ill-natur'd or mistaken person should call it temporizing , i make this early provision ; that i mean no immorral or corrupt complyance : a temporizing , deservedly base with men of vertue , and which in all times , my practice as well as judgment hath shown the last aversion to . for upon the principle i now go , and which i lay down , as common and granted in reason and fact with all parties concern'd in this discourse , that man , does not change , that morrally follows his interest under all its revolutions , because to be true to his interest is his first civil principle . i premise this to introduce what i have to offer , with respect to the interests to be now treated upon . and first , i say , i take it to be the interest of the church of england to abolish the penal laws , because it never was her interest to make them . my reasons for that opinion are these . first , they have been an argument to invalidate the sufferings of the reformers , because if it be unlawful to disobey government about matters of religion they were in the wrong . and if they say , o but they were in error that punish'd their non-conformity ; i answer , how can she prove that she is infallibly in the right ? and if this cannot be done , she compels to an uncertainty upon the same terms . secondly , she has overthrown the principles upon which she separated from rome . for if it be unlawful to plead scripture and conscience to vindicate dissent from her communion , it was unlawful for her upon the same plea to dissent from the church of rome , unless she will say again , that she was in the right , but the other in the wrong , and she knows this is no answer , but a begging of the question ; for they that separate from her , think themselves as serious , devout , and as much in the right as she could do . if then conscience and scripture , interpreted with the best light she had , were the ground of her reformation , she must allow the liberty she takes , or she eats her words , and subverts her foundation ; then which nothing can be more destructive to the interest of any beeing , civil or ecclesiastical . thirdly , the penal laws have been the great make-bate in the kingdom from the beginning . for if i should grant that she had once been truly the church of england , i mean , consisting of all the people of england , ( which she was not , for there were divers parties dissenting from the first of her establishment ) yet since it afterwards appear'd she was but one party tho the biggest , she ought not to have made her power more national than her faith , nor her faith so by the force of her temporal authority . 't is true she got the magistrate of her side , but she engaged him too far . for she knew christ did not leave caesar executor to his last will and testament , and that that should be the reason why she did so , was none of the best ornament● to her reformation . that she was but a party , tho the biggest , by the advantages that temporal power brought her , i shall easily prove , but i will introduce it with a short account of our state-reformation here in england , henry the eighth , was a kind of hermophredite in religion , or in the language of the times , a trimmer ; being a meddly of papist and protestant , and that part he acted to the life , or to the death rather ; sacrificing on the same day men of both religions , because one was not protestant enough , and t'other papist enough for him . in this time were some anabaptists , for the distinction of church of england , and calvanist was not then known . edward the sixth succeeded , a prince that promised vertues , that might more than ballance the excesses of his father , and yet by arch-bishop cranmer , was compelled to sign a warrant to burn poor joan of kent , a famous woman , but counted an enthusiast : but to prove what i said of him , 't was not without frequent denials and tears , and the bishop taking upon him to answer for it at gods judgment ; of which i hope his soul was discharged , tho his body , by the same law , suffered the same punishment in the succeeding reign . thus even the protestants begun with blood for meer religion , and taught the romanists , in succeeding times , how to deal with them . at this time the controversie grew warm between the church of england and the calvanists , that were the abler preachers and the better livers . the bishops being mostly men of state , and some of them looking rather backward then forward , witness the difficulty the king had to get hooper consecrated bishop , without conformity to the reserved ceremonies . queen mary came in , and ended the quarrel at the stake ▪ now ridly and hooper hug , and are the dearest brethren and best friends in the world. hooper keeps his ground , and ridly stoops with his ceremonies to t'others further reformation . but this light and union flow'd from their persecution : for those abroad at frankford , and other places were not upon so good terms : their fewds grew so great that the one refused communion with the other , many endeavours were used to quench the fire , but they were ineffectual ; at best it lay under the ashes of their affliction for another time ; for no sooner was queen elizabeth upon her throne then they returned , and their difference with them . they managed it civilly for a while , but ambition in some , and covetousness in others on the one hand , and discretion giving way to resentment on the other , they first ply the queen and her ministers , and when that ended in favour of the men of ceremony , the others arraigned them before the first reformers abroad , at geneva , bazil , zurich , &c. the leading prelates by their letters , as doctor burnet lately tells us , in his printed relation of his travels , clear themselves to those first doctors of any such imputation , and lay all upon the queen , who for reasons of state would not be brough to so inceremonious a way of worship as that of the calvanists . at this time there were papists , protestants , evangelists , praecisians , vbiquitists , familists or enthusiasts and anabaptists in england ; when the very first year of her reign , a law for vniformity in worship and discipline was enacted , and more followed of the severest nature , and sometimes executed . thus then we see ▪ that there never was such a thing as a church of england since the days of popery , that is , a church of communion containing all the people of the kingdom , and so cannot be said to be so much as a twin of the reformation ; nevertheless she got the blessing of the civil magistrate . she made him great to be great by him : if she might be the church , he should be the head. much good may the bargain do her . now is the time for her to stand to her principle . i never knew any body exceed their bounds that were not met with at last . if we could escape men , god we cannot , his providence will overtake us , and find us out . by all this then it appearing , that the church of england was not the nation , the case is plain that the penal laws were a make-bate , for they sacrificed every sort of people whose consciences differed from the church of england ; which first put the romanist upon flattering prerogative , and courting its shelter from the wrath of those laws . the address could not be unpleasant to princes ; and we see it was not ; for king james , that came in with invectives against popery , entring the list with the learn'd of that church , and charging her with all the marks the revelation gives to that of antichrist , grew at last so tame and easy towards the romanists , that our own story tells us of the fears of the encrease of popery in the latter parliament of his reign . in king charles the first 's time , no body can doubt of the complaint , because that was in great measure the drift of every parliament , and at last one reason of the war. on the other hand the severity of the bishops against men of their own principles , and in the main , of their own communion , either because they were more zealous in preaching , more followed of the people , or could not wear some odd garment , and less , lead the dance on a lords day at a maypole , ( the relique of flora the roman strumpet ) or perhaps for rubbing upon the ambition , covetousness and laziness of the dignified , and ignorance and loosness of the ordinary clergy of the church ( of which i could produce five hundred gross instances ) i say these things breed bad blood , and in part , gave beginnings to those animosities , that at last broke forth , with some other pretences into áll those national troubles that agitated this poor kingdom for ten years together , in which the church of england became the greatest looser , her clergy turn'd out ▪ her nobility and gentry sequestred , decimated , imprisoned , &c. and whatever she is pleased to think , nothing is truer , then that her penal laws , and conduct in the star-chamber , and high commission court in matters of religion , was her overthrow . 't is as evident , the same humour since the restoration of the late king , has had almost the same effect . for nothing was grown so little and contemptible as the church of england in this kingdom she now intitles her self the church of : witness the elections of the last three parliaments before this , i know it may be said the persons chosen were church goers ; i confess it , for the law would have them so . but no body were more avers to the politicks of the clergy ; insomuch that the parson and the parish almost every where divided upon the question of their election . in truth , it has been the favour and countenence of the crown , and not her intrinsick interest or value , that has kept her up to this day ; else her penal laws , the bulwork of the church of england , by the same figure , than she is one against popery , had sunk her long since . i hope i may , by this time , conclude , without offence , that the penal laws have been a make-bate in the great family of the kingdom , setting the father against his children , and brethren against brethren ; not only giving the empire to one , but endeavouring to extinguish the rest , and that for this the church of england has once paid a severe reckoning . i apply it thus : is it not her interest to be careful she does it not a second time ? she has a fair opportunity to prevent it , and keep her self where she is , that is ▪ the publick religion of the country , with the real maintenance of it ; which is a plain preference to all the rest . if she hopes by her aversion to a general ease , to set up for a bulwork against popery , one year will show the trick , and mightily deceive her , and the oppertunity will be lost , and another bargain driven , i dare assure her , mightily to her disadvantage . violence and tyranny are no natural consequences of popery , for then they would follow every where , and in all places and times alike . but we see in twenty governments in germany there is none for religion , nor was not for an age in france , and in poland , the popish cantons of switzerland , venice , lucca , colonia , &c. where that religion is dominant , the people enjoy their ancient and civil rights a little more steadily than they have of late time done in some protestant countries nearer home , almost ever since the reformation . is this against protestancy ? no , but very much against protestants , for had they been true to their principles , we had been upon better terms . so that the reformation was not the fault , but not keeping to it better than some have done ; for whereas they were papists that both obtain'd the great charter and charter of forests , and in the successive reigns of the kings of their religion , industriously laboured the confirmation of them , as the great text of their liberties and properties , by above thirty other laws ; we find almost an equal number to destroy them , and but one made in their favour since the reformation , and that shrowdly against the will of the high church-men too ; i mean the petition of right , in the third year of charles the first . in short , they desire a legal security with us , and we are afraid of it , least it should insecure us ; when nothing can do it so certainly as their insecurity , for safety makes no man desparate . and he that seeks ease by law , therefore does it , because he would not attempt it by force . are we afraid of their power and yet provoke it ? if this jealousie and aversion prevail , it may drive her to a bargain with the kingdom for such general redemption of property , as may desolve our great corporation of conscience , and then she will think that half a loaf had been better than no bread , and that it had been more advisable to have parted with penal laws , that only serv'd to dress her in satyr , then have lost all for keeping them ; especially , when it was but parting with spurs , claws and bills that made her look more like a vulter than a dove , and a lion than a lamb. but i proceed to my next reason , why it is her interest to repeal those penal laws , ( tho a greater cannot be advanced to men than self preservation ) and that is , that she else breaks with a king heartily inclin'd to preserve her by any way that is not persecuting , and whose interest she once persu'd at all adventures , when more than she sees was suggested to her by the men of the interest she opposed in favour of his claim . what then has befallen her , that she changes the course she took with such resolutions of perseverance ? for bringing him to the crown with this religion , could not be more her duty to his title , or her interest to support her own , than it is still , to be fair with him . if she ow'd the one to him and to christianity , she is not less indebted to her self the other . does he seek to impose his own religion upon her ? by no means . there is no body would abhor the attempt , or , at all adventures , condemn it more than my self . what then is the matter ? why he desires ease for his religion , she does not think fit to consider him in this , ( no not to the king she brought with this objection to the crown ) certainly she is much in the wrong , and shews her self an ill courtier ( tho it was become her calling ) first to give him roast-meat , then beat him with the spit . is not this to quit those high principles of loyalty and christianity she valued her self once upon , and what she can , provoke the mischiefs she fears ? certainly this is dividing in judgment from him that she has ackowledged to be her ecclesiastical head. my fifth reason is , that as the making and executing the penal laws for religion affects all the several parties of protestant dissenters as well as the papists ( the judges in vaughhan's time , and he at the head of them , giving it as their opinion , they were equally exposed to those laws ) and that are thereby naturally driven into an interest with them ; so it is at this time greatly the prudence of the church of england to repeal them , for by so doing she divides the interest that self preservation allows all men to persue , that are united by danger : and since she is assured the papists shall not have the less ease in this king's time than if the laws were repeal'd , and that her fears are not of the succeeding raigns , how is their repeal a great insecurity , especially , when by that , she draws into her interest all the protestant dissenters , that are abundantly more considerable than the papists , and that are as unwilling that popery should be national as her self . for if this be not granted , see what reputation follows to the church of england . she tells the king she does not desire his friends should be persecuted , yet the forbearance must not be by declaration to save the government , nor by law to save her ; and without one of these warrants ▪ every civil magistrate and officer in england is perjured that suffers them in that liberty against law. how can she be sincerely willing that should be done , that she is not willing should be done legally ? but sixthly , the church of england does not know but they or some other party may at one time or other prevail . it seems to me her interest to set a good example , and so to bespeak easie terms for her self . i know of none intended , and believe no body but her self can place her so low , yet if it were her unhappiness , i think to have civil property secur'd out of the question of religion , and constraint upon conscience prevented by a glorious magna charta for the liberty of it , were not a thing of ill consequence to her interest . let us but consider what other princes did for their own religion , within the last seven raigns , when they came to the crown , and we cannot think so soft and equal a thing as an impartial liberty of conscience , after all that has been said of a popish successor , an ordinary caracter of a prince , or a mean assurance to us : this ought not to slip her reflection . besides , there is some care due to posterity : tho the present members of her communion may escape the temptation , their children may not : they may change the religion of their education , and conscientiously chuse some other communion . would they submit the fortunes they leave them to the rape of hungry courtiers , biggots and indigent informers , or have their poor posterity impoverisht , banisht or executed for sober and religious dissent ? god knows into whose hands these laws at last may fall , what mischief they may do , and to whom . believe me , a king of the humor of sr j.k. of the west , or sr w.a. of reading , or sr r.b. or sr s.s. of london , would , with such vouchers , quickly make a golgatha of the kingdom . if she thinks her self considerable in number or estate , she will have the more to loose . let her not therefore establish that in the prejudice of others , that may in the hands of others turn to her prejudice . lastly , i would not have her miss the advantage that is design'd her by those that perhaps she thinks worst of . i dare say no body would willingly see the presbyterian in her chair , and yet that may happen to be the consequence of her tenaciousness in a little time . for if the aversion her sons promote by whole sale against popery should prevail , the remains of it in her self are not like to escape that reformation : i mean , her episcopal government , and the ceremonies of her worship , for which she has vext the most consciencious people of this kingdom above an age past . and the presbyterian being a rich , industrious and numerous party , as well among the nobility and gentry , as trading and country people , i cannot see but the next motion , naturally speaking , is like to tend that way ; for other parties , however well esteemed may seem too great a step of reformation at once , and methinks she has tasted enough of that regiment , to be once wise , and keep the ballance in her own hands . and certain it is , that nothing will so effectually do this as the entreated liberty of conscience ; for then there will be four parties of dissenters besides her self , to ballance against any designs that may warp or byass things to their advancement . and that which ought to induce the church of england not a little to hasten , as well as do the thing , is this ; she is now a sort of national church by power , she will then be the publick church by concurrence of all parties . instead of enemies to invade or undermine her , they that should do it are made the friends of her safety by the happiness they enjoy through her complacency : and if any should be so unnatural or ungrateful to her , the interest of the rest will oblige them to be her spys and security against the ambition of any such party . i do heartily pray to god that he would enlighten the eyes of her leaders , and give them good hearts too , that faction may not prevail against charity , in the name of religion : and above all , that she would not be proud of her numbers , or stand off upon that reflection ; for that alone will quickly lessen them in a nation loving freedom as much as this we live in ; and what appears in the town is an ill glass to take a prospect of the country by : there are parishes that have fifteen thousand souls in them and if two come to church it is matter of brag , tho half the rest be sown among the several dissenting congregations of their judgment . i would not have her mistaken , tho popery be an unpopular thing , 't is as certain she of a long time has not been popular , and on that principle never can be : and if she should plow with that heifer now , and gain a little by the aversion to popery ; when it is discern'd that popery does return to the civil interest of the kingdom they will quickly be friends . for besides that we are the easiest and best natur'd people in the world to be appeas'd , there are those charms in liberty and property to english nature that no endeavours can resist or disapoint . and can we reasonably think the romanists will be wanting in that , when they see it is their own ( and perhaps their only ) interest to do so ? these are the arguments which , i confess , have prevailed with me to importune the church of england to yeild to the repeal of all the penal statutes , and i should be glad to see them either well refuted or submitted to . i shall now address my self to those of the roman church , and hope to make it appear it is their interest to sit down thankfully with the liberty of conscience herein desired , and that a toleration and no more , is that which all romanists ought to be satisfied with . my reasons are these . first , the opposition that popery every where finds : for in nothing is the kingdom so much of a mind as in this aversion : 't is no news , and so may be the better said and taken . i say then this vnity , this vniversality and this visibility against popery , make the attempt , for more then liberty of conscience , too great and dangerous . i believe there may be some poor silly biggots that hope bigger , and talk further , but who can help that ? there are weak people of all sides , and they will be making a pudder : but what 's the language of their true interest , the infallible guide of the wiser men ? safety certainly ; and that in succeeding raigns to chuse : and if so , their steps must be modest , for they are watcht and number'd . and tho their prudence should submit to their zeal , both must yeild to necessity , whether they like it or no. what they convert upon the square , perswasion i mean , is their own , and much good may it do them . but the fear is not of this , and for compelling the avers genius of the kingdom , they have not the means , what ever they would do if they had them : which is my second reason . i say they have not the power , and that is what we apprehend most . there are three things that prove this in my opinion . first , their want of hands , next , want of time , and lastly , their intestine division ; which , whatever we think , is not inconsiderable . they are few , we must all agree , to the kingdom , upon the best computation that could be made . out of eight millions of people , they are not thirty thousand , and those but thinly sown up and down the nation ; by which it appears that the disproportion of the natural strength is not less than two hundred and seventy persons to one . so that popery in england is like a spirit without a body , or a general without an army . it can hurt no more than bullets without powder , or a sword and no hand to use it . i dare say , there is not of that communion , enough at once , to make all the coal fires in london , and yet we are apprehensive they are able to consume the whole kingdom . i am still more afraid of her fears than of them ; for tho they seem high , she thinks their religion in no reign has appeared much lower . o but they have the king of their side , and he has the executive power in his hands ! true , and this i call the artificial strength of the kingdom . but i say , first we have his word to bind him . and tho some may think our kings cannot be tyed by their people , certainly they may be tyed by themselves . what if i don't look upon the act of both houses to oblige the king , his own concession must ; and that may be given in an act of state i take the king to be as well obliged in honour and conscience to what he promises his people in another method , as if it had been by his royal assent in parliament ; for an honest mans word is good every where , and why a kings should not i can't tell . 't is true , the place differs and the voice comes with greater solemnity , but why it should with greater truth i know not . and if the church of england will but be advised to give him the opportunity of keeping his repeated word with her , and not deprive her self of that advantage by jealousies and distances that make her suspected , and may force him into another conduct , i cannot help believing that the king will not to a tittle let her feel the assurance and benefit of his promises . but next , we have his age for our security , which is the second proof , of the second reason , why the papists should look no farther then a toleration . this is the want of time i mention'd . they have but one life in the lease , and 't is out of their power to renew ; and this life has liv'd fast too , and is got within seven of threescore ; a greater age then most of his ancestors ever attain'd . well , but he has an army and many officers of his own religion . and if it be so , what can it do ? it may suppress an insurrection , but upon the attemps we foolishly fear , they were hardly a breakfast to the quarters they live in . for if they were together , all the confines or remote parts of the nation would rise like grass upon them , and if dispersed , to be sure they have not strength for such an attempt . but if they are not sufficient , there is a potent prince not far off can help the design , who is not angry with protestancy at home only . suppose this , is there not as potent naval powers to assist the constitution of the kingdom from such invasions ? yes , and land ones too . and as the protestant governments have more ships then the other , so an equal land force , when by such attempts to make popery universal , they are awaken'd to the use of them : but certainly we must be very silly to think the king should suffer so great a shake to his own interest as admitting an army of forraigners to enter his kingdom on any pretence , must necessarily occasion . these bull-beggers , and raw-heads and bloody-bones , are the malice of some , and weakness of others . but time , that informs children , will tell the world the meaning of the fright . the third proof of my second reason , is the intestine division among themselves . that division , weakens a great body , and renders a small one harmless , all will agree . now that there is such a thing as division among them is town talk the seculars & regulars have ever been two interests all the roman church over , and they are not only so here , but the regulars differ among themselves . there is not a coffee-house in town that does not freely tell us that the jesuites and benedictines are at variance , that count da da the popes nuncio and bishop lyborn dissent mightily from the politicks of the first ; nay t'other day the story was that they had prevail'd entirely over them . the lords and gentlemen of her communion have as warmly contested about the lengths they ought to go , moderation seems to be the conclusion . together they are little , and can do little ; and divided , they are contemptible instead of terrible . lastly , the roman church ought to be discreet , and think of nothing further then the entreated general ease , because it would be an extream that must beget another in the succeeding raign . for as i can never think her so weak as well as base , that after all her arguments for the jus divinum of succession , she should , in the face of the world , attempt to violate it in the wrong of one of another perswasion , ( for that were an eternal loss of her with mankind ) so if she does not , and yet is extravagant , she only rises higher to fall lower then all others in another raign . this were provoking their own ruin. and to say true , either way would , as the second letter has it , discredit her for ever and make true prophets of those they had taken such pains to prove false witnesses . and supposing her to reckon upon the just succession , nothing can recommend her , or continue her happiness in a raign of another judgment , but this liberty equally maintained , that other perswasions , more numerous , for that reason as well as for their own sakes , are obliged to insure her . here the foundation is broad and strong , and what is built upon it , has the looks of long life . the indenture will at least be , quint-pertite , and parties are not so mortal as men. and as this joyns , so it preserves interest intire , which amounts to a religious amity and a civil vnity at the worst . upon the whole matter , i advise the members of the roman communion in this kingdom , to be moderate , 't is their duty and it belongs to all men to see it and feel it from them , and it behoves them mightily they would ; for the first part of this discourse belongs to their hopes , as well as to the church of englands fears , viz. the duty and spirit of christianity . next , let them do good offices between the king and his excellent children , for as that will be well taken by so affectionate a father , so it gives the lie to their enemies suggestions , and recommends them to the grace and favour of the successors . and having said this , i have said all that belongs to them in particular . there is left only my address to the protestant dissenters and a general conclusion to finish this discourse . your case that are called protestant dissenters , differs mightily from that of the church of england and rome . for the first have the laws for her , the last the prince . those laws are against you , and she is not willing they should be repeal'd : the prince offers to be kind to you if you please ; your interest , in this conjuncture , is the question . i think none ought to be made , that it is the liberty of conscience , desired , because you have much more need of it , having neither laws nor prince of your side , nor a successor of any of your perswasions . the fears of popery i know reach you ; but it is to be remembered also , that if the laws are not repeal'd , there wants no new ones to destroy you , of the papists making ; so that every fear you are taught to have of their repeal , is against your selves . suppose your apprehensions well grounded , you can but be destroy'd ; which is most comfortable for you to suffer by law or without it ? the church of england , by her penal laws , and the doctrine of headship , has armed that religion ( as it falls out ) to destroy you . nay , has made it a duty in the king to do it , from which ( says she ) nothing but an act of parliament can absolve him , & that she is not willing to allow . and is it not as reasonable that you should seek their repeal , that if you suffer from the papists , it may be without human law , as well as against christs law , as for the church of england to keep them in force , because if she suffers , it shall be against the laws made to uphold her ? for not repealing them , brings you an inevitable mischief , and her ▪ at most , but an uncertain safety ; tho 't is certain , she at the same time will sacrifice you to it . and yet if i were in her case , it would please me better to remove laws that might reproach me , and stop my mouth when turn'd against me , and be content , that if i suffer for my religion , it is against the law of god , christianity and the fundamentals of the old and true civil government of my country , before such laws helpt to spoil it . in short , you must either go to church , or meet , or let fall your worshipping of god in the way you believe . if the first , you are hypocrites , and give away the cause , and reproach your dead brethrens sincerity , and gratifie the old accusation of schism , ambition , &c. and finally loose the hope and reward of all your sufferings . if the second , viz. that you meet against law , you run into the mouth of the government , whose teeth are to meet in you and destroy you , as by law established , . if the last , you deny your faith , over-throw your own arguments , fall away from the apostolical doctrine of assembling together , and so must fall into the hands of god , and under the troubles of your own consciences and woundings of his spirit , of which 't is said , who can bear them . so that nothing is plainer then that protestant dissenters are not oblig'd to govern themselves after such church of england measures , supposing her fears and jealousies better bottom'd then they are : for they are neither in this kings time in the same condition , with her if the penal laws remain in force , nor like to be so , if she can help it , in the next raign , if they are not repeal'd in this ; so that they are to be certainly persecuted now , in hopes of an uncertain liberty then . uncertain both whether it will be in her power , and whether she will do it if it be . the language of fear and assurance are two things , affliction promises what prosperity rarely performs . of this the promises made to induce the late kings restoration , and the cancelling of the former declaration , and what followed upon both are a plain proof . and tho the last westminster parliament enclin'd to it ; no body so much oppos'd it as the clergy , and the most zealous sons of that church : and if they could or would not then see it to be reasonable , i can't see why one should trust to people so selfish and short sighted . but if she will stoop to all those dissenting interests that are protestant , it must either be by a comprehension , and then she must part with her bishops , her common-prayer , her ceremonies , and this it self is but presbyterian ; ( and she must go lower yet , if she will comprehend the rest ) or , if not , she must persecute or give this liberty of conscience at last ; which , that she will ever yeild to uncompel'd , and at a time too , when there is none to do it , while she refuses it under her present pressing circumstances , i confefs i cannot apprehend . but there is yet one argument that can never fail to oblige your compliance with the general ease entreated ; viz. that the penal laws are against our great law of property , and so void in themselves . this has been the language of every apology , and that which , to say true , is not to be answer'd : how then can you decline to help their repeal , that in conscience , reason and law you think void in their own nature ? lastly , there is nothing that can put you in a condition to help your selves or the church of england against the domination of popery , but that which she weakly thinks the way to hurt you both , viz. the repeal of the penal laws . for as you are , you are tyed hand and foot , you are not your own men , you can neither serve her nor your selves , you are fast in the stocks of her laws , and the course she would have you take , is to turn martyrs under them to suppo●t them . if you like the bargain you are the best natur'd people in the world , and something more . and since begging is in fashion , i should desire no other boon ; for upon so plain a loss of your wits , your estates will of course fall a stray to the government , so that without the help of a penal law , you make an admirable prize . i have no mind to end so pleasantly with you . i have a sincere and christian regard to you and yours . be not couzn'd , nor captious , at this juncture . i know some of you are told , if you lose this liberty , you introduce idolatry , and for conscience sake you cannot do it . but that 's a pure mistake , and improv'd , i fear , by those that know it is so , which makes it the worse ; for it is not introducing idolatry ( taking for granted that popery is so ) but saving the people from being destroy'd that profess that religion . if christ , and his apostles had taken this course with the world , they must have killed them instead of converting them . 't is your mistake to think the jewish rigorous constitution is adequate to the christian dispensation ; by no means : that one conceit of judaising christianity in our politicks , has fill'd the world with misery , of which this poor kingdom has had its share . idolators are to be enlighten'd and perswaded , as st. paul did the athenians and romans , and not knock on the head , which mends no body . and to say a christian magistrate is to do that , that a christian can't do , is ridiculous ; unless like the bishop of munster , who goes like a bishop one part of the day , and a souldier the other , he is to be a christian in the morning and a magistrate in the afternoon . besides , 't is one thing to enact a religion national , and compel obedience to it ( which would make this case abominable indeed ) and another thing to take off unchristian penalties for the sake of such mistakes , since that is to give them power to hurt others , and this only to save you from being hurt for meer religion . to conclude my address to you , of all people , it would look the most disingenious in you , and give you an aire , the least sensible , charitable and christian not to endeavour such an ease that have so much wanted it , and so often and so earnestly pressed it , even to clamour . but that you should do it for their sakes who have used you so , and that the instruments of their cruelty , the penal laws , should from a common grievance become a darling to any among you , will be such a reproach to your understandings and consciences , that no time or argument can wipe off , and which i beseech god and you to prevent . the conclusion . i shall conclude with one argument , that equally concerns you all , and that is this ; you claim the caracter of english men. now to be an english man , in the sence of the government , is to be a freeman , whether lord or commoner , to hold his liberty and possessions by laws of his own consenting unto , and not to forfeit them upon facts made faults , by humour , faction or partial interest prevailing in the governing part against the constitution of the kingdom ; but for faults only , that are such in the nature of civil government ; to wit , breaches of those laws that are made by the whole , in persuance of common right , for the good of the whole . this regard must at no time be neglected , or violated towards any one interest ; for the moment we concede to such a breach upon our general liberty , be it from an aversion we carry to the principles of those we expose , or some little sinister and temporary benefit of our own , we sacrifice our selves in the prejudices we draw upon others , or suffer them to fall under ; for our interest in this respect is common . if then as english men , we are as mutually interested in the inviolable conservation of each others civil rights , as men embark'd in the same vessel are to save the ship they are in for their own sakes , we ought to watch , serve and secure the interest of one another , because it is our own to do so ; and not by any means endure that to be done to please some narrow regard of any one party , which may be drawn in example at some other turn of power to our own utter ruin. had this honest , just , wise and english consideration prevailed with our ancestors of all opinions from the days of richard the second , there had been less blood , imprisonment , plunder , beggery for the government of this kingdom to answer for . shall i speak within our own knowledge , and that without offence , there has been ruin'd , since the late kings restoration , above fifteen thousand families , and more then five thousand persons dead under bonds for matters of meer conscience to god : but who hath laid it to heart ? it is high time now we should , especially when our king , with so much grace and goodness leads us the way . i beseech you all , if you have any reverence towards god , any value for the excellent constitution of this kingdom , any tenderness for your posterity , any love for your selves , you would embrace this happy conjuncture , and persue a common expedient ; that since we cannot agree to meet in one profession of religion , we may entirely do it in this common civil interest where we are all equally engaged ; and therefore we ought for our own sakes to seek one an●●●ers security , that if we cannot be the better , we may not be t●e worse for our perswasions , in things , that bear no relation to them ▪ and in which , it is impossible we should suffer , and the government escape that is so much concern'd in the civil support and prosperity of every party and person that belongs to it . let us not therefore uphold penal laws against any of our religious perswasions , nor make tests out of each others faiths , to exclude one another our civil rights ; for by the same reason that denying transubstantiation , is made one to exclude a papist , to own it , may be made one to exclude a church of england-man , a presbyterian , an independant , a quaker , and anabaptist : for the question is not who is in the right in opinion , but whether he is not in practice in the wrong , that for such an opinion deprives his neighbour of his common right ? now 't is certain there is not one of any party , that would willingly have a test made out of his belief , to abridge him of his native priviledge ; and therefore neither the opinion of transubstantiation in the papists , episcop●cy in the church of england man , free-will in the arminian , predestination in the presbyterian , perticular churches in the independant , dipping of adult people in the anabaptist , nor not-swearing in the quaker , ought to be made a test of , to deprive him of the comforts of his life , or render him incapable of the service of his country , to which by a natural obligation he is indebted , and from which , no opinion can discharge him , and for that reason , much less should any other party think it fit , or in their power to exclude him . and indeed it were ridiculous to talk of giving liberty of conscience ( which yet few have now the fore-head to oppose ) and at the same time imagine those tests that do exclude men that service and reward , ought to be continued : for though it does not immediately concern me , being neither officer nor papist , yet the consequence is general , and every party , even the church of england , will find her self concern'd upon reflection ; for she cannot assure her self it may not come to be her turn . but , is it not an odd thing , that by leaving them on foot , every body shall have liberty of conscience but the goverment ? for while a man is out of office , he is test-free , but the hour he is chosen to any station , be it in the legislation or administration , he must wiredraw his conscience to hold it , or be excluded with the brand of dissent : and can this be equal or wise ? is this the way to employ men for the good of the publick , where opinion prevails above vertue , and abilities are submitted to the humour of a party ; surely none can think this a cure for division , or that animosities are like to be prevented by the only ways in the world that beget and heighten them . nor is it possible that the ease that should be granted can continue long when the party in whose savour they are not repeal'd , may thereby be enabled to turn the point of the sword again upon dissenters . i know holland is given in objection to this extent of freedom , where only one perswasion has the government , tho the rest their liberty : but they don't consider , first , how much more holland is under the power of necessity then we are . next , that our constitutions differ greatly . for the first , 't is plain , in the little compass they live in ; the uncertainty and precariousness of the means of their subsistance : that as they are in more danger of drowning , so neerer ruin by any commotion in the state , then other countries are . trading is their support , this , keeps them busy , that , makes them rich ; and wealth , naturally gives them caution of the disorders that may spoil them of it . this makes the governing party wary how they use their power , and the other interests tender how they resist it ; for upon it , they have reason to fear a publick desolation ; since holland has not a natural and domestick fund to rely upon , or return to from such national disorders . the next consideration is as clear and cogent ; our constitutions differ mightily : for though they have the name of a republick , yet in their choice , in order to the legislature they are much less free then we are : and since the freeholders of all parties in england may elect , which in holland they can no more do then they can be chosen , there is good reason why all may be elected to serve their king & country here , that in holland cannot be chosen or serve . and if our power to chuse be larger then theirs in holland , we are certainly then a freer people , and so ought not to be confin'd , as they are about what person it is that must be chosen : methinks it bears no proportion , and therefore the instance and objection are improper to our purpose . but it is said by some , that there cannot be two predominant religions , and if the church of england be not that , popery by the kings favour is like to be so . it is certain that two predominant religions , would be two uppermosts at once , which is nonsence every where : but as i cannot see what need there is for the church of england to lose her churhces or revenues , so while she has them , believe me , she is predominant in the thing of the world that lies nearest her guides . but if i were to speak my inclination , i cannot apprehend the necessity of any predominant religion , understanding the word with penal laws in the tale of it : the mischief of it , in a country of so many powerful interests as this , i can easily understand , having had the opertunity of seeing and feeling it too : and because nothing can keep up the ball of vengance like such a predominant religion , and that penal laws and tests are the means of the domination , i , for that reason , think them fit to be repeal'd , and let english mankind say amen . i do not love quibling , but 't is true , to a lamentation , that there is little of the power of religion seen where there is such a predominant one , unless among those it domineers over . i conclude , they that are so predominant , and they that seek to be so ( be they who they will ) move by the same spirit and principle , and however differing their pretentions and ends may be , the odds are very little to me , by which it is i must certainly be opprest . dare we then do ( for once ) as we would be done by , and show the world , we are not religious without justice , nor christians without charity : that false self shall not govern us against true self ; nor oppertunity make us thieves , to our neighbours for gods sake ? the end of testing and persecuting under every revolution of government . if this we can find in our hearts to do , and yet as men , and as christians , as english men , we do but do our duty , let the penal laws and tests be repeal'd ; and in order to it , let us now take those measures of men and things , that may give our wishes and endeavours the best success for the publick good , that our posterity may have more reason to bless our memories for their freedom and security , then for their nature and inheritance . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e irenicum , a weapon-salve for the churches wounds , by edward stillingfleet , rector of ●uton in bedfordshire , in preface to the reader . l. . cod. de paganis . the dutch way of toleration, most proper for our english dissenters baron, william, b. . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing b estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) the dutch way of toleration, most proper for our english dissenters baron, william, b. . p. printed for the author, london : . "written at the request of a friend." signed: m. n (final letter of author's name) reproduction of original in the union theological seminary library, new york. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng dissenters, religious -- netherlands. dissenters, religious -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - ali jakobson sampled and proofread - ali jakobson text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the dutch way of toleration most proper for our english dissenter written at the request of a friend . o! imitatores servum pecus . quo teneam vultus mutantem protea nodo ? hor. as free , and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness , &c. st. pet. ep. . ch. . v. . london , printed for the author 〈…〉 the dutch way of toleration , most proper for our english dissenters . sir , this returns my thanks , for the favour of your last , and candid acknowledgment , that i had reason in affirming , the sword would continue to halt it on between st. paul's and pinner's-hall , as long as this was mayor ; for now you were come over to my opinion , and saw it would not only be so , but that his successor , finding the ice thus broken , would , probably , follow in the same track , or otherwise improve the affront to our old establishments , according as the several factions , which plac'd him in the chair , should think fit to direct : hereupon you desire me to communicate what i know in reference to the dutch toleration , ( whereof you have heard several hints in our private converse ) and how it comes to pass , that the many differing perswasions amongst them enjoy their liberty with a continued peace and quiet , whereas ours are always restless and encroaching , every day grasping at more , and seem still dissatisfied unless they can engross all . indeed , sir , it was to my no little surprize , when last in town , to find your self , and some other friends , so positive , that a reprimand from the court of aldermen , and some by - reflections in an higher court , would stifle their delign , or make them give it over , which i perceived was deeper laid , and had greater encouragements , than any of you did then imagine ; yet sure this you must 〈…〉 ●●●v'd , that 't is very rare to find those parties doing their business by halves ; whatever lights they may pretend to , there is an infallible argument to prove them children of this world , being so wise , that is , cunning , in their generations . no people carry on their projects with greater intrigue , nor more nicely observe the several steps and degrees by which they must be accomplished : their legal indulgence , as it was a great point gain'd , so the timing of it was very critical ; for , being in the heat of the revolution , there might be several casus omissi , which upon farther debate would have been better considered ; particularly , i question very much , whether any dissenter would have been allow'd going to the conventicle during his magistracy , especially to carry the insignia thither ; the former of which hath been all along practis'd in several corporations throughout the kingdom ; and , doubtless , the president your lord mayor has set , will be ap'd by several of his brethren in other places : ( notwithstanding , as the act runs at present , 't is a moot case among the gentlemen of the long robe , whether allowable thereby ) but that your lord mayor may not have the sole honour of the first attempt , at least , that was done the first year of their indulgence , at a corporation in my neighbourhood , where an old zealot of the cause ( brought in perhaps for that purpose ) would needs have the mace attend him to the barn ; but the honesty , or as they term'd it , obstinacy of the officers , the serjeants , would not comply , and so he went without it . afterwards , indeed , when one of the same stamp was in course to be chosen , the company capitulated , that however the mayor might take his liberty , the mace should be confin'd to church ; which some thought a little hard on the mace's side , since 't was believ'd every whit as tender-conscienc'd as the man who follow'd it . but , to return to our purpose , you see how their affairs stand at present , and how little they scruple stretching to the utmost any liberty which is indulg'd them , whereof now they have a fair prospect to make a greater enlargement ; for you know next winter a new parliament will come in course ; and they are so far from being ignorant thereof , or idle thereupon , as 't is hard for a person of your undesigning integrity , to imagine how earnestly they already stickle to carry on their point in that critical juncture , leave never a stone unturn'd , are tampering with all interests , and in all places , to get confiding members chosen , such root and branch-men , as shall effectually carry on the work of the lord , and once more establish the good old cause ; and then let the state look to it as well as the church , for 't is hard to resolve whether suffer'd most from such thorough reformers . now ●his to me is demonstration , that a religious liberty , a freedom as to 〈◊〉 consciences , is not the sole , nor main thing they aim at ; for then would they press no farther , that being confirm'd to them by legal establishment , to all intents and purposes imaginable ; but to be dabbling in the government , is as natural to them as water to a fish ; and if they may not command the royalty , and controll at pleasure , prescribe who are worthy men , and men worthy , those waters will be always troubled , never free from foul weather , and storms : nay , farther to remark , how scandalously they prostitute their spiritual liberty , their right of conscience , to obtrude themselves upon the temporal power , their double dealing , playing fast and loose with our church and sacrament , is an irrefragable argument . formerly , the church of england ( to use their great patriarch's j. o's words ) was a meer antichristian encroachment upon the inheritance of christ , all her darling-errors , stones of the old babel ; and therefore by no means to be communicated with : the faithful of the lord must not touch such defiled garments ; and this indeed was the common cant of them all , for some score of years together : yet now we see to serve a state-turn , or rather overturn the state , the holy sacrament goes down as glib with them as the covenant of old ; there is no scruple , when the cause is concern'd : in the mean while , i dare engage , that if this next election , they can make a party prevalent enough to repeal the test , as they have already cancell'd the other penal laws , they will return to their old invectives , our sacrament shall be reprobated as an anti-christian rite , and all communion with our church sinful and abominable . now here , if they would give me leave to expostulate a little , i would desire them to consider , whether any thing can bring a greater reproach upon religion , the innocence , and simplicity of the gospel , than such vain tergiversations as these ? such linsy woolsy consciences ? such profane halters between god and baal ? can we imagine there should be any thing more in all these mockeries , than a sordid interest , spiteful revenge , or popular humour ? to be cry'd up by the factions , and make something of a figure amongst the mob-sectaries , which they despair'd of obtaining from men of sense and principles . this indeed is not exactly the laodicean temper ; but the little difference is for the worse , being so hot , where they need not be so much as lukewarm , and less than so , where they should express a religious fervour : and since almighty god threatened to spew the former out of his mouth , i fear his blessings may be the less , if these others be not spew'd out of the government . and this , sir , brings me to the ●●estion you propounded ( and what i presume was chiefly aim'● at in the acknowledgment you made ) how it comes to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dutch live in so much peace and quiet , notwithstanding the ma●y perswasions tolerated amongst them ? which may be clearly answered in very few words ; viz. because no such troublesome , ●●easie people , as aforementioned , have to do in the government . and i have sometimes admir'd our great sticklers for liberty , and toleration , who upon all occasions are too forward in crying up the low-country model , and pretend to be of a much quicker scent than others , never hit of this ; but , upon second thoughts considered , they generally belong to some of the factions , and would be sure not to exclude themselves : yet , doubtless , what , horace observes in poetry , is as true in politicks , decipit exemplar vitiis imitabile , 't is hard coming at the same end , without the like means : to imitate their toleration , without their caution and restrictions , will not only be sordid , as the poet terms it , but ineffectual , prove a remedy worse than the disease ; for from thence , more especially , it proceeds , that their toleration has turn'd to account : in all other places , where vniversal and unlimited , it has fallen a prey to the undermining stratagems of that spiritual vsurper upon all christian liberty whatsoever , as will hereafter appear . for your fuller satisfaction therefore , i shall give you an account of the dutch toleration ; as likewise how hard it will be to bring us to that model , and yet shew you 't is that alone can do our business : all other courses will be much more unpracticable , and unsafe , and multiply those distractions which we design'd to prevent . and that you may give the greater credit to what i shall say herein , it shall not depend upon my sole authority ( though it was my chief enquiry during some years abode there ) but have the confirmation of sir william temple's observations upon those provinces ; which , as i think it was the first , so 't is , generally believed , the exactest piece we have had from that ingenious gentleman ; clear matter of fact , without that partiality and by respect , which many times is not avoided by such as pretend most thereunto . now what makes it seem more difficult and unpracticable amongst us , than them , is , that the constitution of their government , and temper of their people , will be found better adapted thereunto , with some other advantages of lesser moments : all which take , as follows . first , then the constitution of their government seems better adapted thereunto : to which purpose , i must let you know , that however those provinces are given out to be a common-wealth , a free state , with such other swelling titles of liberty , priviledges , &c. as if the people had the sole controll , the dernier resort , in all publick determinations ( and so indeed it was in those little democracies of greece , and that great one of rome , where no laws could be enacted , nor magistrates chosen , &c. but by their consent ) upon enquiry it will appear quite otherwise ; the populace , the burghers , have no more to do in the government , than you and i , if we dwelt , or but sojourn'd amongst them : 't is the exactest oligarchy that is this day , or perhaps ever was in the world , where the magistrates of every city , or province , are as absolute as any prince in christendom : enact laws , levy taxes , chuse one another into the several offices of government , and upon a vacancy ( which seldom happens , but by death ) elect another to fill up their number , without any controll , but from their stadtholder , who hath a negative voice , or somewhat like it in all their elections ; and tho' a reasonable check , is what their hogan moganships have been most uneasie under , and endeavoured more than once to free themselves from . sir w.t. instances more particularly in the city of amsterdam , as chief of the province of holland , and in that , as chief of the seven provinces ; and tells you , the government of that city is in the sole management of thirty six persons , whom he calls senators ; and saith , indeed , they were formerly chosen by the voices of the richer burghers , or freemen of the city ; who , upon the death of a senator , met together either in a church , a market , or some other place , spacious enough to receive their numbers , and there made an election of the person to succeed , by a majority of voices . but about one hundred and thirty , or forty , years agoe , when the towns of holland began to encrease in circuit and people , so as these frequent assemblies grew into danger of tumult and disorders , upon every occasion , by reason of their number and contentions : this election of senators , came by the resolution of the burghers in one of their general assemblies , to be devolv'd forever upon the standing senate for that time ; so that ever since when any of their number dies , a new one is chosen by the rest of the senate , without any intervention of the other burghers , which makes the government a sort of oligarchy , and very different from a popular government , as it is generally esteemed by those , who passing , or living in these countries , content themselves with common observations , or inquiries . and this resolution of the burghers either was agreed upon , or followed , by general consent , or example , about the same time , in all the towns of the province , tho' with some difference in the number of the senators . thus far the forementioned gentleman ; whereto i must farther add , that these senators both here , and in all other towns , are of the same communion , as to the publick exercise of religion ; which , after some debates , and alterations , upon their defection from spain , was fix'd upon the geneva-model , with an allay of erastianism , the better to keep under the insolency of their presbyteries , so troublesome elsewhere . 't is not of much moment to tell you farther , that as these senators marry generally into one anothers families , so they keep the government , for the most part , amongst themselves , the children , with other relations , coming in , and gradually ascending , if capable of it ; which nevertheless being faithfully discharg'd , without partiality , avarice , or any other such by-respects , the people seem no ways dissatisfied therewith . this , sir , is a small scratch of the present establishment of that people , which i shall farther confirm to you , upon the authority of the present bishop of sarum ; who , speaking of the low-countries , how they got their liberty , and how they maintain'd it , adds , yet after all this , tho' the name of their government has a greater sound towards liberty than our own , we are really the much freer people of the two , where every man has a more open access to a proportion'd share in the government , than among them . the high-flown demagogues of our nation , i know , will censure this as a great defect , a giving up their rights , a betraying their priviledges , with a great deal such like commonwealth-cant , as has betray'd us into confusion more than once ; whereas doubtless those thoughtful people made a sober judgment of things , and well understood such priviledges not worth keeping , as tended only to the distraction of their debates , and might , in the end , destroy their government : to be sure the general toleration , which followed soon after , could have stood upon no other bottom ; and those at the helm were so well satisfy'd with this new constitution , as to set the sovereingty of all the seven provinces upon the same foot : for so the assembly of the states general , which consisted of above eight hundred persons , who meeting together in one place from so many several parts , gave too great a shock to the whole body of the vnion , made their debates long , and sometimes confused , the resolutions slow , and upon sudden occasions out of time , was by mutual consent of the whole body , devolved upon those , now stil'd the states general , which consists of so many deputies from each province , more or less , as they are pleased to send ; which makes no difference , as to their votes , because given according to their several provinces , not number of ●●●sons , altho' their number seldom arise to so many as the 〈◊〉 at amsterdam consists of . now , sir , to come to the disparity , in reference to our selves , none of this is done , or must be thought off amongst us , as to the whole body of the government ; which , though a free monarchy , is so , well temper'd , as we see every subject own'd to have more liberty , than under a free state : 't is pity it should be so much abused ; yet since it is so , might there not be some abridgment as to particular persons , without the least infraction upon the whole constitution , an exchange of temporal for a spiritual liberty ? they that will have a new religion , let them live according to this new model of our neighbours , and forbear meddling in civil concerns ; otherwise i cannot see how the old establishment should be long upheld : for whilst the tolerated parties are free to vote , and put in their claims to all publick administrations , all offices of honour , trust , or profit , they may carry things as they please ; what thorough their industry and importunity , cabals and clamours , libels and lies , 't is as possible to stop a raging sea , as the madness of such people : no man of sence will attempt it ; for tho' they are divided amongst themselves , in doctrines , modes of worship , and forms of government , ephraim against manasseh , and manasseh against ephraim ; yet the judah of the church of england , is the united object of all their spite 's , and what they study most implacably to supplant and destroy : and if we reflect how many or them , in the late reign , comply'd with the dispensing power , and superseded all those laws , which the nation , for above an hundred years successively , had compil'd to secure the protestant religion , there needs no window into any of their breasts , ( as a leading holder-forth then wish'd in an address ) to discover the reality of their intentions . 't is too clear from thence , and all their other practices , that the church of england is the only popery they have a pique against ; and can confederate with that which is really so , nay , turk or jew , to effect its ruine . in my judgment , therefore , it would be a very reasonable , and necessary test , ( and , i fancy , reduce the truly conscious dissenters to a very small number ) to try the sincerity of their intentions , and steadiness of their principles , by an indulgence of that liberty they are so zealous for , upon condition not to intermeddle in civil affairs , which their , weak vndestandings , strong prejudices , and vain enthusiasms , render them most unqualified for : will the freeholder , even to the cottager with his cabbage-ground and apple-tree , recede from the right he has of throwing up his cap at a county-election ? the members of smaller burroughs , as well as larger corporations , of putting their 〈◊〉 to an expence upon the like account , together with being on the livery , strutting at common halls , common councils , and the like ? nay , even in country-parishes , will they recede from serving as constable in their turns , controling the poor as overseers or parsons as church-wardens ? so likewise the country-gentleman ; how will he take being left out of the peace , or not appearing upon the bench at sessions , and assizes , as well as his conforming neighbours ? if i mistake not the temper of the several parties , these little things will be of hard digestion , since , they have been ever observ'd as forward to command , as uneasie to obey ; yet if we would go according to the low-country-plan , ( to use the new word ) this course must be taken ; for 't is this , alone has secur'd them , and this , or nothing , will secure us : and therefore a very learned person , about eighteen or twenty years since , who understood the vnreasonableness of our several separations extremely well , had fully studied all their cavils , and as fully evinced them , if any thing of eviction could work upon that sort of people : yet , in his preface to that demonstrative piece , whether it was to let the dissenters see , he was averse to nothing which might , tend to a settlement , or propounded it from a friend , whose head hath been always pregnant with comprehension , and toleration-projects : or , perhaps , to humour some great men at the helm , who about that time stickled very much for a suspension of penal laws ; upon what design , as every eye then discover'd , so , i fear , in spite of all endeavours to the contrary , that design will be ever concern'd therein , and advanc'd thereby ; i say , upon whatever account it was , this reverend worthy person , in his preface , makes a short essay as to a toleration , laying down such restrictions and limitations , as are requisite to prevent the mischiefs of an unlimited licentiousness , which he saith would certainly bring confusion amongst us , and in the end , popery : now the first of his restrictions , is , that none be permitted this indulgence , who do not declare , that they hold all communion with our church unlawful ; for it seems unreasonable to allow it to others , and will give countenance to endless and causeless separations . and give me leave to add , will gratifie the capricio's of such wanton libertines , as live scepticks , and dye atheists : to which kind of scepticism i find several , who associate with at least , and ab●tt the dissenters , much inclin'd . quere , as to your lord mayor . another restriction is , that no person , so indulg'd , be capable of any publick office ; it being unreasonable , that such should be trusted with government , who look upon what the government hath already establish'd as unlawful ▪ a third is , that all such as enjoy it , must declare the part●cular congregation they are of ; and enter their names before such commissioners as shall be authoriz'd to that purpose . i shall mention no more , ( tho' there be several others tending to the same purpose ) but only appeal whether you , or any man else of sober sence , must not acknowledge these to be highly reasonable , and absolutely necessary ; that we may know what men are , and where to have them . in martial-law , none are more severely proceeded against , than such as fly from their own , or are taken as spies in the enemies camp ; yet we must suffer these enemies of our church , tho' they have been all along in the dissenters service , to enter our line at pleasure , take our word , our test , and sacrament , that they may be the better qualified to work our ruine ; nay , are so stupidly senceless , as not only to let them alone , but entertain and caress them as friends : just thus the amalakites serv'd israel , and we know how highly almighty god was incensed thereat , and what the people suffer'd thereby . but not to ramble too far , or be thought too much concern'd upon the church-account , let us consider our government in general , whether it can be so well secur'd by such an hodge-podge of perswasions , who will be continually pulling several ways , and aiming at several interests , as the low countries , where a few understanding men act unanimously for the publick welfare , without any by-regards , or factious designs . secondly , what i mentioned , in the next place , by way of disparity , as likely to make a toleration less feasable amongst us , than the dutch , is the different temper and humours of the two nations : they are a serious , and thoughtful people , wholly intent upon their own private concerns , and very industrious in all their particular callings ; frugal and parsimonious to the utmost ; truly speaking , necessitated thereunto , by reason of the many and continual imposts laid upon them , which no people under heaven so contentedly bear , nor so indefatigably wade through , being abundantly satisfied with the prudence and integrity of their governours , and highly transported with an imaginary conceit of liberty , which no body can see into , or understand , but themselves : so that , as the forementioned gentleman observes , all appetites and passions seem to run lower here , than in other countries . i am sure they do not run so low in ours , which , on the contrary , is too sanguine to be settled as it ought ; for , to pass by that old charge of rex diabolorum , the english good nature was so strongly sowr'd by our late times of libertinism , and confusion , men contracted such a habit of self-conceit , opposition , and disobedience , were so totally given over to a perverse enthusiastical spirit ; and for so long a time , as now indeed it may be look'd upon , next to impossible , absolutely to conjure it down ; yet doubtless it ought to be confin'd to its own home , the melancholy tombs of their restless unquiet thoughts , and not wander up and down the world , to possess others with the legions of such frenzies ; which , if let alone , will certainly be ; for 't is a pestilent infection , and without due caution spreads like the plague . and that this unhappy disposition began from the separation-fraternity , and is much more incident to the english , than dutch temper , take this single instance : there were more disputes , contests , and quarrels , amongst the few brownists , and other independent sectaries , which resorted thither the latter end of queen elizabeth's , king james the first 's time , and so on , than among the whole dutch nation ever since they reform'd : t is unaccountable what impertinent controversies arose between them , even to the colour of aaron's ephod , whether it were blew , or a sea-green , which made an irreconcilable difference between their pastors , and consequently the flocks divided . once indeed there was a controversie amongst the dutch , about some school-points ( and i think that the only instance can be given ) which rose to a great height ; but then you must know it was occasion'd principally by two great state-factions , wherein most divines , especially of the geneva-cut , are too easily made properties : in this , to be sure , they serv'd themselves to purpose ; for obtaining by power , what they could not get by argument , one party became judge of the other , and thrust them down amongst the several herds of tolerated dissenters . and here give me leave to observe a farther evidence of the peaceable temper and disposition of those people ; for tho' the ablest , and most learned in their government , have all along laugh'd at the stoical fatality and reprobation-rigours of their divines , and known what hard measure the remonstrants the arminians had met withal ; yet never thought it worth while to have the debate reviv'd , which might only revive new exasperations about insignificant opinions ; or , as i find it express'd in a late poem , for points by neither party understood . on the other side , to return home , how differently have these disputes been manag'd amongst us , and how vexatiously continued ? arminian and papist , pass'd a long time for terms synonimous ; which not only the pulpit-beautifeus , but several grandees of the house , maliciously apply'd to every orthodox divine , and indeed all others , who would not go along with them in those cursed desolations they then brought upon church and state ; which having wretchedly effected , how did the religious brawl multiply upon their hands ? with what implacable enmity , did the presbyterian and independant prosecute each other ? and how violent in their several ways , both against them , and one another , were the numerous spawn of equivocal sects , which like the overflowing nile , their deluge of mischief so fatally produc'd ? insomuch , as when cromwel had bestrid the commonwealth , and set himself in the saddle , he was presum'd to connive at several church of england-congregations , both in publick parishes , and private assemblies , in spite to the presbyterians , and other sectaries , whom he dreaded as much as the loyal party ; and did , with reason , expect they should improve those calumnies , and invectives against him , whereof he had been the grand promoter against their righful and lawful king ; and so he found it to his end , which that perplexity and vexation he met with from fanaticks of all sorts , and in all places , city , country , but especially his army , was presum'd to hasten . 't is true , when the legislative power , the other day , thought fit to establish them an indulgence , there was a project set on-foot to make two sticks one , ( to use their own canting terms ) and several proposals laid down in order thereunto ; yet we find them still separated from one another , and the several parties , upon every little occasion , dividing among themselves , tho' much art is used to smother and conceal it : at the best , it was but a flourish , a cord of vanity , which bound them together , and it held accordingly ; neither can you expect otherwise , upon consideration of the causes which that great vndertaker assigns of those divisions , the root from whence their discords spring : come they not hence , even of our lusts ? whatever you find to have been the cause of them , whether spiritual pride , or a contentious disposition , or an affectation of singularity , or error of opinion , or admiration of mens persons , or a sowrness of spirit , or an ambition of drawing disciples after us : let the cause be what it will , it must be remov'd , &c. all which is sooner said than done ; such pecadillo's , and of so long continuance , are not easily dislodg'd : although he might as well have taken his character from st. paul's perillous times , which he foretells in the last days , when men should be heady , high-minded , covetous , proud , boasters , &c. so far from growing better , as he declares they should wax worse and worse , deceiving , and being , deceived . now , sir , whatever censure i may incur from others , my appeal is to your self , whether the account here given of these people be any other , than what their daily practices do sadly ; verifie ? and if left to their own culture , and ingenuity , any likelihood they should reform ? 't is grown as customary , as habitual with them , to thwart , contradict , and oppose , as with the dutch to live quietly , and mind their own business : from which disposition of theirs , i may continue the disparity , and observe , thirdly , how their constant application to business and imployment , afford them no time to dream of new lights , or trouble themselves about any other perswasion , as to religion , than what they were brought up in ; for , as at their first establishment , there were three predominant way of opinion , ( i won't say doctrine ) and worship , which they had then reform'd themselves into , lutherans , calvinists , and anabaptists ; so the toleration more especially extended to them , and has been generally continued down in the same families , from father to children ever since ; neither is it so usual with them to flitt up and down , from one maggotty perswasion to another , as among us . those upstart puny sects , which arose of later days , are mostly foreign , and mostly from england too , as the brownists , and independents first , the sabbatarians after them , then quakers , muggletonians , and what not ? who have , prevail'd with some of the natives to be as foolish and mad as themselves , but not many ; and , perhaps , had they been kept to the same thoughtfulness at home for bread , and all other necessaries of life , would not have so wantonly gone a-whoring with their own inventions . and the like reason may be given , that there are not so many libertines , atheistical , profane persons , as in many other parts , where all religions are tolerated : it cannot seem strange there should be some without any ; and that there are not more , shall not be attributed so much to their vertue as necessity : for not only their mechanicks and tradesmen , but persons of the best quality , are oblig'd to the like care and industry , as to the concerns of humane life . the ground on which their many populous cities stand , is of small compass ; and the rents of that little land they have , are very low , not able to maintain any one in the port of a gentleman ; ( that is , an idleman , which is their term for that degree ) whereof as there are few ancient families amongst them , so the children of those that are , as likewise of their chief magistrates , and rich merchants , are constantly brought up to some imployment , military or civil , with an education agreeable thereunto , which , together with their natural disposition , keeps their thoughts fix'd upon things really advantageous ; and so you shall generally find them very intent upon their designs , and assiduous in their application . will you give me leave to apply this and observe how opposite their course is to that of our mercurial wits , who being born to great fortunes , and valued for the great worth of those predecessors which rais'd them , as if nothing else were wanting which should recommend them to the world , think themselves above any serious application , either as to business , or knowledge . i need not tell you now little , or no , education our young master has from his very cradle ; how careful the good lady-mother is , he should not be kept in too much at school ; what a fruitless figure he makes in the vniversity ; and when he comes up to the extravagancies of the town , is as much for living above sober sence , as our dissenters above ordinances . god forbid this should be a general rule ; yet it could be wish'd there were more exceptions , than daily experience will permit us ; to observe : liberty of life , tho' not so much clamour'd for , is as much in vogue as liberty of conscience , and the one doubtless consequent of the other : for the practical atheist hath been ever thought to introduce the speculation ; and when men are left free to all religions , that is the proper time to set up for none . i remember , during cromwel's vsurpation , the leviathan-doctrine was first started ; and as some gentlemen of too good parts , unless better employ'd , were industrious to cultivate and improve it , so many of our airy sparks about town , and elsewhere , became their sordid imitators : nothing would go down with them , but a state of war , with a total abolition of all difference between good and evil , right and wrong . now , whether it was their being weary , or asham'd , of such unreasonable notions , or an affectation of novelty , the delight of vain minds , deism seems to have superseded that , and is become at present the darling-subject of every young libertine's discourse ; who will presume to expose , and run down reveal'd religion with all confidence imaginable , altho' the little impertinent never thought a sober hour in its life ; and understands the philosophy of matter and motion , no farther , than that his own brains are in a continual hurry : not but that these engines too are set on work by some more plodding heads , who have several secret designs in exploding the authority of scripture , upon the politick as well as prophane account ; and , among the rest , to buoy up such models of government , as the belief thereof expresly overthrows . here then arises the main quere : what shall we do with such dissenters as these ? the sceptick , the deist , the atheist , under what class shall we place them ? they have the same plea to be conside●●● 〈◊〉 which the others always brought , that is , number and 〈◊〉 being able to vie , in either particular , with any of their differing factions , and , for ought i see , in a short time , may outdo them all ; since daily experience assures us 't is the last result of fanatick zeal ; for being over-heated , and weary , with running its several courses of faction and opinion , it sits down in the end , and centres here . and yet , all this while , the rest will not see what a fine thread they have spun for themselves , as well as us ; whilst the one are undermining the church of england , these others are doing the same to the christian religion : altho' , to speak impartially , the latitude some divines have taken , as to the socinian , and other points of like nature , must be acknowledg'd not a little conducing to this grand apostacy ; so readily will corrupt minds improve bad principles , deny those mysteries by wholesale , which some mens rash and nice enquiries had made more perplex'd and intricate , than the simplicity of true religion stands in need of , or did ever design . and this , sir , is the result of an vnlimited toleration ; which going on at this rate , ( unless the pater noster men interpose their inquisition ) must necessarily end in a sit anima mea cum philosophis . fourthly , another thing which makes the dutch toleration sit the more easie , is , that their government is most exact and punctual in the administration of justice , and execution of law ; which as they are enacted at first , upon the mature deliberation of a few sober understanding men , with sole regard to the common weal , the publick good ; so , once proclaim'd , there is no evading their true import , or escaping the penalty of a violation : the lawyers among them dare not open , or so much as qu●tch against what their superiours have thought fit to establish , much less study flaws , and hammer out niceties , to gratifie bad men , in frustrating whatever good the legislative power design'd , and put them to the trouble of an explanatory act next session , which runs the same risque : yet that we are under these very circumstances , i need not tell you ; which , with the insolency of faction , the remissness and indifferency of the executive power , hath brought us too nigh an affinity with that deplorable estate of the jewish anarchy , where every one did what seem'd right in his own eyes . otherwise , we have laws more than enough ; and could they have executed themselves , all allegations for a toleration had been long since quash'd ; not only the externals of god's publick worship had been kept up in decency and order , but every man 's temporal concern , his right and 〈…〉 fix'd upon a much surer bottom . on the contrary , a 〈◊〉 indifferency , as to religious duties , hath so far unprincipled , and debauch'd mens minds , that our modern faith is not only without works , but so wholly confin'd to some spiritual chimaera's , as there is little of truth or trust in the ordinary transactions of humane life : our meum and tuum is in a very precarious condition , what with the latitude of their new notions , and the advantage to be taken from the perplexity , the niceties of our laws , with the little tricks of practice , so shamefully now a-days alla-mode , an undesigning integrity can scarce tell whom to trust , and is frequently at a loss , either to recover right , or repel wrong : neither will it be ever otherwise , as long as so many law-jobbing make-bates are suffered to swarm in every county throughout the kingdom . were grievances to be redress'd by their malignity and epidemick contagion , i know no one thing sooner to be consider'd ; that it is otherwise , you and i cannot help . in short , sir , a strict and regular execution of laws , is the life and soul of any government . take these two different instances : in the spanish netherlands , we find the romish religion solely establish'd , with the rigour , tho' not the name , of that inquisition ; which was the most plausible plea for their first defection : on the other side , in the vnited provinces , there is a general toleration ; both which , the vniformity of the one , and indulgence of the other , are supported , and kept up , by a vigorous execution of such laws as were thought most proper thereunto ; and if either , the latter are the more exact and severe , by reason it is so natural for different opinions to clash with , and thwart each other ; so far are they from admitting them into the magistracy , giving the least way to new lights , and fanciful enthusiasms there , as well knowing such a freedom is enough to make any government as monstrous as that picture , which had an hanc populus affix'd . fifthly , i shall only add farther , that the dutch toleration was established in the infancy of the reformation , when men had a sincere and unfeigned zeal for the truth of religion , desired nothing more than to have her free'd from ignorance and superstition , such spurious doctrines , and burthensome ceremonies , as rust of time , neglect of enquiry , and , above all , the intrigues of papal vsurpation , had impos'd upon the world , and for several centuries together made pass for catholick . now , altho' this zeal was not always according to knowledge , the different , and , in some places , not justifiable methods which were taken , did much obstruct , ay , and scandalize so good an undertaking ; yet the maint point being gain'd in shaking off the roman yoke , whether out of interest , prudence , or piety , i shall not determine , men generally sat down abundantly satisfied with the enjoyment of that perswasion , which 〈…〉 deepest impression upon their minds : and this happened in such a juncture for the vnited provinces , as perhaps no age will be ever able to paralell . for the spanish interest prevaling in brabant , and flanders , with the walloon provinces , whoever could ; or would not submit , retreated hither , as likewise great multitudes out of france and germany ; which made them the pantheon , the common receptacle of all people pretending to the liberty of conscience , the only thing then desired , and in the enjoyment whereof ( whether well or ill-inform'd we are not now to enquire ) they were abundantly satisfied . how much the world ( especially amongst us ) is cool'd as to such a temper , and heated as to much worse dispositions , our many feuds and factions , unreasonable cavils , and implacable enmities , too sadly declare . men , now a-days , bellow out the protestant religion , the protestant religion , as the jews of old , the temple of the lord , the temple of the lord , as if the very name , or relation thereunto , might authorize the grossest impieties , their wilful perjuries , and seditious practices , the violation of publick laws , and disturbance of publick peace , even to a most unnatural rebellion , and execrable regicide : this , sir , impartially speaking , is undeniable matter of fact ; and if ever the nation returns to its wits again , sober sence , and sound principles , such protestants will be recorded with a very black character , the reproach not only of the reformation , but of every thing which tends to true religion , like the pharisees and zealots among the jews , sacrificing all to their own gross , hypocrisie , sordid avarice , and self-will'd ambition ; and god grant they do not bring the like fatal end upon our place and nation : the dreadful apprehension whereof makes not only my hand , but my heart , tremble ; and , amid'st such melancholy reflections , wish to have been born in an age , when wise men had had the ascendent of fools , and honest men of knaves . on the contrary , as things now stand , you know the close of that old rhime , knaves and fools will quite undoe us . neither can our prospect be much better , if we look upon the reformation abroad : what a strange indifferency have some great princes of the empire lately discover'd ? and how gross the apostacy of others ? to be sure , where there was a general toleration of lutheran and calvinists , together , with the several other differing perswasions , anabaptists , arrians , socinians , &c they are either wholly extirpated , as in bohemia , moravia , the two austria's , poland , &c. or in a fair tendency thereunto , as at present in hungary , and transilvania : in all which places they were very numerous ; but what with contending amongst themselves , and innovating , or opposing the establish'd government , they have been either worm'd , or beaten out , with all the contempt and ease imaginable : and that the same design is carrying on amongst us , and the same event expected , they must be wilfully blind who do not see , what with licentiousness on the one hand , and hypocrisie on the other , the no - reality of such as pretend most , and great indifferency of all the rest ; as we are naturally prone to fall into extreams , so we seem strangely dispos'd ( and the more , because unwilling to believe it , to fall into that which we have all along pretended most vehemently to avoid . thus , sir , have i impartially , and perhaps too freely , told you what i know , and what i think of the dutch toleration ; yet without this freedom , it had been impossible to set you in a true light , so as to discover the gross mistakes of our commonwealth pretenders , who are always admiring the hollanders , with the excellent administration people live under there ; which nevertheless they understand no more , than how the empire , and army of russia , is now manag'd during the czar's absence ; and the many projects they are so troublesome withal , both in theory and practice , are as opposite thereunto , as one pole to the other : yet , since things are brought to that pass , as a toleration must be , give me leave to tell you , that venturing in any other than a dutch bottom , will shipwreck the whole cargo ; that is , without a metaphor , keeping the magistracy in such hands as shall be of one piece , vniform , and vnanimous in the management thereof ; for which i shall briefly lay down these following reasons , and so end your trouble . st . we shall have some face of government in an establish'd national religion ; which i mention solely upon a civil account , and that not only in regard to the outward decorum , ( which yet ought to be consider'd ) but the absolute necessity thereof , as the only means of preventing those continual contrasts and caballings , which the several factions will have one against another ; and if admitted to debates , all together against that which is uppermost ; the mischief , and inconveniencies whereof , can no other way be redress'd , than by fixing the ruling power in one perswasion , to whom it shall solely appertain to take care of the whole , see the several parties enjoy their private opinions , without the least infraction upon our publick peace . on the other side , let us reflect , first , upon the vndecency of the thing , how preposterous it must seem to any man of sence , whether native or foreigner , that the sword should dance attendance from one place to another , according to the caprice of each prevailing faction : this year's lord mayor has a conscience of such latitude , as to trim it between church and conventicle , without the least regret ; whereas his successor may have one so squeamish , and streight-lac'd , as not to come within the sound of st. paul's organ , or under the roof of that sumptuous , and therefore superstitious structure . but then too having got the sword to go their own way , how strangely must it wander up and down , as each party prevail to get into the chair ; one year it must attend a presbyterian-meeting , the next , perhaps , will fall to the independant's lot , and the anabaptists will ill resent it to go without their turn ; nay , we are not sure but the quakers may put in their claim , and without any offence to the inward-man , desire it should attend their motions on a bulk in grace-church-street . this , sir , i take to be as natural to the aspiring spirits of those several schismatical herds , as milk to a calf , and they will low as much if kept without it ; yet how decent this will be , how unbecoming the state and gravity of any magistracy , i leave for you , and the world to judge . however that of publick security is much more to be consider'd ; for whatever pleas may be alledg'd , or protestations made , we know how things went , when the weak conscience had got the strongest sword , dominion was then founded in grace , and the appointed time come for the saints to inherit the earth , and bring in subjection all the powers of darkness . dly , the ancient grandeur and hospitality of our city-magistracy , and proportionably of all other corporations , will be hereby continued and kept up ; which since it came into these hands , hath been most scandalously slighted , and disus'd ; for the character which our poet laureat gave of that cursed shimei , who first led the van to faction and frugality , is true of all the rest , cool are their kitchens , tho' their brains are hot . to speak freely , a sneaking , single-soul'd sectary , cannot exert it self to any thing that is great or generosn , gain is their godliness , and profit their preferment ; in order whereunto , upon enquiry , you shall find , that those great offices wherein worthy citizens were formerly wont to expend several thousand pounds , are now made to bear their own charges , and bring somewhat into pocket too : and , as a farther ill consequence hereof , there are those will tell you all places of inferiour trust are dispos'd off accordingly ; and whoever makes a hard bargain , will be more solicitous for his own reimbursement , than the commonweal . 't was nobly said of tully , nec quidquam aliud videndum est nobis , quos populus romanus hoc in gradu collocarit , nisi ne quid privatis studiis de operâ publicâ de●rahamus ; neither can it possibly go well with any government , if men in publick places have not publick spirits , under which defect i am afraid our poor nation , at present more especially , very much labours . dly , this will make an exact discrimination between the truly conscientious dissenter , and the politick , the factious intriguer ; for when every man must declare to what body of church-membership he will join , and is oblig'd therein to abide ( whether in the lord , or not , the same lord shall judge at last ) our sundry shifting proteus's such amphibious christians , as can live both in land and water , church and conventicle , ( and that , more especially , to get prey ) will intirely be defeated of their many base ends ; conscience shall have its full liberty , but the state-libertine wholly abridg'd from promoting their maggotty commonwealth innovations ; or abusing the sacred robe of magistracy , for a cloak of maliciousness , avarice , or both ; and were this reasonable ▪ distinction effectually prosecuted , and their little factious properties excluded from voting the sword into such unworthy hands , it must fall in course to some honester man's lot , who will be the minister of god for good , and bear it not in vain . 't is likewise to be hop'd , this may tend by degrees to the better information of the deluded people , make them reflect upon the inconsistency of their principles , and unwarrantableness of schism , how naturally they tend to a licentious prophanation of all things sacred and civil , whilst men of corrupt minds can so easily prostitute the most solemn obligations of religion , and conscience , to two such servile respects as interest and humour . neither are we to despair , but it may work a reformation in the persons themselves ; for generally when men get nothing by acting the hypocrite , they care no longer to wear the vizard , chuse rather to appear as they really are , and fall at last to desire a right information of things , since error and deceit has fail'd in those advantages , which were formerly the main support of their vnrighteous mammon . but whatever the event be as to them , i am confident you are satisfied no government can be safe in such slippery hands ; for they that can be any thing , will be every thing , and are good for nothing ; having betray'd their own consciences , is it possible they should demur serving others in the like kind ? thly , but to come to that which is most considerable in this case , indeed the main support of every government : by this means all publick deliberations , and resolves , will be carried on in a smooth and even , steddy , uniform course , free from factious oppositions , with the many other by-respects of intriguing interests : this , i say , in a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , at least , would abate the several feuds , ay , and 〈◊〉 expences too , at the election of our national represen●●●●●es , and secure their debates , when assembled , from frequent embarassments , according to the french term , the obstructions and delays , which such as cannot obtain their own private , pettish humours , are prone to interpose in the most weighty transactions , tho' never so prejudicial to the common good. in like manner all other sinister practices , plots , and brangles , whether in towns corporate , city , or country , would be reduc'd to something of temper , noise and nonsence being once excluded , such men in course must come in place , as would speak to the purpose , and act upon a principle . and if any one objects this would be too great an invasion upon their liberties , i shall only reply , as at first , 't is no more than what their admired neighbours the hollanders , did upon their own accord , to prevent the dangerous consequences of their many popular heats , and tumultuous assemblies , when they gave way that all their right thereto should be devolv'd upon a few sober understanding men , who knew better how to act for the common welfare than themselves : but whether many , or few ( for this propounds only the exclusion of some , no alteration in the whole constitution , as well knowing neither oligarchy , nor polygarchy will do with us , however there be zealous pretenders to both ) so they be all of one piece , business will go on much the smoother , and be sooner brought to a conclusion : and therefore give me leave to transferr st. paul's comparison , from the church to the body politick , it being equally dangerous to them both , as in the natural : if the head be a monarch , and the feet commonwealths-men ; the eye of the presbyterian , and the ear of the congregational perswasions , with the devil and all of little maggotty sectaries grumbling in the belly , what care can be taken of the whole ? what will become of it in the end ? amongst sundry pretty crotchets , which in the low countries hang out for signs , there is one at harlem , call'd the misforstand , that is , a barrel of beer between two dray-men , turn'd back to back , and so pulling two contrary ways . i have known a nation standing in this unhappy posture for nigh these sixty years together , with these aggravating circumstances , that as there have been many more than two pullers , so they pull'd more than twenty several ways , that the poor vessel hath been able to hold out thus long is much ; yet that it should hold out much longer , will be more to admiration . thly , that the monarch , and monarchy , will be hereby very much secured , cannot be disputed ; for , as we see , how fatal it is , when a prince differs 〈◊〉 his perswasion from the establish'd religion , so one of that perswasion is as little secure , if his ministers , ●ther inferiour officers , and dependants , are of different sentiments , and inclinations ; and that not only as to divine matters , but the very nature and original of all humane constitutions , and civil societies : and whoever wears the crown of england , upon any other than the old church of england principle , will neither find that sit easie , nor himself long safe ; for notwithstanding the many protestations , and acknowledgments , which either flattery , or interest , may for some time , oblige them unto , there is not one in ten of the several factions , could they have their own wills , would endure a monarchy , any more than the kingdom of heaven a commonwealth . that such a book as ludlow's memoirs should come abroad at this time of day , is somewhat odd , and argues his admirers men of no little assurance ; yet really however it may prevail upon the infatuated sectaries , the many plots and counter-plots there discover'd , their implacable enmities one against another , persidious hypocrisies , and clandestine vnderminings , with a continued irresolution as to any thing of accord and settlement , must convince every man of sence , that ( like their infernal abettor ) their sole talent lay in doing mischief , opposing , and pulling down ; which , having effected , they could no more agree what should succeed , than the mob of capua , when they had brought things into the same condition . read over his whole second volume with a serious attention ; and then tell me , whether hell it self can be represented in greater confusion , than he doth there the conduct of affairs , the contrasts , and counterminings of the several vsurping powers , till things being brought to the extremity of distraction , with an expence of blood and treasure , never before paralell'd , they were forc'd , like the evil spirit in the gospel , to return from whence they set out , and cease troubling the world , till their former freaks , and its own follies should be quite forgot ; yet these were our commonwealth-patriots , the keepers of our liberties , and what not : from whom , and all such , god keep this poor nation for evermore . thly , were i not sure , you would expect something in reference to the church of england , i had been wholly silent as to that point , being of a perswasion somewhat more sanguine , than most of her son's clergy as well as lay , viz. that what a wise observer said of the whole nation in general , is more applicable here , none can destroy her but her self . there is , as i hinted just now , so strict and mutual a dependance between the crown and mytre , that they must both stand and fall together : and , give me leave farther to add , we must never expect a settl'd state , or continued peace , without keeping 〈…〉 , and necessities 〈…〉 themselves 〈◊〉 , to bring in their 〈…〉 true , whenever a nation is so unhappy 〈…〉 divided 〈◊〉 it self , fall into parties , and fractions , upon any 〈…〉 ●●clesiastical , or civil ; as some church-men will make themselves 〈◊〉 be made properties therein , so the church must expect to bear her p●oportion in such distractions , and that to a large degree ; yet still if the main body keeps steady to its self , wal●● by the same rule , and minds the same thing , such a reserve of mercy and providence will constantly attend her , as tho' persecuted , she shall never be forsaken , cast down , but not destroy'd ; and it very rarely happens some great good does not come out of that evil. but if she forsakes her self , folds her arms in a careless despair , or consults her peace by an vnion with faction and schism , and as the judicious bishop la●●y observ'd , pulls down her old walls , her confessions of doctrine , and canons of discipline ( like the foolish trojans ) to let in a comprehensive horse , full of those very enemies , which have us'd all other means , tho' god be prais'd in vain , to effect her ruine . this would be a perditio tua ex te , and as the same good man farther declares , against all the rules of wisdom and government , by which it was ever thought necessary , that the people should conform to the laws of the church , never that the church should conform to the humours of the people ; and therefore , as he very well distinguishes , to such as be content to leave their faults and errors behind them , we ought to set our gates wide open , and need not pull down our walls ; but if they bring their errors , animosities , and divided judgments along with them , to admit such , only secures them from punishment , but leaves them free to all other causes of dissension , or rather fortifies and animates them to pursue their differences with the greater violence . god , to be sure , receives none but upon repentance and amendment ; and why his church should do otherwise , i am yet to learn ; if they will not be the same with us , let them her● by themselves , and not come among us , their room is better than their company : and therefore i have always suspected , either want of vnderstanding , or affection , in those persons , who trouble their heads so much in that affair , without any regard to the caution in the gospel , as likewise the reason of the thing , and will be treating with , ay , and courting too , those wolves , because they appear in sheeps cloathing ; or can otherwise alledge some plausible pr●●●nces , which the devil is never without , nor fails of a supply to such as act on his behalf ; whereas matter of fact hath all along spoke quite the contrary , the continued experience of nigh an hundred years most sadly assur'd us , that they could never be oblig'd by any kindness , nor satisfy'd 〈…〉 and now , sir , without doubt you must 〈…〉 find the trouble i was complemented into , 〈◊〉 upon your 〈◊〉 receiving a volume instead of a letter . yet , be assur'd , 't was with some difficulty it ended here ; for having once set my thoughts afloat , the current ran so strong , i could not stem its force so as to stop at pleasure : and by this you may see confirm'd what i have hitherto entertain'd you withal ; for if a single person cannot take his liberty , in so little an affair too , without somewhat of inconvenience and trouble , how much worse must it prove in a whole body , a community of people , who are so easily hurried on , without knowing what they do , or from whom they act , till all end in mischief and confusion : and therefore give me leave to declare , that the restraints propounded in the premises , whatever satisfaction they may give you , and some few of your temper , will be no ways acceptable to that extravagant licentiousness , both corporal and spiritual , ecclesiastical and civil , which hath so long had the ascendant amongst us , and bears too nigh affinity to that acknowledgment in livy ; nec morbum ferre possumus , nec remedium . god , in his due time , make us sensible both of the folly and danger , which such courses tend unto : in the mean while , and ever , continue to defend our church from all her enemies , within , as well as with●●● , the daily prayer of , sir , yours , &c. — m — ● . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e obs . p. ● . peace and union , p. . sir w. t. p. . pref. p. . two sticks made one , p. . tit. ver. . last sermon at court , p. . the anatomy of the separatists, alias, brownists the factious brethren in these times, wherein this seditious sect is fairely dissected, and perspicuously discovered to the view of world : with the strange hub-bub, and formerly unheard of hurly-burly, which those phanatick and fantastick schismatiks made on sunday ... the of may ... at the sermon of the right rev. father in god, henry, bishop of chichester ... taylor, john, - . this text is an enriched version of the tcp digital transcription a of text r in the english short title catalog (wing a b t ). textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. the text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with morphadorner. the annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. this text has not been fully proofread approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. earlyprint project evanston,il, notre dame, in, st. louis, mo a wing a b wing t estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : or :e , no ) the anatomy of the separatists, alias, brownists the factious brethren in these times, wherein this seditious sect is fairely dissected, and perspicuously discovered to the view of world : with the strange hub-bub, and formerly unheard of hurly-burly, which those phanatick and fantastick schismatiks made on sunday ... the of may ... at the sermon of the right rev. father in god, henry, bishop of chichester ... taylor, john, - . [ ], p. [s.n.], london : . item at reel : and :e , no. identified as t (number cancelled in wing nd ed.). reproduction of original in thomason collection, british library. eng brownists. dissenters, religious -- england. a r (wing a b t ). civilwar no the anatomy of the separatists, alias, brownists, the factious brethren in these times. wherein this seditious sect is fairely dissected, an [no entry] d the rate of defects per , words puts this text in the d category of texts with between and defects per , words. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - judith siefring sampled and proofread - judith siefring text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the anatomy of the separatists , alias , brownists , the factious brethren in these times . wherein this seditious sect is fairely dissected , and perspicuously discovered to the viewof world . with the strange hub-bub , and formerly unheard of hurly-burly , which those phanatick and fantastick schismatiks made on sunday in the after-noone , being the of may , in the parish of s. olaves in the old-iury , at the sermon of the right rev. father in god , henry , bishop of chichester , in the presence of the right honorable the lord major of this renowned metropolis , and diverse worthy members of the honorable house of commons . london , printed in the yeare , . the anatomy of the separatists , alias , brownists , the factious brethren in these times . svch is the all-daring and lewd licentiousnesse of these last and perillous dayes of the world , that with their faction , schisme & confusion of contradicting and dissenting sectaries , the church of england ( not long since the reformed religion ) is promiscuously shaken , deplorably enervated , miserably torne and distracted . religion it selfe is now crucified , as christ was between two thieves , viz , superstition and irreverence , which is a spice of atheisme , and of the two extreames is worse peccant in the defect , than in the excesse . the world is growne into a new confused chaos , full of new wine lately come from new england , a new spirit , new revelations , & new formes of prayer . there is such a giddinesse in the profession of religion , that every one almost is led by his own opinion , and most men in matters of judgement are divided one against another . 't is too true , that many places in the kingdom of england , and in this citty of london are too much amsterdamnified by brainelesse opinions , and severall senses , which indeed are senselesse senses in religion . religion is become common table-talke , the ordinary discourse at very our commons and ordinaries , where a man shall hardly find foure together of one mind . the papists will have their way ; the atheists will have their way ; the brownists their way ; the anabaptists their way , the familists their way ; and the sisters of the fraternity their way : so that in these various and irregular wayes , they make such an intricate labyrinth of religion , that few or none scarce can find out the right way . a man may with more facility reckon up all the species and kinds of nature , then describe all the sects , divisions and opinions in religion that are at this time amongst us . some approve of popery , because ignorance is the mother of devotion ; others affect nothing but their own silly fancyes , esteeming all things else prophanation and superstition . one at the receiving of the holy communion will not kneele , another will not stand , a third will sit downe , a fourth will not bow ; one holds reverence to be popery , another that rayles before the communion table are romish , and that all decency is superstitious . some say it is lawful to kneele at receiving the elements of the sacred eucharist , others argue and plead for it , as expedient ; some again do presse it as necessary ; and there are others ( indeed too many of that sect amongst us ) who abhorre it as idolatrous . one out of zeale , somewhat inconsiderate , cryes down episcopacy , as antichristian : another very moderate , wishes earnestly episcopacy were reformed and purged from the romish and tyrannicall government , that incumbers it : a third kind of men carryed by a contrary wind , maintaine episcopacy to be iure divino : thus quot homines , tot sententiae , so many men , so many minds . from these premisses of discord and faction , needs must there proceed much tumult and distraction to the great disgrace and scandall to the true protestant religion , to the encouragement of the wicked , who seeing that there are so many sects and separatists , will therefore be of no religion : o deus bone , in quae tempora reservasti nos● polycarp . well may we take up that exclamation of the roman orator , o tempora ! o mores ! bad times , wherein there are worse men , and worst of all manners . plenitudo hominum , sed solitudo bonorum ; a plenty of men , but a scarcity of good men . there is such a multitude of sectaries in all places , both in our cities and countries , that we may justly feare this little island will be turned into a great amsterdam . hinc illae lacrymae , one would reconcile popery and our religion together , another would introduce faction and innovations into the church : so that between the papists and separatists , the church strangely suffers . this latter sort of late days hath been very impudent and turbulent , both to the church and common-wealth . they were never more insolent at any time , then they are now at this time , and never more frequent and resident in any place then in the two famous cities , amsterdam , and this of london . they are the separatists , or brownists ; the libertines or anabaptists ; who are grown to a great head , ( for indeed they are bellua multorum capitum ) a giddy headed multitude , & are so common amongst us , that they are commonly call'd the round-heads . the fraternity at amsterdam , and the brownists in town , are brethren of the same tribe . they are nominated brownists from one browne ; as we usually terme the lutherans from luther , the calvinists from calvin , and the arminians from arminius . these are the late up-start sectaries of this age , the new crept in caterpillers of our kingdome , that do more mischief dayly , than any sect whatsoever . these are the ionahs that have raised the tempest ; these are the achaxs that do trouble our israel . they are so many for their multitude , that like bees they swarme amongst us . indeed the time was when they crept in corners , but now they are like the egyptian locusts , covering the whol land , ye may know them by their frequent and far fetcht sighes , the continuall elevation of their eyes , their meager physiognomies , solitary countenances , sharp noses , by the cut of their hayre , made even with the top of their prick-eares , ( for their haire is as short as their eye-brows , though their consciences be as vast as the ocean ) yee may further discerne them by their broad hats and narrow ●ufs , which they usually weare , the putting of their gloves under their girdles , and the folding of their hands one within another . indeed they are painted sepulchres , whited walls , whose religion consists in frequent fasting , and long prayers , which devoure widdowes houses , the outside of whose vessels are pure and washed , but within full of filth and corruption , under sheep-skins are ravenous wolves . they hold that religion ought to be guided by the motion of the spirit , not reason ; therefore they will rule religion , religion shall not rule them , or else they will go against religion , as the iewes did in meeting christ with swords and staves . they pretend sanctity , but intend impiety ; much they professe , but little good they expresse : their piety is altogether dissembled , and what that is , t is sufficiently known ; for simulat a sanctitas est duplex iniquitas . religion is of it selfe pure , unspotted , immaculate , and undefiled ; but they by their private malice , do endeavour to pollute and contaminate the purity thereof . they say they would have religion reformed , but their ayme is to have it deformed . these were called in greeke {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} in hebrew paratzim ; viz. separatists , for other men they accounted profane people of the earth , but themselves the only holy men in the land ; therefore with others they would not converse for feare of defilement . in a precise manner they looke down with their eyes , when inwardly a whore is not more deceitful . they are double-minded , hollow-hearted , and wil as nimbly swallow up at a bit , another mans estate , as our dutch will pills of butter , and never purch for it , all is fish that comes to their net . vnde habeant nemo quaerit , sed oportet habere . they make it no matter how they come by it , so they have it . their mouths are replenished with yeas , and very lyes , but their tongs and hearts do as much differ as truth and errour : though they do seldome damnably sweare , yet they will most abominably lye . for lying , falsehood , and hypocrisy , these are their familiar experssions . they are much addicted to prayer and fasting ; for they frame a long babel-like prayer , made up with hums and hawes ; and though they affect fasting well , yet they love their flesh better , they much delight in private conventicles , and secret and obscure places , in which voluptuous wantonnesse has her meeting , where the spirit enlightens the understanding to see a sister in the darke : though they are superciliously rigid and censorious , yet they seem very charitable , for rather then their sisters shall want food , they will fill their bellies , and rather then they shall be naked , they will cover their bodyes . brothers they are , but not of the blade ; for they cannot endure our cavaleers ; yet they are lovers of the sisters of the scaberd . brethren they are , not of the corporation , but the separation ; like simeon and levi , they are fratres in malo . they are altogether ignorant , therefore they despise all learning : for the tongues and languages , they utterly abhorre and detest them as profane , and for our ordinary latine , they 〈◊〉 it is the language of the beast . they are resolved still to be as they are , ignorant , for they bold it idolatry and superstition to learne to re●d because the very first letter begins with a crosse . the crosse they account the marke of the beast , and though it be the ancient ensign of christianity , yet by them it is contemned , all crosses they dosie as may-poles ; the one they hold profane , and the other they averre to be superstitious . they can endure no crosse but that on silver or gold ; and for the crosse in cheapeside , it is the pillar of golden superstition , the abomination of the city , the city idoll , and a supporter of idolls , having so many images about it , which is as displeasing to their sight as the counter in woodstreet is to an indebted citizen . all ceremonies they account popish , a surplesse the snock of the whor of babilon , the sight wherof is as terrible to them in a church at noone , as the apparition of a ghost in a church-yard at midnight , an orthodox and lawfuly called , and allowed minister is not minded amongst them ; for they hold it as lawfull for artificers , and laymen , to preach in publike , and those that are most inferior , as coblers , weavers , leather-sellers , box-makers , iron-mongers , felt-makers , and such mechanick fellowes . these and their holy sisters ( for they may wel be linkt together ) are they , who by their unreverent gestures in the church disesteeme of church-prayers ; these are they who contemn the publike service of god , and cry down the lyturgie of the church of england ; that solemne lyturgie , celebrous by the piety of bishops , and martyres , hallowed with the blond of some of them who composed it , established by the lawes of this land , by severall acts of parliament in this kingdome , attested and approved by the best of all forraigne divines , confirmed by the subscription of all the clergie , accepted of by the most and best of all the laity , and hath continued since in the raignes of queene elizabeth , king iames , and our gracious king charles , in the church of england , for the service of god these . yeares ; that this holy exercise of religion should be by them vilified , interrupted , and depraved , what doth it tend to , but the advancing of heresie , schisme , profanenesse , libertinisme , anabaptisme , and atheisme ? we acknowledge , that some parts of our publike liturgy , may be very well corrected , ( and thankes be to god the great counsell of the king , and the kingdome have consulted and determined about it ) but the clamours now go very high : impudence or ignorance is at this time grown so frontlesse , that it is confidently expected by many , that all formes of publike worship should be utterly abrogated , and that our booke of common-prayer should bee quite abolished , as they would have episcopacy everlastingly extirpated . they affirme that that which is called the liturgy is the same with the masse , either a lethargy of worship , or a masse of idolatry ; wherein is no purity , but all papistry . in the service-booke they say there are foppish and foolish tautologies , as in these words , the lord be with you and with your spirit : and in the letany , there are vaine and ●●ivolous repetitions of words , as good lord deliver us , and we bese●●● to heare us good lord ; which they are not ashamed to say are ridiculous invocations like magick spels , and no better than conjuring . these moderne zealots ( forsooth ) are offended at the vestments and habits of the clergie ; every thing though never so laudable , decent , and necessary , if contrary to their opinion , is by them accounted profane , or superstitious . they make no reckoning of the church of god , than of a barne , or a stable , either of these is all alike to them . barnes and stables are for threshers and hostlers : the church is the house of god : yet they are so base minded , as to conjecture a barne or stable good enough for him , whom the heaven of heavens cannot containe , the high and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity . they account their own houses as holy as the church ; t is strange divinity , and yet i hold no inherent holinesse in either . i have read of a sort of hereticks about the yeare of our lord . who would have all churches defaced and demolished as needlesse fabricks , and unnecessary structures ; for god dwels not in temples made with hands . sure these separatists are of their minds ; if they were not , they would mind the church better then they do ; but these love to stand without at the church doore : i am sure they have no president for it out of the word of god , that whilst the preacher and people are praying , within , they should stand prating without . that description of s. paul may be properly predicated of them : they are lovers of their own selves , covetous , boasters , proud , disobedient , unthankfull , unholy , without naturall affection , truce breakers , false accusers , incontinent , fierce , despisers of others , heady , high minded , {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} , magis quam , {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} lovers of pleasure more than lovers of god , having a forme of godlinesse , but denying the power thereof , tim. . , , . tha likewise of s. iude may be truly applyed to them , they defile the flesh , despise dominion , and speak evill of dignities , ver. these are they who separate themselves , sensuall , having not the spirit , ver. and who these persons are , who say they have the spirit , the subject of this small tract doth sufficiently declare , the separatists . they are offensive to god in the contempt of his ordinance , whose commandement is , that every soule should be subject to the higher powers ; and they are injurious to the king and state , whose power they despise , and government they affront . their lives are hypocriticall , their positions schismaticall , their thoughts perilous , their words malicious , their acts mischievous , and their opinions impious . they hold it a matter arbitrary or indifferent , which they dispense with at their own wils & pleasures , to behave themselves irreverently , unmannerly , undecently , and disorderly in gods house , in his presence , and that under pretence of avoyding superstition , dum vitant stulti vitia , in contraria currunt : what is this , but to avoyd scylla , and fall upon charybdis ? to run from one extreame to a worse , ex fuma●io flammam , out of the smoake into the flame . this is the reason they have made so many uproares , the like in pristine ages unparalleld motions and commotions in our churches of late dayes , in the cathedrall of s. paul , within these few months , and in s. olaves church in the old iewry , on sunday in the afternoone being the . of may , i know not by what unhappy fate , there was at that present congregated a company of rude rascals , to the number of above , who as soon as the right rev. pious and learned bishop came up into the pulpit in his lawn sleeves and other vestments suitable to a prelate , they presently like an unmannerly and ill-bred crue of unruly curres , made such a hideous clamour in the church of god , crying joyntly , most impudently and with one accord , a pope , a pope , a pope , to the astonishment of the man of god , & to the admiration and amazement of the l. major , the parliament gentlemen , and other noble and worthy auditors that were then present . some of the varlets ran out of the church , others by the l. majors officers were thrust out of the church , and the doore shut upon them : and i wish this cursed sect may beever excluded as from our churches so from our cities , assemblies and societies : i am sure , in the purest times of the primitive church , there were ostiarit , doore-keepers , to debar from ingresse into the church notorious hereticks , obstinate idolaters and profane livers . i would not be accounted uncharitable , therefore my opinion is , that these sons of tumult bare no violent malice to the right reverend bishops person , ( for he is the object of every mans love ) only i imagine their inveterate spleene aymd at his function . a pope and a bishop are all one with them , when these turbulent schismatickes were in the street , they fell to picking of quarrels , and broke many glasse windowes in the church , in the time of the sermon , they were so audacious and impudent as to say , that they who were in the church were at masse , and that the lord major was a papist , whom god and the world knowes to be a gentleman of an approved and unblemished integrity and an unfained protestant of the church of england . one thing i have more to relate , that on of the rascals was the same day apprehended , & examined by some of the parliament gentlemen after sermon in the lord majors house , & was by his lordship committed , of whom hereafter ye shall heare more ; for the present , i am sorry that such an occasion is offered me to trouble the readers patience so much , with the relation of this viperous generation , and with such unsanctified sons of mischiefe as these are ; only give me leave , before i leave them , to leave this wish to them , that these brothers of schisme and sedition , with their sisters of faction and insurrection ( for they of that sexe are as bad , being of the same sect ) may in due time ( as i hope shortly they will ) suffer exemplary and condigne punishment according to their demerits . finis . toleration not to be abused by the independents by a lover of truth and peace. fullwood, francis, d. . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing f estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) toleration not to be abused by the independents by a lover of truth and peace. fullwood, francis, d. . [ ], p. printed for john martyn and are to be sold by abisha brocas bookseller in exeter, london : . reproduction of original in the union theological seminary library, new york. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng religious tolerance -- church of england. dissenters, religious -- england. schism. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - john pas sampled and proofread - john pas text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion toleration not to be abused by the independents . by a lover of truth and peace . london , printed for john martyn , and are to be sold by abisha brocas , bookseller in exeter , . toleration not to be abused by the independents . the following discourse shall consist of four particulars . first , the lawfulness of communicating with our churches by the confessions and arguments of the congregational divines . . the same proved by demonstrating the apostolical churches more vitiated than ours , from whom a separation is made by the independents ; and yet a separation from those primitive churches , utterly discountenanced by the apostles . . the same proposition proved by demonstrating that we have not given them the like , or any just cause , as the church of rome gave them and us . which is the first particular to be proved . secondly , i shall shew the sinfulness of erecting altar against altar , of gathering churches out of churches . thirdly , that the independents are averse in their principles to toleration as well as the presbyterians , and so equally obliged not to abuse the present gracious indulgence . fourthly , i shall shew , that by his majesties late declaration the church of england is still established as the basis , and the bare suspension of the poenal laws , doth indeed take off the obligation , upon the account of wrath , that lay before upon dissenters ; but does not cancel the obligation of conscience , by which the independents , and all indulged parties , are still to avoid all causless and groundless separations from this best of reformed churches . first , the lawfulness of communicating with our churches , by the arguments and concessions even of the independents themselves . our parochial churches are owned to have the essentials of true churches by all sober congregational men : ( for there is the pure word of god preached , the true sacraments administred , and an implicite covenant between pastor and people in joyning together . ) all that is pleaded is corruption and defect in the outward exercise and administration of church order , and discipline . now that it is lawful ( supposing , but not granting this bar lies against the church of england ) to joyn with churches so defective and corrupt , is not only acknowledged , but fully proved by reverend mr. norton , of the congregational way in his answer to apolsius ( as dr. stilling fleet in his irenicum quotes it to the present purpose ) which i desire the brethren to consider , whom it chiefly concerns , and to lay seriously to their hearts : and , without a reply to his arguments , they cannot justifie their separation from us . . a believer may lawfully joyn in communion with such a church , where he cannot enjoy all the ordinancies of god , as in the jewish church , in our saviour's time , which refused the gospel of christ , and the baptisme of john , and yet our saviour commands us to hear the scribes and pharisees ( sitting in moses's chair ; ) which hearing implies conjunctionem ecclesiae judaicae , a joyning with the jewish church . so with churches rejecting an article of faith ; as the church of corinth , the doctrine of the resurrection ; the churches of galatia rejecting the doctrine of justification by faith : yet the apostle no where requires , on that account , a separation from them . . a believer may lawfully joyn in communion with such a church , in which some corruption is tolerated in the worship of god , without reformation ; as the offering upon high places , from solomon to hezekiah , in the church of judah ; the observation of circumcision and the law ceremonial in the churches of galatia . . a believer may lawfully joyn himself in communion with such a church , in which such are admitted to sacraments who give no evident signs of grace , but seem to be lovers of the world ; this he proves , because it is every mans duty to examine himself , and anothers sin hurts not me , and so is no argument against my duty . and besides , by mens coming unworthily , non polluitur communio , licet minuitur consolatio , the communion is not defiled , though the comfort of it be diminished : this he proves also from the church of corinth , amongst whom were many scandalous that had not repented , cor. . , &c. and in the church of the jews , which lay under great corruptions when christ and his apostles communicated with it . . although a believer joyns with such a church , he is not therefore bound with the guilt , nor defiled with the pollutions of others that communicate . it is his duty incumbent , and in doing his duty , he contracts no guilt upon himself . . a believer which hath joyned himself to such a church is not bound to withdraw and seperate under pain of guilt if he does it not : for to be lawful to joyn , and unlawful to continue the communion implies a contradiction ; for the first speaks it to be a church , and the second to be no church ; and so it is not lawful to seperate from a church true , as to essentials ( and such the independents own in their apologetical narration , our parochial churches ) though guilty of corruptions ; for the ground of communicating is its being a church , not a corrupt or defective church . and that men are not guilty by partaking with those that are guilty of corruptions in a church , appears from the church of the jews in the case of ely's sons , and the christian churches of asia and corinth ; where we read of many corruptions by s. paul reproved , but no mandate to separate , which had certainly by the holy ghost been given , and s. paul would not have omitted , had it been a sin to communicate while those corruptions were in the churches of asia and corinth . thus far their own reverend norton . now i desire these congregational leaders , who gather churches out of our churches , to reply to this learned divine of their own perswasion , or to consider what answer is to be given to the searcher of all hearts , for resisting that light of conviction that shines in upon their consciences . again , not granting but supposing only ; that in this church from which these separate , church-discipline were neglected , worship defiled , manners corrupted , or tyranny exercised : suppose we grant all this , which we need not , this will not justifie a separation from the church of england . my reason is , because there were greater corruptions in doctrine , discipline , and worship ( and no separations countenanced by the apostles ) in the first apostolical christian churches , then in ours , or any other reformed churches , from whom a separation is made in these times . as for instance ; to begin with doctrine ; in what church of ours is the resurrection of the dead denyed , an article of that importance that all our christianity , in effect , depends upon it ? it was denyed by many in the church of corinth . in what churches of ours is the doctrine of justification by the law , or any doctrine so destructive of the merit of christ , generally maintained , as in the galatian churches ? again , for worship ; do ours partake of the lord's table and the table of devils , as among the corinthians ? are our ecclesiastical assemblies so confused , that whosoever comes in must presently take us for mad ? do ours come to the communion drunk , as at corinth ? then for manners , and life ; we acknowledge our selves heynous offendors ( which , i suppose , those that call themselves the saints , and separate from us publicans ) do ( unless frantick ) confess true of themselves : but what then ? have we worse than incest , fornication , covetousness , malice , contentions unrepented of , as is the church of corinth ? or , biting and devouring one another , permitters of idolaters , boasters of gifts , as in the church of galatia ? as touching neglect of discipline ; first in the apostles own company , the ministers that should exercise discipline , they all sought there own , and none the things of j●sus christ ; and the grossest vices winked 〈…〉 mented , as we saw before in the church of corinth ; and should have been so still , had not the apostle been living , and exciting them to their duty . lastly , concerning tyranny ; ye see what oppression the false apostles used , cor. . . ye suffer , saith the apostle , if a man take of you , if a man bring you into bondage , if a man devour you , if a man exalt himself , &c. by which words he toucheth the tyranny , though out of malice against the apostle , willingly submitted to , by the church of corinth : and we know that dyotrephes exercised his government with such insolency , that he cast out whom he would , admitted whom he would , opposed s. john himself ; yet no news of separation . now let these men consider , that separate from us , the apostolical church was a virgin newly espoused to christ , in the midst of the heathen , under the rod of persecution , the great apostle then living , and yet vitiated more then the churches that these depart from ; and yet the then separatists branded with the characters of schisme and sedition by the blessed apostles . and here i desire the men of this way seriously to consider , that separation being discountenanced , from churches more vitiated than ours , by the holy apostles ; how these men , owning our parochial churches true as to essentials , can ever justifie their separation from us ? it would certainly be duly weighed by such as desire to appear tender consciences , and so capable of a right in the present gracious indulgence . that they do so acknowledge our parochial churches , their apologetical narration declares sufficiently in these following words ; we have alwaies profest ( and that in these times , wherein the churches of england were most , either actually overspread with defilements , or in the greatest danger thereof ) that we both did , and would hold communion with them , as true churches of christ ; and that our parochial churches were the very body of christ : which is in effect to approve and forsake at the same time , and gives occasion , too great , of applying a sentence in s. austin against parmenian ( lib. . cap. . against these dissenters : ) et adversum nos loquuntur , & nobiscum loquuntur , & cum eos obmutescere compellat veritas , silere non permittit iniquitas : they speak against us , and they speak for us ; and when truth constrains them silence , their iniquity will not let them hold their peace . there are three things that i would humbly offer to all sober men of the congregational perswasion ; and i beseech them to consider them seriously , as from one that equally wisheth their salvation with his own . . that they would cautiously distinguish between corruptions in doctrine , and corruptions in the practice of a church . . that they would conscientiously distinguish between corruptions , whether in doctrine or practice , profest and avowed by a church , and required as the absolute conditions of communion from all its members ; and corruptions only crept in and meerly tolerated in a church , and not any way required as the conditions of . to distinguish carefully between non-communicating as to the abuses of a church , and a positive and total separation from a 〈◊〉 as it is a church . these three ( the second 〈…〉 duly weighed and considered , would 〈…〉 a period to their separation 〈…〉 of england ; or tend at least to 〈…〉 ening of the breach too sadly occasioned , for want of a due reflection upon the premisses aforesaid . again , we of the church of england have not given them the like , or any just cause of separating , as the church of rome gave them and us : for where do we urge any doctrines as articles of faith , which we offer not to a tryal by scripture , and the four first general councils , which all christians reverence ( and were anciently honoured next to the four gospels : ) and if the church should teach any other propositions , she protests against their being articles of faith and of necessity to salvation , and for this reason imposeth not her ●●●ix , articles , as articles of faith , but of peace and communion : nor does the church of england censure other churches for their different confessions , but allows them the liberty she her self takes , to establish more or less conditions of communion , as the governours of the church shall deem most expedient for vnity and peace . she only requires of such as are admitted to any office or employment in the church , to subscribe to her articles as certain theological verityes not repugnant to god's word , particularly culled out and selected to be taught , and maintained within her communion , as highly conducive to the preservation of truth , and prevention of schisme . and for this reason she passes no other censure upon the impugners of her articles , then against the impugners of her government , liturgy , and rites ; because all intended by her for the same end , the avoiding of all disorders , and confusions . but as for the absolute articles of the church of england , they were not of her own inventing , but such as she found established in the best ages of the church , nearest the primitive and apostolical simplicity : here she fixeth the bounds of her faith , to prevent the danger of endless additions , and innovations . and because in smaller matters somewhat may escape the greatest caution and prudence , she hath reserved just power to her self to reform what is really amiss , and finds so abused , that the use of them cannot stand with piety and holiness ; allowing the same liberty to all her sister churches , and all church governours within the sphere of their respective jurisdictions . this is the true state of the reformation of this church , as hath been apparently evidenced by her regular sons against all opposers . now let the independents consider , whether this be not ( though a brief ) yet a true account of the moderation and prudence of this church ; and then let them reflect at the same time upon the second especially , of the three aforesaid propositions : and upon the whole examine their tender consciences , whether it does not justifie our separation from the romanists , and at the same time prove them guilty by departing from us . we both agree , that where any church is guilty of corruptions in doctrine and practice , which it owns and requires as absolute conditions of her communion , there to separate is no schisme , but lawful and convenient . let them make the church of england appear thus guilty they are acquitted : if they cannot prove it as they have not done as yet ( and doubtless they have zeal enough to set them forward , if it could be demonstrated ) what hinders their return to the church of england , unless the conscience , which they call tender , be sullen and obstinate ? not to prove any thing that justifies a separation against the church which they forsake , and yet continue to keep up their altars against it , is not so much allyed to tenderness of conscience , as to hardness of heart , uncapable of being reclaimed by the greatest and most generous condescensions in the world. so much of the first particular , the lawfulness of communicating with our parochial churches , from the arguments and concessions of the independents themselves ; from the primitive apostolical churches more vitiated than ours , and yet all manner of separation discountenanced by the apostles , and we not having given the independents any just cause as the church of rome gave them and us . that is the first proposition i engaged to defend , the lawfulness of communicating with our churches . secondly , i am to shew the sinfulness and danger of erecting altar against altar , and gathering churches out of our churches : the sin is the sin of schisme , severely branded by ancient fathers and orthodox councils ( as well as in the apostolical writings ) as the heighth of pride and wickedness . that the independents are guilty of this sin is clearly deducible from what i have said already ; from their own arguments , and concessions ; from the instances of the apostolical and primitive churches , more vitiated than ours , yet separation discountenanced by the apostles ; and by a comparison between our withdrawing from rome , and their separation from us . these things already proved , speaks them causlesly to separate from us ; and that causless separation speaks them schismaticks . they themselves allow our parochial churches true , as to essentials ; and , what if we suppose spots and pollutions , as to the outward administration of order and discipline ; this , if we should grant them , onely infers a lawful desire and endeavour of reformation , but it warrants no schismatical separation ; for no corruptions in a church can give occasion , or allowance of going out of it , but such as strike at the foundation of christian doctrine and worship ; which , setting calumny and railing aside ( which we are not obliged to take for reason and argument ) they never yet attempted to prove against the church of england , so far they are inexcusable before god , and so far from appearing men of tender consciences to the world. where are those corruptions in doctrine or practice , which the church of england doth impose upon her members , as the absolute conditions of her communion . let them lay aside wrath and darkness , and give us a pregnant demonstration ; or like men of candour and ingenuity plead guilty , and return . let them in short prove these two things : . that our episcopal ordination and jurisdiction , our mixt communion , our rites of order imposed , not out of any necessity , but vniformity and peace , and some other things by them inveighed against , to be indeed superstitious , and ( as they call them ) . antichristian abominations . when that difficult task is over ( if it can be ever accomplished ) let them prove that we urge disputable things , or known errours with such severity , as the church of rome does purgatory , indulgences , supererogation , and other notorious palbable errours ; for which , justly condemned by the reformed churches . the very cock of the congregation is here nonplust ( the most daring of all their vndertakers ) unless you will take noise , and clamour , and confidence for demonstrations . thirdly , the independents are equally enemies to toleration with the presbyterians ; and from the same very principles , and by consequence equally obliged not to use ( however not to abuse ) the gracious indulgence . nothing in conjunction with , or addition to , what is prescribed in the word of god ( as to worship , and government ) is to be admitted or tolerated . upon this principle the independents in particular ( as well as non-conformists in general , ) for so their greatest and most forward champion tells us , they do , and will adhere to , and stand upon as to the differences , between them and us . the plain meaning of which , applyed to the church of england , is briefly this , that the independent way of worship , and government , is only prescribed in the word of god ; and ours not , but repugnant : and by this principle they exclude as well their brethren that lent them the principle , as well as the inferiour sectarists , and are at defiance with them , as well as the church of england ; for independency being only prescribed in the word by this principle . if they will adhere to it , no other way can be indulged or admitted . with these men ( as well as the disciplinarians ) there is but one only true way of worship and government prescribed in the word . nothing , secondly , that is unlawful may be tolerated by the civil magistrate ; and , nothing is lawful but what is prescribed in the word ( and you may be confident , that is the independent way of worship and government . ) these three things resolved , whence should toleration proceed , or an indulgence be expected from the independents to differing perswasions , unless he playes fast and loose , and as he pleaseth , owns and renounceth the jus divinum of independency in the same oracles . every sect ( the independent especially ) allows no worship , but their own way established in the word . this is not only pleaded against the church of england , but every faction bandyes against every faction for the divine right . the presbyterian discipline is the only scepter of jesvs christ for all churches government to the end of the world : he can neither indulge himself , nor accept an indulgence where other parties are not excluded . the independent allows only his own way of worship , and excludes all dissenters from worshipping god aright ; and from the beauty and purity of gospel ordinances ; which is a principle sir john presbyter lent him : and how can an indulgence hence proceed ? by this principle the presbyterian first assaulted the church of england . by the same principle the congregational hector takes sir john to task , and beats him out of the field : by the same the anabaptist attempted the independent ; and all the under - sects the anabaptists : and so if they had crumbled into a thousand sub-divisions , still as every sect gathers strength enough , he persecutes all opposers . and , how should the independent be more merciful than the presbyterian , or any other sect , whose enmity to toleration doth equally arise from the same common principle of the divine right , only of their own way of worship and government , from which all the sects are excluded , as well as the church of england ? there is one only way of worshipping god aright , and that way is the independent way of worship . where is toleration then ? it is excluded . by what law ? by divine right : and so every plant that my father hath not planted must be rooted out ; and so only independency is to be tolerated , unless kings and princes who rule for god , may indulge men in an open violation of the law of god ? and if you look a little backwards , it may admit a dispute , whether the scepter of jesus christ were more an iron rod under the kirk , or the tender hearted tryers ? it may indeed sometimes consist with carnal prudence ( supposing the independents to have power in their hands ) to connive at , and indulge the lesser factions , the better to hold out the flag of defiance against the royalists , and the presbyterians their most considerable competitors . or they may ( as the vsurpers tender-conscien'd army once did ) offer the taking away even the poenal laws from the very papists , to collogue with forraign princes , and so have the greater security in their villanous designs against the king , and the church ; but this is a state juggle for the advancement of the good old cause : but then as soon as the fear is over from abroad , then they spared nothing that sacriledge could devour . and now , can any man , that looks back upon independent mercy and forbearance , believe that men of such principles and practices ( who are now pleased that episcopacy is established , and poenal laws removed from papists , only because indulged themselves ) would tolerate either popery or episcopacy if they had power in their hands , and not rather lord it with the insolence of vsurpers ? credat judaeus apella , non ego . so that as a late treatise demonstrates , the presbyterian hath no cause of joy , because others are indulged as well as himself ; whereas his doctors , elders , and deacons are the perpetual scepter of christ to the end of the world for all churches government ; and therefore , down with the colours of the dragon ; advance the standard of christ . the independents have no cause of joy , because the church of england , and the presbyterian limb too , of the antichristian leviathan , are included , as well as the rest of the parties among us : his way being only laid down in the word , and all others repugnant to the holy scriptures . yet they take the advantage , both out of a hatred to a third party , the church of england , and the next thing is to fight one with another for the government : and then the only scepter of christ is the conquerours worship ; the longest sword is the divine right ; the pike and gun declare the cause of god ; and infallible artillery decides all the controversies relating to the gospel truth . and thus the presbyterian ( who thought to have erected his discipline upon the sad eclipse of the church of england ) was powerfully baffled and confuted , by such arguments as the independent man of war carryed in his snapsack . do not the independents , when most cool and moderate , look upon all other churches and people , as all revolters from the purity and beauty of gospel-ordinances , introducers of will-worship and superstition , instead of disciples of the lord jesvs ; not allowing any dissenters the least share or degree of wisdom , or godliness ? and men of such principles of this forehead and complexion , must needs carry tender bowels to men of differing perswasions . certainly , unless where the rules and maximes of carnal policy interpose and plead for mercy to dissenters , their clemency is the same with the presbyterian , who first lent him the principle , of not admitting any thing not expresly delivered in the sacred scriptures : by which principle they are engaged in a war with one another , as well as against their common antagonists . so that the tables are now turned . it is not the question , whether all partyes may be tolerated ; but , whether independents only : for there is but one true way of worship , and that is theirs . theirs only hath the divinum jus , and princes may not indulge men in an open violation of scripture precepts , and directions . and so every sect is engaged to root out all the rest , as enemies to the scepter of the lord jesvs . fourthly , the execution of the poenal laws being suspended , by the late declaration in favour of dissenters , does only take off the obligation , upon the account of wrath , to obedience ; but the conscience is still obliged , to avoid all causless and groundless separations from our churches . this will be manifest enough to any one that seriously reads the declaration it self , and a late treatise , toleration not to be abused , which will extend as well to the independents as the presbyterians , whose aversion to toleration is built upon the same common principle , the divine right of their one onely way of worship and government , in the sacred oracles ; and so i refer them to that part of the discourse before mentioned , that they are obliged ( as before the declaration ) to avoid all groundless separations . for the church of england is , as before , established as the basis , and so the obligation of conscience still obligatory upon all the indulged parties to avoid schismes , and all causless departure from us . the obligation upon the account of wrath is removed indeed ; but if they would appear tender consciences to the world , the king's suspension of the punishment should make them the more obedient for conscience sake ; and a gracious indulgence rather abate , than heighten their opposition against the church of england , still established . i shall now conclude all , by desiring them to consider , what they themselves acknowledge in the declaration of the faith and order of the congregational churches , in chap. . of the church , &c. the purest churches under heaven are subject both to mixture and error . and in their institution of churches ; persons that are joyned in church-fellowship , ought not lightly to withdraw themselves from the communion of the church , to which they are so joyned . to these two let them add the four particulars in this discourse mentioned : and upon the result of all consider , whether ambition and pride , rather then a conscientious tenderness keep not up their departure from , and opposition to the church of england . i am not as this publican , come not near me , for i am holier then thou . an over-valluing of our own worth , and a pharisaical contempt of others , is the usual rise of schisme ; for only by pride cometh contention ; so the best of kings and preachers . thus the valentinians looked on themselves as the only spiritual men. the pharisees the only separati , separate persons . the sadducees , justi , the only righteous . the novatians , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the only puritans : and none men of knowledge but the gnosticks , and the acute tertullian , when montanist . all others were psysici , and he was come to his nos spirituales . and if ( out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh ) spiritual pride is the original of your schisme . for you only are god's israel , his elect and precious ones . you only have communion with god in pure ordinance ▪ all the world faln short of god's truth , but your selves : and none is orthodox out of the pale of your own church . not only pap●sts , prelatists and arminians , but even your dear brethren , the presbyterians , are limbs of the antichristian leviathan . all revolted from the lord jesus , and to be treated as members of the whore , whom the saints hate , and shall make desolate and naked , eat her flesh , and drink her bloud . this is the canting dialect of your independent leaders . to conclude . if it be not ambition , but conscience ; let it so appear by your charity to dissenters , by a serious and impartial enquiry into the grounds upon which you separate from us , without prejudice or passion ; and do not so far idolize a sect , or an opinion , as to prefer it before the peace and settlement of a church , and nation . finis . practical discourses on sickness & recovery in several sermons, as they were lately preached in a congregation in london / by timothy rogers, m.a. ; after his recovery from a sickness of near two years continuance. rogers, timothy, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing r estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) practical discourses on sickness & recovery in several sermons, as they were lately preached in a congregation in london / by timothy rogers, m.a. ; after his recovery from a sickness of near two years continuance. rogers, timothy, - . woodford, samuel, - . xxxii, , [ ] p. printed for thomas parkhurst ..., jonathan robinson ..., and john dunton ..., london : . running title: practical discourses of sickness and recovery. includes bibliographical references. advertisement: p. [ ]-[ ] at end. "the song of hezekiah, paraphrased by dr. woodford": p. 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ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng dissenters, religious -- sermons. sermons, english -- th century. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - mona logarbo sampled and proofread - mona logarbo text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion practical discourses on sickness & recovery , in several sermons , as they were lately preached in a congregation in london . by timothy rogers , m. a. after his recovery from a sickness of near two years continuance . london , printed for thomas parkhurst at the bible and three crowns at the lower end of cheapside , jonathan robinson at the golden lion in st. paul's church-yard , and john dunton at the raven in the poultrey . mdcxci . to the right worshipful sr. william ashurst , and sr. thomas lane , knights , and aldermen of the city of london . most honoured , after i had once resolved to let the following discourses see the light , in hope that they might be some way serviceable to the glory of god , and the good of men , especially of the sick , or such as are recovered , i had no doubtful thoughts to whom they should be address'd . you were the persons that i first thought upon , and it is to you that i am obliged in a more than ordinary manner . therefore i take this occasion to make my acknowledgments , and to testify my gratitude . it was from your kindness , that in troubled and uneasy times i did obtain many a pleasant and quiet retreat . in both your houses in the country i always met with a chearful entertainment , and had there an opportunity of study , which together with the benefit of your conversation , and a leisure to think , without being diverted by the noise and burry of the disagreeing world , made me to relish a very sensible delight in being there . it is to me and others a thing very observable , that the honours which you have received both from the king and your fellow-citizens , have made no alteration in your former ingaging tempers and carriage : you are still as free , as pleasant , and as affable to your meaner friends as you were before . whereas we daily see many persons , whom a little honour or advancement changes from all the good qualities they once possess'd , to loftiness and pride ; whom an high station fills with as high thoughts , and who cannot from their more exalted condition look upon such as are below them without contempt and scorn . and tho this may not cause them to lose some outward civilities from those that are dazled with their shining grandure , yet they do thereby lose all that reverence and esteem in the minds of men which other wise they might expect . you are , for the great zeal you have manifested to the good of your country , and more especially to the liberties and priviledges of this city , justly beloved ; and the more so , because you were always steadily resolved to promote the true interest of both , even in such a season , when some that had either no english blood in their veins , or no true love to their country in their hearts , were willing easily to part with those excellent rights which cost their forefathers very dear ; who were in some sense worse than esau , for he sold his birthright , but they were willing to surrender , and to give theirs away for nothing . it comforts us when from our low ground we look up to your higher sphere , and see you so well to fill your orbs with light ; and we daily pray that you may long shine there for the common good , and that we may long be refresh'd with those influences which have already been so comfortable to us . you have now , through the providence of god , an honourable station , but before that , you were most honorably descended : you derived your birth not only from families that had done worthily in ephratah , and were famous in bethlehem , but from such as were the friends of god , of a strict piety , and of an unblamable religion : some of which are now citizens of a better corporation , even of that which is in heaven . what a comfort is it to the children of good parents , that they can pray to their fathers and their mothers god ? in yours you have beheld the amiableness of religion represented to the life , in their good example , and the holiness of their conversation . you may fire your souls ( if at any time they begin to cool ) by the pleasant remembrance of that which they did for god. you can remember with what constancy and fervour they prayed , with what reverence they read the word , and heard it preach'd , with what seriousness and frequency they spoke to you of heavenly things , and of the life to come , with what watchfulness they managed their prosperity , with what patience they bore afflictions , with what meekness they forgave their enemies , with what readiness they entertained all those whom they judged sincerely to name the name of christ. you see those who are yet alive , worshipping and serving god ; and you can ( though not without sorrow for your own loss ) remember those who are dead and gone , with what faith they lived , and with what hope they died . give me leave humbly to desire you , to continue to set often before your eyes their heavenly example , and to keep the same good order in your families that they kept , and to read the scriptures with as much frequency and seriousness as they read them , to be as conscientious in all the duties of religion as they were , that so they and you may meet with joy in the great day . the thoughts of death , as it is an entrance into an unalterable and eternal state , will very much promote all this . it will help us to have our most delightful conversation with those persons with whom we desire and hope to be found when our lord comes . it will regulate our use of lawful things , and guide us in the management of our pleasures and our recreations ; it will keep both our bodies and our souls in a readiness for private prayer , the serious , and reverent , and lively performance of which will greatly promote our growth in gracê . we give to our friends large portions of our time every day , and we should devote some part of it to converse with god ; and that not in a cold manner , but endeavour to warm our souls with a deep sense of our wants , and with some suitable foregoing meditations . this is that duty to which you are no strangers , and you and all others , that are in earnest for your souls , will preserve this as a strong defence against all your spiritual enemies , and the manifold snares and temptations of the world ; for it brings to our assistance the help of god , and of our blessed redeemer . there is no pleasure that we have in our friends , or in our diversions , that is comparable to that joy which an holy soul finds in its humble and reverent approaches to the throne of grace , where god and the soul meet together , where god by his spirit kindles heavenly desires , and where the soul , upon the wings of those desires , takes its flight from this lower world ; when the soul complains of the burden of sin , and god by his free and gracious pardon takes the burden off ; when the soul pants and breaths for the living god , and he is pleas'd to meet and to satisfy the longing soul. it is then upon the mount , and sees his smiling face , and would fain always see it ; it is loth to come down to the meaner employments of this world ; and when the necessary affairs of the present life call it away , it comes from the pleasant work , shining with brighter grace and holiness . it is a thing of more honour to you than a thousand honourable titles , that you keep up constantly the worshipping of god , and reading the scriptures in your families morning and evening : and indeed it is an arrogance in those to call themselves christians , who neglect so sacred and so considerable a part of our holy religion : and your good example in the due practice of these excellent things will have a powerful influence upon your children ; and what you now do , they will also do , if they live to have families ; and the sight of religion in you will convey to them a greater approbation , and a more easy practice of it . god has bless'd you with a numerous and an hopeful offspring , whose present and future welfare i do with an undissembled affection most heartily desire . by their seriousness , their ingenuity , and their good inclinations , they give us cause to expect , that though they are now as olive-plants round about your tables , yet that they will hereafter refresh the hearts of many more besides your own families : and that , as it is expressed in psal. . . your sons may be as plants grown up in their youth ; that your daughters may be as corner-stones polished after the similitude of a palace . i question not but the prayers that you send up to heaven for them , will procure the blessing of the divine providence , which is the richest and the best inheritance . it is a blessing of god that you have so many living images of your selves , in whom you see your own life renewed . and you are so happy as to have your quivers full of them . may they all live to be your comfort , and to maintain religion in the world. god has been pleas'd to give you several instances of the vanity of this world , by the deaths of several of your relations , some of which * died in their most hopeful youth , and in the flower of their age , whilst their friends promised themselves a long comfort and delight in their conversation , who had they lived might have been of great use to their country , and to the church of god. and one relation † you lost , by a way that was very afflicting to you , but advantagious to him . he died unseasonably as to us , for we needed his prayers and his good example ; but his death was seasonable as to himself ; for i do not doubt but he was prepared for it . he died much beloved , and greatly bewailed . those that knew him could not but esteem and value him for the assableness and civility of his temper , the conscientiousness of his dealings , the sincerity and heartiness of his expressions , the good order that he kept in his family , and for that uprightness and unaffected religion that appeared to all that observed his conversation . i may without any shew of flattery , say he was one of those good men for whom many would have died , could they have exchanged their meaner lives for his more serviceable life . he died by a may somewhat terrible to flesh and blood , but which by faith he overcame . his zeal for the liberties of this city , and which he shewed whilst he was in an honour able station , rendred him obnoxious to those persons then in authority , who gave liberty to their revenge to fall upon those who knew not how to flatter , or commend , or promote their arbitrary designs . it was a thing below him to use such sneaking and such unchristian arts for honour or for safety . there is nothing can satisfy his friends for the loss of so excellent a citizen , so good a man , and so sincere a friend , but the consideraon of that providence , which tho it be mysterious and severe for the present , yet will hereafter appear to have been very wise , and very good to all those that love god. tho the loss his friends sustained by his removal from them be great , yet it cannot but be a satisfaction to them to consider that he was happy in his death . he is gone to that god that ( as he said himself ) knew his innocence , and to a place where there are no false accusations , and where he and his holy friends shall never part again . this and much more than what i have said , is due to the memory of so great and so good a man , whom it is impossible for a true lover of his country ever to forget . my zeal to the remembrance of those persons which i have mentioned , and whom i honoured and esteemed , together with the respect that i ought to express to them , has drawn me to a much greater length than what i at first intended ; and tho when i consider the multitude of your affairs both publick and domestick i am afraid i have too much presum'd upon your time in this dedication , yet the experience that i have often had of your candour , makes me to believe that you will forgive even so criminal a presumption . god has given you plentiful estates , and , which is as great a mercy , hearts to use them . you have often been eyes to the blind , and feet to the lame . there are many hundreds whom your charities have refresh'd ; the blessing of those that were ready to perish , has often come upon you : and you have made the hearts of the desolate to sing for joy. and it is no small support of your prosperities to have many praying for you to god , and who are the more earnest as having been greatly obliged by you . i do now thank you for all the many kindnesses that i have received from you both in my former health , and in my late sore affliction . i thank you for visiting me in my low estate , tho the greatness of my pain , and the anguish of my thoughts allowed me not to take such notice of so great an honour as otherwise i should have done . i have often said when i was greatly afflicted , that i should neither see you , nor any others of my friends till the great day , and till the heavens were no more : and god alone by his soveraign goodness hath brought me from the lowest pit. it was to manifest my thankfulness to my great deliverer , that i preached the following sermons , in a place where were many of my friends , many that had prayed for me , many that had continued their kindnesses to me , when i could no way be serviceable to them , and to whom i can make no other requital than by praying for them , and endeavouring to live to the glory of that god , for whose sake both you and they so kindly remembred me . in these discourses you will find a relation of some part of my affliction . it is impossible to relate the whole of it , for my sorrows were beyond expression . i have not here insisted on that , which was the trouble of my trouble , my spiritual distress , my anxieties and my fears , which were vastly more afflicting to me than my bodily pains , which yet were both sharp and long . i do purpose if these discourses meet with acceptance , to publish some others hereafter , that shall both contain an account of the distresses of my soul , and also some directions to those that are long afflicted , and more especially to melancholy people , to whose case there is very little said by those that have long been so themselves . since i have been so long sick , i cannot look upon any of my fellow-creatures but with great pity , when i think how many thousand pains and troubles may be their portion before they die . i could not have thought there had been in the world so many and so great miseries as those are which i my self have felt : tho at the same time i cannot but adore the wisdom of god's providence that conceals from the knowledg of men those evils to which they are obnoxious ; for if they foresaw them , it were impossible for them to perform their present duty , they would cause such troublesom agitations in their spirits . i have been somewhat particular as to my own case in the following sermons , that i may warn all people to walk humbly , and not to be secure when they see what strange miseries god has wherewith to correct our follies ; to desire them to prepare for long sickness and pain ; as also to excite those that are delivered from the grave , and so have received two lives from god , to be very thankful , and to improve so comfortable and so great a mercy . that you may prosper in your trades , and go on with the same vigour and faithfulness to manage the duties of your publick station that you have hitherto done ; that you may long live to promote the welfare and happiness of this city , and by the careful discharging of your talents may afterwards have authority over ten cities , and exchange your gowns for robes of glory ; that the blessing of god may be upon you , your ladies , your children , and your whole families , is , and shall be the constant prayer of , gentlemen , your very much obliged servant , timothy rogers . london , sept. . . practical discourses of sickness and recovery . sermon . psal. . ver . , . o lord , thou hast brought up my soul from the grave , thou hast kept me alive , that i should not go down to the pit . sing unto the lord , o ye saints of his , and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness . it hath pleased that all-wise providence that governs , orders and directs all things in this lower world , after a very long and terrible sickness and calamity to give me an opportunity to appear in this place at this time . 't is a place where i am well assur'd there have been many prayers put up for me during my sore and great affliction . and seeing the most high god , in whose power alone it was to relieve me , has from his own soveraign goodness , not cast off your prayers nor turn'd away his mercy from me ; i am now come to thank him in the midst of this congregation , for remembring so mean a creature and so vile a sinner in his low estate , for his mercy endureth for ever . as also to thank those of you here that had a sense of my sorrowful condition , for your kind affection , and for the requests which with so much pity and compassion you presented to the throne of god in my behalf . i judge it equal , that in a place where there have been offer'd up so many sacrifices of hearty prayer there should be also offer'd up one common sacrifice of as hearty praise , and that a great cloud of incense may go up from us towards heaven with an united flame of love and joy. for may you not say with me , who is so great a god as our god , who does marvellous things without number ; who commands salvation where there seems to be no sign but of approaching misery and ruin ; and , who is so good a god as our god , that does not contend for ever ; that creates light in the thickest darkness , and turns the shadow of death into the morning . it is this mighty and this gracious god that i would praise my self , and that i would now invite you to praise . it is no less than his all-powerful voice , that has asswag'd those flouds that overwhelm'd me ; after i have been like jonas in the very belly of hell , swallowed up with amazement and fear , he has made those waves of trouble which in a continual succession roul'd over my head , to set me now as on the dry land. it was without doubt a surprizing thing to jonah after so sad a case as is mentioned in chap. . ver . , , , . wherein he thus speaks , thou hadst cast me into the deep , in the midst of the seas , and the flouds compassed me about , and thy billows and thy waves passed over me . then i said , i am cast out of thy sight , yet i will look again toward thy holy temple , the waters compassed me about even to the soul : the depth closed me round about , the weeds were wrapt about my head . i went down to the bottoms of the mountains ; the earth with her bars was about me for ever , &c. i say after so sad a case as this , it was a surprizing thing to the poor man to see himself in this pleasant world again , and to find that the same creature that had swallowed him up should be the vessel that should convey him to the shore . as it is not easie to know after what manner he lived , for those three days and three nights , how he breath'd in the sea , and in the belly of the whale , and with what he was nourish't and maintain'd , so his escape from a danger which had actually overtaken him was no less miraculous . i am not in a less surprize than he may be suppos'd to be in , nothing but that almighty power to which nothing is impossible could save either him or me . methinks i begin to stand as on the firm land , and behold that stormy sea , and those rough winds that blew so violently , and fill'd me with so great a fear , and which lasted more months , than his did nights and days . and though i was no way like to that holy prophet , unless it were in his impatience and anger , yet i can say with him , jon 〈…〉 . . i will sacrifice unto the lord with the voice of thanksgiving , i will pay that that i have vowed , salvation is of the lord though i have such a remaining pain as makes me not to know what a total ease is , yet i own it as an effect of his unsearchable grace that i have now so much hope as to be able in some measure to pray to him , and so much ease , as to be able to speak to you , neither of which i could have done whilest his heavy hand prest me very sore . had it not been for some remaining indispositions , i had not so long delayed to appear in this place . i have thought indeed sometimes that i would with sampson arise , and do as i did at other times , but that tedious and uncommon pain that afflicted me , and the consciousness that i have of mine inability to manage so honourable and so difficult a work as this , has long kept me back . moreover , i thought there was no need of my weaker light , nor of my meaner capacity whilest in my absence you had others , whose understandings being better furnished could communicate to you in larger measures from their more abounding store . but the deliverance which god by his own power and goodness has already given me , is so wonderful , so unexpected , and especially so undeserved , that i cannot but thrust my sickle into the harvest , though it be with a very trembling hand . and i promise my self that you will joyn your prayers with mine , that it may be for the good of some soul or other , nay if god so please , that it may be for the good of many souls that i come here this evening ; that it may be for the preservation of others from so thick a darkness , and so woful a condition as that , wherein i have been . i come to you as one from the dead , to say no more , and though if you hear not moses and the prophets , and the well attested revelations and discoveries which god has made by them , neither will any other methods be successful to your good ; yet one would think that the words of one that has dwelt so long as in the very grave and in the nearest confines of eternity , ought to carry more than ordinary weight with them . a peculiar attention is usually afforded to dying persons , and i think the same should not be denyed to such as in the judgment of others and in their own opinion have been no longer for this world , as i was for above a year ; and upon that account have cause to say as in the text. o lord thou hast brought up my soul from the grave , &c. from the words we may raise these two observations . first , that god alone is the soveraign disposer of life and death . secondly , to be brought up from the grave is a mercy greatly to be acknowledged , and for which all such as are recovered ought to be very thankful . first , god alone is the soveraign disposer of life and death . this great god concerns himself not only with the nobler parts of his dominions , but with such as are more inconsiderable . he not only preserves the vaster and the purer orbes above , but also this little drossy globe . his care extends its self not only to the highest angel , but to the least and the meanest man. and though men are among us distinguisht by several excellencies and titles of honour , yet before him all flesh is as grass . he gives a being to the meanest pile in its ordinary garb as well as fine apparel to the beautiful lillies of the field . 't is in him that we all live and move and have our being , and if his concourse be removed , all our operations will immediately cease . we cannot act without him , for then we should be self-sufficient , and independant on him . he is the author and the preserver of our nature . he first tyed our bodies and our souls together , and 't is his care that maintains this incomprehensible union that is between parts in themselves so vastly different ; and when he pleases to suspend his influence , 't is dissolved and broken asunder . he is the strength of our life , psal. . . from him we have all our healthfulness and vigor . he is the great agent , the principal efficient cause of all that exists , and all second causes in their several actions depend upon him . though the manner of his influx is very mysterious , and it becomes not the weakness of our minds daringly to determine which way it is , we that are extremely in the dark about many of the motions of our own faculties , ought not any way to limit him , whose wayes are unsearchable , and who is so far above us . but this we most certainly know that our whole being , and the continuance of it depends on him alone . 't is his sun that does refresh our spirits with his temperate , and comfortable beams , and that by his amiable shine renders this world a place of delight . for were it always covered with darkness , it would be a place very undesirable and full of horror . they are his vapours that are drawn up to fill the bottles of heaven , and 't is his hand that opens them again , and makes the clouds dissolve to give being to grass and corn , to feed the beasts for us , and to be the staff of our life . 't is his day in which we work , and his night in which we sleep ; 't is his earth that bears us , his air in which we breathe , and they are his winds that purisie and fan that air to make it healthful , and serviceable to us . it was this great and gracious god that first breathed into us the breath of life ; he formed our several parts with curious and inimitable art , and his own skilful hand brought us from the darkness in which we were inclos'd safely to the light of day . 't was by his goodness alone , that we were not strangled in our birth , or smother'd in the cradle ; and that we did not there by the carelessness of our keepers , and by the many distempers that attend our early age find a grave . his goodness sav'd us from the dangers which we our selves were unable to apprehend , and which without his extraordinary favour would have clos'd our eyes as soon as we saw the light ; and have sent us into the other world , when we were but newly entred into this . his mercy deliver'd us from the unknown dangers of our heedless infancy , and from the unfear'd evils of our daring youth . 't is god alone that holds ou● souls in life and suffers not our feet to b moved , psal. . . 't is he that furnishes us out of his stores wherewith to repair the daily decayes of nature . he gives us the things that are absolutely necessary to maintain our life and those also that are necessary for refreshment and delight . his corn his wine , and his oil . hos. . . he causeth the grass to grow for the cattle and herb for the service of man that h● may bring forth food out of the earth , and wine that maketh glad the heart of man and oyl to make his face to shine , and bread which strengtheneth mans heart , psal. . , . 't is he that spreads our table , and who fills our cup , and makes the things which we take for the support of life to give us strength ; for we live not by bread alone , mat. . . 't is he that gave and that maintains that heat in our stomaches , and those acid juyces there , that alter and attenuate and distribute the several parts of our meat . 't is he that gave us the desire of food , and that drives away those diseases that would lessen and abate our appetite . and it is in the sense of his providence that we ask his blessing before we eat and return him thanks afterwards . for were it not for his gracious influences , our faculties would quickly lose their proper vertues , and we should notwithstanding all our care quickly dye . all sicknesses are at his disposal , for it is he that kills , and that makes alive , he bringeth down to the grave and bringeth up , sam. . . when he pleases to withdraw his most common blessings , we droop and languish and pine away . thousands of diseases stand in a readiness waiting for his command , and when our sins make him to give the word , they fall upon us with a mighty violence ; and in a few restless dayes and nights change our countenances , break off our purposes and stain all our pride and glory . fools because of their transgression , and because of their iniquities , are afflicted . their soul abhorreth all manner of meat , and they draw nigh unto the gates of death , psal. . , . god has fixed the bounds of our habitations , and the very time of our stay , and when it shall be that they must know us no more , we are but dust and ashes , and how soon can the mighty power of our great creator blow away the most strong and healthful , with more ease than we can our breath scatter a little dust . all things in this lower world have their rise , their progress and decay by the decree of god , and so have the lives of men . there is a time wherein to be born and a time wherein to dye , and both known to him though upon wise reasons hid from our knowledge . god does with great wisdom cast a veil of thick night upon all future events , that so we may without needless and diverting curiosity perform our present duty . he shews this dominion that he hath over the lives of men in these two things . first , in the large difference which his providence makes amongst those persons whose outward circumstances seem to be much alike . one sick man by the use of some mixtures or applications immediately recovers , and another that with the most exact observance takes the same physick , consumes his days in tedious sorrows , and in the flouds of his own tears , is carried mourning to the grave . secondly , he shews his soveraign disposal of the lives of men , in ordering the different seasons and times of their death . one is cut down in his early spring , and in his blooming greener youth , and his sun is covered with darkness , almost as soon as it begins to rise , whilest another weathers out the storms , and grows to a mature and full age. one does but peep as it were into the world , takes a short view of it , and is commanded out again , and is at his journeys end in the morning of his life , and another is allow'd to travel till the shadows of the evening are stretched out according to their most regular advances , and till the threescore and ten that is the usual date of long life is expired . one is quickly summoned to the great tribunal and judged , whilest another has a longer space wherein to prepare for his tryal and his final doom . 't is the divine providence that sees and orders not onely the larger portions of the lives of men such as infancy and childhood and youth and manhood , but as god numbers the hairs of our heads , so known to him are all the minutes and hours and days and particularities of our life , and every moment of our time. he has set us our bounds that we cannot pass , and with respect to his appointment no man dyes before his time. though a man that dyes by an acute disease , or a violent death , dyes before that time which he might have reach'd in an ordinary course , and before old age , which we reckon to be the most seasonable time wherein to dye ; bloody and deceitful men are said not to live out half their dayes ; that is , according to the general limit and order of providence as to the age of man , viz. seventy or eighty years . and indeed every wicked man in some sense dyes before his time , because he is not sit to dye , like fruit that is gather'd before it be fully ripe . i now proceed to some application : and from this doctrine we may infer . first , if god be the soveraign disposer of life and death , then the friends of the sick do them the greatest kindness when they recommend their case to him . and to this they are obliged by the communion which they have with them in the same humane nature , they are also in the body ; in such a body as is liable to as many pains as they see in others . they may be plunged into the same distresses , and need the same favour to be shewed to them . regard , i beseech you , your afflicted friends with great tenderness and pity , for whatsover their case is , your sins may bring you as low ; and you have no assurance that what has happen'd to them may not be your own lot before you come to the period of this miserable life . it is also the duty of the sick themselves , in the first assaults of pain , with great humility and contrition of spirit to betake themselves to god as their onely helper , and , with a fervour suitable to the sadness of their case to request of him . faith and patience , repentance , and mortification , and the pardon of sin ; and earnestly to pray ( that if it may be ) their sickness may not be very long , nor very sharp . for long and sore afflictions are so great tryals of humane nature that they may very well be prayed against ; and i suppose no man thinks himself obliged to desire an heavy cross. as to what concerns the sick man himself , he is to put his affairs into the best order he can upon the first warning , the first beginning of his illness ; for indeed in most distempers those increasing pains that attend them will not allow him to do it afterwards . thus job advises , chap. . . that , when a man is chastened with pain upon his bed he shall pray unto god and he will be favourable to him , and he shall see his face with joy . but he that never begins to pray till he be almost at the last gasp , will not be able to make such a strong and fervent prayer as is like to reach to heaven . as for them that try the physitian till he gives them over , and never till then seek the prayers of the church , they have but little reason to hope for help from god , to whom they have no recourse till they are driven by the last extremity . for they shew that if they could have had relief without him , they cared not to be beholden to him for it . in which case it is just with god to suffer the sickness to be mortal , which perhaps had not been so , if applications had been made to him with the first , by calling for the elders , by confessing their sins , by promising repentance , and by prayers for good things requisite , as well for the body as for the soul. discourse of extream unction . pag. . it is also the duty of those that are acquainted with the sick , instead of vain and frivolous discourses of common affairs , which have no relish with those that are in great pain , to minister as far as they are able to their spiritual wants ; to direct , instruct , and any other way to help them ; to set their souls in order , and to trim their lamp. see what care the holy prophet used to his enemies , psal. . , . when they were sick , my clothing was sackcloth , i humbled my soul with fasting , and my prayer returned into my own bosom , i behaved my self as though he had been my friend , or brother : i bowed down heavily as one that mourneth for his mother . those means which he used for their recovery were an argument of the sincerity of his own religion , as well as of his most affectionate sympathy and tenderness to them . when you visit the sick you see in them the prospect of your own mortal estate . you see how soon their complexion , their temper , their sociableness , and all that agreeableness of humour which was pleasing to you is gone and changed . in their broken feeble expressions , in their wan and pale looks and in their fallen countenances , you behold that man in his best estate is altogether vanity , psal. . . and how when god with rebukes does correct man for iniquity , he makes his beauty to consume away like a moth , ver . ii. then you see that all flesh is grass , and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field , isa. . . how many times do you see those whom you love , strugling with pains strong and bitter even as death it self , and you cannot though you never so earnestly desire it , afford to them the least relief , not a moments ease , nor the smallest interval of rest ; but when your hearts have sunk within you with the doleful and unintermitted accents of their groans and sighs , how often have you prayed to god and he has appear'd to your help and theirs ? there may be many cases wherein much speaking may do your afflicted friends no good at all , but there is no case wherein your prayers may not be of great advantage , either to preserve them with you , or to obtain for them some gracious discoveries of the love of god , or a more easie passage both which are very great mercies . what wonders have been wrought in all ages by the power of the united intercession of believers when they have carried their sick to christ. what numbers are there of perfect souls in heaven that can witness to the truth of this ; and how many deliver'd captives are on earth , that can now with joy set their seal to it , and say with transport , truly god , is a god hearing prayers . the continued prayers of the church for peter did procure his enlargement and an angel was dispatcht to break his chains , and to send him to carry the welcom news to the then praying church , that their prayers were heard and he was deliver'd . many there are now alive that owe their lives to this , whereof i am one . the mercy of god which alone could help me , and that was implored and sought by your prayers has brought me from the very grave . in all future occasions try this method for you know it is available and successful . is any afflicted let him pray himself ; is any so overwhelm'd that he cannot well perform it , let him call for the elders of the church , and let them pray over him , and the prayer of faith shall save the sick . jam. . , . he is to use this course as a means for the recovery of his health , for though we cannot with any modesty pretend to the prayer of faith here mentioned , that is , of a certain perswasion that the person for whom we pray shall be raised up ; yet we ought to pray in this faith , that it is pleasing to god when we express our dependance upon him by asking those things which we need ; that every good thing comes from him , and therefore health and deliverance from death ; that though he does not alwayes , give that particular thing which we ask , yet 't is sometimes denied because we do not ask , and that as he never gives the greatest blessings of all , which are those of a good mind , but in answer to prayers . so sometimes he does not send bodily good things , because he is not prayed to for them . and there is no less reason for prayer , when god raiseth up the sick by blessing ordinary means , than when it was done by a supernatural gift . discourse of extream unction , pag . inf. . there is great reason to fear and reverence god. for as he presides over all the revolutions of empires and nations , their original , their growth , their prosperities and decayes , so he does likewise over particular persons in their life and death . his knowledge and his government reaches to all things ; for their existence depends upon his will. it is in his power to destroy or to save . he is the god in whose hand our life is . we lye at his mercy , and according as he wills we must either be healthful or sick , live or dye . his are our times , on his pleasure our present happiness and our future welfare depends . he sits upon the flouds , and orders with a steady and uniform design , all that appears most uncertain and changeable to us . he can either make the waters of affliction to drown us , or say unto them as unto the waves of the sea , hitherto shall you go and no further , even then , when their swelling pride threatens us with total desolation . he has appointed his sun to measure out our time , and knows when shall be the last concluding day . when those that are now living shall dye , and by what sort of death , and where after that they shall be placed , whether in happiness or wo. he knows when the last trumpet shall sound , and when the dead shall be rais'd . of him therefore should we stand in awe , as having that voice continually in our ears , deut. . , . see now that i , even i am he , and there is no god with me : i kill and i make alive : i wound and i heal : neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand , for i lift up my hand to heaven and say i live for ever . what an abundance of diseases are at his beck , what abundance of arrows are in his quiver , what abundance of sins do we commit which cause him to bend his bow , and provoke him to set us up as marks of his displeasure ? he can strike the most consident and secure sinners dead in a moment , or with long abiding pains fill them with so great anguish and vexation that they shall chuse strangling and death rather than life . alass what are we to this great god , but as chaffe before the wind , but as thorns and briars before a consuming fire ; but by a reverential awe of him we may lay hold of his strength and be at peace . look up to his heavens , and that vastly extended firmament that is above , and then reflect and think how great is he that made all this creation with a word . look to his law and consider how holy he is in his precepts and threatnings , and then look to your selves and consider how sinful and how vile you are . look upon the strange punishments and miseries under which many of your fellow-creatures groan , and be not high-minded but fear , because the god that afflicts them may perhaps very shortly do the same to you ; and let it fill you with the most awful thoughts , when you consider how great is his power , how severe his justice , and how unspotted is his holiness . how easie is it for him to bring you to the grave , if he do but withdraw sleep from your eyes , so that you have no rest for three or four nights or for one week . then there is a stop put to all your present projects , and then all the comfort of the world is gone . for all affairs depend upon activity and vigour , and this will cease when sleep does no longer refresh your spirits as it us'd to do . all your apprehensions will change when you have lost this support of weak nature , this onely prop of comfortable life . god can make the strongest and most healthful persons quickly to feel sickness and diseases . he can quickly turn a pleasant fruitful land into barrenness and the most beautiful habitations into dust and ashes . we should greatly beware of provoking him of whose mercy we stand in need , and whose wrath we cannot bear . he can quickly change all our joy into mourning , and our day into night , and our light into the shadow of death . when he frowns all the stateliness of buildings , all the glory of nations , all the pomp and splendour of the world is gone . how soon can he lay waste a flourishing countrey with war or plague or famine , he can quickly turn the house of joy into an house of mourning , and deprive us of what is most pleasant in our eyes , and blast all our hopes you have seen that by letting loose an unruly element of fire he turn'd this city in two or three dayes into an heap of ruins ; and by filling the air with contagious vapors sent many thousands in a very little time into the grave , and he can by letting loose any one humour in your bodies make you a burden to your selves , and to be weary of a world in which you can no longer live as you us'd to do . inf. . there is great reason that , under any sickness or distress that befalls us , we should submit our selves to this god that brings even to death and back again . if you be plagued all the day long , and chasten'd every morning , psal. . . whilest others are in no trouble ; and if you feel your strength decay , whilest theirs is firm ; let no murmuring thoughts fill your minds , because you are the creatures of god , and he may do with you what he will. keep a remembrance of his absolute soveraignty alwayes imprinted on your hearts . job . , . god is greater than man , why dost thou strive against him , for he giveth not account of any of his matters . whatever he doth , is therefore good and holy because he does it . and when he chastens us very sore , we should lay our mouthes in the dust , and bear with patience his indignation , because we have sinned against him . we must not yield our selves to our miseries , but to him that sends them ; and that you may submit in great and heavy trials , you must have recourse to the promises of the gospel , the mercy of god , and the righteousness of christ , the merit of his sufferings , and the efficacy of his intercession , and if you believe you will be established , for without faith in christ there is no hope , and without hope no submission . how can this be done if a man have no prospect of advantage by it , either in this or the next world ; for no man can possibly submit to be for ever miserable . it is good that a man should both hope , and quietly wait for the salvation of the lord , lam. . . inveigh not therefore against the rod though it smart very much , but look to the hand in which it is , to that wisdom that has the disposal of it , and to those sins that have deserv'd it . look not upon your evils as the product of chance or fortune , but as the effect of an holy providence , which though it is many times very severe , yet is alwayes very just . adore this providence with an humble silence and veneration . you do not know which is better for you , health or sickness , affliction or deliverance , he onely knows that knows all things , and it will be very grateful to him if you give a chearful entertainment to his order and decree . if he please , who is your gratious creator and your father , he can therefore afflict you , that he himself may be your cordial , and revive your fainting spirits from the very grave ; but if not , your religion should teach you to approve of all the messages he sends you , and by a quiet resignation to put your souls into his hands , when he signifies by the progress and increase of your distemper that your race is finisht , and that it is now your time to die . and in order to this , you must lay up a good store against that evil day . for you may be warned from the world with long chronical diseases , that by their acuteness and violence , may be as so many several deaths complicated together . and , then , when you have no hope of bodily ease any more , then will be the great tryal of your faith. several men will with great hardiness and resolution bear very great pains , so long as there is the least hope of life ; but to be patient and submissive in the deepest sorrows , and in the view of certain death , this is what none can rightly attain to but those that believe , and not all those neither , but such whose faith is deeply rooted ; has for a long time flourisht , and conquer'd overwhelming doubts , and so is of more than an ordinary growth . this is that which rendred the patience of our blessed redeemer so very remarkable , that when he was lead to the slaughter where he knew he was to suffer violent and great pain from barbarous and cruel men , yet even then he opened not his mouth , and when he knew there was unspeakable bitterness in that cup which he was going to drink yet notwithstanding all the wormwood and the gall that was in it , and though his innocent . nature did recoil a little yet he drank it off , saying with an entire freedom of choice and a full acquiescence , father , not my will , but thine be done . and this was the fruit of a mighty trust in god ; for without it lingring and continued pains are not to be born . for he that can submit for a week may not have strength enough to submit for a moneth ; and he that can submit for a single moneth , may fail when his pain and anguish is continued for ten or twelve months together . we must prepare our selves for sufferings and beg of god , that we may be satisfy'd with his pleasure when they come , and that we may wait for our change , for we cannot dye till he will , of which job was sensible , chap. . , . oh that i might have my request , and that god would grant me the thing that i long for ! even that it would please god to destroy me ; that he would let loose his hand and cut me off . all our strugglings , all our impatient and hasty wishes do not hasten our last hour ; not all the enemies we have in the world , nor we our selves , can put a period to this life without the permission and the leave of god. therefore in all cases we must submit our selves to him . though to be stupid is as far from our duty as to be overwhelm'd . he that would have us to be sensible of his bounties , would have us also to be sensible of his corrections , and the prophet takes notice of the omission of this as of a very great fault . thou hast stricken them , but they have not grieved ; thou hast consumed them , but they have refused to receive correction : they have made their faces harder than a rock they have refused to return , jer. . . a careless unconcerned frame in affliction is an affront to his justice and his wisdom , and defeats , as far as in us lyes , the designs of his providence ; and to sink , and altogether to dispond is as great a crime . our tears are then just , when we look upon our sins , and see to what miseries they have brought us , and how they have made that gracious god to punish us with severity who does not willingly grieve the children of men . we then act most like christians when we answer our holy calling by a resignation to those evils , which he is pleas'd to send ; and when we exercise those graces which he requires from us . this is the onely cure of all our troubles , for 't is no more in our power to thrust away a disease by force , than to support a falling rock . some indeed will advise you not to think of the evils you suffer , and then they will be less ; whereas it may be through the raging pain that you are under , your disease is in your thoughts ; and then it is no more than to advise you not to be diseased when you are diseased . but alass ! 't is not in a mans power not to think of pain when he is in pain ; a man cannot avoid being sensible of what he feels , no more than he can avoid the sense it self ; and it is somewhat hard when a man feels exquisite pains , to be told that they are light enough of themselves , if he would not greaten them by his own weakness . this is to upbraid a mans misery , not to relieve him ; and to add reproach to his calamity by making his infelicity his folly. demonstr . of the law of nature . pag. . patience tho it doth not take away our pain , yet it may prevent new degrees of trouble ; and though at first we are unaccustom'd to the yoke , yet by suffering we may learn to suffer . inf. . seeing god alone brings to the grave and raises up again , then put not too great trust or confidence in physitians . a man indeed is under the obligation of self-preservation to have recourse to them , and to keep up his clay cottage as long as he can with all possible repaires ; and when one is in very sharp pain , and knows not which way to turn himself for anguish and trouble , then indeed he does most willingly seek for help , and will take any thing though never so displeasing to the taste , if he have any hope of being better , or more at ease . but upon the first pain or sickness we must by serious prayer go to god himself , and open our case to him who is a most gracious creator , and most able to help us , and this we should do before we go to men , who many times when they are most willing to relieve us , cannot do it . it is a perpetual reproach upon asa that in his disease he sought not to the lord , but to the physitians , chron. . . and 't is left upon record to warn us from a practice that is unsafe for us as well as dishonourable to god. it is god alone that has put healing qualities into herbs , plants and the flowers of the field , and who can discover the several vertues that are in them for our good . place not too much trust in your physitians , and this advice i think is not unnecessary because there are several people that by manifold disorders and excesses impair and ruin their health , of which they are less careful , from a secret opinion they have that 't is in the power of physick , to give them certain , relief , and they doubt not but they will be able to rebuild those walls which they have pull'd down with their own hands . but this is far from being true , for there are abundance of secret and violent diseases into which they cannot penetrate with all their learned art. and though you go to such as are men of knowledge and fame in their profession , yet there are many things in this little world man , that are to the most knowing as a terra incognita , and there may be a thousand diseases for which they want a name , and much more a cure , and for which there is no receipt in all the dispensatories in the world. their profession indeed is learned , but like all other humane sciences , full of imperfection , and the light which has broke out by the discoveries and inquiries of latter ages even as to many things in the very frame and contexture of humane bodies , which were not known before , shews the darkness and ignorance of former ages , and when this has done its best , the next will its like see more . beware of leaving your dependance on god to put your trust in men. and though it is commonly said every one is to be believed in his own art , yet that belief very easily degenerates into presumption . a thousand things may hinder your having any relief from physitians : you may be so pained as not to be able to give them an account how you are , or what part is affected , or after what manner ; or you may as it frequently happens , have several complicated illnesses , and what they prescribe for one , may be very prejudicial to another ; or they may do it in haste , or by a wrong judgment , ( which is very easie to fallible men ) take that for your disease which really is not so , or the apothecary may fail in the mixture , or those that attend you in the administration , all which may betray you to death or to long pain . seek chiefly to the soveraign disposer of all things , who can either cure you without means , or make those that you try to be available ; knowing that without him not all the cordials in the world can for one moment stay the departing life . of which many physitians are so sensible that they frequently tell you that by the blessing of god they hope to do you good . indeed they had need be men of prayer , that by their means religio medici might be as famous in reallity as it has been in scorn . and though i pretend to no great skill in these affairs , yet i have some experience as to what i say . i have often found the insufficiency of all things that have been prescrib'd , and that they have not given me the least ease in my violent and sharp pain ; and how what i have taken with a design to help me has increased my disease and made it more painful . therefore having severely smarted my self for my folly in expecting too much from humane help , i may be allowed to warn others , that they may not fall into the same snare ; and to desire them to trust more in god and less in men. we may be as guilty of idolatry in giving men too much of our trust , as if we bowed before a graven image ; and it is an evil to which men are as prone as to any other sin . an instance whereof is that which suidas saith , that the book which solomon wrote of physick , was affixed upon the gate into the entry of the temple , and because the people boasted too much in it , neglecting the lord , hezekiah caused them to pull away this book and bury it ▪ and the talmud saith , that hezekiah did two memorable things , first he hid the book of physick which solomon had written ; and secondly , he brake the brasen serpent which moses made . weemes exerc. div . pag. . indeed men do as that king said unto hazael , king. . . take a present in thine hand , and go meet the man of god , and enquire of the lord by him , saying , shall i recover of this disease . they seek for recovery first of all as that which would bring them the most acceptable news , which made the prophet use such ambiguity in his speech , verse . for 't is likely that 't was no dissimulation , because his sickness was not in it self mortal , yet he should surely dye , that is by the treachery of hazael . the hope of recovery is so grateful to the patient , that physitians are not a little tempted to conceal the danger when it is visible to all but to the sick man , and of how ill consequence is this ? i cannot better express it than in the words of an honourable person , for whom men of all the learned professions have a just value . for my part ( sayes he ) who take the prognosticks of phytians to be but guesses , not prophesies , and know how backward they are to bid us fear , till our condition leave them little hopes of us : i cannot but think that patient very ill advis'd , who thinks it not time to entertain thoughts of death , as long as his doctor allows him any hopes of life ; for in case they should both be deceiv'd , 't would be much easier for the mistaken physitian to save his credit than for the unprepared sinner to save his soul. boyle occasional reflections , sect. . pag. . our safest course in all our troubles and sicknesses is to go to jesus christ , who has an omnipotent vertue and ability to help , as when he was on earth he healed all manner of diseases , and among the rest a person that had suffered many things of many physitians and was nothing bettered , but rather grew worse . mark . . so he has still the same power and compassion , and though thousands have shared in the gracious effects of his bevenolence , yet he has still the same charity , and the same all-sufficient fulness from whence to relieve us as the sun after it has by its light and quickning influences given being and refreshment to so many several creatures in the world , suffers no diminution of its own light and heat , and is no less communicative and beneficial to this very day , then it was many hundred years ago . the whole of what i have spoken upon this head is onely to keep our spirits from placing an undue reliance on the creatures when our trust is chiefly to be fix'd on our glorious and powerful creator . one would think it strange , and yet so it is , that when god has by some sharp and severe stroak beaten off our hold from those props whereon we us'd to lean in the time of our careless health , when he has confin'd us to a solitary state , and we can no longer have our antient friendships , nor our former hope , yet even in distress it self ( so great is our adherence to creatures ) we substitute to our selves new reeds whereon to lay some strength ; and our vain trust does not expire but with our latest breath . i would not have any part of what i have said to reflect in the least upon those worthy physitians who in the time of my woful calamity gave me their charitable visits ; though god was not pleas'd to succeed the endeavours they used , yet i hope and pray that he may reward them for their labour and their diligence : as also those that gave me their kind help when i was not able to help my self . i owe to them all great respect and thanks , and none can take it ill if i say what to his glory i ought to say , that god onely was my physitian and my deliverer , and to him is all the praise due . he hath torn , and he hath healed , he hath smitten , and he hath bound me up , he hath revived me , and i live in his sight . hos. . . so that i may say with david , psal. . , , , . bless the lord , o my soul , and all that is within me , bless his holy name . bless the lord , o my soul , and forget not all his benefits . who forgiveth all thine iniquities , and healeth all thy diseases , who redeemeth thy life from destruction , who crowneth thee with loving-kindness and tender mercies . who satisfieth thy mouth with good things so that thy youth is renewed like the eagles . observ. . to be brought up from the grave , and to be kept alive from going down to the pit , is a mercy greatly to be acknowledged , and for which we ought to be very thankful and tha● upon these following accounts . reason . because life is the dearest of all our present blessings . all happiness is usually represented by the name of life , and all misery by the name of death . other evils take from us , each of them some part of our comforts . death bereaves us of them all . bondage deprives us of liberty , banishment of our countrey ; sickness afflicts our bodies , shame or infamy our souls , pain troubleth our senses , poverty incommodateth our life ; but there is no calamity so great , as not to leave us the use or enjoyment of some good , or at least of our selves . death extinguisheth our life , and by this means overthrowing the very foundations of our enjoyments , doth at the same time despoil as of all other good things altogether . daille sur coloss. . . life is the most excellent gift of god , but death is an enemy to nature and cannot be lov'd for it self ; 't is the fruit of sin , rom. . . 't is the wages thereof , rom. . . for if adam had persever'd in his innocent condition he had enjoyed a glorious immortality without those pains , and that death which is now our lot. the philosophers indeed thought that death was natural to man , and all the discourses they grounded upon this false principle , are so vain and empty , that they onely serve to shew in the general how weak man is , seeing the greatest productions of the wisest men are so mean and childish . pascal , pensees . s. . death is the matter of the threat , and therefore a punishment ; though believers whose faith is in exercise may quietly submit to it , as a passage to eternal glory . we give it indeed many soft names , and seem to make nothing of it in our ordinary discourse , we speak of nothing with more unconcernedness , and with less fear ; but it ceases not to be an enemy though we give it never so many fair characters . men at a distance from it can make a sleight matter of it , but its nearer approaches , if attended with the due sense of futurity will make the boldest and the stoutest man to tremble , it will strike a damp into his spirits , mingle gall and wormwood with his wine , and bitterness with his sweetest joys . death is not the less formidable for being unavoidable , but rather more so ; as a certain evil is more an evil than that which is only probable , and which may never happen , but do we consider what it is for the union that is between the body and the soul to be dissolv'd , what it is to see corruption , what it is to have this body turn'd into a carkass without life and motion , what it is to have this body which we have tended with so long a care , which we have maintain'd at so vast a charge of meat and drink and time , to have this body in which we have slept and liv'd at ease , laid into the cold grave , and there in a loathsome manner to putrifie and consume away ; it cannot but occasion very great commotions , when the day is come that the two friends who have been so long acquainted , and so dear to one another must part . death is an evil to be prayed against , for as such it cannot be the object of desire : and the old saying of augustin is not unworthy of our observation , that if there were no bitterness in death the constancy of martyrs would not be so remarkable . therefore says the apostle , cor. . . we would not be uncloathed , but clothed upon . it is promised as a favour to ebedmelech , that though he sustained many other losses yet he should have his life for a prey , jer. . . and paul , then whom none had a greater desire and esteem of glory , yet reckons it a blessing for a good man to be kept alive . for he sayes of epaphroditus , phil. . . he was sick nigh unto death , but god had mercy on him . and we find the holy men of old very earnest for their lives . return , o lord , deliver my soul : o save me for thy mercies sake . for in death there is no remembrance of thee , in the grave who shall give thee thanks , psal. . . . psal. . . oh spare me , that i may recover strength before i go hence and be no more . psal. . . i said , o my god take me not away in the midst of my dayes . and what doleful expressions did hezekiah use upon the news of his approaching death , isa. . . i said in the cutting off of my dayes , i shall go to the gates of the grave , i am deprived of the residue of my years . i said , i shall not see the lord , even the lord in the land of the living ; i shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the earth . reason . when a man dyes , 't is to him as an end of all the world. he is no more considered as a member of that community to which he did once belong . when his eyes are once clos'd by death , he is no more to behold the sun , moon and stars which he now sees ; nor his fields and gardens , his shops and houses , his estate and lands . as the waters fail from the sea , and the flood decayeth and drieth up : so man lieth down and riseth not till the heavens be no more , job . , . he quits for ever all those earthly things on which he once set his heart ; and when he is asleep in his bed of dust , he will not awake to pursue secular affairs and business , which took up so much of his time and labour . he must no more frequent his exchange , not read books , nor discourse with his relations and friends as he us'd to do among the living here . the first sound that he will he will hear , will be the voice of the last trumpet , arise ye dead and come to judgment . the first sight that he will see , will be the mighty judge in the clouds , and the heavens and the earth all in one flame : all that little share of the world which he called his own , will be undiscern'd , and buryed in the vast ruins and desolations of the great day . when a man dyes , 't is with him as an end of the world ; all the affairs of peace and war , of trade and commerce , and gain and riches , all his projects and designs , his large reaches , his forecast , his ●●●ughtfulness about news , or about providing for his own name , or for posterity , all these things are at an end with him for ever . it would put a mighty change upon the face of things , and the circumstances of particular persons if they knew certainly the world would be at an end in four or five years , or in so many moneths , and no man knows but it may be so as to him , because before or at that time death may cut him off ; and then he has no more to do with this earth , or with the sons of men. as the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away , so he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more . he shall return no more to his house , neither shall his place know him any more , job . , . reason . because when we dye our everlasting state is to be determin'd l after death the judgment . the moment of our departure hence will pass us over to the righteous tribunal of god. it will make us either to shine with the angels above , or to set with the devils . it will either fix us in a joyful paradise , or in an intolerable state of wo. so that we may say with nieremberg , how many things are to pass in that moment . in the same is our life to finish , our works to be examined , and we are then to know how it will go with us for ever and ever ? in that moment i shall cease to live , in that moment i shall behold my judge , in that moment i must answer for all my publick and my secret actions , for all that i have ever thought , or spoke , or done ; for all the talents , the time , the mercies , the health , the strength , the opportunities and the seasons and dayes of grace that i have ever had , for all the evil that i might have avoided , for all the good i might have done and did not , and all this before that judge , who has beheld my wayes from my birth to the grave ; before that judge who cannot be deceiv'd , and who will not be impos'd upon . little can he that has not been brought near to death and judgement know what thoughts the diseased have when they are so . little , very little does a soul in flesh know what it is to appear before the great god. this is so great and so strange a thing , that they onely know it who have receiv'd their final sentence ; but they are not suffer'd to return to tell us how it is , or what passes then ; and god sees it fit it should be concealed from us who are yet on this side the grave . but who does not tremble to think of this mighty change , and of this moment that is the last of time and the beginning of eternity ; that includes heaven and hell , and all the effects of the mercy and justice of god. see moral essayes , vol. . lib. . chap. . who does not tremble when he considers that infinite and holy majesty before whom the angels cover their faces ; that considers his omniscience and his greatness and the mighty consequences of that sentence , how sudden it is , and how irresistible , and that it is an irrevocable decree , and by a word of this mighty judge we live or dye for ever . it is no wonder if the thoughts of it make us shrink and quiver . it is a greater wonder that when some or other , whom we know , are almost every week going to such a place and state as this , we who are not yet cited to the bar , are no more concerned , and use no more endeavors to be ready for it ; 't is a wonder that we put no higher a value on that gospel that teaches us how we may avoid condemnation ; 't is a wonder that we prize no more that gracious redeemer , who alone can plead our cause , and that we labour and strive no more to be partakers of his righteousness by which we may be justify'd . it is no wonder if this prospect throw men into strange agonies , as it frequently does those who are dying . many people will say , when they hear the complaints of the sick , and their long continued groans , it were well if god would take their souls away from their pained languishing bodies ; it were well indeed if that could put an end to their present and their future pain . but do they not know that they must go into eternity and be judged after death . oh my friends when you come to the borders of the grave , when you are within an hour or two's distance from your final judgment , and your unalterable state , what a mighty change will it cause in your thoughts and your apprehensions . you will then know and feel it , then , when the perspective is turn'd , and the other world begins to appear very great , and this very little . this that i have represented to you is a part of that which we call dying . death is that which the philosophers have talk't of with great . contempt and with lofty speeches , but i believe they commonly talk't so confidently when they thought themselves far from it , and i am sure they did so because they had not a distinct , knowledge of futurity . for had they consider'd their own sins , and the nature of their last trial with the consequents of it , this would have lower'd all their pride and glory , they would have changed their language had they look't upon death as the conclusion of time , and the beginning of eternity ; and not onely as a going out of this , but as an entrance into a state that would never change. it is a great mercy and greatly to be acknowledg'd that god allows us so much time wherein to prepare our selves for this final and irrevocable doom . it is an instance of his patience that is truly divine , that notwithstanding our many repeated sins he has not cut us off . it is his great mercy that gives us leave to appear in his courts before we appear at his tribunal , and that he affords us such large notice and warning that so we may be ready for our last tryal , whereon so very much depends . the conclusion . i may say to you this evening as christ to the people concerning john , mat. . . what came you out to see . as for those who came hither out of a curiosity onely to see one of whom they have , it may be , heard much discourse , let them know that though , by reason of my long and sore affliction , i have been a wonder unto many , yet now i can say with some hope that god is my strong refuge as for those that came with an expectation of hearing something new and diverting , that might please their fancies or gratifie their ears onely , they find themselves by this time mightily disappointed . but those of you that came with a more serious intention , know , that you see a person that has by his own sins and the righteous displeasure of god been for a long season as in the very grave , and yet by the power and goodness of god brought from thence again . you see a poor reed that has been shaken indeed by the wind , but which the grace of god has kept from being broken to pieces . 't is to you to whom i would principally direct my speech , 't is your prayers which i would beg , that so you would desire of god that the deliverance which he has so far advanced , may be compleated by the same hand and mercy that has hitherto reviv'd me . you that have health , have cause to praise him for his mercy ; and i that have been long sick , have cause to praise him who has been my physitian and my helper . o magnifie the lord with me , and let us exalt his name together , psal. . . let us as we join our prayers , so unite our praises to this mighty lord. do you praise him for keeping you from violent overwhelming pains , and i will praise him for mitigating those that i laboured under ; and though he chastened me sore , yet he has not deliver'd me over to death . and so by this means we shall bring an acceptable sacrifice to his altar , and it may be that through jesus christ he will receive as an odour of a sweet smell this our evening sacrifice . the end of the first sermon . practical discourses of sickness and recovery . sermon ii. psal. . ver . , . o lord , thou hast brought up my soul from the grave , thou hast kept me alive , that i should not go down to the pit . sing unto the lord , o ye saints of his , and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness . reason . deliverance from the grave is a great mercy , and greatly to be acknowledged , because by that means a man has a longer time in which to prepare for another world. and this is more a mercy because it must go with us for ever , according to what we have done in these bodies , whether good or evil . this life is our onely state of tryal , and so shall it fare with us hereafter as we now behave our selves . there is no knowledge nor invention in the grave whither we are going . none of those things can be performed there , which to perform now is our most seasonable and necessary duty . if a man were to have a tryal for his estate or life , he would take it for a favour to have leisure given him wherein to make ready for it , and to put his affairs into the best posture that he could , it ought to be reckoned a much greater kindness to have notice and time afforded us wherein to prepare for the last determination of the state of our souls which is vastly more weighty and considerable . it is a mercy to have sickness or some tollerable affliction sent to summon us before the arrival of the king of terrours , and to bid us put our houses , and our minds in order , lest by sensual enjoyments , or the pleasing enjoyments of the flesh , that day come upon us unawares ; and left we be in a slumber when the voice shall say , behold the bridegroom eomes , go ye out to meet him . there is no question at all but that 't is very lawful with submission to pray against sudden death ; for though it be a mercy to those whose grace is eminently strong and who are alwayes ready , to dye without lingring pains and a complication of acute and violent diseases , which make death much more a death than it would be without them , yet to the most the danger of surprisal is so very great , and of being hurried to the bar , and judg'd to an eternal condition before we have done what we ought to do in time , that we may esteem it none of the least mercies of god that he does by some shaking blowes warn us before he give the last stroak and cut us down . it is not onely the practise of an holy life , and an habitual readiness which believers have by faith , and the renewing operations of the spirit , by the uprightness of their carriage and the constancy of their prayers , but a more particular preparation that they need . 't is necessary for them not onely to have oyl in their lamps , but their lamps burning ; not onely the graces of the spirit , but those graces in the fullest brightness and strength , to which they can attain in this mortal state. the best can never be so much prepar'd for death , but they may be more so . they never have proceeded so far in their mortification but they are sensible that they have still more sins to mortifie ; they have never so much warmed their hearts with the love of god , but that they may still glow with a purer and an hotter flame . it is very desireable to the best to have their faith more strong , their submission more calm , and their hope more lively . 't is very desireable to have more acquaintance and familiarity with god before they appear at his tribunal to receive their final sentence . they know well that it is a great work , impartially , seriously and constantly to search their own hearts , and to judge themselves aright that they may not be judged of the lord. as also to discharge all the duties that they owe to god ; to themselves , to their neighbours and their countrey , and they cannot but be very thankful that they are allow'd more time to do it in . that they may purifie their consciences , raise their affections , and review their lives with exactness and care when they are shortly to be lookt into by an omniscient and unerring eye . they know it is a mercy to be able to loosen their hearts from the world , which they are too much apt to love , and in a weanedness from what is sensible to dye before they dye . the most religious have the clearest apprehension that to appear before christ is no sleight or common thing ; that they must be such in whom he may take delight , and be as a bride adorned for her husband . they know that the celebration of the lords supper , and the hearing of the word , and fast-dayes and extraordinary seasons of prayer , are such duties as require the preparations of humbling sorrows , lively desires , awful reverence , meekness , and self-denial , because god will be sanctisied of all that draw nigh unto him . they dare scarcely go to the lords table without fear and trembling much less dare they go to the lord himself without a most solemn preparation . what care do men use if they are but about to transplant themselves into some foreign countrey , what inquiries do they make about it ? what laying in of all necessary stores that they may not be destitute of suitable accommodations when they come to the new place where they design to fix . and 't is not to be wondred at , that such as are to be removed into another world , are very solicitous about it , and very thankful that their season and their day of grace is lengthned out . whoever considers the many duties which the scripture requires of those that believe , what obligations they are under to their saviour , what , to their fellow-christians , and to those who are yet strangers to the faith. how many omissions and commissions they are guilty of , and what need there is of running , watching and striving with all their might that they may not loose heaven and glory ; whoso thinks of this , must account it a mercy that they have opportunity wherein to do what is so great and so indispensable . and as the apostle speaking of the new heavens and new earth inferrs , what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness , pet. . . so in this case we may say what manner of persons ought they to be who must quickly go into eternity ? how should they labour to increase with all the increase of god , to have suitable promises laid up in their hearts , from which in the sorest distresses they may fetch relief ? what need have they of manifold expersences , and of the compleat armour of righteousness , which may enable them to wrestle with , and to subdue , the various and unknown difficulties and tentations of a dying hour ; to have their evidences for salvation clear and unquestionable ; to know that they are in a state of grace , and that they have finished the work of their generation . indeed the careless part of men think that the prolongation of life is not in this respect so great a mercy . for they think that it is a most easie thing to be ready for death and judgement ; they think that a few prayers at last , a few tears and cryes to god , with a confession of their miscarriages , and a few resolutions against what they once did amiss , will put them into a good frame and serve their turn ; and so the time that was given them wherein to prepare for another world is lost and unimproved , because they understand not the greatness of their work , nor the preciousness and value of that time which is given them to do it in . they ought to remember if they have been near to death , how that nearness changed their thoughts , and that they then found by the hurry and confusion of their apprehensions , that sickness was no proper season wherein to begin an holy course or to repair the disorders of an ill one . of all men in the world those who are recover'd from a sickness that found them in their impenitence have most reason to be thankful because had they died in that condition they had died for ever , what thanks owe they to god that they are under hope in the use of means , yet upon his earth and not in hell. and there are two things with respect to our dying , which render the continuance of our life a great mercy . first , the small acquaintance which we have with the future state , and the necessity we are under to get as lively apprehensions of it as we can . there are many strange vicissitudes in this world , many changes that we see in countreys , when kingdoms pass from one to another ; in families , when the number is either increased or diminished ; and we suffer many changes in our bodies from sickness to health , and from health to sickness again , but there is no change that is so great as this by death . it is a thing of which we know but little , and none of the millions of souls that have past into the invisible world have come again to tell us how it is . all that go hence remain fixed in their own state , some expecting , and others fearing the resurrection and the great day . we have but very obscure apprehensions of that separated state , we know but little of the great all-comprehending spirit , and little with clearness and full satisfaction of our own souls . when we know something of spirits by their effects and the discoveries they make of themselves , and would more fully know their nature and have adequate conceptions of them ; we are like little children that see the image and representation of some delightful object in a glass , and then turn the glass hoping to see it in its full dimensions but by that means lose the sight of it altogether : so it is with us in our most critical inquiries into spiritual and immaterial substances . nevertheless it is very desireable to know in what condition our souls will be when they leave the body , and what is the nature of that abode into which we must go but which we never saw . into what regions we must then take our flight and after what manner this will be done . when that soul which touch't and wrought by our hands , spoke by our tongue and heard by our ears , shall have her present organs taken from her , and pass from sensible objects on earth to a spacious unseen world. when as in the twinkling of an eye our spirits will go from this lower state through the aiery region and the visible heavens soaring till they come to the throne of god. all the animal actions of nourishment and growth , all the sensations that arise from outward and material objects will cease , and these spirits will be more vigorous and active than now they are . when death comes it leaves the body though far different from what it was yet still in our view . we see where it is , and what qualities it is invested with ; how it is disposed of we know , and are able to give some exact account of its condition , of this we have a more distinct apprehension , but none of a separated soul but what is very imperfect . 't is certain * the soul will then preserve the faculties that are natural to it , viz. to understand , to will , to remember , as 't is represented to us under the parable of dives and lazarus . so long as 't is lodged here it sees and perceives corporal things by the organs of the senses , and reasons upon the images that are labour'd in the phantasie ; but there are in our souls idea's purely intellectual , and which have in them nothing material as the contemplations of the nature of god and of his attributes . we little know how the people of the disembodied societies act , and will , and understand , and communicate their thoughts to one another . what conception can we have of a separated soul , but that 't is all thought , and that either in the calmness of an elevated joy , or the bitterness of overwhelming anguish , according to the state in which it is and the sentence that is past upon it . when a mans body is taken from him by death , he is turn'd into all thought and spirit , either infinitely more pleas'd or more amaz'd than he could be in this world. how great will be its thoughts , when it is without any hinderance from these material organs that now obstruct its operations . in that eternity ( as one expresses it ) the whole power of the soul runs together one and the same way . in this world the soul sends out parties of it self , divers wayes , or to several ends ; the judgment may be pleased in the main , and yet the affections disturbed ; or these more still , and yet the judgment dissatisfied and disturbed : one thought goes out in high discontent , another flyes after it , recalls and reconciles it : on the other side , one thought leaps out of the soul with pleasure , another reproves daunts and dejects it , with a correction of its haste . but in eternity the soul is united in its motions , which way one faculty goes , all go ; and the thoughts are all concentred as in one whole thought of joy or torment . beverley great soul of man , pag. . these things cannot but occasion great variety of thoughts in every considering man ; and the soul especially when it looks toward that world and thinks it self near it , can no more cease to be inquisitive about it than it can cease to be a soul. we may indeed be too curious in this matter , though it seems to be a curiosity that is most excuseable , because it concerns a mans self , his own soul , and his own eternity ; and when we have searched as deep as we can , we must confess our ignorance , and say with the prophet upon another occasion , lord thou knowest ! in these contemplations we must make the word of god our onely guide , and it is a mercy greatly to be acknowledged that god allows us time wherein to converse with that gospel that has brought life and immortality to light ; and with that saviour who is the great prophet and teacher of the church , who came from heaven , and is now gone thither , and we may fully rest and acquiesce in the discoveries that he has given us of that countrey for he knew it very well , was very faithful in the discharging of his office , and does not impose upon us any thing that is either false or incredible ; by our holy prayers we are to maintain a commerce with him and with that world , and by our frequent going thither in our meditations we may gain a clearer knowledge of it . though there are no bounds on which our thoughts can terminate , but onely the revelations which god has been pleas'd to make in his own word . what is above those heavens , and that firmament that we see , there 's none can tell us but god and our saviour who are there . for when men have abstracted their thoughts with as much industry as they can from all that is material and sensible , when they have refin'd their understandings to the greatest spirituality , and pored never so long upon the state of separation , they will still remain in the dark about it . and he is the most happy man who in the sincere performance of the duties of religion can resign his soul to christ in death , and trust him though he is to be removed to a strange and a new world. for immediately after he is loos'd from the body he will understand more in an instant then all the most learned in this world have ever understood by the labour and diligence of many years . secondly , that which renders the continuance of time to us wherein to prepare for death , a great mercy , is because we are to dye but once ; and upon the well or ill doing of it depends our future happiness or misery . it is a great mercy that we have time wherein to make ready for our last combat , for if we lose the battle once we are overthrown for ever , it must not be fought over again . it is a mercy that we have leisure to compleat our journey well , for we must never travel over the same road again . there will be no second edition wherein to correct our former errors , when a period is once put to the last line of life . oh what faith , what courage , what strength is necessary to conquer the fears of death , and death it self ? if men fail in their trades they may by the kindness of their friends be set up again , if they have suffer'd losses by shipwrack , by fire or by plunder , they may be repaired , but a soul once lost will remain so for ever . 't is a long , long eternity that succeeds our time ; if we should live on earth as many hundred years as the most aged live months , it would bear no proportion with that vast and endless duration . whoever compares the shortness of our present state with the continuance of that into which we enter when we are to dye , cannot but esteem the being brought back from the grave to be a great mercy . if you have been careless of hearing at one season you may hear the word again at another ; if you have heretofore been cold in your prayers , you may now excite your hearts , and pray with more fervour ; but if you once dye ill , you must never mend so concluding a miscarriage . all the tears we shed cannot give life to the body from which the soul is fled . all the anguish of miserable souls cannot procure for them another tryal . they that are once cut down must never be planted by the rivers side any more . there is hope of a tree , if it be cut down that it will sprout again , and that the tender branch thereof will not cease . though the root thereof wax old in the earth , and the stock thereof die in the ground ; yet through the scent of water it will bud and bring forth boughs like a plant . but man dieth and wasteth away , yea man giveth up the ghost , and where is he . job . , , , . reason . those who are brought up from the grave have cause to be thankful , because by that means they have more opportunity to be serviceable to the glory of god , and to be useful in the world. meerly to live is not a thing very desireable , considering how many miserie 's there are in life , to what evils and inconveniences our bodies are obnoxious , and that the pains which they may suffer may be both very long , and so secret that none can understand either what they are or how to remove them . but it is a most desirable thing to live when we can thereby obtain the ends that are truly great and noble . for , first , hereby a man may do good to others . he may teach the ignorant , reduce the wandring ; and by the sincerity of his counsel , by the zeal of his prayers , and the lustre and holiness of a good example , advance the power of religion . our lives are not our own , they are gods by a double , title both of creation and redemption ; they are to be us'd for him who preserves , or takes them away as he will. not onely ministers but every private christian is obliged by the name he bears , and by the relation that he has to the holy society of believers , and to the kingdom of christ , whereof he is a subject , to enlarge it by all good ways that he can ; and every man is the more obliged to this when god has bestow'd a new life upon him . when we are near to the gates of the grave , and look back and see with how little zeal and diligence we had spent our time , and how little we had done for him who blest us all our dayes , then we are enclined most earnestly to beseech him that he would grant us another tryal , and that then we would improve it much better than we did our former time , and when he does grant us what we have askt , then it should be our great indeavour not to frustrate and disappoint the designs of his goodness and mercy . then must we teach transgressors his way , telling them how dreadful thing it is to fall into the hands of the living god. then we may tell the healthful what sickness is , what we have found it to be by our own experience , then we may tell them how it makes very uneasie and troublesome companions of our now beloved bodies . how it deprive us of all our pleasures and recreations , in the day , and of our rest at night . that all their friendships , conversations , and merryments without true religion are altogether vain ; and not onely so , but they leave a sting of guilt behind when the sweetness that once allur'd is gone away . we may warn them to provide for the dayes of darkness , and for the many miseries of life that will sooner or latter overtake them . when we are recover'd we can tell the diseased , of the goodness and the power of god , that they can never be so distressed , but that it is still in his power to help them , and a word of his mouth can heal them when other physitians are of no value . we can then by what we felt our selves tell them something of the evil effects and bitterness of sin. though what we feel in some cases is far more then what we can express . we can after our sickness excite all our acquaintance to fear and to love god , to fear him who can in a few dayes bring them very low , and to love him who can quickly raise the lowest up again . a man has much more to do on earth than to secure his own salvation : the world , the church , the nation to which he belongs , do all claim a part in him . the converted and the unconverted , his relations and friends , the good and the bad do all need and require his help ; and it is a mercy greatly to be acknowledged , that god renewes our strength and opportunity that we may do some service for him before we dye . there are many duties to be performed here , which cannot be done in another world , psal. . . his loving kindness cannot be declared in the grave nor his faithfulness in destruction . psal. . . in death there is no remembrance of thee , in the grave who shall give thee thanks . psal. . . the dead praise not the lord , neither any that go down into silence . now it is a blessed and a glorious priviledge to praise him here on earth ; for though he be praised among the glorify'd , it is without any propogation of praise to the name of god , for that is the priviledge of the saints on earth , where they make known his name to those that knew it not before , or make it more known to those that knew it . as also to advance the kingdom of christ in the world , to which the dead contribute nothing at all , and to give good examples by the sincerity and inoffensiveness of their carriage , for in heaven there is no need of good examples . there is no evil person to be reduced , and all there are possest of their happiness . vid. hook 's priviledge of the saints on earth beyond those in heaven in regard of many duties , pag. . here it is that we may feed the hungry , cloath the naked , visit the sick , lodge the poor that have no dwelling place . here it is by our sympathy that we may weep with those that weep , and in some respect imitate the kind incarnation of our saviour by putting on the wants and miseries of others . but in heaven there is no miserable person to relieve , no opportunity to shew our mercy and compassion to the afflicted , and yet this grace is one of the fairest lineaments of the new creature , and which causes in us a near resemblance of our heavenly father . here we may pray for the sick , the tempted and the persecuted , but there is an happy freedom from sickness and temptation . while we live we may by intercession and prayers for our friends do them good , but in that world for ought we know , such an intercession ceases ; and we are sure there is neither command , example or promise in all the scripture to encourage us to make our application to the saints departed for the relief of our wants ; that homage is alone due to christ the great and onely mediatour , whose mediation is founded on the excellency of his person , and the ransom that he gave to god. 't is here on earth that the strong in faith may assist the weak ; 't is here they may speak words of comfort and refreshment to the weary soul ; whereas above they all rest from their labours . 't is here they must strengthen the weak hands , and confirm the feeble knees , and say to them that are of a fearful heart be strong , fear not ; isa. . , . 't is here that the fathers to their children must make known his truth , isa. . . and endeavour that his name may be celebrated from generation to generation , and that the people which shall be created may praise the lord. psal. . 't is here that in the midst of sore tryals we must exercise our faith , for there it will be turned into sight and full assurance . 't is here that we must wait in hope for there the good which we expect will be possest . 't is here that we must love our enemies and bless them that curse us . and this faith and hope and love are greatly serviceable to the propagation of the gospel . 't is here on earth that we must acquire and use these graces and exercise the gifts which god hath given us for the common good . for whether there be prophesies they shall fail , whether there be tongues they shall cease , whether there be knowledge it shall vanish away , . cor. . . what a mercy is it to have life and time wherein to perform so many good works for the advantage of our neighbours ? what a mercy is it for a magistrate to live , that he may shine with more brightness and fill his higher orb with clearer light : that he may by his own good example and by his discouraging of prophaneness and irreligion , promote the kingdom of christ as well as contrive for the honour of his own dominions ? what a mercy is it to a minister that he may live to speak in the name of god , to bring the glad tidings of salvation , and to be long employed in bringing home poor wandring sinners to jesus christ ? to unfold the mysteries of the gospel and the unsearchable riches of grace and mercy that are therein , and to use the talents that are given him for his masters glory . how much more desireable is it to such an one to be speaking in the pulpit than to be silent in the grave ? and to have all his knowledge that he acquired with painful labour and waking thoughts to be as it were buried with him , or at least not to be of any further use to the world ? what a mercy is it to a parent that he may live to educate his his children in the nurture and admonition of the lord ; that he may instruct and antidote them against the contagions of this world , where evil examples are so numerous and good ones so very rare to give them warning of the dangers which he himself narrowly escap'd , and to acquaint them betimes with the wayes of god ? and by his conduct and prudent advice , and frequent exhortations and constant prayers to recommend them frequently to the blessing of providence , and to fortifie them against the rashness , and haste , and folly of their careless age. 't is easie indeed for those that are faithful in their several stations to desire death , as a traveller desires the shadow of a rock in a weary land ; and as a labourer after a days hard labour is glad of the approaching night that he may go to bed . 't is a piece of self-denial for very holy men to be content to live and to stay on earth when they have a well-grounded hope of heaven . to stay in the midst of hard service , tentations and tryals , and to endure the heat of the day when they might have their reward ; especially if they be afflicted with tedious bodily pains , for to serve god with chearfulness in the midst of pain is a noble effect of faith. it is a very generous thing to desire to live when they have no pleasure in life but as it gives them an occasion to be serviceable to the church . it is not altogether so with those who are in full health and ease . for as their strength is greater , so their work on that account is more delightful , and may be done with more vigour . there is not amore remarkable instance in history than that of our apostle , phil. . , , . for to me to live is christ , and to die is gain . but if i live in the flesh , this is the fruit of my labour : yet what i shall chuse i wot not . for i am in a strait betwixt two , having a desire to depart , and to be with christ which is far better . nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you . * was there ever seen any thing in the world greater then the frame and behaviour of this apostle , this holy man of god ; this angel in flesh we might have called him but that he speaks of dying ? 't is no great matter for a man to desire to live and to be serviceable , who is under doubts and fears about his salvation ; 't is what he ought chiefly to desire , that he may renew his evidences and work out his salvation with more diligence . but this was not the case of paul , he knew that to dye would be his gain . it was ( as it were ) put to his choice whether he would go to christ , to that dear master who had loved him and whom he had lov'd , or stay below in this world , a world that had given him very coarse and rude entertainment , that had afflicted and scorn'd and vilified and persecuted him wherever he came . and yet this poor weary traveller is willing still to travel for the good of others when he might have been at home . he is willing to stay amidst the reproaches and pains and sorrows of this earth , when he might have gone to heaven where he would have had a crown of glory and have been in the midst of joyes and hallelujahs . he might have gone to triumph and victory , but for the sake of his neighbours and his friends he is willing to renew the combat . he had been long tost on a very stormy sea , and might now if he had so pleased have gone into the port ; but for their sakes he is willing , from the very harbours mouth , to put to sea , and to abide new dangers and storms again . no soul , excepting that of christ , was ever sired with a greater zeal for god , and the salvation of others , than this of paul. there is a different behaviour visible in hezekiah , who when it was told him by the prophet , isa. . , . thus saith the lord , set thine house in order , for thou shalt die and not live . he turned his face to the wall and prayed , and wept sore , ver . . one would have thought it should not have been an unwelcom message to a good man , especially to one who could reflect upon his sincerity , and appeal to god about it ; to one that as we may imagine might have been , after so pure and so sincere a life , accustom'd to the thoughts of so great a change ; that knew that the setting of his sun , was that it might rise again in a glorious immortality . it is a wonder to see those cheeks bedewed with tears which one would have thought should have been adorn'd with smiles ; as a soldier is glad to be discharged from long duty , or after having long maintained a place with great hardships , to have the siege raised , and to be set at liberty . but there are three reasons usually , assign'd for it . first , though he was a very good man , yet he was still but a man , had those humors and passions which are usually put into a great agitation upon the thoughts of sudden death . the body and the soul have been so long acquainted that they are loth to part . secondly , because he had no issue , he was descended from david , and in a probability as he might think of having the messiah come of him according to the flesh. and , thirdly , he desired to live longer for the reformation of the church . for his age is reckoned to be then but , and that he dyed at * . we ought to be very thankful when god brings us from the grave and will use us in his service . he needs us not ; if a thousand such as we are should dye , how quickly can he supply our places with such as may be more faithful , and on whom he will bestow more grace and better gifts . when he took away such great men as moses , aaron and elias , he found others to put in their steeds , and the church and the interest of christ will not dye with us . those that are most devoted to the service of god , would not have the opportunities even of difficult obedience taken from them too soon . having often dishonoured god in the time of their health , they would still serve him though it be in pain . indeed though believers may sometimes earnestly desire to go to heaven when this world through their languishing afflictions and sore tryals is become uneasie to them , yet god will have them to serve him here on earth tho' it be with much trouble . christ prays not that he would take his disciples out of the world. tho' they were presecuted and hated in it , joh. . . and this may give us some light into one of the most mysterious parts of the providence of god , why he suffers his servants to conflict with violent pains when he could ease them with a word ; why he suffers them to make their couches to swim with tears , when he could quickly wipe all their tears away ; why he suffers them to groan long in misery , when if he pleas'd he could translate them to heaven without a sigh . 't is , that they may live to serve him even in these afflictions , and by the experiences which they have of his faithfulness be encouraged more and more to trust in him . he could at their first conversion give them the reward , and as soon as they are adopted to be his sons , make them actual possessors of that inheritance to which they are heirs . or he could strengthen their sanctification and compleat their grace , that they should not complain and mourn as they now do , for the hardness of their hearts , their deadness and unbelief . it is not that he takes delight in their grief , or that he finds an harmony in their groans . 't is because even they shall feel the bitterness of sin , they shall know the way to life to be strait and narrow ; that so they may at length wonder more at the riches and freeness of his grace , that brings them to glory even by such unlikely wayes . he will have them to be train'd up with difficulties , to strive , and to wrestle with them , that so their fervour may shame the coldness and indifference of others who take no pains for their salvation . he will have them to go laden under the sense of their corruptions , that so finding their daily need of christ , they may still remember him who is their help , and finding so much guilt in themselves they may apply themselves to his unspotted righteousness for justification , and to his word and spirit for new degrees of holiness ; that they may have experience of his goodness and he of their obedience and love ; that they may know the loving-kindness , the care , and the wisdom of that god that pilots their ship when it is covered with waves and stormes ; for stormes are the triumph of his art and he steers even the sinking vessel to the port. secondly , by being brought from the grave , a man may be enabled to do much good to himself as well as to others ; that so he may at last with joy give an account of his stewardship ; that he may increase his own reward , and by gods grace make his crown of happiness more sparkling and more full of weighty glory . as no man ought to be satisfied with the lowest degrees of grace , so every one may and ought by an innocent ambition , and a multitude of good works , to indeavour to sit near to the throne , and not only to save himself , but to carry others with him to heaven that may be his joy and his crown in that day . reason . and lastly , there are several circumstances that may enlarge the kindness of being brought from the grave , and which ought to render us more thankfull for it . those that are good may have their iniquities visited with stripes , and it cannot but be a terrible thing to fear that they shall be snatcht away whilest they are punisht with the rods which their own sins have made . as the prophet was devoured by a lion for his disobedience to the command of god , king. . . it is a great mercy to live to see the good of his chosen , and it is a punishment to be taken away just when some great deliverance is coming to the church . it was a thing which moses greatly desired to see the promised land , and to go thither ; to see it indeed was granted him , but to enjoy it was denied him because of the provocation at the rock . it is a misery to see plenty for others , and not to taste thereof our selves like that lord of samaria who perished for his unbelief , king. . . . . it is a great mercy to be delivered after we have been afflicted and ready to dye , when the terrors of god have amazed us and his fierce wrath has gone over us , psal. . . how sad a thing is it to dye under a sense of the weight of sin , and to have no prospect of a pardon ; to feel as it were the very scorching flames of hell , and to have no hope that these will ever be cool'd or remov'd , but rather grow more hot and scorching ; to have no comfort from heaven or earth , no rest for the body , no composure for the soul ; to be sinking and to have nothing to lay hold upon , to stand shivering on the brink of destruction and to see no way of escape , to be compassed in with sin behind and with miseries before , to be in darkness and to see no light , not to know where our lot will be fixt , not to know but that it may be among the damned . to be near to the judgment seat of christ , and to be afraid of appearing there . this is a state in which no man would chuse to dye for it is inexpressably terrible ; and it is a most wonderful mercy to be delivered from a case so sad as this . for how uncomfortable is it to a mans self to be roaring in the disquietness of his soul , not to be able to live because of the insupportableness of his pain , nor to dare to dye because of the greatness of his sins that are always before him , and that are like to lye down with him in the dust . how uncomfortable is it to the relations and friends of the sick and dying , that see him strugling and crying under pains which tear him to pieces . how uncomfortable is it to them , to hear his doleful expressions about his eternal state , to see the anguish of his soul and the arrows of the almighty sticking in it , which makes him a terror to himself , and to those that are round about him . how woful a thing is this ! and if a man get to heaven at last by the mighty grace of god , yet it is a thing very undesireable to go thither as by the very gates of hell ▪ for a man to have his days shortned and his strength weakned in the way , psal , . . and to have his sun go down at noon , looks like the displeasure of god ; and no man would dye by the frown of god. a man cannot be blamed who is loth to dye till he save some hope that it shall go well with him for ever . 't is a sore evil to be thrown aside as a broken vessel in which there is no pleasure , jer. . . it is a great mercy to be kept from raging violent distempers , and to be deliver'd from such , after we have long groaned under them . it is a great mercy to have such a sickness as will allow us time to exhort , and direct and counsel others ; and 't is very desireable that we may by a christian carriage set our seal to religion , and shew its power and reality . 't is a most glorious thing to dye in the lord , i. e. as one paraphrases it , in the spirit of our lord jesus christ , in the spirit of faith and love , in a spirit of elevation towards god which makes the dying believer to go towards heaven with all his force , and like his saviour commit his soul with joy into the hands of his heavenly father . du bosc sermons . p. . we ought to pray that we may not be like the wicked in our death , and that we may be found of our lord in peace ; and that we may say with old simeon , when after long expectation he saw the messiah and embraced him in his arms , lord , now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word , for mine eyes have seen thy salvation , luk. . , . this we may beg of god , for it is not only for our happiness but for his glory , when we can trust him tho' we go into a state which he has promis'd indeed , but which we never saw . what a glorious thing is it , when we are drawing near to the end of life to be able to wait , and not only to wait , but to long ; not only to believe and hope , but to rejoyce and triumph in the thought of seeing god ? to give to those that live , an example of dying well , which is the most difficult thing in the world. what a mercy is it when a man after many long and weary steps on earth is going stored with experiences and a well-grown faith to his journeys end ? when a man arrives at heaven like a vessel well fraighted and richly laden , that after a long and dangerous voyage is coming home . to shine all his life with the beauties of holiness , and when he dies to set like the sun in beams , to rise again . oh what a pleasant thing is it to a believer to have the sweet foretastes of heaven here , and hereafter to enter into the joy of his lord ? to be blown along with a full gale of assured and undaunted hope . to be able to say , i know whom i have believed , i have fought the good fight of faith , i am going to that god whose i am and whom i serve ; to that god who has loved me , and whom i have loved , who will be my own god for ever and ever . what a glorious thing is it when a christian by the assistance of the blessed spirit has mortified all inordinate desires after any thing in this life ; when he can say , let me arise and go hence to a better place ; when the affections and all the powers of the soul are on the wing to meet its saviour on the way ; when it is in an actual readiness , and as soon as ever it hears the voice saying , come up hither , will freely go and with such holy haste as if it would prevent christ in his coming to fetch it . it is a thing greatly to be desired and prayed for , that when our last hour comes , we may not onely in the general be prepared to dye , but that we may be in a dying frame ; and a man is so when he is very submissive to god and his blessed will , when he is pleas'd with that order of his providence , that calls him hence . when by faith he is intirely loosen'd from the world and worldly things , and in assurance of salvation can yield up his life with this , lord jesus receive my spirit . inf. . if being brought from the grave be so great a mercy , and for which we ought to be thankful , then what cause have those to be thankful who are delivered so as never to be in danger of dying any more . happy are they who are deliver'd so as ever to be deliver'd , never to feel the same bitterness which they once felt , nor to groan under the same miseries and calamities . we praise god here on earth but alass how low and how weak are our praises to what he deserves for his own excellencies , and for his mercy to us ? how cold are our warmest praises to theirs above , who are all in admiration , extasie and love ? and well may they praise him in the most elevated manner , that certainly know that all their diseases are heal'd and their iniquities forgiven . that by their nearness to god see his face and how well-pleas'd he is with all they do , they praise the riches of his grace in pardoning so many sins and so great ; they praise his power and his wisdom that guided their poor trembling souls to his own glory ; their hearts are full of love , and 't is that which produces praise and joy. oh what a chearful society is above in heaven , where so many milions of angels , and so many saints joyn together in the same blessed work , and all their several anthems meet in one loud and pleasant hallelujah , how vastly different is their assembly from such an one as this ? here we are with our unbelief , with our fears , with our strong corruptions , and with our many sins , whereas they are all perfect and compleat in holiness . here are we liable to manifold calamities , the very thoughts of which may be justly afflicting to us , but in their world they have no change nor variation . they have one continued and unalterable felicity , after a long and doleful sickness , it is a pleasant thing to behold this world again ; it looks as a new world to me who have dwelt for so many months on the very borders of the grave . but alass what is this world that at the best is a region and a state of death , to that above which is a region and a state of pure and undisturbed life . the deliverance which god has been pleased to give to me is in many respects as a resurrection , but it is such an one as that of lazarus ; after which i must be sick again and dye , for recovery is but a delay of certain death . and indeed our praises for our escape from death are very much damp'd and allayed by this thought , that we must for all the deliverances we have at present , yet in a little while go into the grave . the remembrance of those fore and dreadful calamities that surrounded me , and this consideration that i am , whilest in this body , obnoxious to many thousand more distresses makes me to rejoyce with trembling . it is a very sad consideration when a man looks upon such a number of people as is here this evening , to think , how many several sorts of miseries may be our lot before we dye . all of us are born to trouble as the sparks fly upward . we can no more avoid affliction then we can run away from our selves . what vexations may you parents meet withal in disobedient children , that may send you mourning to the dust ? what curses may come to you who have careless parents that suffer you to wander in the way of death ? what disappointments and losses and decayes may you that are tradesmen meet withal , or if you avoid all these yet that which is worse may come upon you . i mean sharp and violent diseases , and these i call worse because a man will better bear any inconvenience without him , then that which fills his body with uneasieness and pain , and his soul by its sympathy with its dear companion with anguish and vexation . in how little a while will all , who are now alive , be dead ! in how little a time may the most strong and healthful person here , be taken off by sickness from all employment and business ! how does it trouble us many times to see the tears and sorrows of our nearest friends , and we cannot mitigate them ; with what earnest looks do they move our pity when they are in great pain but we cannot help them , their shrill cryes , and their doleful groans may pierce our hearts but we know not how to remove them . we stand by their bed-sides and see their agonies , but by being sorrowful we do but for the most part add new grief to theirs . we see their countenances change and how at length they pass away , and that shortly in such a case shall we our selves be . but oh what a welcom and glorious day will that be , when we shall see those very friends alive again whom we once saw in the most dreadful agonies of death ? when though we parted with tears , yet we shall meet with joy. it will be a welcom day indeed , when their looks , their expressions , their carriage , will all be changed for the better . there will be no appearance of any thing that is dismal and grievous , and it will be more welcom to us because we and our friends , so suitable , so loving and so perfect shall never part again ? oh what a comfortable thought is this ? oh what will our praises be when we are there , where there will be no more sickness , no more death for ever . we shall behold what we were in our mortal state , how vain and how short-lived , and what we are when we are made immortal . there will be no more restless and weary dayes , nor nights as restless as the day , not a sigh nor a groan will be heard in all the blessed place above . what would one that is in great pain give for ease , most readily would he give all he has in the world , but upon our first entrance into that land of pleasure and of health , all our diseases will be cured , and so fully cured that we shall never relapse nor be diseased again . there will be no pain . this to those that are at ease may seem a little part of heaven but to those of us that have been in long and terrible sickness , 't is a very sweet and reviving consideration . in this world one affliction is scarce past till another comes , usually there is breach upon breach , and a new sorrow treads upon the heels of the old one , as one wave upon another . we have scarcely dryed our eyes for one loss but another comes that will make us weep again ; but in the heaven which we hope for , there is no language but that of praise . here we are alwayes either bewailing our own miseries or those of our friends and neighbours ; but there it will not be so . god shall wipe away all tears from their eyes , and there shall be no more death , neither sorrow nor crying , neither shall there be any more pain , for the former things are passed away , rev. . . oh what a joy will it be to us , to be past death , that is so terrible and to be for ever past it ! the ransomed of the lord shall return and come to zion with sons , and everlasting joy upon their heads , tĥey shall obtain joy and gladness and sorrow and sighing shall flee away , isa. . . we praise god indeed here and we have cause to praise him , but our victories are not so compleat as to make a perfect triumph , we have one great battel yet to fight , and one great gulph to shoot , and a dark and a solitary way to go . this is that which is grievous to our thoughts ; but oh what a joy will it be to us when we are past death and have dyed well , who can express the mighty pleasure of it ? when the deliver'd soul can say , i that have been so furiously tempted , so violently assaulted , so siercely shaken by the blast of the terrible one , shall be so no more , all the rage of satan shall not come near me nor give me an unquiet thought for ever . and i , that griev'd and was disconsolate with tedious and uncommon pain , shall never droop nor languish any more . what a reviving prospect will it be when we stand on the other side of the grave , when the terrible forerunners of death , and death it self shall be no more ? then we may say indeed , oh death where is thy sting , oh grave where is thy victory ? what consternation , fear and perplexity fill'd the hearts of the poor israelites when they were going out of egypt when they were environed with rocks , with their enemies behind , and with the sea before ? they were in great trouble and knew not what to do . but how different were their looks and apprehensions when they beheld the sea to give way , and by an unheard of miracle stand as a wall on either hand till they past thorough ! how delightful was it to them , when they were on the firm land , to see those very enemies , that pharaoh and those cruel masters , that had for so many years kept them in cruel bondage to find a grave in that element which yielded and made a way for them ; exod. . , . so will it be with us when we shall see all our diseases , all our fears , all our temptations , all our sinking thoughts to be destroy'd for ever . the day of our death that will convey us to the blessed state , will be better to us then the day of our birth that brought us into such an evil world as this . our eyes will then no more behold grievous objects ; our ears will no more hear any sad or doleful news . here we have many national and personal deliverances , but alass we sin again , and so bring upon our selves new judgements : but there , which every sincere soul reckons to be a great part of heaven we shall sin no more for ever . i that am now speaking come to you as from the grave , and can give you an account of pain and sickness , but am not able to give you so distinct an account of the holy & cheerful employment that is above . but if one were to come to you from heaven , if he were but enabled to tell what he felt , and your capacities enlarged to understand the pleasing narrative , how would your glad hearts melt with an admiring joy , and your souls be raised to praise and wonder ! they will be much more raised and more joyful when you have your compleat and final deliverance . then you shall say with those in rev. . , . worthy is the lamb that was slain , to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and blessing . and again , blessing , honour , glory and power be unto him that sitteth upon the throne , and unto the lamb for ever and ever . the end of the second sermon . the third sermon . psal. . ver . , . o lord , thou hast brought up my soul from the grave : thou hast kept me alive that i should not go down to the pit. sing unto the lord , o ye saints of his , and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness . if deliverance from the grave be so great a mercy , and for which we ought to be very thankful : what cause have they to be thankful that are delivered from a death in sin ? as the soul is much better than the body , so the mercies that are bestowed upon it are much more valuable : and without this spiritual resurrection , temporal deliverance and salvation would not be so great a mercy . a soul under the dominion and reigning power of sin , is in a far more deplorable condition than a body that is consuming in the grave : the one suffers under a sort of innocent misery which it cannot help , the other suffers under a wilful obstinacy and impotence contracted by its own fault . how sad a prospect is it to see men far from god , in whom alone there is life ; & a separation from whom is far more terrible than the separation of the body and the soul , which yet is painful and sad enough . they that are under the power of this spiritual death , taste not the goodness of god , they hear not his loudest calls , they tremble not at his most dreadful threats , they are not drawn with his love , nor start at his approaching wrath. they are very sick indeed , but they feel not their sickness ; their ignorance has deprived their souls of all knowledg of their own miseries : they are in a state of death and insensibility ; and their case is the more sad , because they are like to fall under the power of eternal death : and tho their temporal life is prolonged for a season , yet we may say of them , as of malefactors under the sentence of the law for their crimes , they are dead men , though there be a reprieve , or a delay of execution for a little space . and if any of you ( as i hope there are many here ) are delivered from a state so dangerous and so miserable , what thanks and praise should you give to god , who hath quickned you , when you were dead in trespasses and sins ? eph. . . especially considering that you had no inclinations , no foregoing dispositions to this spiritua life . you contributed nothing to your own regeneration , no more than a carcass in the grave can raise it self and live again ; no more than dry bones can move of their own accord , or clothe themselves with skin and flesh. when he passed by , and saw you in your blood , ezek. . . then he said vnto you , live. the hour is come , in which they that are in the grave , shall hear the voice of the son of god ; and they that hear , shall live , joh. . . how many of your friends , your neighbours , and your fellow-citizens are there , in whom there are no signs of life at all ? that notwithstanding all their civility and fair carriage , their attendance upon the word , and the performance of several outward duties , have only a likeness to the living , but no real life . and why should god be so good to you , and not to the rest of men ? you were once the children of wrath , and enemies as well as they . were there any peculiar excellencies in you more than in others to recommend you to his favour ? no , he has been merciful to you , because he will be merciful : and you may say as 't is in eph. . , . god who is rich in mercy , for his great love wherewith he loved us , even when we were dead in sins , hath quickned us together with christ. 't is a very great mercy for those that have been sick to be restored to health ; but you are delivered from a worse death , and have obtained a better resurrection , in as much as the second death , to which they were obnoxious , is infinitely more painful and dreadful than the first . what a mercy do you enjoy to be brought from a state of wrath and condemnation , into a state of peace and favour ? from the guilt of your sins , which made you dead in law , you are freed in your justification : and from the power of sin , which would have kept you in continual slavery , you are delivered by the sanctifying influences and operations of the blessed spirit ; you have cause to be thankful for your selves , and for your relations too , if god has given the same mercies unto them : you may invite your neighbours and your friends to a participation of your comforts , and say as the father of the prodigal , come and rejoice with me , for this my son was lost , and is now found , was dead , and is now alive . to raise your thankfulness , consider what a condition you would have been in , had not god blessed you with a part in the first resurrection . you whose eyes are now fix'd on heaven and glory , had been still slumbering as unconverted sinners are , on the very brink of hell ; you had then been without all relish of that word which first produced , and which does every day maintain your life , and which is sweeter to you than honey , or the honey-comb , psal. . . you had now been without all esteem and value of that dearest redeemer , who purchased for you this happiness at a very dear price ; and that you might live , was himself content to die : you had then been without that reviving hope of seeing him for ever , that smooths your way , and guides your steps , and upholds your spirits , thô you meet with many a sharp and bitter cross. you would now perhaps have been prophaning his sabbaths , vilifying his ordinances , tearing his name to pieces with execrable oaths ; you might not have known what is the sweetness of a sincere and hearty prayer , what is the blessedness of a soul whose sins are pardoned , and how honourable is the priviledg of having the great god for a father , and christ for a mediator : you are delivered from spiritual diseases , which are worse than all bodily distempers ; for pride and envy , impatience and discontent , and ambition and revenge , are worse than even the worst of pains , than the stone , the cholick , the strangury , or the like . these cause a momentany trouble ; but the evil habits , the corrupt inclinations , and the disorderly motions that bear sway in that poor soul that is dead in sin , tend to an everlasting misery . continually adore and magnify the power of your saviour , that made your hearts at length to yield to his own terms , though they gave him a very great opposition : bless the skill and wisdom of your gracious physician , that cures all the diseases of your old nature , that is not in any part of it sound and healthful . it is easy to kill and ruin and destroy , that we can all do too well ; but who can recover and save but he alone ? and if he was to be admired when on earth , he heal'd the sick , and made the blind to see , the lame to walk , and the dead to live : he is much more now to be adored , and his power is not less miraculous when it displays its vertue in regeneration ; and when he makes all the boisterous unruly passions of nature to be still and quiet , than in commanding the seas and the winds . these things should be the matter of your praise and wonder , as they will be the cause of praise and wonder to his saints for ever : and if david is thankful here , when he says , o lord , thou hast brought my soul from the grave ; what matter of greater thankfulness is it , when a christian can say , o lord , thou hast brought up my soul from hell , from the power of satan , from the house of bondage , and from the neighbourhood of the second death . long life is in it self a blessing , and for which we may very lawfully pray . i say 't is in it self a blessing , for it may be clog'd with those miseries that may make it to be as a curse : as if a man were to live long only to row in galleys , or to dig in mines , or to pine in a dungeon , or to live in pain and torment , or to languish on a sick bed for many years together , without help or ease . as we do not say a ship that has been in a storm for many days has failed long , but the ship has been long tost : so life attended with innumerable vexations and heavy crosses , were not so truely to be called life , as one continued act of dying . to live to see nothing but desolations , to hear nothing but ill tidings , and to feel nothing but pain ; these and many other things would make a long life to be an affliction ; and such as these made jeremy to say , why died i not from the womb ? to have life and to have no comfort with it , to have such diseases , it may be , as will not allow us to take any delight in what we eat and drink , in the society of our friends and good people , or good books ; when we have no other language but complaints , no other work but to sigh and to groan , and it may be pains which we cannot bear : life with these companions looks but as a poor and sorry thing : but life as it includes a recovery from sickness , a recovery from distempers that hindred us either from the doing or the receiving good , so indeed it is a blessing , and may be prayed for , thô when we do so we must request it : st , with great submission to the soveraign disposer of life and death , to do with us so as may serve most his interest and kingdom in the world. dly , we must in the desires of long life , propose to our selves great and honourable ends : some desire to live long that they may with more freedom indulge and gratify their appetites : some that they may get great estates , make some stately buildings and houses that they design to call by their own names , and hoping thereby to perpetuate their memory . these are the desires of men in whose hearts the world bears too great a sway , and who are little acquainted with the nature of religion ; for this will teach us to make the glory of god , the edification and profit of our neighbour , and the welfare of our own souls , the only end in our desires of long life , and then we must inform our selves in the right notion of long life . we commonly think that or is the duration of a long life ; but it is not to be measured by the number of years , so much as by our proficiency in heavenly wisdom : he has lived long and well too , that has attain'd to the end of living , that has got that knowledg and those graces which enable him to live to the glory of god here , and to enjoy him for ever ; and a sinner that is an hundred years old , will be accurst , isai. . . if he arrive not to this ; he has been indeed a great while , but has not truly lived at all . and though the best are but loiterers , and have not that esteem of time which its real preciousness does require at their hands ; yet he that hath an hundred years time , and loseth it all , lives not so long as he that hath but twenty and bestows it well : it is too soon to go to hell at an hundred years old , and not too soon to go to heaven at twenty . baxter's saints rest , p. . barely to live , is a thing no way considerable ; for birds and flies , and gnats and other animals , live as well as we , nay , and many of them have a more delicate pleasure in life , as wanting the bitterness of our griefs , and the fears of a sad futurity ; but we then desire long life aright , when we beg it for this reason , that we may live to god : 't is what is very desirable in this respect , though we ought not to promise it to our selves , for we must always work with zeal and fervor , as not knowing but we may have only a little time wherein to work . i believe there is scarcely one among us all , but hopes to live long , and to attain to the years of some of our old progenitors , and does not question but he shall do so . when we see very aged people , even in our dangerous youth , we hope that we shall live till our greener heads be cover'd with the winter , and the snow of age. 't is indeed a thing greatly to be desired , where one is planted in the vineyard of god , not to be removed thence , till the time of harvest , and not to have our fruit blasted with rude and unseasonable weather , but that we may come to the grave in a full age , like as a shock of corn cometh in his season , job . . it was indeed a blessing more insisted on , and more largely promised in the old testament than 't is in the new ; for that oeconomy was chiefly managed with respect to temporal advantages and prosperity . they had in many promises the discovery of another happy life , though not so clear and distinct as that which the gospel gives to us , yet they had the belief of it , and their belief was without doubt confirmed by the translation of enoch , and the rapture of elias : for they might easily think that god would not remove two men , so very good , and so very useful , unless it were to place them in a better state than that was which they had on earth . long life is a great blessing , but not such an one as god is always pleased to give to the best of men : good josiah , the glory of all the kings in those days , did not live so long as many other worse than he : all israel was forced to lament his early death , whom to have seen alive would have been their greatest joy. our good king edward the th , that was in his tenderest youth so great a scholar , so good a christian , and so excellent a king , so hearty an enemy to the pope , and so sincere and true friend to the reformation , and so great a promoter of it ; he died ( alas ) very young . the divine providence is mysterious in its conduct , and far above our thoughts . for what good might two such great and holy men have done , the one in israel , and the other in england ? they did much good in the few years while they lived , and might have done abundance more had they lived very long : these excellent kings were soon taken away , whilst many tyrants have waxed grey amidst the hatred and the curses of the people . when we think of two such excellent men as mr. joseph allein , and mr. john janeway , and how soon they died , that were less in degree , but as great in grace as the former two , we must needs be silent , and adore the providence that we do not understand : we must needs conclude that there is something much better to be enjoyed in the next world , than long life in this ; otherwise , such holy men , so full of self-denial , so very laborious for the glory of god and the good of souls , should have lived very long : they were taken away by sickness from that work in which their souls delighted , and which in their hands thrived very much : the tears and prayers of their hearers and their friends that would have had them to flourish with perpetual youth , and that were very sorrowful to see men that filled them with such great hopes taken away , could not stay them here any longer : nor would god have them to stay longer from their happiness . it is indeed a mercy to those that are good & fit for heaven , to have an early deliverance from such an evil world as this , where there is so much sorrow , and disorder , and temptations , and sins ; to be taken away from the evil to come , and from many sad objects that such as live longer may be troubled to see ; to be fully assured that god is their god , and heaven their home . jesus christ did leave the world , ( as one says ) and ascend to glory about the d or th year of his age ; to teach us in the prime of our years to despise this world , when we are best able to enjoy it , and to reserve our full vigour for heaven and for his love. yet though this be a way to promote a man's own happiness , yet it must be received as a mercy from god , when any one lives not only to promote his own salvation , but the good of others also . some will say , what need we to pray for long life ? what need we sollicite god to no purpose , or tire him with our prayers ? for we shall not live a day beyond our time , nor die a moment sooner . do you not think your selves concern'd to eat and to drink , and to procure to your selves other gratifications of life notwithstanding this ? and why should you not think your selves under an equal obligation to use those other means that are necessary to preserve life , as prayer to god for his blessing ? seeing man lives not by bread alone , mat. . . you find that hezekiah by his prayers to god obtained fifteen years more after he had received the first summons of death . and paul by the prayer of the corinthians was delivered , after he had received the sentence of death , cor. . , , . and whatsoever may be in the decrees of god , yet i am sure he may justly deny us what we will not take the pains to beg ; tho the longest life that we can hope to live will be some hundreds of years shorter than the lives of men before the flood : for their long lives are rather to be ascribed to some extraordinary priviledg than to the ordinary course of nature . the world was then to be replenished with inhabitants , which could not be so speedily done but by an extraordinary multiplication of mankind , neither could that be done but by the long lives of men. again , arts and sciences were then to be planted ; for the better effecting whereof it was requisite , that the same men should have the experience and observation of many ages . as also the food wherewith they were nourished before the flood , may well be thought to be more medicinal ; and haply the influence of the heavens was at that time , in that climate where the patriarchs lived , more favourable and gracious . hakewell apol. p. . if deliverance from the grave be a great mercy , and greatly to be acknowledged , then it is a very evil thing in haste and passion to wish for death . there are several people , when any thing falls out that crosses their inclinations or designs , will presently say , i wish i were dead , i wish i were in the grave , and out of such a troublesom world as this . but do you know what it is to die ? it is to appear before the eternal god , and to render an account of all that you have thought , or spoke , or done : it is to be judg'd to heaven or hell , and that for ever . i cannot forget here that sad story that is mentioned by bellarmine , and quoted from him : he speaks of a man notoriously worldly-minded , whom he went to visit on his death-bed ; and when he did him duly to provide for another world , answer'd him , sir , i have much desired to speak with you , but it is not for my self , but in behalf of my wife and children : for my self i am going to hell , neither is there any thing that i would desire in my own behalf . and this he spake , saith he , with such composedness , as if he had been but going to the next town or village . the ignorance of this miserable person suffer'd him to be in no commotion nor horror at all ; but what a doleful change did he feel in his thoughts and apprehensions when he came to that real hell , and to those flames of which he spake in so cold a manner ? people make very little of dying ; and those that are poor , usually die with the least concern ; for they imagine that having suffer'd so many miseries in this world , they shall be very happy in the next . life is a very dear enjoyment , and it is a wonder any should desire in haste to be deprived of it , but it is usually then , when they are in very great and almost insupportable pain , or under the fear of evils that seem to be greater than what they are able to bear . thus the children of israel being in great straits , wish'd they had died in egypt , exod. . . thus the meekest of all other men , press'd by the calamities that he had in view , says , numb . . , . i am not able to bear all this people alone , because it is too heavy for me : and if thou deal thus with me , kill me i pray thee out of hand , if i have found favour in thy sight , and let me not see my wretchedness . thus elijah , king. . . and job , chap. . , . and jonah , the sun beat upon his head , and he fainted , and he wished in himself to die , and said , it is better for me to die than to live , chap. . . but by a mercy of god not inferiour to his former deliverance , he was reserv'd to another repentance , and to more peaceable days . thus even good men have sinned through the pressure of some very great affliction and calamity . in this they followed the motions of their sensitive nature , and not those of grace , the tediousness of their trouble , and the weight of the cross that they groaned under , made them with too much eagerness and haste to pray for death ; which is always reckoned to be the last refuge of the miserable . but god is not used to grant these fretful and passionate desires ; he will make them to know their own folly , and the justice of his soveraign authority ; he will have them not only to serve him , but to wait till he dismiss them from their service ; and all their haste shall not make their sun decline , till he see it is their time to die . and it is indeed a piece of arrogance unsuitable to the condition of a creature , to desire it just at such a particular season , as if we knew the most convenient time to depart , and were not in this as in all our other actions , to be regulated by the will of god , and not by our own . but indeed when a man that has been very faithful and laborious in his generation , is by pain rendred altogether unfit for service ; when the strength and vigour which he laid out for god is wasted and decayed by old age , or a tedious distemper ; when his candle that has long burnt to enlighten others , burns with a feeble and almost undiscerned light , he may then desire to die , as a poor weary man to go to bed. but the saints of god do even then desire it with calmness and deliberation , if they be not in a raging disease , for then it is impossible : they have much ado to bring their hearts to be sincerely and freely willing to depart : their fears and temptations and remaining inclinations to the body , and their friends on earth render it a work of difficulty : there are great strugglings in that moment between nature and grace , between faith and sense , though at last their grace gets the victory , and so they long to be with christ. if deliverance from the grave be so great a mercy , then self-murther is a very great sin. the law that forbids us to kill , does extend to this as well as to the murder of another man ; this is a violating of that soveraign power that is in god , and a taking upon us to dispose of our life , which is not our own but his . 't is an usurping upon his providence , which has determined when , and after what manner we are to die : and though 't is very likely there are several accidents of life , that are worse than death it self ; yet it is that eternity that comes after death , that is most formidable , and into which no man ought to throw himself ; and when we are reduced to such a condition , that to live seems to be far worse than to die , yet even then the unalterableness of our state afterwards should be a most powerful restraint , especially if we are uncertain where we are then to go . it is against that patience and trust , which we ought to repose in god : it is a woful sort of dying , to die in the doing of such a thing as this which he has most severely prohibited , to tear our souls from our bodies , with our own hands , in such an ignominious and shameful manner , and because of our distress , to pass sentence upon our selves , as not fit to live , and then to be our own executioners : a soul at death should be in the exercise of grace , and in a quiet and humble resignation ; but in this case 't is in fear and horror and discontent ; and what the romans magnifi'd so much for gallantry , and an heroick spirit was the real effect of weakness and cowardise , as it is much more heroical to sustain and meet a coming danger , than to retreat and fly from it . it was from a meanness of spirit that cato chose to kill himself , because he could not see the empire flourish under cesar , whom he did not love : and however such acts may be extoll'd by heathen historians , they are not so by that scripture , which is the rule of our faith , and the guide of our actions , and which furnishes us with no examples of those that did this , samson only excepted , whose case had several things in it very singular ) but such as were very bad men , as saul , and achitophel , and judas : and as we would not have our portion with them in the other world , so it is to be wish'd and endeavoured , that our end may not be like to them in this : but so great is the love of life , and so strong the fear of death in the most , so dark the knowledg of futurity , and so great our unwillingness to go from a world with which we are well acquainted , to that which we never saw , that few men are in danger of self-murther , till some great affliction , and overwhelming pain , and by the means of that , some great perplexity seize their spirits : i think few are in danger of it , till their griefs are unspoakably great , or their minds in that anguish that is as the sad foretaste of hell ; till all their thoughts are in hurry and confusion , and as then they are no way capable of being bettered by those advices that seem proper to restrain them ; so it concerns you that are at ease , and are able to pursue the business and affairs of life , and of religion ; to pray earnestly to god that he withdraw not his protection , and the guard of his providence from you , that he do not leave you to thick and gross darkness , nor to the power of satan , who will push you forward to things that are most sinful and unwarrantable : pray hard , that violent tentations , and overwhelming raging pains may never overtake your for how evil soever self-murther seem to you now , you know not what you may be then prest to do : pray earnestly that you may never be without the sense or hope of the divine favour , for if ( which god forbid ) you once lose that , woe unto you , then you will be like a ship without sails or rudder in a storm , you may be swallowed up , or driven on the rocks and broken to pieces . it is distress and violent sorrow that exposes men to the commission of this sin : saul fell not upon his sword and killed himself , till god had forsaken him , and till he knew not what to do , though it was his own sin that brought him so low . cicero tells us indeed of one cleombrotus , who reading the discourse of plato , concerning another more happy life after this , which could not be attained but by death , did thereupon kill himself to attain that happiness ; but if that be true , it is a thing that most rarely happens , that any that have either hope of heaven or assurance of going thither , are so impatient of being absent from it , as to kill themselves to go thither . and it may be you will be ready to ask me , if they have no hope of being better when they die , why do they long for death , or attempt to kill themselves ? they should rather strive to live , that they may be better prepared for another world : it is a question that has been ask'd me by some people ; and seeing it is perhaps what you seldom have met withal , i will give you an answer to it , and if it do not appear very rational , yet i am sure it will contain that which has been the real apprehensions of people under those temptations . i say then , men may desire to destroy themselves , though they have no well grounded expectation of happiness after death . . because of that pain of body , and that anguish of soul which is intolerable to them ; they have no natural , nor spiritual rest , nor prospect of either , and this fills them with amazement and horror , and in that amazement there is nothing which they will not dare to do . . because they may reckon that they are already as in hell , and that if they be dead , they can but be in hell , and so dare even to try the worst : they think the longer they live , they aggravate their guilt , and heighten their punishment , and add new fewel to the flame , which is already too too hot and scorching ; the burden under which they groan is so heavy , that they do not desire to have more weight added to it . or , . it may be they may have some little , very little hope , that were they out of the body , they would be better than now they are ; and therefore they 'l venture . as to living to be better prepared , they have usually such dismal perplex'd thoughts , that they cannot think to any purpose at all , nor find themselves by living , to be any better : you 'l say , these are desperate conclusions , and so they are , but that makes me think that none but in despair , or in very sad diseases , for which the world has no remedy , are under a temptation to take away their own life . and if it be a disease , there is room for the more charity as to those that die after this manner ; for god will not impute the effects of phrensy , and a decayed and disordered reason , to the malice of the will , nor judg the disease to be a sin , though he may have sent upon them such woful distress for their former sins . there is another way of a man's killing himself , which because 't is very frequent , is less taken notice off , and that is by gluttony , and excess in drinking : when a man continually loads himself with vast quantities of meats and drinks , and so suffocates and strangles life , and brings upon his own body diseases and death ; and tho this is not an evil punish'd by the judges , yet it ceases not to be an evil , and a man may by continued intemperance and riot , be as guilty of self-murther in the sight of god , as if he took a knife and cut his own throat . some will say indeed , that such live apace , and if their brutal actions deserve the name of life , 't is very true , for they go with a swifter course into the grave than they need to do . seeing the being brought up from the grave is a great mercy , how great a mercy is health , when the restoration of it is so great a mercy , and so greatly to be acknowledged ? some think it a very needless labour to speak of this , seeing it is that which all people know ; as it would be needless to praise the sun which gives us light , or the air in which we breath . but though these are very common , yet they are nevertheless very great mercies ; like gold which though it were never so common , yet would continue still to be a very excellent and valuable metal : there is as much difference between a man in health , and a man in sickness , as between a man at liberty , and a man in chains . sickness whenever it comes , will give you great subjects of sadness and disquietness ; and long before you die , you may see the days wherein you will have no pleasure ; you cannot then , ( especially if it be violent ) with any freedom or clearness of thought , express your selves either to god or man , you will be very ill able to manage the civil affairs of life , or with any vigor to perform the duties of religion : and the truth of this you would see , if you went often to the chambers of those that in long and grievous pains languish away ; if you heard their doleful groans , saw their pale and decaying looks , it would give you a new taste of health ; but there is such a nice delicacy and tenderness for the most part in those that are well , that they care not for the visitation of the sick , nor to be near to persons when they are dying . it would affect them if they saw more frequently their faintings , their convulsions , and their agonies ; but they care not for it ; and yet so to be sick , and so to die , may in a very little while be their own lot. health is not less a mercy for being common . what is more common than sleep , which is but a part of it , and yet in all the world there is not a thing , the having of which is more sweet , or the want of which is more terrible ; for as i have observed in a former discourse , all business and the comforts of life depend upon it , and the refreshment that it gives to our natural spirits ; for let but a man be for one week or two without sleep , and he 'l be fit for no business ; and if health were not so usual a thing , it would be a miracle , considering to what variety of evil we are every day exposed , by the frailty and weakness of our nature . it would make a man tremble to read what others have endured , or how many several sorts of very painful diseases belong to almost every part of humane bodies , how painful are the methods that must be used for a cure , and how these painful methods may be used , and yet but encrease our pain , and be to no purpose ; and indeed when i consider , ( saith mr. boile in his occasional reflections : ) how many outward accidents are able to destroy the life , or at least the health even of those that are careful to preserve them , and how easily the beams of a warm sun , or the breath of a cold wind , or too much or too little exercise , a dish of green fruit , or an infectious vapour , or even a sudden fright , or ill news , are able to produce sickness , and perhaps death : and when i think too , how many inevitable mischiefs our own appetites or vices expose us to by acts of intemperance , that necessitate the creatures to offend us , and practises of sin whereby we necessitate our creator to punish us ; when we well consider this , and consequently how many mischiefs he must escape that arrives at gray hairs ; the commonness of the sight cannot keep me from thinking it worth some wonder , to see an old man , especially if he be any thing healthy . it is not to be imagined but by those that feel it , what a damp the pains and indispositions of our bodies , put upon the motions of our souls ; their faculties are straitned , bound and fettered , that they cannot in their former manner perform their usual operations : when the soul either in natural or spiritual actions essays to do as it used to do , it finds it self under a very great weakness and disability ; for the body lies as an heavy clog and weight upon it , as you know it is in the head-ach , the tooth-ach , or other pains , which though they be of a short continuance , are very troublesome , and would be more so , were they to continue for many months together . how speedy an alteration will the sharp sense of pain , make in the briskest and most merry man : for as doctor harris describes the sick man , ( hezekiah's recovery , p. . ) he hath eyes , and scarcely sees ; ears , and hears not ; mouth , and speaks not ; feet , and walks not . those very senses which let in comfort to the healthful , are an occasion of a new sadness to him : the sight of his medicines is ingrateful to his eye ; so is the smell of his meat , and the taste of his drink , the least noise offends him , the least air pierces him . this turns his comforts into crosses , his bed tires him , his chair troubles him , his friends disquiet him , their absence offends him , and so does their presence , their silence , and their discourse , their mirth and their sorrow : being uneasy himself , every thing is uneasy to him ; poor man , something he would have , but he cannot tell what : he is not well , and therefore nothing is well about him . health is is the repose of life ; 't is that alone which gives a relish to all the other blessings of it : the poorest clothing , the meanest fare , the sorriest cottage that is bless'd with health , is more bless'd than if it were throng'd with gold and silver , but with sickness and diseases . for if a man have never so vast an estate , never so glorious a reputation , never such honourable friends , never so well-surnish'd a table , never so sine an house , and yet be without health , all these are dead comforts , they are as nothing , emptiness and vanity . health , ( as the forementioned person expresses ) 't is the poor man's sauce at his table , his cloak in his journey , his warming-pan in his bed , his boots in the mire ; and whatsoever else he is destitute of , he can rejoice in this . what cause have we that are returned to some measure of health , to return thanks to god for it ? and you that have always been healthful , have cause to prize it , lest you be taught the value of it , as the men of succoth were , with the briars and thorns of the wilderness . o what miseries belong to men , which you have yet escaped , and for which you have great cause to be very thankful ? do not attribute your longer health to your temperance , to your own prudence , or forecast , or recreations , or exercise , or skill , but give the glory of your preservation to the providence of god , that alone gives you ease and health , whilst others are in sickness . if you were to survey the hospitals , and to see but how many poor lame people are there , how many dying by degrees with incurable diseases ; if you were to go to the chambers of the sick , and see under what various miseries they are groaning there , you would see great cause to return and praise god , that has not brought you so very low . i come now in the next place to shew what improvement we are to make of our sickness , and of our recovery from it ; and so to close this subject with an use of exhortation . first , that we may in a due manner improve our being brought from the grave , we must always remember so great a mercy . we ought especially to remember the more signal and eminent mercies , and afflictions of our lives , our great straits , and our wonderful deliverances : and we must also remember what condition we were in before we were delivered . it is commonly said , that nothing makes us better understand the excellence of liberty , than the consideration of the miseries of bondage . the hideousness of obscurity sets off the beauty of light ; and the sweetness of health is best represented by considering the bitterness of sickness . seeing therefore i would desire to praise god my self for his great mercy in my recovery , and also beg of you to praise him in my behalf , i will give you a short account of the deplorableness of my condition before i was delivered . i would indeed remember so much of it as may enable me to glorify my great deliverer : but the whole of it , as it would be most astonishing to you , so it would be very overwhelming to me : the consideration of the greatness of the danger heightens the mercy of deliverance and salvation from it . it will be somewhat a melancholy relation that i am going to make , but it shall be very true ; for i would not lie for god , nor make the danger from which he has saved me , greater than it was : it will not be a very delightful account ; but yet as solomon says , eccl. . . it is better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting . it is better sometimes to hear sad , than always pleasant things . and in as much as grief and mourning is in it self a very grave and homely thing , that requires not ornament or artificial setting off , i shall without affecting to be thought eloquent , give you a plain relation of some part of my sore distress . after an ill habit of body that had for some years attended me , together with some little illnesses now and then , which were but as drops to the greater storm that was to come upon me , and which i could not foresee , it pleased god at length in his just and righteous judgment , to suffer my growing distemper to arrive to a most formidable height : so that before i desisted from coming to this place , my sleep departed quite away ; and for several nights in a week i slept no more than i do at this time : upon which there immediately followed a general weakness and decay of spirits , a general listlessness , and a total indisposition ; and by feeling of this i had a strong impression in my mind , that i should very speedily die ; as strongly fix'd in my apprehensions , as if it had been said to me as to hezekiah , thou shalt surely die . i thought i was immediately to go to the tribunal of god ; and the thoughts of immediate appearance before him continued with me for about a year : there was not a day past wherein i did not think that i should be dead before night , and at night i should be dead before the morning . i thought my self just at the entrance into the grave : and what a strange prospect that is , and what a mighty change it causes in a man's thought , none know but those that have apprehended themselves so near it ; nor do they fully know it , unless they have been near it for many months together . those nights that were nights of comfortable rest to the most of you , were tedious , and long , and doleful nights to me . i could say with job , chap. . , . i am made to possess months of vanity , and wearisom nights are appointed to me . when i lie down , i say , when shall i arise , and the night be gone ? and i am full of tossings to and fro till the dawning of the day . and ver . , . i was all the day and all the night long in pain and trouble , and in a pain very singular and uncommon ; so secret , and yet so violent , that as i fully believe it was not known what it was , so i am sure none of the methods that were used to remove it , though painful enough , were of any value . i have been sorely wearied with anguish and trouble . i have often said , though i have had no rest the night before , yet perhaps in that which is to come i may ; but i have had no rest at all then , nor the next , nor the next , scarce any discernable sleep , i am sure none that was refreshing , for above three quarters of a year together : and if at any time i rested a little , that little rest was all the while disturb'd with terrible and amazing dreams ; and when i awaked , i always found my self in strange and unexpressible pain , in anguish and bitterness , such as nothing in this world is able to represent even as to its lowest degrees . and judg you into what confusions and disorders this alone would throw a man if it were single . my disease , and my fears , and sad apprehensions came upon me as a whirlwind , like the rushing of many mighty waters ; strange and horrible pains , and great fears , so that it was as an universal storm , from which there was no retreat . i said with hezekiah , isa. . , . mine age is departed , and is removed from me as a shepherd's tent : i have cut off , like a weaver , my life : he will cut me off with pining sickness : from day even to night wilt thou make an end of me . i reckoned till morning , that as a lion , so will he break all my bones ; from day even to night wilt thou make an end of me . i was continually full of restless pain and amazing thoughts . i often said , i am now cut off , i am come to the end of my journey ; i am going to the grave , there was but a step , but a minute , as it were , between me and death ; nay , how often have i been by most terrible convulsions in the very jaws of death . they were to me as a den of lions , and are as painful and as terrible as if a man were actually torn to pieces . and in all these not the least help nor prospect of relief , and these returning every day for many weeks , or rather one continued convulsion-fit , and that always with a very quick and cutting pain ; it never came upon me but as a giant , or an armed man ; and whenever that was , i thought my self in the very moment of my separation from the body : i thought my self very often just going to the bar of god : i was in death often , often as in the very agonies and pangs of death , but i could not die : i seemed to have the strength of brass ; it seemed to me as if i had been raised up by almighty power only , that i might be capable to suffer pains very strange and very terrible : i sunk as in the deep mire , psal. . . i saw indeed sometimes the light of day , but it was never refreshing nor comfortable to me , for i was often saying with job , chap. . , . why is light given to a man whose way is hid , and whom god hath hedged in ? for my sighing cometh before i eat , and my roarings are poured out like water . i was not in safety , neither had i rest , neither was i quiet : yet trouble came . for the thing which i greatly feared , is come upon me , and that which i was afraid of , is come unto me . i often said , i shall never see the world till it be in flames , never see my friends or acquaintance , nor they me , till the heavens be no more , and till the vast appearance of the great day : thus ▪ my feet stumbled on the dark mountains , and all was hideous darkness , woe and desolation with me . sometimes by the greatness of my trouble , i was even stifled with grief , that i could not for a great while speak a word , and when i spoke , it was in a mournful manner ; for many months i could not breath without a mighty pain , and as soon as with difficulty i had breath'd , every breath was turn'd into a groan , and every groan was big with a very deep sorrow . i was weary with my groaning , psal. . . all the night made i my bed to swim , and watered my couch with tears : nay the sadness and the stinging particularities that i apprehended in my afflicted case , made me to weep even till i had no more power to weep . psal. . . my soul was full of troubles , and my life drew nigh to the grave , &c. i saw the grave as beneath me continually opening to swallow me up : i often said in my self , i shall no more see the congregations or assemblies of god's-people ; i shall never any more enter into his court , nor sing his praise ; i shall no more speak in his name , nor experience his loving-kindness in the land of the living any more . these were some of my thoughts , and this was my inexcusable infirmity and my unbelief : those that are in health will scarcely perhaps credit what i say , they will think i am a melancholy man , and aggravate my trouble , and set it out more than needs , or than it was , and that in the whole there was a great deal more of fancy than of reality ; but i pray god they may never taste one drop of that bitter cup whereof i was made to drink , for if they should , they 'l find it whatever names they now give it , to be then full of real miseries . as i have spoke nothing but what i fully believe to be true , so i have spoke the more of it , that it may be of some use to others , that though trouble and distresses fall upon them which are very strange and very perplexing , or such as rarely happen , that they would hope even in the depths , for they may see by me that nothing is too hard for god. there are few that having been so near to death , revive again ; few that have been near it so long together ; and fewer that after they have recovered , are willing to speak of what they then saw and felt : but methinks it is not unnecessary to shew to what woful miseries we are obnoxious in this world , and how many ways god has wherewith to correct and punish the sins of men. most people are unwilling to speak of such things as these , because others are unwilling to hear such doleful relations ; they invent some other discourse to put it off , but their hearing of it is better than to feel it , and this may help them to avoid manifold mischiefs before it be too late . you think it may be that i have spoke a great deal , and your attention may be wearied ; but i'lassure 't is many hundred times below what i felt . great griefs , as well as mighty joys , exceed all our words , and bitterness is not to be described : never was any , i believe , nearer to death , not to die , never was any compass'd with a greater danger ; never any had less hope of an escape than i , and yet the mercy of a god that is omnipotent , has relieved me . and as 't is commonly said that musick sounds best upon the water ; so by setting our sorrows and our mercies together , our praise may be more harmonious . you may in this behold the severity and the goodness of god : his severity in continuing on me so many smart strokes for so long a space ; and his goodness in giving me help , when no power on earth was able to give me the least relief : his severity in continuing my pain for so many long and doleful months , without any mitigation ; and his goodness in bringing me back when i was as in the grave : his severity , in withholding his blessing from all those innumerable means that were used with a design to help me , so as that nothing that was intended for my cure , could any way promote it , and 't was his goodness that he himself became my physician , and that i did not continue to groan under the same miseries as many years as i did months : remembring my asfliction and my misery , the worm-wood and the gall , my soul hath them still in remembrance , lam. . , . the storm indeed is in a great measure over , blessed be god ; but i cannot without trembling call it to mind , nor dare i think very long upon it : i was brought very low , as low as calamity and distress could make me , but the lord has kept me , he has turned again my captivity ; and i am really as in a dream ; though it is a more pleasant one than any i ever had during my long sickness and calamity . i can scarce believe that i am at so much ease as i now am , i can scarce believe that i am in this assembly , of which i confidently thought i had taken my leave for ever . when i look back upon the rough waves , and the stormy seas , i am ready to say , can it be that god has brought me safe to land ? after i had conversed with the dead , am i now among the living ? am i now with people under hope ? blessed be the name of the lord , i am ? it is a great mercy to me , and it is the more so , as it was unexpected and above the power of nature , contrary to all my hopes , and above all humane help : those that have heard my groans , and seen my agonies , and heard of my affliction , cannot but wonder at it . i often said that i could not be delivered without a miracle , and god himself has wrought it . he has shewed wonders to the dead , psal. . . for the raising them up is so , from a case very sad and sadder than by any words can be express'd , has the lord delivered me ; and certainly so terrible a visitation , so dreadful a disease , and so heavy a judgment , and so gracious a rescue from it , should never be forgotten : to be rescued from death , from so great a death , is a very great mercy : psal. . , . psal. . , , , . it was by the soveraign goodness and meer mercy and grace of god , that i obtained this deliverance ; all this he did for a most unworthy sinner , for an impatient and fretful sinner too ; is not this wonderful , mercy with a witness , a mercy never to be forgotten as long as i have a day to live ; and i may say to you , come and bless the lord with me , come and help me to praise his holy name : but on this i shall insist more when i come to that place that we ought not only to praise god our selves , but to exhort others also to give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness . i have cause to do so ; for how many has he suffered to sink , when the waves were not so high against them , as those that rowl'd over me ? the storms and the winds that blew them down , not so fierce in some respect against them , as they were against me , and yet they are covered in the grave , whilst i , though sorely weatherbeaten , have outlived the storm . how many are there dead , since i was ill ? many excellent and holy men are now silent in the dust , who were more knowing , more useful , more zealous and better qualified than ever i am like to be ; and yet god has spared a poor shrub , whilst he has torn up some of the cedars of our lebanan by the roots . therefore to quicken my self , and in some measure to excite others who have been recovered after long and sore affliction ; o let us all agree to remember such reviving mercies as god is pleased to vouchsafe us , when he brings us from the grave : let not a day pass wherein you do not call to mind what he has done . when you awake , then remember what a great mercy your sleep is , and what you would once have given , even all the world if you had had it , for one hour of sound rest : never bow your knees in prayer , but call to mind his mercy , that has loosed your bonds , mitigated your distress , and enabled you to pray . when you enter into such assemblies as this , on his holy day , then remember what sad sabbaths those were , when you were confined to your sick beds , and could do nothing , but if you had so much hope , send your sorrowful requests to beg the prayers of others ; and when instead of singing his praises as you now do , you could only sigh and groan ; when you are with others , speak of his excellent goodness ; and when you are alone , delight to meditate upon it ; let nothing , no tentations , no diversions or business , draw you to forget so merciful a god , and so gracious a benefactor . if you have any remaining pains left , let these make you thankful that you have no more , and that you are not as you once were . 't is much easier to think of our wounds , when they are in some measure healed , than to bear their smart when they are upon us ; and when you see others seized with sickness and with manifold calamities of this vain life , then bless god that you have a shining sun whilst they are overtaken with a rainy day . i speak to those of you that have been sick , having been so my self ; with what care and compassion did this good god remember us ? he remembers his tender mercies and his loving-kindnesses , for they have been ever of old , psal. . . if we any way help the meanest of his servants in their distress , he forgets not our work and labour of love , which we have shewed to his name , heb. . . he remembers the service we have done him , so as to reward it ; he remembers the sincerity of our endeavours and desires , so as to encourage us , and we should keep in our minds his bounties and his love to us , that we may serve him more , and especially those that come to revive us after a long misery , and to bring us out of a state that seemed altogether helpless and unrelievable . there is not a moment of our time wherein he does not load us with his benefits , and there should scarce a moment go from us without some ejaculation or breathing after him : he has not been as a barren wilderness to us , and we should give him thanks , whilst as with the joy of harvest we reap the fruits of his bonignity . there is not any , the greatest or the least deliverance that we obtain , but 't is first produced , and then carried on by his alone care . let us that are recovered , remember the gift that he has given us , for there is none more excellent among all natural things than the gift of life , and whilst we hug and embrace this dear enjoyment , let us not forget the donor of it : let us remember god who is the fountain of our life , and lets us also remember that gracious mediator , by whose death this and all other mercies were purchased for us , and by whose effectual intercession they are bestowed and made our own . could they that were cured of fevers , palsies , blindness , lameness , and other distempers , by christ here on earth , ever forget so skilful and so tender a phisician ? doubtless where-ever they came , they spake of him ; where-ever they met him , they gave him thanks : and we should be no less thankful than they , seeing his goodness , his power , and his compassion , has been the same to us that it was to them : for ( as one says ) he shews his power in the greatness , his wisdom in the seasonableness , his truth in the constancy , his grace in the freeness , the riches of his mercy in the fullness of his blessings and deliverances : how great is the sum of all his thoughts and his benefits to us ? they are altogether innumerable , and too many for us to remember : but however , we ought to suffer nothing to make us forget such as are greater and more eminent . there are two great changes that we ought always to remember , when we are changed from a death of sin to a life of grace , and when we are brought from the grave to the health and comfortable enjoyment of this natural life ; for in the beginning and in the consummation of our deliverances , there is nothing on which we should with more delight fix our thoughts , than on the goodness and the power of god , who alone is able to save us from our distresses , and who is most willing to do so when we call upon him . the end of the third sermon . the fourth sermon . psal. . ver . , . o lord , thou hast brought up my soul from the grave : thou hast kept me alive that i should not go down to the pit. sing unto the lord , o ye saints of his , and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness . i now proceed to enquire after what manner we must remember our deliverance from sickness and death . and this we may do three ways . . remember them with an admiration of god , that he should be so good to you . admiration is the first of all the passions next to pleasure and pain . when an object is perceiv'd that hath nothing new in it , we consider it indifferently , and without any commotion of the soul : but the mercies that we have from above are new to us every morning , and to be admired for their being so , lam. . . when we are intent upon the creature , we may be guilty of an excess of admiration , which by immoderate fixing of the animal spirits in the brain , may hinder their usual influx into other parts of the body , and be very hurtful to the health ( natural history of the passions , p. . ) but when god is our object , and things divine raise this motion in our souls , there is no danger of excess . there are two things that may cause us to admire the goodness of god , that he will bestow any of his mercies upon us . ( . ) the vast and immense distance that is between him and us ; his unspeakably glorious majesty and greatness , and our own poor mean being , that is in it self very low , and does appear much more so , when compared with him . when we consider the large extent of his dominions , the splendor of his court , the numerousness of his attendants , the glory of his heaven , the brightness of his sun , the beauty of his earth , and the largeness of the whole creation ; and then from the sight of these behold our little selves , have we not cause to say . lord , what is man , that thou art mindful of him ? or the son of man , that thou visitest him ? psal. . . is it not a wonderful thing that so great a god will take care of us when he needs not our services , nor all the duties we are able to perform ? if we were to set in darkness for ever , he would shine with a light as bright and clear as he he now does . it is a mighty condescension in him to pity our distress , to help our weakness , to cure our wounds , to solace our hearts , to pacify our souls , and refresh our bodies ; and when we are dying , to revive us , and to bring us from the grave : so that we may say with david , sam. . . who am i , o lord god ? and what is my house , that thou hast brought me hitherto ? ver. . is this the manner of man , o lord god ? how freely dos he do us good when we could lay no obligation at all upon him ? ( . ) another thing that causes us to admire him for the mercies that he bestows upon us , is , not only that we are inconsiderable creatures , but guilty too , and have deserved the contrary at his hands . we are not only , as jacob says , less than the least of all his mercies , but we are worthy of his greatest and most severe punishments . we not only deserve to be plagued all the day long , and to be chastned every morning , psal. . . but we deserve to be the objects of his fury for evermore . we murmur and think it hard to be laid upon a sick-bed ; but alas , we have all deserved to be laid on a bed of flames . we groan , and with impatient complaints express our sorrows , when he for holy and gracious ends casts us into a fiery furnace . whereas , were not the lord infinitely merciful to us , our milder sufferings might have been our hell. every medicinal and gentle stroak of our heavenly father might have been the lash of devils that would have shewed us no mercy . alas , where had you and i been long ago , had god dealt with us according to our sins ? i should not have been speaking to you , nor you hearing me in this place with hope : we should have been all silent in the grave , or all in torments in a worse place . 't is our self-love and our heinous pride that makes us to be so impatient in our sickness , and so unthankful when we are recovered : we think we are injured when we are afflicted ; and that we have but what we merit when we are delivered . but what miseries and desolations have our sins deserved , our original corruption and all that impure offspring that has descended from it ? how many thousand times do we sin every day ? how much evil do we commit that we ought to forbear ? and how much good that we ought to perform , do we let alone ? who is there among us that hath those serious and abiding and lively thoughts of god that he ought to have ? who is there that in his trade and worldly business maintains his commerce with heaven , and with spiritual and pious ejaculations ? who is it that by constant exercises of religion makes his family as a little church when he is at home ? and that by an unintermitting diligence and watchfulness antidotes himself against the contagions of bad examples and vain company , and the temptations of an evil world , when he is abroad ? who is it that walks so circumspectly , as to be unblameable , and without offence ? who is it that is so couragious in his reproofs , so zealous of good works , so tender of his own salvation , and of the salvation of others , as he ought to be ? our neglect of many thousand duties , calls for long and severe punishments at the hands of god. and it is a subject of great wonder that he will be gracious even to any of the sons of men. and what reason has every one that is delivered from sickness , and pain , and death , to bless his holy name , and to say , what am i , o lord god , that thou shouldst visit , and uphold , and refresh so great , so inexcusable , so wilful a sinner as i have been ? what am i , a poor worm of the earth , that thou shouldst so mercifully regard me ? what am i that i should live by thy goodness , when i have so often deserved to die by thy justice ? what am i , that when i had spent so much of my time to little purpose , thou shouldst give me still more time ? that he should again put me into his vineyard , when i had loiter'd in it for so long a space , and when i had misimproved many thousand talents , and knew not what to answer for them , he should pass by and remit my former debts , and put into my hands a new stock ? what am i , that his dew should remain upon my branches , when he might have said of me , as of the barren fig-tree , cut it down , why cumbreth it the ground any longer ? o what grace is this ! that a god whom i had so frequently and so heinously provoked , should spare me to recover strength ? that when i had mock'd him with so many cold and lazy prayers , he should give me opportunity to pray again ? when i had so often misimproved his sabbaths and his gospel , and the offers of his son , that he should continue to me the blessings of his holy day , the invitations of his word , and the calls of christ ? that so i may repent of my careless hearing , my lukewarmness and my unbelief ? in the humble sense of our own unworthiness , let us contemplate and admire that god that brings us from the grave . many people will say , if we were humbled , and if we did repent , god would soon help us . this is very true : but if god should never be merciful to us till we are prepar'd for mercy , his mercy and his help , i am afraid , would come very late . for as we may say , it is of the lord's mercies that we are not consumed , because his compassions fail not ; so 't is of the lord's mercy that we are delivered ; and he is gracious because he will be so . . when we are delivered from sickness , and from the grave , we must remember that deliverance so as to excite our selves to more fervour and affection . before all our duties we should stir up our selves ; and that is to be done by an intense and serious application of our minds to that particular thing which we go about , by considering aright the nature and consequence of a well-performed duty . thus when we are going to pray , we should say , remember , o my soul , to what a glorious god thou dost approach ; and with what humble self-abhorrence thou shouldst look unto his majestick throne : remember thy own vileness , thy sins , thy miseries and thy wants , and what need thou hast of a mediator , to make thy poor and thy mean oblation to be an acceptable sacrifice ; what need thou hast of wrestling and striving , that thou mayst obtain a blessing . thus when we give thanks , we may say , remember , o my soul , the excellent perfections of god , and the benefits which thou hast received , their seasonableness , their worth , and all the wonderful particulars they are attended with . this excitation of our selves is not acquirable by a few cold and transient thoughts ; 't is not one sally of religious meditations now and then , but a continuance of these acts , arguing and pleading the case with our own souls , till the fire of our love and thankfulness begin to burn . we should think of the mercies of god till our hearts , under the sense of his goodness , begin to melt and warm ; till all that is within us move and stir with holy elevations towards him . then will the holy spirit cherish our endeavours : and when we are , with all the skill we can , tuning our harps , he will come in to our assistance , and make the musick more harmonious , and our praise more sweet , and by his vital influences banish all that coldness that does usually damp and clog our hearts in the duties of religion . there is a great advantage in soliloquies , and a man may in this work talk to himself without the reproach of folly . this is a means to quiet and appease a rising storm , psal. . . and this is the way to make us look upon it with delight and thankfulness when 't is past and gone . we know that those sermons which do but explain truths to us , and present them only in their native excellency and reasonableness , do not equally affect us , as those do that are pressed with a fervent and lively application : nor do those mercies which we only remember , make so much impression as those which we often call to mind , and as often urge upon our hearts . when we come before god , we must make his altar smoak with burning frankincense : we must cover it with our chearful praises , and a flaming love. our knowledg of his persections is obscure and weak , but our sense causes us very distinctly to feel his benefits ; and therefore all our affections should ascend towards him . when his sun shines full upon us , our hearts should open at his coming , smell with a sweeter savour upon the being visited with his comfortable beams . as upon our being brought from the grave , and restor'd to health , there is a new strength in our bodies ; so there must be a new vigour in our souls : and as we discover a very great earnestness in our petitions when we want a mercy , so there ought to be as much fervor in acknowledgment and return of thanks when we have received it . . after we are delivered from the grave , we ought to remember such a mercy with very great sincerity , i. e. there ought to be a correspondence between our outward expressions and the more undiscernable motions of our hearts . there must be in our understandings an high esteem of him who is the author of all our good , a most deliberate and free choice of him as our happiness ; and this esteem and this choice is the genuine product of a real admiration . there is nothing indeed more common than for people on the smallest occasions to say , i thank god for this or that ; but the manner in which they speak it , plainly discovers that the sense which they have of the divine goodness is but light and superficial . their air , their countenance , their gestures , and their whole carriage shews that they are not fully thankful : they many times , by the formality of their expressions , take that name in vain , which they ought to magnify and bless . but when we bless god , there must be a very deep reverence and sense of him upon our hearts ; and we must sacrifice our dearest lusts at his command as well as the calves of our lips. we must not remember in the general that god has been merciful to us , but frequently let our thoughts dwell upon those particular mercies which we have received . for as he is seldom truly penitent that makes a confession of sin only in the gross , and descends not to the particular transgressions which have stained his life : so neither is he sincerely thankful that contents himself with a cold acknowledgment of god's mercies , without a distinct enumeration of those which were bestowed upon him by a more than ordinary power and goodness , and which upon that account should make a more particular and lively impression upon his own soul. secondly , another way by which we may improve our recovery , is , in constantly praying to this god that has delivered us from the grave . he has pull'd our feet out of the snare ; but if he leave us , we shall soon be as much entangled and as much in danger as we ever were ; for it is not in man that walks , to direct his own steps . his wisdom is as necessary to guide our feet in the right way , as his power was to draw us out of the pit. we need ( as one says ) not only to be cured , but to be preserved : we need not only a cordial to recover us , but an antidote to preserve us against an after-poison . whilst we were hedg'd up with thorns , as hos. . , . we are not so liable to wander as we shall be now . the most of us that god has recovered from the grave , have some little pains or indispositions left , that now and then attack us , like the scattered souldiers of a defeated army , which though they are not so strong as entirely to ruin us , yet give us a considerable molestation . some mercies god bestows that we may not altogether faint ; and some evils he continues , that we may not be too secure and careless . he gives us something to incourage us ; and all that we would have he denies , that we may still wait upon him : we must join our praises and our prayers together . psal. . . i will take the cup of salvation , and call upon the name of the lord. we must praise him for the deliverances that we have had , and pray to him to secure us from the dangers that may without his care come upon us . we must praise him , that so we may give him the glory of his goodness in helping us in our low estate ; and pray for his blessings that can only make our life comfortable and easy to us . in the greatest of our triumphs there is need of humility , as in the greatest of our earthly joys there will be some mixtures of sorrow ; nor will our day be so clear as to have no cloud . in the highest of our praises there will be need of prayer ; and this duty is the very pulse and vital motion of the soul when it is renewed ; and by our fervour , or deadness in the performance of it , we may very much discern the advances or decays , the strength or the weakness of the spiritual life . we that have been near to death , should with a more exact care maintain our communion with god : for we have more sensibly felt the need of him than others have : what would have become of us , had not he appeared for our relief , when all the help of man was vain ? and shall we not delight to draw nigh to so good a god , to whom is an easy access through the mediation of christ ? who heard us out of the depths , and will still hear us if we call upon him . it may be in our affliction we sought him early , and the violence of our distress made us restless and importunate ; let our many wants , that none but he can supply , make us still to be so . we have a very convincing experience of the benefit and the use of prayer ; how by the prayers of others our chains have been struck off , and how it hath opened the doors of our prison . let a duty which has brought us such a crowd of reviving mercies , be for ever a welcome and acceptable duty to us . 't is an act of homage that we owe him as our soveraign lord , as praise is that which we owe him as our gracious benefactor . besides , god alone can teach us to profit by the cross ; and make the rod to blossom and to yield us fruit when the smart is gone . unless he uphold us , we shall soon be diseased again . every day of our mortal life is pregnant with new changes and alterations , with new dangers and vicissitudes : and innumerable are the miseries which may yet overwhelm us , if he be not our sun and our shield . let us humbly beg of him that as he has been our deliverer , so he would please to be our guide . this is a posture and an action suitable to us as we are creatures , who cannot be , nor live , nor move without him . and such an address to his throne will be graciously received , because it is an evidence of our gratitude , and testifies that we are sensible of the blessings of his providence . and what mercies we obtain by this method , will be throughout mercies ; and the goods that are bestowed upon our humble petitions , we shall possess by a more lasting title , and with more satisfaction than they do that never pray . and if we should omit this duty , god may withdraw his protection , and then our sins will quickly betray us to new distresses and calamities . thirdly , another improvement that we ought to make of the being delivered from the grave , is , to yield obedience to that god that has delivered us . and he gives us seasonable mercies in the time of our sorest distress , to this very purpose , that his name may be magnified , psal. . . the showers of his mercy should render our lives more fruitful ; and the beams of his favour are to make us shine with holiness . we must ( to use the words of mr. claude on another occasion ) give our hearts entirely to him , making a good use of our afflictions . we must call upon him with humility , serve him with zeal , love him with fervour , and have a horror for all that which may offend him . he is gracious both to our bodies and our souls , and we must employ both in his service , and consecrate and devote that life to his honour , which he hath so wonderfully preserved . his benefits by their usefulness , and by their seasonable approach , must kindle the flames of love in our hearts ; and that love will produce the most sincere and constant obedience . for that which is the sole effect of a slavish fear , as it will be forc'd , so it will continue but a little while . we are his own by a double title , by that of creation , and by his innumerable preservations . we are his by the common care of his providence that maintains our life ; and more his , by the manifestations of his extraordinary power and kindness when he brings us from the grave . what can we poor creatures give to so good a god for all his mercies ? we are below the possibility of a recompence . but however , we must give him our most earnest desires , our most painful diligent endeavours , our frequent meditations , our highest praises , our very souls , and all that is within us , seeing he is pleased to require nothing else . his , must be all the motion , all the being , all the strengh that we have : and to divert any part of these from his use , is both ingratitude and sacriledg . we must not be like the greatest part of seamen , that are very devout whilst the storm lasts , but when 't is over they return to the same sins . at his command we must part with our dearest sins , with our earthly and our sensual inclinations , with our pride and our follies , and deny our selves . and there is more true thankfulness express'd in one act of self-denial , than in twenty thanks , giving-days without it . leaving of sin is not only the way to thankfulness , but the proof of it : so many sins as the love of god constrains us to leave , so many songs are , as it were , presented to god. for every slain lust is a gratulatory sacrifice . and men will rather than do this , run to all the toilsom pomps of a ceremonious gratitude , and outward ostentations : for 't is much easier to perform a thousand external duties , than to kill one sin. a man will more easily part with all his goods and substance , than he will cut off a right hand , or pull out a right eye . what can a miserable beggar add unto a prince that gives him an alms ? what can we by our mean acknowledgments return to the mighty god ? but they are such things as he requires , and which we are bound to give . 't is usually , after some very great and remarkable deliverance , the next enquiry of a soul that is under the power of religion , what shall i render to the lord for all his benefits ? what shall i do that may bear some proportion with so great a mercy ? what thing , what service is there , that i may set about , to testify my thanks to my gracious benefactor ? o , can i ever do too much for that god that has done so much for me ? i have born chastisement , i will not offend any more : that which i see not , teach thou me : if i have done iniquity , i will do no more , job . , . and we must expostulate with our selves , as he in ezra . . and after all that is come upon us for our evil deeds , and for our great trespass , seeing that thou our god hast punished us less than our iniquities deserve , and hast given us such deliverance as this , should we again break thy commandments ? it is a very great blot that is left upon the memory of so good a man as hezekiah , though in that far unlike himself , that chron. . . he rendred not again according to the benefit done unto him : for his heart was lifted up . let us often set before our selves that most earnest exhortation of our apostle , rom. . . there are two things that should render our obedience after the receipt of very great mercies , such as is this of being brought from the grave , more sincere and uniform : for if we do it not ; ( . ) it will greatly aggravate our after-sins , and make them more sinful ; as it was with solomon after the lord had appeared to him twice , kings . . not to use that life and strength for god , which he hath given us , is to fight against him with his own weapons , to affront him with his own royal bounties . there is no contempt of which he will be so sensible , and at which he will be more displeased , than when we despise the riches of his goodness which should lead us to repentance , rom. . . to sin against a patient and a loving god is inexcusable ; against a god that has helped us in our troubles , that by the wonderfulness of his mercy has been vastly better to us than our feeble hopes and our unbelieving fears . how often have we said , that we should one day fall by this or that distress , and he has held us up from our birth to this very time ? how often has his justice seiz'd us for our sins , and call'd upon him to cut us off , and his mercy has interposed and saved our lives ? how often hath the idleness and unfruitfulness of our former health , and the base impatiencies and murmurings of our later sickness provoked him to destroy us , but he has not done it ? he has spared no pains , he hath tried us both by affliction and prosperity , by his gentle and his louder voice , by judgments and by mercies , to do us good. how often have our iniquities made him to draw his glittering sword , and yet his compassions have sheath'd it again , when we have been in all appearance very near to the killing blow ? how many others has his displeasure struck dead , whilst he suffers us that were as great sinners as they were , to live ? he has waited upon us from sabbath to sabbath , from year to year . he hath stayed many long years to see if we would repent . he has beseech'd and entreated us to forsake our sin , crying to every one of us , wilt thou not be made clean ? when shall it once be ? we have wanted nothing , god has maintained us all our days , and shall we sin against goodness and love it self , such great , such undeserved love ? shall we affront his mildest and most tender attribute ? shall we trample on his forbearance , and on his very bowels ? god forbid . when he has tried so many several dispensations with us , when he has tried us both by gentle usage and severe stroaks , by his frowns and by his smiles , shall we be no better ? the day is coming when our sore calamities will force us to cry , mercy , mercy , lord. let us now prize that , whereof we shall then stand so much in need . if we abuse his mercy , what plea can we hope to make ? it will sink and overwhelm us , and no reflections will be so terrible as those that cause us to remember how we did forsake , and sin against a good and a patient god : this will wound and cut us to the heart ; and we shall be continually upbraided with that stinging question , deuter. . . do ye thus requite the lord , o foolish people and unwise ? and give him cause to say of us as in isaiah . , . ( . ) our not yielding obedience to god after he has brought us from the grave , may bring upon us more heavy punishments than what we have yet felt . the miseries that some of us have undergone , have been such as the very remembrance of them is amazing , and their terror inexpressible . but how terrible soever they have been , yet god has more arrows in his quiver , more thunder in his clouds , more judgments under his command . let us therefore take that advice of our lord , john . . behold , thou art made whole , sin no more , lest a worse thing come unto thee . there are those here that would not for the enjoyment of all the greatness of the world , undergo that anguish and tribulation for one week which distress'd them for many weeks and months together . o , let us sin no more , lest the clouds return after the rain ; lest after one storm is ceas'd , another begin to blow . let us improve our present calm to the glory of our helper , lest another earthquake come . the best security from future miseries , is to profit by the former : we cannot take a better medicine to sortify us against evils to come , than by remembring and improving such as are already past . we are escaped with our lives ; o let us not for the lord's sake look back with affection upon our old sins , lest we that are now monuments of mercy , be made monuments of justice . let us sin no more , lest the bones be broken again that are but newly set ; and lest the wounds that seem to he healed , bleed afresh ; and lest that almighty and loving physician that has once helped us , depart and help us no more . let us sin no more , for after such a deep distress , and such a miraculous deliverance how hateful will our sins be ? and if we knew not what to do in our former trouble , what shall we do in the next and more terrible visitation ? woe unto us if we should provoke him to let us fall into longer and more violent , and more irrecoverable troubles . what a dreadful place is that , josh. . . if ye forsake the lord , then he will turn and do you hurt , and consume you after that he hath done you good . we that are now alive may set up our ebenezer , and say , hitherto the lord hath helped us , in his wrath he hath remembred mercy . oh let us not force him to do as gideon with the men of succoth , judg. . . to tear us with thorns and bryars of the wilderness . in other storms we have been like the passengers that were in the ship with paul , act. . . tho we have suffered shipwreck yet in one way or other our lives have been saved and with much difficulty we have escaped to land. oh let us beware , lest in the next storm that comes he suffer us to be cast away : the furnace into which we have been thrown has been very hot . let us desire god to purge us from our dross lest he cause one to be made for us that is seven times hotter . surely some of us have felt enough of the bitterness of sin : oh let us not force him that does not willingly grieve the children of men , to mingle for us another bitter cup ; have the stroaks that made us to groan in the perplexity of our souls been so very small that we should force him by our disobedience to send many more , and to turn his rods into scorpions ? lev. . , . if ye will not be reformed by these things , but will walk contrary to me , then will i also walk contrary to you and will punish you yet seven times for your sins . jer. , , . will you come and stand before me and say you are delivered to do all these abominations ? i even tremble at the mentioning of these things ; and god grant that neither you nor i may ever know any thing of them by our own experience . if we will not for the love of him , yet for the love of our selves our own , souls and bodies , let us sin no more . fourthly , another way whereby we ought to improve the mercy of gods having brought us from the grave , is by trusting in him for the time to come . we have greatly dishonoured him in our former straits by our own unbelief : let us in all future occasions give glory to him by our faith : let us remember in the most violent and pressing troubles , the years of the right hand of the most high : let us after the wonderful experience of the great things that he has done for us , such as our forefathers could hardly tell us of ; but which we have seen in our days with respect both to the nation and our selves ; let us never question his goodness , nor dispute his power , saying , can god provide for us , can he deliver us ? let us never murmur nor repine or despair again . having tasted how good the lord is , and being fortified with the sweet experiences of his lovingkindness , let us meet every new strait and danger with a greater courage , and never admit the least doubt of gods ability , or of his willingness tohelp us . he that has delivered us from the paw of the lion and of the bear , from the pains of hell and from the agonies of death , can still save us , tho in outward appearance we be like to perish . his faithfulness and truth , his gracious nature and his promise will yield us in all our troubles a most comfortable and strong support . cor. . . we had the sentence of death in our selves that we should not trust in our selves but in god , which raiseth the dead , who delivered us from so great a death and doth deliver : in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us . when our sense and reason can discern nothing but miseries and desolation , let our faith lead us to that rock that is higher than us , to that god whose wisdom is never at a loss , and whose hand can with ease and speed accomplish that which our flesh and our blood will tell us is impossible to be done . do not affront your great deliverer by thinking that he who has wrought such great miracles for us by his own power , will not compleat what he has so magnificently begun and so far advanced , or that he will not perfect that which concerns us , or that he will forget the work of his own hands . we place a trust in those persons of whom we have had a tryal in matters of difficulty ; and much more do we owe to god , whose mercy and faithfulness we have experienced when none was able to give us the least relief , but he alone : he is a sure and a tryed friend , we our selves have found him to be so . let us not be jealous of his future care , nor grieve him with unreasonable suspicions of his love ; and this is a more needful caution , because our base and corrupt hearts upon every sudden and approaching danger are apt to resume new distrusts and doubts , and we then feel the stirring of our old unbelief ; and when the waves begin to rise we question the care of our master , and give him cause to upbraid us as he did his disciples , why are ye afraid o ye of little faith ? but this will be most inexcusable in us whom god hath brought to the very grave and back again : the remembrance and experience of so great a mercy should for ever preserve us from the least distrust of our benefactor . psal. . . thou hast delivered my soul from death , wilt not thou deliver my feet from falling , that i may walk before thee in the land of the living ? psal. . . surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life . psal. . . because thou hast been my help , therefore in the shadow of thy wings will i rejoice . psal. . . fifthly , preserve those serious thoughts now which you then had when you were near unto the grave . what a cold damp did the sight of death bring upon all our former joys ? what a low and contemptible thing did this so much adored world seem to be when we were just about to leave it ? how little charming then were all its gayest smiles , and how little terrible all its frowning threats ? there did not appear then to be any thing that was enticing in a great name and reputation , in pompous honours or in vast treasures : we saw then that all our fellow creatures , and all that we our selves are apt to doat upon , was very vanity . all the contentments and satisfactions of our appetites and all the pleasures that we had ever taken in eating or drinking , in our travels or in our recreations , did all pass away like a vision in the night . then we saw indeed the great worth of faith and patience , and self-denial , and a conquest of this world. then we could heartily wish that instead of all the vain books we read , we had more delighted in the book of god : that instead of all our unprofitable knowledge , we had known christ and him crucified : that instead of all our contrivances for this body and the present state , we had spent all our strength and our whole vigor to get heaven and eternal life . then we were apt to say , oh that we had heard his word with more attention whilst we had our day , and whilst the joyful voice was sounding in our ears ! oh that we had prayed in our closets with more fervour whilst god called us to seek his face ! oh that we had bewailed our sins with a more sincere and hearty sorrow when we were called to the duties of repentance and humiliation ! let us do all those things now , which we then wisht we had done . let it for ever dash all our confident and foolish projects for this world , remembring how by a sudden stroak all our purposes were broke asunder . let us not trust too much in mortal men , for we can remember the time when as to us all the help of man was vain . let us now prize all those divine truths , embrace those promises , and fear those threats which we then saw to be very true . what did we then think of time , when our glass was even running out , and our day covered with the shadows of the night ? there was nothing in all the world that did appear to be of so great a value , let us now prize it at the rate we then did . what company was it which we then most admired ? whom did we esteem the most excellent and happy people ? were they those that trample on the laws of god , that prophane his sabbaoths , that scorn his word , that defie his threats and dare venture to go to an eternal hell ? or those that are afraid to sin , that season their entertainments with spiritual discourse , that are sober in their lives , fervent in their prayers , conscientious in all their dealings , and that are going to sion with their faces thither ? surely these were the men that we call'd blessed , and these are the persons to whom we should now joyn our selves , and have the most delightful conversation , and the greatest familiarity . sixthly , perform all those things now , which in your distress you you resolved to do , if god would but bring you from the grave . psal. , , . i will take the cup of salvation , and call upon the name of the lord ; i will pay my vows unto the lord now in the presence of all his people . when a man seems to be just entring into eternity , then 't is a common thing to say , if god would but give me another trial , if he will but save my life , and give me another year and another day of grace , i will amend my ways , and serve him more , and be better than ever i was ? when we have not enjoyed those opportunities that we now do , have we not said within our selves , if god will trust us again with his gospel , and the priviledges of his open sanctuary , we will acknowledge his goodness , and be more fruitful ? it concerns us to see that the resolutions that were form'd in our hearts in the day of our distress , do not expire with our departing trouble . in sickness and the neighbourhood of death sin does appear to be quite another thing than we took it to be in the time of our careless health ; its aspect then is very formidable , and its wounds very deep . in whatsoever disguise it may come to us hereafter , let us in the fear of god , and by his grace couragiously resist it , for it is the worst of enemies ; and when it wraps it self in false and alluring colours , let us remember what an hideous and frightful look it had when sickness took the mask away : let it still appear as an odious and abominable thing to us . when we were near to death , what seriousness , what zeal , what holiness did we then vow to god ? was not this our language , if i may have but a few more talents bestowed upon me , i will emprove them better than i did before ? i will hear his word with more reverence , and read it with more care ? i will with more frequency and impartiality it search and try my own soul ? now the time is come that you wish'd for ! let it appear that your serious resolutions were not the fruits of fear , but of love. let not our sense of god and of eternity decline as our troubles wear away . god will not be mockt : he will observe and punish our hypocritical intentions , if all that we promise him in our distresses prove but as chaff before the wind , and as the dew of morning which is exhaled and scattered with the rising sun. god has losed our bonds , but it is that we may be tied faster to himself : let us shine with as great a brightness as we hoped to do , and said we would , if god would but recruit our dying lamp , and pour in fresh oyl again . oh let us now improve our time as we then intended to improve it ! and let us , among our other expences , remember that we are then most prodigal when we waste this treasure ; and that we give our friends and companions too much , when we give them a great deal of our time , which they are not able to return us back again : let us neither suffer it to lie upon our hands as an useless commodity , nor put it off to every coming chapman , to every friend or diversion , who can give us nothing for it , that is equally valuable . let us work hard , for we have known such a night wherein we were not able to work ; and such an one may come the second time . can we so soon forget what thoughts and apprehensions we then had ? can we so soon forget those dismal hours when our hearts beat with fear , and we thought every minute would be the last ? what shall we do for that god , who is the god of our lives ; who has taught us what we are to do by a very sharp and terrible visitation ? let us have a warm sense of his love preserved upon our heart , and an high esteem of that saviour , by the purchase of whose blood we have obtained our recovery from death , and all our other mercies . tho we are by the providence of god placed at a further distance from the grave , yet we ought to retain the same serious thoughts that we then had ; for we have still the same wants and necessities to be supplied ; that religion which was then our object , is still as excellent and amiable ; our constitutions are still frail and perishable : why do we not then stir up and excite our selves to put in execution what we then resolved to do ? in our sickness we think that if we were delivered , we would be more than ordinary persons . but i know not how it is , that the various objects and business , the diversions and conversations of this world , hinder us , that we have not the same thoughts when we dwell in it , as we usually have when we are about to leave it : but it ought not to be so . seventhly , after you are brought up from the grave , let the new life , which god has given you , shine with all those good things of which your former life was destitute . we that have recovered from sickness that was almost unto death , have received two lives from god , two states of tryal . we first received our lives at the hand of god as others do when they enter into this world ; we have now received them a second time , when they were even gone from us , god has saved them from destruction and restored them as so many new talents to us . after we have been long near to the grave , the world looks as a new world to us , all things in it seem to have a new appearance . let us among so many new things which the providence of god bestows upon us , quit our old sins , those sins into which we most frequently fell before our sickness came , and those more indiscernable ones , which our consciences presented to our view in the time of our distress and tribulation ; and indeed our own doleful experience , one would think , might powerfully perswade us to have no more to do with those guests , which after we had entertained them , left us nothing but miseries and vexation ; they are such sort of companions as we may very well spare ; they have now sure lost all that amiableness which our ignorance and folly made us believe they once had ; they have cheated us with vain promises : let us be no more cheated and imposed upon ; let us not embrace the vipers that have stung us , nor run into the fires that have scorch'd us , nor drink that poyson again , which a little while ago had like to have cost us our lives . we did then live many days and years in ease , but how few of all those did we really spend for the glory of god and our own salvation ? let us not do so for the time to come ; let us live to nobler and higher purposes than we did before : where we did but creep before , let us now run with all our force and speed ; where we did but wish before , let us now strive and wrastle . let us not be guilty of a cold prayer , or a misimproved sabbaoth any more ; nor make by a sinful silence and omission , the sins of others to become our own sins ; but labour to obtain that wisdom , prudence and courage whereby we may boldly reprove sin wheresoever we see it , whether it be in those that are high or low . let our conversations be as an ointment which cannot be hid , but spreads it pleasant scent round about . let our actions preach righteousness , that the seriousness that is so eminent in us may cause others to be serious by the sight of our good example , that there may be abundance who may have reason to bless god for us . let our closets no more be witnesses against us for the shortness and haste and luke-warmness of our prayers to god. let not these publick places of our worship be witnesses that we have been here careless and irreverent and vain , and have gone away from them no better than when we came hither . let all the company we are in be no more a witness against us , that we have there forgot our creator ; and whilst we have been unmindful of him , have discoursed with too much eagerness and delight of trivial and unnecessary things . let our tables no more be witnesses against us for our intemperance and gluttony ; nor our bibles have reason to complain that they have been slighted , whilst we have with delight read other vain and unprofitable books . let us beware of abusing our liberty in lawful things , and of running too near the borders of a precipice . let us beware of that company and those occasions that once tempted us to sin . let us remember where we fell , and walk with a more even step and a more watchful eye . let all people that knew us before , see that our sickness and affliction has been a mercy and advantage to us , to teach us those things which we could not learn by more gentle and easie methods : let the great troubles we have met withal be a warning to us , that we run not again into any of those sins for which we have paid so very dear . our deliverance is indeed a resurrection to us : let it be so like the last , that we may rise from our graves pure and free from all that ordure , filth and pollution that was upon us . as it is a life from the dead , let us not have our consciences any more fill'd with dead works : let us be in some measure , like the angels of god , as we shall be in the great and final resurrection ; and tho our eating and drinking , and the many petty cares which we are to take for our food and raiment and many other things that concern our present poor life , hinder us from being very like them ; yet nevertheless this should not discourage us from endeavouring to be as conformable to them as we can even now , and then to long for that day , when we shall have a more exact similitude . some indeed when they recover , fall to all their old intemperance and excesses again ; the first visit they make is to their old good-fellows , as they call them , and they are welcomed into the jolly company with full bowls and with loud huzzaes ; but let us go to such as will entertain us with praises to god for our deliverance , and not drink our healths , but seriously pray for them . eightly , when god has brought us from the grave , let us by all means see that so sore an affliction , and so great a deliverance may be sanctified to us : and we may know that they are so when they produce these following effects . first , when they take off our hearts from the world and the creatures , and drive us more to god. secondly , when they make us more frequent and fervent in our prayers . thirdly , when they produce those holy ends for which they were sent upon us . fourthly , when they make us to acknowledge god , and to see his disposal and his hand in all that is come upon us , ruth . . the almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me . ver. . the lord hath testified against me , and the allmighty hath afflicted me . fifthly , when they make us to humble our selves , and to lay our mouths in the dust , knowing that tho our troubles were very severe , yet they were very just , ezek. . . that thou mayest remember and be confounded , and never open thy mouth any more , because of thy shame when i am pacified towards thee for all that thou hast done , saith the lord god. and job . . when they fill our hearts with admiration and our mouths with his praise . seventhly , when the mercies we receive carry our affections with more flame towards the benefactor from whence they came : as the warmth of the shining sun causes a new fragancy and a sweeter smell among all the flowers of the garden . eighthly , when they bring us to more knowledge of god , and to more true calmness and joy in him . these are glorious effects of a sanctified affliction and of a sanctified escape from it , and a sign that they came not by a common , but by a special providence ; and by a right of the covenant of grace by which all things are ours . i might add in the ninth place , when we taste his fatherly goodness and love in all that we enjoy ; if we find these things within us , 't is a sign we have both heard the rod and him that did appoint it , mich. . . oh how happy are we if god by taking away our health has given us himself ; and if by sending sharp sickness and pain upon us , he has prepared us for a sweeter relish of his love ? happy are we if our temporary sickness tend to an eternal health , and our short sorrows to an everlasting joy : happy yet again are we , if he have not only commanded us to take up our beds and walk , but also said unto us , that our sins are forgiven ; if we can say with hezekiah , isa. . . behold , for peace i had great bitterness , but thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption , for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back . it must be our great endeavour , that after we have been tryed we may come forth like gold ; and that we do not as the three children in another case , come out with our old garments , and with the same sins upon us . let us earnestly beg of god that we may have a compleat salvation and a total recovery : that as our bodies are supplied with new strength , so our souls may prosper also . for to be diseased in our souls whilst our bodies thrive , is as if the house in which one lives , were very well repaired and adorned to all advantage , and the man that dwells in so fair an habitation were forced to go in raggs ; so fine a dwelling and so ordinary an inhabitant would not agree well together . oh let us take care , that whilst god has healed our diseases , we be not inwardly distempered with the plague of our own hearts : that man is not to be called healthful , that let him look never so well has a disease in his vitals , that by slow degrees preys upon his life : neither can that man be truly said to be recovered , whose soul is either void of grace , or that having had it in some measure , languishes and decays . he is composed of contradictions , of life and death ; at the same time he is alive and well as to his body , but his soul is dead in trepasses and sins : the most excellent and valuable part of himself does remain under the power of death ; and whilst it is so , is an object more unpleasing to god , than a dissolving carcass in the grave would be to us . the welfare and recovery of our souls is what we ought more to seek than the welfare of our bodies : both indeed are mercies , but the former is much the greater of the two . what is purple and fine linnen and soft raiment that sets off a man , to the eyes of others , to that faith and love , and patience , and hope and those other graces of the spirit that beautifie the soul , and render it amiable in the eye of god ? what is all the meat and drink that refresh our bodies , to that heavenly manna , that celestial nourishment that an healthful holy soul feeds upon ? the prosperity of our bodies , their ease and capacity of performing their several actions , is one of the greatest ternporal mercies ; but alas this will signifie nothing at all , if we do not prosper in our souls . there is a way indeed whereby we may gather grapes of thorns and figs of thistles , i. e. refreshment and comfort from those afflictions that peirct us to the quick ; and that sorrow which was at first unwelcom to us , may prove an angel of light , and strike off our chains ; if we can say with david , it is good for me that i have been afflicted , that i might learn thy statutes , psal. . . ver. . before i was afflicted i went astray , but now have i kept thy word . his was a very blessed cross that flourisht into such fruit as this . i think i should not say amiss should i say that god has as it were brought every person here from the grave , and saved him from going down into the pit , from a grave and a pit which has been often digged for us by the plots and designs of our enemies , and into which we had long ago fallen , had not god mercifully saved and helped us . god has very lately done great things for our brethren in ireland , whereof i do believe your hearts are glad ; for as you mourn'd with them in their sorrows , so t is fit you participate with them in the joys that they now have by the quick advances of their increasing deliverance , and from the dangers that so nearly threatned them . and god has not after the mighty wonders of his providence left us here in england ; when destruction has been coming towards us with hasty paces ; when it has from the proud fleet of our enemies threatned us at our coasts , and at our own doors , this gracious god has kept it off : and if we repent , we shall not perish . you in london have seen your civil liberties rescued from the grave , in which they might have laid very long , had not he raised up our present protestant king to be that glorious instrument that should give them a resurrection . our country after a long sickness and indisposition , under which a few years ago , we were afraid it would have languisht quite away , has begun to recover ; and it is our wish and prayer , that by the same goodness and power of god that has turned our captivity ; it may at length flourish with a perfect and compleat recovery : for indeed it is not so , as long as there are still so many blasphemies and execrable oaths to be heard in our streets ; as long as there is so much heedlesness and irreverence in our assemblies ; so much injustice and deceit in our shops ; so much omission of prayer in our families ; so much luxury and riot at our tables ; so much profanation of this holy day : but to this we hope the zeal and the care of our magistrates will at length put a stop . but whilst these things continue , tho blessed be god we are much better than we once were , yet still these will be ill symptoms upon us . what cause of joy should we have , if the mercies we have already received were sanctified and improved ? oh what a joy would it be , if god would save england with a spiritual deliverance ; if he would save us from those sins that expose us to his wrath ? and if we would in our particular stations do all we can to promote such a salvation which would be much more glorious than what we have yet seen : then indeed we should have cause to turn our days of humiliation into days of praise . if we would forsake our strange sins we need not fear in the least to be punisht by people of a strange language and which we understand not . we need not fear all the powers of the world nor all our enemies , if we did not cherish the worst enemy of all in our own bosoms , i mean our sins ; and ( if which god avert ) we should still continue to cherish these , they will rout us without another enemy . let us obey and love that god that has so wonderfully preserved and continued our peace , that so there is no crying out nor complaining in our streets : that has made all things to be still with us , while the nations round abound have heard the voice of spoilers , and the noise of bloody wars . let us take heed lest we forget our deliverer , lest we abuse his goodness , lest we forsake our own mercies . there are no judgments so severe which we have not all deserved , and which we may not fear ; but yet there are no mercies so great , for which we may not hope ; if the large experience that we have of the goodness of god in our frequent deliverances , have their due influence upon us ; and if he be for us as he will then be , who can be against us ? jer. . , . return ye backsliding children , and i will heal your backslidings : behold , we come unto thee , for thou art the lord our god. truly in vain is salvation hoped from the hills , and from the multitude of mountains ; truly in the lord our god is the salvation of israel . the fifth sermon . psal. . ver . , . o lord , thou hast brought up my soul from the grave : thou hast kept me alive that i should not go down into the pit. sing unto the lord , o ye saints of his , and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness . another way whereby you are to improve your recovery from sickness , is , to take heed that you do not overmuch value your bodies : look upon them as still obnoxious to great pains , and let that abate your too great indulgence to them . this i know is not a very pleasant direction , because as there is nothing for which our sensible nature has a greater abhorrence than pain , so there is nothing of which we are more unwilling to think ; and when by any ways 't is brought to our remembrance we endeavour to turn it off , by turning to some other discourse , or avoiding those places , where by the groans or tears of the sick we shall be forced to remember it whether we will or not . few people care to talk of sickness , till they are sick ; or of dying till they come to dye : they make much shorter visits to the diseased than to those in health ; not only because they are afraid of troubling their friends by their discourse , which is likely enough ; but principally because this is more unpleasant than their other visits . it is very advisable therefore that we render those evils which we cannot avoid , familiar to us by frequent meditations ; and this will diminish their formidableness and violence ; tho indeed when a man has thought never so long , pain will be pain still ; a thing that whenever it comes will cause indelightful sensations in our spirits . the body by its near alliance will communicate to the soul a perception of all the meseries it suffers ; and when the one half of a man is ill , the other half cannot fare very well . it was the peculiar vanity of the stoicks , as some observe , that they would be philosophizing after the rate of angels , and discourse without considering that their bodies are one half of their natures , and that their souls are not disengaged from matter , and by consequence have sensual appetites too gross to be satisfied by bare thoughts and reflections ; and sensitive pains too sharp to be allayed with words and subtilties . when we consider what evils our sickness brought upon these poor frail bodies of ours , surely we should never too much doat upon them , when all the care we can use will not preserve them from the grave . he that is proud of his body , is as foolish , as if he should doat upon a flower , which an unseen storm may deprive of all its glory ; or which , if it be let alone , and meet with no accident , will of its self wither and deay . or as if he should admire a stream of water and the bubbles that are upon it , which in the very moment of our admiration , slide away and stay not for our praise or our love. or as if he should fall in love with some of those brighter clouds which roul above our heads , and which , for all their taking brightness , will quickly disappear . it would abate that tenderness and delicacy , wherewith we treat our bodies , if we did but leisurely consider what strange miseries may afflict them before the period of this mortal life . it is a sad reflection ( as one says ) to consider , that when life is so short and so fading , so much of so little should be worn away in misery and torment . some indeed by a particular dispensation , and a most favourable providence , are allowed to pass into the other world without much pain in this ; but this is not the common lot. you know that the poor man at the pool of bethesda , had an infirmity thirty eight years , jahn . . you are told in luke . . of a woman that was a daughter of abraham , whom satan had bound eighteen years ; and when so malicious and cruel a spirit had the management of her bonds , no doubt but he made them very strong . it was without doubt a painful distemper , as appears vers . . she was bound down and could in no wise lift up her self . if you enquire of those that usually attend the dying ; or if you look upon the weekly bills , you 'l find there by what painful diseases men go to the grave : by the stone or the gout , raging fevers or cholick , or which is of all others most formidable , and which more generally die of every week than of any other distemper , i. e. convulsions : or if they die not by these , yet by others , that by their length are as grievous and as uneasie . your bodily pains may be protracted to a very long duration ; for it is a most false maxim , that if your pain be long , it will not be sharp , and that if it be sharp , it will not be long . it is a saying to which dayly experience gives a confutation : for how many are there that are groaning under pains both very long , and very sharp ? fevers burn us , agues shatter us , dropsies drown us , phrensies unman us , the gout tortures us , convulsions rack us , epilepsies fell us , collicks tear us , and there is no considerable disease which is not very troublesom in it self , however religion may sanctify and sweeten it . boyle , occas . refl . sect. . med. . what a vain thing is our body , and how vain are the projects of men for the preservation of it ? how many are their cares and designs about it ? it is for this , that commerce and navigation is maintained to bring home foreign drugs for physick , and sawces of other countries to raise our appetites ; pearls and jewels for ornament and splendor . the greatest part of men are imployed meerly for the service of the body : physicians by profession are obliged to study what may repair its defects , and contribute to our ease and health ; the husbandman labours all the year that the ground may yield us corn and bread and fruit : some build us houses , others beautify and furnish them : butchers are employed to kill the creatures for us , and cooks to dress them ; and yet these bodies are lyable all the while to pains , which none of all these can remove : to sicknesses , of which no perfumes , no costly raiment , no pleasant relishes can make us to lose the bitter sense ; and the thoughts of them ought to lessen greatly all that inordinate concern , which we have for what is only mortal ; for its being so , makes it to be very vain . we must use our selves to hardship , and relinquish our too great tenderness and delicacy . for he is the wisest man , who knowing he is once to suffer , as we all are , does learn betimes to do it : let us therefore keep our bodies pure and clean and chast . first , let us use a great moderation in all those accommodations , that relate only to them : such as houses , gardens , estates or the like , that they be not too expensive or take up too much of our time , or of our delight . that they be not designed as the trophies of our pride , or the means of vain-glory , or to get a name . we that have souls to save , have something else to do than to follow needless superfluities . when we were sick , we knew that we were too much unwilling to leave the world. let us not paint it with more alluring colours , lest we be still more in love with it , and more loath to leave it . for shall we more easily part with things sumptuous and splendid , than with things that are meaner and less suited to a fleshly mind and life ? we are pilgrims and shall we be so industrious to plant and build , and sow in a strange country , when we confess we are distant from our home ? what man would set himself to adorn his inn , from which he may dislodge the next morning , and it may be , never see it any more ? secondly , let us use a great moderation in our apparel . when you dress your selves , remember that you dress a body that will shortly be a carcass without beauty , life and motion . consider how soon all the sprightliness of your eyes , all the pleasure of your looks will be gone ; the cold of death will quickly freeze that blood which now circulates with so brisk a motion in your veins ; and sickness in a few days may so change you , even you , that are most curious about your body , that you will not desire even to look upon your self : when pain and trouble has sunk your eyes , and hollowed your cheeks , and turned your once delightful red into a decaying pale ; how seldom then will you visit that glass , to which you now go so often , and at which you stay so very long ? what will your softest raiment and your finest cloaths avail a decaying body , which god hath clothed with the garment of heaviness ? let the consideration of this be a powerful motive to excite you , not to go to the highest excesses of a luxurious age ; but after the fashion of the grave , the modest and the religious part of people ; that allow to themselves some large portions of their time to adorn their souls with those graces that make them shine with real worth , and do not spend it all to set the body off . what is this body but a lump of animated clay , a poor ruinous habitation that has a thousand decays ready to come upon it , and whilst we are contriving how to repair it for many years , it may be , we have not then a month to live ? and what is it when the soul that gave it all its pleasant sensations , all its comlyness and lustre , is fled away ? if we look but upon a friend an hour after he is dead , how is his countenance changed ? there is nothing then to be seen in him that did attract our eyes before : you then no more see any smiles in that face , where you have before seen the signs of chearfulness and joy. where is his former comeliness and beauty , his ancient grace or his lovely features ? you can then take no delight in being with him , you have then no mind to look upon that very person that it may be a while ago , was the delight of your heart , and the comfort of your life . will all the finery in the world procure for us a sweeter slumber in the dust ? why should we set our selves with so much application to regard our bodies ? is it to much purpose to paint a little dust and ashes ? those light impressions that we make upon it , the next wind blows away . think but how vain and short your life is , and this will greatly suppress your inclination to vanity : look upon your watches , and consider how they give you notice of the haste of time ; and to this purpose your clocks may be of excellent use , if ( as one says ) you design them not only as civil servants , but as militant sentinels to advertise you every hour , that your enemy is advanced a step nearer to you ; for as every toling bell may be said to be the clock of death , so every clock may not unfitly be called the passing bell of time. thirdly , our sickness should also teach us to be moderate in all those pleasures that relate only to the body . such we may use indeed as are necessary to divert our minds , when we are wearied with study or the duties of our calling . such as are ●east expensive and take up the least me , such as are no way scandalous , and such as are both lawful and ●onvenient ; but we must especial●y avoid all those things that minister to temptation , to sensuality , to covetousness , to rash anger 's , and whatsoever else it is that indisposes us for prayer , for self-examination and all the other serious acts of religion , for which we must be in a constant readiness : we must enrich our souls with nobler and higher joys ; in communion with god , in meditating on his works and attributes , the wonders of his grace in christ , the mighty preparations that he has made for our happyness and glory , and these will be a good improvement of our sickness and recovery : nor will they be followed with such gloomy sorrows that eclipse all that which the world calls a brisk and a merry life . after this manner should our sickness teach us to regard our bodies , not to be over-fond of them , not to glory in our strength , in our health , in our riches , or any thing that is but of a short continuance : for wherein are all these things , or wherein is man himself , whose breath is in his nostrils , to be accounted of ? jer. . , . secondly , do not provoke god to cut off your life . your life is an excellent gift , which those of us that have recovered , have but newly received ; let us not by any means abuse it , lest it be taken from us again , which god will do if we make no suitable returns to the kindness of him our benefactor , eccl. . . be not over-much wicked , neither be thou foolish ; why shouldst thou dy before the time ? i. e. if we continue in a course of sin , the divine vengeance will overtake us and make us to feel the sharp effects of his just severity and of our own transgression . to this end , we must , first , beware of all gluttonous excesses in what we eat and drink : for though by going beyond the bounds of what is lawful , we discern no great hurt for the present ; yet we shall lay the foundation of manyfold diseases which may break out afterwards , and vitiate our blood , and waste our spirits ; and when the pleasure of our appetites is past , we shall have a remaining bitterness , and wounds and sorrow . many wise and observing men believe that of those that outlive their childhood , there is scarce one of twenty , yea or of an hundred , that dyeth , but gluttony is the principal cause , tho not the most immediate : there is nothing that makes a disease more insupportable than the thought of having brought it upon our selves by our own carelesness and security : how many by this method are withered in the flower of their age , when they thought their evening and decay at a mighty distance ? what havock and murder , and desolation is made in the world by the force of the sword and the violence of unjust wars ? and yet more perish by their own intemperance ; and all diseases even those that are epidemical , natural or casual , are by this and other vices that attend it , rendred far more sharp , lasting , malignant and incurable , by that stock of corrupted matter that they lodge in the body to feed those diseases , and that impotency that these vices bring upon nature to resist them . hale's letter to his son , p. . tho it be very true , that let a man be never so religious he must both be sick and dye ; yet the prevailing sense of a deity will sweeten these evils when they come , and also keep them longer off : as t is said of wisdom , length of days are in her right hand , prov. . . and 't is said by the fear of the lord , prov. . . by me thy days shall be multipled , and the years of thy life shall be increased . and chap. . . the fear of the lord prolongeth days , but the years of the wicked shall be shortned . but if our belly be our god , our end will be destruction even in this world , phil. . . when men are gratifying their appetites in all that they desire , they are undermining their own prosperity , and giving fire to that train which will certainly blow them up ; and at the rate they live , they may well say , come let us eat and drink , for to morrow we dye : for indeed their excess to day may cause their death to morrow . how many are now in their graves , over whom it may be truly writ , this man killed himself with drinking ? and how odious must the memory of such an one be that so made himself away ? but let us remember , life is so great a blessing , that it is not for the sake of a few merry companions , or to gratify their humor , to be parted with : there are a sort of people that through the power of their ignorance are very apt to quarrel with the providence of god for making their lives so short , and yet they will make them shorter than otherwise they might be : and truly such sort of men have the least reason , because their chief happiness lies in this world , and not in that which is to come ; and their action is as foolish , as if one would make haste to pull down the house he lives in , and yet when he has done it , knows not where to get another . secondly , we must avoid all anxious fears , all inward fretting and discontent , all foolish anger , envy , and the like passions ; for these are great enemies to life : as also all uncommunicated sadness and lasting griefs ; for any of those troublesome accidents will unavoidably molest our present state : and no less prejudicial are all uncertain hopes , all immoderate cares , and over-eager studies ; for the mind by too vehement an intention , will communicate its trouble to the body , and this will pine and languish by its sympathy and nearness to that ; and the body cannot conceal the displeasure that arises to it from the more inward and spiritual troubles of the soul. there will be a cloud of sorrow in the forehead , when there is an abiding sadness in the heart : whereas the right government of our affections will spread a chearfulness both over the body and the mind . 't is said of moses , deut. . . that he was an hundred and twenty years old when he dyed ; his eyes were not dim , nor his natural force abated ; and to this the constant meekness and quietness of his spirit contributed very much . it was mr. burroughs his opinion , that mr. dod was the meekest man upon the earth in his time , and speaking of him as then alive , he says , he is about fourscore and ten years old , and lately preached twice every lords-day ; and the constant health of his body was such , that he was able to continue heavenly discourse till midnight from day to day , and to preach all the day long , his spirit not failing at all . and thus by keeping the constant frame of his spirit , he was hardly known to be in any distemper of spirit . see burroughs serm. on matth. xi . l. . p. . thirdly , that we may not provoke god to cut us off , our lives must be laid out for his glory . if we live to our selves , he may well throw us aside as a broken vessel wherein he has no pleasure . which of us would suffer a barren and unfruitful tree to cumber the ground for many years ? and do we think that his patience will always let us alone , and not , after it has been the witness of our idleness , turn to fury , and cut us down ? if we do nothing for him and his glory , how can we expect that his creatures should give us nourishment and strength , that his earth should bear us , and his sun shine upon us ? how can we ask our daily bread from our most gracious master , if we lay not out the refreshment we receive from it in his own service ? which of you would keep a servant in your family , and give him all necessary accommodations , and yet be content to see none of your work done ? would you not with anger turn him off ? and do we deserve better usage at the hands of god ? would we have him to spread our table , and to fill our cup , that we may sin against him ? what prince is there that would give money from his treasures to carry on a war against his own crown , or to support a rebel ? if we oppose our creator , or forget him , 't is no wonder if he throw us out of the c●re of his providence , 't is no wonder if his justice deprive us of a life which we so vainly spend : and indeed when we consider how little we do for that god who has done so much for us , every one of us may lay his hand upon his breast and say , lord be merciful to me a sinner , for i deserve to dye . whatever care and temperance we use in our dyet , our exercises , or our recreations , yet if we be unprofitable servants , he may be provoked to give us our last summons , and say , give an account of thy stewardship , for thou shalt be no longer steward . with what face can we pray to god to keep us from sudden death , and to prolong our lives , when the language of our former actions will declare this to be the sense of our prayers , lord give me a longer life , and i will sin against thee more ? and is that a frame that becomes a creature and a sinner , to his great creator and final judge ? it may cause god to say , it repent's me that i have made such a man whole , and that i have brought him from the grave . thirdly , live much in a little time 't is no great matter if we arrive safe to heaven , tho we do not live so many years in the body as others may attain to ; tho we lose the sight of the sun , moon and stars , yet the first sight of the face of god , will make amends for that , and all our other losses . let us therefore rouze up our selves , let us cast off all our former sloath , let us contend and strive with all our force , with all the powers of our souls , that we may enter in at the strait gate , and lay hold on eternal lise . it is for heaven and salvation ; and methinks the very name of such a place and state should set our souls on fire , it should enflame our desires , and quicken our diligence , and raise our hopes . let us run with as hasty a pace as ever we can , let us not stay to listen to the charms or pleasures of the world. let no frowns discourage us , no difficulties startle us , no dangers keep us back ; 't is for a crown of glory . let us keep that in our eye ; and let us consider , who are the spectators of our race . god looks on to help us here , and to reward us at the last . angels applaud us , the saints on earth pray for us , and the world will admire us , though our diligence will condemn their sloth . how busie and how unwearied is the devil for our ruin ? and shall we shrink at any labor , when we have the advantage of that evil spirit ? what he does is with envy against us and with rage against god. but we have hope ; and tho we toil to the very evening and conclusion of our day , we have a master that will reward us very well : how solicitous and how careful are men for the affairs of this present life ; and shall not we be as much solicitous for those of the life to come ? how will they rise early and sit up late for a good bargain , or a little profit ; and shall not we do as much to save our souls for ever ? oh let us suffer no day to go over our heads , wherein we are not more watchful and circumspect in our actions , more fervent in our prayers , more concern'd for the welfare of our neighbour and our own , than we were the day before . let us now do as much in a week as we did before in a month , and as much in a day as we have done in a week before . let us indeavour to have more light in our understandings , more love in our wills , and a greater and more universal warmth in our affections . let us that have been sick , consider what an interruption that sickness has made in our life ? when our sorrowful months were upon the account of those sorrows , to us months of vanity , wherein we were not able to pursue the true ends and business of life ; let us fill up the vacant space with an after diligence : and seeing our great work in the world has had so long a stand ; let us now fall upon it with a fresh vigor ; and we may by running faster , and by the grace of god , overtake some of our fellow christians that are at present , a great way before us , and who are many paces before us on the way to glory : we have , it may be , formerly done some small service for christ , but now we must do more than we ever did : when we have obtained so many blessings at his hands , it would be inexcusable , if we had not a mouth to acknowledge his goodness , and an heart to love him ; a mouth to speak for him and for his glory upon all occasions , and an heart to admire and depend upon his promise : we have done too little for him that has done so much for us . let the consideration of this humble us for our former sins , and direct us what to do for the time to come ; that our speech , our conversation may be more profitable than it has been , cor. . . eccl. . . fourthly , let us live so that our examples may do good whilst we live , and when we are dead : for every man that has the spirit of christianity , i. e. a generous and a publick spirit , will not only be concerned for himself ; but for others , and not only for the present , but for the future generation : and as in this luxurious and most wicked age of ours , there is like to be transmitted to posterity a great number of very bad examples ; so it should be the care and endeavour of every good man to prevent their mischievous influence , by doing what in him lies to mend the world. we live indeed in a time wherein the most part of people can talk very well , but never was there any time in which there was less practice . it is a most easie thing to discourse well , but none , but a true believer , can live as he ought to do according to the gospel , which requires an universal and a shining holiness . our actions and examples will have a more powerful efficacy than our words ; and whilst the one does but touch the ear , the other will penetrate into the very souls of those that observe us ; and render themselves masters of their approbation , even almost whether they will or not . we are obliged to have a great regard to the salvation of our neighbours , and there is no course more likely to succeed than this : they will easily follow us when we take them by the hand , and advise them to go in no other way , but in that where we go our selves : when we are fervent in our prayers , it will shame their coldness ; when we are serious in our attending on the word , the sight of our seriousness will make them more attentive , and our heat of affection may kindle some sparks of love to god in their colder hearts ; and the necessity of a good example seems to be greater in cities than in other places ; for as one observes , du-bose serm. p. . it is certain that great towns are ordinarily great theaters of vices ; as the multitude is more numerous , so wicked examples are more frequent . sin hardens it self by the number , and authorizes it self by the quantity of accomplices : and as the fire burns more by a great heap of wood or coals put together , so the ardour of sin warms and inflames it self by a great throng of persons that communicate to one another their criminal affections : besides , in vast and populous cities , they have more liberty to sin , because it is less observed and taken notice of ; as a serpent conceals it self among a multitude of bushes : whereas in little villages the least faults are soon minded ; many times in greater places very great enormities are not discern'd ; and it concerns us also whom god has raised from the grave , to be more exact in our course ; for people will look with a more curious eye upon us that are recovered , to see what we do , when they will not , it may be , look so much to the hand that heal'd us : as the people c●me more to see lazarus that was risen , than jesus that reviv'd him from the grave ; much people of the jews came , not for jesus sake only , but that they might see lazarus also whom he had raised from the dead , joh. . . wicked men are punish'd in hell for all the evil they have done 〈◊〉 the world , and for all that they have been the cause of ; it is a new addition to their torments , to think how many are going to the same miserable place , whose damnation will lye at their door : as 't is commonly said , that dives requested of abraham , that some messenger might be sent to warn his brethren , lest they came to the same place ; not from any love to their souls , for there is no such charity in hell ; but from a fear , that if they came to the same torment , his own misery would be the greater , for having been in a great measure the cause of theirs by his bad example . and on the contrary , 't is a great pleasure to those in heaven to think , that they have been any way instrumental to the glory of their great lord ; and that the seeds that by good instructions and holy example they threw upon the world , flourish into fruit when they are dead . thus they blossom in the dust , and their actions , as 't is fabulously reported of some of the bodies of the popish saints , send forth a sweet perfume after death , to all the places round about . the saints of god do good indeed to the world when they are gone , not by intercession as mediators for us , but by the good works which they performed here below ; and tho their works follow them to increase their reward , yet the remembrance of them stays behind . it is hardly to be imagined how far the power of a good example does diffuse its self , when the person that gave it , is removed from the world : it does encourage others to religion , and to a perseverance in it , seeing it has no new difficulties , but only those which others have conquered , who are now at rest with god. therefore are we commanded to be followers of them who through faith and patience have inherited the promises , heb. . . we are to follow their faith , considering the end of their conversation , heb. . . those of us that have been so happy as to have had a religious education , tho we are depriv'd of our parents , yet we full well remember their serious pathetical exhortations , how they did earnestly intreat us to fear god and keep his commandments : we can remember how they set some portion of their time apart every day for reading the word , and secret prayer , and the other duties of religion ; and when we are gone , if we have been truly sincere , others cannot but remember our example . your children and servants will greatly mind what you do that are the master of the family , and you either very much promote or hinder their salvation , for which you must be answerable to god in the approaching day of judgment . is it not a credit to your reputation , when your servant and apprentice shall thus remember your example , and say , oh how conscientious was my master in his buying and selling ! how afraid was he of imposing upon others , or of cheating them with many good words , whilst he had deceitful intentions in his heart ? how afraid was he lest the business of his trade should justle out religion , or the shop be an hindrance to the duties of his closet , or of family prayer ? how careful was he to set aside some of his gains for the charitable relieving of the poor ? as to you that are parents , your children will certainly mind more what you do than what you say . if you sanctifie the sabbath , and are serious in your service to god , you may have good hope that they will be so ; but if you are immoderate in your recreations , your eating , drinking , or your apparel , 't is very likely they will be so ; and what flames will it add to your misery , to think that you were the cause of their everlasting destruction ? and how will you bear it , to hear their cries and bitter expressions ; when they shall curse you for not having given to them good instructions and seasonable warnings , and an holy example , by which they might have been enabled to fly from the wrath to come ? you may now do much more good by practising one command , than by causing to learn all the ten : and though you be so poor that you have no riches or estate to leave them , yet you may leave your prayers and your good example to the next generation . we commonly say of a rich covetous miser , that he will never do any good whilst he lives ; and we may say of him and all others , that are not true christians , that they will never do any good when they are dead ; for when they dye , they are like nero , they leave abundance of poison behind them ; they infected the air with their oaths and blasphemies , when they lived ; and when they are gone the contagion spreads , and their ill president meeting with corrupt nature , which inclines all men to what is bad , does convey its venome to several others that they left behind . what an impression many times does an unbecoming word leave upon the hearer for many years after ? much more does the remembrance of an ill example . thus their evil works prove factors for the devil , and inlarge his kingdom , when they are rotting in the grave : whereas if you be zealous for god , the remaining flames of your zeal may awaken some luke-warm and slothful christian to do what you have done : for he may thus argue , if that holy man prayed so hard and strove so much , what cause have i to pray and strive , for i have a soul to save as well as he ? and as the gate was strait to him , so will it be to me ; and as 't is impossible to handle perfumes without bearing away part of the scent ; so it should be to converse with you , without savouring of your goodness : you should so live , that others may reap the benefit of your holy life , when you are gone : as the earth does not lose the vertue of its beams , when the sun is set ; that heat and warmth and vegetation , which it has given to herbs and plants does remain , and its influence is felt , when it is no longer to be seen ; thus you will be as herbs and flowers , which when they are gathered are medicinal , and yield juices healthful and necessary to the body ; or as the corn which when it is cut down , is serviceable for food and nourishment : thus every man may so contrive it , that he may be serviceable to the world , when he does not live in it any more : thus the apostles spread a most diffusive light by their holiness and doctrin , which all the malice of hell and all the rage of tyrants has not been able to extinguish ; but though they shone with an extraordinary brightness , yet every believer is a child of light , every believer is a star of great use and benefit , tho one star differeth from another star in glory ; tho he be never so obscure , yet he may be beneficial ; as a pearl or a diamond , tho it be set in lead , does not cease to be of great value : thus your name will be as sweet ointment delightful and dear to others : whereas if we be wicked , we shall have the same fate with jehoram , who died without being desired , chron. . . thus i say , our examples will do more good than many bare instructions : as souldiers will be more animated and forward , when they see one example of couragious fighting before their eyes , than by a thousand rules that teach them the policies and designs of war. thus i have shewed you what improvement those that are recovered and brought from the grave ought to make of it ; and what mischief will ensue , if they do it not ; and indeed it is a mercy to the world , that the lives of ill men are so short ; ( for as one hath lately observed ) the world is very bad as it is , so bad that good men scarce know how to spend fifty or sixty years in it ; but how bad would it probably be , were the life of man extended to six , seven or eight hundred years ? if so near a prospect of the other world as forty or fifty years cannot restrain men from the greatest villanies , what would they do if they could as reasonably suppose death to be at three or four hundred years off ? if men make such improvements in wickedness in twenty or thirty years , what would they do in hundreds , and then what a blessed place would this world be ? and to excite you to be the more careful in the improving of your sickness : let me add these three following considerations . cons. . how many are dead since you were first ill ? how many excellent ministers whom you must never hear again ? how many of your dearest friends are now in the cold grave , with whom you cannot now discourse , and whose faces you shall never see till the great day ? many have sunk in a calm , and several among us have outliv'd a storm : many have perished with less pain and less violent diseases than those which some of us have had : this should engage us to make suitable returns to that god who has spared us when he hath taken them away . cons. . this improvement of our sickness and recovery will exempt us from the number of those hateful people , that are not only no better , but a great deal worse when they are brought out of distress , than they were before ; and 't is generally thought that of a thousand people that make large promises in their sickness , there are scarce fifty that keep their word and perform their vows , when they are recovered : those good purposes which they had were the product of their fears , and when those are over , their intended goodness does also vanish away . cons. . this good improvement of your new life may ingage god to prolong your time to an honourable old age. for though we can merit nothing at his hands , yet if we labour hard in his service , it may be , he will not cause our sun to go down at noon , but continue us in his vineyard , till the evening of the day . i now proceed briefly to consider the fourth verse . ver. . sing unto the lord , o ye saints of his , and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness . from these words i shall insist on this proposition : that person that has received wonderful deliverance from death , ought not only to praise god himself ; but to excite and call upon others to praise god with him : and all the servants of god should be most willing to joyn in the return of thanks for any mercy that they see bestowed on others . it is not enough that we have an inward and a silent gratatitude , we must publish with the voice of thanksgiving , and tell of all his wondrous works , psal. . . i shall not die , but live and declare the work of the lord , psal. . . and the grateful leper , luke . . when he saw that he was healed , turned back , and with a loud voice glorified god. the poor man was so full of joy in the sense of the newly received benefit , that he could not forbear telling others what mercies he had received . so says the prophet , psal. . . i will pay my vows unto the lord , now in the presence of all his people . and there are these several things , that should cause our mutual praise to god upon any great deliverances . first , our mutual praises will warm our hearts better than if they were single . when many beams of the sun are united , they give a stronger light and burn with a greater force ; and many small rivers united run with a swifter course to pay their common tribute to the sea. when many joyn together in the same prayers , the cry is more loud , and the flame of our desires ascends with a quicker and a more speedy motion ; and when many voices joyn in the same psalms of praise , then as in a consort of musick our praise is more harmonious and moer sweet ; and then it is that we find our love and our joy much moer kindled , than when we are alone . the praising of god for our mercies in publick , will make others call to mind their own mercies , and they and we shall both agree to yield our common thanks to this mighty lord. let all the people praise thee , o god , yea let all the people praise thee . and greatly to blame are those , who do not openly manifest their sense of gods goodness , but are as silent as to any publick acknowledment of it , as if they were in the very grave . secondly , this mutual giving thanks will greatly incourage others to trust and hope in god. the experience that we have had of his goodness may be of great use to them ; that when they come to be in straits they may wait upon him , and strengthen their patience by remembring how gracious he has been to us ; and that seeing he is ever faithful and unchangeable , he will be so to them ; for his arm is not shortned that it cannot save . the righteous , psal. . . shall compass me about , for thou hast dealt bountifully with me . they that fear thee will be glad when they see me , psal. . . glad to see that god has compassion for the desolate and the miserable : glad to see that he does not shut up his bowels in a perpetual displeasure , nor forget the work of his own hands : what encouragement have they still to pray , when they see in our deliverance , that their prayers are heard ; and when they are very low , to consider , that this or that poor man cryed , and the lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles , psal. . ? they have the same promises to plead , and late examples before their eyes of his goodness and his readiness to save . it is a very merciful dispensation of god , that he will not have all his servants under troubles and afflictions at the same time : some will he suffer to be at ease that they by their advice , their prayers , and their seasonable pity and their love , they may minister to the wants of others whom he has bound with the cords of afflictions : all churches are not persecuted at the same time , nor all in the same churches ; that so those who are whole may bind up the wounds of others . thus when the poor protestants in germany were under low circumstances , it pleased god to set edward the sixth upon the throne in england , under whose most excellent government many ministers and people , that were forced to leave their own country , found a secure shelter and retreat : and when the massacre was in ireland , god was pleased to save this land from so terrible a judgement : and whilst france is at this day groaning under a most cruel and barbarous persecution , we , by a wonderful providence , have ease and liberty , and are in a capacity to give relief to our distressed brethren . he does not fail to give us now and then some instances of his wrath for our sin in long and severe tryals ; yet neither does he fail to raise up some wonderful monuments of his mercy after such severities : that the consideration of the former may teach us to walk with an holy fear , and the consideration of the latter may keep us from being overwheml'd in the greatest straits : our being publickly thankful for our deliverance from great dangers may fortifie the hearts of others against all unreasonable fears and dispondence . thirdly , because they are by the profession of christianity , to have a communion with one another in all their prosperities and in all their troubles ; to grieve in their afflictions , and to rejoyce in all their mercies . they are all of the same body , and one part cannot be at case , whilst another in is pain ; nor can one mourn whilst another does rejoyce ; they participate in their mutual sorrows and their joys ; they cannot see one of their brethren sitting alone and keeping silence , but they condole with him for his sadness ; and when they see him watering his couch with tears , their eye does affect their heart and mingle their tears with his ; they cannot laugh whilst another groans , nor be sad when another is exalted and delivered . for as you cannot touch one string of an instrument , but all the rest sound ; so no part of the body of jesus christ , can be well or ill affected , but the rest discover their sense either of its joy or grief . the saints of god have a similitude of nature and inclinations of the same kind all the world over ; they have a conformity to their blessed lord , who has a great tenderness and pity for the whole body of the church : the wicked that are not of the family , are no way troubled when sion is in the dust , nor have they any pleasure when it is rebuilt . a private spirit does but relish its own joys , and weep for its own griefs ; but those that are good christians are glad to hear that it fares well with the servants of god , tho such as they never saw ; and when others are affflicted , tho in foreign countries , yet their groans , tho at a great distance , do reach their hearts . thus it was with our apostle , col. . . for i would that ye knew what great conflict i have for you , and for them at laodicea , and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh . tho he was in dangers himself , yet he was full of fear and solicitude for them ; neither the prison in which he was at rome , nor the death he had in prospect did abate his care ; in this like , to christ himself , who in the night that he was betrayed , was providing a feast of comfort for his poor followers . fourthly , t is very delightful to god when his servants after the receipt of mercies , joyn their praises together . if we had no experiences of his goodness to us , yet so excellent are the perfections of his nature , that we ought even then to praise him much more when he is so kind to us , who have deserved nothing : he is pleased with with that homage which we give him by our prayers and our hearing of the word , and when two or three are gathered together he is there : it will also please him to see our hearts and our mouths full of thanks ; for to this very purpose he gives his blessings to us , and it is grateful to him to see that they are not lost upon us . as it is pleasant to an husband-man to see a seasonable harvest , and that his labour and pains have not been in vain : when there is a consort of musick , there is the greatest harmony , and when a whole assembly of sincere christians joyn their voices and their hearts together , with what a delightful sound do they go up before the throne of god ? for ( as one observes ) the blessing and acceptance that religion receives from the divine majesty , is much greater for the publickness of it ; even in this sense two are better than one , for they have a good reward for their labour : in this sense their complicated services are more forcible , their threefold cord is not easily broken : not that god is prevailed upon to any change in himself or his government by the services of his creatures , though in a multitude ; but he is pleased to found the occasions and opportunities of his most bountiful recompences , in the drawing near of their greater numbers : for as when god was pleased to communicate himself more freely , he did it to a multitude of creatures ; so he delights in receiving back the glory of having thus communicated himself from a multitude also ; and as there is more of himself in more of his creatures , whether of several sorts or of the same ; so there is more of his blessing in their approaches to him , whole duty of nations , p. . what does the great god obtain by all his acts of bounty to his creatures , but a revenue of praise ? what other end does he design in all his mercies ? therefore we should be most willing to pay him this easie tribute . oh how pleasant is it to come into the house of god with the voice of joy and praise , and with a multitude that keep holy day , psal. . . private prayer does not honour him so much as publick ; this therefore , as the now mentioned person expresses it , it was the policy of nineveh's natural religion to unite their force in humiliation , fasting and prayer , and to take advantage of joyning the mute desires of the beasts , that have a voice in the ears of god. abraham's servant made the camels kneel down while he prayed to god : and it was , as he further observes , davids art to gather up all the praises even of the lowest of the creatures that could so meanly give them ; and inspiring them with his own reason , made them as it were to follow his harp , and to unite in his own halleluiahs . thus he served himself of them , that making by them a greater present of glory to god , he might receive the greater blessing from him . we ought to be as eloquent in the numbring of our mercies as we are in the compution of our sorrows ; and our praises ought to be as loud or rather louder than our groans . and yet alass ! how rare a thing is this mutual praise ? and it may be as a sign of it , that so many desire funeral sermons to be preached for their departed friends , and few desire any sermons for their own recovery from sickness and death , or for their friends upon the like occasions . 't is strange that we should be more ready to mourn than to rejoyce ; and that our sorrows should be more passionate and fluent than our joys ; that we are more enclined to bewail our losses than to be glad for our mercies ; especially when one has the advantage of pleasure on its side which the other has not ; we always meet and mingle our tears together when our friends are to be laid into the grave , and we should as solemnly meet when any of our friends have been nigh unto death , and have escaped it , that for so great a mercy we may return to god our common praise . fifthly , this mutual praising of god is a resemblance of heaven . in doing this we are beginning that blessed work which we hope to be employed in for ever . we poor sinners here below are then something like to those holy souls that are above . will it not be a great part of heaven to admire , and adore , and praise god for all his deliverances granted to us , to his church , and our fellow saints ? there will be a common joy and an union of praises for all his mercies , from the beginning to the conclusion of the world. and then all the myriads of his elect being safely gathered into his own kingdom , shall keep a thanksgiving-day , and that day shall be for ever . it is to that pleasant and chearful country that we at length hope to go . let us use our selves now to the language of the place , and learn betimes to sing the songs of sion . let us raise our voices as high as ever we can , in the praises of our god ; and then knowing how unsuitable our highest elevations are to his excellent and glorious majesty , let us long to joyn with glorified spirits in their louder and sweeter hymns ; and being sensible of our own weakness , we may call to the blessed angels , to all beings that are in heaven or on the earth , in the air or in the seas , to help us to praise the lord. as we have the example of david in sevèral psalms , and in the . , , . bless the lord , ye his angels , that excel in strength , that do his commandments , hearkening unto the voice of his word . bless ye the lord , all ye his hosts , ye ministers of his that do his pleasure . bless the lord all his works in all places of his dominions : bless the lord , o my soul. the conclusion of the whole . and now to finish what i design to say from these words . having been delivered from a long and severe sickness , i would most earnestly beg of you all to help me to praise the lord for his great goodness and mercy to me . long i was upon the very brink of the grave , and nothing in this world could ease my pain , or mitigate my sorrows . god himself hath wrought salvation for me : and 't is for your sakes as well as mine own , that you may see an instance of his mighty power and goodness , who as he hath delivered me , can also deliver you when you come to straits and difficulties : i heartily wish that seeing my sickness has not been unto death , it may be for the glory of god. i am as it were risen from the grave , very near to which i was for many long and doleful months together ; i wish that my resurrection may have the same effect with that of lazarus , for by reason of him many of the jews believed in jesus , john . . there are several persons here , that wept with me when i wept , and that prayed for me when i was in trouble ; to these and to others that had a tender concern for me i now speak . come , and let us now rejoyce together ; oh come , and let us exalt and praise the name of god together . praise is pleasant and comly , psal. . . it is pleasant as it is the exercise of our souls in the noblest work which they are capable of here on earth , and 't is comely as 't is an acknowledgment of those mercies that we receive from god our benefactor . oh how much more pleasant is deliverance than danger , and health than sickness ! how much better is the voice of gladness than the voice of sorrow ? how much more pleasant is it to spend a day , yea many days , in chearful praises , than to spend one hour in sighs and painful groans ? how much better is it to come to the courts of the lord , to see him in the sanctuary , and to joyn with his servants in the solemn parts of his worship , than to be confined to a sick bed , and to dwell as in the dust ? my kind brother and companion in this lecture , when i was overwhelmed with deep sorrows , did often pray with me , that god would bring me again to this congregation , that i might here publish the wonders of his love : his prayers and yours are heard , and i desire at this time to declare the works of the lord. come and see what god has done : come ye poor afflicted people that are even sinking with your many troubles : come and see how god has help'd and saved me from my violent and sore distress . he has pull'd my feet out of the deep mire , and the thick clay : and has help'd me , tho the sorrows of death compassed me , and the pains of hell got hold upon me . learn to wait for his mercies , and to put your trust in him . come ye poor mourners , whose way is bid , and whom the wrath of god presses very sore . come and encourage your selves by looking upon the goodness and the mercy of god to me . i also am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. i was not long ago compassed with gall and travel , and my chain was heavy ; he caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into one , and filled me with bitterness , and made me durnken with wormwood . my soul was removed far off from peace , and i forgat prosperity , and i said , my strength and my hope is perished from the lord. and yet he hath graciously helped me after all this . therefore let your souls be in as much darkness , and your case be as low and miserable as it can be supposed to be ye , yet never despair of help from such a god as this . come ye poor dejected christians ; wipe away your tears a little , and let it be something reviving to you to behold what after long afflictions god has done for me , though i was lower than you can think or i express . come you that are sadned with frequent and continued pains , and encourage your selves from my deliverance ; i also had sharp and long pains for many months together ; my complaint was bitter , but my stroak was heavier than groaning ; yet after all this god himself hath healed me , when all the endeavours of my friends were to no purpose . say not that your wound is incurable , for that almighty physitian that has with so much kindness afforded relief to me , can also speedily give a cure to you : do not mistrust his power nor question his willingness to do it : though you be never so sinful and unworthy , let not that overwhelm you when you see the riches of his grace to me , displayed before your eyes . o taste and see that the lord is good ; blessed is the man that trusteth in him , psal. . . and you may say thus in prayer , lord thou hast been very gracious to such an one after his desolate and low condition ; oh be thou so to me , that being brought out of the depths , i may with him and others bless thy name ! come , ye servants of the most high , and let us praise our god together ; let our minds be filled with the most admiring thoughts of him ; let our tongues speak of his goodness ; let our hearts burn with the purest flames of love , and then let us joyn our thoughts , our voices and our hearts to give him with delight a common song of praise : come all you faithful people and help me to praise the lord , for my single praises are too deficient . surely our souls may now soar higher , and take a nimbler flight than they were able to do when they were clog'd and weighed down with heaviness and sorrow : help me to praise him , that , after such a long and terrible sickness , i am not in the silent grave . the grave cannot praise thee , death cannot celebrate thee : they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth . the living , the living , he shall praise thee as i do this day , isa. . , . i call you all to witness , that i praise the god of my deliverance ; i call you to help me to do it better ; seeing you prayed for me in my affliction , i may claim your praises as a debt that is due to god for the hearing of your prayers ; and i know it is such a debt as you are most willing to pay : as i was helpt by the prayers of many , so i desire that thanks may be given by many on my behalf , cor. . . i desire all those ministers , those congregations and christian friends that shewed so much compassion and kindness , as to pray for me , that they would all praise god for having given to me such a late miraculous deliverance , and for having given to them such a late experience of the succesfulness and power of prayer ; let us provoke one another to good works . when will our hearts glow with love to god , if not when his sun shines upon us with such comfortable and reviving beams ? when shall we all be thankful if not now , when he has cast our lot in an age of wonders and of mercies ? what would our forefathers that lived in a darker season , and in times of persecution have given to see such a bright and peaceful day as that is which we are blest with ? what would the poor people in hungary and in the palatinate , give to have so much peace and quiet , as we now injoy ? what would our poor protestant brethren in france , that are groaning under a cruel and blody persecution , give to have the protection and the favour of so mild a government as that is , which we are now living under ; and to have the bread of life , and their ministers , and their gospel in the same manner they once had them ? those poor churches are not yet delivered , their beauty and their glory is departed , and their sion is mourning in the dust ; but they send their sighs over to us ; we have heard their groans , the language of which is , come and help us with your prayers . let us pray for them as we would for our selves in the like case ; who knows but god will hear our prayers for them also ? and when england , scotland , france and ireland , and piedmont , and all other places that have been in distress shall lift up their heads with joy , and congratulate one another , for the salvations and deliverances which god hath wrought for them , what a glorious time will that be ? happy shall be the day and the year that shall accomplish so great a work ; happy shall the messenger be that brings us such welcome tidings ; happy will be the ears that hear so delightful a thing as this , and happy the eyes that see it ; and happy will those countries be that shall flourish with prosperity and peace , when these present commotions and wars that disturb the world , are past and gone ; and happy yet again will be those instruments , whom god will honour to bring about so excellent a state of things : then shall it be said as in isa. . , . rejoyce ye with jerusalem , and be glad with her , all ye that love her ; rejoyce for joy with her all ye that mourn for her : that ye may suck and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolations , that ye may milk out and be delighted with the abundance of her glory . may we not hope that so pleasant a day as this hath begun to dawn ; may we not hope , and have we not encouragement to beg of god , that the light which is broken out in so wonderful a manner may shine more and more to a perfect day ? that we may still say with the delivered israelites , who is like unto thee , o lord , amongst the gods , who is like unto thee , glorious in holyness , fearful in praises , doing wonders ? exod. . . it will greatly heighten the mercy of our being brought from the grave , if we should live to see such a sight as this : but however it be , the mercies we have already receiv'd in our deliverance from sickness , contain motives powerful enough to perswade us to love and praise god ; and the doing of this may procure us many more mercies . there are two things which after our recovery we have cause always to remember . first , that we must live as those that know though we have escaped the grave hitherto , yet we must one day take up our dwelling there . tho we are repriev'd for a while , yet the sentence of death that is past upon all mankind , will one day be executed upon us , and we must die as well as others ; and if we improve this consideration , tho death it self be not past , yet the bitterness of it will be so . secondly , that we ought most earnestly to pray that ( if god please so to order it ) we may not have very long nor very sharp pains before we die ; and that when he calls us from the world , he would give us an humble and a quiet resignation to his will , that we may be found of him in peace , and in a temper suitable to the greatness of our change ; and that before he warn us to appear before him , we may have all that work on earth finished , which he gave us to do ; and so being assured that the mediator is our friend , we may every one of us say with stephen , lord jesus receive my spirit . the song of hezekiah paraphrased by dr. woodford . i. revolving the sharp sentence past , and how an end , e're thought was on me come ; how soon said i , have i approacht my last , and unawares reatcht natures farthest home ? ah! now i to the grave must go , no more , or life , or pleasure know , but a long doleful night , in darkness deep below . ii. no more , my god , shall i see thee , nor the great works of thy almighty hand ; no more a votary at thy altar be , nor in the crouds of them , who praise thee , stand : mankind no more shall i behold , nor tell , nor of thy love be told , eve'n mine to thee , shall like my ashes , lord , be cold . iii. lo ! as a tent am i remov'd , and my life's thread , which i thought wondrous strong , too weak to bear the looms extension prov'd , i th' the midst broke off , too sleasie to run long : with sickness i am pin'd away , and feel each moment some decay , all night in terrors , and in grief die all the day . iv. for as a lion hasts to ' his prey , and having grip'd it , breaks the yielding bones ; so on me came th' almighty , whilst i lay in vain expecting help , but from my groans : o take , said i , thy hand away , see how i feel my loins decay , all night in terrors , and in grief die all the day ! v. then like a swallow , or a crane , i chatt'red o're my fears , his heart to move ; the widow'd turtle does not more complain , when in the woods sh 'as lost her faithful love : my eyes , o god , with waiting fail , why shouldst thou thus a worm assail ? i 'm thine , o let for once th' almighty not prevail ! vi. yet do thy will : i must confess , worse plagues than these , my sins deserve from thee ; the sentence past is than my crimes far less , and only hell a sit reward can be : ah! let my prayers that doom prevent ! my age in mournings shall be spent , and all the years thou giv'st , shall be , but to repent . vii . on thy great pleasure all depend , during which only , i and mandkind live ; to teach us this thou dost diseases send , and daily claim'st the life , which thou didst give : yet such is thy resistless power , that when our age is quite past o're , what thou at first didst give , thou canst our life restore . viii . and thus with me , lord , hast thou dealt , tho i for peace had only bitterness ; th' effects of mighty goodness thus have felt , beyond what words , or numbers can express : for from the pit thou drew'st me back , and that i might no pleasures lack , upon thy self the burden of my sins didst take . ix . triumphant saviour ! the still grave , for so great love , thy name can never praise ; nor in the pit canst thou memorial have , thy truth , or hop'd for , or ador'd thy ways ; the living , lord , the living are the men , who must thy power declare , and of them chiefly such , whom thou like me , shalt spare . x. they to their children shall make known , as i do now , the wonders of thy hand ; how when we ev'n to hell did head-long run , to stop our passage , thou i' th' way didst stand : lord , since thou hast thus delivr'd me , thus made me thy salvation see , my life , and harp and song , i 'll consecrate to thee . finis . books printed for , and are to be sold by t. parkhurst at the bible and three crowns in cheapside . sermons on the whole epistle of st. paul to the colossians , by mr. j. dailee , translated into english by f. s. with dr. tho. goodwin's and dr. john owen's epistles recommendatory . fol. dr. horton's select sermons . fol. baxter's catholick theology . fol. dr. littleton's sermons . fol. a treatise of knowledge and love compared . in two parts : . of falsly pretended knowledge . . of true saving knowledge and love. first , against hasty judging , and false conceits of knowledge , and for necessary suspension . secondly , the excellency of divine love , and the happiness of being known and loved of god. the english non-conformity , as under king charles ii. and king james . truly stated and argued . the scripture gospel defended , and christ , grace and free justification vindicated against the libertines , who use the names of christ , free grace and justification , to subvert the gospel and christianity , and that christ , grace and justification , which they in zealous ignorance think they plead for , to the injury of christ , the danger of souls , and the scandalizing of the weak , the insulting of adversaries , and the dividing of the churches cain and abel malignity , that is enmity to serious godliness , that is , to an holy and heavenly state of heart and life : lamented , described , detected and unanswerably proved to be the devilish nature , and the militia of the devil against god , and christ , and the church , and kingdoms , and the surest sign of a state of damnation . hymns in six centuries . all five by richard baxter . man's whole duty , and god's wonderful intreaty of him thereunto : set forth from cor. . . and published at the request of some hearers . advice to parents and children . the sum of few sermons contracted , and published at the request of may pious hearers . both by daniel burgess . a funeral sermon for mrs. esther sampson , the late wife of henry sampson , dr. of phisick , who died nov. . . by john howe minister of the gospel . two funeral sermons of the use and happiness of humane bodies . preached on cor. . . by edw : lawrence . the believers dayly exercise : or , the scripture precept of being in the fear of the lord all the day long , explained and urged in four sermons . by john billingsley minister of the gospel . books printed for , and sold by jonathan robinson , at the golden lion in st. paul 's church-yard . the holy bible , containing the old testament and the new : with annotations and parallel scriptures . to which is annexed , the harmony of the gospels . as also the reduction of the jewish weights , coins and measures to our english standard : and a table to the promises in scripture , by mr. samuel clark. — his holy history in brief : or , an abridgment of the historical parts of the old and new testament . dr. thomas goodwin's works : in two volumes , in folio , viz. on the ephesians , revelations , the knowledge of god the father , election , &c. — his treatise of the punishment of sin in hell : in vo . dr. thomas manton's works ; in two volumes , in folio . viz. on the th of st. matthew . the th of st. john. on the th and th chapters of the epistle to the romans . on the th chapter of the d to the corinthians : and on the th to the hebrews . with a treatise of the life of faith and self-denial . with several other sermons . — his treatise on the lord's pray dr. in vo . dr. bates's works . viz. the harmony of the divine attributes , in the contrivance and accomplishment of our redemption by the lord jesus christ. or discourses , wherein is shewed how the wisdom , mercy , justice , holiness , power , and truth of god are glorified in that great and blessed work. — his three sermons , at the funerals of dr. jacomb , mr. clarkson and mr. ashurst — his sure trial of uprightness , &c. mr. pearse's preparation for death . — his best match : or , the soul's espousal to christ. — last legacy : or beam of divine glory , &c. v●s . an explanation of the assembly's shorter catechism . price d. mr. case's treatise of afflictions . the epitome of the bible in english verse , useful for children ; price d. bound . a presont for children . being a brief , but faithful account of many remarkable and excellent things uttered by three young children , to the wonder of all that heard them . to which is added , a seasonable exhortation to parents for the education of their children . published by william bidbanck , m. a. price d. bound . the barren fig-tree : or , the doom and downfal of the fruitless professor . by john bunyan . books printed for john dunton at the raven in the poultry . mr. rogers's sermon , preached upon the death of a young gentleman , entituled , early religion , or , the way for a young man to remember his creator . mr. shower's sermon at madam anne barnadistons funeral . mr. lee's joy of truth . the character of a williamite ; written by a divine . dr. robert's key to the whole bible . in folio . a continuation of morning exercises , questions and cases of conscience practically resolved by sundry divines in the city of london , in october . casuistical morning exercises , the th volumn , by several ministers in and about london , preached in october , . the vanity and impiety of judicial astrology , whereby men undertake to foretel future contingencies , especially the particular fates of mankind , by the knowledge of the stars , by francis crow m. a. a new martrology : or , the bloody assizes now exactly methodiz'd in one volume comprehending a compleat history of the lives , actions , tryals , sufferings , dying speeches , letters and prayers of all those eminent protestants , who fell in the west of england , and else where from the year to . the third edition with large additions . early piety exemplified in the life and death of mr. nathaniel mather , who having become at the age of . an instance of more than common learning and vertue changed , earth for heaven , october . . the second edition , with a prefatory epistle by mr. mathew mead. mr. oake's funeral sermon . mr. kent's funeral sermon : both preached by mr. samuel slater . an antidote against lust : or , a a discourse of uncleaness shewing its various kinds , great evil , the temptations to it , and most effectual cure by robert carr minister of the gospel . poetical fragments by richard baxter , published for the use of the afflicted . the second edition . reformed religion : or right christianity , described in ' its excellency and usefulness in the whole life of man , written by m. barker minister of the gospel . daniel in the den by stephen jay rector of chinner in oxfordshire . the trajedies of sin , together with remarks upon the life of the great abraham , by the same author . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e * mr. joseph , and mr. benjamin ashurst . † alderman cornish . notes for div a -e i. obs. inf. . inf. . inf. . obs. . rea. . rea. . rea. . rea. . . * vide m. amyraut disc. de lestat des fideles apres la mort. pag. . &c. . rea. . . * vide chrys. in loc. * fuller 's life out of death . p. . . rea. . i●● . infer . . infer . . object . answ. infer . . infer . . infer . . i. ii. iii. iv. v. vi. vii . viii . ix . . . ii. . . iii. obs. . ii. iii. iv. v. mr. thomas kentish . the judgment of an anonymous writer concerning ... i. a law for disabling a papist to inherit the crown, ii. the execution of penal laws against protestant dissenters, iii. a bill of comprehension : all briefly discussed in a letter sent from beyond the seas to a dissenter ten years ago. hickes, george, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; 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(eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) the judgment of an anonymous writer concerning ... i. a law for disabling a papist to inherit the crown, ii. the execution of penal laws against protestant dissenters, iii. a bill of comprehension : all briefly discussed in a letter sent from beyond the seas to a dissenter ten years ago. hickes, george, - . l'estrange, roger, sir, - . the second edition. [ ], , [ ] p. printed by t.b. for robert clavel and are to be sold by randolph taylor ..., london : . written by george hickes. also ascribed to r. l'estrange by the nat. lib. of scot. cf. halkett & laing ( nd ed.). advertisement on p. [ ] at end. reproduction of original in huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng dissenters, religious -- england. great britain -- kings and rulers -- succession. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - olivia bottum sampled and proofread - olivia bottum text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the judgment of an anonymous writer . concerning these following particulars . i. a law for disabling a papist to inherit the crown . ii. the execution of penal laws against protestant dissenters . iii. a bill of comprehension . all briefly discussed in a letter sent from beyond the seas to a dissenter , ten years ago . the second edition . london , printed by t. b. for robert clavel , and are to be sold by randolph taylor near stationers hall. mdclxxxiv . the bookseller to the reader . this little book was first printed in the year . who the author of it was , i cannot tell , nor dare i presume to conjecture . when it came out first it was received as the last thing that was written by a late learned and right honourable author , who was in france at that time , and since hath been cited , as if it had been his , and i was so carried away with the common opinion , that i was almost perswaded to print it under his name , especially having heard , that the late firebrand of the nation , the earl of shaftsbury always took it for his : but as i was ready to put it to the press , a gentleman , to whom i communicated my design , did assure me he was not the author of it , but another person ; but because i cannot speak upon assurance , for fear of mistake , i will not so much as hint to the reader , whom i think him to be . i was perswaded by a learned gentleman , as ignorant of the author as myself , to give it a new impression ; and by this small pamphlet , which came out so long since , the republican party might have seen , that there were good men in the nation , who would not sit idle , and see them run down the government : for if a loyal subject at such a distance did ten years since defend the succession , when it was but lightly attack'd , it was easie to foresee , that there would be great numbers to defend it , both with their pens and swords , when it came to be so powerfully opposed . god almighty be praised for giving the king the victory over the enemies of the monarchy , and give his loyal subjects grace to walk worthy of the same , amen . robert clavel . a letter sent from beyond the seas to a noted dissenter . dear cousin , i was very glad to receive your letters , but very sorry to find by them , that you are still so extreamly desirous of innovations in a government so well established , as that is under which you live . i perceive you are more zealous then it becomes a good subject , or a good christian to be , for carrying on a project of the earl of shaftsbury , as unreasonable as new ; viz. that of disabling a papist to inherit the crown . for doubtless that proposal was first made , and afterwards promoted by him , the last sessions of parliament , not out of true love to the reformed religion , but out of spite and revenge to the d. of y — who , were he not only papist , but heathen or mahumetan ( which i think is not much worse ) would certainly have as good a title to his crown , and all his temporal rights , as if he were the most orthodox and holy christian in the world. and i am perswaded , that my zealous lord chose would not be willing that the king and parliament should make a particular act , to disable his own posterity , to inherit the great estate he hath got , if they should turn papists or atheists , as others have done before them . we all know what mischief in the world , that damnable doctrine has made , that temporal rights and inheritances depend upon saintship and grace . and if it be clear from scripture ( as nothing is more clear ) that a king ought not to lose his crown , for not being a christian , or for renouncing the christian religion as iulian did ; then it is plain , that neither the duke nor any other prince ought to be debarred from the crown , which is the greatest and most sacred of temporal rights , for not being protestants ; or which is more , for renouncing the christian religion . and i am heartily glad , that god gave the fathers of the english church the grace and courage to defend her doctrine , in opposing that unreasonable , and truly romish proposal of my lord chose ; which if they had approved , and defended after it was proposed , they had truly acted in that like prelats popishly affected , and really shewed themselves to be what their adversaries would fain perswade the world , they are . for 't is the romish church , and her doctors , which maintain , that kings excommunicated , or heretick kings , or ( which is all one ) that kings that renounce the apostolick faith , ought to be deprived and deposed . but 't is the church of england that maintains the contradiction of that unscriptural , unevangelical principle ; and thinks her self as much obliged to submit her self to a heathen , atheistical , heretical , or popish prince , where she can , as to an orthodox king ; and where she cannot , she thinks her self obliged to suffer , as her saviour , like a lamb brought to the slaughter ; and dares pretend to take up no arms but those of the primitive christians ( whose true copy she is ) tears , arguments and prayers . i say , it is the church of england , that is of this judgment , and neither the church of rome , nor the kirk of scotland ; both of which have actually excommunicated and deposed lawful and rightful princes , under the notion of being hereticks , and enemies to christs kingdom ; forgetting both alike the precepts and examples of our saviour and his apostles , on which the church of england hath grounded the contrary doctrine , as well as on right reason . our saviour , though god rendred unto the heathen caesar the things that were caesar's ; he owned his right to the empire , both by word and deed , although he were but the adopted successor of the greatest usurper that ever was in the world. nay furthermore , he owned and submitted to the procuratory power of pilate , who acted but by commission from the emperour tiberius ; who ( if there be any truth in the character of tacitus ) was one of the greatest tyrants , and most wicked men that ever the world saw . and as for st. paul , there is no article of our religion , not even that , that iesus christ is the son of god , more clear in his epistles , than that every soul should be subject to the higher powers ; that we should obey , not only for wrath , but conscience sake ; that whosoever resisteth , receiveth to himself damnation ; and lastly , that all the powers ( and when he wrote there were none but heathen powers ) were ordained of god. i might here insist upon the practice of the apostles , as it is represented in their acts , and the constant submission and sufferings of the primitive christians , as they are reported by the ecclesiastical fathers and historians ; but the scripture it self is sufficient to demonstrate the truth of this argument , which the church of england has not only established in her doctrine , but her fathers and sons of late , maintained in their practices : and which the kirk of of scotland ( agreeing in this and many other points with that of rome ) did ever oppose , both in word and deed. and since that kirk and nation have been of this opinion , we need not wonder that the english disciples of their buchanan and knox have practised those rebellious principles , which have so debauched and corrupted the subjects of the kings of england , as to make them be proverbially called , the kings of devils : and which the anababtists in germany improved into this maxim , that saintship was the foundation of soveraignty , and that the righteous ought to inherit the earth . and furthermore , if crowns ought to descend upon protestants only , then it is but just , that the estates of all subjects whatsoever should be so entailed : and if for example , the d — of y — must be cut off from his rights , for being a roman catholick , then let the rest of the papists lose theirs ; they are all alike idolaters , and let them all alike suffer . and , to bring the case to your own house , can you imagine that you your self ought to lose your right to the estate you have , or may have hereafter , upon that supposition , that you should turn papist ; which men as firmly resolved against it as you have certainly done . these practises and proposals are such , that they have left a blot on the memories of some men , that seem more zealous than their brethren . and i am glad at present , that the religious lord chose is the chief patron and promoter of such an unreasonable and romish design . it is unreasonable to exclude a popish heir from a crown , to which he derives his right from popish ancestors , and i have more than ordinary reason to call it romish , because i have heard it maintained here among all the priests i converse with . it is a doctrine dearly beloved by the romanists : and put but the name of heretick to a prince here , and it is just the same case , as when you call a prince a papist in england ; where , if there be no more than my good lord chose that are fautors of this romish doctrine , my country is in a far better case than i thought it to be . and truly this noble project of the late lord chose was condemned by all protestants as soon as it took air in france ; not only for that it was an ungospel way of proceeding , and savours strongly of the doctrine of rome , which they abhor ; but because it puts their king in mind of a project he is very much inclined to , viz. to make a like law here , that none but a roman catholick shall ever be king , or bear any office or trust in the kingdom . and certainly , if it should ever please god , for our sins , to suffer our princes to backslide into romish idolatry and superstition , we have nothing to do , but to pray , and like our glorious ancestors in queen mary's days , suffer quietly , when we cannot flie . and therefore i wonder that you would so obliquely reflect upon the bishops , and censure them for doing that , which in honour and duty , they were bound to do , and represent this to their disgrace , which all good and well advised protestan's must needs command them for , if they will be impartial . but put the case such an act were made , who can see the bad consequences thereof ? the union of great brittain will be broke upon it , and war entailed upon both kingdoms , and by the same reason , that none but a protestant shall succeed now , faction still increasing , none perhaps within a while , will be thought fit to inherit the crown , but a presbyterian , &c. for you that are used to talk of numbers and strength , can best tell how numerous and powerful they are that are possessed with as firm a prejudice against the church of england , as the church of rome it self ; denying communion equally with both ; and who educate their children in perfect hatred of the one , as the genuine daughter of the other . i have wrote all this to present to your view what ( perhaps in the hurry of zeal ) you have not had time to consider . and though i think it very impious and unreasonable ▪ to debar any such prince from the crown , upon this account , yet could we imagine the government were to be formed again , i would be as zeal us for this condition , as the greatest zealot of them all : and i am as sorry as any other good protestant , that it was not always one of the fundamental laws of england , though now it be too late to make it such . you tell me also that my lord — intends to come and live in london ; i suppose it may be under pretence to secure his person from the papists ; but i wish it may not be with a design to act over the same things , under a pretence of securing the protestant , which the duke of guise acted in paris , under a seeming zeal to secure the popish religion . the reason that makes me fear it , is the conformity of our times in england with those in france , as you may see by the following account . the duke , who was a man of an high spirit , and not able to bear the least disgrace , being removed by henry iii. from the most rich and honourable of his court-preferments , became thereupon male-content ; and retiring from the court , which he now did hate , went to live at his house in paris : where , by many arts , as in particular by the subtle practises of the priests and jesuits , he became in a short time the minion of the people ; whose affections he drew off from the king , by representing him ( though a hearty roman catholick ) as a favorer of the hereticks ; who under the protection of the princes of the bloud increased mightily in his reign . he also represented him in particular to be a great favourer of the king of navarre , against whom he himself had a particular ill will ; and whom the people , through the instigation of the priests and iesuits , did perfectly hate , because he was a protestant ; although he was primier prince of the blood ( for whom the french commonly have a great reverence ) and by consequence heir apparent , or as a friend of yours would have said , heir presumptive ( for the king had no child to inherit ) to the crown of france . after he had thus made the credulous people , by the help of the priests and iesuits , zealous for the defence of their declining religion , he drew them to league into rebellion against their lawful soveraign , under a pretence of securing the same , by removing evil councellors from his person , and obliging him to employ his royal power in suppressing the protestants ; and in particular by declaring the heretick king of navarre ( afterwards h. iv. ) uncapable of succeeding to the crown . for the sake of peace the king was willing so far to deny himself as to grant the two first , but could never be made so false to the interest of the royal family , as to consent to the last , by changing the order of succession to the crown , by which his ancestors had reigned so many hundred years ; and which have been so long established , without any respect to religion , by the salique or original laws of france . hereupon the league ( in imitation , and after the pattern of which the solemn league and covenant was formed ) or rebellion grew so high , as to beat the king out of paris ; where the guisards had a design to sieze upon his sacred person , shut him up , like king chilperick , in a monastery , and set up the silly old cardinal bourbon , the king of navar 's uncle , to reign in his stead . but the king escaping from paris , sheltered himself in chartres ; where to compose differences , he issued out writs to call together the three estates ( which much resemble our parliaments ) at blois . thither the deputies or members repair , some for the king , but far more for the cursed league ; and therefore the guisards finding themselves more potent than the royalists , insisted almost on nothing else , but securing the roman catholick religion , by declaring the king of navarre , because an heretick , uncapable of succeeding to the most christian crown . you see cousin , what a parallel there is between those times and ours ; excepting first , that there are no priests and jesuits to second such a design in england , as there were in france : but to supply that defect , there may be found men as fit in all points as they in black , to stir up the people to discontent and rebellion . i mean the same sort of persons that preached up the late bloody war ; who really are the bastard-brood of the monastick and jesuitical emissaries , though they bear not the names of their fathers ; but ( like bastards ) are disowned by those that begot them . the seditious principles preached and printed by them in the late times , are evident proofs of what race they are come : and as a man may travel so far west , till at last he come to the same eastern point from which he did set out , so you cousin , and your brethren have gone so far from the church of rome , that you are ( some i believe unawares ) come thither again ; as is unanswerably proved by lysimachus nicanor , lately reprinted at oxford , in his letter of congratulation to the kirk . but secondly , the parallel fails in this too , that his royal highness is not a declared papist , as the king of navarre was a declared protestant ; nor has yet openly renounced the communion of the church of england , for which his blessed father died a martyr . and therefore of the two , our english guisards are much more to blame , in representing his royal highness as a papist , which is so difficult to imagine him strictly to be . but furthermore , upon supposition he were a declared papist , the proposal of my lord chose was very ridiculous , since it did suppose a possibility of prevailing with his majesty to disinherit his royal brother , who must needs be so much dearer to him , than the king of navarre was to henry iii. as he is nearer in blood. and for my own part , i cannot but imagine at this distance , that his majesty who is a prince incomparably wiser and juster then was henry iii. of france , must needs disdain and abhor such a proposal ; which , were it enacted , it would enervate the laws of succession by which he and his ancestors have hitherto reigned , and give a greater blow to the english monarchy , than that which cut off his royal fathers head. i have here forborn to give you an account of the tragical end of the duke of guise , which is a lesson well worth your learning , and may teach all persons , so disposed as he was , how unsafe it is to provoke soveraign authority ; since the goodness of the best of kings , like the infinite goodness of god himself , whose ministers they are , may at length be so injured and affronted , as to be forced to sharpen it self into sovereign vengeance and justice . and therefore cousin , let me advise you , if not for conscience , yet for wraths sake , to have nothing to do in blowing up the flames of sedition : nor let your soul enter into the secret of my lord — though his interest among the senators ( as you write ) be so very considerable and strong . you likewise forget your self , in miscalling the execution of the late laws by the odious name of persecution ; which if you can prove to be such , according to the scriptural notion of persecution , viz. infliction of evil for righteousness sake , then will i become your proselyte , and forsake the church of england , as much as i have this idolatrous church of rome . for no man is persecuted , but either for immediate matters of divine worship , which concern the first table ; or with respect to matters of morality , or a good life , which concern the second . with respect to the first ; a man is persecuted either on a negative account , for not worshiping a false god , as the three children in daniel ; or for not worshipping the true in a false way : as st. paul and the other apostles were persecuted by the pharisees , for not worshipping the true god according to the jewish manner after it was abrogated : or as our fore fathers in england , for not worshiping god and our saviour after the romish rites . or secondly , on a positive account , for worshipping the true god in a way that is true ; or to express it yet more clearly and absolutely in your own terms , for serving of god : as daniel was cast into the lyons den , for praying to god against the king's decree . with respect to the second ; a man is also persecuted on a negative account , for not doing something , which is in its own nature , or by gods positive command , morally evil : as the good midwives were afraid to be persecuted by pharaoh , for not murthering the hebrew infants . or else on a positive account , for doing some good moral action , which ought in such and such circumstances to be done : and thus was our blessed saviour persecuted , for opening the eyes of the blind man , and for healing on the sabbath-day . now these distinctions being premised , tell me in which of these cases you are persecuted ? or , which is all one , for what you are confessors and martyrs ? for no man is persecuted , but as he is persecuted he is a confessor or martyr ; and by his sufferings bears witness to the truth . with respect to the second head , you cannot say that you are persecuted ; and therefore let me see whether you are so with respect to the first . and first , 't is plain that you do suffer for not worshiping a false god ; and 't is likewise as plain , that you do not suffer for not worshipping the true god in a false way . for first , the laws , whose execution you mis-call persecution , do not punish you for not worshiping god after our way ; or if they did to prove their execution to be persecution , you must first prove that the church of england ( whose doctrine is down right against idolatry and superstition ) does worship god in an idolatrous and superstitious manner ; which , good cousin , you know can never be proved . there remains nothing then but to assert , that you are punished for serving god , or for worshipping god in a way which you are sure is true . that you worship god in a true way , i verily believe , and could heartily joyn with you in other circumstances . but then you are not punished for worshipping god in that manner ; for the same laws you complain of , allow you to worship god in what fashion you please ; and not only you , but your family , be it as great as it will ; and lastly , not only your family , but five persons more ; which allowance , were you the only christians in the world , and the magistrates heathens ; or , which your friends are more likely to suggest , were they papists or atheists , is so far from being persecution , that were you of the temper of the primitive christians , you would esteem it as a great priviledg , and instead of reviling , thank the kind magistrate for the same . but then if on the contrary hand you be considered ( and many good english men , and good christians cannot but consider you ) as a sort of men that have formerly raised a most unnatural rebellion , and now make schism in the church , and broyles in the state , the punishments you suffer and complain so loudly off , will be so far from seeming persecution of you as christians , that they will rather seem your just desert , as factious and turbulent subjects . and i assure you , that your brethren in france ( whom you falsly so call , and for whom you pretend so great respect ) are so far from judging you persecuted , that they will not excuse you ; but wonder at your non-submission to the church , and pity your mistakes , that make you stand out against the laws . they that have seen and examined our english liturgy , which is printed at geneva in french , cannot understand your notion of persecution . and ministre claude , the most famous of them all , for piety and learning , told me in the presence of many others , ( after a discourse , wherein he said all for you that could be said ) that he wondred how the presbyterians in england could rend the peace of the church , for such little indifferent matters ; and that , if he were in england , he would be of the episcopal party , and heartily submit himself to the discipline and government of the church of england . and if you would do so too , how happy a thing would this be both for your selves and the nation ? or seeing , as you pretend you cannot , yet at least live peaceably , and forbear to trouble the world with compassing sea and land ; that is , by doing all that you can , like your fathers the old pharisees , to make proselytes ; when yet you cannot shew any sinful condition of communion with the church of england , nor prove your way of worship as apostolical , as that of hers ; from which out of pride , interest or ignorance , or partly altogether you dissent . i am sure this would rather become the dissenting brethren , then to foment divisions , raise parties , betake themselves to the wickedest of men , as of late to — and cry up the kings prerogative , which they formerly cried down ; which with many other self-contradictions , confirms me in an opinion you know i was of before , that in those matters wherein you differ from us , you are men of no principles , and know not where to fix . i have enlarged upon this theam more than i thought to do at first , because the papists here in france complain as loudly as you of the cruelty of our ecclesiastical laws ; and cry out wherever they come , how their brethren have been ; and still are persecuted among us ; though with this difference , that in disputing ad hominem , their case is far more reasonable and pleadable then yours . as for you , i protest , tho' the laws you complain off look like hard laws , when i consider you as free born subjects of england , yet when i consider you as head-strong , turbulent and factious subjects , i cannot but think them just and good , and i will maintain that the execution of them would not be persecution , altho' you were the only true christians in the world. for , as i hinted before , you have the liberty in your houses to profess what religion you please , and to worship god in what manner you will : and for fear your family should not be a just congregation , you may have five more : but for fear you should do as you have formerly done , you are not to have five hundred , or five thousand ; which liberty , not only the primitive christians , but our own ancestors , an hundred years ago would have called a blessing , and a priviledg , and have heartily thanked god and the king for the same . and god grant we may never see that time in england , when truly tender consciences will esteem so much liberty as the greatest blessing in the world. the good protestants here in france , though their religion is made an obstacle to all state-preferments , though it disable them to sit in the courts of parliaments ( except just so many as serve in the chamber of edicts , to decide controversies between protestants and papists ) or to have any other charges of iudicacature , or any high offices in the army ; though their numbers are much diminished , and their interest weakened , by a prohibition to marry with roman catholicks , and by a capital law , which makes it death to return protestants after they have once turned papists ; and though a great number of their temples have been demolished ( some under a pretence that they were built since the edict of nantes , others that they were built without license , and others that they were built upon holy ground ) so that hereby they are forced in very many places to the grievous inconvenience of going two , three , four or five leagues to church , if not more : and though all the places of strength , where they do abound are demolished , and cittadels are erected to awe them in other towns , where they are numerous ; though their own particular hospitals , and all other their perpetual provisions for their poor , are taken away , and they disabled , either living or dying , to give any setled maintenance either to their own ministers or people ( as to endowe churches , build schools , colledges or hospitals , &c. ) nay , tho' they are deprived of the benefit of other hospitals , provided for the rest of the subjects ; and although their ministers are forbid to speak against the pope , or to preach against the romish religion , with half that freedom and plainness that you dare speak against the church of england ; or to preach in any places but those few appointed by the king , though they are forbidden to call the papists in their sermons by any other name but that of catholicks ; or to make mention of their religion and ceremonies , without reverence and respect , though they are forbid to call themselves priests or pastors , and have no other title allowed them , but only ministres de la religion pretenduë reformés ; and though it be enacted , that their religion shall be called by no other name in any publick acts , registers , &c. though they are forbidden to bury their dead in catholick churches , or church-yards , even where the deceased person was patron of the church ; or where his ancestors had purchased burying-places for their families ; though they are forbid to make any publick exhortations or prayer , or to sing psalms at their burial : though they are forbid to instruct or condole those of their own religion in prisons or hospitals ; or to pray with them in a voice so loud as to be heard by the standers by , tho' they are forbid to make any collections of money among themselves , but such as are permitted and regulated by the edicts of the king ; though they are forbid to work or open their shops on romish holy-days , or to sell flesh on their fasting-days , &c. i say the good protestants here in france , notwithstanding all this hard dealing , are yet so far from complaining of persecution , that they shew themselves thankful both to god and the king , for the liberty and indulgence they enjoy . indeed they will complain , for the aforesaid reasons , that their religion is very much discouraged , and they themselves hardly used : but persecution is a notion that they rarely think or speak of , when they discourse of their own condition , being very far , though not so far as you , from a state of martyrdom ; which consists in a forcible obligation to suffer or renounce the truth - and therefore cousin i beseech you and conjure you , not to misuse the name of persecution again . it is a very sinful way thus to abuse and amuse the vulgar , by calling things by their wrong names : and as to this particular , honest and knowing men will be apt to suspect , that through the name of persecution , you have a design to make your governours pass for tyrants , and your selves for martyrs . to conclude : if this which you call persecution , be not such indeed , then i doubt not but they who miscal it so , that is all presumptuous or affectedly ignorant schismaticks , without bitter pangs of repentance , will be persecuted by the god of peace himself to a sad and endless eternity . as for the bill of comprehension , it begun to be talked of , before i left my country , and i have often discours'd it with many of the projectors , but could never understand from them , how it was practicable to unite so many incompossible sects , which agree in nothing , but their opposition to the church . however if the altering , or taking away of a ceremony or two would effectually unite the protestant partys , as you are pleased to assert , i think it would be worth the while to do it , and that the doing of it for so sure an end , would reflect no dishonour upon the church of england , which acknowledgeth the few innocent and decent ceremonies , which she hath ordained to be indifferent and alterable , according to the exigency of times . neither , if this were done , could the romish church have the least apparent reason to reproach us for such a slight alteration ; seeing her own missals and breviaries have been so diverse and different in several times and places ; and have undergone so many emendations , or rather corruptions , before they were established in the present form , by the authority of pius v. and the decree of the council of trent . but unless this alteration would surely and infallibly produce this effect , it had far better be let alone , and in the mean time , i would have all good christians wait in peace and complyance with the established religion , till authority shall think to make this alteration in it , that so a poor english traveller would not be tauntingly asked by every impertinent priest here , whether he were a true son of the church , or presbyterian , or independant , or anabaptist , or quaker . and i assure you , when they meet with a man that owns himself a true son of the church of england , they will seem with great formality to pity him more than any other ; but yet they will never attempt to convert him . but when they meet with one that will own himself of any other sort , they will be pleased , smile in their sleeves , and set upon him as a person not far from their kingdom of god. and i am perswaded , had you seen or heard as much of their idolatries , blasphemies and superstitions , as i have done in one christmas , one lent and one easter , you would be so far from doing the church of england any ill office , that you would rather ( like st. paul after his conversion ) preach against your own partizans , and thank god that you lived in a church reformed from romish idolatry and superstition . and i cannot but freely confess , that i am since my travels become ten times a greater lover of our own church , and as many times a greater hater and detester of the romish church , than i was before . and therefore i cannot here dissemble the hearty grief i have conceived , for the great hopes you have , that the licenses ( as you express it ) will be once more authorized by his majesty , or the declaration revived . for as it is that which at first was hammered out by a popish lord , who was the patron and idol of the presbyterians ; so 't is that which the roman catholicks here ( especially the priests ) do hope , and wish for as well as you . they desire nothing more , than such a toleration , as that was , knowing that it must needs tend to the ruine of the church of england , which is the principal butt of all their envy and malice ; as being the main support and credit of the reformed religion every where , and the only hedg against popery it self in our unfortunate british isles . we meet with not a few priests of several orders , that have the confidence ( in our most familiar conferences ) to tell us , that by the just judgment of god upon our church , the time of her ruin is at hand ; the nation it self being over-spread with schism and atheism , and the hearts of the faithful being disposed by the spirit and providence of god , to re-embrace the holy catholick truth . and therefore they freely confess , that this time of distraction is their harvest ; and withal express their intentions and zeal to transport themselves into england at the critical time of toleration , that they may be fellow-laborers with your selves in that harvest . they seem to lament as much , and complain as fast , of the prodigious increase of schism and atheism among us , as you are wont to do of the daily growth of atheism and popery . and whilst you both complain alike , and in the formality of your complaints , both alike reflect upon the church of england : it is she only that is the sufferer , and she only that truly laments the growth , and at the same time sets up banks to hinder the perfect inundation of all the three among us . as for schism among protestants , you were the first fathers , and continue the chief fautors thereof ; all the inferior sects having sprung from you , and dividing both from you and one another , under pretence of the same reasons , for which you profess to divide from the church . and 't is from you , that even the quakering sect it self ( the dregs of schism ) have learned to talk of illumination , and the spirit : and the rest of the sectaries ; in what number soever they be , differ no more from you than the second , third , or fourth , &c. from the first book of euclid . not that by this comparison i intend , that you have any such principles , or data among your selves , as there are among mathematicians ; for i am very well assured , that take but any four of the presbyterian demagogues , and they can scarce agree amongst themselves in any four particulars , wherein they differ from the church of england . and therefore if you be not schismaticks , then the church of england , from which you separate , and out of which you have gathered congregations , and preach and administer the sacraments unto them ; i say , if you be not schismaticks , then our church must be the schismatick , in the controversie between us ; and be justly chargable with the same indictment , which she hath drawn up against the church of rome . an assertion , cousin , which i never knew any other person , except one or two , besides your self , have the confidence to aver , and an assertion , which no protestant here in france could hear us yet relate , without horror , impatience and disdain . and therefore , if the reformed church of england , from which you wilfully divide , and to which by your divisions you cause so much scandal abroad and evil at home , be not a schismatical church , that is , a church which requires some sinful conditions of communion ; in what a woful condition will your unpeaceable , seditious spirits appear before the god of peace ? and how will you answer that , at the tribunal of his wisdom and justice , which neither your fathers , nor you could ever yet answer , to those instruments of his glory , judicious hooker and the venerable sanderson ? but whether you are schismaticks , or whether you are not , the separations which you and your brood have made from the church , are the apparent causes of the growth of popery ; and both your separations , and your superstitious enthusiastical way of worshipping that god , whose people you emphatically pretend to be , are the true causes of that abundant atheism , which at present makes england an astonishment and a scandal to foreign nations . and if you , or any other of the brother-hood , think it strange , that i charge yours , which is the capital sect , with enthusiasm , or make superstition , which seemeth diametrically opposite to atheism , the mother thereof ; i offer , upon the challenge , to make good the charge , in both particulars : but in the mean time , to show you how unsafe it will be to provoke me to that trouble , i advise you to read one or two short chapters in the beginning of mr. smith's discourses , concerning these distempers of the soul , and you shall find what i have said , proved with more demonstration , than you can gainsay ; and with more plainness and perspicuity , than , i am confident , you would wish to see . but besides the schism and enthusiasm , the bloody wars , which you formerly made in the state , under pretence of the glory of god , and the reformation of of the reformed religion , have given many inconsiderate men occasion to suspect , that all religion , like that of most of your leaders , is but a politick engine which men use , to make themselves popular and powerful , that they may afterwards act with good colour whatsoever their interest shall suggest . and furthermore , to consider , that the great pretenders of the spirit , and the power of the christian religion , ( which with respect to magistrates teacheth nothing but to obey or su●er ) should notwithstanding preach up rebellion against their rightful prince , fight him from field to field , romove him from prison to prison , and at last most barbarously put him to death , is such an absurdity against the principles of right reason , so repugnant to the laws of our own nation , and so inconsistent with the peaceable doctrine of the gospel ; that , besides the atheists it hath made , it hath , and ever will constrain men of honest principles , and just resentments , to persecute you with satyrs and exclamations to the end of the world. i had not here presented that tragical scene of the king's murther , but that i have had so many unpleasant occasions to hear our nation reproach'd with the scandal and dishonour of that inhumane fact. particularly , it was my bad fortune to be at a station in paris ; where there were met about two hundred persons , to read the gazetts , at that very same time , when that of england came full charged with the news of burning the pope in effigie at london . this feat did at first surprize that roman catholick concourse of people ; but after a little recollection , they ceased to wonder , saying in every company as we passed along ; it is not so strange that the english devils should do this , who formerly murthered their king. and another time , it was my ill luck also to be at the same place , when the london gazette brought us the news , that the house of lords had taken into consideration the growth of atheism in our nation : whereupon some french gentlemen of my acquaintance seriously enquired of me the causes of so much atheism , amongst such a thinking and solid people . i assigned the same reasons which i have written above , besides some others which i will not stand to mention , as the most probable causes thereof . and as i hope i did not misinform them , so i am confident i did not unjustly charge you in any particular , especially with the murther of the king. for there were no accessaries in the murther of that sacred person ; neither was it the last stroke only that fell'd the royal oak ; but you and the independants , like the two sacrilegious priests of iupiter , are equally guilty of the crime ; the one for binding the direful victim , and the other for putting the knife to his throat . but to be short , where i am so unacceptable , i 'le conclude my argument with a fable . a principal ship , which for many years had been sovereign of the seas , was at last attacted by a tempestuous wind , which the devil raised , and notwithstanding all the help that could be made to save her , was driven by the force of that malignant wind , and split upon a rock . the very same instant she dashed upon the rock the wind ceased ; and being afterwards cursed by the sea-men , for the wrack of the royal charles ( for so the capital vessel was called ) answered , you charge me most unjustly my friends , it was not i , but the rock as you saw that split your ship. the moral of this parable is very obvious ; and if the application thereof , or any thing else that i have written , may conduce to awaken your conscience , and reclaim you from schism , i shall think my pains well bestowed . but if you and your seditious brethren will still persevere to assault the church on one hand , as fast as the romish priests do undermine her on the other , her days are like to be but few and evil ; and except god encline the hearts of our magistrates to put the laws in execution against them , and find some effectual means to reduce you , you may live to see her ruin accomplished , which you both alike desire and expect . how numerous you are , the world can guess , and if the accounts which we receive from the fathers of intelligence of several orders , be credible , there are about three thousand of them , which find entertainment and success within the king of great britain's dominions . but in the mean time , till her hour is come , she struggleth against both , like her saviour against the pharisees , whose true disciples in part you both are ; they representing those sworn enemies of the gospel , by the cabala of their ridiculous and impious traditions ; and you representing them in their hypocrisie , pride , envy , evil speaking , moross and censorious dispositions , &c. ( which are sins scarce consistent with humanity , much less with grace ) as likewise in observing many fasts and making long prayers , with design not to serve god , but to delude the people . and therefore i wonder not that you are such malignant enemies to the church of england , since that pharisaical spirit , which reigneth so much amongst you , is a wicked pusilanimous spirit , that affects to be seen in the head of parties , and dictate amongst the ignorant ; and loves as much to rule , as it hates to obey . but would you once be so sincere , as to subdue your pride , lay aside your prejudice , inform your ignorance , and forsake your dearly beloved interest , for the truth ; it would not be long ere we should see you joyn with the church of england , without troubling our senators to bring you in with an act of incomprehensible comprehension . your pride appeareth in heading of parties , and in the pleasure you are seen to take in the multitudes , that run after you ; and in your boasting , that without you the souls of people would starve for want of knowledg . your prejudice is an effect of your pride , and discovers it self together with your ignorance , in not submitting to those invincible reasons , which you cannot answer . and as for your interest , the greatest paradox of all , that is evident enough to me , who have so often heard many of you glorifie your selves in the number and riches of your followers , boast of their affection to your sacred persons , and brag of the great sums you have collected in your congregations ; which makes the king's chapples ( as you arrogantly call your conventicles ) better places than most of the churches , of which he is patron . and therefore never complain that you live either worse , or at greater uncertainties than you did before . for by your pretentions to poverty and sufferings , and by other unworthy arts , you have so wrought your selves into the esteem of your disciples , that few of them are either so covetuous or so poor , but they will pinch at home to supply you . there are several orders of fransciscans here , who have renounced not only parsonages , but all temporal estates and possessions whatsoever ; and by their vain glorious sanctity and austerities , they have got ( like you ) such fast hold on the souls of the people ( which is the fastest hold of all ) that they can easily make most of them dispose of their children , cashire their servants , and settle their estates as they please ; and by these tricks do more effectually promote the interest of rome , than all the parish ▪ priests within the pale of that church . and really , when i consider what influence these sanctimonious and self-denying zealots have o're all families , in all places where they live ; how they steal away the hearts of the people from their parish-priests , and drain their congregations ; and how the deluded people had rather give them the worth of a shilling , than the dues of two pence to their own curees ; it makes me often run the parallel between you and them , and think what a politick and gainful pretence you have got to renounce your livings , for to secure your consciences , and to preach the word gratis like the primitive apostles ; when god knows , 't is not out of love to the people , but to your selves . and i protest to you , were i a man to be maintained by the pulpit , and consulted my profit more than the goodness of my cause , i should take the same courses that you do ; i should rather be mr. m. than dr. a. of plymouth ; and should chuse the plentiful income of that dull zealot dr. manton , before that of his most learned and religious successor of govent-garden . but though you live very well , and better indeed than most of the ministers of the church , yet the mischief of it is , you are uncapable of dignities ; which makes you such aerians , and upon all occasions openeth your throats as wide as sepulchres against the bishops and the church . you know what an history of bishops mr. pryn hath wrote , and what a fair collection the learned smec . hath taken out of him ; as if when a bishop is defective , either in piety , learning or the skill of government , it were not the deplorable unhappiness , but the fault of the church of england . should an heathen or mahumetan , make such an historical collection of scandalous christians , either in this , or former ages , you would not be perswaded for all that , to prefer the alcoran before the gospel ; or the most exalted paganism whatsoever , before the christian religion . therefore wise and sober men will make no inference but this , from such a malicious enumeration of particulars ; that corruptions will creep into government , notwithstanding all the care that can be used to the contrary ; and that by the favour of princes ( who hear with other mens ears , and often receive undeserved characters of men ) sometimes ambitious , sometimes ignorant , and sometimes slothful , imprudent or debauched persons , will be preferred to the most honourable dignities in the church . but this , as often as it happens , is the misery of the church of england , which all true church men lament ; though the men of the short cloke take all such occasions to expose her to the scorn of the common people who judge by sense , and not by reason ; and who are taught by you , to make no distinction between the bishops and the church . but were all her bishops the best christians , the best scholars and the best governours in the world ; and should the royal hand place her mytres on the heads of none but iewels , whitgift's , andrews's , hall's , usher's , morton's , taylor 's , and sanderson's , yet that unchristian spirit of envy and discontent , which informs the non conformists , would still fly upon her with open mouth , like beasts upon the saints of old condemned to the amphitheater ; and make her , as she hath already been for almost forty years , a spectacle to god , to angels , and to men. the wicked lives of scandalous bishops and priests , if there be any such , are her sad misfortune , but cannot justifie the schism you are guilty of ; who are bound to hear even them , as much as the iews were bound to hear the scribes and pharisees those hypocrites , that sate in moses's chair . and in that deplorable state of the iewish church , when the priests and prophets were both alike corrupted and called by the holy spirit , dumb and greedy dogs , yet it had been unlawful to make a separation , and set up other altars against that which god ( who was their king ) had set up . i cannot but mind you of the sehism of ieroboam , who by dividing the church , as god was pleased to divide the kingdom into two parts , made israel to sin but to insist on the samaritan secession , and write all , that is necessary to discover and aggravate the damnable nature of schism , would require as much more paper as i have bestowed , and so make me as tedious again , as , i fear , i have already been . besides , it would oblige me to answer mr. hales's treatise of schism , with whose leaves you vainly endeavour to cover your shame : and i had indeed a year ago undertaken that easie task , but that a western gentleman , to whom i discovered my intentions , told me , that mr. long prebendary of exeter , a friend of his , had already begun that good work : so that i hope it is printed by this time . and if either that or this , or any thing else , a thousand times better , than i am able to write , may prove effectual to reclaim you from schism ; i shall be as glad , as to see some other of our friends reformed from drunkenness , swearing , and uncleanness , which are very grievous , and dreadful sins , but yet not more damnable in their nature , nor more distructive to the christian religion , nor more deeply rooted in the soul of man , than that of schism ; from which , i pray god , by the power of his grace , to preserve me , and reform you , through iesus christ our lord ; to whose protection i commit you , and rest , your most affectionate cousin , and humble servant . saumur : may . . finis . advertisement . there is lately published a book entituled the , royal apology : or an answer to the rebels plea : wherein the most noted anti-monarchical tenents , first , published by doleman the iesuite . to promote a bill of exclusion against king iames , secondly , practised by bradshaw and the regicides in the actual murder of king charles the st . thirdly , republished by sidney and the associators , to depose and murder his present maiesty , are distinctly considered . with a parallel between doleman , bradshaw , sidney , and other of the true protestant party . london , printed by t. b. for robert clavel , and are to be sold by randolph taylor near stationers-hall . . price s. the quakers address to the house of commons declaring their suffering case, relating to oathes and swearing, as it was pesented by george whitehead, capt. william mead, and other eminent quakers on friday last, the th instant. approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page image. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing q estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) the quakers address to the house of commons declaring their suffering case, relating to oathes and swearing, as it was pesented by george whitehead, capt. william mead, and other eminent quakers on friday last, the th instant. whitehead, george, ?- . mead, william, - . broadside. printed for w.h., london : . reproduction of original in the huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng society of friends -- great britain -- history. dissenters, religious -- great britain. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - mona logarbo sampled and proofread - mona logarbo text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the quakers address to the house of commons . declaring their suffering case , relating to oathes and swearing , as it was presented by george whitehead , capt. william mead , and other eminent quakers , on friday last , the th . instant . it is not unknown to this nation , that ever since we were a people , it hath been our principle not to swear , make , or take oaths , which he who is the searcher of all hearts knows , is no other than a case of pure conscience , in tender obedience to the mind of our blessed lord and saviour jesus christ , as we are fully perswaded , according as many eminent martyrs , and men of wisdom and renown were , who testified against oaths and swearing in the gospel-day , and not any obstinacy , disaffection or worldly interest whatsoever on our parts : we being really willing and desirous to answer the just and good ends of law and government , as a peaceable people fearing god , and for this cause of not swearing we have been exposed to great sufferings and inconveniencies in our persons and estates , by tedious imprisonments , and disabled from receiving our due debts , or defending our just titles and properties ; not suffered to give evidence in courts of judicature at common or civil law , nor to answer in chancery or exchequer , prove wills and testaments , or take administrations , or to proceed in our trades at custom-house , or be admitted to our lands , or trusted in our duties , and services in courts leet , and courts baron ; but great advantage is taken against us , because we so fear an oath , as that we dare not swear : for which cause also , our children and young men are not allowed their freedoms in cities or corporations , when they have faithfully served out their apprenteships . nor admitted to give our voices in elections of magistrates , and parliament members in divers places , tho known to have right thereunto as free-holders , &c. wherefore our request is , that in all cases where oathes are imposed , and swearing required , our word , that is , our solemn affirmation or denial as in the fear and presence of god may be accepted instead of an oath , for which we humbly offer , and freely submit , that if any under the same profession among us , break their word , or be found false in such their affirmation or denial , or guilty of falshood in any vnsworn testimony , evidence , or answers , that then such penalty be inflicted on the person so offending , as law and justice require in case of false swearing or perjury . this may be printed , james fraser . london , printed for w. h. . a word in season to all in authority with weighty considerations what persons, practices, and things doth chiefly cause division and contention, rending of kingdoms, and distresse of nations : as also a plain discovery of those things and that ministry that will bring blessings and unity, with deliverance from bondage into liberty, and instead of strife, wars, and fighting, righteousnesse, reconciliation and peace in the land of our nativity / published by j.c. j. c. (john collens), d. . this text is an enriched version of the tcp digital transcription a of text r in the english short title catalog (wing c ). textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. the text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with morphadorner. the annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. this text has not been fully proofread approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. earlyprint project evanston,il, notre dame, in, st. louis, mo a wing c estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a word in season to all in authority with weighty considerations what persons, practices, and things doth chiefly cause division and contention, rending of kingdoms, and distresse of nations : as also a plain discovery of those things and that ministry that will bring blessings and unity, with deliverance from bondage into liberty, and instead of strife, wars, and fighting, righteousnesse, reconciliation and peace in the land of our nativity / published by j.c. j. c. (john collens), d. . anderdon, john, ?- . p. printed for robert wilson, london : . "conclusion" signed: j.a. reproduction of original in the harvard university library. eng dissenters, religious -- england. a r (wing c ). civilwar no a word in season to all in authority. with weighty considerations what persons, practices and things, doth chiefly cause division and conten j. c c the rate of defects per , words puts this text in the c category of texts with between and defects per , words. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - ali jakobson sampled and proofread - ali jakobson text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a word in season to all in authority . with weighty considerations what persons , practices and things , doth chiefly cause division and contention , rending of kingdoms , and distresse of nations . as also , a plain discovery of those things and that ministery , that will bring blessings and unity , with deliverance from bondage , into liberty ; and instead of strife , wars and fightings , righteousnesse , reconciliation and peace in the land of our nativity . published by a lover of truth and the kingdoms peace , j. c. london , printed for robert wilson , at the sign of the black-spread-eagle , and windmill in martins near 〈…〉 . a vvord in season . you rulers and chief in authority , i have written this unto you , that you might ▪ read and understand , what and who is the cause of strife , and war , and division , and rending of kingdoms , governments and common-wealths , and causing distraction amongst people , and heart-burning , and murder , and revenge one brother against another , and one neighbour against another . and farther that no ruler not governour , nor government can be established , nor firmly settled , until these things are removed , which is the ground of unsettledness , and which hath unsettled kings and parliaments , and divided them and dasht them one against another . now they that preach for hire , and divine for mony , whose maintenance doth depend upon their office , and their office doth depend upon persons , and forms , and times ; so that if their office be taken away , their maintenance fails ; and if their form be disliked , their office comes in question , and their maintenance in danger ; and through these men , and these things have been the cause of all the late war , and expence of blood and treasure . and all people who have trusted in them , have been deceived by them , and cheated , and betrayed , and brought to misery , whilst they have feasted and been ready to turn with all times to serve themselves . for now consider , that before the wars , when idolatry and superstition grew amongst people under episcopacy , ( so call'd ) and prophaneness , and licenciousness became tollerated by that generation , and all the conscientious zealous people for god became persecuted , and hated and made a prey , so that it were a hard matter for any man to live without suspicion of 〈◊〉 dangerous , who made conscience of any thing , especially in the worship of god ; but they who were lovers of pr●de and wantonness , letters up of may-poles , bull-baitings , revels . wakes , and such like ; by which many people did assemble together to be drunk , and to riot & blaspheme the name of the most holy god . and if the spirit of the lord was grieved in any to see these things committed , and a testimony borne against it by any ) how were such made a reproach , their goods spoyled by the officers of the then called spiritual courts ? and that kind of ministery that tollerated and partaked in such wickedness , they were the men set up , countenanced and intrusted , and bore all the rule amongst people every where ; and many years was the spirit of the lord grieved , and his righteous soul vexed with these abominations , and often called them to return , but they would not hear ; but hardned their hearts in their wickedness , and went on in their rebellion against god , until his w●ath waxed hot against them , and the contest began between the king and the parliament , and increased until a great war began , as is well and b● woful experience unto many to this day remembred ; and the bishops being near unto the king , and well discerning that if by force they were not able to uphold their office they must fail , and their great yearly revenue , which depended upon their office would be lost , and they not doubting their strength , because of the king , and the greatness of their number , forgot god , who saveth , not by many , nor by few ; and then they preached up the king , and their office , their form of their service , upon 〈◊〉 of damnation to all that should resist them , calling them rebels , and traytors , and heriteks that should oppose . another sort of clergy-men , who were then something more refined , and were indeed many of them more zealous and consciencious , they prayed against the prosperity of the king , and his party , and against the bishops , with the rest of their train , and so when one blessed , another cursed ; and so men according to their affections sided , and both were upon pain of damnation , and here the leaders of the people caused them to erre , and many thousands that were thus led were destroyed ; and with great difficulty did the war go on for a long season , and the victory inclining to neither ; but the army of the king and his party grew numerous , and still they who were called the ministers , ceased not on either part to preach up the interest they had undertaken , though never so much blood might be shed in the prosecution thereof , untill the king and that party was worsted and overthrown : and then some began to see that it was not honesty , but interest that made them so eager ; so then they called ministers of the parliaments part , many of them seeing that their gain was in danger by reason of that prevailing party which then had overthrown the king and his army , they ( to wit the ministers so called ) began to drive on new designes , so that they can never cease fomentinng of division , except their interest be at top and they themselves alwaies divided amongst themselves , by reason of their great number , that some of them alwayes wants room , so that they have leisure and liberty , ability and opportunity to devise new stratagems to carry on new devisions , that they may supplant one another to make roome . but then when the army had gotten the upper hand , and that the generall begins to appeare as if he might be at the stern , and that he countenanced those who at that time the lord had opened their eyes , and they discovered the rottenness of them called ministers , then they set themselves as it were wholly against him by all manner of means ; labouring by plotting , preaching , and printing against them , believing in their minds , that if he should once be at rest , and in full power , he would certainly have pluckt down their tythes : so from time to time , the fear of loosing their great income on the one side , and the pride and ambition of the other side , they never in no time want matter wherewith to blow the ●ire of contention , still crying out against one or other sort of people that stand in their way , and so labouring to remove them out of their way by cruelty towards them , having time and opportunity to fill peoples hearts and minds with evill , by preaching up the wickedness of their own hearts , laying it upon others whom they 'l not suffer to answer for themselves , by that meanes laying such loads of bitter persecutions upon people , that have forced many to be enemyes to those against whom they had no thought of evill , for who is there but will stand for his life ? so in that time when the then generall had subdued them all , and brought them into subjection , how soon did they court him with flatteryes , endeavouring to promote him to the highest honour , and so blinded his judgment , and he suffering them to breath a while , and not executing judgment speedily , their hearts had another mischief to devise , and so then preaching up his government as jure divino , and then both they that had joyned with the king , and stirred up people to fight for the king , and for the service-book , and the rest of that stuffe , and them also who had fought against the king and service-book , they soon became one , and they preach up oliver to be protector , and they all make use of his authority , they tooke the engagement against king or house of lords , and so then he was the only man , and this was the only government ; but still there was a few people , who still saw their deceit and treacherous dealing with all sorts , and these could not cease to make mention of it , their souls being grieved with their abominable deceit , and then they make it their whole business in all places to stir up the rulers and especially the protector to cut off such from the earth ; and they labour to create parliaments to their mind , and all sorts of rulers to their mind , never ceasing by all meanes to cut off this people : but oliver the protector being by the righteous hand of god cut off , because he had not executed the thing for which the lord raised him up , but suffered the people of the lord to be sorely afflicted , and the same oppression to remaine upon the free people of this nation as before . his son richard he came in his stead , how then did the men called ministers hasten with their addresses from their severall townes and corporations to congratulate the young protector , and to give unto him the greatest stile that could be thought upon ? so that to some he was the orient star that was risen to give them light , and such like ; and so having lifted up the young mans heart , they then thought themselves secure , and then they with him call a parliament according to their own hearts desire , whom they thought were fitted to do the work which they long had desired , but when they had as it were brought that work to maturity , that was to have cut off all those from the earth ) which would not bow to their image , the lord overturned their counsels in one * day , & brought up another people in their stead , into whose hands the lord delivered them ; for that they ( many of them ) had long cryed against the protectors oppression , and usurpation , and had promi●ed to execute the judgment which god expected should be done upon those who had kept his people in bondage ; but they likewise forgot the day of their adversity , in which they cryed unto the lord , and he heard them ; and they likewise began to lay more heavy yoaks upon gods people , * and the lord overturned them likewise , and set up another sort ; * but their hearts being not right in the sight of god , and had no mind to execute his judgment upon these who still held the people of god in bondage , the lord gave them no rest , but brought in their enemyes upon them as a flood , his long-suffering being at an end , and the measure of their transgression finished , he hath now delivered them into the hands of their enemyes ; that as the lord sent his servants to cry unto them , and to wa●ne them , and they had no regard unto the sufferings of his people , yet the lord often warned all sorts of them of the evil day that is now come upon them , and they would not hear , nor regard the cry of the oppressed ; but the men called ministers , they preacht peace unto them , and said no evil should happen unto them , and they cryed that the lord had not sent these men , but they were deluded , untill sudden destruction came upon them , as is seen , even pain as upon a woman in travell . and now what is become of these men called ministers who ( as i said ) before the war , and in the war , preach'd and prayed against the king ? who made it as it were their work , and the cause of god , to f●ght against the king ; the same men against the protector , and for the protector , who were so zealous for the government of the protector , that they imprisoned , and whipped , and cryed out in the ears of magistrates where ever they came , against a poor despired people , that they were enemies to the government , and were suspected that they met together to plot against the government ( of the protector i mean , ) and stirred up the rulers and they got souldiers , and they ( called ministers ) with the souldiers and rude people brake their meetings , and accused them as being dangerous to the government , having a design against the government , and so cast into prison , and all this in zeal to the government of the protector , and these were ministers ( so called ) of all sorts , as well of them who had been formerly for the king , and those who had likewise been against him , were become one for the government , and one against the people of god , which discovered their deceit , and the protector , as it s well known , and his government , was the onely man , and government that stood in opposition both to the person and government of the king ; yet all this , and much more that might be said , was then done by that sort of men in behalf , and by vertue of that government , and these are the men that now ( as it were with one heart , and with one consent , ) preach up , and cry up the king . o you that are now rulers ; are these men to be trusted ? are these men to be followed as leaders ? are these men to be regarded as to teach the way to eternall life ? are they not guilty of all the blood-shed in these nations ? can any government be secure whilst they are the men set up , and their wayes upheld after such a manner as now it is ? did not the king and that party follow them , and were guided by them in their councell , and had their blessing , and were taught by them , that they were in the truth , and that they should prosper ? and did they not prove false prophets unto them , and were deceived by them , and led into destruction ? whereas on the contrary , if the king had removed the yoak off from the consciences of people , and had set peoples consciences free , and have had his eare open to have heard the cry of them who were afflicted by the cruelty of the then bishops , and their courts and clergy , and had eased the burthen from off their shoulder ; why then might not the king have lived in peace , and ruled over the people , and gone to the grave in peace ? and again , after , if the parliament had not fought to inslave this people , and have brought a greater yoke upon the consciences of those who sought after god in sincerity of heart , might not they have remained , and their names been honourable , and they gone to their graves in peace ? and likewise the protector , if he had done the thing he promised and engaged for , and had broken the yoak of the oppressor , and removed the oppression , to have taken away tythes , and set the consciences of all people in their worship to god free ; might not his kingdom been established , and his name been perpetually honourable ? for now consider , that it was never names , as kings , or judges , or elders , or such like that the lord owned , not the name of the thing one more then another , but the thing it self , that is to say , the ruler called by what name he would ; he that ruled for god , neither the right as by succession , or not so , if he ruled for god , he established him ; as saul whom the lord chose , yet when he did not obey the voyce of god , the lord rent the kingdome from him , and gave it unto his neighbour , for it is righteousness and just judgment , and the breaking the staffe of the oppressor , it is this that establisheth the king and the kingdome , and that king whose heart is wholly set to seek the lord in sincerity , and to establish judgment and justice in the earth , and to remove oppression , it is he and his kingdome that shall be established , and this cannot be done , as long as the men called ministers are thus set over the people , and can exact by force so large a maintenance from them , for there is no sort of people whatsoever that can carry on plots and designes to overturn governments as they can , for they being scattered over all the nation in every parish , having so large a maintenance , they have leisure , and know the mindes of every person in the parish , how they stand affected , and to whom , and they themselves under pretence of fasting and praying have opportunity to meet , and by that know the minds of every one amongst themselves , how they stand affected , and by this meanes they can poyson a whole nation , and leaven them with malice , against whom they please ; for as is the priest so is the people , or the most of them , who are their followers , and so then if their interest be upheld , they will uphold them that uphold it , whatsoever they are , they will preach peace unto them , and promise them prosperity , though the judgments of the lord be at the doore , and their interest are so differring one unto another , that they one stand in the destruction of the other , for the old protestant so called , he cannot stand with the papist , nor the presbyter with the protestant , nor the independent with either , and the pride of their hearts , and the greediness of their gaine , that causeth them that they alwayes envy one another , for because of the greatness of their profit and pride of life , and the ease of their flesh , there is so many that seek after it , and so this blinds the minds of them , ( the god of us world ) and so they cry up that man and that government that will stand for them , and uphold their gaine though to the destruction of all others besides themselves . so it is altogether inconsistant with the safety of the people , and the well being of the ruler or rulers , the upholding and maintaining a ministry by a forced maintenance , it oppresseth the poor , burtheneth the conscience , stirreth up strife and contention , brings gods wrath upon people , and that is the reason that so many of the worst of people get to be ministers , because whether they be good or bad , if they love pride and wantonness , and lust , and pleasure and luxury , here if they can but use a meanes , either directly or indirectly to get the place , they know their strength , whatsoever they are , or whatsoever they do , they are sure to be provided for , having a law to inforce it ; and so many people where there is any fear of god ( though they are such as follow that kind of ministry , yet when they see such a one loose and prophane ) they grieve and murmour in their minds , and gods witnesse in their conscience testifies both against them and their minister , and troubles them , and so here is fear and doubt , and then they seek abroad for satisfaction , then the ministers ( so called ) rages and he stirrs up the rest of the people against the man who is not satisfied in his conscience under the ministry of ( it may be ) such an ignorant , blind , prophane , covetous , proud , unruly , wanton wicked man ( as a minister ) who they believe can never lead them , or reach him the way to heaven , who himself never went a step therein , but is in the broad way to eternall destruction , and so if the blind lead the blind ( he knows ) both must fall together : so then the man called minister , he pre●ches to the rest of his ignorant prophane congregation , and he sets their mindes on fire of hell against him , and then he complaines of him to authority , and he hath enough to joyne with him to be evidence against him the poor man , and then under the notion of an heretick , or a dangerous person or principle to the government , they proceed against him , and rack and torture him ; and then all them in whose hearts there 's any feeling or compassion or honesty , they conclude this man doth not deserve this , and that both ruler and minister hath not dealt well to punish after such a manner such an innocent man , and say in their hearts , if this be their law , how shall we live amongst them ? and here division ariseth and increaseth , and the bond of peace is broken ; but if the magistrate be such a one as hath any zeal or tenderness towards god , and will not joyne with the minister ( so calledt ) o invent a way , and wrest a law to punish the poor dissatisfied man , but perceives the minister to be such a one as rather deserves punishment , then the minister rages in his mind against him , and he secretly deviseth mischief against him , and goes to others whose ears he thinks will be open , and he leavens their hearts against the other magistrate , and then what one will punish , or who one of them will punish , another will uphold and in time seek a remedy , and complaines one against another to him or them that are over them , and here the bond of government is broken & here begins strife , division and contention , and heart-burning , & waiting for iniquity one against another , and so into rents , and partyes , and siding & stil the ministry blowes the fire , and drives on furiously , and it may be , get such a one to be cast out , and then he is dissatisfied , and many more , they see it is but for doing justice that he is so dealt withall , and then people feare how they shall live or be governed , when honest men are cast out of favour , and then whosoever is found to question such things , and the minister ( so called ) heare thereof , he begins to threaten againe , and here is a yoak which cannot be borne , but people will break it , though they break themselves with it ; and after this manner have nations , countreys , kingdomes , and governments , been pluckt up ; and now i appeal to any unbiassed-man , whose understanding is any thing open , whether these things , and much more that might be spoken of this nature be not true ? and whether the men called ministers be at any time with any government all satisfied ? and whether their siding do not lead people to side ? and whether there hath been any war in a nation and the ministry ( so called ) had not the chief hand in it ? and whether after one party is worsted , they are not the first that comply to that person or government which before they might preach it damnable to joyne with ? and whether they be not the most treacherous , perfideous , changable , deceitfull people of any sort of men ? and whether the ground of all this be not the large maintenance which is settled upon the office , and so a law to force it ? this makes them afraid on the one hand , lest such a party will pluck it down , and so stir , up strife amongst the other , because they will hold it up ; and when that party can hold no longer , then they are the first that turn to the other , because they may be by them held up ; for if they may be held up , there is no fear but to make them , or the most of them of any religeon that the powers will establish ; as was manifestly seen in the time of edward the th . and queen mary and elizabeth , where many turned from being protestants to papists , and from papists to protestants ; and in our dayes from the common-prayer to the directory , and from the directory to the common-prayer ; and this is well known , the same that preach'd up a king for a maintenance , preach'd up a common-wealth for a maintenance , and a protector for a maintenance , and now a king for a maintenance : and so i say again , it is altogether inconsistant with the safety of the people , and wel-being of the ruler , or rulers , the upholding or maintaining a ministry by a forced maintenance . so then the way to preserve the people in peace and safety , and the government in security from danger , and to establish it , is this , to give unto every judgement ( so called ) tolleration in the matter of his worship towards god . and that every society , congregation , or judgement among themselves maintain their own ministry , in and after what manner themselves can or shall agree amongst themselves , and maintain their places of worship themselves amongst themselves ; so no one sort of people should be burthened , nor their spirits grieved and vexed by another : but this , in this particular fulfils the law and the prophets , in doing as they would be done by ; for the conscience of every individual man and woman ought to be free unto god , and none to have or claim lordship over anothers conscience , and so that government that settles this , the people under it ( every one ) watcheth for the good of them or him that governs ; because by him , or them , they are kept in peace , and their consciences free , and so this , every sort of people , if they did but once taste a while , all people would delight therein ; especially those who fear god , and cannot be injurious , nor seek the hurt of their neighbours ; and here every one might sit under his own vine , and under his own fig-tree , and this is so reasonable a thing , and so agreeable to the scripture of truth , and to the law of god written in the heart , that if it were put in practise , all mouths would be stopped , and envy durst not open her mouth , and strife would cease , and love and unity amongst people would grow and increase , and the revengeful murderous nature amongst people would be starved and die within them ; because they would want the matter , which is the law , which forceth the conscience to feed it . and all they that now minde earthly things , that serve not the lord jesus christ , but their own bellies , would be stopped , and have nothing to do , but to seek some honest calling , in which they might labour , and be serviceable in the creation : and here , none but such who in conscience and zeal towards god would be ministers ; for ther 's many who are now called by a great maintenance would then be without a call to preach ; for this sort of men do no good at all to people , who labour for their bellies . who do they turn from the evil of their wayes ? but on the contrary they are so perfideous and changeable , preaching up so much faction and division , according to their several fancyes , that they cause people to be truce-breakers ; for whatsoever government comes that will serve their interest , and will do what they will have them , kill whom they would kill , and save alive those whom they would save alive , that 's preach'd up : but if any sort or faction of them be not countenanced , as that they cannot be , for one must go down , if the other go up ; then they set themselves against that authority , and secretly begins to smite , and so the same government which they preach up , and all traytors and rebels which shall deny it , in a little time they preach , and cry all traytors and rebels that hold it up : and thus the people under them , are carried by them . for now , were it not that there is so large a maintenance setled upon them by a law , which yet depends upon authority ; they would not be such medlers with authority , and cause such rents and divisions amongst people ; but because they are still in fear of losing that , or that authority will countenance those whom they fear , but if the law were taken away that forceth the maintenance , then they that preach , would preach the kingdom of god to people , and turn people towards god , that their hearts might be opened towards the lord , and to his truth , that they that minister , might seek that which is lost , and which is driven away , and not seek the fleece , and seek to kill and destroy ; and so when people were brought to god , and returned from their lost estate , they who were the lords messengers need not fear a maintenance , for the lord careth for sparrows , and feedeth the ravens ; and so these have little faith who cannot believe him , and cast their care upon him . and have they not proved false prophets , antichrists , deceivers , to all ●o t● of powers that hath been within these few years ? did not they prophesie peace and prosperity to the king and his party , and did they not deceive him ? and when they were overthrown , and the king suffered , and his friends ; did not they start aside and preach peace unto the parliament against the army , calling them rebels ; and did they not deceive them likewise ? and then did not they turn to the army and protector , and preach'd peace and prosperity to them , and deceived them likewise ? and now are they not turned to the king , and preach peace unto him , and set all their old servants at nought ? surely there is not a more dangerous thing to the setling of a government , then the setting up of a forc'd maintenance ; and that is the thing that the lord expected should long since been done away : the continuance of which oppression , and the many corrupt lawes made and continued to infringe the liberties of the consciences of the free people of this nation in their worship towards god , hath been the cause of so many , and so great overturnings ; neither can there be any true peace and settlement in these nations , until these things are removed out of the way . for if a people were left free in their consciences to worship god according unto that which god makes manifest , then all occasion of strife touching religeon were ended , and every one that fears god satisfied , and the breach made up : and likewise , if all forced maintenance of ministers were taken off , then both people and ministry were free , and so that occasion of strife would cease , and that breach made up , and here every one would watch for the good of him or them that govern . and so such a one , on whom the lord laid a necessity to preach , would preach , but they that preach only for a maintenance , who are not servants of christ , but serve themselves which are the cause of strife , debute , division , and contention , as is before shewed , their work would be ended , and then people would be turned from the evil of their wayes , because they that preach would be in gods counsel , and in his power ; for now what ever people do imagine , they that will not preach without a maintenance provided and setled by a law , these preach for a maintenance , and so they preach themselves and not christ jesus the lord , neither are they his servants , nor ministers , nor sent of him , neither serve they him but their bellys , and never can teach the way to life , or bring people into the way , but keep people out of the way , though they may have many inticing words which mans wisdome teacheth ; for every one that enters into gods kingdome must be borne againe of the spirit , and he that is borne againe must be begotten by the immortal living word ; now he that preacheth for a maintenance , serves himself , & is not christs servant , not intrusted with his message , but goes in his own message , and abuses his name for a maintenance , and the living mortall word he hath not , which begetteth the birth that enters into gods kingdome , because he never sent him , and so people are not profited , but are kept out of the way to life by them , which hath the letter to get a maintenance , but hath not the spirit which giveth life . and now i have not instanced the several governments and overturnings , either to justify or condemne persons , or to meddle with that , as in relation to the great transactions which hath been in these few years ; but this that they who now are in power , who have seen and felt what hath been brought to pass that they might understand what the ground and cause is why these things hath been thus brought to pass , that so if the lord give them understanding , they may not split themselves upon the same rock , which others hath ; for i do not look unto men , who have been the instruments , but unto the lord , who hath all power in his hands , who in his righteousness and judgment for his own glory , hath brought about these things ; for i do believe that the judgments of the lord are just and righteous altogether , and therefore , because of the multitude of trangressions of this nation , and because the king and his party lightly regarded the cry of the oppressed , whose consciences ( which is the lords ●rerogative alone ) was oppressed , and greater yoaks preparing by cruel lawes ; i say because of these things was the hand of the lord stretched out against them , and the party , who chiefly opposed him , being in their hearts no better than the other ; therefore they both long were a scourge one unto another , and to the nation ; therefore did the lord raise up another party , whom both the other hated , who were contemptible and inconsiderable , who as instruments in the hand of god did wonders , and overcame both , as is well known : but afterward they forgot the lo●● likewise , and turned against him , and did not perform the vowes and premises which they had made into the lord in the day of their distress , but corrupted themselves with the same abominations with which they were corrupted , whom the lord cast out before them , and suffered many of those corrupt lawes to continue in force , which they had many times ( in their distress ) promised the lord , that they would take out of the way : to wit , that they would set the consciences of all people free towards god , and remove the great oppression of a forced maintenance for minister ; which whilst they did in any measure persist in , the lord wonderfully delivered them , and cut off those that rose up against them : but when power was put into their hands , and they did not do those things , but became corrupt , and oppression , and pride , and vanity , superstition , and idolatry grew and increased ; yet the lord sent his messengers , calling them early , and sending them often , warning them in the peril of their lives ; but they regarded them not , but ill rewarded the lords messengers by many cruel and hard imprisonments , and by making yet heavier yoaks for their consciences : yet the long-suffering of the lord remained towards them , and not any of those powers which the lord overthrew , but he hath sent this messengers to warn them , and to tell them in plain words what he was about to do ; which things are in great measure come to pass , that all might know that the lord hath a prophet in the land , and likewise that they might hear and fear , and learn righteousness . and now thus far hath the lord wrought , and wonderfully brought those things to pass , that every eye might see , that his own hand hath done it , that he hath not suffered the sound of the weapons of war to be heard , what is it that the lord doth now requite of the men of this generation ? friends , i beseech you in the fear of the lord , consider whether that the things which are now wrought amongst you principally and most of all be that which the lord expects , or whether he hath brought you up over your enemyes , because you are more righteous then they ? or because of their unrighteousness the lord hath delivered them into your hands , that you might execute his judgments upon them for their treachery towards him and his people ? and whether the same god hath not still reserved all power in his own hands , and can at his pleasure cast you down , as well as lift you up ? for this i say unto you in the fear of god , think not that these whom the lord hath del●vered into your hands , were greater sinners then you , but except ye repent , ye shall all likewise perish . do you believe that the lord takes delight in setting up of may-poles , and for so many thousands to gather together in so many places , with whooping , shouting , drinking , cursing and swearing , and all manner of wantonness and licentiousness ? is the lord god honoured by these things ? is the king honoured by any of this ? consider , hath not the lord visited in iudgment this nation , as i have before shewed , and overturned the workers thereof in former dayes , and do you think he now approves of it ? do not deceive your selves , god is not to be mocked ; and do you think now since the lord hath overturned those who formerly hath afflicted us , as he had promised , and is rewarding them according to their works ? do you think that you do god service to kill us ? take heed of bringing any of our innocent blood upon you . and therefore this i say unto the king , who is now proclaimed , and that party who hath been for him constantly , i say unto them , that we ought to be protected under him in peace and safety , and in equity to have these just things granted which we stand for ; for now ever since the death of his father , we have been as well as him and them sufferers under the powers that hath been set up , and that especially in the dayes of the protector , since the name of quaker was given unto us : who was there amongst the many ten thousands that can now cry with their mouths , and their lips , a king a king , make bonefires and such folly that durst open their mouths when he ruled to bear a testimony against his oppression ? but joyned with him in his government , and did pertake with him in his oppression , and cryed against ▪ us in his eares , and caused more cruel lawes to be made against us then before , not a prison i believe in this nation free , but some or other of us have been committed , and many of us as being dangerous to his government , and yet these men i say , many ten thousands of them that have thus done , are the only men to cry up a king to destroy us as dangerous likewise to his government , thus indeavouring to cover their own unrighteousness by rendring us evil , never ceasing to seek our blood . for this let it be known unto you , that we are not for names or titles , or for these names to set them up above the nature of the thing , for it is the magistrate that rules for god , that executeth true judgment and justice in the earth , who hath his eare open to the cry of the oppressed , and is ready to break the staffe and strength of the oppressor . it is such a one whom god will honour , and whose kingdome the lord will establish . therefore friends do not hearken unto flatteries , and they who for their own advantage speaks fair , for they may deceive you , but let your ears be open unto reproof , for that cannot hurt you : and be not offended at any time with those that speak the truth ? how many thousands have erred and perished by flatterers , but whoever that did hearken to reproof did amiss ? for now the things that we are against is every appearance of evill , and the things that we are for , is righteousness and just judgment , and unto this shall we stand whatsoever may be our portion , for why now may not we as justly expect to be eased by the king now the righteous hand of god hath removed them , by which both him and us were sorely afflicted , and since we both together suffered under them , why is it not just that we with him should enjoy our liberty ? for indeed we cannot flatter with any , yet this we say , that there is no people , nor no principle amongst people profest , that doth tend more , neither so much to the true honour of the king as we do , for now it is they that fear the lord , that truly honour the king , for for ( as i have said ) the king is not honoured where the fear of god is wanting ; but where the subjects in a nation walk in the fear of god , and know christ the king of righteousness to rule in their hearts , by which the lust ( which is the ground of warrs and strife ) which war in the members comes to be destroyed and subdued , such can by no meanes be otherwise , but to the honour of the king , for if the king rule for god , and layes the sword upon the evil doer , and praise such who do well , which is gods ordinance : then such who are in the fear of god , and walk in gods covenant , the law written in the heart , these are the strength of the king ; for his sword is against the evil doer , and the evil doer is not his strength ; for god who is the higher power , hath ordained him to be a terrour unto the evil doer , and to praise such who do well ; so the well doer is his strength . for what is it that we desire , which ought not to be granted in reason and equity ? the thing that we desire ( as to our selves ) is no more then this , that under him we may live peaceably , and gods spirit in us may have the exercise of our consciences towards god in all things ; that no law be laid upon us to force that from us which is our own ; and in that case , both by the scripture of truth , and the law of god written in the heart ought to be at our own dispose ; to wit , to maintain a minister which we cannot own , or a worship we cannot own , for the exercise of the consciences of people , is gods prerogative alone , and whoever meddles with that to exercise lordship over anothers conscience , he is a usurper and intrudes into anothers right , and he falls upon the rock that will grind him to powder ; and which hath done so by many , and if gods spirit have the exercise of the conscience in all things , whose spirit is a sword to cut down the lust that wars against the soul inwardly , and destroys that in man which causeth war and strife without , and keeps the conscience void of offence , both towards god and towards man , whether such ought not to be protected , and cherished , and have the magistrates praise ? and no otherwise do we desire protection , but as we live peaceably in the exercise of a good conscience ; neither do we desire these things only for our selves ; but likewise , that all others who desire to live peaceably in all godliness , and honesty might enjoy freedom and protection ; for a greater abomination or idolatry cannot be committed , then for people to be forced to worship that for god , which they believe is no god , or to worship in the way which they believe in their hearts is contrary to god , or in which god is not to be worshipped ; for we do not desire , but that others ( such as i have said ) that will live peaceably may every way partake of the same liberty , which we desire or expect . he that hath a gospel to preach , let it be free like unto the gospel of peace , not for money or filthy lucre , that so people may be turned from their evil wayes , and be brought from under the power of satan into the power of god , that righteousness and just judgement , may run through the nation as a mighty stream ; that so him or them whom god shall set up over this nation , may have his throne established , which cannot otherwise be established ; for , for want of these things hath the wrath of god been revealed , and his indignation poured out against these , who in the day of his wrath , after the lords long-suffering was over , is now justly manifested : and so now this is written in short to no other end , but that these things may be taken out of the way , which gods wrath and vengeance is against : that so the wrath of god may be turned away from this nation , and that the ruler or rulers thereof , might be firmly established ; and this is the true end , and no other for which it is done . and now unto all those who is honesty of heart shall read this , let them honestly consider , that those who are now set up , who were of late sufferers , exiled and banished , that what deliverance is now wrought is no way the price of their blood ; for whilst they strove that way , they were continually overthrown from time to time ; but that the power and the glory might be the lords , and that all might be returned unto him ; the lord hath made bare his own arm , & hath brought this thing to pass , that he himself might have the glory , and whether as well for our sakes , whose innocent blood-shed in the time of peace within these last seven years , many goals and other places can testifie , besides the many beatings , flockings , whippings , and cruel imprisonments of us , for nothing but for crying against sin and oppression in rulers , magistrates , priests and people . i say whether from those multitudes of cruel wrongs done against us by those late powers , we may not now justly expect ease , and the redress of our grievance likewise , as well as others , who then by the same powers were made sufferers ? since it is so just and so reasonable a thing , that we do desire ; we seek no high places , promotion , nor worldly glory amongst men : we seek no revenge as to our selves , upon any person or people , but that we may be protected in the exercise of our consciences , ( which is the lords prerogative ) in our worship towards god ; and that we may be freed from all unjust lawes that blindeth the consciences of gods free people , that he hath bought with his own blood , that as sojourners in our own nation , we might dwell in safety as to our outward man , as long as we live peaceably , in all godliness and honesty . and since the lord hath visited you , and hath returned your captivity , and is setting your feet upon the neck of your enemies , thus much doth the lord require of you , that you deliver his people , and unloose their bonds , and break every yoak that oppresseth them ; for this is all that we desire , that we may walk in the way of our god . and take heed unto your selves how you set up , or go about to establish that which gods wrath hath been made manifest against , and hath pluckt down , both it and them that did uphold it ; for the lord he is god and changeth not , and his fury and his anger is against it still , and take heed how you continue that , or suffer it to stand , which is not yet cast down , which the lords wrath hath been of late manifest against the upholders of , whom he sent his servants unto , and warned and testified from time to time , what it was the lord required , and what it was his judgment was against if they disobeyed , which is fulfilled and fulfilling ; and now it is your time to work whilst you have the day to labour in , before the night ; if there be a heart amongst you to do any thing for the lord , and for his people , in return of the large love of god made manifest unto you , for the day of deliverance draweth near , and all sorts have had a day , and a price put into their hands , but had not hearts to use it , and the lord hath smote them in his wrath , and vexed them in his sore displeasure ▪ and the day of your tryal is come , and a time you may have now , 〈◊〉 the lord hath driven you away , and chastised you with his rod for your former idolatrous vain superstitions , and for your pride , vain-glory , and many other great abominations which feigned amongst you : and if upon your return you forget the day of your distresse , and so set up these things again and remain in your former sins , and drink in quity with greediness , what can you think will be your end , but that shame and confusion must cover you , and if you will force people to any form of worship , and bind them to that , so that gods fear shall be taught by mens precepts , the lord will proceed as formerly , to wo●k wonders , even to destroy the wisdom of the wise , and to bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent ; and when counsel and understanding is hid , then you will grope as in the dark , and seek the way , but shall not find him : and so misery will come upon you , as upon them that went before you : therefore be wise in time and take counsel , and advise amongst your selves ; for you may see that these which conquer'd you with the sword , are now conquer'd without a sword ; consider whereby they conquer'd , and whereby they fell . the lord is now come to challenge his own heritage of the children of men , that is , the exercise of the peoples consciences which is his throne and dominion : and he will caft out , destroy and lay waste all usurpers , that hath or shall usurpe authority in his kingdom ; for it is his own , and if he by his own strength give unto others their right , he will undoubtedly take his own kingdom to himself , and if men will keep him out , if those to whom he hath let his vineyard beat his servants and kill his son , and think the inheritance shall be theirs ; yet the lord of the vineyard will come at a time when they are not aware , and all these who would not deliver up the vineyard must be brought out , and slain before his face as his enemies . and so as one who desires with my whole heart , that the breaches of this nation ( my native country ) might be healed , and might come to injoy true rest , and might be the glory of all the nations , that the blessing of the god of heaven might be upon it , day and night , to water it , that the rulers thereof might be established , and their seed after them , that they may be honourable in their life , and renowned in their death unto posterity ; that ignominy and shame may not follow them , i have cast in my mite according to the ability which god hath given me , to that very end in the sincerity of my heart , well knowing , that untill judgment and justice be established , and the yoake of oppression and cruelty be broken in pieces , and the oppressed set free , the land cannot enjoy her sabbaths : neither can the righteous rejoyce , untill which time there shall be nothing firm nor lasting , but heaps of confusion and tossing to and fro , as a ship driven with a tempest which hath lost her rudder , and so fear , and despair , an distrust will be amongst the inhabitants , and one devour another , untill they are devoured one of another : and so the lord sweep them away with the b●some of destruction , and give them their portion amongst the workers of iniquity , in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone for ever . the conclusion . the lord will thresh the mountains , and come down , that the inhabitants of the earth shall tremble thereat . for it is his determination to purifie the sons of levi , and to purge and cleanse the house of judah and jerusalem , that they may be a royal priesthood , a peculiar people , a chosen generation to the lord for ever , the people of his praise , the glory of nations , the subjects of christs kingdom , which shall be established in righteousness on the top of all the mountains of the earth , which now are risen up against the lamb and his followers , whole government in truth shall stand over all the heathen round about ; for it is his right to raign , and he will not give his kingdome to another ; glory to our god for evermore , who hath chosen the weak things of the earth to confound the strong , by things that are not to bring to nought things that are , that the wisdome of the wise shall be confounded yet more and more , and the understanding of the prudent turned backward . that all nations may see that there is no confidence in princes , nor in the arme of flesh , which is but as grass before the lord god almighty , who is exalting his only begotten son christ jesus , the light of the world to be king of the nations , who is worthy , god over all , blessed for evermore , the king of saints , whose kingdome is not of this world , but in righteousness and truth over all : in which he with his followers the redeemed ones of the earth make war , not against flesh and blood , but against principalities and powers , and spirituall wickedness in high places which leads men to destruction , going on conquering , and to conquer , untill all his enemyes are subdued , that he alone may rule and reign in the earth , whose right it is to have the heathen for his inheritance , and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possessions , the earth being the lords and fulness thereof , though other lords have had dominion , whose right it is not to reigne ; but the high and lofty ones that are exalted above the fear of the lord , they shall be brought down , overturned and broken to pieces , and the meek of the earth they shall be exalted , who have chosen the foolishness of the cross of christ before an earthly crown which perisheth and commeth to nothing ; and all the greatness and glory of kingdomes shall fade as grass before the presence of the lord and the lamb , who is come , and comming in flames of fire to be revealed , to consume and burne up the wicked before him ; for he hath determined a speedy consumption in this nation of all powers , things , and governments that are set up , and stand not by the authority of his eternall spirit , which is the rule of saints , the heirs of gods kingdome : and blessed are they whose names are written in the lambs book of life , that are faithfull and true to the testimony of jesus , the lamb● followers they only shall reign . and all likenesses and false coverings of anti-christ shall be stript off and confounded , and no longer hide him and his followers from the wrath of the lamb , whose day is come in which his fierce wrath shall be known against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men whatsoever , under what forme or notion soever without the life and power of god , in which his kingdome consists , which indureth and abideth for ever , in which our peace and safety is ; though the heathen rage , and the people imagine a vaine thing , yet they shall know that the lord god omnipotent ruleth and reigneth in the kingdomes of men , and giveth them unto whomsoever he will ; the time is come , and for the elects sake , he will cut short the work in righteousness , and terrible shall that day be which is nigh at hand , wherein the lord will sweep the land of evil doers , and execute his fierce wrath and vengeance upon the workers of iniquity , of which the land is full , that the lords spirit is weary to bear them . the lords decree is gone forth , and he will fulfill it , that a king shall reign in righteousness , and all they that will not have him to reign over them , shall be brought forth and slaine before him , the vials of his wrath are made ready to be pouered our upon this wicked generation of men , who reject christ jesus the light of the world to be their king and law-giver , he is come a light into the world , that men through him might believe and be saved , but they would none of his counsell , power , nor kingdome , but have hardned their hearts , stiffened their necks , and have chosen their own wayes , and the lusts and imaginations of their own hearts have they followed , which are evil continually , the counsell of the wicked have they imbraced , which leadeth down to the chambers of death , and hell , where their portion shall be for ever , unless they repent and turn from darkness to the light , against which all the world combines , and make strong the bonds of the wicked , because it shewes men the evil of their wayes , and bring the sinner and ungodly to judgment . how foolish and unwise is the people of this generation , to neglect so great salvation as the living truth of our god , and choose to themselves a thing of rought , dumb idolls , that can neither see , nor goe , nor speak , unto which the beast and false prophets with their fellows fall down and worship , for whom the lake of fire is made ready , into which they shall be cast alive ; the bed of torment is ready made for babylon and her merchants , and the kings of the ea●th shall mourn , who have traded on her merchandize , and drunk the cup of her fornications . a day of bitter lamentation and howling is at hand , for that great whore the mother of harlots that hath drunk the blood of the saints : and the priests and false prophets of this nation shall be known and made manifest to be of the chiefest of her merchants under the deepest coverings of antichrist , who have long stolen the words of the true prophets , christ and the apostles , and sold them for unjust gaine with the divinations of their own braines , that by their lyes and lightness the people have perished ( under the highest forme of words ) for want of the knowledge of god and of christ , whom to know is eternall life , without which they are dead in sins and trespasses . this painted harlot , great are her sins , and great shall be their plagues and judgments from the righteous hand of the lord god , who will have the nations know that he is become the teacher of his people himself , and will send forth pastors after his own heart , in the power of his eternall spirit , to make warr with the nations , before whom the heathen shall be confounded , and the powers of the earth broken to pieces , as a potters vessel . a day of tryall is at hand , and judgment beginneth at the house of god that the lambs followers may be known , who are chosen faithfull and true , that deceipt and hypocrisie ( the mistery of iniquity ) may be made manifest , that they that are called jewes , and are not , may be discovered , that such as have a name that they live , yet are dead under the covering of the profession of truth , yet out of the life and power , may be made naked and bare before the lord , who hates hypocrisie as a most abominable thing , and loves and requires truth in the inward parts , and with such he delights to dwell for ever , who in faithfulness followes the lamb whithersoever he goes , who doth the will of god , in whom the father is well pleased , on whom the government is laid , which shall stand sure and firme for ever , against which , neither the powers of darkness , nor the gates of hell shall prevaile , and blessed are they who are made subjects of his government ▪ who rules and raignes in righteousness ; for they shall find 〈◊〉 , and a sure rock of defence in the time of stormes and bitter calamity which is comming upon the wicked , who drink iniquity as water , and hasten to fulfill their measures , raging in the fires of their lusts , the smoak whereof is ascended up even to heaven , that the lord god is provoked with this wicked and adulterous generation , who wallow in their iniquityes , and have not god in their thoughts , that his soul is weary to bear them , his spirit is grieved , and his patience and long suffering is almost at an end towards the people of this nation , that have rejected the lord and his wayes , and have chosen lyes and vanityes , by reason whereof , the land mournes , and the ●●p of the lords wrath is full ready to be poured forth upon this rebellious and gainsaying people , who will not repent and return , but run on in the broad way that leads to destruction , death and hell being ready to receive them , against whom the fire of the lords wrath and indignation is kinded , and shall not cease untill they be utterly consumed , tophet is prepared for them of old that repent not and give glory to god . and the nations shall know that he that was dead is alive , and behold he liveth for evermore to execute righteous judgments upon the workers of iniquity , for which he is come into the world , even for judgment , through which sions redemption is to be known , the place of gods habitation , the temple made without hands , pure and undefiled , the spouse , the lambs wife , which brings forth that which is begotten of god to his prayse and glory for evermore . and blessed are they that are found so doing , which are the remnant that shall be saved by the lord , when the overflowing scourge of destruction shall come upon the wicked . oh england , england ! thou who killest the prophets , and stonest them with stones , how often would the lord have gathered thee , even as a hen gathereth her chickens , but thou wouldest not ! and how glorious mightest thou have been in the sight of all the nations , if thou had'st considered and known the things of thy peace in the day of thy visitation , wherein the lord hath visited thee with the day springing from on high , with his rich and living mercyes , and thou mightest have been the first fruits of faith and reformation unto god of the whole earth . but as thou hast rejected and refu●●● to drink the cup of gods salvation , so thou may'st as the 〈◊〉 of the nations , expect to drink the bitter cup of gods wrath and indignation , that the inhabitants of the earth may learn righteousness , and fear and tremble before the mighty god of jacob . th day of the third moneth . , j. a. the end . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a e- * the old parliament . * voted up tythes , * the committee of safety . the committee, or, popery in masquerade l'estrange, roger, sir, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page image. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). b wing l a estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. b ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) the committee, or, popery in masquerade l'estrange, roger, sir, - . sheet ([ ] p.) ; ill. s.n., [london : ?] place and date of publication suggested by wing ( nd ed.). attack on dissenters consisting of engraved allegorical plate. reproduction of original in: bodleian library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng dissenters, religious -- england -- early works to . broadsides -- england -- london -- th century - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - mona logarbo sampled and proofread - mona logarbo text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the committee or popery in masquerade . behold wee are a covenanting people the close caball root and branch little isaack . wee 'l be true to you pope . courage mes en fans . a solemn league and covenant come and let us joyn our selves unto the lord , in a perpetuall covenant y t shall not be forgotten . ier : . a through reformation liberty . property religion mugleton ranter quaker anabaptist presby t. indepen fifth mon nailor . adamite church and crown lands sequestration's remonstrainces thanks to the petitioners . court of iustice . humiliation . swash . no bishops . elders mayd . no service book . p s narrat : nar : of fires corrante . tom & dick. no popish lords . no evill councill rs . a cordiall for y e d r. the kingdom of god among men a tract of the sound state of religion, or that christianity which is described in the holy scriptures and of the things that make for the security and increase thereof in the world, designing its more ample diffusion among the professed christians of all sorts and its surer propagation to future ages : with the point of church-unity and schism discuss'd / by john corbet. corbet, john, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing c estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) the kingdom of god among men a tract of the sound state of religion, or that christianity which is described in the holy scriptures and of the things that make for the security and increase thereof in the world, designing its more ample diffusion among the professed christians of all sorts and its surer propagation to future ages : with the point of church-unity and schism discuss'd / by john corbet. corbet, john, - . [ ], , [ ], p. printed for thomas parkhurst, london : . note written in manuscript on the verso of t.p., colophon, and preliminaries to the point of church-unity and schism discuss'd. "the point of church-unity and schism discuss'd," has special t.p. and separate paging. reproduction of original in the cambridge university library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng church history -- th century. christianity -- early works to . dissenters, religious. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - john latta sampled and proofread - john latta text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the kingdom of god among men ; a tract of the sound state of religion , or that christianity which is described in the holy scriptures ; and of the things that make for the security and increase thereof in the world ; designing its more ample diffusion among professed christians of all sorts , and its surer propagation to future ages . with the point of church-unity and schism discuss'd . by john corbet . london , printed for thomas parkhurst , at the bible and three crowns at the lower end of cheapside . . the preface . a disquisition concerning religion and the state ecclesiastical , wherein several parties are vehemently carried divers ways , whether right or wrong , according to their different interests or apprehensions , is apt to stir up jealousie , and to meet with prejudice in a high degree , and therefore had need be managed as advisedly as sincerely . it is humbly craved , that the present management thereof may find a favourable reception so far as it hath in it self the evidence of its own sincerity and sobriety . this treatise is not framed for a present occasion or any temporary design ; but insists upon those things that concern the church universally and perpetually . it aims at the advancement of meer christianity , and with respect to the common concernments thereof , it leaves the things that are more appropriate to the several parties and persuasions , to stand or fall . it ingageth not in the controversies of these times , touching forms of church government , but in any form such depravations or deficiencies are blamed , as hinder the power , purity , unity , stability , or amplitude of religion . nothing prejudicial to government , to the rights of superiors , and civil pre-eminences , or to decency , unity , and order in the church , is here suggested . sedition and faction are evicted to be a contradiction to this interest , which can hold its own only in those ways that make for the common good , both of rulers and subjects . our design carries no other danger than the more ample diffusion of true christianity , and the power of godliness among men of all degrees , and the surer propagation thereof to future ages . here be some things that are the vitals of christian religion , and cannot be removed ; and here be other things of conscientious or prudent consideration , and let these so far pass , as they are found clear and cogent . i had rather be charged with any defect or weakness than with uncharitableness , and therefore am ready to renounce every line , and every expression in this book , that cannot stand with true christian charity in the utmost extent thereof . let it not be taken amiss , that to obviate suspicion or prejudice i declare my self in the things here following . i am one aged in the ministery , and by reason of age and experience am not eager for any party , but mellowed with charity towards real christians of all parties . i have vehemently desired the union of the more moderate dissenters , with the established order by reasonable accomodation , as for others that remain dissatisfied about such union , yet believe and live as christians , i do as earnestly desire an indulgence for them within such limits as may stand with publick peace and safety . though i am cast into the state of nonconformity , yet i am willing to exercise the ministery under the present ecclesiastical government , if i were made capable thereof by the relaxation of some injunctions . my principle is for a closing with things that are good and laudable in any established government , and for a bearing with things that are tolerable . and the wisdom of the governours of the church will direct them to turn away from such principles , orders or practices , as tend to the ruine or the great indangering of any ecclesiastical polity that retains them , whilest the apostolick doctrine ( as it is now established in the church of england ) is maintained . the contents . chap. i. the nature of christianity and the character of true christians . chap. ii. of things pertaining to the sound state of christian religion , viz. holy doctrine . chap. iii. the ordering of divine worship sutable to the gospel dispensation . chap. iv. the due dispensation of gods word , or publick preaching . chap. v. the due performance of publick prayer . chap. vi. the right administration of ecclesiastical discipline . chap. vii . religious family-government . chap. viii . private mutual exhortations , pious discourse and edifying conversation . chap. ix . the prevalence of true religion , or real godliness in the civil government of a nation . chap. x. christian unity and concord . chap. xi . a good frame of ecclesiastical polity . chap. xii . of the corrupt state of religion , and first externalness and formality . chap. xiii . the sectarian and fanatical degeneration . chap. xiv . of the way of preserving religion uncorrupt . chap. xv. the enmity of the world against real godliness , and the calumnies and reproaches cast upon it considered . chap. xvi . religions main strength next under the power of god lies in its own intrinsick excellency . chap. xvii . religion may be advanced by human prudence ; what ways and methods it cannot admit in order to its advancement . chap. xviii . the interest of true religion lies much in its venerable estimation among men . chap. xix . the most ample diffusion of the light of knowledge , is a sure means of promoting true religion . chap. xx. the advantage of human learning to the same end . chap. xxi . the general civility or common honesty of a nation , makes it more generally receptive of real christianity or godliness . chap. xxii . the increase of religion is promoted by being made as much as may be , passable among men . chap. xxiii . the observing of a due latitude in religion , makes for the security and increase thereof . chap. xxiv . the care and wisdom of the church , in preventing and curing the evil of fanatical and sectarian error . chap. xxv . the advancement of the sound state of religion by making it national , and the settled interest of a nation . chap. xxvi . of submission to things imposed by lawfull authority . chap. xxvii . the surest and safest ways of seeking reformations . chap. xxviii . considerations tending to a due inlargement and unity in church-communion . chap. xxix . whether the purity and power of religion be lessened by amplitude and comprehensiveness . chap. xxx . factious usurpations are destructive to religions interest . chap. xxxi . of leading and following , and of combinations . chap. xxxii . the wisdom of the higher powers in promoting the religionsness of their people . chap. xxxiii . the churches true interest to be pursued by ecclesiastical persons . the conclusion , a book intituled , the interest of england in matter of religion , in two parts , formerly published by the same author . pag. . lin . . read service , pag. . l. . read whereas , pag. . l. . read so , pag. . l. . read is , pag. . l. . read regardable , pag. . l. . read this , ib. l. . read apposite , pag. . l. . read is able to make , pag. . l. . read affect , pag. . l. . read for the , pag. . l. . read face of , pag. . l. . read exercises , pag. . l. . read religions , pag. . l. . read sacraments , pag. . l. . read condescention , pag. . l. . read orall , pag. . l. . read rites , pag. . l. . read abasing , ib. l. . read noting , pag. . l. . read transform it into , pag. . l. . read levities , pag. . l. . read exalt , pag. . l. . read effected , pag. . l. . read smatch , pag. . l. . read exercise , pag. . l. . read vainly , pag. . l. . dele love , pag. . l. . read concerns , pag. . l. . read enemies , ib. l. . read regulation , ib. l. . read and , pag. . l. . read be not , pag. . l. . read and are withall . a tract of the sound state of religion , &c. chap. i. the nature of christianity , and the character of true christians . the names and titles , by which real christians are in holy scripture distinguished from other men , are not mean and common , but high and excellent , as , a chosen generation , a royal priesthood , a holy nation , a peculiar people , the first-fruits of gods creatures , the houshold of god , children of light , children of wisdom , heirs of the heavenly kingdom , and the title of saints , was one of their ordinary appellations . doubtless the true difference between them and others lyes not in mere names , but in some peculiar excellencies of quality and condition thereby signified . and so much is abundantly set forth in the several expressions of christianity , as , the regeneration , the new creation , a transformation in the renewing of the mind , a participation of the divine nature , the life of god , conformity to the image of the son of god , and such like . thus from the scripture stile it is evident , that true christianity is of an other nature then that carnal , formal , and lifeless profession , with which multitudes confidently take up ; and that in its true professors there must needs be found something of a higher strain and nobler kind ; and which indeed makes them meet for that holy and blessed state to come , unto which it leads them . it is indeed an excellent name and nature , the regenerate state and divine life , which is begun in the new birth , wherein the soul retaining the same natural faculties , is changed from a carnal into a spiritual frame , by the sanctifying power of the holy ghost , and the word of truth . in this change the mind is illuminated unto an effectual acknowledgment of the truth which is after godliness , as containing the highest good , and appearing in such evidence as makes earthly things to be seen ( what they are indeed ) but as dross and dung in comparison thereof . the will is drawn by the force of the truth , acknowledged to an absolute conversion and adhesion to god , as the great and ultimate object of the souls love , desire , joy , reverence , observance , acquiescence , zeal , and intire devotion . in this absolute conversion to god , is included the renouncing of all self dependence , and of that perverse self-seeking , which follows the lapsed state , and an unlimited self resignation to god , which is the only true self-seeking and self-love . for god having made our felicity immutably coherent with his glory , but subordinate thereunto , a true convert turning from poor , empty , nothing , self to the infinite god , exchanges insufficiency , poverty , vanity and misery for immensity , almightiness , all-sufficiency and infinite fullness ; and so he loseth self , as it is a sorry thing and a wretched idol , and findeth the blessed god , and self-eternally blessed in him . and forasmuch as all have sinned and fallen away from god , and cannot be brought back to him , but in the hand of a redeemer and reconciler , our religion stands also in the sensible knowledg of sin , and of our deplorable state under the power and guilt thereof , with an humiliation sutable thereunto ; and in a lively faith towards our lord jesus , the eternal son of god made man in the fulness of time , who gave himself for us to redeem us from sin and death to a life of grace and glory . which faith is the worthy receiving of him in the full capacity of a redeemer , the intire and hearty acceptance of the grace of god in him , the souls resignation to him , to be conducted to god by him , and the securing of all that is hoped for in his hands , with an affiance in his all-sufficiency and fidelity . this faith worketh by love towards god and man. for through faith we love god , because he loved us first , and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins . and through faith we resolve , that if god so loved us , then ought we also to love one another . and this love eminently contains in it all the virtues of moral honesty towards men , as truth , justice , mercy , peaceableness , kindness , faithfulness , humility , meekness , modesty , and towards inferiors moderation , equity , and condescention , and towards superiors reverence , and submission . christianity is a root of true goodness that brings forth its fruit in due season , in the first place the internal and immediate actings of faith , hope and love , which may be called radical duties , as lying next the root ; then the inseparable effects thereof , such as are holy meditation and prayer among the acts of devotion towards god ; and among the acts of charity towards men , justice , fidelity , mercy , which are called the weightier matters of the law. and further , it shoots forth into an universal regard of gods commandments in all particularities , not slighting the lowest or remotest duties , which indeed cannot be slighted without the contempt of that authority , which injoyned the greatest and most important . the spirit of christianity is a spirit of wisdom and prudence , that guides in a perfect way . it sets right the superior governing faculties , and holds the inferior under the command and government of the superior . it awakens reason to attend to the souls great concernments , to mind the danger of temptations , the madness of depraved affections , and the mischief and banefulness of all sin . it is no inconsiderate , licentious , presumptuous , dissolute spirit , but strict , circumspect and self suspitious , solid serious and universally conscientious . it is pure ; grave , sober , shunning every unseemly speech , all foolish and light behaviour , and much more that which hath a filthy savour , and smels rank of impurity and dishonesty . it watcheth the motions of the animal life and sensitive appetite , and curbs them , when they are extravigant , and renounceth whatsoever things tend to vitiate the soul , and work it below its spiritual happiness . it is a spirit of patience , and of true rational courage , and of resolved submission to the will of god. it is above wordly riches and poverty , and glory and ignominy , and fleshly pain and pleasure . but self-conceit , excessive self estimation , asperity towards others , and domineering cruelty over conscience , is no part of the above-mentioned and commended strictness and severity . for as it hates flattery and base compliance with others in prophaness or lukewarmness , so it is ever qualified with meekness , lowliness of mind , peaceableness , patience , that it may gain upon others and win them to its own advisedness , steddiness , purity and soberness . this new nature , while it is lodg'd in the earthly tabernacle , is clogg'd with many adverse things , especially the relicks of the old nature , which cause much vanity of thoughts , indisposedness of mind , motions to evil , and aversations from good , and somtimes more sensible disorders of affections , and eruptions of unruly passion , and aberrations in life and conversation . the same divine principal is in some christians more firm , lively and active than in others , yet it is habitually prevalent in them all ; and it resists and overcomes the contrary principle , even in the case of most beloved sins and strongest temptations , and perseveres in earnest and fearful indeavours of perfecting holiness in the fear of god. and whatsoever degree of sanctity is obtained , it ascribes wholly to the praise of gods grace in christ , and the power of his spirit . christianity being known what it is , it may easily be known what it is not , and so the false disguises of it may easily be detected . forasmuch as it looks far higher than the temporal interests of mankind in the settlings of this life ( though it doth not overlook them ) it cannot be thought to have done its work in making men meerly just-dealers , good neighbours and profitable members of the common-wealth , for such may be some of them that are without christ , without the hope of the gospel , and without god in the world . moreover , it cannot lie so low , as in a bare belief of the gospel , and an observance of its external institutes , accompanied with a civil conversation . as for such as rest in these things , what are they more in the eye of god , than the heathens that know him not ? and wherein do they differ from them , except in a dead faith , and outward form taken up by education , tradition , example , custom of the country , and other such like motives . nor doth it lie in unwritten doctrines , and ordinances of worship devised by men , nor yet in curiosities of opinion or accidental modes of worship , discipline , or church-government ; nor in ones being of this or that sector party , nor in meer orthodoxality , all which being rested in , are but the false coverings of hypocrites . it is not the lax and easie , low and large rule , by which libertines , and formalists , yea some pretended perfectionists do measure their own righteousness , who assert their perfectness by disannulling , or lessening the law of god. in a word , it is not any kind of morality or vertue whatsoever , which is not true holiness , or intire dedication to god ; and therefore much less is it , that loose and jolly religion of the sensual gang , who keep up a superficial devotion in some external forms , but give up themselves to real irreligion and profaneness , and bid defiance to a circumspect walking and serious course of godliness . and now it is too apparent , what multitudes of them , that prophess the faith of christ , are christians in name only and not indeed . their alienation from the life of god , and their enmity against it , and their conformity to the course of this world in the lusts thereof , doth testifie , that they have not received the grace of god in truth . but christians indeed according to the nature of christianity above expressed ( which is now in them though not in the highest , yet in a prevalent degree ) do make it their utmost end to know , love , honour and please god , to be conformable to him , and to have the fruition of him , in the perfection of which conformity and fruition , they place the perfection of their blessedness . in the sence of their native bondage under the guilt and power of sin , they come to the mediator jesus christ , and rest upon him , by the satisfaction and merit of his obedience and suffering , to reconcile and sanctifie them to god , and accordingly they give up themselves to him , as their absolute teacher and ruler & all-sufficient saviour . having received not the spirit of the world , but that which is of god , they are crucified to the honours , profits and pleasures of the world , and have their conversation in heaven , and rejoyce in the hope of glory , and prepare for sufferings in this life and by faith overcome them . the law of god is in their hearts , and it is the directory of their practice from day to day , by the touchstone of gods word they prove their own works , and come to the light thereof , that their deeds may be made manifest to be wrought in god. they draw nigh to god in the acts of religious worship of his appointment , that they may glorifie him , and enjoy spiritual communion with him , and be blessed of him , especially with spiritual blessings in christ : and as god is a spirit , they worship him in spirit and in truth . it is their aim , care and exercise to keep consciences void of offence towards god and towards men , and to render to all their dues both in their publick and private capacities , and to walk in love towards all , not excluding enemies , and to do all the good they can both to the souls and bodies of men ; but those that fear god they more highly prise and favour . the remainder of corruption within themselves they know feelingly , and watch and pray , and strive that they enter not into temptation , and maintain a continual warfare against the devil the world and the flesh , under the conduct of jesus christ their leader , according to the laws of their holy profession , with patience and perseverance . in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation , they indeavour to be blameless and harmless as the sons of god , and to shine as lights in the world , and by the influence of their good conversation to turn others to righteousness . such is the character of those persons upon whose souls the holy doctrine of the gospel is impressed , and in whom the christian religion hath its real being , force and vertue . these are partakers of the heavenly calling , and set apart for god to do him service in the present world , and afterwards to live in glory with him for ever . these are the true church of god ( the church being here taken as mystical , not as visible ) and these are all joyned together by one spirit , in one body under christ their head , in the same new nature , having one rule of their profession , and one hope of their calling . these are a great multitude , which no man can number of all nations and kindreds , and people and tongues , yet hitherto not proportionable to the rest of mankind . and they continue throughout all ages , but in greater or lesser numbers , and more or less refined from superstition or other corruptions , and more or less severed from the external communion of the antichristian state , according to the brightness or darkness of the times and places wherein they live . chap. ii. things pertaining to the sound state of religion . and first holy doctrine . the advancement of the christian life , which hath its beginning in the new birth , being the great end propounded in this discourse , in reference to this end , the things here principally looked after are , the receiving and propagating of holy doctrine , drawn out of the pure fountain of sacred scripture ; the right administration of true gospel worship , by which god is glorified as god , and the worshippers are made more godly ; the due preaching of gods word , and dispensation of other divine ordinances by personslawfully called thereunto , for the conversion of sinners and edification of converts ; holy discipline truly and faithfully administred by the pastors , as the necessity of the church requires , and the state thereof will bear ; religious family government ; private mutual exhortations , pious conferences and profitable conversation ; the predominant influence of religion in the civil government of a nation , yet without usurpation or incroachment upon the civil rights of any , especially of the higher powers ; the unity of christians and their mutual charity conspicuous and illustrious ; and lastly , in order to all these intents a good frame of ecclesiastical polity . holy doctrine is the incorruptible seed of regeneration , by which the new creature is begotten . it is not here intended to represent a perfect scheme thereof , for it sufficeth to signifie that extracts thereof from holy scripture , are drawn out in the ancient catholik creeds , and in the harmonious confessions of the present reformed churches . nevertheless our design requires the observation of some most important things about the doctrine of salvation , as that there be first an earnest and hearty belief of the existence and providence of god , and his government of mankind by laws congruous to their nature , and of the immortallity of human souls , and of a life of retribution in the world to come ; which is the foundation of all religion . ly . right apprehensions of gods nature and attributes , more especially of his holiness comprehending as well his purity and justice , as his mercy and goodness ; that as he is ready to procure his creatures happiness , and refuseth none that come unto him , so that he cannot deny himself , and that he receiveth note but upon terms agreeable to his holiness . ly . an idea of godliness in themind not as shaped by any private conceptions , but as expressed by the holy ghost whose workmanship it is , that christianity in the hearts and lives of men may be the same with christianity in the scriptures . . the receiving of the great mystery of godliness , not as allegorized in the fancies of some enthusiasts , wherein it vanisheth to nothing but as verisied in the truth of the history , wherein it becomes the power of god to salvation ; and so not to sever the internal spirit of the christian religion , from its external frame , the basis whereof is the doctrine of the trinity in the unity of the godhead , and of the incarnation of the eternal word . lastly , soundness of judgment in those great gospel verities , that are written for the exalting of gods grace , and the promoting of true godliness , and the incouraging of the godly , in opposition to ungracious , ungodly , and uncomfortable errours , of which sort are these following truths . that the study and knowledge of the scriptures , is the duty and priviledge of all christians , that according to their several capacities , being skilfull in the word of righteousness , they may discern between truth and falshood , between good and evil , and offer to god a reasonable service according to his revealed will. that internal illumination is necessary to the saving knowledge of god , the holy spirit in that regard not inspiring new revelations , but inabling to discern savingly what is already revealed in nature and scripture . that man was created after the image of god in righteousness and true holyness ; and that in this state he was indued with a self-determining principle called freewill , and thereby made capable of abiding holy and happy , or of falling into sin and misery according to his own choice , and that god left him to the freedom of his own choice having given him whatsoever power or assistance was necessary to his standing . that the first man being set in this capacity fell from god , and it pleased god not to annihilate him , nor to prevent his propagating of an issue in the same fallen state , which would follow upon his fall ; but left the condition of mankind to pass according to the course of nature , being now fallen . that by the sin of adam all men are made sinners , and corrupt in their whole nature , and are under the curse of the law , and liable to eternal condemnation , and being left to the wicked bent of their own wills , are continually adding to their original sin a heap of actual transgressions , and so are of themselves in a miserable and helpless condition . that the lord jesus christ according to his full intention and his fathers commandment , hath made propitiation for the sins of the whole world , so far , as thereby to procure pardon of sin and salvation of soul , to all that do unfeignedly believe and repent . that man being dead in sin cannot be quickned to the divine life , but by the power of gods grace , raising him above the impotency of lapsed nature . that the culpable impotency of lapsed nature to saving good , lies in the fixed full aversation of the will , by a deplorable obstinacy nilling that good to which the natural faculties can reach , and ought to incline as to their due object . that the root of godliness lies in regeneration and inward sanctification . that god calleth some by the help of that special grace which infallibly effecteth their conversion and adhesion to him , without any impeachment of the natural liberty of the will. that whatsoever god doth in time , and in whatsoever order he doth it , he decreed from eternity to do the same , and in the same order ; and so he decreed from eternity to give that special grace to some , and by it to bring them to glory , which decree is eternal election , to which is opposite the pure negative of non-election . as for preordination to everlasting punishment it passeth not upon any , but on the foresight and consideration of their final abode in the state of sin . that the more common convictions , inclinations and endeavours towards god in persons unregenerate are good in their degree , and the ordinary preparative to a saving change , and they are the effects of that divine grace which is called common . that deligent seeking after god by the help of common grace is not in vain , it being the means to some further attainment towards the souls recovery , and it is regarded of god in its degree , and god doth not deny men further degrees of help , till they refuse to follow after him , by not using the help already given them , and by resisting his further aid . that god hath made all men savable , and though he doth not simply and absolutely will the conversion and salvation of all , yet he willeth it so far , and in such manner as is sufficient to encourage the diligent in their endeavours , and to convict the careless of being inexcusable despisers of his grace towards them . that there is an inherent righteousness , by which the faithful are truly named righteous , not only before men , but in the judgment of god himself ; and which can be no more without good works then the sun without light . that this is so perfect , as not to lack any thing necessary to the true nature of righteousness , nor to be maimed in any principal part thereof , though in respect of degrees and some accidental parts , it be imperfect . that the faithful cannot by this inherent righteousness abide the strict tryal of divine justice , but they are acquited from the guilt of sin , and their deserved punishment by the meer grace of god in christ. that christs righteousness is so far bestowed on believers and made theirs , that in the merit and consideration thereof they are freed from the curse of the law , and the condemnation of hell , are justified unto eternal , life and adopted to the inheritance of the heavenly kingdom . and imputed righteousness in this sense cannot be gain-said . that no faith is justifying , but that which works by love , and brings forth the fruit of good works . that the condition of the new covenant for the remission of sins and everlasting life is faith alone , not as excluding repentance and new obedience , but as excluding the works of the law , or legal covenant ; and this is no derogation from the freest grace . that the faithful keep the commandments of god and in some sense may be said to fulfill the law , that is not in the strictness of the covenant of works , but in the observance of duty without reserves , in the sincerity of love towards god and man , as the scripture saith , love is the fulfilling of the law. that obedience every way perfect is required of the faithfull as their duty , but not under the penalty of eternal death , yet under that penalty they are obliged to sincere obedience . that good works have relation to eternal life as the means to the end , in that manner , as the seed to havest , as the race and combat to the prize , as the work to the reward ; not according to equality or condignity , or merit strictly so called , but according to free compact or congruity . that the faithfull may be assured of their own justification by a true fixed persuasion , that excludes hesitation and suspense , and causeth holy security , peace and joy ; and that they ought to labour for such assurance , which ariseth partly from the divine promises , and partly from the sense of their own infeigned faith . that though godliness stands not in absolute perfection , yet it stands in that integrity of heart and life , an indubitable evidence whereof cannot be had without a very carefull and close walking with god , and continued earnest endeavours of perfecting holiness in his fear . that all human actions must have an actual or habitual reference to gods glory , and that all things are to be done in the best manner for that end . that notwithstanding the power of divine grace , which works mightily in gods chosen , whosoever will be saved must watch and pray and strive , and bestow his chiefest care and pains therein , and so continue to the end , and particularly in the constant exercise not of a popish , outside , formal , but a spiritual and real mortification , and self denial in continual dependance on gods grace , who worketh in us to will and to do of his own good pleasure . in the positions aforegoing , all nice , obscure , perplexed and unnecessary notions are avoided , and the plain sense of gospel doctrine is attended . this simplicity and plainess makes the truth much more intelligible , and less controvertible , where a multitude of nice terms and notions are vain and hurtfull superfluities , that muffle the truth , and cloud mens judgments and multiply controversies , and cause much confusion . chap. iii. the due ordering of gospel worship . forasmuch as divine worship , is the first and nearest act of piety , and aims immediately at the glorifying of gods name , and the keeping of the soul devoted to him , the due ordering thereof must needs be one of the highest concernments of true religion . whereupon such an order thereof must needs be most desirable , as hath most tendency to exalt the honour of gods name , and to advance the souls pure devotion . and doubtless that hath most tendency thereunto , which is most according to the nature and will of god. notwithstanding the fetches of mens wit in commending their will-worship , god best knows , what service will please him best , and do us most good . it becomes us , neither to contemn gods authority in the neglect of his institutions , nor to controle his wisdom in the addition of vain inventions . and this will bring us into the way of a reasonable service , most acceptable to god and profitable to our selves . in the fulness of time our lord christ , being to establish a more perfect way , than what had been before , lays this foundation , god is a spirit and they that worship him , must worship him in spirit and truth . accordingly he antiquated the old legal form , great in outward furniture and visible spendor , but comparatively small in substance and inward power ; and instituted an other of a far different strain , wherein the rituals and externals are few and plain , but their substance and inward power is great and mighty . and when he abrogated former things , which for their time had the stamp of divine authority , because they suited not with the gospel state , and were in a comparative sense called , carnal ordinances that were not good ; doubtless it was not his mind and will , that men should erect new frames of their own devising after the similitude of those old things , that are passed away . to worship god in the spirit after the simplicity that is in christ , according to the gospel dispensation , as it is most agreeable to the nature of the divine majesty , which is worshipped , and best fitted to glorifie him as god indeed ; so it is also most efficacious to make the worshippers more knowing in religion , more holy and heavenly in spirit and conversation , and every way more perfect in things pertaining to life and godliness . irreverence , rudeness , sordidness , or any kind of negligence in the outward service of god , is not here commended under the simplicity and spirituality of gospel worship . due regard must be had to all those matters of decency , the neglect whereof would render the service undecent ; such as are convenient places of assembling commonly called churches , comely furniture and convenient utensils therein , a grave habit not of special sanctity , but of civil decency for a minister , all which should not be vile and beggarly but gracefull and seemly ; likewise a well composed countenance and reverent gesture , is requisite in all that present themselves before the lord. sitting or lolling or covering the head , or having the hat half-way on in prayer , is among us unseemly , except natural infirmity call for indulgence herein : but laughing , talking , gazing about in our attendance on religious exercises , is no better than profaneness ; and to come into the congregation walking with our hats on our heads , is by custom taken for irreverence and incivility , and therefore to be avoided as offensive . all matters of necessary decency , are in their generals of the law of nature , and in the particulars to be ordered by human prudence . all natural expressions of devotion , as kneeling , and lifting up of the hands and eyes in prayer , are allowed by all sorts . we call them natural because nature it self teacheth to use them , without any positive institution divine or human ; and a rational man by the meer light of nature is directed to use them , yet not without some government and discretion . for herein nature it self is subject to some variety , and is in part determined and limited by the custom of several ages and countries , as for instance , in the prostration of the body in the act of adoration , in the wearing of sackcloth , and renting of clothes in time of great humiliation , which in former ages were sutable , and that according to nature , but not now adays in regard of the variation of custom . and i suppose that in this sense st. paul speaks against wearing of long hair as contrary to nature . but there hath been much controversie about such ceremonies as contribute nothing to the aforesaid necessary decency , and are no natural nor civil and customary expressions of reverence and devotion , but are of human institution and of a mystical and meerly instituted signification , and made visible stated signs of gods honour , and the immediate expressions of our observance of him , and obligation to him , and by some supposed to be not meer circumstances , but parts of divine worship ; and yet more especially if they be designed in their use , for that significancy and moral efficacy that belongs to sacraments , and made no less then the symbals of our christianity . it lies not on me to determine on either side in this controversie ; nevertheless it is easie to apprehend this , that it can be no danger nor dammage to be sparing in those things , which being at least doubtfull and unnecessary , have turned to endless strife and scandal between those that own the same doctrine of faith , and the same church communion . likewise it can do no hurt to reformed christianity , not to insist on that latitude in devised rites of worship , that will acquit the greatest part of the ceremonies used in the church of rome , from the charge of superstition , and which makes way for the oppressing of the churches , and the sinking of religion under a luggage of unprofitable institutions . to make any thing necessary and commanded of god , which he hath not commanded , and to damn any thing as forbidden by him , which he hath left indifferent , and to dread left god should not be pleased , unless we do somethings which we need not do , and lest he should be displeased , when we do somethings not forbidden , is no doubt the crime of superstition ; but it is not the whole extent of that sin . for it is no less superstition to feign god to be pleased with mens vain inventions , yea though they be not injoyned or observed as divine precepts ; and this also is , to teach for doctrines the commandments of men . and who are the greater controlers of gods wisdom , and usurpers upon his authority ? they that fear to do what god hath allowed , supposing it to be forbidden , or they that presume to add their own inventions for the bettering of his service , and make the omission thereof as criminal , as the neglect of divine ordinances ? doubtless it is a more tolerable superstition to be over solicitous and scrupulous , about the commandments of god , than to be over-confident and vehement in the unwarrantable or questionable traditions of men . human devices multiplyed in gods worship , ingender to much vanity and superstition in the zealous observers of them , and are apt to extinguish the inward life of godliness , as rank weeds choak the corn ; and they are commonly made a cloak to real ungodliness . and if some of them were first introduced with pious intention , yet they are commonly maintained and multiplied to serve a carnal interest . and they are the more easily entertained and observed , because it is easie to the flesh to buy out the inward service of god and the subjection of the inward man , by superficial bodily exercise . but the depretiating of these devices , serves to pluck off the mask of hypocrisie , made up of meer formalities , and to invigorate the life and spirit of true religion . to be the ministration of the spirit , is the excelling glory of the gospel ministration , wherewith a grave and sober decency and comely ornament doth well accord ; but excessive gaudiness , pompous and theatrical shews , various gesticulations , and affected postures , are vanities too much detracting from its dignity and spiritual majesty . chap. iv. the due dispensation of gods word . when our lord jesus ascended up on high , he gave gifts unto men , appointing and furnishing spiritual officers for the service of his kingdom , some extraordinary and temporary , as apostles , prophets , evangelists ; others ordinary and successively perpetual , as pastors and teachers . wherefore the interest of christianity lies much in a right gospel ministery , which is sutable and serviceable to our lords design , and the ends of his gospel . and it is a ministery , which is pure and uncorrupt , dispensing the truth as it is in jesus , whereby men are brought to sound faith and true holiness ; which is vigorous and powerful , apt to take hold of the conscience and reach the heart ; which is sollicitous and laborious , travelling in birth till christ be formed in the hearers and the man-child the new creature be born into the world ; which is assiduous and instant in preaching the word , by instruction , reproof and comfort , that as much as in it lies , it may present every man perfect in christ ; which comes with full scripture evidence and cogent reason , with solid matter in stile and language not negligent , much less undecent , yet not too curious and elaborate , but free , vehement , grave , serious and fit for the work in hand , which is not to tickle ear , but to break open the heart ; which is exemplary in faith , purity , charity , self-denial and contempt of the world ; and finally which is not mercenary , but naturally cares for the state of the flock , and accommodates it self thereunto , as its great charge and chief concern . and who is sufficient for these things , saith the great apostle ! doubtless much wisdom and grace is needfull , in an able minister of the new testament , and a workman that needs not to be ashamed . it being pre-supposed that he holds fast the form of sound words , and that he is throughly instructed in the mystery of godliness , which he is to impart to others , in the first place , his prudence will be concerned for the judicious management of the dispensation committed to him . a prudent dispenser of the word , will take care to deliver nothing to others , but what is very intelligible to himself ; and whereof he can make good sense , and render a reason to those that ask it . he doth not trifle with holy things , he shuns vanity and curiosity , and doth not ramble into impertinences , and cares not to utter any thing for ostentation . he hath in his eye the end of his ministry , and the usefulness and importance of what he hath to communicate , that ( as it said of the scripture from whence he takes it ) it may be profitable for doctrine , for reproof , for correction , for instruction in righteousness , that it may come home to the hearts and lives of men , and be fit to raise their attention by their own concernment in it . he considers withall what the hearers can best receive , that is , not what the flesh can well digest ( for then the most necessary truths must be forborn ) but that which carries its own evidence , to that it must be owned , or the gain-sayers must be self-condemned . and this is to prepare mens minds , and to make way for such harder sayings and stricter precepts , as must be manifested in due season . moreover the dispensation of the word of god should be , as the word it self is , quick and powerfull , and in all reason that is to be most esteemed such , which is most apt to be effectual to the end , for which god hath ordained it , which is to open mens eyes , and to turn them from darkness to light , and from the power of satan to god , that they may receive forgiveness of sins , and an inheritance among them , that be sanctified through faith in christ. that kind of preaching that hath most tendency to convince , direct and move toward this end , is without controversie the most powerfull . the pressing of doctrines with solid and cogent reason , provided they be made plain and obvious to the capacity of the hearers , appertains to this manner of preaching , and in a chief point therein . strong reason may be so delivered as to be too hard , and strong for plain people to receive and digest it . here condescention is a great duty , and perspicuity a great gift . but the bare evidence of reason doth not all . for to gain the will ( which is the man ) besides the judgment , the fancy and affections had need be gained . we find it the condescention of god himself in his word , to deal very much with these lower faculties , which belonging not to brutes only , but to men also , it is not brutish but human , to be moved by them in subordination to the judgment . even the most learned and prudent men , are found to take no small impression from them ; and therefore the most proper ways of soliciting and exciting them , are not to be neglected , much less contemned . now dry reason though strong enough , is not so fit to take the affections or raise the fancy . wherefore some other helps , among which there are comparatively little things , are herein used , as familiar expressions , apt similitudes , expostulations , lively representations , and such like ; to which may be added a voluble tongue , a moving tone , and taking gesture . and though much noise and action make not a powerfull preacher ; yet earnestness of speech and elevation of the voice , is not of little force , and especially with vulgar hearers , who being the greatest number in most auditories , are very regarnable . and truly the weight of the business requires due fervour . should the matters of life and death eternal be delivered without feeling , as by men half asleep ? and people's drowsiness doth no less require it . yea , possibly the apprehensions and affections of the common people may better be roused up , by a somewhat boysterous way of excitation ; which for this reason should not displease the learned or most judicious sort , who are in this case to consider not what would most affect themselves , but the greater multitude , who stand in greatest need of help , and whose souls are not less precious , nor redeemed with a lesser price , than the souls of the greatest scholars , and sages of this world . indeed much judgment and and circumspection is here called for , that all rudeness and homeliness of expression , all curiosity , levity and loathsom affectation , and all manner of undecency be avoided ; and that what is comely and congruous and apt to convince and move be used , and that nothing be overstrained . and in this matter self-distrust , if not too excessive , will do better than self-confidence and conceitedness . here it should be considered , that very worthy men may have some indecencies in voice and gesture , which they cannot well remedy ; and others , who are very usefull , and whose service in gods church could not be well spared , may be liable to some lesser mistakes and incongruities in expression , which critical hearers may discern , yet they hinder not the efficacy of the word . and withall let it be considered , whose work they do , that aggravate such weaknesses to make sport for themselves , and others to the contempt of gods ordinance . and for them that pour out scorn upon the most pious , serious , solid and profitable kind of preaching , and make ridiculous representations of it to the world , because it suits not their seeming wisdom ; i am rather inclined to lament their folly , then to emulate their wit , or envy their applause with some men . we read that the wise preacher sought out acceptable words , that is words pleasing to edification , that would reach home and were piercing as goads and nails . the preachers inward feeling of what he speaks , hath a secret force to cause his words to be felt by others , and what comes from the heart is aptest to go to the heart , by a sympathy in the spirits of men . and that any should speak of seeing and feeling in some sort , the things that are written in gods word , will not seem strange to them who have tasted that the lord is gracious . the powerfull dispensing of the word depends chiefly on the assistance of the holy spirit , though both natural and acquired parts , and the industrious exercise thereof be likewise necessary . for which cause the spiritual man hath unspeakable advantage of the meerly natural man in this service . the special presence of the spirit with him and the grace of god in him , causeth him to speak in a strain more apposite , and sutable to the forming of the new creature . yea , such illumination and conviction and tast of heavenly things , as proceeds from a more common , or less than regenerating grace , will do more in this business with less abilities of art and nature , than far greater abilities in those kinds can do by themselves alone . the common sense of the faithfull , is a witness to the truth hereof . and it must needs be so , that he who hath some savour of the things of god , should speak more savorily of them , then he can , to whom they are tastless or unsavory . wherefore there is a spiritual kind of preaching not indeed opposite to rational , nor taken so to be by any that talk of it with understanding , though the assertors of it have been abusively personated , as holding such a dotage . they do not say , that the spirit shews any thing about the sense of scripture or divine matters , which is not consonant to right reason , or that whatsoever is darted into their mind , is to be taken for an irradiation from the holy ghost , or that any may presume upon the spirits immediate help , in the neglect of rational search and study . but their meaning is , that as heretofore in extraordinary persons there were extraordinary inspirations ; so there have been , are , and always shall be , the ordinary teachings and inspirations of the spirit ; in regard whereof it is stiled in scripture the spirit of wisdom and revelation , which teaching as all the faithfull stand in need of , so more especially the ministers of the gospel ; and that this divine assistance doth elevate , or heighten the gifts of nature and learning , and guides us to sound reasoning , yea , and sometimes brings things into the mind without previous reasoning , yet rational and found to be so upon due scanning . there is no great evidence in reason , that st. pauls demonstration of the spirit and power , is to be restrained to the miraculous confirmation of his doctrine , or any extraordinary gift ( though that sense be not excluded . ) for the contexture of his discourse in that chapter , sets forth a certain faculty , perceptive and expressive of the things of the spirit of god , belonging unto spiritual men as such . and they are no fanaticks , that to this day own the more common interpretation of the words , namely to preach from the special help of the illuminating and quickning spirit , with a lively perception and feeling of the things that are delivered . but whatsoever the meaning of those words be , verily they are besotted with reason , that in the pride thereof regard not this illumination from above , and scoff at those that look after it . to preach christ is the matter of this dispensation , and to preach moral duties is not extraneous to the preaching of christ , but comprized under it . yet it must be acknowledged , that morality in its best estate ( as it is vulgarly taken for temperance and righteousness towards men , and other vertues of that rank , as proceeding from a meerly natural principle , which an aristotle might describe in his ethicks ) is far below christianity . for it is found in many that are alienated from the life of god , and lead meerly by the spirit of this world . but this name may be given to some higher thing , as first , to the whole observation of gods moral law founded in our creation , and that not only in the outward work after a common manner performable by the unregenerate , but in a duemannerfrom a right principle to a right end , that is from the love of god unto his glory . and in this sense we acknowledge that it is a great part , but not the whole of the christian religion ; nor indeed the whole of morality taken not vulgarly , but theologically , and that in its full extent . for so taken , it is no other then the conformity of our minds and actions to god and his laws , and faith in christ , is a main part thereof . indeed to preach christ , is to preach the whole duty of man , and more especially those duties that are consequent to , and founded in our redemption ; as also to set forth the whole mystery of the gospel , which is the ground and reason of our duty . for god was in christ reconciling the world to himself , and accordingly hath ordained the ministery of reconciliation , by which there is made known the lapsed and lost estate of mankind , the abundant grace of god in christ for their recovery , remission of sins , and free justification through his righteousness , regeneration and inward sanctification , the inhabitation of the spirit in believers , and their mystical union with christ , their living by the faith of him , and deriving of spiritual life and strength from him , and growing up into him , till they be filled with all the fulness of god in him , their spiritual warfare and conflicts between the flesh and spirit within them , their temptations , desertions and renewed consolations , and the earnest and sealing of the holy spirit given unto them . surely these are fit subjects to behand led by a gospel preacher , though the preaching of these matters or of many of them , is by some called canting and phrase divinity ; yet they are the sacred expressions of the holy ghost in scripture . and dare any say they are but a sound of words without matter agreeable to the stile ? no , they are real and deep mysteries , and intelligible to them that obey the truth . it is heartily here asserted and earnestly contended for , that the gospel calls us as much to vertue as to glory , and that its true intent is to reduce us to a holy life : yet withall , the counsel of god therein is to set forth the glory of his free grace , the all-fulness of jesus christ , and the mighty working of his spirit , and the wonderfulness of salvation through him , to the intent that we might glory , not in our selves but in him , who of god is made unto us wisdom , righteousness , sanctification and redemption . and indeed , who do more powerfully and successfully preach christian duty , than they that most insist on this unspeakable grace , and lay open the treasures thereof ? the love of christ is so to be spoken of , as to beget in us a love towards him , not imaginary and conceited , but real and substantial , made good by an intire subjection to him . and therefore the doctrines of free grace and of good works are to be sounding together in our pulpits . what christ hath done for us is not to save us the pains of a continual mortification , and of the agony to be endured therein , and of aspiring to the most perfect state of holiness that is attainable . we are to live as strictly as if we were to be saved by the perfection of our own obedience . and indeed none lead more holy lives than they , that desire to be found in christ , and when they have done all that they can , rely wholly upon the mercy of god in him . it is most true that gospel mysteries do not lie in meer phrases , nor is new matter always brought with new forms of speech , nor are people much the wiser by having their heads filled with them . there are empty sounds and terms unintelligible , swelling words with windy notions , expressions that seem to draw deep , whose meaning is but shallow . there is a sollicitous stating of points with a seeming exactness , that is indeed weak and injudicious , and a niceness in distinguishing , which is but frivolous . many controversies much agitated are but a strife of words , and too great stress is often laid upon little fancies . and a greater mischief there is , that in cloudy language pernicious doctrines take shelter , and dangerous sects are known to hide themselves in this covert . and therefore he that doth his work rightly , will know the true significancy and import of what he utters . he vents not meer words , but sound matter and good substance ; for the souls of men are fed with solid sense and not with phrases . howbeit as touching expressions , there is a certain spiritual strain , which is most agreeable to the things of the spirit of god , and which as coming from life and spirit , is better discerned than described . there is a speaking , not in words which mans wisdom teacheth , but which the holy ghost teacheth . and though this more eminently took place in the apostles , and such other extraordinary persons , yet there is no sufficient reason to restrain it to them alone . st. paul may well be understood to speak of this as a gift received by them , that had received not the spirit of the world , but that which is of god , and as something suted to the perception and taste of all spiritual men . it doth not exclude the use of human wisdom , though the wisdom of the spirit sway in chief . for no doubt , even paul's human learning and prudence was herein serviceable , though in subserviency to the influence and conduct of the spirit . this spirituality of expression , is conformable to that of the spirit of god in scripture , though not confined to the words thereof . surely the mysteries of salvation cannot be better handled ; than in those terms in which they were first delivered , to wit , in scripture expressions , or others consonant thereto , solidly and pertinently used , and to call this canting , savours to much of that spirit , to which holy language is unsavory . without controversie , the strongest reason is of greatest force to gain the wills of men , to imbrace true religion . for that which crosseth sensuality , selfishness and all the depraved appetite of our lapsed nature ( as religion doth ) must needs have its greatest strength , next under the power of divine grace , in the force of right reason . but care and skill is requisite , that it be so prepared , offered , and set home , that it may be sutable to them that should receive it , and that the cogency thereof may so reach unto , and fasten upon their judgments , as to gain their wills . philosophical ratiocinations are too remote not only from low and dull capacities , but also from the greater part of them , that are competently apprehensive and intelligent , and so being too much estranged from them , they do not touch them to the quick . a familiar , natural , plain and obvious way of reasoning comes home to all men , and is most felt at the heart , and that by scholars themselves , though their intellect may be more delighted in more accurate or reserved speculations . scriptural preaching is indeed the most rational , as coming with such reason as is of greatest force with men in matters of salvation . for gods written word is a treasure of divine wisdom , that throughly furnisheth the man of god. besides , the infallible testimony thereof hath more authority , than philosophical reason , though sound and true , can have , upon christian hearers ; and it peirceth deeper and sticks closer . and arguments taken , and words spoken from scripture , wherewith the people converse dayly , are more easily apprehended and retained ; and so are more instructive , and every way more usefull than other reasonings . though numerous citations of sentences out of human authors be an unprofitable kind of ostentation ; yet the sentences of holy writ , which is the evidence of our christian hope , and the testimony of him , who is truth it self , are most effectual to edification . and whosoever is able to speak reason in divine matters , is to make a rational use of scripture : and if any quote it impertinently and absurdly , it is through defect of reason , and they would be as injudicious in their sermons without those quotations . but nice and haughty wits mostly cavil without cause , and charge profitable preachers with injudiciousness , meerly through their own vain curiosity and inconsiderateness . scripture quotations are sometimes used by way of allusion , or for illustration , not for strict proof ; and that which is brought for proof , if it be not full and cogent , yet it may add some weight , and then it is not abused . besides , if a passage be used in a sound and pious , though not in its proper sense , it is pardonable . it is fit indeed that in citing texts , we know their true import , and go more by weight than number , shunning impertinency and superfluity ; yet it is not unfit to note , that all sound and good preachers are not alike judicious , and those that are very solid may be guilty of some oversights : and 't is a bad matter that their ministery , which god hath owned and honoured with good success in his service , should be set at nought for a few mistakes ( perhaps more pretended than real ) about the sense of some scripture , when it is not applyed otherwise than the analogy of faith will bear , and nothing is defended but known truth . i have known a pious but strangely mistaken sense of a scripture sentence cast into the mind , and there fixed to have been the first occasion of seriousness in religion , to one that afterward lived and dyed a godly christian. now that which was causal in this conversion was the godly truth it self , which was written in gods word ; and the mistaking it to lie in such a sentence where it did not , being but accidental , was no hinderance . i do in no wise countenance the irrational use of scripture , but am sensible of the importance of good judgment and due care about the sense thereof : yet i cannot approve the scornful haughtiness of some men , who deride godly persons well instructed in the scripture , as having nothing but words and phrases and senseless notions ; either because they come short of scholar-like exactness , or because they speak of the things of god in a more evangelicall and spiritual strain , than these can well bear . in speaking , the best use of art is to speak to best purpose , and for that end , in divine matters to speak with greatest majesty and authority . and this is done not by ostentation of wit , by puerile and effeminate rhetorications , by a rapsody of flanting words , by starched speech , by cadency of sounds , or any too elaborate politeness , that please the shallow fancy , but by the evidence of reason set forth in a masculine and unaffected eloquence , that hath power over the wills of men , which are tough and knotty peices . perspicuity is a great vertue and felicity in discourse , for hereby what is offered gains attention , and enters the mind , and abides therein : but intricacy and obscurity is a bar to its entrance and entertainment . hereunto an easie and obvious method , evident coherence , and plainness of expression conduceth mainly . wherefore he that minds what he hath to do , is not careful by a more curious artifice to please the fancies of some itching hearers , but hath most regard to that composure , that makes most for a general benefit and edification . and for this cause as he would not multiply words without need , and become tedious ; so he would not be too succinct and close ; and by that means either too dark , or too quick to inform or effect the people . in vulgar auditories a dilating of the matter is most necessary , so that idle tautologies and prolixity be avoided : and it may be spread forth in such fulness and plainess of speech , as will not be unacceptable even to scholars , that are not wise in their own conceit . but the careless and confused speaking of incoherent and undigested matter , rudeness or baldness of expression is no part of this commended plainness , which is orderly , comely and weighty , agreeable to the majesty of gods word . a true preacher of the gospel rightly divides the word of truth , and gives to all their portion . he doth not make distinction , where the rule of faith makes no difference , nor doth he confound things , that ought to be distinguished . he is not partial towards parties for interest or affection . and so he doth not promiscuously justifie or condemn the evil and the good together on any side ; but as he accounts it an odious thing to rail upon one party in the ambiguous terms of false church , false worship , false ministry , idolatry , superstition , formality : so he accounts it no less odious , confusedly to inveigh against those of an other persuasion , under the no less ambiguous terms ( as they are now commonly used ) of hypocrites , pharisees , fanaticks , enthusiasts , separatists , humorists and such like . he is constant in preaching the word , instant in season and out of season . for in preaching frequently , he doth not do the work of the lord negligently , but duely feeds the flock , and that with better prepared food , than they use to bring that preach but seldom upon pretence of greater preparation . he watcheth over the flock with diligence , and naturally cares for their estate ; for he knows the worth of precious souls . he condescends to persons of low degree , and is concerned for the souls of the poor and simple and illiterate , as well as of the noble , rich and learned ; for he knows their redeemer paid alike dear for both . and however the proud and covetous judge , he doth not think it below him to intermeddle , for the reducing of the simple that go astray , and he seeks to recover them with gentleness and patience ; for he prefers the gaining of one soul , before all the preferments of this world . he earnestly looks after that , which some do little regard , to wit the seal of his ministery in the saving efficacy thereof on the hearers , and when he finds it , he makes it the crown of his rejoycing . and this seal he takes not to be their meer owning of sound doctrine , or following an orthodox party , much less their abounding in notions , their talking and outward guarb of profession ; but their new birth or their spiritual growth , the promoting whereof is the scope of his labours , and the dayly travell of his soul. chap. v. the due performance of publick prayer . prayer being a main part of gods worship and chief act of devotion , and such as doth accompany and sanctifie every other religious duty , and the publick management thereof pertaining to the work of the ministry ; its due performance must needs be of no small import to the increase of true piety , and no small part of the ministerial excellency and sufficiency . among spiritual gifts , i doubt not to number the gift of prayer also , and i judge they speak too low of it , that make it only a natural gift , or acquired by practice and imitation . much indeed may lie in natural parts , and observation and exercise , but not all ; for over and above these things , the spirit of christ presiding perpetually over his church sets in , and by a secret influence on men designed of god for this service , indues them with a peculiar aptness of knowledge and utterance , as well in prayer as preaching , for the edifying of the church . and some unsanctified persons being thus gifted , may preach and pray with a notable tendency to the saving of others , when themselves prove cast-aways . private christians also according to their measure , are partakers of this gift in much diversity of degrees , god giving to every man severally as he will. besides this , there is a special and saving gift , the spirit of prayer , and praying in the holy ghost , or by his gracious assistance in a holy manner , according to the will of god , which is indeed lively and powerfull , and apt to kindle a holy fervour in them , that joyn in the service so performed . and why that , which is performed in such a manner , and by such assistance , may not be called a praying by the spirit , i see no reason . they who thankfully acknowledge and bless god for so great a gift of his grace , do not intend thereby a miraculous inspiration , or an absolute infallible guidance of the holy ghost . much less do they think that their prayers are such dictates of the spirit , as would infer that the very matter and word● thereof , being written would become canonical scripture , to which is requisite not only an infallible spirit , but also an attestation thereof by the same spirit , sufficient to convince others . but this they maintain , that the spirit helps them against their indisposedness of mind , and deadness of heart , and manifold infirmities , and strengthens their faculties , and quickens their graces , and enlarges their desires , and elevates their souls , and brings things to their remembrace , specially the divine promises , yea , and in some particulars may guide the heart and tongue by a present immediate suggestion . for why must the spirit of god be thought to do less in exciting to good , then the devill ordinarily doth in prompting to evil ? and yet they are not to depend on the spirits immediate suggestion , for matter , words and method , without taking care or thought before hand . it is an ordinary and not miraculous assistance which they expect , and which is usually given according to mens preparations , and suted to their several capacities . the spirit of prayer is not confined to this , or that exterior frame or order of prayer ; but is ever found there , where the heart hath a due sense of the matter . a particular form , whether stinted or not stinted is not of the essence of prayer , but only its outward shape , and it pertains to it not as it is a sacred thing , but as an action in general ; and for that no action can possibly be performed but in some particular mode , this holy action cannot otherwise be performed . and whereas there are divers modes thereof , they may be used as they are congruous to the substance of the duty according to mens choice and judgment , unless they were ( as indeed they are not ) bound up to one by a divine determination . the lawfulness of set-forms is further evinced from the lords prayer , and other forms in scripture , and as much is owned by the general custom of singing davids psalms . wherefore to turn the back upon the publick prayers of the church , meerly because performed in this manner , is unwarrantable . and there is a● little warrant to restrain all publick prayer to a stinted liturgy , and leave no liberty at all to the ministers godly zeal and prudence . in this particular , the interest of true godliness will be much better advanced by moderation , than by contests and rigor on either hand . for it is very discernable , that the antipathy against either way , is mainly caused by the animosity and mutual opposition , between the parties of different persuasions and inclinations in this matter . they are too weak and ill-advised at least , if not humorous and self-conceited , that reject all sett-forms : and on the other hand to suppress the gift of prayer in our selves or others , is to sin against the grace of god and to hinder much good . the use of a set-form without an imperious restraint of prayer thereto , will obviate the objection of stinting the spirit , which means ( if there be any thing to the purpose in that phrase ) a suppressing or undue restraining of this spiritual gift , against which a caution is here given . in our addresses to the great god it concerns us to look well both to thoughts and words , that in both he may be sanctified by us , and glorified as god indeed . and in our publick addresses to him a more special care must be had , that nothing be uttered before him , that is unmeet to be offered to his dreadfull majesty . rude , clownish , and homely expressions , as also quibling , jingling , and all levity and trifling is very loathsome in preaching , but in prayer much more . affectation of words , curiosity and politeness becomes not the weightiness and awfulness of this duty . yea abruptness , obscurity , and all incongruity of speaking is to be shunned herein , as much as possible : and that only is to be used which is plain , clear , seemly , weighty , savory and affectionate . in like manner all indecency of voice , and gesture is to be watched against , as an offensive thing , and apt to expose the service to the derision of proud scorners . yet a seasonable elevation of the voice , or other apt expression of earnestness is not to be counted rudeness . sometimes a worthy man may not be aware of some uncomeliness in his tone , or in the posture of his countenance , or some other bodily gesture , by reason of the fervour of his spirit , in the duty joyned with inadvertency towards those exterior and lesser things . and sometimes an ill habit or custom is not easily broken off . these inconveniencies are prevented or redressed by a wariness of disposition , and a moderate self-distrust , and the actual observation of what is gracefull or uncomely in others . prayer is a holy converse with god , wherein an humble confidence , and son-like freedom of spirit with him is acceptable ; yet withall it calls for the greatest prostration of soul , and the deepest reverence and subjection . wherefore humbly to expostulate with god , is no sauciness . the whole current of the prayers of saints in scripture doth warrant it , and that not only now and then in extraordinary cases . indeed our ordinary concerns with god , are no less than the safety of our immortal souls , the pardoning of our great and numberless offences , the subduing of inveterate corruptions , our escaping of many deadly dangers , our victory over the adverse world , the powerfull presence of his grace , the light of his countenance ; as also the interests of his glory , and of his church and people , and of the world in general , that poor souls may be delivered from the power of darkness , and translated into the kingdom of his dear son ; all which are of the highest moment , and of themselves exceeding difficult ( though to god all things are possible ) and they all require vehemence and importunity , not as if god needed to be moved or stirred up , but that we may declare our selves duely affected . howbeit even the best things may be over-done , and this over-doing is the marring thereof . if in the expostulations of prayer , men shall utter perverse or frivolous things , or speak absurdly , daringly , or irreverently , they are highly culpable and guilty of abusing the most holy things , and of contemning the most glorious and fearfull name of the lord their god. our freedom of access to god and converse with him , must not be turned into an irreverent and presumptuous familiarity . those that are guilty of this rashness are worthy of great rebuke . but i-know well , that the spirit of luke-warmness and profaness , doth usually cast reproaches and scorns upon that zeal and fervency of spirit , that well becomes the servants of the lord , and labours to make the most accceptable , and profitable kind of prayer to seem ridiculous . it is against reason to think that the ministers of the present age , brought up under such eminent advantage for ministerial abilities , should not be able to speak to god in good and solid sense , in an orderly method , and in affective , grave and seemly language , as becomes the solemnity of gods worship . experience will justifie the sufficiency of serious , pious and painfull preachers in general , though the captious and curious , and such as love to cavil , have found fault , and despised the profitable endeavours of those , whom god hath owned . besides , the offences that are committed in this matter , proceed more from inadvertency and imprudence than from insufficiency , and may be corrected by care and causion , and good advice . and it is no vanity to suppose such a competency of prudence easily attainable by all those , that are competently qualified for this office. indeed it cannot be expected , but that some will be less able and less perfect than others in this performance , and that the same persons may not be alike perfect therein at all times : nevertheless , there is no such want of security , that the churches service will be well performed , if any prayer be used in the church besides a prescribed form. for who can doubt , but that persons of competent ability and prudence , may upon due incouragement be spread throughout a nation , in such an age of learning and knowledge ? and to say otherwise , were to disparage the reformed religion . and there is no just cause of doubt , but that an able minister may make use , either of a precomposed or of an immediately conceived form of words . yet in this matter there is great diversity of judgment and affection , even unto much prejudice and opposition . but the same minds might well be conciliated to both ways , if rightly ordered . the question is here supposed to be of the outward mode , in which two things are mainly to be regarded , to wit , that it be reverend and affective . such , as are best persuaded of a pre-composed form , and find it expedient for them , doubtless may rightly manage it to the edifying of themselves and others . for which end they must needs in some parts thereof make use of occasional variation and inlargement ( though premeditated ) as minding the more particular requiries of several times and occasions . but others by a habit of ready utterance and much exercise , are well prepared to pray by the immediate conceptions of their mind in proper and decent words , and can do it without any straining of invention , and with much freedom of spirit . no more is here spoken , that what impartial men will grant . and why should any forbid them that are thus qualified to use their gift ? but if any should be rash with their mouths , and hasty to utter any thing before god that is unmeet , they are subject to the discipline of the church to be censured for their errour . moreover heightened affections inlarge the heart , and open the mouth , and do not make a man at a stand for want of words . indeed astonishing affection or an extasie of spirit may put one to such a stand , but that rarely takes hold of any in a pubick performance . but a calm admiration and reverence of god , and seriousness and earnestness of address to him , doth not hinder but further ap●expressions . for the use of one constant form , it hath been pleaded that a stranger may thereby the better know how we worship god , and that the people better understand and remember that , to which they are continually used . but on the other hand variety and newness of matter , and words are more apt to quicken the affection , and perfect the understanding also , especially of the attentive , whenas under the constant rehersal of one thing , the faculties grow flat and dull . besides , in the use of this liberty and variety , the prayer being ordinarily the same for substance in the main , the vulgar apprehension and memory is help'd , by the sameness of the main substance and scope , and the affections are raised , and the understanding further edified by that which is new in the frame , and method and particular matter , and the peoples more particular variable concernments , are provided for by a more peculiar accommodation and respect thereto , as occasions vary . and by the received doctrine of faith , a stranger may be sufficiently ascertain'd of the substance of the worship to be celebrated . for a doctrine of a church governs its worship ; and it is well known , that one & the same tenor thereof will pass through the several congregations of a nation , that are not confined to a stinted form , yet combined in the same faith and order . and when all is said , that management and performance of this service is the best , that is most effectual to make the comers thereunto more perfect in knowledge , more devout and zealous towards god , more pious and blameless in their conversation , and every way more perfect in the divine life ; and it will be so acknowledged by them that are discerning and serious in the things of god. but to conciliate the minds of men diversly affected in this matter , and to prevent the inconveniencies , and to obtain the good of either way , a prescribed form and a free prayer will do best together , in reference to the churches peace and edification . chap. vi. the right administration of ecclesiastical discipline . the ministers of christ , and stewards of the mysteries of god are pastors of the church , and pastoral authority includes both teaching and ruling , and implies the peoples subjection in the lord to their doctrine and discipline . to bereave the church of discipline , is to leave it unfurnished of that means , which is necessary to the preservation of all orderly socities of mankind . it is to turn the garden of the lord , by plucking up the fence thereof into a common or wilderness . the power intrinsecal to this office , is not secular and coercive by temporal penalties , but purely spiritual ; which is in the name of christ , and by authority from him the chief pastor to watch over the flock , to encourage them that live conformably to the gospel by the consolations thereof , and to warn them that walk disorderly , and if any continue obstinate therein , to declare them unworthy of church-communion and christian converse , and to require the faithful to have no fellowship with them , to the intent that they may be humbled and reformed . as the discipline of all societies is to be regulated by their true interest and and chief scope , so is this of the church of god. now the christian church looks mainly to the honour of christ , and the glory of gods grace in him , and to the salvation of men , for which ends it was ordained . and consequently its true interest lies in the conservation and augmentation of true christianity or the power of godliness : but that church interest which is elsewhere fixed , and levelled to an other mark , appertains to a carnal and worldly state set up in the room , and pretence of this spiritual society . the churches true and proper excellency lies not in worldly splendor , opulency and power ; nor in outward rites and formal unity ; nor in the stability and amplitude of a meer external state : but in the inward light and life , in the unfained faith and love , in the purity and spiritual unity of believers , and in the security and advancement of this internal state , and of the external state in order to the internal . wherefore the right end of discipline is not to promote temporal glory , and opinions and formalities thereunto subservient , but the apostolick faith and worship , and the regeneration of the professors thereof , and their sincere devotion , godly unity , sobriety , righteousness , brotherly-kindness , and common charity , and all the vital parts of christianity : and to keep and cast out heresie , superstition , profaness , unrighteousness and all wicked error and practice , that tends to frustrate the designs of christs gospel : as also to prevent and remedy the causless tearing and renting of churches , and those alienations and animosities among christians , that proceed only from the wills and lusts of men . and the management hereof to this right end , is of far greater consequence , than any scrupulosity or preciseness about its external form and order . nay , if an external order could be proved to be primitive and apostolical , and were perverted and abused to inforce corrupt doctrines , scandalous and insnaring inventions and impositions ; and in a ceremonial strictness to indulge real profaness , and discourage true godliness , it were no other then the mystery of a carnal state under a spiritual name , having a form of godliness , but denying and suppressing the power thereof . the right end of discipline being such as hath been declared , it follows that its proper work is to incourage godliness , and to disgrace open sin . accordingly being rightly managed it admonisheth the unruly , casts out the obstinate , and restores the penitent . about these things it is active , watchfull and vigorous . what severity it hath , it exerciseth in correcting real scandals and gross breaches of gods law , and in maintaining the churches peace against those that cause divisions , and offences contrary to the doctrine which we have received , that is the doctrine of christ and his apostles . but it careth little for those matters , wherein the life and power of religion , and the churches peace and edification is unconcerned . much less doth it seek to quench godly zeal , and to hinder the necessary means of the increase of true godliness , or to afflict peaceable and pious christians by any needless rigors . chap. vii . religious family-government . in the time of the law the solemn dedication of houses was in use , the solemnity expressing that holy exercises should be performed in it , and that the houshold should be holy . in the first times of christianity , the scripture makes mention of churches that were in particular houses , teaching that christian families should resemble churches for piety and godly order . by family-godliness religion thrives exceedingly , and decays as much by the neglect thereof . by domestick instruction knowledge is much increased . for this private particular teaching is apt to be more heeded than that which is publick and general ; and persons are hereby prepared to attend with profit upon the publick preaching . good principles are infused , and impressions of good are made upon those that live under such government . and where much may not be wrought at present towards conversion , something may stick upon them , which may afterwards appear , when the grace of god shall visit them more powerfully . moreover national , and church reformation should here begin . nations will be wicked , and churches corrupt , while families remain disordered : but by the reformation of these lesser societies the larger are easily reformed , as the whole street is made clean , where every one will sweep his own door , which is but an easie task . it were most desirable that houses of eminent persons were exemplary in this kind , as it appears king davids was by that profession , i will walk within my house with a perfect heart , i will not know a wicked person , he that walketh in a perfect way shall serve me . but it is lamentable , that in so many families of professed christians of high and low degree , wickedness carries it with a high hand in drunkenness , swearing , cursing , open profanation of the lords day , in hatred of godliness , and contempt of gods ordinances : and that in many others free from debauchedness and open lewdness , there is no face , religion , no divine worship performed , no godly discipline , no instruction in the way of godliness observed . should any professing subjection to god , maintain under his charge and government an open rebellion against god , or at least a totall neglect of him ? should not god rule , where his servant rules ? wherefore it is the proper work of christian housholders in their several houses , to offer prayers and praises to god dayly , both morning and evening as the dayly sacrifice ; to sanctifie the lords day in prayer , singing of psalms , reading the scriptures and other holy books , in repeating sermons , instructing children and servants , and in taking account of their diligence and proficiency under the means of grace ; and this to be done not formally and customarily , but conscienciously in good carnest and to good effect . it is their charge also to hold a prudent hand over children in their minority , and not to indulge them in a course of idleness , sensual pleasure , or any inordinate liberty ; also to make intercession to god for those under their tuition , to allow servants time for secret duty ; lastly to purge their families of sinfull disorders , and to remove scandals , as carefully as the israelites cleansed their houses from leaven , at the time of the passover . as the religious care of superiors , so the submission and teachableness of inferiors is injoyned . children , servants and sojourners in godly families , being come into the lords heritage and portion , and under his special protection , and the dispensation of his grace , should not think it a yoke of bondage to live under such a discipline , and to be held unto such exercies ; but should improve the advantage and be followers of whatsoever is good and praise-worthy . and whatsoever imperfections they find therein , they should not malignantly aggravate the same , but bless god for the good , and consider the defects as the remainders of human weakness . chap. viii . private mutual exhortations , pious discourse and edifying conversation . it is also of great advantage when christian people are inured in the way of religious converse , and discourse for edification . for by this means they propagate the knowledge and love of the truth , and keep themselves in spiritual life and vigor , and daily building up one another on their most holy faith , advance heaven-ward . and it is as comely as advantageous . the royal prophet understood what was seemly and worthy of him in his conversation , and he saith , i will talk of thy commandments before princes and not be ashamed . is it not seemly for those that are risen with christ to speak of the things above , and for fellowtravell rs towards the heavenly kingdom , to mention the affairs of their own country ? it is also sweet and lovely , a partaking of that grace that was poured into christs lips , and it is pleasant to all such as savour the things of god. yea , are not converts bound by all means to seek the conversion of others ? we have received this holy commandment , let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth , but that which is good for the use of edifying , that it may administer grace to the hearers . indeed holy language proceeding from the mouths of scandalous persons or detected hypocrites is disgraced , and loseth its savour . if affectation and vanity appear therein , it hath not so sweet a relish . but this can be no disparagement to gracious words , which holy and humble men of inoffensive lives speak feelingly from the abundance of the heart ; and those that judge them hypocrites , god will judge . moreover , honest minds may be sometimes guilty of imprudence , and thereby occasion some disgust , and make that which is good and wholsom to be unacceptable and ineffectual . nevertheless t is a bad matter for any one from the baseness of some hypocrites , and the weakness of good christians to take occasion of pouring out contempt upon this godly practice . yea , whosoever gives a check to it , upon pretence of its unseasonableness and impertinency at some times , are not well advised for the interest of true religion , because for one that is overforward herein a hundred are too backward , and that among the wise and able , who might reap a harvest of much good , if they were not too shie or sluggish . the most have need rather of the spur than the bridle in this case . wherefore discretion will mind the season in which every thing is beautifull , and not inconsiderately force discourse , and run on therein when it will not be entertained , as in the set times of other mens sports or business : nor will it press any beyond due measure , and what they can well receive , lest that which in it self is precious become nauseous or untastfull . opportunity and leasure will sufficiently offer it self for set and solemn conference ; and besides this , there will be room almost continually to put in by the by , a word that may take effect . how forcible are right words ! it hath sometimes come to pass , that a short saying occasionally let fall upon a prepared mind , hath entred deep , and stuck close . yea , that which takes not much at present , may be remembred , and have its effect after a long time , and then be matter of much blessing and praise . the counsel of the wise preacher looks this way . in the morning sow thy seed , in the evening with-hold not thy hand , for thou knowest not whether shall prosper this or that , or whether they shall be alike good . whatsoever scornfull or careless men conceit hereof , the divine wisdom hath made it praise-worthy and precious . the tongue of the just is as choice silver , and the lips of the righteous feed many . and to good hearts this practice will not be burdensom , for they will recreate their minds herewith , as an holy divertisement and serious pastime , while others spend their leasure in that mirth and laughter which the wise man calls madness . chap. ix . the prevalence of religion or real godliness in the civil government of a nation . in christian states and kingdoms religion being gods interest , ought to have the preeminence in all things . and its preeminence is no incroachment upon the rights of the higher powers , but their establishment . god alone hath an underived and unlimited empire over man his creature . the people are primarily gods subjects , and then are subject to princes , as to his vicegerents , and obedience to him is the grand interest both of prince and people . none can doubt that god hath made his own glory , and mans salvation the supreme ends of government and subjection . and consequently , that is the best policy which gives these ends the highest place , and makes temporal advantages and the wellfare of the outward man subordinate thereunto . and this requires that the constitution give the highest regards to gods laws , and maintain their authority , and that the whole publick administration tend to the promoting of righteousness and true holiness , and to the suppressing of all unrighteous and impious practice . as it is the church's duty and honour to teach and command her children to do whatsoever christ hath commanded : so it is the proper work and chiefest glory of the magistrate , who is gods minister to defend the faith , and uphold the ordinances of the gospel , and to further the most lively and powerfull dispensation of them , and to incourage and command obedience to the divine law written in nature or scripture . in subserviency hereunto his power is to determine such things as are requisit in general , but in particular are left undetermined of god , and therefore called indifferent , and are to be ordered by human prudence according to the general rules of gods word . and for these ends the chief magistrate hath a supremacy in all causes , and over all persons , civil and ecclesiastical . but it is no diminution of his authority to remove from it things unnecessary , unprofitablē , and offensive in their use , and for their doubtfull nature apt to perplex the subjects conscience . and he is the general bishop of his dominions in a political sense , without any incroachment upon that authority , wherewith christ the king of the church hath invested spiritual pastors . as he is such an officer , it is worthy of his chiefest care to provide , and send forth able and faithfull dispensers of the word , that may teach the people the good knowledge of god , after the example of the good king jehoshaphat ; and to see that every one , who hath the cure of souls , be resident with his flock , and constantly instruct them by preaching the word , and catechizing them in the principles of religion ; and not to suffer pluralists to seise upon several congregations as a prey , to fleece but not to feed them ; to incourage laborious ministers , that watch for the peoples souls , as those that must give an account ; and strictly to injoyn the sanctification of the lords day , which was sanctified to the publick worship of god by the apostles of our lord , who were guided by an infallible spirit in setling this , as all other ordinances pertaining to christs kingdom , and was observed by the apostolick churches , and so hath continued in all ages , and in all places of christianity , and is conveyed down to us by as unquestionable tradition as the scripture it self . it is not of little moment to suppress , or at least to bring into disgrace whatsoever customs serve for nought , but to feed inordinate sensuality , and to make those that use them profane , vicious and licentious . there are frequented shews and pastimes well known , that increase unto all ungodliness , and may be called the devils ordinances . those that wish well to piety have an ill part to act , when they take upon them to defend some exercises , from which an extreem abuse is inseperable , and which are made a trade of gain arising from the impurity and profaness of them , and therefore are incorrigible , and can admit no reformation . the piety of any nation is not to be measured by formalities and opinions and uniformity in little things , but by substantial devotion , by solid zeal in the weighty matters of the law , and main concerns of religion , by righteousness of life , by sobriety , purity , modesty , by peace and concord with mutual forbearance in those differences that should not , and need not make breaches among brethren , by dutifulness in all relations , by industry , frugality , and by abounding charity that is full of good works . happy is that state where religious influence is predominant , where the pious and prudent bear sway , not by intrusion , but by lawfull admission ; also where it ariseth to that strength , as to carry along with it the affection and interest of a nation , not by setting up the faction of a few , but by making the generality , or at least the greater number of considerable men , some of them truly regenerate christians , and the rest orderly and well affected . one would think it were out of question , that it were more desirable , that religiousness should be in fashion , than open dissoluteness and profaness . for uncontrolled profaness will run down all religion . but when those that reach not the power of godliness indeed , come so far , as to take up an outward garb thereof , it is a great external advantage to true religion , and shews its prevalent influence on the publick state. if any should demur upon this assertion , by making it a question whether phariseim or profaness be the worser evil , let him know first , that profane and dissolute christians are notorious hypocrites , for professing to know god , when in works they deny him . besides phariseism is not simple insincerity , but a compound hypocrisie , wherein malignity and enmity against the power of godliness is the chief ingredient , it is a kind of strict externalness that seeks to destroy the inward life and spirit of that religion , which it pretends to own . i have no list to say that such malignity is less mischievous than filthy lewdness or debauchery . but the garb of strict profession here mentioned , is of another nature , and serviceable to the churches good , though we must continually and strictly charge all men to beware of resting in it to the ruine of their own souls . chap. x. christian unity and concord . all faithfull christians are members of one mystical body , having all one spirit , one lord and head , one faith , one baptism , and one god and father of them all , one hope of their calling , and one heaven to receive them all . their union and fellowship being chiefly mystical and invisible , their unity is far greater , than what outwardly appears to the world , and sometimes than what themselves can discern among themselves in particular , by reason of many inferior , yet very disquieting differences and discords . nevertheless it behoves them to provide , that it might appear as much as may be , what it is indeed , and that it be conspicuous and illustrious in the sight of men , by their walking in love and peace . unity is the churches strength and beauty , the honour of the faithfull , and an argument for the certainty of their most holy faith. it makes religion lovely , and draws forth blessing & praise from the beholders of it , and wins the world to a love and reverence of that piety , which makes the professors of it to live in brotherly kindness and mutual charity . but division is the church's weakness and deformity , the reproach of christians , and a scandal against christianity , and an objection put into the mouths of infidels against the faith , and an occasion of stumbling unto many . in the present divided state of religion , each party is apt to appropriate godliness to themselves , or at least to carry it towards others , as if they did so . and they , that are loudest in accusing dissenters of uncharitableness in this kind , are themselves as uncharitable as any others . it is true , that god hath a peculiar people , distinguished from all others by a peculiar character , but it is not confined to any party of this or that persuasion or denomination , that is narrower than meer christianity . and all true christians are to receive one an other , as god hath received them . indeed the best christians are to be best esteemed , and their fellowship is most desired . but if they should be severed from the universality and in a strict combination set up as divided party , it tends to the churches ruine : for a kingdom divided against it self cannot stand , and if the nobler parts of the body forsake the rest , the whole must needs die . christian concord doth not signifie an aggregation of things inconsistent , as the fellowship of righteousness with unrighteousness , the communion of light with darkness , the concord of christ with belial . to set up unity against piety , is a conspiracy against christ , who is king of righteousness , and to pretend piety against unity , is to oppose christ the prince of peace , whose kingdom is the reign of love in the soul : holiness and peace must kiss each other , and as inseperable companions walk together . it is the unity of the spirit we are charged to keep in the bond of peace : but concord in any external order without fellowship in the divine life , is not the unity of the spirit , which is to partake of the same new nature , and to walk together in the same holy way . this is far more excellent than the greatest compliance in matters of meer external order , and consequently much more regardable in our estimation and reception of persons . though to meet in one place , be not of so great importance as to be joyned in one spirit , yet it must not be counted a small matter . the unity of faith and love is much concern'd in the unity of church communion : it will be a matter of some difficulty for them to live together in love , whom one church cannot hold . church divisions commonly divide affections , and draw men into parties and divided interests , and make them seek to strengthen their own party , by weakening all others , to the great dammage of true religion in general . for which cause the unchurching of churches and renouncing of communion with them that are sound in the doctrine of faith and sacrament , and in the substance of divine worship , should be dreaded by all sober christians , yea , all unnecessary distances should be avoided , least they lead to greater alienations , and direct enmities and oppositions . those churches that cannot hold local communion one with another , by reason of differences that destroy not the essentials of christianity , should yet maintain a dear and tender christian love one to another , and profess their owning of each other as churches of jesus christ , and should agree together upon certain just and equal rules , for the management of their unavoidable differences , so as may least prejudice charity and common good , and least harden the ungodly and grieve the weak or dishonour god , or hinder the success of common , great and necessary truths upon the souls of men , amicably promoting the common cause of christianity , and every part thereof , in which they are agreed , and opening their disagreements to the people as little as they can . schism is an unwarrantable separation from or division in a church , and without controversie it is a heinous sin , and to be detested both for its exceeding sinfulness , and wofull consequents . but it hath been so disguised , and the odious name hath been so confusedly cast abroad , and so unreasonably and maliciously misapplied , that it is too slightly thought of , where it should be sadly laid to heart : for it is common with the strongest party , be it right or wrong , to call themselves the church , and to have no better name for others than schismaticks ; and so the reproach is but contemned by them that suffer it , and the sin it self is too little feared on all sides . but it is not a temporal law nor secular power , nor any prevalence of strength or interest , that makes a church ; and none of these things will excuse them from schism , that act uncharitably against their brethren , and obstruct the progress of the gospel , and the increase of godliness ; nor are they forthwith to be counted schismaticks , who cannot in all points observe the commandments of men , and cannot neglect to yield their help to the saving of souls , that would otherwise want due means of salvation , when god hath called them to that service , with a woe unto them if they preach not the gospel . for as much as all must dread the guilt of schism truly so called , let it be well considered , that ecclesiastical superiors are as much concerned to take heed of schismatical impositions , as the people are to shun schismatical recusancy and disobedience : as well the pastors wisdom as the peoples due submission , is here importunately called for . when superiors know how to command , and inferiors how to obey , things will go as well as may be hoped for in this our imperfect state here upon earth . as the peace of a corrupt state of religion is best assured by suppressing all conscientious inquiries into its decrees ; so the peace of the true church and of the sound state of religion , is most secured by the most perfect exercise of sound judgment and upright conscience in all its adherents . that church that claims to her self an infallibility , or challenges and obtains from her partakers an implicit faith in her determinations , without further enquiry , needs not fear the breaking of the bond of her peace , if she multiply constitutions and impose any devised doctrines and ordinances sutable to her own estate . on the other hand it is most evident that a rational conscientious and truly pious concord among such christians , as know and care what they believe , can never be procured without avoiding the imposition of things unwritten and unnecessary , in which it is morally impossible for men of sound faith and good conscience generally to agree . but when necessary things only are injoyned , their weight and truth will soon be known , and owned of all honest minds , or at least are most likely so to be ; and much sooner and easier than the weight , and truth of little and doubtfull things ; and by this means they would more easily move with joynt consent in one godly order , the matters of their difference being before hand taken out of the way . this moderate course being held , the union of unseigned faith and love will become a sure foundation of true christian concord with sound judgment and good conscience , and do that for the suppressing of schism in the right state of christianity , which implicit faith and blind obedience doth in false , corrupt and antichristian state. here it is mainly requisite , that those things that most promote or hinder the new birth and spiritual life , be by pastors and people universally most regarded ; and those that make little for or against the same , be looked upon as of little moment . and the truth is , when the greatest and weightiest matters are duely prized and most contended for , contentions about little things will soon expire . and if this course be taken , hypocrites will lose their advantages of seeming religious by zeal for those things , wherein religion doth not consist , and carnal designs and interests that now rend the churches , and trouble all things , would be defeated and abandoned . moreover to maintain peace , they that rule had need consider what mistakes and weaknesses are competible to true believers , and sometimes to the best and choicest of them , that they might not bear too hard upon them . and they that are ruled must consider that the best polity or constitution , so far as it is of mans regulating , hath defects and inconveniences , and affairs will be complicated ; and therefore they must not be too unyielding , but bear with what is tolerable and not easily remediable ( though they may not in any wise do a sinfull act , or omit a duty in the season of it . ) for by want of such forbearance , they may sooner destroy the good part than mend what is amiss . it is not seldom in such cases that men seek remedies , that prove worse than the disease . if the healing of breaches require an yielding or receding from what hath been stood upon , it should be on that part where equity and necessity declares it should be . it is not so easie for every christian to resolve what is right in many opinions and usages , as for those in power to omit the inforcing of them . unnecessary injunctions may easier be parted with , than mens judgments can be altered , or their doubting consciences well setled . this tenderness and forbearance is no lessoning of the church ' s honour and power . and a little diversity i● little things , cannot rationally move derisi●… in the irreligious , nor justly give scandal to any . but there be things of that slightness that an over-precise and importunate unifo● mity in them , may occasion contempt and suspition of hypocrisie or superstitious folly unity of faith and life is the glory of the tr●… church , and uniformity in external order is 〈◊〉 be indeavored with sobriety , and is best effecte● by cutting off superfluous institutions and lay ing no greater burden on the faithfull tha● things necessary . and this pacifick state may b● as well hoped as wished for , if the guides o● the church would seek the things of christ mor● than their own things . but alas , the usurpations and impositions o● proud and selfish men , even in pretence o● suppressing schism , have hindred christia● people from uniting in the true center of unity which is jesus christ , as set forth in the doctrin● of the apostles and prophets , and which 〈◊〉 the same yesterday and to day and for ever . in deed , they that prevail by power to advanc● their own devised ways , and crush disenters may make a desolation and then call it peace an● union ; but it is not the peace of christs kingdo●… divisions are caused by men of corrup● minds , and partly by the weakness of good men ascribing too much to their own apprehen sions and inclinations , and not considering th● condition of others as their own , nor minding the necessity and usefulness of lawfull compliance , or of mutual forbearance and discention . chap. xi . a good frame of ecclesiastical polity . the promoting of true christianity , and all the things before named pertaining to the sound state of religion , depends much upon a good frame of ecclesiastical polity . undoubtedly our lord jesus christ hath appointed spiritual officers to guide and rule his church ; and in the government thereof there be some things of divine right , and unalterable by the will of man ; and there be many things necessary to the support and due managment thereof , that are of humane determination as to the particulars . both kinds are liable to depravation and great abuse . things of divine right may be corruptly managed and perverted to wrong ends ; and things of mans appointment are sometimes not only ill managed , but ill ordained , as being wholly incongruous and perhaps pernicious to the right ends of goverment . now a good polity is the whole compages of things laid together in the fabrick of the church fitted and directed to promote the christian life , or the power of godliness , and to prevent or remedy the decay thereof . and the more notably and powerfully conducible it is to this end , it is by so much the more excellent . according to this rule , it hath most regard for sincere christians , and insists most upon their incouragement and the increase of their number , and it makes all its external orders and interests subservient to the prosperity of the church regenerate . the order wherein it excells , is an orderly management of those things , which are of divine command , in matter of doctrine , worship , discipline and conversation , in such manner as is most effectual for the obtaining of their ends , by such necessary rules of prudence , as are requisite in all human actions . it prefers purity and spirituality before external pomp , though it neglects not those necessary decencies and ornaments that should attend the service of god , according to the awfull regard that is to be had thereto , and the reverend demeanor to be used therein . it provides able ministers of the gospel , and that every pastor be resident with his own flock , and that he duly feed them , and labour in the word and doctrine , and that the people be not left in the hands of a mercenary procured at the cheapest rate . it provides by a liberal maintenance worthy endowments and priviledges , for that meet support and honour of the ministery , which is requisit to preserve the authority and reverend esteem of their persons and office ; yet it regulates the same as much as may be , to prevent ambition , avarice , sensuality , idleness , haughtiness ; that the worst of men may not be incouraged to aspire to its promotions , and that good men may not degenerate , and that the sacred name of the church may be held by a society of men , not carnal but truly spiritual . it is constituted as much as may be , to secure a succession of wise and godly pastors and teachers from age to age , which is the surest means of the church's perpetual good estate . it is not framed to uphold things only serviceable to a carnal interest , but to inforce things acceptable to god and profitable to men ; and to suppress whatsoever tends to defeat the power of the gospell , or disgrace the profession of it ; and to reform abuses impartially and effectually . according to the true end of ecclesiasticall authority ( which is for edification , and not for destruction ) it inlargeth the power of doing good , and restrains the power of hurting , as much as the ends of goverment will permit such restraint ; accordingly its greatest severity takes hold of the worst men , and the best are left most at liberty , and secure from unnecessary molestation . it is directed to the satisfying of the just and reasonable demands of conscience , which is a choice and tender thing , and therefore it is very tender of intangling and perplexing the same unnecessarily . it makes the pastors government truly pastoral , that is , not imperious and violent , but paternal , proceeding by exhortation and doctrine , and gentle instruction and love , and when correction is necessary , by the rod of discipline . it aims at the forming of mens minds , and the governing of their conversations by good and sound principles , and to make them , a●… much as may be , a law to themselves : yet a●… supposing the exceeding pravity of mans nature , and the infirmities of the best of men , i●… leaves not the safety of religion meerly to mens good dispositions and inclinations , bu●… by due restraints curbeth the remainder o●… mans perverseness . it seeks not to debase the people and de press their faculties , that they may be the more easily led captive by politick men at their pleasure ; but to ennoble them , as much as they are capable , and to advance their understandings to the best improvement ; and accordingly it takes care , that they may be throughly instructed in things pertaining to faith and godliness . in a word , it would make even the lowest and meanest of them not brutes bu● men ; and not meer natural men , but christians or spiritual men. the subject here described hath different degrees of excellency , as it is more or less answerable to its rule , and available to its end . but notwithstanding divers defects and errours , if that which is wholsom and good be predominant , it is to be esteemed a good constitution : yet the best is most desirable . of such consequence is the structure of ecclesiastical polity , that if it be naught , it hath a continual evil influence on all church affairs , and perverts the whole course thereof ; and the making of many particular good laws , or rules will not help it ; for in that case they are rendred almost useless . it is notably observed by a person of eminent worth . church government is a fort or castle , if traitors to the kingdom of christ get the possession of it , it were desirable , that the castle were ruin'd , and the christian religion left to support it self by the innate evidence of its own truth , than be forcibly maintain'd for contrary ends , and prove a mystery of ungodliness and tyranny . chap. xii . the corrupt state of religion ; and first externalness and formality . every kind of excellency in the present world hath its counterfit or false resemblance , which in things of a moral nature is the depravation or degeneration thereof . and so the true religion hath its degeneration which is destructive to it ; yet in this corruption of mankind is easily mistaken , and exalted in the room of it . it is a dead image of christianity without the inward life of christ , and the works thereof are dead works being not wrought in god. it is the dominion of the spirit of the world , and of unmortified lust under pretence of the rule of the spirit of god. it is a zeal of some unnecessary opinions and unprofitable observances , received sometimes from a more peculiar and private fancy , sometimes from the general custom and tradition ; or at the best , a zeal of orthodoxality , when that form of sound doctrine is not obeyed from the heart . it is a self-chosen godliness , and not of gods making , taken up to delude the conscience , and lift up the soul with high but ill-grounded hopes , and in the mean while to excuse it from that which is the root of the matter , the renouncing of the carnal life and all worldly lusts , and the obtaining of the spirit of power , love , and of a sound mind . and a life of purity , goodness , and impartial righteousness . the best of it is but a gloss or varnish of superficial religiousness , accompanied with a dead kind of morality , which hath its rise from education , or from complexion ( otherwise called good nature ) but springs not from the root of love towards god , and of a living faith in jesus christ. the several impostures , disguises and false pretences , by which men delude themselves , and abuse the world in this matter , are almost numberless : yet they generally fall into one of these two main currents of religious aberrations , either the political , popular and broad way of externalness and customariness , or the devious path of sectarian dissetledness and extravagancy . the more ample degeneration of christianity is the meerly formal , external and political state thereof , that hath prevailed far and near over the christian world. this externalness is very plausible and specious , but very consistent , and for the most part accompanied with a large indulgence to the flesh , and with much licentiousness of principles and practice , and it casts the mind into a deep forgetfulness of that which is spiritual , and substantial in religion . it is the common rode and broad way , because most obvious and easie to the carnal spirit of all sorts of men , who having some conscience of religion , gladly take up with a form , that with more security and peace they may deny the power thereof ; as also because it seems most servicable to superiors for shaping and swaying the consciences of inferiors to their wills , and to the ends by them designed . accordingly as it gets ground , it erects a frame of things which hath a shew of piety , unity and order , but is really an engine devised to destroy whatsoever may be truly called by those lovely names . when mens false and vain inventions rule instead of gods oracles ; when the truth of the gospel is mingled with such doctrines , institutions , and observances , as corrupt the purity , enervate the power , and frustrate the ends of the gospel ; when the misapprehension or misapplication of true doctrine depraves the mind , and begets a false notion of godliness or christianity ; when regeneration or true conversion is prevented , by being made in effect no more than civility , joyned with a dead conformity to the exterior part of the christian institution ; when religion is placed in an outside pharisaical holiness , in some bodily severity , and it may be in meer forms and empty shews , without internal and real mortification and devotion ; when the exterior ordinances of the gospel are retained , but used after another manner , than what becomes the gospel-church , or sutes the ends of gospel-worship ; when a sapless and fruitless generation of men are nourished in holy orders , who cherish the people in ignorance , profaness or lukewarmness , who shew them a way to heaven , that is smooth , broad and easie to the flesh , who serve , or at least spare the lusts of men , who humour the vulgar sort in rude follies , who give absolution upon formal and loose terms , and therewith a false repose to poor deluded souls ; when the great interest of churchmen is to promote superstition , blind devotion , and implicit faith , and to hold people in the chains of spiritual darkness , and in the pleasing bondage of carnal liberty , their consciences being in the mean time secured by the belief of certain tenents and articles of religion , and the devout observance of certain external ordinances ; when the policy of the church is contrived to maintain fleshly ease and pleasure , worldly pomp and power , and the chiefest glory of the ecclesiastical state lies in outward order , without inward life and spirit in sacred administration ; when the weapons of its warfare are not spiritual but carnal , sutable to an earthly and sensual state ; when submission to the wills of masters upon earth is called obedience , and their peaceable possession of wealth and honor is taken for the churches peace ; when concord in the unprofitable or hurtfull dictates of men is made to pass for the unity of the spirit ; when the constitution it self ( the general corruption of mankind being considered ) is found defective for the true end of government , and le ts loose the rains of depraved appetite , and by carnal allurements alienates the mind from the things of the spirit of god , and turns it after the pomps and vanities of the world , and serves the voluptuosness , covetousness and pride of its adherents , for which cause its yoke is easie to the sensual part of men , but it is scandalous to them that know the truth , and becomes a stepmother to the most serious and conscientious ; when these and the like things prevail , the christian religion is turned into another thing than what it is indeed , by men of corrupt minds , who serve their own lusts , and by the wisdom that descends not from above , but is earthly , sensual , devilish , square out to themselves , and those that live under their influence , a loose form of christianity not after christ , but after the course of this world . but this corruption is more or less enormous in different ages and countries , according to its greater or nearer distance from the times and means of purer knowledge . and a less corrupt state may be severed from that which is more grosly vicious and impure , and yet remain a degeneration in the same kind though in a lower degree . and let this be noted that in a degenerate state , the doctrines and institutions of christ may be so far retained , as to contain things absolutely necessary to christian faith and life , which may beget and preserve the vitals of christianity in them , that do not mingle with the other poisonous ingredients , or at least not in their full extent . yea , the degeneration may happen to be in a lower degree , and less pernicious , and perhaps only as a scab upon some part , and not overspreading the whole body of the church , and great multitudes therein may profess and practice the truth as it is in jesus . thus the judaical church in its corrupt state retained the vitals of true religion , which were a sufficient means of grace to them that escaped the pollutions of those times , and were not seasoned with the leaven of false teachers . chap. xiii . the sectarian and fanatical degeneration . the other deviation lies more out of the common rode of the generality of carnal gospellers , and this is usually stiled sectarian , whereof the particular by paths are numberless . but let this be noted , that whatsoever way swerves from the main ends of religion , and the great design of the gospel , is no other than a sect or faction , yea , though it spread so far and wide , as that they who walk therein , do for their huge multitudes presume to appropriate to themselves alone , the title of the catholick church . wherever the interest of a party bears sway to the detriment of the universal church , and the common cause of godliness , where inventions false or useless are made the necessary symbols of religion , there a sectarian interest bears sway , and the gaining of the secular power will not wipe off the blot of such a party . the name of sectaries may fit proud usurpers as well as blind zealots . this necessary proviso being made , it remains to speak in this place of the more incoherent , unstable , and ungovernable sort of sects . the root of the evil in this kind is commonly a heightened fancy , and complexional zeal bearing rule instead of sober judgment , and a more intellectual , spiritual and pure love . it shall suffice to set down some notable instances , for it were endless to recount them all . some have been so far transported with the hatred of church tyranny , and persecuting pride and cruelty , that they mind not the good of church unity , order and government ; and they run so far from implicit faith in the dictates of proud men , that themselves have proudly slighted the churches directive judgment , and all pastoral authority as a thing of no value , and have fiercely impugned it , as opposite to christian liberty . of the like strain are they , that upon pretence of higher attainments and greater spirituality have rejected external ordinances ; as the dispensation of the word and sacraments , and the publick ministery , and ecclesiastical discipline as low and beggarly rudiments , while they declare themselves hereby to be carnal , and vainly puffed up in their fleshly minds . some through abuse and mistake of divine promises concerning the spirits teaching , have forsaken the sure guidance of gods law , and betaken themselves to the uncertain intimations of providence , and the dangerous impulses of their own spirits , and pretended immediate inspirations , which are for the most part the delusions of an exalted fancy ; and sometimes they have really fallen under satanical impressions . because there is the fleshly wisdom of the carnal mind , that is enmity against god ; some have disclaimed reason it self as corrupt and carnal , and in the mean while follow their own wilfull imagination under the pretence of the light within them , and delight in things irrational and unintelligible , and render themselves uncapable of sound instruction . a fanatick fury hath hurried some under pretence of erecting the fift monarchy , to rend and tear kingdoms and nations , to attempt the dissolving of all government in church and state ; which is indeed the most ready way to subvert gods kingdom by the subversion of christian magistracy and ministery , and to dispossess the gospel of the territories it hath gained . some have proceeded so far in the pretended reign of the spirit , as to abrogate the external frame of the christian religion , and to turn the gospel history into mystical allegories , yet such as might be conceived and shaped in a vulgar fancy , and are low and despicable things in comparison of the great mystery of godliness , according to the historical sense of scripture . and which is yet worse , some have been so gross as to turn into an allegory the great hope of our christian calling , even the resurrection of the dead , and the life of the world to come , and so pervert the mysteries of the gospel into a mysterious infidelity and apostacy from jesus christ. yea , some perverting the high expressions of fellowship with god , and dwelling in god , and being made partakers of the divine nature and the like , have impiously talked of their begodded condition , and blasphemously intituled the most high and holy one , to their abominable extravagancies and impurities . and besides all these , some are perpetual seekers , having no fixed belief in the most important points . persons so far inlightened as not to see the necessity of a higher way than the common dead formality , and having some tast of spiritual things , and thereby raised above the general indifferency , and luke-warmness unto a kind of strictness , seriousness , and fervour of spirit in religion , yet falling short of true conversion , and especially if they be well conceited of their own gifts and parts and seeming graces , are apt to be carried away with a full gale of fancy into the gulf of these delusions . and a tincture of this contagion , though in a lower degree , may sease on some , who stand in the true grace of god , being deceived by a shew of purity and spirituality , and peradventure lying under the disadvantage of some insnaring occasions , which work upon the remainder of pride , levity , curiosity , and other corruptions , which the present imperfect state leaves in the hearts of real christians . and some of these may sooner fall into absurd opinions , than many that receive not the truth in love , who may easily abide among the orthodox , either because they do not concern themselves in religious inquiries , or because they are held by worldly advantages which stand on truths side . the fancy is sooner filled with notions and the affections thereby raised , than the judgment is well informed and the heart established in grace . hence proceed a sickliness in the souls appetite , a satiety of plain saving truths , and of sound wholsom preaching , a desire of novelty , self-conceitedness , pragmatical confidence , rash censures , partiality in hearing the word , a lessening of the pastoral authority , incroachments upon the pastors office , dividing principles and practices , and innumerable , inconveniences . moreover , well meaning people associated in a stricter profession , are apt to be sequacious of some leading persons among them , and some will follow the rest for company . and the high pretensions and heightened confidence of enthusiasts , is a kind of enchantment to bewitch those that unwarrantably approach to near them , especially such as are predisposed by temper or complexion towards enthusiasm . in these things men forsake the law and the testimony to walk by false lights , and to follow blind guides . the holy ghost bids us trie the spirits , and hath given us an infallible rule of tryal , and leaves us not to any unaccountable impulse or impression . the whole tenor of evangelical doctrine shews that the christian spirit is both pure and peaceable , that it doth not divide , break and scatter a christian people , but unites , heals and settles them , that it doth not overturn churches and civil states , nor inflame rulers against subjects , nor subjects against rulers , nor dissolve magistracy and ministery ; but that it turns the hearts of the fathers to the children , and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just ; and conciliates the minds of magistrates , and ministers and people of all degrees in righteousness and peace , which is the right and sure way of erecting gods kingdom . it doth not cancel reason , but maintain its interest in religion , as being under the power of god , and the great prop and proof of the christian faith. it is a spirit of judgment , and soberness , and suppresseth the wild dominion of the unruly imagination . it doth not turn men from humanity and civil behaviour , unto a surly and cynical pride , and fanatick melancholy and austerity ; but it disposeth them to all the duties of human life , and civil converse . but there must be heresies , and it is impossible but that offences should come . where the light of the gospel is broken forth , sectarianism and fanaticism is the devils after-game . so it sprung up in germany upon the birth of protestantism , so it sprung up in the primitive church upon the birth of christianity , in the gnosticks , and such like sectaries , and so it continues in our times . these irregularities and extravagancies are a great dammage , and reproach to a serious , zealous and strict profession , and it is a stone of stumbling before many . nevertheless the greatest and most dangerous degeneration from the sound state of religion lies not this way . the conceptions and motions of fanaticism , having a kind of spiritual strain though in a delusion , take not with the greater number whether of high or low degree , the learned or unlearned sort . and in case it seases on a greater multitude , it may trouble and unsettle a state , but it can never settle it self ; and if it domineer a while , its tyranny cannot hold , because it hath no foundation , and it can never obtain to be a national religion , because it is inconsistent with the stability of civil government . it s greatest mischief to a state is , that it may serve the designs of others to work out a more lasting misery . for which cause , the romish emissaries under a vizor have overacted this wild spirit , that by its confusion and anarchy , they might make way to introduce their own tyranny . but the more extensive , dangerous , and lasting depravation of christianity lies on the same side with popery , which is formidable indeed being founded in power and policy and suted to worldly interests , and to which mens innate propensions do generally more incline them . for that their fancies and affections are inveagled with its outward wealth and glory , and their consciences laid a sleep by its loose principles and lifeless forme of devotion . chap. xiv . the way of preserving religion uncorrupt . the truth and purity of religion lies in its conformity to its rule , which is gods revealed will or law , and its deviation from it , is its depravation . from this rule men are easily drawn aside , being inticed by their own vain imaginations , perverse inclinations , and carnall interests , to false ways and vain inventions . for which cause it behooves the zealous religionist to be carefull even to jealousie , that he be not imposed upon by himself or others , and in this care heartily and intirely to resign , and conform himself to the law of god. by such resignation and conformity he secures his own soul , and what in him lies the sound state of religion . it is here acknowledged , that what is written in nature is gods law , as well as what is written in scripture , and that natural revelation as well as supernatural is divine , and whatsoever is known of god by the light of nature in the matter of religious worship , is to be received as well as that , which is known by the light of scripture ; and the divine goodness is to be owned in both , though in the latter it hath appeared more abundantly , because therein is given us a full instruction in all things pertaining to gods kingdom , which in the other is not given . for the great mysteries of the gospel could not be known by nature ; and in things that could be known thereby , the light is but weak and glimmering , and not easily able to fix the heart therein , not so much for want of evidence in the object , as from the pravity of our mind , reason being laid asleep and all our faculties being sunk into the brutish life . what is the utmost capacity of that light among the heathens , is hard for us to define ; and though it be harsh to determine that they were all utterly and universally forsaken of god ; yet it is evident both by scripture and the lives of the gentiles , that gentilism was a very forlorn state . this is enough to shew the high favour of god toward the church in supernatural revelation , by which he hath not only instructed us in things supernatural , not otherwise to be known in this life ; but also more perfectly in the laws of nature , now transcribed into the books of the old and new testament , so that there is nothing of religion or morality that may not be found therein . besides the law of god written in nature and scripture , what certain and stable rule of doctrine , worship , discipline , and conversation , hath the church to walk by : that there can be no certainty or consent in meer or all tradition , or in the judgment of the ancient fathers , or the ancient practice of the catholick church , is so evident as needs no confirmation : and there can be no acquiescence or accord in the determinations of any visible , universal , supream power . for whereas all christians acknowledge the divine authority of the scripture , they neither do , nor ever did , nor will , unanimously acknowledge that there is such a power in being . and the main body of them that maintain'd such a catholick supremacy , cannot agree in what subject the same resides , whether in the pope , or a general council . and as several popes , so have several councils of equal amplitude and authority , often crossed one another ; and consequently some of both kinds must needs have erred : and it still remains a controversie undeterminable , which councils are to be received , and which to be rejected , unless the whole christian world hitherto disagreeing herein , will be bound up by the resolves of one party , that can bring no better proof than their own pretended infallibility : to all which may be added that an oecumenical council truly so called , or a representative of the universal church , was never yet congregated . wherefore let the faithfull rest upon the old right foundation , the doctrine of the prophets and apostles , whose infallibility is unquestionable . such being the fulness and perfection of holy scripture , which was given by divine inspiration ; and that for this end , that the man of god might be perfect , throughly furnished unto all good works , it must needs be safest in divine matters not to be venturous , without its warrant . they best secure themselves from error , who keep to that rule which is both perfect and infallible , some pretending to lay open the folly of the way which they call puritanism , affirm that the mystery thereof lies in this principle , that nothing ought to be established in the worship of god , but what is authorized from the word of god : indeed there are those of that denomination , who disallow whatsoever instituted worship is not so authorized ; but they are not so ignorant , as to suppose that all particular circumstances belonging to divine worship , which admit of endless variation , are defined in the word of god ; such as are those natural and civil circumstances without which , actions are not performable but they suppose a wide difference between these matters , ( such as time , place , method , furniture , &c. ) and those ordinances of religion which they take for parts of worship , as being made direct and immediate signs of honour given to god by their use : and all of this kind some do judge or at least suspect to be unlawfull , that are not of gods appointment . my design obligeth me to shun the intangling of this discourse with controversie , and therefore i write not either for or against the lawfulness of such uncommanded worship ; but it is sufficient for me to shew that the purity of religion is more safe by acquiescence in that only which god hath prescribed , than by addition of new ordinances of worship devised by men , who even the best of them may too easily deviate from the truth : and who knows not that too much yielding to mens devised forms and rights , which had a shew of wisdom , made way for the departure of so great a part of christendom , from the primitive christianity . all duties of the law of nature , may be clearly proved from scripture , though the particular instances thereof that are innumerable , and their infinitely variable circumstances cannot be there expressed . as for instituted worship , it is unquestionable that there is no such defect in those parts thereof that are of divine authority , as needs to be made up by the human addition of other new parts . and it is granted on all hands that there are things meerly circumstantial belonging to it , which are necessary in general , but in particular not determined of god , and must be ordered by the light of nature and human prudence , according to the general rules of gods word . none that know what they say in magnifying the written word , will teach the people not to rely upon impartial reason , which no true revelation did ever contradict . but we are so conscious of the weakness of human understanding , that in case of any seeming contrariety between scripture and reason , not to give the scripture the preeminence , we know is most unreasonable . is scripture liable to be perverted ? so is reason . is there obscurity and difficulty in the interpretation of scripture ? so in human ratiocinations much more . whosoever can apprehend right reason , can rationally apprehend gods written word , which is its own interpreter , and whose authentick interpretation of it self , we are inabled to discern by rational inferences and deductions , as well as the sense of any rational discourse whatsoever . and the evidence of gods testimony is much more effectual , than the arguments of human reason to command assent , and quiet mens minds and appease their contests . and if we yield not our controversies to be finally decided by this sacred rule , whither shall we go , or wherein shall we all be bound up ? the truth is , when men seek out vain inventions to please their own fancies , or to serve their own ends ; and find their devised ways condemned by gods word ; then they fall to derogate from its authority and sufficiciency , and talk much of the impertinency , and folly of those , that insist upon it , and cry up tradition , and reason , and that wisdom of man , that is but foolishness with god. when things will not be as well as they should , they must be as they may . there be some usefull truths and practices that may be too dearly bought , if purchased with the breach of the churches peace and unity , and the hazard of its whole estate . howbeit then is the best state of things , when the apostolick doctrine and discipline is the standardmeasure of all , and nothing is retained , but what is plainly agreeable thereunto . and the safety of pure religion lies in as through a reformation according to this rule , as the times will bear . let the severest reason that is impartial , weigh the following words written by one of a catholick spirit , and true to the interest of reformed christianity , touching our departure from rome . we should leave upon us no string or tassel of our ancient captivity , such as whereby they may take hold of us to pull us back again into our former bondage , but look upon our selves as absolutely free from any tye to them , more than in indeavouring their conversion and salvation , which we knowing so experimentally , not to be compassed by needless symbolizings with them in any thing ; i conceive it our best policy , studiously to imitate them in nothing ; but for all indifferent things , to think rather the worse of them for their using them , as no person of honour would willingly go in the known garb of any lewd and infamous persons : whatsoever we court them in , they do but turn to our scorn and contempt , and are more hardened in their own wickedness . wherefore seeing that needless symbolizings with them doth them no good , but hurt , we should account our selves in all things indifferent , perfectly free to please and satisfie in the most universal manner we can , those of our own party , not caring what opinions or customs , or outward formalities the romanists and others have , and may have had from the first degeneracy of the church . as for the word popery , it is not more odious than ambiguous among protestants . on the one hand some , that will speak hard words against it , have drawn it into so extreamly narrow a compass , as to place it in little more than a secular interest of power controverted between the pope , and the princes and prelates of christendom : and others that make it broader , are yet very tender , if not fond of many gross corruptions of the roman church . on the other hand some have extended it so far , as to disparage things good and laudable , and requisite , and ignorantly call by that name whatsoever they fancy not . nevertheless those useless and offensive things taken up by the papal church since the time of their known apostacy , both doctrines and customs , and that are theirs more peculiarly , may justly be called popish , though they were not imposed as apostolick commands , or means of obtaining pardon of sin , or of working grace . why should we be tenacious of their forms , to the scandal of those of our own belief ? how are we obliged or concerned to conform to their usages more than they are to ours ? have they any authority over us , or are they any way a rule unto us ? are not the holy scriptures of right both their rule and ours ? or can they upbraid us for departing from them in these at least unnecessary opinions and customs , unless they upbraid us upon those grounds which we have rejected , together with their usurpation , and and which if we receive again , we must quit protestancy it self ? this striving to come so near them whether tends it , but to reduce us again into that church ? for by all approaches to them , they are not drawn one step towards us , but are the more hardened , and still they rest unmoveable on the rock of their pretended supremacy and infallibility . the impurity of the romish church lies chiefly in its superstition and sensuality . in the grosser part of its superstition is manifold gross idolatry ; and any way of symbolizing with idolatry which is spiritual whoredom , should be dreaded by the chast spouse of chirst , as the retaining of such images as have been , and are apt to be made objects of religious adoration , and the making choice of the peculiar garbs and fashions of idolaters in their worship . moreover where the gross pollutions are avoided , if their pomp and train of ceremonies be retained , they will be apt to take up the heart of such as are busied in them , and to corrupt the worship of god , and make it a dead work and carnal service , and so the spirit and power of godliness will decay and die among the people by this means . sensuality the concomitant of idolatry and all gross superstition is likewise manifested in their devotions . of the israelites idolatry it is written , the people sat down to eat and drink , and rose up to play . sensual sports and pastimes are mingled with the devotions of carnal worshippers , as is notably seen in the popish festivals . and this makes the sensual part of men addicted to such a way . to pray a while , and then to play is the business of their sacred solemnities . but this course alienates the mind from true holiness , and tends to much profaness , and not only the piety , but the civility of a nation will hereby much abate . a church that would maintain the purity of religion , the power of godliness , had need have its solemn days of divine service distinct from the appointed times of carnal sport , mirth and jollity . chap. xv. the enmity of the world against godliness , and the calumnies and reproaches cast upon it considered . the security and increase of true religion is a matter of no small difficulty . the enmity against it is general and perpetual , in the first race of mankind it brake forth even to bloud , and throughout all ages it hath been propagated , & that with great rage , as well within as without the pale of the visible church . the adverse world knows not the new nature what it is , for it knows not god , whose image it is . the world is not only alienated from the life of god , but opposite to it by the antipathy of the carnal life , and so not only wants the true relish , but hath a strong disrelish of the divine and heavenly nature . moreover true christianity is a light , by which all things that are reproved , are made manifest ; and the world that lives in sin and loves darkness , hates the light , by which it is condemned , not only with an hatred of aversation , but of hostile persecution . nevertheless , the unregenerate sort of men in general , cannot and would not abandon all sense of religion , which is so deeply imprinted in human nature , and the form whereof may be acceptable even to corrupt nature . wherefore they own the name , while they hate the thing ; and keep up a shew and form thereof , while they deny the truth and power . and having a false apprehension of christ they adore him , while they trample upon his present members , that really bear his image ; and having a false idea of godliness , they honor the memory of the saints of former ages , while they vilifie those of their own times , in whom godliness really exists , which shews , that if christ and the former saints were now on the earth to appear what they were indeed , they would be no less hated and scorned than the faithfull that are now living . the manifold ways of destruction and misery wherein the wicked walk , though contradictory to each other , do all conspire in this enmity ; and godliness is put to conflict not with one sort of enemies , but with the various corrupt parties of the divided carnal world. yet worldly interests often make their advantages of christianity , and have their designs upon it , and complicate themselves with it in some external and accidential ingagements for a season , and then the enmity is restrained . and not a few , that fall short of regeneration , may be so illuminated and wrought upon , as not only to cease from malignancy and hostility against it , but to promote and strengthen its external interests . but for all this , the serpentine nature hath hitherto been more predominant in this lower world , and gods kingdom hath had far greater opposition , than assistance from the powers thereof . now we are noting the injury and despight that is done to godliness , the calumnies and reproaches , heaped on the serious professors of it to render them hatefull and contemptible , requires some animadversion . their adversaries set them forth as proud , froward , stubborn , false , rash , fierce , petulant , sullen , fanatical , hypocritical , censorious , pragmatical , unruly , schismatical , seditious , unpeaceable , presumptuous , selfish and such like . if we would judge rightly of these imputations , we are to mind many things , viz. the intrusion of hypocrites , the multitude of half converts , the great weakness of grace , and defect of wisdom in the greater part of sincere christians , and the imperfections of the best and chiefest of them . it is further to be considered that faults real or seeming , are more remarkable in strict professors than in any others , as spots in a white garment ; also that the common malignity will aggravate the same above measure ; likewise that the things , they are charged with ( were they truly charged ) are not peculiarly theirs , but the corruptions of the world in general ; and that some degrees thereof are found in all , in whom human weakness is found , and that they are less and in a lower degree in this party of men than in any other . add hereunto that the faults of some are commonly objected against all , and the sins of men not yet made perfect , are cast upon that holy and perfect way , which condemns those sins , and hath broken the dominion of them . moreover , when it is undeniable that this sort of men in general have renounced palpable dishonesty , injustice , filthy lewdness , wantoness , intemperance , luxury and other gross pollutions of the world , they are burdened ( according to the true method of calumniation ) with matter of suspition or evil surmise , as hypocrisie , self-conceitedness , fancicalness and secret pride , things mostly belonging to the hidden man of the heart ; or with spiritual wickedness , as envy , malice , bitterness , vain-glory , ambition , self-admiration and contempt of others , things of more close and covert nature , and as not easily proved , so not easily disproved where they are objected ; or with the ambiguous charge of schism , faction , turbulency , singularity , peevishness , perversness , obstinacy ; which opposite parties are continually casting upon each other , faults and duties , vertues and vices happening to be called by these names . and in this method of of accusation , the innocent are sooner injured than cleared , and slanderers do their work , for the reproaches are boldly cast abroad , and something sticks . but notwithstanding all the obloquie and calumny , the whole world may be challenged to produce an instance of any sort or sect of men , that have exceeded or equal'd the serious professors of the true christianity in things honest , and just , and comely , and usefull , and praise-worthy . it must not be exspected , but that during their imperfect state obliquities & aberrations will be found more or less in them , as they are more or less remote from perfection . but if true honesty and vertue be a reality and not an empty name , and if it be not perished out of the world , it exists and resides in them . howbeit in this way there are inevitable occasions of stumbling , not given but taken , and such fall thereat , as do err in their hearts , and have not known gods ways . the practice of true piety lying out of the common road , is misjudged as a kind of humorous singularity . to speak feelingly of divine things , seems folly or meer fancy to them , who have no knowledge or tast thereof in themselves . to express with zeal or vigor such things as seem to others incredible , though they be most true and excellent , is taken for madness . tenderness of conscience , strictness of life , servour of devotion , mortification and heavenly-mindedness , is by sensualists , formalists , and carnal politicians , judging by their own measure taken for hypocrisie , designing the applause of men , or some eminency and advancement in a party , or some other self-interest . a pious regard to the lesser as well as the greater commands of the law , and a dread of despising the least commandment , is commonly esteemed peevishness and needless preciseness . to distinguish between the holy and profane , the zealous and lukewarm , the carnal and spiritual in the visible church , and to judge of both sorts as they are , is a great offence to the world , for which the religious are thought to be proud , boasters , dispisers of others , uncharitable , censorious ; and formalists are magnified against them for their large charity towards all , which is indeed no charity , but indifferency in religion , not seldom accompanied with bitterness towards the godly . to speak as the scripture doth of a peculiar people , and as christ himself , of the fewness of gods chosen among the many outwardly called , is accounted the confining of godliness to a party , and the fancying of themselves to be the only people of god. now such arrogance is justly charged on those that place religion in narrow opinions , and platforms , and methods of their own chosing , and judge of all men as they are nearer or farther from them : yet nothing is surer than that god hath a peculiar people , who are comparatively a small number distinguished from the world by his own mark , which is no other than his own image in righteousness and true holiness . to discern a laborious , lively , faithfull ministery from that which is lazy , lifeless and deceitfull , and to regard the one and the other accordingly , to note the ignorant , foolish , profane and scandalous of that function , to contemn a vile person , and to honor them that fear the lord , to take notice of the serpentine seed , and to turn away from such , to abhor impiety , and to have no fellowship with the wicked in their evil deeds , provokes an evil generation that are hereby reproved and judged , and they raise an outcry against the godly as factious , unsociable despisers of government , makers of parties , and enemies to peace . to examin the doctrines , precepts , traditions , and customs of men by gods word , to use all just means to discern his will , and to choose to obey god rather than men , when their commands are contrary to his , is reviled for proud perverseness , contempt of ancient customs , and the authority of superiors , disobedience to kings and laws . to be zealous for gods honour , and the purity of religion , to be earnest and active in stopping the course of sin , and promoting piety and the means of salvation , and to be concerned for gods interest in the world more than the common sort are , make the religious to seem pragmatical , turbulent , and unpeaceable . not to run into the common excess of riot , nor to comply with mad mirth and jollity , offensive gallantry , or any extravagancy that is in fashion , is accounted stoical superciliousness and morosity . strictness of profession , seriousness and necessary preciseness of conversation seems to many to be the same thing with phariseism , wherewith the most conscientious are commonly most reproached , and so the hatefull name of christs worst enemies is cast upon his true and faithfull followers . wherefore it is worth the while to note who and what they were . it is evident from the gospel-history , that the pharisees were a strict sect , and in great reputation for seeming-holiness , no separatists from the jewish church , but of chiefest sway therein , and of great esteem among the rulers . they little cared for the ordering and government of the heart , and placed perfection in outward works , and in rituals more than morals , and chiefly in the ceremonies of their own devising , and the traditions of the elders , and in zeal for the corban or the churches treasure , and to these things they made the weightiest duties of the law give place . they wore broad phylacteries , and affected a proud reservedness and formal gravity . those fastings , prayers and alms-deeds , that should have been done in secret , they made a shew of openly to be seen of men. they would be counted rabbies , and owned for absolute teaching masters and leaders of the people , and would have all subject to their dictates . and they were maligners and opposers of the power of godliness , and persecutors of the true israelites to maintain their own institutes and interest . now for our part we have no need , nor mind to vindicate the true off-spring of such forefathers . it concerns all christians , as christ warn'd the disciples to beware of this leaven . but the truth is , something of phariseism may be found among some of all parties , as self-confidence , vain-glory , self-praise , censoriousness , arrogance , partiality , perverseness of conscience , or straining at gnats and swallowing of camels . and peradventure , those that most object it to others , may be most deeply infected with it themselves ; but however , it concerns all sorts to beware of it , and do as much as is possible to purge it out from among them , and every christian should strive to keep himself from any smatch of it , seeing it was so unsavoury to christ. it is thus very discernable from the manifold misapprehensions of the way it self , how godliness falls under the hard thoughts and speeches of the mistaken world. but wisdom is justified of her children . and if godliness it self by misapprehension become a rock of offence , no wonder the world is scandalized at the hypocrisie of false pretenders , and at the real faults and weaknesses of sincere professors . but christ hath said , blessed is he that is not offended in me . undoubtedly the making of an higher profession doth not exempt any from a just conviction and reproof . that hypocrites should be detected , and the scandalous faults even of sincere christians noted , is the interest of true piety . and charity both towards them that give offence , and towards them that take it to their hurt ; requireth such discovery . the godly lay to heart no evils more , than the scandals of professors ; and they know they are most concerned to take heed , lest any root of bitterness bearing gall or wormwood should spring up among them . and those , that sin before all , their discipline is to rebuke before all , that others may fear . but the great mischief is , that some so speak and write of hypocrites and offences , as to reproach godliness it self , and bring the profession of it into disgrace . when they take notice of any thing amiss in men professing godliness , whether the matter of fact be true or false , or the scandal be in reality or appearance only , they presently say these are your professors , they are all such , and the whole pack affords no better . the real or seeming hypocrisie , pride , covetousness , unrighteousness , uncharitableness , selfishness of some is cast upon all . from some instances of aberration they argue against a godly tenor of conversation , and deny sincerity where they see a falling short of perfection . they disparage a serious and circumspect course of life , by pretending it may be but a meer guise or shew , there may be lurking vices , and they who have scaped gross sensuality may be guilty of spiritual sins , as pride and envy ; and so they ground their detraction upon suppositions and surmises of what may be , though not appearing . they inveigh against hypocrisie in that manner , which hardens the vicious in their de●auchery ; and they incourage libertines in ●dleness and excess of vanity , by telling them , that the precisians may do worse . those godly exercises that lie out of the common road ( as to instance in holy conference ) they bring into contempt , by objecting an unseasonable and preposterous use thereof , or the impertinency and weakness of some therein . they censure inordinate transports of zeal , and whimsies in religion more bitterly than lewdnesses , outrages , gross impieties , and daring wickedness of dissolute persons . they will burden the sober-minded , that are zealous for their god , with the inexcusable madness of some intemperate zealots . the failings of the religious they aggravate above measure , and particularly some passionate disorders , that are commonly complexional , and have less of the will , and consequently of sinfull malignity in them , than many sins that make lesser noise , and raise less clamour : and they magnifie the eveness , moderation , mildness and other humanities of loose or lukewarm persons for the true christian spirit . they upbraid the godly with their solemn confessions and aggravations of sin before the lord , and with their acknowledgment and bewailing of such scandals before the world , as have been given by some among them ; as also with their publick testimonies against errors and corruptions , that have risen in their times ; and so they reproach them for their humility , sincerity , and impartiality in abusing themselves and giving glory to god , and condemning sin where ever they find it . they scoff at those that speak of communion with god , spiritual experiences , desertions , and the like matters ; and use in scorn scriptural words and phrases , and other holy expressions used by the religious ; and profane the terms of holy , godly , saint , sanctified , by the use thereof in scandalous ironies , and so they make sport for profane men , and harden them in their irreligion . they would render holy things contemptible by nothing , some little oversight and indecencies ( mostly involuntary ) in those that perform the same , as perhaps in the preachers tone or gesture . and to say the truth , it is one of the easiest things in the world for licentious wits to play upon the most serious and sacred things , and to make the most acceptable service of god and his choicest servants , seem ridiculous . these are some of the many vile and wretched ways of disgracing true religion : and i will add one more , to wit , that madness of opposition , on what side soever it be , which to make a different party odious , will not fear to expose godliness it self to the contempt and scorn of them that scorn all religious parties . surely it is a fearfull thing to be a hater , reviler , and scorner of persons , and things dear to god , and precious in his sight : what is it to provoke the lord to jealousie , if this be not ? wherefore he doth no ill service that detects this perillous folly : and men would easily shun such mistake and prejudice , as makes them misjudge and condemn the pious , if they would but deal fairly , and exercise the same equity and candor towards them , which is due to all sorts , and which towards themselves all do justly challenge . but godliness will be still godliness , let presumptuous wits imploy their tongues and pens to transform into never so ugly shapes , invectives , sarcasms , odious , and ridiculous tales and stories , scenial representations and disguises will not confound it , nor sink its authority and reputation . on the other hand the fairest coverings , and best contrived apologies , the most notable and advantageous policies , will not make corrupt things savoury , nor insipid things relishable , nor little empty things great and weighty , nor uphold the estimation of a degenerate , carnal , outside , lifeless state of religion , where better things are known . the wit of man may adorn or palliate any folly , and deform true wisdom : but in a lucid region , where knowledge is diffused , wisdom will shew it self , and the folly of fools cannot be hid . but let the religious know , that it behoves them to take care that they suffer not so many things in vain ; for these indignities may do them more good , than the vain applause of men : if their enemies give them advantage ( as indeed they do ) for the learning of more wisdom , sobriety , and circumspection , let them receive it ; it is pity they should not make the most of such harsh instructions . what manner of persons should they be in all holy conversation and godliness , that as much as in them lies , there might not be that wo to the world because of offences ; and that with well doing , they might put to silence the ignorance of foolish men ; more especially they should do their uttermost to shun even the appearance of the sins more peculiarly charged upon them , as hypocrisie , pride , wildness of fancy , affected singularity , and self-flattery ; and to be adorned with a conspicuous sincerity , humility , and charity . and whatsoever contumely they indure , let them by no means retaliate in the same kind , remembring their blessed lord , who being reviled , reviled not again , but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously . wickedness cometh from the wicked : scurrility , petulancy , bitterness and all intemperate language , is more agreeable to their adversaries , than to them : and it is observed , that the flinging of witty sarcasms , biting jears and scoffs , and railing words against a party , do vex and gall more than hurt or break them ; and provoke , but not convince them ; and serve indeed to feed a humour , and make sport , and do some present feat , but do not carry the main cause , or prevail in the end , but turn rather to the dammage and blemish of those , for whose service they were designed . chap. xvi . religions main strength next under the power of god , lies in its own intrinisick excellency . the propagating of true christianity , and the sound state of religion , agreeable thereunto against the enmity of the adverse world , is worthy of the utmost indeavours of all pious men ; and to search into the right ways and means thereof , is a necessary and noble speculation . but it must first be known , that its stability and victory in the world depends primarily upon the wisdom , truth , and power of god ingaged for it , and therefore it cannot fall by the power and policy of adversaries , nor sink and lose it self by the weakness or defectibility of its professors ; but it remains firm and sure , and the same for ever . next after the power of god , its main strength is its own intrinsick excellency . it is upheld chiefly by its own principles , which are mans perfection , and place our nature in its due state , and put both persons and societies into the only right frame , and reduce all things into their own place and order . they have nothing in them of iniquity , impurity , vanity or unfitness ; but are perfectly holy , just , and good , and give unto god his due , and unto men theirs , and that upon the most excellent grounds that can be laid ; as the glory of god , our conformity to him , our fellowship with him , our reward from him and in him , and all in and through a mediator , who is god and man in one person , and the head of all the faithfull , who are his body . the godly practice conformable to these principles , is from a cause that faileth not , to wit , the inhabitation and influence of the holy spirit of god. though true christianity be far above the strain and reach of meer nature , yet it is practicable by divine grace ; and notwithstanding the imperfect state of its professors , it faileth not of its end , which is to bring into the possession of the heavenly kingdom , the fruition of god and everlasting glory : yea , it doth effect great and excellent things in the present world . its rules are pure and perfect , its motives are great and high , and of indubitable verity . they that live after it , are a law to themselves and an aw to others . no other institution philosophical or religious , is so powerfull to restrain inordinate affection , and to settle the minds and affairs of men in the greatest peace and order , as far as human imperfection can arrive . it denies all vicious excesses , and sensuall pollutions , yea all offensive levites , and unchristian irregularities , and all fellowship therewith : yet morosity and sowreness of spirit , it by no means approves ; but serenity of disposition , and freeness and sweetness of conversation is both commanded and caused by it . it reacheth the hidden man of the heart , and awes the conscience ; it forbids the inward motions of intemperance and injustice , it condemns and loaths hypocrisie , and makes all external works to be nothing without sincerity . it makes sincere love the principle , and placeth it at the bottom of our whole behaviour towards others , and therefore prompts and powerfully ingages to mutual succour in the time of need . it maintains a charity unknown to the infidel world , and which is a vertue peculiar to it in the greatest vigor and extent . it injoyns the love of enemies . it exalts humility , meekness and mutual forbearance as chief vertues , which were contemned by the pride of moral heathens ; and therefore it makes men just and peaceable : and yet withal it hath the best grounds of true fortitude and magnanimity ; and therefore damns that pusillanimity and foolish softness of disposition , which betrays truth and vertue . self-denial is one of its grand precepts , without which none can live under its discipline and so it over-rules and controles that selfishness which is the arch-rebell against god , and the root of all mischief , and turns the world upside down . it teaches men to live above the honors and riches of the world , and takes off the heart from them . its principles most intirely accord with the true interest of the higher powers , it declare their authority to be from god as they are his vicegerents , and teacheth them to rule in subordination to him according to his laws ; and it awes the consciences of subjects to obdience . if rulers command any thing repugnant to the laws of god , it forbiddeth subjects to perform such-commands , yet withall obligeth to submit with patience to the unjust penalties of non-performance , and to avoid mutinies and rebellions . it also teacheth the people in spiritual matters to receive the churches directive with their own discretive judgment , and so not to derogate from the just authority of ecclesiastical superiors . it is indeed the chiefest strength of all just governments and societies . the truth is , it doth hedge in with thorns the lusts of men , as pride , malice , revenge , covetousness and sensuality ; but it secures and inlarges their wholsome comforts and injoyments , their proprieties , immunities and all just priviledges . it advanceth righteousness , temperance , beneficience and all other duties appertaining to mankind . wherever it roots and spreads , it makes no small part of the prudence , courage , industry and frugality , and by consequence of the wealth and strength of a nation . there is no aggregation of men in the world , wherein appears more of that which is good and profitable to men , than is found where the influence of this profession becomes predominant , whether in a nation or kingdom , or city or family . the spirit of christianity is the spirit of power , of love and of a sound mind , which gives great advantage for prudence , soberness , steddiness of conversation . the seriousness and gravity of this way disposeth not to futil talking , childish credulity , easiness and rashness , but to a considerate freeness , and direct dealing with a generous caution and reservedness in due season . though its followers cannot link themselves to factions , and serve all times and occasions , and go along with the men of this world in their designs throughout : yet they shall not fail of interest in a nation not wholly vitiated ; nor is it hard for them to maintain an influence upon the publick state , if they accommodate themselves to serve it so far as conscience and prudence leads them . considerate men will not contemn them , and they that own them shall know where to find them , and in pursuing good designs shall find them fast friends . religion doth not cast men down into stupidity , pusillanimity , or sluggish neglect of opportunity ; but erects them to a prudent , and temperate vigor of spirit , and regular activity , whereby they become fit for the affairs of human life in a higher or lower sphear , according to their different capacities . chap. xvii . religion may be advanced by human prudence ; what ways and methods it cannot admit in order to its advancement . though true religion stands by an unchangeable law , and depends not upon the mutable things of this world , and varies not according to their variations , nor is to be governed by the common policy of secular kingdoms : nevertheless its affairs may be much advanced by prudence , and disadvantaged by indiscretion . there is a lawfull use of human policy , being refined from hypocrisie and all iniquity . the author of this profession , the holy and just one , in whose mouth was no guile , adviseth his disciples to be wise as serpents , and harmless as doves . st. paul one of his chief ministers was attentive to all the methods of gaining people , and became all things to all men that he might win some ; and he was bold to tell some , that being crafty he caught them with guile : but it was the guile of abounding charity and self-denial , managed with prudence for the service of christ , and the saving of souls . in secular kingdoms the reasons of state are locked up from the common view . but the maxims and methods of this interest may with great advantage be disclosed as well to aliens and enemies , as to friends and fellow-citizens . for by this discovery the powers of the world , who through their own misapprehensions , or others malicious suggestions are sometimes turned against it , may become more propense and indulgent towards it ; and the more sober part of men may be inclined to favour it , and greater numbers both of high and low degree may be brought intirely to close with it , when they shall behold the goodness and usefulness , the innocency and integrity of its principles . as for the enemies counterworking we need not dread it . for the stratagems of this warfare are not carnal , and cannot be counterwrought with carnal stratagems . it remaineth therefore as the business of this inquiry , to consider how we may improve the intrinsical and innate advantages before mentioned ; and to gain all extrinsical and adventitious ones , that may be made , and to make th● most of them all for the designed end . but due care must be had , that the wisdom of this world or human policy have not too great 〈◊〉 stroke . for many are the arts and method●… that serve secular interests , which the sincerity and purity of true religion can by no mean admit . it cannot stablish it self in bloud and cruelty nor murther the innocent for its own security nor hold people in subjection by the horro● of a spanish inquisition , which is not the policy of the city of god , the spiritual jerusalem , but of babylon . it cannot make use of such impostures , as are used to uphold the mystery of iniqui●y , and which is the way of those church politicians that make men stupid and foolish , that they may the better lord it over them as besotted vassals . it cannot invite or ingage any to its side by ●arnal allurements , and provisions made for ●he lusts of men. the making of such provisions would extinguish its life and power , and bring forth a spurious carnal brood , that always with deadly hatred pursues its true pro●essors . it cannot lift up it self by serving the de●●gns and lusts of earthly potentates ; though it ●ives them their due honour to the full , yet it ●empts them not by flattery to think of themselves above what they are , nor doth it pro●itute its sacred rules to patronize any enor●ities in their conversations , or political ad●inistrations . it cannot subdue a people , and hold them un●er by armed violence and usurpation , for his were to subvert it self , and undermine its ●wn foundation , which is truth , meekness and ●●ghteousness . it seeks not by any irregular motions to per●rb a settled state , though adverse and injurious to it . it cannot enter into the recesses 〈◊〉 wicked policy ; its principles will not bear 〈◊〉 out in the cunning and close ways of dishon●… sty . it abhors such ingagements , as draw o●… necessity of proceeding in unrighteous or da●… gerous counsels , and especially such iniqui●… as would not pass away in a transient action but would hold up a lasting usurpation or i●… jury to its perpetual reproach and repugnan●… to it self . it neither hath , nor in human judgment 〈◊〉 like to have the sufficiency of an arm of fles●… or worldly puissance , for its intrinsick and a●… biding strength , untill it comes in a more ex●… tensive power , and more ample victory that hath been yet manifested in the world. th●… mutable advantages of certain times and occa●… sions are but loose and hollow ground , and n●… settled foundation for it to build upon . it is not furthered by a course of subtilties and of intricate and cloudy projects , which be get suspition of evil ; but by an openess an frankness of dealing in all certainty and clearness . for in it self it is clear as the sun , an●… regular and certain as the ordinances of he●… ven , or the motions of the celestial bodies whatsoever degree of obliquity or uncertainty happeneth to it , is only extrinsical proceeding from mens corruptions and frailties , who ne●… ther are , can be here absolutely exact and perfect in it . it rejects the fury of passion , bitterness , clamours , wrath , tumult , and all outrage . in a word , it can admit nothing that is inconsistent with intire honesty . and it is not weakened by this strictness . for truth is great and powerfull ; and by a weak and gentle , yet sound and solid manifestation of it self , it maintains a conquest answerable to its own condition in this present world. chap. xviii . the interest of true religion lies much in its venerable estimation among men. a corrupt state of religion nourishing pride and sensuality , and yielding it self managable to the designs of men after the course of the world , is commonly upheld by an arm of secular power , which by ways of its own it can make sure to it self . but pure religion abhorring base compliances ; and residing in the hitherto lesser number that walk in the narrow way , is not so well suted for a settled and continued potency in that kind . wherefore by how much the more it fails of an assurance of worldly power and greatness , by so much the more it needs the advantage of venerable estimation for its own intrinsick excellence . a desire of vain glory , and an ambitious catching at the praise of men is opposite to this interest , and destroys the ends thereof . but because things that appear not , are of the same reason with things that are not , in regard of influence upon the minds of men , christianity should be made appear to be what it is indeed , that it is not a meer idea in the imagination or intellect , but a wisdom and power that may be practiced : and its glory is displaid in a life of integrity , purity and charity by the brightness of which graces in the primitive times it became illustrious , and was exalted over all the learning , and vertue , and potency of the heathen world , in such an age as had all civil disciplines in their perfection ; and it is never so much indangered , as when the sanctity of its professors is fallen , or exposed to scandal . eminent holiness is after miracles the next great testimony to the truth , and is now in the room of miracles , and its influence is very powerfull . wheresoever it is , it invigorates others of this fellowship that are near it , and it commands aw and reverence from all men. t is a great happiness , when persons indued herewith are in proportionable number fixed like stars of the first magnitude throughout the firmament of the church , when there are men of strong parts , much prudence , active spirits , firm resolution , who are filled with the holy spirit , inflamed with love to god , and devoted to seek the things that are christs , and fitted thereunto by real mortification and self-denial , also when persons of a lower sphere for the perfections of nature or learning , have attained to a large measure of the primitive spirit of faith , love , meekness , brotherly kindness and charity , whereby they are made ready to every good work , and provoke others thereunto . as the eminent piety of some , so the appro●ed piety of the generality of serious professors imports exceedingly to the reputation and reverence of true religion . the spiritual man discerneth the excellency of the divine life , and the beauty of holiness ; and the natural man also can discern humility , chastity , tem●erance , patience , charity , integrity , as things morally good and profitable to men , and by ●…ese things the truth is vindicated and main●…ined . to defile the purity of this professi●… is to stain its glory , and to stain i●s glory , is 〈◊〉 render it weak and despicable . none there●…re may pass for the allowed disciples of this ●ay , but such as keep themselves pure from 〈◊〉 foul sins of sensuality , and from all palpa●… dishonesty . howbeit the lawfull favour ●…d assistance of any others may with due cau●… be admitted in its concernments . a harmless life if barren and unprofitable is of little value in it self , and also of little force to advance any profession . nay a fruitless life is scandalous and unchristian . they are the words of christ , herein is my father glorified that ye bear much fruit , so shall ye be my disciples . the root of such fruitfulness in good works is love out of a pure heart , and good conscience , and faith unfeigned , to which belong those praises , that it is the end of the commandment , and the fulfilling of the law. now because they that walk circumspectly are often censured by the looser sort to be uncharitable , it doth the more concern them really to shew forth the laudible fruits of charity , and to maintain all good works before men , though not to be seen of men , and to hate narrowness of soul and base selfishness . what do ye more than others ? saith the author of our profession . when the religious apparently excell the choicest part of unregenerate men , then is wisdom apparently justified of her children . natural men may have some amiable vertues by which they aim to commend themselves both to god and the world , yet in other matters of no less manifest and necessary concernment they are licentious and remiss . but the true christian make it his business to fulfill all righteousness . and as the principle of true piety causeth an intirene●… in all the parts of good life ; so being duly improved and stirred up , it will cause them that have it , not only to acquit themselves in whatsoever things are acceptable , and praise-worthy among the meerly vertuous part of men , but also to perform those things that are far above them , and both a wonder and a reproof unto them . religion hath a good savour among all men , by the due observance of all relative duties ; and nothing renders it more unsavoury , than the violating of those bonds , and the non-performance of those dues , which arise from natural or civil relations ; for these things are our proper sphere , our dayly walk and constant business , wherein we are most accountable to god , and usefull to men . industry and providence in the affairs of this life , conduceth to reputation ; but idleness and improvidence is very scandalous . upon this account , godliness is sometimes reproached by occasion of some idle pretenders , and others that are pious , but inconsiderate and imprudent . religious exercises must be attended seasonably , and in due order : idle and careless persons , that wander from their callings , how full soever of good words , must be numbred among those that walk disorderly . when the rules of christianity are so agreeable to the temporal well being , and so indulgent to the present necessities of mankind , it is a great shame to expose it to contempt and prejudice , by such perversness or improvidence , as if it were inconsistent with industry and prudence , in the necessary concernment of this world. in like manner a discreet and moderate use of riches , a generous frugality , and frugal liberality , avoiding fordid covetousness on the one hand , and vain ostentation and deliciousness on the other , is of good report and gains esteem ; but to live either too narrowly , or too profusely , taints a mans reputation , and derogates from the honour of his profession . to be constant or always the same , is a noble property , and is had in much honour . and hereunto true christianity gives the greatest adnantage . it s main principles are evident and unchangable ; with the allowance of prudential accommodations according to time and place in things indifferent . it is a chief point of wisdom to bring our might and main to the great & weighty things of the law , and to watch with jealousie against every devise of man that would undermine them ; but to be more cautious and sparing in points of less importance , yet the occasions of much contest among them that own the same doctrine of faith . we are ill advised if we lay our main stock where our main interest is not touched . several matters touching religion have been carried in a vicissitude according to the change of times , and yet the substance of religion not altered . it is not safe to fix a necessity upon such things , from which the urgency of after-times may inforce us to drawback , unless we will desert our stations , before we have a discharge from our master in heaven . the espousing of some controverted forms and doctrines may end in a divorce , dishonourable enough , although it be conscientious : and the reproach hereof may be aggravated by the pretended constancy of others in erroneous ways , when it is indeed no other than the pertinacy of a selfish mind , or an adhering to a worldly interest . when there is a liberty some forms may be safely chosen , as most advantageous , and yet not asserted to be the only necessary ; and again ; some others may be laid aside , as inconvenient : and yet not damned as impious , or simply evil . the parent of true constancy is godly wisdom , having the sure foundation of evident and unchangable truths , with a just latitude in things not determined by the positive laws of god. and so there may ordinarily happen to the same man some diversity of practice at different times , that deserves not the brand of time serving , which is often too rashly objected . for the same fixed principle of knowledge and integrity will direct to this way or method of a sacred action at one time , and at another time to that which is far different ; yea , and ( when it cannot be avoided ) to a submitting to what hath sometime been rejected , i mean rejected not as in it self unlawfull , but as inconvenient or less profitable . when we are at liberty , we are obliged to take the best way ; but when confined , we must do as well as we may in that state . and the submission signifies an acknowledgment of the simple lawfulness , but not of the comparative goodness or desirableness of the thing imposed . since our blessed saviour hath given his church a legacy of peace in him , with tribulation in the world , to suffer with reputation , is not of little moment . it sometimes comes to pass , and that inevitably , that the godly suffer much in such cases which the looser sort account niceties , and needless scruples ; in which cases , their sufferings are precious in the sight of god , who highly values the jots and tittles of his law : but they are not so honourable in the sight of men . but when their cause is so unquestionable , that all sober spirits of orthodox belief must needs regard it , their suffering hath much more glory , and all the faithfull will be more constant and uniform in adhering to such a cause . howbeit if they suffer for conscience sake in such things as the world accounts niceties ; yet an upright and prudent walking with a peaceable spirit , submissive in things clearly indifferent , and bearing with others intolerable differences , will be an ample defence unto them , and gain respect , and peradventure mollifie those that do the injury . furthermore let it be here noted , that to the sufferer it is no less honourable , to suffer for the life and power of christianity , in opposition to the immorality , malignity , and hypocrisie of carnal christians , than in the defence of the christian faith , or any article thereof , in opposition to infidels , hereticks , or blasphemers . for the christian life and practice is the end of the christian faith and doctrine , and therefore cannot be of less regard . yet this kind of suffering is more dishonourable to christ , in respect of the persecutors , who are his professed servants , and therefore in this respect , it is more grievous to the persecuted , than if they suffered from those that disown his name , or are his more avowed enemies . chap. xix . the most ample diffusion of the light of knowledge , is a sure means of promoting true religion . false and corrupt ways bear sway by a peoples ignorance ; but religion in its right and sound state as a jewel that hath its greatest lustre by the brightest light , is maintain'd by the clearest knowledge . in bright times , the impostures and carnal designs of devised doctrines , and superstitious vanities will be made manifest ; and the hypocrisie being detected , the merchandize thereof will be quite marr'd . in such times even the vulgar sort will expect from those in sacred functions , at least the appearance of a sober , righteous and godly conversation , with diligence in holy administrations . then the enemies of real sanctity are put to hard shifts , and forc'd to appear either in some colours of truth , or in the shame of their own nakedness . for this cause the followers of truth make it their special interest , as throughly to promote the most ample diffusion , and universal increase of knowledge among all ranks and sorts of men , as the adverse partly seek to oppose and debase it . we do not hereby mean an intermedling in difficult matters , a smattering in controversies , and certain curiosities of opinions , a store of unnecessary notions , and of meer words and phrases , which things are commonly erroneous , and at the best but injudicious , and puff up the half-witted and self-conceited , and make them troublesom to themselves and others . but that which is here commended for an universal increase and propagation , is to understand the principles of the essential truths of christianity , to see their evidence , to judge rightly of their weight and worth , and to view their coherence ; and besides these , to know so much of other truths as the different capacities of men will inable them , for the bettering of their knowledge in the essentials . the means of diffusing this light are well known , as the constant preaching of the word , and the opening of the principles of religion in a due form of cathechism , the strict observation of the lords day , repetition of sermons , ●…ious conferences , reading the word , and prayer in families , profitable communication among neighbour-christians in their daily converse , the spreading of practical books written by men of sound judgment , and ministers private applications to those of their own charges with prudence and meekness . for the same end that main principle of protestanism , the judgment of discretion , as ●elonging to all christians , is to be asserted and ●…indicated against that popish and brutish do●…trine of implicit faith , in the church's de●…rminations . this is not to subject matters of ●aith to a private spirit ; but to refer them to ●…e divine authority of the holy scriptures , to ●…e apprehended in the due and right use of ●eason , which is a publick and evident thing , ●…d lies open to the tryal and judgment of all men. and to men of sober minds , serious for the saving of their own souls , the analogy of faith in the current of scripture is easily discernable . moreover , the general increase of knowledge lies much in the ingenuous education and condition of the common people , in opposition to sordidness , slavery and brutish rudeness . though some look upon the vulgar sort with contempt , and seem to value them no more than brute animals , and think it enough that their governors understand and consider for them , and not they for themselves : yet christ hath shed his blood as much for the redemption of that sort , as of the noble and mighty , and prudent ; and he hath made no difference between the one and the other in the conditions of salvation , and in the priviledges and ordinances of his kingdom . as for the receiving of the grace of god , the scripture casts the advantage on the poorer and meaner side . not many wise men after the flesh , not many mighty , not many noble are called , was the observation of st. paul , and st. james witnesseth , that god hath chosen the poor of this world , rich in faith , and heirs of his kingdom . and those whom god hath chosen , must needs be instructed in his will. that reasonable service that he requires , none can perform without knowledge . ignorance is opposite to the nature and being of true christian piety , which is not at all where it is not received with understanding . this general increase of knowledge hath fallen under a great suspicion of evil , and it may be under the jealousie of rulers , as disposing men to sedition , rebellion , herisie and schism . but how great a reproach is hereby cast upon human nature , or political government , or both , that the more rationally apprehensive the body of a people are , they are so much the more ungovernable , as if government could not stand with the proper dignity and felicity of human nature ? what manner of civil state is that , which degrades the subjects from men to beasts , for a more absolute dominion over them ? what manner of christian church is that , which to prevent heresie and schism , takes order that its members be no christians ? it is an unchristian , inhuman policy in church or state , the foundation whereof is laid in the peoples ignorance . as for the true interest of rulers , it is not weakened , but strengthened by their peoples knowledge , which in its right and proper tendency makes them more conscientious , and however , more circumspect and considerate , and consequently more easily manageable by a just and prudent government . but gross ignorance tends to make them barbarous and belluine , and in their mutinies and discontents uncounsellable and untameable , and therefore very incongruous to a state governed by the principles of christianity or humanity . chap. xx. the advantage of human learning to the same end . though religion rests not on human learning , as its main support ; yet it seeks and claims the necessary help thereof . those whom god designs for eminent service , he indues with eminent gifts either by means or miracle ; and he gives every intrusted servant a measure answerable to his degree . the apostles who laid the foundation were wise master-builders : and surely it was not the mind of christ that wisdom should die with them , when he settled his church to indure throughout all ages , and promised to be with it to the end of the world. it is said indeed , that the foolishness of god is wiser than men , and the weakness of god is stronger than men. but that which is so called , is not foolishness and weakness indeed , but only so accounted by the pride of carnal wisdom . in this learned age the antichristian state in christendom is forced to advance learning in its own defence . and now without learning either divinely inspired or acquired by means , we cannot defend our selves against it . wherefore to destroy the supports of learning , is the way to subvert religion . yea , though we were not ingaged by such strength of the adversary to provide for our own defence ; yet solid human learning doth of it self notably advance divine truth . the learning that was spread over the world in the primitive times of christianity , apparently made way for that sudden and ample spreading of the gospel . and the reviving thereof after an universal decay , no less apparently made way for the breaking forth of this clearer light of the gospel after the long night of popery . unlearned and barbarous times are noted among the causes of depraving religion with multiplied superstitious absurdities and deformities . indeed that great mystery of iniquity , the romish synagogue is favoured by many wise and learned ones ; but the interest of great power and wealth , and other carnal al●urements ingage them to uphold that babel , and so to detain the truth of god in their own ●nrighteousness . the papal kingdom of darkness hath amply provided for an eminent measure of learning in their superior clergy , and certain religious orders designed for theological controversies , and the propagation of the roman ●aith , being necessitated thereunto by the learnedness of the present age. but for the vulgar priests , who dayly converse with the common people , that are ignorant and unlearned , it matters not how little knowledge they have ; and the grandees care not that they should be conversant in learned books , no not in their own bellarmine . as for the laity , t is a principle in that church , that ignorance is the mother of devotion . a corrupt ecclesiastical state , upheld for worldly ends , hath no reason to desire the advancement of learning any further , than is requisite to defend it sel● against learned adversaries , and to hold the vulgar in admiration of it . it would hav● the people wholly to trust their teachers , and it is not well relished , when learned gentle men of the laity are exact , and studious i● theological inquiries . the supports and rewards of learning may be so inordinately apportioned and confe●… red , as to exalt boundless ambition and avari●… in some , and to nourish a dronish idleness and epicurism in others , and to cast the residue●… and those the greatest number into ignoranc● beggary , baseness and superfluity of naught●… ness . such a disposition of things , besides th●… ruine of religion would in the ruines there●… bury learning it self ( as it hath done in for mer ages ) if the industry of some were n●… kept waking by the increase of knowledge a●… mong another sort of men. but whatsoeve● abuse corrupts that which in it self is excellent , the supports of learning are always necessary in the true church ; and to settle a way for a perpetual succession of wise and learned guides of the flock in this intire and sound state of religion , is to build the same on a rock . the spirit of this profession being sober , solid and serious , is happy in disposing towards the attainment of much perfection in all profitable science , and especially towards that which is most excellent and usefull in human affairs , to wit solid and deep judgement . in this respect the children of true wisdom stand upon the vantage ground ; and the scope of their business directs them to excell in the more substantial part of learning , which perfects reason and falls in with practice , and makes them able effectually to converse with men both in religious and civil matters . these do not spend their days in a cloyster living to themselves alone , but are seasonably called forth to sacred or civil functions , and so by study in conjunction with practice and experience , they become more perfect in science . the same ●ntents and purposes direct them to understand the end and use of their acquisitions , and to have their learning at command , and ma●ageable for present business . chap. xxi . the general civility or common honesty of a nation makes it more generally receptive of real christianity or godliness . religion having considerateness and soberness in its nature , hath great advantage by the sober and serious temper of a nation , city or country , where its advancement and propagation is designed . civility is a good preparative to piety , and experience witnesseth , that among the serious & temperate sort of people , and in the most civilized places religion takes best ; and that it takes least in those places where debauchery and sensuality raign in those of the higher rank , and a heathen-like rudeness and stupidity seiseth the common multitude . wherefore that sort of men , whose spirit or interest leads them to uphold a corrupt and carnal church-state , seek to gratifie the most sensual and vicious part of a nation , because they cannot so easily gain the considerate and soberminded , who are more inquisitive into the principles and practices of different parties , and look more than others into the inside of mens devotions . a nation may be generally brought to civil conversation and the external part of religion . for the restraining of filthy lewdness , gross excesses and rudeness best comports with the health of the body , the security of the estate , and the quietness of the mind . therefore when it is in use , it is no burden but an ease even to unregenerate nature , and so may pass generally among a people . likewise natural men being convinced and awakened , will easily observe religious duties so far as the peace of the natural conscience doth require . the conversation of the pious is exemplary and of great authority , especially when their strictness and seriousness is tempered with the amiable vertues of meekness and moderation . by this they may do much towards the civilizing of those that live about them , and to conciliate the minds of men towards them , and bring them to good thoughts of religion . but the harshness of some rigid honest men may exasperate and beget hatred in some , whom condescension and sweetness of conversation might have gained , or at least mol●ified . likewise by a discreet and seasonable use of christian liberty in the temperate injoyments of outward comforts in harmless recreations , and sober cheerfulness in honest company , the religious may bring over others to a friendly converse with them , and may be a means to keep them from the more gross and scandalous pollutions of the world . yet as they ought to shun an excessive reservedness and austerity , so they must take heed of too great compliance with others in carnal liberty , upon pretence of a friendly converse with them . they may not spend their time in recreations , fruitless visits , merry meetings and the like exercises , wherein there is enough of idleness and vanity , even when there is nothing of dissoluteness or gross immorallity . for by such a trade of life they would lose themselves in a sober kind of epicurism , or sensuality under a form of godliness ; and they would harden others in their loose walking , or make them think that professors are but as other men , except in a name and outward form. wherefore they may be sociable no otherwise , than that it may appear they make religion their business , and walk circumspectly and redeem their time from vanity , for the serious duties of their general and particular callings . it may be further noted , that whatsoever promoteth knowledge among the meaner sort , promotes civility . likewise where a people are generally settled in a way of industry and frugality , and those of higher extract or education are bent unto exercises truly noble and worthy , that nation will be disposed to a more considerate and apprehensive habit of mind , and to a more sober and regular course of life ; but the state of things is corrupt and tends to general debauchedness , when those of higher rank and quality live in idleness and sensual excesses , and have a proportionable number of the meaner sort waiting upon them in much idleness , for the service of those lusts and vanities . this course would vitiate the whole mass of a people , did not some powerfull opposite means preserve some parts more intire and sound in morals . now an order and frame of things settled for frugality is not unworthy of a generous nation . it is a noble thing for persons of higher birth and breeding to improve their parts , and wealth , and leasure in usefull and liberal studies and exercises , whereby something may be added either to their own fortunes , or to the common stock and treasure of mankind . where this considerate and sober disposition of a people is affected , it should be esteemed a great happiness , and worthy of the best improvement for the advancement of religion . discreet and well minded persons are in no wise to be discouraged or disobliged . if they cannot be raised to a higher pitch , it is better to keep them where they are , than by any matter of disgust to occasion them to fall back first to disrelish , then to loath and oppose a strict profession . chap. xxii . the increase of religion is promoted by being made , as much as may be , passable among men . such is the course of this world , that a necessity of being singular lies upon those that imbrace the power of godliness . and because all singularity is obnoxious to disgust and censure , it concerns them to make it evident , that theirs is not humorous and affected , but necessary and conscientious ; and so to shun all affectation of odd conceits and practises , or any unnecessary reservedness . the meer departing from evil and the impartial discharge of duty will set them too much alone and aloof off from too too many . and truly it is the grief of sincere and humble minds , that they can have no more company in the way that is called holy . but the humour of needless singularity , hath a snatch of pharisaical leaven in it . to be affable and of easie access , and free in harmless compliances avails much to remove or lessen prejudice . it is not of little moment to discern and keep the right path in the matter of conformity to the decent civilities of this world . to be sollicitous and exact about idle and tedious curiosities of habit , gesture and complemental converse , to run with the formost after new garbs and fashions , is inconsistent with the purity , gravity and moderate severity of true religion . on the other hand , to neglect the decencies of the age is taken to proceed from a sordid or a peevish humour . a mediocrity in such things is most acceptable and advantageous . the truth is , the extravagancy of our times hath tempted some to strain christian liberty beyond the bounds of soberness , and there is need that some check be given to this excess of vanity . nevertheless the other extreem will gain no honour . morosity truly so called is very offensive , and is indeed but a severe and serious folly . it is not to be expected that all should be of the same strain , guarb or humour in these indifferent matters pertaining to human life , wherein is found so great diversity among vertuous and worthy persons . the more free , gentile and chearfull may not despise them that be more shie , reserved and solemn in their behaviour , nor may these judge the other . for godliness stands on neither side , but is indifferent towards both . and importunate zeal , and strictness about things of indifferent or doubtfull interpretation doth oft-times great disservice to religion , and hinders that reception that was ready to be given to it . when too great a stir is made about little matters , men of loose principles will suggest against all godly care and strictness , as needless scrupulosity and preciseness . and the urging of some hard things , as indispensable duties upon weak and uncertain grounds , hath alienated the minds of some from that course of life , which was necessary to their salvation . it is most true , that the faithfull in christ have their conversation in heaven , as being redeemed from this present evil world , and having jerusalem which is above the mother of them all . nevertheless as yet they dwell upon earth , and converse with natural men , and therefore may not speak and act in such a strain , as if they were taken out of the world . provided they deny no principle of faith , it behoves them to shew themselves in nothing estranged from the principles of human reason , and moral prudence according to men upon earth , and in that regard to act as citizens of this world ; though in regard of their heavenly spirit and conversation , which is their life indeed , they must walk as fellow citizens with the saints now in glory . i urge this the rather because they are by scornfull men numbred among fanaticks . upon the same ground in all publick affairs , they must consider what the kingdoms of this world with bear ; they must be discreet and temperate in their incounters with peoples vanities , especially inveterate customs ; and in all things they should approve themselves fit and able for the service of human society . this will make them appear considerable , and befool and shame those that slight them . there is no difference in christ , between bond and free , high and low , rich and poor ; but they are all one in him : wherefore the scripture saith , let the brother of low degree rejoyce in that he is exalted , but the rich man that he is made low . and accordingly it testifies against the having of the faith of our lord jesus christ , with respect of persons . howbeit this indistinction of persons respecteth priviledges that are meerly spiritual , to which there is no inequality of right upon any civil pre-eminence : but in all civil priviledges , christianity maintains the different rights of the several ranks of men , and injoyns us to render honour to whom honour is due . and there is more in it than a meer gracefulness of behaviour , or pleasingness of humane conversation ; for it is necessary to maintain government , and to keep the world in order . religion therefore doth not countenance a levelling humour , nor any insolence and irreverence towards superiors , but condemns their pride and folly , that presume to ●arry it in that sort , upon the account of an equality in christ , or a conceit of their own pre-eminence in him above others . the profession of godliness cannot be more prejudiced , than by such a spirit and behaviour discerned in those that pretend to it . the mighty , the noble , and the wealthy , will not indure to be confronted by mean persons ; but are tempted to hate and crush that profession , which they think makes men forget those distances and due observances , which civility calls for . but religion is made more passable and acceptable , especially with those at the upper end of the world , by the discretion and modesty of its professors , in upholding civil distinctions and degrees of honour among men , and in rendring to all their dues according to those degrees . chap. xxiii . the observing of a due latitude in religion , makes for the security and increase thereof . christianity is not to be extended to such a latitude , as to take in hereticks , 〈◊〉 idolaters , or real infidels , because they ar●… named christians ; nor is it shut up in severe●… parties distinguished by certain doctrin●… rites and platforms , which the tyranny 〈◊〉 ancient tradition , national custom , politic●… interest , or passionate zeal hath exalted : but it incompasseth all those that hold christ the head in the unity of faith and life . wherefore the constitution of the church must be set as much as may be for the incompassing of all true christians , which indeed makes for its most fixed and ample state . and the taking of a narrower compass , is a fundamental error ●n its policy , and will always hinder its stability and increase . the true state of the church ( as of any other society ) lies in the universality , or the ●hole body , and not in any divided or sub●ivided parts thereof . accordingly , its true ●nterest leads not to the things that make for the exalting of this or that party , but to those common and great concernments that uphold and increase the whole body . and it is but just and equal to accomodate the publick order , to the satisfaction of all parties , not in what their several designs and humors crave , ( which is impossible ) but in what they all may justly challenge by their christian liberty , and which is possible ; namely , that their consciencies may not be perplexed and ●…rdened with things unnecessary , how high●… soever magnified by some one party . they that seek worldly wealth and glory 〈◊〉 a church state , think it as good to yield 〈◊〉 all , as to relinguish any thing of their ●…nstitutions . for although they know that moderation might make for a general peace , and for the lasting good of a christian people , yet they foresee that by removing offences , and reforming abuses , they should open a door to men of such principles , as may subvert the foundations of their building . therefore they think it safer to immure themselves by institutions sutable to their own estate , and to adhere to them unalterably . according to this reason in the council of trent , the pope gave his legates instruction so to proceed , that the lutherans might despair o● peace , without a total submission . for h● regarded not their return upon such term● as would diminish the authority and revenue of his court , or weaken any of th● foundations of papal power . such a party value all men , whether they draw nearer t● them , or keep further from them , as they stand affected to the interest which they maintain . but true religion stands upon another bottom , and pursues other ends , to wit , holiness and peace , and that without partiality and without hypocrisie . it hath no privat● carnal interest to uphold , and therefore need not such carnal devices for its own securit● and advantage . by comprehensiveness loseth nothing , because it seeks not gre●… things upon earth , nor serves the designs of an● faction ; and as it loseth nothing hereby , s● it gaineth much , both in amplitude and st● bility . in church affairs , those things are to be held fast which christ our lawgiver hath by his unalterable rule determined , and made necessary to the building up of his church , such as are the spiritual ordinances and officers of his institution . but things of meer human determination are not unalterable , and the alteration thereof in a season that requires it , doth no whit weaken religion , or darken the glory of it . and doubtless they ought not to be more regarded , than integrity of life , and ministerial ability and industry , for the churches edification in faith and holiness . the exercises of christian meekness and charity in such things , is far more glorious to the church , than a forc'd uniformity ; and that constraining rigor which doth but debase mens judgments into servility , and teaching them to strain their consciences , ●ends to make them less conscientious and religious . besides , the said moderation in those matters , wherein uniformity of apprehensions is unnecessary and imposible , will keep the church in a better consistency , and deliver it from those contests and breaches wich may end ●n its dissipation . but what glory or safety ●s there in a publick order that is , and ever will be made the subject of controversie , more than the rule of unity ? the hinderance of the most important things of christs kingdom , is a mischief that always follows the promoting of narrow principles , and partial interests in religion , whereof these instances among many others may be noted , the obstructing of the liberty of publick ministerial service , to be given to ministers that lie under restraint , lest some that accept it not should be weakened in their severed interest ; also the opposing of a publick order of catechizing the people in the uncontroverted principles of religion , lest the petty liberties of a party in their severed way should be impaired . but the concerns of any particular party are set behind the common interest of christianity , by a true catholick spirit which is ready to joyn hand in hand with any that seek the increase of faith and godliness , in the unquestionable means thereof . and no detriment can accrew by concurring even with men of adverse principles , in setting on foot those things received in common , that have a sure tendency to advance true religion : of which sort , are all good means of introducing knowledge and civil conversation among a people rude and ignorant . the fixing of divine right upon matters of meer prudence , and the damning of things indifferent for unlawfull , is an error of evil consequence . it causlesly breaks a people into parties , and excites them to subvert their opposites , and the opposition seems unchangeable . hereby publick affairs are discomposed , the cause of religion is imbroiled , and the propagation thereof obstructed ; and perhaps at length , after tedious contests , either both parties being weary of endless strife , sit down in silence ; or the weaker being vanquished , is crush'd , or yields with shame and loss . into the snare of this error , men are brought by narrowness of judgment , or strength of fancy , or hurry of prejudice , driving from one extream to another , to which may be added the private interests of leading men . wherefore we should take care that we lay no bonds upon our selves , in those things wherein neither the law of nature , nor any positive law of god hath bound us up . furthermore , it doth not stand with the settlement or inlargement of any church interest , to enter into such religious bonds , as must needs conflict , not only with the opposition of perpetual adversaries , but also with the dissentings and dissatisfactions of friends considerable for number and quality ; in as much as they are too narrow for the common interest , and biass too strongly to a party of one persuasion . for which cause their pre●alence is not lasting , but by usual and easie changes , their weakness is discovered . to tie a people to certain little rules and methods in church discipline , that are ge●erally displeasing ; as the necessary terms of ●hurch priviledges , when the ends of discipline may be as well obtained without them , is at the best but the vanity of a needless trouble , in doing that with much ado , which might be done with less ; and it may occasion an incurable breach , and the rejection of the whole form of government . narrow and uncertain boundaries of church communion , and arbitrary and rigid rules of admission , are contrary to that ample and fixed church state , which is necessary to uphold and propagate true religion . the faith of christ hath been propagated and perpetuated in large kingdoms and nations , by incompassing under its external rule and order , the multitude that made profession , though they might fa●… short of the new birth , and those things tha● accompany salvation : and it doth not roo● or spread in any sort considerable in a region , where the order of admission is set by the rigid and narrow principles of a small party , and the general multitude lies open as wa●… ground for any to invade or occupy . the strength and security of the protestant reformation , came by the taking in of kingdom● and whole dominions within its compas● . the external kingdom of god must needs be much wider than the internal . it is like the draw net that gathered fishes good and bad , and like a corn field , wherein whea●… and tares grow together till the harvest . moreover , the increase of professed christian makes way for the increase of regenerate christians and converts to the power of godliness , are generally made out of the mass of people , of an orthodox profession : and few of them are turned immediately from infidelity , popery , or any heresie . chap. xxiv . the care and wisdom of the church in preventing , and curing the evil of fanatical and sectarian error . among the wiles of satan , whereby he depraveth the spiritual excellency of pure religion , and mightily hinders its advance in the kingdoms of this world , fanatical and sectarian aberrations , are not the least . if these follies were but heeded by those that are most in danger , before they are ingaged and drunken with errour , it were in great part an antidote against this mischief . for the well minded that are but weak , and of easie impression , are lead aside chiefly for lack of attention and observation . many are children in understanding , and many are passionate and inconsiderate , and an innate levity , and inconstancy of mind is very common . it behoves the guides of the flock to possess the minds of the people with sober principles ; and to have a watchfull eye upon the first rising of any pragmatick fancies that feed on notions and novelties , under a shew of a more discerning spirit in gospel mysteries , than others have . such being vanity puff'd up , will be starting questions and multiplying slight exceptions against the received truth , and will please the itching ears , and slight spirits of some pretenders to godliness , who will become their hasty proselytes , and join with them to unravel one thing after another , in the texture of holy doctrine . and by the repute of their good parts and seeming piety , may stagger others of good intentions , but weaker judgments . and of this sort , none are more dangerous than vain-glorious teachers : ambitious of leading parties , and by plausible indowments furnished for such designs . these to raise their own fame , and make to themselves a devoted people , will become absolute sect-masters ; and those that close with them , they hold with pleasing devices , and serve their humours , that they may serve themselves of them . there is also in some persons a right sectarian leaven , which is evermore to follow peculiar opinions , and some separated party in religion , and they speak security to their own souls , by being of such an opinion or of such a party . against the sectarian and fanatick spirit , it concerns the church to keep a continual watch and ward ; but not so as to imprison the truth , to lock up the key of knowledge , to stifle godly zeal , to detain a people in dead and dull principles , that will not reach to the new birth and divine life . for this were all one as to prevent or cure a frenzy by causing a lethargy , or some other such like stupidity . moreover , a superstitious formal love , and sensual way of religion , will in no wise be able to prevent or suppress this evil , but will give occasion to its rise and growth , except in times of profound ignorance and silence , as in the depth of popish darkness . but whensoever the light breaks forth , and the people see with their own eyes , and the ecclesiastical governours will not admit a true reformation , but persecute those that seek it , then are many in danger of falling into this opposite extream . for they are cast upon it , both by the hatred of the present corruptions , and by the weakness of their own judgment , being not throughly instructed in the solid truth . and so they ●un hastily from superstition and externalness into delusion and wild fancies ; from the common dissoluteness and remisness of those that call themselves orthodox , into a vain boasting of perfection ; from the usurpations of proud men incroaching upon christs prerogative and their false constrained unity , into anarchy and confusion ; and from a wrathfull zeal and persecuting cruelty , into a disorderly promiscuous and familistical love , or indulgence towards all . on the contrary , a church state that is agreeable to the spiritual ministration of the gospel , and truly apostolical , is the surest remedy against sectarianism and phanaticism , truly so called . when the church abandons romish tyranny and superstition , and yet is settled in a regular and stable polity ; when the publick order throughly promotes the means of sound knowledge , and incourageth real godliness , it satisfie the minds of them who justly expect in a gospel church and ministry , more than an outward form , even the manifestation of truth and spiritual light , and life and power ; an● it prevents their wandring to seek after it i● the devious paths of sectaries . it is of great moment , that of the mo●… learned , able , and judicious persons of orthodox profession , there be many eminently pious , whose authority and reputation may b●… able to hold in those , whose affection an●… fancy is apt to outrun their judgment ; likewise that the pastors of the church , who a●… called the light of the world , do so walk i●… the light , as that there be no occasion o●… stumbling in them through notorious prid●… covetousness , self-seeking , inordinate sensuality , or the vehement appearance of any gross evil . for the weaker sort is commonly undone by offences . and because seducers are very active and spare no cost nor travel , but as they have done of old , do compass sea and land to gain proselites , it behoves the pastors carefully to keep their people , and the people carefully to keep themselves out of the hands of these hucksters . the common remisness in this matter is deplorable . sometimes the manner of opposition against seducers , is unadvised and prejudicial . to contend for truth by wrath , and clamour , and contumelious language and usage , inhanceth the price of error , and adds to its reputation . but the surest way is to converse much with our plain hearted people , and to season them with right principles , and to detect the subtile methods of deceitfull workers , and the dangerous issues of their allurements , and by honest and inoffensive applications to prepossess those holds , of which deceivers seek to possess themselves . and here it is of chief importance , that the influence of the pastors and other prudent and able persons , upon the common multitude of professors , be more prevailing , than the influence of the common multitude upon the pastors and other prudent leaders . servile temporizing with vulgar fancies , degrades the authority and wisdom of prudent guides , and lifts up a vulgar spirit , and will bring it to that pass , that the weakest and most inconsiderate shall sway the churches interest . let persons of approved worth be more faithful and noble , than by such servility and treachery , to raise to themselves a power in the hearts of the weaker sort . let them rather commend themselves by their known integrity , wisdom and goodness , and by being ready also in all condescention , to serve and please them to their edification . and such faithfulness is the surest means to gain them love and honour . let the religious beware of seeking to be admired and magnified among one another , or of overprizing each others esteem . this latter seems to be the cause that drew peter to a fit of dissimulation and separation from the believing gentiles , while he sought too much to please them that were of the circumcision . sometimes we know not our own spirits . it is good to beware of provocations like to be given or taken . upon a supposed affront or injury , men of parts have been hurried into dangerous contests , and to make head against petty passionate opposition , they have run beyond their own thoughts , and wrought strange confusion . discretion and charity seeks to convince and satisfie , and not to exasperate an offended brother . it is well observed , that no turbulent opinion or party doth usually arise in the church , but by the church's neglect of some truth or duty . wherefore if an evil spirit seek an occasion of mischief , reform the abuse , and so prevent his working upon the simple . and forasmuch as some of upright hearts being deceived with a fancy of a more sublime and perfect way , may pass into the tents of sectaries so far as conce●ns church order and external worship , a compassionate regard must be had of such as walk honestly , and retain those fundamental truths , that may be a ground-work for saving faith and godly life . now towards such , the greatest charity is exercised in labouring to remove the stumbling-block of their error , and to make it plain before them , that the faithfull whose communion they forsake , contend for the perfection of holy scripture , and the explicit knowledge of the doctrine of salvation , and the reasonable service of god according to his word , and spiritual worship sutable to the gospel dispensation , and the lively use of holy ordinances , in opposition to unwritten traditions , mens inventions , implicit faith , ignorant devotion and meer formality ; that they declare by word and deed against the iniquity and impiety of this evil world , and therefore the world hates them ; that they insist upon no forms or usages in religion , but what are commanded by the positive laws of christ , or are necessary in their general reason by the law of nature ; that they seek no worldly advantages or advancements in the church , but what are necessary for the support of the truth , according to gods ordinary providence ; and lastly , that human infirmities must not be thought strange in them , that have not obtained angelical perfection . these and the like things should be laid open before honest people that have been seduced into sectarian error . chap. xxv . the advancement of the sound state of religion by making it national , and the settled interest of nation . christs little flock cannot go out of the world , nor retire within themselves alone from the nations of the earth ; but they must needs remain a part of kingdoms & commonwealths with the world in general . they must take themselves to be concerned in the civil powers , for the powers that are will take themselves to be concerned in them , and their ways . for which cause their aims and actions ( as far as their sacred rule allows ) must be fitted to the capacity of the civil government , and directed unto the generall peace and quietness of the nation , whereof they are , & in which they enjoy their civil rights . by this means religions interest may incorporate with the general interest of a nation , & run in the same channel . that pure religion may take root , and spread and prosper , it is necessary to bring its external frame to the consistency of a national settlement . the just ●a●aude hereof is laid in the doctrine of faith , and substantials of divine worship , and things necessary to church unity and order , but it goes not beyond these . and being fixed in this extent , it is in a way to gain besides the support and power of the law , the nations unstrained compliance and approbation . as on the one hand ecclesiastical tyranny is a root of bitterness always bearing gall and wormwood : so on the other hand unfixedness , and unlimited liberty consists not with that stability , wherein all prudent governors would settle their own affairs , as also with that general tranquillity and repose which is the health of any people . if one were raised to empire by a meer fanatick party , he cannot settle himself , nor stand upon firm ground , till he wind his interest out of their hands , and turn himself to the way of general satisfaction . to the same intent and purpose it is of great importance so to fix the terms of church communion , as not to set a perpetual bar against the main body of the people . a church state so barr'd , though it were asserted with , a veterane army , and could inclose all preferments both of honor and profit within it self to be at its disposal , yet it is hard to see how it could ever obtain a firm establishment . for a christian nation in general being shut out of the church , or barr'd of such privileges , as are supposed to belong to them as christians , are inraged , and likely to be ingaged as one man to oppose that which they take for intolerable oppression . or if they care not to be admitted , they will turn to a contrary interest and party in religion , or to infidelity , barbarism , atheism , or some destructive way or other . now the intention here propounded may take effect , if the constitution shut out none from sacred and spiritual priviledges , but such as make not profession of true christianity , or be destitute of that knowledge which is absolutely necessary to true faith in christ , or to the profitable use of those ordinances whereof they would partake ; or by publick tryal can be evicted in their deeds to deny christ , to whom they profess subjection ; or be guilty of such scandalous enormity or disobedience , as is reproachfull to the christian name . it is likewise to be considered , that discipline is a work of time , and that people are to be brought on by degrees , when they have lain long undisciplined . for a nation is not born in a day . right ecclesiastical discipline grates hard upon mens corruptions , and stirs up many nemies . likewise the civil powers are often jealous of it , lest it should move excentrick to their motions . therefore being a tender point , it requires so much caution as nothing more . cogent reason persuades those that are herein concern'd , most willingly to put themselves under the regulation of the civil magistrate , and to contain themselves within all tolerable limitations prescribed by him , ( i mean such as defeat not the ends of discipline ) and by clear and moderate actings within their own sphere to render their office less invidious . chap. xxvi . of submission to things imposed by lawfull authority . whosoever duly prizeth the publick peace of his own liberty for publick service , will consider the utmost lawfull boundary of submission to things imposed by lawfull authority , that nothing possible to be done , be left undone . but what is sinfull , ●…s in a moral sense impossible . we may not ●…ie for god. nothing erroneous may be asser●ed , nothing simply evil may be admitted in our own practice . but in an established church not infected with heresie or idolatry , nor defective in any vital part of religion , it is duty to bear with much , that we conceive to be amiss in others practice , to which we make not our selves accessary by neglecting any means of redress within our power and calling . yea , being constrained by others rigor we may stoop to the use of some things , which profit little , if they be not simply evil , nor by an evil consequent destructive to the main service , to which they are superadded . the yoke of such subjection may cause grief of heart , but doth not wound the conscience . indifferent things are not made unlawfull meerly by being injoyned ; and it is necessary that some things indifferent in specie should be determined for orders sake . but forasmuch as things not in themselves unlawfull , may some times be so pernicious in their consequents , a● by a vehement appearance of evil to draw others into sin , and by a strong tendency to evil , to lead and settle them in a way that is not good , i dare not say that the latitude of conformity to things in their own nature indifferent , is unlimited . rulers have received their power of injoyning , and subjects their liberty of conforming for edification and not for destruction . in a case of this nature we are led on to consider , whether the scandal of compliance with things indifferent in themselves but of harmfull consequence , be not of lesser moment than the scandal and misery that may follow upon non-compliance . though of things simply evil neither may be chosen : yet of things evil only in their consequents , either the one or the other inevitably coming upon us , that must be chosen , upon which the lesser evil follows . peradventure the scandal of submission may be overballanced by the apparent consequence of a more important good , by which also it may in time be quite removed . the wisdom of the prudent must herein direct their way . though the ruler be judge of what rules he is to prescribe ; yet the conscience of every subject is to judge with a judgment of discretion , whether those rules be agreeable to the word of god or not , and so whether his conformity thereto be lawfull or unlawfull . otherwise he must act upon blind obedience , and might be excused in doing things either simply evil , or pernicious in their consequents . a general certainty , that rulers must be obeyed in lawfull things , is no security to the conscience for obedience to this or that injunction , when we doubt of the lawfulness of the thing injoyned . for we cannot be sure that obedience in this case is a duty and not a sin , because we are sure it is a sin to obey in things unlawfull , and such the thing now in question is or may be , for ought that we discern , and our ignorance cannot change gods law. therefore the doubtfulness of the thing it self , makes the obligation to obedience likewise doubtfull . and perhaps the danger may be greater on the part of obeying than refusing . for possibly , the injunction of an heinous sin may be the matter of the uncertainty ; and in this strait we apprehend it more unsafe and less excusable to choose the greater before the lesser sin , on which side soever it be , though indeed it be lawfull to choose neither . indeed it is much easier for rulers to relax the strictness of many injunctions about matters of supposed convenience , than for subjects to be inlarged from the strictness of their judgment . and blessed are they that consider conscience , and load it not with needless burdens , but seek to relieve it i● its distresses . and as this forbearance and tenderness i● superiors is the praise of their government , and advanceth peace and concord ; so doth moderation and a submissive disposition commend inferiors , and much advantage their godly zeal . for it stops the mouths of clamourous men , it obviates the ensnaring designs of adversaries , and it gives greater boldness in contending for weightier matters . howbeit sometimes that submission , which all circumstances considered , both prudenc● and upright conscience declareth necessary , may be liable to a reproach as a matter of temporizing . the truth is , a ministers reputation is of great moment to the ends of his ministery ; and he is not to be blamed , that is loth it should suffer shipwrack ; and an appearance or suspition of time-serving doth greatly indanger it . if a man should forbear some compliances , which he clearly foresees will bring him into a vehement suspition thereof , in charity it should be taken not for an undue valuation of his own credit , but for a tender regard to the honor of the gospel . when an exalted party shall set themselves to profligate the credit of those that are brought under , by constraining them to such compliances , they have more regard to their own particular triumph than to the honor of the common faith , and all true religion , which is by this means exposed to the contempt of the irriligious , as if it were meer hypocrisie and matter of interest on all sides . as for inferiors , in this case they are in a strait between ●wo , and which way can they turn themselves ●o avoid-all inconveniences . for the same ●ersons that reproach them as temporizing , would in case of non-submission clamour against them as humorous and factious . herein i shall offer the aptest remedy i know , ●amely , neither in word nor deed to abandon or disown the truth , and in these burdensom yet not unlawfull compliances not to run with the foremost , but to proceed in such manner and so far , as the standing in necessary libertie● may require , and as the more considerate pa●… of men will justifie to be discreet and honest , but above all to indeavour by a godly and blameless life to make it manifest , that conscience hath been duly satisfied and not trifle● with . in doubtfull matters and difficult times , th● all good men should keep the same latitud● of judgment and practice in all wisdom , for th● true interest of religion , may be wished b●… not expected . for some will be more , other less inlarged by the diversity of their apprehensions . also some by their natural dispositio● are more timerous or more complying : other again are more hardy and less flexible , or mor● reserved and resolute in their opinions . many are injudicious , and the best have their passion● and some lie under disadvantages that may biass the judgment this or that way , where th● matter is somewhat disputable : others ma● have weightier reasons , either for assent or di●… sent though not obvious , and perhaps not 〈◊〉 expedient to be declared . mens cases bein● so exceeding various , they must needs vary●… practice . some inconvenience , but no d● structive mischief will follow this diversity , it do not ( as one would think it should not disunite affections . for then these several pa●…ties , or persuasions rather , are one in their main cause , and may with one spirit , though walking in several paths , carry on the great concernments of it . if religion were but the bond of a faction , or the strength of a worldly interest , the asserters thereof might lose or lessen it by taking such several ways ; but it depends not upon parties , and their designs , nor is obnoxious to such ingagements , but in it self perfectly free from them . therefore it is advanced in any way that gives it liberty and opportunity , to display it self to the world in the evidence of its own truth and goodness . chap. xxvii . the surest and safest ways of seeking reformations . when a corrupt state of religion is inveterate or deeply rooted in a nation , ●he work of pious men , is convincingly to re●rove that corruption by the light of holy doctrine , and of holy walking ; and to pro●agate and press home with zeal , the great and ●nquestionable truths of christianity : but to ●e more silent and sparing in matters more con●overted and of less importance , the vehement ●rging whereof will not convince the world , nor silence the adversary . likewise by humble addresses to the higher powers in a fit season , they may seek the redress of such enormities , as are evidently scandalous , absurd and odious , and yet perhaps the chief props of that corrupt state. for this may be done without scandal or hazard , and much is done if it take effect . clamorous contests about doubtfull forms and customs , and in comparison but by matters , do serve to animate the opposite party , and afford them matter to work upon : but the vigorous maintenance of the vital parts of religion , and the detecting of gross abuses , bears them down . it is time that ripens all things , and every thing in its season is beautifull and successfull . then the redress of evils will run in its prepared channel , and a plain path will be found through passages formerly inaccessable . and then rulers themselves may see what one of deep judgment observes , that when time of course alters things to the worse , wisdom and counsell had need alter them to the better ; they may find the necessity and utility of reformation , and by their authority make it warrantable . if the friends of truth walk in sober counsels , and sure ways , and follow the truth in peace and love , and be serviceable to the common good , they retain their innocence and maintain their honour , which is their surest interest , and shall be found though the fewer number to have a considerable influence upon the publick state. both religious and civil affairs are apt to be carried in extreams , for which cause reformations commonly are suspected , and their credit is much impaired . in avoiding superstition , some have run into rudeness and undecency . in divine worship the natural expressions ofreverence and devout affection , and things necessary to decency and order , should be observed carefully by those that turn away from superstitious vanities , that it may appear that a well informed conscience , and the spirit of a sound mind doth guide and rule them , and that their principles are no way defective ; but sufficient and ample unto all regular devotion . these necessary decencies and natural expressions of devotion , are plain and obvious to all intelligent persons ; and the modes of civil reverence and seriousness in use among us , do much guide herein . a compliance with sober and grave solemnities affected by a nation in general , helps to procure a good esteem , and to get ground among them ; whereas opposition and singularity may beget a general dislike . men do but mispend their zeal in opposing prevalent customs , that have nothing in them contrary to sound doctrine and good life . among other things i may instance in religious performances at funerals , which may well be ordered without superstition or any other abuse , and improved to the peoples benefit , who are then met together in the house of mourning . some churches being in the midst of false worshippers to prevent all superstition , have forbidden the making of prayers or sermons at the interment of the dead . but in things of this nature , several churches may have their peculiar reasons , and accordingly their different orders . as concerning heathenish pastimes , and vanities sometimes affected by the rude vulgar , and perhaps countenanced by some of higher degree for ends well known , they tend indeed unto much profaness , and may trouble the minds and stir the zeal of good men . nevertheless , when the power of reforming is beyond their line , it sufficeth that the weighty and unquestionable matters of true religion , be constantly inculcated upon the people , and the spreading of sound knowledge indeavoured , both by publick doctrine and by private instruction . and those humorous fooleries , which opposition often heighteneth , would soonest fall to the ground by contempt and silence . in a happy season , when the power of religion hath a potent influence upon a nation , the laying of a good foundation for time to come , is mainly to be regarded . an opportunity in this kind may be lost , not only by a sluggish neglect , but also by an impetuous overstraining of it . it is overstrained , when things are carried forth beyond what a nation will ever bear . it may be more advisable to stop at moderate reformations , than to proceed to such extream alterations , as must needs stand in opposion ( if so be they can so stand ) to a contrary fixed inclination generally prevailing . the consequents of such proceeding , need not to be here discoursed . besides , the more healthfull state of religion may stand not in a total change of things long in use , but in reforming the abuse thereof . and it should be minded that sometimes in curing a lesser evil , there is a real hazard of a greater mischief ; and in hasty attempts of changes , things may be carried on beyond the commendable end designed , even to its utter ruin . for commonly men are not masters of what they get in such precipitate ways . chap. xxviii . considerations tending to a due inlargement and unity in church-communion . an unhappy kind of controversies about forms of divine worship , ecclesiastical government , and qualification of church members , hath been the calamity of our times . the differences in these points have made a sad breach upon church unity , and divided brethren of the same reformed profession , both in affection and interest , and have been the occasion of much misery . in regard whereof , some things that make for an amicable condescention among brethren , and for humble submission to superiors , are here propounded for consideration , but not as peremptory resolves . though many or most of them seem to me to carry their own evidence ; yet it becomes one who is sensible of human weakness , and of his own meaness , to write modestly in these points about which there is so great a variety of apprehensions . the communion of saints , is the communion of the catholick church , and of particular christians , and churches one with another as members thereof ; and therefore we may not restrain our fellowship to any particular church or churches , so as to with-hold it from the rest of the catholick church . our communion with the catholick church , is as well in religious worship , as in christian faith and life . as there is one faith , so one baptism , and one communion of the body and blood of christ , and we being many , are one bread and one body . though we cannot at once locally communicate with the whole church in external worship , because it cannot possibly meet in one place ; yet according to our capacity and opportunity , we are so to communicate with the several parts thereof , and not unwarrantably withdraw from any , and this is a vertual communicating with the whole . church discipline and government , as to the particular form thereof , hath much more obscurity than the doctrine of christian faith and life , and is much more controverted among the godly learned . and in more dark and doubtfull points , humility , charity , and good discretion , teacheth mutual forbearance . in ecclesiastical regiment , all church members are not so concern'd , as church guides and pastors are . christ hath not left the affairs of his kingdom in so loose a posture , as to give a liberty of leaving or chusing the communion of a church according to our own affections , without regard to order . a particular visible church being a body politick , cannot subsist without rules of stable policy . her censures and judgments ought to be clear , certain and uniform , or of the same tenor ; and therefore may not proceed upon such a kind of evidence , as at the most is but conjectural , and of variable apprehension . our arbitrary conjecture of an others regeneration , is but an uncertain way of admission to sacred priviledges , wherein no uniform judgment can be held between several churches , nor the several members of the same church , nor by the same person with himself at several times . for mens apprehensions about the spiritual estate of others , are exceeding different and inconstant . but whether a person make a credible profession , or be competently knowing , or grosly ignorant ; whether he be scandalous or walk orderly , is capable of certain evidence , and of constant regular proceeding thereupon . let it be considered whether of these two , either to proceed with men according to our private hopes and fears about their internal state , or according to stated rules and certain evidence , be the surer way to preserve the church in peace , and to propagate true piety . also , whether persons passable by such publick rules , can in ecclesiastical tryal be judged to be ungodly , or to make a false profession , whatsoever our private fears are concerning them . and if their profession be not proved false , whether it be not to pass for credible in that tryal . human laws and publick judgments presume them to be good , that are not evicted to be bad . private familiarity is at every ones choice : but our church-communion being a publick matter , must be governed by publick and common rules , and not by private will. if a church impose such laws of her communion , as infer a necessity of doing that which is unlawfull , there is a necessity of abstaining from her communion , so far as those unlawfull terms extend . churches mentioned in scripture , had their corruptions in doctrine , worship , and manners ; yet the godly did not separate from them for those corruptions , nor were commanded so to do . indeed they are commanded to come out of babylon , which is no other than to separate from idolatrous , heretical , antichristian societies . yet in suggesting this , i do not encourage to a stated communion in such churches as have no other ministers placed in them , than such as are altogether unfit to have the charge of souls commited to them , that is , who are unable to teach , or teach corruptly ; either teaching pernicious doctrine , or abusing , mishandling , and misapplying sound doctrine , to encourage the ungodly , and discourage the godly . for the scripture bids us beware of blind guides and false prophets . by continuing in church-communion , we partake not of the sins of others , which we have no power to redress , nor are we made guilty by their leaven , if it doth not infect us ; and profane persons are no more countenanced by our presence , than those lewd priests the sons of eli were by the peoples coming to sacrifice . in communicating in holy things , we have internal communion only with the faithfull , and as for the meer external communion , it is with those that have as yet an outward standing in christ , till they are cut off by the hand of god , or due order of discipline . when a minister hath done his part to keep off the unworthy , in the dspensing of the sacrament to such , he is in a moral sense meerly passive ; so that their unworthy participation cannot be imputed to him . nor in such an administration is a practical lie or any falshood uttered . for the sacrament seals the mercy of the covenant not irrespectively , but conditionally , and the words of the application must be so understood . if we have not power to separate an obstinate scandalous offender from the church , yet the withdrawing of our selves from him , is an excommunication in some degree , and the effect thereof is hereby in part obtained . when ministers and people do their duties in their places , without usurpation of further power than they have warrant for , then all will be , though not so well as it might , yet as it can be at present . of several modes and methods of publick action , prudence makes choice not always of what is simply best , but of that which is most passable , if it be not so disorderly as to marr the substance , or frustrate the end of an administration . in sacred adminstrations we may yield without sin to others sinfull weaknesses . and though we may not please them in doing that which is evil ; yet we may in that which is lawfull , but less edifying ; and so we may let go some good in the manner of performance , rather than omit the whole service . here is indeed a sinfull defect , yet not on our part , but on theirs who urge the way that is less edifying , and refuse the better . the exercise of church discipline being a means and not the end , must be govern'd by rules of prudence , among which this is a chief one , that the means must not be asserted so stifly as to indanger or destroy the end . the exercise of spiritual authority is necessarily more regulated by the determination of the civil magistrate , in a state that maintains the true religion , than in a state that either persecutes or disregards it . if it were supposed , that spiritual power is radically the same in all ministers of the gospel , let it be considered , whether the exercise of that power may not be more restrained in some , and let forth to a larger extent in others , upon prudential grounds ; provided it be not inlarged in some to an exorbitancy , and streightened in others to an extream deficiency . likewise if there be a dissent or doubting about a superiority or pre-eminence of spiritual power in some distinct ecclesiastical office , let it be considered how far submission may be yielded to a power objectively ecclesiastical , but formally political , derived from the civil magistrate , and seated in ecclesiastical persons by temporal laws . lastly in reference to things imposed , there is a wide difference between a quiet submission , and an approving free choice . it may be the duty of subjects to do that , which may be the sin of governors to command . for in the same things wherein governors refuse the better way , subjects may do their parts and choose the best way they can . if these considerations or others of the like catholick tendency be found allowable , and will pass among brethren of different judgments , they may prevent and heal many breaches , and unite dissenters in the bond of peace and love , and afford unto such as have been intangled , a more free scope and large capacity for publick aims and actions . chap. xxix . whether the purity and power of religion be lessened by amplitude and comprehensiveness . a doubt may arise in this place , whether it ben ot safer to make the church-doors narrow , and to keep a strict guard upon the entrance into it , and to insist upon the exactest purity , that religion may continue uncorrupt , and that the church be not defiled , nor its interest ravished by strangers . in resolving this doubt , i forget not that the way is narrow and the gate is straight that leadeth unto life . but self-denial and real mortification and a conversation in heaven , and not strictness of opinion in church order , is this narrow way and straight gate ; and our salvation lies upon purity of heart and life , and not upon church purity . besides , god hath made the gate of the visible church , much wider than the gate of heaven ; and church discipline cannot be set in that strictness , in which the doctrine of salvation is to be preached . for doctrine directly judgeth the heart ; and requireth truth in the inward parts ; but discipline judgeth only the exterior conversation , and must be satisfied in the credibility of profession . in walking by rigid rules of discipline , though with an aim to advance purity , we may easily shut out those whom christ hath taken in . true piety may be found in many , who retain such things as some godly christians judge erroneous or superstitious ; and godly sincerity may be found in many , whom some of greater zeal , but too censorious , may judge to be but formalists . it is not good to neglect sober and serious people , though in a lower degree of profession , who conform to gods ordinances , and regard a sound ministery , and shew themselves teachable , lest we reject those that would help to uphold and honour religion , more than many who will put themselves forward among the strictest sort , but indeed are either carnal projecters or busie bodies , or froward and fickle persons , and a stain to the profession in which they seem to glory . this narrowness of church-communion , and other reservedness of some strict professors , tends neither to the increase nor stability of pure religion . zealous christians are a kind of good leaven , like that in the gospel parable , which if kept alone , is of no efficacy , but being diffused will season the whole lump . if they sever themselves into distinct visible societies from the body of a nation , professing the true religion , their vertue cannot spread far ; but they leaven the whole mass of people by being diffused throughout the whole . and then they gain reverence and reputation , and by their example profane and dissolute persons may be convinced and much reformed , and among those that walk orderly , many may be carried on from common to saving grace . hereunto may be added this inestimable benefit ; to wit , the apparent hope of the propagation of true religion to the generations to come , which otherwise being unfixed , might in time wear away and fail in such a nation . furthermore , sincere christians are comparatively but a little flock , and of that little flock , the greater number are of low capacities and very defective in political prudence ; and if they were wholly left to govern themselves in separated societies , they might easily be insnared into parties and breaches , and manifold inconveniencies . indeed those of them that are best able to govern themselves , are most convinced of the need of publick government . wherefore it is the security of the faithfull to live under a publick and fixed rule and order , and consequently to be imbodied with a nation , if it may be , in one way of communion . chap. xxx . factious usurpations are destructive to religions interest . religion is by the maligners of it too often called faction . but the name is not more reproachfull , than the thing it self is hurtfull to it . and the prudent promoters of it , will avoid factious usurpations and all such ways , as would turn to a general greivance . but if any number of men in a higher degree of profession , should seek the ingrossing of profits and preferments within themselves , upon the account of their being religious , and the assuming of such power as cannot be maintained , but by injury or disregard really , or in appearance offered to all others , and should so act in civil affairs , as if they only were the people , and think to do this for the advancement of religion , they would much mistake their way . for besides the iniquity of this practice , the vanity and weakness of it is manifest . the intrinsick and permanent strength of strict religion must be well considered . for that which is adventitious , is very mutable and may be soon turn'd against it . occasional advantages may suddenly raise it up to reputation and power among men , and as suddenly leave it to sink and fall again . wherefore its friends and followers may well reckon that they have made the most of their advantages , when they can secure its interests in the common interest of a nation . a firm liberty and security founded in a national interest , is more agreeable to the condition of regenerate christians , than an intire potency to themselves alone . for they would scarce well comport with so great a weight of power . hypocrites for carnal ends would addict themselves to their party and overact them . the sincere would prove but men , corruptions would appear , and miscarriages would marr their reputation , which is not their least support . hereunto may be added many incongruities that would happen to them . the gallantry and splendor of the world will be no help to that humble and contrite frame of spirit , and real mortification , and holy walking , and heavenly mindedness which is the power of christianity . the various and versatile ways of worldly policy turning to innumerable occasions , are not very passable to truly tender consciences . besides , if the power were inclosed within these narrow limits , many of low birth and breeding must needs be lifted up , both to the envy of the excluded party , and the disesteem of magistracy . and persons of low condition being raised above their own sphere upon the account of religion , may be easily tempted to think more highly of themselves than they ought to think , and to grow busie , peevish and rigid in needless matters , which will provoke a people and fire their spirits , and though the rage be pent up for a season within their breasts , it will at length break out into a flame . the power of christianity , as to human strength , is best established and extended , by leaning upon some common interest with which it falls in , as the vine is born up , and spreads abroad by the support of a wall or frame . it is therefore most sutable to the terms upon which it stands in this world , to be in a complex state with some other just , large and stable interest , such as is the common peace and safety both of prince and people . and being a holy and wise profession , it leads its followers in safe and right paths , and teacheth them to wait therein with patience . the nature of its interest will bear such patient waiting . for it is not carnal consisting of the great things of this world , which may call for an eager and quick pursuit , and daring interprizes . but it is the upholding of such a cause as needs not fear a sinking , if it catch not hold of every sudden offer , that is not clear in regard of conscience or prudence , but by an unchangable reason it indures throughout all ages , and if it fall it shall rise again . it needs not the making of parties , and drawing people to its side by a pragmatical importunity , nor to enter into any suspected ways ; but wheresoever it is managed like it self in righteous and prudent counsels , it makes the fairest progress and of longest continuance . the reasons aforegoing , do hold in due proportion against the ingrossing of privileges , in particular in corporate societies , and the making of parties to interrupt the settled order of promotions and to keep back persons legally intitled , that the religious alone might be promoted . such practises make sad breaches , and upon change of affairs will turn to the great detriment if not the depression of the party so advanced . chap. xxxi . of leading and following , and of combinations . gods providence useth to dispose into all quarters , some men not only of known integrity , but eminent for wisdom and reputation , who see more than the ordinary sort of good men , and are able and meet to give advice like those children of issachar , men that had understanding of the times to know what israel ought to do . these are much the stay of this profession , and by their influence keep things right , and preserve the weaker sort from manifold aberrations . it is supposed that they seek not their own glory in being made heads of parties ; but that in sincerity and self-denial they follow truth and peace , and use their authority and ability , to promote a catholick interest , and true concord among all christians . nevertheless sometimes the understanding of the prudent fails , and counsel is hidden from them . it pleaseth the only wise god , sometimes to permit strange resolves to proceed from good and wise men , that our main stress of hope might rest upon him alone , and on his infallible word ; and that we might not become the absolute disciples of any masters upon earth . one or two eminent men in a country , though wise and faithfull , may not be followed as it were by implicit faith , which may lead into great mistakes . it is to be supposed , that there be many discreet persons , though not of eminent ability , whom it may become to hear and reverence their eminent men , yet to see with their own eyes , that is , to judge by their own reason . in this matter there be two extreams , either to be too morose or too sequacious , the one being the effect of a sullen pride and self-conceit ; the other of pusillanimity , temerity , and such like weakness , and both tending to make breaches and lead into parties . we may have the persons of worthy men in due veneration , but not in excessive admiration . avoid precipitate leaders , for though the service of hot spirits may be sometimes prosperous ; yet in this temperate cause their conduct is pernicious . and there is as much reason to avoid such leaders as care not , or at least consider not , what they do against the common interest of christianity , to advance a particular form or party . but above all beware of such persons , whose apparent worldly interests lead them to adhere to some divided party , & to cherish faction . if much be committed into such hands , we shall be lead into a wrong course , or disabled to follow the right , though we see it plain before us . yea , the cause of religion will be inthralled to the service of a faction , and be left with disgrace enough when men have serv'd their turns of it . a people of honest zeal may easily be over-credulous of great and powerfull men that pretend to favour religion , and take it into their patronage . yet the more discerning sort will look to it , that , while grandees retain them with such favour and friendship , they overact them not to the dishonor and dammage of this profession , which is more worthy than to be held in vassalage , and made to lackey after corrupt designs ; and more noble than to bear such indignity . it is good for the younger sort of professors to reverence the ancient and more experienced ; and for all sorts in their choice of guides and patterns , to prefer solid judgment with integrity of life and conversation before taking parts , heat of zeal and high affections . amidst diversities of parties and persuasions , it is safe to hold communion with the generality of serious and pious christians , and yet to receive with love the several disagreeing parties , who for the main walk in the truth , and to have communion with them all , as far as catholick principles will give leave . in pursuing the ends of this interest , there is no need of private or unauthorized persons entring into such stated combinations and correspondences , as the jesuits and other orders under the papacy , have setled in their societies throughout the world. for all pious christians are taught of god , and have one spirit touching the main of this design , and are inclined to pursue the same with one accord . and indeed so it is , that only the sincere friends of truth , men of upright hearts , and humble spirits , and honest lives , will observe and follow the rules of this interest . and it sufficeth , if they keep close to their common rule of faith and life , and follow after the things that make for peace , and know the present state of gods israel , and acquaint themselves with each other , as opportunity of converse offers it self , and so govern themselves , and carry on the advancement of religion by such honest and harmless means , as need not shun the light , but may stand before the face of all opposers . chap. xxxii . the wisdom of the higher powers in promoting the religiousness of their people . the advancement of true religion is the interest of the higher powers , if to maintain gods honour and mans chief good be their interest , and if the defying of god and the utter undoing of men be against it . yea , if the tranquility and peace of governours and the stability of government be regarded , human wisdom will direct to promote that way which is no other than the exercise of a conscience void of offence towards god and towards man. godliness includes prudence , justice , temperance , fortitude , and all goodness . it is an internal law effectually subduing them that have it to all external laws that are just and good , and the example of it goes far to the bettering of many others in things pertaining to humanity . it is regular and harmonious in every part , it leads to order , peace and unity , and there is nothing in it inconsistent with right policy . it is the way of true wisdom , and apt to take most among the serious and well advised part of the people , and when it hath taken hold of them , it makes them wise and serious more abundantly . it corrects rash , rugged , wrathfull , and fierce natures , and to say the least , whatsoever turbulency may afterwards remain in such , it makes them of far more sedate and castigate spirits than otherwise they would be . and though it doth not forthwith exterminate , yet it so debilitates all complexional distempers , that they cannot break forth into a course of mischief ; and ordinarily it works an evident notable change . of so great force is an attentive and active conscience over all human passions . and doubtless it is the strongest bond to hold subjects in obedience to their governours . for the conscientious are held in by the terrour of the lord and the dread of the wrath to come , besides the sense of mans wrath , which they have in common with all considerate persons . wherefore it is clearly the princes interest that his subj●cts universally ( if it can be ) should be religious , and consequently it is the wisdom of his government to indeavour it as far as it is attainable . and if he would bring them to such a state , he is to take care to exalt gods immediate soveraignty over their consciencies , and under that soveraignty to hold them in subjection to himself . for where conscience is not preserved in its awfull regard to gods law as its supream rule , true religion is extinguished . and they are the patrons of irreligion , who propagate such principles as tend to alienate the conscience from its true soveraign and proprietor , and either to make it servile to those who have no just dominion over it , or to debauch it into searedness or dead security . one way most needfull and advantagious for preserving gods authority over conscience , is most effectually to bind gods laws upon the people ; and to order what things else are necessary for the due observation thereof , and to lay no other yoke upon them in things pertaining to god. and as this way imports much to the sincerity and reality of religion , so it doth no less to the keeping of religious minds in unity . for in what center will the judiciously conscientious unite , if not in the revealed mind and will of god , as it is apprehended by them ? will the injunctions of the civil magistrate , or the authority of ecclesiastical superiors better resolve the doubts of such men , or silence their disputes ? this is not urged to prove that superiors can injoyn nothing in religion , but what is particularly before enjoyned of god ; or that the consciences of inferiors are not bound by their commands in subordination to gods commands : but only that they take the best course for the unfeigned piety and truly christian concord of their people , that by their injunctions , seek mainly to promote obedience to the divine laws , and add no more of their own than what is clearly necessary thereunto . and what more just and prudent course than to forbear things that are unnecessary , and unserviceable to the promoting of truth and peace ; yet with a perplexity and a stumbling block , an easie inlet to all dissolute or ductile spirits , and a bar against many of known sincerity : and to use that moderation in the publick rule and standard , which takes away or exceedingly lessens , dissents , and consequently the occasions of dissention . the spirit of christianity forbids christian magistrates to destroy sincere christians , for their little differences and narrow principles in forms of church order . and no reason of state will oblige them to that severity , how importunately soever some interessed men may urge it . judicious charity or a prudent indulgence towards such , cannot undermine religion or the civil state. and a sound ecclesiastical polity set for the increase of true godliness , will receive no dammage by it , but it will rather gain upon those dissenters , and if their scruples be not removed , it shall abide firm and stable , and grow in strength by the reputation of its own goodness and sufficiency , in that it is not hazarded or impaired by this charity and forbearance . the higher powers by granting some limited liberty do more universally protect the faithfull , and having no interest in competition with the advancement of christs kingdom , are able and wise enough to provide against any dangerous inconveniencies . the bounds and rules of this indulgence are not so undiscoverable as to make it a vain proposal : yet , it is but an idle demand of those that require an enumeration of all particulars , than which , nothing more or less may be tolerated in any case . all particularities in any human affairs are not easie nor necessary to be known at one view , nor are they so fixed , but they may admit considerable variations according to the different state of things . there be general rules of prudence that are a sufficient indication of what ought to be done at any time , as the present case requires . as the wisdom of a housholder will direct him how far to bear with faults and weaknesses in his family ; so the magistrate by wisdom will discern what may be born with in his common-wealth , so far as is sufficient to the true and just ends of government . chap. xxxiii . the churche's true interest to be pursued by ecclesiastical persons . nothing is more precious , and among christians nothing should be more valued , than the good of gods church , for it is christs and gods great interest in the world : but the misery is , that the churches name is abused , and its interest mistaken most perversly . for none have more pretended for the church than they , whose business is to get and keep worldly pomp , and power with carnal ease and pleasure ; and to make laws and rules serviceable to these ends ; and to corrupt the minds and debauch the lives of men , that they may bring them into blind obedience to such laws , and maintain their worldly dominion over christs heritage , and who value all men howsoever qualified , as they stand affected to their estate , and accordingly stick not to reject the eminently good , and to receive the notoriously bad . in the romish church all this is palpable . now let these be called the church , by them that list to give that name , to a state of pride and luxury , of tyranny and oppression , of carnal and devilish policy , under which the souls of people are betray'd to everlasting perdition . wherefore those in the ministery that are sollicitous of the churches welfare , should state the interest thereof aright , which indeed is not for the service of the flesh or the carnal mind ; but for the promoting of the divine life in men , and the increase of the mystical society of regenerate persons , united in christ their head by his spirit dwelling in them ; and in order thereunto , for the increase of the visible society of persons externally owning such an internal state. and therefore it is to promote and propagate the sound knowledge of god in christ , and to make the people of their charge really good , and to advance them what they can in grace and wisdom according to their several capacities , and to deal with them in meekness and love , and to walk before them as examples of all purity and goodness , and to be more sensible and sollicitous about the corruptions and sinfull disorders , than the sufferings of the church , and to be more zealous for gods honour and the good of souls , than for their own honour , wealth or power , and in a word to seek the things of christ more than their own things . the ministers that discharge their office well , are in scripture declared worthy of double honour . and that they be indowed with honorable settled maintenance , is necessary for the support of a religion , that for its excellency requires to be supported by the help of excellent gifts , as learning , eloquence and prudence , not now to be obtained by miracles , but in the ordinary use of means with much cost and labour . and questionless the withdrawing of these supports tends to the churches ruine , nevertheless an inordinate and licentious collation , and accumulation of preferments making for the service of covetousness , ambition and depraved appetite , and for the decay of sobriety , vigilancy and industry in the pastors , is no less dangerous . this exorbitancy after the roman empire became christian , allured and brought in the men of this world , who have their portion in this life , and gave them advantage by carnal arts , to possess themselves of the chief seats of power in the church , by which means religion degenerated into externalness and carnality , and that which was then named the church was at length turned into a worldly state , which grew more and more corrupt till the mystery of iniquity was fulfilled in it . where christianity hath recovered it self out of the degeneracy of the later times , and knowledge is generally diffused among the people , the sufficiency , industry and faithfulness of ecclesiastical persons will be inquired after , negligence in their administrations and irregularities in their lives will not pass without noting , the ignorant , idle and scandalous will fall into contempt , outward formalities will be no covering , as in darker times they were , distinctive habits and reverend titles alone will not procure veneration , the ecclesiastical authority will sink and fall without remedy , if real worth doth not uphold it . in such times men will not be to learn that an arm of flesh doth not constitute a christian church , and that the aid of the secular power is not enough to prove one party to be orthodox , and the rest heretical or schismatical . external violence , which is the common support of false religions , will in this case do little good , but it will render them that call for it the more odious , and more discover the weakness of their cause . wherefore the clergy must resolve to do worthily and fulfill their ministery , or they must extinguish the light of the gospel , or the light of the gospel will extinguish them . but if as faithfull shepherds they watch over the flock , and tender the state thereof , if they labour in the word and doctrine , and teach with meekness and patience if they pitty and succour the weak , and heal that which is lame , that it may not be turned out of the way , if they use the rod of discipline with judgment and paternal affection , if they discard and lay by mens unprofitable institutes , and maintain all divine ordinances in their due honour , and chiefly urge the observance of the indispensable commands of god , and turn men from externalness , and make it their chief aim that christ by his word and spirit may reign in the hearts of professed christians ; then shall they magnifie their office and establish their authority , and hold their flocks in an unfeigned reverence and submission , as feeling the force of the ministerial warfare in their consciences . and the inferior differences shall not be able to cause disgust or aversation , or break those strong bonds of the peoples sincere regard toward their pastors : but they would rather be swallowed up in love , which is the bond of perfectness . the conclusion . no greater thing can fall under the consideration of mankind , than the security and increase of true religion . the glory of god among men and their eternal salvation depends upon it . t is as far above the concernments of the kingdoms of this world , and their politick administrations , all secular affairs , and philosophical speculations , as the heavens are high above the earth . an inquiry into the sound state and true interest thereof , is a contemplation worthy of the greatest minds , and the advancement of it is the chiefest honour of the highest powers . t is the royal interest of that potentate , who is king of kings and lord of lords , and of that blessed society which are incorporated under him their lord and head. and who that in any degree hath truly known the felicity of this kingdom , and hopes for a lot of inheritance in the glory of it , doth not value the concerns thereof above all his chief joys that are but of this world ? a zeal for the common faith , and a constraning love to all the faithfull , hath excited a very mean and weak one to do what he was able on this important subject , impartially searching after their common good . let the prince of this society , one of whose names is counsellour deliver his flock from all dangerous and disadvantageous error , and from wandring in broken parties by unstable and divided counsels , and shew them graciously the right way of maintaining a consistency among themselves , and of gaining upon the reconcilable part of men . and forasmuch as this prince and leader is the lamb of god whose banner is love , let his people every where be acted by the spirit of love , and shew forth the meekness of wisdom in all good conversation , with humility , patience and long-suffering , having this principle deeply imprinted in them , the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of god. the point of church-unity and schism discuss'd . chap. i. of the church and its polity . the church is a spiritual common-wealth , which according to its primary and invisible state is a society of regenerate persons , who are joyned to the lord christ their head , and one to another as fellow members by a mystical union through the holy spirit , and are justified , sanctified , and adopted to the inheritance of eternal life ; but according to its secondary and visible state , it is a society of persons professing christianity or regeration , and externally joyned to christ , and to one another by the symbals of that profession , and made partakers of the external priviledges thereunto belonging . there is one catholick church , which according to the invisible form , is the whole company of true believers throughout the world ; and according to its visible form , is the whole company of visible believers throughout the world , or believers according to human judgment . this church hath one head and supream lord , even christ , and one charter and system of laws ; the word of god and members , that are free denizons of the whole society , and one form of admission or solemn initiation for its members , and one kind of ministery and ecclesiastical power . this church hath not the power of its own fundamental constitution , or of the laws , and officers , and administrations intrinsecally belonging to it , but hath received all these from christ its head , king and lawgiver , and is limited by him in them all . nevertheless , it hath according to the capacity of its acting , that is , according to its several parts a power of making secondary laws or canons , either to impress the laws of christ upon its members , or to regulate circumstantials and accidentals in religion , by determining things necessary in genere , not determined of christ in specie . as the scripture sets forth one catholick church , so also many particular churches , as so many political societies distinct from each other , yet all compacted together as parts of that one ample society , the catholick church . each of these particular churches have their proper elder or elders , pastor or pastors , having authority of teaching and ruling them in christs name . an ecclesiastical order of presbyters or elders , that are not bishops , is not found in holy scripture . for all presbyters or elders , being of a sacred order in the gospel church that are any where mentioned in scripture , are therein set forth as bishops truly and properly so called , and are no where set forth as less than bishops . these elders or bishops are personally to superintend all their flock , and there is no grant from christ to discharge the same by delegates or substitutes . a distinction between bishops and presbyters , and a superiority of the former over the latter , was after the scripture times anciently and generally received in the christian church . yet it was not a diversity of orders or offices essentially different , but of degrees in the same office , the essential nature whereof is in both . the bishop of the first ages was a bishop not of a multitude of churches , but of one stated ecclesiastical society or single church , whereof he was an immediate pastor ; and he performed the work of a bishop , or immediate pastor towards them all in his own person , and not by delegates and substitutes ; and he governed not alone , but in conjunction with the presbyters of his church , he being the president . though several cities in the same kingdom have their different municipal laws and priviledges according to the diversity of their charters , yet particular churches have no divine laws and priviledges diverse from each other , but the same in common to them all , because they have all the same charter in specie from christ. therefore each of them have the same power of government within themselves . and the qualifications requisite to make men members or ministers of the universal church , do according to christs law sufficiently qualifie them to be members or ministers of any particular church , to which they have a due and orderly call . local , presential communion in gods ordinances , being a main end of erecting particular churches , they should in all reason consist of persons , who by their cohabitation in a vicinity are capable of such communion , and there may not be a greater local distance of the persons than can stand with it . a bishops church was anciently made up of the christians of a city or town , and the adjacent villages , who might and did personally meet together , both for worship and discipline . all christians of the same local precinct are most conveniently brought into one and the same stated church , that there might be the greatest union among them , and that the occasion of straggling and running into several parties might be avoided . yet this local partition of churches is not of absolute necessity and invariable , but if there be some insuperable impediment thereof , the partition must be made as the state of things will admit . no bishop or pastor can by divine right or warrant , claim any assigned circuit of ground as his propriety for ecclesiastical government , as a prince claims certain territories as his propriety for civil government ; so that no other bishop or pastor may without his licence , do the work of the ministery , in any case whatsoever within that circuit . it is not the conjunction of a bishop or pastor with the generallity or the greater number of the people , that of it self declares the only rightfull pastor or true church within this or that circuit . for many causes may require and justifie the being of other churches therein . seeing particular churches are so many integral parts of the catholick church , and stand in need of each others help in things that concern them joyntly and severally , and they have all an influence on each other , the law of nature leads them to associations or combinations greater and lesser , according to their capacities . and the orderly state that is requisite in all associations , doth naturally require some regular subordination in the several parts thereof , either in way of proper authority or of mutual agreement . and the associated churches and particular members therein , are naturally bound to maintain the orderly state of the whole association , and to comply with the rules thereof , when they are not repugnant to the word of god. a bishop or pastor and the people adhering to him , are not declared to be the only true church and pastor within such a precinct , by their conjunction with the largest combination of bishops or pastors and their churches . for the greater number of bishops may in such manner err in their constitutions , as to make rightly informed persons uncapable of their combination . a national church is not a particular church properly so called , but a combination or coagmentation of particular churches , united under one civil supream , either personal as in a monarchy , or collective as in a republick . and the true notion thereof lies not in any combination purely ecclesiastical and intrinsecal , but civil and extrinsecal , as of so many churches that are collected under one that hath the civil supremacy over them . the national church of england truly denotes all the churches in england united under one supream civil church-governour , the kings majesty . civil magistrates as such , are no constitutive parts of the church . the christian church stood for several centuries without the support of their authority . but supream magistrates have a civil supremacy in all ecclesiastical matters , and a political , extrinsecal episcopacy over all the pastors of the churches in their dominions , and may compell them to the performance of their duties , and punish them for negligence and mal-administration ; and they may reform the churches , when they stand in need of reformation . the possession of the tithes and temples doth not of it self declare the true pastor and church , nor doth the privation thereof declare no pastor and no church . for these are disposed of by the secular power , which of it self can neither make , nor make void a pastor or church . a diocess is a collective body of many parishes under the government of one diocesan . if the several parishes be so many particular churces , and if their proper and immediate presbyters be of the same order with those which in scripture are mentioned by that name , and were no other than bishops or pastors ; then a diocess is not a particular church , but a combination of churches , and the diocesan is a bishop of bishops , or a governour over many churches and their immediate bishops . if the parishes be not acknowledged to be churches , nor their presbyters to be realy bishops or pastors , but the diocess be held to be the lowest political church , and the diocesan to be a bishop of the lowest rank , and the sole bishop or pastor of all the included parishes ; i confess , i have no knowledge of the divine right of such a church or bishop , or of any precept or precedent thereof in scripture . for every particular church mentioned in scripture was but one distinct stated society , having its own proper and immediate bishop or bishops , elder or elders , pastor or pastors , who did personally and immediately superintend over the whole flock , which ordinarily held either at once together , or by turns personal , present communion with each other in gods worship . but a diocess consists of several stated societies , to wit , the parishes which are constituted severally of a proper and immediate presbyter or elder having cure of souls , and commonly called a rector , and the people which are his proper and ●…rge or cure . and the people of th●… not live under the personal and in●…rsight of their diocesan , but under ●…legates and substitutes . nor do they o●…ly hold personal present communion with each other in gods worship , either at once together or by turns . nevertheless , which way soever a diocess be considered , i have nothing to object against submission to the government of the diocesan , as an ecclesiastical officer established by the law of the land under the kings supremacy . there is nothing in the nature of the office of presbyterate ( which according to the scripture is a pastoral office ) that shewe it ought to be exercised no otherwise than in subordination to a diocesan bishop . christ , who is the author and only proper giver of all spiritual authority in the church , hath not so limited the said office , and men cannot by any act of theirs enlarge or lessen it as to its nature or essential state , or define it otherwise than it is stated of christ in his word . no power ecclesiastical or civil can discharge any minister of christ from the exercise of his ministery in those circumstances , wherein christ commands him to exercise it , nor any christians from those duties of religion , to which the command of christ obligeth them . as the magistrate is to judge what laws touching religion are fit for him to enact and execute , so the ministers of christ are to use a judgment of discretion about their own pastoral acts ; and all christians are to do the same about their own acts of church-communion . the too common abuse of the judgment of discretion cannot abrogate the right use thereof , it being so necessary that without it men cannot act as men , nor offer to god a reasonable service . chap. ii. of true church-unity . when the names of unity and schism are by partiality and selfishness commonly and grosly abused and misapplied , the nature of the things to which those names do of right belong , ought to be diligently inquired into , and clearly and distinctly laid open . for a groundwork in this inquiry i fix upon two very noted texts of scripture . the one is eph. . . indeavouring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace . the other is rom. . . mark them that cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine that ye have learned , and avoid them . the former guides us to the knowledge of true church-unity , and the latter shews us the true nature of schism . by the former of these texts , all christians are obliged to maintain that spiritual unity , which they have one with another under christ their head , by the holy ghost in all due acts of holy communion in peace and concord . several important things are here to be taken notice of . . there is a spiritual unity between all christians in the form of one mystical body , as there is a natural unity between all the members of the natural body . the members being many are one body and members one of another . . this unity is under christ as the head of it . what the head is to the natural body , that is christ and much more to his mystical body the church . . this unity of christians one with another under christ , is by the holy ghost , and therefore called the unity of the spirit . the spirit of christ the head , doth seize upon and reside in all the faithfull , by which they become christs mystical body , and are joyned one to another as fellow-members . . this unity of the spirit among christians is witnessed , maintained , and strengthened by their holy communion of love and peace one with another , but is darkened , weakened , and lessened by their uncharitable dissentions . hence it is evident that the unity here commended , is primarily that of the church in its internal and invisible state , or the union and communion of saints , having in themselves the spirit , and life , and power of christianity . t is the unity of the spirit we are charged to keep in the bond of peace . but concord in any external order with a vital union with christ and holy souls , his living members , is not the unity of the spirit , which is to partake of the same new nature and divine life . secondarily , it is the unity of the church in its external and visible state , which is consequent and subservient to the internal , and stands in the profession and appearance of it , in the professed observation of the duties arising from it . where there is not a credible profession of faith unfeigned and true holiness , there is not so much as the external and visible unity of the spirit . therefore a sensual earthly generation of men , who are apparently lead by the spirit of the world , and not by the spirit that is of god , have little cause to glory in their adhering to an external church order , whatsoever it be . holy love , which is unselfed and impartial , is the life and soul of this unity , without which it is but a dead thing , as the body without the soul is dead . and this love is the bond of perfectness , that cement , that holds altogether in this mystical society . for this being seated in the several members , disposeth them to look , not to their own things , but also to the things of others , and not to the undue advancement of a party , but to the common good of the whole body . whosoever wants this love , hath no vital union with christ and the church , and no part in the communion of saints . the church is much more ennobled , strengthened , and every way blessed by the communion of holy love among all its living members , or real christians , than by an outside uniformity in the minute circumstances , or accidental modes of religion . by this love it is more beautifull and lovely in the eyes of all intelligent beholders , than by outward pomp and ornament , or any worldly splendor . the unity of the church as visible , whether catholick or particular , may be considered in a three-fold respect , or in three very different points . the first and chief point thereof , is in the essentials and all weighty matters of christian faith and life . the second and next in account is in the essentials and integrals of church state , that is , in the christian church-worship , ministery and discipline , considered as of christs institution , and abstracted from all things superadded by men . the third and lowest point is in those extrinsecal and accidental forms and orders of religion , which are necessary in genere , but left in specie to human determination . of these several points of unity , there is to be a different valuation according to their different value . our first and chief regard is due to the first and chief point , which respects christian faith and life ; the next regard is due to that which is next in value , that which respects the very constitution or frame of a church ; and regard is to be had of that also which respects the accidentals of religion , yet in its due place and not before things of greater weight and worth . things are of a very different nature and importance to the churches good estate ; and a greater or lesser stress must be laid upon unity in them , as the things themselves are of greater or lesser moment . the rule or law of church unity is not the will of man , but the will of god. whosoever keeps that unity which hath gods word for its rule , keeps the unity of the spirit ; and whosoever boasts of a unity that is not squared by this rule , his boasting is but vain . an hypothesis that nothing in the service of god is lawfull , but what is expresly prescribed in scripture , is by some falsly ascribed to a sort of men who earnestly contend for the scriptures sufficiency , and perfection for the regulating of divine worship , and the whole state of religion . god in his word hath prescribed all those parts of his worship , that are necessary to be performed to him . he hath likewise therein instituted those officers that are to be the administrators of his publick worship in church assemblies , and hath defined the authority and duty of those officers , and all the essentials and integrals of church state . as for the circumstantials and accidentals belonging to all the things aforesaid , he hath laid down general rules for the regulation thereof , the particulars being both needless and impossible to be enumerated and defined . in this point god hath declared his mind , deut. . . ye shall not add unto the word which i command you , neither shall ye diminish ought from it . deut. . . what soever thing i command you , observe to do it , thou shalt not add thereto nor diminish from it . the prohibition is not meerly of altering the rule , gods written word by addition or diminution , but of doing more or less than the rule required , as the precept is not of preserving the rule , but of observing what is commanded in it . such human institutions in divine worship , as be in meer subserviency to divine institutions , for the necessary and convenient modifying and ordering thereof , are not properly additions to gods commandments . for they are of things which are not of the same nature , end and use with the things which god hath commanded , but of meer circumstantials and accidentals belonging to those things . and these circumstantials are in genere necessary to the performance of divine institutions , and are generally commanded in the word , though not in particular , but are to be determined in specie by those to whom the power of such determination belongs . they that assert and stand to this only rule , provide best for the unity of religion , and the peace of the church . for they are ready to reject whatsoever they find contrary to this rule , they are more easily kept within the bounds of acceptable worship , and all warrantable obedience , they lay the greatest weight on things of the greatest worth and moment , they carefully regard all divine institutions and whatsoever god hath commanded , and they maintain love , and peace , and mutual forbearance towards one another in the more inconsiderable diversities of opinion and practice . those things that are left to human determination , the pastors , bishops or elders , did anciently determine for their own particular churches . and indeed it is very reasonable and naturally convenient , that they who are the administrators of divine institutions , and have the conduct of the people in divine worship , and know best what is most expedient for their own society , should be intrusted with the determination of necessary circumstances within their own sphere . but forasmuch as the supream magistrate is intrusted of god with the care of religion within his dominions , and hath a civil supremacy in eclesiastical affairs , and a great concern in the orderly management of publick assemblies , he is authorized of god to oversee the determinations and actings of ecclesiastical persons , and may assume to himself the determination of the aforesaid circumstantials for the honour of god , the churches edification and the publick peace , keeping within the general rules prescribed in gods word . for the maintaining of church-unity , that is according to gods word , it is the part of subjects to submit to what their governours have determined , so far as their submission is allowable by the said rule ; and it is the part of governours to consider well the warrantableness of their determinations . more especially their wisdom and care is much required in settling the right bounds of unity . in this regard the terms of admission to the communion and ministery of the church must be no other , than what the declared will of god hath made the terms of those priviledges , and which will shut out none , whom god hath qualified for and called to the same . the setting of other boundaries , besides the iniquity thereof , will inevitably cause divisions . the apostles , elders and brethren assembled at jerusalem , acts . . writing to the blieving gentiles declare , it seemed good to the holy ghost and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things . from which it is evidently inferred that the burden of things unnecessary ought not to be laid on the churches . the things injoyned by that assembly were antecedently to their decree , either necessary in themselves or in their consequents according to the state of things in those times and places . and whatsoever is made the matter of a strict injunction , especially a condition of church communion and priviledges , ought to have some kind of necessity in it antecedent to its imposition . symbolical rites or ceremonies instituted by man to signifie grace or duty , are none of those things , which being necessary in general , are left to human determination for this or that kind thereof . they have no necessary subserviency to divine institutions , they are no parts of that necessary decency and order in divine worship , without which the service would be undecent . and indeed they are not necessary to be instituted or rigidly urged in any time or place whatsoever . the being and well being of any rightly constituted church of christ , may stand without them . st. paul resolves upon the cases of using or refusing of meats , and the observance or non-observance of days , which god had neither commanded nor forbidden , and of eating of those meats which had been offered in sacrifice to idols , rom. . and cor. . that no man put a stumbling block , or an occasion to fall in his brothers way . the command here given , extends to pastors and governours as well as to other christians , and is to be observed in acts of governments as well as in other acts . st. paul was a church governour and of high authority , yet he would not use his own liberty in eating flesh , much less would he impose in things unnecessary to make his brother to offend . in the cases aforementioned , there was a greater appearance of reason for despising , censuring or offending others , than there can be for some impositions now in question among us , viz. on the one side a fear of partaking in idolatry , or of eating meats that god had forbidden , or of neglecting days that god had commanded , as they thought ; on the other side a fear of being driven from the christian liberty , and of restoring the ceremonial law. nevertheless , the apostle gives a severe charge against censuring , despising or offending others of different persuasions in those cases . and if it were a sin to censure or despise one another , much more is it a sin to shut out of the communion or ministery of the church for such matters . the word of god , which is the rule of church-unity , evidently shews that the unity of external order must always be subservient to faith and holiness , and may be required no further than is consistent with the churches peace and edification . the churches true interest lies in the increase of regenerate christians , who are her true and living members , and in their mutual love , peace and concord , in receiving one another upon those terms which christ hath made the bond of this union . the true church unity is comprized by the apostle in these following unities ; one body , one spirit , one hope , one lord , one faith , one baptism , one god. but there is nothing said of one ritual or set form of sacred offices , one policy or model of rules and orders , that are but circumstantial and accidental in a church state and very various and alterable , while the church abides the same . chap. iii. of schism truly so called . here i lay down general positions about schism without making application thereof ; whether these positions be right or wrong gods word will shew ; and who are , or are not concerned in them , the state of things will shew . schism is a violation of the unity of the spirit , or of that church-unity which is of gods making or approving . this definition i ground on the afore-cited text , mark them that cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine that ye have learned . separation and schism are not of equal extent . there may be a separation or secession where there is no schism . for schism is always a sin , but separation may be a duty , as the separation of the protestants from the church of rome . moreover , there may be schism where there is no separation . the violation of unity or the causing of divisions may be not only by withdrawing , but by any causing of others to withdraw from the communion of the church , or by the undue casting or keeping of others out of the church , or by making of any breaches in religion contrary to the unity of the spirit . by looking back to the nature , and rule , and requisites of true church-unity , we shall understand the true nature and the several kinds and degrees of schism . as holy love is the life and soul of church-unity , so that aversation and opposition which is contrary to love , is that which animates the sin of schism , and is as it were the heart root of it . whosoever maintains love , and makes no breach therein , and whose dissenting or withdrawing from a church is no other than what may stand with love in its extent , is no schismatick . the unity of the spirit being primarily that of the church as mystically , the breach thereof lies primarily in being destitute of the spirit and life spiritual , much more in being opposite thereunto , under the shew of christianity ; also in the languishing or lessening of spiritual life , especially of the acts of holy love . the unity of the spirit being secondarily , that of the church as visible in its external state , and the first and chiefest point thereof being in the essentials and weighty matters of christian faith and life ; the highest violation thereof and the chiefest point of schism , lies in denying or enormously violating the said essentials or weighty matters . and it is directly a violation of the unity of the catholick church , and not of particular churches only . not only particular persons , but churches , yea a large combination of churches bearing the christian name , may in their doctrine , worship and other avowed practice , greatly violate the essentials , or very weighty matters of christian faith and life , and be found guilty of the most enormous breach of unity . it is no schism to withdraw or depart from any the largest combination or collective body of churches , ( though for their amplitude they presume to stile their combination the catholick church ) that maintain and avow any doctrine or practice , which directly , or by near and palpable consequence overthrows the said essentials . the next point of external unity being about the essentials and integrals of church state , the sacraments and other publick worship , the ministery and discipline of the church considered as of christs institution , the next chief point of schism is the breach hereof . and this may be either against the catholick , or a particular church . of such schism against the state of the catholick church , there are these instances . . when any one part of professed christians how numerous soever , combined by any other terms of catholick unity , than what christ hath made , account themselves the only catholick church , excluding all persons and churches that are not of their combination . . when a false catholick unity is devised or contended for , viz. a devised unity of government for the catholick church under one terrene head , personal or collective , assuming a proper governing power over all christians upon the face of the whole earth . . when there is an utter disowning of most of the true visible churches in the world , as having no true church state , no not the essentials thereof , and an utter breaking off from communion with them accordingly . of schism against a particular church in point of its church state , there be these instances . . the renouncing of a true church as no church , although it be much corrupted , much more if it be a purer church , though somewhat faulty . . an utter refusing of all acts of communion with a true church when we may have communion with it , either in whole or in part , without our personal sin of commission or omission . . the causing of any divisions or distempers in the state or frame of a true church contrary to the unity of the spirit . but it is no schism to disown a corrupt frame of polity , supervenient to the essentials and integrals of church state in any particular church or combination of churches , like a leprosie in the body , that doth grosly deprave them , and in great part frustrate the ends of their constitution . the last and lowest point of external unity lying in the accidental modes of religion , and matters of meer order , extrinsick to the essentials and integrals of church-state , the violation thereof is the least and lowest point of schism , i mean in it self considered , and not in such aggravating circumstances as it may be in . those accidental forms and orders of religion , which are necessary in genere but left in specie to human determination , are allowed of god , when they are determined according to prudence , and charity for peace and edification , and accordingly they are to be submitted to . consequently it is one point of schism to make a division from or in a church upon the accountal of accident forms and orders so determined according to gods allowance . but if any of the accidentals be unlawfull , and the maintaining or practicing thereof be imposed upon us as the terms of our communion , it is no schism but duty to abstain from communion in that case . for explicitly and personally to own errors and corruptions even in smaller points is evil in it self , which must not be committed that good may come . in this case not he that withdraws , but he that imposes causeth the division . and this holds of things sinfull either in themselves , or by just consequence . and herein he that is to act , is to discern and judge for his own practice , whether the things imposed be such . for gods law supposeth us rational creatures able to discern its meaning , and to apply it for the regulating of our own actions ; else the law were given us in vain . submission and reverence towards superiors obligeth no man to resign his understanding to their determinations , or in compliance with them to violate his own conscience . persons meek , humble , peaceable and throughly conscientious and of competent judgment , may not be able by their diligent and impartial search to see the lawfulness of things injoyned , and t is a hard case if they should thereupon be declared contumacious . seeing there be several points of unity , the valuation whereof is to be made according to their different value , mens judgment and estimation of unity and schism , is very preposterous , who lay the greatest stress on those points that are of least moment , and raise things of the lowest rank to the highest in their valuation , and set light by things of the greatest moment and highest value ; as indeed they do , who set light by soundness of faith and holiness of life , and consciencious observance of divine institutions , where there is not also unanimity and uniformity in unscriptural doctrines and human ceremonies . and they that make such an estimate of things , and deal with ministers accordingly , do therein little advance the unity of the spirit , or indeavour to keep it in the bond of peace . seeing the word of god is the rule of church unity , a breach is made upon it , when other bounds thereof are set than this rule allows . an instance hereof is the devising of other terms of church-communion , and ministerial liberty , than god hath commanded , or allowed in his word to be made the terms thereof ; also any casting or keeping out of the church or ministery such as gods word doth not exclude from either , but signifies to be qualified and called thereunto . god doth not allow on the part of the imposer such tearms of church communion or ministerial station , as are neither scriptural nor necessary to peace and edification , nor are any part of that necessary order and decency , without which the service of god would be undecent , nor are in any regard so necessary , but that they may be dispensed with for a greater benefit , and the avoiding of a greater mischief . and they are found guilty of schism that urge such unscriptural and unnecessary things unto a breach in the church . such imposers are not only an occasion of the breach that follows , but a culpable cause thereof , because they impose without and against christs warrant , who will not have his church to be burdened , nor the consciences of his servants intangled with things unnecessary . nevertheless , such unscriptural or unnecessary things , if they be not in themselves unlawfull nor of mischievous consequence , may be of gods allowing as to the submitters . thereupon they are guilty of schism , who meerly for the sake of those unnecessary things yet lawfull as to their use , though wrongfully urged upon them , forsake the communion of the church or their ministerial station , where things are well settled as to the substantials of religion , and the ends of church order , and when they themselves are not required to justifie the imposing of such unnecessaries . here i speak of contumacious refusers , who will rather make a breach than yield . but refusers out of conscience believing , or with appearance of reason suspecting the said lawfull things to be unlawfull , are either accquitted from schism , or guilty but in a low degree , and much less culpable than the imposers , who might well forbear to impose . be it here noted that when superiors sin in commanding a thing exempt from their authority , it may be the subjects duty to observe the thing commanded . in this case the said observance is not an act of obedience , for that can arise only from the rulers authority to command . but it is an act of prudence , equity and charity , and it is good and necessary for the ends sake , and in that regard t is an act of obedience , though not to the earthly ruler , yet to god who commands us to follow peace and maintain unity in all lawfull ways and means . in the judgment of the apostle it is no slight matter to act against conscience rationally doubting , or suspecting a breach of gods law , rom. . . let every man be fully persuaded in his mind , v. . to him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean , to him it is unclean , ver . . he that doubteth , is damned if he eat , because he eateth not of faith , for whatsoever is not of faith is sin . the command of rulers is no good security for acting against a rational doubting conscience . when i am in doubt touching the lawfulness of the thing injoyned , i have no certainty of being on the safer side , by complying with rulers . for though in general obedience to rulers be a certain duty , yet in the particular doubted case , i cannot be certain that my compliance is right and warrantable obedience , and not a breach of gods law. is it plain that i ought to obey the commands of rulers in things that have gods allowance ? so t is as plain that i ought not to obey their commands in things which god hath forbidden . moreover , it is as plain that i ought not to act against my own conscience , which as being the discerner of the will of god concerning me , is of right the immediate director of my actions . indeed my conscience cannot alter gods law , or make that which god hath made my duty to be not my duty , yet it will not suffer me to act in disconformity to its directions . seeing the unity of the spirit is always in conjunction with faith and holiness , to which the unity of external order is always to be subservient , it follows that when unity of external order doth not tend to advance but hinder sound faith and true holiness , then a false unity is set up , and the true unity is abandoned , and divisions and offences are caused . and it is no schism but a duty not to adhere to a unity of external order so set and urged , as that it tends to the destruction or notable detriment of faith and holiness , which are the end of all church order . the means are good in reference to their end , and must never be used in a way destructive to it . of the hinderance of the said ends , there be these following instances . here laid down in general , without intendment of particular application to any churches now in being , which are left to be tryed and judged by that rule by which all must stand or fall . . when a church or churches , a congregation or congregations have an establishment of external polity , and an ordained ministery , and a form of divine worship , but are destitute of such ministers as are qualified to feed the flock , and are burdened with such as are altogether unfit to have the charge of souls committed to them , who are either unable to teach , or teach corruptly , either teaching corrupt doctrine , or abusing , mishandling and misapplying sound doctrine , to encourage the ungodly and discourage the godly . . where there are some ministers able and apt to teach and duly qualified ; but their number is in no wise proportionable to the number of the people , and there be multitudes that cannot have the benefit of their ministery , so that if they have no more placed among them than those few , they have in effect none . . where sincere christians , or credible professors of christianity are cast out of an established church by wrong sentence , or are debarred from its communion by unlawfull terms injoyned them , or unnecessary terms which are to them unlawfull by real doubts of conscience , and which christ hath not authorized rulers to injoyn as terms of church communion . . when ministers , whom christ hath furnished and called , are driven out of their publick station by unlawfull terms injoyned , or by terms unnecessary and to them unlawfull by real doubts of conscience , and which christ hath not authorized rulers to injoyn as terms of the publick ministery . upon the cases here mentioned , i inquire whether the said ministers and people may not draw together into new congregations . let it be considered whether the determinations of men may be a perpetual bar to true visible christians , ( it may be to multitudes of them ) against the injoyment of those most important priviledges , to which god hath given them right . yea , suppose their consciences were culpably weak in scrupling things imposed , yet they may suffer wrong by such an excess of punishment , as so great a deprivation . and christ doth not reject them for such weaknesses . let it be also considered , whether such injured as christians are wrongfully excluded from gods ordinances , and such neglected souls as are left destitute of the necessary means of salvation , may lawfully be deserted by christs ministers . should not the stewards of the mysteries of god indeavour to supply what is lacking to such by reason of the rigourousness or negligence of others ? if it be said , we may not do evil that good may come , nor break the laws of unity for such respects , the answer is , that this is not to do evil , but a good work and a necessary duty , and here is no breach of unity that is of gods making or allowing . the necessary means of saving souls are incomparably more pretious than uniformity in external , accidental order , especially when t is unwarrantably injoyned , and attended with such evil consequents . if within any local bounds assigned for the pastoral charge of any ecclesiastick , the people be left destitude of competent provision for their souls , it is no intrusion or breach of unity if an other pastor perform the work of the ministery within those bounds . subjects may not by coercive power reform the publick state and change the laws , which is the work of the supream magistrate . but let it be considered whether they may not have their voluntary assemblies for gods worship , when they are driven from the communion of the legal churches by the imposition of unlawfull terms , or unnecessary terms apprehended by them to be unlawfull . for in this case they are forced either to hold such assemblies , or to abide perpetually without those spiritual priviledges which are their due , and the ordinary means of their salvation . there is a great difference between inimical separation , like sedition in a common-wealth , and secregation upon necessary causes without breach of charity . and among the necessary causes this may be one , that all sober christians , who for conscience sake cannot submit to the way of the established churches , may be relieved ; and that none may be exposed for lack of that relief to be lead aside into the error of the wicked , as heresie , infidelity , or any other course of impiety . indeed here is some variation from the ordinarily regular bounding of churches . but the partition of one church from another by local bounds , is not of absolute necessity and invariable , but naturally eligible from the convenience thereof , when it may be had . but the state of some christians may be such , as to compel them to vary from it . the scope hereof is not to set up churches against churches , but either occasional and temporary assemblies , or at the most but divers churches distinguished by their several places of assembling , or by diversity of external order , as the allowed congregations of foreigners in london , are distinguished from the parish churches . if any object the inconveniencies that may follow the permitting of church assemblies besides those of the established order , the answer is , that the wisdom and clemency of rulers in any nation where this case may be supposed can provide , that as few as may be should stand in need of that permission , by fixing the terms of church communion and ministerial liberty to such a latitude , as may comprehend all the more moderate dissenters . and after such comprehension , christian charity will plead , that all tolerable dissenters ( that is , all who believe and live as christians ) may be tolerated within such limits , as may stand with publick peace and safety . that which is here proposed , may make for the relief of many thousand serious christians without breach of the external order , which is necessary to be maintained , and is not set up to the hinderance of things more necessary . it is to be noted that the offenders expresly marked out by the apostle in the text , rom. . . were ungodly men that opposed or perverted the christian doctrine , and being sensualists and deceivers disturbed and polluted the christian societies , and seduced the simple into destructive error and practice . wherefore the text is ill applied to the rigorous condemnation of honest and peaceable men , that dissent only in some accidental or inferior points of religion , for which the apostle forbids christians to despise or judge one another . yet not only false teachers , but all schismaticks are here condemned under this description , viz. those that cause divisions and offences . and though they be not direct opposers of sound doctrine , yet being dividers or disturbers , they practice contrary to the doctrine of christ , which teacheth unity , love and peace . but still it must be observed that the reality of schism lies not in being divided or disordered , but in causing the division or disturbance , or in a voluntary violation of or departing from true church-unity . they that cause divisions are not excused from schism by the support of secular power , nor are others convicted of it meerly by the want of that support . the magistrates power in sacred things is accumulative , not destructive or diminitive to the rights of christs ministers and people . it takes not from them any thing that christ hath granted them , but gives them a better capacity to make use thereof . chap. iv. of the schisms that were in the more ancient times of the church ; and the different case of the nonconformists in these times . of those parties which were anciently reputed schismaticks , as violating the unity of the church , yet not hereticks , as denying any fundamental point of the christian faith , the novatians and donatists are of the chiefest note . forasmuch as both these are looked upon as the greatest instances of schism , it may be requisite for me to consider the true state of their separation from the main body of the christian church , passing by accidental matters , and insisting on the merits of their cause according to their main principles and practices . as concerning the donatists , the breach made by them had this rise . donatus with his complices vehemently opposed cecilianus , who had been chosen bishop of carthage , in design to thrust him out of his bishoprick . they accuse him of being ordained by one that had been a proditor , and of having admitted into ecclesiastical office one that was guilty of the like fault . this cause was by the emperor constantine's appointment heard before several councils and many judges . the accusers still fail in their proofs of the things objected , cecilianus is acquitted and confirmed in his office. the party of donatus failing in their design , were carried in a boundless rage of opposition to a total , and irreclaimable separation from all the churches that were not of their faction , and became very numerous upon a pretence of shunning the contagion of the wicked in the communion of the sacraments . their principles were , that the church of christ was no where to be found but among themselves in a corner of africa ; also that true baptism was not administred but in their sect. likewise they proceeded to great tumult , and violence , and rapine . and a sort of them called circumcelliones gloried in a furious kind of martyrdom , partly by forcing others to kill them , and partly by killing themselves . the novatians took their name and beginning from novatus a presbyter , first at carthage , afterwards at rome , who held that they who lapsed in times of persecution unto the denying of christ , were not to be readmitted unto the communion of the church , though they repented and submitted to the ecclesiastical discipline of pennance . he separated from the roman church , and was made a bishop by bishops of his own judgment , in opposition to cornelius bishop of rome . cyprian gives a very bad character of him , as a turbulent , arrogant and avaritious person . but of what spirit soever he was , his judgment and canon was received among many that were of stricter lives ; and he himself is reported to have suffered death in the persecution under valerian . at the council of nice , acesius bishop of the novatians being asked by constantine , whether he assented to the same faith with the council , and to the observation of easter as was there derceed , answered that he fully assented to both . then being again asked by the emperor , why he separated from the communion , he recited for himself things done in the reign of decius , and the exquisite observation of a certain severe canon , that they who after baptism had fallen into that kind of sin , which the scripture calls a sin unto death , ought not to be partakers of the divine mysteries ; but to be exhorted to repentance , and to expect the hope of remission not from the priest but from god , who hath power to forgive . by this it appears that the novatians did not deny the salvability of the lapsed , or others that had fallen into a sin unto death , but only refused to admit them to sacerdotal absolution and church-communion . and thus they made a very unwarrantable separation , grounded upon an unjust rigor of very bad consequence . nevertheless their error was no other , than what holy and good men might be ensnared in by the appearance of a greater detestation of sin , and its tendency to prevent the lapse of christians into idolatry , and to make them more resolved for martyrdom . and by as credible history as any we have of the ancient times , they are reported to have had among them men eminently pious , and some famous for miracles . they unmovably adhered to the homousian faith , and for the maintenance of it together with the orthodox , suffered dreadfull persecutions . they had some bishops remarkable for wisdom and godliness , and such as were consulted with by some of the chief of the catholick bishops , and that with good success for support of the common faith against the arrians and such like hereticks . under a certain persecution , wherein they were companions of the self same suffering , it is said that the catholicks and novatians had prayers together in the novations churches , and that in those times they were almost united , if the novations had not utterly refused that they might keep up their old institutes ; yet they bare such good will one to another , that they would die one for another . these and many other things of like nature are reported of them by socrates , whom some indeed suspect to have been addicted to them , yet upon no other ground , but because he gives them their due upon evident proof . and besides what he hath reported , sosomen thus testifies of them , l. . c. . that when other sects expired , the novatians because they had good men for the leaders of their way , and because they defended the same doctrine with the catholick church , were very numerous from the beginning , and so continued , and suffered not much dammage by constantines law for suppressing of sects ; and acesius their bishop being much favoured by the emperor , for the integrity of his life greatly advantaged his church . also l. . c. . he reports the great amity that was between them and the catholicks in a time of common persecution . whether the case of the dissenters from the uniformity now required , be in point of schism of the same or like reason with the above mentioned , or any other anciently reputed schismaticks , is now to be considered . and it is the case of those that dissent not in the substance of religion , but only in things pertaining to the ecclesiastical polity or external order in the church , that is here taken into consideration . of these , some being persuaded of the necessity of their own church-order , desire to remain as they are in their severed societies ; yet they do not nullify the legal churches or ministery , or the dispensation of the word , sacraments and prayer therein performed . others being satisfied in the constitution of parochial churches , and in the substance of the established form of worship , would gladly embrace a freedom of communicating and administring therein , upon the removal of some bars that lie against them , and which they think may well be removed . thereupon they seek an accommodation and union by a sufficient comprehensiveness in the publick constitution ; and withall a reasonable indulgence towards those brethren , who for the straightness of their judgments cannot be comprehended . neither party of the dissenters here described can be charged with any thing like the donatistical fury before expressed . if austin sought the suppression of that sect by the secular power , in regard of the horrible outrages committed by them , it cannot reasonably be urged for a precedent ( as it hath been by some ) for the suppression of men sober and peaceable , and sound in the main points of christian faith and life . nor can either party of us be charged with that intolerable presumption and arrogance of the donatists , in confining the flock of christ to their own party , or the disannulling and utter denouncing of all churches besides their own . nor is the ground of our dissatisfaction like theirs , which began in a quarrel against a particular bishop , and was maintained by animosity against those that would not condemn him . it is well known that another manner of account is to be given of our dissents . if it be objected , that those dissenters whose principles bind them up to persevere in their severed societies , seem in this respect to be as the novatians , who would not admit a re-union with the other churches ; it may be answered for them , that reasons have been offered in the foregoing parts of this discourse for indulgence to conscientious people , who are intangled by the narrowness of their principles touching church-order . besides , they do not stand off upon so harsh and rigorous a point as the novatians did , viz. the utter repelling of the lapsed , though penitent from the communion of the church . and they have ordinarily communion in the word and prayer with congregations that are not of their church way , and occasionally in the sacrament with those congregations , where they apprehend a care of the exercise of discipline . nor may they be judged so irreconcilable to the established order , but that the holy lives of those in the publick ministery , and their lively preaching , and a greater care of true and real church-discipline , might do much to their recovery . in the mean time , why may not these be upon as good terms under the present government , as the novatians were under the government of their times ? church history reports that they were cruelly persecuted by the arrian emperours and bishops , and that they had great indulgence under orthodox emperours , and with many catholick bishops and patriarchs , whose prudent and moderate government did best provide for the peace of their churches . but those orthodox bishops , who took from them their churches and estates , were chiefly either such as took to themselves a secular power , and ruled imperiously and with violence , or such as with their zeal had more of wrath and rashness than of meekness and prudence . this can be easily proved in the particular instances , if need were . but this is not the case of all nonconformists . for part of them ( and upon good experiment made , they may be found the greater part ) do not seek to abide in a severed state , but desire a union . it is well known they are as sensible of the evil of schism , and as studious of the churches peace and concord , as any others . and though they have not the same latitude of judgment with others in some points , yet they have a right catholick spirit to promote the common interest of religion , and more especially the protestant reformation , and dread the weakning and shattering of it by needless divisions , and are ready to go as far as conscience will allow in compliance with the injunctions of rulers . but they are cast and kept out of the established order by the injunction of some terms , which in regard of their present judgment , they can not comply with , but under the guilt of so great a sin as dissembling in the matter of religion . touching church-government , they admit the episcopacy that was of ancient ecclesiastical custom in the time of ignatius , yea , or of cyprian . bishop usher's model of government by bishops and arch-bishops with their presbyters , was by some of them presented to the kings majesty for a ground-work of accommodation . they acknowledge the kings ecclesiastical supremacy according to the oath in that case required . his majesty in his gracious declaration concerning ecclesiastical affairs , gives a testimony concerning the ministers that attended him in holland , in these words , viz. to our great satisfaction and comfort , we found them persons full of affection to us , and of zeal to the peace of church and state , and neither enemies ( as they had been given out to be ) to episcopacy or liturgy , but modestly to desire such alterations in either , as without shaking foundations might best allay the present distempers . they are ready to engage that they will not disturb the peace of the church , nor indeavour any point of alteration in its government by rebellious seditions , or any unlawfull ways . those points of conformity wherein they are dissatisfied , are but some accidentals of religion and external modes , and the declarations and subscriptions importing an allowance of all and every thing contained in the liturgy . and they think that these points are not so necessary in themselves or in their consequents , but they are very dispensable as the wisdom of governours shall see cause . if it be objected , that if any thing should be yielded to them , there would be no end of their cravings , that which i have to say is , that reasonable men will be satisfied with reasonable concessions ; and if subjects know not what is fit for them to ask , governours know what is fit for them to give . by granting the desired relaxation , the church would not ( as some alledge ) be self-condemned , as confessing the unlawfulness of her injunctions , or as justifying the opinions of the dissenters . for it can signifie from her no more than either her indulgence to the weak , or her moderation in things less necessary and more controverted , which would not turn to her reproach , but to her greater justification . i have here nothing to say to them that object against any relaxation after that manner , as if they desired not our conformity but our perpetual exclusion . such may be answered in due season . and i have here nothing to do with those that argue against us from politick considerations , respecting a particular interest too narrow for an adequate foundation of church-peace and christian-concord . but my scope is to consider what may be done by the higher powers and church guides for the healing of breaches , according to the wisdom which is from above , which is first pure , then peaceable , gentle and easie to be intreated , full of mercy and good fruits , without partiality and without hypocrisie . i have made particular observation of those too most remarkable parties , which have been looked upon as the chief instances of schism in the more ancient times . the other schisms that i find of any remark in those times were raised , sometimes by persons cast out of the church for their crimes , and thereupon drawing disciples after them , as was that of meletius a bishop in egypt , who was desposed for having sacrificed to idols . sometimes by offence unjustly taken at some supposed faultiness in a bishop , as was that of an orthodox party in antioch , against another meletius , an orthodox and right worthy bishop of that city , only because he was at first brought in by the arrians ; sometimes by the exasperations of the people for injuries done to them or their pastors , and outrages committed by their opposites , as was that of the johannites at constantinople upon the banishment of chrysostom ; and somtimes by meer animosity and humor of discontentment , as was that of lucifer a bishop in sardinia , who separated from eusebius bishop of vertellis and others , because they disliked his rash act of ordaining paulinus to be bishop of antioch , as tending to perpetuate the schism there begun . touching all the said parties , it may be observed that they did not plead that any opinions or forms were imposed on them , to which their consciences did reluctate , nor did they desire others forbearance towards them in such things as might bear too hard upon them ; but they themselves would not bear with others in that which they supposed faulty , but did nither choose wholly to abandon the communion of the churches , and did not seek nor care for accomodation with them . but this is not the case of at least a great part of the dissenters of these times . for they importune an accommodation with the churches of the established order , and for peace sake , are willing to bear with the practice of others in that which themselves dislike or doubt of ; but they cannot obtain a dispensation from others , in some things which are very dispensable points according to their judgment , but are forced to abide in a severed state , unless they will profess what they believe not , or practice what they allow not . now because the judgment and practice of antiquity is much insisted on , i pray that it may be considered , whether in the primitive , or ancient times of christianity , men , yea , many hundreds of men duly qualified for the ministery by sound faith and good life , as also by their learning and industry , and offering all reasonable security for their submissive and peaceable demeanure , were or would have been cast and kept out of the church for their nonconformity to some opinions , forms and ceremonies , which at the best are but the accidentals of religion , and of the truth or lawfulness whereof , the dissenters were wholly dissatisfied , and which the imposers judged to be but things in themselves indifferent . and i further pray that it may be considered , whether it be easier for the nonconformists to be self-condemned in conforming to some injunctions against their consciences , and in deserting the ministery to which they are dedicated , than for superiours either by some relaxation to make them capable of conforming , or to bear with their peaceable exercise of the ministery in a state of nonconformity , while some of their injunctions confine them to that state . chap. v. of making a right estimate of the guilt of schism , and something more of taking the right way to unity . the confused noise about schism , and the unjust imputation thereof , that is commonly made , hath greatly disordered the minds of many . some have been thereby swaid to an absolute compliance with the most numerous or the most prevailing parties . others discerning the abuse of this name , but forgetting that there is something truly so called , have made light of the thing it self , which is indeed of a heinous nature . i have been engaged in this disquisition by a deep sense of the evil of schism , and an earnest care of keeping my self from the real guilt thereof , and what is here written , i willingly submit to a grave and just examination . errare possum , haereticus , schismaticus esse nolo . i am liable to errour as others are , but i am sure i am no wilfull schismatick . it is commonly given to men to pass a severe judgment upon every dissent from their own opinions and orders . whereupon , as that hath had the character of schism stamped upon it , which is not such indeed ; so that which is schism in a low and tolerable degree , hath been aggravated to the highest , and prosecuted against all rules of prudence and charity . to make an equal judgment of the guilt of schism in persons or parties , the degree of the schism is duly to be considered . our saviour teacheth that reviling language , contemptuous words and rash anger , are breaches of the sixth commandment , yet in degree of guilt , they are vastly different from the act of wilfull murther . and indeed in the kind of delinquency here treated of , there are as great differences of degrees as of any other kind . the case of those that are necessitated to a non-compliance in some lawfull things by them held unlawfull , yet seeking union would gladly embrace a reasonable accomodation , is much different from theirs , who upon choice and wilfully sever themselves , because they love to be severed . in like manner the case of those who desire and seek the conformity of others , and would gladly have fellowship with them , yet through misguided zeal , are approvers of such unnecessary impositions as hinder the conforming of many , is much different from theirs , who designing the extrusion of others , contrive the intangling of them by needless rigors . many other instances might be given to express the great disparity of cases in point of schism , all which may teach us in the estimate that we are to make thereof , to put a difference between honest minds , that by mistake are drawn into division , and those that out of their corrupt minds and evill designs do wilfully cause division . in many things we offend all , and therefore it behoves us to consider one another , as subject to the like errours and passions . we should not judge too severely , as we would not be so judged . there be many examples of schismatical animosities and perversnesses , into which in the ancient times such persons have fallen , as were otherwise worthily esteemed in the church . cyril with the greater number of bishops in the ephesine council , too rashly deposed john of antioch , and his party of bishops upon a quarrel that arose between them . and john with his adherents returning to antioch , did more rashly depose cyril and his party , and yet both parties were orthodox , and in the issue joyned in the condemnation of nestorius . but the most remarkable instance in this kind , is the disorderly and injurious proceeding of so venerable a person as epiphanius , against so worthy a person as chrysostom , to which he was stirred up by the instigation of that incendiary theophilus of alexandria . the said epiphanius goes to constantinople , and in the church without the city held a sacred communion , and ordained a deacon ; and when he had entred the city , in a publick church he read the decree made by himself and some others in the condemnation of origens books , and excommunicated dioscurus and his brethren called the long monks , worthy and orthodox men persecuted by the anthromorphites . and all this he did without and against the consent of chrysostom the bishop of the place , and in contempt of him . i may further instance in the long continued division between paulinus and meletius , with their parties at antioch , though both of them were of the nicene faith ; likewise in the long continued separation made from the church of constantinople , by the followers of chrysostom after his banishment , because they were exasperated by the injuries done to their worthy patriarch . these weaknesses in good men of old times , i observe not to dishonour them , but that we may be thereby warned to be more charitable and less censorious towards one another , in case of the like weaknesses and disorders , and to be sollicitous to maintain peace , and to prevent discord among all those that are united in the substantials of christian faith and practice , and for this end to be more carefull in avoiding unreasonable oppositions , unwarrantable impositions , and all causless exasperations . true holiness is the basis of true unity . for by it the faithfull cleave to god , and one to another in him and for him , and are inclined to receive one another on those terms , on which god hath received them all . and by it they are turned from that dividing selfishness , which draws men into several or opposite ways according to their several or opposite ends . let not a carnal wordly interest in a church state , be set up against holiness and unity . let the increase and peace of the church visible , be sought in order to the increase and peace of the mystical . let no one party be lifted up against the common peace of sound believers ; and let not any part of the legitimate children of christs family be ejected or harassed upon the instigation of others , but let the stewards in the family carry it equally , and so gratifie one part in their desired orders , that the other part be not oppressed . let not them be still vexed , who would be glad of tolerable terms with their brethren . in church-governours let the power of doing good be enlarged , and the power of doing hurt restrained , as much as will stand with the necessary ends of government . let the discipline of the church commend it self to the consciences of men . let the edge of it be turned the right way and its vigor be put forth , not about little formalities but the great and weighty matters of religion . zeal in substantials and charitable forbearance in circumstantials , is the way to gain upon the hearts of those that understand the true ends of church-government , and what it is to be religious indeed . let the occasions of stumbling and snares of division be taken out of the way , and let controverted unnecessaries be left at liberty . discord will be inevitable , where the terms of concord remain a difficulty insuperable . the conscientious that are willing to bid high for peace ; cannot resign their consciences to the wills of men , and humility and soberness doth not oblige them to act contrary to their own judgments out of reverence to their superiors ; they cannot help themselves , but their superiors may . t is the spirit of antichrist that is fierce and violent ; but the spirit of christ is dovelike , meek and harmless , and that spirit inclines to deal tenderly with the consciences of inferiours . tenderness of conscience is not to be despised or exposed to scorn , because some may falsly pretend to it . the head of the church and saviour of the body is compassionate towards his members , and he hath said , whoso shall offend one of these little ones , that believe in me , it were better for him that a milstone were hanged about his neck , and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea. as the way of unity lies much in the wisdom , equity and charity of superiours , so in the humility and due submission of inferiours , in their ready closing with what is commendable in the publick constitutions , in their bearing with what is tolerable , in making the best improvement of what is therein improvable for their own and others edification , in a word , in denying no compliance , which piety towards god and charity towards men doth not forbid . matters of publick injunction , which inferiors stick at , may be considered by them either as in themselves unlawfull , or as inexpedient . now it is not only or chiefly the inexpediency of things commanded , but the supposed unlawfulness of divers of those things that the nonconformists generally stick at , whereof they are ready to render a particular account , when it will be admitted . howbeit a question may arise about the warrantableness of submission to things not in themselves unlawfull but inexpedient , especially in respect of scandal , the solution whereof may be requisite for the clearing of our way in such things . upon this question it may be noted , that in those cases , wherein there is no right of commanding , there is no due of obedience . nevertheless , things unwarrantably commanded are sometimes warrantably observed , though not in obedience , yet in prudence , as to procure peace , and to shew a readiness to all possible compliance with superiors . moreover , rulers have no authority to command that , which in it self is not unlawfull , when christian charity forbids to do it in the present circumstances by reason of evil consequents . for all authority is given for edification and not for destruction . likewise our christian liberty includes no licence to do that act at the command of rulers , the doing of which in regard of circumstances , is uncharitable . but here it must be considered , how far the law of charity doth extend in this case , and when it doth , or doth not forbid my observance of what the ruler hath unwarrantably , because uncharitably commanded . true charity doth not wholly destroy christian liberty , though it regulates the use thereof ; and it doth not extend it so far one way as to destroy it self another way . if i am bound up from doing every indifferent thing , at which weak consciences will take offence , my liberty is turned into bondage , and i am left in thraldom to other mens endless scrupulosities . this is i think a yoke which christians are not fit nor able to bear . this bondage is greater and the burden lies heavier upon me , if by reason of others weakness , i must be bound up from observing an indifferent thing at the command of rulers , and by them made the condition of my liberty for publick service in the church , when my conscience is fully satisfied that it is lawfull , and otherwise expedient for me to do it . as for the warrantableness of enjoyning , the ruler must look to that . are some displeased and grieved that i do it ? as many or more may be displeased and grieved if i do it not . do some take occasion by my necessary use of a just liberty , to embolden themselves to sin ? my forbearing of it may be an occasion of sin to others , as their persisting in some troublesom errour to their own and others spiritual dammage , and in unwarrantable non-compliance with their governours . and the loss of my liberty for publick service consequent to such forbearance , must also be laid in the ballance . when both the using and forbearing of my liberty is clogged with evil consequents , i know no safer way than duly to consider of what moment the consequents are on either side , and to incline to that which hath the lesser evil . herein the wisdom of the prudent is to direct his way upon the impartial view of all circumstances which come under his prospect . and if good conscience and right reason , guided by the general rules of gods word , lead me to make use of my christian liberty in compliance with my superiors , i must humbly and charitably apply my self to remove the offence , that some take , by clearing the lawfulness and expediency of my act to their judgments . but if that cannot be discerned by them , i am by my christian good behaviour to make it evident to their consciences , what in me lies , that what i do , i do sincerely and faithfully , and that i am no temporizer , man-pleaser and self-seeker . i humbly conceive that that high saying of the apostle , if meat make my brother to offend , i will eat no flesh while the world standeth , doth admit such equitable interpretation , as the circumstances of time , place , person , and the whole state of things declares to be most reasonable . a humble representation of my own case touching the exercise of the ministery . i have been in the ministery near fourty years , having been ordained presbyter according to the form of ordination used in the church of england . and being called to this sacred order , i hold my self indispensibly obliged to the work thereof , as god enables me and gives me opportunity . the nature of the office is signified in the form of words , by which i was solemnly set apart thereunto . viz. [ receive the holy ghost , whose sins thou dost forgive , they are forgiven , and whose sins thou dost retain , they are retained : and be thou a faithfull dispenser of the word of god and of his holy sacraments , in the name of the father , and of the son , and of the holy ghost , amen . ] the former part of these words being used by our saviour to his apostles , in conferring upon them the pastoral authority , fully proves that the office of a presbyter is pastoral , and of the same nature with that which was ordinary in the apostles , and in which they had successours . likewise , this church did then appoint that at the ordering of priests or presbyters , certain portions of scripture should be read , as belonging to their office to instruct them in the nature of it , viz. that portion of act. . which relates st. pauls sending to ephesus , and calling for the elders of the congregation with his exhortation to them , to take heed to themselves and to all the flock , over which the holy ghost had made them overseers , to rule the congregation of god. or else tim. . which sets forth the office and due qualification of a bishop . and afterwards the bishop spake to them that were to receive the office of priesthood , in this form of words , ( ye have heard , brethren , as well in your private examination , and in the exhortation and holy lessons taken out of the gospels and writings of the apostles , of what dignity , and how great importance this office is whereto ye are called , that is to say the messengers , the watchmen , the pastors and stewards of the lord , to teach , to premonish , to feed , to provide for the lords family . i mention my ordination according to the episcopal form , because it is of greatest esteem with them , to whom this representation is more especially tendred . nevertheless , i own the validity of presbyterial ordination , and judge that ministers so ordained , may make the same defence for exercising the ministery , in the same case that is here represented . christ is the author and the only proper giver of this office ; and though he give it by the mediation of men , yet not by them as giving the office , but as instruments of the designation , or of the solemn investiture of the person to whom he gives it . as the king is the immediate giver of the power of a mayor in a town corporate , when he gives it by the mediation of electors and certain officers , only as instruments of the designation , or of the solemn investiture of the person . i am not conscious of disabling my self to the sacred ministrations , that belong to the office of a presbyter , by any opinion or practice , that may render me unfit for the same . touching which matter , i humbly offer my self to the tryal of my superiors to be made according to gods word . nothing necessary to authorize me to those ministrations is wanting that i know of . i am christs commissioned officer ; and i do not find that he hath revoked the authority which i have received from him ; and without the warrant of his law no man can take it from me . nor do i find , that the nature of this office , or the declared will of christ requires , that it be exercised no otherwise than in subordination to a disocesan bishop . that i do not exercise the ministery under the regulation of the bishop of the diocess , and in other circumstances according to the present established order , the cause is not in me , who am ready to submit thereunto ; but a bar is laid against me by the injunction of some terms in the lawfulness whereof i am not satisfied , whereof i am ready to give an account when it is required . i do not understand that i am under any oath or promise to exercise the ministery , no otherwise than in subordination to the bishop , or the ordinary of the place . the promise made at my ordination to obey my ordinary and other chief ministers , to whom the government and charge over me is committed , concerns me only as a presbyter , standing in relation to the bishop or ordinary , as one of the clergy of the diocess , or other peculiar jurisdiction , in which relation i do not now stand , being cast out and made uncapable thereof . moreover , in whatsoever capacity i now stand , the said promise must be understood either limitedly or without limitation . if limitedly , as in things lawfull and honest , ( as i conceive it ought to be understood ) then i am not bound by it in the present case . for it is not lawfull nor honest for me to comply with the now injoyned conformity against my conscience , or in case of such necessitated non-compliance , to desist from the ministery that i have received in the lord. if it be understood without limitation , it is a sinfull promise in the matter thereof , and thereupon void . absolute and unlimited obedience to man may not be promised . let it be considered also that the objected promise could not bind me to more than the conformity then required . but since my ordination and promise then made , the state of conformity hath been much altered by the injunction of more , and to me harder terms than formerly were injoyned . when i was ordained , i thought that the terms then required were such as might be lawfully submitted to . but young men ( such as i then was ) may be easily drawn to subscribe to things publickly injoyned , and so become engaged , before they have well considered . the ordainer or ordainers , who designed me to this office of christs donation , and not theirs , could not by any act of theirs lessen it as to its nature or essential state . nor can they derogate from christs authority over me , and the obligation which he hath laid upon me , to discharge the office with which he hath intrusted me . that a necessity is laid upon me in my present state to preach the gospel , i am fully perswaded , in regard of the necessities of souls , which cry aloud for all the help that can posibly be given by christs ministers , whether conformists or nonconformists . the necessary means of their salvation is more valuable , than meer external order or uniformity in things accidental . i receive the whole doctrine of faith and sacraments , according to the articles of the church of england , and am ready to subscribe the same . i have joyned , and still am ready to joyn with the legally established churches in their publick worship . the matter of my sacred ministrations hath been always consonant to the doctrine of the reformed churches , and particularly of the church of england . i meddle not with our present differences , but insist on the great and necessary points of christian religion . i design not the promoting of a severed party , but of meer christianity or godliness . i am willing to comply with the will of my superiors as far as is possible with a safe conscience , and to return to my ministerial station in the established churches , may i be but dispensed with in the injunctions , with which my conscience , till i be otherwise informed , forbids me to comply . in the whole of my dissent from the said injunctions , i can not be charged with denying any thing essential to christian faith and life , or to the constitution of a church , or any of the weightier matters of religion , or with being in any thing inconsistent with good order and government . my case , as i have sincerely set it forth , i humbly represent to the clemency of my governours , and to the charity , equity and ●●●●●r of all christs ministers and people . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 e i design to follow after the things which make for peace ; and i hope i am not mistaken in the way to it . i. c. finis . books lately printed for tho. parkhurst at the bible and three crowns in cheapside . one hundred of select sermons upon several occasions , by tho. horton , d. d. sermons on the th . psal. . psal. . and . psal. by tho. horton , d. d. a compleat martyrology , both of foraign and english martyrs , with the lives of modern divines , by sam. clark. a discourse of actual providence , by john collings , d. d. an exposition on the first chapters of the revelation of jesus christ , by charles phelpes . a discourse of grace and temptation , by tho. froysall . the revival of grace . sacramental reflections on the death of christ as testator . a sacrifice and curse , by john hurst . a glimps of eternity to awaken sinners and comfort saints , by ab. coley . which is the church , or an answer to the question , where was your church before luther ? by rich. baxter . the husbandmans companion , or meditations sutable for farmers , in order to spiritualize their employment , by edward bury . mr. adams exposition of the assemb . catechism , showing its harmony with the articles and homilies of the church of england . the present state of new-england , with the history of their wars with the indies . popery an enemy to truth and civil government , by jo. sheldeck . spelling book for children , by tho. lye. principals of christian religion , with practical applications to each head , by tho. gouge . almost christian , by matth. mead. godly mans ark , by edmund calamy . heaven and hell on earth in a good or bad conscience , by nath. vincent . little catechism for children , with short histories , which may both please and profit them , by nath. vincent . ark of the covenant , with an epistle prefixed by john owen , d. d. this author hath lately published this book intituled , the kingdom of god among men . a tract of the sound state of religion , or that christianity which is described in the holy scriptures , and of things that make for the security and increase thereof in the world , designing its more ample diffusion among professed christians of all sorts , and its surer propagation to future ages . printed for tho. parkhurst . a true relation of a company of brownists, separatists, and nonconformists, in monmouthshire in wales. with the manner of their doctrine, christnings, vveddings, and burialls. together vvith a relation of the knavery that some of their teachers practised to enrich themselves withall. the truth whereof will be justified by sundry people of good quality inhabiting in the said county. / by edward harris. harris, edward, th cent. this text is an enriched version of the tcp digital transcription a of text r in the english short title catalog (thomason e _ ). textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. the text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with morphadorner. the annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. this text has not been fully proofread approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. earlyprint project evanston,il, notre dame, in, st. louis, mo a wing h thomason e _ estc r this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (thomason tracts ; :e [ ]) a true relation of a company of brownists, separatists, and nonconformists, in monmouthshire in wales. with the manner of their doctrine, christnings, vveddings, and burialls. together vvith a relation of the knavery that some of their teachers practised to enrich themselves withall. the truth whereof will be justified by sundry people of good quality inhabiting in the said county. / by edward harris. harris, edward, th cent. [ ] p. s.n.], [london : printed in the yeare . place of publication from wing. reproduction of the original in the british library. eng dissenters, religious -- england -- early works to . brownists -- england -- early works to . separatists -- england -- early works to . a r (thomason e _ ). civilwar no a true relation of a company of brownists, separatists, and nonconformists, in monmouthshire in wales.: with the manner of their doctrine, harris, edward a this text has no known defects that were recorded as gap elements at the time of transcription. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - paul schaffner sampled and proofread - paul schaffner text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a trve relation of a company of brownists , separatists , and non-conformists , in monmouthshire in wales . with the manner of their doctrine , christnings , vveddings , and burialls . together vvith a relation of the knavery that some of their teachers practised to enrich themselves withall . the truth whereof will be justified by sundry people of good quality inhabiting in the said county . by edward harris . printed in the yeare . a trve relation of a company of brownists , separatists , and non-conformists in monmouth shire in wales . in the county of monmouth in wales , in divers parts a number of non-conformists being assembled together , not regarding in what place they meet , whether in field , garden , orchard , barne , kitchin , or high waies , being ( as they teach ) as available to their devotion as the church : where by their doctrine they perswade their auditory to contemne the prayers of the church , and the preachers of the gospell ; also avowing their owne zealous prayers to have such power with god , as that they dare chalenge him extempore . by which leud perswasion of theirs they have drawne divers honest mens wives in the night times to frequent their assemblies , and to become of most loose and wicked conversation , and likewise many chast virgins to become harlots , and the mothers of bastards ; holding it no sinne for a brother to lye with a brothers wife ; as also a virgin gotten with childe by a brother not to be the worse , but by another , then by the wicked , and so consequently a sinne . and first of christenings ; which is that the father shall bring his child to such of that sect as shall professe himselfe to be a minister , who shall take the child into his hands and wish the father to name him , and being named , the minister useth to cut the child in the eare untill it shall bleed , and then after ( delivering the child to the father ) saith , by such a name thou child shall be called ; in which action they use neither the sprinkling of water , signe of the crosse , god fathers nor god mothers , nor any of the prayers in the common prayer booke appointed to be used for that purpose ; and they will allow of no churching of women by any meanes . the manner of their mariages is , that he that taketh upon him the place of a minister , shall aske the man that is to be married , if he wil have such a maide or woman to be his wedded wife , who saying that he will , hee also usually asketh the woman that is to bee married if that she will have that man to be her husband , who saying that she will ; then their minister will usuall say , goe together and multiply ; in which action they never use the plighting of troth , ring , praiers , or ceremonies whatsoever . of burialls . they wil allow of no praiers or ceremonies at all at the burying of the dead , but give directions that the body be throwne into a pit , much like a thing nothing worth : and being that these sects in all things are inclined to maintaine contradictions as is before said , touching the points of salvation , so they will in all other things ; and ( inter alia ) command the dead to bee laid in the ground acrosse the church or churchyard , or with their heads toward the east , but never with their feete eastward , as the ancient custome was . of a pavier ( being one of the zealous brothers , seeing one of the pastors of that sect get . l ’ . under colour of cancelling of sins ) that by his owne practice in the like nature got . cheeses and . l ’ and by an accident escapt hanging in the earning therof , as followeth . the pavier or zealous brother , being very intimate with the grand doctors of that unsanctified discipline , and being privy to most of their waies and secrets , and hearing it taught at one of their coventicles or meetings , that it was a great sinne for a woman to conceale any mony from her husband ( which exercise being finished ) one of the women of that auditory acquainted the teacher , that she was guilty of that sinne , in regard that she concealed . l ’ . from her husband , & demanded what she should doe to be forgiven of that sinne , who commanded her to bring the mony to him , promising so to dispose thereof amongst the people , that her offence in that behalfe should be pardoned , which the simple woman did , whereby she and the poore were cosened by a knave . how the pavier taking this president of the holy man of god his practice , cozened three women of their cheeses . who speedily repaired unto three rich women of his neighbours ( that he knew to be well stored with good cheese which he wanted ) and made them believe that they were such heynous sinners against god , that if speedy meanes should not be made for the remission thereof , they were in the state of damnation ; whereat the poore women being put into a great fright earnestly besought the pavier ( who they conceived to be a learned man full of sanctitie and a detester of vice ) to find out how gods wrath might be appeased , and their sinnes remitted ; who ( after much intreatie and promises of rewards ) told the women that first they should confesse their sinnes , and that according to the quantity thereof , meanes should be made for the remission therof : and being demanded how and to whom their transgressions should bee acknowledged whereby the quality therof might be evident , wished each of them to fetch him down a cheese of the biggest they had , and scales to weigh them in , which being weighed and notice taken of the weight thereof ; the pavier did cut a round circle in the middle of every one of the cheeses , and tooke out the cheese within those circles in lumps unbroken ; insomuch that there was a round hole in the middle of every of the said cheeses almost through ; and thereupon the pavier delivered every woman her owne cheese againe charging every of them by the next morning to confesse all their sinnes in those holes and that he would then come to them , and in the meane time would goe home and pray for them , and study meanes for the remitting of their iniquities , and did take home with him the lumps taken out of the cheese , and cut off all the cheese thereof neere from the rine , and made round lumps of lead fit for the filling of them holes , which he took in his pocket the next morning , and comming to the women , they brought their cheeses to him , saying that they had confessed all their misdeeds that they could remember that ever they did , whereupon the pavier wished them to fetch scales thither to weigh the cheeses , and in the meane time cunningly clapt the lead into the holes which he covered with the rine of cheese that he had in his pocket , which ( being weighed ) fame exceeded the weight they were of the day before , whereby the pavier expressed unto them , that the quality of their sinnes appeared to be so great , that if speedy meanes wore not eftsoones observed for the remitting thereof , doubtlesse they should prese them downe to hell , and therefore the pavier for to banish the multitude of their confessed sinnes from off the face of the earth , tooke the cheeses and threw them over a great bridge into a great river called eboy , wherehence the paviers wife and children by his directions tooke them up and feasted upon them a goodwhiles after . what meanes the pavier prescribed to have the womens sinnes forgiven , and how he cozned them of . l ’ . by promising to die for their sinnes and how be was like to be hanged by a boy in earning the mony . vpon a serious conference betwene the pavier and the women , he made it appeare unto them that every sinne was mortall and that therefore there ought to be a death before those sinnes could be blotted out of the sight of god ; whereat the women being in a perplexity not knowing what to say , desired him to invent some other way whereby they might save their lives , and promised to give any content ; wherupon the pavier standing stedfast upon his former words , told them that there must be a death had before god would bee satisfied for their transgressions , and that he loved them so well that he for a reasonanable reward would die for them rather then they should remaine in the state of damnation for their misdeeds , whereat the women became very joyfull , giving him many thanks , brought three pound a peece , which he received , and was the only thing he aimed at , and presently thereupon tooke a little stoole and a rope with him into an upper room in one of the womens houses where spying a crosse beame tyed the rope about it , making it ready for to be hanged therein , for to purchase a pardon for the womens transgressions . whereupon he ( together with the women , having joyned in fervent prayers ) stood upon the stoole , and telling them that the spirit was then strong with him , did put the rope about his necke , and wished the women to goe into the next roome , and pray for his happinesse in so great a taske . and when as they should heare him groane , they should helpe him downe , for that by that time satisfaction would bee made , and their sinnes absolutely forgiven . and so away the women went as he had bid them , leaving him upon the stoole with the rope about his necke ; instantly thereupon a sonne of the woman of the house ( being a pretty big youth , in regard of much whispering that he spied up and downe the house , stealing up staires to see the mystery thereof ) saw the pavier standing upon the top of a stoole , with his backe towards him , and his necke in a rope , and in a manner playing therewith : at the sight whereof the youth calling to minde that the pavier had been a meanes to procure him to be whipt at schoole divers times for playing at tennis and cat upon the sunday , intended to be revenged upon him then , and suddenly shifted the stoole from under the paviers feet , and runne away , leaving him there swinging , in a way indeed to performe what he had undertaken . but the women being near unto him , and hearing him schreech , speedily runne to him , and by much adoe made a shift to save his life . now for the womens paines in hindring the pavier to performe what hee had undertaken , i could finde in my heart in a manner to wish them the successe that the pavier should have , had hee beene left alone , and not by them hindred in his proceedings . finis . a discourse concerning the pretended religious assembling in private conventicles wherein the unlawfullness and unreasonableness of it is fully evinced by several arguments / by john norris ... norris, john, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing n estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a discourse concerning the pretended religious assembling in private conventicles wherein the unlawfullness and unreasonableness of it is fully evinced by several arguments / by john norris ... norris, john, - . [ ], p. printed for james norris ..., london : . includes bibliographical references. reproduction of original in huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng dissenters, religious -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - judith siefring sampled and proofread - judith siefring text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a discourse concerning the pretended religious assembling in private conventicles wherein the unlawfulness and unreasonableness of it is fully evinced by several arguments . by iohn norris m. a. and late rector of aldbourn in the county of wilts . london , printed for iames norris , at the sign of 〈◊〉 king's arms without temple bar. ●●●● . publisher to the reader . though there be no great need of a preface to the following papers , yet partly to comply with custome , and partly out of a reverential respect to the dear memory of the authour , my deceased father , i thought it convenient to premise something by way of apology to the reader . and that he may not be disappointed in his after entertainment , 't will be requisite for him in the entrance to understand , that he is not here to expect a discourse recommended 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by stroaks of oratory , neat turns of expression , and harmonious cadencies , this being no way 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( as aristotle says in his rhetorick ) agreeable to the nature of the thing , which being a determination of a question , calls for no other ornaments than plainness , perspicuity and solidity . and as such a rhetorical mode of writing suits not with the nature of the work , so neither with the design of its composition . for this treatise was principally intended by the authour , for the instruction of ordinary and unlearned persons , and particularly those of his own congregation , and accordingly he made it his business , to bring it to the level of their capacities , of what advantage this work may be to the learned world , it becomes not me to presage , onely thus much i believe i may say , that the cause has not suffered under his hands , and that as peace and vnity was his aim , so truth and victory is his attainment . and this is all the apology i think needfull to make in behalf to the authour . now , as to what concerns my publication of this posthumous treatise , i am aware but of one objection that may be made against it , which is , that the world is well stockt with excellent discourses on this subject already . this i acknowledge to be true , but no way available to the purpose for which it is alledged . for first , may not the same be said of almost all the arguments that are ? and yet this is not thought sufficient to barr all after-undertakings . and besides , there are different ways of managing the same subject , and how stale soever the latter be , yet the former may be always new . according to that of seneca , etsi omnia a veteribus inventa essent ; hoc tamen semper novum erit , usus & inventorum ab aliis scientia & dispositio . besides , there is as much ( if not more ) in the advantageous proposal of an argument , as in the argument it self , and it often happens , that by the mere placing a thing in a new light conviction is wrought , when the very same consideration in another posture proved unsuccesfull . these considerations , together with the prospect of being beneficial to the publick , prevailed with me to concern my self in this publication , and are ( i hope ) sufficient to justifie the undertaking to others . for sure that person would betray a very narrow and selfish spirit , who declines an opportunity of doing good with the fruits of another's labour , as his charity to the poor must needs be very cold , that refuses to be the steward of another's bounty . farewell . john norris , allsouls college june the st . a seasonable question fully discussed . viz. whether in a constituted church , where there is a constant preaching ministry established by law , if a silenced non-conformist minister , shall come in to reside or inhabit , or otherwise intrude himself into any town or parish , and there ( without leave and against the will of the magistrate ) set up a course of preaching or other ministerial acts in private meetings ( commonly called conventicles ) it may be accounted the ordinance of god , or means to beget and encrease faith , or any other saving grace , in the hearts of such as shall go to hear him . in the entrance of my discourse upon this subject , i shall not spend time in explaining the terms of the question ; they are so easie and obvious to every understanding , that they need it not . without therefore any farther proeme , the negative ( with submission to better judgments ) i shall defend : and that it is not the ordinance of god as a means of grace , conducing ought to the salvation of mens souls , i hope , and will endeavour to make appear to any sober and considerate christian , upon these eight following grounds . argument . i. that cannot be the ordinance of god , or means of grace , that is , ipso facto , a sinfull act . for god , whose words and ways are all of them holy , just and good , hath appointed , ordained , or allowed nothing that hath any thing of sin in it : and it were no less than blasphemy to say the contrary . god doth not warrant any man to doe evil , that good may come by it , no not the least evil , for the procurement of the greatest good , either to our own , or the souls of others . the apostle rejects the very thought of such a thing , with horror and detestation , as knowing * damnation to be the just reward of it . it is a good saying of cajetan upon that place ; secundum sanam veramque doctrinam , peccata non sunt eligenda , ut media ad quemcunque bonumfinem ; according to sound and true doctrine , sins are not to be chosen as means to procure any good end whatsoever . and mark his reason ; quia suapte naturâ repugnat peccato , quod sit eligibile ; it is contrary to , and disagreeable with the nature of sin , to be at all matter of our choice ; propterea nec propter se , nec propter aliud bonum , est eligibile ; and therefore it is not to be chosen , either for it self , or for any good that comes by it . they are neither good intents , nor good events , that make good actions . all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will-worship is abominable to god. his express precept is , * ye shall diligently keep the commandments of the lord your god , his testimonies and statutes , and doe that which is right and good in the sight of the lord. and his prohibition , † ye shall not doe every man what is right in his own eyes . the commandments of god would soon be made of none effect , if every one in the church should doe what best likes him . shall the master's will depend on the pleasure of the servant , or the servant 's upon the master's ? he cannot be approved by him that employs him , who busies himself in a work most sutable to his own humour , with neglect of what is given him in command . had a good intention been enough to have justified an action , saul had done very well in sparing agag , and the best of the spoils of the amalekites ; and the kingdom of israel might have continued to him and his house . and saint peter had never been call'd * satan , by our saviour , as not savouring the things of god , but of men . for dissuading his master from going up to ierusalem . the means , as well as the intention , must be good , if we would have our actions pleasing to god. we grant god may , and doth often , bring good out of evil ; but that is no thanks to those that doe it . evil can naturally produce nothing but evil : it must be no lese than the infinite wisdom and almighty power of god , that must over-rule it into good . † as good ends cannot justifie evil means , so neither will evil beginnings ever bring forth good conclusions , unless god by a miracle of mercy create light out of darkness , order out of confusion , and peace out of our passions . and as he hath not allowed us to doe any evil , for the obtaining or procuring of the greatest good , so he needs it not . ‖ wilt thou speak wickedly for god , and talk deceitfully for him ? q. d. his cause , his glory , needs not any ●in of ours to promote it . he will never thank any man for seeking his honour by sinfull means ; he can get himself glory , and save mens souls otherwise . he will say as achish , * have i need of mad-men , that ye have brought this fellow to play the mad-man in my presence ? the way god hath taught us to gorifie him by , in seeking or procuring the salvation of our own , or the souls of others , is always to doe that which is good ; and though he can bring good out of evil , yet he never commands , ordains or allows our evil for that end . but such preaching and meetings as are in question , are sinfull acts . which will appear ( as by other reasons which shall be shewed hereafter , so in this place onely ) because they are done in disobedience and opposition to the known laws of the church and kingdom wherein we live , and which we stand bound in conscience towards god , to observe and obey . i begin with the laws of the church . the eleventh canon of the church of england saith , whosoever shall affirm or maintain that there are in this realm other meetings , assemblies or congregations of the king's born-subjects , than by the laws of this realm are held and allowed , which may rightly challenge to themselves the names of true and lawfull churches , let him be excommunicated , and not restored , but by the arch-bishop , after his repentance and revocation of such his wicked errour . the sense of this canon is large and comprehensive , and contains in it , virtually , a prohibition of all meetings , assemblies or congregations whatsoever which are not allowed by the laws of the land : as the meetings in question will , and ( god willing ) shall be made appear to be . neither can it be restrained onely ( if at all ) to any other meetings , than such as are under pretence of joyning in religious worship , not authorized by the laws of the land , which ( according to the title of the canon ) are called conventicles ; for there can be no other unlawfull meetings , so called , for any other end , but onely these two , viz. first for ministers and lay-men , or either of them , to joyn together , to make rules , orders or constitutions in causes ecclesiastical , without the king's authority . and that is censured and forbidden as unlawfull in the twelfth canon . or else , secondly , to consult about a course to be taken , to impeach or deprave the doctrine of the church of england , the book of common prayer , or any part of the government or discipline established in the church : and this is forbidden under pain of excommunication in the canon . any other end , for any other unlawfull meeting or assembly , other than what is aforesaid , cannot easily be imagined . therefore ( unless we will make the reverend , pious and learned authors and composers of those canons and constitutions which are so solemnly established by supreme authority , guilty of a gross tautology ) this canon flatly prohibits all meetings , assemblies or congregations ( except the publick , which are commanded and allowed by the laws of the land ) of any manner of persons , in private houses , or elsewhere , which under pretence of religious worship , take upon them to be called churches . besides , it is expressed in such terms , as are commonly competible to none , but such meetings , as are under pretence of religious worship . what other meetings are commonly called congregations , or do challenge to themselves the name of churches , but such meetings as are in question ? the place and order of the canon , do prove the same ; for immediately after the impugners of the king's supremacy , the publick worship of god , articles of religion , rites and ceremonies , government established in the church of england , the authours of schism , and maintainers of schismaticks in the church , are censured ; is subjoyned this canon censuring conventicles , as being the nursery of all the former . in the canon ; all ministers whatsoever are forbidden to preach or administer the holy communion in any private house ( except in be in time of necessity , when any is either so impotent , as that he cannot go to the church , or very dangerously sick ) under pain of excommunication . in the canon it is ordained , that no minister whatsoever shall without licence from the bishop of the diocese , first obtained and had under his hand and seal , presume to appoint any meetings for sermons or exercises , in market-towns or other places , either publickly or in private houses , under pain of suspension for tho first fault , excommunication for the second , and deposition for the third . now if a minister may not doe this in his own parish , but onely in a case of necessity , much less may a stranger intrude himself into another man's parish , where there is a preaching ministry established by law , and there set up a course of private house-preaching , administring of sacraments , and performance of all ministerial acts , where there can be no need of his so doing , so much as pretended . but is will be thought by some that the laws and constitutions of the church , are not so greatly to be regarded , as that the breach of them should be sinfull ; and that her canons lay no such obligation on conscience , as that the neglect of their observation and contrary practice should be criminal . nay such is the state and condition of our times , that is is rather thought a vertue to despise them , than any fault to disobey them : and they are reputed most pure and holy , who with greatest boldness quarrel and cavil against the authority , government , and lawfull precepts of the church . yet certainly the judgment and practice of christians in former ages , was otherwise . when vertue and true piety did more abound , they made more conscience of observing the precepts and constitutions of the church , which were made for decency , order , and good government . and if any frowardly , wilfully , or constantly lived in any opposition , or contrariety thereunto , they were adjudged as evil doers . * nec his quisquam contradicit , quisquis sane vel tenuiter expertus est , quae sunt jura ecclesiastica . and truly i see not why the same regard and respect ought not to be shew'n in the observation of the laws of our church now , as hath been to the like laws and canons in former and purer times . especially if we enquire into these four things : . what power the church hath to make laws , canons and constitutions ? . who were the authours and composers of these , of our church ? . what is the subject matter of them ? . what hath been the judgment of divines , of unquestionable learning , judgment and piety , concerning laws , canons and constitutions of this nature ? concerning the first . that the church hath a maternal power to decree , and make laws to bind all her children , is such a clear truth , as no sober person ( i think ) will question . by [ church ] i understand not all the number of the faithfull , but those , that have the lawfull rule and government of the church . which is the sense , that our saviour christ useth it in , when he saith , * dic ecclesiae , tell the church ; for , there is ecclesia collectiva , and ecclesia representativa . i take it in the latter sense . by [ laws ] i understand not any new article of faith , or any thing contrary to what god hath commanded in the holy scriptures . for it is a true maxim ( whoever was the authour of it ) potestas descendit , non ascendit . none have power in those things that are above them , but in those things which are beneath them . so the church hath no power in those things , which are above her , but in those things which are below her . now all doctrines of faith , and other things already commanded of god , are above the church , and out of her reach , so that the cannot meddle with them , by any law de novo , otherwise than to see them duly obeyed and observed . but as for things of an indifferent and adiaphorous nature , serving to external order and decency , in these she hath power , to ordain and make laws and constitutions , though not contrary to , yet other than what are already made in god's word , holding still , as near as the can , to the general rules of scripture . the doctrine of salvation is always , in all places , the same , and can never be changed : but external rites and order , are alterable and variable according to the diversity of time and place , and the variety of the minds and manners of men . the church of the jews had power of ordaining other things , than what were expresly set down in god's word , and that for perpetual observation . she ordained the two days of * purim as perpetual festivals . † moreover , iudas and his brethren , with the whole congregation of israel , ordained , that the days of the dedication of the altar should be kept in their season , from year to year , by the space of eight days , from the five and twentieth day of the month casleu , with mirth and gladness . this feast was instituted by iudas machabeus and his brethren , when antiochus epiphanes was expelled out of ierusalem , the worship of god restored , and the temple ( prophaned by the heathen ) again consecrated , which was about years before the coming of christ. which feast was yearly kept ever after , and our saviour christ himself ‖ honoured it with his own presence . and if the jewish church had that power , why then hath not the christian the like ? and that the primitive church of christians had , and did exercise the like power , is plain to any that shall reade act. . and cor. . secondly , the authours and composers of these canons and constitutions ecclesiastical , were the reverend , learned and godly bishops , deans , and arch-deacons , and other clergy-men of every diocesee , within the province of canterbury ; met together * neither with multitude nor with tumult , but lawfully and duly call'd and summoned , by virtue of the king's majesties writ , and receiving legal confirmation of that which was done by them . so then , the composers of those canons , were such persons as were ordained of god to rule the church , and to order what in their wisedom should be thought convenient , to whom in all things ( not contrary to god's will revealed in his word ) we are commanded obedience , luk. . . heb. . , , . pet. . , . thirdly , the subject matter of these canons and consitutions is of such things as concern external order , decency and edification , which god hath not particularly determined in scripture , but hath left to the rulers and governours of the church , to ordain and appoint within the compass of that general rule of the apostle , * let all things be done unto edifying , and in order . in which place , those things that concern the external polity of the church , are generally expressed , but the particulars are not mentioned , but left to the wisedom and liberty of the church . fourthly , what have been the judgment of divines ( of whose learning and piety and church of god never yet since their times , made the least doubt or question ) concerning laws , canons and constitutions of this nature ? they have always thought them sacred and venerable ; and their observation an act of religion and obedience to the general commands of god. instead of many , take a few testimonies of divines of the highest rank , both foreign and domestick . two i shall quote out of learned zanchy , † quatenus hae leges consentaneae sunt cum sacris literis , aut saltem non sunt dissentaneae ; eatenus & verae sunt ecclesiasticae , eoque admittendae , & nos illis obedientiam debemus ac reverentiam ; so far forth as these constitutions are agreeable with the scriptures , or at least , not disagreeing with them , so far forth they are truly ecclesiastical , and to be received , and we owe reverence and obedience to them . and he gives his reason in these words : si consentaneae sunt hae leges verbo dei , qui illas rejicit , verbum dei rejicit . si non repugnant , contemnit ecclesiam dei qui illas contemnit ; contemptus autem ecclesiae , quam deo ingratus sit , apparet , cum aliis ex locis sacrarum literarum , ubi illam magnificat ; tum maxime ex evangelio , mat. . . if those laws are agreeable with the word of god , he that rejecteth them , rejecteth the word of god ; if they are not contrary to the word of god , he that rejecteth them despiseth the church of god ; and how odious a thing unto the almighty it is , that any should despise his church , as it appears in many places of scripture , where the church is magnified , so especially in mat. . . whrere god hath commanded that that person should be accounted as an heathen man and a publican , who hears and obeys not the church . hear the same learned authour again . ‖ credo ea , quae a piis patribus in nomine domini congregatis , communi omnium consensu , citra ullam sacrarum literarum contradictionem definita & recepta fuerunt : ea etiam ( quanquam haud ejusdem cum sacris literis authoritatis . ) a spiritv sancto esse . those things ( saith he ) which have been concluded and received by the holy fathers , gathered together in the name of god , agreed on by common-consent , and without any contradiction of the scripture ( although they are not of the same authority with the scriptures , ) yet , i beleive even those things to be from the holy ghost . hinc fit , ut quae sunt hujusmodi , &c. hence it comes to pass , that those things which are of this nature , i neither will disallow , nor dare i with a good conscience . quis enim ego sum , &c. for who am i that i should dissallow that which the whole church approves of ? so far that worthy authour . the next , whose judgment in this case i shall produce , is mr. calvin , in his commentary on the epistle to the corinthians . † quinetiam hinc colligere promptum est , has posteriores ( scilicet ecclesiae ) leges , non esse habendas pro humanis traditionibus ; quandoquidem fundatae sint in hoc generali mandato , & liquidam approbationem habent , quasi ex ore christi ipsivs . where shewing the difference betwixt the tyrannical edicts of the pope , and the laws of the true church , in which , discipline and order are contained , he saith ; whence it is easie to be gathered , that the laws of the church , are not to be accounted humane traditions , seeing they are founded upon the general precept of the apostle , and have as clear an approbation , as if they had been delivered from the mouth of christ himself . for , saith he elsewhere , ‖ dico sic esse humanam traditionem , ut simul sit divina . it is so an humane tradition , as that it is also divine . dei est , quatenus est pars deeoris illius , cujus cura & observatio nobis per apostolum commendatur : hominum autem , quatenus simpliciter designat , quod in genere fuit indicatum magis quam expositum . it is of god fo far forth as it is a part of that order and decency , the care and observation whereof is commanded , and commended to us by the apostle : it is of men so far forth , as it simply names or signifies that , which was in general uttered , rather that particularly expounded . take a third testimony from that burning and shining light of the french church . * licet quae a regia & aliis legitimis petestatibus rite praecipiuntur , sunt de jure positivo : quod tamen illis postquam ita constitutae sunt , pareatur , est de jure divino ; cum legitimae potestates omnes a deo sint , deique vices in suo ordine teneant ; dumque illis obedimus , eorumque praecepta observamus , deo pariter in illis paremus , deique praeceptum & voluntatem exequimur . although those things which are commanded by the king's authority , or other lawfull powers under him , are of positive right : yet it is of divine institution that we should obey them in those things , which they command ; seeing all lawfull powers are of god , and supply the place of god in their several orders : therefore while we obey them , and keep their commandments , we obey god in them , and so fulfill the will and command of god. learned beza shall be the next that shall give in his verdict to this truth ; † nam etsi conscientias proprie solus deus ligat , &c. for although god alone can properly bind the conscience ; yet so far as the church with respect to order and decency , and thereby to edification , doth rightly enjoyn , or make laws , those laws are to be observed by all pious persons ; and they do so far bind the conscience , as that no man wittingly and willingly , with a purpose to disobey , can either doe what is so forbidden , or omit what is so commanded , without sin. to these above named add we in the last place the verdict of our own learned and judicious mr. hooker . ‖ to the laws ( saith he ) thus made id est according to the general law of nature , and without contradiction to the positive law of scripture ) and received by a whole church , they which live within the bosome of that church , must not think it a matter of indifference , either to yield , or not to yield obedience . * is it a small offence to despise the church of god ? † my son keep thy father's commandments ( saith solomon ) and forget not thy mothers instructions , bind them both always about thine heart . it doth not stand with the duty we owe to our heavenly father , that to the ordinance of our mother the church we should shew our selves disobedient . let us not say we keep the commandments of one , when we break the laws of the other : for unless we observe both , we obey neither . and what doth let , but that we may observe both , when they are not one to the other in any sort repugnant ? yea , which is more , the laws of the church thus made , god himself doth in such sort authorize , that to despise them , is to despise in them , him . thus far that most judicious authour . yea one of the reformed churches have put it into their very confession , ‖ that those laws of the church deserve to be esteemed divine , rather than humane constitutions . from all which it appears , that ecclesiastical canons and constitutions are not merely man's laws , but god's also ; both because they are composed and framed by those fathers , by divine authority , and have their general foundation in scripture ; and also because they are ordained for the glory of god , for edification , order and decency of the church , and the better fulfilling and keeping the laws of god. for as we have a command from christ , to tell the church when any one is refractary and perverse : so have they which are complained of to the church , that command from christ also , to hear the voice of god in the church , and in disobeying the church , they disobey god. and if children and servants , are bound by the law of god , to obey their parents and masters in all things that are reasonable , honest and just , and in their obedience , they obey and serve god himself ( eph. . . col. . . . tit. . . . ) then it can be no less pleasing to god , that christians , who live in the bosome of the church , should be obedient and conformable unto the lawfull precepts and constitutions of their spiritual mother , the church of christ , and the rulers thereof . it is very truly said by calvin , semper nimia morositas est ambitiosa . a frowardness and aptness to quarrell with the proceedings of the church , is accompanied with ambition and pride . it is not because the church takes too much power on her , but because they would be under none . it is ambition , to have all government in their own hands , that is the cause , why some will not be subject to any . all which hath been said of this matter is agreeable with the doctrine of the church of england ; who in her twentieth article saith , the church hath power to decree and make laws . so in her th article : that whosoever through his private judgment , willingly and purposely , doth break the traditions and ceremonies of the church , which be not repugnant to the word of god , offendeth against the common order of the church , hurteth the authority of the magistrate , and woundeth the conscience of the weak brethren . where , by ( traditions ) i suppose is meant the laws and canons of the church , as the words following do intimate , which speak of the common order of the church , and authority of the magistrate . thus much of the laws of the church . neither are such meetings onely against the laws of the church , but against sundry statute laws of the kingdom also , in that behalf made and provided . in the statute of eliz. . it is provided ; that if any person or persons above years old , shall refuse to repair to some church , chapel or usual place of common-prayer , to hear divine service , and receive the communion ; or come to , and be present at , any assemblies , conventicles , or meetings , under colour or pretence of any exercise of religion , contrary to the laws and statutes : and if any person shall obstinately refuse to repair to some church , chapel or usual place of common-prayer ; or by any motion , persuasion , inticement , or allurement of any other , willingly joyn in , or be present at , any such assemblies , conventicles , or meetings , under colour or pretence of any such exercise of religion , contrary to the laws and statutes of this realm , as is aforesaid ( which refers to other statutes formerly made , and yet of force against conventicles , as well as this one ) shall be committed to prison , and there remain without bail , untill be conform , and untill he make an open submission in the words set down in the statute . viz. i. a. b. do humbly acknowledge and confess , that i have grievously offended god , in contemning her majesties godly and lawfull government and authority , by absenting my self from church , and from hearing divine service , contrary to the godly laws and statutes of this realm , and in using and frequenting unlawfull and disorderly conventicles and assemblies , under colour and pretence of exercise of religion : and i am heartily sorry for the same , &c. and i do promise and protest without any dissimulation , that from henceforth i will from time to time obey and perform her majesties laws and statutes in repairing to church , and hearing divine service , and doe my utmost endeavour to maintain and defend the same . neither can it be pretended ( as it is by some ) that this statute was made , or stands in force , against any other sort of people , than those in question , viz. against popish recusants onely and not against protestant dissenters , as they call themselves : the answer is easie out of the words of the said statute . for in the beginning of the statute , the persons that are concerned in obedience to it , are expressed in these general and large words . any person or persons whatsoever above the age of which shall refuse to repair to church , and willingly join in and be present at any conventicle or meeting , &c. which words comprehend and take in persons of all religions , sects and persuasions whatsoever . and whereas the penalty of the statute to all that shall refuse obedience and conformity to it , is abjuration of the realm , or to be proceeded against as felons . there is a proviso toward the end of the statute , that sixeth the penalty altogether upon protestant recusants , and not on popish ; in these words : provided that no popish recusant , or feme covert shall be compelled or bound to abjure by virtue of this act. and lest the popish recusants should be the onely persons therein meant or intended , the conventiclers of our age make themselves more perfect recusants than that statute supposeth : for whereas that makes absence from the prayers of the church , for one month together , a crime sufficient to render them obnoxious to the penalties of that act ; these men ( for the most part ) withdraw themselves for many years together , and , for ought i see , if they are let alone , resolve so to doe all the days of their lives . in anno . caroli di regis , there was a statute made to prevent and suppress seditious conventicles ( as the title of that statute truly calls them ) wherein every person of the age of years and upward , that shall be present at any assembly . conventicle or meeting , under colour or pretence of any exercise of religion , in other manner that according to the liturgy and practice of the church of england , in any place within the kingdom of england , dominion of wales , and town of berwick upon tweed , at which conventicle or meeting there shall be persons or more assembled together , is made liable to suffer the penalties of s for his first fault , and for his second s ( and so onward ) the preacher to suffer the penalty of ll . and the owner of the house or ground , that shall wittingly and willingly suffer such conventicle , meeting , or unlawfull assembly to be held , to suffer the penalty of ll . in the late act for uniformity , all non-conformist ministers and disabled and prohibited from preaching any sermon or lecture indefinitely , either publick or private . and for as much as the king's majesty by the law of god and the land , of right is , and ought to be master of all the assemblings together of any of his subjects ; therefore what meetings soever , are not allowed and authorized by the laws of the realm , are adjudged by the learned in the laws , to fall within the compass of those statutes , that forbid and punish riots and unlawfull assemblies ; and are , or may justly be presumed to be , in terrorem populi , and in the event it is to be feared , will prove to be contrary to the peace of our sovereign lord the king. and by the * law , all the king's liege-people are commanded to assist in the suppressing of them , upon pain of imprisonment , and to make fine and ransome to the king. notwithstanding all which good laws , this practice hath continued in the church these several years , and still doth ( notwithstanding his majesties reinforcement of their execution by his late proclamation ) in open defiance and contempt of all authority , as if the laws of the church and realm were but fulmen inane , a shadow of a cloud , that vanisheth as soon as it is made ; and as if obedience to magistracy were no part of christian duty . concerning these laws of the realm ( to silence clamour ) i will touch lightly at five things . i. that the king being next under god , within his dominions , supreme in the church on earth , hath power and authority over the persons of ministers , as well as of any other his subjects . he being custos utriusque tabulae , having both tables committed to him , as well the first that concerns our religious duties to god , as the other that concerns our civil duties to men , may and ought to make such laws as conduce as well to † the peace and order in the church , as as godliness and honesty . ‖ pertinet hoc ad reges seculi christianos , ut temporibus suis pacatam velint matrem suam ecclesiam , unde spiritualiter nati sint ; ( saith st. augustine . ) he may upon just cause depose , discharge , and put to silence , any minister whatsoever within his dominions , as to the execution of his ministerial function , either in publick or private . ministers , as well as others , are under civil jurisdiction . for * every soul is bound to be subject to the higher powers . and † st omnis anima , cur non est vestra ? quis vos excepit ex universalitate ? if every soul , then the souls of ministers as well as others : for who excepted them from the universality ? qui dicit omnem , excludit nullam . he that saith every soul , excludeth no soul. it was impiously said of ‖ that the clergy ought not for any cause to be cited before the civil magistrate , or to be judged by him ; it being absurd that the sheep should judge the shepherd . christ himself taking upon him man's nature , was subject to humance authority , submitting himself to caiaphas and pilate , so far as to be apprehended , arraigned , condemned and executed . true ( saith bellarmine ) de facto , christ was subject to pilate , but de jure , he ought not to have been so : and that power over him which he did acknowledge , was given to pilate from above , iohn . . ) was onely a bare permission . to which we answer ; if we simply respect the dignity of christ's person , being the son of god , then we acknowledge that he neither was , nor could be subject to any man. but if we consider the dispensation of his incarnation , and that form of a servant which he took on himself , whereby he became man and under the law , then de jure , as he was a jew , he was a subject to that power , which at that time had the rule . and what pilate unjustly did against christ , that , we grant , god did onely permit ; but he had a lawfull jurisdiction over his person , not by god's permission onely , but by his effectual will. but suppose it were true which bellarmine saith ; yet the example of christ maketh never the less for the confirmation of the truth , for which i allege it . for if he submitted himself to a power over him that was usurped onely , and not approved of by god , but barely permitted ; then certainly they are very far from the humility that was in christ jesus , that refuse to be obedient and subject to just and lawfull powers , which are ordained of god and set over them . and therefore when christ said , date quae sunt caesaris caesari , give unto caesar the things that are caesar's , he spake as well to the high priests , scribes and pharisees , as to the people . st. paul , whose apostolical authority and spiritual weapons , were able to bring down every opposition , yet acknowledged that he must * be judged by caesar , as his lawfull superiour . bellarmine's distinction of de facto , and de jure , will stand him in no more stead here , than it did before ; for to say , the roman emperour was st. paul's judge de facto , but not de jure , is to doe st. paul a manifest injury . for if the emperour had no right to judge him , why would he then make use of the benefit of an appeal to caesar † when no body compelled him so to doe ? and why did he at another time shelter himself under the privilege ‖ of a citizen of rome ? by his very professing himself to be a roman , he doth acknowledge himself to be subject to the same laws , and to the same lord , that other romans were ; and that he had no more exemption or immunity from subjection and obedience to the roman laws , than that tribune who said * with a great sam have i obtained this freedom . the scriptures do give us an instance of king solomon's deposing abiathar from the priesthood . the text saith † that king solomon did thrust out abiathar from being priest before the lord. neither doth the holy ghost mention this historically onely , as thing done ; but by way of approbation , as a thing well and rightly done . this the iesuites themselves ( who are the onely men , i know , who question the sovereign power in this case ) confess . remarkable to this purpose are the words of one of them . ‖ alii non dubitant dicere solomonem in eo facto injuste egisse , usurpando potestatem , quam non habebat ; ego vero id affirmare non audeo , propter verba scripturae quae ex cap. . allegavi : et quia apud antiquos patres & expositores non invenio factum illud inter peccata solomonis numeratum , sive in culpam tributum . some ( saith he ) doubt not to say that solomon in that act did unjustly , in usurping more power than did belong to him : but i dare not say so , both for the words of the scripture , which i have before alleged out of the third chapter ; and also , because among the ancient fathers and expositours , i find not this act of his , reckoned for any of solomon's sins , or him blamed for it . the words which he saith he alleged out of the third chapter , are these . * and solomon loved the lord his god , walking in the ways of david his father , onely he sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places . which exception ( saith he ) shews that kings solomon untill that time , had kept the commandments of god , and consequently sinned not in that fact in deposing abiathar . and if the kings of israel might execute such power , why not the kings of england also ? who will say that the power of christian kings and princes is shorter now , than that of the kings , of iudah , and the religious princes of the primitive christian church was ? that the nursing fathers under the gospel are abridged in authority , of what they were under the law ? and the reason , and wisedom of this nation in parliament , hath adjudged this to be a just cause of such deposition and silencing of any , when he shall refuse to submit , and be obedient and conformable to such laws and constitutions , as they have declared to be † very comfortable to all good people desirous to live in christian conversation ; most profitable to the state of the realm , upon which the mercy , favour and blessing of almighty god is in no-wise so readily and plentifully powered , as by common-prayer , due using of the sacraments , and often preaching of the gospel with devotion of the hearers . and ‖ that nothing conduceth more to the setling the peace of this nation ( which is desired of all good men ) nor the honour of our religion and the propagation thereof , than an universal agreement in the publick worship of almighty god. which is a thing so amiable and excellent in it self , that it hath extracted an acknowledgment and commendation of it from the mouths of the divines of the presbyterian persuasion themselves . for in a book of theirs entitled , a vindication of the presbyterial government , published by the ministers and elders met together in a provincial assembly , november d. . they have these words . * it is the duty of all christians to study to enjoy the ordinances of christ , in unity and uniformity as far as is possible . ( which our liturgy sets up , by prescribing the manner of it . whereas otherwise all will be left to the chance of mens wills ; which ( saith doctour hammond ) † can no more be thought like to concur in one form , than democritus's atomes to have met together into a world of beautifull creatures , without any kind of providence to dispose them . ) for the scriptures call for unity and uniformity , as well as purity and verity . and surely it is not impossible to obtain this so much desired unity and uniformity , because that god hath promised that his children shall serve him with one heart , and with one way , and with one shoulder . and that in the days of the gospel , there shall be one lord , and his name one . and christ hath prayed , that we may be all one , as the father is in him , and he in the father . and he adds a most prevalent reason , that the world may believe that thou hast sent me . nothing hinders the propagation of the gospel so much as the division and separation of gospel-professours . if it be god's promise , and christ's prayer , it is certainly a thing possible to be obtained , and a duty incumbent upon all good christians to labour after . secondly , as it cannot be denyed that the civil magistrate hath authority over the persons of ministers , so 't is as true , that he hath power to act for the regulation of all their ecclesiastical meetings and assemblies ; though not to act in sacris , yet circa sacra , non ad docendum , quod est sacerdotale , yet , ad jubendum , quod est regale . as ‖ constantine the emperour told the bishops whom he invited to a banquet , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . ye are bishops within the church , and i am ordained by god's grace a bishop without the church . that the king of england ( saith sir henry spelman ) * is persona mixta , endowed as well with ecclesiastical authority , as with temporal , is not onley a solid position of the common law of this land , but confirmed unto us by the continual practice of our ancient kings , ever since and before the conquest , even in hottest times of popish fervency : for this cause at their coronation , they are not onely crowned with the diadem of the kingdom , and girt with the sword of justice to signisie their temporal authority , but are anointed also with † the oil of priesthood , and cloathed stola sacerdotali and veste dalmatica , to demonstrate this their ecclesiastical jurisdiction ; whereby the king is said to be in law , the supremus ordinarius , and in regard thereof among other ecclesiastical rights and prerogatives belonging to him , is to have all the tithes ( through the kingdom ) in the places that are not of any parish , for some such there be , and namely , divers forests . magistrates ( we grant ) can neither preach the word , nor administer the sacraments , any more than vzziah could burn incense , or offer sacrifice to god : yet they are nursing fathers of the church , not to give the milk of the word and sacraments , but of disclipline and government . during the old testament times , the king's power extended ‖ to the instituting and commanding of such religious meetings , as do no where appear to be either instituted , or commanded of god , or his servant moses . v. g. the solemnity of the passover , which was to be kept by the law of moses but seven days , by a special command of * king hezekiah , with the consent of the people , was commanded to be kept other seven days . the feast of purim , in commemoration of the deliverance of the nation of the iews , under ahasuerus the persian king , was instituted by † hester and mordecai . moses onely commanded one day of fasting to be yearly observed , ( viz. ) in the seventh month ; but the kings and magistrates of the people instituted other yearly solemn fasts : so that in the times of the latter prophets , there were four yearly fasts observed , ( viz. ) besides that yearly in the seventh month , three others ‖ in the fourth , fifth , and tenth month . now if they may by their authority institute and enlarge , why not then as well abridge and restrain ; provided the publick assembling together of god's people , according to divine appointment , be no-way prejudiced or infringed . if the magistrate may appoint , then he may forbid too : law , reason and sense teach , that appointing and forbidding belong to one power . thirdly , neither can there be any ground of quarrell made against the justness of these laws forbidding conventicles . for ( as it is well observed by * a worthy divine before me ) that law is undoubtedly just , in which there is a concurrence of the justice of these four causes of law , wherein the whole of a law doth consist , ( viz. ) the justice of the final , efficient , formal and material causes of laws . . the final cause of end of a just law , is that it tend to the common and publick good . and of this the lawgivers are to be judges , and not the subjects . and most unreasonable it were that what the lawgivers shall adjudge to be for the publick good , should be made to yeild to private and particular mens interests . . the efficient cause of a just law , is the lawfull power of the person , or persons in authority , that made the law. otherwise laws are onely so in name , and not indeed . and as aquinas , † violentiae magis quam leges , they are rather acts of violence than laws . and it is a sure rule in logick , causa aequivoca non infert effectum ; a sentence passed by one that is no judge , binds not the party . . the right form of a law , is that it be a rule of rectitude for humane actions , according to the guidance of distributive justice , giving to every one according to his demerits . . the matter of a law , must be a thing that is good according to the rule of universal justice , at leait indifferent . a law wherein these things concur must needs be good and obligatory to all persons that are concerned in it . now in which of these the aforesaid laws against conventicles are faulty , i know not . perhaps some will say , in the latter ; the matter of it is not good , to lay a restraint on religious assemblies and meetings . it were so indeed , if religious assemblies and meetings were forbidden . but i think it will appear in the sequel , that these in question are not such , whatsoever some conceive them to be . it were so , if all religious meetings or assemblies were forbidden : but ( blessed be god ) 't is otherwise . we have still ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . the publick , ancient , lawfull and orderly assemblies allowed , commanded and encouraged by authority , in all places of the kingdom ; and onely such meetings by the law forbidden , as are private , new and disorderly , and tend to faction and schism , and such other evils as are not without trembling to be mentioned . lastly i answer , with that learned casuist dr. * sanderson , that it is not necessarily requisite , that whatsoever is established by law , should be bonum positive , that it should be an act of vertue ; but it is sufficient if it be bonum negative , that is , nothing sinfull or morally evil , as all vices are . otherwise there should be no room for laws about middle and indifferent things . and suppose a law should be defective in regard of the efficient , final , or formal cause ; yet if the matter of it be such , as may be done without sin , ●t binds the subject to obedience . and that the forbearance of such illegal meetings as are in question , may be done without sin ; and that those dissenting brethren , who have been ejected for their non-compliance in uniformity to the present legal establishment , being under a legal restraint as to the use of their ministerial function , may without sin forbear the irregular use of their gifts and labours in the said private meetings , to the undermining and confronting of the laws , the increase of sedition , schism , and divers other horrid evils , i think is out of question . learned beza thought so , or else he had never returned such an answer , as he did , to that case of conscience which was proposed to him , by certain english ministers , who in the reign of q. eliz. were silenced for non-conformity . the case proposed being , whether they might , or ought not to preach , notwithstanding their being prohibited by man's law ? his answer verbatim is , † tertium illud , nempe ut contra regiam majestatem , & episcoporum voluntatem ministerio suo fungantur magis etiam exhorrescimus propter eas causas , quae tacentibus etiam nobis , satis intelligi possunt . he was so far from thinking it lawfull , that he trembled at the thought of such a thing , that they should exercise their ministry contrary to the queen's laws , and the will of the governours of the church . and the same hath been the judgment of antiquity in the like case . the ancient and orthodox fathers of the church , being met together in council at antioch , in the first year of the reign of aurelianus the emperour , and in the year of christ ( according to eusebius ) . decreed ‖ non licere episcopo vel clerico si exauthorizatus fuerit ministrare ; that if any bishop , being condemned by a council , or any presbyter or deacon by his bishop , should presume to preach , or meddle with any thing of , or belonging to the sacred office of the ministry , there should never be any hope for him , ever to be restored again by any other council or synod : and all that communicated with him , should be cast out of the church . as may be seen more at large in that canon . of the like judgment were the divines of the presbyterian-way touching those learned , godly , and orthodox ministers , who suffered ejection out of their livings , and deprivation of all they had , in the late times of troubles , by a pretended authority of parliament , for their adherence to his late majesty of ever blessed memory . when the earl of northumberland discoursing with mr calamy about the supplying of above fifty churches in london , void of ministers , told him , that they must restore some of the sequestred clergy of london , and admit them to preach again , for unless they did so , the parliament could not find men of ability to preach in london : mr calamy replied , god forbid . as it is recorded and published to the world , in a book called persecutio undecima , printed in the year . page . and if the thought of the restauration of those worthies to their office , how unjustly soever they were suspended from it , was ( in the judgment of that person ) rejected with indignation , as a thing offensive and either forbidden , or wished to be forbidden of god ; how much more execrable and abominable a thing would he have thought it to be , if they should have taken upon them ( as some now do under a lawfull power ) to preach again , without any readmission by that power that silenced them , yea in opposition and defiance of it ? and because no testimony is so fit to convince any party as that which proceeds from their own mouths ; let therefore the judgment of a * non-conformist ( otherwise a person in learning , sobriety and solidity inferiour to few of his generation , ) be heard and weighed in this case . he writes in defence of our church assemblies , against those who being silenced for non-conformity , ( as he was ) yet ( not as he did ) separated themselves from the publick congregations ; and not enduring to have their mouths stopped , or to sit down in silence , thought themselves bound ( according to the example of the apostles , act. . . and . . ) to exercise their ministry , though not in publick , yet in private meetings , notwithstanding any legal prohibition to the contrary . first he distinguisheth betwixt the calling of the apostles , and that of the ministers now . the former , as they had their ministry immediately from god , so had they the designation of that ministry to their persons immediately from god also . and therefore the exercise of it was not restrainable , or to be forborn at the commandment of men . the latter , though their ministry be from god also , yet have their calling to that ministry or the designation of that office to such and such particular persons , from men in god's ordinary way , and cannot exercise that function , but by virtue of that calling wch they have from men . and therefore ( saith he ) in common sense they ought to obey man , forbidding them the exercise of a calling , which they do exercise by virtue of a calling from men . otherwise there should be no power so to depose a man from his ministry , but that notwithstanding any command from the church or state , he is still to continue in the exercise of his ministry , and should be bound to give that example , which the apostles did , which is not onely absurd , but a conceit tending plainly to manifest sedition and schism . afterwards he hath these words . neither were some of the apostles onely forbidden , so as that others should be suffered to preach the same gospel in their places ; but the utter abolition of the christian religion was manifestly intended , in silencing them . but over churches , whereof we are ministers , are no private and secret assemblies , such as hide themselves from the face of a persecuting magistrate ; but are publick , professing their worship , and doing their religion in the face of the magistrate● and state ; yea and by his countenance , authority and protection : and we are set over those churches , not onely by a calling of our people , but also by authority from the magistrate , who hath an armed power , to hinder such publick actions ; who is also willing to permit and maintain other true ministers of the gospel , in those places where he forbiddeth some . and thereupon the said authour makes this threefold conclusion . . if after our publick calling to minister in such a known and publick church , not by the church onely , but by the magistrate also ; the magistrate shall have matter against us ( just , or unjust , as to our obedience it matters not ) and shall in that regard forbid us to minister to our church , i see not by what warrant in god's word , we should think our selves bound notwithstanding , to exercise our ministry still ; except we should think such a law of ministry to lie upon us , that we should be bound to run upon the swords point of the magistrate , or oppose sword to sword , which i am sure christianity abominates . . yea , suppose the magistrate should doe it unjustly and against the will of the church , and should therein sin ; yet doth not the church in that regard cease to be a church , nor ought she therein resist the will of the magistrate ; nor doth she stand bound in regard of her affection to her minister ( how great and deserved soever ) to deprive her self of the protection of the magistrate , by leaving her publick standing , to follow her minister in private , and in the dark ; refusing the benefit of other publick ministers , which with the good leave and liking of the magistrate , she may enjoy . . neither do i know , what warrant any ordinary minister hath by god's word , in such a case , so to draw any such church or people to his private ministry , that thereby they should hazard their outward estate and quiet in the common-wealth , where they live ; when in some competent measure , they may publickly , with the grace and favour of the magistrate , enjoy the ordinary means of salvation by another . and except he hath a calling to minister in some other church , he is to be content to live as a private member untill it shall please god , to reconcile the magistrate unto him , and to call him again to his own church . from which words of this learned non-conformist , it may easily be gathered , that those persons who are now , by the unquestionable legitimate power of the kingdom , for their non-compliance with the present legal establishment in the church , deposed from their ministry , if they contain not themselves in quietness and silence , as other private christians ; do , and ought ; but will without a call of authority , undertake still to preach the word , and draw people after them to their private ministry ; they are condemned by the most sober , and judicious of their own party ; and the case of them and their followers , is adjudged to be far different from that of the apostles , and primitive christians ; their practice unwarrantable by the word of god , and manifestly tending to sedition and schism . but what speak i of the single testimony and judgment of one man of that way and perswasion ( though a learned and judicious one ) whenas we have extant to the world the like verdict agreed upon long since by the joint consent of sundry godly and learned ministers of this kingdom , then standing out and suffering in the cause of inconformity , and published by mr. william rathband for the good of the church , and the better setling of mens unstable minds in the truth , against the subtile insinuations and plausible pretences of that pernicious evil of the brownists or separatists . for in the th . page of that book ; first , they justifie themselves against the objection of that faction , in yeilding to the suspensions and deprivations of the bishops , acknowledging their power to depose , who did ordain them ; and their own duty to acquiesce therein , and in quietness and silence to subject themselves thereunto , in expressions so full to my present purpose that i should have transcribed them for the reader 's satisfaction , were it so that i had not been prevented by the reverend and worthy authour of the * continuation of the friendly debate . as to that place of scripture . act. . . . which they acknowledge to be very unskilfully alledged by the adversary , they make this threefold answer , to shew the difference betwixt the apostles case and theirs . first ( they say ) they that inhibited the apostles were known and professed enemies of the gospel . secondly , the apostles were charged not to teach in the name of christ , nor to publish any part of the doctrine of the gospel ; which commandment might more hardly be yeilded unto , than this of our bishops , who are not onely content that the gospel should be preached , but are also preachers of it themselves . thirdly , the apostles received not their calling and authority from † men , nor by the hands of men , but immediately from god himself , and therefore also might not be restrained nor deposed by men ; whereas we , though we exercise as function , whereof god is the authour , and we are also called of god to it , yet are we also called and ordained by the hands and ministry of men , and may therefore by men be also deposed and restrained from the exercise of our ministry . i cannot think that any of the learned sort of the non-conformists now are ignorant of these things , nor , that ( if their hearts were known ) their judgments differ ( in this case ) from that of their ancient brethren ; but i fear the busie upholders and promoters of conventicles in our age , notwithstanding their prohibition by law , to preach at all , sin against their own light and conscience in so doing . but i proceed . . now laws being thus made against all such unlawfull meetings , and all such his majestie 's laws being no way contrary to god's word ; all his subjects stand bound in the obligation of obedience to them , and that for conscience sake ( rom. . . pet. . . tit. . . ) and under pain of damnation if they wilfully resist and disobey , rom. . . and therefore it is , that in the schools , they call disobedience to the king's laws , sacrilege : for though the trespass seem to be directed but against a man , yet in that man whose office ( and consequently his person ) is sacred , god is opposed , and his ordinance violated . the king's laws though in themselves , in regard of their particular constitution , they put no special obligation upon us under pein of sin and damnation ; yet in a general relation to that god , who is the original of all power , and hath commanded us to obey authority , their neglect or disobedience involves us in guilt , and exposeth us to sin , and consequently to damnation . ‖ civilibus legibus quae cum pietate non pugnant , eo quisque christianus paret promptius , quo fide christi est imbutus plenius ; every christian , by how much the more he hath of the grace of faith , by so much the more ready he is to conform to the laws of men , which are not contrary to the laws of god. all power is of god ; that therefore which ▪ authority enjoins us , god enjoins us by it , the command is mediately his , though passing through the hands of men . * hoc jubent imperatores , quod jubet & christus ; quia cum bonum jubent , per illos non nisi christus jubet ; when kings command what is not disagreeable with christ's commands , christ commands by them , and we are called to obey not onely them , but christ in them . but is not suffering , obedience ? and if men are willing to submit to the penalty of the law , is not that sufficient to discharge the conscience from the guilt of disobedience ? casuists , that are of that judgment , say , it holds true onely in those laws ( whereof there are but very few in the world ) that are purely penal : and the laws which we now speak of are not such , for these are partly moral , binding to doe , or to leave undone some moral act ; and partly penal , in case of omission of what the laws command , or commission of what the laws forbid , then to undergoe the punishment the laws inflict . now in these mixt laws , suffering the penalty doth not discharge the conscience from the guilt of sin . for it is a rule of sure truth which casuists give in such cases , omnis praeceptio obligat ad culpam ; every just command of those who have lawfull authority to command , leaves a guilt of sin upon those mens consciences who do not obey . the reason is , because where a law made by lawfull authority requires active obedience , and imposeth a penalty in case of disobedience , the conscience of the subject stands bound primarily and intentionally to the performance of the duty therein enjoined . as for the penalty threatned , that is a secondary and accidental thing to the law , added to keep up the reputation and esteem thereof , in the minds of those who are concerned in it , and to affright them from the neglect and disobedience of it . so that , though the suffering the penalty of the law , in case of the transgression of it , be as much as can be required of the law-giver , yet god , by whom kings reign , and who requires subjection to authority , and that for conscience sake , will not hold such persons guiltless , that doe not the things commanded in the law. the malefactour satisfies the law at the time of his execution , but who will say , that without repentance of his fact , the guilt of sin remains not still upon his conscience , or that he shall be acquitted at god's tribunal ? . neither are they the laws of the church and kingdom of england onely , that are against such meetings and ministry as are in question ; but the godly kings and princes of the primitive christian-church have ever made the like . † eusebius tells us , that constantine the great made a law , that no separatists or schismaticks should meet in conventicles ; and commanded that all such places , where they were wont to keep their meetings , should be demolished ; and that they should not keep their factious meetings either in publick places , or private houses , or remote places , but that they should repair to their parochial churches . and in the next chapter he saith , that by that law , the memory of most of those sectaries was forgotten and extinguished . sozomen reports ‖ that theodosius the great , decreed that the sectaries ( whose petition for liberty he had first torn in pieces ) should not assemble together , but all of them repair to their own publick congregations , otherwise to be banished their country , to be branded with some infamy , and not to be partakers of common privileges and favours with others . and our neighbours and brethren of scotland of the presbyterian judgment , did in one of their late general assemblies , since the enacting of their solemn league and covenant , make a special canon against all private meetings ; the direct tendency there of being to the overthrow of that uniformity by them covenanted , to be endeavoured in all the churches of the three kingdoms . the very heathens themselves , by their laws have made all such assemblies illegitimate which the highest authority did not cause to meet , though they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to doe solemn sacrifice to their gods ( as may appear by solon's laws ) and in their practice , they have shewed themselves ready to yeild obedience to their governours , in desisting from such irregular conventions when they have been required . though demetrius his assembly came together disorderly , and of their own heads * rushed into the theatre , and there kept a shouting and crying two hours together , some one thing , some another , not knowing , most of them , wherefore they came together : yet when the town-clark ( who had authority ) did dismiss them ; they added not one fault to another , but broke off their disorderly meeting presently . and they shew themselves more refractary than demetrius himself , who doe otherwise . and , if it be well considered , the practice in question will be found to interfere with it self ; and to carry in the very face of it a convincing testimony of its evil and unwarrantableness . for if it be lawfull for these men to preach in private meetings ( as they do , and have a long time done ) why do they not take upon them to adventure to preach in the publick and church-assemblies also ? what is it that makes them abstain from the latter , and yet take liberty in the former ? is it in obedience to the law of the land , which forbids them to preach in publick ? the same law forbids them to preach in private also . it cannot be denied but that one is forbidden as well as the other . then this must needs be turned upon them , why do they not obey in the one as well as in the other , since they cannot but acknowledge that both are forbidden in the same law ? surely if it were the care and conscience , and desire to obey lawfull authority , according as christian duty binds them , that makes them silent in publick ; the same conscience , the same care and desire would make them sit down in silence in private also . if it be said , that they therefore abstain from publick preaching , because it more exposeth them to the danger and penalty of the law , than private doth : then this must be retorted upon them also , that their obedience is not such as god requireth , for conscience , but for wrath . good men obey for conscience ; but those that obey for wrath , have not the fear of god before their eyes . for , none contemns the power of man , unless he hath first despised the power of god. and shall that be accounted by any sober christian , to be the ordinance of god , or means of his appointment to beget grace in mens souls , that is so repugnant to good laws , both of church and state , which we all stand bound in conscience to observe and obey ; is contradictory to it self , and hath in it that , which proclaims to all that will open their eyes to look into it , its unlawfulness and sin ? god forbid . argument ii. that cannot be the ordinance of god , or means of grace , that is contrary to that order which god himself by his word hath established in his church . for god is not the authour of disorder and confusion ; but the devil . in the church god's command is for order in all things : † let all things be done decently and in order . and st. paul did as well rejoice to see ‖ the order as the faith of the church of coloss. onely * death and hell have no order . and it is a kind of death to a godly christian to see disorder in the church of christ , and his service . for what is a church without order , but a kind of an hell above ground ? where order is wanting , what is a kingdom but a chaos of confusion ? yea , but such a ministry , and such meetings and assemblies as are in question , are contrary to the order god hath in his word established in his church . for the order god hath set in his church is , that his people should be distinguished into flocks , and that every flock should have its own shepherd . it is god's ordinance ( saith mr. hildersham ) as it is agreeable to good order , that christians should be sorted into congregations , according to their dwellings , that they who dwell next together , should be of the same congregation , and from thence the name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a parish , first came . as it is against all reason and scripture , that a people scattered about , some here , and some there , in several parts of the country , should voluntarily associate and combine themselves in a distinct body , under what ministry they please , and that best suits with their humour , and call themselves a church , as the manner of some is : so it is agreeable with the very light of nature , and dictates of right reason , that a people in a vicinity and neighbourhood dwelling together , ought to join together with those of that neighbourhood , according as most conveniently they may , for the worship and service of god. we reade of the church of god at rome , corinth , galatia , ephesus , &c. and ‖ of seven epistles written from heaven to seven several churches , all which had their abode at the places whence the churches bare their names , these are scripture churches ; saith a presbyterian . it is the ordinance of god that every . flock or congregation should have their own pastour , * take heed to the flock over whom the holy ghost hath made you overseers . timothy appointed titus † to ordain elders in every city . i. e. wheresoever there was a body of people for a fit congregation , there must be a pastour or elder placed . whence it appears that even in the apostles days there was a distinction of churches , and congregations ; for the elders had their flocks over whom the holy ghost made them overseers . the like is said of paul and barnabas ‖ that they ordained elders in every church . hence ( saith calvin ) * may be gathered the difference betwixt the office of those elders , and that of the apostles . these had no certain station in the church , but still went up and down , hither and thither , to plant new churches , rom. . . . . . cor. . . act. . . rom. . . tim. . . cor. . . . but the other were by god's appointment fixed and tyed to their own proper congregations and flocks , act. . . act. . . tit. . ● pet. . . the diminutive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , used in luc. . . act. . . pet. . . . not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , † doth intimate as much ; for , parvum gregem significat , it signifies a small part of the great flock distinguished from the rest . and indeed the state and condition of the ministers , and ministry of the church requires , that every pastour should not take care of all the flock or church , but that rather they should have certain portions or congregations of god's people , committed to them particularly , amongst whom they should bestow their care and pains . for this cause st. paul took course to send certain ministers to certain particular churches : as ‖ crescens to galatia , titus to dalmatia , and tychicus to ephesus . vnde rectissime colligimus ( saith a * learned casuist ) auditores ordinariis pastoribus contentos esse oportere , ne eos in crimen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 conjiciant . so 't is god's ordinance that flocks & congregations should be contented with , and depend on their own pastours . this appears by that charge of the apostle . † we beseech you brethren to know them ( to own and acknowledge them ) that labour among you , and are over you in the lord , and admonish you ; and to esteem them very highly in love for their works sake . ‖ again , remember them that have the rule over you , which have spoken to you the word of god. and again * obey them that have the rule over you , and submit your selves ; for they watch for your souls , as they that must give an account , that they may doe it with joy and not with grief . in both places the command of god is for obedience to pastours ; not any , such as people themselves according to their own humours shall chuse ; but it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in the seventh verse : and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in the th verse . in both places , yovr rvlers , such as are lawfully set over you by those that are in authority in the church . and even as st. paul commends epaphroditus to the philippians as their ordinary pastour , and commands them † to receive him in the lord with all gladness , and to hold such in rep●tation . so , he doth the like to other churches , commanding them to honour and obey their own pastours ; which he would never have done , if it had been lawfull for people , with neglect of their own ministers , to follow whom they please . people are much mistaken , if they think , they are so much at their own disposal , as that they may put themselves under the teaching and care of what minister they have a mind to , though never so excellent and orthodox . for , . first , god is not so careless of the precious souls of his people in his church , as to leave them at random to shift for themselves , every one according to his own foolish fancy ; but doth dispose of them himself by his good providence , by the hand of those , who from and under him have authority so to doe , to the care and charge of pastours of his own appointment , the respective ministers of those parishes and places where they , with other of his people , do cohabite . and therefore the form of our institutions to our several charges , runs in these words , curam & regimen omnium animarum parochianorum tibi plenarie in domino committimus . the definition that our saviour christ gives of a church , is , a ‖ shepherd and his sheep that will hear his voice . a lawfull minister , and a flock or congregation lawfully committed to his charge make up a true church . hereunto accord the judgment of the fathers . st. chrysostome in an homily de recipiendo severiano , begins thus ; sicuti capiti corpus cohaerere necessarium est , ita ecclesiam sacerdoti , & principi populum . as it is necessary that the body cleave to the head , so it is likewise of necessity that the congregation cleave to the priest , and the people to their prince . to which the saying of st. cyprian agrees . illi sunt ecclesia , plebs sacerdoti adunita , & pastori suo grex adhaerens . the church is a congregation of believers united to their minister , and a flock adhering to their shepherd . for people then to imagine that they are at their own liberty to forsake their own ministers , and to wander whither they please , is a principle that tends directly to the destruction of the church , and is contrary to the very nature and being of it . should the flocks of these wanderers doe as their masters doe , leave and run away from their shepherds , and goe whither they please , and feed where they please , their owners would expect to see but little good come of them . . secondly , a man●fest injury will thereby be done to their own pastours , be they never so vigilant , to be forsaken of their own people , as if they were deficient in the discharge of their duties and offices amongst them . for , if it be lawfull for one to doe so , then 't is lawfull for ten , and if for ten , then for an hundred , and so consequently for all ; and so a pastour may be forsaken of all his people ; which how contrary it is to the order and rules of the gospel , i leave to any person of sober and staid principles to judge . . thirdly , it will be matter of offence to others ( who are prone to live * by example more than by rule ) and an occasion to them to doe the like : and so by this means all that obedience and duty , that by divine precept , is due to a minister from his people , would soon perish and come to nothing . . fourthly , an universal liberty of sinning without controll or restraint would by this means be introduced amongst people . for if they may have liberty to wander from one minister to another , at their pleasure , they will have none at last , to have the cure and care of their souls : neither will any one dare faithfully and freely to rebuke them for any thing they doe amiss , for fear lest they should forsake him also , and still be seeking out to some other . and this is a most cursed condition by the verdict of † god himself , for people to be without a particular pastour of their own ; as sheep without a shepherd , wandring now here now there , exposed to dogs and wolves , seducers and deceivers . . fifthly , it is a sinning against and crossing divine providence , and carries much of impiety and unchristian ingratitude in it : god's gracious promise to his people is ‖ i will give you pastours according to mine own heart , which shall feed you with knowledge and vnderstanding . now when god shall be graciously pleased , to make good this promise to a people , and they ( therewithall not contented ) shall out of a vain curiosity , light and needless affectation of novelty , ( for as the case in question stands , it can proceed from no other cause ) flock after strangers and usurpers , even to a forsaking , either in whole , or in part , their own faithfull pastour , it is just with god to blast all such ministry , and to make all their pretended preaching , become but * a reasoning with unprofitable talk , with speeches wherewith they can doe no good : and to withdraw his blessing from such unthankfull peoples attendance on it , so as that † hearing they shall hear and not understand , and seeing they shall see and not perceive . and as god threatned the jews in the like case ‖ so may he justly punish such ungratefull male-contents , with a certain and efficacious permission of them to be deceived , led into , and hardned in all kind of damnable errours , by their pretended teachers , and so , what gastius observes of the anabaptists , may be made true of all such humourists , ‖ quia à veritate avertunt aures , ideo deus permittit illis doctores , non qui lingua medica sanarent ulcera ipsorum , sed qui pruritum ac scabiem affectuum ipsorum commode scalperent . because they turn away their ears from the truth , therefore god sends them teachers after their own lusts , not such as should with wholsome tongues heal their sores , but with their nails scratch the itch of their lusts and affections . they may chance to gain some empty notions , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of science falsely * so called , but nothing of sanctified or saving knowledge . and if a man look with an impartial eye , on the practices of these persons , that transplant themselves out of the garden of god's church , into the waste of these unlawfull assemblies , he may soon discern the visible tokens of divine displeasure upon them and their ways . such barrenness of true holiness and christian-charity , such wilfull hardning in ways of schism , pride & prophaneness ( i speak within the compass of mine own sad observation and experience , not with any desire to blazon the crimes of any , but to declare my heart-breaking sorrow for them ) as if that curse pronounced by our blessed saviour against the fruitless figtree in the gospel , were executed on them , † let no good fruit grow on thee hencesorth for ever . their faith seems to be mere faction ; all their religion but a professed disobedience to their superiours , and a studied opposition to the truth of that which ( through the mercy of god ) is established in our church : their holiness , to be always finding of faults : and , stulto zelo pleni ( as saith melancthon ) being filled with foolish zeal , they will like nothing but their own inventions . as soon as ever they fansie themselves to be converted , they can teach their king how to govern , and their ministers how to preach . they can tell what laws are fit for the kingdom , and what orders for the church ; yea , they are presently so illuminated , that they can see every blemish in both , when in themselves , their companions and families , they cannot see beams and intolerable evils . eagle-eyed abroad to spie faults in others , and look into things that concern them not , but as blind as beetles at home . like flies , ‖ they will fasten no where , but on the gall or sore ( if there be any ) in church or state. and whereas christ in his gospel hath commanded us , that * each should esteem other better than themselves ; especially where nothing appears notorious in mens lives to the contrary ; these men will be peremptory and pope-like in their definitions , on all that are not of their way and practice , counting and calling them , carnal , the men of the world , the wicked , &c. and engross to themselves the names of saints , the godly , god's children and people , with exclusion of all else that are not of their practice and opinions , from having part or lot in that business or privilege . it is holiness enough for any , to be one of them . the character which the ancient nonconformists give of the separatists of their times , doth as exactly fit these of ours , as if it had been made of purpose for them . it is † evident ( say they ) their zeal hath been like the rash and indiscreet zeal spoken of and reproved in the sons of zebedeus . and savoureth altogether of uncharitableness and not of love : for as all they that have once declined to that schism , are found to be exceeding proud and disdainfull towards all that are contrary minded ; yea even such as ( before they were infected with that leaven ) were patterns of all love , modesty and humility unto others ; so will they not acknowledge nor reverence any of the most excellent graces that god hath given to any of his servants amongst us , nor so much respect them as papists will do . no , they profess greater detestation and despite to the most godly and most sincere men amongst us , than they do to such as are most notorious in profaneness and malice to the truth . and for shameless lying , spitefull railing , and scurrilous and ruffian-like profaneness which they observe and describe at large in them , i have not found that these come any whit short , but rather ( i fear ) overpass the deeds of their predecessours . so that i find that note of st. augustine to be most true , which he observes out of the parable ‖ concerning the man that fell among thieves . 't is said of him that he went down from ierusalem to iericho . ierusalem was the church of god , the * holy city . there was the temple , and publick place of the worship of the god of israel . iericho , a type of the world , unkind to † god's spies , as the world is to his ministers ; where god had no publick worship at all . betwixt it and ierusalem , there was a desart , infamous for frequent robberies and murthers there committed : in which respect it was called adomim , for the store of bloud there shed . there was king zedekiah taken ‖ by the army of the chaldeans , when he fled from ierusalem . and thither the man bended his course . whereupon st. augustine notes , si non descendisset , in latrones non incidisset , had he not gone down from god and his church , he had not faln into the hands of thieves : so long as he had kept himself in god's way , he would have kept him from all harm and danger : but if he will goe from the chruch , let him go whither else he please , god will give him over into the hands of thieves , who shall strip him , wound him , and leave him half dead . our church-forsakers in these days have sped no better than that man did then , but since they left out ierusalem , the place of god's publick worship , they have faln into the hands of thieves , that great and old cheater , the devil and his instruments , the seducers of our times , who craftily lye in wait to deceive : and these have stript them of their raiment , all that external appearance of peace , charity , modesty and humility , that formerly they seemed to be clothed withall , and have not left them so much as one ragg remaining to hide their nakedness : wounded them in their minds and judgments with errours and falshoods ; in their consciences with superstition and vain devotion ; in their affections with utter aversness and crosness to all that is orderly and imposed by authority ; insomuch that they are left half dead ; some life remains in them ; to any thing that is evil and forbidden , they are quick and active , but to any thing that is truly good and enjoined , as dead as a stock : * wise to do evil , but to do good they have no knowledge . such is god's justice and severity on those that leave ierusalem for iericho . in a word ; if all of this sort of people throughout the nation , be as those with whom i have to doe , ( and i know there is the same corruption in the natures of all , though there may not be the same eruption in all ) god and godliness have not greater enemies , nor the devil greater instruments to advance his kingdom , in the introduction of atheism and prophaneness ; than themselves . god's publick worship and worshippers are matter of their loathing and scorn , and if ever any of them afford their presence to any part of it , it is of purpose either to quarrel at or deride it . and as he whom they serve goes about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour , so do they make it their business to beget prejudice in the hearts of all with whom they converse , against their own ministers and ministry , and to make proselytes to themselves and their party , of the worst and easiest sort of people . the pretext of piety and conscience is both the veil wherewith they hide their unparallelled pride , malice and hypocrisie ; and their bait wherewith they catch simple souls in their net. † as at the building of the temple under zerubbabel , the adversaries making shew of helping forward the work by setting their hands to it , pretending they sought the same god the jews did , proved themselves to be the greatest enemies to god's people , and hinderers of the building by their coloured friendship ; so i know not any whose courses are more to the disturbance of the peac● , and prejudice to the inlargement of the church , and furtherance of religion , than these men that would be noted for a form of godliness , but indeed deny the power of it . i heartily wish , that in their lives they would henceforth stoutly consute this character i have given of them , which yet comes far short of what by wofull experience i have found in them : and when i see it done , i shall as gladly retract what i have written , as with sorrow of heart i have uttered it . in the mean time i return from what i have digressed . if a greater excellency of gifts and parts in one minister above another , be pretended , as a cause of their wandring ; they forget what st. paul wrote to the corinthians , when there grew schisms and divisions amongst them , upon the account of the diversity of gifts which they observed in their teachers . ‖ i am of paul ( saith one ) his matter is powerfull , his doctrine sound , his method plain . i am of apolla ( saith another ) he is an eloquent man , mighty in the scriptures , him i prefer . i am of cephas ( saith a third ) his preaching i most affect . i am of christ ( saith a fourth ) i care for none of all the former , they are but men , i will therefore have my dependance wholly on christ , with neglect of the instrument . but what saith st. paul to all this ? * is christ divided ? can he be the head of such divers and disagreeing bodies , being himself but one ? is he divided from his ministers , so as not to work by his spirit , in the hearts of his people , with his word preached by one , as well as by another ? can ye allow of one self same gospel , as christ's , being uttered by one man , and loath it being uttered by another ? will ye acknowledge christ to be the chief shepherd and bishop of your souls , the great doctour and prophet of his church , and yet think that he will not make his word successfull , for the salvation of those whom he hath ordained to eternal life , by what ministry soever he shall appoint ? for who is † paul , and who is apollo ? but ministers by whom ye believe , even as the lord gave to every man. they are but the ministers of christ , and such as do● nothing of themselves ; but god so worketh by them as it pleaseth him . i ‖ will not dare ( saith one of them ) to speak of any of those things which christ hath not wrought by me , to make the gentiles obedient by word or deed . the ministry is god's ordinance , and depends not upon the worthiness of him that is employed in it ; but it hath its virtue , force and efficacy , from the blessing of god and inward operation of his spirit , which worketh where , and in , and by , whom he will. christ himself converted very few , in comparison of the many converted by his apostles . those ministers whose parts are most seraphical , cannot at their pleasure infuse grace into their hearers hearts . * a paul may plant , and an apollos may water , but it is god that must give the increase . so as that neither the one nor the other , are any thing in themselves , without god's blessing , which the weakness of the instrument shall not hinder , as making most for the honour of the supreme agent to work by it . † we have this treasure in earthen vessels , that the excellency of the power may be of god , and not of men. all god's servants are not alike gifted ; some have five talents , some ten , some but one ; yet all may be his faithfull servants , and may have their gifts given them to profit withall . and from any of their gifts , any may learn and profit , if the fault be not their own who th●ives more in grace than they , who conscionably attend and depend on their own godly pastours ; who go more empty away with the shell of religion onely , when others have gotten the kernel , but such as love to wander and heap ●p to themselves teachers of their own chusing ? the first sort find the p●eaching of god's word to prove wholsome food to them ; which though it seem coiurse , and to be served in with great simplicity ( like daniel's diet * which was but pulse and water ) yet because it is god's allowance , allways hath his blessing with it , and makes his children so to thrive , that their countenances do appear fairer , and they are fatter in flesh , than the other , who though they feed upon varieties , and ( perhaps ) more curiously cook'd dishes , yet have souls that are still thin and lean , and depart from their banquets without any great satisfaction , for want of that blessing , without which all manner of varieties prove but wind and vanity . for † man lives not by bread onely , but by the word of blessing that comes forth of god's mouth . neither say i this of mine own private opinion , but the brethren of the non-conformity say the same . he that keepeth in god's order , under a meaner honest minister , is like to be a more humble thriving christian , than he , that breaks that order under pretence of edification . saith ‖ mr. baxter . the ancient and godly fathers of the church , taking into consideration this order , that god hath established amongst his people , have both in their publick councils , and private writings , always disallowed and forbidden the liberty that people are apt to take of their own heads to wander from their own pastours , to hear strangers . in the third council of carthage ( where saint augustine himself was present ) there was this decree made . placuit * ut a nullo episcopo usurpentur plebes alienae , nec aliquis episcoporum supergrediatur in dioecesi suum collegam . be it ordained that no bishop usurp , or have any thing to doe with another's people , or enter into the diocese of his compartner in office , to meddle or make there . and this canon extends its obligation to ministers of inferiour order , in reference to each others congregations , as well as to bishops in relation to their dioceses . for † sicut episcopus se habet ad dioecesim suam , sic sacerdos ad suam parochaim , saith aquinas . as it is with a bishop , with respect to his diocese , so 't is with a minister in respect of his parish . sine spe sunt ( saith ‖ that holy martyr st. cyprian ) & perditionem maximam de indignatione dei acquirunt , qui schisma faciunt , & relicto episcopo , alium sibi foris pseudoepiscopum constituunt . they are without hope , and procure to themselves the greatest destruction through the just indignation of god , who make schisms in the church , and leaving their own bishop , appoint and set up another , a false bishop to themselves . again * singulis pastoribus portio gregis est ascripta , quam reger quisque ac gubernet , rationem sui actus domino reddat . to every pastour there is a portion of god's people committed , which he ought to rule and govern , as one that must give an account to god for them . and saith the same holy man farther , oportet eos quibus praesumus , non circumcursare , nec episcoporum concordiam cohaerentem sua subdola & fallaci temeritate collidere . it behoves those over whom god hath set us , not to run about hither & thither , nor by their false and crafty temerity , to break the concord and good agreement that ought to be amongst ministers . in the canon-law it is ordained * vt dominicis & festis diebus presbyteri , antequam sacra celebrent , plebem interrogent , si alterius parochianus sit in ecclesia , qui proprio contempto presbytero , ibi velit sacris interesse ; si inveniatur , statim ab ecclesia abjiciant . that on festival and lord's days , the ministers , before they beg in divine service , shall ask the people , if there be any person of another parish in the church , who neglecting his own pastour , desires to be present at divine worship there ; and if any such be found , they shall forthwith thurst him out of the church . and in another pleea it is thus decreed . † omnis & quilibet confiteatur proprio sacerdoti : siquis autem alieno sacerdoti voluerit justa de causa coufiteri peccata , licentiam prius postulet & obtineat a proprio sacerdote cum aliter ipse illum non possit absolvere vel ligare . let every man confess his faults to his own minister : but if any upon just cause desire to confess to another minister , let him first ask and obtain licence so to doe , from his own minister , seeing otherwise no other can absolve or bind him . of the same judgment in this case , have the reverend brethren of the presbyterian perswasion declared themselves to be ; not onely in their sermons to their people ( which i have sometimes heard ) but i have seen an act , and can produce it , of the assembly of scotland , entitled , an act against such as withdraw themselves from the publick worship in their own congregation . wherein the said assembly in the zeal of god for preserving order , unity and peace in the kirk , for maintaining that respect which is due to the ordinances and ministers of iesus christ , for preventing schisms , noysome errours , and all unlawfull practices , which may follow on the peoples withdrawing themselves from their own congregations , do ordiain every member in every congregation to keep their own paroch kirk , to communicate there in the word and sacraments : and if any person or persons shall hereafter absent themselves from their own congregations , except in urgent cases , made known to and approved by the presbytery , the ministers of these congregations whereto they resort , shall both in publick by preaching , and in private by admonition , shew their dislike of their withdrawing from their own minister , that in so doing they may witness to all that hear them their due care to strengthen the hands of their fellow labourers in the work of the lord , and their detestation of any thing that may tend to separation , or any of the above mentioned evils : hereby their own flock will be confirmed in their stedfastness , and the unstable spirits of others will be rectified . like as the minister of that congregation from which they do withdraw shall labour first by private admonition to reclaim them ; and if any after private admonition given by their own pastour do not amend , in that case the pastour shall delate the aforesaid persons to the session , who shall cite and censure them as contemners of the comely order of the kirk . and if the matter be not taken order with there , it is to be brought to the presbytery . for better observing whereof , the presbyteries at the several visitations of their kirks , and provincial assemblies , in their censure of the several presbyteries shall enquire hereanent . which enquiry and report shall be registrate in the provincial books , that their deligence may be seen in the general assembly . the contrary course here amongst us of this age , hath been taken notice of by godly christians beyond the seas , as our great fault , and contrary to the practice and custome of the reformed churches of god abroad . honorius reggius , a learned man , hath taken the pains to gather together out of mr. edwards his gangrene , and other authours , no less than errours practised in england , since the year of our lord . and hath divulged them to the whole world , to the great shame of our nation , and scandal to our religion ; whereof this is the th errour ‖ partem libertatis christianae esse , non audire proprium ministrum ; sed ubi libeat , & a quo plus commodi speretur . that it is a part of christian liberty , for people not to hear their own ministers , but to attend that ministry which they like best , and from whom they hope to receive the most profit . i never heard or read that this disorderly practice was tolerated or allowed in the church of god in any part of christendom , but once , and that was by virtue of a licence and privilege granted by certain popes to the mendicant fryers to intermeddle in matters of parish churches , * as to hear confessions , to preach and teach , with power thereunto annexed to gather the benevolence of the people for their labour . which occasioned such a contention in france between the prelates and the fryers there , an. dom. , that the prelates of france convening and assembling together in the city of paris , caused by the bedles to be called together all the students , masters , and bachelours of every faculty , with the chief heads of all the religious houses , and fryers in the university of paris ; who being all congregated together in the bishop of paris his house , where there were present archbishops , bishops ; and all the rest of the bishops throughout the whole kingdom of france , except those who were necessarily absent , with full consent did send in under their hand-writing , a complaint against the insolency & presumption of the fryers . the bishop of † byters preaching in that assembly on that text of st. paul , eph. . . ut sciatis quae ●it longitudo , latitudo , altitudo & profunditas charitatis , took occasion to shew , that by the vigour of true charity every man ought to hold himself content with that which was his own , and not to intermeddle or busie himself farther than to him appertained or belonged to his office. for there ( saith he ) all order ecclesiastical is dissolved , whereas men not containing themselves in their own precincts , presume in other mens charges where they have nothing to doe . but this charity ( saith he ) now-adays waxeth cold , and all ecclesiastical order is confounded , and utterly out of order . for many there be now-adays which presume to thrust in themselves where they have nothing to doe , so that now the church may seem a monster . for as in a natural body appeareth a monster , when one member doeth the office of another ; so in the spiritual body , which is the church , it may be thought like-wise . against the same evil and ungodly practice of the fryers in our land and nation , at the same time , did that famous , godly and learned , richard armachanus archbishop and primate of ireland , inveigh in or sermons preach'd on purpose in london : for which being cited by the fryers before pope innocent the sixth , to appear : so he did ; and before the face of the pope valiantly defended both in word and writing , that it was better for the parishioners to leave the fryers , and to resort to their own pastours , for that the ordinary pastour is properly appointed of god unto that ministry which he exerciseth amongst them , whereas the fryers were but onely permitted of man thereunto : and therein he stood constant unto the death . for these are the words of iohn wickliff ( as they are quoted by † mr. fox ) ab anglorum episcopis conductus armachanus novem in avione conclusiones coram innocentio , & suorum cardinalium coetu , contra fratrum mendicitatem audacter publicavit , veiboque ac scriptis ad mortem usque defendit . now if this be the order which god hath established in his church , that people should be divided into flocks , that every flock should have their own pastour , and that they should depend upon him ; then he can by no means endure to see a breach of that order in his service , that he hath set . how much it hath displeased him , appears in that famous instance in chron. . . because they sought him not according to the right order , therefore god made a breach upon them . and what that breach was both of order on the peoples part , and of punishment on god's part , may be seen , cap. . , . vzzah , out of a very good intention put forth his hand to stay the ark when it was in danger of falling , and therefore was smitten with sudden death ; according to the just threatning of god , pronounced before . * they shall not touch any holy thing lest they dye . god will be worshipped and served , not onely in his own ordinances , but in his own order also . there are many duties , † quae cum bona sint opera , perniciem pariunt , cum non eo ordine quo sunt constituta peragantur ; which though they be good works , yet the doers of them may be damned , because they doe them not in that order they should . upon this account mart. luther sharply reprehended those of wittenberge , who in his absence had abrogated the private mass and idols ; had celebrated the lord's supper under both kinds ; had taken away auricular confession , superstitious differences of meats , invocation of saints , and many other popish fopperies , and intolerable abuses in the church ; ‖ non quod impie fecissent , sed quod non ordine . not but that the work was good in it self , but it was ill done , because not done in a right order ; and therefore it was justly culpable and blameable in them . circumstances of actions often marr the substance . in divine worship our care must not onely be to the matter of the service , that it be good , but to the circumstances also wherewith it is attended , that they be warrantable by god's word , or at least , not contrary thereunto . god requires that even the * wood , and every part of the sacri●ce offered to him , be † in order . and doth god look for order among sticks ? and doth he not much more require order to be kept in the use of those means , by which he hath appointed to bring souls to heaven ? what gross absurdities would unavoidably follow , from such a manifest breach of order in the church ? if one minister may intrude into another's parish and congregation , and there set up a course of private house-preaching , and other ministerial acts ; why then may not the bishop of one diocess thrust himself into the diocess of another , and there take upon him to ordain presbyters , and exercise episcopal jurisdiction , whether the diocesan will or no ? which as it is contrary to all good laws and order , so hath been always forbidden and condemned by the judgment of the fathers of the church assembled in council . not onely in that of carthage , before mentioned ; but also in a council at antioch it was decreed ‖ non licere uni episcopo in dioecesi alterius episcopale officium exercere . and in the th canon of those which goe under the name of the apostles , it was ordained ; episcopum non audere extra terminos proprios ordinationes facere , in civitatibus & villis quae illi nullo jure subjectae sunt . si vero convictus fuerit , &c. that no bishop shall dare to confer orders out of his own diocess , in any city or village , which by no law or right is in subjection to him ; and if he shall be convicted so to doe , without the consent or leave of those to whom those cities or towns do belong , he shall be deposed , and those that are ordained by him . so likewise in civil affairs , why then may not a judge who is commissionated for the northern circuit , thrust himself into the place and office of him that is appointed for the western , sit on the bench , judge causes , and condemn malefactours in alieno foro ? which were the way to overthrow all justice ; according to that known axiome in the law , sententia a iudice non svo lata , nulla est ipso jure . and , in military matters , why then may not the colonel of one regiment ( or a reformado officer that hath lost his company and hath none left to command ) intrude himself into another regiment , and there take upon him to muster the souldiers , and lead a party ? which is the onely way to open a flood-gate to all confusion and disorder that is imaginable , to the destruction of magistracy , ministry , judges , armies , and all things . now order being a great part of god's law , he that wilfully breaks good order , makes himself guilty of the breach of the whole law ; and so makes void his plea for an ordinance of god which may be instrumental to beget faith or grace in the souls of those that attend unto it . the queen of sheba when she had seen the good order of the servants that ministred to king solomon , was so astonished with admiration , that * there was no spirit left in her . if order in a family doth so draw the eyes and minds of the beholders to it , how much more amiable is order in the church , which † is the house of the living god , where a greater than solomon is always present , and where the glory of the lord appears in the way and means of the salvation of souls ? argument . iii. that cannot be the ordinance of god , as a means of grace , that hath no promise of god's blessing made or annexed to it . for though it be a paul that plants , and an apollo that waters * yet it must be god that gives the blessing , or else all their labour will be to no purpose . i deny not but that there may be a very good use made of the meetings of christians together , otherwise than in the publick congregation , when they are lawfully and orderly regulated , without manifest breach of any divine or humane precept , without intrenchment upon , or infringment of any gospel-order or ordinance , and that they may so expect god's blessing on them . yet because satan hath stretched his hellish subtilty to the highest , in these last times ( with too unhappy success ) to put easie and well-meaning people out of the sure and ordinary way of god's blessing , by disparaging the publick church assemblies , and advancing private , irregular , and disorderly meeting ( where there is not that ground of expectation of divine concurrence ) into competition with yea prelation above them : therefore ( makeing a little more than ordinary stay here ) i shall endeavour to let the reader fee how the spirit of god in scripture hath commended the publick assemblies to us , by affixing more special promises of his presence with , and benediction of them , than on any other , though ordered in all things never so rightly : and how it hath recorded the faith of good men in their belief of these promises , testified in their esteeming , useing , and frequenting the publick ordinances of god accordingly . † glorious things are spoken of thee , oh thou city of god. to the ancient people of god , the iews , the special promises of divine presence were made in their church assemblies . ‖ in the places where i record my name , i will come unto thee and will bless thee . * in the tabernacle ( saith god ) i will meet thee and commune with thee of all things . which promises were always performed accordingly as may be seen in lev. . . . n●mb . . . numb . . . thence it was that the tabernacle of the jewish church , had the name of † the tabernacle of meeting , or the tabernacle of the congregation . to those that attended god there , his blessing was assured . ‖ blessed is the man whom thou chusest , and causest to approach unto thee , that he may dwell in thy court , he shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house even of thy holy temple . * blessed are they that dwell in thy house , they shall ever be praising thee . † he blesseth thy children within thee , o sion . ‖ blessed is the man that heareth me , watching dayly at my gates , waiting at the posts of my doors ; saith christ the wisedom of the father . and that was the reason of david 's so great love to the church . * lord ; i have loved the habitation of thine house , and the place where thine honour dwelleth . and of his desire † to remain in god's house all the days of his life , that he might behold the beauty of the lord. and ‖ we have waited ( for so the word may be read ) for the loving kindness of the lord in the midst of thy temple . there promises of god's special and extraordinary blessings , on the church assemblies of his people in former ages , were so generally known and believed of holy men in those times , that when any of them prayed for any spiritual grace or mercy in behalf of any other , they usually expressed it in this from * the lord bless thee out of sion . † for there the lord commanded the blessing even life for evermore . so again . ‖ we bless you out of the house of the lord. they seem to be the words of the priests ▪ whose office it was , at the dismissing of the congregation of god's people ▪ to * bless them in his house . they being appointed of god there to † bless in his name . whose benedictions there pronounced , did not prove an empty sound of words in the air , but from the temple at ierusalem , where they were spoken , they mounted up to heaven where they were heard and answered ‖ for the priests and levits arose and blessed the people , and their voice was heard , and their prayer came up to his holy dwelling place , even unto heaven . in which respect the publick worship of god , is called * his face and presence . cain , for the murther of his brother , being debarred the benefit of god's publick worship , complains † i shall be hid from thy face , i. e. from the face and presence of god in his church : as appears afterward . ‖ and cain went out from the presence of god , and dwelt in the land of nod : i. e. from the place of god's publick worship , which in all likelyhood , was celebrated by adam the father , * who being a prophet , had taught his children how to sacrifice , and to serve the lord. thither god's people resorted in multitudes : and david professeth that nothing in all his life hapned to him more pleasant , than to see such flocking to god's house ; and that he could goe thither with them : as nothing aggravated his misery more in his persecution by saul , or by his son absolom's rebellion ( for 't is uncertain whether of the two was the occasion of psal. . ) than that he could not have the happiness that formerly he enjoyed of being one of the first and forwardest in going thither . * when i remember these things ( saith he ) i pour out my soul in me . and why ? because there he enjoyed god in a more special manner than he could elsewher : thither he came , ‖ and appeared before the face of god. what longings he shewed for god's publick worship at another time , when by saul's persecution he was forced from the temple at ierusalem , into the wilderness of iudah , and wandered in the desart , may be seen in psal. . though it was grievous to him to fall from that dignity and favour he formerly had , and wherein he flourished in saul's court : though it was hard for him to lose all his goods , to be alienated from all his friends , to be forced to converse among strangers and infidels , and to expose his life to all sorts of hardships and hazards , yet all these he counted small and light matters , in comparison of this one great evil , that he was forced to be absent from church , and to abide there , where there was no publick ministry or worship of god. and therefore making no mention at all of any of those other evils , he makes this his onely request , that he might be restored again , ut sacris publicis , & coetui piorum interesse possit , that he might have the liberty of god's house again . though he might , and doubtless did , converse with god in the desart , pouring out his prayers to him , which was the onely support he had in his exile ; and though no doubt those godly friends he had left about him ( for he had such in whose society he might take great comfort in his banishment , he had both ‖ a prophet , and * a priest ) did join with him in the private service of god , yet this contented him not , he longs still for the publick worship , bewails greatly the want of it , his ‖ speeches are all of the heavenly benefit of it , and the happiness of such as had free access to it . he know he could no where perform divine worship , with so free and glad an heart , with so much comfort and assurance of so large a blessing , as in that place , where the ministry was publick , and where the multitude of god's people did serve and worship him . there he vows his service , * i will give thee thanks in the gr●at congregation , i will praise thee among much people . ‖ i will praise thee with my whole heart in the assembly of the upright , and in the congregation . and calls upon others to doe the like * give the lord the glory due to his name , worship him in the beauty of holiness . it was no small blessing promised to good king hezekiah , that his recovery from his sickness should be so soon effected , that he should not be detained from going to church , but ‖ the third day he should be able to go up to the house of the lord. the hearing whereof was equal comfort to him , with the news of the enlargement of the lease of his life . it hath even been a sad affliction to the souls of god's people , to see the church-assemblies neglected , and the congregations more empty than they were wont to be , and to be debarred the liberty of frequenting them , as being thereby deprived of the most lively representation of heaven on earth , to the obscuring much of god's glory , which is seen and spoken of in the sanctuary , and the seducing them from the mutual and comfortable fellowship one of another in his ordinances , and from much refreshing and help they had by these means . * i will gather them which are sorrowfull for the solemn assemblies , who are of thee , to whom the reproach of it is a burthen . 't is the character the holy ghost makes of a true child and member of the church , to be thus affected . when ever god's people did shew a more then ordinary desire to prevail in prayer , they have shewed more than ordinary care that the assemblies might be as publick , and as full , as could be , as 't is noted by ‖ a worthy divine of ours . * blow the trumpet in sion , sanctifie a fast , call a solemn assembly , gather the people , assemble the children , &c. in the fast which king iehosaphat proclaimed , it is said . ‖ all judah stood before the lord , with their little ones , their wives and their children . and it was in the publick place of god's worship , * the house of the lord that they met . the people of israel went up to the house of the lord to ask counsel concerning their war with benjamin . and this they did more than once , and till they did so , they prevailed not . the like course took king hezekiah at his keeping the passover to make the congregation in the house of the lord ( the temple at ierusalem ) as great as he could . ‖ hezekiah sent to all israel and iudah , and wrote letters also to ephraim and manasseh that they should come to the house of the lord at ierusalem , and keep the passover unto the lord god of israel . and as there they have prevailed with god in prayer , more than they could any where else ; so there god hath taught them more than they could learn any where else . * when i sought to know this ( viz. the doctrine of god's providence and wisedom in the just and righteous management of the affairs of the world ) it was too painfull for me ( saith david ) till i went into the sanctuary of god , then understood i their end . when all means else did fail , the publick ministry , ( through god's blessing on it ) became effectual to bring him to understanding in this mystery . therefore he concludes , ‖ thy way , o god , is in the sanctuary . and as in gospel-times we have the like promises of god's special presence in the publick congregations of his people ( mat. . . cor. . . rev. . . ) so it was professed long before , that there the godly should exhort and stir up one another , to seek the true knowledge of god and his ways , es. . . mic. . . which was fulfilled accordingly , both in the disciples of christ after his ascension , * who continually were in the temple ; and also in the converted jews and gentiles , who † continued daily in the temple with one accord . so did the christians in the primitive times , in their churches their ministers did preach ‖ as frequently as the persecution of those times would permit . and there the people assembled themselves together to hear . they did not divide themsleves , some of the congregation going one way , and some another , but * they came together in one place . and that place was the church . † if not the publick place of worship , so called , ( as most think , ) yet the place where ( by reason of the hot persecution of those times ) the whole church did , or could meet together . and st. hierome gives this commendations of the faith of the primitive christians at rome . ‖ vbi alibi tanto studio & frequentia ad ecclesias concurritur ? ubi sic ad similitudinem coelestis tonitrui amen reboat ; & vacua idolorum templa quatiuntur ? non quod aliam habeant romani fidem ; nisi hanc quam omnes christi ecclesiae ; sed quod devotio in iis major sit , & simplicitas ad credendum . in what part of the world else is there such studious flocking and resort to christian churches , as here ? where else doth the amen of the congregation , sound so loud , as that it seems to equalize a clap of thunder in the air , insomuch that the idol-temples being left empty , are made to tremble therewith ? not that the romans had any other faith , than the other churches of christ , but they had more devotion and singleness of heart in believing . to this also agrees the testimony of st. augustine , * primi credentes in templo veteri domino servierint ; the first and new christians did serve god in the old temple . it will be said by some ; to what purpose is all this that hath been alledged out of the old testament , touching god's promises to , or benediction of the church-assemblies of the iews ? their tabernacle and temple were holy places and the sanctification of them was levitical , and therefore now abolished , and not to be applied to our churches . this passeth with some for an objection that hath force enough in the bowels of it to overthrow and demolish the whole fabrick of this my third argument . but if we carefully look into the inside of it , and not tamely deliver up our hold , we shall find no such formidable matter in it . for , as for the city of ierusalem , the tabernacle and temple , they were , in themselves , places no more holy or religious than any other places in the land of canaan were , or than any other places now in england are : but they were therefore holy , partly because they had many things in them and their worship , that were typical and ceremonial , which are now abolished . the temple and tebernacle were types of the body and humane nature of christ. ioh. . . . heb. . . heb. . . and this ( i grant ) might be one reason that moved david in his banishment , so earnestly to desire his return to the temple . ps. . . and in the beginning of the new testament , we reade of certain holy and devout persons , that when they prayed , † they went up to the temple to perform their devotion . and those that could not repair to ierusalem , they might and did pray elsewhere , but it was ‖ with their faces towards the temple . and partly , because god placed a memorial * of his name there : or caused his name to be remembred there . i. e. did set apart those places for his publick worship and service , as monuments of him . for as absolom erected a pillar ‖ to keep his name in remembrance , so did god chuse out those places to put his name there . and therefore they were called * his habitation . in this respect our churches now are every whit as holy as ierusalem , the tabernacle , or temple there was , being places lawfully set apart for god's publick worship , to have his name remembred and placed there . and so the tabernacle and temple had this in them and their worship , that was moral , and consequently of equal concernment to us now , as to the jews then , that publick places ought to be assigned for god's publick worship , every way fitting and convenient for ecclesiastical conventions , where all the congregation ought to meet , as in a place where god will vouchsafe to be more graciously present in his worship , than elsewhere , according to all those his gracious promises . and touching the holiness of the tabernacle and temple , that is excepted against in the objection , as being not to the present purpose : let the answer of that learned and pious gent. sir henry spelman in his book ‖ de non temerandis ecclesiis , be heard and well considered , and the reader will easily find what hath been alledged out of the old testament maketh much for my present purpose : his words are these , the temple was sanctified unto three functions , which also had three several places assigned to them . the first , belonging to the divine presence , and had the custody of the holiest types thereof ; the oracle , the ark , the mercy-seat , &c. and was therefore called sanctum sanctornm , the holiest of all . the second was for ceremonial worship and atonement : viz. by sacrifices , oblations , and other levitical rites ; the place thereof being the sanctuary , ( wherein were the holy vessels ) and the court of priest , wherein the altar of burnt sacrifice did stand : the third was for simple worship , prayer and doctrine ( without any pomp or ceremony . ) and the place of this was the outward ( court called * atrium populi , and ‖ solomon's porch ) which had therefore in it , no ceremonial implement at all . the two first of these functions , with the places belonging to them , were indeed particularly appropriated to the law : for they were ceremonial , mystical , secret , levitical , iudaical and temporal . ceremonial , as celebrated with much worldly pomp . mystical , as figuring some spiritual things . secret , as either performed behind the veil or curtain , or else sequestred and remote from the people . levitical , as committed onely to the administration of that tribe . iudaical , as ordained onely for the salvation of that people . and temporal , as instituted onely for a season , and not to continue . but the sanctification of the third function , and the place thereunto appointed , was directly contrary to all the points alledged to the former two . first it was for simple worship , prayer and doctrine , which were there to be performed and delivered in all sincerity , without any ceremony or ceremonial implement used therein . secondly , there was no matter of mystery therein to be seen ; but whatsoever was mystical in the law or the prophets , was there expounded . thirdly , nothing was there hidden or secret from the people , but acted wholly without the veil and publickly for every man. fourthly it was not appropriated to the levites , but common alike to all the tribes . fifthly , not ordained for the iews particularly , but for all nations in general . and lastly , not to endure for a time ( as those other two of the law ) but to continue for ever , even after the gentiles were called , as well as the jews ; that is , during the time of the gospel , as well as of the law. therefore , saith god , by esaias the prophet * my house shall be called an house of prayer to all nations . he said not , an house of sacrifice to all nations ; for the sacrifice ended before the calling of the gentiles , and so they could have no part thereof . nor an house of prayer for the iews onely , for then had the gentiles ( when they were called ) been likewise excluded : but an house of prayer to all nations , i. e. jews and ●●●ntiles indifferently , which theref●●e must have relation to the times of the gospel : and consequently the sanctification of that house , and of that function , is also a sanctification of the churches of the gospel . we reade not therefore that christ reformed any thing in the other two functions of the temple , for they were now as at an end . but because this third function was for ever to continue in his church , therefore he purged it of that which prophaned it , restored it to the original sanctity ; and that the future world ( which was the time of the gospel ) might better observe it , than the precedent , and the time of the law had done , he reporteth and confirmeth the decree , whereby it was ●anctified , it is written ( saith he ) my house shall be called an house of prayer to all people . he saith , my house , excluding all other from having any property therein ; for god will be joint-tenant with no man. and it shall be an house of prayer for all people , i. e. publick , for ever , and not private . the time also when our saviour pronounced those words , is much to the purpose : for it was after he had turned out the oxen and doves , that is , the things for sacrifice . as though he thereby taught us , that when the sacrifical function of the temple was ended , yet the sanctification of it to be an house of prayer ever remained . thus far this learned gentleman , whose words ( because every one to whom this may come may not have that book in readiness to peruse ) for the readers satisfaction , i have faithfully transcribed . by which judicious and learned discourse it doth plainly appear , that the holiness of the jews tabernacle and temple was not altogether levitical , nor abolished , but of perpetual duration in gospel-times , and that our churches now are holy as theirs were then ; the sanctification of theirs was the sanctification of ours ; and therefore those promises of divine presence and blessing made to them in their church-assemblies , do belong to us , as well as to them . to such therefore as neglect the church now , and say , they can serve god as well elsewhere , as there ; i say , 't is true , as we are private christians and single persons , so no doubt according as the exigence of our affairs require , we may any where , or at any time , doe god acceptable service . it was foretold that in gospel-times ‖ in every place incense shall be offered to the name of the lord. and as st. paul bids us , pray continually , so our saviour , when you pray enter into your closets . but as we are members of the visible mystical body , which is the church of christ , so we are bound to constant attendance on the publick service of god , in his house . though not altogether now in respect of the place , yet still in respect of the congregation that do and ought to meet in that place , and the worship of god that is , and ought there to be publickly performed . and very much in regard of the place too ; . as it is a place freely given and surrendred up into the hands of god , the great land-lord of the whole world , by the donation of the right owner , under god , of the land , and founder of the edifice . . as it is hallowed and dedicated to the publick service of god in such a solemn manner , as hath been the custom and usage of god's people in all ages of the world , both of the iews in the old testament , and of the christians in the new , from the beginning , in the purest times untill now , at the time when it was delivered up into god's possession , and when the use whereunto it shall ever serve , is established . . as it is accepted and owned by god , being thus given and set apart for him ; and he is pleased to take livery and seisin of it , as his house ( which is as really true of our churches at their consecration , though not as visibly , as it was of * solomon's temple at its dedication . ) for the performance of his publick worship and service , and intitles it himself ‖ my house of prayer . and the argument which our saviour useth to prove his property in that house , is taken from the use for which it was appointed ; which extends its force equally to our churches now , as to the temple at ierusalem , seeing they are both set apart to the same purpose , even for publick prayer to , and worship of god. . as 't is a place to which god hath by promise assured his own gracious and heavenly presence and blessing , and where he may be and is enjoyed , in a more special manner than elsewhere , and consequently where there is more profit and good to be received by the service of god done in the congregation and assembling together of his people there , than in any other house whatsoever . and therefore though there is not that holiness affixed to places now since our saviour's coming into the world , as there was before , yet our assembling together in the church is as holy now as then , and better than elsewhere . and wheresoever the scripture seems to take away all religious differences of places , as if no place were holier than another , ( as in mal. . . ioh. . . tim. . . ) it is true of inherent holiness , but not of relative . and this must be always remembred to prevent mistake ) that the holy ghost doth no where compare private and profane places , with publick and consecrated , as if the worship we doe to him were as much to his glory , or as good and profitable to our selves and others which we doe in those places , as that which we doe in the church . but he compares publick places then , with publick now , and private with private ; and his meaning is , that not onely at ierusalem , and among the jews god shall have an house for his publick worship , but in all nations where he shall be pleased to bestow his gospel . god will not be worshipped in the temple at ierusalem onely , nor shall his presence be tyed to that place more than to other such like houses of god elsewhere ; but he will have houses , which shall be properly his own , and set apart for his publick worship and service amongst all nations . it was a part of that heavy yoke that was intolerable on the necks of our fathers , that they must take long and tedious journeys , to come from all quarters of their country to one place to worship ; and that they did not dare , no not in case of absolute nenessity , to perform publick service in any other place ; yea that their very private devotions were to be performed either * in , or † toward that place : but now , besides our closets for our private devotions , we have churches in our several towns , parishes and villages , where we may be sure to have god present to hear , accept and bless us , if we can find honest and good hearts to resort to them . every place hath god's presence , and therefore is , in it self , alike sanctified for his service ; but every place is not alike separated from common and profane use , and dedicated and consecrated to god , nor owned and accepted by him ; and therefore we have no reason to expect god's presence , or to meet with the like blessing in one place as in another . and therefore ( saith that holy and ancient synod at gangra in paphlagonia , under constantine the emperour ) ‖ omnem locum aedificatum in nomine dei honor amus , & congregationem in ecclesia factam ob utilitatem communem recipimus . we do honour every place built in the name of god , and do reverence and receive the congregation met in the church for the common advantage . churches then are holy , and to be respected and frequented rather than other places , because of their holy use , and for the holy assemblies there made . and therefore that same council decreed , * si quis docet domum dei contemptibilem esse , & conventus qui in ea celebantur , anathema sit . cursed be he that shall teach , that the house of god may be slighted , or the congregations that assemble therein . and in the next canon , they think fit to ordain , † si quis extra ecclesiam seorsum conventus celebrrat , &c. cursed be he that shall keep any convention out of the church . and the same synod ( as history ‖ tells us ) condemned and deposed eustathius bishop of sebastia in armenia , for perswading such as refrained the church and publick assemblies , to raise conventicles and brotherhood in their private houses . and in the civil law it is decreed , * that the sacred mystery or mysteries be not done in private houses , but be celebrated in publick places , lest thereby things be done contrary to the catholick and apostolick faith ; unless they call to the celebrating of the same such clerks of whose faith and conformity there is no doubt made , or else that are deputed thereunto by the good will of the bishop . if any thing be done to the contrary , the house wherein these things are done , shall be confiscated , and themselves shall be punished at the discretion of the prince . 't is true st. paul commands us † every where to lift up holy hands without wrath . but those hands cannot be pure that are profane ; and they cannot have other than such , who contemn the church . ‖ as therefore we exhort all men every where to worship god , even so for the performance of this service by the people of god assembled , we think not any place so good as the church , nor any exhortation so fit , as that of david , o worship the lord in the beauty of holiness . but now ( alas ) we live to see those prophetique words , uttered by a learned and judicious gentleman above years agoe , to be verified and fulfilled to the utmost . he discerning then the great increase and growth of sectaries in this realm said ; that time would soon bring it to pass ( if it were not resisted ) that god would be turned out of churches into barns , and from thence again into fields , and mountains , and under hedges : and the office of the ministry ( robbed of all dignity and respect ) be as contemptible as those places ; all order , discipline and church-government left to the newness of opinion and mens fancies ; yea and soon after , as many kinds of religions spring up , as there are parish churches within england , every contentious and ignorant person cloathing his fancy with the spirit of god , and his imagination with the gift of revelation . by all which hath been said ( wherein i hope the candid reader will pardon my prolixity in this plain vindication of the langu●shing reputation of church-assemblies ) it appears that the speciality of divine promises are made to the publick dispensation of god's ordinances , and that we may expect a greater blessing upon them , in our church-assemblies , than elsewhere . but i know no promise of god at all , made to such preaching and meetings , as are in question . god hath not engaged himself for a blessing to any people , waiting on him ( as they count it ) in a way out of his appointment , yea contrary to it . but as he hath forbidden to hear intruders , ier. . , . so he hath expresly said , there shall no blessing at all accompany such a ministry and such attendance on it . let that place in * ieremiah be noted , i sent them not , nor commanded them , therefore they shall not profit this people at all , saith the lord. sive vera praedicent , sive falsa , saith † a presbyterian divine : whether they preach that which is true , or that which is false . the question is , not de facto , but de jure , not what they teach , but by what warrant . thence it was , as ‖ tarnovius thinks , that our saviour christ rebuked the devil , and commanded him silence not suffering him to speak , when he confessed and declared the most necessary and soul-saving truth in the world , viz. * that christ was the holy one of god , because he had no calling so to doe . the words of st. paul are full to the same purpose . † how shall they believe on him , of whom they have not heard ? and how shall they hear without a preacher ? and how shall they preach except they be sent ? the apostle speaks of such preaching and hearing as should beget faith , and by which , grace is ordinarily wrought and increased in the soul , and upon which , people may expect god's blessing . now thus none can hear without a preacher , neither can any thus preach , i. e. profitably to beget faith , except he be sent . they cannot be succesfull in their ministry without a mission . they may talk , as usurpers ; but not preach , as god's ambassadours . they may satisfie the itch of the ear , but they cannot be instrumental to work grace in the heart . god will not concur with that ministry he sends not . our saviour christ faith , iohn . . all that ever came before me are thieves and robbers . why , moses and the prophets , the priests and levites were before christ. were they all . thieves and robbers , and none of them true pastours ? the emphasis lies in the word [ came ] which being rightly understood , makes it as true , that all that ever came , or shall come after christ are thieves and robbers also , as well as those that came before him . ‖ st. hierome's note upon the text makes it clear . venerunt inquit christus , non qui missi sunt , de quibus propheta , veniebant a se & ego non mittebam eos . our saviour doth not say that all that were sent before him , were thieves and robbers , but all that came before me . plainly shewing , that whosoever shall come amongst the people of god his church , to perform the office of the ministry , of his own accord , without a lawfull sending , is a thief and a robber , and none of christ's true sheep will , or ought to hear him . but it will be said , the preaching and ministry of such persons as are in question , is the preaching and ministry of persons sent ; for they are persons in holy orders , and ministers ordained . . i deny not , but that some of such persons as are in question , may be lawfully ordained ministers ( all are not , to my knowledge ) yet it followeth not presently from thence , that they are sent to preach , or to perform acts of the ministry . for it may so be in a true setled and constituted church , that for a lawfull cause , and by lawfull authority , a person ordained may be deposed , and justly suspended from performing any ministerial acts ; as abiathar in the church of the jews was by king solomon . otherwise , ministers in their office were lawless , and exempt from all legal and just restraint and censure . and although a person in holy orders cannot have his ordination ordinarily made void by any , quoad internam potestatem , in regard of the inward power of order that is conferred on him in his ordination , so as upon his restauration he need be re-ordained ; yet it may be made void quoad externam executionem , in regard of the outward execution of that power in the church , either in publick or private , either for a set-time or season , or else during his life . it is in the power of the church and governours thereof , to suspend a minister from the execution of his office , though it be not in their power to rase out that characterem insculptum , that intrinsical authority received in his ordination . and a person so lawfully suspended by authority , as is said , may he in such a case execute the office of the ministry , or may he not ? if so , then acts of lawfull authority in the church signifie nothing ; governours and government , and church-discipline is a mere empty name , and but a cypher . then might abiathar have executed the high-priest's office , notwithstanding king solomon's exauctoration of him . and so the ordinance of god in the church , to which all stand bound in conscience , to be * in subjection , will be made void and of none effect . if not , then such ministers as notwithstanding their legal restraint , or suspension from execution of their office , do yet constantly execute the same , by preaching and other ministerial duties , otherwise than by the law they are allowed , cannot be said to be sent of god , since they are inhibited by god's vicegerents on earth ; and consequently have not that sending , which the word of god saith is necessary to those , whose preaching is to be instrumental to work faith , and other saving graces in the hearts of god's people . but what calling or sending can such a minister as is in question , pretend to , for his setting up a course of house-preaching , or other ministerial acts , in the place or parish , where there is a publick constant preaching minister established by law ? if he hath any , it must be either extraordinary , or ordinary , for there is not a third way of calling or sending , extradordinary calling or sending is that , which is done by god himself immediately , without the concurrence or ministry of any humane help or authority . † not of man , nor by man. either , . by divine vision or revelation : and thus st. paul was called and sent to preach the gospel at macedonia ‖ a vision appeared to paul in the night , saying , come over into macedonia and help us ; and after he had seen the vision , immediately we endeavoured to go into macedonia , assuredly , gathering that the lord had called us to preach the gospel unto them . . by secret impulse on mens spirits for this work , wrought by the extraordinary power of god in the primitive times . such was * philip the deacon's going to the city of samariah , and preaching the gospel unto them , after the dispersing the church at ierusalem . such also was the calling of those who at the same dispersion , first preached christ at phoenicia and cyprus † and the hand of god was with them , though otherwise they were but private persons . now i think no wise men will pretend to these extraordinary callings or sendings in these days . it is sufficient to say they are extraordinary , and such as but in like cases cannot be expected , extraordinary onely take place where ordinary are not to be had . the internal and extraordinary sending is secret and invisible , and therefore it is not sufficient for a man to say that he is sent of god , seeing every heretick may say the same ; but he ought to prove his extraordinary and invisible calling by the working of some ‖ miracle ; or by some special testimony of scripture . 't is true iohn baptist had 〈◊〉 immediate and extraordinary calling ▪ * and yet wrought no miracle , ( that was reserved for the messiah , of whom he was the immediate forerunner , to manifest himself unto the world by ) but then , that calling of his was foretold , and witnessed by plain testimonies of † scripture . and the manner of his birth , and condition of his life ( as it was well known to all israel ) were no other than miraculous and extraordinary . ordinary calling or sending to any place , to preach the gospel , and to execute the office of a minister there , in a setled and constituted church is , when a person in holy orders hath the cure and care of a flock or congregation of god's people committed to him , to preach the gospel to them , and to perform all other ministerial acts amongst them , by the ministry of those men , who under god , have authority so to doe , according to good and wholsome ecclesiastical laws and constitutions in that behalf made and established . ‖ god calleth ordinarily by his church , her voice is his . therefore whensoever the church of god , that is , the learned , wise , godly , and such as the church hath publickly appointed for that purpose , saith to any thou shalt he sent to such a place , thou shalt goe for us ; then doth god call ; saith mr. perkins . sending implies the act of another that hath power and authority to send , he cannot be said to be sent , that comes to a place , and there takes upon him to preach and doe all ministerial acts , of his own accord . he comes not in christ's name , but his own . and a christian can in nothing shew himself more impudent , than in embracing such , as teachers sent from god , that come in their own names . * if one come in his own name , him ye will receive : saith christ to the jews , blaming them much for it . and because there are so many that are apt to run before they are sent , it is necessary , that wheresoever any person undertakes to preach the word , his calling to that work be clear and manifest , both in respect of his own comfort and the peoples profit . though st. paul was immediately called of god , yet he was sent to † ananias for imposition of his hands , that it might be clear to the church that he was called . and when he was to be sent to the gentiles , he was again by imposition of hands ‖ ordained or appointed to be their doctour , that so his calling might be publickly declared to be lawfull , and that none else might intrude into it . and if this were necessary in him , who was immediately called of god , how much more necessary is it in all those , who have not now that extraordinary calling , but onely are mediately ordained and appointed to that work by those men , who under god have power to send and appoint pastours over the several flocks of his people in the church ? now if such a person as is in the question , cannot make out his calling or sending , by one of these two ways , to such a town or parish , where he takes upon him thus to execute the office ( or any part of it ) of a minister ; certainly then he hath no calling or sending at all : but is like one that shall enter into another man's house , at the window , or some other way , than by the door : and that ( we know ) is no fair possession of an house ; he that enters in at the windows , ought to be thrown out of doors . of such our saviour saith * verily , verily i say unto you , he that entreth not by the door into the sheepfold , but climbeth up some other way , the same is a thief and a robber . and , if such , as they can be no other , who baulking the lawfull and ordinary way of entrance by the authority of those , who derive their power on earth from christ , and break in without , yea against the laws and leave of their governours that act in christ's name and stead ) then are not they sent of god , and consequently have none of god's promises of blessing annexed to their ministry . this is that which renders the best actions that can be performed by the sons of men , to be sinfull , when they are done unlawfully , and by such as have no particular calling or command for the doing of them . this doth quite alter and diversifie the nature of actions , so as that they are varied from what otherwise they would be , to some other things . it is a rule as true , as old ; bonum extra proprium subjectum , in malum mutatur ; every good thing , out of its proper place and subject , is turned into evil . v. g. in the natural body of man , the hand is a very good and usefull member , for the offices of common life ; yet if the hand be out of its proper place , and grow either out of the head or leg , or elsewhere , where it ought not , it is no longer a good or usefull member , but a deformed and monstrous excrescence of nature . in the body politick or state , the execution of wrath upon him that doeth evil , is a very just and good work ; yet if it be done by one that hath no authority or commission , at least in such a place or circuit , it is not justice , but murther . ammon abusing his sister tamar by filthy incest ▪ ought by the law of god to dye , absolom killed him with the sword ; and in so doing he did the very thing that † god commanded : yet absolom sinned greatly in doing it , because he was not the man that ought to have done it , but david the king. in the ecclesiastick body , the church , the preaching the word is an excellent ordinance of god , for the saving of them that believe , as ‖ foolish as the world do account it : but if it be performed by one that hath no authority or commission for so doing , nay , that is under a just and legal prohibition and restraint from the doing it at all , it is not preaching , but quite another thing , even what the apostle calls it * beating the air . whensoever a commandment is limited to persons and places , that command makes it a sin to them , if they leave the thing required undone ; and the not commanding , yea , forbidding , makes it a sin to others that shall doe it , because 't is the precept that makes the thing to such persons , in such places , to be lawfull or sinfull . wrath hath been revealed from heaven on such , as have rashly adventured on a thing that in it self hath been very good , yet had no particular command for it . this appears plainly in the case of † vzzah . though his intention was good , yet it belonged not to him to touch the ark , for the charge and care thereof was committed to ‖ others . it is the policy of satan , if he cannot prevail with men to abide and abound in those things which are ( materially ) evil , but they will needs be doing good , then he will draw them on to doe that good unlawfully , without a calling to it or warrant for it . and it were well that people who are so easily misled by the specious pretext of good , were not ignorant of this wile of the devil , whereby he deceives simple souls , not a few . when we set upon the performance of any thing , it should not be enough to weigh with our selves how good it is , but to look what warrant we have to doe it . the manner of performances is to be regarded , as well as the matter : for god stands upon circumstances as well as duties . * it shall be then our righteousness , if we observe to doe all the commandments before the lord our god , as he hath commanded vs . say we doe what is commanded , yet if we doe it not as he commanded us , it is not right in god's sight , who requires that a thing be not onely good , but also regularly performed . it is not the material goodness of the work , that will free us from sin , but the command we have out of god's word for the doing it . neither can we depend upon any promise for a blessing , when we have not god's precept for the action . the promise of edification in faith , knowledge and holiness , is specially appropriated to the ministry of that person , who is regularly and orderly in god's ways , set over a congregation . christians own pastours have a more special dispensation of the grace of god given them , to them-ward ; as st. paul the doctour of the gentiles had , towards that people , of whom he was appointed the proper minister . and ( saith mr. baines ) † if this were well considered it would cure in us that affectation of the confluence of strangers , when our hearts do not so fervently embrace our own pastours . and it should instr●●● people to depend especially upon those who are set over them ; for these are they who are furnished from god in 〈◊〉 eminent manner , with grace towards them ▪ they are foolish sheep that know not the● own shepherds voice , and foolish people that know not their own ministers . and in reason , whose ministry may we think god will bless , either his , to whom the flock is committed by himself ; who ‖ is over them in the lord● whom * god hath made their overseer ▪ who have † the rule over them , watching for their souls , as those that must give an account ? or his , who runs before he is sent , who hath no lawfull call to the congregation , ordinary or extraordinary ; who hath no relation at all to the flock , ‖ whose own the sheep are not ▪ he having no charge of them , nor any account to make for them ( other than for his irregular intrusion amongst them , taking upon him to doe that he hath no right to doe , and for seducing them away from their own pastour ) be his parts and qulifications otherwise angelical , and his doctrine never so evangelical ? pastours of congregations are called * christ's ambassadours to their people . it is their commission that makes their embassie succesfull . another , perhaps , may be of equal , or greater fitness for the employment , but he onely that hath deputation for the service , is received and hath audience . those that have no lawfull mission to a congregation , but intrude themselves amongst them , may speak the truth , as well as they that have ; yet of him that acts by lawfull appointment , we may say , that he preacheth with authority , and not like those that come in by stealth and usurpation , and have no other right there to preach , than what themselves have made . they are called † overseers . it is not for every man to oversee the estate of another ; they onely can do it , who by some deed or commission are impowered to undertake it . nay ( which is a dreadfull consideration ) they must so oversee the flock ‖ that they may give an account for their souls . is there any such charge given to , or undertaken by those unsent teachers , who love to be heard and seen in exercising their parts , but not in taking cure or charge of souls ? they are called * stewards . it is not for any one to be a steward in another man's house , to feed the family ; but for him onely whom the master of that house shall appoint . the ministerial parts performed by a lawfull pastou● to his own flock , are like † iacob's blessing his sons ; another man might have done it as rhetorically , and , perhaps , as affectionately , but not so effectually , because none had that right● and authority to doe it , as he . of all acts , those that are done ex officio , by virtue of an office , and from a lawfull designation and appointment for the execution of that office , to , or for , such a person or people , are under a more solemn assurance of a blessing ▪ it is no solecism to say , god will hear● their prayers , and bless their pains , when he will neither hear , nor bless the prayers or pains of any else . my ‖ servant job shall pray for you ( saith god ) for him will i accept . eliphaz and his two friends were good men , yet god would not give answer to them , but to iob onely . see gen. . . es. . . iam. . . if that place in * matthew be urged , to prove a promise of a blessing to such preaching and meetings as are in question ; where two or three are met together in my name , there am i present in the midst of them . i answer , that although i conceive the primary and principal intent and scope of our saviour in that place , was not to speak of religious meetings , for the preaching and hearing of his word ; but of the meetings of ecclesiastical judges of the jewish sanhedrin in their consistory ( as the context doth declare ) yet because all god's promises are great and pretious , and we ought not to lose ought of them , but improve them to the utmost for his glory and our comfort ; therefore suppose it be taken and to be understood of religious meetings also ( as 't is so applied by the church of england in her liturgy , yet to no other , but our church-assemblies ) yet ( i say ) that text annexeth a promise onely to such meetings as are in christ's name . now the meaning of that phrase is commonly expounded to be , at my command . nam in nomine christi , idem est quod e●●authoritate . so our saviour himself useth the phrase : † i am come in my father's name , id est , at his command ▪ as he expounds it himself . ‖ this commandment have i received from the father . so st. paul useth the phrase , * now we command you brethren in the name of our lord iesus christ ; id est , by the authority of our lord christ , committed unto us by him , as if christ should command by ‖ us . so every inferiour officer amongst us , doth use the phrase , i require you in the king's name , id est , by authority derived from him . see act. . . and should we extend the promise , without restraint , to other meetings under pretence of religious worship , than such as are grounded on christ's authority ; . then we should make our own wills , fancies and affections , masters of our actions , and endeavour to bring down the presence of christ to such irregular conventions , as are altogether disagreeing with , yea contrary to his will and command , which were not onely absurd , but impious to attempt or think . . then also may a congregation of people , divide themselves ( contrary to good laws of god , his church and the realm ) into couples , in so many several places , and in so many several forms of worship , and yet expect christ's presence and blessing with them all , in ways so abominable to god , and so apparently destructive to his intire body the church , which he hath purchased with his most pretious bloud . . where were then the threatnings of his withdrawing from our assemblies upon just occasion ? god hath said * your sabbaths , your calling of assemblies , i cannot away with , it is iniquity even your solemn meetings ; my soul hates them , they are a trouble to me , i am weary to bear them . and , i ‖ hate , i despise your feast-days , i will not smell in your solemn assemblies , i. e. i will not accept with favour ( as i did noah's * sacrifice ) their solemn assemblies . in another place the holy ghost useth the same expression , ‖ i will not smell the savour of your sweet odours . it is a judgment ( saith ainsworth ) opposed to that blessing promised in v. . i will walk among you . god threatens to deny his presence to their assemblies , and one reason is given by a divine of the presbyterian judgment ; * because they were not any way of divine institution , but of their own invention , and therefore all along they are called your or thine . now shew me where christ in all the old or new testament , doth either command , or allow any such ministry , and attendance on it , as is in question , and then i shall acknowledge it to be the ordinance of god , and that this promise belongs to it : but not till then . in the mean time i may well ( without any digression ) retort upon the objectours , and tell them , that in my judgment , they are far out of the way , either of obedience to christ's command , or of hopes of enjoying his blessing promised , who in resorting to such kind of meetings , for which they have neither a command nor promise , separate and withdraw themselves from the publick assemblies , and attendance on his worship and ordinances there , where god hath assured us of his presence and blessing , and whither he hath enjoyned us constantly to repair . for as that minister , who shall upon any pretence whatsoever of his own forsake a congregation over whom he was placed by god , and goe to another without any lawfull call , is like ionah , who being sent by god to nineve , sinned greatly in going to tarshish , though he had preached never so duely and diligently there : so those people who in any measure neglect the publick , for those private assemblies , are like micah , who in the time of the iudges , when there was a publick ministry in the place which the lord had chosen for that purpose , instituted a private worship and ministry in his own house , a certain peculiar levite being called and set apart for that work . and no wise man that shall reade his story , will think it safe to follow his example . well may such a person flatter himself in his course , and say in his heart , as he * now i know the lord will doe me good , seeing i have a levite to my priest. but ( as iunius ) † hominis imperiti sermo est , & in pietate parùm instituti . that saying of his shews him to have but little wit , less religion , and that he was but in a golden dream or fool 's paradise all that while , though he thought himself wiser and in a better case than his neighbours . but this was done when there was no king in israel , and every man did that which was right in his own eyes , otherwise so abominable an act could never have passed so clearly as it did . by such i would be soberly and soundly resolved of this demand . are the people of england in their present state and condition ( assembling themselves together in publick places appointed for god's worship , under the teaching and ministry of their lawfull pastors , that are set over them by authority ) a true church , or true churches , or not ? if they say , no : they doe that which god ( blessed be his name ) hath not yet done , unchurch us ; and lay us under a judgment , which he hath not yet laid upon us , viz. a divorce from iesus christ. * yet thou o lord art in the midst of us , and we are called by thy name ; leave us not . † through the infinite goodness of the most high , we have wherewithall to consute that unchristian and uncharitable judgment of theirs , since we have both the matter and the form of a true church . the matter is a multitude of rational creatures that profess saving truth contained in the word of god. simon magus and the eunuch upon their profession , were admitted members of the church ; and members do constitute the body . the form of a true church is a gracious call into the dignity of the children of god , so as that christ becomes ●nited to them . as the form of a man ●s the soul united to the body , so the ●orm of a church , which is his body , 〈◊〉 christ united to it . we have the ●ord and laws of christ , and those he ●akes effectual for the convincing of ●ll , and conversion of some . and this 〈◊〉 an irrefragable argument to evince 〈◊〉 church to be a true church , even in the judgment of the presbyteria● divines themselves . for to those of the independent way , that separated from them , these are their words ; * we beseech you to consider , whether ye did not receive the work of conversion from sin to god , which ye presume to be wrought in you , first of all in those publick assemblies from which ye now separate ? and if ye found christ walking amongst us , how is it , that 〈◊〉 do now leave us ? if the presence 〈◊〉 christ , both of his power and grace , be with us , why do ye deny your presence ? are ye holyer and wiser than christ ▪ is not this an evident token , that we are true churches and have a true ministry , because we have the seal of our ministry , even the conversion of many sons and daughters to god ? doth not the apostle † from this very ground argue the truth of his apostleship ? 〈◊〉 it not apparent that our ministers are sent by god , because their embassage is made succesfull by god for the good of souls ? did ye ever reade of true conversion ordinarily in false church ? will the lord concur with those ministers he sends not ? doth not the prophet say the quite contrary ? jer. . . and therefore either renounce your conversion , or be converted from that great sin of separating from us . again , where there are the infallible marks of a true church , there is a true church . but we have the infallible marks of a true church , viz. the word of christ truly taught , and his sacraments rightly administred . first for the word of christ. the church is ( according to the proper signification of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a people called forth from the rest of the world ; * called to be saints . now the best note to know a people called , is by the voice calling ; this was ever an infallible mark of christ's church . first among the apostles , who were called out from amongst others , by the word of christ , to become followers of him . then amongst others , as they were added to the church , they were called by the word ; witness that great work of conversion wrought by the ministry of st. peter , † at one sermon three thousand were severed from the rest of the world , and added to the church . next for the sacraments , these rightly administred are certain marks of a true church ; for they are the seals set by god to his word , the signs of his covenant , whereby he binds himself to be our god , and receives us to be his people . they are sure pledges of his love to us , which we really have , till we come actually to be possessed of perfect holiness and glory with christ ▪ whilst we have these blessed ordinances of his amongst us , his word truly preached , and his sacraments rightly administred , it is not the rash censure of a few giddy heads , that can unchurch us . if they say we are a true church then god is ever with us , ( es. . . ) in our assemblies at all times , and in all parts of his worship . * lo , i am with you always to the end of the world . an● † i will dwell in the● , and walk in them and will be their god , and they shall 〈◊〉 my people . thence the holy ghost i● scripture , calls the church , ‖ his house the dwelling place of his name , th● place where his honour dwells , the presence chamber of the great king , &c. and as the glory of the lord did sensibly appear in the tabernacle , exod. . . and in the temple , kings . . so doth it now in our church-assemblies , as really and truly , though not as visibly , as then . * for if the ministration of death was glorious , how shall not the ministration of the spirit be glorious ? if the ministration of condemnation be glory , much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory . if that which is done away was glorious , much more that which remaineth is glorious . now if god be present with , and in our assemblies , how dare any that are , or ought to be members thereof , absent themselves ? dare ye to withdraw at any time from god's presence , whose face at all times ye are † commanded to seek ? i speak not of his omnipresence , in regard of the immensity of his essence , which fills all places . god fills every place , and fills it by containing that place in himself . but i speak of that special presence , which he hath promised to afford to his church , manifesting himself in that place and assembly more graciously , than elsewhere . if then we retain our conjunction with christ , why do ye refuse communion with us ? may we not therefore justly charge you as guilty of making a schism in the body of christ ? that we may , by your own doctrine . for ( say the presbyterian divines ) * if the apostle calls those divisions of the church of corinth , wherein christians did not separate into divers formed congregations , of several communions , in the sacrament of the lord's supper , schism , cor. . . may not your secession from us , and profession that ye cannot joyn with us as members , and setting up congregations of another communion be more properly called schism ? and presently after they distinguish ( out of camero ) of a twofold schism , negative and positive . the former is when men do peaceably and quietly draw from communion with a church , not making a head against that church from which they are departed : the other is , when persons so withdrawing , do consociate and draw themselves into a disitinct and opposite body , setting up a church against a church , which camero calls schism by way of eminency . now if this were true doctrine in those days , against those who were then concerned in it ; i know no reason why the space of a few years should so alter the case , but that it is as true now against themselves , who now doe what they then condemned in others , viz. not onely withdraw from our publick assemblies , but set up church against church . and therefore ( to use their own words ) ye must not be displeased with us , but with your selves , if we blame you as guilty of positive schism . and that is no small fault in the judgment of any sound divine , but a far greater than the fault , upon which they pretend separation . the things for which they make a rent , are not so great a fault in the church , as the want of charity in them which prompts them so to doe . it is a sin of the first rate , and one of the greatest size that a christian can commit , in the judgment of the brethren of the nonconformists themselves , though now it goes down gli● with too many of them , who not withstanding are obliged to the extirpation thereof , not onely by the common bond of religion and christianity , but also by the second article of their solemn league and covenant . taken with hands lifted up to the most high god ; wherein they rank it with popery , superstition , heresie , profaneness , and whatsoever is contrary to sound doctrine and the power of godliness . let the words of mr. baxter be noted as an evidence of this truth . * if the scripture were conscionably observed , men would take church-divisions for a greater sin than adultery or theft . mutinies and divisions do more infallibly destroy an army than almost any other fault , or weakness : and therefore all generals do punish mutineers with death , as well as flat traytors . our union is our strength and beauty : commonly they that divide for the bringing in of any inferiour truth or practice , do but destroy that truth and piety , that was there before . i like not him that will cure the head-ach by cutting the throat ; yea , it is a greater sin than murther ( saith mr. paget ) a murtherer † killeth but one man or two , but a schismatick goes about , as much as in him lies , to destroy the church of god. yea , it is worse to make a schism in the church , than to sacrifice to an idol , saith * mr. calamy out of st. cyprian . and may christians then play at sast and loose with the bonds of holy communion at their pleasure ? st. peter could say † lord whither shall we goe ? thou hast the words of eternal life . where this word is truly preach●d in the way of christ's appointment , and the rest of his worship celebrated accordingly , wo be to those that are not found there also . christians in the pure and primitive times , did not take this liberty in point of church-fellowship , but ( by the acknowledgment of the divines before mentioned , and oh that their practices now did not contradict their words then ) ‖ all such who professed christianity , held communion together , as one church , notwithstanding the difference in judgment in lesser things , and much corruption in conversation . cain was the first that ever separated from the church ; * he went out from the presence of god. god is every where , the meaning therefore is , from his church , the place of his publick worship , which was then in his father's family . and will it be safe for any to follow such a president ? † the apostle pronounceth a woe to them that walk in the way of cain . those that walk in his way , can expect no less than to arrive at the place whither he is gone before . and if ye would know who they are that so walk , the apostle tells you , ‖ these are they that separare themselves . pareus his gloss on the words are not unworthy observation : * quia sibi ipsi f●●gunt peculiarem cultum , ideo sese segregant ab eorum ecclesia ac coetu . they feign to themselves a peculiar way and manner of worship , therefore they will not joyn with us in ours , but withdraw from our assemblies ; as if he had purposely described the humour of the men of our times . however such may pretend to the spirit , as if they were more sanctified than their brethren , yet the apostle by infallible guidance , pronounceth them sensual not having the spirit . and that is the reason they keep the unity of the church no better . for ( as fulgentius saith ) tales † itaque faciles sunt ad divisionem , quia spiritum non habent , in quo uno membra christi charam servant spiritualiter unitatem . such persons are prone to all divisions , because they have not that spirit , in whom alone all the members of christ do spiritually keep unity among themselves , as a dear and pretious thing . as the soul in man's body doth cease to quicken any member sundred from the body , and the scattered bones in ezekiel's vision , received no life till they were incorporated and knit together in one by * sinews , flesh and skin : so the spirit of god , which is the soul of this mystical body , denies the derivation of grace and comfort , to those that separate themselves from it . if they say , we are a true church , and that they and their party separating from us and meeting in private assemblies , are a church also , and so they do not separate and withdraw themselves from the church . then i say that their church , in that case , refusing communion with ours , is , ( at least ) a distinct church from ours ; and so there are two churches of england in this nation . and so they make christ to have two bodies distinct under one head ; which is contrary to sundry plain texts of scripture . * though there be threescore queens , and fourscore concubines , and virgins without number , yet my dove , my undefiled is but one . † we being many are one body in christ. and , ‖ as the body is one and hath many members , and all the members of that one body being many , are one body , so is christ. again , * there is one body , one spirit , one hope , one lord , one faith , &c. and , † is christ divided ? there cannot be two such opposite churches in one nation , but one of them must needs be an harlot , and not the spouse of christ. and that their church ( as they call it ) and not ours , is so , may easily be made to appear to any man that will vouchsafe to weigh matters in the balance of reason and judgment . the whole world is divided betwixt god and the devil ; there is not a third party that can challenge any share in the race of mankind . all societies and companies of men and women in the world , are either the church of christ , or the synagogue of satan , rev. . . * an assembly of saints , or a congregation of evil doers , psal. . . and that theirs is not the church of christ , appears thus : those assemblies or congregations where there is no true and lawfull pastor , nor true and lawfull flock , are not the churches of christ , but of satan : for ( as it hath been shewed before out of the scriptures and fathers ) † a lawfull minister , and a flock or congregation of people lawfully committed to his charge , make up a church : that is the definition of a particular church . but their churches ( as they call them . ) have neither true and lawfull pastors , nor flocks : therefore they are not the churches of christ , but the synagogues of satan , and congregations of evil doers . that they have no true and lawfull pastors , is ●lear . . because many of them that head those unlawfull meetings and assemblies , were never ordained by prayer and imposition of hands , as by gospel-rules they ought to be , but are mere lay-men that take upon them to preach and perform ministerial duties , that were never called thereunto . this is true not onely in the assemblies of the quakers , but of others also , by what name soever they may be called , that separate from our churches . i know it to be so in divers places . . those of them that were ordained , are ( as to the execution of their ministry committed to them in their ordination during the time of their non-conformity ) under a legal suspension by the highest and fullest power and authority of this nation , to which we are all bound in conscience to be in subjection . . suppose that neither of the former were true , yet they are not true and lawfull pastors of those that flock after them , seeing they have not the pastoral cure and care of the souls of any of them committed to their charge by any that , under god , have authority in the church , but are commanded to contain themselves in quietness and silence . and that they have no true and lawfull flocks in their congregations appears in this , that their assemblies & congregations consist altogether of wandring sheep that are gone astray from their own lawfull pastors , and sinfully separated from the congregations and flocks , to which , of right , they belong , and gathered together into a schismatical and separate meeting and society , and so make up a congregation of evil doers , and synagogue of satan . if this were rightly and seriously considered , i think it would startle the minds and shake the confidence of many of them , who bless themselves in their new-found way of religion and worship , boast of their number , and compass sea and land to make proselytes , that at least , they might be equally the children of hell with themselves . if they say our church is corrupt , we have that amongst us that we should not have , or , not that which we ought to have , i say then , first , suppose it be so , ( which i think will yet require more pains than have yet been bestowed , to prove ) yet let them consider what peter martyr judiciously saith . * non ob quamcunque maculam christi ecclesiam ita excidere , ut dei non amplius appelletur . every little blemish in the face of a church , cannot cast her off from being god's . the church in canticles is said to be * fair as the moon ; which in the hebrew tongue is called † 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lebanah , for her whiteness and bright shining : and yet the moon is not so white , but still some spots remain therein , and even uncapable of illumination from the sun. ‖ coelum ipsum nulla serenitas tam colata purgat , ut non alicujus nubeculae flocculo resignetur . in the clearest heaven some specled clouds may be discerned . * cum tota dicat ecclesia quam diu hic est , dimitte nobis de●ita nostra , non utique hic est sine macula & ruga : so long as the whole church is commanded to say , whilst she is in this world , forgive us our trespasses , she cannot be imagined to be altogether without spot or wrinkle . rather they discover themselves to be most stained , to whom every small spot in the church seems to be altogether intolerable . † cum sub specie studii perfectionis , imperfectione● nullam tolerare possumus , aut in corpore aut in membi is ecclesiae , tum diabolum nos tumefacere superbia & hypocrisi seducere moneamur . when under colour of perfection , ye can endure no imperfection either in the body or members of the church ; you must be admonished that this your separation is caused by the devil , who puffs you up with pride , and seduceth you by hypocrisie . secondly , we may not upon every slight ground ( to please a fond humour ) leave the society of god's people in the church , for sake the assembling of our selves together , as the manner of some is , or goe off from communion with that church whereof we are , or ought to be members . when an ulcer breaks out in any part of the body ( suppose the hand or the foot ) must that member presently be cut off , or not rather be cured and healed by the use of plasters and other wholsome medicines , or the pain and evil be endured with patience ●ntill nature hath tryed her skill , and ( as it will in short time ) conquered the malignity of the distemper ? and shall we then presently make use of the knife , as soon as ever there ariseth some diversity of opinions in the church , especially in matters that are circumstantial in religion ? this were not chirurgery , but butchery . nay , suppose the very substance and body of religion were corrupted , and not onely some light errours in circumstances were maintained , but there were heresie in doctrine also , in this case we ought to be very tender of making a schism , and look well to our selves with what mind and affection we doe it . suppose a malefactor be really guilty and hath deserved to dye , yet if the judge condemn him out of cruelty of mind , envy or spleen , and not out of true love to justice and hatred of his sin , though the sentence were for the matter of it never so just , yet he were most unjust in pronouncing of it ; so a separation from a church though for just causes , yet would be most unjust and sinfull , if it be done out of malice or any evil respect or affection whatsoever . in such a case that is required of a christian , which is required of a chirurgeon , who when necessity forceth him to cut off a member , yet he doeth it unwillingly , with grief , and after trial of all lawfull ways and ●●eans to stop the evil , and to prevent the mutilation of the patient . the property of true christian charity , is , * it rejoyceth not in iniquity , but in the truth . that is iniquity which is so diametrically opposite to charity , which the greeks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which is a vice that makes men not onely to rejoyce in the calamity of others , but greedily to such in all evil reports of them , and rejoyce if they are true . christian charity , where it is , works the same mind and affection in us towards our neighbours as is in parents towards their children , who with joy admit of their commendation , but will not so easily believe any thing that tends to their disparagement , unless they either soe it with their eyes , or have good proof made for it ; and then , not without grief of heart . faults in a church call for our lamentation , not separation ; should god separate from a christian soul , because there is still some corruption of sinfull nature remaining in it , the condition of us all would be most miserable to eternity . did christ separate from the church of the iews , and not hold communio● with her , because she was not what she had , or ought to have been ? what the state of the jewish church in our saviour christ's time was , the scriptures do abundantly shew . in it was a very corrupt ministry , * blind leaders of the blind . they preach'd well enough ; but did not live accordingly , the high-priests office , which by god's ordinance was to last during life , was now become annual , and basely bought and sold † for money . the people were wicked , impenitent , haters and ●●●secutors of the son of god. their doctrine was much corrupted and blended with false and pharisaical ‖ glosses . many superstitious ceremonies were used , and urged more strictly * than any of god's commandments . church-discipline very much perverted ; † the jews had agreed that if any did profess christ , he should be excommunicated . an horrible abuse was crept into the place of god's service : a market , and ‖ money-changing set up in the temple of god. and yet for all this our saviour made no separation from this corrupt church , but communicated with them 〈◊〉 all parts of divine worship . in his infancy he was admitted a member of that church * by circumcision . at the purification he was presented before the lord in that church , and † a sacrifice offered for him according to the law of moses . when he came to riper years he constantly kept the church , came ‖ to the congregation to divine service , publick prayers , and reading the scriptures . he received the sacraments in their church . * baptism , and † the passover . yea his conformity to the iewish church was not onely in divin●● institutions , but in humane also ; as in his observation of the feast of the dedication of the temple ( mentioned ioh. ) doth appear . he was so far from breaking the order or custome of that church . as that he conformed to it in those things that were contrary to divine institutions . it was the ordinance of god that the passover should be eaten by the iews ‖ with their loyns girded , their shooes on their feet , and their staves in their hands because they were to eat it in haste . standing was a posture of readiness for travell : and they used long garments in those countries , which would have been an hindrance to them , if they had not been trussed up . the apostle seems to allude to this custome , when he saith * stand therefore having your loyns girded about . but because the church of the iews , being now safely escaped out of egypt , had by long custome omitted and altered these ceremonies , therefore our saviour christ would not break or alter the custome of that church , but did as they did . he did not stand 〈◊〉 the passover , but sate or used a leaning posture ( for so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used by st. matthew doth signifie ) as appears by the evangelist . † when the even was come he sate down with the twelve . and all this to teach us that we ought to be tender of violating the ‖ customes of the church ; not to grow into a prophane contempt or neglect of any part of publick worship , for every imperfection and blemish , nor to separate from a church , though never so corrupt , so long as the word , sacraments , and doctrine of salvation may there be enjoyed . corruptions of a church are commonly by divines distinguished into two sorts . they are either such as concern the matter of religion , which the apostle calls * demnable heresies , in fundamental points of faith and holiness , which tend to the destroying of the very being of a church . or else such as concern the manner of religion in circumstantials and ceremonials , which are matters of lower concern , and inferiour alloy : such as ( to use the words of learned bp. davenant ) non continuo ad fidem fundamentalem spectant † sed ad peritiam theologicam , & fortasse ne ad hanc quidem , sed aliquando ad curiositatem theologorum : belong not to the fundamentals of faith , but skilfulness in divinity , and not to that neither , but rather to the curiosity of divines . now errours , even in fundamentals , may be in a church upon a double account , ‖ either through infirmity and humane frailty , the best of us knowing but in part in this life : god allows no separation in such a case . the church of galatia through infirmity , was quickly turned to another gospel , and erred even in matters fundamental , holding justification by works , and was fallen to the observation of iewish ceremonies , which st. paul calls beggarly elements . their apostle was become their enemy , and that for telling them the truth . he was afraid of them , lest all the labour he had bestowed amongst them , was in vain , and was fain to travel in birth with them again ; yet he owns them , and writes to them as a church notwithstanding . or else , vitioso affectu immorigeroe voluntatis , out of malice , when men know they doe amiss , and yet persist obstinately in so doing . in such a case separation may be with a good conscience . when st. paul had preach'd in the synagogue of the iews , and they would not believe , but began to blaspheme and speak evil of the ways of god , * then he withdrew and separated from them . so that it must be no small matter , that must be a sufficient ground to any one that means to keep a good conscience , to warrant his withdrawing from the publick congregation in any part of god's worship . if a man have not discretion , he may easily run himself into a great evil of sin , whilst he seeks to shun a light inconvenience ; and in avoiding that which he thinks to be superstition , he may soon become really schismatical and prophane , which is * as if a man did flee from a lion and a bear met him , or went into the house and leaned his hand on the wall , and a serpent bit him . suppose there were some evil mixtures in our administration of church-worship , yet ( in the judgment of the presbyterian divines themselves ) this is not a sufficient ground of a negative , much less of a positive separation ; for ( say they † ) the learned authour before mentioned ( that is camero ) tells us that corruption in manners crept into a church , is not a sufficient cause of separation from it . this he proves from matt. . , . and he also gives this reason for it : because in what church soever there is purity of doctrine , there god hath his church , though overwhelmed with scandals . and therefore whosoever separateth from such an assembly , separateth from that place where god hath his church , which is rash and unwarrantable . and in the next page , they say : he that will never communicate with any church , till every thing that offendeth ●e removed out of it , must tarry till the great day of judgment , when ( and not till then ) christ will send forth his angels and gather out of his kingdom every thing that offendeth , and them that doe iniquity . and though to excuse themselves from the guilt of schism , they that do separate , may pretend , that they make not a● open breach of christian love , wherein the nature of that great sin doth consist . let their own words answer themselves , * we grant that to make up the formality of a schismatick , there must be added uncharitableness , as to make up the formality of an heretick there must be added obstinacy : but yet , as he that denieth a fundamental article of faith , is guilty of heresie though he add not obstinacy thereunto to make him an heretick ; so he that doth unwarrantably separate from a true church , is truly guilty of schism , though he add not uncharitableness thereunto , to denominate him a complete schismatick . how unjustifiable then is the separation , which some make themselves and cause others to make , in these days from our churches , which in their constitution , for doctrine , discipline and worship are the envy of rome , and the admiration of the rest of the christian world : where there is nothing idolatrous in worship , nothing heretical in doctrine , nor antiscriptural in discipline ; where there is nothing taught , believed , or done , but what is agreeable with the word of god , or not contrary thereunto : and ( to speak in the words of the learned and godly dr. henry more ) * a church so throughly purged from whatsoever can properly be styled antichristian , and is , i am confident , so apostolical , that the apostles themselves , if they were alive again , would not have the least scruple of joyning in publick worship with us in our common assemblies . separation from it , can be no less than the fruit of pride or bitter zeal , which tends to strife , † and where envy and strife is , there is confasion and every evil work . i have heard some church-forsakers , when they have been told of their apostasie and falling off from the church whereof they were members , excuse and please themselves in this , that they are not apostates from the faith , they hold the same doctrine , and believe the same creed we do . though in that they doe no more than papists doe . but in the mean time they consider not . that , . this is an improvement and aggravation of their sin , ( so far is it from excusing the fault ) to depart from a church wherein they were born and baptized , and which ( by their own confession ) continues sound in the faith. separation is allowed by no divines ( no not by the * presbyterians themselves ) but either in case of cruel persecution , damnable heresie , or down right idolatry . they then that separate from a church where there is neither of these , have the greater sin . . that the hainousness of the sin of schism doth not consist in renouncing the faith , but in the breach of christian charity , without which † all faith is nothing . a man may be very orthodox in his judgment , and yet be a damnable schismatick if he break that union which ought to be religiously kept amongst christians , in god's worship especially . and because this breach is manifestly perfected in refusing due ecclesiastical communion together , therefore that separation is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , called schism . . that the breach of the bond of charity is equally as dangerous and damnable , as apostasie from the faith ; and as destructive and inconsistent to the nature and being of the church one as the other . . what sufficient convincing proof can our church-forsakers make , that they are not faln from the true faith , as well as from christian charity , seeing they are subdivided into so many severall parties and sects , some whereof ( and not the smallest number , viz. the quakers ) are totally apostatized from all christianity ; others are faln in part , as the anabaptists , antinomians , &c. and those of them that do now and then come to church ( perhaps because they cannot tell how to dispose of themselves otherwise ) studiously absent themselves from the profession of our faith contained in the creeds ; and if any of them chance to be there at that time , yet they willfully refuse to observe and obey that godly and laudable command and custome of the church , grounded on good authority of god's word , to stand up to their belief . . if they are not yet quite faln from the faith , yet their schism and departure from the church , * is a fair step towards it ; where are they likely to stay ( unless god marvellously stop them ) who are departed from his house ? the prodigal son 's leaving his father's family was the first step to all that lewd course of life that afterwards he took . the donatists of old , did not at first dissent in matters of faith from the catholick church , but their schism did soon produce heresie ; as an ulcer or wound being inflamed doth soon beget a fever . in the mean time whatever they esteem themselves , or are esteemed of others to be , they are indeed no more true members of the church , than tares or chaff are part of the wheat , or than mutineers are part of an army . * haeretici & schismatici non sunt ex vera ecclesia , sed tantummodo ecclesiae immisti , sicut & excrementa sunt quidem in corpore , sed non de corpore . alsted . lexic . theol. p. . now whilst i write these things , i weep : mine eye , mine eye , runneth down with water ; i cannot refrain my self but must cry out , alas , alas , for my dear mother the poor distressed , distracted , and divided church of england ; i will bewail thee with the weeping of iazer , i will water thee with my tears , my bowels shall sound like a harp for thee , and my inward parts like pipes . that thine own children , like iacob and esau , should so jar and disagree in their womb , as to endanger the very life of her that bore them , by their strugling . what , brethren , have we not all one god , one christ , one spirit , one baptism , one scripture , one hope of eternal salvation ? and can we not close and communicate together in the worship and service , of that one blessed creator , mercifull saviour , and most sweet comforter ? are our differences about i know not what , grown to such an height , that we cannot goe to church together , joyn in one confession of sin , profession of faith , prayer , each with , and for other , hear the same scriptures read and preached , and sit together at the same table , partake of that same heavenly feast , to which we are altogether most lovingly invited ? so great is the crime of our present age in this , that posterity shall never be able to add to it . oh tell it not in gath , publish it not in the streets of ashcalon , lest the daughters of the philistines rejoyce , lest the daughters of the uncircumcised triumph . what will very pagans say , when they shall see christians thus divided ? as clemens alexandrinus brings in the heathen exprobrating our religion for untrue , * quia omnis secta christianismi titulum sibi vendicat , tamen alia aliam execratur & condemnat ; because every sect challengeth to it self the title of true christianity , yet one curseth and condemneth another . what can they otherwise think , but that the god and christ whom we all pretend to serve , is ( what he abhors to be ) the authour of confusion ? oh what musick is this in the ears of papists to hear of our discords ? did herod and pontius pilate agree as friends to crucifie christ , and shall christians that profess themselves to be his members , disagree as mortal enemies , about their service of him ? oh religion , religion ! hast thou not enemies enough abroad in the world , that seek thy destruction , but thy deadliest wound must be received in the house of thy friend● like ioseph thou art basely sold by thine own brethren , when thou art bringing them necessary food : like sampson , thou art betray'd into the hands of the philistines by those that pretend zeal for thee ; and like thy blessed master , thou art delivered up to thy mortal foes by thine own treacherous disciples : what ocean can furnish mine eyes with tears enough to pour out , for the scandal and matter of rejoycing , that these things do give to thine adversaries ; and for thy much feared ruine that this portends ! alas , alas , that those who pretend much tenderness in lesser matters , should make no conscience at all of endeavouring thy preservation and prosperity , by keeping the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace ! what shall i say of those men , but as our saviour of his enemies , father , forgive them , for they know not what they doe . the lord open their eyes that they may see , and perswade japhet to dwell in the tents of shem. oh all ye my brethren , that make an unchristian separation from the society of your christian friends and neighbours in the publick worship of god , especially you , to whom i stand nearest related , i beseech you in the bowels of our common saviour , do not thus give advantage to the adversaries of our religion , to endeavour and hope for the speedy overthrow both of us and it ; and in the mean time to laugh in their sleeves at our divisions , saying , there , there , so would we have it . * i beseech you , brethren , in the name of our lord iesus christ , that ye all speak the same thing , and that there be no schisms amongst you , that ye be perfectly joyned together in the same mind , and in the same judgment . † if there be any consolation in christ , if any comfort of love , if any fellowship of the spirit , if there be any bowels of mercies , fulfill ye my joy , that ye be like minded , having the same love , being of one accord , of one mind . let nothing be done through strife or vain glory , but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves . it is promised as a blessed fruit of the gospel , ‖ the envy of ephraim shall cease , and the adversaries of judah shall be cut off ; ephraim shall not envy judah , and judah shall not vex ephraim ; but they shall fly upon the shoulders of the philistines , toward the west , they shall spoil them of the east together , they shall lay their hands upon edom and moab , and the children of ammon shall obey them . oh that all animosity and prejudice were banished from the borders of our hearts , that so meeting together by troops ( with primitive concord * ) in the publick places of our assemblies , being banded together with a kind of holy violence , we may with one mind and one mouth , lay seige to the throne of grace , and give god no rest ( such forces are to him most acceptable ) till he fulfill this gracious promise , that we perish not in our divisions . lord grant that all they that confess thy holy name , may agree in the truth of thy holy word , and live in unity and godly love through iesus christ. amen . argument . iv. that cannot be the ordinance of god , conducing to the salvation of souls , which is not onely contrary to good and wholsome laws ; destructive to gospel-order ; and destitute of divine promise ; but is also contrary to gospel-commands . for god is not contradictory to himself , instituting or ordaining that in one place of his word , which he forbids in another ; but throughout the whole scripture he reveals one constant , and one uninterrupted tenor of sacred truth . but the practice in question is contrary to sundry gospel-commands ; as will easily be made out by instancing in two or three , instead of others . the first i shall mention is that in st. peter * let none of you suffer as a murtherer , or as a thief , or as an evil doer , or as a busie-body in other mens matters . the word in the original is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which in the proper and genuine construction of it , signifies † a busie bishop in another man's diocess ; or a busie presbyter in another man's parish , that takes upon him to meddle in another man's cure , and to be doing in matters that are committed to another man's charge ; that is so well at leisure , and hath so little to doe of his own , that ( according to the proverb ) he thrusts his sickle into another man's harvest . the apostle reckons such a one among murtherers and thieves , and other evil doers , that so he may easily be known what he is , by such as the holy ghost sorts with him . now murtherers and thieves and other malefactors are made the companions of such , who without a special concession , or commission , undertake to meddle in other mens parishes , with the souls not committed to their care and charge ; and the apostle gives equal caveat against them all . i know not therefore how such busie-bodies can acquit themselves of the other two sins also mentioned in this black roll . of the latter , their guilt seems to be too evident , in taking up wandring sheep from their folds , when they ought rather to send them home to their own shepherds : in setting their mark upon them , owning them for theirs , and calling them by the name of their church , when as in truth they have no more property or interest in them , than the emperour of vtopia hath in the pleiades : or the poor athenian , in horace , had in the ships which he saw on the sea , and called his own , though he had no other right to them , than what his extravagant and distempered fancy did create . for what warrant have they to meddle with other mens flocks ? of the former , ( i fear also ) they will scarce be found altogether guiltless . for truly the souls of their proselytes , after they have been their followers a while , seem to be so mortally poisoned with schism and separation , profane contempt and neglect of the publick worship and ordinances of god , with despising of all authority , good laws , and government , and many other dangerous evils ; and so metamorphosed , that from being sheep ( as before they seemed to be ) they turn wolves , and are ready to worry their own shepherds : as is found true by too sad experience in all places where these men intrude themselves . the apostle doth elsewhere reckon up idleness , as another companion of this sin . * they learn to be idle , wandring about from house to house , and are busie-bodies . again , † working not at all , but are busie-bodies . and indeed this is the root from whence this vice springs . 't is true ( in the former place ) the apostle makes it muliebre vitium , the womens sin ; but it is no wonder to see idlers of the other sex also , to become esseminate , and medlers in other folks matters , when they have none of their own to be doing about . an idler is well at leisure , and if he will not serve god in his own station , rather than he shall doe nothing , satan will find him employment , in setting him to thrust his sickle into his neighbours corn. * they made me keeper of the vineyards , but mine own vineyard have i not kept . here are vineyards opposed to her own vineyard ; false churches , to true . for † the vineyard of the lord of hoast ▪ is the house of israel , and the men of judah his pleasant plant. when men keep not their own vineyard , the keeping whereof is committed to them of god , the spirit that works in the children of disobedience , will set them to plant and keep vineyards of his , ‖ the vine whereof is the vine of sodom , and of the fields of gomorrah ; their grapes are grapes of gall , their clusters are bitter . what account these husbandmen will make hereafter , to him that is the lord of the vineyard , for such kind of dealing , i wish they may in time seriously consider , e'er it be too late so to doe . neither may we omit to observe how the apostle in the afore quoted place , doth ( as it were ) unchristian such a busie person , and seems to make him no better than a pagan or infidel . for he puts a vast difference betwixt the sufferings of a busie presbyter , and those of a christian. * if a christian suffer , let him not be ashamed , but let him glorify god in this behalf . but - if such a busie-body suffer ( as 't is as much pity he should goe scotfree as any of his mates in the text ) he hath as great cause to be ashamed as a thief or a murtherer . the second gospel-command i shall instance in , is that of st. paul to the thessalonians . † study to be quiet , and doe your own business . quietness is here enjoyned under the notion and quality of an art or science ; for we are commanded to study it . ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , seek with an holy ambition , thinking it an honour to live in peace . the quietness there commended to our ambitious endeavour , i conceive , to import , not a quietness from motion , but from commotion or troubling of others ; a contented calm conversation , opposite to tumultuous turbulence , and restless intermedling with things wherein others are concerned . but how shall we attain to be masters of this art of quietness ? the means most available that way , the apostle prescribes in the next words , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to doe our own business , letting other mens matters alone to themselves . for a man then not to content himself with his own affairs , but to mix himself with other mens ; and without any lawfull appointment or allowance , to thrust himself into another's place and employment , is contrary to that quietness which christians are to study , a manifest breach of this great gospel-command , and consequently inconsistent with the ordinance of god. a third evangelical precept , is that of our blessed saviour . * whatsoever ye would that men should doe unto you doe ye even so to them . it is a principle both natural and divine , enjoyned by our heavenly law-giver , as a ground and rule of all equity amongst men . lactantius thus comments on it : radix & omnis fundamentum aequitatis est illud : vide ut ne facias ulli quod pati nolis , sed alterius animum de tuo metieris . this is the root and foundation of all equity for a man to be carefull no to doe that to another , which he would not suffer himself ; but to measure another man's mind by his own . now i appeal to the hearts and consciences of those ministers , that thrust themselves now into other mens congregations and parishes , and there in private houses gather together a company of disciples and followers of the more giddy and unstable sort of people , ( for such they are for the most part , that not content with the publick labours of their own pastors , flock to private conventicles ) and set up a course of preaching and other ministerial acts : whether , if they were pastors of congregations ( as sometimes they were ) and had a charge of a flock of god's people committed to them ( for whose souls they and none else , must be accountable ) they would take it well , or permit it ( if they could otherwise help it ) that a stranger should thrust himself into their parishes , and lead away a number of their people to private assemblies in corners , to a dependence on them for teaching , and other duties , which they obtrude upon them as the worship and service of god , even to the forsaking and loathing of that , which is publickly established , for waiting on them in private ? and whether , when those men were in their pastoral charges , and in the late time , anabaptists , familists , and other sectaries , did the like , as they themselves now doe , ( set up private conventicles in several towns and parishes ) they did not account themselves much injured thereby , and made their pulpits sound loud against it , nay , oppose it by all means they possibly could ? which is a truth sufficiently known to all that have been hearers of them , or know their practices . neither will it suffice them to say , those whom they then opposed were persons heterodox in their judgments , and corrupt in their opinions . for , . so may these house-creeping preachers be also , for ought any one knows ▪ if it be sound divinity they preach , it is avowable , and publication is a fair argument of truth . truth seeks no corners : it is onely ashamed to be hidden ; as the sun to be clouded or eclipsed . the desire of secre●ie and privacy renders their doctrines suspicious of falshood and errour . in the dark , gross faults are not perceived ; and they are evil-doers onely that are said by our saviour * to hate the light . while men doe nothing but well , they need not conceal and hide their doings . the very heathen ( as a divine of ours observes ) did worship their gods sub dio , without roofs or coverings † in a free openness ; and where they could , in temples made with specular stone , that was transparent as cristal , so as that they that walked without in the streets , might see all that was done within . and even nature it self taught the natural man , to make that an argument of a man truly religious , aperto vivere voto ; that he durst pray aloud , and let the world hear what he asked at god's hands , which duty ( saith he ) is best performed when we joyn with the congregation in publick prayers . st. austin hath made that note upon the donatists that they were clanculary , clandestine divines , divines in corners . and in photius we have such a note almost upon all hereticks ; as the nestorian was called coluber , a snake , because though he kept in the garden , in the church , he lurked and lay hid to doe mischief . and truly so long as the preaching of the gospel is not persecuted , and there is no prohibition to the contrary , as ( * sometimes there was ) it seems to me to be contrary to the very nature of it ( herein differing from the law , that it is not confined to any one nation or place , nor is subject to ( † bonds or restraint ) to be shut up in private houses , and taught in secret , and not rather to be published in churches and open places of free and common resort . the command to the apostles was ‖ go stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life . and accordingly was their practice , act. . . act. . . . 't is true the godly in times past , had their private meetings , in deserts , mountains , dens , and caves of the earth . but the case is not alike with us , as with them . the times then were of most bloudy persecution , when neither preacher nor professour escaped the fire ; and therefore were enforced to conceal themselves , and privately to enjoy those comforts , and discharge those duties and exercises of religion , which they could not publickly be suffered to doe . but those who set up and frequent private meetings now , may enjoy the preaching and reading of the word , prayers to god , confession of sin , profession of faith , and benefit of the sacraments , in the publick assemblies of the saints : yea , they are not onely allowed , but commanded by authority so to doe , but they will not . those teachers then that in these halcion days of the gospel creep into corners to vent their doctrines , discover themselves to be , either , first , seditious and schismatical , seeking to make parties and divisions in the church . or , secondly , proud and arrogant , preferring their own opinions and doctrines , assemblies and persons , before all other . or , thirdly , false and erroneous ; for all damnable heresies , and doctrines of perdition , which pervert and destroy souls , are thus brought in underhand privily , by such as creep into the church of god by stealth . at least , they are destitute of that means of justification and defence of the truth , which our saviour christ had , and which all christ's ministers in a setled church ought to have , viz. to appeal to the publick audience . * that which is publickly preached , may be proved and tryed , but not so well that which is taught in obscurity . . what the judgments and opinions of these men have been , and that in all those things wherein the peace of the church , and the salvation of souls of christians are concerned , i mean the doctrine , discipline , and worship , as it stands established in the church of england , the world hath had sufficient knowledge and experience , by the late bloudy wars and persecutions raised thereabout . . lastly , the question is not ( as hath been said ) de facto , what doctrine these men deliver in their private conventions , but de jure , what right they have to preach any , in other mens parishes , as they doe . such a person then , whosoever he be , that doeth that to others , which he would not have done to himself , nay , which he hath opposed and disliked in others , is ( as the apostle calls him ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( * condemned of himself , as sinning wittingly , and wilfully spurning against a known truth sparkling and shining in his conscience . the waiting on such mens ministry is so far from being the ordinance of god , that he commands all men to † avoid them . argument . v. that cannot be the ordinance of god for the working of grace , that hath no scripture president , or warrantable example , to ground it on . for all the ordinances of god , of this kind , besides his mandate , have also their exemplification in scripture , god ( ordinarily ) working grace in the hearts of men , then , as he doth now . but this private and house-preaching , by an intruder , in a constituted church , where there is a preaching minister established , hath none . i deny not , but it may be lawfull in some cases , to have all the parts of god's worship used in a private house . as , . in case of infirmity of body , when people are not able to come to church . ecclesiastical history tells us , that in the primitive times , divers of the new converted christians were baptized , some in prison ; as appears in the story of basilides in * eusebius . and the sick in their beds ; as † cyprian declares at large . and if any were hindered by sickness that they could not partake of the sacrament of the lord's supper with the church , it was sent home to them by a priest or deacon , if it might be ; if not by some other . as appears by the example of serapion , in an epistle of dionysius bishop of alexandria , to fabius . ‖ . in time of persecution , when the doors of god's house are shut up against us , so as that we cannot have free access to it , or liberty to joyn together with the congregation in prayers , hearing the word , and receiving the sacraments ; as it was in the days of king * ahaz . thus victor reports that in the persecution by the vandals , the congregations of christians in africa , being through the vastations of war deprived of their churches , did hold their assemblings together for divine worship , whereever they could . and the same authour tells us , that because of the rage of the arian hereticks , the orthodox christians had their meetings in private houses . or in such other like cases of special necessity . yet our saviour christ in the iewish church , as , before he was a preacher , his custome was to frequent the publick assembly in * the synagogue every sabbath-day ; so , after he set upon the execution of that function , he never used to preach privately in houses . hear what he saith himself , when the high-priest asked him of his disciples and doctrine , † iesus answered him , i spake openly to the world : i ever taught in the synagogue and in the temple , whither the iews always resort , and in secret have i said nothing . his words are plain ; yet because with some men , fancy and affection do prevail over their judgments and reason ( according to that saying of st. austin , * periit siquidem judicium , postquam res transiit in affectum ; & nostram qualemcunque quia nostra jam facta est , praevalere volumus sententiam ) therefore i shall endeavour to clear the truth of our saviour's speech in that saying of his to the high-priest ; and shew , that he was always a publick orderly preacher , and never a private irregular conventicler . and though the contrary could be proved , yet it would make nothing for the irregular practice of some in this age whom i am disputing against , seeing the question is of such persons onely , as have an ordinary calling to the ministry ( whereas our saviour christ's was extraordinary ) in a setled gospel-church ( whereas the iewish-church was in christ's time expiring , and the gospel-church beginning , ) and are intruders into other mens charges and congregations , as our saviour neither was , nor could be , seeing he was the supreme lord of his church , and heir of all things . in those words of his , first ( saith he ) i spake 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , openly . the word properly signifies freedom and liberty of speech ; which piscator thus explains * cum quis omne id dicit quod ad rem pertinet , nihil veritus offensionem eorum , quibuscum loquitur . when a man speaks that which properly pertains to the matter in hand , not fearing though it offend those to whom he speaks . oftentimes in scripture it signifies , o●enly . and in this place tremelius renders it by apertè , and beza by palam ; both openly . so that our saviour professeth here , that his doctrine , as it was heavenly truth , and delivered without fear of danger , or hatred of men , or persecution of the world ; so not in a corner or conventicle , but openly and in publick . secondly , i spake ( saith he ) not to a few select persons , to a gathered church , but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to the world , i. e. to all sorts of men in the world , without any difference or distinction , either of nation , place of state , even to as many as would come to hear me . though indeed for the most part he preach'd in iudaea and galilee ( whence he was called † a minister of the circumcision ) and saith , ‖ that he was not sent , save unto the lost sheep of the house of israel : yet doubtless sometimes he preached to a promiscuous company both of iews and gentiles , without making any difference , matt. . . thirdly , i taught , saith he , in the synagogue . there was one onely temple among the iews , and that was at ierusalem : but as in other cities and towns of the iews , so also in the metropolitan city , besides the temple , there were synagogues ; which were publick places appointed for prayers , sermons , reading , and exposition of the law and the prophets to the people . and in the synagogues at ierusalem , and other towns and cities , christ did most frequently and constantly preach , as the scriptures do abundantly testifie , matt. . . matt. . , . matt. . . matt. . . matt. . . mark . . mark . . luk. . . . and . luk. . . ioh. . , &c. fourthly , he saith , i not onely taught in the synagogues , but in the temple , the most solemn and publick place . the temple at ierusalem was the place where the priests did offer daily sacrifices , and taught the people ; to which , thrice in the year , all the males , from all the coasts of iudaea , were to resort . in this temple did our saviour christ very frequently preach , matt. . . luk. . , &c. fifthly , i taught , saith he , where the iews always resort ; where there was a full and free concourse of all the nation of the iews , and many gentiles also , from all parts and quarters of iudaea . lastly , and in private , saith he , i have said nothing . as if he had purposely and expressly denied himself to be , what they were apt to charge him with , a private , seditious , and schismatical conventicler . 't is true , that sometimes , through so great a resort of people to him , that neither the synagogue nor temple could hold them , he was fain to take * a mountain for his pulpit . sometimes being not able to stand quiet , for the throng of people that crouded him , he retreated to † a ship , that he might be the better heard , and taught the people from thence . yet all this was publickly and openly to the world. as for religious discourse with his disciples , or others , in private houses , either by way of explanation , or repetition of his publick sermons , that we deny not , but he often used it . for we reade that when he was * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 alone , they that were about him with the twelve , asked him of the parable . but as for substance of doctrine , it was allways publick . he never spake privately to his disciples , or others , but they were the same things which he preach'd publickly . he spake not other things to them in private , than what he spake publickly , but in another manner . and therefore even to that exposition of his doctrine , which he made privately to his disciples , he adds † is a candle brought to be put under a bushel , or under a bed ? and not to be set on a candlestick ? for there is nothing hid that shall not be manifested ? q. d. these mysteries of the kingdom of heaven are therefore revealed unto you , not that ye should preach them in corners , but to the whole world. as for that place of st. mark ‖ which seems to speak of christ's preaching in a private house ; though it be craftily urged on ignorant people , yet if rightly understood , it cannot make ought against what hath been said . for i demand , was it a truth our saviour christ said , i always taught in the synagogues and in the temple , and in private i have said nothing , or was it not ? to say the latter , were no less than blasphemy , and to give him the lye , who is the god of truth , who knew no * sin , neither was guile ever found in his mouth . if it was a truth ( as it must needs , without monstrous impiety , be acknowledged to be ) then he ever taught in the synagogues , and in the temple , and in private he said nothing . the occasion of it was , his being called in question for his doctrine ; his answer to which plainly declares , that as for substantials of evangelical doctrines , he ever taught them openly to the world in the jewish synagogues and temple . otherwise it would have been absurd for our saviour to have said as he did † to pilate , why askest thou me of my doctrine ? ask them that heard me : behold they know what i have said . for pilate could not ask the iews that were then present of any thing that he had said in private , seeing they were none of his private companions or followers . if therefore there be any seeming antilogy in any other scripture , it is not so in reality , but appearance ; it may seem so to our weakness , but it is not so in it self . for the holy ghost who is the spirit of truth in one place , is so throughout all the scripture , without any real contradiction to it self , any where . therefore to that place of st. mark i have two things to answer . first , our english translation in that phrase ( he preached the word unto them ) doth not properly nor genuinely answer the original greek : which is , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , he spake to them ; or as beza renders it , loquebatur eis sermonem , he made a speech to them . and tremelius , loquebatur cum eis sermonem , he talked or discoursed with them . doubtless about gospel-truths and heavenly matters . when ever our saviour christ preach'd , or spake sermon-wise , the scripture useth other words to express it by , as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to teach . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to preach or publish as an herauld , in open place , in the hearing of a multitude : or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to preach the gospel . but as for the word here used by the holy ghost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it is never used in scripture properly and strictly to signifie to preach ; but to speak , talk , or discourse ; which differs much from preaching . for though it be true , that whosoever preacheth , speaketh ; yet it is not true that whosoever speaketh , preacheth . in all languages there have ever been held a difference betwixt speaking and preaching . solius sacerdotis est praedicare , loqui autem communis vulgi . yea it is observed by the most skillfull in that language that this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 amongst greek authours , is still used for the worst kind of speaking or talking . but in the new testament indeed , it is used in a better sense , but never properly and strictly for , to preach ; but to speak as we do in common talk or discourse . when the devil speaketh a lye he speaketh it of his own , joh. . . when i was a child , i spake as a child . cor. . . speak the truth every man to his neighbour . eph. . . and in many other places we have the same word used , which were most absurd to render by the word , preach . so that all that can be rationally or certainly gathered from that saying of st. mark , is no more but this : that our saviour christ seeing such a multitude of people flock about him , took an occasion to fall into a religious discourse with them , and to talk with them of divine and heavenly matters : whether it were by minding them , of what he had publickly thaught , or explaining his pulpit-doctrines to them , we need not much trouble our selves to inquire . but suppose he did preach ( though it was not privately , but openly enough to the world , as any one that looks into the history , as it is recorded by the evangelists , may easily perceive ) in that house , or any else ( as by his divine prerogative he might doe what he would , and that which every private minister is not bound to follow him in ) yet how it can be made use of to countenance those , that set up a course of house-preaching , and that in other mens parishes , where there are preaching ministers established by law , and where they have no manner of allowance or authority so to doe ( as our saviour christ had ) nay being forbidden by authority ( as he was not ) i do not understand . as for speaking to or with the people , in that house or any other ; or making use of that , or any other private meeting , either in separation from , or competition with , much less in opposition to , the publick ordinances of god then in use ( as our conventicles now-a-days are used ) that was far from our saviour's meaning or practice , who improved that , and all meetings and occasions , in subordination and direct subserviency to the synagogue-service and temple-worship of the jewish church . and that christ should be a publick , and not a private house-preacher , the scriptures did foretell long before his coming : by the prophet esay . * i have not spoken in secret , in the dark places of the earth . and by solomon † wisedom crieth without , she uttereth her voice in the streets , she crieth in the chief place of concourse , in the opening of the gates , in the city she uttereth her words . all which was spoken of christ , who is the wisedom of god , ‖ in whom are hid all the treasures of wisedom and knowledge . and it is observable what iunius notes upon those words : she cried in the chief place of concourse ; ubicunque est maxima frequentia , sumpta l●●cutio à concionum ritu . the form of speech is taken from the rite , order , and approved custome of sermons , which were ever publick . * for things are said to be preach'd , not in that they are taught , but in that they are published in open hearing of all ; saith mr. hooker . thus it appears our saviour christ was no private conventicler , or house● creeping preacher . he disclaims it in himself , and disallows it in his servants● whom he forewarns not to seek him in corners . † if they shall say unto you behold he is in the desert ( among those that withdraw themselves from the publick worship ) goe not forth : behold he is in the secret chambers , believe it not . q. d. when men shall tell you , in such an house , parlour , or chamber , there is one that holds forth christ most sweetly , let us goe hear him ; goe not forth , believe it not . for what sweet doctrine of christ , his person , or offices , can you hear there , which you cannot or may not hear in the publick ? why then will you baulk the way of god's appointment , and seek christ in ways of your own invention ? now it is a wonder , that such as will pretend to christ's example in circumstantials of the smallest sort , as gestures , vestures , and such like ; yet will take boldness wilfully and constantly to swerve from his pattern in matters of such weight , as concern mens eternal salvation . neither did the apostles of christ after him , ever ( as the persons in question ) thrust themselves into the places and charges one of another ; but as the world was divided amongst them ( to whom they were to preach the gospel ) so they did not intrude into one anothers line . they did not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , meddle with the cure of souls , committed to the care and charge of others , lest god should say unto them , who required this at your hands ? this is plain from the words of the apostle * we will not boast , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of things without our measure , or not measured out to us . † significat regiones quas deus nostrae praedicationi non destinavit , nec admensus est . he means those countries which god hath not measured out , nor appointed them to preach unto . 't is likely the false apostles were wont to glory that they had been itinerants , and travelled throughout all parts of the world , preaching the gospel . but ( saith st. paul ) i will glory onely of this , that i have contained my self within those limits and bounds which god by his providence hath set me . he hath appointed me such a portion of his people to preach unto , and * nihil aliud appetam , vel mihi sumam . i will desire no more , nor take upon me to meddle with any more . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , but according to the measure of the rule which god hath distributed to us . by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( which properly signifies † a line to measure out land , to every owner his proper portion ) the apostle understands ( by a metonymy ) a certain quantity and portion of god's field , the church , in the tilling and manuring of which , he was to labour . and ( saith the ‖ apostle ) we stretch not our selves beyond this measure of ours . q. d. i do not meddle or make to preach in any of those places , where i have no right so to doe ; nor to till that field that is appointed for another man to labour in ; nor to plant the gospel in those countries , which god hath committed to another man's care and pains . god divided the world amongst the apostles , distributing to every one of them a certain portion of his people , to preach the gospel unto , measuring it out unto them , as it were , by line . as the land of canaan was divided among the twelve tribes of israel , the sons of iacob . * ( he divided them an inheritance by line : the manner whereof may be seen at large in the book of ioshuah ) in like manner to the twelve apostles was the world divided ; either by a divine appropriation , or by a voluntary partition , to every one of them was allotted his proper portion , where he was to preach the gospel and plant a church . as † to st. thomas , india : to st. matthew , ethiopia : to st. iohn , asia : &c. st. paul was to preach the gospel to the gentiles , and st. peter to the jews : gal. . . it was a great sin which god caveats his people against * to remove their neighbours land-mark , whereby every man's inheritance in the land of canaan was limited . a great sin it is in all places ; and therefore among the curses pronounced against the breakers of the law , this is the third † cursed be he that removeth his neighbours land-mark : to which all the people were to say amen . the hebrews had a saying ‖ he that removeth his neighbours land-mark , and taketh of his neighbours limit into his own , though it be but one inch ; if he doe it by force it is rapine , if he doe it in secret it is theft . accordingly , the apostles thought it a great fault in any of them , to enter into their neighbours limits , or to take to themselves but an inch of their possession ; and left that to the false apostles , to boast in another mans line , and to intrude themselves into those places to preach , where any other was appointed for that work . * solicitè cavebant ( saith learned camero ) they were exceeding carefull not to intrench one upon the other , or not to preach the gospel in those places where others were appointed to preach , nisi forte vel obiter , vel necessariâ de causà , unless it were in transitu , onely in a journey , as st. paul at rome , as he travelled into † spain , or upon some other extraordinary occasion . therefore the apostle saith , he did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ‖ ambitiously study and endeavour , not to preach the gospel where christ was named lest he should build upon another mans foundation : but to keep within his line , amongst the people appointed for his pains in the ministry . not , but that he might , upon occasion preach elsewhere : for we reade that he preached at damascus * where those christians were which he would have brought bound to ierusalem . but this was occasionally , not purposely . as a minister now may do , when he travels from his own place , and hath occasion to stay abroad , upon request or leave , bestow his pains elsewhere . as clemens † tells us it was the custome of the primitive times , that if any bishop or presbyter came to another , he was intreated to preach . but concerning st. paul's preaching abroad out of his own precincts , whether upon intreaty , or otherwise , we need not inquire , seeing he had an apostolical power , which was of universal extent in it self , and such as no minister now can lay claim to . his commission was ( as the rest of the apostles were ) general , and ( originally ) not confined to any one place , as other ministers are , but they were to teach all * nations . yet because every one of them could not travel and preach in every countrey , therefore it pleased the lord afterwards in wisedom , for good causes , to order it ( as it were ) by a second decree , that paul should specially have a care of , and preach to the † gentiles . yet this did no way diminish his apostolical authority , nor forbid him from preaching at all to the iews , or peter to the gentiles , if occasion did serve ; for of paul it is expresly said ‖ that he was to carry christ's name both to the gentiles and to the children of israel . and it is generally believed that he was the authour of the epistle to the hebrews . and of st. peter it is not doubted that he both at antioch and elsewhere , preached the gospel both to iews and gentiles . the apostolical power did extend to all nations , but the conveniency of the church did require that some of them should be fixed to one sort of people in one place , and some to another . 't is true , st. paul saith he was * troubled with the care of all the churches . i. e. as he was an apostle , so the care of all the churches lay upon him , quod ad jus attinet , & potestatem , ( saith camero ) he had right and power , to take care of all the churches , as an apostle , and so differing from all bishops and presbyters now . and doubtless ( as all good ministers of christ do ) he did take all the care that lawfully he might , or could , of the whole church of christ ; especially of all those within his own precincts , and of his own planting ; which , by an usual synecdoche in scripture , are termed , all . yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , for order and peace sake , it pleased god that their persons and labours should be appointed for several distinct parts of the world , as in his infinite wisedom he saw was most convenient , for the better propagation of the gospel of christ , in all the world. and it is the observation of the excellent divine martin chemnitius in his commentary on that temporary precept of our saviour christ to his disciples . * goe not into the way of the gentiles , &c. ‖ hoc temporarium praeceptum fideles verbi dei ministros admonet , ut singuli se intra metas legitimae suae vocationis , ad pascendum illum dei gregem , qui ipsis commissus est ( pet. . . ) contineant , nec latiùs evagentur , aut falcem suam in alterius pastoris messem , nisi speciali concessione vel vocatione , mittant . this temporary percept doth warn all the faithful ministers of god's word , that all of them should contain themselves within the bounds of their lawfull calling , to feed that flock of god that is committed unto them , and not to wander abroad or thrust their hook into the harvest of another pastour , without his special leave or calling . by all which it appears that a forcible or surreptitious entry of one minister , into another's charge , is destitute of all scripture president or allowance ; and therefore cannot be the ordinance of god. the example of the apostles meeting and preaching sometimes in private houses , i conceive , cannot ( but most impertinently ) be urged to defend the practice i here dispute against . for , . 't is not to the question , which is , of a setled constituted church , where a preaching ministry is established by law. the christian church in the apostles days , was not ●etled and established , as is ours , but in a way to be so . . the magistrate was then heathen all the world over , ours now christian . publick preaching and christian meetings , were not then suffered ; our church-assemblies , are not onely allowed and protected , but commanded by sovereign authority . . they had then , either none at all , or very few christian-churches erected , and so were forced to meet where they could ; we want not churches , but hearts to resort to them . . the apostles had a general and extraordinary call to preach any where , through all coasts and parts of the world , where they were appointed to plant churches ; so have not the persons in question . the office of an apostle or evangelist is now ceased . . it can never be proved , that the apostles did , or would have made use of their private meetings , either in competition with or opposition to the publick ordinances of god ( as our modern conventicles are ) but in subserviency ( according as the necessity of those times did require ) to what publick and solemn assemblies , they could then , or might in after-times , enjoy . for as our saviour made use of all private conferences and meetings , not in separation from , competition with , or opposition against , but in professed subserviency to the synagogue-service , and temple-worship of the jewish church ; so i am perswaded , that the apostles of christ , together with the primitive christians , would have done the like , had the case in their time , with respect to the publick exercise of christian religion , been the same , or the like to what it was in our saviour christ's time , with respect to the publick exercise of the religion of the iews . but forasmuch as there were no conventions for publick exercise of christian religion permitted or commanded in those times , untill the roman empire , and other kingdoms of the world , became christian ; it was therefore a thing impossible , that the private meetings of the apostles and those primitive christians , should be so made use of , in subordination to the publick assemblies as were the private meetings of our saviour and his disciples in the jewish church . so that the case and condition of christianity in the primitive times , is so different from , and contrary to , what it is in the church of england , where the publick worship is protected , and commanded by authority , that their private meetings cannot possibly hold any proportion or similitude with ours . so that to argue from private meetings in those times of persecution of christianity , to private meetings in england in these days , is to take away the subject of the question , and then to argue the case . . neither did one apostle then thrust himself into the place where another was to labour , but contained himself within the compass of his line , and portion of god's people that he was appointed to preach to . but the matter in question is of a quite contrary nature , viz. of a silenced minister's intruding himself in amongst a people , over whom there is a preaching ministry established , and there taking upon him to gather conventions , teach that people and perform ministerial acts amongst them contrary to good laws , without the consent , yea against the allowance of the pastour of the place . so that neither the example of our saviour christ , nor of his apostles can be brought to justifie or allow any such practice . argument . vi. that which god in his word hath branded with a black mark , forewarning and commanding his people to avoid , cannot be his ordinance or means of grace . for it is not god's manner to stygmatize or disgrace his own ordinances , or to forbid or discourage any in the use of them ; but to dignifie , advance the honour , and strictly to enjoin the use of them : as knowing that the devil and his instruments will sufficiently vilifie and disgrace them , and that there will be enough in all ages , who will disuse and forsake them . yea god hath so far dignified his ordinances of the word and sacrament ; ( which he intends to make use of as means of grace ) that when he might have wrought it in mens hearts immediately by his own spirit , yet he hath put them off to his ministers to doe it , which is no small honour . the case of the eunuch in the acts makes this plain , * the spirit bad philip join himself to the chariot . yea when god himself hath begun the work , yet he would not perfect it himself , but hath handed it over to his ministers , to be completed by them . this he did at the conversion of st. paul , ‖ he sent ananias to him , who entered into the house , and put his hands on him and said , brother saul , the lord ( even iesus which appeared to thee in the way as thou camest ) hath sent me that thou shouldst receive thy sight , and be filled with the holy ghost . what greater honour than this , could god have put upon his ordinance of the ministry ? but he hath set a black mark , and brand upon the persons and ministry in question , and commanded a withdrawing from them . * now i beseech you , brethren , mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned , and avoid them : for they that are such , serve not the lord iesus , but their own bellies , and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple . the emphasis of the apostles words is worthy our observation . mark them , signifying such a diligent , wary , and circumspect care , as watchmen use that stand on an high tower to descry the approach of an enemie . they mark diligently all comers , and give notice according as they apprehend any danger , for the preservation of the city . and avoid them ; as dangerous persons , hurtfull to christian society . and how sweet and fair soever their words seem to be , yet they will ‖ eat as doth a canker . they give not their poison , but wrapt up in honey . their smooth language is their net , wherewith they catch many a simple soul , that is not exceeding carefull lest any man should beguile him ( as ioab did * amasa ) with enticing words . their flattering speeches and specious pretenses of purity and doctrine , and tenderness of conscience , tend to no other , but to deceive the simple and unwary , to get themselves a maintenance , and to fill their own bellies , they are like the false apostles in the church of corinth ‖ who transformed themselves into the apostles of christ , yet were but deceitfull workers , to bring that people into bondage , to devour them , and to take of them . how guilty the persons in question are , of causing divisions amongst people whereever they come , of renting the unity of the church , and disturbing the peace thereof ; of giving offence to rulers and governours by their constant and wilfull violation of all ecclesiastical and civil order and discipline , is too notoriously known by sad experience in all places . and whether the other character in the text , belongs to them , that they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and seek not so much mens souls ( for therein they may spare their pains as needless , where there is a preaching ministry established ) as their purses . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * making merchandize of the word of god ; their hearers and followers are best able to tell , and will ( i think ) in a while , be weary of it . in the mean time , we that are pastours of flocks , find by experience , in those places where these persons intrude themselves , that the people are ready to pull their own ministers bread out of their mouths , to feed those their new masters , live we never so blamelesly , and take we never so much pains amongst them , for the good of their souls . yea , they hate those their ministers most , who best deserve their love , and lay most obligations on them . according to that of the philosopher , leve aes alienum debitorem facit , grave , inin●icum . a bad debtor when he owes but a small summ , will be contented to look towards you ; but when it is great , more than he can well pay , or , as much as he thinks he can get , then he will be glad to be rid of you . again : the apostle foretells , that towards the latter end of the world ( and surely those days are come upon us ) ‖ perilous times shall come , and there shall be many that shall creep into houses , and lead captive silly women — ; from such turn away . and whom do the men ( we are speaking of ) most prevail upon , and draw after them ? but easie and unstable souls , such as have itching ears , always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth , well meaning people that are spurred on with zeal , and want judgment to hold the reins , many times an over vehement bending into some way of our own chusing , doth not onely withdraw us from the left hand way , the way of idolatry and superstition ( from which we should all withdraw ) but from the middle way too , in which we should all walk . and then the danger is great . the devil doth many times make zeal and religion his instrument , to drive men on to incredible extremities of impiety . for , if he cannot take away mens faith , yet he will quench their charity to others , even to those to whom they owe it most . for * zeal , except it be ordered aright , when it bendeth it self to conflict with things either indeed , or but imagined to ●e opposite to religion , useth the razor many times with such eagerness , that the very life of religion is thereby hazarded , through hatred of tares , the corn in the field is plucked up . so that zeal needeth both ways a sober guide . zeal against poperty ( saith another learned authour , who conceals his name ) except it be bridled by discretion , and attended by equal pace of strength , is not the way to protect , but to betray a cause . those that were lately zealous for the good old cause , lost it ; and the king had not better friends , than his most implacable enemies . fury is as bad in a champion , as torpour ; it is an even temperature of wisedom and valour that doeth the execution . a sober protestant though he rageth less , shall prevail more on a papist , than a mad fanatique . the greatest part of zeal against popery that is found amongst the nonconformists , is like that of one frantick , who wounds himself , whilst he would strike his foe . they cannot confute it without condemning themselves . this unguided zeal will be sure to run far enough from popery , and so runs into it ; as he that sails round the globe , the farther he goes , after he is half way , the nearer he approacheth to the place whence he set out . the quakers , a considerable part of the nonconformists , railed at popery , till they began to be taken for jesuits , or their disciples . the like stygma the apostle st. iude casts upon such persons , there are * certain men crept in unawares , &c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . how disgracefully and disdainfully the scripture seems to speak of them , who irregularly , and contrary to good order and lawfull appointment , intrude themselves , as teachers , into the church , under pretence of religion ! they ‖ creep in amongst people ; they come in by stealth , as if they came in at a window or back-door , insinuating themselves into flocks and societies of god's people , creeping to conventicles ; professing themselves to be the onely gospel-preachers , and pure worshippers of god , as if all religion were lost , except what they bring and profess : whereas they are indeed ( unless we will mince the appellation the holy scripture fastens on them ) but a new sort of creepers gotten into the body of the church . from such ( saith the holy ghost ) * turn away . again , st. paul , † now we command you , brethren , in the name of the lord iesus christ , that ye withdraw your selves from every brother that walketh disorderly , and not according to the tradition he hath received from us . with more apostolical gravity and authority , a duty cannot be urged on christians , than this , of withdrawing or separating from such , as walk 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , disorderly . the metaphor ( say expositours ) is borrowed from the custome of war ; wherein every souldier hath his proper station and employment appointed him , from which when he swerves , he becomes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , out of his rank . now in an army , every officer hath his place , company and command assigned him by his general , whereunto he must keep , and from which he must not stir . and if he should leave his place , and take upon him , either to make an attempt on the enemy of his own head , without commission and orders from his general , though with never so good success ; or command in another company , than that which is assigned and allotted to him by authority , he is guilty of a breach of that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , good order and discipline that ought to be in an army , and brings in a most odious and destructive disorder and confusion : and so deserves to be either quite cashiered , or otherwise by martial law severely to be punished . yea , so absolutely necessary hath it been thought , in the opinion of experienced souldiers , that the laws and orders of martial-discipline in an army should be strictly observed , that whosoever have erred from it , though in the least punctilio , have been adjudged worthy of death without mercy . famous to this purpose is that story we reade in valerius maximus , of manlius torquatus consul of the romans in the latin war , who commanded his own son to be beheaded , for fighting the enemy without his father's privity and command , though he was provoked thereunto by geminius metius general of the tusculans , and although he had obtained a signal victory , and very much and rich spoil : * sati●s esse judicans patrem forti silio , quam patriam militari disciplina carere : judging it better that a father should be deprived of a valiant son , than that his country should want military discipline . the church is by christ twice together in one place † said to be an army with banners : he that is the commander in chief is god himself , holy , just and wise ; not the authour of confusion , but the institutour and lover of order , and the hater and punisher of such as wilfully transgress such good rules of wholsome discipline , as he , either immediately by himself or mediately by his deputies on earth , shall establish amongst his people . and is discipline so needfull in an army , and can it be thought needless in the church ? is our spiritual warfare of less danger of concernment than our bodily ? shall it be thought to be a venial offence , to be committed without danger , when a person shall undertake to intrude himself into the place and company of another , and lead on , and engage a party in the church militant , into ways of schism and profaneness , in opposition to the way of true religion and worship of god established , not onely without any lawfull allowance , but contrary to all law and discipline , both civil and ecclesiastical ? the baseness and wickedness of such doings , is excellently displayed by learned doctor henry more in his apology annexed to the second part of * his enquiry into the mystery of iniquity . because some men ( saith he ) think themselves of more popular gifts for prayer and exhortation ; for these to spur out , and run on in a career , without attending the direction of their superiours , were as if the toy should take those troopers that are best horsed , to set madly a gallopping , because they find their horses will goe so freely , and so turn the orderly . march of the army into a confused horse-race , and put themselves into a rout , even without the assault or pursuit of any enemy . can it be pleasing to christ that any should follow such men in their irregular and hare-brain'd ways , when his apostle bids all men † from such to withdraw ? to what end should there be such flocking after them , unless their followers could be partakers of some spiritual benefit from them ? but this cannot be . for their disorderly walking , and busie medling where they have not to doe , renders all they doe unprofitable , and is ( in effect ) a spending of a great deal of pains , to no purpose ; wearying themselves out to weave the spiders webb , and to sow to the wind . the apostle doth most excellently express it in a most elegant allusion of words , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , * working not at all , but are busie-bodies . their work is neither lawfull , nor profitable . for seeing that the ministers of christ are disposed of in the church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 † according to the dispensation of god ; it doth follow , that those things which they teach or doe , receive their force and effect not from their own wills and authority , but from the authority , approbation and concurrence of him that sends them . and therefore what a minister doeth contrary to the will of god , cannot be of any force or effect at all , as to the accomplishment of the end , on mens souls , for which god ordained the ministry , for he is bound to preach not onely those things , but in that manner as god hath appointed . god's command for a separation and withdrawing from such dividing , house-creeping , and disorderly persons , must needs argue their ministry not to be his ordinance , since he so brands it , and gives such cautions against it . argument . vii . that cannot be the ordinance of god for the working of grace , that is performed without any manner of commission or authority . for the necessity of keeping that good order which god hath commanded in his church , requires , that no man should attempt any thing of that important nature and high concernment , upon his own head , or , by a power derived no higher than from himself . whosoever shall take upon him to preach god's word , in order to the conversion or saving of souls , must be able to give a good answer , to that question which the chief priest and elders of the people , put to our saviour christ , when he was teaching in the temple . * by what authority doest thou these things , and who gave thee this authority ? he that cannot make a sufficient and satisfactory reply to it , and yet shall adventure upon the work , may justly be accounted rash , indiscreet , and more hasty than needeth , or than wisedom requireth . but such is the ministry in question ; undertaken without any authority or commission . for all the authority and commission that a minister hath , in a constituted setled church , he receives in his ordination . before that , he had no authority or warrant at all to preach the word , or to perform any ministerial act. now all the authority that a minister of the church of england hath delivered to him in his ordination , is expressed in these words : take thou authority to preach the word , and to administer the holy sacraments in the congregation where thou shalt be lawfully appointed thereunto . in which words it is plain that the exercise of his ministry is restrained to lawfull appointment , as to the place where it shall be exercised . what that lawfull appointment is , i need not trouble my self or the reader here , to look into , seeing the ministry in question hath not the least colour of it , or pretence to it , for it is supposed to be in a place where there is another lawfully appointed to perform the same . in the council of chalcedon ( where there were fathers met , about the year of our lord ) it was thus decreed * neminem absolute ordinari jubemus , presbyterum , aut diaconum , nec quemlibet in ecclesiasticâ ordinatione constitutum : eos autem qui absolute ordinantur decrevit sancta synodus vacuam habere manûs impositionem . that none should be ordained absolutely , whether presbyter or deacon , or any in ecclesiastical orders : and whosoever should be absolutely ordained , the holy synod decreed his ordination void . and the th canon of the church of england ●aith , that it hath been long since provided by many decrees of ancient fathers , that none should be admitted either deacon or priest , who had not first some certain place where he might use his function . for though in ordination the person ordained is made a minister of the catholick church ; and being ordained to a function , he may ( by the appointment of those that have authority in the church , or with leave of the pastour of the congregation ) preach any where : and although ( as mr. baines observes ) it is good * for a minister to be like a young woman , so full breasted , that she can both feed her own child , and lend a draught , upon intreaty , to her neighbours : yet he is not a catholick minister of the church ( as the apostles and evangelists were , whose office , being extraordinary , is long since ceased in the church , ) and therefore ought not to take upon himself to preach any where . neither yet did the apostles themselves doe so , ( as hath been proved ) though their commission was without limit , as to place . but kept within their line measured forth by god to them . it was never god's intention that the two tribes of levi , and gad , should be confounded one with another ; nor is it any way agreeable with scripture rules and order , that a minister should be , a wandring star , but fixed regularly in some orb of the church , as a pastour of some flock or congregation of his people . seeing therefore none is lawfully appointed to perform the ministerial function , or any part of it , in such a place as is in question , but the minister of that congregation ; acts of the ministry done by any other person that shall intrude himself among them , without and against his consent , contrary to lawfull appointment , and all good constitution that concern admission of ministers to pastoral charges , are done without any authority , commission , or effect ; and consequently cannot be god's ordinance , who doth not use to send any to preach in order to the working of grace in means hearts , without any power or authority , yea against both . argument . viii . that cannot be the ordinance of god , as instrumental to the work of grace , that instead of building up people in faith and holiness , demolisheth christian duty , and , in the natural tendency of it , produceth sinfull and pernicious effects . 't is true , these may accidentally follow , through the corruption of man's nature , and satan's suggestions , upon the most right and purest dispensation of god's word and ordinances . st. peter speaks of some * that stumble at the word . and st. paul † saith , to some we are the savour of death unto death , as to other some , the savour of life unto life . the word preach'd ( like the water of jealousie ) ‖ when it is received into an honest and good heart , it doeth it good , and makes it fruitfull ; but when into a corrupt , it doeth hurt and causeth it to rot . yet the most proper intent , and genuine fruit and effect of it , is to doe good , to inlighten , convince , convert , and save means souls . but the ministry in question doth directly produce sinfull and pernicious effects , and such as a tender heart may tremble to think on . i would not have the reader expect that i should here make a particular enumeration of every one of those sinfull fruits and effects , that are produced by the ministry of intruders , and upholders of conventicles : for that is a thing no more possible for me to doe , than it is for any man particularly to reckon up every one of the many thousands of absurdities that will unavoidably follow in dispute , upon one that is granted or yielded to . i will content my self therefore ( and let the reader doe the like ) with the mention of so many of them onely , as i here use arguments against the practice which is the proper cause of them , and thousands more . first , it tends to the breaking of that bond of near relation , that is , and ought to be betwixt a pastour and his flock . though it be a truth well known to but a few in this age , and little considered by any , yet it is nevertheless certain and undoubted , that there is a very intimate relation betwixt a lawfull pastour and his people . the scripture seems to assert a kind of matrimonial union betwixt them . a minister is , after a sort , married to that congregation over whom he is lawfully set ; and they to him . our legal incumbency on a church , is our marriage to that church . hence is that phrase of the apostle to the corinthians * i am jealous over you with a godly jealousie . sumpta est metaphora à procis zelotypis , as beza notes ; a metaphor taken from the manner of a person espoused to a woman , who cannot endure any one to be a companion or sharer with him in her affections . for as a king cannot endure a rival with him in his kingdom , nor an husband in the marriage-bed . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . so neither can a minister in his parish . and though in regard of internal , spiritual , everlasting , and inseparable union , christ himself is the husband of the catholick church . yet in regard of external and ministerial duty , a particular minister of christ , may be said to be married to that particular flock or portion of god's people , over whom , in a regular and orderly manner , the holy ghost hath set him . this made st. ambrose expound that place of st. paul ( * a bishop must be the husband of one wife ) allegorically * unius uxoris . si ad superficiem tantum literae respiciamus , prohibet digamum episcopum ordinari : si vero ad altiorem sensum conscendamus , inhibet episcopum duas usurpare ecclesias . if we respect the letter of the text ( saith he ) st. paul forbids any that hath had two wives to be ordained a bishop : but if we ascend to an higher sense , he forbids a bishop to take to himself two churches . and st. hierome argues out of those words ( eph. . ) husbands love your wives : audiant episcopi , audiant presbyteri , audiant doctores subjectis suis se esse subjectos . let bishops , priests , and doctours learn in this , that when they have married themselves to a flock or congregation , they are become subject to their subjects . how ? subject to their subjects ? what are they become inferiour to their flocks ? in no wise . ‖ they are over you in the lord ( saith st. paul ) underlings then they are to none of them . but they are so subject to their flock , as an husband is subject to his wife , and no otherwise ; now she is to be subject to him , and he ( by god's law ) to * rule over her . so that the subjection he means , is the subjection of love. as pliny told trajan the emperour † nihil magis à te subjecti animo factum est , quim quod imperare coepisti . a king doeth nothing so like a subject , as to love his subjects , to devise ways , and to use his power for their good . such a subjection is that of the husband to the wife , and that of a pastour to his flock , to whom he is married , and to no other . whence ( as mr. prinn observes ) ‖ he is stiled , parochus , and his people , parochia , by the canonists and lawyers , because he is espoused to that peculiar parish . and to this agreeth the th canon of the nicene council , matrimonium inter episcopum & ecclesiam esse contractum , &c. there are several things that prove a very near relation betwixt a lawfull pastour and his people . . the titles the holy ghost gives in scripture to ministers and their people . they are called watchmen , and shepherds , es. . . these , their flock over whom they watch and whom they keep . act. . . they are called fathers . . king. . . cor. . . thes. . . these , their children . cor. . . cor. . . ●al . . . tim. . . philom . . ioh. . . ministers are called husbandmen , and builders ; and their people , god's tillage , and building , cor. . . they , are called steward ▪ their people , god's household , to whom they are to give their portion of meat . lu● . . . . the duties imposed by god on either party , prove a very near relation betwixt them . as a minister is commanded to take * the oversight of them ; to † feed them ; and to perform the office of a faithfull servant of christ , that he may ‖ give an account to him ; for his flock . so the people also are charged with many duties towards their pastours . as , . to know and love them dearly ? as the galatians did * st. paul , and as he enjoins all christians to doe toward their ministers . † we beseech you brethren , to know them that labour amongst you , and over you in the lord , and admonish you , and esteem them very highly in love for their works sake . indeed the vulgar latin , reade it , ut noveritis . but beza renders it , ut adnoscatis , that you acknowledge them as your pastours and teachers . and ( as * learned zanchi ) pro pastoribus vestris ac patribus reverenter amplectamini , that ye reverently receive and embrace them as your pastours and fathers . and as david saith in the●●●●lms † i will not know a wicked per●●● ( where , not to know , is to contemn ) so , to know , is to have in reverence and honour . thus our saviour professeth to wicked men † i never knew you . which places are urged both by beza and zanchi , to prove their exposition . and that you highly esteem them in love . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . some reade it , abundantly : some , exceedingly : it properly signifies , more than exceedingly ; love in abundance ; in an overflowing measure ; an overplus of love . beza renders the same expression in another place * summâ cum exuperantiâ , with the greatest exuberance of love . and here , ut supra modum charos ducatis , that you account them above measure dear to you . . to obey them , and submit to their pastoral office and rule over them . heb. . . . to afford them an honourable and liberal maintenance . matt. . . cor. . - . rom. . . gal. . - . tim. . , . not out of charity , as a free gift ; but of justice , as a due debt . ioh. . . to seek their comfort , and to give them all du●● encouragement , that they may doe the work of the ministry among them , with joy and not with grief . heb. - . all which duties would not have been enjoined on both parties , pastour and people , were there not a very near relation between them . whereas none at all of these are required either of a stranger , to them ; or of them to a stranger . and this is the language both of the presbyterian , and independent ministers , when they speak of the relation that is betwixt them and their people , they say , * they are married to their flock . now where one of these demagogues , and patrons of conventicles shall intrude himself into a town or parish , and take upon him there to set up a course of house-preaching , to administer the sacraments , to visit the sick , and such like duties to the ministry ( as they doe ) it tends directly to the breaking this bond and near relation that is betwixt pastour and people ; and breeds such alienation of affection in them , towards him , as was betwixt the iews and samaritans , between whom the scripture saith * there was no ●onverse . for , they being conscious to themselves of the guilt of that , ( which upon a general , presumption , they cannot but believe , he can in no wise take well at their hands ) viz. that they should put themselves under the ministry of another they will grow to such a degree of strangeness to him , as to shun common neighbourhood and acquaintance with him ; yea they will easily account him their greatest enemy ( as ahab did elijah , or the galatians did st. paul ) because he doth not flatter them in tha● ▪ which , how wicked and unlawfull soever it be , is therefore the sweeter to them , because forbidden , and enjoyed ( as it were ) by stealth . for † stollen waters are sweet , and bread eaten in secret is pleasant ; though the end * of such ill gotten delight be in the depth of hell . what esteem can they have of their minister's person or office , which are look'd upon by them , as either needless or indifferent , if not tedious and burthensome ? what regard to his doctrine , which ( as experience shews us ) is , and will be so lightly set by , that some will wholly forsake attendance on it , others come to hear ( as there is too much cause to doubt ) more out of curiosity than necessity , and ( as some have not been ashamed to confess ) rather to 〈◊〉 ( as those that listned to our saviour's sermons † to catch him in his discourse ) than to learn or to practise ? and so the pulpit which is god's tribunal , is made their bar , and they ‖ become not doers of the law , but iudges . what dependance can a people have on their own pastour , in his discharge of ministerial duties amongst them , where some are reduced into a perfect revolt from him , other brought to a loose indeterminacy in divine worship and church-communion , and all to a lukewarm indifference what ministry they enjoy ; and church-assemblies are made matter of complement rather than necessity . usurpation and intrusion , as it shall never want store of friends and favourers among the ignorant and unstable vulgar , be it never so unjust ; so the more abbettours and maintainers it hath in any place , the greater must the defection needs be from him , to whom they own their adherence . and thus will that golden chain of relation , that is , and ought to be betwixt a pastour and his people , by this means be wholly dissolved , and those put asunder whom god bath joined together . for , as it is in a marriage , it is not the having of an husband , that makes the wife honest , chast and undefiled , but her loving her husband , and keeping her self wholly to him , otherwise the wedlock bond is broken : so in this union betwixt pastour and people , it is not the having a minister , that maintains and upholds the relation and conjunction , that god would have to continue between them ; but the acknowledging of him , keeping to him , and depending on him in the lord , for all ministerial acts to be performed by him , among them ; otherwise , the knot of unity that ought to be betwixt them , is untyed . now here i could tell the reader so lamentable a story , of the truth of this sad effect , which upon mine own experience i have found , of this usurpation and intrusion , i am now disputing against , that if he be such a one , as hath any fear of god before this eyes , any zeal for his house , worship and service , or any care of the unity and peace of the church , it would make both his ears at the hearing of it tingle . my parish was a virgin , pure and undefiled , free from all invadours and underminers of her chastity , till about four years since , when the act of parliament for the removal of such of the nonconformist ministers , as refused to take the oath therein prescribed , out of all corporations , sent or occasioned one of them ( not to preach but ) to inhabit amongst us . before whose coming , there was not a congregation in the country ( that i know ) for so many people ( being near souls ) more entire , more unanimous , more constant at all parts of publick worship , more free from all inclination to schism , separation , or any of the raigning epidemical faults of this age. we had then what happiness we could desire , and ( it seems ) greater than we deserved . when the ground all about us , was wet with the showres of schism and prophaneness , we ( like gideon's fleece ) were dry . but because we gave not god thanks sufficient , he suffered satan to erect altare contra altare ( for so went the style of the ancient church for schism , which in our modern dialect is ) a conventicle against the church . now , that congregation which was before entire , is now miserably divided , and those that lived under the oversight and teaching of one lawfull pastour ( as a chast wife under the guidance of her own husband ) according to god's holy ordinance , are gone aside to others , and admit of the unlawfull embraces of strangers . i could tell the reader of some of those people , who were formerly constant attendants on all parts of divine worship , that are now by this means totally gone off ( non fugati , sed fugitivi , as say the brethren of the presbyterian way , of the independents ) and for the space of several years , have not set their foot over the threshold of god's house : yea , so far are they withdrawn , and to so high and impious an abhorrency of god's publick worship are they brought , as to detain their very children from publick baptism . they are modelled ( as they call it ) into a new church-way for the enjoyment of ordinances . and no wonder ; for the scripture tells us , that besides god's church , satan will have his too . there is ecclesia credentium , and ecclesia malignantium ; according to that of david * odi ecclesiam malignantium : i have hated the congregation of evil doers . and † tertullian tells us , faciunt favos & vespae , faciunt ecclesias & marcionitae . wasps make combs , but empty ones ; schismaticks and sectaries make churches , but false ones ; ‖ singuli quique coetus haereticorum se potissimum christianos , & suam esse ecclesiam catholicam putant ; saith lactantius . of others i could relate , that upon this sad occasion are in part revolted from the publick assemblies of the saints ; and though they live near enough to the church , yet come thither but now and then , and that , to hear a sermon onely , and to no other part of divine service : to satisfie curiosity , i suppose , rather than conscience ; wherein they seem to discover much of hypocrisie , but nothing of piety . for , i would demand of them , doe they well , or ill , when they come ? if well ; why then come they not at all times , when they may ? if ill ; why then come they at any time ? what moves them at any time to approach the place where god's honour dwells ? is it because he hath commanded it , or to doe him any service thereby ? i ask him again , whether hath not he commanded the publick service of the whole day , as well as a part ? a lamb at the evening * as well as a lamb in the morning ? of every lord's day , as well as of one now and then ? why else did the lord call the sabbath of old † an holy convocation ? as if it ought to be nothing else ; as if the whole day were to be spent at church , and in keeping publick assemblies , so far as conveniency and edification of the people will permit . why else did holy david desire ‖ to dwell in the house of the lord for ever ? why prayed he that he might be so happy . * one thing have i desired of the lord , that i will seek after : that i may dwell in the house of the lord all the days of my life . therefore if conscience to obey god , or desire to doe him service , did draw them to his house at any time , or to any part of his worship , the same would induce them at all times , and to all parts of it . the liberty then that such persons take in god's service , as if all were arbitrary , argues much of hypocritical wantonness , nothing of sound or sincere godliness . they who are fed with corn from heaven , † meat to the full , are thus faln to loath the mannah , that rained down upon them twice every sabbath-day . of a third sort i could inform the reader , who being weak , yet ( i hope ) well-meaning christians , not knowing the depths of satan , under a specious pretence of piety , are not content with what they hear at church , but must afterwards fill their heads with notions which they hear at conventicles , wherewith they ‖ feast themselves without fear after they have been fed to the full in god's house , with angels food . without fear ( i say ) of offending god , by breaking the order he hath set in his church : by countenancing , abetting , or joining themselves with such unlawfull and ungospel-like assemblies : without fear of offending or provoking the rules of the church ( which they are bound to obey ) by seeing their laws despised and affronted : without fear of exposing themselves to the temptation and hazard of falling so fearfully as they cannot but see , that some of their brethren and neighbours have done : and without fear of losing what they have heard in publick by departing immediately from the church to a conventicle ; as if all religion did consist in nothing but hearing , and all the service of god were but ( according to the french scoff ) a mere preach . if this be the way of keeping the sabbath , where is room then for meditation , which the scripture as much enjoins as hearing . * thou shalt meditate on the law , that thou mayst observe to doe according as is written . mary therefore kept christ's sayings because † she pondered them in her heart . david therefore grew to be ‖ wiser than his teachers , because god's law was his meditation . conference with neighbours , and family-instructions , will by this means also be issued out . * thus shall you say every one to his neighbour , and every one to his brother , what hath the lord answered , and what hath he spoken ? the best of hearers , even christ's own disciples took another course than these now doe : when they had heard their master preach , they spent their time after sermon in conferring among themselves about what they had heard , and went to their . teacher to be better informed , and † to have all doubts resolved . for want of so doing , it comes to pass with too many , as sometimes it did with some of them , that though they had seen their lord's mighty power , in feeding five thousand men with five loaves , and two fishes ; yet their faith was never the stronger : and this was the reason : ‖ they considered not the miracle of the loaves , for their heart was hardned . they had seen the miracle but they had not considered it , nor meditated on it , and therefore it did them no good at all . in the judgment of the presbyterian divines themselves , the way these people take is not the right . for the assembly of divines in their directory for worship , give this rule for the sanctification of the lord's day : * that what time is vacant between , or after the solemn meetings of the congregation in publick , be spent in reading , meditation , repetition of sermons ( especially by calling their families to an account of what they have heard ) and catechising of them ; holy conferences , prayer for a blessing upon the publick ordinances , singing of psalms , visiting the sick , relieving the poor , and such like duties of piety , charity , and mercy , accounting the sabbath a delight . in a word , i could inform the reader what impious devices have been used , not onely to make a rent in the church , but also to keep it open , that it should never close again ; by endeavouring that an irreconcileable prejudice might be perpetuated in the minds of people , against the publick ministry and ministers of the church . and to the end that those poor deluded souls , which have been drawn off from their due attendance to god's publick ordinances , to wait on these men in their clanculary and irregular conventions , might never return to the church any more ; i have observed that the absence of one of these masters of conventicles , in the places where they are held , have ever been carefully supplied by the presence of some other domestick chaplain , to keep up their house-meetings . as if ieroboam's impious policy should never be forgotten , who not daring to trust his new divided tribes in a joint resort to the temple at ierusalem , set up † his calves to be worshipped by them nearer home . but i will not rake any longer in this puddle , lest it stink in the nostrils of pious and sober christians , as it cannot but doe in god's already . now i appeal to all my judicious and learned brethren of the clergy , and to all persons else , of stayed principles and piety , whether for a stranger thus to pluck the work of a pastour of a congregation out of his hands , be tollerable in the church of christ , or no ? whether this practice that tends thus to divide betwixt minister and people , breaking the near bond of relation , that is , and ought to continue between them , robbing him of his flock , and taking them off from dependance on him , for the enjoyment of the work of his ministry , be of god , or no ? and whether he hath ordained any such course , as the means of grace in his church ; or whether this be not rather a strategem of satan , to introduce all manner of impiety and ungodliness ? the presbyterian divines themselves have given their judgment on my side , already , in this case . in these words : ‖ to make a rupture in the body of christ , and to divide church from church , and to set up church against church , and to gather churches out of true churches : and because we differ in something , therefore to hold communion in nothing ; this we think hath no warrant out of the word of god , and will introduce all manner of confusion in churches and families ; and not onely disturb , but in a little time destroy the power of godliness , purity of religion , peace of christians , and set open a wide gap to bring in atheism , popery , heresie , and all manner of wickedness . so also in their preface to the ius divinum of church-government , in the last page save one , they have these words . gathering churches out of churches have no footsteps in scripture , is contrary to apostolical practice , is the scattering of churches , the daughter of schism , the mother of confusion , but the step-mother to edification . if this doctrine of theirs be ( as doubtless it is ) true and godly , then surely the practices of many of them that are antipodes to it , must needs be ( by their own confession ) very false and impious . we reade in scripture that * if fire break out and catch in thorns , so that the stacks of corn , or the standing corn , or the field be consumed therewith , he that kindleth the fire shall surely make restitution . by thorns , are generally understood such thorns as husbandmen use in hedges , wherewith they separate and distinguish their land from other mens . by breaking out of fire , any man's making a fire in the field to burn up weeds , or otherwise , to make their land fruitfull . and 't is meant ( say interpreters ) of such kindling of fire , when any hurt comes of it proeter intentionem accendentis , besides the intention of him that kindles it ; it being carried by the wind , and lighting on some dry hedge , and finding combustible matter , goes farther and burns the corn , either in shocks , or standing by . and in this cafe of casualty , by the law of god , restitution was to be made , because firing the hedge was the cause of the corn's being burnt . otherwise , if a man did wilfully and purposely set corn on fire , he was to sustain greater punishment by the civil law , vel decapitetur , vel comburatur , vel bestiis subjiciatur , he was to be beheaded , or burnt , or cast to wild beasts . god , whose own the whole field of the church is , hath set an hedge of separation and distinction , to bound out every one of his servants the minister's property . these are your limits ; and this the portion of my people committed to your charge ; this piece of land is your several to manure for me , the fruit whereof i will require at your hands at harvest . he that shall ( not casually , but wilfully ) break down , or fire that hedge , and so cause a combustion in the church , the least that can be required of such a person , is , that he make full restitution for the damage he hath caused , that he set himself to quench the fire he hath kindled , and to make up the hedge again , which he hath consumed ; undeceive the people he hath seduced , by acknowledgment of his fault , restoring what he hath fraudulently taken , and cease to be any more an incendiary for the time to come . to the poor deceived people , shall i say , out of zeal to god's glory , and safety of your souls , as st. paul to the galatians * i would they were even cut off that trouble you ? it were better one man or a few did perish , than that the unity of the church should be broken . rather , for loves sake , i heartily wish , that those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ‖ filii sonitus , tumultuous ones , that delight to make a noise in the church , that they may be heard , had more peaceable and quiet spirits , and would either content themselves to doe their own business ( if they have any ) or else sit still , and cease troubling you , or themselves , in matters that belong to others . and though you have been drawn away from your conjugal duty to your own pastours , and have gone aside to others in stead of them , by means of the amarous courtship of such , as want not fair speeches and winning oratory * to deceive the hearts of the simple , but intrude themselves in amongst you , † 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with feigned words ; or , ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with wisedom of words ; or ( as elsewhere the apostle persueth it ) with * excellency of speech and of wisedom ; or , intising words of man's wisedom , insomuch , that ( if it were possible ) the very elect would be deceived by them : yet i hope , through the assistence of divine grace , you will soon bethink your selves and repent , and so return from following after your lovers , ( with the house of israel ) and say , i will † goe and return to my first husband , for then it was better with me than now . secondly , it divides the intire body of christ also , and makes such factions as were in the church of corinth , where one said * i am of paul ; another , i am of apollos ; and another , i am of cephas : than which , there is nothing that more demonstrates people to be † carnal , whatsoever they pretend to the contrary . it makes the church of christ ( which should always be , as some time the children of israel were , from dan ‖ even to beershebah , all as one man ) to be a baal-perazim ( the place where david smote the philistins ) * a valley of divisions and breaches . it breeds such animosities and exasperations of mind amongst christians , that it makes the members of the church , militant among themselves , and against their ministers , doeing us ( though unwillingly ) the kindness , as to free us from that woe denounced by our saviour * when all men shall speak well of us ; and none at last but satan and his servants , atheists and papists triumphant . it causeth such rents in the church , that the end thereof will be ( unless a prodigy of divine mercy prevent it ) the common enemy of our religion will laugh , whilst the promoters of such divisions have cause to weep . it promotes such a war , whose victory shall have a sorry triumph . it deals worse with the feamless coat of christ ( which st. cyprian saith * was a sign intended by our saviour , to shew how his church should be woven together in unity ) than the prophet ahijah the shilonite did with the new garment , wherewith ieroboam had clad himself † who even rent it in twelve pieces . it mangles the body of christ , into as many parts , as there are parties , as if it were no better than the body of the levite's concubine , which * he divided with her bones , and sent into all the quarters of israel . it was a worthy saying of the late reverend and learned bishop of sarum ; * si schismata ecclesiae tolli possunt ( uti proculdubio possunt ) suspendi mallem ad collum meum molam asinariam , &c. if the schisms that are in the church may be taken away ( as doubtless they may ) i had rather a milstone were hanged about my neck , and i drowned in the bottom of the sea , than that i should any way hinder that work , or not withall my heart and strength promote it , which is so pleasing to god , and so necessary for the avoiding of scandal . a gracious speech ; not unlike that of an holy father of the church before him ( greg. nazianzene ) who ( as ruffinus * reports it ) in the tumultuous division of the people , cryed out , mitte me in mare , & non erit tempestas . he offered himself ( ionah like ) to be cast into the sea , to appease the tempest in the church , that neither the peace of it might be disturbed , or unity broken . some of the brethren of the nonconformists have been of the same judgment , whatever this or their practice , now is . memorable to this purpose is that saying of mr. baxter to his people of kiderminster ‖ i ever loved ( saith he ) a godly peaceable conformist , better than a turbulent nonconformist ; and should i make a party , or disturb the peace of the church , i should fear , lest i should prove a firebrand in hell , for being a firebrand in the church . and by all the interest i have in your judgments and affections , i here charge you , that if god should give me up to any factious church-renting course ( against which i daily pray ) that you forsake me , and follow me not a step . it is an unhappy degree of wickedness , to be a ring-leader in any schism . every accessory is faulty enough , but the first authour abominable . those who either by his example , suggestion , advice , connivence , or otherwise , are taught to doe ill , increase his sin as fast as they do their own . * whosoever shall break one of the least commandments , and shall teach men so , shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven . an unruly beast breaks the hedge , and feeds in forbidden pasture ; the whole herd follows ; but the owner must answer for all the trespass that is committed . therefore is ieroboam so often branded in holy writ with this note of infamy , ieroboam the son of nebat , that made israel to sin . his fault lived , when he himself was dead ; and 't is often said by divines , that his torment increased in hell , according as his sin increased upon earth ; and that the wickedness of israel will not be taken off from his soul for ever . it was shame enough to israel , that they were made to sin by ieroboam , but o the miserable estate of ieroboam , that made israel to sin ! his pretence was fair enough , but that was no excuse to the foulness of his crime , nor is it any mitigation to his present torment . let the authours of schism in the church , pretend what they please , to religion and truth , yet how they can have the true love or power of either in thier hearts or lives , that seek not the church's peace and unity withall , i cannot understand . the holy ghost in scripture joins both together * love truth and peace . and ‖ speak the truth in love . he follows neither , that persues them not both . it was an unquestionable maxime amongst christians in the ancient church ( which is no less a truth now , than ever ) . * non habet dei charitatem , qui ecclesiae non diligit unitatem . the love of god abides not in them , who do not love , and keep , the unity of the church . nay , the practice in question , tends not onely to the dividing and distracting the church , but even to the dissolving and destroying her being . it puts the members of the body of christ out of joint , and causeth a luxation of the parts ; and so hinders that spiritual nutrition , thriving and growth in grace , that ought to be in the body of christ. for , as in the natural body of man , if a member be separated from it , it can receive no nourishment or growth ; nay , if there be but a dislocation of a part , so that it be onely out of joint , it will not thrive or prosper , but wither and consume , till it be set right again : so the mystical body of christ , can never increase with the increase of god , if either there be not a right union of the joints to the head , or if that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , * the ligament and bond that knits and fastens one member to another , be broken . now this union of the members , the apostle saith † is made by the ligament of love : which he therefore calls ‖ the bond of perfection ; because as it unites church-members among themselves , so it is the cause , that they communicate mutual help , to the profit and preservation of the whole . the members of the church , then , being made so loose , and set at such distance ; so divided and distracted one from another , some hurried this way , and some that , it must needs argue that this bond is either quite broken , or much loosned . and if it be a truth ( which philosophers affirm ) that * every natural body desires no less its unity than its entity ; i fee no reason why the spiritual and mystical body of christ , the church , should not in like manner desire its unity , since , if it be , and continue thus unhappily divided , it cannot long subsist in its entity . as a tottering wall of stones heaped up together , without mortar or binding , is easily shaken and thrown down : so must the church be soon brought to ruine , if this distracting and dividing course be suffered and practised . by concord and good agreement among christians † the church grows and is enlarged : so by their discords and divisions it will in short time ‖ perish and come to nothing . say i this onely ? or say not the brethren of the nonconformists the same ? he that is not the son of peace , is not the son of god ( saith mr. baxter ) all other sins * destroy the church consequentially , but division and separation demolish it directly . building the church is but an orderly joining the materials ; and what then is disjoyning , but pulling down ? † believe not those to be the church's friends , that would cure and reform her , by cutting her throat . pro ecclesia clamitant ( saith st. cyprian of such ) they cry out for the church , but contra ecclesiam dimicant , their practice is a fighting against the church . and that , not by open and professed hostility , but by secret and unseen policy . their pretences are friendly , but their actions mischievous ; their voice like iacob's , but their hands like esau's . thirdly , it hinders the communion of saints , that holy and sweet fellowship which all the members of christ's church ought to have both with christ their head , and each with other . when , in the natural body of man , the members are joined to the head , and one with another , they have by virtue of that union , communion also , and do impart bloud , spirits , and life from one to the other : so in the mystical body of christ , the members being joined to the lord , and one to another , there will be a sweet communion among themselves in heart and affections , * joy with them that rejoice , and forrow with them that weep , prayer each for , and each with other ; the multitude † of them that believe will be of one heart , and one soul. now one of the closest bonds of union amongst christians , is in their communicating together in holy duties . we are then most one , when ‖ with one mind , and with one mouth , we glorifie god together . when holy david would set forth the greatest intireness of facred friendship , he described it by * walking to the house of god in company together . the end and effect of our joint partaking in the sacrament of the lord's supper , is to seal up this unity . as by one of the sacraments , we are baptized into one body , so by the other ‖ we are made to drink into one spirit . and therefore the apostle , from our communion together at the lord's table , concludes our union one with another , & incorporation into ( not the essential , but ) the spiritual body of christ. * we being many , are one bread , and one body ; for we are all partakers of that one bread . a father thus comments on that place . † omnes unum corpus sumus in christo , quia etsi multi sumus , unum támen in eo sumus , omnes enim de uno pane participamus . we are therefore all one body in christ , because , though we are many in our selves , yet in him we are all one , for we all partake of one bread . nam si in humanis mensoe & salis communicatio , amoris causa est & signum , quanto magis id erit in communione mensoe & panis domini ? if among men the communicating together at one table , and in one dish , is both a cause and sign of love ; how much more then would it be so , in the communicating together at the table , and of the bread of the lord ? yea , the very assembling of christians together in the church , is , by st. chrysostome ‖ called , the communion of saints . that then which tends to make rents and parties in the church , and divides christians each from other , in external conjunction of publick duties , as well as internal concord of hearts and affections ( as the practice in question hath been proved , and by experience is found to doe ) must needs hinder the communion of saints . union being broken , there can be no communion : for it flows from union , and is no other ( in the etymology of the word ) than common union . and as there is nothing that obstructs christian communion so much as divisions do , so , when once they are made , there is nothing more hard to be composed again . * a brother offended , is harder to be won , than a strong city ; and their contentions are like the barrs of a castle . for as no bond is so strong , as that of religion ; so no hostility so cruel and outragious , as that which difference in religion occasioneth . † think not ( saith our saviour ) that i am come to send peace on the earth ; i came not to send peace , but a sword : for i am come to set a man at variance against his father , and the daughter against her mother , and a man's foes shall be they of his own house . this is commonly through the policy of satan , and malice of men , the fruit of divisions in point of religion amongst brethren . and if the bond of communion betwixt the members be broken , i see not , but that the bond of union with christ their head , must be broken also . how can they exist as members of christ's body , which have left their coupling and conjunction , with the other members of the same ? neither they , nor those that cause it , can , in the judgment of st. austine . ‖ ii qui a compage corporis membra alia avellere conantur , seipsos a christi unitate separant . they that draw the members from communion one with the other , do cut off themselves from their union with christ. * impium enim & sacrilegum divortium est , eos qui in christi veritate consentiunt distrahere . saith calvin , it is an impious and sacrilegious divorce , to divide those , who would otherwise agree in the truth of christ. the same is acknowledged by the presbyterian divines . † if we be the body of christ , do not they who separate from the body , separate from the head also . ? and by the unanimous consent of the ancient , godly , and learned nonconformists , in their grave and modest confutation of the † errours of the brownists and separatists : where in the first words of their book , they say , that the church of england is a true church , and such a one as from which , whosoever wittingly and willingly separateth himself , cutteth himself off from christ. and they prove it at large by unanswerable arguments , in the following pages of their book . * a proesumptione igitur illicitâ excusari nequeunt , qui nimis amando sententiam suam , usque ad proecidendoe communionis audaciam perveniunt . they are therefore no way to be excused from sinfull presumption , who out of a fondness to their own opinion , proceed to that boldness and hardiness , as to interrupt christian communion . malunt nullam habere , quam non suam : they had rather there should be no religion at all , than that their own should not take place . they that are any way instrumental to break unity , that true-lovers knot which every christian should wear in his breast all days of his life , will find at last by miserable experience that destruction will follow it , if repentance precede not to prevent it . for , if the god whom we serve , be the god of peace , iesus christ our head and saviour be the prince of peace , the spirit of holiness , the worker of peace , the blessed trinity , in unity of deity , the authour of peace and lover of concord ( as our church expresseth it ) how then can it join it self with the disturbers of both , and not rather separate from those which separate from their brethren , and are instrumental to draw as many after them as they can ? fourthly , it gratifies ( at least ) two main sinfull corruptions , to which people are naturally prone , both mentioned together by st. paul , in one place . the first is , their discontent with their own pastors , who are regularly and orderly sent of god to them . ‖ after their own lusts they will heap to themselves teachers . . the great fault here prophesied to be in the latter times , was , heaping up many teachers . one will not serve a peoples turn , but they must have a multitude . a woman that forsakes her husband's bed , will be ready to pour out her fornications to every one that passeth by , and not content her self with the embraces of one single stranger alone , but be ready to prostitute her body to any one . . and there is an emphasis in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to themselves . they will be their own chusers . they will not accept , nor submit to those , who by the hands of the rulers of the church , god shall place over them , but take to themselves , upon their own judgment and choice , whom they please . this is according to his opinion , who ( expounding the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used in this place by st. paul ) saith , * quod sine judicio , & temere sunt collecturi doctores suos : they shall rashly gather together teachers of their own . . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 teachers : as they esteem and use them in contradistinction to pastours ; for they will not admit of any to have a pastoral rule and care over them , but teachers to tickle their ears , and please their fancies . and which is yet worse . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to their own lusts. such as do best please their humours ; such as are of the same party with themselves , that are in opposition to that which themselves oppose . beza interprets it thus , prout hoc vel illud illis arriserit , : as this or that best pleafeth them . the second is , the itch of the ear . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a disease very common , yet never so epidemical , as in these days . and there are two things , that very much stir and provoke this humour . . novelty . if the thing , either for the matter , or the manner of it , be new and strange , our athen●an dispositions will soon incline us ‖ to spend our whole time in it . let a physician be never so learned , honest , experienced , and successfull in his place , yet if but an empirick or mounte●ank come into the country , and set up his stage , though he doeth nothing but put off deceitfull and sophisticate drugs , and takes mens money , yet he shall not want at all times a full resort to him , because he is a new-corner , and his pretended method and means of cure , are new and unusual . in religion also , people are naturally 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , apt to be led away with insatiable desire of hearing new men and new things , and listen rather to fables * than to wholesome words that are according to godliness : rather admire and adore the new conceits of every novellist , than receive the great mysteries of salvation in love of the truth , from him , whom god hath set to watch over their souls . mitte quod scio , dic quod nescio , is their motto ; we have heard this man long enough , our ears itch now to attend to some other ; what we know is stale , things fresh and unheard do better please us . it is not the word , but the man they desire to hear . and therein they shew themselves to be the most observant disciples of the great masters of errour and deceipt , the papists : for this is a doctrine taught by stapleton ‖ in the tenth of his quodlibets , non quid loquitur , sed quis , à bono catholico attendendum est . a good catholick ought not to regard what is spoken , but who it is that speaks . and if the speaker prove a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and stuff up his discourse with idle and impertinent stories , how fabulous soever , he shall find more attention and applause , from such humorous † hearers , than he that with greatest evidence of the spirit and power , makes known the oracles of god. but certainly that man is under a very great distemper of body , that grows weary of his good ordinary food . the stomach is very sickly , when it cannot take in any solid meat , but the fancy is still working after rarities . and if ever that person recover his former health he will find , that his body will never hold to be in better temper , than when he keeps to his ordinary diet. . prohibition by authority . things denied , are always most desired , and the enjoyment of them is therefore the sweeter , because restrained by law. * audax omnia perpeti gens humana ruit per vetitum nefas . ever since our first parents transgressed in eating the forbidden fruit , all the sinfull posterity of adam , are ready to run most dangerous adventures for a taste of that , which they should not touch . how just and reasonable soever the prohibition is , yet it will allways be looked on with a jealous eye , by those that are concerned in it , as if there were a more than ordinary excellency in the thing denyed ; and it were therefore kept from us by our superiours ( though they mean us never so much good in it ) because they envy us the enjoyment of it . whence it comes to pass , that ( as beasts ) though their own pasture be never so good , yet if they are bounded in , they cannot contain themselves , but will adventure to leap the hedge , that they may goe farther , though they fare worse . were it so that the doors of our churches were shut up by authority , people forbidden to resort thither , or to attend the ministry of their own pastours any more , and commanded to frequent the private meetings of strangers onely ; the would these people be soon weary of their restraint , and pretend great zeal to god's house , and the place where his honour dwells , then would their souls seem to long , and even to faint within them , for the courts of the lord , to see his power and his glory , so as they have seen it in his sanctuary : then would they seem to account their own ministers worthy of double honour , to receive them in the lord with all gladness , and to hold them in reputation . oh the strange nature of the sons of men , to whom a legal prohibition is a forcible invitation , that know not the worth of mercies but by the loss of them ! fifthly , it alienates the affections of people from the true worship of god established by law in our church ; shakes the minds of the weak , and begets even in those who have professed , they have not the least exception against it , but suspect somewhat amiss in it onely upon this ground , because they see others ( of whose judgments they have a good confidence ) withdraw from it , and chuse rather to frequent private meetings than to serve god in the publick congregations . who have not heard the railings and revilings that have proceeded out of the mouths of those , who are the favourers , and followers of these unlawfull assemblies , against the book of common-prayer ? and who may not observe , their constant and studyed withdrawing from the use of it ? that book , which . for the authours and compilers of it , was composed by the most learned and holy doctours , martyrs and confessours , that the church of england ever had ; who spent their times , studies , and lives in opposing the idolatry and superstition of the romish church : set forth at first , in the reign , and by the authority of king edward the sixth , who for his piety , zeal , learning and wisedom , was accounted the miracle of nature . peter martyr , in an oration of his at argentine , saith thus of his death ; * praeter omnem spem acerbâ & luctuosâ morte sublatus est edvardus angliae rex , monarcharum christiani orbis candidum lumen , pietatis legitimus alumnus , & evangelii christi propugnator acerrimus . besides all expectation edward king of england is taken away by lamentable and cruel death , who was the clear light of all the monarchs of the christian world , the true son of piety , and the most zealous and earnest defender and maintainer of the gospel of christ. and in an oration of his at tigurum , he gives this testimony of him ; * obiit prohdolor , obiit edvardus ille sanctissimus rex , quo adolescente nescio an sol doctiorem pro●●aetate , sanctiorem atque prudentiorem usquam viderit . the most holy king eward is dead , and i know not whether the sun ever saw a more learned for his age , and a more sanctified and wise prince . and again in an epistle to queen elizabeth , speaking of the zeal and care of several godly and religious kings in reforming religion , and establishing the true worship of god , saith , ‖ hoc frater tuus edvardus angliae rex praeclarissimus , pro viribus , & sane prae quam ejus aetas pateretur , facere studuit , cujus regnum diutius extrahi , peccata nostra & ingratitudo intolerabilis non siver●nt ; eximias illius adolescentis virtutes , & egregiam pietatem , deus orbi tantum ostendere voluit , deinde ut nos , quemadmodum mala nostra merita exigebant , aliquantulum castigaret , illum e terra citius ad se revocavit . the same your brother edward the most renowned king of england did study , to the utmost of his power , and beyond what his age would permit , to doe : whose reign , our sins and most intolerable ingratitude would not suffer to continue longer over us . god onely would shew to the world the singular virtues and most excellent piety of that young man , and then , to correct us as our evil deservings did require , he soon recalled him from this world to himself . judicious mr. hooker calls him * edward the saint , in whom it pleased god , righteous and just , to let england see what a blessing , sin and iniquity would not suffer it to enjoy . this rare and most excellent person god raised up to see this book composed , to establish it by regal authority , and then he was taken to his crown of glory . . for the matter contained in that book † sober and learned men have sufficiently vindicated it , against the cavils and exceptions of those , who thought it a part of piety , to make what prophane objections they could against it ; especially for popery and superstition . whereas no doubt the liturgy was exactly conformed to the doctrine of the church of england , and this , by all reformed churches is confessed to be most found and orthodox . it casts out all false doctrine and worship , and is , of it self , sufficient to confute a papist , and other the enemies of the protestant religion . it is fitted for all occasions and uses of the church , and comprehends the whole duty of a christian , both for the credendis , contained in the confessions of faith ; the faciendis , in the ten commandments ; and the petendis , in the lord's prayer , and others framed thereby . . for the confirmation of it ; it stands ratified and enjoined by the laws , statutes , and sovereign authority of five most prudent and pious persons immediately ( queen mary a papist onely interposing ) succeeding one the other on the english throne : sealed and confirmed by the bloud of so many martyrs , that suffered in those marian days , shortly after the composure of it , and so written in the bloud of those that compiled it . . for the approbation of it ; it is commended and allowed by the best divines of the reformed churches , both at home and abroad . such as cranmer , tayler , ridley , iewel , calvin , bucer , and many others . . touching god's acceptance and owning of it , the history of ages past , and the strange providence of god , in relation to the framing , preserving , blessing and restoring it , do so evidently declare this , that he seems to be very much darkned in his mind with prejudice , that can deny or gainsay it . * which grace and favour of divine assistence , having not in one thing or two shewed it self , nor for some few days or years appeared , but in such sort so long continued , our manifold sins and transgressions striving to the contrary ; what can we less thereupon conclude , than that god would at leastwise by tract of time teach the world , that the thing which he blesseth , defendeth , keepeth so strongly , cannot chuse but be of him ? wherefore if any refuse to believe us disputing for it , let him believe god himself thus miraculously working for it . what i have said in commendation of this book , amounts to no more than what the reverend divines of the presbyterian perswasion , have been constrained to say of it , even then , when they were to make all the exceptions they could against it . they say , † we have an high , an honourable esteem of those godly and learned bishops , and others , who were the compilers of the publick liturgy ; and do look on it as an excellent and worthy work . 't is true , they add [ for that time — ] but these words seem to me , no way to abate or detract from the acknowledged excellency and worth of it . for , if it were an excellent and worthy work then , what hinders , but that it is so now ? wherein doth the excellency and worthiness of any form of god's worship at any time consist , but in its conformity to the scriptures , which is the rule and measure of divine worship at all times ? it could never be excellent and worthy , that was at any time unlawfull ; and it could have been no otherwise , had it been contrary to god's word . and they that shall impartially reade the history , and seriously consider the profound learning , clear light , admirable piety , incomparable zeal , purity , patience , loyalty , and all other christian graces and virtues , which did shine forth in those renowned fathers and martyrs , the compilers of that book , cannot without blushing arrogate to themselves greater● and higher attainments , than they had . are the men of this age the onely children of the light , and were those worthies ( one of whom ‖ prophetically said to his fellow-sufferer at the stake , we shall this day light such a candle by god's grace in england , as i trust , shall never be put out ) but in the mist of popish ignorance and superstition , in comparison of us now ? rather , i think , they ought to be acknowledged men extraordinarily filled with the spirit of god : light and understanding and sound wisedom was found in them , and in nothing did they come behind the very chiefest servants of god in this generation . we allow and confess them to have been men , not onely profound in learning , but sound in the faith , orthodox in judgment , yea , the great assertours of the protestant religion , and glorious instruments in the hands of god , of causing that light of truth to break out of darkness , by which we now walk , and which we all profess . how is it then , that they who spent all their time , studies , and strength in opposing the idolatry and superstition of the romish church , and loved not their lives unto death , but were slain for the word of god , and testimony which they hold , should be thought to retain any thing of popish superstition in worship ? what is this , but * to condemn the generation of god's children , which cannot be well pleasing to their father ? but what if it should be proved that the liturgy of our church , was ( for the substance of it ) in use , in the very first and purest times of the church of christ , before ever popish superstition came into the world ? then , i hope , it will be acknowledged to be free from that , whereof it is secretly and most ignorantly charged . but godly and learned cranmer in queen mary's days ( who knew well what he said , and was well able to make his words good , ) offers to enter the lists with any papist living ( for it had no other enemy in those days , neither hath it in these , but such as fight with their weapons , and sharpen their instruments against it , at their forge . ) and ( if the queens highness would grant thereunto ) * prove against all that will say the contrary , that all that is contained in the holy communion , set out by the most innocent and godly king edward vi. in his high court of parliament , is conformable to that order which our saviour christ did both observe , and command to be observed , and which the apostles and primitive church used many years . and that if he might be permitted to take to himself peter martyr , and four or five others , whom he should chuse , they would , by god's grace , take upon them to defend , not onely the common-prayers of the church , the ministration of the sacraments , and other the rites and ceremonies , but also all the doctrine and religion set out by the said king edward vi. to be more pure and according to god's word , than any other that have been used in england these thousand years , so that god's word may be judge . and that the order of the church set out at that present in the realm by act of parliament , is the same that was in the church fifteen hundred years past . neither saith he it alone , but we have the several testimonies of particular learned and judicious saints of that and the following generation , touching the excellency and worth of that book ; such as saunders , taylor , ridley , iewel , &c. we have a noble army of martyrs standing together in vindication of the purity of it . the whole blessed company of persecuted preachers , in prison , at the beginning of queen mary's reign , in a petition of theirs to the king , queen and parliament , say thus * if your said subjects be not able by the testimony of christ , his prophets , apostles , and godly fathers of his church , to prove that the doctrine of the church , homilies , and service-book , taught and set forth in the time of our late most godly prince king edward vi. is the true doctrine of christ's catholick church , and most agreeable with the articles of the christian faith ; your said subjects offer themselves then , to the most heavy punishment that it shall please your majesty to appoint . should but one nonconformist have said so much , for the antiquity and purity of this book , it would sooner have been believed by the people of our age , than from the mouths of so many learned and holy fathers . take therefore the testimony of one of that way , and a learned one , mr. iohn ball , who having spent great pains in quitting it from the objections of separatists , lays down this conclusion . * our service-book is not a translation of the mass , but a restitution of the ancient liturgy , wherein sundry prayers are inserted , used by the fathers , agreeable to the scriptures . and in the same chapter in a few pages after , he hath these words . ‖ to the praise of god be it spoken , our liturgy for purity and soundness , may compare with any liturgy used in the third and fourth ages of the church . which was long before popery came into the world. neither hath any of the several emendations that it hath admitted , since its first composure , been of that nature or moment as to give an occasion to charge it in the least with any thing that is , or was , sinfull or superstitious . however thus much , i suppose , may unquestionably be concluded from the abovesaid acknowledgment ; that if it were an excellent and worthy work then , it is not sinfull now : but the use of it being enjoyned by authority , may be conformed to with a good conscience . especially considering , that it is farther acknowledged by the divines first named , that what things soever * are offensive to them in it , and desired to be removed , are not of the foundation of religion , nor the essentials of publick worship ; and must therefore be but circumstantials . † which ought to be the more easily born with in complyance with lawfull authority , by all such as mind their own duty , or tender the peace of the church ; it being a good and safe rule which st. augustine gives in such a case . ‖ quod neque contra fidem , neque contra bonos more 's injungitur , indifferenter est habendum , & pro eorum inter quos vivitur societate servandum est . whatsoever is enjoined , that is not contrary to faith or holiness , ought to be observed for peace-sake with them , among whom we live . yet how is this book called to the stake , by the upholders and frequenters of conventicles , and made to fill up , what was behind of the sufferings of those holy fathers , that compiled it ! how often have i heard it call'd by some of them popery , idolatry , superstition , and what not ! how are they accounted the onely virtuoso's in these days , and to have attained to a very high pitch of piety , when they have onely arrived at such a measure of profaneness , as to rail at it , and carefully to shun their joining with us , in the worship of god by it ; and think that they have then done him a very acceptable service , when they have done him none at all , but onely afforded their presence at the preaching of a sermon ? and to the end that malice may leave nothing unattempted to render it contemptible , i have observed , that these sinfull assemblies are studiously continued till the end of common prayer in the church , at least ; if not during the sermon also . could it ever have been thought , that men who pretend religion and conscience , could have proceeded to such a monstrous extremity of wickedness , as to prefer their own private humours and fancies , before god's publick worship ? and thus endeavour to undermine and destroy so godly and legal an establishment ? if confession of sin , profession of faith , reading of the scriptures , prayers and praise to god ( which is the substance of this whole book ) be any part of god's ordinance or worship , then surely the practice of these men , is contrary not onely to gospel order and commands , but even to those rules of worship , which the principal men of their own way and perswasion have given . for in the directory composed by the late assembly of divines , the first direction for publick worship which they give , is this , * when the congregation is to meet for publick worship , the people ( having before prepared their hearts thereunto ) ought all to come and join therein ; not absenting themselves from the publick ordinances through negligence , or , upon pretence of private meetings . how are the mouths of papists hereby opened against us , to justifie their own recusancy , and to condemn our church as false and adulterate , seeing that our own members do revile it ( as they of the romish church also do , calling it * an abominable book , very pesti●erous , &c. the † service of baal , plain idolatry ) separate themselves from it , join hands with them to destroy it , and are contented to hazard their estates and fortunes , rather than to conform to it ? doth not this harden them in their superstition and idolatry , avert them from our church , and make them sit down in the scorners chair ? doth not this say ( in effect ) that all those good laws formerly made against papists , and all penalties and mulcts by virtue thereof inflicted , were most unjust , in punishing them for refusing to join with us in that form of worship , which we our selves cannot approve of ? we may say with the athenians , auximus philippum nos ipsi athenienses , we have strengthned the hands of our enemies against us , by our own divisions and contentions . it is an odious quality , and that which obscures the lustre of all the commendable vertues which ‖ franzius notes of the cranes , that oftentimes they are so vehemently enraged one with an other , and maintain such a combate among themselves , that they neither observe , nor fear the coming of the fowler ; yea , that they rather desire his approach , and to be taken by him , than to be reconciled to their mates , with whom they are faln out . it is a thing much to be feared , that these men will never be at quiet and peace in the church , untill they make that true of themselves which i have read objected to the aforesaid people of athens by way of reproach , that they would never vouchsafe to treat or hear of peace , but in mourning gowns , namely , after the loss of their friends and fortunes in the wars . he hath no mind that considers not this , nor heart that condoles it not . put the case , that though the liturgy of our church was composed with so much piety and prudence , yet there might remain any thing capable of amendment , as a freckle in a fair face : what if it be not in all things suitable with every man's judgment or fancy ( as there is nothing in the world , the directory it self not excepted , so well done , that doth not displease some : the best cook'd dishes please not every palate ) yet as st. augustine of old answered the donatists * si peccavit caecilianus non ideo haereditatem suam perdidit christus . shall god therefore loose his publick worship and service , shall it be trampled upon , slighted , and prophanely neglected , because we differ about black and white , as bishop ridley told bishop hooper in a letter to him ? and though in these latter days , preaching hath gotten ground of the prayers of the church , in the opinion of some whom we shall see present now and then at the former , but seldom or never at the latter ; yet ( withou● any detraction to that excellent ordinance of god be it spoken ) this most despised part of god's worship must needs be granted to have the preheminence of the other ( especially in these days , wherein the church is so maturely composed and throughly setled in the faith , and the book of the holy scriptures so complete and common amongst us in our own language ) by him that considers , . first , that it is the most proper and immediate worship of god , and preaching but mediate , as it is the means which god hath ordained to teach men how to pray , and to fit them for that duty . for , † how can they call upon him in whom they have not believed ? and how can they believe in him , of whom they have not heard ? and how shall they hear without a preacher ? . secondly , it is a duty simply and entirely moral , good in respect of its own nature and quality , before any external constitution passed upon it , and may be resolved into one of the dictates and principles of the law of nature , imprinted universally in the hearts of all men at the creation . for before the law of the ten commandments ‖ men began to call on the name of the lord ; as being taught by the light of nature , that in god we all live , move and have our being ; and that he is the father of lights , from whom cometh down every good and perfect gift . but preaching and hearing are acknowledged by all ; to be instituted worship , and moral onely by an external imposition and mandate of the supreme lawgiver . . thirdly , it is a duty of longer duration than preaching : the one being onely for this life ; the other , for the life to come also : the one proper and peculiar to men as members of the church militant , the other common to men and angels , in the church triumphant . * the knowledge is small which we have on earth , concerning things done in heaven : notwithstandings thus much we know , even of saints in heaven , that they pray . . fourthly , it is a duty of larger extent and benefit than preaching is ; this onely profiteth those that be present , that do hear it and attend upon it , but prayer is available even for those that are far distant , yea though they be in the remotest parts of the world . when lot's preaching did no good at all to his hearers , yet abraham's prayers might have been so effectual as to have saved five wicked cities , if there had been but ten righteous persons in them . what our blessed saviour's judgment was in this case , we may easily gather by that place in the gospel , where he calls the church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an house of prayer , not of preaching . whence in the primitive times all the christian temples were called and known by the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , oratories . and publick prayers of the church have as much the preheminence of private , as the duty it self , hath of preaching , in ●egard there is more force in these prayers , wherein the whole church joyn † together as one man , than there can be in those , that others , though never so many , make apart any where else . ‖ i say unto you ( saith our saviour ) that if two of you shall agree on earth , touching any thing that they shall ask , it shall be done for them of my father which is in heaven . much more then if a thousand ; and more if the whole church . they are two excellent and remarkable sayings of st. chrysostome to this purpose , which are quoted by * bishop iewel in his reply to harding's answer . non aeque exoras cum solus dominum obsecras , atq●e cum fratribus tuis . est enim in hoc plus aliquid , videlicet concordia , conspiratio , copula amoris , & charitatis , & sacerdotum clamores . praesunt enim ob eam rem sacerdotes , ut populi orationes , quae infirmiores per se sunt , validiores eas complexae simul in c●elum evehantur . thou dost not so soon obtain thy desire when thou prayest alone unto the lord , as when thou prayest with thy brethren ; for herein is somewhat more , the concord , the consent , the joyning of love and charity , and the cry of the priest. for to that end the priests are made overseers , that they being the stronger sort , may take with them the weaker prayers of the people and carry them up into heaven . again he saith . † quod quis apud seipsum precatus accipere non poterit , hoc cum multitudine precatus accipiet . quare ? quia etiamsi non propria virtus , tamen concordia multum potest . the thing that a man cannot obtain by himself alone , praying together with the multitude , he shall obtain ; and why so ? for although not his own worthiness , yet concord and unity prevaileth much . when the whole church joyned together in their devotions for st. peter's enlargment , omnipotence exerted it self in a series of miracles ‖ that their prayers should not be unanswered . * tunc est efficacior & sanatior devotio , quando in operibus pietatis totius ecclesie unus est animus , & unus est sensus . prayer is then more holy and effectual , when in the works of piety there is but one mind and one meaning of the whole church besides , god hath promised ( as hath been before shewed ) to be more comfortably present in our church-assemblies , than in any other houses or places whatsoever . if it had been all one to pray in a private house , or in the publick assemblies of the church , st. paul , and the godly christians with him , would never have put themselves to an hazard of their lives , in times of hottest persecution , by meeting together in multitudes , in a place † where there was an house of prayer ; or where they were wont to assemble together to pray . for it is read both ways . the first pleaseth tremelius best ; the latter , beza . ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 enim , & orationem & oratorium significat . the word signifies both prayer , and an house of prayer . * the house of prayer is a court beautified with the presence of celestial powers , there the almighty doth sit to hear , and his angels intermingle with us , as our associates , and attend to further our suits . with reference hereunto the apostle requires so great care to be had of decency in the church , for the angels sake ; saith mr. hooker . sixthly , it begets ill thoughts of his majesty's most gracious government , as if he were a persecutor and suppressor of true religion , and an enemy to piety and godliness . these meetings about in barnes , and private houses , look not as if we lived under a christian protestant prince , as if king charles were upon the throne ; but as if nero , dioclesian , or queen mary were alive again , and did rule . * conventicles ( saith bishop lake ) make shew as if you had not freedom of religion , and thereby you derogate from the honour of the king 's most christian government , and wrong your pastour , casting imputation upon him , that he cannot , or will not instruct you as he ought . and indeed it lays the axe to the root , and tends to the undermining and destruction of all government and governours . do not the histories of all ages give in evidence to the evil tendency of these private , seditious , and unlawfull meetings ? in the late years of war and confusion , those meetings were effectually made use of , by all parties , as the great engine , to pull down the powers then in being . by these means presbytery did in a great measure prevail to the forceable and irregular throwing down of the legally established episcopacy . so by the same means independency , anabaptism , fifth-monarchism hath been prevalent over and against presbytery . so that it is a wonder the governours of our church and state have not a more watchfull and jealous eye , upon all such illegal , schismatical , and seditious conventions . it is a sure rule of our saviour † a kingdom divided cannot stand . it was a principle of machiavel , divide , & impera , divide , and take all . whatsoever may be divided , may be destroyed . when a society is broken , it may soon be brought to confusion . 't is satan's way to destroy , by dissolving unions : ‖ infirma est securitas ab alienis dissidiis , nec unquam stabile est regnum , vbi inter se discordant ii , qui reguntur . this practice then that tends so much to dividing , tends as much to destroying both church and state. seventhly , where this liberty is either taken or given , there is , or may be , dissenting from , yea contrariety of doctrine to what is taught in publick . and that can no way conduce to edification in faith and holiness , but to the greatest confusion that may be . the whole church should be , as the whole world was in noah's time , unius labii , of one language , the building else will prove to be but a babel , and the ministry * for destruction , and not for edification ; which is so far from being god's ordinance , that it is quite contrary thereunto . this made st. paul so earnestly to importune the church of corinth , † to speak all the same things . and truly such is the condition of the upholders and masters of these unlawfull assemblies in these days , that there is great danger of their prevarication now and then in doctrine , and of suiting their discourses to their hearers palates . i say they are under a very great temptation to gratifie mens vices , by indulging their prejudices . for , as a worthy prelate of our church hath well observed † where ministers depend upon voluntary benevolences , if they do but upon some just reproof gaul the conscience of a guilty hearer , or preach some truth , which disrelisheth the palate of a prepossessed auditour , he streightway flies out , and not onely withdraws his own pay , but the contribution of others also . so as the free tongue teacher , must either live by air , or be forced to change his pasture . thereupon it is that those sportulary preachers are fain to sooth up their many masters , and are so gagged with the fear of starving displeasure , that they dare not be free in the reprehension of the daring sins of their uncertain benefactors , as being charmed to speak either placentia , or nothing . this is a truth easie to be apprehended . for if even when the laws enforce men to pay their dues to their ministers , they yet continue so backward in the discharge of them ( especially if never so little displeased at just reproofs , and lawfull endeavours to reform their vicious lives ) how much less hope can there be , that being left to their own free choice , they will prove liberal or bountifull in their voluntary contributions , if never so little cross'd upon the like occasion by their new masters . lastly , it opens a door to all errours and heresies , and is the ready way to bring all religion to nothing . for ( saith the apostle ) when people * heap up to themselves teachers , to satisfie the itch of their ears , they will turn away their ears from the truth , and shall be turned to fables in a short time . elsewhere the holy ghost joins order and stedfastness together . † though i be absent in the flesh , yet am i present with you in the spirit , joying to behold your order and stedfastness of your faith in christ. it is impossible for men to be stedfast in religion , who keep not god's order . how come so many in our days to fall from their stedfastness , some to anabaptism , some to quakerism , and some to atheism , but by breaking first that order in religion , that god hath set ? if souldiers in an army keep their order , every one abiding in his proper place , and to his proper employment and command , they are invincible : but when once they begin to break their ranks , they are soon after vanquished and destroyed . if liberty may be taken to given to such private house-preaching in another man's parish , why may not a iesuit that preacheth purgatory , invocation of saints , worshipping of images , and such like popish stuff doe the like ? nay , it is a truth too well known , that there are some of them under the notion of nonconformists that doe so : and in sundry places of this nation , some such have been discovered , and more may , were they carefully sought after . i am sure it strengthens the hands of the wicked ; it justifieth and encourageth the anabaptists , quakers , and all other sectaries , ( who in a book put forth at the beginning of the long parliament , called , the compassionate samaritan ‖ desire that the parliament would stop all proceedings against them : and for the future provide , that as well particular and private congregations , as publick , may have protection from them ) in all their unjust and prophane separations from our churches , and sinfull and unlawfull conventicles , which none have been more zealous and forward to condemn and suppress , than those men that now tread in their steps , and doe the same thing which they have disallowed and opposed in others . all which things considered , every faithfull pastour of a congregation where such intruders thrust themselves , may say to their people , as st. paul to the corinthians * though yee have ten thousand instructers , yet ye have not many fathers , for i have begotten you through the gospel . and , † if i be not an apostle to others , yet doubtless i am to you , for the seal of mine apostleship are ye in the lord. and all such people as content not themselves with the labours of their pious and painfull pastours , but run after strangers and usurpers , may justly fear that curse : ‖ thus saith the lord unto the people , thus have they loved to wander , they have not refrained their feet ; therefore the lord doth not accept them , he will now remember their iniquities , and visit their sins . for , * as a bird that wandreth from his nest , so is a man that wandreth from his place . god took notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e * rom. . . * deut. . ▪ . † deut. . . * mat. . . † 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. ● . ‖ job . . * sam. . . * basil. de spir. sanct. c. . * mat. . . nihil euiquam largiri potest humana indulgentia , ubi intercedit & legem tribuit divina praescriptio . cyp. epist. . * esth. . , . † mac. . . ‖ joh. . . * act. . . * cor. , . † hier. zanch. t. . de 〈◊〉 ▪ thes. . p. . ‖ hier. zanch. t. . obs . in confess . suam cap. . aph. . . † calv. com. in cor. . . ‖ calv. instit. l. . c. . sect . . * molin . de just . tr . . disp . . † beza epist. . ‖ hooker eccles . polit . l. . sect. . * cor. . . † prov. . . ‖ confess . suev . in harm confess . . . p , . st. paul calleth ecclesiastical laws and constitutions of the church of corinth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , traditions . cor. . . eliz. . this treatise was written and composed before the statute to prevent and suppress seditious conventicles car. . was made . * . h. . . † tim. . . ‖ aug. tract . . in johan . * rom. . . † bern. epist. . . ad archiepis . senovensem . ‖ bellarm. de clericis . c. . ans. . ans. . * act. . . . † act. . . ‖ act. . . * act. . . † king. . . ‖ suarez . defens . fid . cath. l. . c. . num . . * king. . . † act. of uniform . p. . ‖ ibid. pag. . * vindicat. of presbyt . p. . . † view of the directory . p. . ‖ euseb. de vit . constant. l. . c. . * sir h. spelman de non tem●r . eccl. p. , . † reges sacro oleo uncti sunt spiritualis jurisdictionis capaces . ed. . tit. aid de roy. . ex dom. cook rep. part . ‖ sanderson de oblig . consc. lect. . sect. . * chron. . † esther . ‖ zach. . . * mr. jo. mart. in serm. on deut. . . † aquin. , . quest . . answ. . answ. . ‖ act. . . answ. . * sand. de obligat . consc. lect. . sect. . † bez. epist. ad quosdam eccles. anglic. fratres . p. . ‖ concil . antioch . can. . * mr. william bradshaw unreasonableness of separation . pag. , &c. firmum est genus probationis quod etiam ex adversario sumitur , & veritas etiam ab inimicis veritatis probetur . novatian . de trin. amici contra amicum ; & inimici pro inimico invincibile testimonium est . l. vives de instrument . probabilit . * pag. . vide . the last page of this treatise . . where the words are to be seen . † gal. . . ‖ confess . suev . cap. . * aug. object . ans. sanderson de obligat . consc. p. . &c. † euseb. de vit .. constant. l. . c. . ‖ sozom. l. . c. . * act. . . † cor. . . . ‖ coll. . . * job . . , . hild. on joh. . p. . ‖ blake defoed . p. . * act. . . † tit. . . ‖ act. . . * calvin in loc . † jansen . in concord . evang . ‖ tim. . . . * baldwin . † . thess. . , . ‖ heb. . . * heb. . . † phil. . . ‖ john. . chrysost. cyprian epis. . * grex totus in agris unius scabie cadit . juv. † ps. . . jer. . . . . zach. . . — . . . — . . mat. . . ‖ jer. . . * job . . . † mat. . . ‖ ezek. . . — . ‖ gastius de exord . anabapt . p. . * tim. . . † mat. . . ‖ hist. animal . p. . * phil. . . † grave and modest confutat . published by mr. rathband p. . . ‖ luc. . . * ps. . , , , ps. . . † josh. . ‖ king. . . * jer. . . † ezra . , . ‖ cor. . . * v. . † cor. . . ‖ rom. . . * cor. . . † cor. . . * dan. . . † mat. . . ‖ christian concord . p. . * concil . . carthag . l. . † aquin supple . . par . . . a. . ‖ cyprian . l. . epist. . * ibid. l. . epist. . * injure canon . l. . decret . greg. tit. . de paroeciis . † l. . tit. . de paenitentiis & remissis . ‖ honor. reg. de statu eccles . in anglia . p. . * ex scriptis godfri . de fontantis . † episcopus byturisensis . † act. mon. t. . p. . * num. . . † arnob. cont. serapion . ‖ melchior adam : in vi● . luth. p. . * lev. . . . † gen. . . ‖ concil . antioch . can. . & . * king. . . . † tim. . . * cor. . . psal. . , . † ps. . . ‖ exod. . . * exod. . . — . . † exod. . . . . ‖ ps. . . * ps. . . † ps. . ‖ prov. . . * ps. . . † ps. . . ‖ ps. . . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cum silentio expectare . * psal. . . † — . . ‖ — . . * num. . . † deut. . . ‖ car. . . * psal. . . — . . † gen. . . ‖ ver . . * ainsworth in loc. * psal. . . ‖ ver . . mollerg . inloc . ‖ sam. . . * — . . ‖ ps. . - . * ps. . . ‖ ps. . . * ps. . , . ‖ king. . . * zeph. . . ‖ mr hild. on jo. . p. . * joel . . . ‖ chron. . . * v. . ‖ cron. . . * ps. . . ‖ ps. . . * luc. . . † act. . . — - . — . . ‖ act. . . — . . . * cor. . . † cor. . . — . . jam. . . ‖ hierom. ut citatur a centur . magdeburg . cent . . c. . p. . * aug. l. . de . doct. christi . † luc. . . — . . ‖ dan. . . * exod. . . ‖ sam. . . * deut. . . ‖ pag. . . . * ● chron. . . — . . ‖ act. . . * es. . . ‖ mal. . . * king. . , . ‖ mat. . * luc. . . & . . † dan. . . ‖ concil . gangrens . in subscriptione , habitum circa ann. domi●i . . * concil . gangrens . c. . citatur etiam in decret . dist . . can. . † can. . ‖ socrat. hist-eccles . l. . c. . * in collatione quinta authenticorum . † tim. . . ‖ hooker eccles . polit . l. . sect. . sir walter rawleigh in his history of the world. lib. . cap. . sect. . * jer. . † vines sermon on pet. . . p. . ‖ tarnov . de . s. minist . c. . * mark . . † rom. . . quisquis in ecclesia docet , non vocatus & missus à christo , invadit alienam possessionem , fur est & latro ; venit , in nomine suo , non dei ; christi minister non est , verbum christi non habet : imo ne quidem ecclesiae dici minister debet , quem ipsa non vocavit ; turbator est boni ordinis , causa confusionis , quae non à deo est . nic. arnobd . in refutat . cat. racov. p. . ‖ hierom. ad vers . pelag. l. . obj. answ. . * rom. . . ans. . † gal. . . ‖ act. . , . * act. . . † act. . . . joh. . ‖ exod. . . — . . joh. . . mat. . . cor. . . * joh. . . † es. . . mal. . . ‖ perk. de digminist . pag. . and . * joh. . . † act. . . ‖ act. . . * joh. . . qui autem non fideliter intra● vit , neque pe● christum , quidni infideliter agat , & contra christum . bernard . ut citatur à tho. mortono . apol. cath . pag. . † lev. . . . ‖ cor. . . * cor. . ● . job . . . † sam. . , . ‖ numb . . . * deut. . . † mr. p. baines on . eph. . . ‖ thes. . . * act. . . † heb. . . ‖ joh. . . * cor. . . † act. . . ‖ heb. . . * cor. . . † gen. . ‖ job . . . * mat. . . † joh. . . ‖ joh. . . — . . — . . * thes. . . cor. . . ‖ act. . . significatur non forma quà in baptisando usi sint apostoli ; sed authoritas christi , ex cujus praescripto utebantur baptismo . chamier . t. . l. . c. . . . p. . vide jewel's reply to harding 's answer . pag. . * es. . , . ‖ amos . . * gen. . . ‖ lev. . . * mr. hutcheson in amos . . * judg. . . † junius in loc . * jer. . . † si ecclesiam non habet christus , nisi inter p. tantum , nimium pauper factus est . hieron . adv . luciferanos . * vindicat. of presbyt . p. . † cor. . . * rom. . . cor. . . † acts. . * matt. . . † cor. . . ‖ ps. . . ps. . . * cor. . , — . † psal. . . * vindicat. of presbyt . p. , . * christian concord . pag. . † haeresiog ▪ pag. . * serm. decemb . . . † joh. . . ‖ vindicat. of presbyt . pag. . * gen. . . † jude . ‖ jude . * pareus in loc. † fulgent . l. . ad monim . pag. . * ezek. . . * cant. . , . † rom. . . ‖ . cor. . — . * eph. . . † cor. . . * sit una eva mater cunctorum viventium , & una ecclesia parens omnium christianor , sicut illam maledictus lamech in duas divisit uxores , sic hanc haeretici in plures ecclesias lacerant ; quae juxta apocalypsin iohannis synagogae magis diaboli appellandae sunt , quàm christi conciliabuta . hieron . ad geruntiam . pag. . † ecclesia non est quae non habet sacerdotem . hieron . advers . luciferanos . p. . ecclesia est grex episcopo adunitus . cyprian . ad rogatianum . epist. . * pet. mart. loc . com . clas . . c. . s. . * cant. . . † es. . . ‖ tertul. l. . cap. . cont. nation . * aug. retract . l. . † clav. adver . anabapt . art . . * cor. . . * mat. . . — , . † joh. . . ‖ mat. . . — . * mar. . . † joh. . . ‖ mat. . . joh. . . * luk. . . † luk. . , — . ‖ luk. . . — . . — . . * luk. . . † joh. . . ‖ exod. . * eph. . . † mat. . . ‖ cor. . . * pet. . . † dav. exhor● . ad pacem . p. . ‖ bp. hall. * act. . . tim. . , . hos. . . rev. . . vid. masoni vindi● . ministerii . angl. p. . * amos. . . † vindicat. of presbyt . p. , . * vindicat. of presbyt . p. . * inquiry into the mystery of iniquity . p. . † jam. . . * dr. manton on jude . p. . † cor. . . * omne schisma , ubi progressu temporis inveteratum fuerit , haeresin aliquam sibi confingit , ut recte ab ecclesia recessisse videatur . mason vindic . ministerii anglic. p. . * camero . tract . in quo eccl . rom. pre . ad . exam . c. . quae gens , quae regio tulit tam multa dictu gravia , perpessu aspera quam hodie nos ? non enim partes solum inter nos sunt , sed partium ( ô patria quae salus te servet ? ) novae partes . just. lipsius . de constant . l. . c. . dij talia graiis , erroremque hostibus illum . * clem. alex. strom. l. . * cor. . . † phil. . , . ‖ es. . , — . * coimus in coetum & congregationem , ut ad deum quasi manu factâ precationibus ambiamus orantes . tertul. apol. c. . * pet. . . † alienorum inspector , sive curator . composita vox ab alieno & episcopo . erasm. in loe . * tim. . . † thes. . — . * cant. . . † es. . . ‖ deut. . , — . * pet. . , — . † thes. . — . ‖ proprie est honoris consequendi gratia anniti . piscat . in loc . * mat. . . sic cum unoquoque agas tanquam tu illius indueris personam , ille tuam . hierocles apud stobaeum serm. . quicunque malis vitam maculaverit actis , ad tenebras pavidus refugit , ne lumineclaro sordida pollutae pateant contagia mentis . juven . l. . * . joh. . . † dr. don. honesta semper publico gaudent , scelera secreta sunt . cur nunquampalam loqui , nunquam libere congregari sustinent , nisi illud quod colunt , aut puniendum est aut pudendum . * chron. . — . act. . . † tim. . . ‖ act. . . pet. . . * joh. . . * tit. . . † tit. . . * l. . c. . † epist. ad magnum . ‖ euseb. l. . c. . * chron. . — . * luk. . . † joh. . , — . matt. . . * aug. cont . julian . l. . * piscat . in thes. . . † rom. . . ‖ mat. . . * matt. . ult . with matt. . — , . † luk. . . * mark. . . † matt. . . — . ‖ mark . . * pet. . . † joh. . . ans. . ans. . * es. . . † prov. . . . ‖ col. . . * hooker 's eccles . polit . l. . sect. . † mat. . . * cor. 〈…〉 † c. a. 〈◊〉 & bez. in 〈◊〉 * calv. in loc. † 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vocavit assignatam sibi certam veluti arvi dominici portionem , in quâ excolendâ laboraret . beza . in loc. ‖ v. . * ps. . † c. a lapide . vid. platina in vita petri. * deut. . . prov. . . † deut. . . ‖ maymon . tract . de furt . c. . l. . * camero praelect . ad mat : . , . pag. . col . . † rom. . . ‖ rom. . . * act. . . † clem. constit . l. . c. . * mat. . . † act. . . rom. . . tim. . . gal. . . ‖ act. . . * cor. . . * mat. . , . ‖ chemnit . harm . evang. c. . pag. . * act. . . ‖ act. . . * rom. . — , . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 scl't attente & diligenter quasi hostes è speculaâ observare . beza . ‖ tim. . . * sam. . — , . ‖ cor. . — . . * cor. . . sen. ‖ tim. . , . saepè fit ut qui falsum ex una parte apparens vident , ejus fugiendi studio abrepti longiùs , non in verum deveniant , sed in falsum alia parte positum , atque ita errorem non exuunt sed mutent . hug. grotius , in disquisit . pelagiana . pag. . * hooker ec●●es . polit . ● . . sect . . * jude . ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 subrepo , furtim intro . * tim. . , . † thes. . . * valer. max. l. . c. . † cant. . . . * pag. . † thes. . . * syr. nihil quicquam operantes nisi vana . † col. . . * mat. . . * concil . chalced. can. . * p. balnes in eph. . . * pet. . . † cor. . . ‖ numb . . — , . posito uno absurdo mille sequuntur . * cor. . . rom. . . rom. . . john . . * tim. . . * ambros. ut citatur à coto● exc . . de dig . sacerd. vid. hieronymi epist. oceano p. . nè virginalis pauperculae societate contempta , ditioris adulterae quaerat amplexus . ‖ thes. . . * gen. . . cor. . . † plin. adus in epist. trajano . see king. . . ‖ legal . vesol p. . council , nicen. can. . * act. . . † pet. . . ‖ heb. . . * gal. ● . . . † thes. . — , . * zanch. in loc. † ps. . . † matt. . . * bez. in eph. — . . * vindicat. of presbytery . p. . * john . . † prov. . , — . * medio de fonte leporum surgit amari aliquid . † matt. . . ‖ jam. . . claudite quaeso aures qui audituri estis , ne tantae impictatis vocibus polluamini . * ps. . . † tertul. l. . contra marcion . . ‖ lactant. lib. . divinarum inst . cap. . * exod. . , . † levit. . . ‖ ps. . . * ps. . . † ps. . , , — . ‖ jude . . * josh. . . † luk. . . ‖ ps. . . * jer. . . † joh. . , — . mark . . — . . — . , . ‖ mark . . * directory page . . † king. . — , . ‖ vindicat. of presbyte page . ius divinum regim . eccles. in praefat . * exod. . . * gal. . . ‖ jer. . . * rom. . . † pet. . . ‖ cor. . . * cor. . . . † hos. . . * cor. . . — . † cor. . . ‖ judg. . . — . * chron. . — . * luc. . . as the tyrian woman that opened the gates of the city to the enemy , and was herself trodden to death at their entry . * sacramento vestis & signo , declaravit ecclesiae unitatem . cyp. de unit . eccles. sect. . † king. . — . * judg. . . * davenant ad pacem exbort . p. . . * ruffin . hist. eccl. l. . c. . ‖ baxter epist. to his book of rest. * mat. . . * zach. . . ‖ eph. . . * aug. cont . don. de bapt . l. . c. . * col. . . † eph. . . . ‖ col. . . * quodlibet corpus non minus appetit unitatem quamsuam entitatem . † act. . - - . . . ‖ mat. . . gen. . sam . . * baxter ubi supra . † si in sinu meo natus , si uberum meorum lacte nutritus , adversus me gladium levas redde quod dedi , & esto , si potes , aliter christianus . hieronim . advers . luciferanos . p. . * rom. . . † act. . . ‖ rom. . . * ps. . . ‖ cor. . ● . * cor. . . † cyril . l. . c. . in johan . ‖ chrys. serm. de eucharist . * prov. . . † mat. . . — . ‖ aug. tom. . de fid . ad pet. diac. cap. . * calv. comment in rom. , . † vindicat. of presbyt . pag. , . † published by mr. william rathbane an . dom. . * aug. tom. . de baptist. cont . don. c. . ‖ tim. . . * leigh in● crit . sac. ‖ act. . . * tim. . . ‖ stap. lib. de doct. princ . cap. . † apud quos de humano arbitratu divinitas pensitatur , ni●i homini deus placuerit , deus non erit , homo jam deo propitius esse debebit . tertull. apol. cap. . * horat. carm . lib. . * peter martyr , loc. com . pag. . col. . * pet. mart. loc. com . pag. . ‖ ib. p. . * hooker . eccles. polit . l. . sect . . † basil , p. . * hook. eccles. polit. l. . s. . † account of proceedings . p. , . ‖ mr. latimer act. & mon● t. . p. * ps. . . * act. & mon. t. . pag. . * act. & mon. t. . p. . * trial of grounds tending to separation , c. . c. , . ‖ page . * account of proceedings . page . † or as dr. owen in his plea for nonconformists , p. . saith , they differ from us onely in significant fringes and laces of forms and ceremonies . ‖ aug. ad jan. epist. . * directory . page . * act. & mon. tom. . p. , , & . † rhemist annotat . in cor. . . & cor. . . ‖ franzius hist. animal . pag. , . * aug. epist. . † rom. . . ‖ gen. . . * hook. eccles● polit . l. . sect. . † vis unita fortior ‖ mat. . . * pag. . chrysost. de incomprehensib . dei natura . hom. . † chrysost. in ad the● . . hom. ‖ act. . ● &c. * leo serm. . de iejunio septimi mensis . † act. . . ‖ cornel. a lapid . * hook. eccles. polit . l. . sect. . * bishop lake serm. on tim. . . † mat. . ‖ casp. si bel in ps. p. . vii . * cor. . — . † cor. . . † bishop hall resolv . of decis . pag. , . * tim. . . . † col. . . ‖ pag. , . * cor. . ● ▪ . † cor. . . ‖ jer. . . * prov. . 〈◊〉 a satyre against seperatists, or, the conviction of chamber-preachers and other chismatickes contrary to the discipline of this our protestant profession by a. c. generosus. hausted, peter, d. . this text is an enriched version of the tcp digital transcription a of text r in the english short title catalog (wing h ). textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. the text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with morphadorner. the annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. this text has not been fully proofread approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. earlyprint project evanston,il, notre dame, in, st. louis, mo a wing h estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; :e , no ) a satyre against seperatists, or, the conviction of chamber-preachers and other chismatickes contrary to the discipline of this our protestant profession by a. c. generosus. hausted, peter, d. . cowley, abraham, - . p. printed for a. c, london : . in verse. a. c. generosus is peter hausted. cf. blc has been erroeously attributed to abraham cowley. reproduction of original in thomason collection, british library. eng dissenters, religious -- england -- anecdotes a r (wing h ). civilwar no a satyre against seperatists [sic], or, the conviction of chamber-preachers, and other chismatickes [sic] contrary to the discipline of this [no entry] c the rate of defects per , words puts this text in the c category of texts with between and defects per , words. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - mona logarbo sampled and proofread - mona logarbo text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a satyre against seperatists , or , the conviction of chamber-preachers , and other chismatickes contrary to the discipline of this our protestant profession . by a. c. generosus . london , printed for a. c. . a satyre against seperatists . i have beene where so many round-heads dwell , ●hat there are only more of them in hell . where silenc'd ministers enow were met to make a synod ; and may make one yet . their blessed liberty they 've found at last and talk'd for all those yeares of silence past . like some halfe-pin'd , and hunger starved man , who when he next gets victells , surfets than . each country of the world sen● us back some like severall winds which from all quarters come , to make a storme . as 't haps its sunday too , and the chiefe rabbies preach . to church i 'le goe where ( ●hat we men more patiently may heare nonsence ) to heaven at first hee speakes it , there he hummes , then whispers strait , and next does roare , now drawes his long words , and now leaps them o're , so various tones , that i admir'd , and said sure all the congregation in him praid , 't was the most teadious soule the dullest he that ever came to doctrines twenty three , and nineteene uses . how he drawes his humme and quarters haw , talkes poppy and opium ! no feaver a mans eyes could open keepe , all argus body hee 'd have preach'd a sleepe in halfe an houre . the wauld o lawd he cries lukewarmenesse : and this melts the womens eyes . they sob aloud , and straite aloud i snore till a kind psalme tells me the dangers o're . fles'd here with this escape , bouldly toth'hall i venture , where i meete the brethren all . first there to the grave clergie i am led , by whatsoever stile distinguished , whether most reverend batchelors they be of art , or reverend sophes of no degree . next stand the walleyed sisters in a row nay their scaldheaded children they come too . and mingled 'mongst these stood a gaping there those few laymen that not 'o th clergy were , now they discourse , some stories here relate of bloudy popish plots against the state : which by the spirit , and providence , no doubt , the man that made hath found most strangely out . some blame the king , others more modest say hee 's a good man himselfe , but led away : the woemen rip old wounds , and with their teares recount the losse of the three worthies eares . away you fooles 't was for the good o' th men they nere were perfect round-heads untill then . but against bishops they all raile , but i said bouldly i 'de defend the hierarchy , toth' hierarchy they meant no harme at all , but roote , and branch , 'bout bishops too t wee fall , i like a foole with reason , and those men with wrested scripture , a flie deacon then thrust in his eares , so speakes th'apostle too : how speakes he friend ? not i' the nose like you . straite a shee-zealot raging to me came and said , o' th what d'you call it part i am , bishops are limbes of antichrist she cries . repent quoth i good woman , and be wise , the devill will have you ells , that i can tell beleiv't , and poach those eges o' your eyes in hell . an hidious storme was ready to begin , when by most blessed fate the meate came in , but then so long , so long a grace is sed , that a good christian when he goes to bed would be contented with a shorter prayer . oh how the saints enjoy'd the creatures there ! three pasties in the minute of an houre , large , and well wrought , they roote and branch devour , as glibly as they 'd swallow'd down church land , in vai●e the lesser pies hope to withstand . on geese , and capons with what zeale they feed ? and wondering crie ▪ a goodly bird indeed ! their spirits thus warn●d all the jests from them came upon the names of land , duck , wren and lambe , cannons and bishops seas , and one most wise i like this innocent mirth at dinner cries , which now by one is done ; and grace by two . the bells ring , and againe to church we goe , and now the christian bajaset begins ; the suffering pulpit groanes for israels sinnes . sinnes which in number many though they be and crying ones , are yet lesse loud then he : his stretchd-out voyce sedition spreds a farre , nor does he only teach but act a warre : a sweats against the state ▪ church learning , sence , resolving to gaine hell with violence . down , down as low as earth must all things goe there was some hope the pulpit would downe too . worke on , worke on good zeale , but still i say law forbids thrashing on the sabbath day . an houre lasts the two handed prayer , and yet not a kinde sillable can heaven get till to the parliament he comes at last ; just at that blessed word his furie 's past : and here he thankes god in a loving tone but laurd ; and then he mounts , all is not done : no would it were thinke i , for much i feare that all will not be done this two houres here : for now he comes too t , as you shall finde it writ repeats his text , and takes his leave of it , and strait to 's sermon in such furious wise he'as made it what 't is calld , an exercise . the pulpit 's his hot bath : the brethren's cheere rost-beife mince-py , and capon reeke out heere . oh how he whips about six yeares agoe when superstitious decency did growe so much in fashion ? now he whets his fist against the name of altar , and of priest , the very name in his outragious heat poore innocent vox ad placitum he beate , next he cuffs out set prayer , even the lords , and binds the spirit he sayes as 't were with cords , yea with whipcords ; next must authority goe , authoritie's a kind of binder too . first then he intends to breath himselfe upon church government : have at the king anon . the thing 's don straight , in poore six minutes space titus , and timothy have lost their place ; nay with th'apostles too it eene went hard , all their authority two thumps more had mard , paul and st. peter might expect their doome knew but this frantick foole they 'd bin at rome now to the state he comes , talkes an alarm , and ath' malignant party flings his arme , defies the king , and thinkes his pulpit full as safe a place for 't , as the knight at hull . what though no magazeen laid in here be scarce all the guns can make more noice then he . plots , plots he cries ther 's jelousies , and feares , the politick saints shake their misterious eares , till time ( long time which doth consume and wast all things ) t'an end his sermon brought at last . what would you have good soule , a reformation ? oh by all meanes ; but how ? o' th newest fashion ; a prety slight religion , cheape , and free , i know not how , but you may furnisht be at ipswich , amsterdame 's a kingdome neere though to say truth you paid for that too deare , no matter what it costs wee 'l reforme though the prentizes themselves will have it so . they 'le roote out popery here what 's ' ever come . it is decreed nor shall thy fate o rome resist their vow . they 'le do 't to a haire , for they who if upon shrove-tuesday or may-day beat an old baud , or fright poore whores they cou'd , thought themselves greater then their founder lud , have now vast thoughts , and scorne to set upon any whore lesse then her of babilon . thei 'r mounted high , contemne the humble play of trap , or footeball on an holyday in finesbury fields . no 't is their brave intent wisely t' advise the king , and parliament , the worke in hand they 'le disaprove or back and cry i' th reformation , what d'you lack ? can they whole shopbooks write , and yet not know if bishops have a right devine or no ? or can they sweepe their doore , and shops so well , and for to cleans a state as yet not tell ? no , study and experience makes them wise , why should they else watch late , or early rise : their wit so flowes , that when they thinke to take but sermon notes , they oft new sermons make , in cheapside crosse they baal and dagon see , yet know 't is gilt all ore as well as we . besides since men did that gay idoll reare god has not blest the herbwives trading there . go on brave heroes , and performe the rest , increase your fame each day ayard at least , 'till your high names are growne as glorious full as the foure london prentises at r●dbull : so may your goodly eares still prickant grow , and no bould hare increase to mar the show , so may your morefields pastimes never faile , and all the roomes about keep mighty ale , ale your own spirits to raise , and cakes t' appease the hungry coinesse of your mistresses , so may rare pajents grace the lord-maiors show and none find out that those are idolls too . so may you come to sleep in fur at last , and some smectimnian when your dayes are past your funerall sermon of six houres rehearse , and haywood sing your praise in lofty verse . but stay who have we next ? mark and give roome the woemen with a long petition come , mans understanding is not halfe so great , th'aple of knowledge 't was they first did eate . first then pluralities must be laid away men may learne thence to keep two wives they say , next schollership and learning must goe down oh fie ! your sex so cruell to the gown ? you don't the kindnesse of some schollers know , the cambridge women will not have it so , learning 's the lamp o' th land that shines so bright y' are not s'immodest to put out the light this is a conventicle trick . what 's next oh with the churches solemne forme thei 'r vext , the signe o' th crosse the forehead must not beare 't was only they were borne to plant signes there . no font to wash native concupiscence in you like that itch still of orignall sin . no solemne rights of buriall must be shown , pox take you , hang your selves , & then you le none . no organ idoll with pure eares agree , nor anthemes , why ? nay aske nor them nor me , ther 's new church musique found insteed of those , the womens sighs tun'd to the teachers nose . no surplesses , no ? why ? why none d'you crave ? thei 'r rags of rome . i thinke what you would have , you 'd preach i troe , why do so , ther 's no doubt a fitter preaching age you 'le nere find out : you 've got the spirit , you 've fiery tongues it 's true , and by your talke they should be double too . oh times , oh manners ! when the church is made a prey , nay worse a scorne to ev'ry trade . when ev'ry tyler in his popular rage ( the ages greatest curse ) enformes the age , when reason is for popery suppress'd and learning counted jesuitisme at least , when without bookes divines must studious be , and without meat keep hospitality , when men 'gainst ancient father's rev'rend sayes the many headed beast smectimnius raise that hidra which would grow still , and encrease , but that at first he met an hercules , when the base rout the kingdomes dirt , and sinke , to cleanse the church and purge the fountaines thinke , such as whilst they might living waters take drinke belgian ditches , and the lemnian lake , vvhen'th liturgy , which now so long hath stood seal'd by five reverend bishops sacred blood doth passe for nonsence , and but potage thought , pottage from heav'n like that to daniel brought , their broaths , have such weede mix't , and made so hot , the prophets sonnes cry out , death 's in the pot . oh times , oh manners ! but methinks i stay too long with them ; take thus much for this day : hereafter more , far since we now begin you 'le find wee 've muses too as well as prinn . finis . act anent suppressing conventicles, &c. edinburgh (scotland). town council. approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page image. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). b wing e cf estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. b ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) act anent suppressing conventicles, &c. edinburgh (scotland). town council. sheet ([ ] p.) printed by the heir of andrew anderson, printer to his most sacred majesty, edinburgh : . caption title. royal arms at head of text; initial letter. imperfect: stained with slight loss of text, including imprint. reproduction of the original in the national library of scotland. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng dissenters, religious -- scotland -- edinburgh -- legal status, laws, etc. -- early works to . broadsides -- scotland -- th century. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - john pas sampled and proofread - john pas text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion act anent suppressing conventicles , &c. edinburgh , the ninteenth day of december , one thousand six hundred eighty and three years . the which day , forasmuch as the lord provest , bailȝies and council of edinburgh , taking to their serious consideration , how zealous and careful his sacred majesty , hath been since his happy restauration , for suppressing all conventicles , unwarrantable meetings , and conventions of his subjects within this kingdom , by several laudable laws and acts of parliament , made against the same : and also that by the act of of the d. session of his majesties d parliament , it is expresly statute and ordained , that all magistrates of burghs-royal shall call before them all such as are burgesses , as shall be guilty of keeping conventicles : and proceed against them by fyning , or otherwise according to law , and that they make an account of their diligence to his majesties privy council , and that they be careful in putting their acts to due execution against the ●●●pers of conventicles , conform to the trust and power committed to them , and that an accompt of their proceedings be returned yearly to his majesties privy council upon the first day of july , under the pain of . merks , for each years failȝie : they therefore being sensible of the duty and trust committed to them by his majesty and estates of parliament ; and that it is absolutely necessary for his majesties service , and for the peaceable and quiet government of the good town ; and that all effectual means be taken for suppressing of conventicles within the city and priviledges thereof , which tends so much to the prejudice of the publick worship of god , to the scandal of the reformed religion , and is the reproach of his majesties authority and government : and also , that the slow progress hitherto made , in discovering and suppressing of conventicles , unlawful-baptisms and marriages , and entertaining of intercommuned and vagrant persons , did proceed from this , that there was no due incouragment or reward promised and allowed , to such persons as should discover any conventicles or unwarrantable meetings within this city and priviledges thereof . do therefore unanimously statute and ordain , that any person who shall discover any conventicle , that shall be keeped within the said city or priviledges thereof , or unlawful-baptisms and marriages , and entertaining of intercommuned and vagrant persons , to any of the magistrates within the same ; so that the said conventicle be actually attatched , seised upon , and found in the place discovered , and that the saids unlawful-baptisms and marriages , and the entertaining of intercommuned and vagrant persons be instructed , the saids persons discoverers shall have for their reward for each conventicle , unlawful-baptism or marriage , or the entertaining of any intercommuned and vagrant person that shall happen to be discovered , the sum of threescore pounds scots money ; and whosoever shall discover any persons , whose residence is in the country , that comes to the city to lurk , and absents themselves from their own paroch-churches , and withdraws from the publick worship in the city , shall have for each person twelve pounds for their pains ; and in regard that the lord provest , bailȝies &c. intends a vigorous execution of his majesties good laws against separation and withdrawing from the established publick worship . they do hereby require all the citizens and other inhabitants whatsoever in the said burgh and jurisdictions thereof , duly to attend the publick ordinances and worship ; certifying all such as shall absent themselves , or withdraw therefrom , that they shall be impartially fyned according to law. and for encouragment of these who shall delate any person so withdrawing , who are not contained in the lists given up to the magistrates by persons authorized for that effect , shall have six pounds scots instantly payed unto him , providing alwayes the person or persons so delated , be convicted guilty of withdrawing as aforesaid . and ordains this present act to be proclaimed through the city by touck of drum , and printed that none pretend ignorance . god save the king . the committee, or, popery in masquerade l'estrange, roger, sir, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page image. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing l estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) the committee, or, popery in masquerade l'estrange, roger, sir, - . sheet ([ ] p.) : x cm. mary clark for henry brome, [london : ] broadside. consists of engraved allegorical plate. attack on dissenters. attributed to l'estrange by wing, nuc pre- . reproduction of original in huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng dissenters, religious -- england -- caricatures and cartoons. broadsides -- england -- london -- th century - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - mona logarbo sampled and proofread - mona logarbo text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the committee or popery in masquerade . behold wee are a covenanting people the close caball root and branch little isaack . wee 'l be true to you pope . courage mes en fans . a solemn league and covenant come and let us joyn our selves unto the lord , in a perpetuall covenant y t shall not be forgotten . ier : . a through reformation liberty . property religion mugleton ranter quaker anabaptist presby t. indepen fifth mon nailor . adamite church and crown lands sequestration's remonstrainces thanks to the petitioners court of iustice humiliation swash no biships . elders . mayd no service book . p s narrat : nar : of fires corrante . tom & dick. no popish lords . no evill councill rs . scripture-redemption freed from men's restrictions: being an answer to a book lately published by mr. william troughton (who stiles himself a minister of the gospel at onlep in leicester-shire) intituled, scripture-redemption restrained and limited: as also the substance of several conferences and disputes had in england, wales, and scotland, with mr. heath, mr. bartley, mr. powel, mr. sam. rutherford, and mr. james wood, two rectors of the university of s. andrews, and many others, about the death of our most dear redeemer, and the controversies which are the constant concomitants of it. together with a brief reply to mr. troughton's rayling accusations in his introduction. by j. brown, sometimes of orial coll. in oxford, afterwards a priest of the church of england, and vicar of tenbury in worcester-shire; but now through mercy a preacher of the faith which once he destroyed. browne, james, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing b b estc r this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) scripture-redemption freed from men's restrictions: being an answer to a book lately published by mr. william troughton (who stiles himself a minister of the gospel at onlep in leicester-shire) intituled, scripture-redemption restrained and limited: as also the substance of several conferences and disputes had in england, wales, and scotland, with mr. heath, mr. bartley, mr. powel, mr. sam. rutherford, and mr. james wood, two rectors of the university of s. andrews, and many others, about the death of our most dear redeemer, and the controversies which are the constant concomitants of it. together with a brief reply to mr. troughton's rayling accusations in his introduction. by j. brown, sometimes of orial coll. in oxford, afterwards a priest of the church of england, and vicar of tenbury in worcester-shire; but now through mercy a preacher of the faith which once he destroyed. browne, james, - . [ ], , [ ] p. printed by j.c. for will: larnar, at the signe of the blackmoor neer fleet-bridge, london : . reproduction of original in the british library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng troughton, william, ?- ? -- early works to . redemption -- biblical teaching -- early works to . dissenters, religious -- controversial literature -- england -- early works to . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - john latta sampled and proofread - john latta text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion scripture-redemption freed from men's restrictions : being an answer to a book lately published by mr. william troughton ( who stiles himself a minister of the gospel at onlep in leicester-shire ) intituled , scripture-redemption restrained and limited : as also the substance of several conferences and disputes had in england , wales , and scotland , with mr. heath , mr. bartley , mr. powel , mr. sam. rutherford , and mr. james wood , two rectors of the university of s. andrews , and many others , about the death of our most dear redeemer , and the controversies which are the constant concomitants of it . together with a brief reply to mr. troughton's rayling accusations in his introduction . by j. brown , sometimes of oriel coll. in oxford , afterwards a priest of the church of england , and vicar of tenbury in worcester-shire ; but now through mercy a preacher of the faith which once he destroyed . ye are my witnesses , and my servant whom i have chosen , that ye may know and believe me . isai . . . london , printed by j. c. for will : larnar , at the signe of the blackmoor neer fleet-bridge , . to all those precious souls who receive the gospel , and follow the lord jesus in the way of righteousness , to whose view this small treatise shall by providence be presented , increase of all spiritual riches from the father of mercies , are unfeignedly desired . it is no new thing ( blessed souls ) for the god and men of this world to call the sweet , saving , and most soul refreshing doctrines of the gospel * heretical opinions : and the way of god ( even that way of worship which christ and his apostles walked in ) heresie ; that so , by raising foul ( though false ) reports against the truths of the true and eternal god , they and their false merchandise ( corrupt doctrines , i mean ) may seem fair in the eyes of their followers . let it not then seem strange to you , neither be discouraged , if it be so in our generation : but as our god hath imparted to you a great measure of the knowledge of his love in the lord jesus , let it be your care , i beseech you by the mercies of god , to walk worthy of the lords love in all well pleasing , and abounding in every good work ; that you may shine as lights in this world , and ( in the world to come ) as the sun in the kingdom of our father , for ever and ever . you have known and believed the love of god to your souls ; you know and are assured by the scriptures , that christ died for you ; when other poor creatures going about to prove it by their qualifications ( a most inconstant and crooked rule ) are ( oft-times at least ) very uncertain whether christ died for them ; and so through the instability of their sad minds , either hurried away by dangerous presumption , or hurled into deep despair , and other soul-distracting distempers . their condition i much commiserate , having my self been somewhat buffeted by satan under it : for at best , they are frequently tossed to and fro by doubts and fears , whether ever god gave his son to lay down his life for them , and so are kept from the enjoyment of that abiding consolation which you partake of , by believing what is plainly written in the word of truth , and rejecting the dark consequences and deductions of men . oh pity those that are ignorant of that truth which you are acquainted with , endeavour to impart it to them ; but despise them not , in that you know christ died for them . be not weary of well doing . the lord is at hand : and if you persist in holiness , he will requite your short pains with everlasting pleasures , and your work in the day of grace with an eternal and exceeding weight of glory . and now ( brethren ) i commend you to god , and to the word of his grace , which is able to build you up , to make you wise unto salvation , to make you perfect , and throughly furnished to every good work ; desiring the lord of glory to preserve you blamless in body , soul , and spirit , till he appears the second time without sin unto salvation ; that you may be presented faul●lest before the throne of his glory with exceeding joy , and be made partakers and possessors of that rich and glorious crown , and those precious promises which now by saith and patience we inherit : in which most blessed state , i trust on the lords day to meet you ; and in the mean space , whilst the lord holdeth my soul in life here , shall remain , your faithful servant and brother ( though unworthy ) in the way and work of christ , j. brown. to all the people in the world who shall peruse this plain discourse , especially such as setting their faces towards sion , have their souls sadned through the uncertainty that is in them , about christs dying for them ; the author sincerely wisheth those cordial consolations which which flow from the knowledge and acknowledgment of the truth in this point , according to the scriptures . knowing by sad experience what a miserable condition they are in , who are ignorant of the love of god ; and how chearfully they are drawn out to serve him , who know and are assured that he gave his son to be a propitiation for them ; i have here presented to each impartial reader a familiar discourse concerning the death of our redeemer ; wherein i shall , by the help of jehovah , prove , . that jesus christ did die for all and every man. . how far this extends to all , or what he hath done for all men dying for them : and this i shall do by the express word of the lord , as it is ministred to us by his own spirit , without sophistical syllogisms , dark deductions , consequences , and inferences , ( the onely proofs of those who assert the contrary . ) . i shall also , by the assistance of the lord , produce the reasons which i have found in the scripture , confirming this truth . . i shall ( as i have met with them ) answer the objections brought against it . . i shall make some application of the whole ; wherein i shall take opportunity to shew the soundness and profitableness of this doctrine , the sad consequences and absurdities of the contrary , and endeavour to discover some reasons why so few receive it , and why there is so great opposition made against it . i confess they lie deep ; but the lord in time will help us to a more full manifestation . the occasion of my undertaking of this work , was partly from a nameless paper received from some parish ministers living about bishops castle in shrop-shire ; to which because i knew not to whom to write , i was not careful to return any reply . but especially from the reading of ten printed arguments set out by one m. troughton , ( though suckt from others ) together with several conferences had providentially with many learned men ( as they are accounted ) in england and scotland , about the death of christ , and the controversies which are the constant concomitants of it . my resolution is to be plain , without rhetorical flourishes , and the wisdom which man teacheth . the glory of god is that which i chiefly aim at , ( my conscience bearing me witness ) and next that , the comfort of doubting , and convincing of obdurate spirits . i would intreat the reader to survey this work twice , before he censure once ; to try what is here laid down by the word of god , and hold fast what is good : for that blessing thou findest in it , let jehovah have the glory ; which i again assure thee is the earnest desire of him who is a servant of jesus christ , and his saints in him , and of all his fellow-creatures as he may in the lord , j. b. the answer to mr. troughton's introduction . what the wonder-working jehovah hath spoken of old by his servants the prophets is in these our daies fulfilled : he doth his work , his strange work , and bringeth to pass his act , his strange act . the wisdome of the wise-men doth perish , and the undering of the prudent is hid . it is a marvellous work , and a wonder to see , how they who teach the precepts of the lord by the precepts of men , are taken in their owne craftiness , and have their wisdome taken from them , or turn'd into foolishness ; to behold how they that darken counsel by words without knowledge , who speak wickedly for god and talk deceitfully for him , are snared in their philosophy and vain deceits ▪ in their sophisticated syllogismes and arguments , which they produce against the truth of the eternal god , whilst they seem to take part with it . a strange and eminent manifestation of the hand of god against such , was lately in a most evident manner seen , against one mr. william troughton a minister of the gospel ( as he stiles himself ) at onlep in leicester-shire ; who hath put forth a small treatise intituled scriptvre-redemption restrained and limited . i confess when i first cast mine eye upon this title , i was amazed with admiration , that any should so forget themselves as to restrain and limit the redemption that the scripture holds forth ; that any should set bounds unto ( or imprison ) such a soul-satisfying , soul-sanctifying , soul-saving doctrine as is scripture-redemption . o you that call your selves the ministers of the gospel ! is the spirit of the lord straitened ? are these his doings ? did the spirit of the lord ever say that christ dyed not for all , or that he dyed but for some ? is there any scripture from the beginning of genesis to the end of the revelation that speaks thus ? yet if we should grant that christ laid downe his life onely for a few , and bought onely his saints : i say , if this were scripture-redemption ( as it is not ) mr. troughton hath restrained and limited it . scripture-redemption be it what it will , is by him confin'd and restrain'd ; insomuch that i could scarcely be perswaded in my spirit , but that it was rather the error of the press , then of his pen , or at least that it was rather a slip of his pen , then the error of his minde ; but when i considered ( in the reading of his book ) with what virulency of spirit he opposed such as suffer scripture-redemption to have its due liberty , and how vigorously he bends his hand and head ( at least ) to make good his purpose , even turning aside the texts of scripture which say plainly christ dyed for all , for every man , &c. to make way for his dark consequences and logical conclusions , i ceased to wonder at the presupmtuous folly which therein palpably appeared , and admired the just and signal severity of god against such as in this illustrious sun-shine of gospel-light , oppose his waies , accuse his saints , and bring up an evil report upon that good will of god , which he hath by men and angels manifested in all ages towards mankinde . i have seen in darker daies , that men have usher'd in their fond conceits and saint-reviling pamphlets , with glorious names and soul-blinding inscriptions ; but god so took away his wisdome , that he could not give his book a title that might in the least palliate the perversness of his opinion . the times of ignorance god winked at ; but if after full and fair warning , by the bright appearance of eternal truth , men will not beware , he will leave them to themselves , to foam out their owne shame , and ( as that of jannes and jambres ) so shall their folly be made manifest to all men . oh where was the wisdome of that poor creature who restrained and limited scripture-redemption ? the desire of my soul is , that he may see the error of his way , and repent of his daring presumption . as the name of his book savours of ignorance , so his introduction to it is filled with malice ; as the judicious reader may perceive by those black calumnies and aspersions cast upon my self and others * . as far as they relate to me , i do willingly bear them , and freely forgive ( my lord and master suffered more for my sake ) but for that they intrench upon the truth of god , and reflect upon some pretious saints , i shall endeavour the removal of them , yet freely acknowledging that truth which he upbraids us with , and shewing where he misreports us and misrepresents our words to the world . in the first place , he accuseth us for accounting the dipping or sprinkling of infants an antichristian idol : it 's true , and we have good reason so to judge , when men have set it up as a part of gods worship , without a command from jesus christ ; who would certainly have spoken something of it , if it had been of god , for he was faithful as a son , heb. . . and kept not back any of his fathers counsel from the sons of men . but whereas he sayes we exclude all infants from the covenant of grace , it s utterly false ; for it s by the grace of god in christ that they live ; and we know that to little infants belongs the kingdome of heaven ; and that they who become not as little children , cannot enter into the kingdome of heaven , matthew . . but that they are members of the visible church we deny , and so doth master troughton too , in the third page of his epistle to the reader ; where he hath these very words , visible title to , and interest in the covenant of grace ( consisting in a serious profession of the christian faith , accompanied with a sutable conversation ) is that which constitutes a member of the visible church of christ . if any spiritual soul ever look on mr. troughtons book , i desire they would take notice of this passage , and see how he condemnes us for that which he himself allowes and ownes ; and indeed 't is the purest position of truth drawn up by himselfe , which i have seen in all his book . but that being true ( as indeed it is ) how can infants be visible church-members ? what profession of the faith of christ can they make , and what good or evil can they do ? so that you see mr. troughton contradicts himself ( which is a usual thing , as you shall perceive in the prosecution of this work . ) but fearing lest he should retract his acknowledgment of the truth ( to which he is sometimes very a verse , through the darkness that is in him ) when he perceives it will make to his disadvantage , and stick to that grand error that infants are visible church-members ; i shall onely add this ; . that they who were such in the apostles daies gladly received the word , and were baptized , act. . . . that to every church-member every ordinance of christ doth belong , as breaking of bread , act. . . preaching of the word , col. . . reproof , mat. . , , . judging of points of difference among brethren , cor. . . &c. i wonder why mr. troughton doth not preach to them , break bread with them , reprove them , and set them to judge at least in the things of this life , which are the smallest matters ! for we would gladly know who dares add to , diminish from , or alter , the practice of jesus christ and his apostles , in the constituting of the church of god , or hinder any of his members of their priviledge ? secondly , he saith ( but he saith falsly ) that we hold none to be saints , disciples , or believers , but such as are grown persons , and rebaptiz'd . here he misrepresents our expressions . for first , we are not so silly as to lay down such negative propositions : we say indeed , that as in the dayes of christ , they that did repent and believe the gospel , were baptiz'd and added to the church ; so we are sure they who thus walk now , are visible saints , church-members and disciples , in that they follow the precepts and practice of christ and his apostles ; we account them sheep of christ , or christians , who continue in the word of christ , and keep the ordinances as they were delivered to the churches by the son of god , when they may so enjoy them ; and that they who neglect and despise them when they so may be had , and practise baby-sprinkling , are disobedient to christ , and followers of the pope . in a word , they which faithfully follow that light which god layes before them ; are the beloved of his soul , and pretious in his sight . as for his tearm rebaptize , we neither know nor do we practice any such thing , neither can he prove his accusation against us ; except he can prove that the sprinkling of babes in the face with a little water , be the ordinance of baptisme appointed for us by the lord jesus in his word of truth ; and then we shall owne it , and mr. troughton also in it . thirdly , he accuseth us for baptizing believers into this faith , that christ died for all , &c. to which i answer , if the scriptures say christ dyed for all , i hope mr. troughton hath no just cause to finde fault with us for believing it , except he can prove it to be a crime to believe as the scripture saith ; which kinde of beleiving christ hath made a pretious promise to , joh. . , . and whereas he taxeth us for not joyning with others , which he calls in derision anabaptists ; i wish mr. troughton not to speak evil of what he knows not ; mr. jessey , mr. kiffin , mr. patience , so far as they practice gospel-ordinances , do as closely follow jesus christ , as mr. troughton and others in their baby-sprinkling do antichrist : in a word , we are to joyn with the lord jesus the head of the body , not with men , nor follow them further then they follow christ . fourthly , he accuseth us , saying , that we owne such as christs disciples , who are baptiz'd into our opinion be they never so ignorant and vain , &c. this is a meer scandal : for first , we baptize none but such as in some good measure know their miserable state by sin , the love of god by a saviour ; &c. and as for such as walk in a vain conversation , they are cast off , if they refuse to hear the church . and whereas he saies , we unchurch all that differ from us though never so spiritual , heavenly , experienced christians ; i say , first , as before , that they that walk up to the light which god allows them are his congregation . . that they who have the word of god , and follow christ and his apostles in gospel-obedience , are the church of christ , his disciples and experienced christians , according to the scripture computation , see joh. . . to the fifth accusation ( where he saith , we refuse to hear the ablest and most approved ministers of the gospel , except it be to cavil against them ) i answer , it is not so ; for those that are approved ministers of the gospel ( i mean such as yeeld obedience to to jesus christ in his commands , and follow him in life and doctrine ) we freely hear . but we do not judge them who reject the counsel of god , and teach otherwise then christ and his apostles taught , able and approved ministers of the gospel ; though they talk long and loud , yea though they could speak with the tongue of angels . as for tithe-takers , baby-sprinklers , and parish-ministers , their practice declareth them to be at least in some things popish levitical priests , acting contrary to the precepts and practice of jesus christ , and so antichristian . by the word cavil , i judge he means reason out of the scriptures , and in this we desire to do as we would be done by ; for we never deliver any doctrine publickly , but we are willing publickly to give an account of what we declare to them . and for the serviceableness of those ( whom mr. troughton counts ) able ministers , to the state ; i shall at present be silent , onely adding , that most of us whom mr. troughton traduceth in the margin of his book , have adventured our lives in the service of the commonwealth , and shall again , when thereunto called . sixthly , he accuseth us , as overthrowers of magistracy , and for accounting the parish-priests antichristian persecutors , when they call for the civil power to punish such as would publickly dispute their doctrine and ministery ( he calls it the keeping of order and peace in the congregation , whilst they are about the worship of god , and to prevent cumbustions , &c. ) i answer , this is a meer fiction ; they are sure the magistrates most faithful friends , who desire them to wait on that office which god hath called them to ; and they are enemies to the civil powers , who call to them to do that which is not appertaining to their duty . now we desire the magistrate as a magistrate , to exercise his power in its proper place : as for example , if any had been at odeby , or are elsewhere stickers , or breakers of the peace by any means , god hath ordained the powers that are , for the punishment of such evil doers . but if any do desire to reason out of the scriptures about the worship of the most high god ; they that call to the magistrate to punish such , or by the civil sword to stop their mouths , are antichristian persecutors , yea tyrants over the consciences of their fellow creatures ; and those magistrates who shall ( at the request of such tyrants ) exercise their authority against such as seek to finde out the truth by disputing , with the false ministery ( if they take not heed betimes ) will be overthrown by the might of the lord , as they have been before them , who were acted by the popish , prelatical , and classical clergy , and executed their designes . sure it was not evil in christ and his apostles , to dispute with the doctors and learned men in the temple and synagouges , to hear them and ask them questions . and i doubt not but many of our magistrates are so wise , as not to judge it a contempt of authority to discuss things wherein we differ in matters of religion : if they shall , how differs our condition from what it was under the bishops ? if i , or any of those teachers whom mr. trough . opposeth and reproacheth as anabaptists , should call to the arm of flesh to hinder any sober man from asking us a question about our doctrine ( even in the midst of an exercise ) we should act contrary to our lord christ , for he never did so ; and let mr. troug . or the learnedst doctor in this island , try and see whether we shall be troubled at his so doing . but it s the property of false teachers to shun disputes , for falshood hath need of corners . seventhly , he accuseth us for suffering ignorant men ( as he calls them ) to teach and baptize , &c. and for accounting these the faithful ministers of christ . this is very untrue , for there are none admitted into any congregation that i know , ( amongst those whom mr. through . professeth himself to oppose ) as members ( much less as teachers ) but such as give a faithful account of the principles of the doctrine of christ ( the orderly walking in which , mr. trough . and many of his tribe call heresie . ) but i perceive he is much troubled because some of his neighbors , who are husbandmen or tradesmen , do sometimes preach the gospel ; and blots the margine of his book with the infamy which he thinks to cast on them . why may not husbandmen preach aswel as an excise-mans clark , &c. however they know , and can prove by the scriptures , that christ is their redeemer , and that 's more then mr. trough . can do , by all his qualifications and consequences . eightly , he accuseth us for holding that there is no true and lawful minister of christ in england , &c. here first he belyes us , for we say with the scriptures , that christ is to the end of the world with all those who observe and teach others to observe what he hath commanded , mat. . ult . and whosoever abideth in the doctrine of christ , the same hath both the father and the son , joh. vers . . . he mistakes us , for we onely say that the ministers of the church of england ( alias parish priests ) are not the ministers of christ gifted or called according to the rule of the new testament , for they take tithes , sprinkle babes , preach before they are baptized , stand praying in the synagogues , &c. which christ never required , but rather prohibited ; and cry down the baptism of believers , separation in worship , &c. as heretical ; though both of them by practise and precept from jesus christ . . he contradicts himself ( as in his usual manner ) for in his former accusation , he says , we hold them ( whom he calls ignorant ) to be christs faithful ministers ( and indeed he is not far from truth . ) and here he sayes , we hold there is no true ministry according to the rule of the new testament . what he would say truly , is this , we hold there are none so excellently qualified and furnished as the apostles were , for the work of the lord in the ministration of gospel-light ; if there be , let us know where they are . ninthly , he sayes , we publish our corrupt doctrines and opinions in the places where the saints abide , and invade the pulpit , &c. it seems then we are willing to be tryed by the light of truth , and are not ashamed of the gospel of christ , which mr. trough . calls corrupt doctrines , &c. ( i wish him to be more wary in his words . ) if to affirm that christ dyed for all , and that believers are the only capable subjects of baptisme , be corrupt opinions , then we promote corrupt opinions ; but if this be the counsel of god , and the words of the holy ghost , mr. trough . railes not on us , but the living god , whose service we desire to profess and abide in . but if i declared any corrupt doctrine at mount-sorrel and odeby , why did not mr. trough . shew wherein , as i desired him , being then present ? and as for invading the pulpit , he might have left that out , for when at the request of some in mountsorrel i stood up to declare the gospel ( hearing that he who was expected that day could not come , as mr. trough . knows ) i came down and gave mr. trough . the pulpit , upon his promise , that he would afterwards grant me there a conference ; which promise of his he most shamefully brake , and would not stay to give an account of any thing that he had spoken . tenthly , he chargeth us with usual disturbing the faithful ministers of christ , by putting on our hats in time of prayer ▪ &c. and by procuring some of the common souldiery to guard us with their swords , &c. in answer to which , i have told mr. trough . both by word and writing , that if he can prove himself a minister of christ according to the rule of the new testament , and that mixt multitude a society of saints , or that ever christ or his apostles did pray in the synagogues before and after sermon . i shall acknowledge a fault , and give publike satisfaction ; if not , i shall persist in so doing , till he or some other that findes fault with me can do it . and whereas he says , i brought some of the common souldiery , &c. there 's not a tittle of truth in it , indeed there were many civil gentlemen there out of captaine glyns and captains johnsons troopes ( being then quartered at leicester ) and when some of them were revil'd and stricken , they did neither revile nor strike againe ; and it may easily be proved that if they had not been there , we had had more fists about our ears then our own . the eleventh charge he brings against us , is , that we daringly challenge the ministers of christ to dispute , &c. will observe no order . &c. this is a thing that we know not : for my part , i never challenged any minister of christ to dispute , but once as i remember , and that was when i was a parish-priest and minister of antichrist ( as many now are ) and the lord in mercy made that man an instrument to reveal to me the principles of the doctrine of christ ; and the beginings of that blessed gospel-light , which i now through grace walk in . i could wish that all the parish-ministers would seek to dispute with those they count hereticks ( i mean such as walk in obedience to the commands of christ ) till they sped no worse then i did . but it seems we dare dispute , so doth not mr. trough . nor his brethren the parish-ministers ; and for order , we shall observe any that the scripture approves of , onely popish formalities we are utterly against . in the twelth place , he complaines , that we quarrel with them for praying before and after sermon . to this i have given satisfaction in my answer to his tenth charge . in his thirteenth are many gross slanders together , for ( whereas mr. trough . chargeth us with an absolute denyal of original sin ) we teach that adams offence in the garden was the first sin , and that we being all in his loines who sinned , became subject to corruption ; yea judgement came thereby on all men to condemnation . and as for gods absolute decree ( which he most falsly sayes we scoffe at ) we hold that god hath from the beginning chosen to salvation such as obey the truth through the spirit , and of old ordained to condemnation ungodly men turning the grace of god into wantonness ; even all such as by the goodness of god are not led to repentance . what he means by free-will , i know not ; but we hold that god hath given to his creatures , out of the riches of his free mercy , ability and liberty , one time or , other to performe whatsoever he requires them to believe and do . and whereas he sayes , we preach for falling away ( to use mr. trough . own tearms ) it is most untrue , for we preach for holding fast by jesus christ , and warn , admonish , and beseech the saints to take heed lest any of them fall from the grace of god , or by an evil heart of unbelief depart from him , heb. . . to the fourteenth ( where he taxeth us for bringing the saints into bondage , by disswading them from frequenting the parish-assemblies and exercises ; ) i answer . most of those whom he in derision calls our followers , have heard him and other parish-preachers , till they were weary of their soul-distracting and self-contradicting doctrines . neither is it we , but the lord who commands both us and them , to come out from babel , to be separate , and to avoid , and turn away from them that cause divisions contrary to the doctrine delivered by christ and his apostles ; not to receive to house , nor bid such god speed , ( yea and though he were an apostle or an angel from heaven ) to hold such accursed as bring any other gospel or doctrine , then what hath been preached by the lord jesus . and such i am sure are our tithe-taking , mercenary parish-ministers , who teach men to sprinkle babes , and to believe that christ dyed not for all , &c. gospel and doctrine , which never came out of the mouth of our blessed redeemer ; yet we will hear you , if you will but give a reason of what you say to dissatisfied spirits ; otherwise we should bring our selves into bondage , if you will neither answer us nor let us go . blessed be our god , we can hear christ and his apostles preach , search the scriptures , prove their doctrine , and receive satisfaction , and they are not offended at us . the fifteenth article of mr. troughtons charge against us , is a meer cavil and groundless surmise upon his own mistake , for he using some vilifying and contemptful language to one that had been a souldier and commander in the states service , after long silence and bearing his imperious checks , the party told him he had shewed his face in the defence of his country , where mr. trough . durst not appear . but if ever i finde mr. trough . charging an enemy for his nations just liberty , i shall assure him of all submissive satisfaction . but upon this he chargeth us of giving out threatning language . and by this you may see the weight of mr. troughtons complaints . his sixteenth accusation is a gross falsity : for , he saith , that we are ready to make insurrection upon them , when they fight against our opinions with scripture-weapons , and that some of us have beaten some of their hearers ; which till mr. trough . prove , and bring the offender to condign punishment , i shall only say this , that the religion of that man who bridleth not his tongue , is but vain , jam. . . the contrary to mr. trough . accusation is true , for whereas he sayes , our design is to pull down the powerful ministry of christ ) our desires and endeavours are and shall be by the lords assistance , to set it up , even such ministers as are obedient to every command of christ , keep the ordinances as they were delivered by him , and are enabled by the spirit of god through the scriptures to preach the gospel , without stealing the word from their neighbors , and scraping and scribling their sermons out of popish postillers , ancient fathers , ( as they call them ) and commentators ; but as for all national , parochial tithe-taking , hireling , baby-sprinkling-ministers , we know they are plants which our heavenly father hath not planted , and will be rooted up . the lord is mercy by his word , root them up out of the dunghil of their errors , that they may be rooted and built up in jesus christ . in the last place , mr. trough . accuseth us for holding the truth in love , though he alter our expressions ; for t is true , we do deny , that any can infallibly prove that christ dyed for him or her in particular , but by the testimony of the spirit of god in the scriptures : if they can let them bring forth their witnesses . i am sure that 's an infallible evidence , being the witness of god ; and all other spirits , qualifications , and witnesses are fallible , false , without foundation , and are built upon the bottomless pit . and we do affirme that they who can and do by the scriptures prove that christ dyed for them , are built upon a sure foundation ( even the doctrine of the prophets and apostles . ) they may by such a testimony , if profane , come to be convinced and converted , if of a sadned spirit , to be comforted : some come thus to be delivered out of the bondage of sin , others out of the bands of sorrow . it puts a check to the presumptuous sinner , and lifts up the head of the despairing soul ; and though cain , pharaoh , judas , and millions of men deny the lord that bought them , and bring upon themselves swift destruction yet that no whit abateth the comfort of the saints , who know and believe the love that the father hath to them . i'ts but a fleeting inconstant comfort for a man to believ that which he hath no assurance of , to believe that christ dyed for him before he know it beyond the reach of doubting ; for of necessity it must be , that he believes he knows not what . when we say that men cannot certainly and comfortably conclude that christ dyed for them , but by the word of the living god , ( which says christ dyed for all ) and for want of this proof , are in any kinde of bondage and trepidation of spirit , we do it not to upbraid them , but in love and tenderness of soul to free and refresh them ; and therefore mr. trough . did very ill ( as i judge ) to bring in this as a crime against us : but hatred for goodwill is the portion of such as follow christ . and withall you may see the spirits of men , how they seek a knot in a rush , any thing to make the persons of men odious . surely they that shew their teeth against those that love them , would ( if they had power ) bite , yea devour such as they hate , and count enemies for telling them the truth . and if mr. trough . did not hate us , he would never cry out so to the magistrates , and bring railing accusations against us , and shun conference with us , but would endeavour to debate soberly the points in difference , render a reason of his hope , and hear ours . but i leave this to the lord , and the impartial readers consideration ▪ because i hasten to the work , only i shall add a saying of solomons , he that is first in his own cause seemeth just , but his neighbour cometh and searcheth him , prov. . . pag. . ( through a mistake called pag. . ) lin . . for justification read sanctification . the literal or figural faults i desire the readers to pass by or correct with their pens . scripture-redemption freed from restraint . i have heard and read some conferences and controversies concerning the death of christ and the effects of it : but remaining dis-satisfied in part with what men have said and written on both sides , i have put forth this to publike view , that so they who have any thing to say for or against what i have held forth , may publish also their approbation or dislike , in order to the investigation of the clear and soul-establishing truth in this point . for my part , i am satisfied that we shall be judged at the last day by the word that christ hath spoken , which some call the letter of the scriptures , and which i say are able to make us wise to salvation , tim. . . and not according to the comments and glosses which men have put upon them . i know also , that christ died for our sins , according to be scriptures , cor. . . and therefore , by the conduct of that spirit which gave them to us , shall begin to prove by these , that christ died , or tasted death , for all and every man ; and after , give my reasons why i so judge . yet before i come to lay down these . i shall shew you how i hold this point , and what christ dying hath done for every man. the first scripture which i shall present to your consideration , is isai . . . all we like sheep have gone astray ; we have turned every one to his own way : and the lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all . now indeed , if there be any that have not gone astray , or any that have not turned to their own way , then christ bare not their iniquity : but if the contrary be true , and all men , yea all mankinde , have gone out of the way , it will undoubtedly follow , that the burden of their iniquity was laid on jesus christ . a second text of scripture is joh. . . behold the lamb of god , which taketh ( or beareth ) away the sin of the world . by iniquity of us all , and sin of the world , in these two texts mentioned , i understand the sins against the first testament , sins of ignorance , sins committed before conversion , or before we knew good or evil , the one or first offence of adam , which some call original sin ; as i shall in this ensuing discourse by the lords assistance endeavour to make plain to each impartial and humble soul . another text for the proof of this , is joh. . . god so loved the world , that he gave his onely begotten son , that whosoever believeth on him should not perish , but have eternal life . compare this with acts . . a fourth plain and positive proof of this truth , is joh. . . latter part : and the bread that i will give , is my flesh , which i will give for the life of the world . sutable to this , is that , joh. . . the next place of scripture to be considered , is cor. . . . the love of christ constraineth us , because we thus judge , that if one died for all , then were all dead ; and that he died for all , that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves , but to him that died for them ▪ and rose again . where it is evident , that the great love of jesus christ constrained the apostle to judge two things , viz. that all were dead , and that he died for all . the apostle paul , tim. . . . says thus : there is one god , and one mediator between god and man , the man christ jesus ; who gave himself a ransome for all , to be testified in due time . the seventh place of scripture plainly proving the truth of this glad tidings , is tit. . . for the grace of god that bringeth salvation to all men , hath appeared . a clear proof of this we have also , heb. . . later part : that he by the grace of god should taste death for every man , or every one . in the ninth place , you have an evident testimony to this truth , joh. . . who is the propitiation for our sins , and not for ours onely , but for the sins of the whole world . the tenth and last positive proof of this great love of god in christ , lies in two texts , viz. joh. . . i lay down my life for the sheep : and . pet. . . but there were false prophets among the people , as there shall be false teachers among you , who shall privily bring in damnable heresies , even denying the lord that bought them , and bring upon themselves swift destruction . and thus ( in stead of fallible arguments which men make by mis-understanding the scriptures ) i have produced ten positive proofs which we finde written in the word of truth , in express terms declaring that christ died , laid down his life , tasted death for , and bought all and every man , the world , the whole world , the sheep , and those that deny him , and shall be destroyed . and whether you that read these things will believe mr. troughton's ten arguments , or the express word of the eternal god , chuse ye . but perchance some may say , though these scriptures say that christ died for all , &c. yet they mean otherwise . i answer , first , by a querie , whether we shall be judged by the word as it speaks , or as men say it means ? secondly , if the word in this means otherwise then it speaks , we make god like the worst of men ; which god forbid : and withal , men are to blame for reading it to us otherwise then it means . object . but all and every man do not always signifie every individual . answ . although the words all and every man do not everywhere intend every individual , yet in many places it doth : and that it so signifies when the death of christ is treated of , i shall hereafter ( by the assistance of jehovah ) prove by undeniable reasons . secondly , although all and every , and the word world are sometimes taken for a part of the whole ; yet the whole world is never taken but for all sinners ; as joh. . . and joh. . . but how comes it to pass , ( may some say ) if this be so clear a truth , that so many godly learned men are of another opinion , and maintain that christ did not die for all ? answ . letting alone their godliness and learning , i answer , that they who hold the truth in righteousness , are , and ever were , the smaller number . secondly , some have taken up their judgements on trust , without searching the scriptures : others have searched them partially , to maintain an opinion before taken up from others . and some few searching seriously and sincerely , have been mistaken , in that they have not rightly divided the word of truth , neither distinguished betwixt the first and second man , the first and second testament ; the offence of adam , and our actual sins ; the first and second death : but affirm , that by adam's one offence the second death came on him and all mankinde : they divide not betwixt life and life , justification and justification , sanctification and sanctification ; nor have they opened the nature of election , redemption , reconciliation , and salvation , according to the scriptures . i shall therefore , by the help of god , endeavour ( as briefly as possibly i can ) to discover what death came through adam's offence ) and to handle these scripture-terms , election , redemption , &c. so as that men may come clearly to see the foundation of that darkness , ignorance and errour that hath been amongst the sons of men about the death of christ : for most men following the steps of their fellow-creatures , have jogged on in the common road of tradition ; not weighing well what the word of truth speaks , concerning these most weighty matters . and that i may the more profitably clear up these things , and make the way to them the more plain , i shall desire the reader to consider what by all is acknowledged who truely confess the deity , that there is a twofold manifestation of the love of god to and amongst men ; the one universal , and the other particular or special , ( answerable to his general and special presence and providence : ) the former is called the good will of god. sutable to this , is that , luk. . . good will towards men ; and that , psal . . . the lord is good to all , &c. not willing that any should perish . pet. . . the other is that love by which he is said to delight and take pleasure in some ; as prov. . . the upright in their way are his delight ; and psal . . . the lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him , and such as hope in mercy . the first is called the good will , or his love of good will ; the later his delight , or love of delight . the former is every way free , and every man and woman ( as the scripture and experience shews ) are partakers of it : the latter is conditional ; and onely they that fear the lord have interest in it . according to the former , there is election , creation , redemption , reconciliation , justification , sanctification , vocation , and salvation , of and to every man and woman : according to the latter , onely of and to a part of the sons and daughters of adam . and let me desire the reader to forbear rash censures and prejudice , till he hath considerately perused and pondered what i shall here present concerning these things . but before i come to treat of these precious words , i shall endeavour , according to that light and strength which the lord hath lent to me , to remove one grand obstruction which doth hinder many from understanding how christ died for all ; and that is that conceit and received opinion , that for the first offence god condemned adam and all his posterity to the second death , which is the lake of fire and brimstone . for the doing whereof , i shall lay before you the principal proofs that men produce for their judgement in this point : secondly , their mis-interpretations of those proofs , contrary to scripture and sound reason . thirdly what the word of the eternal god saith concerning the sin of adam in eating , and the punishment that was inflicted for eating the forbidden fruit . the first testimony they bring forth , is eph. . , , . you hath he quickned , who were dead in trespasses and sins , wherein in time past ye walked , according to the course of this world , according to the prince of the power of the air , the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience : among whom also we all had our conversation in time past , in the lusts of our flesh fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the minde ; and were by nature children of wrath even as others . from whence some conclude ( as formerly i have done ) that adam and all his posterity , through his eating of the forbidden tree , were condemned to the second death . and to confirm this their conclusion , they say that by nature is meant nativity or birth , and by wrath the second death ; not considering that wrath is often taken for the anger of god denounced and inflicted here against sin and sinners ; as psal . . . and so 't is used above fourty times in scripture : or that nature is never taken for nativity : neither is it mentioned as a thing that is evil , vile , or sinful of it self , but a help to the doing of things contained in the law , rom. . . a teacher of good things , cor. . . i confess , men do corrupt and abuse nature , sin against it , and transgress her laws : so they do the word of god , cor. . . yet the word of god is not therefore evil , because it is corrupted by men . and truely if nature had been so vile a wicked thing as some say , christ would never have taken our natures upon him . take briefly what i judge the scriptures hold forth clearly for the opening of this text , which in the least props not up their opinion . by wrath , i understand gods anger or displeasure against sin : so heb. . . and by nature , i understand partly the substance or the matter of which god hath made us , and the members of which are written in his book ; which , though through adam's sin they are subject to corruption , death , or perishing in the grave ; yet they are not vile and wicked in themselves : for even the matter and form of them ( being from god by way of creation and appointment ) are good . but principally , by nature the scriptures hold forth the light which god hath placed in man , as it 's clear from rom. . . they did things against nature ; and rom. . . when they do by nature the things contained in the law ; that is , by that light or law which is written in their hearts . and withal , considering that the text now under consideration speaks of some dead in trespasses and sins , wherein they had walked , following the devil , and fulfilling their lusts ; we may conclude , that by nature is not meant birth : neither can it comprehend all mankinde , forasmuch as infants have not so walked . but this may be evidently seen in the text , that whilst paul , or the ephesians , or any others walked in sins , followed the course and counsel of the devil , fulfilled the desires of the flesh and of the minde , they were dead in trespasses and sins , children of disobedience , and by nature children of wrath even as others . nature ( or the light set up in their hearts by the lord ) did accuse them , and present to their understandings the anger and displeasure of god , and speak wrath to them , even as it did and still doth to others : so that as the law worketh wrath ( rom. . . ) to them that transgress it ; so nature worketh wrath to those that do things against her , and maketh their consciences to accuse them , rom. . , . yea doth not your own experience tell you that when you do evil , there is a light within that discovers it into you , yea that chides and checks you , yea that terrifies you , and flasheth wrath in your faces ? this is nature : and when you find it is thus with you , know that ye are by nature children of wrath . thus you see how the first text which they produce to prove that all men were condemn'd to the second death for adam's sin ( called the one offence ) speaks no such thing . the second text which i have heard alleadged for their opinion , is , rom. . . for the wages of sin is death : whence i and others have concluded ( but very absurdly ) that for adams one offence he and all his posterity were adjudg'd to the second death . but consider what is written in the verse , as ye have yeelded your members servants to unrighteousness ; and in the verse , what fruit had ye of those things whereof ye are now ashamed ? for the end of those things is death ; and then let any sober soul , that is not wise above what is written , judge whether the apostle doth in the least mind the romans of adam's offence , or whether he doth not wholly treat of the sin done in their own bodies , and thence conclude that the wages of sin is death ; and implies , that if they had gone on in such sins , they should have had eternal death their wages . object . but if it be yet objected , that the wages of any sin is death ; answ . i grant it : but the wages of any sin is not every kind of death ; for by adam's offence comes the first death , or mortality over all , ( for adam by his offence becoming mortal , could not beget an immortal creature ; for he begat a son in his own likeness , gen. . . mortal , mutable , and the sins which men commit against that gracious god ( who giveth life , and breath , and all things ( through his son ) not confessed and forsaken , bring the second death . so you see also how this text of eternal truth ( wrested of men , and forced to speak what they would have it ) doth not prove what they affirm ( viz. ) that adam and all mankind were for his own offence condemn'd to the lake of fire and brimstone , which is the second death ; but speaketh wholly of that which we usually call actual sins . the third and last text which hath been alleadged for this conceit , is rom. . . as by the offence of one , judgement came upon all men to condemnation ; even so by the righteousness of one came the free gift upon all men to the justification of life . whence they conclude ( as i have done in the dayes of ignorance ) that adam and all his sons and daughters that ever were , are , or shall be , for the eating of the forbidden fruit , were condemned to the lake of fire &c. but very falsly , as you shall soon see : for , . if condemnation here be to the second death , and justification of life , endless glory , as they say it is , then none shall be damned at the appearing of jesus christ : for the text says , as by the offence of one &c. condemnation ; even so by the righteousness of one ▪ &c. life . but to avoyd this , they have devised this shift , that though all men in the former part of the verse signifies the whole lump of mankind , yet all in the latter part of the verse intends only some of them . but how they found out this witty speculation , i do not know ; for-the words are plain , and clear as the sun in the brightest noon-day , as by the offence of one , all men to condemnation ; even so , &c. all men to the justification of life ; i judge therefore that the ground of their mistake is the same which once was the cause of mine , in this point , even the want of skill rightly to divide the word of truth , and to distinguish between justification by blood , and justification through faith ; and betwixt the life that now is , and that which is to come ( as i shall plainly demonstrate , when i come to treat of justification according to the scriptures , and as i have before promised . ) in the mean space i confess i cannot but admire how i was , and some yet are , so besotted as to say that all in one part of the text is shorter then in the other , when the spirit of god says even so &c. surely to make that odde ( i mean longer or shorter ) which god hath made even ; to add to , or diminish from his word , is dangerous presumption . what i understand by this scripture , i shall therefore breifly lay before you , thus : as by adams offence all men were condemn'd to dye , so by jesus christ ( being justified from that offence ) they do all live , and shall rise againe from the grave : and this agreeth with other scriptures ; col. . . by him all things consist ; compared with john . . cor. . , . for since by man [ came ] death , by man [ came ] the resurrection of the dead : for as in adam all dye , even so by christ shall all be made alive . rom. . . as by one mans disobedience many were made sinners ; so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous : by which i understand , that many ( even all mankinde ) were made sinners by the imputation of adams sin ; and by christ's obedience ( even to death on the cross , phil. . . ) many ( even all mankinde ) were made righteous , ( i. e. cleared and acquitted from that which was imputed to them in adam ) and this shall be testified in due time , when all men shall rise again from the dust , freed from their sin , and stand before the lord , to give an account for the things done in their own bodies . i do believe , that if we had not had a ransome , the whole lump of mankinde had perished for ever in the first death : but there is not one text of scripture that speaks any thing of punishment in the second death for adam's fault : men may endeavour to prove such a thing by dark consequences ; but there can be found no plain text or sound reason for it : for first of all , god did not threaten it , gen. . . speaking thus : in the day that thou eatest thereof , thou shalt surely die ; or , dying thou shalt die . secondly , god when he came to give sentence upon disobedient adam , makes no mention of it , ( certainly he pronounced that judgement which he threatned ) gen. . . to the . onely thus : because thou hast hearkned to the voice of thy wife , and hast eaten , &c. dust thou art , and to dust thou shalt return . when a judge shall condemn a man to be burnt in the hand for some offence , if the standers by shall go away and report that he condemned him to be burnt at a stake to ashes , it would be both bold and ridiculous , yea perhaps punishable : and if so to mis-report the judgement of a man that must die , how much more to mis-interpret or mis-represent the sentence of a righteous and immortal god ? thirdly , we read , rom. . . every man shall give an account of himself to god ; and cor. . . all must appear before the judgement-seat of christ , and receive according to the things done in their own body , according to what they have done , whether good or bad . read and consider joh. . . pet. . . rev. . , . fourthly , the lord hath sworn that the childe shall not die for the iniquity of the father , jer. . . . ezek. . . in the resurrection we all believe that infants , even dying a day old , shall have their part ; who cannot be said by any sober spirit to have any sin to answer for , but what was through adam imputed to them : and if they shall then die the second time , or second death , for that sin , then the lords oath is in vain , which god forbid : i had rather believe the lords oath , then mans vain words ; yea , let god be true , and every man a lyer , who by their ignorance hold forth as if god doth condemn infants twice for adam's sin : first , to the grave ; then , to the second death . fifthly , from the second death there is no redemption or deliverance : see luke . . between us and you there is a great gulf fixed so that they who would pass from hence to you , cannot ; neither can they pass to us , that would come from thence : which quite crosseth that fond opinion of some , who think that at the day of judgement men shall come out of the place of torments , to stand in the presence of god to receive their doom . i know that hell , i. e. the grave , shall then give up her dead , and the dead shall rise and stand before the throne ; but it 's not said they shall come out of the second death to be judged . sixthly if adam and all his posterity were for the first offence ( by some called original sin ) condemned to the second death , then , to redeem him from it , christ must die the second death , or by his death prevent something that adam brought upon himself and his posterity . the one he could not ; the other he did not : and i challenge the whole world to prove either of them by scripture ; though i know there be that boldly affirm such things , viz. that christ , to save the world endured the torments which the damned shall for ever endure in hell . lastly , the scripture doth nowhere make mention of any other death for eating of the prohibited tree , but the first death ; and therefore the second death comes not for that transgression . that which is written , is for our learning ; but men not content with this , have sought out many arguments to prove their judgements , and so have clouded up the truth from themselves and others , and have affirmed that adam was a spiritual man , his paradise spiritual , his state spiritual and a state of salvation , the tree spiritual , and many such unwritten things , contrary to the scriptures , which affirm that the first man was natural , or earthly , cor. . , . and that there is no salvation in any other but christ . acts . . who was not promised when adam fell ; with many other places directly opposing their fancies . however , some that would fain be wise above what is written , have raised so much dust and darkness , that they cannot see how it 's possible that christ should die for all men , seeing all receive not spiritual life and eternal salvation ( by his death ) which they think adam lost : and indeed , i see not how they can , until they see what adam was , ( a natural man ) and what he lost , ( a precious pleasant garden ) and whither he was condemned , ( viz. to the dust . ) and if they would but open their eyes to see these things , they might easily discern the truth of the other , although spiritual life and eternal glory be not enjoyed by all adam's posterity . and for the further clearing up of this , i proceed ( by the help of god , to shew you , as before resolved , what the word of truth holds forth concerning election , creation , &c. under a twofold consideration ; universal , and special . ( cast not away these things because strange , but prove them whether they be true . ) i begin first with election , which is god's loving , regarding , or setting his heart upon lost mankinde , and ordaining or appointing them to serve him ; and such as serve him , to be saved : and is general , or particular . general , thus : when angels and men were fallen from their first estate , he chose neither the disobedient angels , in whom folly was found , nor any other creature ; but he set his heart upon man , job . . and psal . . . what is man , that thou takest knowledge of him ; or the son of man , that thou makest account of him ? now what account did he make of man ? why thus : he so regarded that poor lost creature , that he chose or appointed him to live in this world , to stand in his sight , and serve him : but withal mark this , that the affection he bare to him , and the account he made of him , was by and through christ ( the lamb slain from the foundation of the world ) in ( or by ) whom he chose man to be holy and without blame before him in love . if any shall say , that that 's spoken of the apostle paul , and the saints at ephesus ; i grant it : but withal , i would willingly know whether he hath chosen , appointed or ordained any man to be unholy , and blameable &c. or whether there be a middle choice or appointment of god ? if there be , shew it . sure i think there is no man that hath not parted with his reason that will so far dishonour him that gave it to him as to say that god hath fore-ordained , chosen , or appointed any to be unholy or unclean , as they were men and women ; onely when they reject his counsel , he gives them up to their own hearts lusts , and leaves them many times to themselves , having waited long to be gracious , yea upon some a very long time . but some have i heard affirm most confidently , that god did appoint men to be disobedient : that as he appointed some to the means of salvation , so he appointed others to the means of damnation , which is sin : and that all the unbelief and disobedience of men is committed by the decree and appointment of god , as well as foreknown to him . to whom i answer : surely these are some of those hard speeches and ungodly words spoken of , jude vers . . which god will one day come to convince men of , and punish for , if they repent not . for , first , i querie , whether unbelief and disobedience be simply sins ? if they be , then god hath appointed , decreed , and ordained men to that which is simply sin . oh horrid blasphemy , and impudent impiety ! secondly , it will follow ▪ that men shall be damned for doing of that which god hath appointed them to do . or else , thirdly , they must with the ranters say , that nothing is sin or evil . or lastly , they must hold that none shall be damned : for he that doth the will of god , must enter into the kingdom of heaven . now all conclude , that they who believe and obey , do the will of god : and if such as refuse and rebel do the will of god also , ( as these men say ) then they shall enter into the kingdom of heaven . this is fine doctrine for ranters , atheists , and all ungodly men . but ( say some ) the appointment , decree , or ordination of god , are twofold ; preceptive , and permissive : it 's not the preceptive decree of god that men should sin , but it is his permissive decree . although the distinction be groundless , yet i answer , first , we are not speaking about what god doth permit or suffer wicked men to do , but what he foreordain'd or appointed them to do . secondly , a permissive decree , appointment , or ordination , is neither grammatical nor rhetorical sense . thirdly , if by permitting , you mean that god suffers men to live , or doth not destroy men whilest they are committing sin . i grant it ; and that such as shimei , ahab , the sabeans , judas , &c. men of belial , which despising the spirit of grace , have followed the devil , are justly by jehovah left to be carried captive by him at his will , so that they do the will of their father the prince of darkness i also grant it : but doth it therefore follow , that he did thus appoint or ordain them to such wicked actions , as if a man having several imployments , and many servants , should chuse some for this service , and others for that ? if any shall affirm that god did appoint , ordain , or chuse some to obey , and some to disobey , i utterly deny it . object . but is it not so said , pet. . . that they were appointed to be disobedient ? answ . no ; neither can any humble , spiritual , or rational man gather up such a thing from that pretious text of truth ; which sayes thus , that christ is a stone of stumbling , and a rock of offence to such as stumble at the word being disobedient , whereunto also they were appointed . now i would know whether they were appointed to be obedient or disobedient ? to the word , or to disobedience ? i see clearly in the text , that they were appointed , set , or put to the word , and they stumbled at it , being disobedient ; and for this they were discommended : whenas rather had they been appointed or chosen to be disobedient , they ought to be commended for doing that to which they were chosen . godly tindal , in his translation of the bible , comes nearer the original thus , being disobedient to that whereon they were set , or , whereto they were put : they were set upon , and put to christ and the word , as to the rock of ages ▪ and teacher of truth ; but they stumbled at christ and the word , being imperswasible to what they were even put , saies the original . object . but some will say , that god foreknew all the wickednesses that ever were , are , or shall be . answ . i grant it : but will any be so void of reason as to say , therefore he appointed it , and chose out or ordained one man to adultery , another to murther ? &c. for be it from any sober spirit thus to imagine . christ foreknew ( and so did the father ) that judas would betray jesus ; doth it follow that god appointed judas hereunto ? is it not said , ioh. . . that the devil put in the heart of iudas to betray iesus ? and that iudas by transgression fell , acts . . surely it could not be a transgression , if god chose or foreappointed him to do it , except you will say that god preordain'd men to transgress and do wickedly . object . but it is sayed , acts . , . if a truth , lord , against thy child iesus both herod and pontius pilate , with the gentiles and people of israel , were gathered together , for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determin'd before to be done . first , i ask , what was it that the hand and counsel of the lord determin'd to be done or brought to pass ? that the iews and gentiles should betray and murther christ , say some . but if there be no scripture that saith so , we must not believe mens sayings , and expositions : for as touching the treason you heard before , ioh. . . and as touching the murder , read i beseech you ioh. . from . to . ye seek to kill me , says christ , &c. vers . . ye are of your father the devil , he was a murderer from the beginning &c. therefore , say i , that which the hand and counsel of the lord determin'd , was the redemption and salvation of mankinde , the revelation of his will : see ioh. . , . ioh. . . and . ioh. . . the . . and . chap. and . . with many others . but secondly , i answer , this in act. . , , . is clearly expounded in act. . . where the holy ghost holds forth gods counsel and their sin in a most plain manner : first , his love , in delivering or giving his son ; secondly , their sin in that they took him , and with wicked hands crucified and slew him . object . but were not these things prophesied of ? answ . this is the same with the former ; i shall onely add this , that the foretelling of mens wicked actings is nowhere called the decreeing of them ; it shews that god , who foreknowes all things , foreknew them : and if any shall say that his foreknowledg and decree is all one they make god the full , perfect and absolute author of sin ; for he fully , and perfectly , and absolutely foreknew all the sins that ever were , are , or shall be committed by the sons of men . to say therefore that he predetermin'd them , is not only ignorantly to confound his foreknowledge and decrees , but presumptuously to belch out high blasphemy against the highest mercy , justice , and majesty . object . but yet , say some , did not he bid shimei curse david ? answ . that doth not say that god did decree or fore-appoint him to it : so david sayes , i shall one day perish by the hand of saul , sam. . . this was his infirmity . . shimei it seemes , was a man of a perverse spirit , sam. . . and the lord left him to himself : so he is said to harden pharaohs heart ; and men have often ascribed that to god as bidding , which he did not hinder men from doing : which is a very sad state , when ephraim , or any soul , is let alone , and for sin forsaken . . david being sensible of his great sins , saw a chastisement from god by shimei's malicious tongue ; and that which was of punishment or correction for sin , either to shimei cursing , or david cursed , was from god : but if you read sam. . . and compare it with chron. . . you may see the more clearly how to open such texts . lastly , i answer , if we shall understand this place otherwise then of gods giving up the perverse man to the perversness of his owne counsel , we must say that it's gods preceptive decree that men should curse ; which the objector would seem to shun , and yet content to have granted , although it be contrary to his owne distinction . but if still any shall argue that god did decree his cursing , by permitting of it , i say he did no otherwise permit it then david did , in not cutting him off ; and that 's far from decreeing it . object . one objection more i shall answer , which is this : some say that god cannot be denied to be the author of sin in every sense , because it 's say'd , amos . . shall there be evill in the city , and the lord hath not done it ? and isa . . . i form the light and create darkness . i make peace and create evill : i the lord do all these things . answ . he that will read ier. . . chap. . . and . . with many other places , may easily see that the evil that god bringeth on a city is war , famine , pestilence , &c. but if wicked men could bring god to be the decreer , commander , and actor of sin , they were then safe enough ; but all such will be found lyers in the day of the lord jesus . these objections are the pillars of atheism and ranterism : and if such as say that christ never dyed for all , and that he decreed the disobedience of the creatures , follow their principles up to the height , they will in time either be reconciled to such , or die in despaire . these things ( being seriously considered by humble hearts ) will let them see that god never ordain'd , appointed , or chose men to unbeliefe and disobedience , nor ever left them to themselves ( which they call permitting of sin ) till their perverse hearts resisted his spirit , and departed from him ; but leaving or passing by the fallen angels , he set his heart upon lost man , he chose or appointed that creature to live in the world , to serve him in holiness and righteousness : and this is that which i call the general election , appointment , or pre-ordination of god , through and in christ , to live here , to the means of grace , to do well &c. but , will some say , general election is a contradiction , election being a taking a part out of the whole . answ . election is so indeed ; and that which i affirm in this point , is the same ; for out of the whole of what was fallen , he chose a part ( viz ) mankind , to stand before him : as when a heap of gold and a heap of silver is before a man , and he having power or liberty to make his choise , takes one of the heaps , chuseth all the gold or the silver as he pleaseth ; so it was the pleasure of jehovah ( angels and men being fallen , and both before him ) to regard or set his heart upon , or chuse poor undone man. but i beseech you to consider , that i never said that he chose or appointed all men ( as men ) to eternal life : for there is a special election ( as well as a special salvation ) of such as believe . that there is a special election or appointment of some to eternal life , is agreed on by all ; and that this election was from the foundation of the world , is denyed by none that owne the gospel : and that this election or appointment to eternal happiness is of such men and women who believe and obey him , following that holy rule and light which he hath given them , is as true ; for no rational man is so absurd , as to say that he chose any others amongst grown persons to everlasting glory . yet some affirm , that he chose to salvation a certain number of persons , personally considered onely as creatures . of whom i would first demand , whether election be not according to the foreknowledge of god , sutable to rom. . . whom he did foreknow , them he did predestinate ; and that in pet. . . elect according to the foreknowledge of god. if it be ( as without controversie it is ) then i affirm that god foreknew their obedience as well as their persons ; or else you maim and bound the infinite and unlimited foreknowledge of the most high , to whom not onely all his own , but all our works were known from the beginning . but the great question is , whether the creatures obedience foreknown , did move god to give him eternal life ? to which i answer , first , that eternal life is the gift of god , rom. : last secondly , that election to eternal life is onely according to the purpose and counsel of his own will ; and what that is , the scriptures do evidently manifest ( viz. ) that the purpose and will of god before the world began , was to make christ the author of eternal salvation to those that obey him ; that such as believe should not perish , but have eternal life , joh. . , . and . . that such as do well , and by patient continuing in wel-doing seek for glory , honour , and immortality , should have eternal life : read joh. . . with rom. . . thirdly , election to eternal life is through sanctification of the spirit and beliefe of the truth , thes . . . he hath chosen to himself the man that is godly , psal . . though not for being godly , yet it was his pleasure to chuse such . object . but they are godly and believe , by vertue of their election preceding . i grant it , understanding it of chusing or appointing all men to live here , and to live to him , as i have before shew'd ; for had there not been such an election by the free unsought-for mercy of jehovah , no man had ever believed , no nor had life or breath . still therefore it will be our wisdome to divide a right the word of truth , and to distinguish between election before calling , and election after caling ; the former , of all mankinde , to live here , to hear the call of god , and answer it , ( both which priviledges were lost through disobedience ) the latter , of such as live to him ( whilest they live here ) to eternal bliss . election before calling every one will grant : of the other the scripture speaks , mat. . . and . . many are called , but few are chosen , see rev. . . object . but if any say , the order of words prove nothing , answ . search the scriptures , and you shall see exemplary testimonies to confirm this : consider act. . . after paul was called and come in , the lord saies to ananias , go thy waies ; for he is a chosen vessel to me , &c. he doth say he was : and compare this with the same apostles saying , rom. . . salute andronicus and junia my kinsman , who are of note among the apostles , who also were in christ before me . now every soul that knows any thing , knows that there is no election out of christ ; and it is a mans being in christ , that entitles him to that eternal life which god hath given to his son , to give to whom he will ( and he will give it to such as hear his voice and follow him ) so that it is plain to me , and many thousands more , that there was before time an election or appointment of all men to the means of grace , and also of such as in time do believe through the spirit , to everlasting glory . object . but faith is the gift of god ; and men cannot believe , except god give faith. answ . in this poor souls lye sadly in the dark ; because their teachers have not rightly divided the word of truth to them . that i may therefore shew you how faith is the gift of god. i must desire you to consider that faith is taken chiefly two wayes in the scripture . first , for the doctrine of christ , the gospel ; so 't is taken jud. . ver . contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints : so t is taken , gal. . . so also gal. . . before faith came , we were kept under the law , shut up unto the faith that was afterwards to be reveal'd , rom. . . the apostle speaking of the gospel , sayes , this is the word of faith. so it is taken , eph. . . by grace are ye saved , through faith , and that not of your selves ; it is the gift of god ; not of works , &c. as if he had say'd , our salvation is not by the law of works : but by the gospel , which is the gift of god ; and is called the gospel of our salvation , eph. . . and salvation . act. . . god hath given three great gifts to men : christ , faith , and life ; and these three are as fully and freely the gifts of god , one as the other ; onely by faith , so taken as a gift , i understand the truth or gospel of god. secondly , faith is taken for the duty of believing ; as heb. . throughout ; rom. . . jam. . . with many other places ; and it imports the act of the creature enabled by the lord to believe . obj. is it not said , to you it is given on the behalf of christ not onely to believe , but also to suffer for his sake ? answ . i know god doth give or grant men to believe and suffer : he gives the power or ability to believe or suffer , or else it were impossible that men should do either : all our sufficiency is of god ; he gives the object of faith , christ , or the word of truth ; and he gives power or ability to believe this truth . but to say that god gives the duty or act of faith , is not common sense ; for that were all one as to say that god believes and obeys : for he that acts a thing , is said to do it ; and he that acts faith , is the believer : he worketh in his creatures to will and to do ; and then it 's their duty to work out their salvation with fear , &c. ( not with fear lest god should fail them , but ) lest they should come short , &c. for the fuller discovery of this , consider seriously what is said , isai . . , . let all the nations be gathered together , let all the people be assembled ; who amongst them can declare this , and shew us former things ? let them bring for their witnesses , that they may be justified ; or let them hear , and say , it is truth . ye are my witnesses , saith the lord , and my servant whom i have chosen ; that ye may know and believe me , and understand that i am he . before me there was no god formed , neither shall there be after me . whence i see , first , when men hear truth , they may and must acknowledge it . secondly , that all nations may know and believe god , and that there is none but he , &c. thirdly , that all people are and shall be witnesses against themselves , and christ is and shall be witness that they may know and believe god : and indeed , nothing hinders men from doing these things , but self-will , the devil , and false teachers , who say that god hath not given all men ability and understanding to know and believe god ; and people are very glad of such doctrine , that they may lye in their sins , and yet lay the fault upon god , and say that he doth not give them power to do what he requires of them ; and if he would give them more grace , then they would do better : and so blessing themseves in their hearts , go on in their wickedness , hoping to finde an excuse in the last day , that god was wanting to them , contrary to isa . . . where the lord enquires , what could have been done more to his vineyard which he had not done for it ? to which mr. troughton and the rest which hold such principles , might reply , that god might have done more , for he might have brought forth good grapes for them , or force them to bring forth good grapes , by an unresistable power ; which he never did , nor ever will , though poor ignorant creatures have so taught and believed , contrary to rom. . , . and chap. . , . where it's clear that god hath furnished every man with so much means for the knowledge and obeying of him , as will leave them without excuse ; which is granted by all . object . but , say they , though it may leave them without excuse , yet it may not be sufficient to salvation . answ . this is most unbeseeming the mouth of a sober man : for if the means of grace extended by the lord to men , be sufficient for the glorifying of him , it is not too little for the glorifying of them . againe , those means which men afford their servants for the doing of their work , will not leave them without excuse , if not sufficient to effect that which is expected from them through those means : and will men still make god an austere master , reaping where he did not sow ? god forbid ! he was called a wicked and slethful servant , mat. . , . that taxed the most high with such dealings . and the hard speeches of men who say that god expects more from men then he gives them ability to do , and that he will punish them with eternal damnation to whom he gives not means sufficient to salvation , will one day be rewarded as that servant was , matth. . , . if they repent not . shall not the judge of all the earth do right ? gen. . . i beseech the reader to weigh well that which the spirit of god speaks , job . . for he will not lay upon man more then right , that should enter into judgement with god. surely if all men shall be left without excuse , it shall be by having sufficient means for the doing of that which god expected from them in their generation , and for not doing whereof they shall be damn'd . read matth. . . and thes . . . chap. . . , . but if they had not what was sufficient for enabling them to know god , and believe the truth unto salvation ; they will have an excuse ( viz. ) that now they must be damn'd , but it is because god gave them not sufficient means to know him , and believe his truth , that so they might be saved : but let god be true , and every man a lyar ; all such mouths shall be stopt , and god shall be clear when he judgeth , psal . . . object . but all have not the truth held forth to them , may some say . answ . first , though all men have not the same measure of light or truth manifested to them , or in the same manner ; yet they have so much light of truth as god hath appointed them to follow ; for not following which , they shall be condemn'd , joh. . . secondly , let us consider , that by light which i here speak of , i understand the law written in the heart , which when men do evil , speaks truth to them , telling them it is evil , and accuseth them for it , and again discovereth unto them the goodness of god : yea , when they do well , it assureth their hearts of it , praiseth them for it , and in this speaketh truth : which light or law if men believed , shunning that which it shewes to be evil , and practising that which it declareth to be good ( they having no other teachings from god here ) their consciences would excuse them in the day when god shall judge the secrets , of all men by jesus christ , rom. . . thirdly , that every man shall be judged according to what they have , and not according to what they have not . object . but god is not bound to give to every man sufficient means of grace . answ . first , he hath done it already ; the works were finish'd from the foundation of the world ; yet such as believe not , shall never enter into his rest . read and consider heb. . , . secondly , he hath bound it by an oath , that he desires not the death of a sinner , ezek. . . thus you see how true the lord my strength is ; and he never did nor will require any more of his poor creatures , but what he of his owne mercy and goodness hath given them ability to perform . object . how comes it to pass then that all do not walk up to that light which god hath manifested to them , believing and obeying the truth ? and how comes it to pass that some do believe and obey , and others do not ? answ . to the first part of the objection , all will agree , that it is because they follow the counsel of the devil and false doctors , the pleasures , profits , and promotions of the world , which choke the seed : they seek the honour that cometh from men , &c. joh . . and love the praise of men more then the praise of god : they are not the sheep of christ , for such hear his voice , joh. . , . let him that readeth consider who are christs sheep , and then he will see the reason why men believe not ; it is not because they are not elected , but because they hearken not to the words of the lord. secondly , some are rul'd by the counsel of god ; they receive the word into an honest and good heart ; for faith comes by hearing and hearkening to the truth : he calls , and some come ; he invites , and some haste to the feast ; whilest others frame excuses : god sets light before them , as he doth before others , and they rejoyce in it : he presents life and death , perswading them to chuse life , deut. . , , , , . and some by the lords perswasions , do chuse life : and all praise , glory , and honour , is due to his glorious majesty ▪ for his gratious calls , his loving invitations and sweet perswasions ; for he might have left us without all these means : they who come , do but their duty , and no thanks is due to men for doing their duty ; it is god that furnisheth them with understanding , means , power , and opportunity ; yea he calleth them to it by the light , which maketh all things manifest , and shews to man his duty ; and what it is that is most sutable to him who is goodness it self . thus you have heard concerning the election or ordination of god ; that he chose or appointed fallen man , and not the angels , to serve him ; and how he , of his owne free mercy in christ , chose or pre-ordain'd such as faithfully serve him , to life eternal through christ ; though there be many who would bear the world in hand that we deny election and reprobation , because we are not so sensless as to say that god from all eternity chose a certain number to life , without reference to any obedience to his will , and appointed the rest to sin , and so to damnation , as some say ; or at least , as others hold , left the greatest part of men to be damn'd in the second death , because of adams eating the forbidden fruit , without any real tender of mercy through christ : expressions , which an holy heart , not deluby corrupt doctrine , will abhor to meditate . surely the lord will do nothing , but he revealeth his secrets to his servants the prophets , amos . . and if god hath revealed any such thing that hath appointed men to disobedience and unbeliefe , left them without any mercy through a crucified christ ( and yet without excuse ) i would intreat those that finde it to shew it to us : but in the mean space , i beseech you consider what hath been evinced to you ; that god hath appointed all men to serve , honour , and obey him , as throughout the whole book of god is reveal'd to us , and which i shall endeavour further to discover to you in the next word , creation . concerning which also , as of the former , i shall treat , first , generally ; secondly , particularly . as touching that which i call general creation , we are to consider who is the author of it , and by whom . the scripture will give answer thereunto , thus : first , that god created all men . secondly , that this was through christ . for the first , we see what the apostle saith , he that made all things is god. see also act. . . and that this was through christ , is clear , eph. . . god who created all things by jesus , &c. by whom all things consist , col. . . object . but not as a mediator , sayes one . answ . . how to distinguish between christ and the mediator , the scriptures never yet taught us ; for he by whom all subsist , is the mediator . . for the fuller explication of this , consider seriously , acts . , . where you shall finde who created all things , by whom , to what end , thus : and hath made of one blood ( or blood of one ) all nations of men , to dwel on the face of the whole earth ; and hath determined the time before appointed , and the bounds of their habitations , that they should seek him , &c. where many things are considerable : first , that one blood ( or , blood of one ) there spoken of , i think none will deny to be the blood of jesus christ , the lamb slain from the foundation of the world ; by whose death we have life , john . . through him we live , move , and have our being . by that blood adam had his life granted him , after he had transgressed the command of god : by the same , do all nations of men consist . and i thinke that none will gainesay this , that adam had his life continued through a crucified christ or lamb slain , &c. secondly , see the end why god created or made all nations by , through , or of one blood ( or blood of one ) not that they should be disobedient , or to damn any ( as some say ) but , that they should seek him ; which doth further illustrate what i lately wrote concerning gods chusing of mankinde when they were all lost in one to serve him ; so in this case , when mankinde might have been banished for ever to the dust , he found a ransome to keep him from going down to the pit , and by that ransome granted life to adam and all his posterity , john . . but as there is a special election of such as obey to eternal salvation ; so is there a special creation in christ of such as seek him ; of which i come next to speak . this you may read in many places of scripture , where mention is made of the new creature , the new man , &c. especially cor. . . if any man be in christ , he is a new creature , &c. now the depth of this point lies in this , to finde how a man comes to be a new creature . some hold , that a man is meerly passive in this work , as he was in the universal creation ; and some say that there are others who teach that man makes himself a new creature : if there be any such , i am sure that they are both in extreams , and far from the truth of god. that which i have found true in the scripture , and by experience , is this , that god ( having appointed or chosen , and created or made man to seek or serve him , when his creatures become able to understand the difference between good and evil , and to be cheer'd in the doing of one , and checkt in the committing of the other ) comes to instruct and teach them ; even when they are dead in sins and trespasses , stretcheth forth his hands to them , inviteth them , beseecheth them , and sheweth them his love ; convinceth them of sin by the light of the lord manifest in the heart , or by his word : and they who learn of the father , lay to heart his love , consider their misery , see the filthiness of sin , follow the light , hearken to his voice , and so receive his son. to these ( who were his off-spring before in the first or general creation ) doth he grant power to become the children of god , even to such as believe on his name , john . . and so become the workmanship of god , created unto christ jesus in good works , they are begotten and borne againe by the gospel , that immortal seed of the word , which liveth and abideth for ever . they that hear his voice and hearken to it , do live , and then christ gives them life : hear , and your soul shall live , isa . . . such as receive the truth in the love of it , ( the seed into an honest and good heart ) become thereby quickened , and in time to be born again of water and the spirit , and so are ingraffed into christ , or added to the church , old things ( errors in judgement and life ) pass away ; all things become new , they being conformed to christ the new man in all obedience . and thus the new creature is formed , and the new creation framed , and fitly compact , to be an habitation of god through the spirit . i confess that these things , to a carnal heart , and a poor deluded soul , will seem strange : yet do but consider whether this work of special creation ( in which only some share ) hath not alwayes been thus carried on : first , the lord called , and spake , presented light to the soul , by which he discovered his love , and mans enmity : his purity , and the creatures iniquity ; his goodness , and sins sinfulness ; yet still some turned away the ear , pull'd away the shoulder , despised his reproof , set at naught his counsel , vexed his holy spirit , believed not his report , but delighted in sin , and so remained dead in sins and trespasses : but such as hearkned and heard , rejoyced in the light , consider'd the word , and entertain'd it , though before carnal ( and so not discerning spiritual things ) became thereby spiritual , as the apostle paul cleerly demonstrates , gal. . and whereas some have a fond conceit , that a man must be spiritual before he can receive the word , it 's a gross mistake : for there was never yet a spiritual man , but before he received the teachings of the lord was carnal ; and by receiving the instructions of the almighty , became spiritual . but their mistake is grounded upon a worse foundation , even their low thoughts of the scriptures ; and they reason to this effect : the word ( say such ) may be preached a thousand times , but except god come by the power of his spirit to over-power our hearts , we cannot receive his words ; not considering that the word is spirit and life , john . . and the power of god to salvation to them that believe , rom. . . secondly , upon a conceit they have , that a man is like a stock or a stone , in and under the work of the new creation : not considering that although god in the first creation did the worke wholly and absolutely himself , yet in the second or new creation , he comes to a creature that he hath furnished with abilities to do what he requires ; and then gives it his commands according to that ability ; requires them to hear , know , and receive his truth : and they that obey him in these things , live ; they are quickened , and so the new creation is begun . object . if any aske why all do not receive the truth , i answer , they resist the spirit of god , act. . . but lest i should leave this obscure , i desire the reader to weigh these things : first , that the new creation hath not it's compleatness at once . secondly , that the lord doth ever so begin the work and every part of it , that what is by us to be done , he leaves very plain and easie before us . first , it is not at once compleated : for first , the lord commands to hear , isa . . . secondly , to seek , vers . . thirdly , to know , act. . . job . ult . fourthly , to believe , joh. . . fifthly , to repent , act. . . sixthly , to be baptized , act. . . and so they are planted into christ , gal. . . rom. . , . added to the church , act. . . ( which is christs body , eph. . . . ) to the apostles fellowship . act. . . thus souls are joyned to the lord. and this word or doctrine which was from the beginning , remaining in them , they remain in the son and in the father , joh. . . and abiding in the doctrine of christ , they have both the father and the son , joh. ep. v. . he doth not first command men to enter into church-fellowship , as the papists , prelates , presbyterians , and some others doe : for the first thing that these practice , is , to put all those that are born in their church ( as they call it ) into church-membership , as soon as they are born and sprinkled with water in the face , though they be but a day old . neither doth he command men and women first of all to be baptized , nay he doth not expect men to repent , till they are warned by his light or word discovering sin to them ; nor to believe , before they know what ; nor to know , any more then he declares : but , first hear , then know , after that , believe , repent , and be baptized ; and by this they come out from babel , are separated and distinguished from the world , and made manifest to be professors of truth , and members of the body of christ ( for men are not fitted for church-membership , according to the primitive pattern and scripture-account , till they are baptiz●● consider acts . , . neither are they fit to be buried with christ in baptisme , till they repent ( i. e. ) turn to god from errors in judgement and practice , yea are dead to them ; neither will men ever do this rightly , till they believe that which is written in the law and in the prophets , apply it to their own souls , and cast themselves upon god for life and salvation through christ alone . neither can they ever thus believe , till they know by an infallable testimony what god hath done for them by christ : and till men come to search the scriptures , and hear the spirit there speaking to their souls , and give up themselves to that eternal truth and perfect teaching of the spirit , which only is for our learning , they will never know that certainly . qu. what shall they do that have not the scriptures ? i answer , as christ did to peter in another case , yet much like this , joh. . . what is that to thee ? follow thou christ in the light that is given thee : he knows what he laid down , and what to require , and how to reward every man according to his works . thus , as by the steps of jacobs ladder , men ascend to the lord , attaine to the measure of the stature of christ , come to have fellowship with the father , and with his son jesus , and to walk with god ; who ( as i hinted but even now ) doth begin the work and every part of the work of the new creation , leaving man to do nothing but what he hath enabled him to do , and so without all excuse in case of neglect : yet many do neglect their duty which god hath left them to do ; which , together with the committing of that which god hath declared to be evil , is counted sin , and shall be the onely cause of mens condemnation in the last day . read mat. . . & thes . . , . doth god command men to hear ? ( which is the first duty required of us in order to the new creation ) he gives ears , psal . . . ( neither doth he call upon little infants to hear , deut. . . to . ) doth he command men to see , consider , and understand ? he gives eyes , heart , and understanding . obj. but is it not said , deut. . . that god had not give them eyes to see , a heart to perceive , and ears to hear , unto this day ? it is so said , and it is true as it is written ; onely men consider not where the sound and force of that saying is : for most place it in these words [ the lord hath not given ] and i finde by the scriptures that it is to be placed in these words , vnto this day ; for once they did see the lords wonders , and sang his praises , as you may prove , deut. . , . compared with exod. . & psal . . . but they forgat his works , and god withdrew his light ; they rebelled and vexed his holy spirit ; so he turned to be their enemy , isa . . . they once knew and understood that it was the lord that delivered them ; but for their rebellion he forsook them , and continued not that light with them : ye have seen the wonders that god did before their eyes , &c. deut. . , . yet the lord hath not given you an heart to perceive , &c. vnto this day , v. . and indeed , god hath nowhere promised that he will continue light and understanding to a people that still disobey him ; the lord is with us , while we are with him : if we forsake him , he will forsake us , chron. . . there have been many in our age , who neglecting to follow the light which they saw , have been left in darkness ; and though god did once give them a heart to perceive , and eyes to see , &c. yet he hath not given these to them vnto this day . by this you may perceive that god is not wanting on his part to carry on the new or special creation , but men are wanting to do their duty : when the lord calls them from sin , they refuse to come , and delight still in their carnal state , till the lord forsakes them , and will no longer wait on them , nor suffer his spirit to strive with them . you may also see that the reason why there are no more new creatures , is this , they hearken not to the teachings of him that gave them their being in the general creation , but reject the counsel of god against themselves , as the scribes and pharisees did , mat. . . luk. . . and by this , lastly , you may see , that creation is general and special : general , of all men by jesus christ ; special , of such as receive the word and obey it , in jesus christ . in the former , is nothing required of the creature ; in the latter , so much is justly expected as the lord enables him to do . obj. but is it not said , cor. . . the natural man receiveth ( or comprehendeth ) not the things of the spirit of god , for they are foolishness unto him ; neither can he knew them , because they are spiritually discern'd ? answ . for the better understanding of the minde of god in this place , we must first consider what is meant here by the things of the spirit of god ; which the apostle shews us in the and verses to be those things which god hath prepared for them that love him , even the spiritual treasures of grace and glory which shall be brought to the saints at the revelation of jesus christ , pet. . . secondly , what is meant by the natural man ; which also the same apostle explains , in the chapter of this same epistle , vers . . there is a natural body , and there is a spiritual body ; as it is written , the first adam was made a living soul , the last adam was made a quickning spirit : howbeit that it is not first that be spiritual , but that which is natural &c. adam , or man , as man by general creation , is this natural man ( beware then lest you affirme that adam was created a spiritual man. ) thirdly , what god hath prepared ; and that is a kingdome , matth. . . a place or mansion , john . . a city , heb. . . an inheritance undefiled , pet. . , &c. fourthly , who they are that love him ; such as keep his commandments , joh. . . ( i. e. ) such as observe all christs commands , and his commands onely , in the worship of god. and from all these things i conclude , that adam , with all his knowledge before his fall , and all his posterity , as they are living souls , do not , neither can they , perceive with the eye , or contain in their understandings the nature , glory , and excellency of that kingdome , mansion , city , and inheritance which is prepared for such as obey god. nay , there are many pretious saints in our generation , that apprehend little or nothing of them . the corinthians were very ignorant of these ; insomuch that there were some among them said there was no resurrection . paul prays for the ephesians , that they might know this , eph. . , , . nay , paul himself did not fully apprehend or receive it , phil. . , , . but there is a time when this natural man shall be raised up a spiritual man , cor. . . and then shall we know as we are known , and see him as he is , john . . tell the most of men of the reign of christ , the restitution of all things , the kingdome of the saints , the paradise of god , the tree of life , the new heavens and earth , the new jerusalem , with its height , bredth , length , and glory , &c. they will either turne it to a hidden mystery and an empty allegory , or look on it as a foolish carnal conceit ; though god by his spirit in the word hath revealed these things to us for our comfort . secondly , i answer , that by the things of the spirit are not here intended the duties of faith and repentance ; for these have been and still are received by natural men , who by the receiving of them become spiritual ; for unnatural men are far from them , and enemies to them : a natural man may hear the word , and come to believe and obey , and yet not perceive the kingdome and city which god hath prepared . thirdly , neither by the natural man is here meant simply a wicked man , except you will say that every natural man is a wicked man ; which god forbid : for adam , even as he was created by jehovah , was a natural man , as hath been proved . again , if it should be imagined that it is impossible to hear , know and believe the word , which is spirit and life , joh. . . then men will conclude , that god commands things impossible ( which is also most absurd ) for he commands both , job . and last . mark . . rev. . . he that hath an ear , let him hear , &c. and i would further desire any sober spirited man to consider whether it shall be reckon'd to any man as his sin , that he did not perceive that which was impossible for him to perceive ? lastly , you may see that the scope of the apostle is to prove the corinthians : for though he had in the power of the spirit declared to them the riches of the grace and glory of god , the resurrection of the dead , and the eternal judgement ; yet they were gone but very little above their natural light in these things ; were but babes in christ , and in some respect carnal , and so could not perceive the things which god had prepared for them , although by the spirit manifested in the gospel ; and to that purpose writes epistles to them , to raise them higher in spiritual light and learning , that being by the truth in christ become more spiritual , they might receive and comprehend the great things which god had prepared for such as love him . thus , after some little digression , i come to conclude this point of creation , which is general ( through one blood , even of the lamb slain from the foundation of the world ) or special , of such as believe on his name , and so receive priviledge to become the children of god by adoption , or the new creation as before shew'd . i come now to treat of redemption or buying again , which is also general or special : general , of all lost mankind , by the pouring out of the blood of the lamb slain from the beginning ; or special , of such as believe on him who was slain for them . for the unfolding of the truth of this point , i intreat the reader to consider , first , from what state , with what price , and to what end , christ bought or redeemed all mankind . for the first , they are redeemed from the suffering that came by adams sin , i mean , the first death , as i have before shew'd ; so that that punishment did not presently seize upon all mankinde and send them to the grave , in one who had sinned ; neither shall it for ever keep any one of adams posterity under its power ; but all do live by jesus christ here , and see the goodness of the lord , and all shall live hereafter ( i mean , rise from the dust ) and see his glory : onely here 's the difference ; they who saw his goodness here , yet did not imbrace it , shall see his glory hereafter , but shall not injoy it : and this will be a never-dying worm to their accusing consciences ( not that they were not redeemed , but ) that they despised the riches of his grace , when they might have had it , but would not ; and now are shut out of glory , when they would have it , but cannot . secondly , consider , the price by which we were ransomed , bought , or redeemed , is onely the blood of christ ( though some , through over-hastiness affirm the contrary ) and by this there was a reconciliation made for the whole race of adam , thus far , that whereas they were all reputed offenders in one , and justly out of favour , the lord for the sake of christ was at one with them in reference to that sin of the world which the lamb of god took away ; by whom god was so appeased , that fury is not in him , isa . . . except men set the thornes and bryers against him , &c. vers . . according with that , cor. . . god was in christ reconciling the world to himself . objection but , say some , that 's meant of the elect onely . it s true , if you mean of mankinde ( in opposition to the fallen angels ) chosen , appointed , and ordain'd to live here and seek god ; which is the first acceptation of election . but if you mean of the elect ( i. e. ) such as were chosen to eternal life , then it seems these were once out of favour , or else what need a reconciliation ? though it be granted to be of the elect , yet it doth not follow that it is of the elect onely : for if god will judge men according to their works , and not punish the child for the father , ( as he hath sworn he will not ) then surely he is reconcil'd to more then ( such as you call ) the elect , in reference to the first sin , or one offence of adam . see how incongruous it is to say that this is meant onely of the elect , or such as shall be eternally saved ! first , in it self : for if god be reconcil'd to them ( in respect to adams offence ) then some shall ( not onely in the first death , but also in the second death ) be sufferers for that one offence ; and how contrary that is to all the reveal'd will , yea oath of god , i have already shew'd . secondly , all rational and unbyassed men that fear god , know that the world in scripture-phrase is opposite to the lords chosen ones , as john . . john . . thirdly , it is inconsistent with the tenents of mr. tro. and others with him ; for they say the lord chose a certain number of men to everlasting life , without reference to any faith and obedience ; from which election they could never fall : and if so , what need of reconciliation ? therefore it must needs be of some that were not in favour : for it 's very improper to say , that god was in christ reconciling the beloved of his soul to himself , which never did nor ever could lose his favour . but this will be more plain , when we consider into what state mankind was bought and brought by the blood of christ ; and that is , not to eternal life , for he did not buy all men or any man , that by the pouring out of his blood only ( without faith & repentance ) they or any one of them being come to yeers of discretion should be saved ; for if redemption and reconciliation had been such , and so fully absolute as to this what need the apostle have besought the corinthians so earnestly that they would be reconcil'd to god ? cor. . . and if some men shall be saved in glory , onely and alone because christ dyed for them , then those many melting invitations , tender intreatings , with all the exhortations , admonitions , reprehensions , instructions and other teachings of the lord , might have been spared : but therefore i hold that men ( even all men ) were delivered , redeemed , or bought out of the hands of their enemies , that they might live through christ here in this world . secondly , that they might live to him that dyed for them and rose again , cor. . . i. e. through him believe , joh. . . and serve god in holiness and righteousness before , &c. thirdly , that they who for nought had sold themselves to death and the devil , might rise again from the dead . in a word , as god through christ chose or appointed all men to serve him , and by christ created or made all nations of men to seek him , as the scriptures say ; so by the blood of his son he bought again or redeem'd lost mankinde . and if it be true , that all men without a christ were once dead , and now living by him , are bound in duty to live to him ; it 's as true , that he dyed for , or bought all . and that these things are true , you may clearly see , if you read and seriously consider cor. . , . where the apostle being proving that all were dead ( a thing it seems somewhat strange to the corinthians ) doth it thus ; if one dyed for all , they were all dead : and that he dyed for all , that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves , but to him that dyed for them and rose againe . it seems that they onely are bound to live to christ , for whom he dyed and rose againe . that all are bound to live to him , none dare deny ; that all men shall be rais'd by jesus at the last day is true , as i have before shew'd . and that christ bought or redeemed all men , see john . . and pet. . . now none will deny that he bought the sheep , that is , such as confess him , hear his voyce , and follow him : and peter saies , there shall be false teachers , &c. denying the lord that bought them : so that he bought them also who deny him , and are destroyed . object . but the lord that bought them is not the lord jesus , say some . answ . they that shall say so , and teach men to say so , are in this some of those false teachers , who deny the onely lord , even our lord jesus christ . if they shall say 't is the father , answ . christ and his father are one : shew another lord. object . but , saith the objector , the price wherewith they were bought , was some other price then the blood of christ . answ . . when he shall shew me what that other price is with which false teachers are bought , i shall believe him , and not before ; for it 's not exprest in scripture . . he may as well say that the saints at corinth were not redeem'd or bought by the blood of christ , because it s not mentioned . cor. . . and . . object . but the word in the original signifies to buy without a price , or acquire men into the profession of gods service . i answer , first , this is utterly false ; and though it be not alwaies meant to buy or acquire with blood , yet whatsoever men purchase , buy , or acquire , they lay out study labour industry , health , friends , strength , mony , or some other means or price , by which they get or compass their desires . object but is it not sayd , come , buy , &c. without money and without price ? isa . . . answ . first we cannot buy spiritual things with mony , or silver , as some translations render it . but , secondly . he that comes to the lord to obtain any mercy , if he come without the blood of christ upon his soul , be sure he will acquire or get none . and whereas it hath been said , that christ doth acquire men into the profession of his service . i demand whether he doth acquire them to serve him , or profess his service really or seemingly ? if really , then it 's the same that i say ; christ did really buy men , that they might really serve him : and because some serve satan and others serve god in hypocrisie , they shall together have their portion with their father and master the devil in the lake of fire . if seemingly , then christ by their doctrine acquires or gets men to be hypocrites : for seeming service , or the profession of service which is not real , is all one , and both abhor'd hypocrisie . the lord in mercy yet grant men space to repent of these their hard sayings . object . it s true , say some , that christ dyed for all , and bought all in a sense ; but dyed not for all alike . i answer , the question is not in what sense christ dyed for all , or bought all ; but whether the thing be true : and if he dyed for all in any sense ( as you call it ) it is true that he ransomeed all . but say others , all were bought by christ to live by him , and shall rise by him ; but not as a mediator . these poor cavils and senseless shifts are not worth answering : i shall onely say this to them , that when the objectors can prove what they say by the scriptures ( viz. ) that christ dyed two waies , i shall heed their sayings : in the mean space such expressions are so far from the form of sound words , that i fear they flow rather from a critical then conscientious spirit , that seeketh truth in the love of it . i have shew'd you what the scriptures say , and how according to them christ dyed for all , so that all live by him , and ought to live to him : i desire not to be wise above what is written . i come next to speak in few words of redemption in a stricter acceptation , and to shew how some are in a special manner freed , ransomed , delivered , or redeem'd by jesus christ , and to that purpose shall first lay downe some scriptures , and to come to the clear understanding of this point . cast your eye then upon eph. . . in whom we have redemption through his blood , even the forgiveness of our sins ; and upon pet. . , . forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things ( as silver and gold ) from your vain conversations received by tradition from your fathers ; but with the pretious blood of christ &c. the great question here to be resolved , is this ; how the saints come to be redeemed from their vain conversation , and to have remission of their sins ? for answer unto this , i beseech you that read to remember what i have in part declared already , that there was an offence ( though committed but by one ) in which all the world was reputed guilty before god , so far , as that , if adam for that offence had at the instant of his committing it gone to the grave , the whole race of mankinde had perished in him ; to take away which , the lamb without spot offer'd up himself to god , so that that sin imputed to all ( and so called the sin of the world and iniqnity of us all ) was by the pouring out of the blood of the lamb slain from the foundation of the world , taken away and remitted ; so that none shall now dye eternally for it : and herein appeared the free love of god , who by the blood of his son washed away sin , no creature seeking of it . but every individual man and woman , when they come to years , and know good and evil , do themselves commit many sins , and walk in a vain conversation by tradition , &c. and how they come to be redeem'd , or delivered from this by the blood of christ , i shall by scripture and experience briefly make manifest . first , god sends christ or the light to them , with manifestations of his grace and goodness , to lead or perswade them to turn from their sins to god ; declares to them the sufferings of his son for their sins : and they who seriously consider these manifestations of mercy , believe , and lay to heart the kindness of god ( though before prisoners to sin and satan ) are loosed , delivered , or redeemed from their sins and vain conversions , as the apostle plainly proves , acts . . to him give all the prophets witness , that through his name whosoever believeth on him shall receive remission of sins . so that through the application of the blood of the lamb to their souls by believing , they come to be delivered and have redemption from these sins of theirs , and this redemption or pardon of sin is in time , and conditional upon faith and repentance . i shall indeavour further to illustrate this , by a familiar similitude thus ; suppose the servant of some mighty emperor or general should commit an hainous offence , to both the high displeasure and dishonour of his master , and ( now conceiving in his heart that his lord was full purposed to punish him with exquisite and exemplary torments ) should secretly depart to his masters greatest enemy , and with him , with a heart full of envy , wrath , and devilish despite , contrive the destruction of him whom he had lately disobeyed : in the mean time , this mighty man ( having no such thoughts as his wicked servant imagin'd ) hearing that another potent person , for some horrid crime , had condemned his run-agate servant to dye , gives his only son to suffer death , to preserve his live ; who yet still ( not knowing his lords love ) with a perverse and inraged heart , carries on the designe of his masters ruine : but in the midst of his malice and fear , having certaine intelligence of the transcendent kindness of one whom he had so highly incensed , and of his own willingness to receive him even as a son , if he would return to him , presently his soul begins to melt , hatred le ts go the hold it had upon his heart , and admiring such unexpected and undeserved love , his bands of wickedness full off , the rage , rancour , and wicked resolutions which possess'd him , are all cast out ; the snare is broken , and he is delivered , not only from that death which his masters son quitted him of , by dying for him , but also by applying and considering his lords love , of those bloody sins and designes against his master , and begins to think of returning to him , who had done such great things for him . thus stands the case betwixt god and man : when adam had sinned , he ran away from his maker ( and what spirit he was of towards him , you may perceive by his answers to him , gen. . ) who yet had thoughts of love and peace towards him , and gave his onely son to ransome him from the pit ; of which ransome or redemption all his posterity , being in his loynes , are partakers : but they have all ( as i may say , one by one ) departed from their god , and rebelled against him that redeemed them , and continue long ignorant of the loving kindness of the lord : at length , the lord by his teachings ( as himself pleaseth ) makes known his goodness and riches of grace ; and as many as believe or lay to heart what he hath done for their souls , how he gave the son of his love to dye ( yea to destroy the power of death ) for them , that they might live by him , and through him rise from the grave , and that they have this redemption or deliverance through the blood of jesus shed for them , and have clear evidence of this by the spirit in the scripture of truth , they begin to loath and leave their sins ; the love of god known , casts out their base fear ; his mercy manifested , destroyes their malice , pride , lust , covetousness , &c. cuts in sunder all the cords of vanity in which they were held , carries them quite out of their prison wherein their souls were pent up ; though sin tugs hard , yet at last it is fain to remit its hold ; and though before they hug'd sin as a friend , they now let it go as an enemy ; and so in the end , through the applying of that blood which was shed for them , they are redeemed out of the hand of the enemy ; and by the application of the blood of christ , they receive remission of their sins , as they before had by the effusion of it the remission and redemption from adams sin , which , as i before hinted , was absolute , unsought for , free , and universal . this is conditional and especial . and if any shall demand , why all have not this redemption . i answer , because they believe not , they lay not the blood of christ to heart ; if they did , it were impossible that they should be so carried away with lust , pride , ignorance , lying , swearing , cheating , drunkenness , gaming , covetousness , formality , lukewarness , ildeness , and all manner of disobedience : for if men did consider the grace of god , if they knew the gift of god , and his kindness which towards man appeared , and thoughts of peace he harbours even towards them that are in rebellion against him ; yea , how he was reconciled to them who yet are enemies ; they , even they , would harbour sweet thoughts of god , no longer look upon him as an enemy ; but throwing away the weapons of wickedness ( their sins ) would consider him as the chief of friends , and so be reconcil'd to him , as the apostle speaks , cor. . . and of which the prophet isaiah speaks , chapter . . this reconciliation also is special and proper to believers . thus have i , as briefly as i could ( and more briefly then the matter indeed will well allow ) spoken of redemption and reconciliation ; how general , and how special . i come in the next place , by jehovahs help , to treat of justification , which is also universal and special ; the one is by the effusion or pouring out of the blood of christ ; the other by the application of it : of the one , mention is made , rom. . . being now justified by his blood , &c. and thus god is said to justifie the ungodly rom. . . but that this may be the better understood , we must consider that there is a twofold sin or offence : that which some call original , which the scriptures call one offence , or offence of one , even adam , and the●e innumerable transgressions which every man and woman commit . from the former only i finde that all are justified , by the pouring out of the blood of the lamb slain from the foundation of the world : from the latter none is or shall be , but through the applying of that blood by believing : the former of these is absolutely free ; sutable to this is , rom. . . without any condtion ; and is universal , as you may see , rom. . . the latter is also free on gods part , but upon condition of believing , on ours , as you may find act. . . for the further clearing of this thing . i desire the reader with me to reveiw that lately-recited text , rom. . . and i shall lay it down according to the original : therefore as by one offence ( or sin ) condemnation came upon all men ; even so by one , justification to life came upon all men . but having handled this point partly before , upon another occasion , i shall only reminde the reader that these tex●s hold forth this cleerly to us , that as sin came upon ( or was imputed to ) all men by adam ; so righteousness came upon ( or was imputed to ) all men by christ : and as for that sin all men were condemned to dye ; so from that death all shall through christ be made alive : and this is agreeable to the scriptures , cor. . . and all divine justice and reason ; for had not christ justified mankind from that offence . adam and all his posterity had been banished from god for ever , as you may plainly perceive by that which is written , sam. . . i would gladly know , whether any man hath life here , or can rise from the grave , but by christ by whom are all things ; or whether we could by any means enjoy these , if we were not justified from that which deprived us of it , and so quitted from that prison the grave , which without a christ dying and rising again , would have kept adam , and in him all his posterity , under its power ; but the day shall come , when all that sleep in the dust shall rise , and shall give an account before the lord ( not of adams sin , but ) of the things done in their own bodies : so that it seems that when every creature shall stand before the judge of the world they shall not be look'd upon as unrighteous persons , because adam did offend . if any affirme they shall , let them prove it by the scriptures , and i shall willingly assent to them : in the mean space , i propound this to my self and others , that either men shall at the day of judgement be damned for adams sin , or they shall not ; if they shall , then god hath somwhere revealed it in his word ( for he will do nothing , but he revealeth his secrets to his servants the prophets ) if they shall not , then they shall be considered righteous , and justified from it ; which is cleerly sutable to rom. . . as by one mans disobedience many were made sinners , so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous . and this is that which i understand by the justification of all men , even gods acquitting of them from adams sin , ( and the suffering which came by it ) at the day of judgement ; then which , nothing is more cleer to me ( and thousands more ) in all the holy scriptures , and agreeable to all the revealed will of god in this case , declaring that every soul shall bear his own burden , and dye for his own offence . but now a word or two of special justification , and so i shall conclude this point . that which i call special justification , or the justification of some particular persons , is , when god is pleased to look upon his poor creatures which through believing in jesus christ turn from sin to serve him , as righteous in his son : which i desire further to explaine , thus : god having in the purpose of his own will , freely justified mankind from that sin of adam , and granted them to live in this world , they all commit many grievous offences against that loving god that gave them life , breath , and all things , by lying , swearing , drunkenness theft murder , adultery , fornication , pride , ambition , coveteousness , idleness , cozening , envy , by evil thoughts and evil words from which the law of moses is too weak to justifie them ; for let poor creatures annoyed , imcumbred , and compass'd about with these sins , read the law of moses , or offer up sacrifices according to that law , yet that will not drive sin out of the soul : but t●● blood of christ applyed by faith , the blood of christ sprinkled upon the conscience , will purge out sin . when a poor soul doth know and believe that jesus christ shed his blood for him or her , they begin to hate iniquity , and abhor every sin ; and at length , through faith ( i. e. ) the constant application of the blood of christ to their hearts , they who formerly were servants of sin , and free from righteousness , become quit , justified , freed from sin , and servants of righteousness : for with the heart man believes unto righteousness , rom. . . so that by believing they become justified ( righteous , and cleered ) from those sins from which they could not be justified by the law of moses , as that before i hinted from the mouth of the apostle paul , acts . . so that which i find in the scripture , concerning this is ▪ that though god hath freely through the pouring out of the lambes blood taken away the sin of the world ( i understand adams sin ) yet none ever did or can get free or justified from the sins which they themselves have committed in their own bodies , but through believing or laying to heart the goodness , kindness , grace , mercy , or love of god , which towards man appeared in christ jesus before the world began ; and in some measure of light or other , hath been , is , or shall be manifest to all men . of this justification by faith , the scriptures of truth speak much ; as rom. . . being justified by faith , we have peace with god ; from whence i gather , that ( though god be at peace with us in relation to the first transgression ) yet no man can have peace with him in their own souls in reference to those many sins that themselves have committed but by believing or laying hold of his strength , as you may see , if you will but considerately weigh isa . . , . of this justification ( which believers onely are sharers in , ) mention is also made in many other places ; as gal. . , . . & , &c. as for justification by works , as the papists plead for it , the scriptures own no such thing : only as they serve to justifie our saith before men , shewing it to be such a faith as worketh by love , and is agreeable to the word of the lord. the next in order to be spoken of , is justification : in treating of i● , i shall first , with the aide of god , shew you by the scriptures how all are sanctified , and then how onely some are sanctified by the blood of jesus . first , there is a sanctification of all men , and that is by the blood of the lambe slain from the foundation of the world , poured out , or shed for them . for the full discovery of this , i would desire the reader to consider , what sanctification is according to the scripture , and he shall finde that it is either a cleansing , purging , or a separating somthing to an holy use , and this is either by blood , or by the word of truth or spirit of god. a word or two of the former of these : when all mankinde were polluted and unclean through the offence of one , and in him banished from the presence of god , and condemn'd to the dust , our dear redeemer by his blood freely purged away that spot or filthiness , ( which would have kept men out of the presence of god for ever ) that so all men and women are through him separated or sanctified to serve the living god : and for proof hereof , search the scriptures , and see heb. . . wherefore jesus also that he might sanctifie the people with his own ●lood , suffered without the gate . and if any shall say that the text proves not that he sanctified all men with his blood , answ . first , there are none excluded . secondly , his suffering without the gate , argues that his blood was shed to sanctifie both jews and gentiles , which are all the people that the scripture makes mention of . thirdly , if christ had not by his blood sanctified whole mankind from the filth of adams fault , they had never had life or liberty to serve god. and if any shall say , that god hath not through his son given all men liberty to serve him : then it seems that they who shall be damn'd perish , because god would not give them liberty , or leave to obey him ; or else because adam did eat the forbidden fruit ; either of which is absurd , yea horrid to a knowing spiritual heart . but more clearly is the evidence given by the same apostle , heb. . . of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy , who hath troden under foot the son of god , and counted the blood of the covenant , wherewith he was sanctified , an unholy thing , and hath done dispite to the spirit of grace ! whence , without violent wresting of the scripture ( a thing that many use , to serve their turnes ) we may clearly conclude , that they who trample under foot the son of god , and do despite to the spirit of grace , and count the blood of the covenant as an unclean or unholy thing , were sanctified by that blood which they so lightly regard . now all will grant , that they who prize christ , obey the teachings of the spirit , and highly esteem the blood of the son of god , were sanctified by it : and the scripture here evidently testifies , as before mention'd , that others , even the worst of men ( as i may so say ) were likewise sanctified ; who then is excluded ? or are there any more sorts of men and women , but such as obey the spirit , and such as resist it ? is it not most evident that all were sanctified by the blood of christ ? even they that trod it under foot , and flight it , and despise the spirit of grace , and son of god ? i am not ignorant of the many poor shifts which i and others have had to evade the truth of god so plainly revealed in this pretious place of scripture ; but i judge they are not worth the taking notice of . object . but some may enquire happily , what is my end , in endeavouring to prove that ungodly men , who tread under foot the son of god , &c , were sanctified , justified , reconciled , and redeemed by his blood ? answ . that when i meet with such , i may declare unto them the righteousness , kindeness , and goodwill of god , convince them of their ingratitude ; perswade them to love christ , and believe on him ; to leave their evil , learne to do well ; demanding of them how they can have the heart to live so wickedly , and abuse the mercy of god in jesus christ , by whose blood they were justified from that one offence , and sanctified or set apart to serve god ? how they can be so unkind to their saviour , and to tread him under foot that bought and sanctified them with his dearest heart-blood ? that in case they refuse , they be left without excuse , so as they shall not be able to say in the last day , lord , when did we hear of thy love , or that thou didst redeem and sanctifie us by thy blood ? and so it being manifest that their destruction is of themselves , the lord may be clear when he judgeth . and whereas it may be demanded , how it comes to pass that all serve not god in holiness ? i answer , first , negatively ; it is not because god did appoint them to unholiness and disobedience , as some blasphemously say ; but because they resist the holy spirit , or the teachings of truth , or light of christ , shewing good and evil ; excusing them in doing the of one , and accusing them for the other : for they who receive the instructions of the holy god , and turn at his reproof , shall have his spirit poured out to them : prov. . . turn you at my reproof , i will pour my spirit unto you , i will make known my words unto you ; and so the lord giving out his word and spirit , and they receiving it , become partakers of that special or peculiar sanctification of which i made mention but even now ; of which a word or two in the last place . when the posterity of adam , once sanctified , as i have shew'd you , by blood , or set apart to serve jehovah ( which priviledge had all lost in one ) come to know good and evil , to receive vain thoughts to lodge in their hearts , and so vain words proceed from their lips ; and vain traditions from their teachers and fellow-creatures , with all which their minds and consciences , yea their lives and conversations become defiled ; and as many of these as ●●ke notice of the goodness of god , entertain the true light , that lighteth every man that cometh into the world ; embrace the counsel of god , apply the blood of the lamb , believe on the lord jesus , and take heed to their waies according to his word , these are led to repentance ( or a change ) come to see the sinfulness of sin , turn from it , have their consciences purged from dead works , and their waies cleansed ; so that at length they come to be holy in heart , and all manner of conversation , and so are partakers of that special sanctification which i am here treating of ( viz. ) by the word and spirit . for the declaring of this more fully , i shall lay down this querie ; what is the reason that men dye in their sins , and are not purged from their filthiness ? if i should as many do , say , that it was gods appointment , he so ordain'd it , or that god did not shew them his light of truth , or that he did not do this really , or that he did not give them ability to receive it as it was manifested , and so follow it , or else for that he gave not his son to dye for them ; neither was it his will that they should repent and be sanctified , but that they should dye in disobedience , and so be damn'd . sure if i should say thus , all good men would abhor me for such speeches ( and well they might : ) yet these are the tenents and sayings of those men , against whose opinions i have appeared : and surely i judge , that as a man said to joab in another case , i may positively conclude in this , that themselvs would set themselves against me , if i should go about and preach that god did appoint men to disobedience and to sin , and not willing that all should come to repentance but that some men ( even as they are men ) should despise the riches of his grace and perish . these hard speeches i have heard some men to utter . others are more moderate , that god did onely leave men to themselves . whereto i say , first , that god never left any man in that state whereunto adam brought them ; for he brought them to the earth , and was not able to shew them any means of grace , or so much as a resurrection from the grave ; but god left not any man there , but afforded them such manifestations of his love , as will leave all inexcuseable before god. secondly , i answer , that god did never , nor ever will forsake any poor creature , till they reject him , chron. . . but more of this elsewhere : onely i add this , that when men have and still do refuse god he leaves them , and will have nothing to do with them . this may suffice for evidence to this truth , that it is not because god would have it so , that men are still polluted in their conversations , and unsanctified in their lives ; but , as you shall hear in the next place , it is because they believe not : joh. . . i said therefore unto you , that you shall dye in your sins ; for if yee believe not that i am he , ye shall dye in your sins . secondly , because they will not be purged , ezek. . . because i have purged thee , and thou wast not purged , thou shalt not be purged from thy filthiness any more , till i have made my fury to rest upon thee . thirdly , because they receive not the word into their hearts , neither take heed to their waies according to it , psal . . , and . and if any shall alleadge that when god comes to sanctifie a soul , he will do it by an unresistible power : i answer , there 's neither promise or example of such a thing ; and they who so affirme , make themselves wise above what is written . 't is true , there are many works which the lord doth absolutely of himself , without calling for the creatures duty in any respects , as in the creation , redemption , and salvation of mankinde from that misery that adam brought them ; so as in and under that free , universal , and unlimitted consideration which i have spoken of : so when god will destroy his enemies none shall deliver out of his hands ; he will work and none can let it , isa . . . and there are many works which he will bring to pass conditionally ; as the redemption justification , sanctification , &c. of creatures from their own sins ; and these he will effect upon receiving and believing the truth , as i have also shew'd you in the treating of these things under that special consideration , which i have presented to you ; and as you have heard from . act. . . acts . . and many other places ; in which you may see that the lords work , and the duty or endeavour of his creatures ( by him furnished with ability to do what he requires ) must , and ever did go together : god purifies the heart by faith : see act. . . god it is that purifies , the creatures duty is to believe . the lord doth and will ever work , according to the counsel of his owne will , which also he hath revealed in his word : and he hath sanctifi'd us from the first offence by his sons blood ( which otherwise would have caused our eternal banishment from the lord ; ) yet will not sanctifie us from our vain courses , but through belief of the truth , which cleanseth the souls that receive it in the love of it : for when a poor creature , who long hath serv'd sin and satan , comes to know the love of god in christ , and believe it , his heart is so purified , and his conversation cleansed , that he cannot indure sin , but hates every false way , denies ungodliness and worldly lusts , and lives soberly righteously , and godly , in this present world . and thus having treated of sanctification also under a twofold consideration , i shall ( by the gratious assistance of god ) next speak something of vocation ; which is the call of god , or god's calling of his poor creatures to believe in the light which he gives them , and leave off their sins : it is his inviting or perswading men to do well , the stretching out of his hands , as it were , to beseech men to come to him ( i. e. ) to conform to his light or revealed will. and this is universal : for as he chose , or appointed , created , deliver'd , justified , and sanctified mankinde , to seek and serve him ; so he calleth all men everywhere to know him , obey him , and glorifie him , according to that power or ability that he hath given them , or the light or commands which he holds forth to them . he calleth the stubborn and rebellious , isa . . . the refusers , prov. . . them that perish , and put from them the word of god , and eternal life , act. . , . such as spend mony for that which is not bread , and their labour for that which satisfieth not ; who thirst after unprofitable things : isa . . . ho● every one that thirsteth , come ; and the spirit and the bride say , come ; and let him that heareth , say , come ; and he that is a thirst come ; and whosoever will , let him come , and take of the water of life freely , rev. . . and if any shall say that the people who are here called upon , are such as thirst after christ and his righteousness . i answer that it is a gross mistake ( though by most lookt upon as clear truth ) for had they thirsted after christ , who is the true bread , and his righteousness , which filleth and satisfieth the souls of such as seek him , they had never been so reproved : isa . . . why will ye spend your money for that which is not bread , and your labour for that which satisfieth not ? but do not we see dayly some thirst after blood and revenge , some after honour , some the praise of men , others through luxuriant pleasure melt even as to water the very sinews of their strength , and some for gain , gold , and profit , adventure estate , fame , health , and life , yea body and soul , that they may compass their end ? yet riches profit not in the day of wrath , prov. . . who then is excluded from the call of god , and to whom hath not his light shined ? to come to some instances : when adam ( and all mankinde being yet in him ) was fallen from god , it pleased jehovah to call him , to preach the gospel , that is , declare his goodness to him , all his posterity , being yet in his loines ( for i thinke every fober man will acknowledge that we were as much in adam when he was restored , as when he fell ; and were as much partakers of his mercies from god , as we were of his sin ) consider the words of david , psal . . . thou turnest man to destruction , again thou sayest , come againe ye children of men . and from that very day wherein the lord was graciously pleas'd to seek out and call back all mankind lost and fled from him in one , to this hour , he hath called and cryed out aloud in manifestations of love , one way or other , to every man and woman . see his gracious call to cain , gen. . . if thou dost well , shalt thou not be accepted ? by henoch , noah , and others , his glory and righteousness was revealed and preached to the old world . in the ark , there was neither man nor woman , but was experimentally acquainted with the love and will of god ; and that cain , cham , or any others declined the way and truth of god , was not because the lord called them not , or left himself without witness towards them , but because they came not , neither received that testimony of his love which he gave to them . and if any shall say , that many nations had not or have not , any discovery of the minde of god , the apostle evinceth the contrary , and proveth that the obedience of the heathens or gentiles did declare the law of god written in their hearts . rom. . . and the word of truth tells us of abraham amongst the caldeans , melchizedek amongst the jebusites , lot amongst the sodomites , joseph and moses amongst the egyptians , jethro amongst the ethiopians , job , elihu , and others , amongst the children the east . there was rahab , ruth , vriah , ittai , amongst the cananites . moabites , hittites , and philistims , besides the constant appearances of the grace , goodness , or love of god , which called and should have led them to repentance . how evident it is that the queen of sheba , nebuchadnezzar , darius , artaxerxes , the ninevites , yea all nations had the word and will of the lord made known to them by the servants and prophets of the lord , they that read the scriptures of the old testament will quickly perceive . when there seemed to be ( through their rejecting the light ) an almost universal deluge of darkeness or ignorance over the inhabited parts of the earth ; the lord lifted up his church of the jews to such an eminent height upon the pillars of truth , and gave them the glory and the oracles in such an illustrious manner , that all nations had notice of it , and some out of every nation under heaven proselyted themselves unto it , as you may gather out of act. . . to . afterward , our blessed saviour sent his apostles , and they by his order the disciples , to preach the gospel in all the world , that so the goodness of god to and in every creature might be more fully made known : and have not men heard ? surely the sound is gone out into all the earth ; and the mercy of the lord ( which is over all his works ) who is good to all , hath been declared before the faces of all men and women . and god hath so called to every one , either by the law in the heart , the light of the lord , by moses , the prophets , and christ ( all demonstrating his rich love ) that ( though all have not been led to a change ) yet they all shall be left without excuse in the great day . in a word , what nation was there , to whom he sent not his messengers ? what man or woman is there , to whom he hath not shew'd and offered favour , in whom he hath not shin'd with ●●ght and with whom he hath not strived with his spirit , even in such a fulness or sufficiency , as to performance of those works to which they were appointed , as faith , repentance ? &c. as for example , when the wild indians defile their neighbours wives or daughters , or steal any thing &c. there 's a light set up by the lord in their hearts , which perswades them of the evil of their wayes ( as you see by their endeavors to conceal their sins ) and what i beseech you hinders them from believing that light or dictate of the spirit and from turning to that which the means is sufficient to effect ? only they reject the light , follow their lust , and are rul'd by the divel . obj. but ( will some say ) doth god invite all men , and offer grace to all men really and in good earnest ? i answer he doth , though there be that affirme the contrary , and say that god doth not really and in good earnest , or without hypocrisie , offer grace to all : but this is one of those hard speeches which men have ungodly spoken against god , and for which he will one day call them to account , as the apostle jude intimates to us , vers . . object . but he holds not forth his grace alike to all , nor hath he given power alike to all to come to him , that is , to conform to his will revealed . ans . this , though it be a frequent yet it 's a frivolous objection . i only say this to it : first , that all men have not the same measure of discretion , understanding , or capacity , nor the will of god revealed in the same manner and cleerness . yet , secondly , every one hath some portion or talent at least ; some favour is shewed to the wicked : they that slew the kings servants , were invited to the wedding : and that really , mat. : , &c. neither indeed doth jehovah expect the same proportion of acting from every one in the world ; he doth not require every man to act as a general ; but to what ever he calls forth any soul , he furnisheth that creature with every thing necessary for the doing of what he expects from him . for the better understanding of this , consider , that for the enabling of creatures to act , there is a twofold power requisite , yet both from god through christ . the first is , that he hath given to men and women , as they are his creatures : for as such , they can hear , see , know , understand , walk , &c. and the second comes forth from him to them when they are able to discerne betwixt good and evil ; and this is the law , light , or motions of the spirit of god presenting his goodness , love , or grace to them , by this to lead them towards him ; forbidding them to do evil , and bidding them do well . the former fits us to do or act ; the latter to do well : and till this latter , i mean , the law , light , or teachings of god , come in some dispensation or other , the creature cannot , neither is it required to act according to the rule of obedience to god : but when this is come , and the lord layes truth before them , they may know and believe him ; cease from evil , and learn to do well , according to the light , law , or power appearing , as i have before shewed , from isa . . , . but some perhaps may say , that i detract from the free grace of the creator , and attribute something to the creature , as if he could contribute somthing towards his coming to god , and his eternal happiness . i hear there are many that talk much of free grace , understanding neither what they say , neither what they affirme : for though the love , grace , mercy , goodness , or kindness of jehovah ( being all but one and the same ) be ever free , yet it is not alwayes without a conditian ; for gods appointing of creating , redeeming , justifying , sanctifying , and calling of all men to live here , to seek and serve him , be so free , that god required nothing of the creature to do these things for him ; he ask't no price , made no bargain , no man sought to him in the business ; but he alone moved by his own love towards a miserable lost creature , finished the fore-mentioned works from the foundation of the world for all mankind : yet they that believe not , shall not enter into rest . for the lords sake , read and consider heb. . , , . so that now if men will injoy further manifestations of the love of god , they must fulfill the conditions which god requires of all such as would have such enjoyments : for therefore hath the great jehovah done all those things for men freely , that men through consideration had of his love , might love him that loved them first : and hereupon he will yet love them , and shew more of his kindness to them . weigh the words of our saviour well , joh. . . he that hath my commandments , and keepeth them , he it is that loveth me ; and my father will love him , and i will love him , and will manifest my self to him . it is not to be doubted but the father and christ did love those that keep his commands , before their obedience , yea , before they were born , yea so well , as to redeem , sanctifie , and justifie them by the blood of the lamb , from the power or extent of suffering that came by adams sin ; or else they had never been born , and so could never have been obedient : yet here he says , my father will love him , and i will love him , &c. according to that , psal . . . his delight is in them that fear him . this further manifestation of love is upon condition ; and this was the way and purpose of god from the beginning : if thou dost well , thou shalt be accepted . the lord is with you , whilst ye are with him ; and if seek ye him , he will be found of you , chr. . . he that confesseth and forsaketh his sin , shall finde mercy , pro. . . hear , and your soul shall live , isa . . . see vers . . he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved mark. . . behold i stand at the door and knock : if any man hear my voice , and open unto me , i will come in to him and sup with him and he with me , rev. . . and if any man doth his will he shall know the doctrine , shall be the mother , brethren , and sisters of christ , god will hear him , and he shall enter into the kingdome of heaven . joh. . mark. . . joh. . . mat. . . but can the grace of god be said to be free , when there is a condition of something to be done by us for the obtaining of it ? i answer : very well it may be free , though it be our duty to receive and obey the giver . for first , god shews man what he would have done , mica . . . and made all the promises of grace , freely , none moving him thereto , nor any , as men , excluded from them . secondly , it is he that gives all the ability by which we do what he layes before us . thirdly , he might require us to do more then he hath , yet have made no promises of further grace , or of eternal life , which is the gift of god ; and if this last were well understood and explained ▪ it would overthrow all the popish doctrines of merits , both of condignity and congruity : for without controversie , all the obedience of the whole race of mankind is not able to conterpoise ( much less deserve ) the least of the mercies which we enjoy as to this life : and if god had laid more labour upon us , and yet given us only what is here below , we could not have said he had been a hard master . if he had not pleased to have declared unto us by his spirit the grace that shall be brought at the revelation of jesus christ , we should never have heard or thought of it . it must of necessity be then , that the mercy of god to eternal life , and his continued manifestation of grace in order thereunto , are most free : for , fourthly , hearing the word of god , faith , repentance , baptism , prayer , praising of god , and other works of gospel-obedience , which god enables us to do , stand us in nothing ; they are not like the costly and burdensom ceremonies of the jews : the lord onely requires that we should worship him in spirit and in truth ( that is , as the word of christ , which is spirit , and truth , and life , teacheth us . ) lastly , our receiving or believing of light , truth , love , and mercyes of god , is so far from making it not to be a free gift , that this makes it to be so to each particular : for though god gave his son , the gospel , and eternal life freely , yet no man hath either of these to himself , as his proper right to his everlasting happiness , except he receive it ; if a man leave as a legacie two hundred pound to be divided equally by his steward between twenty persons by him named , the steward sending for those persons , declares his lords love and gift , offers it to them : and to their benefit who reject what was bequeathed , it becomes a free gift ; but to such as accept it , it is not so : their refusal of it , keeps it from being a gift or free benefit to them , though it still be free on gods part , who tenders it by his instruments to them . and thus you see , that mans doing his duty in believing and obeying according to the gospel , doth not frustrate the grace of god , no more then a mans stretching out of his hand to receive any thing , doth cause it to cease from being a gift . secondly , i am so far from detracting from the grace of god , when i affirm that god hath of his rich and free mercy given to every man and woman power to do what he expects of them , that the desire of my soul is to advance that alone ; and to cleer up this , i desire the impartial reader to judge , who doth most advance the riches of grace , they who affirme , with the scriptures , that christ by the grace of god tasted death for every man , and that all nations of men are furnished by the lord with every thing necessary for the knowing of him , and obeying of his commands layd on them ; or they that say ( contrary to the scriptures ) that christ did not dye for all , but only for a few ; and that god hath not given all men ability to performe what he commands them to do , that he hath appointed some to disobedience , and so to damnation ? who is it that speaks most to the praise of the glory of jehovah's grace , he that sayes that god doth faithfully offer his grace , and call all men to him ( i. e. ) to conform to his will or law manifested , giving them liberty and ability to accept his love , to perform his precepts ; or they that say that god doth only externally call all men , and not really ; and seemingly offer grace to all men , yet hath beforehand absolutely decreed the unbelief and disobedience of many of them ? for my part , i am fully satisfied with those sayings do most advance the exceeding riches of grace , which hold forth the free and unfeigned tenders of mercy to every man , so as that all are left without excuse , and the justice of god ( who is no respecter of persons ) cleared in the sight of all men . what you would in words say of such a master as would bind his servant hand and foot , yet beat him for not coming to him when he calls him , or command him to ride a hundred miles in one hour , and buy two hundred penny-worth of ware with one peny , threatning him with tortures upon his not-performing such uncompassable commands ; those men who oppose that truth which i plead for do in effect say of our most gracious and righteous god , when they affirm that he hath decreed the unbelief and sins of men , and yet will condemne them eternally for these things ; and that he hath required them to believe and follow him according to the light he reveales , yet hath not enabled them so to do : which in plain english is , that god exacts more of his creatures then they are able to do . the lord in mercy yet grant these men time and space to repent of these doctrines . object . but we do not say god is a hard master to us , taking up where he laid not down , &c. answ . then what have you to do to say that he is so to others ? you cannot deny but he giveth strength to his saints to do what he requires of them ; and i beseech you consider whether others have not ability from jehovah to do by him what is expected from them in their several stations . gladly would i demand two or three questions of any sober humble soul , that prefers the faithfulness and glory of god before their own fancies . first , whether every man and woman have not ability to act something ? secondly , whether that power or ability be not from god alone through christ ? thirdly , whether god did indue them with that ability to do well , or to do ill , or to do nothing ? surely , you will say , not to do ill , not to be idle ; then undoubtedly it was to serve , seek , and glorifie him . and if any shall ask how men come to commit sin then ? i answer , as adam did they being men , heaken to the old serpent , reject the counsel of god , resist his spirit or teachings , deny the lord that bought them with his pretious blood , and bring upon themselves swift destruction . object . but surely , if god did call all men really , they would sure come to him ; and if he did invite and offer his grace in good earnest , they could not but receive it : if god open the heart , it cannot but be opened ; if he purge , men must unresistibly be purg'd ; if god freely give faith and repentance , men cannot chuse but repent and believe . to which i answer , first , if god , in calling men , and giving out his love , did make use of an unresistible power ( as some fondly dream ) all this were true : but , secondly , to say that god doth not really intend that grace to men which in the means he extends to them , is a doctrine which i know makes the hearts of many pretious saints sad , considering how the god of heaven is by such sayings highly dishonour'd , and abus'd , by saying or implying at least that men shall be damn'd because god did not really and in good earnest call them , and offer mercy to them ; contrary to prov. . , . thirdly , as i have hinted before , god is said to give faith and repentance , &c. when he affords the means ( i. e. ) the word of faith , and doctrine of repentance to men and women come to understanding , and enabled every way by him to come to him in the duties by him enjoyed , and to open the heart ; when he affords that key of knowledge , his word ( which is spirit and life ) and the motions or beams of his spirit to poor souls : in a word , gods work , and our endeavours , in all spiritual duties , must go together ; for god opens the heart by sending the means ; we open to him , by receiving and applying it : but as the stretching out the hand to receive a bag of gold , is not that which inricheth the receiver , but the bounty of him that gives it ; so our receiving of light and grace offered , is not that which makes us rich in knowledge and spiritual treasure , but the bounty of god that gives these to us ; yet you know these are not ours ( though extended by the lord never so freely ) if we do not imbrace and apply them which is indeed but our duty ; which god himself hath enabled us to perform ( and no thanks to us for doing that . ) fourthly , and lastly , they that heaken to the voice of god , and so come to know his love , and believe it ( or lay it to heart ) cannot but come in ; the love of god constraineth them to live to him that dyed for them and rose again ; and these are they that are in a special manner the called of god , called to be saints ; he is not asham'd to call them brethren , heb. . . but because all will confess that the saints ( i. e. ) they who receive the word ( whereunto they were appointed ) are partakers of this special calling or vocation , i shall onely add this , that as they who are called , but contemn the call of god , partake not of his choice mercies , taste not of his supper , but bring upon themselves destruction ; so , behold what manner of love the father hath shew'd us , such as receive the word , the light of christ ) that they should be called the sons or children of god! joh. . . compared with john . . and so i come to the last term propounded to be treated on ( salvation ) which is a delivering of the creature from danger , death , and destruction , and is general or special , as you may see , tim. . . for this cause we both labour and suffer reproach , because we trust in the living god , who is the saviour of all men , specially of them that believe . but , say some to this , ( as to what hath been spoken before ) this is not meant of christ , but of the father . i answer hereto , first ▪ consider what christ saith , john . . whatsoever things the father doth , the same doth the son likewise . . that the father gave christ his work to do , john . . so that the father redeemeth , reconcileth , and saveth by christ ; and christ redeemeth , reconcileth and saveth by laying down his life , and humbling himself to death . . jesus christ is not a dead god , but god blessed for ever rom. . . and received into glory tim. . and one with the father ; and they that deny , it deserve to be blamed . and if any shall say that the word in the original signifies not a saviour , but a preserver , and so conclude that the father is the preserver of all men ; i answer , first , that the father doth preserve by the son , who beareth up the pillars of the earth , psal . . . and by whom all things consist , and to whom all power in heaven and earth is given , matth. . of him and for him are all things . for , consider god without a christ , and you cannot see safety or preservation for any creature , onely justice and swift destruction for sin . it s manifest then , that the preservation and subsistance of all men through a crucified christ , the lamb slain from the foundation of the world : so that if the gloss which men put upon this pretious truth were truth , yet it makes nothing against that holy truth of god which i desire to vindicate : but it 's as notorious an untruth and falsehood , as ever came from the mouth or pen of any man ; for wheresoever you finde the word saviour used in the new testament , relating to jesus christ , you shall finde the same word for it in the original , as is here used by the apostle , and which is used , eph. . tit. . . and all they that can but read greek , will testifie the same . neither is the greek word soter ever rendered preserver in the whole book of god , but alwaies saviour . lastly , it is the common practise of the enemies of the truth , when any thing crosses their tenents , to make people believe ( if they can ) that either the scriptures mean otherwise then it speaks , or that the translation ( though given by men of their owne judgements ) is not right : as for example ; where the word of truth saies that christ dyed for all , and that god would have all men to be saved , and that the free gift came unto all men to the justification of life ; they say it means otherwise , and that the text , heb. . . he by the grace of god tasted death for every man , and this word , who is the saviour of all men , &c. are not well translated ; for , say they , it should be for every son , and he is the preserver or saviour of some men , &c. but i would propound two or three questions to such men : first , if these things be not truly , but falsely translated , why have they ( many of them ) an hundred times at least read such false things to us ? secondly , why do not they read them to us according to that which they say is the true translating of the word , ( viz. ) that christ dyed but for some , and the free gift came only upon some men to the justification of life ; and that god would have some men to be saved , that christ tasted death only for every son , and that the father is the preserver of some men ? thirdly , and lastly , whether we shall be judg'd by that which some in a slight way , and through mistake , call the letter ) or by that which the papists , prelates , presbyterians , in their councels , comments , and synods , say is the meaning of the word ? but leaving to speak of the fancies of these men , i come by gods assistance to shew how god in christ , and christ through god ( for these in the great work of mans salvation must not be severed ) is the saviour of all men . and that i may perform this , i shall endeavour ( as in those things before treated ) rightly to divide the word of truth , which holds forth salvation to us under several considerations : there is salvation as to this life , as exod. . . stand still , and see the salvation of god : so acts . . and . all hope that we should be saved was taken away . there is salvation preached , act. . . the salvation of god is sent to the gentiles , and they will hear it , but more plainly , hebr. . . how shall we escape , if we neglect so great salvation which at first began to be spoken ( or preached ) by the lord himself . and there is salvation promised , called eternal salvation heb. . . and salvation to the uttermost , heb. . . the first is a deliverance from that death that came by adams sin ; the second is deliverance from death in sins and trespasses by reason of every mans actual sins ; the last is that great deliverance from the wrath to come , or second death . the former of these onely is universal , and hath in it two things considerable : first , what all men are delivered or saved from ; secondly , what they enjoy . first , our gratious god hath saved all mankinde from that death which came by adams offence , in that he by the ransome which himself found out delivered adam ( and so all men then in his loynes ) from present going downe to the pit ; so that by jesus christ we subsist ; and by him also he wrought our resurrection or deliverance from the grave , from which all men shall one day be freed and made alive by christ , cor. . . but some ( it may be ) will say , if christ hath saved all men from the grave , how comes it to pass that any dye ? i answer , first , christ was never sent to prevent men from going to the grave , but to deliver or save them out of or from it , from the power of it . secondly , if the resurrection from death be a deliverance or saving from the power of the grave ( which i think none that fear god will deny ) and some onely partake of it , then i confess that god by christ hath not saved all men : but if all shall rise again , then he is the saviour of all men , as the scripture saith , and as i from that word of truth have declared . but some say , t is not christ but the father that raiseth them up . others say , that they rise by the power of christ , but not as a mediator . these weak objections , and many other silly shifts , men have devised , to evade the truth , and prop up an opinion : but being not worth taking notice of ( referring the reader to what hath been before said ) i come to answer one objection , with which men fly in the face of god ; which is this . t is true ( say they ) god will raise up all men in the great day by jesus christ ; but it were better they were let lye in the grave for ever : for he delivers them out of a bad to a worse condition . first , i deny that the principal end of gods raising up men from the grave , is to damn them : but that all ungodly men may see what great salvation they have neglected , and that for the neglect thereof they must now be punished . read i beseech you , thes . . , . heb. . . and that all godly men ( and ungodly too ) may see the clear impartial righteous judgement and pure justice of jehovah ; the one declaring it by their praises of god in their mouths , as revel . . , , . the other , by their speechless silence , when they shall not be able to open their mouth , or hold up their faces before him that sitteth upon the throne , and in the presence of the lamb , whose love and waies they have despised . and lastly , that after the righteous sentence is passed , every man may receive according to their works , cor. . . secondly , this objection is contrary to many maximes of truth , which declare that life in it selfe is a blessing , and that annihilation or totall deprivation of a being , is one of the greatest plagues ; but especially , it vilifies the principal doctrine of the gospel , even the doctrine of the resurrection , without which no man could have any sound comfort or incouragement in any service , or sufferings for the sake of christ . thirdly , it teacheth men to reproach and upbraid god for his kindness to them . they may as well say , that god is the author of their sin , in that he through his son created them ; as that he is the author of their damnation , in that he raiseth them up by the same jesus christ . what you might truly say of that servant , who shall murder the onely son of his master , who redeemed him out of a most miserable slavery and gave him liberty to serve him in the nearest relation , that shall upbraid his lord bringing of him to a just tryal , and say it had been better for me to have abode still in slavery , then to be tormented for my wickedness ; or wish that he had not brought him out of his bondage &c. we justly say of those men who fancy the forementioned objection ; yea the damn'd themselves will not dare to speak such words before the throne of god , but shall be convinced by their owne amazed consciences , that they shall then suffer for the doing of that wickedness which they should and might have avoided , and the not doing of that good which god gave them ability and opportunity to do , and not because god made them or raised them . but ( say some ) god appointed them to be disobedient , and to commit those sins for which he will damn them . i confess , if that were true , then the poor damn'd wretches might hope to have something to plead with the great judge for an excuse : but it 's most untrue , as it hath been shew'd . i confess this is the great objection which the devil and ungodly men ever raised , which brings the greatest advantage to satan , the greatest encouragement to sinners , the greatest discomfort to the saints , and the greatest dishonour to god , of any thing that ever shall or can be uttered by the mouth of any mortal man ; being contrary to all scripture ; which declares against all the unrighteousness of men , and appearance of evil ; shews us that our god is of purer eyes then to behold vanity ; and reason , which will surely tell us that god would never appoint men to do that which he abhors , or condemn men for doing what he had appointed them , or at least for not doing that which he never gave them either ability or call to perform . but ( say some ) what if it were the pleasure of god to make a thousand worlds , and to destroy them all ? i answer , first , that is not , nor ever will be the pleasure of god , to do that which he hath not revealed ( for , he will do nothing , but he will reveal his secrets to his servants . ) &c. secondly , these are unlearned questions ; and it argues that when men are put to such shifts , they have nothing to say from the word of truth for their opinions : and therefore i shall forbear to follow them in their foolish curiosities , when they presume to be wise above what is written . lastly , god is so far from taking pleasure in destroying one whole world , that he is not willing that any should perish , pet. . neither doth he willingly afflict no● grieve the children of men , lam. . . yea , he hath sworn that he hath no pleasure in the death of the wicked , but that the wicked turn from his wicked way , and live , ezek. . . object . yet the lord hath made the wicked for the day of evil , prov. . . i answer , first , but that doth not say that he hath made any men ( as they are men ) for the day of evil , neither doth it say that god made men wicked ( as many say now a dayes ) but he hath appointed and ordained that wicked men shall be destroyed ; such as refuse and rebell , isa . . such as turn the grace of god into wantonness , jude . they that believe not heb. . , . neither repent of their wicked deeds , luk. . . but rejecting the gospel , not considering nor laying to heart the loving kindness of the lord , go on in their whoredome , lying , swearing , stealing , drunkenness , revilings , heresies , covetousness , and all abominations ; these shall be turned into hell , with all the nations that forget god , psal . . . but that god did ever make or appoint men to be whoremongers , lyars , theeves , or hereticks , &c. that so he might destroy them , is most abominable to imagine . in a word , god is so far from making men wicked , or destroying them as they are his creatures , that when adam had destroyed himself , and the whole world of men in him , by original or the first sin , the lord freely , through christ , forgave it , and delivered or saved him , and in him all his posterity ( for had adam at that instant dyed , all had perished for ever with him ) but they are so far saved from that destruction , that he giveth life to the world , joh. . . and though men lye down in the grave , and sleep in the dust , yet they shall all live again in the day of the lord. but , may some say , is he so the saviour of all men , that none shall be damn'd in the second death ? i answer , no : for though he be the saviour of all men , as i have proved , yet especially of them that believe , as i shall now also briefly shew you by the scriptures , prov. . . the wise shall inherit glory . dan. . . they that be wise shall 〈◊〉 as the brightness of the firmament ; and they that turn many to righteous●●ss , as the stars for ever and ever . mat. . . then shall the righteous shine 〈◊〉 as the sun in the kingdome of their father . mat. . . but the righteous 〈…〉 . luk. . . fear not , little flock , it is your fathers good pleasure to giv● you th● kingdome . whosoever believeth on him , shall not perish , but 〈…〉 joh. . , , , & . my sheep hear my voice , and i know 〈◊〉 and they follow me , and i give unto them eternal life , and they shall not 〈◊〉 , neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand , joh. . , . see joh. . , all that are in the graves shall hear his voice , and shall come forth , they that have done good , to the resurrection of life , &c. mar. . . he that believeth and 〈◊〉 baptized , shall be saved . rom. . . . glory , honour , peace , and eternal life , to every man that patiently continues in well doing . mat. . . he that indureth to the end , shall be saved . rev. . . be thou faithful unto the death , and i give thee the crown of life . see vers . the , , , , . & rev. . , , . he is made the author of eternal salvation to those that obey him , heb. . . if we suffer with him , we shall also reign with him , tim. . . but the wicked shall be as stubble , mal. . . he that calleth on the name of the lord , shall be saved , rom. . blessed are all they that do his commandments , that they may have right to the tree of life , and enter in by the gates into the holy city , rev. . . with many other pertinent texts of scripture , whereby we may demonstratively evidence that there is a special salvation for some ( viz. ) such as hear , know , believe , and obey god ; and that as all men are and shall surely be saved from the first death , and all that came on them through the offence of adam ; yet they only who receive the truth in the love of it , shall be saved from the second death ; and they who are contentious , and do not obey the truth , through their neglect of so great salvation as was purchased by his blood , and preached in the word or light of jesus , though they shall be raised up at the last day from the first death , yet for their wickedness they shall be cast into the lake of fire and brimstone , which is the second death . all the objections and queries that usually men bring in here about the creatures believing and acting in all kind of obedience , i have handled in the precedent part of this treatise , where i have proved that god never requires any duty of any of his creatures , but at some time or other he furnisheth them with ability to fulfill his commands ; and all our obedience merits not eternal life in the least , seeing god might justly have deprived us of a being , or have given no more but this life , and yet have laid upon us much more work then he hath : but it was the good pleasure of his will to give eternal life , through his son , to all such as serve him in their generations according to the light manifested to them . for which free mercy , all praise , honour , service , and obedience , is due to jehovah for evermore . amen . the reasons , or arguments which illustrate the truth of christs dying for all men , together with the grand absurdities which unavoidably follow the contrary doctrine with the answer to the objections or arguments of m. trough , m. wood , and others . having thus by the scriptures proved that christ died for all men , and what he hath done for all , or what benefit all men have by him , i come in the next place , in the strength of the lord , to illustrate the truth of this assertion by reasons or arguments drawn from the scriptures , which may easily evince to sober spirits , and convince the gain-sayers of this soul-establishing fundamentall doctrine of the gospell , and they are these : first , the coming of our saviour into the world is glad tidings of great joy to all people , luk. . . which could never be , if christ had done nothing for the greatest part of mankind , but it would have been sad tidings to most men , who must therefore die eternally , because there was no saviour for them , or at least , because they obey not him , who never paid a price for them . secondly , the word that is to be preach'● , is the gospell , to every creature , mark . . the ministers of the lord jesus are to declare peace unto every house where they come , luk. . . and that can never be done , if they are not able by the scriptures to preach a saviour to them , without leaving any doubts upon their spirits . thirdly , god would have all men to be saved , and come to the knowledge of the truth , tim. . . and is not willing that any should perish , but that all should come to repentance : now if christ died not for all , then god would have more men to be saved then christ died for , ( as some have said ) which is absurd to imagine , or what good will repentance do those for whom christ-never died ? fourthly , they that are damn'd , jo. . . with ver . . are damn'd , because they believe not in the only begotten son of god , therefore the only begotten son of god died for those , or else how shall they be damn'd because they believe not in him , except men shall be damned for not believing on him that never died for them ? fifthly , they that shall be damn'd might have been saved , if they had received the truth in the love of it , . thes . . , , , . therefore christ died for them , or else they had no probability of salvation , seeing there is no name given unto men under heaven whereby they must be saved , but only the name of jesus christ , acts . . sixthly , they for whom christ died may perish and be destroyed ; see cor. . . with rom. . . seventhly , some deny the lord that bought them , and bring upon themselves destruction pet. . . so that if christ died for those that shall be saved , and those that shall be destroyed , he died for all . eighthly , the apostle commands , that prayers and supplications shall be made for all men , tim. . . surely prayers will do but 〈◊〉 good to those for whom christ never died , or how can we pray in faith for all men , if christ died not for them ninethly , they who regard lying vanities forsake their own mercies , jonah . . i desire to know what mercies they can or do forsake , for whom christ never died . tenthly , men judge themselves unworthy of eternall life , act. . . and neglect their own salvation : i beseech you consider whether it be possible for men to put off eternall life , or neglect their salvation , if christ never died for them , so as to bring them into a possibility of enjoying everlasting happinesse . eleventhly , if christ died but for some , then the devil destroys no man , but they perish for want of a saviour , contrary to j● . . . and many other places . twelfthly , if christ died not for all , then despair of pardon and salvation in them that perish , is no sin , seeing there is nothing for those men to believe unto their everlasting peace , for whom christ shed not his bloud . thirteenthly , if christ died not for all , then it would be a sin for some men to believe that christ died for them , in that they should believe a lye , and all will grant that it is a sin for any man to believe a lye . fourteenthly , if christ died but for some ( even such as are eternally saved ) then none can be guilty of that sin of treading under foot the bloud of the covenant wherewith they were sanctified , contrary to heb. . . fifteenthly , if christ died not for all , then satan doth no evill in perswading some that christ died not for them , but perswades them to believe the truth ; if it be true that christ died but for some of the world . sixteenthly , if christ did not die for all , then the devil doth not deceive those that are damn'd when he perswades them that christ died not for them ; and the opposers of the truth affirm , that he cannot deceive them for whom christ died , and so he can deceive none , and by this ( if it be true ) the divell is no deceiver . seventeenthly , if there be some men that christ died not for , then it is a vertue for some men not to believe in christ for salvation , for in believing this they believe the truth , and it 's a vertue in any to believe every truth . eighteenthly , if christ died not for all mankind , then this unavoidably follows , that those for whom christ died not , do as well in believing that christ died not for them , as those for whom he died , do in believing that he did die for them , seeing both are true ( if the adversaries of the truth say right ) and it is as much vertue to believe one truth as another . nineteenthly , all are bound to live to him , cor. . . even unto him that died for them , and rose again now i wonder what good it will do men to live to christ , or why we should perswade all men to live to him , yea tell them that they are bound to do so , if christ died not for them ? yea we know that therefore men shall be damn'd at the last day , because they live not to him that died for them , and rose again . twentiethly , he being lord of quick and dead , shall judge all men at the last day , as you may most clearly see , rom. . , . for this end christ both died , and rose , and revived , that he might be lord both of the dead and the living , and he shall judge ( all men ) quick and dead at his appearing , tim. . . how shall he judge those whom he never purchased with a price ? shall we think that he that reproves men for judging another mans servant , will allow that which he condemns ? god forbid , it must needs be then that christ died for all , seeing he is judge of all , except you will say that christ will judge men because they had not a redeemer . . there is no place of scripture sayes that christ died only for the elect , or only for his church , that he died but for a few , or but for some , therefore they that so say , speak not the language of the holy ghost , but a private interpretation , we speak what we know , and testifie what we have seen , that which we have looked on with our eys , and heard from christ and his apostles with our ears , which our hands have handled of the word of life declare we unto you . mr. tro. doth as good as confesse that there is not one plain scripture to prove his position that christ did not die for all , for if you mark the inscription of his book , he says not an antidote against universall redemption in ten positive texts of scriptures , but in ten reafons deduc'd from the scriptures : i have proved that christ d d die for all by ten witnesses proceeding every one out of the mouth of god , by the ministery of christ , the prophets and apostles through the spirit , and whether you that read will believe what these say in so many words , or the dark consequences and conclusions of men , chuse ye ; if there had been any text that had said that christ died only for some , sure mr. tro. would have cited it ; we know and acknowledge that christ died for some , for his church , for the elect , for the saints , but to say that he therefore died for none else , is contrary to scripture , reason , and sense ; we may as well argue that he died for none but paul , because he says gal. . . he loved me , and gave himself for me : and hence it is that we are perswaded to take whatsoever the scripture holds out in this point , which says , he laid down his life for the sheep ( i. e. ) such as hear his voice , and follow him , jo. . . compared with ver . ● . and we believe that he bought those that deny him , and bring upon themselves destruction , read pet. . . and because we believe in christ , as the scripture hath said , even all that is written in the law and the prophets , for this cause we are accounted heretiques , and sectarians , as the apostles and saints of old were , acts . . with chap. . . for they did declare the love and mercy of god towards all men , and such as laid his love to heart , and were thereby led to repentance , they did baptize ; with these they did walk in church-fellowship , in breaking of bread , in prayers and praises , in holinesse of life , and waiting for the lord jesus from heaven , i also , and many more , declare the love of god in christ towards all men , such as repent and believe this kindnesse of his , do we baptize , with these we walk in church-fellowship , in breaking of bread , and in prayers , praising god , and provoking each other to holiness , and to wait for christs coming in glory ; that this is through the mercy of god our practise , as it was the practise of the apostles , our god is witnesse , and that for this , as the apostle was , we are called heretiques , is manifest to all men , even our enemies themselves being judges : and because we will not say that christ did not die for all , or that he died only for a few , that infants are to be baptized , and added to the church , before they either repent or believe , and that god doth decree the unbelief and disobedience of men , and that he will damn some eternally for adams fault , and others for not doing that , which since they came to discern betwixt good and evill , they had never ability from the lord to perform , therefore are we call'd heretiques ; and because we are willing that our doctrine should be tried by the word of truth , both publikely an privately , and desire by the same touchstone to prove what others teach for doctrine , and will not be deluded by philosophy and vain deceit , not stung with the tail of the old serpent ( i mean the prophet who teacheth lies ) isa . . . with rev. . . therefore are we counted the troublers of israel , such as turn the world upside down , ring-leaders of sects , &c. as our brethren of old were , neither are we grieved by these things for our sakes , but for theirs , even our countrymen and brethren after the flesh , who rage at us , and incense the rulers against us because we believe and speak what is written , and will not receive nor practise the doctrines and traditions which are not written , witnesse m. w. t. who though he hath not one word of scripture speaking that which he affirms , yet he raves and rails publikely and privately , because his arguments are not held authentick , accounted canonicall , and received as maxims of divine truth , when indeed they are but the thoughts of his own heart , and collections tha● he hath made from men ; that must die . if i should go from place to place , and say christ did not die for all , and he died only for a few men and women , and god commanded men to do no more then he hath enabled them to do , and that he hath appointed some even from the beginning to be disobedient to his commands , might not men say , where is this written ? might they not justly say , that here is no light in these things , and that these things ( not being written ) are not for our learning , doubtless they might . ob. but if christ died for all , then all shall be saved . all are and shall be saved or deliver'd from the first death , as i have declared , and i● shall be testified in due time , tim. . . only the elect , the saints ( that is ) such as receive the light held forth , to them shall escape the second death , they that believe and obey him shall enjoy eternall salvation through him , rev. . . thes . . . heb. ● . . ob. all prophane ignorant persons will say that christ died for them . i answer first , they speak truth , though they know not what they say ; for put such prophane persons to prove it by scripture , and to give you the text in which their evidence is contained , and they come short of assurance , then they say , they believe he died for them , and at last when they are put to shew the ground of their faith , or what their faith was built on , they will tell you , they hope he died for them , and he died for all that believe on him and serve him . secondly i answer , 't is one thing for a poor soul to say that christ died for him , and another thing to know it by an infallible testimony , and therefore we endeavour to prove this to every man by the scriptures which hold forth the dying of christ for all , that so they may know certainly that christ shed his bloud for them , and by the knowledge hereof , either be drawn to love and live to the lord jesus , or be left vvithout excuse . ob. but cannot men be left without excuse without the preaching of this doctrine to them ? ans . they cannot , when and where this doctrine may be preached and heard ; indeed where the scriptures are not , people shall not be accused for not reading , searching , and preaching them , or for their not knowing the vvords that are vvitten in them , for god will at the last day , require according to what he gave , luk. . . but vvhere this is fully made knovvn ( that christ tasted death for every man ) they vvho imbrace it , and bind it to their hearts by believing , find abundance of consolation , and they vvho receive it not , shall not at the last day be able to plead ignorance ; oh then hovv sad vvill it be at that time for such preachers as deny , preach vvrite , pray and rail against this foundation truth of the gospell ! ob. is it not said rev. . . & . . . thou hast redeemed us is god , and these were bought from amongst men , &c. ans . these precious texts are true , but yet they do not say that there vvere no more bought to god from amongst men ; for if vve vvill 〈◊〉 the apostle peter , there are some that d● deny the lord that bought them , pet. . . & to say that because . vvere redeem'd or bought from amongst men , therefore there vvere no more redeemed , is bad logick and vvorse divinity , and is 〈◊〉 one , ●s ●f a man had redeemed a thousand men out of turky , meeting vvith three or four of them , should receive an acknowledgment of their deliverance that he had redeemed them , the standers by should argue that he redeemed no more . ans . secondly , i have before shew'd that redemption is consider'd two ways , first by the effusion of the bloud of christ from the first sin or originall offence ; secondly , by the application of that bloud , by which the elect ( such as walk in gospell-obedience ) receive redemption or deliverance from their sins which they have committed in their own bodies since they knew good and evill , for no sooner is the bloud of christ closely laid to the heart of a sinner , but he presently begins to loath and leave sin , and at length by a constant application of it , becomes fully redeemed , freed , or delivered from his bondage : of these later the texts by m w. t. alledged , are especially to be understood , and so the word of truth being rightly divided is kept from clashing and seeming contradiction , all men left without excuse , and the justice and mercy of god cleared against the calumnies of imperious sinners . but there are some whose names are not written in the book of life of the lamb slain from the foundation of the world . it 's most certain that these words rev. . . are a prophecy of the great antichrist , vvho shall exercise his power for a time , times and the dividing or half of time , dan. . . two and forty moneths , or . dayes , rev. . . . with chap. . . or three years and a half , and many shall follow his pernitious ways , idolizing him and worshipping him as a god ; and it is as certain , that such as worship him are not written in the book of life , for god hath of old ordain'd to condemnation ungodly men , turning the grace of god unto wantonnesse , and all idolat●rs ; but this proves not that christ never died for them , but rather that he did die for them , and they not obeying him , but antichrist , are condemn'd , in that they gave the honor due to him to his enemy ; none i think will doubt but these men ought to have worshipped god , but what good would that have done them , if christ had never died for them , judge ye : but if any do say that god did appoint them to serve and worship the beast , i refer to acts . , . and leave them to the lord , who will take a strict account one day of all such sayings . ans . . that the words may be read , whose names are not written from the foundation of the world , in the book of life of the lamb slain ( as m. troughton● sayes ) is utterly false , and a great corruption of scripture ; yet that christ is the lamb slain from the foundation of the world , is clear from this text , which is that which m. tro. and others , study by all subtilty to evade . lastly , he that sinneth against god shall have his name blotted out of the book of life , exod. . . with rev. . . but god loves some with a speciall love , christ loved the church , and gave ●imself for it . it is by none that speak the truth in love denied , and it 's that which i have in this whole treatise endeavour'd to clear up , that there is a universall and speciall manifestation of love from the lord , the lord is good to all , and he so loved the world , that he gave his only begotten son , but his delight is 〈◊〉 them that fear him , psal . . . pro. . . and as for m. tro. saying , that husbands love their wives with a speciall love , it 's true , but we ought asso to love our enemies , and every creature with the love of good will , desirous still to do them any good we can , so though christ delights only in his church , that is such as obey him , yet he died for his enemies , and when the lamb was slain from the foundation of the world , we were all enemies alike , neither is any one man better then another as he is a man , but as grace is manifested and received ; neither is it the act of receiving which makes some men better then others , but the grace which appeareth to them from the lord , from whom every good gift comes , and to whom all the glory is due . but is it not said that god did hate esau and loved jacob , before they had done either good or evill ? search the scriptures diligently , and see if there be any such text , the apostle never said any such thing , rom. . for that which was said , was not concerning two children , as some have falsly suggested , but two nations , as you may see gen. . . compared with rom. . . and afterwards v. . he shews , that god hated esan , as it is written mal. . . . i have hated esau , and laid his mountains and heritage wast for the dragons of the wilderness , certainly this was not before he was born , for he had no mountains nor heritage to be laid wast ; again it 's very considerable , that the person of esau was never subservient to jacob , but jacob bow'd down to him , and call'd him his lord , gen. . and by this it will be clear , that this text speaks not of infants , but men , and not of single persons personally considered , but of a nation of evill doers , especially if you impartially consider what is written by obadiah in the , , , , & . verses of his prophecy , where the edomites are called esau , and the jews jacob. secondly , i answer , that they who are spirituall and impartiall , will e're long discern that these things are an allegory which the apostle paul brings in to illustrate what he had before asserted ( viz. ) that it is not the pleasure & purpose of god that men shall be justified by the law , but by grace , not by works , but by him that calleth ; and though the jews judge it an unequal thing , yet god having chosen this to be the way of justification , his choise or election shall stand ; and this you may easily and evidently see , if you will seriously weigh what follows , ro. . . . as the apostles collection , and the result of all which he had spoken in the precedent part of the chapter , what shall we say then ? &c. that the gentiles which followed not after righteousnesse , have attain'd to righteousnesse , even the righteousnesse which is of faith . but israel which followed after the law of righteousnesse , have not attained to the law of righteousnesse ; wherefore ? because they sought it not by faith , but as it were by the works of the law , for they stumbled at the stumbling stone ; so in all the writings of the new testament , the righteousness of faith , though not so antient , is prefer'd before the righteousness of the law , and thus the elder serves the younger ; righteousness by the law , as a servant or handmaid , doth and must follow the righteousness of faith , or the gospell , for we are to perswade men first to repent , believe , and be baptiz'd ( which things the law mention'd not ) and then to live righteously , soberly , chastly , and lovingly , as becomes such as professe the righteousness of christ in the gospell , so shewing their faith by their works , as it behoveth such as are wise unto salvation , ja. . . and . . moses was faithfull as a servant , but christ in all thi●gs hath the preheminence as a son , ismael and esau were elder then isaac and jacob , and pharaoh and the egyptians more mighty and puissant then moses and the israelites , out the lord pull'd down the mighty , and exalted the meek , the law of works bare date before the faith of the gospell , but god hath chosen the poor of this world rich in faith , heirs of the kingdome , ja. . . and this is gods purpose according to election which shall stand for ever , in isaac shall thy seed be called , and that this which i have here hinted , as the scope of the apostle , and the mind of the holy ghost , will be more apparent if you look into gal. . from . to . where the apostle speaking of two sons , one by hagar , the other by sarah , affirms v. . these things are an allegory , for these ( saith he ) are the two covenants , &c. thence look back to rom. . , , . where he speaks of the two sons , and shews who are the true seed , even believers , as abraham was , they that are of the promise : then , to shew that the apostle intends the very same thing by the ensuing discourse concerning esau and jacob , he goes on thus ; and not only this , as if he had said , not this of ismael , and isaac shew , that the believers are blessed with faithfull abraham , and counted for the seed , but the two sons of rebecca , as in an allegory demonstrate the same ; and if any shall yet say , but how is it said , jacob have i loved , but esau have i hated ? i answer , take but these two ( as ismael and isaac ) for the two covenants , and then you will see that he prefers mercy before sacrifice , the gospell before the law , faith before works , the believers ( or children of the promise ) before the natural seed , that he regardeth not , but hateth such as seek for righteousnesse by the law , as the jews did , and loveth or chooseth such as seek for the righteousness of the gospell of jesus christ , as the gentiles did , isa . . . saith the lord , thus , your new moons , and your appointed feasts my soul hateth , yet once these were appointed by god ; all things that were written of old concerning ismael , isaac , esau , jacob , pharoah , &c. were directly as they are written , but the apostle we see draws out the allegory , and shews what they did typifie to us , as you may see , if you diligently search this nineth to the romanes , and reso●ve and roll up all that is here written , as the apostle doth in the . and . verses ; but the time will not give me leave to treat largely of these things in this place , if god give oportunity i shall declare more of this matter in my generation , as the great god shall give opportunity and utterance either by preaching , conference , or writing , in the mean space every sober man will see that it is not proper to draw positive conclusions from allegoricall expressions , and so these words , i have hated esau ( i.e. ) refus'd righteousness by the law or covenant of works , doth not at all prove that christ did not die for all ; and withall i desire the reader to consider that m. tro. hath not yet produced one scripture that says he died only for a small number , but some few consequences which are too weak ever to overthrow the faith of gods elect. but saith m. trough . christ did not die for all , because he did not satisfie his fathers wrath and justice for the sins of every man and woman in the world ; for the reprobates go down to hell , but he made a plenary satisfaction for the sins of those for whom he died , and the holy god ( saith he ) cannot , nor will not exact double payment for the same debt , or punish twice for the same sin . answer first , that which he speaks last is true , and it is from this that i conclude , that infants shall not be cast into the lake of fire and brimstone , which is the second death , for if they should , then they must be punisht twice for one fault , viz. adams offence ( as some call it ) originall sin , and that rebrobates ( that is wicked men ) shall be cast into hell , is as true , psa . . . but what he means by plenary satisfaction to the fathers justice given for some i know nor , in that i find no such terms in the holy scriptures , if there be , why did not m. tro. produce them ? did he think that his bare word is a sufficient warrant for us to believe by ? surely it is not , and the word of truth testifies that false teachers , who bring in damnable heresies , deny christ , and bring upon themselves destruction , were bought by the lord whom they deny , and that others trample under foot the bloud of the covenant , wherewith they were sanctified , heb. . . answer secondly , if m. tro. means that christ did so satisfie for the sins of some , that none of the punishment due for that sin shall come upon them , but that it is wholly by the powring or offering of the bloud of christ prevented , i shall desire him to prove it : in the mean space , i shall desire the imparti●ll reader to remember first that the elect , the choicest 〈◊〉 must di● , ( i mean go to the dust ) the wise man as well as the fool , by reason of adams transgression ; so that the punishment which came through that fault is not plenarily satisfied for , if it had been so indeed god requires double payment , which he will never ( by m. tro. own confession ) do , for if by the death of the lamb this debt had been fully paid , the elect should never have gone to the grave ; and thus you see how m. tro. is contrary to himself , his light is darknesse , and he wearieth himself to bring others to the same condition with himself . secondly , consider that amongst all the sons of adam , none shall receive remission of their sins ( i mean which themselves have acted ) but believers , mark . . act. . . so that he did not so satisfie , as to take away mens actuall sins , whether they believe or no. thirdly , consider that if any draw back from the lord , he will take no plea●ure in them , heb. . . and the best of saints , if they sin , must confesse and forsake their sins if they will find mercy and pardon , prov. . . joh. . . but i pray read the whole verse , for m. tro. leaves out in his book the former , ( viz. ) if we confess our sins as apocriphal . pag. . and so deals with us as the devil did with christ , luk. . . . conceal that which would make against him . lastly , consider and call to mind what i have in this preceding discourse manifested , that christ hath so died , that all do live by him , and injoy light by him , jo. . . jo. . . and that whosoever believeth on him should not perish , jo. . . & . and that all men through him might believe , jo. . . and that as sin hath raigned unto death , even so might grace raign through righteousnesse unto eternall life by jesus christ our lord , christ hath so died , that all shall ●ise again by him , jo. . , . i beseech you read and consider , that the just and unjust shall all be called out of the grave by the lord jesus , he died and rose , and revived , that he might be lord of quick and dead , rom. . . that they which live should live to him , cor. . . but we never read that christ died to satisfie for sin , whilest men continue in them without repentance , but to manifest his love to all mankind , thereby to perswade them to leave sin , and love him who loved them first , he was set forth to be a prop●tiation through faith in his bloud , rom. . ● , . and that the world through him might be saved , io. . . not by the works of the law , but the words of jesus christ , god never appointed that righteousness and salvation should be by the law , for then christ had died in vain . thus you see what the form of sound words speak concerning the death of christ , who took or bare away the sin of the world ( viz. the sin of adam , in whom the whole world of men were involv'd ) that so lost mankind through him might have liberty to serve the living god , and through believing on the light , be delivered from their actuall sins committed before conversion , and by confessing and craving pardon , might be cleansed from their infirmities after their coming into christ , by the intercession , mediation and eternall priesthood of him whose bloud speaketh better things then that of abel . but he laid down his life or the sheep . jo. . , . but all and every man and woman in the world are not the sheep of christ , therefore he died only for the sheep . i bes●ech the reader to behold the fallacy of this sophisticall fillogism , by a parallell thus out of gal. . . christ loved the apostle paul , a●d gave himselfe for him , but every man and woman in the world is not the apostle paul , therefore he gave himself only for the apostle paul : whether this be good logick , let the godly reader judge , yet this is as good as m. troughtons , as any man that is not byassed by partiality may easily discern , and of this nature all his arguments are , if you search them to the bottom . but he thinks to help himself , by saying , that though christ says not his seeep only , yet he means so , and he endeavours to prove his conception , by saying , that though the scripture sayes not we are justified only by faith , yet it means so . i answer , the scripture neither ●ays so , nor means so , for then all infants must be damn'd , ( which i think m. tro. will not affirm , though i confesse he is very positive in matters of the greatest improbability ) for all those infants that shall be saved were never justified ●y faith , yet justified by the bloud of the lamb , or they shall never enter into life , and here let the wise and godly judge , whether m. troughton ( leaning to his own wisdome , and the wisdome which is from above ) hath not brought in an evidence to prov● his cause that speaks directly against him , and for the truth of god ; and besides i have before shew●d how all are justified , sanctified , and redeemed , and therefore shall here spend the lesse time to answer these reasons which he thinks impregnable , though others see they are but ropes of sand . but sayes he , those that christ died for shall live eternall life , and shall never perish , but all men have not eternall life , but many shall perish eternally , therefore he died not for all . i answer first , this sophistry is like all the rest of m. troughtons reasons , and though it be finely span , and cunningly woven , yet it 's but a spiders web , and truth will tear it in pieces ; for the scriptures say that they deny the lord that bought them , and bring upon themselves destruction , and so thy weak brother perish for whom christ died , cor. . . with many other places : i know that christ layed down his life for his sheep , and for the apostle paul , and all the saints , but not as sheep , or saints , for no scripture sayes so , but for sinners , for the ungodly , for the world , which are in opposition to sheep and saints : and again , as it 's true that he died for the sheep , so it is as true that he bought those that do deny him , if the scripture may decide the controversie : secondly i answer , such fallacious consequences as these do even strike at the root of the gospell of grace , and free love of god , and quits the divell and all ungodly men of bringing destruction upon themselves , and implies that men shall be condemn'd for want of a redeemer ; neither will that thred-bare shift , ( that men shall be damned , because they fell in adam ) serve any mans turn , especially m. tro. who hath acknowledged in his sixth argument ( as he calls it ) that god will not take double payment for the same sin ; now all must once die by reason of that offence , and if after they shall be raised again , they shall be damn'd for it again , then there is a double punishment inflicted for one offence , which god will never do ; but if it be because christ never died for them , as m. tro. and thousands of deceived souls seem to say , let them produce a text of scripture , or els we shall not believe them , if they say for unbelief and disobedience ( which is most true , and sometimes these men will say so ) then there is a christ to be believed in and obeyed by them . but says m. tro. there is a higher cause why men believe not to salvation , and have not eternall life , then the stubbornesse of mens hearts ( but shews not what , only adds , ) ye believe not , because ye are not my sheep , i. e. saith he in another place , because ye are not elected ; if that be his meaning , he hath made the remedy worse then the disease , and andeavour'd to help himselfe by a text that speaks truth against errors , for christ doth not say , ye believe not , because ye are not elected , ioh. . . but because ye are not my sheep ( i. e. because ye hear not my voice ) as you may see in the next verse , and i desire to know how men can believe , if they hear not his words , as they are laid before them , seeing as the apostle sayes , faith comes by hearing , and hearing by the word of god , rom. . . but if he mean the cause is gods decreeing of their unbelief , as many hold ; i have through the lords assistance disproved such opinions before , and only here pray , that the thoughts of his heart may be forgiven him , if his day of mercy be not past . but he subjoyns another text , which he thinks also makes for his purpose , deut : . , , . ye have seen all that the lord did before your eys in the land of aegypt , unto pharoah , and to all his servants , and to all his land , the great temptations which thine eys have seen , the signs and those miracles , yet the lord hath not given you an heart to perceive , and eys to see , and ears to hear unto this day , from whence , as i perceive , he would perswade men to believe that there are some men to whom god did never afford ability to perceive , see , and hear his words and wonders , and this ( viz. gods not giving these things ) is a higher cause of their unbelief , then the stubbornnesse of their own hearts , and so the dirt must still be flung at gods door ; but such thoughts are all vain and abhominable , for the spirit speaks expresly twice in the second and third verses , that their eys had seen all that the lord did , the great temptations , signs and miracles , &c. i desire to know who gave them those eys , if it was not the lord who made the seeing eye , and hearing ear ? but it 's true , he continued not light to them unto that day ( viz. the time that moses spake these words to them ) but took away their wisdome , their light , their understanding , their counsell ; as a man may do many courtesies for his friend or servant , if they prove false and rebellious , he discontinues his courtesies ; so the lord dealt with the israelites , he bare them as on eagles wings , and carried them in the daies of old , and said , surely they are my people , &c. but they rebelled and vexed his spirit , so he was their enemy , and fought against them , isa . . . . see a further reason of their lords withdrawing his light from them , and leaving them to their own counsells , psal . . where the lord recounts his mercies verse . and . layes before them his law , , , and . but my people would not hearken to me , israel would none of me , so i gave them to their own hearts lusts , they walked in their own counsells , ver . , . to this purpose read heedfully psal . . . to and psal . . throughout , who so curseth his father , his light shall be put out in obscure darknesse , pro. . . how much more they that despise the counsell of god and murmure against him ? the candle of the wicked shall be put out , pro. . . see also job . . . ch . . . the spirit of man is the lords candle , searching the innermost parts of the belly , pro. . . did not the lord take away this candle light , or lamp from saul . nebuchadu●zzar , ●ea the famous asian churches , and left them who had rejected the light in obscure darknesse , and hath not given them eys to see , ears to hear , or an heart to perceive unto this day ; and here there are many in this island ( which once saw the great wonders of iebovab , and believed his words , and sung his praise as israel did , psal . . . ) who rejecting further manifestations of light , and forgetting the rich mercies of the lord , will have their light obscur'd their wisdome turned to foolishnesse , and be laid aside as unprofitable , uselesse plants , rememeber what one of your prophets hath said , men may be saved wanting many truths ▪ but rejecting any they cannot . what then ? they shall be cast one day into utter darknesse , where is weeping and gnashing of teeth . but may some say , if this be so , god is changeable , if he takes away the light he once gave . i answer it is no such thing , but clearly the contrary , for the lord hath every where in his word declared , that he will be with us whilest we are with him , if we forsake him , he will forsake us , if any draw back my soul shall have no pleasure in him , heb. . . ezek. . . chron. . . with many other places . now when men rebell against god , reject his commands , and turn from righteousnesse , and the lord casts them off , it shews his great constancy to his own councell and decrees , whereas , if god should still continue light and delight to apostates , and such as still gain-say the truth presented to them , this would argue god variable from himself , in that he declares that he will desert back-sliders , and yet continues his favour and liking towards them , continuing in sin without repentance , as some would fain flatter themselves and others ; and this also leads to the tenets of the ranters , and is of all other doctrines the greatest enemy to godlinesse , and encouragement to wickednesse that can be ; but men will find it otherwise , the potter hath power over the clay to do as he pleaseth with it , and what that is , he hath shew'd us , jer. . , . at what time i speak concerning a nation to build and plant it , if it do evill in my sight , that it obey not my voice , then will i repent of the good wherewith i said i will benefit them ; so he can do with the inhabitants of this island , and so he will do if they repent not ; and thus you see how fully this text witnesseth against m. tro. conceit that gods not giving men grace or light is the highest cause of their unbelief ; yea so fully , that it shews they did once see his great signs , &c. but their sins hid these things from them , and removed their lights , that it was not continued with them ; so it is said of the jews , they once saw christ and his miracles , and had the things belonging to their peace revealed to them ; but now says christ , they are hid from thine eys ; it is just with god when men will be wise in their own eys , to hide from them the mysteries of the kingdome of heaven , and reveal them to babes , turning their wisdome into foolishnesse ; 't is just with god to leave m. tro. to himself , even to limit and restrain scripture-redemption , he having fiercely set himself to oppose it ; the great and gracious god yet grant him time and space to repent ; but though he hath never a scripture , yet he hath another argument against scripture redemption , which is this : all those for whom christ died , are redeemed from the wrath to come . but all men are not redeem'd from that wrath to come . therefore he died not for all . first i desire the reader to consider , whether there be any difference between this argument and the former , and what there is between this , they shall never perish , but have eternall life , and this , they are delivered from the wrath to come . secondly i answer , his first proposition is a meer fallacy and falsity , for there is not one scripture to prove it , and the consequence that he would draw from it is , that if christ died for all , then all shall be saved , which doth not follow ; and i have answer'd this objection fully already , and shew'd by the scriptures , that though christ died for all , yet many perish , because they will not come to christ , io. . . because they believe not , and if you would know how they who were bought by christ come to perish , or fall under wrath to come , it is for denying the lord that bought them , and treading under foot the bloud of the covenant , wherewith they were sanctified , as i have shew'd from heb. . . pet. . . it is for their holding the truth in unrighteousnesse , rom. . . for their uncleannesse foolish talking , covetousnesse , idolatry , whoredome ▪ lying , and all manner of disobedience , as the apostle plainly shews , ephes . . , . , . and therefore m. tro. might have spar'd this logick , except he hath a mind still to make god the author , both of the creatures sin and suffering , and turn that truth of god ( which sayes thy destruction is of thy self ) into a lye , and say , oh israel thy destruction is of me ; and indeed he may as well charge the scriptures expressions , as limit and restraine the scriptures redemption . but he objects further , christ did not die for all , because he did not pray for all ; and in this he doth so confidently triumph , calling it his strong argument , as if it were impossible to answer the fallacious deductions which he draws from the pure word , for he concludes , that because christ did not at the same time , jo. . . or in the same terms pray for all , therefore he did not die for all ; to which : answer , first , if it should be granted that christ did not pray for all , yet it doth not of necessity follow , that he did not die for all : for there is no scripture that sayes these words , christ did not die for those , for whom he did not pray ; and m. tro. bare word is no sufficient proof , yet he is very bold this way , and sayes in . page of his book , that christ sayes thus to his father , there is a world that i pray nor for for there is a world that is not thine , a world that then di●st not give me to die for , and therefore a world that i must not pray for . i wonder that any man who pretends tendernesse of conscience , and love to the scriptures , should dare to add to them , but they that dare to restraine the scriptures , will dare also to add to the scriptures , and in time do any thing , if they repent not . but : secondly , though christ prayed not for the world in the same words , and at that time when he prayed for his disciples ( both not being in the same capacity ) yet afterwards and elswhere he doth , and to clear up this , let us search the scriptures , job . . which m. tro. says is the patern of his prayer in heaven ; and to prove this , he quotes arminius , for my part i never read his works as the searcher of hearts doth know ▪ but seeing m. tro. thinks him authentique in this point , i shall desire to shew this patern to all those that shall read this work , that so we may be as well acquainted with the intercession of christ , as his oblation of himself to god for us . observe then first , that christ from the . ver . to the end of the . makes mention only of his disciples in being , as any considerate soul may see if they do but read and mind what is written , in the . and part of . he prays for all that should believe through the word of truth ; and in the later part of the . and in part of the . for the world , that they might believe and know that the father sent him . and if any shal say ( as they often do ) that by the world is meant the believers , saints , elect , or the disciples of christ , they mistake much , for christ sayes ver . the . they ( his disciples ) have surely knowne that i came out from thee , and have believed that thou didst send me ; and besides , all impartial spirits will confesse that the world and the saints are always oppos'd to each other . secondly , that christ made intercession for the transgressors , is● . . . and luk. . . he prays for his persecutors , romans , israelites , jews , gentiles , father forgive them , for they know not what they do , and christs precepts and practise are not contradicting one to the other , nay he commands us to pray for them that persecute us , mat. . . for all men , tim. . . christ did pray for his friends , and he prayed for his enemies , for saints and for sinners , though not in the same expressions , for if he had prayed for the world ( i mean wicked men ) in the same terms as for his disciples , he had prayed rather against them then for them , when he petition'd that they might be one ( for unity in iniquity is as bad as unity in piety is good ) every one that prays with understanding is apt to pray for the saints that god would keep them in peace and unity , that they may continue in the way that they are 〈◊〉 , and for all people and nations , that god would disperse the beams of truth amongst them , that so they may know and believe , and be converted , they desire that god would preserve their friends , and pardon their persecutors , but do not usually pray that god would keep the men of the world in the way that they are , in onenesse of mind , &c. or that the saints may be converted , neither did our teacher the lord christ do thus , but that the disciples who had known and believed might be preserv'd in one , and kept from evill , and that the world might know and believe him whom the father had sent and sealed : thus you see ( if this prayer of christ in the . of iohn be the patern of his prayer in heaven , as m. tro. from arminius hath asserted ) that then our dear redeemer hath not left out one man or woman , for there are but two sorts of people , nor ever were there any more , believers and unbelievers , saints and sinners , the elect and the world , and for both these he prays ( though in different expression ) as you have heard before . ob. but will some say , that that if christ had ever prayed for the world that they might believe and know him , then they should have so done , because christ was alwayes heard by the father , but say they , we see that all do not believe and know christ , therefore he need not to pray . this argument is very deceitfull , and grounded upon a false supposition , that because men do not , therefore they cannot , nor ever could know the lord , and believe him ; but this supposall being false , the argument is so to , as i have largely proved before in this discourse . but secondly i answer , jesus christ did never pray in vain , but obtain'd what he prayed for ; the works of redemption and intercession &c. being finished from the foundation of the world , and all men may know and believe the lord , as the prophets and apostles have testified , and as from them i have before shew'd out of isa . . . isa . . , . jo. . . rom. . . . with many others ; i beseech you read and consider them , and from them you will clearly see , that god hath not been wanting to reveal light and knowledge of himself through christ , but men may know and believe 't is possible for them , and nothing hinders them but the devill and themselves , their self-will and their sins , which cause god to leave them , and hide good things from them ; christ prayed that the world might believe and know him , and it 's granted , all men through him may believe , joh. . . 't is true , ( as hath been formerly shew'd ) that god doth not enable all men to know and believe with the same measure of light , but every man hath sufficient according to his ability ; neither shall all men be accountable for the same proportion of talents , yet he that had but one must reckon for that ; and they that have been faithfull in a little , shall be rulers over much . and let this be considered well by all men , that as christ died for all , yet none that are men and women shall have eternall life only by his powring out his bloud for them , without obedience to him , according to what he reveals to them , so though christ prays for all men , yet none are saved to the uttermost meerly through his intercession , except they ( being invited by the spirit ) come to god through him , as you may see heb. . . wherefore he is able to save to the uttermost them that come to god by him , seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them , and this being true , that all men may know and believe the lord , i conclude that this ability is obtain'd for them through the intercession of christ , without whom we never had enjoyed any thing , no not a being ; and that christ in this was heard , in that he desired all men through him ( according to his request ) may know and believe , the world through him may be saved , yea they who shall be damn'd might have been saved , had they received the love of the truth , if the apostle may be believed , thes . , , . ob. but ( saith m. tro. many dangerous consequences will follow , if we should grant that christ died for all , as first it riseth up against the power of god ( as m. tro. says ) that he should give his son to die for the salvation of thousands , and yet all not be saved . ans . . to which i answer , first by wa● of the distinction used by the apostle , tim. . . he is the saviour of all men , especially of them that believe : and from hence observe , that god who gave his son , and christ who gave himself a ransome for all ▪ hath saved or delivered every man from the power of the grave , but god never gave his son to save or deliver any from the wrath to come , or to bring any to eternall glory , but such as believe and obey , as i have often proved . ans . . secondly , it doth not impeach the power of god in that we maintain that what god did intend to bring to passe by his own sole soveraign power through the death of his son is effected ( viz. ) the breaking of the serpents head , the continuance of life to mankind here , making way for light and salvation , and the raising up all men from the grave , but that god did ever purpose to bring men to eternall life , whether they believe or no , by an absolute power , we deny , for the saints themselves are kept by the power of god through faith unto salvation , pet. . . ob. but says m. tro. it makes the salvation of the creature to depend on the contingency of his own will and naturall ability . ans . . answer first , that salvation ( i mean everlasting glory ) with god , or eternall life , is gods gift , as i have formerly proved by the scriptures . ans . . secondly , that none shall enjoy this gift of his , but such as walk as he hath injoyned them , in that law which he manifested to them , is the eternall infringeable and unresistable decree of god , and m. tro. page . confesseth , that though the precepts of god do not shew what god hath done for us , yet they determine mans duty , and the rule of his obedience , what god approves as good in it self , and what is our duty to do , there being a sweet harmony and connexion between the end and the means , which is fully as much as i hold in this point , ( viz. ) that they who would be saved , which is the end , they must believe and obey as god hath enabled them , which is the means , or at least one means . but says m. tro. it s contrary to the wisdom , justice and love of god , that he should give his son to die for all , and not give them faith and repentance , &c. ans . . to which i answer as before , that indeed if god had given his son to die for all , with an intent to save all , ( that is give eternall life to all , or any ) without faith and obedience , then if any had come short of it , it might have seemed to reflect on the wisdom , justice , and mercy of jehovah ; but the scriptures never reveal any such purpose in god , as you may see by joh. . . h●b . . . with many other places . ans . . secondly , so far as god did intend by his sons death to save or deliver men , he did , doth , and will fully effect ●t ; and whether men believe it or no , they shall one day be saved from the grave by him that died and rose again . ans . . thirdly , that god so put men in a sav●●ble condition , that if any come short of eternal life , their destruction is of themselves , their rejecting light , and loving darknesse , will be their condemnation . ans . . god doth not give faith and repentance as m. tro. dreams , viz. make men to believe by an irresistable power , for i have shew'd before , that god is said to give faith and repentance when by his word or spirit he perswadeth men to believe and repent , or depart from evill , when he gives the gospell , which is the word of faith ( and frequently in the scriptures is called faith ) thus faith is the gift of god ; and so when by the gospel or goodnesse of god any soul is led to repentance , god is said to give repentance ; yet the act or duty of believing and repenting is never call'd gods gift , work , or act , for then they that shall be damn'd for unbelief and impenitency , shall perish , because god gave them not the means , yea because god did not perform his act or work in the creatures , contrary to all the revealed will of god , so that it appears to me and thousands besides , that m. tro. doctrine doth highly scandalize , and impeach , and restrain the power , wisdom , justice , and love of god. for if christ did not die for all , or redeem all ( from the power of the grave at least , which is that i hold , and which m. tro. cries down under the name of universall redemption ) it was either because he could not , or because he would not , i am certain it is not the later , for he will raise up all men at the last day , cor. . , : if m. tro. says it is because he could not , wise men will a●hor such savings , both therefore are true , he is willing and able , and also will do it , all mankind are and shall be freed in due time from whatsoever adam brought on them , and whosoever affirms the contrary , debaseth the power of the omnipotent god , seen ●sp●cially in raising up iesus from the dead , eph. . . that so he might be lord of the quick and dead , ( as hath before been manifelled ) of which dom●nion , lordship , or power , m. iro . and others ( though i hope not knowingly ) have endeavoured to devest jesus christ , except they will say that our lord will exercise authority over those whom he never purchased , the very thought whereof is abominable to every knowing sincere h●aits , seeing the scriptures ●re so p●ain , that to this 〈◊〉 christ both died and rose again , and revived , that he might be lord both of the dead and the living , & they that oppose this , disparage the power of christ , scandalize his scepter , which is a scepter of righteousness , and make christ an arbitrary usurper , the name whereof 〈◊〉 amongst all , and ( at least in words ) exploded by us in this island . and as for the wisdome of the lord , which is infinite , mr. troughtons doctrine detracts from it , for he confesseth , that the tenders of mercy by the lords commands , are , and must be to all where the gospel comes ( though not really and in good earnest , as one saith ) yet christ dyed not for all ( saith mr. troughton . ) now i beseech thee o impartiall soul that readest this , judge what is right , and see whether it suits with the wisdome of god , to invite , perswade , beseech , and stretch out his hands unto stubborn gain-saying wretches , having never given christ for them , nor christ any right to them ? would christ ever have been grieved for the hardnesse of the jewes hearts , had he not laid down his life for them ? we account it folly to grieve for that which cannot be helpt , so men ignorantly tax christ of no lesse , when they say , god had appointed them to be har hearted and disobedient , and yet christ grieved for it . object . oh but god could have softned their hearts if he would have had it so . answ . but i say god never did purpose to soften any hearts , otherwise then by the teachings of his spirit , and prophets , and his son ; these being rejected , he leaves men to themselves , and they bring upon themselves destruction : doth it suit with the wisdom , justice , and love of a man to command his servants to do that which he knows they cannot , or are not able to performe ? mr. troughton confesseth that god commands all to repent and believe , and 't is certain many shall be damn'd for unbeliefe ; yet he sayes , that its impossible that all should believe : nay , he saies , that god appointed them to be disobedient , if this were true ( as it is most false ) where were the wisdome , justice , and goodnesse of god , when he shall command them to believe whom he had appointed to unbelief ; yea damn men for being such , ( viz. disobedient ) as he had appointed them to be ; but especially doth not this traduce the unfathom'd boundlesse love of god , when men shall say ( as mr. troughton doth ) that christ did not die for all , and yet the greatest number of men and women shall be damned for not believing on him who payed no ransome for them ; and doth not this highly impeach the power and truth of god , the holy word of the glorious gospell , when men shall so andaciously affirme that christ dyed onely for some , and but for a few ; and that he dyed not for all . and whereas the word of faith saith plainly that christ dyed for all , gave himselfe a ransome for all , for every man , for the sheep , and those that deny him , for the living and for the dead , for the world , yea the whole world. when men i say denyes these plain texs , and like the papists , suffer not poor souls to read them but by their gloss ; what do they but vilifie and falsifie the scriptures , and give the truth of god the lie ? the good lord judge between us for his own truth sake . let mr. troughton produce but one text of scripture for all his assertions and wee 'l believe him , but the reader may see he hath not one , but instead of scriptures , brings his own reasons and sophisticall arguments . object . but sayes mr. troughton , if christ dyed for all , then christ is but halfe a saviour , and man must actually save himselfe , &c. i answer first , i have proved already that he is the saviour of all men , and how he is so , in that he hath saved and delivered all men by his death and resurrection from the grave , so as that none shall die there eternally for adams sin . secondly , he hath prepared and propounded eternall life or salvation freely , when none desired it of him , and hath provided and given lawes for every soul that will be saved to walk in , ( as the ministers about b. castles in their namelesse paper confesse ) and through christ bestowed light to walke and work by , and what could god do more ? except you would have him repent and believe , or force some to obey , and decree others to disobey , and to be a respecter of persons , which he will never be , i mean to respect persons personally considered ; the lord is good to all , and extends his goodnesse to all , and thereby they who turn to him shall be built up . of a truth god is no respecter of persons , saith peter , act. . but in every nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousnesse is accepted of him . cornelius never heard of christ as some heard of him , yet he was accepted with god ( serving him according to the light he had ) which was not without christ ( though as yet he knew him not ) for none are accepted without him ; but mr troughton finds fault with us , that we should ever thinke that christ shed his blood for those that never heard the gospel . to which i answer , if by the gospell he meanes those precious sayings and writings of christ and his apostles , as he doth , for he calls it the voice of the gospel and word of faith ; i think he hath no reason to except against us , for none of the patriaks , prophets , and holy men of old so heard it ; much lesse did jethro , ruth , the eunuch , and many more mentioned in the scriptures ; yet i hope mr. troughton will confesse that he dyed for them . i doubt not but that servant who imployes his one talent well shall receive the reward of one talent . thirdly , the scripture sayes , save your selves from this untowardly generation , act. . . and worke out your salvation with fear and trembling , phil. . . which i understand to be but thus , repent , believe , obey , or use the meanes which god hath appointed you for salvation , and this no sober man will deny to be our duty ; yet when we have done that ( and if it were possible ten thousand times more ) we are but unprofitable servants , and do no more merit or procure salvation then a poor begger stretching out his hand to receive a purse of money ( if any were so free as to give it ) doth merit , procure , or coyne that gold or silver which is given him , as i have before shewed ; god might have required all dutifull obedience from us , and yet at last have sent us to the grave for ever : and as for universall salvation , which mr. troughton terrifies himselfe and others with ; i have often shewed how i hold it , to wit , that all were saved or delivered by christ , dying & rising , from the miseries that came by adam , so that they shall not for ever lye under them ; and for any other universall salvation of fallen angels and reprobates i know nothing , for christ dyed not for angels ; and as for reprobates that deny the lord that bought , and resist the spirit of god , and violate the law of nature , that know not god , and obey not the gospel , they shall be destroyed for ever : yet i beleeve , that for want of a right dividing , and so of a right understanding of the word of truth , in the things by me insisted upon ; many have runne into grosse absurdities about universall salvation , not being able to distinguish between salvation or deliverance , which is by the death of christ from adams sin and sufferings for it , and salvation which is through believing on him , or comming to him , heb. . . from our sins , which without repentance will damne man eternally in the second death : they thought ( and that rightly ) that all are and shall be saved or delivered from something ; but not seriously weighing the word , and distinguishing , concluded that none shall be damned or consumed forever , at the last day of judgement , which is most absurd , and such a doctrine of universal salvation ( viz. that none shall be punished or perish in the lake of fire ) my soul abhors , as also mr troughtons doctrine , that any shall be punished or perish there , meerly because it is the pleasure of the lord so to have it , or because they were by jehovah appointed to be disobedient , and to be damned , or because there was never a saviour that dyed for them , or because adam eat of the forbidden tree , my soul also abominates ; and it is the griefe of thousands to heare that god is dishonoured by such declarations . though once i confeffe it was my judgement , but the lord hath had mercy upon my soul , and now i see that every mans destruction is of himselfe , and that the vengeance of eternall fire comes on men through their omitting some good that they might have done , or their committing some evill that they might have avoided , for rejecting some light that they might have received , or turning from what they had received , for trampllng under foot the blood of the covenant wherewith they were sanctified , and denying the lord that bought them , &c. object . but saies mr. troughton , if it we should preach that christ dyed for all , this would bolster up men in a prophane course , or at best in a generall dead faith . answ . the contrary to which is true , for one constant use that we make of this doctrine , is to diswade , deter , and dehort sinners from prophanenesse and all manner of sinne , and to perswade them therefore to hate that which is evill , to die to sinne , to live to righteousnesse , to love and live to the lord jesus , because he dyed for them and rose againe ; and we declare unto all men , that if they do not leave sinne , repent , and live to christ , but deny his word , despise his spirit , and slight his blood , they shall be sure to be damned for ever , because they live not to him that dyed for them and rose againe ; and that although christ bought them , or layed down a sufficient price for them , yea though they professe that truth , yet if in their works they deny him and follow not those further manifestations of light , which he appeares to them in , but refuse his words , and so receive him not , they shall be destroyed at the last day . secondly , this doctrine cannot be the nurse of a dead faith , if truly preached and received ; for this teaches men to know first by the scriptures , that christ dyed for them , and what a man knows infallibly he may believe comfortably , undoubtedly , and without wavering ; yea all faith that is not groundupon knowledge , is but a meere fancy and very uncertaine , when men believe they know not what . but one the contrary , mr. troughtons doctrine is the nursery of prophanesse and deadness of faith , or at least of sadness of soul , yea dispaire of mercy . how many poore wretches ( hearing that god did appoint a certain number of persons onely to believe , and so to be saved , and the rest to disobedience and so to be damned ) have desperately concluded , if i am appointed to believe and be saved , i shall be saved live how i will : and others , when they commit sinne , sooth up themselves with this conceit , it is gods will that they should commit such sinnes , god did decree and appoint them to be disobedient , and it could not be avoided , with many such devillish conclusions , tending to all lewdness , loosnesse , and prophaneness that can be imagined : and hence it is there is so much bitternesse , wrath , hatred , revenge and strife amongst men ; for did they but know and seriously lay to heart , that christ shed his blood for those poore creatures , that injure them , and which they so maligne , their heart would melt towards them , they would not hate their persons , nor seeke to ruine their estates , onely abhor their vices , and seek to draw them out of the sinck of their sins . it must of necessity also be the root of a dead faith , for what life can that faith have , which is grounded upon our own qualifications ? for thus mr. troughton teaches men to argue , christ dyed for beleevers , sheep , saints ; but i am a beleever , a sheep , a saint , therefore christ dyed for me ; but the scripture proves neither of his propositions , but teaches us better logick thus ; christ dyed for sinners , for the ungodly , for all , for the whole world , and those that deny him , therefore for me , and this shews gracious humility , the other vaine ostentations ; this gives sweet and certaine assurance of gods love to any poore soul : the other when his qualifications are absent ( as often they are ) leaves the creature in a doubtfull dispaire , whether god loved it at all ; this engageth the soul to love god who loved him first , and gave his sonne to dye for him ; the other saddens the heart with feare , shakes the foundation , causing a distressed soul to question , whether ever christ dyed for him , or her . if a faithfull gospel preacher should perswade a prophane wretch to repent and turn to god , and the sinner should aske ; what should move him to change his life ? the messenger of the lord must answer , that the goodnesse of the lord should lead them to repentance ; if the other should reply , wherein god shewed his goodness towards him ? the embassador of the lord must rejoyne , in that he gave his sonne to dye for him a miserable wretched sinner , and that there is a doore of salvation open for him upon his repentance , through the blood of jesus , or he sayes nothing ; for if he should onely tell him of the goodness of god as to this life , or tell him of some wild uncertain hopes of mercy , without assuring him that christ was curcified for him , it would leave but a slender impression upon his spirits ; and to perswade , exhort , require , and beseech a company of exorbitant sinners to amend their lives and love the lord jesus , is but a lost labour , if we declare not unto them the certainty of his kindness and love to them first , according to the scriptures ; for a soul will never truly love christ except he be assured that the lord christ first loved him ; or at best if by a preaching of the gospel at randome , ( as many do ) any poor soules are fallen in love with christ , yet their spirits are full of feare and perplexing anxieties , till they know and are assured of his love to them , and wherein that consists the apostle paul shews us , rom. . . & joh. . . , . herein is love , not that we loved god , but he loved us first , and sent his sonne to be a propitiation for us . you would blame that man exceedingly , who should use his utmost endeavour by all means to perswade his neighbour being ( but a mean man ) to set his affections upon some great lady , admired for vertue , beauty , birth , and riches , being not able to assure his friend first , that she loves him , and desires to bestow her selfe upon him ; but if he heare it from her mouth , or have it made under her hand that she loves such a man , and desires to be joyned to him in marriage , he may boldly and withall earnestness , stirre up his friend to affect her , and seeke her love , who is every way so worthy , and withall so loving to him , that is to far below her : of no lesse folly are they guilty , that spend their spirits in calling and crying unto sinners to love the lord jesus , and seeke his face , and yet either cannot or will not assure them , that christ loved them , and layed down his life for them , thereby to move them to place their affections upon him : nay it s impossible they should know it ( and much more impossible they should make others know it ) that say christ dyed onely for a small number . if a wicked prophane wretch should meet a man , and were about to offer some injury to him , if another should come and make it evident that this man whom he is about to wrong , ransomed him with a great summe out of captivity ; or when he was condemned to dye ( by giving his own onely child to dye for him ) delivered him from death ; this might allay his fury after the resolution , and melt the heart of the most cruel hard-hearted and injurious person ; or if it did not , it would render him the most odious of creatures , the most ungrateful of men , and unworthy of any further pitty : and therefore it is that where-ever we meet with prophane persons that are treading under foot the sonne of god , and crucifying the lord of life afresh , by swearing , lying , drunkenness , persecuting the saints , &c. and so injuring and denying the lord that bought them ; we acquaint them that he whom they wrong and persecute is jesus the saviour of the world , the redeemer of mankind , that gave himselfe a ransome for all , bought them with his precious blood , and dyed for their sinnes according to the scriptures , that thereby we may perswade them from their impious persecuting principles , and prophane practises , or else leave them without excuse , but whilest men continue ignorant of this great love of christ , and do not certainly know by the scriptures that christ dyed for them , they are seldome restrained from prophanenesse and all sorts of impiety , or at least are filled with frequent doubtings and tremblings of heat , not knowing whether the lamb was slaine for them , yet knowing that forsaking of sin and following of righteousnesse , can doe no good to that soul for whom christ dyed not , no precepts can be available , or promises applicable to those for whom the blood of christ jesus was not shed , and so they stand staggering at both ; and though sometimes through the mercy of a long suffering god , they have some sweet tasts of mercy ; yet by attending to false teachers , and satans temptations , they begin to question whether christ dyed for them , and then all their unstable hopes vanish , and their unsettled hearts are hurried into a labyrinth of soul dstempering confusions ; the lord pitty these poor creatures , and deliver them from all self contradicting ; yea god contradicting teachers , who hold the truth in unrighteousness . and whereas mr. troughton sayes , that men will argue , that if christ dyed for all men , then for me , i shall be saved though i go on and injoy my lusts , &c. it s nothing so , and they that hold that christ dyed for all men according to the scriptures , raise no such arguments , knowing that they that deny to serve him that bought them shal be destroyed ; but they argue thus , christ dyed for me among the rest of men , therefore i ought to live to him , love , serve , and obey him , to forsake my lusts , pride , swearing , coveteousnesse and prophanenesse to dye to sinne and live to righteousnesse because he dyed for me and rose againe . but mr. troughton saies , that christs dying for all is a ground of dispaire to many , to which i answer . first , here mr. troughton miserably contradiccts himselfe , for he holds that they whom christ dyed for can never dye in dispaire ; and for others there was never any hopes of eternall life layed up : but here it seemes that there was something to be enjoyed even by them who dispaire of it , but i shall not dwell upon any advantages , but secondly i answer , that mr. troughtons suggestions is very false , for seeing that christ dyed for all , seeing he so loved the world as to give his life for man-kind , much more will he be found willing to receive and save poor sinners that come to him : but satan hath subtilly circumvented men by a great sleight , in perswading them through the doctrine of the false ministers ( who are transformed as the ministers of christ ) that god will save some men that live and dye in sinne ; and that others who so live and dye , shall be damned ; that one lyar shall be saved , and another be damned ; one swearer shall be saved , and another damned ; one adulerer shall be saved , and another damned : that god is angry with one drunkard , murtherer , whoremonger , and not with another , though neither of them repent ; for they hold , that it is christ's w●rk to act faith and repentance ; in the creature , they hold that god was never angry with his elect ; and hence it , that some say , god was no more angry with david after he had perpetrated those horrid sinnes of murther and adultery , then he was at any other time : others hold , ( which is all one in effect ) that he forceth some to beleeve and be saved , and appointeth others to sinne and be damned , and this they call the distinguishing love of god , which makes m. troughton ask , page . where is the distinguishing love of god , if christ dyed for all ? i answer first , in that he gave christ to dye for all men , and not for the fallen angels . secondly , in that he will delight in , abide with , and save such as repent and obey him , as you may see , psal . . . jo. . , . heb. . . and not others , when he might have required men to have done an hundred times as much as he hath , and yet have made no such promise of further manifestations of love or life eternall , he gave himselfe a ransome for all , yet he giveth more ( or a further addition of ) grace ; he resisteth the proud ( who deny the lord that bought them ) and giveth grace to the humble , isai . . . so here is distinguishing grace . first , he manifests his goodnesse , grace , or favour to men ; yea all men , yea to the wicked men , and they who humbly receive his mercy and truth , shall have more even an increase every way , as i have in the foregoing part of this treatise prov●d from jo. . . an other railing accusation that mr. troughton brings against the truth is this , if ( saith he ) we shall hold that christ dyed for all , this will be a ready way to reconcile us to rome : i conceive he meanes the papists , but the papists generally hold that christ dyed sufficiently , but not efficiently for all ; and they hold directly as mr. troughton doth in this point ; that is , that his blood in respect of the intrinsicall merit of it , was sufficient for ten thousand worlds ; but it was not the intention of the father , that all should have any benefit by it ; we are very unlikely then to be reconciled to rome in this point , although mr. troughton ( who closes much more with them in this point then we ) about originall sinne , and sprinkling infants , &c. would so perswade people , that he might render the truth of god odious . and as for conditionall election , i know not what the papists maintain ; but as before manifested , we hold that god did appoint or choose all men to be holy , and those that are so to happy . but that the naturall man hath power of himself without spirituall grace to believe in christ to eternall life ( as mr. troughton sayes we hold ) is most notoriously false ; nay weare so farre from thinking any such thing , that we know and teach every where , that the best of men have not power of themselves to make one haire white or black . but that we have all our sufficiencie of god , and that of his own free mercy through christ he hath given power to every man and woman , to do what he requires of them ; and that every good and perfect gift is from god , jam. . . &c. as i have before shewed : neither doe we say there is no original sinne , for adams sinne was the originall or first sinne ; but we are not so silly , as to think there are two originall sinnes , neither are we so foolish as with the papists , mr. troughton , and all false teachers in the world , as to say that children bring so much sinne with them into the world , as will ( or at least may ) damne them eternally in the second death , or that baptisme doth cleanse away originall sinne , as some besides the papists & prelates , hold , or that men shall be damned eternally after the resurrection for adams ●inne : but we say , that through originall sinne all dye or returne to the dust , as is before declared at large . and although we thus hold ●hat infants bring not with them into the world so much sin as will or may cast them into the second death , yet this is no way inconsistent with the antipaedobaptists ; neither doth it follow , that because children may and shall be saved , therefore they may and must be baptized ; for god hath declared that unto little infants belongs the kingdom of god , mat. . . but he hath no where commanded , or declared that they may or ought to be sprinkled with water ; for they having done neither good nor evill , have no need of repentance , faith and baptisme , or any other externally or internally-purifying ordinances , until they sinne against light , and so their consciences are defiled , which without applying the blood of jesus , and obedience to his precepts , will never be purged againe ; when men come to know what 's good , yet commit that which is evill . there is no peace of conscience to be had , without conformity to the will of god revealed to men and women : but doubtless its the greatest piece of folly in the world , to sprinkle little babes under a colour of a promise belonging to them , baptisme is a precept that followes repentance , and is of equal duration with it , even till the comming of our lord ; so that the sanctification of infants by the blood of christ , doth neither help the paedobaptists nor hurt the antipaedobaptists : for whatsoever god hath done for little ones , yet we must do no more for them , then the lord who gives the fruit of the womb , requires of us . it s very improbable then , that ever we shall be reconciled to rome ( as mr. troughhton sayes ) whilst we disavow the infalibility of men , the sprinkling of babes , the taking of tythes , or a forced maintenance , and national churches , in all which ( being the foundation and main building of the papacy ) mr. troughton , and the parish ministers are already reconciled to rome . object . but sayes mr. troughton , if christ dyed for all , then some men may fall away from a state of grace and salvation . ans . it followes not any way , but rather it argues they may not ; but may and ought to hold fast that state of grace and salvation which christ hath brought them to . secondly , we never say that men may fall away from grace , but that many have so done , and therefore admonish the saints who are in a state of grace , to take heed lest they fall from the grace of god , heb. . . and lest there be in any of them an evill heart of unbeliefe to depart from the living god : and we are sure that taking heed , never made any man to fall : but we remember how adam being in the favour of god , and a good state fell , how the israelites fell , row. . . how hymeneus and alexander put away , and make ship-wrack of faith and a good conscience , tim. . . and how all they in asia were turned away from paul , tim. . . yea all the famous churches of rome , corinth , galatia , colosse , thessalonia , with the seven churches of asia , long since fell from the faith once given to the saints , and are buried in oblivion . ans . . by grace i mean the gospell , we are not under the law but under grace , rom. . . now many have profest the gospel or grace of god , and have fallen from it , whereas had they continued in it , they had beene safe , even our enemies themselves being judger . but they did but seem to professe the truth . i answer , then they did well to fall from a seeming profession which is hypocrisie ; t is a vertue to forsake an evill way , but many have forsaken the right way , pet. . . and concerning the faith have erred and put away a good conscience . object . oh but that was but seeming faith and a bad conscience ; to which i answer , answ . . then paul bids tim. hold fast seeming faith and a good conscience , for the apostle bids him hold fast that which some had put away , tim. . . ans . . it seems also that hymeneus and alexander were delivered to satan , for putting away seeming faith and a bad conscience , whereas they should rather have been commended and highly praised . ans . . the scriptures say , faith and a good conscience , men ●y , it was seeming faith and a seeming good ( other say a ●ad ) conscience , believe the scriptures or men , which you ●●ease . but men cannot endure to heare that there is any possibility of falling from the favour of god , for this would check them in their full career of sinning ; but they would fain have pillowes sown under their arm-holes , and heare that whatever sinnes they commit , yet god is not displeased with them ; and that whatsoever they do , god is not angry with them , contrary to mal. . . of whom i demand what they think if david had dyed in the act of adultery , or before his repentance ? i know what some have said , that david was as fully in the favour of god in the time of his sinning as ever he was ; but for my part i think such doctrine is most horrid and dismall , the sinck of sinne , and the enemy to all close walking with god , the decay and ruine of the power of godlinesse ; and a little will reconcile the brochers of it to the ranters . i am of christ's mind , except ye repent ye shall likewise perish , luk. . . and of the prophet ezekiel's , when a righteous man tnrneth away from his righteousnesse , and committeth iniquity , &c. all his righteousnesse which he hath done shall not be mentioned ; in his tresp●sse that he hath trespassed , and his sin which he hath sinned in them shall he die , ezek. . . and of pauls mind , if any man draw back , the lord will have no pleasure in them , heb. . . lastly , i do not say that mr. troughton may fall from a state of grace , but i pray with all my soul that he may come up to it , and continue in it ; therefore he need not be offended , and i am certaine no soule that truly feares god will dislike that doctrine which perswades to perseverance , and disswades from carelessenesse and apostacy . object . lastly , sayes mr. troughton , if we hold that christ dyed for all , this may be an occasion to vilifie and debase the scriptures , for they that so hold , do affirme that the sun , moon , and stars , and fruitfull seasons , reveale christ as a mediator savingly , &c. ans . . god hath given unto men three principall wayes of teaching , nature teacheth , cor. . the heavens declare ( or preach ) psal . . . and his written word declared by moses and the prophets , christ and his apostles . now there are no men upon the face of the earth but have the two former , and where the lord affords those onely , he expects obedience accordingly ; these leave men without excuse , for mans eternall wel-fare stands not upon how much light or truth is manifested , but how that which is manifested is obeyed and followed . ans . . where these are , if the word of truth and peace preached by jesus christ may be enjoyed , and is rejected , then the others will not suffice . ans . . as under the law there was a dark discovery of jesus , yet sufficient as to that dispensation , so in the teachings of nature and the creatures ; there is some discoveries of mercy and goodnesse in and from god which is not without christ , and will be found sufficient to those who have no other means , for god accepts where there is a willing mind , not according to what men have not , but ac●rding to what they have , cor. . . and will require according to what he gives , if christ may be judge , luk. . . i see some very inquisitive , what shall become of heathens , turks , and jewes &c. others insulting over them , judging and censuring them as a people of whom god hath no regard : but who art thou that judgest another mans servant , look not how little they have , and what shall become of them , but how much thou hast , and what is required of thee ; and know that god will expect of thee a suitable improvement , taking this withall for the debellation of thy haughty thoughts of thy riches , that as he that hid his one talent is condemned , and he that imployed well his ten talents commended ; so whoever makes his own talent two shall be rewarded , when thou that boastest with thy great light and many talents , ( if not improved according to the doners will and bounty ) maist be receive the greater condemnation ; it shall be easier for tyre , sidon , sodom and gomerrha , at the great day of the lord , then for chorazin , bethsayda and capernaum . neither let any man think that anothers improvement will excuse him , or that he may build his faith , or what men have written in these things of which i have treated , but on the rock of ages , and the doctrine of the prophets and apostles , whose pure rule and perfect prophesies , discover to us the truth of these things wherein men differ . mr , troughton would perswade men , that it s but a fiction to say that christ dyed for all , because it is not said in the scripture that christ dyed by name for thee john , thomas , robert , &c. their is no such particular scripture revelation . i grant there is no such particular revelation , and therefore we affirme with the scripture that christ dyed for all , that to john , thomas , robert , or any other man may have a ground to believe that christ dyed for every one of them ; 't is true if christ did not dye for all , then no man can certainly know that christ layed down his life for him , except he could finde both his names written in the scpriptures . and i appeal to every wise and impartial man , whether mr. troughtons argument doth not evidently conclude against himselfe ; for what need is there that every mans name should be recorded in scripture , seeing christ gave himselfe a ransome for all : but if that were true that christ bought only a small number , then its requisite that their names should be expressed , or else no man can positively conclude , that christ dyed for him : as for example , if a pardon should be sent to all the prisoners in a prison , there is no need of nominating them ; but if it be onely for two or three amongst many , their names being not mentioned in the pardon , the bringer of the pardon cannot tell who to call for , nor the keeper of the prison whom to release , nor the prisoners to whom it relates : for if a man should come to a place where a thousand prisoners lay bound , and should pretend that he comes with joyfull tydings to them , and then at last tell them that two or three of them are onely redeemed , though every one of them may have some hopes , yet no man can know who it is till their names are manifested , but if the act of grace be sealed to them all , every one hath a certaine ground of serious rejoycing ; by this you that love the truth and peace , may see the bottome of mr. troughtous errors , and depth of his wisdome . who teacheth men in the next place to argue thus , whosoever beleeveth on christ shall be saved : but i beleeve in christ , therefore i shall be saved . for answer hereto , consider how improper it is for men to tell men they must beleeve in christ before they know who he is , and what he hath done for their soules , except you would have men beleeve they know not what , and to walk by an implicit faith , as mr. trovghton doth ; and then you will soon be reconciled to rome . the scriptures teach us another doctrine , ye may know and believe , isai . . . they that know thy name will put their trust in thee , psal . . . we have knowne and believed the love that the father hath to us , jo. . . let all the house of israel know assuredly , &c. act. . . after they have escaped the pullutiont of the world through the knowledge of our lord and saviour , pet. . i know whom i have believed ; i know that my redeemer liveth , &c. men will hardly give credit to , much lesse rely upon him they never knew ; and therefore when christ askt the blind man whether he did believe on the sonne of god , he answered and ●aid , who is he that i might believe on him ? jo. . . . he must know him before he could believe on him . object . but sayes mr. troughton , 't is the will of gods purpose who christ dyed for in particular ; and therefore thou canst not fetch the ground of thy faith from thence , but looke to the generality of the offer of grace , and command to believe . ans . . i grant it , and its that which i ever say that no man hath a ground to believe that christ dyed for him , if he dyed for some particular persons only . ans . . it seems then , there is a generall offer of grace , and a precept of god , commanding and encouraging to believe . i intreat the discreet reader to consider what clear truth mr. tronghton professeth , and how he hath with one hand ruined that great building of the doctrine of restrained redemption ; which he and many more with all their hands , heads and hearts have labou●ed ( almost these two hundred years ) to raise up : for seeing there is a generall tender of grace and manifestation of goodnesse from the most high god , that offer is reall or not . mr. troughton i thinke dare not say that it is not reall ( though i feare dares say any thing , or else would never have restrained and limited scripture redemption ) for then he makes god like the worst of men : if it be reall , then i have ail that granted which largue for , as fully as my soul can desire . for if there be a generall and reall offer of grace from god : ( as most certainly there is ) surely then christ dyed for all , or else god offers grace to them , and commandeth and encourageth them to believe for whom his sonne never dyed , and consequently to whom that grace could never have done any good . object . but god fore-knew they would not receive it . ans . but he fore-knew as well that by those abilities by him given them , they could and might have received it ; and therefore he offers it that they may be left without excuse , which could not have beene if the tender had never been made , and that in good earnest too : though mr. sympson in halfe sayes the contrary . and wherein is the first act of grace manifested , but in gods giving of christ to be a propitiation for the sinnes of the whole world . that then which is the first and principall manifestation of grace or love ( which are all one ) is gods giving his sonne to dye for sinners , and doubtlesse is first and principally to be made knowne to the world , that they may know and believe the love of god , and so come to turn from idols to serve him that so loved them , or else we shall make a preposterous preaching of the gospel . what mr. troughton sayes , that we are not to looke at christs dying for us , but to the precept of god for our encouragement to believe , is utterly false , and meerly legal ; for all obedience that is not grounded upon love to him , whom we obey is little worth : but selfe contradictions breake no square in mr. troughtons doctrine , as you shall see in the next place , where he saith , the command to believe and come to christ is open and revealed , but who christ dyed for , is secret and hid ; neither is gods call and command , that thou shouldst repent and believe , grounded upon christs dying for thee in particular . i answer , . this last clause is in part true , for it s grounded upon his dying for all in generall , see joh. . . and so is the f●rst ( viz ) that the command to believe is open and rev●aled ; but that it is a secret thing who christ dyed for , is untrue ; for there is not any one thing in all the scriptures morefully and plainly revealed , then this , as i have clearly proved . but if it be a secret , how came mr. troughton to know any thing of its in reference to himselfe or others . ans . . if a man have a conceit at large that christ dyed for him , or a certain knowledge that he dyed for all ; yet if a man apply it not to his own souls in particular , his faith wil be but ill founded : for if certaine knowledge of every truth be the sure ground of every act of saving faith , how can i beléeve that christ dyed for me in particular , except i f●rst know that he dyed for me in particuler ? and how any man can know that but by confessing that he dyed for all , let any soul judge : but many that would be thought christians , are growne just like the jews ; yea the pharisees , that have high thoughts of themselves , and despise others , and that christ never bought wicked men and hereticks , but onely seemed so to doe . if i could see the man that hath not been a wicked man , or a heretick , i should ( it may be ) say so too ; but there is not that man on the face of the earth , that hath not beene one or both of these , as every humble heart will ingenuously confesse ; and that it was the knowledge of the love of god in christ , that drew them out of the sinck of sinne , superstition and error , led them to repentance and obedience , and so to peace of conscience and joy in the lord , the spirit of god in the word , and their owne experience can and will testifie with many thousands . obj. but ( sayes mr. troughton ) there are many thousands of precious saints , some yet alive , and other at rest with the lord , who had true faith and peace of conscience , and yet were stranger to the doctrine of christs dying for all men . i answer first , so there are that never knew that christ suffered at jerusalem ; yea many thousands that never heard of christ , as infants and others , who dye before they have done or known good or evill ; and others that were ignorant of many pure divine truths in all ages and places of the world . answer , . suppose it be so , doth that argue that when we may have more and clearer light and knowledge in the love of god and matters of salvation , that we should neglect and oppose it , though they who are invincibly and inevitably ignorant of many heavenly truths may be happy , yet they who resist them cannot be so . answer , . if they had true faith and joy in the holy ghost , who did not certainly know whether christ dyed for them or no , ( they living under such ministers onely , that held that christ dyed onely for some ) what strength of faith , peace of conscience and rejoycing in the lord may they have , who know , and can prove by many plaine text of scriptute , that christ dyed for them ? how may such souls exult and leap for joy through the love of god , who know and believe the love of god to them . a man who desires such a one to wife , may sometimes be at peace and quiet in his minde , and have some hopes of attaining his desires ; but when he knows that he is beloved by her whom he loves , his joy is more solid , and his minde more setled . answer , . i , and many more ( who have knowne both states ) can testifie that our joy , peace , love to god , faith and knowledge &c. were very weak , low and mercenary , when we the doctrine of christs dying for all : ( although some of us profited above many our equals , set a good face upon the businesse , and were able to say much against the truth ) and for my owne part , i disputed so long against christs dying for all , that at last i could not tell whether he dyed for me , and would have given a thousand worlds if it had been possible to have knowne it by the scriptures , wel knowing that no other evidence can po●sibly satisfie a doubting heart , except we shall decline them , and incline to enthustasmes , and spirits that are to be accursed : for if any brings glad tydings to us , any otherwise then the scriptures declare them , he is so to be accounted , gal. . . . what he sayes about christs meriting faith for men , is a wild popish-assertion , no where found in the scriptures ; having no savour of the forme of sound word , is very inconsiderable and contrary to what he sayes in page . of his book , that the commands of god ( of which , that we should beleeve , is one of the chiefest , joh. . ) shew not what god or christ hath done for us , but what is our duty to do . ( but for m. trough . and all men of his judgement , to contradict themselves is is no new thing , as i know by sad experience in my former ignorance . ) but i shall through gods helpe answer his question : which is this , let me aske our adveasaries this question , what men a●e bound to believe for the peace of their consciences , when they take it for granted already , that christ dyed for them , being comprehended in the world of man-kind ? i answer , . that he is raised and ascended up , without which we had been in our sins , thes . . . jo. . . act. answer , . they ought to believe that he is the sonne of god , the christ , ( i. e. ) the onely anointed king , priest , and prophet , who alone is to mediate , gives lawes , and teach the feare of the lord , who ( and none else ) is to be heard in matters appertaining to gods worship , and the gathering and govering the church or congregation of the lord , jo. . . act. . . tim. . . isai . . . with . . heb. . , jo. . . answer , . we must beliive all the commandements , psal . . . yea , all things that are written in the law and the prophets , act. . . now by beleeving his precepts ; i doe not meane that we should onely believe that they are his , and that they are true and righteous , &c. although this be truth , and must be first believed , and relates to that which some call faith of assurance , ( in that we beleeve and are sure that they are the commands of christ ) but we must adhere to them , apply them to our hearts , and apply our bodyes and soules to the practise of them . and hence it is that all gospel obedience is sometimes concluded under the name faith , as rom. . . and all disobedience of times , is comprehended under unbeliefe , as heb. . . compared faithfully with rom. . . and without this obedience of faith , or faithfull obedience to the gospel , or will of god , or light revealed to us ; there is no peace of conscience to any man or woman in the world . disobedient persons may close their eyes , stoppe their ears , and harden their necks , and yet blesse themselves in their hearts , saying they say shall have peace ; they may for a space be a sleep in sin , insensible of wrath , yea perswaded that they are children of the most high , and in favour with the almighty ; that they are disciples , saints christians , and the chosen of god ; but ere long again , their consciences being awakened , considering how far they differ and stand at a distance from the commands of jesus , their hearts condemne them , or at least are full of doubts , feares and flashings of terrour ; they question their present and future state , and are amazed at the wrath which the light or law of nature presents to their soules : the turth they oppose , the errors they maintaine and practise , their bosome , darling , closet sinnes , stare them in the face ; but above all , their continuall incertainty about christs dying for them , and their election , &c. do so perplex their spirits , that there is no peace to them ; whereas they who know and so believe , that christ dyed for for them , are by that love of his constrained to love him , compelled to come i●to his wayes , and obey his commands , and thereby they have the answer of a good conscience before the lord , pet. . . thly . they are to believe all the promises of the lord both in this life and that which is to come , luk. . . such as these , act. . . repent and be baptised , &c. and ye shall receive the gift of the holy ghost , act. . . whosoever beleeveth on him shall receive remission of sinnes , mark . . he that beleeveth and is baptized shal be saved , . . he that endureth to the end shall be saved , jo. . . that if the saints confesse their sinnes he will forgive them , and the blood of christ shall clense them , &c. that the lord jesus shall come the second time , heb. . . that he shall raise up the just and unjust , act . . yet toe dead in christ shall rise first ; this is the first resurrection , thes . . . rev. . . that christ shall raigne and prosper , and execute judgement and justice in the earth , jer. . . yea he shall reigne till he hath put all his enemies under his feet , cor. . . that he will give the kingdome to the saints of the most high the little flocke , that heare his voice and follow him , luk , . that they who do his commandements shall have right to the tree of life , and enter in by the gates into the holy city , rev. . . where they shall see his face , behold his glory , be like him and with him for ever , where they shall know as they are knowne , see him as he is , and rest with him under the crown of everlasting peace , joy and righteousnesse to all eternity . in a word , they are to believe that he who dyed for them , hath so justified and delivered them from the one offence of adam , and the miseries that came by it , that they shall not for ever lye under them ; and that they shall never be acco●●able or punished for that sinne , after they are raised from the grave . dly . that if they repent and turn from their sinnes ( be they never so many , great , open , secret , old , festred sinnes ) god will pardon them through christ , according to the promise , isai . . . . and that isai . . . let the righteous forsake his way , and the wicked man his thoughts , and turne to the lord , for he will have mercy on him , and our god , for he will abundantly pardon . the lord is not wanting to convert us , or to doe whatsoever he hath promised for the turning of us to himselfe they that come to the lord must beleeve that he is , and that he is a bountifully rewarder of them that diligently secke him , heb. . . they must constantly apply the sufferings of christ to their hearts , and their hearts and mindes , bodyes and soules to his statutes , alwaies believe their resurrection from the dust , and those glorious joyes and songs of triumph and peace , which are in the mansions of blisse ; this will purifie the saints , jo. . . cor. . . thus believing they become eighteous through christ , and are justified , from what they could not be justified by the law of moses , act. . . and being justified by beleeving , they have peace with god through jesus christ our lord , rom. . . exercising themselves in these things , as the apostle paul did himselfe , act. . . . . they come to have a conscience void of offence toward god and men . they are to believe that god hath freely redeemed , justified , sanctified , and saved them through the blood of his dear , onely spotlesse son , from that destruction which adam brought on all man-kind by his sinne , that fury is not in god ( in reference to that offence ) and the believing of this great and infinite love with the heart , will so cleanse and sanctifie poore soules , that they will thereby come to deny all ungodlinesse and worldly lusts , and to live soberly , righteously , and godly in this present world , for with the heart men believeth unto righteousnesse : yea , this love known and believed , will constraine sinners to confesse the lord that bought them , and so with the mouth confession is made unto salvation , rom. . . which salvation also they are to believe and wait for , knowing certainly that our redeemer jesus christ will come and will not tarry . thus have i answered mr. troughtons question , and shewed what men who know that christ dyed for them are to believe for the peace of their consciences . much more might be added , but i proceed to speak a word or two , to the conclusion of mr. troughtons book , that i may also draw towards the conclusion of this worke . we declare unto you in our mimistry ( saith he ) that christ dyed for all , for all the world , for every man and woman that shall believe on him , and accept of him upon the termes of the gospel ; and is not here encouragement to poore sinners , be their sinnes never so great ? thou art not excluded by name , and why shouldst thou exclude thy self through unbeliefe ? this mr. troughton calls the conclusion , ( he might rather call it the confusion ) of his small tract ( as he termes it . ) for as i shewed you before he pul'd downe the maine building of his opinion , in his . page , by confessing that there is a generall offer of grace ; and page . where he confesseth there it an umversalit●ie of the offer of christ , ( which offer none that regard the honour of god , will doubt to be reall ) and here he razes the very foundation of his contradictious doctrine , in that he acknowledgeth , that they who misse of mercy , exclude themselves through unbeliefe , and ( like men refusing helpe when they are almost drowned ) bring destruction to themselves through their neglect or refusall , not striving to lay hold of mercy that they might be saved , but questioning whether christ were offered them with an intent to save them . from whence these coclusions do very freely flow . . that there was mercy for them to lay hold on by faith , who perish through unbeliefe . . that they who enjoy not this mercy , exclude themselves from it . . that it is beyond doubt and question , that gods offer of christ to men , is with a purpose of his part to save them . . that they who would be saved by christ , must strive to lay hold on him ; all which are pure heavenly and eternall truth , and comes from mr. troughton as blessings from balaam , his heart dissenting from his hand and tongue . for another while you shall find mr. troughton peremptorily concluding , that god never intended his sonne , or mercy by him to all , as page . of his booke , where he speakes these very words in effect ; that it was not the purpose of god to give his sonne to dye for all , and that his death should be a sufficient price for all , was never intended by god. now how should god send down his sonne to save that which was lost , and yet not give him to dye for them , or that he should offer his sonne to more then he gave him to dye for is senslesse to imagine , except we should make god a mocker of his poore undone creatures , ( as mr. tronghton and others sometimes do ) in another place you shall heare him say , that god appointed or decreed men to be disobedient ; how then can their destruction be of themselves ? yea how can their sin be of themselves , if god appointed them to be disobedient ? another while that christ meriteth faith for the saints , and that he worketh or acteth faith in the creatures , how then can that be true which he sayes here , that men must strive to lay hold on christ , and they that do not , perish through unbeliefe ? can there be any possibility that they should believe , for whom christ meirteth not faith , seeing all that do believe had faith merited for them ? and it was not they that believed , but christ in them , or that they believed at least by an unresistable power : sure then they laid not hold of the rope , as mr. troughton sayes , drawing men out to doe , not asking questions ; much lesse did they strive so to doe : but the rope laid hold on them , and pluckt them up whether they would or no. and thus you see that mr. troughtons doctrine is but like ropes of sand , it holds not together , none can lay any sure hold of it , it wil not hold his own weight , for what he fastens in one place he breaks in another ; and what truth he speaks in one leaf o● his book , he leaves , yea denyes in another ; what he buildes in a moneth , he throwes downe in a minute . for how is it possible that any soule can beleeve in god or christ through his teaching , for he sayes that god did not give his sonne to dye for all , yet he offers grace to all , that redemption is not universall , but the tenders of christ are universal : that god did let or send downe christ to save lost man , and they are not to question it ; but yet he appointed the greatest part of men to be disobedient : that men exclude themselves by unbeliefe ; yet there was never a christ for them to believe , ( except they would believe on one , that never dyed for them . ) that god decreed both the sinne and suffering of the creature ; yet their destruction is of themselves . with a hundred more of such contradictions which may be found in his , and other mens books which maintaine his opinion , which leaves many poore soules in the darke , many in despaire , more in prophanness ; and builds up the rest as i have shewed , upon an uncertaine sandy foundation . this he calls his or their ministery , and well he may , for it 's not the ministery of christ , or ministration of the spirit , for where doth the spirit of god say , christ died for all and every man that accepts of him : ( this doctrine sets a soul to accept of christ before they know what he hath done for them ) the ministration of the spirit speaks thus , that he di●d for all , for every man , for the whole world , sinners , heretikes which deny him , and they that receive , accept , or believe on him shall not perish , &c. and this is the doctrine which we teach , which the lord hath blest , blessed be his name , to the conversion and consolation of mine and many thousand souls within these seven years . thus you see the conclusion of m. troughtons little tract put forth to lesse purpose , which though some may judge legitimate , yet such as have seen what men have formerly writ on this subject , will discerne that it 's but borrowed out of other mens works of this kind , yet he begs a blessing on his babe , but if ever his wisdome returne to him , and his eyes are opened to see the deformity of the self contradiction and soul-distraction that is in it , he will fly from it as moses from his changed rod , and rather curse the day that this mishapen monster came to light , to restrain and limit scripture redemption . i wonder what use m. tro. can put his doctrine to , it affords no encouragement to the rebellious to come in , for if they should be of that number which christ died not for , ( which is far the greater , if m. tro. doctrine were true ) it will not benefit them at ill as to their eternall state , it can yeeld no solid or certain comfort to a drooping heart ; for if christ did not die for all , still he doubts , whether he died for him : and if god appointed men to be disobedient , how dares m. tro. reprove them for being so ? no sound exhortation to repent and believe arises from his tenets , for he sayes , god hath not enabled his creatures to do either , but it must be done in them by an irresistable power ; he can never convince a soul of the riches of the grace and love of god to him , for nothing will do that , but the unerring evidence of the spi●it in the word of god , and where that sayes christ died for all , he denies it , and sayes the scripture means no such thing : it sends forth no dehortations from vice , for he sayes , that they who are partakers of the grace , the state ( to use his expression ) can never fall finally from it , nor they that christ died not for , shall never come to it ; and what need m. tro. disswade any man from an evill way be this doctrine ? and how can he inform any poor soul of the great kindnesse of god and christ to him or her , when he cannot clearly prove by expresse texts of scripture , that christ died for them ? h● may say thus , seeing christ did not die for all ( which is his doctrine ) then this serves to reprove them that say he did , and that is ●saiah , christ , paul , peter and john ; and seeing god hath appointed most men to be disobedient , this may encourage and comfort them in their disobedience , in that they do what god appointed them to do ; and seeing god commands all to believe and accept of christ , yet hath not given power or ability to any so to do , ( as he says ) it shewes what a hard master god is , who requires of his creatures that which they can never , yea that which at least he never intended the greatest part should perform : and seeing those that he calls saints can never fall away from that state , this may incourage men to go on in sin , and cry peace and safety , till suddain destruction hurles them into endlesse misery . and though m. tro. will not in words make such uses of his doctrine , yet satan hath and doth prevail upon thousands , ( the more 's the pity ) to make such uses of it , they so naturally arising form those positions which he maintains , i know that such uses are wicked , much more is the doctrine that yeelds them ; if such fruit be to be abhor'd , ( as sure it is ) much more the tree that bears it , a good tree cannot yeeld such corrupt fruit ; the great god lay his axe to the root of it , and pluck up every plant that his hand hath not planted ; not by might , nor by power , but by the spirit of the lord. but if mr. tro. hath better uses , which clearly come from his doctrine , i wonder he did not produce them ; for my part i shall as briefly as i can shew you that read these things , what uses the lord hath taught me by his spirit in the word to make of the doctrine that i hold forth , and which m. tro. calls hereticall , erroneous , and corrupt opinions , a corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit : search therefore courteous reader , and see whether the uses i am by the strength of the lord about to lay down be good , and then whether they be not the naturall and genuine issue of those doctrines which men call hereticall . . if christ died for all ( which is pauls doctrine and mine ) for the world , for the whole world , for every man , as the scriptures say , &c. it may serve to convince m. tro. and every man and woman that he died for him , and her that hears this glad tidings , and that there is good news , or gospell for them , and also to convince them of sin who believe not on him , which could not be , if he died not for them . . it serves to reprove them that continue in sin , and act contrary to him that gave his only son to die for them . . it informs us of the great and infinite love of the father , that gave his only son , & he his dearest hearts bloud ( first virtually in the promise , then actually in person ) rather then lost man should want a redeemer , and withall to inform men of the horrid and odious nature of sin , which nothing can fully take away without the bloud of the son of god. . this may serve to perswade , yea constrain sinners , who do all live through jesus christ , to love him that loved them first , and gave his son to be a propitiation for them , and to keep his commandements , that is , to live to him that died for them and rose again . . this may encourage the greatest sinner that groaneth under sin , to forsake sin , and come to christ , who ( seeing he lov'd him so well as to die for him ) will in no wise cast him out , when by the word or teachings of god ( which are his drawings ) he comes to him . . to reprove obstinate proud rebells , who deny the lord that bought , and dare sin against such grace and kindnesse , as is seen by the fathers giving his son for them . . this serves to leave all men without excuse , they cannot say that god hath not commended his love to them , seeing he hath written it in legible characters of his sons bloud . . here is consolation for the saints , who through the knowledge of such love have been drawn to obey god , they know whom , and in whom they have believed , and are as sure that christ died for them , as if he had told them with his own mouth , in that they believe the scriptures affirming that he ransomed all . . this may serve to them as an antidote against sin and errors , in that christ died for their sins , according to the scriptures . . it may serve to incite us to love every creature with the love of good will or pity at least , when we remember that christ died for them as well as for us ; oh if this doctrine were fully known , it would so increase love , and quench hatred , discord , and debate , peace , justice and mercy would florish , and wars , oppression , and cruelty would be banished ; some beams of this universall love of god beginning to shine forth upon the hearts of our commanders , rulers , judges , &c. have inclin'd them to more clemency , righteousnesse and pity then some former time● have afforded , and as it is more manifested , we shall doubtlesse see more of god ( who is love , and lov'd us when enemies ) appearings . 't is true , a man that truly fears god cannot delight in an ungodly person , neither can our heavenly father , yet he doth them good , and the saints desire the conversion of their enemies , and will do good unto all , according to their ability , and their fellow creatures capacity , and though they hate the vices of men , yet they love their persons , so as that they will exhort , intreat , and admonish them to come in to the lord that bought them , and not seek the ruine of their bodies , states , reputations , and souls , as i fear too many , who deny the death of christ for all , would if it were in their power , and could wish that there were something in force like that popish statute de haereticis comburendis , as appears by their continuall appeals to the civill , yea and military powers , their complaints and petitions against such as hold the truth in love , by all means labouring to perswade the magistrates to unsheath their swords , to cut off , banish , or silence by might of men those who are full of might by the spirit of the lord to declare against their corrupt principles and practise , they have a zeal , but not according to knowledge , for did they know what love the father hath shewed those whom they maligne , and what sweet communion they have with god , and that god lov'd those whom they hate , so as to give his son to die for them , they would never suffer that cursed root that beareth gall and wormwood to spring up in their hearts , but would endeavour to instruct them with meeknesse , or contend against them , at least with the sword of the spirit : but this they do not , but by all meanes seek their impoverishment and ruine , and will not speak to them , though they bring the same doctrine which christ and his apostles taught , they shun disputing with them , under pretext that they are heretiques , and reject them , not knowing that that advise is proper to those that are members together of the church of christ , and not those that are of different churches , for what authority hath any church to cast out or reject one that is not immembred with them ; but the truth is , these men are afraid of the light , and have no love to such as are of pauls opinion , that christ died for all , and therefore they incense authority , gnash their teeth against them . but we know that christ died for them , and desire that they also may know it , and by that goodnesse be led to repent of all their evills , and in particular of their envy and consultations against the saints of the most high , who believe , as the scripture saith , and will not receive the corrupt glosses which men put on them , or the sad and dark conclusions and consequences which they draw from them . in a word , if christ died for all , this may serve to keep the poor sin-sick sinner from despair , and the proud transgressor from presumption , to reprove such as give the scripture , yea the spirit of god the lye , who in so many place● hath clearly evidenced it , yet they deny what is there written , and would have us rather adhere to their expositions , which are all darker then the text . again , if god hath of his free mercy in christ appointed and ordain'd all men to serve him , and furnished them with every thing necessary for so doing , so that all nations may know and believe him , through that light which lighteth every man which cometh into the world , according to that manifestation of it which shines forth to them ; ( as undoubtedly he hath ) then this serves to reprove such as say god did appoint some men , as men to be disobedient , that is to serve sin and satan . . such as teach ▪ that god hath not enabled all his creatures to do what he requires of them , but that he exacts more of his creatures then he hath given ability to perform , and so make god is an austere man , as the wicked servant did , yea as bad as pharoah . . this may serve fully to convince every sober spi●i● of the reall truth of those sayings , thy destruction is of thy self , a●d that the damned bring upon themselves swift destruction . . it serves to clear the pure justice of god , and leave all without excuse , when they hear that god through his sons blood hath made all nations of the earth to seek him , and in order thereto , hath done what could be done for his vineyard . . this may serve to stir up poor creatures to be thankfull , and admire the riches of grace , and speak good of the name of the lord so mercifull and bountifull , and to incite them to arise and be doing , ( chron. . . ) and god will be with them , some to hear , search , read , inquire , that they may know and believe the lord , and them that come to know and apply his love , to repent and be baptized , to separate from the world , and such again to continue in the grace of god , in the fellowship and doctrine of the apostles , in breaking of bread and prayers , in praising of god , in holinesse of life , watching against sin , and for the coming of their lord and master jesus christ ; 't is true , all are not capable of the same exhortation , for to exhort a wicked man that never yet believ'd the gospel , to pray and break bread with the saints , & wait for the day of christ , is preposterous ; but to exhort such to hear , to seek , or inquire after god , hear , read , and search the scriptures ( that so they may come to know , believe and repent ) is suteable to the direction of the spirit through the whole book of god , who hath enabled men and women come to years of discretion , ( so as to discern betweene good and evil ) thus to do . to call them to baptism , and so make them members of a visible church , who never heard of god , is ridiculous , and m. tro. himself ( in his epistle to the reader ) confesseth it under his own hand , that visible title to , and interest in the covenant of grace , consisting in a s●rious profession of the christian faith , accompanied with a suteable conversation , is that which constitutes a member of the visible church of christ ; whence two things are considerable : . that infants are not , whilest infants , visible members of the church of christ , in that they make no profession of the christian faith , neither is their conversation suteable to the holy precepts of the most high , ( for they speak and act as children ) neither doth god require that it should be so , for he speaks not to children . . this discovers the folly of baby-sprinklers , who require more of poor creatures then they are able to perform , which shews that their ministery in this , as in other things , is not of god , who never exacts that of any , which he of his own free mercy and goodnesse hath not given them ability to bring to passe ; yea they are contrary to god , and palpably contradict themselves . after this short digression , a sixth use that may be made of this doctrine is this , that seeing god hath appointed , set apart , or chosen all men to serve him , and enabled them so to do , this should teach ministers to take heed that they add not to , neither diminish from the precepts which god hath given to mankind , by laying more or lesse upon persons then they are able to perform , which is a usuall thing ; for they say of infants , that they must be baptized , and be church-members , ( though they have done neither good nor evil , nay know not their right hand from their less , and tell men that are . . . years of age , that they cannot believe nor repent , nay that they must not be baptized , &c. lastly , this may serve for a triall and examination to every man , whether he hath done all that good which god enabled him to do , and avoided that evill , which he by the light manife-fested from god might have shunned , that so he may through a certain knowledge of his actings in these things , be comforted in his obedience through christ , the strength and arm of the lord , or repent of his non-performance of that which through that light or power he might have performed . and now let the judicious reader judge , whether these things being very profitable , do not freely flow from that doctrine which men call heresie . thirdly , seeing some departed from the faith , hymeneus and alexander put away faith and a good conscience , all they in asia turned away from paul , others deny the lord that bought them , and some tread under foot the son of god , and count the bloud of the covenant , wherewith they were sanctified , an unholy thing , and doing despight to the spirit of grace , and seeing the holy ghost sayes , it is impossible to renew them again by repentance , who fall away after they are inlightened , and are partakers of the holy ghost , and have tasted the good word of god , and the powers of the world to come ; therefore we admonish the saints in the language of the lord , nay the lord warns them by us to beware , and take heed lest they fall , and le●t there be in any of the brethren an evill heart of unbelief to depart from the living god , and to beware lest any man deceive them , and lest any of them fall from the grace of god , as some did , gal. . . to beware of false prophets , and take heed lest they fall away from their own sted●astnesse , &c. which precious words of the eternall god were of no use , if the saints were not in danger , even in their best estate here below : we exhort them to watch and pray , and stand fast in the liberty wherewith christ hath made them free , and to beg of god that he would hold up their go●ngs in his paths , that their footsteps may not slide , and to keep them from falling , and turning back from him , and knit their hearts to him , pray one for another to him that is able to build them up , that he would preserve them blamelesse in body soul , and spirit , to the coming of jesus christ , all which , and thousand such like petitions were frivolous , if there were no danger , and all those ●recepts and promises , he that endureth , — be th●u faithfull — he that overcometh . 't is true , we do not exhort any to beware , but such as walk in that way , as those saints of old did , to whom those words we use were written and spoken , that were improper , and one means it hath been to deceive the poor ●ouls in this island , and make them think they were all saints , according to the scripture account , when they were exhorted not to fall away from their present s●ate , whereas it had been happy for many thousand if they had fallen from it , so they had fallen down and worshipped god according to his word . we do not exhort the parish-ministers of great britain ( much leste those poor bl●nd creatures who follow them , idolize them , and are led by an implicite faith ) to hold fast their profession , for it 's very bad , and antichristian , or to continue in the way where they are , for it is not good , nor to take heed that they depart not from the way of god , for they are not in it , or from the living god , for they are not with him : but we bese●ch them to repent , and turn to god , that so they may be baptized , and added to the church , and enjoy the precious priviledges that pertain to such as worship g●d in spirit and truth i. e. according to his word , which is spirit and truth , well knowing that men may as well ●e destroyed for resisting the power of god , and putting from them the word of god and eternall life , as for deserting the way of righteousnesse , add turning from the holy commandement delivered unto them , and therefore they have no just cause to be angry against us , ( as they are ) for the searcher of hearts is witnesse , that we de●ire earnestly their conversion and salvation ; and therefore for my part i shall in love tell them this , that if they shall still oppose christ , and call his way heresie , take part with the pope and prelates in their nationall churches , baby-sprinkling , forced maintenance , &c. none of which are according to the testimony of jesus , within few years they will be driven to darknesse ; but as many of them as imbrace the gospell , and walk in the way of righteousnesse , which men call heresie , whether they have little or much , life or death , they shall rejoyce in the god of their salvation , say to the righteous , it shall be well with them : and if any shall say , that if they should quit their forced maintenance , peoples hearts would be so hard , that they would allow them nothing : i answer , . through the power of the word many would be converted , and then they cannot withhold their carnall things from those , who minister spiritualls to them , then the love of christ would constrain them to do willingly , that at least , which before the law of men compell'd them to by that uncouth force of treble damages : and . they shall find that a little which the righteous hath , is better then the grrat revenues that come with hatred , strife , and contention ; 't was the saying of elies sons , thou shalt give it us , or we will take it by force , and they were sons of belial , who knew not the lord. i hope the ministers of england and scotland , who term themselves the ministers of christ , will not conforme to such ministers , if they do , and resolve so to do , god will cut them off , as he did them : and let not any ask what became of our forefathers , for god who causeth the light to shine out of darknesse , hath appeared in far more translucent brightnesse of gospell purity then they knew , and therefore more is expected of us ; they were precious instruments in the hand of god , but few years ●ince many of them , and others yet are alive , who were such , their labours successeful , and persons acceptable , who neglecting to follow , yea opposing another , or more discoveries of divine light , have been laid aside , are grown dull and dead , and some taken off short by the hand of divine justice . oh therefore you who are the parish teachers in this isle , consider that christ died for you , as well as for the rest of the sons and daughters of adam , therefore love him , and shew your love by keeping his commandements , and his only , do not do any more in gods worship then christ hath commanded you ; he requires you to believe , or do no more then what is written , do not add to your task and christs yoke , consider how the lord will deal with such as add to , or diminish from his will ; beware of stumbling at the word , being disobedient where unto you were appointed ( or set ; ) they that stumble at the rock shall be broken in pieces , and they upon whom that rock or stone shall fall , shall be ground ●o powder ; god is not willing that you should perish , but rather that you should turne from your own way and live : i know this to be truth , for he hath spoken it , and christ hath sealed it with his bloud he shed for you , which he would never have done , if he had not desired your welfare . and thus you see how usefull the doctrine we preach is , and therefore no way to be despised , or disparaged , as it is by many in our generation , who speak evill of the things they understand not . but i come in the last place , by the blessed assistance of god , to shew you by whom and why this doctrine is opposed , and then i shall conclude this work . . this doctrine is opposed by satan , who knows that if it should be evinced that christ died for all , then men would come to see the love of god to them , and would every where begin to love god , and so obey his voice ; and if it should be published and proved , that god hath of his own free mercy ord●in'd that all men may and ought to serve him , and hath furnished them with ability to know and believe him , and to do whatsoever he requires of them , and that if they perish it 's their own fault , then they would blesse his name , and be doing his work , and listen to his word , all which things destroy satans kingdome . and if it should be manifested , that there is very great danger of departure from god , and of being deceived , then he knows that the saints would be more heedfull and watchfull ; they would be fearfull of falling into sin , and of back s●●ding from truth , which things are contrary to satans projects and profit , for he strives more to train aside one poor soul from the way of righteousnesse , then to keep twenty in the way of wickednesse , knowing that he can make the enemies of the truth ●riumph , and blaspheme more by the fall of one that is called to be a saint , then by a thousand sins done by others . . this doctrine is opposed by false teachers , such as deny scriptures , order , ordinances , or such as rage and raile against the way of christ , and practise contrary to him , worshipping the true god falsly , yea all sorts of false teachers ; as for example , christ sayes , disciple all nations , baptizing them , but saith the world baptize them , and disciple them afterwards , for infants as infants cannot be disciples , for he that taketh not up his crosse , and followeth christ , cannot be his disciple , and that infants cannot do ; the spirit of god sayes , repent and be baptized , the men of the world say , be baptized , and repent after ; yet they say , they bring sin enough into the world to damn them eternally , and they baptize them before they repent of it ; the spirit sayes , if thou believest thou mayest ; the world sayes , they may be baptized who believe not , the spirit of god sayes , who can forbid water that they should not be baptized , who have received the holy ghost ? some men say , that they who are baptized with the spirit , need not , nay ought not to be baptized with water , though they know not who they are . in a word , they who eit●●r in judgment or practise continue contrary to light revealed , oppose the doctrine and light held forth by christ , his word , and spirit , and walk by the light of their own fires ( fancies i may say ) oppose that doctrine by me , and thousands received from the scriptures . . because if it should be declared that christ died for all , then people would begin to love him , and to repent of sin , and enquire after him and his wayes , and forsake all false teachers , and every false way , then they would so love jesus christ , that they will cry out , lord what wilt thou have me to do ? and more or lesse they would not willingly do in his worship then he hath required , not more , because he hath given enough , and works of supererogation , and to be wise above what 's written , are abominable in the sight of god ; not lesse , because that which he requires of us , is but little , in comparison of the great things he hath done and suffered for us . . if it should be published that christ died for all , then the greatest part of the scripture must be taken as it is written , and that is contrary to the profit of the papists , and all false prophets , who would fain have people believe that the scriptures are very obscure , that so they may deter the people from studying them , and give them money according to their demands , for to expound them by their corrupt glosses , and the● also great would be the company of the publishers of the gospell , for the love of god would so fill their hearts , as with new wine , that they could not but declare what god hath done for their souls ; and this would make false teachers , fill'd with the wisdome of this world fret , when the mysteries of the love of god should be revealed to and by babes in the gospell . . self is much an enemy to it , for most men , yea all those many thousands which now own this truth of christs dying for all , do well know , that not only satan and false teachers did secretly and openly incite them against it , but their own heart corrupt through custome in fin did rise against it ; and that for this reason , if they should acknowledge that christ died for all , and that god through him hath appointed and enabled them to do his will , then they should have no liberty or leisure to linger and loiter in fin , but they must appear in love to jesus christ , to be doing his work which he calls them to , there must be no sleeping nor slumbring , nor folding their hands to sleep , but up and be doing , and as in the bodily , so in this spirituall labour , the creature deluded by satan cannot endure to do his duty which the gospell calls for and this self ( i mean self-love , self-will , self-interests and ends &c. ) till it be subdued by the appearing and receiving the light from the lord , cannot endure to hear that there is any possibility of falling from the favour of god , for this would be a mighty check to their pleasure , profit , and delight they have in sin , fain would self , even the fleshly mind root out all such thoughts , that it may feed it self with lusts , and take its ful swindge in sin without controule . and whatever specious pretences men may cover their conceits with , and cry out against this doctrine as uncomfortable , &c. yet the serpents head lies hid beneath them , who prompts them to decry it , that so he may keep them from that godly feare and trembling , with which they ought to work our their owne salvation . i know we must serve god without fear of displeasing men by obeying him , and without fear of his deceiving of us of any thing he ha●● promised , yet continually fearing to offend him who loved us , and fearing lest we should come short of what is promised through our own unbelief . the apostle paul was as eminent a saint as most , yet he kept his body in subjection , lest by any means when he had preached to others , he himself should be a east-away . in a word , if this doctrine should be faithfully published , it would wonderfully draw out mens soules after christ , drive out the power of sin , carry forth mens spirits to propagate the gospell , hurle down the kingdome of satan and antichrist by the mighty increase of knowledge , faith , and love , advance holinesse , sobriety , and righteousnesse , stir up men to diligence , godly fear , and watchfullnesse , at least leave men without any encouragement to live in sin one moment , take away all those cob-web cloaks with which men palliate their impieties , remove all excuses , and even force men to confesse their destruction is of themselves , and therefore is it oppos'd by satan , selfe , and false teachers , who would all suffer losse by the fire of gods word , if their deceits and doctrines come to be discovered by the glorious light of these truths which men call heresie and erroneous opinions . i am not unacquainted with the tossings and torments of mind which they are subject to that hold the doctrines contrary to these in the foregoing treatise insisted on , their dejections of spirit , and dubiousnesse of heart , one while even drownes them in black despair , another while their foundationlesse faith , and groundlesse confidence through the exceeding subtilty of satan , makes them to dare to adventure upon a sin , upon this score , that if they are elected , they cannot hereby fall finally , and if they are not , it will not be any impairing of their irrecoverable hopelesse condition . i know satan will provoke men to fret exceedingly against these things with the highest risings and liftings up of spirit . but it being my owne experience in former times , and of hundreds who have communicated theirs with mine since the daies of their conversion , i cannot , neither will i conceal the counsells and cunning of so great an enemy , but speak truth to his , ( yea to my own ) shame ; neither am i ignorant of the strong consolation in obedience , the strength against temptations , the heedfull diligence , care , and watchfullnesse against sin , which they are possest with , who knowingly and cordially hold and lay to heart that christ died for all , for thereby they are so sure that he died for them , that it 's a hard matter for the devill and world to drive his love out of their hearts , and draw them into disobedience ; but they that hold the contrary , call the truth of many , and so at length of all the scriptures into question , as the shropshire ministers confesse , pag● . of their namelesse paper . and i am confident , that as the lord hath , so he will blesse this doctrine , with those that professe it , and practise that holinesse , righteousnesse , and sobriety , which that grace of god which ●ringeth salvation to all men teacheth , and by his owne spirit , ( not the word and arme of flesh ) will signally appeare , to the overturning of that great mountain of false doctrine , that hath kept poore creatures from beholding the face of the son of righteousnesse in the truth of the gospell , and that they who say christ did not die for all ( so giving the lye to the spirit of god ) and that god did absolutely appoint the greatest part of men to be disobedient , not giving them ability to do what he requires , and yet will damne them for not doing it ; that god commands men to do that which he will work in them by an irresistable power , and to make as though god contradicts himselfe , that the lord that bought false teachers was not christ , &c. shall be convinced , or covered with the cloak of confusion . for my part , if any maligne me for the pu●●ishing of this plaine downe-right discourse , i desire the lord to forgive them , and turne their hearts , and yet graciously wait to manifest to them that prec●ous ●r●th which they oppose , that by it they may be comfo●ted and established in their minds , encouraged to take up the crosse of jesus , and follow him in all gospell-obedience . i desire no lesse for the greatest of my adversaries , then that they may come out of babilon ( the false church ) and worship one god in spirit and truth amongst such as keep the commands of jesus , as he hath given them out to us by his spirit in the word of truth , that so we may walk in the light of the lord whilest we are here , and ( being accounted worthy to escape all those things which shall come upon this generation ) may hereafter sit downe with abraham , isaac ; and jacob , in the everlasting kingdome of god our saviour . amen . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e * master trough . p. . notes for div a -e isa . . . isa . . . job . , , . * cap. ever . sam. oates benj. morley mr. prior wil. kendal re. f●ilding , &c. mr. troug . in his introduct . pag. . notes for div a -e m. james wood. m. james wood. m. james wood. m. james wood. m. powel m. wood , & others . m. powel ma. butler of col berye's regim . mr. rutherford . mr. prideaux . mr. rutherford . m. prideaux . mr. rutherford . mr. resbury . m. wood. mr. tro. mr. wood. mr. j. t. mr. wood mr. j. t. mr. wood notes for div a -e m. grant m. tro. m. wood. m. wood. m. tro. m. tro. m. wood. m. tro. m. wood. m. tro. and m. jam. wood. m. tro. and m. ia. wood. m. tro. and m. ia. wood. m. syd . simpson . a. m. m. tro. m. tro. m. wood. m. batty , &c. the shropshire ministers . m. john symson . simil. mr. deiamain . mr. powel . simil. m. trough . argument . m. trough . simil. m. trough . conclusion m. resb●ry . m. owen . m. rutherford . m. staltham . doct. . doct. . doct. . his grace the duke of buckingham's speech for liberty of conscience in m.dc.lxxii buckingham, george villiers, duke of, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing b a estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) his grace the duke of buckingham's speech for liberty of conscience in m.dc.lxxii buckingham, george villiers, duke of, - . sheet ( p.). printed for j. curtis ..., london : . imperfect: creased, stained, and with print show-through, and loss of text. reproduction of original in: huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng liberty of conscience. dissenters, religious -- england. great britain -- history -- charles ii, - . broadsides -- london (england) -- th century. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - jonathan blaney sampled and proofread - jonathan blaney text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion his grace the duke of buckingham's speech for liberty of conscience in m.dc.lxxii . licens'd april th . to the reader . having by me a short speech of the late duke of buckingham's , under his own hand , relating to liberty of conscience , i thought this a proper season to publish it . if you are not of my opinion , it will take up so little of your time to read it , that you may easily pardon your humble servant jo. harington . th april . my lords , there is a thing call'd property , which ( whatever some men may think ) is that the people of england are fondest of , it is that they will never part with , and it is that his majesty , in his speech , has promis'd us to take a particular care of . this , my lords , in my opinion , can never be done , without giving an indulgence to all protestant dissenters . it is certainly a very uneasie kind of life to any man that has either christian charity , humanity , or good nature , to see his fellow subjects daily abus'd , diverted of their liberty and birthrights , and miserably thrown out of their possessions and freeholds , only because they cannot agree with others in some niceties of religion , which their consciences will not give them leave to consent to ; and which even , by the confession of those who 〈…〉 upon them , is no way necessary to salvation . but ( my lords ) besides this , and all that may be said upon it , in order to the improvement of our trade , and the increase of the wealth , strength , and greatness of this nation , ( which , under favor , i shall presume to discourse of at some other time ) there is , methinks , in this notion of persecution , a very gross mistake , both as to the point of government , and the point of religion . there is so as to the point of government , because it makes every man's safety depend on the wrong place , not upon the governor , or a man's living well towards the civil government established by law , but upon his being transported with zeal for every opinion that is held by those that have power in the church then in fashion . and it is , i conceive , a mistake in religion , because it is positively against 〈◊〉 ●express doctrin and example of jesus christ . nay , ( my lords ) as to our protestant religion , there is something in it yet worse ; for we protestants maintain , that none of those opinions , which christians differ about , are infallible ; and therefore in us , it is somewhat an inexcusable conception , that men ought to be deprived of their inheritance , and all the certain conveniences and advantages of life , because they will not agree with us in our uncertain opinions of religion . my humble motion therefore to your lordships is , that you will give me leave to bring in a bill of indulgence to all dissenting protestants . i know very well , that every peer of this realm has a right to bring into parliament any bill which he conceives to be useful to this nation : but i thought it more respectful to your lordships to ask your leave for it before , i cannot think the doing of it will be of any prejudice to the bill , because i am confident the reason , the prudence , and the charitableness of it , will be able to justifie itself to this house , and to the whole world. finis . london , printed for j. curtis near fleet-bridge , . a brief vindication of the non-conformists from the charge of schisme as it was managed against them in a sermon preached before the lord mayor by dr. stillingfleet, dean of st. pauls. owen, john, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing o estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a brief vindication of the non-conformists from the charge of schisme as it was managed against them in a sermon preached before the lord mayor by dr. stillingfleet, dean of st. pauls. owen, john, - . p. printed for nathaniel ponder ..., london : . reproduction of original in the university of illinois (urbana-champaign campus). library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng stillingfleet, edward, - . -- mischief of separation. dissenters, religious -- england. religious tolerance -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - jonathan blaney sampled and proofread - jonathan blaney text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a brief vindication of the non-conformists from the charge of schisme . as it was managed against them in a sermon preached before the lord mayor ; by dr. stillingfleet , dean of st. pauls . coitio christianorum meritò sane illicita , si illicitis par ; merilò damnanda , si quis de ea queritur eo titulo quo de factionibus querela est . in cujus perniciem aliquando convenimus ? hoc sumus congregati quod & dispersi ; hoc universi quod & singuli ; neminem laedentes , neminem contristantes ; quum probi , cum boni coeunt , cum pij , cum casti congregantur , non est factio dicenda , sed curia . tertul. london , printed for nathaniel ponder , at the sign of the peacock in the poultry , over against the stocks-market , . it was no small surprize unto many , first to hear of , and then to see in print the late sermon of the reverend deun of st. pauls preached at guildhall , may . . being the first sunday in easter term , before the lord mayor , &c. whatever there might be of truth in it , yet they judged the time both of the one and the other , the preaching and printing of it , to be somewhat unseasonable . for , they say , that this is a time wherein the agreement of all protestants , so far as they have attained , is made more than ordinarily necessary . and whereas the nonconformists do agree in religion with all the sober protestant people of the nation , which is the church of england , they do suppose that ordinary prudence would advise unto a forbearance of them in those few things wherein they dissent ; not indeed from the body of the protestant people , but from some that would impose them on their consciences and practices . who knows not that the present danger of this nation is from popery , and the endeavors that are used both to introduce it and enthrone it , or give it power and authority among us ? and it is no part of the popish design to take away and destroy those things wherein the nonconformists do dissent from the present ecclesiastical establishment , but rather to confirm them . their contrivance is to ruine and destroy the religion of the body of the protestants in this kingdom , wherein the nonconformists are one with them , and equally concerned with any of them . wherefore it cannot but be grievous unto them as well as useless unto the common interest of the protestant religion , that at such a time and season , they should be reflected on , charged and severely treated on the account of those lesser differences , which no way disenable them from being useful and serviceable unto the government and nation in the defence and preservation of the protestant religion . and that it is their resolution so to be , they have given sufficient evidence , equal at least with that given by any sort of people in the nation ; yea , of their diligence in opposition unto popery , and their readiness to observe the direction of the magistrates therein , whil'st the plot hath been in agitation ; they suppose the honourable person unto whom this sermon is dedicated , can and will bear them witness . in these circumstances , to be required severely to change their judgments and practices , as it were momento turbinis , immediately and in an instant ; or else to be looked on and treated as adversaries ; many do think as unseasonable , as to command a good part of an army when it is actually engaged against an enemy , to change all their order , postures , discipline and advantages , or immediately to depart out of the field . and they do withal suppose that such a sudden change is least of all to be expected to be wrought by such severe charges and reflections , as are made on all nonconformists in this discourse . such like things as these do men talk concerning the season of the preaching and publishing of this sermon : but in such things every man is to be left unto his own prudence , whereof he may not esteem himself obliged to give an account . for my part i judge it not so unseasonable as some others do . for it is well that honest men should understand the state of those things wherein they are greatly and deeply concerned . nonconformists might possibly suppose that the common danger of all protestants had reconciled the minds of the conforming ministry unto them , so as that they were more than formerly inclined unto their forbearance , and i was really of the same judgment my self . if it be not so , it is well they are fairly warned , what they have to expect , that they may prepare themselves to undergo it with patience . but we shall pass by these things , and attend a little unto the consideration of the sermon itself . the design of this discourse seems to consist in these three things , or to aim at them . ( ) to prove all the nonconformists to be guilty of schism , and a sinful separation from the church of england . ( ) to aggravate their supposed guilt and crime , both in its nature , and all the pernicious consequents of it that can be imagined . ( ) to charge them , especially their ministers , with want of sincerity and honesty , in the management of their dissent from the church of england , with reference unto the people that hear them . what there is of truth in these things , or what there may be of mistake in them , it is the duty of nonconformists to try and examine . but some few things must have a previous consideration , before we come to the merits of the cause itself . . the reverend author of this discourse affirms , that in the preaching of this sermon he was far from intending to stir up the magistrates and judges unto a persecution of dissenters , as some ill men have reported . epist. ded. without this information i confess i could not but judge it would have been as liable unto a supposition of such a design , as the actings of the nonconformists in the management of their cause are unto that of insincerity in the judgment of this reverend author . for , ( ) it was not preached unto nonconformists , perhaps not one of them present ; so that the intention of preaching it , could not be their conviction . they were not likely either to hear the charge , or the reasons of it . ( ) it was preached unto them , who were no way guilty of the pretended crime reproved ; but peculiarly such as were intrusted with the execution of the penal laws against them that were supposed guilty , magistrates and judges , which in another would have but an ill aspect . if a man should go unto a justice of the peace , and complain that his neighbor is a thief , or a swearer , or a murderer ; though he should give the justice never so many arguments to prove that his neighbour did very ill in being so and doing so , yet his business would seem to be the execution of the law upon him . but let the will of god be done , nonconformists are not much concerned in these things . we are likewise informed in the same epistle , that there are no sharp and provoking expressions on the persons of any . it is indeed beneath the gravity and dignity of this reverend author , to bring reviling or railing accusations against any ; neither will he , i am sure , give countenance to such a practice in others , which is seldom used but by men of very mean consideration . but i am not satisfied that he hath not used even great severity in reflections on a whole party of men , and that unprovoked : nor do i know how persons on a religious account can be more severely reflected on , and that not only as unto their opinions and practises , but also as unto the sincerity of their hearts , and honesty of their designs , than the nonconformists are in this sermon . i have seen a collection made of such reflections by the hand of a person of honour , a member of the church of england , with his judgment upon them ; wherein they appear to me not to be a true resemblance or representation of christian love and charity . . a great part of this discourse being such as became a popular auditory , consisting in generals on all hands acknowledged , as the good of union , the evil of schism , and causeless separation , &c. which will indifferently serve any party until it be determined where the original fault and mistake doth lie ; i shall not at all take notice of it , though it be so dress'd , as to be laid at the door of nonconformists in a readiness for an application unto their disadvantage : but nothing that by way of argument , testimony or instance is produced , to prove the charge mentioned , and the consequents of it , shall be omitted . . some few things may be taken notice of in the passage of the author unto his text ; of that nature is his complaint , p. . there is just cause for many sad reflections , when neither the miseries we have felt , nor the calamities we fear ; neither the terrible judgments of god upon us , nor the unexpected deliverance vouchsafed unto us , nor the common danger we are yet in , have abated mens heats , or allayed their passions , or made them more willing to unite with our established church and religion : but instead of that , some stand at a greater dastance , if not defiance . it is acknowledged willingly by us , that the warnings and calls of god unto this nation have been great and marvellous , and yet continue so to be . but it is worthy our enquiry , whether this be to be looked on as the onely end and design of them , that the nonconformists do immediately in all things comply with the established church and religion , and are evidences of god's displeasure because they do not so ; when he who searcheth their hearts , doth know that they would do it , were it not for fear of his displeasure ? what if it should be the design of god in them to call the nation and so the church of england unto repentance and reformation , which when all is done , is the onely way of reconciling all protestant dissenters ? what if god should in them testifie against all the atheism , profaness , sensuality , that abound in this nation , unto the publick scandal of it , with the dread and terror of those by whom they are duly considered , the persons guilty of them , being no way proceeded against by any discipline of the church , nor any reformation of the church itself from such horrible pollutions once attempted ? every man who knows any thing of christ , of his law , gospel , rule and discipline , of the nature , end , and use of them , with the worship of god to be performed in them and by them , and doth with consider the terror of the lord unto whom an account is to be given of these things , must acknowledge that both in persons and things there is a necessity of reformation among us , on the utmost perils of the displeasure of christ jesus ; yet no such reformation is so much as endeavoured in a due manner . it is no encouragement unto conscientious men , to unite themselves absolutely and in all things , unto such a church , as doth not , 〈…〉 , or as cannot reform itself , in such a degenerate state as that which many churches in the world are at this day openly and visibly fallen into . and to deal plainly with our brethren , ( if they will allow us to call them so ) that they may know what to expect , and , if it be the will of god , be directed into the onely true way of uniting all protestants , in the onely bands of evangelical union , order and communion , unless those who are concerned , will endeavor , and until they are enabled in some measure to effect a reformàtion in the ministry and people , as unto their relation to the church , as also in some things in the worship of god itself , it is vain to expect that the nonconformists should unite with the church , however established . and may we not think that those many warnings and calls of god , may have some respect unto these abominations that are found in the nation , yea , such as without a due reformation of them will issue in our desolation ? i do know that with the nonconformists also , there are sins against the lord their god ; and it will be a great addition unto their sins , as also an aggravation of their guilt , if they comply not with the warnings of god , as they are here expressed by this reverend author , so as to reform whatever is amiss in them , and return wholly unto god , from all their wandrings . but as unto those things which are usually charged on them , they are such as interest , hatred , and the desire of their ruine suggest unto the minds of their adversaries ; or are used by some against their science and conscience to further that end , without the least pretence to be raised from any thing in them , their opinions , practices , or conversation in the world . doth atheism abound among us ? it is from the differences in religion made by nonconformists . is there danger of popery ? it is because of the nonconformists . are the judgments of god coming on the nation ? it is for nonconformity . so was it of old with the christians ; si tybris ascendit in maenis , si nilus non ascendit in arva , si coelum stetit , si terra movit , si fames , si lues ; statim christianos ad leonem . . the immediate introduction unto the opening of his text , is an account of the differences and divisions that were in the primitive churches , occasioned by the judaizing christians , who contended for the observation of the ceremonies of the law ; but some things may be added unto his account , which are necessary unto the right stating of that case , as it may have any respect unto our present differences . and we may observe , ( ) that those with and concerning whom the apostle dealeth in his epistle , were principally those of the jewish church and nation , who had own'd the gospel , professed faith in christ jesus , had received ( many of them ) spiritual gifts , or tasted of the powers of the world to come , and did join in the worship of god , in the assemblies of the christians . i only mention this , because some places quoted usually in this matter , do relate directly unto the unbelieving jews , which went up and down to oppose the preaching of christ and the gospel in rage and fury , stirring up persecution everywhere against them that were employed in it . ( ) this sort of persons were freely allowed by the apostle to continue in the use of those rites and ceremonies which they esteemed themselves obliged unto by vertue of moses law , granting them in all other things the priviledge of believers , and such as wherein they would not in any thing offend : so do james , and the elders of the church declare themselves , acts . , &c. yea , ( ) out of tenderness unto them , and to prevent all offence to be taken by them at the liberty of the gentiles they did order that the believers of the gentiles , should forbear for a season the use of their natural liberty in some few things , whereby the other were , in their common meetings , as in eating and drinking together , usually scandalized ; giving them also unto the same end , direction concerning one thing evil in it self , whose long usage and practice among the gentiles had obliterated a sense of its guilt , wherewith they could not but be much offended . ( ) with this determination or state of things thus setled by the apostles , ( no doubt but that ) a multitude of the jewish believers did rest content and satisfied . but certain it is , that with many of them it was otherwise . they were no way pleased that they were left unto the freedom of their own judgment and practice , in the use and observance of the legal ceremonies , but they would impose the observation of them on all the churches of the gentiles wherever they came . nothing would serve their turn , but that all other churches must observe their ceremonies , or they would not admit them unto communion with them . and in the pursuit of this design , they prevailed for a season on whole churches , to forego the liberty wherein christ had made them free , and to take on them the yoke of bondage which they imposed on them , as it was with the churches of the galatians . i have mentioned these things only to shew how remote we are from any access unto those opinions and practises which caused the first divisions in christian churches , and among all sorts of believers . we agree with our brethren in the faith of the gospel , as the gentiles did with the believing jews ; we have nothing to impose in religion , on the consciences or practises of any other churches or persons ; we are not offended that others , be they many or few , should use their own choice , liberty and judgment , in the government , discipline , worship and ceremonies of pretended order , nor do envy them the advantages which they have thereby ; we desire nothing but what the churches of the gentiles desired of old , as the onely means to prevent division in them , namely , that they might not be imposed on to observe those things which they were not satisfied that it was the mind of christ they should observe ; for he had taken all the churches under his own power requiring that they should be taught to do and observe all that he commanded them , and nothing else that we know of . we desire no more of our governors , rulers , brethren ( if they think so ) in the ministry , but that we be not with outward force , and destructive penalties , compelled to comply with and practise in the worship of god , such things , as for our lives , and to save our selves from the greatest ruine , we cannot conceive that it is the mind of christ that we should do and observe ; that whil'st we are peaceable and useful in our places , firmly united unto the body of the protestants in this nation , ( which , as this author tells us , is the church of england ) in confession of the same faith , and common interest , for the maintenance and preservation of that one religion which we profess , we be not deprived of that liberty , which god and nature , christ and the gospel , the example of the primitive churches , and the present protestant interest of this nation do testifie to be our due . these things being premised , because i have no design to except against any thing in the discourse of the reverend author of this sermon , wherein the merit of the cause is not immediately concerned ; nor to seek for advantages from expressions ; nor to draw a sawe of contention about things not necessary unto that defence of our innocency which alone i have undertaken , ( as is the way of the most in the management of controversies ) i shall pass on unto the charge itself , or the consideration of the arguments and reasons , whereon all nonconformists are charged with schism , &c. but yet because there are some things insisted on by the author , in the progress of his discourse , according as he judged the method to be most convenient for the managing of his charge , which i judge not so convenient unto the present defence , i shall speak briefly unto them , or some of them , before i proceed unto what is more expresly argumentative . as , . he chargeth the nonconformist ministers , for concealing their opinions and judgments from the people , about the lawfulness of their communion with the church , and that for ends easily to be discerned , ( that is , their own advantage ; ) that is , they do indeed judge that it is lawful for the people to hold communion with the church of england , but will not let them know so much , lest they should forsake their ministry . pag. , . i do not intend to speak of the terms upon which persons are to be admitted among us to the exercise of the function of the ministry , but of the terms of lay-communion , i. e. those which are necessary for all persons to join in our prayers and sacraments , and other offices of divine worship . i will not say , there hath been a great deal of art to confound these two , ( and it is easie to discern to what purpose it is ; ) but i dare say the peoples not understanding the difference of these two cases , hath been a great occasion of the present separation . for in the judgment of some of the most impartial men of the dissenters it this day , although they think the case of the ●●●●sters very hard on the account of subscriptions and ●●●●rations required of them ; yet they confess very little 〈◊〉 be said on the behalf of the people , from whom none of those things are required . so that the people are condemned in their separation , by their own teachers ; but how they can preach lawfully to a people who commit a fault in hearing them , i do not understand . and the same thing is yet managed with more severity , pag. , . in words that i shall at large transenbe . i dare say , if most of the preachers at this day in the separate meetings were soberly asked their judgments , whether it were lawful for the people to join with us in the publick assemblies , they would not deny it , and yet the people that frequent them generally judge otherwise . for it is not to be supposed , that faction among them should so commonly prevail beyond interest ; and therefore if they thought it were lawful for them to comply with the laws , they would do it . but why then is this kept up as such a mighty secret in the breasts of their teachers ? why do they not preach to them in their congregations ? is it for fear they should have none left to preach to ? that is not to be imagined of mortified and conscientious men . is it lest they should seem to condemn themselves , whil'st they preach against separation in a separate congregation ? this , i confess , looks oddly , and the tenderness of a man's mind in such a case , may out of meer shamefacedness keep him from declaring a truth which flies in his face while he speaks it . is it that they fear the reproaches of the people ? which some few of the most eminent persons among them have found they must undergo , if they touch upon this subject , ( for i know not how it comes to pass , that the most godly people among them , can the least endure to be told of their faults . ) but is it not as plainly written by st. paul , if i yet serve men , i should not be the servant of christ ; as wo be unto me if i preach not the gospel ? if they therefore would acquit themselves like honest and conscientious men , let them tell the people plainly that they look on our churches as true churches , and that they may lawfully communicate with us in prayers and sacraments ; and i do not question but in time , if they find it lawful , they will judge it to be their duty . for it is the apostles command here , whereto we have already attained let us walk by the same rule , let us mind the same things . a crime this is which if true , is not easily to be expiated : nor can men give greater evidence of their own hypocrisie , insincerity , and government by corrupt ends and designs , than by such abominable arts and contrivances . so if it should prove not to be true , it cannot but be looked on as animated by such an evil surmise as is of no small provocation in the sight of god and men . this reverend author makes a distinction about communion with the church , page . between what is required of ministers , and that which is called lay-communion , which is the foundation of this charge . i do not confound bare suspending communion in some particular rites , which persons do modestly scruple , and using it in what they judge to be lawful ; with either total , or at least ordinary forbearance of communion in what they judge to be lawful , and proceeding to the forming of separate congregations , i. e. under other teachers , and by other rules than what the established religion allows . and this is the present case of separation which i intend to consider , and to make the sinfulness and mischief of it appear . but he knows that by the communion , and uniting our selves unto the church , which is pressed either on ministers or people , a total submission unto the rule as established in the book of canons , and rubrick of the liturgy , is required of them all . when this is once engaged in , there is no suspending of communion in particular rites to be allowed ; they who give up themselves hereunto , must observe the whole rule to a tittle . nor is it in the power of this reverend author , who is of great dignity in the church , and as like as any man i know to be inclined thereunto , to give indulgence unto them in their abstinence from the least ceremony enjoined . wherefore the question about lay-communion , is concerning that which is absolute and total , according unto all that is enjoined by the laws of the land , or by the canons , constitutions , and orders of the church . hereby are they obliged to bring their children to be baptized with the use of the aerial sign of the cross ; to kneel at the communion ; to the religious observation of holy-days ; to the constant use of the liturgie in all the publick offices of the church , unto the exclusion of the exercise of those gifts which christ continues to communicate for its edification ; to forego all means of publick edification , besides that in their parish-churches , where , to speak with modesty , it is oft times scanty and wanting ; to renounce all other assemblies wherein they have had great experience of spiritual advantage unto their souls ; to desert the observation of many useful gospel-duties , in their mutual watch that believers of the same church ought to have one over another ; to divest themselves of all interest of a voluntary consent in the discipline of the church , and choice of their own pastors ; and to submit unto an ecclesiastical rule and discipline , which not one in a thousand of them can apprehend to have any thing in it of the authority of christ or rule of the gospel ; and other things of the like nature may be added . this being the true state of lay-communion , which will admit of no indulgence , if the rule be observed , i must say , that i do not believe that there are six nonconformist ministers in england that do believe this communion to be lawful for the people to embrace . and on the other hand , they cease not to instruct them wherein their true communion with the church of england doth consist , namely , in faith and love , and all the fruits of them , unto the glory of god. i heartily wish these things had been omitted , that they had not been spoken ; not to cover any guilt in the nonconformists , whose consciences are unto them a thousand witnesses against such imputations : but whereas the ground of them is only surmises and suspicions , and the evil charged of the highest nature that any men can involve themselves in the guilt of , it argues such a frame of spirit , such an habit of mind , as evidenceth men to be very remote from that christian love and charity , which on all hands we sometimes pretend unto . of the same nature is another charge of the like want of sincerity pag . those , saith he , who speak now most against the magistrates power in matters of religion , had ten substantial reasons for it , when they thought the magistrates on their own side . for which is quoted an answer unto two questions , . that is , they change their opinions according to their interest . i know not directly whom he intends . those who are commonly called independents , expressed their apprehension of the magistrates power in and about religion , in their confession made . that any of them have , on what hath ensued , changed their opinion therein , i know not . and for my part . i have on this occasion perused the answer unto the two questions directed unto , and do profess my self at this day to be of the same judgment with the author of them , as it is expressed in that paper . there are things not easily to be numbred , wherein we acknowledge the magistrates power and duty in matters of religion , as much as ever was in the godly kings of judah of old or was at first claimed by the first christian emperors . yet are there some , who , although they are fed and warmed , promoted and dignified by the effects of the magistrates power in and about religion , who will not allow that any thing is ascribed unto him , unless we grant that it is in his rightful power , and his duty , to coerce and punish with all sorts of mulcts , spoiling of goods , imprisonments , banishments , and in some cases death itself , such persons as hold the head , and all the fundamental principles of christian religion entire , whose worship is free from idolatry , whose conversations are peaceable and useful , unless in all things they comply with themselves ; when possibly some of them may be as useful in and unto the church of god , as those that would have them so dealt withal . and it may be common prudence would advise a forbearance of too much severity in charges on others for changing their opinions , lest a provocation unto a recrimination on them that make them should arise , of changing their opinions also , not without an appearing aspect to their own interests : but we have some among the nonconformists , who are so accustomed not only unto such undue charges as that here insisted on , but unto such unjust accusations , false reports , malicious untruths , concerning them , their words , doctrine and practises , which being invented by a few ill men , are trumpeted abroad with triumph by many , as that they are come to a resolution never to concern themselves in them any more . . as unto the state of the question we are told , that he speaks not of the separation or distinct communion of whole churches from each other , which according to the scripture , antiquity and reason , have a just right and power to govern and reform themselves . by whole churches , i mean the churches of such nations , which upon the decay of the roman empire , resumed their just right of government to themselves , and upon their owning christianity , incorporated into one christian society , under the same common tyes and rules of order and government , pag. . i do suppose that particular churches or congregations are hereby exempted from all guilt of schism , in not complying with rules of communion imposed on them by other churches ; i am sure according unto the principles of nonconformists they are so . for they judge that particular or congregational churches stated with their officers according to the order of the gospel , are entire churches , that have a just right and power to govern and reform themselves . until this be disproved , until it be proved , either that they are not churches , because they are congregational , or that although they are churches , yet they have no power to govern and reform themselves , they are free from the guilt of schism in their so doing . but the reverend author seems in the ensuing discourse to appropriate this right and power unto national churches , whose rise he assigns unto the dissolution of the roman empire , and the alteration of the church government , into that of distinct kingdoms and provinces . but this is a thing that fell out so long after the institution of churches , and propagation of christian religion , that we are not at all concerned in it ; especially considering , that the occasion and means of the constitution of such churches , was wholly foreign unto religion , and the concerns of it . the right and power of governing and reforming themselves here spoken of , is that which is given by christ himself unto his churches , nor do i know else where they should have it . wherefore those national provincial churches which arose upon the dissolution of the roman empire , must first be proved to be of his institution , before they can be allowed to have their power given them by jesus christ. in what kings , potentates and other supream magistrates might doe , to accommodate the outward profession of religion unto their rule , and the interest thereof , we are not at all concerned ; nor will give interruption unto any of them , whilest they impose not the religious observation of their constitutions unto that end , upon our consciences and practice . our sole enquiry is , what our lord jesus christ hath ordained , which if we are compliant withall , we shall fear neither this nor any other charge of the like nature . but to give strength hereunto , it is added ; just as several fam●●●●● united make one kingdom , which at first had a distinct and independent power , but it would make strange confusion in the world , to reduce kingdoms back again to families , because at first they were made up of them . pag. . which is again insisted on , pag. . but the case is not the same . for if indeed god had appointed no other civil government in the world but that of families , i should not much oppose them who would endeavour peaceably to reduce all government thereunto . but whereas we are certain , that god by the light of the law of nature , by the ends and use of the creation of man , and by express revelation in his word , hath by his own authority appointed and approved other sorts of civil government , in kingdoms and common-weals , we esteem it not only a madness to endeavour a reduction of all government into families , as unto the possibility of the thing ; but a direct opposition unto the authority , command , and institution of god. so if these national churches were of the immediate institution of christ himself , we should no more plead the exemption of particular churches from any power given them by christ as such , than we do to exempt private families from the lawful government of publick magistrates . and we must also adde , that whatever be their original and constitution , if all their governours were as the apostles , yet have they no power but what is for edification , and not for destruction ; if they do or shall appoint and impose on men what tends unto the destruction of their souls , and not unto their edification , as it is fallen out in the church of rome ; not only particular churches , but every individual believer is warranted to withdraw from their communion ; and hereon we ground the lawfulness of our separation from the church of rome , without any need of a retreat unto the late device of the power of provincial churches to reform themselves . let none mistake themselves herein , believers are not made for churches , but churches are appointed for believers . their edification , their guidance and direction in the profession of the faith and performance of divine worship in assemblies according to the mind of god , is their use and end ; without which they are of no signification . the end of christ in the constitution of his churches , was not the moulding of his disciples into such ecclesiastical shapes , as might be subservient unto the power , interest , advantages and dignity of them that may in any season come to be over them ; but to constitute a way and order of giving such officers unto them , as might be in all things usefull and subservient unto their edification ; as is expresly affirmed ; ephes. . , , , . as it should seem an opinion opposite unto this notion of national churches , is examined and confuted , pag. . ibid it is a great mistake to make the notion of a church barely to relate to acts of worship ; and consequently that the adequate notion of a church , is an assembly for divine worship ; by which means they appropriate the name of churches to particular congregations . whereas , if this hold true , the church must be dissolved as soon as the congregation is broken up ; but if they retain the nature of a church , when they do not meet together for worship , then there is some other bond that unites them ; and whatever that is , it constitutes the church . i am far from pretending to have read the writings of all men upon this subject ; nay i can say , i have read very few of them ; though i never avoided the reading of any thing written against the way and order which i approve of . wherefore there may be some , as far as i know , who have maintained this notion of a church , or that it is only an assembly for divine worship ; but for my part i never read nor heard of any who was of this judgment . assemblyes for divine worship we account indispensably necessary for the edification of the churches ; but that this is that which gives them their constitution and formeth that which is the bond of their union , none of the nonconformists as i know of , do judge . for it will not only hence follow , as the reverend author observes , that the church is dissolved when the congregation is broken up , ( on which account churches at this time would be dissolved almost every week whether they would or no ; ) but that any sort of persons who have no church-relation unto one another , meeting occasionally for divine worship , do constitute a church , which it may be within an hour , they cease to be . it is not therefore on this account that we appropriate the name of churches unto particular congregations ; there is quite another way and means , another bond of union whereby particular churches are constituted ; which hath been sufficiently declared . but if the meaning of the appropriating the name of churches unto particular congregations be , that those societies which have not , or which cannot have assemblies for divine worship are not churches properly so called , it is a thing of another consideration that need not here be insisted on . but when such societies as whose bounds and limits are not of divine institution , as were those of the national church of the jews ; no nor yet of the prudence and wisdom of men , as were the distribution of the ancient church into patriarchates and diocesses ; but a meer natural and necessary consequent of that prevailing sword , which on the dissolution of the roman empire erected distinct kingdoms and dominions , as men were able ; such societies as are not capable of any religious assemblies for divine worship , and the ministration of christian discipline in them ; such as are forced to invent and maintaine an union by ways and means , and officers and orders , which the scripture knows nothing of , are proved to be churches of christs institution , i shall embrace them as such ; in the mean time let them pass at their own proper rate and value , which the stamp of civil authority hath put upon them . what is further discoursed by the author on this subject , proceeding no further but why may it not be so and so , we are not concerned in . . pag. , . there is a distribution of all dissenters into two parties ; ( . ) such as say , that although they are in a state of separation from our church , yet this separation is no sin . . such as say , that a state of separation would be sin , but notwithstanding their meeting in different places , yet they are not in a state of separation . the difference of these two parties seems to me , to be only in the different ways of expressing themselves , the one granting the use of the word separation in this case , which others will not admit . for their practice , so far as i can observe , is one and the same , and therefore their principles must be so also , though they choose several ways of expressing them . both sorts intended , do plead , that in sundry things they have communion with the church of england , and in some things they have not , nor can have it so . some knowing the word separation to be of an indifferent signification , and to be determined as unto its sence by what it is applyed unto , do not contend but that if any will have it so , the state wherein they are , should be denominated from their dissent unto those things wherein they cannot hold communion with the church of england ; and so are not offended if you call it a state of separation ; how best this hinders not but that they continue their communion with the church of england , as was before mentioned . others seem to take separation in the same sence with schisme , which is alwayes evil . or at least they pretend it is their right to have the denomination of their state taken from what they agree in with the church of england , and not from their dissent in other things from it . and therefore they continue in a practice suitable unto that dissent . wherefore i judge that there is no need of this distinction , but both parties intended are equally concerned in the charge that is laid against them for their dissent in some things from the church . these things being premised , that we may not be diverted from the substance of the cause in hand , as they would otherwise occurre unto us in our progress , i shall proceed unto the consideration of the charge it self laid against the nonconformists , and the arguings whereby it is endeavoured to be confirmed . the charge is , that all the nonconformists of one sort or another , that is , presbyterians and independents , are guilty of sin , of a sinful separation from the church of england ; and therefore as they live in a known sin , so they are the cause thereby of great evils , confusions , disturbances among our selves , and of danger unto the whole protestant religion ; whence it is meet , that they should , &c. the matter of fact being thus far mutually acknowledged , that there is such a stated difference between the church of england and the nonconformists , the next enquiry naturally should be on these two heads . . who or what is the cause of this difference or distance ; without which we cannot judge aright , on whom the blame of it is to be charged . for that all men are not presently to be condemned for the withdrawing from the communion of any church , because they do so , without a due examination of the causes for which they do it , will be acknowledged by all protestants . in plain terms , our enquiry is , whether the cause hereof be on the one hand , the imposition of terms of communion without any obligation in conscience to make that imposition , so much as pleaded or pretended from the nature of the things imposed ; or the refusal of complyance with those impositions , under a profession that such a complyance would be against the light of conscience and the best understanding in them who so refuse , which they can attain of the mind and will of god in the scripture . . whereas the parties at difference do agree in all substantial parts of religion , and in a common interest as unto the preservation and defence of the protestant religion , living alike peaceably under the same supream authority and civil government ; whether the evils and inconveniencies mentioned , are necessary and inseparable effects of such a difference ; or whether they do not wholly owe themselves unto passions , corrupt affections , and caernal interests of men , which ought on all hands to be mortifyed and subdued . for as , it may be , few wise men who know the nature of conscience , how delicate and tender it is , what care is required in all men to keep it as a precious jewel , whose preservation from defilements and affronts , god hath committed unto us , under the pain of his eternal displeasure ; how unable honest men are to contravene the light of their own minds , in things of the smallest importance , for any outward advantages whatever ; how great care , diligence and accuracy ought to be used in all things relating unto the worship of god , about which he so frequently declares his jealousie , and displeasure against those who in any thing corrupt or debase it ; with sundry other things of the like nature , will admire that these differences are not ended among us , by an absolute acquiescency of the one party in the judgments , dictates and impositions of the other ; so upon the supposition before mentioned , of an agreement in all the foundations of religion , in all things from themselves and gods appointment necessary unto salvation ; of that union of affections , which our joint interest in the unity of the faith doth require , and of that union of interest which both parties have in the preservation of the protestant religion , and that of obedience and subjection unto the same civil government ; and on the satisfaction which the dissenting parties have , in that the other do enjoy all those great advantages which the publick profession of religion in this kingdom is accompanied withall , not in the least pretending to or contending for any share therein ; many wise men do and cannot but admire , that the inconveniencies and evils pretended should ensue on this difference as it is stated among us , and that the dissenters should be pursued with so much vehemency as they have been , even unto their ruin . but we must proceed in the way and method here proposed unto us . . the foundation whereon the reverend author manageth his charge of schism with all its consequents against the nonconformists , is taken from the words of his text , and declared , pag. , , , , . of his book . i shall not transcribe his words , principally because i would not oblige my self to take notice of any thing that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which in such discourses do commonly administer occasion of unnecessary strife . the force of the argument unto the best of my understanding consists in the things that follow . ( . ) that all churches and the members of them , by vertue of the apostolical precept contained in the text ought to walk according unto rule . ( . ) that the rule here intended is not the rule of charity and mutual forbearance in the things wherein they who agree in the foundation , are differently minded or otherwise than one another . but ( . ) this was a standing rule for agreement and uniformity in practice in church order and worship , which the apostles had given and delivered unto them . ( . ) that this rule they did not give only as apostles , but as governours of the church ; as appears from acts . wherefore what the apostles so did , that any church hath power to do , and ought to do , namely , to establish a rule of all practice in their communion . ( . ) that not to comply with this rule in all things is schisme , the schisme whereof nonconformists are guilty . this to the best of my understanding is the entire force of the argument insisted on , and that proposed unto the best advantage for the apprehension of its force and strength , &c. let us therefore hereon a little inquire whether this will bear the weight of so great a charge as that which is built upon it and resolved into it , with all the dismal consequents pretended to ensue thereon ; and we shall not pass by in so doing , any thing that is offered to give an especial enforcement unto the charge it self . but in our entrance into the consideration of these things , i must needs say , it is somewhat surprising unto me , to see a charge wherein the consciences , reputations , liberty , &c. of so many are concerned , founded on the exposition of a text , which no sober expositor that i know of , did ever find out , propose , or embrace . but if it be true and according unto the mind of the holy ghost , this ought to be no disparagement unto it , though it be applyed unto such an end . this is that which we are to examine . i say therefore , ( . ) we no way doubt but that the apostles did give rules of faith , obedience and worship , not only unto private christians , but to whole churches also , which we find recorded in the scripture . unto all these rules we do declare our assent and consent , with an entire conformity ; and do hope that with indifferent unbiassed persons this is enough to free us from the charge of schisme . ( . ) for the rule here intended , some take it to be the rule of faith in general or divine revelation ; some to be the rule of charity and brotherly condescention ; some to be the particular rule here laid down of walking together in the different measures of faith , light and knowledge , which we do attain unto . the apostle in the foregoing verses having given an account of the glorious excellencies of the mysteries of the gospel , and of his own endeavour after the full attainment of them , yet affirms that he had not attained unto that perfection in the comprehension of them , which he designed and aimed at . herein in the instance of himself he declares the condition of the best believers in this life , which is not a full measure and perfection in the comprehension of the truths of the gospel , or enjoyment of the things themselves contained in them . but withall he declares their duty in pressing continually by all means after that measure of attainment which is proposed unto their acquisition . hereupon he supposes what will certainly ensue on the common pursuit of this design , which is , that men will come unto different attainments , have different measures of light and knowledge , yea and different conceptions or opinions about these things ; some will be otherwise minded than other some will be , in some things only . hereupon he gives direction how they should walk , and behave themselves in this state and condition . and unto those who have attained that measure , whence in comparison of others they may be styled perfect , that they press on unanimously towards the end proposed . and as for those who in any things differed from others , he encourageth them to wait on the teachings of god in that use of the means of instruction which they enjoyed . and having prescribed to each supposed party their especial duties as such , he lays down the duty of them both in common ; which is , that in and with respect unto what they had attained , they should walk by the same rule , namely , which he had now laid down , and mind the same things as he had before enjoyned them . wherefore these words of the apostle are so far from being a foundation to charge them with schisme who agreeing in the substance of the doctrine of the gospel , do yet dissent from others , ( probably the greater part of the church are intended ) in some things ; that it enjoyns a mutual forbearance among those who are so differently minded . ( . ) but our author affirms that it cannot be a rule of charity and mutual forbearance that is intended , because the apostle had spoken of that just before . but it is apparent that he speaks these words , with reference unto what he had said just before ; and if this be that which those who are otherwise minded are not obliged unto , then are they not obliged at all to walk by the rule intended , which is not the mind of the apostle ; so himself declares out of cajetan , that the apostle subjoins the last words to the former , least the persons he there speaks unto should think themselves excused from going as far as they can in the same rule . pag. . but a rule , he says , it is limiting and determining the practice , requiring uniformity in observing the same standing rule . the nonconformists hereon do say , that if the apostles , or any one apostle did appoint such a rule as this intended , let it be produced with any probability of proof to be theirs , and they are all ready to subscribe and conform unto it . on supposition that any rule of this nature was appointed by the apostles , and declared unto the churhes , as the reverend author i suppose doth intimate that it was , ( though i dare not affix a determinate sense unto his words in this place ) all that can be required of us , is that we do conform , and walk according unto that rule , so appointed and declared by them . this we are alwayes ready to doe . sundry general rules we find in the scripture given unto us , relating unto the constitution and edification of churces , to their order and worship , and government ; sundry particular rules for ministers and others , how they should behave themselves in church societies and assemblies , are also laid down therein ; all which we embrace and submit unto the authority of christ in them . and if any other government or particular rule can be produced , given by them , which is not recorded in the scripture , so it can be proved to be theirs , we will engage to conform unto it . . if the rule pretended to be given by the apostle be of any use in this case , or can give any force unto the argument in hand , it must be such an one as appointed and required things to be observed in the worship of god that were never divinely appointed , imposing the observation of them on the consciences and practices of all members of the church , under penalties spiritual and temporal ; a rule constituting national churches , with a government and discipline suited unto that constitution ; with modes and ceremonies of worship no where intimated in the scripture , nor any way necessary in the light of reason . such a rule i say , it must be ; since although i should grant , ( which yet i do not ) that the consequent is good , that because the apostles made rules for the practice of the church that believers were bound in conscience to submit unto , therefore other ordinary governours of the church may do so also ; yet it will by no means follow that because the apostles appointed a rule of one sort , present church governours may appoint those of another . we know full well , and it is on all hands agreed , what is the rule that our conformity is required unto . if this be done from any rule given by the apostles ; it must be a rule of the same nature or to the same purpose ; otherwise by a pretence of their pattern or example , rules may be made directly contrary unto and destructive of all the rules they ever really gave , as it is actually fallen out in the church of rome . but . we deny that the apostles made or gave any such rules to the churches present in their days ; or for the use of the churches in future ages , as should appoint and determine outward modes of worship , with ceremonies in their observation ; stated feasts and fasts , beyond what is of divine institution , liturgies or forms of prayer , or discipline to be exercised in law courts , subservient unto a national ecclesiastical government . what use then they are or may be of , what benefit or advantage may come to the church by them , what is the authority of the superior magistrate about them , we do not now enquire or determine . only we say that no rule unto these ends was ever prescibed by the apostles . for , ( . ) there is not the least intimation of any such rule to be given by them in the scripture . there are in it as was before observed many express rules both general and particular , about churches , their faith , worship , and mens walking in them , thoroughly sufficient to direct the duty and practice of all believers in all cases and occurences relating to them . but of any such rule as that here pretended , there is no mention ; which certainly if it had been given , and of the importance which now it is pleaded to be of , such as that without it , neither peace , nor unity , nor order can be preserved in churches , some intimation at least would have been made of it therein . especially we may judge it would have been so , seeing sundry things ( every thing so far as we can understand ) wherein the edification of the church is any way concerned , are recorded in it , though of little or no use in comparison of what so great and general a rule would be of besides there is that doctrine delivered , and those directions given by them in the scripture , concerning the liberty of believers and forbearance of diffenters , as is inconsistent with such a rule and the imposition of it . ( . ) the first churches after their times knew nothing of any such rule given by them , and therefore after they began to depart from the simplicity of the gospel in any things , as unto worship , order and rule or discipline , they fell into a great variety of outward observances , orders , and ceremonies , every church almost differing in some thing or other from others , in some such observations ; yet all keeping the unity of the faith in the bond of peace . this they would not have done if the apostles had prescribed any one certain rule of such things that all must conform unto , especially considering how scrupulously they did adhere unto every thing that was reported to be done or spoken by any of the apostles , were the report true or false . ( . ) in particular when a difference fell out amongst them , in a business of this nature , namely , in a thing of outward order , no where appointed by the authority of christ , namely , about the observation of easter , the parties at variance appealed on the one side to the practice of peter , on the other to the practice of john ; both vainly enough ; yet was it never pretended by any of them on either side , that the apostles had constituted any rule in the cafe ; and therefore is it not probable that they esteemed them to have done so in things of an alike nature , seeing they laid more weight on this , than on any other instance of the like kind . ( . ) it is expresly denyed by good and sufficient testimony among them , that the apostles made any law or rule about outward rites , ceremonies , times , and the like . see socrat. lib. . cap. . however then the apostles might by their epistles and presence with the churches reform abuses that were creeping or crept in among them , and set things in order among them , with renewed directions for their walking ; and that all christians were obliged unto the observation of those rules , as all those still are unto whom they are applicable in their circumstances ; yet all this proves nothing of their appointing such a general rule as is pretended , and such a rule alone would be pleadable in this case ; and yet not this neither , untill either it were produced in a scheme of canons , or it were proved because they had power to make such a rule , so others may do the like , adding unto what they prescribed , leaving place unto others to adde to their rule by the same right , and so endlesly . the truth is , if god would be pleased to help us on all hands , to lay aside prejudices , passions , secular interests , fears , and every other distempered affection , which obstruct our minds in passing a right judgment on things of the nature treated on ; we find in the text and context spoken unto , a sacred truth divinely directive of such a practice as would give peace and rest unto us all . for it is supposed that men in a sincere endeavour after acquaintance with the truths and mysteries of the gospel , with an enjoyment of the good things represented and exhibited in them , may fall in some things , into different apprehensions about what belongs unto faith and practice in religion . but whilest they are such as do not destroy nor overthrow the foundation , nor hinder men from pressing towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of god in christ jesus , that which the apostle directs unto them , who are supposed to be ignorant of , or to mistake in the things wherein they do differ from others ; is only that they wait for divine instruction in the use of the means appointed for that end , practising in the mean time according to what they have received . and as unto both parties the advice he gives them is , that whereunto they have attained , wherein they do agree , which were all those principles of faith and obedience which were necessary unto their acceptance with god , they should walk by the same rule , and mind the same things ; that is , forbearing one another in the things wherein they differ ; which is the substance of what is pleaded for by the nonconformists . and that this is the meaning and intention of the apostle in this place , is evident from the prescription of the same rules in an alike case , rom. . this the reverend author saw , namely , that the rule there laid down , is such as expresly requires mutual forbearance in such cases , where men are unsatisfied in conscience about any practice in religion ; which seems in the same case to be quite another rule , than that which he supposeth to be intended in this place to the philipians . but hereunto he answers , that the apostle did act like a prudent governour , and in such a manner , as he thought did most tend to the propagation of the gospel , and the good of particular churches . in some churches that consisted most of jews , as the church of rome at this time did , and where they did not impose the necessity of keeping of the law on the gentile christians ( as we do not find they did at rome ) the apostle was willing to have the law buryed as decently , and with as little noise as might be ; and therefore in this case he perswades both parties to forbearance and charity , in avoiding the judging and censuring one another , since they had an equal regard unto the honour of god in what they did . but in those churches where the false apostles made use of this pretence , of the levitical law being still in force , to divide the churches and to separate the communion of christians ; these the apostle bids them beware of them and their practices , as being of a dangerous and pernicious consequence . pag. , . ( . ) no man ever doubted of the prudence of the apostle as a governour , though in this place he acts only as a teacher divinely inspired , instructing the churches in the mind of god , as unto the differences that were among them . ( . ) the difference then among the romans was about the observation of the mosaical ceremonies and worship , that is , so far as they might be observed , in the countreys of the gentiles out of the limits of the church , the land of canaan : it could not be therefore concerning such things as whose discharge and practice was confined unto the temple or that land , which yet the jews of hierusalem adhered unto , acts . , , , . their controversie therefore was principally about meats and drinks , days of feasting or fasting , and the like ; all founded in a supposed necessity of circumcision . ( . ) it is well observed by our author that the judaizing christians ( which in all probability at this time were the greatest number at rome , the gentile church not making any great encrease before the coming of the apostle thither ) did not impose the necessity of keeping the law on the gentile christians , at least not in that manner , as was done by the false teachers , who troubled the churches of the galathians and others , so as to reject them who complyed not with them out of church communion , and from all hopes of salvation . but yet both parties continued in their different practices , which through want of instruction what was their duty in such cases , produced many inconveniencies among them ; as judging or despising one another , contrary to the rule of christian love and charity . in this state the apostle prescribes unto them the rule of their duty ; which is plainly , to bear with one another , to love one another , and according to the nature of charity to believe all things , to believe that each party was accepted with god , whilest they served him according unto the light which they had received . and as it is to be thought that upon the giving of this rule and direction , they utterly laid aside all the animosities in judging and despising one another , which they had been guilty of ; so it is certain that they continued in their different practice a long time after without any rebuke or reproof . yea some learned men do judge , and that not on grounds to be despised , that the parties who differed were gathered into distinct churches , and so continued to walk , even to the dayes of adrian the emperour , when the last and final destruction of the whole nation of the jews did befall them ; after which , those who were not hardened to the utmost , gave off all expectation of any respect to be had with god , of their old institutions . i do not know how tho present case between the church of england and the non-conformists , could have possibly been more plainly and distinctly stated and exemplified in any thing that the churches were capable of or liable unto in those days , then it is in this case here stated and determined by the apostle ; in whose direction , rule , and determination we do fully acquiesce . but ( ) it is true also ( which this reverend author observes ) that when the false apostles ( or any other judaizing teachers , pretending to authority ) did impose the observation of the rites and ceremonies of the levitical law on any churches unto their disturbance and division ; the apostle looks hereon , as that which so far altered the case , that he gives other rules and directions about it . and if such impositions might be yet forborn in the like case , especially as accompanied with the severe supplement and addition of all sorts of outward penalties to be inflicted on them who cannot comply with them , an open door would appear into all that agreement , peace and quietness among us , which are desired . i have treated thus far of these things , not to manage a controversie with this author or any other , but only to shew that there is no ground to be taken from this text or its context , to give countenance unto the severe censure of schisme and all the evil consequents of it , as maintained by ill arts and practices , upon the non-conformists . the procedure of our author in the management of his charge , is in a way of proving from the assertions and concessions of the several parties whereinto he hath distinguished non-conformists , that they have no just cause to with-hold full communion from the church of england , especially in its parochial assemblies . and as unto the first party whom he affirms to grant that they are in a state of separation , he quotes some sayings out of a discourse of a nameless authour , concerning evangelical love , church peace and unity . and together with some concessions of his , he adds his judgment , that communion in ordinances must be only in such churches as christ himself instituted by unalterable rules , which were only particular and congregational churches . as i remember that author hath at large declared in his discourse , what communion believers ought to have with the church , or all churches , the church in every sense wherein that name is used in the scripture . but i shall not trouble my self to inquire into his assertions or concessions ; nor at present can i do so , not having that book with me where i now am . my business is only to examine on this occasion what this reverend author excepteth against or opposeth unto his assertion about congregational churches and the answering his charge of schisme , notwithstanding this plea of the institution of particular churches for the celebration of divine ordinances . this he doth pag. . granting this to be true , how doth it hence appear not to be a sin to separate from our parochial churches ; which according to their own concessions have all the essentials of true churches . and what ground can they have to separate and divide those churches , which for all that we can see , are of the same nature with the churches planted by the apostles at corinth , philippi , or thessalonica ? ans. we will allow at present that the parochial churches , at least some of them in this nation , are true churches ; that is , that they are not guilty of any such hainous errors in doctrine or idolatrous practice in worship , as should utterly deprive them of the being and nature of churches . yet we suppose it will not be made a rule , that communion may be with-held or withdrawn from any church in any thing , so long as it continues as unto the essence of it to be so . this author knows that testimonies may be produced out of very learned protestant writers to the contrary . ( . ) we do not say , it is not pleaded , that because communion in ordinances must be only in such churches as christ himself hath instituted , &c. that therefore it is lawful and necessary to seperate from parochial churches ; but it may be pleaded thence , that if it be on other grounds necessary to so seperate or with-hold communion from them ; it is the duty of them who do so , to joyn themselves in or unto some other particular congregations . the reasons why the non-conformists cannot joyn in that communion with those parochial churches which were before described , are quite of another nature , which are not here to be pleaded ; however some of them may be mentioned , to deliver us from this mistake , that the ground of seperation from them is the institution of particular congregational churches . and they are such as these . . there are many things in all parochial churches that openly stand in need of reformation . what these are both with respect unto persons and things , hath been before intimated , and shall be further declared if occasion require . but these parochial churches neither do , nor indeed can , nor have power in themselves to reform the things that ought by the rule of the scripture to be reformed . for none among us will plead , that they are intrusted with power for their own government and reformation . in this case we judg it lawful for any man peacoably to with-draw communion from such churches , to provide for his own edification in others . . that there are many things in the constant total communion of parochial churches imposed on the consciences and practices of men , which are not according to the mind of christ. the things of this nature i shall not here mention in particular . . there is no evangelical church discipline administred in such parochial churches , which yet is a necessary means unto the edification of the churches appointed by christ himself , and sacredly attended unto by the primitive churches . and we dare not renounce our interest in so blessed an ordinance of christ in the gospel . . the rule and government which such parochial churches are absolutely under in the room of that rule and discipline which ought to be in and among themselves , namely , that by the courts of bishops , chancellors , commissaries , &c. is unknown to the scriptures , and in its administration is very remote from giving a true representation of the authority , wisdom , love , and care of christ to his church ; which is the sole end of all church rules and discipline . the yoke hereof many account themselves not obliged to submit unto . . there is in such churches a total deprivation of the liberty of the people secured unto them by the rules and practices of several ages from the beginning of choosing their own pastors ; whereby they are also deprived of all use of their light and knowledge of the gospel , in providing for their own edification . . it cannot be denied , but that there is want of due meanes of edification in many of those parochial churches , and yet provision is made by the government that those churches are under , that none shall by any way provide themselves of better means , for that great end of all church society . it is on these and the like reasons that the non-conformists cannot joyn in total communion such as the rule pleaded for requireth , with parochial churches . in this state , as was said , the lord christ having instituted particular congregations requiring all believers to walk in them ; it is the duty of those who are necessiated to decline the communion of parochial churches , as they are stated at present , to joyn themselves in and unto such congregations , as wherein their edification and liberty may be better provided for according unto rule . but hereon the reverend author proceeds to oppose such particular congregations or churches , i think , as unto their original and necessity ; for so he speaks , page , to page . but i must needs say further , i have never yet seen any tolerable proof , that the churches planted by the apostles were limited to congregations . howbeit this seems to be so clear and evident in matter of fact , and so necessary from the nature of the thing it self , that many wise men , wholly unconcerned in our controversies , do take it for a thing to be granted by all without dispute . so speaks chief justice hobart , page . in the case of colt and glover cont . bishop coventry and litchfield . and we know well that the primitive church in its greatest purity , was but voluntary congregations of believers , submitting themselves to the apostles and after to other pastors , to whom they did minister of their temporals as god did move them . of the same judgment are those who esteemed the first government of the church to be democratical ; so speaks paulus sharpius , in the beginning the government of the holy church had altogether a democratical form , all the faithful intervening in the chiefest deliberations ; thus we see that all did intervene at the election of matthias unto the apostleship , and in the election of the six deacons , and when st. peter received cornelius an heathen centurion unto the faith , he gave an account of it to all the church : likewise in the council celebrated in jerusalem , the apostles , the priests , and the other faithful brethren , did intervene , and the letters were written in the name of all these three orders . in success of time , when the church increased in number , the faithful retiring themselves to the affairs of their families , and having left those of the congregation , the government retained only in the ministers , and became aristocratical , saving the election which was popular . and others also of the same judgment may be added . but let us hear the reasoning of this learned author against this apprehension ; this he enters upon , page . it is possible , at first , there might be no more christians in one city than could meet in one assembly for worship ; but where doth it appear , that when they multiplied into more congregations , they did make new and distinct churches , under new officers , with a seperate power of government ? of this , i am well assured there is no marks nor foot-steps in the new testament , or the whole history of the primitive church . i do not think it will appear credible to any considerate man , that the christians in the church of jerusalem made one stated and fixed congregation for divine worship ; not if we make all the allowances for strangers which can be desired : but if this were granted , where are the unalterable rules that assoon as the company became too great for one particular assembly , they must become a new church under peculiar officers and an independent authority ? it is very strange that those who contend so much for the scriptures being a perfect rule of all things pertaining to worship and discipline , should be able to produce nothing in so necessary a point . i answer ( ) it is possible that an impartial account may ere long be given , of the state and ways of the first churches after the decease of the apostles ; wherein it will be made appear how they did insensibly deviate in many things from the rule of their first institution ; so as that though their mistakes were of small moment , and not prejudicial unto their faith and order , yet occasion was administred to succeeding ages to increase those deviations until they issued in a fatal apostasy . an eminent instance hereof is given us in the discourse of paulus sharpius about matters benificiary , lately made publick in our own language . ( ) the matter of fact herein seems to me evidently to be exemplified in the scripture . for although it may be there is not express mention made that these or those particular churches did divide themselves into more congregations with new officers ; yet are there instances of the erection of new particular congregations in the same province , as distinct churches with a seperate power of government . so the first church in the province of judea was in jerusalem : but when that church was compleat , as to the number of them who might communicate therein unto their edification , the apostle did not add the believers of the adjacent towns and places unto that church , but erected other particular congregations all the country over : so there were different churches in judea , galile , and samaria ; that is many in each of them ; act. . . so the apostle mentions the churches of god that were in judea ; thes . . and no where speaks of them as of one church , for worship , order , and government . so he speaks again , that is constantly , gal. . . i was unknown by face unto the churches of judea . and that these churches were neither national nor diocessans , but particular congregations , is as i suppose sufficiently evident . so was it in the province of galatia ; there is no mention of any church therein , that should be comprehensive of all the believers in that province . but many particular churches there were , as it is testified chap. . ver . . so was it also in macedonia , the first church planted in that province was at philipi , as it is declared , act. . and it was quickly brought into compleat order , so as that when the apostle wrote unto it , there were in it the saints whereof it was constituted , with bishops and deacons ; phil. . . but that church being so compleat , the apostle appointed other particular congregational churches , in the same province , who had officers of their own , with a power of government ; these he mentions and calls the churches of macedonia ; cor. . . . wherefore we need no more directions in this matter , then what are given us by the apostles authority in the name and authority of jesus christ ; nor are concerned in the practice of those who afterwards took another course , of adding believers from other places unto the church first planted , unless it were in case of a disability to enjoy church-communion among themselves elsewhere : whatever therefore is pretended unto the contrary , we have plain scripture evidence and practice , for the errecting particular distinct congregations , with power for their own rule and edification , in the same province , be it as small as those that were of samaria or galile . it cannot surely be said that these churches were national , wherof there were many in one small province of a small nation , nor yet metropolitical or diocesan ; nor i suppose will it be denied but that they were intrusted with power to rule and govern themselves in all ordinary cases ; especially when in every one of them , elders were ordained , which the apostles were careful to see done ; act. . . this is the substance of what we plead as unto particular congregations . ( . ) it is not probable , that any of the first churches did for a long time encrease in any city unto such a number , as might exceed the bounds of a particular church or congregation . for such they might continue to be , notwithstanding a multiplication of bishops or elders in them , and occasional distinct assemblies for some acts of divine worship . and it seems if they did begin to exceed in number beyond a just proportion for their edification ; they did immediately erect other churches among them or near them . so whereas there was a mighty encrease of believers at corinth ; act. . ; there was quickly planted a distinct church at cenchrea , which was the port of the city . rom. . . and notwithstanding the great number of that were converted at hierusalem , upon the first preaching of the gospel ; yet were they so disposed of or so dispersed , that some years after this there was such a church only there , as did meet together in one place as occasion did require , even the whole multitude of the brethren , who are called the church in distinction from the apostles and elders who were their governours ; act. . , . chap. . . nor was that church of any greater number , when they all departed afterwards , and went out unto pella a village beyond jordan , before the destruction of the people , city and temple . and though many alterations were before that time introduced into the order and rule of the churches , yet it appears that when cyprian was bishop of the church at carthage ; that the whole community of the members of that church , did meet together to determine of things that were for their common interest , according unto what was judged to be their right and liberty in those days ; which they could not have done , had they not all of them belonged unto the same particular church and congregation . but these things may be pleaded elsewhere if occasion be given thereunto . but yet , ( . ) i must say , that i cannot discern the least necessity of any positive rule or direction in this matter , nor is any such thing required by us on the like occasion . for this distribution of believers into particular congregations , is that which the nature of the thing it self and the duty of men with respect unto the end of such churches , doth indispensibly require . for what is the end of all churches for which they are instituted ? is it not the edification of them that do believe ? they will find themselves mistaken , who suppose that they were designed to be subservient unto the secular interest of any sort of men . what are the means appointed of christ in such churches for that end ? are they not doctrines and fellowship , breaking bread and prayer , that is , the joynt celebration of the ordinances of christ in the gospel , in preaching the word , administring the sacraments , mutual watchfulness over one another , and the exercise of that discipline which he hath appointed unto his disciples ? i desire to know whether there be any need of a new revelation to direct men who are obliged to preserve churches in their use unto their proper end , to take care of such things , as would obstruct and hinder them in the use of means unto that end of their edification ? whereas therefore it is manifest that ordinarily these means cannot be used in a due manner , but in such churches , as wherein all may be acquainted with what all are concerned in , the very institution it self is a plain command , to plant , erect and keep all churches in such a state , as wherein this end may be attained . and therefore if believers in any place are so few , or so destitute of spiritual gifts , as not to be able of themselves jontly to observe these means for their edification ; it is their duty not to joyn by themselves in a church-state , but to add themselves as members unto other churches ; and so when they are so many as that they cannot orderly communicate together in all these ordinances , in the way of their administration appointed in the scripture , unto the edification of them , it is their duty by vertue of the divine institution of churches , to dispose of their church-state and relation into that way which will answer the ends of it ; that is , into more particular churches or congregations . i speak not these things in opposition unto any other church-state , which men may erect or establish out of an opinion of its usefulness and conveniency ; much less against that communion which ought to be among those particular churches , or their associations for their common rule and government in and by their officers ; but only to manifest , that those of the non-conformists , which are supposed to adhere unto the institution of particular churches in a peculiar way ; do not thereby deserve the imputation of so great and intolerable a guilt as they are here charged withal . and whereas i have hereby discharged all that i designed with respect unto the first sort of non-conformists , as they are here distinguished , i might here give over the pursuit of this argument . but because i seek after truth and satisfaction alone in these things , i shall a little farther consider what is offered by this reverend author unto the same purpose with what we have passed through . so therefore he proceeds ; pag. . to pag. . if that of which we read the clearest instances in scripture , must be the standard of all future ages , much more might be said for limiting churches to private families , then to particular congregations . for do we not read of the church that was in the house of priscilla and aquila at rome ; of the church that was of the house of nymphas at colosse ; and in the house of philemon at laodicea ? why then should not churches be reduced to particular families , when by that meanes they may fully enjoy the liberty of their consciences , and avoid the scandal of breaking the laws ? but if notwithstanding such plain examples , men will extend churches to congregations of many families ; why may not others extend churches to those societies which consist of many congregations ? i answer ; ( ) possibly a church may be in a family , or consist only of the persons that belong to a family . but a family as a family neither is nor can be a church . for as such it is constituted by natural and civil relations . but a church hath its form and being from the voluntary spiritual consent , of those whereof it consists , unto church order ; they gave , saith the apostle , their own selves to the lord , and unto us by the will of god ; cor. . . neither is there any mention at all in the scripture of the constitution of churches in private families , so as that they should be limited thereunto . ( ) what is spoken of the church in the house of aquila , nymphas , and philemon , doth not at all prove that there was a particular church in each of their houses consisting only of their own families , as such ; but only that there was a church which usually assembled in their respective houses . wherefore ( ) here is no such example given of churches in private families in the whole scripture , as should restrain the extent of churches from congregations of many families . and the enquiry hereon , that if men will extend churches to congregations of many families , why may not others extend churches unto those societies which consist of many congregations , hath not any force in it . for they who extended churches unto congregations of many families , were the apostles themselves , acting in the name and authority of jesus christ. it cannot be proved that ever they stated , erected or planted any one church , but it was composed of persons out of many families ; nor that ever they confined a church unto a family ; or taught , that families , though all of them believers and baptized , were churches on the account of their being families . so others may extend churches unto those societies which consist of many congregations ; yet not so , as that those who cannot comply or joyn with them , should thereon be esteemed schismaticks ; seeing such societies were not appointed by christ and his apostles . if such societies be so constituted , as that there is but a probable plea that they are ordained by christ ; there may be danger in a dissent from them , meerly on this account , that they consist of many congregations ; but this is not our case , as hath been before declared . the remainder of this section consists in an account of the practice of the churches in some things in following ages . this though of importance in itself , and deserving a full enquiry into , yet belongeth not unto our present case ; and will , it may be , in due time be more fully spoken unto . those supposed of the first way and judgment , who grant a separation from the established form of the church of england , are dismissed with one charge more on , and plea against their practice , not without a mixture of some severity in expression ; pag. . but suppose the first churches were barely congregational , by reason of the small number of believers at that time , yet what obligation lies upon us to disturb the peace of the church we live in , to reduce churches to their infant state● ▪ which is pressed with sundry considerations in the two following pages ; but we say ; ( ) that the first churches were not congregational by reason of the small number of believers , but because the lord christ had limited and determined , that such a state of his churches should be under the new testament , as best suited unto all the ends of their institution . ( ) that which is called the infant state of churches , was in truth their sole perfect estate ; what they grew up unto afterwards most of them , we know well enough . for leaving , as it is called , their infant state by degrees , they brought forth at last the man of sin. ( ) no obligation lies upon us from hence to disturb the peace of any church ; nor do we do so , let what will be pretended to the contrary . if any such disturbance do ensue upon the differences that are between them and us , as far as i know the blame will be found lying upon them , who not being satisfied that they may leave the first state of the churches under a pretence of its infancy , and bring them into a greater perfection , then was given them by christ and his disciples ; but compel others also to foregoe their primitive constitution , and comply with them in their alteration thereof . the remainder of the discourse of this section , so farre as i can understand , proceeds on this principle , that the sole reason and cause of our non-conformity , is this perswasion of the divine institution of particular churches ; but all men know that this is otherwise . this of all things is least pleaded , and commonly in the last place , and but by some , among the causes and reasons of our withholding communion , so farre as we do so , from the church of england , as unto the way and manner wherein it is required of us . those reasons have been pleaded already , and may yet be so farther , in due time . for the rest of the discourse , we do not , we cannot believe , that the due and peaceable observation of the institutions of christ , doth of it self give any disturbance unto any churches or persons whatever ; nor that a peaceable endeavour to practise our selves according unto those institutions , without imposing that practice on them , can be justly blameable ; we do not , we cannot believe that our refusal of a total compliance , with a rule for order , discipline , worship and ceremonies in the church , not given by christ and his apostles , but requiring of us sundry things either in themselves , or , as required of us , directly contrary unto or inconsistent with the rules and directions given us by them unto those ends , ( as in our judgment and light of our consciences is done in and by this rule ) is either schism or blameable separation . we do judge our selves obliged to preserve peace and unity among christians , by all the means that christ hath appointed for that end , by the exercise of all grace , the performance of all duties , the observation of all rules and directions given us for that end ; but we do not , we cannot believe , that to neglect the means of our own edisication , appointed unto us by christ himself , to cast away the liberty wherewith he hath made us free , and to destroy our own souls for ever , by acting against his authority in his word , and our own consciences guided thereby , in a total complying with the rule proposed unto us , is a way or means for the attaining of that end. and we do believe that in the present state of the differences among us , an issue whereof is not suddenly to be expected in an absolute agreement in opinion and judgement about them , that the rule of the scripture , the example of the first churches , the nature of christian religion , and the present interest of the protestant religion among us , doth call for mutual forbearance , with mutual love , and peaceable walking therein . and we begin to hope , that whereas it is confessed that the foundations of christian religion are preserved entire among us all ; and it is evident that those who dissent from the present ecclesiastical establishments , or any of them , are as ready to do and suffer what they shall be lawfully called unto , in the defence and for the preservation of the protestant religion ; wise men will begin to think that it is better for them , to take up quietly in what the law hath provided for them , and not turmoil themselves and others , in seeking to put an end unto these differences by force and compulsion , which by these ways they will never whilst they live attain unto . and we do suppose that many of them who do cordially own and seek the preservation of the protestant religion in this nation ; men i mean of authority , power and interest , will be no more instrumental to help one party ruine and destroy another ; unduely weakening the whole interest of protestantisme thereby ; but considering how little the concern of themselves , or their posterity can be in these lesser differences , in comparison of what it is in the whole protestant cause ; will endeavour their utmost to procure an equal liberty , ( though not equal outward advantages ) for all that are firm and stable in their profession of that protestant religion which is established by law in this kingdom . i know that learned and eloquent men , such as this author is , are able , to declaim against mutual forbearance in these things with probable pleas and pretences of evil consequents which will ensue thereon . and i do know that others , though not with equal learning or eloquence , do declare and set forth the inequality , unrighteousness , and destructive events of a contrary course , or the use of force and compulsion in this cause . but it must be granted that the evil consequences pretended on a mutual forbearance , do follow from the corrupt affections and passions of men , and not from the thing it self ; but all the evils which will follow on force and compulsion , do naturally arise from the thing it self . i shall close this part of my discourse with an observation on that wherewith it is closed by this author , in his management of it . saith he , to withdraw from each other into separate congregations , tempts some to spiritual pride and scorn and contempt of others , as of a more carnal and worldly church then themselves ; and provokes others to lay open the follies and indiscretions and immoralities of those who pretend to so much purity and spirituality above their brethren ; pag. , . if there be any unto whom this is such a temptation as is mentioned in the first place , and being so , doth prevail upon them ; it is their sin , arising from their own lusts , by which every man is tempted , and is not at all occasioned by the thing it self ; and for the other part , let those who delight in that work proceed as they shall see cause . for if they charge upon us things that are really foolish , indiscreet , and immoral , as in many things we sin all , we hope we shall learn what to amend , and to be diligent therein , as for other reasons , so because of our observers . but if they do what some have done , and others yet continue to do , fill their discourses with false malicious defamations , with scorn , contempt , railing , and revilings , scandalous unto christian religion ; like a sermon lately preached before my lord mayor , and since put in print , ( i intend not that under consideration ) we are no way concerned in what they do or say ; nor do , as we know of , suffer any disadvantage thereby ; yea such persons are beneath the offence and contempt of all men , pretending unto the least of wisdom and sobriety . for what remains of this discourse , i esteem not my self concerned to insist on the examination of it . for i would not so express my judgment in these things , as some are here represented to declare themselves . and i know that those who are principally reflected on , are able to defend both their principles and practices . and besides i hear ( in the retirement wherein i live , and wherein i dye dayly ) that some of those most immediately concerned , have returned an answer , unto this part of the discourse under consideration . i shall therefore only observe some few things that may abate the edge of this charge . for although we judge the defence of the truth which we profess , to be necessary when we are called thereunto ; yet at present for the reasons intimated at the entrance of this discourse , we should choose that it might not be brought under debate . but the defence of our innocency , when the charge against us is such as in it self tends to our distress and ruine , is that alone which is our present design ; and which wise men , no way concerned in our non-conformity , for the sake of protestant religion and publick peace of the nation , have judged necessary . the principal strength of this part of the reverend authors discourse , consists in his application of the reasons of the assembly against those who desired forbearance in distinct communion from the rule sought then to be established , unto those who now desire the same forbearance from the church of england . i will not immerse my self in that controversie ; nor have any contention with the dead . this only i say , that the case then between the presbyterians and those who dissented from them , is so vastly different from that now between the church of england and the non-conformists , and that in so many material instances and circumstances , that no light can be communicated unto the right determination of the latter , from what was pleaded in the former . in brief , those who pleaded then for a kind of uniformity or agreement in total communion , did propose no one of those things , as the condition of it , which are now pleaded as the only reasons of with-holding the same kind of conformity from the church of england ; and the non-imposition of any such things , they made the foundation of their plea , for the compliance of others with them . and those on the other side , who pleaded for liberty and forbearance in such a case as wherein there were no such impositions , did it mostly , on the common liberty , which as they judged , they had with their other brethren , to abide by the way which they had declared and practised , long before any rule was established unto its prejudice . and these things are sufficient to give us , as unto the present case under debate , an absolute inconcernment in what was then pleaded on the one side or the other , and so it shall be here dismissed . the especial charge here managed against the non-conformists , is , that they allow that to live a state of separation from such churches , as many at least of ours are , is a sin ; yet that themselves so do ; which is manifest in their practice . but it may be said , ( ) that this concession respects only parochial churches , and that some of them only . but the conformity in general required of us , respects the constitution , government , discipline , worship and communion of the national church and diocesan churches therein . ( ) persons who thus express themselves are to be allowed the interpretation of their own minds , words and expressions . for if they do judge that such things do belong unto a state of separation from any churches , as namely , a causeless renouncing of all communion with them ; a condemnation of them as no church , and on that ground setting up churches against them , which they know themselves not to be guilty of , they may both honestly and wisely deny themselves to be in a state of separation , nor will their present practice prove them so to be . and on the other hand , those who do acknowledge a separation as unto distinct local presential communion with the church of england , yet do all of them deny those things , which in the judgment of those now intended , are necessary to constitute a state of separation . but on this account , i cannot see the least contradiction between the principles and practice of these brethren , nor wherein they are blame-worthy in their concession , unless it be in too much earnestness to keep up all possible communion with the church of england ; forgive them that wrong . yet i say not this , as though these who are here supposed to own a state of separation , were not as zealous also , for communion in faith , love and doctrine of truth with the body of protestants in this nation , as they are . ( ) that which animates this part of the discourse , and which is the edge of this charge , is , that the ministers do conceal from the people what their judgment is about the lawfulness of communion with the church of england . how this can be known to be so , i cannot understand ; for that it is their judgment that they may do so , is proved only , so far as i know , from what they have written and published in print unto that purpose . and certainly what men so publish of their own accord , they can have no design to conceal from any ; especially not from them who usually attend on their ministry , who are most likely to read their books with diligence ; but this hath been spoken unto before . in these things we seek for no shelter nor countenance from what is pleaded by any concerning the obliging power of an erronious conscience , which the reverend author insists on ; pag. , , . for we acknowledge no rule of conscience in these things which concern churches , their state , power , order and worship , but divine revelation only , that is , the scripture , the written word of god ; and sure enough we are , that we are not deceived in the choice of our rule , so as that we desire no greater assurance in any concerns of religion . and by the scripture as our rule we understand both the express words of it , and whatever may by just and lawful consequence be educed from them . this rule we attend unto , and enquire into the mind of god in it , with all the diligence we are able , and in the use of all the means , that are usually and truly pleaded as necessary unto the attainment of a right understanding thereof . and if any one can inform us of any thing required of us thereby , which yet we have not received , we shall with all readiness comply therewithal . we have no prejudices , no outward temptations , that should biass our minds and inclinations , unto those principles and practices on them , which we judge our selves guided and directed unto by this rule ; but all such considerations as might be taken from the most moderate desires , even of food and raiment , do lye against us . we are hereon fully satisfied , that we have attained that knowledge in the mind of god about these things , as will preserve us from evil or sin against him , from being hurtful or useless unto the rest of mankind , if we submit unto the light and conduct of it , wherefore we seek no relief in , we plead no excuse from the obligation of an erroneous conscience ; but do abide by it that our consciences are rightly informed in these things ; and then it is confessed on all hands , what is their power , and what their force to oblige us , with respect unto all humane commands . i know not of any farther concern that the non-conformists have in the discourse of this reverend author ; unless it be in the considerations which he proposeth unto them , and the advice which he gives them in the close of it . i shall only say concerning the one and the other , that having weighed them impartially unto the best of my understanding , i find not any thing in them , that should make it the duty of any man , to invent and constitute such a rule of church communion , as that which is proposed unto the non-conformists for their absolute compliance withal ; nor any thing that should move the non-conformists unto such compliance , against the light of their consciences , and understanding in the mind of christ ; which alone are the things in debate between us . but if the design of the author , in the proposal of these considerations and the particulars of his advice , be that we should take heed to our selves , that during these differences among us , we give no offence unto others , so far as it is possible , nor entertain severe thoughts in our selves of them from whom we differ , we shall be glad that both he and we should be found in the due observance of such advice . one head of his advice i confess , might be , if i am not mistaken , more acceptable with some of the non-conformists , if it had not come in the close of such a discourse , as this is ; and it is , that they should not be always complaining of their hardships and persecution ; pag. . for they say , after so many of them have died in common gaols , so many have endured long imprisonments , not a few being at this day in the same durance ; so many driven from their habitations into a wandring condition , to preserve for a while the liberty of their persons ; so many have been reduced unto want and penury , by the taking away of their goods ; and from some the very instruments of their livelyhood ; after the prosecutions which have been against them in all courts of justice in this nation , on informations , endictments , and suits , to the great charge of all of them who are so persecuted , and ruine of some ; after so many ministers and their families have been brought into the utmost outward streights which nature can subsist under ; after all their perpetual fears and dangers wherewith they have been exercised and disquieted , they think it hard they should be complained of for complaining , by them who are at ease . it may be remembred what one speaks very gravely in the comoedian . sed , demea , hoc tu facito ; cum animo cogites , quam vos facillime agitis ; quam estis maxume potentes , dites , fortunati , nobiles ; tum maxume vos aequo animo aequa noscere oportet , si vos vultis perhiberi probos . indeed , men who are encompassed with an affluence of all earthly enjoyments , and in the secure possession of the good things of this life , do not well understand what they say , when they speak of other mens sufferings . this i dare undertake for all the non-conformists ; let others leave beating them , and they shall all leave complaining . she is thought but a curst mother who beats her child for crying , and will not cease beating until the child leaves crying , which it cannot do whilst it is continually beaten . neither do i know that the non-conformists are alwaies complaining of their sufferings ; nor what are their complaints that they make , nor to whom . yea i do suppose that all impartial men , will judge that they have borne their sufferings with as much patience and silence , as any who have gone before them in the like state and condition . and they do hope , that men will not be angry with them , if they cry unto god for deliverance from those troubles which they judge they undergo for his sake . thankful also they are unto god and men , for any release they have received from their sufferings ; wherein their chief respect amongst men hitherto is unto the king himself . but that they should be very thankful to those , who esteem all their past and present sufferings to be light , and do really endeavour to have them continued and encreased ( among whom i do not reckon this reverend author , for i do not know that i can truly do so , ) is not to be expected . i shall add no more , but that whereas the non-conformists intended in this defence , are one , or do compleatly agree with the body of the people in this nation that are protestants , or the church of england , in the entire doctrine of faith and obedience , in all the instances whereby it hath been publickly declared or established by law ; which agreement in the unity of faith , is the principal foundation of all other union and agreement among christians , and without which every other way or means of any such union or agreement is of no worth or value , and which if it be not impeached is in it self a sufficient bond of union , whatever other differences may arise among men , and ought to be so esteemed among all christians ; and whereas they are one with the same body of the people , that is , in its magistracy and those who are under rule in one common interest for the maintenance and preservation of protestant religion , whereunto they are secured by a sense of their duty and safety ; and without whose orderly and regular concurrence in all lawful wayes and actings unto that end , it will not be so easily attained as some imagine ; and whereas also they are one with them in all due legal subjection unto the same supreme power amongst us , and are equally ready with any sort of persons of their respective qualities or condition in the nation , to contribute their assistance unto the prefervation of its peace and liberty ; and whereas in their several capacities , they are useful unto the publick faith and trust of the nation , the maintenance and encrease of the wealth and prosperity of it ; considering what evidences there are , of the will of god in the constitution of our natures under the conduct of conscience in immediate subordination unto himself , the different measures of light , knowledge and understanding , which he communicates unto men , as also of the spirit , rule and will of jesus christ , with the example of the apostles and the primitive churches , for mutual forbearance , in such different apprehensions of and practices about religion , as no way entrencheth on the unity of faith , or any good of publick society ; i cannot but judge ( in which perswasion i now live , and shall shortly dye ) that all writings tending to exasperate and provoke the dissenting parties one against another , are at this day highly unseasonable ; and all endeavours of what sort soever , to disquiet , discourage , trouble , punish or distress such as dissent from the publick rule , in the way before described , are contrary to the will of god , obstructive of the welfare of the nation , and dangerous unto the protestant religion . finis . erata . page . line . for well read meet . pag. . l. . for wherein read whom . pag. . l. the last , for may be read may not be . an exposition of the , , , , and th . chapters on the hebrews , being a third volum of that exposition . by john owen , d. d. sold by n. ponder at the peacock in the poultrey . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e gal. . . the true and perfect speech of mr. james guthrey, late minister of sterling as it was delivered by himself immediately before his execution on june , at edinbrough. guthrie, james, ?- . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing g estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) the true and perfect speech of mr. james guthrey, late minister of sterling as it was delivered by himself immediately before his execution on june , at edinbrough. guthrie, james, ?- . p. sent from edenburgh and printed for publick satisfaction and to prevent the dispersing of false copies, [london] : . reproduction of original in the harvard university library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng dissenters, religious -- england. executions and executioners -- great britain. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - marika ismail sampled and proofread - marika ismail text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the true and perfect speech of mr. james guthrey late minister of sterling as it was delivered by himself immediately before his execution , on iune . . at edinbrovgh . sent from edenburgh , and printed for publick satisfaction , and to prevent the disperssing of false copies . . the speech of mr. iames guthrey , late minister of sterling . men and brethren , i fear many of you come hither to gaze rather then to be edified by the carriage and last words of a dying man , but if any have an ear to hear , as i hope some of this great confluence have , i desire your audience as to a few words : i am come hither to lay down this earthly tabernacle and mortal flesh of mine ; and i bless god i do it willingly , and not by constraint , i say i suffer willinglie , if i had been otherwise minded i might have made a diversion , and not been a prisoner , but i being conscious to my self of nothing worthy of death or bonds , i would not stain my conscience with the suspicion of guiltiness by my withdrawing . neither have i wanted opportunity nor advantages to escape since i was a prisoner : not by the fault of my keeper , god knows , but otherwife . but neither for this had i light or liberty , least i should reflect upon the lords name , and offend the generation of the righteous . and if these men have not been mistaken or dealt deceitfullie in telling me so , i might have avoiced , not onlie the severity of the sentence , but also had favour and countenance by complying with the course of the times : but durst not redeem my life with the loss of my integrity , god knows i durst not . and that since i was a prisoner the lord hath so held me by the hand , that he never suffered me to bring to debate in my inward thoughts , muchless to propound or hearken to any overtures in that kind . i did judge it better to suffer then to sin , and therefore i am come hither to laie down my life this day , and i bless god i die not as a fool , not that i have any thing wherein to glorie in my self : i acknowledge i am a sinner , yea one of the vilest and greatest that hath owned a profession of religion , and one of the most unworthiest that hath preached the gospel , my corruptions have been strong and manie and hath made me a sinner even in all things , yea even in following my dutie : and therefore righteousness have i none of my own , but i do beleive that iesus christ came into the world to save sinners whereof i am the chief , through faith in his righteousness and blood , have i obtained mercie , and in him and through him alone have i the hope of a blessed conquest and victorie over sin and satan , and hell and death , and that i shall attain unto the resurrection of the just and be made a pertaker of eternal life , i know whom i have beleived , and he is able to keep that which i have committed to him against that day . i have preached salvation through his name , and as i have preached so i believe , and do commend the riches of his free grace and faith in his blood unto you all , as the onely way whereby you can besaved , and i bless god as i die not as a fool , so also i die not for evil doing , not a few of you may hapily judge that i suffer as a thief , or as a murderer , as an evil doer , or as a busie-body in other mens matters , that was the lot of our lord jesus christ himself , and hath been the lot of many of his precious people and servants , to suffer by the world as evil doers , and as my soul stirs not at that , but desires to rejoyce in being in conformity to my blessed head , and so blessed a company in these things , so do i desire in prayer that i may be to none of you to day on this account a stone of stumbling , or a rock of offence . blessed is he that will not be offended in christ , and his poor servants , because of their being condemned as evil doers by the world , god is my record that in these things for which sentence of death hath passed against me , i have a good conscience , i bless god they are not matters of compliance with the sectaries , or designes and practices against his majesties person , or government , or the person or government of his royal father , my heart i bless god is conscious of no disloyalty , nay loyal i have been , and commend it to you all , to be loyal and obedient unto the king , true piety is the foundation of true loyalty , a wicked man may be a flatterer , and a time server , but he will never be a loyal subject , but to return to my purpose . matters , for which i am condemned , are matters belonging to my calling and function , as a minister of the gospel , such as the discovery and reproof of sin , and pressing the holding fast the oath of god and the covenant , in preserving and carrying on the work of religion and reformation , according thereunto , and denying to acknowledg the civil magestrate to be the competent judge in matters ecclesiastical , that in all these things which god so ordering by his gracious providence are the ground of my sentence and death , i have a good conscience , as having walked therein according to the light and rule of gods word , as doth become a minister of the gospel . i do also bless the lord that i do not dye as one not desired , i know that of not a few i have never been nor am desired : it hath been my lot to have been a man of contention and sorrow : but it is my comfort that for my own things i have not contended , but for the things of jesus christ , and for what relates to his interest and work , and well being of his people , in order to the preserving and promoting of these i did protest against , and stood in opposition to those assemblies at st. andrews , and dundee , and edenburg , and the publique resolution of bringing the malignant party to judicature , and armies of this kingdom , as conceiving the same contrary to the word of god , and to our solemn covenant , and ingagement , and to be an inlet to defection , and to the ruine and destruction of the work of god , as it is now manifest to this day to mens consciences . i have not therein been mistaken , and was not fighting against the man of straw , i was also desirous to have some poor indeavour , to have the church of god purged from insufficient , scandalous , and corrupt ministers and elders . for these things , i have been mistaken by some , and hated by others : but i blesse the lord , as i had the testimony of my own conscience , i am there in a approving , and in the conscience of many of the lords people and precious servants , and how little soever i may dye not desired by some , yet by these i know i dye desired , and their approbation is of more value to me then all the contradictions and reproaches of the other : i doe with all my heart forgive them , and wherein i have offended any of them i doe beg their mercy and forgivenesse , and doe from my soul wish that my death may be profitable unto both , that the one may be confirmed in the sweet way of the lord , and that the other ( if the lord will ) may be convinced , and cease from those things that are not good , and doe not edifie . but yet there is one thing i would warne you all of , that god is wroth , yea very wroth with scotland and threatens to depart and remove his candlestick . the causes of his wroth are many , and would to god that were not one great cause , that the causes of his wroth are despis'd and rejected by a great many . consider that case that is recorded ier. . and the consequence of it , and tremble and fear . i cannot but also say , there is a great increase of wroth by the deluge of prophanity that overflowes the land , and hath reins loosed unto it every where ; in so far that many have lost not only the use and exercise of religion , but even morallity and common civillity , that is to be found even among heathen . secondly , the horrible treachery and perjury that is in the matter of the covenant and cause of god , and work of reformation : be astonished ye heavens at this , shall the people break the covenant and prosper , saith the lord ? shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with god , which frameth mischiefe by a law. i fear the lord is about to bring a sword on this land , which shall aveng the covenant . thirdly , horrible ingratitude after ten years oppression and bondage . he hath broken the yoak of strangers from off your necks , but what doe we render unto the lord for all his kindnesse ? most of the fruit of our deliverance is to work wickednesse and strengthen our selves to doe evill . fourthly , most fearfull idolatry and sacrificing to the creature . we have changed the glory of the incorruptible god into the image of a corruptible man , in whom many have placed almost all their salvation and desires , and have turned that which might have been a blessing unto us ( being kept into a due subordination unto god ) into an idol of jealousie , by preferring it before him . . god is also wroth with a corrupt and carnal generation of corrupt and carnal time-serving ministers ; i know and bear testimony , there is your true and faithful ministers ; blessed be god , we have yet many who study their duty , and desire to be found faithful unto the lord ; and i pray you to honour , reverence , and esteem much of those for their work sake ; & i pray them to be encouraged in their lord and master , who is with them , to make them an iron pillar , and brazen wall , and a strong defenced city , in their faithful following of their duty : but o that there were not too many that minde earthly things , that are enemies to the cross of christ , who push with the side and shoulder , who strengthen the hand of evil doers , who make themselves transgressors , by studying to build what formerly they did destroy , i mean prelacy , and the service book , and the mysterie of iniquity that works on us , whose steps lead us to the house of the great whore , and mother of fornication ; and whoever he be that builds this iericho , let him take heed of that curse of the flying rowle mentioned in zach. . and let all ministers take heed that they walk and be stedfast in the faith , and quit themselves , and be strong , and give seasonable warning concerning sin and duty : many of the lord's people do sadly complain of the fainting and silence of many watchmen ; and it concerns them to consider what god calls for at their hand in such a day ; silence now in a watchman , now when he is called to speak , and to give his testimony on the peril of his life , is doubtless a great sin : the lord open the mouths of his servants to speak his word with all boldness ; that covenant-breaking may be discovered and reproved , and that the kingdome of christ may not be supplanted , nor the souls of his people be destroyed without a warning . i have but a few words more to adde ; all that are prophane among you , i ●xhort to repentance ; for the day of the lord's wrath hastneth , and is neer ; but there is yet a door of mercy opened unto you , if you will not despise the day of salvation . all you that are malignant , and reproachers of godliness , and of such as live godly , take heed what you do ; it will be a hard matter for you to kick against pricks ; you make your selves the buts of the lord's fury and flaming indignation , if you do not cease , and repent of your ungodly deeds : all that are neuters , 〈◊〉 indifferent luke-warm professors , be zealous , lest the lord spew you out of his mouth . and you that repent for all the abominations that are done in the city , and in the land , and that take pleasure in the stones and dust of zion , cast not away your confidence , but be comforted and encouraged in the lord , he will yet appear for your joy ; god hath not cast away his people and work in britain and ireland ; i hope it shall once appear and revive by the power of his spirit , and take root downward , and bring forth plentiful fruit upward ; there is yet a holy seed , a root whom god will preserve , and bring forth ; but how long and dark our night may be , i do not know ; the lord shorten it for the sake of his chosen . in the mean time be you patient and immoveable , abounding in the work of the lord , and in love one to another : beware of snares , which are strowed thick ; cleave unto the covenant , and work of reformation ; do not decline the cross of christ ; chuse rather to suffer affliction with the people of god , then to enjoy the pleasure of sin for a season ; and account the reproaches of the lord greater riches then all the treasures of aegypt . let my death grieve none of you , it will be more profitable and advantagious both for me and you , and for the church of god , and for christ's interest , then my life could have been ; i forgive all men the guilt of it , and desire you to do so also : pray for them that persecute you , bless them that curse you , bless i say , and curse not . i dye in the faith of the apostles and primitive christians and protestant reformed church , particularly that church of scotland , whereof i am a member and minister , and bear my testimony and witnesse to the doctrine and discipline of the church of scotland , by assemblies , synod , presbyteries , and societies ; popery , prelacy , and also their trumpery of service and ceremony i doe abhor , and bear my witnessing unto the national covenant in scotland , solemn league between the three kingdomes ; the sacred solemn and publick oath of god i cannot believe can be loosed by or dispensed with by any person or power , or any one on earth , but are still binding on these nations , and will be for ever hereafter , and are ratified and sealed by the conversion of many thousand souls since our entring therein : i bear my witnesse unto the protestation against the contraverted assembly and their publick resolution . to the testimony given against the sectaries . against that course of defection that is now in the land , and all the branches thereof in that . in the last place i bear my witnesse to the crosse of christ , and that i had never cause , nor have cause this day to repent of any thing i have suffered or can suffer for his name ; and i take god to record upon my soul , i would not exchange this scaffold with the fairest palace or miter of the greatest prelate ; blessed be god who hath shewed mercy unto such a wretch , and hath revealed his son unto me , and made me a minister of the everlasting gospel , that he hath dignified me in the midst of much contradiction from sathan and the world , to fulfill my ministry on the hearts of not a few of his people , especially in the stage wherein i last was , i mean the congregation of the presbyterie of sterling , god forgive that poor vain empty man that did there intrude my labour , and hath made a prey of many poor souls , and hath exposed others to reproach , and oppression , and a famine of the word of the lord , god forgive that misleader of the poor people , who tempted them to reject their alone minister ; the father of mercy pitty that poor mislead people , and the lord direct the congregations and presbyteries of scotland once more with faithfull pastors , and grant that the work of the lord may be revived through all brittain and over all the world : christ is my light and my life , my righteousnesse , my strength , and my salvation , he is also my salvation and all my desire is in him ; i doe with all the strength of my soul commend him to you : blessed are they that are not offended in him ; blesse him o my soul from henceforth , and for ever rejoyce , rejoyce , yea rejoyce all that love him , be patient and rejoyce in tribulation ; blessed are ye , and blessed shall you be for ever , and everlasting love and eternall salvation is yours , all are yours , ye are christs , and christ is gods. remember me o lord with the favour thou bearest to thy one people , direct me with thy salvation , that i may see the good of thy chosen therein , that i may rejoyce with the gladnesse of thy nation , that i may glory with thy inheritance ; now let thy servant depart in peace , since my eyes have seen thy salvation . finis . light in darkness, or, deliverance proclaimed unto the church in the midst of all her despondencies and discouragements in a sermon / preached by thomas watson. watson, thomas, d. . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing w estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) light in darkness, or, deliverance proclaimed unto the church in the midst of all her despondencies and discouragements in a sermon / preached by thomas watson. watson, thomas, d. . [ ], - p. printed for hen. bettenham ..., london : . reproduction of original in the union theological seminary library, new york. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng bible. -- o.t. -- psalms cxii, -- sermons. dissenters, religious -- england -- sermons. sermons, english -- th century. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - jonathan blaney sampled and proofread - jonathan blaney text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion light in darkness , or deliverance proclaimed unto the church in the midst of all her despondencies and discouragements . in a sermon preached by thomas watson . london , printed for hen. bettenham , at the still-yard in thames-street . . light in darkness , &c. psal. . v. . unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness . the scripture ( as chrysostome says ) is a spiritual paradise . the book of psalms is placed in the midst of this paradise . the psalms are not only for delight , but for use : like those trees of the sanctuary in ezekiel , which were both for food , and for medicine . the psalms of david are commensurate and exactly fitted to every christians condition ; if his affections are frozen , here he may fetch fire ; if his grace be weak , here he may fetch arniour ; if his spirits are ready to faint , here he may fetch cordials for his soul : amongst other divine consolations , the text is not the least , — unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness . which words are calculated for the comfort of the godly , in all ages and centuries of the church . this text is like israel's pillar of fire in the wilderness : or , like the mariners lanthorn , that gives light in a dark night . unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness . let me explain the words e're i come to the proposition . . to the upright . ] who are here meant by the upright ? the hebrew word for upright , signifies plainness of heart . the upright man is without collusion or fraud ; in whose spirit there is no guile , psal. . . he that is upright , his heart and his tongue go together , as a well-made dial , goes exactly by the sun. the words following in the text , may serve for a short paraphrase to shew us , who this upright man is , the text sayes . he is gracious , full of compassion , righteous . first , the upright man is gracious : that implies his holiness . secondly , he is full of compassion : that implies his charitableness . and , thirdly , he is righteous : that implies his justness . he is gracious , therefore he fears god. he is full of compassion , therefore he feeds the poor . he is righteous , therefore he does to others as he would have them do to him . this is the upright man. in short ; he is one that does act from a right principle , and that is faith : by a right rule , and that is scripture : to a right end , and that is , god's glory . here 's a man downright upright . . the second thing in the text is , there ariseth [ light ] to the upright . what 's meant by light here ? by light metaphorically is meant delight and comfort , or joy. that 's here meant by light. esther . . the jews had light , and gladness , and joy. light when it springs in , doth much revive . light is sweet . joy is to the heart , as light is to the eye , exhilarating and refreshing . that 's the second word : there ariseth [ light ] that is , joy and comfort . . there ariseth light in [ darkness ] what 's meant here by darkness ? by darkness is meant trouble and sorrow , res adversae . in isa. . . they shall look unto the earth , and behold trouble , and darkness . by darkness is meant trouble . darkness is very disconsolate and afrighting : it makes every thing like the terrors of the night ; such is trouble ; such is affliction ; 't is affrighting : it makes every thing like the terrours of the night . so much for the explaining of the words . to the upright ariseth light in the darkness . the observation that results from the words is this ; ( pray observe it : ) doct. that when the condition of god's people is darkest , god causes a light to shine ●nto them . to the upright ariseth light in darkness . this proposition has two branches ; i shall speak of them distinctly . . that the upright may have their night : it may be a dark season . . that a morning-light arises to them in the midst of all their darkness . first , that the upright , those whom god loves , they may have their night , they may have a very dark season : they may have a two-fold night . they may have . a night of affliction . . a night of desertion . . they may have a night of affliction : ( for godliness does not exempt from trouble . ) a dark cloud may set upon their name , upon their estate : god may lay an embargo upon all their outward comforts . in ruth . . call me not naomi ( that is , fair , or pleasant : ) call me mara : for the almighty hath dealt very [ bitterly ] with me . . the godly may have not only a night of affliction , but they may have a night of desertion . god may with-draw the smiling beams of his favour , and then 't is night with them indeed , then nothing follows but darkness . in job . . the arrows of the almighty are within me , the poison whereof drinketh up my spirit . it alludes ( saies drusius ) unto the custom of the persians , who in their warrs did dip their arrows in poison , that they might shoot their enemies with the more deadly wound . thus the god of heaven , he may sometimes shoot the poisoned arrow of desertion , and then the soul is benighted , it is in the dark . though god has the heart of a father , yet he may sometimes have the face of an enemy . and ; the lord may cause a cloud of darkness upon the soul , and suspend the beams of spiritual comfort , for these two reasons . reason . the darkness of desertion , it is , to quicken the exercise of grace . for grace sometimes acts highest , when comfort is lowest . in jonah . . i said i am cast out of thy sight , yet will i look again towards thy holy temple . that is , i will look to christ , of whom the temple was but a type . faith and patience , like two stars , shine brightest in a dark night of desertion . we are taken with the comforts , but god is more taken with the actings of our grace . reason . the lord may cause a dark cloud to be upon the righteous , a cloud of desertion , that he may hereby awaken , excite , and stir up in them a spirit of prayer . if ever the soul will pray to purpose , 't is now , in an hour of desertion . fathers may hide their faces from their children , to make them cry after them the more ; god sometimes hides the light of his face , that we may cry after him the louder : as david , in pfal . . . hear me speedily , o lord , my spirit faileth : o! hide not t●y face from me . my beloved , ●esertion , it is a short hell. jonah called the whales belly , the belly of hell ; why so ? because he was deserted there . and if ever jonah would pray to purpose , it was now , that he might get out of the belly of hell. jonah . . out of the belly of hell i cryed unto thee , and thou heardest my voice . and that 's the first branch of the doctrine , that god's people , they may have a dark night : a night of affliction , when god lays an embargo upon all their comforts : and a night of desertion , which is a short hell. secondly , the second branch of the proposition is this , that now a morning light shines upon the righteous . — unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness . lux oritur , a morning light shines . the philosopher says , non dantur purae tenebrae . when 't is darkest , when there 's midnight , god will cause light some way or other , to break forth to the upright in heart . in psal. . . the lord will light my candle . as if david had said , though at present all my comforts seem to be blown out , and i am left in the dark , yet the lord will light my candle : he will make light to arise in obscurity . there is a twofold light that god causes to arise upon the upright when they are in the dark . there is . an outward light that he makes to shine . . an inward light that he makes to shine . . there is an outward light shines ; that is , god does oftentimes cause a light of prosperity to arise upon his people : that 's a light in darkness . when god by his providence alters the face of things , and causes peace and prosperity in the tabernacles of the righteous , here 's light arising in darkness . in psal. . . when his candle shined upon my head. — what was this candle ? it was nothing else but the candle of prosperity that shined upon him . and in psal. . . i have ordained a lamp for mine anointed : that is , outward blessings , gracious prosperity , shall shine as a lamp upon david's successor . i have ordained a lamp for mine anointed ; i will give outward glory in the kingdom ; here 's an outward light. the lord can on a sudden alter the scene of providence , and turn the shadow of death , into the light of the morning . . god causes an inward light to arise upon the upright , when they are in the dark , — . a light of grace . . a light of joy. first , the light of grace , he makes that shine . in the midst of darkness , let the darkness be what it will , a dram of faith in the soul , is a spark of light. when the tree has no leaves nor blossoms to be seen , but seems dead in autumn , yet there may be sap in the root of the vine : when our outward comforts are as it were dead , there may be a seed of grace preserved in the heart : and this grace in the darkest condition , it is the dawning of light in the soul. secondly , god causes a light of spiritual joy and comfort to arise upon his saints . and truly , this light of spiritual joy , it is somewhat of the glimmering of the light of heaven , this is some glimpse of the light of paradise . in isa. . . — thine anger is turned away , and thou comfortedst me . the light of divine joy in the soul , it is sweet and ravishing : it makes all dark shadows flee away . spiritual joy , causes a jubilation , and does as far exceed all earthly comforts , as heaven does earth . thus you see , that in midnight , in the darkest cloud of providence , god causes some light or other to arise upon the upright . my brethren , 't is only god can make it lightsome in a dark troubled soul as when the sun is set , none can make it rise again but god : so , ( my beloved , ) when 't is sun-set in the soul , and the dew of tears fall from the eye , none can make day-light in the soul but only god. ministers they may preach comfort to us , but god only can make us feel comfort ; ministers they may bring a cordial to us , and set it by us , but none but god can pour this cordial into the heart ; in psal. . . thou hast put gladness in my heart . before i come to the application , here 's a question arises , — why does god make light to arise to his people , in an hour of darkness ? i answer : for three reasons , — . that god may hereby fulfil his promise : he has said it , that he will enlighten his people in isa. . . i will make darkness light before them . god's honour lies upon it , to make good his promise , and to cause light to arise to his people in obscurity . the lord's promise , it is his bond. when one has given bond to another , he cannot go back . though sometimes god's promise may be long in travail , yet at last it brings forth deliverance . two things in god never fail , — first , his compassions fail not , lam. . . secondly , his faithfulness fails not , psal. . . god may sometimes delay a promise , but he will not deny his promise : god may sometimes change his promise , turn a temporal promise into a spiritual , and so pay us in a better coin , but will never break his promise . he has said he will cause a light to go before his people in all their darkness . . god may cause light and joy to arise to his people , because they help to enlighten others . when other christians are in the dark of ignorance , they enlighten them with knowledg ; when they are in the dark of affliction , ready to perish , they feed them , and they relieve them , and their almes minister light of joy and comfort to the poor ; when they are in desertion , why god's people , they speak a word of comfort to their hearts : they enlighten those that sit in darkness , and therefore surely god will not let those want light , who help to enlighten others ; if they should come to be benighted with sorrow , why god will be sure to spring in with some light to them , who have given light to others . . god will cause light to arise in darkness to his people , either he will support them in trouble , or deliver them out of trouble , because god sees that they have great need of some dawnings of light , they need some morning-star now to appear ; they would faint away , they would be discouraged in serving god , if sometimes he did not turn the shadow of death into the light of the morning . should the sick patient always have purging physick given him , why surely if he had no cordials he would soon faint away . god knows our frame , he sees our spirits would fail before him , if he did always let a dark cloud dwell upon us ; and therefore , in judgment he remembers mercy , and causes the day-star of comfort and joy to spring up in a gracious soul. god will not fuffer it always to be dark in the hearts of his people , lest they should touch upon the rock of despair . the musician , he will not stretch the strings of his viol too hard , left they should chance to break . thus you see why the wise god sees it fittest to cause light to arise unto his people , in the midst of all their clouds of darkness . and so much briefly for the doctrinal part . i proceed now to the application : . by way of information . . by way of consolation . . use of information . first , by way of information ; here are several inferences . — inference . . see from this text , the infinite goodness of god to his children in all cases that may fall out in this world , whether affliction or desertion . o the goodness of god! in the midst of darkness he causes some light or other to break forth . god does checker his work of providence ; with dark clouds he intermixes bright stars . just like the limner who mingles with dark and black colours , bright colours ; thus does god in his providence : the condition of the saints on earth is never so black and cloudy , but some rain-bow appears in the cloud of providence . in psal. . . though i walk in the midst of trouble , thou wilt revive me . every step i take , i tread upon thorns , i walk in the midst of trouble , among clouds , but thou wilt , lord , revive me . joseph , he was in the prison , there was darkness ; but ( the text saies ) the lord was with joseph , there was light ; gen. . . jacob had the hollow of his thigh put out of joint in wrestling : there was a dark providence ; but he saw god's face at that very time , and there the lord blessed him : here was light arising to him , gen. . . job lost all that ever he had , he was rough-cast with boils and sores ; there was a dark providence : ay but hereby job's grace was proved , and improved , and god gave him an honourable testimony , that he was upright ; and god gave him double the estate that ever he had before : here was light arising to him in his darkness , job . . and thus god does mix light with his peoples darkness . as in the ark there was manna laid up with the rod ; so 't is in god's providences to his people : with the rod of affliction , there 's some manna , some light , some comfort that god causes to spring up : manna with the rod. o the goodness of god! who would not serve this god ? in the darkest night that is , he keeps alive some sparks of light in the hearts of his people , which may suppress their murmuring , and may minister matter of thanksgiving . that 's the first inference . inference . . if it be god's work and design to cause light and comfort to arise to the righteous : why then , how contrary do they act to god , whose work it is to cause darkness and sorrow to the righteous ? god's design and theirs cross each other . there is a woe belongs to them that make the hearts of the righteous sad , in ezek. . . god is creating light for his people , and the enemies of the church , they are laying snares for them ; god he is pouring wine and oil into his peoples wounds , and the enemies of sion , they are pouring vinegar into the wounds ; how contrary do these act to god ? the children of romish babylon , they are at this day plotting the ruine of god's people : they would turn the church of god into an aceldama , a field of blood. the lord , he makes light to arise to the godly , and the wicked , they labour to make darkness and sorrow arise to them . but , such as lay snares for the righteous , god will rain snares upon them : psal. . . upon the wicked he shall rain snares , fire and brimstone . the wicked enemies of the church , they strike at christ through his members sides ; and let them know that 't is kicking against a rock . christ will be too hard for all his enemies ; he will be victorious at last : the enemies , they may bid defiance to heaven , they may set up their standards against heaven : but god always comes off conqueror , and sets up his trophies . if there be either justice in heaven , or fire in hell , the enemy shall not go unpunished . psal. . . he hath ordained his arrows against the persecutors . god has his arrow upon the string to shoot at persecutors , and be assured god never misseth his mark . dioclesian rased down the christians temples , and burnt their bibles : but god was avenged on him ; he was afterwards stricken with phrency , and poisoned himself . persecutors never thrive upon that bloody trade . inference . see here the great difference between the wicked and the godly ; there 's a vast difference ; the godly in all their darkness that befalls them , they have some light arising to them ; the wicked in all their outward comforts , they have some darkness arising to them ; in the middst of all their jollity and mirth , why still there 's a dark cloud hangs over them : conscience chides them , scripture threatens them , ( which is like the hand-writing upon the wall ; ) in psal. . . god shall wound the head of his enemies , and the hairy scalp of such a one as goeth on still in his trespasses . a sinner still , in all his lightsom condition , his outward mirth , his joy , he may see some clouds of darkness : god's threatnings are against him : god's curse hangs over him , and that curse it blasts wherever it comes . a wicked man , an impenitent hardned sinner , he goes every day in fear of arresting ; death may arrest him . there remains nothing for him , but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : a fearful looking for of judgment , and fiery indignation , as the apostle saies , in heb. . . a hardned impenitent sinner is in an ill case ; if he dies , he drops into the grave and into hell both at once . god is brewing for him a deadly cup. in psal. . . in the hand of the lord there is a cup , and the wine is red : it is full of mixture , and he poureth out the same : but the dregs thereof all the wicked of the earth shall wring them out , and drink them . what 's this red wine in the cup ? 't is nothing else but the fiery wrath of god : that 's the red wine ; wine burnt with his wrath. and ( the text saies ) this cup is full of mixture , it 's a mixed cup the sinner must drink . what 's the mixed cup ? the worm of conscience , and the fire of hell : here 's a mixed cup ; and the wicked shall be ever drinking of this cup : god will never say , transeat — let this cup pass away from the damned : no , they must be ever drinking the dregs of this cup of wrath. methinks this scripture should be a cooling card unto all wicked men , and damp all their mirth and jollity : doomsday darkness is coming upon them . it was sad news brought to saul ( and no wonder when the devil brought the news : ) in the sam. . . saies satan there in samuel's mantle , to saul , to morrow shalt thou be with me . o dreadful news , to take up a mans quarters among the damned ! to day a sinner is among his cups , he is sporting with his lusts : now he is in his mirth : and perhaps to morrow he may be with the devil and his angels , where saul is . inference . the fourth inference is this : does god cause light to spring up to the upright in all their darknes ? why then see from hence the difference between earth and heaven . here in this world there 's a mixture of darkness and light : there 's clouds mixt with their stars : dark providences as well as light. but now , in heaven it is otherwise , there 's no darkness there : nothing but pure light , pure bliss : and therefore heaven it is call'd an inheritance in light , col. . . the philosopher saies , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : light is the most glorious creature , 't is the beauty of the world. what were the world without light , but a dark prison ? here 's the beauty of heaven , 't is an inheritance in light. heaven it is a diaphanum , or a bright-body , all over embroidered with light and glory : there are no eclipses there ; there are no dark shadows to be seen , but all is orient brightness , celestiall glory . in heaven , christ , the son of righteousness , will alwayes be shining with his illustrious beams : in rev. . . the lamb is the light thereof . o how should we long to be in that blessed place , that paradise of god , that is so adorned with the bright illustrious rays of celestial glory ! there 's nothing but pure light , nothing but glory shining in its perfection . so much for the first use. use . the second use is of consolation for the church and people of god. this text is a pillar of light , a breast of consolation , unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness . does god make light , and joy , and peace , to arise to the righteous ? why then should we despond , or throw away our anchor ? why should we despair ? why may we not hope that the morning-star of deliverance and mercy may yet appear unto this island ? why ( i say ) should we despond , when 't is god's great project and design , to lighten his peoples darkness ? i confess , things have a bad aspect , a dark face at present , gray hairs are here and there . my brethren , we see how things go : sin grows higher : enemies grow bolder : divisions grow wider . these are bad symptoms of a dying patient . england is like that ship in the gospel , which was almost covered over with waves . here 's that may humble us , and set our eyes abroach with tears . yet , that we may not mourn without hope , let me tell you , there are some sparks of light , that do seem to arise to us in the dark . unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness . let me come as a dove with an olive-branch of peace in my mouth , that that is some spark of light to us . . that there are many upright ones in this nation : that 's a spark of light. the text saies , light ariseth to the upright : 't is to be hoped there are many such in this island . were the godly removed , ( as 't is the design of some to destroy them : ) god would make quick work with the nation , he would soon break up house here , god would quickly sink the ship of church and state , if he had not some of his elect in it . but for the sake of those that are upright , god may be pleased yet a while to reprieve the nation , and adjourn englands funeral a while longer . in isa. . . as the new wine is found in the cluster , and one saith , destroy it not , for a blessing is in it : so will i do f●r my servants sakes , that i may not destroy them all . though it cannot be denied but our vine , in this land planted , bears much very bad fruit , yet doubtless there are some good clusters in the vine , and for these god may spare the vine , and say , is t●ere not a blessing in it ? the saints of god stay his hand when he is going to strike . in gen. . . haste thee ( saies the angel to lot , haste thee to zoar ) escape thither ; for i cannot do any thing till thou be come thither . q. d. thou holdest my hand , i cannot strike till thou art gone . the saints of god , though others look upon them with a contemptible eye , they are the safety of the land , god will do much for their sakes . the upright , they are the excellent of the earth , psal. . . others are but the lumber , god knows bad lumber : these are the jewels . mal. . . the saints of god , they are the chariots and horsmen of israel : they are the very flower and cream of the creation ; they are the glory of christ , cor. . . and for their sakes god may yet cause light to arise , and he may be propitious , and his arm may bring salvation . . another spark of light arising in englands darkness , is this , that yet god is pleased wonderfully to keep up in his people a spirit of prayer ; they cry mightily : certainly god will not say to us , seek ye me i● vain . the spartans walls were their spears . the wall and bullwark of a land is devout prayer . whole vollies of sighs and groans are every day sent up to heaven for mercy ; here 's a spark of light in our darkness : god hears these sighs . pray observe , when the lord intends to pour out the vial of his indignation , and to bring wrath upon a people , he presently stops all the sluces of prayer , no more prayer to be made . in jer. . . pray not for this people . god has not said so yet concerning england . prayer is a powerful orator for mercy , and may cause light to spring up yet . the key of prayer , oyled with tears , and turn'd with the hand of faith , unlocks god's bowels . prayer , when 't is importunate , it staves off wrath from a land. in exod. . . saies god to moses , let me alone , that my wrath may wax hot against them . why , what did moses do ? he only prayed . fervent prayer it overcomes the omnipotent , as luther saies . prayer it finds god free , but it leaves him bound . haec domina mundi fructuat solum . — prayer ties god's hands : it staves off judgment . this ( my brethren ) lets in some dawning of light to this land this day , in the mid'st of all our clouds of obscurity : prayer is made for the church . this gives us some ground to hope , that god will not wholly leave us . especially when we consider , christ is our advocate ; he prays over our prayers again , sprinkles them with his blood , and perfumes them with his blessed odours : and so they go up to heaven as sweet incense . in rev. . . the smoke of the incense which came with the prayers of the saints , ascended up before god , out of the angels hand . . and lastly , another spark of light arising in our dark hemisphere , it is this , god's compassions , his bowel-mercies . mercy , it is god's darling attribute , that he loves most of all to magnifie : mercy pleaseth him , micah . . though we don't please god , yet mercy pleases him . justice is god's strange work , isa. . . he is not so much used to that : but mercy it is his proper work , it flows naturally from him , as the honey from the bee , or as the myrrhe drops from the myrrhe-tree . while god so delights in this darling attribute of mercy , why should we despair ? why may not mercy give the casting voice for this nation ? in isa. . . in his love and in his pity he redeemed them . o! love and pity will do great things . — in his love and in his pity he redeemed them . god's mercy 't is not only free , sending out pardons where it pleases ; but here 's the comfort , god's mercy can as well heal as it can save : 't is a healing mercy . in hosea . . i will heal their backslidings . pray observe : mercy , what can't it do ? it can reclaim the stubborn : it can soften the impenitent : it can bring back those that are g●ue astray from god. god's mercy , it can as well give repentance to a nation as deliverance ; mercy can destroy the sins of the nation , and yet save the nation . 't is a healing mercy : — i will heal their backslidings . why , these are then some dawnings , some sparks of light , that god causes to arise in the midst of all our darkness . quest. but here 's a question , ( and so i hasten to an end . ) you will say unto me , but things they still look very bad and dark , and we would have more light ; now what must we do , how must we carry our selves , till god makes light to arise to us in our darkness ? till mercy comes riding to england in the chariot of salvation ? answ. i answer in these two or three things : — . in this time of our darkness and cloudiness , the first thing we do , let us go into our chambers . in isa. . . come , my people , enter thou into thy chambers , and shut thy doors about thee : hide thy self . there are two chambers that we must now go into : — . the chambers of our hearts . . the chambers of the promises . first , let us go in this time of darkness into the chambers of our hearts , by serious meditation , and self-examination . let us in the first place search our evidences for heaven , cast up our accounts , see how the case stands between god and our souls . let 's bring our graces to the touch-stone : what faith have we ? are we hid by faith in the bleeding wounds of christ ? what love to god have we ? does conscience witness that we not only serve him , but love him ? our heart and flesh cry out for the living god ? are we carried every day up to heaven in a fiery chariot of love ? is it thus with us ? o let us enter into these chambers of our hearts , set our house in order , our souls : that 's our great work now . my beloved , when things are dark without , we had need have all clear within , to have conscience smile . secondly , let us go into the chambers of god's promises , and there let 's a while hide our selves , during this black cloud of providence . o the sweet promises of god , where our souls may take sanctuary ! god has promised comfort to all his mourners , matth. . . god has promised that he will strengthen the infirm ; isa . . to them that have no might , he increases strength . god has promised a crown of glory to the conqueror , rev. . . he has given it under hand and seal , he will never leave us , nor forsake us . heb. . . o my brethren , here 's our wisdom : let us now by faith go and hide our selves , in the chambers of these divine promises . and that 's the first thing we must do in this dark hour : go into our chambers . . having done this , if you ask me yet further , what we must do in this time of darkness , till god makes light spring up to us ? i answer : having got into our chambers , let us commit our selves and our case to god , that he would safe-guard and keep us . and this i ground upon that scripture , in psal. . . commit thy way unto the lord ; he will bring it to pass . in the hebrew it is roll thy way upon the lord. this is now our work : even as the client commits himself and his cause to his counsel that he imploys , to plead for him : or as the orphan commits himself unto the care and tutilage of his guardian ; so should we commit our selves to god , and devolve all our cares upon him . — commit thy way unto the lord. let us do our duty , and trust god with our safety . brethren , it is our work to cast care : it is god's work to take care. . in this time of darkness , having got into our chambers , and committed our selves unto god ; let us now patiently wait god's time , till he shall make a light to arise in our horizon : wait on god , till he turns our darkness into the light of the morning . god can on a sudden , with a word of his mouth , scatter and disperse the blackest clouds that do appear ; god can create light. god can strike a streight stroke with a crooked instrument : he can bring good out of evil. god can deliver his people by means unthought of : nay , he can deliver them that very way that they think he will destroy them in . who would ever have thought that god should have made a caus● way for his people to have marched through on , in the midst of the sea ? that god should have made heaven a grainary , to drop down manna for his people to feed on ? o wait till light spring up . god he can make use of the enemy to do his work : he can play his game by his enemies hand . in short : god is able to remove the mountains that lie in our way , or else ( if he please ) he can leap over the mountains : in cant. . . he cometh leaping upon the mountains . therefore , my brethren , till light spring up , let us wait with patience : light will arise unto the upright . my brethren , i will say but this : the mercies we pray for , and are in expectation of , they are worth waiting for . to see the golden fleet of prayer come home laden with large and rich returns of mercy : to see the lilly and the rose united , truth and peace : to see popery abandoned , and not one stone left upon another : to see prophaneness discountenanced and disgraced : to see the beauty of holiness shine forth in our hemisphere : to see jesus christ ride in triumph in the chariot of his gospel : to see the righteous had in honour and renown , and be like the wings of a dove covered with silver ; surely these are mercies so eminent , that they are well worth waiting for . and therefore , let not patience be out of breath . having got into your chambers , and committed your cause to god , now get into a waiting posture : wait till some light spring up to god's church . i will shut up all with one scripture , ( which may encourage humble waiting : ) in isa. . . the lord is a god of judgment ; blessed are all they that wait for him . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e a twofold light arising to the upright . reasons of the point . grounds of hope for england . an enquiry into the occasional conformity of dissenters in cases of preferment with a preface to the lord mayor, occasioned by his carrying the sword to a conventicle. defoe, daniel, ?- . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing d estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) an enquiry into the occasional conformity of dissenters in cases of preferment with a preface to the lord mayor, occasioned by his carrying the sword to a conventicle. defoe, daniel, ?- . p. reprinted by j.b. and s.p. ... for jacob milner ..., dublin : mdcxcviii [ ] attributed to daniel defoe. cf. halkett & laing ( nd ed.) a different work from the author's an enquiry into occasional conformity. . cf. bm. preface signed: one, two, three, four. imperfect: pages faded and stained with slight loss of print. reproduction of original in the cambridge university library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng dissenters, religious -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - olivia bottum sampled and proofread - olivia bottum text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion an enquiry into the occasional conformity of dissenters , in cases of preferment , with a preface to the lord mayor , occasioned by his carrying the sword to a conventicle . if the lord be god , follow him : but if baal , then follow him . kings . . dublin : reprinted by j. b. and s. p. at the back of dick's coffee-house in skinner row , for jacob milner , bookseller in essex-street , m dc xc viii . the preface . my lord , i know not that the following sheets will at all affect your lordship , for i cannot say , that your lordship did communicate with the dissenters before , or does with the church now ; nor does it import much whether you did either . the discourse is not meant for a satyr on , your lordship , nor upon any man else ; neither has it any double aspect , but directly points at the fact , which whether it be a crime or not , let their consciences judge , who know themselves guilty . my lord , the step your lordship made into the chair , had something in it of surprize , and your management of it has more . the figure your lordship made , when you were the man whom the king delighted to honour , was very magnificent ; and we find , that since that , your lordship does not bear the sword in vain . i bear your lordship testimony , that i never heard any man reflect , either on your lordship's morals or management , ( since your being lord mayor ) save only in the matter of pinners-hall : and since no body has opened their mouths on your lordship 's behalf , i humbly crave leave to be your lordship 's advocate in one point . one principal allegation against your lordship , is , that you forced the pious conscientious mr. m — to the meeting-house , and there enclos'd him , nolens volens , contrary to the true intent and meaning of an act of parliament , in that case made and provided ; entituled , an act for liberty of conscience , &c. and that at the same time , your lordship caused the sword ( that very individual sword , that had the honour to be carried so far before the king ) even the city sword of state , to be carried to a conventicle or meeting-house , call'd pinners-hall . my lord , i own the fact in your lordship 's behalf , that your lordship 's sword and sword-bearer was there ; and i can find out but two clauses in which your lordship can be charg'd with a mistake . one is in forcing that good man against his conscience . liberty of conscience is a thing , that gentleman , i confess , never was fond of . but since 't is now become every subjects right , 't is hard your lordship should refuse it mr. m — . but now , my lord , i must crave the freedom to inform your lordship , that mr. m — , and your lordship , are exactly under the same predicaments as to liberty ; for if your lordship has , against his will , oblig'd him to go to pinners-hall ; your lordship seems in as large a measure to be impos'd upon , in being oblig'd to go to the cathedral worship of st. paul's . till your lordship arriv'd at the magnitude you now sit in , you never suffer'd your self to be abridg'd of your liberty ; and shall your power be great in every thing , but in the management of your self . my lord , either your profession before was bad or good : if it was bad , your lordship does well to alter it , and would do better to do so wholly . if 't was good , why does your lordship alter it at all ? but i beg leave of your lordship to consider how 't was possible to be both good and bad too ? that your lordship should worship god one way in the morning , and another in the afternoon . my lord , your elevated station places you above the fear of man , and he that is above fear , is above shame . if your former profession was good , your lordship need never be asham'd of it : if 't was bad , you need not be asham'd to mend it , for no wise man is asham'd of growing wiser . humane politicks seldom agree with nice consciences ; and if i could entertain such base thoughts , as to believe your lordship designs by this to gain parties , and make both your friends ; i would think it also needful to assure your lordship , that by it you will most effectually lose both parties ; but your lordship is wiser than to need that admonition . your lordship never was a trimmer in your life , and certainly you won't trim it with your maker . i neither press your lordship to go to church or meeting , but to use the authority man has given you to procure your self the freedom of using the judgment god has given you ; that honest mr. sword-bearer may have his liberty , and your lordship your own . we were in hopes when your lordship first appear'd in the quire at paul's , that you were effectually convinced of your former error , as a dissenter ; and that noble quire should have been grac'd at its first opening with so noble a convert , as your lordship ; but since we find your lordship is pleased to practice such latitudinarian principles , as to be a conformist in the morning , and a nonconformist before night ; it puts us upon considering what this new sort of a religion that looks two ways at once , means . the following sheets , if your lordship should give your self the trouble of reading them , will directly point out to your lordship what is meant by this blunt preface . in short , that the church or the meeting-house , is the placewhere your lordship may worship , but that both church and meeting-house , at the same time , is preposterous , derogatory to the character of your lordship 's wisdom , a scandal upon the grandeur of the principal magistrate of the city ; and a slight put upon god himself , as if your lordship were very indifferent which way you did it , and consequently , whether you did it at all , or not . your lordship sits in a chair of great authority , and the respect due to you is great , and your example is very significant . wherefore 't is the author's humble request to your lordship , that you will be pleas'd to consider , whether the example your lordship now sets us , is such as you would really advise any body to follow , and if not , i have no more to say to the matter ; but that i am , your lordship 's most humble servant , one , two , three , four. a discourse upon occasional conformity . when i review the past times , and look back upon the various scenes , which they present us , as to ecclesiastical transactions within this kingdom , there seems nothing more strange than the turns we have had from popish to regal supremacy , from the romish religion to reform'd , from reform'd back again to romish , and then to reform'd again , and so on through several degrees of reformation , and back again from those degrees to the first steps of reformation , and then forward again . king henry the th , a prince of a haughty spirit , disdaining the insolence with which his predecessors were treated by the popes , gave the first shock to the roman power in these kingdoms . i won't say he acted from any principles of conscience , whatever his ambition and interest led him to pretend , but that , as it is in most cases of publick revolutions , was the gloss ; however it was , having satisfy'd his pride by subduing the supremacy of the pop and establishing his own ; his interest next guided him to the suppression abbies and monasteries ; the horrible vices which were protected , as were as practised in those nests of superstition , giving his pretence of piety a larger scope ; and i 'll for once be so free with the character of that prince as to suppose what to me seems plain , that neither this religion , or that , 〈◊〉 of much moment in his thoughts , but his interest , as the sequel made plain , by seizure he made of the revenues of the church . and yet the justice providence seem'd very conspicuous in that point , that those houses who 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the specious pretences of religion and extraordinary devotion , have massed to themselves vast revenues to the impoverishing many 〈◊〉 and in the mean time practised secretly most unheard-of wickedness , 〈◊〉 under the same pretence of zeal and piety be suppressed and impoverished by a person , who meerly to serve his own glory , triumph'd over them , tending , jehu like , to shew his zeal for the lord. some do assure us , that the eyes of this prince were really open'd as to the point of religion ; and that had he liv'd longer , he wou'd most effectually have establish'd the reformation in his time ; but god , who gave him that light , if he had it , however he might accept his intention , as he did that of david's building his house , yet he reserv'd the glory of the performance to his son. king edward the th , of whom wondrous things are spoken in all our english writers , and more than we need suppose should be literally true ; yet was , without doubt , a prince of the strictest piety , not only that ever reign'd , but that ever liv'd , perhaps , since the days of josiah , whose parallel our writers say he was . the reformation began in his hand ; not but that the protestant religion had been receiv'd in england many years before , by the preaching of john wickliff , william tindall , and others , and had many professors , and those such , who gailantly offered their lives in defence of the truth . but it got but little ground ; for religion has but few votaries , while all its professors must also be confessors , and while exile or martyrdom is all the present prospect of advantage to be got by it . none will dare to be dissenters in times of danger , but such whose consciences are so awaken'd that they dare not be otherwise . but in the hands of this young prince , the great work was begun , and in a shorter time than could be imagin'd , was finish'd and establish'd ; the romanists fled or conform'd ; for we find but very few had any inclination to martyrdom if it had been put upon them . some indeed to show the nature of their religion , pleaded for baal , and rebell'd , stirring up the ignorant people to murther their gideon for throwing down the altars of baal ; but like the ephramites of old , their shiboleth was their undoing . god , who thought fit to discover the levity of those who had only conform'd , and not reform'd , who , in exemplum regis , had took up this as they wou'd have done any religion , and also for the tryal and glory of his church , suffer'd all this great fabrick , however of his own working , to be overthrown at the death of this good king and a deluge of cruelty and popery overwheim'd the people in the reign of the queen , his sister . but popery found more dissenters than the reformation had done , and the impression religion had made on the minds of those who had sincerely embrac'd it , was not so easily defac'd as the pretended reformation of others ; for the glosses men had put on their actions , only as a cover from common observation , was soon discover'd , when the safety of owning their old principles render'd those outsides no longer needful ; but where the true religion had got footing in the mind , it was still the same , whatever alterations of times might make it dangerous ; and yet all people did not burn ; but some being persecuted in one city , fled to another ; and germany especially was a sanctuary for the distressed english protestants , that country having been before-hand with us in the reformation . 't was here that our exil'd clergy having convers'd with the learned reformers abroad , and particularly with john calvin , found , that tho' they were reform'd indeed from the gross errors of popery and superstition , there was yet several things which might be further and further reform'd ; and being willing to arrive to the greatest perfection they were capable of in religion , ( that as near as possible they might pursue the great example of christ jesus , whose name they profess'd , and for whom they cou'd most gloriously die ) , they corrected in themselves those things which they saw needful , and by letters to their brethren in england communicated their opinions , with their reasons , exhorting them to go on unto perfection as they had begun . some of the most zealous for piety and holiness of life , rejected this motion ; and others as zealous and pious , clos'd with it ; and the disputes were carried so far sometimes , as to invade the charity of one another ; an humble acknowledgment of which you have in a most christian reconciling letter from bishop ridley to bishop hooper , two of the most glorious triumphant martyrs that ever confest the truth of christ at the stake . for the present , the fire of the persecution , ( as the greater light obscures the less ) , extinguish'd that of dissention . but when queen elizabeth rescu'd the protestant religion , and the church enjoy'd its peace again , the debate reviv'd : but the first establishment of king edward obtain'd so on the minds of men , that the further reformation was rejected ; the other party being not at all convinc'd , tho' over-rul'd , submitted their persons to the laws , but not their opinion ; affirming , that 't was the duty of every christian , to endeavour to serve god with the greatest purity of worship that was possible ; and that this was the purest worship which came nearest to the divine institution , which they believ'd the establish'd liturgy did not , and therefore in conscience they must be dissenters . it must be own'd , that the original authors of these disputes were learned , devout , and singularly pious , strict in conversation to excess , if that be possible , and from thence , in a sort of happy derision , were call'd puritans ; of whom i shall say nothing , but leave for a record the last speech of a famous foreigner , who had seen the way of living among those dissenters , and speaking of the words of balaam , let me dye the death of the righteous , and let my latter end be like his , cry'd out , sit anima mea cum puritanis anglicanis . i shall not take upon me to observe the difference between these primitive dissenters and our present , which is too plain ; nor to dispute the substance of the point in debate between them and the establisht national church . i shall only observe , that the reasons for the present dissenters separation from the establisht church , are said to be exactly the same they were then ; and the present dissenters are the successors of those first , as the present conformists are the successors of the first reformers under king edward the th , and queen elizabeth . i must acknowledge , that it fares with the church of england , and with the dissenters both , as it has always far'd with christ's church in the whole world ; that while supprest and persecuted , their professors were few , and their profession more severe ; but when a religion comes to be the mode of the country , so many painted hypocrites get into the church , who are not by their voices to be distinguish'd , that guile is not to be seen , till it arrive to apostacy . the whole ecclesiastical history , from the first century of the christian church , is full of instances to confirm this , that the prosperity of the church of christ has been more fatal to it , than all the persecution of its enemies . i am now brought down to the present time , when the dissenting protestant is sheltered by the laws , and protected from the violence which he suffered in the late reigns , under the arbitrary commands of such state-ministers who strove to dash the whole protestant interest to pieces by its own weight : and nothing is more apparent to those who are any thing acquainted with the late management of affairs in this land , than that the court used both parties alternately , as policy and occasion directed , to suppress and destroy one another ; that the whole house , which being so divided , cou'd not stand , might at last fall of it self . but our eyes are at last open'd , and the name of protestant is now the common title of an englishman , and the church of england extends her protection to the tender consciences of her weaker brethren , knowing that all may be christians , tho' not alike inform'd ; and the dissenter extends his charity to the church of england , believing that in his due time god shall reveal even this unto them . if this is not , i wish this were the temper of both parties ; and i am sure it is already the temper of some of each side , and those few are of the wisest , most pious , and most judicious . but while frailty and infirmity is an essential to humanity , and pride and hypocrisy are the two regnant vices of the church , this good spirit cannot be universal , and we do not expect it . but there is a sort of truth which all men owe to the principles they profess ; and generally speaking , all men pay it ; a turk is a turk zealously and entirely ; an idolater is an idolater , and will serve the devil to a tittle : none but protestants halt between god and baal ; christians of an amphibious nature , that have such preposterous consciences , that can believe one way of worship to be right , and yet serve god another way themselves ; this is a strange thing in israel . the whole history of religions in the world do not shew such a case : 't is like a ship with her sails hal'd some back , and some full : 't is like a workman , that builds with one hand , and pulls down with t'other : 't is like a fisherman , that catches fish with one hand and throws them into the sea with another : 't is like every thing that signifies nothing . to say a man can be of two religions , is a contradiction , unless there be two gods to worship , or he has two souls to save . religion is the sacred profession of the name of god ; serving him , believing in him , expecting from him ; and like the god it refers to , 't is in one and the same object , one and the same thing perfectly indivisible and inseparable ; there is in it no neuter gender , no ambigous article , god or baal ; mediums are impossible . as to the different modes and ways , which are the circumstantials of this sacred thing i call religion ; i won't say , but that as ships take different courses at sea , yet to the best of their skill , keeping to the direct rules of navigating by the compass , they may arrive at the same port ; so christians taking different methods in the serving this god , yet going to the best of their judgments by the direct rules of the scripture , may arrive at the same heaven ; but this is nothing at all to the case ; for no ship would arrive at any port , that sailed two ways together , if that were possible ; nor no man can serve one god , and at the same time hold two opinions . there is but one best , and he that gives god two bests , gives him the best and the worst , and one spoils t'other , till both are good for nothing . i have said already , that both the church of england , and the dissenter , suffer in their reputation for the mixt multitude of their members , which is occasion'd by their present prosperity : if a third party were to tyrannize over them both , we should see then who were professors , and who were confessors ; but now it cannot be : wherefore , i think 't were well to put both sides in mind of one thing , which they are bound mutually to observe ; and that is , that the personal miscarriages of any particular person or member , is not really any reflection upon the religion they prosess , nor ought not to be so accounted , unless it be where such miscarriages are the direct dictates of the doctrines they teach ; and thus i would be understood in the present case . wherefore i shall give my essay as to what i understand a real dissenting protestant is , or ought to be . he who dissents from an establish'd church on any account , but from a real principle of conscience , is a politick , not a religious dissenter . to explain my self ; he who dissents from any other reasons , but such as these , that he sirmly believes the said established church is not of the purest institution , but that he can really serve god more agreeable to his will , and that accordingly 't is his duty to do it so , and no otherwise . nay , he that cannot dye , or at least desire to do so , rather than conform , ought to conform . schism from the church of christ is , doubtless , a great sin , and if i can avoid it , i ought to avoid it , but if not , the cause of that sin carries the guilt with it . but if i shall thus dissent , and yet at the same time conform ; by conforming i deny my dissent being lawful , or by my dissenting i damn my conforming as sinful . nothing can be lawful and unlawful at the same time ; if it be not lawful for me to dissent , i ought to conform ; but if it be unlawful for me to conform , i must dissent ; several opinions may at the same time consist in a country , in a city , in a family , but not in one entire person , that is impossible . to come to the point ; there are dissenters who have separated from the church of england , and join'd in communion with dissenting churches or congregations . they have appear'd zealous , conscientious , and constant ; have born the reproaches and inconveniencies of their party , nay , suffer'd persecution , and loss of estates and liberty or the cause : and who could have so little charity as to doubt the sincerity of their profession ? and yet these persecuted , suffering dissenters , to make themselves room in the publick advancements , and glittering gawdy honours of the age , shall conform to that which they refus'd under all those disadvantages to do before . and which is worse than all this ; hear o heavens ! as soon as the present honour is attain'd , the present advantage made , they return to the former circumstance again , and are freely receiv'd , a double crime , as having done no evil. i know not , i profess , what these persons can say for themselves , and therefore cannot pretend to answer their objections ; but i cannot omit one answer which some people give for them , viz. that this is no conformity in point of religion , but done as a civil action , in obedience to the laws of the land , which have made it a necessary characteristick quality , for admittance into publick employments , which they think it their duty to accept , in order to serve their country , which they doubly perform by executing those offices to the publick interest , and by excluding those who would otherwise get into those places , and betray their country and their liberties . i have never met with any considerable excuse made for this fast and loose game of religion , but this , and this i desire to consider a little particularly . . that this is no conformity in point of religion , but done as a civil action . how this can be possible , remains to be determined . 't is true , the morality of an action consists in its end ; but i cannot conceive that an action purely and originally religious , such as the solemn ordinances of god's worship , can be made civil actions by any end , design , will , or intention of man whatsoever . 't is true , an oath , which is a calling god to witness , is an action both civil and religious , but still that was appointed and instituted to that end , as is expresly noted , heb. naaman's bowing in the house of rimmon ; to which the prophet answered , go in peace , which is understood as a permission , is a thing still different ; for naaman only bowed for the conveniency or state of the king , at the same time publickly disowning the worship , as interpreters are of opinion ; besides , bowing the head , though it may be a customary act of worship at that place , yet is no act confin'd to worship only , and instituted and directed so by the god who is worshipped , but is an act us'd in common salutations . thus we kneel to god , and to the king ; but sacraments are things appropriated by the divine institution of god himself , as things which have no other signification or import but what is divine : had naaman desir'd to be excused in offering sacrifices to the idol rimmon , the prophet would hardly have bid him go in peace . some actions are not civil or religious , as they are civilly or religiously perform'd , but as they are civil or religious in themselves ; for some religious actions are so entirely such , that they cannot without a horrid invasion of the sovereignty of the institutor be appropriated to any other use , and such are in especial manner , the two sacraments instituted by christ ; such was , before christ , the sacrifices by fire ; and the judgments of god on nadab and abihu , for attempting to offer sacrifice with strange fire , stands as a terrible instance of what we ought to think is the will of god in this matter . further , speaking directly of the sacraments , are they not the same thing , though differently administred in the establish'd church , or in a dissenting church ; and how can you take it as a civil act in one place , and a religious act in another ? this is playing bopeep with god almighty , and no man can tell of them when they are about a civil action , and when about a religious . but to answer this pretence at once , sacraments as sacraments are religious acts , and can be no other ; if you do not take it as a sacrament , the case differs ; but how can you say you do not take it as a sacrament ; an oath is to be taken in the sense of the imposer ; and a sacrament , which is a recognition of the most sacred of oaths , must be also taken in the sense of the imposer ; if the person administring declar'd at the administration , he did not give it as a sacrament , but only gave you a bit of bread , and a draught of wine as a friend , or the like , this was something ; but can a minister deliver the bread to you , and say , the body of our lord jesus christ , &c. and you kneeling with reverence take it as such , and repeat the responses at the communion , and say amen to the prayer , and say 't is a civil action . this is such bantering with religion , as no modest christian can think of without horror . . another part of the apology is , that without it they cannot be admitted into publick places of trust ; and if they are not admitted , such will get in as will betray their country and liberties , and they do it purely to secure their country , which they think their duty . these are patriots that will damn their souls to save their country ; a sort of a publick spirit hardly to be found in the world , and indeed a non-entity in it self ; for 't is a mistake ; the gentlemen who make this answer , put the case wrong . for i would desire such to answer a few questions . if the service of their country be so dear to them , pray why should they not chuse to expose their bodies and estates for that service , rather than their souls ; the penalty of the law in accepting the publick employments is wholly pecuniary ; the difference lies here , they chuse the trespassing on their consciences , before the hazard of their estates , as the least evil ; for 't is plain , any man who will suffer the penalty , or run the risque of it , which is all one , may excuse the conformity : for the law does not say you shall so and so conform , but if you do not conform , you shall incur such and such penalties ; any man that will incur the penalty , may commit the trespass . so that all this compliance is not , to be admitted to places , that they may be able to serve their country , but to save the five hundred pounds , and other penalties of that act. . why , if we believe the power of god to be omnipotent , should we imagine that he is not able to protect our country and liberties , without our perpetrating so wicked an act to secure them , as doing evil that good may come , which is expresly forbidden ? but we are told again , this is in it self no sinful act , and therefore it is not doing evil. this is tacitly answered before ; tho 't is not a sinful act in it self , yet 't is either a sinful act in a dissenter , or else his dissenting before was a sinful act. for if he is satisfied he does well in conforming now , why did he not before ? there is but one answer for that , which is , he is otherwise convinced ; to which i reply , if that were true , he would then as a convert continue in this new communion ; but 't is evident the same persons return immediately to the former profession as dissenters , and they can have no such excuse , unless it be , that they were convinc'd , and reconvinc'd , and then convinc'd again . some have the folly to argue against the law it self , as a most notorious imposition upon the consciences of men , by making the sacred institutions of christ a drudge to secular interest , and a cause of mens sins , by leading them into temptation . i could say enough to vindicate that part , tho i am no more reconcil'd to that law , than other men , but 't is remote to our argument : 't is an act of parliament , and what is so , is of every man 's own doing , and therefore 't is just every one shou'd comply with the terms , or suffer the penalty ; but here is no penalty , if no crime ; if no preferments are sought , no honours accepted , there is no crime ; if self-denial was as practicable as self-advancement , here is no need of the crime . so that they who do this , seek the crime , that is the first sin ; then mortgage their consciences to avoid the penalty , and so add one sin to another . but we are told by some , 't is not against their consciences , they hope both parties are good christians ; there are differences between them which they don't understand nor meddle with , and their consciences are very well satisfied to communicate with either . i would ask such , if their consciences would serve to communicate with the church , why did they separate ? for communicating with the dissenter , is not an occasional or casual thing , but an open declar'd breaking off from the church establisht . now no man can be said to separate from , and join to a thing at the same time ; if your conscience is satisfied in joyning , it cannot be satisfied in separating , unless you can suppose your conscience to be satisfied and dissatisfied both together . if you have a conscience of any religion at all , it must be of some religion or other ; if of this , it cannot be of that ; if of that , it cannot be of this : to dissent and approve , are different acts , and can never be fixt upon the same object at the same time ; as for a man , passively religious , that can communicate any where that man may from the same principle , and with far less guilt , communicate no where , for such a man , in down-right english , has prostituted the little religion he had , if ever he had any , to his interest , and may be turk , jew , papist , or any thing . the latter part of the charge leads me to consider another point , which relates to the assemblies of the dissenters , who admit , and by consequence approve this way of proceeding . i do not pretend to examine by what methods such particular churches do proceed . and i would be as tender as possible in making reflections . i wish they would be as charitable in censuring this reproof . i do think , with submission , 't is impossible to prove that any person , whose case the foregoing paragraph reaches , can be receiv'd again into church-communion in a dissenting assembly upon any other terms , than as a penitent . i have heard of some , who have been said to have leave from their ministers for this matter ; if so , they have assum'd some dispensing authority , which i believe does not appertain to the ministerial function , nor is not contain'd in the mission of our saviour . but i do not affirm , that any such thing has been really allow'd . as to the relation of churches , and the members thereof , one to another , as the dissenters now establish them ; i am sure , the allowance of any member in a promiscuous communion with the church of england and the dissenter at the same time , is not pretended to be allow'd , nor is it consistent with it self . 't is preposterous , and excentrick , and is destructive of the very foundation of the dissenters principles , as is already noted , concerning schisms in the church . in this case , charity can heal nothing , nor help nothing ; 't is of absolute necessity that one man be but of one side , at one and the same time . either the conformist will marr the dissenter , or the dissenter will marr the conformist . for if i shall be admitted into the communion of the dissenter , and of the church together ; then the dissenter must have some other reason for being a dissenter , than purity of worship . methinks men should seem what they are ; if a man dissent from the church , let him do so ; and his principle being well-grounded for such dissent , let him hold it ; if not well-grounded , let him leave it ; if he cannot suffer one way , let him suffer another ; and why should we not be as honest to god as our country . the motives to serve our country are strong , but there are ways to do it without such a violation of all our principles and profession ; if not , trust god's providence with the issue , who never wants agents to preserve and deliver his people when his time is at hand ; and you can have small hope to expect that the office and trust you shall execute , shall receive any assistance from his providence , when the first step into it , is made by offering the greatest affront to his honour , and committing the vilest act of perfidy in the world. but if the gay prospect of a great place , tempt any person beyond the power that god's grace is pleas'd to assist him with , in that way let him abide , and not be re-admitted , because of his gold ring and fine apparel , without a penitent acknowledgment . the dissenters in england , can never pretend to be dissenters upon the mere principle of purity of worship , as i have related in the beginning of this discourse , if such shall be receiv'd as blameless into their communion , who have deserted them upon the occasion of preferment , and have made the sacred institutions of christ jesus , become pimps to their secular interest , and then wipe their mouths , and sit down in the church and say , they have done no evil. 't is also an intolerable affront to the church of england , reflecting upon its doctrine as well as practice ; to make use of the church for a cover to sence them against the laws , at the same time continuing to disown its communion , as a thing not fit to be continued in . and yet the church of england is in the right to receive such of the dissenters as shall come to them , without the ceremony of recognition , because it is agreeable to the notion of a national church , which they profess to be . but dissenters are bound to justify their separation from them , or else their whole constitution falls to the ground . now , how a separation and a conformity are consistent , is to me an inexplicable riddle . i question not here the lawfulness of the dissenters separation ; it is not the business of this discourse to define it ; and i am as careful as i can in making reflections upon either ; but i am bold to affirm , that no dissenting church can with lawful cause separate from the church of england , establish private churches or communions , and at the same times allow the members to conform to the establish't church too : this is incongruous , and one must destroy the other . from whence i think it becomes the dissenters , if they would maintain the doctrine they teach ; if they would have us believe they dissent purely on the honest principles of conscience , and purity of worship , with such a one , no , not to eat . and it is not sufficient that the offender be a lord mayor , or any greater person ; unless he would be lord mayor without a breach of the sacred relation he had entred into , he should be dealt with in that case , as the meanest member of such a society . on the other hand , if a man be call'd upon to be a magistrate , and has courage enough to follow the impartial dictates of his conscience , a query lies before him , what shall he do ? the case is plain ; either refuse the honour , or run the risque ; the first indeed is the plainest and easiest way , and the ground of it is good , for he whose conscience dictates to him that the terms are sinful , may refuse the call ; for preferments and honours are a bait that some have refus'd on meer points of speculative philosophy ; and 't is hard , christianity shou'd not carry a man as far . well , but perhaps a man has a mind to be a sheriff and lord mayor , and is a dissenter ; or perhaps he really thinks 't is his indispensible duty to serve his country , if he is call'd to that , or the like office ; or perhaps he thinks 't is a duty he owes his family , to advance his children , and the like , and he is a profest dissenter ; what shall he do ? let him boldly run the risque , or openly and honestly conform to the church , and neither be asham'd of his honour , nor of his profession ; such a man all men will value , and god will own : he need not fear carrying the sword to a conventicle , or bringing the conventicle to his own house : but to make the matter a game , to dodge religions , and go in the morning to church , and in the afternoon to the meeting , to communicate in private with the church of england , to save a penalty , and then go back to the dissenters and communicate again there : this is such a retrograde devotion , that i can see no colour of pretence for in all the sacred book . i have heard , indeed , that some , who are ministers of dissenting churches do , or did at the same time communicate with the church of england . i do not dispute how far a minister may conform as a lay-man , tho' he cannot as a clergy-man ; but how any dissenting minister can conform as a lay-man , and at the same time execute a pastoral charge over a congregation , whom he teaches to separate from the church in a lay-communion , i cannot imagine . 't is not as i have already noted , conformity or non-conformity , that i am discoursing ; but 't is conformity and nonconformity at the same time , in one and the same person , that is the point ; and doing this for a secular end , to save a penalty , and privately ; and then , as being asham'd of it to go back and sit down as not having done it at all ; and a church society admitting this without taking notice of it . these are the contradictions insist upon , and rather wish , than expect to see rectified . finis . sion-colledg visited. or, some briefe animadversions upon a pamphlet lately published, under the title of, a testimonie to the truth of jesus christ, and to our solemne league and covenant, &c. subscribed (as is pretended) by the ministers of christ within the province of london. calculated more especially for the vindication of certaine passages cited out of the writings of j.g. in the said pamphlet, with the black brand of infamous and pernicious errors, and which the said ministers pretend (amongst other errors so called) more particularly to abhominate. wherein the indirect and most un-christian dealings of the said ministers, in charging & calling manifest and cleere truths, yea such as are consonant to their own principles, by the name of infamous and pernicious errours, are detected and laid open to the kingdome, and the whole world. / by the said john goodwin, a servant of god and men, in the gospel of jesus christ. goodwin, john, ?- . this text is an enriched version of the tcp digital transcription a of text r in the english short title catalog (thomason e _ ). textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. the text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with morphadorner. the annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. this text has not been fully proofread approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. earlyprint project evanston,il, notre dame, in, st. louis, mo a wing g thomason e _ estc r this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (thomason tracts ; :e [ ]) sion-colledg visited. or, some briefe animadversions upon a pamphlet lately published, under the title of, a testimonie to the truth of jesus christ, and to our solemne league and covenant, &c. subscribed (as is pretended) by the ministers of christ within the province of london. calculated more especially for the vindication of certaine passages cited out of the writings of j.g. in the said pamphlet, with the black brand of infamous and pernicious errors, and which the said ministers pretend (amongst other errors so called) more particularly to abhominate. wherein the indirect and most un-christian dealings of the said ministers, in charging & calling manifest and cleere truths, yea such as are consonant to their own principles, by the name of infamous and pernicious errours, are detected and laid open to the kingdome, and the whole world. / by the said john goodwin, a servant of god and men, in the gospel of jesus christ. goodwin, john, ?- . [ ], , [ ] p. printed by m.s. for henry overton, at the entring out of lombard-street into popes-head alley, london : . a reply to: a testimony to the truth of jesus christ, and to our solemn league and covenant. annotation on thomason copy: "feb. "; the in imprint date crossed out and date altered to . reproduction of the original in the british library. eng testimony to the truth of jesus christ, and to our solemn league and covenant -- early works to . solemn league and covenant ( ). -- early works to . dissenters, religious -- england -- early works to . a r (thomason e _ ). civilwar no sion-colledg visited. or, some briefe animadversions upon a pamphlet lately published,: under the title of, a testimonie to the truth of je goodwin, john d the rate of defects per , words puts this text in the d category of texts with between and defects per , words. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - elspeth healey sampled and proofread - elspeth healey text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion sion-colledg visited . or , some briefe animadversions upon a pamphlet lately published , under the title of , a testimonie to the truth of jesus christ , and to our solemne league and covenant , &c. subscribed ( as is pretended ) by the ministers of christ within the province of london . calculated more especially for the vindication of certaine passages cited out of the writings of j. g. in the said pamphlet , with the blacke brand of infamous and pernicious errors , and which the said ministers pretend ( amongst other errors so called ) more particularly to abhominate . wherein the indirect and most un-christian dealings of the said ministers , in charging & calling manifest and cleere truths , yea such as are consonant to their own principles , by the name of infamous and pernicious errours , are detected and laid open to the kingdome , and the whole world . by the said john goodwin , a servant of god and men , in the gospel of jesus christ . i write not these things to shame you : but as my beloved [ brethren ] i warne you , cor. . . tantum religio potuit suadere malorum . non sentimus nos p●rire , dum perimus in turba . sen. london , printed by m. s. for henry overton , at the entring out of lombard-street into popes head alley , sion-colledge visited . it is a sad observation , but full of truth ; that religion never had greater enemies , than those of her owne house ; yea then those , who were pretenders in the highest to her advancement . when a commoditie is ingrossed , and brought into few mens hands , it is so much the more like to suffer , to be adulterated , and imbased . it was never well with christian religion , since the ministers of the gospell , ( so called by themselves , and so reputed by the generality of men , for want of knowing , and considering better ) cunningly vested that priviledge of the church , of being the ground and pillar of truth , in themselves ; claiming nebuchadnezzars prerogative amongst men , over the truths of god ; whom he would , he slew , and whom he would , he kept alive : and whom he would , he set up , and whom he would , he put down b . there came lately out of the presse a few papers , stiling themselves , a testimonie to the truth of jesus christ , and pretending to a subscription , by the ministers of christ within the province of london . i wish , for these ministers sake , to whom ( i appeale to him , who searcheth my heart and reines ) i wish nothing but good , and for the truths sake also , that i could conceive the impudence or boldnesse of any man , so great , as to present them in print unto the world for the authors , or subscribers of such a piece of weakenesse ( to forbeare words of more provocation , though of truth ) without their knowledge , or consent . i should be enabled by such an apprehension , both to maintain in my selfe ( at least for a time ) those honourable thoughts of their persons , which ( my witnesse is on high ) i have alwayes unfeignedly laboured to doe , though still opposed by themselves , in my way ; as also to comfort my selfe over that religion , wch they , & i , joyntly professe , that it should not suffer upon any such terms of disadvantage & dishonour , wch those papers , if ever owned by the persons , whose names are subscribed to them , are like to expose it unto . the image and superscription stamp'd upon the piece , and the men , ( especially some of them ) whose names are affixed , if not enforced , to it , are so unlike and contradictious the one unto the other , that being not able to found an act of judgement or conjecture , who should be the author , or authors of it , upon both joyntly , i am in some streight , on which hand to leane ; whether to judge & conclude any of those learned and pious men , whose names are subscribed , or those weake and unworthy ones , whose image and superscription the piece beareth , for the authors of it . but that neither dr gouge , nor mr. calamy , nor mr case , nor mr. cranford , nor any of those great names of men , which parallel with these , were either the authors , or subscribers of the said pamphlet , these considerations ( me-thinks ) should be sufficient demonstrations unto any man . . the very title it selfe , and that in the first and principall part of it , contradicts the tenour of the booke , and that in more places than one . the title pretendeth thus ( in the first words of it ) a testimonie to the truth of jesus christ . whereas the booke it selfe , testifieth against the truth of jesus christ , viz. by numbring the precious truths of jesus christ , amongst infamous and pernicious errours . witnesse . page . where this assertion , that no writing whatsoever , whether translations , or originalls , are the foundation of christian religion , is made an infamous and pernicious errour . for is not this a cleer truth of iesus christ , and asserted ( in part ) in terminis , ( but with fulnesse of evidence otherwise ) by the great apostle , where he saith , that other foundation can no man lay , than that is laid , which is iesus christ a ? except iesus christ be transubstantiated into inke and paper , no kind of bookes or writings whatsoever , neither translations , nor originals , can be ( in the apostles sence ) any foundation of christian religion . againe , is it not a precious truth of iesus christ , that no act of man whatsoever is any foundation of christian religon , the apostle affirming ( as we heard ) that other foundation can no man lay , but iesus christ : and yet the denyall of the act of man to be a foundation of christian religion , ( as viz. the believing of the english scriptures ▪ to be the word of god ) is by the said book ( pag. . ) rank'd amongst infamous and pernicious errours ? the scriptures indeed or the word of god , are ( in a regular sence ) the foundation of christian religion : but to believe them to bee this foundation , cannot be the foundation it selfe , but only a superstructure , or building upon it . so that it is only the deniall of a superstructure to be the foundation , which is charged by this learned province of subscribers to be an infamous and pernicious errour against the divine authority of scriptures . more instances of this kind , by the light whereof the palpable interfeerings between the title , and the booke it selfe , may be cleerly seen , we shall have occasion anon to observe . and is it not a very hard piece of beliefe , to thinke that learned and pious men , should so far forget themselves in the body of their book , as to break the head and title of it ? . in the latter part of the said title , in these words , and to our solemne league and covenant , there is too little good sence to answer the worth and parts of the men mentioned . for what can reasonably be meant , by a testimony to our solemne league and covenant ? do they meane , that in the booke it selfe , they give the same testimony to their solemne league and covenant , which they doe to the truth of iesus christ ? though the truth is , that it is a very poor and empty testimony given to the truth of iesus christ , to make infamous & pernioious errors of what opinions , assertions , & truths , they please , without any manner of conviction . to cry out : it is not meet that such , or such opinions should live , or be tolerated ( as if life and toleration were an heritage appropriate , and belonging of right to their opinions only , how inconsistent soever either with reason , or with truth ) is little better testimony to the truth of iesus christ , than that deportment of the jewes was unto moses , when they cryed out with a loud voyce , stopping their eares ▪ and ran upon stephen with one accord , to cast him out of the citie , and stone him , acts . . but i trust their meaning is not , that they intend by their booke , as solemn and sacred a testimonie to their league and covenant as they doe to the truth of jesus christ : . to assert the worth & excellency of it with as high an hand , with as much zeale , vigour , and vehemency of spirit , as they intend to the great truths of jesus christ , though they make no difference ( in words ) between the one , and the other . for otherwise , the solemne covenant they speake of , being onely matter of engagement , not of assertion or opinion , i know not what testimony it is capable of : unlesse they will call a regular , full , and through observation of it , a testimony unto it : which is a testimony ( if testimony it be ) unpossible to be rendered unto it in this , or in any other booke , or writing whatsoever ; the best part of this testimony consisting in going before one another in a reall , not verball , reformation . but what it is they meane , or would have others to conceive they should meane , by calling their piece , a testimony unto our solemne league and covenant , i solemnly and seriously professe is above the reach of my understanding , or learning , reasonably to imagine . have i not then reason to doubt , whether any of those men of renowne , and not rather some petty scribe , was the compiler of it ? . whereas to amplifie and enrich their title , they adde ( over and above the former expressions , of a testimony to the truth of jesus christ , and , and to our solemne league and covenant ) these words : as also against the errours , heresies , and blasphemies of these times , & the toleration of them ; i submissively demand of them , whether there be any thing more , any further matter of consequence held forth in these words , above what was contained in those first words , a testimony to the truth of jesus christ . if so , i desire to know where , or in what part of the booke , they give testimony unto the truth of jesus christ ? and again ; where , and in what other part of it , they give testimony against errours and heresies ? i can finde no other testimony given in it to the truth of jesus christ , but onely that ( which i confesse is very unproperly so called ) which stands in a citation of certaine passages , or sayings out of other mens writings , imperiously sentenced for errours and heresies ; as if the chaire of papall infallibility were of late translated from rome to sion-colledge . if not , they shall doe honestly and well in the next impression of the booke , ( though it had been more honesty to have done it in the first ) to leave out of their title , the false flourish , of , a testimony to the truth of iesus christ , as also those words , and to our solemne league and covenant ( there being no such thing in all the booke , as any testimony thereunto ) and content themselves onely with calling it , a testimony against errors and heresies , onely mollifying it with this soft and christian explication [ as we count and call errors and heresies . ] for certainly there are in these papers , that are so called , errors many , and heresies many ; which yet have nothing of the nature , but onely the names of both . so then these words in the title , as also against errors , &c. being so meerly and broadly tautologicall and empty , are a ground of conjecture unto me , that the men prenamed with their compeeres , are wholly innocent from the offence committed in making the book . . whereas the title is yet further extended by the addition of these words , and the toleration of them ; which is a meere non-ens , a thing not in being , i cannot conceive that the judgements or parts of the said persons should so farre faile them , as to appeare in print , and that {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} , with a testimony in their pens against that , of which god made the world ; i mean , nothing , or that which is not ; i might further adde , nor is ever like to be . for if a captious pen had the expression in hand , it would finde no difficulty at all in carrying it into such a sense , which would import a calumniating insinuation against the parliament , as if they were so inclinable to grant an universall toleration of all errors , heresies , and blasphemies ; that unlesse they were counterbalanced with the feare of displeasing these mens zeale , burning so vehemently in opposition thereunto , there were no other means under heaven to take them off from it ; yea it may not without some ground of probability be conceived ; that the authours of these papers proclaime so loud their enmity against toleration , to make the friendship of all lukewarme and formall professors round about them ( being the great bulk of the kingdome ) who know not what to doe , what shift to make for a religion , if the state be not mercifull unto them in providing one or other for them . but as farre as yet i have understood , or doe for the present apprehend the genius or temper of the parliament , in reference to an universall toleration , i have reason to judge them by many degrees further from it , than to stand in need of the importune heat of these men , to quench their inclinations to it . . the book it selfe being every whit as capable of bearing the title of , a testimony against truth , sound and orthodox opinions , as ▪ against errors and heresies , ( as hath already , in part , and will more fully appeare hereafter ) it is a peece of incredibility to me , that men of that note and interest , of which the persons named , with severall others of the same line , are known to be , should so prevanicate with their respective reputations , as to prefix a single-coloured title before a parti-coloured book . . whereas all the errors mustered together in the book , are said ( in the title page ) to be collected out of their authours own books alledged in the margine , and yet ( in faire and full contradiction hereunto ) are said page . to be the very dregges and spawn of those old accursed heresies , which have been already condemned , dead , buried , and rotten in their graves long agoe , and are now by evill men and seducers , raked out and revived ( by which this present generation however is fairly acquitted from being the authours of them , revivers being no authours ) i cannot so farre undervalue the worth of the persons named , as to judge them conscious of so grosse an oversight , or ( consequently ) interessed in the composure of the piece . . whereas the subscribers of the book , stile themselves ( in the title page ) not partitively , some of the ministers , but collectively , the ministers of christ within the province of london , there being to my knowledge , several ministers of christ within the province of london , and those not of the abhorred order of independency neither , & yet commensurable too , both for parts & worth , with the tallest of the subscribers , though not equall ( it may be ) to some of them in church livings by two or three , for whom god ( it seemeth ) hath provided a better thing than to suffer them to fall into the snare of so unworthy a subscription , i must dispense very farre with my thoughts concerning the goodnesse of the consciences of the men i have named , wth their fellows , to judge them so much as acquainted with the first page of the book . i cannot so farre suspect their skill in grammar , as to suppose them ignorant of the difference between some of the ministers of christ , and , the ministers of christ ( simply , ) nor would i willingly suspect the goodnesse of their consciences so farre , as to think they would wittingly , and only to ferve a turn , as viz. to make the concurrence seeme the greater and more entire in the eyes of their simple ones , write the one , when as the truth would onely beare the other . whereas they intitle their book , a testimony to our solemne league and covenant , and pag. . acknowledge , that neither is this , nor any other oath otherwise to be interpreted , than according to the common , plain , and true grammaticall sense of it , confident i am , that according to such an interpretation as this of the said covenant , they have not done any thing at all in a regular and due pursuance of it in this piece , but severall things most notoriously and palpably against it , and with the violation and breach of it . first , all they can with any tolerable colour pretend to be here done in pursuance of their covenant , may be recall'd to these two heads . . that which is pretended to be done in order to the extirpation of errors , heresies , &c. . their pleading for presbyterian government . now ( for the first ) that here is nothing done in any regular or due way for the extirpation of errors , heresies , &c. is evident : for what is it they doe in order hereunto ? to scrapple together a few sayings , or passages out of severall mens books here and there , without taking any notice , or giving any account of their true sense and meaning in them ; yea , and some of these as faire , cleare , obvious truths , as ever themselves delivered any ; yea sometimes to falsifie their sayings , by leaving out some materiall words in the bodies of them ▪ and onely to clamor and cry out upon them , and call them , horrid and prodigious opinions , ( as pag. . ) infamous and pernitious errors , ( as pag. . ) the very dregges and spawn of those old accursed heresies , &c. ( pag. . ) antiscripturisme , popery , arrianisme , socinianisme , arminianisme , &c. ( as pag. . ) i say onely , to poure out floods of such reproachfull and foule language as this , upon mens sayings or opinions , without so much as levying one word of an argument against them to convince the assertors or maintainers of them , or without answering so much as any one reason or ground , upon which they build such assertions , is a course and practice , not onely irrelative altogether to the extirpation of errors and heresies , but very pertinent & proper for the further propagation and radication of them . for when men shall speak evill of that , as an error , or heresie , against which they have nothing of moment , or which is solid , to oppose , the assertors may very reasonably suppose , that they speak this evil of it , not out of judgment , as knowing it to be an error , but out of affection only , not being willing it should be owned for a truth . in which case they cannot lightly but be further confirmed in their error ( if error it be ) than before . again o . when men shall rend or teare a parcell of words out of the body of a large and entire discourse , which may probably carry some face or appearance of an hard or unsound saying , which notwithstanding by the authors explication is reconciled , made fully and fairly consistent with the truth , without so much as mentioning or intimating the authors explication of himselfe in these words , and then to insult and stamp with the foot , and cry out , error , heresie , blasphemy , anti-scripturisme , arminianisme , and i know not what , will any man call this a way , method , or means , for the extirpation of error and heresie ? and not rather a direct course to harden and strengthen men in both ? . when men for want of such sayings , which are erroneous and hereticall indeed , in the writings of such men , whom their carnall interests call upon them to expose , to the uttermost of their power , to the publick infamy and reproach of being counted erroneous and hereticall ; shall pitch upon such passages and sayings for their purpose , not which are ambiguous , or of a doubtfull interpretation , and so capable of a sinister or erroneous sense , as well as of a good , but which are pergnant and generally acknowledged truths , yea and fairly consistent with their own principles ; i referre to the judgements and consciences of all men , who lye not under the sad judgement of selfe-condemnation , whether there be any thing regular , or of any probable tendency in this , for the extirpation of errors and heresies ; and not rather much , which directly tends to the further radication of them . they acknowledge and professe unto the world , ( pag. . ) that they still stand as firmly engaged to the reall performance of their covenant with their uttermost endeavours , as at the first taking of it . i appeale to their own consciences ; let these judge , whether barely to cite a few mens sayings , and severall of these rationall , orthodox , and sound ( according to their authors sense and explication ) without so much as shewing or pointing , where , or in what part of these sayings , the supposed error should lye , be the utmost of their endeavours for the extirpation of errors and heresies . if it be , then are they most unworthy their places in the ministery : if it be not , then are they covenant-breakers by their owne confession . and whether the authors of the subscribed piece now under examination , have therein done any more , than what hath been now mentioned in order to the extirpation of errors & heresies , i am freely willing to make themselves judges . the night is too farre spent for them to think , that men even of ordinary judgement or consideration , will now measure or judge of error and truth , onely by their magisteriall votes , or imperious decisions , either because they are a multitude , or because they lay claim to moses chaire , calling themselves , the ministers of christ . indeed when it was midnight , the grosse darknesse of popish ignorance and superstition as yet spread upon the face of the nation , it was enough for a province of priests , or clergy-men , gravely met together in the name and authority of their sacred unction , to stigmatize what opinions they pleased , for errors and heresies , and so to render them uncleane , and not lawfull to be received or beleeved by their blinde proselites . but the day-spring from on high hath now ( blessed be god ) visited this nation , and men have put away those childish things from them , to beleeve as the church ( i. as the clergy ) beleeveth : to call error , whatsoever . church-men , though in conjunction with threescore church-livings , or more , shall baptize by the name of error : to build their faith , and soul-provisions for eternity , upon the sandy and slippery foundations of the judgements ( or affections rather ) of such men , who have put the stumbling-block of their iniquity , ( i mean this present world , and self-interests ) before their faces . these things considered , evident it is , that the architects of the building called , a testimony to the truth of jesus christ , &c. have not laid so much as one stone aright in all this pile , for their purpose of extirpating errors or heresies . therefore , as to this point , they have done nothing at all in pursuance of their covenant , but several things ( as hath been shewed ) to the violation of it . the covenant bindes them to endeavour the extirpation of errors and heresies : and they have endeavoured , or at least directly acted towards , the establishment and further rooting of them . secondly , neither have they pursued their covenant ( according to the plain and true grammaticall sense of it ) in pleading as they doe for presbyteriall government . for first , it is the assertion and confession of that great hyperaspistes of this government , mr. edwards , that the covenant of the kingdomes doth not tye us to the government of the church of scotland a . if not so , hardly then to presbyteriall government . and secondly , whether he had confessed it or no , the truth it selfe hereof had been never the further out of the way . for certain it is , that there is not so much as any one syllable , word , clause , or sentence in it , by which , according to the plain and true grammaticall sense , it engageth any man to the contending for , or endeavouring of presbytery . presbyterian government is but apochrypha in respect of the covenant . and though with magisteriall confidence enough they conclude ( but without premisses ) pag. . that presbyteriall government ( truly so called ) by presbyteries and synods , is that government which is most agreeable to the minde of jesus christ revealed in the scripture , yet as if their consciences had not taken the expression well at their hands , by that time they come to page . they abate of their former reckoning halfe in halfe . for here , speaking of the government they had declared for , which ( say they ) we conceive to be most agreeable to scripture . but upon these termes , they that should declare for the independent government conceiving it to be most agreeable to the scripture , should pursue their engagement by the covenant , every whit as much as they . therefore in whatsoever they say or plead in their testimony for presbyterial government , they do nothing at all in any pursuance of their covenant , according to the plain and true grammaticall sense of it , but only in pursuance of such an interpretation or sense of it , which lying most commodious for their honour , profit , and ease , hath by the mediation of their affections , prepared it selfe a way into their judgements , and hath there obtained the preheminence above all others : it being very incident to men , to suppose ( as the apostle expresseth it ) gain , godlinesse . a i. in all matters of question and dispute , to judge that most agreeable to the minde of jesus christ in the scriptures , which is best consisting with worldly ends . so that howsoever they flourish in the front of their book , as if they meant to give such an high and honorable testimony to their solemne league and covenant ; and again in the reere , as if they had accordingly avouched that covenant which they have sworn to god , b in this piece ; yet the cleare truth is , that their flourish , is all their fight ; they have not struck so much as one stroke with their pen in any legitimate or direct prosecution of their engagement by it . and though it had been no great work of super-erogation in case they had done ten times more than now they have , of such a tendency and import , especially upon such a goodly frontispiece of pretence , being also numerous enough ( if not many to spare , and of super-abounding abilities for such a worke yet had they not violated this their covenant , and that ten times over , yea and this in the most notorious and shamelesse manner ( in stead of keeping it ) they had consulted much better both for their credits and consciences , than now they have done . the truth is , they have made more breaches upon their covenant in this little piece , than can readily be brought to account , or ranged into form . for how often doe they dissemble and prevaricate with their professions ? and again , after all their shamelesse and most notorious prevarications , and unconscionable dealings , how doe they in the close wipe their mouthes ( with you know who , ) professing that all that they had done was in the integrity of their hearts to discharge their dutie conscientiously , in appearing for god , his truth , and cause of religion . ( p. . ) but o . was it in the integrity of your hearis to discharge your duty conscientiously , that you charge him with errors against the divine authority of the scriptures ( as you doe page . ) who you cannot but know hath bent himselfe with the uttermost of his endeavoure for the vindication of their divine authority , yea and who you have reason to judge hath laboured in this argument , as much , if not more , and this with as much faithfulnesse , as any of you all ? how did not your hearts smite yo in drawing up this bloody charge against him , lest that very book of his , which you had in your hands when you did it , and which you cite in your margine , should rise up in judgment against you in the great day , considering that your consciences could not but tell you , that he had dealt faithfully , throughly , and sincerely , in pleading the cause of the divine authority of the scriptures therein ? is this your reall reformation , to cry out midnight when the sunne shines in his might upon your faces ? . was it to discharge your duty conscientiously , that you cite some of my words barely , suppressing ( craftily ) my sence and explication of them , being neer at hand , as you do twice ( for failing in your wickednesse ) pag. . of your booke ? or doe i not , plainly , cleerly , and distinctly enough , declare unto the world ( in my treatise concerning the divine authority of the scriptures ) in what sence i hold the scriptures , whether translations , or originalls , to be the word of god , and consequently the foundation of christian religion , and in what not ? let the th and th pages of my said treatise be look'd upon . therefore for these men , to cite these words from my pen , questionlesse no writing whatsoever , whether translation or originalls , are the foundation of christian religion , which cleerly relate in the passage where they stand , to a sence a little before explained ; without citing , or so much as intimating those other words of mine , wherein ( in a true and orthodox sence ) i assert them to be of divine authority , and none other but the word of god a with more to this purpose ) can it be by the mediation of any charity whatsoever conceived , to be any other appearing for god , his truth , and the cause of religion , than theirs was , who appeared before pilate to testifie against christ , that hee should say , i am able to destroy the temple of god , and to build it in three dayes b ? . was it in the integrity of your hearts , and to discharge your duty conscienciously , &c. that you must needs make it an errour or heresie ( as you doe , page . ) to say , that it were a needlesse thing for sathan to blind the eyes of naturall men , lest the light of the glorious gospell of jesus christ should shine unto them , if they had not eyes to see , and to receive this glorious light of the gospell , when it was declared unto them ? is this to appeare for god , or his truth , to appeare against evident reason , yea common sence it selfe ? is there any need of charging a stone , that it doe not speake ; or a deafe man , that he doe not hear ; or a blind man , that he doe not see ? must we needs speake nothing but non-sence , and inconsistencies , to be free from errours and heresies ? is this the suprcma lex in the republique of presbyterie ? . i beseech you , brethern , answer candidly , and in the integrity of your hearts , where , in what phrase or clause , of the period insueing , lies the errour , or heresie ; for you charge it with one , or both , pag. . if god should not make men capable of believing , i meane , indue men with such principles , abilities , or gifts , of reason , judgment , memory , understanding , by the diligens improvement whereof , they might come to be convinced of a willingnesse or readinesse in him to receive them into grace and favour , upon their repentance and turning to him ( upon which conviction , that repentance and turning unto god , which we speak of , follows ) they which are condemned , would have their mouths against gods proceedings with them thereunto , and furnished with an excuse ? the period ( setting the parenthesis aside , which i suppose is innocent ) is but one plaine hypotheticall or connex proposition . now though i confes that consequences in such propositions may be weak and false , as well as categoricall assertions ; yet amongst all the olde accursed heresies , so long since condemned ( as you speake ) and which you say are now raked out of their graves , and revived , i remember none that was ever put into any mans roll or catalogue of heresies , in an hypotheticall forme . if your reading or memory will instruct me better , you shall find me a disciple tractable enough . but for the consequence in the proposition rehearsed , which you put downe in your catalogue for an errour or heresie , it is built upon this principle , or maxime : that a true plea of want of power for the performance of what is commanded , is an excuse in the case of non-performance . if this principle faile , the said consequence is weake : but if strong and pregnant , the consequence is partaker with it in both . but however , doubtlesse neither the integrity of your hearts , nor the goodnesse of your consciences would have suffered in the least , though you had not compelld a poore plaine hypotheticall proposition , which never did , nor meant , either you , or any other man , the least harme , to beare the crosse of being numbred amongst errours or heresies . . i desire also some ingenious shadow ( at least ) of a reason from you , how it relates to the consciencious discharge of your duty , to cite an whole page together ( besides what you fraudulently leave out , as not serving your turne ; and what you cut off , by an &c. ) consisting of three or foure and thirty lines , under the name and notion of one and the same errour . was it to represent me to your reader as a man of monstrous and prodigious errours ? one of which could not be expressed or conteined in fewer words , than would fill an whole page in o ; nor this without the interposall of an et caetera , and a false finger besides ? or was it to edifie the world in the knowledg and consideration of your great zeale , and unwearied pains , to discover errours ; so that rather than one of these should escape you , you would undergoe the labour of transcribing whole pages together ? or was it for fear , in case you had determinately pitch'd upon any one line or sentence , you might more easily have missed the errour , and have beaten a bush , where the bird was not ? or was it in hope , that within so large a circuit or compass of ground , your reader possibly might finde two or three errours , though your selves could not well tell where to find any ? but if you be unwilling to render unto mee a reason of this your extraordinary quotation , give mee leave to render one unto you . i suppose the reason might well be , because in that wherein you magnified your selves , god had a minde to bee above you for the propagating of his truth . for whereas you ( it is like ) meditated an unusuall citation to shew the world a more than ordinary errour ; god might suffer you to take this compasse of matter , that so that great and precious truth of his , which you call errour , contained therein , might be presented from your hand with so much the more advantage to be discern'd , acknowledged , and received by men ; yea by such men , who probably might never have had the opportunity to have seene so much of it , but by meanes of the booke . {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} . doubtlesse the passage though injuriously dealt with ( as we shall shew presently ) and purloin'd of some of its strength , towards the beginning , yet carries light in abundance in it for the conviction of any ingenuous and unprejudiced man , that what is asserted therein , is truth . . would not the integrity of your hearts to discharge your duty conscientiously , suffer you to passe by similitudes , comparisons , and resemblances , but that these must be crucified too for errours and heresies ? doubtlesse never were parables or similitudes arrested , or attainted of errour or heresie , untill now . a considerable part of that long errour we spake of , cited by you in folio ( p. . ) consists of a similitude . when you make errors and heresies of similitudes , you give us just occasion to thinke , that you are not so much troubled with some mens errours and heresies , when you finde them , as you are with seeking errours and heresies in other men , untill you finde them . but they that will find knots in rushes , are necessitated to knit them themselves . but i beseech you , tell me seriously : is it matter of conscience indeed with you , to punish the innocent with the guilty ? if so , i am not for your lawes , nor common-wealth . but . what say you to the mangling , maiming , and deforming the sayings of your brethren , when you cite them , by leaving out very emphaticall and materiall words , and clauses ; yea such scripture expressions , as you found in them ? or doe you not in citing the passage ( lately pointed at ) with which you are pleased to adorn your catalogue of errours about naturall mans free will ( p. . ) after these words , ( line . ) in a way of justice , leave out all this [ and according to the law , an eye for an eye , and a tooth for a tooth , this man having cut off the legs of another . ] were you afraid , that the passage would not looke so like an errour , as you would have it , if any lineament of scripture should be seen in the face of it ? what you expresse in your testimony , you say , ( p. . ) that you expresse not with a bitter , but with a bleeding heart : but what you leave out , relating to this , and to other passages cited by you ( of which notice hath been already taken ) i feare you leave out , rather with a bitter , yea and bloody , than bleeding heart . . doe you in the integrity of your heart , and cut of conscience to appeare for god and his truth , judg it an errour , or heresie , to say , that if a doctrine be asserted by paul and peter , it ought to suffer no disparagement for being found among the tenets of arminius ? for of this assertion of mine you make an errour ( page . ) unlesse the words imprison'd in a parenthesis , which are these , [ as most assuredly it is ] must beare the blame . doe you not want errours and heresies to complete your catologue & roll , when you are necessitated to muster and take in such as these ? are not most of your own doctrines found amongst the tenets of arminius ? some of you ( i suppose ) cannot be ignorant , but that they are : but doe you therefore judge them errours or heresies ? yet . the testimony now under contest , is in nothing more unlike , at least more unworthy , the ministers of the province of london , than that importune , and most unnaturall straine in it , which presenteth sayings and opinions , for errours and heresies , which are fairely and fully consistent with their owne principles and grounds . hereof many instances might readily be produced , were not prolixity inconsistent with our present designe . is not that of the apostle , other foundation can no man lay , than that which is laid , which is jesus christ , a one of their principles , and maine grounds ? and yet ( p. . ) they make mee erroneous , for not granting another foundation besides jesus christ , viz. translations and originalls : which notwithstanding , sensu sano , i doe assert also for foundations . againe , is it not one of their owne principles , that no act performed by man , can be the foundation of christian religion ? yet pag. . they stigmatize me as an erroneous person , for affirming the act of believing the english scriptures to be the word of god , to be no foundation of christian religion . yet again : is not that of paul , that was not first , which is spirituall , but that which is naturall ; and then that which is spirituall , b another of their principles ? yet ( pag. . ) they represent it for an errour in me , to say ; doubtlesse men are naturall men , before they are sprirituall , and supernaturall . once more , is it not a ground and principle of their own ; that men are but naturall men , till faith comes and makes them spirituall , or supernaturall : yet they condemn it ( pag. . ) for an errour in me to affirme , that wee cannot be made spirituall or supernaturall , but by believing . yet once more ; is it not one of their own principles , that god hath promised favour , acceptation , yea and salvation it self , to those , who shall believe ; yet they make mee a transgressor in point of errour , for saying , that if it be possible for naturall men to believe , then may they doe such things , whereunto god hath by way of promise annexed grace and acceptation . yet once again : i suppose it is a principle or supposition of theirs ; that the apostle all along the th chapter of the epistle to the hebrewes , speakes of such a faith , which is true and saving : and yet ( p. . ) they make me an erroneous offender , for saying , that to believe , . that god is : . that he is the rewarder of those who diligently seeke him , is all the faith or beliefe that the apostle makes simply and absolutely necessary to bring a man unto god . . into grace and favour with him . caeterá de genere hoc adeò sunt multa , &c. . certainly it cannot be out of the integrity of your hearts to discharge your duty conscienciously , &c. to dissemble , connive at , and take no notice of , the very selfe same opinions published , printed , countenanced , recommended , by men of your owne interest and party , yea by some amongst your selves , honouring such with the titles of orthodox and sound men notwithstanding , for which you most unworthily , and contra-conscienciously defame others , who doe not syncretize with you , labouring in the very fire day after day , in your preachings , in your printings , in your conversings , to render them the off-scourings and abhominations of men . let all the passages and sayings , which with all your double diligence , and the help of an evill eye , you have discovered and found in all my writings , and presented upon the theatre of your testimonie , as conteyning matter of error about naturall mans free will , and power to good supernaturall , be drawn together , and the rigidest extraction made of whatsoever imagination it selfe is able to imagine erroneous in them ; there will be found the very same spirit and quintiscence of errour ( if yet it were errour ) cloathed too with visibility enough , in that discourse of mr. john ball , intituled , a treatise of the covenant of grace , lately published by mr simeon ash ( one of the subscribers . ) recommended to the christian reader by three of them more , viz. daniel gawdry , edmond calamie , anthony burgesse ( besides two more of the assembly . ) the said author , p. . of this discourse , writeth thus . no man is hindered from believing , through the difficultie , or unreasonablenesse of the command , or through his owne simple infirmity , as being willing and desirous to believe , but not able ; which inability deserves pitty : but his inability is of corruption and wilfulnesse : he doth not believe , because he will not : he is unable , because hee doth not covet or desire , which is inexcusable . is there not every whit as much power , and freedome of will here attributed unto naturall men , as can be wrested or wrung out of any , or all those erroneous passages of mine , ( erroneously so called ) which are cited in the provinciall testimonie ? do i there say any whit more , or doth mr ball here say any whit lesse , than that in case naturall men were not wilfull , they have a sufficiency of power to believe ? and that it may not be pretended that this passage fell from this authors pen at unawares , or that the contents of it were not his setled and bestresolved judgment , you shall find the very same things , and almost in the very same words , re-asserted by him , pag. . of the same discourse . are those opinions erroneous , or hereticall in independents , which are orthodox and canonicall in presbyterians ? or if they be as erroneous in the latter , as the former , why is not i. b. brought upon the stage , as well as i. g. in the habite and reproach of an erroneous and hereticall man ? yea and why doe not simeon ash for publishing , and daniel gawdry , edmond calamie , and anthony burgesse , ( together with edward reynolds , and thomas hill ) for countenancing and recommending erroneous and hereticall opinions , bear their proportions also in the censure and shame ? accessaries deserve to suffer , as well as principalls . it is said indeed of the donatists , that they disparag'd and condemned all other christians , but were indulgent in point of censure , towards their owne a : and of eunomius the heretique , that he bare with all manner of wickednesse in his owne seate b are not these sons of presbytery to be found in the same condemnation ? is their love any whit more extensive , than only to cover the multitude of their owne sins ? or their zeale , than to censure and punish the sins of other men ? is this their faithfulnesse unto god , for which they seeme affraid ( page . ) lest the world should frowne upon them ? or is this the fruit and product of their glorious profession ( page . ) that as ministers of christ , and stewards of the mysteries of god , in zeale to gods glory — from their very hearts and soules , they utterly detest and abhorre all the errours , heresies , and blasphemies whatsoever swarming amongst us in these times , howsoever minced , masked , and palliated , and by whomsoeverembraced and covntenanced ? can the children of this profession be ignorant , that there are amongst themselves discrepances in judgements , and contrarieties in opinions ? or doth not this plainly imply , that there is apprehension of errour in the respective dissenters amonst them ? yea it is famously known , that some of the ablest and most learned amongst them , differ from the greatest part , if not from the generality , of his fellowes , in matter of opinion , and that about a subject of as high a nature , as any within the whole compasse of christian religion . if then in zeale to gods glory , they from their very hearts and soules utterly detest and abhorre , all the errours , heresies , and blasphemies amongst us , by whomsoever embraced and countenanced , how commeth it to passe , that they doe not declare with the same acrimonie of spirit , and height of indignation , against their owne errours ( mutually so believed ) wherein they rise up , like lions , against the supposed errours of other men ? brethren , give me leave to be serious with you : i believe you are straitned in your owne bowels , in comparison of the enlargment which you have in mine , ( though i feare , you believe nothing lesse . ) i hear of many complaints , and sad regrets from you ; as that the ministers , and the ministerie of christ , are of later times , much despised : your auditories , much depopulated : your respects with the people , brought well nigh to a morsell of bread . i beseech you consider what i shall say unto you : hath he that voluntarily puts his singer in the fire , any cause to complain , that the fire burns him , and puts him to paine ? or he that sowes only tares in his field , to finde himselfe agrieved , that the earth makes him not a returne in wheate ? or is it any wonder at all , if , when under a pretence of so much zeale to gods glory , such integrity of heart , such conscienciousnesse of appearing for god , his truth , & cause hf religion , such unpartiall detestation of all errours , heresies , and blasphemies amongst us , by whomsoever embraced and countenanced ( with many such like glorious and glittering professions and protestations more , wherewith your testimonie is garnished ) you do in the very face of all these professions , all things contary , stigmatize the truths of god , with the odious and hatefull names , of infamous & pernicious errors & heresies , set your selves to pull downe with both your hands the precious names and reputations of the faithfull servants of god , you brethren , & this without any cause at all given by them , report their sayings by halves , leaving out their explications , on purpose to defame them , represent such opinions & assertions as erroneous and hereticall in them , which you allow for orthodox & sound in your selves , exasperate and incense the sword of the magistrate against such as are peaceable in the land , and wish you no harm ; soment divisions , multiply distractions , obstruct the quiet composure and settlement of things in the land , recompencing no degree of all this unworthinesse , with any proportionable or considerable good ; is it any marveil ( i say ) if , going thus to work , coupling such vile & unworthy actions with such precious and specious professions , you sink and fall in the hearts of men daily more and more ? know this for a certain , that the hearts and consciences of men will never be able to rise up before you , & call you blessed , unles they be holpen up by the hand of some visible worth , and excellency in your wayes . following showrs of uprightnesse and sincerity from your hearts and hands together , will make your crownes of honour to flourish againe upon your heads ; which otherwise will certainly languish , fade , and die away . in the meane time ( to return to our businesse in hand ) though i finde the best of you no better , than a bryar unto me , in pursuing mee with the out ▪ cries of your pens for a man of i know not how many , nor of what , errours ; yet are there foure men amongst your . who have appeared in this ostracisme against me , to their deeper shame , and confusion of face , than others . for what ? they who publish and print bookes of errours , they who countenance and recommend bookes of errours , to be read ; can these men find in their hearts to lift up their heele against those , who shall receive them from their hand ? delicti fies idem reprehensor , & author ? at scelus hoc meriti pondus , & instar , habet . i. what ( man ! ) the author , and rough censor both of the same crime ? the crime , if crime it be , which i committed have , yet merit doth praise , and approvement , not reproof , from thee . mr. ash , mr. candrey , mr. calamie , mr. burgesse ? how could these names of men anoynt mr. john ball with oyle , and salt me withfire , onely for speaking what he speaketh , yea and what themselves speak in him , or in that book of his , which they recommend unto me ( amongst others ) let the sun of christian ingenuity be ashamed , and the moon of humane candor be abashed . for ( questionlesse ) such a thing hath not been heard of , either amongst the sonnes of nature , or of god , for many generations . but for the opinions , or opinion rather ; ( for though the citations be many , yet the error , if error if must needs be , contained in in them all , is , for substance , but one ) which this grand subscription voteth an error in me about naturall mans free will , and power to good supernaturall ; i desire the whole covent , or colledge of the two and fifty , and all that dogmatize with them against the said opinion , to take knowledge , . that it is no new or strange doctrine in the reformed churches : . that it was a doctrine taught and avouched by some of the reformers themselves ; and those not of the least note , either for learning or religion . one instance in either shall suffice for the present . for the former , that the doctrine condemned for error by the error-makers of the province of london , is the publickly-received doctrine of the reformed churches within the province of orleance in france , appeares from severall passages in a treatise of paulus testardus , pastor of the reformed church at blois , entituled , {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} , sen synopsis de natura & gratia ; the said passages being compared with the approbation of the book printed in the beginning of it : the tenor whereof imports , that the said book was ordered by a synod of the reformed churches in the said province , to be perused and read by two of the ministers ( there named ) who give this testimony of it upon their reading , that they find nothing in it repugnant to the doctrine of their orthodox churches , and in that respect they judge it worthy publication . the said author in the treatise mentioned , having ( p. , , . &c. asserted and cleared three several wayes or means , whereby god calleth men unto communion in that covenant of grace , which he hath made with mankinde , the first , by providence ; the second , by the ministery of the word ; the third , by the effectuall workings of his spirit . p. . he affirmeth , that in all these wayes or methods of calling men , god doth not onely shew unto the sinner what his duty is to doe , but also exhibits and gives unto every man thus invited and called , power wherewith to perform it , and be saved , if he will : insomuch , that if he that is invited [ or called ] in the most generall [ & lowest ] way of invitation of all , be not saved , he is altogether inexcuseable before god . this the apostle paul teacheth expresly : that which may be known of god ( saith he ) is manifested in them , or unto them ( meaning the gentiles ) for god hath made it manifest , &c. that they might be without excuse . but certainly , excuseable they had been , if they had been willing , and onely wanted power a there is not an haires breadth of power to superuatur all good , more attributed by me unto naturall men , than is clearly , and above all controversie asserted in this passage ; which yet is avouched ( as ye have heard ) by two sufficient witnesses , and these of the approved order of presbytery it self , to be the doctrine of the orthodox reformed churches within the province of orleance in france . but whereas my london subscribers transcribe so many passages of mine under their title , or head , of , errors about naturall mans free-will , &c. let all these passages be sifted , from the first to the last , by lines , words , syllables , and letters , yet will there not be found the least or lightest infinuation of any freenesse of will in naturall men to any good that is supernaturall : yea they that have been the most constant and intelligent hearers of me in the course of my ministery , cannot but testifie on my behalfe , that i have still upon all occasions , resolved the condemnation and perishing of men into the most miserable and strange servility , bondage and thraldome of the will to corruption and vanity : yea and have urg'd and prest the necessity of the grace of god for turning the captivity of it , and setting it at liberty . therefore , o province of london , study thy teachers , that thou mayst know what , and what not , to learn of them . it were easie to draw forth many more passages out of the treatise specified , of the same import and inspiration with that which hath been produced ; but this is sufficient for these two ends and purposes ; o . to demonstrate , that the authority of a province of ministers , though all receiving the honour of orthodox from one another , is yet a miserable support or stay for the judgements or consciences of men , in matters of doctrine . that which is asserted for orthodox and sound by a province of ministers in france , is importunely censured and condemned for an infamous horrid , and pernicious error , or heresie , by a province of the same profession in england . o . to shew , with how good a conscience the subscribers joyntly affirme , ( as they doe , page . that they finde , to the abundant satisfaction of their judgement , and rejoycing of their spirits , the confession of faith humbly advised by the assembly of divines , singularly pious , prudent , sound , and agreeable to the scriptures , and confessions of other churches . if it be agreable with the confession of those churches lately mentioned , they have as much , or more , need to confesse their fault , as their faith . as to the second particular , wherein i affirmed , that that doctrine which these men call infamous , pernitious , horrid error and heresie , was also taught to the full extent and compasse of what i deliver in it , by some of the chiefe reformers themselves , it appears sufficiently by this ensuing passage from m. bucer , who in his enarration of the epistle to the romanes , chap. . vers. . writeth thus : a here let us observe two things ; that god in no age whatsoever , left men destitute of the doctrine of salvation : therefore whoever at any time perished , perished through their own default [ or neglect . ] for god so bedeweth ( or washeth ) nature with his light , that they only remaine strangers unto righteousnesse , who willingly , & of their own accord cast it from them . there are at this day nations not a few , to whom the gospel of christ is not sincerely preached : others there are , who heare nothing of it . but if these did not voluntarily put from themselves the desire of righteousnesse , the lord ( questionlesse ) would so animate them with his spirit , that they should , or might , perform the things of the law , commit themselves wholly to his ( grace , or ) goodnesse , and doe unto their neighbours what they would that they should doe unto them . hence it would come to passe , that god would sooner send an angel unto them , as he did unto cornelius , than suffer them to remain ignorant of his christ . but whilst through impious ingratitude , they detain his truth revealed unto them , in unrighteousnesse , they doe not onely deserve to have no more of the good spirit given unto them , but even to be givenup to a reprobate sense , &c. the other thing here to be observed , is , that we our selves also hearken unto the work or effect of the law , wch is written in our hearts , that same right and divinely-impressed sense of things within us , whereby we are continually called upon for holy and honest courses , and called back from those that are dishonest , and that we narrowly listen unto and mind , those thoughts which accuse us , and our conscience , when it witnesseth against us . — verily , we reject god himself , when we do not yeeld obodeince to such holy cogitations as these . i appeale to the consciences of the testimony-subscribers themselves , whether this passage be not much fuller and ranker of the spirit of that opinion , which they reckon amongst the very dregges and spawne of those old accursed heresies , amongst noysome , infamous , horrid , and pernitious errors , than any , than all the passages they have raked together out of my writings . yea if they please , they may read more of the same authors judgement upon the same point , and to the same purpose , in what hee comments upon verse . of the chapter ; where ( amongst other things ) hee conceiveth , that paul offered this to the consideration of the jewes , that the gentiles , even before christ was revealed unto them , were partakers of true righteousnesse a . which is a saying ten degrees beyond the line of any of mine . and yet m. bucer was never ( to my knowledge ) counted an arminian by any , nor branded for an heretick , or a man of a rotten judgement , by any , unlesse it were by the ministers of the province of babylon , who ( as the story saith ) dig'd him out of his grave , and made a sacrifice by fire of his dead and buried corps unto the genius of their bloody religion . it were easie to fill many pages with passages from other orthodox and reformed authors , as melancthon , musenlus , &c. wherein they deliver many things fully consonant with what i have written , and the subscribers branded with the broad seale of their authority , for erroneous . but miserable is the condition of truth , which must not be suffered to passe by the warrant of its own light , without letters of recommendation from the darknesse of men . nor were it any matter of much more labour or difficultie , to bring in antiquity it selfe , and particularly those very authors who were the greatest opposers of pelagius , and the then errors denominated from him , as hierome , austin , and prosper by name , with their mouthes wide opened in approbation , and co-assertion of the same things , for which i am arraigned at the tribunal of sinon a colledge , as an hereticke . it is manichisme ( saith hierome ) so condemne the nature of man , and to despoyle it of free-wil . ( unlesse any man can find better , or more proper english for , liberii arbitriū . and elswhere , thou blasphemest in vain , continually buzzing it in the ears of the ignorant , that we condemn free-wil : let him be c●demned , who condemneth it c ▪ yet again in another place : we so maintain free-will , that we deny not the adjutory ( of grace ) to it in all things d . augustine himself , the famous antagonist of pelagianisme , maintains to the full whatsoever is asserted by me , concerning the wil and power of man . if there be no grace of god ( saith he ) how doth he save the world ? if there be no free-will , how doth he judg the world e ? and again , the catholick faith , neither denies free-will , either in respect of a bad life , or of a good : nor doth it attribute so much to it , as if without the grace of god it could doe any thing , &c. yet again , the pelagians conceit that they know some great matter , when they say , god would not command that which he knew could not be performed by men . i wonder who knowes not th●●… f . it seemes austin supposed no man ignorant of the truth of that , which these subscribers persecute under the name of a pernitious error . the fame author yet again , we exeorate the blasphemy of those , who affirm , that god enjoy●●… any thing that is impossible unto men , and that the commands of god cannot be observed and kept by every man in particular , but onely by all men in common , or in generall h . i●…austins verdict will passe , the subscribers are the blasphemers , not the author of the divine authority of the scriptures asserted . consonant to the last recited saying of austine , is this of basil the great , it is impious to say , that the precepts of the holy ghost are impossible i . so that evident it is , that these men confute pelagianisme by plain manicheisme ; nay , that which onely themselves call pelagianisme . for it clearly appeares by the writings both of hierome and austin , that the question between pelagius and them , was not whether man hath freedome of will , either in respect of good or evill : for these fathers constantly defend themselves under the shield of this assertion against pelagius his charge . b but whether men , notwithstanding their freedome of will , did not still stand in need of ajutorium gratiae , the auxiliary or adjutory of grace , both for the performance of , and perseverance in , what was good . but these men have exchanged the fathers adjutorium , into their own compulsorium . for me , i never denied , but alwayes have asserted the necessity of grace by way of adjutory ; onely the necessitation or compulsion of grace , is no article of my creed . reader , i had not troubled thee with so much as any one of these quotations , but that it is the calamity of these times , to judge truth and error still commensurable with the votes of those men , who having ingrossed the honour and repute of being orthodox men unto themselves , square these votes of theirs concerning truth and error , not by any principles of the cleerest reason , nor yet by the scriptures soundly interpreted and understood , but only by the traditions of the elders , and by what they read in the writings of such men , whom they are pleased to take into part and fellowship with themselves in their owne glory , and vote , orthodox . but to leave this ; there is yet one thing more in the testimony ( so called ) to the truth of jesus christ , &c. which hath too much shadow in it for the pensill of such exquisite artificers , as the ministers of the province of london : and therefore , represents it with much suspition of being a spurious and suppositious piece , and not the genuine {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} ; of such masters . for doth not this testimonie once and againe ( viz. p. . and . ) commend the governement , whereunto the hearts of the authors seeme to be so impotently lifted up , by the successe wherewith it hath been crowned ? doubtlesse the reall and true ministers of the province of london , having such abundant opportunity of converse with travellers from all parts , cannot but be full of the truth of this information , that there was more of the truth and power of religion in england under the late prelaticall government , than in all the reformed churches besides . the best successe , which they can with any colour of truth entitle this government unto , is but the successe of the gardiners sheers , which prosper only to the keeping all even and smooth in the privet-hedge , by the snipping off , and keeping under those thriving twigs and branches , which otherwise would out-grow their fellows , and hinder uniformity . lastly , me thinkes there is too palpable a reflexion of prejudice and dishonour upon the parliament in severall passages and strains of this piece , to issue from between the feet of the sacred conclave of sion-colledge ; though wiser men ( i confesse ) than my selfe , resent the affirmative stronger in this , than the negative ; conceiving an evill eye looking out of a faire face of words upon the parliament , to be no dissenting character of the genius of the ministers ( indeed ) of the province of london . to draw towards a conclusion ; if any man shall aske why i could not be content to sit downe by my charge , with the same patience wherein others charged as well as i , possesse their soules ; no mans pen moving against his accusers , but mine ? i answer . . i was loth , that either the stones in the walls , or tiles upon the houses , should take the honour and comfort of this service , out of my hand . if these should hold their peace ( saith christ ) the stones would erie a . the honour of christ must be vindicated : and if the jewes , who are a people , will not doe it , the gentiles , who are no people b , shall and will . if men indued with reason and understanding , shall not appear in asserting the honour of god against those , who sin with an high a hand against it , the inanimate and senceless creature will certainly rise up , and take away this crowne from them . . the demand proposed , supposeth that , which ought not to be supposed ; viz. that my patience is not only exercised , but overcome , by my charge . the truth is , though i doe not ●it downe by it in patience , yet i rise up with it , and beare it upon my shoulder , with more than patience ; even with joy and gladnesse ; as i stand charged from heaven to doe : my brethren , count it all joy , when you fall into divers temptations c . i trust the tenour of my answer doth no wayes imply , that there is so much as the least haire of the head of my patience fallen to the ground . . one part of the rest , who are compelled to drink of the same colledge cup with me , may possibly either have reversed the errors here charged upon them , or otherwise be conscious to themselves of insufficiency to defend them . another part of them , for ought i know , may rise up in their own defence , as i have done ; yea , and possibly may prevent me . but for those assertions of mine , which these ministers have baptized by the name of errours , i neither know any reason why i should proscribe them , nor yet despaire of strength from god , sufficient to maintain them against all contradiction whatsoever . but . ( and lastly ) the chiefe motive which ingaged me to this undertaking , was , because i looke upon my self as the chiefe , if not the only person , for whose sake the . hands were at this time drawn out of the bosome to smite the rest . when the chiefe priests and elders , had with more than ordinary diligence and importunity wrought pilate to signe his warrant for the crucifying of christ , because matters deserving death were not so cleer against him , as they desired ; they procured two thieves to be crucified with him , the one on his right hand , the other on his left a , who in all likehood had not suffered death , at least at this time , but only to colour over the foule act of crucifying christ , with the justice of their execution ( if yet this execution it selfe were allowable by the lawes of god ) and to represent the lord christ as a man only worthy such company . in like manner , i have some reasons importuning me to conceiue , that this court of assize was called principally , if not only for my sake : and that no testimony had been given at this time , either to the truth of jesus christ , nor against the errours or heresies of other men , had not the two and fifty prudently judged it expedient that my name should be blasted , and not the reputation of a whole province of ministers suffer by the greenenesse of it . the grounds of my beliefe in this point are , . the sore wound given to their cause by hageomastix displayed , &c. was never mollified with oyle , untill now . they never eased themselves of that sorrow , till this congregatio magna being called to advice about the cure , prescribed this recipe in order thereunto ; viz. that . or . innocent lines of this treatise should be cited to appear upon a stage , purposely built for errors and heresies , and here receive the shame due to innocencie and truth . but in vain have they rub'd themselves & their sore upon this dictamnum a the imflammation is never a whit allayed by it . yea to this day — haeret lateri aethalis arundo ; nor have the . hands of this subscription , with all their versatile motions and endeavours , been able to wriggle , or wrest it out . . i judg the greatest part of the other errours and heresies produced upon this theatre , to be beneath their cognizance , by reason , partly of the sillinesse , contemptiblenesse , and irrationality of them ; partly , of the obscurity and inconsiderablenesse of their authors . i can hardly believe that such eagles would have stoop'd to catch such flies , such dead flies , as these , but only to put into my oyntment , to cause that to cast forth a stinking savour . . the said testimony produceth my errors & heresies ( so called ) by whole pages , & half pages , as if it were loth to leave any romth for other mens ? whereas my fellow-heretiques and erratiques , are quickly dispatch'd ; little being cited out of their books in comparison ; i suppose , lest their errours should seeme as great , as large , as dangerous , as mine . . lest i should seem not to abound with errors above the rate and proportion of other delinquents in this kind , they cite sayings ( almost ) of all sorts out of my writings to make errours of , as parentheses , similitudes , suppositions , assertions of a most direct and cleer consistency with their own principles , and what not ? . this testimony to the truth of jesus christ , made all the hast was possible after the comming out of the divine authority of the scriptures asserted , to blast the credit , and way-lay the acceptation of it with the generality of men . whereas there are very few , if any , of those other writings , which are attainted of errour and heresie , with mine , but have been extant in print some considerable time , yea some of them ( to my knowledg ) several years . but by the way ; is it not very in-harmonious , that these great professors of enmity and abhorrency against errors and heresies , should persecute the assertion of the divine authority of the scriptures ? these , with some other considerations of like nature with them , render the jealousie very opportune and strong , that my selfe only was the standing mark , at which the arrow of the testimonie was shot ; and that the rest were made to stand by only to give aime . they are brought in to partake of my condemnation ; that so i might partake with them in their guilt and shame ; or at least with such of them , who being guilty , deserve shame . to conclude : whereas the subscribers , with many others of the same interest , are still instant upon all occasions , in season , and out of season , to declaim against me , as a friend to publicans and sinners ( i mean , to errors avd heresies ) and cry out that i desire & plead for a toleration of them all ; i here solemnly profess , in the sight of god , angels , and men , that whoever they are , that beare the errors and wicked opinions of the times , as a burthen of sorrow upon their hearts and souls , i bear my share and part with them . nor do i believe that any of them all , who seek to render me the hatred of men , by the imputation of such a delinquency , have run , either faster , or further , in the way of god , for the pulling up those noysome weeds out of the fields of christ amongst us , then i have done . i have professedly ingaged my self in the publike court of my ministry against . of those errors ( and am at this day in full prosecution of this my ingagement ) which are generally look'd upon as the most predominant amongst us , and unto which , all others whatsoever , may ( i conceive ) easily be reduced ; antinomianisme , anabaptisme , anti-scripturisme , querisme , or seeking ; unto which i might adde a fifth also , called manicheisme : which , had it not the countenance , which the other . want , would soon be found to be of as sad and dangerous a consequence to religion , as they . i am a foole to boast my self : but wise men have compelled me : and wise men ( i hope ) will pardon me . i have again & again in severall of my writings , declared my sense and judgment to be , that no error whatsoever ought to be tolerated ; but that every errour sufficiently detected , and evicted , ought to be proceeded against , in such a method and way , and upon such terms , which are justifiable by the word of god , or by such principles of equity and good conscience , that are found in prudent , disingaged , and consciencious men . the height of my interposals in this kind , hath been this ; . that men be very cautious and warie , lest intending only to crucifie theeves , they crucifie christ also . . that they do not make thieves of all those , who through infirmitie or mistake in judgement only , declare themselves to be men . finis . errata . page . l. . dele , to . p. . l. . for yo , r. you . p. . l. . after , mouths , r. open . p. . l. for consequence , r. consequences , p. . l. . for quintiffence , r. quintessence . p. . in the margiu , for inexcusabilis , ( in some copies ) r. inexcusabiles . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a e- b dan. . a cor. . . a antap. pag. . a tim , . . b pag. . a divine authority of ser. asserted , p. . b mat. . . a cor. . . b cor. . . a donatistae qui praese omnes alios christianos condēnabant , se veritatē censurae in suos relaxabant . p. mart. loc. p. . b eunomius suis sectatoribus quodvis scelus indulgebat . i plead for no errour , truly so called : nor for any persons , worthy blame & censure . let malefactors and thieves be crucified , but let not christ be crucified ▪ with them . a in quo nihil , quod ecclesarum nostrarū orthodoxarū fidei ●repugnet , repe●imus ; e●que nomine dig num publicà luce judicavi . mus . a qòd in omnibus vocandi rationibus , deus peccatori , quid debeat non modo ostendit , sed & omni invitato , vocato , det posse illud praestare , & salvari , ●i velit : adeo ut si non salvaturis , qui generalissimâ tantū ratione invitatus est , fit prorsus inexcusabilis corā deo. id expressè ▪ docet paulus , {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} ( inquit ) {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} manifestū ▪ factum est in ipsis ( gentibus scilicet ) deus enim manifestū secit , &c ▪ ut inexcusabilis ipsi sint . at certe si , etsi maximè voluissent , non potuissent , ●uissēt excusabiles . p. t●st●r dus , synopsis . thesi . p. . a hic duo observemus ; deum nullis unquam saeculis homines doctrina salutis destituisse : proinde , quicuuque unquam perierunt , suâ culpâ periisse . naturam ita perfundit suâ iuce deus , ut hi tantum à justitiâ alieni maneant , qui eam ultrò à se rejiciunt . sunt & hodiè gentes non paucae , quibus evangelium christi haud quaquam sinceriter praedicatur : sunt quae de eo nihil prorsùs audiunt ▪ hi autem si non ultrò justitiae studium repudiarent , dominus indubiè spiritu suo sic eos animaret , ut quae legis sunt praestarent , committerent se totos ipsius bonitati , proximis facerent quae cucupiunt fieri sibi . hinc fierer , ut deus citius angelum eis mitteret , uti fecit cornelio , quam ut ignorare eos christū suum pateretur . sed dum impiè ingrati iniquitate suâ detinent revelatam jam ipsis veritatem , merentur , non solum ut nihil praetereà boni spiritus accipiant , sed etiam ut dentur in sensum reprobum , &c. alterum hic observandum est , ut ipsi quoque huic operi legis , quod in scriptum est cordibus nostris , recto illi , ut divinitùs impresso sensui , quo perpetuò vocamur ad sancta & honesta studia , revocamur à pravis , auscultemus , cogitationes nos accusantes , & cōscientiam contrà nos testificantem , exaudiamus . — deum sanè ipsum rejicimus , cum sanctis hujusmodi cogitationibus non obsequimur . a sed ut superiùs quoque ostendimus , magis id ex instituto pauli suit , ut objiceret judaeis , gentes etiam ante revelatum eis christum , verae justitiae fuisse compotes . a the ancient records , ( as i 〈◊〉 informed ) m●ntion it by the name , not of sion , but sinon colledge . but they that have authority to make errors , may change names at pleasure . manichaeorum est , hominum damnare naturam , & liberum auserre arbitrium . advers. pelag. in proem. c frustra blasphemas , & ignorantium auribus ingeris , nos liberum arbitrium condemnare . damnetur ille , qui damnat . ad c●esiphontem d sic liberum servamus arbitrium , ut ei per singula adjutorium non negemus . hicron . l. . dial. advers. pelag. e si non sit dei gratia , quomodo salvat mundum ? & si non est liberum arbitrium , quomodo judicat mundum ? aug. epist. . f fides catholica non liberum arbitrium negat , sive in vitam malam , sive in bonam : neque tantum ei tribuit , ut sine gratiâ dei valeat aliquid , &c. aug. epist. . magnum aliquid pelagiagiani scire se putant , quando dicunt , non juberet deus , quod sciret non posse ab homine fieri : quis hoc nescit . aug. de grat. & lib. arbitr . c. . h execramur blasphemiam eorum , qui dicunt impossibile aliquid homini à deo esse praeceptum ; & mandata dei non à singulis , sed ab omnibus in communi posse servari . idem . i {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} . b dicat pelagius , per gratiam nos posse praestare legem dei , & pax est . aug. a luk. . . b rom. . . c iam. . . a mar. . a dictamnus , or dictamnum , is an herbe ( in english ditanie ) having a property to draw out any thing fastned in the bodie ; upon which wild beasts are said to rubbe themselves , when they are hurt , or woūded , for their ease and cure . the countrey-minister's reflections on the city-ministers letter to his friend shewing the reasons why we cannot read the king's declaration in our churches. countrey minister. approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing c estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) the countrey-minister's reflections on the city-ministers letter to his friend shewing the reasons why we cannot read the king's declaration in our churches. countrey minister. p. printed for e. reyner & w. faulkner ..., london : . caption title. imprint from colophon. pages and are stained in filmed copy. beginning-end photographed from union theological seminary library, new york copy and inserted at the end. reproduction of original in british library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng church and state -- england. dissenters, religious -- legal status, laws, etc. -- england. dissenters, religious -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - celeste ng sampled and proofread - celeste ng text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the countrey-minister's reflections , on the city-ministers letter to his friend ; shewing the reasons why we cannot read the king's declaration in our churches . unless you had told me in what manner your friend was concern'd , when he met with his majesties order to read his declaration ; i cannot tell whether he had any ground to wonder or not : it looks like ingenuity in you , to tell your friend your thoughts freely ; but if you mean by freely , the liberty you take to tell the world plainly , how much you clash with your prince , which seems to be your meaning , by your saying , it is not a time to be reserved : such a freedom taken , might not long since have met with such a suspition , of something being reserved in this presumed freedom , which might have been accompanied with a dangerous inuendo . your next paragraph owns , you are intirely out-witted ; which does as little credit your prudence , as your following discourse , does your cause : but if you fall for want of fore-cast , who can help it ? you would not abate your violence one jott , when seasonably prompted to consider what the fruit of your rigorous , and more then legal prosecution of protestants upon penal laws would produce ; nor will you stand to your old and avowed principles . there is indeed an honourable way of falling : when a christian is called to suffer for such things as will bear him out in suffering , and whereof he will never have occasion to be ashamed , pet. . . but it may deserve a clergy-mans consideration , whether a sturdy resolvedness not to part with such things , as have oft occasioned uncommendable practices , may not have some affinity with that evil-doing , and as a busy-body in other mens matters , which st. peter cautions against , v. . in the next place , you says ▪ that to take away the test and penal laws at this time , is but one step from popery . why did you not then consent , and press to have them taken away , when there was no such danger , yea , when the taking them away , might have rendred the introducing of popery inconceivably difficult , if not impossible ? but how do you know , that you judge right in this case now ? why say you , we have the concurring opinion of the nobility and gentry with us , who have already suffered in this cause : but is this the proof of an opinion , to say , that some of honour and wealth , have embraced and adhere to it , though with some inconvenience to themselves ? it would almost tempt a man to think a reasoner is at a great loss , when instead of arguments , he insists for proof on the outside grandeur of such as are of the opinion he pleads for . when the prince , and many of the people were averse to the crucifying of christ , what a clamour did the clergy make , have any of the rulers , or the pharisees believed on him ? but this people who know not the law , are accursed : john . , . but suppose you are right in this point , what efficacy hath the clergy's reading the king's declaration , to take off the tests and penal laws ? if the clergy's breath can shake , or throw them away , either the laws are of little worth , and have a very sorry foundation , or the clergy are men of an admirable character . but say you , though our reading , do not immediately bring in popery , yet it sets open our church doors for it : i cannot imagine , why our church doors may not be shutt and lock'd as fast after reading , as before ; but if the clergy pretend to such power with their breath ( as to break the strongest barrs , set open our church-doors so wide , as that they can never be shut again ) they may well allow their prince a dispensing power ; or how can he be safe , as long as they can breathe ? say you , if we comply with this order , all good protestants will despise and hate us : to hate any person , is against an essential part of a good protestants religion ; if the order be not sinful , they will have no cause to despise you , because you read it , and act therein according to your avowed doctrine . if the order be in your opinion sinful , why do you not shew , what law of god is broken by it ? this is that you should have done , and not have insisted on such poor low considerations , as personal danger , dishonour , and falling without pity . he that suffers on a good account , hath honour and comfort enough in himself , and from his god ; he that suffers in a bad cause , falls dishonourably , though he have never so many great men to pity him . the great difficulty , you say , of your case is this , that fall you must , sooner or later ; and therefore like prudent men , you think the wisest course is , to be ruined presently ; but it is not the first time i have heard of that wise sort of people , who are for a short life , and a merry : but what necessity is there of your latter falling ? this is certainly like a melancholy mans cherishing such a resolved jealousie of wanting bread at last , as makes him pine himself to death in the midst of plenty . but what is the ground of this jealousie ? if we fall after reading , this is the way never to rise more : and what mean you by that ? is it that after reading the declaration , if penal laws be taken away , you shall never be trusted again with such a power to mischief your fellow subjects ? if this be all , it may be all for the better ; for neither the prosperity of the church of christ , nor the honour or welfare of the kingdom , do at all depend on one parties having it in their power to impoverish or ruine all the rest of the nation for meer matters of conscience . you now come to examine the matter , as you say , impartially ; and first , yo● suppose , that no minister of the church of england can give his consent to the declaration : this is just as much as to beg the question you should prove , and so all you write signifies nothing with those who do not suppose what you suppose . if you had indeed impartially examined , and proved the matter of the declaration to be sinful ; you would have had no occasion to have discovered your disloyalty , in pretending an authority against the command of your prince , nor of instancing ( as if you had lately perused the old history of the barons wars ) that you have the nobility and gentry on your side . you say , reading the declaration would be no fault at all , but our duty , when the king commands it , did we approve of the matter of it . this is not express'd after the usual manner of the church of england , when treating with the dissenters ; they would not then yield that orders might be suspended from a publication , till those who were required to publish them did approve the matter ; but it was then constantly affirmed , that the order must be obeyed , if the matter of it were not plainly sinful ; and of this , you asserted , authority was to judge : was not this the lowest , you would ever stoop , when scruples were raised , and conscience pretended against your orders ? where does the scriptures forbid it ? if it be not forbidden , the command is plain ( and the safest way must be taken , which is ) to obey . it is certain , some parts of the declaration , contain very plain and necessary truths , which church-of-england-ministers ought to approve ; if there be any thing in it which you think you may not approve , that should have been specified ; it would have been more modest , humbly to have applyed to the king for a convenient explication in that part , then presently in print , to cry the whole is sinful , and a device to ruine that you call the best church in the world. next , you endeavour to prove , that reading the declaration in our churches , is an interpretative consent : because , say you , by our law , ministerial officers , are accountable , for their actions ; and the authority of superiours , though of the king himself , cannot justifie inferiours in executing any illegal command : with reference to the command of superiours , we are to exercise our own judgment and reason ; and we may not obey a prince against the laws of the land , or the laws of god , because what we do , let the authority be what it will that commands it , becomes our own act , and we are responsible for it . this sort of arguing ( whatever may be in it ) would not a few years since be allowed by some sort of people sufficiently known in this kingdom , when urg'd in opposition to their inclinations : then the prince was set above law , and it was his command , and the notification of his pleasure , made any thing ( which was not malum in se ) obliging ; private judgment might by no means be admitted , when once the governours had interessed themselves in it , and made a determination . is it not very dis-ingenuous for any men , especially for ministers , to have recourse to a principle of their adversaries , ( which they have for many years decried ) onely because they would serve themselves with it upon a particular occasion , and to forsake their own doctrine , which they avowed so long as it would gratifie their revenge and ambition , tho now they think it may do them some diskindness ? this is to fetch weapons out of their adversaries artillery , not to fight against them , but to assault their prince , and batter that authority of which they formerly boasted , they were the only supporters : the most unjustifiable , and shameful inconstancy , is that of altering , and changing , and closing with any thing , to serve a present turn ; why may you not tell the people in his majesties words , that none of his subjects shall be forced by fines , and other penalties , to submit their judgment to others in the weightiest matters , as well as to tell the nation this in print , that clergy-men must follow their own judgment , not only in matters of religion , but of law also ? if inferiour officers are not satisfied that their superiours command is not lawful , is it not enough for them to desist from obeying it , without making clamours against it in print ? can they not comfort themselves ( in silence ) with that doctrine of universal passive-obedience , which they , when in the height of their ease and authority , preached to others as orthodox and sound ; and thought they thereby signalized their loyalty above all other societies of people in the world ? if a prince declares , that there are some laws in being , which are greatly injurious to many of his subjects , and that he is willing , that these inconveniences shall be redressed in a legal way : can any thing be more condescending and gracious , then for him to certifie this to his people , who are to choose those that are to repeal such laws as are prejudicial , and make such others , as may be for the publick good ? what hurt can there be in making known the princes pleasure in this , as particularly as he shall think meet , that his people may have time to consider and weigh matters , that nothing be done unadvisedly in such important concerns ? but say you , ministers of religion have the care and conduct of souls , and therefore are bound to take care , that what they publish in their churches be neither contrary to the laws of the land , or the good of the church . if you would keep close to your own argument , you should have said , that ministers who have the care of souls , are bound to take care , that what they publish in their churches , be not contrary to the law of god. but since you speak of the laws of the land , i can see no reason from thence , why such orders as are given , by those that are under his majest● should be enjoyned to be observed , ( though conscience be really concerned in the matter ) and his majesties orders , which have far greater authority be , denied : it may be when people are well acquainted with the kings declaration , it may have this good effect , that the ministers of religion , shall not be compelled to publish other peoples pleasures in their churches ; at least , not under such severe temporal penalties , as have been heretofore insisted on . you say , ministers of religion are not looked upon as common cryers ; but what they read they are supposed to recommend too . if they have not been looked upon as common cryers , i think they have been looked upon as worse ; when bishops sent orders made arbitrarily by justices of the sessions , to be published by them in time of divine service : b●t doth not the rubrick appoint , that what the king enjoyns , as well as what the bishops enjoyn● , shall be published in the churches ? the clergy of the church of england have loudly taught , and solemnly owned , that the king of england , as head of the church , has power to make injunctions and constitutions , and are not ministers every jot as much obliged to be his majesty's cryers , as to be instruments through which the bishop's eccho may sound more audibly to the people ? but what they read , they recommend too . ministers are not to be considered alike , in every thing they publish in the church . a difference arises from the nature of the things we publish : reading a chapter in the bible , and publishing the banns of matrimony , or citations , are differently to be considered ; when you publish the banns , what do you recommend , unless it be to know , whether any of the people have any thing to object , against such persons marrying ? but seeing you say , that for a minister to read any thing in the church which he does not consent to , or approve , is to misguide the people : i would ask you this one question , whether you do really think , that the worship which his majesty doth celebrate , be the true , and right way of worshipping god , which protestants ought to pray he may be kept and strengthened in ? if you are for the negative , pray consider what you recommend to the people , when you read these words in the litany ; that it may please thee to keep and strengthen , in the true worshipping of thee , thy servant james , our most gracious king and governour . but reading is teaching : very good ; what then ? i may not read any thing in the church , but what i approve . but , are not the people judges for themselves of what you read ? it is not your reading a thing in the church , that determines the people , unless they pay the clergy a greater deference than they deserve ; after all your reading , and teaching too , be it in a sermon of your own making , ( which no doubt , you prefer much above his majesty's declaration ) protestants will not follow your conduct any farther , than they are convinced it is good : a man is not determined by what he hears , otherwise than by the evidence he hath concerning it : now it would almost tempt people to believe the declaration hath so much reason and light accompanying it , as our clergy cannot well answer ; and that therefore they are afraid to read it , least the people should be convinced , and not follow their conduct so servilely as they would have them . but , why may i not then read a homily for transubstantiation , or invocation of saints , if the king sends me such ? let the question be , whether every thing read in the church , be a part of divine service ? and then if you consider , and answer it sedately , you will find your own question resolved . if you can prove the declaration to be contrary to the word of god , i will have no further contest with you about reading it in the church : i wish no humane orders were imposed upon ministers , to be read in the church : but if any persons have right to enjoyn them to read such orders there , certainly the king has much more . the king intends , our reading this declaration should signifie to the nation , our consent and approbation of it : what have clergy-men to do , to pry into the king's secret intentions ? the declaration speaks plainly for it self . but the d●claration does not want publishing . how can you tell that ? must the clergy , or his majesty judge when his declaration is sufficiently made known ? but this is designed to serve instead of addresses of thanks , which the clergy generally refused , though it was only to thank the king for his gracious promises , renewed to the church of england : many of the clergy have been looked upon a great while , as persons addicted beyond measure to flatter their prince ; and behold , all on a sudden , they are become rude towards him , or worse ; if they may not have leave to mischief their dissenting neighbours , they will not thank their prince for renewed promises to protect and maintain them : was ever ill manners and ingratitude towards a prince , thus rudely and disingeniously boasted of ? who can think these persons apprehend themselves to be in danger of falling without pity , who brag thus openly of their stoutness , that they would not so much as give their prince thanks , for the most gracious promise he could make them ? you say , it does not become a minister of religion to do any thing , which in the opinion of the most charitable man , can only be excused . in this , i think you are very much in the right ; i wish the multitude to whom your letters are sent , may fix their hearts on this pertinent passage : no charity can excuse at present , a great many of your former practises , nor will they find any excuse at last , if not timely repented of : if you had hitherto acted by this rule , you would never have needed to fear your fall with contempt , or without pity . you mention the book of sports , which w●● ordered to be read in churches . i will not say , how strict the greatest church-men were for reading of it , nor how well it did comport with the fourth command ; i only enquire , whether the present king , has not as much right and power , to order his declaration to be read in churches , as king charles the st . had , to order the book of sports to be read there ? and which of these two did thwart the holy scriptures most ? you say , it is against the constitution of the church of england ; it is to teach an vnlimited and vniversal toleration , which was declared in parliament illegal , in , and has been condemned by the christian church in all ages . the king's authority to make injunctions and orders , has been heretofore cryed up , as a main part of the constitution of the church of england ; how comes this change all on a sudden ? but , what is this universal toleration ? no more but this , that no one party of his majesty's subjects , shall be trusted with a power to destroy all the rest : will nothing serve your turn , unless you may continually render your selves grievous to your fellow subjects ? must none live and enjoy the comfortable influences of society and government , but those who will entirely surrender themselves blindly to your dictates ? methinks , sober , understanding and good clergy-men , should be afraid , lest any of that which was levi's reproach , should be a brand upon them . the instruments of cruelty are in their habitation ; oh! my soul , come not thou into their secret , gen. . , . i will not intermeddle with parliaments , but only say , they are not always of one and the same mind ; and time was , when many of the clergy of the church of england , talked very contemptibly of some of them . but in that you say , it has been condemned by the christian church in all ages ; this wants proof : if it be well considered , the christian church will be found to thrive best , under such an universal toleration as constantine did grant , before ease , pleasure and wealth , had corrupted the bishops . hence the proverb , golden priests , and wooden chalices , golden chalices , wooden priests ; till the clergy grew negligent and haughty under constantines reign : it is certain , the orthodox had no humane penal laws whereby to punish hereticks . say you , ( . ) it is to teach my people , they need never come to church more : to what an extravagant indecency , towards both their prince and their church , will the affection of tyrannizing over others , transport some church-men ? could any enemy of the church of england , have advanced any thing more to her discredit , than to say , her members are under no obligation to attend on her ministry , but what arises from force and penal laws ? why may not people have your leave , as well as their king 's , to go , not only to conventicles , but to the mass , till they are convinc'd , that they do ill in going thither ? it is much better becoming a minister of religion , to convince such by scripture and reason , that their worship is false , then to contend to have them cast into prison , and by fines and confiscations , to compel them against their conscience to come to church ; for their presence there , is no more pleasing to god , nor beneficial to their own souls , whilst their minds are elsewhere , than it would be , if they were at a conventicle , or at mass . ( . ) it is to teach the dispensing power , which alters what has been formerly thought the whole constitution of this church and kingdom . who are they that thus thought formerly ? surely , none of those who taught loudly , and in prints solemnly authorized , that acts of parliament were acts of grace , that the princes power could not be bounded ; if there be any remaining , who were always of another opinion , they may pretend the same things now as heretofore : but for such persons as have been instruments of wrong and mischief , to borrow such notions from others , before they have renounced their former avowed principles , and satisfied for their injuries they have done , they can have nothing to alledge for themselves , which can justifie them in this present affair . ( . ) it is to recommend to our people the choice of such persons to sit in parliament , as shall take away the test and penal laws . is not this to recommend the clergy , as persons of great tenderness toward the people ? you would never permit them to be quiet , as long as it was in your power to make them uneasy : you would now perswade them , that the nobility and gentry are as much against the people's ease , as you are ; ( for which , i suppose , some of them will return you no thanks ) and now you will not read the king's declaration to your people , because it teacheth them how they may provide for their own ease , so as to live peaceably among themselves , and securely , under his majesty's tender and equal care for them all . ( . ) it is to condemn all those great and worthy patriots of their countrey , who forfeited the dearest thing in the world to them , next a good conscience ; viz. the favour of their prince , and a great many honourable and profitable employments with it , rather than consent to that proposal , of taking away the test and penallaws , which they apprehend destructive to the church of england , and the protestant religion : and he who can in conscience do all this , i think , need scruple nothing . your reading the declaration , doth no more condemn those who approve not of the king's intentions therein explained , than your refusing to read it , doth condemn the king : a good conscience should be very dear to every man ; i think no man should act in direct opposition to an erring conscience , till he can be better instructed . those that do really apprehend , that taking away penal laws will be destructive to the church of england , and protestant religion , ought not to interest themselves for the taking them away : but i do not understand , why both these may not be sufficiently secured by other means , than by putting a power in the hands of one party of his majesty's subjects , to ruine all the rest ; whether such a security may not be found out , will be best determined , when considered by the wisdom of the nation , when met ; and in a capacity to repeal some old , and make other new laws , as emergencies may require . now let any rational man judge , whether , notwithstanding all your arguments , a conscientious man , who does not scruple to read the king's declaration , may not scruple at many things which you have done formerly , and at your striving to keep your selves still in a capacity , to do the like for the future . you say , reading the declaration , will render your persons and ministry , infinitely contemptible . infinite contempt , is huge contempt indeed ; i acknowledge , ministers ought to behave themselves so , as that they be neither blamed nor contemned : there is scarce any thing makes a minister more justly contemptible , than encouraging immoralities , flattering and soothing great men , and shewing a domineering temper , and insatiable cruelty , where they can have an opportunity to exercise it : let such as have been guilty of these or the like crimes , reflect on themselves and repent , and they need not fear contempt for reading the declaration . nothing will so effectually tend to the final ruine of the church of england , because our reading will discourage , or provoke , or misguide all the churches friends . in that you except not one of her friends , you horridly affront them all , by the character you give them ; for you herein suppose them all to be either very timerous , very testy , or very ignorant persons ; but i think you are greatly out , and lay abundantly more weight on the clergies reading the declaration , than it will bear : for whether you read or no , such as are judicious and good friends to the church , will be firm to her , and to their religion ; and till you prove , that nothing can secure the religion of our church , but these penal laws and tests , your dismal consequence vanishes into nothing : the church of england may be kept upon her true foundation , ( and i hope penal laws have not much to do there ) and be by law secured in all her rights , from being hurt by any other parties , ( if these laws and tests be repealed . ) and she will be never the less beautiful and prosperous , because the power which she has used to hurt others , is taken out of her hands : but how does your reading contribute so mightily to a repeal , when all that hear it , are at liberty to judge for themselves ? your way of discoursing as you do , about reading the declaration , would tempt one to think , that you are of opinion , either , that the declaration is attended with such convincing reason , as will certainly satisfie people as soon as they hear it ; or else , that nothing is necessary in any point to determine , and fix people's minds and judgments , but only to have such a thing read by the minister in the church . your answer to the objection you raise touching dissenters , is very faint : say you , when there is an opportunity of shewing our inclinations without danger , they may find we are not such persecutors as we are represented . though they are not to be compared with the nobility and gentry ; yet one would think , one positive promise might have been by you , on this occasion afforded them ; what signifies , they may find , that which they could never yet find ? for as oft as you have been tryed hitherto , you have as soon as ever you were in a capacity , proved unfaithful to them ; they have felt the weight of your fingers : there neither has been , nor is any need of others to represent to them what persecutors you have been , and may be found again , if you have opportunity of shewing your inclinations without danger , for ought that you have hitherto manifested to the contrary : for here is not a word of any positive respect or tenderness towards them : is there a change wrought in your inclinations , without any sence of the wrong you have done ? here is not a syllable of any relenting at your former severities ; your letter abounds with flattery towards the nobility and gentry , repeated many times over , but not a tittle of any care you have taken , that the dissenters may have their liberty : as oft as it hath been granted by royal dispensations , you have been angry at it ; as oft as it has been propos'd in parliament , you have oppos'd it : so that you might have omitted this objection you have raised concerning the dissenters , and have passed them over in silence , as a people , whose anger or friendship you have no regard to ; unless after you made the objection , you had vouchsafed to have answered it also , more to their satisfaction . you conclude with a very honest proposal of prayer , with which i heartily concur ; and pray , that every party of professed christians , may upon all occasions , approve themselve persons of true piety , moderation , and real fidelity . allowed to be publish'd this th . day of july , . london● printed for e. reyner and w. faulkner , and are to be sold by most booksellers . second thoughts, or, the case of a limited toleration, stated according to the present exigence of affairs in church and state clarendon, edward hyde, earl of, - . this text is an enriched version of the tcp digital transcription a of text r in the english short title catalog (wing c ). textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. the text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with morphadorner. the annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. this text has not been fully proofread approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. earlyprint project evanston,il, notre dame, in, st. louis, mo a wing c estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) second thoughts, or, the case of a limited toleration, stated according to the present exigence of affairs in church and state clarendon, edward hyde, earl of, - . p. s.n., [london : ?] caption title. reproduction of original in huntington library. eng church and state -- england. dissenters, religious -- england. a r (wing c ). civilwar no second thoughts; or the case of a limited toleration, stated according to the present exigence of affairs in church and state· clarendon, edward hyde, earl of c the rate of defects per , words puts this text in the c category of texts with between and defects per , words. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - jennifer kietzman sampled and proofread - jennifer kietzman text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion second thoughts ; or the case of a limited toleration , stated according to the present exigence of affairs in church and state . nihil violentum durat . since our present condition more , than ever , requires our being strong , & of a peice within our selves ; for ( besides domestique misunderstandings ) have we not powerful neighbours hovering over us , and perhaps watching the opportunities , which our weakness and divisions may give them ? and since our want of union , & intestine animositys chiefly result from our different judgements in religion , and from the several consequences thereof , i hope , i shall not mistake my duty in offering my thoughts to those , who are the proper judges , concerning that so much debated question of punishing or tolerating non-conformists . on this subject my endeavour shall be to speak plainly , like a good english man , without any byas of prejudice , or favour to the persons concern'd ; and , whereas many persons of great authority may perhaps be of a different judgement from mine , in the point , i am to handle , i beg the favour of my reader to beleive , that nothing but the interest of my country could have engaged me in a question of this nature , in opposition to so considerable ▪ a party , of whose abilitles i have a very true and just veneration . in the first place , it must be allow'd , that cold it be effected , nothing were more to be desi●ed , in order to the lasting happiness of this nation , than a conformity of all minds , under the same doctrine , and worship in religion ; that so , as our bodys , and outward actions are govern'd by the same temporal laws , our souls and our opinions ( though in matters relating to the world ) might also be united under one , and the same ecclesiasticall discipline , and were england at present under that happy condition of spiritual vnion , i should think it rational and seasonable by the rigour of law● , to preserve it in such a state of tranquillity , by suppressing all upstart innovators , & frighting the people from the dangerous affectation of novelty . but since we enjoy this universal harmony only in our wishes , ( diversity of opinions in matters of religious worship having held so long a possession in the minds of the people ) & since the cockle is so generally spred , and mingled with the corn ; that 't is impossible wholly to root up one without apparent danger of destroying the other , i think it behoves us to take our measures according to the present state , and juncture , of our affairs , and choose that expedient , which is best for us , and withal is attainable by us in the circumstance , we now are in , not that , which ( although best in its self ) is not possible for us to attain . and here ( i conceive ) lyes the root of their mistakes , who have lately with so much zeal opposed a toleration : they tell us what should be , not what may be done ; and deliver many truths concerning the beauty and expediency of a general vniformity ; but their discourse seems cut out , and made to fit an vtopian kingdom , not england in its present condition . for according to true policy & reason we ought either wholly to root out all dissenters , or else so to tolerate them , that they may live at ease and contentedness amongst us ; whereby they may become , if not of the church , at least sound members of the common wealth . let the opposers of a toleration shew us a safe and ready way to rid the nation of all non-conformists , though i confess i am no friend to force and violence , especially in matters of conscience , yet i should not obstruct any cause , that would certainly produce , so happy an effect : but , if this be impossible for them to do , and if the method by them prescrib'd , and made use of , serves only to exasperate , not to carry of the peccant humour , i must conclude , that the good of the nation is either not rightly understood , or not justly pursued by them . for what can be more pernicious to the safety of any kingdom than to have within it self so great a body , as all the dissenters in england make , continually exasperated by penaltys and invaded by a legall kind of hostility ; who , thus made enemys by the law , must by a natural consequence be still watching occasions of easing and unburthening themselves ? what is this but to nourish and foment in our bowels the seeds of a civil war , that want nothing but an opportunity ( which for mischief too frequently presents it self ) to break forth in a consuming flame ? perhaps you will say , that a wholsome violence may cure their obstinacy , and reduce them to obedience , and in time make them less numerous , and so less dangerous . i answear , that compulsion may bring many hypocrites , but no real converts into our church : for conscience is of so spiritual a nature , that outward force can have no influence , nor dominion over it : we cannot over-rule it in our selves , much less in others . at home in our own breasts interest cannot bribe it , to judge otherwise of our own proper actions , than according to that light of nature , or grace , which god has bestowed upon it : and , although it be granted in the case of non-conformists that their conscience is erroneous , yet , as such it can never be rectified by fear , and force , but only by conviction of judgment . hence it may be inferred , that nothing does more efficatiously dispose and prepare the minds of men for treason and rebellion , than by force to make them act against their conscience in matters of religion : for they who have once overcome the remorse of their god ( which is the case of all such compliers without conviction of judgment ) shall never stick at breach of faith with prince or magistrate , when ever the like motives of interest or fear shall prompt them to it : whoever therefore shall design to reduce so great a multitude of differing judgments to an uniformity of profession , by the way of rigour and infliction of paenalties , can reasonably expect no better success , than to fill the church with hypocrites , and the state with subjects , train'd up , and principled for rebellion . of this truth we have an illustrious example recorded by sozomen , ( cap. . hist. trip. ) constatius father to constantine the great , having many christian souldiers under his command ( himself being a gentile ) resolved to make trial of their temper , and find out amongst them , who were fit or unfit for trust , and employment : accordingly calling them together , he declared that all such as would sacrifice to his gods , should continue in his service , but that the refusers should forthwith be casheerd , and might thank his clemency , that he proceeded no farther against them . hereupon when some obeyed the general , and some their conscience ; those who prefer'd religion to their interest , he immediately took into favour , and office ; and the temporizing conformists he excluded from all employment ; presuming ( says our authour ) that such could never be loyal to man , who so lightly had forsaken their god . from what has been said , we may draw this conclusion , that where infliction of paenaltys prevails in order to an exterior conformity , in such to their errour of judgment it adds hypocrisie , whereby they become worse christians and subjects , than before ; and where it does not so prevail , it lays the foundation of a civil war , by daily exasperating so great a part of the nation , or rather begins it , by continually invading ( though under colour of law ) the liberties and goods of our fellow subjects . if it be replyed , that although ( being prosecuted by the law ) they may be irritated , and dispos'd for mischief , yet ( being tolerated ) they will encreas in strength , and by consequence encreas our danger . i answear that how great a paradox soever it may seem at first sight , yet most true it is , that ( taking the whole body together of the dissenters , who are equally concerned in the prosecution ) they are far more dangerous and powerfull to do mischief , when prosecuted than when tolerated : for when they are all in a suffering condition they are united together in one common cause and concern of easing themselves from the pressure they are under ; and ( being so different in their other principles ) this is the only point they can eenter in , and knit together into a body , and the only band that binds them up in a bundle . but when they are indulged , and left free , ( the cement of a joynt interest being taken away ) they will naturally , and necessarily fall in sunder , and remain as divided in point of faction and party , as they are in tenets and principles . of this we have a fresh and convincing example in the late revolutions , for before the war , when all sectaries and nonconformists lived under the curb and penaltys of the law , and high commission court , they were all embodyed together as fellow sufferers in the common cause , and appeared to the world but as one sect , and were generally known only by the common name of puritans : and to what power and strength they grew by this union , was too fatally known by the famous mischiefs they did . but afterwards ( having shaken off their fetters , and clapt them on their masters ) when they were at ease and prosperity , then did each sect apart begin to set up its own colours ; and the distinctions of the presbyterians , independents , and quakers , grew visible to the world by their divisions and quarrels amongst themselves . and i desire it may be observ'd that monarchy and the church were pull'd down by them at that time , when by a preceding prosecution they had been united together ; and that the church and monarchy were then again restored when by liberty and prosperity those very sects were fallen from one another and each had rankt it self in its own canton , and division . but now it remains to be considered whither these dissenters and nonconformists in religion , are any ways capable of being made loyal and faithful to the government . i think there is but one certain rule to resolve this , and all cases of a like nature : first allowing them to have common sense , it will evidently follow that if we can make it their interest to be good subjects , they will not fail of being so , whoever shall assign any security , but this , for the peoples allegiance , do ( in my opinion ) but play with the wind , and pay us with words . i know , that no bishop no king has past for a fundamental maxime with some , and that english loyalty cannot consist but in the church of england , as it is now establisht : and i suppose they go chiefly upon this ground , that true allegiance must proceed from a rectified conscience , and a rectified conscience from true religion . but i must begg their leave to dissent from them in this particular . all men i confess , should be obedient to their lawful governours for conscience sake , but all men are not as they should be . man-kind in general is constantly true to nothing , but their interest ; how much that over rules conscience in all religions , is but too visible in the world . yet i am far from denying , but that many may be found , who by the ty of conscience only are sufficiently withheld from the enormous crime of rebellion : but since no other person can tell ( all pretending to it ) who these are , and since every good security must be apparent and visible ; i think in foroexterno we ought to exclude conscience , or rather the pretense of it ( which is all we can know of it in another ) from being a sufficient warrantly of allegiance . to retourn therfore from this digression to my former proposition , let men be never so differing in matters of religion , certain it is they will all agree in this point of being constant and true to their own interest : and therefore the great art and secret of government is to make it the peoples interest to be true and faithful to their governours . now 't is apparent that if all these dissenters in religion who at present lye under the lash of the law , were so far indulged , that they might live with security of their estates and liberty of their persons amongst us , and peacably enjoy their conscience in their own way of religious worship , it would be clearly their interest to be obedient unto , and maintain that government , under which they are so protected : for none are so dull , but must understand , that when they are in a quiet enjoyment of their livelihoods , if disorders and war should come upon them , they must needs ( at least the major part of them ) be greater loosers , than gainers ; so that the publick peace will now become their private interest . and this is the only basis and foundation , on which all government can firmly be establisht . they who imagine that vnity of religion is absolutely necessary to vnity of interest , must needs fancy to themselves such an extraordinary charm , in the peoples meeting together on sundays in the church , that they cannot fall out all the week after : but we find by sad experience that persons of the same religion ( witness the wars between sweden and denmark , france , and spain ) quarrel no less fiercely , than others , who are most distant in their principles of belief : and they are strangers in the affairs of the world , who have not learnt , that interest and not religion , makes all the great enmitys , and amitys both publick and private . our neighbours of holland , who are very competent judges in matters relating to publick advantage , and self-preservation , by their practice sufficiently shew the conscistency , and expedience of tolerating different religions under the same government : france affords us the like presedent ; and i fear , till we follow their example in england too , i fear we shall not arrive to that plenty , and power , which both those states at present enjoy . for nature hath so placed this island , that whenever we are masters at sea , we are umpires of this part of the world ; so that we must always rise or fall in plenty , and power , as we encrease or decay in traffick , and navigation . now upon a just calculation t wil appear , that the sea-fareing men , and the trading part of the nation , dos in a great measure consist of non-conformists ; and that much of the wealth and stock of the kingdom , is lodged in their hands , who have no great devotion for the present liturgy , & hierachy of the church of england . wherefore we need go no farther to find out the cause of that general damp upon traffique and commerce , than the strictness of our laws upon that sort of people ; by which some of them are disabled , and others discouraged from employing their industry , and their stock for carrying on the trade of the nation . but whilst upon these motives , i plead for a toleration of non-conformists ; thereby i intend no more , than a bare exemption from penalties , with a liberty of exercising their religion under such competent restrictions , as shall be judged necessary , both to secure the publique from a riot , and sedition , and to put a difference between their conventions , and the religious assemblies of the church , established by law . moreover , i think it necessary , that they should be excluded from offices , and places of eminent trust , both civil , and ecclesiastical : because , should they be admitted to an equality of power , and authority in the kingdom , their oppression , and natural endeavour to advance their own ways in religion , might tempt them to push forwards , and struggle for the right-hand of fellowship ; so as the peace of the nation might be endangered . i should here have closed up this discourse , did i not find that many reverend members of the clergy , have been lately great opposers of a toleration ; which leads me to consider , whither the admission of it be prejudicial to the safety and interest of the church . if we call to mind by what means true religion was first planted , & propagated in the world , we shall find that force , and compulsion , had no hand in the work : both the precepts , and example of our great master , and his disciples , are directly opposite to it : for my part , i think , that humane prudence , as well as christian piety , obliges their successors to follow the same method of reclaiming dissenters by gentleness , and meek exhortations , according to the direction of st. paul . for since the chief designe and most incumbent duty of the church is to convert misbelievers , and to bring back into the fold those who have straied away ; there is nothing so necessary and conducing to this work , as to procure in the minds of dissenters a good opinion , and esteem of the charity and paternal care of those , who undertake to instruct them in the right way . this was the method of our saviour himself , who began his great business of converting mankind , by first obliging the people with temporal blessings , that so he might win them to spiritual happiness ; for this reason he miraculously fed so many thousands in the desert , and so often cured their bodily infirmitys , in order to the healing , and nourishing their souls : but the infliction of corporal punishment or pecuniary mul●ts , is so far from producing this effect of love , and esteem in their minds , whom we are to make our proselytes , that it constantly begets an aversion , and hatred in the punished against the authors and promoters of this punishment , so that churchmen must either necessarily give over the design of converting dissenters ( which is a principal part of their function ) or the practice of abetting the infliction of penalties upon them . if excommunication ( which is a seclusion from joyning with the congregation in religious worship ) be the proper , and just punishment of error in religion , according to all the primitive rules , and practice of christianity , is it not strangely preposterous , that these dissenters instead of being shut out , should be violently forc't into the church , and ( even during their non-conformity of judgment ) be compelled to a participation in divine worship with the faithful by all those sharp paenaltys , which the law inflicts upon recusancy ? instead of the gospel rule , which commands us to avoid their company ; we set up a law of our own , which injoyns our meeting together even in the house of god ; whereby the partys compelled act no less against their conscience , than the compellers against the plain letter of scripture . methinks in this case the example of our saviour ought to be our rule , who in person whipt out of the temple those , who came thither upon the score of interest , and nor of religion , but always used the most benign and gentle means imaginable to win people into the church . what can be more contrary to the honour , and dignity of true religion , than that it should appear to stand in need of force to draw men to it ? we shew a mistrust of it's verity , when we dare not leave men the liberty of their judgement and conscience in imbracing it . is not this that very thing , wherewith formerly we have so often reproacht our adversaryes ? and have we not other lawful advantages enough over all dissenters , and sects without calling in the brachium saeculare to confute our opponents , and using means much more , becoming a preaching collonel of cromwels army , than a prelate of the church of england ? have we not truth on our side , the only invincible champion of religion ? are we not establisht by the law of the land , whereas others will at most be only suffered ? are not all ecclesiastical promotions in our power , and occupation ? so that having the strongest motives on our side both temporal and spiritual , to bring men fairly to us , why should we keep up a spanish inquisition of force and violence , and so discredit and weaken our cause , whilst mistakingly we endeavour by undue means to strengthen it . let the presbyterians meet in their halls , the fanaticks in their barns , the papists in their garrets ; shall the church of england assembled in her cathedralls , fear the competition of rivals every way so inferiour to her in force of arguments , and reason , in exterior decency , and gravity , and in the credit of publick authority ? it would argue not only want of courage , but even weakness of faith , and reason too , should we be jealous , that a permission granted to those sects , of having publick meetings would diminish the number of the orthodox in our religious assemblys ; for as all contrarys are best set off , & distinguisht , when together expos'd to publick view , we may presume , that nothing would more advantageously fill our churches , and empty their conventicles , than a liberty given them to appear in a full light ; that so all eyes might judge of the difference between order , and confusion , and between the decency of our rational worship , modeld according to the best patterns of sound antiquity , and the homeliness and clownish manner of their addresses to heaven , form'd out of their own fancy by a cynicall kind of pride , which scorns the direction of their primitive guides . let us not therefore give them that only advantage they have over us , which is of suffering for their religion ; for if we look into scripture , we shall find that persecution in the sufferers , is one of the most conspicuous marks of truth , and in the inflicters of error ; as most evidently appears in the example of that great apostle saint paul , than whom before his conversion , none more zealous , and fierce in the prosecution of christians , and after his conversion , none more compassionate , and charitable , towards his dissenting brethren the iews . the end . a second true defence of the meer nonconformists against the untrue accusations, reasonings, and history of dr. edward stillingfleet ... clearly proving that it is (not sin but) duty . not wilfully to commit the many sins of conformity, . not sacrilegiously to forsake the preaching of the gospel, . not to cease publick worshipping of god, . to use needful pastoral helps for salvation ... / written by richard baxter ... ; with some notes on mr. joseph glanviles zealous and impartial protestant, and dr. l. moulins character. baxter, richard, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing b estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a second true defence of the meer nonconformists against the untrue accusations, reasonings, and history of dr. edward stillingfleet ... clearly proving that it is (not sin but) duty . not wilfully to commit the many sins of conformity, . not sacrilegiously to forsake the preaching of the gospel, . not to cease publick worshipping of god, . to use needful pastoral helps for salvation ... / written by richard baxter ... ; with some notes on mr. joseph glanviles zealous and impartial protestant, and dr. l. moulins character. baxter, richard, - . [ ], , [ ] p. printed for nevil simons ..., london : . errata on p. [ ]. advertisement on p. 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ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng stillingfleet, edward, - . glanvill, joseph, - . -- zealous and impartial protestant. du moulin, lewis, - . dissenters, religious -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - john latta sampled and proofread - john latta text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a second true defence of the meer nonconformists , against the untrue accusations , reasonings and history of dr. edward stillingfleet , dean of st. pauls , &c. clearly proving that it is ( not sin but ) duty . not wilfully to commit the many sins of conformity . . not sacrilegiously to forsake the preaching of the gospel . . not to cease publick worshipping of god. . to use needful pastoral helps for salvation , though men forbid it , and call it schism . written by richard baxter , not to accuse others , but to defend gods truth , and the true way of peace after near years loud accusations of the silencing , prosecuting clergy and their sons . with some notes on mr. joseph glanviles zealous and impartial protestant , and dr. l. moulins character . tim . , . perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds , and destitute of the truth ; supposing that gain is godliness : from such withdraw thy self . but godliness with contentment is great gain . london : printed for nevil simons , at the sign of the three golden cocks at the west-end of st. pauls . . an historical preface . § . the matter of fact occasioning this second defence , hath been formerly , and is after here opened in part . i need now but briefly tell the reader , that after the long difference between the english prelatists , and those that desired reformation and discipline ; the most of the english ministers who were in possession of the parish-churches from , till , obeyed the parliament , so far as to disuse the english book of common-prayer , and subscription , and obedience to the diocesan episcopacy ; some of them being most for church-government by synods of parochial pastors , and assisting elders , and most for a reconciling of the several divided parties , thinking somewhat in the episcopal , presbyterian , and independent parties to be good , and somewhat in each of them unwarrantable . . they were so far independent as to hold , that particular churches associated for personal communion in faith , worship , and holy living , were of divine institution ( such as true parish-churches are ) and that each of these churches ought to have its proper exercise of that discipline which is described by christ , mat. . and by st. paul , cor. . and in other texts of holy scripture , and was exercised in the days of ignatius , and so on for many hundred years ; some part of it still remaining even to the times of popery . therefore they held , that the pastors of such churches must be such as had power to exercise the said discipline . and they held , that parish-bounds were of great convenience against disorder , though not of divine institution ; not taking all that dwell in a parish to be eo nomine , of the church , but such of them as were capable , by continued owning their baptismal covenant , not nullified by proved heresie , or inconsistent wickedness . and they held , that no unwilling person was capable of a sealed pardon of sin , and so of church-communion , nor yet of the true receiving of the use of the pastoral office : and therefore that none but free consenters should have the sacrament , nor be related to the pastor , as his flock of that church : but the rest should be constrained to live as catechumens , or hearers , as they were capable , in peace and quietness ( and such as the magistrate found meet to be tolerated in other churches , who only were uncapable in that ) . . they were so far for presbytery , as to hold , that . if men of competent sufficiency , were made by ordination elders , ejusdem ordinis with the chief pastor , to be his assessors and assistants , though they seldom , or never preached publickly , but helped him in catechizing , or private over sight , and in judging persons and cases ; and though in necessity they laboured with their hands , it would not be unlike the ancient government . . and they judged , that all gods work should be done in the greatest concord , and with the best mutual counsel and help that might be ; and therefore that synods are to that end of great use : and if they were appointed at stated times and places , it would by order , be a furtherance to their ends : but they were not for their assuming a proper regent power , by majority of votes over the minor part , or the absent pastors ; and thought that when sixedness occasioned that usurpation , occasional synods pro re natâ , were better . and . they judged , that presbyters are ejusdem ordinis with bishops , and that no bishops have a divine right to govern without the presbyters assistance , nor to deprive them of any of their power , nor their churches of true discipline or worship , nor the people of their rights ; much less to use any forcing power of the sword on any . . they were so far for episcopacy , as to hold it lawful , and convenient , that the particular churches have one that shall have a priority , and in many things a negative vote , as the incumbent in each parish hath among his curates a sort of power . and that the presbyteries and synods have their moderators ; and if they were fixed durante vitâ , and had a negative vote in ordinations , they could consent ; sobeit they were duly chosen as of old , and had no forcing power by the sword , but only a ministerial , teaching , guiding power . and some of them thought it of divine right , that the apostles and evangelists have successors in the ordinary parts of their office ; and that to have a special ca●e of many churches , and their bishops and elders are some of that ordinary part . . and to the erastians also they granted , that the king is the supreme governour of the church , by the sword , or force ; and that we must obey him , not only when he enforceth the commands of christ , but in all acts of outward circumstance and order , left by god to his determination , and not appropriated to the ministers office . these were the thoughts then of the far greatest part of the ministers that i had then knowledge of . § . . before the king returned , many episcopal doctors and great men , perswaded these reconcilers , that thus much would be accepted to our common concord , if the king were restored ▪ but some said , they do but decieve you ; there are such men now got into chief credit on that side , that will silence you all , and ruine you , unless you will follow grotius , or be of the french religion , or unite in the pope , as principium unitatis , and obey him , as the western patriarck , &c. and when you are all turned out , what men have they to supply your places ? § . . but when the king came in , and encouraged the reconcilers with the promise of his help , they made the attempt in , and . the history of which i need not repeat , since that foreseeing what the silencing of so many ministers , and the afflicting of the people of our mind would unavoidably cause , we pleaded , we petitioned the bishops to have prevented it , by those necessary means which they might have yielded to , to their own advantage : but it was all in vain . § . . when the act of uniformity came out , of about ministers that kept in , and had laid by the liturgy before , about conformed ( to the altered liturgy , before any of them ever saw it , save a few ) by declaring their assent and consent ( the act being known before the book could be printed : ) and about were silenced by that act. how they behaved themselves since then , is so well known , and i have here , and oft declared ; and how the plague first , and the burning of the churches next , and the kings licenses next , did give them the opportunities and calls which made more publick preaching seem to them a duty , that i shall not make recital of it . § . . all this while abundance of invectiues were poured out against them , by many of the conforming clergy , in press and pulpits ; and especially in the ears of great men , to whom we had no access , but seemed what such men described us to be . the new laws against conventicles , and the oxford act of consinement had been added to the first : many were hunted up and down , their goods and libraries distrained ; many were imprisoned ; some there died : the informers and prosecutors grew weary : they saw the severity came most from the prelates , and the parliament , the king being not for severity therein : the justices grew unwilling of execution ; the preachers reprove them , and call on them to put the laws in execution ; they are greatly offended at the kings licenses ; they continue to accuse us for schism at least , and some of sedition ; though we invaded none of their temples , nor askt them for any part of their maintenance . and the parliament and prelates were so sharp against us , that we durst not tell the world what we refused in conformity , and why , lest we put them upon more severity ; nor indeed could we do it , the press was lockt up by so great penalties . but while we were forced to silence , we were lowdly called to , to say what we stuck at , and what it was that we would have . and after years such calls , i ventured to name the things ; and hence is the storm of the present indignation . § . . i had before proved the wilful desertion of our ministry , especially when the king licensed us , to be odious sacriledg : to this i am told , of mens power to silence such as they think deserve it : i grant it , if they truly think so : so may they on just cause alienate churches , and church-lands , and hang malefactors : but not when no such cause is given , nor at their pleasure . § . . when in the fitst plea for peace i had stated the case of our nonconformity , i intended to bring the proofs of each particular supposed sinful , as i after found occasion . and meeting with abundance that accused us of disloyal , rebellious principles , i largly delivered my own , and many others judgment of civil and eccesiastical authority , the power of princes , and the duty of subjects ; and therein also wrote some answer to four accusations brought against us . . that we pretend grace against morality . . that we hold , that things indifferent became unlawful , if commanded . . i largly confuted bishop morley's false accusation of my doctrine , of the magistrates power to command things unlawful by accident ; and dr. parker's doctrine of scandal . . i confuted them that extend our non-conformity to things which we refuse not . all this in the second plea for peace ; which none yet , that i know of , have answered . § . . and lest any should think that we are all for negatives , i wrote a treatise of the only terms of universal christian concord , which i value above all the rest , being assured that the churches will never otherwise be healed , than by that impartial , sure , and easie catholick way , which some have reviled , but none since , that i know of , confuted . one learned bishop ( that had a chief hand in our present impositions and ejection ) i desired to tell me , which is the way of christian concord , if this be not : and he maintaineth , that the only way is to obey the colledg of pastors , who are to govern the catholick church through all the world , per literas formatas . where this colledg , as one governing power do meet , or how they signifie their majority of votes , and in what cases , and who must gather the votes ( from abassia to moscovie ) , and in how long time , and how they shall come to all men with certainty ; and whether the ejected , silenced , and excommunicated , &c. may appeal to them , &c. i could not learn. § . . in the same book i sufficientiy confuted mr. dodwell's great book , which denyeth not only the churches and ministry , which are not by uninterrupted episcopal ordination , but also the ordinary salvation of all such churches , as having no covenant promise , by valid sacraments delivered them . he hath pretended some defence in a late book of letters : to which , if they can be printed , i hope to give easily a satisfactory reply . § . . in the same book he publisheth some old letters of his to me , for the diocesan frame of government ; the notice of which beforehand given me , caused me to publish a full treatise of diocesan episcopacy , containing the reasons why we cannot swear to it , or approve it , or swear never to endeavour any reforming alteration of the frame here setled , and exercised . and whatever mr. dodwell pretendeth to the contrary , if this treatise do not fully answer his letter , and justifie us in this part of nonconformity , i am unable to judg of the cause , but am willing to recieve any better information . § . . and because i find false history , not the least cause of ordinary mistakes , and men cry up diocesan prelacy , as the ancient , and chief cure of schism ; i gathered an abstract of the history of bishops , and their councils , that the true matter of fact might not be so commonly mistaken as it is . § . . at the same time came out against me , first , a book of mr. john cheyneys , the mistakes of which i manifested in an answer : and afterward old letters of mr. hinkleys , to which i had an old answer , which i cast by , and now published : and another accuser , abounding with untruths , called the impleder ; and another called reflections , or speculum , &c. and another book of mr. cheneys , full of most pitiful mistakes ; all which , with justice l'estrange's dialogue , and someothers , i answered together in a book called the third defence ef the nonconformists , &c. § . . but the accusations of dean stillingfleet in his sermon , made the loudest noise : in the answer to which , i chiefly desired to have come to some understanding agreement with him , about the true state of our case and controversie ; and to that end , craved his answer to several necessary questions ; but was not able to procure it . and now in his large book , where i hoped to have found an answer to them , i look for it in vain . yea , though mr. hikeringhill roughly provoked him but to expound his own text , and tell us intelligibly , what the same rule is , which the apostle would have all walk by , he will not do it ; but instead of that , with unusual gentleness tells me , he will not differ about it , if i do but grant , that it is a rule that binds us all to do all that lawfully we can for peace , which i cheerfully grant ; and if it be not lawful for peace and concord to forbear silencing us , imprisoning us , accusing us as odious for not wilful sinning , and urging magistrates to execute the laws against us , and making us seem schismaticks for not forbearing to preach the gospel , to which we were vowed and consecrated by ordination ; i know not lawful from unlawful : i cannot yet get him to tell us , what he would have the many score thousands do on the lords days , that have no room in the parish-churches ; with many such , which our case is concerned in . § . . i thought his book had been an answer to mine , and other mens prefaces ; but i find that i was mistaken : indeed he nameth five books written against his accusation : what he saith to dr. owen , and mr. alsop , i leave to themselves to consider of : the countrey gentlemans case , in sense , was this , whether all they that think parish communion , under the present impositions , to be sin , are bound , till they can change their judgment , to forbear all church-worship , and live like atheists , and so be damned ? and who can find any answer to this ? mr. barret's queries out of his books , he saith , next nothing to , but a dark retracting his irenicon : and far be it from me to blame him for growing wiser . but why took he no notice of his own words , cited in the epistle , out of his late book against idolatry , threatning us all with no less than damnation , if me prefer not the purest church . and as to my defence , his book is nothing like an answer , unless his naming me , and citing out of that , and other books , a few broken scraps , which he thought he could make some advantage of , may be called an answer . § . . i confess he hath made some attempt to tell me what the national church of england is ; but so independently , as i doubt his party will disown it with great offence . in short , he holds , that there is no such thing as a church of england , in the usual political sense , having any constitutive , ecclesiastical , supreme power , monarchical , or aristocratical , or democratical , but it 's only the many churches in england , associated by the common consent in parliament , &c. remember that he and i are so far agreed . as i was writing this , i saw a book against him of a friend , too much for me , and somewhat freely handling the dr. which in this point would help them , by saying , that the convocation having the legislative church-power , may be the constitutive , regent part : but he confesseth to me , that he spake not what is , but what he counts should be , or wisheth ; for the dr. himself had before told us , that the convocations of canterbury and york are two , and not united to make one national , supreme power ; so that this proveth no one political church of england at all , but only provincial churches in england . § . . the dr. hath so judiciously and honestly pleaded our cause in his defence of a. bishop laud , and his book against idolatry , that i have made his words the first chap. of this book , which if he candidly stand to , i see not but our principles are the same . § . . his book is made up of parts . i. untrue accusations . ii. untrue historical citations ( abundance ) . iii. fallacious reasonings . would you have an undeniable confutation , ad hominem , in few words ? i. as to his principles , he saith himself as aforesaid , of idolat . p. . we are sure that wilful ignorance , or choosing a worse church before a better , is a damnable sin . ii. as to his history of the old nonconformists , read a. bishop bancrofts dangerous positions , and heylins history of presbytery , charging them odiously with the clean contrary , and the canons made against them on that supposition . iii. as to his history , and doctrine against the election of bp s , which i pleaded ; ( as i have fully proved his abuse of history in it , ) i repeat mr. thorndikes words , forbear . of penalty . it is to no purpose to talk of reformation of the churchtoregular government , without restoring the liberty of choosing bishops , and priviledg of enjoying them to the synods , clergy and people , in the making of those of whom they consist , and by whom they are to be governed , that i need make no other reason of the neglect of episcopacy , than the neglect of it . o pray hard to god to provide greater store of skilful , holy and peaceable labourers for his harvest , that by the sound belief of a better world , have overcome the deluding love of the honours , prosperity and pleasures of the flesh , and wholly live to god and heaven . postscript . dr . edward stillingfleet irenic . p. . saith , the episcopal men will hardly find any evidence in scripture , or in the practice of the apostles , for churches consisting of many fixed congregations for worship , under the charge of one pastor ; nor in the primitive church , for the ordination of a bishop , without the preceding election of the clergy , and at least , consent and approbation of the people ; and neither in scripture nor antiquity , the least foot-step of the delegation of church-power ; so that upon the matter all of them at last make use of those things in church-government , which have no other foundation but the principles of humane prudence , guided by scripture ; and it were well if that were observed still . p. . surely then their diocesses we re not very large , if all the several parishes could communicate on the same day , with what was sent from the cathedral church . p. . i doubt not but to make it appear , that philippi was not the metropolis of macedonia , and therefore the bishops there mentioned could not be the bishops of the several cities under the jurisdiction of philippi , but must be understood of the bishops resident in that city . p. . there must be a form of ecclesiastical government over a nation , as a church , as well as of civil government over it as a society governed by the same laws . — for every society must have its government belonging to it , as such a society : and the same reason that makes government necessary , in any particular congregation , will make it necessary for all the particular congregations , joyning together in one visible society , as a particular national church : for the unity and peace of that church ought much more to be lookt after , than of any one congregation . p. . the churches power , as to divine law , being only directive and declarative ; but as confirmed by a civil sanction , is juridical and obligatory . p. . where any church is guilty of corruptions , both in doctrine and in practice , which it avoweth , and professeth , and requireth the owning them , as necessary conditions of communion with her ; there a noncommunion with that church is necessary , and a total and positive separation is lawful and convenient . p. . where any church retaining purity of doctrine , doth require the owning of , and conforming to any unlawful , or suspected practice ; men may lawfully deny conformity to , and communion with that church in such things , without incurring the guilt of schism - . p. . let men turn and wind themselves which way they will , by the very same argument that any will prove separation from the church of rome lawful , because she required unlawful things as conditions of her communion ; it will be proved lawful not to conform to any suspected , or unlawful practice , & c. - . they lay the imputation of schism on all them who require such conditions of communion , and take it wholly off from those who refuse to conform for conscience sake . a premised explication of the equivocal word church . the word [ church ] being equivocal , is unfit for our disputation , till explained : it signifieth ( being a relative ) several sorts of related assemblies : which are distinct . i. in their matter : a church of jews , turks , christians , of orthodox , and of hereticks , being not one thing . ii. in the efficient : a church of gods instituting , or a church of mans . iii. in the fnds. . a christian assembly at a fair , or market , or court , or army , &c. is not the same with an assembly for religious exercises . . nor an assembly for legislation about religion ( in parliament ) , or consultation in synods , or disputation in schools , the same thing as an assembly for stated worship . &c. iv. in the form , or constitutive relation to the correlate : and so the great difference which now concerneth us to note is , that a church of equals in office and power is one thing , and a political society , related as governours , and governed , is another . the first , is either an accidental assembly , or else a designed assemby by consent . this last is either an assembly of lay-men , which may be agreed hereafter to come under government ; and may meet to worship god without a pastor ; and this in politicks is usually called , a meer community . . or an assembly of rulers or pastors in equality ( as to government there ) : and this is called , a council , synod , dyet , parliament , convention , &c. v. a governed ▪ or political church is of three several species ( at least ) as there are three species of such government . i. a christian family , consisting of the family-government , and governed , living together in holy faith , love , worship , and obedience to god ; the master being their teacher , ruler , and guide in worship . ii. a pastoral-church , consisting of one , or more pastors , and christian people correlated as his flock , for the benefit of his pastoral office , which essentially containeth a power to teach them , lead them in worship , and govern them by the keys , as a ministerial judg , who is fit for that commmunion . all together is called also , the power of the keys , and is subordinate to christs teaching , priestly , and ruling office. iii. a royal , or magistratical church , consisting of a christian soveraign , and christian subjects , to be ruled by his sword , or forcing power under christ , and his laws , for the spiritual and temporal welfare of the society , and the glorifying , and pleasing the lord redeemer . and iv. the universal church comprehendeth all these three as parts , and is most excellently , properly , and fully called , the church , consisting of jesus christ the chief pastor ( teacher , priest , and king , an eminent perfect policy ) with all christians , as the subject part : it is visible in that the subjects , and their profession , and worship are visible ; aod christ was visible on earth , is visible in the court of heaven , his laws , and providence are visible , and he will visibly judg the world , and reign for ever : and it is no further visible . the constitutive , essential parts , are only christ and his subject-body : the noblest , organical parts of that body , are prophets , apostles , evangelists , pastors , and teachers . in all this , note . that we have no difference , that i know of , about the church in any of these senses before mentioned , except , . how far men may invent church-forms for gods service ( without gods particular prescript , or institution ) . . whether it be true , that the king is so persona mixta , as some hold , as to be king and priest , and to have the power of church-keys , and word , and sacraments . . whether over and above the lowest pastoral churches christ hath instituted a direct , superior pastoral sort of churches , to rule the inferior , in faith , worship , and the keys of discipline , over pastors and people ? and if so , what are these superior pastoral churches , wh●ther diocesan , provincial , national , patriarchal , papal , or all ? and if christ made no such , whether men may make them ? . and note , that we are certainly agreed , that the magistratical form of forcing power , and the pastoral form of sacerdotal power of the keys , are two , though the subjects should be the same ( though usually the church is in the commonwealth , as part ) : and none of us deny a christian common-wealth , monarchical , aristocratical , or democratical ; and though this power be over the pastoral church , it is but accidental , and not essential to it . . and note , that the chief questions which i put to the dr. about this , were , . what is the pastoral specifying form of the church of england ? and . whether it be of divine or humane institution : and i have brought him to maintain , that there is no such church of england at all . and of the royal church or kingdom we are members as well as he . . and lastly , note , that as to a pastoral church , we agree , i suppose , in distinguishing a transient , and a fixed relation . and as he that is a licensed physician , acteth as such where he cometh , though related fixedly to no hospital ; so if a lawful minister of christ , either fixed in another church , or in none but the universal , be called , pro tempore , for a day , to do his office in another church , he acteth as christs minister , and their pastor for that day● : and if a travelling christian joyn with them , he is a member for that day : yea , if the whole company intend to meet but that one day in the same relations , to the same ends , it is a temporary , transient pastoral church . but fixed inhabitants for order and edification , ought to fix their relation and practice . though most of this be said after , where he calls me to it , i thought meet here to premise the explication of the word [ church ] ( as in divers books largely i have done of the word [ separation ] lest i imitate him in leaving my explication to the hinder part , and we should dispute about a word , which the reader , and perhaps our selves understand not . but we have a greater controversie than this , risen since a. bishop laud's , and grotius's reconciling design , v z. what the catholick visible church is ? . protestants have hitherto held , as the first point of difference from the papists , that the universal church hath no constitutive head , or supreme regent power but christ . he hath setled no one , vicarious , or deputed supreme , monarchical , aristocratical , or democratical . . accordingly they noted the difference of two sorts of papists , some that set the pope as superior , above councils ; others ( as the councils of constance , and basil , and the french , that make the general council supreme , the pope being president , as the chief of the patriarchs , and having many priviledges , as primate to the universal church . . but that in truth , the catholick governing power of pope , and the other four patriarchs , was but a humane form of church policy setled in one empire as a national kind of church , and the councils were universal as to the empire , but not to all the christian world ( which i have proved against w. johnson fully ) called by the emperour that had no power over other nations , and subscribed by his subjects . . that the grand cheat that hath set up popery , is the turning this national church into an universal government of all the christian world ; and pretending that christ , or his apostles set up that power over all , which emperours , and imperial councils set up only over one empire . . we are sworn against forreign jurisdiction by the oath of supremacy . for the roman empire is dissolved , and if it were not , we are no subjects of it . . yet we hold that all christians should live in all possible love and concord , counselling , and helping one another for the edification of the church ; and that such councils are useful thereto , as may be had without more hurt than good . but that no universal governing power besides christs ( for legislation , judgment , or execution ) is needful to that concord ; nor is a government of the whole christian world by any one political supreme , pope or council , or colledg of pastors , or cardinals , any more possible or lawful to be sought , than that all the kingdoms on earth have one humane civil soveraign ; though all kings , as well as all bishops , are bound to serve god with the greatest concord that they can attain . but now he that will read many late divines of england , will find , that they are come to this , . to take the foresaid conciliar , and french papists to be no papists ; and so to make it a controversie , de nomine ( in which , for me , let them have their liberty ) . to take it for a necessary thing , to believe that the universal church in the world hath one supreme governing power under christ , and is a society , that is , therein visibly one . and . that this one ruling power is either a general council , or the colledg of all bishops on earth . . and that the imperial church-form was , and is to be the true universal church form , viz. a general council , where the five patriarchs are by themselves , or by consent . . and that the pope is president , and principium unitatis , and chief patriarch , and so to be obeyed by us . . and that there is no true way to universal concord but by being of this one church , so formed , and obeying its universal laws , which they say , christ hath given them power to make . . and that they are schismaticks , and not to be tolerated that do not so consent and obey . . yea , say some to us in england , it is compelled obedience to all the present impositions , which only must cure our divisions , without abatement for union , or any tolerations . a great deal more of this nature is built on this principle , that the church in all the earth is one , as under one humane supreme government , under christ , and that all are schismaticks that are not of it , and obey it not . i am not for disgracing any by the name of papists that refuse it ; whether the french , and the councils of pisa , constance and basil shall be called papists i contend not : but whether those false principles be the only terms of concord , wise men will cautelously consider . advertisement . there is lately published a book of the same authors , called , a search for the english schismatick , by the case and characters . of the diocesan canoneers . . of the present meer nonconformists . not as an accusation of the former , but a necessary defence of the latter , so far as they are wrongfully accused and persecuted by them . and is to be sold by nevill simmons , at the sign of the three golden cocks at the west-end of st. pauls . the contents . an historical preface : dr. stillingfleet's judgment as in his irenicon . a premised explication of the equivocal word church . what the catholick church is in our judgment , and what in the judgment of many of our silencers . — chap. . dr. stillingfleet's large and plain asserting of our principles in his defence of archbishop laud , and rom. idolatry . p. . chap. . some animadversions on his preface : whether the jesuits first brought in spiritual prayer . a full explication of our judgment about spiritual prayer . his hard terms against mens ( high or low ) chusing tutors for their children . — p. . chap. . dr. stillingfleet his accusations examined : his confusion ; disputing a question not stated : what he means by [ our church ] by communion ] by [ constant ] by [ withdrawing ] by [ separate congregations ] what separation i am for or against . whether he say true , that my tremendous aggravations of the sin of conforming were written without the least provocation on their part : or that as designed to represent the clergy as notorious lying perjured villains , p. . &c. chap. . his false history of the old nonconformists : as if bancroft's danger . posit . heylin , and all such old accusers , utterly belyed them , and the canons made against them had a false supposition : his citations examined : more proof of his falsification : the difference between the nonconformists and the brownists . how we are used by them . the reformatio legum eccles . how much for discipline . i now add my request to the reader that would know how far the first reformers were of the nonconformists mind , and against our new church-men , that they would but read cranmers , and the other drs. words cited by dr. stillingfleet in the end of his irenicon ( and left out of dr. burnet's history ) and bucer's scripta anglicana , de regno del , his censura of the liturgy , & de cura anim. &c. the story of dr. ames , paul bayne , dr. fulk , &c. dr. humphrey's letter to the bishops , — p. , , . — chap. . the false reasonings and accusations of his second part , p. . my judgment and case stated , which he falsly reporteth : others cases considered whether it be true , that there is no other reason against communion than was at the first reformation . difference proved , . from the things imposed . . from the design of the imposers . . from the effects . . from the case of the church with whom we communicate . . from the additional reasons for our preaching , p. . what he would have them do that cannot have room in their churches , p. . his appeal to my case at kederminster , shamed , p. , &c. his false supposition that most of my hearers need not our teaching , because they sometimes hear in the parish-churches , p. . he acquits them from schisme that separate , if the church be schismatical , . ( i desire the reader then to read my few sheets , called a search for the english schismatick . ) more mistakes . p. , . chap. . whether he be no christian , that is not a fixed member of a particular church ? the doctors schismatical error confuted , p. . ( he by this condemneth apostles , and evangelists that were itinerant and unfixed , such as bucer de regno dei would have sent abroad ) my exceptions about churches and ministers justified , and his calumny detected , p . whether i give too much to the people , or am against the rights of patrons , or magistrates , p. . many more calumnies to p. . he accuseth , me , as accusing them for naming the sins that i dare not commit , p. . more of his vain accusations to p. . whether he be for silencing us p. . more of his calumny , p. . considerable quere to him , p. . how he would drive men to separation , p. , . he is come to self-condemning gentleness , in expounding his rule and text , phil. . . p. . his sad ennumeration of the causes of just separation , p. . chap. . he begins his third part with more false accusations , p. . his history for diocesan churches against parochial found fallacious , p. , &c. his vain plea for the english frame , p. , &c. he saith , it s probable while the apostles lived there were no fixed bishops , or but few , p. . ( and dr. hammond saith , no subject presbyters ) whether john fox were the publisher ( or prefacer ) of the reformatio legum , &c. p. . discipline hard , but not unnecessary , p. . chap. . what the national church of england is , fully discussed ; and the doctors self-contradictions detected : he denyeth any true political church of england : he and we more agreed , than he and other high church-men , that are for a constitutive political government , p. , , &c. he maketh it an introduction of popery , to hold that a church must have a constutive regent church-power ; and so fasteneth popery on the masters of his cause . chap. . that the mutual consent of pastors and flock is necessary to the very being of their relation . about thirty proofs from antiquity , that the universal church was for about years of that mind , and decreed it , p. , &c. the necessity of consent proved from the nature of the work ; where the reasons of it are all plainly opened p. . &c. the doctors contrary surmises and false histories fully confuted , p. , &c. chap. . of the imposed use of the cross in baptisme , and denying baptisme to the refusers . p. . his vaine excuses confuted . whether the cross be used as a sacrament . his disingenuous falsifying my words of the use of crucifixes and other images , p. , &c. what the papists ascribe to sacraments : p. . chap. . whether the excommunicating church , or the excommunicate nonconformists , for not communicating , when ipso facto excommunicate , be guilty of schisme . p. . chap. . of the english sort of sponsors , and the exclusion of the parents duty . p. . ( see more in the postscript ) chap. . of the three french letters which he subjoyneth . p. . chap. . epistles and testimonies , compar'd with the doctors . and notes on mr. jo. glanviles book , called the zealous impartial protestant : with a letter of his to the author ; and a digression about dr. lewis du moulin , his published picture and death-bed repentance . a postscript , of five notices , viz. . of a new observation of the trade of taking mony to be godfathers to poor mens children , and missing baptisme for want of mony . . a letter of mr. w. rathbands , of his fathers judgment and practice . . an excellent confutation of dr. stillingfleets history , of the extent of dioceses , and choice of bishops , fully proving , that the old bishops were parochial or congregational , and always chosen by the people , or not made theirs without their free consent . by a learned and faithful minister . . an excellent vindication of the silenced ministers , by a conformist , &c. . my apologie for the nonformists preaching , written by me , and comming out with this . errata . in the preface , sect. . line . read pleaded for . l. . after clergie and people , add of ●●●●●i●●●s● . so evident is the right of synods , clergie and people . an answer to dean stilingfleets , &c. chap. i. the concord of dr. stillengfleet and the nonconformists , especially with the principles of my book of church concord , about the true nature of schism , and who is the schismatick : written by him at age in his most owned books , and not in youth in his irenicon : i stand to all my words against schism which he hath cited , and so i doubt not but he stands to these following of his . discourse of idolatry of rome , p. . [ though we know not what allowances god will make for invincible ignorance , we are sure that willful ignorance or choosing a worse church before a better is a damnable sin and unrepented of destroys salvation . the papists consent , p. . [ i agree so far with him , that every christian is bound to choose the communion of the purest church : but which that church is , must be seen by the grounds it brings to prove the doctrines it teaches to have been delivered by christ and his apostles . that church is to be judged purest that hath the best ground● , and consequently it is of necessity to salvation to embrace the communion of it . pag. . . [ . the churches power is only to edification and not to distruction : for this was as much as the apostles challenged to themselves ; and i hope none dare challenge more : but this is a principle of natural reason , that no power in a society ought to be extended 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 of it , or to contradict the end and designe of it . . the apostles were the most competent judges of what made for the edification of the church . ] pag. . . [ . it is agreed on both sides that the scriptures do cont●ine in them the unquestionable will of that god whom we are bound to serve , and it being the end of devotion ( as it ought to be of our lives ) to serve him , what is there , the mind of any one who sincerely desires to do it , can be more inquisitive after or satisfyed in , than the rules god himself hath given for his own service . because it is so easly a matter for men to mistake in the waies they choose to serve him in : i see the world divided more scarce about any thing than this : pag. . can any man imagine a better way , if it could be hoped for , than that god himself should enterpose , and declare his own mind , according to what way they ought to serve him ! and this is acknowledged to be done already by all christians in the scriptures , and after all this must not all persons concerned be allowed to enquire into that which is owned to be the will of god , or do they think that ordinary people that understand not latine and greek ought not to be concerned what becomes of their souls ? if they be and do in good earnest desire to know how to please god and serve him , what directions will they give him ? they must do as they are bidden ] true , say they , if we were to worship you for gods , we would do as you bid us : for we think it fitting to serve god in his own way : but we would know whether that god whom we serve , hath given us any rules for his worship or no. how shall we know whether we keep them or not , or will you take upon you the guilt of our sins in disobeying his will ? this seems to be a very just and reasonable request , and i fear it will one day fall heavy on those who conceale that which they confess to be the will of god , from the knowledge of the people . pag. . [ i agree with him in the way of proof of a churches purity , viz. by agreement with the doctrine of christ and his apostles , and that the church is to be judged purest , which shews the greatest evidence of that consent , and that every one is bound to enquire which church hath the strongest motives for it , and to embrace the communion of it . pag. . [ . to suppose the books so written to be imperfect , i. e. that any thing necessary to be believed or practised are not conteined in them , is either to charge the first author of them with fraud , and not delivering his whole mind , or the writers with insincerity in not setting it down , and the whole christian church of the first ages with folly , in believing the fulness and perfection of the scriptures in order to salvation . read the rest of those excellent rules to the end . in his excellent , vindication of arch bishop la●d , called a rational account of the protestants religion , he hath the same termes of communion and the same description of schism with mine , and i know not how better to express my thoughts , nor plead my vindication , viz. pag. . [ in his defence of arch bishop land ( not yet disowned ) since so great , and considerable parts of the christian churches have in these last ages been divided in communion from each other , the great contest and enquiry hath been which party stands guilty of the cause of the present distance and separation . for both sides retain still so much of their common christianity as to acknowledge that no religion doth so strictly oblige the owners of it to peace and unity as the christian religion doth , and yet notwithstanding this , we find these breaches so far from closing , that , supposing the same grounds to continue , a reconciliation seems to humane reason impossible , an evidence of which is , that those persons who either out of a generous desire of seeing the wounds of the christian world healed , or out of some private interest or designe , have made it their business to propound terms of reconciliation between the divided parties ; have been equally rejected by those parties they have professed themselves the members of . page . . [ the distance then being so great as it is , it is a very necessary enquiry what the cause of it is , and where the main fault lies : and it being acknowledged that there is a possibility that corruptions may get into a christian church , and it being impossible to prove that christianity obligeth men to communicate with a church in all those corruptions its communion may be tainted with , it seems evident to reason that the cause of the breach must lie there , where the corruptions are owned , and imposed as conditions of communion . for can any one imagine it should be a fault in any to keep off from communion , where they are so far from being obliged to it , that they have an obligation to the contrary from the principles of their common christianity ? and where men are bound not to communicate , it is impossible to prove their not communicating to be schism . for there can be no schism ; but where there is an obligation to communion ; schism being nothing else but a willful violation of the bonds christian communion . and therefore whenever you would prove the protestants guilty of schism , you must do it by proving they were bound to communicate with your church in those things which they are protestants for disowning of , or that there is so absolute and unlimited an obligation to continue in the society of your church , that no conditions can be so hard , but we are bound rather to submit to them , then not joyn in communion with you . this being a matter of so vast consequence in order to the setling mens minds in the present disputes of the christian world , before i come to particulars , i shall lay down those general principles which may manifest how free protestants are from all imputation of schism . schism then importing a violation of that communion which we are obliged to the most natural way for understanding what schism is , is to enquire what the foundations are of christian communion , and how far the bounds of it do extend . now the foundations of christian communion in general depend upon the acknowledgment of the truth of christian religion . for that religion which christ came to deliver to the world being supposed true , is the reason why any look on themselves as obliged to profess it ; which obligation extending to all persons who have the same grounds to beleive the truth of it , thence ariseth the ground of society in this profession , which is a common obligation on several persons joyning together in some acts of common concernment to them . the truth then of christian religion being acknowledged by several persons , they find in this religion some actions which are to be performed by several persons in society with each other . from whence ariseth that more immediate obligation to christian society in all those who profess themselves christians ; and the whole number of these who own that truth of christian religion , and are thereby obliged to joyn in society with each other , is that which we call the catholick church . but although there be such a relation to each other in all christians as to make them one common society , yet for the performance of particular acts of communion , there must be lesser societies wherein persons may joyn together in the actions belonging to them . but still the obligation to communion in these lesser is the same with that which constitutes the great body of christians , which is the owning christianity as the only true religion and way to eternal happiness . and therefore those lesser societies cannot in justice make the necessary conditions of communion narrower than those which belong to the catholick curch , i. e. those things which declare men christians ought to capacitate them for communion with christians . but here we are to consider that as to be a christian supposeth mens owning the christian religion to be true , so the conveyance of that religion being now to us in those books we call the scriptures , there must be an acknowledgment of them as the indispensable rule of faith and manners , which is , that these books are the great charter of the christian society according to which it must be governed . these things being premised as the foundation in general of christian society , we shall the better understand how far the obligation to communion in it doth extend . for which it must be considered that the grounds of continuance in communion must be suitable and proportionable to the first reason of entring into it . no man being obliged by virtue of his being in a society , to agree in any thing that tends to the apparent ruin of that society : but he is obliged to the contrary , from the general grounds of his first admission into it . his primary obligation being to preserve the honour and interest of it , and to joyn in acts of it so far as they tend to it . now the main end of the christian society , being the promotion of gods honour , and salvation of mens souls , the primary obligation of men entring into it , is the advancement of these ends to joyn in all acts of it so far as they tend to these ends ; but if any thing come to be required directly repugnant to these ends , those men of whom such things are required , are bound not to communicate in those lesser societies where such things are imposed , but to preserve their communion with the catholick societie of christians . pag. . setting then aside the catholick society of christians , we come to enquire how far men are bound to communicate with any less , society how extensive soever it may pretend it's communion to be . . there is no society of christians of any one communion , but may impose some things to be beleived or practised which may be repugnant to the general foundation of christian society . pag. . . there being a possibility acknowledged that particular churches may require unreasonable conditions of communion , the obligation to communion cannot be absolute and indispensable ; but only so far as nothing is required destructive to the ends of christian society : otherwise men would be bound to destroy that which they beleive , and to do the most unjust and unreasonable things . but the greater difficulty lies in knowing when such things are required , and who must be the judge in that case , to which i answer . . nothing can be more unreasonable than that the society imposing such conditions of communion should be judge , whether those conditions be just and equitable or no. if the question were only in matters of peace , conveniency , and order , the judgment of the society ought to over-rule the judgments of particular persons ; but in such cases where great bodies of christians judge such things required to be unlawful conditions of communion , what justice or reason is there that the party accused should fit judge in her own cause ? . where there is sufficient evidence from scripture , reason and tradition that such things , which are imposed , are unreasonable conditions of christian communion , the not communicating with that society , which requires these things cannot incur the guilt of schism , which necessarily follows from the precedent grounds , because none can be obliged to communion in such cases , and therefore the not communicating is no culpable separation . pag. . his lordship delivers his sense clearly and fully in these words ; 't is too true indeed , that there is a miserable rent in the church , and i make no question but the best men do most bemoan it ; nor is he a christian , that would not have unity , might he have it with truth . but , i never said or thought , that the protestants made this rent . the cause of the schism is yours ; for you thrust us from you , because we call'd for truth , and redress of abuses . for a schism must needs be theirs , whose the cause of it is . the wo runs full out of the mouth of christ ever against him that gives the offence , not against him that takes it ever . page . i do say it now ; and most true it is , that it was ill done of those , who e're they were , who first made the separation . but then a. c. must not understand me of actual only , but of causal separation . for ( as i said before ) the schism is theirs , whose the cause of it is : and he makes the separation , that gives the first just cause of it ; not he that makes an actual separation upon a just cause preceding . and this is so evident a truth , that a. c. cannot deny it , for he says it is most true . that the reader may clearly understand the full state of this controversie concerning schism ; the upshot of which , is , that it is agreed between both parties , that all separation from communion with a church doth not involve in it the guilt of schism , but only such a separation as hath no sufficient cause or ground for it . page . there can be no separation from the whole church , but in such things wherein the unity of the whole church lies ; for separation is a violation of some union : now when men separate from the errors of all particular churches , they do not separate from the whose , because those things , which one separates from those particular churches for , are not such , as make all them put together to be the whole or catholick church . this must be somewhat further explained . there are two things considerable in all particular churches ; those things which belong to it as a church , and those things which belong to it as a particular church . those things which belong to it as a church , are the common ligaments or grounds of union between all particular churches , which taken together make up the catholick church : those things which belong to it as a particular church , are such as it may retain the essence of a church without . now , i say , whosoever separates from any particular church ( much more from all ) for such things without which that can be no church , separates from the communion of the catholick church : but he that separates only from particular churches , as to such things which concern not their being , is onely separated from the communion of those churches , and not the catholick . and therefore supposing that all perticular churches have some errors and corruptions in them , though i should separate from them all , i do not separate from the communion of the whole church , unless it be for something , without which those could be no churches . an evidence of which , is , that by my declaring the grounds of my separation to be such errours and corruptions , which are crept into the communion of such churches , and imposed on me in order to it , i withal declare my readiness to joyn with them again , if those errours and corruptions be left out . and where there is this readiness of communion , there is no absolute separation from the church as such , but only suspending communion till such abuses be reformed : which is therefore more properly a separation from the errors , than the communion of such a church , wherefore if we suppose , that there is no one visible church , whose communion is not tainted with some corruptions , though if these corruptions be injoyned as conditions of communion , i cannot communicate with any of those churches , yet it followes not that i am separated from the external communion of the catholick church , but that i only suspend communion with those particular churches , 'till i may safely joyn with them . as , suppose all the particular men i can converse with , were infected with leprosie , my not associating with them , doth not imply that i am separated from the communion of all mankind , but that i am loath to be infected as they are , and therefore withdraw my self , till i can meet with such healthful persons with whom i may safely associate again . and if several other persons be of the same mind with me , and we therefore joyn together , do we therefore divide our selves from the whole world by only taking care of our own safety ? and especially if any company of such leprous persons should resolve that none should live among them , but such as would eat of those meats which brought that distemper upon them , our withdrawing our selves and associating without them will still appear more reasonable and commendable . therefore we say , we do not necessarily separate from all churches that have errors or corruptions in them , supposing those errors and corruptions be not imposed on us , as conditions of communion ; and thence though we should grant , no one visible church free from taint or corruption , yet it is not necessary we should separate from them all : for we may lawfully joyne in communion with churches having error and corruptions , if our joyning be not an approbation of them . thus though the greeks , armenians , albigenses , abyssins may have some errors , or corruptions , yet if they be not fundamental , and be not joyned as necessary to be approved in order to their communion , notwithstanding them , we may lawfully communicate with them , it doth not then at all follow , that if there may be no one visible church free from error and corruption , it would be necessary to separate from the communion of the catholick church : because , . all those particular churches may not make those errors conditions of communion . . though they did , we separate not from them as catholick , but as corrupt and erroneous particular churches . pag. . to rectifie such gross mistakes as these are for the future , you would do well to understand that schism formally taken alwaies imports something criminal in it , and there can be no just cause for a sin ; but besides that there is that ( which if you understand it ) you would call the materiality of it , which is the separation of one part of the church from another . now this according to the different grounds and reasons of it , becomes lawful or unlawfull , that is , as the reasons do make it necessary or unnecessary , for separation is not lawfull but when it is necessary ; now this being capable of such a different nature that it may be good or evil according to its circumstances , there can be no absolute judgment passed upon it , till all those reasons and circumstances be duely examined , and if there be no sufficient grounds , for it then it is formally schism i. e. a culpable separation ; if there be sufficient cause then there may be a separation , but it can be no schism . and because the union of the catholick church lies in fundamental and necessary truths , therefore there can be no separation absolutely from the catholick church , but what involves in it the formal guilt of schism ; it being impossible any person should have just cause to disown the churches communion for any thing whose beleif is necessary to salvation . and whosoever doth so , thereby makes himself no member of the church , because the church subsists on the beleif of fundamental truths . but in all such cases wherein a division may be made , and yet the several persons divided retain the essentials of a christian church , the separation which may be among any such must be determined according to the causes of it . for it being possible of one side that men out of capricious humours and fancies renounce the communion of a church which requires nothing but what is just and reasonable : and it being possible on the other side , that , a church , calling her self catholick , may so far degenerate in faith and practice , as not only to be guilty of great errors and corruptions , but to impose them as conditions of communion with her , it is necessary , where there is a manifest separation , to inquire into the reasons and grounds of it ; and to determine the nature of it according to the justice of the cause , which is pleaded for it . page . the catholick church therefore lies open and free , like a common field to all inhabitants . now if any particular number of these inhabitants should agree together to enclose part of it without consent of the rest , and not to admit any others to that right of common , without consenting to it , which of these two parties , those who deny to yeild their consent ; or such , who deny their rights , if they will not , are guilty of the violation of the publick and common rights of the place ? page . although nothing separates a church properly from the catholick , but what is contrary to the being of it ; yet a church may separate her self from the communion of the catholick by taking upon her to make such things the necessary conditions of her communion , which never were the conditions of communion with the catholick church . page . since it appears that the communion of the catholick church was free for many hundred years without approving or using these things ; that church , which shall not only publickly use , but enjoyn such things upon pain of excommunication from the church , doth as much as in her lies draw the bounds of catholick communion within herself , and so divides her self from the true catholick church . for whatever confines must likewise divide the church , for by that confinement a separation is made between the part confined and the other , which separation must be made by the party so limiting communion . as it was in the case of the donatists , who were therefore charged with schisme , because they confined the catholick church , within their own bounds : and if any other church doth the same which they did , it must be liable to the same charge that they were . the sum of this discourse is , that the being of the catholick church lies in essentials , that for a particular church to disagree from all other particular churches in some extrinsical and accidental things is not to separate from the catholick church , so as to cease to be a church : but still what ever church makes such extrinsical things the necessary conditions of communion , so as to cast men out of the church , who yeild not to them , is schismatical in so doing ; for it thereby divides it self from the catholick church : and the saparation from it is so far from being schism , that being cast our 〈◊〉 that church on those terms only , returns them to the communion of the catholick church . on which grounds it will appear that yours 〈◊〉 the schismatical church and not ours : for although before this imposing humor came into particular churches , schism was defined by the fathers and others to be a voluntary departure out of the church , yet that cannot in reason be understood of any particular , but the true catholick church . for not only persons but churches may depart from the catholick church : and in such cases not those , who depart from the communion of such churches , but those churches , which departed from the catholick are guilty of schism . these things i thought necessary to be further explained , not only to shew how false that imputation is , of our churches departing from the true catholick church ; but with what great reason we charge your church with departing from the communion of it ; and therefore not those whom you thrust out of communion , but your church so thrusting them out , is apparently guilty of the present schism . page . the truth is such pretences as these are , are fit only for a church that hateth to be reformed ; for if something not good in it self should happen in any one age to overspread the visible communion of all particular churches , this only makes a reformation more necessary , so far is it from making it more disputable . for thereby those corruptions grow more dangerous , and every particular church is bound the more to regard its own security in a time of general infection . and if any other churches neglect themselves , what reason is it that the rest should ? for any or all other particular churches neglecting their duty , is no more an argument , that no particular church should reform it self , than that if all other men in a town neglect preserving themselves from the plague , then i am bound to neglect it too . page . every church is bound to regard her own purity and peace , and in case of corruptions to proceed to a reformation of them . page . saint augustine saith not only in that place , but in very many others , that saint peter did sustain the person of the church , when christ said to him , i will give thee the keyes of the kingdom of heaven . that he did universam significare ecclesiam , signifie the whole church ; and that those things which are spoken of peter , non habent illustrem intellectum nisi eum referuntur ad ecclesiam , cujus ille agnoscitur in figurâ gestasse personam , have no clear sense , but ●hen they are referred to the church , whose person he did 〈◊〉 . pag. he means the formal right of them was conveyed to the church , and that saint peter was only a publick person to receive them in the name of the church . it primarily and formally resides in the whole body of the church . pag. . his lordship saith your opinion is yet more unreasonable ; because no body collective , whensoever it assembled it self , did ever give more powerto the representing body of it , than a binding power upon it self and all particulars ; nor ever did it give this power otherwise than with this reservation in nature , that it would call again and reform , and if need were , abrogate any law , or ordinance upon just cause made evident , that the representing body had failed in trust or truth . and this power no body collective , ecclesiastical or civil can put out of it self , or give away to a parliament or council , or call it what you will , that represents it . his lordship saith that the power which a council hath to order settle and define differences arising concerning faith , it hath not by an immediate institution from christ , but it was prudently taken up by the church from the apostles example . chap. ii. some animadversions on his preface . § . the impartial searchers after truth , have hitherto thought that a strict method ( at least agreeable to natural logick ) is more effectual than confusion or wordy popular haranges : and that the controversie should be very cleerly stated before it can be profitably argued : and therefore that first all ambiguity of terms be by due explication removed , that men may not mean several things and not understand each other ; and to define and distinguish where it is needful , and then affirm or deny , and then effectualy prove . but why this worthy person doth far otherwise with us , both before and now , it is more his part than mine to give the reason : i dare not say he cannot ; nor i dare not say , he can , but will not , but all that i can say is that he doth not , and i know not why . § . the preface of his book called unreasonableness , &c. is so much answered already by mr. lob , that i will not lose time by doing much to the same again : and there is a posthumous book of dr. worsleys called , the third part of naked truth , which hath strenuously handled the same chief matter for scripture sufficiency against unnecessary impositions . it being supposed , though not there expressed . . that he speaketh not against the guiding determination of undetermined accidents which must be determined one way or other : as time , place , utensils , translationwords , metres tunes , &c. . and that a man that intollerably breakes gods laws ( by blasphemy , treason , murder , fornication , &c. ) is not to be tollerated because he erroniously thinks he keepeth them . § . his sad saying [ that there is no improbability that the jesuites should be the first setters up of the way in england which he calls the doctrine [ of spiritual prayer ] mr. lob hath opened , as it deserveth , in part ; but to say all that it deserveth would seem so harsh , that i have reason to think that it would but more offend than profit him . § . for i find that he is grown too impatient with our nameing what he patiently and confidently doth : the cause of his impatience i leave to himself . but that it is much within him i must conjecture , when in his defence of bishop laud i read him saying to the papists [ to speak mildly , it is a gross untruth . ] and yet wen i speak not so plainly to him ( and i think never more sharply ) he accounts it a continued passion , rage , railing , intollerable indiscretion , &c. do i give him harder words than these ? yet i profess i smart not by them : i take them for very tollerable words , in comparison of his miscarriges in the cause in hand . several sorts of men i have found think other men speak in passion : . those that hear and read with passion : they think that which angers them came from anger . . those that are too high to be dealt with on even terms , and think the plain speech which agreeth to others is a contempt of such as them . . those that commit miscarriages so gross and defend causes so bad , as have no names but what are disgraceful , and then take all that is said to anatomatize their cause and errours , to be said against themselves . with these and such others , truth , is not tollerable he raileth that confuteth them , and doth auriculas molles mordaci radere vero . i profess i felt so little passion in writing that book which he saith was written in one continued passion , that i think verily , i sinned all the while , for want of a livelier sense of the sin and hurt which i was detecting by my confutation . but i confess it is my opinion that falshood of speech may lie in describing a thing short of truth , as well as in going beyond it : and that the truth of words is their agreeableness to the matter ( and mind ) : and that verba rebus aptanda sunt : and that he that writeth against sin must call it sin , and open the evil of it . § . his preface giveth us hopes that we are so farr agreed in our ends , as to be both for god , for truth , for unity and peace and love , and against popery , and one would think this much should go far towards our concord . but , alas , all agree not what piety is , or what popery is , nor of the way to our ends . if he think that to be against spiritual prayer would help us against popery , . i would he would tell us , which way . if by reducing the nonconformists to think formes lawful ; so do the jesuites : and he told us that they at franckford took a forme from geneva as useful : and the present nonconformists put their judgment out of question an . , and . in their witings , offers and formes printed . but all that are for formes are not for all things in your formes . . and i would he would have better told us what the spiritual prayer is , which the jesuits first brought in and helpes in popery . for hitherto it is the dead ceremonious formality and imagery of popery , destroying spirituality , ( by words not understood , mummeries , beads , canting stage workes ) which hath alienated most religious protestants from them . i will. . tell you what i take spiritual prayer to be ; and then . . desire his judgment of it . . it is my judgment ( if he know it to be erroneous , i crave his reasons ) . that mans soul is by sin so depraved that it is morally unable without gods spirit , effectually to know , feel and desire deliverance from his own sin and misery , and to desire gods grace and glory , above all worldly sinful pleasures . . that therefore such desires in act and habit must be wrought in us by the spirit of god. and the whole work of regeneration and sanctification is a giving to the soul that new divine nature , love and delight , which worketh by such holy desires . and that as the carnal mind is enmity to god , and cannot be subject to his law , and if any man have not the spirit of christ , the same is none of his ; so to be spiritually minded is life and peace , and god who is a spirit will be worshiped in spirit and truth , and by this we know that we are the children of god by the spirit which he hath given us ; for he promised to pour out the spirit of grace and supplication : and because we are sons , he hath given us the spirit of his son , by which we cry abba father : and this spirit helpeth our infirmities in prayer : if these things be in the papists bible , i hope they are not therefore popery . i suppose the papists also own our god , our saviour and our creed . . the help in prayer which we expect from the spirit , is . . to illuminate us to know what we need and should desire and ask . . to kindle in us holy desires sincere and servent , of what we should ask . . to give us a true belief of and trust in the love of god , the entercession of christ and the promises of the gospel , that we may pray in hope . . to give us thankful hearts for what we do receive , and fit with joy to praise the giver . . to stir up all these dispositions to particular acts in the due season : and to save us from the contrary . . and we believe that a mind so illuminated , and affections so sanctified and kindled , have a great advantage above others coeteris paribus to express themselves in words : for. . a man that knoweth what to say can speak it when the ignorant cannot ? doth not a stock of knowledge enable you to preach without book ? . such a soul will set it self diligently to think what and how to speak in so great a business , when the careless mind it not . . love and delight are very speedy learners . . fervent desire sets all the powers of the soul awork , and is full and forward to express it self . hunger can teach men easily to beg : poor men speak intreaties ; anger , joy , every passion maketh and powreth out words , where there is prerequisite ability . . we believe that he who by natural defectiveness or difuse cannot find words fitly to utter his own mind , may have the help of gods spirit in uttering such words as he readeth or learneth of others ; and ( especially in the case of psalms which are not of sudden invention ) if for concord the churches agree to use the same meet words , gods spirit may actuate their desires therein . . we hold that this holy spirit , is as tertullian speaketh , christs vicar , agent or advocate , by preventing , operateing , cooperating grace , thus to illuminate , sanctifie and actuate believers , in all holy works , and especially in prayer . and i could heartily wish that you would not be against so much , as spiritual preaching , spiritual writing and disputing , and living , and not say that the jesuits brought them in . . i believe that we are baptized into the name of the holy ghost as well as of the father and the son , believing that he is thus christs agent for all this work upon our souls , and covenanting to obey him . . i believe that sins against the holy ghost , especially deriding or reproaching his great works , miraculous or sanctifing , have a dangerous malignity . . i suppose that in all this , the faculties of mans own soul are the natural recipients of the spirits influx , and agent of the act which both causes effect : and that it s as vain a question , whether it be by the spirit or by natural faculties that we pray aright , as whether it be god as fons naturae , or mans natural powers which cause our natural acts ? or whether the act of seeing be from the sun or the eye ? as if the same effect might not , yea must not have a suprior and inferior cause ? . therefore as gods. spirit witnessing with ours that we are his children , so gods spirit helping our infirmities in prayer , suspendeth not the exercise of our spirits , or maketh our reason and consideration needless , but actuateth them in their duty . learning and studying how to pray , is consistent with the spirits help in prayer . i never talkt of it with any nonconformists who denyed that an hypocrite may without any special help of the spirit , speak all the same words in prayer without either book or form , wich another may speak : the help of knowledge , hearing , use and passion may help him to words : therefore they never take a man to be proved godly or sinceer , by his bare words : but by the grace of prayer , which is holy desire &c. and not by the speaking , gift , or habit . . but we think that it was not the jesuits that first said , out of the aboundance of the heart the mouth speaketh ; and though the tongue may lie , it is made to express the mind , and we must judge of other mens minds by their words , till somwhat else disprove them . and its natural for the heart to lead the tongue . and men are more affected by words which come from affection than by those that do not : and reading words written by another when we speak to god , is not so natural a signification of desire or other affection , as speaking them from the present dictate of the heart ; for any child that can read may do the one , and it is not the usual signification of seriousness in other actions . a beggar that should only read his begging lesson , or a child or servant that should only read some words to his father or master , would be thought less sensible of his wants . . ministers should be men better aquainted than the people , how to speak to god and man : it is their office ; and therefore it belongeth to them to choose the words which are fittest : and to set up a ministry that can do neither , is to befriend the prince of darkness against the kingdom of light , and to be a deadly enemy to the church and souls . and to set up a ministry that need not do it , but may choose , or is not obliged to it , is the way to set up a ministry that cannot do it . let the ministers be bound to no more than to read , and a few years will transform them to such as can do no more than read . moscovy proveth that , and too many other countries . . if it be praying freely from present knowledge and desire , without a book or set form which you call spiritual prayer , either you are for the use of it in the pulpit or not . if you are , did the jesuits teach it you ? or will you go on to follow them ? if not , what a divided party are the conformists , while so many use it and pray spiritually ? and what a case is the church of england in , that hath still so many ministers that pray as the jesuits disciples ? or why do you so reproach your church and ministry ? . do you think that there is more force in the name of a jesuit to disgrace spiritual prayer , or in the name of spiritual prayer to honour the jesuits ? and do you not seem to prevaricate and highly honour the jesuits , on pretence of dishonoring spiritual prayer ? if you had said that the jesuits first brought in spiritual preaching , and discourse and spiritual living , would it not have more honoured them , than dishonoured spirituality ? will freedom from spiritual ▪ prayer honour your church ? as seneca thought cato's name would do more to honour drunkenness , than drunkenness could do to dishonour cato ? i am not such an antipapist , as to fall out with father son or holy-ghost , because the jesuits own them . you do but help to confirm my charity , who have long thought that among the papists , there are many persons truly godly , though their education , converse , and proud , tyrannical wordly clergy , have sadly vitiated them . . all prayers written or unwritten are made by some body . those that the bishops write down for us in the liturgy , and for our fasts , were made by their invention : either they had the help of the spirit in making them or not : if yea , then why is it not as jesuitical to write a spiritual prayer , as to speak one ? if not , excuse them that say gods spirit made not your liturgy , nor are they spiritual prayers . . and were it not too like high and dangerous pride , if such a one as bishop bancroft , bishop laud , bishop morley , bishop gunning , in a convocation , or before every publick fast , should be appointed to write the words of prayer , and should in effect say to all the most learned divines in england [ the spirit caused us to write these prayers , and our measure is so sure and great , that none of you may presume to question it , nor to think that you can pray spiritually in any words of your own , but only in ours , at least in the assemby . the spirit will help you if you say our words , but not your own . it now cometh into my mind what may be some of the meaning of bishop gunning's chaplain , doctor saywell , in his last book , that none hath power to ordain bishops , but they that have power to give the holy ghost for the work of their office. it may be it is , the holy ghost to write doctrine sermons and prayers for all their clergy to use . but do you not say also to the presbyters receive the holy ghost ? if they have him , why cannot they speak their own hearts in other words than yours ? is spiritual prayer appropriated to your liturgy , words or forms , any more than at the council at trent he was to the popes instructions . . we all confess , that as all the actions of imperfect men , have their imperfections , so have all our prayers , and these are easily aggravated : sudden free prayer , and book prayer , have both their conveniencies and inconveniencies : the question is which hic & nunc hath the greatest , and whether forbidding either be not worst of all : i have named the conveniencies and inconveniencies of each in my christian directory . . experience telleth the world , that the daily saying over only the same words , and that read out of a paper imposed by others , by one that no further sheweth any sense of what he doth , is not so apt as more free and well varied words in season , to keep people from sleepy senseless prophanation , and praying as the papists do with their masses , rosaries , and beads : and the variety of subjects preached on , and variety of occasions , and all accidents require some diversification of words and methods . . it is a work of reverence to speak to the king ; yet as it is lawful to write a petition to him , so to speak to him without book . judges have serious work to do , for estate and life , and yet they are trusted to speak without prescribed words ; and so are advocates , lawyers , ambassadors , physicians , philosophers , and all men in their professions , except ministers and christians , as such . . we know not why men may not be intrusted to speak to god in the name of imperfect man without imposed books and words , as well as to speak to man from the most perfect god and in his name ; in preaching . mans actions will be like man. nothing that is not divine and spiritual should be spoken as from god and in his name . and as after our frustrated treaty for concord . one of them ( nameless ) wrote a book against free praying without an imposed form in the pulpit , and yet they never durst forbid it to this day ; so i know who shewed his desire of a new book of homilies ( of his own making its like ) to have been imposed instead of preaching , and of the old ones , on those that had not special license to preach . but interest ruleth the world : they durst not so far disgrace their clergy , as to make them meer readers , nor lose the advantage of talking out of the pulpit for their cause , where none must contradict them . mr. lob hath ask'd you already ; whether our spiritual prayer , as you call it , or your liturgy ( and bishop cousins , and dr taylors prayer-books , &c. ) be liker to the popish mass book , and many other offices and devotions ? indeed mr. austins hath so much gravity , as excepting his excursions to saints , &c. it may compare with many of yours . and for that sort of spiritual devotion , in which they flie too high , i have found more of it in the friers , franciscans , benedictines , &c. such as barbanson , benedictus de benedictis , &c. than in the jesuits : and the oratoriana , phil. nerius baronius , and the rest ; and of their sober or religious men , as sales , mr. ro●ti , &c. and of old . john gerson , kempis , &c. have more of spirituality than the jesuits . but enough of this . § . as to the rest of his prefatory discourse of the advantages of popery . . we doubt not but the papists play their game among all parties , as far as they are able , and put on divers sorts of vizors . but doth he ( that is a historian ) not know , that all over the world their cheif design is upon the rulers and leaders , and they cry , fight neither against great or small , but to win one court card signifieth more than many others ? . doth he think the papists take the conformists or the nonconformists to be nearer to them and less against them ? . did the papists think bishop lauds reconciling design described by doctor heylin , ( entertained by sancta clara , leander , &c. ) or the parliaments fears of his introducing popery in those times , to be more against them ? . are they liker to help in popery , that are so apt to be over-averse to any thing that favours of it , in doctrine , discipline , and worship , and account the pope antichrist ? or they that hold as followeth . . ( as grotius ) that a papist is but one that flatters the popes , as if all were just that they say and do ( and so there are few papists i hope in the world. ) . that the church of rome is sound in faith. . and so are all the general councils , even trent . . that rome is the mistress of all churches ; or as bishop bromhal , that for concord we must all obey the pope , as patriarch of the west , and principium unitatis catholicae , ruling according to the old canons , ( a foreign jurisdiction ) and all those pass for schismaticks , that refuse it ( of which more after . ) . that the validity of our ministry must be proved by the derivation of it from the uninterrupted succession of the roman ordainers and church . . that the church of rome by that succession is a true , though faulty church of christ , but so are none of the reformed churches which have not bishops , or have them not by such uninterrupted succession . . that the only way of the concord of churches and all christians is ( saith bishop gunning ) to obey the governing part of the church universal , which 〈◊〉 collegium pastorum , all the bishops of the universal church , in one regent colledge , governing all the christian world per literas formatas . . that its safer and better for the protestants in france to be of the french church of papists than to continue without bishops as they are . . that we should come as near the papists as the greek church doth , or as both greek and latin did at the rupture of the two churches , or as in greg. st . daies say others , or as in char. mag. daies , say others ; receiving say some the first six general councils , say others the first . . that we must amend the oath of supremacy for the papists , as thorndick saith , and so many doctrines as he intimateth . . that its desireable that the papists had continued in our churches as in the begining of queen eliz. and if they come ( as church papists do ) should be received in our communion . . that if the pope have not ( as some hold ) a right of such primacy as belongs to saint peters successour , at least , his primacy is a very prudent humane constitution . . that there may be a common father to care for all the church . . and one to be a head of unity and order . . and one to call general councils . . and one to rule between when there are no such councils ( which are rare ) . . and one to give power to patriarcks and arch-bishops who else will have none over them to authorize , or govern them . . and one to decide controversies , when countries , churches and arch-bishops disagree . . and one to send out preachers among heathens , infidels and hereticks , all over the world . . and one boldly to reprove , admonish and , if need be , excommunicate kings , which their own subjects dare not do . i do not mean that all these things or any of them are the doctrine of the church of england , or held by all or most that conforme . but if some of it have been published by the chief prelates , and some by their chief defenders , and some in conference with us by clergy men , i only ask whether all this please not and advantage not the papists , more than nonconformists any way do ? and whether arch-bishop usher and his successor arch-bishop bromhal , bishop downam and his successour bishop taylor differed not as much as you and i do ? and whether the multitude of parish priest that were papists in queen elizabeths daies , and bishop godfrey goodman a papists bishop of gloucester , with all the rest mentioned by prin , rushworth , burnet , &c. tell us not that the papists had a hopeful game to play among the bishops and clergy of the church ? § . as to his note out of mr. jo. humpheries book , disclaiming cruelty to papists , it s known mr. humphery is a man of latitude and universal charity , and tyeth himself to no party or any mens opinions : he openly professeth his hope of the salvation of many heathens , and i so little fear the noise of the censorious , that even now while the plot doth render them most odious , i freely say . . that i would have papists used like men , and no worse than our own defence requireth : , that i would have no man pat to death for being a priest : . that i would have no writ de excommunicato capiendo , or any law compel them to our communion and sacraments . for i would not give it them ( if i knew them ) if they came . § . as to his accusation of my first plea for peace , he hath it after , and it is after answered . and as to his accusation of my book for concord , i answer . . is it no ministers work , in a contending world , to tell and prove what are christs ordained termes of christian concord , but his that is [ christs plenipotentiary on earth , and were to set the termes of peace and war ] is this spoken like a peace maker and a divine ? doth not he pretend also in his way to declare the terms of concord ? . but no man more heartily agreeth with him in lamenting the state of the church on earth , that when such men as bishop gunning , dean stillingfleet , dr. saywel , &c. on one side , and such as i and many better men on the other side , have so many years studied hard to know gods will , i am certain for my self , and i hope it of them , with an unseigned desire to find out the truth what ever it cost , ( and i profess as going to god , that would he but make me know that popery , silencing prelacy , imprisoning , banishing , or ruining all nonconformists , anabaptists , antinomians , quakers , or any that ever i wrote against , are in the right , i would with greater joy and thankfulness recant and turne to them , than i would receive the greatest preferment in the land ) i say , that yet after all this we should so far differ , as for one side to be confident that the others way of concord is the ready way to ruin , wickedness and confusion , and to come to that boldness to proclaim this to the world , alas how doleful a case is this ? what hope of christian peace and concord when such excellent sober well studyed men as they , quite above the common sort , not byassed by honour , or preferments or power , by bishopricks , deaneries , masterships , plurality , or love of any worldly wealth , and such as we that study and pray as hard as they to know the truth , are yet confident to the height that each others termes of love and peace , are but sathans way to to destroy them both , and introduce ( as dr. saywel saith conventicles do ) heresie , popery , ignorance , prophaneness and confusion : and what we are past doubt that their way will do , experience saith more than we may do . oh what shall the poor people do in so great a temptation ! § . but i must pass from his preface , where i have noted . . that he is yet so peaceable as to propose some sort of abatements for our concord ; that the benifit may be sibi & suis , not reaching our necesseries , but much better than nothing . . that they are so ill agreed , that bishop gunnings chaplain writeth , against it , making the only way of peace to be by the sword to force all men to full obedience to their lordships in every thing injoyned , not abating an oath , a subscription , a covenant , a word , a ceremony , without comprehension or limited toleration . and i could wish the doctor would consent , at least that lords and parliament men may have the liberty themselves of educating their own sons , so it be in the christian reformed religion , and to choose their tutors , and not confine them to conformists only : the papists are tollerated in choosing tutors for their children : the king of france hath not yet taken away this liberty from the protestants : nor the turks from the greeks : and must you needs take it away from all the lords , knights , gentlemen , citizens , and free-holders of england . perhaps beggars will consent , if you will keep their children , or do what the godfathers vow . most gentlemen , that keep chaplains , expect that they teach their sons at home , sometime at least ; what if a lord or knight have such a chaplain as hugh broughton , or ainsworth , or as amesius , blondel , salmatius , as gataker , vines , burges , &c. must the law forbid them to read hebrew , philosophy , or divinity to their sons ? i doubt you will scarce get the parliament hereafter to make such a law to fetter themselves , lest next you would extend your dominion also to their wives as well as sons , and forbid ▪ them marrying any but conformists . is it not enough to turn us all out of the publick ministry ? methinks you might allow some the office of a school-master , or houshold tutor , or chaplain under the laws of peace ; unless the sword be all that you trust too : if it be , it is an uncertain thing : the minds of princes are changable , and all things in this world are on the wheel : when peter flieth to the sword , christ bids him put it up , for they that so use it perish by it : hurting many , forceth many to hurt you , or to desire their own deliverance , though by your hurt . chap. iii. the beginning of the doctors unreasonable accusations examined : his stating of the case of separation . § . this much instead of an intelligible stating of our controversie he giveth us , page . [ by separation we mean nothing else , but withdrawing from the constant communion of our church , and joyning with separate congregations , for greater purity of worship , and better means of edification . ] and may we be sene by this , that we understand the difference . . whether by [ our church ] he meant the parochial church , ( and if so , whether some or all ) or the diocesan church ; or the provincial , or the national , or all i know not . but i know well , that some withdraw from some parish churches which joyn with others . and some think they withdraw not from the diocesan or provincial , if they communicate with any one parish church in the diocess : and some renounce the diocesan church , which constantly joyn with the parochial : and for the national church , who can tell whether we have communion with it , till we know what they mean by it ? indeed in the latter part , ( after the long dispute ) he condescendeth beyond expectation to explain that term ; but it s so as plainly to deny that there is any such thing as a church of england in a political sense , that hath any constitutive regent part : but even there so late he maketh it not possible to us to know , whether we be members of the church or not : for he maketh it to be but all the christians and churches in the kingdom joyned by consent exprest by their representatives in parliament , under the same civil government and rules of religion ( doctrine , and worship , and government ) . as it is a christian kingdom , we are sure , that we are members of it . . as it is all the churches of the kingdom consenting to the scriptures , yea , and to articles of doctrine , and all that christ or his apostles taught , we are sure that we withdraw not from it : . but if every chancellor , dean , commissary ▪ surrogate ▪ &c. or every forme or word or ceremonie be essential to their church , we cannot tell who is of it and who not ? or really whether any reject not some one forme , word or office ? if every such thing be not essential , he never in all the book tels us what is , or how to know it , or who is of it . § . and the word [ withdrawing ] seemeth to imply former communion : and if so , he maketh all the anabaptists , independants ▪ presbyterians , &c. who never were of their church , to be none of the separatists here meant . but if by [ withdrawing ] he mean [ not joyning in communion ] either he meaneth in the whole communion or but in part : if the whole , then the many thousands that live in the parishes and communicate not in the sacrament are no members of the parish church . and who knoweth then who are of their church ? and how few in many parishes are of it , that yet pass for members of the church of england ▪ and yet i that joyn with them am none of it , in their account . and. . what meaneth he by [ constant communion ] i go to the parish church when sickness hindreth not , once a day ; i go to the sacrament , and am none of their church . thousands go but rarely , and thousands scarce at all , at least to the sacrament , and these are of their church and no separatists . . but perhaps the conjunction is explicative [ and joyn with separate congregations for greater purity , and edification : if so , then he that never joyneth with them nor any other is none of the intended separatists . . nor he that goeth to other churches on other accounts than for purity of worship and edification ( as papists that go as to the only true church for the authority ) . § . but the utter ambiguity is in the word separate ; and that you may understand it he explaineth it by repeating it . by separation he means withdrawing to separate congregations . but the doubt is , which are the separate congregations . i named many sorts of lawful and unlawful separations , but he will not tell us which he meaneth by any intrea●y . § . . i would my self yet that i may be understood , tell the reader what sorts of separation i renounce and what i own : but i have done it so oft and largely , that i am ashamed to repeat it , as oft as mens confusion calls me to it . the reader who thinks it worth his labour , may see it done in my first plea for peace , and in the preface to my cath. theol. and specially in the beginning of the third part of my treat . of concord , and in christ . direct . and he calls me here afterward to the same certainly it is only sinful separation that is in the question ; and as certainly there are many sorts not sinful . i am locally separate from all churches save that where i am . i morally separate from the roman church as an unlawful policy , and all other which are in specie against gods word : i separate from some for heresie as being not capable matter of a church , while they own not all the essence of christianity . i separate from some as imposing sin , and refusing my communion without it . i separate from some as having no lawful pastors ; some being uncapable matter , and some , being usurpers that have no true call : i separate from some only so far as to prefer a better rebus sic stantibus ; sometime a better as to the doctrine , sometime as to the worship , sometime as to the discipline sometime and mostly as to the pastors worth and work ; some go from their own parish , because the minister is very ignorant in comparison of another to whom they go : some that hear the minister preach against preciseness and for ceremonies , had rather hear another that calleth them to holiness : some that have tollerable preachers go to doctor stilling sleet and doctor tillotson as better : some go for neerness to another church . some go from their own parish because the minister cuts the common-prayer too short , and preacheth too long ; some because they would have it so , go to such : some because the parson is an arminian ; others because he is contrary . some go to the minister that is strict in keeping the scandalous from the sacrament : some therefore go from him : some remove their dwellings or lodgings for these ends ; and some do not : some go from their own parish for the benefit of the organs in another . and of old , when nonconformists had parish churches and used some part of the liturgy , many went to them from their own parishes . some of these are lawful , some are unlawful : most certainly they that go from their own parishes , yea , or to nonconformists assemblies , in london , go not all on the same account : nor doth the doctor and such other separate from me as i am said to do from them , but otherwise and much more . § . . if he would first have told us what separation is sinful ; secondly ▪ and then have proved us guilty of it , instead of the confused talk of separation , and a begging the question by suposing that to be sinful , which he will neither discribe , nor prove such , it had been of some usefulness to our conviction . but i confess i never liked those physitians who give their patients the medicines that they are best stored with , or they can best spare , be the disease whatsoever ; nor the disputer that poureth out what he is best furnished to say , how useless soever to the reader or to the cause . disputeing should not be like boys playing at dust point , who cover their points in a great heap of dust , and then throw stones or cudgels at it , and he that first uncovereth them wins them . dusty heaps of ambiguous words confusedly poured out , befriend not truth that should be naked , nor the reader . § . . some thought it was the place called conventicle houses , which made the conformists call us separatists ; and they got oft into parish churches and chappell 's . but these were made the worst of separatists , and punished the more . and doubletss it is not meeting at any of the new tabernacles , nor at the spittle , nor at sturbridge fair , where preaching hath long been used , nor in a prison nor at the gallows to prisoners and people , which are faulty separation . § . . some thought that they meant that its want of the common-prayer that maketh us separatists ; and they have tryed and read the common-prayer in their assemblys : but these have been accused and suffered the more . and even mr. cheny was forced to fly his country for reading it , and preaching in an unlicensed meeting . and some reading more and some less , by this it will not be known who are the separatists ; the old nonconformists in their parish churches read some more , some less , and now some conformists vary . they say a conformist at greenwich keepeth up a common-prayer conventicle ; some conformists are accused for overpassing much : one lately suspended for wearing the surplice too seldom , and refusing to pray for [ our gratious queen and james duke of york . ] how much of this goeth to make a separatist ? § . . some thought it was want of the magistrates leave that made them call us separatists : but when the king licensed us , the accusation was the same : yea mr. hinkley and many others tell you , that they took this for worst of all . § . . some say it is want of the bishops licence : but as mr. tho. gouge hath his university licence , and i have bishop sheldon's licence ( i think not invalidate ) and yet this goeth for no justification of us ; so is it with others . § . . some think that it is a conventicle as described by their cannon that must make us separatists , which is of men that call themselves of another church . but that 's not it : mr. gouge , mr. poole , mr. humphrey , and my self , and abundance more that never gathered any church , nor called our selves of any other then their own , are nevertheless separatists in these mens account . § . . they that remembred what was called separation in england of old , supposed it had these two degrees , which made men called brownists . first falsly taking the parish ministers and churches for no true ministers and churches of christ , and therefore not to be communicated with . secondly or ( in the lower rank ) falsly taking the faults of the parish ministers and churches to be so great , that its a sin to have ordinary communion with them . but they that have still disclaimed both these are separatists still in our accusers sence . § . . some thought that ordinary communicating in the parish churches and pleading for it , would prove us no separatists with them . but this will not serve as my own and many other mens experience proveth . § . . i am called after to say more of this : the sum of my separation is this . first that i take not the parish churches to be the only churches that i must communicate with , and will not confine my communion to them alone , as if they were a sect , or all : but will also have communion with dutch , french or nonconformists . . i take not the order , discipline and mode of worship in the parish churches , nor the preaching of very many parsons , vicars and curates , to be the best and most desirable . . i take those to be no true political churches , which have no pastors that have all the qualifications , and call , and authority , which is essential to the office ; and therefore can communicate with them , but as with a flock without a pastor , or an oratory , community or catechized company . . i live peaceably under such bishops as have many hundred parishes , and no episcopos gregis , true bishops and pastoral churches under them , as they think : but i own not their constitution . . i joyn with all the churches in england as associated for mutual help and concord in all that the scripture prescribeth , and in all the protestant religion , and all that all christian churches are agreed in , and all that is truly needful to the ends of christianity : but not absolutely in all , which their canons , liturgy &c. conttaine : especially their sinful impositions , and their presumtious canonical excommunications of dissenters ipso facto . . i am one of the christian kingdom of england , as under the king according to the oaths of allegiance and supremacy ; and am for obeying the laws and rules in all things lawfully belonging to their power to command . but not for obeying them in sin , against god , nor for believing all to be lawful because they command it ; nor for their taking down family government or self government , and discerning private judgment of the subjects . this is my measure of separation . § . and i think in cases that concern our own and many mens salvation we should have leave freely to speak for our selves ; and not be used as we are , that must neither be endured to be silent , or to speak . let this dr. open our case to you himself , saith he [ pref. p. . speaking of my first plea for peace [ as though it had been designed on purpose to represent the clergy of our church as a company of notorious , lying and perjured villains for conforming to the laws of the land and orders established among us : for there are no less than thi●ty tremendous aggravations of the sin of conformity set down in it and all this done without the 〈…〉 provocation given on oue side ] and elswhere he saith he shall less regard my aggravations . ans . . if i do that which you think as bad , i would gladly be told of it ( though false accusations i desire not ) and impenitence is too soon learnt without a teacher or academical degrees , and i had rather be saved from it . . but reader i once more appeal to the judgment of all reason and humanity as well as christianity , to decide the case of this accusation . . we did in , . and . all that we were able by labour petition and yielding as far as we durst for fear of sin and hell , to have been united and lived in church concord with the episcopal party . . when our labour and hopes were frustrate and two thousand of us cast out of the ministery , and afterwards laws made against us as conventiclers , first for our fining , imprisonment , and then banishment , and after besides imprisonment to pay twenty pound the first sermon , and forty pound the next and so on ; when after this the law that banished us from all cities , corporations , &c. and places where we lately preached , did most deeply accuse us as the cause ; i never wrote so much as the reasons of our dissent : when by the execution of these laws we were by informers and others used , as is well known , i was still silent . my not conforming shewed my dissent , but i durst not so much as once tell them why , lest it should more exasperate them . . at last i was often told that the bishop that first forbad my preaching , and many others after him , oft said to great men , mr. baxter keeps up a schism , and yet holds all our conformity lawful , save renouncing a rebellious covenant . and i yet continued silent . . at last they wrote against us , that we durst not say that any part of conformity was sin , but only inconvenient . . then many pulpits and books proclaim ▪ that we against our consciences kept up a schism , for a baffled cause which we had nothing to say for . . all this while lords and commons used to ask us , what is it that you would have , and what keepeth you from conformity . [ in private talk , but would never allow us to speak for our selves and give the world or parliament our reasons ] . . many years together pulpits and printed books of the clergy , cryed out to the magistrates to execute the laws against us , ( and as one said set fire to the fagot ) ▪ and blamed them for not doing it . . when the king gave us his licence , they were greatly offended , as aforesaid . . at last one great bishop told me that he would desire the king to constraine us to give our reasons , and not keep up a schism , and not tell for what . and another greater told me , that the king took us to be not sincere , that would not give our reasons . and all this while i durst not give them , as knowing how they would be received . . when the bishops kept me from preaching and gave me leisure , i wrote . . an apology for our preaching , a treatise of episcopacy and divers other such , and yet durst not print them ( nor indeed could do it . ) . at last after about seventeen or eighteen years silence ▪ by such importunity ( and the press being more open ) i ventured first but to write my first plea for peace , which only nameth matter of fact , and our bare judgment , enumerating the things which we think sin , without our arguments , lest it should provoke them more . and therein professed that ( knowing mens different educations , studies , interests , &c. ) i did not by this accuse the conformists , nor the law makers , but only tell . . what i thought would be sin in us , . and how great a sin , if we conformed . reader , should i have stayed longer ( the smal tract of sacrilegious desertion of the ministry , came out when we were licensed , but ventured not to name the matters of our nonconformity ) what could we do less ? i staid till i think half the silenced ministers were dead . is the call of superiours , the interest of our ministry , and consciences of so little regard as that i must not tell men that so loud and long had asked , what 's the matter ? must we neither be silent nor speak ? and now see here . . if dean stillingfleet be a man to be believed in such accusations , [ all this was done by me , without the least provocation on their side ] wonderful difference ! is my naming what i think god forbids me , so great a provocation to them , and is all this for seventeen years before named [ not the least provocation to us on their part ? what shall one think could bring such a man to such a word ? . and that which i profest that i wrote not to accuse them , he tells you was [ as if designed to represent them as a company of notorious lying ▪ perjured villains . this collection i feared ; but how could i avoid it ? must not i tell them that urge me , what sin i fear , least they say you represent us as such ? . see here how they talk of us contrarily as the barbarians of paul , that now make him a murderer , and anon a god ; for many years together , our lords and masters perswaded men that we took conformity to be no sin , save renouncing the covenant : and now how contrary ? it s the representation of a company of notorious , lying , perjured , villains , with thirty tremendous aggravations . repent o england , saith bradford at the stake . but who would have thought that repentance had been so hard a work , in a case called so heynous , and that to the preachers of repentance , as it is either to them or to us , which ever it be that is found in the guilt . chap. iv. of his history of the case of the old nonconformists . § . as to what he saith of the sameness of the former case and ours , i shall tell him the difference after , where he more calls me to it ; and shall shew him so much difference , as will discredit this assertion . § . as to the case of the old nonconformists . . it must be premised that we take them not for any of our rule , but cleave to gods word and the example of the primitive church , looking still at the great ends of order and government . . we maintain as well as he that the chief nonconformists were against that called brownism or separation , and wrote more against it than the conformists did . . i still profess my self to be of their judgment in this , and have practised accordingly . . but they were not against such preaching , or any such sort of separation as i have either practised or defended . § . here therefore it must be known what the controversie between them and the separatists was . . the higher sort of separatists said , that the church of england was no true church . the nonconformists , said it was a true national church both as a christian kingdom , and as an association of churches , ( and as represented in national synods were they made one . ) . the said brownists said that the parish churches were no true churches , nor to be owned as such , nor joyned with . the nonconformists held that they are true churches , ( that have capable ministers ) though faulty . . the separatists said that the parish ministers were no true ministers , because ordained by diocesans and not chosen by the people , &c. the nonconformists said , that the capable were true though faulty ministers , owned by the peoples consenting communion , and the ordination valid though culpable . . the separatists said that ministers and people must gather churches that are purer , and set up better discipline in them , whatever rulers say or do against it , or whatever they suffer , as far as they are able . the nonconformists said , this is to be done where it may be done without doing more hurt than good , but else it is no duty but a sin , viz. to do it tumultuously , seditiously , or so as by running on the magistrates sword , by improbable attempts to lose their own advantages for doing and getting good , and hinder the common parish reformation . . the separatists said that no prohibition of the magistrate will warrant a minister to forbear the publick work of his office . the nonconformists held that it belongeth to the magistrate to restrain deceivers and all false teachers who do more hurt than good ; and such should obey when they are forbidden to preach and administer sacraments : yea if the magistrate wrongfully forbid a worthy minister to preach , for order he is bound to obey , unless the need of the church and souls , and the probable benefit plainly weigh down that matter of order , and make the magistrates prohibition invalid , as being against the common good , and the ends of the ministry , and so against christ . . the semi-separatists ( robinsons party ) after held that though the parish churches may be called true churches , as a leper is a true man , and it may be lawful to hear a sermon in them , yet the common-prayer is so bad , and the people and ministers so bad , and discipline so cast out , that it is unlawful to joyn with them in common-prayer , or sacrament , or to become setled members of them ; but all must attempt , though in forreign countreys , that are able ▪ to set up purer worship and discipline . the nonconformists held that those that can have better without more hurt than good , should cheose it : but they that cannot may joyn in member-ship , common-prayer and sacrament , with such parish churches as will admit them without their own actual sin , and consenting to their faults . § . . i shall now give you so full proof that the nonconformists were for more , which the doctor calleth separation , than my preaching or practice ever reached to , as i shall tell the reader , what credit this doctors history deserveth , and what inhumane usuage the nonconformists have from that sort of men . § . . anno . was printed against them bishop bancroft's book called , dangerous positions and proceedings &c. or english scotizing for discipline by force &c. in the first book he maketh their reformations so odious , as that page . he saith that in scotland [ it hath wrought more mischief in thirty years , than the pope of rome had done before , as i think in five hundred ] you see how that spirit then did work , and whether our arch-bishop bancroft thought better of the presbyterian churches or the pope , and the effects . in the second book he taketh up what rash words he could from any indiscreet men to make them odious . in the third he sheweth what the english nonconformists did for their church-way and discipline . chap. . p. . he saith that the 〈◊〉 ten or eleven years of the queens reign they so clamoured &c. that they divided themselves from their ordinary congregations , and meeting in houses , woods and fields , kept there unlawful and disorderly conventicles : and mr. cartwright defendeth them , saying , that the name of conventicles was too light and contemptuous for them ; then they framed their two admonitions : in one of which p. , . they tell the parliament that their discipline was gods order , and they must in conscience speak for it , and use it . and anno . they erected a presbytery at wandsworth . the elders are named . the persons named that set up meetings are mr. field ▪ wilcox , standen , jackson , bentham , sancler , crane , edmonds , and after clark , travers , barber , gardiner , cheston , crook , egerton . anno . there was a meeting of threescore ministers out of essex , cambridg-shire and norfolk at cock-field , mr. knewstubs town . and another that year at a commencement at cambridge . chap. . that they drew up a book of their discipline , where choice of ministers , elders , deacons &c. are named and regulated , and for classical , provincial , comitial synods and government . chap. . he tells you how they prosecuted it anno . out of cholmley , field , fen , wilcox , axton , gellebrand , wright , gifford . chap. . how they proceeded . . and . northampton-shire was divided into three classes . first the northampton classis had mr. snape , penrie , sibthorp , edwards , littleton , bradshaw , lark , fleshward , spicer &c. the daventrie classis had mr. barebon , rogers , king , smart , sharp , prowdloe , elliston &c. the kettering classis had mr. stone , williamson ▪ falksbr●●k , patinson , massey &c. and johnson saith it was received in warwick-shire suffolk , norfolk , essex , and most parts of england ; so smith , h●●gar , holme witness , mr snape said . about braintree the classis had mr. cul●●●wel , mr. rogers , mr. gifford , ( one of our doctor 's wittnesses ) &c. that at colchester had doctor chapman , doctor chrick , mr. dowe , mr. ●●rrar , mr. newman , mr. tey , &c. page . mr. snape said , it was agreed on in the classical and general assemblies , that the dumb ministers were no ministers , and that all the ministers should preach for the aforesaid government . chap. . anno . a synod at coventry agreed against private baptism , reading homilies , the cross in baptism , and that the faithful ought not to communicate with unlearned ( they mean uncapable ) ministers ; though they may be present at their service , if they come of purpose to hear a sermon . for laymen may read publick service . that the calling of bishops &c. is unlawful . that it is not lawful to be ordained by them , or denounce their suspentions or excommunications . that it s not lawful to rest in the bishops deprivation of any from the ministry , except on consultation with neighbour ministers and their flock , it seems so good to them ; but that he continue in the same till he be compelled to the contrary by civil force . & c. and the discipline subscribed by cartwright , fen , wright , oxenbridge , gellybrand , clevely , nutter , fetherstone , holm , lord &c. to repeat all is too tedious . but its worth the noteing that whereas the prelatists usually say , that when they were put to draw up a liturgy themselves , they could not agree of any , bishop bancroft saith page . they offered the parliament a book of their own , containing the form of common prayers &c. and hoped to have had it established . page . chap. . he tells you of their order for parents to offer their own children to baptism , and be godfathers &c. he proceedeth to shew that they resolved to practice their discipline against the magistrates will , and did accordingly . and chap. . p. . that they joyned themselves into an association or brother-hood , and appropriated to their meetings the name of the church , thereby shewing themselves to be most notorious schismaticks , citeing their words ( our churches ) and p. . that the parish where they preach assembled , is not the church properly in their sence , but as many thereof only as are joyned to them with that inviolable bond , viz. the desire of the godly discipline , and those furthermore who leaving their own parish churches come to them . e. g. the church of god , forsooth in black fryars consists besides that parish of a number of men and merchants wives dispersed here and there throughout the whole city . mr. snape's testimony is cited . § . by these words of bancroft and the case compared , it is certain that on these suppositions many of the canons were made against them ; as against conventicles and calling themselves another church , and a brother-hood , and about god fathers and many more , supposing them to be of this mind . § . on supposition that these things were true , the nonconformists have to this day been accused by those that write against them , and the testimony of this book alledged as proof . and doctor heylin hath in folio accordingly described them in his history of presbytery , as many others have done . § . and now cometh doctor stillingfleet , and tells you , that [ he is certain that all the old nonconformists ] were quite of another mind , and other men , and to prove it citeth four or five mens words against brownists ; when yet he citeth more of my own against separation : and if my words prove me not to be against it , how will theirs prove them to be against it ? § . either bancrofts , heylins and such others words of them are true or false . if true , how untrue are doctor stillingfleet's ? if false , o what a sort of men were these prelates that so stigmatized and accused and so used so many hundred such men , on so false a charge ? and what a church was it that made the canons against them on that supposition ? and how shall we know which of them to believe ? doth not doctor stillingfleet heavily reproach his own church for such usuage of them ? § . the case is commonly known , first that a long time they had almost all of them parish churches as other men had : and they sought to set up discipline in those churches . and it had been folly then to gather others in other places . . when bancroft and others had got many cast out and silenced , a great part of them kept in by connivence of some peaceable bishops , and by the mediation of some lords and gentlemen , such as the earl of leicester , bedford , warwicke , the lord burghley , sir francis , walsingham , sir amias pawlet , sir nicholas bacon , mr. beal , and sir francis knowles had been to them before : yea the greater part of them by such favour got into priviledged peculiar places , or little chapells at least ; few counties had not some gentlemen that sheltred them . the earl of huntington kept in mr. hildersham at ashby , mr. slater and mr. ash , even in the big town of bremicham , mr. mainwaring kept in mr. ball at whitmore ; mr. knightley kept in mr. dod , judge bromley ( and his humble holy lady ) kept mr. brumskill at sheriff hales , and entertained many more ( mr. nicols &c. ) sir richard graves at moseley had mr. pateman and divers others , seldom without a nonconformist : one would think doctor stillingfleet should know that his own patron , under whose wing he lived , sir roger burgonie was seldom without a nonconformist at roxhall in warwickshire : mr. hering had long liberty at st. maries in shrewsbery , mr. ford ( who wrote on the psalms ) had the school lecture there , mr. atkins at 〈◊〉 , kept in to the last , even the lord dudley , favouring him . abundance such i might name , mr. barnet , at uppington ( whom i oft heard catechize dr. allestree , ) mr. tandy at bewdley , mr. langley , mr. paget , mr. hind , mr. lancaster , mr. rowle , mr. nicols , mr. mather , mr. rathband , mr. bar●●n , mr. gee , mr. wright , mr. smart , &c. had their liberties for some time . and when one bishop silenced them , the next oft gave them liberty ( as bishop bridgman did after bishop mortons silencing some ) and when they were silenced , they went oft into another diocese , where they rubd out a year or more , and then to another ; and so were still in some hope of publick liberty . and when silenced they used to keepe private fasts ; and where they lodged to preach on pretense of expounding to as many as they could . they obeyed the bishops as magistrates , but not as pastors . they knowingly broke the law in their private and publick ministry : they obeyed not the canons ; used not much of the liturgy ; and many of them did as some do now , get into publick pulpits for a day and away , where they were not known . § . . but yet there are more undeniable evidences of the falseness of what , he saith , he is certain of , as the judgment of all the old nonconformists . one is the known judgement of the scotch reformers , and the common accusation of the english , as being of their mind . he that will affirm that the scotch presbyterians thought it unlawful to preach or hold assemblies , when forbidden by magistrates or prelates , will incur a very sharp censure from their own leaders , who have written so many books , which charge them with the contrary , and make them rebels and seditious for it : such as bancroft , heylin , beziers , and multitudes both old and new ; especially these last twenty years . and though the nonconformists in england did not justifie all that the scots did ( and they that took knox , buchanan , melvin , and such other for very pious men , yet thought some words and deeds too rash , especially knox's publick opening the queens faults in the pulpit , and refusing her offer to come at any time , and tell her of them privately ) yet it s known , that in the rules of discipline , they were mostly of the same judgment : and they often joyned in defending the same cause . see their several demonstrations of discipline , and the several defences of them , how little they differed , when bancroft preacht against them at pauls cross , feb. . . an english man wrote a brief discovery of his untruths , &c. and a scoth man j. d. bancrofts rashness in railing against the church of scotland , printed . and how little differ they , if at all ( and dr. reignolds wrote a letter against it to sir francis knowles , printed with sir francis knowles his account to the lord burleigh of his speech in parliament , against the bishops keeping courts in their own names , as condemned by law. and in many of their writings the english own the scotch discipline and church . and yet even these scots have rejected brown as a schismatick , and the english confuter of bancrofts sermon tells him , pag. , . brown a known schismatick is a fit man to be one of your witnesses a-against the eldership : his entertainment in scotland was such as a proud ungodly man deserved to have : god give him and you repentance . and giffords , pagets , bradshaws , brightmans , rathbands , balls , &c. words against the brownists proved not them to be against their own doctrine and practice , no more than the scots rejecting brown proved them against theirs . § . and another proof is the common doctrine of the nonconformists , of the difference of the magistrates , and the churches offices . the said confutation of bancroft hath it , pag. and forward , and abundance of their publick writings ; viz. that the magistrate only hath the power of the sword , and of civil government , and to restrain and punish ministers that offend by heresie or otherwise : but that as preaching , sacraments and the disciplinary use of the keys are proper to the ministry , so the deciding of circumstantial controversies about them and about the due ordering of them , doth primarily belong to ecclesiastical synods . therefore if these synods were for their preaching , they were not for ceasing it meerly in obedience to the magistrate that silenced them . § . and it is proved by the many volumes which they wrote against the power of our diocesans , that it was not any ecclesiastical authority of theirs ( which they thought it a sin to disobey . ) § . and mr. fox , a nonconformist and many more of them , own the doctrine of wicliff and john husse , and the bohemians , for which the synods of constance and basil , condemned them , who affirm that it is a heynous sin to give over preaching , because men excommunicate us , and that such are excommunicated by christ . § . and it is not nothing that the most learned conformists agree with them , as i have oft cited bishop bilsons words , that the magistrate doth not give us our power , nor may hinder our use of it , but is appointed by god to protect and encourage us , and if he forbid or hinder us , we are to go on with our work and patiently suffer . and even now i believe most of the leading clergy think that if a synod bid us preach and hold assemblies , and the king forbid it , we are to obey the synod rather than the king , mr. thorndike , and many others that write for the church thought so . and mr. dodvel thinks so even of a particular bishop . the difference then is but this : one party giveth this power to a synod of bishops ( and presbyters perhaps conjoyned ) and the other to a synod of parochial pastors , doctors and elders . but both agreed that the magistrates prohibition in that case is not to be obeyed . and the conformists will not take it well if i should say that the nonconformist are more for obedience to magistrates than they : i still except the erastians , and such as own dr. stillingfleets irenicon . § . there is a most considerable book called a petition directed to her most excellent majesty shewing a meane how to compound the civil dissentions in the church of england , where the author ( i suppose some lawyer ) pag. . tells us what was the difference between the papists and them that desired reformation ( nonconformists ) about the power of magistrates . and. . they give the prince authority over all persons ecclesiastical whatsoever ; the papists exempt the clergy : . they hold that a prince may depose a priest , as solomon did abiather , and accordingly they obey being silenced : the papists deny it . : they affirm , if the priests make wicked decrees , the prince may enforce them to better . the papists deny it . . they say princes must and ought to make laws for the church , but with the advise of godly pastors : the papists deny it . . they hold that if the pastors be unlearned and ungodly , the prince may of himself without their advise , make orders and laws , for ecclesiastical matters : the papists deny it . . they will subcribe in this point to the articles of religion established by law ; to the apology of the church of england , to the writings of jewel , horn , nowel , whitaker , bilson , fulk . they take the oath of supremacy . here the second article seemeth to be contrary to what i have said . but the book whence he citeth it ( de discipl . eccles . ) and all their writings shew , that it is but the same that i say , which they assert , viz. that princes ought to restrain or silence intollerable men , and such us●pers or dilinquents as give just cause . . that if they mistake and do it unjustly , we must leave temple and tyths to their will. . yea , and forbear our own publick preaching when the publick good on the account of order and peace requireth it ; but not when the publick good , and the necessity of souls , and our own opportunities require the contrary . and the silenced that submitted still , went on to exercise their ministry against law in that manner as best conduced to its ends . and what this auother saith of the papists , i suppose many of the highest prelatists come nearer then the nonconformists ; and were the prince against them , would obey the bishops before him . and the same book describing the nonconformists in twenty articles p. . in the th . thus expoundeth it [ they teach that neither the mini●ters nor people ought to make any general reformation , with ●or●● and armes , or otherwise of their own authority change any laws made or ●●●●●shed for religion by authority of parliament : but they hold that the general reformation doth belong to the magistrates as gods lieutenant : and that for themselves they may and ought in dutiful sort both preach and write , and sac to the magistrates for redress of enormities , and also practice the ordinances of christ which he hath commanded his church to keep to the end of the world. and article . it is not all the unprepared parish that they would have brought under discipline : but those of each parish who are prepare : and willing . ] § . . in short the demonstration , the supplication , the humbe motion to the council , and almost all the nonconformists writings shew , that . . their great cause was to set up parish discipline , under superior synods . . b●ing themselves almost all in publick churches , at least per ●ices , and being still in hope of publick reformation , they were greatly against the brownists violence , that would break those hopes . . they held that christs law was their rule , which commanded this discipline , which no magistrate could dispense with . . but that magistrates must be obeyed in such ordering of church matters as belong to them . but not in forbearing such exercise of the ministry as was needful to its ends , the churches good . and as it s said , they practised accordingly . i. the brownists denyed the truth of the parish ministry and churches , and the lawfulness of communion with them . ii. the semiseparatists held it lawful to hear them preach , but not to joyn in the liturgy and sacrament . and this is it that phil. nye . wrote for . iii. the presbyterians and meer norconformists thought it lawful , and meet in those parishes which had capable ministers , to joyn in both liturgy sermons and sacraments , where sin was not imposed on them . but so ( as though forbidden ) while they had publick churches , to do their best to practice christs commands and discipline , and where they could have none to further the same ends as effectually as they could , in the opportunities left them . but never took it for their duty to leave all their ministry or publik preaching meerly in obediene to the laws : much less to the bishops . when all this is so notorious , and when i knew the minds of many aged nonconformists about forty years agoe as my familiar friends , who were all of the same mind in this as i am , what history can i be more assured of , than , as i said , that first , they took not praying publickly and gathering assemblies to be therefore sinful , because it was forbidden by the law. . but to be a sin against prudence and the ends of their ministry , when it was like to do more hurt than good , by exasperating the prince , and depriving themselves and others of better advantages for those holy ends ; . and that it was a duty when it was like to do more good than hurt : . and therefore they broke laws where they could be endured , even in chappell 's and parish churches . § . and it is not inconsiderable that the reasons why calvin , bullinger , zanchy , beza , said what they did for submissive forbearing publick preaching and church gathering , were first , because as they saw that the prince was resolved not to suffer it , so reformation was then but begun , and the prince and magistrates were the pricipal means of it , and they had great hopes that what could not be done at present to perfect it , might be done afterwards at a fitter time . king edward was sain to quiet the seditious papists by making them beleive that latin and english , was the great difference between the former mass worship and the liturgy : aftertimes had no such necessity : and tumultuously to disturb the magistrate in his prudent progress of reforming , had been to serve the enemies of reformation . but in our times , parliaments ( who the doctor s. saith , are intrusted so consent for us ) have these fifty years told the kingdom that the reformation was growing backwards , and the increase of popery by favour and publick tolleration designed , and much accomplished ; and plots threatned the restoring of it : and if parliaments deceived us , yet the chief actors themselves were to be believed : doctor heylin maketh the syncretism and closure with them in the bosom of the now indulgent church , to be arch-bishop lauds very laudable designs . arch-bishop brombal , saith grotius , was to have held some place among us , as a protestant , and was of the english bishops mind , and he himself doth say the last ; and i have shewed in his own words that grotius took rome for the mistris of all churhces , and that there was no way for the union of protestants , but to joyn in union with rome , and that he owned the doctrine of the councils even of trent it self , requiring but the amending of the clergies lives , and the casting by the schoolmens bold disputes , and the restraint of the popes government to the rule of the canons , securing the rights of kings and bishops , and this he saith will content the peaceable : vincentius wrote a book called grotius papizans ; saravius in his epistle upon speach with grotius laments it as too true : his friend dion . petavius told mr. ereskin an honourable person attendant on the king , that grotius resolved to have declared himself for the church of rome , if he had returned alive from the journy that he dyed in . see mr. thorndikes just weights , what he was for . and how far many doctors of this church , some yet living , have maintained that grotius principles are not popery , and consequently what such mean by popery when they disclaim it , i need not tell you , while so many of them have published it in print ; and are not mr. thorndicks termes of concord in councils till the eight hundredth year much like and much more in book aforesaid ? and surely there is great difference between such preachings as were like to be the ruin of the begun reformation by exasperating a reforming magistrate , and such preaching as tendeth to stop the revolt of a reformed nation , when parliaments and the agents themselves of the revolt , proclaim the danger . it s true that there was then a greater scarcity of preachers than now : and that was the nonconformists argument with the bishops when they pleaded for publick liberty : but it s as true that they had far greater hopes of that liberty , which it had been folly to cast away , for less : but it is not so with us ; we are a greater number than they , and have new laws to shut us out not only of the churches , but of corporations , and bishops that will give us no such liberty . § . and indeed so many were the unlearned parish priests , and so bad , in queen elizabeths daies , being many of them lately silly mass priests , that the shame of the church and the cry of the protestant people forced the bishops to tolerate most of the nonconformists in some publick church , especially those that were moderate and did not publickly oppose them . dr. humphery was allowed reigus professour in oxford : dr. john reignolds president of corpus ch. col. mr. perkins , lecturer in cambridge , mr. paul bayne after him , so dr. chadeorto● there , &c. some tell men that these were all conformists , and of the church ; and yet i am none that am of the same mind . the truth is , they were for submitting to kneeling at the sacrament , surplice and most of the liturgy , rather than cease preaching : but they were against subscription , and the english sort of diocesan bishops and government , and the imposed use of the cross , as it is in baptism : as tradition tells us , and as you may partly see in dr. reynolds letter to sir francis knowles , in mr. baynes , diocesans tryal , his letters , and in fuller and other histories , and mr. deering , mr. greenham , mr. john fox , mr. marbury , dudley , fenner , mr. knewstubs , yea i think six or ten to one , were endured in publick churches long , before they were hindered ; and when they were hindered , they spake peaceablely and intreatingly , and were still in hope of publick liberty , and were oft petitioning or making great friends to the bishops to that end much they long obtained and more they hoped for . how long mr. travers was kept in at the temple , is commonly known . § . it is neither consistent with my leisure , nor the business now in hand , nor i suppose the patience of most readers , that i should prove this further by a voluminous transcribing histories already extant . if the book which dr. st. citeth called part of a register be perused , he will find , . that the passage cited by the d. was the reprehension of many londoners taken at a meeting in an open hall of a company , which meeting they avowed : is this a proof that they were against such publick meetings , or for it ? when for it they lay in many prisons . . that they professed that they forsook not the publick churches , till their teachers were silenced and turned out : so little doth silencing tend to union . . that yet these being ordinary citizens , spake many things weakly , crying out too rashly of the rags and ceremonies of antichrist : but he might have found many things in the register more worthy his communication : for instance . . the letter of dr. wy : in the beginning . . dr. pilkington ( after bishop of du●ham ) his letter of weighty reasons against silencing the nonconformists . . mr. edward deerings answer to the articles put to him , twice : with sober and peaceable words . . mr. greenhams modest and peaceable apology to the bishop of eli , against conformity , yet refusing to give his reasons , lest they should provoke till he were constreined ( as i did seventeen years ) . all which shew that the nonconformists then were mostly in poslesson of some publick churches , or but newly turned out , and in hope of restauration . and what is all this to our case of total and peremptory exclusion ? § . and methinks the doctor should not desire to tempt the reader that tryeth his citations to read the rest of that register : viz. . the harsh usage of mr. johnson , who dyed in prison , driven into too sharp language by their usage . . the exceptions of mr. crane . . the ministers complaint to the councils ; . especially the councils letter to the justices on the b●balf of the ministers , worthy to be perused at this time . a notable treatise called a letter to a londoner against the legality of the bishops proceedings . . the comons complaint for a learned ministry , shewing what a shameful sort of men were kept in by the bishops , while the nonconformists were turned out and silenced . . the practises of the prelates . . the petition to the queen and that to the convocation . . mr. marburys conference with the bishop of london , and his arch-deacon . how the bishop railed and swore at him , and reviled him for desiring that all parishes should have preachers , as if homily readers were not enough . and yet mr. marbury was so moderate that at last with liberty of interpretation ( like chillingworths ) he conformed . . mr. dudley fenners defence of the ministers against dr. bridges slanders : written but a month before his death , whereas the said fenner was far from unlearned ( as his methodical theologia shews ) and was so moderate that dr. ames saith he much conformed at last ; but it seems not enough : and he sheweth how the bishops set themseves against such preachers . mr. gawtons troubles . . dudley fenners counter-poyson , or certain form of eccles . government and its defence . . the demonstration of of discipline . doth the dr. believe indeed that these writings signifie that the nonconformsts of those times thought it a sin to preach eo nomine because forbidden ? § . they wrote indeed a great deal more against separation than he citeth , and more than all the conformists did . and yet they were not more against it than bishop bilson , who saith , if the magistrate forbid us our work we must go on , and patiently suffer . mr. hildersham was called malleus schismaticorum , and yet he and i are schismaticks with these men : mr. john pagets arrow against separation , mr. bradshaw , mr. gifford , mr. ball , &c. have said enough . but he that knoweth their controversie knoweth that it was none of the question , whether it be lawful to preach when the magistrate forbids it , or whether our parish churches and diocesan be to be prefered before more reformed churches when they may be had ? but whether . . the parish churches be no true churches ? . or such as it is unlawful to communicate with occasionally ? . or constantly when no better can be had without greater hurt than benefit ? . whether it be a duty to gather churches or preach publickly when it is like to do more hurt than good , by the magistrates opposition ? . whether we should not quietly bear with that in a church which we cannot reforme , while no sin is put on us , and the communion of it is no worse than that of our parish churches ? in all these they were against the separatists ; and so am i. . yea they pleaded the duty of obeying the magistrate by forbearing to preach when their preaching was not necessary : and so do i. § . one would think they that take homilies for sermon● , should consess that the nonconformsts writing against the prohibition of the law , was a preaching , or much more : as it is more publick . and did the nonconformists write when forbidden , so much as cartwright , parker , sandford , fenner , gilby , ames , and aboundance more have done ; yea and writ against diocesanes and conformity as these and bradshaw , nichols , brightman , bayne , travers , and aboundance more have , even many hundreds , as the millinary petition and the country complaints &c. shew ; and yet did these men every one of them take it for sin to preach , because it was disobedience ? but nothing will convince some men . § . but i appeal to the reason and humanity of mankind , into what hands the silenced and persecuted ministers are fallen ? is it humane first to charge them with resisting the laws , by preaching , gathering churches , and administring sacraments , and making canons and setting up new discipline , and to publish this to the land and world by such authority as arch bishop bancrofts , doctor heylins &c. till it is become their common charge to render them suspected and odious and till this be taken for undoubted truth : and yet when it may serve for the silencing of us ; to maintain it with dr. st. as that which he is certain of , that the old nonconfor mists were against such preaching and assembling . at this rate we have been hitherto accused and confuted . yea upon the foresaid accusations their canons were formed against the nonconformists , forbidding their assembling , preaching , calling themselves a distinct church , and a great deal more such : and yet now the men that conform to these canons are certain that they were made upon safe suppositions , and not one of the nonconformists were so guilty . but doth not the doctor thus grievously accuse the church which he would defend ? were they such men . that would so falsly accuse the innocent . and use them so cruelly on such false accusations , many of them dying in prisons , and many lay there long &c. . and to form canons on such false suppositions ? § . and i do not think i shall prevail with him to tell me , whether he that thinks their case and ours was so much the same , doth verily believe . that if they had been in the plague at london , and seen the forsaken people crowding for instruction to prepare for death , the nonconformists ( such as bradshaw , gifford , hildersham , greenham , &c. ) would have refused to preach to them . . and if the next year they had seen the churches burnt , and the city in ruins , and few parish ministers officiate , they would have thought i● a sin to preach to the desolate city , to assemble them to worship god ; and would have let them under so dreadful judgements , live and dye like prophane atheists ? . and if shortly after the king had licensed them to assemble and preach , would they have refused it as a sin ? . and if the prelates had prevailed by such a parliament against the kings license , and he still had shewed the clemencie of his mind by his conivence , and magistrates were loth to execute the rigorous laws , and people would not inform , and the informers repented , and thousands more called to the nonconformists for help , than did there when popery stuck still in the peoples hearts ; would they have thought all this no alteration of the case , to judge whether their preaching would do good or hurt ? § . he tells us of the fewness of nonconformists in king edward's days . and it is a wonder that so many in so short a time , went so far in the reformation as they did . but so fast were they then in progress , that even the reformation of church laws then by the commissioners agreed on was in many things so much better than our canons , as could we now but obtain the same , would go far to heal us . let me instance in some , and anticipate by it my answer to his after discourse against parish discipline . . cap. . de heres . they determine of the salvation of the unbaptized infants of believers , the contempt only being damning . . they define the church visible ( cap , ) to be the congregation of all believers in which the sacred scripture is sincerely taught , and the sacraments ( at least in the necessary parts ) administred according to christs institution ] but your canons deny all such here to be true churches , save theirs , as settled by law. . de sacram. cap , . none to be admitted to the sacrament till in the church he have professed his faith . and de div. off. cap. they that will receive the communion must the day before come to the minister that he may have time to excusse their consciences , and deal with them if they have done any thing ungodly or superstitionsly , in which the church is offended ; and also may try their faith , that so he may either correct their ignorance , or terrifie their contumely , or confirm their doubting . for none ought to be admitted to the holy table of the lord , that hath not a perfect belief . ] the words need a gentle exposition : but we have no power now to try mens knowledge or belief thus . . cap. . after evening prayers , the parish minister deason and elders with the people , shall call those that have been publickly perverse , and scandalous to confess their sins , and to be publickly corrected , that the church may be conformed by their wholesome correction . and the minister and deacon with some elders shall consult how the rest that are of vitious lives , may first by brotherly love according to christs prescript in the gospel , be dealt with by sober men ; whose admonitions if they receive , they shall give god thanks : but if they go on in the crime , they shall be sharply punished as the gospel prescribeth . ] . de concion . cap. . preachers shall name no guilty person before the multitude , unless such as have contemned ecclesiastical admonitions ] such may be named . . de ●xc . excommunication for none but horrible crimes , &c. cap. . and after oft admonition . but you excomunicate all godly men that do but say your conformity is not lawful , ipso facto by your canon . . cap. . [ we permit not the power of excomunication to be in any one person : though the consent of the wh●le church be specially desirable , yet because it is hard to gather and take it , let excommunication thus proceed , that the arch-bishop , bishop , or other lawful ecclesiastical judge , call one justice of peace , and the minister of the place where the guilty person dwelleth , or his deputy , and two or three other learned and well man ●ered presbyters , in whose presence , when the matter hath been most diligently handled aud gravely weighed , the sentence of excommunication shall pass . cap. . and be written . cap. there is written a large pious form like a sermon to be used at the reconciling of the penitent , and his form of confession , and petition to be received , and then the pastor of that church is to ask all the flock , whether they will forgive the offender and pray for him , and whether they will have him received into their congregation as a brother . and then the pastor is to exhort the penitent , and then absolve him ( a great and solemn work , most unlike your discipline ) . and then to give god thanks and pray for him and the church . should we now but move for thus much in order to concord with the cconformists , we have reason to think no importunity could prevail for it ; were the consequents of our division as dismal as they are now by most proclaimed . yet verily we are most unexcuseable wretches , if we have learned no more to this day than they did in so few years ; or under full power and opportunity will resist that good , which they that wanted such opportunity wished for ; and go back as fast as they went forward . sect. . to p. . [ i never said that the troubles at frankford were so much about free or formal prayer , as that the presbyterians refused all forms . ] sect. . p. . he confesseth that [ whittingham , sampson , gilby and others , accepted of preferment and employment in the church , the bishop shewing them kindness for their forward zealous preaching ; ] and this being without their subscribing to conform , is it any wonder then that they gathered not assemblies elsewhere ? had the bishops so tryed us , we should never have put them to talk so of our separation , ( but might have done our best to build more churches . ) doth none of all this difference their case and ours ? sect. . p. . he confesseth when [ they were silenced , they began to have separate meetings , ] and yet were all the old non-conformists against such . sect. . as to beza's letter , have not i said more against separation than he doth ? doth the dr. think the reader so blind as not to see that beza's words are just of the same importance with the account i gave , and contrary to his , viz. [ he trembleth at the thoughts of their exercising their function against the will of the queen and bishops , for such reasons as may be easily understood , though we say never a word of them : ] it s easie indeed to see what he trembles at , and why he named them not , which he would sure in charity have done , had it been because it is sinful disobedience to preach when forbidden : it was easie to see what hurt it would have done in the ruine of preachers and hearers , and shaking all the begun reformation : it s not so with us , gualter and zanchy say not so much against separation as i do , nor john fox , nor bullinger whom he citeth ; we say the same . sect. . the same i say of parker and gifford , and i again tell him that he may name many more ; hildersham , paget , ame , &c. i am of their judgment in their opposition to the brownists ; but it is a notorious untruth ( pag. . ) that the force of all the non-conformists reasonings against separation , lay in two suppositions . . that nothing could justifie separation from our church , but such corruptions which overthrew the being and constitution of it , &c. and . it must be remembred that separation being a word of very many sences , they held indeed that [ none ought to separate from a church accusing it to be none , but for that which proved it to be none . ] . but did they deny that which all the christian world confesseth ? viz. . what if our english divines gathered by bishop hall against burton , be in the right , that the church of rome is a true church , as a thief is a true man , ( though i think otherwise ) must not such bishops or conformists therefore separate from them ? . what if a church impose some lye , false oath , or subscription , or some actual sin in worship , as a condition sine qua non of her communion ; is it not lawful to separate into better assemblies ? . what if they put down all preaching save reading some dry homilies , and all discipline , is it not lawful elsewhere to serve god better ? but of this more after where he repeateth it . the brownists case was quite other before described . sect. . to p. , . we also hold that whosoever separateth from the church of england , . as having not that preaching and sacraments which are of necessity to salvation . . or as not professing true saving faith , doth by consequence separate from all churches in the world ; because they have all the same word , sacraments , and christian faith. and to this mr. jacobs argument is good , p. . ( though he was the man that answered downam's sermon for bishops , and esteemed one of the first independents : ) and mr. balls words to the same purpose , and the second supposition p. . we grant , and think verily that the late conformists have said more against the truth of the church of england , than we ; yea , that we are the defenders of it against the brownists and them , ball , bradshaw , gifford , hildersham , &c. cited by him , defend it as we do , and better than such as dr. heylin , thorndike , mr. dodwel , and such others . did he think any of this concerned me ? sect. . yes , for p. . he saith , [ we would blind the reader by finding out the disparity of some circumstances ; but not one of us can deny that it was their judgment , that the holding separate congregations for worship , where there was an agreement in doctrine and the substantials of religion , was unlawful and schismatical . ] answ . it s pity so seeing a dr. should tempt men to be so blind , . as to think all the differences which i have named , inconsiderable . . and to go on to abuse themselves and others , with the ambiguous word [ separate ] no better explained . . and to think the other causes before and after named of some sort of separation , to be insufficient ; and i am sorry for the dr. if this be his own profession , that he would tell any lie , or commit any other sin , or forsake any other part of religion , rather than separate to other assemblies , from a church that agreed in doctrine and the substantials of worship with him . the presbyterians then are sure of him , if they were but in possession ; and it seems in moscovy he would forsake preaching . but what if the king licensed a preaching church , would he refuse the use of it for fear of separating from a mere reading church . this protean word [ separate ] serveth for many uses : i will put one case more to the dr. ( not feigned . ) a conformist gentleman was of the opinion that his parish church was no true church , because the vicar was a socinian , and another because the parson was ignorant of the essentials of christianity ; and they go to the next parish church . a nonconformist in the same parish , goeth to a nonconformists chappel , but doth not accuse the parish church as none , as the other do ; which of these separateth more ? at gloucester one took the diocesan church for no true church , because bishop goodman was a papist , and the bishop is a constitutive part ; and yet this man was for diocesans : a nonconformist went to a nonconformists church , but would not say the diocesan church was none : which separated more ? he separateth from his parish church against the canon , who goeth from an ignorant scandalous reader , to communicate with a preacher at the next parish : he separateth from the parish churches , who judgeth them true churches , but having the kings license , joyneth constantly with the french , dutch , or nonconformists as better , still owning mental communion where he hath not local ; and he separateth from the french , dutch , or nonconformist churches , who thus leaveth them ( as true churches ) to joyn with the church of england as better . many and various are the sorts and degrees of separation , and not all lawful or all unlawful : none of these are the brownists separation , which the old nonconformists confuted ; which consisted in a denial , . that the english ministers were true ministers . . and their churches true churches . . or such as a christian might lawfully live in communion with in ordinary worship . . and therefore they were all bound to renounce them , and set up others . i doubt the dr. is far more a separatist than i , and such as i ; for i am for communion with all christians , as far as they separate not from christ ; and i hate the false accusing of any church as if it were none , or its communion unlawful . i can be but in one place at once , but in heart i joyn with all christians on earth except in sin ; and locally i joyn where i see greatest reason for it , preferring that which i judge most agreeable to gods word , so far as i may without greater hurt . but the canonical conformists , unchurch all the churches here but their own , and utterly refuse communion with them , even with those that refuse not communion with them . and some think that forcible silencing , fining , excommunicating , and imprisoning , is not the gentlest sort of separating . but doth he in all his book do any thing to satisfie any mans conscience , that would know from what churches he may or may not separate ? not a word that i can find , that decideth such a doubt . his two words here used are [ agreement in doctrine , and substantials of religion , ] whereas . religion is in acts and habits , and hath no proper substance , and what his term [ substance ] meaneth , till he tells us , none can know . it must be either an essential part , or an integral part , for an accident i suppose it is not . if only an essential part , what christian dare say that i may sin against all the meer integrals of religion rather than go from the church that imposeth such sin upon me . if it be all the integrals that we must agree in , then we differ in no one part of religion ; for accidents are not parts : and then who contradicts him ? when men differ in no part of religion , they will not separate unless merely locally : are all the things named in my first plea , no parts of religion ? it may be by [ substance ] he meaneth only the greater sort of integrals , but how shall we know where to six our measures ; what duty is so small that i may omit it , or what sin so small that i may commit it for communion . . and as for doctrine , they that differ in any part of religion , are supposed to differ in the doctrine about that part . but can any man tell what doctrine it is that he maketh our agreement in to be necessary , or the test of communion . if i should separate from all churches from which i differ in any the least doctrine , i know not where the diocesan or national church is that i might hold communion with : do all the conformists agree in all doctrines ? if it be in all that the law imposeth , how various , mutable , and uncertain is that . i distinguish between doctrine professed by the church , and doctrine imposed on me to profess it . as to the first , i will communicate with a church that hath twenty false doctrines , consistent with the essentials of christianity and church communion . as to the second , i will not knowingly profess one false doctrine for communion with any church on earth . did not the nonconformists differ from the conformists , in the doctrine of the sufficiency of scripture for regulating church-order and worship ; and about the divine right of diocesans and elders , and about parish discipline . do not we now differ about the undoubted certainty of the salvation of all dying baptized infants ? will this warrant a separation ? sect. , . p. . he tells us very confidently that diversity of circumstantial pretences for separation , alter not the case : but . it s true that if twenty men have twenty false pretences for separation , none of them are thereby justified ; but if one man have a just cause , it justifieth him : i named very many just and unjust causes in my plea , and he giveth no answer to it . . are they such circumstances before named : oaths , declarations , subscriptions , doctrine , & c ? . what if the law should change , and allow of various churches ? what if the king license them ? these be but circumstances : what if the plague drive away the parish ministers ? what if the churches be burnt and the people forsaken ? will no such circumstances make other assemblies lawful , because he calls them separate . sect. . p. . his undertaking is repeated : [ he is certain that preaching in opposition to our established laws , is contrary to the doctrine of all the nonconformists of former times . ] answ . if i have not proved the contrary , i cannot prove that they were english men . but . he proveth that they were all of that mind , by citing four of their books against brownists ; and were four or forty times four , all ? but mr. rathbands is said to be the nonconformists . doth he believe that he meant that all or the twentieth part of the nonconformists wrote or subscribed it ? one of the names to it is mr. simeon ash , my intimate dear friend , whose judgment in these matters was the same with mine , whom i was with even in his sickness almost to the last hour of his life , and was buryed aug. . . the day before the law had else silenced him , and he was to me a better expositor of his own mind , than the dr. can be : he was so much for going on to preach , that his motto in his funeral ring was , [ i am not ashamed of the gospel of christ : ] i yet keep my ring , and can shew it you . and as to old mr. langley , another of them , i heard him my self preach in albriton church in shropshire , a thanksgiving sermon for the hopes of deliverance from the silencing bishops , when the law forbad him : and for old mr. slater , i heard him preach at trinity church in coventry when the law forbad him : and did they not understand their own writings better than the dr. doth ? sect. . and i would i knew how to prevail with him to tell me , whether the law and canon did not forbid all the ministers in england to worship god according to the directory , and neglect the common prayer book , which yet almost all did for many years in the times of usurpation : and yet of nine thousand or more of these , seven thousand since conformed to the church of england , and they say that this dr. is one of them . if mere disobedience then be the sin , all these lived so long in sin , and he with others . sect. . but all that can be gathered out of the four books ●●●ed and such others is but this , which is our judgment : . that churches and pastors are under the kings government as well as other subjects . . that it belongeth to him to punish them for evil doing , and encourage them in doing well . . that as to this his own execution , he is the publick judge whether they do well or ill . . that if he justly forbid any to preach or assemble he must be obeyed . . and if he mistake in particular cases , not destroying the ends of his government , the common good , he must not be resisted , nor in such a manner disobeyed , as tendeth more to the common hurt than his mistake doth ; nor disabled to govern by their dishonouring him , much less by rebellion or confusion . . nor are men bound to cast away their great advantages for gods service which they then had , on pretence of doing better , when by accident it would do more hurt than good , nor as bradshaw saith , to run on the sword , or oppose sword to sword , or raise sedition , and ruin themselves in vain . their advantages were many : . lawful communion in the parish churches . . most of them either constantly or by sits , had publick churches or chappels to preach in , and were still in hope . . the magistrate protected them and the reformation . . they hoped for a progress of it , whereas had they openly done as the brownists , they had endangered the reformation by the exasperation , and ruined themselves , and lost most of their labour : so that it is plain that preaching in that imprudent manner which is like to do more harm than good , they took to be a double sin , as hurtful and as disobedience ; for obedience is due in such a case . but in case the manner and circumstances be such as that these evils are not consequent , but more good than hurt to be expected ; they thought the bare breach of the law no sin . sect. . which i yet further prove , . because it s agreed by all , that governing order is a medium for the thing ordered ; and never obligeth when it overthroweth the end , power being given to edification and not to destruction : none have power to forbid the necessary preaching of the gospel , and probably to damn souls . . because else the nonconformists should be more against preaching when forbidden than the conformists ; who say as bishop bilson , we must go on with our work , & suffer : and as bishop andrews tortur . torti . cohibeat regem diaconus , &c. . yea , the papists who on pretence of obedience are tyrannical , yet mostly agree ( as i have elsewhere proved ) that humane laws bind not beyond the case of scandal , when they are against the common good : and a toletane council decreed , that their constitutions should not be taken to bind ad p●c●atum , ( to hazard souls ) but only ad poenam . . as i have said , their own practice fully expounded their words , who constantly broke the law and canon in preaching in houses and in chappels without , or contrary to the liturgy , or a part of it . so did mr. ball at whitemore , mr. hind at banbury , mr. geree and mr. fox at tewksbury , john rogers at dedham , mr. taylor , mr. harvy , mr. bourne at manchester , mr. gee , mr. johnson , mr. hancock , mr. barlow , mr. broxholme , mr. cooper , and abundance more , besides those mentioned before . and now i leave it to the dr.'s further thoughts , whether he spake truly of the sence of all the nonconformists , and have proved what he undertook . to abuse the magistrate , or do his part for publick reformation , they were against , and so are we . sect. . as to his question , was there less necessity then or now ? i answer , . there was then more necessity as there is of you or me in america , where we cannot preach ; the people , lately papists , desired not their helps , nor scrupled hearing others , as many thousands do now . . there was necessity then and so there is now , but opportunity must joyn with necessity to oblige , which they had more than we by connivence in chappels , where was necessity , and they had less than we in other places . sect. . as to the answers of mr. sprint , on my knowledge the usual answer was , that evil must not be done that we may have leave to do good , and that if others hinder me because i will not sin , it is not my omission of any duty ; yet the disparity of the apostles case and ours , may be mentioned to shew the difference of obligations . positive precepts bind not ad semper , but negatives do ; and it s too gross a shift to turn a negative to a positive , and then pretend that the comparison is between two duties : preaching is a duty when we can do it , but not when we cannot do it , unless we will swear , subscribe , profess , or practise a forbidden thing . sect. . i conjecture that to what i have proved of the practice of the nonconformists , it will be said that their preaching in peculiar places , chappels , or churches , though in a manner against law and canon , was but a partial joyning with the church of england , and not a separation ; and the connivence of the bishops was a kind of toleration . answ . . and is not my case the same ? we had more than connivence when we had the kings licenses , and ever since experience tells you that his clemency hath occasioned a restraint of the bishops , and some connivence from them . . and if it were the temples that make the difference , let them allow us to preach there and see whether we will refuse it : and sure the conformists that preach in tabernacles are not separatists ; the parish teacher of st. martins now preacheth in the same place which i built to have preached in , and for so doing was by a warrant judged to prison . they had no more law on their side than i have , they usually read no more of the liturgy but the confession and the scriptures , and many not the first at all , and some more ; so that its a full proof that if breaking the law had been all their stop , they would have still preached . sect. . dr. ames tells us that he had preached without the bishops consent by this story , fresh suit , p. . describing an english bishops pastoral work , he saith . it would be ridiculous for a mean man to desire him to visit him , his wife , or children , in sickness ; he must have a chaplain not only to do other duties of religion for him , but even to give thanks at his table . i will not here speak of [ draw up an excommunication for him , take him pursuivant , jaylor see to your prisoner ; ] but note one example of mine own experience , which many others can parallel : i was once ( and but once i thank god ) before a bishop , and being presented to him by the chief magistrates of a corporation , to be preacher in their town ; the lowly man first asked them , how they durst choose a preacher without his consent : you ( said he ) are to receive a preacher that i appoint you , for i am your pastor , though he never fed them : and then turning to me , [ how durst you , said he , preach in my diocess without my leave ? ] so that without any other reason but meer lordship , the whole corporation and i were dismissed to wait his leisure , which i have done now twenty years and more . much like the usage of holy paul bayne , successor to perkins , who being commanded to preach a visitation sermon , and being sickly and in a sweat with preaching , was fain to refresh himself instead of going presently to attend the bishop ; and when he was sent for , having small cuffs edged with a little blew thred , saith the bishop : how dare you appear before me with those ? and he suspended him : and good mr. bayne would never more have to do with a bishop , but said , they are an earthly generation , and savour not the things of god. when dr. fulke ( a half conformist ) went out of st. johns colledge in cambridge with his pupils , hiring chambers for himself and them in the town , it was as great a separation from the colledge ( to avoid the surplice which he after submitted to ) as we make from the church . see ames fresh suit , p. . and that it was no conscience of obeying the bishop , that beza would have the ministers moved by , from assembling : judge by these words , [ de notis eccles . ego pontificiis — ] i willingly leave to the papists the whole degree of episcopacy , of which i openly say , the holy ghost was not the author , but humane prudence ; which if we observe not that god hath cursed , certainly we even yet see nothing ; and we nourish a viper in our bosoms , which will again kill the mother . sect. . i will conclude with the recital of the letter sent to the bishops by dr. humphrey , regius professor in oxford , who yet constrained , used the surplice after that : our dr. may note what sence they had then of these things , premising only the words of john fox , speaking of blumfield a wicked persecutor , who threatned a godly man , simon harelson , for not wearing the surplice : [ its pity , saith he , such baits of popery are left to the enemies to take christians in ; god take them away from us , or us from them : for god knoweth they be the cause of much blindness and strife among men . dr. humphrey's letter to the bishops . your lordships letter , directed unto us by our vice-chancellor , although written in general words , yet hath so hearted our adversaries , that we are now no more counted brethren and friends but enemies ; and ●ith the old mass attires be so straitly commanded , the mass it self is shortly looked for . a sword now is put into the enemies hands of these that under q mary have drawn it for popery , and under pretence of good order , are ready without cause to bewreck their popish anger upon us , who in this will use extremity , in other laws of more importance , partiality . i would have wished , my lords , rather privy admonition than open expulsion ; yea i had rather have received wounds of my brother , than kisses of mine enemy ; if we had privily in a convenient day resigned , then neither should the punisher have been noted of cruelty , neither the offender of temerity , neither should the papists have accused ( in their seditious book ) protestants of contention . religion requireth naked christ to be preached , professed , glorified ; that graviora legis , by the faithful ministry of feeding pastors , should be furthered , and after that orders tending to edification , and not to destruction , advanced ; and finally the spouses friends should by all means be cherished , favoured , and defended , and not by counterfeit and false intruders , condemned and overborn , and defaced . but alas , a man qualified with inward gifts for lack of outward shews is punished , and a man only outwardly conformable and inwardly clean unfurnished , is let alone , yea exalted : the painful preacher for his labour is beaten , the unpreaching prelate offending in the greater , is shotfree ; the learned man without his cap is afflicted , the capped man without learning is not touched : is not this directly to break gods laws ? is not this the pharises vae ? is not this to wa●● the outside of the cup , and leave the inner part uncleansed ? is not this to prefer mint and annis to faith aud judgment and mercy ? mans tradition before the ordinance of god ? is not this in the school of christ , and in the method of the gospel a plain disorder ? hath not this preposterous order a woe ? that the catechism should be read is the word of god , it is the order of the church , to preach is a necessary point of a priest , to make quarterly sermons is law , to see poor men of the poor mens box relieved , vagabonds punished , parishes communicate , rood lofts pull'd down , monuments of superstition defaced , service done and heard , is scripture , is statute ; that the oath to the q majesty should be offered and taken , is required as well by ordinance of god as of man. these are plain matters , necessary , christian , and profitable . to wear a surplice , a coap , or a corner'd cap is ( as you take it ) an accidental thing , a device only of man , and as we say a doubt or question in divinity . sith now these substantial points are in all places of this realm almost neglected , the offender either nothing or little rebuked , and sith the transgressors have no colour of conscience , it is sin and shame to proceed against us first , having also reasonable defence of our doings : charity my lords , would first have taught us , equity would first have spared us , brotherliness would have warned us , pity would have pardoned us , if we had been found trespassers . god is my witness , who is the beholder of all faith , i think of your lordships honourably , esteeming you as brethren , reverencing you as lords and masters of the congregation : alas why have not you some good opinion of us ? why do you trust known adversaries and mistrust your brethren ? we confess one faith of jesus , we preach one doctrine , we acknowledg one ruler upon earth , in all things ( saving in this ) we are of your judgment , shall we be used thus for a surplice ? shall brethren persecute brethren for a forked cap , devised singularity of him that is our enemy ? now shall we fight for the popes coat , his head and body being banished ? shall the controversie so fall out in conclusion ▪ that for lack of necessary furniture ( as it is esteemed ) labourers shall lack wages ? churches preaching ? shall we not teach ? shall we not exercise our talents as god hath commanded us , because we will not wear that which our enemies have desired , and that by the appointment of friends . oh that ever i saw this day that our adversaries should laugh to see brethren fall together by the ears : oh that ephraim should thus eat up manasses , manasses ephraim . my lords , before this take place , consider the cause of the church , the crests and triumphs of antichrist , the laughter of satan , the sorrow and sighs of a number , the misery and sequel of the tragedy . i write with zeal without proof of my matter at this time present , but not without knowledge of it , nor without grief of mind : god move your spirit at this present to fight against carnem , circumcisionem , immo concisionem , against literam & legem , which principally is now regarded and rewarded . speak i humbly beseech you to the queens majesty , to the chancellor , and to mr. secretary and the rest , that those proceedings may sleep , that england may understand your zealous mind toward the worship of god , your love toward the poor welwillers , your hate toward the professed enemies , your unity in true conformity , the other neither be needful now , neither exacted in any good age : so shall the little flock be bound to you , so shall the great shepherd be good to you . an answer to the false accusations and reasonings of the dr.'s second part . here the dr. begins with the description of their principles whom he accuseth ( i am one of them : ) and the first sort are those [ that hold partial and occasional communion with our churches to be lawful , but not total and constant , ] viz. [ at some times to be present , and in some part of our worship , and on particular occasion to partake of some acts of communion with us ; but they apprehend greater purity and edification in separate congregations , and when they are to choose they think themselves bound to choose these , though at certain seasons they may think it lawful to submit to occasional communion with our church . ] the second sort are `` such as hold any communion with our church unlawful : and he pretends to proceed with all possible clearness . ] answ . i am sorry if more clearness and truth is become impossible to him . he taketh not me to be one of the second sort , and therefore describeth me as of the first : it s no presumption to say that i know my own mind and practice better than he doth , though he would seem to know the old nonconformists minds better than they did themselves . sect. . the matter of fact must first be notified : . i ever distinguished the national , diocesan , parochial , and segregate churches : and the national as supposed organized , or an ecclesiastically political society , from the national as a christian kingdom , and as an agreeing association of churches , without any governor of the whole ( single or aristocratical . ) and i distinguished diocesans that are as arch-bishops over lower bishops , and those that are like ours , infimae speciei : and i distinguished parish churches that have true pastors , from those that have none but uncapable men , through insufficiency , heresie , malignity , or as usurpers are not truly called . . accordingly i concluded , . that the parish churches in england that have true pastors , are true political governed churches . . that though some would make them none , by denying to the pastors an essential part of their office , and make the bishop the sole pastor , and the rest but his curates , and the parishes no churches as having no bishop , but to be only as chappels , part of the lowest governed church ( diocesan ) and so give up the cause to the brownists called separatists ; yet truly such parishes are true political churches , because the ordainer being but the investing minister , the office is not essentiated as he willeth or saith , but as god the instituter willeth and saith . as the power of the husband over the wife is not what please the priest that marryeth them , but what pleaseth god who giveth it by his law ; and as the lord mayor's power is not what please the recorder , or he that giveth him his oath or insignia , but what the kings charter giveth ; and the kings power is not what he will that crowneth him and giveth him his oath , but what he hath right to by the constitution of the kingdom ; so that the truth of the parish churches is soundly maintained by the nonconformists , and overthrown by many of the diocesans : but if the parish minister himself consent not to the essentials of his own office , his ministry may be valid to others while he is in the place , but he is , himself , no true pastor . . all parishes are no true governed churches , whose ministers want any thing essential to a pastor , nor must be owned as such if known . . but for the peoples sake they are true churches , secundum quid , or equivocally as a company of christians may be so called that have no pastor , and as such may be so far communicated with . . i never spake against a diocesan or arch-bishop , that hath parish churches , and true pastors or bishops under him , and taketh on him no more than the apostles , did , excepting their work , properly apostolical , viz. by the word and not the sword , to oversee and instruct inferior pastors . . when the diocesans put down all lower churches and true pastors , i own not that doing , nor them in that form ; but i separate from them no further than they do from christ . . when they are but as good arch-bishops taking care of many churches , whether their diocess shall be called a church as such , is but lis de nomine . i find not that any apostle as such , was the constitutive head of a diocesan or provincial church , or made any such , above particular churches : nor do i find in the new testament any political church form , but the universal headed by christ , and particular ones governed by pastors . the general is the constitutive head of his army , and the colonel of his regiment , and the captain of his troop , as distinct subordinate bodies ; but the major general , general of the ordnance , quartermaster general , &c. may be only under ▪ officers to the whole , and the noblest integral parts , but as such no constitutive head of any body of men whatever : so that general pastors prove no superior proper church . but because it was lawful in prudence for the apostles to have taken several provinces , limited severally to each , so may men now ; and if any call such churches , i strive not , so the matter be agreed on . . i ever owned a christian kingdom , and the agreeing association of as many churches as can for mutual help and concord , and the king to be their governor by the sword : and if any will call a kingdom a church , or an association that hath no constitutive government , a church ; as if he called a diet or assembly of many kings or princes , a kingdom or republick , let him enjoy his equivocation , so we understand each other . . according to these principles i own my self a member of the universal church , of the church of england , and of the parish or particular church where for the time i am called to be ; that is , as they are . but i think i may remove from parish to parish as i have cause , as a dweller or a lodger may ; and i take not all the parish to be the church , and take parish bounds to be no divine institution , but a humane mutable point of order , convenient when by accident it crosseth not the end , nor doth more harm than good . . i think if any nobleman in london confine his ordinary communion to a just assembly in his happel , or any that have a minister utterly unsuitable to their needs , do usually hold communion in the next parish church for better , he is thereby neither separatist nor sinner . . according to all this , when i was silenced i ordinarily heard dr. wilkins and dr. tillotson ; and communicated in several places as i had best opportunity ; and quickly going to acton , i there constantly morning and evening joyned at common prayer and sermon , communicating in the sacrament where i had best opportunity , ( being loth for the parson and curates s●ke , to tell you why it was not there , ) once with dr. horton and often with nonconformists . the plague driving me to hambden , i constantly there joyned in all the publick worship and sacrament : returning to acton , i did as before , and sometime repeated dean rieve's sermon , till he got me sent to gaol for teaching some willing ignorant people between the church meetings in my house : thence going to totteridge , i many years constantly twice a day joyned in the publick worship , and took the sacrament when administred as mr. parre will testifie . thence removing to london , and licensed by the king to preach , i forbare some time , and after chose only the market house at st. james's , openly declaring that we met not as separating from the publick churches , but for the need of multitudes that went to no church for want of room . since then i have many years joyned in all the publick worship , word , prayer , and sacraments , with the parish church , when able , since that i also sometime joyn with nonconformists , and preach my self afternoons , and on thursdays in the nonconformists chappels , being not allowed to do it otherwise . in the country in summer , i have far off got into some parish churches for a day , and tryed neer london , but could not have consent , though i have bishop sheldon's license for that diocess , i think not yet invalidated . this is the matter of fact . now reader , qu. . doth the tenth part of those counted of this parish church , hear and communicate so oft as i do . q. . if not , what makes them and not me to be of that church ? q. . what is the constancy that this dr. maketh necessary to a member ? q. . what are the parts of their worship which he saith i joyn not in ? hath he named any ? q. . is this only occasional joyning ? sect. . i do maintain that . when , consideratis considerandis , we may choose the purest churches and most edifying ministry , it is a duty so to do . and one of his answers ( the rector , &c. ) hath in the epistle cited his own words , not out of the retracted irenicon , but his late book against popery , expresly threatning us with damnation if we do not . to which i find no excuse made by him , yea the papist adversary grants the same . . i do maintain against those that separate from all churches which they dare not be stated members of , that its lawful to communicate occasionally , where we may not do it statedly : but is this to deny all save occasional communion with all their churches ? . i often say that there is so great difference of parish ministers , and of persons cases and opportunities , and relations , ( as wives , children , servants , under parents , &c. of divers commands , &c. ) that to be constant communicants in their parish church , is to some a duty , to some a sin , and so is occasional communion . sect. . as to the second sort , that hold all communion with them unlawful . . i leave them to plead their own cause , and i meddle only with my own part . . but i must say that if they mistake , those that wilfully give them the occasion are unfit reprovers of them : and if men for worldly ends or by error , will corrupt and defile a church to the utmost that is consistent with lawful communion ( or neer it ) they may make the question whether their communion be lawful , too hard for understandings . every one cannot tell whether one in a swoon be alive or dead , and some may bury him too hastily . stretch not my similitude beyond my meaning : if a gentleman of the game should by wilful sin , get the lues vener●● , and the case be disputed whether his wife may separate from him , or if he beat her once a week ; if she will not daily eat that which makes her grievous sick , and he doth it to exercise his authority , another may better plead against her departure than he : if it be a fault in her so to save her self , what is it in him to destroy or abuse her ? if we be forbidden to take poyson , and one will causelesly command us to take a doubtful thing , as nightshade , hemlock , a●ripigmentum , &c. and then condemn us as disobedient for refusing , he is the unfittest person to condemn us . if it be lawful to avoid a house that hath the plague , a man is excusable that mistakes the spotted fever for it . were your congregations but full of persons that had the scabs of the small pox not dryed away , and one went to a sounder congregation for fear of infection , not at all condemning you , he might be born with . if in the beginning of queen elizabeths reign , when abundance of papist priests staid in the churches for their benefices , a man had quietly gone from them to the nonconformists , i could not blame him ; though he had not been sure that they were not changed . and i still say that if such erre by too much care to avoid sin and save their souls , . it is a far greater error to give them the occasion . . and in such as you to say , that therefore they must be so far forsaken , as that none may preach to them . if i may preach to no erring people , . i must preach to none . . or be no physician to any that are sick . and i must say , that though i found no call to gather any together as a church , and give them the sacrament ; i cannot say that no other had such , unless i had heard them all speak for themselves : yea i see such notorious need in many places , that i dare not blame them . sect. . and now reader , qu. whether the dr. hath truly stated the case between him and me ; and whether you can expect truth and edification in his handling of a false-stated case . these are the questions which , as my accuser , ( in his book ) he should have handled , had truth been his design . . whether for one that holdeth so much communion with their churches as i have done , and here describe , it be sinful separation to preach in and communicate with the assemblies of nonconformists , or mixt ones , as i have done ? . whether to deny this to be sinful separation ( or separation as commonly taken for schism ) be disingenious ▪ and worse than theirs that openly renounce their communion . sect. . three things he saith , p. . we cannot deny , . that there is no reason of separation because of th● doctrine of their church . answ . . we distinguish of separation : there is no reason to separate from you as no church , or further than we do ; there is reason to deny our consent , . to your foresaid doctrine of all baptized dying infants undoubted salvation , not excepting those of atheists and infidels . . to your included doctrine implyed in your impositions , viz. that if a man have unlawfully made a vow and oath to endeavour in his place and calling to reform some corruptions in church-government , yea or to repent of his sin and oppose popery , prophaneness , and schism ; there is no obligation on him from that oath and vow to do it . these and such other doctrines we separate from , so far as to reject them . sect. . his second supposed concession is , [ that there is no other reason of separation because of the terms of our communion , than what was from the beginning of the reformation . answ . . there are in my judgment no common reasons for going further from you than we do , nor to justifie that which is commonly known by the name of separation . but there are many and great reasons to justifie our measure of dissent and ministration ; and to say that [ we grant there are no more reasons now than were then , ] is too bold an untruth . there is more reason , . from the quality of the things imposed . . from the designs and drift of the imposition . . from the effects . . from the aggravation of conformity as in the church that we must communicate with . . from the things which give us a fuller cause for our preaching and assemblies . viz. . the late general contrary church state and engagement to it . . the plague . . the burning of the churches . . the kings license and clemency . . the number and quality of them that seek our helps . of these briefly in order . . as to the things imposed now which were not then . . the vestry act was not then made , by which so considerable a part of your parish churches as the vestries , are to renounce all obligations to endeavour any alteration of the government of the church , from the oath and vow called the covenant : so that all reformation of church government as so sworn , was thus renounced by them who in a sort represent the parish church . . the act of uniformity had not then imposed the same declarative renunciation of all such obligation on all the ministers and schoolmasters in england , as it now doth . . the corporation act was not then in being , which constituteth all the officers in power in all cities and corporations , of such only as declare , [ that there is no obligation from the said oath at all , ] not excepting so much as the sworn duties of opposing popery , prophaneness , and schism , to repent of sin and amend our lives . and if swearing and vowing against schism , no whit bind men ( if the oath were but unlawfully imposed , why should the dr. make so great a matter of it , and think that his reasonings should make men afraid of gods service , if he will but call it schism . . none of these acts then required men to profess and subscribe , that there is from that vow or oath no such obligation on any other person ; and so to become vouchers for the souls and consciences of many hundred thousands whom we never saw ; even those parliament men that were not forced to it , but imposed it on others , when we know not in what sense they took it . . the re-ordination of ministers ordained by presbyteries was not then required , and made a necessary condition of their ministration and church relation , ( even by them that confess re-ordination unlawful , and therefore plainly intimate the nullity of the first . ) . the act of uniformity was not then made , which requireth all ministers publickly to declare their assent and consent to all things contained in , and prescribed by the liturgy , book of ordination , ( though part of this was in a canon . ) . the false rule for finding easter-day was not then to be assented and consented to , as a condition of the ministry . . nor the new doctrine or article of faith , [ of the undoubted certainty by gods word , that baptized dying infants are saved , ] ( without any exception of the children of atheists , &c. ) for the old words at confirmation ( as many drs. of the church have shewed ) only meant that nothing else was necessary on the churches part , that is , not confirmation . . the word [ pastor ] as applyed to parish ministers distinct from curates , was not then blotted out of most places in the liturgy ; nor the twentieth of acts , as applied to presbyters , left out , ( take heed to your selves and the flock , &c. ) in plain design to alter the office and parish churches . . the oxford oath was not then imposed , to banish ministers above five miles from all cities , and corporations , and places , where they had of late years preached ; so that their old flock or friends ( yea , wives and children that could not follow them ) might not so much as see or hear such ministers in their families , or familiar converse that would have come to the publick churches : and all nonconformist ministers that took not the oath , were thereby forbidden to come to the parish churches in all cities , corporations , or places aforesaid , though their example might have drawn many ( as mine did where i was . ) . ministers and corporations and vestries , were not then bound to swear or subscribe , that it is unlawful on any pretence whatsoever to resist any commissioned by the king ; when the keeper of his seal may sign commissions to seize on the kings forts , garrisons , navies , and treasuries , to deliver up the kingdoms to foreigners , to destroy parliaments , cities , and laws : i am sure hooker , bilson , or arch-bishop abbot , subscribed not this , nor were such conformists . are all these no difference of case ? sect. . there is . a great difference in the drift and tendency of the impositions . they were at first to quiet a popish nation , while the true doctrine took possession and rooting , and to avoid the cavils of those papists that charged the reformers with forsaking all the church : but what they have been used for these last forty or fifty years , i leave the reader to judge . . by the complaints of all the parliaments , since then , save one . . by the history of arch-bishop laud's tryal . . by dr. heylin's history of his life . . by the writings of divines , such as mr. thorndike , dr. parker , dr. pierce , arch-bishop bromhall , and many more such ; and by the papists historical collection out of such . see dr. heylin's description of the reconciling plot , anno . arch bishop bromhal saith , vindicat. p. . &c. [ whereas mr. baxter doth accuse grotius as a papist , i think he doth him wrong , nay i am confident he doth him wrong . — and i have read all that he alledgeth to prove it , but without any conviction or alteration in my judgment . — i will endeavour to give some further light what was the religion of grotius : he was in affection a friend , and in desire a true son of the church a of england : and on his deathbed recommended that church , as it was legally established to his wife , and such other of his family as were then about him , obliging them by his authority to adhere firmly to it . the said bishop ( though no papist ) saith , pag. . b [ i know no members of the greek church , who give them ( the papists ) either more or less than i do : ( compare this with the council at florence , and the patriarch jeremiah's writings , and the present sence of the greek church , and we may know his mind : ) but my ground is not the authority of the greek church , but the authority of the primitive fathers , and general councils , which are the representative body of the universal church . c p. . [ to wave their last four hundred years determinations , is implicitly to renounce all the necessary causes of this great schism . d and to rest satisfied with their old patriarchal power and dignity , and primacy of order , ( which is another part of my proposition ) is to quit the modern papacy , name and thing . e pag. , . [ that christians may joyn together in the same publick devotions and service of christ , — . if the bishop of rome were reduced from the universality of soveraign jurisdiction , jure divino , to his principium unitatis , and his court regulated by the canons of the fathers , which was the sence of the councils of constance and basil , and is desired by many roman catholicks , as well as we . . if the creed were reduced to what they were in the time of the four first general councils , with only necessary explications , and those made by the authority of a general council . . and some things whence offences have been given or taken , be put out of the divine offices — whether christians ought not to live in holy communion , and come to the same publick worship of god , free from all schismatical separations . f pag. . . that st. peter had a fixed chair at antioch , and after at rome , is a truth . — . that st. peter had a primacy of order among the apostles , is the unanimous voice of the primitive church . — . some fathers and schoolmen who were no sworn vassals to the roman bishop , do affirm that this primacy of order is fixed to the chair of st. peter . p. . though the bishop of rome had such a primacy of order by divine right or humane , it would not prejudice us at all , nor is worth the contending about . but , . it is not by divine right in foro exteriore . . nor elsewhere ( interiore ) but executive according to the canons . g whereas i said that protestants that consent not to the popes patriarchal power over us in the west , will fall under the reproach of schism ; he saith , p. . &c. [ must a man quit his just right because some dislike it ? their dislike is but scandal taken , but the quitting of that which is right for their satisfaction , should be scandal given . h if they be forced to fall under the reproach of schismaticks , it is by their own wilful humors , or erroneous conscience , other force there is none . . whether is the worse and more dangerous condition , to fall under the reproach of schism , or to fall into schism it self ? whosoever shall oppose the just power of a lawful patriarch lawfully proceeding , is a material schismatick at least . — p. . it 's unsound arguing to deny a man his just right for fear lest he may abuse it , as a patriarchal power was the bishop of rome's just right . they who made the bishop of rome a patriarch were the primitive fathers , not excluding the apostles and christian emperors and oecumenical councils : what laws they made in this case we are bound to obey for conscience sake , till lawfully repealed by vertue of the law of christ . i much more he hath to this purpose , and p. . for uniting the church catholick on humane terms , and p. . against the peoples liberty of reading and interpreting scripture ; and after at large that concord must be on humane terms , p. . [ grotius judgment was , and mine is moderate , ] but had not this man been so owned by many now , i had not cited so much of his . and for grotius , i have over and over cited his own words , and shall not now repeat them : and was this the drift of conformity of old ? . sect. . another difference is in the effects ; for with us , things not universally or absolutely determined by god , are to be used or refused as they do more good or hurt . . then open preaching and gathering assemblies by nonconformists , would have greatly offended the prince ; but our king at breda , and in his three first declarations , and by his licenses , and connivence , shewed such wisdom and clemency , as intimated less displeasure at our liberty . . it would have deprived most of the nonconformists of their hopes of publick liberty in the parish churches , which most of them enjoyed ; but we had neither possession nor expectation of such a thing . . it would have hindred and hazarded the progress of the reformation , but our preaching hath done more to stop the progress of the syncretism , or of popery : others know this whatever you frivolously say against it . . few of the most ignorant that needed them would then have left the parish churches , to hear nonconformists in private ; but now many will come to us that cannot get in to the parish churches : other different effects may be named . sect. . . and though i accuse you not , you that unjustly said before that i made you seem a company of perjured villains , seems to think your self that the fore alledged causes make many of the people think little better of some ; and a church thought to consist of such pastors and vestries , &c. ( essential parts ) differ from those that do not . . and the multitude of atheists and filthy livers , and the thousands of noncommunicants who are still taken for real members of your churches , have now stood out against so long means and patience , that the reasons of longer waiting for reformation , much differs from theirs in the beginning . . the canon at first did not ipso facto , excommunicate all that do but profess themselves nonconformists , as since it did . . the bishops and their canoneers had not then cast out , nor neer so many preachers as now , and so did not so much tempt the people to flee from them as persecutors , thorns , thistles , or wolves . . when one bishop cast any out , some other usually would endure them , but now it was not so . . the people saw daily , that you bore with those as no schismaticks , that never communicated nor used to hear you , even the greater half of many parishes , and took them for church members as is said ; and therefore they had reason to hope that they that communicated somewhere with protestants , especially that communicated also with your own churches , were as good members , and by good pastors , would be as well endured . sect. . . lastly , the forenamed causes of our preaching much differ . . we saw the kingdom ( though under usurpers ) engaged by vow , practice , and about sixteen years possession and custom , to another way ; and who could expect that a law should presently change them all , and assure them of absolution . . they that conformed were the more averse , to see about six thousand ministers that had gone the other way , so suddenly change ; as to declare assent and consent to a book which they never saw . . the case of the plague , the burning of the churches , the kings licenses , &c. i named before , which verily made a great difference . . and the numbers that call to us for help makes a great difference , when then they that needed them most , did not desire it . these are some differences . sect. . p. . he saith , there is no reason of separation because of the doctrine of our church . ] answ . but now you have corrupted it , in the article of infants undoubted salvation before described , ( and before by the doctrines about prelacy , godfathers power and duty , impositions , &c. implyed in your practical canons ) there is great cause of nonconformity . p. . repeateth that great mistake , that [ there are no alterations , in our own judgment , which make the terms of communion harder than before . ] answ . what hope then of being understood ? how far is this from truth ? the terms are sar harder to ministers ? and to the people they are easier in some things ( as amending some translations , &c. ) but it is not to them a small matter to make such a change of their pastors , as in too many parishes is made . the bishop promised them at kiderminster , when he forbad me to preach , that they should be no losers by the change : they said ( and i had great reason to believe them ) that the successor knew so little of the sence of the creed , and preach'd so rarely ( four times a year ) i am loth to tell you how , that they durst not be guilty of encouraging him in undertaking the charge of souls , nor durst take him for their pastor : and the great increase of buildings in london , shuts thousands now out of such parish churches , who could have got in heretofore ; and some more differences are before implyed . p. . as other churches own your churches , so do we , though not your imposed sins . sect. . p. i was in hope to have met with some answer to my importunate question , [ what would you have the many score thousands do , that cannot come within your churches to hear ? ] but no importunity will prevail for so small a matter with inexorable men . but he saith , . that [ this is but a pretence . ] . and that [ no man denyeth that more places are desirable , &c. ] ans . . it is me that he is now accusing ! why doth he barely say and not prove , that it 's but a pretence ? i never set up a meeting place , but in st. martins parish , where are said to be forty thousand more than can come within the church : and when they would not suffer me to use it , i gladly left it to the use of the parish minister . i preach now twice a week elsewhere , but both the places are in neighbourhoods , where many thousands cannot hear in the parish churches . what if other men have other sufficient reasons ( as the utter incapacity of some ministers , or the like ) doth it follow that my own case and prosessed reason is a meer pretence ? why then did i use no publick preaching , while i lived in such villages where the people might go to church ? and why did i constantly twice a day lead them thither , though some disliked it ? . the question is not whether more churches are desirable ? but where they are not , whether many thousands must live like atheists , without all publick teaching or divine worship , for fear of being called schismaticks . is not this plainly to chuse damnation ? if the gospel be needless , why do we wish the heathens had it ? why subscribe you against mens hopes of being saved in all their several religions ? if church worship be needless , why is a clergy to be so honoured , and maintained at so dear a rate ? aud why do you make such a stir with separatists to bring them to your churches ? can men , not blinded by interest , chuse but wonder , that so many thousands in a parish should be taken for church members , and live quietly , that come not to any church , or never communicate with any , and yet that godly persons who hear and communicate with their old tryed pastors ( yea with such as communicate with you ) should be preach'd and written against as schismaticks , and judged to that which some endure . did this dr. think that to drop in the case of other men , when he was at a loss , would make good his charge against me , and such as i : mr. tombes and mr. williams preached other doctrine ; do i do so , and have you proved it ? but seeing he will needs bring the case to kiderminster , whether i would suffer mr. tombes to gather a congregation , i must not balk it ; but advise him hereafter to keep himself at a greater distance , and not to put his own followers , who are willing enough to believe him , upon utter impossibilities : he sped better with them when he laid the scene an hundred years backward , or as far off as new england ; let him know then all these things in confutation of his historical supposition . . that kiderminster parish hath but about three thousand or four thousand souls , and the church so fit ( with five galleries ) that all may hear : but his parish is said to have twenty thousand souls , of which not four thousand can hear . . a considerable part of kiderminster parish , called ridnal , being at bewdly bridge end , and two miles from kiderminster , ( and some villages more ) usually were mr. tombes his hearers at bewdley , and i never blamed them . . after him , they were hearers and communicants to his successor mr. oasland , and he took the pastoral care of them ( that desired any ; ) and i was so far from blaming him , that i greatly thanked him , and we were far from disagreeing . . though mr. tombes and i differed in the doctrine of infant baptism , i gave him leave ( yea and the quakers too ) in the publick church many hours together , to say all that they could for their opinions in the hearing of my auditors , and none of them ever won one of them that i heard of , ( yet the dr. supposeth some great danger of their peoples seduction , if they hear such as i that never were accused of false doctrine . . but he hath chosen an instance yet neerer our present case : another part of kiderminster parish is neer three miles off , at a village called mitton ; where at the chappel i found a curate called mr. turner , infamous for drunkenness , fighting , living on unlawful marriage , and for gross ignorance : ( i tryed him , and perceived not that he understood much of the creed , ) i sent them a worthy preacher once a day first , and twice after , and declared my utter dissent to mr. turner's ministry ; yet because some of the church of england would have him , and he would , against my will , read the common prayer to them once a day , i hindred them not from their choice , but they went on . . and the sequestred vicar in the town ( mr. dance ) was generally taken to be as ignorant as he , so that when once a quarter he went into the pulpit , his own wife , though of the church of england , would for shame go out of church : yet did i never forbid him to preach , and he oft read the common prayer at sir ralph clares , and i suppose gave them the sacrament . . i had opportunity then to have hindred all this if i would have used magistrates : they were both by proclamation to remove two miles off , but neither of them once removed so much as out of their houses , nor did i desire it ; but we are by law driven five miles off . . mr. dance had forty pounds a year allowed him , and mr. turner never had a groat of his ancient salary diminished , when another was put in , but the other paid otherwise ; but we ask you nothing for assisting you . . i had never one hundred pounds to my self , and therefore could maintain no more help ; ( two assistants i had ) but have you no more to maintain assistants ? now judge how well your historical instances serve your turn . and besides the number of souls , very many parishes are so wide , that distance forbiddeth many to come to the publick parish churches : some villages are five miles , some four , and many three miles off ; and how can families , especially women , children , and the aged , and especially in winter , go so far twice ( or once ) a day : and must all these forbear to hear , or to worship god , for fear of being counted schismaticks ? because the dr. appealeth to my self , i seriously profess that when i had a pastoral charge , ( which was but in one place ) i would have been very thankful to any one that dissered no more than the dr. and i do , that would have gathered a congregation of such , as for number or distance could not have come into the parish church ; and the case of distance did occasion the honest separation aforesaid , though the case of numbers did not : yea when hundreds desired communion according to the common prayer , i never offered to hinder any of them from taking it where and how they would . sect. . p. . he saith [ this is mr. baxter's own case — when he is pinched with the point of separation , thus he declares , that his hearers are the same with ours ; at least ten or twenty for one . — if this be true , then what such mighty help is this to our great parishes , what colour or pretence is there from the largeness of them , that he should preach to the very same men that come to our church . — then how come they to be lawful when few or none of those many thousands ever come . — to speak softly this pretence is not becoming mr. baxters sincerity . ans . what hope of justice from such judges ? or what hope of profiting such readers by dispute , as cannot answer such as this themselves . when i began to preach at st. james's the neighbours assured me , that many of the hearers had been at no church of four years ; but they were members of the parish-church , and that some of them got into the church , but rarely : and some liked it not so well as to be forward seekers . when i was driven thence , i preached a while where mr. wadsworth was in southwark : there were some people that had adhered to their old ejected worthy pastor , and some that i knew not . since then i preach once on the lords day in another mans pulpit , as near st. james's as i could , and the same persons that heard me there do ( many of them ) come hither , and some others : of all whom i know very few , but by report . on thursdays i preach a lecture in another mans pulpit to persons of whom i know not many : but report saith , that some of them joyn not ordinarily with the parish ministers , and some do , and most judge it lawful , and sometime , but seldom practise it : and those are of two sorts : some that prefer the nonconformists ministry , and some that finding the parish churches crowded , and many present are out of hearing , do seldom go thither , though they are of the parish churches , and dissent not from their ministry or worship : some say [ we have no seats and cannot stand : ] some say [ we cannot hear the minister : ] some say , thousands stay away that can get no room , and will go no whither else , and when we can go elsewhere , we will not crowd in first to keep them out , that so much need others must be out if we be in . these are your own church-members : they hear you sometimes , but seldom . others that hear you constantly on the lords days , will think that a sermon on the week days may be needful to them whatever you think or say against it . and is it inconsistent with sincerity here to plead the peoples necessity . it 's well that our sincerity is not to stand or fall to your judgment . did i say that my hearers are constant hearers in your churches ? can you perswade the world , while you deny not that half or a quarter of your own parish cannot hear you ( much less many greater parishes ) that if some of them do but sometimes crowd in , perhaps once in many months or weeks , by coming with the first , and do but dwell in the parish and own you , that they have no need to hear or worship god publickly all the rest of the year , and to pretend such need becometh not sincerity . . and as to those that meet in lesser parishes , you thought not meet to take notice of my answer , assigning many reasons , which i will not repeat , any further than to tell you . . that many churches there are unbuilt . . many come from the greater parishes to them : and some have other reasons . sect. . p. . he saith [ mr. baxter hath a whole chapter ( plea p. . ) of reasons against the communion of laymen with our church . ] answ . you are unhappy in history , though it be your strength . there 's not a word to prove it unlawful for laymen to have communion with your churches , but only the matter of fact named , which is supposed to the controversie ; but it being cunningly worded by you , it may be by [ reasons against communion with our churches , ] you meant but as i did ( reasons for nonconformity in those particular acts : ) but do you not your self all-along suppose and plead , that though we conform not , yet we should hold communion with you . why call you then the reasons of nonconformity , reasons against communion . sect. . p. . he adds [ in the same books he saith , it is schismatical in a church to deny baptism without the transient sign of the cross , or for want of god-fathers , &c. or to deny communion to such who scruple kneeling . now if the church be schismatical , then those who seperate in these things are not . answ . . say you so ! then we are not only quit , but further quit than we can own our selves . i undertake to prove that it may be schism to separate from a church that is guilty of some schismatical acts and impositions . and it needs no proof , but the plain history , and their accusations of one another ; that there are few , if any churches on earth that are not guilty of somewhat that is schismatical , in east , vvest , north or south , in africk , asia , europe or america ; greeks , muscovites , jacobites , abassines , nestorians , armenians , georgians , mengrelians , circassians , papists , lutherans , calvinists , prelaticalls , presbyterians , independants , anabaptists , &c. and must we separate from them all . . verily sir , denying persons , christendom and church-communion are great things . and if a cross and a gesture forbidden by the ancient councils in adoration every lords day , be now matters so weighty ; as for them to deny christendome and communion , for shame call them indifferent no more : one would verily think that when you writ your defence of archbishop la●d you had been of another mind , if words are any notifying signs of your mind . . other pastors may be used , in such instances without separating from you , sir these are not impossibilities to peaceable men . in both the places where i formerly preached , a publick minister and a private lovingly joyn as assistants , one doing that part which the other cannot . and they all live in peace . sect. . i am next assaulted pag. . i say [ the benefit of christian love and concord may make it best , for certain seasons , to joyn even in defective modes of worship , as christ did , &c. though the least defective must be chosen when no such reasons sway the other way . ] reader , is not this true ? will not the denyal of this drive us from the parish churches , and from almost all , or require us causelesly to choose sins of omission . would you not take him for a separatist that is against this . but he saith [ and hence we take notice . that no obligation to the peace and unity of this church as they are members of it , doth bring them to this occasional communion with it ; but a certain romantick fancy of catholick unity by which these catholick gentlemen think themselves no more obliged to the communion of this church , then of the arm●nian or abissine churches : only it happens that our church is so much nearer . answ . . this is not true : for . we take this church to be far less corrupt than the armenian or abissine . . we have more obligations to it from the civil magistrates , laws and protection , &c. . is nearness such a trifle with you . how much do you differ from mr. cheny . tell us , why we should be of your parish church rather than of one an hundred miles off , but for nearness and cohabitation ; why else of old had each city its own church ? . is catholick unity become a romantick fancy . is this the same man that wrote the defence of archbishop laud , we are not ashamed of the title of catholick . . if i name one obligation to communion with you , is it a learned note to gather that i deny all other ? . when prove you that i am only for occasional communion when i have so long practised constant communion with you ? these are reasons suitable to your cause . sect. . he adds [ ask him what church he is a member of : if he answer , he could have occasional communion with all tolerable churches , but was a fixed member of none , would they ( if he were at jerusalem ) take such a man for a christian ? what ? a christian and a member of no church . and i much doubt whether they would admit such an one to occasional communion , &c. answ . . wonderful ! who would have thought that this man had been so much for the principles of separation ( more than the independants ) in his defence of laud he maintaineth that the power of the keys is formally in the whole church , and given to peter as their representative ( which is not true , for it was given only to pastors as such and not to the laity . ) and now he would make that man no christian that is no fixed member of some particular church . let us examine whether this be true . chap. vi. q. whether he be no christian that is not a fixed member of a particular church ? sect. . he that is a true member of the universal church , which is christs body , is a true christian : but many are members of the universal church , which are no fixed members of any particular church . ergo. . all that are rightfully baptized are christians , ( for it is their christening . ) but many rightfully baptized are no fixed members of any particular church . ergo. . he that hath all the essentials of christianity is a christian : but many that are no fixed members of a particular church have all the essentials of christianity . ergo. . a fortiore , they that are not so much as bound in duty to be fixed members of a particular church , though baptised , are not unchristened for want of such membership . but many baptized person are not so much as bound in duty to be fixed members of a particular church . ergo. instances . . the eunuch baptized in his travails acts. was only a member of the church universal . . those that were converted by frumentius and edesius when there was no particular church : and all that are first converted in any infidel or heathen land before any church be formed . . those that by shipwrack are cast on heathen countries where no churches are . . travellers that go from country to countries ( as lythgow did nineteen years , and others many . ) and i think he unhappily named jerusalem , where travellers come that are of no fixed church ( unless he in that also be a superindependant , and think that men may be many years members of a church many hundred miles off , which they have no personal communion with . ) . merchants and factors , who are called to dwell long among infidels where are no churches . . embassadors who by their princes are sent to reside among such , much of their lives . . wanderers that have no fixed habitations ; as many pedlers and other poor wandering tradesmen , and loose beggars that have no dwelling . . those thot live among papists or any other christians who impose some sin as a condition of communion . . those that live among such christians as have no true pastors who are constitutive parts of particular churches . some being incapable through insufficiency , some by heresie and some for want of a true call : such as by mr dodwells doctrine most of the christian world are , for want of uninterrupted rrue episcopal ordination . . those who are subjects to such as permit them not to be fixed members : as wives hindred by husbands , children by parents , and some subjects violently hindred by princes ; who yet allow them transient communion . and verily a man would think by the writings of many conformists , that they took it for a duty to obey a prince in such a case . . those who live where church-corruptions are not so great as to make transient communion unlawful , but so great as to make fixed communion seem to be a culpable consent : if i come in travel to a church of strangers , i am not bound to examine what their discipline is , what their lives be , or how their pastors are called : but where i am fixed i am more bound to know these , and if i find them exclude discipline , live wickedly ▪ and have unlawful pastors , i may in some cases be a partaker of the sin if i fix among them . . they that live in a time and place of schism and distraction , striving who shall prevail , and condemning each other , all following several factions , and needing reconcilers : it may for a time become in prudence the duty of peace-makers , to own no faction , nor to be more of one church than of another , while he seeth that it will do more hurt than good ; and those that wait in hope as the nonconformists now do , to see whether their rulers will restore them to reformed parish churches , may at once in prudence find it needful , neither to fix as members in some parish churches till reformed ( in the teachers at least ) nor to seem to be separatists by gathering new churches . in none of all these cases is a man unchristened , nor schismatical , for being no fixed member of any church besides the universal . and as it is the ill hap of these men commonly to strike themselves , i doubt they will prove grotius himself no christian , by this rule , who for many years before he died , they say joyned with no particular church , as a fixed member . and i know not well what particular church they make the king a member of . sect. . to his questions pag. . [ were we not baptized into this church , and do you not renounce membership ? this is scarce a civility . i answer , . this church ! which church do you mean ? i was not baptized into st. giles's nor st. andrew's parish church , but into one above an hundred miles off , and yet my removal made me no culpable separatist . or doth he mean , this diocesan church ? no ; i was baptized in the diocess of lichfield . doth he mean this national church ; as it is supposed a political body constituted of the ecclesiastical governing and governed parts , he saith there is no such church of england ; but that it inferreth popery to assert such . but if he equivocate here , and mean not by a church as in the rest , but either a christian kingdom , or an agreeing association of many churches , i am still a fixed member of such a kingdom , and of such an association in all things necessary to churches and christian communion . . but baptism as such entred me only into the universal church ; much less did it fix me in any other . i was baptized where i was to stay but a little while . and this phrase of [ being baptized into our church , ] is to me of ill sound or intimation . bellarmine saith that all that are baptized are interpretatively thereby engaged to the pope : i was baptized in a parish , and in a diocess and in a christian kingdom ; but not so into them , as to be obliged to continue under that priest or bishop or in that kingdom . and my baptism i hope did not oblige me to every canon , ceremony , form , or sin of the associated churches in england , abusively by him called one church . . and unhappily it is not meer independancy that he is still pleading for , but some extremes which the moderate independants disclaim , viz. that a member of their churches is so tyed to them , that they may not remove to another without their consent . and am i so tyed ? to what , to parochial , or to the diocesan , or to the association of english churches . if it had been to the species , i would fain know whether their things called by them indifferents specifie them . sect. . p. , . he yet more pleads as for separation [ why then above once or twice ? why should i so countenance defective worship and not rather reprove it by total forbearance of communion , ] &c. answ . my reasons i told him , because the accidents may continue which made it a duty , but i cannot hinder others from yielding to his arguments : let him make his best of them . only i must tell him yet . that if he lay his cause on this , that their parochial or diocesan churches are not defective . . or that the defects cannot by others be avoided , he will quite marr his matter , and undo all by overdoing . . and if he indeed think that all defective churches must be forsaken , he will be one of the greatest schismaticks in the world. but who can reconcile this with the scope of his whole book ? sect. . p. . he saith , here are no bounds set to peoples fancies of purer administrations . answ . have i so oft and copiously named the bounds , and now is the answer , [ here are none . ] are there none in all the same books he citeth ? . scripture is their bounds , as he well openeth in his desence of bi●hop laud. sect. . p. . he complains of my leaving out the best part of his argument , viz. [ the people may go to the anabaptists and quakers . answ . alas that such things should be the best to such a man ! by [ may go ] you mean , . lawfully , . or eventually , . or for want of due hindring . ] the reader may think that you by calumny father the first on me , as if i said , that so to go to the quakers were no sin , whereas i still say that if they do but leave your churches by any culpable error it is their sin . . and as to the event , many not only may but do , turn quakers , papists and athiests , . and as to the third , it 's all the question here ( not whether we should seek to save them but ) which is the true reasonable and allowed means , whether it be the patrons choosing for all england the pastors to whose care they must trust their souls , and laying them in jail that will choose others ? or whether there be not a righter way . and again i say , kings and patrons choose not mens wives , or physicians , or food , and every man hath a charge of his soul as well as of his life , antecedent to the kings or patrons charge . sect. . but why ( saith he p. . v. . ) must the king bear all the blame , if mens souls be not provided for , & c ? answ . he that is the chooser must bear the blame , the king for bishops , and the patrons for parish priests if they mischoose . and do you think in your conscience that all the patrons in england of so various minds and lives , are like to choose only such , in whose pastoral conduct all that care for their souls should rest . yea though the bishops must institute them as they ordained them . when we heretofore told them of the multitudes of grosly ignorant , drunken priest , their answers were , . their chaplains examined them . . they had certificates . . a quare impedit lay against them if they required higher knowledge than to answer the catechism in latine . and now experience will not warrant us to know what such men are . p. . he asketh how it is possible on these terms to have any peace or order in an established church . answ . i have fully told him how in a whole book of concord , and hath their way caused greater peace and order ? yes , to themselves for the time . so popery keepeth some order and unity with them that hold to it : but it kept not the greeks or protestants from forsaking them . sect. . p. . . he saith , [ they only look on those as true churches which have such pastors whom they approve . answ . equivocal words : . if they approve not those whom they should approve , it is their sin . . approving is either of the necessaries ad esse , or only ad melius esse . they must not put the later for the former . . approving is by a governing or but a discerning private judgment . the first they have not , but the later . in good earnest , would he have all the people take those for true pastors , who they verily think are none . can they at once hold contradictions ? and if they must not judge as dissenters , what meaneth mr. dodwels and such mens arguments to prove all no ministers that have not succession of episcopal ordination ? must not the people on that account disown them , by his way ? sect. . p. . he brings in against us my words [ i take those for true churches that have true pastors , and those for none , that have . men uncapable of the pastoral office , . or not truly called to it , . or that deny themselves the essential power . answ . he knoweth that i speak not of equivocal but proper political churches . and is it possible that such a man should dissent in this ? . can he be a true pastor that is uncapable of the office ? shall i abuse time to confute gross contradictions ? or if he be a profest infidel , can he be a christian pastor ? . is a layman a true pastor that is not truly called to it ? why then do they argue as mr. dodwell ? or re-ordain men . . can a man be a pastor against his will , or that con●enteth not , but renounceth it ? or can that be a true pastoral church that hath no pastor ? verily we are but upon low works , if these be the things which we must prove . sect. . he adds , [ and one or other of these he thinks must , if not all the parochial churches in england fall under . ] answ . i read these words of the dr. to a papist , [ to speak mildly , this is a gross untruth . ] therefore i hope it were no rage for me to have said the like . how doth he prove it ? nay in the place cited by him i not only profest the contrary , but gave the reason , p. . [ because i judge of their office by gods word , and not by the rule which deprives them of an essential part. ] and . he citeth my confession that those that i hear preach well ( and therefore are not uncapable men . ) . that their ordination hath all essentially necessary , and all the worthy men that i know have the communicants of the parishes consent , though not election , and therefore are called , . and many of them ( as he ) thinks they have all essential to the office and disown it not , though i think others deny it them , where there is the truth of what he saith . sect. . p. . because my practice disproveth him , he finds out a subtilty , that i joyn not with the parish churches as true churches , but only as chappels or oratories — he accounts not our parochial churches as true churches , nor doth communicate with them as such — a subtilty beyond the reach of the old brownists . answ . deliberately to print such untruths seems tolerable in him , but to say they are such would seem passion in me , and what other answer are they capable of ? — what i expresly say of the three forementioned excepted sorts , he feigneth me to say of all or most of the parish churches ; and yet dare not deny the truth of any one of the exceptions . . do not all those men take the parishes for no proper political churches , but only for parts of the diocesan church , such as we call curates chappels , who say that a bishop is a constitutive part of a true political church and entereth the definition , and that it 's no church that hath no bishop , and that diocesan churches are the lowest political . and do i need to tell him how considerable these men are among them . . doth he himself take any one of these for a true political church ? when i was young , divers laymen by turns were our publick reading teachers : among the rest one was after proved to counterfeit orders . this mans acts were no nullities to us that knew it not : but when we knew of such must we take them for true pastors , and it for a true church ? sect. . p. . he saith , [ any parochial church that hath such a one ( a bishop or pastor over them that hath the power of the keys , and owns it self to be independant ) he allows to be a true church and none else . ] answ . more and more untruths . . where do i say [ that owns it self to be independant , ] as if that were necessary to its being . . doth he not confess that i own general visitors or archbishops and appeals ? . that i own associations which he makes the state of the church of england ? . that i own synods for obliging concord ? . that i own the magistrates government of all ? is there no dependancy in any of these , or all ? what dependancy more doth he assert ? . as to the power of the keys , dare he come into the light and tell us , whether any power of the keys , that is , of the government of his particular church be essential to the pastor of a true organized governed church or not . if not , is it not a contradiction to call it a governed church ? if yea then is he a pastor that wants what is essential to a pastor ? but if they will call a forcing power , or the present secular mode of their courts , by the name of the keys , i never said that these are essential to a church , nor desirable in it , but am a nonconformist because i will not by oath or covenant renounce ( just ) endeavours to amend it . sect. . p. , . the next accusation is , [ they leave it in the peoples power notwithstanding all legal establishments to own or disown whom they judge fit . ] answ . he tireth me with putting me on repetitions . . they can unjustly judge of none and disown them without sin . it is not i that give men power to sin , no more than power to die , or be sick , which is but impotency : would i could give them power against it . . it is not power to reject any chosen by king or patrons , from being publick teachers , or to have the tithes and temples , nor to be a pastor to others . but it is to have a discerning judgment whether one chosen by the patron be a person to whom he himself ought to trust the pastoral conduct of his soul. either the dr. thinks that laymen have this discerning power and duty or not . if yea , is it nothing to him to seem thus seriously to plead against his conscience ? if not , i ask him , . what meant christ and his apostles to call men to beware of false teachers , to avoid the leven of their doctrine , to mark them and avoid them , and turn away from them , and not bid them good speed ? . what meant all the ancient churches to forbid communion with hereticks ? and even some popes and councils to hear mass of fornicators ? ● . what meant all those fathers and councils , that make him no bishop that cometh not in with the peoples consent ? if not election . . why will he not be intreated to tell us in what countries , or with what limitations the contrary doctrine must be received ? must all the people trust only such pastors as the prince or patrons choose all over england ? or also in ireland , france , spain , italy , germany , among lutherans , calvinists , greeks , &c. supposing the law be on that side ? must we all be of the kings or patrons religion ? . is this agreeable to his old doctrine cited chap. . sect. . p. . he adds , [ mr. baxter speaks his mind very freely against the rights and patronage , and the power of the magistrates in such cases , and pleads for the unalterable rights of the people , as the old separatists did . ans . is this true ? . what is it against the right of patronage or magistrates power for me to choose who i will trust the guidance of my soul with , while i contradict not his power to choose publick teachers , and give the tithes and temples , and confess that for order sake i ought to consent to such as he chooseth thus , unless he put on me a true necessity of a better choice ? if the king choose all the hospital physicians , what wrong is it to him , if i at my own charge choose a better for my self when i think else ignorance or malice will murder me ? doth he that desireth ( as i ever do ) that in so great a case there may be many locks to the church door , deny any one of them , viz. the ordainers consent , the magistrates and patrons , and the peoples . is this the same that the old separatists did ? should glocesier take goodman a papist for their bishop because the king chose him ? abundance of patrons in the beginning of q. elizabeths reign presented papists . it seems if they were imposed by law , and patrons , you would have the people submit to those that cry down bishops , liturgy and ceremonies too . father paul sarpi translated by dr. denton will tell you how new a way this is . sect. . p. . he adds [ the people are made judges of the competency of their ministers . ] answ . they are discerning judges . doth not your charge imply that you think otherwise ; and yet you dare not say so . must they not judge when forreigners heretofore were set over them , whether they speak english or no ? or if a socinian deny christs godhead or the im ▪ mortality of the soul , whether he be competent or not ? or if they have an ignorant curate , that when necessary advice for the soul is asked of him , will say no more but [ trouble not your head about such matters , but cast away care and live merrily . ] if when the blind lead the blind both fall into the ditch , must we not note the difference ? alas how little would some men have a man care for his soul , in comparison of caring what physick , what food , what wife , what servant , what trade he chooseth ? trust one to the conduct of such as all the patrons of england will choose for you , but not any of the other . as to the not causeless forsaking former pastors , he knoweth that it was the strict charge of the old canons of the churches ; and the bishops themselves do hold the same . i thought they ought not to be forsaken because men thrust them out . the churches at antioch , alexandria , and many more did oft and long cleave to those pastors whom the christian emperors cast out , and reject those whom they imposed . when i have proved this so fully in my first plea and church-history , what an unsatisfactory answer is it for such a dr. to repeat it and say , this is plain dealing . is the judgment and practice of the churches so light with him . sect. . p. . the next charge is , [ they give directions to the people what sort of ministers they should own , and what not . ] answ . we do so : and i had thought all christians had been of the same mind . it 's sad with the church when this doctrine needeth a publick defence . dare he say , that all imposed must be owned ? then either salvation is at the magistrates will , or it 's the priviledge of such countries as have good ones , or a man may be saved in any country religion contrary to the article which they all subscribe . sect. . next the accuser falls on my general rule , [ the ministry that tendeth to destruction more than to edification , and to do more harm than good , is not to be owned , ] and his bare recital is confutation . ans . i must profess that i am so confident of this , that a thousand such dissenting drs. cannot change me : and according to his excellent rules of judging in the end of his discourse of idolatry , which maketh natural verities most certain and fundamental , me thinks it should to him be surer of the two than the gospel it self : viz. that all men should love themselves , and be unwilling to be damned , and therefore should not own that ministry of man which tendeth more to destruction than to edification . and when he wrote that cited in my first chap. he was of that mind or he was a most gross dissembler . but must it be otherwise ? is it our salvation that we must sacrifice to priests , prelates or princes wills ? if our tithes would have served them , we had not gainsaid them . if our bodies and estates might have satisfied them , we had not struck at it so much . but when ( destruction ) signifieth ( damnation ) it is a hard bargain ? if we should renounce our christianity for them , we are never the nearer : for we are still men and therefore loth to be destroyed in hell ? if this be the meaning of the article which denyeth free will , i deny it freely : i have no such free will. but o reverend fathers , be more impartial : are you so loth to lose your great riches and honor , yea or to have your reputation so far questioned , as to be contradicted , or have others live by you that preach without your consent ; and yet must all the people of england , so much deny their own salvation for you , as to submit to a destroying ministry ? why then did you before put ( agreement in doctrine ) among the requisites to our accusation ? must we agree and not judge whether we agree or not ? why then must not all hereticks , papists , &c. be received , why then are all your volumnious accusations produced to prove us justly silenced ? and mr. dodwels to prove us no ministers of christ , if we want nothing but a human power to impose us on the churches , and a patron to present us ? but the best is , when you have talk'd and written your worst , men will be unwilling of destruction ; and till the bible be forbidden , men will read , ( beware of false prophets : let no man deceive you : prove all things : from such turn away : mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which you have learn'd and avoid them , and more , pet. . j. ●it . . . . j. , . sect. . he adds , ( that we may not think all this to be only a romantick scheme , or fiction , ) he adds , ( that they are not able to confute the people in too many places , who tell them that their publick priests are so defective in their necessary qualifications for their office , as that they hold it unlawful to own such for true ministers , and to encourage them by their presence , and commit the care of their souls to such . ans . . this is true : we are not able to confute them : if you be rejoice in your wisdom . . either you would have us believe that there are none such , or that no such are to be so refused . the first you attempt not : if you did , i would repeat a catalogue of my old teachers and acquaintance : but i have named them to mr. hinkley . and as to the second , i prove it ( a sad task for such a one as you to put us on . ) . such as are known to be no authorized ministers of christ , should not be owned as such : but all those that want the necessary qualifications for their office are no authorized ministers of christ . ergo. if the major were not true , error or lying were a duty . the truth of the minor is evident in the terms : necessartum est sine quo res non esse potest . it is qualifications necessary to the office in esse , and not only to the well performance that is mentioned . forma nunquam recipitur in materiam dispositione necessaria carentem . but here the office is the forme , and the necessary disposition of the matter is supposed wanting . ergo. again : all men are bound to avoid the apparent means of damnation : to trust the conduct of our souls to men uncapable for want of necessary qualifications , is an apparent means of damnation ( as excluding an ordinarily necessary means of salvation , ) ergo. again : it is a great sin to encourage men in the wilful damning of their own souls , and hindering the salvation of many others : but to own an unqualified uncapable man as a minister of christ , is to encourage him in the wilful damnation of himself ( by his prophane undertaking ) and in hindering the salvation of many others , ergo. i will not recite what zechary and other prophets say of the usage of false pretenders to be prophets , lest you misapply it . again : no man ought to consent to the prophane subverting of christ's church-offices and ordinances : but to consent to the ministry of unqualified uncapable men , is to consent to the subverting of christ's church-offices and ordinances . ergo. can your patience endure unqualified men in the ministry , and cannot endure such as us out of jail , because we obey you not in all your imposed oaths , words and practises . sect. . next he thus confuteth us , ( and directly contrary to the principles of the old nonconformists , as appears at large by mr. ball saying ( if can's meaning be that it is not lawful to communicate in the worship of god with ministers not fitly qualified , disorderly called , or carelesly executing their office , it is directly contrary to the word of god , sound reason , and consent of all the learned . ans . who would have thought that this worthy doctor could not or would not see a difference , between ( fitly qualified ) as ad bene esse , and unqualified , or wanting the qualifications necessary ad esse , and between ( disorderly called , ) and ( not called , or consented to by the flock at all ) and between ( careless executing the office ) and not having the office as uncacapable . ) he will not strain at such gnats as these . and is there no difference between ( lawful communicating ) and committing the conduct of mens souls to them as our stated pastors . mr. ball lived not far from me : his intimate friend mr. ash well knew his mind . you may yet know it fully from mr. cook of chester , a silenced minister bred up in his house and sometime one of your old patrons ( sr. roger burgone ) nonconformists , after many others at rockshal in warwickshire . mr. ball was not such an enemy to distinguishing as to confound necessaries ad esse officii & ad bene esse . sect. . but p. . i am also brought as against my self for saying ( that a ministers personal faults do not allow people to separate from the worship of god. . nor all ministerial faults , but only those that prove him and his ministration utterly intolerable . ans . . a strong proof , that therefore the intolerable may be received , because i say , no : i contradict my self by saying the same things . personal faults i distinguished from ministerial and tolerable ministerial from intolerable , then and now : and is this contradiction ? do not all do so too , till now ? yea in the place cited by him i . said , that as to personal faults , as swearing , drunkenness , &c. they should get a better man , if lawfully they can . . and i named just as here the intolerable insufficiencies , direct pag. . viz. . an utter insufficiency in knowledge and utterance for the necessary parts of the ministerial work. . if he set himself to oppose the ends of the ministry , &c. by heresie , malignity . and i name the faults that necessitate not separation . sect. . next he citeth my words against some mens factious separating humor : and doth it follow that because many are unfit to judge aright , that the people must take all obtruded pastors , and not judge to whom to trust the conduct of their souls ? how unfit are the ignorant to judge who is a meet physician , lawyer , arbitrator , yea or wife or husband for them : and yet judge they must as well as they can : do you not expect notwithstanding their unfitness , that they judge your books and arguing to be truer than mine ? and is it by your bare authority that they must so judge ? sect. . but he much blameth me for laying the case far off , when it is the london separation which he questioneth where the ministers are no such men . answ . could any man have so far searcht his heart as to know that he spake only against separation in this one city ? when there is no such limitation in his book , and when the same laws , the same silencings , fines , imprisonments , accusations of the preachers are all over the land. but i am glad for the peace of the nonconformists elsewhere , if it concern not them . . as to london , he knoweth that i give the preachers due honour , and that i justifie not any unnecessary separation of the people from them , nor of the conformists from the nonconformists . i gave him an account of my own practice and the reasons of it : let other men give account of theirs , i know very many of my mind . . and he knoweth that i oft told him that many things make good mens actions culpable in some degree , that make them not criminalls , odious , or to be ruined . and that i gave him many of their extenuations . . among the rest , verily ( to use his own phrase ) it looks somewhat odly by the church law or canon ipso facto to excommunicate many score thousands in the land , meerly for professing to take some things imposed to be sin , and then to revile and prosecute them as schismaticks , for not communicating with you . . and i told you that laws and the higher ground are not always the terminus a quo of schism : some of them were never of your flocks , and therefore never separated from you , but as you do from them ( and somewhat less . ) . and the kings license first , and proclaimed clemency often , gave them some possession as the law giveth you . . and plague , fire and thousands that cannot hear you , made it necessary . but some parish churches are not full . answ . i see none of those , i come in divers where many cannot hear the preacher ; and would you have more ? and again i tell you , . they keep meetings in lesser parishes to receive those that come out of greater . . if those come to you , they must keep out others . . when it is commonly known that in their own great parishes there is not room , it 's hard for families to look about the city for room in uncertain places . . and all persons that culpably dislike you are not therefore to be forsaken . sect. . but the same man that citeth my reprehensions of separation asketh me , why i do not disown it ; as if he presently forgot what he had written . i disown schism , and therefore the greatest in the sinful church-tearers that smite the shepherds , and then cry out of the flocks for being scattered : and i disown the least , but not by cruelty but in charity . sect. . p. . he repeats the incapacities named by me , ( viz. in knowledge and utterance , by heresie , &c. ) and saith , of all these the people are judges , and so many separate : thus no setled church can subsist , &c. answ . . it 's a hard case that in such a volumn as this , he will not tell us his own judgment , further than the accusing of ours intimateth it ( which if we tell him of , he can say , [ it was not his sense . ] will he openly say that the people have not a private judgment of discretion in order to their own practice , whether the preacher be an heretick , papist , infidel , idolater , or not ? but must take him for their pastor be he what he will ? i know he will not say it . what then would he be at ? why doth he accuse us for that which he dare not contradict ? doth he any where tell us , in what cases and how far they must judge ? no , he shuns all such questions as tend to bring the cause into the light : put twenty and he will answer few or none of them . if he did , perhaps we should be agreed whether he will or not . but ( reader , bear these tiring repetitions as i must do ) . he knoweth that it is the ordainers and not the people whom i make judges who shall be a minister . . that it is the king and patrons that i make the only judges who shall be tolerated , and maintained by them , and have the tythes and temples . . and that though the universal church was many hundred years , for the peoples election , i plead ad esse relationis for no more as necessary but consent , who shall be the pastor , to whom they will trust the conduct of their souls : and this is but judicium discretionis & privatum non publicum regentis , only guiding each mans own obedience to god. . he knoweth ( if he will know ) that i. say and say again , that the advantages of the laws and rulers favour , and the tythes and temples , and parish order , and national association , are so great advantages to the service of god , that no man should be deprived of them , and go another way , but upon necessity , and very great and urgent cause . but i intend god willing further to prove to him that [ when ministers are all required to sin or cease their ministry , a necessity is put upon them to exercise it against such prohibitions as farr as they can without doing more hurt than good ; and that the sinful complyance of will not excuse the other for this duty . ] and this is the case which a friend of truth should have debated . sect. . p. . but ( saith he , ) how shall a man escape being thought heretical by the people . answ . . see his own answer here , chap. . . how shall one get all the world to be wise and good ? if i knew , i cannot procure it . but put the case within your sight ? how will you escape being judged no rightful possessor of your deanry , or prebend , or the king's chaplains place , or the parish church of st. andrews ? i know not how : and yet if an usurper accuse you here , and say e. g. that the church of st. andrews is his and not yours , must not the people judge which of you they will take for the usurper , and which they will joyn with and obey ? in the times of usurpation , many of the people judged the bishops to be none of their pastors , nor the ejected ministers ; must not the rest therefore judge that they were ? where usurpers deny the king 's right , ought not the people to judge him to have right , because they may err ? and what prince or prelate may not the people judge usurpers ? what landlord may not the tenants deny ? what master the servants ? what husband the wife ? but must they not therefore be discerning judges , who is their landlord , master , husband , what schoolmaster may not unlearned men miscensure ? what physician may they not vilisie ? and yet they shall judge and choose for themselves , and speed accordingly , who can help it ? deny men a judgment of discretion to guide their own choice and actions , and you contradict mankind , and deny men to be men . what in the world is more abused than reason and freewill ? and yet men must act by reason and freewil . it 's unworthy a divine to cry out against a thing for such unavoidable inconveniences , as humane darkness and badness do necessitate , and to swallow camels on the other side and take no notice of the mischiess thereof ▪ nor once to tell us how to escape both . sect. . he instanceth in mens censure of me for the doctrine of justification and asketh , are men bound to separate from me ? answ . one would think by many such words that the doctor did seriously believe that i had 〈◊〉 , that all men are bound to follow an 〈◊〉 judgment , and to they●al●ly ●al●ly judge they ought . if he think not that i said so , i would not name his fault lest i more offend him : if he think i said so , i had hoped weaker readers could have better understood me . when i read in the books of some conformists yet living whom i much honour , that to obey conscience though it err is to obey god , i took it for my duty oft and copiously ( especially in my christ direct . ) to open that case , and to prove that conscience is no law-maker , but only a discerner of gods law , and that an erring conscience involveth a man in sin whether he followeth it or not ; because god changeth not his law when we change our judgments of it . but yet there are some cases in which it is a farr greater sin to go against conscience though it err than with it . the dr. dare deny none of this . and doth ill if he would perswade men that i deny it : and that god makes it mens duty to do ill whenever they judge it good , or forsake good , when they judge it evil . sect. . but the great offence is p. that i insinuate that the whole body of the church is guilty of great faults , conformity being a scandalous thing with thirty tremendous aggravations . — and no wonder if men so judging prefer others , &c. answ . again and again i say , . this is unrighteous dealing ; to impose all those things on us ; to cast us out of the ministry and churches for not obeying : to fine and imprison us , and accuse us as schismaticks and seditions , to write and preach for the execution of the laws against us , to our ruine : to aggravate our crime because we tell them not our reasons ; to call us to tell them what we stick at ; to threaten to get the king to force us to give our reasons ; to declare in press and pulpit that we wilfully keep up a schism and have nothing to say for it ; to continue all this when we have been silent seventeen years , as fearing that they could not bear it ; and after all this when we disavowed any accusation of them , and only told them what we feared our selves , to come upon us with this charge of deep accusing their conformity , is injustice if there be any in the world. either it is sin or no sin which we fear . if none , why are we not confuted ? or invited yet to give our proofs ? if sin , who should be most offended ? to be yet plainer with you , had the case been in the times of the old prophets and priests , i question whether to let such a kingdom alone so long in that which we judge to be so great sins , would not have been heavily charged on the preachers : and i profess that my conscience is more in doubt whether my so long forbearance was not my sin , than whether saying at last what i did was sin : and i had nothing to satisfie it , but the men that i ought to judge wiser than my self , perswaded me that it would have done more hurt than good , and caused but our further rending , and i think the conformists should have been desirous to help them to try whether it were sin or not , and to have been thankful for helping to save them from it , if it proved such . but though hence i extenuate the too great withdrawings of some men against their too deep accusations , he knoweth that notwithstanding all these aggravations , i neither justified nor practised proper separation . sect. . p. . the next charge is that i make them usurpers , viz , . all that come into the place of the ejected ministers , at least to the people that consent not : but law and usurpation are contrary . answ . . i never said that all are usurpers to all the people that consent not : if the body of the church consent the man is no usurper , though some odd persons consent not . he is the churches pastor , though not the refusers . . i never said that any that had the law for them , were usurpers of the tithes and temples . . i never said that all that succeed ejected ministers are usurpers ; many of them have the churches after-consent , though not their election . yea i often said , . that it is the peoples duty to consent to the change when it is for the churches good . . and that their constant communion signifieth their consent . but i will not believe yet that the law will prove a man no usurper of the pastoral relation . and when i have so largely proved the contrary to be true , and to be the judgment of the ancient churches , it 's an unsatisfactory course to me , to leave it unanswered , and suppose himself in the right . not only the first years , but even under constantius , valens , theodosius junior , zeno , basiliscus , anastatius , philippicus , justinian , &c. even the patriarchal seats practised the contrary , keeping their chosen pastors and refusing those imposed by the emperors ; and other bishops seates the emperors seldom meddled with as to the choice . yea in arcadius's days chrysostomes joannites , in his imperial city were of another mind . is his rule true only in england , or in france , spain , italy , muscovy , &c. also , or where , that the law maketh men true pastors ? sect. . but p. . he said [ that he detesteth the principles that set mans laws above gods , and that in stating the controversie he supposed an agreement in all the substantials of religion between the dissenting parties of our church . answ . of all things you are the unhappiest in stating the controversie . the instances here were . insufficiency through ignorance , . heresie , . malignant oppugning the very ends of the ministry , . no true calling . . doth he agree with us in all the substantials of religion who knoweth not the very essentials of christianity ? ignorantis non est consensus . . doth he agree with us in all the substantials that is a heretick ? or if we falsly judge his opinion heresie , do we agree with him ? . is malignant opposing godliness and pleading for prophaneness or ungodliness an agreement in all the substantials ? . what if we agree in all substantials with an unordained layman imposed on us ? is he therefore our true pastor ? . but how shall we know whether we agree or not , if we are no judges of it ? do you not see your own contradictions ? who shall judge whether the pastors or people agree ? shall the prince or patron ? if you know the teachers heart , how know you the peoples ? must we believe that we agree , because you say so ? if the people must judge whether they agree , they must judge of the things in which the agreement is , that is , both the pastors doctrine and their own minds . and is not this to judge whether he be a heretick , &c. or not ? and who shall judge whether the disagreement be in substantials ? it must be the agreers . and they must be wiser than i if they can learn from you here , what is a substantial , and how to know it . sect. . it may be he will say , that where princes and parliaments are orthodox , none are usurpers , but true pastors whom they impose . ans . but doth not this make the people judges whether princes and parliaments are orthodox , and is not that as dangerous as to judge of the teachers ? and orthodox princes and parliaments may impose heretical teachers : and may by law enable patrons and prelates to impose them . what more natural than to propagate what men like , and oppose what they hate ? if the many hundred patrons in england be all orthodox and pious , and free from schism , &c. we are strangely happy : if not we may expect that they choose accordingly . but the bishops will secure us . ans . . they have not done . . they say they cannot by law. . would it be any wonder if bishop goodman of glocester kept not out any popish teacher ? or if such fathers of the church as archbishop bromhall let in such as would have the pope govern us all by the canons as patriark and principium unitatis , and all pass for shoismaticks that consent not to such a forreign jurisdiction , contrary to our national oaths . sect. . as to his instance of solomons putting out abiathar , &c. i answered it fully ( and many more objections ) in my first plea , and will not write the same again for him that thinks it not worth the answering or taking notice of . sect. . when p. , . he makes it the way to all imaginable confusions , to deny , . that the kings nomination of bishops . . and the patrons of parish pastors proveth them no usurpers , but true pastors , is he not an unreverend dishonourer of bishops himself , who maketh them all that for a thousand years held the same that i do , to be the authors of all imaginable confusion ? is he not unreverend to their canons ? and to antiquity ? and to the universal church itself ? whatever in his third part he cavils against it , he cannot be so strange to church-history as not to know that they were commonly against him . sect. . the matter of the next accusation is p. , . having said plea p. . . [ if any make sinful terms of communion by laws or mandate , imposing things forbidden by god on those that will have communion , and expelling those that will not so sin ] i add [ if any should not only excommunicate such persons for not complying with them in sin , but also prosecute them with malice , imprisonments , banishment or other persecution to force them to transgress , this were heynous aggravated schism . ] ans . and is not this true ? or doth his bare repeating it disprove it ? is he a zealous enemy of schisin that taketh all this for none ? i did not steal it out of his defence of archbishop laud , but less than this is there made schism . yet he tells us that he sets not mans laws above gods , nor pleads for persecution . but lest the repeating of my words should shame the accuser he hath two handsome devices . he puts [ complying with them in sin , that is , conformity , ] as refused , instead of [ those that will not so sin , in sinful terms of communion forbidden by god , &c. ] . he forgeth an addition as mine [ and therefore it is no sin to separate from such ] when i have no such words , being only there telling what is schism , and not what is not . i confess it will sound odly to say [ it is schism not to communicate with those who excommunicate , imprison and banish me by law , if i will not do that which god forbids , and they make a condition of my communion . ] for i must not sin : and in prison and banishment under excommunication they deny me communion . and yet i say not that it 's always faultless , for if they do not execute their own law , in some cases , where publick good requireth it , i may best communicate with them as far as they permit me without the imposed sin , till they do execute them . but this excuseth not their schism . sect. . p. . he blames me as charging him with the silencing design . ans . i did warn him in real desire of his safety : if defending the church-laws and endeavours for our restraint , in the words to which i refer the reader : if preaching and writing against our preaching as schism , and all the rest in his books do signifie no owning of our silencing , i am glad that he meaneth better than he seemeth : who could have thought otherwise that had read . his first q. whether it be not in the power of those that give orders to limit and suspend the exercise of the ministerial function . q. . and whether the christian magistrate may not justly restrain such ministers from preaching , who after the experience , do refuse to renounce those principles which they judge do naturally tend to involve us again in the like trouble . and serm. p. . the church of englands endeavours after uniformity is acquitted from tyranny over the consciences of men , by the judgment , &c. ] and p. . condemning them as hard thoughts of the bishops that in cruelty they follow ithacius , &c. and in this new book , more such might have deceived a man that judged by his words . and his arguing that it is unlawful to preach to them because it is unlawful to hear ; what was the meaning of all this if not silencing us ? sect. . p. . the next crime is [ plea p. . as long as they suppose the terms of our communion to be sinful , they say , the schism doth not lie on those that separate , but on those that do impose such terms : and therefore they may lawfully separate from such imposers . ] ans . it 's hard to know what words to use to detect all these historical untruths without being thought passionate . . i never said that ( supposing them sinful ) will justifie a false supposer , but have oft said the clean contrary ( their supposing ) is of his forging . . i said not ( the schism doth not lie on those that separate ) but only that it's schism in the imposers . ) this also is his fiction . . and i said not ( and therefore they may lawfully separate from such imposers . ) but all readers will not stay to find out his forgeries . but how much of this he said once himself , see in my chap. . sect. . but here he comes to some closing distinction , which should have gone before ; [ between terms of communion plainly and in themselves sinful ; and such as are only fancied to be so through prejudice or wilful ignorance , or error of conscience . ] ans . what a deal of labour might he have spared himself and us , if he had here fixed the controversie in the beginning ; we thankfully accept your late distinction : we ever desired here to put it to the issue ; if it be through prejudice wilful ignorance or error that we judge conformity a sin , not only separation but nonconformity is a sin . if we do not prove some parts of conformity ( for one is enough ) to be plainly sinful , which are imposed as conditions of our ministerial communion , and somewhat imposed on the people as conditions 〈◊〉 all that part of your communion , which i ever disswaded them from , let the blame be ours . sect. . he passeth next to them that deal more ingenuously than i in owning separation , and then returneth to me p. . and he over and over repeateth his false accusation , [ that i think it lawful to communicate with them occasionally , but not as churches ( as thinking they want an essential part , viz. a pastor with episcopal power ) but as oratories , and so that i renounce communion with their churches as churches . ] answ . if these untruths had been made without evidence only , and not also against evidence , they had been the more excuseable in a man of consideration : but now they are not so , when i have so often declared that i take the parish churches that have true pastors for true governed churches , and prove that they have true bishops ( episcopos gregis ) whether the diocesans will or not , because gods will and not the investers , instituteth their office , and measureth their power , and the people shew their consent by constant communion . sect. . then because [ i never gathered a church , nor baptized any in years , nor gave the sacrament in , ] he would know [ what church i have been of all this time , ] and he supposeth [ of no church . ] ans . i thought he had done with this before : but he thinks it an advantage not to be so easily let go . would he know . . what my thoughts were ? . or my church-covenant ? . or my actual communion ? he shall know all . . i thought divers ministers where i lived true pastors , and the churches true churches : i cannot say so of every curate . . i made no covenant with any of them : if i had mr. cheny would have condemned me of atheism , infidelity , and what not . . with divers of them i went constantly to the liturgy , sermon and sacrament , as with true churches , with some of them i only joyned in prayer and hearing , i heard dr. rieves till he caused me to be sent to jail , and then i could not : and though i was accused by many for hearing a swearer , i told them , he swore not in the pulpit : i heard his poor curate constantly , when i was accused for hearing a drunkard , and told them that he was not drunk in the pulpit . but i must tell you , i communicated also with some nonconformists . and now account me of a church or no church as you please . i doubt you are renewing the independant questions with me , which i am loth to dispute . . qu. whether an ordained minister must be a private member of another mans church ? q. . whether when a non-resident dean leaveth his parish to an ignorant drunken curate , the parish church be essentiated by its relation to the resident curate , or the non-resident dean ? q. . whether a minister not degraded but silenced , living in such a parish is bound to●ke that curate for one that hath the pastoral charge of his soul , and a● the rest of the flock to commit his soul to his pastoral conduct in personal , private and publick offices ? . but i would ask the dean himself , whether a man may not be a fixed member of two or three churches at once ? the reasons of the quaere , are . because ( by them ) a man may be the sixed pastor of two or three parish churches at once : and an integral member of many is not so hard a case , as to be a constitutive regent part of many . . because a man may have two houses in two parishes at once ; as many londoners have half their family at a near country house , and half at a city house , and are themselves part of the week or day at one , and part at the other . and they make covenants with neither , but what actual communion intimateth . q. ● . and if so why might not i at once be judged a member of two churches at once , so far as i communicate oft with both ? i therefore answer his question further , what church i was a member of ? . i was a member of christs universal church ? is that none ? and yet is in the creed ? . i was a member of the reformed church if you will call that one because associated in one reformed religion . . i was a member of the church of england , both as a christian kingdom , and as the churches in england agreeing in the christian reformed religion . : i was a member of the provincial church of canterbury , so far as living peaceably in it , and submitting both to such power as they had from the king as magistrates and a meer general helping instructing care of many churches could make me . . so far also i was a member of the diocesan churches where i lived . . and i was a member of some parochial churches so far as constant communion could make or prove me : and of others ( two at once ) so far as partial and moveable communion could prove me . if this will not satisfie you , i have proved before ( and oft to some independants ) that many men are under no obligation to be fixed members of any parish church : ( whether the king be of any i know not . ) sect. . but p. . he comes upon me , why i thought it not my duty all this while to baptize , administer the sacrament , was i not solemnly bound by ordination to one as well as the other ? presbyters of old were rarely allowed to preach . ] ans . . you tell the world what measure we must expect from such as you . if we had all forborn any church gatherings , and pastoral undertaking of flocks , and both sacraments , &c. and only preached as loth to offend you more than needs , our accusations had but been the greater ? which incourageth your more ingenious dissenters to do what they also are accused of . . do you not know our reasons ? they are these : . because we suppose there is a greater want of our preaching , than of our administring sacraments : and we would obey the 〈…〉 in all things lawful ; and go from you and offend you no further than 〈…〉 will justifie us . . because a ministers relation to the church - 〈…〉 and to the world ceaseth not , when his relation to a parish church may cease : and we have not the same obligations to give the sacrament to all the christians or world where we preach , as we have in a parish charge . paul thanketh god that he baptized not many corinthians , because he was not sent to baptize but to preach the gospel ; nor is the terrible charge tim. . . equal as to both . . our ordination bound us to preach and administer sacraments , when we are thereto lawfully called : and we were so called to one , when we were not to the other : nor were all of us so called alike . but when we know that this way doth as much offend you , we may go further in due time . aud do you in one part of your book blame us for going further than the old nonconformists ( as you thought ) and in the second thus accuse us for not going further . sect. . he is again at his talk of only occasional communion ? and had his mistake no occasion ? yes ; he that readeth my books may see what : that is , . when i have said that some parishes having not capable or called pastors i take to be no true political churches ; but yet can communicate with such as oratories or chappels . . that some true churches i communicate with in transitu or occasionally as strangers , whose discipline and ministers calling i am not bound to take account of . . i tell those that withdraw too far and take some true churches for none , that were it so they might occasionally join with them as oratories , . and those that dare not commit their souls to the pastoral conduct of some weak and bad men , that yet they may occasionally communicate with them upon great and urgent reasons . and here he gathereth his oft repeated untrue reports . sect. . p. . he grants there is no separation where there is no obligation . and he will prove us obliged to constant communion with them . . because we must use all lawful means for peace and unity . ans . . we are ready to prove that our conformity , nor our forbearing to preach the gospel are no lawful means . . can you as well prove , . that it is not lawful for you to joyn with us ? . and to forbear silencing , excommunicating , fining and imprisoning us ? was it no lawful means for peace and unity to have forborn imposing all the covenants , professions , subscriptions , oaths and practises , of what you call indifferent and we think sunful ? . and is it not lawful for parents to enter their own children at baptism in covenant with god ? . is it unlawful to christen such as scruple your use of the cross ? . or to receive those to communion that scruple your gesture ? . 〈…〉 forbear canonical excommunicating all professed nonconformi●… land ? . or to let lords and gentlemen choose any nonconfo●… to be tutors to their children , whilst the papists may send theirs to doway , st. omers , &c. he saith , he is [ perswaded it is one of the provoking sins of the nonconformists , that they have been so backward to do , what they were convinced they might with a good conscience . ans . woe to us , if we be not willing to know our sins . but . if you will tell me of any one lawful thing that i have omitted , that tended to peace , i will thank you . . an indifferent thing is no means of peace when it will do more hurt than good . to cease the ministry we durst not : to use some indifferent forms in your churches we could not , being cast and kept out . and to use the same to those that are against them ; when it will hurt them , and procure no peace with you , and those have sped worst from you that have come nearest you , aud nothing will serve but all ; what tendency hath this to unity ? you know my own case proveth all this . i regarded not the censures of any that go too far , so as to keep me from doing what i judged lawful : and did it tend to peace ? no , one sends me to jail when i went twice a day to his church : others say , he is like an ape , that is so much the more ugly because he is like a man : another more sober saith , [ i know not what to make of mr. b. he communicateth with us , and he preacheth to the nonconformists : like a man that will go one step on one side the hedge , and another step on the other . ] and this man is much in the right : for i say still , [ it is the separating hedges in christ's vineyard that i hate , and the enclosing hedge that i am for : i have business , friends , relations and great duties on both sides the hedge , some with you and some with others ; and if your hedges would separate parents from children , husband and wife , christian neighbours , &c. causelesly i will not be so separated , but do my best to pull down that hedge . and again consider whose sin it is , that so many lawful things are denyed us for unity . hold but to your rule here and we are agreed . and he seemeth to consent . for , sect. . p. . of the rule phil. . . he saith , [ if i will but allow that by virtue of that rule men are bound to do all things lawful for the preserving the peace of the church , we have no further difference about this matter . ans . it 's well he will say so much of the rule , we gladly consent . then all the question is , what 's lawful on both sides ? i add one q. more . is it not lawful for peace to forbear forcing men to disoblige ? whom they never knew , from being obliged by an oath and vow to that part of the matter which is good ? if it be the conjunction of some things bad , that disobligeth them , then he that inserteth a bad thing is free from all obligations of his vow , even in materia licita & necessaria . and if the 〈…〉 of imposing power be made the cause , whether is the cor●… oath imposed by a superior power on the king , or is it his own ●…act ? or is he therefore not obliged by it ? had it not been requisite that you should have justified all that we stick at as unlawful , before you charge us with crossing this rule ? sect. . p. , &c. my words in many books against schism are cited and praised ; reader , he tells men the measure of their charity and church communion , viz. that men that do as much as i do , that forbore so long sacramental administration , that gathered no church , that held constant communion with divers parish churches , that have wrote so much and earnestly against schism , shall yet be ejected , silenced , pay ● , a sermon and lie in jails unless i will do more . while bishop lauds design for widening the church doors to the papists , is magnified by heylin and others as a good work . sect. . first he finds but two justifiable causes of separation ; but p. , . he hath found three and no more . . idolatrous worship : . false doctrine imposed instead of true . . making and imposing things indifferent as necessary to salvation . ans . . readers , do you remember how even now he exposed to odium , the peoples judging whether the pastors be hereticks ? and now they may separate for false doctrine . . i intreat him to think again of these cases following . . what if the worship be not idolatrous , but blasphemous , or utterly ridiculous , tending to contempt of god ? . what if it be in an unknown tongue ? . what if the church have no true minister ? i am glad you are not for separating for want of episcopacy or episcopal ordination ? . what if the church want half the church-worship ? as to have preaching and prayer without sacraments ? or sacraments without preaching or prayer , or preaching without prayer , &c. . what if the church be but schismatical ? have you written all this book , to draw men to you from the independant churches , and do you now tell us that the people may not separate from them , on the account of schism ? . what if a church require me to tell or subscribe to one known lie , or to say , that i believe what i do not : or to justifie thousands that i think obliged by a vow , if they break it ? what if they impose any one sin on me without which they will not receive me to communion ? . what if i remove for my edification from a drunkess ignorant priest , to the church of a wise and holy pastor ? . are we looser than pope nicholas that forbad men to hear mass from a fornicating pricst ? . i would you had spoken to edification and told men what false doctrine it is that will allow separation , and whether it 's false doctrine preached , or only imposed on the person to be owned ? if the former , is it all false doctrine or but some , and what ? verily , if all , you are tenfold more a seperatist than i : for i look to hear sometimes some words of false doctrine in most pulpits , even of conformists ? if it must be heresie it self , i will not separate for once hearing it , if the church profess it not . if it be imposed error that you mean , take heed lest you justifie separation from your church , by the new article of infants certain salvation . and when both arminians and anti-arminians subscribe the articles , tell us whether those articles are true in both their senses , or whether the sence be not the thing subscribed ? or whether one half of them should separate . you are too unmerciful to your self ; but what kind of churches should there be upon your terms ? i find no more in his second part which i am much concerned in . chap. vii . the reply to his third part : the beginning . sect. . in his third part i first find my self accused p. , &c. and that is not only by insisting on a false accusation of my words , but adding a confutation of himself , as if he discerned not that he did it . in treat . of concord i say , [ if it holdeth that god instituted only congregational or parochial churches , as for present communion , then none of the rest instituted by man may deprive them of their priviledges granted by christ . ] i put it but with an ( if it be so ) because i told them my own doubt of it . after i say , [ to devise new species of churches without gods authority , and impose them on the world ; yea in his name , and call all dissenters schismaticks , is worse usurpation than to make and impose new ceremonies and liturgies . ] and can any christian deny either of these ? but he saith , [ this supposeth congregational churches to be so much the institution of christ , that any constitution above these is unlawful and unsupportable : ] which is more than the independant brethren do assert . and is any word of all this true ? . the independants much insist on this ? i refer him now but to amesii medul . de eccl. minist . . do the words suppose that which is plainly excepted in them ? if it were granted . . that the congregational only are so instituted . . and that others are not set over them by god , . and yet are obtruded in his name , without his authority . . and all dissenters called schismaticks , ] then i say they are unlawful . . to coufute himself plainly he confesseth that i say , the question is not whether the archbishops should be over the particular churches , as successors to the apostolical and general overseers of the first age in the ordinary continued parts of their office. nor whether patriarks , diocesans , lay-chancellors as officers of the king , exercising magistracy be lawful . ] and yet he saith that i suppose the contrary . he next pretends to give my reasons : and the chief is , because it overthroweth the species of gods making ; when i only say , that which overthroweth it is unlawful ; which is not the archbishops that are over the lower bishops , but those that put them all down , and governed the carkasses of the mortified particular churches as the lowest bishops of many score or hundred such as themselves . and he saith i am for the full exercise of discipline within the particular church ; while he confest i spake not against archbishops . and yet he saith , this is a fair representation of my opinion . sect. . coming to prove our episcopacy the same with the primitive he pretendeth to confute me : that which i asserted was , . that by the first institution , and constitution , every church no bigger for number of souls than one of our great parishes had a bishop of their own , ( one or more i disputed not . ) . yea that for the first two hundred years if not more , no one bishop had a church so big as some of our parishes , at least except alexandria and rome , and even of them it is not certain that they had more souls . . that after by degrees the case was altered : but yet after there were many meetings like chappels , a while there was but one altar . . after that those chappels had altars ; but so as that at certain times of the year , the people of the cities and next parts were all to communicate with the bishop , and were no more than could meet to choose the bishops , and to be present as to the main body of them , and disciplinary debates , to give consent . . in cyprian's time at carthage ( a place of greatness and great numbers of christians ) the church was grown very great , but not beyond the exercise of such personal communion as i described : and the bishops there and round about being worthy men , kept up the life of the former discipline . and as great as their church was , we would be glad of such an episcopacy , order and communion . for i oft told you , that by present communion , i meant not that all must meet in one place at once , ( for the tenth part of some parishes cannot : ) but that as neighbours and citizens , may have personal converse and meetings per vices , of some at one time and some at another , as different from meer mental communion , or by synods or persons delegate , or as their governours or representatives , and this for mutual edification in holy doctrine , worship and conversation . and that the footsteps of this remained long , when worldly reasons had made a change . and all this i have proved so fully in my treatise of episcopacy besides what 's said in my abstract of the episcopal history , that till some man shall confute the full evidence of antiquity there brought , i have no more in reason to do upon that subject . and though the doctors history of this be the most considerable part of all his book , yet so far doth he leave what i say uncontradicted , that i find not one word that he saith against any of my testimonies , nor any for his own cause , for the first two hundred years : but when he should have proved the extent of the churches at two hundred years , he begins his historical proofs at two hundred and fifty for three or four great cities in the world , and so proceeds to augustine at above four hundred , and victor uticensis about four hundred and ninety , theodoret four hundred and thirty , ( where he supposeth me to say that of his city , which i said of the diocess of that city : ) and to confute all impertinencies , and groundless suppositions , while my full proofs are unanswered , is but loss of time . sect. . his chief argument is , [ that no city how great soever was to have more bishops than one . ] ans . . he can prove no such rule in the first two hundred years . . see how well the defenders of prelacy agree ? gratious ( & de imperio & in anotat . ) and dr. hammond i cited , who say that cities at first had two bishops in each ( rome , antioch , &c. ) one of jewish christians , and one of gentile christians , and saith d. h. peter at rome was bishop of the jews , and paul of the gentiles , and they had two successors ; and saith gretius the churches were formed to the manner of the synagogues , and there were divers churches with divers bishops in the same city ( in tim. . . & de imp. p. , , . ) . in the fourth century a council at capua decreed that the two bishops with their several churches at antioch ( flavian's and evagrins ) should live together in love and peace . . this was a good custom while there were in the cities no more than one bishop might take care of : and the custom held when times altered the case and reason of it : and possession and the desire to avoid division made it held up by good men . . i have at large in my treatise of episcopacy confuted the opinion of appropriating bishops to cities ; and so did the old churches that set up chorepiscopos . sect. . p. . he saith , [ in cities and dioceses under one bishop were several distinct congregations and altars . ] ans . . yes , no doubt , after the second century , and perhaps in two cities a little before ; but in few in the world till towards the fourth century . . this is the same man who in the very sermon which he defendeth said [ p. . though when the churches increased the occasional meetings were frequent in several places , yet still there was but one church , and one altar , and one baptism , and one bishop , with many presbyters assisting him : and this is so very plain in antiquity , as to the churches planted by the apostles themselves in several parts , that none but a stranger to the history of the church can ever call it in question . ] but when i told him how this would agree us , and hurt his cause , he will quickly fall under his own censure , and became [ a stranger to the history of the church ] asserting many altars in one church of one bishop . this sermon was written since his irenicon . and now he feigneth a distinction between [ an altar taken with particular respect to a bishop : and for the place at which christians did communicare . ] but what was the altar that was taken with particular respect to the bishop ? was it not the material place of communicn ? and so the members of the distinction are co-incident . saith optatus lib. . quid est altare nisi sedes & corporis & sanguimis christi ? each church had long but one of these . the best altars that were made after the chief church altars were not for ordinary communion , but honorary of some martyrs . the truth is , the phrase of unum altare was taken up when each church had but one ; but to set up altare contra altare continued after to signifie anti-churches . but i have fully answered this in my treatise of episcopacy . his conjectures from the numbers of officers , &c. he may see there also sufficiently confuted and in ch. hist . and the odd instance of theodoret he doth not at all make credible by his willing belief of metius and other popish feigners . and were that epistle genuine a cypher is easily dropt in by corrupters : it hath need of better authority that shall be so singular from the case of all other churches . and i suppose he knoweth that cyrus was not a simple bishoprick , but a metropolitane seat , and might have parish bishops . yea whereas there were under antioch seven dioceses , and fifteen provinces or as others say thirteen , that yet had many bishops under them , as seleucia twenty four . &c. that were more dependant on antioch , cyrus was one of the eight provinces or metropolis that were per se subsistentes : and therefore when theodoret said how many churches were under hands , it 's like he meant bishops churches and not meer presbyters , and either a cypher dropt in corrupted the account ( or else the bishops had but single congregations ; but for my part as the case so late concerneth me not , so i see nothing to perswade me that that epistle is genuine and uncorrupt . but i would not have a diocess which then had many provinces , or a province which had many bishops churches , be taken for a single church . sect. . the same i say of carthage , which was the metropolis of africa , and the first of six provinces before justinian , and of seven after , and proconsular , and the church called africae caput as august . ep . . the sixth and seventh carthage councils tell us of the distribution of the provinces , decreeing three judges to be sent out of each province , viz. carthage , numidia , byzacena , mauritania , &c. yea leo . p. in epist . ad thom. &c. saith that the bishop of carthage was post pont. rom. primus archiepiscopus & totius africae maximus metropolitanus , ( though yet binnius truly say that in cyprian's time he was not an archbishop , that is , no proper governor of bishops , because they concluded in council , nemo nostrum dicitur episcopus episcoporum ; but he was the chief of that great province . and the dr. himself out of victor mentioneth one cresseus that had one hundred and twenty bishops under him : he was metropolitane of aquitana and a diocess then having many provinces ; how many be in a diocess victor there 〈◊〉 you that the bishop of carthage in his own eugitane province had one hundred sixty four bishops . and how great were their churches then ? and l. . when he lamenteth the great number of their banished , bishops , presbyters aud the church-members were . and one parish here hath if not more . he that considereth that cyrus was at most but miles from antioch the patriarchal seat , and that a carthage council had sometimes bishops , and the donatists perhaps had as many ; and that as he saith , cresceus had one hundred and twenty bishops under him , and that cyprian so often tells us how bishops were chosen by all the people , and how he managed his discipline in the presence of all his plebs , ( laity ) and by their consent ; and how he telleth that it was the peoples duty to separate from the communion of a sinning bishop ( which implieth communion before ) and how the bishops in council put the question , when a church wanted a bishop , whether one of them that was a bishop and had perhaps but one or two or three presbyters was bound to part with one to that wanting church to make a bishop of ? and considereth the circuit and distance of their cities , and much more which i have elsewhere named , may well believe large provinces , and larger diocesses , but will think of their bishops churches as we must do of theirs in ireland , when a late converted countrey had six hundred bishops . make but christs true discipline practicable , and tie us not to swear or assent to your uncertain forms and we should no further trouble you in this . sect. . as for the credit he giveth to syrmondu's copy of theodoret's epistle or to the later editions of his works , i am not bound to be as credulous , nor to take the last editions for the best , when they come out of the jesuits hands : and can prove the epistle to joh. antioch , which bellarmine would disprove , to be more credible than this : and it 's one blot that he saith theodoret's epist . . mentioneth the metropolitane he was under , when he was under none , but was himself an independant metropolitane : for so the notitiae episc . tells us , was berytus , heliopolis , laodicea , samasata , cyros , pompriopolis , mopsuestia and adama . if his province was as the epistle cited saith fourty miles square , and the christians so numerous as is said , and he name none of the bishops under him , but number the churches , it 's like they were episcopal churches and very small . and that villages had churches it 's no wonder when there were many chorepiscopi not only under the metropolitanes but the city bishops . and why i must reject his long received work if i question his late found epistles i know not . but again i say , this is nothing to our cause , being so long after the ages i mentioned , & my contrary evidence being not at all confuted his confidence p. , . about some citations out of theodoret , runs upon false insinuations : . that the question is not of the number of churches , but about the extent of the episcopal power , whether it was limited to one parochial church , or extended over many : when he knoweth that i had no such question ; but whether those whose power was over many churches in the first two centuries at least , had not as many bishops under them over those churches ( if such there were . ) or if the bishops were of the lowest rank , whether those under were not then denyed to be churches for want of bishops , and were not only parts of a church ? . and he feigneth me to bring theodorets testimonies to prove that even then in alex. and antioch a church was but one congregation , when i brought it only to prove , that even in that age they were so small , that the footsteps of the ancient shape of them still appeared . such fictions may deceive them that will not try what is said , but only read the answerer . but by this citation i see he read my treatise of episc . before his book came out . and therefore i will pass by these niblings till he answer it . sect. . p. . he accuseth me of [ rage and bitterness ] for saying that [ if he will plead for so much presumption , profanation of gods name , usurpation , uncharitableness and schism , as to own their churches to be new , and devised without gods authority , and yet may in his name be imposed on the world , and all dissenters called schismaticks , ] i leave him . and first he feigneth that i charge him with this ; which is untrue , unless he will charge himself with it . but why do i put in [ if you will so plead . ] ans . because he accused me for saying the contrary , viz. [ that so to divise , and so to impose , is worse , &c. but because i know not why he accused so plain a truth , i said [ if you do so . ] but he now tells me that he ( quoted it to shew that i looked on all churches beyond parochial , as churches meerly of mans devising , ) which is another untruth confessed by himself , who before had this up and cited my own words to the contrary ; viz. that i believe the catholick church and deny not national associated churches ; nor archbishops that put not down the particular churches , pastors and discipline : one mistake is his excuse for another . had he meant as aforesaid , had my words been rage , or necessary confutation ? sect. . yea it is his business in the very next page to confute his own accusation of me by citing my own concessions . and p. . he giveth me leave to call our bishops archbishops . ans . but . archbishops have churches with their proper bishops under them . but our bishops say that there are no such under them . . i told you before that as the major general , quartermaster general , &c. of an army constituteth not a distinct body from the army and the particular regiments and troops , so i am not certain that apostles or evangelists or any general preachers as such , did constitute any church form distinct from the catholick and the particular bishops churches : but if they are supposed to have taken their several fixed provinces ( which i never saw proved ) i will not contend whether those provinces may be called churches . if we agree about the thing , use the name as you see cause . sect. . and to your talk of our bishops being of the same sort , i ask you whether any of the bishops for years , or for long after save cyril alexand. by violence , did ever use or claim any power over any ministers or christians , besides meer fatherly teaching , perswading , urging gods word on them , and applying it to the consciences of particular persons by admonitions , verbal censures and absolutions ? did they meddle by force , with body or purse ? let your bishops use no other force or way of constraint than the apostles did , ( if they be their successors ) and not lay the excommunicate in prisons and ruine their bodies and estates , & valeat quantum valere potest . but mr. glanvile and many of you tell us , how little you care for it without the sword. sect. . if any man will but consider what i cited out of greg. nazianzen that saith men unfit were so ambitious to be of the clergy , that the clergy was in many churches almost as many as the laity ; and that presbyters then were much like the presbyterians elders , save that they had the power of word and sacraments though they seldom exercised preaching in cities , but left that to the bishop ; and that the number of their acoluthi , exorcistae , ostiarii , lectores , subdiaconi , diaconi , &c. made up the great body of them . and the very boys and schollars that were bred up under them , yea or but for church-singing , are sometimes joyned to make up the number , see isidor . de offic. eccl. l. . even all the monks , are often numbred with them . and victor cited by him seemeth to number twice the infantuli so bred up with the great number of readers , to the carthage clergy , i say he that considers all this , will not judge of the number of people or churches by the number of the clergy , as he would do now with us , where the great parishes have but two or three priests . sect. . and as to the cause that i plead for , it is enough that i have proved that even when the name of bishop was confined to the episcopi pastorum , yet the presbyters had the power of the keys , and were episcopi gregis , and exercised this power in their distant countrey assemblies , though under the bishop , and the bishop was to exercise his with them as assistants ; so that the particular churches were not really unchurched . sect. . p. . he cometh nearer our controversie , but first falsly stateth the question , supposing that i say that ( the whole power of the presbyters is swallowed up by the bishops . ) and is the disputing of a question falsly stated of any profit ? i only said that the office of a church-pastor or presbyter hath three essential parts , viz. the power of teaching the church , of conducting them in worship , and governing the people by the use of the keys . and that he that destroyeth one part that is essential ( though he swallow not up all the power ) altereth the essence of the office : and that so the english diocesan form doth , i have largely proved in my treat . of episcopacy which he doth not answer . sect. . . he tells us that the presbyters are the lower house in the convocation , and so have their votes in passing all the rules of discipline , articles of doctrine and forms of divine service . ] ans . . according to his description the church of england hath no one ecclesiastical government , either monarchical or aristocratical or democratical : and therefore the acts of the convocation are no acts of governing the church of england , but meer agreements . therefore this proveth not the presbyters power of governing it . . if this be a part of government it is the legislative part or the executive . the later it is not . the former the lawyers say it is not ; king and parliament only being legislators . but if this be legislation , we deny it to be any of the power of the keys , in question , which is but to judge who is fit or unfit for church-communion , to admonish , absolve or excommunicate according to christs law ; and is the execution of christs law , and not the making of new laws . . it is lis sub judice whether the things here named be any part of true lawful church-government : rules of discipline christ hath made enough , except about meer mutable accidents . articles of doctrine man must not otherwise make , than to declare what he believeth christ hath made . forms of divine service commanded to all others , the apostles never made , nor that we find appointed any others to make them . if these be lawful by way of agreement of many churches , this is none of the power we speak of . yet he calls this [ one of the greatest rights of government , viz. making rules for the whole body ; which he denyeth to have any constitutive government . sect. . he saith , [ in this main part of government our church falls behind none of the ancient churches — only there they were taken singly in every city , &c. ans . that is , . when the ministers of a diocess choose four , out of whom the bishops take two , and . this only to make agreements , without any governing power over the church of england . . and this only about general regulation . . in either unlawful or doubtful impositions on others about meer accidents or circumstances of order ; this is the same or as good as , when every true church hath present pastors personally to exercise the executive church-government called the keys , by the laws of christ already made , in judging the case of each particular person , as to his title to church-communion and the kingdom of heaven . for that is the thing which by us is pleaded for . sect. . next he tells us of four that are to joyn in ordinatiom and examination ; when . it is not the making or governing of pastors which i am speaking of , but the government of the flocks . . he knoweth that it is no strange thing for our bishops to say , that both in convocations and ordination , the presbyters act only as the bishops council , and the bishops only act by governing authority . . i never disputed for presbyters power to ordain as essential to them ( nor did i ever meddle in any ordination . ) . if four presbyters have such power that proveth not that four hundred have it , that never exercise it , in the same diocess . . if by all this you mean that really presbyters have the governing power of the keys , it condemneth those the more that give it to four and deny it to four hundred or one thousand . . when i was ordained none examined us but the bishops chaplain , and two or three city ministers called by the bishop that never saw us before , meerly pro formâ laid hands on us with him . but it 's well that you give such a power to ordain . sect. . next p. . he comes to the point in question , whether they have the pastoral power of the keys over their own flocks ? and . he saith , one would think the objector had never read over the office of ordination for them . for the epistle is read , the charge given by st. paul to the elders at miletus act , or the third chapter of tim. concerning the office of a bishop . what a great impertinency had this been , & c ? ans . this is like the rest . i must not suppose that he never read it himself . see reader , whether any of this be true ? indeed heretofore it was in the book of ordination ; but we shewed the bishops that thence bishop usher in his reduction argued that the presbyters have some conjunct power with the bishops to govern their own particular flocks , and some true pastoral power of the keys ( i was one that oft urged it on them . ) and they told us that the bishop was the pastor and they but his curates , and to confute us , put out both these parts of scripture from the book which he saith are in it ; so that neither of them is there : and presently they also put out the very name of pastor given to parish ministers , in almost all places of the liturgy . doth not all this shew their mind ? sect. . next he tells us of the bishops exhortation , calling them [ the messengers , watchman , pastors and stewards of the lord. ] ans . it was so in the old book , but the word ( pastors ) here also is purposely put out to shew their judgment . is this just dealing , and doth it not confute himself ? . he tells us of the promise to minister , doctrine , sacraments and discipline . ] ans . the truth is neither in the exhortation nor collation of orders , is there any mention of any power given him to govern , but only to administer the word and sacraments : and thus far the people are called his charge : but in the question , discipline is named thus [ as the lord hath commanded , and as this church and realm hath received the same , according to the commandements of god : ] so that . the priest hereby owneth that as it is received in this church and realm it is according to gods commandments , and . then promiseth so to use it : which is . to be an accuser , . and as a cryer to publish the bishops or lay-chancellors excommunication and absolutions . this is the promisé . sect. . and what if the name of government or the keys had been put in , when it is denyed in its essential part ? i have proved out of cousins tables , zouch , and the canons and actual judgment and practice of the bishop . , that government or jurisdiction is denyed to them : and instanced in many and most acts in which it doth consist , in my treatise of episcopacy . and this being my question , ( whether the english frame depose not the ancient churches ( which had every one their own pastor with the power of the keys ) and so the ancient offices and discipline . ) i am not now concerned about the general archiepiscopal power of the diocesans . sect. . p. . he saith ( that while the apostles lived it is probable there were no fixed bishops , or but few . ) ans . mark this reader . . if so , then while they lived , there were but twelve or thirteen bishops in the world , if any . and were then no more churches that had governing pastors ? . then if it cannot be proved that the apostles were fixed bishops , but ambulatory apostles , there were none in the world in their times . . then the angels of the seven churches were apostles ( reprehended by christ ) or meer presbyters , or of the few excepted bishops . why then doth he himself elsewhere argue that there were bishops then , because these cities were metropoles ? . see what concord is between the chief doctors of the church of england . dr. hammond saith that it cannot be proved that there were any presbyters but bishops in scripture times : and supposeth the episcopal party of his mind . this dr. saith , ( it 's probable there were no fixed bishops , or but few . and so they differ . . of the sence of the texts that mention presbyters and bishops . . and about the guidance of the churches de facto in those times . . and if the arpostles were not fixed bishops of single churches , they have no successors as such . if they were we must have but twelve or thirteen bishops as their successors in the world. and which be those seats ? and how prove they their claim ? sect. . to prove the parish ministers pastoral power p. . he tells us of that he is judge of the qualification of those that are to be confirmed . ans . . had i ever taken a parish charge under them , i would have taken more advantage from the new rubrike about this , than any thing else , and then the bishops intended . but . there is not one of a multitude confirmed , and desire of confirmation proveth not any understanding of christianity . . and if the minister doubt whether they be ready or capable , they may refuse to give him any account . . he is to send in the names of such as he judgeth fit . but . it 's only when the bishop summons them . . and the bishop is no way obliged to confirm no more than the priest approveth of . to prove this , . their ordinary practice is to confirm without the curates hands : . when the kings declaration was debated at worcester house , before the k. lords , bishops and ministers , i laboured almost only for this that day , to have got in the word ( consent ) of the minister of the parish for such as should be confirmed , supposing that one word would have partly restored the parish pastors power , and so have made our bishops tolerable archbishops , that if possible we might have been healed . but the bishops rejected it with all their might , and got the king to refuse it : but because i laid so great a stress on it , the lords and others that were to collect and publish the concessions , when we were gone put it in for that time , and at the convocation the bishops cast it all away . did they not tell us then their sence ? and they call him only the curate of the parish , and not the pastor . and . if this were practicable some good men would practice it , at least this doctor himself : but i never heard of one that pre-examined his communicants whether they were ready and willing to be confirmed . . and if he did , he would keep away many fit persons , that scruple our sort of confirmation . . and what is all this to the many thousand noncommunicants , who quietly remain members of your churches ? sect. . as to his words p. . of power to keep the scandalous from the sacrament , i have in so many books proved it next to none , and utterly insufficient , that i will not wast time to repeat all here . sect. . he tells me that in can. is not in reformatio legum eccles . ans . but i have before told him , how much more and better is , which would go far to heal us could we obtain it . he saith that [ any one that hath seen them knoweth it to be a mistake , to say it was published by john fox . ans . his reader must be a strong believer , and take much on his word ; . i have seen them , and spake with men of great understanding that have seen them , that yet judge it no mistake . . the preface of the publisher is like his style . . it is called praefatio i. f. and can every reader know that i. f. meaneth not john fox ? . ordinary tradition saith it was fox's : and what should i sooner believe in such a case ? instead of proving that they have all a power ( to their condemnation ) which we see they exercise not , let him procure a real power declared and granted , and it will do more than these words . sect. . but when it comes to the question whether me may so much as call a sinner to repentance by name before the church , who rejecteth all more private admonition , he puts the question , whether the obligation to admonish publickly an offender , or to deny him the sacrament if he will come to it , be so great as to bear him out in the violation of a law , made by publick authority , &c. ans . the first question is whether christ have not made his church so different a thing from the world , that they should be openly differenced , by a communion of saints ? . and whether he hath not instituted an office to judge of this and by government execute it ? and . whether any man have authority to suspend this law or office ? and then . i shall grant that not only discipline , but preaching and prayer and sacraments may be forborn hic & nunc in the present exercise , when else the exercise would do more hurt than good . . but are these laws good that forbid it ? and should we covenant never to endeavour an alteration ? sect. . he next tells us of the great difficulty of exercising true discipline , ( which is most true ) and seems thence to defend the forbearance of it with us . answ . i have in my treatise of episcopacy and oft proved that it is of great importance to christ's ends , and that he would have it continued to the last , and that the communion of saints is a practical article of faith ; and that making small difference between the church and the world , tends to church destruction , and to the reproach of christianity , and the utter undoing of millions of souls . and though pope and prelates have abused it to captivate princes and nations , the just use of it ( he knoweth ) is mentioned by the universal church , and visibly recorded in the canons of the several ages . though some erastians are of late against it ; and jesuits and worldly protestants can dispense with it when it would hurt their worldly interest , and turn it chiefly against gods servants that displease and cross them . sect. . p. . he saith , [ the want of discipline in the parish churches was never thought by old nonconformists destructive to the being of them . answ . they did not confound the power and the exercise : nor what the ministers office is indeed and from god , and what it is by the bishops mind and rules of conformity . i say as they . . the exercise may be suspended without nulling the power or policy . . they are true pastors and churches by gods will , against the will of those that would degrade them . sect. . but supposing every man left to his own conscience , for communion . . he saith the greatest offenders generally excommunicate themselves . answ . . and is it your way to leave all the rest to their consciences , and yet to preach and write against , and lay in jail dissenting godly people that communicate not with you ? . and are not all these offenders still members of your church ? albaspineus complaineth of their roman french church , that he never knew any further cast out than from the sacrament , and left still to other parts of communion as members ; and so do you by thousands who are all sons of your church ; but we are none . he is again at it , what church i was of , and i have told him oft enough . chap. viii . what the national church of england is ? sect. . according to the doctors method we come now to the explication of one of the terms of our controversie , so long and loudly called for , viz. what the national church of england is , which we must obey , and from which we are said to separate , p. . and the answer is such as may tell dr. fulwood and him , that it's time to give over wondering that i understood not what they meant by it . sect. . our question is of the church policy and political form. all writers of politicks difference a meer community , from a political body : this is essentiated of the two constitutive parts , the pars regens and pars subdita : the former is much like the soul , and the later the body . the ruling part is called the form by most , and the sorts ( monarchical , aristocratical , democratical or mixt ) the form in specie , as the rational or sensitive soul to animals : but the relative form is the union of both in their proper order . such a body politick is a kingdom , a city , a church in the proper and usual sense . but in a loose sense many other things may be called a church . as . a community prepared for a governing form , not yet received . . an occasional congregation about religion ( as prisoners that pray together ; men that meet about a religious consultation or dispute , &c. ) . many churches as under one christian magistrate as an accidental head. . many churches associated for mutual help and concord , without any governing head : either of one kingdom or of many . . many churches as meerly agreeing in judgment and love , in distant parts of the world. none of these are churches in the political sense , but are equivocally so called . but politically . . all the christian world is one church as formed by their relation to christ the head. . all single churches that have pastors to guide them in the essentials of the pastoral office , are true churches , formed by this mutual relation . these two are undoubted . . the now roman ▪ catholick church is one by usurpation , as informed by one usurping head . . a patriarchal church is one , as governed by a patriarch . . a provincial church is one as headed by the metropolitan , or as mixt where aristocratically others are joyned with him . . an archiepiscopal or diocesan church that hath particular churches and bishops under it is one as headed by that diocesane . ( jure an injuriâ i dispute not . ) . a diocesane church of many score or hundred parishes , having no episcopus gregis , or true pastors and pastoral churches under him , but only half pastors and chappels that are but partes ecclesia , is one , even of the lowest sort , in their opinion , as headed by that diocesane . . a presbyterian classical church is one , as headed by the classes . . a presbyterian national church is one , as headed by the general assembly . . an episcopal national church is one , either as headed by one national bishop , or else by a synod of bishops aristocratically ; or else by a synod of bishops and presbyters aristocratically . all these that are constituted of one regent and a subdite part , are called churches in a political proper sense , and not only equivocally . now the question is , of which sort is the national church of england ? and the doctor saith , page . . that the society of all christians is counted a true catholick church , from their union and consent in some common things : and so is ours , &c. ] answ . but in what common things ? not in one bible , for so may hereticks , much less in one liturgy . if it be not a consent in one governing head , it makes no proper church . . he supposeth an agreement in the same faith , and under the same government and discipline . answ . that 's right : but what government is it , civil , or ecclesiastical ? the first is no essential part of a proper church . if it be the later , is it one in specie or in individu● politico ? not the former ; for a episcopal churches in several nations may have one species of government , as many kingdoms may have . it is therefore the later that is all my question , which is the church-head ? he saith [ as several families make one kingdom , so several lesser churches make one national . answ . true , if that national church have one constitutive head as a family hath : it 's no family without a pater or mater familias . and no governed proper church without governours ; and there is no governour where there is no supreme in his place and kind : for inferiours have all their power from the supreme : there is no universal supreme but god : but the king is subordinately the supreme in his kingdom in respect to inferiours , and so it is in other governed societies . he addeth [ the name of a church comprehended the ecclesiastical governours and people of whole cities , and so may be extended to many cities united under one civil government , and the same rules of religion . answ . . if the question were only de nomine , we grant that civil courts even of heathens are usually by writers called ecclesia , and so is any assembly . if this be all you mean , speak out . . many nations may agree in the same rules of religion , yea , so all christians do : doth this constitute national churches ? . one civil government is of another species , and not essential but accidental to a church , and therefore doth not constitute or individuate it : one justice of peace or mayor in a christian corporation , doth not make it one parish church . but if this be all your meaning , speak out : we grant de re a christian kingdom , and contend not de nomine if you call it a church . § . . page . ● . as to the difference of a national church and kingdom , he granteth what we desire , confessing the difference . but asketh [ whence cometh all this zeal now against a national church ? ] answ . an untrue insinuation . . to desire to know what it is , is untruly called zeal against it . . and agreeing with you in the description is no zeal against it . he adds [ the presbyterians and mr. hudson write for it . answ . mr. hudson is a conformist : and the presbyterians tell you what they mean , a christian nation of particular churches governed by one general assembly as the supreme ecclesiastical government . whether this be just or unjust is now none of our question . i have oft told what i think of it . do you also tell us which is your national church-power and i have done ? are you loth to be understood ? § . . but page . he cometh to his plain answer , viz. . [ the national church of england diffusive is the whole body of christians in this nation , consisting of pastors and people , agreeing in that faith , government and worship which are established by the laws of this realm . ] and now he [ continues his wonder at those who so confidently say , they cannot tell what we mean by the church of england . ] answ . yea , your wonder may increase , that i less and less understand it , if you did not after tell us better ●●an in this unhappy definition . . is this called the church diffusive one governed body politick ? if not , it is no church in the sense in question , and i 'le not stick with you for an equivocal name . . do you mean by [ government agreed in . . the civil government . . or the ecclesiastical government of the particular churches severally . . or one government of all the national church ? . the first makes it no church in the sense in question . . the second makes it no church , but an association of many churches ▪ such as a thousand independent ▪ churches may make , or the churches of many kingdoms . many families associated are no city or one ruled society if they agree in no common governours , but only their several family governours . many cities associated are no commonwealth if they agree not in one supreme power . it 's no political body without one common governour ▪ natural or collective , monarchical , aristocratical or democratical . and what is it of [ worship established by law ] that individuates your church ? if all th●● the law hath established . . your church hath oft changed its very being , and may do at every parliament . . and the church is small and unknown , if all that differ in any point established are no parts of it . but if it be not all established , who knoweth by this definition what it is , and what is the very matter of your church . so that here is a definition which neither notifieth matter or form . § . . next he answereth the question , how all the congregations in england make up this one church ? ] and answereth [ by unity of consent , as all particular churches make one catholick . ] answ . consent to what ? . if it be not to one common government , it is no governed church , as one . . doth he think that the catholick church consenteth not to one governing head , christ ? and doth any thing else make them formally one politick body or church ? this were ill doctrine . § . . question , how comes it to be one national church ? ( saith he ) i say because it was received by the common consent of the whole nation in parliament , as other laws of the nation are ? ] answ . whether , [ how comes it ? ] speak of the efficient cause , or the formal , or what , it 's hard to know , so singular are his logical notions . but the first is most likely . and then , . the question is still unanswered , what is the one common governing power in the church which this parliament consent hath ●●t up ? he knows this is the question . . and if it be by parliament consent , how old is your church ? what parliament first made it ? it 's not so old as luther ? is it no older than the liturgy or canons ? . doth it die and live again as oft as parliaments change it ? if the corruption of one have been the generation of another , how many churches of england have you had ? . the whole nation did not consent by parliament when the lords and commons voted down the bishops and liturgy : was there then no national church ? . how shall we prove that the whole or half the nation ever meant to put their consent into the hand of the parliament to make a new church of england , and to alter it ? . what men make they may destroy . may not the nation withdraw such consent ? and the parliament unmake their creature ▪ § . . next , p. he saith [ the representative church of england i● the bishops and presbyters of this church meeting according to the laws of the realm , to consult and advise about 〈◊〉 of religion . — the consent of 〈◊〉 convocations ( of ca●●erbury and york provinces ) ●● the representative national church of england . answ . . so here we have a diffusiv● church and its representative , but no government of either , as a church , mentioned , but the civil . . and they can be no governours meerly as representing those that are no governours themselves . not as the peoples representatives ; fo● they are no church governours ( whatever elsewhere he saith like a brownist of the keys being given to peter as representing the whole church . ) . not as the presbyters representatives ; for , . they are denied episcopal power , . and they are governours at most but of their particular churches ; and not of the whole . . not as the bishops representatives , for . they are there themselves , . and they are no common governours of the whole as such . . if he mean that the two convocations when they consent become the one common constitutive governing power of the national church , this is intelligible , but . he after denieth any such ; . and then their dissent would dissolve the church , and one convocation not oblige it ; ( with much more such . ) § . . but yet he perceiveth he hath not answered me , and therefore comes to it , page , saying , [ it 's a false supposition that where-ever there is the true notion of a church , there must be a constitutive regent part , — a standing governing power which is an essential part of it . ] answ . a true notion , belongeth to equivocals : the true notion , and the proper political notion are words of various signification . i have granted you that the true notion of a church belongs to a ship-full , a prison full , a house-full , of christians as such ; and to our parliament , and to the common-council of the city : but not the notion now in question . . is not government essential to a governed church ? fixed government to a fixed church , and transient temporary government to an answerable church ? deny this and few will follow you . § . . he adds , [ which i will prove to be false from mr. b. himself . he asserts that there is one catholick visible church , and that all particular churches headed by their particular bishops or pastors , are parts of the universal church as a troop is of an army , and a city of a kingdom . — then it will unavoidably follow , that there must be a catholick visible head to a catholick visible church . and so mr. bs : constitutive regent part of a church hath done the pope a wonderful kindness — but there are some men in the world that do not attend the advantages they give to popery , so they may but vent their spleen against the church of england . but doth not mr. b. say , that the universal church is headed by christ ; i grant he doth : but the question is of the visible church of which particular churches are parts : and they being visible parts , require a visible constitutive regent head , — therefore the whole visible church must have likewise a constitutive visible regent part — this is to make a key for catholicks ? answ . i am glad he speaketh so intelligibly , in denying a constitutive regent part ▪ though sorry that he speaks so ill . . when i have written against johnson , alias terrae the papist , two books on this subject ; especially the later fully proving the catholick church headed by christ , to be that visible church catholick of which all particulars are members ; can the reader think i should write it over again , because this doctor will talk over a little of the same with that priest , and take no notice of my proof or answer ? . doth he believe that the kingdoms of the world are not visible parts of god's universal kingdom ? and yet god invisible ? . dare he say that all true churches are not real parts of christ's universal church , as a governed body ? and yet are not they visible ? is it necessary then that the universal head must be visible if the subordinate be so ? . doth he not perceive that he turneth the controversie , from the necessity of a regent head , to the necessity of his visibility ? as if our question had not been , which is the regent part of the church of england ? but whether it must be visible ? is this edifying ? . all christians are agreed that the universal church is visible . . in its parts and members on earth , and their profession . . in that christ the head was visible on earth ; . and hath left visible universal laws ; . and hath a body visible in heaven ; as the king is to his courtiers but not to most of his subjects ; . and will shortly visibly judge all the world. thus far and no further ( save as seen extraordinarily to paul , stephen , &c. ) is the universal head visible . and are we not agreed that this is a real and most excellent political church ▪ and that all other visible churches are parts of it ? something besides spleen makes some men talk dangerously . § . . but really doth he think that this doth unavoidably set up the pope ? why , first is there a word of this that a sober christian dare deny ? or that the christian world doth not commonly consent to ? and do the certain doctrines of the gospel and church set up the pope ? will he turn papist if this be proved , and the christian world be not deceived ? is this our champion against popery now ? i thought no man but mr. cheny and some odd papists had been of this opinion ? but to mr. cheny and against johnson i have confuted it , and therefore thither refer the reader . far be it from me to resist popery by denying , . that christ's church thus far visible is one political body headed by himself , . or that all true visible churches are parts of it . . or that every political governed body is constituted of the regent and subdite parts . christians will reject me for the former , and politicians deride me if i hold the last . § . . he proceedeth , [ . the plain resolution is , that we deny any necessity of any such regent constitutive part , or one formal ecclesiastical head as essential to a national church : for a national consent is as sufficient to make a national church as an universal consent to make a catholick . ] answ . no consent maketh a catholick church , but consenting to one supreme head , christ : but i am glad i understand you . § . saith he , [ quest . by what way this national consent is to be declared ? by the constitutions of this church the arch-bishops , bishops and presbyters summoned by the king 's writ , are to advise and declare their judgments in matters of religion , which received and enacted by parliament there is as great a national consent as to any law. and all the bishops , ministers and people make up this national church . ] answ . now we are come to the bottom : and , . our question is of the constitution of the church , and the doctor tells us the administration makes it . to consult and advise and make laws are acts of administration , and follow the constitution . men must have power before they use it , and must be a church before they act 〈◊〉 church . . yea to advise and consult are not so much as acts proper to administring government , but belong to those that are no governours also . . if they be no laws till the parliament make them such , then either the parliament are your church head , or you have none that 's ecclesiastical . but having your plain confession that you have no such regent part , and so are no church political , ( save civil ) but a meer association , i ask § . . . why do you pretend that we are none of the church of england , or that we vent our spleen against it or deny it , who deny not associated churches in england under one civil government ? . how unhappily are the church-defenders and conformists disagreed ? read mr. dodwell and many such others that take the church to be a governed body politick and see what they will judg of you ? . are not you and i liker to be of one church of england , who agree what it is , than you and those bishops and doctors that speak of two different things , and agree not so much as what it is ? . have you not brought your defence of the church of england to a fair issue , by denying that there is any such church , in the questioned political sense ? . what made you before talk of being under one government ? if you meant only civil ? is your governed church as such only civil , or a kingdom only ? . do you not now absolve all men from the duty of obeying the church of england a● such , and from all guilt of disobeying them ? how can men govern that are no governours ? and how can we obey them ? it 's only the civil power then that we herein disobey . if you say that all the bishops are governours , and altogether govern the whole ; i answer , yes per partes , but not as a whole or church . if twenty families in a village agree as masters and servants , to go one way as consenters , this ▪ maketh no one government of the village . if the physicians of london consent to one pharmacopeia that maketh them not a body politick . if twenty sea captains consent to go one voyage by one rule , each one is a governour of his own ship , but this maketh no government of the whole . all the justices and mayors of england rule the kingdom per partes , by the same law : but all together make not one aristocracy to govern the kingdom as one whole . unless your bishops , &c. are united in one persona politica or aristocracy , they may rule their several churches , but they make not one common government for the national church as such . an agreement of the emperour , spaniard , and other confederates make not one kingdom or body politick . . how can they be schismaticks for disobeying them that are not their governours . . how come dissenters bound by parliament consent ? if it never was in their minds to trust them as consenters for them ? yea and declare their own dissent , as most of the nation did lately against prelacy and liturgy , yea and their chosen representatives ? have such representatives more power to express our consent than we our selves ? . you unhappily erre with hooker in your popular politicks , if you think that the laws bind us only because we consent to them by our representatives , or that as such they make them . whereas it is as by consenting in the constitution they are made part of the rullers or legislators , and not meerly as if we made the laws by them . . and as to convocation consent , how binds it all those that never consented to them ? how is the city of london so bound to conform , when they had not one chosen clerk ( but only the dignitaries ) in the convocation that made us our conformity ( the two chosen by them being refused by the bishops . ) . will not you pass for an asserter of the principles of independency , that not only say , the keys are given to the whole body , and the convocation represent the people , &c. but also that england is one church but by consent , without consenting to any one constitutive regent church head . the independants are for a national church meerly by confederacy and consent , without national government of it . . you go further from the episcopal politicks than the presbyterians do : for they make an aristocratical regent part , but you make none . . i doubt some statesmen will be angry with you , that say there is no power of church government in england , but from the king as head ( as crumpt●● before cousins tables , and others ordinarily . ) . do you make england in essentials any more one church , than england and any foreigners agreeing are one ? did the synod of d●rt make us one with them ? do large councils make many nations one church ? did the heptarchy make england one kingdom , when seven kings governed the whole by parts , but none the whole , as such ? . i beseech you think what you have done against the parochial , diocesane and provincial churches in england . have none of these , have not each of these a regent constitutive part ? are none of them true churches in sensu politico ? you dare not say , no. if they are , you have said that visible churches as parts unavoidably require a visible head to the whole ( by which i bring in the pope , because you think christ will not serve the turn : ) and do you not say that all these churches are parts of the church of england ? and if you deny it to have one regent part , do you not then either destroy the rest , or use the name church equivocally to these several sorts so heterogeneal ? . i pray you tell us , from whom our arch-bishops receive their power ? if you say from the bishops , and so inferiours or equals may give power , why may not presbyters make presbyters or bishops , and generare speciem ? if it must come from superiours , the church of england hath none such . . if the peoples consent can make a national church , why may it not make an independant or presbyterian church ? . if the nations consent , as such make the church of england , it is not made by legislative power of king and parliament . . do the clergy represent the king ? or is he none of the church ? . how prove you that the clergy represent the laity in the convocation ? . by your rule , if divers parties of christians agree to set up divers forms of church-government , with mutual forbearance they would be one national church . and so would episcopal , presbyterians and independants if the law allowed them all . . was the church of england the same thing in the days of h. . ed. . q. mary , q. eliz. &c. . who maketh national churches in absolute hereditary monarchies , where are no parliaments to signifie popular consent ? . if every law of order be essential to your church , few conformists are of it : if only the true essentials , why are not we also of it ? . how ill agree you with mr. cheny ▪ who maketh it atheism , infidelity , blasphemy , impiety , to assert church-making consent or confederacies besides baptism ? . but the best is you leave us in hope of reformation ; for if parliaments will but consent for us to take down diocesanes lower , and to reform parish-churches , and alter liturgy , &c. we are the national church still . and one prevailing vote may prove us all consenters ; and make the church quite another thing . § . . yet he saith [ page . by this description any one may see how easily the church of england is distinguished from the papists on one side , and the dissenters on the other . ] answ . i am one , and i cannot see it , nor so much as see how to know the church it self , nor who is a member of it , nor how any man can know it : but he seems to me to make it a church invisible . but i see the dissenters must be none of it . . how was the church of england known from papists , in the beginning of h. . or in the middle , or in the end ? or how known when it began ? how was it known in the beginning of queen elizabeths days , when the papists came to church ? or now as to church-papists ? how shall we know to which church the late bishop bramhall and other doctors belong , who would have the pope govern ▪ us according to the canons as patriarch of the west , & principium unitatatis universalis , and all go for schismaticks that deny it . some call this the new-church of england , differing from the old one which was before bishop laud. . how shall one know how far consent is necessary to a member , and dissent unchurcheth him ? lately a doctor was accused for saying he scrupled to call the king according to the liturgy , our most religious king : mr. jole of sarral was suspended for not oftner wearing the surplice , and denying to pray in the litany for [ our most gracious queen katherine , and james duke of york . but these are small dissents ; the sense is the churches law and doctrine , and not the sound of words in various senses : i have oft shewed in how many contrary senses the conformists take the articles , the liturgy , the words of subscription and declaration , and the oaths imposed ? how shall one know among all these , who are , or are not of your church ? when you tell us that it is [ agreeing in the faith , government and worship which is established by law ] and then speak so hotly against the need and being of any common government , save the civil , at all established over the church as a. national body , and never distinguish any necessary parts of faith , government and worship , from the rest , nor tell us how to know them ? and when conformists dissent in so many things ; some from lay chancellours government by the keys , some in the sense of the articles , and the noncon●o●●●ists say they consent to all that scripture requireth , and the meer circumstantials determined by law , how shall you be known ? either it is in the essentials only , or the integrals also , or also in all the laws de accedentibus , that the church of england by agreement is made that one church . . if it be only in essentials , is there either confession , rubrick , canon , or any writer that hath told us which be those , and all those , and only those essentials ? i never met with man that pretendeth to know them , and therefore never met with man that can thus tell , whether he be of the church of england or not ? nor that can tell of others , and who is not ? . to say it must be consent also in the integrals that is necessary ad esse , is a contradiction : and is to make integrals essentials . to say that it must be consent in all laws of accidents also , is to make that an essential part which is no part . our loose confounding disputers , when they have lost the truth in such contradictions , may say as mr. dodwell doth to me , that i cavil : but will that answer help down all absurdities with reasonable men ? it 's plain that as the papists doctrine of defining church-members and christians , by no essential articles of faith , but by probable proposal of more or less doth make their church invisible , so doth this definition of the church of england by doctor stillingfleet make theirs , and leave us uncertain who is of it . it makes me think what i hear oliver the usurper said to a bishop that now is ( as i am credibly told , [ doctor how know you that you are a true minister of christ ? ] who answered him on mr. dodwell's principles , [ because i have received ordination by uninterrupted successive conveyance from true bishops , from the apostles : ] saith he ; are you sure they were all true bishops and the succession uninterrupted ? doctor will you take your oath that you are thus a true minister ? ] at which when he stuck , [ come , come , doctor , saith he , there is a surer and a nearer way . ] certain i am , that if agreement in the sense of the articles , or in all forms and ceremonies be necessary to constitute a member of the church of england , abundance that subscribe are none , that now go for such : but if not , i pray tell us why such as i also are not members of your church . do i more differ from you than doctor heylin , mr. thorndike , mr. dodwell , and in a word than the party which adhered to arch-bishop la●d , differed from the party which adhered to bishop abbot , whitgift , and the parliaments of those and after-times ? if the church of england as such a one , be constituted by no supreme church-government , we are all of it , so far as we consent to the association , and none as it is one political body . and what then becomes of its laws , and all the treatises of its church-policy ? § . . but yet the doctor stops not here : i unavoidably introduce popery if i make a constitutive regent church power , necessary to a church : for then the universal church must have such . ] answ . . it 's not necessary to an equivocal ungoverned church , such as our worcestershire association made : but to a political governed church it is . . mark here all you that go the political church way , that your doctor accuseth you more than the nonconformists , even of certain opening the door to popery . what if i had said so by you ? is it such men that thus make you agents for a pope ? . doth this political description of parochial , diocesane , provincial , patriarchal churches , also bring in popery ? . then either our archbishops have no power , or they have it from no superiour , or else they infer a pope . . i again tell the doctor as i did mr. cheny ; it is disingenious to say this to me , when i have written so much against johnson the priest , in my first , and specially my second answer , which none replyeth to , without any confutation or notice of it ▪ i have fully proved that christ's catholick church hath himself for an essential head , sometime visible on earth , leaving visible laws , and now visible to the courtiers in heaven , and coming visibly to judge all ; and there is no other . indeed if the doctrine of mr. dodwell and many such hold , who deny that the power floweth immediately from christs law or charter to the church , and not from the ordainers or electors , who do but determine of the receiver and invest him , then all the doctors in england cannot answer the digression , cap. . of the book called [ the catholick hierarchy , ] proving that such a prelatical subordination of churches , inferreth a pope : but i have fully shewed the vanity of that inference as to us . but remember that the doctor and i are agreed , that [ a nation consenting in an association of particular churches , may be called a national church ( equivocally , ) though it can make no laws unless its consent also set up a supreme church-government . meet agreements are not laws . § . . he next would make the unwary reader think that he answereth my question , . what is the same rule that all must walk by , viz. that the scriptures are the foundation of our faith. — . but our church requireth conformity to the rules appointed by it agreable to the word of god. ] answ . but it seems the scripture then is not the whole rule , but part : the fundamental part . . which did paul mean ? was your churches rule then made ? . doth your church require this ad esse , or but ad melius esse ? if the first , all canon-breakers are dismembred ? and , is that according to god's word ? if the later , why am not i of your church ? . but how comes that church to command and bind , which hath no such ruling power ? chap. ix . of the peoples consent to the pastoral and church-relation . § . . page . saith the dean , [ the next thing to be considered is the interest and power of the people as to the choice of their pastors , for want of which great complaints are made , — mr. baxter is very tragical on this argument , and keepeth not within tolerable bounds of discretion in pleading the peoples cause against magistrates and patrons and laws . ] answ . . that is tolerable to some men , which others cannot bear ; silken ears must have soft words ; the land cannot bear all his words , was an old complaint : and [ speak pleasing things , prophecy deceit ] was an old mandate . it 's no wonder if that sort of men , that must judg whether our preaching , and worshipping god be tolerable , and must write us down the words which we must say to god in prayer , or not be tolerated , do also think themselves the meet judges , whether our indiscretion be intollerable . . but let us try whether he state this controversie any more logically or truly than the rest , and whether he intimate not hurtful though tollerable untruth . . it 's a crooked insinuation , to put the word [ power ] instead of [ right and liberty , ] as if [ power ] of consenting in the people , and [ power of rulers ] were univocal and not equivocal terms : but this is tolerable : for experience hath convinced me , how little logical strictness is from this doctor to be expected : i doubt lest next , as some men instead of learning maintain their reputation by deriding it , we may expect some such defence of the doctor● logick , to prove that he is none of the disputers of this world , who deceive men by vain philosophy . . and the word [ choice ] instead of [ consent ] is somewhat more crooked : for [ choice ] usually includeth the first nominating vote ; and he knoweth that i pleaded for the necessity of no more , than the churches consent , though it were subsequent to the choice of magistrates or patrons . . but the next is worse , that [ i plead the peoples cause against magistrates , patrons and laws , ] when i do but desire their conjunction . § . . his repetitions call me tediously to repeat the state of the controversie ( a business quite below him . ) i. i have oft said , that god hath not made either magistrates or people the judges who is fit to be , and shall be a minister of christ in general ; but the ordainers and the person himself conjunct . this is evident , . from scripture instances of all that were ordained : . from the nature of the thing . . who is supposed so fit to judge as men and seniors of the same office ? who but physicians are fit to judge who is meet to be a licensed physician ? and who but philosophers judge of graduates and professours in philosophy ? . and no man can make me a minister against my will , nor know me to be fit , if i know my self to be unfit . § . . ii. i have oft said that the supreme civil governour is the judge , whom he must countenance , maintain and tolerate . the proof is easie , . because to do it is his work ; and every man must be a discerning judge of his own work . . because it is a publick act of government , and he is the chief publick judge therein . § . . iii. i have oft said that the disposal of the tythes and temples is in the power of the prince , and patron by his grant . but with these bounds . . his power is not absolute , but under christ and limited by him , and therefore he hath no power against him , nor to cross his laws or to contradict his ends . . if the tythes and temples were given only for publick teachers of catechumens , or for meer lecturers , the magistrate must dispose of them to such as are capable of that office. . if the tythes and temples were given for the pastors of the churches , the magistrate is bound to give them to such as are lawfully called to be such pastors , and not by the advantage of his trust , overthrow the way of entrance instituted by christ . . however if they were devoted to god , it is god who is the proprietor , and it's sacrilege to alienate them . and an intolerable ill disposal is alienation . § . . iv. i have oft said , that it being supposed that their ancestors gift of tythes or glebe and temples is the reason of our common patronage and presenting power , the will of the dead donors is to be observed , and their gifts given to none but on the termes by them determined : but their gifts are supposed to be for the churches good and not against it : nor had they any power on pretense of beneficence , to destroy , or to take away more than they give : but the trusting of our souls conduct is a matter of more weight than tythes and temples . if tythes be proved not to be of divine right , all that can be expected is , that if the flock cannot trust him whom the patron chuseth , they let him give his tythes and temple to whom he please , and they will trust their souls with such as they dare , and safely may . but if he will chuse and offer them one whom they can safely and comfortably accept , so as tythes and temples shall preponderate in case of small difference in the men , prudence obligeth them to accept of the advantage . the same i say of the magistrates countenance and approbation . but if the difference be very great , it 's better stretch our purses to build new temples and pay our pastors than trust our souls on the pastoral conduct of ignorant , malignant , unfaithful or heretical men . § . . v. i have oft said , that mutual consent is necessary to the being of the relation of pastor and flock . and though sometimes the rulers imposition , and the patrons choice , may make it the peoples duty in prudence to consent , when the good preponderates the hurt , ( not else ) yet till they consent , the relation is not existent . as if children were bound to take wives and husbands by the command and fore choice of parents , yet it 's no marriage till they consent . § . . the common objection is from the inconvenience , if the several parties agree not : to which i answer . . the mischief of the contrary way , is worse than that inconvenience . . there is nothing in this world without inconveniences where all things and persons and actions are imperfect . . if parents and children agree not about their marriage , it hath great inconveniences ; and yet neither parents government , nor childrens consenting liberty must be denyed . . in so weighty a case , divers locks and keys keep the churches treasure safe . prince , patron , people and ordainers , will not so often agree on a vile person , as any one of them alone may do . § . . and now judge how logically , how honestly the doctor hath stated the case , and made me intolerably indiscreet and tragical against magistrates , patrons and laws . and try if you can understand what it is instead of this , that he would have : i tell him again , that if he deny the necessity of the flocks consent to the mutual relation , he notoriously opposeth the judgment and practice of antiquity and the universal church , of princes , patriarchs , prelates , councils and people , and fights against the full stream of historical evidence , for a new crooked way , that would make as many modes of religion as there are different princes . and here he wonders what he said , that occasioned such undecent passion . it seems he felt some passion in reading it , and thought he must have the like that wrote it . and so let any man obtrude any pernicious thing on the church , and he can easily prove the detector to have undecent passion , for giving a bad cause its proper name . § . . but he cannot find out the reason of my inference , that then princes may impose what religion they please . ] answ . not understanding , with some men , goes for confuting : to put [ religion ] for the mode of religion is too little a slip of his to be insisted on . but is not my inference necessary ? i urged him to tell me , in what countries , and under what sort of princes the rule holds , that the people must not judge whether the offered pastors be hereticks , nor refuse them , if prince and patron present them ? he will not be entreated to tell me . i tell him , that if the rule be universal , when a papist , socinian , anabaptist , antiepiscopal , &c. prince and patron present men of their own mind , and they are instituted , the people must take and trust them as their pastors : and is not this to set up in all the churches what modish religion prince and patron please ? is this hard to be understood ? yet he calls this railing on him for suppositions of my own making . and here he steps over to another man. § . . before i come to his undertakings , i will repeat anothers railing and undecent passion against his cause ; and i desire the reader to note how well the doctors of the church of england agree ; and to learn which of them it is that we must believe , both as to history and right . it is mr. herbert thorndike in his treatise of forbearance of penal . [ it is to no purpose to talk of reformation in the church , to regular government , without restoring the liberty of chusing bishops and the priviledge of enjoying them , to the synods , clergy and people of each diocess . so evident is the right of synods , clergy and people in the making of those of whom they consist , and by whom they are to be governed , that i need make no other reason of the neglect of episcopacy , than the neglect of it . ] yet these two are doctors of one church , but we are no members of it . § . . i again say that either the reader hath read the church history and canons , or not ? if not , how can he tell who to believe that report them ? the doctor or me ? but if he have , i will no more dispute this case with him , than i would do whether english parliaments used to make laws . he is past my conviction if he be not convinced . § . . and i will again say , that i will yet suppose the doctor so humble as to acknowledge himself much inferiour to paulus sarpi servita venerunt , in point of church history : at least i say to the reader , peruse what he hath said of this controversie and of the alteration of church government in his history of the council of trent , and his book of church benefices , lately translated by dr. denton , and doubt if you can . § . . and in general i add : i. i suppose no man of such reading maketh any doubt of the first years , whether any bishops were made over any church without the free election or consent of the flocks and the whole clergy , and the approbation of the ordainers . i will not for shame stay to prove this , having said so much of it in my first plea for peace , and episcopal church history , which are unanswered . ii. and since the first years , it 's so notorious in history that it 's a shame to need proof of it , that the christian emperours confirmed the churches in this right and use , and for many hundred years after , permitted and ordered , that bishops should be chosen by the people , clergy and synods , and when the peoples election was infringed , the necessity of their consent long continued : and it was only in the choice of the five patriarchs that the emperours used to meddle , and that not always , nor at all chusing them alone , but commending some one to the people and clergy to chuse , or confirming some one that they had nominated . and this held on till popery sprung up . iii. and even then the popes long continued it : but , . they strove ( specially in hildebrand's days and after ) against the emperours negative voice in the confirmation of popes , . and his negative in investing bishops : but even in this strife , the election was confest to be in the clergy , the people chusing or freely consenting , and no man to be made their bishop against their will ; and it was but the investiture per b●culum & annulum , as a confirmation which the emperours claimed . § . . i have formerly named elder testimonies not denied : i will now recite but some canons of councils . . the th and th canons of the first great nicene council nullifieth the very ordination of scandalous uncapable men : and in the arab. can. . si populo placebit , is made a condition of the episcopal relation . and c. . in case of the peoples disagreement , the said people must take the most blameless . . the roman council said to be under silvester of bishops saith , [ no bishop shall ordain any clerke , nisi cum omni adunatâ ecclesia , but with all the church united . if this council be not certain , the very forgers shew the antiquity of the churches right and custom . . i before named a council at capua that decreed that the two bishops at antioch chosen by their two churches , should live in love and peace . . chrysostom's church of joannites would rather separate than forsake their chosen bishop or his honour , though emperour , council and patriarch was against him : and though cyril alex. wrote that their breach of canons was intolerable , and to tolerate them ( a few stubborn nonconformists ) would but discourage the obedient . . even the famous pope caelestine who helpt austin against the pelagians decreed [ let no man be given a bishop to the unwilling : let the sense and desire of the clergy , the laity , and magistracy ( ordinis ) be required ( or necessary . ) ] . how the people deposed theodosius bishop of synada and chose another and the change approved , i have elsewhere shewed . . after atticus death the clergy at constantinople were for philip or proclus , but the people chose sisinnius and prevailed . . sisinnius sent proclus to be bishop at cyzicum , but the people refused him and chose another . . the orleance council , an . . can. . decreeth about ordaining bishops , qui praeponendus est omnibus ab omnibus eligatur : as of old , viz. let him be chosen by all , who is to be set over all . . an. . the concil . avern . decree c. . that none seek the sacred office of a bishop by votes but by merit , nor seem to get a divine office , rebus sed moribus : and that he ascend to the top of that eminent dignity by the election of all , and not by the favour of a few : and that in chusing priests there be the greatest care , because , &c. therefore another council at orleance decreed that a bishop must be ordained in his own church which he must oversee . . another orleance council decree , c. that none get a bishoprick by gifts or seeking , but with the will of the king , by the election of the clergy and the lay-people . and can. . and as the ancient canons have decreed , let none be made bishop to an unwilling people ( or without the peoples consent ) nor let the people or the clergy be inclined to consent , by the oppression of persons in power ( a thing not lawful to be spoken . ) but if it be otherwise done , let the bishop be for ever deposed , &c. . i have formerly cited pope gregory i. his express decrees herein . . clodov●us his council at cabilone renewed the old decree , that all ordination of bishops be null , which was otherwise made than by the election of the com-provincials , the clergy and the citizens . . the general council called quinosextum , an . . decreed can. . that bishops and priests ordained with money , and not by examination and election , be deposed : though the same council by humane wisdom decreed , can. . that whatsoever alteration the imperial power maketh on any city , the ecclesiastical order also follow it . the way by which humane order overthrew divine order and institutions . . and by the way you may conjecture of the chusers by the council of toletane , an . . under king egica , where the king preaching to the bishops ( as was then needful ) decreeth , that every parish that hath twelve families have their proper governour . but if it have less than twelve , it shall be part of another's charge . . k. pepin ( who advanced the pope to advance himself , and added the sword to excommunication by mischievous decree , yet ) altered not the common way of election , and decreeth that every city ( like our corporations ) have a bishop , and none meddle in another's diocess without his consent . . the choice of pope constantine , the humiliation of stephen , and many such instances shew that even at rome still the people had the greatest hand in chusing the pope ; and that to communicate with a bishop irregularly chosen , was taken for a great sin . and when charles mag. was gratified as to the papal chair , it was but by making him a necessary confirmer . . the french constitutions , l. . c. . objected about this by baronius and binius , say , not being ignorant of the sacred canons , we consented to the ecclesiastick orders , to wit , that bishops be chosen by the election of the clergy and people , according to the statutes of the canons , out of their own diocess , without respect of persons or rewards , for the merit of their life , and their gift of wisdom , that by example and word they may every way profit those that are under them . . the old canons gathered by pope adrian and sent to charles magn. recorded by canisius , depose a bishop , presbyter or deacon , guilty of theft , fornication or perjury . and can. . a bishop who obtaineth a church by the secular power , shall be deposed . and can. . that no one pray with hereticks or schismaticks : ex conc . sard. can. . a bishop that by ambition changeth his seat , shall not have so much as lay communion at his end : that no bishop be above three weeks in another city , nor above two weeks from his own church . can. . a bishop contradicted ( by opposers ) shall not after be ordained or purged by only three bishops , but by many . and can. . the people converted from heresie by another bishop , may be of his flock , without removing their parish dwelling where another is bishop . amongst the other canons against oppression , as one is , that no bishop judge any priest without the presence of his clergy , it being void if not so confirmed ; so another is against all foreign judgment , because men must be judged by those that are chosen by themselves and not by strangers . and none of the clergy must be condemned till lawful accusers be present , and the accused answer the charge . . the second general council at nice , though by servility they were for images , held to the old church-canons for elections , saying can. . every election of a bishop , priest or deacon , which is made by magistrates , shall remain void , by the canon which saith , if any bishop use the secular magistrates , to obtain by them a church , let him be deposed and separated , and all that communicate with him . how much more say these than my [ intolerable indiscretion ? ] i fear some will think that all this binds them to more separation than i am for . the can. forbids them to have two churches . can. . condemneth those to lex talionis , as unsufferably mad , that faultily drive any from the ministry , and segregate them from the clergy , or shut up the temples , forbidding god's worship . . by the way , a council at chalons under charles magn. finding some prelates setting on foot an oath of obedience to them , thus condemn it : it is reported of some brethren ( bishops ) that they force them that they are about to ordain , to swear that they are worthy , and will not do contrary to the canons , and will be obedient to the bishop that ordaineth them , and to the church in which they are ordained ; which oath , because it is very dangerous , we all ordain shall be forbidden ; ] which other councils after repeat , ( yet our bishops rest much on such an oath of obedience to them . ) . what the electing churches were may be partly conjectured from the concil . regiaticin . in canisius , can. . that the arch ▪ presbyters examine every master of a family particularly , and take account of their families and lives , &c. a council at soisons about . ( a presbyter by the king's command being ordained to the church of rhemes irregularly ) decree , that they that are made presbyters without examination by ignorance , or by dissimulation of the ordainers , when they are known shall be deposed , because the catholick church defendeth that which is irreprehensible , &c. . an. . under lotharius rennigius lugd. and others , at a council decreed , ( because that bad king had by imposing corrupted the clergy ) that because bishops were set over the cities that were untryed , and almost ignorant of letters , and unlike the apostolick prescript , script , by which means the ecclesiastical vigor is lost , they will petition the king that when a bishop was wanting , the canonical election by the clergy and the people may be permitted , that men of tryed knowledg and life , and not illiterate men , blinded by covetousness , may be set bishops over the flocks . . an. . pope nic. . is chosen by the emperour ludovicus consent , and by all the people . and he so far maketh the people self-separating judges , as to decree , tit. . c. . that none hear the mass of a priest whom he knoweth undoubtedly to have a concubine or sub-introduced woman . and can. . that by the canons he cannot have the honour of priesthood , that is faln into fornication . . an. , ( or thereabout ) one of the worst of popes at a council at rhemes , was constrained to confirm the old canon ; that no man be promoted to church government but with the election of the clerks and the people , &c. . an. . again a roman council forbidding all men to joyn with a fornicating priest , maketh them so far separating judges . . about an. . a council at rome reneweth the canon , nulling all ordinations made , aus pretio , precibus aut obsequio , or that are not made by the common consent of clergy and people ; for such enter not by christ , &c. . from hence the popes grew to usurp most of the power in chusing bishops to themselves by degrees , till they got councils to judg it heresie for emperours to claim so much as a confirming investiture . whence bloody wars rose . and it 's greatly to be noted that yet these emperours supposed the bishops elected by the clergy and people , and claimed but the said investiture , as is seen in the formula of pope paschals grant of investitures to them . . when they made princes investiture sacrilege ( and entring by them ) they so far made the people judges of priests and communion , as in a council at benevent . an . . sub vict. to decree , that if no catholick priest be there , it 's righter to persist without visible communion , and to communicate invisibly with the lord , than by taking it from an heretick to be separated from god. for what concord hath christ and belial ? and simoniacks are infidels . . but were good and bad bishops in all ages thus minded , or was it only popes ? i next add that it was one of the articles charged against wickliffe the reformer ( as before against wecelo , who contemned their excommunications ) that they that give over preaching or hearing gods word , for mens excommunications , are excommunicate , and in the day of judgment shall be judged traitors to christ . art. . in conc. const . reader , are we not in a hard strait between wickliffe and dr. stillingflect ? . the same is one of the articles against john hus , that men must not for excommunications give over preaching . we grant that they mean unjust ones . . this became one of the great controversies with the bohemians , against whom one of the four long orations were made at conc. basil . they would never yield that their chosen ministers should obey the silencers . . lastly , the romans themselves oft deereed , that a simoniacal election even of the pope is plainly null , and conferreth no right or authority to the elected ( though this certainly overthroweth the uninterruptedness of their own succession . ) and how popes were elected till the device of cardinals , is well known . § . . if all this be not enough to prove the constant consent of the christian churches down from the apostles for the necessity of the flocks consent to the relation of the bishop and pastors to them , let him that would have more read all that blondel hath produced , de jure plebis in regim . eccles . § . . i shall next prove the said necessity from the nature of the thing , the work and benefit , and the common nature , interest and reason of mankind , if more light will not put out the eyes of some unwilling men , that are loth to know what they cannot easily be ignorant of . and . propriety is in order of nature antecedent to regiment , which supposeth it , and is to order the use of it for common safety and good . . as a mans propriety in his members , children , acquisitions , is antecedent to regiment , so much more in his soul which is himself . . nature obligeth all to care for their lives , but yet those must sometime be hazarded for publick good . but the obligation to please god and obtain salvation and escape sin and hell , is so great , that no man is to pretend publick good or the will of man against it . . self-government ( as to power and obligation ) is antecedent to humane publick government in order of nature : and publick government doth not destroy it , but regulate it : and therefore is not for destruction but for edification . . the end of self-government is so much to please god and save our souls , that no man on pretence of publick government can disoblige us from this . . god hath in the fifth commandment , which setleth humane government and obedience , chosen the name of parents rather than princes , because parents government is antecedent to princes , and princes cannot take it from them , nor disoblige their children . but self-government is more natural than parents , and parents and princes must help it , but not destroy it . . when persons want natural capacity for self-government ( as infants and ideots and mad-men ) they are to be governed by force as bruits , being not capable of more . . family government being in order next to personal , princes or bishops have no right to overthrow it , ( at least except in part on slaves of whose lives they have absolute power : ) if the king impose wives , servants , and diet on all his subjects , they may lawfully chuse fitter for themselves if they can ; and at least may refuse unmeet wives and servants , and mortal or hurtful meats and drinks . . much more if princes and patrons will impose on all men , the bishops and pastors , to whose charge , care and pastoral conduct they must commit their souls , the people having the nearest right of choice , and strongest obligation , must refuse ( as discerning self-governing judges ) such whose heresie , negligence , ignorance , malignity , or treachery , is like either apparently to hazard them , or to deprive them of that pastoral help which they find needful for them , and they have right to as well as other men . . the gain or loss is more the patients than the imposers : it is their own souls that are like to be profited and saved by needful helps , or lost for want of them : and therefore it most concerns themselves , to know what helps they chuse . . if all the kings on earth command men to trust their lives to a physician who they have just cause to believe , is like to kill them , by ignorance , errour , or treachery , or to a pilot or boat-man that is like to drown them , they are not bound to obey such mandates . yea if they know an able faithful physician that is most like to cure them , they may chuse him before an unknown man , though the king be against their choice . . scripture and experience tell us , that god worketh usually according to the aptitude of means and instruments : and learned experienced physicians cure more than the ignorant , rash , and slothful ; and good scholars make their pupils more learned than the ignorant do . and skilful , able , experienced holy pastors , convert and edifie much more than ignorant and vicious men : and means must accordingly be chosen . . if the pastoral work skilfully and faithfully done , be needful , it must not be neglected whoever forbid it : if it be not needful , what is the church of england good for , more than infidels , or at least than moscovites ? and for what are they maintained by tythes , glebe , and all the dignities , honours and wealth they have ? and for what do men so much contend for them ? . it is natural to generate the like ; and for men to do and chuse as they are , and as their interest leadeth them . christ tells us how hard it is for a rich man to be saved , and how few such prove good . and the clergy themselves do not say that all the patrons in england are wise and pious : many parliaments have by our church-men been deeply accused : and most parliament men , i think , are patrons : others say , that most patrons not chosen to parliaments are worse . some preachers complain of great men for fornication , drunkenness , excess , idleness , yea , atheism or infidelity : if many or any be such , are they like to chuse such pastors as all godly men may trust in so great a case ? or would not such princes chuse such bishops ? . men are as able and as much obliged now to take heed to whose conduct they trust their souls , as they were in all former ages of the church , forecited . . the laws and bishops of england allow all men liberty to chuse what church and pastor , that conformeth , they please ; so they will but remove their dwellings into the parish which they affect . and in london thousands live as lodgers , and may easily go under whom they will chuse ; and if they like him not , may shift as oft as they please . . parish bounds are of much use for order : but order is for the thing ordered , and not against it : and parish bounds being of humane make , cannot justly be preferr'd before the needful edification and safety of mens souls , though such humane laws bind , where there are no greater obligations against them . . the law of keeping to parish-churches where we dwell , and the law that giveth patrons the choice of all the pastors , and princes of bishops , are of the same efficient power and strength . . casuists usually say ( even papists that are too much for papal power ) that humane laws bind not when they are against the end , the common good , especially against mens salvation . and a toletan council decreeth , that none of their canons shall be interpreted to bind ad culpam , but ad poenam , lest they cause mens damnation . and many casuists say , that penal laws bind only to do or suffer , and bearing the penalty satisfieth them , save as to scandal . . yet we still acknowledge all the right in princes and patrons before-mentioned , and that princes are bound to promote learning and piety , and so to see that due places , countenance and maintenance encourage faithful ministers , and that all the subjects have meet teachers , and submit to hear and learn ; and that they should restrain hereticks and soul-betrayers , from the sacred office-work ; and judg who are to be maintained , and who to be tolerated . . but this power is not absolute but bounded : and if on the pretence of it , they would betray the church and starve souls ( like the english canon that binds all from going to an able pastor at the next parish , from an ignorant unpreaching vicious reader , ) men are not bound to obey it , but to provide better for themselves ( unless materially , not formally for some time , when not obeying would do more hurt than good ; ) or as a man must forbear publick assemblies in a common plague-time . and so much to open the true reason of the case in hand . and paul's words to timothy , tim. . . tell me , this care is not unnecessary , take heed to thy self and to the doctrine , and continue in them ; for in doing this thou shalt both save thy self and them that hear thee . § . . ▪ come now to the doctor 's words , who p. . undertakes to prove , . that the main ground of the peoples interest was founded on the apostles canon [ a bishop must be blameless . ] ans . the word [ main ] may do him service , but no hurt to my cause . [ main ] signifieth not [ only : ] who doubts but the people were to discern the lives of chosen persons ? but ( without coming to the ballance , among many causes which is the main ) i have proved that there were more ; and among others , that christ and his apostles bid them take heed how they hear : beware of false prophets , and their leaven : beware of the concision . a man that is an heretick avoid . — bid them not good speed : let no man deceive you , — those that cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine ye have learned , avoid , — from such turn away . — is here no more than judging their lives ? § . . here he cometh to prove this even by cyprian's epistle against martial and basilides : i must not name his dealing with it , lest he say irail . but i may note , . that he saith , [ the force of what cyprian saith comes at last only to this giving testimony . ] answ . only here is more than main before . and though it was a matter of scandal that was before them , and therefore it is no wonder if nothing else be particularly spoken of ; yet sure these words signifie more than testimony . [ by publick judgment and testimony be approved worthy and meet . ] and to be sound in the faith , and apt to teach is some part of meetness . and [ because they chiefly have power either to chuse priests that are worthy , or refuse the unworthy . ] a chief chusing power of the worthy is more than a meer testimony of fact . again , [ that by the suffrage of the whole fraternity the episcopacy be delivered to him . ] suffrage is more than testimony of fact . and [ all they do sin who are defiled by the sacrifice of a prophane and unjust priest ] signifieth a dissenting power , or else separation were no duty . but he saith , this is the strongest testimony in antiquity for the peoples power . answ . a strange saying of so good an historian , who may easily know that the concurrent judgment of all the churches , their practice , and their canons , making the peoples consent ( and usually election ) necessary , was a far stronger testimony than one epistle . but to weaken this he saith , . it was in a case where a bishop had voluntarily resigned . answ . . what 's that to the general rule here asserted ? . was it voluntarily which they were adjudged to do ? but i find no mention of martial's voluntary resigning , but only basilides . . he saith [ another bishop was put in his place , not by the power of the people , &c. ] answ . . this was before said [ that the people might give them power ? no. ] as if he would have the reader think that we hold the people give the power , which i have so oft disproved . but it 's his advantage to talk to many men at once , that he may say , some of you said it . but if distinction were not a crime , i would distinguish between giving the power , and concurring with other causes to give a receptivity to the person that must have it : the peoples consent is a causa partialis , of capacity and receptivity . . but what signifie these words [ the ordination of our collegue sabinus by the suffrage of the whole fraternity , and by the judgment of the bishops , &c. ] is not this as much power as we plead for ? . are not you the author of the defence of b. laud , and say , that christ gave the keys to peter as the representative of the whole church ? and have you now said more against me or your self ? i am not of that mind . . he saith , they had the judgment of a whole council for deserting him . answ . yes , for deserting them both ? and that council told them god had fore-determined in his word what men must or must not be bishops , and it was god rather than they that judged it and bound them to obey ; and that the power was chiefly in the people to chuse and refuse &c. ] did you think you had helpt your cause by saying , it was a whole council that was for what we say ? . he saith , it was for idolatry and blasphemy by his own confession . answ . which mean you by [ his ] when they were two ? neither of them were otherwise idolaters than as libellaticks ( who to save their lives suffered other men to subscribe their names , thinking it was not their own deed ; like some that i have heard of , that thought conformity perjury , &c. but let a friend bribe an officer to subscribe their names and give them a certificate . ) and baslides blasphemy was in his sickness in terrour of conscience and perhaps phrensie . . he saith all st. cyprian's proof is , that the people were most concerned to give testimony of life , &c. this is answered already . § . . his next is , the people on this assuming the power of elections , caused great disturbance and disorders in the church ; where he goeth over some few of the many instances , which i have at large recited , at antioch , rome , alexandria , &c. answ . . and yet for all these disorders , the church deprived not the people of their priviledge . . but how fallaciously is this urged ? i have fully elsewhere opened to the reader , how the aspiring prelates seeking patriarchates and bishopricks became as so many captains at war , and gathered monks , clergy and people to strive and fight for them ; and now he layeth this on the people ? as if the common souldiers and not the generals were the cause of the war ? but of this i have said enough . § . . he saith , to prevent this many bishops were made without the choice of the people , and canons made to regulate elections . answ . crastily said ! he saith not [ without the consent of the people , ] but [ the election . ] and he saith not that the canons took away either consenting or electing suffrages , but that they regulated them : yes , they over and over confirmed them . § . . he saith , a● alexandria the election belonged to the twelve presbyters . answ . they are hard put to it when they are put to fly to that testimony which maketh presbyters the makers of bishops . hierome and eutychius alexand. tell you that the presbyters chose and made the bishops as the army doth a general : which made arch-bishop usher tell king charles the first , that the presbyters at alexandria did more than ordain presbyters , for they made bishops ( as he told me himself . ) but . we never denied that the com-provincial bishops ordinarily afterwards ordained them , . nor that the presbyters chose them . did the doctor think this was to the purpose ? but . doth he think that the presbyters choice excludeth the peoples when it is a known thing that the canons and custom constantly conjoyned them ? . will he conclude that when ever history nameth not the peoples choice , they are left out ? . will he perswade us when the people are not the chusers , that they are not necessarily the consenters or refusers ? i will add one more proof to all before-mentioned . it is impossible , ex naturâ rei , that the pastoral office should be exercised on dissenters : therefore their consent is necessary . a patient may be drencht like a horse , and cram'd like fatted fowl , and so may have a physician against his will. but a soul cannot use pastoral help unwillingly . . he cannot unwillingly be baptized : . nor unwillingly joyn in publick prayer and praise with the church . . nor unwillingly confess sin . . nor unwillingly crave or receive ministerial counsel . . nor unwillingly receive the lords supper . . nor unwillingly desire the pastors visitation and prayers in his sickness . . nor unwillingly seek and receive absolution , &c. i mean , he can do none of this that doth not consent . and is he a pastor to such men that refuse all this ? it 's a shame to think that learned men should bend their wits to prove that the sun is not light . did the church at alexandria ever after chuse their bishops , and not before ? all the alexandrian church-history tells us that the people there indeed exercised too great power , after this , no place on earth more tumultuous and unruly : and yet no place where the bishops were more secular , and more assumed the power of the sword : but the people chose them . . and if it had been true that the choice lay only and absolutely on the presbyters , how came they to have so long two bishops and two churches , besides the arians ? . and he wisely overlooketh the question , who chose those pres byters that were the chusers of the bishop ? § . . he next instanceth , ex euseb . l. . c. . in germanion and gordius ordained by the bishops in narcissus place at hierusalem . answ . . his argument , if any , must be this : eusebius saith , the bishops ordained them , not mentioning the peoples consent or choice : ergo , their consent or choice was not used . how easily might he have known that we would deny the consequence ? doth any of us deny that the bishops were the ordainers of bishops ? . and even the words of eusebius confute him , saying , that when narcissus shewed himself again , the brethren ( no doubt the laity ) intreated him to enjoy his bishoprick again . § . . his next instance is , [ severus bishop of milevis , in his life time appointed his successour , acquainting only the clergy with it : and augustine prevented the peoples disturbance and got them to receive him . ] answ . thus it is some mens work to confute themselves . it 's a known thing that the peoples right was so universally and unquestionably acknowledged , that the canons forbad any bishop to nominate and chuse his successour , lest it should forestall them and prejudice their choice . and why else was the peoples resistance feared ? and what did austin but perswade them to consent ? and why doth he mention that the people consented and received him , if they had no consenting vote , or right on just cause to dissent ? it would be an odd argument to prove , that a woman had no power of choice in marriage , because one was put to perswade her to consent ? which proveth the necessity of her consenting . § . . he next tells us of austin's own nomination of his successour eradius . answ . more and more against himself . all that men do is in danger of miscarrying by their faultiness : wise men would do their best to prevent this , and the peoples consent being of necessity , they sometimes will pre-engage them ; so austin's predecessour thought it the craftiest way in his life-time , to take in austin for his coadjutor or fellow bishop ( two in a city ) lest the people should miss of so excellent a man : but this being against the canons , austin confesseth that he did it ignorantly , and disowneth it . yet lest the people ( who grew more and more faulty ) should mischuse , he in his life time commendeth to them eradius , that their love to him might procure their acceptance . doth not this prove that their choice or consent was necessary ? reader , if the doctor can perswade thee that the country have not the choice of parliament men , because some are commended or named to them , thy yielding is too easie . § . . the next is the story of paul the novatian out of socrat. l. . ( who hath but seven ) paulus was advising his clergy to chuse his successour ; they told him their fear of their own disagreement , and to prevent it , intreated him to nominate one . he made them promise to stand to it , and named mercianus in a sealed paper . doth not this instance prove , that the bishop had not power to chuse one of himself ? and was not his fear of the disagreement of the clergy ? and doth any of this disprove the peoples consenting right ? and would the doctor perswade us that even the novatians excluded them . § . . he tells us , that the greek canonists think that the council of nice took away all the power of election of bishops from the people , and gave it to the bishops of the province . ] answ . . in all reason he should have cited those canonists ; for it 's strange that yet their following customs and canons should say the contrary . . there is not a word in the canon cited about election , but only ordination [ that all the bishops in the province should ordain a bishop ; but when that cannot be , there shall be at least three present , and three more consenting by writing . ] and what 's this to the case the peoples election or consent ? § . . yet he bringeth more against himself , viz. can. . concil . antioch . which is , that if one be ordained bishop and go not to the parish , because the people refuse him , he shall have the honour and office of a bishop , not troubling the peace of the church ; ] which plainly saith what i have oft said , that the people have no power to hinder any from being ministers or bishops indefinitely in the church universal , but only to judge whether he shall be theirs : whereas the ordainers have power in both cases ; and usually were the first chusers , though the people had a refusing or accepting power , as there appeared cause . § . . next he addeth more for what i plead , that basil ordaining one first , perswades the senate and people to accept him : adding [ their way then was , if the people did agree on a person to be bishop , to petition the metropolitan and synod , who had the full power to allow or refuse him . ] answ . is not this a strong proof that the people had no such agreeing or chusing power , because the metropolitan and synod also had their vote ? what need basil perswade them to accept him , when they had no power to refuse ? did basil or any synod say , all people are bound to accept those whom we chuse , be they what they will , and not to try them and judge themselves . § . . and here i desire the reader to remember , . that we take the chief trust to be by christ committed to the ordainers for taking in fit men , and keeping out the unfit : they being the only judges ( with the person himself ) who shall be a minister of christ in the church universal ; and neither magistrate or people have a power to chuse or refuse them . . that the universal church being one body of christ , though ministers have not such a charge of each others flocks as the particular bishops of them have , yet are they bound to give them all the help they can ( as neighbour families to help each other : ) and therefore to offer to vacant churches the best they know , and perswade them to accept them , when they are at a loss or need advice . . the people are bound to reverence the judgment of neighbour pastors herein , and not causlesly to oppose . . when the people have chosen ( or they and the clergy , ) if the person were not before ordained , the ordainers still are judges for their own act . . it was not usual to ordain sine titulo , and the ordainers did two things at once , . judge absolutely who shall be a minister of christ ? . judge with the church to which he was ordained ( elders and people ) who was fit for that church , and should be theirs : and a threefold lock was safe . . by all this it appears that all the doctors talk against the peoples unfitness to discern who are sound or heretick , fit or unfit , is to no purpose : and that if unmeet men are ministers or bishops , the fault is ten times more in the ordainers than in the people : seeing it is not the people but the ordainers that are trusted to take into the ministry indefinitely , but only among many to judg who shall be theirs , supposing them either before ministers , or next to be made such by the ordainers . and doth the doctor think that the judgment of all parties is not as sure as of one alone ? or that my refusing a physician is any wrong to his licensers or him ? § . . the laodicean canon cited by him speaketh for me as the rest : ( did he think i wanted his help to cite more for my self ? ) who doubteth that the people being not the sole judges , if they took in an un-ordained or un-approved man without the synods consent , it was void ? ( by the way , do either synods or people ( the old chusers ) chuse our bishops or priests ? ) § . . yet more for me , he citeth the chalced. council , turning out bassianus and stephanus from ephesus , two men that strove and sought for the bishoprick unto blood in the church , and both pleaded they were lawfully called by clergy , and people , ( and yet had the people no right ? ) but they were both proved to be violent intruders , and another chosen . and who doubts but a great general council had the greatest power then ? § . . next he tells us of a law of justinian , that made the clergy and better sort of citizens chusers . ( and indeed nazianzene once wisht the more religious sort were chusers : ) but doth not this prove still the peoples power , though so long after by an emperour the poorer were so restrained ? i will not stay to search the book , but take it as he citeth it . § . . but his next seemeth to be downright against us , can. . conc. laodic . but it is not so : crab hath two translations : the first saith , quod non sit permittendum turbis electiones eorum facere qui sunt ad sacerdotium provehendi : it is not sufferable to chuse by tumults : ergo , not for the people to chuse at all , no nor dissent . i deny the consequence . to forbid disorder is not to forbid choice or free consent . § . . his next proof is nic. conc. . c. . which he saith , restrained the election only to bishops . answ . such dealing tells us that protestant doctors are not to be taken for infallible no more than papists ; i cited the canon before : the doubt is whether it drive us not to more separation than we are willing of , by nullifying our bishops and priests calling . it is [ every election of a bishop , priest or deacon , which is made by magistrates , shall remain void , by the canon which saith , if any bishop use the secular magistrates to obtain by them a church , let him be deposed and separated , and all that communicate with him . ] doth not the doctor unhappily chuse his testimonies ? had it not been better to have past over this council ? where now is all the church of england by this canon , if bishops coming in by the king , and parsons by the patrons be all void and null , and the people separated that communicate with them ? such events are the fate of an ill cause . and the next canon doth not amend their matter , which calleth it madness for gain or any affection of his own , to drive any from the ministry , or segregate one of his clergy , he shall have lextalionis , and his work shall fall on his own head . § . . he adds , [ which was confirmed by following councils in the greek church , as can. . const . against photius , and the people are there excluded with an anathema , so far were popular elections grown out of request in the eastern empire . ] answ . . had this been true , it would not much move me , that these two councils that set up image-worship , and shewed much wickedness , should contradict the apostolical and catholick constitutions and practice . but , . i thank the bishops , i am not able to buy the french volumes of the councils , and therefore what is there i know not : and my own library is ruined to avoid their agents distraining it for my preaching : and doctor james and others have taught me to prefer the oldest editions of the councils , and to take heed how i trust the later and the jesuits pretended manuscripts . i have now none but crab ( who medleth not with this ) and binnius ; and in binnius there are but canons in the last action , and in the antecedent fragmenta : and no such thing as a th canon to be found : nor is there in the th any such thing as the doctor citeth . . but if there were , if it were but the confirmation of the . nicene canon , it were much against the doctor 's cause , and nothing for him . . but unhappily here also he sends us to find out much against him . for besides that the th can. in fragm . condemneth requiring subscriptions to stick to the patriarch ( though they were not yet oaths of obedience ) the th canon is indeed the same with those forecited , viz. that the apostolical and synodical canons flatly forbidding promotions and consecrations of bishops , by the power and command of princes , we concordantly define , and sentence , that if any bishop receive the consecration of such a dignity , by the craft and tyranny of princes , he shall be altogether deposed , as one that desired and consented to have the gift of god by the will of carnal sense , and from men and by men . i suppose this is the doctor 's canon which deposeth all the english bishops , unhappily cited . and the can. . requiring princes to honour bishops , and condemning the bishops that debase themselves to go far from their church to meet a prince , and that will alight to them from their horses , and that will basely kneel to them , or will come to their tables , unless with purpose freely to reprove them ] expoundeth both these bishops hearts and words . and so doth can. . which condemneth such as come not to synods because the prince forbiddeth them , and saith , that princes have no right so much as to be spectators of the matters which at synods fall out among priests . and here indeed an anathema is pronounced against the obstinately disobedient bishops , that will not obey their patriarch before the forbidding prince . ] and doth this meddle with the peoples recipient power ? which is only levelled against princes and lay patrons impositions , and deposeth the english clergy and church ? the same is repeated , can. . ( which it's likely is that which he meant ) viz. that according to the old canons the promotions and consecrations of bishops be made by the choice and decree of the college , and that no lay princes or men in power ( potentu● ) do mix themselves in the election or promotion of patriarchs , metropolitans , or any bishop ; lest hence there be inordinate confusion or contention , specially seeing that it is not convenient that any potentates or other lay men have power in such matters , but rather attend with silence . — and if any secular prince or potentate ( men in power ) or lay men of other dignity , strive against the common and consonant and canonical election of the ecclesiastical order , let him be anathema , till he consent and obey in this , which the church shall shew its will in , in the election and ordination of its proper bishops . here , . the churches will is made the determiner of the election and ordination of their proper bishop . . the canonical order is established ( which ever required the clergies and peoples consent . ) . nothing of the laity but acts of princes power and dignity is excluded : . and hereby our english clergy deposed . the doctor had been better to have let alone his history and antiquities . § . . his th note is , christian magistrates did interpose in this matter as they judged expedient . answ . hitherto he hath produced the testimonies of councils and bishops against magistrates choice or medlings ( mistakingly thinking it had been against the flocks receptive power ) and now he will prove that magistrates interposed , as you shall hear . § . . and first [ so constantine did in the church of antioch . soz. l. . c. . answ . what did he ? he motioned a bishop to end the difference ; and who opposeth that ? § . . next [ constantius put by two that the people strove about , and set up euseb . nicom . answ . an unhappy testimony : socrates whom he citeth thus relateth it , [ alexander dying commended paulus to the chusers as the fittest ; but if they would have a man of prowess to chuse macedonius : ] the people were divided in the choice , and made a greater stir than formerly ▪ but the orthodox carried it for paulus against the hereticks that were for macedonius . constantius being the first persecuting arian emperour , was offended , and got a council to depose paulus , and he got in his great favourite eusebius nicomed . the head of all the arians . doth not this shew , . that the people were chusers , . that the emperour deposed him not , but by a pack● council of bishops ( which we know had a deposing power ? ) . that this is recorded as an act of two hereticks , a prince and prelate , wronging the church . § . . saith he , [ when eusebius was dead , the orthodox party again chose paulus , and constantius sends hermogenes to drive him out by force . answ . . i doubt he will next cite valens , gensericus , hunnericus , &c. for murdering and persecuting the bishops . was an arians tyranny , a note of right ? . the story ( in socrates cited by him ) is this : euseb . the arian being dead , the people again went to the choice , and chose as before : but some were kill'd in the tumult . the arian emperour sends hermogenes to force out paulus the chosen bishop : the people tumultuously fight for their bishop and priviledge , and set hermogenes lodgings on fire and kill him . the emperour comes from antioch , amerceth the city , and puts paul out , and yet is angry that macedonius was chosen by the other part without his advice ; but consenteth to him . . doth not this shew that the people were the chusers ? . and even their murderous tumult moved neither an heretick prince nor the bishops to deny their right of choice . . murder and such violence was a fair colour for more severity . . yet all this was by a heretick noted as an act against the church . . and all this was but about a patriarch , and not an ordinary bishop , and that at his imperial seat , where it concerned the emperours to have most regard . . and i told you that princes are the judges whom they should tolerate , whoever have the choice . § . . he adds , when athanasius was restored , constantius declared it was by the decree of the synod and by his consent . answ . . if he meant here to intimate the exclusion of the peoples consent or choice , he could scarce have named in history an instance more against himself , than that of athanasius , who thereby was brought in , upheld and oft restored . . this history tells you the arian emperour was forced to this consent , to avoid a threatned war from his brother . . this was not to make him bishop , but to call him to his flock from his banishment . . and doth not all this confirm what i plead for , as to the peoples , synods and princes several parts ? § . . nectarius case is next , about whom historians disagree , but the most credible say , that the council named nectarius with some others in a paper , and in honour to an excellent emperour , bid him take which he would : but all this excluded not the peoples part ( who would not have left gregory but by his own request ) and were glad to accept one from such a council and prince . § . . next he saith out of sozomen , that the people and clergy chose chrysostome , and arcadius consented ; and then he affro●teth sozomen with palladius . answ . . palladius denyeth nothing that i plead for , but only tells us of the emperours premotion and endeavours , ( in his royal city about a patriarch ) to prevent the division of the people : nor is palladius credit to be equalled to sozomen's herein , much less preferred . . socrates the most credible of all in this , saith , l. . c. . [ it seemed good to them to send for john chrys . — wherefore not long after , arcadius with the general consent both of priests and people sent for him . ] and did not the doctor think i needed help by such citations ? § . . the choice of nestorius was just such another ▪ the people had no reason to deny consent to one out of chrysostom's monastery , nominated by so good an emperour ; who was judge whom to tolerate in his royal city : but both he and they after repented of the choice . § . . his last instance is theodosius getting in proclus before maximianus was buried . answ . reader , . all this is a good emperours care about one patriarch of his own city to avoid division , and nothing to the common choice of bishops . . the true case socrates ( cited ) thus describeth : the people were the chusers : they were for proclus ; but some adversaries objected a canon , that a bishop might not be removed from one church to another , and he being a bishop already they could not have him : socrates pleadeth for the dispensableness of this canon ; but the people were fain to take maximianus . the emperour being for dispensing with that canon , and gratifying the people that had before declared themselves for proclus , did not himself bring him in , but got celestine bishop of rome to write to cyril of alexand. john bishop of antioch and rufus bishop of thessalonica to satisfie them to do it ; and so got proclus in . what is this against the peoples right ? these be all the doctor 's instances on this point . § . . his th note is , [ on the alteration of the government of christendom there was greater reason for the magistrates interposing than before : because of princes endowing churches , the royal assent was fit , — though a bishop was chosen by the clergy and people . ] answ . who would strive against so friendly a disputer , that goeth on to say the same as i ? when i doubt his party will say that he prevaricateth . § . . but he saith , the royal power overthrowing the papal , reserved the power of nomination of bishops as part of the prerogative : which being allowed in frequent parliaments , the consent of the people is swallowed up therein , since their acts oblige the whole nation . answ . . i see we yet understand not how much of the irenicon is retracted , and whether he yet hold not that no form of church-government is of divine institution ; or we be not bound to be for that which king and parliament are for . but we undertake to prove the contrary , and have done it . . what if parliaments gave the king power to chuse all folks wives and husbands , physicians , tutors , diet , trade , &c. our right were not swallowed up by this , though it were called the king's prerogative . much less where gods institution and the very law of nature have forestalled them , and neither god nor man gave them that swallowing power . . i oft answered , that tythes and temples may be more in the magistrates power , than pastoral relation and power of the keys . § . . he saith , p. . that the inferiour right of patronage is justly thought to bear equal date with the settlement of christianity in peace and quietness . answ . . it was scarce ever setled in peace and quietness to this day : much less during the saxons heptarchy . . i have proved that the universal church was far from making lay patrons the chusers . . it is less lawful to sell our souls into slavery than our bodies : and if our ancestors had said to some rich men , you shall all chuse our pastors and we will stand to your choice , if you will build us temples and give them lands ; it would no more bind us to stand to their bargain , than if they had said , give us house and land , and you shall chuse our diet , wives , physicians , &c. we say if your kindness be turned to our hurt , take your house and land , or give it to whom you will : we will not sell our souls and church-rights at such a price . § . . his th conclusion is , that things being thus setled — there is no ground for the people to resume the liberty of elections . answ . . i need not over and over repeat the answer to his reasons . . if the liberty of election be not resumed ( which was not that which i pleaded for , as he would all along insinuate ) yet the liberty o ▪ free consent or refusal may be necessary . § . . reader , again , the true case is like this following : parents have a ruling power to chuse wives and husbands for their children : guardians have much power over orphans in it . magistrates may make laws to restrain unlawful marriages . children are bound in these cases to obey parents , unless they chuse to their apparent hurt or danger ; and to obey guardians and magistrates in their proper laws . but : it is for all this no marriage till both parties consent . . and all the said power over them is limited , and but directive and not destructive to their own consenting power . even so in our case ; . the ordainers are the first judges , and have a power like parents , and none should be received against their wills , unless they would betray the church . . the magistrates may make ordering restraining laws , that no unworthy person shall be tolerated : . a limited power of nomination may be left to patrons , as guardians , who have power to help the churches , but none to hurt ; much less to ruine them ▪ . but it is not a church related as pastor and flock , till both consent . these things are evident truth , though some would bury it in a heap of words . § . . i would also if i could have drawn the doctor to resolve me this doubt ; whether the power of parents and husbands , or of patrons , yea or princes be greater , in the choice of food , physick , and so of a tutor , a pastor or a particular church communion . and if a parent or husband say , i command you to hear and communicate with such a pastor and congregation , and the patron say the contrary , yea , or the prince or law , which is to be obeyed ? and to whom this family government most belongeth ? and why father and mother rather than prince and priests are named in the fifth commandment ? § . . p. . he reciteth my reasons , why parliaments cannot take away our free receptive consent , and he again feigneth that i say all this for the peoples chusing power , yet confesseth i deny not the magistrates or patrons power of their own gift . ( the case of sacrilege i leave to their consciences . ) § . . p. . but saith he , anabaptists , quakers , and all may pretend a care of their souls , and so leave the minister only the temple and tythes . answ . . and anabaptists and quakers will have a care of their souls , when you have said and done all you can against it : a prison will not overcome it . . so turks , socinians , papists , ( or anabaptists if you will ) when they get into power , may pretend that they are fitter to be trusted with mens souls , than men with their own : and so prelates may say : but is nothing true that men can abuse and misapply ? and to me it is something , though it should be nothing to you , . that nature obligeth and disposeth every man more to care for his own soul , than it doth the patron to care for others . . that many hundred or thousand men are not all so like to mistake and miscarry about their own souls , as one patron is that is far from their hearts . . that it is a matter more dangerous to trust ▪ thousands in one hand than in many ( as it would be in a storm to put all into one boat . ) if that man miscarry he endangereth multitudes : if another man miscarry it is but for one . . to have a self-saving power , and to have a self-destroying power , differ ( with men that hate not distinction . ) so little can a man know what we say by this doctors answers , that a stranger would think by him that we were quite of another mind . i never said quakers or any others may have whom they will : if they chuse men uncapable , the neighbour bishops or the clergy may admonish them , and renounce his communion ; and the magistrate may restrain him and refuse to tolerate an intolerable man : and yet the people ought not to accept an uncapable man offered by bishops or patrons ; no nor a man next to uncapable when they need and may have much better . many negatives are safe . § . . he saith , the prophane have right to their own souls , and to the care of them , and therefore are equally concerned with others ( to chuse . ) answ . it is sad with the church when they need to be saved from such reasonings of their great teachers . . a right to care for their souls giveth no man right to chuse men for others souls , to do that which they will not have done for their own . the question is , whether that man will communicate with the church on christs terms ? he refuseth and will not ( else he ought not to be refused . ) and shall he that refuseth communion chuse one to give it others , because he hath a soul himself ? had the neighbour heathens and hereticks of old power to chuse bishops for the church , while they refused to be of the church themselves ? shall he that will not be of the society chuse for the society ? . we distinguish between what a man may be forced to , and what not . he may not be forced to the great gift of sacramental remission and communion , because no unwilling person hath right to it : but an ignorant person may be forced as a catechumen or hearer , to hear what can be said for his conviction : for truth may conquer the unwilling . but none on this pretense can hinder the church from hearing its own pastors , nor force men to be the ordinary auditors of mahometans , hereticks or heathens . § . . p. . he again tragically exclaims of me , on the old false supposition , that i make the people the sole chusers , and not only plead for their free negative vote ( though chusing also , but not alone , was the old way ; ) and here tells us of the tumults that would follow . answ . . so they would if the people chose in france , spain , italy : and yet i would they did . no humane actions are free from inconveniencies ; which are not to be cured with a mischief . . let him name me ten places that have suffered so deeply by the peoples choice , as i can tell him of ten thousand that have done by the choice of prelates , patrons and princes , and i will confess my errour . it was not by the peoples choice that all preaching was put down in moscovy : it is not the people that have this many hundred years chosen all the popish bishops , mass-priests , &c. in italy , and most of the roman church , even in spain , france , bavaria , &c. . i told him , but had no answer , that not only the innes of court , but also black fryars , aldermanbury , and such other places as have chosen their own teachers , have ( peaceably ) had as happy a succession of learned , godly , able pastors , as any place in london or in england . . it 's known by experience that learning and great worth doth as light so reveal it self to humane nature , that usually most of those that are loth to be holy themselves , would have a saint and an able man. . doth he think in his conscience that all the patrons in england are liker to be judicious , and free from solicitations , favour and respect of persons , than the majority of the communicants of such churches ? . if the parsons first admit great numbers of profane , and wicked men to be communicants , and then tell us how unfit these men are to chuse : they do but condemn themselves . § . . p. . he tells us we do but say , we judge , we think , &c. the things unlawful , but for particular arguments to prove them unlawful , he finds none . answ . if this be true , then they that never found our arguments never answered them . ( if it be not true , it is not well . ) then you here , and mr. falkener , fulwood , durel , &c. have not yet answered any of our arguments . remember this . . though i did not argue , but name the things in my first plea , you and others took it for arguing ; and we ever craved leave to do it . . is it true indeed , that there are no arguments , in our writings , . and . with the bishops , nor any in my book of concord , or treatise of episcopacy , nor in my old disputations of church-government , nor in any other mens books these eighteen years ? i doubt the angry bishops will think that in my treatise of episcopacy there is some sort of argument ; and that my book against sacril . desertion of the ministry hath some : and that an apology for our preaching ( now in the press ) hath some . but if there be none , accuse us of none . chap. x. of the imposed use of the cross in baptism , and denying baptism to the refusers . § . . page . he cometh to our [ charge against the church ] ( though he never found any arguments as aforesaid . ) and i. why doth he silently balk the chief things which i had named ? will this satisfie conscience ? will excusing some things make others lawful ? ii. as to what he saith for the cross , i have so fully answered it twice to mr. cheney , and once to the impleader , that i am loth to repeat all again . in short , . he saith the church intends it not [ for a sign of immediate dedication . ] answ . . what is the medium ? . what if it were not immediate ? . can it be more immediate than in the very present dedicating act , to use the sign and expressing the dedicating signification ? — . the words of the canon are , [ to dedicate them by that badge to his service , whose benefits bestowed on them in baptism the name of the cross doth represent . ] and after [ the church of england accounteth it an honourable badge whereby the infant is dedicated to the service of him that dyed on the cross . ] and the service is named [ christianity in practice , ] to fight under his banner , &c. . he saith , [ in baptizing the minister acts by authority derived from christ , but at crossing he speaks in the name of the church , [ we receive this child , &c. ] answ . . it 's meet it should be so , that christ's sacraments be used by christ's authority , and mens by mens . . but i hope this is but a quibble ; and that notwithstanding the word [ we , ] the minister as christ's minister , and in his name saith , [ we receive this child , ] when even the absolved are to be received by christ first , and then by the church . i will not else aggravate the ill consequences . § . . he before saith , [ was the cross a dedicating sign to god , or a declarative sign to men ? ] answ . the canon saith expresly twice , [ to dedicate them by this badge to his service — ] and [ an honourable badge whereby the infant is dedicated to his service . ] and the rubrick which we must subscribe , refers us to the canon for the true sense and reason of the crossing . . is baptism and the lords supper a sign to god , or to man ? it is a sign to man for god : god knoweth not by signs , but instituteth signs for humane use . it is to dedicate them to god's service . § . . he saith , [ it represents the duty and not the grace . ] answ . . the words are , [ to his service , whose benefits bestowed on them in baptism , the name of the cross doth represent . ] are the benefits so bestowed no graoe ? or is representing no representing ? or shall we believe the doctor against the church ? or is this the kind of conformity that he would teach us , by denying what we subscribe to ? . sure the cross of christ with his dying on it , exprest also in the words of the canon , is grace . to represent or signifie christ dying on the cross ( which are the words and use ) is immediately to represent or signifie the very grace of redemption it self . . to be listed under christ as the captain of our salvation , and to be received into the congregation of christs flock , to fight under his banner , &c. are all great grace . . the moral operation on the soul which the preface of the liturgy ascribes to the ceremonies , is grace to be wrought by them . . to make a common symbol or badge of christianity , solemnly obliging as a covenanting sign , by which they must be distinguished from infidels , and this even at our first covenanting with christ , is to make a sacrament in the old sence . what was the souldiers sacramentum militare more , from which the church seems to have borrowed the name ? the oath was obliging ; the colours or cingulum was obliging and a signifying badge : the good received was the honour , relation and hope of future pay or preferment upon performance . and is not all this in ours ? . if you have wit strong enough to justifie all this humane addition to christs great institution , must all men be compelled to practise as you and such others judge , because you think they do not confute you ? who gave you or such others right to silence , reject from christendom , &c. all such as are not herein of your mind ; even when you deny what your canon expresly saith ? § . . he saith , it addeth nothing to baptism which is compleat before . answ . what 's this to our question ? it adds another sacrament to baptism : the lords supper is another sacrament of the same covenant added to perfect baptism by christ ; and the cross by men . § . . but all the difficulty is thus removed ( he thinks ) and by the foresaid quibble of [ i baptize ] and [ we receive . ] answ . difficulties are easilier removed with some men , than with others . . he dare not say that the minister speaks not as from christ , when-ever he saith [ we ] in the plural number . . doubtless it is first christs act , and then the churches to receive the baptized into the flock of christ : and the minister herein first speaketh christs act and then the churches . . the words [ we receive ] him , goeth before the crossing and is named especially as part of the ministration of baptism , being its immediate effect . and what a dangerous invention is it to say that the minister here speaketh not from christ but the church , in receiving in those dedicated to him ? . and he will make us a hard task of it , to know when the priest speaks as god's minister , and when as the peoples minister or mouth ? § . . he brings us the instance of one after baptism , engaging himself in the independent church covenant by holding up his hand . answ . . it is supposed that the covenant which he mentioneth is not the covenant of christianity , but ( that supposed ) a consent or promise to live in the relation and duty of a christian member of that particular flock . and this is much like a covenant between a christian man and wife , tutor and pupil : and as men may make particular contracts , they may make particular signs of them , ( as is the ring and taking hands in marriage ; the crowning of a christian king , &c. ) but if you suppose the independant covenant to repeat also and contain the covenant of christianity it self as the first part , then that which is required is but signified consent : and as all christians renew their consent at each eucharist sacramentally , so do they frequently by word and deed , and all due signification of consent . nature and custom of humane converse have made words and gestures signifiers of consent : but sacraments and solemn badges of this nature signifie by institution of the inventer or imposer . the sin lyeth in arrogating christs prerogative , and accusing his laws of insufficiency . if christ ( by his act and spirit ) had not separated one day in seven for the commemoration of his resurrection , he had not told us that this is his own work as legislator . but now he hath separated one day , if man will make a law that another day also of the week shall be separated to the same use , it is as much as to say , . we have authority to make such laws as christ made . . and to amend his law by this addition . for if it had been fit to be made , there was the same reason then for christ to have separated two days . so is it in this case . if christ had made no sacraments , we might more have doubted whether he took it for his proper work : but where he hath made two , to make more of the same nature , to me seemeth too bold : he could have made the sacrament of the dedicating cross if he would have had it . if our bishops should command us to say we believe christs resurrection , or to stand up to signifie it , to avoid confused noise , we refuse it not : but if they would make a law that none shall be christened that will not let the priest put him into a coffin or grave and take him out again to represent the resurrection , i think it fafest to deny obedience to such arrogant usurpation . § . . he confesseth , it belongs to christ only to appoint the means of conveying his own grace . answ . i have before proved that the cross is by this church appointed as such a means , and named the grace and conveyance . § . . he saith , [ though it belong to the king to make the badge or symbol of his own subjects , yet every nobleman may give a distinct livery without treason . ] answ . true : and this opens the case . a badge of the kings subjects is not the same thing , with the badge of a subjects servant : but the cross is not the badge of a humane subordinate contract or relation ( as city covenants , or pastoral particular contracts , &c. ) but of christianity it self , and of the subjects of christ as such . § . . p. . he saith , is our worship directed to it or may we kneel before it , as mr. b. allows men may do before a crucifix ? answ . but if this be not true , or be a deceiving intimation , you should not allow your self to write it . my words are in christ . direct . q. . p. . when i had named cases in which an image may not be used , ( and among the rest , when it is scandalous , or tempting to superstition , &c. ) i named many cases in which an image may be used ; and say [ that it is not unlawful to pray before or towards an image , in a room where they are placed only for ornament , &c. ] is this to say , ( worship may be directed to it ? or that we may kneel before a crucifix ; ) when i had before excepted the images of god , christ , &c. in worship , on several reasons ? doth any protestant doubt of what i assert ? my parlour hath on all four sides the pictures of our living friends : must i not pray in that room because my face will be still towards some of them ? doth he doubt of this ? or is not his citing one half of the words as he doth , to deceive his credulous reader , if not worse ? § . . he saith , kneeling before a crucifix is lawful to him supposing the mind be only excited by it . answ . a calumny made up by setting together two scraps of remote sentences . . because i say it 's lawful to pray in a room where pictures ( not any ) are before me , for meet ornament , therefore he feigns me to say , it 's lawful to kneel before a crucifix . . and elsewhere i say , it is lawful to be excited to a good thought by seeing a deaths-head , or any of gods works , and so it is by seeing a crucifix ; ( which no sober christian doubts of ) he feigns me to make it an exciting sign to him that kneels before it . § . . yea he makes so much use of his own calumny as p. . to prove me strangely partial , allowing it to be lawful to pray before a crucifix as a medium excitans , as an object that stirs up in us worshipping affections , and so excuse all papists from idolatry that profess they use a crucifix for no other end . answ . meer repeated forgery , not becoming his profession . i never spake for praying before it , much less as an object to stir up worshipping affections : but only that i am not bound to fly at prayer from a room that hath only ornamental pictures ; and that as in the geneva bible there be historical pictures , and few but turks are against them , it is lawful ( i say not kneeling before them at prayer , but out of cases of scandal and danger ) to be excited by them to good affections , and indeed good affections are worshipping affections . dare any christian say that it is a sin to think reverently of god when we see his works , or see but a picture of scripture history ( as abraham offering isaac , christ dying and rising , &c. ) nonconformists have still taken them for lyers that said they were against historical pictures ; and shewed it in the geneva bible . i have seen in many pious country houses all the story of dives and lazarus painted over their tables , and never heard the good use of it accused . but i desire the reader to peruse my words , which he citeth , quest . . and judge with what honesty we are accused . i there say , . it is unlawful to make any image of god. . it is unlawful to make , place or use an image as is like to do more hurt than good , or to tempt to sin : — and all such images of creatures as others use to give unlawful worship or honour to , when like to tempt others to the like ; as among the papists the image of the crucifix , the virgin mary and angels may not be made , placed or used so as may tempt any to worship them sinfully as they do . . it is unlawful to place images in churches or in secret before our eyes when we are worshipping god , when it tendeth to corrupt the mind — which is the ordinary effect of images . . it is unlawful to use images scandalously , as any of the aforesaid sinners use them , though we do it not with the same intent : that is , so as in outward appearance is the same with their use , because so we shall dishonour god as they do , and harden them in sin : therefore images in churches or in oratories in those countries where others use them sinfully , or near such countries , where the same may harden men in their sin , is evil . . i think it unlawful to make an image or any equal instituted sign to be the publick common symbol of the christian religion , though but a professing sign ( as they make the cross . ) doth this doctrine justifie the papists ? and p. . § . . i largly prove the use of a crucifix ( as they do the cross in baptism ) to be unlawful : which he answereth not . is it not consistent with all this that i say , [ that it 's not unlawful to pray before or towards an image , in a room where images are placed only for ornament , and we have no respect to them as a medium or object of our worship ( except as by accident it 's made unlawful . ) and that ( not kneeling to them , nor in prayer , but , in transient meditation , ) it is lawful so to use them historically as to stir up in us a worshipping affection . ] if the papists do no more , no protestant would call them idolaters for it . but if they use them idolatrously , it makes our use of them unlawful , when even but outwardly it is like theirs : and so i say of the cross . this is the doctors zeal against idolatry , that it seems would have us all used as his books intimate , till we dare use the transient image of the cross much worse than he maketh the papists to use images and crucifixes in particular . for to use them as a dedicating common badge of christianity , in our great covenant with christ , is more than to use them historically and in meditation , or more than to pray in rooms adorned with common pictures . but he knoweth that the papists give more to images . § . . obj. but what need had you to say all this of images ? answ . that men may understand it . i 'le tell you that you may see the candor of our accusers . dr. r. coxe bishop of ely consulted with cassander to have had images in our churches . the lutherans so use them . our new church of england began to set up crucifixes over altars , and to plead more for church-pictures than heretofore . in . the parliament ordered the defacing all images of any person of the trinity in churches or church-yards , ( before the king went from them ) because i read this order and the church-warden attempted to obey it , the rabble of drunken swearing journy-men , who were all for conformity , rose in a tumult with clubs , seeking to kill me and the churchwardens , and knockt down two country-men because they were our friends ( who carried the hurt to their death : ) and the conforming clergy were so much for them , that one of them indicted me at the assizes , and i was forced to leave the country . such rage for images tempted some religious men that were against them , to be more censorious against the conformists than i would have them , and to run too near the other extream : and after it grew a dispute whether the lutherans were not hereticks ( of which see caspar streso . ) the remembrance of all this drew me to say all the truth which i thought useful to cure mens over-much censuring the lutherans and the new prelatists : and now the thanks they give me is to turn the censure on my self for saying so much to excuse them . just so did mr. pierce by me : my religious neighbours scrupled communion with their neighbour prelatists , saying , all the drunkards and swearers and ignorant ungodly people that had no religion , were fierce for bishops , liturgy and ceremonies , and they durst not joyn with them while they profaned the sacrament . i was far from justifying them , but to abate their overmuch censuring , i told them that in some countries where custome had brought some particular sin from under disgrace , we could not judge one graceless , whose whole lives else were pious , temperate and just , for sometime committing that particular sin ; and it was hard to say how oft this might fall out : as breaking the lords day in geneva and holland , some petty oath in some countries that use it , and such like . for this charity to the prelatists , what doth mr. pierce but turn the charge of favouring such gross sin against my self , as if i had been compounding it with godliness ? i leave you all therefore hereafter , better to defend your selves . § . . about their appointing the cross to work grace morally , and that sacraments work it not physically , he saith , i misrepresent or misapply both the popish and protestant doctrine of sacraments . ] and for the first he saith , it overthrows all that i say that they all hold that sacraments work grace , ex opere operato , where there is no actual impediment , and it's heresie to say , they are bare outward professing signs . ] answ . did he think that this is inconsistent with the opinion that they work it morally ? they distinguish between the principal agent , the instrumental operator , and the receiver . and they say that the sacrament conveyeth grace by the will of the principal agent ( god ) ex opere operato , and hath not its effect ex opere operantis ; and that opus operantis is that which vim habet ex bonitate & devotione ejus qui operatur , that is , from the ministers goodness ( and doth not the english canon say the same ? ) but opus operatum is that which is effectual , modo fiat sicut lex praescribit , whether the instrument be good or bad : but it must be sicut lex praescribit : and when they come to the receiver they require in him more than the opus operatum to the effect : viz. that he intend ( as aquinas speaketh , . q. . a. . ) to receive baptism , which is the beginning of a new life , and that he have faith , a. . c. ex parte gratia quam quis per baptismum consequitur , exigitur in suscipiente fides , ex parte vero characteris non necessaria est . the character is received without real faith , but grace is not . and what that character is how little they are agreed see at large in wotton de reconcil . peccat . durandus , and the wisest say it is but the relation of one that hath received the external tessera or badge of christianity ( which none deny . ) and ad . he saith , [ the church quantum in se , non intendit dare baptismum nisi habentibus rectam fidem , sine qua non est remissio peccatorum . et propter hoc interrogat accedentes ad baptismum an credant ? and citeth austin , that without true faith it is not received to salvation . and art. . he concludeth that [ seeing god doth not compell men to righteousness , it 's manifest that feigned comers obtain not the benefit of baptism . and ad . inter ficte accedentes , he numbers them that come in mortal sin , not willing to leave it and be conformed to christ . and your own words imply all this , that the receiver must put no hinderance ] while they make the want of necessary intention , desire , true faith , repentance , to be the hinderance , leaving the subject uncapable of the grace of the sacrament of baptism . § . . it irketh me to repeat , but you constrain me : scotus and okam ( and then i need not say how many more ) confute aquinas at large for calling sacraments so much as instruments giving grace , as he explaineth it ; and so doth pet. aliaco camera● . briefly in . q. . b. c. concluding that sacraments are no causes of grace properly , but improperly , because deus in sacramentis ordinavit sic agere , non quod ipsa sacramenta agant — and that a sacrament neither by its own virtue , nor by any virtue given it , is any proper efficient cause of any disposition in the soul previous to grace , or of grace it self , but a condition sine qua non , dispositiv , improperly called causa dispositiva moralis , non effectiva sed receptiva : yet they grant also a moral objective causality , by signification . brianson in . q. . fol. . concludeth ( . doc . ) sacramenta non sunt graliae causa effectiva , sed solum per modum meriti per ea datur gratia , citing ricardus , scotus , aureolus , franc. perusius , &c. against thom. & alexand. herein . yet saith [ baptismus indiget fide , quae est dispositio & fundamentum omnium sacramentorum , vel in se ut in adultis , vel in alio ut in parvulis . suarez de legib. l. . c. . p. . col. . de circumcis . [ nam etiam ipsa fides parentum er at conditio necessaria & sine qua non ; et tamen de illa dici non potest , quod gratiam daret infanti ex opere operato , nec quod gratiam contineret ; etiam nec causa justificans parvulos dici potest ; nisi late & improprio modo , sicut dicitur de quolibet remedio vel conditione sine qua non . and brianson also saith in . q. . doc . . fol. quod ficte recipientes baptismum non habent gratiam baptismi , dicunt scholastici . yea even hildebrand in one of his roman councils concludeth , that the sacraments of baptism and penance give not pardon to the impenitent and uncapable . petrus à s. joseph thes . univers . de sacram . p. . saith , [ sacramentum est signum sensibile divinitus institutum , longo tempore durans , sanctitatem aliquam , saltem externam ( that is , relative separation to god , which is the true character with them ) conferens , & veram significans . and p. . [ sacramenta novae legis conferunt gratiam , idque ex opere operato & immediate : duplicem scilicet , aliam respondentem dispositioni , aliam ipsi sacramento : cum antiquae adultis nullam conferrent nisi ratione dispositionis — sacramenta novae legis non producunt gratiam physice , sed tantum moraliter . ] but i must spare the reader : by this he may understand , . that they hold not to the opus operatum as efficient of grace in the sacraments of the old law , and so not to sacraments as sacraments : . that they put opus operatum against opus operantis , and not against the necessary disposition of the receiver , which consisteth in faith , repentance , intention , &c. . that many of them deny all proper sacramental causality of grace . . specially physical . ( and protestants make them not meer signs , but investing signs . ) . and ponere obicem is to want necessary moral qualification , and action as aforesaid . and now the dr. had done well to tell me wherein i was very much mistaken . § . . he next saith , [ the cross is in no sence held to be an instrument appointed for conveying grace . ] answ . . not by god , for it is none of god's ordinances . . but that by men it is i have manifested ; if a moral objective moving and teaching means may be called an instrument : if not , the word instrument is noting to our case . . to work on the soul of the adult by representation , signification , excitation ( as the word doth ) is to be an operative moral cause or means : and this the church ascribeth to it ( pref. to liturg. &c. ) . the death of christ , and the benefits of it , and reception into the church and state of christianity , and the sense of our engagement to fight under christ's banner , &c. are grace ; some of which is given by excitation and some ( the relation ) by investiture . § . . and now whether i have only invented these objections to amuse and perplex mens consciences , and this dr. hath made all so plain that all may venture on it , and he and all ministers may deny them christendom that dare not venture , and cast out all from the ministry that be not as bold as he , i leave to consideration . he next turneth to mr. a. about bowing , and so goeth to their excommunication chap. xi . whether the excommunicating church , or the excommunicated for not communicating when excommunicated be guilty of schism ? § . . their canons excommunicate ipso facto all that say conformity is unlawful , and many such like . . he saith [ the excommunication is not against such as modestly scruple the lawfulness of things imposed ; but those who obstinately affirm it . answ . reader , trust neither him nor me , but read the words . can. , , , . [ whosoever shall affirm that the church of england by law established under his majesty is not a true and an apostolical church , — let him be excommunicated ipso facto . whosoever shall affirm that the form of god's worship in the church of england established by the law , and contained in the book of common-prayer — is a corrupt , superstitious , or unlawful worship of god , or containeth any thing in it that is repugnant to the scriptures , let him be excommunicated ipso facto , and not restored till , &c. whosoever shall affirm that any of the articles , are in any part superstitious or erroneous , or such as he may not with a good conscience subscribe unto , let him be excommunicated ipso facto , and not restored till , &c. whosoever shall affirm that the rites and ceremonies of the church of england by law established are wicked , antichristian , or superstitious , or such as being commanded by lawful authority , men who are zealously and godly affected may not with any good conscience approve them , use them , or as occasion requireth subscribe to them , let him be excommunicated ipso facto , and not restored till he repent and publickly revoke such his wicked errours . can. . whosoever shall hereafter affirm , that the government of the church of england under his majesty by arch-bishops , bishops , deans , arch-deacons , and the rest that bear office in the same , is antichristian , or repugnant to the word of god , let him be excommunicate ipso facto , &c. can. . whosoever shall affirm that the form and manner of making and consecrating bishops , priests or deacons , containeth any thing in it that is repugnant to the word of god , — let them be excommunicate ipso facto , &c. can. . whosoever shall affirm — that there are within this realm , other meetings , assemblies , or congregations of the kings born subjects , than such as by the law of this land are held and allowed , which may rightly challenge to themselves the name of true and lawful churches , let him be excommunicate ipso facto , &c. and now if the reader will no more believe the doctor , it is not long of me . if all this be no more than to excommunicate them that [ obstinately affirm the ceremonies antichristian , impious , or superstitious , ] understanding them is not possible . § . . but i confess they excommunicate not men for secret thoughts : we thank them for nothing . it is but for telling their judgment . and dissenters may have many occasions to tell it . the kings commission once allowed some of us to tell it : the demands , accusations , calumniating books and sermons , &c. may call many to it . § . . he saith , all excommunication supposeth precedent admonition . answ . . they should do so : the worse is yours because it doth not so : it only alloweth admonition to repent for his restoration : which made m. anton. spalatensis say so much against it . . if it did oblige you to admonish us , as you have done by your books , you know that this changeth not our judgments : so that to be excommunicate before the admonition and after comes all to one . but indeed when the law ipso facto excommunicateth , the law it self is the admonition . § . . he addeth [ general excommunications though they be latae sententiae , do not affect the particular persons till the evidence be notorious , not only of the bare fact , but the contumacy . ] answ . affecting is a word that signifieth what you please . ipso facto is [ for and upon the fact proved , without any sentence of a judge . ] while the fact only is thus made the full cause , the contumacy need not be proved . it 's true , . that the fact must be proved , . and then the law is a sentence and relatively affecteth the person as sentenced ; . but no persons else are obliged to avoid him , till the fact be lawfully published . but the man is excommunicate . and . whether the man that knoweth the law and his own fact be not bound himself to avoid the churches communion , is a great controversie : and the plain truth is , if it be a just excommunication , he is bound to forbear communion in obedience to it : ( as much as a silenced minister is to forbear preaching . ) but if it be a sentence unjust , and injustice be not so gross as to nullifie it , still he must forbear : but if it be so unjust as to be invalid , he may communicate till he be executively rejected : ( as one so unjustly silenced may preach , if he can : for the case is much like . ) the reader would be displeased if i should cite him many casuists in so plain a case . . but no man doubteth but the general sentence of the canon speaketh the sence of the church , and doth all that law-makers can do , before judgment : and the law is norma officii & judicii , obliging subject and judge . § . . it 's true that linwood saith , that a declaratory sentence , that is , a declaration that such a man is already sentenced by the law , is necessary to oblige any to the execution of it on others , or the person in foro externo . but still the church hath done her part in legislation , to oblige as aforesaid . § . . he saith [ persons excommunicate are to be denounced so every six months , that others may have notice of them . ] answ . . but are they not excommunicate then , before they are so oft denounced , yea or at all , as far as aforesaid ? § . . he saith [ i have fully answered my own objection by saying , i am not bound to execute the sentence on my self . ] answ . . he would not say that he approveth the answer : for if he do , he confuteth himself , that would have us execute the silencing sentence on our selves , and the sentence against publick worship in any way but theirs . . my reason is , because i take the unjust sentence as invalid : else i were bound in foro interiore . . but sure the church at least relaxeth that mans obligation to present communion , by shewing her will , if she did not oblige him to withdraw . read over the words of the canon , and see whether they make them not as unintelligible and flexible to what sense they please , as they do the words of the act of uniformity and liturgy . § . . as to his two cases in which the excommunicate may be schismaticks for not communicating , . we question not the first : just excommunication excludeth none but the guilty . here then indeed is the state of our controversie . had he proved that in all the cases before cited , it is just to excommunicate us , he had done somewhat , when now for want of it he betrayeth his cause . . his d . is [ if they form new churches . ] answ . . is forming new churches and not communicating with the old ones all one ? our present question is of the later . so that this great accuser seemeth plainly to absolve all from being bound to communicate with them , who are unjustly excommunicate , and gather not new churches . . but may not the unjustly excommunicate that cannot on just terms be restored , worship god in some publick church ? doth such a wicked sentence bind men to live like atheists till death ? or deprive them of their right to all god's ordinances ? even many papist doctors and councils say the contrary . and how else do you justifie the church of england against the papists charge of schism ? § . . p. . he still seemeth to think , that [ his own and others reasonings may change all the truly honest christians in the land to hold all the things imposed lawful . ] answ . these thoughts of the bishops in . and . have brought us all to the pass that we are at ; and if after years so great experience of the inefficacy of all their disputes , yea and prisons , and after the notice of the nature and different cases of men , they still trust to bring us to concord on these terms , disputing with such men is in vain ; the lord deliver us from them . chap. xii . of the english sort of sponsors , and the exclusion of parents duty . § . . page . he saith i [ several times mention this as one of the grounds of the unlawfulness of the peoples joyning in communion with us : yea as the greatest objection . ] answ . four places of my writings are cited , and all will testifie to him that will read them , the untruth of the doctors words . this is an unhappy course of accusations : i can find no word of [ the unlawfulness of the peoples joyning in communion with you on this ground . ] on the contrary , i have taught men how to make this very action in them lawful , viz. by getting if possible credible sponsors of the old sort , and agreeing with them to be the parents representer , and promise as in his name , or at least but as his second , undertaking the education of the child if he die or apostatize ( which was the old sort : ) and himself to be present and signifie his consent by gesture , though he may not speak . but i have shewed , . that this must be done besides the churches order , that hath no such thing . . that subscribing to the churches order herein is unlawful : . that the church which refuseth the child lawfully offered , ought not to blame that person that cannot or will not make such shifts , but getteth another pastor to baptize him whom they sinfully refuse . but this is not to prove it unlawful to have communion with you . but it 's lawful to use better also when they can , being thus repulsed by you . § . . he saith [ the parents are to provide such as are fit to under take that office . ] answ . . no one is fit for it as used by the liturgy , but an adopter that taketh the child for his own ; for he undertaketh the parents work . and it 's lis sub judice , whether any others undertaking besides a parent or owner can prove the child to be in the covenant as offered , and have right to the seal and benefits : atheists and insidels children are unholy , cor. . . . if any were sit , few parents can get such , as will understandingly and deliberately and credibly promise them to do all that godfathers must by the liturgy undertake . i never knew one in my life that seemed to the parent to mean any such thing , much less to do it . i have in my younger time been godfather to three or four : but we before agreed with the parents to intend no more than to be witnesses , and the father to be the entitler and the undertaker . i did in . baptize two by the liturgy , ( without crossing ) and never more in . or . years after , because of the imposed corruptions . mr. kettilby the bookseller ( unless his father had another child of the same name baptized the same year ) was one : but his father gave him his name , and promised all his own duty , and his uncle and aunt standing as sponsors , we before agreed that they should signifie but witnesses and friendly helpers in case of need . . but what if the parents are bid provide such ? that is no discharge of their own part , nor are they bound to cast their duty on others . § . . he saith ( as to the child 's right to baptism ) that the godfathers stand in a threefold capacity , . representing the parent in offering , . representing the child in promising , . in their own as undertakers of his education , &c. answ . . i will not till he confute them repeat my proofs that in the church of england's sence the godfathers are not the parents representatives at all , nor speak in their name . . if they were , then when the parents both are atheists , infidels , hobbists , scorners at godliness , hereticks , the godfathers can represent them but as they are , and their own faith entitleth not the child , because they stand in the persons of atheists , infidels , &c. your church doth not like this doctrine . . and as to their representing the child , quo jure is the doubt . it cannot be done without some representing power given them . and who gave it them ? . and as to the third person ( in this multiform thing ) the doubt is , whether their undertaking to educate another mans child be lawful , while he is bound to do it himself ? . and whether men use to be serious in such undertakings , which i never knew one perform , nor seem to mean it , save such as take poor mens , kinsmens or dead mens children to keep as their own . . and if it be done without serious intention , is it not to make perjury or perfidiousness , and prophane taking god's name in vain , to be the way of christening and covenanting with christ in order to salvation ? § . . this is a great point , and he doth well to handle it diligently : his explication of it is this , p. . [ . the church hath the power of the keys , ( true ; but not as he and the brownists say , the whole church , but only the pastors . ) [ . they may baptize capable subjects . ] no doubt of it . [ . infants are capable subjects . ] answ . but what infants ? all , or some ? is this our satisfaction ? if it be all infants , then how come the heathens infants to be baptizable and have right , when the parents have none ? then how great a deed of charity is it to bring an army among them to baptize their children by force ? when even aquinas and other papists say , that children may not be baptized against the parents wills . i have elsewhere at large proved , . that baptism is but the sealing of the covenant , and the delivering of possession by ministerial investiture , and not the first gift or condition of our right to christ and his benefits . . that in the adult faith and repentance and heart-consent are the conditions , which baptism after solemnly expresseth . . that if a true penitent believing consenter die without baptism , he is saved ; and if t●…ptized adult die without faith , repentance and heart-consent , he is damned . . that therefore all the adult must have an entitling condition , to give them right , first initially , coram deo , to pardon of sin , and then to be baptized ( which solemnly delivereth their full right ) before they can be lawfully baptized . . that god dealeth not so differently with infants and adult , as to require conditions of right in the later , and none in the former , as if they were all born with right . . that the covenant is made to the faithful and their seed , and that infants condition of right is that they be children of believers : and that if both parents be infidels , the children are unclean , but else they are holy . and god that confoundeth not the church and the world , confoundeth not their childrens case . this i have fully proved in my disp . of original sin , and treat of right to sacraments . . that baptism sealeth and delivereth to the qualified subject , the present pardon of sin , and right to christ and life as to adopted children of god. and therefore there must be some reason and proof of a right to it , more than all infants in the world have . . that it is not a mans bringing them to baptism and speaking feignedly in their name , that giveth them right to a sealed pardon and salvation : it must be one that can prove himself entitled to represent the child , which none can that cannot say he is my own . . if it were otherwise , atheists , infidels , wicked men , though baptized , could give no right to the sealed pardon , or to the investiture in a state of life , to which they have no right themselves . and if they represent no better parents , as such they can give them no right , save coram ecclesia when they are not infideles judicati . . nor doth it suffice to an infants right , that the minister , or church , be christians . therefore to tell us that infants are right subjects , signifieth nothing , till either , . he tell us what infants , . or prove that all infants have right ; which he can never do : and if he could , i would easily prove that all dying infants are saved , whether baptized or not ; as i can prove that true christian infants are . § . . while he gives us not the least satisfaction of infants right , he tells us of difficulties on the other side ; if we lay it on parents ( or owners ) right . and . he tells us of divers mens opinions ; which the reader will be loth i should digress to try , having done it so largly in my christ . direct . and treat . of right to sacraments . . he nameth the qualification which i ●●●rt , [ a profession of the christian faith not invalidated ] and saith nothing to disable it , but that others will reject it . others wild opinions named , goes for my confutation . and now i desire the reader to see the catalogue of the things we account sinful in conformity in my first plea for peace , and try how many of them the doctor hath so much as meddled with : and whether he think by these few touches he hath proved either our conformity lawful , or our preaching unlawful , or our communion with those christians who are not of his mind herein unlawful . if he say again , that he meddleth not with ministers conformity but the peoples , . note , how he hath passed by even the greatest things also in their case . . whether he meddle not with the ministers case who seeketh to prove their preaching unlawful , and so perswades them to be silent ▪ . whether their case should not be so far meddled with , as to prove the things which they think sinful to be lawful , or their preaching unnecessary ; before the endeavours used against them ( well known ) be justified as needful to the churches peace . chap. xiii . of the three french letters which he subjoyneth . § . . what advantage to the drs. cause the three letters of the french divines annexed , can be to any that will not be decoyed by meer sounds and shews , i know not : but could we know these things following , we might better understand the judgment of the writers . quest . . whether he that sought their judgment did make them understand what all our present impositions and acts of conformity are ? and what alterations are made in the church of england since the beginning of bishop lands power ? . whether he made them truly understand the difference between the ancient episcopacy , and the english diocesan frame in all its parts ? . whether he did put the case as about subscribing ●● declaring , covenanting or swearing , assent and consent to all things , and practising accordingly ? or only of living in communion with them which do such things ? . whether he put the case as of denying active communion in the practice of unlawful things ; or as denying communion in the rest which are lawful ? . whether he made them understand that we are ipso facto excommuncate by their canon for telling our judgment ? . whether he made them understand that it was about ministers that were silenced , and what men are in many of their places ? and what claim their ancient flocks lay to many of them ; and what men they are , and what they did to prevent all our divisions ? . whether he made them understand what measure of communion we still maintain with the church of england and the parish churches ? . whether he put the case to them , whether we that have communion with them are schismaticks , if we also have communion with others whom they prosecute ? . whether he put the question to them , whether we are lawfully silenced ? and if not , whether rebus sic stantibus we are bound to forbear our ministry ? . whether he made them know that all the ministers of england as well as we were forbidden to preach , &c. unless they would conform to that we are ready to prove unlawful ? and if it prove so , whether they should all either have sinned or been silent in obedience ? . whether he made them understand how many thousands there be in london that cannot have room in the parish-churches and the nonconformists churches set together , but live like atheists . . whether he acquainted them that the question is , whether all godly dissenters that are cast out , or cannot joyn in the parish way of liturgick worship , must ( till their judgments change ) give over all publick worship of god , and be forsaken of all teachers ? . whether he acquainted them , how loud a call we had to preach in london , first by the plague , & then by the burning of the churches , the people being deserted by the parish ministers in these sad extremities ? . whether he acquainted them with the kings licences , and our being accused of schism , even when licensed ? . whether he acquainted them with what we have said for ourselves lately in divers books ; or they judg'd us unheard ? . whether they be singular ? or whether it be the judgment of the protestant churches in france , that it is a sin for any to preach or publickly worship god , when the king , bishops and law forbid them ? and if so , how long it hath been their judgment ? and why all their churches ceased not when prohibited ? if not so , how to know that our silencing laws and bishops must be obeyed , and not theirs ? there is no understanding their answers , till we know how the case was stated . § . . mr. clodes letter is moderate , and it 's like they took the case to be about proper separation , and so say no more in the main than some nonconformists have said against the brownists . but the dr. hath dealt too unmercifully with mr. le moine in publishing his epistle , when it was so easie to know how few , if any , would believe his story , but take it for a confirmation , how incredible our accusers are ? i mean his story that [ five years ago he heard one of the most famous nonconformists preach in a place where were three men , and three or fourscore women : he had chosen a text about the building up the ruins of jerusalem , and for explication cited plinny and vitruvius a hundred times , &c. ] i think i shall never speak with the person that will believe him : sure i am , london knoweth that the nonconformists are the most averse to such kind of preaching . and i know not one of them that i can say ever read a quarter of vitruvius : i confess i never read a leaf of him . this monsieur would do well to tell us yet the name of the man , that if living he may be call'd to account : but i doubt he fell into some tabernacle , of which many are erected in place of the burnt churches , and perhaps heard the conformist who had occasion to talk of architecture ? but yet i will not believe that either conformist or nonconformist would expose himself to common scorn by an hundred or twenty such citations . § . . and his description of the mens horrible impudence to excommunicate without mercy the church , &c. imagining that they are the only men in england , nay in the christian world that are predestimated to eternal happiness , &c. and then pronouncing them intolerable , sheweth that it is not us that he speaketh of , nor any company that is known to us , neither our separatists here , nor anabaptists , nor so much as the very quakers holding any such thing . § . . and though he saith [ he was not at all edified by the nonconformists preaching , it followeth not that no others are : nor that none were edified in england or scotland , while publick preachers went the nonconformists way . § . . but because the doctor chuseth this way , i will imitate him , though with the apology that st. paul gloried , and give him notice of some epistles of men that judged otherwise of the nonconformists . chap. xiv . epistles or testimonies compared with the doctors , and notes on mr. joseph glanvile's book , called the zealous impartial protestant , with a letter of his to the author heretofore ( and a digression of doctor l. moulin . ) § . . in general , he that will read the lives of many of the old nonconformists ( hildersham , dod , and many such , and bishop hall's character of dr. reynolds , and the late published lives of mr. joseph allen , john janeway , dr. winter , mr. macham , mr. wadsworth , mr. stubbs , &c. ) will see better what to judge of them , than by our three french epistles . yea thuanus giveth a juster character of many abroad that were of their mind : and john fox ( one of them ) of more . § . . and to our three french-men , i will when it will be of more use than seeming vanity , return you four french-mens letters to my self , ( mr. gaches , mr. amyralds , mr. le blanks , and mr. testards , ( and if you will some germans too , calvinists and lutherans , ) of a quite differing sense of us nonconformists . but mr. gaches being already in print ( by the duke of lauderdales means ) . and joyned with one of mr. l'angles , i leave the reader that desireth to see both . § . . but because mr. jos . glanvile was one of themselves here ( though an origenist ) a most triumphant conformist , and not the gentlest contemner of nonconformists , and famous for his great wit , i will repay the dr. with the annexing one ( among many since ) of his letters to my self ; which yet indeed i do not chiefly to ballance the drs. but to help the reader to understand mr. glanvile and his posthumous book , which i think not meet to pass by without some animadversions . though i have great reason to hope that dying so soon after it and his preferment , the experience of the vanity of a flattering world might help to save him from impenitence : as i have read in divers credible writers , it was with dr. matthew sutliffe ; that on his death-bed he repented that he had written so much against the reformers called puritans . i perceive dr. stillingfleet marvelleth , that my own expectations of approaching death do not hinder me from writing what i do for the nonconformists ; whereas the truth is , had not pain and weakness kept me from my youth as in the continual prospect of the grave and the next life , i had never been like to have been so much against conformity , and the present discipline of this church ( that is , their want of discipline ) as i have been ; for the world might have more flattered me and byassed my judgment , and my conscience might have been bolder and less fearful of sin ; and , though i love not to displease them , i must say this great truth , that i had never been like to have lived in so convincing sensible experience of the great difference of the main body of the conformists from the most of the nonconformists , as to the seriousness of their christian faith , and hope and practice , their victory over the flesh and world , &c. i mean both in the clergy and laity of mine acquaintance ! o how great a difference have i found , from my youth to this day ? though i doubt not but very many of the passive conformable ministers ( to say nothing of the imposers ) have been and are worthy pious men ; and such as would not perswade their hearers , that the jesuits first brought in spiritual prayer : and i had the great blessing of my education near some such , in three or four neighbour parishes . § . . it grieved me to hear of mr. glanvile's death , for he was a man of more than ordinary ingeny , and he was about a collection of histories of apparitions , which is a work of great use against our sadducees , and to stablish doubters , and the best mans faith hath need of all the helps from sense that we can get : and i feared lest that work had perished with him ; but i gladly hear that by the care of dr. h. more ( that worthy faithful man of peace , who never studied preferment ) it is both preserved and augmented . and as for his origenisme , as i like it not ▪ so i confess in matters of that nature , i can better bear with the venturousness of dissenters , than hereticators can do . but when i saw this rag called a letter left behind him , my grief for him was doubled : and i saw what cause we have all to fear the snares of a flattering world , and what cause to pray for divine preservation , and for an unbyassed mind , and a humble sense of our own frailty , that we may neither over-value prosperity , nor our own understandings . i did not think that he that had wrote the vanity of dogmatizing could so soon have come to perswade men in power , that dissenting from our churches dogmatizing and imposed words , formes and ceremonies was worthy of so severe a prosecution of us , as he describeth : and that all their danger is from the forbearing such prosecution of us ; and that ( though for their own ends he could abate us some little matters ) the only way to settled peace is vigorously to execute the laws against us . he that can think the silencing , and imprisoning of about such ministers , is the way to bring this land to concord , hath sure very hard thoughts of them in comparison of conformists . and that you may see how little his judgment against such should weigh with others , who is so lately changed from himself , i will give you here one of several letters which i had from him , and leave you to judge whether he have proved that he was much wiser at last than when he wrote this ? or whether his character of me agree with his motion to silence and ruine all such ? i am so far from owning his monstrous praises , that i fear i offended him with sharply rebuking him for them . but lest his wit and virulence here do harm , i give it you to shew the unconstancy of his judgment : or if he would have excepted me from his severities , i must profess that i believe the most of the nonconformable ministers of my acquaintance are better men than my self ; and therefore his excessive praise of me , is the condemnation and shame of his persecuting counsel . § . . as to his praise of the bishops writings against popery , i had rather magnifie than obscure their deserts : but i am not able to believe that the old ones who write to prove the pope antichrist , &c. and the new ones who would bring us to obey him as patriarch of the west and principium unitatis catholicae , were of one mind , because both are called protestants , and that such as bishop bramhall and the rest of the defenders of grotius , were of the same judgment with bishop usher , bishop morton , bishop downame , &c. nor that grotius , who describeth a papist to be one that flattereth popes as if all were right which they said and did , did disclaim popery in the same sense as the old church of england did . two men may cry down popery , while one of them is a papist or near one in the others sense . as to the folly of calling that popery which is not , i have said more against it in my cath. theologie than he hath done . and as to his excuse of an ignorant vicious sort of ministers because no better will take small livings , ] it is not true : the silenced nonconformists would have been glad of them , or to have preached there for nothing : the tolerating of ignorant scandalous men were more excusable , if better were not shut out that would have taken such places . but it 's notorious that for the interest of their faction and prosperity , they had rather have the ignorant and vicious , than the ablest and most laborious nonconformist : bishop morley told me , when he forbad me to preach , that it was better for a place to have none , than to have me ; when i askt him , whether i might not be suffered in some place which no one else will take . ] most of the old nonconformists were suffered by connivance in small obscure places , which was the chief reason why they set not up other meetings , which dr. stillingfleet thought they avoided as unlawful , because forbidden . § . . and as to his excuse by blaming ill patrons , i would know then by what true obligation all men in england are bound to commit the pastoral conduct of their souls to such men only as our english patrons chuse ? § . . and when he so blameth the tepidity and irreligiousness of the members of their own church , i would know , . whether all men that are more seriously religious must be forsaken by us , and ruined by them , if they be not of their mind and form ? . and whether the numbers of the irreligious that are for their way , and the numbers of the religious that are against it , should not rather breed some suspicion in them , than engage them to ruine so many such men . § . . and when page . he confesseth that the sword is their churches strength and government , and how contemptible words , paper , arguments and excommunications are without force ; doth he not shame their whole cause , and shew that it is not the same government which the church used for many hundred years , which they desire ? and that their whole power of the keys which they talk so much for , seems to themselves a dead and uneffectual thing ? while we nonconformists desire no coercive power , but to guide consenters . § . . as to his project to save religion under a papist king , if the dean and chapter may but chuse the bishop , i leave it to other m●●● consideration . but i give you his letter to me , because page . he ●aith , [ the greatest part of th●se that now sc●t●r and run ●b●●● do it out of h●…●ancy , or faction , or interest , or a●…y ▪ or desire of being c●… godly ▪ 〈…〉 really out of conscience and conviction of duty ▪ and th●se the penalties duly exacted would bring back ( with much more sharp and cruel ) as if he knew the consciences of the most : but see how much otherwise he lately thought of some . agapetus diacon . ad justinian . adhort . cap. . [ episcopis vi & gladio invitos regentibus quam regibus magis congrua . ] nomize 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 &c. existima tunc regnare te tutò , cum volentibus imperas hominibus . quod enim invitò subjicitur , seditiones molitur , captâ occasione . quod vere vinculis benevolentiae tenetur , firmam servat ergatenentem observantiam . pet. . , , , . the elders which are among you i exhort , who am also an elder and a witness of the sufferings of christ , and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed ; feed the flock of god which is among you , taking the oversight thereof , not by constraint but willingly ; not for filthy lucre , but of a ready mind : neither as being lords over gods heritage , b●● being ensamples to the flock ; and when the chief shepherd shall appear , ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away . ] see dr. hammond on the text. mr. glanviles letter . reverend and most honoured sir , i have often taken my pen in hand with a design to signifie to you , how much i love and honour so much learning , piety , and exemplary goodness as you are owner of ; and how passionately desirous i have been , and am , to be known to a person with whom none hath a like place in my highest esteem and value : but my affections and respects still growing infinitely too big for mine expression , i thought i should but disparage them , by going about to represent them . and when i sate down to consider , how i might most advantagiously set forth my regards , and high sense of your great deserts , i always found my self confounded with subject . and the throng of mine affections , each of them impatient to be first upon my paper , hindred one another's gratification . great passions are difficultly spoken : and i find my self now so pained with the sense that i cannot write suteably to the honour i have for you , that i can scarce forbear th●owing away my pen ; being near concluding , that 't is better to speak nothing in such a subject , than a little . but when i consider you as a person that have high affections for those excellent qualifications , which in the highest degree are your possession , and suteably resent the worth of those that own them ; i am incourag'd to think that you may conceive how i honour you ( though my pen cannot tell it you ) by reflecting upon your own estimate of those , that are of the highest form of learning , parts , and exemplary piety ; or , more compendiously , such in your judgment , as i take you for , incomparable . and yet i have a jealousie that that will not reach it ; for though i think your judicious esteem of such , cannot be surpassed ; yet i am apt to think , that none ever got such an interest , and hold upon your passions , as hath the object of my admiration , on mine . nor yet can i rebuke them as extravagant , though at the highest , since they take part with my severest judgment , and were indeed inflamed by it . and i profess i never found my self so dearly inclin'd to those of my nearest blood , or so affectionately concern'd for my most beloved friends and acquaintance , as for you , whom i had never the happiness to converse with but in your excellent writings , nor ever often saw , but in the pulpit . yea , i speak unfeignedly , i have always interessed my self more in your vindication when your unreasonable prejudic'd enemies have malign'd you , and delighted my self more in your just praises from those that know you , than ever my self-love or ambition could prompt me to do in any case of mine own . sir , i hope you believe that i speak my most real sentiments , and do not go about to complement you . for i must be very weak and inconsiderate , did i think to recommend my self to so much serious wisdom , by such childish fooleries . therefore if my expressions savour any thing above common respect , i beseech you to believe , 't is for that their cause is not common ; but as much above ordinary , as their object . i know your humility and remarkable self ▪ denyal will not bear to read , what i cannot but speak , as often as i have occasion to mention your great worth and merits . however i cannot chuse but here acknowledge , how much i am a debtor to your incomparable writings . in which , when you deal in practical subjects , i admire your affectionate , piercing , heart-affecting quickness : and that experimental , searching , solid , convictive way of speaking , which are your peculiars ; for there is a smartness accompanying your pen that forces what you write into the heart , by a sweet kind of irresistable violence ; which is so proper to your serious way , that i never met it equal'd in any other writings . and therefore i cannot read them without an elevation , and emotions which i seldom feel in other perusals . and when you are ingag'd in doctrinal and controversal matters , i no less apprehend in them your peculiar excellencies . i find a strength , depth , concinnity , and coherence in your notions , which are not commonly elsewhere met withall . and you have no less power by your triumphant reason upon the judgments of capable , free inquirers ; than you have upon their affections and consciences in your devotional and practical discourses . and methinks there is a force in your way of arguing , which overpowers opposition . among your excellent treatises of this nature , your rational confirmation of that grand principle of our religion , the sacred authority of scripture ; your solid dependent notions in the business of justification , and your striking at the root of antinomianism in them , which i look on as the canker of christianity , and have always abhorr'd as the shadow of death ; and your excellent catholick , healing indeavours ; these i say , deserve from me particular acknowledgments . i profess the loose , impertinent , unsound , cobweb arguings of the most that i had met with in the matter of the divine authority of scripture , had almost occasioned my stumbling at the threshold , in my inquiries into the grounds of my religion . for i am not apt to rely on an implicit faith in things of this moment . but your performances in this kind brought relief to my staggering judgment , and triumph't over my hesitancy . as they did also to an excellent person a friend of mine , who was shaken on the same accounts that i was . and we are both no less obliged by what you have done in the other things formentioned . which i profess i judge so rational , that i cannot but wonder , almost to stupor , to behold the fierce , though feeble onsets of your canker'd fiery opponents ; whose writings against you ( most of them ) seem to me to be indited by nothing but spleen and choler . nor have i been able to ascribe the ingaging of so many virulent pens against you , to any other cause than the indeavours of satan to hinder the success which your powerful pen hath had against the dark kingdom . and the spirit that i have perceiv'd to animate some of their wild ravings hath confirm'd me in that belief , that it was the great abaddon that inspir'd their undertakings . i thought e're this to have given you a more publick specimen of mine affections by indeavouring somewhat in your vindication against the calumnies , and feeble arguings of some of those fiery assailants ; but collateral occasions , and other studies have hitherto diverted me : yet i shall not forget my obligations , assoon as i can be master of convenient time and opportunities for the performance . but i see my paper warns me ; and though i should please my self by a larger expression of my respects , and sense of your high deservings from every one that hath had the happiness to be taught by you , either from the press or pulpit ; yet i dare not be so rude in this first address , as to be troublesome and importunate . i know your occasions are such , as that they cannot bear a long divertisement . i had several times design'd at london to have taken the boldness to have waited on you , but the consideration , how you were constantly ingag'd in business , prevented the execution of those intentions . and about three years since i came from oxford on purpose to kederminster , to see you there , and hear you preach ; both which i was happy in . but you were then so busie in the company of several ministers that were at your house , that i could not gain an opportunity of making way for a future acquaintance . if i were sure that you were less incumbred now , and that you made any considerable stay in the country , i would make a journey on purpose to wait on you . i have with this sent you a small discourse of mine own , of which i desire your acceptance . for the subject and design , i know it will not displease you . and for the management , i 'me confident you will not quarrel with it , because it is not so popular as it might have been , when you shall know , that 't was intended for those of a philosophick genius . i durst not ( sir ) be any longer troublesome , and therefore shall conclude with this profession , that the freedom of your spirit , the impartiality of your inquiries , the catholickness of your judgment and affections , the peaceableness , and moderation of your principles , the generosity and publick spiritedness of your disposition , the exact , uniform holiness of your life , and your indefatigable industry for the good of souls , excellencies which i never knew so combin'd in one ; have so endear'd you to me , that there is not that person breathing that hath such a share in the affections , and highest value of , most excellent sir , one of the meanest , though most sincere , of your affectionate lovers , and admirers , jos . glanvill . sept. . . chap. xv. some notes on the book called the lively picture of dr. lud. moulin ; and his repentance subscribed by dr. simon patrick , dean of peterborough , and dr. gilb. burnet . § . . i had taken no notice of this book , had not the author by citing my words against dr. l. moulin as justifying his character , made me a party . therefore i shall impartially speak my judgment of him and the accusation , lest i be thought to own all that the writer speaketh of him , and so to be as guilty of uncharitableness as he seemeth to me to be . i honour the name for the sake of his famous father , and his worthy brother peter , yet living , who by his answer to philanax anglicus , &c. hath well deserved of all protestants : and his worthy brother cyrus , and his very worthy son now dead : and i truly believe that dr. lewis was a sincere honest-hearted man , though dr. stillingfleet seem to dislike my giving him that title . and i will tell you why i think so . § . . i ever observed that his faults lay in his weakness , and not in wickedness : . he was not a man of an accurate distinguishing head , and so was apt to take verbal controversies for real . . and it was no singular thing in him , that hereby he was led by the authorities which he most valued , to think that the differences between the remonstrants and contra ▪ remonstrants were much greater than they are , and arminianism as it was called , to be a more heinous thing than indeed it is . . and when he thought that god's cause ( as bradwardine called it ) was so deeply engaged against such opinions , who can wonder if he was zealous against them ? . and then he had a hasty rashness in speaking what he thought was true and necessary , when sometimes it was not well tryed ▪ and sometime it was in an imprudent manner and time : and so in his hast ran into the temerities and mistakes which mr. daillé and i did blame him for . but i never perceived that he had more passion ( much less fury ) than other ordinary disputers , but a more ra●h and blustering way of uttering his mind , sometimes and in some cases , where he thought religion much concerned . he h●● so servent ● love to truth ▪ that he sometime rusht upon mistakes that wore the vizor of it , and then truth ( real or supposed ) whatever it cost him he would speak . . i ever observed it was in his too extreme opposition to some real errour or crime , that he was carried into his temerities . . and i never found that he was a worldling , nor sinned by the preference of worldly interest ; and doubtless the love of worldly profits , honours and pleasures , are more dangerously contrary to the love of god , than some rash uncharitable words and censures in a cause which he thought was gods. § . . yea i found him more patient of confutation , contradiction and reproof than most men that ever i disputed with , his zeal which you call fury being far more for god than for himself . i began with him about years ago , confuting his latine book of justification against his brother cyrus . i wrote a second time against him in the preface cited by his picture-drawer , about universal redemption , ( and had said much more in a book of universal redemption , going to the press , which i cast by because mr. daillés came then out , which had the same testimonial part and more which i intended . ) yet i never heard that the dr. gave me any uncivil or uncharitable word , nor did he ever reply to either of these books ; nor signified any abatement of his love . and i think this shewed a forgiving mind . § . . but it 's intimated , that this was because we agreed in other things ? i answer , we disagreed also even about church-government , which was the dividing controversie of those times . the dr. was zealous for the magistrates power in erastus sense , and went rather further than dr. stilling fleet in his irenicum : and as i was before against him , so after this , about years ago , i wrote that book against him about the magistrates power in church-matters , in which i called him my sincere friend , thinking sincere friendship consistent with such a difference and an open confutation . ( and if the contrary must be repented of , i hope such charity is no crime . ) this third book against him also he took patiently , and without breach of love. and when i laboured to perswade him to retract his writings against excommunication , though he held still to his conclusion , and thought that the great work that god called him to in the world , was to discover the papal and prelatical usurpation of the magistrates power under the name of ecclesiastical , yet i made him confess all the matter that i pleaded for , and he made me see that his errour lay most in meer ambiguous words , which he had not ●…ateness enough to explicate . all this patience signified not uncharitableness , rage or fury . and i obliged him not by praise , but 〈…〉 him for his eagerness for his own indigested conceptions ; nor gave him any thanks for his indiscreet and excessive praises afterwards given me in his patronus bonae fidei . upon all this i would put some questions to the sober thoughts of the author of his picture . . whether there be not as great signs of sincerity , humility and patience in such a behaviour , and in that great love which he had to all that he thought godly men , ( though he too hardly judged of others for that which he thought great errour and sin ) as in those that cannot bear a just defence of dissenters against their unjust accusations , nor endure men to tell why they rather suffer than conform . . whether he that maketh him so very bad a man and incredible a lyar for too rash censoriousness of dissenters , and some untruths vented in rash zeal , do not tempt men to give as odious titles to those reverend persons who go very far beyond him in untruths and uncharitable censures ? and whether they that were for the silencing and utter ruining of about ministers , and call'd to magistrates to execute the laws against them , and that unchurch all the reformed churches which have not a continued succession of diocesan bishops , shew not as much uncharitableness as he did that described some too hardly ? and whether most of the books written against me by conformists , ( such as the bishop of worcester's letter , the impleader , mr. hinkley , and many more ) be not much fuller of untruths in matter of fact than the drs ? but yet i think it a sin to give them such a character as this , and render the persons as incredible lyars , because errour , interest and faction made some so unadvised . . if it deserve such a character to censure arminians as dangerously erroneous and befriending popery ? whether you do not consequently so stigmatize the old church of england , before bishop laud's time ? even arch-bishop whitgift , bishop fletcher , and the rest who drew up the lambeth articles , arch-bishop abbot and the church in his time ( except six bishops , &c. ) king james , and the whole church as consenting by six delegates to the synod of dort : and also that synod and all the forein reformed churches that consented to it ? and is not this more than dr. moulin did ? . and are they not then to be accordingly stigmatized , who on the other side make the calvinists as odious , accusing them of blasphemy , turcisme , and doing as much against them as dr. heylin in the life of arch-bishop laud tells us was done in england on that account . . and if such hard thoughts of arminians as furthering popery deserve your character , whether by consequence you so brand not all those parliaments who voted against it accordingly , and made it one of the dangerous grievances of the land ? and is not that as faulty as for dr. moulin too much to blame you ? . yea i doubt you stigmatize thus so great a part of christians in all the world as i am loth to mention : so rare is it to hear of any country , where they are not so much guilty of sects and factions , as by education and interest to run in a stream of uncharitable censures of one another , speaking evil of more than they understand , as i have proved in my cathol . theolog. about this subject . . seeing it is above years since i wrote that against dr. moulin which you cite , and he never found fault with it , nor justified his mistakes , may i not think that he was convinced and repented ? and you that praise his death-bed repentance , should not characterize him by failings twenty years repented of ? . how do you know that the dr. repented not of his too hard words of you till his death-bed ? you are mistaken ? in his health i more than once blamed him , . for his censure of dr. stillingfleet and the other particular persons , whose worth was known , and had deserved well of the protestant churches ; . for his extending those censures to the conformists and church which belong to some particular persons , and the most are not guilty of , and . for his book of the fewness of the saved , as presumptuous : and as far as i could then discern he repented of them all , but laid the ill title-page of the last on the book-seller : and he still thought of causes and parties as very different , he owned not his harsh words or censures aforesaid . i found him not raging nor impenitent . . doth not your own description of his great readiness to beg forgiveness , and lothness to own any thing uncharitable , shew a better spirit than your picture doth describe ? . is not he as like to be a sincere man who asketh forgiveness of his faults ( rash censures and words ) as he that repenteth of his former duties , his pacificatory principles and writings . surely to repent of evil is a better sign than to repent of good . . because you call us to acquit our selves by disowning dr. moulin , may we not disown both his faults and our own , without disowning god's grace and mens piety and worth ? would you be so disowned for your own faults ? . and how should i disown his rashness better than to write what i wrote against him , and say what i said to him ? would you have a synod called to reprove every rash word ? . because you justly value mens repentance , i will be thankful to you to further mine , and give me leave to further yours . only i foretell you that your words shall not offend me by their hardness , if they have but truth , and you call me to repent of my sin and not of serving god. i do not repent of defending truth and duty : nor of seeking to save the reader from the infection of false accusation and arguings which would destroy his charity and innocency , by the fullest manifesting the falshood and evil of the words and deeds which are the instruments . i take it to be a wrong to those that i would preserve , to extenuate the danger of the snare or poyson , on pretence of gentleness to the writer . but i deal with the cause and desire none to hate the person : nor would i diminish the honour due to him for his parts or vertues ; but rather have all men love and magnifie all the good , while they dislike the evil ; and would save the reader at as easie a rate to the writer as i can : but that he should not be related to his false or sinful words or deeds is not in my power to effect . but though i repent not of necessary truth , if i any where mistake , or speak more truth than is profitable , or in language by sharpness more apt to do hurt than good , of this i repent , and ask forgiveness of god and man ; as i do if i speak so short of truth , as with eli to make sin seem smaller than it is . and now i hope you will love your own duty of repentance better than another mans , and will not be angry if i seek to help it . . do you not perceive that while you paint the dr. as an incredible raging distracted lyar , and praise his repentance for rash words of others , that you commit the same rashness your self against him ? if you cannot see your own face , let any impartial reader be your glass , and ask him whether you do not that which you are condemning ? . you seem to vindicate the book called the friendly debate , i shall shortly further tell you of somewhat in it to be repented of . and if partiality made not repentance a very difficult work you would have no need herein of a monitor . but you may think me partial , though i acknowledg your civilities to me : i can shew you a manuscript of one both impartial and truly judicious , even the late judge hale , expressing so great dislike of that debate and the eccl. policy , as tending to the injury of religion it self , that he wisheth the authors would openly profess that they write for themselves , and no more so abusively pretend it is for religion . . you say in this picture that [ if l. du moulin had that honest zeal in him to which he pretends , he would have handled mr. baxter as smartly , &c. answ . there may be other reasons than want of honest zeal : but do you not here shew that it is the persons more than his act that offended you in his reproof ? could you judge it honest zeal had it been to others ? pag. . . you say , p. . he hath something of the nonconformists in him , and for that reason he spareth him : answ . do not nonconformists differ from erastians ? did not i write against his opinion of church-government ? and did he not bear years ago when conformity was not in our controversies . . you say of [ the party that come nearest the doctrine of calvinists and puritans , ( though you say you mean such as d. m. your reader must suppose you mean the nonconformists ) that [ they are the true causes of all our present evils . — for the late war was raised , — by the very best of you , &c. ] if you mean , as you seem , it 's somewhat extraordinary to perswade men to believe this in the same land and age that the war was raised in ; and for one to do this that had the first general of the horse in the earl of essex army , his patron a few doors from him , and the lord hollis a colonel nearer him till lately , and the lord president of his majesties privy-council a colonel not far off him , and many more known conformists , who could all quickly have satisfied him how few nonconformists were members of parliament or commanders in the army when the war began , and that it was betwnen two parties of conformists that the wars began , as i have proved against mr. hinkley , and can fullier do when there is need . which party is most obliged to repentance you may dispute with those that are fit for it : but if your intimation be untrue , it is of another nature , and degree than any of dr. moulins . i confess one party did in many parliaments before , and in that , accuse bishop laud and his new followers , . of innovations , . of arminianism , . of promoting absolute arbitrary government against the subjects property and liberty , . and of promoting popery . but if this party were not conformists of the church of england , the bishops , clergy and gentry were not the church in arch-bishop abbots days before bishop laud. as to the reasons of their accusations , and the publishing the articles for toleration in order to the sp. and fr. match , &c. i pass them by . but because you may say some such think of me as you do of d. m. for what i say in my search for the schismaticks , i only add , . that i hope we may transcribe mens own words , . and may judge that there is some difference between the bishops that judged the pope antichrist , &c. and those that would have us as the way to unity , to obey him as patriarch of the west , and principium unitatis , and the first or general councils , and that say our concord must be in obeying unum collegium pastorum , ruling the whole church per literas formatas , and that say the roman church is a true church , but so are none of the reformed that have not bishops , and a continued successive ordination by such . a copy of a letter written by mr. lewis du moulin to the worthy dr. tho. coxe ; with the drs. answer occasioned by some reports that concerned dr. lewis du moulin . worthy sir , knowing the natural inclination you have to oblige all men and the perticular experience i have of your unwearied goodness to my person and family did incourage me to write both before and now ; the occasion of both was the reports spread abroad of my father , being informed you had made him the object of your care during his sickness , i rejoyced that providence had ordered it so that a person of your approved worth and integrity was concerned about him . i shall not trouble you with the relations fame has brought into this country , but shall only desire to know how he died ; was there any advantage taken of his weakness of body or mind ; how far did his reported recantation extend ? reach'd it to any material thing of his tenets , or only in reference to personal reflections ; this is what is humbly desired by , honoured sir , your most humble and obliged servant , lewis du moulin . from my house at malton in yorkshire , october the th . . the drs. answer to mr. lewis du moulin . sir , i had not delayed to return an answer to your first letter , had i known how to direct mine to you , which indeed i had forgotten how to do ; this is therefore to let you know that your father ( my honourèd friend ) dr. du moulin , dyed as he had lived , a truly pious man , a great hater of the romish superstition , and of so much of the english ceremonies as he thought approached those of rome ; he loved all good men of what perswasion soever , agreeing in the fundamentals of the protestant religion . when some worthy and learned men did on his death bed intimate to him that he had faln too heavy upon many pious and learned men of the church of england : he professed himself never to have born any malice in his heart against the person of any of them , but that his intention was only to blame them for having too much gratified the enemies of the true protestant religion , by their condescentions to them , and their too great compliances with them : he never recanted nor retracted any thing material that he had professed and printed of late years ; if he had used any sharp expressions , or by any reflections given any offence to any truly pious man , he heartily prayed their pardon , and as heartily forgave all men , as he desired them to forgive him . and this he had often before expressed to me both in publick at my house , and in private between himself and me , and also after that some worthy men had been with him , which gave occasion to this discourse . this for your satisfaction is with truth and sincerity attested by your affectionate friend tho. coxe . london , octob. . postscript . five additional notices to the reader . there are some things of which i thought meet to add this notice to the reader . i. that i am more alienated from conformity in the point of assent , consent and use , in denying christendom to all children who have no godfathers and godmothers , and excluding the parents from that office , by some late observations which my retiredness kept me unacquainted with : i am requested by some poor people to baptize their children : i tell them the parish ministers must do it . they answer me , that they cannot have them baptized by the parish ministers , because they are poor ; and can neither pay the curate nor the godfathers : i ask them , cannot you get godfathers without money : they say , no : no body will be godfather to their children for nothing ? whereupon enquiring into the case , i am informed , that among the poor it is become a trade , to be hired persons to be godfathers and godmothers ; and some that have not money must leave their children unbaptized , and till lately , popish priests baptized many . i am not willing to aggravate this hiring , nor the causes of it , nor that the same men that think baptism necessary to salvation , ( or as mr. dodwell speaks , to a covenant right to salvation ) should yet shut out all that have not money to hire such covenanters ; but i am not conformable to such church-orders . ii. whereas there is a great stress laid on mr. rathband's book of the old nonconformists doctrine against the brownists , as if they thought that meer obedience to the law required them to forbear preaching when they were silenced , when indeed they only thought , . that it bound them to give up the temples and tithes and publick maintenance ( which are at the magistrates dispose , ) . and to forbear that manner and those circumstances of their ministry as no law of god in nature or scripture do oblige them to , but will do more hurt than good ; i have now for fuller satisfaction , here added the testimony of his son concerning his judgment and practice : who nineteen years had his liberty in lancashire to preach publickly , in a chappel , and after that in northumberland , and no wonder if the disorders of brownism that would have deprived them of all such liberty were opposed . i have perused mr. rathband's book ( written by some others ) and i find nothing in it that i consent not to , but desire him that would understand it to read the book it self . mr. rathband's letter to me is as followeth . reverend sir , whereas doctor stillingfleet in a late book of his hath alledged a book published by my father , to prove that preaching contrary to our established laws is contrary to the doctrine of all the nonconformists in former times , i assure you , sir , that my father is not to be reckoned in that number ; for he exercised his ministry , though contrary to the law , for many years at a chappel in lancashire , and after he was silenced he preached in private , as he had opportunity and the times would bear ; of which i my self was sometime a witness . afterward , upon the invitation of a gentleman , he exercised his ministry at belsham in northumberland , for about a year , and from thence he removed to owingham in the same county , where he preached also about a year , till being silenced there , he retired into private as formerly . this i thought expedient to signifie to you , and you may make what use of it you please , for what is written here shall be owned by sir , yours in all christian respects , william rathband . london , april . . ( he is a grave and worthy nonconforming ejected minister , living usually in high-gate . ) his father read part of the common-prayer , and kept in as aforesaid . and i thank doctor stillingfleet for so full a vindication of such old nonconformists against the accusations of their prosecutors . iii. when my book was almost printed , i received the manuscript of a faithful learned ejected minister , in which , he manifesteth the fallacy of doctor stillingfleet's allegations of history for the antiquity of diocesan bishops , and fully proveth that for the first three hundred years the bishops were congregational and parochial , and that with so full evidence , as that out of strabo and other geographers he sheweth that many of their seats were but about four miles from one another , as our parish churches are ; and he confuteth what is said against it . and he sheweth the doctors gross abuse of history , to prove that bishops needed not the peoples consent , and proveth that the peoples choice or consent was necessary by the constant judgment of the churches . but this book is of so great worth , that i will not dishonour it by making it an appendix to mine , but intend to make so bold with the author , as to publish it by it self . . as a fuller confutation to doctor stillingfleet . . as a full answer to mr. dodwell's letters on that subject ; and . as a confirmation of my full proof of the same things , in my treatise of episcopacy . iv. and if any will receive that from a conformist , which he will not receive from such a one as i , he may read , . our full and faithful vindication by a beneficed minister , and a regular son of the church , called a compassionate consideration of the case of the nonconformists : i am not so happy as to know the author , but he confirmeth my former judgment , that a great part of the passive conformists are moderate worthy men , with whom we should earnestly endeavour as near and fast a coalition as is possible to be had by lawful means . . and either the same hand , or such another conformist , hath written reflections on doctor stillingfleet , in which the like candor and charity appeareth , though with some excess of kindness to me . v. with this defence against doctor stillingfleet , i at once pubblish in another volume , an apology for the nonconfirmists preaching , with an answer to a multitude of their accusers , and reasons to prove that it is the bishops and conformists great duty and interest to seek their restoration . which is the most material part of the confutation of doctor stillingfleet , who would persuade us that our preaching is a sin , and make us guilty of silencing our selves . finis . books lately printed for nevil simmons , ●● the three cocks at the west and of st. pauls ▪ . church-history of the government of bishops and their councils abbreviated ▪ including the chief part of the government of christian princes and popes , and a true account of the most troubling controversies and heresies till the reformation . written for the use especially of them ; . who are ignorant or misinformed of the state of the ancient churches . . who cannot read many and great volumes . . who think that the universal church must have one visible soveraign , personal or collective , pope or general councils . . who would know whether patriarchs , diocesans , and their councils , have been , or must be the cure of heresies and schisms . . who would know the truth about the great heresies which have divided the christian world , especially the donatists , novatians , arians , macedonians , nestorians ▪ eutychians , monothelites , &c. . a treatise of episcopacy ; confuting by scripture , reason , and the churches testimony , that sort of diocesan churches , prelacy , and government , which casteth out the primitive church species , episcopacy , ministry and discipline , and confoundeth the christian world by corruption , usurpation , schism , and persecution . meditated in the year , , when the et-c●tera oath was imposed . written . and cast by . published . by the importunity of our superiours , who demand the reasons of our nonconformity . . a moral prognostication , . what shall befall the church on earth , till their concord , by the restitution of their primitive purity , simplicity , and charity . . how that restitution is like to be made , ( if ever ) and what shall befall them thenceforth unto the end , in that golden age of love. all three by rich. baxter . . memorabilia : or , the most remarkable passages and counsels , collected out of the several declarations and speeches that have been made by the king , his lord-chancellors and keepers , and the speeches of the honourable house of commons in parliament ; since his majesties happy restauration , anno . till the end of the last parliament , . reduced under four heads ; . of the protestant religion , . of popery . . of liberty and property , &c. . of ●●rliaments . by edward cooks , of the middle . temple , esq reader , i must take this opportunity for the avoiding of mistakes to give thee notice , that whereas against them that plead for the necessity of an uninterrupted succession of episcopal ordination , i have in the preface to my book for universal concord , and in the beginning of my breviate of church-history , said that our northern english episcopacy was derived from such as were no bishops , but scottish monks and presbyters , and that aidan and finan , ( tromhere , coleman ) were such , lest i be misunderstood , i must further explain my meaning ; viz. . the culdees that were no bishops , first guided the affairs of religion in scotland , long before the coming of palladius . . these culdees chose themselves for order sake some few to be as guides and governorus to the rest , whom writers called scotorum episcopos , but were no bishops in our controverted sense : but as an abbot among monks , and as the presidents or principals of colledges , rule those that are of the same office or order with them . nor had they any limited fixed diocesses . . and if any will call these bishops , and the question be but de nomine , let them call them so and spare not : i contend not against them . . afterwards palladius sent from rome , began a higher sort of bishops : but the culdees still kept up the greater part against him . . columbanus his monastery in the isle of hy restored the culdees strength . and the monks out of that island were the most prevailing clergy of scotland ; who had no proper episcopal ordination : or if you will call their ordainers bishops , they were not only ejusdem ordinis with the presbyters , but also not ordained by bishops themselves , but made such by mission from the monastery , and bare election and ordination of presbyters . . out of this famous holy monastery , was aidan first , and finan after , [ and tromhere &c. ] and coleman after sent into northumberland , where they aresaid to be made bishops . and they were the first bishops that came thither ; and so , had no ordination in england from any bishops that were there before : nor is there any probability that the palladian bishops did ordain them bishops : but that their own order of senior monks and presbyters only ordained them . . beda was such a votary to the church of rome , that his testimony runs more for the romish interest than most of the scottish or english historians of those times : yet lib. . c. . saith of aidan but that his approbation was in conventu seniorum , and sic illum ordinantes ad praedicandum miserunt . and c. . that finan pro illo gradum episcopatus a scottis ordinatus & missus acceperat , qui in insula lindisfarnensi secit ecclesiam episcopali sedi congruam ; quam tamen more scottorum , uno de lapide , sed de robore secto totam composuit , & arundine ●exit . et defuncto finano , qui post ipsum fuerit , cum colmannus in episcopain suc●ederet , & ipse missus a scotia , &c. and the king oswi himself was taught by the scots , and was of their language and for their way . and cedda was ordained by the scots ; and at a synod three or four of these kind of bishops with the king and his son , and hilda a woman , abbesse , were the company that made it . c. . and c. . tuda also was ordained by the scots . and c. . the bishops themselves were under the government of the abbot , juxta exemplum primi doctoris , qui non episcopus , sed presbyter extitit et monachus . . li. . c. . he saith that non erat tune ullus excepto wini in totâ britania canoniee ordinatus episcopus . . and as there is no word of proof that it was the palladian roman bishops that ordained these northumbrian bishops , so there is enough to the contrary , in that all these foresaid bishops continued the stiffe enemies of the roman power and order , which palladius came to introduce . insomuch that beda oft mentioneth their utter aversion to the roman party , and that the brittons and scots , were all of a mind , and daganus and the rest would not so much as eate with the romanists , no nor so much as eat in the same house or inn with them , lib. . c. . . and lastly even that sort of episcopacy , which they took in northumberland , was but equivocally so called as to that which we dispute about , and not ejusdem speciei . for. . they never pretended to a distinct order from the presbyters . . they had but one poor church made of wood , and thatcht with reeds , and no possessions else : and from the●●e they went from village to village to instruct , convert and pray with the people . and that our english episcopacy●eri●eth ●eri●eth its succession from these scots and the brittaine● , and not frome rome by augustine and palladius , i refer the reader to mr. jones , and to the preface before knox his church-history . thus much i thought needfull to prevent being misunderstood about the episcopacy of aidan , 〈◊〉 &c. such an episcopacy as the bishop of hereford pleade th for in his naked truth . i meet with few that are against ; any more than that the colledge of physicians , or philosophers , or divines have ● president . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e a the new church since bishop laud's change . b note that the bishops book as against me , runs upon a mere fiction , p. . that i traduce him as a factor for popery , when i had not a word to that purpose ; yea expresly excepted him by name , though i argued against his too neer approach . c no such thing , but of the churches within the empire then . d was there no necessary cause till after , an. ? e so then these protestant bishops give the pope patriarchal power , and primacy of order , and as much as the greeks : but . they had by councils of old no patriarchal power over other kingdoms out of the empire . . obedience to the pope as a patriarch , is against the oath of supremacy , and on the matter little differeth our case from obe●ing him as pope . f so that this arch-bishop also was set on the pious design of joyning with the papists on these terms , and may not we have leave to worship god on better terms ? g that is , . the pope is not to govern us arbitrarily , but by canons , ( which what they are is hardly known . ) . and all will be schismaticks , that so obey him not . h . thus for union with rome , all protestants must pass for self made schismaticks , that cannot obey the pope as patriarch : and doth this tend indeed to concord ? it would open protestants eyes , did i but tell you all that is in the canons , which the pope as our patriarch must rule us by , as these doctors do desire . i . if this doctrine be true , no wonder that mr. thorndike thought we could not justifie our reformation , till we alter the oath of supremacy ; then we are bound in conscience to a foreign jurisdiction . . i have fully proved many great errors and sins to be decreed by many of the councils , by which the pope , as patriarch , must rule us all . . is it any easier to do evil in obedience to a patriarch than a pope ? . in my last book against w. johnson , alias tenet , i have fully confuted all that he saith of the universality of councils , and the patriarchs power over the abassines , and others without the empire , and shewed they were then all but in one empire , as the arch-bishop of canterbury is in england . ☜ page . a vain writer and malicious , if not mad and distracted . p. . he will magnifie the very worst of men , if they be of his mind , and vilifie the best if they be of another . p. . he hath full liberty to vie with the devil himself in his calumnies : with more such . a moral prognostication i. what shall befall the churches on earth, till their concord, by the restitution of their primitive purity, simplicity, and charity, ii. how that restitution is like to be made, (if ever) and what shall befall them thence-forth unto the end, in that golden-age of love / written by richard baxter ... baxter, richard, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; 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(eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a moral prognostication i. what shall befall the churches on earth, till their concord, by the restitution of their primitive purity, simplicity, and charity, ii. how that restitution is like to be made, (if ever) and what shall befall them thence-forth unto the end, in that golden-age of love / written by richard baxter ... baxter, richard, - . [ ], p. printed for thomas simmons ..., london : . reproduction of original in harvard university libraries. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng dissenters, religious -- england. christian union -- early works to . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - john cords sampled and proofread - john cords text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a moral prognostication , i. what shall befall the churches on earth , till their concord , by the restitution of their primitive purity , simplicity , and charity . ii. how that restitution is like to be made , ( if ever ) and what shall befall them thence-forth unto the end , in that golden-age of love . written by richard baxter . when by the king's commission , we ( in vain ) treated for concord , . and now published , not to instruct the proud , that scorn to learn ; nor to make them wise , who will not be made wise : but to instruct the sons of love and peace , in their duties and expectations . and to tell posterity , that the things which befall them , were fore-told : and that the evil might have been prevented , and blessed peace on earth attained , if men had been but willing ; and had not shut their eyes , and hardened their hearts , against the beams of light and love. london , printed for thomas simmons , at the princes-arms in ludgate-street , . to the reader . reader , it is many years , since this prognostication was written , ( , except the sixteen last lines ) but it was cast by , lest it should offend the guilty . but the author now thinketh , that the monitory usefulness , may over-weigh the inconveniencies of mens displeasure ; at least , to posterity , if not for the present age ; of which , he is taking his fare-wel . his suppositions are such as cannot be denyed . viz. . eccles . . . the thing that hath been , is that which shall be ; and that which is done , is that which shall be done : and there is no new thing under the sun. . the same causes , with the same circumstances , will have the same effects on recipients , equally disposed . . operari sequitur esse : as natures are , so they act ; except where over-power'd . . the appetite ( sensitive and rational ) is the principle of motion ; and what any love , they will desire and seek . . therefore , interest will turn the affairs of the world ; and he that can best understand all interests , will be the best moral prognosticator ; so far as men are causes of the events . . the pleasing of god , and the happyness of their own and others souls , being the interest of true believers ; and temporal life , pleasure , and prosperity , being the seeming and esteemed interest of unbelievers cross interests , will carry them contrary wayes . . contraries , when near and militant , will be troublesome to each other , and seek each others destruction or debilitation . . the senses and experience of all men , in all ages , are to be believed about their proper objects . . men of activity , power , and great numbers , will have advantage for observance and success , above those that are modest , obscure , and few . . yet men will still be men ; and the rational nature will yield some friendly aspect towards the truth . . those that are ignorant , and misled by passion , and carryed down the stream , by men of malignity or faction , may come to themselves , when affliction , experience , and considerateness have had time to work ; and may repent , and undo some-what that they have done . . as sense will be sense , when faith hath done its best ; so faith will be faith , when flesh or sense hath done its worst . . men that fix on a heavenly , everlasting interest , will not be temporizers , and changed by the worldly mens wills or cruelties . . when all men have tired themselves with their contrivances and stirs , moderation and peace must be the quiet state. . when all worldly wisdome hath done its utmost , an● mens endeavours are w●inged with the greatest expectations ; god will be god , and blast what he nilleth ; and will over-rule all things , to the accomplishment of his most blessed will. amen . on these suppositions it is , that the following prognostications are founded ; which i must admonish the reader , not to mistake for historical narratives : but , i exhort him to know what hath been , and what is , if he would know what will be ; and to make sure of everlasting rest with christ , when he must leave a sinful , restless world . a moral prognostication of what must be expected in the churches of christendome , till the golden age returns ; or , till the time of true reformation and vnity . . mankind will be born in a state of infancy and nescience , that is , without actual knowledge . . yea , with a nature that hath the innate dispositions to sloath , and to diverting pleasures and business ; and more than so , to an aversness from those principles which are needful to sanctification , and heavenly wisdom . the carnal mind will have an enmity against god , and will not mind the things of the spirit , nor be subject to god's law , rom. . , , , . . sound learning , or wisdom , in things of so high a nature , as are the matters of salvation , will not be attain'd without hard study , and earnest prayer , and humble submission to instructions ; and all this a long time patiently endured , or rather willingly , and delightfully performed . . and if the seeds of wisdom be not born with us , in a capacious disposition of understanding ; but contrarily a natural unapprehensiveness blocks up the way ; even time and labour , will never ( without a miracle ) bring any , to any great eminency of understanding . . and they that have both capacity , and an industrious disposition , must have also sound , and able , and diligent teachers , or at least escape the hands of seducers , and of partial factious guides . . there are few born with good natural capacities , much less with a special dispositive acuteness ; and few that will be at the pains and patience , which the getting of wisdom doth require ; and few that will have the happiness of sound , and diligent teachers ; but fewest of all that will have a concurrence of all these three . . therefore there will be but few very wise men in the world ; ignorance will be common , wisdom will be rare . . therefore errour or false opinions will be common . for unless men never think of the things of which they are ignorant , or judge nothing of them one way or other , they are sure to err , so far as they judge in ignorance . but when things of greatest moment are represented as true or false , to be believed or rejected , the most ignorant mind , is naturally inclined to pass its judgment or opinion of them one way or other ; and to apprehend them according to the light he standeth in , and to think of them as he is disposed . so that ignorance and errour will concur . . he that erreth , doth think that he is in the right , and erreth not : for to err , and to know that he erreth in judgment , is a contradiction , and impossible . ( however in words and deeds a man may err , and know that he erreth . ) . he that knoweth not , and that erreth , perceiveth not that evidence of truth , which should make him receive it , and which maketh other men receive it ; and therefore knoweth not that indeed another is in the right , or seeth any more than he . . especially when every man is a stranger to anothers mind and soul , as to any immediate inspection : and therefore , knoweth not anothers knowledge , nor the convincing reasons of his judgment . . as no man is moved against his own errours , by the reasons which he knoweth not ; so pride , and self-love , and partiality thence arising , incline all men naturally to be over-valuers of their own understandings , and so over-confident of all their own conceptions , and over-stiff in defending all their errours , as pride and selfishness are the first-born of satan , and the root of all positive evil in man's soul ; so a man is more naturally proud of that which is the honour of a man , which is his understanding and goodness , than of that which is common to a beast ( as strength , beauty , ornaments , &c. ) therefore pride of understanding and goodness oft live , when sordid apparel telleth you that childish pride of ornaments is dead . and this pride maketh it very difficult , to the most ignorant and erronious , to know their ignorance and errour , or so much as to suspect their own understandings . . he that seeth but few things , seeth not much to make him doubt , and seeth not the difficulties which should check his confidence , and stiffness in his way . . he that seeth many things , and that clearly knoweth much ; especially , if he see them in their order , and respects to one another , and leaveth out no one substantial part , which is needful to open the signification of the rest . . he that seeth many things disorderly , and confusedly , and not in due method , and leaveth out some substantial parts , and hath not a digested knowledge , doth know much , and err much , and may make a bustle in the world of ignorants , as if he were an excellent learned man ; but hath little of the inward delight , or of the power and benefits of knowledge . . he that seeth many things but darkly , confusedly , and not in the true place and method , cannot reconcile truths among themselves ; but is like a boy with a pair of tarrying-irons , or like one that hath his clock or watch all in peices , and knoweth not how to set them altogether . and therefore , is inclined to be a sceptick . . this sort of scepticks , differ much from humble christians ; and have oft as high thoughts of their understandings as any others : for they lay the cause upon the difficulties in the objects , rather than on themselves : unless , when they incline to brutishness or sadduceisme , and take man's understanding to be uncapable of true knowledge , and so lay the blame on humane nature as such , that is , on the creator . . few know so much as to see the difficulty of things , and make them doubt , or sceptical . but far fewer know , so much as to resolve their doubts and difficulties : therefore , though ( as bishop jewel saith of faithful pastors ) i say not that there will be few cardinals , few bishops , few doctors , few deans , few jesuits , few fryars , ( there will be anow of these ) yet there will be few wise judicious divines , and pastors , even in the best and happyest countrys . . seeing he that knoweth not or that erreth , knoweth not that another knoweth , or is in the right , when he is in the wrong ; therefore he knoweth not whose judgment to honour and submit to , if he should suspect or be driven from his own : and therefore is not so happy , as to be able to choose the fittest teacher for himself . . in this darkness , therefore he either carnally casteth himself on the highest and most honoured in the world , where he hath the most advantages for worldly ends ; or he followeth the fame of the time and country where he is , or he falleth in with the major vote , of that party whatsoever it be , which his understanding doth most esteem and honour ; or else with some person that hath most advantage on him . . if any of these happen to be in the right , he will be also in the right materially , and may seem an orthodox , peaceable , and praise-worthy man : but where they are in the wrong , he is contented with the reputation of being in the right , and of the good opinion of those whom he concurreth with ; who flatter , and applaud each other in the dark . . when wise men are but few , they can be but in few places ; and therefore will be absent from most of the people ( high or low ) that need instruction . besides , that their studiousness inclineth them ( like hierom ) to be more retired than others , that know less . . this confidence in an erring mind , is not only the case of the teachers , as well as of the flocks ; but is usually more fortifyed in them than in others : for they think that the honour of learning and wisdom , is due to their place and calling , and name , and standing in the universities ; how empty soever they be themselves . and they take it for a double dishonor ( as it is ) for a teacher to be accounted ignorant ; and an injury to their work and office , and to the people's souls , that must by their honor be prepared to profit by them ; and therefore , they smart more impatiently under any detection of their ignorance , than the common people do . . it is not meer honesty and godliness , that will suffice to save ministers or people from this ignorance , injudiciousness and errour ; there having ever been among the very godly ministers , few judicious men , that are fit to investigate a difficult truth , or to defend it against a subtile adversary , or to see the systeme of theological verities in their proper method , harmony , and beauty . . morality hath innumerable difficulties as well as school-divinity : because that moral good and evil , are ordinarily such by preponderating accidents ; ( actions as actions , being neither ; but only of physical consideration . ) and the work of a true casuist is to compare so many accidents , and to discern in the comparison which prepondorateth that it requireth both an acute and a large capacious far seeing wit , to make a man a true resolver of cases of conscience . and consequently to be a judicious paster , that shall not lead the people into errours . . as few teachers have natural capacity for exactness , and a willingness , and patience for long laborious studies ; so many by their pastoral oversight of souls , and many by the wants of their families ( especially in times or persecution , when all their publike maintenance is gone , and they must live ( with their families ) on the charity of people , perhaps poor and persecuted as well as they ) are hindred from those studies , which else they would undergo . . it is few that grow to much exactness of judgment without much writing ( for themselves or others ) : for study , which is to be exactly ordered and expressed by the pen , is usually ( at last ) the exactest study : as the lord bacon saith , [ much reading maketh a man full ; much conference maketh a man ready : and much writing maketh a man exact . ] there are few camero's , men of clear judgment , and abhorring to write . and there are few divines comparatively that have opportunity to write much . . they that err in divinity , do think their falsehoods to be god's truth ; and so will honour that which he hates , with the pretence of his authority and name . . therefore they will call up their own , and other mens zeal , to defend those falshoods as for god , and think that in so doing they do god service . . and the interest of their own place , and honour , and ends , will secretly insinuate when they discern it not , and will increase their zeal against opposers . . therefore , seeing they are usually many , and wise men but few , they will expect that number should give the precedency to their opinions , and will call those proud , or heretical that gain-say them , and labour to defame them , as self-conceited opinionative-men . . therefore too many godly ministers will be great opposers of many of those truths of god , which they know not , and which they err about , and will help on the service of satan in the world ; and will be the authors of factions and contentions in the churches ; whilst too many are [ proud , knowing nothing ( in those matters when they think they are most orthodox ) but doting about questions , and strifes of words , whereof cometh envy , strife , railing , evil surmisings , perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds ( in this ) and destitute of the truth , tim. . , . . and if many good men will erroniously stand up against that truth which any man wiser than themselves maketh known , the worldly , and malicious , that have a manifold enmity against it , will be ready to strengthen them by their concurrence , and to joyn in the opposition . . not they that are wisest at a distance , but they that are nearest the people , and are always with them , are likest to prevail to make disciples of them , and bring them to their mind : so great an advantage it is , to talk daily and confidently to ignorant souls , when there is none to talk against them , and to make their folly known . . especially if the same men can get interest in their esteem as well as neerness , and make themselves esteemed the best or wisest men. . therefore jesuitical , worldly clergy men , will always get about great men , and insinuate into nobles , and will still defame them that are wise and good , that they may seem odious , and themselves seem excellent , and so may carry it by deceitful shews . . and they will do their best , to procure all wise and good men , that are against their interest , to be banished from the palaces of princes and nobles , where they are ; lest their presence should confute their slanderers , and they should be as burning and shining lights , that carry their witness with them , where they come : and also to bring them under publike stigmatizing censures , and sufferings ; that their names may be infamous and odious , in the world. . and heretical pastors will play a lower game , & creep into the houses of silly people , prepared by ignorance , and soul-disturbers to receive their heresies . . between these two sorts of naughty pastors ( the wordly and the heretical ) and also the multitude of weak erroneous honest teachers , the soundest and worthyest will be so few , that far most of the people ( high and low ) are like to live under the influences and advantages of erring-men ; and therefore , themselves to be an erring people . . in that measure , that men are carnal ; their own carnal interest will rule them . and both the worldly and heretical clergy , are ruled by carnal interests , though not the same materially . and the honester erring ministers , are swayed by their interests too much ; insomuch , that on this account , is was no over-valuing of tymothy , or wrong to the other pastors , that it should plainly be said by paul , phil. . , . [ for i have no man like minded , who will naturally care for your state. for all seek their own , not the things which are jesus christs . ] and act. . . [ of your own selves shall men arise , and speak perverse things , to draw away disciples after them . ] besides the grievous wolves which would not spare the flocks . . the interest then of the worldly clergy , will consist in pleasing the great ones of the world ; for lordships , and worldly wealth , and honour , and to be made the rulers of their brethren , and to have their wills : and the interest of hereticks will be to have many to be of their own opinion to admire them : and the interest of upright ministers , will be to please god , and propagate the gospel , increase the church , and save mens souls . yet so that they have a subordinate interest , for food and rayment , and families , and necessary reputation , which they are too apt to overvalue . . therefore , it will be the great trade of the worldly clergy , to please and flatter the rulers of the world , and by all artificial insinuations , and by their friends , to work themselves into their favour , and by scorns and calumnies , to work out all other that are against their interest . . and it will be the trade of hereticks , to insinuate into the more ductile people , especially as ministers of truth and righteousness , that have somewhat more excellent in knowlenge or holiness , than the faithful ministers of christ . . and it will be the work of faithful ministers , to save mens souls . but with such various degrees of self-denyal or selfishness , as they have various degrees of wisdom and holiness . . many great and piously disposed princes , like constantine , will think that to honour and advance the clergy , into worldly power and wealth , is to honour god and the christian religion : and great munificence is fit for their own greatness . . and because such honour and wealth cannot possibly be bestowed on all ; it must make a great disparity , and set some as lords over the rest . . and the unavoidable weakness , passions , and divisions of the clergy , will make rulers think , that there is a necessity ; that besides the civil government , there should be some of their own office , to rule the rest , and to keep them in order , obedience , and peace . . ambition and covetousness , will abuse this munificence of princes : and whilst that any church preferments are so great ( beyond the degree of a meer encouraging subsistence ) as to be a strong bait to tempt the desires of a proud and worldly mind , the most proud and worldly that are within the reach of hope , will be the seekers ; by themselves , and by their friends . . mortified , humble , heavenly men , will either never seek them , or with no gre●● eagerness ; their appetite being less , and their restraints much greater . . therefore they that have the keenest appetites to church-grandure and preferments , and are the eager seekers , are likest to find . . therefore the lovers of wealth and honour , are likest still to be lords among the clergy ; except in such marvellous happy times , when wise and pious princes , call the more worthy that seek it not , and reject these thirsty seekers . . the greatest lovers of worldly wealth and honour , are the worst men , joh. . . jam. . . &c. . therefore , except in such times as aforesaid , the worst men will be still the rich and powerful in the clergy , for the most part , or at least , the worldly that are very bad . . these carnal minds are enmity to god , and cannot be subject to his law. and the friendship of the world is enmity to god. and the honour , and wealth of these worldly men , will be taken by them for their interest : and they will set themselves to defend it , against all that would endanger it . . the doctrine and practise of humility , mortification , contempt of the world , forsaking all , taking up the cross , &c. is so much of the christian religion , that however the worldly clergy may formally preach it ; their minds and interests are at enmity to it . . such men will make church-canons according to their interests and minds . . and they will judge of ministers and people , according to their interest and mind ; who is sound , and who is erroneous ; who is honest , and who is bad ; who is worthy of favour , and who is worthy of all the reproches that can be devised against him ? . the humble , mortified ministers , and people , that are seriously the servants of a crucified christ ; and place their hopes , and portion in another world , have a holy disposition , contrary to this worldly carnal mind ; and their manner of preaching , will be of a different relish , and the tenour of their lives , of a contrary course . . the generality of the best people in the christian churches , will perceive the difference between the worldly , and the heavenly manner of preaching , and of living , and will love and honour the later , far above the former ; because their new nature suiteth with things spiritual , and fitteth them , to relish them . . the worst of vicious and worldly men , will disrelish the spiritual manner of preaching and living , and will joyn with the worldly clergy against it . . the worldly clergy being hypocrites , as to christianity-and godlin●ss ( like judas that loved the bag , better than christ ) they will make themselves a religion , consisting of the meer corps , and dead image of the true religion ; of set words , and actions , and formalities , and orders , which in themselves are ( many , at least , if not all ) good ; but the life they will not endure . . this image of true religion or corps of godliness , they will dress up with many additional flowers out of their own gardens , some tolerable , and some corrupting : that so they may have something which both their own consciences , and the world , may take to be honourable religion ; lest known ▪ ungodliness should terrify conscience within , and shame them in the world without . . this image of religion so drest up , will suit their carnal auditors and people too , 〈◊〉 the same ends ; and therefore , will become their uniting interest . . that which is but a weed among these flowers , the more heavenly ministers and people will dislike , and much more dislike the loathsome face of death ( or lifelesness ) in their religion . . these differences of mind and practise , will engage both parties in some kind of opposition to each other . the worldly clergy or hipocrites , will have heart-risings against the ministers and people that think meanly of them , and will take it for their interest to bring them down . for enmity is hardly restrained from exercise . and cain will be wrath , that abels sacrifice is better accepted than his own . . the better ministers , will be apt through passion , to speak too dishonourably of the other : and the rash , and younger sort , and the heretical hypocrites that fall in with them , will take it for part of a godly zeal to speak against them to the people , in such words as christ used of the scribes and pharisees . . hereupon the exasperations of each party , will be increased more and more ; and the powerful worldly clergy , will think it their interest , to devise some new impositions , which they know the other cannot yield to , to work them out . . whether they be oaths , subscriptions , words , or actions ; which they believe to be against gods word , the spiritual , and upright part of the clergy and people , will not perform them ; resolving to obey god , rather than man. . hereupon the worldly part will take their advantage , and call them disobedient , stubborn , proud , schismatical , self opinioned , disturbers of the publick peace and order , pestilent fellows , and movers of sedition among the people , that will let nothing be quiet , but turn the world upside-down , act. . , . and will endeavour to bring them to such sufferings , as men really guilty of such crimes deserve . . and because the suffering , and dissenting party of ministers , when silenced will leave many vacancies in the churches they will be fain to fill them with men , how empty and unworthy soever , that are of their own spirit , and will be true to their interests . . the exasperation of their sufferings , will make many , otherwise sober ministers too impatient , and to give their tongues leave to take down the honour of the clergy , whom they suffer by more than beseemeth men of humility , charity , and patience . . when the people , that most esteem their faithful ministers , are deprived of their labours , by the prohibitions of the rest , and themselves also afflicted with them ; it will stir up in them an inordinate , unwarrantable , passionate zeal ; which will corrupt their very prayers , and make them speak unseemly things , and pray for the downfal of that clergy , which they take to be the enemies of god , and godliness . and they will think that to speak easily or charitably of such men , as dare forbid christs ministers to preach his gospel , and by notorious sacriledge , alienate the persons , and gifts that were consecrated solemnly to god ; is but to be luke-warm , and indifferent between god and the devil . . and when they take them as enemies to religion , and to themselves , the younger and rasher sort of ministers ; but much more the people , will grow into a suspition of all that they see their afflicters stand for : they will dislike not only their faults ; but many harmless things , yea many laudable customes which they use ; and will grow into some superstition in opposition to them , making new sins in the manner of worship , which god never forbad or made to be sins ; and taking up new duties , which god never made duties ; yea ready to forforsake some old & wholesome doctrines ; because their afflicters own them , and to take up some new unsound doctrines , and expositions of gods word ; because they are inclined by opinion , and passion conjoyned , to go as far as may be from such men , whom they think so bad of . . and the vulgar people that have but little sense of religion ( that are not by the foresaid interest , united to the afflicting clergy ) having a reverence to the worth of those that are afflicted , and an experience of the rawness , and differing lives of many that possess their rooms , will grow to compassionate the afflicted , and to think that they are injured themselves , and so to think hardly of the causers of all this . . hereupon the powerful clergy , will increase their accusations against the party that is against them , and declare to the world in print and pulpits , their ignorance , unpeaceableness , unruliness , giddiness , false opinions , and conceits about the manner of worship , and how unsufferable a sort of men they are . . by this time the devil will have done the radical part of his work ; which is to destroy much of christian love to one another , and make them take each other for unlovely odious persons : the one part , for persecuting enemies of godliness , and hypocrites , and pharisees : the other for pevish , seditious , turbulent , unruly sectaries . and on these supositions , all their after characters , affections and practises towards each other will proceed . . by this enmity and opposition against each other , both parties will increase in wrath , and somewhere in numbers . the worldly afflicting clergy will multiply not only such as are disaffected to them , but downright fanaticks , and sectaries that will run as far from them as they can , into contrary extreams . for when they are once brought into a distast of the old hive , the bees will hardly gather into one new one ; but will divide into several swarms and hives . as every mans zeal is more against the afflicting party ; so he will go further from them : some to be separatists , some anabaptists , some antinomians , some seekers , some quakers , and some to they know not what themselves . . for the women and apprentices , and novices in christianity , that have more passion than judgment , will abundance of them quite over-run , even their own afflicted teachers , and will forsake them if they will not over-run their own judgments , in forsaking those that do afflict them . . and many hypocrites that have no sound religion ; but ignorance , pride , and u●charitableness , will thrust in among them , in these discontents ; or spring up in the nurceries of these bryers of passion , and will bring in new doctrines , and new ways of worship , and make themselves preachers , and the heads of sects : by reason of whom , the way of truth shall be evil spoken of . . and many unstable persons seeing this , will dread and loath so giddy a sort of men , and will turn papists , upon the perswasions of them that tell them , that there is no true unity nor consistency , but at rome ; and that all must thus turn giddy at last , that are not fixed in the papal head. and thus they that fly too far from the common prayer book , will drive men to the mass , and the afflicters will make sectaries , and the sectaries will make papists . . when the violent clergy , instead of a fatherly government of the flocks , have driven the people into passions , distempers , and uncharitable disaffections to themselves , and have also been the great cause of multiplyed heresies , and sects by the same means , instead of being humbled and penitent for their sin , they will be hardened , and justify all their violences , by the giddiness and miscarriages of those sectaries , which they themselves have made . . and when they publish the faults of such , for the justification of their own violence , they will draw thousands into an approbation of their courses , ( to think that such a turbulent people can never be too hardly called or used ) and consequently into a participation of their guilt . . by all this , the dissenters will be still more alienated from them ; and many will aggravate the crime of the ministers that conform to their impositions , and obey them ; and for the sake of a few that afflict them , they will condemn many laudable conforming ministers , that never consented to it ; but could heartily wish , that it were otherwise . . and the younger , and indiscreeter passionate sort , will frequently reproach such , as unconsionable temporizers , that will do any thing for worldly ends , and that as hypocrites for a fleshly interest , concur with the corrupters , and afflicters of the godly . . these censures and reproaches , will provoke those conforming ministers , who are not masters of their passions , nor conquerors of their pride , to think as bad of the censurers , as their afflicters do , and to joyn with them in the displaying of all their enormities , and promoting their further sufferings , and publishing the folly and turbulency of their spirits , with spleen and partiality . . by these kind of speeches , preachings , and writings , multitudes of the debaucht will be hardened in their sin against all religion : for when they observe that it is the same party of men , who are thus reproached , that are the strictest reprovers of their lewdness , their fornicatious , tipling , gaming , luxuries , and ungodliness : they will think that it 's no great matter , what such a defamed giddy sort of people say , and that really they are worse themselves . . each party of these adversaries , will characterize the adverse party as hypocrites : the passionate sufferers , will call the afflicters , [ hypocrites and pharisees , that have no religion , but a formal shew of outside ceremonies and words , and that tythe , mint , and cummin , and wash the outside , while within , they are full of persecuting cruelty , and are wolves in sheeps cloathing , loving the uppermost seats , and great titles , and ceremonious philacteries , whilst they are enemies to the preaching of the gospel of christ , and get revenues to themselves , and devour not only the houses , but the peace , and lives of others , under pretence of long liturgies ; and that devour the living saints , while they keep holy-days , and build monuments for the dead ones , whom their fathers murdered , &c ] and the powerful clergy , will call the others hypocrites , and labour to shew that the pharisees character belongeth to them , and that their pretences of strictness in religion , and their long praying and preaching , is but a cloak to cover their disobedience , and covetousness , and secret sins ; and that their hearts , and inside , is as bad as others , and that their fervency in devotion , is but an hypocritical , affected , whining , and canting ; and that they are worse , than the lesser religious sort of people ; because they are more unpeaceable , and disobedient , and add hypocrisy to their sin. . the ignorant , worldlings , drunkards , and ungodly despisers of holiness and heaven , being in all countrys most contradicted in their way , by this stricter sort of men , and hearing them in pulpit , and press so brandid for hypocrites , will joyfully unite themselves with the censurers ; and so they will make up as one party , in crying down the precise hypocrites ; and usually make some name to call them by , as their brand of common ignominy : and they will live the more quietly in all their sins , and think they shall be saved , as soon as the precisest , that make more shew , but have no more sincerity , but more hypocrisy than themselves . . the suffering party , seeing the ungodly , and the conforming afflicters of them thus united , and made one party in opposition to them , will increase their hard thoughts of the adverse clergy , and take them for downright prophane , and the leading enemies of godliness in the world , that will be captains in the devils army , and lead on all the most ungodly , against serious godliness , for their wordly ends. . and the young and indifferent sort of people in all countrys , that were engaged in neither part , being but strangers to religion , and to the differences , will be ready to judge of the cause by the persons ; and seeing so many of the dignified advanced clergy , and the more sensual sort of the people on one side , and so many men of strict lives on the other , that suffer ▪ also for their religion , and hearing too that it is some name of preciseness , that they are reproached by , will think them to be the better side ; and so the title of the godly will grow by degrees , to be almost appropriated to their party , and the title of prophane and persecuters to the other . . all this while the nonconforming ministers , will be somewhat differently affected , according to the different degrees of their judiciousness , experience , and self-denyal . some of them will think these passions of the people needful , to check the fierceness of the afflicters ( which doth but exasperate it ) ; and therefore , will let them alone , though they will not encourage them . some of the younger or more injudicious hot-brain'd sort will put them on , and make them believe , that all communion with any conforming ministers or their parish-churches is unlawful , and their forms of worship , are sinful and anti-christian ; and that they are all temporizers , and betrayers of truth , and purity , that communicate or assemble with them . the judicious , and experienced , and most patient , and self-denying sort , will themselves abstain from all that is sin ; and as far as it is in their choice and power , will joyn with the churches , that worship god most agreeably to his word and will ; but so , as that they will not be loud in their complaints , nor busy to draw men to their opinions in controvertible points , nor will unchurch and condemn all the churches that have something which they dislike as sinful ; nor will renounce the communion of all faulty churches , lest they renounce the communion of all in the world , and teach all others to renounce theirs : but they will sometimes communicate with the more faulty churches , to shew that they unchurch them not ( so they be not forced in it to any sin ) ; though usually they will prefer the purest : yea , ordinarily they will joyn with the more faulty , when they can have no better , or when the publike good requireth it . they will never prefer the interest of their nonconforming party , before the interest of christianity , or the publike good : they will so defend lesser truths , as not to neglect or disadvantage the greater , which all are agreed in ; they will so preserve their own innocency , as not to stir up other mens passions , nor to make factions or divisions by their difference . they will so dislike the pride and worldliness of others , and their injuries against god and godliness , as not to speak evil of dignities , nor to cherish in the peoples minds , any dishonourable injurious thoughts of their kings , or any in authority over them : they will labour to allay the passions of the people , and to rebuke their censorious , and too sharp language , and to keep up all due charity , to those by whom they suffer ; but especially loyalty to their kings and rulers , and peaceableness as to their countrys . they will teach them to distinguish between the cruel that are masters of the game , and all the rest that have no hand in it ; and at least not to separate from all the rest , for the sake of a few : if they will go as far as martin ( in sulpitius severus ) to avoid all communion with ithacius and idacius , and the councils of bishops , that prosecuted the priscillianists , to the scandal of godliness it self ; yet not for their sakes to avoid all others , that never consented to it : nor with gildas , to say of all the bad ministers , that he was not eximius christianus that would call them ministers , or pastors , rather than traitors . they will perswade the people to discern between good and evil , and not to run into extreams , nor to dislike all that their afflicters hold or use ; nor to call things lawful , by the name of sin , and anti-christianity , nor to suffer their passions to blind their judgments , to make superstitiously new sin and duties , in opposition to their adversaries : nor to disgrace their understandings and the truth , by errours , factions , revilings , or miscarriages ; nor to run into sects , nor to divide christs house and kingdom , while they pretend to be his zealous servants : they will perswade the people to patience , and moderation , and peace , and to speak evil of no man , nor by word or deed , to revenge themselves ; much less to resist the authority that is set over them by god ; but to imitate their saviour , and quietly suffer , and being reviled not to revile again ; but to love their enemies , and bless their cursers . . the soberer sort of the people , will be ruled by these counsels , and will do much to quiet the rest . but the heretical part with their own passions , will exasperate many novices and injudicious persons , to account this course and counsel aforesaid , to be but the effect of luke-wa●mness , and carnal compliance with sin , and a halting between two opinions , and a participation in the sin of persecutors , and malignant enemies of godliness : and they will believe that whoever joyneth with the parish churches , in their way , is guilty of encouraging them in sin , and of false worship . . hereupon they will defame the non conforming ministers last described , as men of no zeal , neither flesh nor fish ; and perhaps , as men that would save their skin , and shift themselves out of sufferings , and betray the truth . and when such ministers , acquaint them with their unsound principles and passions , they will say of them , that they speak bitterly of the godly , and joyn with the persecutors in reproaching them . . and they will carry about among themselves , many false reports and slanders against them ; partly because passion taketh off charity , and tenderness of conscience ; and partly because an opinionative modal , and siding religiousness , hath ever more followers , and a quicker zeal , than true holiness ; and partly because they will think that humane converse obligeth them to believe the reports , which those that are accounted good men utter ; and partly because that they will think , that the upholding of their cause ( which they think is gods ) doth need the suppression of these mens credit , and reputation that are against it . . but the greater part of the honest non-conformist ministers , will dislike the headiness , and rashness of the novices , and the sectaries ; and will approve of the aforesaid moderate wayes . but their opportunities , and dispositions of expressing it , will be various . some of them will do it freely , whatever be thought of it ; and some of them that have impatient auditors , will think that it is no duty to attempt that which will not be endured , and that it is better to do what good they can , than none . and some will think , that seeing the worldly clergy forbid them to preach the gospel of salvation , they are not bound to keep up any of their reputation or interest , as long as they have themselves no hand in the extreams , and passions of the people . and some that have wives and children , and nothing but the peoples charity to find them food and rayment , being turned out of all publike maintenance by their afflicters , and prosecuted still with continued violence , will think that it is not their duty , to beg their bread from door to door ; nor to turn their families to be kept on the almes of the parish , by losing the affection of those people , whose charity only they can expect relief from : and therefore , they will think that necessity , and preservation of their families lives and health , will better excuse their silence , when they defend not those that would destroy them , against the overmuch opposition of the people ; than the command of their afflicters will excuse their silence , if they neglect to preach the christian faith. and some will think , that finding themselves hated , and hunted by one party ; if they lose the affection of the other also , they shall have none to do their office with , nor to do any good to ; and that they shall but leave the people whom they displease , to follow those passionate leaders , that will tempt them to more dangerous extremities , against the peace of christian societies . but the most judicious and resolved ministers , that live not on the favour or maintenanee of the people , or are quite above all worldly interest , will behave themselves wisely , moderately , and yet resolvedly ; and will do nothing , that shall distaste sober and wise men , nor yet despise the souls of the most impotent or indiscreet ; but by solid principles , endeavour to build them upon solid grounds ; and to use them with the tenderness , as nurses should do their crying children . but yet they will not cherish their sin , under the pretence of profiting their souls ; nor by silence , be guilty of their blood ; nor so much as connive at those dangerous extreams , that seem to serve some present exigence and jobb : but threaten future ruine to the churches , and dishonour to the christian cause . and therefore , they resolve not to neglect the duties of charity , to the bitterest of their persecutors : and the rather , because that it will prove in the end , a charity to the church , and to the souls of the passionate , whose charity they labour to keep alive . and silence at sin , is contrary to their trust and office : and they will not be guilty of that carnal wisdom , which would do evil , that good may come by it ; or that dare not seek to cure the principles of uncharitableness , divisions , or extremities in the people , for fear of losing advantages of doing them good ; or that dare not disown unlawful schisms and separations , for fear of encouraging those malignants , that call lawful practices by that name . they will do god's work ( though with prudence , and not destructive rashness , yet ) with fidelity , and self-denyal . and they will lay at christ's feet , not only their interest , in the favour of superiors ; and their peace ; and safety , and liberty , and estates , and lives , which are exposed to malignant cruelty , among the cainites of the world : but also , all the good thoughts , and words , and favour of the religious sort of people , yea , and pastors too . and they will look more to the interest of the whole church , than of a narrow party ; and of posterity , than of the present time : as knowing , that at long-running , its only truth that will stand upper-most ; when malignant violence , and sectarian passions , are both run out of breath . and therefore , in simplicity , and godly sincerity , they will have their conversations in the world ; and not in fleshly wisdom , or selfish-blinding-passions , or factions . let all men use them how they will , or judge or call them what they will ; they will not therefore be false to god , and to their consciences . and seeing it is their office to govern and teach the people , they will not be governed by the favour of the most censorious , ignorant , or proud ; but will guide them as faithful teachers , till they are deserted by them , and disabled . but the sober , antient , wise , and experienced , will alwayes cleave to them , and forsake the giddy and sectarian way . . in the heat of these extremities , the most peaceable and sober part , both of the conformists and non-conformists , will be in best esteem with the grave and sober people ; but in the gratest streight , with both the extreams . . the godly and peaceable conformists , will get the love of the sober , by their holy doctrine and lives : but they will be despised by the sectaries , because they conform ; and they will be suspected by the proud and persecuting clergy , as leaning to the dissenters , and strengthening them by their favour ; because these ministers will , in all their parishes , more love and honour the godly non-conformists , than the irreligious , ignorant , wordly , dead-hearted multitude , or the malignant enemies of godlyness . . hereupon these conformists being taken for the chief upholders of the non-conformists , will be under continual jealousies , and rebukes . and perhaps , new points of conformity shall be devised , to be imposed on them , which it is known , their consciences are against ; that so they may be forced also to be non-conformists : because secret enemies are more dangerous , than open foes . . these conformists being thus troubled , will seel also the stirring of passion in themselves ; and by the injury , will be tempted to think more hardly of their afflicters , than before : and so will part of them , turn down-right non-conformists ; and the other part will live in displeasure , till they see an opportunity to shew it . and these are the likest to cross and weaken the worldly , persecuting clergy , of any men. . and as for the moderate nonconformists , that understand what they do , and why , and seek the reconciling of all dissenters ; they will also be loved and honoured by the sober , grave , and experienced christians : but both extreams will be against them . the sectaries will say , as before , that they are luke-warm , and carnal , selfish , complying - men : the proud imposing-clergy will say , that it is they that have drawn the people into these extreams ; and then complain of them , that they cannot rule them . and they will tell them , that till they conform themselves , their moderation doth . but. strengthen the non-conformists , and keep up the reputation of sobriety among them . and the nearer they come to conformity , the more dangerous they are ; as being more able to supplant it . and thus the moderate and reconcilers , will be as the wedge that is prest by both sides , in the cleft of church-divisions : and no side liketh them , because they are not given up to the factious passions , or interest of either . . only those will , in all these extremities and divisions , keep their integrity ; who are , . wise . . humble and self-denying . . charitable , and principled with a spirit of love. . and do take the favour of god , and heaven alone , for their hope and portion , whatever becometh of them in the world. but the worldly persecuting , and the sectarian party , will be both constituted by these contrary principles ; . ignorance and error . . pride of their own understandings ; every one thinking , that all are intollerable , that are not of their mind and way . . uncharitableness , malice , or want of love to others , as to themselves . . and over-valuing their worldly accommodations , honours , and estates . . hereupon the instruments of a foolish shepherd , will still be used to the greater scattering of the flocks . and because none are so able to dispute against them , as the moderate ; therefore they will be taken for their most dangerous adversaries : and when they are greatly inclined to the healing of these wounds , the violent and lordly will not suffer them ; but will pour oyl upon the flames , which moderate men would quench . and ( as if they were blindfolding and scourging christ again ) they will follow the people with afflicting wounds ; and then charge the moderate ministers , with their discontents ; and charge them , to reduce them to peace and conformity . and if they cannot get them to love and honour those that are still scourging them with scorpions , the scourgers will lay the blame on these ministers ; and say , it is all long of them , that the people love not those that wound them . and they that cry out most for peace , will not endure it ; nor give the peace-makers leave to do any thing , that will accomplish it : nor will keep the spurr out of the peoples sides , whilst they look that others ( spur'd more sharply ) ▪ should hold the reins ; which yet , at the same time , they take out of their hands , and forbid them to hold , by forbidding them to preach the gospel . so that , it will be the sum of their expectations , [ perform not the office of pastors , nor preach the gospel of peace and piety to the people , any more : but yet , without preaching to them , see that you teach them all to love and honour us , while we silence you , and afflict them ; or else we will account you intollerable , seditious schismaticks , and use you as such . ] . in some kingdomes or countries , it will be thought , that the people will be brought to no obedience to the lordly pastors , till their most able or moderate ministers , are kept from them , by banishment , imprisonment , or confinement : which will accordingly be done . . when the ministers are banished or removed , that restrained the peoples passions , the people will make preachers of themselves ; even such as are suited to their minds . . where papists or hereticks are shut out by laws , they will secretly contribute the utmost of their endeavours , to make the sufferings of dissenting protestants , as grievous as possibly they can ; that in despite of them , their own necessities may compel them , to cry out for liberty ; till they procured a common tolleration for all , and opened the door for papists and hereticks , as well as for themselves . . surely , oppression will make wise men mad , eccles . . . . mad men will speak madly , and do madly . . they that speak and do madly , will be thought meetest for bedlam , and for chains . . when the ministers are banished or removed , and the people left to their passions , and their ownmade-guides and teachers ; passionate women and boyes , and unsetled novices , will run into unwarrantable words and deeds ; and will think those means lawful , which seem to promise them deliverance , though they be such as god forbiddeth . . the seditions and miscarriages of some few will be imputed to the innocent . . for the sake of such miscarriages , in some kingdomes , the sword will be drawn against them , and the blood of many will be shed . . hereupon the mis-guided , passionate youth , being by the proud clergy , deprived of the presence of that ministry that should moderate them , are like enough to think rebellion , and resisting of authority , a lawful means for their own preservation : and will plead the law of nature , and necessity , for their justification . . if any of the sober , wise , experienced pastors be left among them , that would restrain them from unlawful ways , and perswade them to patient suffering ; they will be taken for complying betrayers of religion , and of the peoples lives ; that would have them tamely surrender their throats to butchery . as in a parenthesis , i will give them some instances for this prognostick . . the great lord du pl●ssis ( one of the most excellent noble-men that ever the earth bore , that is known to us by any history ) being against the holding of an assembly of the french churches , against the kings prohibition , was rejected by the assembly , as complying with the courtiers , ( because they said , the king had before promised , or granted them that assembly ) : but the refusing of his counsel , cost the blood of many thousand protestants ; and the loss of all their garrisons , and powers , and that lowness of the protestant interest there , that we see at this day . . the great divine peter de moulin , was also against the rochellers proceedings against the kings prohibitions ( and so were some chief protestant nobles ) : but he was rejected by his own party ; who paid for it , by the blood of thousands , and their ruin . . i lately read of a king of france , that hearing that the protestants made verses and pasquels against the mass and processions of the papists , made a severe law to prohibit it : when they durst not break that law , their indiscreet zeal carried them to make certain ridiculous pictures of the masse-priests , and the processions : which moderate ministers would have diswaded them from , but were accounted temporizers and luke-warm : by which the king being exasperated , shut up the protestant churches , took away their liberties , and it cost many thousand men their lives . and the question was , whether god had commanded such jears , and scorns , and pictures , to be made at so dear a rate , as the rooting out of the churches , and religion , and the peoples lives . . great camero ( one of the most judicious divines in the world ) was in montabon when it stood out in arms against the king ( accounted formerly impregnable ▪ ) he was against their resistance , & perswaded them to submit . the people of his own religion , reviled him as a traytor : one of the souldiers threatned to run him through : in a scottish passion he unbuttoned his doublet , and cryed , feri miser , strike varlet , or do thy worst ; and in the heat , striving to get his own goods out of the city , fell into a feavor and dyed : the city was taken , and the rest of the holds through the kingdom after it , to the great fall of all the protestants , and the loss of many thousand lives . . where the devil can bring differences to extremities of violence , the issues are not hard to be conjecturally fore-seen ; but are such as my prognosticks shall no further meddle with , than to foretell you , that both sides are preparing for the increase of their fury and extremities , and at last for repentance , or ruinous calamities , if they do , as i have described . . carnal and discontented states-men , and politicians , will set in on both sides , to blow the coals , and draw on feuds for their own ends , and head the discontented people to their ruine . . but in those countrys , where the difference never cometh to such disorders , there will be a war bred , and kept up in the peoples hearts ; and neighbours will be against neighbours , as guelphes and gibellines . . when kingdomes are thus weakened by intestine discontents ; it will increase the hopes and plots of forreign enemies ; and make them think that one party ( that suffer ) will be backward to their own defence , as thinking they can be no worse ( which is the hopes of the turks in hungary . ) . it will be a great injury , and grief , and danger to christian kings and states , to have their kingdomes and common-wealths thus weakened , and the cordial love , and assistance of their subjects made so loose and so uncertain . . and it will be a continual vexation to wise and peaceable princes , to govern such divided , discontented people ; but to rule a united , loving , concordant , peaceable people , will be their delight and joy. . a worldly , covetous , proud , domineering , malignant , lazy clergy , will in most christian nations , be the great plague of the world , and troublers of princes , and dividers of churches ; who , for the interest of their grandure , and their wills , will not give the sober , and peaceable , and godly ministers , or people , leave to serve god quietly , and live in peace . and the impatient , self-conceited , sectarian spirit , which like gun-powder , takes fire upon such injuries , is the secondary divider of the churches , and hinderer of christian love and peace ; and by their mutual enmity and abuses , they will drive each other so far into the extremity of aversation and opposition , that they will but make each other mad ; and then like mad-men , run and quarrel , while sober men stand by and pitty them ; but can help neither the one party , nor the other , nor preserve their own , or the publike peace . . the grand endeavour of the worldly clergy , will be ( in most kingdoms of the world ) to engage princes on their side , and to borrow their sword , to do their work with , against gain-sayers : for they have no confidence in the power of the keys ; but will despise them secretly in their hearts , as leaden , uneffectual weapons , while they make it the glory of their order , that the power of the keys is theirs . . if princes suppress disorders by the sword , the said clergy will ascribe the honor of it to themselves ; and say , it was their order , that kept up so much order in the churches : and when they have put princes to that trouble , will assume to themselves the praise . . the devil will set in , and do his utmost , to make both rulers and people believe , that all this confusion is long of the christian religion , and the strict principles of the sacred scriptures ; and so to make men cast off all religion , and take christianity to be contrary to their natural and civil interests . . and the papists will every where perswade high and low , that all this cometh by meddling so much with the scriptures , and busying the common people with religion ; and leaving every man to be a discerning judge of truth and duty , instead of trusting implicitely , in the judgment of their church : and so they would tempt princes , tamely to surrender half their government ( that is , in all matters of religion ) to the pope ; and perswade the people , to resign their reason or humanity to him ; ( that he who is so far off , may rule it all over the world , by his missioners and agents , who must live upon the prey ) and then he knoweth , that he shall have both swords , and be the universal king. . to this end , they will strive to make some rulers as bad as they would have them , to do their work , and to make the rest thought worse of than they are , that they may have a fair pretense for their treasons and usurpations ; which was the case of all the writers , that plead for pope gregory the seventh , against the german emperours ; who took that advantage , to settle the cardinals power of elections ; and , in a council at rome , to declare the pope to be above the emperour , and to have power to depose him : and as bad was done in the general-council , at later ▪ under innocent the third . can. , . . concerning princes , i shall give you no prognosticks , but christ's ; that it will be as hard for a rich man to enter into heaven , as for a camel to go through a needles eve. and therefore , that you may know what men the rich will be , in most countries of the world. . and the rich will be the rulers of the world ; ( and it s meet , it should be so : not that men should rule because they are rich , but that they that rule should be rich ; and not exposed to contempt , by a vulgar garb and state. ) . but some wise and good princes and magistrates , god will raise up , to keep the interest of truth and justice , from sinking in barbarousness , and diabolical wickedn●ss . . and where princes and magistrates are bad , they will seldom do so much hurt as good , or prove very cruel , where the worldly or corrupt clergy , do not animate and instigate them : their reason , their interest , and their experience , will lead them , by man-like usage , to seek the peoples love and quietness , and their kingdomes unity and strength . but bloody persecutions ( such as that of the waldenses , piedmont lately , france , ireland , queen maries , &c. ) are ordinarily the effects of clergy-interest and zeal . . the grand designe of the devil , through the world , will be to corrupt the two great ordinances of cod , magistracy and ministry ; and turn them both against christ , who giveth them their power . the instances of his success , are most notorious , in the turkish empire , and the papal kingdome , called by them , the catholick-church : ( which campanella , de regno dei , doth labour to prove , by all the prophesies cited by the millenarians , or fifth-monarchy-men , to be the true universal kingdom of christ ; in which , by his vicar the pope , he shall reign over all the kings and kingdomes of the earth . ) a prognostication of the changes that will be in christendom , in the golden age , and time of true reformation and unity . . because it is made part of our prayers , [ thy will be done on earth , as it is in heaven ] and [ we look for a new heaven , and a new earth , wherein dwelleth righteousness ] i hope , their opinion is not true , who think that the earth shall still grow liker and liker to hell , till the general conflagration turn it into hell , and make it the proper seat of the damned . yet , lest this should prove true , i will place my chiefest hopes in heaven ; remembring who said , [ sell all , and follow me , and thou shalt have treasure in heaven ; ] ( and not on earth . ) but supposing , that ever the world will come to full reformation and concord , ( which i am uncertain of , but do not despair of ) i proceed to my prognosticks of the way . . god will stir up some happy king , or governour , in some country of christendome , endowed with wisdom and consideration ; who shall discern the true nature of godlyness and christianity , and the necessity and excellency of serious religion ; and shall see what is the corruption and hinderance of it , in the vvorld : and shall place his honour and felicity in pleasing god , and doing good , and attaining everlasting happyness : and shall subject all worldly respects , unto these high and glorious ends. and shall know , that wisdom , and godlyness , and justice , leave the most precious name on earth , and prepare for the most glorious reward in heaven : in comparison of which , all fleshly pomp and pleasure , is dross and dung , and worthy of nothing but contempt . . this prince shall have a discerning mind , to know wise men from foolish , good from bad ; and among the ministers of christ , to discern the judicious , spiritual , heavenly , sober , charitable , and peaceable sort , from self-seeking , worldly men ; that make but a trade of the ministry , and strive not so much for heaven , and the peoples salvation , as they do for worldly honours , power , and wealth . and he shall discern how such do trouble the churches , and the world , and cause divisions , and stir up violence , for their own vvorldly interests , and ends. . he will take the councel neither of worldlings , nor true fanaticks , and dividing persons ; but of the learned , godly , self-denying , sober , peaceable divines ; with his grave and reverend senators , judges , and counsellors ; that know what is reason and justice , and what belongeth to the publick good , as well as to the true interest of the church , and of mens souls . . he will know those men , whom he is concerned to use , and to judge of , as far as may be , by personal acquaintance and observation ; and not by the partial reports of adversaries , behind their backs : and so he will neither be deceived in his instruments , nor disappointed by them . . he will call together the wise , peace-making persons ; and with the strictest charge , commit to them the endeavours of reconciling and uniting the several parties ; by drawing their differences into the narrowest compass , and stating them rightlier , than passionate men do ; and by perswading them to love and peace , and to all such abatements and forbearances , as are necessary . and his own prudent over-sight and authority , ( like constantine's at nice ) will facilitate the success . . he , and his people will enquire , what terms of concord are meet , not only for some one corner or country , but for all the christian world ; that when he hath found it out , he and his kingdom may be a pattern to all christendome , and the spring and leven of an universal concord of all true christians . . therefore , he will enquire of vincent . lerinensis , catholick terms of quod . ab omnibus . . ubique . . semper , receptum est . . what all christians are agreed in , as christians , in the essentials of their religion . . what all christians did agree on , in the apostles time , which was the time of greatest light , love , and purity . . vvhat all christians , in all kingdoms of the vvorld , since then , to this day , in the midst of all their other differences , have been , and still are agreed in , as their religion . for he will see , that there is no hope of agreeing the disagreeing vvorld , ( at least , in many an age ) by changing mens judgments from what they are ; and bringing them all in controverted things , to the mind of some party ; nor to agree them on any terms , in which they do not really agree . but that their concord must be founded in that , which they are indeed all agreed in : leaving the superfluities or additions of each party , out of the agreement . . the peace-makers will then find , that christian religion is conteined in three forms . . in the sacramental-covenant with god the father , son , and holy-ghost , as the briefest formula . . in the creed , lord's - prayer , and decalogue ; as the summaries of the credenda , appetenda , and agenda , matters of faith , will , ( or desire ) and practice , as the larger form. . in that canon of scripture , which all the churches receive , as the largest form or continent . and that he who is understandingly , a sacramental-covanter with god the father , son , and holy-ghost , was ever taken for a visible christian . and therefore , baptism was called our christening ; and the baptized taken for christians , before they knew the controversies of this church , or that : and that the competent ▪ explicite understanding of the creed , lord's - prayer , and decalogue , was ever taken for a competent understanding of the sacramental-covenant , and more . and that he that implicitely receiveth the commonly-received canonical scripture , as god's word ( though he understand no more than as followeth ) and that explicitely understandeth the creed , lord's - prayer , and decalogue , and receiveth them , and consenteth to the sacramental-covenant , alwayes was accounted , and is still to be accounted a christian . on these terms therefore , the peace-makers will resolve to endeavour the union of the churches . . therefore , they will pare off , and cast away , ( as the greatest enemy to unity ) all those unnecessary controversies , or things doubtful , which christians ( yea , or divines ) were never agreed in ; and which never were the happy and successful means or terms of any extensive concord ; and which have long been tryed , to be the great occasions of all the scruples , and contentions , and divisions , and woful consequents in the churches . and they will once more say , [ it seemeth good to the holy-ghost , and to us , to lay upon you no greater burden , than these necessary things , act. . . ] all christians shall in general , receive the canonical scripture as god's word ; and more particularly , the creed , lord's - prayer , and decalogue , as the summary of necessaries ; and shall profess , with competent understanding of it , their consent to the sacramental-covenant ; and vow , and devote themselves therein to god. and this shall be all the title , which they shall be forced to shew , for their visible , church-communion . and though a higher measure of the understanding of the same principles and rules , shall be required in teachers , than in the flock ; and accordingly , the ordainers shall try their understandings , together with their utterance and ministerial readiness of parts : yet shall the teachers themselves , be ( ordinarily ) forced to no other subscriptions , professions , or oaths , ( besides their civil allegiance ) than to assent and consent to all afore-said ; and to promise ministerial fidelity in their places . all councils , called general or provincial , canons , decretals , articles , formula's , rubricks , &c. shall be reserved to their proper use ; but be no more used for ensnaring and dividing subscriptions , professions , or oaths ; or made the engines to tear the churches . . when all those superfluities , and foot balls of contention , are cast out of the way , the power of the keys , or pastoral government , shall come to be better known and exercised , and the primitive discipline set up ; which took place , before cyril of alexandria took up the sword , and pride swelled the bishops into a secular state , and way of rule . then it shall be church-government , to see that the people be duely taken in the sacramental-covenant , and learn the creed , lord's - prayer , and decalogue ; and be instructed in the word of god , and live together in sobriety , righteousness , and godlyness . and the pastors shall leave all secular matters to the magistrates ; and be no more troubled , nor corrupted by their use of any forcing power : their government shall be a paternal , authoritative exercise of instruction , and of love ; and no more : like that of a tutor to his pupils , a physician in his hospital , a phylosopher in his school , ( supposing a divine commission and rule . ) the church it self , shall be all their courts , ( supposing the magistrates ) and the people the witnesses ; and the present incumbent pastors , be the judges , without excommunicating and absolving lay-chancellors , surrogates , commissaries , or officials . and all the materials of contention being now gone , they shall have nothing to do in these courts , but to try , whether the people have learnt , and understand their cathechisms , and consent to god's covenant , and communicate in his worship , with the church : and when any are accused of wicked living , contrary to sobriety , righteousness , and godlyness , to try , whether these accusations be well proved : and if so , to perswade the offenders to repent ; and by plain scripture-arguments , to convince them of the sin ; and with tears , or fatherly tenderness and love , to melt them into remorse , and bring them to confess , and forsake the sin. and if this cannot be done at once , to try again and again ; and pray for their repentance . and , when there is no other remedy , [ to declare such a one openly uncapable of church-communion ; and to require the church , to avoid communion with him ; and him , to forbear intruding into their communion : and to bind him over by a ministerial denunciation of god's displeasure , ( as against the impenitent ) to answer it at the bar of god himself ; as one that is under his wrath , till he do repent . ] and this is the utmost of the pastoral power , that shall then be used , ( supposing private admonitions ) : and this only , in that church , or congregation , wherein the sinner had before his communion ; and not at a distance , nor in other churches , or parts of the world , where the pastor hath no charge . yea , this much shall not be exercised irregularly , and at randome , to the injury of the flock ; but under the rules and remedies afterward here exprest . . the primitive-church-form shall be restored : and as ( where there are christians enow ) no churches shall be too small , so none shall be greater for number or distance , than to be one true particular church ; that is , a society of christians united as pastor and people , for personal communion and assistance in god's publick worship , and holy living : that is , so many as may have this personal communion , if not all at once , yet per vices , as oft as is fit for them to meet with the church , ( which all in a family , cannot usually do at once . ) so that , ignatius his church-mark shall be restored , [ to every church there is one altar , and one bishop , with his fellow-presbyters and deacons . ] and there shall no more be a hundred , or six hundred , or a thousand altars to one bishop , primi gradus , and in one church of the first form , called a particular church : nor shall all the particular churches be un-churched , for want of true bishops ; nor all their pastors degraded into a new order of teaching-ministers , that have no power of pastoral-government : nor the true discipline of the churches , be made a meer impossible thing ; whil'st it is to be exercised by one bishop only , over many hundred congregations ; which do every one of them , afford full work for a present bishop . nor shall the bishops office be thought so little holy , any more than preaching , and sacramental-administrations , as to be performable by a lay-delegate , or any one that is not really a bishop . but the people shall know them , that are over them in the lord , which labor among them , and admonish them ; and shall esteem them very highly in love , for their work sake ; and shall be at peace among themselves , thes . . , . such bishops as dr. hammond in his annot. describeth ; that had but one church , and preached , baptized , chatechized , visited the sick , took care of the poor , administred the lord's - supper , guided every congregation as present in publick worship , and privately instructed and watched over all the flocks , shall be in every church that can obtain such . . where the churches are so great as to need ( as most will do ) and so happy as to obtain , many faithful presbyters or pastors , whether they shall live together in a single colledge-life , or married , and at a distance ; and whether one as the chief , or bishop , shall be president , and have a negative voice , or all be equal in a concordant guidance of the flocks , shall be left to the choise and liberty of the several churches , by mutual consent of pastors , and people , and magistrates , to do and vary , as their several states and exigences shall require : and shall neither be called anti-christian or odious tyranny on the one side , nor made of necessity to the churches communion , or peace , on the other , as long as the true pastoral or episcopal office is exercised in every particular church . . neither magistrates nor other bishops , shall make the bishops or pastors sermons , and prayers for him ; but leave it as the work of the speakers office , to word his own sermons and prayers ; and to choose a set form or no set-form , the same or various , as the case requireth : yet so as to be responsible ( as after ) for all abuses and mal-administrations , and not suffered to deprave gods worship , by confusion or hurtful errours , or passionate and perverse expressions : but to be assisted , and directed to use his office in the most edifying ways , by such kind of helps , as his personal weaknesses shall require . and where set-forms are used , none shall quarrel with them as unlawful . . none of the people shall have the high priviledges of church communion , and sacraments bestowed on them , against their wills : no more than a man impeninent and unwilling , shall be ministerially absolved from the guilt of sin. for every sacramental administration , whether of baptism , or of the body and blood of christ , is as full an act of ministerial absolution as any pastor can perform : and what he doth to particular persons upon their penitence after a lapse , that the pastor doth to the whole church at the lords supper . and as consent is made by christ , the condition of pardon and covenant-ben●fits , which no non-consenter hath a title to ; so therefore professed consent is necessary to the sacramental collation or investiture : and those that are but constrained by the apparent danger of a fine or jail , are not to be accounted voluntary consenters by the church ; when the lord of the church will account none for consenters , that will not forsake all , and endure fines and jailes , rather than to be deprived of the benefits of mystical and visible church-communion . the magistrate therefore will wisely , and moderately , bring all the people to hear that which is necessary to their good ; but will not by penalties , force the unwilling to receive either absolutions or communion with the church , in its special priviledges . but if the baptized refuse church-communion afterwards , they lamentably punish themselves ; and if it be found meet to declare them excommunicate , it will be a terrible penalty , sufficient to its proper use . . the magistrate will not imprison , harm , confiscate , banish , or otherwise punish any of his subjects , eo nomine , because they are excommunicate : for that is to punish his body , because his soul is punished . nor will he hearken to those unbelieving clergy-men , that cry up the power of the keys as their office ; and when they have done , scorn it as an uneffectual shaddow of power , which will do nothing without the magistrates force . but he will himself hear , and judge before he punish , and not be debased to be the clergies executioner , to punish before he have tryed the cause : because clergy-mens pride and passions , may else ingage him to be the instrument of their vices and revenge . yea , as he that seeth a man punished in one court , will be the more delatory to bring him to punishment in another , for the same crime ; so the magistrate that seeth a man excommunicated for his fault , will rather delay his civil force against that man , to see what effect his excommunication will have : because the conjunction of the sword against the excommunicate as such , doth corrupt christs ordinance , and make the fruit of it utterly undiscernable , so that no one can see whether ever it did any thing at all , or whether all was done by the fear of the sword. and verily , a faithful minister , that seeth a sinner come to confession of his fault , but when he must else lye in jail and be undone , will be loath to take that man for a true penitent . and to force pastors to absolve or give the sacrament , to every one that had rather take it , than lye in jail and be undone , is to set up such new terms of church communion , which christ will give men little thanks for . church communion is only a priviledge due to volunteers and penitents . but yet the magistrate may punish men with fines or other penalties , for the same faults , for which they are excommunicate , having tryed and judged them in his own court : but not quaterus excommunicate , but according to the nature of the crime . . the schools of learning and academies , shall not educate youth , either in idleness , luxury , or hypocritical formality ; but under learned , pious tutors , in learning , sobriety and piety ; from whence they shall not over-hastily leap into the pastoral office. . none under thirty years of age ( at what time christ himself entered on his publick works ) shall take a pastoral charge , except in case of meer necessity of the church , no not on pretence of extraordinary fitness : but till then shall imploy themselves as learners , catechists , school-masters , or probationers . nor shall they meddle in the pulpits , with matters of such controversies , as the church is in danger to be troubled with . . ministers shall all be commanded by the magistrate , and advised by the neighbour pastors , to forbear all unnecessary controversies in the pulpits ; and to teach the people the foresaid substantials , the covenant of grace , the creed , lords prayer , and decalogue , the duties of faith , love , repentance , and obedience : and shall reserve their subtiler and curious speculations , for schools and theological writings ; and so the christian people shall be bred up in the primitive , plain , simplicity of doctrine and religion ; and their brains shall not be heated , and racked with those new-coined phrases and subtilties , which will but distemper them into a proud , contentious , wrangling disease ; but will not be truly understood by them , when all 's done . and so when it is the peoples work , to hear only ( usually ) the doctrine of the catechisme , and simple old christianity , and to talk of no other ; . their time will be employed in promoting faith , repentance , love , and obedience , which was wont to be spent in vain janglings , and strife of words . and , . religion will be an easier thing ; and consequently , will be more common , ( as cheap food and rayment is every ones penny-worth ) : and ministers may hope to bring the generality of their people , to be savingly and practically religious : whereas the fine spun religion of novelists , and wranglers , that pretend new light and increase of knowledge , doth not only dwindle into a cob-web of no use , or life , or power ; but must be confined to a few , that can have leisure to learn to talk in new phrases , and will but become the matter of ignorant men's pride and ostentation ; and make them think , that they only are the religious people ; and all that cannot talk as they , are prophane , and not to be admitted to their communion . when as the apostolick , primitive , plain religion , without the laces , and whimsies , that dreamers have since introduced , would make men humble , holy , heavenly , obedient , meek , and patient ; and spare men the loss of a great deal of time. . the maintenance of the ministry shall neither be so poor , as to discourage men from devoting their children to the office , or disable them from a total addictedness to their proper work , by any distracting wants or cares ; or yet wholly disable them from works of charity : nor yet so great , as may be a strong bait to proud , covetous , worldly minded men , to intrude into the ministry for fleshly ends. it shall be so much , as that the burden of their calling may not be increased by want : but yet not so much , but that self-denyal shall be exercised by all that under-take the ministry ; and of the two , the burden of the ministerial labors , with its proper sufferings , shall to flesh and blood , seem to preponderate the worldly advantage . so greatly needful is it to the church , that all ministers be self-denying men ; that valuing things spiritually , can practise humility , mortification , and contempt of the world , as well as preach it . . there shall be a treble-lock upon the door of the ministry : . whether they are fit to be ministers in the general , the ordainers shall judge . . whether they are fit to be the pastors of this , or that particular church ; the members of the church shall so far judge , as that none shall become their pastors , without their own consent . . whether they be fit for the magistrates countenance , maintenance , and protection , the magistrate himself shall judge . and therefore , all three shall severally try , and approve each pastor : yet so , that the two first only be taken , as necessary to the office it self ; and the third only , to the maintenance and encouragement , or defence of the officer . and though sometimes , this may occasion disagreements and delayes , for a time ; yet ordinarily , the securing of a faithful ministry , and other good effects , will countervail many such inconveniences . . no one church , shall have the government of another church : and the secular differences of metropolitans , patriarcks , &c. which was set up in one empire , upon secular accounts , and from secular reasons , shall all cease . and no differences shall be made necessary among them , which christ hath not made necessary . but christian princes shall take warning by the greek and latine churches , and by all the calamities and ruins , which have been caused in the christian world ; by bishops striving who should be the greatest , when christ decided the controversie long ago , luk. . . as christians hold personal , christian communion , in their several particular churches ; so churches shall hold a communion of churches , by necessary correspondencies , and associations : not making a major vote of bishops in synods , to have a proper government over the minor part. but that by counsel and concord , they may help and strengthen one another ; and secure the common interest of christianity . and that he that is a member of one church , may be received of the rest ; and he that is cast out of one , may not be received by the rest , unless he be wronged . so that , it shall not be one politick church ; but a communion of churches . . the means of this communion shall be , . by messengers . . by letters and certificates communicatory . . by synods . . these synods shall , as to a few neighbour churches , be ordinary and stated : and the meetings of ministers in them , shall be improved ; . to the directing and counselling of one another , in matters doubtful ; especially of discipline . . to edify each other by conference , prayer , and disputations . . that the younger may be educated under the grave advice and counsels of the elder . . that the concord of themselves , and the churches under them , may be preserved . but if they would grow imperious , tyrannical , heretical , or contentious , the magistrate shall hinder their stated , ordinary meetings ; that it be not accounted a thing simply necessary , nor used to the disturbance of the church or states . and all provincial , national , and larger councels , shall be held by the magistrates consent . . he that taketh himself to be wrongfully excommunicated in one church , shall have a treble remedy : . to have his cause heard by the associated pastors of the neighbour-churches ; though not as rulers of the bishop , or pastor of that particular church ; yet as counsellors , and such whose judgment bindeth to concord in lawful things . . to be admitted by another church , if it appear that he is wronged . and , . to appeal to the magistrate , as the preserver of justice , and order , in all societies . . the magistrate shall appoint some of the most grave , and wise , and godly , and moderate of the ministers , to have a general inspection over many churches ; and to see , that they be well taught and ordered , and that pastors and people do their duty : who shall therefore oft visit them , and shall instruct and exhort the younger ministers ; and with the countenance of the magistrate , and their own seigniority and ability , shall rebuke the sloathful and faulty ministers ; and perswade them to diligence and fidelity : but shall exercise no outward force by the sword ; nor any excommunication by themselves alone , or otherwise than in the fore-said regular way . . all ordinations shall be performed , ( except in case of necessity ) either in the assembly of the associated pastors , with their president ; or in the vacant church , by some of them , appointed by the rest : or by the general visiter , last mentioned , with a competent number of assistants . but still , an ordination to the ministry in general , shall not be taken to be formally the same ; as the affixing him to this or that church , in particular : no more , than the licensing of a physician , is the same with the affixing him to a particular hospital . . a catalogue shall be drawn up , of some of the greatest verities , which are not expresly found in the creed , lord's - prayer , or decalogue ; which , as the articles of confession , of the associated churches of the nation , shall serve for these three uses : . to satisfie all forreign churches , against any accusation , that they are orthodox . . to examine the knowledge of such as are admitted to the ministry , by : ( but not to be subscribed , unless only as to a general acknowledgment of the soundness of their doctrine ; without saying that , there is nothing faulty in them . ) . to be a rule of restraint to ministers , in their preaching ; that none be allowed publickly , after admonition , to preach against any doctrine contained in them . . the usurped , ecclesiastical power , of bishops , and presbyteries , and councils , ( which were co-ercive , or imitated , secular courts , or bound the magistrate to execute their decrees ) being cast out , and all pastors restrained from playing the bishops in other churches , out of their own charge ; the magistrate shall exercise all co-ercive , church-government himself ; and no more trust the sword directly , or indirectly , in the hands of the clergy , who have long used it so unhappily , to the disturbance of the christian world , and the shedding of so much innocent blood. where it may be had , there shall be a church-justice , or magistrate , in every considerable parish ; who being present , shall himself hear how ministers preach , and behave themselves among their people . and all ministers and churches shall be responsible to the magistrate , for all abuses , and mal-administration . if any minister preach or pray seditiously , abusively , factiously , railingly , against tolerable dissenters , to the destroying of christian love and unity , or heretically , to the danger of the peoples souls ; or shall exercise tyranny over the people , or live a vicious life ; or be negligent in his office of teaching , worship , or discipline , or otherwise grosly mis-behave himself : he shall be responsible both ( as afore-said ) to the associated pastors and visitor , ( or arch-bishop ) and also to the magistrate ; who shall rebuke and correct him , according to the measure of his offence . and it shall appear , that the magistrate is sufficient for all co-ercive , church-government , without all the clergies usurpations ; which uphold the roman , and other tyrannical societies . . the question , who shall be judge of heresie , schisme , or church-sins ? shall be thus decided . . the bishops or pastors of the particular churches , shall be the judges ; who is to be denyed communion in their churches , as hereticks , schismaticks , &c. . the associated churches shall be judges , ( in their synods , or by other correspondence ) who is to be commonly denyed communion in all their churches ; and what pastors and churches , shall have the dextram communionis , and who not . . the magistrate shall be the only judge , who is to be punished for heresie or schism , &c. with fines , or any outward , corporal penalty . and no one shall usurp the others right . . the magistrate shall silence all preachers that after due admonition , so grosly mis-behave themselves in doctrine , worship , or conversation , as to be the plagues of the churches , and to do apparently more hurt than good . but as to all worthy and able ministers , if they commit any fault , they shall be punished as other subjects , only with such penalties as shall not by silencing or restraint , be a punishment to the innocent peoples souls , nor hinder the preaching of the gospel of salvation : even as if the common bakers , brewers , butchers , carpenters , perform their work perniciously ( poisoning their beer , bread , and meat ) they shall be forbid the trade : but for other faults , they shall be so punished , that the people be not left without bread , beer , meat , houses , for their faults . . if any hereticks ( as arrians , socinians , &c. ) would creep into the ministry , there shall not be new-forms of subscription made to keep them out ( which its like , with their vicious consciences would be uneffectual , and would open a gap to the old church-tyrannies and divisions ) ; nor an uncertain evil be uneffectually resisted by a certain greater mischief . but while he keepeth his errour to himself , he is no heretick as to the church ( non apparere being equal to non esse : ) and when he venteth his heresy , he is responsible all the ways aforesaid , and may be by the magistrate punished for his crime , and by the churches be branded as none of their communion ; which is the regular way of reforming crimes ' viz. by judgment and execution , and not by making new rules and laws , as fast as men break the old : as though laws could be made , which no man can break . . the magistrate shall countenance or tolerate no sin or errour , so far as he can cure it by just remedies , which will not do more harm than good : but he shall unwillingly tolerate many tolerable errours and faults ; because it is not in his power to remedy them , by such means . but , . the sound and concordant ministry only , shall have his countenance and maintenance . . smaller errours and disorders , shall be best cured by gentle rebukes , and discountenance , and denyal of maintenance ; together with the disgrace that will be cast upon them , by the judgment and dissent of all the united concordant ministers and churches ( which two together will do more and better , than exasperating cruelties will do ▪ ) . the publishing of pernicious principles , shall be restrained more severely . but though men may be restrained from venting pernicious falsehoods , they cannot be constrained to believe the truth ( we are not so happy ; ) nor shall they be constrained to lie , and say that they believe it when they do not . . all matters of quarrels , division and cruel usage of each other , being thus cut off and gone ; bitterness , and revengeful thoughts will cease , and love will revive in all mens breasts , and unity , and peace will follow of its own accord . and if any heretical or contentious sect arise , the hearts of all united people will so rise against them , that desertion and shame will quickly kill them . . then will the hearts of the people cleave to their pastors : and they will be no more put on the great difficulties of loving the bishops that hurt them , or of loving them in jailes ; but it will be as easy to love them , when they feel the love to their souls in the labours and kindness of their pastors , as to love their dearest and nearest friends . and then love , will open the peoples ears to the teachers doctrine , and it will do them good : and then the labours and lives of faithful ministers , will be sweet and easy , when the love , and the unity , and faithfulness of the people , is their dayly encouragement . o how good , and how happy will it be for pastors and people , thus to live in love and unity ! it will not only mind us of aarons perfume , but of the spirit of love that dwelt in our redeemer , and which he promised should be his seal and mark upon all his true disciples ! yea , and of the celestial society , and life of perfect love. . then shall neighbours exercise their charity , for the help of the ignorant about them , without the suspicions of venting heresies , or sedition , or encroaching on the pastors office. and neighbours when they come together , shall not take praying together , or holy conference , or singing gods praise , or reading good books , or repeating their teachers sermons , or counselling each other , to be a bad or dangerous work : but the ignorant , that cannot spend the lords day in holy exercises at home ( because they cannot read or remember much ) shall joyn with the families of their more understanding neighbours , who can help them ; ( as they met act. . . for prayer ; and as neighbour-families were to joyn in eating the passover , with the family that had not enow to eat it . ) for love and unity shall end these jealousies . and all shall be done under the guidance and over-sight of their pastors ; and not in enmity or opposition to them , or to the concordant church-assemblies . and , o what helps and comfort will this be to all faithful pastors , when all the work lyeth not on them alone ! but every one sets his hand to build , in his proper place ! and when they that converse together all the week , are seconding that which he more seldom teacheth them in publick . . the younger sort of ministers , that are now bred up in vulcan's forge , shall be then trained up under grave and peaceable men ; where uniting , and peace-making principles , shall be the rudiments of their literature . . and the younger sort of the people , shall be no more tempted into envious heats against their afflicters ; nor into contentious sects , because of controversies : but shall be fed with the milk of peaceable principles , and be educated in the love of love it self . and the names of sects , and church-divisions , and proud pretendings , shall by use , be made as disgraceful , as now the names of swearing , drunkenness , and whoredom are . . and , o how dear ! how amiable ! how honourable will their governours be , to such a people ! ( especially , that blessed prince , that shall first perform this work ! ) how heartily will they pray for them , plead for them , and fight for them ! and , how freely will they contribute any thing in their power , to their aids ! and , how impatient will they be against every word , that would dishonour them ! how blessed will the people be under such a prince ! and , how sweet and easie will the life of that prince be , that is to govern such a people ! grant , o lord , that this great honour and comfort , may fall into the hands of the king of england , before all others in the world ! kings will then see , that it is their interest , their honour , and their greatest happyness on earth , to be the wise , pious , righteous governours , of a wise , pious , just , united people ; that love them so much , that still they would fain serve them better , than they are able . . the ignorant , vulgar , and ruder sort , observing this amiable concord , and all the blessed fruits thereof , will admire religion , and fall in love with it : and multitudes , that shall be saved , will be dayly added to the seriously religious ; and the house of christ , will be filled with guests . . hereupon the scandalous and flagitious lives of common protestants , will be much cured : for the number of the flagitious , will grow small ; and crimes will be under common disgrace . besides that , they will be punished by the magistrate : so that , gross sin will be a marvail . . the books of plain doctrine , and holy living , with the pacificatory treatises of reconcilers , will then be most in esteem and use ; which now are so dis-relished by turbulent , discontented , siding persons . and abundance of controversal-writings , about church-government , liturgies , ceremonies , and many other matters , will be forgotten , and cast aside , as useless things : for the swords shall be made into plow-shares , and pruning-hooks . . the happy example of that happy prince , and country , that shall begin and first accomplish this work , will be famous through all the protestant-churches ; and will enflame such desires of imitation in them all , and be such a ready direction in the way , that it will greatly expedite their answerable reformation . and the famous felicity of that prince , in the reformation and concord of his subjects , will kindle in the hearts of other protestant-princes and states , an earnest desire of the same felicity . and so , as upon the invention of printing , and of guns , the world was presently possessed of guns , and of printed-books , that never before attained any such thing : so here ; they that see the happyness of one kingdom brought about , and see how it was done , will have matter enough before their eyes , both to excite their desires , and guide their endeavours , in the means to bring all this to pass . . the protestant kingdoms and states , being thus reformed , and united in themselves , will be enflamed with an earnest desire of the good of all other churches , and of all the world : and therefore , as divines have held something called general councils for the union of all those churches ; so these princes will by their agents hold assemblies for maintaining correspondency , to the carrying on of the common good of the world , by the advantage of their united counsels , and strength : and then no enemy can stand long before them . for , they that love , and serve them zealously at home , will venture their lives for them zealously abroad , if there be cause . . the excellent , and successful use of the magistrates government of the churches in their dominions , will quite shame all the usurping claims of the pope , and general councels , and their mungrel ecclesiastick courts , and all the train of artifices and offices , by which their government of the world is managed : and the world , and especially princes will plainly see how much they were abused by their usurpations ; and that there is no need of pope or cardinal , nor any of those officers or acts at all : but that these are the meer contrivances of carnal policy , to keep up an earthly kingdom under the name of the catholick church . and also the purity and unity of the reformed churches , where the vulgar have more religion and union , than their monasteries , will dazzle the eyes of the popish princes , states , and people ; and when they see better , and especially the happiness of the princes , they will forsake the usurper that had captivated them by fraud , and will assume their freedom and felicity ; and so the roman church-kingdom will fall . . the deluded mahometans seeing the unity , and glory of christendom , as they were before kept from christ by the wicked lives , and the divisions of christians ( thinking that we are far worse than they ) so now they will be brought to admire and honour the christian name , and fear the power of the christian princes . and one part of them will turn christians ; and the rest , even the turkish power , the christians force by the power of god , will easily break . and so the eastern churches will be delivered , and reformed ; and the mahometans come into the faith of christ . . the poor scattered jews also , when they see the glory and concord of christians , will be convinced that christ is indeed the true messias : and being converted perhaps , shall by the christian powers , be some of them re-established in their own land : but not to their antient peculiarity , or policy and law. . and then the christian zeal , will work to the conversion of the poor idolatrous , heathen world ; and part of them will yield to reason and faith , and the rest by just victories be subdued . and so the kingdoms of the world , will become the kingdoms of the lord , and his christ ; and the gospel shall be preached in all the world. . and when the kingdom of grace is perfected , and hath had its time , the kingdom of glory shall appear , upon the glorious appearing of christ our king ; and the dead shall arise ; and they that have overcome , shall reign with christ , and sit with him upon the throne , even as he overcame , and is set down with the father on his throne . amen . even so come lord jesus . john . , , , , . neither pray i for these alone , but for them also , which shall believe on me through their word : that they all may be one , as thou father , art in me , and i in thee ; that they also may be one in us , that the world may believe that thou hast sent me : and the glory which thou gavest me , i have given them , that they may be one , even as we are one. i in them , and thou in me ; that they may be made perfect in one , and that the world may know that thou hast sent me , and hast loved them , as thou hast loved me ; father , i will that they also whom thou hast given me , be with me where i am , that they may behold my glory , which thou hast given me. object . but if this world should ever become so happy , it would be more amiable , and so be a greater snare to our affections , and make us willing to stay from heaven . answer . no amiableness or pleasantness , stealeth the heart from god , or keepeth it from heaven , but that which hideth the glory and goodness of god and heaven , from our minds , or corrupteth , and diverteth the will and affections by some inconsistency or contrarity : but the spiritual excellency of the reformed concordant church on earth , will so much more clearly represent heaven to our conceptions , and give our hearts so pleasant a foretast of it , that above all things it will excite our desires of that fuller glory , and call us most powerfully to a heavenly mind and life : as the first-fruits , and earnest do make us desire the harvest , and the full possession . and as now those that live in the most heavenly society , and under the most excellent helps and means , have usually more heavenly minds and lives , than they that in more tempting and distracting company , never enjoy such heavenly beams . consectary . all the romish-dreams of church-union , arise from ignorance of the true state and interest of the church , and the true and necessary terms of union . and all the plots also , of the moderating papists , that talk of a political church-catholick , having a visible constitutive , or governing-head ; whether monarchial , ( the pope ) ; or aristocratical or democratical , ( the patriarchs , or a general-council ) : and that talk of universal laws of this church , made by such a universal-head ; besides the universal laws of christ , and falsly feign the councils called general , in a particular empire , called or ruled by one emperour only , in his own dominions ; to have been universal , as to all the catholick churches on earth , and that feign these councils to have been infallible , which so often erred , and crost each other : and that set the world upon the undeterminable controversie , which were true general councils ; and , how many we must receive , and conform to : whether only four , or six , or eight ; and till what age. and that would perswade the christian world , that what-ever diversity of canons , customs , or church-laws , or ceremonies , are allowed among them , it must all be done or held by this same authority of the pope , or council , or both : to which ( though forreign ) kings and bishops must all be subject ; and from which , they must receive their christianity ; and by which , all their reformations must be tryed , and that none must be taken as catholicks , nor any churches tolerated , that hold not such a factious union , under such an usurping head , personal or collective , but as tertullian speaketh , rather than endure such wiser and better societies ; solitudinem facerent , & vocarent pacem ; and as a worldy clergy , whose church and kingdom is only of and in this world , would banish from it all ( save a lifeless-image ) which hath any kin to heaven ; and suffer none to live in this world among them , but themselves . i say , all this is , . from ignorance of the true nature of the christian religion , church-state , and terms of unity and concord ; which i have lately opened in a book , entituled , [ the true and only terms of the concord of all the churches . ] . and from contention about ambiguous words , and self-conceitedness in their controversies , ignorantly thence raised ; which i have sought to end in a book , called , [ catholick theology . ] . and from vicious passions and partiality ; which i have sought to heal in a book , called , [ the cure of church-divisions . ] all written long since the writing of this foregoing prognostication . finis . certain questions propounded to the assembly, to answer by the scriptures whether corporall punishments may be inflicted upon such as hold errours in religion. / by s.r. richardson, samuel, fl. - . this text is an enriched version of the tcp digital transcription a of text r in the english short title catalog (thomason e _ ). textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. the text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with morphadorner. the annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. this text has not been fully proofread approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. earlyprint project evanston,il, notre dame, in, st. louis, mo a wing r a thomason e _ estc r this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (thomason tracts ; :e [ ]) certain questions propounded to the assembly, to answer by the scriptures whether corporall punishments may be inflicted upon such as hold errours in religion. / by s.r. richardson, samuel, fl. - . [ ] p. [s.n.], london : printed anno dom. . s.r. = samuel richardson. signatures: a. annotation on thomason copy: "dec: ". reproduction of the original in the british library. eng freedom of religion -- great britain -- early works to . dissenters, religious -- england -- early works to . a r (thomason e _ ). civilwar no certain questions propounded to the assembly, to answer by the scriptures: whether corporall punishments may be inflicted upon such as hold richardson, samuel b the rate of defects per , words puts this text in the b category of texts with fewer than defects per , words. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - emma (leeson) huber sampled and proofread - emma (leeson) huber text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion certain questions propounded to the assembly , to answer by the scriptures : whether corporall punishments may be inflicted upon such as hold errours in religion . . that no man might buy or sell , save he that had the marke , or the name of the beast , or the number of his name , rev. . . see rev. . , , . , ye are bought with a price ; be not the servants of men , cor. . . . ye suffer fooles gladly , cor. . . and yet i may not be suffered . by s. r. london , printed anno dom. . to the impartiall reader . if in this life only we had hope in christ , we are of all men most miserable : for almost every man thinkes himself most happy , that can doe us the most mischiefe : so that scarce any place can hardly be found in which we can be let alone : notwithstanding , we eat our own bread , and wear our own cloathing : ( to say no more ) live quietly , & do no man wrong . we are dayly unjustly accused , and lyable to be stripped of outward comforts ; because we will not believe and practise that which is in our understandings a lye . and is it not strange , that some dare affirme that to be truth , and would have others compelled to believe it : notwithstanding , they cannot read it unto us out of the holy scriptures , neither can they prove themselves to be our spiritual masters . if they can , we are content to be their spiritual servants , and believe , and practice , what and how much of any religion they please to appoint . but untill they can prove to us , to have such power , it will be to no purpose for thē to appoint us what to believe , &c. & that that which is truth , may more clearly appear . i desire they would give a plain and full answer ( to these questions i have propounded ) according to the scriptures ; that so if we be mistaken , we trust we shall be glad to see it , and embrace it , &c. certaine questions propounded to the synod . quest . . vvhether corporall punishments can open blind eyes , and give light to dark understandings ? whether carnall punishments can produce any more then a carnall repentance and obedience ? whether the destroying of mens bodies for errors , be not a means to prevent their conversion ; seeing some are not called untill the eleventh houre : and if they should bee cut off for their errors the seventh houre . how should they have come in ? mat. . whether those who would force other mens consciences , be willing to have their own forced ? whether it be wisdome and safe to make such sole judges in matte●s of religion , who are not infallible , but as liable to erre as others ? if a a father , or magistrate have not power to force a virgin to marry one shee cannot love ; whether they have power to force one where they cannot believe , against the light and checks of their own consciences ? whether the scripture makes the magistrate judge of our faith ? if the magistrate may determine what is truth ; whether we must not beleeve , and live by the magistrotes faith , and change our religion at their pleasures ? and if nothing must bee preached , nor no bookes of religion printed , nor be allowed to passe , unlesse certain men may please to approve , and give their allowance thereto , under their hands ; whether such do not by this practice , tell god , that unlesse hee will reveale his truth fitst to them , they will not suffer it to be published , & so not known to be ( even with him ) notwithstanding the magistrate may and ought to hinder the printing and publishing of that which shall be against the safety and welfare of the state . but we must distinguish between matters civill and religious : wee question their power in the latter . also , whether the licencer setting his hand to the book to licence it , ( he being a priest by his ordination and from the pope ) be not the mark of the beast , spoken of revel. . ? and whether all such as have gone to them to licence the truth ought not to repent of it , and do so no more ? also whether these men be fit to be licencers of the truth , who when the truth hath been tendered them to be licensed , they have confessed the truth of it , as they have been free to licence it ; but refused , because they durst not ? and whether it can be made appeare , that god hath revealed his truth first to these ministers of england , and so the first spreaders of it ? instance , who opposed the prelats , the ministers , or the people ; first ? and so of the rest . whether it be not the command of christ , that the tares ( those that walk in lies ) and the wheat ( those that walk in the truth ) should be let alone ; and the blind ( led in a false religion ) which are offended at the declaring of the truth , should be let alone ? mat. . . . mat. . whether hee was not reproved , that would have fire from heaven to devoure those that reject christ , luke . , . whether the servants of the lord are not forbidden to strive , but to be gentle towards all ? tim. . . whether the saints weapons against errors , be carnall or no ? cor. . . whether it was not christs command , that his disciples when they were persecuted , they should pray ; and if cursed , blesse ? whether the scriptures declare , that the saints should persecute others ; and whether the gentle lambs of christ can serve the wolves so , seeing hee sent his as sheep among wolves , and not as wolves among sheep , to kill and imprison , matth. . . whether christ hath said , he will have an unwilling people compelled to serve him ? whether ever god did plant his church by violence and blood-shed ? whether tares may not become wheat , and the blind see , and those that now oppose and resist christ , afterwards receive him : and he that is now in the divels snare , may get out , and come to repentance : and such as are idolaters , as the corinthians were , may become true worshippers , as they that are strangers may become gods people ? whether to convert an heretick , and to cast out unclean spirits , be done any other way then by the finger of god , by the mighty power of the spirit in the word ? whether he that is not conformable to christ , may not at the same time bee a good subject to the state , and as profitable to it as any ? whether men that differ in religion , may not be tollerated , seeing abraham abode among the canaanites along time ; yet contrary to them in religion , genes . . . & . . and he sojourned in gezer , and king abimel●ch gave him leave to abide in his land , gen. . . . . and isaac dwelt in the same land , yet contrary in religion gen. . the people of israel were about . yeares in egypt , and afterwards in babylon , all which time they differed in religion from the state , exod. . chron. . christ and his disciples differed from the common religion of the state , acts . . and when the enemies of the truth raised up any tumults , the wisdom of the magistrate most wisely appeased them , acts . . & . . wether it be not better for us , that a patent were granted to monopolize all the corne and cloath , and to have it measured out unto us at their price and pleasure , which yet were intollerable ; as for some men to appoint and measure out unto us what and how much we shall beleeve and practice in matters of religion . . whether there be not the same reason that they should bee appointed by us what they shall believe and practice in religion , as for them to doe so to us , seeing we can give as good grounds for what wee beleeve and practice ( as they can doe for what they would have ) if not better . whether men heretofore have not in zeale for religion , persecuted the son of god , in stead of the son of perdition ? whether it is not a burden great enough for the magistrate to govern and judge in civill causes , to preserve the subjects rights , peace and safety ? if the magistrate must judge and punish in matters of religion , the magistrate must ever be troubled with such persons and such causes : & if after his conscience be convinced , he had no such power , or see that it was truth hee punished ; what horrors of conscience is he like to possesse ? whether hee is fit to appoint punishments , that is not fit to judge ? if the magistrate must punish errors in religion , whether it doth not impose a necessity that the magistrate is to have a certainty of knowledge in all intricate cases ? and whether god calls such to that place , whom he hath not furnished with abilities for that place ? and if a magistrate bee in darknesse , and spiritually blind , and dead ; bee fit to judge of light , of truth and error ? and whether such be fit for the place of the magistracy ? then whether it be not a scruple to a tender conscience to submit to such in civill causes , because not appointed to that place by god ? whereas if the magistrates power be onely civill , the doubt is resolved , because such as may be fit for magistrates , and men ought in conscience in civil things to submit unto them . whether there bee any scripture that saith , that any mans conscience is to be constrained , and whether the magistrate can reach mens consciences ; and whether he be fit to make a law to conscience , who cannot know when conscience keeps it , and that cannot reward conscience for keeping it , nor punish the conscience for the breaking of it ? whether it be not in vain for us to have bibles in english , if against our souls perswasions from the scriptures we must beleeve as the church beleeves ? whether the magistrate be not wronged , to give him the title of civill magistrate onely , if his power be spirituall ? whether lawes made meerly concerning spirituall things , be not spirituall also ? whether if no civill law be broken , the civil peace be hurt or no ? whether in compulsion for conscience , not onely the guilty , but the innocent suffer also ? as if the husband be an heretick , his sufferings may cause the innocent wife and children shall suffer as deeply also . whether such as are spiritually dead , be capable to be spiritually infected ? whether god will accept of a painted sepulcher , a shadow , a meere complement of obedience , when the heart is dead and rotten , and hates god , and all that is good ? god hath no need of hypocrites ; much lesse of forced ones : god will have those to worship him as can worship him in spirit and truth , john . whether the scriptures appoint any other punishment to be inflicted upon heretickes , then rejection and excommunication ? tit. . . whether freedome of conscience would not joyn all sorts of persons to the magistrate , because each shared in the benefit ? whether those states ( as the low-countries , ) who grant such liberty , do not live quietly , and flourish in great prosperity ? whether persecution for conscience doe not harden men in their way , and make them cry out of oppression and tyranny ? whether some corporall punishments would not make thousands in england face about to popery , as it did in queen maries time . whether lawes made concerning religion , have not alwayes catched the most holy men ; witnesse daniel and the three children : the rest will be of what religion you will . whether the saints crave the help of the powers of this world to bring christ to them , or feare their powers to keep him from them ? if no religion is to be practised , but that which the common-wealth shall approve on : what if they will approve of no religion ? shal men have no religion at all ? whether the saints ought not to continue their assemblies of their worship of god , without , or against the consent of the magistrates ; they being commanded to do so , mal. . , , . heb. . . by an angel from god , acts . . it was the apostles practice ( who were not rebellious nor seditious ) act. . , , , . and . , . whether vniformity in religion in the state , do not oppresse millions of soules , and impoverish the saints bodies . whether gods people have not disputed and taught a religion new and worship , contrary to the state they lived in , and spread it in travelling and open places ; as appears act. . . . and . . yet no origancy and impetuousnesse . yea , contrary to publike authority in the nations vniformity , in false worship , dan. . the three children ; so the apostle , act. , . the saints have opēly witnessed , that in matters spirituall , jesus was king , act. . and for this christ suffered ; as appeares by his accusation , iohn . . jesus of nazareth king of the jews , psal. . . act. . . gods people have seemed the disturbers of the civill state , upon the apostles preaching , there followed uprores , and tumults , and uprores , at iconium , at ephesus , at ierusalem , act. . . act. . , , act. , , . whether jesus christ , appointed any materiall prisons for blasphemers of him ? whether notwithstanding the confidence of the truth they have , to which they would force others , whether the bishops , their fathers , &c. have not been as deeply mistaken ; for now they , are found to be antichristian . whether it be not a natural law for every man that liveth , to worship that wch he thinketh is god , & as he thinketh he ought to worship ; and to force otherwise , will be concluded an oppression of those persons so forced . whether it be best for us to put out our eyes , and see by the eyes of others who are as dim-sighted ? in my judgment , your judgment is a lye : will ye compell me to believe a lye ? compell ye a man to be present at a worship which he loaths ? either the civill , or the spiritual state must be supream : which of these must judge the other in spirituall matters ? if the magistrate , then he is above the church , and so the head of the church ; and he hath his power from the people : ( to govern the church ) whether it will not follow , that the people , as a people , have originally as men a power to governe the church , to see her do her duty , to reform & correct her ; and so the spouse of christ , the wife of christ must be corrected according to the pleasure of the world , who lye in wickednesse ? iohn . what power a church hath over a magistrate , if he be a member of the church : if members , they may be excommunicated , if so discerning . reason . because magistrates must be subject to christ , but christ censures all offendors , cor. . , . . every brother must be subject to christs censure , mat. . , , . but magistrates are brethren , deut. . . . they may censure all within the church , cor. . . . the church hath a charge of all the souls of the church , and must give account of it , heb. . . . christs censures are for the good of soules cor. . . but magistrates must not be denied any priviledge for their soules , else they by being magistrates , should lose a priviledge of christs . . in which priviledges , christians are all one , gal. . . col. . . sins of magistrates are hatefull and condemned , esay . . mich. . . it s a paradox , that a magistrate may be punished by the church , and yet that they are judges of the church . whether every man upon that religion , which in his conscience he is perswaded is true , whether he doth not upon the truth thereof venter his soule . if that religion the magistrate , be perswaded be true , he owes a three-fold duty . first , approbation , esa . rev. . with a tender respect to the truth , and the professors of it . secondly , personall submission of his soule to the power of jesus his government , matth. . cor. . thirdly , protection of them , and their estates from violence and injury , rom. . to a false religion he owes . . permission ( for approbation he owes not to what is evill ) as mat. . . for publike peace and quietnesse . . protection of the persons of his subjects ( though of a false worship ) that no injury be offered to the persons or goods of any , rom. . object . the kings of inda compelled men to serve the lord . ergo , kings may now compell , &c. answ . they who lived under the jewish worship only were compelled , strangers were not . secondly , they were not compelled to any thing , but what they knew and confessed was their duty , chron. . , , , . thirdly , if they did compell , their actions were not morall to obliege other kings to doe so . may not the prelates by the same reason alleadge the order of the priest-hood for their episcopacy , as you for the kingly . fourthly , the kings of israel did not imprison schismatikes , pharices , herodians , &c. fifthly , the kings of israel had extraordinary profits to direct them what to do infallibly ; these kings have none such to direct them . sixthly , if the law be morall ; where is it set down in christs testament ( which is to be our rule ) that the magistrate shall compell all to his religion : for to another he will not . object . then every man may live as he list . answ . had not he as good live as he list ; as live as you list ? object . then it seemes errours may be suffered . answ . if truth may be suffered also , it will prevaile against errors . it s no more in their power to hinder errors , then it was in the power of the prelates to hinder mens preaching writing , and speaking against them . if you can hinder sathans suggestions , and the vain imaginations of mens hearts , and expell the darknesse in men , and place light in stead thereof , and hinder men from speaking each to other ; then you can suppresse erors ▪ else not , the lord only can surprise errors by the mighty power of his spirit with his word , and we believe he will certainly do it in his time to his glory , and the comfort of his people amen . one thing more i desire to know why the priests of england asume to themselves the title of a ( divine ) is it because they are exercised in divine truths , or because they pertake of the divine nature , or both , if so , then many tradesmen may as well have the title of divine given them as well as they because they pertake of the divine nature , and are as much exercised in matters divine , as the most of them , but it is a question to me , whether the title divine is to be given to any man , but only to god alone ; whose being , is onely divine . finis notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a e- cor. . . remarks on the growth and progress of non-conformity l'estrange, roger, sir, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing l estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) remarks on the growth and progress of non-conformity l'estrange, roger, sir, - . [ ], [i.e. ] p. printed for walter kettilby ..., london : . reproduction of original in union theological seminary library, new york. attributed to sir roger l'estrange. cf. nuc pre- . created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng dissenters, religious -- england. great britain -- religion -- th century. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - melanie sanders sampled and proofread - melanie sanders text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion remarks on the growth and progress of non-conformity . the fathers seem to call those hereticks , who separated , or made divisions in the church , though the errour they maintained were very small . see mr. baxter's infants church membership , his answer to mr. tombs's valedictory oration at bewdly , p. . london , printed for walter kettilby at the bishops-head in st. pauls church-yard . . the introduction . if aegles the champion that was dumb all his life before , had the strings of his tongue loosed , that he spake for ever after , to see the deceit that was at the sacred exercises in samos ; 't is certainly enough to amaze us to see the greatest disturbers of the churches peace yet talk so much of love and holiness , terms of union and ways of concord , pleas for peace and cures of church-divisions , as the provincial of the protestant schismaticks doth ; to see them become as fire-brands in the church , that were ordained for saving lights , and as trumpets to sound martial alarms , that were designed for retreats to popular furies ; to see pretended holiness a cover to the deformity of sedition and innovation , and the most barbarous villanies set on the score of religion and reformation ; to see those that , to remove him from evil counsellors , have murder'd their lawful sovereign , yet to startle at the use of a ceremony , like a capuchin at the sight of money ; to see these still hunting upon the file , insinuating the vilest abominations in shew for the publick good , abhorring idols , yet committing sacriledge , espying moths yet winking at beams , crying down the whore of babylon when they mean nothing but the overthrow of episcopacy ; in a word , pretending nothing but piety and peace , when intending nothing but schism and sedition , and by the help of these holy guises [ as our royal martyr called them ] to come to such a summity of seditious insolence , that if one offer a fight with these beasts of ephesus in contradiction to their peevish faction , ( as one merrily observed ) they presently play the duke of anjou's cow , that bedaub'd the fingers of any that offer'd to pull her back by the tail , they make him the very butt of the most infamous defamations , that the twisted malice and subtilty of earth and hell can devise . now one would think this enough to make a dumb ass speak , in reproving the insolencies and dotages of such prophets , who run thus in the ways of balaam , to curse a church and people that the lord hath blessed : at least , 't is enough to put any serious person on enquiry into the causes of these honest religious villanies , as seneca calls prospering wickedness , and how such a pernicious faction could arrive to such a pitch of reputation and insolence . the enquirer will find these following means among others regardable . remarks on non-conformity , &c , . toleration and indulgence . he is much a stranger to non-conformity , that knows not how much connivance and indulgence have conduced to its increase , and how necessary are the coërcive means to the safe suppress of that dangerous faction . the first instance i assign for this , is in queen elizabeths tolerating the french church to be setled in london upon calvin's principle in . calvin having solicited bishop grindal ; upon the impetration of the bishop the queen assigned to the french exiles the church of st. anthony , with liberty to erect the genevian discipline , and set up a form of prayer which had no conformity with the english liturgy ; which proved in the event a design'd expedient of calvin's for the advancing of presbytery in the room of episcopacy . upon this toleration their numbers so increased , that in . they broke out into open schism , chusing to meet in barns and fields rather than in churches with their brethren as formerly ; teaching that it was impious to hold any correspondence with the conforming churches . upon this very occasion , ( viz. ) the queens toleration , and particularly her indulging them the liberty of the genevian discipline , within eight years time their numbers so increased , and their insolence also , that the queen plainly saw ( as her own words were ) that such were the restless spirits of that factious people , that no quiet was to be expected from them , till they were utterly suppressed . in order to which she calls a parljam . nt in . wherein strict laws were enacted against them , and executed accordingly . barrow , penry and burchet , were hanged for such their non-conformity-principles and practices as were treasonable . and by these sharp laws made against them , and some severe executions done on them , the ringleaders of them were humbled , the whole body of them brought to a good measure of quietness , which these wholsom severities kept them in till the end of the queens reign : and in all probability , as a late writer observes , they might have been for ever suppressed and kept quiet , had k. james at first held the reins with that strict hand that queen elizabeth did before him ; but for want of that they soon grew bold , fell a petitioning for reformation of sundry ceremonies and abuses , ( viz. ) cross at baptism , bowing at the name of jesus , surplice , &c. which occasioned the conference at hampton-court , where the defence made for their cause was so mean , that the king turning his head to some of the lords expressed himself thus ; if this be all they have to say , i 'le make them conform , or i 'le hurry them out of the land , or somewhat worse . this conference being in february , the next month produced the kings proclamation , wherein he strictly enjoyns conformity ; admonisheth all his subjects never after to expect alteration in the form of god's publick service then established . accordingly the laws were put in execution , without sparing non-conformists or half-conformists , and by this they were reduced to that quiet state again , that he found them in when first come to the crown , till the gunpowder treason , at which time they began to be very bold and busie ; the king being terrified with the apprehension of so great a danger , turn'd all his thoughts upon the papists , and so let the non-conformists take breath , and regain some strength . and as their custom ever was to fish in troubled waters , prodigious lies and stories still finding best entertainment in troublesome times , quia tutius finguntur & facilius creduntur , says livy . therefore upon the occasion of this horrid plot , the gun-powder treason , their next expedient was ( upon discovery of this plot ) to alarm the court and country with the fears of popery , and of new dangers from the papists , to exert the greatest zeal for the reformed religion , for preserving their liberties and priviledges against the incroachments of the court , and by this very means ( the reins being loosed to them on the occasion of the plot ) they drew much people to them , strengthened much their faction , and by degrees made a party in the house of commons , who at last came to that height , that the king could do little in parljam . nt without applying himself to that popular faction , and by the pretence of standing for the subjects property , the preservation of the true religion against popery , &c. they grew strong in parljam . nts , weakened the prerogative royal , aspersed with the name of papists all anti-presbyterians , and by this means grew so strong in both kingdoms that they wanted now nothing but occasion to break out into open war. now their last advance to all this , beginning at the discovery of the gun-powder treason , the faction having that opportunity for their revival , 't is hard to say whether did most promote their designs , their taking this opportunity to arrogate to themselves the reputation of the greatest anti-papists , or the king 's loosing the reins , and letting them grow headstrong by imploying all his care in the discovery of the hellish popish plot , and punishment of the plotters ; but certain it is , that upon the kings remitting his former severities , and increasing their liberty , they soon grew headstrong beyond the power of his son king charles the first ever to suppress . and 't is known beyond the reach of scruple , that that martyred king did meerly comply himself into nothing , by his tolerations and indulgences towards that party , and delivered him himself into their bloody hands by his meer condescension and compliances with them ; and that as he said , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . cap. . it was his suffering them to get to the pinacle of the temple that so tempted them to cast him down headlong . and 't was undoubtedly the sound and smart experience of the evil of toleration , that made the wisest of our ancestors so decry it . st. augustine wrote several whole epistles of the evil of tolerating dissenters . in his epistle to * vincentius he expresseth at large his great joy de correctione donatistarum , for the punishing ( or suppressing ) of the non-conformists of his time : adding in the same epistle that he was once for toleration , but that that opinion of his was overcome ⸫ non contradicentium verbis , sed demonstrantium exemplis . and he tells us in his epistle to donatus , ep. . that after constantine had made strict laws against the donatists , i. e. the then nonconformists , julian the apostate , one of his successors , gave toleration to the donatists for their schismatical meetings , suffered their sacrilegious dissensions ( as he calls them ) as the expedient whereby he thought the christian religion most likely to perish out of the world , in these words , julianus christi desertor & inimicus — libertatem parti donati permisit — eo modo putans christianum nomen posse perire de terris , si sacrilegas dissensiones liberas esse permitteret . and accordingly constantine the first christian emperour dealt with the non-conformists of his time , saying , pestium illarum audacia mea executione coercebitur . and archb. whitgift declared it impossible to defend the religion and rites of the church of england , to appease the schisms and sects therein , to reduce the ministers thereof to uniformity and due obedience , if after a long risk of liberty , dissenters had any countenance shewed them ; adding , that if way were given to their clamours and surmises , it would cause that confusion which hereafter the state would be sorry for . but hark what the grand church-barreter himself saith in his treatise of self-denial , ( ep. ded. to the then honourable colonel james berry one of the council of state , now reduced to beggary . ) in his epistle to this great belizarius , he calls toleration englands misery , a liberty for drawing men to hell , a wicked damning liberty , a strengthening the party tolerated , a making way for their power , a giving away our own power , a preparing faggots for our own martyrdom ; he speaks of the magistrates tolerating , as of a sort of men that rule as though they were uncertain whether there were a heaven or hell , &c. such a sin was toleration in the times of usurpation , and after this manner did he call for fire down from heaven to consume all that gave any toleration to the episcopal loyalists , that now upon the least touch of restraining non-conformists , cries out of gaols , starvings ruine , bloudy persecution , &c. 't is true indeed , in some of the fore-cited places , 't is against tolerating of popery he speaks ; but what 's that ? 't is well known that pope ry and episcopacy were then made termini convertibiles , and that the english hierarchy was the popery then opposed , as uncapable of the least degree of toleration . 't is a good observation of mr. baxter in his examination of mr. tombs ' s praecursor , sect. . p. . being an appendix to his infant-church-membership ; that 't is from separation that so many in so many parts of the land have turned ranters , blasphemers , and commonly unclean , that seemed religious , yea some down-right infidels , so that not onely the racovian catechism , but the most hellish books that ever was written , ( called the three grand impostors ) labouring to prove christ a deceiver , was printed in london . such enthusiasm there was that women ran naked into the assemblies , and men went about the streets , saying , they were christ , that this their wickedness spread far and near . i cannot hear ( says mr. baxter ) of one among a multitude that comes to this fearful pass by any other way , than first turning to anabaptistry and separation , and then to vilifie the ministry , and then who knows whither ? thus mr. baxter . on the like consideration it was undoubtedly , that st. augustine taught , that there was scarce any thing so bad as schism , ep. contra parm. not idolatry , says dionys. ap . eus. l. . not sacriledge , says optatus l. . 't is the original of evils , says ignat. ep. ad smyrn . a heap of evils , says mr. baxter of church-divisions , cure , pref. and in consideration of all this , what state-physician but will judge the coërcive means as salutary to the body politick , in case of such state-convulsions , as the present separation causeth , as dismembring is to the body natural in cases of gangrenes . and 't is observed that of late years , while the oxford act and other poenal laws were put in execution , 't is notoriously known how quiet they were . 't is true they would please themselves with their gloriola's concerning persecution , as they called their just punishment , would congratulate to one another their sufferings , as for christs sake , though it were for disobedience to christ's precept and example , as well pleased with that love and pity which the noise of persecution gains to their persons and persuasions ; but all this while they were quiet , desiring nothing but the exercise and liberty of the conventicle . and no sooner had they gain'd this point , but by degrees , as their liberty increased , their number increased , and their interest increased , and their insolence increased which hath now at last improved its self into such libellings and licentious discoursings , as can be interpreted little less than praeludes of rebellion . so that what bishop jewell said of cartwright the father of the non-conformists , may fitly be said of these his childish followers , folly is bound up in their froward hearts , and 't is the rod of correction must fetch it out ; the non-conformity-faction being always observed to have this hydropical humour of increasing by being indulg'd , which makes them just as fit to be indulg'd as a desperate dropsie which is exasperated by mitigations . but the unreasonableness of non-conformists plea for toleration , and complaints of sufferings in being restrained , will sufficiently appear , by considering distinctly the persons suffering , and the things suffered . the persons suffering , are . such who at the same time revile the government , reproach and expose their governours , managing their pretence of conscience in such an invective way as makes their complaints and clamours more like matter of superiority than of scruple . . they are such as have kept days of prayer and thanksgiving for victories over the king ; have preached the people into rebellion against him , have preached from him his arms and money , laws and credit , liberty and life , and in the most solemn manner have justified all when they have done , and after this , endeavoured all they could to keep this present king out of his throne . that mr. baxter's holy commonwealth was wrote to that very end and purpose will appear to any that compares the time of his publishing it , ( which his book was wrote as he says , 〈◊〉 to satisfie the demands and doubts of ) which was the year . when the grand point in doubt was , whether the king should be restored or no. he that compares this with those three theseses , , . where he hints that the king was justly dispossessed , as by a lawful war , that being conquered by the people , they were not obliged to restore him , nay though he had been dispossessed unjustly , yet it was not the duty of subjects to seek his restitution . i say these things compared with that vital circumstance ( viz. ) the time of writing it , make it evident that the design of it was only this , to keep out the king : but . the unreasonableness of non-conformists plea for toleration and complaint of sufferings , will further appear by considering the things suffered . consider it in the comparison , and in it self . . in comparison of what the conforming clergy suffered under them . their sufferings in the usurpation times will appear to be little less than those of the spanish inquisition , or the marian persecution , to any that reads but ( . ) the bill of mortality of the clergy of london , wherein we have account of turned out of their livings , plundered of their goods , their wives and children sent a begging , whereof above were doctors in divinity , imprisoned in london and the ships , fled to escape imprisonment , died with grief in prisons and remote places . the protestants remonstrance recounts many more alike sufferers in the country , both which together shew that there were more suffered by ejecting , sequestring , and barbarous plundering by the presbyterians in three years time , then did by the papists in all queen maries reign . but ( . ) consider what their suffering is in it self , and it will appear to be little else but a self-silencing , meerly because they cannot get priviledge above the peaceable and loyal sons of the church . i call it a self-silencing , because all that the law doth is to hold forth one common rule indifferently to all : every man hath the conditions of his freedom tendered him , which are such as themselves have for the most part acquitted from all intrinsick turpitude or sin ; and he that will not comply with these conditions , siilences himself ; beside , 't is not the man that is silenced neither , but onely this or that irregular practice or opinion , which the magistrate seeing insuperable necessity for , hath authority from god to regulate and restrain . moreover their plea in this matter is no more than what dissenters of all sorts may use , so that if rulers may be judge , they are to be suppressed ; if the people must be judge , then papists , quakers , &c. must be tolerated also . and such liberty ( saith mr. baxter ) in matters of worship and faith , is the way to set up popery in the land. but let non-conformists scruples be what they will , if it seem good to our rulers to put the restraint upon them , i humbly recommend to them that good advice of mr. baxter ; see to this my brethren , ( saith he ) that none of you suffer as an evil-doer , or as a busie-body in other mens matters , as a resister of the commands of lawful authority , as ungrateful to those that have been instruments of our good , as evil speakers against dignities , as opposers of the discipline and ordinances of christ , as scornful revilers of your christian brethren , as reproachers of a laborious and judicious ministry . saints rest. p. . examining well whether the grounds and reasons of their sufferings be not the same as that of popish priests and jesuites , ( viz. ) not their religious principle , but their seditious practice , encouraging people to tumultuate and rebel , by rendering the government and governours odious , by teaching ( as mr. baxter doth in his plea for peace ) that 't is not in the power of princes to forbid * ministers preaching , ( as much as to say , ) 't is lawful to resist the king's authority in defence of the conventicle . . grindallizing . a second thing that promotes the interest and increase of separation is grindallizing . by grindallizers i mean the conforming non-conformists , or rather such as are conformists in their profession , half-conformists in their practice , non-conformists in their judgment , like the old gnostick-separatists which the apostle calls . ⸫ double minded men ; or like the sinner in eccl. . . that looks two manner of ways , or like the haven in creet , acts . . that bows and bends to the south and to the north , to the church of england , and to the kirk of scotland , as interest and opportunity shall incline . these are they which down with all oaths and subscriptions required , though what they swallow whole in their subscriptions , they mince and mangle in their practice , they conform to all seemingly but hypocritically ; mangle the common-prayer , handle the surplice gently , plow socunningly with their ox and ass together , carry it so cunningly that they can scarce be known , but per modum opinionis , by their open compliances with the enemies of the church , by their gallionism in defending the orders and ceremonies of the church , and other matters of conformity , which require their proportion of zeal and resolution , by their hearing with patience and unconcernedness , the interest , honour , and peace of the church run down by swaggering sectaries ; by their talking conformity and nonconformity with such compassionate and serious innuendo's as may sufficiently signifie their favourable opinion of , if not good will to their cause , by their defending the popular election of bishops , by ambiguously representing the separation , as if it were no schism ; by their writing fraudulent pleas for the non-conformists ; by endeavouring to acquit the presbyterians and independents of the king's murder ; and in statu quo , by their votes in chusing parljam . nts and convocations , by their being à secretis with profest non-conformists , by their self-designing compliances with them , under pretence of moderation , & similibus ; whereby they contribute as much to the encouragement of dissenters , as the professed encouragers themselves ; like king charles's presbyterian murderers , who had the villany to manage the contrivance , but the cunning to disappear in the execution . these half-conformists are the veriest church-moles , that by their blind principles and undermining practices contribute little less to the increase and interest of non-conformity , to the danger and dishonour of the church , than the open enemy , whether popish or peevish . and of this we have frequent instances , particularly in archbishop grindal , whose indulgence to that party , gave them the first revival in england , by his conniving at the half-conformists of yorkshire , by his complying first with beza in procuring a french church setled in london on the geneva principle . and afterwards with those , who upon their return from geneva , franckford , and other places ( where they lived during the marian persecution ) were preferred in the church , where they lived for some time half-conformists , as cartwright minister in warwick , whittingham dean of durham , sampson dean of christ church , afterwards turned out for non-conformity , with great numbers preferred to cures in city and country ; where they were not wanting to prepare the people for such innovations as were in after-time to be brought into the church , and by the profest non-conformists . as soon as safety and impunity permitted , they broke out into open schism , and still when the laws just severity frighted them , they crept within the pale of the church , seeming to conform , that they might have the laws protection to shelter their contempt of authority , and under the wing of episcopacy to breed up their presbytery . when archbishop whitgift's zeal and industry had reduced them to that , that in all probability their ruptures were crumbling to nothing , their then refuge was ( as beza advised in his letter to cartwright ) to unite themselves again to the main body of the church , there to be nurtured into contempt of the churches government under the indulgence of its governours . and of this kind of half-conformists are those who at this very day , by outward conformity have opportunity , and by masked non-conformity want not will through sneaking compliance to betray the church into her enemies hands , and themselves ( though they know it not ) into the veriest contempt and slavery ; so that in this contemplation we might ( as the church of old did by the waters of babylon ) sit down and weep when we remember zion . zion ( saith the prophet ) tearing her self with her own hands . or as the tree in the apologue , that was rent and splint , and torn asunder by wedges that came out of its own sides . therefore as we would not hypocritize and dissemble with god and man , as we would not be found church-traytors , that have espoused a cause which we are afraid to defend , and ashamed to own ; as we would not be found in conspiracy against our selves , and in breach of those solemn oaths took at our entrance into the ministry , by a dastardly compliance with our own and the churches enemies ; let us every man to his tents , o israel , with resolution and courage in gain-saying seducers , in daring to look faction in the face , and opposing it , though never so insolent and domineering ; according to the advice of mr. calvin to bucer , that he should take care to avoid moderate counsels in matters of religion , intimating the intense zeal that is required in ministers in order to the interest and honour of the church : remembring that of the wise man , eccl. . . wo unto them that have a fearful heart , and to the faint hands , and to the sinner that goeth two manner of ways . . their zeal against popery , a third expedient . so odious is popery now in england , ( blessed be god for it ) that even children will spit at the very naming of it : so that a better pretence could never be for the setting up of presbytery , than a shew of the greatest zeal against popery : and therefore hath it been always accounted the most necessary tool in the framing of innovations . when the earl of bothwel , having a mind to the crown of scotland , could not bring to pass the murder of the king by his dealing with the witch of keith , nor by his assaulting him first at haly-rood , and afterward at falkland , his last expedient was to join himself with the presbyterians , and act hand in hand with them zealously against popery ; and under that holy guise attempted openly to assassinate the king. 't is well known how the very force of this word ( popishly affected ) blew up three kingdoms but t'other day ; hurrying people from the fear of popery to the prostitution of christianity it self ; when to palliate their hellish out-rages against the king , they feared not to tax even him of popery , who had said and done as much to satisfie the world of his detestation of popery , and true zeal for the reformed religion , as the wit of man could devise , or the malice of man demand , as doth abundantly appear by his royal declaration or manifesto sent from oxford in . and at this day a fiery zeal against popery is the best expedient they have ; 't is that single pretext that supports their cause ; to accuse governours or government of popery is an expedient that in england never yet failed to render them odious to the multitude . now that the design of these groundless out-cries against popery is not so much to keep down popery , as to promote presbytery , will appear very probable to any that shall but examine the way and manner of their exercising this zeal , which is threefold . . branding with the name of papist , or popishly affected , every one that is not of , or at least that sets himself against their principle and practice . archbishop whitgift , a prelate of the greatest piety and learning , eminent for his zeal against popery , yet because against presbytery also , they stiled him beelzebub of canterbury , pope of lambeth , a monstruous antichristianism pope , &c. and but the other day in smith's protestant intelligence , the king's council is called popish ; of the bishops , four are called protestant , and all the rest popish . to that pass are things now brought that whoever will not side , vote , and petition as they would have them ; whoever speaks reverently of the orthodox clergy , of the order and discipline of the churches of england , in vindication of loyal episcopacy against a confused and factious presbytery , is presently a tory and popishly affected : and why all this , but for a blind or stratagem to blend and confound popery and prelacy , that people may not distinguish , but destroy one under the name and pretence of the other . i shall not insist upon the malice and diabolism of these slanderous imputations , it will somewhat discover their design , if we do but take notice what little reason they have thus to traduce our church and church rulers ; considering these two things : i. that their correspondency of principles and practices with the church of rome , so far as they are erroneous and dangerous , is so very apparent to any that understand popery . ex. gr . . both equally deny the king's supremacy . the papist saith , not the king but the pope is supream ; the presbyter saith , not the king , but the parljam . nt . prove ( saith mr. baxter ) that the king is the higher power , and i 'le offer my head to justice as a rebel . and calvin in his comment upon amos cap. . v. . calls them inconsiderate men that had conferred the supremacy on king henry viii . . the pope saith , an heretical , i. e. a protestant king is to be deposed . the presbyterian says , 't is lawful and commendable to fight against the king for religion , to depose him , says baxter . and martin mar-prelate in his second book , advises the parljam . nt to put down the bishops whether the queen would or no. . papists say , heretical , i. e. protestant kings may be not onely deposed , but killed by their subjects . presbyterians say the same , ministers may excommunicate princes ; and after a king is by excommunication cast into hell , he is unworthy to live upon earth , says buchanan . guignard the jesuit hath it , france is sick and they must cut the basilick vein to heal her . the presbyter hath the same words concerning king charles the first , wound that hazael under the fifth rib , you must strike the basilick vein , none but it can heal the plurisie of state. and mr. love , o that our state physicians would imitate god in cutting off from the land those that have distempered it , meaning the king , as his next words shew , praestat unus pereat quam unitas . and accordingly they have practised , as will be shewn in its proper place . . they both proceed in the same method ; the pope first excommunicates , then deposes , then murders . the presbyter first deposes the king , then murders charles stuart . . they agree in so much as time ; the jesuit , i. e. the bloudy papist and the presbyter are both of an age , the year . is remarkable for the geneva discipline , and the spawning of the jesuits order . . papists teach , that truce is not to be kept with hereticks , i. e. protestants . presbyterians teach , that promise is not to be kept when — the preaching of the truth , i. e. presbytery is hindered . see their marg. not. on matth. . . . both will reproach and slander , plunder and sequester , kill and slay for the churches good ; though the apostle says , we must not do evil that good may come thereby . . both agree in that principle , that dominion is founded in grace . . 't is the business of them both in protestant kingdoms , by ill interpreting their princes actions , by slandering , libelling , and the like means , to draw subjects from their allegiance . . the jesuits call themselves the saintly brotherhood , the church of rome , the onely true church , and all hereticks beside themselves . the presbyterians call'd themselves formerly the godly party , and all others malignants . now the people of god , the zealous protestants , and all others carnal , superstitious , formalists , popishly affected , &c. . the papists formerly plot , rebell , and massacre , by entering into a covenant , called the holy league , ( as in the massacre at paris , and rebellion against king henry the third ) . the presbyterian did the same by entering into a covenant , called the solemn league , ( as in england and scotland against king charles the first ) . . papists warring against king henry the third of france , in performance of their holy league , have frequent fastings , doubled devotions , to persuade weak consciences that they aimed at nothing but the setting up of christ's kingdom , and to instruct them to cut their kings throat , as for the love of god , and the gaining of paradise . presbyters in warring against king charles in performance of their solemn league had frequent days of humiliation and thanksgiving for success in fighting against the king. the papists holy league and the presbyters solemn league were both entered , upon a groundless jealousie of the king's religion . in both there is a league with strangers , and armies raised in the kingdom against their natural sovereign : who gave them no occasion of the war , but the too much gentleness and condescensions of them both . in both the fire of civil war was blown about by seditious preachers . . papists and presbyterians both in their distinct parties do still combine against the government . . both for many years have been the great disturbers of the peace of all christendom . tell me ( says a late gentile writer ) of any massacre , or bloudy wars , or stratagems against the magistrate , of any treason or rebellion whatever , within the memory of man , but what was carried on by one of these two parties , papists or presbyterians , and i 'le be content to undergo the bloudy inquisition of the one , and the fate of the two archbishops , canterbury and st. andrews , murdered by the other . now if they will go no further from the church of rome than she hath gone from the truth , let them shew , if they can , half so many parallels between the church of england and of rome . 't is true indeed , the churches of england retain some things that are in use in the church of rome ; but must we disbelieve and difuse every thing as popish that the papists believe and use , then must we not believe that christ is the messias ; then must we renounce the word , sacraments , and prayer , because the papists believe and use them . but if we will depart no further from the church in reformation , than she departs from the truth in corruption , let the non-conformists shew , if they can , wherein the church of england agrees with that of rome in half so many erroneous principles and dangerous practices as the non-conformist doth . what reason then have they so to curse a church which the lord hath blessed ? her sisters ( the reformed churches ) all calling her blessed , and joying to behold her order and stedfastness in christ ; so to stigmatize with the brand of popish , all that are not peevish and turbulent like themselves . ii. what reason have they for it , considering what great things the episcopal divines have done and suffered above them all along from the beginning of the reformation to this day , in detestation of popery , and attestation of the reformed religion as now professed in the church of england , some laying down their lives to testifie against popery , as cranmer , ridley , latimer , &c. others standing in the gap upon all occasions to oppose the return of it with most eminent abilities and greatest zeal above what non-conformists can pretend to . in the beginning of the reformation , when calvin sent to cranmer , and after that to the protector seymour to offer his assistance , they rejected him utterly ; so that neither he , nor any of the consistorian principle , had any hand in the first reformation in england ; or have any of them ever since done any thing comparable to what the episcopal divines have against popery . 't is true , mr. baxter , pool , and two or three more of them have done their parts , but what to those many of the church of england , usher , hall , morton , reignolds , chillingworth , laud , abbot , jewel , bramhall , barlow , all bishops , beside hammond , white , buckeridge , sutcliff , stillingfleet , tillotson , and many others of our churches education , of as great learning and judgment in religion , as holy lives , and as comfortable consciences , as any the world affords , which one would think enough to make malice it self ashamed to charge the church or church-men of england with any thing like popery , or popishly affected . add to this : iii. if the church or church-men be any thing popishly affected , how comes it to pass that the twisted strength and subtlety of papists , with all their hellish malice , is engaged chiefly against them as their mortal enemies , as though nothing stood in their way but the church of england , that hath the countenance of laws and reason , antiquity and decency to support it ; never regarding quakers or non-conformists , as though it were below the wit of a jesuit to encounter a non-conformist , as one that 's doing the popes business , yet will not be made believe it . now these three things considered , judge who will , what reason dissenting protestants have to brand with the name of popish or popishly affected , the church or church-men of england . and if so , whether it be not probable that by their factious and extravagant zeal against popery , they design not onely the overthrow of popery , but the increase of their party , and the promotion of their interest also . but once more , iv. if there be any church of england men popishly affected . i heartily wish in the apostles words , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that they were utterly cut off from among us ; and here will every true church of england man say heartily , amen . a second way that they have of exerting their zeal against popery ( whereby they increase their party , and promote their interest ) is to amuse the people with the fears and jealousies of a popish revolution . i confess this being purely politicae considerationis , is beyond my province , but with humble deference to superiours , suppose we the worst , even that of a popish successor , yet have we many good allays to the extravagance of that jealousie , ( viz. ) all offices and power being in the hands of anti-papists , there being so many strict laws in force against popery , and the king's offer and readiness to concur in making more , or any other thing ( that is lawful just and honest ) to secure us against it . to instance in the revolution of queen maries reign is vain ; for there being now in the two kingdoms so universal a detestation and loathing of popery ( which was not then ) what prince in the world would offer to set up that religion so much against his own interest , so utter inconsistent with his quiet and safety , and which will so certainly involve him into continual fears and troubles , most desperate dangers and inconveniences , as that which , next to hell , is most formidable and abominable to almost all his subjects , and that which they will scarce ever be brought to submit to . upon these and many the like considerations wise men think it not adviseable to forward a popish revolution by exasperating the heir to the crown with the factious and unnecessary fears of a popish succession , and to abandon our quiet and security for meer future possibilities , to make our selves certainly miserable before-hand for fear of being miserable hereafter . like gundamore the spanish ambassadour , who procured a valiant english knight to be put to death , ( as he said ) not for any hurt he had done , but for fear of doing hurt . . a third way they have of exerting their zeal against popery ( whereby they increase their interest and party ) is by appropriating to themselves the reputation of the zealous protestants , and greatest opposers of popery : which will appear as impudent a cheat as it is a falshood , ( if by zeal and opposing , we mean not factious , but onely such as is of regular and religious tendency to the overthrow of it , ) when 't is considered : . how abundantly the episcopal divines have out-done them in opposing and keeping out popery ; ( as hath been noted before ) to which i add , that of dr. saunderson , that all along fr●m the beginning of the reformation , our bi●●ops with others of the prelatick party were the principal , if not the only champions to maintain the cause of religion against popery , and in these latter times none have slept in the gap more readily , nor championed the cause of religion aga●nst popery with more dexterity , zeal and gallantry than the episcopal divines , by whose endeavours some that have been bred papists have been gained to our church , others that began to waver , were confirmed and setled in the protestant religion ; but i profess ( says he ) as in the presence of almighty god , and before the world , that i have not known , or at least ca●not call to remembrance , so much as one single example of any of this done by any of our anti-ceremonian brethren , whether presbyterian or independent . but . these non-conformists are so far from being the truly zealous opposers of popery , that ( as the same dr. saunderson observes ) they are really and eventually ( though not intentionally ) the great promoters of the roman interest among us , and that several ways . . by putting to their helping hand to the pulling down of episcopacy ( the main bulwark against popery , as having the support of laws , reason , scripture and antiquity against it ) . 't is well known ( says he ) what rejoicing that vote ( against episcopacy ) brought to the romish party , how in rome they sang their io paeans upon the tidings thereof , saying triumphantly , now the day is ours , now the fatal blow is given to the protestant religion in england ; they could not but foresee that if the old government ( of england ) a main pillar in the building were once dissolved , the whole fabrick would be sore shaken , if not presently shattered and ruined , that things would presently run into confusion , distractions and divisions , ( as the event soon shewed . ) . they promote the interest of rome ( says that learned author ) by opposing it with more violence than reason ; in opposing popery ( he observes ) the episcopal divines have done it by dint of argument , the non-conformists by opprobrious clamours , revilings , &c. so that it hath been obs●rved ( says he ) that in lancashire , and other places , where there are most and most rigid presbyterians , there are the most and most zealous papists . thus that judicious and learned prelate . . non-conformists promote popery by causing those divisions in the church which jesuits have endeavoured among us , as more conducible to popery than all their strength of argument ; as is said to be determined at rome in their concilium de propaganda fide . and as mr. baxter observes ( in his collections out of contzen the jesuite , and in his defence of the principles of love. ) popery will grow ( says he ) out of our divisions ; thousands have been drawn to , and confirmed in it by this means . i am persuaded ( says he ) that all the arguments in bellarmine and other books , have not done so much to make papists in england , as our divisions and multiplied sects . and afterward , who sees not how fair a game the papists have to play by our divisions ? archbishop whitgist in his letter to the lord treasurer , and dr. oats in his narrative , and others speak it as upon their own personal knowledge , that the dissenters have been animated to non-conformity by the jesuits . it hath been lately made out by a peer of this realm , that their making a court-party and a country-party , and fomenting fears and jealousies between both , was an expedient agreed upon in france , and sent over into england , for the promoting of popish interests . and in queen elizabeths time , as soon as ever the puritan had made the schism , over came sanders and harding into england , and practised in that sort as proselyted many to the church of rome . . they promote popery by vilifying the church and church-men of england ; when in queen elizabeths time they traduced archbishop whitgift ( that great and pious prelate ) calling him beelzebub of canterbury , pope of lambeth , bloudy opposer of gods saints , esau , antichristian beast , &c. and the rest of the bishops as petty-popes , the ordinance of the devil , paultry prelates , pestilent usurpers ; in the convocation they called them clergy-masters of the confocation-house , monsters of the conspiration-house , the convocation house of devils , and beelzebub of canterbury the chief : and when they called the inferiour clergy dolts and drunkards , hogs and dogs , wolves and foxes , simoniacks and usurpers , &c. see what advantage the papists made of this ; parsons in his book of three conversions , reports these slanders and calumnies for undoubted truths . martin mar-prelate is said by sir edwin sandys to pass in those days for unquestioned credit in the court of rome , and his authority much insisted on to disgrace the protestant religion . kellison a later one doth build as much on the credit of these libellers to defame the reformed religion , as if they had been inspired by some infallible spirit . and mason tells it as a serious thing , appellant episcopum cantuariensem pseudo-episcopum , principem daemoniorum , caiapham , esaum , monstrosum , &c. alios autem episcopos angliae , degeneres , perniciosos , usurpatores , lupos , episcopos diaboli , &c. now upon these considerations , judge who will , what reason these men have to charge the church or church-men of england as fautoring of popery , to amuse the people with fears and jealousies concerning it , and to arrogate to themselves the reputation of the most zealous opposers of it , and yet by exerting their zeal these three ways they have strengthened their faction and promoted their interest in church and state. . their veneration to the scriptures pretended above others . another way by which they increase their party and interest , is the great veneration which they above others pretend to have for the holy scriptures , their confident appeals to scripture , as judge of their controversie , and constant retreat to it for defence of their cause ; teaching their followers ( even in matters of indifferency which the scriptures are silent in , and leave to humane prudence ) to swagger with the demand , where do you find in scripture such precept or example ? and this to the more unwary and less knowing professors , is one thousand arguments , and as apt to take with them as any thing . now there are three things among others which do much liable this pretence to hypocrisie and delusion . . their gross perverting and misinterpreting of scripture , beyond what the papists themselves do . . the impracticableness and errour of demanding a scripture-text for the very externals of gods worship . . their disregard and sl●ght of those scriptures ( though speaking never so plainly ) which contradict their errours and practices . . their perverting and misinterpreting of scripture ; when fathers and councils , reason , antiquity and scripture fail them , then a good gloss must serve for a text , vexing and urging the holy writ , which the apostle calls emphatically 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , i. e. cogging the die to make it speak what they list ; and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , i. e. crafty deceitful applying and expounding it . thus by babylon they understand episcopacy , by beggarly elements they mean church-ceremonies ; they justifie their out-rages against the late king and nobility , with a bind your kings with chains , and your nobles with fetters of iron ; they have commented rebellion out of the very thirteenth of the romans , which enjoins subjection and loyalty upon pain of damnation , and have fetcht presbytery out of the first of titus ver . . which plainly exhibits the very essentials of episcopacy . the murder of the late king they have out of daniel's dream , and from the beast and the little horn in the revelations ; and because the apostle says moses was faithful in all the house of god , therefore there must be nothing in the externals of god's worship but what you have a text for ; for the like reason that that ignorant popish priest urged out of the psalms , paveant illi non paveam ego , to prove his parishioners ought to pave the chancel . look in the geneva bibles , their note on rev. . . you will find that by the locusts which came out of the smoak ( they say ) is meant false teachers , worldly subtle prelates , monks , friers , cardinals , patriarchs , archbishops , bishops , * doctors , batchelors , masters , ( to which is subjoined ) which forsake christ to maintain false doctrine ; where they bring all archbishops , bishops , and all that take university degrees , under the name of locusts , and rank them with monks and friars , whom they beheld as no other than the limbs of antichrist . one would think that that curse at the end of the * revelations , should make them afraid so to wrack scripture-texts , those † god-breathed oracles , to make them obstetricate to their impieties , and confess such abominable falsities . but thus it was ab origine , the donatists justified their separation with that cant. . tell us where thou makest thy flocks to rest at noon , meridiem versus , the french translation is , towards the south : therefore they being southern confine the church of god to themselves , and separate from the orthodox christian churches . and we know who it was that first practised this art , by the manner of his urging our saviour with a scriptum est , in all his temptations , matth. . . a second thing that liables their pretended veneration for the scriptures above other men , to the suspicion of seducing , is their frequent use of demanding scripture-texts for every thing in the discipline and orders of the church , denying church-rulers the power of appointing ceremonies . before i come to speak of the delusion of this pretence , i would premise something concerning its errour , which did not the constant practice of the seduced require , it were a shame to take notice of , it hath been so oft refuted by grotius , morton , sanderson , and others , shewing ; . that even in the jewish church ( from whence they fetch this doctrine ) in which god did by immediate revelation prescribe the rites and orders of his worship , even in that church the magistrate had a power in the circumstantials of religion . david altered some things , and instituted others , he appointed instrumental musick to be used in the worship of god , without any commission from god that we read of . he distributed the priests into orders for the conveniency of their ministration , yet 't was not accounted any innovation in religion . hezekiah caused the passover to be kept in all judah and israel on the second moneth , on the advice of his council , upon prudential and pious considerations , though not according to any divine institution . he appointed the levites to kill the passover , which by god's appointment was to be done by the people . he preferred the levites to assist the priests in killing the other sacrifices , which before they were never admitted to ; and all this was afterward retained in use without reprehension . by all which , it appears that the magistrate had once a power of ordering matters in god's worship , and that , even in times when god prescribed the rites and orders of his worship by immediate revelation . and in the new testament , the apostle's circumcising timothy after circumcision had been abolish'd , shews that all ceremonial appendages are but subordinate , and ought to yield to the designs of peace , charity , and edification . the same apostle in prescribing church-orders , leaves out particulars , prescribes onely generals , ( viz. ) obedience to rulers , doing things decently and in order , to edification and the like . now all the question is , who shall be judge of that decency , order , and edification ? the scriptures cannot , for they no where determine it : the people may not , it was denied them in the directory , the worcester-shire association , &c. therefore church-rulers must , those higher powers that are ordained of god , and established in authority by the fundamental laws of the land. besides , that every church-national hath authority to appoint and change church-ceremonies and ecclesiastical rites , was a main argument that the first reformers , jewel , cox , &c. used against the popish bishops for the changing of religion from popish to protestant . but 't is enough to shew the errour and delusion of this pretence , that the most learned of the old non-conformists themselves have believed and taught that a scripture-precept or example is not necessary to the institution of church-discipline or ceremonies . calvin teaches , that christ would not prescribe singularly and particularly concerning external discipline and ceremonies , because he foresaw things to depend on the occasions and opportunities of times ; nor did he think on form to accord with all ages ; whereupon ( says he ) we must have recourse to the general rules , that all things may be tried by them . finally , he delivered nothing in these points expresly , because they are not of necessity to salvation , but ought to be accommodated to the edification of the church , according to the different disposition and custom of times and countries . thus calvin himself , and accordingly he practised , when ( without a scripture-precept or example ) he caused a consult to be held at geneva in the year . for changing the lords day from sunday to thursday . master baxter himself hath confest , that the vesture , gesture , ( and other ceremonies ) are all at the determination of the lawful magistrate . now when they suggest thus to people what themselves believe not , what can one think of their design in teaching the seduced ignorants ( when they have nothing else to say ) to cry , where doth the scripture this or that ? where have you scripture-precept or example for it ? . if their pretending such veneration for the scriptures above other men , were not delusory , their regard to the sriptures would certainly be more uniform . they would not ( as they do ) disregard and contemn those texts ( though speaking never so plainly ) which make any thing against them . tell them ( as the apostle doth the corinthians ) of whisperings , back-biting , tumults , &c. and that while they are full of strife , envyings , and divisions , one of paul , another of apollos , ( one of this mans congregation , another of that ) they are carnal , they will perhaps laugh at you , but neither regard you , nor the apostle . and here is regardable what the learned doctor littleton observes ( in his sermon , entituled the churches peace asserted , p. . ) of these corinthians that the apostle charges with envyings , strife , and schisms , which he calls carnality ; that they kept to their publick ministers , yet are charged with those things , meerly because they preferred one before another , who were both ( paul and apollos ) men of eminent abilities , and extraordinary graces . and if this be envying , strife and carnality , what would paul have said of us ? how carnal are they who desert the publick ministry , and gad after , not the pauls and apollos's ( there are not so many among them to gad after ) but ( as that reverend doctor speaks ) after every will-in-the-wisp , men neither orthodox nor able . if you urge it to them , that christ and his apostles have foretold us of false prophets that should be amongst us , and that the marks they have given us to know them by are such as these ( viz. ) they are such as separate themselves , ( geneva translation , such as make sects ) that they are such as despise dominion , i. e. that cannot endure superiority or government : that they are such as speak evil of dignities , ( geneva translation , of those that are in authority , ) that they are such as are murmurers and complainers , i. e. never content under any government : such as shall perish in the gain-saying of korah , which was disobedience to the magistrate , mutinying against moses and aaron , the prince and the priest , telling them , that all the lords people are holy , that they had as good a right to govern as moses and aaron had , that they took too much upon them , &c. tell them that the scriptures call seducers , false accusers , ( as those that accuse our worship of superstition and idolatry ) traitors , ( as those , who like absalom , draw away the hearts of the kings subjects with fine words and fair speeches ) : tell them that the scripture describes seducers to be of that sort , that creep into houses , and lead silly women captive , they will no more regard you than if you quoted the alcoran . though these characters hit them , like the left-handed benjamites , to a hairs breadth , yet 't is strange to see with what scorn and contempt they will reject that man that shall tell them of these things , though with the greatest demission and meekness that may be : and with what slight and disregard they will hear and read these plain scripture-marks of seducers , though as competible to them as treason to a traitor . now upon these three considerations , judge who will , what fit persons these are to pretend to scripture-rule above other men : yet this pretence is one of their wiles whereby to seduce the people and increase their party . . their pretence to reformation , purity of religion , tenderness of conscience , &c. mr. baxter hath well observed , that the appearance of more spirituality and strictness was that which drew tertullian to the montanists , and which promoted a great part of the heresies which have torn the churches of christ. this kept up the donatists ( whom st. austin calls , impios & fastidiosos , pertinaces & superbos separatores ; and their separation he calls sacrilegious , heretical , and seditious ; yet these kept up their reputation and separation from the orthodox christians assemblies by this very means , the pretence and shew of greater purity and sanctity than others . ) this kept up the cause of the priscilianists and manichees , this kept up the novatians long in great reputation ; this was the strength of the anabaptists in germany and the low-countries ; this is the strength of the quakers , and ( he might have added ) of the non-conformists and their party at this very day . and the truth is , piety and holiness command such an universal love and veneration , that the very shew and counterfeit of it , hath deluded thousands into erroneous ways , and hath ever been accounted the most usefull tool in the framing of seditious and schismatical innovations . lycurgus could never have ingratiated his laws so effectually , had he not pretended conference with his goddess . nor could the factious of our late times have carried on their designs , have gained to themselves such strength of number , and height of reputation , but by the specious disguise of a pretended reformation and shew of sanctity above others . those late usurpers never wanted a religious pretext for their most hellish undertakings . as king james told his son king charles , that under the pretence of religion , he should find from that sort of people ( as he soon did ) the most barbarous and bloudy villanies in the world. and king charles the first to his son king charles the second . i have observed ( says he ) that the devil of rebellion doth commonly transform himself into an angel of reformation ; and when mens consciences accuse them of sedition or faction , they stop its mouth with the name and noise of religion and zeal . and accordingly the non-conformity-men of his time in their sermons before the parljam . nt . taught , that 't was commendable to fight against the king for peace and reformation ; that the war was god's cause , and it should at last prevail : they called fighting for the parljam . nt , a following the lamb ; and a fighting for the lamb against the beast , &c. and at this very day , when uniformity in god's worship is called superstition , decency called idolatry , and loyalty popery . grindallizing compliances with the enemies of the church , perjurious omissions in church-ministration is called moderation , discretion , prudence , &c. * sitting at the sacrament [ a custom brought first into england by john alasco , from among the arrians of poland , who used it in denial of christ's divinity . ] . this sitting at the sacrament , and many the like peevish contumacies in non-conformity , are all put upon the score of tenderness of conscience , purity of religion , &c. and indeed so venerable is right reformation in religion , so great a blessing , and so gracious a fruit of the spirit of god is tenderness of conscience , that 't is no marvel if the meer pretence and shew thereof so influenceth a faction , and captivates the credulous and unwary populace : and therefore for the better discovery of that sort of men , consider we distinctly , . their pretence to reformation . . to tenderness of conscience , and that without making our selves judges of their consciences any further than the law of god allows , and the evidence of things compels . i. in their pretence to reformation , we consider the method and manner of their reforming , and the object or matter to be reformed . . the manner of their reforming was for the most part by savage and sacrilegious depredations . such savage depredations never were committed by the goths in the sack of rome , as were by these reformation-men in the cathedral churches , particularly winchester and westminster , exeter and chichester , canterbury and rochester , with many others ; where their manner of reforming was by breaking down the organs , throwing down the communion-table and rails , and in some places burning them in an ale-house , turning the costly pulpit-cloths , cushions , gowns , surplices , and plate into ready money . a golden chalice belonging to westminster , which is said to be worth three hundred pounds , was sold to one allen a decayed goldsmith , but then a member of the house of commons , for threescore pounds . when the depredators of hazlerigs conduct , were desired in the cathedral church of chichester , to leave but one chalice for the use of the sacrament , they refused with these profane words , a wooden dish may serve turn . they violated the tombs and monuments of the dead ; finding in winchester church two brazen statues of king james and king charles the first , they broke off the two swords placed by their sides , and with their own , mangled the crown of king charles , swearing in scorn , that they would bring him to his parljam . nt . there being in this church several leaden chests , containing the dust and bones of some saxon kings and other bishops , they overthrew the chests , scattered the dust of their bodies about the pavement , and threw their bones at that part of the glass windows which they could not reach with their pikes to batter down . the like they did in the cathedral church of canterbury by those under the conduct of * colonel sandys : in this church ( as lately upon the royal effigies in guild-hall ) they strangely exercised their reforming madness upon the arras hangings in the quire , representing the hist. of our savior , some of them swore that they would stab him , others that they would rip up his bowels , which accordingly they did , so far as those figures of him in the arras hangings were capable of it . finding another statue of christ in the frontispiece of the south-gate , they discharged their muskets at it , triumphing greatly when they hit him in the head or face . in the cathedrals of exeter and westminster ( horresco referens ) to these horrid outrages they added such prodigious irreverences , as have not been heard of ; turning the church into a jakes , and leaving their excrements on and about the communion table , after they had sate about it with their ale and tobacco . thus did they go about to reform the state with ruine , and to sweep the church with desolation , taking the same method in reforming , which pelias's daughters took to make their old father young again , viz. by cutting his throat to let out his old bloud , which when they had done , knew not where to get new bloud , nor how to put it in him . consider who will , the hideous spectacle of their ruining ministers , abolishing of government , devastation of church , and desolation of state , profanation of god's worship , and depravation of religion , the violation of duty , conscience , peace , order , laws , justice , &c. and compare it with the persecution of the greek churches , and he shall find that all the ravages of the turks since the taking of constantinople , hath not so disfigured them in two hundred years , as these reformers did in six or seven years in their own native country . such abomination of desolation is presbyterian reformation , which ( mr. case says ) armies fought for , parljam . nts consult for , ministers pray for , and all good people long for . and let no body pretend in this , as mr. baxter doth about the regicidy , that it was a rude conquering army : for read who will , their souldiers catechism , * their zions plea , christ on his throne ; as also their ordinance on august . . and he shall see that all this was done by authority [ from the houses of parljam . nt , ] and in the fear of god [ by the advice of the assembly of divines . ] . the extravagancy of their reformation will further appear by considering the matter of it , or the things to be reformed , which are chiefly episcopacy and the liturgy . . episcopacy , an order which hath been proved abundantly to be founded on no other than scripture and apostolick practice , antiquity and necessity ; necessary ( as woful experience hath verified ) to the support of the english monarchy ; according to those words of king charles the martyr , that he could scarce ever boast of one days felicity , after he had once consented to the taking away the bishops votes in parljam . nt . which i take notice of the rather , since in a place of note in this kingdom , at the last election of parljam . nt in the year . the rabble of the faction cried it , no bishops , no bishops , the very same words and with the same kind of violence as dr. burgess's myrmidons did before the parljam . nt house doors in . . the other thing to be reformed is the liturgy ; whose reformation from popery was sealed by the bloud of martyrs . when it was first composed and used , the people of england received it as a heavenly treasure sent down by god's great mercy to them . all moderate men beyond seas applauded the felicity of the church of england , in fashioning such an excellent form for god's publick worship . and the act of parljam . nt that first confirmed the same , declared it to be done by the special aid of the holy ghost ; ( as the words of the act are ) and mr. fox the author of the book of martyrs fears not to say , that it was indicted by the holy ghost : yet this is that liturgy which the peevish professors of these stirring times would have laid aside , for reformation sake ; that so ( as king charles observes , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . ) ministers may be left to their liberty and private abilities in god's publick service , where no man can tell to what he may say amen , or what adventure he may make of seeming , at least , to consent to whatever errours and ridiculous indecencies bold and ignorant men list to vent in their prayers and other offices . but 't is enough to satisfie any unprejudiced and judicious reader , of the unreasonableness of scrupling the liturgy , that will but consider well those frivolous flaws and exceptions which the great non-conformity-champion hath made against it , as the best he could devise , after the twenty years study he speaks of . ii. the second thing to be considered in their pretensions above other men in their greater sanctimony and tenderness of conscience , which were it real , as it is pretended , i should tremble to think of charging them with the counterfeit , and pretence of it onely . but that which liables it to the suspicion of counterfeit , lies in these two things : . the erroneousness of it , which is so gross as to call the design of overturning the government , no treason ; the taking up arms against the king , no rebellion ; dividing from the communion of the church , no schism ; appropriating to private uses the church-plate and revenues , no sacrilege ; and using the name of god to all this , no hypocrisie . how can such thickness of errour consist with true sanctity and tenderness of conscience , especially if we take tenderness of conscience ( as that party doth ) in the same latitude with a good conscience , for such a tenderness as to be afraid of sin , and to decline the temptations , occasions , and appearances of evil . . their pretended tenderness of conscience above others , is to be suspected upon the account of its great partiality and defect , wanting that uniformity which is required to its sincerity . when a man shall scruple a ceremony , and yet neglect an institution of christ ; not dare to kneel at the sacrament , yet wholly neglect the communion ; boggle at the use of a ceremony , yet openly avow the blackest of crimes , backbitings , slanderings , schism and sedition ; is this true tenderness of conscience , or is it not rather ( as one says ) a conscience of making no conscience at all . but more particularly , doth not the partiality and defect of their conscientiousness appear , in their notorious uncharitableness and censoriousness , rash censuring and condemning , slandering and defaming all that differ from them , especially ministers . but above all , those that oppose their way ( if subtlety and malice can do it ) shall be sure to be rendred odious : but the partiality and defect of their conscientiousness is most apparent in their old * gnostick principle of disobedience to magistrates . will any man believe that practice to be conscientious , or that religion to be of god , which so dishonours god and christianity , that so confronts god's vicegerent , and those in authority under him , which god commands obedience to , upon pain of damnation ; and which ( as though foreseeing the pretence of conscience for their disobedience ) doth so indispensably urge , you must needs obey , and for conscience sake , and that even heathen governours ; whereas the governours , i. e. the parljam . nt ( in part ) that our dissenters are to obey , are of their own chusing , and so the laws are partly laws of their own making , as made by their own representatives . what they urge for their disobedience is so ludicrous , and of so frequent and obvious confutation , that 't is a shame to insist upon them : but just to mention them ; as , . that 't is better to obey god than man ; which in the form of an objection , is nothing else but a factious slander , intimating , as though our rulers enjoined any thing in disobedience to god. . a second thing urged for their disobedience , is that of christian liberty : the same that the gnosticks urged for their revolt from christianity , and which was used among the jews as a passport for fugitive servants , and a praetext to all outrages and rebellions ; and which the gnosticks used to justifie their disobedience to magistrates : whereas indeed this christian liberty is a quite contrary thing , viz. a discharge from the necessity of observing the mosaical law , and rites of judaism , and a power in utramque to do or leave undone things not determined in the scriptures , but in obedience to the commands of our rulers , as the ends of society shall require . . another thing they urge is passive obedience ; an obsolete self-contradiction , which they have taught the rabble to vapour with , but themselves are ashamed to own : as being no other kind of plea than what papists , thieves , murderers may use with the same reason as they ; the vilest malefactors are passively obedient . so that since so leading a man , as mr. baxter hath said it , that the priscilianists , donatists , novatians , anabaptists , quakers , and other sects , were kept up meerly by a pretence to more spirituality ( reformation , tenderness of conscience , &c. ) let the present non-conformists exempt themselves , by improving their religious pretences into religious realities , loyalty , charity , meekness , and the like , and our animosities and divisions will be quickly at an end . but notwithstanding these pretences to reformation , religion and tenderness of conscience ; yet are , . sedition , rebellion , and murders , real promoters of presbytery . of these i may truly say , in relation to presbytery , as the aenigmatist said of ice and water , mater me genuit , eadem mox gignitur ex me . rebellion hath all along nurs'd up presbytery , and presbytery hath tolerated and taught rebellion . all history doth assure us , that for this last hundred years there hath been no sedition nor rebellion , no tumult , treason , or massacre in all europe , but what hath been acted wholly , or in part , by papist or presbyterian , as a means , and for the sake of propagating their religion . . this hath been their frequent doctrine . . their constant practice . . their frequent doctrine ab origine . calvin in his institutions ( l. . cap. . ) if there be any popular magistrate ordained to moderate the licentiousness of kings — so far am i from hindering them in restraining those kings , as their office binds them , that i conceive them rather to be guilty of a perfidious dissimulation , if they connive at kings if they play the tyrants ; and wantonly insult over the common people : i. e. if the people do but judge their kings to do so . and after him beza in his epistle to the outlandish church in england , ep. . si quis , &c. if any man being lawfully invested with the supreme magistracy , shall unjustly spoil or deprive his subjects of their rights and priviledges , ( of which he makes the people judge ) — then the ordinary and inferiour officers are to oppose themselves against him , &c. it was the frequent doctrine of knox , buchanan , willock , and the rest of scotland , ( as may be seen in their writings ) that if the king refuse to reform religion , ( i. e. to set up presbytery ) then the nobles may , and if they refuse , the common people must . the present non conformists of england have taught , that if the king raise war against the parljam . nt — the king may not onely be resisted , but he ceases to be king ▪ and much more to the same purpose : mr. baxter's political aphor. thes. . . . . . & passim . when king james in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . pref. advises his son king charles , to take heed of those people called puritans , as the very pest of the church and common-wealth , whom no deserts can oblige , nor oaths bind , breathing nothing but sedition and calumnies , aspiring without measure , railing without reason , and making their own imaginations the square of their consciences , protesting before the great god , that he should not find in any highlander , greater ingratitude , more lies , and viler perjuries , than among those fanatical spirits . we find the ground and reason of these words of the king , to be his observation of their frequent use in their very sermons , to preach , that all kings and princes were naturally enemies to the liberty of the church , and could never patiently bear the yoke of christ ; thus seditiously endeavouring to steal away the hearts of the people from their soveraign . and in queen elizabeths time , when burchet stabb'd hawkins a sea-captain , thinking it had been the lord chancellour hatton ( because a zealous opposer of presbytery ) he declared ( as the old non-conformists the donatists did before him ) that it was lawful to assassinate any man that opposed their religious principle or practice . and as this was their doctrine , so . it was their constant practice : at the very first starting of presbytery , in the year . when the bishop of geneva would not admit of such alterations as viret and farellus , with their followers would have had , they presently tumultuated , drove the bishop and clergy out of the town , set up calvin , altered the government ecclesiastical and civil , disclaimed all allegiance to their duke and bishop , and standing on their liberty , as a free state , governed the city by a common-council of two hundred men , out of which , they chose four as supreme , whom they called syndicks . and presbytery having thus been first setled in geneva by rebellion , was presently sent over into france , where the abettors of it , supported by the earl of tholouse , made its way by murdering trincannel the viscount , and chief governor of the city beziers , and dashing out the bishops teeth . they set it up in the low-countries beginning at the city embden ( the principal city of the e. of friesland ) by renouncing all allegiance to their prince , taking up arms against him , and setting themselves inform of a commonwealth . poltrot , who being set on by beza , murdered the duke of guise , when he was upon the rack , confest that he was promised great rewards by the admiral , and was assured by beza , that by taking out of the world such a persecuter of the gospel , he could not but exceedingly merit at the hands of god. in scotland , under pretence of removing the popish lords , and promoting the presbyterian discipline , the earl of bothwel and his complices raised forces to depose and murder the king. and after that , by the insinuation of fears and jealousies of the kings aversness to the gospel , his inclination to popery , and of subverting the presbyterian discipline , the gowries conspire to kill king james ; which plot was so approved of by the presbyterian ministers of edenburgh , that they refused to give thanks for the king's deliverance , when commanded by his proclamation so to do . the murder of king charles i. was first attempted by poison and pistol by captain rolph , set on by the parljam . nt army , before they proceeded in those more gentle methods of disburthening him of his large revenues , easing him of the charge of royal house-keeping , clearing him of his stately palaces , putting him out of care of repairing his armories , arms , ammunition and artillery , taking him off the charge of keeping his wife , children , and most trusty servants , easing him of a multitude of his best subjects and friends by charitable famishing and brotherly banishing , liberal or free imprisoning , and parljam . nt-plundering , by friendly throat-cutting , and unlawful beheading and hanging ; utterly ruinating as many as could be caught of those that loved , served , and honoured him ; and at last making him a glorious king , by cutting him off with the sword of justice for the sake of god and the gospel . i say , before they proceeded in these gentle , religious methods , they first design'd his murder with poison and pistol by the aforenamed captain rolph set on by the parljam . nt army : sir rich. bakers chron. p. . thus hath presbytery all along like any penthesilea furens , been bred of bloud , and fed of bloud , and ( as common history shews ) was begot in rebellion , born in sedition , and nurs'd up in faction . . aspersing governours and government . to this head of faction and sedition may be reduced their frequent custom of aspersing , and reproaching governours and government . 't is a rule in politie , corruptio optimi est generatio pessimi , so that when the monarchical and episcopal government are rendered odious , the republican and presbyterian must of course be hugg'd , and endeavoured to be trump'd up : therefore hath it always been their restless endeavours to cast what odium they can upon the government and governours , as arbitrary , tyrannical , and popishly affected ; and on the worship and discipline of the church , as formal , superstitious , and savouring of popery , because when once people are seduced to opinion thus of it , they have plausible pretence to oppose it , and to endeavour all they can , an alteration in it ; and therefore i say , it hath always been their practice ( as the apostle observes of the old gnostick schismaticks ) to despise dominions , and speak evil of things they know not ; and that loudest of all in their infamous libellings . though the holy scriptures teach , that he that provokes the king to anger , sinneth against his own soul , prov. . . and that none may say unto kings , ye are wicked ; or to princes , ye are ungodly . though the scriptures call it blasphemy to speak reproachfully of the king , and by moses ' s law , it was death to disobey but an inferiour authority : yet in despight of these laws of god , nature , and nations , it is , and ever was their constant practice , by insolent and treasonable discourses , by impudent and seditious libellings to cast what odium they can upon the government , as that which is very conducible to the pulling of it down . queen elizabeth they compared to an idle dirty slut , who swept the middle of the room , but left the dirt behind the door , because she would not ( for their innovations sake ) sweep all decency out of the church . for the same reason they called k. james the greatest and most deadly enemy of the gospel . and it was his frequent observation , that in their sermons they used to teach , that all kings and princes were naturally enemies to the churches liberty , and could never patiently bear the yoak of christ. and in king charles the first 's time , ( to say nothing of their sermons before the parljam . nt ) they kept in constant pay mercurius britannicus , and other scandalous writers , by their horrid libels to defame the king , or as their word of advice was , to blacken him , and to enrage the people against him . and t'other day fitzharris in his depositions before sir george trebee ( as i remember ) and others , says , that father patrick the jesuite desired him to send him over into ireland all the libels that came out in london , telling him , that libelling the king and the government , was a thing necessary to be done , in order to distaste the king , and to make him and the people jealous of each other . and accordingly hath been their practice ; as appears by their late letter of advice for election of parljam . nt ; their appeal from the country to the city ; the nations aggrievance , and many the like venomous libels , which send forth such poisonous evulsions and belchings of fanaticism , as are enough to turn the very heart and stomach of any that hath but the least sense or savour of loyalty in him . and yet how much these contribute to the encouragement and increase of their interest and party , may be partly seen by that pleasant eagerness , and jocond titillation , wherewith they entertain and read them . . their boast of their number and strength . it hath always been their practice to endeavour the increase of their party by boasting of their increase . when they had a mind to proceed in their innovations in the year . penry advised it as an expedient to terrifie the state into a compliance with them , that they present themselves to the parljam . nt with a petition subscribed by a hundred thousand hands . 't is said nothing more alarmed the queen , no not the spanish armado , than the report of their strength and number , published in a book called , the humble motion , in which it was affirmed , that thousands did sigh for the holy discipline , and ten thousands had sought it ; and that the most worthy men of every shire had consented to it , that the eldership was at hand , that all people were inflamed with a zeal for it , and that it was hard , dangerous , nay impossible to stand against it . the very first thing they offered at in king james's time , ( soon after his coming to the crown ) was to present a petition to him in the name of the ministers of england , desiring reformation of sundry ceremonies and abuses in the church ; it was given out to be subscribed by a thousand ministers , and therefore called the millenary petition , which when 't was examined , wanted several hundreds of the number . of the same kind was that of b. h's true prot. intelligence , who lately printed an address from the city of colchester , subscribed by a great number of hands ; which address was never seen , nor presented by any of the inhabitants of colchester , as was made appear by an instrument under the town-clerks hand . the appeal from the country to the city says , that the city of london , is too powerful for any prince , that governs not by the love of his people . a man can scarce come into any of their company , but he shall hear them with this kind of boast , flattering themselves , deluding others , and belying the whole kingdom . now whether the design of this be to encourage the people in a rebellion , if opportunity should serve , or whether it be meerly to intimidate the rulers into a compliance with them , and a suspension of the poenal laws . certain it is , that this kind of boast of their number and strength , and what a considerable party they are , is one frequent way they have , and of very proper tendency to encourage their followers in schism and faction , and to increase their party . but as the design of it speaks rebellion , so doth its falsity shew the cheat. conclusion . now upon review of the whole , it will appear to any , not blinded with prejudice , or hardened in faction ; that toleration of church-dissenters was never hitherto the way to church-union ; but that toleration and separation are as inseparable in themselves , as intollerable in their effects , which are constantly such as these , schism in the church , sedition in the state , disorder , distraction , and confusion in both . that the grindallizers and half-conformists threaten little less to the danger and dishonour of the church , than the open and profest non-conformists , that their great familiarity and intimacy with , their complying and conniving at , and ( instead of zealous , prudent opposition ) their halting and sneaking to them , is that , which cannot but work in people a love and liking to their persons and their ways ; and so by their treachery within the pale , like moles , undermine the foundation , when the other , like wolves and foxes , can but howl and foam without , the mound and fence of the church being strong enough against them . and that therefore the eye of government had need be watchful over these half-conformists , as well as over the professed non-conformists . that notwithstanding non-conformists noise about popery , they are far more conformable to papists than the conformists are , in principle and practice both ; that in things relating to monarchy , they are meerly be-jesuited , and popishly agent in weakening the cause and interest of protestantism several ways , ( as hath been shewn ) and that by their extravagant zeal , their irregular , disloyal , and irreligious pretences against popery , they design something more ; since common history makes evident , that presbytery was never promoted any where , but under pretence of pulling down popery . 't is obvious from the afore-mentioned instances of their former reformation , how dangerous is all superperfluous innovations , unnecessary alterations , and but pretended reformation in matters of church and state. that so far as the laws permit , they are still hunting upon the same file , treading in the same steps as those in forty one , since the pretences and practices of both are so very self-agreeable ; and since the best of history assures us , that discontent and ambition , faction and sedition , libelling and tumultuating have been the ordinary promoting causes of their interest and cause . that the non-conformists will never make good appeals to scripture , their claim and pretensions to sanctity above others , till putting away the diabolism of their false accusations and slanderings , their spiritual pride and malice , they become more humble and charitable in their judgments , more meek and loyal in their behaviour and discourses , submitting themselves to those that have the rule over them , bewailing before god , and publishing to the world their repentance for what they have contributed to the present sad separation , as that which hinders the success of a learned , orthodox , and able ministry , encourages the papists , and multiplies other sects , scandalizes the weak , hardens the infidel and wicked into a scorn and contempt of religion it self , exasperates rulers , tends to sedition and faction , weakens the church and the kingdom , causes such envy and wrath , hatred and contentions , ( as the apostle speaks ) such biting and devouring one another , as is like enough to end in being consumed one of another . since the present state of things is such , that either these things must be put upon the score of religion , or that the non-conformists must take the shame thereof unto themselves , and vindicate the honour of religion by a full and free acknowledgment to the world of their pernicious errours in the present separation . what men fearing god , would dare to justifie a separation which hath so deplorable and dismal tendencies , as afore-mentioned . their laying the separation at our doors , and charging it upon the king and parljam . nt , in causing such impositions as they cannot in conscience submit to , hath been sufficiently proved to be delusory , impudent and false , by the testimony of the reformed churches beyond seas , ( as well as by our english divines ) as may be seen in the french history of presbytery , in the letters appendiced to dr. stillingfleets separation , &c. and if they have any mind to lay down their schismatical doings , to leave the conventicle , and to come into the pale of the church , bringing their flocks with them , and there behave themselves as the disciples of christ , and sons of the church , sound and sincere in their conformity , peaceable and loyal in their behaviour ; if so , behold , the sweet severity and prudent goodness of our rulers to them , in chusing this very crisis of time to execute the laws against them , when that which they call the great mountain in their way is removed , ( viz. the obligation to renounce the solemn league and covenant ceases , ) which they cannot but look on as their rulers gentle driving through that gap , which * this . of march opens to them . but if this severity of rulers will not drive them , let the examples of their predecessors ( the learnedst of them ) lead them . beza himself , when archbishop whitgift in a long and learned letter laid before him the deplorable rupture which , not without his concurrence , had been made in the church of england , he justified the church in her whole proceedings , so clearly , that beza confest himself conquered , and thence-forward never breathed any thing but peace to the church , and respect to that reverend prelate . cartwright after all his clamours and tumultuous proceedings against conformity , when he saw to what sad ends he brought some of his followers , barrow , penry , &c. and with what horrible confusions he had disturbed the church , he was at last content to conform ; he confessed that there was more discipline in the church of england , than in any of those churches beyond the seas ; ( therefore more than in geneva , and other transmarine parts in which he lived , where presbytery was . ) after some time of imprisonment , the archbishop procured his enlargement , which he accepted , promising never to write , preach , or act in any thing to the disturbance of the church , either in reference to its government or forms of worship . henderson that greatest champion for presbytery in his time , was so confuted by king charles i. in a dispute about church-government , and so confounded with shame and grief , at the kings answers to his cavils , that he fell into a desperate melancholy and sickness , which soon brought him to his grave , professing ( says that learned historian ) that he died a convert , frequently extolling those great abilities , which he declared to be in his majesty . and t'other day lewis du-moulin after he had written his several advances of the church of england towards the church of rome , and done all he could against conformity , at last repents and recants , acknowledging his errours . and now mr. baxter's turn is next , if it please god to hear and answer that good prayer of his for himself , in his cure of church-division : lord hide not from me my miscarriages , and suffer me not to take any sin that i have committed , to be my innocency , or duty , lest i should dare to father sin on god , and lest i should live and die without repentance , and lest i should be one that continueth judgments and dangers to the land. amen . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e val. max. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . notes for div a -e how presbytery first got footing in england . cambdens eliz. aer . red. l. . n. . conf. at hampton-court . p. . * august . vincentio ep. . bonifacio ep. . ceciliano ep. . ep. ad dona. ⸫ ep. . l. . august . ep. . l. g. mr. baxter . crescit indulgens sibi diru● hydrops . hor. plea for peace , preface . * the king forbids none preaching , only regulates preaching . ⸫ jam. . . jam. . . camd. eliz. a●r. red. h. common-wealth . pref. bellarm de pontif. l. . c. . call before the parljam . dec. . pol. apho. thes. . with . buchan . de jure reg. p. . zion's plea. serm. at uxbridge treaty french hist. of presbyt . p . french hist. of presbyt . p. , . mach. rediv. p. . col. . . gal. . . pref. to his serm. §. . pref. to his serm. §. . pol. aph. fuller . seasonable address to the parl. p. . cambd. eliz. lib. . cap. . eph. . . cor. . . dr. hammond observes that that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from whence the first non-conformists , the gnosticks , had their names , signifies such a knowledge as was the interpreting the mysteries of the scripture after their own fansie , ( erroneously . ) annot. on the n. test. postscript concerning new-light , p. . lin . . preliminary to matthew . * this translation was made about the time that cartwright ( who had a hand in it ) was denied his doctors degree , and driven out of cambridge by doctor whitgift then vicechancellor . * last chap. ver. . † tim. . . chron. . , . chron. . . v. . sir richard baker chron. p. . instit. l. . cap. . §. . barkley's paraenesis ad scotos , l. . c. ult . reasons of the christian religion . jude . , this description the apostle gives of the gnosticks , to prove them seducers . catho . theol. pref. ep. . ep. . ● . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . c. . calamy serm. to the house of lords . marshall . * cartwright the great opposer of kneeling at the sacrament , died of a disease that for a considerable time before his death , yielded him no rest or ease in any other gesture but upon his knees , who had so bitterly inveighed against those , who in that reverend and religious posture received the sacrament , aer . red. aër red. l. . * not that eminently loyal sandys of worcestershire , but he that within three weeks after , was killed at worcester fight in pewick field . the very heathens made it treason not onely to assassinate , but to offer to punish their prince , but in effigie , salust . bell. jugurth . what is it then for christians to — god their saviour in effigie . serm. before the parl. . first plea for peace . * set forth by mr. rob. ram minister . cap. . first plea for peace . * dr. hammond annot. on the n. t. pag. preliminary to the romans . disobedience to an inferiour authority among the jews was to be punished with death , deut. 〈◊〉 obj. obj. dr. hammond's annot. on tim. . . pet. . . gal. . . obj. cath. theol. praef. according to their sol. leag . and covenant . job . . . i king. . . deut . . aë . red. alt. damas. pref. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . gal. . . * march . . the renouncing of the covenant is not injoined . see the act of uniformity . history of presbytery , l. . n. . history of presbytery , l. . n. . . . hist. of presbytery p. . dr. stillingfleet , pres. to the unreasonableness of separation . p. . the lord chief justice herbert's account examin'd by w.a., barrister at law, ... ; wherein it is shewn that those authorities in law, whereby he would excuse his judgment in sir edward hales his case, are very unfairly cited and as ill applied. atwood, william, d. ? approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing a estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) the lord chief justice herbert's account examin'd by w.a., barrister at law, ... ; wherein it is shewn that those authorities in law, whereby he would excuse his judgment in sir edward hales his case, are very unfairly cited and as ill applied. atwood, william, d. ? [ ], , [ ] p. printed for j. robinson ... and mat. wotton ..., london : . attributed to w. atwood. cf. bm. advertisement on p. [ ] at end. reproduction of original in huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng herbert, edward, -- sir, ?- . -- short account of the authorities in law, upon e. hales his case. hales, edward, -- sir, d. . dispensations (law) -- great britain. dissenters, religious -- legal status, laws, etc. -- great britain. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - ali jakobson sampled and proofread - ali jakobson text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the lord chief justice herbert's account examin'd . by w. a. barrister at law. wherein it is shewn , that those authorities in law , whereby he would excuse his judgment in sir edward hales his case , are very unfairly cited , and as ill applied . vendidit hic auro patriam , dominumque potentem imposuit , leges fixit pretio , atque refixit . london , printed for j. robinson at the golden lion in st. paul's church-yard , and mat. wotton at the three daggers in fleetstreet . . the lord chief justice herbert's account examin'd . were it not the reproach of our times , to have had men advanc'd to courts of judicature , for other merits , besides integrity , and learning in the laws of their country ; it might seem a great piece of vanity in me , to answer a book stamp'd with the name , and authority of a chief justice . yet , perhaps , i might be thought not without cause to take this as my more immediate province ; having been the first of the profession , who ventur'd in publick companies to shew , how wofully that innocent book-case h. . in relation to sheriffs , has been mistook , or wrested , to serve for colour to that hasty judgment in sir edward hales his feigned case . wherefore , how needful soever the chief justice may find it , to make protestations of his sincerity ; this may supersede any such from me . nor would i willingly call his a protestation contrary to apparent fact ( especially considering that weakness of judgment manifested by this defence ) did he not give too great occasion for it : . from the large steps which he took , to precipitate , and , as i am well assured , to sollicit that resolution . . the manner in which he delivered it , widely differing from what he now prints . . the unfairness of his present quotations : and , . the unhappiness , not to say worse , of those instances which he is pleased to give of his sincerity . i shall not dispute , or repeat his lordships state of the case : but the question upon it being , whether the king may by his prerogative dispense with the statute car. . c. . requiring all persons in any office under the king to take the test against popery , i shall enquire , . whether those books , which he relies on as authorities for his judgment , give any colour to it . . whether , admit they did , they would countenance the resolution as he delivered it . . whether those instances which he offers of his sincerity , may reasonably be taken for such . . whether he in any measure clears himself from the imputation of being highly criminal . his lordship , like a master-disputant , begins , as he thinks , with a definition of a dispensation , which , he says , is given by the lord cook : dispensatio mali prohibiti est de jure domino regi concessa , propter impossibilitatem praevidendi de omnibus particularibus ; & dispensatio est mali prohibiti provida relaxatio , utilitate , seu necessitate pensatâ . where , i must say , he very unlearnedly clogs the definition of a dispensing power , with the person in whom 't is suppos'd to be lodg'd ; nay , and the reason too why it should be so , which neither the lord cook , nor common sense , gives him any warrant to bring into the definition . however , it seems , according to this , a dispensing power , in some case or other , is vested in the king ; which yet is far from proving any thing to his purpose ; for either the king may in all cases dispense as to particular persons , and then his distinction of malum prohibitum , & malum in se , falls to the ground ; or else it reaches only to those cases , in which the judgment , or flattery of judges have ascrib'd it to him . he adds out of the lord cook , as an enlargement upon what he calls the definition : inasmuch as an act of parliament , which generally prohibits any thing upon a penalty that is popular , or only given to the king , may be inconvenient to divers particular persons , in respect of person , time , or place ; for this purpose the law gives a power to the king to dispense with particular persons . where the lord cook manifestly restrains the penalty , to such as is given the king as head of the people , upon which account only he calls it popular ; nor , indeed , can be thought to take in what is granted to any subject that will inform , it being mention●d without distinction whether before , or after an information commenced . and that the lord cook 's words here , ought not to be strained farther , is yet more evident , from the case of penal statutes , on which sir herbert's misrepresentations will occasion my more particular remarks . as sir edward , considering what interest he has serv'd , may be presum'd something conversant with priests and jesuits , he might , among others of less use , have consulted the learned suarez , who after the definition , which he makes to be legis humanae relaxatio , in a distinct chapter shews , with whom the ordinary power of dispensing ( which he distinguishes from that which is delegated ) is lodged , where he says , certum est eum habere ordinariam potestatem dispensandi , qui legem tulit : and he gives the reason , quia ab ejus voluntate , & potentiâ pendet . so that none can have this power , but he , or they who are vested with the legislative exclusive of others ; or such as have it delegated from thence . that the king has not the legislative exclusive of others , is what i have formerly prov'd at large , and it lies on the other side to shew that the dispencing power bas been delegated to him . yet thus much may be said on the contrary . st . that the king could not in law be presum'd to have exercis'd such a power by himself ; for that the ancient law provided , that he should have a counsel chose in parliament , who ( as the charter affim'd to be declaratory of the ancient law , and sworn at the coronation of hen. . has it ) were sworn quod negotia domini regis & regni fideliter tractabunt , & sine acceptatione personarum omnibus justitiam exhibebunt : and that it was accounted the law long after that , appears by the impeachment of roger mortimer o. e. . part of which was , that whereas it was ordain'd in the parliament next after the kings coronation , that four bishops , four earls and four barons should stand by the king pur luy counseiller , without whose assent nul gros busoign ne se feust . nevertheless mortimer would undertake to manage all by himself , accroaching royal power , and it is easily to be shewn that such a counsel was in use , or continually insisted on , as the right of the kingdom , from the time of the charter , confirm●d . hen. . till the end of the reign of hen. . . a power to grant non obstantes to statutes could not have been a right in the crown at common law ; for we have clear proofs of its odious and condemn'd beginning , from the sulpureous fountain of rome , as an honest popish lawyer confest with a deep sigh . hen. . this non obstante matthew paris calls a detestable addition , against all reason and justice ; and when the year after king henry urg'd the example of the pope for non obstantes : the prior of jerusalem says , god forbid you should use this unpleasant , and absurd word ; as long as you observe justice you may be king , and as soon as you violate it , you will cease to be king. which shews how little foundation in law it then was thought to have ; and what the whole nation thought of the pope's use of it , may be seen at large in matthew paris , and mr. prin's animadversions on the th . institute . farther the reasons given why the king ought to have this power , fail here upon many accounts . . in that the interest of the whole , of which the legislators are the best judges , when they make the law without exception , ought to outweigh all private inconveniences . . the law has provided a more certain , and equal remedy ; having taken as sufficient care for the meeting of parliaments once a year at least , and , i may say , * sitting too , as it has for the sitting of the common courts of justice ; as appears from the several statutes in print , and others in the rolls , which avoid the common cavil upon the words oftner if need be . and these were , like the famous triennial act , provisions for the greater certainty of meeting so often at least ; but no recessions from the old law , which , as appears both by the mirrour , and the life of king alfred , was for the great council to meet twice a year at london . . the great reason assign'd in the latin quotation from the lord cook , propter impossibilitatem praevidendi de omnibus particularibus , which is after distinguish'd , as to person , time , and place ; can by no means be applied to the case in question : for , . the law was made but very few years before their lordships resolution , and not grown more inconvenient by length of time to any particular person , than it was at the making of the act. . the law-makers had in their immediate prospect every particular person of the romish communion , and the time when , and place where , the danger would happen , if any such were commissioned . let us now see what help he can have from his second quotation from the lord cook , which is rep. f. . but he intends , i suppose , f. . and would have it believ'd , that it was the opinion of all the judges of england , jac. . that the king may dispense with any particular person , that he shall not incur the penalty of the statute , tho' it be an act made pro bono publico , and that this is a trust and confidence inseparably annex'd to the royal person of the king , in which , . he again overthrows his distinction of malum in se and prohibitum , making that power at large in relation in any statute pro bono publico . . he manifestly perverts the lord cook 's sense , whose words are , when a statute is made pro bono publico , and the king as head of the commonwealth , and the fountain of justice and mercy , is by all the realm trusted with it ; this is a trust and confidence inseparably adjoyn'd , and annex'd to his royal person , in so high a point of sovereignty , that he cannot transfer it to the disposition or power of any private person , or to any private use ; for this was committed to the king by all his subjects , for the publick good , &c. but true it is , that the king can upon any cause moving him , in respect of time , place , or person , &c. make a non obstante to dispense with any particular person , that he shall not incur the penalty of the statute . where the sole question was , of transferring over a penalty granted to the king , as entrusted by all the realm to see the statute put in execution , by inflicting the penalty : this trust is adjudged inseparable , and not to be transferr'd over ; but that however , the king may dispense with the penalty granted to himself . upon which i must say our chief justice has made a very foul stretch ; for what is this to the informer's part , concerning which the question before him was ? but surely there is a mighty difference between these two propositions . where the subjects have entrusted the king with a statute made for the publick good , this trust is inseparable , and cannot be transferr'd to another ; but the statute so entrusted may be dispens'd with ; which is all that is to be gather'd from the lord cook : and this , tho' an act be made for the publick good , yet the king may dispense with it , and this is a trust and confidence inseparably annex'd to the royal person of the king ; which is sir herbert's perverse comment . in short , lord cook says , where the king is entrusted with the execution of a statute made for the publick good , he may dispense with that statute . sir edward herbert says , he may dispense with any statute made for the publick good. upon which 't is to be observ'd , that the question in the lord cook was not of dispensing , but granting over the penalty ; which penalty , he says , is not to be transferred over : the other would make it of dispensing , and that that power is inseparable , and not to be transferr'd ; so apparently changes the state of the question . his next step is to the year-book of h. . f. , & . in which he leaves us to seek the year , which is . this he calls the first , and great case which he cites , wherein the king 's dispensing power is described and limited . there is a diversity , says the book , between malum prohibitum , and malum in se ; as a statute forbids any man to coin money , and if he does , he shall be hang'd , this is malum prohibitum ; for before the statute , coining money was lawful , but now it is not so , and therefore the king can dispense with it . so if a man ship wooll in any place but calice , it is malum prohibitum , because it is prohibited by act of parliament : but that which is malum in se , the king , nor no other person can dispense with ; as if the king would give a man power to kill another , or license one to make a nusance in a high-way , this were void ; and yet the king can pardon these things when they are done . upon this case 't is observable , that the power of dispensing is here asserted in relation to things , and not persons : wherefore according to this , taken in sir herbert's latitude , the king may grant dispensations to all in general , where the matter is only malum prohibitum ; whereas he himself owns that the nature of a dispensation is particular , and given to particular persons by name . . many things in magna charta , nay the most , are but mala prohibita ; and so magna charta its self may be dispensed with : when he himself owns , that the king cannot dispense with one tittle of magna charta : and methinks he could not but observe this contradiction . wherefore the rule there , admit it were a judgment in law , as it was not , being onely spoken obiter by one of the judges , can be applied onely to such cases as are there cited . the first is that of coining money , which goes upon the ground in moor's reports , where 't is said , that such statutes as give a prerogative may be dispens'd with : and that of shipping woolls at calice , the king's staple , is of the same nature ; and both sufficiently shew the distinction of malum prohibitum , from malum in se , to relate barely to such things as become evil by accident , as they are against an accidental prerogative . which no way interferes with the rights of the subjects in general , or particular . and i much wonder that sir edward herbert should cite my lord vaughan in the case of thomas and sorrel , as confirming what he would infer from the year-book , when lord vaughan says , that old rule has more confounded mens judgments on the subject , than rectified them ; and himself denies that the king can dispense with every malum prohibitum by statute , tho' prohibited by statute onely . oh , but my lord vaughan shews , that a dispensation does jus dare , and makes the thing prohibited to all others , lawful to be done by him that has it . does he say this of every malum prohibitum ? by no means : wherefore we must apply it to the case then in question , which concerned wine-licences , about which the king had a prerogative by statute-law : and the dispensing with that , falls within the rule in moor ; agreeing with the lord coke in the case of penal statutes . yet even thus much was a point gain'd by the prerogative , since the first of h. . for it is then made a doubt before all the judges of england in the exchequer chamber , and adjourned over for the difficulty , whether the king could license the shipping woolls elsewhere than at calice ; one of the very instances which sir edward herbert relies on : and chief-justice hussey was positive , that the king could not license it , tho' indeed the chief-baron and some others held as fineux did afterwards . wherefore no body of less assurance than our chief-justice can say from these cases results this plain syllogism . whatever is not prohibited by the law of god , but was lawful before any act of parliament made to forbid it , the king by his dispensation may make lawful again , to that person who has such dispensation , tho' it continues unlawful to any body else , &c. in which if we grant his major , i will own , the conclusion to bring it to sir edward hales his case , is not criminal : yet the proposition is so pernicious , striking at the very foundations of our government , that if there were a resolution , in stead of an extrajudicial opinion , giving that countenance which even that loose opinion does not ; yet it ought to be rejected : for if all acts of parliament contrary to magna charta are void , as some have held , i am sure much more so would such resolutions of judges be ; and that such an one would be contrary to that great charter , is evident ; for no man can say , that all things prohibited by magna charta , are prohibited by the law of god. to come to sir edward's next great case , as he calls it , but indeed the onely one which has colour'd the resolution to the world , which is that h. . notwithstanding his promise , he has not been so fair to give the words of that case , or so much of them as is material , lest every body might judge of how little use it would be to him ; nay , lest men should be for satifying their own eyes , he has not directed to the folio . the english of the material part is thus . in the exchequer chamber all the justices were shewn for the king , how king edward the fourth by his letters patents had constituted the earl of n — sheriff of the same county , and had granted the said earl the office of sheriff of the said county for the term of his life , with all the other offices thereto belonging , rendring to the king at his exchequer annually l. without any account , or any other thing to be given for it , &c. now , . whether this patent was good ? and also , . how this patent shall be intended ? were the points in question . and as to the first point , the justices held the patent good ; for it is a thing which may well be granted for term of life or inheritance , as divers counties have a sheriff by inheritance , and this commenc'd by a grant of the king. then was shewn a resumption , and then was shewn a proviso for h. earl of n. so that the patent remains in its force . radcliff shews the statute of e. . c. . and e. . c. . that no sheriff shall be more than one year , &c. altho' he had a non obstante . and notwithstanding this , that the king shall always have his prerogative , as of the value and the certainty of the land , and other things granted by the king , and of woolls shipp'd , and of charters of murder , and many other cases , where the statutes are , that patents that want these things shall be void ; yet the patenrs are good with a non obstante : but without a non obstante the patents are void , by reason of the statutes , so here the patent , with a non obstante , &c. this is all that is said in the book upon the first point , upon which 't is observable , . by the book it would seem that this radcliff was but a serjeant at law ; for at the end of the case brian justice demands of brian radcliff , &c. yet indeed i find upon search , that he was a baron of the exchequer . . what radcliff says is after the resolution of the judges over , and no way influenc'd that . . whereas sir edward herbert says , the resolution was upon h. . c. . radcliff , who should better know the subject of debate , discourses only concerning the statutes e. . c. . and e. . c. . which are barely prohibitory , without any mention of non obstantes , or any voiding or disabling clause . indeed radcliff , it being upon a sudden discourse , as the book shews , mistakes the statutes , as if they had such clauses ; and brook , who cites part of the patent , which it seems he had seen , says , there was in it a non obstante to the statutes e. . c. . and e. . c. . fitzherbert indeed says , r. objected the h. . but for that sit liber judex . . but above all , tho' our chief-justice calls them the judges enemies , who say , the point of non obstante is not resolv'd in this case , which he calls confidence , and that they may as well deny one of the ten commandments ; 't is manifest beyond contradiction , that the resolution ended at issint que le patent demurr en sa force ; after which comes radcliff's discourse ; and the resolution went upon two gtounds . . that this was a thing grantable for inheritance , or for life ; which if it were , it could not be presum'd to be touch'd by the prohibitory statutes : and besides , if the question had been upon the other , the case had been an exception out of the statute ; for the statute excepts such counties in which divers of the king's leige people be inheritable to the office of sheriff at the making of the statute , and also such persons which have estate of freehold in the office of sheriff , at the making of the letters patents made to to them of the office of the sheriff , &c. now whether this were really a county so inheritable , or of an estate of freehold , at the time , or no , is not so very material , being at least it was so look'd upon by the judges , nay and by the parliament too , as will appear by their second ground . but that this county was such an one , i take to be also true in fact : for it is to be consider'd , that this was the county of northumberland , which was a palatinate , upon which reason this , with other counties under it , was left out of the survey in doomsday book , as being pensitationibus liberi : this palatinate compriz'd cumberland and westmorland , among other counties , in the last of which the sheriffwick is at this day enjoy'd in fee. indeed northumberland came soon into the crown , as early as the time of william the second , upon the rebellion of mowbray , constituted earl thereof in the time of william the first : but the authority in law is much clearer , that this sheriffwick , if ever held in fee , would remain in the crown as an inheritance in gross , and was not merg'd , than any sir edward herbert has produc'd on his side ; for which we may observe the rule taken in the case of the abbot of strata mercella , which is this : when a liberty , franchise , or jurisdiction was at the beginning erected and created by the king , and there was no such flower in the crown before , there by the accession of them again to the crown , they are not extinct . where instances are given of the cases of markets , hundreds , and earldoms ; nor can any one say , that sheriffwicks are ancient flowers of the crown : but more directly to our case is that between sir robert atkins , and robert holford , which , tho' not in our books , is well known . the case was of the grant of the seven hundreds of cirencester , with the returns of writs to the abbot and covent of cirencester : this came to the crown by the dissolution of monasteries , h. . but yet that it was not merg'd thereby , but remain'd as an inheritance in gross , without the help of any statute , was the opinion of the great hales then chief baron , and of two other barons , windham , and turner . part of hales his words , as i find them excellently well reported , and full to this point , are : such hundreds as were anciently severed from the counties , and come again to the crown by escheat or forfeiture , were sometimes , but rarely committed to the sheriff , and rejoyn'd to the county , but for the most part kept a distinct : ret. brevium , and the hundred to which it was annex'd , without an actual and special reannexion to the county , remains in the king in gross ; for the ret. brevium is a thing created de novo . suppose it were a court or jurisdiction meerly created by the king , and the hundred it self , tho ancient , yet by return to the crown it is not merg'd or annex'd ; this i know in the case of the courts belonging to the honours of gloster , and hereford , that came to h. . by marriage of a coheir , it is still in esse . this were enough to shew , that the judges resolution h. . had a better legal foundation than what sir edward herbert would suggest . . but then besides that , there was another ground mention'd in the book , which was , that a resumption was shewn before the judges ; and then was shewn a proviso for h. earl of n. and so says the book , the patent remains in its force . this resumption was an act of resumption h. . and if this act provided for that earl's grant , as the judges it seems thought it did , who can doubt but the grant was good ? the act of resumption is to be seen upon record ; it is a resumption of grants made by edward the fourth , and among others , of the yefts , that is , gifts of offices : the proviso runs thus . provided always , that this act of resumption , or any other act made or to be made in this present parliament , be not in any wise prejudicial or hurtful to the several grants , and letters patents made to henry earl of northumberland , &c. which indeed does not make good any void grant , but supposes all the grants to him to be good in law ; nor would the judges dispute their supposal . i admit with him , that fitzherbert says , and that truly , that the patent was adjudged good ; but the reason he gives agrees with what i have shewn ; his words are , for such a thing may be grantable for inheritance , or for life ; and then i am sure that the statute does not say expresly , the patent shall be void , tho' sir edward affirms that it does . obj. it may be objected , that the exception in the statute relates to estates in the subject ; but if this were an interest in gross in the king , that it could not be taken from him without express words , cannot be denied me . what he cites from plowden , can be of no more service ; for he onely says , there it is held , and i agree it is held by radcliff , with a mistake of the statute , that the king can grant a sheriffwick for more than a year : yet whereas he magnifies this as cited by plowden , who , as he supposes , well understood the sense of the year-book ; . it does not appear that it was plowden , but one who was of counsel in the case for the defendant , who mentions this . . he mentions it only as a case in fitzherbert , without referring to the book h. . but the second point rais'd before the judges , which occasioned the main debate in that case , as appears by the book , shews , that the resolution could not be upon the point of prerogative ; for they question'd whether the king could dispense with his own profit ; and all the judges except brian , and catesby , held , that the patentee shall account for the green wax , and other things , notwithstanding the clause of absque reddendo computum : but the debate concerning other things arising upon that second point , was adjourn'd ; the first resolv'd upon the grounds above . tho hitherto there is no proof , that any one of authority in the law has taken the book h. . in sir herbert's sense , which yet would be of no moment if they were express , being the book is to be seen , and clearly otherwise ; yet he thinks my lord coke will bear him out , and to this purpose he cites two places ; one , where he supposes that the lord coke not onely authorizes this sense of the case , but asserts the prerogative in much higher terms than they would presume to do ; and by the second he would have it believ'd , that if the lord coke be a faithful reporter , all the judges of england took that case in the same sense . the first is the case of customs , eliz. which is pregnant with many objections against its being of any force in this case . . the book is of suspected authority , being printed in the late times , and what the lord coke never own'd , or thought fit to print in his life-time . . this comes foisted in among cases in the time of king james , without any parallel case which might occasion the placing of it there . . it was when the lord coke was but a young reporter , it being ten years before he was king's sollicitor . . it is not onely no point in question relating to the case where 't is cited , and so extrajudicial , but wholly foreign to it : for the question was , whether goods sold before they were landed , were to pay custom within the statute eliz. c. . wherefore being barely a memorandum of a young reporter , no way occasioned by what went before , it cannot possibly have any weight . . the fancy'd reason there given why the king may dispense with the statute of sheriffs , is none at all ; for whereas it says , that the king has a sovereign power to command any af his subjects to serve him for the publick weal , and this solely and inseparably annex'd to his person ; and this royal power cannot be restrained by any act of parliament ; there is no authority cited for this , but the case h. . which , as appears to any body that reads it , neither has that reason mention'd so much as by any one judge , nor in the least goes upon the point of the prerogative . besides , if the king can command any subject to serve him for the publick weal , either he is to be judge , or the laws . if the latter , then no person not qualified by law is oblig'd to act ; nor tho' qualified , to do any thing forbid by the laws . if the former , as the words imply , then the king's commands may be pleaded to justifie any ill minister who has rendred himself obnoxious to the laws . but that this cannot be , is sufficiently evinc'd by necessary examples in all ages . and this , by the way , may shew how false , as well as pernicious , that doctrine is , which tells us , that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the new testament always signifies the authority of a person , not of a law : or , as another has it to the same purpose , by higher powers , it is evident , we are to understand the persons of sovereign princes , or governours , not the laws and constitutions , as our republican doctors pretend . of the same batch is another memorable position , that the king 's most illegal acts , tho' they have not the authority of the law , ( for indeed , to say they have , would be a blunder with a witness ) yet they have the authority of sovereign power . some will say , that this is qualified by what follows , which is irresistible and unaccountable ; as if the king had this power onely so far as it is irresistible and unaccountable : whereas it is evident , the proposition is entire before , being the medium whereby he would prove , that the king 's illegal acts are not inauthoritative ; in proof of which medium , he afterwards affirms , that the sovereign power which made the laws , and can repeal and dispense with them , is inseparable from the person of the prince . reduc'd to a syllogism , it runs thus : the authority of sovereign power is irresistible , and unaccountable : but the king 's most illegal acts have the authority of sovereign power . this is an entire proposition , upon which he concludes , ergo , the king 's most illegal acts are irresistible , and unaccountable . this assumption he goes to prove from the supposition , that such a sovereign power as he describes , is inseparable from the person of the prince ; upon which , or the like doctrine , another raises this comfortable use . in all sovereign governments ( and such he at large endeavours to shew england to be ) subjects must be slaves as to this particular , they must trust their lives and liberties with their sovereign . but for the honour of our gown , this may be said , that such hereticks never appear'd among lawyers , till divines began thus to wrest the laws , and scriptures to their own damnation . but as the former quotation out of the lord coke can do sir edward herbert no service , upon the reasons above shewn , much less can the other , which is one of sir edward's usual perversions : he tells us , that it is resolv'd by all the judges , if my lord coke be a faithful reporter , that it is agreed h. . that the king may , against the express provision of the act h. . dispense with that act ; for that the act could not bar the king of the service of his subjects , which the law of nature did give unto him . he adds , this is reported ( unless my lord coke had a mind to deceive the succeeding judges , and draw them in to give pernicious opinions ) as the sense of all the judges of england , in king james 's time , in the exchequer-chamber . whereas the lord coke , on purpose to prevent such an abuse of his words , says in the beginning of the case , i shall give no just offence to any , if i challenge that which of right is due to every reporter , that is , to reduce the sum and effect of all to such a method , as upon consideration had of all the arguments , he himself thinketh to be fittest and clearest , for the right understanding of the true reasons and causes of the judgment , and resolution of the case in question . upon which it is evident , that if any one of the judges mentioned this , the lord coke is a faithful reporter ; but had he been silent as to this matter , no man could suppose , that such a tedious argument as that in calvin's case , was the resolution in which the judges concurred in every expression . but herbert's own eyes might , and ought to have satisfied him , that the judges h. . gave no determination upon the h. . nor does the book say , that so much as any one person spoke to that statute , or mention'd the reason devis'd in calvin's case ; for that the act could not bar the king of the service of his subject , which the law of nature did give unto him . nor could sir edward chuse but know the absurdity of that ground ; for according to that , all ought to be left in the state of nature , as it was before any law made ; so that not onely any person might act , tho prohibited by subsequent laws , but he might act any thing forbid by any positive law ; which would make a mad world : and this would come of a natural allegiance due to the person of a king , without respect to the laws of his government . and the resolution of the judges in calvin's case , is quite contrary to this supposal ; for it is there resolved , that they who were born under king james his allegiance , before he had the crown of england , were aliens here , notwithstanding that accession . but my lord coke is so far from giving any real countenance to such a resolution , as that in sir edward hales his case , that he , in concurrence with all the judges of edgland , is express to the contrary ; for in relation to the court of admiralty , he and the rest of the judges declare , that the statutes of r. . c. . r. . c. . and h. . c. . being statutes declaring the jurisdiction of the court of the admiral , and wherein all the subjects of the realm have interest , cannot be dispensed with by any non obstante . nay , he gives another resolution of judges , tho' not so solemn as the former , yet what he says is warranted in the books , and the resolution comes up to our case in terminis : his words are ; when an act of parliament is made that disableth any person , or maketh any thing void , or tortious , for the good of the church or commonwealth , in that law all the king's subjects have an interest , and therefore the king cannot dispense therewith , no more than with the common law. all the chimerical foundation of solemn resolutions being thus destroy'd , i need not concern my self with the vain aery superstructure , which must vanish in fumo ; and in stead of the appeal , what may be relied upon , if such resolutions may not ? i appeal to all mankind , whether our senses are not sufficient judges against these accidents , subsisting without any subject , meer transubstantiation nonsense ! such are reasons devis'd for a resolution which never was to be seen . but we are told , that besides the authority of the case , we have constant practice that this statute has been dispens'd with ever since ; and if it were not so , the consequences would be dreadful , illegal convictions , &c. but to this i say , . a facto ad jus non valet argumentum , till there be legal determinations on the side of the fact. . the fact cannot be shewn , for any sheriff to have enjoy'd the office for more than one year by the same patent . . however the consequences would not necessarily follow ; for we know , even laws made by kings de facto have always been look'd on as binding , and so have the admittances to copy-hold estates , made by disseisors , and others without title . and , tho' i love not to lay any great stress upon presidents of our own time , yet it may serve to sir edward ; and we well know , that notwithstanding the late illegal choice of sheriffs in the city of london , yet no challenges were allow'd , because they were sheriffs de facto . that i may not be here unnecessarily detain'd , with what he says to real or fancied objections , i shall hasten to his other pretended authorities , and shall begin with his last , as having the most immediate reference to the cases above-cited , and which he seems to be most proud of , and that is serjeant glanvil's argument , delivered at a conference between the lords and commons ; wherein he owns , that in such things as are onely mala quia prohibita , under certain forfeitures and penalties to the king , and the informer , there the king may dispense . this indeed is more than appears from any case that sir edward herbert has cited , as i have shewn above ; yet is no more than what the lord coke saith elsewhere , immediately after he has denied that power in things made void or tortious , for the good of the church or common-wealth ; in which , he says , all the king's subjects have an interest , and therefore the king cannot dispense therewith , no more than with the common law. all that is more in serjeant glanvil , relates onely to the nature of those laws which were then insisted upon ; if he went further , it could no more be an evidence of the opinion of the house of commons in that point , not being the point put to the question , than his quotation out of calvin's case , is of the opinion of all the judges . but the first part of his speech cannot be stretch'd farther than mala prohibita had formerly been taken , that is , in relation to new prerogatives , or at least things wherein the subjects in general have no interest vested in them ; and he expresly restrains it to such cases , wherein his majesty , by conferring grace and favour upon some , doth not do wrong to others ; as it is in my lord coke above , and in moor , where 't is held , that statutes which give a prerogative , or restrain the prerogative , may be dispens'd with ; but not such as give , or dispose of interests : and as to what restrains the prerogative , not coming within the mala prohibita , tho' it falls not under consideration here , yet we may observe the difference taken in lord hobart , where a statute is made to ease the sovereign of labour , not to deprive him of power . in the first case the king may dispense , not in the other . and i think no man can doubt but the statute car. . c. . which not onely requires officers to take the oaths , and test , to distinguish them from papists , but disables them that do not take them within three months , vests an interest , not onely in several particular persons , who may be reversioners , but in all the subjects in general ; and is of the nature of those statutes insisted on in the petition of right , and press'd for by serjeant glanvil , not laws inflicting penalties in malis prohibitis ; but laws declarative , or positive , conferring , or confirming ipso facto an inherent right , and interest of liberty , and freedom in the subjects of this realm , as their birthright , and inheritances descendable to their heirs and posterity . a freedom , i may add , from popish slavery and tyranny , statutes incorporate into the body of the common law , over which , with reverence be it spoken , there is no trust in the king 's sovereign power , or prerogative royal , to enable him to dispense with them , or take from his subjects that birthright , or inheritance which they have in their liberties , by vertue of the common law , and of these statutes : i may say , this statute . and such a statute it is , that no man that wishes well to the protestant interest , not onely here , but thro' christendom , would consent to the abrogating or impairing the force of it ; without obtaining such laws for restoring the ancient constitution , both for the choice of sheriffs , and counsellors , among other things , as might more effectually keep out the booted apostles , than any other means , next to the glorious expedition of his highness the prince of orange : whose miraculous successes , are not onely the subject of present admiration , but have been plainly foretold in past ages , and will be celebrated in all future . but to return from this short digression : 't is manifest that serjeant glanvil speaks as well of such laws as are positive , as those that are declarative ; such as confer an inherent right , as that confirm ; and of statute , as well as common law , not to be dispens'd with ; so that he is manifestly on our side , and seems not in the least to have exceeded the lord coke , where he makes so express an exception of our case , from that dispensing power which he allows . by inherent the serjeant can mean no more , considering the import of confer , than actually vested , and inherent , and inseparable by any less power than that from which it was derived . thus in relation to those prerogatives that have been counted inherent , and inseparable in relation to penalties , and the like , the true meaning can be onely that while they continue , they are not to be separated , and transferred over to another : yet no thinking man will doubt the power of a parliament , in relation even to them ; and if they cannot be receded from in particular , at least they may in gross ; when a king does cedere imperio , or abdicare regnum , which most prerogative-casuists own may be , not onely by actual cession from the government , but by acts amounting to an abdication , and shewing a fixt intention no longer to treat his people as subjects . nor perhaps could there be greater evidence of such intention , than the dispensing at a lump , not barely by retail to particular persons , with those laws which were made by the united wisdom of the nation , to secure it , as much as they thought humane means could , or , at least , the court would yield to , against those real dangers , which were in their immediate prospect : nor in all probability had this enclosure been laid waste , if the dispensing judges had not made the first gap. as to sir edward's suppos'd clear concessions of this power from all the commons of england , h. . they are quite otherwise than he represents them , nor would be conclusive to his point however . in the first , says sir edward , the commons pray , that the statutes for voiding of aliens out of the kingdom , may be kept and executed ; to which the king agrees , saving his prerogative , that he may dispense with whom he pleases ; and upon this the commons answered , that their intent was no other . but the record says , sauvant a luy sa prerogative , " saving to him his prerogative . whatever that was , they declare , they never intended to injure it . then it goes on with the copulative and , which adds new matter , and is dishonestly left out by sir edward , et qil purra dispenser ovesque cex queux luy plerra , and that he may dispense with whom he pleases : which is an additional grant , or licence to that king ; but that this saving is but a general saving of the prerogative , appears by the very next record , which he cites of the same parliament . sir edward's words are , in the same parliament , when the commons pray , that the statutes of provisors , statutes of the same nature with this in our case , ( for they were made against the court of rome's encroaching jurisdiction in england ) i say , when they make the like prayer , that these may be put in execution ; being admonished by the king's answer in the former case , they themselves insert in their very prayer , a saving for this prerogative of the king 's , and then the king agrees to it . where he would insinuate , that this prerogative of dispensing with particular persons , is there sav'd ; when the record is express to the contrary : the words in english are , also the commons pray , for the good and profit of the realm , that all the statutes made against provisors , in the times of the most noble kings e. . r. . h. . your father , whom god be merciful to , may stand in their force , and may be held , and executed in all points , and that no protection , nor other grant , to any person , by our lord the king , working to the contrary , in forbearance of the execution of the said statutes , be allowable or available to any person whatsoever in this matter . and if any thing be done to the contrary , let it be held for null , or void : saving all times the prerogative of the king. the king answers , let the statutes thereof made be held and kept . which is plainly meant according to their prayer , without the king 's impeding the execution of them by any protection , or other grant to any person whatsoever ; and if such grant be , that it shall be void . is not this as much as to say , that no non obstante shall make any such grant good ? oh but sir edward will tell us , that this shews that the parliament thought the king could otherwise have dispens'd with those acts. by no means ; it onely argues an abuse crept in ( which matthew paris shews to have been as early as the time of h. . ) and likely to be allow'd of by the judges ; but the parliament would prevent even that ; and surely they would never provide , that a non obstante , or grant to a particular person , shall be void , if they thought the king had a prerogative to defeat this when he pleas'd : much less , when they expresly pray against such an abuse , can they be thought to contradict themselves , and in the same breath that they desire that no person whatever may be dispens'd with , yet leave the king a prerogative to dispense with whom he pleases : the absurdity of which reasoning he might have seen in that excellent speech of serjeant glanvil , which he himself receives as the sense of the commons of england assembled in parliament . wherefore the savings in both the records can be but general savings , of such prerogative as the kings had , whatever it were : which the kings , as they began to encroach upon the people , or to be jealous of their encroachments , would have inserted out of abundant caution , before they would yield to several acts. and these being acts of parliament , which could pass but as the king consented , the people were forc'd often to gild the pills with such savings ; but 't was otherwise of judgments in parliament , to which no consent of the king was requisite . farther yet , admit the king had a prerogative of dispensing with particular persons , both as to aliens , and provisions ; yet there could no general rule be taken from thence , because it would onely argue , that the fondness for aliens , and fear of displeasing the court of rome , had at first occasioned the reserving the power of easing some particular persons , without which the kings would pass no act against them . however it was , the frequent complaints of the commons , and acts made against both the one and the other , shew , that those laws were little regarded or executed , and yet that the king had not a prerogative allow'd him , any more for particular persons , than for all in general . sir edward has five other trivial instances of the dispensing power , which however i shall not omit . one is the dispensing with the statute r. . c. . which requires , that no man should go judge of assize into his own country : but for this there is onely practice , which has pass'd sub silentio , and so could be of no authority in law : besides , the statute is barely prohibitory , and does not render the patents void if otherwise ; yet i cannot say but an information would lie , tho' there were a non obstante in the case . the second is of dispensing with the statute e. . c. . which provides , that whoever has a pardon of felony , shall find sureties of the good behaviour : of which he says , as of the other , that it has been constantly dispens'd with ever since it was made . but if the practice had been so , which he does not prove , it would not avail , unless it had come in question judicially , whether the pardon would be valid to one who had not given , or at least tendred sureties . indeed there is a case in our books , where the court did not require sureties , because of a particular clause in the pardon dispensing with it : but this was no earlier than car. . the judges of which time paid sufficient deference to prerogative ; but that case seems to be not onely primae impressionis , and without any reason given , but in effect condemn'd by the reporter , as he shews that the court abus'd their discretion , if they had any in the matter : t was the case of sir matthew mints , who appear'd to be guilty of several misdemeanors , for which he deserv'd to be bound to the good behaviour , committed after the time to which he was pardon'd . the third and fourth instances , scatter'd from the rest , are of dispensing with pluralities , and bastards entring into priests orders ; which , if possible , will be less serviceable to him : for , . such dispensations are never granted by the king , but by the archbishop ; and the king onely licenses , or confirms , the archbishop's dispensation in unusual cases . . that the king's licence or confirmation in cases unwont , as the statute has it , is of any force , is owing to the statute h. . c. . . even in usual cases , where the archbishop might dispense , tho' the king's confirmation be added , yet unless it come in due time , it will not prevent a lapse incurr'd upon the statute h. . c. . against pluralities ; as was adjudg'd in digby's case , tho' the dispensation came before induction . and this comes up fully to one of the points in sir edward hales his case , which our chief justice has not been so fair as in the least to mention to be a point in the case : nay , quite contrary , he supposes it to be a case where a disability is annex'd as a penalty , and that penalty is not to be incurr'd before legal conviction , and where the king's dispensation makes the thing dispens'd with lawful , and consequently prevents any conviction or penalty at all ; forgetting , that in the very state of the case , he owns there was a conviction before the dispensation came ; so that here was a disability actually incurr'd , and that upon record , as appears in the pleadings ; and while that record remains , there is no falsifying of it , tho' in fact the conviction were before the three months given in the statute to prevent a disability ; and he had no other means , than either to plead no such record , or to bring his writ of error . wherefore this dispensation comes clearly within digby's case , as being too late , supposing otherwise it were valid . as sir edward shews that he has read thomas and sorrel●s ●s case , he might have known another reason given of these two cases , viz. that the king may dispense with a bastard to take holy orders , or with a clerk to have two benefices with cure ; which were mala prohibita by the canon law , and by the council of lateran , not by act of parliament ; which is most true : for these are mention●d in the book of h. . before any act made against pluralities . there is another instance in that wild annotation , upon the case of customs in the rep. where 't is said , see h. . c. . in which 't is ordain'd , that no welshman be justice , &c. in any part of wales , notwithstanding any patent to the contrary , with clause of non obstante licet sit wallicus : and yet without question the king may grant with a non obstante . nor do i question it neither , even before jac. c. . . when that statute was repeal'd , provided the welshman use not welsh speech ; and this by h. . c. . but as to these three last instances , it might be said further , that if they were stronger than they prove , yet they might fall under the difference receiv'd by him from lord vaughan , where he says , the king may dispense with laws made pro bono populi complicati , but not with such as are made pro bono singulorum populi ; in which the lord vaughan is not so absurd , as to mean , that tho' the king cannot dispense with a law in which any man in particular is so far interested , as to be intitled to an action for himself alone , yet he may with those in which all the subjects are interested : but his meaning , to make him consistent with himself , must be restrain'd to lord coke's sense upon the penal statutes , which makes this power to be onely where the king , as head of the commonwealth , is trusted by all the realm ; in which sense , he alone is to look after the interest of the populus complicatus under him , as head. thus lord vaughan , . expresly qualifies it , when he says , they are pro bono populi complicati , as the king in his discretion shall think fit to order them for the good of the whole . . he illustrates it by the example of a pater-familias , whose estate , he tells us , may be said to be pro bono communi of his family , which yet is but at his discretion , and management of it , and they have no interest in it , but have benefit by it . . both he , and sir edward herbert allow instances , where every particular man is not entitled to his action , and yet the statutes are own'd to be pro bono singulorum populi , and not to be dispens'd with ; and such are magna charta , and those other laws mention'd by serjeant glanvil , and sir edward . and if some difference can be found between the interest singulorum populi in all those statutes , and in ours , to use his words , i wish any man would shew me any such difference ; or else we must say , that not onely the former resolutions , but lord vaughan here , as well as where i before observ'd , is full against him ; nay , even he is against himself : which i would be loth to think that lord vaughan is , who owns , that the king cannot dispense in any case but with his own right , and not with the right of any other ; which he confines not to individual persons , consider'd singly ; for he says expresly , if the wisdom of the parliament hath made an act to restrain , pro bono publico , the importation of foreign manufactures , that the subjects of the realm may apply themselves to the making of the said manufactures for their support , and livelihood , to grant to one or more the importation of such manufacture , without any limitation , non obstante the said act , is a monopoly , and void . for this i am sure , particular persons are not entitled to actions upon their own accounts . indeed he supposes the king may license , limiting the quantity , and that for private uses , not by way of merchandise , as not being against the end of the act. wherefore in our case all the subjects being interested as protestants , their support and encouragement being provided for by the act , and the letting papists into the government against the end of it , who can doubt but lord vaughan would have pronounc'd hales's dispensation void ? and whereas our judge pleads in his excuse , that tho' this law was made for the interest of religion , the offence is not directly against religion , but against a politick constitution , tho' made for the interest of religion , he might not onely have learnt from lord cook above , that the subjects have such an interest as the king cannot dispense with , in what is made void or tortious , that is , unlawful , for the good of the church ; but lord vaughan shews , that there are mala politica , not to be dispens'd with , and instances in some things , which are nusances in specie . now besides what already has been shewn , to disable these three last instances urg'd by sir edward ; that they are not pro bono singulorum populi , as that rule is vindicated from misapplications , may appear , in that neither of them affect all the people in general : as to the clergy-men , they can only do injury in their respective parishes where they are benefic'd , and the welshman in that part of wales where he is an officer ; nor besides , can the clergy-men be suppos'd much to prejudice the interest of religion , being the plurallist cannot supply his cure but by one qualified , and the bastard might be a good man , and good preacher . and yet even these would fall within vaughan's acceptation of his own rule ; for he shews , that laws made for the benefit of but part of the kingdom , artificers , and husbandmen , cannot be dispens'd with to any one person , to frustrate the ends of the statutes . this leads to another flourish which he makes with the vaughan's authority , in answer to the objection , that the law was made pro bono publico , and was highly necessary for the publick . indeed lord vaughan will have it , that the sole reason why a statute cannot be dispens'd with , is not , that the law was made pro bono publico , because all laws were made for publick good ; and yet dispensations had been allow'd in some , nor was the degree of publick good that which alter'd the case ; yet he shews , that the extent of it does : and seems still to keep to cook 's rule , where the people had entrusted the king with the law , as head of the complicated body , there the trust was entirely in him ; but when the law extended in interest not onely to individual persons , but to a considerable part of the nation , much more when to all , in either of which cases the statute is pro bono singulorum populi , in neither of these can the king dispense . and that the statute in question is of the largest extent , appears , as the nation is a protestant nation , this the religion establish'd by law , and these provisions necessary means to preserve it ; and therefore tho' the papists have no benefit by it , they are not in law , in this respect , any part of the people ; for people always is taken for them that have legal interests . thus when the statute provides , that the people of counties shall chuse their sheriffs , it relates not to all the people in general , but onely to freeholders . having thus shewn , that those grounds which our judge pretends to have gone upon , afford no countenance even to his palliation of the judgment , they will appear much less to countenance it as it was deliver'd ; which to evince , i shall here set it down ipsissimis verbis , from that faithful reporter mr. blaney . it was on that memorable day when , as another mark of his sincerity , he directed the willing jury , and concurr'd in the infamous sentence against that excellent author mr. johnson ; when the jury was gone out , the chief justice took occasion to inveigh against spreading of scandalous reports about cases depending in the court ; and to prevent any thing of that nature in the case of sir edward hales , he thought fit to deliver the opinion of the judges in this manner . c. j. in the case of godwin and hales , wherein the defendant pleads a dispensation from the king , it is doubted , whether or no the king had such a prerogative ? truly , upon the argument before us , it appear'd as clear a case as ever came before this court : but because men fancy i know not what difficulty , when really there is none , we were willing to give so much countenance to the question in the case , as to take the advice of all the judges of england : they were all assembled at serjeants-inn , and this case was put them , and the great case of the sheriffs was put , whether the dispensation in that case were legal , because upon that depended the execution of all the law of the nation ? and , i must tell you , that there were then ten upon the place , that clearly delivered their opinions , that the case of the sheriffs was good law , and that all the attainders grounded upon indictments found by juries return'd by such sheriffs , were good , and not erroneous ; and consequently , that men need not have any fears or scruples about that matter . and , in the next place , they did clearly declare , that there was no imaginable difference between that case , and this , unless it were , that this were the much clearer case of the two , and liable to the fewer exceptions . my brother powel said , he was inclin'd to be of the same opinion , but he would rather have some more time to consider of it ; but he has since sent by my brother holloway , to let us know , that he does concur with us . to these eleven judges , there is one dissenter , brother street , who yet continues his opinion , that the king cannot dispense in this case : but that 's the opinion of one single judge , against the opinion of eleven : we were satisfied in our own judgments before , and having the concurrence of eleven out of twelve , we think we may very well declare the opinion of the court to be , that the king may dispense in this case ; and the judges go upon these grounds . . that the kings of england are sovereign princes . . that the laws of england are the king's laws . . that therefore , 't is an incident inseparable prerogative in the kings of england , to dispense with penal laws in particular cases , and upon particular necessary reasons . . that of those reasons , and those necessities , the king himself is sole judge : and then , which is consequent , upon all , . that this is not a trust invested in , or granted to the king by the people ; but the ancient remains of the sovereign power , and prerogative of the kings of england , which never yet was taken from them , nor can be . and therefore such a dispensation being pleaded by the defendant in this case , and such a dispensation appearing upon record to come time enough , to save him from the forfeiture , judgment ought to be given for the defendant , quod querens nil capiat per billam . 't is evident , that these propositions are very wide from any thing he has , or could have urg'd from the books , unless where a brand of infamy has been set upon the judges . the examples of which , made in several ages , one would have thought , might have given sufficient caution ; yet , indeed , he might have had enough of this kind from those of the other gown , who , i think , are now pretty well asham'd of these notions . whatever power of dispensing the king has , the books suppose it to be entrusted by the people ; but according to this resolution , it came down from heaven the lord knows how : and as he goes upon the supposition of an absolute sovereignty in the king , inseparable from his person , as such will have it , unless that be granted , all that he builds upon it are but castles in the air : for this we are to have recourse to our constitution , to see what that power in the prince is ; which , the great fortescue says , is , à populo effluxa , deriv'd from the people . but for that we have no occasion , from any so much as pretended proof of his assertions ; nor can any be offer'd but from the resolution of the infamous ship-money-judges , which seems to run parallel to this , but is indeed far short of it : for tho' they made the king the sole judge of the kingdom 's necessity , yet they suppos'd it to be at a time when there was a real danger to be prevented by the exercise of this judgment ; whereas here it is abus'd to the bringing in what the parliament labour'd to prevent . but i must observe , . that whereas sir edward herbert owns the dispensing power to be of dark learning , and that it is very fit it should receive some light from a determination in parliament , that judges may judge by more certain rules , which acts of parliament the king may , and which he may not dispense with . grant his premisses , and there can be no darkness in it ; for the power will extend to all cases , as far as the legislative does ; and that he has determin'd positively in this point , when he makes all things not forbid by god's law , to be dispensible by the king ; nay , if he might dispense with every malum prohibitum , that is not malum in se , without such qualification as i have shewn ought to be , it would go farther , even as far as god's power , who never dispenses with more than his own positive laws , not such as are founded upon eternal reasons : and thus the positive laws of god and man would be subject to the pleasure of the prince . . he has taken it out of the power of the parliament , to settle the bounds of this extravagant power : for , what he ascribes , he says , never was taken from the crown , nor can be ; because , forsooth , 't is the ancient remains of the sovereign power , and prerogative of the kings of england . wherein , by the way , there is an implication contrary to what he would infer ; for this implies , that 't is but the remains of a power diminish'd and impair'd . . his printed and parol resolutions are not onely very different , as is obvious by the comparison , but very contrary : one says , 't is a dark learning ; the other , the case is as clear as ever came before the court. tho' his insincerity is sufficiently evident from every part of his defence , yet it may not be unprofitable for the publick , that he should be follow'd to those instances in which he glories ; for which , 't is not enough for him to shew some one act wherein he is singular , if he follows the multitude to sin in others , even of the same kind ; which if he does , he can no more acquit himself of perjury and breach of trust , than the rest of the tainted herd . in matters of blood , he affects the reputation of great tenderness , and thinks he has been scrupulous ev'n to a fault : for , says he , in some cases upon statutes , that had been adjudg'd felony by wiser and better judges than my self , and it was highly for the king's service that it should be so , yet i would never give judgment of death , because i could not satisfie my conscience , that those statutes were now in force . it is a fault , it seems , not to give judgment against his conscience , when the narrow interest of the court exacts it , and other judges , influenc'd from thence , would countenance it : but we may observe , that those statutes concerning soldiers , of which he is to be understood , not onely give no warrant for such judgment , as is obvious to the meanest capacity ; but if they could admit of any question , the unbiass'd judgment of the then recorder of london , sir john holt , ought to outweigh the whole bench. but i wish our chief justice could as well acquit himself in the case of the lord brandon . the fathers heroick merits of the crown , too great to be rewarded , and the son 's hereditary valour , dangerous to those who had reason to fear brave spirits , occasioned the rigorous prosecution of both . the father was oblig'd to change his soil , till it might become more equal , not unmindful of our saviour's advice , or rather precept , when persecuted in one country , to flee into another , that tho' he contemn'd death , he might not provoke it . the son falling into their hands , both his life , and honour , which the severest trials approv'd to be most valu'd by him , were design'd for a sacrifice . in subserviency to which , our chief justice directed the willing jury to find him guilty of high-treason , chiefly upon a suppos'd conspiracy , to seise the castle of chester ; which , if true , were but felony by a statute , as to that part , yet in force , and so could be no evidence of treason : nor would he suffer the fact to be found specially , tho he pretended not to answer the cases and records which were cited to shew , that the matter alledg'd could not be treason ; nor did the then sollicitor undertake the task , notwithstanding that shew of reasoning , with which he labour'd to set aside the authority of lord cook * , pleading expresly and unanswerably for that injur'd hero , of whom the age was not worthy , the lord russel . nor was the proof in lord brandon's case , less defective than the matter ; for besides the scandalous sexton , who swore to designs against another king , there was but one witness in the eye of the law ; he indeed so far legal , as that he might be heard , being an approver * ; but no way credible , considering how far he had been drawn with his fetters about his heels , even to * contradict himself . the other by no means legal , being under an outlawry for high treason , unrevers'd : for tho' the execution of that judgment , for so in law it is , was pardon'd by the king , yet the crime was by no means purg'd , to set him right to fame : which tho' the counsel offer'd to make good , they were not suffer'd to speak to it ; and yet the point is very † clear by ancient authorities , and confirm'd by later , without any thing really to the contrary . nay , farther , tho' besides all these things , another matter was urg'd in arrest of judgment , upon which judgment had * formerly been arrested ; yet , without enquiring whether the fact were true , or the book law , that , with the rest , was over-rul'd , to come at the life of a person obnoxious to the government , as some call'd themselves . such was sir edward's great scrupulousness , and tenderness , where the life of man was concern'd . he adds a scruple , in a case before himself , and the other usurpers of the high-commission court ; but his singularity therein can be no excuse for his acting at all upon a commission apparently against the statute , which took away not onely the power of fining and imprisoning , which that court illegally pretended to , but the spiritual authority which it really had ; and such a commission it was , as never receiv'd countenance till the act , long since repeal'd , which not onely made h. . head of the church , but gave him power , which he afterwards delegated to lord cromwel , to redress all errors , heresies , and abuses , by spiritual authority . i suppose it is by this time pretty evident , that sir edward's crime will admit of no extenuation ; but the aggravations are many , it appearing , . that he and his brethren were the inventers of this dispensing power , in such extent as he contends for in the print ; but much more in his real resolution . . that the error was not an error in that single case , but of large and mischievous consequences ; and if the king could dispense with that statute , upon the reasons given , and circumstances appearing in sir edward hales his case , others may well conclude from thence , that therefore he has a power to dispense with all other statutes , even such as confer or vest in any of the subjects any manner of interest whatsoever , in their lives , liberties , and estates ; and there being a conviction , and consequently a disability actually incurred before the dispensation ; therefore , by reason of this case , the king may dispense with such statutes where a precedent disability is actually laid upon a man , as there is upon the members of both houses , till they have taken the oaths and tests prescrib'd . these are not consequences which may flow from the heated imaginations of angry men , but such as have warrant and foundation from their judgment . . his so far undervaluing the wisdom of the nation , as to make the benefit of a law against the undue continuance of sheriffs , equal , nay , go beyond what they could devise for the security of their religion ; or rather , so to undervalue the holy religion , which i think he yet professes , when however it would not come up to the point , according to the differences which himself receives . speaking of the statute h. . c. . he says , the recital in the preamble , and the whole purview , if compar'd with our statute of car. . c. . equals it in every particular , and in some goes beyond it : for the mischiefs recited in this latter statute , are onely in these words , for preventing dangers which may happen from popish recusants , and quietting the minds of his majesty's good subjects : the other , for preventing the importable damage of the king , and his people , by perjury , manslaughter , and great oppression . then he goes to the purview , express against non obstante's , and creating a disability ; but , according to his usual haste , he stays not here to make the comparison , but hastens to his sham-resolution , as has been sufficiently evinc'd already . the questions here will be , . whether the mischiefs intended to be prevented , are equal in both ? . admit they were equal in degree , whether they are in extent ; which if they are not , still the resolution , if real , will fail him , according to the difference which he himself receives , of pro bono populi complicati , and singulorum populi . . for the first , i suppose he thinks the epethite importable gives the odds , as if popery wanted an epethite to represent it to protestants , for what they ought to do their utmost to prevent ; as if it did not carry in the belly of it perjuries , manslaughters , and great oppressions , by whole-sale ; or that mischefs more remote , and accidental , as the continuance of sheriffs , may habituate to corruption , and that occasion the other fatal train ; could equal the more immediate and certain consequences , unless by good laws prevented , of french conversions , proceeding from fixt principles . but then to give judgment to frustrate this necessary law at a time when the papists had a king of their own superstition to head them , is to make the king as much above the law , as our ancient lawyers tell us , the law and his court by way of eminence , that is , the great council , or parliament are above him . . as this proves the interest of the subject , in the law about sheriffs , to be neither equal , nor so immediate , as in our statute , there needs not many words to shew the difference of the extent : the peace only of particular counties , and tha● by small insensible degrees , is there concern'd , nay , admit the king had this power , and should so violate that trust which sir edward will have to be repos'd in him , as to extend it to all counties where he puts in the sheriffs ; yet this could not affect all the people , because there might be a retreat to london , middlesex , and westmorland , in neither of which has it been pretended , that the king had such a power , till the late violence of some , and treachery of others , gave that unhappy inlet of perjury , manslaughter , i may say , murder and oppression ; before which , london was a perfect goshen in an egyptian kingdom . . but what can excuse our justice's so apparent falsifying both records and law-books , or if not , at least , his shameful negligence in not going to the fountain-heads , but setting up the recitals of cases against the cases themselves ; and the extrajudicial opinions or arguments of judges , nay , the very annotations of reporters , foreign to any matter in question , against solemn resolutions ; which either wilful falsifications , or criminal negligence , has occasion'd the answering objections with a case which never had a resolution , but what he and his brethren , gave when it was brought in by head and shoulders , onely to be a leading case to this . . he could not but know , that the case was faintly argued against sir edward hales , either he , or the late empson and dudley , having given the fees on both sides ; wherefore 't was comical for the chief justice to say , that the case appear'd clear upon the argument ; i am sure he is inexcusable , that when causes of less consequence , and of less dark learning , us'd to be argued twice at least , this was but once ; and the learned mr. wallop , who could have set it in the truest light , was refus'd to be heard to it , tho' he requir'd it . . our chief justice might easily have found , that the beginning of non obstante's was within time of memory , which would not be enough to entitle the king to a prerogative : for as 't is in plowden , every prerogative contains a prescription , for it rests in usage ; that is , such as are not deriv'd from known grants of the people . and he might have learnt from that great man , whom he would fain draw to his side , that presidents are useful to decide questions , but in such cases as these which depend upon fundamental principles , from which demonstrations may be drawn millions of presidents are to no purpose . time of legal memory is well known to extend to the reign of r. . and tho' non obstante's , as i observ'd above , are complain'd of within that time , as early as h. . yet that diligent and faithful searcher into antiquity mr. prin , shews , that they were then made use of , only to revoke some indiscreet grants or priviledges , but not to elude , subvert , or dispense with any penal laws , or acts of parliament , till they were introduced by religious persons , after the statute of mortmain , e. . to elude and frustrate the act. and if this be true , i am sure thus far there is no colour for the late resolution ; for they might have seen in lord vaughan , that the king in that case dispenses only with his own right , and concludes not the mean lords . tho' successive resolutions of judges are but evidences of the law , and such as are to be examin'd and rectified by the constitution , and fundamental maxims of the inherent rights , and liberties of a free-born people : yet if sir edward had had the diligence to read what might have occurr'd on this subject , or the honesty to hear it from others , he might have known , that it is far from being a setled point , that the king might dispense with particular persons as to whatever is not prohibited by the law of god ; and that his dispensation makes the thing prohibited lawful to be done by him that has it . the farther we look back since this power has come in question , the less does it seem allowed . edward . with the assent of that council , which , as i observ'd before , was chose in parliament , had granted to merchants denizens , for a time , the same liberty about staple commodities which merchants aliens had ; tho' this was not by the king alone , and for the benefit of natives , yet the merchants fearing that they might be impeach'd in time to come for their merchandize which they had so pass'd by vertue of such grants ; for as much as they were made out of parliament , for their surety , obtain'd a ratification and confirmation in parliament . but the vexata questio was about licensing the shipping of wooll elsewhere than at calais ; that the king might do this , the pretence was specious . calais was no part of the ancient demeasn of the crown , but a new acquisition , whose interests the king seem'd to have more absolutely at his disposal , according to the resolution of our judges before the house of lords , who declared , that tho' the canaries were the dominion of the king of spain , they were no part of the dominion of spain . and if sir edward had taken notice of lord cook where he is against , as well as where he seems to favour him , he ought to have observ'd , that one lyons a merchant , and lord latimer were sentenc'd in parliament for procuring of licenses and dispensations for transporting of wooll : and this they laid to the destruction of the staple , and of the money of calais , to the great damage of the king and realm : indeed the year after , the latimer's sentence is remitted at the request of the commons , alledging that the charge against him was not true , not for defect of matter . so that here is a judgment of the house of lords in point , against one of those very cases ; upon which court , judges have since founded their distinction of malum prohibitum , & malum in se : and it is an easie thing to know which ought to turn the scale . after this , it came to be a question before all the judges in the exchequer-chamber , whether this offence being pardoned ( which that the king might do after it was committed , has not been disputed ) the pardon before an information brought , would defeat the informer of his share . there the court held , that if the suit were the parties , the pardon should not bar him ; but the sole question was , whether the party was entitled to any suit , being the advantage was given to the discoverer , which he might have by a suggestion in the exchequer , but the statute gives no action ; however this receiv'd no determination at that time . but if the question had then been of a dispensation , and whether that would bar the informer's action given by statute , can any man doubt but that they would have adjudg'd it could not ? when notwithstanding a pardon , and that in a case where an action was not expressly given ; yet it was so doubtful , that they would not determine against the informer ; but that the dispensation would not have avail'd with them , or at least , they would not have lookt upon it to authorize what was prohibited by any statute , appears from other passages there ; as where it is said , that in a recognizance of the peace ( which is not confin'd to one entered into at the request of a subject ) the king cannot pardon , or release , till the peace is broken : and where a man ought to repair a bridge , the king can pardon only for the fine due to himself ; but however , the party shall be obliged to repair the bridge , because this is to the damage of all the people . and to the same purpose is that h. . that tho' the king may pardon , or free from a pecuniary mulct before the occasion happen , yet he cannot pardon , or discharge the trespass it self ; and instance is given in voluntary escapes : so far were they from believing , that the king in remitting the pecuniary mulct , could make the thing lawful ; nor could this in the least be inferr'd from the other , because however an act may be made void or tortious . indeed in the reign of r. . whose character blemishes the judgments of his time , it was held by all the judges in the exchequer-chamber , that the king might license the shipping of wooll elsewhere than at the staple ; yet even they were not of opinion that the license made the thing lawful , for then the discoverer could not have had his share , which they agreed that he ought to have ; and so the license was only as far as it concern'd the king. they also setled the other point , which before was a doubt , that a pardon before an information brought , would defeat the informer . but then the authority of the first point is suspended , by a doubt remaining before all the judges afterwards assembled upon a rehearing of this cause in a more setled time . indeed they agreed the other of an information after a pardon , but hitherto there is no manner of proof of any case , wherein the king by his dispensation could discharge the penalty given not only to himself , but also to an informer , who has his action given by statute : but for this we must take a leap downwards as far as jac. . which we may ballance with the th . of his reign , when it is held by lord cook , that where a statute concerns the benefit of the king alone , he may dispense with it by a non obstante : and by the court , that where it concerns the benefit of the subject , the king cannot dispense . . whereas our chief justice thinks that a statute's providing against non obstante's , shews that the king could otherwise have dispens'd with the act by a non obstante ; it is not onely unconcluding , because it might be no more than an argument of an abuse of the law ; but turns very strong against him : for , admit the resolution of the judges , h. . were as he contends , yet he , who makes so much of a concession of the commons of england assembled in parliament , when he thinks it of his side , ought surely to yield that the judgment of king , lords , and commons , is of uncontrollable authority . wherefore when not only one , but several parliaments provide , that all non obstantes shall be void , is it not plain , that their judgment was , that such non obstantes could not be set up by any resolution of judges ? and for this we have the judgment of king , lords , and commons , and that of but late days , that even where a grant is made to the king , where 't will be said he is solely entrusted for the publick good , yet it may be out of his power to defeat it by a non obstante . this appears by the statute car. . c. . which provides , that no letters patents granted to any person , of exemptions from subsidies , &c. shall free them from the charges of any sum granted by that act ; and all non obstantes in letters patents made , or to be made in bar of any act or acts of parliament , for the supply or assistance of his majesty , are thereby declared to be void and of none effect . and even where statutes have not expresly provided against non obstante's , tho' the statutes were such as restrain what many take to be the king's prerogative , yet if we receive the sense of lords and commons , the king has no prerogative warranting non obstante's to them ; as appears by the articles against king richard the second , one of which is , for that the king , contrary to the laws , and wills of the justices , suffer'd sheriffs to continue longer than one year , &c. this were enough to set aside all pretences taken from calvin's case , tho' , as sir edward herbert pleasantly suggests , it were resolv'd there , that that was resolv'd h. . which was never mention'd till after the resolution . here is the authority of lords and commons , in competition with that of mercenary judges : and if the concessions of the commons alone assembled in parliament , are of weight with him , i know not why their denials ought not as well to be urg'd against him ; which if we may do , not onely the fictions and loose reasonings in calvin's case , but the main resolution there , may be justly call'd meer court-law . such i am sure it is , that the honest house of commons , jac. . would not bear it ; and any one that reads the arguments of those learned men who manag'd the conference with the lords , upon the question of the union of the two kingdoms , may easily see how inexcusable the judges of that time were , to proceed to the judgment in calvin's case , after they had been so enlightned . nor could they but know , that the then parliament was broke up , because they were not so complying , as the judges shew'd themselves both then and afterwards : but they secur'd their cushions by it , while sir john bennet , father of the present lord oswalston , lost his in the prerogative-court , and had a swinging fine impos'd upon him into the bargain , several years after , upon pretence of extortion ; but , as i am well inform'd , the real ground was , his disrellishing speech in parliament upon this subject . 't is well known , some princes us'd to have good memories that way . manet altâ mente repostum , &c. . non obstante's having no other foundation than in the encroachments of princes , and servility of judges , especially if we except cases concerning the king alone , they ought not to be strain'd to any new case : the advice of bracton will rise up in judgment against such men , who tells them , if such things never hapned before , and the judgment is without light from former cases , and difficult , let it be adjourn'd to the great court. according to which , adjournments to ensuing parliaments have been frequent in former days , when there were more learned judges , and that as often for the weightiness of the matter , as intricacy of the points . . but for the closing aggravation ; whereas our chief justice denies all indirect means for procuring opinions , and stands upon his innocence , challenging the world to lay any thing of that kind to his charge ; i think , by this time , few will the less suspect him , because of his assurance : if either threats or sollicitations can be prov'd upon him , the world will judge either of them indirect means ; and i am much misinform'd , if both cannot be justly charg'd . if after all , he can excuse himself with renouncing infallibility , and making asseverations of keeping to the clear dictates of his conscience , i must say , judges in former ages have had hard luck , and been made examples to little purpose . king alfred would lose the reputation of his justice , in hanging above thirty judges ; and parliaments have been very barbarous to proceed against others as traytors , who yet either were so ingenuous to confess their faults , or , at least , not so provoking as to justifie them . it is well known in story , that six judges , and two of the king's council at law , suffer'd for treason , upon a parliamentary prosecution , r. . for delivering their opinions , that they were to be punish'd as traytors , who hindred the king from exercising his soveraignty and prerogative over a statute , and an ordinance , and commission made in the foregoing parliament : the substance of their crime lay in ascribing to the king a power to defeat the provisions of the parliament for the safety of the nation , and is a direct president , at which our judges ought to tremble . nor can it avail them , that the express words of the statute e. . c. . do not condemn them , since that act transmits common-law treasons to the judgment of parliament , and the statute mar. c. . leaves that power untouch'd ; and who can doubt but such a resolution , and that justified in print , and published to the world , is an overt act of treason , as it tends to the subverting the fundamental rights of parliaments : nor can they have any colour for asking , with the lord strafford , where is the buoy ? when they see so many shipracks to admonish them . nor ought sir edward to wonder at a treason against the government , tho' not directly against the person of the king , his relatives , officers , or his coin ; nor yet an actual levying of war within his kingdom , or adhering to his enemies ; for he may find among the articles against the lord kimbolton , and others , exhibited anno . by his father then attorney-general . that they have traiterously endeavoured to subvert the very rights and beings of parliaments . but since sir edward pleads conscience for what he did , and might have urg'd the authority of spiritual guides , who would make the scripture notion of higher powers a sufficient warrant for such a judgment . i shall conclude with the good queen elizabeth doctrine of the famous bilson , afterwards bishop of winchester . by superior powers ordain'd of god , we understand not only princes , but all politick states and regiments , some where the people some where the nobles have the same interest to the sword that princes have in their kingdoms : and in kingdoms where princes bear rule by the sword , we do not mean the prince's private will against his laws , but his precept derived from his laws , and agreeing with his laws . finis . publish'd by this author . a poetical essay towards an epitome of the gospel . ed. anno . jani anglorum facies nova . anno . jus anglorum ab antiquo . anno . king edward the sixth against the pope's supremacy , with remarks on his life . anno . lord hollis his remains . dr. twisden's considerations touching the grand question : with reflections upon antidotum britannicum , and mr. hunt's book and postscript . anno . anonymus his letters to dr. sherlock , concerning church-communion : with a reply to his answer . anno . a letter of remarks on jovian . anno . a true account of the unreasonableness of mr. fitton 's pretences against the earl of macclesfield . grotius his arguments for the truth of the christian religion , in verse : with an appendix concerning prophecies . anno . the idea of christian love , and paraphrase on mr. waller's poem of divine love. anno . ready for the press , a supplement to dr. brady's introduction , and compleat history . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e vid. account , p. . account , p. . cook rep. f. . v. p. . & . p. . rep. f. . rep. f. . suarez de legibus , lib. . cap. . f. . ib. cap. . f. . v. jus angl. ab antiquo & jani angl. fa. nov . vid. mat. par. de anno . h. . so rot. pat. , h. . m. . m. . v. jan. an. fa. nov. p. . rot. par. . e. . vid rot. par. . e. . ryley pl. parl . f. . rot. par. . e. . n. . . e. . n. . . e. . n. . walsingham fol. . vid. knighton the st . art. against r. . f. . vid. etiam . h. . n. . . h. . n. . . h. . n . . . . h. . n. . . h. . n. . v. roles ab. . part . . mat. par. ed. tig. f. . v. math. paris f. . illepidum . prin's animad . f. . . v. etiam sir john davis his rep. f. . b. * vid. mod. ten . parl. parliamentum separari non debet dummodo aliqua petitio pendeat indiscussa vel ad minus ad quam non suit determinatum responsum & si rex contrarium permittat perjurius est . as i find it in an ancient ms. of the modus . vid. etiam inst . f. . vid. e. . n. , . r. . . this acknowledg'd for law in the king's name , r. . n. . vid. spelm. vit. aelfredi , f. . mirrour , p. . where 't is plac'd among the abuses of the law , that parliaments are not held twice a year . account , p. . rep. f. . account , p. . pag. . pag. . chief justice fineux , h. . f. . a. moor rep. f. . indeed the book spsaks also of dispensing with statutes restraining the prerogative ; but that concerns not the instances here of things forbid the subject for the limitation of that power . vid. infra . f. . f. . sup. f. . rep. f. . b. h. . f. . b. & . ● . p. , & . acc. p. . yet p. . he promises to cite the books and pages , and to transcribe the very words of his authorities , that every body may be convinc'd , if he were in a mistake , it was no wilful mistake . h. . f. . b. & . a. f. . it should be c. . f. . a. brook patents , n. . fitz. ab. tit . grant , n. . account , p. . first ground . h. . c. . vid. cambd. brit. f. . vid dugdale's baron . f. . bromton , a. f. ad . de regno northumb. rep. f. b. ir rob. atkins v. rob. holford in scaccario hil. & car. . vid. rep penes doctissimum dominum ward . the second ground . rot. parl. h. . par . . account , p. . vid. account , f. . account , p. . accoont , p. . grenden v. levesque de lincoln . plowden , f. . second point h. . account , p. . rep. f. . was made sollicitor june , eliz. dugd. cron. series , f. . rep. f. . dr. sherlock's case of resist . p. . dr. scot's serm. upon rom. , . dr. sherlock's case of non-resistance , p. . pag. , . jovian , p. . how falsly , vid. the letter to jovian . vid. jovian , p - . account , p. . rep. f . vid. archb. abbot's exceptions to sibthorp's serm. rushw part . f. . & , rep. f. . vid. vaugh. f. . inst . f. . inst . f. . account , p. . account p. . vid. consid . touching the grand quest . a. p. . to . inst . f. b. account , p. . vid. supra , inst . f. . vid sup p. , , . account , p. . moor , sup . f. . hobart , f. . vid. vaughan , f. . speaking of lord hobart's judgment , which is always accurate for the reason of the law. account , p. . vid. grebner , cited in the northern star. vid. nostredamus , cent. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . th . stanza , at the end . vid. lord cook 's c. of penal statutes , rep. f. . vid. grot. de jure belli & pacis . vid. falkner's christian loyalty , p. , . speaking of the parisian massacre , &c. but if ever any such strange case as is proposed , should really happen in the world , i confess it would have its great difficulties . grotius thinks that in this utmost extremity , the use of such defence , as a last refuge , ultimo necessitatis praesidio , is not to be condemned , provided the care of the common good be preserv'd . and if this be true , it must be upon this ground , that such attempts of ruining do ipso facto include a disclaiming the governing those persons as subjects , and consequently of being their prince or king. v. bishop bilson , of christian subjection , ed. . p. . i never deny'd , that the people might preserve the foundation , freedom , and form ef their commonwealth , which they forepriz'd when they first consented to have a king. account , p. . rot. parl. h. . n. . qe dieu assoille . a aucuny fait un affair a contre . a nully . pur null . vid. account , p. . vid. serjeant glanvil's speech . rushworth's coll. part . f. . & . account , p. . vid. dr. stillingst . against cressy , from p. . to p. . account , p. . account , p. . sir matthew mints case , crook , car. f. . account , p. . p. . vid vaughan's rep. f. . edes v. evesque d' oxford . rep. f. . b. account , p. . pag. . vid. rolls abr. brook. fitzh . tit . estoppel , particularly statham . si home soit oblige de garder le peace & puis scire facias issist vers luy de ceo qil bat . uneqe viet & est trove coup . & puis cet port . brief de trans . vers luy de mesm le batie & il pled de rien coup . il luy estoppera per matter trove al suit le roy , &c. so brook. n. . vaughan , f. . account , p. . vid. rep. p. . account , p. . vaugh. p. . account , p. , . account , p. . supr . p. . thomas v. sorrel , f. . ib. f. . vaugh. f. . account , p . supr . p. . vid. lord vaughan , f. , . l. vaughan , f. , , , . account , p. . inst . f. . dly . so sibthorp , rushworth vol. . p. . v. case of resistance , p. . see there such a sovereignty as makes laws , can repeal , and dispense with them . fortescue , p. . ad tutelam namque legis subditorum , ac eorum corporum & bonorum rex huj●smodi erectus est , & ad hanc potestatem a populo effluxam ipse habet quo ei non licet potestate aliâ suo populo dominari . see this condemn'd & car. . c. . v. bushw . part . f. . vid. account , p. . account , p. . vid. grot. de jure belli & pacis , l. . c. . sicut ut bis duo non sint quatuor ne a deo quidem effici potest ; ita ne hoc quidem ut quod intrinsecâ ratione malum est malum non sit . account , p. . dly . account , p. . account , p. . the case crook car. . & hutton . is of one prest to serve beyond sea. witness the great endeavours to make him confess a plot , while he lay under sentence of death . vid. eliz. c. . rastal f. . * l. russel's trial , f. . sol. to conspire to levy war , is an overt act to testifie the design of the death of the king ; and the errour of my lord cook has possibly misled my lord. this he goes to refute by the cases of story and lord cobham , which were not of levying war within the kingdom , and besides were express'd by the overt act of writing . vid. inst . f. . hales his pleas of the crown , p. . dyer , f. . b. sanderson's hist of k. james , f. . * lib. assiz . . pl. . of an approver shar'd , says , il ne duist , passer sans estre duement purge car tout sont en male . * at lord russel 's trial , i am not certain whether i did hear something about a declaration , &c. trial , f. . at mr cornish 's , è contra . † that such are not probi & legales , for witnesses or juries , vid. bulst f. . alias . . brownlow p. . part . . rolls . ab. tit . chal. . brook tit . tesmoins , penult . fitzher . tit . process , . dyer f. . a. owen f. . castle . main's trial f. . h. . . b. godbolt . fortescue p. . b. fleta lib. . c. . bracton de coronâ , cap. . p. . b. rolls ahr. tit . prer . f. . vid. de eodem baluzium , tom. . f. . . . * arundel's case , rep. f. . h. . c. . repeal'd & p.m. v. h. . c. . thly . account , p. . vid. ib. account , p. . vid. supr . p. , . account , p. . pag. . vid. sup . p. . bracton l. . c. . rex habet superiorem , deum s. item legem per quam factus est rex , item curiam suam , viz. comites , barcnes , quia comites dicuntur quali socii , &c. fleta l. . c. . p. . . has superiores . which avoids the cavil in the royal apol. ed. anno . p. . suppos'd to be dr. ashtons . v. account . p. . v. sup. p. . plowden of mines , f. . . vaugham , f. . nota , this was in a case of less consequence the sending process into wales . brook prescrip . n. . stat. west . . . e. . c. . stat. de quo warranto , e. . prin's animad . f. . vaughan f. . vid. è cont . dr. brady's compleat hist . dedicated to k. james . pref. all the liberties and priviledges the people can pretend to , were the grants and concessions of the kings of this nation , and were derived from the crown . founded upon his suppos'd proofs that w. . obtain'd this land by conquest , and govern'd it accordingly . v. brady's first book p. . in marg. refuted in jus anglorum . account p. . v. sup. p. . v. rolls ab . tit . prer . f. . e. . c. . nota , this is one of the cases mentioned by fineux , sup. p. . anno . v. jac. c. . forbidding trade to the dominions of spain . . inst . f. . rot. parl. . e . n. , , . . e. . n. . v. account p. . h. . f. . this notrightly abridg'd by brook tit . charter de pardon , n. . h. . f. . a. adjornatur . h. . . v. e f. . a. where a statute concerns only the king himself , which the king may chuse to use at his will , &c. h. . f . b. chief justice hussey citing fortescue . r. . f. . if any one doubt this upon the words of the book , it appears beyond contradiction from its being brought about again by the merchants whose goods were seized . h. . f. . b. & . a. v. sup. p. . inst . . rolls ab. tit . prcr. f. . account p. . v. sup. p. . account , p. . according to kieble , c. . but not printed there . vid. the stat. barely prohibitory . e. . c. . & e. . c. . supr . p. . v. knighton . account , p. . account , p. . see them censur'd in vaughan , f. , , . moor a. f. , to . vid. his censure . inst . f. . inst . f. . bracton , l. . c. . si autem talia nunquam prius evenerint , & obscurum & difficile sit , eorum judicium tunc ponantur judicia in respectum usque ad magnam curiam . vid. e. . . b h. . . a , cest un act de parlement & nos voilomus estre bien avis devant que nous adnullamus ascun act fait en le parlement & peradventure le matter doit attender jusque al prochein parlement . account , p. . account , p. . pag. . v. mirrour , a. p. . to . tresylian , bealknappe , c. knighton , f. , . ib. f. . regaliam . ib. f. . v. glanvil . p. . crimen laesae majestatis , ut de nece vel seditione personae domini regis vel regni . exact . collect ed. anno . p. . v. dugdale's cron . ser. account , n. , & . bilson of christian subjection , p. . glanvil . prol. bracton , v. l. . c. . fleta lib. . c. . fortescue , c. . mirror , p. . a second letter from a gentleman in the country to his friends in london upon the subject of the penal laws and tests. penn, william, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; 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(eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a second letter from a gentleman in the country to his friends in london upon the subject of the penal laws and tests. penn, william, - . p. printed for j.s. and t.s. and to be had of most booksellers in london and westminster, london : . attributed to penn by wing and nuc pre- imprints. reproduction of original in the union theological seminary library, new york. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng test act ( ) dissenters, religious -- legal status, laws, etc. -- england. religious tolerance -- early works to . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - judith siefring sampled and proofread - judith siefring text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a second letter from a gentleman in the country , to his friends in london , upon the subject of the penal laws and tests . licensed , april the th . london , printed , for j.h. and t.s. and to be had of most booksellers in london and westminster . . gentlemen , i am not much lifted up , or cast down at the news you send me , for that my letter should be liked by some , and as ill taken by others , is but the fate of all things offer'd to publick censure ; tho without vanity , the reasons are unequal . but before i enter upon that , you 'l give me leave to observe the humor of the party in the proverbs you sent me , that methinks looks so much like a green ribband , that it hardly becomes the fall of the leaf , they conceit they are under . you say , the usual answer to the letter is this ; there is a snake in the grass ; all is well that ends well , that a more moderate sort , allow it both witt and truth , but ill timed , considering the melancholy circumstances the church of england is under . to all this , you have here my answer , which i beseech you to communicate with that cander ; that you know has alwayes been the companion of my life . and for the proverbs , i must say first , that a wise sentence , may be sillily apply'd ; and next , i am apt to think that these are so ; for pray what is the snake , and where doe's it lie . a snake without a sting hurts no body , let it lie where it will ; and a snake with a sting is dangerous every where . now to find out who is the snake , let 's consider what 's the sting , the penal laws certainly ; and you are not ignorant who 's tayle they belong to . but to be sure they sting all that won't come to church , and that every where . for a man can't walk in his own land , mow his own grass , enjoy his own shop , barn , chamber , closet , chest or cubbard ; no not his pot , pan or skillet , but the snake will get into it , and when it has swept his fields and house clean with its tayle , by the teeth it draws him to its dark holes and dungeons for a further prey . the history of this snake out-does all the giants of the old world , and it had been happy it had perish't with it : wherefore liberty of conscience is so far from being the snake in the grass , that there is in it neither snake , teeth , sting , or grass to hide them . on the contrary , it spies out the snake , cuts the grass , ketches it , and pulls out the sting , that it may do no more mischief : 't is upon this principle that one party cannot hurt ' tother . and for the other proverb , 't is certain , all 's well that ends well , but for that reason all will end ill that begins so , without repentance . and such beginnings i call penal laws for religion , let who will make them , or use them . and i beseech god to touch the hearts of the church of england with a sence of this ; for his justice we can't corrupt . all parties as well as private persons will meet with their own from him ; 't is a decree as old as the world , stamp't in our natures , and prov'd by the records of all time , and god knows but too plainly in ours . but since these gentlemen are upon their proverbs , with their leave i will oppose a couple to them , and i hope a little better suited . let every tub stand upon its own bottom ; and a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush . these are the texts , i 'le now give you the comment . by the first , i mean , that the government should stand upon its own legs , and the church upon hers . the legs of the civil government , is the civil interest of the government , which is that of all the people under it , so that the government is obleiged to secure all , because all are for their own interest bound to secure it : for the church in question , of which all the people are not members , nor yet the greatest part , is a thing of another nature , and relates to another world , and christ has provided her another bottom , if she really makes his law the rule of her actions and authority . let every one walk as he is perswaded , was divine doctrine in st paul's time , and our glo●ying was to be in our selves , and not in another ; and we were to stand and fall to our own masters , and not judge , much less persecute others , no , not tares , for they were to grow with the wheat , ( tho never like to change their nature ) till the harvest , which our saviour interprets , the end of the world : and the apostle tells us , every one must appear before god , and give an account for the deeds done in the body ; so that you see the proverb is true , that every tub ought to stand upon its own bottom . for the other , 't is as obvious & reasonable in this case ; for why should it be taken ill that the poor fanaticks accept the liberty the church of england refus'd , and has driven them to such extreamities for . she would have them to stay till she can give what she would not when she had power to do it . nay , she has it still , & yet will not for a reason that exposes them more then before . but which way can she ensure it to them ? first , can they with honour or conscience refuse what they have sought , or reject that by declaration the church of england will not allow by law ? secondly , how are they assurd , while the church of england is by law secured , that by those very laws they shall not be ruin'd in the mean time ? is it not natural enough to expect at the hand of the king , that they will not , shall not have liberty of conscience ? and that at any rate , they shall conform thorowly , that will not at an other time conform at all , when they do it now only to bob the goverment ? but what is faction if this be not ? if conform , why just now ? if now , why not before ? if not before , why then now ? if things are the same , why are not they ? and if they are , that is , if their opinion of the discipline and ceremonies of the church be what it was , they can't be honest men and conform : they may set up for men of art , and managers , that have given by their own consciences such a proof of their skill ; but i should lament extreamly any dissenter in england should have so little wit or truth . and to be free , it would not look candid in the church of england , that gives her fear of poperies having the power to destroy others , for the reason of her keeping the penal laws on foot , if she takes it ill , that the dissenters are for the same reason for their repeal ; for she can't but think that popery actually has that power over them , by the oppertunity of the laws she will manintain to secure herself . so that light and darkness are not more opposite then the safety of the dissenters , and the reason the church of england gives for the keeping up the penal laws for her own . to remove this difficulty , and to make the methods of their security meet , has , god knows , been my only drift , that so false notions of preservation might not destroy us , when the means of our common safety are so obvious to us . the general and deep prejudices men entertain against popery will hardly suffer them to diliberate for their own benefit . if a ship be near a rock , i think the danger should not frighten away the masters wits , when he has most need of them for a common safety . i beg the gentlemen of the church of england but to think , and i am sure they will find me less criminal in my other letter to you : for is any thing truer then that the papists court a legal ease ? need they this , if they design force ? or were it worth their labouring ? again , cannot a law be made to fix liberty of conscience , that they shall as uneasily violate , as these the church calls her bulwark ? if the laws in question were defensive only , god forbid that i should attempt to lessen her security , i declare in the presence of god i would not ; but when they are offensive and destroying to other people , and those of the most peaceable principles , who have neither interest nor arts to defend them , she must pardon me if i oppose my self to their teeth and sting . it is also as true that her dissenters are of no use to her unless these shackles are taken off ; that if she does not fear liberty more then popery , she must yeild the point desired for their sake , because her own . that for every enemy she releases by it , she has an hundred friends to secure her against him. that she must remember she is but a part of the whole , and should not flatter her self with numbers not of her communion ; especially while they sleep with naked swords hanging by hairs over their heads , and so are made uncapable to serve her . again , pray , can she think that force becomes a gospel church ? that it is not using against popery what she accuses it for , and by it condemns her self ? is it not taking sanctuary in human strength instead of divine truth , that is al-sufficient to its own support ? that the laws that remain , secure the state , and if any be wanting , they may be added without keeping up the ball of vengeance by partial provisions , directed by one party , of the same people , against an other , under one and the same government ; for this is puzling , not serving government : nor can any be great , easie or successful where the heads and hands , that should make it so , are zealously disabled from that duty and service . it seems a day wherein god is pleased to make use of the necessities of men to effect what vertue and wisdom should have taught us long ago to have done ; agree i mean upon our civil common interest . and now we have a king , who has so gracious a regard to liberty , ( and that chuses to recommend himself by so honest , so tender and so equal a principle , and whose own party , tho they may want it most hereafter , do least need it now , and are the most feeble in number to make the use of it dangerous to the rest ) let us by no means loose the oppertunity of our own happiness . nor can the church of england refuse me my petition to her , but upon this single account , the insincerity of the king ; that must be her snake in the grass , that popery's at the bottom ; mark the end of this liberty ; all 's well that ends well : but this plainly implies my arguments to be good , and that if the king holds as he begins , we shall all be happy . le ts see then why he should not do so , tho it looks very ill in the high sons of the church to blow upon that honour they have so often and so highly recommended for our security . first , the king has given her his word to maintain her at his coming to the crown , and has now repeated it to her for the whole time of his reign , in the most solemn manner that was possible out of parliament , secondly , if he be willing , to turn this promise into a law at the repeal of those he would abolish when they meet , and that to be sure he is ready to do , there can be no room to doubt his sincerity . thirdly , he is compell'd to be sincere , for popery without him is but a name in england , and lives by him , and must otherwise expect to expire with him . so that if it were possible for the people of his communion to prevail with him to force his religion upon the kingdom , tho i think it as impracticable , as to set westminster-abby upon bow-steeple ; he must leave them to make satisfaction for the attempt in the next reign ; or conclude , he never intends his lawful heirs to succeed him : and they must take him for the worst of men to be guilty of an injustice and irreligion he has so often and solemnly , and earnestly spoken against . but if that were no security to us , yet the ruin of those that in all probability must follow that attempt , for whose sakes we suppose him to endanger us , would obliege him to the soft & obleiging methods he now takes . so that we have his honour , conscience , nature , and the security of his own party for ours . come , 't is disingenious to call liberty of conscience the snake in the grass , that like the balm of gillead cures the gaps and sores that time and private interests have made . and since he offers to confirm it by law , he only changes the secvrity , he does not destroy it ; and which is more she is a gainer by it : for whereas she is now the national religion by compulsion she will then keep her station by consent ; both extreams yeilding a preferrence to her , and so she is neither hated nor envied by them . i would have her further reflect , that the keeping the penal laws on foot will not answer the end she does it for , since she believes they will be suspended during the time she fears most , and of the next reign , she has no apprehension , and in the mean time she and the protestant dissenters have the hands . so that the only reason for maintaining them , is the awe they ought to give the papists in this kings time , and yet if what she suggests be true , that the papists aim at all , pray , how far will those laws awe them , that for that reason should rather aim at all . i say , what good will that do her , that must be the greatest argument of the force she fears they will use against her ? and if they have no such design , there is no reason to keep them in awe , but much to soften and engage them , that we may all meet upon our common civil bottom , and as one people with one heart fear god , after our own perswasion ; honour the king , according to our allegiance ; and love and serve one another as becomes the members of the great civil family of this kingdom . but some , you tell me , think it had been better the laws where repealed in a pro●estant king's reign , then in this ; but can any shew it is not fit in this ; for that 's the question . let us suppose ours were a protestant , and they were repealed accordingly . how could we assure our selves our next heir would not turn ; ay , the prince in possession ? and unless the principles of exclusion prevail'd , 't is clear the delemma would be the same , because the security upon that notion is uncertain . i confess it had been better for us , it had been done before his coming to the crown , but since he forgives us that deficiency , and offers to supply it , in ways the most assuring , why it should not be good to do it now i cannot imagine : it is to say , it is not fit to be done , when it is most fit to make us best with him . we will have him trust us , but we will not trust him , where his interest secures us . well , but you add , that it is generally agreed , the penal laws should he repeal'd , but not the tests . i must tell you , i do not agree with you in that fact ; for i hear there are divers schisms in the church about it : some for their repeal , and keeping of the tests : some for repealing neither : some for their repeal to papists only : some for dissenters only ; and a few for a general repeal of both ; so that the church is yet unresolved what to do : but i will attend the great question . for the penal laws , no matter if they go ; but if the tests be repealed too , the government is lost to the romanists ; for they may pack a parliament of their own religion , that in all probability will make it national ; and so liberty of conscience will not serve them , nor save us . you see i am fair in the objection , i le give you my answer as freely . i cannot imagine the councils that engage them to take a fair way , can lead them to be foul in it ; for that 's giving a pail of milk , and kicking it down with their foot . if they had number to chuse , or could be returned without it , they must naturally search the most durable means of their safety : now , that connot be making their religion national , both because they are not the two hundred and fiftieth man , and that the attempt would eternally ruin them with the kingdom , whose kindness , in a future raign , their discreeter conduct in this must secure . nor could any thing be so odious , faithless and immoral , then for them to attempt it ; for if ever they should teach the nation that arithmatick , that thirteen is more then three and twenty , they will make true prophets of those they have taken pains to prove false witnesses . but besides their discretion and interest , the kings faith is given us , for his whole raign , in his great and gratious declaration , that he will not exceed the bounds of liberty of conscience . by this , every party is secured with his in their religion and property ; and this tyes him against any concurrance with the people representatively , contrary to this made to them universally : we may assure our selves , he is not like to break it in either of those respects , since we don't think that will so easily become the religion of the kingdom , or that whilest the people are of another , they will chuse a representative of the roman communion . lastly , the law that shall repeal these laws , may be so drawn , as to make it impracticable to return a parliament that is not chosen ; as well as i dare say , it is below the glory of our king , to use ways so unlike the rest of his open and generous principles . my former argument was ad homenem , for , what ever the church of england men think , 't is certain , the answer they gave for a popish successor , we must trust god and do our duty , is still cogent . for if providence was strong enough to secure us then against our fears of such a successor , can an act of parliament , be a better defence to us now . i fear such are fallen from their faith , and change their devotion , for carnal securities . let us be all of a piece ▪ not hot and then cold ; one while for relying on providence , and another time jealous to death , and beating our brains for safety , as if there were no such thing as god in the world. the question is not about the king 's imposing his religion upon us ; for so i should have almost ador'd the gentlemen that left their imployments ; but whether we will not impose our religion upon the friends of his communion ; and this shows no bigottry in the king , that he gives all parties liberty to muster & exercise themselves according to their own principles , that he knows to be so very contrary to his : an odd way of advancing popery , especially by foul play . i wish any thing would satifie us . and yet after so gratious a declaration , both to church and dissenters , and that has so decent a regard to the concurrance of a parliament too , who can be displeased ? have we been hunting , hawking gaming , and marrying with roman catholicks these six and twenty years ! and did they engage on the same side for the king's father , help to support the king abroad , and labour the restoration of the royal family to their inheritance ; and are we now afraid of them for the religion they had then , or that they should have a few offices with us , in the reign of a prince of their own way , that were the companions of our sufferings and pleasures ? methinks it looks ill natur'd at all times , and indiscreet at this ; since 't is certain we may roundly and securely tell them , you are upon your good behaviour : be moderate at your perril : you are but a morfel of men ; and therefore as little feared as loved : 't is in your own power to be well with the kingdom : know when you have enough ; and let us see you aim at no more then securing your civil property and interest in that of the nation , from any violence , on the score of religion , and that meer matters of faith and worship of god shall disable no man of his birth-right . this bottom is broad enough for all the interests of this kingdom to meet upon ; and till god from heaven send us with miracles an higher principle of union ; let us not neglect this lower , but sure means of our peace and happiness . to conclude , let us have a care of the snake every where ; in the grass , in the square , in the coffee-house , in the church , ay , and in the meeting-house too ; for 't is ill company at all times , and in all places . let us remember that not only the four , but the seven last raigns have prov'd penal laws an enemy to the peace and wealth of the kingdom , and the strictest tests no security to the government of it against the weight of its own miscarriages . let us forgive one another , and look forward . i am for having the church of england keep the chair , but let the rest subsist . to fix government upon any mode of religion , convulses it as often as that changes , at least hazards it . that which takes in all interests is the best foundation for any government , because it is least exposed to state contingencies . let us then bend our thoughts towards such an expedient as may secure property to all , the first reason of civil government , and that which every party for its own interest must close with . three things strictly speaking make an english man ownership , consent in parliament , and right of juries . we all know what laws have been made , and by whom to destroy these several capacities , that frame an english man ; amongst which , pray let not that against conventicles go for the least ! let us see then what it is that divests us of these native priviledges , and like true english men , & christians , let us remove it ; that in the raign , of a king so ready to disapoint the enemies of his glory , by repairing the breaches of his people , and of the old true civil government of his kingdom , we may not be wanting to our selves and our posterity , in another great charter , to bury all our prejudices , and establish a lasting civil union among the inhabitants of this ancient and famous kingdom . yours more then my own . finis . a discourse concerning puritans. a vindication of those, who uniustly suffer by the mistake, abuse, and misapplication of that name. a tract necessary and usefull for these times. this text is an enriched version of the tcp digital transcription a of text r in the english short title catalog (thomason e _ ). textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. the text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with morphadorner. the annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. this text has not been fully proofread approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. earlyprint project evanston,il, notre dame, in, st. louis, mo a wing l thomason e _ estc r this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (thomason tracts ; :e [ ]) a discourse concerning puritans. a vindication of those, who uniustly suffer by the mistake, abuse, and misapplication of that name. a tract necessary and usefull for these times. ley, john, - , attributed name. parker, henry, - , attributed name. [ ], p. printed for robert bostock, [london] : . variously attributed to henry parker and john ley. annotation on thomason copy: "by henry parker a cou[n]sellor". reproduction of the original in the british library. eng puritans -- england -- early works to . dissenters, religious -- england -- early works to . a r (thomason e _ ). civilwar no a discourse concerning puritans.: a vindication of those, who uniustly suffer by the mistake, abuse, and misapplication of that name. a tra [ley, john] b the rate of defects per , words puts this text in the b category of texts with fewer than defects per , words. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - pip willcox sampled and proofread - pip willcox text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a discovrse concerning puritans . a vindication of those , who uniustly suffer by the mistake , abuse , and misapplication of that name . a tract necessary and usefull for these times . printed for robert bostock , . a discovrse concerning puritans . it is a common maxim amongst politicians , that a state is mayntained by accusations , but ruined by calumnies : and therefore ( says marquis malvezzi ) happy shall the subjects be of that wise prince , which countenances accusations , and checks calumnies : for the suffering of accusations to goe lesse in repute , and calumnies to get footing , hath beene the encrease of manslaughter , and the continuance of enmity in all ages . many believe that nothing which is done would be knowne , if this means of dispersing privy calumnious speeches were not used , whereas little is known because it is used : for falshood constantly affirmed for truth sometimes deceives , and when it does not , but is knowne to be falshood , yet it forces to some suspension of judgment , and makes us yield some way even to that which we believe not . this is most apparent at this day in this kingdome in the case of puritans , for did accusation and legall processe take place , few crimes would be proved against puritans , and did not malicious calumny prevaile , as few men would be proved puritans , whereas now nothing is so monstrous , which is not branded upon puritans , and no man is so innocent as to escape that brand . so great also is the audacitie of those which lacerate the fames of puritans , & with so much confidence doe they vent their obloquies , that they which know the falsity thereof , & easily perceive that the same aspersions are more truly due to the autors and raisers of them , yet they are dazeled , and driven to some doubtfull admittance thereof . neither could this audacity be so prevalent amongst the vulgar , but that scholars , and the greatest of the clergie are now become the most injurious detesters & depravers of puritans , having taken up in pulpits and presses , almost as vile and scurrilous a licence of fiction and detraction , as is usuall in play-houses , taverns , and bordelloes . some men divide generally all protestants into puritans , and antipuritans , but i shall admit of subdivisions in both , for all men are not alike , which either affect or disaffect , either puritans or antipuritans . antipuritans i shall thus divide . some antipuritans are so termed meerly because they are no puritans , but such i dislike not , for i my selfe am neither the one nor other , i neither merit the name of puritan , neither doe i hate them so as to professe my selfe a antipuritan . others are accounted antipuritans , because they are of the romish religion , and so professe themselves , but their enmity is but a due antipathy , and as a necessary consequence of their religion , and such i take no notice of , i think puritans expect no other from them . others againe there are which are very averse from some puritanicall tenets , and hold puritans in very many things erroneous , but yet they meane well themselves , and beare no hatred to the persons of puritans , they allow puritans sound in the most and waightiest matters of faith , they hold dissent in disputable things no ground of malice , and they attribute no infallibility to themselves in those things wherein they dissent : from these men i am but little removed . the worst sort of antipuritans , and they which ought only to be so called , are they which bitterly hate and persecute many good men under the name of puritans , and many good things in those which are puritans , whose antipathy is to mens persons , as well as opinions , and in opinions those which are sound , as well as those which are erroneous . these are the antipuritans which i shall now strive to detect , whom i hold to be of great number and power in the state at this day , whom wee may account the chiefest causers , and procurers of all those mischiefs and plagues which now incumber both church & commonwealth , and to be guilty of all those crimes , which falsly they charge upon puritans , being therein like caesars enemies , which therefore only hated him , because they had deserved hatred from him . by such antipuritans is all love to goodnesse and zeal to the protestant religion , and all hatred of vice , and dislike of popish superstition , brought into contempt . for as they admit all true of puritans which papists object against protestants , so they account all protestants almost ( besides their own faction ) puritans . by such is the religion of the scots made ridiculous ; by such is the amity of the two nations , and therein the honour and safety of the king his crowne , and progeny much indangered . by such is calvin , and the reformers of our religion for hearkning therein to calvin , traduced , and another reformation attempted , by such is antiquity preferred to obscure scripture , uniformity in ceremonies to the disadvantage of unity in hearts ; by such is the outside and walls of religion trimmed and decored , whilst the soule thereof is neglected , or defaced ; by such is the kings heart stolne from his subjects , and the subjects estranged from the king : by such is the name of royalty pretended whilst a papall hierarchy only is intended ; by such is dissention nourished in the state , that they may fish in troubled waters : by such is truth in other men styled faction , and faction in themselves styled truth ; by such are innovations preached and printed for necessary points , whilst necessary doctrines in other men are prohibited . in the power of such it now remayns to teach and publish all things consonant to their owne ends , and to quash and silence all gainsayers , and either to promote or detrude all suiters for preferment at their discretion being absolutely possessed of presses , pulpits , and the eares of great men ; by such are many good men reviled and oppessed for their constancie to the true religion , whilst many factious , semipopish dunces are unduly preferred every where for neutrality in religion , or some worse innovation ; by such are puritans made as sinkes and sewers to unlode and discharge their own filth into , whilst their black railing tongues expume nothing against puritans , but what is true of themselves . these things ( if i am not deceived ) will appeare in this ensuing discourse . in all ages true religion hath been odious amongst heathens , and true devotion amongst sensualists , judaisme appear'd to painims meere superstition : christianity seemed to the jews grosse blasphemy : and now amongst christians protestantisme is nothing else but heresie : and amongst protestants zeale is misnamed puritanisme ; but in this word puritanisme is a greater mystery of defamation then ever was before , it may well bee called {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} , it is a word , of depravation , fit only for these times wherein the shine of the gospell is at the brightest , and the malice of satan at the highest . this word sprung up almost with the reformation , no sooner had the woman brought forth , but the serpent pursued her to devoure her issue , and she being fled into the wildernesse , this streame of infamy was spued forth after her to overtake her . the bishop of downe in ireland , in his visitation speech , endevours to make it credited , that puritans have increased since the reformation by degrees , both in number and malice : but the contrary is most apparently true . dissent in ecclesiasticall policie about ceremonies and other smaller matters , being not of the substance of religion , first gave occasion to raise this reprochfull word puritan in the church : but since that time mens minds being better satisfied , & peace being more firmly setled about those indifferent things , the more few puritans remayned , and the more moderately those few became inclined , the more furiously their enemies raged against them . bastwick , prin , and burton , the only men which law can take hold of , are names now as horrid in the world , as garnet , faux , ravilliack , precisians have now wonne the scene from jesuites : poysoning of emperours , massacring of provinces , blowing up of parliaments are all now growne into oblivion , and drown'd in the stories of ceremony-haters . howsoever as amongst antipuritans , so amongst puritans ( it must be confessed ) there are some differences to be observed . some puritans thinke all puritans alike to be loved , and all antipuritans alike to be hated , but sure there is truer affinity in minde betweene some which are puritans , and some which are not , then between some puritans and others , or some of the contrary opinion and others . paul unconverted equally opposes peter as simon magus does , and in regard of this joynt opposition , both are unanimous , but even in this opposition both have their opposite ends . magus opposes maliciously for ambition and lucres sake , but paul ignorantly seeking thereby the same gods honour whom peter serves in a truer way . therefore in regard of the mayne end , there is more unity and consent betwixt paul the persecuter , and peter the persecuted , then betwixt paul and magus , though both persecuters of the same cause . the like is now visible in england , for every man which is an antipuritan , is not so for the same reasons , some have more of malice , others are more ignorant , some are pestilent engineers , and through the sides of puritans knowingly stab at purity it selfe , others are but engines misimployed , or by their own blind zeale misled , and these perhaps whilst they persecute gods children , imagine they doe god a gratefull service therein . in samaria , from an unkindly mixture of israelites and syrians , a strange heterogeneous of-spring different in religion from both did arise ; and the like is now in england , nay , it may be said here ( as it was in constantines dayes ) there are almost as many religions as opinions , and as many opinions as men . papists have their differences , protestants theirs , therefore needs there must be many more differences where papists and protestants live so confusedly blended together . for examples sake , how many differences have we even about indifferent ceremonies ; and that meerly amongst protestants ? some men loath ceremonies out of antipathy to popery , which too superstitously extols them ; others again admire them for antiquities sake , which before popery innocently ( yea , and perhaps profitably for those infant times of the gospell ) used them . these two sorts of men , though different , are not dangerous . again , some men are thought to disrelish ceremonies out of stomack to that autority which commands them ; but if there be any such , i think they are very few , and scarce visible to the eye of man . others on the contrary give reverence to them for poperies sake , which depends so much upon them ; and i feare there are many such amongst us . againe , some men stand devoted to ceremonies , as they are the lightest things of the law ; like the tythers of mint and annis in the gospell , embracing them instead of weightier matters , and none are more unmercifull then these to scrupulous minded men . others in the meane while account all things of the same moment , both great and small , pretending to spie some faults , and some truths on either side , and therefore they hold it indifferent to assent to either , or dissent from either in any point whatsoever . but the wisest sort conceive there may be errours on both sides , but not alike grosse and pernicious , and therefore such eschew the wrong , and apply themselves to the right in either side , yet neither honour , nor despise either side alike . and these instances shew that all men doe not professe , or condemne puritanisme alike , or from the same ends , and yet in the chaos of this country , as things now stand , frigida cum calidis pugnant , humentia siccis , mollia cum duris , sine pondere habentia pondus . i could wish therefore that all well meaning men would take notice of these things , and affect by reason , not passion ; for since some good men are puritans , and not all , and since some ill men are puritans , and not all , this ought not to be a rule of love and hatred in all cases alike . that which is most objected to puritans , is fury , faction , and hypocrisie : if i see these in a man reputed no puritan , yet to mee hee is a puritan : and if i see not these in a man reputed a puritan , as to mee he is no puritan . if gracchus be invective against sedition , i censure him by his actions , uot by his words , and if cato be accused of mutiny , i censure him by himselfe , not by his accusers , i condemne none meerly because condemned by others ; for it is usuall for the wolfe to sit on the bench & condemne the lambe at bar , for that which is most proper to the wolfe most unnatural to the lambe , and yet this proves the wolfe the more a wolfe , and the lambe the more a lambe . i cannot but professe it , there is nothing more scandalizes me at this time , then to see puritans being so few in number , so despicable in condition . so harmlesse in example , so blamelesse in opinion , yet sentenced and condemned in judgment , as if they were the greatest incendiaries , and the only innovators in the christian world . doctor heylyn a violent pamphleter against puritans , calls burton the great dictator of puritans , and the law hath past upon him with great severity , yet burtons crime was that hee wrote against altar-worship , and it was adjudged that his style was seditious . it is not manifest that his intention was seditious therein , and if it was so , it is manifest that he was most vaine and absurd therein as our state is now establisht , and as our king is generally revered . they which pretend great danger to the king likely to ensue out of such paper machinations as these , may have three mischievous ends therein . first , that they may be thought the only solicitous men of the kings safety . secondly , that they may disparage the common peoples loyalty . thirdly , that they may crush their adverse puritanicall party ; but , it is thought , they which pretend most danger hereby to the king : doe least believe themselves , and therefore they doe spin that disaffection and division out of the sufferings of burton , which his attempts could never have effected . let us then a little farther search into the mysterious abuse , and misapplication of this word puritan . those whom we ordinarily call puritans are men of strict life , and precise opinions , which cannot be hated for any thing but their singularity in zeale and piety , and certainly the number of such men is too small , and their condition too low , and dejected : but they which are the devils chiefe artificers in abusing this word , when they please can so stretch , and extend the same that scarce any civill honest protestant which is hearty and true to his religion can avoid the aspersion of it , and when they list againe , they can so shrink it into a narrow sense , that it shall seem to be aimed at none but monstrous abominable heretickes and miscreants . thus by its latitude it strikes generally , by its contraction it pierces deeply , by its confused application it deceives invisibly . small scruples first intitle mee to the name of puritan , and then the name of puritan intitles me further to all mischiefe whatsoever . the scots rise up against episcopacie , it is questioned by some , whether they so rise up , for the good of religion , or for the overthrow of wholsome discipline . answer is soone made , that episcopacie cannot be unpleasing to any but puritans , there is no opinion can smell sharper of puritanisme , then that of a church parity , and of puritans what good can be expected ? but the scots also desire redresse in other grievances , and here their intention is againe question'd . answer is as soone made again , that the scots being declared open puritans , they must needs be enemies to monarchicall government , and that no redresse can ever satisfie them , but such as shall debase royall dignity , and establish a popular rule amongst them . but some of the scots in some actions doe very much misdemeane themselves , and here it 's thought by some , that this ought not to redound to the prejudice , or blame of the whole nation : but strait the antipuritan steps in againe with answer to the former purpose , that the same faction which makes them all puritans , makes them all mutiners , and that there is no trust to be given , nor favour shewed to any whose very religion is disobedience . other the like examples may be instanced in . parliaments of late in england have beene jealous of religion , this laudable zeale made them at first come into contempt as puritanical , and then the imputation of puritanisme made this laudable zeale contemptible ; and so by degrees , as any thing else might be charged upon puritans , as disobedience , and disaffection to monarchy , so nothing could bee charged but proceeding from puritanisme . some scrupulous opinions make say , brooks , puritans , puritanisme inferres them mutineers , mutinie makes all that they can doe or say , all that they forbeare to doe , or say , it makes their very thoughts wicked and perverse . thus wee see what a confused imposture there is in this infamous terme of puritan : but we will yet further evidence by plaine instance how broad the devils net is in the vast application of this word , and how deepe his pit is by its abominable sense , and the nature of its importance , that we may the better discover that net which intangles so many , & shun that pit which ingulphs so sure . puritans ( as i said before ) were at first ecclesiasticall only , so called because they did not like a pompous or ceremoneous kinde of discipline in the church like unto the romish : but now it is come about , that by a new enlargement of the name , the world is full of nothing else but puritans , for besides the puritan in church policie , there are now added puritans in religion , puritans in state , and puritans in morality . by this meanes whole kingdoms are familiarly upbrayded with this sinne of puritanisme : as for example , all in scotland which wish well to the covenant , though some papists , some courtiers , and almost all the whole body without exception have now declared themselves for it , yet all these are manifest puritans . so also in england , all the commons in parliament , and almost all the ancient impartiall temporall nobility , and all such as favour or rellish the late proceedings of both the houses , which is the mayne body of the realme , papists , prelates , and courtiers excepted , nay , and its likely all scotland , and more then halfe ireland , all these are puritans . they which deprave this great councell of the kingdome , suggest to the k. that the major part is gull'd and dorde by the puritan party ; but this is only because they are ashamed to speake it out openly in grosse termes , that all the major and better part in the court of parliament is puritanicall . but this suggestion is utterly false and impossible , for such as the major part in parliament is , such are those that chose them and sent them thither , and such are those that now approve their actions there , and both in the elections of parliament men , and in the consultations of parliament affaires , the kings party is as wise , cautious , and vigilant ( if not more ) as the other party , and no subtilty could circumvent or cheat them out of their votes , if the puritans were so small and inconsiderable a side , as now they make them . no man of what capacity so ever can admit this , it is to all undeniable , that the blame of a parliament , is the blame of the whole kingdome . but i returne to my ecclesiasticall puritan . though it be true that ecclesiasticall puritans are fewes now , then heretofore they have been , yet it is as true that ecclesiasticall puritanisme is made a larger thing by farre then it was , being now spread abroad like a net to ensnare the more , as our many late additions and innovations testifie , which have crept into the church ( as may be scared ) for the vexation and molestation of such men as were not disquieted with former ceremonies . it is generally suspected , that our prelates have aymed at two things in the novelties which they have lately induced into the church ; first , the suppression of those which are enemies to their pride , avarice , and ambition , by them termed puritans : secondly , their owne further case , promotion , and advantage . both these ends seeme to be leveld at in sanctifying the altar , and unsanctifying the lords day , in advancing auricular confession , and corporall penances by externall mortifications , and crying downe lecturing , and preaching ; for if we marke it , these new doctrines doe not only serve to terrifie and scandalize tender consciences , and thereby to deprive , and silence many painfull good ministers , and to scare away into forreigne plantations , whole troups of laymen , and to enwrap the rest in opposition : but each of these doctrines besides hath a further reach in it of benefit to the clergie . the communion table hath lately gained a new name , a new nature , a new posture , a new worship that emperours and kings may be brought again to take notice how far the persous and offices of priests excell in sanctity the persons and offices of princes . theodosius within one hundred yeares after prelacie began to arrogate to it selfe was presently taught this lesson , for taking his seat in the chancell according to the easterne and ancient fashion , a deacon was sent to him in great state , to let him understand that none but men in holy orders might presume to set their feet on that sacred ground . this was then the bishops law , not the emperours , nor knowne in any other of his dominions , but italy only , but sure it was fit discretion , that much should bee ascribed by bishops to that place , from which they were to derive much , and which wonld be sure to repay their homage with so great an advantage of homage back againe . preaching is now also grown too burthensome , and the lords day to priests according to that sanctity which puritans allow it , it requires too much praying , preaching , singing , which are not only to them tedious but also apt means to encrease , and foment puritanisme amongst the people . auricular confession also is a godly devise to bring the laity into subjection , and to make the people bow before the power of the keyes , and it may aptly force the consciences of kings themselves to feare the scourges of gowned men . adde lastly mr. wats his bodily mortification to mr. sparrows confession , and then laymen will be soone inured againe to finde out the fittest penances , especially praesbyteris , & ars advolvi , and so in time their purses , their bodies , their consciences shall all bee made sensible of the spirituall scepter of priests . it s no great wonder then if our court divines , and their dependents doe what they can to draw us neerer daily towards popery , under shew of antiquity , uniformity , and charity , for ( without all doubt ) of all religions , popery is the most beneficiall to priests , most tyrannous to laymen . neither is it strange that they pretend so much zeale to devotion to the kings crowne and prerogative , as things now stand in england , as if none truly affected the same but themselves , for its cleare , that they cannot subject the people but by the king , nor the king without the people : and so long as they stand possessed of the kings good opinion , no man shall have power to confute them . king jawes is a great instance for antipuritans , and a great prop to the episcopall cause , it s alleadged of him that hee hated puritans for their hatred to episcopacie , and loved episcopacie for its amity to monarchie : his aphorisme was , no bishop , no king : let us therefore appeale from king james in their words to king james in his owne . in his preface before his basilicon doron his words are : the style of puritans properly belongs to that vile sect of the anabaptists only called the family of love . such were browne , penry . howbeit there are others which participate too much with anabaptists contemning civill magistrates , &c. it is only this sott of men which i wish my sonne to punish in case they refuse to obey law , and cease not to stirre up rebellion . but i protest upon mine honour , i meane it not generally of all preachers or others , which like better of the single forme of policie in our church of scotland , then of the many ceremonies in the church of england , which are perswaded that bishops smell of a papall supremacie , that surplices , caps , &c. are outward badges of popish errours . no , i am so farre from being contentious in these indifferent things , that i doe equally love and honour the learned and grave of either opinion . it can no wayes become mee to pronounce sentence so lightly in so old a controversie . since wee all agree in grounds , the bitternesse of men in such questions doth but trouble the peace of the church , and give advantage to papists by our division . these were the golden words of that peacefull , just prince upon his second thoughts : ô that they were now duly pondred , and taken to pieces word for word ! ô that they were esteemed and understood in their own weight amongst us , that they might reconcile our present differences , and that the same peace which followed him to his glorious urne , might still blesse these our times ! o how contrary are these milde words to the unnaturall suggestions of antipuritans ! such as daily accuse all good men for precisians , and all precise men for puritans , and all puritans for the only firebrands of the world , thus arming the king against his subjects , and by consequence raising subjects against the king : puritans here are described both what they are , and what they are not , the king had been misinterpreted before , writing generally of puritans , now to avoid all mistake , hee expresses himselfe plainly and definitely . a puritan positively in king james his sense , is he which imitates anabaptists in rebellion , turbulence , and opposition to law , and such are liable to law ; but negatively a puritan in the acception of king james , is not hee which dislikes episcopacy , or the ceremonious discipline of england . this king james protests upon his honour , though to his great dishonour hee be now often cited to the contrary . as for those which rellish not bishops and ceremonies or the english policie , he wishes them to be at peace only with those of the opposite opinion , hee himselfe vowing equall love and honour to the grave , and learned of either side , and not taking upon him to bee a judge in so old , and difficult a controversie ; he only like a sweet arbitrator perswades both parties to peace and amity . i wish our bishops would now stand to this arbitration , i wish they would neither condemne the scotch discipline , nor urge the english ; i wish they would put difference betweene seditious and scrupulous puritans , and not inferre the one out of the other ; i wish they would either disclaim king james as a manifest favourer of puritans , or else imitate him in the same definition , and opinion of them . k. james further takes notice , that the reformation in scotland was far more disorderly , then in england , denmark , &c. whilst the mayne affaires there were unduly carried by popular tumults , and by some fiery-spirited ministers , which having gotten the guiding of the multitude , and finding the relish of government sweet , did fancie to themselves a democratick forme of policy , wherein they were likely to be tribuni plebis . that the crown might be disincombred of these usurping ringleaders , the king advises the prince to entertaine and advance godly , learned , and modest ministers , promoting them to bishopricks , but restrayning them heedfully from pride , ambition , and avarice . these things then are hence observable . . scotland differs from england in turbulent ministers : secondly , this is imputed to the iniquity of the times , not to puritanisme , as if by nature the scots were more enclining to puritanisme then other nations . thirdly , notwithstanding that iniquity of those times , there was a number sufficient of worthy ministers fit for preferment . fourthly , king james erects bishops sees in scotland for peculiar reasons , and therefore he speaks not of denmark &c. lastly , notwithstanding that peculiar reason . hee advises the prince to be indifferently at war with both extreams alike , as well to represse papal bishops , as to curbe proud puritans . for ( sayes the king ) the naturall sicknesses which have ever troubled and beene the decay of all churches since the beginning changing the candlestick from one to another , have beene pride , ambition , and avarice : and these wrought the overthrow of the romish church in divers countries . k. james knew well how apt church-men had ever beene to abuse their power and pomp , what enemies they had beene to our saviour , and what a tyranny they had erected over all christendom ever since constantine almost , and therefore though hee dislikes a democracie in the church , ( as hee had reason ) yet hee so limits and circumscribes his bishops both in power and honour , that they might be as sensible of their chaines and fetters , as of their miters and crosiers . i wish k. iames had particularly signified what bonds and bounds hee thought fit to prefix to episcopacy , to preserve it from corruption , and what his opinion was of a prelacy so active in secular affaires as ours is now in england , and how it would have pleased him to see a metropolitan amongst protestants almost a rivall to the french cardinall . the world , in my opinion , hath little reason to dote upon a gowned empire , we have all smarted long enough under it , men of meane birth commonly beare preferment with little moderation , and their breeding having beene soft and esseminate , in their malice & cruelty , they neerest of all approach to the nature of women : and by the advantage of learning they extend their power , and win upon others more then they ought . when the church was at first under heathen or jewish governours , which sought as enemies to ruine it , not as fathers to protect it , they which were within could not live in peace and unity without some politicall bonds , so at that time there was a necessity of some coercive power , within besides that which was without . the world is now unsatisfied what kinde of power that was , whether episcopal or presbyteriall , or what episcopacy , or presbytery was in those dayes . yet me thinks what government so ever then was , it is not necessarily precedentary to us now . the episcopal faction at this day takes advantage by the abuses of the presbyter al , & the presbyterial by the episcopal , and most men think either the one power or the other necessary , and some more favour the episcopal as k. iames , some the presbyterial as m. calvin ; but sure the presbyterial is lesse offensive then the episcopal , and yet neither the one nor other of necessity . kings may grant usuram quandam jurisdictionis either to bishops or elders , but the jurisdiction it selfe is their owne property , from which they ought not to depart , nor can without wrong to their charge committed to them . for the power which god gives the prince , is not given for his use alone , but for the peoples benefit , so that since he cannot let it fall to decay without making it insufficient for good and entire government which is mischievous to the people , he cannot justly lessen it at all . and it is manifest that except one supream head be alone in all causes as wel ecclesiastical as civill , humane nature must needs be destitute of those remedies which are necessary for its conservation , since power cannot be divided , but it must be diminished to him which suffers that division , and being diminished it proves insufficient . all confesse some government necessary for men in holy orders , to whom the power of the keyes belongs , but some account princes but as meere temporall or lay persons , and therefore conclude against their authority over sacred ecclesiastical persons as incompetent , especially in cases meerely ecclesiasticall . for this cause spirituall governours have ever beene in the church to whom some have attributed a divine right depending from none but god , and subordinate to none but god , but this hath beene controverted by others , and no little debate and strife hath followed hereupon . but it seemes to me , that princes doe receive from god a spirituall unction , whereby not only their persons are dignified , and their hearts prepared and enlarged with divine graces fit for rule ; but their functions also innobled and sanctified above any other whatsoever , and higher advanced then the sense of laick or secular will beare . to princes an assistance of counsell is requisite in spirituall as in civill affaires , but that , that counsaile ought to bee composed onely of persons ecclesiasticall , or that those persons ought to bee invested with all those ensignes of honour and authority which our bishops now claime as of divine right , seemes not necessary . clergy-men are not alwayes the most knowing in all ecclesiasticall cases , neither are they at all indifferent and impartiall , in many which concerne their owne honour and profit , ( as the world feeles to its regret ) therefore for jurisdiction they are not the most competent . but be they of what use soever , they may still remaine subordinate , and at the princes election , and admitted of ad consilium solum , not ad consensum : and it had beene happy for all christians these many hundred yeares by-past if they had not been further hearkned to . the sacerdotall function is not at all disparaged by this subordination , for whether the order of princes be more sacred then that of bishops , or not , it is all one to priests , for an obedience they owe , and must pay , be it to the one order , or the other . our bishops at this day stand much upon their divine right of jurisdiction , and they refer their style to the providence of god immediately , not to the grace of the king : and though in words they acknowledge a supremacy of power to remain to the king ; yet indeed i think they mean rather a priority of order . whatsoever supremacy they meane , if it be not such as makes them meerely subordinate , and dependent , so that the king may limit , alter , or extinguish their jurisdiction , as far as he may to his civil judges , they derogate much from his kingly office . bishops for their claim of jurisdiction ought to prove , that they alone did exercise it over all in all causes from our saviours dayes , till the entrance of christian princes : and that being cleared , they must further prove , that those times also are leading , and precedentary to ours . in both these their proofes are lame , especially in the latter ; for neither is the power of the keyes the same thing as iurisdiction , nor is jurisdiction now as it was in the apostles dayes , nor is the state of the times , now the same as then . in those dayes either christians were to implead one another before infidel magistrates whatsoever the case were , criminall or civill , spirituall or temporall , or else they were to erect some tribunall in the church , or else they were to await no justice at all : and because some judicature within the church was most fit , therefore christ himselfe according to the exigence of those times , did indow his church with a divine oeconomy , which was partly miraculous , & of use then , but not now . the spirit of god did then internally incite such and such men at such times to reside & preside in such & such places ; and some of the apostles at some times could judge by inspiration without proofes & allegations , and could execute sentence of death or other spirituall punishment upon secret hypocrites , not intrenching upon temporall authority , but in these times this discipline is uselesse , & therfore decayed . whatsoever the offence then was , what injury or trespasse soever betwixt brother and brother , ( the only remedy was dic ecclesiae , and yet that precept serves as strong for temporall as spirituall trespasses , so that it cannot be enforced now to continue , unlesse wee meane to drowne all temporall authority . as for the extent also of spirituall power in those dayes i will onely cite a learned politician of the popish religion : who admitting ( it seemed ) that the keyes of heaven were given to saint peter alone , and his successours , and not to all bishops and ministers whatsoever , thus proceeds . by the keyes given to s. peter many holy fathers mean , the one of knowledge , & the other of power , and that that power ought not to be understood universally , but only concerning the kingdome of heaven which is spirituall : for the civill , royall , and temporall power is expresly forbidden him by christ . even so that also of knowledge , it is not to be understood of natural , politike , or morall things , but as saint paul saith , of christs mysteries only . wherefore in matters of faith ecclesiasticall authority may approve , and secular cannot condemne , but in matters or policy what all the prelates in the world approve , temporall authority may condemne . it is a great wrong to pretend , because christ hath given saint peter the cognizance and power of the kingdome , and forbidden him the earthly , contrary to this precept to extend spirituall things to temporall . saint augustine often saith , that grace doth not destroy any thing in nature , but leaveth her all her owne ; adding moreover divine perfection . the temporality hath of its own nature , power , to forbid all things repugnant to publike quietnesse and honesty ; and christ came not to take away this authority from magigistrates , he only adds power to his ministers in matters of faith , not knowne by nature , but revelation . for ought wee know , this power of opening or shutting heaven , of binding and loosing sins was miraculous , and so but temporary : but admit it in this catholike writers sense , yet we plainly see , it is no prejudice at all to limit secular princes thereby . the same learned papist writes : that the easterne and westerne churches continued in unity and charity for the space of nine hundred yeares after christ , and this peace was easily kept , because the supream power was then in the canons , to which all churches acknowledged themselves equally subject . ecclesiasticall discipline was then severely mayntained in each country by its own prelates , not arbitrarily , but absolutely according to canonicall rigour , none of them intermedling in anothers government . no pope of rome did pretend to conferre benefices in other bishops diocesses , or to get money out of others by way of dispensations and buls : but when rome began to shake off all subjection to canons , then notwithstanding any ancient order of the fathers , councels , or apostles themselves , instead of her ancient primacy she brought in an absolute dominion , free from any law or canon & this made the division . neither could any re-union bee brought to passe within these yeares , because this abuse which caused the division is not remedied . whilst the union held , saint pauls doctrine was joyntly observed , that every one should be subject to princes , no man pretended to be free from punishment . nay , and after the division , the same opinion remayned , that every christian in temporall businesses is subject to the prince . and nothing is more temporall then offence , because nothing is more contrary to the spirit . amongst the greeks also it is still held that bishops ought to judge what opinion is found , what hereticall , but to punish those of hurtfull opinions belongeth to the secular . the state of venice , as well as other catholike kingdomes , walks between two extreames , betweene protestants , which have no other ayme but to diminish ecclesiasticall authority , and the court of rome which hath no other ayme , but to increase it , and to make the temporall her servant . those of the court of rome , making use of religion for worldly ends and respects under a spirituall pretense , but with an ambitious end and desire of worldly wealth and honour would free themselves from obedience due to the prince , and take away the love and reverence due by the people to draw it to themselves . to bring those things to passe , they have newly invented a doctrine that talks of nothing but ecclesiasticall greatnesse , liberty , immunity , and jurisdiction . this doctrine was unheard of , till about the year , then it began to be written scatteringy in some books , but till , there were not written above two bookes which treated of nothing else ; after this such writers increased a little , but after , there were scarce any books printed in italy , but in diminution of secular authority and exaltation of the ecclesiasticall . and now the people have scarce any other books to read , nor have the confessors any other doctrine , or need any other learning . hence comes this perverse opinion , that magistracy is a humane invention , and to be obeyed for policy only , not for conscience : but that every intimation of ecclesiasticall persons is equivalent to a divine precept ; there want not in italy , pious , learned men which hold the contrary , but they are not suffered to write , or print . neither are forraine books permitted , or ancient authours left ungelded of all which serves for temporall authority : as appeares by a book printed , called index expurgatorius : and clement the eighth in , published a rule in his index , that all catholike writers books since , might be corrected , not only by expunging but also by interlining , and this hath beene practised though not publikely above seventy yeares . thus we finde the court of romes , but not the authors meaning , and finally , wee are sure to have no book true . i have hitherto cited this egregious politician , for these purposes . first , that we may see how easie it is for clergie-men to wrest all authority out of the temporalties hands , if princes will be so easie to be hood-winkt , and deluded by them , and to resigne their judgments to them in such cases as concern their profit , and advancement . secondly , that we may take notice how far the learnedst of papists themselves doe discover , and detect the errours and tyranny of the court of rome , and that mysticall way of deceiving , whereby all hope of remedy is cut off . i observe this also the rather because our prelates in england at this day assume to themselves almost as vast and unquestionable a power of shifting and repressing all adverse disputes , and of authorizing and publishing all arguments whatsoever savouring their cause , as the court of rome does . thirdly , that i might produce the same author against himselfe in those points wherein he taxes protestants . we will yield that for the space of nine hundred yeers the see of rome did not usurpe over other sees , but did acknowledge equall subjection to the canons , and that the division and separation of the easterne churches happened , when rome arrogated above canons ; but withall we must have it yielded to us , that those canons had been composed only by clergy-men , and that in too much favour of clergy-men , and too much abridgment of temporall rights and priviledges , and that they did concerne matters more then meerly spirituall , and speculative , and things known by meere revelation . so that though one prelate did not usurpe over another , yet all prelates had usurped over the laity from the times of constantine almost . it is true , the church had bishops before in its times of persecution , but of what power or pompe ? it is said of calvin , that in regard of his sway in geneva , he wanted nothing but the name of bishop ; and it may be as truly said of the bishops before constantine , that they wanted all but the name . the power of bishops before the installment of christian princes , was rather like that of arbitrators then of judges , and that held in all cases alike , civill and spirituall , but in case of disobedience they did not intrench so far upon the lay power , as to inflict any pecuniary , or corporall punishment , but they did deny the sacrament , and eject delinquents out of the congregation , and this was then an abscission from christ , being done clave non errante : that is , whilst god did inspire ( according to his promise ) a miraculous power of binding and loosing infallibly . the priestly function was then an office , not a jurisdiction , of sacred dignity , not power : but the function of a prince was ever sacred both for honour , and power , for dignity and command . constantine the great was the first prince which tooke upon him the care and protection of the church , after that it had suffered contempt and poverty for yeares : and now did even that authority and protection cease , and devolve into his hands , which the poore persecuted bishops had but feebly managed before ; but such was the extraordinary indulgence of this pious emperour , as well to religious persons , as to religion it selfe , that taking little notice what the church had gaine by him as its head and governour , he heaped up greater titles and honors upon bishops , archbishops , patriarchs , and popes , as if some other supreme ruler more sacred and competent then himselfe were necessary . neverthelesse it is thought , that this was as poyson poured into the church , and not balme , for from that very time clergy men began to be more glorious , but lesse gracious , more rich outwardly , but more poore , and vile inwardly . within a little space after constantine there was just cause of complaint that excessive honours had corrupted the church , and that religion had prospered better in former times , when it had wooden chalices and golden priests , then now , when it had golden chalices , but wooden priests . it is remarkable also , that soon after constantine the temporall power being too much restrained , and abased , and the spirituall as much inlarged and exalted , the whole face of christendome began to be imbroyled with wars , and poysoned with heresies , so that the historians of those times have almost nothing else to write of but the forcible investing and devesting by armes of such bishops and patriarchs , and of the oppositions of such and such councels and synods , and of the appeals , jars , schismes , excommunications , and commotions of such , and such priests , and monks . nay , such were the ill effects of those ages which were certainly more zealous then politike , that they cannot yet be wholly rectified , and purged in these our latter times , which are growne too too contrary , being more politike then zealous : thus did the church fare for yeares till the roman bishops began to empire above all , and then did the greatest part of the clergie themselves , especially east from italy , make their departure and separation . neither did the romish vice-god after this great rent and division in the world hang his head for shame , or seeke any re-union by letting fall his pompous , painted plumes , but audaciates himselfe rather to mount higher yet , and to detrude the western emperour quite out of the bounds of italy . and in this , his industry fails him not , for after much bloud-shed in many cruell conflicts hee gains in italy a temporall , and in all europe besides a spirituall monarchy , making a triple mitre shine as gloriously upon the seven-hilled city , as the diadem had done before . during his wars with the emperour of germany , he had other contestations also with england , and some other potentates at sometimes , but all dismaid him not , only once hee was heard to say , it was time for him to compound with the dragon , that hee might crush the lesser adders at his pleasure . yet after this even this holy tyranny grows too insolent and insufferable , and so conspires its owne dissolution , so that many countries in the northwest parts lying more remote from rome , quite revolt from her allegeance , and protest against her . amongst those other countries also lesse distant , which still in words confesse her supremacy , her reigne is now but little more then precarious : venice regards not buls and anathemacs , france disdains a yonger brothers benediction , and spain being honoured with the title of the popes eldest son , confesses him a fathe● , but employs him as a chaplain , gives verball , but reaps reall honours by him . augustus having cashiered an unworthy commander , gave him leave to say , that he had cashiered augustus : and so the popes great sonnes shake off his yoke by degrees , but conceal it , and give him leave to doe the like . it is now very good policy in the pope , not to pretend to temporall things as they stand in ordine , or have relation to spiritual things , but rather to relinquish his right to spirituall things , as they stand in order to temporall : it is eminent wisdome in him to forbeare threatning , roaring , cursing , and sending his ridiculous epigrams , out of his owne territories : as hee was wont to doe : nay , his very last refuge of sending forth his poysoning and stabbing ministers cannot remayne in season much longer . but to returne to our learned statesman : as hee justly taxes the court of rome , so he unjustly taxes protestants of the contrary extream , and this will appeare out of his own words . for he grants , first , that the secular magistrates have nothing diminished of their authority by christs comming : and it is cleere that princes were absolute governours of the church before christ both in spirituall and temporall cases . in the next place hee yields , that the power and knowledge of clergy-man called the power of the keyes , is no other but such as christ infuses in smeere supernaturall things , knowne only by faith and revelation , not by any physicall , or ethicall principles ; but it is easily proved by us , that such power can extend to no proper jurisdiction at all in humane affaires , but is a meere speculative motion , and such wee deny not . thirdly , hee yields that in jurisdiction there bee three things distinct . first , matter of law . secondly , matter of fact . thirdly , matter of execution : whereby retribution is made to every fact according to law . the first of these , and that in spirituall cases alone being tryable by clergy-men only . admit this and nothing follows , but that things meerly spirituall , are best knowne to spirituall persons , there is no power here concluded . as for example . in case of heresie , that i hold such an opinion , must appeare by witnesses and proofs , and herein all kinds of witnesses besides clergy-men are competent . next , that this opinion is hereticall , requires the judgement of ecclesiasticall persons , but it does not follow , if they be the fittest judges herein , that they must be the supreme judges herein , and not aswell dependent and subordinate as our civill judges are in common actions . but in the last place , that such an hereticall opinion so dangerous and pestilent to the church and common-wealth ought to be corrected or cradicated by such coercive force , and the raising of that force whereby it is to be punished is in the judgement , and in the power of the supreame magistrate , for two magistrates cannot have a supreame power of the same sword . either the secular must command the ecclesiasticall , or the ecclesiasticall must command the secular , as to coercive power , or a worse confusion then either must needs follow . so then , it is the execution of justice alone , which is essentiall to the supreame governour , matter of law requires a counsellour , matter of fact a witnesse , matter of execution alone intimates a prince , and that principality cannot bee divided betwixt two persons of a severall nature . from hence then it appeares plainly that no catholike differing from the court of rome ascribes more to clergy men , then this first point of adjudging according to the law of god in things divine ; and this implyes rather a dependent , then an independent condition in the judge : and in this protestants joyne with full consent . but all this while i finde my selfe in a digression : my scope is not to prove that protestants doe attribute sufficient to priests , it lies upon mee to prove that they attribute too much to them , and herein i am to undertake not only the episcopall , but the presbyteriall side also , not only protestant prelates , but even master calvin that great arch-prelate also . divines have much trumped the world hitherto in not setting forth the true bounds and limits of ecclesiasticall jurisdiction , but if i mistake not , the first power ( which they claime as most essentiall ) they take to be the power of the keyes , though they define not certainly , what that is , whether a power , or office ; or to whom belonging , or of what extent , and continuance . the second power which they insist upon , as next issuing out of the power of the keyes , is in excommunication , ordination of ministers , exposition of scriptures , &c. the third and more remote kinde of causes wherein they challenge an ecclesiasticall power , is of such as concerne matrimonie , testaments , heresies , fasts , tythes , and immunnities of clergymen , &c. and further doubtlesse they would proceed , but that these savour so much of the temporality , and discover their trumpery ; but i have said , if in all these cases clergy men are necessarily more knowing and impartiall then all the else , there is necessity of their counsell to declare matter of law , but not of their consent in applying coercive , and forcible remedies for the execution of law . i have said also that clergy-men being as well citizens of the common-wealth as sons of the church , and these cases importing as well perturbance of the state as annoyance to the church , that there can be but one head which ought to have command over both , and in both . it is manifest also that many cases are partly temporall , and partly spirituall , and that scarce any is so temporall , but that it relates in some order to spirituall things , or any so spirituall , but that it hath some relation to temporall things , so that the true subject of ecclesiasticall and civill justice cannot rightly be divided . further , also it is as manifest that where any doubt , strife , or uncertainty may arise between one iurisdiction , and another , neither acknowledging any supreame power of decision , no assured peace can continue , and by consequence no stability or permanent subsistence to either , is to be expected . it is naturall therefore to be inferred , that either the temporall or the ecclesiasticall magistrate must bee in all cases absolutely predominant , and that since the ecclesiastical ought not by christs owne command , therefore the temporall ought , as hath been further proved by sundry arguments , and scripture proofes alledged out of this famous politician . so much of the temporall power , and its necessary supremacie : my endevour shall be now to maintain that no ecclesiasticall power is at all necessary in meere ecclesiasticall persons . master calvin according to the popish grounds maintaines , that spirituall jurisdiction differs from temporall , & is not incompatible but assistant therto , because it proposes not the same ends , but severall , which by severall meanes may be the better compassed . but the spirituall magistrate ( as i conceive ) can propose no other end , then what the secular ought to ayme at , for either the prince ought to have no care at all of the honour of god , and the good of men , and that which is the prime meane of both , true religion , or else his ends must bee the same which the prelate aymes at , viz. to vindicate religion by removing and correcting scandalous offenders . secondly , to preserve the innocent from contagion by the separation of open offenders . thirdly , to prevent further obduration , or to procure the amendment of such as have transgressed by wholsome chastisement . this is beyond all controversie , as also that the person and power of a prince , are as sacred to effect these ends , as the prelates : and certainly , god did not so sanctifie their persons and offices for any lesse end . and therefore in ancient times holy bishops did preach and recommend nothing more to princes then the care of religion , though proud prelates now arrogate this onely to themselves , and though it be still apparent , that no offence is so spirituall but that it is a civill evill , as well as a blemish to religion : forsomuch as true religion is the foundation of a state . and this could not bee , neither were princes answerable to god for the corruption of religion , if god had not given them a supreame power , and that effectuall to bring all offenders whatsoever to confession , satisfaction , and contrition or to expell them the congregation by themselves , or their surrogates . master calvin instances in adultery & drunkennes , &c. and sayes , that the temporall power punishes these by externall force , and for publick examples sake , as it concernes the state , but the spirituall judge punishes them without force internally for the amendment of the delinquent . hee might as well have named swearing , lying , stealing , murdering , and all sinnes whatsoever , and so have made all men twice punishable , and the ecclesiasticall courts as full of businesse as the temporall , to the great vexation of the state , and danger of division , out of this false ground onely that temporall power hath not a competence for the amendment of off●nders , or for the care of religion , but only for the satisfaction of wronged parties , and the expedition of ●ivill justice . this is a way to erect regnum in regno , and to maintaine such concurrent jurisdictions , as cannot possibly stand together , for all being subject to sin and offence , as well the spirituall as temporall , either the one or other must goe unquestioned , and this may produce division : or else both ; and that will cause most certaine confusion . both sides here seem strangely puzled , the rigidest of the episcopall faction allow princes a coercive power over priests , and prelats , where they performe not what their duty is in their functions or jurisdictions , and this power requires a higher power of summoning , arraigning , and legally trying them : and yet the moderatest of the presbyteriall faction would have princes questionable , tryable and punishable by the spiritualty . this is a grosse confusion , which will appeare to bee so more plainely in the sequell ; when it is more fully cleared , that to princes alone god has precisely committed utramque tubam , and utramque tabulam too , as our reverend andrew sayes . t is true , as calvin alleadges , princes are sons of the church , they are in it , not above it : the word intruding the church universall , such as is both militant and triumphant ; past , present , and future , for that hath no other head but christ : to that all princes and priests are equally sons : but take church for such or such a nationall , locall church , and then the prince is head thereof , under christ ; and the clergie are part of his charge , and under his protection . the same man also may in diverse respects be both father and son to the same man without confusion of relations . a king , a bishop may hear the word , & receive the sacrament from an inferiour minister ; a subject may be naturall father to his prince , and in this respect a filiall subjection is due from the superiour , and so a king may referre his owne case to his chancellor , yet this destroyes not the greater , higher , and more generall superiority in other things , at other times . and to me it seemes that even in the exercise of the keyes , the priest officiates under the prince , as the chancellor does in matters of law , even when the kings owne case lyes in judgement before him , and when perhaps he makes a decree against his owne master , and contrary to his owne masters private advertisement : and yet the king is not properly either lawyer , or theologue , though both are actuated , and organiz'd as it were , by the soule-like commanding , over seeing , and over-ruling of his more sublime and divine power . herein the priest also may learn a limitation from the lawyer , for though the judge be bound to pronounce right judgement against his owne master , yet this holds not in all cases alike ; because of his limited condition , for in criminall cases such as concerne the safety of the kings owne person , or the royall dignity of his calling , therein judgement must be utterly mute . and therefore it is a weake argument of master calvin , though it be his best ; when he inferres a necessity of an ecclesiasticall judicature from hence , because else the prince himselfe wanting punishment , should escape free : for the reason is the same in matters of law ; the king is not questionable , or responsible , for personall crimes , and yet this is held no politicall mischiefe . besides if the prince shall not goe unquestioned , or undisciplin'd by the spirituall , yet the supreme spirituall magistrate must , and this is an equall , if not a greater mischiefe : for both cannot be equally lyable to the judgement of each other . neither is it to much purpose that the example of bishop ambrose so harshly , so unreverendly treating pious penitent theodosius , is so confidently cited alwayes by either faction episcopall and presbyteriall ; for though the name of ambrose be great , yet i will crave leave to speake as an advocate against him in the name of the emperour theodosius . reverend sir , you take upon you to be a judge over me , and to condemne me of a bloody massacre committed unjustly at thessalonica , and being so condemned , you proceed against me with your ghostly punishment , subjecting me to your ecclesiasticall severity : but i pray consider what mischiefes may follow hereupon ; if emperours may bee punishable by bishops , then common equity requires that emperours have the benefit of a faire hearing and arraignment , or else were their condition more miserable then the condition of the meanest vassals : for as princes actions are more inscrutable , and their counsels more mysticall ; so also their ends are for the most part more lyable to envy , and misinterpretation : it is not possible for you without due discussion , inquiry , and examination of impartiall witnesses , perfectly to understand all the true circumstances , reasons , and grounds of this my fact ; and without this understanding it is not possible for you to pronounce a just censure against me . it 's necessary then that some tribunall be prepared for you , and some bar for me , that upright sentence may passe , and that justice may be done understandingly , and upon this it must needs follow that i am your meere subject , and must lay downe my scepter to bow my selfe under your crosier , till this difficulty be fully ended . admit this also , and then you may use what procrastination you please in this intricate decision ; or in the like manner question me of all other enormities , and scandalous deviations , which rumor , envy , or treason it selfe forges against me ; and thus shall i have no leasure to judge other men , it will scarce be possible for me to acquit my selfe in judgement from other men : that power which god hath put into my hands for the protection of so many myriads , will be utterly disabled by that higher power which is put into your hands over me . by the same reason also that i am to render an account to you in this place , i am to render the like to all your superiours , equals , or inferiours in other jurisdictions , of all sinnes whatsoever , whether reall , or imputable , ecclesiasticall , or civill , so that no end is like to be of my tryals , purgations , or condemnations . you will say , my crime is sensibly evident ; if i would deny this , you could not prove it so ; and if i would not confesse this , you could not force me , for it was a politicall thing , and farre off acted : and my meere confession can give to you no jurisdiction . but be my crime as manifest in it selfe as the disobedience of saul was to samuel , or as davids murther was to nathan , or as solomons incontinence was to all the world , or as manasses his idolatry : yet why should i suffer more then they ? what new coercive , vindicative authority have priests gained over princes by christs gospell , which the jewish priests never used , claymed , or heard of ? if excommunication , &c. be now necessary , sure it was in use before christ ; and then wee should have heard of some kings excommunicated , &c. by some priests ; for if the temporall power had not of its owne nature a competent force and habitude to restraine all things repugnant to publike quietnesse , and honesty , a spirituall power was necessary ; and yet we read of none such . but if there was a sufficiency in the temporall power , as is most manifestly apparent ; then we cannot imagine that christ came to take away any of this authority from magistrates : but that power which he added , was rather an excellency of grace and vertue in matters of faith , and illumination . it cannot bee alleadged by you , that that punishment is meerely spirituall , and so no politicall evill : for as it puts other men into the condition of publicans , heathens , and worse ; so it further yet degrades , disables , and oppresses princes . how shall he be honoured and obeyed as the vicegerent of god in all causes , whom the laity sees ejected out of the church , and expelled out of the communion of the faithfull , as a rotten contagious member ? how shall hee be held more sacred then a priest , whom the sentence , interdiction , and the confounding blow of a priests spirituall execration , shall render so contemptible , miserable , and abominable in the eyes of the world ? saint paul being accused in matters of doctrine , made his appeale to a wicked heathen emperour ; and yet now a christian godly emperour being accused by any church-man , no appeale is allowed , though in meere civill accusations . saint peters keyes did either endure some new power not before known to the world , or not ; if it did , then our saviours gospell came into the world to the detriment of civill government , which is contrary to religion , and all reason : and if no new addition of power were imported , then tiberius himselfe , though a heathen , and tyrant , remained as absolute as before ; and yet in his time there was more necessity of an ecclesiasticall judicature , then is now . but you will say , if princes be not subject to some chastisement , then some scandals must passe unremediable . not so , for here god is the revenger , and strikes often , as he did vzziah ; but if not , yet either the temporall or spirituall governour must passe unchastiz'd , which is all one ; for two supreames cannot be , nor no entire government without some supremacy , nor no supremacy without immunity , and exemption from judgement . the perpetuall conflicts and contestations betweene princes and prelates , which are likely to ensue , will soone cleere this ; that either princes must at last submit to the tribunals of church-men , and raigne at their discretion ; or else church-men must submit to them : for both tribunals cannot stand compatible . for my part , i excuse so grave a father as you are , of ambition herein ; and therefore i am the lesse cautious in submitting my selfe at this time : but i conceive this doctrine may bee the ground of dangerous consequences to others , and therefore i desire it may not from me passe into a president for the time to come . let not proud prelates from this my voluntary humiliation , arrogate to themselves as if it had beene due ; or derogate thereby from the more sacred order of princes : neither let princes from this particular learne to yeeld to any spirituall monarchy whatsoever . my beliefe is , that the prince is the head , the fountaine , the soule of all power whatsoever , spirituall , or temporall ; wherein he ought not to indure at all any kinde of rivality of ecclesiasticall persons , nor can admit of any diminution in any part of his jurisdiction , without offence to god , dammage to his charge , and danger to himselfe . so much for theodosius , and so much for that jurisdiction which is due to prelates : i should now speake of the exercise thereof , as it is granted by the favour of princes , but this is a very tender point . it seemes to some , that princes ought not to incumber men in sacred orders , in any kinde of judicature which is not purely spirituall ; nor that prelates can accept of any temporall imployment whatsoever , without dishonour to their orders , and neglect to their cure of soules : and yet now none so greedy of such imployment . a sacred place may not be put to secular uses , that 's prophane : but a sacred person may , that 's honourable . a bishoprick now adayes is but a writ of ease , to dismisse from preaching , and attending gods service ; whereby the man is preferred from the church to the court , from the altar to some tribunall , from gods spirituall to the kings temporall affaires . in the high commission , at the councel table , in the star-chamber , and the chequer , churchmen are now more active then in their owne consistories , and yet their ambition further aimes ( as 't is said ) to the chancery , court of requests , &c. which could not chuse but redound to the scandall of religion , the obstruction of justice , and vexation of the subject : if there were not learned and skilfull men enough in policy and law to serve the king , unlesse divinity were deprived of some of her followers , there were some seeming umbrage why the king might borrow of god ; but when gods more holy office is neglected , that the kings meaner may be the worse administred , the world much gazes and wonders at it . the functions of divines are too sacred for any secular person to officiate , and therefore it should seeme , their persons also ought to be too sacred for secular functions ; for it seems prepostrous , that it should be thought an honour to priests to relinquish spiritual , and adhere to temporall imployments . nic : machiavell did observe that christian religion had long since falne to the ground had not the regular strictnesse of poore inferiour priests and fryers held , and propped up the reputation of it in the world , as much as the pride and luxury of the great cardinals , and prince like bishops , did strive to sinke and demolish it . the same observation holds true amongst us protestants at this day , for the more our prelates enjoy , the more still they seeke ; and all our three kingdomes are growne so sicke of their pride , injustice , and pragmaticall faction , that scarce any remedy but bloud-letting can cure them . we finde in scripture the most high and holy offices of religion performed by princes , even amongst , and above the greatest of priests ; but we scarce finde any instance at all where priests intermedled with any state affaires , either above , or under princes : and yet with us now the imploying and entrusting of clergy-men in temporal businesses , is held as politick as it was in times of popery : although no time could ever justly boast of that use . but to passe over temporal businesses , how violent have our bishops beene in their owne canons about ceremonies , and indifferencies ? and what disturbance hath that violence produced ? they strive as for the beauty and glory of religion , to bring in the same former of liturgie , the same posture of the communion-table , the same gesture at the communion , &c. in all our three dominions ; as if uniformity were alwayes beautifull : and yet we see , all men are created with severall faces , voyces , and complexions , without any deformity to the universe . 't is not externall variety , but internall dissention , which spoyles the harmony of religion ; and dissention is more nourished by the harshnes of pastors over their flocks , especially over the weake ones in scruples , then by permitting various rites and formes in the externall worship of god . certainly , liberty and variety in indifferences , and ceremonies is more favour'd in scripture , than any universall similitude , or rigorous force whatsoever , over the perplexed , anxious consciences of weake men . we see in scotland , where there is no ceremonies , they enjoy that uniformity without contention , which wee ayme at onely , and seeke to purchase with infinite debate , and persecution ; and under their peace and unity , the protestant religion thrives , and romish superstition utterly ceases : whereas under our strife and disagreement , religion and true devotion is over-run , and over-growne , like corne choaked with weeds . nay , it is thought that if our bishops had bin more gentle-handed all this while towards such as disrelisht ceremonies for poperies sake , and had rather pitied thē as men of tender consciences , than persecuted and defamed them , as seditions puritans , these differences had not lasted so long : for when the reformation was not yet fully perfected , the puritans of those dayes were more fiery than now ; but not being so odious in the church , lesse combustion followed thereupon : whereas now they are so unmercifully heated , that no moderate complyance can serve the turne . there seemes now little remaining of puritanisme , but the breathlesse carkas of it , and yet till that too be interred and consumed , no truce can be admitted . the very sufferings of puritans now are sufficiently quit , and imputed as the effects of their owne malice , their punishment is argument enough for the desert of their punishment ; the more they have borne , the more they must now beare ; and the more they now beare , the more they shall hereafter . fury is one of the maine thing ; objected to puritans ; but in truth , the world has not any thing more furious then such as most pretend against them . hence it is , that the hatred of puritans flowes and descends from the highest of the clergie to the lowest : and young students in the vniversity know it now their wisest course to study the defamation of puritans , as the first and most necessary point of their learning and qualification , and as their surest path to promotion . and to make their detestation sure , and themselves irreconciliable , they must ingage themselves by some notable service of novelty , quarrelling with some point of protestantisme , or refining some point of popery ; they must taxe protestants as some ways injurious to princes , or extoll papists as zealous observers of antiquity . it must be maintained that royalty cannot stand without the prop of episcopacy , though it never yet found greater enemy ; and that puritanisme only hinders the stretching of our religion , or else papists and we should soone agree . those of vulgar wits which serve not for such straines , that they may be redeemed from suspicion of puritanisme , must doe something factiously , or be vitious , or else their hopes of preferment are almost desperate . charity to papists , conformity to ancient fathers , and decent uniformity amongst our selves , are the specious colors wherewith they dresse and deck all their pretenses ; for want of sectaries living in these days , they rake out of their toombs hacket , copinger , browne , &c. to upbraid us , for want of opposites enow here in england , they calumniate the scots to our dishonour ; for want of true imputations , they forge any crimes how monstrous soever , and their most sure one is , that which is most undiscernible , hypocrisie . neverthelesse it must bee beleeved that the antipuritan disparages not our ancestors in the reformation , but for love of antiquity ; not teares in sunder the bonds of religion , nature , policy betwixt two the most close-united nations of the world , but out of love to unity : nor fills whole kingdomes with bloud , but out of love to order . such was sure diogenes his humility , trampling upon platoes couches ; such was neroes uniformity , setting on sire the streets of rome : such was procustes his symmetry , cutting his guests according to his beds . and therefore it s thought puritans are not so much hated for their opposition to ceremonies , as ceremonies are multiplied , and inforced for suppression of all zealous christians , under the umbrage of puritans : and that for the same purpose the enemies of piety have blown those coales which they might have quenched . the bishop of downe makes a very sharpe speech to the puritans in ireland , as being very disobedient , and animated therein by the scotish covenanters ; but his chiefest eloquence uttered against his owne countrymen the scots , whom he paints forth as the chiefest traytors , perjured rebels , heretickes and hypocrits in the world : nay , he denounceth them worse than anabaptists , and such as have more than justified the powder-traytors , and all the rebellious practises of the jesuites : afterwards he addes also , that puritanisme is not the nationall sin of scotland only , but that they of the same faction in england had beene as deep in the same condemnation , but that they had not so much power . see here the lively portraiture of an antipuritane , see a true boner revived againe , but in protestant habit ; and for ought i see , here are none exempted from this black venomous censure in all the kings dominions , but those of the popish and episcopall faction . it 's not to be wondred at that the king thinks ill of his subjects , or that burton or prin suffered worse then traytors merits : it 's rather to be wondred at , that our streets doe not runne with blood dayly , since this is the gospell our reverend fathers of the church preach . this speech was thought worthy to be dispersed in print over all our kingdomes in english ; but since , because it redounds so much to the honour of the three nations , and the repute of protestant religion , it 's translated into latine , and coppies are printed for all christendome to take notice of . in this speech it s urged , that puritans who began about yeares since , have proceeded from bad to worse by six degrees ; first they did dislike , then contemne bishops ; then they did disobey their jurisdiction ; then separate themselves ; then they fell into the heresie of holding no difference betweene bishop and presbyter : lastly , they rebelled , and grew more immoderate than anabaptists . and here saint cyprian is alledged , who sayes , that the contempt of bishops is the beginning and ground of all heresies and schismes . here we see what puritanes are , the most cursed miscreants on earth ; next we see who puritans are , all such as hold not with episcopacy : that is in probability halfe ireland , more then halfe england , all scotland , and many other protestant countries . king james did put a difference betwixt such as disrelisht bishops , and ceremonies meerly , and such as under that pretext fraudulently sought to perturbe the state , and make a factious separation . but here the difference of all puritans is graduall only , not substantiall ; for dislike of bishops is the beginning of all heresie , and must needs end in anabaptisme and rebellion . how plainly does it here appeare , that episcopacy is the true helena of all this warre ; and yet saint cyprian is to be understood of the pastorall function , not of the ecclesiasticall jurisdiction of a bishop , or else in his sense the genevans , and the greatest part of protestants are heretiques , and king james made a frivolous distinction . such stuffe as this had not mis-beseemed a papist , but it s very odde in a protestant bishop ; except wee consider him , as one who hath looke back towards the onions and flesh-pots of aegypt , and is inamor'd again upon those glorious titles & ensignes of honour , and pompe , which rome confers upon her courtiers . but to conclude this point , i wish princes would not allow such bishops to be carvers to themselves , and make them judges in cases of their owne interesse : they are surely good spectacles for princes in theologicall deliberations , as temporall counsellors are in state affaires ; but miserable are those princes whose eyes cannot see without such spectacles . if religion did not prosper worse , if peace were not more violated , if persecution were not more common in countries wher bishops govern , than where they are expelled , we might suspect the scots , as hereticall , and rebellious by nature ; for chusing all the plagues of warre rather then bishops : but when we see the contrary , we may aswell listen to the scots against bishops , as to bishops against the scots . so much of the ecclesiasticall puritan , next after whom sprung up the puritan in religion , of whom i shall speak very briefly . there are many men amongst us now , which brooke bishops and ceremonies well enough ; and perhaps favourably interpret our late innovations ; and yet these may be too grave to escape the name of puritans . to be a protestant may be allowed , but to dispute against papists , smels of preciseness : to hold the pope fallible is tolerated , but to hold him antichrist is abominable puritanisme : to goe to church is fashionable , but to complaine of the masse , or to be grieved at the publick countenance of popery , whereby it intwines our religion , and now drinkes up that sap which is scarce afforded to protestantisme , or at all to take notice how far some of our divines are hereat conniving , if not cooperating , is a sumptome of a deepe infected puritan . he that is not moderate in religion is a puritan , and hee that is not a cassandrian , or of father francis syncters faith , is not moderate : he savours too much of calvins grosse learning , exploded now by our finest wits . but i passe from this kinde of puritan to another ; whom i shall call my politicall puritan ; for the bounds of puritanisme are yet larger , and inclose men of other conditions . some there are yet which perhaps disfavour not at all either ecclesiasticall policy , or moderate papists ; and yet neverthelesse this is not sufficient to acquit them from the name of puritans , if they ascribe any thing to the lawes and liberties of this realme , or hold the prerogative royall to be limitable by any law whatsoever . if they hold not against parliaments and with ship-money , they are injurious to kings ; and to be injurious to kings , is proprium quarto modo to a puritan . our present civill , nay more then civill warre with scotland , and all the mischiefes thereon attending , the disaffection betweene the king and his subjects , and all the mischiefes thereon attending the discontinuance of parliaments , the proper remedies of all state-maladies , and universall grievances , which is a mischiefe whereby all mischiefes become incurable , all are caused by the abusive mistake and injurious misapplication of this word puritan . the scots are puritans , and therefore enemies to monarchy , the english are puritans , and therefore haters of royall prerogative , both the nations have beene hitherto famous for their devout reverence , and obsequious zeale to their princes ; but now puritanisme has infected them , and perverted them to disloyalty . thus is the kings heart alienated from his subjects , and by consequence , the subjects loyalty blunted towards him , to the incomparable , almost irreparable detriment of both : neither is this disaccord betweene the king and his best subjects , more fatall and pernicious to the common-wealth , then his accord with the recusant faction . papists have now gotten the repute of the best subjects , and fittest for trust in places of eminent service ; nay 't is almost necessary that forraine papists be brought in for the supporting of the indangered royalty : for though the popish faction at court be strong and active enough for matter of counsell , yet for matter of force the puritans in city and countrey be too predominant . the bishop of downe in his visitation speech layes all the calamities of church and common-wealth upon non-conformists , and for proofe thereof instances in the covenanters , whom he charges of rebellion , charging withall that rebellion upon puritanisme . the first thing ( saies he ) that made me out of love with that religion , was their injurious dealing with kings , which i observed both in their practice and doctrine . he taxes first their doctrine , because they deny the kings supremacy in causes ecclesiasticall , and allow subjects to resist , nay and depose their king , if he be a tyrant . surely ahab could say little for himselfe , if he could not lay his owne crimes upon elijah ; but see here by what art of confusion all scots are called puritans and all puritans rebels . king james spoke not so confusedly as if puritanisme were a religion ; and all that disliked bishops and ceremonies were of that religion ; and all of that religion were enemies to kings . if a bishop needed any proofe , if his {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} were not unquestionable , i would desire him to prove all covenanters puritans , and all puritans , denyers of the kings supremacy : or to instance in any kings which have beene deposed or murdred by presbyteriall authority . how far bishops have incroached upon kings , is known to al the world : our protestant bishops lately have by oath and canon combined together to bind the kings hands though hee be supreme , that he shall not governe our church but by arch-bishops , bishops , arch-deacons , &c. and yet these troublers of israel have the face to taxe elijah of their owne sin . presbytery indeed has heretofore passed her bounds , yet not of late , but episcopacy has ever from constantine claimed an independence of divine right , till this instant . i conceive there are not in all the kings dominions , three men , except papists and anabaptists , which hold it lawfull to depose , or by any force to violate the persons of kings , how ill soever . the scotch divines indeed maintaine that a great body of men may defend themselves against the unjust sword of misled kings , because they cannot flye , or otherwise save themselves ; and this they take now to be their owne case ; whereas our court divines in england hold , that in such case , wee ought all to yeeld our throats without defence . this seemes unnaturall , and truth was never unnaturall , but i forbeare to dispute a point so horrid to mans imagination : the bishop next instances in the rebellious practices of puritans , and reckons up some facts in scotland appointed by the presbytery without king james his privity , and some other seditious sermons , and actions whereby he was much annoyed . but what ? did not king james know his owne enemies , or how to blame them ? did he condemne all scots alike , or all bishophaters alike , or joyne the english in like condemnation ? we know well enough , that king james called rebellious precisians puritans , but he never called all puritans rebellious precisians : he never used those termes as convertible , but declared his contrary meaning by a manifest difference taken betweene them . but the bishops maine instance is in the present scotch insurrection ; this he cals a rebellion of puritans , and far greater then the powder-treason : for ( sayes he ) that plot was but the act of a few discontented gentlemen , but in this rebellion of the puritans they have ingaged a great part of the kingdome , so that this may bee said to be the common sin of that sect. what could have beene raked out of hell more slanderous to our religion , more apologeticall for popery . the powder-traytors are here prefer'd before the whole sect of puritans : the sinne of the power-traytors was , that they being but an inconsiderable party , sought the destruction of their king and his issue , and the flower of the nobility , gentry , commonalty , and the extirpation of the true religion , by a most diabolicall bloudy practice and conspiracy . and it ought not to be charged upon the meere actors , as a symptome of discontent , onely we know how farre the romish religion it selfe favours and gives ground to such damned feats , and how farre it has owned some having proved prosperous , and justified the doing thereof in nature as impious , though perhaps in degree not so hainous as this . for take this as it was conspired , and questionlesse , since the crucifying of jesus christ , the light never discovered any treason more ugly , and horrible . now to outmatch this deed of darknesse , the scotch nation by a strange generall unanimity have armed themselves to oppose the ill government of bishops , and other alterations in the service of god , and the administration of justice , and being invaded therefore by another nation , have used force to defend their lives ; and seeing that defence not safe in their owne countrey , they have since pursued it further by way of prevention in the countrey of their invaders . that is the greatest act of rebellion whereby the common peace and safety of a kingdome is most disturbed and impeached ; but by the common act of a whole kingdome , that mischiefe cannot be effected , therefore the bishop failes in his politiques when he thinks that the major part disturbing the minor , is more trayterous , than the contrary . the unanimous act of a whole kingdome ought to be presumed to be lesse injurious , and more wise then the act of any small inconsiderable party , for it hath scarce ever beene seene that a whole kingdome , or the majority thereof hath over been treasonable to its selfe in procuring its owne ruine . many states have perisht by the machinations of a few ill affected , ill advised counsellors , ( scarce ever any perisht otherwise ) but the totall body and collection , has never been guilty of its owne ruine : and if it were , such treason could not be so great as that which is plotted by a few . whilst the scots contained themselves within their owne territories , and were considered as a kingdome within themselves , as they were when the bishop past his censure , they were not rightly so censured : neither was he then privy to their intrusions , that they would infest our kingdome with the same combustion , and so prove a disturbance to the greater part of our british monarchy , whereof they themselves are but a member of lesse bulke and value . cursed therefore are those uncharitable exasperating censures , whereby the king is too far incensed , and by whose rash instigations the commotions themselves become the harder to be appeased . great insurrections are like great fires , wherein delay is mischievous , and small remedies rather turne to fuell , then extinguish : and violent counsell against an inraged multitude is like oyle , or pitch cast into the flame . the wise politician proportions his remedy according to the mischiefe , if water will not prevaile , he useth milke ; if a little quantity will not suffice , he powres as the combustion it selfe requires . unfortunate rehoboam stands as a seamarke to warne all princes how to shun this rocke of violent counsell against a people violently inraged and aggrieved . some men have interpreted the designes of the scots to have beene treasonable from the beginning , and wholly bent upon the spoyle and havocke of the english nation from their first stirring : others have wholly justified their intentions and proceedings hitherto as defensive onely , and inforced by necessity : both these , i conceive , are too rash and head-long in their guesses . in so great a body of men , there must needs be variety of opinions , and its likely contrariety of affections ; and therefore it behooves the king to be the more tender , moderate , and circumspect in his deliberations , as wel for the one side as the other , especially since the scots have not evidently and universally as yet declared themselves for the worse . we may at once be charitable in hoping the best , and wise withall in preventing the worst ; nay , a charitable and sweet demeanor , if it be not too fond , may prove a great part of our prevention : doubtlesse rehoboam himselfe , had hee not beene wilfully devoted to young , rash , and violent counsellors , might have easily retained within his obedience many of his well-meaning subjects , and reclaymed others of more moderation ; and by that meanes have divided and dissipated the most obstinate , head-strong , and furious of all the rebellious party . some princes thinke themselves bound in honour to doe unwise things , and this was the errour of rehoboam , his aged counsellours advised him to that which was most politick , concluding that to be most honourable ; but his genius rather led him according to the advise of his young gallants , to conclude that most politick , which to his haughty stomack seemed most honourable : but what was the event ? to avoid the scorne of young men , he incurred the scorne of old men ; to avoid the unjust censure of fooles , he incurred the just censure of wise men ; to gaine the honour of appearing stout , he purchased the dishonour of being rash ; to shew a contempt of danger , he made himself a prey to it ; rather then to decline a blow by a gentle bowing of his body , he yeelded himselfe to be inevitably oppressed by it . at this time of revolt the israelites were not so wicked , as their revolt after made them ; it may be so with the scots , they are yet protestants , and perhaps may be retained so : and who can thinke of protestants , that so great a body of them , can at one fall so desperately tumble into the depth of mischiefe , as to make fasting , praying , oaths and sacraments , meere instruments and traynes to commit murther , theft , sacriledge , treason , and the most unnaturall of all crying crimes ? but to returne to our owne nation , and what we suffer by our owne divines . manwarings doctrine is common at court , and 't is not long since a bishops chaplaine in terme-time , challenged a judge of treason , for delivering law according to conscience . and this is now no prodigie , for pulpits are not publick enough to preach an unlimitable prerogative in ; 't is fit our learned doctors should mount the benches of justice also , there to advance logick instead of law ; for law is growne injurious to princes , and smels ranke of puritanisme . divines themselves will lose nothing to princes , but all other men shall , that they may gaine the more : and neither lawyers nor states-men must direct them in any thing , but both lawyers and states-men must be directed by them in all things : but let us a little examine how the conditionate and absolute formes of government come within the circle of theologie . the israelites were governed by monarchs , but not all alike absolute . the patriarchs were not so absolute as the judges , nor the judges as the kings , nor the kings as those heathen emperours , which at last made them tributary . the due of caesar , and the due of solomon , and the due of samuel , and the due of jacob , was not the same as to all points of state , or all degrees of royalty , and yet the nation was the same , and the forme of government still remained the same . it should seeme that god approved that degree of soveraignty best , which was by himselfe setled in the person of moses ; for when that people afterwards desired a king , of a more awfull and large prerogative , in imitation of other nations , the thing displeased god . samuel also wrote a booke of this subject , shewing the just conditions of regall power ; ( the losse whereof is much to be lamented ) for if it had beene gods will that all kings should be equally absolute in all respects , and free from all limitations and obligations alike , samuel needed to have written little thereof ; one word had determined all . but in scripture , as it now remaines , samuels booke being not extant , our chiefest light and guide now is by example , not rule ; and example wee finde very various . the state and soveraignty of the jewish kings in generall , we finde milde , and gratious ; but much differing in particulars . solomon was heavy over his subjects , and under his son they would not beare the like ; yet solomons pressure was not upon the estates of his subjects by taxes , and impositions , for he made silver in jerusalem as stones for plenty ; nor did he vex their persons by military hazards and services , for he was at peace with all the world : neither did he any way let fall , or lessen their honour amongst other nations ; he made them rather a spectacle of glory and prosperity to the world . solomons harshnesse was onely in imploying so great multitudes for his owne pompous attendance , and for the performance of such publike workes , and structures , as did tend to the magnificence and beauty of the state . besides , scripture does not satisfie us , neither by rule , nor example , whether kings ought to bee successive alwayes , or elective ; or whether primogeniture of males , or unigeniture of daughters , ought to take place : many things are left so uncertain , that it is not alwayes safe for kings wholly to rely upon examples ; and for the rule of obedience , it is generall , and no more advantagious for free monarchs , then conditionate potentates ; no more for supreame , then subordinate commanders . the law of nature best determines , that all princes being publike ministers for the common good , that their authority ought to be of sufficient latitude for that common good ; and since scripture is not expresse concerning that latitude , as to all people , the same not being to all alike necessary , the severall lawes of severall countries best teach that certaine latitude . i could wish therefore that princes herein would not so much consult with divines , as lawyers ; or rather with parliaments , which are the grand courts and counsels of kingdomes ; for ( as cotton sayes ) every man in particular may deceive , and be deceived ; but no man can deceive all , nor can all deceive one . ancient times are not precedentary to ours by any necessity , for lawes are now more learned , exact , and particular ; and courts , and tables of justice , and policie , are more wisely and methodically composed and elected , then they were ; and therefore there needs not that vocall power , or indisputable force to remaine in the breasts of princes , as was of old . the courts of parliament , and their unquestionable acts , and ordinances , and their infallible avisoes , are now in all well-governed countries ; the very oracles of all policy , and law , they are the fountaines of civill bloud , spirits , and life ; and the soveraigne antidotes of publike mischeifes . that prince was never yet deceived which relyed upon them , nor can he chuse but be deceived , which thinkes he can be assisted with any more wise or faithfull advertisement , then that which is given 〈◊〉 by his whole realme united , and contracted in a lesse circumference . what end can all the flower of the nobility , gentry , and commonalty of a nation , being wise and religious , have in seducing their soveraigne , or in limiting that soveraignty by which alone they are protected ? or what one party of particular men can better understand the true limits of sufficient soveraignty , and the profit thereof ; then this collective universality , whose rayes like the suns , are every where dispersed ; and yet whose body of light is here as in a refulgent globe concentred ? individuals may have many particular ends , severd from the princes or the states , but communities can ayme at nothing but the common good ; as the lesser fountaines scatter their branching streames up and down in various maeanders , whilst the sea containes it selfe in an intire body , within its constant bounds . individuals also have but their own particular set limits of perfection , and have judgements besides apt to bee darkned by their owne severall interests and passions ; whereas the common body injoyes a confluence of severall perfections , and hath the lesse force from abroad to overcloud them . of all men therefore it will most concerne princes to suspect them which are enemies to publick assemblies , and to confide in them most , whose ends are not divided from the generalities ; and as they tender their owne happinesse , to expect it chiefly from that generality , by which they are kings , to which they are gods , from which their very diadems receive honour and sanctity , to which their very royall order imparts life , and breath , and necessary subsistence . i come now to my ethicall puritan . the name of puritan must not rest here , for there may be some moderate , well inclined , facile men , whose education may be such that they are not much vers'd or insighted either in matters of religion , or matters of state ; they may be such as are no wayes busie but in their owne particular affaires , and yet it behooves , that these men too be brought in within the opprobrious compasse of puritanisme . to the religious , ecclesiasticall , and political puritan , there must be joyned also an ethicall puritan . this detested odious name of puritan first began in the church presently after the reformation , but now it extends it selfe further , and gaining strength as it goes , it diffuses its poysonous ignominy further , and being not contented to gangrene religion , ecclesiasticall and civill policy , it now threatens destruction to all morality also . the honest strict demeanour , and civill conversation which is so eminent in some men does , so upbraid and convince the antipuritan , that even honesty , strictnesse , and civility it selfe must become disgracefull , or else they which are contrary cannot remaine in grace : but because it is too grosse to deride vertue under the name of vertue ; therefore other colours are invented , and so the same thing undergoes derision under an other name . the zealous man is despised under the name of zealot , the religious honest man has the vizard of an hypocrite and dissembler put upon him to make him odious . puritans by some are parallelled to jesuites , jesuites are called popish puritans , and puritans , protestant jesuites ; yet this is not indeed disparageable to them : for doubtlesse fiery zeale and rigour were not blameable in jesuites , were not their very religion false ; as celerity and expedition in a traveller is not in it selfe faulty , but commendable , though the traveller being in a wrong path , it causes him to stray the further from his journeys end . my lord of downe professes that the first thing which made him distest the religion of puritans ( besides their grosse hypocrisie ) was sedition : so grosse hypocrisie , it seemes , was the first . what is grosse or visible hypocrisie to the bishop , i know not , for i can see no windowes or casements in mens breasts , neither doe i think him indued with saint peters propheticall spirit whereby to perceive and search into the reines , and hearts of hypocrites ; but let him proceed . it is a plausible matter ( sayes he ) with the people to heare men in authority depraved , and to understand of any liberty and power appertaining to themselves . the profession also of extraordinary zeale , and as it were contempt of the world workes with the multitude . when they see men goe simply in the streets , and bow downe their heads like a bull-rush , their inward parts burning with deceit , wringing their necks awry , shaking their heads as if they were in some present griefe , lifting up the white of their eyes at the sight of some vanity , giving great groanes , crying out against this sin and that sinne in their superiours , under colour of long prayers , devouring widowes , and married wives houses ; when the multitude heares and sees such men , they are carryed away with a great conceit of them , but if they should judge of these men by their fruits , not by outward appearance , they should find them to be very farre from the true religion . see here the froth of a scurrilous libeller , whereby it is concluded that he that is of severe life , and averse from the common vanities of the time , is an hypocrite : if these descriptions of outward austerity shall not onely shew what is an hypocrite , but point out also who is an hypocrite , our saviour himselfe wil hardly escape this description ; doubtles our saviour , and many of his devoutest followers did groane , shake their heads , and lift up their eyes at the sight of some publick sins , and vanities , and did not spare to taxe the vices of superiours , and to preach too , and admonish the meaner sort of the people ; yet who but an annas or caiphas will infer from hence that therefore their inward parts burne with deceit , and that their end is meerely to carry away the multitude ; such as judge onely by outward appearance , and have not their senses exercised to discerne betwixt good and evill ? it is likely the high priests and pharisees did thus blaspheme in those dayes , and that the rather , because from their owne fayned sanctity , they were the more apt to suspect the same in others : but what ? must we needs follow them , or this bishop in this ? but to proceed with this bishop , saint james ( sayes he ) gives us a full description of true religion . wisedome from above is first pure , then peaceable , gentle , and easie to be intreated , full of mercy and good fruits , without judging , and hypocrisie . none of these properties will agree with the religion of puritans . it is not pure , for it allowes vsury , sacriledge , disobedience , rebellion , &c. it is not peaceable , for these men are the incendiaryes of christendome . it is not gentle , nor easie to be intreated , for they are more austere then cato , and not to be moved by perswasion or command . it is not full of mercy and good fruits , for they are all for sacrifice , nothing for mercy ; for the first table , not the second ; for faith , not charity ; they pull down churches , but build no hospitals . it is not without judging , for they are known to be most rigid censurers . and he is an hypocrite which spyes a moate in his brothers eyes , and not a beame in his owne . here is a confused proofe , that such puritans are hypocrits , but no proofe at all , that this man is such a puritan . if my lord say be such a puritan , this denotes him an hypocrite , but this does not prove that my lord say or brooke , or dod , or clever , &c. or any the most famous puritan living is guilty of vsury , sacriledge , rebellion , pulling downe of churches , setting the world on fire , or of renouncing the second table and all workes of justice and charity , or of censuring and condemning malignantly other men : if these things were true of particular men , calumny were needlesse ; accusation would better suppresse them . and sure it is not out of favour that law proceeds not , for malice has often enough shewed her teeth , and would have bitten if she could , neither would she now calumniate if she could accuse . the bishop expects not to be beleeved , if he puzzell , and worke some into doubt , it is sufficient : but since bitter censuring , and calumnious condemning of others is so infallible a signe of hypocrisie , how does the bishop wipe this off from himselfe ? can puritans speake worse of any , then he doth of puritans ? sure they may well joyn with him upon this issue , that the greatest slanderer is the greatest hypocrite ; and yet seeke no further for slanders , then this very speech , wherein he so eagerly inveighs against slander ; but if individuals cannot be thus convinced by the bishop , how shall these signes and symptomes be applied to whole sects , religions , kingdomes ? the most ordinary badge of puritans is their more religious and conscionable conversation , than that which is seene in other mens : and why this should make them odious or suspected of hypocrisie amongst honest and charitable men , i could never yet learne . a seeming religious consists in doing actions outwardly good , and the goodnesse of those actions is apparent to man ; but the false hypocriticall end of them is onely discerned by god : and therefore with what conscience can i condemne that good which is visible , for that evill which is not visible ? say , brooke , dod , clover , &c. are knowne to me ; yet no otherwise but as men singularly devote , and as all the prophets , and apostles would , if they were now living : and shall i conclude , because they seeme so , therefore they are not so ? i am so far from this , that my owne conscience bindes me to honour them , and that in those things , wherein i have not the grace to follow them . i have beene a diligent inquirer into puritans , and have exactly tryed them three wayes . first , in themselves ; and so i finde them zealous , at least seeming so outwardly , and distinguisht principally from other men by their remarkable , and singular zeal to god and the truth : and this to me is no ground of uncharitable censure . secondly , in those , which in these times thinke and speake charitably of them ; and they are so many in number , and of so good quality , that indeed to the popish and episcopall faction , all the kingdome almost seemes puritanicall ; but for this i cannot thinke the worse of them . but thirdly , when i consider puritans , and compare them with their common notorious adversaries , then their goodnesse seemes most evident to me , as if it were legibly ingraved in the open wickednesse and scandall of their chiefe opposers . nothing but truth , holinesse , and goodnesse , seemes to me to be the cause , that papists do so implacably abominate them : that our proud hierarchists , ambidexters , and neuters in religion , do so uncessantly pursue their subversion ; that court-flatterers , and time-serving projectors , and the ravenous caterpillars of the realme , doe so virulently prosecute them with defamations and contumelies ; that stage-poets , minstrels , and the jesting buffoones of the age , make them the principall subject of derision : lastly , that all the shamelesse rout of drunkards , lechers , and swearing ruffians ; and the scum of the vulgar are so tickled with their reproach , and abuse . certainly , nothing but an unappeaseable antipathy could be the cause of all this , and no testimony of goodnesse can be more sure , un-erring , and unanswerable then such antipathy . amongst wicked men there may be particular hatred , but not a generall antipathy : one wicked man hates not another as wicked , but rather loves him therefore , or else the world did not observe a decorum in loving her own , and hating strangers . as there cannot be division in satans kingdome ; so there cannot be communion or compatibility betwixt christs and satans subjects but 't is a miserable thing to see how farre this word puritan in an ethical sense dilates it selfe . heretofore it was puritanicall to abstaine from small sinnes ; but now 't is so to abstaine from grosse open sinnes . in the mouth of a drunkard , he is a puritane which refuseth his cups ; in the mouth of a swearer , he which feares an oath ; in the mouth of a libertine , he which makes any scruple of common sinnes ; in the mouth of a rude souldier , he which wisheth the scotch warre at an end without blood . it is sufficient that such men thinke themselves tacitly checked and affronted by the unblameable conversation of puritans . bishop lake that good and godly man moved at the declining state of his time is said to have expressed his regret thus : we feare , saith he , a relapse into popish error , and superstition ; but my heart misgives me worse than so : vtter irreligion and atheisme , me thinkes , begins to prevaile strangely amongst us : we are not so likely to lose the light of truth , as the heate of zeale ; and what benefit is in religion , where the name of it is honoured , but the power of it is not at all seene ? where gods will is truely understood , but his commands are wholly slighted ? where men know like christians , but live like heathens ? the soule of religion is hearty devotion , and that growes dayly more and more ridiculous amongst us ; and yet religion without the soule of it , is rather a curse than a blessing to us . no impiety is so hainous in an ignorant sodomite , as want of piety is in a right instructed israelite . in this wise i have heard that good prelate did complaine ; and this makes me think , that he had in his complaint some respect to this word puritan , then which , certainly the divell hath not a more fatall engine whereby to confound religion , and to subvert all true zeale , goodnesse , and devotion . thus farre it appeares what a vast circumference this word puritans has , and how by its large acception it is used to cast durt in the face of all goodnesse , theologicall , civill , or morall : so that scarce any moderate man can avoid its imputation . and thus it does mischiefe to men , not commonly noted for puritans , but if a man be so noted , though perhaps irregularly , then it is farther otherwise abused : for all such a mans evill shall be charged upon his puritanisme , and all his good defaced for his puritanisme . such a man is condemned for murther , and adultery ; and at his death gives strong assurances of unfaigned repentance , and contrition of heart . he was a christian , a protestant , a minister , a puritan ; yet this crime is recorded and blowne abroad , not for the shame of christians , protestants , ministers , but of puritans . and as for his attestation of deep humiliation , how excellent soever , the honour of them , if any be acknowledged , shall redound to the christian , the protestant , the minister , to any thing else except the puritan . howsoever in the first place it ought to be observed , that an uncleane streame does not alwayes receive it's uncleannesse from the filth of the fountaine , but in the second place a pure streame necessarily infers a pure source . 't is true , trees are knowne by their fruits , and so are men generally by their workes ; but this similitude holdes not in all men , at all times : for good men sometimes commit foule sinnes , and bad men performe laudable services . david defiles vriahs wife , and to conceale it from the world , makes drunke and murders vriah ; and together with him casts away the lives of many other faithfull souldiers : yet nothing moved at this his owne mis-doing , at the same time he sentences to death a subject of his for damnifying a neighbour , to the value of a poor lamb . what might joab , & the other privy ministers of these his foul deeds , censure all this while of this his externally professed sanctity , and purity , and strictnes in point of justice to other men ; or of his so great indignation against petty offenders ? what might they judge of the root , from whence these fruits sprung ? did they conclude these fruits good ? or did they conceive that such fruits might grow upon a good stocke ? it 's strange , that he which would be so rigid to a petty fellon , should himselfe finde no remorse at his owne murther and oppression , in spoiling so gallant a commander , of his wife , of his sobriety , of his life , and to continue so long a time without regard either what himselfe had done , or what vriah had suffered . but it 's well , david lived in those times when the name of puritanisme was not invented to blast all goodnesse : had he lived amongst us , he had beene accounted a puritane , and being a puritane , god might have forgiven him , but the world never would : but it seemes the world was not then poysoned with the same base word , though i beleeve under some other nicke-name goodnesse was alwaies odious : for we reade , that for that very sinne of david , gods name was evill spoken of amongst the wicked . so solomon the sonne of seduced bathsheba , if we censure him by many of his actions , perhaps jeroboam , and ahab that made israel to sinne , were not personally addicted to so much excesse of bodily lust , and pollution , nay perhaps many heathens and turkes have detested his enormous lubricities . i speak not this to countenance sin , but to discountenance rash censures of sinners , wishing all that thinke themselves fraile and mortall , to turne their eyes inwards , and to lay their hands upon their own mouths , forbearing to censure all sins , but most especially the most latent and obscure of all sinnes , hypocrisie . solyman the magnificent is held the honestest of all the princes which raigned in his time , not excepting christian princes , nay not excepting the great father of them all , the apostolick man of rome : yet this is no shame to christianity , but to christians rather ; nay i wish it might be accounted rather a rebuke , then a shame ; rather a rebuke to humble them , then a shame to confute them . for christ tels us that many times the first are last , and last first , god sees not as man sees , and yet he that will judge uprightly ought to see as god sees , and not as man . so much of the extensive infamy of this word puritan , now of its intensive malignancy : but little more needs to be spoken hereof , for hee which tels you who is a puritan , for the most part tels what is a puritan . the papist we see hates one kind of puritans , the hierarchist another , the court sycophant another , the sensuall libertine another ; yet all hate a puritan , and under the same name many times hate the same thing . he which is an enemy to our religion which is the truth , hates the puritan as an enemy to truth ; hee which is an enemy to piety , policy , morality , charges the puritan of being the same : wherefore whatsoever is hated by the perverted and disaffected in religion , piety , policy , morality , is a puritan , and whosoever is a puritan , is censured , hated , and slandered as a man perverted and disaffected in religion , piety , policy , and morality . this sufficiently appeares by the common slanders of all goodnesse in these dayes , and particularly by the bishop of downe , for as he justifies jesuites , anabaptists , and the powder-traytors before puritans ; so he describes , and proscribes whole religions , sects , and kingdomes for puritans . in the yeare of grace , when the spanish armado had miscarried , notwithstanding that his holinesse of rome had so peremptorily christened it , and as it were conjured for it , one of that religion was strangely distemper'd at it , & his speech was as 't is reported , god himselfe was turned lutheran : by which , for certaine , he meant hereticall . 't is much therefore that my lord of downe , now that episcopacy is so foyled in scotland , has not raged in the like manner , and charged god of turning puritan : but surely , if he has spared god , he has not spared any thing else that is good ; and if he has spared to call god puritan , he has not spared to call puritan devill : but to conclude , if the confused misapplication of this foule word puritan be not reformed in england , and that with speed , we can expect nothing but a suddaine universall downfall of all goodnesse whatsoever . aelius adrianus the emperour , about an hundred yeares after our saviour , having been certified by serenius granianus , proconsul of asia , that the christians in those parts were illegally oppressed by the malice of unjust sycophants , sends this his imperiall edict to the next successor minutius fundanus . if the provincials can prove ought against the christians , whereof they charge them , and can at the bar of justice make good the same , let them proceed in a judiciall course : but let them not appeach the christians meerely for the name , by clamouring , and rayling scandals against them : for it is expedient , if any be disposed to accuse , that the accusation be throughly known , and judicially tryed by you ; therefore if any accuse the christians that they transgresse the lawes , see that you judge and punish according to the quality of the offence , but if any upon spite or malice by way of calumny complain against them , see you chastise such for their malice , and repay them with condigne punishment . i began with a marquesse , i end with an emperour : both read the same lecture , both teach us a difference betwixt privy malicious calumny and open judiciall accusing , or impleading ; god send us to hearken to both , as much as the necessity of our case requires it . finis . to the reader . reader , i have said enough to make my selfe condemned for a puritan , and by consequence , all which i have said to be condemned for puritanicall : but verily , if thou art not an antipuritan of the worst kinde , i am not a puritan . in my opinions i am not scrupulous or precise , in my life i am not strict , or austere , the more is my blame ; if thou art a downe-right protestant , and no more , i am the same , and no more . if thou thinkest some men religious which affect not the name of puritan , i thinke so too : if thou thinkest most men irreligious which hate the name of puritan , i thinke so too : if thou art not to me a violent antipuritan , i have no quarrell with thee ; nor am i a puritan to thee : if thou art , hate me as a profest puritan , and i will thanke thee for the honour of it . farewell . thine to feare thee , more then hate thee , and to feare thy malice rather then justice , philus adelphus . humble and modest proposals tender'd to the consideration of both houses of parliament, for uniting the protestant interest in the nation for the present age, and preventing our divisions for future approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing s a estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) humble and modest proposals tender'd to the consideration of both houses of parliament, for uniting the protestant interest in the nation for the present age, and preventing our divisions for future sherlock, william, ?- . [ ], p. printed for c.p. and are to be sold in the strand, london : . attributed by wing to william sherlock. reproduction of original in the huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng church of england -- government. church and state -- england. dissenters, religious -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - judith siefring sampled and proofread - judith siefring text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion humble and modest proposals tender'd to the consideration of both houses of parliament , for uniting the protestant interest in this nation for the present age , and preventing our divisions for future . london : printed for c. p. and are to be sold in the strand . . humble and modest proposals for uniting the protestant interest in this nation . i doubt not but every pious and sober protestant of this nation is now in great grief and anguish of heart to observe the passionate differences and unchristian dissentions , which dayly increase amongst christians united in one and the same doctrine of their religion , and reformed from the errours and superstition of the church of rome ; which cannot but oblige every serious man who wisheth peace and prosperity to the kingdom he lives in , to consider what should be the occasion of those unhappy and ruinous divisions we have so long suffered under , and to offer probable means for the composing of them . as to their first rise , i doubt not but they owe their original to the different manner of the reformation , and the establishing of the orders which each church did think fit and convenient for it self , ( as the reverend and pious mr. hooker acquaints us ) which were so peremptorily established under that high commanding form , which rendered them to the people as things everlastingly required by the law of that lord of lords , against whose statutes there is no exception to be taken ; by which means it came to pass , that one church could not but accuse and condemn another of disobedience to the will of christ , in those things where manifest difference was between them : whereas the self-same orders allowed , but yet established in more wary and suspense manner , as being to stand in force till god should give the opportunity of some general conference what might be best for them afterwards to do ; this , i say , had both prevented all occasion of just dislike which others might take , and reserved a greater liberty unto the authors themselves of entering into farther consultation afterwards ; which , though never so necessary , they could not easily now admit , without some fear of derogation from their credit : and therefore that which once they had done , they became for ever after resolute to maintain . now if we consider the shortness of that time wherein our first reformation continued under edward the sixth , and the necessity of many learned and pious ministers of the church of england to flee into foreign countries ( as strasburgh , geneva , &c. ) in queen mary's reign , for the preservation of their lives , where they frequently conversed with those eminent divines , who were the great reformers there ; 't is no wonder that some of them should return better pleased with their discipline than their own , especially considering that several of them had intimate acquaintance and conversation with one of the reformers , whom the reverend mr. hooker thought incomparably the wisest man that ever the french church did enjoy since the hour it enjoyed him . in queen elizabeth's , king iames , and our late soveraign's reigns , 't is well known how our differences still increased , until that unhappy war broke out , by which the non-conforming interest prevailed , so that the presbyterian discipline was endeavoured to be fixed as the established form of government in this nation ; our universities , preachers , writings , education , &c. were generally modelled thereto : by which means the greatest number of the trading part of the kingdom , many of the gentry , and some few of the nobility ( observing the precepts and practices , lifes and deaths of most of that clergy to be pious and exemplary ) joyned with men of this or the like perswasion . since which time it pleased god to restore our present soveraign to his throne , and the wisdom of the nation thought it convenient to establish the same discipline which our first reformers judged prudential ; not abating or leaving indifferent those ceremonies , which unhappily have occasioned those hither-to-irreconcilable differences between the church of england and the dissenters in it , and have been matter of dispute between the reformers , even from the first reformation from popery : upon which account many of the non-conforming divines laid down their livings , and the old disputes began afresh to be revived ; and so are like to be continued , until we be either ruined by popery , or healed by moderation , which is the onely salve to cure the churches wounds , and that admirable weapon-salve formerly proposed to the wisdom of superiours by the reverend dr. stillingfleet ; who having highly commended the prudence and temper of the french churches in composing their publick forms of prayer , that they were so far from inserting any thing controversial into them , that papists themselves would use them . and saith he , the same temper was used by our reformers in the composing our liturgie in reference to the papists , to whom they had an especial eye , as being the onely party then appearing , whom they desired to draw into their communion , by coming as near them as they well and safely could . and certainly those holy men who did seek by any means to draw in others at such a distance from their principles as the papists were , did never intend by what they did for that end to exclude any truly tender consciences from their communion . that which they had laid as a bait for them , was never intended by them as a hook for those of their own prefession ; but the same or greater reason which made them at that time yield so far to them then , would now have perswaded them to alter and lay aside those things which yield matter of offence to any of the same profession with themselves now : for surely none will be so uncharitable toward those of his own profession , as not to think there is as much reason to yield in compliance with them , as with the papists . and it cannot but be looked upon as a token of god's severe displeasure against us , if any , though unreasonable proposals of peace between us and the papists , should meet with such entertainment among many , and yet any fair offers of vnion and accommodation among our selves be so coldly embraced and entertained . thus far our reverend and learned dean of pauls . upon these and some other like considerations , i should humbly propose to the wisdom of this present parliament , some probable means to put an end to our present differences , and to unite us for the future ; that so we may become a flourishing nation , free from the factions and divisions of former ages . for the first . . i humbly propose , that the ceremonies at present enjoyned by law , might be left to the liberty of the clergy to use or lay aside ; and that because the dissenters on the one hand do declare that their conformity to them would be sinful , and the church of england on the other hand hath not onely declared upon our first reformation in the account she hath given of ceremonies , why some be abolished and some retained , that as those ceremonies were taken away which were most abused , and did burden mens consciences without any cause ; so the other that remain are retained for a discipline and order , which ( upon just cause ) may be altered and changed . but since his majesties restauration , the church of england hath again declared in her preface to the common-prayer , that the particular forms of divine worship , and the rites and ceremonies appointed to be used , being things in their own nature indifferent and alterable , and so acknowledged ; it is but reasonable that upon weighty and important considerations , according to the various exigency of times and occasions , such changes should be made therein , as to those that are in place of authority should from time to time seem either necessary or expedient . accordingly we finde that in the reigns of several princes of blessed memory since the reformation , the church upon just and weighty consideration her thereunto moving , hath yielded to make such alterations in some particulars , as in their respective times were thought convenient . thus far the church of england . and of late i finde , that a very eminent member thereof , the reverend dean of canterbury , hath acquainted us in a publick sermon preached by him at the york-shire - feast , that though it was not for private persons to undertake in matters of publick concernment , yet he thought he had no cause to doubt but the governours of our church ( notwithstanding all the advantages of authority and reason too , as they thought , on their side ) were persons of that piety and prudence , that for peace sake , and in order to a firm vnion amongst protestants , they would be content , if that would do it , not to insist upon little things , but to yield them up , whether to the infirmity or importunity , or , perhaps , in some very few things , to the plausible exceptions of those that differed from them . now seeing the church of england hath once and again declared her excellent temper and moderation for the preservation of peace and unity in the church , the great end and designe of all church-government , we have little reason to question her readiness ( at such a time as this is ) to comply with so modest a proposal as a liberty of using or refusing those ceremonies , which she saith , in their own nature are indifferent and alterable , and upon weighty and important considerations , may be changed , &c. especially considering that by this condescention of hers , she will certainly bring into her communion a great number of the pious , moderate , and more considerative non-conformists : which will not onely adde strength to her self , but give a great joy and content to all those who have wish'd well to the peace , unity , and prosperity of this our church and nation ; and have long made it the subject of their prayers , that they might live to see those days in england , wherein iudah might not vex ephraim , nor ephraim envy iudah . . i would likewise humbly propose , that the rest of the protestant dissenters from the church of england , might be indulged by act of parliament , provided they neither preach'd , wrote , nor discours'd against the doctrine or government of the church as by law established ; and that , because charity , which is kinde , and thinks no evil , would oblige a sober and indifferent person to believe that the reason of their separation from our church , did onely proceed from a tenderness of conscience ( impressed upon them by the force of their education , study , conversation , &c. ) lest in complying with the present established form of worship , they should sin against god , and wound the peace of their own souls : for otherwise their own present quiet and interest must necessarily have obliged them to a different practice , they having been under a continual danger and hazard of the execution of the laws at present established against them ; whereby they have been not onely deprived of that maintenance which by the countenance of authority they might otherwise have expected and publickly enjoyed , but exposed to many wants , difficulties , and sufferings . as to the vniting of us for the future , i humbly propose to the wisdom of this present parliament , that an act might be passed , whereby every person ( after a limited term of years ) intending to take holy orders , should be incapacitated for any church-preferment , or for a license to preach in private congregations , who could not give a satisfactory account of his proficiency and ability in church-history and primitive learning , whereby he might be able to give a clear and plain account of what discipline and order were used in the church of god nearest our saviour's and the apostles days , when differences and errours in doctrine or church-government began first to spring up ; with the authors , occasion , and effects thereof . the advantages which must necessarily attend the making of such a law , would be very great both to our interest in church and state ; amongst which i beg leave to name the following . . we might hereby ( for the future ) more assuredly hope for , and expect peace and union amongst our ecclesiasticks ; they having been all well acquainted with primitive practice , and therein with the rise and growth of all heresies , schisms , and divisions in the church , and with the fatal consequences that have attended them ; whereby in all probability they would not more rationally than unanimously make choice of one and the same form of worship and discipline , but most heartily unite in their affections to one another , endeavouring with all their united strength to maintain the church in peace and purity . . by this means we might be assured to enjoy the most learned clergy that ever this nation brought forth , who would not onely prove a greater bulwark against popery on the one hand , but schism and faction on the other ; and being so well accomplished for the ministerial function ( before they enter into it ) might much more assuredly engage the affection and hearts of their people , by spending in private the greatest part of the week in instructing them in the principles , and encouraging them in the practice of the christian religion ; a duty , alas , too much neglected in our days . . by this means we might be sure of preferments to answer every mans merit , especially if the parliament should think it prudential to raise a sum of money for the purchasing all impropriations and advowsons , the latter of which to be annexed to the several colledges in both universities ; one of the principal reasons we can give at present why we have more clergy-men than livings , being this , that a great number of ordinary country-men and trades-men , out of an ambitious designe to make their children gentlemen , do send them to the universities , though they be not able to maintain them above three or four years : whereas were there such a law ( as i proposed ) once established , they would be willing to bring them up to honest professions and trades , much more suitable for them ; and persons of better estate and quality would be encouraged to bring up their children in the universities , and continue them there until they were arrived to that pitch of learning , which would not onely render them honourable to foreign nations , and highly serviceable to their own , but would capacitate them for the enjoyment of a preferment suitable to their parents charge , and their own pains and industry . in short , i heartily wish that we might often and seriously remember our blessed saviours prediction , that a kingdom divided against it self , cannot stand ; and likewise consider that fate which attended the faction and division of the iews ; which grew to that height , that they could not forbear destroying each other , even when their declared enemies the romans were coming to besiege their city . from which , good lord deliver us . postscript . upon some considerations , i thought it would not be unacceptable to print the speech of that wise and great general and emperor vespasian , to his roman officers ; who seeing the iews at great variance and civil discord amongst themselves , pressed vespasian their general not to lose this opportunity , affirming that it was gods providence ( who fought for them ) that the iews should be at civil discord among themselves ; and that therefore he should not over-slip so good an occasion , lest the iews should quickly be friends again one with another , either by the weariness of civil wars , or else repenting themselves of that which they had done . to whom vespasian thus answered : that they were ignorant what was to be done , and desirous rather , as it were in a theatre to shew their forces and strength , than with him to consider what was profitable and expedient . for ( said he ) if we presently assault them , our coming will make concord amongst our enemies , and so we shall bring upon our selves their forces yet firm and strong ; but by expecting a little while , we shall have less ado to conquer them , their chiefest forces being destroyed by their own civil war. god is more our friend than you are aware of , who without any labour and pain will deliver the jews into our hands , and will give us the victory without endangering our army . wherefore it is rather our part to be beholders of the tragedy , than to fight against men desirous of death , and troubled with the greatest evil possible , to wit , domestical sedition and civil war. and if any think that the victory is not so glorious , because gotten without fight , let him know and consider the uncertain events of war ; and that it is better , if it be possible , to get a victory without bloodshed , than therewith to hazard a defeat : for they who by counsel and advice do any act , deserve no less praise than they who by force of arms atchieve a victory . moreover , in the mean time that the enemies destroy one another , our souldiers may take rest , and so be stronger and better able to fight when need shall require . besides , it seems not that there is much haste required to get the victory ; for the jews neither prepare arms nor engines of war , nor levie any forces , nor seek for aid ; and so by delay no damage can ensue , but they will plague one another more by civil war , than our army by attacquing their city . and therefore whether we consider prudence or glory , we have nothing to do but let them ruine themselves ; for in case we should even at this present make our selves masters of that great city , so it would be justly said , that the victory was not to be imputed to us , but to their discord . foelix quem faciunt aliena pericula cautum . finis . phanatical tenderness, or, the charity of the non-conformists exemplified in the practices of many of them in bristol and others their favourers and accomplices in that city, in london and pembrokeshire against thomas godwyn, sometime vicar of st. philips and jacobs church in bristol, and now rector of poulchrohan in pembrokeshire : humbly offered to his most sacred majesty, to his royal highness james duke of york &c. and the lords of his majesties most honourable privy council. godwyn, thomas. approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing g estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) phanatical tenderness, or, the charity of the non-conformists exemplified in the practices of many of them in bristol and others their favourers and accomplices in that city, in london and pembrokeshire against thomas godwyn, sometime vicar of st. philips and jacobs church in bristol, and now rector of poulchrohan in pembrokeshire : humbly offered to his most sacred majesty, to his royal highness james duke of york &c. and the lords of his majesties most honourable privy council. godwyn, thomas. [ ], p. printed for, and are to be sold by randall taylor, london : . attributed to thomas godwyn, vicar of poulchroban. cf. nuc pre- . reproduction of original in bristol public library, bristol, england. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng dissenters, religious -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - emma (leeson) huber sampled and proofread - emma (leeson) huber text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion phanatical-tenderness , or the charity of the non-conformists . exemplified in the practises of many of them in bristol and others their favourers and accomplices in that city , in london and pembrokeshire against thomas godwyn sometime vicar of st. philips and iacobs church in bristol , and now rector of poulchrohan in pembrokeshire . humbly offered to his most sacred majesty , to his royal highness iames duke of york , &c. and the lords of his majesties most honourable privy council . london , printed for , and are to be sold by randall taylor near stationers hall. . to his most excellent majesty king charles the second , &c. dread soveraign , your majesties innate propensity to compassion being improved by all christian and princely experience hath given me hopes that this address humbly laid at your sacred feet ▪ will be esteemed ( if not in it self , yet by it's necessity ) a pardonable presumption . as men under pressures are required by devout prostration of their souls and bodies before his throne to implore the merciful help and direction of the king of kings ; so in the use of the means prescribed by divine counsel , subjects have no more assured way to relief than by a submissive and dutiful petitioning the assistance of the almighties great and wise vicegerent . not that trifling complaints should be permitted to disturb the course of the serenest debates , or any leap into iordan without a prophetick confirmation of mind that other waters were insufficient for effecting the cure. as the son of a clergyman , a noted confessor in the late parliamentary persecutions , and as my self suffering under scoffs , reproaches , often and tedious imprisonments and bonds for the same cause since your majesties blessed restauration , i acquiesce and rejoyce in the toleration . nevertheless while obedient innocence supports my contentment , at the same time it commandeth me to endeavour settlement in a peaceable estate , and that especially because successful pride groweth daily more insolent by silence , and by degrees attempting upon my neighbours also doth infringe the royal prerogative and interrupt the churches tranquility . the considerations whereof with all humility i offer to your princely wisdom , praying sollicitously and sincerely for your majesties long and happy life , that the dangers of this beleaguered church may be removed before your translation to a more incomparable crown ; in which will be compleated the felicity of your most sacred majesties most humble and obedient subject and servant , tho. godwyn . to his royal highness iames duke of york , &c. great sir , to undertake to inform your iudgement , how pertinaciously malitious , how pestilently reproachful , how impudently dissatisfied and implacably cruel men listed in the rowls of faction are , were to say , that your royal father , and brother , and your self , high prince , never felt the sharpness of those vulters claws , nor disgusted the poyson of those asps. but in regard of the danger of permitting an execrable brood to live to maturity for mischief , each private man is ( as it seems to me ) obliged to detect them ▪ grace and clemency in their king work no more upon those inform mindes than to create in them an audacious confidence to suggest him unthinking and too soft to govern ; meekness and temperance in their fellow-subjects is their invitation to injury ; and the compliance of the knave and fool-trimmer encreaseth their insolence . for this good man furnisheth even the archest hypocrites with formal lyes , and frameth pretences under which to shelter them , while they level at the government . they indeed commend moderation , but at the same time condemn it as pusillanimous , encouraging the age , wherein they live , to the severity of the execution of iustice ; for the scourge only quieteth them , and if they are not themselves blooded , they fall mad and terribly infest all others with bloodsheding . may it please you , great prince , favourably to admit this reason for the publication of these papers , and this apology for a suffering church-mans most humble tender of them to your most iudicious observation ; that , as i judged the imposers , and what hath been imposed upon me ought not to be longer concealed , so neither can i expect remedy by private means , and have therefore recourse to the royal fountain . i would gladly pass the rest of my days in tranquility , ( if god be pleased to permit it ▪ ) and should most unwillingly see other well-meaning persons ashamed of their duty through my cause . to prevent which i am prostrate before you , beseeching your mediation for and protection of your royal highnesse's most humble and most faithful servant and orator , tho. godwyn . phanatical-tenderness , or the charity of the nonconformists , &c. i have been long perswaded to publish to the world the barbarous usage and insolent behaviour of the malitious nonconformists of the city of bristol ( especially the presbyterian faction ) toward me the space of twenty years past , either as they acted under the pretence of religion , with a barefaced contempt of god and the laws established , or as they privately suborned their instruments under pretensions of legal proceedings . i hitherto desisted , not thinking it meet to add weight to the sorrows which opprest good men , while they beheld their most beauteous and dear mother torn and bespattered by tender consciences , & men breathing out nothing but zeal and purity . but when these fits of rude zeal , not curable by the gentle means , which had been long administred , brake out into open madness , and needing severer remedies , the patients are reduced to an unwilling submission , i would gladly in peace thank god for confirming his great mercies of restauration , with these signal ones of his most sacred majesties and our admired and envied churches preservation . to my attainment of this peace , i thought nothing more conducing than a publication of the practices of these men upon my reputation , estate , and person . my verbal relations have seemed incredible to many ; i will therefore exhibit in print the actions , the actors , the times and circumstances , with that ingenious fidelity which becomes a clergyman and a gentleman , aggravating or heightning nothing out of passion , but so sincerely and nakedly delivering each passage , that my bitterest enemies shall not be able to contradict ; or if to contradict , yet not to j●stifie me guilty of any error , unless in sparing them through forgetfulness of some of their many injuries . those , which blacken the first pages , are not so amazing as them standing at the foot of the catalogue , no wickedness being fully audacious in an instant , but strengthned by time and counsel , and growing by success . yet have they , among many undiscerning tempers , been received and allowed as sufficient cause of justification for what did follow of a more violent nature . calumnies indeed some of them are , and therefore not of themselves matter of complaint in the judgement of one , who would be esteemed a man ; but as they moved forward the most fatal engines of cruely , i conceived that they ought in order to take place in this account . the most eminent sufferers , whom the world hath seen to fall under the rage of a faction confederate as religious , had the guardes of their allies and subjects affections first weakned by poysonous infusions , and their good opinion subverted . speak aluod , render him odious , and you render him helpless , said harison the machiavillian mouth of a traiterous council in consultation against a most gracious soveraign . prejudices entertained obstruct scrutiny into the quality of an enemies practices , and ill actions are seldom blamed , when done to a person supposed to be ill deserving . and the more numerous the party is , which designs against any man , the more innumerable shall his crimes be , his very innocence and care swelling the list of accusations . names are here plainly used , this publication requiring it as necessary , but not with intent to asperse any . for as the actions were manifest in the places where acted , so must the names be in those other places , it which it 's desired that the deeds should be known . and as their hearts could imagine , and their tongues and hands prosecure evil with delight , so i may conjecture , that according to the custom of other debauches , these will be so fat from taking offence at the particularities of my pen , that they will ●ather rejoyce and glory in the repetition , as an opportunity of new acting them . the adversaries base temper shall not be gratified by any king of confornity with them in obloquy ; but seeing they would not but be guilty of the commissions , i must ( though i pity them and blush at it ) proceed in the relation . in the recital of the last passages ( i confess ) i blame my self , not for any thing unduly represented , but that i have not retained that patience in penning which i had in sustaining them . but i entreat those sharp judgements ( whom nevertheless the love of loyalty and the church doth sweeteh ) that observe discomposures , to pardon the imbecilities occasioned by a renewed sense of the oppressions . now having said this in order to the readers apprehending me what probably i am , a churchman and loyal , i preface the bristol narraon with the mention of a pedigree , which i should not have insisted on , more than that the consideration of my progenitors may in much measure give assurance that i think my self obliged to loyalty and conformity . i am the great grandson of thomas godwyn , sometime bishop of bath and wells , and dr. wootton bishop of exeter , and the grandson of francis godwyn , sometime bishop of hereford , and dr. ralph barlow , sometime dean of wells , the son of morgan godwyn dr. of laws , archdeacon of salop , canon residentiary of the church of hereford , &c. and chaplain in ordinary to king charles the first of blessed memory . my father being sequestred , plundered of all his books , goods and houshold-stuf●●t the taking of hereford by collonel massey and collonel birch , besides the burning of his vicaridge house at lydney in the forest of dean , was also long imprisoned in hereford as an eminent malignant . but at length being discharged from that confinement , for some years suffered with his family under much indigency , continuing resolutely firm to his principles of loyalty and obedience . about the year fifty two he became master of a small freeschool at newland in the forest of dean before mentioned , the salary whereof was then but ten pounds yearly , where nevertheless his condition became indifferently plentiful by the frequency of persons sons of quality sent to him from diverse parts to be disciplined ; but especially by the bountiful support of the never to be forgotten most loyal and pious lord viscount scudamore , of holme-lacy in herefordshire , and of iames scudamore of ballingham in the same county esquire . here his especial care ( not to speak immodestly of others committed to his charge ) was to insinuate to his sons , that the institutions of the church of england were above any purely primitive , and most rationally accommodated to the benefit of the present age , replete with the most lively excitements to faith and holiness , and only such as could make men happy in their temporal concerns , establishing their welfare in peace by an undisputable obedience to their lawful prince , and other daily discourses tending to the confirmation of our minds in these perswasions . about the beginning of the year fifty five , the most bloody regicide oliver publishing an edict , that no sequestred minister , refusing to take the engagement , should be tolerated as a publick schoolmaster within england or wales : my father was forc't to quit the employment , but not the house , the feoffees of that school constituting me schoolmaster . within two years after my father died , not permitted in this state of nature , to see the so passionately desired restauration , but translated to a better , where after the congratulatory hymns of cherubim and seraphim , he makes one in the triumphant chorus , rejoycing for our felicity . but here began my conflict with those holy men , whom an infernal inspiration had sanctified , and made the worlds hopeful guides to eternity . for in a short time after one fawcet ( who had been a eminent covenanter and pulpit instigator to rebellion , and was sent down by the company of haberdashers , to be lecturer at newland aforesaid ) and one bromidge ( a london brazier , father to the late sheriff pilkintons wise , but purchasing an estate in the parish of newland , and dwelling there ) a zealous covenanter , also used diverse stratagems , encouraged by the imbecillity of my years and judgement to kid-nap me over to their leud and disloyal principles . but god's blessings upon my fathers instructions had fortified me against this danger , and my youth was sufficient to answer arguments , the strength of which i have alway thought to consist more in the invincible malice and perverseness of their minds , than any reasons that party did ever produce . this project of proselyting me into an uncooth , rude , and rebellious religion failing , the reader ( i suppose ) conjectures the consequence , that nothing calm or suitable to christian perswasion would follow , but violence take place where consent was not obtained . therefore they endeavour by all possible means to prevail with the feeffees of the school to eject me ; but my fathers memory ( with peradventure some other sansfactions ) in the chief of them so overruled , that nothing more than the appearance of some snarling teeth was done to my prejudice . but when god was pleased to smile , and reinstate us in the fruition of a just and free subjection to the vndoubted heir to these crowns , the most gracious of kings ( eligible above all men , were our condition to that degree unfortunate as to have the scepter elective ) and by his reestablishment to bring us to his sacred house and altar , there to rejoyce with the thankful who kept holy-day , then did these snaps of sedition retire into silence ashamed of their devices . at this school , and in serving the cure of st. briavils ( having entred into holy orders soon after his majesties return ) i continued untill after the bartholomew act , when the viccaridge of st. philip and iacob , in the city of bristol became void by the non-subscription and conformity of edward hancock acting as incumbent there . to the acceptance of this church i was invited by mr. nathaniel cale , ( my fathers intimate friend ) mayor of bristol that year , mr. henry iones then rector of st. stephens in bristol and diverse others . in which vicaridge , as soon as i was s●tled , the factious parties began to practice against me without any provocation , more than my exactness of conformity , which i must boast my self to admire in others , and alway strictly to have enjoyned to my self ) having not time to know persons or enquire into dispositions , had my inclinations otherwise led me . within the space of four or five days ( at the utmost ) after my induction came seven men ( of whom i knew but one to my lodgings , with much smoothness and expressions of respect , desiring to be known to me , as being parishioners and vestry-men ; and after some short discourse had in my chamber , desired me to receive a treat from them at the kings arms in christmas-street , then a tavern . where after a small sitting , their ill looks and affected words sufficiently instructed me what the men were ; but every second or third man very kindly presented me with service and a glass . the company being-suspitious , the treat could not be pleasant ; but taking my leave , they importuned me with a sort of unusual complements to a longer stay , which i refused . two of these were not acquainted with the design , but my retiring so unexpectly ●oon caused the others passionately to urge unto the two ( mr. william baber powdermaker to king charles the first at oxford , and mr. nicholas willis then churchwardens of that parish , and brought along to palliate the others contrivance ) who were unwitting of the project . that they had discovered their design , thomas edwards wheelright and henry lang a sergeman were the principal actors in this hony plot , and raving at their want of success , could not but divulge it . the next day mr. baber and mr. willis came to acquit themselves to me , and declared all the passages , viz. that if they could have made me drunk , partly by scandal , partly by articling against me , they did not question to remove me . not long after died one iames powel , who during much of the time of confusion had been chamberlain of the city , and alway both a defender of that execrable murder of our martyred soveraign , and violent persecuter of all such as he imagined loyal and affectionate to th● church . this person ( forsooth ) must be buried without divine service read at the interment , because he had sometime before his death conjured his relations so to bury him , to which if i consented i should be liberally gratified . my answer informed them that i was unacquainted with such testaments , and such sorts of liberality , which was more properly scandalous bribery ; and i met the corps brought to the churchyard gate , beginning , according to prescription , the service for the occasion : but the bearers ran forward with such haste , that it would have given thoughts that their master had whipt them forward , fearing the late arrival of his purchase . me they violently pluckt aside , and took from me the service book , giving me diverse blows , together with incredible scurrilous language , and the clerke putting his hand upon the coffin , using perswasions not to inter●upt the office of the church , a stander by wrest the spade out of the sextons hand , and chops the clerks hand so that the blood ran upon the coffin , his funeral , being as his life , besmeared with innocent blood. alderman miles iackson and alderman sandy stood by beholding these violencies , and were not observed with the least word or motion to offer their authority towards the curbing them . i complaining to my diocesan of the so unaccountable carriage of these men , he immediately sent for dr. gilbert iones then chancellor of the diocess , and commanded him severely to prosecute these offenders : but he making me and five more witnesses to daunce attendance weekly for the space of above half a year , i never heard more proceeding against them , than these words three several court days directed to them ; gentlemen your business here before me is very foul , but i will do you all the kindness that i can , in conclusion , the good aged bishop was tired with chiding and threatning , and we with attending , and so our admirable chancellor punished these rioters . these abuses were followed with scandals of so notorious a nature , that none the most debaucht villians could be said to be guilty of greater , and the abettors tutered by one ralph farmer ( vulgarly before my living in bristol called malitious farmer ) who had been first a maltster , then a sequestrator , and lastly , became such a minister as the times encouraged , and held st. nicholas church , from which the late reverend mr. towgood dean of bristol was sequestred . particularly a plot was laid for me at the marriage of the daughter of one iohn dowl , alias gotly ( a strange two legged beast ( as i found afterward ) but utterly unknown and unheard of by me before that time ) with whom upon invitation i dined and departed within half an hour after dinner , but could not deny the promise of coming again to supper , upon the very earnest importunities of this dowl with pretence of especial friends of mine , ( whom he named ) who had promised to be there likewise ; i coming at the hour appointed , seeing many disorderly persons there , but none of ●●ose mentioned , took my leave and went home , yet was i reported to have danced and drank till past mid-night , to have been so drunk that i was not able to go , but to be driven home in a wheelbarrow . these reports coming to the before-mentioned alderman cale's ears , and he acquainting me of the rumor , by his advice i convened the authors before the bishop ; having first made my complaint to his lordship , and discovered the improbability of receiving justice from the chancellor , if i should sue them in the ecclesiastical court. the authors were the said iohn dowl , and two other most profligate persons , whom i had never seen before , thomas boice and robert bowen . with them i also convened the bridegroom , and divers of the brides relations . dowl , boice , and bowen were by chance overheard to be advised by ralph farmer to speak confidently , and if the bishop should condemn them , yet the infamy would stick to me . the bishop being informed hereof examined them singly . they all three agreed in their story alledging what was before spoken ; but boice affirmed that i was there ( concerned as is mentioned ) till eleven of the clock at night , dowl said till one , bowen till two in the morning . on my side , the bridegroom and the relations testified that i departed the house at seven of the clock that night , and that they neither saw nor heard any thing tending to excess or folly of the nature of what his father-in-law and the other two declared . furthermore going home , i was met neer the door of my house , at seven of the clock by three country gentlemen , who intimated a desire to speak with me , and promised to be with me within an hour ; but staying longer , i was in bed by nine of the clock , and scarcely lain down when the gentlemen came and were brought up into my chamber , and their business being only to deliver a licence , and treat with me concerning the time of marrying the persons therein mentioned , departed . these i brought also and my servants , who all testified so much ; yet the three found thus malitiously false and ( although unknown then to me ) long known to the whole city to be the vilest of men , sticking at no sort of rudeness , lies or debauchery , found among the godly , sober party , the credit of saints and angels . besides many other contumelious reports , groundless and silly ( such as church-haters had forged in their extravagant mirth , and used to tell of parsons even before my birth ) impudently , packt upon me , for the space of several years ; i could not walk the streets without vollies of scurrilous terms , and reflections , thrown at me by apprentices , and journymen , the masters standing by and shewing themselves therewith pleased . but my patience ( i thank god ) preserved me from the harms intended me by that sort of battery , and i was no more afflicted , then so ●a● as compassion for their malice and folly , moved me to sorrow ; neither did i forbear passing through any street by reason of the reproachfulness of the inhabitants , or gratifie any ill temper by anger , or so much as turning my head to look upon the persons of disingenuity . nevertheless i was not ignorant that the ill characters of my person , were not the sole aim of their aspersions , but had learned from the examples of superiors ( at the pedestral of whose imitators i presumed to stand ) that the blackning a name by obloquy , made a grand progress in ruin. and these were preparatives for justification of actions to follow , which were frequent arrests of me and my servants ; of my self for words pretended to be spoken , of which they never stood to the trial , of my servants for the like , and for treading besides the paths of some of their grounds in their looking after my tithes . and although they dared not stand to a legal deremination , yet this was expensive , and they hoped by continual actions to impoverish me , and likewise to tire the patience of my friends , whom i made use of as bayl , that if they could not drive me out of the city , yet they might secure me in a prison . the before named dowle , boyce and one francis bell were the principal actors herein . in the beginning of december in the year that sir thomas lancton was mayor ( i cannot exactly speak the number of the year ) i had occasion to send a letter by a trowman to one henry hyman living near monmouth , who was wont to furnish me with provisions of corn , bacon , &c. and not finding the trowman aboard his trow , his men directed me to the place where he was at the white hart in corn-street . where finding him , i had scarcely delivered my business and called for a flagon of beet , when before i tasted it , came into the room one atwood and dickenson chief constable and constable of all-hollows ward , ( the later being a reverend heelmaker and speaker in an anabaptist conventicle ) who after some gaping one upon another , and a short silence , began to demand of me what business i had there . i answered , that i would return them an account if they first satisfied me what authority they had to examine me . but their answer was short , that they were constables and must bring me before the mayor . i refusing to go unless they shewed me a sufficient warrant , they laid hands on me and dragged me forth , dickenson striking me diverse blows , because , forsooth ( not knowing the man but guessing by his words and gesture ) i said i believed him to be some zealous tub preaching cobler . the mayor being not at home , they drew me to and fro through the streets ( as if some notorious malefactor ) in quest of the mayor , and after two hours finding him , dukenson presented me , informing him where they found me , and beginning to preach to the mayor and both sheriffs ( present then ) how unseemly and scandalous a thing it was for ministers to frequent publick houses , &c. sir thomas ( whose thoughts were clear of phanatical dregs ) required by what warrant they had thus apprehended me ; they produced sir thomas's warrant to search all publick houses and suspicious places , and to apprehend all such strangers as they any where met with , who could not give an account of the places of their abode or business in town , it being soon after an insurrection in the north. the mayor replied , you intimate that you know mr. godwyn to be a clergyman , and do you not know his place of abode ? they confessed , yes . what then is this ( said he ) to your warrant ? but furthermore tell me whether you found mr. godwyn doing there any ill or unlawful act , or , can you prove that he sat there drinking beyond the limits by the law exprest ? they answered , no , but began as before to cant and tell him , that ministers of the gospel ought to be pure and of good conversation and example . but the mayor and sheriffs threatning them for this fact , they departed . yet this they reported ( and diverse in the city lovers of the church as well as enemies believed it ) that they had taken me in a house drunk , and that the mayor had ordered me to provide sureties the next day for the behaviour , and intended to indict me the next quarter sessions . diverse litigious actions and approbrious reflections ( too tedious to insert here ) being this year thrown upon me , the next year mr. willoughby was mayor , in whose time certain persons in and near the city died of the plage . but one mr. walter chester a gentleman of my parish falling sick and dying of a prurisie , because i had during the time of his sickness been diverse times at prayer with him , and had administred to him the holy eucharist , the mayor upon slight information that he died of the plague , shuts up my house and places musqueteers at my street and back doors . the physitian who was daily and almost hourly with mr. chester in his sickness lived almost in the heart of the city , the apothecary dwelt by the toulzey , where the magistrates and merchants daily met , yet no notice was taken of them , whereas my house in the suburbs must be shut up . and both to remove all pretence of the mayor and other magistrates not knowing who was the sick mans physitian or apothecary , and manifest this an act of malice against me , the last is shewn by their fearless discourses and reception of the former . for dr. william sermon the physitian and mr. martin the apothecary in the presence of the mayor and aldermen at the toulzey made oath that mr. chester died not of any contagious disease but of the plurisie ; so did one woman who attended him in his sickness , and two others who laid him out ( as they term it ) sware that there was not the least spot or token of the plague upon the body . but before this oath taken , the mayor and the rest discourst dr. sermon and mr. martin as unconcernedly as if beforehand satisfied there was no occasion for their oath . yet after their oaths and a permission that the deceased persons body should be interred in the chancel of his parish church , the musqueteers were continued at my doors two days , and when the corps of my friend and parishioner was carried by my door to be buried i was denied by the guard ( which was strengthned with the mayor and sheriffs sarjeants and officers more at that time than before ) to do my office as incumbent or perform the last requisits of friendship towards a person i intirely loved . but then i furiously brake through them , and accompained my truly kind neighbour to his last repose . and here malice took its old course , and mr. thomas dayes ( since an alderman of the city as i have been informed ) was the author of a report ( which was spread abroad with the wonted celerity of a party willing to fix scandal ) that he died not of a plurisie , but a violent fever occasioned by high drinking with me . meeting him upon the arrival of the scandal at mine ears , i desired him to intimate to me the place and time when mr. chester and i had been together more than one quarter of an hour in a month before his sickness ; he answered , that he had heard so much ; but being prest to let me understand by whom this was told him , and what probable inducements he had to report what tended so highly to the defaming of a clergyman , i could obtain no answer , but after a hum and haw or two pretended , he was glad that it was not true , and that he would satisfie those to whom he had spoken it that he believed the report to be false . i thanked him for his first great civility in so freely murdering my reputation , and the second in taking me to be so eminent a coxcomb as to believe , that he would make it his business to give himself the lye , and then took my leave of him . within three weeks after this one crow my parishioner his wife coverously buying the clothes of some who died of the plague , fell sick and died of it likewise . i had not heard of either his death or sickness , but took a boat with six friends to go down to the port of kingroad to see the saint patrick frigat , which was newly built , rigged and ready to sail . in my absence notice was given of this mans funeral , but the cause of his death concealed . my clerk desired mr. forcith rector of the next parish of st. peters to bury this person , which he readily did , neither he , nor any neigbour accompanying the corps to the grave suspecting the disease whereof he died to be what it afterward appeared . two days after came constables , sarjeants and watchmen armed with musquets and swords acquainting me from the mayor that my house must be shut up in regard of the danger the city was in by suffering me or any of my family to walk the streets , seeing i had been so desperate as to bury a man dying of the plague . i knowing nothing of it , thought it had been the old story of mr. chester revived , but afterward diverse persons dying suddenly , who had been at that burial , i understood the ground of my confinement . to remove the mistake i sent four of the persons who were with me on board the st. patrick that day to testifie my not burial of that corps , they knowing me to be ten miles out of the city . but mr. mayor replied that i was a bold adventurous person and made more scruple of a ceremony than running the city , and that if i had not buried crow , yet if i were at liberty i would bury others , and therefore the guards should be continued . so by this sort of preventive justice my house was shut up a whole month . yet all this while diverse inhabitants of the city , present at crows burial , who did eat and drink in the house were not any way taken notice of . the same year being repairing my vicaridge house , i cut down an ash in the church-yard which was serviceable for that purpose , and was indicted at the quarter sessions for making waste upon the city lands . now the pretence of calling the church-yard the city land was that the mayor , aldermen and common council had the right of presentation to that vicaridge . their folly could amount to no more than putting me to expences , for esteeming it my duty to defend the rights of my church i proceeded to traverse the indictment , but it was let fall , they thinking it not safe to go on to a tryal . alderman morgan ( as i take it ) succeeded mr. willoughby ; nevertheless upon st. iohns day in christmas in mr. morgans year , while i was reading the evening service for that festival , a great company of boyes ( fifty or more ) with shouts and hideous noises at the church doors interrupted the devotions of the office. the sexton going forth of the church endeavouring to curb them , was beaten into the church with stones ; the sexton going forth again with the clerk , they were both dealt with in the same manner . seeing no remedy i persisted to the finishing of the days duty as well as i could in such a disturbance : which ended , as we passed out of the church diverse of the boyes fled , but some continued fearless and impudent . among others one bingham more impudent than the rest let down his breeches and in most unseemly manner affronted me and those people who came forth of the church . i confess my indignation compelled me to make him taste the severity of my cane and the tce of my shoe. but the provocation was the greater in regard i had thrice before complained to his grandfather and grandmother thomas wright and his wife , with whom he lived , of his rudeness at other times when i was readding divine service , and have still a confirmation that he was encouraged thereto by them and his mother ( then married to one hart a seaman ) which opinion what i am to deliver fixes in me . for going directly from the church to visit a sick parishioner , while i was praying with her the lads grandmother and mother with other women were at the door of the sick womans house , brawling and making noises little inferiour to that of the boyes at the church door . when i came forth i was saluted with variety of approbrious terms , and the path leading homeward being by the side of a ditch the mother suddenly gives me a thrust which had inevitably plunged me in the mire and dyed my gown , had not a man coming by observed her motion and plucked me back by the arm . i used all mild expressions to perswade them to come to my house and reason the matter with me there , that it did misbecome them in that nature to make an uproar in the street , and more to that purpose . but they the more furiously belched out foul language , and after such terms used , the grandmother threatned me to acquaint the mayor with what i had done . to all that was said i made no reply , but walkt on with silence until that last womanish threatning , to which turning about i answered , the mayor will much thank you for it . immediately the mother bawls out , what do you not care a fart for the mayor ? the brawl oceasioned a great concourse among which were some good people , but especially five men , who had often rebuked the women for their misbehaviour . to these ( as soon as the women had spoken the words ) i said , it 's a thousand to one but these malitious women will inform and insence the mayor with the words pretended to be spoken , whereas you can testifie that nothing like it came from me . i did not in the least suspect that the mayor could be so wretchedly silly as to take notice of it , but conjectured that through their want of discretion a gossipping or pick-thank story might be promoted . but the next morning came two sarjeants to my house requiring my appearance before mr. mayor immediately at the toulzey . i desired to see their warrant , but they answered that they were the mayors sarjeants and their persons were warrants . i refused to go without a warrant , but they laid hands upon me and compelled me . at the toulzey were present the grandmother and the mother , who sware that i said i did not care a fart for the mayor . the mayor and aldermen then present ( expect sir thomas langton , who departed saying to his brethren , you do not do well to hearken to womens title tattles , i 'le be gone ) required me to give sureties for the answering at the next quarter sesons and the behaviour in the mean time . but i had sent for the five men before mentioned , who offered to swear that being between me and the women they heard all the words by me uttered at that time , while the women were brawling , but that they did not hear any such words spoken by me . sir iohn knight the elder ( who esteems himself an oracle of the law ) told them , this was a negative oath and would signifie nothing . i argued , that if i had spoken such words , the place where they were said to be spoken was not within any part of the city , but in glocestershire , and that in the womens oath there was no mention of any particular mayor of glocester more than bristol , or bristol than coventry ; but to manifest that i was not so ungratefully ill-bred as causelesly to affront so eminent a magistrate and one of my patrons , i offered to take my oath that i was so far from speaking those words , that they were not so much as in my thoughts , until the womens speaking them . but sir iohn could speak nothing but law , and that discreetly and accepted neither my asleveration as a clergyman , nor my oath as a man ; two witnesses swearing positively , and my oath being only negative and in my own cause . i urged again , that if any person had been faulty in speaking rudely of another , to any ingenious men his being ashamed thereof was sufficient satisfaction , and that it was satisfaction enough in my judgement that my self and five more ( persons of known repute ) could swear the words not spoken by me , and what i offered was argument enough that i esteemed such language misbecoming me , that it could not appear other than malice and revenge in the women ; and lastly , that if the words had really been spoken , i saw no ground that they had for such proceeding , but that my rudeness was my own punishment . sir iohn insisted upon the positive oaths , and required surety , which i denied so much as to seek for : so my mittimus was made and i was committed to newgate prison for the space of six days , sir iohn knight , alderman willoughby , alderman hix , alderman stevens , and alderman lawford signed the mittimus : during which time i desired on sunday and newyears day to have the liberty to officiate at my parish church paying a keeper to go with me . the goaler dared not permit this without the mayors leave . i wrote to the mayor to desire that liberty , but was denied . at six days end i gave bayl , but the night before i went forth of the prison , the keeper of it ( being sent for into my chamber to receive his chamber-rent and fees ) began to perswade me to a submission and to cast my self wholly upon the mayor and aldermens mercy : my answers averse to his propositions seemed strange , especially in regard of their power , and that ( although persons very rich in their own private fortunes ) they would prosecute me with the chamber-stock , and in fine would certainly ruine me . i replied , that little of their love to justice would appear in their relying only upon their power and riches ; that the trust was presumed to be put into the manegery of those that were impartial , who would not be moved to wrong doing by either favour or spleen . at last after much discourse to this purpose i said , come , come , mr. holt ( the keepers name ) thy are a company of noddies and know not what they do . this was a grand offence and moved the sophies to high indignation , especially by the keepers ( to obtain with his masters the repute of being diligently jealous of their esteem ) adding and swearing more than was spoken , although words in themselves meerly frivolous . hereupon i was again committed and detained under close confinement ten days more , and then bayled forth . during my confinement the mayor , sir iohn knight , the two sheriffs , mr. robert aldworth the townclarke who had been a collonel in service against king charles the st . and son of that insolent and ungrateful rebel alderman aldworth , who being mayor of bristol shut the city gates against his master , and the king forcing his entrance , with an unusual clemency , not only prohibited military execution ( as in those cases ) but was graciously pleased both to pardon the traytor and recommit to him the sword. yet his majesty had no sooner left the city but aldworth did ( notwithstanding his many pretensively thankful asseverations of future allegiance ) conspire against his prince , whose most eminent compassion reprieved him from the jaws of hell , and made the city a parliament garrison . mr. robins steward of the sheriffs court was sent with diverse others to the bishop with the complaint of my rude carriage toward the mayor at one time , and most of the magistrates of the city came at another . sir iohn knight , as most potent in law , laid open the offence in a speech very copious and prodigiously eloquent , concluding with a prayer that i might be prosecuted for this misdemeanour in the ecclesiastical court ; mr. aldworth seconded him ; but mr. robins expresly denied to speak against a clergy-man in a cause whereof he was altogether dislatisfied . the bishop ( when sir iohns gaping fit was over ) had liberty to deliver his sentiments , that he thought the magistrates had done very ill in committing a clergy-man to prison on pretence of misdemeanour of words ; that if any words deserving punishment had been spoken , he accounted himself the proper judge ; that they had shewed too much of prejudice and little knowledge in endeavouring to inflict on any man for the same offence two punishments , unless in such case as the law did especially provide ; that he had taken care to examine the whole matter and found that there was nothing but malice in it , being confident that the words ( which the women testified ) were not spoken , and that ( if spoken ) he saw no remedy that they had by such ways of proceeding ; that it was a blemish to their authority and judgements to give ea● to such impertinent informations : lastly , that he required them fortwith to release me . but sir iohn to manifest his subtilty as well as eloquence , had reserved to the last what he had to alledge of most weighty consequence , that i had assaulted and beaten a boy ( bingham before mentioned ) in the church-yard of st. philip , &c. upon st. iohn's day in the even last ; that by the statute of the fourth of king edward the sixth , every clergy-man fighting , striking or brawling within the precincts or limits of any church or church-yard be forthwith suspended from his office. his lordship replied , that sir iohn mistook the meaning of the statute , it being intended to curb the licentiousness of extravagant persons , who except by the sense of a penalty , knew not how to distinguish places consecrate from unconsecrate ; that sir iohn shewed himself missed by passion in speaking so sharply a clergy-man , and forgetting the occasion , the boys insolence in disturbing divine service , and beating the clerk and sexton with stones ; that withall he had done well in shewing his respect to the church by promoting prosecution against the women , who followed mr. godwyn through the church-yard brawling , terming him rogue and papist villain , with many other approbrious terms , which ( although it proved otherwise ) might have provoked him to unadvised expressions ; that the statute urged by sir iohn enabled the ordinary of the diocess to proceed against lay persons offending against the tenor of it to suspension ab ingressu ecclesiae as well against clergy-men to suspension ab officio ; that therefore he must either proceed against the sextons of the cathedral for correcting , in his view , boyes or others misbehaving themselves in the church , or suffer divine service to the reproach of religion to be huddled up with a mixture of all sorts of confused noises ; which was mr. godwyns case ; and that seeing sir iohn , in the precise letter of the law , termed this act of mr. godwyns an assault upon the lad , as bishop he must proceed against the master of the school within the limits of the cathedral to a suspension as often as any silly woman should complain that her son , or grandsons , or cozens buttocks were assaulted by the master . sir iohn retired with much regret that his learning and faculties were slighted ; but before departure gravely informed his lordship , that it would not redound to his honour to defend such as delighted in affronting magistrates , and to encourage clergy men to be strikers and revengers of their own injuries . at the quarter sessions following two indictments were drawn up against me , and found by the grand iury. these being upon appeal removed to the kings bench , in the hillary term following coming to london , as i passed through chancery lane in order to advise with mr. gregory ( now sir william gregory , one of the honourable barons of the exchequer ) i met with aldworth before-mentioned , who with much pretended kindness saluted me , and desired my company for a short space in lincolns inn walks . i consented and received there diverse fawning and bemoaning expressions , intimating how much he respected me , and was troubled at the unhappy differences between the city and me . he importuned me not to proceed , for that his affection to me was such that he would make up the breach , and beget in the magistrates an advantageous understanding of me ; that his acquaintance with me since my coming to bristol assured him that what was sworn by the women was malitious and false , with much more of that nature . in fine i promised not to proceed , if he promised me faithfully to take care that no advantage thereof should be taken . this with exceeding pleasantness and smiles he thankt me for , bidding me not doubt in the lest but that he would do that and more than i could imagine conducing both to my credit and interest , s●eing my ready inclinations to a peaceable composure . i relying on these promises returned to bristol , immediately after my return was taken into custody by process out of the crownoffice for not prosecuting the traverse , and was forced to pay charges and give security to traverse the indictments . the next term i met him in westminster-hall , where he began to accost me with the same wheedle ; and my retort of his breach of promise gave him no blush nor moved him from any complement , only he assured me that small charges would signifie nothing in respect to the kindnesses which he intended me . many endearing expressions i received , but bluntly told him that i would no more believe a person who had once forfeited his credit in an affair of such a sort , that in might have been at will preserved , wishing him to attend the court to make defence , for that i resolved by the first opportunity by counsels motion to endeavour to quash the indictments . which the next day by the now mr. baron gregory was performed , the court severely checking mr. townclark for advising and defending such prosecution . now it pleased god to frustrate the malitious intentions of these people without any great affliction to me . yet i cannot but observe by the way , that seeing how desperately the two women and holt sware , had their knowledge been better informed , they would undoubtedly have sworn to a higher pitch . for the perjury being the same as if they had sworn burglary against me , the oath would not have choaked them sooner in one case than the other . holt not long after died ravingly mad , and crying out against perjury , and demanding what 's the reward of false swearing ? mrs. wright , binghams grandmother lived two years after or thereabouts , and then falling sick , and being near death , was frequent ( as divers , who visited her , informed me ) in very horrid expressions as despairing , although pretensively she was very religiously addicted . i was told likewise by certain neighbours who visited her , that she was very desitous to speak with me , and to that end i came thrice , as well out of pity as conscience of duty to pray with and discourse her , but her daughter ( bingham's mother ) denied me admittance . this daughter is yet , or was lately alive , but , poor wretch ! most unfortunate ever since that oath taken , living before that very prosperously . she 's laden with infamy and scorn by the miscarriages both of her husband and self ; and her other great calamities ought not to be reflected upon , if the leudness of her life , and no apparent sense of that misery did not spur me on thus to mention so great an object of compassion , on whom i beseech god to have mercy . in the same year of mr. morgan's mayoralty ( sir iohn knight and mr. aldworth being the principal contrivers ) i had two more admirable trials of my patron 's affection . the first was the old project of scandal , ( and ( were not my evidence mr. burroughs then swordbearer now dead ) i would more plainly say subornation of perjury to render me scandalous ) to the carrying on of which they busily tampered with such as were esteemed meet for their purpose , whom while supplied with drink , they found ready to say any thing that might gratifie their masters , their chief factor was one thomas warren , whose employment it was to pick up merchants of fame . of such seaven ( men and women ) were selected as able to carry on the work , whose names , and the substance of what they were to testifie being brought to mr. aldworth , he drew them up in form ready for oath and signature . this was discovered by mr. burroughs , ( a zealously loyal churchman ) who gave me the respect of a visit , and to advise me to look to my self , for that he overheard some whisperings of design against me , and saw papers handed from one to another by the mayor , townclark and others upon that day dining with the mayor . in short , the mayor and other particles of iustice were on a certain day drawn together into the council chamber of the city , to sit , as in a council of war , to determine of a poor vicars repute ; and thomas warren was file-leader of the executioners ; for two of the seaven appeared not at all . the five managed one by one by warren , and brought to aldworth ( who stood in the stairs leading to the chamber to preexamine and instruct ) denied to swear what they had said . warren was angry , and aldworth askt them what they came thither for , if th●● would not swear ? to whose question they answered , that mr. warren made them drunk , and that ( whatever they had said in their drink ) they would not swear what was read to them out of mr. aldworth's papers for all the world . so the right worshipful and worshipful departed as wise and honest as they came . their intentions had been buzzed about the city among the conventicling parties , before mr. burrough's discovery , although not so privately , but that some of the ort●odox party discerned somewhat of contrivance against me though they knew not what it was , the day only being known when something of an high nature was to be proved against me . this brought the factious birds in flocks , and the uncertain rumour brought the ingenious sorrowful men to be spectators . diverse of these last saw warren busie in whispering and introducing the witnesses one by one , but mr. burroughs only heard the words spoken by and to mr. aldworth , having , by virtue of his office , more liberty than others to come within hearing . this holy stratagem was improsperous , but malice being alway active , they are furnisht with a new devise . matter of scandal was some years laid aside , but in the same mr. morgan's mayoralty i was sent for to the toulzy by a serjeant , and there brought up into the council house , where sir iohn knight twatled at his accustomed rates , demanding of me particularly by what pretence of right i received tithes within the liberties of the city ; my answer was , as lawful incumbent of the vicaridge of st. philip of jacob within the city . sir iohn replied , that the city by its charter was exempted from all payments of tithes , the chamber paying fourteen ( to the best of my remembrance ) pounds yearly to the abby of tewkesbury part of the queens dower pro omnibus decimis villae bristol . i justified the tithes my right , as being received by my predecessors so long as that the memory of man could not alledge to the contrary , and that i would defend the rights of my church to the utmost of my power , not fearing gods blessing upon endeavours and a cause so just . the parishioners , such as were phanatical and willing to contribute to ruine the church , had private notice to be ready , and the chief of them called up into the council house ▪ and commanded to pay no more tithes to me or any succeeding vicar of that parish , assuring them , that if i brought any action against any of them , their charges should be reimbursed out of the chamber stock . i urged that the rector of st. michaels in the city received tithes time out of mind for lands within the liberties of the city , and that the city chamber paid the incumbent of little st. augustines an annual composition for priors hill , in regard it was made common to the citizens for certain uses , and ceased to be beneficial as formerly , together with other lands within that parish , upon which buildings were erected . sir iohn learnedly confuted me with saying , that that of st. augustines was matter of benevolence , and the other should be enquired into . i departed , and in pursuance of my promise , served thomas warren and others with subpenaes out of the exchequer for non-satisfaction for my tithes . they defended the cause for a while , but , after considerable expences , coming to the succeeding mayor alderman stevens with a bill of charges , and to petition for an order for reimbursement according to the former assurance , the mayor ( although very forward in encouraging them the preceding year , and as forwardly concerned in the former practises against me ) had considered of the matter , and answered that no such order should be granted ; that alderman morgan galloped too fast in promises , but that he would trot on considerately in performancies of his engagements in rash attempts . this answer cooled my adversaries , and for that time they came to composition ; neither did i find any further trouble from the following mayors or other than due respects . but the turbulent spirit of phanaticism began by banding together , to bring to pass by their own purses and subtilties , what they failed of effecting by the magistrates . to this end divers of them ( fourteen in number ) entred into a combination and mutual engagement to detain my tithes , not only within the liberties of the city , but those parts of the parish which lay without the city . the names of these were iohn dowl , thomas warren , iohn teage , richard winston , robert miles , and francis bell , principal conspirators ; with whom associated in councel thomas edwards , thomas wright , henry lang not sued , but promoters of the others obstinacy . the rest were rather drawn in , and therefore after some time left them . but three years they held me in law , making affidavits of one sort or other , and bringing down commission upon commssion . at length ( when they had almost worn me out ) they began to suspect and disagree among themselves . for the greater charged the meaner with such large bills in parnership from time to time , that they began to fear themselves ensnared , and to shew their bills . this i by accident hearing was not wanting to add fewel to their jealousie , which increasing , they deserted the knot of complicators , and not only compounded with me , but became also conformable . the rest stood off , but not much longer . the miss of so many contributors troubled them ; for seditious men as they are malitious and care not how deeply they engage in mischief , so are they for the most part seditious out of covetousness . these also began to be jealous one of another , and by degrees compounded , all except teage and winston , who in conclusion were the asses , which bare the others burdens ; for they were compelled to agreement on almost arbitrary terms . thus was the storm over , which by most rational mens conjectures would have sunk or wrackt me ; but divine providence reserving me to further trials , permitted not this divice to be successful ; their own follies ruined what in their first consultations was perniciously resolved . then i had some rest for two years , the following mayors sir robert yoemans and alderman streamer being so generously and discreetly affected to loyalty and the discipline of the church , that the sly conventicler durst not attempt by them ; the bishop would not be moved , and the law gave him no encouragement . the adversary had , during the late times of confusion , concealed the vicaridge rights , and hoped to have involved them in custom , insomuch that at my first coming thither my yearly accounts of the vicaridge tithes , offerings and other customary duties amounted not to thirty pounds ; which ( by their own wrangling and disingenuous practises chiefly ) i had by this time raised to be an hundred and ten pounds yearly , being perfectly assured they were worth thirty pounds more . but i thought i had done enough , and was desirous of embracing that tranquility , which then seemed to court me . nevertheless within half an year after the birth of my confidence that i should be at rest ( having patiently wearied the men of commotion ) it pleased god that i was afflicted with a violent quartan ague , which worried me two years together . towards the end of this distemper a certain quaker named morrice williams ( whose wife was master and governor according to the methods of perverseness in general use among sectaries ) fearing a law suit for the tithes of many years in arrears , came to me and reckoned with me , the account arising to twenty three pounds and upward . this debt he said he could not pay in ready mony , neither otherwise , in regard of his wifes unmanagable temper . but he desired me for the future to take my tithes in kind , wherein i shoul● have no opposition , but a free allowance from him so to do , and also to take as much more as my tithes yearly until the debt should be satisfied . t●is was on both sides concluded , but not put in execution , morrice williams soon after dying . his widow i designed to compel to payment , being able to prove the account and acknowledgements of her husband . to this end i caused her to be summoned into the ecclesiastical court , where she was required either to produce and prove a will , or to administer to her husbands estate . she denied any will made , or to take any oath in order to administration . her refusal being entred i administred as principal creditor , and by virtue of my administration took into my possession divers head of cattle . but mr. thomas day ( beforementioned ) being landlord of what ground morrice williams farmed , caused the cattle to be brought back by an illegal replevin . his reasons for fetching them back were grounded upon a pretended right that he had to ●hem , as being made over to him by morrice williams in his lifetime ; and that the cause of this conveyance was that williams and his wife being obstinate conventiclers , if their cattle should be seised for penalties , in meeting contrary to the tenor of the acts against unlawful assemblies , they might be disabled from paying his rent . so here was a present fraud to bassle the procedure of justice , out of pretence of an inconvenience that might possibly follow . mr. day was that year one of the sheriffs , which swelled his confidence , and gave his dishonest thoughts the larger wings . but yet this knack of the conveyance of the cattle did not look safe ; therefore at last the widow ●ued forth of the prerogative court letters of administration , and although not sworn , was returned sworn by one ( matthew i suppose ) hazard a nonconformist preacher . i opposed my letters of administration to hers , and upon a commission inquiry being made what bona notabilia morrice williams had out of the diocess at the time of his death , there was only proof that a certain man owed him five pounds for hey received from williams ; but upon close examination it was found a desperate debt , the debtor owing many hundreds more than he was able to pay , ( whereas it is required that he had of such a value in goods or good debts to make it a prerogative case ) neither could they prove whether this debtor was then within the diocess or not . this notwithstanding ( i being confined by sickness to my chamber , and not able to appear in or look after the managing of my business ) the administration was granted to the widow . and after my recovery being in london with my proctor admiring how the cause was so carried , i received only this satifaction from him ; this it is to bring into any court a cause which is against the interest of the court. mr. day was not content with this victory , nor with ordinary courses for recovery of damages pretended to be sustained in driving of the cattle , but sued my servant to an outlawry in the kings bench. the outlawry was surreptitiously obtained ; and the proceedings were in the kings bench on purpose to make the charge excessive before i could be able to make defence . therefore the writ was taken out in the middle of hillary term , and the man arrested and imprisoned , no bail or remedy to be taken , but that he must continue a prisoner until by habeas corpus he could be brought to give bail before one of the iustices of the kings bench , which could be no sooner than easter term. had not malice and zeal to faction spurred him on , that is , if bare reparation for a trespass had been the utmost of his intention , the man might any day , or almost any hour of any day have been arrested , the cause would sooner have come to tryal , and ( if justice had favoured him ) his damages would have certainly not have been the less for his fair and legal proceeding to judgement . however i resolved to stand to trial , having delivered a writ of habeas corpus to the under-sheriff , mr. day began some other phanatical practises , and daily and hourly after the delivery of the writ , some or other from him were tampering with my servant , instilling into his mind many fearful apprehensions of mr. days power and his own danger , and at length wheedled the silly wretch out of three pounds , and into a general release . but now i am to relate passages , in comparison of which , all that hath been said is so slight and insignificant , that the past actions of mine enemies seem rather complements and civilities than matter of complaint . and if the truth of what i am delivering were not known to many men of indisputable worth and integrity , inhabiting in and near the places of action , i should forbear to write what i must suspect that few or none would believe . but here malice met with an agent , who besides his power knew how to manage a church-murdering weapon . i was advised by dr. ironside ( the beforementioned bishop ) and my ever honoured lord to procure a qualification to make me capable of some kindness , which his lordship would confer upon me as opportunity should serve . i hereupon wrote to one mr. francis melsam then belonging to the paper office in scotland yard to make search for a vacancy , and to give me necessary instructions to whom i must repair for obtaining of it and when . but he very expeditely sent me down a qualification under the lord denzill holles hand and seal , acquainting me that he had given the lords secretary , as his accustomed fee , five guyneas , and left the consideration of his diligence to my own pleasure . i returned him seven guyneas , and the instrument withal to be altered , the clark in drawing it having committed a mistake , naming thomas godwyn vicar of st. peters instead of vicar of st. philip and iacobs church ; which receiving amendment of that error was sent back to me . i came divers times to make offer to his lordship of my service , and to render him thanks for this so ample a favour , but his lordship being either beyond seas , or in the country at such times as i was in london , i had not the sight of my worthy patron . i confess his being one of the five members filled my mind with inauspicious jealousies , fearing that he could not be washt white with all those sacred lavers of royal clemency and grace wherein he floated , who scorned to publish any recognitions of the horrid indignities and affronts thrown upon an incomparable prince . within three years after my becoming a chaplain ( to a lord , whom i could not love , neither was very solicitous to know ) dr. ironsides died and the truly heroick dr. carleton ( now bishop of chichester ) succeeded . he observing the synagogues of satan to be more in esteem and frequented than the temples of our everblessed redeemer , and the insolent behaviour of those that were trained up in those nurseries of pride and mischief , with a truly episcopal zeal laboured the suppression of them . these endeavours must be supposed to be received , not only with the utmost reproaches of a calumniating and viperous generation , but also all the sly arts of revenge . which nevertheless could not reach his lordship ; and therefore they consult how to wound him through the sides of the obedient clergy . of whom likewise two only appeared open to their attempts , the reverend mr. pleydel rector of st. peters curch there , and now archdeacon of chichester , and my self . in conclusion mr. pleydell also brake the snare , but that laid for me was of greater strength . for the lord holles denied the signing and sealing the beforementioned instrument , and expresly before the late lord chancellor accused me of forgery . his lordships secretary was said to be gone into france , and mr. melsam was removed and not to be heard of . a pretence was likewise formed to the lord chancellor that i held two benefices by the means of this forged qualification , and that st. philips in bristol was lapsed into the kings hands by my accepting another benefice , being not legally enabled to hold a plurality . one mr. thomas cary was by the forwarding and underhand assistance of the holy rabble , preferred to be a petitioner for a presentation on the account of the lapse , and the lord chancellor exasperated with the lord holles's complaint and other calumnies ( requisite at such a time for compleating such a project ) would not receive my addresses , petitioning either for a new presentation to correct what might be pretended to be error , or a suspension of mr. carys presentation , until the lord holles's secretary should return to england , when i doubted not to clear my self of the imputation . mr. cary being presented , i wrote to the bishop to entreat his lordship to forbear instituting him , for that i was assured by good counsel that my title was good , and that i resolved to defend it . his lordship received my letter very joyfully , and for a while denied mr. cary institution . but by some artifice two of my friends were wrought upon to believe that his lordships rejecting mr. cary's presentation , would highly redound to his lordships injury by incensing the lord chancellor , who hereby would be compelled to complain of the bishop to his majesty and the council-table . that the bishop would hereby incur his majesties displeasure , and be so far from promoting my interest , that he would render me utterly uncapable of future favour , which would be the consequence of submission , and room made for it in my lord chancellors breast by friendly mediation . this plausibly told to these two gentlemen , ( whose names i forbear to mention , in regard of the trouble which the discovered fraud gave them ) and by persons free from injurious intentions , to whom it had been derived from many and different tempers , they readily deliver the same to the bishop as their perswasion , and his lordship thinking it safest , and best conducing to the growth of my hopes , instituted mr. cary. half an hour had not past after his receiving institution e're a letter to his lordship from me was brought with the news , that i had proved the qualification to be signed and sealed by the lord holles , and that mr. lord chancellor would be assured thereof the next or second day by the lord holles , who promised to make my lord chancellor a visit on purpose to clear my innocence . the bishop was not more joyous at the removal of the lord holles's misapprehensition , than afflicted with his last act , and that he was induced to it before he consulted me . but he could not recall what was done , therefore he advises whether there were yet no remedy left . to this he was answered , that although no other patron , might revoke his presentation after institution , yet the king might before induction . whereupon his lordship immediately dispatch an order to the churchwardens not to deliver to mr. cary the keys of the church , nor suffer him to be inducted . but this wrought no cure ; for the before named thomas warren by ladders , had put up a boy upon the roof of the church , which boy went in at the steeple window , and down by a bel-rope into the church , and opened a door which was only bolted within , and mr. thomas palmer ( so famous for his service to the late parliament-general blake , for his holding the church of all saints bristol , which was the right of that reverend , truly loyal and orthodox mr. george williamson ejected thence by sequestration , and no less nototious for his scandalous piecemeal conformity in the churches , wherein he hath been concerned since the restauration of the church of england , his private wheedling of nonconformists , and publick resistance of his diocesan in his charitable endeavours of regulation ) this mr. palmer was ready at the violation of the church , and did induct mr. cary , and ( if i may inoffensively write what i only conjecture ) probable reasons prompt me to speak him the principal contriver . mr. cary thus got into possession , i that had nothing left wherewith to sustain a necessitous life , must either quietly relinquish my right , or foolishly contend against one that fought me both with my own weapons , and those of a rich and insulting party . but now i must return to shew by what providence the lord holles became convinced that there was no forgery in this matter , unless in him or them who were guilty of framing the accusation . waiting on a certain day upon sir iohn baber , ( who was divers times pleased to treat me with the respects of a kinsman , and was a neighbour and intimate of that lords ) he advised me by no means to frequent the way through coven-garden , should my business thereabout be never so urgent ; for he understood that the lord holles would certainly take me up with a warrant , and prosecute me to the pillory for forgery . i could not but be enraged hereat , and many suddain conceptions traversing my mind without order , i nevertheless without much hesitation replyed to sir. iohn , that my innocence would protect me , and did now render me fearless ; that i would either presently , or at the first opportunity of admittance shew my self to his lordship and ( if he attempted or mentioned any such thing ) let him know how much i dared contemn the threatnings , and could glory in the sufferings of further proceedings . sir iohn blamed me as very ill advised , earnestly dis●wading me from such dangerous rashness . his counsel nevertheless had not prevalency , but i took my leave of him , and for some time walkt under the piazza before his lordships door until i had digested some necessary considerations which then exercised my thoughts . while i was thus walking my brother mr. morgan godwyn a person in orders , and now vicar of bulkington in warwickshire past along , to whom i related sir iohns words and my own resolution . my brother approving my intent , went with me to his lordship , who was so far from menacing , that very complementally he desired us to sit and talkt very much like a good natured gentleman , who would not willingly destroy a pilcher or spart . in discourse he chanced to use the name of mr. newman . now i had formerly been to wait upon his lordship , but missing him met with his secretary and mr. francis melsam before mentioned , with whom sitting , as they talkt ( though of matters not concerning me ) twice or thrice they repeated the name of mr. newman . which that i should remember some years afterwards , moved me to the greater thankfulness to my gracious preserver , in regard it surmounts my reason . but i ( remembring it ) had spent much time in enquiry about the court and other places for mr. newman , although to no purpose . my fancy stedfastly perswaded me that this gentleman either knew what his lordship had done , or could direct me to mr. melsam , which would be equivolent . after so much labour in vain his lordship puts the discovery in order , which more justly and ingeniously he had never occasioned . he speaking of mr. newman , i soon told his lordship , that i was confident that mr. newman knew the hand and seal of the instrument to be his lordships act. doth mr. newman ( saith he ) know any thing of it ? well , mr. godwyn , i will send to speak with him to morrow . but i cannot believe i did it , for although the hand be very well counterfeited , yet i am assured that i never had such a seal in my life time , but pray come again to morrow in the evening , and i will tell you what mr. newman saith . i departed with this order , but had not so much silly patience to wait until his lordships meanders and intricacies should entangle the gentleman . therefore enquiring of his lordships porter we found his habitation to be in the palace yard at westminster , the gentleman to be a iustice of the peace , and a barester of the temple . we first desired to know whether he had at any time heard of one mr. thomas godwyn vicar of st. philips in bristol ? he answered , yes . did you , sir , ever hear that he was chaplain to the lord holles ? he replied , i know it . but pray , gentlemen , why do you enquire this of me ? because ( as we answered ) it is made a doubt whether the lord hollis did ever qualifie him or not , it being reported that what he hath produced as his lordships act is meerly forged . it is ( saith he ) no such thing ; i saw the lord holles sign and seal it at somerset house , for the secretary being sent about his lords business , left it there with me , the writting having three blanks , which i my self filled up ; and when it was to be sealed the secretary having forgotten to leave the seal , his lordship askt my advice whether another seal were not sufficient ? upon my answer that it was , his lordship borrowed his son sir francis holles ' s seal , and therewith sealed it . moreover ( saith he ) by mistake the instrument was penned as directed to thomas godwyn vicar of st. peters , and in regard of this error was remitted to be amended , which i saw done in my lords presence , and instead of st. peters was inserted st. philip and jacob. i then informed him that i was the person , telling him likewise of my danger , and entreating him the trouble to certifie his lordship with what he knew and had spoken . he presently performed it , his lordship seeming to hear it with astonishment . but that which more astonisht me , was the borrowed posture of a concerned gravity , which he put on to cover the former denial ; for it is most incredible that ( sir francis holles's years then considered ) his lordship knew not his sons seal , which he must have seen probably above one thousand , at least divers hundred times . his lordship further pretended much sorrow , that he had wronged me by so unhappy a mistake , but although he conclnded himself surprized some way or other when he set his hand to the writing , yet seeing i had suffered thereby in my reputation and fortune , he would upon his honour labour his utmost to redeem them , both with the lord chancellor and otherwise . i entreated a short certificate of this from his lordship to the lord chancellor ; to which he replied , mr. godwyn , i will readily do more than that , and will on purpose go to morrow to my lord chancellor , to testifie your integrity . i desired his lordship to excuse himself that trouble , a short letter from him being as satisfactory to my lord chancellor as his oral testimony . but he answered , mr. godwyn , suspect me not , i will upon my honour speak to my lord chancellor , and set you upright in his esteem . but here we have place to observe , that sometimes men are possest with very thin and soft thoughts of honour , when their words make them seem impregnable against the temptations of vitious and malitious popularity . the lord at the time promised came to my lord chancellor , but ( as the following discourse will demonstrate ) was so far from the least endeavour of wiping of the stain , with which he discoloured me , that contraywise ( thinking what was done already to be insignificantly regardless ) such additions of scandal and notorious debaucheries were delivered into my lord chancellors hand in memorial ( i would call it a libell if a noble hand were not in some measure concerned in it ) containing a whole sheet of paper , written on both sides , that no wretched criminal in newgate could be laden with more . it was more than a year after e're i could learn from whose hand this paper came ; but when i knew it , no act ( except the thought of the commission of any of those objected against me ) could more seize me with horror . i came to mr. thynne ( one of my lord chancellors secretaries ) very joyfully suspecting nothing of the policy of the upstart vulgar in the constitution of nobility , to overwhelm the memory of past injuries by the accumulation of greater . mr. thynne producing this paper , i desired of him , and presently after of dr. sharp to know who was the author , and what were the means of justification , of which i was solicitous out of self assurance , that no proof or probability of such guilt could rest upon me . they answered that they could not satisfie or direct me in either . at length walking in my lords gallery with the doctor my great vexation turned to suddain laughter , which he seemed to behold with more trouble than he did my discontentedness , and desires to know what might cause a change so suddain . i answered , it was the remembrance of a dystich in hudibras , thus iustice while it winks at crimes , stumbles on innocence sometimes . the doctor demanded what i meant thereby ; i answered , that it was one passage in that list of accusations , and that i would ( if he pleased ) relate unto him a peice of impudence scarce to be parallel'd , yet nothing more signally accepted and rewarded . i shewed him the article , desiring him to hear what i had more to say . on a certain evening in the summer season near eight of the clock , mr. cary ( now presented by my. lord chancellor to st. philips vicaridge ) with three country gentlemen , ( who intended to take horse at the lamb at lawfords gate near my vicaridge house ) and a citizen called upon me , desiring me to accompany them to that place and partake with them of a glass of sherry . i denied not , but after each mans club of half a pint , i paid my own and mr. carys shot , and returned home , and was in my bed by one quarter after nine of the clock at farthest . a merry vein took the rest and held them there until six the next morning . the rest retired to what lodgings they could get ; mr. cary only and the citizen went home . i received from the lips of the citizen and two of the country-men at what high rates they had drank , and in what a trim they parted , they prefacing their story with these words , it 's well you departed so soon . i could speak more plainly , but do not judge it requisite . only i add , that the authors of the libel knowing the time of our ingress into the tavern , and the time of my departure , must necessarily know my departure home in season , and consequently my not being with the company at their breaking up , and mr. carys being there till the last minute of the stay made by the rest . yet my reservedness was traduced and punished for idleness and intemperance , and mr. carys night studies met with the recommendations of the saints , the patronage of a great lord , and by their means a remarkable reward . i do not think that the lord holles did himself frame that paper of articles ; but whether in consultation with the bristol agitants he did not encourage it , i dare not against my opinion affirm . i only affirm his promise beforementioned made to me upon his honour , was either never , or at least not at the time promised performed . and i have great reason to think that he never intended the performance . for sir iohn baber , some little while after telling me , that the lord holles would return me the instrument , with what indorcement should be necessary for the vindication of my repute among my friends , ( such as might probably think amiss of me , when fame was grounded upon so great authority ) the lord acknowledged that he did promise it to sir iohn , but being then busie will'd me to come again , and that he would look for it , and lay it aside for me against my next coming . i confess i expected not performance , but had a desire to make a through inspection into the nature of a five member man changed . at my next and last coming his lordship told me that he did make a promise to sir iohn baber , but through forgetfulness of the promise , on a certain night being in a passion he burnt it , but truly was exceedingly sorry for it . and this being the word of a lord i was bound to believe it , although i should otherwise have thought the sorrow such as needed the doctors consolation to his groaning board . i became apprehensive what honor and promises were in the esteem of them that had dared to lift up their hands against gods sacred vicegerent , and was left to the remedy of prayer for deliverance from all such for the future . but whither to betake my self i knew not , having neither money nor imployment . yet i had not long waited when the reverend and my kind friend dr. woodroffe took me down to shrivenham in barkshire to officiate there as his curate : where for some months i lived very quietly and pleasantly , having no phanatical broyls , entangled with no law suits , nor pestred with daily passing amidst the throngs of screwed faces distorted with hypocrisie , malice and the furies of ill consciences . but after some time spent there , my singular good lord dr. carleton bishop of bristol procured me a small rectory of forty pound per annum called filton within four miles of bristol , wishing me to be contented therewith until some better opportunity shewed it self . during the time of mr. cary's possession , divers persons learned in both the national and canon laws , advised me that st. philips vicaridge was not lapsed when mr. cary became pretender to it by that title , but that by my accepting filton it became void and would be lapsed . i therefore resolved to take no notice of it ( if others should pass it without observation ) until it were lapsed into the bishops disposal ; at which time i readily received a collation thereto from his lordship , and upon the th day of iune , in the year . ( as i take it ) was peaceably inducted into the church by mr. archodeacon pleydel before named , six vestry men ( the church-wardens being not at home ) and some other substantial parishioners being present . from the church i went to the vicaridge house and took possession thereof without the least opposition , and after some time spent in it in discoursing i departed , first delivering the keys of the church and house to the parish clerk in the sight of the archdeacon and of those vestry men and parishioners , who had accompanied me , to be kept for my use , and so went home to filton . in the morning i returned , and at the usual time began to read divine service , and proceeded therein unto almost the end of the second lesson without any persons gain-saying or motion to the contrary , except that mr. cary , while i was reading the seraphick hymn , went up into the pulpit , and after some stay there , being beckoned to by his brother iohn cary ( a factious busie fellow ) came down again , and with his brother and thomas warren went forth of the church , and in a short space returned with about ten more in company . eight of these ( mr. thomas cary standing by , bidding and encouraging them with promises of indemnity ) came to the reading desk , interrupting and requiting me to cease reading and come down . one took the bible , another the service book from before me ; others pluckt me by the right arm , and some by the right leg , and in so violent a manner drew me out of the seat , that my right leg was pulled down three steps the other remaining above by reason of somewhat in the way hindring its moving , and their hasty fury allowing me no time to help my self . by their so spreading me i was put to inexpressible torture , and am yet lame , and do doubt i shall continue so while i live . having drawn me out , they pluckt off the surplice , and tare my gown , and set up their idol in my place . this commotion began just at my reading the stoning of st. paul , out of the th of the acts , the second lesson for that day being the festival of st. barnabas . i stayed in the church until mr. cary had ended his sermon ; but when i was come into the church-yard , the constables ( who it appeared were of the persons , who dealt so barbarously with me ) laid hands upon me to bring me before the mayor for breaking the peace , and causing a disturbance and uproar in the church . i told them that i would willingly go with them , for that i thought my reading divine service could be no breach of peace or cause of disturbance ; but was rather of opinion that their actions would be interpreted no less than riotous . coming before sir robert cann then mayor , they began a grievous complaint , that i had kept mr. cary out of the reading desk , and had disturbed the congregation , and had beaten them being constables , endeavouring to keep the peace . when silence from their impertinent falsities gave me liberty , i acquainted sir robert of my coll●tion , induction and other acts before related ; and that i was no otherwise concerned with any person than by performing the requisites of my office according to the injunctions of the church , until these men interrupted and laid violent hands upon me . the mayor told them , that whereas they had accused me , themselves were the offenders , requiring of them to appear the next morning at the toulzey . thither i came with mr. pleydell and such witnesses as both saw my induction on the saturday , and mine and the others demeanor on the sunday ; and mr. cary came with his ianizaries . there were present on the bench the mayor , sir iohn knight , alderman oliffe , alderman knight and others ; to whom giving an account of what had happened the preceding day , i desired the offenders might be punisht and i restored ( as i ought ) to possession of my church . sir iohn began to examine mr. pleydell by what power he gave me induction ! who answered , by virtue of a mandat from the bishop of the diocess . sir iohn desired him to shew it , that themselves and their town clerk reading it might judge whether it were sufficient to enable him to do what he had done . that mr. pleydell answered , that as soon as he had by an indorsement certified his act , he returned it me . sir iohn very fiercely demanded it of me ; to whose demand i replyed , that my business before them was not to examine the legality of the title , but the force and violent retaking possession , and the riot committed in a consecrated place , upon a person exercised only in officiating in the church ; that mr. pleydell and so many other witnesses proving my peaceable induction and possession , i ought to be restored , and that mr. cary had his remedy at law if institution and induction had been given me upon unjustifiable grounds . mr. rumsey the town clerk squeekt it for law , that if i refused to shew my title , mr. cary ought to be continued in possession , so said sir iohn knight , and alderman iohn knight . the mayor and alderman oliffe declared their opinions , that my possession being no forcible entry , but proved to be taken without opposition , i ought to be reinstated in it , and that they were no competent judges of the validity of mine and mr. cary's titles , which must be left to a superiour decision . mr. rumsey continuing to deliver himself in the former opinion , sir robert canne persisted to declare his thoughts to be as before the same , and said further to mr. rumsey , mr. town clark , you are by your office to direct us what is law , and if you misguide us , as i very much suspect you now do , look you to it . thus malice , or lgnorance , or both prevailing against justice and reason , i was left to seek redress where else i could find it , none to be obtained there . but to ( to make a shew of justice ) on the wednesday following a iury was impannelled ( every person thereof being noted conventiclers ) to enquire of the force ; but no notice thereof was given me , nor mr. pleydell , nor any other concerned with me . this iury readily brought in against me a verdict of forcible entry , and he who had twice made forcible entry ( first by putting a boy by ladders to go in at the church steeple to open the doors , and secondly , by pulling me violently our of the reading place , was continued in possession . but as to the action in the church i caused mr. cary , and as many more as i knew engaged in it , to be cited in the ecclesiastical court , and prosecuted upon the statute of the th of k. edward the th . this prosecution was so managed , that notwithstanding many arts used and delaying practises , mr. cary was forced to beg an agreement . which he did first by mr. horn , a revetend prebendary of the cathedral , coming to mr. pleydells , to entreat his intercession , whom mr. cary presently followed into mr. pleydells house , vouchsafing ( although a thing otherwise of most exalted spirits ) to desire him to interpose between us , and prevail by a reference to put an end to the difference . it was my hap to come thither a little space before mr. horn. mr. pleydell telling him that i was in the house , said withal they should have a speedy resolve . the day before i received a letter , acquainting me that my lord chancellor had received satisfactory accounts of the injuries i sustained by the lord holles , and his nonconformist clients , and had granted me a presentation to a benefice in pembrokeshire , which was already past the seal . this letter put me upon consultation , whether it were best for me to prefer this , or my bristol interest . in conclusion , my hopes of a more peaceable life in wales than bristol , induced me to accept of an agreement , if such were offered as would indifferently compensate my charges . but before any thing done i judged it became me to receive my diocesans directions ; who approving my conceptions , this treaty of accord being offered i embraced it . not as a reference ( which was very much urged ) but if by proposals and arguments on each side of the reasonableness of them any accommodation could be wrought , i consented to a meeting in the evening at mr. alderman oleffe's house in order to it . the four present were alone mentioned the persons to meet ; but when i came thither i found mr. penwarden rector of st. stephens , mr. brent of st. thomas , and one mr. fry an ingenious clergy-man , living in the city but not beneficed . between the time of my promise to meet and our meeting , mr. horn had some conference with the bishop concerning it , and brought with him a letter , wherein his lordship advised me to accept fifty pounds , which he found mr. horn on mr. cary's part inclined to give . it came open and had been seen by the company before my coming ; and mr. horn and mr. cary had offered forty five pounds . when i had read his lordships advice , i was told what had been proposed ; to which i answered , that i should not have accepted so small a sum as fifty pounds , if his lordship had not thought fit that i should accept it , i not being wont to call my bishops judgement in question , especially his , of whose very good affections towards me i was so well assured ; but if that i were paid our differences should be at an end . forty five was the most they offered ; but i would abate nothing of fifty . at length mr. brent directing his discourse to me in exhortations to peace , i told him that i would refer the cause to himself , if he pleased by but three minutes reflection to consider it and make it his own case . the rest of the company perswaded mr. brent to undertake the decision of this matter , who in short time ( after a second demand whether each of us would abide his judgement ) ordered mr. cary to pay me the full fifty pounds . on the other hand i was ordered the next court day to withdraw my suit commenced in the spiritual court ; secondly , to give mr. cary a general release upon the payment of the mony ; thirdly , to sign , when tendred to me , such a writing as counsel should advise , whereby i should be obliged , neither by my self , nor any other persons by my procurement to molest mr. cary for any act or thing done before the sealing of it . i was herewith very well satisfied , and mr. cary seemed so much more , giving mr. pleydell and mr. horn ( not only verbally but otherwise ) great thanks for their pains taken in bringing us together , and to mr. brent the like for ending the controversie . afterwards mr. cary and i shaking hands , and all animosities laid aside , mr. cary desired of me forbearance of payment of forty pounds of the fifty , for that he was not at present furnisht with so much mony . i agreed to forbearance of thirty pounds if he gave me bond and security for that sum , and paid me twenty pounds in the mean time . at length it was concluded between us ( this being on a friday evening ) that on munday following he should pay me twenty pounds by two of the clock at the same house , and there likewise give me security for the remaining thirty . this being private discourse when agreed upon , we related it to the company ; before whom also he desired , as a kindness , my delivering to him my books of accounts , and what papers i had relating to the parish tithes and customs , which i promised . but when munday came mr. pleydell and i appearing at the place , and mr. cary after some stay beyond the time appointed , coming with his brother iohn cary , i began to discourse him concerning our business , telling him that i had performed according to mr. brents order what i was on my part to do , that is , i had in the presence of his own proctor withdrawn the cause , and was ready to sign the release and other writing upon receit of the twenty pounds and security for the rest . he hereupon was no more the former mr. cary , who sued to me by his friends , and himself for an agreement , and seemed as it were transported to another world upon the composure , but began to deny security , affirming that he would never have any man engaged for him , but if i would take his own bond for payment within three years , that he would give . and this was all the satisfaction i have received to this day . sir iohn knight i imagine upon good grounds out of his inveterate malice to me , disswaded him from performance of his promise , whose counsel mr. cary finding himself out of danger by my withdrawing the suit , did readily entertain , partly out of his own disposition to integrity , partly in imitation of the pious examples of the parties , which set up and protected him . this was done in august , but at the michaelmas following i arrested him upon the contract , by an action taken out of that which they call there the pye-powder-court . my attorney declaring on my behalf , a rule being entred requiring their plea by such a time , it was not filed or delivered in divers courts after the time limitted . whereupon he being called in court , and not appearing , judgement ought to have been entred on my behalf . but contrariwise there was a juggle with the clark of the office ( who was one of the attureys for the defendant , a thing ( i suppose ) scarcely justifiable ) and another atturney pretending the plea to have been brought into the office in court time , which ought to have been delivered , not only before that court was called , but before three courts preceding that . i required my atturneys to take no notice of their plea , but strictly to proceed to judgement and execution . but the steward of the court refused to enter judgement , and ordered a jury to be impanelled for the trial of the cause the next morning . i intended to have kept to the advantage given me , resolving to prosecute the steward in case he should continue partial ; but being perswaded that a trial could not be my disadvantage in a cause so just and plain , i was prevailed with , especially hearing the names of the iury-men , who in my conscience i esteemed as honest . i confess i had also somewhat of experiment to try upon mr. cary , whether he could be constant to his lately imbibed principles , and appear without blushing and astonishment , where such witnesses as i had to produce should on oath publish the gross turpitude of a fact utterly inexcusable . at the trial mr. horn , mr. pleydell , and mr. penwarden proved exactly the three considerations on which i had grounded my demand of fifty pounds ; but mr. brent having been very sickly some time before this hearing proved the three , but withall added a fourth consideration , namely the delivery of my books and papers relating to the parish , which as it was none of the considerations , but an aftermade promise upon request , so neither was it declared for ; yet it was proved that i had told mr. cary that i had brought them to such a place in bristol , where he should receive them upon the payment of the mony . nevertheless mr. brents testifying this as a consideration , i was nonsuited and the jury discharged . whether this knack was really matter of law , i do not undertake to know ; but the iury-men and the rest of the standers by departed , declaring that they thought it impossible that mr. cary should be guilty of so manifest a piece of knavery as was now laid open . for , alas ! they before esteemed him as some rarity of gods more especial handywork , sent thither by an especial providence . nevertheless he altered not his countenance , but ( as the whore that solomon mentions going away wiping her mouth , and saying she had done no harm , so ) he gaining by them cared not by what brand his actions were noted , and thought the shame would be worn out when the mony remained in his pocket , knowing withall that he had multitudes ready to blanch his blackest deeds , especially in any thing of concern against me . if he had never desired an agreement , i had meerly as in respect to the presentation to poulchrohan in pembrokeshire been a gainer more than the mony promised . the death of the bishop of st. davids dr. lucy , and the late archbishop dr. sbelden soon after occasioning unfortunate and chargeable journeys and attendance , with the forementioned law charges in endeavouring to recover the fifty pounds , caused me forty two pounds expence , besides the charge of a clergy-man serving the cure , and demanding unreasonable rates ( the place and country especially considered ) besides the havock made of my tithes in church-wardens disposing , and the ruine of the parsonage house by my predecessors widow , who did tear up and carry away the boards and timber of three rooms entirely , and almost of a fourth , together with eight doors of the house , and divers gates from off the gleab land , and other wastes and inconveniencies . nevertheless at length i arrived at my parsonage , where i met with parishoners , who constantly frequented the church and sacraments , and among whom was no sort of dissenter , nor any that seemed inclined to defraud or give me any trouble in my tithes or dues . their conformity and peaceable demeanour exceedingly gladded me : i began to overlook fortune , and with disdain to view her malignity , and to tell her that my prospect of a quiet life in that remote angle of the kingdom was reparation for all her injuries , and strongly conceited my self banisht out of the reach of misfortunes . but faction , which searches the very abisses of hell for weapons to furnish its armory , wherewith it dares attempt upon heaven , exercised its faculties , and sent after me executioners of my infant tranquility . i thought that the bristol mens malice had satisfied it self with a lusty revenge in my past losses and sufferings . but nothing is more apparent than that oppression suspecteth its own safety , if the oppressed be not continually beaten down with fresh blows and addition of weights . the frequent commerce between bristol men and the inhabitants of milford haven ( where i dwelt ) gave them opportunity of enquiry by what methods and persons further mischief might take its rage . and the first that i have heard of was in large offers of rewards to one mr. iohn powel town clark of pembroke ▪ ( within the liberties of which corporation my parsonage house standeth ) tempting him to the apprehending of me by the town warrants and officers . i happened to fall into an intimacy of acquaintance at my first coming into that country with this gentleman , whose near kinsman , and my incomparably kind friend nathariel powel esquire lived in my parish , at whose house i often met him , and in meeting , by degrees arrived at the greatest familiarity . he from time to time gave me intimation of designs against me , and what proposals and answers were made . concealing our friendship he heard the invectives of those men ( for i knew them not ) whom the party at bristol had employed as factors . after two or three congresses he began more plainly to enquire into the nature of the causes of action , especially upon hearing great rewards offered . at last he shook them off finding no material ground for complaint , or any thing that could correspond with those motions so eager and high in the beginning : they ran on very largely in discourses of my debts , and that i was knavish , and would pay no man ; but upon examination had no commission from any of my creditors to demand or sue me for any sum , and could produce nothing but trifling matters for costs recovered in three suits for tithes , wherein i could not proceed for want of mony after my ejectment out of st. philips . only before parting he assured them , wherever i was concerned in any just debts , he was confident that i would carefully discharge them , time only being in reason allowed in regard of my new and chargeable settlement ; but that if litigious causes of action were framed , he would contribute his best advice and help in my defence , rather than suffer me to be ruined by ill practises . however they failed of mr. powel , they hit upon a surer instrument mr. william skirm , a sort of perpetual vndersheriff of pembrokeshire , who by himself , brothers , relations or clarks , seldom faileth of managing that office at the rate he doth it . at the time of these men being in that country mr. thomas brother of william skirm had the name of vndersheriff , and knew his employment somewhat better than his white staff that he carried as the signal of his office. the bristol factors had not so much wit as malice , but brought into pembrokeshire writs for costs derected to the sheriffs of glocestershire and bristol , which would no way serve the turn there . but william skirm knew how to gratifie them , resolving upon some present fetches until he should be better furnisht with instructions from bristol . this i write as their own confession at caermarthen in company of one , whom they suspected not to know or have any acquaintance with me ; and further as being uncapable of provoking mr. skirm , ( whom i had never seen , of whose name i had never before heard , neither dwelt nearer to him than fourteen miles , the haven flowing betwixt ) by any sort of injury that may be pretended in his defence , or any relating to him . this first project of william skirm's ( for which the asse his brother as vndersheriff was a cloak ) was concerning a bill of five pounds due to one mr. daniel lewis . this lewis had been assigned payment in corn according to his own desire , but whether by his own change of mind or being inveigled , in iuly giveth me notice that he expected payment in mony and not in corn. necessity compelling me to entreat his forbearance till michaelmas following , with which request he departed seemingly very willing to comply . but upon the th day of august next following a daughter of lewis's ( and servant to essex merrick esquire , suspected to be a principal contriver with skirm ) came under pretence of discoursing me concerning her fathers debt . presently after her entry , one belonging to me came and told me that there were bayliffs near the house . the door being shut , lewis's daughter whilst i was looking out at window , was busie in opening the door , but was seen and prevented . the chief bayliff henry david knockt at the door very furiously again and again , threatning to break it open , alledging that he had power so to do , attempting the same with a wooden bar lying near the dore. after these menaces he retired somewhat from the door and made proclamation , ( i heard the words and divers of my family besides hearing , saw the postures ) holding a large written paper by the corner . his proclamation was , thomas godwyn clark , rector of poulchrohan , i require thee in the kings name to come forth and surrender thy body to me , as the sheriffs baily , upon pain of rebellion . this he did thrice , and then came again to break open the door , i threatning to shoot any person that should offer to break open any door of my house . in this manner he spent more than two hours , i in the mean time wondring how strange and different from those of other countrys , were the ways of proceeding in pembrokeshire . at length my man servant driving home a cart-load of corn , the bayliffs ran to him and seized the horses . after many words passing betixt them , henry david striving to unharness them , they thrusting the man side , and the man them , said the man , my master hath entrusted me with the horses , and i will lose my life rather than part with them without my masters order . this no sooner said , but he knockt down david with the but end of a pitchfork , and after three or four dry blows drives the cart to the place where it was to be unladen . david rising up again , came after him with a drawn sword , at which my servant exasperated , beat him more severely than before , and by accident struck some skin from off his arm. before this , during the time of his blustering about the house , i had sent to know what his business there was , with assurance of giving due satisfaction to the law when i knew what it required ; and to this i had no other answer , but that i must presently open my doors , and surrender my person to him . but at last , upon my servants coming , he received what his behaviour demanded , and so departed . in returning he with lewis's wife and daughter ( the rest were vanisht ) went to my beforenamed worthy friend mr. nathaniel powels house to entreat some cordial water for this fainting executioner of mr. skirms laws . there he told a lamentable story , how the sheriff sending him with an execution issued forth of the county court , daniel lewis plaintiff , i and my servant had beaten him and rescued the horses taken in execution . mr. iohn powel being present read the execution , and the bayliff having shewed his wounds and bruises went away . this execution was taken out , no previous attachment or summons ( one of the two being absolutely necessary ) being served in order to a legal trial ; neither had i heard any thing of a law suit with lewis , or in the least suspected it . moreover , the second of september following i caused the cursitors office to be searcht whether any writ of iusticies ( without which the county court could not sue for any debt or account above forty shillings ) had been granted in this case ; which was certified not to be granted . but this my sawciness in examining mr. skirms actions , which were wont to be justifiable by his bare will , made him excessively cholerick , and to my face to threaten me that he would do my business . yet skirm and one richard owen ( a soliciter in the county court ) thinking to palliate the foulness of the act , gave out that david had no execution , but an original attachment to serve ; all which appeared to be false , as well upon search into the proceedings of the court , as mr. iohn powell's sight of the execution . but i must return to look after henry david , who in the way home conducting the she setter ( mr. lewis's daughter ) to her master essex merricks house , the complaint was made to this worshipful mr. justice , who immediately granted forth his warrant for apprehending me and my man. the next morning ( august . ) the constables took and brought me before this gentleman , and one mr. ( thomas i think to be his name ) lloyd of grove , who required of me two sureties for the behaviour . i replying , that being a stranger in that country i could not every where procure sureties , but if they saw good to believe me , i wou●d ( this being saturday in the afternoon ) certainly on munday following bring them security to answer and traverse whatsoever indictment on any pretence should be brought into court. i explained to them henry davids words and behaviour , and assured them that i was not near him , but kept my self within the house , and that he would send me no account wherefore he came thither , and that i had no cause ( if he had told me his business ) to submit to an execution , in regard i had no notice to defend my cause . mr. merrick answered , we know him to be a great rogue , but he hath sworn against you , and you must either give good bail or go to prison . i thankt them for their respects to me as a clergy-man , in refusing me a credit than which none is more usually given to inferiour persons , especially in a matter of complaint by so notorious a rogue as they bespake him ; and then the constables guarded me to the town of pembroke . these justices , and most men inhabiting the county had known this henry david to have been divers times accused of rapes , indicted and convicted of making arrests and seizures without warrant or cause , of arresting two widows , and not allowing them time to procure bayl , but carrying them into uncooth places , and there proposing to compound the pretended differences , and release them upon receiving satisfaction of his lust. for these and other enormities the judges had fined him , and commanded that he should no more be suffered to act as a bayliff . but being so much the fitter instrument for mr. skirm , he was not in the least discontinued . and this is the man , and this is the cause , for which i must be disgracefully lead about by constables from place to place , my word esteemed of no weight , and for which i had been presently carried to prison too if mr. iohn powell had not heard of it and came to my help . this my friend did not only come and voluntarily engage for my appearance , but having made some discoveries of it , openly taxt and proved mr. merrick to be , if not a manager , yet one that knew the contrivance . and to say truth , his carriage in this point only ( without the suspition of things of a later date to be mentioned hereafter ) are ground enough for me to believe the same . if here in my discourse pretending to be bent against bristol nonconformists and their agents , any seem to enquire what mr. merrick hath to do in it , my answer is , that although he hath obtained to be in commission for the peace , yet is so far from being overzealous in the cause of the king and church , that he is ( like the late earl of shaftsbury ) all true protestant , and out of his jealousie of popery creeping in the church , knoweth how in his forms of justice , rates and impositions to scandalize and discourage strict conformity , and to wink at conventicling liberty . his father was a dependant upon that grand rebel the earl of essex , who lead presbyterian villany into the field armed , with intent at once to destroy and make glorious their great master the best and kindest of men . the same earl was this gentlemans godfather , whence the font delivered him essex ; and how much a favourer of those factious parties he hath been , those few true royalists of the county , who dare speak , will inform the inquisitive . but besides , what hath been thus bred in the bone , he hath also an inveterate hatred to englishmen coming to plant in that country ; witness his many provocations of the stout , loyal and discreet coll ▪ mordant , who could have no rest until his patience tired moved him to qualifie mr. merricks gall by bleeding him in the thigh ; and witness his many consultations how to ruine mr. bartlet ( an eminent merchant there ) and others , whom he calleth the strangers , who come thither to eat the country mens bread ou● of their mouths . add to his private dislike of these , my crimes of loyalty , conformity and a remote derivation , his great intimacy with william skirm ; and this qustion hath its solution . at the assizes for the county held at haverfordwest , and beginning sept. the st i appeared , where i met with one mr. william meare , who taking me aside , desired to know what was the cause of the clamour about henry david i related all to him as before ; but ( saith he ) 't is said and affirmed that it will be sworn by daniel lewis ' s daughter , that you threatned to shoot him ; truly ( i replied ) sir , i called unto the person , who threatned to break up my house , forbiding him , and assuring him , that if he attempted it , i would shoot him . and would you have done it ? saith mr. mear ; indeed i would if i could . ( i answered ) i would not have killed him , but if he had done any such thing , without satisfying me by what warrant he did it , i would have put some peper in his shins . he smiled and went away ; and ( as i learnt afterward ) was foreman of the grand iury , before whom a bill of indictment being brought , and henry david swearing that after divers times threatning to shoot him , at length i and my man had wounded and beaten him ; the jurymen ( as five of them together told me the same day ) out of a deep sense of davids many wicked actions and vile course of life , did all refuse to find the bill except mr. meare , who told them , that although their reasons for rejecting the bill were otherwise good , yet now they were to be laid aside , for that he himself heard me say i would have shot him if i could . this his alledging part of truth prevailed with the rest to find the bill . this mr. meare is also in commission for the peace ; but his ways of keeping the peace are very uneasie to many men , particularly to mr. thomas lloyd ( a meek tempered gentleman ) rector of the parish wherein mr. meare lives . but i need say no more of him ; for there is scarce any gentleman or clergyman in the county but doth either fear or hate his company . mr. merricks prejudices proceed from an old leaven of religion , party and extraction ; but this mans either out of a delight in trampling down and walking over ruines , or a desire of augmenting his private fortunes by any of those means which himself terms honest . the scheme of his religion is not yet finisht , and it 's feared is a task too difficult to be compleated before his death . he is a man of such impartiality , that when they lye in his way he spares not neighbours more than strangers , nor strangers than neighbours , but upon displeasure they must all alike feel his correction . besides this indictment , by skirms advise david also sued me in an action of battery and assault ; and i resolved to stand the traverse of the one and trial of the other ; but was disappointed by being arrested in bristol , and forced to remove my self up into the kings bench prison . nevertheless i took due course for defence , but where mr. skirm is concerned due courses seldom take place . but while i was at the assizes , having occasion to go into the shop of one mr. hents an apothecary ( who knew not me nor i him ) as i sate in it some time , i saw a man holding up his arm in a string to pass to and fro through the shop . hearing him make some complaints to the apothecary , and the apothecary to call henry david , i enquired of him what he was , and what was the matter with him . he answered , it is henry david the bayliff whom the minister of poulchrohan had grievously beaten and wounded . i desired to speak with him , and coming to me cringing and scraping with abundance of respect , upon request he related to me the story of his adventure , but with a mixture of notorious falshoods , especially of my laying hands upon him . when he had ended i demanded of him whether he knew me . he answered , no , if it please your worship ( i desire to be pardoned in regard 't was his very expression ) i never saw your worship before in my life . being twice more desired to recollect himself , he still affirmed that he neither knew me nor had ever seen me , but believed my worship was one of the reverend prebendaries of st. davids cathedral . this was again and again repeated before the apothecary , his wife , his wives mother , and the servant maid . at length i discovered who i was , saying to the four standers by , is not this a prime rascal to swear against a man , whom he never knew nor saw ? i am thomas godwyn rector of poulchrohan . upon which words , without a word retort , he shufled away . at the same assizes mrs. wil●iams , wife to the vicar of rosemarket in pembrokeshire , made oath before sir francis manley , chief justice of that circuit that this henry david came and brake open her house after nine of the clock in the evening , requiring submission to his leud offers ▪ and swearing he would lye with her before he went out of the huose , and after using violence with entreaty , she chanced to thrust him down backward over a stool , and escaping out of the house , was compelled to lye hid in the standing corn without clothes for the space of three hours , he in the mean time searching the house , and round about the house , swearing as before , and at his departure with horrid execrations vowing he would have her another time although now he missed . this poor gentleman mr. williams being imprisoned for many years arrears of tenths due before he became incumbent , and the house standing solitary encouraged this villain to this impudent attempt . and who now can doubt but that the eminent worth of henry david was mr. merricks , mr. meares and mr. skirms excitement to a generous vindication of his injuries , and the wounds given him by one , whom he never saw nor knew ? by this denial of his knowledge of me , and the witnesses of his behaviour at my house , i thought my self sufficiently fortified for defence . but being detained in the kings bench somewhat longer than i conjectured , by the exorbitant demands of coling the marshall , and my want of mony , i could not recover home before the trial , but the cause was lost for want of defence , and twenty five pound odd shillings execution taken out against me . and although i returned not home soon enough for a trial , i timed my removal from the bench to another prison , and on michaelmas day , immediately before evening prayers i was arrested by one mr. william morgan , that year vndersheriff , or rather mr. skirms deputy . i often desired to know for what i was arrested , but was denied , only was told i should know soon enough , and so forthwith was carried to the haven side to pass over for haverford-west , where the county prison was . but at the haven brinks morgan surrendred me to three of his bayliffs after he had , sitting upon a bank , written this warrant . to the bayliff of the hundred of castlemartin , and the bayliff of the hundred of roose , and to william philips , thomas llewellin and henry — bayliffs especally appointed . by virtue of a capias to me directed out of the great sessions for the county of pembroke , these are to require you to apprehend the body of thomas godwyn clerk , and him in safe custody to keep and deliver to the goaler of the county prison at haverford-west , until he shall be thence legally discharged . will. morgan vicecom . deputat . so that i was again to be apprended , who was before arrested , no plaintiff named , no cause of action mentioned . the bayliffs who were my guardians told me that i was taken in execution at henry davids suit , and that the sheriff would be with me on the morrow ; on the third day morgan comes to me , i having been kept at the goalers house in the mean time . then upon demand he told me as the bayliffs before , and ordered me to be put into the prison . within an hour and half afterward i was committed to a room , the delicacies whereof i intending to recite , do at first take leave to raise the readers exp●ctations . the entrance was well fenced with locks and chains , the room well boarded , and the windows well barred , but had never been glazed . bed or bedsted there was none , neither fire , nor chair , nor stool , or any kind of seat except a plank with three legs , and that of an odious house of office , from which was no conveyance but into the room beneath , which having not been cleansed above eight years before , stunk beyond any thing to be named . demanding whether there was no other room , the goaler answered me , yes , but that that was appointed for me as the best . asking further what i must lye upon , he pointed , there 's the bed , which was an heap of dust mixt with something that only shewed it had been straw , and ( as it appeared ) had been the recumbency of some poor wretches my predecessors in adversity . i required him to procure me some fresh straw , he told me that he could not , but that the bed was good enough , and that many an honest man had lain there without grudging . i offered to give a shilling for two peny worth , and pay the carrier besides ; he told me i must be contented until munday ( this being on saturday evening ) and then i should have some . no perswasions could prevail to the contrary ; so i was forced to walk all night , excepting that when excessive weariness overtook me , i sate on the low tripod , and with my back against the stone wall never plaistered fell asleep , till awakened again with the violence of the cold i arose to walking ; and so by turns i passed the nights and one day . i hoped to have prevailed with my tender-hearred governour on sunday morning to furnish my chamber ; but in vain . when eating time required that exerceise , the loathsomeness of the place made the thoughts of meat loathsome also ; but necessity compelling i bespake it of an inkeepers wife dwelling opposite to the prison ; but when brought the goaler would not attend to open the door , but it must be thrust in at an hole in the door , through which a trencher or plate could not be delivered . however on munday i was prosperous , and tumbled in much clean straw , and on tuesday i had bedcloathes sent ; ( but the keeper would not open the door to receive them till two days after . ) in time also i mitigated the ill sents by snuffing up the wind blowing in at the holes called windows , and by smelling to the iron bars in them . in this condition i was the most part of three weeks . some few times i got out by the priviledge of treating with my incomparable adversary . for being under execution , i saw no hopes of deliverance but by composition . therefore i procured some friends to motion it and bring him to me . not to the prison , for his nose would not brook it , but i was sent for twice to an ale-house . in discourse the first time he seemed inclined to take ten pounds , but made no positive agreement . but at his second coming complained that mr. skirm and his master margan the sheriff ( as he called him ) had heard of his being upon agreement with me , and threatned to turn him out of his office if he agreed with me a peny beneath the full execution . at the first hearing i imagined this to be a device to squeeze me harder , but i found the contrary , that he was willing to discharge me for ten pounds , but dared not , unless any way might be found whereby he might do it as if ignorant of the law. this i said he had done already ( as i judged ) by calling me , being in execution at his suit , out of the liberties of the prison , and even in another county ; haverford-west being a town and county of it self . this i knew to be so in england , but knew not what was right in wales , but i was confirmed that it was a legal discharge for the plaintiff , sheriff or coaler to call or take a prisoner charged in execution out of the liberties of the prison , to which he was legally committed , and that for the same he could not legally be retaken or recommanded to prison . this advice i had from william philips of haithock esq ▪ a iustice of the quorum , and a very eminent counsellor in that county , first by word of mouth to a friend of mine , afterward under his hand . in fine , i was invited to the eating of a leg of pork and a goose on sunday the th of october , and in the morning the goaler came to acquaint me , that henry david desired to speak with me , that there was a good dinner provided , &c. i delayed until i had witnesses , which being at last five in number to my liking , the goaler renewing his request , i went with him . after dinner being very liberal in expences at the goalers house , i was permitted to stay out all night ( resolving nevertheless not to return to the prison without force ) and all the next day until four of the clock , when i espied an horse brought for me , and set in the place which i appointed , and so rode home . but the next day in the evening mr. morgan with fourteen others came to enquire for me ; but not finding me pretended to retire , but went to pembroke , leaving his imps in convenient places to besiege me , and returned on the morrow with the power of the county , forty six or fifty in number . for being at pembroke he informed the mayor and burgesses of the town that i had broken the prison and escaped , and mr. essex merrick ( allway forward in my concerns ) as wisest burger and ablest lawyer , acquainted the corporation that they ought to assist the sheriff , and might justifie the breaking up any house where they knew me to be , and take me . but i am advised ( and it seemeth reasonable ) that the sheriff , vndersheriff or goaler ought to have sworn before the mayor that i brake the prison ; which none could , and the vndersheriff going in to view the prison before he set forward from haverford with his company , himself said to the goaler ( who probably told him so ) i see no sign of any place or thing broken ; this in the the hearing of divers witnesses ( whom it occasion served ) i can produce . but without much consultation the mayor ( matthew bowen by name , a person actually in arms for several years against king charles the first ) commanded the townsmen to follow him with what armes they had ready . so they came with musquets , pistols , swords , pikes and bills ; and ( i must confess ) i resolved upon defence and rather to dye in the midst of a lawless rabble , then without any just cause or lawful grounds to surrender my self to execution , my death seeming inevitable if i should be carried back to that prison , whence the very plaintiff could not release me without the consent of a bitterly engaged enemy . the first aggressors and enterers must certainly have fallen , had not i been told that the mayor of pembroke was at the door desiring to speak with me . i opened not the door , but discourst as we stood , i within and he without . he told me his name and character , and i knew his voyce . he desired me to cease threatning ( i having before affirmed that i would kill the first breakers up and entrers of my house ) and to deliver my self to the sheriff . on the other hand i required him as the kings lieutenant and iustice of the peace to see the peace kept , telling him , that before his appearance , i thought my self bound to preserve my self in my own house as well as i could , but now left my self to him for protection , whom i should thank for doing his duty , and question for the breach of it . but this wrought nothing ; morgan with his own hands , and others using iron barrs and sledges brake down the door , took me and carried me to pembroke that night in the midst of that black guard. being brought into my chamber there ( notwithstanding so many bayliffs and others commanded to attend as upon some dangerous malefactor ) my arms were bound behind me with cords till bedtime . then morgan came to see me put into my bed , where i was forced to iye on my back , and my arms being extended to be bound , and each arm bound to a post at the beds head. my right arm being somewhat lame , i desired that they would take what course they pleased to secure a person so suspicious as they seemed to think me , and make the knot as fast as they pleased , but not to tye it so straitly upon that arm because infirm . is that arm lame ( said morgan ) then , goaler , bind it the harder , which he did , and in that posture and condition i lay all that night , my arm asking some part of the time , but ceasing after midnight ( being then benummed ) and in my chamber a dozen of the vndersheriffs beardogs smoaking trash tobacco , and playing at tables all night . in the morning when i was unbound , my right arm hung down by my side as dead ; i could not move finger or arm. but my arms were immediately again bound behind me in order to my journey to pri●on , and i desiring that if i must be thus dealt with , i might be nevertheless so bound , as that my riding coat might cover the cords ; morgan answered , you shall have nothing that you desire . a quarter of an hour after morgan calls , what is not that fellow yet gone ? tye him to an horse tayl , and drag him along . during the time of the riotous disturbance , of my being in the way to pembroke and in the town i gave no disrespective or angry word to morgan or bowen ( who had a grand copper nose , which might receive the solemn league and covenant into its recesses ) but spent my time as merrily as if a comedy were acting ▪ taking only the liberty to make some joco●e remarques upon the vndersteriffs knowledge of his office , and mr. bowens doing of justice . nothing otherwise until the morning ; but when i saw my arm in that plight , i confess i could not contain my self , but cryed this horrid dog the vndersheriff hath undone me ; i have lost the use of my writing hand . away they led me , and i complaining for want of a horse , the goaler answered that there was an horse provided for me the last night , but that my jeering the sheriff had caused him to contradict it ; for he saith ( quoth the goaler ) that seeing you are so merry , he will take down your mirth . i went along , but a servant of one mr. william holcomb ( son in law to mr. meare ) pretended to lead me by my left arm pinching me all the way that he went. at something more than three miles end i fainted through want of sleep , weariness and so many gross abuses , and not much using walking . then was i set on horseback , and after a little time recovering , began merrily to reflect upon the great state i rode in , to have so worthy a gentleman as mr. goaler to lead my horse . this affronted the honest man , and he knowing the saddle would turn round , being too big , for the horse being very small , had a present revenge in his thoughts ; for he lead the horse out of the way up and down banks , till the saddle turning cast me down . this was done twice , and i attribute it much to divine providence that i escaped with little harm , seeing my arms bound rendred me helpless . my leader and guides were very ●portive at my falls , and their lifting me up again , saying , that they must laugh as well as i. as i passed thus along in sta●e we met many persons of quality in a company going to a wedding , who exprest their indignation of such usage of a clergyman , mr. william bowen of haverford particularly affirming that he could not brook the sight , but would cut the cords , wherewith i was bound . i thanked and entreated him to forbear in regard the persons , in whose custody i was , were ill men , that valued neither credit nor conscience , but would swear any thing , and might do him a great injury , but that his intended kindness could not be very beneficial to me , and thus perswaded him to ride forward , hoping that afterward he might do something for me more eminently beneficial . i was also led forward , and entring haverford was brought through a considerable part of the town unto the prison , multitudes gazing and admiringly enquiring whether i had spoken treason , or what was the matter ? being conveighed into my old lodgings my arms were freed from their bonds , but my legs were put into irons ; not such as ordinary malefactors for burglary or the like are wont to be obliged to , with which they can make a shift to walk , but an iron on each leg , through both which an heavy bolt was thrust and fastned with a riveted key . it was such that it permitted me not to put one foot an inch before the other , neither to lye down or rise without the help of two men , the one holding my shoulders the other my feet . these two men were prisoners but had some liberty before , but were committed with me for affirming to the vndersheriff that i had not broken prison , and other truths concerning my being called out of the prison . the coldness of these irons in two days put me into a fever , and my feet and legs exceedingly swelled each day more and more , so that at four days end those encompassing my legs could scarce be discerned . the sixth day i laboured under a general indisposition , and having not before complained , i then said to my two friends , two days more wearing these things will inevitably kill me . whereupon they made an out-cry , and one of them ( samuel roberts ) procured a messenger to call to me one mr. thomas lloyd , a very friendly person , and frequent visiter of me . he came as he had been wont to the door ( for the goaler would not trouble himself to let any in unto me , unless such as happened to be there when it was his pleasure to enter himself ) and being informed of my condition , acquainted others with it , who came to the goaler advising him to take off the irons , for the wearing of them would certainly soon dispatch me out of this life , which happening , he , his master , and as many as were concerned in putting them on , would certainly be hanged . the fear of a rope brought him to compliance ; but when he had unrivited the key of the bolt , the irons which encompassed my legs could not be taken off without much pain and bruising me . nevertheless when it was done i was revived , and three days after a violent distemper seised me , not to my injury , but salutiferous by the strength of nature ; and in a fortnight i was indifferently ( through gods great blessing ) well recovered . but then ( just at the fortnights end ) came mr. goaler , telling me that i must again put on my cold irons , that he had taken them off without the sheriffs knowledge , and had been sharply checkt for so doing , and commanded to put them on again . he had brought with him one thomas morgan ( the undersheriffs kinsman ) and two more to compell me in case of resistance . i and my two fellow prisoners demanded for what reason this was offered ? whether i had not behaved my self quietly in word and deed ? he answered , that he could say nothing to the contrary , but it was the sheriffs pleasure and he must obey it . i refused to receive them , and resisted as well as i could ; but they were too hard for me , and threw me down ; and morgan beat my head against a rough stone , ( which was set at my beds feet , to keep the welch feathers of my bed within bounds ) and brake it in five places . the noise drew many spectators , and the fame of the cruel usage of the strange minister that was in prison flew swiftly about the town , and fortuned to meet mr. robert chambers collector of the custom-house , and mr. william bowen before named and certain others , who sought the vndersheriff , and with severe menaces obliged him to promise himself to see me forthwith delivered from my irons , moreover assuring him that an account must be given for what i had sustained in the cause of so base a person , his harsh dealing not only exceeding what was imposed upon any prisoners for just debts and far greater sums , but even the severity used to the worst of criminals committed in their memory , naming particularly william philips the bayliff , who was at the taking me upon michaelmas day . i was committed to them between four and five of the clock in the afternoon ; and about eleven at night the chain chimes at the prison door going , gave us matter of wonder , what the matter was . and the sight of morgan , the goaler and three more coming in made the wonder the greater . he began ( but somewhat smoothly ) to blame my former escape and biting jests used towards him , which were the cause of the hardships i had endured ; i only nodded my head saying , well enough , what next ? if you will ( said he ) promise me not to break prison , but to be quiet and orderly your irons shall be taken off . as you know ( i replied ) what occasion you have to ask such a question , so i will promise nothing else then ( as i did before ) to be gone as soon as lawfully i can , and not otherwise . he answered , you did not go away lawfully , for although henry david and the goaler might call you out of the prison , and you go away thinking your self discharged , yet i had in my hands a capias ad satisfaciendum against you for the kings first fruits . this is ( i said ) the first time i have heard it ; but the goaler had no warrant from you to detain me upon this cause . no , ( he answered ) it was sufficient in my hands . and was it warrant enough for you to swear ( fro then i heard so , though since told to the contrary ) that i brake prison , for you riotously to break open my house , to bind and iron me as you have done ? well sir , ( said morgan ) i hope you will be an orderly prisoner . goaler , take off the irons . so once more my legs were free from cuffs . but , mr. vndersheriff ( said i ) you must take care to send some body to cure my head , shewing him and the company where it was broken . he answered , that they were rude abusive fellows in so doing , he did not allow them so to do ; and then rose up and departed . not long after morgan was acquitted of his employ , and willam skirm succeeded , not by a deputy but himself . and to him ( i continuing in that joyous place ) about the end of ianuary came a writ of habeas corpus to remove me up to the kings bench. upon the th of ianuary in the evening skirm gave me notice to provide for my journey against tuesday morning , the then st of ianuary . i sent home for boots , a riding coat , and necessaries for my journey to be brought to me on the munday ; but skirm with an unaccountable malice ( unless my death was his project ) horst me early the munday morning , that my journey might be the more remarkable upon the day of my admired sovereigns martyrdom , in order to my execution . my journey was ( the way that my keepers brought me ) two hundred and threescore measured miles at least . i had no more on my legs than one pair of single stockins , neither any covering more then what i usually wore within the house , nor any mony , my servants journey to me with that supply constantly on sundays being stopt by my appointment for munday . thus i rode the first days journey to caermarthen , where ( having met with a friend who lent me twenty shillings ) i purchased a freize coat and boots of the same . the taylor sitting up all night to dispatch , had not finisht them by the time my keepers were ready to mount me . they urged me to be gone , swearing they would not slay ; but i being in a friends house refused to travel farther without cloaths . neither was the stay which caused the controversie above half an hour . but i should first have related their carriage towards me at my going to bed. when they had seen me lain down , the keepers ( one being iohn the brother of william skirm ) took away my cloathes , and even my shoos , stockins and hat and lockt me into the chamber . the same they did at every inn , at which i lodged on the road , the journey being seven days . at caermarthen i had a fire in my chamber , commanding it as known in the house ; but every night following , being unacquainted on the road , in which i never before travelled , these dowty gentlemen permitting me to sit by the fire in their chamber during their pleasure ; when they thought it bed-time , i was taken by the shoulders and thrust into a cold room , and then stript and lockt in , no respect had to the weather , ( which was extremity of snow every day but the first ) not to my pickled condition , riding on a low horse through ways so deep , that my feet did frequently , even for miles together hang in the dirt and water , i being tired with holding them up to avoid it . upon sunday the fifth of february between four and five of the clock in the afternnon i was conducted to the three cups inn in holborn and there detained until the saturday following , no perswasion prevailing with them to bring me into court or before a judge , not any reason but their pleasure shewn . there my usage was of the fame nature , but worse ; for they each night compelled me to go to bed before seven of the clock ( stript and lockt up as before ) that they might take the opportunity of loose rambles , and then lying late in bed in the morning by reason of the evenings debauchery , i must lye still , let what importunities soever require my rising . skirm , when i demanded the reason of such dealing , would swear they would not leave the company of those brave wenches , whose company they enjoyed the last night , for to humour a pitiful parson . seeing they did not ( as they term it ) turn me over on munday , upon teusday i wrote letters to three friends to come to me , but being about to seal them , skirm demanded the sight of them , which being denied him , he took away the candle , and pen and ink to hinder my sealing and subscribing them , telling me that i should not be permitted to send any where any letter of which he had not first the reading . neither found i any opportunity of writing until thursday , when my bayliffs bringing me to the tap-house fire fell to cards , and a coachman ( sometime before a servant to the right reverend the now bishop of chichester coming in and knowing me , conveighed to me pen , ink and paper , and while the two honest men were busie , i wrote a letter to my brother , which the coachman delivered . the day following at even my brother came , whom they lockt into a chamber with me , promising to return at our call , which we said would be within one quarter of an hour ; but when we called , the chamberlain came to the door and told us that skirm and smith were gone abroad with the key . after some stay in a vain expectation of their return , i forced open the door , and my brother departing , i went down and sate by a fire until their coming . but then skirm was filled with great wrath , and with dammees and other execrations askt how i dared to open the door ? and would i never leave those tricks of breaking prison ? with other such language mixt with threatnings . but the next day i was brought into court and turned over a prisoner to the kings bench prison . the pretence for taking away my cloaths at night was , that they feared i would make an escape . whether that was a legal way of securing me , i refer to better judgements . but that they could not fear any such thing after my coming to london , is manifest by these reasons . on sunday , the last day of our journey smith exchanged horses with me , i being not able any longer to ride the jade on which they mounted me . skirm staying behind divers times talking with travellers , and smith also sometimes , i rode before and missing them waited their comin● up . they also knew that i very well understood the road ( leading from oxford ) which we travelled that day , and that i as well understood that they knew it not ; in all which respects my escape ( had i been inclined to it ) would have been without difficulty . likewise at the inn in holborn ( as i shewed them after three nights lodging there upon discourse of their misbehaviour ) an escape was easie ; for the window having a large folding casement , and the chamber being but one pair of stairs high , i could have let my self down by the sheets tied one to another , and covered my self with a blanket until i had come to the house of an aquaintance , of whom i had many in the neighbourhood and in grayes inn. when they lockt me into my chamber ( as they did often ) in the day time , when a rambling humour possest them , i might ( as well as when i did it for my brother ) have opened the door and escapt without any ones observation . none of the house saw my brother or me come down , or him departing ; which was a full conviction that i might have given them the slip , if i pleased . so that the pretence was utterly groundless ; but mischievous men as they delight in ill doing , so would they nevertheless be esteemed righteous and inoffensive ; the repute is grateful , although nothing more disliketh them than deserving it . but to look somewhat back upon the penalties inflicted on me for my pretended breach of the prison ; ( then which nothing is more notoriously known to be false ) had it been real , the vileness of the prison and cause under which i laboured , and the odious nastiness and condition of the place considered , might in the esteem of men but indifferently addicted to humanity , have excused the act and mitigated the rigor , especially towards a clergyman . but , alas , this was my fault , ( as i too much fear ) this tied the bonds and revetted the irons , this led me through all the dances of ignominy . again , had i not been assured by learned counsel confirming what experience had taught me , that the goalers and plaintiffs calling me out of the prison was a sufficient discharge from the execution , can any man believe that i would publickly and directly go home and continue at my own house , and not rather have gone out of the way until i had made a composition ? any man of common understanding would have avoided errors , which must have been of such unlucky consequence . all the time of my confinement in the kings bench , and before in the country , i was rated to the poor beyond any person in the parish , notwithstanding all that i had in the parish was seized in execution ( for just debts indeed but illegally taken ) and my person in durance at the same time under very hard circumstances . and both then and since i have been compelled to produce in the feild two musquet arms for the malitia of the county ; whereas the utmost farm of my parsonage paid to my predecessor was fifty seven pounds yearly rent , the reparation of the chancel and a large parsonage house , first fruits and tenths to the king , charges at visitations and other payments being all payable out of those fifty seven pounds . nor is any incumbent in the county , whose benefice is worth twenty or thirty pounds more than mine , charged with more than one foot arms. yet without respect to imprisonment , seizures in execution of my goods , the annual charge of the rectory , and the smallness of the value , distresses have been divers times levied ( particularly in iune last one of five pounds ) for fines laid upon me for non appearance . all which things were done by instigation of mr. essex merrick , ( as i am well informed ) and distresses taken upon any ones cattle , which were upon the ground , although it was sufficiently known , that i had nothing left to be seized . being freed from my imprisonment in the bench and returning home in april . the loss of my worthy parishioner and friend mr. nathaniel powel ( though before known , yet then ) became to me more sensibly an affliction , especially because his death was shortly followed by his eldest daughters ( having left no son ) marriage with the before mentioned mr. lloyd of grove his son , a gentleman who with an affected and artificial ( but easily discerned ) smoothness laboureth to cover whatsoever can be imagined to be couch'd in an ill natured , malitious and covetous bosome . being allied to and intimate with william skirm , and daily conversant with mr. merick , his inclinations cannot be supposed to receive disincouragement from them . but before my coming down , or any acquaintance with him , he began to shew what i must expect of him for the future ; but above all with a most unmanly disingenuity practised dissention between me and a very near friend . nevertheless at my first acquaintance i refrained from making that ground of variance , which was either matter of suspition , or at most only such noted injuries , as were but the slips of an unguarded tongue , and a raw judgement , which i might charitably think to be imposed upon . and although in making up certain accounts between us i found some foul practises , yet those i interpreted to proceed from the ill information of servants , who had no other way of creeping into a masters favour , but at the passages of an abused ear. and so hoping ( after i had ascertained the truth of my accounts ) by yeilding and receding from my right at the beginning to purchase a lasting good neighbourhood , he obtained in a manner his own desires . but to me ( and will be ever to those who treasure up hopes in vessels made of ill-seasoned timber ) these consessions were alway unfortunate . although i had been often wont to say , that good men would not offer their minister less than his right , and that bad men are so far from being won by his connivance that by it they become daily worse and worse ; yet i foolishly transgressed those bounds , within the compass of which my observation had prescribed me walks . my tithes of hey , wooll and other sorts of privy tithes he set out in what measure he pleased , not allowing me or my servants to see whether there were a fair division . my tithe corn was , some manifestly discovered to be falsly set out ; some devoured with swine and other cattle after tithing . he , his wife and servants seeing the waste without driving , or commanding the cattle to be driven away ; othersome was clean devoured after reaping before binding , and ( forsooth ) because many loads of corn were so eaten , i must have the straw , which was left , set out for tithes . divers in those parts have an ill sort of husbandry permitting such waste , and accounting that no damage , that is sustained by their own cattle . this received opinion that their loss would be small , but mine thereby total , encouraged him to this malitious project . his servants frequently entred my house without knocking at the door , even after prohibition , and threw into it tithes , which had been rejected as unduly set forth in respect to both their quality and quantity . neither was mr. lloyd contented to be vexatious alone , but encouraged the rest of my parishoners to the like , although two only imitated him , the rest approving the reasonableness of mine or my servants seeing my dues paid in wait and measure , as their nature required . but to conclude my discourse of this gentleman , in october last three of his servants bringing tithe wooll in such manner as is before mentioned , the sheep having been shorn a fortnight before , i denied to receive it . the servants were very rude in behaviour and language , in which i since understand them to be forward by their masters instructions , hoping to provoke me to passion , of which notwithstanding they failed , yet something said by me was managed to some degree of revenge , although short of expectation . their undecent words and gestures extorted from this question ; do you thus speak and act by your masters order ? to them answering , yes , i replied , then your master is a knave and a coxcomb . mr. merrick and mr. lloyd consulting how to punish so great an enormity , concluded it required security for the good behavior , and appearance at the next quarter sessions to answer to an indictment . hereupon mr. merrick issued forth a very strict warrant against me , and i being apprehended before eight of the clock in the morning , was carried about from place to place , and detained in the constables custody until past nine at night before i could be discharged . but there was a farther design than thus barely to render me a ridiculous subject of the vulgars chat , which had taken effect , had not the chief constable after his apprehending me received information , that upon my arrival at pembroke the undersheriff was ready to arrest me ; which he honestly and kindly avoided bringing me before another iustice ( as soon as i had gotten security ) and not before mr. merrick . how justifiable mr. merrick's warrant was , and the following dedainer of my person i undertake not to determine , but think what was done to be so unusual , that in all the travels of his brains to furnish his empty rooms , he never met with a president for it . mr. lloyd was no way by birth or office raised so high as to be in danger of suffering diminution by so slight a character ; nor doth his ingenious virtue exempt him ( if there were such danger ) from severer sufferings in most mens in those parts ( who know him ) daily discourses . if i exceed the rules of modesty , mr. merrick ( whom i believe to know it ) will justifie my forced assertion , that mr. lloyd is inferiour to any apology he can pretend to make for himself as injured , if either his birth , education , or ( what most signaliseth a gentleman ) honesty be respected . and my further appeal to mr. merrick enquireth , what would have become of himself some time since , if words of an higher nature and consequence uttered by him against his superiors at a vast distance had been taken into strict examination ? but for taking notice of such things he thinketh me fit to be whipt ; only my hopes of being received into protection sufficient to supersede his and the unmerciful sentences of others , do remove the fear , and move me confidently to cast my self down an humble petitioner ; that the hands of the sons of violence may at last be restrained from afflicting a poor clergyman , who sincerely delighteth in the peace of the church , and perfectly despiseth himself except in those things , which he stedfastly believeth to conduce to its promotion . in this relation is seen an unwearied spirit of malignity pursuing me ; for what just causes , ( god and my conscience bear me witness ) i know not . no man living can more than my self heartily desire the repose of a quiet life ; and that ( however stumbling occasions and rocks of offence were still thrown in my way ) i have alway studied to tread the safest and most certain measures thereof , is my invincible comfort . i challenge the whole world to make discovery of any act , whereby i endeavoured to discompose another , either malitiously or idlely . the too too many errors of my life i will not palliate by any excuse ; yet am so far from taking pleasure in doing an injury , that in the presence of my allknowing redeemer i do affirm that i have alway more lamented the condition of those , by whom i suffered , than my sufferings , and could willingly again undergo them , if god would be pleased to accept my toleration for their indemnity . that i would not by undecent submissions to her enemies labour to purchase peace is no argument of any turbulent motion in my affections , neither ought it to tend to my condemnation . but whereas some , to whom my case hath been delivered , have demanded , and others will probably demand , how it hath happened that in a numerous orthodox clergy my self only should be oppressed with these weights ? my answer cannot be expected to be much more certain , than to an enquiry , how one vessel hath been shattered by a storm in that road , where many fleets have before safly sailed ? the account whereof , because providence hath not , i dare not pretend to give . but if a strong supposition possess any , that my ill doing hath occasioned dissatisfactions and enraged men to a revenge of received injuries , i can purge my self no otherwise than by my asseverations in the preceeding paragraph , and a request of reflection upon past times , whether men much better than the highest charity can presume me to be , have not singly fallen by the arts of malitious confederates . and furthermore , as the cruelties of the two vndersheriffs of pembrokeshire surmounted the others by many degrees , so were they least known , it being impossible for me any way to exasperate them , whom i had never seen or heard of before i fell into their griping tallons . but my case is not single ; for mr. thomson hath in bristol met with the same swearing dammee party , who at first by hurling at me holy dirt and consecrated subornations and perjuries , weakned my hopes of reaping for my master a plentiful harvest by the exercise of my function . god be thanked that their open acts of malice and impudence are dwindled into the corner whirperings of envy , and that they gall themselves whilst able only sneakingly to traduce him . neither can i forbear ( which is my excessive greif ) to affirm , that the orthodox clergy are not so numerous as many believe , the number of them ( i reckon none orthodox , who is not duly and strictly conformable ) is far inferiour to that of trimmers and half sized men. but some few years since such was the paucity of them on publick occasions of clergymens meeting , and so scorned were they being scattered among the full tribes , who were contented with any worship , which was golden , that they could not assist but only pity one another . exactness of conformity doth not only stir up the gall of nonconformists barely , but more dangerously and immoderately moveth to expressions of discontentment the tongues of those men , whose aim is to be thought moderate by neglecting their duty and superiors , and paying an unreasonably obsequious deference to their inferiours . when dr. ironsides bishop of bristol required of his clergy stricter observance of the rubrick and canon ( particularly , that children in health should be baptized at the font , and that the parents of the sick should be held to an engagement of bringing them into the church with godfathers , &c. in case of recovery ; and also that thansgiving for women after childbirth should be publickly given in the church , and at the altar ) when these and some other things were commanded , the humour of the people and matter of interest was most in debate by the plurality of the clergy , and those few who obeyed , were even derided by their brethren , who also came into their parishes to baptize the children and give thanks for the wives of the proud opposers of discipline , and by these practises sowed and somented contention . it 's almost incredible what invectives and ill reports are daily scattered to worthy mr. thomsons prejudice by clergymen in and near bristol ; and all this occasioned by his very regular conformity . the same pride which hinders their imitation of what is so highly commendable , doth also give them troublesom thoughts , that singular piety accuseth them of culpable remissness . i humbly request a candid interpretation of the foregoing words , there being no design , by comparison or otherwise to put a fair character upon my self . only in my own vindication from suffering as an ill doer , i have made use of other names and instances to shew conformity to be ground sufficient for the indirect practises of my adversaries . and as no affectation of singularity , nor any other motives , but a perfect sense of duty hath hitherto obliged me to give them this cause , so my hopes are that i shall not whilst living cease from it . moreover as my delight in conformity is purely without outward respects ; as i pray and hope that no desires of worldly felicity will be able to baffle my constancy and patience , if it please god that they are to be further exercised ; so i declare my willingness ( if god permit ) to serve him and my prince in peace . which to obtain by other probable means than this manifestation , is beyond the reach of my judgement . that nothing is here written out of an unchristian seeking revenge , is my solemn declaration before god , angsel and men , my earnest wishes of mine eye seeing its desire upon mine enemies , being their humility and amendment . that their punishment , while they continue obstinate , is in some measure conducing to the churches welfare is my firm opinion . but to inflict it my self , their power , numbers and riches considered , is so far beyond my ability , that i cannot in any measure promise to secure my self from new additions of violence . but that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty , according to my bounden duty , i humbly and heartily beseech the ever-blessed fountain of all goodness to encompass with the pledges of his love our most gracious soveraign , his royal brother with all that are related to them , and those , who being in subordinate authorities , do either direct us in the way of religion , or guard it for our safe conduct to glory . amen . finis . by the king, a proclamation england and wales. sovereign ( - : charles ii) approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page image. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing c estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) by the king, a proclamation england and wales. sovereign ( - : charles ii) charles ii, king of england, - . broadside. printed by the assigns of jo. bill and chris. barker ..., [london] in the savoye : / [i.e. ] "given at our court at whitehall, the three and twentieth of march, / . in the three and twentieth year of our reign." ordering catholic clergy into exile and the enforcement of the penal laws against catholic recusants. reproduction of original in the huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng dissenters, religious -- legal status, laws, etc. -- england. catholics -- england. great britain -- history -- charles ii, - . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - mona logarbo sampled and proofread - mona logarbo text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion by the king. c r diev et mon droit honi soit qvi mal y pense royal blazon or coat of arms a proclamation . charles r. whereas our loyal subjects the lords spiritual and temporal , and commons in this present parliament assembled , have by their humble petition represented to vs their fears and apprehensions of the growth and increase of the popish religion in these our dominions , together with the causes thereof , and also such remedies as they conceive may be proper to prevent such growing mischiefs . which petition of theirs we have seriously considered , and do with much contentment and satisfaction , accept and approve the great care of our said loyal subjects the lords spiritual and temporal , and commons in parliament assembled , for the preservation of the true religion established in this kingdom ; to which , as we have always adhered against all temptations whatsoever , so we shall still employ our utmost care and zeal in the maintenance and defence of it . and we do therefore by this our royal proclamation streightly charge and command all iesuits , and all english , irish , and scottish priests , and all others who have taken orders from the see of rome , or by the authority or pretended authority thereof , who are not under any restraint by imprisonment , other then such as by contract of marriage are to attend the person of our dearest consort the queen , or by the laws of nations are to attend forein ambassadors ; that they do before the first day of may next , depart out of this our kingdom of england , and dominion of wales , upon pain of having the penalties of the laws and statutes of this our realm inflicted upon them : and for their better means to depart accordingly , we do hereby declare and publish our further will and pleasure , that if at any time before the said first day of may , they or any of them shall resort to any port-town of our said kingdom of england or dominion of wales , and there declare himself to the magistrate of the town , or other officers of any port , that he is a priest , and that he is there to take shipping for his passage , they shall suffer him or them quietly to depart , and shall see them shipt and sent away for forein parts , and give them their furtherance for their departure . and to the end this our proclamation may be the better observed and obeyed , we do hereby strictly charge and command all our lieutenants , deputy-lieutenants , commissioners , iustices of peace , mayors , sheriffs , bayliffs , and all other our officers and ministers whatsoever , that they be circumspect and vigilant each of them in their several charges , from and after the said first day of may next , in searching for and discovering all such iesuits and priests as aforesaid , as shall presume to remain in this our kingdom of england and dominion of wales , contrary to our laws , and our royal pleasure and command herein declared , that so the laws may be put in due execution against them . and for the better discovery of all others who are popish recusants , or justly suspected to be so , we do also further require , charge , and command , that all our iudges , barons of our exchequer , iustices of peace , and ministers of iustice in their several places , do not onely observe our will and pleasure herein before expressed in all and every of the premisses ; but also forthwith put all other our laws in due execution against all popish recusants , and such as are suspected to be so , in order to their speedy conviction , and cause the said laws to be publickly given in charge at all and every their assises , gaol-deliveries , and quarter-sessions respectively , and then and there take order that such popish recusants , or persons suspected to be so , may be speedily presented , indicted , and convicted according to law , and that due process of law may from time to time be issued out upon such convictions . and we do hereby declare , that the names of such priests who do attend the person of our dearest consort the queen , shall be set down under her great seal , and such signification enrolled in the court of kings-bench : and because there may be some priests imprisoned in this our realm , yet unknown to vs , we do will and command all sheriffs , bayliffs , and keepers of prisons , within twenty days after publication of this our proclamation , to advertise our privy-council , or some of them , of the names of all such priests that are in their custody , and by whom , and for what cause they were committed , to the end that thereupon we may give order for their transportation , as the case shall require . given at our court at whitehall , the three and twentieth day of march , / . in the three and twentieth year of our reign . god save the king . in the savoye : printed by the assigns of jo : bill , and chris . barker , printers to the kings most excellent majesty , / . a letter to a friend relating to the present convocation at westminster approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing p estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a letter to a friend relating to the present convocation at westminster prideaux, humphrey, - . kidder, richard, - . tillotson, john, - . [ ], p. printed for brabazon aylmer ..., london : . signed: a.b. attributed to humphrey prideaux by wing, and by others to richard kidder and john tillotson. reproduction of original in duke university library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng church of england -- government. dissenters, religious -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - taryn hakala sampled and proofread - taryn hakala text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a letter to a friend relating to the present convocation at westminster . london , printed for brabazon aylmer at the three pigeons against the royal exchange in cornhill . mdcxc . a letter to a friend , relating to the present convocation at westminster . sir , i have fully considered what you have been pleased to offer to me in yours concerning the convocation now met at westminster , and the alterations intended to be made therein in the present offices , rites and constitutions of our church , and all what you say i apprehend to be reducible to these three heads : . that no alterations ought at all to be made in things pertaining to religion but when there is a very great necessity for it . . that at present there is no such necessity for the alterations intended . and , . that , if there were , this is no time for it , when so many of the fathers of our church , and other eminent persons of the clergy do now by their suspension stand incapacitated to act with us in this matter . as to the first , i readily grant what you say , that nothing is more dangerous to religion , than frequently to make alterations in the things pertaining thereto , because an unsteadiness as to these , although in outward circumstantials onely , which are always alterable , may to many become an argument against the whole . for there being multitudes among us who are not able to distinguish between what is circumstantial and what is essential in our worship , what is in the power of the church to alter , and what is not , and are apt to call every alteration though in things merely indifferent , and which the variation of times have made totally insignificant to the first end of their establishment , to be a change of the religion it self ; and therefore concluding that we have no firm bottom at all for that which they see us so often vary from , may from hence be induced to cast off all regard both for our church and the worship of god established therein , and become apostates from us either to popery or atheism all their life after . for the prevention whereof i readily grant what you say , that such alterations ought not to be attempted but when there is an absolute necessity for them . and therefore the church of england may be justifyed in her proceedings hitherto , that she hath not been forward on every demand of the dissenters to unhinge those of her communion from her long received establishments , but hath to the utmost resisted all alterations from them , hoping by other less dangerous methods to cure the distractions and heal the divisions that are among us . but when after her utmost tryal of all other ways they have all proved ineffectual to attain the end proposed , and the church hath still grown weaker and weaker , and those that dissent from it still stronger and stronger under all those attempts which have been made use of for the reuniting them to us , so that now we are brought to that pass , that without coming to a temper with them , and abating something on our side for the sake of peace and union with them , we cannot have that prospect as formerly of supporting the church of god and maintaining the honour of his worship with success among us . i think now to make such alterations as are proposed a thing so absolutely necessary as ought not any longer to be deferr'd . and this i hope i shall be able clearly to convince you of in answer to your second head of objection , from these following reasons . for , first , there lyes an indispensable obligation upon us to doe the utmost we are able to remove this mischievous schism , from among us , which hath so long disturb'd the church of christ in this land. how prejudicial this hath been to the honour of god and the salvation of men , and how advantageous to the encrease of popery and atheism , and the propagating also of all manner of iniquity among us , is that which by wofull experience is too well known unto you to need a description : and all this evil most certainly must lye at our doors as far as we doe not the utmost that in us lyeth to remove it , and what other way is there now left of attempting it but by coming to some terms of moderation and temper with those that dissent from us . we have already tryed all methods of persuasion to mollifie them , all force of argumentation to convince them ; we have tryed also church censures and penal laws , and inflicted them too with a severity perchance beyond what we can justifie ; and what have we availed our selves of all this , but onely to heighten the divisions and increase the mischief which we endeavoured to remove ; and therefore what other remedy is now left us , what other means for us to have recourse to for the curing of this prevailing evil among us , but that , as far as we are able we abate of that which hath given the whole origin thereto ; those excepted passages in our liturgy , and those ceremonies in our worship which our dissenting brethren cannot conform with us in . and for this the late act of toleration hath added a very pressing necessity . for when our divisions ran so high , and our animosities against each other so far increased as that dissenters were driven by them to take shelter from us in the camp of our common enemy , and join with the papists against us to the endangering both of church and state to utter ruin . the parliament then thought it time to provide for the publick safety by reconciling those men thereto by an act of toleration and indulgence , whereby they being now put upon as good a bottom of legal right and protection as we our selves , there is no other way left us of coming to a union with them but by following the same steps which the state hath gone in before us , and by condescension and abatements to reconcile those men unto us : for they are now no more in our power to force them to a conformity with us than we are in theirs , and therefore they being on equal terms with us of right and protection from the government under which we live , treaty and mutual abatement is the onely method now whereby we can be brought to a union with each other ; and why we should not abate for the sake of this which carrieth with it a promise of so great good and benefit to the church of christ among us , i would desire a reason from him that is able to give it . for what are those things which we differ about , that we must for ever sacrifice to them the peace both of church and state without abating the least tittle for so great a good as that of the common union of christians among us ? are a few excepted passages in our liturgy , and two or three ceremonies in our worship things of so great value that we must for the sake of them still maintain those discords and divisions both in church and state which have so long harassed both almost to utter ruine ? is it not enough that we have had already a twenty years war about them ? and , is it not enough , that ever since our deliverance from that , for the sake of those trifles , we have for these thirty years last past driven up our divisions and animosities against each other to that height as that we had almost totally given up our church to popery and our government to tyranny thereby ? certainly , after all this , it 's time to sit down and consider whether those things are of such great value for the sake of which we bring so much mischief to this poor distressed church and nation , that nothing must be abated of that unreasonable rigor whereby we have hitherto maintained them . and if the consideration of things past cannot move us , i beseech you , consider a little the present posture of our affairs ; we have a formidable enemy in our neighbourhood now engaged in war against us , who thinks of nothing less than subjugating these three kingdoms to his absolute tyranny , and imposing popish idolatry and superstition upon all the inhabitants of them ; and that which gives him the greatest advantage against us , and the greatest hopes for our destruction is , our divisions among our selves at home which enfeeble both our hearts and hands for the battel , and make us unable to resist him with that success which formerly used to attend most of our other expeditions against enemies altogether as potent ; and what remedy have we left to prevent this terrible ruin that now so formidably threatens us , but to come to as firm a union among our selves as we are able ? and could but this be once happily effected , we need not fear all the power of france and rome in the firmest union against us ; but should be strong enough to resist all their efforts for our ruin ; and , by the blessing of god , still continue in safety , in spight of all the endeavours of both to the contrary . and since it hath pleased god to move the king to call us together in convocation in this conjuncture , i hope we shall not let slip this opportunity of doing the utmost we are able to unite the nation now our affairs do so much require it for the publick safety thereof . for the expectations of all men are now upon us for this purpose , and the hopes of preserving church and state in the great dangers under which they are now both involv'd , do in a great measure depend upon what we shall doe for our common peace now met together and put in a way to remove those obstacles which have so long disturbed it . have we not already lost our reputation with the people of the land by insisting too rigorously on those things ? and now we have in a great measure again retriev'd it by our firm and successfull engagement against the popish cause , shall we be so far infatuated as again to run the same risk ? will we but now come to that temper and moderation in our establishments as may remove that bone of contention which hath so long disturbed us , and think of such abatements as may tend to the setling of peace and union among us , the mouths of all this people shall bless us , and we shall acquire thereby that veneration and regard among them that they shall all look on us as the onely faithfull shepherds whose voice they are to hear , and we thereby be enabled to discharge the duties of our ministry among them with that comfort to our selves and benefit to them as shall soon fix our church upon a foundation never more to be shaken by any of its enemies . but if on the contrary we still persist in our old rigor , and abate no expression in our liturgy , nor ceremony in our worship , for the sake of so great a good ; for my part , i can expect nothing less than that we become abhorr'd of the whole nation , as the common enemies of its peace , and be treated accordingly in every parish where we live among them . were those matters in which abatements are desired of us by our dissenting brethren things of that moment that they either carried with them the force of a divine institution , or were of their own nature so necessary to our worship that either the honour of god or the interest of man's salvation should suffer the least prejudice by their omission , it would become us then , whatever the consequences should be , to stick to them to the utmost , and with the same constancy as formerly the ancient christians did against the arrians , not yield a letter to them to end the whole controversie between us . but notwithstanding what our learned prolocutor hath been pleased in his latin speech to the convocation to suggest , this is by no means our present case . for what article of faith , what necessary requisite of our worship is it in which any alterations are at all intended to be proposed in this present convocation ? if he knows of any such , he would doe well to discover them , and when they come to be offered , oppose them to the utmosh but , alas , the alterations intended , how great oppositions soever they may meet with , are so far from touching upon any thing of this nature , that i can assure him , and he himself well knows it , as being one of the commission , where they are prepared , that they are onely in those indifferent things , which have through all ages of the church from the beginning been ever allowed to be alterable , whensoever the good of the church should require it . and therefore since at present ( as i have shown ) not onely the good of the church in order to the establishment of its peace among us , but also the publick interest of the state too in order to its preservation in its present exigencies do so much require that those alterations should be made , why do we so obstinately stick at those matters , whereby not onely the cause of god in the welfare of his church , but our own also in the publick interest of the nation , is so greatly prejudiced by us ? as it is a great errour in some of our dissenting brethren to allow nothing lawfull to be made use of in our publick worship but what they find particular warrant for in scripture , so is it no less a mistake in us to hold any thing of this nature not prescribed there to be unalterable . for our saviour having given us his divine law , and therein among other precepts , commanded in the worship of god , the celebration of his sacraments , and the government of his church for the better influencing of every member of it to all the duties enjoined , for this very reason descended not to prescribe the particular manner , rites and constitutions which his church afterwards made use of in the performance of all this , because it was impossible that any unalterable rule could at all be given of those matters . for the reason of these being only decency and order in the church of god , and to be as helps therein the better to influence the minds of men to the performance of the divine commands must necessarily be of their own nature variable , according as to the different variations of times , circumstances and the customs of men they more or less become capable of answering the end design'd , and therefore have ever been in the power of the church to constitute , alter and abolish them according as the honour of god , the good of his church and the interest of religion might be best promoted thereby . as long therefore as these forms of prayer which are used in our church , and those rites and constitutions which are received therein do answer the end of their first establishment in being usefull to the promoting the honour of god and the edification of his people , so long they ought with constancy always to be retained ; but when either the infirmity or the wickedness of men , or any other cause hath made that alteration in the times , and in the humours and customs of those that live in them , that these things instead of conducing any longer to that good end proposed , do on the contrary administer only to schism and division in the church , and to distraction and discord in the state , whereby the peace of both is miserably disturb'd , as is too manifestly our case ; from hence there ariseth a reason altogether as strong for their alteration , as ever there was at first for their institution . were they become only useless and no longer answered their end , this would be a sufficient reason alone for an alteration in them , but when over and above they become mischievous too in the evils that they bring both upon church and state this adds an obligation , which cannot i think without guilt be resisted , of coming to a change in these matters . and to come to the particular things controverted between us , i readily assent that the cross in baptism had a very good reason for its first institution : for when in the primitive times the heathens made it a matter of constant reproach to the christians , that they worshipped a crucified god , they for this reason appointed the cross after baptism to be thenceforth put as a badge upon all whom they received into the church , to let them know , that they ought not to be ashamed hereof . and i doubt not but that it was of excellent use in those times to fortifie the minds of christians with that constancy and resolution as was requisite to bear them up against the scoffs and reproaches of their heathen adversaries amongst whom they lived . but now heathenism hath so many ages since been totally extinguished in those parts of the world , and we live in a state which is totally christian , so that the cross of christ is no longer liable of being objected to us as a reproach by any , it cannot be denied but that this ceremony hath now totally lost its use , and although it might innocently enough be still retain'd , yet may it with as much innocency also be totally laid aside now the alterations of times have made it wholly useless to the end for which it was first designed . but in our present circumstances , when it is become not only useless but also mischievous to the cause of christ by reason of the dissensions and schisms which it occasions in his church , and is thereby instead of a badge of union and christian constancy under the banner of the captain of our salvation , as was first intended , become an ensign of war to make us fight against each other , and a cross of torment thereon again to crucifie the lord of life in his body the church , and rent its bowels asunder by those lamentable divisions which it causeth among us ; in this case i think we have an obligation upon us not to be resisted from the absolute necessity of the thing , either totally to lay this ceremony aside , or else make such abatements concerning its use , as may allay all these heats of contention and mischiefs of separation which have been caused in the church of christ thereby . and i here plainly aver that the church of england cannot be guiltless in this matter , if she doth not on this opportunity , now put into her hands by this present meeting of the convocation , doe something herein , and that especially since by an unwary expression in her canons , wherein she hath explained this ceremony to be that whereby the person baptized is dedicated to the service of jesus christ , she hath wrongfully attributed thereto the sacramental effect which belongs to baptism onely , and thereby administred a great part of the occasion to all the divisions which have been risen about it . . as to the surplice i am sufficiently satisfied that nothing is more unreasonable than those cavils which are risen against it . for it is onely an habit of distinction , which the minister for the sake of order and decency makes use of in the execution of his function in the same manner as is practised in all other offices and professions of men , and those that except against it may as well except against the robes of a judge on the bench , or the gown of a mayor when he presides in his corporation , it being altogether as reasonable that a minister should be distinguished by a proper habit in the execution of his office , as they in theirs . but when through the malice of some in working strange objections against it into the minds of men , and the weakness of others in receiving and believing them , it is now become so great a stumbling-block of offence as to drive multitudes to forsake our churches , and be disaffected to the worship of god which is performed in them ; whatsoever was the reason of its first appointment , sure i am that from hence there is a much greater totally to lay it aside , and appoint another that may be less offensive in its stead . the union of the church and the benefit which the souls of men may receive thereby being certainly things of far greater moment than to be sacrificed to so trivial a matter as that of a garment . . kneeling at the sacrament of the lord's supper is a posture so proper to that holy ordinance , that of all the constitutions of our church , this is the last i should be willing to part with ; because i think the highest posture of devotion is that which is always most natural for us to be in when we are receiving from christ so great and inestimable benefits as those which are reached out unto us in that holy mystery . but since the weakness of many who are good and well meaning men have been so far imposed on by several fallacious arguments which they have not skill enough to see through , as to think it sinfull to receive in this posture , and hereby the table of the lord becomes deserted , and the souls of many deprived of the benefit of that spiritual food which is administred thereon , contrary to the intention of our saviour , who hath by no means impowred us on any such account as this to debar men from communion , and deprive them thereby of those benefits of salvation which we are sent to administer unto them , it is time for us now to abate of our rigor in this matter ; and when we are not able to bring men up by reason of their weakness to the constitutions of the church , be so far indulgent as to descend to them , and give them the sacrament in their own way , rather than for the sake of a posture onely debar them of the benefits which their souls may receive thereby ; and to doe otherwise i doubt will not onely be a sin against christian charity , in prejudicing the salvation of many , but also be an abuse of the commission intrusted with us . for i can by no means be persuaded that christ hath given us the power of the keys to shut out those from the benefits of this sacrament who in all other respects being good and righteous men , have onely this weakness , that they cannot comply with us in receiving thereof in that posture which the church prescribes , and for which it hath no other warrant but its own constitutions . for how fitting a posture soever kneeling may be for the receiving of this sacrament , this must undeniably be allowed , that neither scripture directs it , nor antiquity ever used it ; it having been for several ages after christ the constant practice of all the churches in the world to communicate standing , and why this may not again by a particular dispensation from the present establishment be allowed to weak and scrupulous persons for the sake of peace and union with them , i can see no reason that savours either of a christian temper or christian charity that can be said to the contrary . . as to the liturgy of our church i freely acknowledge , and i think no man can contradict me herein , that it i● the best which was ever yet used in any christian church , but that it should therefore be so perfect as not to be capable of amendments or alterations for the better doth by no means follow . for nothing of humane composure can be such , especially in a thing of this nature , where process of time and alteration of circumstances frequently produce a necessity for correction , as most certainly in our liturgy they very often doe . for the language in which it is wrote being constantly in fluxu , as all other living languages are , in every age some words that were in use in the former grow obsolete , and some phrases and expressions formerly in grace and fashion through difuse become uncouth and ridiculous , and always to continue these in our liturgy without correction would be to bring a disparagement upon the whole , and expose to contempt the worship of god among us . besides there are several things which in one age may conduce to devotion , which through variation of times and circumstances may not be born in another ; several things which may be the proper matter of prayer at one time which may not be so in another , and all those things call for alterations and amendments whenever they happen . and therefore i am so far from assenting with some of our brethren in this particular , that our liturgy ought not to be altered , that i think it absolutely necessary from the abovementioned particulars that it be always at least once in years brought to a review for this purpose . and i am sure this hath been the judgment of the whole christian church from the beginning till this time . the greek church hath so often altered as to this , and made so many different forms of their liturgies , that a collection of them in a late auction amounted to twenty volumes ; and the latin church who brag most of their constancy in these matters have rather exceeded than come behind them herein , as in the old manuscripts of their liturgies will sufficiently appear to any that will take the pains to look into them . nay they were so far from continuing one age in conformity with another herein , that they observed none at all in this matter , but almost every province had its different liturgy , and it 's well known that there were five different forms of them in this kingdom till the reformation , and the like was also practised in other parts of the latin or romish church , and a general agreement as to this was then so far from being thought necessary , that the act of king edward the vith was the first law for a uniform liturgy in any church that was ever enacted from the beginning of christianity to that time . but neither did that exclude all varying from it in after times . the liturgy that was first established in that king's reign , within a very little while after underwent a review , which produced very considerable alterations in it . and when q. eliz. came to the crown many others were made therein . and those who compute the late alterations decreed in the convocation of . tell us they amount to the number of . and why we onely of this present time should be debarred the privilege of bettering our selves in this matter , which all other times of the church before us have enjoyed , i would fain know a reason . thus far sure i am that no time had ever more need to make use of it for the publick good than this in which we now live . for the exigences of the state call loudly upon us to doe that herein which may tend to its safety , and the peace of the church and the interest of religion plead as hard on the other hand to the same purpose , for the removing of animosities and divisions , and the restoring of union and charity among us . and what can we say for our selves if we continue deaf as to all this ? but to come to the liturgy it self ; are there not many things in it which with some shew of reason our dissenting brethren except against ? and are there not many more which we our selves heartily wish might be amended and improved ? certainly , were there no other reason to induce us to comply with our brethren that dissent from us , in making such alterations as would satisfie them , i should think this a very sufficient one , that that we have an opportunity given us at the same time also to gratifie our selves in such further alterations and improvements which we our selves desire . for must the story of tobit and his dog and that of bell and the dragon always supplant canonical scripture in our churches , and we be forced to read such ridiculous things to our people instead of the word of god ? must we always be forced to read the old translation of the psalms , and impose that on the people for true scripture , which in so great a number of places quite differs from it ? must we always be forced in our addresses to god almighty with a flattery not to be warranted , to call every king that reigns over us most religious , though the whole tenor of his life may be quite the contrary ; and pray that he may be kept and strengthned in the true worshipping of god , though openly professing so false a worship as that of popery ? and must we also be forced still to put that abuse upon the power of the keys committed to our charge , as to excommunicate , and thereby thrust out of our churches sometimes the best of our people for being right or wrong overthrown in some penny or twopenny cause in our ecclesiastical courts ? and must we always be necessitated to pronounce all damn'd that do not believe every tittle in athanasius's creed which so few do understand ; and on the contrary to declare every man sav'd at his burial how wickedly soever he liv'd all his life before ? and must we always be bound to many other grievances and defects of this nature , which i could tell you of , and still deny our selves all redress under the burden of them , by refusing all those desirable alterations and improvements which are now in our own power to effect , because some of our brethren are obstinately bent to doe nothing for the satisfaction of those that dissent from us ? in summ , it cannot be denied , but that there are many things in our liturgy which may be amended and improved , many defects in our discipline and constitutions which may be supplied , and abundance of other particulars in our church which may receive a great advance for the better enabling us to promote religion and piety , and suppress sin and iniquity among us . and since the king and parliament are now so well inclined to comply with us in all these particulars , which we have so often laboured for in vain in other times , provided that we will on our side doe what justly we may to satisfie our dissenting brethren for the sake of peace and union among us , which the necessities of our present circumstances doe so much require for our common safety ; it is a barter of that advantage on our side , that none i think can refuse that have any regard to the honour of god , the good of his church , or the true interest of religion among us . but to all what i have said i very well know many objections will be made , which i daily hear from those who are of your opinion in this matter . the first is , that altering any thing in this now constituted church will be like the plucking of a beam out of a well built house , and that it cannot be done without endangering the whole fabrick . to this i answer , if all had been of this mind we could never have reformed from popery , because this argument would have been as strong against all alterations then as now ; but i thank god we altered for the better then , and still preserv'd our church , and therefore i hope we may be able to doe so still without any prejudice thereto . . it is objected , if we once begin to alter , where shall we stop ? to this i answer , whensoever any thing is proposed to us which is not fit to be done . . it 's objected , if we yield now , they will still be craving more , and never rest till at last they have taken all from us . to which i answer , when they doe this , then it will be time enough to resist them ; in the interim let us not refuse them what is just and sitting for us to grant them , lest thereby we make good the old saying , omnia dat qui justa negat ; and we give them an advantage against us , by our obstinate rigor against yielding any thing , to get that power on their side which may deprive us of all . . it 's objected , that some of those alterations which they require are in things as ancient as the primitive church , from which we ought not to vary , as may be instanced in the cross in baptism . to which i answer , that we are not bound to retain all things that were used in the primitive church . for if so , why have we not still their love-feasts and their deaconesses , which have been long since disused in all christian churches , and yet the mention of them is as ancient as the scriptures themselves . for in truth it is not ancient usage , but the necessities and exigencies of the church that are the reasons of all its constitutions and establishments , which are to be framed in every age as will best sute with the promoting of the honour of god , and the edification of his people , to which abundance of things might very well serve in the primitive times , which will not now ; and therefore to say , that what was in use , in the primitive times must be retained now for this reason onely without any other to enforce it is just the same as if we were bound to revive all the old saxon and british laws , because they were the ancient constitutions of this land , without considering whether they are usefull to us or no. . the fifth objection is , that it will be a reproach to change . to which i answer , that it will be a much greater reproach obstinately to resist a change when there is good reason for it . and therefore i cannot approve the confidence of that gentleman , who hath lift up his banner against the whole intent and design of this convocation , with a nolumus leges angliae mutare . for doth he think we are bound never to make any new constitutions in our church , or abolish old ones , according as the exigencies of it doe require ? if so , why have we any convocations at all ? for is not the whole intent and reason of these assemblies of the clergy of this church , to consider its grievances and corruptions in the same manner as the parliament doth those of the state , and from time to time , in like manner , provide remedies for them , and that by abolishing old constitutions , as well as by decreeing new ones ? and hath not the church ever asserted this power as one of the most essential things which belong to its constitution ? and must it now renounce all this for the sake of this gentleman's motto ? and now , in this critical time , when its safety doth so much depend upon what it shall doe for it self , rather sit quietly down and languish to death , than make the least motion of effort to save it self . if this be it which this gentleman would have , we have no reason to thank him either for his speech or his motto , the last of which , i suppose , pleased him best , because it carried a double stab with it , the one against the church , and the other against him that was his greatest benefactor to promote him in it . . the sixth objection is , that we have no reason to alter any thing for the sake of dissenters , because the fault of our divisions is not from any constitutions of ours , but from their obstinacy and perverseness in unreasonably dissenting from them . to which i answer , that i acknowledge all this to be true , that it is not the church which is the cause of our divisions by any of its constitutions or impositions , which are all rational and good , but they onely who refuse to conform to them . but it doth not follow therefore , that when nothing else will remove the divisions now raised among us on the account of these things , or again reduce dissenters to the unity of the church , but some alterations in them , ( which without the least prejudice to our church , or the worship of god therein we may lawfully make ) it may not be a great fault in us now to be over obstinate in these matters , and that we ought not rather when there is before us so great a good , as the peace of the church and the salvation of so many therein ( which it 's to be fear'd may be too much obstructed by these divisions ) be ready to comply with them as far as lawfully we may for the sake hereof . for they being the 〈…〉 k and the infirm whom we are sent to heal , our part to them must be that of a physician , who , when he finds his patient , through that peevishness which is commonly incident to the sick , obstinately refuse an wholsom medicine which he prescribes him , doth not for this reason immediately cast off all care of him , but thinks of something else more agreeable to his palate and humour , that may doe as well . . the seventh objection is , if we make those alterations and so often change , how shall we answer the papists , who will upbraid us with it ? to this i answer , as well as we did in the first of queen elizabeth , and in . or , if this be an objection , as well as they can us for their alterations by the council of trent , the late reformation of their mass-books at paris , and the last pope's abolishing several offices concerning the virgin mary . . the eighth objection is , we shall by these alterations dissatisfie our own people . to which i answer , why more now than in . when all readily complyed with and approved the like alterations ? but i believe more noise is made of this objection , than there is truth or reason in it ; perchance there may be some few ignorant and weak people , that may be over zealously affected to these matters among us , but they being our own , i hope are capable of being better instructed by us ; than to think any of those things in which the alterations are desired so sacred as not to be meddled with : for this is to attribute that to the appointments of men , which is due onely to the divine institutions , and is a sinfull superstition , in which they ought by no means to be indulged , but are as to this to be corrected , and better informed by us , under whose care they are . and thu● far having shewn you what necessity is upon us to c 〈…〉 ent to the alterations that will be proposed in this present convocation , from the great obligation we have to remove the scisms and heal the divisions that are among us , i shall in the second place shew you another reason of this necssity from the promise , whereby we have obliged our selves so to doe . for the bishops , in their petition to king james , promised that they would come to a temper with the dissenters , whenever put in a legal way , and this promise all the clergy in the land have seemed to approve of by owning that petition in which it was contained , as they all plainly did who refused to read that king's declaration in compliance therewith ; and therefore now we are put in a legal way by being called together in convocation , we are bound to make this promise good . for hereby we have not only raised the expectations of the dissenters , but also of the whole nation too , who are earnest for the sake of the publick good and peace of the kingdom , that the differences between us should be composed ; and if we doe nothing in complyance herewith , what can we expect , but that the general clamour of the people will be raised against us hereon , as a base and false sort of men , who can promise fair in times of adversity , and forget all performances when they are over , and we become the reproach of every man hereon , i know the answer hereto is , that the dissenters will do nothing on their part towards this temper , and that after all that we can doe on ours we cannot have assurance that any one of them will come over to us thereon , and therefore it will be in vain for us to proceed any further on this project . to which i reply , first , that it is by no means true that all dissenters are so averse to a reconciliation with us , as this answer suggests , for i know multitudes that on granting the alterations proposed would most gladly come in and unite themselves to us . that their ministers are not so forward as to this i believe to be true , because they having many of them very beneficial conventicles , where they have a more plentifull income , greater respects , and a larger power than they can hope for in a church benefice , would rather for the sake of self interest continue as they are , and have no comprehension at all , than to be brought into the church thereby to their loss . but with the people i know it will be otherwise , who will in large numbers come in to us as soon as those alterations shall be in our churches ; and when they are once come off , it will not be long ere their ministers also will be forced to follow . but , secondly , suppose it true , that no dissenter at all would be brought over to us by the concessions proposed , yet i say that we are still bound as well by interest as duty to perform what we have promised : for by doing our part herein , first , we shall leave them without excuse , if they be not satisfied thereon , and deliver our selves from abundance of their clamour , which we are now continually vexed with by them on this account . secondly , we shall thereby give satisfaction to the nation , who expect this from us , and fix them thereby the more firmly to us . for say we what we will of the strength and number of those that are for us , let us not deceive our selves , as they that are zealous for the dissenters are no great number , neither are they that are zealous for us . the main body of the nation i look on to stand indifferently affected both to them and us , and although they now come to our churches , yet are they as ready to joyn also with them were they in the publick ministry , as in the times of cromwell hath been sufficiently made appear . for they think not the controversie between us of that moment , and therefore cry loudly to us to agree , and take it very ill that such discords and divisions should be still maintained in the nation so much to the prejudice of the publick peace and safety about such trifling matters as they think them to be which we contend with each other about . and at present i must tell you they are readier to cast the blame of all this rather on us than them because they are now the suffering party . but if we do our part on this occasion , and make all those steps to peace and agreement which are proposed , we shall not onely set our selves right with them as to this , but if the dissenters do not hereon come in and comply with us , they will so plainly manifest themselves thereby to be a sort of obstinate and unreasonable people , that the whole nation shall condemn them and justifie us , and be thereby firmly fixed on our side ever after . but on the contrary if we do not our part , but break our promises , and reject the present opportunity put into our hands of doing our best towards the restoring peace to this poor divided church and nation , which all now so earnestly desire , and the exigency of our present affairs do make so necessary for our safety , we shall so far lose the people of the land , and give our adversaries that advantage over us thereby , as i fear may become our total ruine . but , thirdly , another reason there is which shews the necessity of our doing what is propos'd , because if we do not doe it most certainly the parliament will. for it may be very well remembred , that in the last sessions the bill past the house of lords in order hereto , and when it came down into the house of commons it was by their desire that the matter was referred to us , and if we now do nothing in it , you may assure your self the parliament will resume it again , and doe it their own way , and they have the whole thanks for it , and we onely the odium of the whole nation for refusing it . to prevent which let us not cast the present opportunity out of our hands of doing the thing our selves : for we as divines are best able to doe it as it ought without prejudice to the church , whereas if we cast it into the hands of laymen , they may instead of altering circumstantials strike at essentials , and so make a breach upon the religion it self to the undoing of all . and although this should be avoided , as i fear it will not in some particulars i could instance , as particularly in that of our orders , yet the least mischief we can expect will be totally to extinguish all convocations for the future , and resolve the whole power of the church into the two houses of parliament , and thereby perpetually fix that reproach of the papists upon us , that our religion is a parliamentary religion . and whether the church of england is now met together onely to be felo de se is that which the members of this present convocation are earnestly desired to consider . but in answer to all this your third head of objection tells us , that how necessary soever this may be from the abovementioned reasons , yet this is no proper time for it , when so many of the fathers of our church , and other eminent persons of the clergy by their suspension stand incapacitated to act with us in this matter , and that because if this be now done , when their consent cannot be had in the doing of it , they will renounce it all , and by sticking to the present form create a new schism among us , and thereby as great a breach be made in the church on the one hand , as possibly can be made up on the other . and this i hear is a reason much insisted on to defeat the whole design and intent of this convocation but in answer hereto i must tell you those excellent persons are very little beholding to them that talk of them at this rate , there being nothing that can be a more bitter libel against them . for is it possible to imagine that those who have so eminently signallized themselves in the defence of the church , and so readily yielded themselves to be confessors for it ( as all well know in the late reign ) should now on a sudden turn their hands against it to wound and destroy it , and all this onely out of a desperate peevishness , because they have some infelicities at present upon them which none of us can help . far be it from those eminent fathers of the church to become guilty of so great a wickedness against it , and i must tell you it is impossible they ever should , whatsoever some men may talk hereof to serve their own purpose . for how can they who have so long● preached and wrote against schism and the wickedness of it in separating from the church without a just cause , now become guilty hereof themselves , when there is no cause at all to drive them to it ? should we indeed put any thing either into our liturgy or constitutions , which is contrary either to the doctrine or the precepts of our religion , i must confess then there would be reason for them to separate , and i my self would make one of their number ; but those that are most hot against the design of this present convocation do not tell us that any thing of this is likely to be done therein , and therefore we may suppose the liturgy after its present review will have nothing of this therein , and that any then should separate from us in that where they can find no fault to object is a thing that cannot be imagined , but of such onely as are most perversly bent against reason and conscience to doe all the wickedness they can to gratifie a peevish humour . and therefore those that talk after this rate of those excellent and most religious persons have a great deal to answer for to them for the injury which they doe them by this slanderous and vile imputation . but since they will have it so we will for once ( begging their pardon for doing so ) suppose what they suggest to be true , that those who are now of so tender a conscience in reference to the oaths , will have none at all as to this which is a much plainer case , but go on in opposition to all which we shall do in this present convocation to make that schism which they would fright us with , the hurt will be so little which they will be able to doe us thereby , as that it will not need either to be feared or regarded by us . for their number is so small , and the proselytes they are like to get so few , and the resentments of the state will be so heavy upon them , as being enemies to them as well as us in this opposition , that they can no sooner appear in the schism which is talked so much of , but they must immediately be crush'd and fall to nothing , and therefore to talk of this as some do , in so formidable a manner for the obstructing all the good intentions of this present convocation , is a scare-crow which knaves may lift up , but none but fools can be frighted therewith . and thus far having shewn you the necessity which urgeth us to doe what may become us in this present convocation , methinks the case is so plain , that i cannot imagine from whence it is that the present opposition may arise , unless it be that some , when they hear of reformation , are afraid of their church power and church promotions . if this be the matter , as i doubt it is , that makes so many hang off from the publick good of the church at this time , i desire they would consider whether they doe not take the most effectual course to bring that about which they fear . if by such moderate abatements as are required we give satisfaction to the nation , they will be the better inclined to bear with us in all things else , and make the continuance of our establishments more lasting among them . but if on the contrary , by our refusal , we provoke them against us , i know not but that , instead of that moderate and just reformation which they will now be contented with , they may take the matter into their own hands , and bring us to that of scotland , which we are so much afraid of , and deprive us of all . and of this we have a plain instance in the case of the council of trent . had they granted any moderate concessions to the just demands of the germans , and yielded them but some of those things which are now a burthen to them , and which they would be gladly rid of , if they could with reputation , i doubt not the church of rome might have retained its power over the whole latin church till this time ; but their jealousie of this power making them rigorous to yield nothing , hath put them in the direct way to lose all . and if we follow the same course , i doubt the same effect will ensue . in summ , such bye ends are always most unjustifiable in ecclesiastical councils , in which no considerations of secular interest , but those onely which may best tend to the honour of god and the salvation of men ought to influence all our determinations , and could we but all come together with this mind , i should think our selves so sure of the blessing of god upon all our endeavours , that i durst promise you all the good success from this convocation that can be desired , whatever appearance there may at present be to the contrary . as to the account which you desire of our proceedings hitherto , i can onely tell you , that on monday last we chose our prolocutor , and adjourned to this day , and are now again adjourned till monday next , and then we expect to have our commission to act and fall to business . the first thing to be brought before us will be the reformation of the kalendar , that is , whether the apocryphal lessons shall be struck out or no ; and here i apprehend the main question will come to the debate , whether alterations , or no alterations : if the latter be carried , you will have your desire , and i my liberty again to return home , where the old saying , quos deus perdet dementat , must necessarily have that influence upon my mind , as to make me fear our total ruin cannot be long behind after so great an infatuation ; if it must be so , i am sure our sins have deserved it , and god endue us with patience to submit thereto . i am , sir , your affectionate humble servant , a. b. nov. . . finis . a view of the world, being a poem of the times containing the root of rebellion, the tree of sedition, the leaves of contention, and the fruit of treason : [a]dvising every good christian to obey governours and superiors, and not to kick at every occasion, nor to make a schism and rent in the church at every scruple, criticism, and mistake, but to live in peace and unity, lest (being found imposters before god and rebels to their king) their heads be mounted on a pole as a fruit of their treachery and rebellion. p. n. approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page image. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing p a estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a view of the world, being a poem of the times containing the root of rebellion, the tree of sedition, the leaves of contention, and the fruit of treason : [a]dvising every good christian to obey governours and superiors, and not to kick at every occasion, nor to make a schism and rent in the church at every scruple, criticism, and mistake, but to live in peace and unity, lest (being found imposters before god and rebels to their king) their heads be mounted on a pole as a fruit of their treachery and rebellion. p. n. broadside : ill. printed for i. deacon and are to be sold by w. davis ..., london : mdclxxxv [ ] in verse. signed at end: by n.p. imperfect: creased, with slight loss of print. reproduction of original in the harvard university library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng dissenters, religious -- poetry. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - megan marion sampled and proofread - megan marion text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a view of the world ; being a poem of the times . containing , the root of rebellion , the tree of sedition , the leaves of contention , and the fruit of treason . ●dvising every good christian to obey governours and superiors , and not to kick at every occasion ; nor to make a scism and rent in the church at every scruple , criticism , and mistake , but to live in peace and unity ; l●st ( being found impostors before god , and rebels to their king ) their heads be mounted on a pole , as the fruit of their treachery and rebellion . u●tin a semper exp●cta● da dies , ●omi●● d●●ique bea●us ante obitem nemo supremaque funera debet . tem ●●a res agiter proximu● cum paries ardet , religio velum est quod tegit omne scelus . war . blood-shed . violence . oppression . destruction ruine . rebellion-scism-sedition the 〈◊〉 did flame , but not consume , but th●●●ad tree would waste all 〈◊〉 ; this 〈◊〉 to disc●rd , by the 〈…〉 , but this brought peace , for god 〈◊〉 was chare . ambition gave the 〈◊〉 which did f●●lare , and made poor 〈…〉 to the grace pride 〈…〉 which bred cerruption and mortality : rebellion was the branch that first did spring , and brought forth treason ' gainst th' a●m●gh●y king : it is like wach crast , hainous , and a sore which amputation only can restore . 't is grief to see ( yet no man doth condole ) a tra●●●r's head erected on a pole. g●n●r●h's grape● were never half so sowre as this sad fruit that 's ripe in half an hour . truth is a p●●●l of price which now doth lye under the 〈◊〉 of h●p cres●● : religion 's wrape a black , and hangs her head , as head were ●l●k , and p●ty were dead : it is ●e● and the power of e●●reisin , to disp 〈◊〉 the church of sect and schism . false christs are many , faith now cold is grown ; in here , 〈◊〉 there , and yet the true's but one . here m●l●met's musty handeth like a swine , swell'd up in lust , alcho● he drinks no wine . turks are but bruits , their manners are the same , they 'r dis●●●ced only by the n●ane . jack . with his prick - 〈◊〉 , preshiters doth tickle : " the 〈…〉 ●●●ven is 〈◊〉 a ( ●ee●icle : " this is the ●●ay , or 〈◊〉 holy ladder , " 〈◊〉 up● and be 〈…〉 the snake or adder , " 〈…〉 , ●●●hearted , nor be in the least " 〈…〉 the 〈◊〉 man beast ; " 〈…〉 reason , sence , and law , " the 〈…〉 scienria media . " the 〈…〉 was the only man " 〈…〉 the truth since ●eresie begin : " 〈…〉 most mortals did pass by , " 〈…〉 to all eternity . " 〈…〉 decreed before the world begin , " 〈◊〉 respec● to the works of any man. " then comes the quaker preaching " o dear people , " fear that whores house whose chimney is a steeple . " they 'r priests of baal , hirelings , always fleeting , " but we have silent thoughts ; and sweet dum●● meetings . " paul was a simple ignorant divine , " in bidding people ear up bread and wi●●● " and all th● aposiles words were but like ●lakling , " to vex the world so much with baby spr●●●●● , " ti●h-taking p●●●t is but an h. retick , " tho' ab●●●● pay●● s●thes to melthesedick . " the bible-book is but a lifeless letter , " and any preaching sister can write better ; " for ( tho' the scriptures sense ) the stile is antick . " 't is old , and dead , the apocalyps● rom●●●tick . " no babylon's without the man of sin " sits in the heart , and sodom larks within . " there 's gold and silver , marble , precious stone , " with souls of men , and merchants many a one . " there 's purple , pearl , fine linnen , silk and sea●ler , " with all the gawdy dress that sits an harlet . " there 's wine and oyl , fat beasts , sheep , horses , flywer " to fill the cup up of the scarlet whore. " ah! sodom , sodom , sci●●●ce in the heart , " branching thy towers and streets through every part " of this my body , tho' it be of clay , " pure , holy , harmless , spotless every way . " last night i met a love-sick lamb , dear sister , " i hug'd her in the dark , and sweetly kist her : " but had our conflict been seen by th' ungodly , " prophane , base , wicked , they had spoken odly . " they do not know the motion that doth move " us to the fact , that 's not in lust , but love. " sigh , cheat , and lye , work any kind of sin , " do what thou wilt , and mind the thing within , " we are the people of god , the rest are evil , " ungodly goats , and monsters of the devil : " the holy words of thee and thou , can prove " that were the spouse , and only spotless dove . then maggleton the mountebank divine , draws out in chalk a querpo cut or line , wherein all people needs must walk , or be condemn'd ( by him ) to all eternity . great , good , and just , the world thou mad'st , and thou know'st what it is , and what it will come too : without the sight of thy all-seeing eye , the smallest lark , or sparrow , doth not dye . turn all things lord ( even for thine own sons blood ) to thine own glory , and thy peoples good. let faith increase , and let thy gospel shine , from east to west , and to earth's utmost line . by n. p. london 〈…〉 , and are to be sold by w. davis in amer corner . mdclxxxv . this may be printed r. m. an apologie for the ministry and its maintenance wherein is set forth the necessity, dignity and efficacy of a gospel-ministry against the socinians, swenckfieldians, weigelians, anabaptists, enthusiasts, familists, seekers, quakers, levellers, libertines and the rest of that rout ... / by tho. hall. hall, thomas, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing h a estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) an apologie for the ministry and its maintenance wherein is set forth the necessity, dignity and efficacy of a gospel-ministry against the socinians, swenckfieldians, weigelians, anabaptists, enthusiasts, familists, seekers, quakers, levellers, libertines and the rest of that rout ... / by tho. hall. hall, thomas, - . shaw, samuel, - . [ ], p. printed by a.w. for joseph crawford, london : . a translation by samuel shaw of hall's--tò alas tēs gēs. reproduction of original in the harvard university library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng dissenters, religious -- england. clergy -- office. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - olivia bottum sampled and proofread - aptara rekeyed and resubmitted - jonathan blaney sampled and proofread - jonathan blaney text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion an apologie for the ministry , and its maintenance : wherein is set forth the necessity , dignity , and efficacy of a gospel-ministry ; against the socinians , swenckfieldians , weigelians , anabaptists , enthusiasts , familists , seekers , quakers , levellers , libertines , and the rest of that rout. here you have many texts of scripture explained , all the cavils of the adversaries ( of any weight ) refelled , the equity of tythes by many arguments evinced , and the iniquity of such as seek sacrilegiously to remove them is demonstrated , and the most material cavils against them are succinctly , yet fully answered . by tho. hall , b. d. and pastor of kingsnorton . jer. . . i will bring you to sion , and i will give you pastors according to my heart , which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding . cor. . . who goeth a warfare at any time at his own charges ? who planteth a vineyard , and eateth not of the fruit of it ? or who feedeth a flock and eateth not of the milk of the flock ? london : printed by a. w. for joseph cranford at the castle and lyon in st. paul's church-yard . . to the right worshipfull , and his much honoured cousin , the lady lucy grantham of ratcliffe upon soare , in the county of nottingham , grace and peace . madame : benefits ( we say ) are binders , and every favour received makes the receiver a debtor : if this be so , i must needs acknowledge my self deeply indebted to you for those many reall favours which from time to time you have shewed to me , and to my sonns that have been your chaplains . and , that i may not wholly dye ungratefully , i have sent you a scho●ars gift , a paper-present , as a testimony of my best respects unto your ladyship , who have been so eminent a friend and patroness to us of the ministry ; and that in a time when so many hate us , rob us , revile us , without a cause . you have been more like a nursing mother than a friend to many of your neighbou●ing ministers , especially where their means is low : your ladyships readiness to contribute to the augmenting of the maintenance of ministers , and setting up of preaching , where there is none ; your respectfull entertainment of the min●sters of christ weekly at your house ; your bounty in parting with considerable summes towards the breeding of ingenuous and hopefull children for the work of the ministry ; your tender respect especially to the orphans of ministers ; your late disbursing of a considerable summ at a bare motion of mine towards the breeding of a very hopefull childe , the son of a pious and painfull minister , whose father is now with god ; your great care for their family in spirituals as well as temporals ; your constant morning and evening sacrifice there ; and your care to see that your family l●ve prayers , and live their sermons , and live up to their d●ties : and if any be found to be drunkards , fornicatours , lascivious , sabbath-prophaners , &c. you quickly make them know , that those who will not be servants to god , shall be no servants to you ; your religious care in a timely providing of a p●ous and ingenuous instructor for the fatherless and motherless little on● , which now lies solely upon your hands ; as he is a samuel by name , so you endeavour to make him a samuel indeed , by instructing him betimes in the wayes of god , that so he may have a heart to improve that great estate which providence hath cast upon him , to the glory of that god that gave it ; your carefull observation of the lords-day , not onely in the publick , but in the intervalls of divine worship , to keep your family from straying ; you have not onely repetitions , but also reading of some practical divinity constantly on the lords day to your family . these things justly praise you in the gates , and though no tongue should praise you , yet your works themselves will do it : vertuous actions are the best oratours , and they speak best , who do best ; and though your ladyship had rather do good , than hear of it ; yet that others ( in these last and worst times , when the love of so many waxeth cold ) may be incited to follow your ladyships pious and charitable example , i could not but publish those things to gods glory , and your further encouragement in the work of the lord. 't was the commendation of dorcas , that she made c●ates for the poor whilest she lived ( acts . . ) she did not as most do , put it off till death , and then make good wills , after all their evill deeds : but your ladyship in your life-time hath expressed your bounty long since to the town of nottingham , in giving them two hundred pounds , as a stock to be carefully improved for the best advantage of their poor : besides the dayly occasional gifts to such as are reall objects of pitty and compassion . you have been eyes to the blinde , feet to the lame ; a father to the fatherlesse ; a mother to the motherlesse ; these you take into your family , and when you have hatched them up , you part with considerable summs to set them forth apprentises ; and , which is worthy observing , your ladyship hath been a great gainer by all this , god hath blessed your substance , and your store , he hath made your latter end better then your beginning , and hath cast riches on you in abundance , which you never looked for ; and , above all , he hath given you a heart to improve what he hath given you to his praise ; and to order your affairs with that discretion , and good huswifery , that those who have farr greater means , yet do not the tythe of that good which you do ; and all because they spend that in riotous feasting , superfluous building , keeping a kennel of hounds , or some other sinfull and exorbitant course , which disables them , and dispirits them from works of piety and mercy , now the good lord remember you in mercy for all that you have done for his house , for his ministers , and for his people ▪ he recompence all your labour of love seven-fold into your bosome ; and when you have served your generation here , he receive you unto himself in glory . this is , and shall be the prayer , of kings-norton : novemb. . . your much obliged kinsman tho. hall. to the worshipfull , and his honoured friend richard grevis of moseley hall , in the county of worcester , esq. the translator humbly wisheth the multiplication of grace , and the continuation of peace . worthy sir : i have emboldened my self to offer that unto the world , under your patronage , which , i believe , your singular modesty will almost decline , and fear , your excellent ingenuity will be ready to disown , when you finde it so unworthy of the benigne influences of your eyes , much more of the effluences of your name , virtue , and authority , by which you are able to patronize any thing that makes you its sanctuary of refuge . neither sir , have principles of policy onely perswaded me to inscribe your famous name , and entitle your worthy self to this my imperfection : but indeed , a desire to express and testifie the esteem i have of the one , and the love and honour which i deservedly have for the other . if any man , in this nice age , may be judged worthy to be the object of a dedication , it must be a theophilus ; and , if any other , i do verily believe , you are a theophilus ; if a sober , moderate , contemplative , serious life , adorned with many publick and private exercises of religion , expressions of a gracious soul ; if constant and vigorous endeavours to reconcile differences amicably , and suppress sin authoritatively ; if an engaging , edifying , aweing presence , to wife , children , servants ; if a sweet , friendly , charitable owning of gods people ; or a cordial , gladsome entertainment of his faithfull ministers ; if any of these , if all these will denominate a man a lover of god , accept , i pray you , sir , ths poor oblation ; and although i do not , cannot judg this little impolite treatise worthy your countenance or patronage , yet i beseech you , for the love of god , to stir up all your whole soul 〈◊〉 improve your utmost interest to maintain and defend the cause which therein i study to patronize , which is not yet so much my cause , as the cause of all the faithfull ministers of christ , and not so much theirs neither , as christs . go on ● beseech you , and , whatever troubles shall be upon the earth , whatever divisions , distractions , dissettlements , apostasies are , or may be in england , yet study to approve your self to be a friend to god's cause , whom you love ; and faithfull to the interest of jesus christ , in whom you believe . and so doing , that you may be bless'd with dayes as prosperous as many , with a crown as glorious as eternall , is , and shall be the hearty prayer of sir , your friend and servant in christ jesus , sam. shaw. long-whatton . iuly . . to the impartial reader . reader ; it is not long since , that a faithfull minister of christ , my very loving friend , presented the world with a latine treatise , vindicating and asserting the necessity , dignity and duty of a gosp●l-ministry ; which when i had perused , and discovered ( not onely by the testimony of the epistles commendatory , but by my own iudgment ) in it a great acuteness of wit , a sweet savour of a pious disposition , pertinent and cogent arguments , full and satisfacto●y answers to all objections militating against the truth ; holding discourse with him concerning it , i was bold to intimate to him , how convenien●ly and usefully it might have been offered in a tongue more known amongst us , for the conviction and satisfaction of english cavillers ; adding , that i thought , they , who had so much knowledge as to understand latin , had also more iudgment than to need to be satisfied in that thing : whereupon , the reverend authour concurring with my iudgment ( but giving me a good account of his style ) was pleased , at first , to desire , and upon reluctancy to press me to do that , which i onely wish'd had been done : withall , trusting me with the liberty of paraphrasing and enlarging , by his letters , of june . and june . . which task i have accordingly undertaken , being influenced ( i hope ) by a desire to glorifie god , and have performed , being assisted by the strength of that god , whom i desire to glorifie . besides what i have already express'd and intimated , i need give no further account of my enterprize , but the apprehensions which i then had . i see dayly more and more justified of the proneness of our apostatizing times to grow antiministeriall . pardon me , i pray thee , if , through my weakness , any of the author's ingenuity , elegancy or strength be lost , or the truth suffer through my inability to vindicate it . and i humbly beseech almighty god , that these poor endeavors may contribute some little towards thy satisfaction or confirmation ; towards the edification and provocation unto duty , the maintaining the maintenance and honor , the encouraging the faintings and fears of the faithfull ministers of iesus christ. an apology for the ministrie and it's maintenance , &c. chap. . matt. . . ye are the salt of the earth . he that will speak more for the commendation of any thing , than to say it's good , must say it's seasonable : for he that sought out acceptable words , hath as fitly told us , that a word fitly spoken , is like apples of gold in pictures of silver . here 's a golden sentence adorn'd with a silver season , by so much the more usefull , by how much the more suitable , having this addition to it's commodiousness , that it may be so fitly accommodated to our present times . and if we consider what hast the furious ●renzyes of our age do make , intending the contempt , and ( if it might be ) the very extirpation of our gospell-ministers , we may well compare it to the seasonable addresse of wise abigail to resolute david . or if you will , let it be called , as before , a golden apple , and so there 's hopes it may retard the ●eadlong hast of these cruell atala●ta's , that design the ruine of christ's embassadors . what better language do the devills drudges and emissaryes now adayes afford the ministers of the gospell , than , dec●ivers of the people , baal ' s priests the locusts of the b●ttomlesse pit , l●mbs of anti christ , thieves , lya●s , seducers , generation of vipers , ravenous wolves , whited walls ▪ hirelings , babylonish merchants , hypocrites , dumb d●gs , simon magul's , unclean spirits , and whatever the malice of hell , or the madnesse of men can devise . and what better confutation of such calumnyes can we des●re , than thi● one sentence of our saviours , ye are ( not the di●turbers of kingdoms , the betrayer● of kings , the bu●dens of the earth , the disease of the land , the sweepings of the house , the scumme of the countrey , the refuse of the nation , the dreggs of the world , the off ●couring of all things , as the devi●s g●sse 〈◊〉 ●arry i● ) but ye ar● the 〈◊〉 of the earth . a short sentence , but enough to con●●●e those voluminous aspersions that are cast upon them ; a compe●d●ous encouragement . what though the devill be the accu●er of the brethren , what though our brethren be our accusers for him ; yet who shall lay any thing to the charge , or what can the charge be that any can lay upon those whom christ justisyeth ? loe , here the sentence may lose i'ts order , and yet retain it's truth , wisdomes children are justifyed of her , ye are the salt of the earth . let us a little search the context , that we may find the meaning of the text . when our saviour had in the very threshold of his sermon , discoursed of the blessed ones of the world , in this second step that he makes , he ●●tly subjoyneth a discourse concerning the ministers of the gospell , whose qualifications he teacheth by three metaphoricall resemblances of salt , ●ght , and a c●y up●n an hill : s●eming to make this the one summary of his similitudes , that the ministers of the gospell must not only be sayers but doers , preachers but practicers , talkers but walkers , and must have not only the salt of doctrine , but the light of conversation also . but more particularly , by this similitude of salt , he s●rs out in lively colours , the necessity and efficacy of the gospell-ministry . fo● as men season sle●h with sal● , so must the soules of men be seasoned by the ministry of the word , that neither the one , nor the other may be corrupted . the text is a categoricall proposition , consisting of a subject ● predicate , and a copulative . the subject is ye ( i. e. ) ye my disciples and all the preachers of the gospell that shall succeed you . the copulative is are , not shall be for the time to come , but at present ye are chosen and called so to be . the predicate is , the salt of the earth ▪ ( i. e. ) it is your office to season men , who are altogether unsavoury untill they be seasoned with the salt of heavenly doctrines . as salt is the seasoner of mea●s , so the ministers of the gospell are called salt from their office , by way of resemblance , because they should by their edi●ying language and exemplary life season men , that they may be kept from the corruption of vices , and have the ●avoury rellish of graces . and they are not onely metaphorically called salt , or the most excellent salt , because they season as salt doth , but emphatically called the salt , or the most excellent salt , because they season so as no other salt can doe . nay they are not only salt , and the salt , but the salt of the earth , not the salt of one town , or city , or island only , but the salt of the earth , that is of the inhabitants of the earth , ye are the salt of the earth . and yet they are not properly salt neither , they are but the salters , or seasoners . but our saviour doth here ascribe that which is proper to the doctrine of the gospell to them that preach it . observe by the way , that our saviour in calling them the salt of the earth , implicitely prefers them before the prophets , who were only the salt of iudea : but the apostles and their successors are the salt of the earth , of the whole earth . mat. . . observe also that in calling them salt , he doth as it were make a secret promise of the power and efficacy of the gospell-ministry to season the world , and to keep men from putrifying in sinne . the sence of the whole is plainly this , ye my apostles and all the ministers of my ordinances , and pastors of my church , in respect of the doctrine of the law and the gospell which you shall preach , shall deliver men from the corruption , and filthinesse of sin , and shall render them acceptable and savory to god , whom by nature they cannot please . loe here the usefullnesse and necessity of a gospell-ministry ? when our saviour compares ; it to sait , he commends it almost as highly , as if he had said it were incomparable ; for their is nothing ( according to the proverbe ) more usefull and needfull , than the sun , and salt . take this doctrinall conclusion for a foundation of the following discourse , that the ministers of the gospell are the salt of the world . this may easily be proved , f●●st from the nature , propertyes , and manifold vertues of salt . secondly from the titles that the spirit of god gives them in scripture . thirdly by arguments . . the first property of salt is to season tastlesse and unsavoury things . it is a soveraigne condiment and singularly usefull and necessary . and it may be called the condiment of condiments , not only because it excells them , but also because it helpes them , and contributes to their goodnesse . and it hath that to commend it which few of our spices have , even it 's necessity . spices are the superfluous ornament of meats , but salt their necessary condiment . it is so necessarily subservient to the seasoning of meats , and rendring them savoury , and gratefull to the palate , that it hath deserved and found the name of natures balsome , and the soul of bodyes ; wherefore nature hath wisely mixt salt with all well compounded bodyes , to season , and preserve them from corruption ; as may be exemplifyed in the salt urine of beasts , and the saltnesse of roots : and is so commonly received , that every smatterer●in chymistry will tell you that salt , sulphur , and mercury are ingredients in all mixt bodyes . thus the ministry of the gospell is the salt of the world , without which our condition is desperate and deplorable . neither could i tell what answer to make , if one should aske me . how it comes to pass that men abound with errors in their heads , wickedness in their lives , and corruptions in their hear●s , but this , they are not seasoned with this salt . our whole nature without this is unsavoury , nauseous and indeed odious to god , as the psalmist describes a pure ( that is , an impure ) nature , ps. . , , . without this salt , what is the wisdome of the wold but a world of folly ; what are morall vertues , but corrall vices , which ●ub the gums indeed , to make men appear well as to the teeth outward , but not changing or cleansing the inward heart and mind ? nay how can any oblation indeed please god that wants salt , lev. . . or any thing please a judicious palate that is unseasoned ? can that which is unsavoury be eaten without salt . ●eb . . . as if he had said , can any one be delighted with meat that has not been seasoned with salt ? so , take away the ministry of the word , and all wordly things are presently unsavoury , gladness is converted into sadnesse , or the best joyes are but toye sat best , the purest gold is but dross , and they deserve no better character than iob's friends , physitians of no value , iob. . . miserable and troublesome comfort●●s . iob. . . it is necessary therefore that men be seasoned with this heavenly salt , that they be not corrupted . for there is nothing better to preserve our hearts from corruption than the savory ministry of the gospell . . another property of salt is acrimony . salt by it's acrimony , bites , eats , pierceth , pricketh . flatnesse , faintnesse and want of sharpnesse is a defect in salt . thus the preaching of the law pierceth and pricketh the consciences of sinners , that they seek of the gospell for a salve , act. . . this makes men sound in the faith , therefore paul commands titus to corn the cretians with this salt . tit. . . rebuke them sharply , that they may be sound in the faith . as elisha by casting salt into the spring of the naughty waters , healed them , so our naughty and ba●●en hearts being leasoned with the salt of gods word and spirit , becomes pleasing and acceptable to god. moreover as salt by its sharp heat , penetrates , attenuates , and worketh the whole lump , so there is nothing more piercing than the word of god , hewing like an axe , and slaying like a sword . ho● . . he that would understand this property of gods word , let him consult and examine the apostles six epithets . heb. . . it is quick , powerfull , sharpe , pie●cing , dividing , discerning . it is of such a subtile and sharp nature , that it can divide , where the subtile wi●s of metaphysicians can scarce make a mentall or notionall distinction , even between soul and spirit , and where the sharpest instruments of chirurgions can hardly divide , even between the joynts and the marrow . and can discern that , which the most acute and quick-sighted judge ▪ with the contributed discoveryes of never so many faithfull witnesses cannot discern , even the thoughts and intents of the heart . . salt resisteth corruption , and by its acrimony consumeth whatever is vitious in the body ; sucks out all putrid and excrementitious humours , with which the flesh is in●ected ; consolidates the substantiall parts by uniting the native vertue , shutting up the pores and passages , and shutting out the injurious assaults of the extraneous ayre . thus the ministers of christ do the worke of salt by plucking up sin by the roots , which is that corrupt and noxious humor , which hath diffused its self through the whole soule . this the salt of the word expells by reproving errors , by wasting the sinfull desires of the old man , and by hardning the new man against all injuryes , and by fortifying it against all assaults . this salt of the word therefore with a constant , and carefull hand is to be sprinkled , by declaring the nature and aggravations of sin , to prick the heart , not to tickle the eares , and which may be enterteined with the beating of the breasts , not the clapping of the hands . for i had rather that men gnasht their teeth , and beat their heads , than nod with their heads under our ministry . the teares of the congregation ought to be most in our eye . and their inarticulate groans do least speak forth our commendations . hence the holy ghost every where in scripture puts such a price upon salt because it signifyes that mortification , which so restraines the soft effeminacyes and delicacyes of the flesh , and all sweet carnall delights and tickling pleasures , and hinders the inordinate affections of the flesh from shewing themselves in the flesh . this grace doth that to the spirit which salt doth to flesh , which will not suffer it to putrifye , and dissolve into corruption and filthinesse , as it would doe , were it not consolidated and hardned therewith . . salt begets an appetite to meat or drink , and is so usefull in meats that we scarce know how to live without it . bread requires a mixture of this to season it , and it also begets an appetite to drink . thus the preaching of gods word doth beget an exceeding thirst after heavenly things it may most truly be sayed of these waters of the sanctuary . quo plus sunt potae , plus sitiuntur , the more a man drinks of them , the more he shall thirst after them . it cannot be sayd of this water , as our saviour sayes of the grace of god. ioh. . . he that drinketh of it shall never thirst more , but rather , he shall thirst the more : when peters hearers had tasted some of this salt , see how they thirst after the water of life , after salvation . act. . . for so says the test , when they heard this , they sayd , men and brethen , what shall we doe ? . salt is the symbol or hieroglyphick of wisdome . hence wise men , and fools have names given them in latine from salt : as also all kind of jests , and wittinesses in speech , and festivity do derive their name from hence . in so much as to reach a man salt is interpreted by some people as an indignity , as much in effect as to call him a foole . thus the ministers of the gospell do correct the foolish manners of the world , and render them savory . take away this condiment , and you take away all reall and true wisdome out of the world ; if men re●ect the world of the lord , what wisdome can there be expected in them ier , . . the word of our saviour , who is the wisdome of the father , is enough to make us also wise unto salvation . . salt is an embleme of duration , perpetuity and incorruption . it is good physick for natures consumptions , preserving fluid and wasting matter , and makes pe●●shing and pu●ri●ying ●odyes long-liv'd . hence an everlasting covenant is called a covenant of salt , numb , . . . chr. . . and lot's wife was converted into a pillar of salt , not only that the might be instead of a condiment to us , but a perpetuall monument also of gods judgments : so the covenant preacht by the apostles was truly a covenant of salt , more durable than the pilla●s of the earth , or the poles of heaven , and happily hinting to us that every one of the ●aithfull is so confirmed in the covenant of god by faith , that by the salt of afflictions they shall be preserved 〈◊〉 against all kind of temptations and alsaults . but this heavenly 〈◊〉 ●arre excells that earthly salt , as eternity exceeds diuturnity . that may preserve a long time , but this will preserve longer than time . again that salt doth but preserve things from 〈…〉 but this redeems 〈◊〉 from their corruption . . salt is a symbol and significant of friendship . it p●eserves the amity of the members one amongst , another , and deserds the harmony of the body from corruption ; and is therefore called the soul of the body ▪ 〈◊〉 as the soule doth not suffer● the structure to be dissolved , and fall in pieces , so salt doth keep inanimate bodies from corruption and putrifaction , and suffers them not to perish , but playing the soule ▪ as it were , resisteth death . hence antiquity above all things required salt at the table , because it signifyed the perfection and perseverance of friendship . and therefore many of the heathens ( and even some of us who inherit their superstition ) counted it ominous and unlucky , if at any time it happened that the salt were spilt upon the table , as though by this some breach of friendship were portended . thus the ministry of the gospell , although by chance and indirectly it occasion divisions and warres ( as our saviour brought not peace but a sword ) yet directly , intentionally and of it self , it both creates and conserveth the amity , peace , and union of the faithfull , both with their god and amongst themselves . the gospell is properly and deservedly styled , the gospell of peace . . salt is medicinall to the body . it is a medicament as well as a condiment . therefore physitians say that new-born infants should be sprinkled with salt or salted water , not only to scoure off all uncleannesse , but also to consolidate the members of the body , and to bind up and heal the wound of the navell . to which god himself alludes , ezek. . . for salt doth certainly conferre a solidity and fatnesse to naturall bodyes . thus the heavenly salt is necessary for the spirituall new-born babes , pet. . . without which we can neither be cleansed , nor cured , nor strengthned , as will appear hereafter . . salt was an ingredient into every sacrifice , as appeares , lev. . . ez● . . . . ezek. . . mar. . . every sacrifice ( that is every spirituall and acceptable sacrifice ) shall be salted with fire and with salt ( i. e. ) with the fire of affliction , and the salt of wisdome , mortification and integrity o● life and doctrine . for as meats seasoned with salt are most acceptable to the palate , so the spirituall sacrifi●es which are seasoned with this kind of salt , are most pleasing to god , god will have no honey , ( i. e. ) no carnall delights , wordly pleasures , or wordly men in his sacrifices . for in sacri●●ces a contrite spirit is required , and therefore honey is forbidden , lev. . . but co●roding and biting salt was there required and used in sacrifices by the very heathens , the devill staming a piece of worship like that of gods. . salt is a communicative thing , and therefore is called good , mar. . . now as every good thing is communicative and diffu●●ve of it self , so salt , not only es●apes corruption it sel● , whilst it retaines it's naturall strength , but also preserves all other things uncorrupted , to which it communicates it self . it keeps flesh from stinking , wine from sow●ing , renders meat savory , and many other wayes is excellently advantagious . so that it seems to be but adequately spoken by the proverb , s●le & sale nih●l utilius . thus every disciple , and much more minister of christ ought to be salt , not only themselves good , but commun●cating to others of their goodnesse . david will teach transgressors gods wayes , ps. . . and abraham was a good man , of whom god was perswaded , that he would command his children and his houshold after him to keep the way of the lord , gen. . . and as god is perswaded of abraham that he would command his children , so christ commands peter to strengthen his b●●thren , luk. . . our saviour himself sets a coppy of this , io● . . come and see . and philip imitates him in this commu●ica●ivenes●e , crying out to natha●iel as soon as he met him , with the philosophers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we have found him . &c v. . and will have him , also to come and see . v. . the apostle would have his c●lossians to know how they ought to answer every man , to this purpose he commends to them gracious speech , and he knowes not how to phrase that better , than by speech seasoned with salt , coll. . . ( i. e. ) with grace and wisdome , communicating saving knowledg to the foolish , administ●ing consolation to the afflicted , and giving wise and wholsome answers to all . . salt makes green wounds smart . thus the ministry of the word , requiring self-denyall , reproving sin , and applying the terrors of the law to galled consciences , brings griefe and bitternesse to the flesh , and renders the preachers of it hatefull and terrible . chryso●tom● speakes gravely and appositely ▪ christ ( sayth he ) calls not the apostles teachers of palestine , but of the whole earth , neither doth he barely call them teachers , but terrible ones : and this is to be wondred at , that they that did not flatter and daw be , but wound and pierce and burn the consciences , like salt , were yet therein desirable , and thereby beloved ▪ in spite of the proverb , truth brings fo●th hatred . . salt is very frui●full . witnesse the fruitfullnesse of the salt sea , wherein ( witnesse the psalmist . ps. . . ) are innumerable creeping things , and both small and great beasts . plutarch reports that mice breed more abundantly in ships that carry salt . leachery hath its name in latine from salt , and iustfull venus derives her pedigree from the salt sea . and certainly no land-creature is so ●ruitfull as all those are that inhabit the sea. thus nothing is more fruitfull than the sound and substantiall ministry of the word of god , one peter by one sermon caught three thousand soules for christ , act. . ● . the multitude of believers is prophesyed to the gospel-times . ps. . . from the womb of the morning thou hast the dew of thy youth . as much as if he had said , children shall be born to christ by the preaching of the gospell , in as great a number , as the dow drops fall a●d disperse themselves far●e and near , being as it were conceived in the womb of the early morning . oh would to god that the thirsty vineyards of the church were watered , and refreshed also with the evening dew of conv●r●●● , in these last and worst times ; or that three thousand p●ters ▪ might with three thousand sermons but beget three thousand sons or daughters to iesus christ. . salt is of a nature both fiery and waterie . for it is sharp like fire , and fr●ts and sharpens the fire into which it is cast ▪ and if it be cast into water ; it self if presently resolved into water . thus the ministers of the gospell are the salf of the earth . for by their fiery ver●ue they enflame the hearts of men , with love to , and z●al for god. and as salt melts and dissolves that it may the better preserve flesh from putrefaction , so is it the part of a good pastor , as it were , to wear and wast himself by l●bours and watchings , that so the people committed to his charge may be saved from the corruption of sin , such salt was the apostle paul , who denyed himself , kept himself under ▪ cut himself short , spared not himself , but spent himself that he might gain soules to christ. . cor. . . i will ve●y gladly spend all mine ) and ( my self ) to be spent for your soules . . salt is a thing very common . it is not only to be found upon the tables of the rich , but even with the poorest , where there is scarce a table to be found . thus ought the ministers of the gospell to be so easy and common , that he that seeks them may easily find them , and so facile and amiable in their carriage , that no one may fly their presence , that desires to learn of them . and it is the apostles mind that they be apt to teach . . tim. . . and that in season and out of season , not being rendred idle , by regard had to private profit , pleasure or ease . nay it ought to be reputed their greatest gain to gain souls to christ ; their greatest pleasure to see many take pleasure in godlinesse , and by their ministry be made pleasant and acceptable to god ; and their greatest ease to take pains in the vineyard of christ , to bring them to a sight of their sins that are setled upon their lees and are at ease in sion . let us pray the lord of the harvest therefore that his word may not creep but go , nay run , and be glori●yed in the hearts , words and works of men . . thes. . . for a good thing , the more common it is , the better it is . . salt is a sign of desolation and a curse to those things which it doth not season , as we may see . zeph. . . and that which the hebrew calls saltnesse , that we translate barrennesse . ps. ● . . it is the spaniards ●●stome to sprinkle the house of those that are convi●●ed of high 〈◊〉 with salt ; and the lewes manner to sow a place with salt , when they intended to make it desolate and lay it waste , as abimelech did . iudg. . . for althought salt be very necessary for the seasoning of meats , and other uses , yet by reason of its fiery nature it destroyes , and exhales the ●●dicall moisture that is in rootes and herbs , and in hot countrey● occasions barr●nnesse ; for in cold countieys it is inste●d of 〈◊〉 . thus the gospell hardens the hearts that will not be seasoned by it , is. , , . and is the savor of death unto death . . cor. . . as to the godly it is a savor of life unto life . and no wonder ▪ for it is very usuall in humane things that the sa●e thing being in it self good and profitable , proves good to some and hurtfull to others , and upon many has an operation besides its nature . the sun it self by its beams helps some to see , and blinds the sight of others . and as salt , so the word of god , according to the diversity of the subject , becomes either usefull or hurtfull . . salt is a symbol of discretion and prudence . if it be moderately mixed with meats , it presents the palate with a pleasant rellish , but to much of it renders it unsavoury . thus let the ministers of the gospell do all things with discretion and judgment lest by too much and indiscreet affectation of bitter and harsh expressions and applications , and representing the graces like furyes , they disaffect the auditors against the truth of the doctrine , and render it nauseous , and odious to them . let them use such a moderate and convenient mixture of law and gospel , whereby the sharpnesse of the one may be lenifyed , and the l●nity o● the other may be sharpned , and both together may be edifying , and usefull ; that the gospel may not let men altogether sit still , nor the law make them run out of their vits . for it is our design to season men , not to destroy them to salt them not to subvert them . the proverb is well known , we must buy salt and oyle . oyle signi●yes leni●y ▪ salt acrimony . therefore the sons of the physitians mix oyle with salt , that it may not be too corrosive . it may well become the sons of the prophets to imitate these men , and to poure the oyle of gladnesse into the wounds which smart with the salt terrors of the law. let them so divide the word of truth , that weak consciences be not swallowed up of sadnesse by the immoderate austerity of the law , nor licentious hearts encouraged by the over-wide and unlimited charter of the gospell . thus we have seen the propertyes of salt , and a proofe of the doctrine by those propertyes . let us now look into the titles which the sacred scripture hath given to the ministers of christ , that in them also their necessity , dignity , vtility , and e●●icacy may further appear . chap. ii. the titles of dignity , vtility , necessity , and efficacy ▪ which are gi●●n to the mi●●sters of christ. the holy ghost hath set upon the heads of the ministers of christ many glorious inscriptions , and given them the attributes of many worthy names , and hath thought good to call them , the salt of the earth , the sun and light of the world , men of god , prophets of god &c. as may appear in the following discovery . . they are called the salt of the earth ; which expression we have already insisted upon . . they are called the light of the world , mat. . . now what is either more profitable or more pleasant than light ? without it we cannot discern between things that dif●er , goe about our employments , or decline pits and precipices . this calls for clearnesse of doctrine , & cleannesse of life , & exactly expresseth the soveraigne excellency of the gospel-ministry , & this light of the world far excells the light of this world . for the sun only profits them that see , but this light of the gospel-ministry enlightens them that see not , . the sun is oft obscured & curtain'd under clouds ; but in the very midst of night , and amidst the thickest clowds and afflictions , there is clear day-light in the church . . the sun of this world oft sets and leaves us in the dark , but this light of a gospell-minist●y shall never cease , till that sun shall cease to be light , and that world cease to be . it is such a light , that if it were taken away , the whole world would be wholy over-spread with the grossnesse of darknesse , the darknesse of sin , and sinfull errors . hence it is that god himself opposes darknesse to divination . mic. . . it 's true , christ iesus the light of the world , and the sun of righteousnesse , properly , essentially , originally , perfectly , intensively , and extensively : but his ministers are imperfect lights , as they partake and communicate of him and depend upon him . they are the lights enlightned , and enlightning the world with the light of the gospell , ioh. . . act. . . rom. . . although indeed all christians are also lights in their measure , and ought to shine as lights in the world , as children of the light , phil , . . yet this title is by way of eminence due to the ministers of christ , because they ought in an especiall manner to shine in life and doctrine ; and also because god doth by their ministry kindle the 〈◊〉 d●light , and illuminate the soul. how great then is the 〈◊〉 of and how great a contradiction is it in the libertines of our age , who labour to ex●●inguish the ministry of the word , and in the mean time p●e●end and a●●ow a new light . . they are called , men of god , ( i. e. ) men of god's own , and especiall sending , this title is frequently given to the prophets , as to moses , deut. . . to samuell . sam . . as also to others . . sam. . . . king. . and indeed to all others , . pet. . . afterwards to the ministers of the gospell . . tim. . . . tim. . . neither doth paul call ti●othy only a man of god , but also every minister of christ , by way of eminence . for it is an hebraisme , and signifyes holy men , or men familiar with god ▪ and it is an emphaticall paraphrase . for as a man of belial signifyes a very wicked man , and a man of blood , a very cruell and bloody man , so a man of god signifyes a godly , and a godlike man. . they are called prophets of god. which title is not only attributed to them t●at can ●oretell things to come , but also to any that are any way interpreters of the will of god. mat. . . where to receive a prophet , is to receive a minister or preacher of the gospell . for these discharge that sacred employment , which the prophets under the old testament discharged , and do also interpret the writings of those prophets , . cor. . . . thes. . . . they are called priests of god , which name although it properly belong to the levites ▪ yet is improperly applyed to spirituall priests , offering up spi●ituall sacrifices to god. in which sense all the faithfull are said to be pre●sts to god. rev. . . and a royall priesthood . pet. . . and the ministers of the gospell are priests , in that by the preaching of the word they subject men to god. paul was such a priest offering up the gentiles . rom. . . and such are all other preachers of the gospell , in praying for the people , and consecrating themselves to god in a more peculiar manner . . they are called bearers of the vessels of the lord , is. . . in whose presence they stand deut. . . and whose substitutes they are ▪ being appointed to preach , administer sacraments , and to other sacred employments . let these bearers of the uessels of the lord , have their own vessels holy to the lord , and handle holy things in a holy manner . for if the ministers of the tabernacle must be clean in heart and hands , how much more cleannesse is required at our hands both towards god and men , who carry not the vessels , but the word of the lord. . they are called stewards , or dispensers of the mysteries of god. . cor. . . . tit. . . that is , of grace , iustification , sanctification , and salvation . neither are they the stewards of emperors , or kings ▪ but of the heavenly householder . now the great commendation of a steward is his faithfullnesse . luk. . . and the best expression of faithfullnesse is to design his masters profit and credit , and not his own ; and also to serve his masters will , and not his own , in administring the affayres of the family . he accomodates his distributions to the capacity of the subject ; gives milke to the babes , and strong meat to strong men ; and also purgeth the family of all corrupt members . hence it is that they have received the keys from god , with which they open the gates of heaven to believers , and lock them against the unbelievers . mat. . . now the lord who hath in effect call'd us stewards , effectually call us to be faithfull . . they are called vvorkmen , or reapers in the lords harvest , and vine dressers , whom he sends into his vineyard mat , . . . . . thes. . . . tim. . . this phrase denotes not only the necessity of a gospell-ministry , but the diligent laboriousnesse of the ministers . those that assert the easinesse of a ministers employment , will not ( i believe ) speak so much in favor of a reapers work , and yet their employments run parallell in the scripture dialect . ministers are called reapers ; now reapers you know , are exposed to the heat of the sunne , the violence of winds , showrs and storms , which hardships do require a strong and hardy nature , not a man accustomed to idlenesse and pleasure . ministers break themselves with labours , wear and wast themselves with watchings , and are therefore called labourers . tim. . . such labourers as husbandmen , reapers , souldyers , who weary themselves with working . for such is the force of the greek phrase . the employment of the ministers of christ is so laborious , that it attenuates and consumes the body , impaires the strength , hastens old hairs to young heads to the grave . our saviour christ at three and thirty years of age by his great paines in preaching the gospell , incessant watchings and prayings , had brought upon himself the suspicion of fifty years of age , as many rationally conclude from the iews words , ioh. . . thou art not yet fifty y●ares old . and the prophet isaiah mourning under the treachery and perfidiousnesse of his countreymen , being zealous for his gods glory and their souls good , cryes out as a man consumptive with cares and sorrowes , my le●nnesse , my leannesse , if. . . . they are labourers together , ( not with paul or with peter but ) with god , cor. . . so called , b●cause god useth them for the begetting of faith , their paines and the promulgation of the gospell tending to one and the same end , even the salvation of souls : an honourable character . and great is the dignity that god hath con●er●ed on them , to adopt and adapt them to be helpers , without whose help he could as easily do his own work , if he pleased . god calls us to those pains , which he doth not need , and then honours us with those honours , and honourable titles which we do not de●erve . this is a great angelic●ll , nay divine dignity , in which we may find a consolation almost as great as the dignity , inferring , that if we miscarry not in our duty , god will be also our fellow-labourer , and help us by his labour . for what man will forsake , the plowmen , the shepheards , the stewards , which himself sets a work ? and what good commander is thers , but will encourage , vindicate , embolden , and reward his faithfull souldiers in and for their faithfull service ? and although christ primarily and by way of eminence be called gods fellow , zach. . . yet se●un darily the ministers of the gospell upon this account are so too . . they are called gods. moses that faithfull servant of god , and steward of his house , is called a god , even by god himself , exod. . . thou shalt be to aaron instead of god , and again , exod. . . see i have ●ade thee a god to pharoab . he was indeed a man still by nature , but a god by office , and delegation from god , and also by the communication of divine power and wisdom to him . and if they be called gods unto whom the word of god came , ioh. . surely then the title is as due to the prophets of god , as any other , concerning whom it is so oft recorded , that the word of the lord came unto them . all the ministers of the gospell are as much gods , as it is possible for one to be that stands only in gods stead , for of them it is that god saith , he that heareth you , heareth me , and he that despiseth you despiseth me , luk , . . . they are called vvatchmen . if. . . ier. . . ezech. . . and . . hos. . . heb. . . so called , because they foresee the future dangers , and warn the people of them ; as a watchman seeth the enemy comming afarr off , ) and by the giving of a sign warneth the inhabitants . the ministers of the gospell watch over the souls of the people , that they be not led aside by errors , nor perish in their sins . and this they doe by preaching , praying , reproving , and other exercises of their calling . . they are called pastors , or shepheards . if. . . ier. . . ioh. . , . now in a shepheard there is required . diligence and industry , to feed the flock , to reduce the straying , to heal the sick , to preserve the whole . . courage to defend the sheep , and resist the wolve● . . faithfullnes●e , to restore the sheep to their master , confessing himself a servant , and not the master of the flock . . wi●dome and discretion to know whether to use his voyce or his sta●●e . . patience and ha●dinesse , to endure the winds , the storms , and tempests which he is expos'd to , as iacob complains of himself . gen. . , , . thus the ministers of christ , do feed the church , that flock of christ , with the food of heavenly doctrine , keep them from the poysonous and rotting pastures of hereticks , and the wolves from them , and do also govern the sheep committed to them with the rod of discipline . . they are called builders of the church . eph. . , , . cor. . . for by their doctrine the people of god are built up and do grow in faith and mutuall charity . the church of god is a building , the master builder or architect is god , the inferiour workmen are his ministers , whereof some ●ay the foundation , others build upon it , that so we may become as a temple fit for god to dwell in . the prophets of old were gods masons , hos. . . i have hewed them by the prophets . for as the mason cutts , hews , and squares the stones , so by the means of the law do the ministers of christ , hew us , square , & prepare us , that we may be fit materialls for the building up of a spirituall house . thus ought the ministers of christ like wise builders prepare every particular house committed to their charge to be some part in this building , wherein let them use discretion according to the nature of their materialls , breaking some stones in pieces before they can make good work of them , squaring and smooting others by gentler instruments , cu●tting and hewing all by the law , and plaining and placing and compacting and building up by the gospell , all that are so cut . . they are called christs witnesses . ioh. . . act. . . rev. . . . . . . now they witnesse to christ , both by their preaching , as by a verball , and their conversations , as by a practicall and reall testimony . for it every ordinary judge will look for faithfullnesse and veracity , exact and personall knowledg of the thing , and honesty and integrity of conversation , in every one of his currant witnesses , much more doth christ require at the hands of his ministers those extraordinary witnesses , that by life as well as language they do truly , freely , explicitely , ingenuously and constantly , own and witnesse to him and his truth ; and that those qualifications of every su●●icient witnesse , be by no meanes wanting in his witnesses to make them sufficient . . they are called servants of iesus christ , rom. . . phil. . . sam . . . not servants of men , of pri●ces , but of that god , who is above all men , of that monarch , who is the king of kings , and lord of lords . neither are they of gods ordinary sort of servants , as all creatures are his servants by the right of creation . ps. . . or as all the elect are his servants by the right of redemption , but his servants by vertue of their mission , commission and ambassage , after a more peculiar manner . they are the servants of christ by way of eminence , in that they doe him more eminent service then others , and in so serving him doe govern his , which title yet doth enforce pains , as well as conferr honour , for a servant is all his masters . for him he works , for him he wins , to him he lives and dyes : he doth all things for his masters profit , and according to his masters pleasure . so they owe to christ what ever they have , or are , and therefore ought to lay out and expend whatever they have , or are , life , liberty , wit , wealth for this honour and glory , and esteem themselves great gainers , in being profitable ●o him : . they are called fathers . . kin. ● : ▪ : cor ● . . thes. ● . and frequently elsewhere , because they are serviceable in the hand of god by means of the word of god , to beget spirituall children unto god. for although god be our father principally and properly , yet this hinders not , but that his ministers may be out spirituall fathers , organically and analogically , which title bespeaks love and ●everence ; which tributes god is pleased to allow parents . ex●d : . . and if they have been fruitfull in this relation , it will be their joy and crown of rejoycing at the comming of iesus christ. . thes. . . let us pray therefore , and let all that are already begotten by any of us to christ iesus pray , that since god hath honoured us with the title of fathers , he would also honour us with the relation of sons , that so we may not be fathers , without children , and let us all desire to encrease the family of christ with rachels importunity , ( leaving out her impatience ) lord give us children before we dye ? . they are called seers and the eyes of the body : . sam. ● . i● ▪ , , cor , . . they used to say in israel , come let us go the seer , for men prophesyed by visions and revelations . ezechiel saw visions of god. ezech. . . being enlightned by the spirit of god they saw things at a distance . hab , , . , and hence they are called seers , for the prophets and pastors are that to the church which the eyes are to the body : let us pray therefore that god would enlighten our minds wich the psalmist , ps. . . open thou our eyes that we may behold the wondrous things out of thy law , that so we may not be blind guides , and seers that see nothing . . they are called christs souldyers . , tim , , . . now a souldier has much to doe , and more to suffer ; their action is fighting , . tim , . . their suffering is , not only the violence of their adversaries , which they must sustain , but they are exposed to hunger , and thirst , the heat of the day and the cold of the night , and many wearisome watchings . hence the apostle calls his fellow-ministers , fellow-souldiers . phil . . philem ▪ . ● for although every believer be a souldier . eph , , ▪ ▪ yet amongst those , the ministers obtain the first place , as they that lead the troops , and receive the first impressions of the enemyes fury . there are souldiers that are no ministers ( and could happily with there were none ) and there are ministers that do not act like souldyers , but let them all know that they are called to a warfare , that there is a combat prepared for them , and that therefore they must either fight for gods cause , or dye for the cause of not fighting . . they are called guides of the church . act. . . rom. . . heb. . , , . because they lead others in the ways of salvation . they are the examples of believers , whom all behold for imitation , and do conform themselves to , as to a living law . . tim. . . some sone has alluded to the apostles words in verse , past●rs are the glasse , the schoole , the book , vvhere peoples eyes do learn , do read , do look . it is with an emphasis , that the apostle calls them so oft the guides or the leaders , in that . chap. to the hebrews : because they either lead or ought to lead the people of god in the ways of god. for although it be proper to god onely to lead men , yet because he leads them by his word , he is pleased to communicate this honourable title to the preachers of this word . . they are called the charriot of israel and the horsemen thereof , as it is in an expresse aknowledgment , . kin. . . and . . and by a faire consequence from . sam. , . ● . as long as samuel lived , the philistines were subdued before israel . and if moses let god alone , the people will be consumed with his wrath , exod. . ▪ gods ministers are not only souldiers and captains , but they are all the army , they are the horsemen and the charriots of the church , they are for defence unto it . and if one elijah carryed and protected the people , and defended them more by his zeal , and prayers , then thousands of charriots and horsemen ; what strength and might shall there be found in many elijahs ? these are the churches walls , the bullwarks of the land , and the best fortifications for any city , they kill the enemyes of god with the sword of gods word , whereby they sharply wound in reproving ; and kill in threatning death : if furious iehu should chance to let any escape , the sword of elisha shall be sure to slay him . . kin ▪ . . and you may see elija sitting upon a hill , and s●aying an hundred of ahaziahs souldyers to death , and burning them up with the words of his mouth . kin. , the same is the power of gods witnesses , out of whose mouths fire doth proceed & devour their enemyes . rev. . . let england then take heed of pulling down , nay so much as loosening these pillars , lest the whole structure of church and state fall together with them . . they are called bishops , a generall title , and given to all the ministers of the gospell , all whose it is to oversee the flock committed to their trust , and to have a diligent care of it . act. . . and therefore , whom the apostle calls elders . tit , . , these he calls also bishops v. . neither doth this title conferre dignity only , it inferrs duty also . the office of a bishop has employment as well as preferment in it . it is a work in the apostles judgment . . tim. . . he that desireth the office of a bishop , desireth a good work . . they are called teachers ▪ this being the great businesse of ministers to preach and teach the word of god. this title primarily belongs to christ , who is the teacher of his people , but it is applyed secundarily to his ministers , who are ush●rs to him the head ● master . eph. . . . tim. . . . they are called clouds , spirituall clouds , watering , refreshing , fructifying the vineyard of the lord with the former and the latter rain of ordinances . i● . . . hence they are sayd to drop their doctrine upon men by a word fetcht from the clouds . deut. . . ezech. . . am . . but heretiques and deceivers , are emp●y bottles , waterlesse clouds , ●ossed to and fro with the winds , iude. . they make an ostentation and specious pretence of knowledg , when as indeed their sounds are but the sounds of empty bottles , and they are specious white clouds , that seem to promise the earth a belly full of water , but when they should come to distill it , they are gone with a blast of wind , and so gull the thirsty expectation ▪ of the silly spectators . . they are called nurses . th●s . . . for as a nurse , dandles and husheth , and suckleth , and ●lattereth the little infant , so the ministers of the gospel should even hugg in their bosomes , speak pleasantly unto & feed with the sincere milk of the word , christs new born-babes , accommodating their language , behaviour , and way of feeding to their infant state . and as a nurse with admirable patience doth digest the wranglings , endure the frowardnesses of her nu●seling , not grudging it her own blood to feed upon ; so a faithfull minister should be patient in his pains , indefatigable in his diligence , and not count his life dear unto him , if by it the church of christ may be advantaged , nor think much at his own destruction , if by it his people may be edisyed . . they are called the ministers of christ. . cor. . . which word in the greek bespeaks sorrow , and calls for ●ains , as the office of a rower doth require . they sit at the oares , where if the wind of gods spirit do not exceedingly help , they will find intolerable pains , and if it do help , yet they must use an indefatigable diligence . and if they be the ministers of god ( administring faithfully the word and ●●●●ments ) they must be approved in much patience , in afflictions , in necessi●yes , in distresses , &c. . cor . they are not prese●'d to 〈◊〉 and imperiall dignity , but an ecclesiasticall ministry , in which they may promise themselves whatever pains , the meanest of servants , in rowing , running or what else , do find , and more . . they are called starrs , and that not wandring , but fixed . for christ , who sits at the right hand of god holds them in his right hand , rev. . ( . ) starrs shine ; so ought they by clearnesse of doctrine , and integrity of life to shine before others . ( ) starrs shine in the night ; so let a minister of the gospell shine more glorio●sly , and illustriously when the church of christ is be●louded with heresyes , and benighted in persecutions . ( . ) starrs shine with a borrowed light ; so the ministers of christ , receive their calling , gifts and doctrine from him the sun of righteousnesse . nay they excell either fun or starrs , for these shall be turned into darknesse , the sun shall be totally eclipsed , the starrs sink down into their sockets , and be put out at the dissolution of the world , but they shall shine for ever and ever . dan. . . oh that they were also as the starrs of heaven for number , the lord of the harvest sending out plenty of labourers to reap his yet plentifull ha●vest ; and more fixed in the firmament of our church , then the stars in heaven , that sometimes tumble head-long ? . they are called angells of the church . rev. . . . . for . like angells they are messengers sent by god to declare his will to men . . they ought to imitate an angelicall , purity , chastity , zeal and celerity , that they may be as angells amongst men , masters amongst boyes , and shepheards amongst sheep . so that this name also brings duty with it , as well as dignity . many would be content to be angells to dwell in heaven , but loath to be angells to doe gods errands upon earth ; but he that would enjoy the honour , must first be imployed in the office , and execute that office too with carefullnesse , cherefullnesse and speedinesse , as the angells doe . now if timothy as being a man of god , must flee covetousnesse ; how much rather ought he to doe it as being an angell of god. and if the angels of god by pride fell from the presence and glory of god , it concerns these angels that yet they be humble as men . what matters now though the world call us blind guides ; god counts us starrs , and will set us in heaven , when the starrs themselves shall be misplaced . what though they call us devills ; it is honour enough that god counts us angels . let us doe the work of angels , and god will not stick to own us and honour us as such , before all men and angels . . they are called presbiters and elders , a name implying , not their age , but office and dignity , common to all the ministers of christ , so that it is no solescime to say , the yongest of christs faithfull ministers is an elder . for the name is indifferently given to them all . act. . . . . . tim. . . tit. . . . pet. . . so called , because they ought to excell others in an elderly wisdome and discretion , shunning all youthfull vanityes and levityes , and behaving themselves with such a gravity and piety , as may beget a reverence for them amongst the people . . they are called paranymphs or friends of the bride-groom . ioh. . . . cor. . . because they bring the bride and espouse her to christ : they invite men to the marriage of the kings son . mat. . . and to the great feast , luk. . . oh singular dignity , and sweet imployments . as the bridegroome makes use of his most faithfull and approved friends for paranymphs , to make up the match between him , and his beloved : so christ iesus makes use of the paines of his ministers , to perswade poor sinners into a marriage with their maker . now the work of these friends of the bridegroom is manifold . for first they make up the match , secondly , after marriage they instruct them in their conjugall du●yes , and teach them faithfullnesse , love , and loy 〈◊〉 in that relation ? and 〈◊〉 , in case they b●●k●lide and forsake their lord and husband , they cause them to return again , and re●ew , their conjugall vows . and they that do these things are su●e the confidents and approved friends of the bride-groom . let us take heed therefore , that we play not the part of those unfaithfull ●●ustees , who having been put into this office , and employed for the bridegroome , in the consummation of marriages , speak one word for him , and two for themselves ; let us wooe for christ and not for our selves ; his profit and credit , and not our own , for we are but the paranymphs , he is the bride-groom , we are but the ambassadors , he the king. . they are called legates , messengers , ambassadors for christ , hag. . . . cor. . . eph. . . to be ambassador from any prince is an honour , from a renowned monarch is more , but to be employed an ambassador for christ iesus is of all other honours most honourable . and such ambassadors are christs ministers . and therefore ▪ . as an ambassador keeps himself within the limits of his commission , and observes how he is bounded by his princes commands , so let the ministers of christ deliver their masters mind freely , and yet truly , without detracting from , or adding any thing ●o the same . . as no ambassadour assumes that province to himself , nor puts himself into commission . so let them expect their masters mission before they fall a running : and . as ambassadors are safe from any violence ; so let these promise themselves the protection of their master , and well they may , for they serve the best master in the world , who not only sends them of his ambassage , but goes along with them also . and let england take heed of doing violence or offering abuse to these ambassadors , for if david did revenge upon hanun the base usage of his servants , and the romans sackt carthage , for offering violence to their ambassadors , surely christ , that interprets despites done to his ministers , to be done to himself , will sharply and surely revenge the quarrell of his ambassadors , and the dishonour done unto them . . they are called fishers of men . mat. . . mar. . . luk. . . because they do , as it were by the preaching of the word catch men , that wander up and down the wide world , as it were in a deep and vast ocean . and under this metaphor , a diligent and unwearyed care and endeavour to gain many souls is enjoyned to them . for fishers many times catch at what they catch not , it may be , toyle all the night and catch nothing , therefore they had need of patience and constancy : they are exposed to tempests & ill weather , nay , have their lives allwayes in jeopardy by reason of the raging waves and unmercifull deeps , therefore had need of a great share of courage & hardinesse , to adventure upon the one , and endure the other . oh that we had peter's successe to catch many fishes , or at least peter's indefatigablenesse , patiently to endure toyling all the night . . they are called husbandmen . cor. . . & therefore are called planters and waterers of god vineyard . . cor. . . the primary and chief husbandman is god , ioh. . . the secundary or subordinate husbandman is the minister of god. god tills inw●rdly by his spirit , the minister outwardly by his word & doctrine . and as the field is plowed and sowed to bring forth fruit to its owner , so is the church plowed and sowed to bring forth fruit to god , whose it is , and whose they are that till it . see here the necessity of a ministry , without bread no life , without corn no bread , without husbandry no corn , without husbandmen no husbandry , why so without faith no salvation , without hearing no faith , without preaching no hearing , and how can there be preaching without preachers ? . they are compar'd to oxen , , cor. . . . tim. . . under the name of an oxe , the indefatigable labour of a minister is typically and allegorically set forth . for the oxe is a very laborious creature , and very profitable by its labour , ( prov. . . much encrease is by the strength of the oxe ) and that not to it self but to its master . so let the ministers of christ be laborious and industrious , and that for christ , not for themselves . the oxe is slow in work but sure : if a minister be cast upon hard ground , amongst a dull and slow people of understanding , it matters not for much hast or acutenesse , let him accommodate himself to their capacityes , rather study to doe his work firmly then finely ; let him not think much to explain , presse and inculcate the same things again and again . and as the oxe content with grasse , hay or straw is an hieroglyphick of frugality , so let a minister of christ be sober and frugall , minding more his work then his meat . as an oxe is a harmlesse and innocuous creature , by the verdict of the poet , vvhat d●th the oxe deserve that hath 〈◊〉 guile , but harmlesse born alone to suffer ●oyl● ? so let a preacher be a single and ●i●ere●man , without fraud or malice , plain and upright , like ●acob , helpfull to all , hurtfull to none . as the oxe is hardy and strong to work 〈◊〉 , . so let a pr●acher of gods word be valiant , learing the face of no man , nor the ●rowns of no face . doth any one curse him ? let him contemne the curse . for he cannot answer reproaches and raylings better , then by not answering them at all . and as the oxe labours hardest in hardest weather , more in winter then in summer . so let ministers approve themselves in a●f●ictions , in necessityes , in distresses . . cor . . and stirre up themselves to the greatest diligence , when there is the worst weather in the church . as the oxe is profitable both in his life and death , so let every faithfull and able minister of christ , be serviceable to the church of christ , not only by his preachings but also writings . again as the ground which the oxe plows not , brings forth briers and thorns , but that which is by him broken up and prepared , presents the husbandman with a wellcome harvest : so the souls to whom the sound of the gospell preached doth not come , that have no teaching priest , no ministeriall oxe to break up the fallow ground , are overgrown with the weeds and rubbish of vices , but those over whose souls the plow of gods word , held by the ministers of christ , doth passe , are fruitfull in graces and vertues . and lastly , as it is sit that the oxe should feed of the harvest which he gets in , and eat of the corn which he treads forth ; so is it fit that he that serveth at the altar should live of the altar , that he that preaches spirituall things should receive of their temporalls to whom he preaches ; which piece of equity the apostle proves by many arguments . . cor. . . they are called god's trumpetters . hos. . and . . because they must cry with a loud , shrill , and trumpet-like voyce to awaken the sleepy sinners . ( . ) they blow the trumpet of the law against sinners , zeph. . , , . then the trumpet of the gospell to the penitent ones , is. . . ( . ) as the trumpets of the lovites were of solid and massy silver , num● . , . so the ministers of christ ought to preach the substantiall and simple word of god without any mixture of their own inventions ▪ without drosse or corruption ( . ) they are gods trumpetters , in as much as they ought to proclaim an everlasting and irreconcilable combat against sin , and call out men to fight the devill and their own corruptions , therefore vvisdom's maydens do not whisper , the ministers of gods word do not speak coldly , but boldly . prov. . . for a preacher is not made for a pipe to invite men to wantonnesse and feasting , but for a trumpet to call forth to warrs and fightings , to call men into the field against the black band of devills , and their own outragious lusts . and whilst one of these enemye● abide the field , the minister must call on to fight , as the trumpe●●ounds , so long as the enemyes are in fight . . they are called the mouth of the lord. ier. . . i● . . . luk. . . act. . . . thes. . . those that ●eparate the pretious from the vile , discern between the good and the bad , and reprove sin freely , are as the lords mouth , and those ●hat preach the gospell faithfully are as the lips of christ , for he speaks in them . . cor. . . these god ownes for his mouth , that is for his true and faithfull messengers , whilst they speak his words and not their own , in so much that he that heareth them , is interpreted as hearing god himself . and if they be the mouth of god , let their adversaryes desist their designes to silence them , for how is it possible that the mouth of god should be stopped ? . they are called the ministers of the new covenant or t●stament . . co● . . . ministers , not of the law as moses was , but of the gospell , not of the old , but of the new covenant , not of the letter ▪ but of the spirit , not of death , but of life , not of ●amnation , but of mercy , not in weaknesse , but power , and ●ffica●ye ; because by them christ enlightens the mind , puri●yes the heart , and regenerates the whole man. . they are called a sweet savour . . cor. . . by which metaphor , the apostle commends and glori●yes their sacred ministry . for they are a sweet savour , in as much as they bring a sweet smell from christ , and with it perfume the corrupt manners of the dunghill world . and this must needs be so , because on the contrary , false prophets are a noysome stink ; but these preaching a holy doctrine , and proving it by an holy life , doe become a sweet smelling savour , and being so , their mi●●stry doth become an acceptable sacrifice to god , yea , even 〈◊〉 them that perish . for although israel be not gathered , yet 〈◊〉 they that desire to gather them , be glorious in the ey● o● god. i● . . . . they are called the churches crown . rev. . . the church of christ is to be seen there clothed with the su● that 〈◊〉 with christ the sun of righteousnesse , having the 〈…〉 her feet , that is , she tramples upon all worldly things as vain and worthlesse ; for the moon signifyes things sublunarie . she has upon her head a crown of twelve starrs , that is , she doth not tread under her feet the apostolicall doctors , and doctrine , ( as the manner of unmannerly england is at this day ) but carryes them as her crown and royall ornament upon her head . she is adorned with the doctrine of the twelve apostles , upon which she is founded . chap. . . with excellent ministers , as with a diadem , chap. . . for her glory is not a wordly crown , but her crown is the integrity of her ●eachers . . they are called the glory of christ , . cor. . , that is by a metonymye of the effect , such as promote and illustrate the glory of christ. a title that comprehends all dignity in it . for how can a man be more glorious , then by being made the glory of christ ? thus the grace and doctrine of the gospell is called the glory of the lord , is. . . thy light is come , and the glory of the lord is risen upon thee . so let us therefore preach , so le●u●live , that we may be a glory to christ our lord and master , and not a shame , for ornament not for ignominye . . they are called saviours , rom. . . obad. . v. . tim . . for so it seemeth good to the spirit of god , to honour them whose ministry it makes use of , by ascribing its own work to their hands . and this lays a strong charge upon us , that we through ignorance or idleness suffer not those souls to perish , whose salvation god hath as it were entrusted into our hands . neither is that cavill worth any thing , that it is god alone that converts and regenerates : for we do not deny it . god saves , and so do we . he saves absolutely and principally , we only subserviently and instrumentally , we endeavour the salvation of souls , gods gives efficacy and successe to our endeavours . god and man goe together , to bring god and man together . that which god could do without us , he is yet pleased to do by us ; and we working in his hand , are said to do that work which the hand does that acts us : we save men ; and yet it is god that saves both them and us : and this now argues the g●eatest necessity of a gospel ministry , that by it soules may be saved , and god glorified in their salvation ; which argument might be of sufficient strength to establish such a ministry , if those thousands , that might be called out for help , were all silenced . now to what end are all these titles and elogies , but to teach ministers their duty towards their people , and how to look upon themselves ( as men created and devoted to labour and service ) and to teach the people their debt of love , honour , a●d reverence to , and how to look ( with an eye of esteem ) upon their ministers . chap. iii. arguments and reasons evincing the necessity , and efficacy of a gospell● ministry . . the necessity of the sacred ministry doth appear by god's command given , mark. . . preach the gospel to every creature ; that is , to all men : man being the master-piece of the creation is exalted ; the creature , by way of eminence , as by our saviour here , so by the apostle paul. col. . . the like not onely commission , but command ye may finde , matth. . . act . . where you have christ expresly commanding to preach to the people . and the apostle paul , about to die , and so to leave his office , gives this as his last charge to timothy ) to the observance of which he strongly ad●ures him ) that he preach the word in every opportuni●y , and with all importunity , . tim . . this task christ impos'd , or rather , this honour christ con●err'd upon peter , and in him upon all his ministers , that they should feed , and feed , and again feed his sheep , iohn . . . it is not a humane invention , but a divine institution , and therefore not arbi●ra●y , but necessary . . a ministry is not onely necessary by a necessity of the precept , but also by a necessity of the means ; not onely as being ordained by god , but as being ordained for man , and his s●lvation : and it is so necessary in this regard , as that , it is called in ordinary speech , the means or the means of grace . this is the ordinary way , the king's high-way to heaven , rom. . . . cor. . ● . act. . . tim. ▪ . by this the spirit is received , gal. . . act● . . this is the arm of the lord , and the power of god to salvation , rom. . . this was the employment which our blessed saviour was diligent in , matth. . . and . . luke . ▪ . and therefore god sent cornelius , not to an angel , but to peter , who should tell him what he ought to do ▪ act. . . . and paul , although extraordinarily called , yet for the honour of the ministry , was sent to school to ananias , act. . ▪ . and the eunuch must have philip to preach to him , act. . . for so it seemed good to god , by men to reveal his will to men : this treasure god hath committed to earthen vessels , that the excellency of the power may be o● god , cor. . . god hath ordained it to be the primary mean● of our regeneration and conversion unto god. mal. . , . iames . . pet. . . cor. . . and as the word of god preacht is the seed whereof the christian man is borne , so it is the food whereby the new born christian is nourished . hence it is compared to meat , ierem. . . to shewers , and dew , deut. . . isa ▪ . . to light , act. . . psal. . , to the face of god , psal. . . and . . now without meat no li●e , without shewers no increase , without light no comfort , without the face of god no joy : it is this word of god that enlightens the eyes , psal. . . cheareth the heart , mic. . . raiseth up the drooping , isa. . . comforts the sad , isa. . , . enlivens the dead , iohn . . . heateth the cold like fire , breaketh the obstinate , like a hammer , i●rem . . . and confers the spirit of adoption , whereby we are sealed unto the day of redemption . this is a sign of god's blessing , exod . . in whatsoever place the name of god is recorded , there he blesses the people , in hearing prayers , directing in doubts , and enriching them with all internall and external goods : micah , although upon a false ground , had great confidence of this blessing , upon this account ▪ iudg. . now know i that the lord will do me good , seeing i have a levite to my priest. but truer , and diviner is that of the divine musician , psal. . . blessed is the man whom thou choosest , and causest to approach unto thee , that he may dwell in thy courts : we shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house , even of thy holy temple : to which truth our saviour also gives his testimony , luke . . blessed are the eyes which see the things which ye see , and this seeing compre●ends hearing ▪ and so consequently , hearing has the blessing also , vers . ● . they must necessarily , and most deservedly perish then , that neglect and reject this spiritual food and physick . cursed be also those damnable apostates that bring in damnable errors , whereby they drive the sheep of christ from his folds , and drive them into the mouthes of the wolves , bewitching them with their fancies and dr●ams , and so at last dreaming them into hell : and cursed be the presumption of those inspired spirits , who despising the sacred ministry of the more sacred word of god , pretend and profess revelations , and enthusiasms , as false as new , and as dangerous as either . these god ●uffers to fall into the temptations of pride , and into the snares of sathan ; having reserved the blacknes● of everlasting darknesse to be the conclusion of their new lights , pet. . . iude . . the nec●ssity and efficacy of the ministry appear's by the ends for which it was ordained ; which being many , the apostle comprises in few , but full phrases , ephes ● . &c. . christ ordained a ministry for the restauration of the saints , for the setting of them as of disjointed members in their proper places : there was a disjuncture made by the fall of our first parents , and hence it is that all of us have variously erred and gone astray : therefore god to restore us , hath given variety of gifts to his ministers , to knit us to christ our head ▪ and us all together , as fellow-members . and as for the restauration of the saints , so . for their edification . he hath given us teachers , that we may be built up ▪ in knowledg ; preachers of the word , that by them we may be built up in our most holy faith , which comes by hearing . . for the settling and establishing us in the truth , that we may arrive at a staid manhood in christianity , and not like children be tossed too and fro with every winde of doctrine , no● be drawn aside by the fle●ght and cunning craftiness of men , whereby they lye in wait to deceive ▪ . for the conservation of the unity and harmony of the church , in the worship of god , that we may speak the truth in love . . our infimities and miseries do sufficiently speak a necessity of a minist●y . we are all by nature sick of an here ●●●tary disease , and do therefore need a savo●y and ●●ving ministry , to keep us that we die not of this sickness , and to restore us again to pe●fect 〈…〉 . nay , we are all by nature distanced from the mercy of god , are destitute of all i●●ate strength , whe●by to help our se●ves : nay , we are not onely sick , and unable to restore our selves to health , but even dead in sin , eph. . . and therefore b● sure unable to restore our selve to life ; and so we are obnox●●us to the hea●●●st wrath of tl● m●migh●y god. and does not this sad condition call for a●istry of reconciliation ? . ●he necessity of a ministry appears : by the sad condition of them that are destitute of the preaching of the word , as may be exemplified in the i●ws sometime wanting it , and the heathens at this day , without a teaching priest , and without the true god , are put together , chron. . . and the heathens that want this ministry are without god in the world , without christ , without hope , eph. . . when moses the iews minister was a way but five or six weeks , the people presently become idolatrous , exod. . . after paul's departure , grievous woolves are seen entring in amongst the people , act. . . where there is no vision the people perish , saies solomon , prov . ▪ . where there is no ministry of the word , we may exspect whatever evi●l is exprest or signified by the hebrew word ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) which we translate ( perish ) . denudation , or stripping off the true and saving knowledg of god , faith , love , with the whole armour of god , as also of divine safeguard , and protection . . rebellion , viz. against god , and against men . . cessation from the study of good learning , performance of good duties , and practice of good works . . separation , not onely from god by apostasie , but one from another , by cruel enmities , and carnal errors , as sheep having no shepherd , and ( as when there was no king in israel , so ) if there should be no preacher in israel , every one would do what seemed good in his own eyes , nay , i doubt not to say , if israel were nothing else but kings , yet , if there were no preacher , they would all do so ▪ we see some good fruits which god is pleased to hand over to us by the ministry , some sad fruits of the want of it , and some arguments ▪ evincing the necessity and efficacy thereof : what remains , but that we maintain and stick to this ministry ; love , and reverence the ministers , at least for their work sake . chap. iv. the doctrine is applyed in an vse of information . the corrolaryes issuing out of the bowells of this doctrine , thus explicated and demonstrated , will serve for information , instruction , consolation , reprehen●ion , exhortation . . for information . there is then a ministry in the church . to what purpose are all these names , and honourable titles , if there be no such order , as ministers , in the church ? which order is not of a moneths , a years , or an ages standing , but must be contemporary with the world , even in its last ages ▪ there is , and shall be a ministry in the world , so long as there shall be a world for it to be in ; which we shall prove by arguments ; . confirming the truth . . infirming and confuting the cavills of the anabaptists . . it is plain , by those evangelicall prophesies and promises , by which god hath made himself a debtor to his church . he standeth engaged to his people , in all ages , as well as to those of the primitive times , to give them pastors according to his own heart , who shall feed them with knowledg and understanding , isa. . . ierem. . . and . . ezech. . . . it is plain by the promise of christs presence , and help with the ministry of his word , to the end of the world ; the enrollment of which promise we may see matth. ▪ . loe , i am with you ( not a day , nor a year , but ) alway , even unto the end of the world . although it may be shaken sore in this world , yet it shall not be pluckt up by the roots ; although many may , and do gnash their teeth against it , yet shall they not be able to devour it ; for christ will build his church , and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it , or its ministry . neither did our saviour make this promise only ( though chiefly ) to his apostles , but to all his ministers also in generall , that either in times past have been , to us who now are , and to them that shall be after us ▪ even to the end of the world . . the offices of ministers , and the works of the ministry , shall be perpetuall , therefore shall the ministry it self last also . the preaching of the word , and the administration of the sacraments are offices of ministers , and works of the ministry ; but these have a long-liv●d char●●r , a promise of perpetuity , and an injunction that they be perpetuated . a ministry was given , not for one age , but for all ages ; ●ot for the edification of one man , but of the whole body of christ , the church , eph. . , . the administration of sacraments must extend it self to the utmost times , and last age of the church , matth. . ▪ . cor. . ● . now whilest the office continues , they must needs continue that execute it . where there is any religion , there must be some set apart to maintain it . baal himself , if he be a god , must have his priests . the same may be found in scripture concerning the fictitious crew of all those devilish de●●ies , which the phili●●ines , egyp●●ans , m●abites ; and ammonites worshipped . . it is plain from the necessity of this calling : vv●●hout faith no salvation , iohn . ● . vvithout the preaching of the word no faith , rom. . . vvrithout preachers no preaching ▪ and without a ministry there can be no preachers ; for , how shall they preach except they be sent ▪ so then , without the ministry and ministers no salvation . so long as there shall be any to be saved , god will provide some , by whose hands he will save them ▪ . whilest there shall be a church , there must be a ministry of the church ; but god will have a church militant upon earth whilest ●un and moon endure , 〈◊〉 . . . matth ▪ . . eph. . . it is necessary therefore , that as there ever hath been a ministry , because there ever hath been some ●●●ct , so there should be a ministry for ever , because there shall ever be some elect , who●e salvation shall be carryed on thereby ; that it should be commensu●able with the churches necessi●ies , whilest god shall have upon earth a church to be built , a vineyard to be planted , a field to be tilled , a flock to be ●ed , an harvest to be reaped , and soules to be saved ; so long will he have builders , planters , tillers , shepherds , reapers , saviours , and a ministry for the accomplishing of these things ; see act. ● . , . . it appears ▪ in that it is said to be the priviledg , and is rep●esented as the property of the new ierusalem , to have no temple in it , rev. . . the church triumphant is the church , and the onely church , that needs no ministry , ministers , or ordinances ; for god is all this to them ; instead of the word of god , they read in the god of that word ; instead of the representation of christ in sacraments , they have the enjoyment of him without the help of shadows or types . the immediate enjoyment of god in this life , without the means , is sure then a fancy onely beseeming the heady brains , or rather brainless heads of anabaptists . it is the proper priviledg of the church triumphant to serve god immediately , without temple or ordinances ; amongst them it is , that prophes●●s shall fail , cor. ▪ . but in the church militant they are to be highly esteemed , thes. . ● . it appeares by the care of the apostles for the continuation of their successors , and the perpetuation of a ministry in the church . paul commands titus to ordain elders and bishops in 〈◊〉 city , describes the persons to be ordained , and prescribes rules for the ordaining of them , t it . , , , , &c. he command● , and cautions timothy also about the same thing ; and ●●ds him keep the commands relating to this ministry till the appearing of the lord iesus christ ; which injunction is not onely laid upon timothy in his own person , but upon all the ministers of christ that shall be in succession to the end of the world . . it appeares by that honor , reverence , and submission , which , by vertue of the command , is due to the successours of the apostles , thes. . , . phil. . . heb. . . which things , so long as they are due , must needs have , and prove ministers of the gospel to whom they shall be given . and if you take a way them that are over you in the lord , your messengers , them that have the rule over you , and that watch for your soules , i pray you tell me , where will you bestow the high estimation and love , the reputation , obedience , and submission which the great apostle commands to be given , in the fore-quoted texts . . it appears by that constant provision that god has made for his ministers , ordering them honourable stipends for their work , gal. . . cor. . ▪ . tim. . , . which provision is laid up in the store-house of the gospell , not onely for the apostles sake , but all theirs that are ministers of christ in succession . now to what purpose should these commands of god remain in the b●ble , if there should not be a remainder of ministers still in the church . god needed not to have provided meat for his ministers , if he had been minded that men should have sewed up their m●uthes . away with the doting crew of anabaptists then , that despising the word of god , and ministry of that word ▪ and ministers of that ministry , gape for the downfall of revelations into their mouths , and stare after new lights . away with them to the law and the prophets . why stand ye gazing up into heaven for new discoveries ? to the law , and to the testimony ; if they be not according to this word , it is because your new lights have no light in them ▪ isa. . . god hath ordained and established a publick ministry , and forbids the consulting of diviners , observers of times , enchanters , charmers , witches , wizards , necromancers , deut. . , , . no , nor must mens own fancies lead them , their own inventions be set up to give oracles ; but in all doubtfull matters , consult the ministers of god , vers . . is there no light in the word of god ? or , whether are your eyes out that ye cannot receive it ? is that nothing but a dead letter now , which in s. pauls dayes was so quick and spirituall , heb. . . is there no god , but in the still voice of your spirituall conceivements and revelations now adayes ? well , let 's hear what your spirit has to say against our christ , who has bidden ●o ▪ and teach and baptise . chap. v. the cavills and fallacies of the anabaptists , socinians , swend●eldians , and enthusiasts are blown away . obj. . the first harbour of these libertines opinion in this thing is pretended to be in ierem. . . they ●hall teach no more every man his neighbour , and every man his brother , saying , know the lord , for they shall all know me , from ●he l●ast of them , even to the greatest of them , saith the lord ; therefore such a thing as the ministry of the word is needless under the new testament . answ. . words are not properly scripture , , but the sense ; neither does the scripture properly consist in the leaves of words , but in the root of reason ; the word of god is not to be taken formally , as it is described by words and syllables , but materially , as it declares to us the minde and counsell of god ; we must not stick in the bark , for that hath involved the ●apist● and anabaptists in many errours . . if we must needs have so much regard to the letter of the text , it rather takes away private instruction , then publick preaching ; for god does not say , there shall be no publick preachers , but they shall no more t●ach every man his neighbour , and every man his brother . but neither can we dis●ard private instructions under the gospell , if s● paul be a gospell-man , who presseth this duty , coloss. . . thes. . . . the text is a promise : now promises must not shoulder out , nor overthrow precepts ; neither must the means be taken away , because the primary cause is laid down and asserted . god feeds all , it does not follow , therefore that tillag● is unnecessary , or bread needless , ●or by these means god ●eeds us . no more does it follow , that because god teacheth , therefore the ministry of his word is unnecessary , for god teacheth by the ministry of his word . . the genuine scope of the text is to shew us , that god teacheth his elect ▪ not onely externally by the ministry of his word , but internally ▪ by the ministry of his holy spi●it . neither does the prophet speak absolutely , simply ▪ and inclusively ; but comparatively , as the holy ghost frequently speaks . things spoken negatively in scripture , are oft times to be understood comparatively , and are not to be expounded so much by ( not ) as by ( not so much , ) which is plain in hos. . . psal. . . psal. . . iohn . . iohn . . and many other places : so that the sum of the prophets words will easi●y be , there shall be a ●uller and clearer knowledg of god in the times of the new testament , then there was in the times of the old. . because under the old testame●t christ was obscurely shadowed out in types ; but under the new he is plainly preach'd , and shewn openly ; insomuch , that a very boy , w●ll ca●echised and instructed doth understand the gospell concerning christ , beter then many of the priests of the law did ; which is the accomplishment of that promise . isa. . . the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the lord. . because there are farre more that are blessed with the saving knowledg of god in the times of the new testament , than were in the times of the old , the preaching of the word not being restrained to one nation now , as it was then , but common to all . . by reason of the more plentifull effusions of the grace of god , there shall not need so much pains and trouble to instruct the elect now , as formerly there needed . this is plain from vers . . where it is said , i will write my law in their hearts , not in their lips , not in tables of stones , not on the fringes of their garments ( as it was sometimes among the iews ) but in their hearts , by giving them pious affections , and inclinations for the law of god. that of calvin upon the place gives the substance of the interpretation ; god , who had more darkly represented himself under the law , promiseth a more glorious discovery under the gospell ; in so much , that the knowledg of god shall be then , as it were , familiar , and common : but it is by an hyperbole that he commendeth this grace , when he saies , that no one shall need any master or teacher , but every one shall be sufficiently instructed : neither yet does he say exactly , that they shall not teach every one his neighbour , but they shall not teach every one his neighbour , saying , know the lord ; i. e. there shall be such a measure of knowledg , that men shall be no longer abecedarians : for this phrase ( know the lord ) seems to point at the first beginning , and rudiments of religion . the minde of the prephet in this place ( which we willingly yield ) can be nothing but this , that god will send out a greater light , and greater measures of knowledg in the times of the go●pell , and will deale more freely and familiarly with his people then , than formerly . . if having given the naturall sense , & genuine scope of the text , we may use an answer ad hominem , i would fain know why the anabaptists and quakers , that stand up for this litterall meaning , and apply the promise to our days , can make themselves these new lights , and the heirs of this promise , and yet goe about saying know the lord. certainly if this be the meaning of the promise , these be the times of the accomplishment of it , and they the persons to whom it belongs , they contradict their interpretation , and even break the neck of the promise , in going from town to town , from street to street , from house to house , teaching men to repent , to turn to the lord , to know the lord , and a great deal more of this , and so take gods work out of his hands , for they should be all taught of the lord. and if they say , true men shall be taught of the lord , but it shall be by the means of men , then why are not we as fit to teach as they ? this now brings to my mind their . obj. which they build upon , is. . . where god promiseth that all the faithfull shall be taught of the lord. therefore the ministry of the word is needlesse . ans. . this rather raiseth up then razeth out the ministry of the word , of which there shall be need in the new-testament , no lesse then in the old . all know that scripture is the best interpreter of scripture . now christ reacheth us what it is to be taught of god. ioh. . . god teacheth us two ways , by the outward preaching of his word and by the inward revelations of his spirits . god here promiseth that his elect shall be taught , not only by the teachers of the church from without , but by the holy spirit from within . christians in this text of the prophet seem to be put in opposition to the lews , whose teachings under the old testament were more externall then internall . and it is here promised that the spirit of god shall be mightily efficacious by the ministery of the word , and that it shall be more free and liberall in distributing its gifts and graces under the new testament . so that these two kinds of teachings are rather united in this text than divided . to be taught of god is not to be taught of him immediately , but mediately by the preaching of the word , as appears from luk . . act . . but further if this text of the prophet be interpreted for the overthrow of the ministry of the word , how will it agree with ier. . . mat. . . rom. . ● . ? and agree it must , unlesse you will have the spirit of truth to give himself the lye . cal●● speaks appositely . it is evident how miserably they dote , who abuse this text , for the overthrow of the ministry of the word , so much used by , and usefull ●o the church . they cannot be owned for the children of the church , that reject her education . and it is in vain to boast the revelations of the spirit ; for the spirit teaches none , save those who submit themselves to the ministry of the word . account we them therefore the brats of the devill , not the genuine begotten of god , who reject this holy ordinance of his own institution . for we see these two , ( the children of the chu●ch ) and ( the taught of god ) are so much the same , that they cannot be the taught of god , who will not be taught in the chu●ch . . if we may make an answer ad hominem , it little becomes the anabaptists to decrye a ministry , and forbid prophesying who otherwise bid all to do it , plead the cause of the gifted brethren so stiffly , and give them a licence for prophesying at their pleasure . no wonder if they would set scripture together by the ears , and make contradictions in them , who themselves do contradict themselves , and whose latter opinions do fall out and quarrell with their former . . obj. is grounded upon . ioh. . , . ye have an unction from the holy one , and ye know all things ; and ye need not that any man teach you . the objection fram'd for the purpose of our libertines and new lights , will be of this form , who ever hath the spirit of god , understandeth the scriptures without a teacher , but we have this spirit of god. therefore we understand them without any teacher . ans. . the major proposition is false . for whom the spirit of god teacheth , it teacheth by teachers , eph ▪ . . and not immediately , as was made to appear before . this anointing teacheth you all things , that is , the spirit of god is efficacious and powerfull by the preaching of the word , to enlighten the minds of the faithfull in all things necessary to salvation . these elect persons knew all things , and so st. paul could do all things he sayes , and yet i dare say there were many things ▪ that they did not know , nor he could not doe : what shall we say then ? why not that these elect persons were so many gods , which they must be , if they know all things . ioh. . ▪ not that paul was omnipotent , not that these were omniscient ; but paul's omnipotence , and their omniscience must be limited . the one could do all things belonging to his calling , the other knew all things necessary to salvation , at least in some good measure ▪ they knew all things which might serve for the discovering of anti-christ , and the avoyding of his snares , which is there the subject of the apostles discourse . concerning these things , or concerning the fundamentalls of religion , ye need not that any man teach you ; which words else are spoken comparatively not absolutely , and come to this meaning . the spirit of god teacheth you so plainly and powerfully , that no one needs to bestow much pains to perswade you concerning heavenly truths . the major proposition being pull'd down , the minor , staggars , and the conclusion appears to be a mere delusion . . if they that have the spirit of god and the holy anointing , know all things , and need not that any one teach them any thing , in the sense which our enthusiasts would interprete it , i wonder that the apostle iohn could so farr forget himself , as to write an epistle for the instruction , & edification of such omniscient persons as these were . this sense of the text , which our libertines will stitch to it , will not only render the apostle contradictory to christ iesus his master , mat. . . to the apostle paul . tim. . . and eph. . , , . but to himself also . as though a man should goe and teach another , tha● he need not be taught . so that surely , ye know all things , must n●●ds be meant but of some things , and ye need not that any one teach you , must be limited to some things only , wherein they were so well verst . . obj. god can save the elect without any ministry , therefore he will. ans. this ●oth not follow : an argument from gods power to his will is not concluding . god could have saved noah without an arke , but he would not . he could have instructed the iews without levites , have propagated the gospell without apostles , but he would not . he could save us indeed without means , but it has pleased him to make use of means for the regenerating of us , and to prescribe those means to us . rom. . . where the apostle in an elegant gradation sheweth us by what means , and in what order to faith and salvation , we are fitted for glory . . obj. although the ministry be usefull for regeneration , yet it is uselesse to the regenerate . ans. why do ye not say also that meat is necessary for children , but superfluous , and hurtfull to men of age ; for we are ●ure that the word of god is meat . the apostle paul appears ●o be of another mind , eph. . . the ministry of the word ●ust continue ( not for a year or an age , not till we be regenerate , not till we have got a little strength , but ) till we all come in the unity of the faith , and of the knowledg of the son of god , unto a perfect man , unto the measure of the stature of the fullnesse of christ. not only till we be united to christ by faith , but ●ill all the elect come to a perfect knowledg in the beatificall vision , and to the full statute of christ. these remain many scales yet to be strucken off from the most enlightned eyes in the world , and some cubits which may still be added to the highest stature in this world by the word of god. the word of god is not only the seed , of which the christian babe is born ▪ but the food also , by which the christian man is sed , . pet. . ● . and is not only the instrument of regeneration , but of edification also ▪ act. . . . tim. . , . therefore the apostle would not have believers to forsake the assembling of themselves together , by way of christian congregations to handle , and hear gods word . heb. . . the word of god preacht , that principle of regeneration , is also the principle of nutrition . ieremiah was regenerate , yet he eate the word of the lord , and it was to him the joy and rejoycing of his heart . ier. . . david was regenerate , yet the word of god , was more sweet to his taste then the most clarifyed honey , more desirable to his eyes , then the most refined gold , ps. . . iob was regenerate , yet he hid , or rather hoarded up the commandements of god , as the best treasure , in his heart , as the best treasury ; nay , he esteemed the words of gods mouth more then his necessary food . iob. . . nay , since the best saints upon earth are by nature slow , s●cure , apt to loosen themselves from god , and obnoxious to many wandrings both in head , heart , and hand , ( as is sadly exemplifyed in sampson the strongest of men , david the most humbled of sinners , solomon the wisest of kings , peter the bolbest of believers ) since blindnesse in part happens even to the dest of israel , and no man even was or will be upon earth , either so compleat in knowledg or grace , but that something will remain to be added to him , phill. . . . pet. . u●t . we have daily and hourly need for , and use of the word of god , whereby our ignorance may be instructed , our faintings refresh'd our weakness strengthned , our dullness quickned , our wanderings reduced , our waverings resolved , and we built up in grace ▪ and in the knowledg of our lord and saviour iesus christ. chap. vi. many uses of instruction arising from the doctrine . . hence we may see the absolute necessity of a gospel-ministry . take away this salt , and you have the world stinking in sin presently . the whole world not only falleth into , but lyeth in wickednesse , . ioh. . . and there would lye and ●ot , to all eternity , were it not for this ●alt . take away this ministry , and ye take the sunne out of the firmament . for what is the world without the ministry of gods word , but the picture of hell , nay very hell upon earth , wherein will b● no order , and eternall horrour . that of the constantinopolitans is all most more common then that it needs to be repeated , it were better that the sun did not shine , than that chrysostome should not teach . take away this ministry , and you take away all the true knowledg of the true god , the heat of piety is extinguished , ba●barisme entereth , and you shall presently reap a large harvest 〈◊〉 the weeds of all error and prophanenesse . there will be neither soveraign nor subject , mistresse nor mayde , but all things will presently be in a confusion , which very miseryes our ancesto●● did sadly experience in the dark night of popery , to their great ●ffl●ction . and not only they in their papisticall , but also we in part see in our atheisticall days , wherein the ministry and ministers of the gospell being set at naught , he hath broke loose , and a numberlesse crew of locusts have sprung out of the bottomlesse pit , assuming to themselves the names of arrians , arminians , socinians , antinomians , anabaptists , familists , antiscripturists , antisabbatarians , antitrinitarians , libertines , erastians , levellers , mortalists , millenaryes , enthusiasts , separatists , semiseparatists , quakers and many more of the same brood , upon all which and the present erroneous state of our english church , a stranger hath set a black mark ▪ england ( saith he ) in four years , is become a lerna and sink of all errors , and sectaries . no countrey from the foundation of the world hath brought forth , and brought up , so many monstrous births as it hath done . nay , in a word , take away the ministry , and you take away faith in in god , prayer to god , and salvation given by him . rom. . . tim. . . by this men are turned from darknesse to light , and from the power of sathan to god. ier. . . luk . , . by this christ hath propagated his church , overthrown the kingdom of sathan , and the powers of darknesse , viz. paganisme , idolatry , superstition , and ignorance , luk . , . this stops the blasphemous mouths , and cuts out the very tongues of that pestilent generation of iesuites , and romish agents : therefore when god will hasten the downfall of anti-christ , he will not doe it by a secular power , but by the spirit of his mouth , . thes. . . that is , by the power of the gospell preacht , by ministers not magistrates , by whom also he hath founded true religion , kept it upon its legs , when it was founded , and restored it when it was fallen . to these he hath given ( that which he hath denyed to the greatest monarchs of the world ) the keys of the kingdom of heaven , mat. . . ioh. . . so that what they bind on earth , is said to be bound in heaven , and what they loose , to be loosed also . hence some one not amisse inferrs that a minister rightly discharging his office , hath not only preheminence above all other private persons , but even kings and princes ; to which chrysostome gives his suffrage ; that the very angells of god in heaven in this may give place to the angells of god , which are upon earth , who although they be themselves in heaven , yet have no keys to open to others . take away this palladium i. e. come who will , and take away our place , and nation . behold the disasters and disorders , and the omnifarious calamitousnesse of those times , wherein israel was without the knowledg of the true god , without a teaching priest , and without law , . chron. . . . take away this light , ye have nothing but stumbling . ioh. . . take away pastours , and ye have men , like sheep wandring ; take away these guides , and ye have all ditches every where filled , with the carcasses of the blind , that are fallen there . take away this light , and let us see what solid comfort , innumerable gold , uninterrupted prosperity , and friendly society will afford . take away this arke , and then shew me the glory of israel . ignorance and impiety goe together in the gospell texture , eph. . , and there is but a letter between ignorants , and covenant-breakers , rom. . . if ye would find cruelty , search the dark places of the earth , for they are full of it . ps. . . come see and heare the wise man's whoremonger bewayling himself at last , prov. . , . i have not obeyed the voyce of my teachers . behold the root of bitternesse , the fountain of his sin , nor inclined mine eare to them that instructed me . hin● illae lacl●ymae , her 's the ground of the complaint . wherefore the lord promiseth faithfull pastors as a great blessing , and singular kindnesse , i● . . , . the lord will give you the bread of adversity , and the water of affliction . behold the ●ore ? but thy teachers shall not be removed into corners any more , thine eys shall see thy teachers . behold the salve ? although we suffer hunger , and thirst , and adversity , for tryall and purgation , yet if god will be present with us in our teachers , who may strengthen the weak , cheare the sad , refresh the faint , and teach us the ways of the lord , our hunger will be as good as plenty , our adversity will ou●-shine prosperity , and our thirst as waged by the waters of the sanctuary . and on the other hand , as hunger and thirst are blessings with the word , so is a famine of the word the greatest curse on this side hell , though in the midst of plenty and prosperity , so is it represented , am. . . is. . . . what is the body to the soul ; no more comparable in value , then the cloaths are to the body . and so consequently what is the sust●ntation , and nourishment of the body , to that of the soul ? wheat is but chaffe to the bread of life ; wine is but water to the droppings of the sanctuary . honey is but waxe , nay , very bitternesse to the word of god ; ps. . . and so consequently what is a famine of bread , or of water , to a famine of the word of god , which is the most exce●lent food of the most excellent substance in this world , even our precious souls . . this acquaints us with our miserable condition , by nature . it gives us to understand , that we are altogether destitute of the salt of mortification and repentance . if we were sound , and could so preserve our selves , what needed we this salt : what unsavory , filthy , stinking , corrupt carcases are men , till they be seasoned with this heavenly salt ! let us therefore bless god for this seasoner , and that he hath caused us to be brought forth , and brought within the sound of the glorious gospell : and pray with all earnestness , that , as god hath out of his mere goodness ordained a ministry for us , that he would preserve it amongst us ; as he hath set , it up , so that he would keep it standing , whilest the world it self shall stand . . this acquaints us with the dignity and efficacy of the sacred ministry ; of all that serve and minister to christ , his ambassadours are his chiefest servants , and choisest ministers . their ministry is most excellent , because they minister to god , heb. . . and that , not in the things pertaining to this life , but in the things that respect the kingdome of god , and the everlasting salvation of men : this ministry is called a thing not small , numb . . . ●ay , it is called an honour , heb. . . nay the prophet puts a beauty with an admiration upon the very feet of the gospell-ministers , isa. . . how beautifull are the feet of them that bring good tydings of good , that publish salvation ! how could the beauty of them be exprest more fully , than by such an elegant particle of admiration ? and yet , if the beauty of their feet must have an admiration borrowed to express them , by what shall we express the beauty of their faces ? learn hence , what a glorious treasure the gospell is , what a glorious office the preaching of it is , what glorious and honourable servants the preachers of it ; they have been a delight to the very kings of the earth , who in token of honour and reverence , have called them fathers , kings . . nay , they have not onely spoken reve●●ntly of them , but also comfortably to them , chron. . . and . . wicked saul himself could not but reverence holy samuel , sam. . and graceless herod could not but respect the gracious baptist ▪ marl . . the apostle paul was of so much worth to the galattan ▪ that they received him as an angel of god , even as chr●st ●esus ( 〈◊〉 his ambassadour he was ) gal. . . behold corn●lius the ce●turion falling down before peter the apostle , and worshipping him , act. . . oh stupendious humanity , and humility ! a roman captain , a gentleman souldier stooping to a poor apostle , and offering him honour , not onely more than could be exspected , but than durst be accepted : lo alexander the grand tenant of the universe ( whose ranging soul knew no confines , whose stately spirit scorn'd to own any monarch ) stooping before , and doing reverence unto iaddus the iewish high-priest , iosephus , antiquit. l. . c. . it is not much that aqutla and priscilla should expose their lives to danger for paul's sake . rom. . , . but yet it spoke their great affection to , and estimation of him . observe the reverend carriage of the noble obadiah ▪ governour of the kings houshould , towards elijah a poor persecuted prophet , kings . . he fell on this face , and said , art thou that my lord elisah ? and not only him did he reverence , but manifested his great affections towards an hundred of the lords prophets , even with the danger of his life , ver . . such was the honour sometimes thought due to the men of god. ministers are gifts , not carnall and temporall , but spirituall : they are part of christs purchase , and a singular fruit of his ascension , who went up into heaven , that they might come down upon the earth , eph. . . . surely the gift of the sun and salt , are a mere nothing , if compared with this heavenly largess . by this ministry the glory of god is manifested , faith is begotten and nourished , charity kindled and enflamed : by this the ignorant are instructed , the idle are provoked , the unconstant are fastened to the truth , as it were nailes , eccles . . the wicked are convinced , the weak are confirmed , the root of wickedness cast up , and the branches cut off . this gospell-ministry , in the apostles minde , farre ou●-goes the ministry of the law , cor. . , , . and iohn baptist ( who himself was scarce a gospell-preacher , had yet , because of his more then ordinary nearness thereunto , his preheminence , not onely of the silken courtiers in our saviours account , but of all the prophets his p●edecessors , matth. . , , , . and yet the meanest of the faithfull ministers of christ ( in regard of the clearness of the doctrine taught by him ) is greater then he . the great excellency and dignity of the sacred ministry will easily appear , if we consider , . the authour of it , not man , but god. the commendation of the scriptures is , that they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , tim. . . the commendation of believers is , that they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , isa. ▪ . the same authority commends the ministry of the word ▪ eph. . . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , christ gave some apostles , &c. he put● his ministers into commission , matth. . , . and iesus came and spake unto them saying , all power is given to me in heaven and in earth ; go ye therefore , and teach all nations , baptizing them . and s. paul magnifies his ministry by this authority , cor. . . cor. . . and gal . . paul an apostle , not of men , nor by man , but by iesus christ , and god the father , it is not mans appointment , but an ordinance of god ; not a humane fiction , but a divine institution . . the antiquity of it , which also commends the goodness of a good thing . the ministry of the church is no new invention , but an ancient ordination : for it had been even from the beginning , which the churches of god have not wanted in any age , neither before , nor under , nor since the law ; before the law were the patriarchs , who instructed their families in the worship of god , and propagated religion to their posterity : under the law god had his priests , and levites , and prophets , who had their unctions , missions , and commissions from him : and since the law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , christ hath given apostles , pastors , evangelists , teachers . . the ministers of it : the patriarchs , the prophets , christ himself , and his apostles . isaiah was of the blood : oyal , and yet a minister of this ministry : king solomon commends himself to the church of god under the name of koheleth : and amongst other his titles , seems to glory first , and most in that of the preacher , eccles. . the words of the preacher , and then it follows , the son of david , king in ierusal●m . noah the monarch of the whole world was a preacher of righteousness , pet. . . nay , christ iesus himself , god blessed for evermore , came to minister , mark. . . and to be the masterpreacher of the gospel , heb. . . the apostles and teachers that have succeeded him , being set up by him ( cor. . . ) are also honourable : for what greater honour can there be in court , then to succeed in that place and employment , in which the king's son himself deigned sometime to be . . the object about which it is conversant : not the body ▪ but the soul ; not humane laws , secular concernments , but spirituall things relating to the worship , service , and glory of god , and the salvation of soules . physicians binde up bruised bodies , lawyers patch up broken estates , whilest christ ministers bind up broken hearts , and salve wounded consciences . if therefore the body he unworthier then the soul , the earth be content to be below the heavens , externalls give place to eternalls ; parity of reason will prefer this sacred function before , and set it above all others . . the supernaturall effects thereof , such as the conversion , sanctification , and salvation of man ; in all which the dignity of the sacred ministry does admirably appear , and in the dignity of the ministry doth also appear the dignity of the ministers . neither let any one say , they are servants , they are but ministers , and therefore not to be honoured ; for that derogates not awhit from their honour : if they be servants , they are the servants of the church of god ; if they be ministers , they are ministers of christ , the lord of heaven , earth , and hell , they are not the servants of kings , but of the king of kings , to whom the glorious angells do gladly minister ; neither are they of the meanest of christ's servants , put in some low place of service , but they serve him in the distribution of the most precious treasure , even gospell-grace , cor. . . now to be the treasurer of the lord , is a greater honour then to be lord-treasurer . and if there be honour in the meanest office performed for god , as he wing wood , and drawing water for the sanctuary , and keeping the door of the house of god , psal. . . surely the highest offices cannot be dishonourable . all the things that render any service honourable , do concurre to make this great employment truly honourable . . vve serve an honourable master , the lord iehorah , the monarch of heaven and earth . . our service is in it self excellent and honourable . . our wages and reward is the highest of all others , viz. a crown of glory ; god does not onely honour his faithfull ministers that honour him , in this life ; but he has reserved a more exceeding weight of glory for them against the time to come . oh what admirable honour will be given of god at the last day to his faithfull ministers ! then shall stand forth before god , and his angels , and all men , andrew bringing with him his achaians , whom by his ministry he gained to christ ; iohn with his asians . thomas with his indians ; peter with his iews ; paul with his gentiles ; and all the pious and painfull ministers of christ , with the children that god hath given them in their respective ages and generations , and these shall be their crown of glorying , in the presence of iesus christ at his coming , thes. . . what remains therefore , but that we give such honour to our teachers , as is due to the ambassadours and ministers of the most high god , for although they be servants , yet are they his servants , whom to serve is to raign ; look not upon them as slaves , but as such servants , to whom honour , reverence , and obedience is due , even by the command of god tim. . . tit. . . heb. . . cor. . , . the apostle paul desires the thessalonians , thes. . , . not onely to know , but to acknowledg their teachers , nay , to love them with a high strain of affection , even to an hyperbole , to esteem them highly in love , which translation yet comes short of the expression , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . let us imitate the galatians , whose very eyes were not so dear in their heads , as the apostle paul was in their eyes , gal . . but here a double caution is needfull . . let us take heed lest these encomiums and commendations of the ministry lay in us the grounds of pride , lest we be puffed up with the dignity of our office. and to this purpose 't will not be amiss to consider , that the operation and efficacy of our ministry is not from our selves , but from god , act. . , . cor. . , , . we are onely ministers , not lords of mens faith , but ministers by whom they believe ; our planting and watering avail nothing unless god give ▪ encrease . the preacher beats the ears , but god alone breaks the heart ; the preacher teacheth , but god gives knowledg ; the preacher perswades , but god inclines ; iohn baptiseth with water , but christ onely with the holy ghost , and with fire , matth. . . . let us take need of dishonouring this honourable calling by unsuiteable lives , lives led in drunkenness , idleness , ignorance , profaneness , heresie , pride , covetousness , uncleanness , sports and pastimes ; let us take need of being unsavory salt , of speaking silken words , and things to please mens fancies ; and so proving rather honey then salt to the sinners , as they were ezech. . , . they that are such , teach others the things which themselves contemn ; they that reprove others , had themselves need to be irreprovable ; for , vvho can abide the traitrous gracchi , when they make complaints against seditious men ? shall clodius condemn adulterie ; or catiline cethegus , worse then hee ? certainly he must needs strike faintly upon the consciences of sinners , who has his own conscience polluted with gross sinnes ; and how shall he inveigh against the vices of others , who fears shame for his own ? how shall be teach well that lives ill ; or season others , who is himself altogether unsavoury ? how can the covetous minister press his people to heavenly mindedness ; or , with what face can the drunken doctor commend to another a sober course of life ? or , if he do , 't is seldome with good success ; a wicked man may indeed preach against wickedness , but will hardly preach it down , except he preach in deed ; he that attempts to take a mote out of his brothers eyes , must either cast the beam out of his own first , or else he will certainly be entertained with the proverb , physician heal thy self . he is a pharisaicall teacher that saies , and does nothing , mat. . . such take away all authority from their preachings , plucking down with their life what they build with their language ; for , who will obey , when the preachers teach disobedience ? of all creatures upon earth degenerate men are the worst ; of all men , wicked christians ; and of all christians , wicked ministers ; they are the shame of the clergy , the worst of varlets , not pastors but impostors , not doctors but seducers , not dispensers but dispersers , the increment and instruments of sathan , and the very picture of that wicked one ; they are like the statue of mercury , that shew others the way , which themselves walk not ; like bells that call men to hear the word and will of god , but themselves want ears ; like spunges , that cleanse other things , but remain unclean themselves ; like a musicall instrument , that creates delight to others , but it self is sensless of any ; or like the shipwrights that made an ark to save noah and his family in , but themselves were drowned . no wonder ( saies a learned authour ) if that polity be made a prey , and brought to naught , whose vvatchmen are blinde , whose preachers dumb , whose champions lame , whose physicians sick , whose teachers untaught , and whose guides are ignorant of the way . hence springs the ruine of the church , the corruption of manners , a sink of sinne , a deluge of prophaneness , the sterving of charity , the hazarding of faith , the debasement of religion , the poyson of pestilent schisms , the contempt of the ministry ▪ and all ecclesiasticall orders , and ordinances . hence it is that the people are so wicked , for how should there choose but be whoredome in ephraim , and defilement in israel , when the priests commit lewdness , hos. . , . the actions of publick persons are influentiall ; and this gave occasion to that witty conjecture of charles the fifth , who guest at the state of a city , or commonwealth , by three things , by considering their pastor , their pedagogue , their pretor : the church depends upon the pastor , the school upon the master , the court upon the pretor , who are the salt of their respective places ; such therefore as is the preacher , is the church ; as is the pedagogue , so are the children ; as is the pretor , so are the citizens . good reason therefore why god requires holiness in those especially , that come thus nigh unto him , lev. . , . neither does it mitigate to say , that these ministers are learned , but rather aggravate . learning dwells ill in an evill man : it is like wine in a poysoned cup , or a sword in a mad mans hand . dexterity of wit , the liberall arts , the knowledge of the tongues , and humane learning are indeed excellent gifts from god ; but they are all miserably prophaned in such a man. a religious dunce is better then he : and it comes to pass by the just iudgment of god , that the devill works more powerfully in none , then in wicked and apostate ministers ; insomuch that they are called devills , iohn . , . the worst name in the world : such do not onely invite , but even compell , by their example : the examples of minnisters are cogent , gal. . . christ therefore threatens these unsavoury salts with sad iudgment , luke . . . which judgment that we may the better understand , let us consider it in these following particulars . . vnsavoury salt hath this inconvenience , that its lost nature cannot be repayred . there is no further salt wherewith this unsavoury salt can be seasoned . the unhappinesse of it is therefore very unhappy . the best things in their corruption become the worst . the best nourishment becomes the worst excrement , the best wine is corrupted into the sharpest vinegar . degenerate ministers are hardly cured ; for what remains with which they may be restored and seasoned ? if the people be unsavory , god hath given ministers to ●eason them . but if themselves be corrupt and unsavory , what cure shall we find for them . these vines if they be fruitfull , are the best trees in gods garden , and the worst , if barren . ezech. . . unsavoury salt is unprofitable . it is not fit for the earth , for it will not suffer it to be fruitfull , not for the dunghill , for it will not suffer it to ●ructify . so unprofitable are unsavoury ministers , who are therefore deposed from their ministry , and discarded by the churches censure : other things in their corrupt state are good for something , as degenerate wine generates vinegar , and the excrement of nourishment , nourishes land . but infatuated salt is so unprofitable , as that it is also hurtfull ; so hurtfull as that it makes the very dunghills themselves unprofitable . such vile , unprofitable hurtfull creatures are apostate ministers and corrupt ; to whom god therefore threatneth , rejection , deposition , and contempt . hos. . . mall . , ezr. . . . vnsavoury salt is troden under foot of men , which is the height of ignominy and shame . so ecebolius the apostate cryed out , tread upon me unsavory salt . the just judgment of god causes their ministry to be contemned , whose lives are contaminated . thus the sacrifices of the lord were abhorred , because of the vilenes●e of the sacrificers . . sam. . . nay , as though the treadings under feet of men were not enough miserable , the proverb hath layd prophaned ministers lawer then the earth , which sayth , that hell is paved with the helmets of princes , and the shavings of priests . woe be to that pastor , that is not true , but treacherous , not lively and diligent , but dull and sloathfull , who is rather the counterfe●t of a pastor than indeed such , who seeds not his people , but his purse , and his paunch : wo to these idol shepheards , the sword shall be upon their arme , and upon their right eye , their arm shall be clean dryed up , and their right eye utterly darkned . zach. . . god will weaken their strength , and infatuate their judgments . such are the punishments of these wicked , unsavou●y , unprofitable ministers . . another sort of unsavory salt , and gifted brethren ( as they call themselves ) though how barren of 〈◊〉 good gift , all may see . these like the pa●●rioges chickens , run with the shells upon their heads . t●us the little ducklings fall a swimming as soon as they are well hatcht , and the lyons whelps teare their own passage into the world : but such hasty burths are lightly blind . there is an incurable itch of teaching , which possesses many wild heads in these days , who think they know that which indeed they are ignorant of , nay , are ignorant of their ignorance . in all other arts and sciences , men use first to learn and after to teach . but in divinity we have many that teach what they never learn'd , and become the masters of fools , before they have been the schollars of wise men . and hence it is that this waxen divinity of theirs receives any impression , and they themselves are metamorphosed into many shapes . these do not season souls , but poyson them , not edifye , but destroy them , not communicate instruction , but convey infection . these are plants without sap , wells without water , starrs without light , bubbles broken with a blast , and waves of the sea , soming out their own shame , quorum prophetia non est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 these prophets are fools , these spirituall men are mad . this liberty of prophesying , this root of mani●old heresyes is to be rooted out , as that which hath eaten as a gangrene , and infected many . oh that some hercules will oppose himself to this many headed monster ? many complain of this evill , but few put to their hand for the reforming of it : so that it may justly be feared , that whilst the infectors are spared , more will be infected . the true shepheards are an abomination to these egyptians . egyptians ? nay they are worse then egyptians : for the egyptians tempered their clay with straw to make bricke of , but these have neither straw nor stubble , neither wit nor learning , nor any other materialls to build with , but dawbe with untempered mortar . these like iereboam , one of the worst men in the world , make priests of the meanest of the people . nay , as caligula made his horse consul , so these make their asses preachers , who if they can do nothing else , yet like balaams asse , can reprove the madnesse of the prophets . these are the men that give mouldy bread instead of ambrosia , vinegar instead of nectar , and poysons instead of preservatives they mixe tares with their wheat , and dregs with their wine , preach without pains , and are heard without profit . they dream dreams , and then tell them , they cause the people to erre by their lyes and by their lightnesse , when god sent them not , nor commanded them , therefore they doe not profit the people at all . ier. . . away ye unsavory crew of senselesse , saplesse , saltlesse dunees , anabaptists , collyers , saltmarshes , haggards . &c. in all this tribe , this crew , what will you call 't ; there is not to be found one corn of salt . this brood of vipers have come forth in a numerous multitude , in this decrepit old age of the world , doting upon opinions , and under the pretext of piety , going about to overthrow , scriptures , sacraments , universityes , all order and ordinances , to confound heaven and hell , with more than a gigantick confidence , and whorish impudence . let the heavens tremble , and the earth be amazed , and both be ashamed , that this our brittain should bring forth , and bring up such monsters . are these the returns of so many incomes from above ? are these the fruits of so much patience and love ? do we thus require the lord , a people foolish and unwise ? there hath been a famous church , and a renowned ministry in these parts of the world . nay , and there is still a church and a ministry , although it appear to be clouded , or rather can not appear , because it is clouded . but let us lift up our hearts , and eyes to christ iesus , whose ministry it is , for although it be clouded , yet he will at length cause those clouds to vanish ▪ although it lye in the dust for the present , yet he will not let it be choakt there . but to the purpose . they that are sensible of the weightinesse of the ministeriall calling , will not run upon their own heads , nay they will abide thrusting , mat. . . moses undertook the charge of gods people with reluctancy , and ieremiah after many excuses , and so do they that know they are about a work of continuall pains , inevitable danger , and implacable hatred . and therefore we have moses sent by god , exod. , . aaron s●parated that he should sanctify the most holy things . . chr. . . the prophets called , the apostles chosen . ioh. . . in a word , all ministers are sent . rom. . . how shall they preach except they be sent ? that is , they can not lawfully preach . for although it be evident that many doe preach that are not sent , yet by what right , by what authority , with what good conscience can they preach , except they be sent ? no one can undertake and exercise the publick employment of the ministry , except he can say with the apostle , that he is made a minister of the gospell ▪ eph. . . he must stay for a call , lest that be charged upon us . ier. . . i have not sent them , yet they ranne . which is yet further plain from the practise of all in old , and new testament times , who diligently expected and observed a mission or call to this sacred employment . no man of them took this honour to himself ( that is , rightly , and safely ) heb. . . that of luther therefore deserves golden letters , sit still till god call ; nay , although thou wert wiser than solomon or daniel , yet if thou be not called , flye the office , as hell it self ; and speak not a word . if god need thee ▪ he will call thee ; if he call thee not , thy knowledge will not burst thee &c. for god doth never prosper the labours of them , whom he never called to labour ; for although they may preach things in themselves wholsome ; yet they do not heal , things in themselves profitable , yet they do not profit the people . but on the contrary , great hath been the successe of those that have gone at god's sending , and preacht at gods bidding . away with the unfixed anabaptists then , who determine any self-ordeiner of what condition and calling soever , to the pulpit promiscuously without any proofe of a lawfull call ; and by this means have brought in a kind of barbarous disorder , and babylonish confusion into the church of christ : which confusion god abhorrs , as appears by his reiterated complaints . ier. . . and . , . and . . christ reproves the angell of thyatira for suffering iezabel , who called her self a proph●●esse , ( but was none ) to teach and to seduce many , rev. . . god hath also punished such usurpers with exemplary judgments , witnesse , uzzah . sam. . , : uzziah the king. chro. . , . korah , dathan , and abiram , who , for offering to arrogate to themselves the priesthood , were swallowed up alive , into a grave made without hands . numb . . , . . inference follows . if there be a ministry , then there must be schools of learning , and universityes . if the end be allowed , the means conducing to that end must not be denied . it is now necessary , that they , that are intended for the sacred ministry , be instructed and principled in the schools , those nurseries for the church : as an orchard , though it be excellently prun'd , manur'd , and managed , and set with the choicest and fruitfullest trees in the world , wil decay , and at length come to nothing , except there be a nursery of young plants , which may be placed and succeed , in the roome of the barren and dead trees : so the sacred ministry cannot long endure sale and firme , except there be some formed , educated , instructed in the schools ; and fitted to succeed in the employment ; for ministeriall gifts are not now adayes inspired into men immediately and miraculously , but mediately gotten by reading , meditation , study , and diligent pains , as appeares tim. . , . hence it hath been the care of pious princes , to found , endow , and maintain schools and universities , in which young students might be seasoned with , and educated in piety and good learning , who might afterwards be champions to defend the truth , and put to flight errours and heresies . and therefore let it be the care of all who have power in their hands , strongly to defend , and diligently to preserve the revenues , and priviledges of schools and universities , that the glory of our church may not fade , but be still more and more glorious , : unless you will be worse than the uncircumcised philistines , who are observed to have spared the colledge of the prophets , isa. . . away then with familists ▪ anabaptists , vveigelians , &c. who rail against learning , and learned men at this rate . they are unsit for the ministry who are trained in schools , and taught of men ; there is no knowledge of christ in universities , they are the nurseries of wickedness , the plagues of the common-wealth . oh the aegyptian darkness that hath overspread the mindes of men ! oh impudence , like that of pope paul the second ! who condemned them all for hereticks , not onely that were students , but ( whose hatred of learning was so deadly ) tha● he pronounced all them hereticks ▪ that either in earnest or in jest should name an university ; who therefore commanded the romans not to suffer their children to converse in books , or to study for learning , saying , it were enough , if they could write and read . these men are not more like this paul the pope , than he was unlike to paul the apostle , who himself was brought up at the feet of learned gamaliel , and commends reading , study , and meditation to his son timothy , as you saw before . but if there be found the seeds of sinne in these seminaries , let them be purged , and not spoyled ; refined , and not consumed ; made better , and not unmade . let corruption be drained ; abuses be taken away , and the use of them remain . . it appears hence , that that is a sound and savoury ministry which bites and pie●ceth the consciences of the hearers . the masse indeed is toothlesse , and cannot bite , but salt is of a b●ing and sharp nature . nothing torments a sinner like the free and ●incere preaching of the word , hence it comes to pass , that the sincere and savoury preachers do purchase to themselves all contempt , reproach and hatred ; which gave occasion to luther ( who knew well enough what salt preaching was ) to define preaching thus , it is a deriving of the hatred of the whole world upon ones self . hence it was , that the world hated and persecuted christ and his disciples , because they testified of it , that the works , thereof were evill , iohn . . and . . the gospell , because of its sharpness , has alwayes been the scorn and derision of the stinking world , requiring the mortification of the flesh , self-deniall , and other things unpleasant to corrupt nature . and although these sharp corrosives , these bitter pills do heal and purge , yet such is the tenderness and softness of the most , that they had rather rot in their sinnes , than to be sharply reproved , although that be for salvation . but this is an infallible argument of a wicked man , and a heart full of putrifying fores , not to be able to abide the salt of sound reproof , witness ahab , kings . ● . amaziah amos . . and faelix , acts . . no wonder then if they have filthy hearts , and stinking lives , who studiously put away from them this salt , withdraw themselves from this ministry . as for us , brethren in the ministry , let us not faint , but go on with chear and courage , thanking god that we are worthy to be hated of the world , for it is a good proof of our sincerity to be so entreated . and if this be to be vile , to season the corrupt world with the savoury word of god , oh that we might be yet more vile ! let us love study , preach sound doctrin , which although it be sharp , yet its savoury , although it wound the conscience , yet it will heal , although it be bitter in the mouth yet in the conclusion will prove sweeter than the honey and the honey-comb . although the ploughshare of the gospell touch upon our very soules , yet let it be welcome , if by this means our spirituall weeds and thistles may be rooted out . christs spouse is a dove , cant. . . now doves love salt exceedingly . oh then ye christians , fly to the congregations , where this salt is to be had , as doves to the windows . chap. vii . more corrolaries issuing from the doctrine . the third use is for consolation . it is clear , that sathan does persecute the sound and sincere ministers of the gospell with all might and main , knowing them to be the main enemies of his kingdome , that seek by all means to destroy it , according to what was prophesied of them , luke . . them therefore he assails with reproaches , persecution , perdition , fire , sword , banishment , hunger , thirst , and death it self . he encourageth his agents against them , as the king of syria did his captains , kings . . fight neither against great nor small , save onely against the king of israel . for the king being conquered , the souldiers flie : the shepherd being smitten , the sheep are scattered . let not us dream of better usage from him and his than christ and his disciples found from them . the apostles were counted by the world , as the filth of the world , the off-scouring of all things , cor. . . men unworthy of the society of men , worthy to be exterminated the world , and to be troden under foot . paul is counted a babler acts . . a pestilent fellow , nay , if we translate the word properly , the plague it self , act. . . a man unfit to live , act. . . christ himself was every where entertained with scoffs , beaten with whips , assaulted with stones , and at last put to an ignominious death . but let us quietly endure all these afflictions , and patiently undergo all that men or devills can load with , in hope of the glory that is to be revealed . let wanto●● mock , let malice insult 〈…〉 world whe● it's teeth at us , the devill smite his hands at us , christ iesus holdeth the starrs in his right hand , and will certainly maintain and preserve them . for he is not only the author , but also the protector of the ministry , and he hath promised safety to the persons , and successe to the pains of his ministers . ier. . . luk. . . this is shadowed out by christ'● right ●and . for the right hand denotes love , hence iacob call● his yongest sonne benjamin or the son of his right hand . gen. , ● . because he was as dear to him as a mans right hand uses to be to him . it also denotes and promises protection and the greatest care . ps. . . the ministers of christ are his e●bassadors . now embassadors are inviolable by the law of all nations , and injuryes and indignityes done to them use to find a sharp revenge . if david so severely revenged the injury offered to his embassadors by the ammonites , who shaved their beards , and cut their garments by the halfes , with how much sorer vengeance shall christ repay the greater reproaches and indignityes with which wicked men entreat his ministers ? vvho ever curseth father or mother shall dye the death . lev. . . christ's ministers are spirituall fathers to regenerate men , as has been already proved , and spirituall mothers , travailing in birth till christ be formed in their people . gal. . . nay it is evident by palpable demonstrations , that god hath revenged the quarrell of his violated embassadors . he hath broken prelaticall powers , and hereticall councells proclaiming warre against his ministers . he hath reproved kings for their sakes , saying , do my prophets no harm . ps. . , . he will smite thorough the loins of all that rise up against them , and hate them , that they rise not again . dent. . . witnesse gods dealing with pa●hur , who persecuted the prophet ieremiah . ier. , , . the children that mockt the prophet elisha , , kin. . , . king saul who had slain many of the lord's prophets , himself was miserably slain at mount gilboa , korah , dathan , and abiram pay'd dearly for their conspiracy against moses and aaron , numb . . ieroboam's hand which he stretched out against the man of god , dryed up . kin. . . asa imprisoned hanani the lord's seer , and he dyes of the gowte , notwithstanding all his physicians . . chro. . , . ioa●h commanded his servants to stone zechariah the son of ieho●ada the priest , and for the blood of the same zechariah . did his servants kill him upon his bed . . chro. . elymas withstood paul , and he is struck blind upon it . act . we know the sad desolation of ierusalem that had killed the prophets , and stoned god ' s ministers ; and what befell the whole b●dy of the iewish people who killed the lord of life , and evill entreated his apostles , any body can tell . it is done unto them according to the sentence which themselves past upon such offenders . mat. . . now if god spared not ierusalem because of the injury done to his ministers ( . chron. . , . . ) how shall he spare the haters and despisers both of his ministers and ministry ? shall not the like causes produce the like effect ? is not god allwayes like himself ? and if the man that refused to hearken unto the priest standing to minister before the lord , was sentenced to dye by god's law ; ( deut. . . ) what more heavy doome shall they undergoe , that scorn , contemn , reproach the ministers of christ ? when god would expresse a people given up to all wickednesse , he says of them that they are like to them that strive with the priest . hos. . . you may read the greatnesse of the sinne , and the proportionablenesse of the judgment . ier. . . thes , . . whosoever shall neglect or despise the sacred ministry , or the faithfull ministers thereof , let him know that he despises christ himself , who gives both the gift of the ministry , and gifts to the ministers , the contempt that is cast upon christ's ambassadors lights upon christ himself . luk . . is. . . let no plots , devices , injuryes , conspiracyes , then weaken our courages , or dant our hearts : for christ iesus shall be with us , not a few days , but to the end of the world by his power and spirit . mat. . . he whose name is immanuel , will not , cannot be farre from us . the world shall sooner cease to be , than christ cease to be with us . he will protect us in dangers , comfort us in temptations , help us in undertakings , direct us in doubts , and upon all occasions stand by us . let us therefore be of good courage , discharg our calling , going on it cheerfully . what though we may tremble at the sense of our own infirmities ; yet we may be bold and adventurous in the strength of christ. he will not desert us in the work that is his own , but will either give fredome from suffering , or patience , courage , and constancy wherewithall to suffer . through the wonderfull providence of god , all things shall work together for good unto us . he can make to his messengers medicines out of this poyson , cause roses to spring up to them from amidst these prickles , and make figs to be the fruit of these thistles let hereticall men g●●sh their teeth sharpen their swords , spit their venome at us ; their end shall be to be destroyed . let them associate themselves , they shall be broken in pieces ; let them gird themselves they shall be broken in pieces . let them take counsell , it shall be in vain . let them speak the word , it shall not stand , because god is with us : is. . , . let our adversaryes write whole volumes of satyres against us , and fill every page and line with some new scandall or reproachfull title ; we will bind them as crowns upon our heads . they do the best to me . ( quoth luther ) who speak the worst of me : luther feeds upon opprobries , the ministers of christ are in this , like philip king of macedon , who used to thank the athenian orators for rayling him into the better ; for he was resolved that his upright conversation should confute , and give the lye to all their soul-mouthed declamations . they think with seneca that no name is better , than an ill name well got . in a word let us comfort our selves against the ingratitude of the shamelesse world , by the serious review of gods gracious promises . do wretched and godlesse men deprive and defraud us of temporall rewards ? it is god who hath promised eternall ones . for the best wages of christs , ministers are reserved in heaven for them , where they shall inherit an eminency ( if not a singularity ) of eternall glory and brightnesse . dan. . . mat. . . mat. . , , . i cor. . , . . p●t . . . this crown the apostle paul still had in his eye ▪ . tim. ▪ . rom. . . suffering for a time , triumphing to eternity : the work shall have an end , but so shall not the wages . the people shall-receive each man a reward for his good works , but the pasto● shall receive a reward for the good works of them all ; for his own he shall receive a crown , for each of theirs a coronet , as chrysostome acutely notes . nay even in this life they shall be sure of some reward , as . encrease of their gifts . this augmentation is sure ; they have god ' s own expresse order for it , mat. . . to him that hath shall more be given . . the feast of a good conscience , which in the saddest and ebbest condition of life accompanies a sincere fai●hful minister of christ , who eys only the glory of god , and the salvation of his hearers . act. . . and chap. . . . cor. . . and chap. . . when he shall be as a man sorrowing yet here in he shall rejoyce ; in a time of famine he shall have this table spread for him . . the concurrence of divine assistance . whom god calls to this employment , them he will also protect and assist , and give in fresh supplyes of new strength for the discharge of the same . is. . . i have called thee , i will hold thee by the hand , and keep thee . thus will god shew himself a father , and a protector to them . nay , he will not only save them , but clothe them with salvation . ps . . a fourth corollary may be this . let us then study to preserve mutuall peace and concord amongst our selves . god hath joyned salt and peace together , mark . . have salt in your selves , and have peace one with another . now what things god hath joyned let no one par● asunder . because salt by its acrimony biteth , therefore our saviour presently advises so wisely to temper it , that peace may be preserved inviolable . the love of our brother must correct the salt of correction , and the salt of justice must season the love of our brother . and so shall we be insuperable , by being inseparable , and shall gain many to christ : as lighted torches , if they be separated cause a smoake , but if they be united do encrease the flame . all wisdome is folly and madnesse except it be seasoned with peace and charity . as sacrifices must be without honey , so neither doth any service or sacrifice please god that issues from an heart stuffed with anger , envy , animosity , and bitternesse . let us not forget that there are many canaanites and perizzites in the land that are offended at our differences , and from them seek occasion to oppresse and devoure us . let us by mutuall and universall concord therefore grow into one body , into one soule , thinking with our selves what an incongruous thing it is , that the messengers of peace should fall into mutuall jarrs ; and how unseasonable it is at this time , when ( the adversary is laying snares for us ) our strength had more need be united by peace , than broken and enfeebled by divisions . there is a fitter object of our anger than one anothers throats . and he seems to be mad but too much , who promises himself a standing , in the downfall of the church . it is an excellent ▪ commendation which is given to myconius by a worthy author . he lived with his collegues two and twenty years together in an uninterrupted peace and concord . we have runne , ( sayes myconius himself ) we have wrestled , we have wrought , we have ●ought , we have conquered most unanimously and undividedly . oh that some such blessed fire of love , and peace were kindled in our frozen breasts . that the character sometimes proper to the primitive church might be common to us all , see how they love one another and are ready to dye one for another . in those dayes says the historian , act. . . believers , nay the whole multitude of believers were of one heart and of one soul , there was a morall onenesse though not a physicall one , for they did so agree in minds and manners , as if they had indeed had but one heart and the same soul amongst them all . oh happy age of the church comparatively to ours wherein men and minds are of all equall number ! oh memorable wish of that famous preacher dr. stoughton ! so that brotherly unity may be preserved , quoth he , let me below even in the dust , rather than exalted in a tryumphant chariot by a cadmean conquest . let others affect the great title of ptolomaeus . i am more pleased with the pleasant name of irenaeus . this peaceable frame concerns all , but more especially the ministers of christ , who are sent to preach to , and to pray , for , not to prey upon others , to build up the church of christ , not to demolish it , to worke and not to wrangle . the harmony and joynt consent of the builders promotes the building , neh. . . solomons , temple was built without noyse , king , , . which by a profitable type doth shadow out the peaceableness of the builders and quietness of christ's church , in which the noyse of contentions & schismes ought not to be heard . the builders of the church of christ should not be divided as nehemiah's servants were , halfe to the worke and halfe to the warre , neither must these spirituall builders have swords girded upon their sides when they build as his builders had , neh. . . if we will revenge our selves upon the bitternesse and malice of base spirits , the best way of revenging is by forgetting , and the onely way to vex them is to be more zealous and servent in the study , practise and pursuit of opposed godlinesse : if we will contend with their murmurings and malice , let it be by faith and patience and meeknesse of spirit , as knowing it better to neglect them than to stand to confute them , to pass them by in silence than to take notice of them . neither do we want motives to this peaceableness . ( ) our god is the god of peace , rom. . . cor. . . ( ) christ ie●us is the prince of peace , isa. . . ( . ) the sons of god are the sons of peace , luke . . ( . ) the gospel which we preach is the gospel of peace , eph : . . in a word , we are called unto peace , cor. . . therefore follow peace , pursue it with the greatest vehemency , nay , although it flye from you , and men will not suffer themselves to be reconciled , yet pursue it with indefatigable pains , psal. . . h●b . . . love truth & peace . zach. . . for otherwise , truth is better with discord , than a sinfull concord : but if it be possible as much as in us lyes , let us follow peace with all men , rom. . . for we are one body , we are governed by one spirit , we have one hope , one lord , one faith , one baptism , eph. . , , , , . moreover , this is just , honest , good , pleasant , as sibelius out of ps. . . tom. . pag. . proves by many strong and savory arguments . chap. viii . asserts and vindicates the maintenance of ministers . fifth use is for the reprehension and correction of anabaptists , levellers , &c. who deny those stipends to the ministers of christ , which are due by a right both divine and humane , by the law both of heaven and earth , for , grant a ministry , and you must needs grant stipends , by which it may be maintained . this is almost as clear as a demonstration can make it . for , vvho goeth to warre at his own charges ? even the law of nature dictates this , that the workman is worthy of his wages . hence moses gave unto the levites by divine appointment the ten●● , the first-fruits , the best of the sacrifices , the yearly pension of a ●hekel , the mony for the redemption of the first-born , the mony for vows , as appears exod. . . lev. . ● &c. numb . . in that universal famine in aegypt , when ioseph the kings steward bought all the land for pharaoh , he bought not the priests land , but allowed them corn out of the kings granaries , gen. . . even pharaoh himself , although an idolater , had yet a singular care of the worship of his gods , and maintined their priests at his own proper cost and charges ; and , if pharaoh was so carefull for his priests as to mantain them for the ruine and destruction of himself and his people , that he might not be thought to be wicked and ungratefull to his ●eigned deities : what an ingratitude , what a sacriledge is it , that the true ministers of the true god should be neglected by princes and powers that call themselves christians , whose pains they know to be of gods approbation , and for their salva●ion . hezekiah that father of the priests , did not only give a good part of his own substance to them , but commanded the people to maintain the priests and levites ; that being freed from secular cares , they might wholly give themselves to the law of the lord , and lay out themselves in their sacred function , in the service of the temple , chron , , . &c. it was not the least ( was it not the greatest ) of alexander's commendations , that he loved and honoured learning and larned men ; which made his times be so fruitfull of great wits , and witty inventions . he so well know how to esteem learning , and to treat the learned , that it afterwards , became a proverb , if thou hadst lived in alexander's times ▪ he would have given thee a cyprus or a phoenice for every verse . for as a good refined disposition of the ayr begets plenty of fruits , so the benign and ingenious disposition and constitution of kings and powers produces a great encrease of arts and ingenuities . but on the contrary , the envy , ignorance and baseness of princes blasts the fruit , and makes the birth of the brain abortive . therefore , we have nehemiah contending even with the rulers , because they had denyed the levites their tythes and salaries , neh . , , . and he accounts this contention a subject fit for divine remembrance ; ver . . . then let all christian magistrates take care that the ministers of the church ( who are ignorant of manual employments ) be not driven to wrestle with want and hunger , and by this meanes be turned aside from the diligent execution of their weighty calling , to the care of providing inecessities for nature , all know that the ministry is a very weighty calling , great enough for the shoulders of angels , and such as may justly take up and challenge the whole man neither can the preachers of the gospel ( nor ought they ) to ex●●cise any manuall art , whereby to provide sufficient supplies or maintenance for themselves and theirs , who must either therefore live upon their people , or dye amongst them for want of a livelyhood . . let them take heed they do not diminish , or suffer to be diminisht , or withheld the gifts given to god by pious ancestors . for god is the revenger of all such , who will send upon the unthankfull world a famine of his word , for the famishing of his messengers , but rather let them imitate constantine the great , who took care that the clergy should receive liberall and honourable stipends , and confirm'd it by a law , euseb , de vita constant , lib. . cap. . , . sozomen , hist , eccl. l. . cap. . l. . cap. . . let them take heed lest the levellers do also levell the weal publike , and convert it into private-wealth ; for after the contempt of moses , follows the insurrection of the people , numb . . nay for this , amongst other causes , do these men decry ministers , because they are the pillars of the magistracy . but that i may handle these things the more exactly , i will discuss this position . there are certain and fixed stipends due to the ministers of gods vvord , by a divine right , from their people , that they may be freed from the secular cares and wordly incumbrances , and give up their whole selves to the work of the ministry . all the churches of god are patrons of this truth , the opponents and adversaries are the anabaptistical party , and other sectaries . but that the thing may be the rather clear and evident , i will . confirm the position by the testimony of the sacred scripture . . i vince the same by arguments . . briefly answer the wranglings , and break the forces of the truths adversaries . . the truth is confirmed by the mouth of truth it self , even christ iesus , whose words are express for it , mat. . 〈◊〉 . . the labourer ( speaking unto them that were to labour in the word ) is worthy of his hire . christs ministers shall not want maintenance , for the promise leans upon the justice of god , which will not deceive them . a true paraphrase of the word is this , that the people ought by right to maintain those that preach the gospel to them . they ought by right to do it , 〈…〉 which springs from poverty as its object , without obliging the person upon whom it is bestowed to any work or duty : ( save onely that by the law of nature , the alms-receiver is bound to be thankfull to , and pray for the alms-giver . ) but what is given to the ministers of christ , is not properly given upon the account of their poverty , or is there be some respect had to their poverty , yet not purely and onely upon that account , but for their works-sake ; no one will say that he has received an alms , when he has received it with an obligation to a piece of service , especially to a service that deserves much more , to which austin gives his suffrage : saying , it is his power , not his poverty , when a minister of the gospel receives from his people : for , if we judge watchmen that watch by night for us and our estates worthy of wages ; what do the watchmen of our souls then deserve ? from what has been said , i thus argue ; whatsoever things 〈◊〉 due , may be honestly demanded , and ought to be honestly payed , but maintenance and wages are due to the ministers of the gospel . therefore they are lawfully demanded by the ministers , and ought by right to be paid by the people . . that which is due to labourers by the law of nature , is to be payed . but a ju●● recompence is due to labourers by the law of nature , therefore it is to be paid . 〈◊〉 ▪ but ministers of the gospel are not labourers , but 〈◊〉 and slow-bellies . answ. so say idle and ignorant anabaptists but i will con●idently averre , that the labour of the mind far exceeds the work of the hands . for , although the ministers of the word do not work with their hand ; yet if they diligently and faithfully discharge their office , give diligence in reading , watching over , praying for , preaching to , admonishing , reproving and comforting of their people , &c. it will be but an idle and unreasonable part to accuse any of them of idleness , either let their adversaries confess them to be labourers , or at once , accuse all souldiers , shepherds , husbandmen of idleness ; for such are they , as was before made to appear . . a second proof is easily fetch from gal. . . let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in all good things . that is , ( . ) freely and liberally , not covetously and repiningly . ( . ) not in some onely , but in all temporall good things . for as the teachers communicates to the learners their spirituall good things , the knowledge of christ , and all heavenly treasure ; so it is fit that the learners communicate unto their teachers temporall good things , all things ordained for the relief of the necessities of an animall life , which things carry no proportion in them to spirituall good things , although the blind world put a great price upon them , and stick not to preferre them before spirituall things . it is a sad complaint that musculus takes up . now that there are no tithes , no revenues , no stipends constituted by our ancestors , the people contribute to their teachers so freely , that , whilst themselves either by covetousnesse contract all things unto , or by luxury consume all things upon themselves , the minister of christ has source dry bread , with which to satisfie the hunger of himself or his . but here men begin to flinch . one pretends that he has a family to maintain , another that he has nothing to spare : others declaim against the ministers : they are cove●ous , greedy , insatiable men ; if they were right gospel-ministers , they should have nothing of their own , but should nakedly follow a naked christ. to all which the apostle given a sharp answer , gal. . . be not deceived , god is not m●cked , &c. many men be deceived ( but in this you have to deal with god ) who cannot be , will not be , is not deceived . . the apostle judgeth them worthy of double honour , who rule well , especially they who labour in the word and doctrine , . tim. . . he would have a liberall , honest and honourable allowance given to the ministers of christ ▪ not onely for nourishment but ornament , not onely for necessity but for honour also . for the manner of the scripture is by double to mean manifold . elisha in king ▪ . aske a double portion of the spirit of eliah ; ●hat is , a very great and ●ealous spi●●t . so rev . . double unto her double according unto her works ; that is , let babylon be punisht af●er a fuller measure . thus give unto them double honour , that is , honour them fully and freely ? maintain them cheerfully , pay them stipends readily , and as it is meet , speak reverently and honourably of them ; hence it appears that the maintenance of ministers ought to be sufficient , honourable , certain . . it ought to be sufficient to relieve their necessityes . this is a sacrifice well pleasing to god , an odour of a sweet smell , phil. . . i have received all things , and abound , i am full . that is , ye have not onely supplyed my necessi●yes , but have also made me to abound , not unto lust and luxury , but for necessity and use . therefore the holy ghost expresses a stipend or a livelyhood , by salt , because it is as nec●ssary as salt . to have maintenance from the kings pallace , in the chaldee is exprest , by being salted with the salt of the pallace , ezra . . even christ himself received subsistence of the woman that followed him , luke . . and had a common bag and moderate expence● , iohn . . ier. . . . it ought to be an honourable stipend . publick work ought to be fruitfull and gainfull to the workmen . great rewards are great encouragements to a diligence as great as either . nay , it is just and fit that every man should not onely live upon , but profit by his pains . hence god commands that the best should be given for ●ythes , numb . . , . this ought to be the rather , . that by hospitality , and bounty , and good wo●ks they may adorn their office , tim. . . tit. . . for if you take away a liberall stipend , liberality must needs fall ; take away the 〈◊〉 , you extinguish the fire , prov. . . where no wood is there the fire goeth out . stipends decaying , charity must needs grow cold ; what advantage can be gotten by mony that is already ●lipt , or what shavings can be expected of an egg ? . that they may live like the embassadour● of the great king ▪ not like nea●-heards and swine●heards , that they may be more ready to give than to receive ; for it is more blessed , and consequently more honourable to give than to receive ; act. ● . . and yet alas ) in many places the ministers of christ have not the wages of a gentlemans hors-rider ▪ . that they may furnish themselves with books , philosophicall , historicall , theologicall , polemicall , practicall , criticall , &c. we must give diligence to reading , but how shall we read without books ? some have therefore determin'd l. some l. requisite for the purchase of a library . lessius speaks well and to the purpose . they ( meaning ministers ) had need of a great deal of learning , the procuring of which requires great charges ; and as for other wayes of advantages , as merchandize ▪ and m●chanicall ▪ arts they are ignorant of them , neither doth it become them to deal therein . . that they may cheerfully go through with the lord's work , being freed from worldly cares and encumbrances . not that they may be idle and luxurious , but that they may cheerfully , faithfully , and solely give up themselves to the law of god , tim. . . . if the leviticall priests had an honourable stipend , then such ought the ministers of the go●pel to have ( for they are obnoxious to greater labours , and expences than the tribe of levi was ) . but the antecedent is true , as shall be made to appear hereafter . therefore ought christian magistrat●s to take care that there be a liberall and honourable allowance for the ministers of christ. . it ought to be a setled maintenance , a certain stipend ; not the benevolence of the people , not a spontaneous arbitrary gift , not an alms ; for honour and alms do not well agree to the same person . but let it be fixed , certain , established , ratifyed and setled by the laws of the land ; lest the labans of this world change good iacob's wages ten times or oftner . our brethren of london , commonly called ( dissenting ) , did therefore take care that their stipends should be setled to them to the value of , . per annum . experience witnesses that the men of the world are hardly drawn or driven to pay the stipends and salaryes due to gods labourers ; nay even those allowances , which by the bounty of pious princes and ancestors have been given to the ministers of christ , are hardly writing out of the hand of the●e harpyes , notwithstanding the favour and assistance of the law . how much more deceitfully and unjustly should we be dealt with , if the law did not befriend us then . this stipend , w● confess , is not the ultimate end which a minister ought to propound to himself , yet it is a reward allowed by god to laboure●s , not to drones : and although these temporall things are not our chiefest good , yet they are concomitants thereof , they are encouragements and ornaments of vertue ▪ adding something to its ●plendor and glory , eccl . . vvisdom is good with an inheritance . and hence it is that god promiseth these things as a reward of piety , deut. . ● , , , &c. deservedly then are the anabaptists condemn'd , who deny setled stipends to the ministers of the gospel . this is a delusion and suggestion of the devils , to defraud faithfull ministers of their livelyhood , to the intent that the church may be made destitute of such , & himself might delude , dec●ive , devour without controul . and such is the ingratitude , inhumanity and sordid covetousnesse of the world , that it is not very thought●ull how to maintain the ministers of the gospel and the devil uses this stratagem to rob the church of the doctrine of the gospel , by want and the fear of poverty to afright the most from undertaking such a task , as you may see , neh. . , . the tythes are injuriously detained , and the house of god is presently forsaken . this wretched cove●ousness of the ingrat●full world doth put a stop to many forward spirits : for we are men , and so are affected , encouraged or discouraged by the consideration of temporall things , as appears by the examples of zealous elijah , and good ieremiah , king. . . ier. . . men know what a heavy affliction poverty is , prov. . . lam. . . we must therefore a little consider humane weaknesse , and encourage great and gracious ingenuities with generous rewards ; for who will follow vertuous studyes , when condigne rewards shall cease from vertuous men ? do not the more noble and generous wits decline the ●unction of the ministry , seeing ministers and their windows and children ( to the great shame of christian religion ) frequently exposed to poverty and want ? hath not the poverty of clergy-men begotten ignorance , and ignorance brought forth contempt ? do not poor means make poor ministers ? this iulian the apostate knew well enough , therefore he enterpri●'d the extirpation of christian religion , not by violence , but by spoiling the clergy of all their priviledges , stipends , 〈◊〉 , and allowances , which they had from the publick : imitating the stratagem or souldiers , who , when they cannot prevail against a city or garrison by down-right opposition , and violent storming , wearie it out with long and strait ●iege ▪ and weaken it by extream hunger , even unto resignation : take away all allowances and maintenance , and you cut the very throat of religion ; for , who will learn arts and languages at his own cost ? who will teach them for nought ? who will betake himself to a naked and beggarly ministry . . we argue from cor. . . to the . lo a text big with irrefragable invincible arguments ; for the apostle foresaw , that the wicked world would be very sordid and niggardly in maintaining the ministers of the gospel ▪ although pro●u●e and prodigal in vain and idle expences . it is a just judgment of god , that they who will not give a bit of bread to the ministers of christ ▪ the messengers of salvation , should be given up to throw away whole kingdomes , and provinces upon the ministers of sat●an , and the messengers of death ; as luther speaks truely and roundly . the apostle proves , that he had right , and power to receive maint●nance of the church ; to lead about a wife , who should also be maintained at a publick charge , that posterity might know this to be lawfull , ver . , , . and , to shew what a clear right of his own he denied for the corinthians sake , that by this means he might win them to christ , and promote their salvation ; he confirms this , . by an argument drawn from three similitudes , to wit , from the right of souldiers , of husbandmen , and of shepherds . vvho goeth a warfare at his own charges ? &c , that is , as it is right and fit that souldiers should live upon their pay , the planter of a vineyard feed upon the fruit of his vines , and a shepherd upon the milk of his flock ; so is it fit , that the ministers of the gospel should live of the gospell , of their own vine , that is , the church ; of the milk of their own flock , that is , of the goods of their own people . let those souldiers that decry tythes , and the settled stipends of ministers , consider their own case , and answer the great apostles argument , if they can , vvho will go to war at his own charges ? the interrogation is a vehement negation , no one will souldier it upon such terms . for indeed , it is an unjust , and unreasonable thing , that a souldier should stand in jeopardy daily , fight for the common safety against the common enemy ▪ and offer his very life as a sacrifice for the lives of the commonalty ▪ and not be maintained at a common charge . he receiveth therefore wages from his general by a natural and civil right . and is it reasonable , or just , that the ministers of gods word should undergo the care of the churches , the great burden of the ministry , and yet live of their own ? for their pains , and labours , and sufferings , and dangers exceed those of the souldiery . these fight against flesh and blood , but they against the world , the flesh , and the devil , cor. . . tim. . . tim. , . this then is the apostles argument , souldiers do not war at their own charges , the ministers of the gospel are souldiers , therefore ought not they to war at their own charges . . the apostle having put to flight the souldiers that declame and rayle against the setled and honourable maintenance of the ministers of the gospel , he comes to stop the murmuring mouths of husbandmen , sowers , plowers , threshers , shepherds and men of that mold . against these he argues thus : they that plant and dress a vine , it is fit that they should tast of the grapes thereof , ( as it is said ) that noah planted a vineyard and drank of the wine of it ; and prov. . . vvhose keepeth the fig tree shall eat of the fruit thereof . ) but the ministers of christ plant , and dress christs vineyard , therefore it is fit that they should live of the fruit thereof . so also it may be argued from shepheards , feeding upon the milk of their flocks . as much as if the apostle had said , look but unto humane equity and common customs of men , in things of farre lesser and lighter moment , and conclude how just it is that the ministers of the gospel should live of the gospel . . the apostle sets upon these sacrilegious persons with stronger arguments , arguments fetch'd from divine authority . for , although the cause which he pleads be a most just cause , yet he knew how subtil and crafty worldly wit is to reply , especially in a money-matter ; therefore , by a prolepsis , he meets an objection , ver . . where he proves , that he doth not onely confirm his position by humane arguments and examples , but by the law of god also ; say i these as a man ? do i fortifie my cause with humane reason and examples onely ? or , saith not the ●aw the same also ? yes ; deut. . . thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox , when he treadeth out the corne . he uses an argument from the less to the greater . if it were not lawfull to deny maintenance to an unreasonable creature , much less to a man ; if not to an oxe treading , then not to a minister ●oyling . for gods chief care in this law was not for oxen ; he look'd at a further end , even at us , who are typical oxen , toyling in the lords field , treading in his barnes : therefore convenient maintenance must not be denied us , lest we faint in the work . . he argues from the less to the greater again ; from the example of plowmen , and threshers , ver . . if the plower ploweth , and the thresher thresheth in hope , to wit , of his wages , and that he shall partake of his crop , and of his threshing , then a minister of the gospell may exspect a salary , fruit of his labours , of which he and his may live comfortably . but the antecedent is true ( saies the apostle ) therefore the consequent is true also . . the apostle argues vers . . from natural right , and commutative justice , which commands to give like for like , much more then , small things for great . now , who doubts , but that spiritual things do much excell carnall , heavenly things excell earthly . eternal things excell fading , flitting , perishing , transitory vani●ies ? for , by how much the soul excells the body , by so much does the word , the food of this soul , outgoe corporal maintenance , oh ingratefull wret●h then , whoever grudges to administer to him carnal things , who preaches unto him the eternal gospel , and is an instrument to convey unto him the fruits of the same gospel preacht , to wit , faith , regeneration . and life eternal ! now these things ( saith the apostle ) we have sowed , therefore it is meet we should reap , for , whosoever do sow unto us spiritual good things , to them we ought chearfully to administer of our temporalls , rom. . but the ministers of the gospell sow spiritual things ; therefore ought we cheerfully to administer unto them of our temporalls . . the apostle argues from example , ver . . if the true apostles receive maintenance of you , why should not i and barnabas , who have preached the gospell to you as well as they . . if the false apostles and seducers , who devour you , receive things necessary , then , why may not we who propagate the gospel of christ ? if stipends be given to the bad , why not much rather to the good ? . he argues verse . . from the testimony of the law , from the example of the levites under the old testament ; and from the ordination of god under the new. these things are not antichristian devices ( as the do●ing anabaptists dream ) but divine decrees and ordinations , as will appear , if we frame an argument thus . if the ministers of god under the old testament were maintained of the publick , then are they so to be maintained under the new ; but ministers under the old testament were maintained of the publick . therefore ought the ministers under the new to be so maintained . the ▪ antecedent appears , numb . . . to . deut. . . . . . . lev. . , . . . . , , , , , . . . . , . numb . . . . , . . . exod. . . . . iosh. . . . . chron. . . neh. . , to the end . . . . . &c. ezek. . . . . heb. . , . by all which places it evidently appears , that god did appoint ▪ not a loose , and uncertain , and arbitrary , but a settled , standing , full , and honourable maintenance for his ministers out of tythes , scrifices , oblations , first-fruits , oyl , wine , honey , fleeces of sheep , and such like . g●d also commanded to give unto the levites cities , with their suburbs , for them and their cattel . therefore god is called their inheritance , because he gave them his part , to wit , the tithes , first-fruits , &c. numb . . . in a word , a special care was to be had of them ; for , god commanded that they should not forsake a levite all his dayes , deut. . . and . . they must not be forsaken , as to maintenance , protection , or encouragement ; because they were the lords servants , and embassadours . all these things were assigned and established by god to the priests and levites . wo then to those wretched ●ellowes , who envy the least conveniencies , or accommodations to faithfull ministers , that would not give them a farthing ( did not the law constrain them ) but rather defraud them of what is given them . the consequent appears by the apostles own words . even so hath the lord ordained , that they that preach the gospell should live of the gospell . this then is his argument , that which christ hath ordained is to be observed : but christ hath ordained that the churches should give a full and honourable maintenance to their ministers : therefore ought the churches , &c. lest any should object , that these are mosaical rites , and nothing to the purpose , the apostle brings christs own authori●y for this ▪ that they that preach the gospel should live of the gospel , luke . . the labourer is worthy of his hire . in which words our saviour doth both authorize his ministers to take , and oblige the church to give salaries . this thing is an universal right , belonging not to the apostles onely , but to all the ministers of the gospel , in all places , at all times . they who preach the gospel should live of the gospel : they that wait at the altar ▪ are partakers with the altar . the proposition is indefinite , and that is as large as an universal one , should live , but how ? . as men , not wanting any thing that is for necessity or honest delight . . as believers , having a care of their wives , children , and families ; for , h● that provideth not for his own , hath denied the faith , and is worse than an infidel , . tim. . . ● . cor. . . and . let them live as the embassadours of christ , that they may by works of piety and charity adorne their calling . objection , then they must have the first-fruits , oblations , &c. answ. . that does not follow . for , although those ceremonies be taken away by christ , yet a way of maintaining the worship of god in generall is not taken away ; the way of maintaining it being one and the same generically , though not specifically , and both in quantity , proportion , sufficiency , and certainty : otherwise the apostles argument could not hold water , who saies with an emphasis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , even so , since the ministers , of the gospell do succeed the levtical priests and ministers , let them be maintained by some such like way ; let them that preach the gospell , live of the gospell , even so , that is , so liberally , so plentifully , so certainly as the leviticall clergy lived under the law. for so hath god , not man , nay ▪ god-man ordained , even so hath the lord ordained . the due maintenance then of the ministry is not man's device , but gods decree ; not a h●mane order , but a divine ordination , which whosoever denies , resisteth the ordinance of god , and procureth condemnation to himself . . those lawes concerning first-fruits , tithes and offerings may be considered , either as to their substance , or as to their circumstances ; as to their substance , they belong also unto us ; for the end of those lawes was , that the people by those offerings should testifie their thankfulness to god , to the advantage of the church , the ministry ▪ the poor ; to which things even the law of nature doth bind . and if our magistrates shall at this day enact lawes for the maintenance of ministers , we ought to obey them carefully and cheerfully , especially in those things which neither contradict the moral law , nor the law of nature . it followes therefore that as the israelites were to communicate of their goods to the levites , as unto them that administred their holy things , so ought christians at this day freely to communicate of their substance to their ministers : and the rather , because the ministry of the gospell is more glorious , laborious , costly , than the ministry of the law was . to say nothing ( saies bellarmine ) of the dignity of the gospell-ministry , which is farre greater than that of aaron ' s ministry , the christian clergie is exposed to greater pains and cost than the tribe of levi was . it concerns now that ministers be learned ▪ and consequently , that they spend much of their estates upon their studies ; who therefore ought , according to their condition , to be maintained honestly and ●reely by the goods of the church . . we argue , ab 〈◊〉 , from the profit of it . that which will certainly bring a blessing upon the doers of i● , is to be done , but an honest and lib●ral maintaining of ministers brings with it a blessing , as you may read deut. . , , , . . , , , . . ch●on . , . prov. ● . . mal. . , , . temporall good things bestowed upon gods ministers are not cast away , but are as ●eed cast into the ground , which bringeth forth a plentifull c●op : ti●hes ( say the r●bbines ) are the wall of riches , because the payment of the tenth part defended the other nine : hence it was their familiar prove●b , pay tythes and be rich : austine observes , that our ancestours were rich , and abounded with temporal blessings , because they gave tenth so faithfully to god. be liberall to god and his ministers , and you shall finde god more liberall to you ; for he will not suffer his creatures to out-doe him in liberality . again , that which takes away many occasions of sin is very profitable and necessary ; but a convenient , settled , and and ratified salary , cuts off many occasions of sin ; therefore a certain and settled salary is necessary . the major is an undeniable truth ; the minor may be proved in many particulars . . a certain and set●led salary takes away temptations to flattery ; were a stated maintenance taken away from ministers , a sad temptation to make marchandize of souls would follow upon it . men will be inclinable to comply with those that they hope to get any thing by . the itinerary levite , in iudg. . who was fain to accept of what mi●ah would give him ( which was but s. a year ) complyed with him in his idolatry ▪ as you may read , vers . . and so consequently the gospell would be preached with more boldness and freedom of speech . for , who almost would be so bold , as to tax the vices , or reprove the corrupt manners of those , from whom they received dayly gratuities ? but where there is a settled and stated maintenance , there all sorts of men are freely and indifferently dealt withall . . by this means ministers shall not need to be condemned for taking or having more than they will confess : which although no good men will deserve to be condemned of , yet malignant and corrupt men are apt to load them with such slanders . . otherwise ▪ what contribution might ministers exspect from the wicked world , who being reproved , would rather suffer them to sterve with hunger , then relieve them . they would be bad at works of arbitrary charity , who are so base at works of necessary justice ; and they who will not suffer ministers to enjoy their own maintenance quietly , will not easily give of their own to maintain them . . by this means pride and arrogancy is prevented , a sin very familiar to free contributions ; pride , not conscience , would soon principle men to liberality . . by this means ministers shall be freed from secular cares , and wordly encumbrances , and shall not be put to study for meat and drink , when they should be studying the law of god. . we argue a damno , from the losse and danger which followes upon the contrary . that which is cursed by god , is to be avoided ; but the defrauding of his ministers is accursed of god , therefore it is to be avoided . the major needs not to be proved , the minor is proved sufficiently by the testimony of the spirit of god , mal. . , . vvill a man rob god ? but ye have robbed me in tithes and offerings . therefore ye are cursed with a curse . a man robs god , when he withholds from gods ministers tithes , and other things necessary for their maintenance ; whereby it comes to pass , that they studying to avoid poverty , are forced to desert gods service in publick administrations . therefore ye are cursed with a curse ; that is , with famine , poverty , and barrenness of the earth ; for , it is a snare to the man who devoureth that which is holy , prov. . . that is , it is a dangerous thing ; for , a snare catcheth soon , holdeth sure , and destroyeth suddenly . austine , serm. de decimis speaks sharpely , thou hast lost nine parts , because thou wouldst not give the tenth ; for this is the just proceeding of god that thou , who wouldst not give a tenth part , shouldst thy self be reduced to a tenth part . . crying sinnes are to be avoided ; but the scripture reckons the defrauding of god's ministers amongst crying sinnes , deut. . , . ierem. . . iames . . this cry is the foulness and grievousness of the sinne , which can neither be concealed nor excused , but beats gods ears continually , and provokes him to vengeance . school-men observe four crying sinnes in scripture , which they comprehend in a distich , thus , the voyee of blood-shed , and of sodomy , oppression , and fraud , aloud do cry . now if the defrauding the reaper that reaps down our corn , be so abominable a sinne to god ; how much more abominable is the de●rauding of his ministers , who reap a crop of soules for god himself ? . if we ought to maintain the fathers of our flesh , from whom ( organically ) we have our naturall being , and that both by the law of god , and of nature ; then much rather our spirituall fathers , from whom ( instrumentally ) we have our well-being . . maintenance is due to the fathers of our flesh from us , gen. . , , . . love , and that not onely whilest they live , but to be exprest to them even when they are dead , gen. . . gen. . . . reverence , exprest by mouth , heart , and hand , exod. . . tim. . . . obedience , ierem. . . col. . . the consequence is clear from cor. . . gal. . . philem. ver . . thes. . , . . they that give diligence to reading , exhortation , and doctrine , that minde these things , and give up themselves wholly to them , and ought not to engage their heads or hands in the ca●es of this world , must necessarily receive a stated maintenance of the church ; but such is the duty of gospell-ministers , act. . . tim. . , , . tim. . . therefore had their types the levites no part in the division of canaan , that they should not be engaged in secul●r affairs , and worldly business , but might be wholly for the lord , and for the temple ; but the lord was their inheritance , that is , the tithes and offerings due to god , of which the levites did live , and were not sollicitous concerning any other way of maintenance , which otherwise they would necessarily have been . if idolaters & heathens have been even prodigal toward baals priests and seducers , then it doth not become christians to be illiberal and covetous to the faithful ministers of christ. but so prodigal have they been , witness iezabel , who maintaind above . priests of baal at her owne costs and charges , . kings . . whilest an hundred of the lords prophets were hid in caves and onely relieved with bread and water v. . so prodigal were the idolaters in the prophet isaiahs time , who lavished silver out of the bags for their idols , isaiah . . it grieved not pharaoh to maintaine all the egyptian priests with his owne bread . in a generall famine he was so farre from making money of the priests lands in the first place , that he continued to them their inheritances , and gave them their diet severall years besides . the heathens thought not much to offer the tenth of their spoyls to their gods. and if the papists with a prodigal liberality be willng to spend allmost all upon their silly priestlings , and greedy iesuites , notorious deceivers ; sure then the faithfull ministers of christ may justly expect an honest maintenance from their people . ahab the king of iudah , who sought to reduce the priests of the lord unto want , is therefore branded with this mark , this is th● king ahaz , . chron. . , . . all sacriledg is to be avoided , but to defraud the ministers of christ of their stipends is sacriledg ▪ therefore &c. the major is plain of it self . the minor god himself proves , mal. . . y● have robbed m in tythes and offerings . god complains here that this injury and fraud was not so much done to men as to himself . sacriledge is not a simple theft , but a stealing of sacred things , which is the highest degree of theft : now that is sacred which is given to holy uses , either by the express command of ●od ▪ or by the voluntary devotion of men : whether it be given ( saith learned mr : cartwright upon p●●v . . . ) for the and sake of gods worship , for the 〈…〉 of schooles vniversities , or for the reliefe of 〈…〉 and if it be a wickednesse and a snare after vowes 〈…〉 again , that is to call back , or withhold any thing given or vowed to gods use , prov. . . then what notorious impiety shall they be guilty of , who having not given any thing themselves , shall yet go about to diminish and de●raud us of the gifts of others : when as a mans last will or testament is not changed or disposed of otherwise , than as the testator did ordaine , gal. . . let the governours of the common-wealth then take special heed , that they do not engross any church-revenues to themselves , convert those things , or any of those things unto private uses , which are dedicated to sacred uses , and so devolve upon their heads the heavy doome of sacrilegious persons robbers of god , for who can think that god will let such scape , that do on sacred things commit a rape . the eagle burning her nest and her young ones by a coal fetched with a piece of flesh from the altar doth well prophesie and prefigure the ruine of those harpyes and vultures , and their posterity , who make so bold with the churches revenues ▪ or if such a doom be not prefigured by the eagle , i am sure it is prayed for by the psalmist , ps. ▪ , . make their nobles like oreb and like zeb , yea all their princes as zebah and zalmunna , who said , let us take to our selves the houses of god in possession , &c. nay and certainly the time will come when they shall not onely disgorge like dogs , what they have drunk downe like oxen , but when it shall repent them that they have so much as touched the inheritance of the lord. such levellers that sow sacriledge shall reap a snare , prov. . . they take away that which is devoted to god , and god himself will devote them to destruction . such revenues will certainly prove as unhappy to their unjust detainers , as cn. seius his horse proved to him , afterwards to dolabella to cassius , to antonius , and to as many as had him , and will create sooner or later as many vexations , as the gold which q , caepio found in tholossane , a towne in france , in the churches thereof , did create to all that did lay but a thievish hand upon it : witnesse belshazzar , antiochus , po●●peius iulianus , claudius , fulvius , pyrrb●● , &c. whose doom any one may read in lactant. lib. . cap. . and no wonder , for sacriledge is worse than idolatry , for it argueth a contempt of all deity . rom. . . thou that abhorrest idols , committest thou sacriledge ? thou that abhorrest false gods , doest thou rob the true one , which is worse ? in a word , such must needs pay dearly for their injustice , who detain that which is anothers ; to which iniustice there is yet added a sacrilegious king of malignity , because tythes are due to god , not openly as an expression of thankfullness , but as a means to preserve , and to maintaine his sacred worship . chap. ix . the anabaptists objections are answered and their arguments refelled . obj. they object and say , true , tythes were commanded often in the old testament , but his doth not bind us under the new , because there is no expresse command . ans. the same argument will hold against the lords day , against the baptisme of infants , against all taxes and dues , because they are not expresly and by name commanded in the new testament . those tythes which were commanded under the old testament , are continued still under the new , as to their spirituall and moral use ; and that upon a threefold account . . vpon the the account of piety ▪ because they are given to god and his service . . vpon the account of thankfullness ▪ for tythes are a sacrifice of praise to god for his mercies towards us , and for the good things which he bestows on us , gen. . . . vpon the account of commutative justice , for if we have sowed unto them our spirituall things , it is no great matter if we reap their carnal things . now then although tithes be not expresly and explicitly enjoyned in the new testament , yet we are as expresly engaged to piety , thankfullnesse , and justice now as ever . . neither doth christ in the new testament expresly abolish the payment of tythes , when the pha●isees boasted of their care in paying even their smallest tythes , he is so farre from reproving them for it , that he commends and doth countenance it , luk. . . mat. . . these ought ye to have done , and not to leave the other undone . he gives no commission to neglect the payment of tythes . ye ought not to leave that undone . tythes therefore or fixed stipends are due to the ministers of the gospel by a trebble right . first by a divine morall right , not ceremoniall or judicial : for it is ●it and just that a minister , who feeds the peoples souls , should be fed by the people , that he that preaches the gospel , should live of the gospell . the old law concerning the sabboth and concerning tythes , at least shews thus much ( saith grotius de jure belli lib. . cap. . ) that christians are bound to set apart no less than the seventh part of time , and to give no less than the tenth part of their encrease to gods ministers . it shews at least thus much , that however they be maintained , whether out of lands , houses , moneys , tythes , &c. yet that they ought to be maintained honestly and liberally , not sordidly and sparingly . estius speaks clearly and learnedly . that which the law of god and nature command in the generall , that doth the ecclesiasticall law determine specifically , whilst it app●inteth some certain stipend to be given by the people to their ministers ▪ as tythes or the like . tythes therefore are not precisely commanded in or absolutely necessary under the new testament , neither are they unjust , where they are established by the magistracy , whose duty it is to take the most convenient way for maintaining the ministry , as may best consist with the edification of the church , and dignity of the sacred function . secondly , they are due by a naturall right . even the very heathens gave the tenth part to their gods , as the grecians , the carthaginians , the romans , &c. who gave the tythe of the spoyl to iupiter . and if the tythe of such things , how much rather the tythes of more certain revenues . thirdly , by the law of nations ▪ and by the positive law of our nation , tythes were given by off● the saxon king in the year . afterwards encreased and confirmed by ethelwolf in the year . who gave the tenth part of his owne revenues and of the kingdome to god : binding them with this prayer , vvhoever shall adde to this our gift , let allmighty god adde to his life many prosperous days , and if any one shall presume to change or diminish them , let him know that he must give an account before the tribunal of christ. after him king athelstone confirmed them in the year . in a word they have been confirmed , together with magna charta , thirty times by parliament . by all which it is plain , that the preachers of the gospel have a better title to their tythes than any nobleman , knight , or gentleman to their proper inheritances . for. . they were given by our ancestors to god and his service , and therefore cannot be taken away without sacriledge ; but the estates of noblemen may be taken from them without sacriledge . . god hath commanded that a sufficient ▪ honourable , and fixed maintenance be given to his ministers , as hath been already proved . but such a special command hath he not given concerning any other men . therefore tythes and things which are so god's , are twice god's . . by a divine right primarily . . by a humane right secundarily , as being dedicated to him and his worship . obj. . but the people cry out and rayl , saying , tythe● are burdensome , they are antichristian , iewish &c. answ. . so do the people cry out of taxes , excize , customs &c. that they are burdens : therefore shall we say , away with taxes , customs , excise . all things are common amongst friends ? . it little matters what the many headed multitude say , seneca could say ▪ argumentum pe●simum esse turbam , that the common people were the worst argument in the world : neither matters it how many they are , but how rational , how good . the multitude of sinners doth not patronize a sinne . this is not the cry of the wisest , soundest and best of the people , they do not declame against tythes . . neither are tythes jewish : for first , before the law given by moses , abraham gave tythes to melchisedech of all that he had , gen. . . heb. . . iacob also vowed to god the tythe of all that he had , gen , . . and secondly , they are not payed to the ministers of christ by a ceremonial right , but a moral right , and by a positive law of the nation , as was proved before . see repper . de . lege mosis l. 〈◊〉 c. . . neither are they antichristian as many vain men object , who whilst they are hearers , decry tythes to save their money , but turning preachers take tythes , dispute for them and contend for additions to be made to them . tythes are not antichristian , that are by the law of nature , by the moral law , by the positive law of the nation , and not by any canonical or pontifical law. how can they be popish , which were paid thousands of years before any such beast as a pope did spring up ? . if tythes be unjust , burdensome , wicked things , then is god the authour of injustice , oppression , wickedness ( which were blasphemy to conceive ) for he gave the tythes to his levites under the law by a special command for their subsistence . neither doth the gospel , as i said before , abrogate or abolish tythes in general , but rather establish and confirm them specifically , as may appear , mat. . . luk . . gal. . . cor. . , . heb. . . , , . and if the wise god thought this way the best to maintain his ministers , who shall reprove him ? . they are not burthensome impositions , because they were freely given to the church by pious and well affected princes , they are not the peoples burden , for they are none of theirs ; neither they nor their pro parents ever purchased them , and why should they repine to part with that which is none of theirs . . let there be found out a more sufficient and certain and honourable maintenance , and who will contend for tythes ? but since it appear● to all wise men , that a more just and stated maintenance cannot be found out , why should the impor●unity of wild and unreasonable men prevail ? that this epidemicall disease may be cured , there seems to remain this and this only remedy . let tythes be got out of the hands of those that have eng●ost them to private uses : i mean those tythes which the lawyers call impropriate , more truly improper ▪ and indeed to many unprosperous , as the holy coal to the engls nest . of such harpyes luther sadly complains , in these and many other countryes there are a company of harpyes , ●o wit prefects and questors , who have devoured the liberalities of princes given for the maintenance of the ministers of the church , and such is their envy and malignity ▪ that it can hardly ●e wrung out of their clutches ▪ and indeed this is a hard taske , but it is a princely , a parliamentary undertaking : and i doubt not but all godly men will do all they can to bring to pass so gracious an enterprize . it commended the excellent and worthy spirits of some londoners , that bought impropriate tythes , and restored them to the churches . many know by whose fault this good work was hindered , and what became of them that hindered it . obj. . they argue from mic . . the priests teach for hire , and the prophets divine for money . ans it is one thing to receive hire , and another to be an hireling ; one thing to be hired to teach , another to teach for hire . the true prophets received a reward of their pains , and that by christs allowance , mat. . . but the false prophets whom god here reproves , prophesied false things , and that for hire onely , and preached pleasing things onely , that they might have a more liberall reward . the ministers of the gospel do receive salaries , not as a reward of their ministry , but that they may provide the necessaries of life , and may persist in their sacred function . . obj. their great argument is fathered upon ( for i cannot say gathered from ) mat. . , , . freely ye have received , freely give ▪ provide neither gold nor silver , nor brasse in in your purses &c ▪ ans. the anabaptists are deceived in this late figment of theirs . for christ himself unties the knot , v. . the workman is worthy of his meat , and appr●ved it by his owny example , taking something of the substance of his rich followers luke . . iohn . . and . . neither did the apostles ordinarily refuse salaries from the churches , . cor. , , . phil. . . . christ here speaketh concerning working of miracles , as appears v. . and he forbids his apostles to sel their miraculous cures for mony , because that gift was freely given them by god , & they ought therefore to use it freely . as elisha refused the reward offered him by naaman the syrians king . . . these words ( ye have freely received ) doth not so much respect the work of preaching , as the working of miracles , which is not so laborious as the other . . this command of christ to his apostles was onely temp●rary , a precept for the present time , not a moral commandment ; neither can it or ought to be made a perpetual law. it onely related to that first embassy of theirs to the iews , which , was to be dispatched with all speed , and they were to avoid whatever would retard them in their journey . this is plain from our saviours owne words , luke . . where speaking of this first mission of theirs , and the charge he gave them then : he says ; before i sent you without purse , &c. but now he that hath a purse , let him take it &c. as much as to say , the former precept that i gave you is valid , now i give you a new charge . . it is plain that the apostles afterwards lived of the gospel acts . . chapt . the primitive believers offered them all their goods , they sold lands and goods for the apostels use , heu quantum distamus ab illis , but now we had rather take the apostles lands and goods for our owne use , or at least are so farre from selling all for them , that we grudge miserably to give unto them a tenth part . . this precept , as to the substance of it doth still bind . it engageth us to have hearts free from covetousness , to be a pattern of holinesse , of the contempt of riches , and of noble and heavenly minds . . the apostles wer● sent to heal all manner of diseases . now our saviour foreseeing that men would be ready to give any thing for health , forbids them to make a private gain of the gift of healing , as simon magus thought to have made of the gift of the holy ghost . obj. . the haters of the ministry urge the unsuitable example of paul , act. . . . . thes. . . paul got his living by his own hand-labour ; therefore ought all the ministers of the gospell also . ans. . it does not follow . a particular and singular action does no● make an universal rule . neither does the apostle here go about to take away from christs ministers that which elsewhere he doth allow them . now he allowes them a right to be maintained of the publick , in many places , cor. . . gal. . . ti● . . . he approves of them that lived of the gospel , corinth . . , . nay himself received maintenance of other churches ▪ phil. . . cor. . . . suppose the case be now as it was then , caeteris paribus , and we will also allow the apostle pauls example to be binding ▪ . if the preacher be furnish'd with extraordinary gifts , that he can perform his work without study and medita●ion ; so could the apostle . . if ministers can live otherwise , and it be necessary by reason of the churches poverty ; in such a cafe of necessity the minister ought to deny his right , that he prejudice not the gospel , and be a burden to the church , thes . . thes. . , , but the case is not so now , neither respective to the ministers of the church , nor respective to the church . for . ministers have not that extraordinary and supernatural gil● . . the church enjoys , through the bounty of pious princes , and progenitors , chruch-revenues , dedicated to the maintenance of its ministry , that they need not be burthensome to the church . moreover in the apostles time there was a community of goods ▪ which did abundantly make up the want of ●ythes . we must therefore distinguish of a church . . the●e is a church to be constituted , or in constituting which ; for the most part , is made up of poo● and inferiour members , not headed by powerfull princes , or rich magistrates , in whose ●and it might be ●o appoint settled stipends . such was the estate of the church in the apostles time : and here we must decline our own right . moreover , the apostles preach'd to heathens ▪ who knew not the worth of the gospell , nor the necessity of a ministry . . there is a church constituted , adorned with magistrates , and lawes , and endued with certain revenues and immunities appointed by those magistrates for the ministers : these revenues are by divine right due to these ministers : therefore paul acknowledged , that he did receive things necessary of some church , as form the church at philippi ▪ phil. . . and others , . cor. . . though he did not of the church of corinth , nor thessalonica . in a word , stipends are different according to time and place ; doubtless the richer congregations both may and ought to maintain their pastors more liberally than the poorer ; neither is it equall , that the stipends of all ministers should be equal ▪ because of their different gifts , different labors , different families , and different quality of their people . object . . many ministers are rich , and are single men , therefore they ought to preach freely , and live of their own . ans. . that does not follow ; for our saviours proposition is universal , luke . . the labourer is worthy of his hire , that is , every labourer , be he rich or poor , single or double , or what else . melchizedeck was a rich king ▪ and yet abraham payes him tythes , gen. . . thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the oxe that treadeth out the corne , be he fat , or be he lean . moreover , if a rich minister receive nothing of his people , he will expose his poorer brethren to the envy and malice of their people : and not onely so , but be a means to starve his successour ; wherefore let him receive his due stipend , and let him give to the poor , and convert much to publick uses . our saviour christ could easily have maintained himself , and the family of his apostles , after a miraculous way ; his godhead could easily have provided for his manhood , yet he received of those things which were brought him , luk . . to instruct us by his example . the lord hath not ordained , that they that preach the gospel should live of their own private estates , that i know of ; but he has ordained , that they should live of the gospel , cor . . would this be a good argument ▪ many souldiers are rich , therefore let them fight freely , spend and be spent , without expectation or acceptation of pay , and live of thier own : the richer men grow , the less commonly they care for fighting , ( lest they should loss their rich lives ) much less would they fight for nothing ; for vvho goeth , saith the apostle , to war , at his own charges . chap. x. a sixt corollary from the doctrine . in the last place then , let all christs ministers take heed they be not unsavou●y salt. christ hath put upon us the name , oh that christ would put into us the nature of salt. now the right and conscienscious manner of salting and feeding is tenfold ▪ exemplarily , ministerially , diligently , boldly , lovingly ▪ zealously ▪ purely plainly fully , and sincerely . . let ● minister ●each by example and life , let him learn to do before he teach others to learn ; for the life of a preacher hath in it the greatest argument to holiness of life , and will instruct better , and pr●va●● more than a thousand elegant sermons . men are more dr●wn by example than by precepts ; wherefore let us shew our selves examples of piety , and good works , and as patterns which ●hey m●y follow . timothy must be an example of believers in word and conversation , in charity , in spirit , in faith , and purity , tim. . . and so must titus , tit. . . and so must all the ministers of the gospel ▪ pet. . . the tongue indeed teacheth , but the life commendeth ; for the voice of the hand is more powerfull then that of the tongue , and gives efficacy to it ; whilest we speak oracles , let us live like deities . the best way of moving the affections is one's self first to be moved . he that is first himself perswaded , shall better perswade others ; and no one can prescribe so good remedies , as he that by experience knowes what is hurtfull ▪ it is the part of a faithfull pastor to weep with himself , before he call for the tears of others , and to grieve more inwardly , than in an expression . he that would have my teares , must weep himself , or else i 'le think he jeers , that voyce pierceth the heart of the hearers most effectually , which the life of the preacher commands ; for , that preacher loses his authority , whose words are not interpreted by his works ; nay , as austine well observes , a life unsuitable to the doctrine is of a soul-killing , ●urtherous nature . vvhat a monstrous prodigious sight ( saies bernard to eugenius ) lib. . de consider . ) is a high degree , and a low spirit ; a sacred profession aud an execrable practice ; a laborious tongue , and a lazy hand ; much leaves and no fruit , a grave countenance and a light carriage , great authority and no stability , to look like a man and speak like a childe ? against such the apostle thunders , rom. . , . thou that teachest another , teachest thou not thy self , &c. such derogate from the weight of their doctrine , they de●troy with their works what they build with their words , they dedicate their tongues to god , and devote their soules to the devil . vvhat is profound science good for ( saies dr. staughton in foelicit . ult . saeculi , p. , , . ) without a pure conscience ; an oratours tongue without an angels life ; but to make up a statue like unto nebuchadnezzar ' s , whose golden head ended in earthen feet ; as though it were for the present to be crowned , and shortly to be broken in pieces ; or a toad with a jewel , perhaps in the head , but certainly poysonous all over the body ; which is more hatefull for the o●e , than precious for the other ? let eloquence therefore sit in the lips , but let grace also give strength to eloquence . let us therefore imitate our master , who was mighty in deed and word , luke . . who began first to do , and then to teach , act. . . himself was first meek , and pure , and peaceable , and then he began to teach , blessed are the poor in heart , the pure in heart , the peaceable , matth. . as iohn the baptist was all voice , so the all of a minister ought to preach ; his eating , drinking , travailing , entertaining , clothing , life and language should all breathe out holiness ; whatever he does or saies should instruct his flock . ezra the servant of the lord was indeed a scribe instructed unto the kingdome of heaven , for he first prepared his heart to seek the law of the lord , and to do it , and then to teach in israel statutes and judgements , ezra . . lo ▪ the right way to attain to an excellent faculty of teaching . . prepare not the head onely , but the heart also . . seek with all care and diligence , viz. by hearing , reading , learning , meditating , praying . . what must be sought ; not civil lawes , not humane statutes , not scholastical niceties , but s●ek the law of the lord , converse in this , meditate of it , peruse it day and night . he that will be a good preacher must labour to be a good textuist ; for scripture is the best interpreter of scripture . . for what end ? first , that we may do it , then that we may teach it . let us labour to be as glasses , in which the representations of all verture and grace may appear ; yea , if we do and teach , we shall be called ( that is , we shall be ) great in the kingdome of heaven , mat. . . such an one was holy basil , whose words were thunder , and his works lightening . he preaches ( saies nazianzen ) with a lively voyc● , who preacheth with life and voice , making good his doctrine and his life , the one by the other . one , and the same apostle tells us , that ministers should not onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , divide , and rightly distribute the word of truth , . tim. . . but also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , walk uprightly according to the truth of the gospel , gal. . . all our nazarites should be purer than snow , whiter than milk , lam. . . like unto absalom , in a more spiritual beauty , in whom , from the crown of the head to the sole of his foot was no blemish , s●m . . . for if those that had any blemish upon them were forbidden the priests office , under the law , lev. . . &c. how shall they , whose mouthes , hearts , hands , are full of sin and filthiness , be admitted , or accepted under the gospel ? wherefore let every preacher teach by words , and works , by life and language . it is an easie thing to speak , but a hard to performe ; easie to teach in words , but preaching with the life , is the life of preaching ; for , words make not such an impression upon the soul , as works do ; a fighting captain encourages his souldiers more then a prating coward . the apostle therefore will that bishops be blameless , tit. . . unreproveable , without scandall , not without sinne , as were samuel , ieremiah , daniel , paul , zachary , sam. . . ●erem . . . da● . . . act. . . luke . . such were bucer , bradford , latimer , hooper , &c. such ought we to be , that evil men may be able to speak no evil of us without lying , tit. . . for he may truly be said to be unblameable , not who is never blamed , but who is not blameworthy . neither does the apostle call for men devoid of all fa●lings , such are not men but angels , such are members of the church triumphant , not the militant . many men ( as austine well observes ) live without complaint or scandall , but none without sin . let a pastor feed his people ministerialy , by voice and sound doctrine . the bare reading of the scriptures seldom conduces much to conversion , the word preached by an applicatory voice hath some kinde of secret energy in it , and being se●t from the minister , as from the mouth of god himself , into the ears of the audito●s , it carries a great authority with it , and fastens better upon their souls . it is requisite , that a minister of the gospel carry upon hi● breast both the urim and the thu●min , have both the light of doctrine , and integrity of life . the servant of the lord should be apt to teach , tim. . . which aptitude denotes both a proneness and a fitness : he should have both a will to communicate , and a faculty of communicateing that which he knowes : this ( sayes even the councell of trent ) is the p●imary office of a bishop ; therefore paul , being now at the door of death , adjures timothy to preach the gospel in every opportunity , with all impor●unity , . tim. . , . to instruct first himself , and then others , tim. . , &c. take heed to the self , that thou compose thy behaviour according to the holy rule , and to thy doctrine , that thou teach others . blinde watchmen , and dumb dogs are the worst of creatures , isa. . . if a dog , whose office it is to watch , to bark , to affright thieves , be dumb , either by nature , or by some disease , or through a birbe , ●e is altogether useless , a covetous , proud , idle , luxurious minister , hath his mouth stopp'd by the guilt of that very sin which he ought to reprove in others ; for , how shall he bark against covetousness , who is himself worldly-minded ? the sound of aarons bells must be heard , when he went into the holy place to minister ▪ upon pain of death , exod. . ● , , . a sadder complaint could not be made , than what a pious and learned man of this nation makes , that this church has lain under these sore plagues , formerly many ministers that were not preachers , and now , many preachers that are not ministers . . let a pastor feed his flock diligently and industriously : from us , my brethren , from us , does our mother the church exspect relief ; let us endeavour to the utmost of our power to administer the help she exspects , to remove scandals , to heal divisions , to confute heresies , to beat down wickedness , and to demolish the strong holds of sathan . let us be instant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in season , when any fair opportunity offers it ●elf , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , out of season , when inconveniencies and dangers do seem to flesh and blood to block up the way : diligence ▪ as it is very conducible to many other ends , ( for it makes rich , prov. . . it inbrings to preferment , prov. . . ) so , more especially , is it necessary the ministry , in the government and management of souls , which is an art beyond all other arts , and requires the greatest accomplishments , exercitation , unction , discretion , &c. for some are bruitish and unteachable , some weak , some dull , some perverse , and many ungratefull . let us therefore watch and be hardy : let him that undertakes this ministerial task , at once furnish himself with an hero●ck and invincible spirit , for he shall be sure not to want exercises enough of his valour ; for , there are none whom sathan oftner tempteth , sharplyer assaulteth ; there are none that suffer more of forer shocks and tempests , than the holy and faith●ull captains of the church , whom god hath designed to prisons , not pallaces , to hatred and reproach in the world , not to the pleasures and delights of the world ; according to that , rom. . . for thy sake we are killed all the day long ; and ( which may the rather quicken us unto diligence ) behold the indefatigable industry of sathan , and his agents . in this decrepit age of the world ▪ in these last and perillous times , they are hurried on with a desperate rage , the devills seem possessed with some worse spirit than themselves , they turn every stone , improve the very dregs of their malice , and the height of their might , if by any means , by secret perswasions , or hostile invasions . they may drag any soul to hell with themselves : what weeds of heresie do they plant ? what seeds of discord do they sowe ? what stones of stumbling do they lay ? they compass sea and land to gain one proselyte . let us learn diligence of that great peripatetick , the devill , who compasseth the earth to ensnare souls . therefore saies latimer , exhorting the bishops to diligence , if they will not follow the example of the saints , the prophets , the apostles , of christ iesus himself , yet let them be provoked by the diligence of the devil , who spares no pains , but carefully visits , inst●ucts , and inciteth his servants and disciples . nay , the sea it self is restles , the heavens are turned about with an uninterrupted motion , and the sun returns with its unwearied light , from the same to the same goals continually : and do sensless bodies perfect so many motions so constantly , and shall the great lights of the church lurk within their sockets , rust with idleness and dulness ? idleness is hatefull to god in every calling , but especially in the ministry . cursed be he that doth this work of the lord negligently . if thou be a minister of christ , hoc age , minde this thing onely , be intent upon it , diligent in it . the life of a minister is not an idle life , a delicate easie life ; we are appointed to work in the lords vineyard , numb . . . and not to play . it unbecomes the ministers of ch●ist then to be carders , dicers , hunters , merchants , souldier , h●●bandmen ▪ &c. for , if i● be unfit that they ●hould l●ave the preaching of the word to s●rve tables , act. . . much more unfit is it for them to neglect that work , to employ th●mselves in things quite of a different nature . there is 〈…〉 , but it is to the labourers ; there are some worthy of double honour , but it is they that labour still : this office which we have , is not an easie , but a laborious task , which alwayes hath been accompanied with more care than credi● , whose sweat is greater than its crop . know ( saith austine ) that the name of a bishop is not a name of worth so much as work ▪ of dig●ity so much as duty ; and that those are bishops ▪ who had rath●r convert then people then command them . and therefore our ministry 〈…〉 work , not an honour , an employment not enjoyment a labour not a ●oytering , tim. . . tim. . . act. . . cor . . eph. . . phil. . . thes. . . . neither is it an easie , bu● a laborious painfull work , not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , an ordinary labour , but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a working even unto weariness , iohn . . cor. . . cor. . . gal. . . thes. . . and . . tim . . . it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that is , such as labour a hath much difficulty in it , cor . . thes. . . thes. . . . it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a care , and vehement study , cor. . . . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a dist●acting ca●e , cor. . . phil. . . tim. . . . it is such a work as requires the whole man ; therefore we are commanded to give up our selves wholly to these things , and to continue in them , tim. . , . that is , let these things be thy study , thy care , thy employment thy practice , thy whole business . therefore we are commanded to wait on our ministry , rom. . . and to give our selves continually to it , act. . . and to fulfill it , col. . . and hence we are called shepheards , soulders , labourers , as i said before . neither are we without examples of this diligence . moses was faithfull in all gods house , heb. . . he was ●aithfull in delivering to the people the commands of god , and governing them according to the minde and will of god. samuel ceased not to exho●t the people , and to pray for them , sam. . . christ himself was not sometime , but dayly in the synagog●e , teaching , and in the temple , mat. . . luke . . it was his custome so to do , luke . . he spent the day in preaching ▪ and the night in prayer , luke . . see the indefa●igable diligence of the apostle paul , cor. . . to the . he was unwearied in his doing , and invincible in his su●fering : how many cities and countreys did he enlighten with the go●pel ? ierusalem , illyricum , damascus , antioch , arabia , se●●ucia , cyprus , pamphylia , p●sidia , lycaonia , syria , cilicia , phrygia , galatia , mysia , ●roas , achaia , epyrus , and many others . it is reported of farellus , that , being hindred by no difficulties , threatnings , reproaches , frighted with no persecutions , he gained to christ the mompeigardenses , the aquilenses , the lonsannenses , the genevites , the no●ocomenses . that which is reported of calvin is diligence almost to a miracle ; that he preach'd yearly two hundred eighty and six sermons , read an hundred eighty and six lectures , besides a multitude of epistles which he wrote concerning sundry points in divinity . how o●ten do we meet with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , yesterday and to day in chrysostome : although yesterday i spoke to you of this thing , yet i will not fo●get it to day ( said he ) nor will i fail to preach the same to morrow ▪ and he●ceforth . the ancient fathers gave themselves wholly to their study ; the least part of their life was spent in sleep , little in eating and drinking , and none at all in idleness , origen lost no time in his life from his studies . let us therefore bring under our bodies by watching , fasting , praying , pains-taking , mortification of the flesh , sustaining all persecutions , abstaining from all carnal pleasures , incentives to sin . there is eminent danger in indulging the flesh , cor. . . the time is short , the work great , the reward greatest of all . contemplate of the crown . and that we may be the better enabled to carry on the work , let us love ; for nothing is impossible to love , it runns , it flies , it overcomes all difficulties , cant. . , . cor. . . gen. . . the peter that loves christ will ●eed , feed , feed , iohn . ▪ . feed by preaching , feed by practising , feed by printing zachary , when he could not speak , wrote : the voice of the pen is louder than the voice of the tongue : by this we can speak to them that are at a distance ; nay , by this , being dead we yet spe●k . . let a pa●tor feed his people bol●●y , and freely . let us undertake , undergoe , and a●complish our minist●y , with a confidence full of courage , with a courage devoid of ●ear . let us commit our ship to the windes ; it is ●ecessa●y to ●wod● , not so to live , as cesar said heroically . they that fear the hatred , or reproaches of the world , will ●oon faint , and flagge ? there is therefore requisite a boldness , and confidence of spirit to contemn● the contempt of the world . it is a prime vertue in a min●ster to contemn , and to be able to be contemned . as it becomes a commander to dye standing , so it behoves a minister of christ to die suffering and doing , sustaining , and abstaining , preaching and praying , and chea●fully to undergoe all that c●n be laid upon him for the love of christ. this is indeed to endure hardship , tim. . . to sustain crosses , to entertain injuries , and ●o retain a heart hardened against all the affronts of an enraged world ; like christ , who set his face as a flint , because the lord was his helper , isa. . . and therefore he stood unmoved in the greatest storms , unco●quered by the greatest rage ; like a rock , against which the roaring waves do dash themselves , and go into foam ; or like an adamant , which breaks in pieces the stones and hammers which would break it . let others fear and fly , let us contend and continue even unto death . take bias for an example , who being circumvented by iphicrates the a●henian captain , answered his souldiers that ask'd him what they should do , vvhat should ye do , but consult your own safety , and for my part i will dye fighting . christ iesus seems to bespeak us as ●lexander bespoke alexander ▪ either fig●t or change thy name : either carry on thy ministry couragiously , and fulfill it constantly , or cease to be a minister . it is the chief business of a minister , by spiri●ual weapons to demolish the strong holds of sathan ; but this will not be done by flatterie● , and pleasant ditties ; but by this boldness , and freeness of speech , with which we reprehend sharply , all errors , heresies , raigning ●innes , especially conscience wasting sinns in all men , high and low , great and small , without any respect of persons : we must be like clear and spotless glasses , which flatter no one , but represents all persons and things faith●ully ▪ as they are . no difference must be put 'twixt man and man ; vvhether a trojane , or a tyri●n . nathan reproved king david , elijah king ahab , elisha king iehoram , hosea the king's house , amos king ierobo●m ▪ iohn baptist king herod , paul the governou● foelix , chrysostome eudoxus , ●mbrose theodosius the emperour , whom he also excommunicated for violence done to the thessalonians . let us therefore boldly and freely taxe , princely , popular , plausible sinnes , and so shall we be the children of the prophets . let us not be overcome with fear , nor fear to be overcome , either by might , or malice ; but with an honest kinde of impudence speak out the turth , knowing that we are the messengers of god , who will act , direct , protect us , isa. . . . . ier. . . , . ier. . throughout , especially v. . ezek. . , . god will not forsake his , in these last and worst times , whom he knowes unable to subsist or persist without him ; therefore he bids them not to be afraid though briars and thorns be with them ; nay , though they dwell amongst scorpions , yet not to be afraid , ezek . . every coward in gods cause is a murderer , according to that , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and of all cowards they are the most notorious that have god for their captain ; for , what need they be afraid of briars or thorns , who have the good will of him that dwelt in the bush ? . let a pastor feed his people lovingly . let all things be sweetned with love , cor. . . let prayers , sermons , reproofs , exhortations , all flow from this fountain , let all things be done with charity . let the fire of zeal be kept burning with no other fewel than the oyl of compassion , ier. . . luke . . gal. . . thus the good samaritane pours wine and oyl into the wounds , wine to ●earch , and oyl to supple . if there be need of severity , let us play the good chirurgions , who when they apply corrosives to prevent death by the wound , administer cordialls to prevent fainting by the corrosives ; and chear up the patient , telling him it is onely in a tendency to his health . no one is fit indeed to reprove , but he that loves the party to be reproved , that so the reproof may be in compassion , not in passion , for his restauration , and not his ruine . the apostle paul therefore will have our sharpness tempered with mildeness , and lenity , tim. . . reprove rebuke , exhort with all long-suffering ▪ not being enraged at the dulness and undutifulness of our auditors ; let us not offend any by a proud severity , or a supercilious gravity but by mildeness , and a sweet composure of manners and b●haviours strive to win them , engage them to us , and make them our own , so shall we be able to have an influence upon them , prevail with them , and live profitably and comfortably amongst them . love me ( said ●ustine ) and say what you will , and do what you will. as an oratour should not onely be qualif●●d with prudence , but with benevolence also ▪ so a preacher : for ) as the philosopher observes ) it con●●ibutes much to the creditableness of the orator , if the auditours be perswaded that he stands well affected to them ▪ the gravity of a minister should not be such as may affright men from coming before him , but such as compose them to reverence , that do come . let us feed the flock of christ , not imperiously , as lords , much less , rigidly , as tyrants ; but gravely , and mildely , as fathers , with a fatherly benevolence and affection ▪ desiring rather to be loved then feared . to this purpose speaks la●renti●● , upon ▪ pet. . . let every pastor govern the church providently , and prudently , not straining his power to its utmost rigour , but exercising a spirit of lenity ; not alwayes , in all things , towards all , using his utmost power and au●hority , but sometimes denying something of his own right , as paul often did , cor. . . cor. . . thes. . . in a word , let us imitate basil ; who , for patience and constancy was an adamant , for meekness a loadstone . . let a pastour feed his flock zealously ▪ not carelesly and coldly . let us cry aloud , and lift up our voyce like a trumpet , because we speak to dead men and stones ▪ let us pray the father of light to touch our tongues with a coal from the altar , that our lips may breath out nothing but what is pure and heavenly ; that we may be lamps , burning in zeal , faith , and love , and shining in words and works ; that we may be coals to our selves ▪ and lamps to our people ; such was iohn , ioh. . . wherefore christ gave not fleshly ▪ but fiery tongues to the primitive preachers , that they might preach zealously with them , and enflame the hearts of their hearers , act. . . excellent is that commendation of luther , vvhatever luther speaks or writes pi●●ces into the ●earts , and leaves a wonderfull sting in the cons●●ences of the hearers . let us look unto our saviou● , whom zeal for gods glory eat up . let us imitate elijah , qui zelando zelavit , who was very zealous for the lord , all ●i●e for god , whom god therefore sent for in a fiery chariot . let us imita●● elisha isaiah , ier●miah , ( ier. . . iohn baptist , paul , gal ▪ . . who all being enflamed with the fire of love did burne the cold hearts of their hearers with zealous discourses . let our hearts , our tongues our hands be all of a fire , that we may bring men from sin unto god. even immoderate z●al is better than coldness in gods cause , for it is an error of love ▪ and not a love of error . let us neglect nothing through idleness , or cowardi●● , which may conduce to the salvation of the soules of our people . in a word , let us imitate the holy seraphims ( who have their name from fire ) who burning in zeal , are alwayes in readiness to execute every command of god ; having with them six wings , with which we may speedily move upward , downward , forward , backward , on this hand , on that hand , as god calls . so zealous was the angel who had the everlasting gospel to preach , who did not creep , nor walk , nor run , but fly with a swift wing through the midst of heaven , rev. . . see vvard's coal from the altar : p. . . the word of god is to be dispensed purely , without any sophisticall or superstitious comments . let nothing be said of god , without gods authority . in all doubts we must have recourse to the law , and the testimony , isa. . . moses returning from the mount brought commands , not his own , but gods , exod. . , . the apostles commission runns not for them to teach humane traditions , private fancies , but to teach all things that christ iesus had commanded them , mat. . . that is , either by himself , or by his prophets . therefore the apostles themselves father their doctrines upon christ , cor. . . i have received of the lord that which also i have delivered unto you : so thes. . . ye know what commandements we gave you by the lord iesus● ; as much as if he had said ▪ the commandements which i gave you are not mine but christs , he is the law-giver , i am onely his messenger . so also pet. . if any man speak , let him speak as the oracles of god ; let him be a teacher well instructed in the word of god , and produce oracles , as it were , out of gods mouth . god cannot abide unlawfull mix●ures ▪ that men should play the huxters with his word , or plow with the oxe of his word , and the asse of humane traditions together . god will not have men set their thresholds by his , and their posts by his posts , ezek. . . vvhat is the cha●●e to the wheat ? what are false prophecies to the truth of god ? ier. . . mens inventions are like light and empty cha●●e , that has no substance in it , nor give any spirituall nourishment , but gods word is nu●ritive , like the purest wheat . we are called to be dispencers of the ministries of god , not broachers of out own groundless conceptions ; prop●gators of the old way and doctrine , not coiners of a new . if an angel from heaven should preach any other gospell , let him be accursed , gal. . . reject therfore all new and feigned worships , and worship god after a way that is gods. . the word of god is to be dispensed plainly . he is the best preacher , not who s●●atcheth the ears , but who pricketh and pierceth the heart . therefore does paul profess , that he had rather speak 〈◊〉 words in a known and intelligible language , than five thousand in a strange and unknown tongue , cor ▪ . let us preach a crucified christ in a crucified stile ; not with the perswasive words of mans wisdome , but in the demo●station of the spirit and power : not rhetorically ; but apostolic●lly , not so much fi●ely , as soundly , not so curiously as carefully , not so ●dmirably as intelligibly . let our speech be simple witho●● figures , plain without mysteries , pure without mixtu●e ; not curious , painted , affected , unnecessarily adorned : and so shall they be as fiery darts piercing the inmost conscience , and strong hammers bre●king the hardest rock . . the word of god is to be dispensed fully . for , so runns the dispensers commission , mat. . . all things whatsoever , &c. the least particle of gods word is not fraudulently to be detained , but the whole counsel of god , without addition or diminution is to be declared , act. . . and then , if any soul dye , it shall fall by its own hand , and not by ours , and its blood charged upon its won head , not ours , when we shall faithfully have discharged our duty withou● fraud or fallacy , in preaching , exhorting , warning ▪ threatning , and explaining all things needfull to ●alvation . let us imitate the noble spirited micajah . who professed freely ● king . . that he would not speak what the flattering courtiers would dictate to him , but what the lord should command him . . let a pastor feed his flock , and dispense gods word sincerely . not designing his won profit or credit , but gods glory , phil . so that christs authority , renown , and honour may be exalted ; let us rejoyce , though our own be eclipsed , nay extinguished , ioh. . . ambition was the first mother of heresie ; let us therefore turly and sincerely preach the way of the lord , and study to promote his glory . for them that honour him he will honour . above all , thou man of god , flee covetousness . the love of money distracts the minde , makes it unfit for its sacred employment , and shoulders out hospitality and charity . we are gods souldiers , now no souldier entangleth himself with the affairs of this life , tim. . . they are unworthy the name of christs ministers , who gape after the private goods , more than they desire the publick good of the church , that make a trade of their ●acred function , undertaking it not to bring soules to eternall life , but to bring themselves a temporall livelyhood . covetousness is abominable in all men , but especially in ministers , such therefore are called greedy doggs , isa . . that prepare warr against every one that putteth not into their mouthes , mic. . . that pollute the name of god amongst the people , for handfulls of barley , and pieces of bread , for any light gain , ezek. . . this in bishops is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , filthy gain , because it is gotten filthily , unworthily , flatteringly , not without staining and ●ullying the ministeriall dignity . this the apostle condemns again and again , tim. . . tit. . , . pet. . . who can but condemn the preposterous ca●e of a livelyhood , which some ministers stand guilty of , who bestow more thoughts about breeding and feeding their cattell , managing their land , and such heterogeneous business , than in their studies , or the promotion of salvation of the peoples soules : whom you may fitlyer call feeders of cattel , than feeders of christians , whilest they converse more in their stables than in their studies , as though they still looked for christ in a manger . not that it is absolutely unlawfull for a minister of the gospell ( so it may be without prejudice to his employment and study to have some moderate care of his temporall concernments , ( as about his cattell , and land , 〈…〉 like ▪ ) but cheifly let him take heed to himself , a●d to 〈◊〉 doctrine , and not be anxious or solicitous inordinately concerning a temporall subsistance ; for the lord is our inheritance , if we be faithfull vine-d●es●ers , and reapers for him ▪ he will be vineyards , fields , and harvests unto us ; christ will suffer his sent-ones to want nothing , luke . ▪ wo to those drones then , that do not feed , but feed upon the flock ; these the prophet strikes through with a sharp dart , ezek. . , . for it is our duty to seek the peace more than the 〈◊〉 of our flocks , cor. . . i seek not yours but you : we w●re ordained fishers of men , not of moneys . it ought therefore to be our care ( as aquinas ha●h taught us ) to p●omote , and e●crease spiritual good in our people , rather tha● to procu●e and gather temporal goods for our selves . mr. rollock , tha● fam●us scottish light , profest , that of all his stipends he had not hoarded one penny ; for that these worldly things were never a care to him . calvin , that choice man ( not to be named without an honourable preface ) never studied to enrich himself ; for all his goods ( together with his library , sold at the best rate ) were hardly worth three hundred crowns . lastly , to all these things we must add prayer , for our selves and for our flocks ; for , besides diligent reading , prayer and temptations are requisite ( saith luther ) to make a good divine . whilest the hand turns over the book , let the eye turn toward god ; and never forget to importune his directing , assisting , emboldening , enlarging spirit , from whom all thy sufficiencies are : and thou wilt finde , that to have prayed well , is to have studied well . the end . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e samuel marrow esquire . notes for div a -e doctr. 〈…〉 salsa mola , & sals● fruges . notes for div a -e cura facit canos . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 notes for div a -e reggus comment . de statu angliae . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nicol. de cleman . giis , epist. . p. . notes for div a -e qui jubet e●am juvat . m●l . adam . notes for div a -e de justit . & jure . li. . cap. . tollant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , & ●iunt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , see a. gellius noc . attic. lib. cap. . notes for div a -e see motives to a faithfull discharge of the ministeriall calling in bowls past . evangel . lib. . c. . a decad of caveats to the people of england of general use in all times, but most seasonable in these, as having a tendency to the satisfying such as are not content with the present government as it is by law establish'd, an aptitude to the setling the minds of such as are but seekers and erraticks in religion an aim at the uniting of our protestant-dissenters in church and state : whereby the worst of all conspiracies lately rais'd against both, may be the greatest blessing, which could have happen'd to either of them : to which is added an appendix in order to the conviction of those three enemies to the deity, the atheist, the infidel and the setter up of science to the prejudice of religion / by thomas pierce ... pierce, thomas, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; 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(eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : , : ) a decad of caveats to the people of england of general use in all times, but most seasonable in these, as having a tendency to the satisfying such as are not content with the present government as it is by law establish'd, an aptitude to the setling the minds of such as are but seekers and erraticks in religion an aim at the uniting of our protestant-dissenters in church and state : whereby the worst of all conspiracies lately rais'd against both, may be the greatest blessing, which could have happen'd to either of them : to which is added an appendix in order to the conviction of those three enemies to the deity, the atheist, the infidel and the setter up of science to the prejudice of religion / by thomas pierce ... pierce, thomas, - . [ ], , [ ] p. printed for richard davis, bookseller in oxford, london : . errata on p. [ ] at end. "a seasonable caveat against the dangers of credulity in our trusting the spirits before we try them" (p. - ) has special t.p. and appears catalogued separately at umi reel : . reproduction of original in union theological seminary library, new york, and huntington library. includes bibliographical references and index. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng christian life -- early works to . dissenters, religious -- england. church and state -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - pip willcox sampled and proofread - pip willcox text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a decad of caveats to the people of england , of general use in all times , but most seasonable in these . as having a tendency to the satisfying such as are not content with the present government , as it is by law establish'd . an aptitude to the setling the minds of such as are but seekers and erraticks in religion . an aim at the uniting of our protestant-dissenters in church and state. whereby the worst of all conspiracies lately rais'd against both , may be made the greatest blessing , which could have happen'd to either of them . to which is added an appendix in order to the conviction of those three enemies to the deity : the atheist , the infidel , and the setter up of science to the prejudice of religion . by thomas pierce d. d. domestick chaplain to his majesty , and dean of sarum . partim jussu , partim permissu superiorum . london , printed for richard davis bookseller in oxford . . the author's paraenesis to the reader , touching his principal design in the following caveats . christian reader , being passionately desirous ( as by my calling i am bound , and so with every man's pardon i am allow'd , ) to do as much as in me lies for the converting of a sinner from the error of his way , whereby to save a soul from death , and cover a multitude of sins , i pen'd the following discourses as well for private as publick use . for the private use first of some in the world whom they have satisfied , and ( by the blessing of god ) have had a good effect on . for the more publick use next of many noble and learned auditors , whose judgments as well as qualities being superiour to mine own , have induced me to permit them to pass from the pulpit to the press , as conceiving that by their being in common use , they would be also more commonly and truly usefull . what success they may find , god onely knows , who alone can command it , as he sees fit . but i am conscious to my self of none other than the sincerest and purest aims , at the glory of god , and the good of men , from the beginning to the end of my whole performance . if in the conduct of my discourses i shall seem to some readers to have been in some places too sharp , or pungent , i have this at least to say in my justification , or excuse , that the sole end and motive of my severest argumentations , has been onely to compel them to be as happy as my self , in the communion i injoy with the church of england . as god himself is expressed , by way of parable , to send his servant into the high ways and hedges , to call the poor , the maim'd , the halt , and the blind , and compell them to come in ( to his heavenly feast , ) that his house may be full ; so i am earnest ( if i am able ) to drive dissenters out of their hedges and high-ways of schism and disobedience , into the true house of god , and the lord 's own table . the whole design of my sharpness , either in argument , or expression , is by reason , and scripture , and by scriptural examples and comminations , to force our separating brethren into vnity , and embraces , and friendship with us . god is my witness , i look upon them with bowels of tenderness and compassion , ( not with hatred , or contempt , ) as poor , and maim'd , and halt , and blind ; as lying in hedges of aberration , and in the high-ways of corah , which lead directly both to temporal , and into the danger of endless ruin : and i would ( if it were possible ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , even compel them to come in , and partake with us equally of that coelestial entertainment we commonly call the lord's supper ; that so as well the lord's house , as the lord's table may be full of them . we abominate nothing more than such an uncharitable monopolizing both of salvation and the means of it , as some ( we read ) have been guilty of ; and do love them so heartily who do as heartily hate vs and our way of worship , that if it were in our choise and power , we would not ingross the rich reward of orderly walking unto our selves , but would make them partakers together with us . we would not pray , or hear sermons , or communicate in sacraments , or might we have our most ardent wishes , we would not go to heaven without them . and it is with this charity that i indeavour in one discourse to prove our separatists have none , so long as they abide in their state of schism . i know there is a great difference , betwixt the weaker , and wilfuller sort of dissenters . some of the former do not know , and none of them probably do consider , how the pharisees had their name from their separation , which arose from their opinion that they were better than other men. much less yet do they imagine , by what sort of men they are invisibly overacted . they little think that they are journey-men to their own vvorst enemies of each extreme , vvho drive a trade of divisions in church and state , vvhereby to sacrifice to the lust of revenge , or avarice ; and that they vvho do not intend the very least publick mischief by their dissentions , do ( before they are aware ) carry on their designs who intend the greatest . now there is nothing more dishonorable to the nature of man , or more to the shame of his vnderstanding , than to be made another man's property , another man's instrument , or tool , even without his own knowledge , and against his own will , as well as interest . and if by any thing i have urged in the discourses of this book , persons abus'd and over-reach'd by men ingeniously wicked ( as innocent eve by the cunning serpent , ) shall be made sensible of their wrongs , and as well of their private as publick dangers ; i shall esteem it a great reward to have been serviceable to the more tender and the more treatable dissenters , though i sustain the ill-will of the more obdurate . if any reader shall object , ( after his perusal of all that follows , ) that i have shew'd as much severity to certain jesuited protestants , as to the jesuites themselves of the church of rome , and in one place have parallel'd the dismal of january . with the of november , my answer is at hand , and 't is plainly this : that the keeping out of popery , with all its plots and conspiracies of every kind , stands not so much in a discovery and confutation of its errors , ( though that has evermore been done , and is still in doing , ) as in an effectual disappointment and defeating of its designs . the great and general design of the popish factioners and factors , ( i mean the jesuits most especially , ) is to debilitate by dividing , and to distract by discontenting the people of england ; and by that artifice , ( having found by long experience , they cannot well hurt us without our help , ) to make the protestants themselves who would have popery kept out with both their hands , most instrumental to bring it in by head and shoulders . all i say against the practices of our jesuited protestants , is in displeasure to the jesuits , who drive them on . and were i to labour for my life against the inroads or growths of popery , and in prevention of the conspiracies which come from rome , i would make it my whole indeavour , both by menaces , and perswasions , by terrors , and intreaties , by sense of interest , and honour , and shame it self , by all the means i could use , and all the arguments i could urge , to convince and convert our english protestant dissenters , and make them all meet as one in the church of england . if 't is their master-piece to divide us , it should be ours to be united . and now , if ever . else in vain do we strive to confute their errors , though we do it never so well , whilst torn in pieces among our selves we commit the grossest error ( in point of policy and prudence ) to be imagin'd . it should therefore ( in my opinion ) be the ambition of us all , who are heartily the sons of the church of england , to prevail from all topicks with protestant sectaries amongst us , ( who do agree with us already in the publick profession of being protestants , and being equally averse to the church of rome , ) to lay aside their animosities , if not to bury them for ever in the same church-yard ; to acquiese in one government by law establish'd ; to submit their single judgments to the united ones of their superiours ; to sacrifice private discontents to publick interest , and to be as a city which is at unity in it self ; to consider that as the laws would be otherwise than they are , if their governours were as they , so if they were as their governours , the laws would still be as they are by their own contrivance ; to keep in mind that as of mortals , who are but men on this side heaven , he is reckon'd to be the best who has fewest faults , not he who has none in a state of frailty , so of all governments upon earth , that ought to pass for the most perfect , ( as well in respect of its legislative , as of its executive administrations , ) which is subject unto the fewest and most supportable imperfections . add to this the consideration , how many rebellions and conjurations rais'd by christians ( so called ) against their governours , have brought the profession into an hatred with jews and gentiles ever since ; and tempted many even at home into this passionate imprecation , sint animae nostrae cum philosophis . nor can we say who were the worse , of men pretending to christianity , they who did execute what they intended on the of january , or they who intended onely to execute on the of november , the barbarous murther and subversion of king and kingdom . and if our present dissenters ( such i mean of their number as mean the best , ) would but impartially consider , or sufficiently compare , as well the principles , and the parties , as the projects themselves , which those two days have made so signal , i cannot chuse but believe they would abominate them alike ; or the later perhaps the more , for the infamy then brought on the english name . i know not whether i shall be able , but i am willing to do them service , by undeceiving and disabusing them in all the caveats which ensue . being as hopefull our common enemies will in time make us friends , as i am sure our common dangers ought to make us all intent on our common safety . this they will and must do , in case we will but permit our selves , either in piety , or in prudence , to be provoked by our enemies to aemulation . for if all sorts of papists , even the sorbonists , and the jesuits , the dominicans , and the franciscans , the professors of the gallican and spanish churches , however differing in opinions , and burning in hatreds of one another , do yet agree against the protestants , and in the same church of rome , as much as caiphas a jew , and pontius pilate a gentile , did both agree against jesus christ ; what can hinder all sorts of protestants , all the english ones especially , ( however divided in some opinions and disaffections to one another , as much perhaps as even the molinists and the jansenists themselves , ) from meeting together and agreeing in the same church of england , whose reformation is made authentick by the highest authority under heaven ? especially when their agreement is a most necessary preservative of those four things which are dearest to them , their religion , their liberties , their livelihoods , and their lives ? what can hinder them from converting the most inhumane combination or our blood-thirsty enemies , into an excellent security against it self ? or from making our remaining and yet present dangers become the most instrumental to our escape ? there is a trite and stale objection , against the king , and the bishops , and against all inferiour men of the church of england , that they are popishly affected , if not a kind of cassandrian papists . and this objection or calumny , how weak soever , has yet been strong enough to be mischievous unto a world of well-meaning , but weaker brethren ; although it has ever been confuted by all the barbarous combinations , and diabolical conspiracies , against the fathers and the sons of the church of england , from the days of queen elizabeth , to these we live in . for if there is in any of us such a tincture of popery , or of papistical inclination , as the jesuited papists have taught our jesuited protestants to say and publish , why should the emissaries of rome be more industriously intent upon our destruction , ( for being men of the church of england , ) than upon the extirpation of all other protestants in the world ? is it not because the church of england is still the ornament , and the apology , the support , and the protection , of all the protestant churches beyond sea throughout the world ? is it not that foreign protestants cannot be rooted out with ease , or but persecuted with safety , whilst there is a church of england , to stand as a rampire in the way between them and ruin ? whereas destroy or extinguish the church of england , and all the reformed churches abroad will fall to ruin of themselves . if real miracles are not ceased , ( as some say they are , and some that they are not , ) the church of england's preservation ( and of late more than ever , ) is the best argument i can think of , whereby to prove the continuance of them . o that our separatists were wise ! that they understood this ! that they would but consider ▪ that hand from heaven , by which the chief protestant king , and the chief protestant kingdom of all the world , and the chief protestant church which is the security of the rest , are yet alive at this day , to own and honour their deliverer , and to be practically thankfull for their deliverance . one thing more i have to say , in this monition to the reader , concerning both the nature , and the liberty of a man's conscience ; which he who offers to invade , and so to violate , does attempt to make a breach on the gates of heaven . ( as the emperor maximilian thought good to word it . ) only 't is every man's concernment to learn exactly what it is , wherein the nature of a man's conscience , and the just liberty is to consist . i give a caveat touching the first , in the third sermon following ; and touching the second in the fourth . to each of w ch if our dividers will but deliberately advert , they will be much better subjects both to god and the king , than they are at present ; and we who are lovers of the government by law establish'd , shall have the fairer quarter from them for that conjunction . this ( one would think ) should be agreed to , even by men of all parties : that if the consciences of some ( as some do use the word conscience ) contend for a liberty to resist , or at least to contradict , and to defame the laws in force , sure the consciences of others may have a liberty to obey them without offense which yet has been envied , or deny'd us , we know by whom . if , where the matter is indifferent , or barely lawfull , all the immediate laws of men are also the mediate laws of god , by being enacted by that authority , which god has enacted we shall obey ; and if it is a prime part of that christian liberty , wherewith christ has made us free , to submit our selves ( with s. peter ) to every ordinance of man , and to do it for the lord's sake , ( as s. peter bids us , ) 't is equally strange , and unexcusable , that they who call it most falsly their christian liberty , to despise dominion , and speak evil of dignities , to live in schism and disobedience to laws in force , should seek to defraud us of that genuine and true christian liberty , the liberty to obey such as are over us in the lord , and such as watch for our safeties , whilst we are sleeping . in this grand doctrine of jesus christ , the doctrine of submission to every ordinance of man , by way of climax and gradation from the bottom to the top of all authority upon earth , ( from the constable or the tithing-man who labours at the plough , to him who sits upon the throne as the supreme resort of justice , and to whose determination the last appeal lies , ) we have a principle of vnity , which either will bind up all our breaches , or else will make our divisions innocent . for our judgements all meeting in this one point , ( as very easily they may , and unavoidably they must , if we do heartily and truly believe the gospel , ) all our other disagreements in point of opinion or perswasion will not be publickly inconvenient , much less pernicious : because when inbred insurrections are made impossible , ( as they are in the case premised , ) no invasions from without can ever hurt us . on the other side i cannot forbear to prophecy , ( wishing my prophecy may be false , as it is modest and but conditional , ) that if we fix not on some expedient whereby to agree among our selves , ( nor can i imagin any one likelier than the great principle of obedience to god's anointed , whose life is every day endanger'd for his adherence to our religion , ) we shall not have a way left to keep out a foreign jurisdiction , or to prevent its coming in with a foreign force . i have the more reason to hope , the greater reason i have to pray , that my caveats may find their readers in so much temper as to weigh the several arguments made use of in this conjuncture , which are in hopes to outweigh whatsoever witty malice may urge against them . and that this may be an instance of god almighty's great mercy to this most coveted , and indanger'd , and ( not despised , but ) envied land , is so far the hope ; as it is the prayer of the reader 's well-meaning and faithfull servant t. p. the general heads or contents of the several caveats . joh . . . i. of trying the spirits before we trust them . p. . thess . . . ii. of the exceeding sinfulness of schism ; in how many great regards it is worse than haeresie ; and why more damning than other crimes . p. . eph. . , . iii. of circumspection in thesi . p. . matth . . . iv. of circumspection in hypothesi ▪ p. . cor. . . v. of fear as necessary to faith in the well-ordering of our lives . p. . heb. . . vi. of peace and holiness united , as equally required to our salvation . p. . thess . . . vii . of abstaining from all appearance of evil. p. . . pet. . . viii . of abstaining in general from fleshly lusts . p. . pet. . . ix . of abstaining in particular from disobedience to authority in things indifferent , as from the worst and the most scandalous of all fleshly lusts in s. peter's judgement . p. . heb. . . x. a caveat touching the danger of refusing those caveats our lord hath given us in his gospel . p. . to which is added an inquiry , how god is said to be the object of real knowledge , and how of faith onely ; and why faith ( rather than knowledge ) is essentially belonging to all religion . p. . a seasonable caveat against the dangers of credvlity in our trusting the spirits before we try them ; delivered in a sermon before the king at white-hall on the first sunday in february , / . by thomas pierce d. d. domestick chaplain to his majesty , and dean of sarum . published by his majestie 's especial command . london , printed by e. f. for r. davis , bookseller in oxford . mdclxxix . a sermon preached before the king . john . . but try the spirits whether they be of god. § . there are multitudes of deceivers in these our last and worst times , by way of antidote unto whose venom these words of s. john are a good provision . and however they are numerous , i think they may fall under two general heads . some are so credulous as to believe every spirit ; and some so atheisticall , as to believe none at all . both are enemies to religion , though not both alike . for though the first are bad enough , the last are very much worse . the first are meteors in religion , expressed to us in scripture by clouds without water , and wandring stars ; such as are carried to and fro with every wind of false doctrine ; men so unlearned and so unstable , so in love with new light , and so given to change , that not contented with one or two , ( though the best and soundest , ) they heap up teachers unto themselves ; and by the novelty of the doctrine putting an estimate or value on him that brings it , they are easily made proselytes to every new prophet who next bespeaks them ; little considering with s. john , ( in the next words after my text , ) that there are many false prophets ( many even in his time , and many more sure in ours , ) gone out into the world. the second sort of enemies ( which are the worst too ) are the disciples of the book which is call'd leviathan ; the greatest monster in all the world , excepting onely the authour of it . for if the perfectest definition of man as man , is to be animal religiosum , which still includes rationale , and therefore makes the most exact definition , ( as many great and good writers have very rationally esteem'd it ; ) then he must certainly be a * monster , more properly then a man , who is so destitute of reason , as wholly to be void of religion too . and for any one to teach , ( as the monster of malmesbury has been permitted to doe in print , ) that there is no spirit at all , or that there is no incorporeal substance , ( two expressions of the same thing , ) what is it but to pluck up all religion by the root ? 't is publickly to set up a school of atheism . for god ( if any thing ) is a spirit ; not for this reason onely , because our apostle s. john affirms it , ( whom the hobbists will not believe ; ) but for this other reason also , ( which even our hobbists cannot but yield to , ) that , supposing a god there is , ( or that 't is but possible for him to be , ) he must be infinite , and indivisible ; and yet , we know , he can be neither , if he is any way corporeal . for all corporeal things have parts , and so by consequence are divisible , and so by consequence are finite . and for god to be finite , or divisible , is for god not to be god ; the worst and grossest of contradictions . from whence it follows unavoidably , that for any one to teach , and to teach in publick , ( not publickly from the pulpit , but much more publickly from the press , ) that an incorporeal substance is in it self a contradiction , ( the positive doctrine of the * leviathan , ) is publickly to open a school of atheism : it being publickly to teach there is no spirit , and ( by a consequence unavoidable ) there is no god. for every thing that is , is either an accident , or a substance . ( what is neither , is not . ) and every substance ( a nobler sort of being then any accident can be ) is either corporeal , or incorporeal . that denominates a body , and this a spirit . to say that god is the former , implies the horridest contradiction ; ( as hath been shewn ; ) and so he must be the latter , by undeniable consecution . to say , he is not a spirit , or not an immaterial substance , is neither better nor worse then to say , he is not . it is to say , there is no such thing . § . against the dangerous contagion of the premised two extremes , s. john in this text has timely given us two caveats ; one express'd , and another imply'd . first , 't is express'd in plain terms , that , seeing many false prophets ( or false pretenders to the spirit ) are gone out into the world , we are bound , for that reason , not to believe every spirit . next , 't is as evidently imply'd , ( as if it were expressed in words at length , ) that though many prophets are false , we must not thence reckon that none are true : as though many lines are crooked , we must not thence argue that none are strait ; seeing every crooked line must needs presuppose and imply a strait one . nor may we sottishly disbelieve the spirit of holiness and truth , for fear of believing with too much ease a spirit of errour and vncleanness . but as my text is in the middle between an important dehortation , [ believe not every spirit , ] and as important a reason of it , [ for many false prophets are gone out into the world : ] so our course is to be steer'd in a middle way , betwixt the scylla of credulity , and the charybdis of vnbelief . we must examin all pretenders , and try of what sort they are . we must get a lapis lydius , whereby to learn the true difference betwixt the two sorts of spirits in the sixt verse of this chapter , the spirit of truth , and the spirit of errour : or , ( to express it without the metonymie which our apostle here useth , ) betwixt a true , and false prophet ; betwixt * a man of god , and a * dreamer of dreams ; betwixt a theopneust , and a daemoniack ; betwixt a reall possessor of divine revelations , and a phantastick pretender to them . for as there were prophets in the old testament , both true and false , so are there also in the * new. as there were spirits under the law , too many to be good , so there are also under the gospel . there was in that a familiar spirit , ( lev. . . ) a lying spirit , ( king. . . ) and a spirit of perverseness , ( isa . . . ) there is in this a foul spirit , a deaf and dumb spirit , ( mar. . . ) a spirit of errour and of delusion , ( thess . . . joh. . . ) a spirit of slumber , ( rom. . . ) still the more and the worse the unclean spirits are , the greater need we have to try them . and though there are also as many good spirits , as there are angels who never fell ; yet all their goodness is but derivative , from the one spirit of god , who is god the spirit . to him are ascribed the famous gifts , cor. . . and amongst all the severall gifts wrought by one and the same spirit , the discerning of spirits is worthily reckon'd to be a chief , ( v. . ) which gift of discerning 'twixt good and bad spirits , ( as all the rest , ) the spirit of god divides to every man severally as he will , ( v. . ) to some in a greater , and to some in a lesser measure . and in this gift s. peter did very mnch excell s. philip. ( for so 't is obvious to collect from the th . of the acts , by comparing the th . with the th . verse . ) § . now whatever can be meant by the subjects of triall we are to make , whether churches or church-men , whether prophecies or prophets , whether doctrins or doctors , whether inspirations or men inspir'd , or every one of these equally ; however different they may be , or inconsistent with one another ; 't is plain they all pretend alike unto the same spirit of god. and therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , try and prove them , ( says our apostle , ) whether they are what they pretend : whether really they are gold , or do but eminently glister : whether they speak by commission , and as the oracles of god , or onely run ere they are sent , inspir'd by avarice , and ambition , and by the impulse of the devil : whether they teach the sound doctrins of christ's apostles and of his church , whose faith and doctrins we are to follow ; or are but some of the foolish prophets ( in the th . of ezekiel ) who follow their own spirit , and prophesie out of their own hearts ; are like the foxes in the desarts , have spoken vanity , and seen lies , saying , the lord saith , and the lord hath not sent them . in any case we must try them , of what sort they are . § . nor must we onely try them ; but we must also try the rule by which they all are to be tried . for severall tests and rules of triall ( who are true or false teachers , and which doctrins are right or wrong , ) have been lately set up to the hurt of souls , by the two sorts of enemies whereof i spake in the beginning ; to wit , the pretenders to enthusiasm , and the disciples of the leviathan . the first of these will allow of no other test , than the sturdiness and strength of their own perswasion , which it is their will and pleasure to call the testimony within them . and by running in a circle they grow so giddy , that the longer we catechize , the more we lose them . and 't is worthy to be observ'd , how they wrest and misapply the word of life to their destruction . for , if we ask how they know they have a testimony within them from god the holy ghost ; we know it ( say they ) by this , that * god hath given us of his spirit . if we ask how they know that he hath given them of his spirit ; we know it ( they say ) by this , that * we cannot sin . if we ask how they know that they cannot sin ; their answer is , * we are born of god. if we ask how they know this ; we know it , ( they will answer ) because we have * a new name given us , which no man knows but he that hath it . if we ask how they know of a new name given them ; they will answer , we know it by that * spirit which dwelleth in us . if we ask how they know the spirit of truth from the spirit of errour ; their answer is still at hand , ( and still out of the scriptures , ) he that knoweth god heareth us , and he that is not of god heareth not us . if we ask them for a witness whereby to prove it ; * the spirit ( their answer is ) beareth witness with our spirits . if we bid them produce their witness ; he that believeth ( they will say ) hath the witness in himself . if we call for any witness of men ; they tell us , the witness of god is greater . thus they argue by their circular and identical way of discourse , [ they have the holy spirit of god , because they are ( forsooth ) assured ; and assured of it they are , because of the spirit which dwelleth in them . ] so strongly does the spirit of perverseness shew it self in such as are delivered up to believe a lie. ( for that is sometimes the case , thess . . . ) the other enemies of religion , ( who are withall by much the worst , ) in a derision and contempt of supernatural revelation , will have no better test of true and false prophets , or of right and wrong doctrins , than the warranty and allowance of the sovereign powers , in every kingdom and commonwealth , of whatsoever denomination throughout the world . which position of the leviathan , ( fetcht as 't is from japonia , and there from the sect of the jenxuani ) is so prodigiously absurd , that it either makes no difference 'twixt right and wrong , and infers true and false to be a couple of empty words , ( which signifie nothing , or the same thing , the will and pleasure of the prince ; ) or else infers this contradiction , that the same things and persons are in severall times and places both true and false . so that according to this position , the christian religion was a false one under all the heathen emperours , who did publickly prohibit the teaching of it ; yet a most true one under constantine surnam'd the great , and under all the following emperours , who strictly commanded it to be taught . jesus christ ( with mr. hobbs ) must have been a false prophet , as not approved of by herod and the then-emperour of rome ; whilst mahomed must be a true one , because allow'd by the great sultan , supreme governour of the turks . the will and pleasure of the prince being set up by that monster , as the sole touchstone , or criterion , whereby a prophet , or a doctrin , or a religion is to be try'd . none ( says he ) but a sovereign in a christian commonwealth , can take notice what is , or what is not the word of god. a greater power than is ascribed by the jesuites themselves , either to the bishop or church of rome : a power to abrogate the old , and ( as often as he will ) to make a new canon of scripture , or none at all . § . had such seducers of the people appear'd in publick among the jews , a present death without mercy had been inflicted as the wages of their iniquity . ( deut. . . and ch . . v. . ) the setters forth of new doctrins in that mosaical dispensation could not escape their publick trials in the great parliament of israel they call'd the sanedrim ; and were condemn'd as false teachers , either to be strangl'd , or ston'd to death . yea , though they had shewn signs and wonders , and though their signs came to pass too , yet could it not exempt them from suffering death , in case they tended to seduce the silly admirers of their wonders to worship idols , or any other way to enervate the law of moses : which none could be allow'd to doe , and yet be thought a true prophet , unless he could doe as real miracles as moses , and give as cogent demonstrations as moses had given , of his having been inspired and sent by god. therefore none but the messias , who out-did moses , and that as well in point of miracle , as in holiness of life , and in illustrating or compleating the whole moral law , could lawfully abolish the ceremonial . yea even those divine prophets or men of god ( as they were call'd ) who still asserted the law of moses , and disswaded men with vehemence from idolatry and schism , were fain to prove they were of god by unfeigned miracles . by such a real miracle of the anonymous prophet at bethel , jeroboam's hand was dry'd up , and restored to him . by such a miracle of elijah , the fire of the lord fell down from heaven , and consum'd the burnt-sacrifice , together with the altar on which it lay . whereby the people were incens'd against the false prophets of baal , and presently slew them all as cheats by the river kishon . by such a miracle of elisha , even naaman an idolater was suddenly cleansed from his leprosie , and convinced of jehovah's being the onely true god. by the like unfeigned miracles , moses baffled all the lying ones of the sorcerers in aegypt . and if the prophets then had need of shewing many and great miracles , to prove the truth of that religion which the israelites were then in possession of ; how much a greater need of miracles should our seducers stand in , whereby to make us leave our old , and wherewith to draw us on to their new beliefs ? that doctrin ( for example ) of jesus christ and his apostles , [ that we must obey them who have the rule over us , and that we must submit our selves to every ordinance of man for the lord's sake , ] was confirmed by greater miracles ( if any greater can be ) then moses and the prophets confirm'd theirs by . and by consequence , if our pretenders to supernatural illumination will have us adhere to their new doctrin , [ that we must not submit to every ordinance of man , but rebell against them ; nor obey , but resist such as have the rule over us ; nor do any thing in religion with any decency or order , but all as rudely and as confusedly as we can , ] they must perswade us by greater miracles than those of christ and his apostles , whom we believe . at least they must be able to convince us of errour in life and doctrin , ( as moses did corah and all his separatist-relations , ) by commanding the earth to open , and to swallow us up quick : or strike us dead without a blow , ( just as peter did ananias , ) for our usurping that authority to preach god's word , which our schismaticks and enthusiasts of each extreme are wont to arrogate as a right belonging onely to themselves . but ( god knows ) we have too many , who need no working of signs and wonders to deceive them : so very fond they are of novelties in religion it self , that they are often drawn from it without a miracle . yea , if the true prophet from judah could suffer himself to be deceiv'd by the cunning false prophet who dwelt in bethel , ( king. . . ) for which ( not the false , but ) the true prophet was slain ; ( v. . ) how apt are others to be deceiv'd who are no prophets at all ? very great need therefore we have , to try pretenders to the spirit , before we trust them , whether or no they have indeed a prophetick spirit ; and whether they speak the mind of god by any immediate revelation . § . a general rule whereby to try them ( though 't is particularly apply'd ) s. john sets down in the next verse after my text ; hereby know ye the spirit of god. every spirit which confesseth that jesus christ is come in the flesh , is of god. a text whose pithy brevity makes it difficult and obscure , and so it stands in some need of an explication . i take its meaning to be this. every spirit which confesseth , or every pretender who owns our saviour , not onely by word of mouth , but in life and practice , and from the heart , both as jesus a saviour , and as christ a king too ; every one who does own him as well by his faith , as his confession , and as well by his obedience , as by his faith , to be the onely true shiloh that was to come ; every one who does own him to be come in the flesh too , not onely in his divine , but in his humane nature also , which cerinthus and ebion and simon magus did deny ; ( unto whom in particular s. john alludes in this place ; ) lastly , every one who owns him in his exinanition , in his most despicable condition , which made his friends to fly from him , and peter himself to disavow him ; every one who does own him in his tremendous crucifixion , his death , and burial , and confesseth him even so to be * the son of the living god , or god manifest in the flesh , 't is plain that every such spirit must be concluded to be of god. so that if any shall here object against s. john's rule of triall , that many hereticks and schismaticks do confess jesus christ to be come in the flesh , who notwithstanding are of the devil , and not of god ; two answers are to be given for the objector's behoof and satisfaction ; one from estius , and another from tirinus . ( though the substance of them both i have anticipated already . ) estius answers , that s. john did direct this rule against the hereticks of his own times , who denied jesus christ to have come in the flesh : and such were those three whom i nam'd a little before . which answer is indeed good , but not sufficient . tirinus therefore adds fitly , that by our confessing jesus christ to have come in the flesh , is meant our confessing and believing ( to wit , our practical believing ) that jesus christ is the messias ; both a saviour and a prince , ( as s. peter calls him , ) who gives repentance unto israel , and forgiveness of sins . not forgiveness without repentance , nor forgiveness before repentance ; but repentance in the first place , and forgiveness in the second . in which very order , both of dignity and nature , s. peter had exhorted to both before , ( ch . . v. . ) repent , and be converted , that your sins may be blotted out , when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the lord. and all sincere repentance implies . obedience , as the same s. peter argues , act. . . this answer is very good and sufficient too , unless , by being too short , it may be also too obscure , or not sufficiently perspicuous to some of the slowest apprehensions ; for which defect in the next place i shall endeavour to make amends . § . and because where the touchstone it self is false , all sorts of trial must needs be foolish ; therefore pretenders to the spirit are to be try'd by such a touchstone , as needeth not it self another touchstone for its trial. and such a touchstone is to be taken out of those plainest places of scripture , whose sense and meaning is agreed on even by men of all judgements ; texts deliver'd in such clear and univocal terms , that opposite parties do apprehend them in the very same way ; and as they never have been yet , so they never can be matter of any cavil , or dispute . and because i pretend not to teach my fellow - teachers , or such as need not to be thus taught , ( though the most knowing may not disdain to be put in remembrance of what they know , ) but onely the ignorant and the vnstable , who ( for want of due knowledge , or of sufficient consideration , ) are like clouds without water , carried about of winds , ( as s. jude describes them ; ) i shall be carefull that every part of the test or criterion i am to give , may be short , and yet easie , and ( i hope ) without all question . the several parts of the touchstone will be no fewer than or . nor are the spirits to be try'd by any one or two of them , but by all put together , whether or no they are of god. first , the spirit that is of god is the spirit of truth . and therefore if any man , who is outwardly of a seeming good life , is yet of very ill judgement in fundamentals , in points essential to christianity , as in the doctrin of obedience to every ordinance of man , to the higher powers , to them that have the rule over us , and do watch for our souls ; ( a doctrin running in a vein throughout the body of the gospel , and essentially belonging to all religion ; ) especially if he ascribes to a sinfull man ( not to say , the man of sin , ) that incommunicable attribute of god himself , [ infallibility , ] and gives to every priest the privilege to doe a much greater miracle than ere was done by christ himself , so far forth to transubstantiate a piece of bread , as first to make his own saviour , and then to eat him ; he must needs be misinstructed by the spirit of errour and fascination , the spirit with which he is bewitch'd , ( as s. paul speaks to the galatians , ) let his outward conversation be what it will , let his visible course of life be never so plausible , or severe . next , the spirit that is of god is the spirit of holiness and purity , as well as truth . and therefore if any man , who is orthodox , is at the same time dishonest , of some good opinions , but evil practice , does hold the truth , but in unrighteousness ; especially if he takes upon him ( by that viper of morality and all religion , the jesuites doctrine of * probability ) not onely to allow , but to incourage and abett the grossest villanies in the world , ( without exception ; ) he is not season'd by the holy , but the a vnclean spirit , let his orthodoxie of judgement , as to some fundamentals , be what it can . an honest heathen is not so bad as a christian knave . thirdly , the spirit that is of god is b the spirit of vnity and love. and therefore if any sort of men shall take upon them to be reformers by making schism , by dissolving the bond of peace , wherein the vnity of the spirit is to be kept , and shall crumble religion into as many small parcells , as the caprices of idle men shall have the liberty to suggest ; especially if they shall labour to separate subjects from their sovereign , by absolving them from their oaths of christian obedience and fidelity , or by instructing them to swear , with a design to be forsworn ; they are miss-led by that spirit whose name is legion , even the spirit of division , that old and cunning serpent which deceiveth the whole world. fourthly , the spirit that is of god is the spirit of meekness and of order . and therefore if any despise dominion , and speak evil of dignities , and in pretense of being the meek ones who are by right of promise to inherit the earth , demurely tread upon crowns and crosiers , and love to be levelling with their feet , whatsoever ( according to god's special providence ) does overtop them by head and shoulders ; especially if they presume to place the single bishop of rome above general councils , invest him with a power to excommunicate kings , and subvert whole kingdoms , and make the people hope to merit by the most prodigious murthers ; they must be led by that spirit , which is called the angel of the bottomless pit , abaddon , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that is , destroyer ; even the spirit which is still working in the children of disobedience . fiftly , the spirit that is of god is the spirit of sincerity , induing all whom he inhabits with an absolute simplicity and singleness of heart . and therefore they who do hold up their left hand to god , but their right against their governours ; having godliness in their profession , but practical atheism in their lives ; hating idols from the teeth outwards , but loving sacriledge from the heart ; crying down superstition , but preaching up the creature-comforts flowing from plunder , which they call providence ; declaring with zeal against the prelates , but ever voting up the papacy of their superintendents ; declaiming much against the sectaries who are not of their denomination , but breaking down the hedge of discipline whereby the herds are to be kept from god's inclosure ; especially they who have invented the art of aequivocating and cheating , the art of swearing any thing safely , by mental exceptions and reservations , the art of couzenage by the contract they call mohatra , and the like ; must needs be acted by that spirit whom the scripture has expressed by the father of lies , even the spirit of hypocrisie , that black prince of darkness , which transforms himself with ease into an angel of light . sixtly , the spirit that is of god is the spirit of knowledge , and wisedom , and vnderstanding . and therefore if any man cites scripture against the whole tenor and stream of scripture , and wanders into the wrong way , even by that very word which does direct him into the right one ; especially if he levells the canon of scripture with the apocrypha , and makes the pure word of god to truckle humbly under tradition , whereby it becomes * of none effect ; if men so learned , and so acute , and so sagacious as the jesuites , after all the heinous things they have done and taught , are so far from discerning what spirit they are of , that they utterly mistake an evil spirit for a good one ; a spirit from hell , for one from heaven ; the spirit which reigns in the court of rome , for the spirit which guides in the church of england ; if they can think it the top of piety , to advance the lord jesus quite against the lord christ , and make the christian religion the greatest transgression of itself ( which moves the jansenists to call them the antichristian society ; ) if they can take it for the comble of christian merit and perfection , to espouse and put in practice this turkish maxime , that religion is to be propagated ( where 't is possible ) by the sword ; they must needs be possess'd by the spirit of slumber , the spirit of dead sleep , the god of this world which blindeth the mind : for so the devil is once call'd , cor. . . what i have thus drawn out at length , our blessed lord does wind up into this short bottom , ( matth. . . ) ye shall know them by their fruits . but the fruits of that spirit that is of god are reckon'd up by s. paul to be such as these ; love , joy , peace , long-suffering , gentleness , meekness , goodness , and the like . and therefore they who , in stead of loving enemies , do persecute and oppress the mystical members of the same body whereof christ is the head ; who lay the cross of christ jesus on christian shoulders , robbing one of a living , another of a liberty , a third of a life ; and this for no other crime than being constantly conscientious , ( and very real friends to all , because the flatterers of none , though able to injure , or to oblige them ; ) must needs be managed by that carnal and unclean spirit , which makes them so fruitfull and so abounding in the works of the flesh : such as hatred , variance , wrath , strife , seditions , heresies , and the like . § . now if all these particulars be laid together in our minds , i suppose we have a touchstone to try the spirits of pretenders , whether or no they are of god ; and such a touchstone , as needs not it self another touchstone to be try'd by . but because the best touchstone is nothing worth to such as know not how to use it , we shall doe well to take notice of one rule more in the using of it . for , considering how many * vices do too much border and confine upon several vertues , and how many lies are more plausible to flesh and bloud than many truths ; and hardly any thing can be so false , but may have colours and probabilities to set it off ; ( being neatly laid on by men ingeniously wicked ; ) and that a multitude of ignaro's do often swallow the grossest errours , ( presented to them in the disguise of the greatest truths , ) by not distinguishing words ( as they ought ) from things , and blending one thing with another , and taking them down all at once , without any masticating or chewing ; i say , for this reason , we must not pass our last judgement upon pretenders to the spirit , untill we have made our selves acquainted as well with their habits , as with their acts ; as well with the main or general current of their lives , as with the meer conduct and carryings on of their designs ; with the means they make use of , as well as with the end they pretend to aim at ; with the building which is erected , as well as with the scaffold by which 't is rais'd ; with all their actions in a lump , as well as with the most specious and fairest of them . and when this is done throughly , then let the hypocrites and impostors be what they will , let the forms of godliness and the features of religion be never so artificially and neatly drawn , let the colours be laid on with never so delicate a pencill , and let that pencill also be managed with never so exquisite address ; 't will be most easie to find the difference between the picture and the life . let zeuxis his lively grapes be never so apt to deceive the birds , yet the deadness of his boy will unfold the cheat. § . the very truth of it is , we should be utterly unexcusable , if we should fall into the snare of the certain men among us crept in unawares , of either sort , because their arts of deceiving are gross and obvious ; fit to infatuate understandings of the lowest size onely , and such as are willing to be deluded . there were counterfeits in the most primitive and purest times of the church , who were brave cheats indeed ; who , besides their form of godliness , besides their praying and their preaching , could also set forth themselves by signs and wonders . the devil had taught them that subtil trick of transforming themselves into angels of light ; and so of deceiving ( if it were possible ) the very elect. such were barchochebas , apollonius , and simon magus . whereof the first had got a faculty even of vomiting flames of fire ; the second could tell the men of ephesus , what in that very hour was done at rome ; the third ( like a cherub ) could fly abroad into the air. so that they had some kind of colour for their giving out themselves to be the messengers of heaven , some pretences for their broaching a new theology to the people ; because their counterfeited miracles , however derived from below , might seem at least to short reasons to have been given them from above . and to be couzen'd by such as these , were a more tolerable infirmity ; a credulity more to be pitied , and very much more ( rather than less ) to be pardon'd also . the magicians also in aegypt were such admirable deceivers , that they were able ( as well as aaron ) to turn their rods into serpents , and their slime into frogs , and their waters into bloud . so as if moses and aaron ( through god's assistance ) had not publickly convicted them of downright sorcery and inchantment , ( wherein the magicians grew eminent through the assistance of the devil ; ) if aaron's rod at last had not swallow'd up their rods , and turn'd the dust into lice through all the land , w ch the magicians could not doe , but confessed ( to their own shame ) that the finger of god was in it ; lastly , if moses had not smitten the very sorcerers themselves ( as well as the rest of the aegyptians ) with boyls and blains , insomuch that the magicians could not stand before moses ; they had had a shrewd advantage in the deceiving of the people , and the people so deceiv'd had been excusable à tanto . whereas our modern enthusiasts , or pretenders to revelation , and to a testimony within them from god the holy ghost , are not so much as good jugglers ; they are woefull impostors , and silly cheats ; such as satan indeed has furnished with very much industry , but with very small wit ; whereby he does not more strongly tempt them , than he discovers them to be his. they being so far from being indow'd with extraordinary gifts , whereby to prove to us an extraordinary commission ; so far from setting out themselves by signs and wonders , ( like those primitive deceivers of whom our saviour gave all his disciples warning , ( in the th . of s. matthew , ) or like those of whom moses forewarn'd his people , ( in the th . of deuteronomy ; ) that they come short of most men of the church of england , even in those very things wherein they would be thought eminent . the onely gifts of the spirit which they pretend to , are but praying and preaching ; in their performances of which they signalize themselves by nothing ; or at least by nothing more , than noise , and nonsense . the gift of tongues , or the gift of healing , or the gift of being subject to higher powers , for conscience sake , or for the lord's , or any other such remarkable apostolical gift of the holy ghost , i never heard that our adversaries on either side did ever yet so much as pretend unto . they seem to be as unapt to obey their governors for conscience sake , ( which is one special gift of the holy ghost , ) as to speak with new tongues , or to raise the dead . § . now if those exquisite pretenders , in the infancy of the gospel , barchochebas a jew , and apollonius tyanaeus an arrant heathen , simon magus , menander , basilides , and the like , who by profession at least were christians , were not then to be believ'd , notwithstanding their inchantment and magick-miracles ; if a false prophet under the law , who led the people into new errours , ( as vincentius lirinensis expounds that passage deut. . , , . and applies it to a false teacher in the times of christianity , in particular and by name , to valentinus , donatus , photinus , apollinaris , ) was not onely not to be heeded or hearkened to , but also was by that law to be put to death ; yea ( one step farther , ) if an angel from heaven , who shall preach another doctrin than what hath hitherto been deliver'd , ( whereby to lead us into rebellion , or schism , or sacrilege , or any conspiracy whatsoever against the government we are under , ) must be no otherwise entertain'd , than with an anathema maranatha ; how much less may our shallower and vnskilfuller impostors be believed to be of god upon their own single word , and without a witness , whilst they cannot confirm or commend their novelties , no not so much as by seeming miracles ? no not so much as that man of sin , that son of perdition , of whose coming s. paul saith to his thessalonians , that 't is after the working of satan , with all power , and signs , and ( with stupendous , though ) lying wonders ? but grant they had ( what they have not ) an ability to shew us some signs and wonders ; yet apollonius tyanaeus would put them down . suppose they preached extremely well , ( as 't is plain they do not , ) yet photinus and nestorius would go beyond them . do they make very long prayers ? so did the pharisees for a pretence , that they might the more slily devour orphans and widows houses . have they a readiness and facility in citing scripture ? so had julian the apostate when he disputed against the gospel . so had satan in his tempting our blessed saviour ; when he wrested god's oracles with as much subtilty and address , as the keenest of our recusants ( of what strain soever ) are wont to do . do they pretend their being warranted by an immediate revelation ? so did numa the roman ; and so did eumenes the greek : so did mahomed the saracen ; and alarichus the goth : lastly , so did the pretenders in the primitive church ; which made s. john exhort christians to try the spirits ; alledging this for his reason , that many false prophets are gone out into the world. is god's permitting them to be prosperous , or to sin on with great impunity , any argument that he approves them ? no , 't is the weakest way of reasoning which our adversaries of rome have delighted in . for , ( besides that we find them confuted often by their afflictions , ) god permits , what he abominates , his own dishonour . how patiently did he permit the disobedience of the first adam , and crucifixion of the second ? all the villanies in the world do come to pass by god's permission , however contrary they are to his rules and precepts . and if prosperous impiety does therefore cease to be impiety , because 't is prosperous and permitted , ( that is ) not hinder'd by force and violence , ( inconsistent with a free and a moral agent ; ) then the great sultan ; and the great cham , and the great mogul , as well as the great bishop of rome , are by an equally-sound consequence the greatest favourites of heaven . and then the argument of * symmachus had been unanswerably conclusive against the primitive christians , who for years and upwards lay groaning under the yoke of the heathens tyranny . lastly , if permission were still a mark of approbation ; then dionysius ( or diagoras ) had argued logically well , when , having robb'd the delphick temple , & immediately after escap'd a shipwreck , he gave it out , that the gods had approv'd his sacrilege . not at all that he believ'd , but laught at providence . § . what now can be said farther , in the behalf of our pretenders to the same spirit 's illumination , which clear'd the heads of the apostles , and warm'd their hearts ? can it be said they live strict and religious lives , though lives of schism and disobedience to humane laws and lawgivers , expresly said in holy scripture to be the ordinances of god ? but admit it were true , ( which yet is so false , that it implies a contradiction , ) 'twere not prevailing . for the heretick montanus grew so proud of his strictness , of his demure course of life in point of abstinence and sobriety , and suffering hardships , as to believe himself in time to be the paraclete downright ; not a godly man onely , but even the holy spirit of god. in which case 't is very evident , that even his strictness was his disease : and that the spirit which overrul'd him was from his spleen . the heathen brachmans also of india were so temperate , and chast , and so addicted to self-denials , ( in * order to their gaining upon the opinions of the people with whom they liv'd , ) that they seemed ( in all appearance ) to use this world as not abusing it : ( exactly so as s. paul exhorts the followers of christ . ) such an externally-strict person was the papalins s. francis ; who yet discover'd his humility and passive meekness ( as i have read many years since , apud authorem nescio quem , as cicero speaks in the like case , ) to have partly been a cloak , and partly an instrument of his pride . for , being ask'd why he rejoyced amidst the hardships of his imprisonment , because . ( said he ) the whole world will even adore and canonize me among their saints . hereby we see the strict necessity of the last rule i mention'd for the right using of the great rule by w ch the spirits are to be tried . for , lastly , by neglecting to try the spirits of pretenders , whether or no they be of god , ( and to try them impartially by every part of that touchstone i lately gave , ) how very many have we known of our poor separatists in england , ( acted as they have been by the late emissaries of rome , ) so strangely shallow , and over-credulous , as readily to imagin that every schismatick is a saint , who is not a sabbath-breaker , or swearer , not a drunkard , or an adulterer , and is so or so qualified in point of judgement ; or ( to speak more exactly ) in point of party , and of opinion ? it must therefore be well consider'd , and carried constantly in mind by such as these , that of the two 't is less intolerable to be a swearer , than a rebel ; a drunkard , than a thief ; a common thief , than a sacrilegious one ; and a less horrid thing , to be corporally vile , than to be spiritually proud of one's own perfections . we must beware of all the former , as we ever hope to fly from the wrath to come ; but more especially of the latter , as being much the more luciferian sins . sins which can never attend men to heaven , having brought down the angels of heaven to hell. drunkenness and whoredom ( however damning ) are sins the devil cannot commit : but envy , and malice , and schism , and sacrilege , hypocrisie , and rebellion , and intoxicating pride , are peculiar to him ; they are the devil's sins so properly , that they are properly call'd devilish in men , or christians , whereever found . and as these of all sins are much the most diabolical , so they are the most damning of any other , for ought i can collect from the words of christ , ( matth. . . ) and by the words of s. peter , ( pet. . , . ) if they who hate our congregations and way of worship , because they judge the holy ghost to have forsaken our meetings , and to dwell onely in theirs , or because we do not easily shut the door against sinners , ( till by authority authoriz'd , ) though they are under the reputation either of drunkenness , or whoredom , or any other the like scandalous and deadly sin , but not under the sentence of legal excommunication , ( till when we cannot lawfully shut them out from our communion , ) i say , if the censurers of our patience and longanimity towards such would but turn their eyes inwards , or duely reflect upon themselves , and compare those sins which the devil never commits , with those several other sins which are proper to him ; if they would not onely observe , but also remember , and consider , and religiously lay to heart , the terrible emphasis and force s. peter puts on the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saying of them who despise government , that they are chiefly , or most especially , reserved by the lord unto the day of judgement to be punished ; and the most formidable importance of that greater damnation , which our saviour has denounced against those hypocrites , who for a pretence do make long prayers ; i say again , if our dissenting & separating brethren ( in love and pity to whose souls we pray & preach for their conformity ) would have the patience and the humility to chew enough on these things , they would think with more charity of our communion , and with less arrogance of their own . they would not separate from us then , unless for contrary inducements than now do move them . they would separate from us then , in an humble opinion of their own vileness ; saying from the heart with the meek centurion , lord , we are not worthy that thou shouldst enter under our roof , and are by consequence unworthy to have admittance under thine . they would not separate from us then , unless in the spirit of s. peter , afraid to approach unto christ himself , with a depart from me , o lord , for i am a sinfull man. they would not separate from us then , like those idolaters in isaiah , with a stand farther off , come not near to us , for we are holier than you ; but rather , like the lepers under the law of leprosie , would cover their faces with confusion , and stand aloof from god's house , accusing themselves of their vncleanness : or , like the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the primitive times of discipline , falling down flat upon their faces , ( not in the church , but the churchyard , at an humble distance , ) would beg the charity of their prayers whom they saw entring into god's house at the times of prayer . were they such separatists as these , and from such a principle as this , from the excesses onely of meekness , and not of pride , we should receive them with the embraces of arms and hearts ; we should readily afford them even the right hand of fellowship ; we should conclude the holy ghost had so descended upon their souls , as once he did upon the heads of the apostles , or rather upon the hearts of th●se who at s. peter's one sermon were added to them : though not in the edifying gifts which were bestowed upon the former , yet in the sanctifying graces which were infused into the latter . § . but having spoken enough already of trying the spirits in other men , i think it fit to say something of trying them also in our selves . for considering the words of the prophet jeremy , the heart of man is deceitfull above all things ; and that 't is given to very few , ( few , i mean , in comparison , ) to know what spirits they are of ; i guess it concerns us all in general , and every one of us in particular , to resume the whole text , and bring it home unto our selves ; to search and try our own hearts , and to examin our own spirits , whether or no they are of god. 't was the precept of pythagoras to every man of his sect , that he should bring himself to the test , or call himself to an accompt , every evening of his whole life , with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; what he had done in that day which he ought to have omitted , and what good thing he had omitted which 't was his duty to have done : nor was he to suffer himself to sleep , till he had made up this reckoning three several times . so 't was the precept of s. paul , in his d epistle to the corinthians , examin your selves whether ye be in the faith : ( meaning that faith which does work by love all manner of obedience to the law of christ's gospel : ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , prove or try your own selves , whether ye have not yet received the true faith of christ ; or whether , having once received , ye still retain it . know ye not your own selves how that jesus christ is in you , except ye be reprobates ? so s. paul reason'd with his corinthians ; and so must we with or within our selves . know we not that christ is in us , by the presence of his spirit ? and by the power of his word ? and by the evident effects of his operation ? such as our sorrow for our sins past , our hatred of our selves in remembrance of them , and our stedfast resolutions of better life ? know we not that christ is in us by such evidences as these ? if we do , then let us treat him in such a manner , as may become so divine a guest . but if we do not , we have some reason to fear , lest we have sinn'd-away our saviour , as arrant reprobates and castaways ; as men unworthy to be call'd christians ; as men who either are not at all regenerate , or else are fallen from that state of regeneration which we were in ; or ( to express it with s. paul ) as men who have received the grace of god in vain . and as it concerns us on all occasions to try the spirit which is in us , whether 't is a good , or an evil spirit ; so most especially does it concern us at such a time as this is , when we tread in god's courts , to offer up the gospel-sacrifice of supplication and thanksgiving ; to hear his word , & to partake of his sacraments ( duties equally belonging to the first sunday of the month . ) for the bread of god's children must not be cast unto the dogs ; and the food which is spiritual belongs to them onely who can spiritually discern it , and who live not after the flesh , but after the spirit . i do not mean after every spirit , ( for there are many more than good , as i shew'd before , ) but after the spirit that is of god ; the spirit of holiness , and truth ; the spirit of vnity , and love ; the spirit of meekness , and of order ; the spirit of singleness , and sincerity ; the spirit of wisdom , and vnderstanding ; the spirit of counsel , and ghostly strength ; the spirit of knowledge , and true godliness ; and lastly , the spirit of god's holy fear ; ( as the divine prophet isaiah expresseth him resting upon christ , of whom the good king hezekiah was but a type in that place . ) unto all which if i should add , the spirit of promise , ( with s. paul , ) and the spirit of prophecy ( with s. john , ) the spirit of grace , ( with holy zachary , ) and the spirit of glory , ( with s. peter , ) i should but say , the same spirit , in the vindicating of whom from the many false spirits , which ( in this last age especially ) have been debauching the christian world , i have imploy'd the little time which is allow'd for this part of our morning service . to him therefore with the father in their unity with the son , sing we hosannahs , and hallelujahs , blessing , glory , honour , and power , to him that liveth for evermore . of the exceeding sinfulness of schism ; in how many great regards it is worse than haeresie ; and why more damning than other crimes . thess . . . now we command you , brethren , in the name of our lord jesus christ , that ye withdraw your selves from every brother that walketh disorderly . § . a text exciting us to a duty which does equally invite and command attention . for the duty is introduced with as important an obtestation , as is any-where us'd in s. paul's epistles : and it must certainly be a matter of exceeding great moment , which could extort from our apostle so great and signal an obtestation . he calls us brethren , ( for we are now in the place of the thessalonians , ) to win our love , and to shew his own . but withall he commands us , as god's embassador , that he may make as good impression upon our fear too . we may take his whole meaning in this plain paraphrase . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , we charge you , and that by virtue of our commission , or in the power of our apostleship , in the name and the behalf , by the bowells and the authority of our lord jesus christ , as ye will answer it at the great and terrible day of discrimination , the day wherein the lord jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire , taking vengeance on them that know not god , and that obey not the gospel of our lord jesus christ , who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the lord , and from the glory of his power ; by every thing that is dreadfull , or dear unto you , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , we declare , we denounce , we command you , brethren , that if ye observe any professor of the christian religion ( who for that reason onely is call'd a brother ) to forsake his proper calling , his place and station , and to meddle as a buisybody in other mens matters , ( v. . ) and so to cast off all obedience to the rules of direction which we have given ; ( especially if ye observe him to leap from the shop into the pulpit , or out of the church into a synagogue consisting of the most factious and disorderly opiniators , who , under colour of serving god , despise the ordinances of men ; ) ye presently note him , and mark him out , as a disorderly walker , as a disturber of society , as a disseminator of discords , the very bane of all religion , and the discredit of christianity ; most unworthy to be admitted to any commerce or conversation with regular christians ; but to be shunn'd like any leper , and to be cast out of your company , as if he had a plague-sore . ( v. . ) thus i paraphrase the text , as i find it relating to the context ; and by comparing our apostle's with our saviour's own rule . for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a brother walking disorderly , in this present verse , does seem to be the same unruly and irregular person , who is expressed by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thess . . . which being a military expression , and of peculiar use in tacticks , does properly signifie a souldier who runs away from his colours ; quits the service he undertook and ingaged in ; denies obedience to his commander ; not onely to his lieutenant , but captain-general ; ( that is to say , without a metaphor , ) depraves the doctrin , disturbs the disciplin , disowns the government of the church : by any one of which three he is disorderly in his walking , however they are commonly all three in one . § . now when a brother , ( that is ) a christian , ( at least in profession and pretense , ) is so disorderly in his walking , as that he will not hear the church , but is a contemner of authority , and publick order ; he is , by the rule of our blessed saviour , to be look'd upon and dealt with , just as * heathen-men and publicans were look'd upon and dealt with amongst the jews : we must avoid him , as a prophane and an impious person ; as one who is void of all religion , and as it were without god in the world. thus we must brand and stigmatize him for two good reasons , and pious ends : first , that himself may be asham'd , and being asham'd may be converted ; ( thess . . . ) next , that others also may * fear to doe , and suffer , by his example . § . that this was the meaning of our lord , ( matth. . . ) seems to me very evident from two especially of his apostles ; i mean , the most learned , and most beloved . they tell us both , that when a brother is become contumacious , and not reclaimable either by private , or by publick admonitions , we must not onely not religiously , but not so much as civilly entertain commerce with him . we must not * eat with such a brother , or keep him company ; must not * receive him into our houses , or bid him god speed . and there is reason for this severity , which s. paul and s. john have thus injoyn'd us . for can there be any thing more apposite , more pertinent , or proper , than to deny them our company in private houses , who disdain to afford us their own in god's ? why should we eat and drink with them , either at their , or our tables , who are therefore too unworthy , because they think they are too good , to eat and drink in our company at the table of the lord ? why should we any-where go with them , who will not go with vs to heaven ; and hate the means of salvation , so far forth as we injoy them ? is it any way consistent either with charity , or reason , that we should bid a man god speed in the ways of corah ; or affect his society , who hates our religion , and our god ? no , he is rather ( says our apostle ) to be put away from us , and from among us , ( as a foul , pestilential , accursed thing , ) and even deliver'd up to satan by the censures of the church : although it be to this charitable and wholsome end , that he may learn not to blaspheme ; that he may learn to be conformable to rules and rulers ; and so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the lord jesus . § . 't is true that all vicious persons are disorderly walkers , who walk as far as they are able from the strait path of god's commandments : and from all that are scandalous we are commanded to withdraw . for so saith s. paul , ( cor. . . ) i have written unto you , not to keep company , if any man that is call'd a brother be a fornicator , or covetous , or an idolater , or a railer , or a drunkard , or an extortioner , with such a one no not to eat . no not in one of your private houses , much less in the sacrament , and house of god. but i do not here speak ( nor does s. paul ) touching absolute apostates , who do renounce and fall away from the whole faith of christ , and the very profession of christianity ; because they are not so much as call'd , or accompted brethren . nor do i speak of jews , or heathens , who , because they are avow'd and open enemies of christ , may with much the more safety , or rather with much the less danger , be traffick'd with . ( and accordingly s. paul has excepted them , in the very next verse before my text , and the next verse after . ) but i speak of gross sinners , on whom the name of christ is call'd . and amongst them , in special manner , i aim at two sorts of men who are called brethren ; and so ( like judas downright ) do betray the whole cause of christianity with a kiss . i mean the haeretick for one , who breaks the unity of the church in point of doctrin , by denying one or more of her fundamentals : i mean the schismatick for another , who breaks the unity of the church in point of disciplin , by doing as much as in him lies to overthrow her very government , laws , and order . the first of these we must reject , and withdraw our selves from , in case he shall not reform himself , after a couple of admonitions : tit. . . much * more the second , as the more scandalous , and the more mischievous , and the more impious of the two . and being by much the most irregular of all disorderly walkers my text intends , he is the fitter to be the subject of my discourse at this time. for an haeretick , as he is such , does onely offend against faith and truth ; and keeping his errour to himself , ( as very easily he may , and very many there are that do , ) so as it never shall run out , either at his tongue 's or his finger's end , is no body's enemy but his own ; is a regular citizen , and a good subject , living friendly with his neighbours , and in an uniform obedience to his superiors . whereas a schismatick , as he is such , does also offend against peace and charity ; and cannot possibly keep his schism unto himself , but needs must hurt others with it , because 't is publick in its own nature , and cannot be schism , unless it be so . for he separates himself from the publick worship ; affronts the governors , and scorns the government of the church ; cuts himself off from the communion of the body of christ ; sets up altar against altar , dan and bethel against jerusalem and sion ; sets up a ministry of his own making , against a priesthood ordain'd by god ; abetts a conventicle prohibited by god and man , against a church set apart by the laws of both ; like jeroboam downright , whose sin consisted in this especially , that he made israel to sin. now an active divider in and of the church of god , must needs be worse than any other , who is but passively divided and cut off from her . and to destroy a whole society by subverting the whole legislative power , must needs be worse than to violate a particular law. and that which makes way for all the haeresies in the world , as well as for all the immoralities of life , ( which schism does evidently do , ) must needs be worse than any haeresie , which does onely make way for itself . and so a schismatick is the more impious , and the more mischievous of the two . again , a schismatick is worse than a simple haeretick as such , not for this reason onely , because a vitious practice is naturally worse than a wrong opinion ; ( though that is reason great enough ; ) but for this other reason also , ( not so commonly observ'd as i wish it were , ) because a schismatick ipso facto is mostly an * haeretick into the bargain . for besides his renouncing the ninth article of the creed , ( that form of sound words deliver'd to us by christ's apostles , ) the holy catholick church , and the communion of saints ; ( duly expounded and understood ; ) i say , besides that , he flatly despises , and detests ( for 't is a little thing to say , he disowns , and disbelieves , ) that principal doctrin of the gospel , that fundamental of christianity , that great essential to all religion , that we must heartily submit to every ordinance of man ; and that as well for the lord's sake , as for our own ; nor onely for fear of wrath , but for * conscience sake . § . why i chuse to call this , a principal doctrin of the gospel , a fundamental of christianity , and the great essential to all religion , i seem to my self to have so many and great reasons , that if they were every-where urged , and laid to heart , ( especially by the parties who are the least aware of them , but most concern'd to take them in , ) they might suffice to put an end to those numerous schisms , which now do threaten to put an end to our whole religion . the doctrin of obedience to humane governours and laws , is certainly the aptest of any other , ( next to that of our obedience to god himself , whereof this doctrin is a most necessary part too , ) to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace ; and to congregate into one body the most disjoynted and scatter'd members in church and state. a doctrin laid for this purpose by god the father , from the foundations of the world ; and that in the law of the first creation . a doctrin propagated by moses , as taught of god to teach others . a doctrin perfected by christ , as by the wisedom of the father , who pray'd his followers might be one , even as his father and he were one : ( joh. . . ) which yet without obedience to this very doctrin can never be . a docctrin inculcated and inforced by god the holy ghost , as by the spirit of love , and meekness , of peace , and vnion . a doctrin extended to all authority upon earth ; not onely regal in the first place , ( pet. . . ) but ecclesiastical in the second , ( heb. . . ) to summe up all in a word , there is not a doctrin in all the gospel , either more earnestly , or more assiduously , either more plainly , or more expresly prescribed to us , ( and that under pain of damnation too , ) than that of our uniform obedience to all that are over us in authority . i say , to all ; not onely to the best , ( the good and gentle , ) but as well to the worst , and most * froward governours . § . it is not onely most foolishly , but most nefariously pretended , that the piety , or impiety , the religion , or irreligion , of them that are over us in the lord , can either widen , or contract our divine obligation to strict obedience . for never was any incarnate devil more incomparably impious than those emperours of rome , tiberius and nero ; whom yet our saviour and s. paul commanded their followers to obey , and obey'd themselves . for obedience to magistrates being of divine right , strongly founded upon the will and the word of god , and even a part of our obedience to god himself , ( whilst it is paid to that authority which god has commanded us to pay an obedience to , ) cannot possibly be due to the men , as men , or to the good , as they are good ; but to the magistrates or masters reduplicativè , as they are such : 't is due to the governours as they are governours , and as the ordinance of god ; let their practices and opinions be what they will. § . 't is true , when our governours are vsurpers , or ( being none ) do command us what god forbids ; there there lies an exception to our obedience , due to god , rather than man. but this exception makes strongly for all i have hitherto said ; and that by virtue of the old axiom , exceptio firmat regulam in non exceptis . so that by this rule and reason , that when god and his deputies do stand in competition for our obedience , god must have our whole active , and his deputies our passive obedience onely ; it cannot but follow , that when our governours are rightfull , and do onely command what god does no-where forbid , or do onely forbid what god does no-where command us , there we must obey god , by obeying man : there being no other way of paying god our obedience , in such a case . for there our governours command is the command of god too . there the very same law which is immediately humane , is also mediately divine ; because we there are commanded by that authority upon earth , which in the old and new testament god has commanded us to obey . nor is there any one duty , belonging to us as men or christians , which god is pleas'd to make a stricter provision for . we are no more commanded to fear god , than to honour the king : nor are we more forbidden to worship idols , than to resist or disobey such as are over us in authority . § . this i do the rather insist upon , in my design upon the welfare and the conversion of our schismaticks , ( the most disorderly walkers of all my text alludes to , or comprehends in its importance , ) because i can no more separate ( no not so much as in my conception ) the sin of schism from disobedience to just authority , than disobedience from rebellion against the gospel , or a state of damnation from either of them . they are all three united in the schismaticks of old , as s. jude describes them . for , speaking in his epistle of certain men crept in unawares , despising dominion , and speaking evil of dignities , clouds without water carried about of winds , raging waves of the sea , foaming out their own shame , wandring stars , to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever ; he proceeds in his description to call them murmurers , complainers , walking after their own lusts , separating themselves [ from the church establish'd , ] and pretending to have , but indeed having not the spirit . this is s. jude's hypotyposis or description of the gnosticks , who were the first and worst schismaticks , the first and worst haereticks , the first and worst rebels in the primitive church ; the first who separated themselves upon this account , that they thought themselves perfecter and purer christians than others were ; the first who preached up christian liberty to consist in an exemption from all authority upon earth , from all superiours whatsoever , whether masters , or kings , or apostles and governours of the church ; the first we meet with in all the gospel match'd and parallel'd ( for wickedness ) with cain and core , yea with sodom and gomorrah , yea with those schismaticks in heaven , the angels that kept not their first estate , but left their own habitation , ( v. . ) and were thrown headlong by their schism from heaven to hell ; briefly , the first in the new testament , who are set forth for an example , ( as sodom and gomorrah were in the old , ) of suffering the vengeance of eternal fire , ( therein tormented day and night for ever and ever , rev. . . ) and so they are parallel'd ( for their misery , as well as sin , ) with them that separated themselves from the church triumphant ; reserved therefore by the judge in everlasting chains under darkness , unto the judgment of the great day . in all this s. jude agrees exactly with s. paul , ( tim. . , , . ) and as exactly with s. peter , ( in his whole d chapter of his d epistle , ) as if the one had taken notes out of the other . no less terrible are the expressions of the epistle to the hebrews , concerning such as persevere in the sin of schism , heb. . , . to v. . where they that do not hold fast the profession of the faith without wavering , ( v. . ) but forsake the assembling of themselves together , ( at the stated times and places by just authority appointed , ) as the manner of some is , ( v. . ) are inferr'd to sin wilfully , after they have received the knowledge of the truth , ( v. . ) and there remains nothing for such , but a certain fearfull looking for of judgment and fiery indignation , ( v. . ) § . nor indeed is it a wonder that the holy ghost's penmen and amanuenses should set themselves , as 't were on purpose , to terrifie schismaticks from their schisms , and to persuade them into conformity , by shewing the terrours of the lord ; by thundering out damnation , more to that single sin , than to all the rest : for a wilfull and a groundless separation from the catholick and apostolick church , or from a national church onely , which is a true part of the vniversal , ( such as is the church of england , where nothing sinfull is required as the condition of our communion , ) whether by breach of that communion in which a man ought to have continu'd , or by a refusal of that communion which 't is his duty to be of , ( and that as well by divine as by humane laws , ) is so infinitely far from walking orderly , or according to the tradition we have received of s. paul , ( that is , according to the rule of a christian life , deliver'd to us in the scriptures , ) that 't is to give the greatest scandal which can be given to christ's enemies , and tends to make the whole gospel of none effect . it helps to justifie the turks ; the jews , and gentiles , in the praejudices they have to the christian name . it helps to harden them in their hatreds , and even tacitly forbids them to be believers . 't is true that haeresie and schism do so agree in one generical signification , that haeresie is schism in point of doctrin , and schism is haeresie in point of vse . but they are so very different in their specifical acceptions , that schism is many ways the worse , as i said before . and if s. paul by the word haeresies does * not signifie them both , it follows that haeresie of itself is rank'd with hatred , idolatry , witchcraft , murthers , gal. . , , . and then how damning a sin is schism , whereof haeresie is but a part , as i shew'd before ? this is also there reckon'd among the works of the flesh . for hatred , variance , emulations , wrath , strife , seditions , what are they all , but several members or concomitants of schism ? implying schism to be a system or body of sin epitomiz'd . s. paul accordingly speaks of schism , as of a complicated carnality , which ( like the proverbial trojan horse ) carries an army of impieties within its bowels . 't was that ( by way of eminence ) s. paul accused , of having made his corinthians carnal . and the character which is given to the double-minded man ( jam. . . ) belongs as well to the schismatical or carnal-minded man , that he is unstable in all his ways . for such exactly is the schismatick by way of peculiarity ; who having faln from his center , [ the church of god , ] knows not after where to fix ; but wanders about from sect to sect , from party to party , from haeresie to haeresie , from schism to schism , and so indeed does try all things , ( in a most perverse and peevish sense , ) as never to hold fast what is good . experience is the mistriss by which we have been taught this. ( i mean the wofull experience of six and thirty years old . ) and we are most prodigious dunces , if after so many years instruction in the school of affliction and experience , we are no whit the wiser for such a lesson . for what things are there in holy writ , ( how essential soever to christianity , ) which have not been question'd , and disputed , if not deny'd , and rejected , since schism took place in the chair of scorn ? to this alone we owe the raging of the sea , and the roaring of the waves , whereby the madness of the people is oft express'd . to this alone we owe the legion , i do not say onely of creeds , of religiosities , of dogmatizings here in england , ( since the year . in especial manner , ) but even of skepticism , apostasy , and of atheism it self . § . now if any are desirous to know the reasons , why our schismaticks , rather than others , ( however scundalous in their lives , ) are singl'd out from the whole herd of notorious sinners , to be paradigmatiz'd as disorderly walkers , from whom we are * most to withdraw ourselves ; i shall endeavour their satisfaction by these reasons . first , because of all sinners , they seem to be the most destitute of christian meekness and humility . next , because of all sinners , they are the most void of christian charity , as that is superiour to faith and hope . thirdly , because of all sinners , they are the greatest vnderminers of society and government ; the greatest adversaries to god , as the god of order ; the greatest disturbers ( and the most dangerous ) of private propriety , and publick peace . lastly , because of all sinners , our schismaticks here in england are the most barbarously ingratefull , and most deplorably unexcusable of any other . i am very much mistaken , if i have not great reason for these reasons . but whether so , or not so , i leave to the judgment of my superiours ; and content my self with this , that ( without any passion ) i speak mine own . § . to the first of my reasons i premise s. paul's character touching schismaticks in general ; to wit , that they consent not to wholsome words , and the doctrin which is according to godliness ; but are proud , knowing nothing , doat about questions , and strifes of words , whereof cometh envy , strife , railings , evil surmises , perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds , and destitute of the truth . from such ( says he to timothy ) withdraw thy self . s. peter adds , they are presumptuous , selfwill'd , despise government , have forsaken the right path , and are gone astray . now from scripture thus speaking , let us reason the case a little , and then apply it . can any be farther from humility , than they who know nothing , and yet are proud of their knowledge ? can any pride be more prodigious , than that by which the very basest and the most despicable of subjects do not onely abhor , but despise their governours ? nor onely the persons , who are but men , but even government it self , which is avowedly divine in its institution ? the apostle's expression is rich and elegant , as well as true . for to despise , or contemn , to depretiate and scorn , and as it were to look down upon those above us , does not savour of a vulgar , or of a middle-siz'd pride , but of pride in its exaltation . can any pride be more monstrous , than for vile dust and ashes even to deifie it self ? yet the schismatick seems to doe it in three respects . for first , he arrogates to himself god's incommunicable attribute , whilst he founds his grossest errours upon an infallibility : which he does not onely ascribe ( as others do with more modesty , and shew of reason , although 't is no more than a shew of reason , ) to the whole , either diffusive , or representative church ; but to his own individual person , acted ( forsooth ) and over-acted by that which he calls ( speaking out of his own heart ) the infallible spirit of god. in any controversie arising touching the sense of any scripture , he does not appeal to the original , or context , to fathers , or councils , or commentators , ( all riff-raff in his esteem , ) but to illumination , and revelation , and the testimony within him . nor can i imagin what should keep him from returning into the church he has turned from , unless it be the worst effect of the greatest pride , a shamefulness to confess he has ever err'd . next he deifies himself by not enduring god's yoke , or indeed that god should reign over him . for if the powers that are on earth are ordain'd by god , ( as s. paul affirms , ) it is evident that we live under a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; that god , by them , does reign over us : and they that resist shall receive damnation , because they will not be under god. this is certainly at the bottom both of s. jude's , and s. paul's , and s. peter's reasonings , when they infer eternal torments ( as they every-where do ) from disobedience to the authorities , and the lawfull commands of men. besides , the schismatick seems to deifie himself , by seating himself on the throne of god , and undertaking to be the judge of quick and dead ; by opening the seals of the book of life ; and expounding god's decrees of particular mens states from all eternity . he takes upon him before the harvest , to sever the wheat from the tares , and the sheep from the goats . he forsooth , and his party , and none besides , are the elect ; whilst all from whom they all separate , are vessels of wrath and reprobation . again , how far is that professor from christian meekness , who says as the schismaticks did of old , in the prophet esa . stand farther off , come not near me , for i am holier than thou ? thanking god that he is not as other men are , neither a sabbath-breaker , nor swearer , nor even as this or that publican ; no conformist , no royalist , nor even as this or that excize-man , gathering tribute-money for caesar : and proudly taking to his party the name of saints at every turn , which he denies to the apostles in all discourse he makes of them on all occasions . briefly , for a person of very low parts , and little learning , of contemptible education , and small improvements , to separate from a great and admired church , the church of england , and from the devotions of the same in her publick liturgy , all contrived by the wisedom , directed by the learning , embraced by the piety , established by the authority of such a nation , confirmed by at least acts of parliament , and by as many convocations , or representatives of the clergy , sign'd and seal'd by the sufferings of many confessors and martyrs , lastly , asserted and defended against the wit and the malice of all opponents ; i say , for a person grosly ignorant , and knowing nothing in comparison , to scorn or pity all his teachers , as fools and blind ; for him to think he sees more or better , than the two vniversities put together , commonly call'd the two eyes of this national body , ( which is as if the silliest sheep that ever leap'd out of a fold , should take upon them both to guide and to feed their shepherd ; ) this does argue such an arrogance , self-conceitedness , and pride , as no rhetorick can express , no charity excuse , no humility not censure . although novatus was made a schismatick by a proud opinion of his own purity , and by his carnal ambition to head a party , as simon magus did the gnosticks in the apostles own times , on the same account ; yet now the copy and translation has so outdone its original , that our schismaticks have accus'd the laws and canons ( for vniformity ) of being such . they could approve of most things , in case they were not impos'd by law. the very reason why they ought , is the reason they will not serve god in order . they dare not doe what they know they may lawfully , for fear they should seem to think an human law binding . the onely fault of our liturgy , is its having been compos'd , authoriz'd , and made use of , by the wisest and the best of our english world , especially by the governours in church and state. they will have parliaments and synods strike sail to them. whatsoever is great or sacred is marked out for the object of their contempt . unless antiquity and authority will condescend and stoop to them , yea unless they may tread upon crowns and scepters , there is not any thing will please them , or give them rest . forsooth they want a main part of their christian liberty , unless they may not onely be suffer'd to cast away their cords from them , but also to bind their kings in chains , and their nobles with links of iron . § . nor are our schismaticks onely arriv'd at the top of pride , ( which is my first reason , ) but they are also sunk down even below the very bottom of christian charity , ( which is my second . ) for charity thinketh no evil , but our schismaticks nothing else . they cannot see their own eyes , much less the beams that are in them ; but in the eye of a conformist they can see every mote , and easily look it into a mountain . they perfectly hate , whomsoever they have injur'd for being blameless ; that is , for refusing to walk with them in the ways of corah : and if we strive to doe all things ( in the publick worship of god ) with any decency or order , as s. paul and our governours do strictly bind us ; they pretend to see nothing , ( such is the yellow , or black jaundise of malignity and prejudice , ) but either popery or paganism in all our service . hence they separate from us , ( though not christians onely , but protestants , ) with no less aversion ( in all appearance , ) than from papists , and pagans , and limbs of satan . nor can they rationally deny , that they esteem us as bad as either : for if they judge not our communion to be as absolutely vnlawfull , as they do their own communion to be of absolute necessity to their salvation , they cannot separate from us , and excuse themselves at the same time . they will not pretend they are unwilling to go to heaven in our company ; but that they leave us as going on in the way to hell. this must needs be their meaning , or else they cannot excuse themselves unto themselves . so as they must be void of charity by either side of the dilemma . for either they really do believe us to be as well their fellow-saints as their fellow-subjects , or they do not : truly if they do not , they then are void of all charity to vs , in thinking nothing but evil of us ; not the best our case will bear , but the worst to be imagin'd . and ( on the other side ) if they do , they are at the least as void of charity to themselves , and do despise their own souls , by excommunicating themselves from their fellow-saints . for what pretense can they have for their separating from us , if they think us christ's members , as well as they ? the terrible saying of s. cyprian , [ that martrydom is not sufficient to make amends for a man's schism , ] is as true , as 't is notorious , and as rational , as 't is true . and yet it can be neither , unless it be on this ground , that schism is exclusive of christian charity : on which supposal s. cyprian did strongly argue out of s. paul. though i speak with the tongues of men and angels , though i have the gift of prophecy , faith , and knowledge , though i bestow all my goods to feed the poor , lastly , though ( by martyrdom ) i give my body to be burnt , and have not charity , it profiteth me nothing . but if i live in schism , i have no charity ; because i separate my self ( as from the children of the devil ) from many thousands of thousands better men , better christians , better protestants than my self . and so my alms in that case are but ostentation : my yielding up my self to be burnt alive , is a mad kind of martyrdom in such a case ; 't is but a sacrifice to my humour , to my obstinacy , and stomack , like that of clement and ravilliac , who died martyrs to the popedom , and not to christ ; or like the martyrdom of hierocles , who writ a book against christ , and after that at byzantium died a martyr to his stoicism , as our english regicides to their fanaticism , and vanninus to his atheism . those alone were the deities which they ador'd , and died for . 't is not the bravery of the sufferer , but the divinity of the cause , which makes a martyrdom meritorious ( if any properly can be such ) in any measure : and so s. cyprian said rightly , ( being but rightly understood , ) that even martyrdom cannot expiate the sin of schism . § . thirdly , schism is destructive , ( in its tendency at least , ) not onely of government , wheresoever there is any ; but of society itself , upon a supposal that there is none . every body knows , ( as well as machiavel , ) that to divide , is to infeeble , and so the very shortest way to destroy a nation . the church of england is but one , and in its vnity lies its safety , because its strength . but many and many are the sects , which schism has made by dividing from her ; and so it is a devil whose name is legion . for the effects of which legion , we shall not need consult more , than our own memories and experience . for from the year till , all our national calamities began in schism ; in schism they continued ; and if ever they are completed , 't will be in schism too . schism was ours , as it was corah's first crime . for though mutiny and rebellion were the natural issue of it , ( as schism in the church does ever carry faction in the state along with it ; ) yet 't was chiefly as a * schismatick , that corah was swallow'd up alive , and his separate congregation together with him . 't was schism which did set up the assembly of divines , against our regular convocations and national synods of the clergy . 't was that that set up the directory , against the liturgy of the church . 't was schism made sacrilege , and a sale of the crown-lands , and kill'd god's anointed in order to it . but for schism , we had not heard either of plunder , or sequestration ; the sound of those names had never reach'd our english ears . 't was schism call'd strength the law of justice . 't was schism which founded all right in dominion , and right of dominion onely in grace ; and so ( by their doctrin of irrespective and necessitating decrees , ) inferr'd the great turk to have much more grace than our christian princes , because more right , by more dominion . finally , schism was the dam of all the blasphemies , both of those and the present times . the leviathan itself was but the spawn of that parent . behind the veil of toleration , which schism begot too , and under the protection of christian liberty , which schism expounded into what we now see it , horrid ochlocracy , and chirocracy , and ugly anarchy itself , has been hatching , or ingendring , ever since monarchy was restor'd . for some are longing after the onions and the flesh-pots of aegypt , as much as ever . and as we have liv'd to see a triumph without a war , or a skirmish , ( in the most happy resuscitation of god's spouse , and his vicegerent ; ) so do we live to see a war too , within the bowells of church and state , without other weapons than those of schism . for our schismaticks are an army , however yet without arms. happy we , that they are so ; and most unhappy , if they are otherwise . for hardly ever were there schismaticks ( in any part or age of the christian world ) without this turkish and popish principle , that religion is to be propagated ( where 't is possible ) by the sword. § . lastly , our schismaticks here in england are of all others the most ingratefull , and unexcusable in their schism . the most ingratefull ; because by those very laws , and under the protection of those legislators , which they hate , and despise , and conspire against , they hold the greatest injoyments that men are capable of on earth ; to wit , their liberties , and their safeties , their livelihoods , and their lives . again , the most unexcusable ; because they cannot but know , yea they cannot but acknowledge , ( and their chieftains do it in print , ) that we are christians , and protestants , which they also pretend to be : that we have all the fundamentals ( which they pretend also to have ) of the true religion ; whether as it consisteth of faith , or practice : we own the creed , and the commandments , and the whole word of god , as all ( or most of ) our schismaticks pretend to doe . we agree in all essentials with all the protestant churches of christendom , as the harmony of confessions will convince every creature who will but read them . whence then the murmurings and disputings ( against authoritative commands ) so strictly forbidden by s. paul , philip. . ? or what excuse can be found for a separation ? let us examin the whole affair from top to bottom ; and let us consider what they would have to make us worthy of their society ; and why they separate from vs of the church of england , as from papists , if not pagans , and brands of hell , as i said before . 't is plain , we do not worship idols ; and 't is plain , we have none to worship . we add no articles of our making to the apostles own creed , ( as we know who do . ) nor do we pare away one of the ten commandments , and slit another in the midst , to complete the number . nor do we equal the apocrypha with the canonical books of scripture . we have but two sacraments ; and pray in english . wives are permitted to our clergy ; and by them to the laity the cup of blessing . we do not buy and sell pardons ; nor do we trust in any merits save those of christ . we pray for none at all who are departed this life ; and much less to them . we renounce the strange doctrin of transubstantiation , as we do all pretensions to infallibility upon earth . if we yield the bishop of rome a naked primacy of order , we do refuse him at the same instant all supremacy of power ; and do limit his jurisdiction within his own own dioecese , or province . then what pretense can any have , ( who are not papalins themselves , ) to dread , or hate a communion with us ? if some things indifferent , and uncommanded in holy writ , do make them separate from us of the church of england , they must not onely separate ( for the very same reason ) from all the reformed churches of europe ; but they must separate from themselves too , and from their separate congregations , wherein some things must be indifferent . i hope they will not here alledge , they love division quatenus ipsum ; and that to cross s. paul's precept , they love as much as in them lies to live unpeaceably with all men ; or think it their duty to be disturbers . they will not say , they are obliged to turn the world upside down , as once the apostles were said to doe , by ill-will . they will not pretend they are bound in conscience , to set up that partition-wall our saviour came to break down ; and throw the world into a chaos of confusion , worse and wilder than that , out of which 't was first taken . nor do i think that they will plead , they were decreed to love schism , and cannot help it . they will not say ( whate're some think ) that any man's avarice was decreed to midwive schism into the world , for the love of sweet sacrilege , or other spoils : or that his envy was praedetermin'd to sow the tares of dissension for sweet revenge : however envy and ambition are as probable impellents , as any other . for , had aërius been timely made a bishop himself , he had not envied that order , much less headed a sect against it . and were our schismaticks legislators , they would inforce such a conformity , as now they will not forgive , much less comply with . they seem to reckon themselves oppress'd , in that they are not permitted , much less made choise of , to be our rulers . which yet by their principles of liberty and conscience , ( as they expound them , ) they are incapable of being , should we desire them . for if things which are indifferent are not properly the matter of human laws , ( as human laws are contradistinct unto divine , ) nothing else with any reason can be pretended so to be . for necessary things are all sufficiently commanded by god already in his world : and all things unlawfull are there as evidently forbidden : and things impossible are not commandable at all . 't is very evident that the former , both affirmative and negative , are the divine laws of god , and in no wise human . so that if our disobedient and schismatical brethren should now be chosen or admitted our legislators ; then by the principles they are of , ( would they be but true to them , ) there would be but one law ( precisely human ) which they could possibly enact , and it must be this ; that every christian man living should be a law unto himself . every man's reason should be his guide ; and every man's will should be his reason . therefore , according to their own principles , they cannot possibly be our rulers , if we would have them . for every man's reason would be his royalty . all besides would be rulers , as much as they. and so for them to be our governours implies a gross contradiction ; by nothing in the world to be avoided , but by their quitting their principles , and owning ours . now i am tempted to appeal to our schismaticks themselves , whether they are not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , sinners in whose behalf no apology can be made . whether they are not the worst recusants , because the most unexcusable . whether they are not worse than those who were accused by the apostle of being tossed to and fro by every blast , and carried about with every wind of false doctrin , when ( not our doctrins , true or false , but ) even our surplices can scare them , and organs blow them out of the church . whether it will not be more tolerable in the tremendous day of judgment , for them that never were members of jesus christ , than for them , who having been members , did excommunicate themselves , and even cut themselves off from his mystical body , which is his church . whether , when the publick safety cannot evermore subsist without publick peace , nor publick peace without compliance on one side or other , it is not fitter that such as they should meekly comply with their superiours , than that their superiours should bow to them ? whether an yielding can be made better , than by the ignorant to the most learned , by the fewest to the most numerous , by the shrubs to the cedars , or by the subjects of law to the legislators . indeed obedience to one another , that is to equals , and obedience to inferiours , or people exceedingly below us , might be grievous and vexing with some excuse . however christians are ( in love ) bid to serve one another ; and christ did wash his disciples feet ; and england has had her saturnalia ; during which , some of the greatest and noblest masters did indure a december of twelve years long , and did contentedly see their servants to bear rule over them . but obedience to superiours , to men above us ( not against , but ) according to the laws of heaven and earth , ( such as was the obedience of christ to caesar ; for christ according to his manhood was but a subject , though king of kings in regard of his divinity ; and caesar was one of those mortal gods , who liv'd like devils , and died like men ; ) i say , obedience unto superiours whom the scripture calls gods , is the most noble , and the most natural , and the most necessary duty ; such as bears up upon its shoulders ( by god's assistance ) both the whole fabrick of the church , and all the kingdoms of the earth , and of heaven itself . whereas schisms are pioneers , which digging below their very foundations , do clearly strive to undermine and subvert them all. § . i have now done with my reasons , why our schismaticks rather than others , ( however scandalous in their lives , ) are singl'd out from the whole herd of notorious sinners , to be made the chief exemplars of disorderly walking , from whom we are most to withdraw our selves . these ( i say ) are the chief reasons , why by this precept of s. paul , compar'd with those of s. john , and our blessed saviour , we are chiefly bound to separate from separatists . yet would i not here be thought to mean , that every subject should be a judge , from what kind of separatists ( in civil conversation ) he ought to separate . ( for publick disorder and confusion might thence ensue . ) but i would be understood to intend those schismaticks , who are censured by their governours and proper judges to be such . from a civil commerce with such ( and a commerce of free choice ) i think it a duty to abstain , and to abstain in such a measure , as our lord and his apostles have mark'd out to us . § . and now i may have done with my sermon too , but that i have remaining an hearty wish , that our separating brethren would unpassionately consider three obvious truths . first , that if obedience to christian governours and laws is not really so essential to christianity itself , but that still it is possible ( as some imagin ) that saints may be schismaticks , and schismaticks saints , then our faith , and our preaching , yea and our scriptures are all in vain . welcome anarchy and disorder ; and farewell to all society . next , that however sin and errour are very different in themselves , yet a wilfulness in errour does make such an errour become a wilfull sin too . and the contemning of authority , link'd with an obstinate contumacious fomenting of divisions , is such a monster , that the least errour of judgment which had been venial in itself , is by these aggravations made great and grievous , and contracts unto itself as well a diabolical , as damning quality . thirdly , that schism , were it no sin , were very well worthy the parting with , for the purchasing of so pretious and so inestimable a jewell , as publick peace ; the fruits of which ( rightly us'd ) are piety , and prosperity , strength , and safety . 't was for the purchasing of this , that s. paul has his compliances with jews and gentiles . 't was for this that he yielded to circumcise timothy ; and 't was for this that he refused to circumcise titus ; ( as well as for the shewing his christian liberty and obedience to the conciliar constitution then first enacted . ) 't was his great business and design , to make the most adverse parties agree in christ . to gain the jews therefore , he deny'd himself the use of his christian liberty : and as well to win the gentiles , he resum'd the use of it with equal care. 't was to unite dissenting parties , and make them meet in one church , that the apostles ( meeting together in a full council at jerusalem ) thought it requisite to establish things indifferent by a law. thereby giving a * necessity à parte post , to things indifferent à parte ante . it was to gain both jews and gentiles , that our lord in some things comply'd with both. and to hope that our hitherto-dissenting brethren , who now do enfeeble and indanger both church and state by their disobedience , will one day comply with their superiours upon the reasons i have given , ( if by any fair means they may be brought to their knowledge , and laid before them , ) is at present the greatest charity i can have for those men , who are void of all charity , till that is done . § . finally , brethren , farewell : and suffer a word of exhortation from s. paul and s. peter , both joyn'd together . be ye all of one mind , having compassion one of another ; love as brethren , be pitifull , be curteous : so s. peter : ) to which i add out of s. paul , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , be knit-together and compacted , ( so the greek , ) or be ye perfect , ( so the english , ) because your being perfect , must consist in your being well knit-together and compacted in one communion . therefore walk by the same rule , and mind the same things , live in peace ; and the god of love and peace shall be with you . to him be glory for ever and ever . of circumspection in thesi . eph. . , . see that ye walk circumspectly , not as fools , but as wise , redeeming the time , because the days are evil . . as philostratus once said of apollonius tyanaeus , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that he writ not his life , but his peregrination ; after the very same manner may i say here , the life of man is but * a pilgrimage , and that pilgrimage but a walk ; a going up-hill on one side , and down-hill on the other . first of all he walks up-hill , untill he comes to his th . or th . year ; and from thence he walks down-hill , untill he comes to fourscore . for all , after that , is a descending into the pit , ( or if it must needs be call'd walking , ) a kind of walking in the valley of the shadow of death . . first then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , be sure to walk : do not faintly lie down , or yawningly lean upon your elbows : * for your journy is long , and your time but little . therefore up , and be doing . set your feet in his steps , who went about doing good , and rejoyced as a giant to run his course . for rather than be benighted , we must not walk onely , but run too . so saith the author to the hebrews ; * let us lay aside every weight , and the sin that so easily besets us , and let us run with patience the race that is set before us . . and yet withall we must remember vespasian's motto , ( which deserves to be ingraven in all our rings , ) * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to make haste slowly ; that is , to make no more haste than may consist with good speed . because the way we are to walk in is not sleep onely , but slippery . therefore look to your footing , and mark your steps as you walk along : for the footing of a david had well-nigh slipt . nor is the way onely slippery , but narrow too . nay our saviour saith farther , ( though 't is not express'd in our english bibles , ) 't is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a way incumber'd as well as narrow , 't is very difficult to find it , and very easie to tread aside . and therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , see how ye walk . ( so it is in the greek , though somewhat otherwise in the english . ) . and then in the next place , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , see how circumspectly ye do it , ( as it is in the translation , ) or see how exactly , ( as it is in the original . ) the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is of an higher signification , than our ordinary bible doth here express . it imports a providence , and a caution , which being joyn'd with circumspection , make up the integral parts of a christian prudence . now we must walk so exactly in all these respects , ( with so much providence , and caution , and circumspection , ) as not to turn an hair's breadth to the right hand , or to the left . we must not be latitudinarians in point of practice ; but must rather 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , walk with such regular and upright feet , as to abstain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in either notion of the word ; not onely from all the kinds , but all the appearances of evil . . not at all like those hypocrites , who are indulgent to the evil , and onely abstain from the bare appearance ; not like him in the epigram , who put himself to death , for fear of dying ; not like the pharisees of the times , who think it their duty to rebell , for fear of a little disobedience ; and greedily swallow the greatest camels , for nothing else but their avoiding the smallest gnats . this is a foolish circumspection , to be so shy of a ceremony , as to run headlong into a schism ; and for fear of superstition , to swallow practical atheism . for are not they the greatest atheists , who ( to use s. paul's words of the antient gnosticks ) profess to know god , but in their works deny him ? and they deny him in their works , who quite disown him in his word , where it calls for compliance ( in all things lawfull ) with his vicegerents . for sure the same spirit that saith , obey god rather than man , doth also say , * submit your selves to every ordinance of man for the lord's sake . the same spirit that saith , call no man master upon earth , and be ye not the servants of men , doth also say , servants obey your masters in all things , that the name of god be not blasphemed ; nor onely with eye-service , as men-pleasers , but as the servants of christ. again , the same spirit that saith , thou shalt have no god but me , doth also say , * obey them that have the rule over you , and submit your selves , &c. for the powers that are , are ordain'd of god , and he that resists , receives damnation . from all which it follows , that for a professor of christianity to disobey the laws of men , under pretense ( rather than fear ) of disobeying the laws of god , when this is one of god's chiefest laws , that we obey the laws of men , shews such a spirit of contradiction , as 't is not charity to indure . we must be circumspect of our ways , as well as of our walking . for a circumspect walker in the ways of corah , who dares not do as god bids him for fear of sin , and shews a zeal to serve god by his disobedience , who craves for liberty of conscience to break the bonds of society , which are the laws of the nation wherein we live , ( that is to say , in the consequence , for a liberty of conscience to cut mens throats , ) and because the meek shall inherit the earth , does think it a part of his humility to set his foot upon crowns and scepters ; such a circumspect walker is the greatest monster to be imagin'd . he may profess to know god , as the gnosticks did ; but in his works he denies him , like any gnostick . and as a practical atheist is still the worst , so such a boutefeux is the worst of all practical atheists . 't was by so foolish a circumspection , and too easie a connivence at all such folly , that so many of our days have been so evil , and stand in need of a redemption . and therefore for the future , see that ye walk circumspectly , not as fools , but as wise , redeeming the time , because the days are evil . . the words are seasonable and fit in a threefold respect . in respect of the counsel which our apostle here gives ; in respect of the occasion on which he gives it ; and in respect of the reason wherewith he does inforce it on those that read him . the subject matter of the counsell is christian prudence . the counsell is given upon occasion of great and manifold temptations , whereby a christian is ensnared on every side . the principal reason why it is press'd , is the present corruption of the time. a time wherein there is requir'd the wisedom and wariness of the serpent , whereby to preserve the inoffensiveness and integrity of the dove . . now though prudence is a thing which does consist of three parts , to wit , of providence , caution , and circumspection , ( which though commonly confounded , are very different in themselves ; ) yet in the tenor of my discourse , i shall keep to the stile of our english bibles ; and so far comply with the popular usage of the word , ( which is apparently synecdochical , ) as to name circumspection in stead of prudence . . and first , because our inadvertency appears to be the very root , from which the whole stock of sin ( with all its fruit and its branches ) doth seem to grow ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , see how ye walk circumspectly . . next , because there is such a thing , as an inconsiderate circumspection , for want of a necessary regard both to the manner , and method , and measure of it ; see therefore that ye walk circumspectly , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , not as fools , but as wise : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , walk in wisedom , colos . . . and as your speech , so your behaviour is to be season'd also with salt , v. . ye must behave your selves exactly betwixt your scylla and your charybdis ; corruption of soul upon the one side , and destruction of body on the other . but still the first and chiefest heed is to be taken of the former ; that the better part may be in safety , whatever disasters befall the worse . . and then in the last place , because the worse the times are , by so much the better and the more circumspect men ought to be ; therefore it follows in the text , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , redeem , or buy out the season . for it is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the time at large , but precisely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the nick of time. and so the meaning of it must be , be ye sober , and vigilant , and watch at all opportunities ; use such providence , and caution , and circumspection , as to fly from sin on the one hand , and causeless suffering on the other . . this i think may suffice for an explication of the text ; and by this a man may easily discern the links , which will make up the chain of my whole design . . for first , considering how we are plac'd as so many sheep amongst wolves , we must walk for that reason with circumspection . and then , because there are errours on either hand , as well on the right , as on the left ; we must therefore walk circumspectly , not as fools , but as wise . and this we must do in a threefold respect ; to wit , of things , and persons , and opportunities : of evil things , of evil persons , yea of all the very occasions and appearances of evil . our walking is to be circumspect in respect of all persons ; and as of all other persons , so especially of our selves . it must be in respect both of our enemies , and our friends ; and as of all other friends , so especially of those who pretend a friendship unto our souls . and this must be , as at all times , so more especially in these . our days being likely to be as evill at least in one sense , as the days in my text are said to be evill in another . § . before i can orderly come to speak of circumspection in hypothesi , as it stands in relation to this or that station or state of men , ( which to do will be the work of another text , ) i must consider it in thesi , or in the gross . and this the rather , as well because it lies first in the order of nature ; as because heedfulness in the general should be as well known to be strictly necessary , as that triumvirate of our enemies ( the world , the flesh , and the devil , ) is universally acknowledged to be deceitfull . and how deceitfull these are , one may conjecture even by this ; that there was hardly ever any such golden age , as had not its portion of iron in it . for no sooner had god almighty imprinted his image upon the creature , than his competitor or rival began to ingrave his superscription . no sooner had the true coin receiv'd its stamp from god's mint , but straight the tempter turn'd althymist to embase the metall . there was a serpent even in paradise ; ( or else our first parents had not so soon been kept out with a flaming sword ; ) and a stumbling-block in heaven ; ( for else so great an host of angels had not faln headlong into hell : ) yea the blessed conversation of christ himself was no such amulet or preservative , no such conquering prophylactick against the contagion of this disease , but that there was a peter to deny , yea and a judas to betray him . and if these things are so , that s. peter himself , the first and chief of the apostles , was not all his life safe in a state of grace ; nor the protoplast for a day in a state of innocence ; no nor lucifer for a week in a state of glory ; lord ! how fitly may any monitor say that to us , which our apostle thought needfull ( not onely usefull ) to his ephesians , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , see how ye walk circumspectly ? if 't is as true in things spiritual , as it is thought in things temporal , that the one half of the world is deceiv'd and cheated by the other ; and that if there are no more than an hundred sects , ninety and nine of that hundred must needs be sick of some imposture ; ( unless christ can be divided , or the truth of religion be more than one ; ) if in our hovering condition 'twixt grace and nature , we are placed in the confines of two implacable enemies , the law in our members , and the law in our minds , whereof the one is still warring against the other ; and if the author of this caveat against supineness and nonchalance , though the great doctor of the gentiles , and also a vessel of god's election , was yet so brought into captivity to the law of sin , ( as the th . to the romans is very commonly understood , though perhaps not so happily as might be wish'd , ) that he was forc'd to break forth into that tragical ecphonesis , o wretched man that i am , who shall deliver me from the body of this death ! o then what a necessity must needs be incumbent upon us , that we repeat this holy caveat , and reinforce it on one another , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , see how ye walk circumspectly ? if in many things we offend all , and he who offendeth but in one point , is someway guilty of all the rest ; if an account is to be render'd of every idle word spoken , and sure much more of every wicked one ; if none shall enter into life but he that keepeth the commandments , and life does dwell in that city , to which the gate is as streit , as the way narrow ; insomuch that of the many who seek to enter into life , many shall miss it for all their seeking ; if onely he that overcometh shall have the privilege to tast of the hidden manna , so as the righteous man himself shall be scarcely sav'd ; and all for want of being heedfull both of the way he treads in , and in the ordering of his steps , and as to the sureness of his footing ; methinks we need no other sermon , than the constant repetition of this one text , ( at least 't were well if this text were call'd to mind at every sermon , ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , see how ye walk circumspectly . if s. john thought fit to preach no other sermon to the convert eusebius speaks of , than the psalmist's resolution of * taking heed unto his ways , which made his convert not sollicitous to be enrich'd with more lessons , whilst he found that that one was sufficient of itself to employ him wholly ; if we live in an age of so much fallacy and deceit , and yet for all that of so much heedlesness and security , that no abundance of caution can be too much ; it follows then that this caveat cannot be thought upon too much , or inculcated too warmly , or unexcusably offend in the repetition , but that we have such prurient ears as cannot forsooth be pleas'd without great variety , and such capricious understandings as will not easily be quieted with truth and plainness ; but must have altitudes and depths for their entertainment . § . all our sins and our miseries seem to have enter'd into the world at this one door , even the want of that heed which is here injoyn'd . other defects may be as fibres , but this is sure the main root , ( as i said before , ) from which the whole stock of mischief ( with all its fruits , and its branches , ) does clearly grow . 't was meerly for want of circumspection , that our first parents fell ; and still 't is for want of circumspection , that all their posterity is ever stumbling . 't is but for want of circumspection , that many professors are so blind as to be led by the blind , till both the leaders and the followers fall all together into the ditch . in the whole body of christianity , circumspection may fitly be call'd the eye . now as our eyes are put in our heads to direct our feet ; and as good be quite blind , as be always winking : so circumspection in our hearts is to guard our actions ; and as good be none at all , as unwary christians . for what with those powerfull impellents which satan useth from without , and those bewitching allectives wherewith he charms us from within , we are so smoothly drawn aside with great contentedness into some dangers , and so vehemently dragg'd with equall reluctance into others , that we do not onely ( like janus ) stand in need of four eyes , but ( like argus ) to be eyes all over . and just as the builders of the second temple at jerusalem were so encompassed with enemies on every side , ( the chaldaeans before , and the philistins behind , the moabites on the right hand , and the edomites on the left , ) that they were taught by their necessity to hold a sword in the one hand , for the defending of the workmanship which they advanced with the other ; even so we christians , who are dignified with the title of * fellow-labourers with god , whilst we are building up our selves in the most holy faith , and building up our selves into temples too , ( for temples we are of the holy ghost , ) must have one eye upon our enemy , as well as another upon our work ; still looking upward towards god , but withall downward towards our tempter ; still looking foreward towards vertue , but withall backward towards vice. we must not onely have an eye unto the right and left hand of our spiritual poyse ( like a man walking upon a pope , ) but like a thief at high noon , just in the act of his purloyning , must look exactly quite round about us . § . and the reason of this is extremely evident . for if we onely look upwards , we shall be easily apt to stumble , like mother eve ; who , whilst she fixt her whole aspect upon the goodness of the end , did overlook the manifold evill which lay concealed in the means . so praeproperous was the haste which she made towards knowledge , that she left obedience behind her back . or if we onely look forewards to shun a praecipice , we may at that very instant be attacqu'd behind us with a wolf. just as judas was so intent upon the money lying before him , that he was blind to the despair which dogg'd him closely at the heels . and we may guess by that threat of god almighty to the serpent , [ it shall bruise thy head , and thou shalt bruise his heel , ] that commonly the devil does come behind us ; and loves to surprise us in a part the farthest distant from our eyes ; that is to say , at such a time , as in which we are remotest from christian prudence . or if we look onely upon the left hand for the avoiding of a shelve , we may be our negligence of the right be swallow'd up of a quick-sand . like some pretenders to reformation , who taking heed of superstition , but nothing else , are so much the apter to grow profane ; taking heed but of one extreme , they run into the other , which is many times the worse too ; and to prevent an inconvenience incur a mischief . thus we see how it concerns us on every side , not to look upwards onely , or downwards , not onely backwards , or forewards , not to the right hand onely , or to the left , but at the same point of time to be both provident , and cautious , and even circumspect in the letter , which [ à circumspiciendo ] is to carry our eyes quite round about us . § . nor must we be onely looking round , but be always looking . the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , see ; but see we cannot , whilst we are sleeping . and by our saviour's admonition , we are to watch , as well as pray , lest we enter into temptation . so s. peter to all in general , who are concern'd for their own safety , does recommend a strict vigilance , as no less requisite than sobriety ; and that for this reason , because the devil is still awake , whilst we are sleeping . be sober , be vigilant , because your adversary the devil goeth about as a roaring lion , ( and that by night as well as by day , ) seeking whom he may devour . whom resist stedfast in the faith. so that in our christian warfare , besides the manning of our works , we need our scouts , and our countermines . we must besiege our very besiegers ; and as that sophister , the world , does surround us with fallacy , so must we the world with circumspection . § . nor does the prudence of a christian end onely here. for circumspection is to be us'd both in the manner , and in the method , and especially in the measure of being circumspect . it being obvious to infer from the following words , [ see that ye walk circumspectly , not as fools , but as wise , ] that there is in the world a kind of accurate folly , an inconsiderate circumspection , a capricious sort of wariness , of which we are also to beware . such as is lying all night out of doors , to be sure that our houses shall not fall upon our heads : destroying vineyards , to prevent drunkenness : pulling down discipline and the hierarchy , to shun the tyranny of a pope : distrusting the fathers of the primitive church , because of antichrist's being at work in the apostles own times : making the laws and law-givers conform themselves to nonconformity , for fear the church should want a breadth whereby to support her superstructure : eating of nothing but nuts and shell-fish , for fear the cook should be a sloven . there are some uneasie souls , who seem at least to be incumber'd with so incomparable a niceness , that under colour of respect to the word of god , they take the scripture to be the rule , i do not say of the most weighty , ( for so it is , ) but even of their trivial'st and slightest actions ; looking on every thing as sinfull , to which the plain word of god does not immediately direct them . from which fundamental mistake it is , that they dare not call it wednesday , but the fourth day of the week ; nor nine of the clock , but the third hour of the day . a surplice or a sacrament must not be mention'd , because there are not such words in all the scriptures ; no more a sacrament , than a surplice . and by the very same reason , ( as our judicious mr. hooker does well observe , ) if a master commands his servant but to take up a straw , the servant shall not be obliged in point of conscience to obey , untill his master has found a text for that one particular . for though the scripture saith to servants , obey your masters in all things ; yet that precept is but general , and dolus latet in generalibus , there are very few generals which have not a fallacy lurking in them . now by such a way of arguing , or at least by one as good , if pontius pilate was not a saint , because his name is in the creed ; at least the scribes and the pharisees must pass for very good men , because they have their names writ in the book of life . but for the men who thus argue , and are circumspect in their walking , not as wise men , but fools , we can in charity call them no worse than hypochondriacs in religion ; men whose souls are directed by the infirmities of their bodies ; and are fitter for the pity than indignation of their superiours , because the distempers of their spleen may be sincerely thought by them to be the scruples of their conscience . thus the jealous mithridates stood in such fear of being poison'd , that even his meals were all antidote ; and so his body in tract of time became a walking pharmacopoeia . this indeed is a great , but an heedless caution . such as does cross and confute the proverb , because abundance of this is hurtfull . some heed therefore is to be taken , not to be heedless and imprudent in the extravagant excess of our taking heed ; and that we do not deceive our selves with too immoderate a fear of our being deceiv'd . § . but this is certainly a caution , to which a small portion of rhetorick will be sufficient to persuade us . so unapt we are to erre on the farther side of this duty , that our usual fault is , we are too much behither it . our greatest danger commonly is our opinion that there is none ; and we are most likely to be unsafe , by our too great aptness to be secure . indeed in matters of little moment , concerning the body , or the purse , we need no sermons against security , or excitations to circumspection . very few there are that travell in times of danger , without a pistol , or a sword ; or that in places of infection will walk the streets without an amulet . few families go to bed , till they have made fast their doors ; and in the morning when they arise , their first care is to shut out nakedness and hunger . so that if it were a sin to be in poverty , or a scandalous matter to suffer pain , there would be nothing so difficult , as not to abound in this duty of circumspection . but , alas ! we do not consider ( heedless creatures as we are ) how it fares with our souls , as with so many ships , wherein the very least crevices ( if undiscover'd ) are too sufficient to drown us all . and yet how partially we prefer the care of our bodies and estates , before the care and concernment we ought to have of and for our souls , we may conjecture by the practice of the physician , and the lawyer , above that of the divine . for one scruple in the conscience , how many are there in the stomach ? how many empiricks are sought to , for here and there a single confessor ? and how many reall patients are in all places to be met with , for one true penitent ? be there never so slight an vlcer in any part of the body , we straight desire the grim artist to use his corrosive and his probe ; perhaps his lance , and his caustick too . but be the soul never so ulcerous , we are content either with none , or a palliate cure. so again it is in the other instance ; that though we have little or no sollicitude about the making of our calling and election sure , ( which in my text is expressed by walking circumspectly , as wise , and not as fools , ) nor trouble our heads with an inquiry , what shall become of us hereafter ; what kind of interest we may have in the bloud of christ ; what kind of title we can pretend to the inheriting of a kingdom , a joyfull aeternity in reversion , and how we shall plead it at the assizes which will one day be held in the court of heaven ; yet be there never so small a flaw in any title to an estate , lord ! how sedulous we are to have the matter made up ? how many counsellors are consulted , and set on work , for one casuist ? how many cases are try'd in law , for one in conscience ? i will not call it the universall , but usuall custom , that when luke the good physician has little hope of our bodies , we send for gamaliel the able lawyer , to take care of our estates . and ( that being done , ) then for barnabas the divine , ( who is a son of comfort too , ) to make provision for our aeternity . § . thus we see the most of men have circumspection very sufficient ; but 't is sufficiently misapply'd too . and in the misapplication lies all the mischief . just as the pharisee in the parable was very free of his confessions ; but he apply'd them to his vertues , and not his sins . he made confession of his righteousness , to wit , his fasting twice a week , and paying tithes to a pin's-worth of mint and cummin ; he very ambitiously confess'd that he thought himself holier than other men , ( for which he gave god thanks too , and not himself : ) but of his manifold impieties we do not hear a word from him . so the greatest numbers of men are very circumspect , and wary : but they are wary of their duties , as of dangerous things ; things which probably will betray them to the disfriendship of the world ; ( esteeming him an imprudent man , who dares adventure on what is strait , when the times are crooked ; and to stand his old ground , when new is temporally safer , and more in vogue too . ) men are wary of loving enemies , or doing good to such as hate them ; very wary how they part with a sinfull pleasure , or send a bill of divorce to a beloved passion . extremely heedfull they are and cautious , how they fall from a station of wealth and honour ; how they beat down their bodies , and bring their flesh into subjection ; how they crucifie the world unto themselves , and themselves unto the world : ( as if there were nothing more ridiculous than that primitive criterion , by which a christian was distinguish'd from jew and gentile ; nor any thing more to be avoided by one of quality and parts , than such a seriousness of life , and such a tenderness of conscience , as may expose him to the censure of his being little more than a well-bred quaker . ) and as 't is commonly observ'd of the lacedaemonians , that they stated the guilt of stealth , not so much in the act , as the apprehension , and therefore reckon'd it a sin , not to steal , but to be caught : so the greatest heed taken by the majority of professors , is not so really to be innocent , as not to be censur'd for being guilty . as if , their prayer were like that of the famous hypocrite in the poet , — pulchra laverna , da mihi fallere , da justum sanctúmque videri , noctem peccatis , & fraudibus objice nubem . o my goddess , give me the grace to seem as religious as the best , and to be as deceitfull as may be possible . the greatest mischief to be avoided in most mens judgments , ( if yet their judgments may be judged of by their practice , ) is not the ocular sin , ( i mean the eye full of adultery , ) but the auricular confession ; not the protestant's impiety , but the popery of making it known . now such as these should be exhorted , not so much to increase , as to direct their caution ; not so much to make it greater , as wiser and better than heretofore ; to change the object and the end of their circumspection ; that what is now a meerly carnal , may suddainly pass into a spiritual and christian prudence . for this will be to walk circumspectly , not as fools , but as wise . § . and for the bringing this about with the greater ease , we must be circumspect walkers in two general respects : in respect of the persons with whom we are conversant , and in respect of the rules by which we are to be directed . i therefore say in respect of persons , ( by way of distinction from all other objects , ) because our days cannot be evill , but as we our selves are such : and therefore by the evill days in which it is our lot to live , must needs be meant the evill men of the days we live in . and our walking is to be circumspect , as in respect even of all men , so of those more especially to whom we bear the greatest kindness . ( but this is a point i must refer to another subject of discourse . ) the rules by which we are to walk , not as fools , but as wise , are especially these two ; conscience , and discretion . and for the better using of these , we must warily occurr to two grand fallacies , whereby the greatest part of men are wont to prevaricate with themselves . § . some are so thick of understanding , as to measure their conscience by their confidence ; their being lustily perswaded a thing is lawfull , or unlawfull . esteeming all without sin which is said or done without scruple ; and all things sinfull of which a scruple may be made . neither discerning any difference betwixt a conscience which is tender , and misinform'd , nor yet betwixt a meer numness , and peace of conscience . such were our regicides here in england , who , how scrupulous soever in things indifferent , were not scrupulous at all in the point of murther ; but sturdily pleaded at the bar , that they believ'd they had a right to try , and execute their king ; and that they did both in the integrity of their hearts ; it was no more than their consciences did dictate to them ; their consciences were satisfied in what they did ; and by consequence they would do it , were it for ever to be done . meaning still by the word conscience , the strength and sturdiness of their opinion ; which might indeed be call'd witchcraft , as well as conscience ; ( i mean with an equal impropriety , and an easier pardon to the word . ) thus it was with the conspirators of our gunpowder-treason , and with the two infamous murtherers of henry the third and the fourth of france , who taking that for their conscience which was indeed but their caprice , made no doubt but their murthers were meritorious . and thus it was for some time with furious saul , the blasphemer and persecutor of christ ; who grew so mad , and transported , with giddy zeal without knowledge , ( as himself confessed freely against himself from after the time of his conversion , ) that he thought it his duty to be destructive of whatsoever was call'd christian . like them of whom our saviour tells us , who thought ( forsooth ) they were bound in conscience to execute murther on the apostles , because it was , in their judgments , to do god service . where by the way we may observe , how much 't is every man's duty to fear himself , and to suspect his own judgment in divers cases . § . now the way to walk circumspectly not as fools , but as wise , and to free our selves from that fallacy , which is so generally swallow'd by other men , is first to consider what conscience is , ( a thing the most talk'd of , but the least commonly understood , of any principle or faculty to be imagin'd , ) and after that to be carefull how we walk by that rule . for whilst the rule itself is false , the circumspection must needs be foolish , and can onely serve to make us the more disorderly walkers . conscience indeed is the rule of action ; but to be sturdily perswaded a thing is lawfull or unlawfull , is not at any time the rule , and not at all times the work of conscience . for conscience is not a perswasion , but knowledge rather ; nor is it any kind of knowledge , but knowledge compared with a rule ; ( as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the greek , and conscientia in the latin , do both import : ) and yet how many of those men who pass for instructers of the ignorant , and eyes to the blind , are wont to use the word conscience ( before the people , and to themselves , ) by that dangerous catachresis i just now mention'd ? but before i say fully what conscience is , i proceed to shew what it is not . i say , it is not a being so fully perswaded in our minds , as not to have any regret or scruple ; to be void of all doubt , or haesitation ; for we know the sear'd atheist has none of that . and when our saviour christ said , the time cometh that whosoever killeth you , shall verily think he does god service , he did not mean , they shall be conscionable murtherers , or persecutors of men in the fear of god , and so shall break the commandment in the integrity of their hearts ; ( for that had been to say , they shall be innocently guilty , which had flatly imply'd a contradiction in adjecto . ) but his meaning was clearly this , that some mens hearts shall be so hardned through the deceitfulness of sin , as to mistake the very worst for the best of actions . their vnderstandings shall be so dark , and their souls so benighted with their customary impieties , as to grope after murther instead of sacrifice . just like them of whom we read in the fift of esa , ( lately match'd with the readers and admirers of the leviathan , ) who had so lost the distinction of right and wrong , as to put evill for good , and good for evill , bitter for sweet , and sweet for bitter , darkness for light , and light for darkness . the custom of sin had so pav'd their palates , as that they had utterly lost their tast . now it is not a satisfied , but seared conscience , which is not startl'd at such impieties . as many silly mens consciences are too full of scruples , not because they are tender , but ill-instructed ; so many wicked mens consciences are void of scruples , not because they are clear , but callous ; and so must every thing be that is cauteriz'd . yea give me leave to say farther , many desperate malefactors have mounted the gibbet without regret , not so much because they had no scruples in their consciences , as rather because they had no consciences to be scrupl'd ; since one that 's sear'd with an hot iron ( to use the figure of our apostle ) is in effect none at all . § . for ( to shew briefly what it is , having shew'd largely what it is not , ) a man's conscience is his knowledge of what he has done , or not done , which the known law of god ( written within him , or without him , ) has either commanded , or not commanded ; and so by consequence 't is a witness either for him , or against him , after the measure that he has done , or has omitted to do his duty . from whence it follows unavoidably , that as conscience properly so call'd is the rule of action , so the known law of god is the rule of conscience . and from hence again it follows as unavoidably as before , that for any man to say he is bound in conscience , ( as we know who did in the worst of times , ) not onely to covet his neighbour's goods , but at once to kill , and to take possession , ( the thing with which the holy prophet upbraided ahab , ) is as much as to say in directer terms , that he thinks it his duty to be a devill . and so much for the first fallacy , by which a multitude of men are led indeed to walk circumspectly , but as fools , and not as wise , because against the true notion and rule of conscience . § . and as some do thus foolishly offend against conscience , so do others against discretion . for many professors are very willing to be in possession of the end of their christianity , who yet are very unwilling to use the means . they would with all their hearts embrace the service of christ , but not abstain from those things with which his service is inconsistent . desirous they are to do the thing that is good ; but they cannot abide to depart from evill . or if they have a woulding to cease from that too , yet they are fond of the occasions which still do tend and lead towards it . there is nothing in the world either more serviceable to satan , or more pernicious and destructive to the kingdom of christ , ( which he would gladly set up in the souls of men , ) than that most pleasant , but killing fallacy , which the far greatest part of men are wont to impose upon themselves , [ that they need not scruple at the doing whatever is lawfull to be done , and has not any thing in it which can be properly call'd sin. ] a fallacy the apter to be swallow'd down glibly , ( and that by good logicians too , ) because it delights whom it indangers ; and as it finds men dispos'd ( yea greedily willing ) to be abus'd , so it makes them well-pleas'd with the hurt it does them ; as being suitable and compliant with all the appetites of the flesh . when men are tempted to do a thing which is not formally unlawfull , as being no where forbidden by god or man , they will not be at the pains to meditate about the tendency and byass of such a thing . for it would rob them of the pleasure they take in sin , if they should patiently admit but of this one consideration , ( which is commonly distastfull and irksom to them , ) that there was hardly ever any unlawfull thing , which did not arise from the admission of something or other that was lawfull . yea that sometimes the greatest and damning'st sins have taken rise from the least and most contemptible occasions . i shall at once make it plain and usefull too by some examples ; and that especially out of good will unto the younger , and more illiterate , and less considering part of those that shall chance to read me . § . no doubt 't was lawfull enough for eve , at least to look upon the fruit which was forbidden , ( for god forbad her onely to eat it ; ) and as lawfull for her it was , to lend the serpent an empty hearing ; ( that is to say , upon condition she did not give him her assent too : ) but how much happier had it been , if , like vlysses in the odysses , she had stopt her very ears against the voice of that charmer , and had not suffer'd her self to look ? for her eye and her ear became the panders to her palate , and then her palate betray'd her heart . holy men have this property , ( says gregory the great , ) quòd ut semper ab illicitis longè sint , à se plerumque etiam licita abscindunt ; that they may still be far enough from doing any thing unlawfull , they abstain from many things which are lawfull too . certainly job could be no such ideot , as to think it a thing unlawfull for a man to look upon a maid , who yet did covenant not to do it , not onely with his heart , but with his eyes too . nor may we think it was for nothing , that s. paul so solemnly did distinguish betwixt things lawfull , and things expedient : clearly intimating unto us , that there are very many things to be left undone , not because they are unlawfull , but onely because they are unfit ; not because they are actuall sins , but because they easily may become so ; not because they are vitious , but dangerous things . and it belongs to circumspection or christian prudence , to mind the counsells of scripture , as well as precepts : as , not to approach the very door of an harlot's house ; to hate the very garment spotted of the flesh ; and not to stand in the way of sinners . we may not be haunters of the tavern and other places of debauch , because there are some who come out sober ; but rather of the two we must beware of such places , because there are others who come out drunk . for 't is a mocking of god , and a reproaching of our selves too , to run without warrant upon temptation , and at the same time to pray , deliver us from evill . we know that many most tender parents correct their children , not onely for doing what is morally evill , but meerly for coming in harm's way ; for not being so circumspect , as to be afraid before they are hurt . and though no doubt it is barely lawfull , for a man to walk upon a praecipice , or to stand on a pinnacle of the temple ; yet whosoever dares do it deserves a rod. we cannot say it was unlawfull for herodias to dance , or for herod sitting by to behold her motions ; but yet herodias and herod were both deservedly to be blam'd , because if she had not danc'd , nor he beheld her , she had not so easily ( as she did ) stoln his heart out of his bosom , and then the innocent baptist had kept his head upon his shoulders . will any man say it was unlawfull , for the women of israel to hold up their chins , or set one foot before another ? but yet god smote them with * scabbed heads , because they minced their steps as they went along , and because they walked with stretched-out necks . it was not certainly unlawfull for mother monicha , ( the famous mother of s. augustin , ) to drink a cup or two of wine now and then with her neighbours ; but yet by little and little practice grew into a custom ; and custom justled out judgment ; and so she grew out of permission , into delight ; an arrant wine-bibber at last , and vulgarly known so to be ; sadly purchasing unto her self the odious title of meribibula . which , without more examples , may serve to teach us , with what kind of circumspection we ought to walk , to save our selves as from the mixture , so from the neighbourhood of evill . § . and being thus far secur'd from the two grand fallacies of which i spake , with which there is hardly any thing commoner than for christians to couzen and cheat themselves ; we have found the way to walk circumspectly by the rules of conscience , and of discretion ; or ( as our apostle does here express it ) not as fools , but as wise . and truly upon a supposal , that as many as have heard , have also minded what i have spoken , i think i have spoken at least enough of the praevious part of my design , which was onely to discourse of circumspection in thesi . to consider it in hypothesi , 't will properly belong to another text , and must therefore be deferr'd till another time. of circumspection in hypothesi . matth . . . take heed that no man deceive you . § . the words in general are the * preface of our saviour's answer to his disciples . their question was , what the signs of his coming should be , ( v. . ) which coming of his having a double signification , either the end of the age , ( as the greek imports , ) or else the end of the world , ( as we commonly read in our english bibles , ) this inquiry of the disciples may have in proportion a double prospect . the first and more immediate on the destruction of the jews ; the second and more remote on the day of judgment . and 't is possible that the prognosticks our saviour gives them may be equally appliable to both acceptions of his coming ; as well to the scepter 's departing from judah , which in the prophecy of jacob should be when shiloh was fully come , as to the end of all things , when christ shall come with his holy angels , to judge the secrets of all mens hearts . i have so very good authority for both these notions , that i am not very willing to leave out either , although i cannot but in judgment prefer the first : and that as for many other reasons , ( too many , and too long to be here inserted , ) so more particularly for one , in which the words of this text are more particularly concern'd . for i observe three periods or parts of time , pointed at by our saviour in several parts of this chapter : in the first of which he gives warning of bare deceivers , ( v. . ) in the second of false prophets , ( v. . ) in the third of false christs , ( v. . ) such as would set forth themselves in so plausible a manner , with so bewitching a parade , and such astonishing advantages of signs and wonders , as to deceive ( if it were possible ) the very elect , had not our saviour countermin'd them with an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , behold , i have told you before they come , ( v. . ) and with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in my text , take heed that no man deceive you . § . now if to satisfie the desire and curiosity of the inquisitive , i may examin and give account , who the deceivers , and the false prophets , and the false christs were by name , whom our lord in this text may seem in particular to intend or allude unto ; the first i find was * simon magus , who call'd himself the power of god ; and helena , his harlot , a piece of deity , flown forsooth from his bosom . he was a very bewitching sorcerer , in great esteem with the emperour claudius , and worshipt by many as a god. nor would he be thought to be onely one , but every person in the trinity ; the father in samaria , the son in judaea , the holy ghost among the gentiles . yet this was that simon who is said to have believed , and by the sacrament of baptism had been admitted into the church . act. . . such another was dositheus , who call'd himself the very christ . a third was menander , who would needs have been thought the common saviour of the world . a fourth was barchochebas , who preached up himself as the messias that was to come , and whom the jews were followers of , as of i know not what star dropt down from heaven . these were * properly false christs . then for deceivers and false prophets , who are alluded to in the text , i shall but name some of the chief . one was theudas in the time of claudius , who pretended to separate the waters of jordan , as moses those of the red sea. aegyptius was another in the time of nero , who ( with followers ) was by felix cut off at the mount of olives . a third was ebion , who contended that jesus christ was an arrant man , the off-spring of joseph as well as mary . * a fourth was cerinthus , who taught his followers to expect a thousand years of sensuality , which ( forsooth ) were to commence from after the general resurrection . ( the like to which was said of papias , who had been scholar to s. john. ) a fift was the sect of the nicolaitans , who exhorted their disciples to the promiscuous use of wives . a sixt was carpocrates , and all his gnosticks , ( for * nicolaus bred some , and a valentinus bred others , ) who commended vncleanness , as one great requisite to man's redemption . ( meaning his being freed from his confinement to the body . ) a seventh was b basilides , who held it lawfull in times of triall , to renounce the doctrin of the gospel , and did set up in aegypt an open school of this heresie : which was afterwards espoused by the * helcheseitae . an eighth was saturninus , who did the like to this in syria . and though some of these did flourish after the sacking of jerusalem , yet the jews received massacres even after that time of their desolation . witness that in the days of hadrian , whereof barchochebas was the occasion . for god it seems had design'd them to such an absolute 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , such a consumption of the whole , that even their ruins were to be levell'd , and their graves buried . they were prohibited by hadrian , to do so much as to look on their native country . yea jerusalem was decree'd to be called aelia , and its name to be blotted out from the common register of time. so that all those deceivers i just now mention'd , were either the harbingers , or the attendants , of that so matchless a devastation ; and did literally fulfill this famous prediction of our lord , in the th . the th . and th . verses of this chapter . § . all which being premis'd by way of general explication , may serve to guide our attentions into three subjects of discourse . first , an heedfulness , and prudence , to which our saviour thought fit to exhort his first followers ; the exhortation as it were reaching , through them , to vs . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , see , or take heed . secondly , the danger , or ground of fear , which more particularly calls for this christian prudence . to wit , the multitude of deceivers gone abroad into the world ; which by their subtilty , and their number , will be so likely to prevail , that there is no little need of our greatest care , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , lest any man deceive us . lastly , the time is very observable , wherein the use of this care will be most in season : and this we may gather from the context to be before a destruction of church and state. for imposture and deceit will be then most rife , and therefore the prudence of a christian will be then most needfull . the first observable of the three i have insisted upon at large on another text ; whereon i shew'd the strict necessity of circumspect walking in the generall , in respect of evil things , and all that have tendency unto evil . it now remains that i proceed to the second observable i propos'd ; and so to consider circumspection or christian prudence , as relating in particular to the deceitfulness of persons . nor can it be severely imputed to me , if still i continue to deal in caveats . for , § . if ever there were an errour to be commended out of a pulpit , it is the right-handed errour of too much caution . and if ever there can be any , this is certainly the time , when no abundance of caution can be too much . when perhaps the very greatest a man can use , may prove the very least he shall stand in need of . at least i take this to be a satisfactory reason , why having spoken enough already of christian prudence in thesi , i am led by the love of method to consider it also in hypothesi ; as it stands in relation to this or that station and state of men. for as charity is the greatest of christian vertues , so ( in a secular consideration ) 't is the most dangerous , and ensnaring , and the most difficult to be managed of all our duties ; because it has this peculiar to it , that it thinketh no evill ; but beareth all things , believeth all things , hopeth all things , endureth all things . ( cor. . , . ) i will not say it is the weakness or fault of charity to be credulous ; but yet exposing its owners to many risques , and inconveniences , it stands in need of great prudence to keep it safe . the disciples therefore did very wisely , in being afraid and suspicious of paul himself , till barnabas gave him a testimonial , that by his preaching boldly at damascus , and by his disputing against the graecians , he prov'd himself an unfeigned convert : as if the repentance of an enemy were never to be trusted untill 't is try'd ; nor any other triall could be sufficient , but that of bringing forth fruits meet for repentance . our blessed saviour himself would not entrust himself with some who believed in him ; because he knew their belief was such , as would not bear any stress in a time of triall . seeing the miracles which he did , they believ'd in his name : but he knew that they were not temptation-proof ; that they would not hold out at his crucifixion . how much more might his apostles be distrustfull of believers , who knew them not ? and yet so unguarded was their simplicity , ( i mean the simplicity of the heart , not of the head , or the understanding ; as opposed onely to knavery , and not to knowledge ; ) that they made their own innocence the usual measure of other mens . hence it was that their master did call them * sheep ; because they knew not , till he had told them , that they were going out as sheep in the midst of wolves . and the more he had observ'd they were unapt to be suspicious , by so much the rather did he exhort them to use the wisedom of the serpent , whereby to set a constant guard upon the innocence of the dove . for as wisedom is * devillish , without simplicity , so this , without wisedom , is never safe . it is the property of the one , not to do any injury , and the benefit of the other , is not to suffer it . indeed as fear is oppos'd to fortitude , it is a childish unmanlike passion ; still betraying those succours which reason offereth . again , as fear is oppos'd to faith , it is an heathenish and carnal passion ; that that made so many compliers in the evil days pass'd , with the spirit which then was working in the prosperous children of disobedience . but as fear is oppos'd to folly , ( i mean imprudence , and want of heed , ) it is at once a very generous and christian thing . there being no true faith , no nor any true fortitude , which has not a mixture of such a fear . as fear is opposite to reliance and trust in god , it is indeed a great duty to laugh at danger : but as 't is opposite to rashness and a defect of circumspection , it is as much a man's duty to provide against danger by timely fear . for the same spirit that saith by the royal priest , fear not them that can kill the body , does also say by the royal preacher , happy is the man that feareth always . all which being compared with the importance of my text ; and the evill of those days , which in the context are spoken of , being duly compar'd with these i speak in , ( for in truth the whole chapter which lies before us may very well serve for an english mirroir , wherein our modern deceivers may partly see how they look ; ) i think i may say ( without impertinence ) to the most prudent congregation , what our saviour esteemed needfull , not onely pertinent to his disciples , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , see , or take heed : and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , take heed ye be not deceived : and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , take heed that no man deceive you . § . that thus the emphasis is to be put , i am confirm'd in my opinion from other words of our lord to his apostles , when being about to send them abroad to an inhospitable world , he did not speak in this manner , ( which yet he might very well have done , ) beware of those foolish and hurtfull lusts , which drown the soul in misery and perdition . nor did he choose to say thus , ( which he might very well have done too , ) beware of the inticements of worldly greatness , of riches , and pleasure , and reputation . he did not say , ( with s. paul , ) beware of dogs ; not yet , ( with s. peter , ) beware of devils : but ( as a greater mischief than either , ) beware of men. ( matth. . . ) for as deceitfulness , and fraud , and all the dire effects thereof , do give us a very true character of the greater world ; so man , being a little world , is a little world of deceits too . the falsest crocodile in aegypt is not hypocrite enough to become his embleme . the reason is , because the best things debaucht are the most transcendent evils . those angels that fell from as high as heaven , could not therefore fall less , than as low as hell. and so angelical was the nature of man undeprav'd , by injoying a rectitude both of intellect and will , that he admitted not of a middle betwixt a devil , and a saint . so that man's being the worst on this side hell , as well as the best of god's creatures on this side heaven , does help to adjust and reconcile the seeming contradictory proverbs , * homo homini deus , and homo homini diabolus . man to man is a kind of god , and man to man is an arrant devil . all the rest of our fellow-creatures are very innocent neighbours ; nay , whensoever we have occasion , they are our most obedient and faithfull servants . but man to man ( for the greatest part ) is either a very fierce enemy , and so the worst of wild beasts ; or else a very false friend , the worst of tame ones . § . so far therefore as we are men , i think our first and greatest head is to be taken for our selves against our selves . not for this reason onely , because we love our selves most , and so are most apt to deceive our selves ; ( the devil commonly using us , as the empress agrippina her husband claudius , whilst she poyson'd that dish , with which she knew he was most delighted , and on which he was likely to make the plentifullest meal ; ) but withall because the soul , like the eye of man , is least of all able to see itself . and this i think the best moral , ( though i know there is another , ) of diodorus his mythology concerning lamia , who did put on her eyes , when she went abroad ; but always coming home , put them up into her pocket . we are blind to the greatest beam , if it be in our own eye , though we can spy the least mote in another man's . nor is it onely the eye , but the heart of man also ( if we believe the prophet jeremy ) is deceitfull above all things . and this is that which makes him his own worst cheat ; whilst either he falls without a tempter , like lucifer in heaven ; or else ( like peter upon earth ) he is endanger'd by a temptation from the meer confidence of his safety . amongst a thousand which might be given , i cannot name a fitter instance of self-deceiving , than that of eldavid the fanatick in rabbi mosche ben maiemon : who was so very sincere a cheat in the couzenage of himself , and did so seriously believe he was the prodromus of the messias , that he offer'd to be try'd by a decollation , and died a martyr to his delusions . so much 't is every man's duty to fear himself , and to suspect his own phantasie , or imagination , which he takes to be his judgment in divers cases . § . next and immediately after our selves , we must be circumspect and wise in respect of one another . and as of other men in generall , ( for this very reason that they are men , ) so of those in special manner whom we have most of all trusted , and most obliged ; who have mingl'd their projects and prayers with us ; who have eaten of our bread , and as it were lain in our very bosoms ; who are apt to hate us for the favours they are not able to requite , and for exceeding their gratitude , will not allow us their humanity . of such ill-natur'd creatures we read in tacitus , quibus beneficia eousque laeta , dum videntur exolvi posse ; sed ubi antevenêre , pro gratiâ odium redditur . little curtesies and good turns they take very well , and are thankfull for : but when a munificence is excessive , and far beyond their possibility either to recompense , or deserve , then they onely love the benefits , but perfectly hate the benefactor , and wish him dead , because ( according to that of aristotle , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ) as often as he sees them , he makes them blush . now 't is very sound arguing from the act to the aptitude ; such things there may be in these our days , because there were such in the days we read of . and special heed is to be taken that we be not deceived by such as these ; because by courage and easie caution a man may be saved from his enemies ; but god alone can keep him safe from his dearest friends . thence said god by the prophet jeremy , take ye heed every one of his neighbour , and trust ye not in any brother : for every brother will utterly supplant ; and every neighbour will walk with slanders ; their habitation is in the midst of deceit . so said jesus the son of sirach , separate thy self from thine enemies , and take heed of thy friends : julius caesar was more endanger'd from brutus , and cassius , his bosom friends , than from antony , and cato , his open enemies . pompey the great could never hurt him with all his armies , because he was a brave and a generous enemy . but his friends were such flayls , as against which there was no defense . even the serpent himself was not more treacherous to eve , than eve was unto her husband , and her husband to his posterity . for although she derived her body from his , and so might seem in some regard to have been his own daughter , before his wife ; ( as it were joyn'd to him in wedlock by a kind of lawfull incest ; ) yet no sooner had that woman received life from out his side , than she ( in a lamentable requitall ) returned death into his bowells . david did not complain , that an open enemy had dishonour'd him , or that an adversary had magnify'd himself against him : for ( said he ) i could have born the one , and have hid my self from the other . but his cordolium and his out-cry was against his companion , and his guide , with whom he took sweet counsell , and walked with as with a friend in the house of god. i wish it may prove a very groundless and weak suggestion , that both our jesuites , and their journy-men , ( passing commonly under the name of fanatick protestants , ) are by much the most innocent , because they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ( as aristotle words it ) the most undisguised and barefac'd enemies , at once to the monarchy and church of england . such as declare themselves in * print for the deposing of our kings , and the disposing of their kingdoms . in this respect the more innocent , that by professing themselves implacable and ungainable antagonists , they give us an helmet before they strike . we know the thirtieth of january stands as execrably black in our english calendar , as the fift of november has ever done . which proves the truth of what was written by a isaac casaubon to heinsius before our days , ( and when the days were less evil than we have liv'd in , ) that we have jesuited protestants , as well as papists ; equally haters of the government of church and state here in england ; equally poyson'd with an opinion , that the worst of all murthers is the most highly meritorious ; equally practicers and patrons of that hildebrandine divinity , which has cost so many monarchs their lives and fortunes . i say , 't were safer than now it is , if all our enemies were such , ut professa prodant odia vindictae locum ; that by knowing our utmost danger , we might timely stand upon our guard. were i at leisure to rifle story , i could name several hundreds , besides the emperour darius , and charles the first of these realms , who were betray'd by those most , in whom they most trusted : and whilst they thought the best way to make men loyall , was not to doubt of their being such , most unhappily have died by their credulity . it is indeed a very generous and princely errour , ( as being the errour of a great and a candid soul , ) not at all to be capable of fears and jealousies ; and rather to run the greatest hazards , than either to fear , or to be fear'd . but yet the oftener i reflect upon what was once said by a duke of florence , [ that he reckon'd all subjects , who were principl'd by the jesuits , would rebell if they could , and therefore ( said he ) for mine , let them do it if they can ; ] and comparing therewith the several caveats of our lord , be wise as serpents , beware of men ; and considering that distrustfulness is the chief wisedom of the serpent , as well as a necessary safeguard to the simplicity of the dove ; lastly , the less i have been able to free my self from an opinion , that in the wariness of the prince the people's interest and safety does chiefly stand , ( for sure it is our greatest interest , not to be able to be damn'd for our disobedience , and , by a consequence unavoidable , not to be able to disobey the lord of hosts in his vicegerents , ) the more i think there is place for an epicharmus , to bring that motto to remembrance , [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that is , ] forget not to be distrustfull . § . and as of all other friends , so above all beware of them , who pretend a friendship unto the soul. for there is no devil to the white one . that serpent is the most deadly , which covers over his malice with the seeming simplicity of a dove . a wolf is ever most ravenous , when cloath'd in sheep-skin . nor is there any such dangerous highway-thief , as he who follows that trade in the reverend habit of a priest. there are no jugglers in the world to be compar'd with false teachers ; those spiritual purloyners , who commit a kind of burglary upon mens souls , and even plunder their very consciences ; who first steal into their heads , and carry away from thence their true opinions in point of faith ; then creep into their hearts , and steal away from thence their right affections in point of practice . such as these heretofore were nestorius , photinus , and apollinaris . all three very learned and frequent preachers , of eminent wit , and elocution , highly approved by the clergy , as well as admired by all the people , untill infected with an itch to be the authors of so many sects , or the heads of so many factions , they polluted all their excellencies with the leprosie of errour ; and of three great shepherds became three dogs , whose constant business was nothing else , but to be barking and snarling against the truth . photinus ( even with vehemence ) against the trinity of the godhead ; nestorius against the vnity of our saviour's person ; and lastly , apollinaris against the duality of his nature . § . from whose examples we may learn , not onely to beware of such as creep into houses , and there lead captive those silly women , who again do lead captive their silly men ; but of such as domineer in their factious pulpits , and like the great red dragon in the revelation , do draw after their tail , perhaps a whole third part of the stars of heaven . ( i cannot be thought to speak of fixt , but of erratick and wandring stars . ) the common fallacies of the world do onely couzen the peoples senses , and so impose upon their reason . but these at first dash do even bewitch their very reason , and so beguile them of their religion . a spiritual cheat , or false teacher , is so incomparably hurtfull ; ( especially when his false and seditious doctrin is such as easily runs out at his fingers ends , ) that lucifer himself , to become such , did first of all turn devil . for as if his devilship were his qualification , he was first an apostate , and then a preacher . the forbidden tree was his text , forbidden knowledge was his doctrin , horrid rebellion was his vse , and so he concluded with just damnation . § . now we shall find such impostors to have been still very rife , whether we look into the jewish , or christian church . in the jewish it is observable , that for one elijah , ( that man of god , ) the prophets of baal were four hundred and fifty . for one micaiah , who prophesied truth , four hundred there were that dawb'd with untemper'd morter . the ways of apostasy in israel were chiefly two . the first was the way of jeroboam , who ador'd the true god , but in the similitude of a calf ; nor that at jerusalem , but dan and bethel . in that lay his heresie , in this his schism . the second way was the way of ahab ; who besides the publick worship , common to him with jeroboam , did farther worship his baalims or godlings also . now there was never any apostasy , no nor idolatry in israel ; in which their false prophets had not still a great hand . no nor any false prophets who prophesied lies , but they pretended to derive them from the mouth of truth . the work of satan still was done in jehovah's name . an example of which we have king. . where though ahab's lying prophets were prophets of baal , yet still they usher'd in their falsehoods with a [ thus saith the lord. ] come we hastily from the jewish to the christian church , which we shall find to have been infested , from her first * infancy and childhood , with such deceivers . a simon magus was found at rome , to resist the doctrins of s. peter ; an apollonius also at ephesus , to check the preachings of s. john. besides menander , and cerinthus , barchochebas , and dositheus , carpocrates , and ebion , saturninus , and basilides , and the most venemous crew as well of gnosticks , as nicholaitans , ( whereof the greatest part did flourish in the apostles own times , and all pretended to be reformers , ) there were not wanting amongst the heathen , who did endeavour the setting up a new messias of their own ; and that by craftily diverting the clearest prophecies of the old testament , from that natural aspect which they all fasten upon the new. justin martyr in his paraenesis to the emperour antonine , does make this appear by an induction of particulars . that famous prophecy ( for example ) of dying jacob , [ the scepter shall not depart from judah till shiloh come , binding his asse's colt unto the choice vine , and washing his cloaths in the blood of grapes , gen. . . ] which is so manifestly fulfilled in jesus christ the son of god , the heathen greeks apply'd to bacchus , their son of jupiter ; not onely because his rites were solemnized with an ass , and because he was worshipped as the god of the vintage ; but because he was feign'd to have been torn in pieces , to have suffer'd many things , and to have enter'd into glory . so what is spoken by the prophets of our saviour's riding into jerusalem upon an ass , ( zech. . . ) they apply to bellerophon ( another son of their jupiter ) riding to heaven upon pegasus , a winged horse . and that praediction of isaias concerning a virgin 's bringing forth , ( isa . . . ) they will needs apply to dance in the brazen tower ; where having carefully been sequestred from the society of men , and yet for all that grown big of perseus , she got the fabulous repute of a mother-maid . so that passage of the psalmist , [ he rejoyced as a giant to run his course , psal . . . ] those idolatrous greeks apply to hercules , whom they affirm to have ran through all the habitable world . and those distinct praedictions of the prophet esa touching our saviour's healing virtue over all manner of diseases , they apply to aesculapius , their god of physick . not to be endless in particulars , all the prophecies of our messias , excepting that of his crucifixion , ( which their poets could never parallel in all their fabulous sons of jupiter , ) have by the wicked ingeny of deceivers , been profanely misapply'd to the bolstering up of their idolatries , and that by having been wrested from those completions they all do find in our blessed saviour . insomuch as without , and within the church , both under the law , and under the gospel , this has ever been a pertinent , if not a necessary caveat , be wise as serpents ; beware of men ; or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , take ye heed that no man deceive you . § . we stand in need of this caveat , in respect of all persons without exception : not onely of the worst , but the best of men . for as the worst may deceive us by their very good words , so may the best of men too ( though without any design , and even before they are aware , ) by their evil deeds . to begin with the worst , let us first of all attend unto that caveat of s. paul to his ephesians , let no man deceive you with vain words . a caveat extended to many things of great moment , however expressed by our apostle in the stile of vain words . he does not mean by vain words , such as are but unprofitable and impertinent to the hearers ; such as are to no end , and purpose : but such as are filthy as well as foolish ; and withall such as are false , or fallacious words . such as blind a man's judgment ; such as pervert his understanding ; such as impose upon his reason ; such as mislead him from the true faith ; and even couzen him of his religion . in all these respects , though in the last above all , s. paul is carefull that his ephesians be not deceiv'd with vain words . they who call foolish or filthy talking , by the plausible names of facetiousness , or drollery , vrbanity , or burlesque , are the first fort of such as do deceive with vain words . these are called by the greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and by the latines ridicularii , in french and english , drolls , and railleurs ; such as think it a mark of wit , never to speak a serious word , but to turn all into ridicule . by foolish talking and jesting , ( two words for one thing ) is meant such insipid and unsavory discourse , as has not in it any salt either of charity or of prudence to make it usefull . 't is true that aristotle does reckon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( which is here s. paul's word ) a semivertue in conversation . but being usually coupled with scurrility , or obscoeneness , or some degree of profanation , ( for mala sunt vicina bonis , ) it is prohibited , and condemn'd , and heavily censur'd by our apostle , as inconsistent with the seriousness and the gravity of a christian , whose conversation should be in heaven , and his joy in the holy ghost ; not in jesting , and buffonery . mortification and repentance and amendment of life should be his business ; and praising god his recreation . the study and contemplation both of the wisedom , and the will , and the word of god , should be his labour , and his divertisement , his daily exercise and delight . to them that place their present happiness in the contrary to this , in sparing nothing to break a jest , neither the holy word of god , nor the good names of men , nor the modest ears of women , but sacrifice all considerations to sport and laughter , as to the idol they most adore , to them our lord's denuntiation belongs of right , wo be to them that laugh , for they shall mourn and weep . as for such things as these , impious jests to cause laughter , and filthy talking , ( v. . ) let no man deceive us , ( saith s. paul , ) as if they were altogether venial , and such as easily consist with a christian state : for even because of these things , ( as arrant trifles and peccadilloes , as by too many they may be thought , ) the wrath of god cometh upon the children of disobedience , either in this , or the world to come . again , let no man deceive us with vain words , that is , with false ones ( saith estius , ) or with fallacious ones ( saith menochius . ) and so the caveat is extensible to all the deceitfulnesses of men , who with the sophistry of words , or the words of man's wisedom , ( which is the wisedom of the flesh , ) seek to impose upon the consciences and minds of those they speak to . as in calling vitious fear by the name of prudence ; in calling avarice , frugality ; luxury , nobleness ; lightness , affability ; ambition , greatness of soul ; sheepishness , humility ; insultation , courage ; and devilish envy , hatred of evil. for now and then a great vice does so ape-out vertue , and several vertues in some degrees do so border upon vice , that for want of due heed to the vain words of men , many mistake them for one another . let no man therefore deceive us ( as many will , unless we stand upon our guard , ) by giving vain subtilty the name of wisedom ; and cruelty the name of corrective justice ; by calling rashness , resolution ; and giddiness , zeal : let no man lead us into intemperance , under the stile of goodfellowship ; nor seek to lessen the guilt of wantonness , by its being intitl'd a trick of youth ; nor withdraw our obedience to publick parents , in pretense of sacrifice to god ; no nor our sacrifice to god , ( when that is due , ) because obedience indeed is better . let no man persuade us to leave undone the smallest duties , under colour of our doing the weightier matters of the law ; nor wilfully to admit of a lesser sin , in a sophistical pretense of avoiding greater . for that saying of aristotle , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that of two evils the least is to be chosen , is not meant of two moral , but of two physical , or civil evils . 't is true when two evils are both of punishment , or when of any two evils , the one is of sin , and the other of affliction , reason prompts us to choose the lesser . but of two moral evils , or of two formal sins , religion bids us choose neither : but rather suffer the greatest evil , than submit to do the least . § . should i adventure to reflect upon all sorts of men of this first rank , of whom an heed is to be taken in this last age , ( though this at first was my design , ) i should heedlesly ingage in a new sea of matter , and wear out the patience of all that hear me . i shall therefore choose to spend the little remainder of my time , in giving notice of two or three of the most plausible deceivers , which seem to have had the chiefest hand in all the miseries of the late times . for till the errours they have sown , and sometimes planted , be rooted out of the people's minds , i cannot imagin how it is possible to keep our peace any longer , than whilst the persons so imbued want power to break it . § . take we heed then in the next place of such deceivers , as sow the seeds of discontent in their credulous congregations , by feeding the people with apprehensions , fears , and jealousies , of superstition , and popery , and impositions upon religion by the commandments of men. this has been a sore evil under the sun , ( ever since the days of queen elizabeth , ) by fictitious and pretended , to make a broad way for real popery . when a protestant resolves to espouse a schism , a separation from the most perfect of protestant churches in the world , he must accuse her either of popery , or of papistical inclinations , for fear of being found out by all , to drive a trade of animosities , either for revenge , or for filthy lucre ; or for fear of being known to be satan's chief journy-man , in being passionately amorous of breeding hatreds , and a lover of schism as it is schism . neither christ nor his apostles were used otherwise or worse than the church of england , whose accusations were adapted to their enemies ends , which were onely to make them odious , and thorowly fitted for destruction ; as far from truth , or probability , as truth can possibly be from falshood . nor could it sure be more impossible , that christ himself , blessed for ever , should be a conjurer , or a glutton , ( who yet was accused of being both , ) than that his spouse the church of england should be popishly affected , whose first reformers were put to death for resisting popery , and whose sons at this day are the sole persons that keep it out , and whose communion is detested by none so much as the popish party , who are not wont to hate men for their kind affections . a man would think that all protestants should unite themselves with us , because the romanists will not . a man would think that no protestant should separate from us , because the romanists all do . a man would think our common enemies should make us friends . but when the primitive christians were to be baited , and torn in pieces , 't was but suitable for them to be put in bears skins too . and 't is as suitable for our church to be very well cloath'd with the worst of calumnies , by such as aim at her ruin , and are resolv'd on her condemnation . the many divisions and subdivisions of our sectaries in england cannot be easily reckon'd up , they are so numerous ; ( for there are hardly more divisions amongst the romanists themselves . ) every sect is desirous to have the new-modelling or new-moulding of our church : and there is not one of them but has as much pretense for it , as any other ; if not an equal right , yet an equal want of right to be our reformers . they being equally void of ; and as equally dissenters from all authority ; abounding all equally in a preference of their own to superiour judgments ; equal admirers of themselves ; and as equally contemptuous of other men . there is not an anabaptist , or quaker , not an adamite , or a behemist , no nor any other sectary of whatsoever denomination , but thinks it hard , and takes it ill , we are not all of their opinion , and do not conform to their way of worship . now what a monster would our church be , if every one of these sects had the shaping of her ? and how much worse would our babel be , than that which they call the whore of babylon ? what then is to be done , or to be said in this case of our present breaches ? they that are over us in authority must tell us what is to be done ; but what is fittest to be said i suppose is this : that such of our englishmen as own themselves protestants , and yet divide from the church of england , do contribute a great deal more towards the bringing in of popery , than all the emissaries of rome could have done without them . and if ever we live to see the abomination of desolation , standing as heretofore in our holy places , it will enter in at that , and at no other door , than what our schisms and separations have open'd to it . nothing but our divisions can bring in popery ; and i had almost said too , that nothing but our vnion can keep it out . but united we cannot be , ( whilst they that have divided from us are so strangely subdivided among themselves , ) unless it be by all parties , from every part of the circumference , concentring themselves in the church of england . and this the proudest of them may do , not onely without a blush , but with the greatest honour and reputation to be imagin'd . for what ( i pray ) is the church of england , but a most renowned and national church ? a national church the most peaceably and the most regularly reformed of all the churches . the chief reformed church of christendom , which has publickly been establish'd by law , and canon . the onely protestant church in europe , which has been able as well as willing to protect other churches in their distresses . in a word , the church of england has ever conquer'd , and confuted , and ( if her fugitive children do not unnaturally betray her , ) will ever keep us all safe from the church of rome . § . take we heed in the third place of such deceivers , as would have it thought a mark of the most reform'd , to preach up an exemption from human laws , ( such especially as relate to the externals of religion , ) and so a licentiousness of life , for christian liberty ; ever pressing their hearers to stand fast in it , that is , to be obstinate and sturdy rebells . as if the liberty of a christian , wherein the galatians were bid to stand fast , were not at all a manumission from the bondage of sin , and from the empire of satan , and from the rigor of the law as 't was given by moses , but a freedom from christ , and christianity it self . not onely from the positive , but from the moral law of moses , which is as well the law of nature , and the law of christ too ; and which , he tells us most expresly , he came not to abrogate , but on the contrary to fulfill ; and also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to fill it up . as if the liberty of a christian extended it self even to libertinism it self ; rendring every man free to judge the laws , and legislators , and ( with a greater force of reason ) the learned judges of the land : free to regulate the laws by their several humours , ( which by the way is a thing impossible , and flatly implies a contradiction , ) rather than to regulate their several humours by the laws ; which is not onely possible , but so absolutely necessary , that he who will not do this , ( conform his private humour to publick laws , ) is fit to live in a desert , in the company of creatures which have no law at all ; not in a kingdom , or commonwealth , not in a city , or a church , where human laws ( under god's ) are the life of liberty , and propriety , nor onely of livelihood , but life it self . whosoever has been protected from any injuries of men by the laws in force , must needs confirm , by his experience , the truth of what i now say : that such a subject as will no longer allow the laws , than the laws allow him in his being lawless , or no longer than they are pleasing and usefull to him , ( as when they avenge him upon his enemies , defend him in his liberty , and assert him in his estate , ) deserves not those benefits of propriety and safety the laws afford him . the laws ( i say ) not onely under which , but by which he lives . 't is very plain , that such laws deserve but ill from all others , if they do not deserve from him an uniformity in his obedience . where human laws command that which god does no where forbid , and vice versâ , where they forbid what god does no where command , nothing is plainer in all the scriptures , than that the ordinances of men are also the ordinances of god : and to submit our selves to them , not of necessity , but of choise , not so much for fear of wrath , as for conscience sake , is no small part of our christian liberty , wherewith christ has made us free . gal. . . § . take we heed in the fourth place of such deceivers , as would beguile us into a faith , apt to make us unfaithfull in all our ways ; a faith that all things coming to pass were antecedently unavoidable ; and that by consequence when we have sinn'd , we have onely done that , which we could never have prevented the doing of : and this by the force of a most absolute irrespective irreversible decree , which did eternally so determin both the end , and the means , as to necessitate our impieties as well as punishments . so that if we are elected , all our vices cannot hurt us ; and if we are not , all our vertues cannot avail us . so again , if we are reprobates , we cannot repent although we would ; and if we are not , we must repent , do what we can ; and by consequence , as we were born , so we may live without care . take we heed of being couzen'd by such false logick , as may help us either merrily or despairingly to hell , by making us careless of our actions , and neglectfull of our end. by way of antidote to the venom lying hid in this doctrin , we must so think of god , as becomes his godhead . we must think nothing of god , which is dishonourable in men. we must believe nothing of him , which we would not be very willing to have believed of our selves . and we must so speak of god in the ears of men , as to beget in them a love and a reverence of him . and this we shall be sure to do , if we speak of his promises and his threats as we find them in scripture to be general , and by consequence conditional ; of his soveraignty , as just ; and of his mercy , as extensive to all his works ; of his will , as wisedom ; sincere , and uniform , not repugnant to it self , whether as signi , or beneplaciti , reveal'd , or secret ; of his decrees from all aeternity , in proportion to the rule by which they are executed in time ; exclusive of his being a respecter of persons , and inclusive of his dealing with all according to their deeds ; of faith , as dead , without works ; of repentance , as false , without amendment ; of justification , as in time , not ( as say the antinomians ) from all aeternity . for hence 't is logically inferr'd by some of eminence in the world , ( who would not be thought to be antinomians , ) that their sins were forgiven before committed ; and that repentance does not praecede , but follow pardon . a doctrin as dangerous as any other that can be nam'd ; and which does not adorn , but disgrace the gospel , ( as far as some at least are thought to be preachers of it , ) which s. peter on the contrary thought good to preach in this order ; repent , and be converted , that your sins may be blotted out . clearly intimating unto us , that a blotting out of sins can never follow , unless repentance and conversion do go before . they that teach otherwise , are apt to beget a disbelief , or ( which is worse ) an ill opinion of the almighty . take we heed therefore that we be not deceived by such as these . § . again take we heed of those idol-shepherds , ( to use the phrase of the prophet zechary , ) whose left eye at least is sharp enough sighted , but onely their right eye is full of darkness . they have human learning enough , enough and too much of worldly wisedom , but have no divine light whereby to guide it . such are they of whom i spake in the later part of my last discourse ; who call their confidence or caprice by the name of conscience , and teach the people under their charge , as 't were to regulate their lives by that crooked rule . i do the rather speak twice of this grand fallacy , because i take it to be that , of which we can never be told enough . for till men are catechiz'd in the point of conscience , made to know its true nature , and the signification of its name , ( if i may speak mine own judgment with due submission to my superiours , ) they will not onely go securely , but even greedily to destruction . be their sins never so many , and in weight never so great , yet if they can get themselves to think that they are conscionably committed , ( as clement did , and ravilliac , and many more nearer home , ) they will reckon upon a saintship , from nothing else but the absence of lesser sins than they delight in , and doat upon . they will imagin they have made their election sure , or rather that they have made themselves sure of their election , ( as they love to mistake the text , ) even by such a kind of partial and painted innocence , as ( being seriously consider'd ) is common to them with the devil ; who is not a swearer , or a drunkard , or a committer of adultery , and yet he is not the less a devil . but such professors not considering , that spiritual pride with her two daughters , sacrilege , and rebellion , are sins more antient than hell itself , make no doubt but those things will not onely accompany , but ( as the angels did lazarus ) will carry them up into abraham's bosom . if we consider by what impieties some bigots have expected to merit bliss , and what others have understood by their following providence , and conscience , and by their being over-acted to do the work of the lord , ( for so they cant it , ) we cannot but say the greatest mercy which can be shewn to such criminals , is to make them less nocent ( if not innocent ) unavoidably . which being not to be effected by congruous grace , because it is not irresistible , should by consequence be effected by that which is ; that if they will not choose the glory , they may be mercifully compell'd to injoy the benefit of their obedience ; and that however they may perish by other crimes , they may yet be disenabl'd to damn themselves by their rebellions . § . lastly , take we the greatest heed , of being led into the errour that 't is impossible for us to erre , whilst we believe as we are bid by the church of rome , which deceives the most incurably , by getting her children to believe , she is divinely undeceivable . take away this , and all her other impositions will fall to ruin of themselves . but by the help of this errour , all the rest must needs be swallow'd , how gross soever . to wit , that the books of maccabees ( and all the rest of the apocrypha ) are as much the word of god , as the books of moses , or any other : at least since the canons of the council at trent , to whose authority ( forsooth ) the holy scriptures owe theirs . that in the sacrament of the lord's supper , it is the interest and the duty of every christian to be a canibal ; even materially and grosly to eat and drink the flesh and bloud of the man christ jesus . that the single bishop of rome is the vniversal pastor , head , and monarch , over the whole catholick church , both diffusive , and representative , though in an absolute contradiction to four famous councils , ( which with the papalins themselves do pass for general , ) to wit , of pisa , constance , basil , and siena . not to insist on those other councils , of chalcedon , constantinople , antioch , and africa . that there must be an infallible judge of controversies on earth , over and above the word of god ; though they who say it are not agreed , who the judge of them should be : a whether the diffusive , or representative , or ( that which they call ) the virtual church catholick , or their principium vnitatis , ( as they call the bishop of rome , ) who proudly lords it over them all. that though nothing is to be added to the apostles own creed , consisting of but articles , ( each apostle casting in one , as ruffinus tells us , ) yet the more at least , thereto added by pius quartus and the council of trent , are to be sworn to , and believed , as of equal necessity to life aeternal . to sum up all in a word , no contradiction can be so gross , no absurdity so great , as not to be readily entertained by those jesuited bigots , who have beforehand devoured and swallow'd down without chewing that breeding blasphemy and falshood , b that the pope is as infallible as jesus christ , as often as he speaks ex cathedrâ , even without a general council , not in questions onely of right , but in those of fact also . let no man therefore deceive us with his pretended infallibility , more than with his being god , or wholly impeccable upon earth . for he who cannot be deceiv'd , can as little sin ; they are attributes peculiar to god alone . § . but now 't is time that i proceed to the second general member of sub-division , by which a caveat was enter'd against deceipts of all sorts , as well of the best , as the worst of men. for as heed is to be taken that no evil man deceive us by good appearances and praetenses ; so there is use of as great heed , that no good man deceive us ( against his will ) by the evil example of his miscarriage . there being at least as much danger of the one , as of the other . if we allow our selves to * think we may safely do , what some very good people have done before us , the consequence of it will be this , that we shall imitate the worst in the best of men , and leave the best to be their peculiar . and therefore here 't is very fit for our observation , that 't was not said by our saviour ( matth. . . ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , beware of men , that is of some men , ( those of the consistories or sanedrim amongst the jews , who yet are aimed at in especial manner , ) but with an article praefixt , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , beware of men , that is , of all men in general , not excepting the very best . for let erasmus and vatablus say what they will , the praefixing of the article seems to import the whole species ; as tostatus and casaubon at least do judge . let us not say therefore with a bellarmin , that so good a woman as sarah had never prompted her husband to lie with hagar , if she had not well known it to have been lawfull . no nor yet with a b greater man , that abram might dissemble and tell a lie to save his life . nor think the better of adultery or wilfull murther , for being committed even by david after a state of regeneration . nor look upon incest itself as venial , because 't was acted even by lot , who in the holy scripture is stiled righteous . nor imagin it does the rather consist with wisedom to be idolatrous , for that solomon himself did worship idols , who is renowned for his wisedom throughout the world. nor be so illogical as to conclude in the behalf of polygamy , because so honest a man as jacob had two wives at once , and is no where reproved in all the scripture . nor may we give an ear to them who do excuse the worst impieties of all such men as have been regenerate , by imputing them wholly to the infirmity of the flesh , and not as well to the filthiness of the spirit . some there are who are serious in the use of such logick , ( be it spoken to the disgrace of their wit and learning , ) though it is patcht up of nothing but one gross fallacy , à benè divisis ad malè conjuncta . many things are very false in a compound sense , which being divided are very true ; and many are true being compounded , which in sensu diviso are very false . david was holy , and committed wilfull murther in conjunction with adultery ; but it was not committed by holy david . ( for this would imply a contradiction in adjecto . ) he was holy before , and holy after , but in a state of vnholiness and condemnation whilst he lay snoring in his impieties ( as he did for some months ) without repentance . so solomon was wise , and a worshipper of idols ; but he was not then wise , when he stood guilty of idol-worship . solomon and solomon were just as different , as peter in the hall , and behind the door : or as the book of kings , and the book of ecclesiastes . when that impiety was committed , it was by solomon the fool , who recover'd not his wisedom till he repented ; that is to say , till he amended , and chang'd his life , till he became a new creature , and brought forth fruits meet for repentance . § . and if heed is to be taken that no good man deceive us , we may not sure neglect him who has nothing of good but in bare appearance . if the former may deceive us by the example of his sin , well may the later deceive us too by the lying sanctity of his life . then let not any man deceive us by any means . neither by giving smooth speeches , nor by wearing rough garments ; neither by using foxes words , nor by having sheeps cloathing ; neither by spirit , nor by letter . not by the current of his prosperity , not by the reddiness of his praying , not by the commonness of his preaching , not by the plausible demureness ( called the godliness ) of his practice . for the devil were but a dunce , in case he could not fish ( whilst he is angling after souls ) with more baits than these ; and too contemptible a mimick , if amongst all his cunning actings he could not personate a saint . § . but this is not all which does properly belong to a christian's caution . we must not onely take heed that no man deceive us , but as great heed is to be taken that we our selves deceive no man , and ( more than that ) that we undeceive others who are deceiv'd . we must contend for the faith , and we must do it also with earnestness , ( as s. jude exhorts us all in the th . verse of his epistle , ) not onely be in the right our selves , but labour to bring into the way of truth all such as have erred and are deceiv'd . we must labour by our arguments , as well as prayers , to strengthen them that already stand , to comfort and help the weak-hearted , to lift up the hands that hang down , and the feeble knees , to raise up such as we know are fallen , and by any means possible to tread down satan under all our feet . § . we see there is danger on every side , both within us , and without us , both in solitude , and in company , whether our company does consist either of evil , or good men , we had need have our eyes and our wits about us . we have need of it at all times , but above all in such as these , to which our lord does here allude in the text and context which lies before us . and this would lead me , if i would follow , to the third particular in the division ; to wit , the time , or occasion , wherein the use of this care will be most in season . but this i confess is such a difficult and such a slippery kind of doctrin , as of which i had rather make a very private use , than run the publick risque of an application . for in such an auditory as this , ( consisting of all that is great and prudent , ) for me to adventure to make a search into those particulars , out of which our publick dangers are most arising , were to discourse concerning tacticks to such as hannibal and scipio ; or to demetrius the poliorketick concerning the taking of a town . and therefore leaving to men of counsel their proper business , which is to sit at the helm of church and state , and wisely to provide for the good of both ; i keep my self within the modesty which is expected from a divine . abruptly concluding my present sermon , just as s. peter his first epistle , with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , be sober , be vigilant ; because your adversary the devil as a roaring lion walketh about , seeking whom he may devour ; whom resist stedfast in the faith. and the god of all grace who hath called us to his aeternal glory by christ jesus , make you perfect , stablish , strengthen , settle you . to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever . amen . of fear as necessary to faith , in the well-ordering of our lives . cor. . . wherefore let him who thinketh that he stands , take heed lest he fall . § . a caveat evermore in season , and of necessity to be press'd , and that upon every sort of persons of all conditions and degrees , and this in what sense soever we please to take it . it has its value even in that wherein the apostle never meant it , and which ( to say truth ) was much below his consideration , to wit , as apply'd to any secular or worldly station . for had we the leisure to make reflection upon all times and places , as far as historians have brought them to us , we should find the observation to be as general , as it is wholsom , that the greatest things and persons , ( the greatest monarchies with their monarchs , the greatest states-men as well as states , ) have then been nearest to a downfall , when they have been in all appearance the most establish'd . how many are there in the world in whom extremities have concenter'd ? and as the two globes of heaven and earth do mutually touch in a single point , so there is nothing more frequent , than for conditions of as great distance as the nadir and the zenith to meet in one and the same man. nebuchadnezzar the most exalted , and the most abject in all assyria . apries the best provided , and the most destitute thing in aegypt . polycrates the fortunatest and the unfortunatest man of samos : deified one day , and crucified the next . polydorus the most belov'd , and the most hated of lacedaemonians . periander the very wisest , and most besotted of the corinthians . sejanus the most admir'd , and most contemptible man in rome . dionysius the fiercest tyrant , and tamest paedogogue in greece . therefore the apophthegm of solon was not so witty , as it was true , that no man's happiness can be certain before his death . and 't was for this reason onely , that cleobis and biton were praeferr'd before croesus in point of bliss , that they were dead , and died well ; whereas he , with his prosperities , was yet but living ; and neither knew how he should end , nor what evenements might befall him 'twixt this and that . my text had therefore been very pertinent and of moment , had it exhorted to nothing better , than human prudence ; or provided for nothing more than an outward safety . § . but as nothing can profit a man to purpose , which cannot profit him at all in the day of wrath , so no prudence can be sufficient , but that by which a man stands in the evil day . not in the day of temptation onely , but in the hour of death , and the day of judgment . nor can we pronounce of our condition , as it is spiritual and aeternal , but by beginning our accompt from our later end. which because without prophecy we cannot do , ( as jeremy did by zedekiah , ) therefore happy is the man that feareth always , as salomon by his experience was taught himself to teach others . prosperity is one thing , and happiness quite another . we may be sure , whilst we live , that we are more or less prosperous ; but whether more or less happy , we must live and die too to assure our selves . death alone is that point , in which the terrestrial and coelestial globes meet , if they meet at all . and as the tree falleth , just so it lyeth . s. paul himself , whilst yet a passenger , and not within sight of his journy's end , ( whilst he was yet but in the valley , far enough from having ascended unto the top of mount nebo , from whence he might have seen his crown of righteousness , ) was so afraid to loose his station , and to fall from his own stedfastness , ( which s. peter provides against too ) that he did beat down his body , and carefully bring it into subjection , and all for this momentous , though modest reason , lest whilst he preached unto others , he himself might become a castaway . and being as carefull of other mens , as of his own aeternal interest , he did as tenderly admonish them as he had done his own soul. giving this caveat to all in general , though written in special to his corinthians , let him who thinketh that he stands , take heed lest he fall . § . in which words we have three things observable . first , a tacit dissuasive from carnal confidence and security . next an explicit exhortation to christian prudence . lastly , the reason of both at once from a great danger on the one side , and in consequence of that , from as great a necessity on the other the danger is not so trivial , as that of falling with holy job , from an high pitch of wealth to the depth of poverty ; or with the brave aristomenes , from a pinnacle of glory into the gulph of lacedaemon ; nor is the danger no more affrighting , than that of falling with jeremy into jonathan's dungeon , or with daniel into the den of the hungry lions . but here the danger is of falling from light to darkness ; from an high pitch of grace , the favour of god , into a bottomless asphaltites of fire unquenchable . some there were who did not think there could be any such danger , to them that stood as they did ( or as they thought they did at least ) in a state of grace . such were the gnosticks alluded to in several verses before my text. but 't is below s. paul's reason , and inconsistent with his sincerity , to write of danger where there is none ; or to forewarn us of a mischief which cannot possibly come to pass . in bidding us look unto our footing , he takes it for granted that we are liable to a fall. and accordingly 't is the sense of our common mother the church of england , ( in the th . of her articles , ) that after we have received the holy ghost , we may depart from grace given , and fall into sin , though by the grace of god too we may rise again . now the greater our danger is by carnal confidence and security , the greater need we stand in of a christian prudence . and this , though but one , is such a cardinal vertue , that 't is really a guardian to all the rest . especially as consisting of those three parts , providence , caution , and circumspection , without which it is impossible ( as nicely distinguish'd by the * school-men ) for christian prudence to be complete . for first of all we must have providence , to cast about for such means as are conducing unto our end. next we must have circumspection , whereby to attend to every circumstance wherewith the means are to be cloath'd . last of all we must have caution , for the avoiding of those impediments , which may otherwise hinder our course of vertue , and unhappily interrupt us in bringing the means unto the end. § . now to these three parts of a christian prudence , there are three sorts of men who are here exhorted ; either directly in the text , or in its relation to the context . first , consider we the text in its meer literal importance , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , let him who seems to himself to stand , and that as fixt as an antinomian , even by grace irresistible ; by having been justified from aeternity ; by having had all his sins forgiven , so long before they were committed ; or by being not able to sin at all ; so as in his imagination he cannot possibly depart from the living god ; ( which yet the epistle to the hebrews does bid him take heed of ; ) who seems to himself to stand so firmly , as that he cannot fall a little , much less totally ; much less finally from grace ; let him , ( i say ) as well as others , take heed lest he fall . next , consider we the text as it looks back upon the context , ( from the first verse unto the eleventh , ) and thereby acquaints us with its more rational importance . let him , ( who does not only seem to himself to stand , but ) who stands in good earnest by ghostly strength ; by having had his feet shod with the preparation of the gospel ; by having been cleansed from his sins in the bloud of christ , and in the baptism of tears , which arise from the spring of sincere repentance ; let him not think it a thing below him , to take great heed , that he do not fall . for the israelites from the first to the tenth verse of this chapter , were all in covenant with god ; did all partake of those priviledges which he vouchsafed them as his children ; were all baptized unto moses in the cloud , and in the sea ; did all injoy the same miracles ; were fed with manna sent down from heaven ; refresh'd with water out of horeb , gushing forth from a dry and a barren rock ; they mystically tasted of christ himself , ( v. . ) but yet as firmly as they stood , we find their feet slipt . for first they stagger'd in the faith ; then they stumbl'd into idolatry ; next they fell in the wilderness , ( all excepting two persons , ) and were destroy'd of the destroyer , ( v. . and . ) all which things ( saith our apostle ) happen'd to them for ensamples , and are written for our instruction on whom the ends of the world are come , ( v. . ) from whence he rationally draws this signal corollary and caveat , ( for we see 't is both at once , and is accordingly brought in with the causal wherefore , ) let him who thinketh that he stands take heed lest he fall . yet one step farther . let him who stands faster than other men who do truly stand , almost as fast in reality , as the gnosticks in the context did in their proud imagination ; as fast as david and s. peter in their high pitch of grace ; as fast as adam in that of innocence ; or as the bright morning stars in that of glory ; let him ( i say ) as well as others , yea let him above others take heed lest he fall . the reason is , because his fall , if he falls , must needs be the greater and less excusable , the higher and firmer his station is , and the greater his ability to stand his ground . the angels that fell from as high as heaven , and that without a tempter too , even for this very reason ( as i observed once before ) could not fall less than as low as hell ; and so their fall was without recovery . for when god was in christ reconciling the world unto himself , he did not take upon him the nature of angels , whereby to give the faln regiment a capability of rising , ( however origen and his disciples would have given it had they been able , ) and that for the reason i just now hinted . whereas the lapsed man adam , newly taken out of the earth , and whose foundation was in the dust , had both the subtilty of a tempter , and the strength of a temptation , and ( together with his innocence ) a frailty of nature ; all which did excuse him at least à tanto ; whereby he became the properer object of god's compassion as well as justice , and so the more fit for a restauration . from whence i humbly conceive i may infer with good logick , that by how much the firmer our footing is , by so much the greater , and not the lesser , our heed ought to be that we do not fall . i have hitherto shew'd the meaning and the cohaerence of the text , and how 't is necessary for all , of all conditions and degrees , by whichsoever of its handles men please to hold it . and i have laid out the several matters to be meditated upon in its prosecution . § . but being seriously desirous to speak as usefully as i can , and that within the time allow'd , i am to take and give notice of three sorts of libertines in these our days , who either have wilfully transcrib'd , or else have stumbl'd accidentally upon some of the worst of haeresies in the primitive times ; and are as dangerous to others , as destructive to themselves . some are of opinion , that if vessels of election , they * cannot sin do what they can . they are placed in such a state of impeccability , that on a supposal of their willingness , they are not able to do amiss . and this expresly was the haeresie of the infamous manichaeus , as s. jerome tells ctesiphon ; adding also that priscilian was a bird of that feather . others are of opinion , that though they can commit sin , god cannot see it in his elect. and this expresly was the haeresie of marcus , who taught the poor and rich women whom he debauch'd and made his , that they might fearlesly and freely be as voluptuous as they pleas'd , * because by vertue of their redemption they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , at once inapprehensible and invisible to the judge . just as homer feign'd pallas to have cover'd her self with pluto's helmet , that so she might not be seen by mars . ( a privilege as sensless , as that which was allow'd to the ring of gyges . ) there is a third sort of thinkers , who say that god can see sin , but cannot punish it in his elect , or impute it to them ; and that they are so sure-footed , that though they slip never so grosly , or stumble never so often , yet for all that they can never fall , not only not finally , but but not so much as for a time. and this expresly was the haeresie of jovinian , ( which s. jerome in a whole book has very effectually confuted , ) that they who once have been regenerate in the laver of baptism , cannot be tempted by the devil , so as to cease being regenerate . we have the sum of all three ( and the sequel too ) in the one valentinian haeresie , which was one of the first , and the worst of all ; as the holy father and martyr irenaeus shews it at large . what the malignity of it is , and to how deep a degree of wickedness 't is apt at least in its nature to betray them that own it , they themselves have best told us by this similitude , * that as a mass of pure gold in the foulest dirt does not lose so much as its beauty , much less its nature , but still retains the whole goodness and worth of gold ; so let the saints , that is themselves , lie and wallow whilst they will in the mire of sins , and in those sins especially whereof the scripture saith plainly , that they who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of god , yet they cannot thereby lose their spirituality and perfection . they cannot cease from being branches of that true vine , into which they were once ingrafted . § . now that other mens dangers may be employ'd to keep us safe , and that other mens real miseries may be improv'd to our being happy , we must convince our selves throughly of the truth of this doctrin , which in my text is most clearly and unavoidably imply'd ; to wit , that he who now stands in a christian state , of repentance , and conversion , and a blotting out of sins , ( which is justification , ) may possibly fall into a dangerous yea and a damnable condition , unless he takes such strict heed , as our blessed apostle does here injoyn . and here i cannot but be sorry , that so clear a text as this should stand in need of any sermon to give it evidence . that our apostle's exhortation should be so little argumentative in some mens minds , that we must light up our candles to shew his sun. i much admire that those libertines , who think they stand in no need of this holy caveat , are not sufficiently convinc'd by their own experience , that since their having been regenerate in the sacrament of baptism , which is ( no less than circumcision ) a * seal of the righteousness of faith , they have faln into deadly and wasting sins . lord ! how many sons and daughters of our one common mother , the church of england , have renounced the very baptism , by which alone they were christianiz'd , have abandon'd the house of prayer , and in it the lord's table , and on it the outward sign of invisible grace ? have fallen away before our faces into the scandalous commissions of schism and haeresie ? have turn'd apostates from the faith which was once deliver'd unto the saints ? have indulgently marched on in the ways of corah , in the sins of sacrilege , and rebellion , and still are snoring in the impieties of being heady , high-minded , despisers of dominion , and evil speakers of dignities , ever opposers of authority ordain'd by god , which is to be a worse thing than a common drunkard ? § . how many examples are there in scripture of final apostasie from grace , or from a state of regeneration , enough to dit the widest mouth of the daring'st gnostick ? how many of god's peculiar people under the law , did fall away from their acknowledgment of the onely true god , into the worst of all sins , which is idolatry , and into the worst of all idolatries , which is the worshipping of devils , and into the worst of that worst too , not by offering their sheep and oxen , but their own sons , and their own daughters unto devils ? how did the faithfull city become an harlot ? how did her silver become arrant dross ? she was once full of judgment ; righteousness lodged in her , but now murtherers . be astonished , o ye heavens , at this , and be horribly afraid , ( as god himself spake by the prophet jeremy , ) for my people have committed two evils , forsaken me the fountain of living waters , and bewn them out cisterns , broken cisterns which hold no water . hast thou not procured this unto thy self , in that thou hast forsaken the lord thy god ? i had planted thee a noble vine , wholly a right seed ; how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me ? nor is it onely under the legal , but under the gospel dispensation , that many begin to build well on a good foundation , but do not finish . many * end in the flesh , who began in the spirit ; and many are a called , but few are chosen . many are sanctified , but few are sav'd . many are justified for a time , but very few in comparison do persevere unto the end. that saying of our saviour matth. . , . [ the love of many shall wax cold , but he that indureth unto the end shall be saved , ] s. paul reflecting on , has explained thus : that some in the later times shall depart from the faith , giving heed to seducing spirits , and doctrines of devils : speaking lyes in hypocrisie , having their conscience seared with an hot iron . there the word in the original is very observable : they shall depart ( saith the english , ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) ( saith the greek , ) they shall apostatize from the faith of christ . a very evident opposition unto final perseverance , in both those places ; and 't is as evident that the apostasie there prophesied of , is from a state of sanctification . for the love waxing cold , and the faith departed from , ( that expressed by our saviour , and this by our apostle , ) are the same in both texts , in which they ought to have persever'd . so again in the first chapter of the same epistle to timothy , s. paul exhorts him to hold fast faith , and a good conscience , which some ( says he ) having put away , concerning faith have made shipwrack . that this was justifying faith which was thus put away , and suffer'd shipwrack , may appear by two reasons clearly arising out of the text : first , because it was that , to the holding fast of which s. paul does there exhort timothy ; next , because it was that , which was attended with a good conscience . if a man ( saith our saviour ) abide not in me , he is cast forth as a branch , and is withered , and cast into the fire : clearly spoken of a reprobate who had formerly been in christ , but abideth not in him , and was therefore cast forth as a wither'd branch . a text to which our apostle in probability does allude , where he tells us of certain branches broken off , from the olive tree , though once partakers of the root and fatness of it ; and broken off they were for their unbelief . from whence he exhorts his believing romans to beware , lest they who now stand by faith , do also fall into infidelity ; and they be also broken off , who are grafted in . there are that hear the word of god , and receive it with joy , and indure for a while in that good course , and yet in time of persecution they are offended and fall away , saith our blessed lord. some have erred from the faith through the love of money , saith s. paul to his son timothy ; and in the eighteenth of s. matthew , the servant forgiven , v. . was yet condemn'd , v. . the same is signified by the parable of an unclean spirit cast out by repentance , or regeneration , and re-entring by a relapse into the house of a man's heart well swept and garnish'd , and that with devils , worse ( if possible ) than himself , so as the person he repossesseth is worse than ever . which very parable of our saviour s. peter seems to point at in the plainest terms ; whilst he tells us of some , so intangled and overcome by those pollutions of the world which before they had escap'd , as that their later end was very much worse then their beginning . again 't is said by the same apostle , in the chapter going before , that he who lacketh those things by which he is to make his election sure , has forgotten that he was purged from his old sins , that is to say , that he was regenerate . § . whosoever is not satisfied with what i have hitherto alledg'd out of holy writ , let him tell me what he thinks of that unpardonable sin , the sin against the holy ghost . let him say whether that sin can ever be possibly committed , unless by one who was once enlightned , and had tasted of the heavenly gift , had been made a partaker of the holy ghost , and of the good word of god , and the powers of the world to come . let him weigh the fourth verse , and compare it with the sixth of the sixth chapter to the hebrews , and both together with the comment of learned calvin thereupon , if he will not trust that of our most learned dr. hammond . let him consider if 't is not possible for such a man to fall away who is so enlightned ; and if 't is not impossible for such a man falling away from such a station and state of grace , to be renew'd again unto repentance . but above all let him consider the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the sixth verse of that chapter , which signifies expresly a second regeneration , and every second implies a first . the apostle does not say barely , it is impossible to renew them ( if such as they fall away , ) but that 't is impossible to renew them again ; clearly intimating unto us these two illations : first , that a man may so fall from a state of grace , as not to be able to rise again ; next , that the grace he falls from was such as gave him a salvability ; or such as by which he was in a state of regeneration . § . being about to carry my proof from vniversals to individuals , i shall not instance in saul , with s. cyprian and s. austin ; much less in ahab , with s. jerom and s. chrysostom ; much less yet in cain and esau ; nor yet in alexander , and demas , philetus , and hymenaeus , phygellus and hermogenes , who were deserters of christ in his apostles , wasters of conscience , and shipwrackers of faith ; i shall not instance in dorotheus who fell away to serve idols at thessalonica ; nor yet in nicolaus , who , though one of the seven deacons , was yet the author of that old haeresie which carries the name of the nicolaitans ; much less shall i instance in the most excellent of the haeresiarchs , nestorius , photinus , apollinaris , and pelagius ; ( for these last may be the subjects of great dispute ; and whatsoever may be true in the judgment of faith , yet the judgment of charity forbids me to affirm that these did finally fall away : ) but of judas i suppose there is no dispute . for he was chosen by christ as one of the twelve select apostles , joh. . . and is said to have been given by god the father to god the son , whose word he kept for some time , joh. . . and was justified by faith , v. . prayed for by christ , not as one of the world , but as his peculiar , v. . he confess'd and taught christ , and did miracles in his name , matth. . , , . he was one of christ's sheep , v. . had been grafted into christ , joh. . . notwithstanding all which , he did not onely fall from , but betray his master , hang'd himself as a man lost , and is call'd by our lord expresly , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the son of perdition . § . i would not here be so mistaken , as if i meant that god's elect can fall away finally from grace . i am so very far from that , that i affirm it to be impossible , and to imply a contradiction . for they and they onely are god's elect , who do finally persevere in a christian course ; who being delivered out of the hands of their enemies , do not onely serve god in holiness and righteousness , ( for so do many that are called , and are not chosen , ) but they serve him in both together all the days of their lives ; as zachary goes on in his benedictus . we must therefore so distinguish in our discourse of this subject between the regenerate and the elect , as still to carry in our minds as well their difference as their agreement . in this they agree , that all the elect are still regenerate ; in this they differ , that all the regenerate are not elect. the former may and do often , the later cannot fall finally from grace . concerning the former , and them alone , all the scriptures i have urged and argued from must be understood . for the later are onely they , who do * indure unto the end. onely they that overcome , and so are said to have a right to the tree of life . the elect are onely they , that can finally never fall ; for if they could , they could not have been elected to life eternal . and yet even of these i am to say in the second place , that they fall totally , and for a time , many of them , and of the best too . not onely solomon , and aaron , and david himself in the old testament , but all the apostles in the new , and s. peter above them all , are uncontrouble examples of this sad truth ; if idolatry , and adultery , and wilfull murther , if lying , and cursing , and wilfull perjury , and a repeated abjuration of jesus christ , are sins inconsistent with saving grace , and the inhabitation of god the holy ghost . 't is true indeed that the elect who fall away for a time into deadly sins , and so by consequence , whilst impenitent , into a state of damnation , cannot possibly die 'till they have repented ; because they have this seal upon them , the lord knoweth them that are his. but this which is offer'd as an answer to what i say , is an irrefragable argument to evince the truth of it . for if david ( for example ) could not die till he repented , it is for this reason onely , that he could not be sav'd without repentance ; and that before he repented , he was in a state of condemnation . saving grace and impenitence cannot simul & semel be in one and the same man. 't is the condition of the great and precious promises in the gospel , and in effect the whole covenant 'twixt god and man , that all shall be saved with repentance , and none without it . hear ye me , asa , and all judah , and benjamin , ( said the spirit of god by azariah , ) the lord is with you , whilst ye be with him ; and if ye seek him , he will be found of you ; but if ye forsake him , he will forsake you . so again by the prophet ezekiel , when the righteous turneth from his righteousness , and committeth iniquity , he shall even die thereby : and if the wicked walk in the statutes of life , he shall surely live . promises and threats are both alike conditional , not onely under the law , but as expresly under the gospel . it is the saying of christ himself , whosoever shall confess me before men , him shall the son of man also confess before the angels of god. but he that denieth me before men , shall be denied before the angels of god. 't is s. paul 's to the christians who were at rome in his days , that god will render to every man according to his works . to them who seek for glory by continuance in well-doing , aeternal life : but unto them that are contentious , and do not obey the truth , indignation and wrath. and again , if ye live after the flesh , ye shall die : but if ye through the spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live . and yet more plainly to our purpose , in his epistle to the colossians , you who were enemies in your minds by wicked works hath he reconcil'd , if ye continue in the faith grounded and setled , and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel which ye have heard . and in like manner to the corinthians , ye are saved by the gospel , if ye hold fast or keep in memory what i preached unto you , unless ye have believ'd in vain . the epistle to the hebrews is very full to this purpose , we are made partakers of christ , if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end . whose house we are , if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoycing of the hope firm unto the end. now the just shall live by faith. but if any man draw back , my soul shall have no pleasure in him . plainly intimating in this , what is taken for granted in the very next verse , that from the same kind of faith by which it is said the just shall live , there were some in the best of times who drew back unto perdition . heb. . . § . what now is the advantage we are to make of all this ? and what the lesson , which all these scriptures are apt to teach us ? truly the lesson is plainly this : that if the end of our prayers , if the end of our hopes , the end of all our endeavours is but conditional , and all the promises of the gospel are made unto us with an [ if we do so and so , ] we must not now boast of our being christians , as the hebrews once did of their being israelities . we must not glory in our being the younger brethren or members of jesus christ , as they in their being the seed of abraham . we must not pride it in the church , as they did commonly in the temple . nor insult over the jews , as they did foolishly over the gentiles . for if god spared not them who were the natural branches , we must also take heed , lest he also spare not us . if they were broken off for their unbelief , and we by faith are grafted in , the proper use we are to make of the observation , is that we boast not against the branches ; that we be not high-minded , but rather fear ; for we bear not the root , but the root us . we must consider both the goodness , and severity of god , and the grounds of both : on them that fell , severity ; but towards us , goodness ; with an if we continue in his goodness . otherwise we shall be broken off too ; and they shall be grafted in again , if they do not still abide in their unbelief . we cannot reasonably desire a clearer state of this matter , than in that whole passage of the eleventh chapter to the romans . and therefore seeing it is imploy'd by our blessed lord , that even the salt of the earth may lose its savour , and become good for nothing , but to be utterly cast out , and trodden under foot ; that a branch of the true vine may lose its verdure , and become good for nothing , but to be cast into the fire ; i thought it good ( as s. peter * speaks ) to put you in mind of these things , although ye know them already , and are established in the truth . and still i think it good ( with the same s. peter ) to press the giving all diligence for the making of our calling and election sure . i think it good ( with s. peter ) to say , beware , lest ye also being led away with the error of the wicked , fall from your own stedfastness . if god was so provoked by the children of israel , ( to whom the conditional promise was made ) that he swore in his wrath , they should not enter into his rest , because they fail'd of the condition on which the promise was made ; then i may sure without praesumption draw the very same vse from that tremendous matter of fact , which the inspired writer makes in the very next verse , take heed , brethren , lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief , in departing from the living god. but exhort one another daily whilst it is call'd , to day , lest any of you be hardened through the deceiptfulness of sin. and again , let us fear ( saith the same apostle ) lest a promise being left us of entring into his rest , any of you should seem to come short of it , or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to come behind it . i may sure without arrogance exhort the best of my hearers , much more my self , and all other christians of my low class , that they and we receive not the grace of god in vain . that they and we do look diligently , lest any man fail of the grace of god ; or lest any fall from it , as it is in the margin , and is sufficiently imported by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . § . the sum and upshot of all is this : there is in many a seed of grace , which does never bring forth the fruit of glory . for as the spirit of truth makes none infallible upon earth , so the spirit of holiness makes none impeccable , none incapable of falling into any deadly sin , or a sin unto death . the reason is , because the workings of the spirit are onely congruous , and sufficient upon voluntary agents , never compulsive , and irresistible . from whence it follows that the degrees of grace and truth in several persons , are not at all from god's omnipotence as it is such , or from his over-ruling providence as over-ruling , ( for then there could not be possibly such a variety of degrees ; all persons then must have been equally good , and onely good in perfection ; ) but partly from the different dispositions , and behaviours , and negotiations of the subjects with the talents of grace committed to them , ( which some are for * imploying , and some for wrapping in a * nepkin , as our lord in his parable was pleas'd to make it plain to us , ) and partly from the measures of the spirit 's communication : which to some , is much more ; to others , less ; to none , irresistable ; to all , sufficient . how very many there are that fall from that faith and patience , which in job were two rocks , which nothing was strong enough to shake , much less to shatter , ( and yet the grace of god in him was never cogent , ) but being well * rooted , and very well cultivated besides , by daily exercises of piety , and all good works , a grew up exceedingly in his soul , and did not wither ; i say , how many there are that fall from their several graces , that idly waste , and mispend , or wilfull squander away their talents , i have hazarded your patience in making it plainer than there was need ; by which excess if i have err'd , i am the rather to be forgiven , because it has proceeded from the sincerity of my desire , to beget in such as stand , a taking great heed that they do not fall . and that our adversary the devil may never find vs , as the messengers of the danites found them of laish , dwelling careless , and secure , after the manner of the zidonians , and void of business ; let it be our prime business , from this day forewards and for ever , not onely to watch and pray lest we enter into temptation , but to reflect on the chief ends , and the chief objects of the caution commended to us . the chiefest ends of it are the glory of god , and our own salvation . it s chiefest objects are the evils of sin and punishment ; the work itself , and the wages of it . but in calling these the chief , i do imply there are many more . even as many as there are dangers wherewith we are every day beset ; and whereof in this text we are advised to take heed . § . we have but one way to stand , but to fall , a thousand . fall we may by our enemies , which ( without and within us ) are not easily to be numbred . those within us , in our bosom , are still the worst , because the nearest , and least suspected ; and then most hurtfull , when most belov'd . the worst without us are our advancements to wealth and honour , because they are apter than any other , first to lift up our heads , then to trip up our heeles , and to throw us down . many stand , when at the lowest , stout and stedfast in the faith , ( as s. peter speaks , ) who being drunk with prosperity , do quickly stagger . and then how easily do they fall , even at every little thrust of applause , or plenty ? yea we may fall , without a thrust , by the bare treachery of the ground upon which we stand . some parts of it being too slippery , and some too high , and very dangerous are the blocks which are laid in others . now 't is plain the more slippery the places are we stand in , by so much the apter we are to fall . and 't is as evident , that the higher our stations are , by so much the greater our fall will be . but what the stumbling-blocks are which are laid in our way by some false teachers , ( besides those few already mention'd ) and at which if we stumble , 't will be impossible not to fall , deserves a larger examination than can be made at this time , and perhaps a more polemical than can belong to this place . in the mean time 't is certain , that in proportion to the dangers there are of falling , the general caveat of my text does extend it self . take we heed lest we fall for want of any of those things , which are conducible to our station and state of grace . either for want of that knowledge of things essential to religion , which is requir'd ; or for want of that zeal which is according unto knowledge ; or for want of that consideration we ought to have , of what we know well enough does concern us neerly ; or for want of that distrust in our selves and others , to which the wise epicharmus does well excite us . take we heed we do not fall for want of carrying still about us a fear of falling . a fear both of our natural , and of our adventitious frailty . a fear of him who alone holds us up , and when he will can throw us down . a fear of god , as he is just , but above all , as he is mercifull . because there is mercy with thee , o lord , therefore ( saith david ) shalt thou be feared . for the abusing of his mercy does more than any other baseness , incense his justice . a fear of falling from his grace , and by consequence out of his favour , and by consequence into his wrath and his sore displeasure . § . amidst our several ways of falling , we have but one to stand firm , however diversly expressed in holy writ . i mean the congruous assistance of god's free grace , and our own working together with it . all the use s. peter makes of his apostasie from christ for a little time , is to put in a caveat for himself and us too , not to fall from our own stedfastness ; and the effectual way to that , is to grow in grace , as he there exhorts us ; not to content our selves with this , that we are not any thing worse than we use to be , but to be constantly advancing from strength to strength , and to be carefull that our last days may be our best too . all the use s. paul makes of the doctrine he had taught of a resurrection , is to be stedfast , and unmoveable ; and the effectual way to that , is always to abound in the work of the lord. so again we may infer from his epistle to the ephesians , the onely way for us impotent and silly men , to be able to stand against the wiles of the devil , is to put upon our selves the whole armour of god. to be strong in the lord and in the power of his might . implying a full trust in god , and as full a distrustfulness of our selves . a putting our selves out of our own , into his protection . which yet we cannot till convinced of this great truth , that in our selves , as of our selves there dwelleth no good thing . no not so much as inclination to any thing that is good. no not so much as aversation from any thing that is evil. that our destruction [ if it happens ] is of our selves ; but all our sufficiency of him alone , who stiles himself by way of eminence , the all-sufficient . and hereunto we are to add this most pertinent supplication , ( which must be fervent and without ceasing , ) that he will be pleas'd to work in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure , that so ( having him for our * coadjutor in the language of our apostle ) we may work out our salvation with fear and trembling . and that at the final consummation of all our days , he may crown his own gifts and graces in us . which god of his mercy dispose us for , for the glory of his name , and for the worthiness of his son. to whom with the father , in the unity of the spirit , be glory and thanksgiving for ever and ever . amen . of peace and holiness united , as aequally required to our salvation . heb. . . follow peace with all men , and holiness , without which no man shall see the lord. § . as there are but two ends at which our studies are to be levell'd , ( let our parts and our learning be what they will , ) to wit , a rectitude in our knowledge , and an exactness in our religion ; ( the first of which is still subservient and has a tendency to the second ; ) so there are but two things in which this second does chiefly stand ; to wit , a rectitude of faith , and the truth of practice . the former does consist in the belief of two things too , to wit , that god was in christ reconciling the world unto himself , and , as such , 〈◊〉 the rewarder of them that diligently seek him . the later lies chiefly in two things more ; our helping the fatherless in their affliction , and the keeping of ourselves unspotted from the world. nor can we doubt whether in these consists the substance of our religion , because besides that out of these our several duties may be deduc'd by the light of reason , we have authority also of scripture ( to wit , s. paul and s. james ) to assure us of it . then why should we compass sea and land to meet with catechists , and preachers , and commentators , and school-divines , a world of fathers , and of councils , and ecclesiastical historians , and an hundred other instruments for the completing of a christian , ( however necessary they are for the accomplishment of a divine ) whilst christianity in it self is a thing so easie , and may easily be held in so little room ? had it been suffer'd to abide within its primitive simplicity , in but few and plain precepts for life and practice , as well as in few and plain aphorisms for faith and doctrin ; the yoke of christ had still been easie , and his burthen had still been light , and little children had still been qualified for a discipleship under christ , which yet is now made too difficult for some of the subtil'st and the learnedst of all our jesuiticall and sorbon doctors . nothing has certainly been so mischievous to the true body of religion , as the making so many mysteries where god was pleas'd to have so few ; vexing the articles of our faith with curious quaestions , and disputes , and a large catalogue of additions , ( as for example in the creed of pope * pius quartus , ) most obstructive to the vnity and peace of christians . so that by accident at least , and through the lust of her several lovers , ( i mean the avarice of some , and the pride of others , ) the charming beauty of religion has contributed too much to the ruin of her . she having been courted as unhappily , as plutarch's fair arisloclea ; who was so plucked at by the rivalry of calisthenes and strato , and by the partizans of them both ; * that ( to their shame and sorrow too , ) she lost her life in the contention . § . now considering how much 't is easier to have an excellence in the knowledge , than in the exercise or practice of christianity , and that without our indeavours of living up to such knowledge , all our learning will but light us into the territories of darkness ; little or nothing will be got by our most plausible attainments , besides the meagre satisfaction of going learnedly to hell , and the priviledge to be beaten with many stripes , whilst the more ignorant transgressor must be contented with a few ; i cannot think of a fitter text for the giving advantage to my design of setting up the most vsefull and real learning , in the place of that learning wherewith the devil is oft adorn'd , ( to use the words of s. jerome touching the excellence of pelagius , ) than this important exhortative of our learned author to the hebrews ; recommending to them the study of peace and holiness , as that on which there dependeth ( as it is followed , or despis'd , ) an unspeakable proportion of bliss , or misery . these are the sciences , and the arts , which will make us wise unto salvation . we are to ballance all our knowledge with these two weights , whereby to preserve it from puffing up . these are to take up our meditations ; on these our souls are to be fixt . these are the beauties we are to court , with the greatest love. these the riches we are to covet , with greatest avarice . these the dignities to be sought for , not onely with the greatest , but best ambition . and therefore every thing else being laid aside , ( at least with a comparative , though not an absolute neglect , ) we are to give our selves wholly to the study of these two ; following peace with all men , and holiness , without which no man shall see the lord. § . though the text at first hearing may seem as easie as it is short , yet there is hardly any thing in it , which stands not in need of an explication ; and the english translation is so much harder than the original , as that we cannot reach the one , without recourse unto the other . follow peace , saith the english . pursue it earnestly , saith the greek . it is not every kind of following will serve the turn ; for 't is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , sequimini , but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , persequimini , and we know , the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 has a remarkable importance , implying industry , and eagerness , in seeking that that we desire . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , hunt after peace . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , run apace after holiness . as if the apostle should have said , that peace and holiness are things to be contended for and courted , with great ambition . we must not follow them so , as to come behind them ; but rather so as to overtake them . so as the racer follows the prize ; or so as the hound follows the hare ; or so as the man of contention does greedily follow a suit in law ; or so as s. paul does elsewhere urge us to follow after charity . for each of these is imported by the emphatical word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , implying zeal in our christian duties , and perseverance unto the end. § . after the nature of the act , consider the latitude of the object . which though express'd by a contraction into these two branches , peace , and holiness ; yet like a couple of great arms , they do imbrace the whole decalogue , by the large extent of their signification . for by peace is meant charity , in which all justice is folded up ; and thence is said by s. paul to be the fulfilling of the law , ( taken there is an extended , as here it is in a stinted sense , ) because according to the rule amongst moral philosophers , [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ] justice is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ( as the eastern fathers do call the book of ecclesiasticus ; ) a comprehensive kind of pandect of all manner of duties . for as s. john , in his first epistle , has reduced all vices to these three heads , the lust of the flesh , the lust of the eye , and the pride of life ; so s. paul , speaking to titus , compriseth all vertues in this trichotomy , living soberly , righteously , and godly in this present world. now to live righteously what is it , but to do justice ▪ unto our neighbours ? what , to live soberly , but to be just unto our selves ? ( not to abuse our own persons by any intemperance or debauch ? ) and what , to live godly , but to deal justly with god himself ? ( not to rob him of the service , nor to defraud him of the honour that 's due unto him ? ) the first is included in the word peace , ( taken here as it is in a stinted sense , ) the second and the third in the word purification . i say , purification , because 't is literally the english ▪ of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which in our english translation is render'd holiness . § . and this deserves to be the subject of a third consideration . for it is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , peace and purity , which notes the habit of being clean ; but 't is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , peace and purification , , which notes the continued act of cleansing . betwixt which two , there is not onely a very great , but an usefull difference . for hence we learn that whilst we live , we must evermore be on the mending hand . must never look upon our selves as good enough to serve turn . but as a pot of boyling water is ever casting up a foam , until it is purged of all its filth ; so we must daily be casting out somewhat or other which is amiss ; ever busie in the work of our reformation ; ever mending , and purging , and purifying our selves . seeing 't is said by s. john , that he who hath this hope in him , purifieth himself even as god is pure . we must not content our selves ( for shame ) with a stunted piety , with the reproach of being dwarfs in the school of christ ; but grow in grace ( as the apostle speaks : ) nor must we ever leave growing , until we come to a perfect man. and thus to peace we are to add purification . for they are not joyn'd with a disjunctive , ( it is not follow peace or holiness ) as if the one were sufficient without the other ; but these vnitedly are the things , which must be prosecuted , and follow'd , with zeal , and fervour . § . and then in the fourth place , there is great reason for it . because if either of these is wanting , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , no man living shall see the lord. let his parts , or acquisitions , be what they can be ; let his principles , or his party , let his person , or profession , be what they will ; let him be born of godly parents , let him be carefully brought up within the bosom of the church , let him be papist , or puritan , or in the middle of each extreme , a sober protestant ; let his pretensions be what they will to regeneration , or election ; yet unless he follows peace , and peace with all men , and purification as well as peace , and unless he follows both with faith and patience unto the end , he is a man of impurer eyes , then can ever be admitted to see the lord. § . thus we see what is meant by peace and holiness , and as well for what reason , as after what sort we must follow both . there are three other things which will deserve an explication , but that will best of all be made by way of answer to three objections . for a conquering truth is much more glorious , than a truth unexamin'd , or unattempted with opposition . § . first it may easily be doubted , whether 't is possible , or safe , to have peace with all men . for some are such enemies unto peace , that when we speak to them thereof , they make them ready to battle ; and peace with such does seem impossible . and impossibilium nulla est obligatio . it cannot be necessary to do , what is impossible to be done . others are always at war with god by their impieties , they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , inventors of evil things ; nay 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , haters of god ; and peace with such does seem unsafe . for may we be at peace with them , who will not be at peace with god ? these are they that in scripture are call'd the world. and know ye not ( saith s. james ) that the friendship of the world is enmity with god ? these are they that in scripture are call'd the wicked . and there is no peace saith my god to the wicked . ( isa . . . ) which though spoken in another , may yet be apply'd in this sense also . when men are scandalously wicked , * an apostle forbids us to eat or drink with them ; or to receive them into our houses ; or to bid them god-speed . and as this was the precept of that apostle , so according unto this he fram'd his practice . for with the heretick cerinthus he would not be in the same bath . the heathen poet horace was thus affected in his vetabo sub iisdem sit trabibus , fragilemque meeum solvat phaselum . so said moses to the royalists touching the rebels which then arose against him and aaron ; depart from the tents of these wicked men , and touch nothing of theirs . besides that as much as in us lies , we ought to be affected like god himself ; and so by a necessary consequence we are to hate those that hate him , because they are such as are hated by him. ( for so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does very naturally import , although it is not observ'd in our english bibles . ) and therefore by this the prophet david seeks to prove his affection to god almighty ; do not i hate them ▪ o lord , that hate thee ? yea i hate them right sore . or ( as the new translation hath it ) yea i hate them with a perfect hatred . why then saith our apostle , follow peace even with all men , not excepting the worst of all ? § . we see the objection is very specious ▪ but strike one text against another , ( as a flint against steel , ) and there will leap from both together both fire and light too . the answer to it is to be taken from rom. . . and thence forwards unto the end . if it is possible , as much as in you lies , live peaceably with all men . he does not peremptorily say , live peaceably with all men at all adventure , let the case be what it will. but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , if it is possible , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as much as in you lies . whereby 't is evidently imply'd , that in diverse hard cases it is impossible , it does not lie in our power to be at peace with all the world . all that god requires of us , is to imploy our poor utmost in order to it . whilst we hate the malefactor , we must have charity for the man ; so as to pity his being sick of habitual sin , and supplicate god for his amendment . follow peace we must with them , who fly as fast as we can follow it . and to the end we may attain it , we must endeavour at least to win them by all good means . such as is the not avenging our selves , but giving place unto wrath ; feeding our enemies when they are hungry , and when they are thirsty giving them drink . for by so doing , we shall heap ( saith the apostle ) coals of fire upon their heads . not that this can be spoken of any mischievous kind of charity ; for it is meant of nothing else but the fire of love. and love is fitly compar'd to fire , because it has both a purging and melting faculty in its nature . the metaphor is taken from the custom of the founder , who when he cannot melt his metal by putting coals of fire under it , does heap some fire upon it too . so we must heap the fire of love upon our enemies heads , not to consume them in their impenitence , but to melt them into repentance and change of life . at once to purifie the dross , and to mollifie the hardness , with which their hearts are affected towards us . but if at last our malacticks are us'd in vain , we must then indeed proceed to the severer methods of charity , which is charity never the less for being attended with severity . a rod being ordain'd for the back of fools , who will not be wrought upon at all by the spirit of meekness . ( cor. . ult . ) when men are the worse for being pardon'd , and even corrupt themselves with goodness , we must not be so over-cruel , as to punish them with impunity . for god in great mercy hath given us magistrates , to be his ministers of wrath , and his executers of vengeance . nor are they liable unto any more noxious failing , than that of bearing the sword in vain . hereon is founded both the lawfulness , and the necessity also of war upon some occasions , as being that without which peace it self cannot be kept . the law of nature , and of nations , that of moses , and of christ , and the best mens examples permit it to us . as it were easie to evince , were this a time or place for it . and what i say of the civil , is just as true of the spiritual sword. the highest act of christian charity that can be shown to the obdurate , is to deliver them up to satan for the destruction of the flesh ; because it is to this wholesom end , that their spirits may be sav'd in the day of the lord jesus . ( cor. . . ) thus we see what is meant by peace with all men ; how far forth it is extended , and how it admits of a limitation . § . another objection may be rais'd from the pronoun [ which ] because it is in the greek , not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and so may seem to relate rather to holiness , than to peace . as if our duty towards god were a great requisite to salvation ; but not our duty towards our neighbour . whereas in truth the very discharge of our duty towards our neighbour , is one of the great and main duties we owe to god. peace and holiness are such twin-sisters , as are not like the tindaridae , or twins of leda , who ( after the manner of two buckets , whereof the one is going up , and the other down , ) did take their turns in heaven , and hell ; but like the twins of hippocrates , or the two friends in valerius , who neither could live , nor die asunder . he that follows not peace , does fly from holiness ; or follows it onely to drive it from him . why then saith our apostle , not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , without which things , nor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , without which peace , but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , without which holiness , no man living shall see the lord ? § . the answer is , that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , is of an aequivocal signification ; as being equally of the masculine , and neuter gender . but some there are in the world of eminent learning and reputation , who taking it up by the wrong handle , have unhappily fastened upon a wrong signification , and so have set up holiness to the prejudice of peace . meerly for want of consideration , that the relative [ which ] in this place is the neuter gender , and hath not any single word for its antecedent , but the whole clause going before . it is not in a divided sense , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , without which holiness , but in sensu composito , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , without which following of peace and holiness united . whereby we are given to understand , that there cannot be such a thing as a godly rebel , or holy boutifeu , because the subject excludes the adjunct . to say that such or such a man is a most conscionable schismatick , or a religious exciter unto sedition , ( whilst he fights away his conscience to win its liberty , and sacrifices peaces to pretended holiness , ) is to affirm both parts of a contradiction . he that is of an unpeaceable , must needs be of an unholy spirit . for as peace without holiness is but adherence unto a faction ; so holiness without peace is but hypocrisie . they that are so superstitious as to strain at gnats , ( such as the authorized rites of cross and surpliss , ) whilst they are also so prophane as to swallow camels , ( such as are the crying sins of schism , and sacrilege , ) cannot well be call'd followers , but onely persecuters of peace , ( and that indeed is one sense of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . ) nor can we say they are possessors , but onely personators of holiness . i am not willing to be so rigid , and do heartily wish it were false to say , that they are really nothing else but the apes of satan ; who is then at his worst the prince of darkness , when he transforms himself the most into an angel of light. so said our saviour , and so s. paul. and from both we may infer , that of all the hypocrites in the world , the devil himself is the most demure ; and by being such indeed , is the more a devil . thus we see what is meant by the relative [ which ] in this place , and what use we are to make of its antecedent . § . but what may last of all be meant by seeing the lord in this text , that our apostle should set it down as the greatest recompence of reward , to such as are followers of peace and holiness ? when moses desired to see the lord , and therefore earnestly pray'd that god would shew him his glory ; the very mercy of god's answer did consist in the reason of his denial . thou canst not see my face ; for there is no man shall see me and live . and therefore gideon himself , although a mighty man of valour , ( as god himself is pleas'd to call him ) a man as stout as the steel with which his proverbial sword was temper'd , was yet exceedingly afraid , as soon as he perceiv'd he had seen an angel of the lord. and so it was with good reason that manoah said unto his wife , we shall surely die , because we have seen god. and if these things are so , that we cannot see god , without the danger of sudden death ; it may seem a sad thing for a man to be a follower of peace and holiness , because by that means he shall see the lord. but § . the answer to this is extreamly obvious . it being no more than to distinguish betwixt the eyes of our vile , and of our glorified bodies . if we behold him with the first , we shall find him indeed a consuming fire . but when we shall see him with the second , we shall find him nothing less than a quickening light. here our eyes are so carnal , that it very much hurts us to see the sun , unless we see him in his reflexion , or at least through the veil of some diaphanous body . and if the brightness of the sun is enough to strike the beholder blind ; how can we safely gaze on him , to whom the sun is but a shadow ? yet after the time of restitution , when what is sown in weakness shall be raised again in power ; then our life will consist in the sight of god. we then shall see him as he is , no longer darkly as in a glass , but face to face ; and that with infinite pleasure , as well as ease . and this alone is that vision , which is alluded to in the text. without an earnest prosecution of peace and holiness in conjunction , no one shall be qualified to live by seeing , what here he cannot see and live . none shall enter within the veil , or be made a partaker of the beatifick vision . none shall wait on his throne in whose presence is life , and where there are pleasures for evermore . § . thus in the suit of the explication , we have ( before we are aware ) a full division of the text. and not so only , but also practical reflections on all its parts . first , we have seen a single act of great moment . and secondly , how 't is fixt on a double object . the double object is peace and holiness , which , according to the scope of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ( shewing the energie , and the force of the single act , ) are to be prosecuted and follow'd with zeal and fervour . next to the act , and the object , which are sufficiently express'd , we have their absolute necessity very significantly imply'd . for these are set as the condition , on which alone we arrive at bliss . it is for none to see god , but the pure in heart . and therefore this is a cogent reason , for the fastening of the act on the double object . for the intensiveness of the one , and the extensiveness of the other . § . but now because it is impossible , that men should eagerly pursue their christian duties , whilst they believe them to be needless , or gainless things ; things which rob them of their happiness in this present world , and without which they may be happy in that to come : we must possess our selves more fully than we have hitherto done , not onely with the nature of peace and holiness , but more especially ( and in the first place ) with their absolute necessity to life aeternal ; whereof unless we throughly convince our selves , we cannot hope ( with any reason ) to ingage our resolutions to follow both. § . first , for the word peace , it is that that comprehends our whole duty towards our neighbour , and as well to our enemies , as to our friends . for how can we follow peace with all men in so earnest a manner as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does import , unless we labour , by forgiveness , to overcome evil with good , ( rom. . ult . ) much more must we render unto every man his due , tribute to whom tribute , custom to whom custom , honour to whom honour , fear to whom fear , ( rom. . . ) and so by analogy of proportion , service to vvhom service , love to vvhom love , no injury to vvhom no injury is due . ( for every injury is breach of peace . ) we must owe no man any thing , but to love one another , rom. . . and therefore injure him vve must not , no not so much as in desire . this is to follow peace indeed , when we do not onely not give a cause , but not so much as an occasion of just offence . when we keep not onely our hands , but even our heads and our hearts from picking and stealing . when we do not commit adultery , no not so much as with our eyes . when we do no murther , no not so much as in our wishes . when we dishonour not our parents ( whether private or publick , ecclesiastical , or civil , ) not not so much as in our wills. this is , as much as in us lies , to make an eager prosecution of peace with all men . which comprehends our whole obedience to the second table of the law. § . . secondly , as peace does grasp the whole duty of man to man , so we may say also of holiness , that 't is the whole immediate duty of man to god. which more especially consisteth in these three things : in preserving our loyalty , in exhibiting our reverence , and lastly , in rendring our active service . the first , hath respect unto our thoughts , the second , unto our words , the third , unto our actions . first , for loyalty , that ( we know ) is a vertue , by which a servant does acknowledge no master but his own , holds no intelligence with his enemies , admits no rival in his affections , but ever honours him , and owns him , and adheres to him alone against all pretenders . and this is that which is commanded in the two first precepts of the decalogue . thou shalt have no god but me . thou shalt not make any graven images , to bow down to them , or worship them . this is holiness in thought . which however 't is necessary , is not enough ; and therefore to this we must add our reverence . that we know to be a vertue which is equally compounded of love and fear , and by which an inferiour does speak with awe , concerning any one above him whom he does honour or admire . and this is that which is commanded in the third precept of the decalogue . thou shalt not lift up the name of thy god in vain . thou shalt not onely not use it falsly , but not so much as upon trivial and slight occasions . this is holiness in word . which , however it is necessary , is not enough neither . and therefore to this there must be added our active service . that ( we know ) is an execution of what our master gives us in charge . and ( as an acknowledgment of supremacy , as well as of maintenance , and protection , ) a setting aside our own business , that we may wholly attend upon our master's . and this is that which is commanded in the fourth precept of the decalogue , remember that you keep holy the sabbath day . six days are allowed thee to do thine own business ; but the seventh is set apart , in the seventh thou shalt do no manner of work. no manner of work which is thine own , but all manner of work which is thy master's . not onely acts of sacrifice , ( such as our duties in the church , ) but works of justice , and mercy too . for these indeed are the things , in which especially consisteth the sanctification of a sabbath , and are call'd by our saviour the weightier matters of the law. this is holiness in action . and so we see the three things , wherein our holiness is to consist ; which comprehends our whole obedience to the first table of the law. § . i have the rather been thus plain in shewing the latitude and the nature of these grand duties , that the exactness of our knowledge may be our directory to practice . it being necessary to know what it is necessary to practise , holiness towards god , and peace with all men . for whilst we are told by our apostle , that without these two , there will be no seeing of god , we are as good as assur'd by god himself , that these precisely are the terms on which salvation is to be had . insomuch that if either of these is wanting , there 's no escaping the pains of hell , nor any attaining the joys of heaven . and therefore after their nature , i am to speak of their necessity , their absolute necessity to life eternal . § . and first , observe how other scriptures do hold conformity with this. without these two , we cannot possibly make our calling and election sure . not the first , for we have boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of jesus , that we may draw near with a pure heart , having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience . ( heb. . . . ) nor yet the second , for god hath chosen us in his son , that we should be holy , and without blame . ( eph. . . ) without these two , our justification vvill be in vain . for god did therefore reconcile us when we were enemies in our minds by wicked works , that he might present us holy , and vnblameable , and vnreproveable in his sight . ( colos . . . ) without these two , vve lose the end , and so do frustrate the work of our redemption . for our lord jesus christ gave himself for the church , that he might present it unto himself a glorious church , that it should be holy , and without blemish . ( eph. . . . ) without these two , vve lose the benefit of the rod , and do partake of that as bastards , which is intended to us as sons . for as vve are told by the apostle , that if we are without chastisement , then are we bastards , and not sons ; so he presently adds , that god correcteth us for our profit , to make us partakers of his holiness . ( heb. . . ) in a vvord , without an earnest prosecution of peace and holiness vnited , ( for i have shewed that the one cannot subsist vvithout the other , ) vve lose the benefit of grace , and so evacuate the means of our glorification . for we all with open face , behold as in a glass , the glory of the lord , that we may be changed into the same image , from glory to glory , even as by the spirit of the lord. ( cor. . . ) § . nor have vve onely store of scripture , but reason for it . for if salvation vvere to be had by appearing righteous unto men , the greatest hypocrites would become the most glorious saints . if by the stoutness of a belief , or by a hope without doubting , none would be happier than the presumptuous , and such as are carnally secure . if by the latitude of a knowledge , or by the rectitude of opinions , it would be better sure with none than the lapsed angels ; who are as knowing , and as orthodox , as any meer man can be thought to be . heaven would then be a kind of jayl , full of the guiltiest malefactors . the error of the origenists would presently pass into a truth , and the worst of devils receive the benefit of a redemption . but no man's reason will yield to that . for whosoever does but believe there is a heaven and a hell , must grant that the one is for the recompence of the good , and the other for the punishment of evil doers . which shews the absolute necessity of peace and holiness ; being as 't were the two eyes , without which it is impossible to see the lord. § . but here withall we are to take an especial care , that we do not divide the consideration of their nature from the consideration ●f their necessity ; but still consider what it is wherein our holiness is to consist , as well as what it is which depends upon it . for through the want of this caution , the empty picture of holiness is oft mistaken for the life ; there are that think themselves holy , when indeed they are hypocritical , and many hope to be sav'd for their being cheats . there were professors amongst the jews , who were indeed very punctual in the worship of god , and thence concluded they were the godly ; but 't was a worship which consisted in the outward washing of cups and platters , in external rites and legal ceremonies , ( which were but shadows of things to come , ) in spreading forth their hands , and making prayers for a pretense , in fasting often to appear righteous unto men , in keeping sabbaths and new moons , in building the tombs of the prophets , and adorning the sepulchers of the righteous ; when all the while they neglected the weightier matters of the law , judgment , mercy , and faith. they did so pull the motes out of other mens eyes , as not at all to see the beams in their own . they did so strain at gnats , as to swallow camels ; for they devoured even orphans and widows houses , ( camels those with a witness ) and were partakers with their fathers in the blood of the prophets , and so were far from being followers of peace and holiness , unless as worldlings follow their traffick for filthy lucre ; dealing as hucksters in religion , and trading in godliness , as 't is an instrument onely of gain . for they were call'd by our saviour , ( even then when at the top of their painted holiness , ) not onely serpents , and vipers , but brands of hell too , such as could not escape damnation : ( matth. . . ) nor are there wanting amongst us christians , who are religiously carefull to sprinkle themselves with holy-water , to say a chapletfull of ave maries , to visit the sepulchers of the saints , to cross their foreheads and their breasts , and to salute ye every morning in nomine domini . nay some there are amongst us protestants ( for 't is fit we should be just in our observations , ) who place a great deal of vertue in an exact coming to church , in daily reading so many chapters , in lifting up to heaven both hands and eyes , in walking softly , and looking sadly , and hanging down the head now and then like a bull-rush ; and so we may say they have attain'd to an handsom outside of religion , that they are well-fashion'd christians , as addressing themselves to god with a civil carriage , ( such as well behav'd enemies do seldom fail of , ) but so far from being followers of peace and holiness , that they want the very body , much more the soul of christianity , whilst they will rather sow the seeds of the most execrable rebellion , than comply vvith superiours in things indifferent , vvhich cannot but be lawfull , because indifferent ; and not onely lawfull , but binding too , as soon as the signature of authority is stamp'd upon them. do these men think there is a god , or a devil , a corruption of the body , or immortality of the soul , an hour of death , or a day of judgment , vvho vvill rather break peace vvith all their governours , than submit to the use of a publick liturgy , vvhich is not onely lawfull , but transcendently good , so long as establish'd by law and canon ? i vvish that all sorts of men vvho are immediately concerned in vvhat i say , vvould but take this obvious truth into their serious consideration ; that as there vvere things under the law , ( such as the rite of circumcision , and forbearing swines flesh , ) vvhich ( however commanded by god himself , ) vvere not commanded for being good , but vvere therefore onely good , because commanded ; so things indifferent under the gospel , though they are not commanded for being necessary , do yet become necessary by being commanded ; and are mediately commanded by god himself , as far as commanded by that authority , which god hath commanded us to obey . from whence it follows unavoidably , that what may lawfully be done , before commanded ; as soon as commanded , cannot lawfully be omitted . for rebellion against the second table , is as bad as rebellion against the first . and so they cannot be followers of peace , or holiness , who in a meer pretense of holiness do hinder peace . an hearty follower of peace , will * follow the things that make for peace . he will not be so much as a non-conformist ; but press with earnestness after vnity , by vniformity in the church . and if his conscience hath any scruples , arising meerly from the weakness , not from the wilfulness of the man , he will infinitely rather forsake his city , or his country , than stay in either to its disturbance . § . such was the pious exhortation of clemens romanus to the corinthians , which he also made good by his own example . who ( says he ) is there among you of tender bowels , and generosity ? let him sacrifice ( if he is such ) his private interest to the publick . and say , if i am either the author or the fautor of any difference , i divest my self of all the wealth and honour which i injoy , and inflict upon my self , a most gratefull exile . now that s. clemens made good his exhortation by his example , i am induced to affirm from this particular consideration , that i can find no better way to reconcile the several authors who will have clemens to be the second and the fourth bishop of rome , than by saying with epiphanius , ( till we can find a better reason , ) that clemens laid down his bishoprick during the empire of tiberius , and took it up again in the time of nero. the first of which he did freely , and the second by compulsion ; but both in order to the vnity and peace of christians . such was also the publick spirit of the renowned * gregory nazianzen , who gladly threw the archbishoprick of canstantinople behind his back , for the composing of the strife that arose about it . god forbid ( said he at parting , to all the prelates there met in the general council , ) that we vvhose office 't is to teach and to bring peace to others , should scandalously break it amongst our selves . rather let me forsake my throne , and be cast out of the city , than not contribute all i can to the publick peace . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * like to this spake s. chrysostom in one of his homilies to the people . that if he were thought the cause or the occasion of their divisions , he would recede from his arch-bishoprick , and be gon whither they pleas'd ; vvould suffer any thing rather than schism , which he protested he thought a sin as great and damning even as heresie ; and which rather than administer occasion to , he would strip himself of the rich and splendid preferment which he possess'd . a charity like that of the prophet jonas , who for the quieting of the tempest , chose to be cast into the sea : and to preserve a whole ship , was easily content with a private ruin. which example of s. chrysostom and other fathers more primitive , every honest man will follow in these our days , if he is earnestly a follower of peace and holiness . and this is one of the chiefest touchstones , whereby to difference a weak from a wilfull brother . they who do not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , pursue with eagerness the things which do make for peace , do not serve god solidly in the duties of the first and the second table , in piety and probity , in godliness and honesty , in loving god with all their hearts , which is to serve him in holiness , and their neighbour as themselves , which is to follow peace with all men ; and so they want the two hinges , on which the door of salvation does chiefly turn , and whereupon does clearly hang all the law and the prophets . § . i cannot follow peace enough , in the discourse i am upon for the following of it , till i observe how the prosperity does most especially depend on the peace of christians ; and also say by what means , as well as by whose instrumentality , we may attain to so much peace and good agreement amongst our selves , as may redeem some of the credit which we cannot but have lost by our foul divisions . there being no greater stumbling-block , either to those that are without , or within the church , than the multitude of the sects which are seen amongst us . for whilst 't is taken by them for granted , ( and also confessed by our selves , ) that true religion can be but one ; 't is natural for them to infer , that wheresoever there is truth , there must be vnity ; at least in men of the same profession . whereupon whilst they observe , how the professors of christianity do stand divided amongst themselves , and that in point of opinion , as well as practice , they easily slide into a jealousie , touching the tenor and the truth of the whole profession . now the way to make peace , and remove the scandal , is not to conquer them into orthodoxy by dint of argument alone ; ( though that indeed is one of our fittest weapons ; ) as vvell because the greater part have not light enough to see a victorious truth , as because , if they have , they are not humble enough to own they have liv'd in errour . no , the hopefullest way left , ( for ought i am able to apprehend , ) is not to mention those doctrines , vvherein we find by experience we always differ ; and to insist on those alone , wherein we find by experience we all agree . a thing vvhich cannot be brought about by all the subjects put together , but perhaps with ease enough by the kings of christendom ; as vvell because they are but few , and therefore the fitter to determin , as because they are supreme , and of power to execute . § . for it happily falls out , through the evidence of truth , and the good providence of god , that though we differ in superstructures , yet we agree in the foundation , and fundamentals of christianity . which fundamentals , as they are * few , and therefore easie to be remember'd , so are they also very * plain , and therefore easily understood ; and that by all sorts of people , who are not flatly fools , or mad-men . as the wittiest or the most learned cannot need to know more , so the most simple and illiterate cannot easily know less , than what it is to fear god , and to keep his commandments , which yet does grasp the whole duty of man as man. again , it is the whole duty of man as christian , to have a practical knowledge of jesus christ , and him crucified . and as the wisest man living needs not know any thing more , so the most learned of the apostles would not know any thing else . another summary of religion , ( as to the practical part of it , which is the main , ) we have express'd in three words , both from a prophet , and an apostle . a summary so short , and yet so copious , that as a man the most unskilfull cannot easily know less , so the most learned and subtil doctor is not bound to practise more , than to do justice , and to love mercy , and to walk humbly with his god ; or to live soberly , righteously , and godly in this present world. § . now if 't is granted and agreed by every sort of real christians , that the creed and the commandments are comprehensive of the all that is fundamental , or of necessity in religion , for faith , and practice ; and if all under authority will but allow it to be the privilege of such as are placed in authority , to judge of the decency and the order which s. paul in the general , and every nation in particular thinks it a duty to observe in the publick worship ; ( to wit , the place , and the time , and the manner of its performance , which being but accidents , or adjuncts , or externals of religion , should not be differ'd about by them who fully agree in its essentials ; ) it will be difficult to imagin , how the divisions and separations which are so many , and so wide as we see they are , can be able to escape a most happy closure . a thing which the preachers can but press , and the best of the people can but pray for , but the rulers of the earth can easily bring into effect too , if their endeavours shall be as hearty , as their authority is divine , and their power cogent . which how can they possibly imploy unto a better end or use , than is the binding up the wounds of a bleeding saviour , who owns himself to be the head of that mangl'd body , whereof the greatest men on earth are but lofty members ? now the better to prevail with men of all ranks , both with them who are in authority , and with them who live under it , i would present but two things to their respective considerations ; first , that they who are in authority ought not to urge the accidentals and externals in religion , with as much vehemence as they do the essentials of it ; nor * create too many necessities in the use of things indifferent , where god himself has created none . next , that the people under authority ought not to lessen their obedience to god in man , by still pretending their obligation of obeying god rather than man. an axiom true indeed at all times , but yet at those times impertinent , and urged quite out of season , when god does choose to be obey'd by our obedience to his vicegerents . who , if they have any right at all to make positive laws , must inevitably make them of things indifferent . § . i press the former consideration , with due submission to authority , and in behalf , ( not of wilfull , but ) of truly-weak brethren , because i conceive the laws of men can reach no farther than the objects of outward sense ; and therefore cannot punish avarice , pride , or malice , though they can and do invasion , theft , and murther ; nor wrong opinions in religion , whilst they quietly lye sleeping , or disturb nothing more than their owner's minds ; but onely as breaking forth of their mouths , and at last running out at their fingers ends . i know the sword is apt to terrifie , but not instruct ; to change a sectary's confession , but not his creed ; and therefore the maladies of the spirit are to be spiritually dealt with , to work their cure. not by the gibbet , or the jayl , but by the force of sound doctrine , and argumentative conversation . a man who wanders out of his way for want of light onely , and not sobriety , ( overtaken , not with drink , but with the darkness of the night , ) deserves a lantern for his direction , a great deal rather than a rod. he would be thought a strange organist who should not scruple to break his pipes as oft as he finds them out of tune . nor could our magistrates think kindly of god himself , should he recall them with a thunderbolt , as fast as he sees them going astray . § . and as for such reasons as these i press the first consideration , so i discern as great reasons , ( and such as make as much for peace ) to resume the second . for though ceremonies and rites are onely accidents in religion , yet obedience to authority cannot but pass for an essential . because whatever god commands us by his moses and his aaron , his zerubbabel and his jeshua , his anointed lieutenants , both king and priest , he does as really and as truly , and as authoritatively command us , as what he commands us by a voice , or an hand from heaven . and seeing the same god that saith , thou shalt not worship a graven image , does also say at the same time , as well as in the same decalogue , honour thy father and thy mother , ( whether private or publick , ecclesiastical , or civil , ) it is by consequence as immediate a sin against god , to shew a contempt of that authority which god hath commanded us to obey , as 't is to worship a graven image , or to take god's name in vain . § . now might i speak without censure , even by speaking with submission to all superiours , ( as well as to others of more research and better discretion than my self , ) i would adventure to affirm it as the conclusion of the whole matter , that when peace cannot be had by such a reciprocal self-denial as i have now pleaded for , in them that are vested with authority , and in them that live under it ; by compassion in the former , and by compliance in the later ; by condescension in the one , and by submission in the other ; but each will have his whole will , and not admit of a composition ; nothing but power irresistible can succour such as make laws , against the violence and incursions of such as are stouter than to obey them . nor will a wise man expect to have protection under the laws and the makers of them , any longer than they both shall be so protected . § . but i return to that point , from which i have made a very pertinent , because a profitable digression ; nor yet a digression from my text , but from the thread of my discourse touching the nature , and the necessity of peace and holiness . which being both of such importance , as that our happiness does depend upon the earnestness of our pursuit , how can we choose but be perswaded to do a thing which is so natural , as that a man would think it should be hard not to do it ? for find we any thing more natural , than to be lovers of our selves , and so to covet those things which we believe to be the most for our own advantage ? a little rhetorick ( one would think ) should be sufficient to perswade us to choose our interest , and so to follow even with earnestness the necessary means of our being happy . be we never so illiterate , or be we never so perverse , yet through the little which hath been spoken of peace and holiness , ( whether as separate , or in conjunction , ) we cannot be ignorant of their nature , or unconvinc'd of their necessity . § . if then in respect of their common nature , they are as 't were the two armes , which do imbrace the whole decalogue or ten commandments of the law ; we must never flatter our selves that we are christians good enough , until we find our obedience to be impartial ; that is , as well to the first as to the second table , and no less to the second than to the first . nor may we ever give our selves rest , until we see we have attain'd to this comparative perfection ; i mean a singleness of heart , and a love of obedience without reserve . our respect ( like that of the psalmist ) must be to all god's commandments , and we must study to live a peaceable and quiet life in all godliness and honesty , ( tim. . . ) we must not be kinder or more indulgent to one commandment than to another , ( whether byass'd by custom , or education ; ) but rather keep our selves in awe by chewing on that of the apostle , whosoever offends in one point is guilty of all. jam. . . thus we must argue from the nature of peace and holiness . and , after a manner not unlike , we ought to argue from their necessity . for if in respect of their necessity , they are as 't were the two hinges , upon which the very door of salvation turns ; or ( if you please ) the two wings ( as s. * bernard calls them ) wherewith the soul of a christian soar's up to heaven ; lord ! how nearly does it concern us , to follow them both as is here requir'd ? and to pass the whole time of our sojourning here in fear ? what manner of men ought we to be in the future course of our conversation ? to follow holiness and peace , concerns us as much as salvation comes to ; that is , as much as our souls are worth. fail of these if we dare , unless we are so stout , that we dare be damn'd . but yet how many of our fiduciaries do miss of heaven , meerly by thinking they cannot miss it ? because ( forsooth ) to the regenerate 't is a thing perfectly unavoidable ? and what numbers of solifidians do make it difficult to be sav'd , by making it easier than god will have it ? by thinking salvation is to be had at a cheaper rate , than that of following peace and holiness ? now can there be any thing more adviseable , than that other mens mischiefs should keep us safe ? and we receive the whole benefit without the least danger of their unhappiness ? mark well the reason which here is urg'd for the fixing of the act on the double object . ( i shall but paraphrase the text in a broader english , ) follow peace and holiness , if for no other reason , at least for this , because ye are happy , if ye doe ; and damn'd for ever , if ye do not . less than this we must not preach , and more than this we need not learn. but if this of it self cannot find sufficient place in our consideration , yet if we have any the least respect to our secular interest and advantage , as we desire to be free from the charge and costliness of sin , and to thrive by god's blessing upon all we set our hearts and our hands unto ; or if we have any the least respect to our own good name , and reputation , as we desire to leave behind us a fair report , and to be honourably mention'd by them that dwell round about us ; or if we have any the least respect to our inward quiet and tranquillity , as we desire to have the peace of a cleansed conscience , which is in solomon's accompt a continual feast ; or if all these together cannot ingage our resolutions , yet if to these we add . that which before was hinted , if we have any the least respect to the righteous judge of all the world ; as we desire to escape from the wrath to come , and to enter with an euge , into the joy of our lord , let us think of these things when the sermon 's ended . and the god of peace and holiness sanctifie us throughly ; that the whole of every one of us , both body , soul , and spirit , may be kept blameless unto the coming of our lord jesus christ . to him be glory for ever and ever . amen . of abstaining from all appearance of evil . thess . . . abstain from all appearance of evil . § . it was the fancy of a wise , and an honest heathen , that all a rational man's duty might be express'd in two words , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , bear , and forbear ; the first implying patience under the evil of affliction , the second abstinence from the evil of sin. now in this precept of our apostle , we have one of the two hinges , on which does hang the whole duty of man as man. for whatsoever is a man's duty may be referr'd to two heads , his abstaining from evil , and his doing that which is good. nay forasmuch as 't is impossible to abstain from all evil and from all appearance of it , without the doing of what is good , and persevering unto the end too ; ( because the want of perseverance is simply evil , and cannot stand with that abstinence which is from all the very face or appearance of it , ) i shall not sure be too profuse in speaking the pithiness of my text , if i shall say 't is comprehensive of the whole duty of a christian . for if we abstain from unbelief and misbelief of christ's gospel , and from all disobedience to christ's commands , and from the scandalous appearance both of the one and of the other ; we do but barely do as much as my text requires , and the god whom we serve can exact no more . § . in the discussion of the words , there are these things to be consider'd . first , the nature of the act , which is very good ; it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , abstain . next , the quality of the object , and that is evil ; it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , abstain from evil . thirdly , the very great extent both of the act and of the object ; it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , abstain from all evil . and then because the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is of a double signification , importing equally the species , and the appearance of any object , here is therefore requir'd a double abstinence ; one from all the kinds of evil , and another from all the occasions of it . that is required as the end , and this as the medium conducing to it . we must abstain from the occasions and opportunities of evil , that so we may be the better able to abstain from the species and presence of it . but first of all to the end that our very abstinence may not be evil , even then when it makes the most goodly shew ; we must abstain from the evil of seeming onely to be abstemious ; that is to say , from the evil , of being abstemious in hypocrisie . for the world is too full of those modern pharisees , who often violate the text by its authority ; and so insist upon the letter , in opposition to the scope , and the tenor of it , that they rebell against the precept by their obedience ; and offer violence to the law in its own defence . for ( say they within themselves ) it is not said by the apostle , abstain from all evil , but from all appearance of it ; as if he meant not so much to forbid the sin , as the scandalous manner of its commission . as if he had thought with them of sparta , that the abominable thing is not to steal , but to be caught ; not the irregularity , but notoriety of the fact. and as if this were either the whole , or the prime importance of the text , you shall have many so abstain from all appearance of evil , as to satisfie themselves in the injoyment of the evil , because they abstain from the bare appearance . § . thus the adulteress in the proverbs may be said to have abstain'd from the appearance of evil , because she wiped her mouth , and look'd demurely , and said that she had done no wickedness . ( prov. . . ) what was wanting to her in chastity , she endeavour'd to supply by the care and caution wherewith she sin'd . as if the rule were to be taken in this sense also , de non apparentibus & non existentibus eadem est ratio . i have done no wickedness , because it does not appear that i have done it . my way of sin has been as close , and as indiscernable , as the way of an eagle in the air , or the way of a ship in the midst of the sea. ( v. . ) and if there is either no god at all , or else a god that hath no omniscience , or that doth not imploy it on trivial objects , i have abstained from all evil , because from all appearance of it . thus the pharisees of old may be said to have abstain'd from the appearance of evil , because however they were guilty of eating up orphans and widows houses , yet they did it so devoutly , by their fasting twice a week , and their long prayers for a pretense , that notwithstanding they were vile in the sight of god , our saviour tells us , they appear'd righteous unto men . and how was that , but by abstaining from the appearance at least of all unrighteousness ? they did noctem peccatis , & fraudibus addere nubem ; that is , they sinn'd out of sight as much as might be ; they were circumspect and wary in all their wickedness . if any covetousness or cruelty of more than ordinary size was to be committed , they presently cover'd it with a corban , and were deceivers of men in the name of god. thus the samaritans heretofore may be said to have abstain'd from the appearance of evil ; because how sinfull soever they were themselves , they did yet make a conscience of coming near unto a sinner . every jew was thought sick of a noli me tangere , and was accordingly kept off with a ne attingas . stand by thy self , come not near to me , for i am holier than thou , ( isa . . , , . ) and thus the rigidest * professors of grace and godliness here at home , have a conscience so callous , as to suffer them to rebell against their governours ; but yet so delicate , as not to permit them to obey . a conscience so wide , as to swallow camels ; but yet so streight , as to strein at gnats . a conscience so tough , as to bear a schism ; and yet so tender , as to scruple at a ceremony . they are not sabbath-breakers , or swearers , ( for those are sins of no profit , ) nor are they ordinarily drunk with excess of wine ; ( for that is both a disgracefull and costly sin ; ) but they are serious and demure in all their projects , and seek the ruin of a church in as great sobriety , * as julius caesar did that of a commonwealth ; thus affecting to abstain from all appearance of evil , when they have nothing in them of good , but in appearance . insomuch as i may say , without breach of charity , that since the * word godliness was usurp'd to supplant the thing , a greater improvement hath been made in the trade of knavery and deceipt , than had been ever known before in any less pretending times . § . this must therefore be the subject of our first and chief care , that we abuse not our selves , as well as others , by taking that to be holiness , which is hypocrisie ; that we abstain in sincerity from the evil it self , and not from the sole appearance of it . our second care must be , that in the course of our abstinence , we be not onely sincere , but impartial too . 't is not enough that we abstain from this or that single evil , to which perhaps we are not carried by any natural inclination , or have contracted averseness to ; for it follows in the text , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , abstain from all evil . our third care must be , that in the management of our abstinence , we be wise and prudent , as well as impartial and sincere . which is not onely a very laudable , but ( in one respect at least ) a very needfull qualification . for we know 't is very needfull that we be innocent as doves ; which we can very hardly be , unless we be wise also as serpents . i mean so wise as to abstain from those indifferent sorts of good , which are incentives , and occasions , and introductories to evil . this we learn from the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as here 't is taken by our translators in its second signification . abstain not onely from all the sorts , but ( over and above ) from all the appearances of evil . not onely from the kinds , but occasions of it . and these i intend shall be the boundaries of my following discourse . § . to shew the goodness and the necessity of the first particular of the three , to wit , our abstaining from what is evil , i cannot better take my rise then from this pertinent observation ; that even abstinence in it self is a considerable vertue , although it be onely from things indifferent , although it be but from things , whereof we are permitted a free injoyment . augustus caesar in suetonius , the emperour tacitus in vopiscus , the phliasii in xenophon , and the abstemii in athenaeus , have been deservedly applauded for this one reason . and as the rechabites were commended by god himself , for not departing from the will of their father jonadab ; so was it jonadab's commendation , that he commanded his sons to abstain from wine , not at all for being evil , but rather dangerously good . now that abstinence is good , although it is not from things which are simply evil , seems to be evident even from this ( if from no other ) reason , that it enables and prepares us for the great duty of self-denial . it is a practice of that dominion we ought to have over our selves ; a prudent exercise of the victory which both our reasons and our wills should still obtain over our appetites . for by denying unto our selves some things lawfull and allow'd , we may attain to a facility of abstaining from the things that are most forbidden . § . and this alone would be enough , in case there were not ( as there are ) any other reasons , why the church and state too praescribe the abstinences of lent. for as the annual observation of lent it self is ( in the judgment of s. jerom ) of apostical institution ; so are its abstinences from flesh ( though a thing indifferent ) no less injoyned in a religious than in a civil consideration , if together with the quality and condition of our meals , we have regard unto the temper and measure of them . nay by the help of a distinction , our single abstinence from the quality may be in both considerations . for what authority does command upon a civil accompt onely , the people certainly must obey upon the accompt of their religion , if they do regulate their religion by the express word of god , which streightly chargeth them to submit to every ordinance of man. ( meaning the ordinances of man , which are not opposite or cross to the laws of god. ) to abstract our abstinence from our obligedness to obey , ( and from the other great end which first i mention'd , ) is to abstract at the same instant the merit of vertue from our abstinence . for meat commendeth us not to god , ( as saith s. paul to the corinthians ; and every creature of god is good , if received with thanksgiving , ( saith he to timothy : ) and though the preference of fish before the meat of the shambles , is so far innocent , and lawfull , as 't is left to our christian liberty ; yea so far necessary , and binding , as 't is commanded by that authority which god hath commanded us to obey ; yet , abstracted from the precept of such authority , it may be wantonness in one , and in another , superstition . for meats are all of such indifference , if antecedently consider'd , and with the oeconomy of the gospel , that as , if we * eat flesh , we are not the better , so if we eat none , we are not the worse . nay a man , by eating fish , may make provision for the flesh ; especially when he makes it to swim in wine . he may by both so fill his belly , and so fulfill his appetite , as that his abstinence from flesh may but conduce to his sensuality ; and all his lenten entertainment prove but a sacrifice to his lust . the most voluptuous a apolausticks , in the accompt of athenaeus , became infamous for nothing more , than their passionate doatages upon fish . nor could the very learned * cook , in the old comoedian , provide the amorous young men a more strong incentive . from whence it follows that to keep lent , as 't is a time of mortification , is not so carefully to abstain from the kind and quality of our meals , as from the over-great richness and fulness of them . so that the due keeping of lent , in point of eating and drinking , consisteth wholly or chiefly in these two things ; to wit , our abstinence from the kind , which is forbid by man's law ; and our abstinence from the measure , which is forbidden also by god's . each of these is a duty , however different they are in degree of merit . for that the later is the greatest , and most important , may appear by the great difference betwixt the reasons of the goodness which lies in both. for our abstinence from flesh , is onely good because commanded ; whereas our abstinence from evil , is onely commanded because 't is good . there the goodness is accidental , but here 't is natural . there 't is nothing but the consequent , here the cause of the commandment . there 't is capable of ceasing by dispensations even from men ; whereas here the matter of it is indispensable even by god. § . this must therefore be our first and our greatest care , that we abstain from those things that are simply evil ; and this in a double opposition to two sorts of men , who divide a great part of the world between them ; such as are hypocrites on the right hand , and antihypocrites on the left. touching the former of the two i shall say the less , the more i have spoken of them before , in my introduction . adding onely that they abstain from the appearance of evil , as broken tradesmen from the semblance or perfect beggary . the nearer they are to the state of bankrupts , they have their artifices and tricks whereby to seem so much the richer . or as antipater had his outside all clad in black , not because ( as he pretended ) it was the old macedonian habit , but to conceal his whole inside , as lin'd with purple . we must not therefore follow them , who cry aloud against the sins they imbrace in silence , and abstain in such wise from all appearance of evil , as to abstain from no evil but in appearance . we must not so apprehend or mistake the text , as if 't were meant by s. paul for an exhortative to hypocrisie ; not so properly to abstain from the evil it self , as from the shew , and shadow of it . no , the text is to be held by a safer handle ; and our argument is to run thus , à minori ad majus . if 't is our duty to abstain from all appearance of evil , how much more is it our duty , to abstain from all evil ? the former abstinence is a vertue , whensoever this later does either attend , or go before it ; whereas for want of this later , the former abstinence is a sin. § . yet not so great a sin as theirs , who in avoidance of hypocrisie , do boldly rush into the greater , and worse extreme . who being asham'd of seeming piously and religiously addicted , ( as a thing not becoming their youth , or quality , ) do therefore proclaim their sin as sodom , and commit it ( with absolon ) on the house top. not onely abstaining from all that 's good , but from all appearance of it . as if to be thought a godly man , were the greatest unhappiness in the world , and therefore to be shun'd with the greatest care. i shall exemplify what i say but in three particulars . first , how many may we observe who easily enter into duels , ( and are asham'd not to do so ) with such as speak to the dishonour of a most despicable mistriss , and yet will stand unconcern'd , when more is done to the reproach of their master christ ? men so stout , that they dare be damn'd ; and yet so eminent for their cowardize , that they dare not be patient of putting up the least wrong . men of such poor and such sordid spirits , as to dread the very thoughts and the words of men , however senseless of the hatred and wrath of god. men of such strange pusillanimity , that they dare not indure the contempt of this world , which god himself is contemn'd by , and yet is silent . a downright speculative atheist , who denies and derides the god that made him , or a practical atheist who dares do both in his conversation , may walk the streets very securely without a weapon ; has never a challenge sent to him for having affronted the lord of glory ; who yet for any the least affront which he should dare to have done to an handsom idol , had straight been summon'd into the field , there to make satisfaction in tears of blood. again , how many in our protestant reformed world , do seem to take as great a pride , and make as open a profession of being eminent apolausticks , as that voluptuous sort of heathens , whom eubulus the greek comoedian does expose upon the stage for their learned surfeits ? who laugh at abstinence as a foolery ; and look on all self denial as arrant madness . ( a thing proceeding from nothing better than the distemper'd hypochondres . ) who having learn'd the deep science of eating well , and being able to make a treatment as becomes criticks in sensuality , are apt to put a greater value both on themselves , and their atchievement , than if they had taken the town of troy. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . lastly , how many antihypocrites , although professors of christianity , do vye with ovid , and messalina , the emperour proculus , and the rest of that heathen world , ( for the recording of whose effronteries cornelius agrippa is to be blam'd , ) in that they do not onely disclose the real enormities which they have done , but also boast of more debauches , than they ever had the appetite , or possibly the strength to be guilty of ? now he who so far hates hypocrisie , ( which is a damnable abstaining from appearance onely all of evil , ) as to glory in his impieties , and by consequence to abstain from the very appearance also of good , ( whereby he does not onely displease , but despise his maker , ) is as one flying from a lion , when behold a bear meets him ; or as one leaning upon the wall , and a serpent bites him . ( amos . . ) he is as one fallen , out of a feaver into a fire ; and to be reckon'd , of the two , the more horrid devil . § . in opposition to the first of the two extremes , we must make our first step to raise us thus unto a second . if abstinence is so noble and so necessary a duty , though from those very things which are but dangerously good , what then is abstinence from the objects which are damnably evil ? to keep our selves far enough from such , we must carefully set before us king david's method ; when being to qualifie himself for an approach to god's altar , he did not say he would wash his face , but his hands in innocence . besides it ought to be consider'd that all the commandments , saving two , having been negatively propos'd , imply the bottom of all our duties to lie in our abstinence from evil . as being that , without which , even all our good deeds will be done in vain ; yea and the best of all our works will be but handsome abominations . for the highest and the most positive of all our duties , are comprehended by s. paul under these three heads , our living soberly , righteously , and godly in this present world , tit. . . but 't is absolutely impossible that we should ever live soberly , unless by abstaining from all excess ; that we should ever live righteously , unless by abstaining from all injustice ; that we should ever live godly , unless by abstaining from all prophaneness . it is a vain thing for any , to think of loving and serving god , who does not first of all cease to injure his neighbour and himself too . virtus est , vitium fugere ; the very first of all virtues is a man's abstinence from vice ; & sapientia prima est , stultitiâ caruisse . — the fear of the lord , that is wisdom , and to depart from evil is understanding . job . . . § . but however this is necessary , 't is not enough , since we are far from being sure that this our abstinence is sincere , unless by its being impartial too . for some of the worst of mankind may still abstain from some evils , although it be but by the means of some occasional averseness , and possibly too for want of a natural inclination . 't is very far from being enough , that we have tolerance in one kind , or continence in another , which in aristotle's judgment are but a couple of semivertues , ( and yet 't were well if most christians would now attain to so good a pitch ; ) no , nor is it quite enough that we have temperance in them both , however this is a complete and a perfect vertue . for this is onely to abstain from those grosser evils , which do affect either the touch or the tast with pleasure . that is to say , with such pleasure , as is aequally common to men with brutes . no , when our parents were first commanded to abstain from that tree , which was inclos'd by god's precept in the midst of the garden , they were implicitly commanded to abstain from all evil . in as much as all the branches of sin and wickedness , which from that time to this have defil'd our nature , do owe their cursed derivation to that one stock . and by consequence it concerns us to advance a step farther ; to plead and pant after , and contend for such an abstinence , as is not onely from this or that , ( for then the very worst of us might soon be christians good enough , ) but from all sorts of evil without exception ; and so to comply with our apostle in his important monosyllable , by taking the object of our abstinence with its unlimited universality . for ( that we may pass from the first to the second particular in the text ) it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 — abstain from all evil . § . i say from all , for these obvious , but usefull reasons , which i shall not onely propose , but humbly submit to consideration . first , because he who is indulgent to any one sort of evil , cannot say that there is one from which he does vertuously abstain ; nor is he certain what duration his partial abstinence will be of . it being so easie for him to fall from one wickedness to another , that wheresoever the cunning serpent gets in his head , he draws his whole body in with the greater ease . as if the contagion that is in vice were in proportion to the links in the chain of virtue , our indulgency to one is apt to draw the rest after . one rotten action does as gladly infect another , as one putrid grape does communicate its venom to all the cluster . and the reason is very clear , why he who gives himself the liberty to feed intemperately on one sin , is ipso facto become obnoxious unto the surfeiting upon all ; because he has not any principle or power within him , by force of which he can be sure to abstain from any . and the reason of that reason is just as clear too . for the same want of fear to offend his maker , the same despight offer'd to grace , and the same callousness of conscience , which either allows or betrays him to any one wilfull sin , leaves him destitute and expos'd to the power of all. so that if , by not committing , he seems at any time to abstain from this or that sort of vice , 't is not his virtue , but his luck . and if any thing is to be thank'd , ( besides the restraining mercy of god , who does often set his hook into the wicked man's nostrils , ) he may thank his stars for it ; at least his company , or his custom , or the laws of the country wherein he lives , or at least the good hap of his constitution , as not sufficing him for some sins , or not inclining him to others ; and many times so strongly byass'd to darling obliquities on the left hand , as to be carried by the same byass from other obliquities on the right . there being some sorts of evil so very opposite unto each other , ( and inconsistent at the same instant , ) that to abstain from one extream , is not laudable in a professor who is indulgent unto the other . 't is not thank-worthy in a niggard , not to be guilty of prodigality . nor is it the merit , but the necessity of an extremely great coward , if he is not found guilty of too much rashness . it being a sad kind of virtue which a man owes onely to vice ; as when he abstains from any one of two contrary evils , because he cannot commit them both. § . again , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , abstain from all evil , because the wilfull transgression of any one of god's commandments , makes us as liable to judgment , ( though not to so many degrees of torment ) as if we had broken every one . for what else can be the meaning of that saying in s. james , that if a man keep the whole law , and yet offend in one point , he is guilty of all ? he ( for example ) who abstains not from the intemperance of the tongue , ( that enormous fleshly lust which is so regnant in these our days , ) may be said to offend in one sole point of christianity ; yet ( like a little colloquintida in a whole pot of broth ) that offending in one point sheds such an influence upon others , as to invalidate and evacuate his whole religion . jam. . . the reason of which is very evident , in that the same god that saith , thou shalt not steal , or commit adultery , does also say at the same time , in the same decalogue , and by the very same authority , thou shalt not take the name of thy god in vain , nor bear false witness against thy neighbour . and the breach of these precepts , when it is wilfull or habitual , is as damnable in its nature as the transgression of the former , and all the rest . for as the whole nature of treason against the majesty of the king , does lie as really in the compassing or contriving of his death , as in all the most bloody and ouvert acts that can be nam'd ; and any one of those treasons is as capital as a thousand ; so the whole nature of rebellion against the majesty of god , does lie as much in the wilfull breach of any one of his commands , as in all together ; and damnation is the wages , as well of that one , as of all the rest . and as when a man is hang'd for committing treason , it is cold comfort to him , that he is hang'd but for one crime , and not for many ; so 't will but little , if at all , lessen the misery of the damn'd , t●at they were damn'd onely for drunkenness , schism , or haeresie , or for another such habitual and mortal sin , not for murther , or adultery , which were not laid unto their charge ; or rather for breaking the fifth commandment , than for transgressing the other nine . and therefore since impenitence is indispensably destructive , ( though i know there is a greater and a lesser damnation , ) be it but in one , or in many evils , it must concern us to abstain with impartiality even from all. § . again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , abstain from all evil ; as well from the least , as from the greatest ; because our very least sins do gather a greatness to themselves , from the greatness of the object we sin against , and from the greatness of the means against which we sin. ( i mean our prayers , and our sacraments , and the frequency of our sermons , by which whoever is not mended , is accidentally made worse . ) and because the least sins are apt to lead into the greatest . besides , siracides said wisely ( in this sense also , ) he that despiseth small things shall perish by little and little . ecclus. . . the least sins therefore cannot possibly be so light , as that they may safely be slighted by us ; because although what is venial can never lose its distinction from what is mortal , yet 't is worthily to be fear'd that a man may sin mortally , by pleasing himself in his venial sins ; and by loving them more than the will of god. nor are we drown'd with more comfort , by the sea 's stealing in through little crevices into our ship , than by our ship 's being suddenly and at once cast into the sea. abstain we therefore even from all , the most diminutive peccadillos , ( as men of latitudes in practice do love to call them , ) not from evil onely in deed , but in word , and thought too . for if pythagoras had rather a man should throw out a * stone , than a word or two rashly and at a venture ; yea , if of every idle word men shall give an account in the day of judgment , how much more of every evil one , when falseness and rancour are cleaving to it ? and we read that evil thoughts which proceed out of the heart are especially the things that defile the man. matth. . , , . a truth discernable , as by other , so by this reason also , that many customary sinners may be forcibly restrain'd from their evil actions , who yet can never be restrain'd from their evil thoughts too . for as crows from carrion are not forced to abstain by satiety it self , but still abide upon the place , as if they could never fill their eyes , though they have their bellies ; so customary sinners , when age or sickness hath made them innocent as to their actions , do love to think over the sins they have not vigour enough to act . they can no more cease from sin which custom has riveted in their souls , than flies inured to the shambles are able to abstain from the smell of meat . now whether the evil of our thoughts be of wilfulness , or infirmity , we are to exercise our selves in abstaining from it . for we must actually abstain from all wilfull evil ; and we must studiously abstain from all the evil of infirmity , so as to hate , and to deplore , and to strive against it . this i say for our humiliation ; but i add for our comfort too , that so long as we are striving with the utmost of our ablility against the stream of human frailties , we are not liable to wrath , in case the violence of the torrent prevail against us . prevail against us ( i mean , ) so as in spite of all our striving to have some residence , though not habitually to reign in our mortal bodies . for when we strive against that from which we cannot so abstain , as to be every way sinless , then we are reckon'd to abstain , so far forth as to be sincere . and though a sinlesness is not , yet is a singleness or sincerity the indispensable requisite of a christian . and in this sense at least we must abstain from all evil ; as well from the least , as from the greatest . § . lastly , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , abstain from all evil , although it shall not at all be simply , but accidentally such . many hundreds of things there are , however reducible unto four or five heads , which are not absolutely evil , but yet are evil ex accidenti . and what is evil but accidentally , is simply good. and so there are several good things , which though absolutely , and simply , and antecedently such , yet from the same , being consider'd in some relations and respects , it is a christian man's duty very carefully to abstain . and in consequence of this , abstain from every good thing , which thy conscience does condemn ; and from every good thing , which thy conscience doubts of ; and from every good thing , by which thy brother is made to stumble , and to fall headlong into sin ; and from every good thing which is comparatively evil , by being heedlesly preferr'd to what is very much better ; and from every good thing , which strongly administers an occasion , and a temptation unto evil . i say abstain from the first sort , because though there is nothing unclean in it self , ( of all those meats which are food for men , ) yet to him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean , to him ( in that errour ) it is unclean . rom. . . and abstain from the second sort , because he that doubteth is damn'd if he eat , in that he eateth not of faith , for whatsoever is not of faith is sin. rom. . . and abstain from the third sort , because though every kind of edable is simply pure , ( and so may lawfully be eaten , ) yet it is evil for that man who eateth with offence . and therefore if thou hast faith , and understandest thy christian liberty , make a private use of it betwixt god and thy self . for happy is he who condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth . rom. . , , . again , abstain from the fourth sort , because god hath declared he will have mercy rather than sacrifice , mat. . . and the saving of a sheep on the sabbath day , rather than the resting from bodily labour . ( mat. . . ) and rather a being reconcil'd to an injur'd brother , than bringing a gift unto the altar , ( mat. . . . last of all let us abstain from the fifth sort of objects , which are simply good enough , but accidentally evil , because of the precept of our apostle in the words of my text ; which , though it may seem to be a rigorous , is yet a mercifull command . for 't is easier , whilst we are innocent , to abstain from the guilt of any one act of sin , than having yielded unto one , to forbear another . abstinence from evil is nothing else but an act of fasting . and certainly he who cannot fast from the approaches of impiety , will much less fast from the presence of it . if we cannot well abstain from conversing with the occasions , how much less from the act of a pleasant evil ? or if not from the act , how much less from the habit ? aegrius ejicitur , quàm non admittitur hostis . 't is very much easier not to admit , than to drive out an enemy . very much easier to prevent , than to cure a leprosie . which our apostle well considering , was not onely of the opinion , but made it the rule of his practice also , ( in his whole ninth chapter of the first epistle to the corinthians , ) that to keep far enough off from doing any thing unlawfull , he was to abstain from many things which were lawfull too . nor does he content himself here to say , abstain from all habits and acts of evil , but from all appearance of it . and so i am faln upon the means whereby our abstinence may be completed , the last particular in the division . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. abstain from all appearance of evil. § . and to the end that we may do so , in every sense and acception the word will bear , let the caveat be extended to these two heads . first of all to those things , which , though not evil in themselves , yet to others , or to us , do appear to be so ; next to things , which , though not sinfull , ( no not so much as in appearance , ) do put upon us a kind of byass , and propensity to sin. to the former i shall refer , whatsoever things are lawfull , but yet uncomly , or inexpedient . i shall refer unto the later , whatsoever things are lawfull , but of dangerous consequence ; not formally evil , but grosly evil in the effect . § . and first abstain from those things , which if not evil in themselves , yet to others , or to us , do appear to be so ; and by consequence though they are lawfull , consider'd simply in their natures , yet in certain conjunctures they cannot lawfully be done . as ( for example ) it is * lawfull to eat of things , which either are or have been offer'd in sacrifice unto idols ; which yet we a cannot eat lawfully , if in the presence of a brother who hath either a condemning or doubting conscience . we must beware that this our liberty become not a stumbling-block to them that are weak . and therefore he that had knowledge ( in the times of the apostle , ) was not in reason to sit at meat in the idol's temple , for fear that he who had none should be imboldned to eat of things offer'd unto idols , even against his over weak and erroneous conscience . so that although not to abstain for another man's sake , when we need not for our own , cannot be said to be a sin through any unlawfulness in the object indulged to ; yet 't is a breach of that rule which was set by s. paul for all to walk by , that no man put a stumbling-block , or an occasion to fall , in his brother's way . rom. . . ( which rule cannot extend to those things indifferent , which being such but antecedently , are consequentially necessary , in as much as they are under the obligation of a command , and a command from that authority which god has commanded us to obey . and this parenthesis being premis'd for the preventing of mistakes , i proceed to give an instance of the case but now mention'd . for ) thus the liberty to fly , for the escaping of a shamefull and painfull death , though very lawfull as to its nature , may be unlawfull , as to its use ; in regard of many circumstances wherewith the case may be apparell'd . for first ( however it is lawfull , ) it may be highly inexpedient , as to the scandal it may give to our weaker brethren ; ( concerning which i have spoken enough already ; ) and next , ( however it is lawfull , ) it may be scandalously indecent , as to the gravity of a man's age , and the dignity of his calling . in each of which cases , that which is lawfull in it self , is notwithstanding not allowable in the circumstances propos'd ; because inconsistent with two main virtues ; to wit , with charity in the first instance , and with prudence in the second . an example we have of both in the renowned eleazer , ( macc. . ) who being sentenced to the torments for refusing to eat of unlawfull meats , would not basely save his life , no not by eating such meat as was lawfull for him . and for this his resolution he gave two reasons . first , he argued from the indecency , and again from the danger of it . 't would be indecent to himself , and as dangerous to others ; who straight would follow his example , as well of cowardize , as of courage , by whichsoever of the two he should chance to lead them . first , he would not bring flesh of his own provision , and make as if he did eat of what was commanded by the king , ( as his old friends at court would fain have had him , v. . ) because he was told by his discretion , that 't was not sutable to the honour of his reverend gray-head ; ( v. . ) and he would shew himself such as his age required , ( v. . ) again , he would not save his life by such an appearance of impiety , as the eating of what was lawfull in lieu of what was unlawfull , because he was prompted by his charity , not to indanger many young persons their being betray'd by that artifice , to think that old eleazer , when he was fourscore years and ten , had at last gone away to a strange religion . ( v. , . whereas 't was very fit for him , who was one of the principal of the scribes , ( v. . ) to leave a notable example of sincerity and courage , and of daringness to die for the laws of god. ( v. . and . thus there are very many things , which though lawfull to us as christians , are yet unseemly for us as men ; and do dishonour our vocation , even then when they do not defile our conscience . for how many trades are there , very lawfull in themselves , which yet by us of the clergy cannot lawfully be driven ? and therefore abstinence from these is to be reckon'd as a duty , at least to our quality , and our rank , if not precisely to our religion . abstain we therefore ( as much as may be ) from all that carries any appearance , or shew of evil ; and as from all that is expedient , unless it appears to be lawfull too ; so from all that is lawfull , but not expedient . § . again , abstain from those things , which though not evil in themselves , are yet incentives , or occasions , or introductories to evil ; and however not formally , yet effectively such . for as it is not onely said , thou shalt not steal , but over and above thou shalt not covet ; so the way not to covet , is not to see , not to tast , not to touch such an object , as is naturally apt to inchant the senses . our saviour tells us of adultery in the heart . and the apostle s. peter , of adultery in the eye . and moses pressing his congregation to an effectual abstinence from the evil , which corah and others had newly done , said , depart from the tents of these wicked men , and touch nothing of theirs . depart from all suspected persons , and places too . for he that toucheth pitch shall be defiled therewith . and * he that loves danger shall perish in it . whatsoever is born of the flesh is flesh ; ( joh. . . ) nor does the wax with more aptness take an impression from the seal , than the flesh from the bait of an ill affection . insomuch that some parts of the holy scripture were ( in the times of cassianus ) not intrusted to the ears of the younger christians , * ne noxiae titillationis stimulus excitaretur . he that hopes to be safe whilst he converseth with incentives to any sin , is thought by solomon as irrational , as if he should walk on hot coals , and hope his feet will not be burnt ; or take fire into his bosom , in a confidence that it will not consume his cloths . prov. . , . nay a s. bernard was of opinion , that to be conversant with a woman , and yet be innocent in converse , is a difficulter work than to raise the dead . and then the hebrew wise men could not be righteous overmuch , when they prohibited all discourse betwixt man and woman , ( excepting onely that of an husband with a wife , ) both in regard of the scandal , and danger of it ; the possible scandal unto others , and actual danger unto themselves . § . how very nearly it does concern even the gravest , and the most safe , to abstain from all occasions and opportunities of evil , may be collected from the examples both of * andreas bishop of fundo , and of the exemplary martinian , a famous hermit . whereof the former was fain to banish an holy matron out of his house , because he found he could not safely injoy her sight , nor be protected by her innocence , from the great hazard of his own . the a later finding he could not otherwise be exempted from the occasions and baits of sin , threw himself first into the fire , for the refining of his desires ; and after that into the water , whereby to drown them . nay as if the holy angels were not fit to be intrusted with such temptations , not onely philo and josephus , but divers fathers of the church , ( justin martyr , tertullian , clemens alexandrinus , and lactantius , ) have understood by the sons of god who could not innocently gaze upon the daughters of men , ( gen. . . ) not the potentates of the earth , but even the angels of heaven . now though i think with theodoret , and most of the ancient commentators , that the fathers were in an errour who so expounded ; * yet it assures us of their opinion , how much temptations are to be shun'd , and how carefully we should fly the occasions of them . igni cum foeno non bene convenit , said martinian to a beauty whom he had pull'd out of the sea , but would not trust himself with when she came to land. but more remarkable were the words of the pious presbyter * vrsinus , when a good woman came to help him as he was giving up the ghost , ( one whom he lov'd too as a sister , but yet avoided as an enemy , ) recede à me mulier , adhuc vivit igniculus , paleam tolle . as if he fear'd that that stricture or spark of life remaining in him , might have grown into a flame at the sight of chaff . § . now since it cannot but be inferr'd from the whole tenor of my discourse , that the way to become able to abstain from all evil , is to abstain from all approach and appearance of it , from all that does lead and allure us to it , from all that has a tendency and byass towards it ; nothing remains but that we labour , in every instance of temptation and ghostly danger , ( if we are willing to use the means whereby our abstinence may be completed , ) to frustrate the malice of the devil , to baffle the arguments of the flesh , and to tread under our feet an insulting world , even by carrying our selves wisely in all our ways , and by keeping constant watch over all our walkings ; and that we never suffer our selves , either by stratagem , or by force , to be diverted or drawn aside from this saving method , until our well-meant indeavours shall all expire into perfection ; our contendings with the flesh , into triumphs over it ; our rigid abstinences from evil , into the ravishing injoyments of all that 's good ; our temporary lent , into an everlasting jubile ; our short self-denials , into the pleasures of aeternity ; our days of mourning and mortification , into endless fruitions of bliss and glory . which thou , o god , of thy mercy vouchsafe unto us , for the glory of thy name , and for the worthiness of thy son ; to whom , with thee , o father , in the unity of the spirit , be all honour and glory both now and forever . amen . of abstaining in general from fleshly lusts . pet. . . dearly beloved , i beseech you , as strangers , and pilgrims , abstain from fleshly lusts , which war against your soul. having your conversation honest among the gentiles , that whereas they speak against you as evil doers , they may by your good works which they shall behold , glorifie god in the day of visitation . § . saint peter , as a good builder , ( a spiritual workman who needed not to be asham'd , ) having prudently laid the first foundation of his discourse in the former chapter , to wit , the holy spirit of god efficaciously working by his word ; and having erected thereupon the three grand pillars of christianity , faith , hope , and charity ; does straight proceed in this chapter to superstruct on those pillars by way of general exhortation . which though particularly directed unto the christians of the dispersion in several provinces of asia , yet 't was equally intended , and is as applicable to vs too , on whom the ends of the world are come . now his general exhortation is briefly this. first of all , that we lay aside all kind of malice , and hypocrisie , and the malignity of the tongue . ( v. . ) secondly , that as infants do suck the nourishment of their bodies from the same mother's breast from whom they had newly receiv'd their being ; so also we , being regenerate by the good word of god , and thereby reputed as new-born babes , should from the same word of god , suck out a nourishment for our souls , and thereby grow unto perfection . ( v. . ) this word as he calls by the name of milk , so he commends it to our palats , as sweet , and wholesom , ( v. . ) after which he goes on with his exhortation , but steps aside from his metaphor , and addresseth himself to a new scheme of rhetorick . calling christ a living-stone , ( v. . ) and the members of christ a spiritual house , ( v. . ) and proving both out of esa , ( v. . ) next he shews the opposition betwixt the obedient , and the rebellious ; representing jesus christ as a support unto the former , but to the later a stone of stumbling , and a rock of offence . ( v. , . ) then , having said how god had taken us from out the men of this world , and made us a chosen generation , a royal priesthood , an holy nation , a peculiar people , a people called out of darkness , into his marvellous light , ( v. , . ) he here proceeds to exhort us , with somewhat a greater degree of warmth , that we behave our selves suitably to our vocation . dearly beloved , i beseech you , as strangers , and pilgrims , abstain , &c. § . a very pertinent exhortation to all the duties of the lent ; to christian purity , and strictness , and to abstinence from enormities of every kind . abstain from fleshly lusts , that is , ( as s. paul does explain s. peter , ) from rioting and drunkenness , from chambering and wantonness , from strife and envy , from malcontentedness and sedition , from revengefulness and rebellion , from schism and haeresie . for that these are all equally the lusts of the flesh , or the fleshly lusts , i shall necessarily shew in the proper places of my discourse . the exhortation ( taken in gross ) does consist of two parts . the material part of it is express'd in these words , [ abstain from fleshly lusts , and have your conversation honest , ] the formal part of it in these , [ dearly beloved , i beseech you . ] thus we see the exhortation is usher'd in with an intreaty , and this with such a compellation , as shews an earnestness of affection in him that speaks . his exhortation is so important , so perswasive his intreaty , and so meltingly obliging his compellation , that hardly any thing can be added to give an energy or weight to s. peter's preaching . though he desires no more of them , than to have mercy upon themselves , yet he begs for it as heartily , as if he were begging for his life . dearly beloved , i beseech you , i come unto you as a petitioner , that ye will not be so transported out of your interest and your wits , as madly to ruin your selves for ever . i make it my humble supplication , that ye will rather live happy to all eternity . if there is any thing in the world with which you are willing to oblige me , do not wilfully run upon swords and halberts ; seek not to dwell with devouring fire ; be not so foolish as to catch at everlasting burnings ; but be of an honest conversation , and abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. thus s. peter's exhortation is very affectionate and earnest . and taking our selves to be the persons to whom the exhortative does belong , we have it inforced upon our hearts by five strong arguments or motives . all the worthier of our attention , because arising out of the text. the first argument is taken from the condition of the persons , to whom the earnest exhortation is here directed . we are citizens of heaven , and but strangers upon earth , and therefore we must live as becometh strangers . nor are we strangers onely , but pilgrims . not onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , out of our own country , but withall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that is , travellers in a strange one . for this i take to be the difference between these two , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , strangers , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , pilgrims , that though they are both out of their country , yet the former have an aboad , but the later none . those have some kind of rest , but these are always in a journy . those inhabit a foreign country , whilst these are onely passing through it . and seeing this is our condition , that we relate to this world , not as strangers onely , but passengers , men whose houses are but as inns , and whose life is but a pilgrimage , it concerns us to walk as becometh pilgrims ; that is , to manage our conversation with so much wariness and fear , as not to lie open to just reproof . the second argument is taken from the quality of the things , in opposition to which our apostle's exhortation is here contriv'd . these are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , such fleshly lusts , as are very pleasant flatterers , but no true friends . for though they are fawning upon the flesh , yet they are not at all the less , but the greater enemies to the spirit . and how desirable soever they may appear unto the body , yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , they are implacably , though invisibly , ever warring against the soul. the third argument is taken from the consideration of our credit , with the enemies of christ amongst whom we live . our conversation is to be honest , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , among the gentiles . and that for this reason , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that however they do maliciously , they may not deservedly speak against us . whereas in case we live dishonestly , and indulgently to our lusts , we shall help them to excuse , if not to justifie their malignities against our persons , and our profession : and they will have a just ground whereupon to defame us as evil-doers . the fourth argument is taken from the consideration of our enemies welfare ; to wit , their present conversion , and future safety . in whose sight if we converse as becometh christ's servants , by our abstaining from fleshly lusts , and having an honest conversation , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the text , they then will look upon us with reverence , and judge of our principles by our good works . we shall not onely stop their mouths , but weaken the violence of their hands , and help to mollifie their hearts , and become happily instrumental to the salvation of their souls . the fifth argument is taken from the glory of god and its great advancement . we must indeavour so to live , as to adorn the doctrine of jesus christ . our conversation must be such , as becomes the gospel . our way of walking must be exemplary , and our behaviour must be exact , that christ's religion being credited , his kingdom also may be inlarged , whilst by the allective of our example men will be won from their corruptions , and shew forth the praises of our god , who hath called us out of darkness into his marvellous light . and this , as 't is the last , so 't is the best and chiefest argument for our punctual abstaining from fleshly lusts , and having an honest conversation , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that men ( by seeing our good works ) may not glorifie vs , but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , may glorifie god in the day of visitation . § . these are all s. peter's arguments . nor have i stept either beyond or beside the text for the finding of them . and for the pressing of the duty he here injoyns , never were there more or better arguments in the world , by any pen-man contriv'd into fewer words . before i insist upon any argument whereby to inforce the exhortation , i must first of all explain the exhortation it self , first observing the importance of fleshly lusts , and then what is meant by abstaining from them . in order to the first , two things are to be known . how we ought to understand the moral use of the word flesh , ( especially as it is taken in several parts of the new testament , ) and what is meant by the lustings of it . by the word flesh in the new testament is very commonly meant the appetite . this is the seat of our affections , the subject matter of vice and virtue . our affections are ever conversant in pursuing , or eschewing , in injoying , or in suffering their several objects . their objects in the general are good , or evil. and both are consider'd in themselves , or in relation to the circumstances wherewith they happen to be cloath'd . good consider'd in it self is at once both the object and cause of love. but in relation to its circumstances , it is productive of other passions . for , if present , it causeth joy ; and if absent , it breeds desire . again , the good which is absent is either attainable , or it is not . if the former , it causeth hope ; and if the later , it breeds despair . in like manner an evil object is to be taken in its absolute , or in its relative consideration . in the former 't is productive of simple hatred ; but in the later it produceth either sorrow , or aversation . the first , if it is present ; and if absent , then the second . again , the evil that is absent is either avoidable , or it is not . if the former , it causeth boldness : but if the later , it causeth fear . thus we briefly see the rivulets of all our passions , or affections , together with the fountain from whence they flow . now so many of our affections as are reducible to desire , may be called not improperly our several lusts . things so necessary , and natural , and indifferent in themselves , that being abstractively , and precisely , and antecedently consider'd , they are equally in an aptitude of becoming both the matter of vice , and virtue . but when extravagant , as to the object , or exorbitant , as to the measure ; then they are , and are justly call'd , either the lusts of the flesh , or the fleshly lusts . § . now 't is observable in the scriptures both of the old and new testament , that lust is many times synonymous both with avarice , and desire . the greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and the latin concupiscere , does equally signifie them all . and thence it is that all three have been * promiscuously us'd in our english bibles . for there we meet as well with lawfull , as with unlawfull lusts ; and as well with a good , as an evil avarice ; ( and with both as they are taken in the innocent sense of our desires ; ) nay , there we meet with such a lusting , as is not onely lawfull , but also eminently good . we have an example of the first , deut. . . thou mayest kill and eat flesh in all thy gates , whatsoever thy soul lusteth after ; that is , whatever it desireth , or hath an appetite unto . we have an instance of the second , in the first epistle to the corinthians ; where though 't is said , that no covetous shall ever inherit the kingdom of god , yet there are things which we must covet , and covet earnestly , saith the apostle , cor. . . we have a specimen of the third too , gal. . . whereas the flesh lusteth against the spirit , so doth the spirit against the flesh . and this does shew us what is meant by the law in the members , and the law in the mind , which are said to be warring , that is , to be lusting against each other , rom. . . the last of which is as good , as the first is evil . § . but here we must not impose that obvious fallacy on our selves , which is , à benè divisis ad malè conjuncta . for though the flesh , and the lusts , being in sensu diviso , have both their innocent significations , yet in sensu composito , they ever signifie what is sinfull . nor onely the breaches of any one , but of several precepts in the decalogue . for in the epistle to the galatians , not adultery onely , but murthers , not fornication onely , but witchcraft , idolatry , seditions , haeresies , are reckon'd up by s. paul amongst the works of the flesh , and that in perfect opposition to the fruits of the spirit . nor is it onely said ( in the last precept of the decalogue , ) thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife , but not his house , not his servant , not his oxe , not his ass , no nor any thing else that is thy neighbours . so that all evil covetings are fleshly lusts , in respect of the principle from which they come , though not always of the object towards which they tend . though in regard unto the later , they are not all lustings after the flesh , yet in regard unto the former , they all are lustings of the flesh , or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , fleshly lusts . 't was such a lust of curosity , joyn'd with another of ambition , which made eve eat of forbidden fruit . 't was such a fleshly lust of envy , which made cain murther his brother abel . 't was such a fleshly lust of avarice , which made an achan lay hold of the golden wedge . nor was it less a fleshly lust which moved absolon to compass his father's kingdom , than that by which he defiled his father's concubines . § . now from all these fleshly lusts we are exhorted to abstain , as may appear by their antithesis to such a christian conversation , as is not onely to be chast , but universally honest among the gentiles . and yet from those in special manner are we exhorted to abstain , which are peculiarly compriz'd in the seventh precept of the decalogue , and are expressed by the name of lascivious lusts , pet. . . for those were chiefly the fleshly lusts of the gnosticks , from whose unclean course of life the jewish christians of the dispersion were here dehorted . and so they signifie with s. john when he reduces all the army of our spiritual warriers to three brigades , and makes an eminent distinction of the lust of the flesh , both from the lust of the eye , and the pride of life . § . but what kind of abstinence is here intended ? not such a complete and total abstinence , as is from all kinds of lusting without exception . for this may seem as vain a task , as to abstain from being men ; since 't is evident from the confessions both of saxony , and helvetia , as also from the th . of our articles , that concupiscence remains in the most regenerate . to which implicit objection , i answer thus. that though the precept for abstaining does refer both to the object and act of lusting , yet it is with this difference , that we must totally abstain from the things lusted after , and as much as in us lies from the lust it self . for if we cannot prevent a lust from ever entring into the heart ; yet we can and must keep it from breaking forth into our actions , and from the presence of the temptation which leads to both. many pretend to disabilities to which they have not a real title . it clearly lies in our power , to make a covenant with our eyes ; to set a watch over our ears ; to keep the door of our lips ; to thrust impediments in the way betwixt us and danger ; and by the help of god's grace , ( which is not wanting unto any who are not wanting unto it , ) it also lies in our power to keep a guard about our hearts ; to put a bridle upon our wills ; and give a check to the cariere of wild affections . so that if i may paraphrase s. peter's exhortation , it will in the whole amount to this : dearly beloved , i beseech you , as arrant foreigners and exoticks on this side heaven , that ye religiously abstain from forbidden objects in the general , and especially from those which are most treacherous to the flesh . give not any satisfaction to carnal motions , and be not any whit indulgent to loose desires . make no provision for the flesh , to fulfill the lusts thereof . but keep it rather from incentives , and try to starve it . as it wars against , you , so do you against it . besiege it closely on every side ; block up all its avenues ; intercept its provisions by prayer and fasting . reduce the flesh to such an exigence for want of victuals and ammunition , as may effectually compel it to make a surrender unto the spirit . put your selves with resolution into a moral impossibility of being worsted . and in order thereunto , abstain not onely from the food of your fleshly lusts , but withall from the borders and confines of it ; not onely from the all that may cause uncleanness , but from all that may occasion the things that cause it . § . for here 't is worthy our observation , ( in the management of our warfare against those enemies , which do often the more successfully , because invisibly war against us , ) that we are otherwise to encounter with the temptations of the irascible , than with the other more insnaring ones of the concupiscible faculty . the onely way to quell the first , is indeed by fighting , but the way to beat the second , must be by flight . the way to vanquish those allurements of flesh and blood , which are vulgarly express'd by the name of beauties , is not boldly to contend with , but rather prudently to abstain from the presence of them . we commonly reckon that a garrison is little less than half taken , when it admits of any parley with its besiegers . to enter into a treaty , is the beginning of a surrender ; and then with a greater force of reason . he that approaches so very near , as to wrestle with the temptations he ought to fly , and entertains so much commerce , as to combat with them , is like a very stout champion who salls to grapple with a man that is arm'd with sickness ; i mean the leprosie , or the plague , or other diseases of infection . because notwithstanding he throws the man far enough , it will be hard to clear himself from all contagion of his disease . many are led into captivity to the law of sin , by not distinguishing as they ought , ( and as holy men of old were wont to do , ) betwixt temptations and temptations of several sorts ; i mean the temptations they ought to fight with , and the temptations they ought to fly . to make it profitable and plain , i will illustrate what i say , by one or two scriptural examples . § . when nothing but the patience of job was tempted , by the loss of his estate , and the destruction of his children , tunc surrexit , saith the text , then job arose , rouz'd up himself like a sturdy lion ; and as it were girded himself with strength . he was so far from drawing back from the face of danger , that he arose , and stood to it , and bravely baffl'd both the wit and the strength of satan . but when the same job was tempted by the allurements of the flesh , then he manifested his valour , ( like fabius maximus , or the parthians , ) by taking the courage to use his prudence . and he manifested his prudence , by the timeliness of his flight . he made a covenant with his eyes , not to look upon an object which might indanger him by delight . it was then his chief wisedom , when ( not his constancy , or his patience , but ) his chastity was concern'd , not to make trial of his mastery , in containing from a pleasant forbidden object , but rather wholly to abstain from the presence of it . the different way of incountring the different sorts of temptation , may be collected from the difference , wherewith the scripture doth direct us to deal with the devil , and the flesh . resist the devil , is the precept of s. james ; but fly fornication , is the caveat of s. paul. for other vices ( saith anselm upon that caveat to the corinthians ) are easily conquerable by conflict , whereas this of fornicacation is onely conquerable by flight . now to fly fornication , is not onely to be continent , ( which implies a kind of combat , though 't is not follow'd with consent ; a being somewhat affected , although not drawn ; ) but 't is totally to abstain from all commerce with the temptation . 't is to defeat it in such a manner , as king edward the sixth , and the most excellent bishop wainflet are said by budden to have defeated the armed rebells under jack cade , vel non pugnando ; by not fighting with them at all , but onely by praying against their wickedness . the total abstinence i speak of , is not onely from the objects of fleshly lust , but from the vicinities , and the occasions , yea from all the very memories and mentions of them . for so aquinas and cajetan do expound s. paul's caveat , cor. . . § . it follows then that we are likelier to be secure from such dangers by timely flight , than to beat them quite down by a stout resistance . and though the later must be imploy'd when we are actually ingag'd , yet to anticipate such ingagements , it will be our best method to use the former . for how much safer 't is to fly , than to incounter such allurements , ( though incounter them we must , when we cannot fly them , ) we may illustrate by the examples of joseph , and sampson , who were as various in their behaviours , as they were different in their success . joseph fled from his mistriss by whom he was tempted day by day . he was so far from discoursing about the matter in design , as that he would not be with her , but sprang from her presence , and got him out . gen. . . . whereas sampson ( on the contrary ) was no sooner come to gaza , than he saw there an harlot ; nor did he onely see but he went unto her . ( judg. . . ) again , no sooner was he come to the valley of soreck , where he adventur'd to converse with another woman , ( v. . ) but one of the next things we read of , is his telling her all his heart . ( v. . ) and the very next to that , is his sleeping upon her knees . ( v. ) and the consequent of this , the loss of his liberty , and his eyes . ( v. . ) it was not then without reason , that so great and good a prophet as the prophet elijah , who had so bravely * withstood king ahab , did quickly after a fly away from the face of jezebel . and that abimelech should have fled at the sight of sarah , is very evident even from hence , that no sooner had he taken her , than he was fain to put her away . ( gen. . . . ) nor did he part onely with her , but with a thousand pieces of silver , ( v. . ) and that in velamen oculorum , for a covering of the eyes . and that not onely unto her , but to all that hereafter should look upon her , as gerundensis , and hamerus explain the text. or ( in the gloss of tertullian , ) for the buying of veils enough , wherewith to cover both her own and her maiden's beauty ; and this to the end they might not easily either see , or be seen by the other sex. § . but i have largely enough explain'd the moral use of the word flesh , and what is meant by the lustings of it , and what it is to abstain from all these , as well according to the object as act of lusting , and as well in a divided as compound sense . besides that in so spacious a field of matter , and so fruitfull of meditation , as that i am entring now upon , there will be need of some care that none be surfeited even with abstinence . for though an abstinence ( not from flesh , but ) from fleshly lusts , is both the best , and the most wholesom , and the most suitable to the season in its primitive vse , and ( where the guests are all christian ) the most desirable entertainment to be imagin'd , yet a satiety of the best things is apt to become the worst satiety in the world . and therefo●e rather than exceed the time allow'd for this service , i will begin and end too with that one argument , or motive , which here is taken from the nature , and perpetual employment of fleshly lusts ; which are not onely no friends , but most implacable enemies ; nor onely enemies to our temporal , but aeternal interest . § . it is not onely here said , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that they fight , which may imply nothing more than a single battle ; but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , they war , which imports a continued state of fighting . so far from being capable of a firm and solid peace , that they allow us not a truce , or time to breath in . nor do they terminate their malice upon the body , ( for then we needed no more to fear them than armed enemies from without , ) but ( which is nearer and dearer to us ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , they ever war against the soul too . § . thus the life of a christian , as 't is a pilgrimage of the body from earth to earth , ( for dust thou art , and unto dust shalt thou return , said god to adam , ) and a pilgrimage of the soul from heaven to heaven ; ( for the spirit shall return to god that gave it , saith the royal ecclesiastes ; ) so as truly is it a warfare of soul and body in conjunction , whereof that fights for heaven , and this for hell ; the former under god's banner , and the later under the devil 's . the flesh , and the spirit are so unequally match'd , that however nearly wedded , they are incessantly falling out . each may say unto the other , nec possum vivere cum te , nec sine te . for however unwilling they are to part , they are seldom or never at agreement . there is a law in the members so continually warring against the law of the mind , that the flesh still lusteth against the spirit , and the spirit against the flesh . and these are * contrary the one to the other . now 't is the nature still of contraries , very earnestly to indeavour a mutual overthrow . and they must both be well beaten , brought down , and refracted , ere they can peaceably cohabit under one and the same roof . which kind of peace may be effected betwixt another sort of contraries , ( for heat and cold may agree together in a lukewarmness , white and black in mixt colours , day and night in a crepusculum , however these two last are but privatively oppos'd ; ) but in this moral contrariety 'twixt the spirit and the flesh , it never can be ; the reason is , because when the spirit is most indulgently at peace with the flesh , the flesh is then the most dangerous and fatal enemy to the spirit . exactly such an enemy , as joab was to abner , when he took him aside , and slew him * peaceably . or as the very same joab to captain amasa , when he saluted him as a brother , inquir'd after his health as a kind physician , offer'd to kiss him as a dear friend , that so he might civilly and sweetly smite him under the fifth rib. or as the two sons of rimmon to righteous ishbosheth , when making as if they would fetch some wheat , they kill'd him slylie in his own house , and quietly resting upon his bed. or as judeth to olofernes , when she pleas'd him into destruction , and maliciously made him in love with her conversation ; when she ravish'd him with her beauty , that she might kill him with the fruit of his kindness to her ; stole his heart whilst he was waking , that whilst he slept she might take his head too . and exactly such an enemy is the flesh unto the spirit , when the spirit gives no disturbance , but dwells in quietness with the flesh . for then the lusts of the flesh do give the spirit such wounds as it cannot feel . wounds indued with such a numming , narcotick quality , as hurts the spirit without offense , and by killing it very pleasantly , sends it insensibly to hell. nor are any whit the less , but the more certainly destroy'd for being laid into a sleep by an over-great dose of opium . hence those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , invisible wars , and indiscernable insurrections , from which the antient greek liturgies were wont to pray for a cessation . for when the soul is so degenerate as even to doat upon the body , then does the body with most advantage insensibly war against the soul. the treacherous lusts of the flesh , ( like the treacherous assassinates of olofernes and ishbosheth , ) assault the spirit in its own house , and ( which is the worst of all supercherie ) as they find it fast asleep in the bed of carnal security . nor is it onely not awak'd by the blows they give it , but it rather sleeps the faster for being struck , ( just as if it were struck by the rod of hermes . ) that when at last it shall awake , either in this , or another world , it may not be to escape , but to see its ruin. § . so that the war i now speak of , is more than civil or domestick . for there we war against others , but here , against our own selves . a man's enemies ( saith the prophet ) are those of his own house . and indeed the greatest enemies , excepting those of his own heart . this especially being the field , wherein the lusts of the flesh do still incamp against the spirit , and give it battle ; and strive to bring it into captivity to the law of sin. and because the whole man does consist of these two , flesh and spirit , body and soul , matter and form , as essential parts of his composition , it cannot but follow that we our selves are incessantly warring against our selves . to wit , our selves , as we are animals , against our selves , as we are men. our selves , as we are men , against our selves , as we are christians . our selves , as we are carnal , against our selves , as we are spiritual . again it follows , that we our selves are the greatest enemies to our selves , because we arm our vile members against our mind . ( for what our english translation does call the instruments , is in s. paul's own language , the armour of unrighteousness . ) and by the help of this armour , we arm our base appetites against our wills ; and our brutish affections against our reasons . we use our selves as unmercifully , as samson's enemies did him. we strive to pluck out our inward eyes , and to deliver our selves bound to sin , and satan . we side with the old man against the new ; abet the outward man in us against the inward ; are such enemies to our selves , as to despoil our selves of grace , whereby ( as much as in us lies , and without repentance , ) we make our selves incapable of bliss and glory . § . but when i speak of a war between the flesh and the spirit , i do not mean onely the visible and gross body of flesh , which of it self is but passive , and cannot fight . no 't is the animated flesh , the flesh that is capable of lusting ; it is a fleshliness of spirit , and a carnality of reason , which is arm'd with a wisedom fetch'd up from hell , and stands in hostile opposition to that which cometh down from heaven , jam . , , . and accordingly when god had upbraided israel , with their being a foolish and sottish people , and void of all understanding , he gave the reason of it in this , that they were wise to do evil . ( jer. . . ) observe the pithy brevity of that expression , because they were wise , they were therefore foolish . their wisedom did not onely consist with folly , but in that sort of wisedom their folly and sottishness did consist . this is that wisedom of the flesh , which exalteth it self against the knowledge of god. cor. . . it is an earthy , sensual , devilish wisdom , as god himself by his apostle is pleas'd to call it . and 't is with very great reason he calls it devilish ; because the lust of the flesh , which is its wisedom , is a direct devil within us ; as having a faculty to intice us , and to draw us quite away from fighting under christ's banner . therefore 't is that lust and satan have the very same character in holy scripture . a man is tempted ( saith s. james ) when drawn away of his own lust and inticed . more than which cannot be said of the devil himself ; who cannot drive us by force into any sin , but onely draw us by flattery , or morally drive us by panick fears . now the very same warrier , which sometimes is call'd by the name of flesh , is elsewhere termed the carnal mind ; which is as much as to say , the fleshly spirit . the carnal mind ( saith s. paul ) is enmity against god , for it is not subject to his law , nor indeed can it be . it is so naturally a rebel , that it can never be any other , so long as it remaineth a carnal mind . a very natural thing it is for the son of the bond-woman , even in abraham's own house , to hate and persecute the son of the free . and even in abraham's own person , it was as natural for the flesh to war against the spirit . esau kick'd against jacob , whilst both were yet in their mother 's womb. and even jacob himself , although as peaceable as he was plain , had yet a law in his members , as it were lifting up the heel against the law in his mind . the best of men are but men , and therefore at their best will still be subject to corruption . some canaanites will be left in the holiest land. s. paul himself had fears and fightings , as well within as without . and notwithstanding his abundance , as well of grace , as of revelations , he had a thorn in the flesh , which did exceedingly terrifie and wound his spirit . nor was david more afflicted by envious saul , than his inward man was vexed by the hostilities of the outward . when our spirits are most willing to do the will of our lord , we are forced to complain that our flesh is weak ; and in that very weakness does one of its chiefest strengths lie . even then when we can say , lord we believe , we have great reason to add , help thou our unbelief . let the flesh ( like the thief , i mean the unconverted thief on our saviour's cross , ) be bound up and crucified , yet ( like the very same thief ) it will continue to resist , or revile the spirit . as when the taylor in the apologue had stopt the mouth of his scolding wife , she was able still to rail with her finger's ends . an apologue not so light , as the moral of it is grave and serious . for the spirit and the flesh are ( in aristotle's comparison ) as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , i. e. as the husband and the wife ; and so the moral of the apologue may be affirmed to be this. whilst fleshly lusts have a being , are unmortified and alive , let congruous grace do what it can , ( so long as it is not irresistible , ) there will be hostilities against the spirit . for were it possible for the flesh to cease from warring against the spirit , a man might possibly be innocent on this side heaven . which because he cannot be , the carnal mind by sound consequence must needs be at enmity with god. hence it is that rank atheists are very commonly rank wits too , full of artifices and tricks , very skilfull to destroy themselves and others . and 't is an enmity so much the worse , even because it is spiritual , as well as carnal , or ( to use s. paul's language ) a carnal mind . for the spirit of a man , which by nature goeth upwards , when like the * spirit of a beast , it tendeth downwards , quite against its own nature , and as it were clings unto the earth by being carnal , it is not onely a strong , but a subtil enemy . it wageth war against the soul , that is , itself , as well by stratagem , as by force . it is a treacherous , cologuing , * deceiptfull thing . and though it seems to be but one of those three brigades whereof the devil 's whole army is said by s. john to be compos'd , ( the lust of the flesh , the lust of the eye , and the pride of life , ) yet has it all the lower world to serve for its armory or magazin ; profit , and pleasure , and pomps , and vanities , beauty , and honour , and strength , and greatness , and ( to express it in a word ) all the darts of the flesh which it does shoot ( after the measure that the devil gives aim , ) against the spirit , are commonly drawn out of that one quiver , that is to say , the carnal mind . § . since then our enemies are such , as have been describ'd ; so strongly , so subtilly , so incessantly warring against the soul , ( a soul adorn'd with god's image , and indu'd with his spirit , and redeem'd with his blood , and sustein'd with his grace , and in a capacity of his glory , ) our very dangers may serve for orators , to incourage and incite us in our encounters . and our dangers are to be measur'd by the preciousness of the subject , or prize we fight for . and this is here expressed to be the soul. that 's the helena 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the ball or apple of contention , thrown as 't were between us , and our fleshly lusts ; we asserting it to god , and they to satan ; we contending for its safety , and they contriving its destruction . now so infinite is the difference between the values to be put upon souls and bodies , that he who * rejoyced in those afflictions which did but war against the body , did groan and tremble under the lusts , which still did war against his soul. and in comparison of the hurt , which may happen unto the soul , we are forbidden to fear them that can kill the body . for what is the body , in its original , but dust and ashes ? what , at the best of its consistence , but a fair nursery of diseases ? and what , when parted from the soul , but the food of worms ? whereas the soul is that spouse , which god hath betrothed to himself , hos . . , . not a citizen onely of heaven , but heaven it self ; as s. gregory and s. bernard are pleas'd to call her . and therefore if the warriers or fleshly lusts i now speak of , do fight against our immortal souls , it concerns us as much as our souls are worth , to war against , by abstaining from fleshly lusts ; by which if ever we are conquer'd , we are undone . as being dead whilst we live , ( to use s. paul's oxumoron ) and ( which is a great deal sadder ) as being to live when we are dead too , although it be onely to die for ever , or rather to be for ever dying . these are some of those foolish and hurtfull lusts , which drown the soul in misery and perdition . they transform the whole man into a state of brutality . they cast us out of his presence , in whose presence is life , and at whose right hand are pleasures for evermore . for when 't is said by the apostle , that if we live after the flesh , we shall die ; his meaning cannot but be this , that we shall certainly be damn'd . for they that live after the spirit must die the first death , and therefore this other must needs me meant of the second . thus our dangers do incourage us in our encounters . § . another incouragement which we injoy whilst we are prosecuting our war against fleshly lusts , lies in the goodness , and the nobleness , and ( as the consequence of both ) in the pleasure of it . for what can be better in it self , than to side with the spirit against the flesh ? with the rational part in us against the brutal ? what more honourable , or noble , than to win a victory over our selves ? it was not near so great a glory to the young man of macedon to have brought into subjection all the provinces of asia , as it had been to have subdued at once his avarice and his ambition . for 't is not the greatness of the conquest , but the goodness of the fight , which yields an happiness to the victor , and solid glory to his success . when paul was ready to be offer'd , and at the approach of his departure , his chiefest comfort and honour stood both in this , that he had fought the good fight , that he had finished his course , and had kept the faith : that he had prosperously ingaged against fleshly lusts , which , however they had warred , had not prevailed against his soul. many are worsted in their warfare , for want of distinguishing ( as they ought ) between the acts and the effects of their self-denials . 't is true the act of self-denial will affect the best of us with pain or trouble ; but how much more will it delight us by our injoyment of its effects ? ( as the drawing of a tooth is painfull and troublesom for a moment , although in order to perfect ease . ) we know the soul is the life , and so the happiness of the body , as god himself is both the happiness and the life of the soul. and as there is no greater pleasure , than that which affects the very soul of a pious man , ( for 't is a proverbial antimetabole , and in every man's mouth , that the pleasure of the soul is the soul of pleasure , ) so the pleasure of the soul can hardly be greater , or more refin'd , than in despising and rejecting the grosser pleasures of the body . nor need we fear that such a pleasure is not attainable at all , because it does not grow up , like a worthless mushrom , in a night ; but rather ( like the goodly rose ) requires a certain tract of time to give it ripeness . for a left-handed conscience , like a left-handed man , by abstaining long enough from the use of the left , and by continuing long enough the use and practice of the right , will perform the same actions with ease and pleasure , which at present may be difficult , and painfull to him . habitual sicknesses of soul being like to those inveterate diseases of the body , which cannot possibly be cur'd by one or two tasts of a noble med'cin , but must submit to whole methods and courses of it . many sciences and arts are extremely tedious to such as are but new beginners and learners in them ; which yet will yield them the greatest comfort , content , and pleasure , as soon as vse , and vnderstanding hath bred a very good acquaintance and friendship with them . will any man who is not mad , break off the finger of his watch as an useless thing , because he cannot perceive it moving ? or leave off the practice of a generous abstinence from his debauches , because his very first indeavours of self-denial and pious life are not so pleasant or so easie , as he expected ? let him have patience , and that finger will most apparently , though insensibly , make a progress from this , to another hour . so let him stay his due time , and his practice of reformation will pass from difficult to easie , from easie to usefull and familiar , from familiar to delightfull and joyous also . let a vitious man get but the knack of virtue , ( which without custom he cannot have , ) and he will wonder how he could once have been pleas'd with vice. but he who stays 'till it is pleasant to leave his gross pleasures , will never leave them ; because the pleasure of leaving such , cannot begin 'till they are left . from whence it follows , that he who will not be perswaded to persevere in abstaining from fleshly lusts , until his abstinence is easie , and pleasant to him , is like the natural fool of greece , whom hierocles in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does merrily call his athenian scholar , who determin'd within himself never to go into the water , until ( before hand ) he might be sure that he could swim . or like the overwary messenger ( of whom we read in the spanish story ) who having been threaten'd under a poenalty by him that sent him , not to return without an answer , would not part with his letter to the person to whom 't was sent , until he might first have an answer to it . for a man not to abstain from fleshly lust till he finds it pleasant , is just as sensless , and as absurd , as for a man to be impatient of ever learning the use of books , 'till he can read and understand them with ease and pleasure ; or to grumble at the labour of taking a pencil into his hand , until he finds he can use it like some apelles . if there is any man that hears me , who is conscious to himself of so great a folly , i have no more to beg of him than barely this ; that he will not come with praejudice to the amendment of his life , ( as the israelites did to the land of promise , in fear of anakims and lions to be incounter'd in the way , ) and that he will not distrust a vertuous course 'till he has try'd it . that he will weigh vice and virtue in equal scales , before he cleaves unto the first , or rejects the second . that he will have so much justice both for god and himself , as to make an essay , whether a customary abstinence from fleshly lusts , will not yield him more pleasure than all his customary injoyments have ever done . that he will once have the courage to make a trial of new obedience , ( i mean an incorrupt and impartial trial. ) and that being once ingag'd in the practice of it , he will not poorly start back at its first uncouthness ; ( for difficilia quae pulchra , the goodliest things in their injoyment are ever difficult in their acquist ; ) but that imitating the bravery of caleb and josua , he will deferr to make a judgement or final aestimate of the thing , 'till he has had a sound proof and experience of it . for if the savour and the tast he shall have of virtue , be but as much , and as long , as his tast of vice , he will sooner swallow the stings and the gall of asps , than vouchsafe the licking up of his nauseous vomit . § . but besides this incouragement ( which of it self is very great ) from the fight it self , ( a fight for god against satan , and for the interest of the soul against fleshly lusts , ) there is a third arising to us from the consideration of our support . for 't is the powerfull spirit of god , which helpeth our infirmities . yea , when our infirmities are so potent , as to disable us even from praying , and from crying out for help , the spirit interceedeth for us with groans which cannot be uttered . and at the intercession of such a spirit , our spiritual enemies will fly , as the walls of jericho did fall at the sound of a trumpet . 't was by the help of this spirit , that though the enemies of david were still in hand to swallow him up , yet he was able still to say , he would not fear what flesh could do unto him . whilst the weapons of our warfare are not carnal , but spiritual , they are mighty , through god , to the pulling down of strong holds ; casting down imaginations , and every high thing that exalteth it self against god , and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of christ . our weapons indeed are mighty , but 't is through god , who does not onely guide our feet , but also lifts up our hands , and directs our blows , and often strikes for us himself too . and yet the victory which he wins , his goodness placeth to our accompt . his is the glory of the conquest , but ours the comfort . and this accordingly was the incouragement our saviour gave to his apostles , be of good comfort , i have overcome the world. the sting of death , which is sin , he hath pluck'd out for us . the strength of sin , which is the law , he hath weaken'd in our behalf . he hath routed our common enemy , and looks that we should follow the chase . which the apostle well considering , did seem ( with one and the same breath , ) to turn his out-cry into an eulogy , his complaint into a jubily , his temptations of despair into joy and triumph . for no sooner had he said , o wretched man that i am ! who shall deliver me from the body of this death ? but in the next words he added , i thank god through jesus christ our lord. nay farther yet ; he does not onely say in another place , thanks be to god who hath given us the victory through our lord jesus christ ; but also invents a new word , to shew the greatness of our victory above that of others ; through him that loved us , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( says the text ) we do not onely overcome , but are more than conquerors . indeed without him our strength is weakness , our wisedom folly ; and accordingly the apostle does very appositely exhort us , to be strong in the lord , and in the power of his might . eph. . . and when 't is said by s. john , ye are of god , little children , and have overcome them , he gives this reason , because greater is he that is in you , than he that is in the world. for whatsoever is born of god overcometh the world ; and this is the victory that overcometh the world , even our faith. joh. . . this must therefore be our prayer , that christ may dwell in our hearts by faith. and this will then be our incouragement , that being strengthned with might in the inward man , we shall be able to stand in the evil day . § . but we have yet another incouragement , to wrestle with and to fight against fleshly lusts , from the exceeding great richness of our reward . for when we can say with the apostle , we have fought the god fight , we may also say with him in the same assurance , because upon the same ground , henceforth is laid up for us a crown of righteousness . betwixt which two there is so vast a disproportion that the fight is for a moment , and the sufferings growing from it do quickly wither ; whereas the crown is immarcescible , such as cannot but injoy an eternal spring . and therefore s. paul vvas not out in his reckoning , vvhen he reckon'd that the sufferings ( and amongst them the self-denials ) of this present time , are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us . rom. . . which kind of sufferings and self-denials do not onely praecede , but even work for us a weight of glory . cor. . . and the reason of this expression may be argued even from hence , that to fight against the flesh , so far forth as to mortifie , and put it to death , ( which are the literal importance of the apostles two words , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ) is to make our selves partakers of the sufferings of christ . which sufferings of christ , do not onely occasion , but clearly work for us a weight of glory . and for this very end do we partake of christ's sufferings , ( by self-denials on his accompt , ) that when his glory shall be revealed , we may also rejoyce with exceeding joy. pet. . . yea the bare consideration of such an unspeakable reward , did put s. paul upon rejoycing , not onely after , but in his sufferings and self-denials . col. . . a reward great enough to make a coward turn fighter . for who would not fight even for fear , that he shall lose such a reward ? the onely thing we have to fear , is our not fighting enough to win the prize we fight for . now every fighter ( says our apostle , and so say all agonistick writers , ) is to keep a strict diet. s. paul's words are , he must be * temperate in all things . alluding plainly to the olympicks , in which the combatans were dieted for forty days . every man had his lent , whereby to fit him for his encounter ; and his abstinence was his armour , whereby to guard him from a defeat . and if they were so abstemious , to gain a corruptible crown , how much more should we abstain , for the gaining of a crown which is not liable to corruption ? not onely an exceeding , but an aeternal weight of glory ? such was the logick with which s. paul argued , and such was the rule of his acting too . for ( saith he ) i so run , not as uncertainly ; so fight i , not as one that beateth the air. but i keep under my body , and bring it into subjection . his own words are , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . i fight as a pancratiast , ( that is , ) as a cuffer , and wrestler too . i beat my body black and blue ? i make an arrant slave of it ; lay upon it both the yoke and the cross of christ ; subdue my flesh unto my spirit ; deny my self the use of my christian liberty ; suffer the loss of many things which i might lawfully injoy ; that by any means i may attain to the resurrection of the dead , that by any means possible i may apprehend that , for which i am also apprehended of christ jesus . all which i take to be imported by those two words , cor. . . where by the way we may observe of our apostle s. paul , he did not war against another's , but against his own body . for he knew his own body was the worst enemy to his soul ; and that to save himself from it , was to keep it under . he knew the flesh to be so sturdy , and so implacable a rebel , that if he should suffer it to thrive , and to get an head , he would have reason to be jealous of its aspirings ; and to stand in some fear , lest whilst he preached unto others , he himself might become a castaway . § . now we must go , and do likewise . for we expect the same crown , and are beset with the same enemies , by which if he was indanger'd , much more are we . and therefore if it was his way , much more must it be ours , to abstain in good earnest from fleshly lusts , by abstaining from the things by which they are nourished and upheld . intemperance is the mother of all the rest , or if not properly the mother , yet at least she is the nurse , as being evermore feeding , and making provision for the flesh , and by consequence giving strength to its several lusts . and therefore striving for the mastery , let us be temperate in all things . let us add fasting unto our prayers , and constant watchfulness unto our fasting , and persevere in all three , till we have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts . for since our lusts are so restless as never ceasing to rebell , we must be every whit as restless in reducing such rebels to their allegiance . nay it concerns us to be restless , though they should possibly be at rest . for as a leopard , or a lion , though sometimes gentle , and debonaire , are yet with reason kept close , in chains , or dungeons , because they still retain the nature of salvage beasts ; so fleshly lusts , though very much tamer at one season , than at another , do yet retain the whole nature of fleshly lusts , and if they are not lock'd up in chains , or thrust down into a dungeon , we know not how soon they may rage against us . however then our fleshly lusts may seem to be at peace with us , let us never be at peace with our fleshly lusts . and though the vileness of our enemies , or the miseries of a defeat , the honour and gallantry of our ingagement , or the divinity of our support , ( by the grace of god , and the means of grace , ) should not be able of themselves to prevail upon us , yet the additional consideration of the immensity of our reward , should ( one would think ) beget within us the noblest courage and resolution . we find them both in one text , and spoken both with one breath , and the later is an inference which cannot but follow from the former , that whosoever will but fight the good fight of faith , will not fail to lay hold on eternal life . and this the god of all mercy prepare us for , both for the glory of his grace , and for the worthiness of his son , unto whom with the father in the unity of the spirit , be all obedience and thanksgiving for ever and ever . amen . of abstaining in particular from disobedience to authority in things indifferent , as from the worst and the most scandalous of all fleshly lusts , in s. peter's judgment . pet. . . submit your selves to every ordinance of man for the lord's sake . § . saint peter having exhorted us to abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul , and inforc'd his exhortation with five strong reasons , ( in the two next verses before my text , ) straight gives an instance in the most scandalous and the most damning piece of carnality , of all those sorts in general from which he exhorted us to abstain . for what connexion or coherence can there be betwixt my present and former text , ( lying as close by one another , as by s. peter they could be laid , ) unless it be that disobedience to human governours and laws , is of all fleshly lusts the most disgracefull to christianity , the most repugnant to the gospel of jesus christ , most incompatible with the profession and the salvation of a christian ? that this is the meaning of s. peter , seems to be clear from the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , very significant in the original , however omitted in the translation . to stop the mouths of those enemies who speak against you as evil doers , ( says s. peter to the christians of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to whom he writes , ) by your abstaining from fleshly lusts , and by your unblameable conversation among the gentiles , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , be ye subjected , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , be ye therefore subjected ; and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to every human creature , that is to say , to every man who is a magistrate , created by god ( not by the people ) to be a governour . but still a creature , and a man , and ( both together ) an human creature ; wholly mortal , as to his person ; though wholly divine , as to his office. therefore to him submit your selves , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , not for the magistrates or the people's , or your own sakes onely , but first and chiefly for the lord 's . first , because of the lord's precept , matth. . . next , because of the lord's example , matth. . . thirdly , because of the lord 's ordaining him , rom. . , . fourthly , because he bears the lord's image , and is the lord's deputy , lieutenant , or vicegerent upon earth , the lord's minister , and avenger , rom. . . lastly , because ye must love the lord , ( v. . ) and love the lord ye cannot , unless ye love the lord's surrogate , and your love to superiours is to be seen in your obedience . again , submit your selves without partiality , ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , is the apostle's word , ) to every ordinance of man , or to all the lord's surrogates without exception . not onely to the supreme , as sent by god's providence , and god's commission ; but to subordinate rulers also , as sent by commission from the supreme . not to the emperour onely himself , ( whether claudius , or nero , at the writing of this epistle , ) but to proconsuls , and procurators , both of asia , and bithynia , as sent by caesar . yet not to them , against him ; not to furius camillus scribonianus , against claudius : not to the parliament , against the king ; nor to the king , against himself ; not at all to his authority , against his person ; nor in his right , to his wrong ; ( as some christians have plaid the sophisters to the reproach of christianity ; ) but to each in his order . to the king , as supreme ; ( so it follows in the text , ) and to governours , as sent by him. where the word as is very emphatical . as , and no otherwise , than as by him sent . as , and no otherwise , than for his sake , and on his accompt . and so , à quatenus ad omne optimè valet argumentum . submit your selves to all , as sent by him ; and submit your selves to none , but so far forth as he sends them . s. peter's logick is very plain , and makes the case very clear upon every side . § . of all the arguments or reasons which are producible for the inforcing s. peter's praecept , here are two of concernment to men in general , and a third for believers , or christian people in particular . of the two former , the first is taken from the author and assertor of all authorities , unto which men as men are here commanded to submit . they must do it propter dominum , because the lord hath authorized human authorities upon earth , and the lord will defend or avenge them all. the second is taken from the end of the divine constitution of human authorities in the world. to wit , an equal distribution both of punishments , and rewards . those to evil-doers , and these to them that do well . ( v. . ) by which distribution of which two things is procured the peace and quiet , and by consequence the happiness of human life . the third and special argument , touching us meerly as we are christians , is taken from the credit of jesus christ and his gospel , which we who are christians are highly obliged to assert . and assert it we cannot by any one argument so well , as by submitting our selves impartially to every ordinance of man. by making it appear to the jews and heathens , that the gospel or law of christ obliges its subjects to live a peaceable and quiet life in all godliness and honesty . that christianity is a religion , either reviving or introducing love and loyalty and order and tranquillity into the world. that obedience to the authority of human laws and legislators , is one of the prime characteristicks whereby a christian is to be known . that the best christians are still the loyal'st . that the more we love and fear the lord jesus christ , the more we submit for the lord's sake to every ordinance of man. and that they who do otherwise , are but titular christians ; not at all christians , but in profession ; none of christ's followers , but in repute . and therefore christianity must not be estimated by them , who are rebels to the gospel of jesus christ . nor must we who are the lord's , by submitting our selves for the lord's sake , be measur'd by them who are none of vs , but disorderly walkers out of the high way to heaven , from whom s. paul bids us withdraw our selves ; and whom s. john bids us not receive into our houses , nor bid them god speed ; and that for the credit of the gospel , which ( but for this prophylactick ) they would bring into disgrace . § . this third and last and special argument of s. peter , drawn from the credit of christianity , for the inforcing of our submission to every ordinance of man , thereby meaning our obedience to human laws and legislators , is of so great a value with him , and so peculiar to us as christians , that he urges this twice in a little room ; immediately before , and immediately after my present text. first , our loyalty and obedience , and all other honest conversation must be made known unto the gentiles , that they who speak against us as evil-doers may by our good works which they shall behold , glorifie god in the day of visitation . ( v. . ) next , it is the will of god , that with such our well-doing we may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. ( v. . ) this is an argument which s. paul does urge often , whereby to make men afraid and asham'd of vice. through you ( says he unto the christians who dwelt at rome ) the name of god is blasphemed among the gentiles . for the unbelieving gentiles do judge by your practice of your profession ; by the blemishes of your lives who are called christians , they grow averse to christianity ; and have no good opinion of christ himself whom you worship , because they guess that your religion has so very ill an influence upon your lives . so again argues s. paul to timothy , let as many servants as are under the yoke ( either under heathen masters , or amongst heathen men ) count their masters worthy of all honour , that the name of god and his doctrine be not blasphemed . for when servants are refractory , or subjects rebellious , although they are such to heathen masters or magistrates , they draw disgrace upon the gospel , and tempt the infidels to believe that men are the worse for being christians ; that the doctrine of christ is corruptive of principles , as well as manners ; and christian liberty but a cloak for rebellious practice . now to antidote this venom , and to wipe off this disparagement , as well from the doctrine , as from the name of jesus christ , s. paul commands timothy to be earnest and often in preaching obedience and submission to all superiours ; esteeming these the weightier things of the christian law. and therefore these things teach and exhort , ( says he to timothy with an emphasis , ) as being things most essential , not onely to the saving of christian's souls , but essential to the saving of christianity it self , and to the saving of our saviour from being blasphemed among the gentiles . and for as much as no obedience can be more naturally or politically , or religiously due from one mortal unto another , than from wives to their own husbands , s. paul does therefore press titus to preach up this also for this great end , that the word of god be not blasphemed . that christian religion may not suffer by their enemies taking notice of their unchristian disobedience to those above them . that jews or gentiles may not suspect any ill issues or infusions of christian principles , as if they were exclusive of moral virtue ; and that inferiours either were , or that they might be the worse for their being christians . lastly , since masters are a kind of domestick magistrates , to whom obedience also is due by the same divine right , ( and no sturdy servant will ever make a good subject , ) servants therefore must be urged to be obedient to their own masters , and to please them well in all things , not answering again , for this great reason , that they may adorn the doctrine of god our saviour in all things ; and that he who is of the contrary part may be asham'd , having no evil thing to say of them . § . from all which ways of argumentation put together , i conceive my self qualified to make these profitable conclusions . that obedience and submission to every ordinance of man for the lord's sake , whether supreme , or subordinate by his commission , does make the most ( of all duties ) for the ornament and honour of christianity . that disobedience and resistance do make the most for its disgrace . that the doctrine of obedience to publick parents , both civil and ecclesiastical , is more authenticated and taught by jesus christ and his apostles throughout the gospel , than by all other systems , codes , or pandects , by all other bodies , collections , or constitutions of religion , or philosophy , throughout the world. from all which things it seems to follow , that they who call themselves christians , and yet are authors or fomenters of schisms and factions , ( such industrious embroilers of church and state , by sowing the seeds of discontentment and of dissatisfaction in people's minds , as if they long'd to be fishing in troubl'd waters and to be licking up again those publick spoils and revenues , which they were forced to disgorge in the great year of restitution , ) they ( i say ) who thus act , and yet do call themselves christians , are the greatest antichristians , the greatest adversaries of christ , and the greatest underminers of christianity , which he can possibly set on work who was a murtherer from the beginning . can any man wonder at the spreading of irreligion and atheism , more since the year , than ever before in our memories , and perhaps in our readings too ? ( unless i may except the days of hildebrand , when hell is said to have broken loose ? ) one accompt of it is plain and obvious : the horridst rebellion under heaven ( from after the year ) having been managed by christians , made the name odious ever since . insomuch that some blasphemers have dar'd to say , ( not that old and common word onely , sit anima mea cum philosophis , but as the effect of a greater hatred , ) they would not indure going to heaven , if they thought they should meet with such christians there . which , though the language of the most stupid and thick-headed sinners , who can no better distinguish 'twixt words and things , or 'twixt the picture and the life , or 'twixt the vizard and the true face , or 'twixt the actor and the man , or 'twixt the use and the abuse of the best things that can be nam'd , or last of all , betwixt a nominal and real christian ; should yet be sufficient to deter such as are christians at least in wish , from giving occasion for the future to such aversions . if the enemies of christ would but read over our gospel , and well consider it , they would be juster and more ingenuous , than to look upon rebels and mutineers , in christian kingdoms and commonwealths , as truly christians . but rather would guess that out of malice they wear the profession of christianity , to make it odious ; on purpose to bring it into disgrace ; and ( as much as in them lies ) to make us all asham'd of it . though god be thanked we are so far from being asham'd of the gospel of christ , or asham'd of our affliction in the gospel's being abus'd , and in the adversaries blaspheming that worthy name , by which 't is our happiness and our privilege to be called , that we * rejoyce to be thought worthy to suffer shame for christ's sake . yea 't is our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , such disgrace is our boasting ; and we a glory in tribulations . yea one step farther s. paul advances ; we do so glory in our disparagement which we suffer for our submission to every ordinance of man upon christ's accompt , or in obedience to his doctrine , or for the lord's sake , ( as s. peter speaks , ) that we glory in nothing else . god forbid that we should glory ( says s. paul to the galatians ) save in the cross of our lord jesus christ , by whom the world is crucified unto us , and we unto the world. § . but what i speak last is but occasional , and may be reckon'd as a parenthesis , shewing all are not stagger'd or wavering in the faith , though many are . and indeed they are so many whom the schisms and rebellions of men professing christianity have made to waver , if there are not many more whom they have made to fall off ; there are so many who do suspect the christian name in them that wear it as a cloak of maliciousness , ( which s. peter provides against in the th . verse of this chapter , ) and so many who do detest it for being so worn ; that if ever there can be any , this is certainly the time , wherein the people are to be press'd to obey their governours . god i mean in the first place , and human authority in the second . and this as really in the second , as that other in the first , because our obedience to the first does clearly depend ( for its completion ) upon our obedience to the second . men should be made to understand , by perspicuous and frequent and cogent reasonings , how the whole of our religion may be easily wound up into these two bottoms ; our adaequate obedience to god and man. to the royal law of christ , and to the laws of the nation wherein we live ; whether those laws are ecclesiastical , or civil . these two are the measures we may warrantably take of our selves , and others . these two are the touchstones by which we all are to be try'd . not the one without the other . there is no fearing god , without honouring the king , nor vice versâ . our obedience to god is a thing impossible , without a suitable obedience to his vicegerents ; whether the king as supreme , or other governours subordinate . these commissioned by him , as he by god. not onely scripture , and reason , but long experience , and observation , have made me look on these two as things which are never to be parted , either in practice , or in discourse . without these two , all the rest are worth nothing . and neither of these alone can be sincere without the other . my son ( says solomon ) fear the lord and the king , and meddle not with them that are given to change . either fear them both , or neither ; though each in his order ; the lord for his own sake , and therefore first ; the king for the lord's sake , and therefore second . but meddle not with them , whose evil communication may corrupt thy good manners ; and therefore meddle not with them that are given to change , who do neither fear god , nor honour the king ; and accordingly are weigh'd in the opposite scale of the wise man's ballance . the people must not onely be told now and then upon the by , but must purposely be taught , nor must they cease from being taught until convinc'd of this union , [ the fear of god and of the king , obedience to divine and to human laws , ] as essential to our present and future safety . § . when i inquire into the reasons , why amongst a world of christians there is so little of christianity ; and why the protestants themselves divide as much from one another , as they all do from the church of rome , which is as much as from the jews or the turks themselves , ( for they will no more communicate with the one than with the other , although in most fundamentals they all agree , ) this , amongst several other reasons , appears to me to be the chief , that there is one thing essential to the christian religion , and by consequence to the salvation of all men's souls , which , however a fundamental , is not yet so well known , or not so heartily believ'd , or not so seriously consider'd , and laid to heart , nor so duly preached up , as it ought to be . for if it were , there could not be so many schisms and separations here in england , as now there are . there could not be by any means such inclinations to rebellion , such oppositions of authority , and such contempt of human laws , ( whether civil or ecclesiastical , ) as now we see there are daily ; and are rather in a likelihood to grow worse and worse , than in any present hope of a sound amendment . now the truth which is essential to our christian religion , and to the saving of our souls , ( which i conceive to be so seldom either known , or believ'd , or sufficiently consider'd , or taught as such , ) is plainly this : [ that the duties of the first table , cannot possibly subsist without the duties of the second . that obedience to god , does ever include and carry with it a strict obedience unto our governours . that human laws ( where e're the matter of them is lawfull ) are the laws of god too . and that for this cogent irresistible reason , ( which i have several times urged , and think i can never urge it enough , ) because commanded by that authority which god has commanded us to obey . ] § . shall i exemplifie and illustrate what i say by plain scripture on either side ? god forbids us by moses to worship idols . and he bids us , by s. peter , submit our selves to every ordinance of man. again , he bids us , by s. paul , obey them that have the rule over us . now is not god's law as binding in what he bids , as in what he forbids his peculiar people ? i know the former binds semper , and the later ad semper . but when they both bind , they cannot but bind with an aequality . or is not his peremptory command as obliging under the gospel , as it was under the law ? is not the message of god as good , when dispatch'd to us christians by s. peter , and s. paul , and by christ himself , as when sent unto the jews by a single moses ? is not god the same jehova to them and vs ? and his word as authentick in these last times , as in the first ? why then do not christians make it a matter of as much conscience , to obey the laws of men whom god has commanded them to obey , as not to worship a graven image which god has commanded them not to worship ? that each is equally god's command , was never deny'd by any christian , nor ever can be . and is not his command that we do a good thing , as valid as his command that we abstain from what is evil ? yea , 't is as much a christian's duty , to obey his lawfull governours , and by consequence their laws ecclesiastical and civil , as it is , not to worship a graven image . the first is as conducible to our salvation as the second . and damnation is as much threatened to the breach of the one , as the other precept . § . now in my slender judgement , ( and such as it is , 't is the best i have , ) there can be no likelier way , whereby to win over our weak and dissenting brethren from the ways of separation they have espous'd , than that of labouring to convince them by all good means , from the pulpit , and from the pew , and in the privacy of the closet , by publick preaching , and catechizing , and private conferences especially ( which we shall find to be ever the most effectual , ) that ( saving the dignity and priority of the first and great commandment , as the ground and foundation of all the rest , ) our obedience to our governours , and human laws in force amongst us , is as really an essential or fundamental of christianity , and of as absolute necessity to our salvation , as the belief of one god , or any other that can be nam'd . it being as rigidly commanded by god in scripture , under the very same promises of reward if we obey , and under the very same threats of endless punishment if we rebel . 't is not enough that this doctrine be like the homily of the church against rebellion , which is commanded by law and canon to be read once a year in every parish ; nor is it enough that it be preached up of course upon the thirtieth of january , and the fifth of november ; but 't is of absolute necessity to be riveted and ingrain'd , first of all into the heads , and after that , into the hearts of people committed to our charge , that they must needs be subject , ( that is , obedient ) to human magistrates and laws , not onely for fear of the magistrates wrath , or for hope of worldly profit , no nor onely for fear of hell , or for hope of heaven , but ( as s. paul goes on to tell us ) for conscience sake . i say , for conscience towards god , and for conscience towards our selves , because 't is part of the law of nature , and simply good in it self : not consequentially , ( as every positive law is ) but antecedently obliging , and without any the least relation to god's particular written law , ( so often repeated in the scriptures , ) though this does make our disobedience to be the more unexcusable , and the person disobeying fit for the greater condemnation . i know the custom of disobedience , and the great numbers of the refractary , and their impunity thereupon , and the seemingly-good morals of some dissenters , and their giving out themselves for the godly party , ( these five fallacies put together ) have bred an opinion in many weak and unwary christians , that they need not be subject to the higher powers upon earth , though s. paul says they need , rom. . . that the powers spoken of are not the ordinance of god , though s. paul says they are . ( v. , . ) that they may not submit to every ordinance of man , though s. peter says they must . ( pet. . . ) and so they imagin that it consists with a godly life , to slight the authority of their governours , and scorn their laws , unless when their governours and their laws are to protect them and theirs , both in their livelihoods and their lives , from fraud and violence . ( in which one case , they will readily submit to every ordinance of man , though not for the lord's sake , as s. peter would have it , yet for their own . ) in a word , they think it lawfull , to live in schism , if not in sacrilege ; ( still in sacrilege where they are able ; ) and so to tear in pieces , not the seamless coat onely , but the body of christ crucified in a mystical sense . § . to frame an amulet in proportion to the contagion of this disease , wherewith a world of easie souls of catching complexions have been infected , i humbly conceive it may be made of these six ingredients . first , that no form of godliness can be other than pharisaical , which is not attended with common honesty . next , that none can be truly honest , who do not render to all their dues . tribute to whom tribute is due , custom to whom custom , fear to whom fear , honour to whom honour . ( rom. . . ) thirdly , that nothing can be more due from any one to any other , than from the subject to the soveraign , and all in authority under him. to wit , the tribute of obedience , as well as money ; the active custom of conformity , as well as passive subjection to laws in force ; and as well to those laws which tend to the publick peace and safety , as those others which maintain us in the private injoyment of our estates ; the fear of offending , as well as of suffering for our offences ; lastly , the honour of inward reverence , as well as of outward complaisance . not as men-pleasers , but as the servants of christ . fourthly , that a dishonest man is ipso facto and eo ipso an ungodly man ; and disobedience to the fifth precept , as bad as rebellion against the seventh or the eighth , or rather worse ; and so a common nonconformist to laws establish'd , is ( to speak within compass ) as scandalous in his life as a common drunkard . fifthly , that such a subject as will no longer allow the laws , than the laws allow him in his being lawless , or no longer than they are usefull and pleasant to him , ( as when they avenge him upon his enemies , protect him in his liberty , and assert him in his estate , ) deserves not those benefits of propriety and safety the laws afford him . sixthly , that as many as do avow themselves protestants , and yet divide from the church of england , do contribute a great deal more towards the bringing in of popery , than all the emissaries of rome could have done without them . § . if we earnestly desire ( at least as much as in us lies ) to put an end to all schisms and separations ; to procure or promote the publick peace of this nation , and ( in that ) the publick safety , by procuring and promoting vniformity in religion , and a general conformity to the laws we live under ; we must be restless in convincing all the people we can converse with of these six things . not onely by making them unable to deny , but by making them able to assert the truth of them , and thereby to be converters of other men . we must never be at rest , nor let them be so , until they are perfect in these particulars . or if not in all , yet especially in the chief . as , that though the laws of god cannot possibly depend on the laws of men , ( but vice versâ , ) yet our obedience to god's own laws does depend on our obedience to those of men. they onely differ by the distinction of mediate and immediate . and so they are termini convertibiles ; for the immediate laws of men are the mediate laws of god. and that by force of this text ( never enough to be repeated , and chew'd upon , ) submit your selves to every ordinance of man for the lord's sake . and why for the lord's sake , if not because the lord hath so appointed ? what god does mediately command by his several deputies , his moses , and his aaron , his zerubbabel , and his joshua , and all his succeeding legislators in church and state , he does as really , and as truly , and as bindingly command , as what he immediately commands by a voice from heaven . in so much that the distinction of mediate and immediate does no ways alter the obligation , or make god's law either more or less his. now though the doctrine of obedience unto the mediate commands of god , is very learnedly , and piously , and frequently preach'd in many places , yet it has not universally its wish'd effect , because not preach'd as a fundamental , as essential to our religion , and as of absolute necessity to the salvation of the soul. the doctrine cannot be press'd enough , until 't is press'd in this notion . for liberty is so sweet , and obligation so distastfull to most mens palates , that they will never make conscience of being punctually obedient to human ordinances and laws , whilst they are flatter'd that their souls may be sav'd without it . § . touching the several ways and means whereby this work is to be done , i am plainly of this opinion . that though it may be well done from out the pulpit , in such profitable discourses as we commonly call sermons ; yet very much better it may be done out of the pew , in the more primitive way of preaching , and the more profitable , i think , which is catechizing . but best of all by private conference , wherein we deal with our dissenters one by one ; and give them the reasonable advantage ( which in the publick they cannot have ) of alledging all they can for their separation , and of objecting all they can against our church from which they separate , and by consequence against the acts of parliament by which our liturgy and church do remain establish'd . for this advantage given to them by a private conference , gives vs also the advantage of giving clear and full answers to their objections . which if we do to their satisfaction , we shall gain them back to god , and to his spouse ( our dear mother ) the church of england . this we certainly shall do , if their error is but of weakness , and so consistent with an honest well meaning spirit ; whereas if of wilfulness , pride , and stomach , then indeed they are possess'd with such a deaf and dumb spirit , as of which ( without a miracle ) we are not able to dispossess them . and so we may lawfully give them over as incurable patients on whom all remedies are cast away . ( as we may lawfully cease to cast that which is holy unto dogs . ) for in good earnest , of the two , i do esteem it a lesser miracle , to make the blind man to see , or the deaf to hear , than either the wilfull to believe , or the obstinate to submit to the clearest reason . the onely charity left for such , is to deliver them up to satan ; i will not say for the destruction , but humiliation of the flesh ; that so ( if by any means possible ) their spirits may be saved in the day of the lord jesus . § . if what i have said is not sufficient to reach the end i aim at , i will try what success i may happen to obtain by a shorter method ; the method of marcus aemilius scaurus , a very noble roman of known integrity . who being accused before the people in a very long oration by varius sucronensis an envious knave , defended himself in a very short one ; or ( to say truly ) in none at all . for disdaining to contend with his base enemy in words , he onely ask'd the roman people this question . which of the two ( ye men of rome ) think ye the worthier of your belief ? varius sucronensis , who does confidently affirm aemilius scaurus to be guilty ? or aemilius scaurus rather , who does protest that he is innocent ? upon which words alone the person accused was acquitted ; and the envious accuser severely censur'd . in a manner not unlike i shall onely say here. the great apostle s. peter , as the holy ghost's penman , bids us all submit our selves to every ordinance of man for the lord's sake . whether to the king , as supreme ; or unto governours , as sent by him. but certain men of these times , crept in unawares , who despise dominion , and speak evil of dignities , who think themselves of more knowledge and greater authority than s. peter , do as absolutely forbid , as s. peter bids us . they will not have us submit to any ordinance of man , either subordinate , or supreme . but they will have us ( for the lord's sake ) to recalcitrate rather , and kick , at every ordinance of man , as incroaching too much on our christian liberty . now if i ask which of the two , ( s. peter , or his enemies , ) we ought to follow , or obey ; very confident i am , ye will say s. peter . these ( i think ) are words enough to have been us'd at this time , upon the grounds i have to hope that no more are needfull . a caveat touching the danger of refusing those caveats our lord hath given us in his gospel . heb. . . see that ye refuse not him that speaketh . for if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth , much more shall not we escape , if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven . § . as it hath frequently been said of the laws of england , they are so many , and so good , that there needs but one more , for the putting of the rest into execution ; so i may say with like reason of sermons too ; they are so every where enough , in case they are enough heeded , that there needs but one more , for the procuring to the rest a kind and hospitable reception . for without such a reception , 't were better for us that our sermons were not fewer onely , but worse too . my reason is , because the more , and the more powerfull our teaching is , by so much the more our non-proficiency must needs be render'd inexcusable . regular preaching was ever reckon'd amongst the means of salvation . and by the means of salvation whosoever is not better'd , must needs be worse . not to go forwards , is to go backwards , in the school of christ ; and when the gospel is not admitted but to our outward ears onely , it cannot be but as a milstone about our necks too . for as 't was said by old simeon of christ himself , that he is certainly for the fall , where he is not for the rising of many in israel ; so the preaching of christ , if we profit not by it , will accidentally be imploy'd unto our greater damnation . § . now considering this duly , with one thing more , that as creeds have multiplied , true believers have decreas'd ; that as christian professors do grow more numerous , christianity it self doth seem to lessen ; and that the multitude of religions hath been in some danger to thrust religion out of the world , ( the spirit of god being of vnity , and not of division , whereas the devils name is legion , for they are many , ) i say considering all this , both in the causes and the effects , and that the time is long since come , wherein professors of christianity will not indure sound doctrine , but having proud and itching ears do heap up teachers to themselves , such as make for their palate , and hit their fancy , ( which very teachers cannot please them one minute longer , than whilst they speak pleasant things , and only prophecy deceipt , ) and that of all our epidemical or national sins , none is likelier to provoke or pull down national calamities , than a general slighting and contempt of the messages of god in the mouths of men ; i think it will not be impertinent to press that caveat upon our selves , which god 's inspir'd amanuensis did inculcate somewhat often on his disciples , ( a caveat which deserves and bespeaks an audience , and which does not onely invite , but also threaten us into attention , ) see that ye refuse not him that speaketh . for if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth , much more shall not we escape , if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven . § . the text consider'd in the gross , is a rowzing warning , or alarm . and being taken in the retail , it hath three general parts . first , the matter of the warning , which though but negatively express'd by a bare [ not refusing him that speaketh , ] yet sure it cannot but be imply'd , that we must give a great attention to the excellent things that are spoken by him . secondly , the persons , who ( above all other persons ) are most concern'd ; and these are imply'd in the pronoun ye . ye that are christians of the hebrews , as having heard and imbraced the faith of christ , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , see that ye do not refuse . see that ye be not debauch'd by whatsoever sollicitations of jews or gnosticks . thirdly , the argument , or ground , by which the warning is inforced and urged on ; and this again is twofold . first the experience of greater mercies than had been shewn unto the jews ; next , the sequel of greater judgments , in case those mercies shall be abus'd . the greater mercies are very evident from the comparison in the text. they were spoken to by moses , but we by christ . * moses was faithfull in all his house as a servant , but christ as a son. moses spake to them on earth , but christ does speak to vs from heaven . and that the judgments must be greater in case the mercies shall be abus'd , is just as evident from the reason on which the text is here built . for ingratitude is a sin the most provoking to be imagin'd . and this receiving its aggravation from the number and weight of foregoing favours , infers our judge so much the fiercer in being revenged upon our sins , the more indearing obligations we sin against . for if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth , much more shall not we , if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven . having thus view'd the text in its several parts , let us observe the propositions which are deducible from the whole . first , as men ( in the general ) above all other creatures , so christians ( in particular ) above all other men , are not onely not to refuse , but to imbrace , and adore him that speaketh to them from heaven . we must not onely be contemplative , but practical hearers of the word . secondly , christians are not excusable for their apostacies or neglects , by the greatest temptations to be imagin'd . but the greater temptations they meet withall , the greater use they are to make of their ghostly strength , and the more to illustrate their christian courage . for thirdly , the more we do injoy the glorious privileges of christians , the more obnoxious we are to consuming fire , ( in the last verse of this chapter , ) on a supposal that we be found to be dry , and fruitless , and so combustible matter for it . lastly , not to give attention to the word of god speaking , not to love and entertain it with faith and fear , does pass with him for a flat refusal . for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to reject with an aversation ; it is the word s. paul useth , when he exhorts his son timothy to refuse prophane and old wives fables . and the opposite thing to it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to give an earnest heed unto the words which we have heard . ( heb. . . ) betwixt which two because we see not any medium , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , see the rather that ye refuse not him that speaketh . the third of these propositions is an inforcement of the first , and must be therefore treated of in conjunction with it . but yet since it is not the sole inforcement , ( nor indeed should be the chief , were we men of more ingenuous and generous natures , ) it will be fit to introduce it with some few others , and such as are aptest to prevail with men of the noblest dispositions . now there are four things especially , ( all arising out of the text , ) by which this warning may be inforced . to wit , the quality of the speaker , the nature of what is spoken , the condition of the persons to whom he speaks , and the inevitable destruction to such as are guilty of a refusal . § . first consider who it is that speaks unto us in the gospel . 't is he that sitteth between the cherubims , and covereth himself with light , as with a garment . he that inhabiteth eternity , and dwelleth in that light which no mortal eye can approach unto . he of whom 't is therefore said by the royal psalmist , that clouds and darkness are round about him , though righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his seat. he that stretcheth out the heavens , and layeth the foundations of the earth , and formeth the spirit of man within him . he that guards us with his angels , and that guides us by his spirit . he that protects us by his providence , and directs us by his grace , and that orders all he does to crown us finally with his glory . in a word , 't is god the father , that speaks unto us in the gospel by god the son. and therefore for this , if for no other reason , so that ye refuse not him that speaketh , because he speaketh in the language of unspeakable love , and unspeakable humility . for when as yet we lay weltring and polluted in our bloud , how did he save us as so many brands pluck'd out of the burning ? how very gladly did he descend from out the bosom of the father , to bid us live ? 't was he that descended to be born , to make himself capable of dying . 't was he that died for our sins , to become capable of rising for our justification . 't was he that rose , and ascended , and sat him down on the right hand of the throne of majesty on high , that there he might make intercession for us ; that by the gifts of his apostles whom he inspir'd for that end , he might cause his holy gospel to be still echoing in our ears ; and that by sending his holy spirit at once to sanctifie and instruct us , he might place it as a signet upon our hearts too . from whence it follows unavoidably , that if we miss of those things which have thus been prepared and purchas'd for us , and shall finally come short of the glory of god , we cannot say unto god , that he hath withheld his good things from us ; but god may rather say to us , as heretofore to his people israel , your iniquities have turned away these things , and your sins have withholden good things from you . 't is onely the hardness of our hearts , and the spirit within , which hardens every thing else that is without us . 't is that that many times makes the heavens brass over our heads , and the earth iron under our feet . 't is very certain that on god's part , nothing has been wanting to make us happy . he came to this end , that we might receive him . he spake to this end , that we might hear him . was lifted up to this end , that he might draw us up after him . and draws us up to this end , that he may seat us with himself at the right hand of god. and if our hearts are now such heavy , such unweildy pieces of iron , or have a mixture of so much lead in their composition , as not to be lifted above the earth by so strong a loadstone , it does not argue a want on christ's part , of enough magnetick virtue whereby to draw us , but onely a wilfulness on ours , whereby we gain an incapacity of being drawn . now for the better overcoming this brutish fleshliness of our spirits , let us repeat and reinforce the consideration we are upon . god the father speaks to us , by god the son , what is written by the suggestion of god the holy ghost . there is nothing of human in all the gospel , besides the labour of the evangelists , in committing it to posterity with ink and parchment , which yet was done by the conduct of god himself . 't is true the law was of god too , but that came by * moses ; whereas the gospel came from him by jesus christ . christ was sent and a commission'd by god the father , as the apostles were commission'd and sent by christ . for so he told them at that instant when he gave them their mission and their commission , ( joh. . . ) as my father sent me , so send i you. from whence he is called by s. paul , not onely the high priest , but the apostle of our profession , heb. . . all the twelve were but apostles of this one great apostle , as well to offer us the terms of peace and pardon , as to intreat and implore our acceptance of it . now when god sends himself in a message to us ; when the heavens are bowed down to imbrace the earth ; when even happiness it self is brought to visit us at our houses , ( which at present are but floating in a valley of tears ; ) and brought by him who is the author of bliss and glory ; whose dwelling is not onely in , but above the heavens ; to whom the sun in his zenith is but a shadow , and the whole globe of earth but an humble footstool ; sure the least we can do , is to bid him welcome , to give him an hospitable reception , and to open the door of the house within us , at which he is pleas'd to stand knocking , and sue for entrance , with a behold i stand at the door and knock , if any man hear my voice , and open the door , i will come in to him , and sup with him , and he with me , ( rev. . . ) and therefore if ye can afford him no better cheer , yet at least entertain him without contempt , never treat him at his coming with a dishonourable averseness , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , see that ye refuse not him that speaketh . how many miles did men go , in the heathen world , to hear but a socrates , or a pythagoras , a plato , or a plotinus ? how many miles went a queen , to hear the apophthegms of solomon ? what pains were taken by the jews , to hear the reading of the law ? what by naaman the syrian , to hear the counsel of elisha , a single prophet ? and shall not god obtain a hearing , when he speaks to us by his son ? and by such a son too , as is god himself ? certainly for the hearing of such a speaker , 't were worth our labour to go to him , although it should cost us a longer journy than from sheba to jerusalem ; much less should we refuse him , when he ( in prevention , ) is come to us ; when god , to make us his adopted sons , does freely expose his onely begotten ; and appoints him the speaker , who is the word too ; i mean the hypostatical eternal word . who yet does * stand at our door , in a posture of painfulness and humility , whilst we are lolling in his house , and perhaps sitting at his table . how that the dignity of the speaker should become an incitement to our attention , and what attention we ought to give to him that speaketh in the gospel , we may infer from that which moses did once exact under the law. what attention that was , and how he evinc'd the greatness of it from the great dignity of the speaker , will best be seen by comparing three passages of scripture . deut. . , . deut. . , , , . and deut. . , , . in the first of which three , moses magnifies the privilege allow'd by god to the people israel , to hear the voice of god speaking from out the midst of the fire . did ever people hear the like ? in any time ? or at any place ? first , for time , ask the days that are past , since the day wherein god created man upon the earth . secondly , for place , ask from the one side of heaven unto the other , whether there hath been any such thing as this , or hath been ever heard like it . in the two next passages , moses strictly injoyns the people , to addict themselves wholly to the words of god's law ; to be conversant with them both day and night ; to have them always upon their hands , and in their mouthes , between their eyes , and in their hearts . whereupon we are to argue à minori ad majus . if such attention was to be given to what was spoken onely by moses to all the people , how much more to what is spoken by jesus christ ? for christ was counted worthy of more glory than moses , in as much as he that built the house , hath more honour than the house , ( heb. . . ) and by how much a son is above a servant . ( v. , . ) and therefore if the words which god had spoken by his servant , much more are the words which he hath spoken by his son , very fit to be written upon our gates , and our door-posts , to be fixt as frontlets between our eyes , to be set as a seal upon our hands , and as a signet upon our hearts . we ought to teach them unto our children , and to be ruminating on them on all occasions , in season , out of season , when we sit in our houses , and when we walk by the way , when we lie down , and when we rise up . and thus we have the first of the four inforcements , by which the warning of our apostle may be set home upon our souls . § . secondly , let us consider , ( after the quality of the speaker , ) the nature of the things that are spoken by him . they are not any such hard and insupportable sayings , as once were heard from mount ebal , cursed is he that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them ; no nor such as were spoken long before at beersheba , and to be put in execution on mount moriah , take now thy son , thine onely son whom thou lovest , and offer him for a burnt-offering , upon one of the mountains which i shall tell thee of . no , he does not require of us any such terrible expressions of our obedience . he commands us to kill and slay , not our children , but our sins . and yet our sins are our children too , the fruit of our bodies very often , and still the fruit of our souls . nay , many times these ugly children , ( i mean our sins , ) are dearer to us than sons or daughters . ( agamemnon found it easier to kill a daughter , than a lust . ) but they are viperous darlings we so much doat on ; such miscreant children as will kill their own parents , if not prevented by being kill'd . and these alone are the children , which god requires us to sacrifice to his displeasure . not our isaacs , but our ishmaels , ( i mean our wild , and furious , illegitimate off-spring ) are to be slain . we must sacrifice our dishonesty , by doing justice ; we must sacrifice our avarice , by shewing mercy ; and we must sacrifice our pride , by walking humbly with our god. mic. . . well , ye have heard what it is not ; will ye now know what it is , which god in christ doth speak to us ? he speaks the best and the happiest tidings , that any wounded or broken spirit can hope or pray for . so god loved the world , that he gave his onely begotten son , that whosoever believeth in him , should not perish , but have life ever lasting . joh. . . god sent not his son into the world , to condemn the world , but that the world through him might be sav'd . v. . if any man thirst , let him come unto me and drink . joh. . . he that believeth in me , there shall flow out of his belly , rivers of living water . v. . if a man keep my saying , he shall never see death . joh. . . come unto me all ye that travel and are heavy laden , and i will give you rest . mat. . . and if ye ask any thing in my name , i will do it . joh. . . thus we find god the father speaking to us by his son. now observe how god the son is speaking to us by his servants . if any man sin , we have an advocate with the father , jesus christ the righteous , who is the propitiation for all our sins . joh. . . he that spared not his own son , but delivered him up for us all , how shall he not with him , also freely give us all things ? rom. . . and here i cannot but call to mind what was said unto naaman the churlish syrian . who coming to elisha to be cured of his leprosie , was prescribed by the prophet no harder medicine than to wash seven times in the river jordan . when he , being angry , in stead of thankfull , ask'd if abana and pharpar , rivers of damascus , were not better than all the waters of israel . an ingratitude so excessive , that his own servants took him up , i know not whether with a more melting or a more cutting kind of rebuke , saying to him , my father , if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing , wouldst thou not have done it ? how much rather when he saith to thee , wash and be clean ? after the very same manner may i say here . if god had sent us a message by his arch-angel michael , who is said by the rabbins to be the messenger of his justice , and so to bring news of the saddest nature ; should we not have entertain'd him as a messenger from heaven , with fear and reverence ? and then , ( with a greater force of reason , ) when a messenger so glorious , and one withall so obliging is sent unto us , as god manifest in the flesh ; and sent unto us in such a message , as is not onely the word of god , but the word of reconciliation ; sure the least we can render for so much mercy , is not onely very willingly , but very thankfully to receive it . and therefore as for the former , so for this reason also , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , see that ye refuse not him that speaketh . § . thirdly , let us consider , ( after the quality of the speaker , and the nature of what is spoken , ) the condition of the persons to whom he speaks . even to us who were gentiles , that had long sat in darkness , and the shadow of death . to us who were so diseased and sick of sin , as that we could not be cur'd but by the death of our physician , this sun of righteousness did arise , with healing in his wings , and translated us out of darkness into his marvellous light . we had nothing but sin and misery to make us capable of his compassion ; and nothing more than his own compassion to make us capable of his love. for had he not lov'd us whilst we were loathsome , and in a state of depravation , he had not given himself for us to make us lovely , that is , to redeem us from all iniquity . and since the hardness of our hearts was able enough to break his , ( i mean , to break it ) into compassion , and pity towards us ; shall not the tenderness of his heart be able enough to melt ours , ( i mean , to melt them ) into tears of sincere repentance ? at least it should melt us into so much good nature , as to afford him willing ears when he speaks unto us . you know 't is uncivil for any aequal to look aside when another speaks . but 't is sawciness in a cottager , to slight the speech of his noble landlord . 't is more than insolence in a subject , not to attend unto the words of a gracious soveraign . how great a crime is it ( by consequence , ) as well as a clownery in religion , either to laugh , or look aside , or any other ways to express an haughty carelesness , or neglect , when god himself in his gospel is speaking to us by his son ? the men of israel and of judah were more obnoxious to judgment than those of nineve , both for slighting his preaching who was greater than jonah , and because they were a people much more oblig'd . for as the better he is that speaks , the worse it is , not to attend him ; or as the more the things spoken have been obliging , the contempt of such things is the more enormous ; so the more favours they have received to whom the word of god is offer'd , the more unpardonable they are on supposition of their refusal . indeed the jews , and the mahomedans , or the salvages of america , may refuse the lord jesus with some colour of excuse . but we are capable of none , if we neglect so great salvation , when brought unto us by a saviour with whom from our birth we have been acquainted , and of whom we know this , ( by the instruction of s. peter , ) that he alone hath the words of eternal life . and therefore whatever is done by others , who are but aliens and strangers to christianity ; yet in remembrance of the privilege and the dignity of your vocation , your having been washed in the laver of baptism , your having had a taste of the heavenly gift , and of the powers of the world to come , your being a chosen generation , a royal priesthood , an holy nation , a peculiar people , which in time past were not a people , but are now the people of god , which had not once obtained mercy , but have now obtained mercy , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , see that ye refuse not him that speaketh . § . last of all , let us consider , ( after the quality of the speaker , the excellent nature of what is spoken , and the condition of the persons to whom he speaks , ) the greater degrees of condemnation to such as are guilty of a refusal . for as the dignity of our calling is above that of others , so we find our selves obliged to greater duty . and the more we are rewardable for our discharge of such duty , by so much the greater is our danger , if we neglect it . for the gospel will condemn us to greater misery than the law , upon that supposal . an injur'd saviour will become a most angry judge . and our contempt of richer favours than had been shewn in times past , will but excite our benefactor to greater fury . mark ( i pray ) what it is , which i am now to demonstrate , and press you with , ( for what you can never enough remember , i cannot mind you of too often , ) that as the greater dignities are allow'd us , the stricter duties we are injoyn'd ; so by how much the stricter our duties are , we must needs be obnoxious to greater dangers . to * us it is given to know the will of our master , and the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven . here lies our dignity . but if we know his will , we must a do it too . there lies our duty . for if we know it , but do it not , b we shall be beaten with many stripes . therein consists our greatest danger . 't is not the knowledge of our duties , but the living up to our knowledge , which will stand us instead in the day of wrath. nay , all we gain by our knowledge , whilst it is destitute of practice , is to be laden with greater misery than they that know nothing at all . god who spake in times past to our forefathers by the prophets , hath in these last days spoken to us by his son. there lies our dignity . but the times of their ignorance god winked at , ( saith the apostle ) who now commandeth all men every where to repent . there lies our duty , and danger too . for if his bespeaking us by his son exacts to be answer'd by our repentance , by so much the greater must be our misery if we continue in our impenitence . and then what ground is it of comfort , that god in these last days hath spoken to us by his son , ( thereby filling us with the knowledge of all the mysteries of the gospel , ) in case our knowledge is become barren , and doth not bring forth the fruits of evangelical integrity ? to wit , impartial obedience to the whole law of christ ? to what purpose is our knowledge of all good things , without the sedulous execution of what we know , when god who hath spoken by his son , hath spoken this in effect amongst other things , that our present guilt will be the more , and our future stripes the more numerous ? it had been better for us , by consequence , he had not spoken to us at all , much less by his son , if we shall now slop our ears against the voice of this charmer , or onely open our ears to him , but not our hearts . for what said our lord of the stubborn . jews , upon whom he had bestow'd the first-fruits of his preaching , and to whom he had offer'd the first refusal of his favours ? if i had not come and spoken unto them , they had not had sin ; but now ( that i am come , and have spoken , and both in vain , ) they have no excuse or colour for sin. after the very same manner , had not god spoken to us at all , or had he spoken to us obscurely , ( as he spake to the gentiles before the law , by the great book of the creation , the twofold volume of heaven and earth , ) or had he spoken to us onely by dreams , and visions , by vrim , and thummim , by types , and figures , by angels , and men , by whom he spake unto the jews under the paedagogie of moses ; we might have alledged in our excuse , ( how ineffectually soever ) that we either wholly wanted the means of knowledge , or that the means were much less than they might have been . but now since after all other methods , by which he spake to us , and others , ( and which are written for our instruction , ) he hath left to us in writing what he spake to us by his son , thereby enlightning our heads with an abundant measure of his knowledge , and also hath given us of his spirit , whereby to warm our hearts too with a competent measure of his grace ; what apologie or pretense are we able to make for our impieties ? we cannot alledge at his tribunal , that we were ignorant of his glory , and unacquainted with his works ; for * the heavens declare the glory of god , and the firmament sheweth his handy work . ( psal . . . ) we cannot say in that hour , that we were destitute of the law ; for he hath * written it in our hearts . nor that we wanted his gospel ; for he hath put it into our ears . nor that we were strangers unto his name ; for we daily take it into our lips. nor can we plead that he exacted , more than 't was possible for us to do ; for ( we know ) a we can do all things through him that strengthens us . and he accepteth according to what we have , ( although it be but a willing mind , ) where nothing more can be perform'd . cor. . . he accepts the least things , where the least are the greatest that we can give . sincere we can be , although not sinless . let us but be what we can , and be perfectly willing to be what we can not ; that is , let us be perfect as it is possible for us to be , and perfectly willing to be perfect * as our father in heaven ; and then we have that willing mind , which s. paul doth assure us will be accepted . but here i would not be so mistaken , ( by such as love to be misled into pleasant errors , ) as if i had hinted that the will is still as good as the deed ; or that if we are desirous to do our duties , and do them not , it will certainly serve our turn , as well as if we had done them . the apostle does not so speak , and i onely speak with the apostle ; whose words to the corinthians are plainly these . if there be first a willing mind , god accepteth according to that a man hath , and not according to that he hath not . which is as if he should have said , god will not punish any man living who does as much as he is able , for the not doing of that , which 't is impossible for him to do . from whence 't is obvious to infer , not that any man may presume upon god's acceptance of his will , or his woulding rather , without the performance of his duty , when he is able to perform as well as will it ; ( for this were to justifie our wilfullest , which are our very worst sins ; ) but that when we have in earnest done the greatest good we can , god accepts of our willingness to do the good we can not . being as good as we are able , he will not be angry we are no better . when he finds us sincere in all our services , he will not condemn us for not being sinless . but notwithstanding all this , which is indeed for our comfort , it is every whit as true , and for our humiliation , that we shall be utterly unexcusable at the last great audit , ( in the day when god shall judge the secrets of men by jesus christ , ) in case we so far refuse him that speaks to us from heaven , as live no more strictly with all the advantages of the gospel , than the jews and the gentiles who liv'd without them . first , from the gentiles , 't is argued thus by s. paul. if they were left without excuse , who had no other scripture than the great book of hieroglyphicks , the double system of the creatures in heaven and earth ; and had no other light , than that of reason whereby to read it ; and had no law to go by , but that of nature ; and had no where else to see it , but in the tables of their hearts ; and where 't was written in no characters , but what were invisible to their eyes ; then what excuse can we hope for , whom god hath spoken to by his son ? ( and who , besides the light of nature , have all the instruments of grace too , ) if we shall sin against the light of so clear a knowledge ? 't is very plain that we christians may be less excusable than the gentiles , who ( many of them ) never heard of the name of christ , and yet for all that were unexcusable . secondly , from the jews , we find our author to the hebrews disputing thus , heb. . , . if he that despised moses law died without mercy , under two or three witnesses ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , of how much sorer punishment shall he be thought worthy , who hath trodden under foot the son of god ? and he is reckon'd to be the man that hath trodden under foot the son of god , whoever he is that sinneth wilfully , after he hath received the knowledge of the truth . ( v. . ) for if then we sin wilfully , there remaineth no more sacrifice or expiation for sins ; but a certain fearfull looking for of judgment , and fiery indignation , which shall devour the adversaries . ( v. . ) the confirmation of this we have heb. . , , . where 't is affirm'd to be impossible for them that once have been inlightned , and have tasted of the good word of god , if they fall away , to be renewed unto repentance . and the reason there is , because ( in god's interpretation ) they crucifie to themselves the son of god , and put him to an open shame . this again is confirm'd by pet. . , . where the end of relapsed christians is said to be worse than the beginning . and thence 't is inferred to be better , never to have known the way of truth , than after they have known it to turn , &c. thus you see how the jews might be less excusable than the gentiles , and yet how we who are christians may be less excusable than the jews . and therefore let us look to it , that we refuse not him that speaketh , but rather that we make him some proportionable answer ; speaking back to him better , than by our sins , to wit , by repentance , and change of life . for if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth , much less shall we , if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven . § . i do insist so much the rather upon this fourth and last topick , from which the caveat or warning is now inforc'd , because the hope of reward in a world to come , is less available with men than the fear of punishment ; and because the holy ghost does seem to prefer this way of arguing , not onely in my text , but in diverse other places of this epistle . in the second chapter more especially , ( at the first , second , third , and fourth verses , ) we find the argument and the inference to be much the same that they are here . first of all observe the argument , and especially the topick from which 't is drawn . if the word spoken by angels was stedfast , and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , how shall we then escape , if we neglect so great salvation , which at the first began to be spoken by the lord , and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him , god also bearing them witness both with signs and wonders , and diverse miracles , and gifts of the holy ghost , according to his own will ? which is as much as to say , that because christ was superiour both to moses and to the angels , by the ministery of whom the law was spoken unto the jews , therefore we who are christians are bound to yield the greater reverence to that which god in the gospel hath spoken to us by his son. for if the israelites were plagu'd for their contempt of the law , much more shall we christians for our neglect of the gospel . § . what now is the vse we are to make of this doctrine , or what the inference to be drawn from this argument ? is it onely in the negative , that we refuse not him that speaketh ? or that we have not any averseness to his person or his words ? no , a man may be indifferent , without averseness ; he may be cold and unattentive to what is spoken , without an absolute contempt , or refusal of it . and therefore the inference is so plainly and so positively express'd , as to be utterly exclusive of all indifference . 't is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , we ought to give the more earnest heed unto the things that we have heard ; and that for this reason , lest at any time we let them slip . the apostle's word is , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a metaphor taken from the falling away of water , when being not kept within its bounds it runs wastfully about , and so is spilt upon the ground , as phavorinus and hesychius do both expound it . a metaphor the fitter , and the more worthy to be consider'd , because the word of god in scripture is compar'd and resembled to those three liquids , wine , milk , and water . to the first , by isaias ; to the second , by s. peter ; and by s. john unto the third . we must be therefore very carefull , as well to retain , as to receive the wine and milk of the word , and as it were to bottle up the water of life , ( as david prays god to do his tears , ) lest at any time we shed it , or let it fall . for there is no cordial water , which we are not carefull to preserve ; ( be it but cinnamon , or surfet water . ) nor is there any wholesom milk , which we think not too good to be cast away ; ( be it but a cow's , or an asse's milk. ) nor is there any want of heed to keep our wine from being lost , although it be made of a common grape . but since the wine i now speak of is that that flow'd from his mouth , who call'd himself the true vine ; and since the milk is none other , than the sincere milk of the word ; and since the water is no less pretious , than the water of life , a water flowing out from him whom s. paul calls a rock , from whence there gushes out a fountain of living water ; sure we ought to be studious and carefull of it , more than of any thing in the world which is committed to be kept in our earthen vessels . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , we ought to give the more abundant and earnest heed to the word of god which we have heard , ( that wine , that milk , that vvater of life , which we have drank out of the gospel , and have imbib'd into our ears , ) whereby our souls may be nourished to life eternal . yet there are multitudes in the world , i mean in our christian reformed world , ( upon whom what i have said must needs reflect very severely , ) who are so cold , and so careless in reading or hearing the word of god , that there is hardly any thing else to which they are not much more attentive . if a mountebank in the street shall speak to the people from a scaffold , they will presently flock to him , and give him audience . if any revels are to be kept , or a new comoedy to be acted , the souls of men will be running out at their eyes and ears , through the great and earnest heed which they will give unto the things that are said or done . if a tertullus or an herod shall make an eloquent oration , his auditors will be apt to cry aloud with those parasites , ( act. . . ) it is the voice of a god , and not of a man. whereas when one of christ's sermons is recited out of the gospel , the hearers are commonly as indifferent , and as seemingly unconcern'd , as if they said inwardly in their hearts , ( the flat reverse of what was said of the speech of herod , ) it is the word of a man , and not of a god. do they give heed to what they hear , who if they are not quite asleep , are yet so yawningly attentive , as to forget in an instant , what they hear in an hour ? no , did they heed the word of god , as they often do the actions and words of men , ( if not in real admiration , at least in flattery , ) they would carry what they learn from this year unto the next ; not in utramque aurem dormire , or at least in duarum alteram , letting out at the right ear what they receive into the left ; as if they purposed to confute this epistle to the hebrews , when it saith in another place , that the word of god is quick , and powerfull , and sharper than any two edged sword , piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit ; or had a mind to enervate that saying of s. paul , as to their particulars , that the gospel of christ is the power of god unto salvation . § . what may probably be the reason , why men will sleep at a sermon , a great deal sooner than at a play ? is it not because they are less attentive , and by consequence less delighted to be in the church than in the theater , and by consequence more in love with what is meant onely to please , than with what is meant to profit them to life eternal ? or suppose them most delighted in church-assemblies . what then may be the reason , why they are much more attentive to the words of men out of the pulpit , than to the word of god out of the pew ? is it not that they prefer the gratification of the ear to the rectification of the heart ? and why should that be , if not for want of true belief , or else of due consideration , that the old and new testament are god's own word ? and that the gospel in particular is the word which god the father hath spoken to us by god the son ? and why should this be so little heeded , ( if 't is really believ'd ) unless because it is so cheaply , and so commonly to be had ? were the sun to be seen but once or twice in the year , he would be much more consider'd than now he is ; it being the commonness of his shining which makes him pass over our heads so unregarded . and as it is with the works , so is it too with the word of god. for in the infancy of the church , before printing was invented , what care and cost were men at , to write out copies of the gospel ? and in what honour was it had , when but newly to be had in the vulgar tongues ? whereas now that it is grown both cheap , and common , it is commonly as pearl cast out to swine . many sit not at ease , whilst the priest is in the reading of psalms and chapters ; and many loyter without the church , until they are very well assur'd the preacher is going into the pulpit ; not at all laying to heart , ( what yet they cannot but assent to , if ever it enters into their heads whilst their heads are christian , ) that the chiefest part of god's service hath been performed in the pew . for the most powerfull words of men can but edifie at the best , whereas the pure word of god is apt to sanctifie and * cleanse us , joh. . . and as s. peter once said to the jewish sanedrim , we ought to obey god rather than man. so in this case also , we ought to hear god rather than men. now the lesson which is read out of the law and the prophets is the very word of god which he hath spoken by his servants . and so the lesson out of the gospel is the very word of god which he hath spoken by his son. whereas the customary discourse which we call a sermon , though it is profitable , and pious , and therefore worthy of all acceptance ; yet 't is of human contrivance and composition , if it is not all taken , word for word , out of the scripture ; and if it is , it is no more , than so much scripture as fills an hour . and how far it is from that , our own experience may inform us from several pulpits ; wherein we are often entertain'd with accurate essays , and harangues , with florid discourses , and declamations , which have a very strong savour of art , and diligence , and are deservedly applauded for wit , and learning ; but are so far from being drawn from the vvell of life , so far from being wholly made , or mostly deduced out of scripture , as to have hardly any tincture or rellish of it . as if their authors were afraid , with cardinal bembus and other romanists , ( who are complain'd of and accus'd by dominicus nanus mirabellius , ) to fully and flatten their elocution with the oracles of god. as if they had the same opinion touching the language of the pulpit , with the prophane cardinal hosius touching the wellfare of the church , when he said it had been better if no gospel had been written . as if the scripture had seem'd to them , what once it did to s. * austin before he was absolutely converted , very unworthy to be compar'd with cicero's elegance of expression . i wish we might not complain of some , who are call'd to be preachers of the gospel , as laurentius valla was said to do of cardinal sadolet , and politian , and other orators of their age , gentilem illos sermonem magis , quàm ecclesiasticum deamâsse , that they have rather lov'd an ethnical , than ecclesiastical way of speaking . and yet if in a zealous enmity to such affected idolizers of human eloquence , the preacher frames his whole sermon , word for word , out of the scripture ; what is this but the recital of so much scripture as fills an hour ? and then 't is certainly as regardable , when barely read out of the pew , as when with emphasis and gesture it is rehearsed out of the pulpit . § . refuse not therefore him that speaketh , upon any pretense to be imagin'd . not for the meanness of the person by whom he speaks . not for the plainness of the language in which he speaks . not for the hardness or mysteriousness of the things that are spoken by him . not for the cheapness or the commonness of what he speaks . nor yet for any other objections , which some who are wittily profane are wont to urge against the scriptures . for i suppose it to be true , because i find it in the writings of an honourable author , that * some of those who do acknowledge both the truth , and the authority , do find i know not how many faults with the stile of scripture ; as that it is too obscure , and immethodical , and contradicting to it self ; incohaerent , and unadorn'd , flat , and unaffecting ; abounding with things that are either trivial , or impertinent , and also with useless repetitions . monsters more prodigious than any africa can afford us , who acknowledging the authority and truth of scripture , can so blasphemously detract from the credit of it . § . but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , see that ye refuse not him that speaketh , for all the scandalous aspersions , that either the wit or the malice of men or devils shall at any time contrive to be cast upon him in his word . and first , refuse not him that speaketh , for the meanness of the person by whom he speaks . the word of god being as sacred when pronounced by the mouth of the lowest priest , as when by that of the profoundest and greatest prelate in the church . nay his word being as pure out of a vitious man's lips , as the beams of the sun , when daily reflected from a dunghill ; or as the most uncorrupted and limpid water , when it is running through a sordid and earthy channel . as the blessing of god to israel was not the worse or the less welcome , for proceeding from the lips of a cursed balaam ; so his rebuke sent to balaam was not the less to be attended , for being spoken by the mouth of an arrant ass . be not therefore as impatient of being spoken to by a priest of the poorest talent and degree , as nabal was of being spoken to by a persecuted , and destitute , but royal prophet ; nor so impatient of a reproof from any the meanest of god's embassadours , as abner from ishbosheth , or as herod from john the baptist , or as ahab from micaiah , who for speaking an unpleasant , but wholsome truth , was presently clapt up in prison , and fed with the bread of affliction too . entertain not the vilest of all christ's messengers , as the pharisees and the rulers did christ himself , when they did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , deride and scoff at him for the despicable garb of his appearance . but be as civil to him at least , as ye would that your equals should be to you ; and even because ye are unwilling to have your messages refus'd , for being sent by the basest of all your servants , therefore see that ye refuse not him that speaketh , for the meanness of the person by whom he speaks . § . secondly do not refuse him , for the plainness of the language in which he speaks . for what is plainness , but perspicuity ? and of all those virtues which are required in an orator , perspicuity and pertinence are worthily reckon'd amongst the chief . so far forth as the scriptures contein a covenant , and a law , the one of works , and the other of faith , ( that delivered by moses , and this by christ , ) there is nothing more becomes the state and majesty of its author , than to communicate with his people in greatest plainness . or is the gospel very destitute of what the world calls wit and eloquence ? call to mind that god the father hath sent it to us by god the son ; and pay an humble veneration to what is spoken , for the honour you bear unto him that speaks . and since his words are the words of eternal life , ( that is , the words of direction by our conformity to which we shall live for ever , ) of what a barbarous ingratitude shall we be judged to be guilty , if we shall quarrel at his care to have their meaning understood ? besides , it ought to be remembred , that there are parables in the scripture , as well as plainnesses of speech ; places so deep , that an elephant may swimm , as well as places so shallow , that a lamb may wade through them . there are some such * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , things so difficult and hard to be understood , as that the ignorant and unstable ( who are arrogant , and proud , as well as empty , ) do many times wrest them to their damnation . and therefore whatsoever else may be the colour for your refusal , see that ye refuse not an heavenly speaker , for the plainness of the dialect in which he speaks ; because , of all his condescensions expressed to us in his word , this must certainly be one of the most obliging . and yet § . thirdly , do not refuse him , for the mysteriousness of the things that are spoken by him . for what were this but to find fault with the sublimity of the matter ? and implicitly to complain , that there is strong meat for men of the ripest age , as well as milk for those babes who are unskilfull in the word of righteousness ? it were to quarrel with the scripture for having any thing in it whereby to exercise our diligence , and crown our search , to make us sensible of our weakness , and to excite our admiration . besides , it ought to be consider'd , that as there are mysteries in the scripture , so there are * stewards of those mysteries . as things lock'd up from low and vulgar apprehensions , so there are also special men to whom is committed the key of knowledge . the priest's lips are to preserve it , and the people are to seek it flowing out in expositions from his orthodox mouth . 't is fit the scripture should be plain , and mysterious too ; i mean in several parts of it , for several purposes and ends . for if nothing in it were plain , we should but grope after heaven , and miss the way too . and yet if nothing were mysterious , it s over great familiarity would make it liable to contempt . whereas the due consideration of both together will discover to us the vse and the end of sermons . for though it is not perhaps the pleasant'st , yet it may seem to be the best , because the profitablest preaching in all the world , onely to read , and expound , and apply the scripture ; to shew the sense , where it is difficult , and the use , when it is easie . and therefore see that ye refuse not him that speaketh , for the hardness of the things that are spoken by him . § . fourthly , do not refuse him , for the cheapness or the commonness of what he speaks . for this were just as extravagant , as if a man should disesteem and depretiate the worth of the new jerusalem , because the very foundations of the wall of the city were adorn'd with all manner of pretious stones ; and so common a thing was pearl , that the gates of the city consisted of it ; and so cheap was pure gold , that the street of the city was nothing else . to slight the means of salvation for being commonly to be had , is just as if a nice person should die with thirst , rather than quench it with common vvater . or as if a proud person should scorn his life , for depending upon so cheap and so common an element as the air. there is nothing more destructive and dishonourable to men , than their itching after things that are rare and novel . this was one of those crimes wherewith god upbraided his people israel , that forsaking him the old and the living fountain , they had hewn unto themselves such broken cisterns , as had nothing but newness to recommend them . and therefore such men and women are very sharply to be rebuk'd , ( as s. paul chargeth timothy in the very same case , ) who not enduring sound doctrine , for being old , do turn aside unto fables , for being new ; and still are heaping up teachers , not to work upon their hearts , but to gratifie their delicate and prurient ears . choosing rather to quench their thirst out of every new ditch , than to satisfie themselves with the antient springs . and therefore if ye do not think , that the antient of days is the less to be valued for being antient , to wit , the lamb slain from the foundations of the world ; or that the waters of life eternal do lose their virtue with their credit by being cheap , by being easily to be had , without money , and without price ; see that ye refuse not him that speaketh , for the commonness of the things that are spoken by him . § . last of all do not refuse him in case his words shall sometimes seem to be incoherent , immethodical , contradicting to themselves , unaffecting , or impertinent , or clog'd with useless repetitions . for first at most they can but seem to be such and such , as the sun does onely seem to be deform'd in an eclipse , and no bigger than a bushel in his meridian ; next , they cannot so much as seem so to labour with defects , unless it be through our defects of vnderstanding , or of humility , of competent industry , or art , sufficient time to converse with , or patience to consides the things we read . § . in a word , as we desire that we may never be refused by god almighty , when at any time we shall speak , or cry to him in our distress , whether by prayers , or tears , from a gallows , or from a rack , perhaps out of a prison , perhaps out of a pest-house , out of the belly of a leviathan , or ( which at least is as terrible ) out of the bowels of a sinking and dying ship , ( for we know not what end may await us all ; ) i say , as ever we hope to be heard our selves , when in any kind of exigence we speak to god , let us at least give god the hearing , when in any kind of dialect he speaks to vs . be it by his son , or by his servants , be it by precept , or by example , by life , or doctrine , by exhortations , or admonitions , by promises , or threats , by his prophet , or by his rod , by words , or blows . and be it by whatsoever instrument the blows of god are laid on ; by war , pestilence , fire , or famine . the first of which is now consuming our valiant country-men abroad ; the second ( you know ) hath been devouring far and wide here at home ; the third hath lately laid waste the goodliest empory in the world , by having us'd our great city , as once the cities of the plain : and unless our repentance or change of life , shall cry as loud in god's ears as our sins have done , we know not how soon we may feel the fourth . less than which i cannot say to the most considering congregation ; and if this little be laid to heart , i think i need not say more . committing therefore what i have said to due and serious consideration , i shut up all with that prayer which is the fittest to compleat and conclude the sermon : that what we have heard at this time with our outward ears , may by the powerfull grace of god , be so grafted inwardly in our hearts , as to bring forth in us the fruit of good living ; to the honour and praise of his name , through jesus christ our lord. to whom , with the father , in the unity of the spirit , be glory , and thanksgiving both now and for ever . amen . the appendix . § . . our steddy adherence or assent to the two last articles of the creed , ( and indeed to the other ten , ) cannot possibly subsist without our assent unto the first . we cannot certainly believe that we shall rise from the dead , unless it be by believing that christ is risen . and as little can we believe that christ is risen , unless it be by believing first , that god was in christ reconciling the world unto himself . this implies and presupposes the first article of our creed , which is as well the foundation as the support of all the rest . but since the breaking loose of hell in this last age of a loathsome world , we have met with such enemies ( not onely to ours , but ) to all religion , as from their wishing and woulding there were no god , ( no resurrection of the body , no life after death , no day of judgment , ) have proceeded so far , as to say , and teach , there is no god ; nor any one of those things which have been regularly built upon this foundation . and if we suffer this foundation to be either undermin'd , or but shaken in us , all the fabrick of our faith will fall to nothing in an instant . an error here is like one in the first concoction , which cannot be mended in the second . if we do not believe in god , [ the first article of our creed , ] we cannot choose but be infidels in all that follow . nor are we onely to believe him , as belief is opposed unto a comprehensive knowledge ; but we must knowingly believe him , as belief is consistent with knowledge meerly apprehensive . and so as to say with as much truth , as s. paul to timothy , ( every man for himself , in whatsoever temptations and times of trial , ) for i know whom i have believed . § . a text which serves well for a double purpose ; to ascertain our knowledge , and to establish our belief , as well as to shew the just measure , and use of both in our religion . a text accordingly to be consider'd , not onely in its relative , but in its absolute importance . first , the words in their relation to those that follow and go before them , will be most easily understood by being paraphrased thus. i am a preacher , and an apostle , and therefore now a * prisoner of jesus christ . even for this very cause of my being sent forth by a the will of god , and made a b teacher of the gentiles , i suffer these bonds and persecutions of the jews . but i am not asham'd of my bonds , or office ; i am not sorry for my preaching , though 't is the cause of my imprisonment . for he on whom i have depended will never forsake me , i am sure . in his hands i can with chearfulness repose my life , by whom my death will be a door to my resurrection . for i have not believ'd i know not whom . nor do i nakedly believe , whom i love , and adore , and rely upon ; but i perfectly know whom i have believed ; and have a plentitude of perswasion , that he for whom i now suffer will never fail me , on him my cares are all cast , who careth for me . with him i have intrusted the whole depositum of my labours in the preaching of the gospel , and the depositum of my sufferings for having preach'd it . and whatsoever i have intrusted , or shall intrust to his keeping , be it my body , or my soul , my body in peace , or my soul in patience , i am assur'd he is able , and am perswaded he is willing , to lay it up for me against that day . a day expressed to us in scripture by such periphrases as these . the day wherein the lord jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire . the day wherein god shall judge the secrets of men by jesus christ . the day when all that are in the grave shall hear his voice , and come forth . the day of discrimination when he will make up his * jewels , and a book of remembrance shall lie before him , for them that feared the lord , and that thought upon his name . all my concerns are left with him , who will keep them in safety against that day . thus lies the text in its relation to the context . § . but being consider'd in it self , and without such relation , 't will be as easily understood by this other paraphrase . i know him perfectly , as to his being , whom i believe as to his essence : or whom , as to his essence , i know in part onely . i can demonstrate his existence , although i can but most firmly believe his word . for at one and the same time , as also in one and the same respect , i cannot know , and believe him too ; because what i know , i do more than believe , or am past believing : and what i do but believe , i have not yet attained the knowledge of . knowledge and belief do move in two distinct spheres , and that of knowledge is so much higher , than this of faith , that 't is the perfection of a man's faith , wholly to perish , and expire ; to be drown'd , and swallow'd up into perfect knowledge . st. paul expresseth his believing by his knowing in part . and the top of his comfort does stand in this , that when that which is perfect is come , then that which is in part shall be done away . here we can but see darkly , as through a glass ; but the time is now coming when we shall see face to face . here we onely can believe the three subsistences of the godhead in but one and the same substance ; whereas in that day of revelation and restitution , we shall know this great mystery even as also we are known . here we can but believe the resurrection of our bodies ; but ( in the great day of recompence ) our fruition and experience will make us know it . we do not know more exactly that five and five do make ten , or that a part of any dimension is unequal to the whole , than we do know and can demonstrate ( against the enemies of a deity ) the uncontroulable existence of the deity we adore . but this i say onely of god's existence , and of his essence onely in part . for in our deepest contemplation of certain mysteries in our religion , such as a trinity of the persons in the vnity of the godhead ; the generation of the second , the procession of the third , and yet the coessentiality of both-together with the first ; i say , in this contemplation our childish understandings become so froward , they cannot be quieted but by faith. our firm belief of god's word can alone rock them into a sleep . in the mean time 't is matter to us of unspeakable comfort , that by our absolute knowledge of his verity , and by our stedfast belief of his veracity , we can easily acknowledge the highest mysteries in the godhead ; which in propriety of speech we cannot yet pretend to a knowledge of . all we can do is to believe , that god was in christ reconciling the world unto himself ; but that a god of heaven there is , and that a god there must be , and that god is a spirit , and that god being a spirit must needs be infinite , indivisible , from everlasting to everlasting , and self-subsisting : these are things we do clearly know. these are things we can prove by such cogent reasonings , as every skeptick will submit to , and malice it self cannot resist . and so 't is no contradiction ( whate're it seems at first hearing ) to say , we know whom we have believed . § . now out of this twofold exposition of the text , as well consider'd in its absolute , as in its relative importance , a threefold quaere does arise , and offer it self to be resolv'd . the first quaere is , how and why we are said to know god , by knowledge properly so call'd ; to wit , as perfectly , and as plainly , as we can know any thing else ; or as fully , and as clearly , as any thing knowable can be known . the second is , how and why our bare believing the hidden things of our god , ( as the scripture calls them ) is much more proper , and more requir'd , and more rewardable in religion , than our clear and full knowledge of god's existence . nor onely of his existence , but of his essence also in part . the third quaere is , what are the powers and the effects , and the great benefits of believing , ( as well as of knowing whom we believe , ) clearly implied in the text by the causal for , as that imports s. paul's reason , for his not being asham'd of the things he suffer'd . a resolution of the first , will have an aptitude to shame or convince the atheist . a resolution of the second , will have a tendency to the conversion , or the confusion of the infidel . a resolution of the third , will dit the mouthes of those scoffers , who seek to set up meer science , ( and science falsly so call'd , ) not onely above , but against religion . nor will it be an ill office , to make the sciolists asham'd of their profanations . § . touching the first of these subjects i speak the rather , ( though 't is pity 't is not impertinent in any auditory of christians , ) because i have met with an objection , which some have pretended to have had from several eminent men's writings ; to wit , that the being of a deity cannot possibly be proved by demonstration , whereby to be the object of real knowledge ; but onely by probable argumentations , which cannot possibly be effective of any thing greater than our belief . and humane belief may be erroneous , though knowledge cannot . now whilst i consider that such belief is but a stronger sort of opinion , and that a radical fear at least ( in books of logick and philosophy ) is affirm'd to be to both an essential thing ; and that the object of opinion when 't is but humane , is said to be under a possibility of falshood , however strong enough to exclude a possibility of doubtting ; i say , considering these things , it seemeth first a disparagement to the god whom we serve , to be asserted by his votaries , as a thing credible rather than known . next , a disparagement to theology , not to be as scientifical of its object 's existence , as some inferiour things are ; but to content it self to argue from topicks probable onely by nature , however as strong , and as perswasive , as the * matter will bear which it seeks to prove . a disparagement in the last place it cannot but be to our religion , if we cannot be as certain of the deity we adore , as of other things ; and if we are not as able to prove his being , as any vulgar geometrician to prove a theorem in euclid . such cold and frigid ways of reasoning , as do pretend but to perswade , not at all to compel , or constrain the atheist , may seem à tanto to excuse , and so to gratifie his impiety , by thus extenuating the evidence which god has given us of himself ; and by making that less , than indeed it is . to speak of the deity 's credibility , may chance to harden some atheists , who scorn all preaching ; though it may chance to soften others , who are but lightly drawn in , and of better natures . but 't is worthily to be fear'd , it may occasion some skepticks , who yet are none . for some we know have been so stagger'd by topical arguments for a deity , and the beginning of the world , as to have made it matter of question , whether the godhead and the creation are indeed any other than strongly credible . and whether that opinion we have been taught to have of them , is really any other than highly probable . and whether ( by consequence unavoidable ) we are not void of all knowledge concerning god , however confident we have been , that a god there is . § . to this objection i answer by these degrees . first , i say , that the objectors do either very much mistake some very learned men's words , or that the learned men's words are not expressive of their meaning . for how unfortunately soever some of excellent erudition may have managed some parts of their most excellent design , by an ill choice of some similitudes , and by the wording of their intentions ; sure i am that their judgements are found and orthodox as to the deity , and withall as to the evidence it carries with it . they do not any where deny that the godhead is demonstrable ; but say it is not a proper subject of mathematical demonstration . nor say they any where precisely , the godhead cannot be prov'd by sense ; but onely that it cannot be so immediately . and in such sayings as these , there is no harm . for § . not to insist ( at this time ) on that divine demonstration , which is call'd by s. paul , the demonstration of the spirit , partly made by signs and miracles from without , partly by immediate and supernatural revelations , to all the prophets of the old testament , and all the apostles in the new. we have ways of demonstration , which , though they are not mathematical , are yet as clear , or rather clearer , and more compulsive of our assent . and god may be proved even by sense , mediantibus creaturis , as s. paul strongly argues in his first chapter to the romans . where the invisible things of god from the creation of the world ( he saith without a contradiction ) are clearly seen , being understood by the things that are made , even his eternal power and godhead . so that they ( who do deny him ) are without all excuse , whether they know him , or know him not . but that they who were atheists in point of practice , were none at all in point of speculation , the same apostle implies by saying , they held the truth in unrighteousness . ( v. . ) and that which may be known of god is manifest in them , for god hath shew'd it unto them . ( v. . ) and again , they did not like to retain god in their knowledge . ( v. . ) so very hard a thing it is ( in the judgement of our apostle ) to be a speculative atheist , even for one who desires to be so ; and is unwilling to acknowledge what he cannot but know. § . but not to put the least stress upon the authority of s. paul , which antiscripturists will not allow , ( and 't is for their sakes especially that i am faln on this subject , ) i shall secondly prove by reason , touching the being of a deity , not onely that we are furnish'd with as much evidence of its truth , as such a thing is capable of ; but that 't is capable of as much evidence , as the light we see , and see by , or rather more . for as a mental demonstration is more cogently convincing to any skeptick , than an ocular ; so that which shews the godhead to us , is of mental demonstrations the most convincing . for the most cogent demonstration which can be made by a logician , is that which argues from the cause to the effect , and is call'd with good reason demonstratio potissima . but god almighty being the fountain of all things knowable in the world , and so the cause of all causes which are the grounds of demonstration , ( the effect of which is true knowledge , whose ratio formalis , formal reason is assurance , ) 't is plain his being must carry with it so clear an evidence of it self , that if we were not sure of that , we could be sure of nothing else . we are much surer of it , than of any thing we can see , by how much the inward light we have is more infallible than our outward . for this may easily deceive us , and indeed so often does , that much experience has taught us to distrust our own eyes in several cases , and in some to disbelieve them . whereas a man's vnderstanding ( of objects adaequate to it self ) can never either fail him , or be suspected ; because 't is an eye whose sight is knowledge . and knowledge ( properly so call'd ) is so infallible in its nature , that without infallibility it cannot possibly be knowledge , but must needs be somewhat else ; a shrewd conjecture , or strong belief , an obstinate confidence , or presumption ; each of which is true or false , as it is well or ill grounded . whereas to knowledge as it is knowledge , infallibility is essential . shall i make the case clear , and undeniable by an example ? we know a man having been blind from his very birth , may have as absolute a knowledge that and do make , as the best ey'd lynceus . and a man the most illiterate is as far from being able to be deceiv'd in this point , as one of the greatest erudition , or deepest reach . which strongly vindicates our apostle from the possible reproach of a contradiction , when he says , things invisible are clearly seen ; and that moses saw him who is invisible . for god's existence , though invisible to the eye of the body , is yet to that of the soul most clearly seen ; even as clearly as the assertion that and do make is ascertain'd to a man without eyes or learning . not at all seen by the light without , but so much the more by the light within him . the learned and the illiterate , the blind and the quick-sighted , are very equally undeceivable in these particulars . and therefore when 't is said by the pert and dull scoffer , ( as pert and dull as the japonians of the jenxuan haeresie , ) * that he is too foolish who thinks he knows any thing he cannot see ; and he too credulous , who is able to believe what he cannot reach ; he may be presently made asham'd of his vnderstanding , by an argument ad hominem , that he is void of all reason , and can have no soul within him , ( much less a rational , ) because he neither can see it , nor can it possibly be seen . so 't is an argument to the scoffer beyond all answer , that nothing by nature can be more excellent than a beast , because a beast cannot reach it , or comprehend how it should be . there have been some in all ages , whose shamefull ambition it has been to make their ignorance monumental . hercules by his pillars , with a nihil plus ultra inscrib'd upon them , and mr. hobs by his hypothesis , that there is no spirit at all , ( nor any thing else above the sphere of his low capacity , ) have but built obelisks to the memory of their most eminent imperfections , their incomparable pride , and their incurable stupidity . the man is fitter to be despis'd , than to be sadly disputed with , who takes his narrow vnderstanding to be commensurate with the vniverse , and the adequate standard of all existence ; who will have all to be but fiction , which is to him incomprehensible ; and nothing really to exist , which is above or beyond his soul's horizon . he is worthier of our pity , whose perfect ignorance in astronomy makes him ready almost to swear , the sun is no bigger than a bonfire ; because the distance of the object , and the deceiptfulness of the organ , do conspire both at once to give it a littleness of appearance . 't is hard to say which is greater , our uncertainty of some things which we do every day see ; or the certainty of other things which cannot possibly be seen . § . now amongst the many ways of proving a god by demonstration , ( some of which cannot be made but to good logicians , and very hardly if at all , in the english tongue , ) two especially are the fittest for the capacities of the vulgar , whilst unassisted by erudition . the first of which will be the easier , though the second will be more cogent , and more imperative of our assent . the first , and the most obvious , is à posteriori , as proving the cause by its effects . which is as true a demonstration , and as prevailing , as any the mathematicks pretend to ; and many times more proportionable to capacities unimprov'd , than demonstration à priori , which proves an effect by its cause or causes . as 't is many times easier to prove the tree by its fruit , than the fruit by its original , the tree that bears it . yea there are things , as the four elements , whose inward forms are unknown , and therefore they cannot be demonstrated to be what they are , but à posteriori : such as fire by its properties of heat , and light , and lightness , and the like ; which yet do beget as great a certainty of its existence and disposition , as could be had if we could know the whole essence of it . and thus our common masters of musick do know the forces and the effects of all the musical proportions of sound and number , ( perhaps to much better purpose than either froschius , or gafforel , or boetius himself , ) whilst yet the reason of effects is a stranger to them . now that god is demonstrable à posteriori , ( i mean as to his being , and his nature in part , which is most easily apprehended , not as to his whole nature , which is indeed incomprehensible ; and the most that we know of what it is , comes by our knowing what it is not ; ) is very well shewn , as by other writers , so especially by cicero de natura deorum , whom 't is fitter to refer to , than to translate , or epitomize . but whosoever shall have the patience ( if i may not say the pleasure ) so to read , as to understand him , will confess the whole world to be a volume so expressive of its creator , as not to stand in any need of that his lesser book , the bible , to help it out . for if a man who shall but look on a goodly palace , will rather argue that 't was built by some skilfull architect , than that the stones by meer chance ( with all the rest of the materials ) did fall into that order wherein he sees them ; much more , when we look on the sun and moon , and all the harmony of things in heaven and earth , shall we conclude them rather the work of some invisible contriver , than that they are the blind off-spring of hap or chance . god is much better known by such foot-steps of his divinity , than either an hercules by his foot , or a lion by his paw , or an apelles by his pencil . and as my knowledge that the house wherein i am , had a builder , cannot be lessened by my ignorance of the architect or artist by whom 't was built ; so my knowledge and assurance of the whole world's having a maker , ( and every way sutable to such a fabrick , ) cannot possibly be diminish'd , much less dissolv'd , or done away , by its maker's being invisible to carnal eyes . for how much ocular demonstrations give place to mental , i shew'd before . and its truth is yet farther confirm'd from hence ; that mr. hobs his demonstration of the quadrature of the circle ( for which he will sooner dye a martyr , than for any thing in religion , ) is by a skilfuller mathematician plainly demonstrated to be false . but this principle in the metaphysicks , [ that of the two parts of a contradiction , the one must evermore be true , and the other false , ] which is the first and chief ground of all our mental demonstrations , ( most especially of the godhead ) and every mental demonstration which is duly rais'd from it , or necessitates an atheist either to grant there is a god , or to affirm both parts of a contradiction , is so clear , and self-evident ( without the help of our outward senses ) that it is cogent even to all , of all * perswasions , and has every where the suffrage , as well of taught , as of vntaught reason . insomuch as it cannot be quite so evident , that every watch has a spring , and every spring a spring-maker , as that there is a a primus motor of every mobile in the world , and a principle of being to all that is . the proof of what i have hitherto but barely said will be short , and easie . and the way to it may thus be made . that some things there are which began to be , experience tells us . and that nothing can be the cause of its own being and beginning , is just as plain . for that which is not in being , cannot do or act any thing ; and as little is it possible that it should be before it is . from whence it follows of necessity , that whatsoever began to be , had its being and beginning from somewhat else . as the third from the second , and the second from the first . and because there could be nothing which could begin before the first , 't is plain the first had its beginning from that which never did begin . and that which never-began at all , yet is the author of beginning to all that ever did begin , is that which in english we do commonly call god. god the shortest and the fittest of any appellative we can use in our english tongue . not that this or any name can ever express his whole nature ; ( for some of the greeks express'd him fitly by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the vnexpressible , and moses more fitly by i am that i am , or that stupendous tetragrammation , the lord jehovah , ) but as safer and less improper , than anima mundi , mens divina , natura naturans , and the like , by which the peripateticks , and platonists , and from these the rosicrucians , have laid a stumbling-block in the way of themselves and others . now because it does imply the first and worst of contradictions , for that being not to be , or not to have been without beginning , which gave a being and beginning to that which first began to be ; therefore for any one to affirm , there is no god , or no eternal cause of being to all that ever began to be , is to affirm both parts of a contradiction . although , in spite of himself , and his own perverseness , ( if he is but an animal indued with reason , and not a prodigious sort of monster in the meer likeness of a man , ) he must confess the one is true , and the other false . this is a mental and metaphysical demonstration , more compulsively convincing than any ocular . it being impossible to be true , that any thing is in being , and not in being at the same instant ; as 't is impossible to be false , that every thing ( at the same instant ) is either in being , or not in being . these are things of such self-evidence , and so compulsive of assent , that ( as i said a little before ) they have every where the suffrage as well of taught as of untaught reason . and this i take to be such a proof or demonstration of the deity , as it is sufficient to convert even an acataleptick , who holds that nothing is to be known , but that a man does know nothing . nor does it nakedly perswade , but irresistably compel , and constrain the atheist . i do not speak onely with confidence , but do know what i say but an old experience . § . again , we know whom we have believ'd , by some of the meanest creatures acting above the sphere of their activity . for all things acting above themselves , and with more force or vertue than other things of their level are of themselves able to do , must needs derive such power and virtue from somewhat else which is above them . as when balaam's ass spake , and rebuk'd her rider , 't was so commanding a demonstration of an agent supernatural , working in , and upon , and above the ass , that he who will not grant the later , must ( in spite of himself ) deny the former . which because an antiscripturist may gladly do , we are to instance in other things , whereof ( not his reading , but ) his downright experience will best convince him . the case may be usefully represented in the vast difference which we observe between a marble , and a loadstone . we find the marble has nothing in it above the nature of a stone . it is as dull , as it is heavy ; and as unactive , as it is lifeless . whereas the loadstone acts clearly above the nature of a stone , or a thing inanimate , in drawing iron as it does , an heavier body than itself , and that without a touch or contact , ( so little need has it of hands and arms , ) and this by way of discretion too , with a discriminating love to that course metal above all others . this , and the other consideration , that a needle touch'd with it has a particular inclination to stand full northward , in which point onely it is at rest , and ever restless in any other , moved thales milesius , ( the wisest man in all greece ) to believe it animate . and indeed he might have thought it , not onely animate , but sensible , nor onely sensible , but rational , had not his knowledge of a deity ( shewing his wisedom in the most stupid , as well as his power irresistible in the weakest and the most passive of all his creatures , ) superseded the necessity of that conjecture . to which i add , that nothing speaks a god lowder , or more distinctly , than such a speechless sort of creatures as birds and bees , whose unlearned kind of science and skill in architecture or tacticks , the learnedst artist in the world can onely imitate , never equal , and would certainly admire , if not adore too , ( as not a few of the heathens were wont to do , ) did not the wisedom of a creator unty the knot , and make all easy to such as own him . not to ask one of all the quaeres we find in job , ( which yet are all argumentative , and plead the cause i have in hand , ) who but god can teach the emmet , either to treasure up store of corn for a provision in the winter , or ( which is very much stranger ) to gnaw off each little prolifick particle of the grain , whereby it may keep without growing , in the most pregnant and fertil earth ? shall we say such thaumaturgicks , as the loadstone , and the bee , the emmet , and the silkworm , are all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or self-instructers , in the exercise of the arts and curiosities they exert ? if not so , it must be thus ; that acting all , as they do , above the sphere of their activity , and beyond the low rank they are placed in , they are clearly , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , all taught of god. for where there is art without knowledge , eminent skill without learning , unerring sight without eyes or vision , incomparable providence without all forecast , wonderfull wisedom and contrivance without the inherence and use of reason , ( as in the bee , the loadstone , the emmet , and the silkworm , ) there we have a demonstration of a superiour , invisible , supernatural agent , working in , and upon , and above the creatures , as 't were on purpose to convince us , that he is god. and truly till we are able to give a tolerable reason , ( from art , or nature , ) why some dull and dead specificks do work with discretion , and out of choice , upon a determinate part or humor in the body of man , and lets the rest all alone , ( as 't were by a wilfull preterition , ) as why rhubard purges choler , hellebore melancholy , senna flegm , hermodactyls viscosity ; or why cantharides are offensive in particular to the kidneys , mercury to the throat , strammoneum to the brain , opium to the nerves throughout the whole body ; i say , till we are able to give another cause or reason of these astonishing effects , i shall conclude that these things have these discretions onely from god ; and that the physicians were enthusiasts , to whom these secrets were first reveal'd . § . to summ up all in a word , ( and to dismiss the first method of demonstrating the cause of all other causes by his effects ; ) from that virtue in the hen which is derived to the egge , and is the principle of essence to the yet unform'd chicken , whilst it is not a spirit , and yet invisible , our excellent harvey strongly argues the strict necessity of a god , for whom alone it is not difficult to create out of nothing the things that are. and in the same book de generatione , ( to the reading of which 't will be sufficient to referr our modern doaters upon experiment , ) he says , generatio demonstrat spiritum , eumque deum . he means a logical demonstration à posteriori ; such as is that of an artificer from any artifice he exerts . which does carry along with it so clear an evidence of its author , that a watchmaker is said to move the watch which he has made , at the greatest distance : in as much as with his hands and other instruments of working , ( as truly informed by his hands , as his hands by his head , and his head by his intelligence , and his intelligence by the fountain of its existence , ) he gave his watch as well the laws , as the necessity of its motion . § . the second general method of demonstrating the object and ground of worship , whereby we know whom we believe , ( as to his entity or existence , and as to part of his nature too , ) is like to that which god made to demonstrate the being of the sun. for as the sun is best seen by the light it gives us , and even obtrudes upon our senses , without the least aid from either the mathematicks , or logick , or from the metaphysicks , or physicks ; so god himself , as to his being , ( though not as to all his mysterious essence , ) is most clearly apprehended , and unavoidably understood , ( without any assistance either from art , or education , ) by the * ordinary light and law of nature . man's knowledge of a godhead has been ever just as natural , as his knowledge that he has eyes , ( without the help of a reflexion from any looking-glass whatsoever , ) though he cannot either see them , or make them able to see themselves , unless it be by reflexion , which yet does not make , but onely illustrate and prove his knowledge . hence it is that all nations , in all times and places , whether salvage , or civiliz'd , however tempted by the devil to love and cherish dissentions , and especially , to affect a singularity in opinions , though they have evermore differ'd in most things else , and even in the choice of the gods they worship'd ; yet that a deity there is , they have not been able but to agree . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , solus est sermo universalis . that there is above nature a divine object of worship and adoration , is the one language of all the world : the onely vniversal character , stamp'd in every man's heart and head , who is perfectly a man , and not a monster ; as he must needs be a monster , who has no reason ; and much more he , who has no religion . thus is one single error the confutation of another . the sin and error of idolatry does refell the worse error and sin of atheism . it 's observable of the athenians , ( in the times of s. paul , ) that knowing nothing of the true god , but that a true god there is ; and knowing withall they knew him not , as to the perfections of his nature ; erected an altar with this inscription , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to the vnknown god. two things i here mark to my present purpose . first , that the god whom they knew not , and yet ador'd , was indeed the true god , even the same that s. paul had declared to them . next that the god whom they knew not , and could not know , as to his essence , they had a true knowledge of , and could not but know , as to his being . which is evinced and presupposed and inferred even from hence , that they did seriously , and zealously , though blindly worship him . all which as an historian , ( rather than as a preacher , ) and as a matter of fact our apostle told them . § . from hence it follows that those athenians who were the ancestors of these , did shew themselves to be a wise and religious people , in that they offer'd by proclamation a talent of silver for a reward , to any person who should be so happy and such a lover of religion , as to kill the foul monster , diagoras the atheist , newly fled out of attica for fear of justice . nor had they onely such an hatred of a positive atheist , whose profession of atheism gave him atheos , for his name ; but they were as much admired for their piety and prudence , in that they banished protagoras , and burn'd his books , and this for no other reason than that he clanculary worship'd , and writ but doubtfully of a deity ; as if it were a moot point , whether there were any such thing , or no. for to be doubtfull of a deity , ( and not to say i know whom i have believ'd , ) i do suppose to be the utmost that the affecters of atheism have been able to arrive at by all their arts ; whether tending to extinguish the natural light of the understanding , or to the making of the conscience so tough and callous by vitious habits of debauch , as to justifie and commend s. paul's expression of the thing , when he saith , that some consciences are cauteriz'd ; they are so sear'd with an hot iron , as to become quite insensate , and past all feeling . i say , the thing we call atheism i conceive to be no more than a meer doubting of a deity ; not at all a presumption that 't is impossible for it to be . for protagoras himself , and the magicians who had debauch'd him , ( brought by xerxes into greece , ) did privately offer sacrifice to certain gods whom they ador'd , however they were in publick too brave to own it , because they scorn'd to have it thought by their dull admirers , that any deity did assist them in whatsoever they could do above other men . now this doubting of a deity , implying a deity to be possible , ( and that for any thing they know , it either may , or may not be , ) does accidentally demonstrate that a deity there is , and that it cannot but be . for seeing to doubt it , is to acknowledge that it is possible for it to be , ( though not that it is actual , ) and seeing the sense of the word deity is a necessary being , altogether independent and antecedent to all causality , ( which an atheist will grant it must be , if 't is at all , ) it does imply a contradiction , to grant that it is possible , and yet to deny that it is actual ; because to be possible , but yet not actual , is to be perfectly contingent ; which for a deity to be , and yet be a necessary being , is a most gross contradiction in adjecto . and a gross contradiction being the onely way of proving any absolute impossibility , is therefore one way of proving the actual being of a god upon a naked confession that 't is but possible for it to be . which confession any atheist will much rather make , than undertake the harder task , of proving a godhead to be impossible . and yet 't is that he must do , or else be convinced there is a god , by his previous conviction that one there may be . § . the atheist's sanctuary and refuge , to which he makes his last flight from the necessity of a godhead , ( as the fountain of existence to all good things which began to be , ) is an aeternal succession of individuals . which , however he cannot prove , or perform any thing like it , he is resolv'd to take for granted , to supersede ( if it were possible ) the strict necessity of a creator . but this objection has been so baffl'd , and put so quite out of all countenance , by paulus venetus , and * others , whose argument leads it clearly to this absurdity which it incurs , that a part must of necessity be equal to the whole upon that hypothesis ; that i shall say no more of it than briefly this. that on the supposal of an eternal succession of days , there must be a medium metaphysicum between the two eviternities , the one before , the other after every noon ; because the noon of this day , ( or of yesterday , or of the morrow , ) cannot be more or less distant from that which never did begin , than from that which shall never end . which infers an aequidistance ( in a negative way of speaking ) 'twixt two durations aeviternal , though not ( in a positive ) 'twixt two extremes . but i add , that the objection confutes it self ; in that the succession of individuals , by the way of generation in which we find it , affords a controuling demonstration of its aeternity's being impossible ; and does not need any such subtilty , as is required in the management of the argument foregoing . for , ( to instance in the succession of the hen and the egg , ) we cannot say that the hen did lay the egg , and that the egg was hatched into the hen , and so backwards to all aeternity ; because the hen ( as a parent ) is by nature before the egg ; the former being the cause , whereof the later is the effect . from whence 't is evident , that there was a first hen ; which being absolutely impossible to have been by generation , it cannot but be , that it was created . and that which did create it , must needs be god. § . having thus far proceeded in solving the first of the three quaeres , how , and why we are said to know god , even as perfectly and as plainly as any thing knowable can be known ; i cannot choose but charge the atheist with arrant dulness and stupidity , ( however he may pass for a man of great wit , with such as having none at all are unfit to judge of it , ) for being able to make a doubt in so clear a case . whereby he may seem to have too much , and too little subtilty ; because if he had less , he would not start any objections against his maker ; and if he had more , he would be able to refute them . but because , though we do know whom we have believed , we do also believe whom we truly know , it remains that i proceed to the second quaere which i propos'd ; how and why our bare believing the hidden things of our god ( however in the scriptures revealed to us ) is much more proper , and more requir'd , and more rewardable in religion , than our clear and full knowledge of his existence . § . in order to the resolving of this second quaere , i must distinguish more fully than in my answer to the first , betwixt the mysteries in religion , or its subject in hypothesi , and what in thesi is the ground and the object of it . there are matters in religion , as well as nature , which are most worthy of our belief , though much above the flight of our comprehension . and though evidently credible , are not evidently true , how true soever in themselves . they have evidence enough to require our faith , though not enough to beget our knowledge . thus the trinity in vnity is as evident in it self , as the godhead is ; but not so evident unto us . and humane faith may be so strong , as to exclude from the agent all kind of doubting ; though not from all objects a possibility that they are false . for nothing can exclude this , but knowledge properly so call'd , to which a certainty is as essential , as credibility is to faith. and the absolute impossibility that the mysteries of god should admit of falshood , ariseth onely from the verity and veracity of the godhead , not from the steadiness , or the strength , much less from the nature of our belief . but there are other things in religion , which , though they are not more true than the trinity in unity , are yet for all that more truly known . thus the evidence i have of god's existence , is so much greater than my evidence of his being three in one , or the scriptures being his word ; that i am certain of the former , because i know it ; and i doubt not of the later , because i stedfastly believe it . my assurance of the one makes me infallible in my assent , which i cannot say i am through my confidence of the other , unless i have it by a miraculous and immediate illumination , as fully as the apostles their gift of tongues . thus the ground of the difference of the things spoken of in our religion , is the difference of the ground upon which they stand ; to wit , a greater , or lesser evidence to our short sighted souls ; not a greater or lesser truth , and reality of their beings . for neither our knowledge nor our belief have any influence on the things we believe or know. § . this distinction being premis'd , i proceed thus to argue , and thereby to answer the quaere made . every man's vnderstanding is too too sawcy with his will , in pretending it is its priviledge to give a judgement universally of truth and falshood , an error not the less grievous for its having been occasion'd by a very great truth . for though 't is the office of the intellect , in the intellect's own court , to pass a verdict upon things within its cognizance ; yet in such transcendentals as are very much without and above its verge , or by a natural right and title beyond all humane comprehension , a good understanding will confess , it must not determine , but obey . for to know things exactly does onely denominate us learned , but not religious : good philosophers indeed , but not good men. the word [ religion ] and the thing , being well consider'd , ( as 't is by few , and but seldom , ) its ratio formalis will be found , not to stand in proud knowledge , but meek obedience . and in obedience of the whole man ; as well of the soul , as of the body . and in the soul too , we owe an absolute obedience of all our faculties to god , of our appetites , our wills , our vnderstandings . science and religion do herein differ more especially , that in the first our understandings direct the will ; but in the second they concur in submission with it : in that our reason may command , as a proud dictatrix ; but in this she must obey , as a most teachable disciple . and for this there is very great reason . for 't is so natural to religion , to have its mysteries ; or objects peculiar to faith alone ; that neither the greeks nor the barbarians could ever indure to be without them . and if there are few mechanick arts which have not their mysteries and secrets , unknown to all who are not artists ; what an unnatural thing were it , if the mystery of godliness , god manifest in the flesh , or the religion of the true god who is incomprehensible , should have nothing conteined in it beyond the fathom or flight of a finite reason ? what man knows the things of a man , save the spirit of man which is in him ? even so the things of god knoweth no man , but the spirit of god. cor. . . and truly if it were otherwise , where were the merit , or the mystery , or the necessity of believing , on which so great a stress in scripture is every where laid by our lord himself ? we find in our gospel these two rational expressions , the obedience of faith , ( rom. . . ) and the law of faith. ( rom. . . ) 't is the obedience of our faith which is so pleasing unto god , as that without this it is impossible for us to please him. ( heb. . . ) if faith it self were not obedience unto that which is called the law of faith , and to the lawgiver himself who hath commanded us to believe , it would not be so meritorious , or so rewardable in its nature , as now it is . for herein chiefly does consist the excellent nature of religion , and of all religious worship , ( and withall the rationability of the immensity of our reward , ) that 't is attended with self-denial , and a resignedness of the all that is most excellent in our souls , unto the will of that object we thus adore . whereas if we absolutely knew whatsoever by our religion we are obliged to acknowledge , or were we obliged to acknowledge what we see or feel onely ; there could not be possibly such a thing as real virtue in our assent , when 't would be impossible not to assent to what we should distinctly know , and as impossible not to acknowledge what with our brutish and common senses we see , or feel . necessity and vertue are incompatible in all , but in god himself . and even in him ( speaking 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) they differ too . our knowledge indeed may be call'd a physical , but not a religious , or moral virtue . there are virtues indeed which do lead to knowledge ; and knowledge ( truly so call'd ) does dispose to virtues . but naked science is a meer intellectual habit , ( wherein the devils themselves excel , ) and was never yet reckon'd an ethick virtue . the reason of all which is plain , and obvious . for the object of a man's knowledge does compel his assent ; whereas the object of his faith does but invite it . to matters of faith our assent is due ; but to matters of knowledge 't is unavoidable . our knowledge shews onely we are intelligent in our nature ; but our faith shews in us also the grace of meekness . that indeed infers the conspicuity of the object ; but this ( which is more ) the flexibility of the will. ( to sum up the difference in a word , ) by light of knowledge it appears that we are a reasoning sort of creatures ; but by the obedience of our faith , that we are religious ones . § . from these premises i infer , we ought not to trouble our selves at all , that we cannot fully know , so far forth as we can believe . for god has given us knowledge enough ( if we live not up to it ) to greaten our future condemnation ; and the knowledge which he denies us is not necessary at all to our future safety . and seeing 't is one of god's attributes , to be by nature incomprehensible , ( who were he not so , could not be god , ) 't is fit the learnedst of his creatures should be contentedly in the dark , as to many things ; the firm belief of which things they stick not to testifie with their blood. if we believe the will of god to be revealed in his word , and therein the three subsistences in but one and the same substance , we may not be vext with the experience , of our being yet unqualify'd to comprehend how it should be . for whatsoever things they are we are commanded but to believe , it cannot possibly be a sin , not to be able to know exactly . but 't is a * sin to be disquieted , that the sublimest things of god do exceed our reach ; and that whilst we are finite , infinite things will be above us . to comprehend what is finite , a finite intellect is sufficient ; and as sufficient also it is , to apprehend what is infinite , though not at all to comprehend it ; ( so great and wide the difference is between an apprehensive and a comprehensive knowledge ; but an adaequate knowledge of god , is onely competent to god. as for certainty and knowledge , god has wisely dealt to us such fit proportions , that we have ground enough given us in god's own word , to want with comfort what we have not ; and to injoy what we have , with moderation . 't is there we are assured of a threefold 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or full assurance . a full assurance of faith , ( heb. . . ) a full assurance of hope , ( heb. . . ) a full assurance of vnderstanding , ( col. . . ) the last imports a full knowledge of what is knowable in god , and fit or good for us to know ; which leads us on to an * acknowledgement of the mysteries of god , in whom are hid all the treasures of wisedom and knowledge . and this does prompt me to observe s. paul's distinction , between 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the things of god which may be known , ( rom. . . ) and the other things of god which are hidden from us . ( col. . . ) as for god's existence from everlasting to everlasting , his omnipresence , his omnipotence , his all-sufficience , and his omniscience , his truth , and justice , his love , and goodness , and the like ; in respect of all these , we perfectly know whom we believe . we have ( literally speaking ) a full assurance of vnderstanding . but for the trinity of persons , the incarnation of god the son , his circumcision , his crucifixion , his satisfaction for all our sins , the resurrection of our bodies , and immortality of our souls ; in respect of all these , we rather believe whom we have known . we have in these a full assurance of faith , and hope onely . and the perfection of our knowing the things of god which may be known , is ground enough for our believing the things of god which are hidden from us . § . of what has hitherto been said ; two good vses may here be made . the one of confutation , the other of comfort . that belongs to those men who are affectedly vnbelievers ; this will redound unto our selves , when in meer humane frailty we sometimes waver . and both together will be an answer to the third quaere which i propos'd , touching the powers , and the effects , and the great benefits of believing , ( as well as of knowing whom we believe , ) clearly implied in the text by the causal for , as that imports s. paul's reason , why he was not asham'd of the things he suffer'd . for this cause ( says he to timothy , ) i suffer these things . but i am not asham'd . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , for i know whom i have believed . § . first , to the wilfull vnbeliever who does affect being incredulous , and casts about for all colours to nourish the humour in himself , i shall argue thus. that he who is so thick-headed as to alledge he is not sure there is a life after death , and a day of judgement , must needs confess himself so dull too , as not to be surer that there is none . and 't is sufficient to oblige a prudent person to live exactly , ( upon the account of prudence onely , ) that a life after death , and so a judgment , if he does not yet fully know it , may happen to him for ought he knows . and that aeternity of punishments ( as well as of rewards ) is barely possible . and that the negative is not demonstrable , any more than the affirmative . yea , that the negative cannot be possibly , because a negative ; but the affirmative ( as it is such ) has a passive power at least ( which the negative has not ) of being the subject of demonstration . for thus the existence of a deity may be demonstrated by a person who is of greater perspicuity than the man who doubts of it , though not by him who is so stupid , ( and in a manner so unman'd , ) as to be able to make a doubt in so clear a case . whereas the negative to this , [ that a deity does not exsist , ] can be demonstrated by none , how acute soever ; nor was ever yet pretended to be demonstrable by any . the most insipid of fools is able to say , [ there is no god ; ] and it can be but said by the wittiest atheist . but ( to return to that instance which was of an article of our faith , and of faith alone , to wit , a punishment aeternal , or a life after death , or a day of judgment ; ) i say , an evil which is uncertain , and by consequence so contingent , as that it may , or may not be , must be provided against in policy , if not in conscience , or religion , by one who would not be a fool , as well as an epicure , or an atheist . a lazarus may be sent out of abraham's bosom , ( though de facto none is , ) and a dives out of the deep too , to certifie the truth of an heaven and hell , upon a supposal that such there are . but on a supposal that there are not , nor an existence after death , 't is plain that none can be sent to us with a certificate that there is none . from whence 't is evident that the believer must needs be much on the safest side ; because the object of his belief is under an evident possibility of demonstration ; whereas the contrary to this is flatly impossible to be prov'd . besides there is this great difference too , that if the believer is deceiv'd , he does but lose the short pleasures of vitious living ; but if the incredulous is deceiv'd , he incurs the long torments , ( or rather endless , and so not long , ) which will be one day the wages of it . § . but in dealing , as i now do , with the obstinate skeptick , or the affected vnbeliever , i onely argue from his own principles of carnal reason , and common sense . and have spoken onely of faith as the child of fear , which is of the flesh . not a word of that faith which is the fruit of spirit ; and is not acquired , but infus'd ; nor the product of art , but a work of grace . the faith imported in my text is of a far more sublime and transcendent nature ; and such as carried up s. paul above the low sense of all his sufferings . 't is no less than the victory which overcometh the world. no less than the evidence of things not seen ; no less than the substance ( that is , the confident expectation ) of things hoped for . it refresheth our drooping spirits with unspeakable comforts in the black and gloomy day of our greatest trial , when all the comforters upon earth are utterly unable to yield us comfort . it fills us inwardly with joy in the holy ghost . conveys unto us a full assurance that our pardon is seal'd , our peace ratified , that god is our father , and we his children . gives us some glimmerings and fore-tasts of the glory to be reveal'd . it presentiates things future ; and prepossesseth us with the injoyment of things invisible . reveals unto us , by the secret and powerfull whispers of god's spirit , the beatifick and glorious mansions prepared for us in his house . hereupon it does so place us above the level of temptations , as to exempt us from the fear of whatsoever men or devils can do unto us . insomuch that what is intended by the enemies of our faith to make us sorry , by this is wonderfully made to increase our joy. by this we are enabled to trust in god ( as holy job did ) although he kills us . so that lifting up our heads , and looking up unto jesus the author and finisher of our faith , we learn to love and to kiss his rod ; and are so far from repining at his severest dispensations , that in regard unto the joy that is set before us , we can injoy the very torments , and scorn the shame of a crucifixion . in a word , should i exemplifie all i have said concerning faith , by making a narrative of particulars , as far as from abel to charles the first , ( which were to prove by the argument they call induction the wonderfull powers and effects and glorious benefits of believing , as well as of knowing whom we believe , ) i must have taken for my text the whole eleventh chapter of the epistle to the hebrews . § . but because this would prove an enterprize too long and tedious , though not too difficult to be perform'd ; i shall conclude with some directions for the securing of our faith ( if at least we have any ) from slipping from us ; and for the enabling us to say , with our apostle in my text , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , we know whom we have trusted ; we know whom we have believed ; and are perswaded that he is able to keep that which we have committed unto him against that day . § . if we find our selves wavering in the belief of those things whereof we have not a perfect knowledge , ( however a perfect knowledge of that , which is the ground of the things believed , and we have reason to superstruct the strongest belief to be imagin'd , upon so firm a foundation as perfect knowledge , ) we may comfort our selves , and re-inforce our sick faith , by observing these following rules . first , by reflecting on the importance of those known words , lord i believe , help thou my unbelief . implying an unbelief in one , does consist with belief in another measure . just as contrary qualities often meet in one subject , in gradibus remissis , although in gradibus intensis they never can . next , by making that confession and prayer our own . lord , we believe in a degree ; but with fears now and then , and some dishonourable faintings . nor of our selves can we do more ; but that and more by thy help . help us therefore to believe , without the least degree of doubting , or distrust , or diffidence . whatever is wanting in our belief , we pray thee pardon , and repair , and replenish in us . we cannot acquire it by art , or industry ; but we can humbly wrestle with thee ( as jacob did ) for this blessing , by prayer and fasting . and through the grace which thou hast given us , we will never let thee go , till thou hast bless'd us with a steady unshaken faith. thirdly , by considering , that to be tempted ( however strongly ) is no transgression . but rather the more a man is tempted , and to the staggering of his faith , the more victorious is his faith when he does not yield . yield we do not , whilst we dissent from our waverings ; and hate the unsteadiness of our assent ; and are heartily griev'd at its haesitations ; and are piously carefull to make it steady ; and resolute in our purposes to hold fast our faith , even in spite of those doubtings we grapple with ; and strive to make it so much the stronger , ( the more our tempter attempts its overthrow , ) by the antiperistasis of temptations . we do not yield , though we are buffeted , ( both by satan , and the flesh , and the world we live in , ) whilst we are obstinate in our purpose to serve the god whom we own with our self-denials ; to serve him with the denial of all the rivals of his religion ; ( our wit , our reason , our erudition , our profit , pleasure , or reputation ; ) and to honour him with the obedience of every faculty within us ; not onely with our wills , but our vnderstandings , whilst we make them stoop down , when they cannot rise so high as to things above us ; and the * rather to believe them , ( if i may use tertullian's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ) because impossible . for what is impossible to us , to god is easie . what to us is miraculous , to him is natural . and therefore the mysteries of our religion , ( to wit , the trinity , incarnation , resurrection , and the like , ) which to the misty eye of reason our tempter would make to seem impossible , do to the clearer eye of faith appear to be true so much the rather . i say , the rather in two respects ; in respect of our tempter , whose ends we frustrate by our belief ; and in respect of the things themselves , which do the better become religion for being above the short reach of our stunted knowledge ; and which we are therefore to believe , because unable to comprehend them . for were we able to comprehend them ( as we do many things below us , ) this gross absurdity would follow , that what is now our religion , would be our science . wherein our finite vnderstandings would not humbly submit , but proudly triumph . and it would be an hard thing to be irreligious . the pelagians of old , and our late socinians , do seem to forget the vast distance , and disproportion , betwixt the faculties of man , and hidden mysteries of god , when they contend for a sufficience in natural reason to * receive the * deep things of the spirit of god. for as god being a spirit must ( for that very reason ) be worshipped in spirit , so the spiritual things of god must be spiritually discerned . there must be a similitude and proportion 'twixt acts and objects . lastly , 't is matter of comfort to us , and one of the means of reinforcing our wavering faith , that what does often seem to fail us in one regard , may yet in another be ever with us for our support . we may with the father of the faithfull , the faithfull abraham , b believe in hope against hope . for as he could not hope for a great posterity , in regard of his age , and sarah's barrenness , which yet he could not but hope for , in regard of god's promise , which could not fail ; so , what we cannot believe exactly , in regard of its being above the reach of our reason , and common vsages of nature ; we cannot chuse but believe , in regard that god says it who cannot lie . the worthiness of our faith does stand in this chiefly , that though 't is many times wavering , like the tremulous needle in the mariner's compass , yet being touch'd by god's grace , as that needle by the loadstone , its prevalent motion is towards its pole ; and from that its trepidations can never wrest it . insomuch that we may say , ( as once s. paul in another case , ) we are troubled on every side , yet not in distress ; perplex'd we are often , but not in despair ; persecuted by satan , but by god not forsaken ; cast down indeed , but not destroy'd . tremble we may , ( like aristippus in a shipwrack , ) but ( like him ) we are not guilty of yielding up our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ( as 't is worded by aulus gellius . ) we do not basely consent to our perturbations , which arise not from our spirits , but from our flesh . the law in our members ( do what we can ) will still be warring ; but the law in our minds does ever worst it . we still believe with our wills ; lord , help the vnbelief of our vnderstandings . our hearts are steady ; lord , fix our heads too . in spite of our very vnbelief ( in point of doubt , or haesitation , or now and then a dark interval , ) we will believe , so as to love the incarnate deity whom we admire ; and so love , as to obey him ; and obey him to such a point , as to lay down our lives for the love we bear him . and so will prove by all three , that we do really believe what we cannot fathom , [ god manifest in the flesh , ] because without our believing , we can do neither . neither love , nor obey , nor lay down our lives in obedience to him . let our doubtings or disbelievings ( in some degree , and by fits , ) be what they can ; or let them seem to be what they will ; yet we are certain of our faith , whilst we are certain of our fear to offend our maker ; and of our love to his goodness , and of our obedience to his commands . without this last ( 't is very true ) we cannot speak peace to our selves , or others . for as s. john says expresly , by this we know that we know him , if we keep his commandments ; so 't is the keeping of his commandments , by which we know that we love , and obey him truly . § . now having arrived at a full knowledge of god's existence , and his good-pleasure , ( expressed to us in his precepts , ) or of his verity and his will , ( revealed to us in his word , and also ingraven in our own nature , as a law written in our hearts ; ) and farther yet having attained unto a knowledge also in part of his glorious essence ; ( as that he is a spirit , existing of himself from all eternity , an omnipresent and an omniscient , and a necessary being , from whom , and by whom , is every good thing that is ; and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him ; &c. ) having i say the satisfaction of knowing that which our apostle does call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that which may be known of god , which is as much as is needfull , and as much as is enough ; we must not disquiet our minds in vain , by * seeking out things which are too hard for us , or by searching after secrets above our strength ; or by being over-curious in unnecessary matters ; as the excellent son of sirach has very judiciously forewarn'd us . the trinity of persons in the vnity of the godhead is the chiefest of those insearchables ; which are indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , past finding out , more impossible to be traced than all his most mysterious ways , which our apostle thought worthy of that expression . such a mystery it is , as the most pious , and the most learned , and most acute of all writers were never well able to give account of . the most profound divine here is in the condition of simonides , when demanded by hiero , a definition of the deity . the more he looks into this mystery , by so much the obscurer it seems to be . the longer he considers , the less he is able to apprehend it . s. john says expresly , ( and i believe him , ) there are three that bear record in heaven , the father , the word , the holy ghost , and these three are one. ( joh. , . ) the antient fathers and councils , to stop the mouths of several hereticks , of two especially , arius first , and then sabellius , and to preserve the christian church from the plague of schism , found it necessary to add this form of words , ( though not in a positive , but in an exclusive sense , ) a trinity of persons in an unity of the godhead . but if 't is * asked what is meant by a trinity of persons , s. austin says we want words to express it by . dictum est tamen tres personae , non ut illud diceretur , sed ne taceretur quomodo tres sint , &c. for who can speak fitly of what is infinite , and whilst he makes use of terms , belonging onely to finite things ? yet this must be done , if we speak at all . a il en fault parler en language humain , puisque le divin nous est incogneu . onely let us not forget the wise advertisement of anselm , ( whensoe're we so speak , ) * that if we speak concerning god in words which are common to other natures , our sense and meaning must not be common , but peculiar to god alone . § . nor is this all. for we want understanding to apprehend the blessed trinity , as well as words to express it by . anselm's excellent understanding was utterly lost in this labyrinth . the understanding of boetius was also drown'd in this ocean . good s. bernard's understanding was swallow'd up in this abyss . from whence i easily conclude , ( because i do it with humility and due submission , ) that the trinity in vnity onely can be fathomed by it self . and that to speak of three persons , in any acception of the word persons which is in use amongst men , ( when at any time they speak of created beings , ) were to commit a grosser haeresie , than that of the antitrinitarians . § . this does prompt me to go out of this long discourse , at the very same door at which i enter'd . a door of hope and consolation , which seems to hang on these three hinges . first , that i know whom i have believed , by knowledge properly so call'd . next , that i believe what i cannot know , as far as 't is affirmed in god's own word . lastly , that i contradict not what 't is most difficult to believe , ( because not written in god's own word , ) as far as i find it is agreed on by all my teachers , ( especially met together in general councils , ) as an act of vniformity , or as an article of peace . for however i may err , it shall not be as an haeretick , and as a schismatick much less . it being the glory of a man's faith , to bow down his reason to his religion ; and the dignity of his religion , to study charity , and meekness , and obedience to his superiours , above some truths . i say therefore with a leo , if i cannot explain what the trinity is , i will not presume to say there is not a trinity . and with radulphus flaviacensis , b if i cannot apprehend how one is three in the propriety of their persons , and how the same three are one in the communion of their substance , i will not despise , or gainsay , but obey the church . i do not mean onely the english , much less the roman , but i mean the holy catholick and apostolick church , in which to believe , is the ninth article of my creed . if this mystery of the triune is as ineffable , as inscrutable by dust and ashes , ( which we are ) i will content my self ( with damascius ) to sacrifice to him my soul in silence ; and adore him with dionysius , ( whether he is the areopagite , or not , ) c ut nomine vacantem , as being said to be without , because above every name . neither jehovah , in the singular , nor elohim , in the plural , nor both together conjoyn'd can sufficiently illustrate this stupendous 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ( as divines love to call it , ) this reciprocal inhabitation of three subsistences in one another , whereby the vnity of the godhead ( is rather perfected , than destroy'd , and ) remains intire . § . 't is plain the word persons is to be taken , ( not so much in a positive , as ) in a negative sense . for that the words of s. john [ these three are one ] might be no longer misunderstood and misreported , misexpounded and misapply'd , as they were by several haereticks before the first nicene general council , and that christians every where might speak as 't were with one mouth , ( in case they could not be ( every where ) of one mind , ) it seemed good to d that council , to ordain that the word persons should be apply'd in discourse to the three witnesses in heaven , which are but one god. thereby intending , not so properly , to give us a real knowledge of the mystery , as to defend us from error in it . and above all other errors , from those of haeresie , and schism . not so really to inform us what the three in one are , as to preserve us from imagining that they are what they are not. not three parts in one whole , either integral , or essential . not three qualities in one subject . not three modes , not three formalities , not three names of one thing . in which act of vniformity , ( as before i once call'd it , ) and especially in reconciling the whole greek church unto the latine , athanasius and hosius were the most eminently instrumental . now in the business of religion , ( though not in that of meer philosophy ) we are in all reason to yield assent to some high things above our reason . else religion were not religion ; and god himself would not be god , or man at least would not be man , and mystery would not be mystery , if god's knowledge of himself , as a trinity in vnity , could possibly be common to man with god. it is therefore , with me , a prevalent argument of his verity , that his nature is so vastly above the sphere of my comprehension . apprehensive of his nature indeed i am ; but comprehensive of it i cannot be . for whatsoever i can fathom , i cannot absolutely adore ; as seeing there are few of my fellow creatures , whose natures i can say i do fully know . if i make a man of wax , or a statue of marble , i cannot so truly transcend my creature , as my creator does me ; because between me and that , there is some proportion ; but between my god and me , there is none at all . and if my creature for want of reason cannot apprehend me , much less for want of an omniscience , can i comprehend him. thus though i cannot discern the reason , why in the vnity of the substance there is a trinity of subsistences which i admire , yet why i cannot discern the reason , i can discern reason enough ; and ( which is every whit as well for a finite reason , ) i find it most reasonable that so it should be . for exactly to know , why we cannot know exactly the things above us , is every whit as sufficient in order to our faith , as any kind of demonstration can be in order unto our knowledge . so far is any thing from reaching what is infinitely above or beyond it self , that no being ( but the divine ) exactly knows its own nature . and even this our very ignorance of god's entire essence may lead us to the knowledge of his existence . for as my outward eye sees , but cannot see that it sees , ( this later being the work of a nobler faculty within me , ) or as a brute does apprehend its proper objects , but cannot apprehend at all how or why it apprehends , ( for want of a power to reflect on its apprehension , ) so a man indued with reason , although he knows many things throughly , and also knows how he knows them , yet how , or why , or by what means he comes to know , that he knows how he knows , he can never tell ; unless it be by inferring , that it comes to him from a superiour and invisible power , which power is god's . § . by stating thus the whole subject of the godhead in general , and of the trinity in particular , ( which i have singled out as one of the highest mysteries in our religion , the least understood , and the most stumbled at , by such as set up meer science against religion , and depretiate all faith in respect of knowledge , ) i pay my duty both to the word , and the church of god. to each of these as a christian ; and as a man , to the law of nature . i fully satisfie my reason , by weighing the nature of religion : and so i make a strict agreement between my reason and my faith. nor can i better conclude and dismiss the whole subject , than in the sense of the devout and acute s. bernard . c to inquire into this mystery , ( he speaks of a critical inquiry , ) is a peevish curiosity : ( and as perilous as it is peevish . ) to believe it in humility , as it is worded by the church , ( which is the pillar and ground of truth , ) is a pious belief , and a safe profession . but to see it as it is , and to know it as we are known , is the final consummation of bliss and glory . which god the father of his mercy dispose us for , for the merits of god the son , and through the powerfull operation of god the holy ghost . to whom be honour and adoration for evermore . finis . neither will the supposed , ( and i fear truly supposed ) greater number of atheists , than either papists or sectaries , be any hinderance to the papists , for finally prevailing . see dr. sanderson 's long preface to his sermons in fol. § . . the table of particulars . a abstinence from the kinds , and the appearances of evil . p. , . to p. . from fleshly lusts in general . p. , &c. to p. . from disobedience to authority in particular . . to . antinomians from whence . . atheism expressed in the denial of spirits . , , &c. by rebellion against governours . , . by impudence in sin. . confuted , , , &c. to . an effect of great dulness in witty men . , , &c. authority , though humane , is of divine right ; and as well the subordinate as the supream . , , &c. see humane laws . obedient . indifferent things . c. calvinistical doctrines . , , , , &c. charity inconsistent with schism . , . circumspection in thesi . , , &c. in hypothesi . , , &c. commandments how to be found in peace and holiness . , , &c. how the most rigorous are indeed the most mercifull . . conscience what , and how a rule to live by . . . to , and , . church of england , how far from popish , , , , , &c. christ , how a stumbling-block to titular christians , as much as to the jews and gentiles . , , &c. christianity a warfare , , , &c. but full of pleasure . , , &c. brought into credit by obedience to humane laws . , , &c. credulity antidoted . , , , &c. d. damnation , to whom 't is due by way of eminence . , . dangers incompassing every christian . , . deceivers if old more plausible than of late . , , &c. demonstration metaphysical more compulsive of assent than mathematical , , , , &c. , , &c. discretion , of what moment in religion . , , &c. distrust , a duty . , , &c. drollery how dangerous , , . duellers how impious , , . e. elect , why they cannot fall finally , though many regenerate may and do . , , &c. enemies , how to be obliged . , . enthusiastical pretenders their most false rule of trial. , . f. faith essential to religion , and more rewardable than knowledge . , , , &c. divine described as differing from humane . , . &c. how to he secured from failing . , , &c. fallacies in religion and practice provided against . , &c. , , &c. , &c. false prophets and false christs in the primitive times . , , , &c. . false teachers , devils . , , &c. fear consists with true fortitude . , . necessary to faith , , &c. flattery fatal . , , &c. flesh , its frailty in the best . , , , , &c. fornication , how to be prevented . , , &c. g. god , his glory the best motive to a good life . , . how he fights for us . , . his being demonstrated by mental and metaphysical , more clearly than other things by mathematical demonstration . , &c. , to . the things of god which may be known . , . gospel , brought into disgrace by the schisms , and seditions , and disobedience of its professors . , , &c. in what degree to be heeded by us . , , &c. grace sufficient not still effectual . , , &c. h. haeresie what , and how differing from schism . , &c. happiness not in this life . , . hobs how monstrous . , , , . holiness how important . , , &c. humane laws asserted . , , &c. , , &c. , , to . humility a chief mark of god's spirit . , . hypocrisie in its height . , , &c. , , , , , , &c. . i. jealousie dangerous to souls , ( as well as too much want of it ) , , . jesuites why antichristian . , , , , , . impudence in sinning worse than hypocrisie . , , &c. indifferent things become necessary by humane laws . , , &c. , , , , &c. infallibility of rome falsified . , &c. justice , how a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . , . k. kings alone can procure the peace and vnity of christendom , and they can do it if they will. , , &c. their supremacy asserted , , , &c. knowledge damning without obedience . , , , &c. how inconsistent with belief . , . how less worthy , and why less required . , , &c. as such , infallible . . l. laws . see humane , and indifferent . lawfull things to be avoided . , &c. lent , why its abstinences prescribed . , . how to be kept . , . liberty truly christian , wherein it stands . , , &c. life , when to be despised . , . lusts of the flesh . , , &c. luxury in its height . , . m. man to man a god or a devil . , , , &c. the best not to be follow'd in all cases and occasions . , . o. obedience to government a fundamental to christianity . , , , , , . must be impartial . , , &c. to . to humane laws due by the laws divine . , , &c. occasions of sin to be avoided . , , , , , &c. , . p. peace of what value . , , , , &c. pleasures in self-denial , , , &c. popery , why laid to the charge of protestants , and by whom . , , , , &c. confutes it self . , . preaching condemns whom it does not convert . , , &c. , , &c. the best . . pride in its height is seen in schismaticks . , , &c. prosperity no constant mark of god's favour . , . prudence consists of three parts . . , &c. wherein of most use . . publick good to be prefer'd before private . , , &c. r. rebellion the constant effect of schism . , , . the most damning piece of carnality . , , &c. regenerate may finally fall from grace . , , &c. religion lies in a little room . , . how it differs from science , and is more excellent than it. , , , &c. how evacuated by the tongue . . s. salvation on what terms to be had . , , , , &c. schism worse than haeresie . , , , &c. , . why more damning than other crimes . , , , &c. an amulet against it . , , &c. scripture wrested by the heathens . , . to be attended , how much and why . , , &c. , , &c. why more than the discourses which are commonly call'd sermons . , , , . how despised by some great papists . , . and by others . , &c. an apology for it . , , &c. security most treacherous . , , &c. self-deceiving the worst . . self-denial for publick peace . , . how pleasant . , , &c. , &c. sense , the outward not so infallible as the inward . , , &c. separatists in england why the worst . , , &c. sermons how to be heeded , and why , and with what difference . , , &c. to the end . sincerity how to be proved . , , , &c. sins the worse the more spiritual . , . the least how damning . , &c. to . soul of man of what value . , , &c. spirits to be try'd , and by what touchstone . , , &c. , , , &c. t. temptations , how carefully to be shun'd by the best and strongest . , , &c. , , &c. how diversly to be encountred . , , &c. thoughts why damning . . touchstone , how to be tryed before allowed as a rule of trial. , , &c. tongue , how great an evil. , . trinity of persons in unity , &c. the chief of insearchables . , , &c. why called persons , and when first . , , , &c. u. unity among christians of what consequence to be kept , and by what means . , , , &c. , , &c. w. war lawfull under the law as well of christ as of moses . , . wisedom of the flesh why devillish . , . women why not to be conversed with usually , , , . &c. words , how damning . , , &c. , . word of god. see scripture . errata sic corrige . pag. . line . r. dysasters . p. . l. . from the bottom , for with r. by . p. . l. . r. meribibula . p. . in marg. after l. . add , [ concil . florent . session . . & deinceps . edit . bin. vol. . à p. . ad p. . ] p. . l. . in marg. r. facturam . p. . l. . dele but. p. . l. . r. peace . p. . l. . after but , del . the seventh is set apart . p. . l. . for ye , r. the. p. . l. . r. stamp'd . p. . l. . dele 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . p. . l. . for whereas , r. where , as . p. . l. . r. curiosity . p. . l. . after of , r. our . p. . l. . from the bottom , after are , r. we . p. . l. . after is , r. yet . p. . l. . after glory , add in the text what is in the margin . p. . l. . for joshua , r. jeshua . p. . l. . for so , r. see . p. . l. . for how , r. now. p. . l. ult . r. consider . p. . l. . from the bottom , del . ratio formalis . p. . l. . after of , r. such . p. . l. . after as , dele it . p. . l. . after are , r. therefore . p. . l. , , . in marg. del . [ paulus venetus , and others . ] p. . l. . after of , r. the. p. . l. . after doubting , dele or . p. . l. . dele and. ibid. l. . from the bottom , for only can , r. can only . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e luk. . . habemus enim & nos jesuitas , inquiebat rex jacobus . isaaco causabono dicuntur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . epist . . hujus sententiam annales hanc referunt , nullum enormius peccatum esse posse , quàm in conscientias exercere velle imperium . nam conscientiis imperare , est arcem goeli invadere . gal. . . heb. . . pet. . . notes for div a -e vide haeresin jenxuanam apud maffaeium , l. . * vid. arrian . epict. l. c. . & l. . c. . plotin . enn. . l. . joh. . . * p. . * king. . . * deut. . , . * pet. . . & ch . . ver . . ezek. . , , , , , &c. * joh. . . * joh. . . * ibid. * rev. . . * rom. . ▪ joh. . . * rom. . . joh. . . ver . . leviath . p. . & . ibid. p. . leviath . p. . deut. . , ▪ king. . , . king. . , . king. . . num. . * mar. . . act. . . ibid. joh. . . pet. . . rom. . . heb. . . joh. . . act. . , . gal. . . rom. . , . * vid. les provinciales . . & caramuel de theologiâ fundamentali p. , . & escobar theol. moral . tom. . l. . c. . p. . . . . &c. a mar. . . b eph. . , . mar. . . rev. . . cor. . . cor. . . rev. . . eph. . . joh. . . cor. . . isa . . . * matth. . . mar. . . rom. . . isa . . . gal. . , . gal. . , , . * troppo confina la virtu col vitio . thess . . . cor. . . matth. . . exod. . & . vin. lir. c. . thess . . , . matth. . . matth. . . matth. . . matth. . , . quomodo ob religionem magni , quibus magnitudo de irreligiositate provenit ? tertull . apolog. cap. . p. . * apud prudentium ad valentin . si romanae religiones regna praestant , nunquam retro judaea regnásset , despectrix communium istarum divinitatum . tertull . apol. c. . p. . hieron . ad marcellam . philostrat . l. . * maffaem maffaeium hist . ind. l. . p. . & l . p. . cor. . . ideo me exultare noveritu , quia adhuc-sanctus per totum seculum ador ator . pet. . , . matth. . . luk. . . isa . . , . lev. . , . act. . . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . cor. . . isa . . . eph. . . rev. . . zech. . . pet. . . notes for div a -e thess . . , , . * matth. . . * tim. . . * cor. . . * joh. ● cor. . . & . tim. . . cor. . . * nulla ab iis tanta potest fieri corruptio , quanta est schismatis pernicies . iren. l. . c. . * hieron . ad tit. c. . see dr. ham. of schism , c. . p. . pet. . , , . * rom. . . eph. . . * pet. . . rom. . , . jude . . . . . . jude . cor. . . * note that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 placed after 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may well signifie schisms , because the word is so taken rom. . . and because schisms are a kind of ecclesiastical seditions . cor. . , . * pejus hoc crimen est , quàm quod admisisse lapsi videntur . cyprian . de vnitate ecclesiae . — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 — eusch . l. . c. . tim. . . , . pet. . , . isa . . . psal . . . cor. . . etsi tales occisi in confessione nominis fuerint , macula ista nec sanguine abluitur ; inexpiabilis culpa discordiae , nec passione purgatur . cyprian . de unit . eccl. cor. . , . * optatus l. . p. . rom. . . cor. . , , , , . * act. . , . pet. . . cor. . . phil. . . notes for div a -e * gen. . . heb. . . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . hippocrat . aphor. . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . jam. . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; sophoc . * heb. . . * quàm impensè etiam octavius augustus caesar eodem dicto delectatus fuerit , videre est apud aul. gell. l. . c. . & macrob . saturdal . l. . * pet. . . * heb. . . rom. . , , , &c. mar. . , , &c. gen. . , . pet. . . rom. . . jam. . . & ch . . . matth. . . matth. . . & ch . . . luk. . . rev. . , . . pet. . . * psal . . . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , cor. . . mar. . . cor. . , . gen. . . pet. . . eph. . . greg. mag. dial. l. . c. . fol. . prov. . . jude . psal . . . * isa . . , . notes for div a -e * non primis verbis respondet ad ea de quibus fuerat interrogatus ; sed illud primum admonet , quod inprimis fuerat observandum , nè imposturis hominum abducamur à fide . clarius in locum . v. tertull. de praescript . adversus haeres . cap. . * origen contra cels . l. . act. . . euseb . hist . eccl. l. . c. . & l. . c. . & l. . c. . a claudio cas . honoratus , à multis quasi deus glorificatus esse dicitur . docuit se esse qui inter judaeos quasi filius apparuerit , in samaria quasi pater descenderit , & in reliquis gentibus quasi sp. sanctus adventaverit . helenam primam ejus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fuisse dixit , & generâsse angelos & potestates per quas mundum hunc factum esse ait . iren. l. . c. . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . polycarp . ad philippens . p. . joh. . . euseb . l. . c. . iren. l. . c. . & l. . c. . * euseb . l. . c. . iren. l. . c. . &c. . * epiph. haer. . a hieron . lib. de script . eccles . augustin . haer. . b euseb . l. . c. . & l. . c. . * euseb . ibid. iren. . c. . . . judaeis nec advenarum jure terram patriam saltem vestigio salutare conceditur . tertull. in apol. c. . p. . euseb . l. . c. . act. . . ver . , . joh. . , . * matth. . . * jam. . . wisd . . . eph. . . matth. . . prov. . . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . polyb. hist . l. . & legat . . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . plato de legibus l. . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 &c. diod. sic. l. . p. . jer. . . vid. buxtorph . thesaur . lingu . hebr. qui historiam recenset integram ex libro shevet jehuda . jer. . , , . ecclus. . . psal . . , , . psal . . . * conser buchananum , & junium brutum , cum catalogo scriptorum apud is . casaub . epist . ad frontonem ducaeum . praesertim p. , , . a beatum illum , qui non vidit mala patriae quae parant duo genera hominum , jesuitae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . deus misereatur ecclesiae suae . casaub . epist . . confer etiam thuani l. . a d. . cum ejusdem l. . a. d. . & l. . a. d. . matth. . . vincent . lirin . cap. , , . tim. . . rev. . . kin. . . ch. . v. , . * thess . . . v. justin mart. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . p. , &c. eph. . . ver . . gal. . . rom. . , . pet. . . zech. . . a see the two short discourses of mr. dodwell , especially the first , and the excellent praeface to it . b thesis propugnanda in aulâ collegii claromontani , die . decembris a. d. . see the plea of monsieur talon advocat general against this thesis , in the new haeresie of jesuitism , p. , . and of the same book , p. . & . * ab exemplo & simili tot sunt experimenta fallaciarum , quòt hominum capita : dum quilibet assequi vult quemlibet , dum exemplo dicit se vivere talium , quos approbat ecclesia & canonizat , &c. gerson tract . . de custodiâ angelorum partitio . super magnificat . a non credibile est saram foeminam sanctissimam id facturum fuisse , nisi licitum esse scivisset . bellarm. lib. de matrimonio cap. . b augustin . in gen. quaest . . & contra faustum manich. l. . c. . thess . . . zech. . . eph. . . matth. . . pet. . , , , . notes for div a -e diog. laert. l. . prov. . . eph. . . prov. . . pet. . . cor. . . * aquin. . q. . c. & . q. . art . , , . heb. . . eph. . . * manichaeus electos suos , quos inter animas platonis in coelestibus collecat , dicit omni carere peccato , nec si velint , peccare posse . hieron . ad ctesiph . adversus pelag. tom. . p. . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . epiphan . haeres . ex iren. l. . c. . & . p. . hom. iliad . . hieronymus adversus jovinianum l. . tom. . p. . &c. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. iren. l. . p. . gal. . . cor. . , . * rom. . . jude . rom. . , . psal . . . isa . . , , . which compare with hos . . , , . jerem. . , . . . luk. . . * gal. . . a matth. . . matth. . , . tim. . . tim. . , . joh. . . rom. . , & . matth. . , . tim. . . matth. . . pet. . , , . pet. . . matth. . , . heb. . , . tim. . . tim. . . tim. . . * matth. . . rev. . . & . . pet. . . chron. . , . ezek. . . ver . . luk. . , . rom. . , , &c. ch. . v. . col. . , . cor. . , . heb. . , . heb. . , & . rom. . , , , , , . matth. . . joh. . , . * pet. . , , . & ch . . v. , . pet. . . ch. . v. . heb. . . ver . , . heb. . . cor. . . heb. . . mar. . , , &c. to verse . * luk. . , . * luk. . , . * col. . . a thess . . . judg. . , . psal . . . pet. . , . cor. . . eph. . . phil. . . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . cor. . . notes for div a -e cor. . . heb. . . jam. . . * vid. laërt . cherub . bullar . tom. . p. . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . plut. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . p. . id quod accidit actaeoni melissi filio , qui 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . id. ibid. joh. . . rom. . . jam. . . * joh. . object . . exod. . . ver . . judg. . . judg. . . answer . matth. . . vid. catech. card. richi . * rom. . . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . clem. rom. ad corinth . ed. jun p. . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . epiphan . advers . carpocr . l. . tom. . p. . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. gregor . presbyt . in vitâ nazianz. prope finem . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . chrysost . in cap. . epist . ad ephes . homil . xi . subfinem . * rerum absolutè necessariarum ad salutem , non magnum esse numerum . re jacobus arbitratur in suâ respons . ad tertiam observat . perronii cardinalis . * et ferè ex aequo omnibus probantur qui se christianes dici postulant . id. ibid. * ecclesia romana multa hodie observat ceu 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 necessaria , quae vetus ecclesia vix nôrat , certè non ita usurpabat , tanquam planè essent necessaria . is . casaub . epist . . p. . the application . * bernard in serm. . de oratione & jejunio . p. . notes for div a -e matth. . . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . ignat. in ep. ad magnesios . * m. catonis verbum est , ad evertendam remp. sobrium accessisse . sueton . * atrociùs sub sancti nominis professione peccatur . salv. de providen . c. . magis damnabilis est malitia , quam titulus bonitatis accusat ; & reatus impii est pium nomen . id. c. . sueton. l . c. , , . vopisc . in vitâ taciti imper . p. . xenophon in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . lib. . p. . athenaeus l. c. . etiam l. . c. . valer. max. l. . c. . jer. . . hoc sancti viri habent proprium ▪ quòd ut semper ab illicitis longè sint , à se plerumque etiam licita abscindunt . greg. mag. dial. l. . c. . cor. . . tim. . . sunt deinde media , quae quidem nec bona esse noscuntur , nec mala , possunt tamen indifferenter & benè pariter & malè vel prohiberi , vel juberi , sed malè nullatenus in his à subditis obediri . bernard . in epist . . ad adam monachum . p. . * cor. . . ex his sunt , jejunare , vigilare , legere , &c. idem ibidem . a de philoxeno cytherio . apicio , aliisque , consule athenaeum , l. . c. . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 anthippus comicus apud athenaeum , l. . c. . p. . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . gregor . nyssen . de profess . christ . isa . . . sam. . . eubulus in amalthaeâ introducit herculem delitlarum vituperatorem . v. is . causab . in athen. l. . c. . * euripid. in andromachâ menelaum introducit sic loquentem . cornelius agrippa de vanit . scient . cap. . vvaque conspectâ livorem ducit ab uvâ. jam. . . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . pythag. matth. . . hos . . . * cor. . . . a ver. . ver. . copiosiùs haec narratio habenda est apud josephum , in libello cui titulus , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . macc. . à v. . ad . v. . sed sagitare magis simulacra & pabula amoris , atque alib studeat animi traducere motus . lucret . l. . de remedio amoris . exod. . . mat. . . pet. . . num. . . ecclus. . . * ch. . v. . * cassian . lib. . collat . §. . a cum foeminâ semper esse , & non cognoscere foeminam , nonne plus est quàm mortuum suscitare ? quod minus est non potes , & quod majus est vis credam tibi ? d. bernard . super cantica serm. . p. . * nec res est dubia quam narro : quia penè tanti in eâ testes sunt , quanti ejusdem loci habitatores . quandam sanctimonialem secum permisit habitare , certus de suâ ejusque continentiâ , andreas fundanae civitatis episcopus . mox de suo habitaculo non solùm eandem dei famulam , sed omnem quoque foeminam illine expulit . greg. mag. dialog . l. . c. . fol. . a laur. surius t. . die . febr. — misit angelos deus ad tutelam cultumque generis humani . — illos cum hominibus commorantes diabolus paulatim ad vitia pel lexit , & mulierum congressibus inquinavit . tum in coelum ob peccata non recepti ceciderunt in terram . sic eos diabolus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ex angelis dei , suos fecit satellites ac ministros . lact. l. . c. . p. . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . clem. alex. strom. l. . p. . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . just . mar. apol . p. . * ex tempore ordinationis acceptae presbyteram suam ut sororem diligens , sed quasi hostem cavens , ad se propiùs accedere nunquam sinebat — et ab eà sibi communionem funditùs familiaritatis absciderat . &c. greg. mag. dial. l. . c. . fol. . notes for div a -e isa . . . * see deut. . . compared with deut. . ; , . cor. . . cor. . . joh. . . gal. . . eph. . . rom. . . gal. . . job . . job . . . nunquam fugatur , nisi cum fugitur , nuquam mactatur , nisi cum maceratur , &c. espensaeus de contin . conjug . l. . c. . à p. . ad p. . jam. . . . cor. . . cum aliis vitiis potest expectari conflictus ; haec autem fugienda est , quia aliter vinci non potest . anselinus in cor. . . — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . aristot . eth. l. . c. . caetera vitia vincuntur resistendo , sed fornicatio fugiendo . i.e. totaliter vitando cogitationes immundas , & quaflibet occasiones . aquinas in cor. . . in eundem sensum cajetanus ibid. v. cassian . collat. l. . §. . puellae vel christo reservatae amore captus est , & sauciatus magnus ille cyprianus . vnde ? & quomodo ? tangunt oculorum faces etiam intangibilia . nec solum captus est , sed & sollicitavit — liberanda de locis periculosis navis , ne inter secpulos frangatur . eruenda velociter de incendio sarcina , priusquam flammis supervenientibus concremetur . nemo diu tutus , periculo proximus . espensaeus ubi supra pag. . * king. . . a chap. . v. . v. munsterum in locum & cornelium à lapide . militia est vita hominis super terram . job . . rom. . . * gal. . . * sam. . . sam. . , . chap. . v. . . judeth . , , . & ch. . . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . mic. . . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . rom. . . jam. . . gal. . . rom. . . * eccles . . . * heb. . anima , dei insignita imagine , decorata similitudine , desponsata fide dotata spiritu , redempta sanguine , de putata cum angelis , capar beatitudinis , haeres bonitatis , rationis particeps , quid tibi cum carne unde ista pateris ? bernard . de animâ . c. . p. . * rom. . . philip. . . rom. . . liquidò colligere debemus , quiasi deus sapientia , anima autem justi sedes sapientiae , dum coelum dicitur sedes dei , anima justi ergo est coelum . greg. mag. in evang . homil. . l. . p. , . vide etiam bernard . super cantica , serm. . p. . tim. . . rom. . . tim. . , . rom. . . psal . . , . joh. . ult . rom. . . rom. . . joh. . . eph. . . ver. . tim. . . a bold expression i confess , but 't is s. paul's , cor. . . col. . . rom. . . * cor. . . ver. , . tim. . . notes for div a -e rom. . . tim. . . ver. . tit. . . ver. , , . jam. . . * act. . . a rom. . . gal. . . prov. . . heb. . . matth. . . cor. . . notes for div a -e luk. . . mat. . . mat. . . eph. . , . mar. . . tim. . . * heb. . . tim. . . heb. . . jer. . . deut. . . * joh. . . a joh. . . joh. . . joh. . . * rev. . . deut. . . gal. . . gen. . . gen. . . king. . , , , . cor. . . mal. . . tit. . . heb. . , . pet. . , . * mat. . . a joh. . . b luk. . . heb. . , . joh. . . * quicquid humano asperctui subjicitur , templum ejus vocavit qui solâ mente conspicitur , ut qui haec veneratur ut templa , cultum tamen maximum debeat conditori ; sciatque quisquis in usum templi hujus indacitur , ritu sibi vivendum sacerdotis . macrobius . * rom. . , , . a philip. . . * matth. . . rom. . , , . heb. . . isa . . . pet. . . rev. . , . cor. . . rev. . . . . cor. . . heb. . . rom. . . * joh. . . act. . . hottinger . de necessit . reform . p. , . * cùm attendi ad illam scripturam , visa est mihi indigna quam tullianae dignitati compararem . tumor enim meus refugiebat modum ejus , &c. augustin . confess . l. . c. . p. . * see mr. robert boyle his third edition of considerations touching the stile of the holy scriptures . p. . sam. . . , . sam. . , . king. . . luk. . . ch. . v. , . intendi animum in scripturas sanctas ut viderem quales essent . et ecce video rem non compertam superbis , neque nudatam pueris , sed incessu humilem , successu excelsam , & velatam mysteriis , & non eram ego talis ut intrare possem , aut inclinare cervicem ad ejus gressus . augustin . in confess . l. . c. . p. . * pet. . . heb. . , . * cor . . luk. . . mal. . . rev. . , . pet. . , . isa . . . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . homer . il. α. notes for div a -e tim. . . * v. . a v. . b v. . * mal. . , . cor. . . . . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . aristot . eth. l. . c. . cor. . . rom. . . heb. . . * sunt qui negant spiritum esse ullum , aut omnino quicquam praeter ea quae sensu percipimus . maffeius hist . ind. p. . * rom. . , . a aristot . phys . c. . & phys . c. . & . metaphys . c. . plato . de legibus . confer bernard . de consid . l. . c. . job . , , . * justin . in resp . ad quaest . . damascenus . fid . orth. c. . & . cic. orat. pro milone . nulla gens tam barbara , quae non fateatur esse aliquem deum . cic. . tuscul . qu , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . aristot . . de coelo . t. . v. jamblicum in pr. de myst . aegypt . & julianum apud cyrill . l. . act. . . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . diodor. sic. l. . p. . * amongst and above others , i mean the most acute and the most learned dr. gunning , now my lord bishop of ely , paulus venetus and others , mr. latham in his sermon upon rom. . . p. , , . tim. . . * vix sibi temperant , quin eousque impudentia provehantur , ut naturam oderint quòd infra deum simus . sen. de benef. l. . . * ibid. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . clem. alex. strom. lib. . heb. . . mar. . . * mortuus est dei filius , prorsus credibile est , quia ineptum . sepultus resurrexit , certum est , quia impossibile . tert. de carne christi . * cor. . . * cor. . . a joh. . . b rom. . . cor. . , . est non scripta sed nata lex ; quam non didicimus , accepimus , legimus , verùm ex naturâ ipsâ arripuimus , hausimus , expressimus ; ad quam non docti , sed facti ; non instituit , sed imbuti sumus , &c. cic. orat. pro milone . heb. . . rom. . . * ecclus. . , . rom. . . * cùm quaeritur , quid tres ? magnâ prorsus inopiâ humanum laborat eloquium . august . de trin. l. . cap. . a mornay de la veritè de la religion christienne . c. . fol . b. * sic est summa essentia supra & extra omnem aliam naturam , ut si quando de illa dicitur aliquid verbis quae communia sunt aliis naturis sensus nullatenus sit communis . ansel monolog . c. . vbi supra c. . boetius lib. de trinitate & vnitate dei. d. bern. de consid . l. . c. . p. . . martialis in epist . ad eu●degal . c. . a leo de passione domini serm. . b rad. flav. in levit. l. . c. . c dionys . areop . de divin . nomin . c. . p. . d hist . concil . nicaeni ex edit . bin. tom. . p. . & alfons . pis . l. . p. . & inferius p. . vide etiam baron . ad ann. . c bern. de consideratione l. . c. . a proclamation for citing ministers vvho have not prayed for their majesties scotland. privy council. approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page image. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing s estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a proclamation for citing ministers vvho have not prayed for their majesties scotland. privy council. sheet ([ ] p.) printed by the heir of andrew anderson, by the order of his majesties privy council, edinburgh : . "edingburgh, august , ." reproduction of original in huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng church and state -- scotland -- early works to . dissenters, religious -- scotland -- early works to . scotland -- religion -- th century -- sources. broadsides -- scotland -- edinburgh (lothian) -- th century - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - elspeth healey sampled and proofread - elspeth healey text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a proclamation , for citing ministers vvho have have not prayed for their majesties . edinburgh , august . . whereas by an act of council , of the sirth of this i●stant , in pursuance of an act of the meeting of the estates of this kingdom , of the thirteenth of april last , the parochioners and hearers of such ministers as have neglected and slighted the reading of the proclamation therein mentioned , and the praying for king william and queen marry , are invited and allowed to cite such ministers before the privy council , which act of council grants warrand for citing and adducing ministers ; and forasmuch as the design of the said act , is , that such ministers who have disobeyed the said act of the meeting of the estates , may conform thereto by a legal sentence be deprived ; therefore that the said act of the meeting of the estates , and the act of council pursua●t thereof , may attain there intended design , and effect with the greater expedition , and least expenses to the leidges , the lords of his majesties privy council , in their majesties flame and authority . do invite and allow , not only the parochioners and hearers of such ministers as have disobeyed ; but also the heretors of these parochins , and the sheriffs or their deputs , and magistrats of burghs respective , and the members of this currant parliament , within there respective bounds , to cause cite such ministers before the privy council , and hereby grants warrand to messengers at arms , for citing them , and such witnesses as are necessary , they delivering a copy of these presents , either in print or in writ , signed by their hand , to each minister that shall be cited by them to any tuesday or thursday , six dayes after the citation , for all on this side the river tay , and fifteen days for all beyond the said river , that such ministers who have not given obedience to the said act of the meeting of the estates , may be a legal sentence be deprived according thereto ; and appoints the returns of these executions to be inrolled by the clerk of privy council , and called before the lords at their respective dayes of compearance ; declaring that these present are but prejudice of any citations already given , or to be given , either upon the former act of council , or upon warrands from the council-board . and ordains these presents to be printed , and published by the officers of prive council at the mercat-crosse of edinburgh , that none may pretend ignorance . per actum dominorum secreti concilii . gilb . eliot , cls. sti. concilii . god save king william and queen mary . edinburgh , printed by the heir of andrew anderson , by order of his majesties privy council , anno dom. . the godly mans portion and sanctuary opened, in two sermons, preached august . / by r.a. r. a. (richard alleine), - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing a a estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : or : ) the godly mans portion and sanctuary opened, in two sermons, preached august . / by r.a. r. a. (richard alleine), - . [ ], p. [s.n., london printed : ?] attributed by wing and nuc pre- imprints to richard alleine, - . identified on reel as wing ( nd ed.) a . reproduction of originals in the british library and the congregational library, london, england. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng sermons, english -- th century. dissenters, religious -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - elspeth healey sampled and proofread - elspeth healey text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the godly man's portion and sanctuary opened , in two sermons , preached august . . by r. a. london , printed anno domini . the contents . the principal doctrine , those that obey the gospel , whatsoever or whensoever they want , shall ever abide in a peacefull and blessed condition . reas . . the god of peace shall be with them . the riches of this promise opened . . god is in the promise . god is in the promise as the god of peace . he that is the god of peace , is the god of power . he that is the god of peace , is the god of patience . he that is the god of peace , is the god of hope . . god's being with them , signifies , the heart of god with them . the help of god with them . the presence of god with them . reas . . if god be with them , all things shall make for them . rom. . . opened at large . what things they are especially , that shall work for good . to what good they shall work . to whom . how they shall work for good . that they shall work for good to them that love god. proved in . propositions . the providence of god governs the world. the design of providence ( as to the elect ) is the accomplishment of gods good purpose and promise . providence shall not fail of accomplishing its end . two cautions . two objections answered . ob. . how can the re●●…val of the gospel , and the ministry of it , be imagined to work for good ? answered . ob. . suppose a saint to fall into distraction , and so live and die , what good can possibly be wrought out of this ? answered . two particular inferences . . rejoyce in the promise of god. . lay your selves down quietly and peaceably under it . the general application . . to the ungodly , perswading them , and directing them how to get within this promise . of these , some are far from the kingdom of god. to them , after a word of conviction , and expostulation , are given . directions . others are near the kingdom of god , almost christians . six words of counsell to them . to the godly . the exhortation to them bottomed on philip. . , . and is , generall , speciall . the generall exhortation , let your conversation be as becometh the gospel . let it answer and be suitable to the ends of the gospel . the dignities the gospel invests you with . the names which the gospel puts upon you . the reward and riches which the gospel promises . the supports which the gospel gives . the spirit of holiness which the gospel pours forth upon you . the special exhortation , containing directions for a christian 's daily walk . let this gospel-conversation be carried on , in an holy union . directions for the promoting an holy union betwixt all saints , though of different perswasions . in an united contention . in an holy boldness . arguments pressing the exhortation . . this shall be to your adversaries an evident token of perdition . to you , of salvation . the argument of the text farther urg'd in two particulars . if god be with you , all shall work for your good . if god be with you , you shall shortly be with god. the conclusion and valediction . phil. . . those things which you have both learned , and received , and heard , and seen in me , do , and the god of peace shall be with you. what the particular reason of my choice of this scripture this day is , if you compare my present station , with the intent of the apostle , in these words , you will easily understand . these words of the apostle , being part of the close of his epistle to the philippians , are his valediction , or parewel to them : it is not unknown to you , that i must now be parted from you ; and i have pitched on this scripture , to be the close of my twenty years ministry among you . god hath sent me among you to be a builder ; and i have chosen this text , to be an hammer to fasten , and drive home those nails of instruction ●nd consolation , which i have been so long endeavouring to enter into you . god hath sent me among you , as a fisher-man ; and i have chosen these words to be as the closing of the net. behold ! once more the net is spread , and i am now making my last draught ; and oh that it might have the same good speed , as peter's last had , luke . . it would then pay the charges , though the net break . god hath sent me among you as an husband-man , to plough , and to sow ; and i am now come to cover what hath been sown . what is my aim in preaching , let be yours in hearing : oh that both preacher and hearers might heartily joyn in this desire ! this once more , god speed the plough . in this desire and hope i drive on . in the text observe , a precept , a promise , an entail of the promise on the precept . in the precept we have , . an act ; [ do. ] . an object ; [ the things that you have learned , received ▪ heard , and seen . ] the promise is in these words , [ the god of peace shall be with you . ] the entail of the promise on the precept , you have in the connective particle [ and ] which knits them up together . do the work , and have the reward ; obey the precept , and enjoy the promise ; do what you have received and heard , and the god of peace shall be with you . be careful of the former , and be not careful about the latter ; if the precept be performed , the promise shall be made good . doct. . christians must be learners , before they can be doers . [ what you have learned , that do . ] doct. . he hath learned well , that hath lerrned to do well . doct. . christians eyes , as well as their ears , may help them on in religion ; or , the holy examples of ministers , should be living sermons to people . [ what you have seen in me ] therefore the apostle exhorts , phil. . . mark them which so walk , as you have us for an example ; and cor. . . be ye followers of me , as i am of christ ; that is , either , i have been a follower of christ , be ye therefore followers of me ; or else , be ye followers of me , as far forth as i have been a follower of christ . those ministers may go off the stage with honour and comfort , who have left behind them the good seed of sound doctrine , and the good savour of an holy example . for mine own part , what my doctrine and manner of life hath been among you , you are witnesses , and god also . and however , i have great reason to judge and condemn my self before the lord , and to bewail it , that my conversation hath been less exemplary and useful , than , oh that it had been ! yet i go off from you , with this testimony upon my heart , that i have not been of those who bind heavy burthens , and lay them on other mens shoulders , but will not touch them with one of their fingers ; but my endeavour hath been , to press on mine own soul , and to hold out in my own practice , that word of life which i have preached to you ; and therefore am bold , in this sence , to exhort you , in the words of the apostle , be ye followers of me , as far forth as you have seen me a follower of christ . doct. . godly ministers , when they are parting from their people , would fain leave god behind them . though it be not unusual , when the lord sends them away , he goes with them ; god and his messengers , do not seldom take their farewel of people together ; yet their earnest desire is , that though they must away , yet the lord would stay . doct. . faithful ministers would be messengers of peace , going , as well as coming . as the apostles first words were to be , peace be unto you , matth. . so some of this apostles last words were , the god of peace shall be with you . doct. . when ever ministers part with their people , if they can but leave godlyness in them , they shall certainly leave god with them . or , those that obey the gospel , whatsoever , or whomsoever they want , shall ever be in a peaceful , and blessed condition . these things do , that is , live in the practice and power of that doctrine of godliness , which you have received , and heard ; and then fear not , the god of peace shall be with you . this doctrine , i shall fully prove to you , after i have premised , that the doctrine which i have preached to you , is the doctrine of godliness ; the summe whereof take in these four particulars : . that jesus christ , who came into the world to save sinners , came also to sanctifie and purge them from their sins . . that those that believe in jesus , must be careful to maintain good works , or to live a godly life . . that this godliness is not such a slight and easie , and empty thing , as the mistaken world imagine ; but stands in an exact conformity of the whole man , heart , and life , to the whole will of god. . that as whosoever believes not in jesus , so whosoever is short of this true , sincere godliness , cannot be saved . this is the summe of that doctrine , which i have preached unto you ; which being the eternal truth of god , i herein imbarque my own soul and life , desiring to be found in that same jesus , and to be found walking in that same way of righteousness , which i have declared unto you . . that my design and aim , in preaching this doctrine to you , hath been , to beget in you , and through the influence and assistance of the eternal spirit , to bring you to , this true godliness . i have travailed in birth with you , that christ might be formed in you ; that i might leave you possessors and partakers of that grace , which accompanies salvation ; that your faith might stand not in the wisdom of men but in the power of god ; that your repentance might be repentance unto life , not to be repented of ; that you might obey from the heart , that form of doctrine that hath been deliver'd unto you ; that you might stand compleat in all the will of god ; that you might be holy , and harmless , the children of god without rebuke , in the midst of a crooked generation , amongst whom you must shine as lights in the world , holding forth the word of life ; that being rooted , and grounded in love , you might comprehend with all saints , what is the height , and depth , and length , and breadth , and might know the love of christ , which passeth knowledg , and be filled with all the fulness of god : to this end , have i taught every one , and warned every one , that i might present you perfect in christ jesus . . that as far forth , as the success hath answered my design , and aim , upon any of your souls , so far forth stand you intitled , to this glorious promise in the text , the god of peace shall be with you . look how many souls there are amongst you , that live in the power and obedience of those truths you have received ; to so many can i with confidence , give this farewell of the apostle , without ifs , or and 's ; the god of peace shall be with you . to whomsoever the lord hath been a god of grace , to them will he be a god of peace . whoever amongst you , have this god of grace , dwelling and ruling in you , shall certainly find this god of peace , dwelling and abiding with you : as for all others , though i can heartily make this , my parting prayer , the lord be with you , the god of peace be with you ; yet i cannot turn this prayer into a promise , nor give you any assurance , that the god of peace will be with you . these things premised , i shall now give you the full proof of the doctrine , in the following reasons . the doctrine you remember is , those that obey the gospel , whatsoever , or whomsoever they want , shall ever be in a peacefull , and blessed condition . the reasons are , . the god of peace shall be with them . . if god be with them , all things whatsoever bef●ll them , shall make for their good . reas . . the god of peace shall be with them ; these things do , live in the obedience of the holy doctrine which you have received , and the god of peace shall be with you . this glorious promise is pregnant with all the blessings , that heaven and earth can afford . if you ask , why , what is there in it ? i demanded of you , what is there in god ? god is in the promise , all that is in god , is here assured to the godly . the philosophers , of old , attained to some glimmerings of the excellencies that are in god , by these . wayes . . per viam negationis , conceiving of him as a being , removed from all things , signifying imperfection : as ignorance , impotence , iniquity , corruptibility , composition , alteration , or any limits or bounds of this essence , power and glory . . per viam ca●salitatis , conceiving of him , as the fountain of all other beings ; and thence concluding , that whatsoever excellencies , or perfections , are scattered up and down , in the whole creation , are all united in him , from whom they had their original . . per viam eminentiae , by way of excellency ; so that whatever perfections , whatever goodness is to be found in any creature , though it be not to be found in god , formaliter , yet there is that in him ( he being the first cause of all ) that doth infinitely , superabundantly answer them all . though there be not the same specifick excellencies in him , nor those very pleasures and delights issuing from him , which the creatures yield ; yet there are such excellencies , such perfections , as transcend and surpasse them all . the scriptures tell us more positively , and plainly ; that god is almighty , omniscient , omnipresent , infinite , eternal , unchangeable , all-sufficient , holy , righteous , gracious ; the portion , the protection , the rewarder , yea the exceeding great reward of them that diligently seek him . and this is he , that is in the promise . god is in the promise . i must not inlarge in this spatious field ; i shall keep nearer the text , and shall confine my self to these four particulars . . god is in the promise , as the god of peace , as the authour and bestower of peace . the greatest of blessings , is the blessing of peace , peace hath all blessings included in it . it hath possession , fruition , and security ; it hath plenty , pleasure and s●fety : where there 's no peace , there 's no security for the holding , nor opportunity of enjoying what we have . whatewe have , we have it as if we had it not . peace is the greatest of blessings . peace with god is the most glorious of peace . what is there that 's excellent , what is there that 's desirable , that is not comprehended in this peace with god ? where there 's peace , there 's pardon ; guilt cannot consist with this peace ; being justified by faith , we have peace with god. where there 's peace , there 's grace , and holiness ; there 's no peace saith my god , to the wicked . where there 's peace , there 's love , and good will. as love , so peace is the union of hearts . the god of peace is with you , signifies no less then this ; the almighty god beares you good will. these two , peace and good will , are twins : on earth peace , good will towards men . where there 's peace , there 's life everlasting life ; internall , is the seed of eternall , peace . this peace is a portion ; peace with god is our possession of the god of peace : this peace is a sanctuary ; if the god of peace be with us , the peace of god will keep our hearts . christians , in the wo●ld you must have trouble ; suppose you have , yet in him you shall have peace , who hath overcome the world. isa . . . thou wilt keep him in perfect peace , ( in peace , peace 't is in the originall ) whose mind is stayed on thee , psal . . . i will hear what the lord god will speak , he will speak peace to the people , and to his saints . what a clattering is there in the world ? what tumults , and commotions , are raised about the followers of christ ; as if the world were falling about their ears ? the devill speaks wrath ; evill men speak death , and bonds to them ; breathing out threatnings , reproaches , persecutions against them . in the midst of all this fearful noyse , i le hearken , saith the psalmist , what the lord god will speak , whatsoever men or devils speak , i le hearken , if the lord god speak at the same rate . oh no , he will speak peace to his saints : let the sons of contention do what they can , the sons of god shall be sons of peace ; they shall live in peace , they shall dye in peace , they shall dwell in peace for ever . isa . . . . the work of righteousness shall be peace , and the effect of righteousness shall be quietness , and assurance for ever . and my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation , and in sure dwellings , and in quiet resting places ; oh how great is the peace that they have , who love thy law. christians fear not to follow god ; let not that sad word , nor the fulfilling of it , scare you out of your duty . all that will live godly in christ jesus , shall suffer persecution . what if they do ? wh●lest you are able to say , i am persecuted , but i have peace ; i am poor , but i have peace ; in a prison , but i have peace ; in a wilderness , but i have peace ; though all the world be against me , god is at peace , my soul is in peace ; what discouragement should all that be to you ! . he that is the god of peace , is the god of power . he promises peace , and he promises no more then he can perform . he can create peace , he can make their enemies to be at peace with them . he can make a league for them , with the beasts of the field ; with the lions , with the wolves , with the most brutish among the people . he can say to the proud winds and waves , peace , be still , and they obey him . he can give them rest [ from ] the dayes of adversity ; he can give them rest [ in ] the dayes of adversity ; he can give his beloved sleep , upon the points of swords and spears . . he that is the god of peace , is the god of patience . this is my great fear , that though god g●ves , yet i shall break my peace ; the god of peace with me ? oh ! this is he whom i dishonour , and disoblige daily ; by my distrusts , discontents , impatiencies , murmerings ; and what peace to such an heart ? what peace , so long as such unbelief ; so much iniquity , as i find daily within me , remains upon me ? will he , with whom no iniquity can dwell , dwell in that heart , where there is so much iniquity , by which he is provoked every day ! but he that is the god of peace , is also the god of patience ; who though he will not bear the iniquities of his adversaries , yet he will bear much with the infirmities of his people . psal . . &c. if his children forsake my law , and walk not in my judgments ; if they break my statutes , and keep not my commandements ; then will i visit their transgressions with a rod , and their iniquities with stripes . nevertheless , my loving kindness will i not utterly take from him , nor suffer my faithfulness to fail . . he that is the god of peace , is the god of hope . i have no peace in possession , whatever there be in the promise . i live in the fire , am born a man of contention . what likelyhood is there , that i should ever live to see a good day ? my comforts are broken , my estate is lost , my liberty is gone ; friends i have none , enemies i have many , and mighty , i dwell in mesech , i have my habitation in the tents of kedar ; i am for peace , they are for war : whither ever i look , round about me , before me , behind me , on the right hand , or on the left , all speaks trouble and errour to me . i have no peace ; what , nor no hope of peace neither ? where is thy god man ? hast thou a god in thee , and yet no hope in thee ? the god of peace , and yet no peace ! the god of hope , and yet no hope ! the god of hope will yet fill thee with joy and peace in believing . rom. . . why art th●u cast down oh my soul , and why art thou disquieted within me ? hope in god , for i shall yet praise him , who is the health of my countenance and my god. psal . . . the god of hope will open a window of hope in the darkest times , a door of hope in the most desperate cases . the god of hope will bear up the spirits of his saints , in hope against hope ; and this hope will never disappoint them . it shall never be said , there is no peace , there is no hope , till it can be said , there is no god in israel . but how , or in what sence , is it to be understood , that this god of peace will be with us . i answer in . particulars . . the heart of god will be with you . josephs blessing , the good will of him that dwelt in the bush , will be thy portion . deut. . what was that bush ? the church , or israel of god. what case was the bush in ? 't was all on a light fire ; 't was all in a flame . who was it that dwelt in the bush ? god was in the bush ; and that kept it from consuming , though not from burning . the good will of this god shall be with thee : his love , his favour , his care . i love them that love me , prov. . . the lord loveth the righteous , psal . . . the love of god , is the womb of all good . hence sprang the morning star , from the love of god came the son of god ; hence came that womb of the morning , the blessed gospel ; which is so big with glorious grace ; with light , life , pardon , peace , glory , immortality ; from the love of god came the glorious gospel of god. the upper springs , all spiritual and heavenly blessings ; the nether springs , all earthly and outward blessings do all rise , and bubble up out of this fountain , the love of god. the pretious things of heaven , the pretious fruits brought forth by the sun ; the pretious fruits put forth by the moon ; the chief things of the antient mountains , the pretious things of the lasting hills ; the pretious things of the earth , and the fulness thereof ; all these flow in with the good will of him that dwelt in the bush . love is all ; the apostle tells us , rom. . our love to god , is the fulfilling of the law ; that is , it will bring forth all that to god , all that duty , and obedience , which the law requires . i may tell you , that gods love to us , is the fulfilling of the gospel , that is , it will powre down all that upon us , it will do all that for us , which the gospel promises . look over the whole gospel ; read , and study every pretious leaf , and line of that blessed book ; and if there be enough in all that , to make thee blessed , and to encourage thee on in thy holy course , all this is thine . thou hast that love of god with thee , which will fulfill the gospel ; there shall not one jot or tittle fail thee , of all that the gospel promises . the zeal of the lord of hosts will perform this . isa . . . . the help of god will be with you , the lord will be your helper in the day of your distress . heb. . , . he hath said , i will never leave thee nor forsake thee . so that we may boldly say , the lord is my helper , i will not fear what man can do unto me . he hath said , i will not leave thee ; and therefore we may say , i will not fear : he hath said , i will be , and therefo●e we may boldly say , the lord is my helper : he hath said , he will not forsake , he will helpe ; and who is he that shall say , there is no help for thee in thy god. there 's no man , whose case may not be so desperate , as to be above all humane help . if he should cry out , as the woman to the king of israel ; help o king ; the king must answer , if the lord do not help thee , whence shall i help thee ? if he should cry out , help o man of god ; the man of god must answer , if the lord do not help thee , whence shall i help thee ? if he cry out , help o my friends , my wit , my policy , my purse ; all these must answer , if the lord do not help thee , whence shall we help thee ? but what case is there , wherein an [ help lord ] will not do . foolish men count their case desperate , when they come to their [ god help , ] that 's an usuall expression , to set forth the extremity and helplesness of any mans case . when we see men even lost in any misery , and their case even utterly hopeless ; then to signifie our sense of such mens lost condition , we cry out , god help that man , god help that woman , they are lost creatures . i , but if men did understand and consider what the help of the lord is ; they would see there could be no case so desperate , but an help lord , might recover all : sam. . . when david was greatly distressed , and all was gone , he encouraged himself in the lord his god. consider here two things . . what his case then was ; he was in great distress ; he had lost all that ever he had ; his spoils that he had taken were all gone , his corn , and his cattell , his wives , and his city were all lost ; he had not an habitation in all the world ; he had nothing left him but a poor army , and these were worse than lost , they were even ready to fall upon him . the people spake of stoning him , but he encouraged himself in the lord his god. . what the event hereupon was ; why god help'd him to all he had again : vers . . there was nothing lacking to them , neither small nor great , neither sons , nor daughters ; neither spoil , nor any thing they had taken , david recovered all . hence note , . that a christian when he hath lost all , hath yet a god to go to at last . . whilest a christian hath a god to go to , his case is never desperate ; let him but encourage himself in his god , and all will be recovered . sinners , triumph not over the poor people of god ; when they are at their worst , when they are brought as low as your pride and malice can lay them ; though they should be stript naked , and left destitute of all their comforts , though all the world should ride on their backs , and tread on their necks , yet rejoyce not against them : though they fall , they shall arise ; when they are at their worst , there 's still help for them in their god. . the presence of the lord shall be with them . whither soever they may be scattered , they shall not be scattered from their go● . that promise made to moses , exod. . . my presence shall go with thee , belongs to all the israel of god. [ my presence ] in the original , 't is my face ; in the septuagint , my self shall go with thee . the presence of god is either , generall , or speciall . by his generall presence , he is every where ; . per essentiam , he fills all things . . per cognitionem , he beholds all things . . per sustentationem , he upholds all things . . per dominium , he governs all things . but to let this passe , as not so proper to our purpose . . there is his speciall , or gracious presence ; whereby he manifests himself to be with his people , . in some visible , and standing tokens of his presence ; as in those extraordinary , the pillars of the cloud , and of the fire ; and in those ordinary , the ark and the temple , of old , and the ordinances of the gospel now . . in some inward influences , and irradiations , upon the hearts of his people . . in some visible and signall effects of his presence ; whereof there are very many . there are , amongst others , these two notable effects , of gods gracious presence ; which his people , by vertue of this promise , may with confidence expect , conduction , covering ; they shall be led in their way ; and they shall be hid in their way . . conduction ; the lord will be with them , to lead them and guide them in the way that they should go . psal . . , . the meek will he guide in judgment , the meek will he teach in his way . psal . . . he led them forth by the right way , that they might go to a city of habitation . psal . . . lead me , o lord , in thy righteousness , because of mine enemies , make thy way strait before my face . the lord leads his people in their way , chiefly by his word , which is a light to their feet , and a lanthorn to their paths : and sometimes also by his providences , hedging up all by-wayes , and leaving but one way open to them , that hath the least appearance of the way of god. so ordering the matter , that any other way that is before them , look ; with too foul a face , to leave any doubt upon them , whether that be the way of god or not . it 's never uncomfortable to the people of god , while they see their way before them : doubts about their way , are more perplexing , than dangers in their way . when they know what god would have them do , they can chearfully trust him for any thing they are like to suffer . dost thou meet with wolves or lions in thy way ? thou mayst bless god 't is there thou meetest them , 't would be ill meeting them elsewhere . . covering or protection in their way : psal . . . thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy presence , from the pride of man ; thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavision , from the strife of tongues . [ thou shalt hide them in thy presence ] or face ; thy light shall be their dark place to cover them : thou art my hiding place , ps●l . . . [ in the secret of thy presence ] the saints hiding place is a secret : such , where neither the pride of men can find them , nor can they understand wha● it is . reproaches shall not find them , persecutions shall not find them , whose souls are hid in god : they are not found , when they are found ; they are hid when they seem to lye most open , and most exposed to mens will , and lust . sinners do not understand what refuge the saints have in god. it is a great secret , a mystery to them : as the joy of the saints , the comforts of the saints , are a secret ; a stranger shall not meddle with his joy : so is their safety or security ; they do not understand what kind , nor how great security ; what sure , nor what sweet repose , the saints find in god. the secret of god's presence is a sure , and a sweet resting place , for all his saints ; but how sure , and how sweet , no man knows , but they that enjoy it . the secret intimations , of the care of god for them ; of his everlasting kindness to them ; of his governing hand , in all that befalls them , working it to their greater good ; the secret supports and refreshings darted in , as the beams of his countenance ; their secret sence , that their head , their main , is in safety , though they have bruises in their heel , will yield such rest in the day of greatest adversity , as men can neither see , nor take from them . the pillar of the cloud interposed , did both hinder the egyptians pursuit , and hide from their eyes , the comfort of that light which shined upon the camp of israel . moses knew what the comfort of god's presence meant , when he said , exod. . . if thy presence go not with us , carry us not hence . 't is ( if considered ) a great word : israel was then in a wilderness ; among wild beasts , among briars , and thorns , in a weary pilgrimage ; but they had god among them : the lord was carrying them to canaan , the land of their rest , a land flowing wi●h milk & honey : but moses prayes , if thy presence go not with us , carry us not hence . we had rather be where we are , in a wilderness with god , than go to canaan , and leave our god behind us . if thy presence go with us , we are willing to go ; when thou wilt , whither thou wilt , which way thou wilt ; though by the tents of edomites , ishmaelites , moabites , hagarens ; though through the armies of anakims , zamzummims : wee 'l go any whither , so god go with us . the absence of god makes a canaan worse than a wilderness ; the presence of god makes a wilderness better than a canaan : and this presence of god , shall be the lott of all his saints . reas . . if god be with you , all shall make for you : all providential occurrences , and events whatsoever ; all difficulties , straits , disasters , disappointments , whatsoever , that may come upon you , shall make for your good . rom. . . if god be with us , who can be against us ? who can be against us ! that is , none can be against us : or if any be , yet those that are against you shall be for you . gen. . . joseph is not , and simeon is not ( said old jacob ) and must benjamin away too ! all these things are aginst me : but yet as old as he was , he lived to see all making for him . rom. . . we know all things shall work together for good to those that love god. this is such a promise , as , if it were throughly believed , would set our feet on the necks of all our fears and dangers ; and will prove the truth of sampson's riddle , out of the eater came meat , and out of the strong , sweetness . now because there is so great encouragement to godliness in it , i shall spend the more time in inlarging upon it ; and shall shew , . what those things are which are especially intended , in that comprehensive term ( all things . ) . what that good is , which these things shall work to . . to whom these things shall work for good . . how these things shall work for good . . that they shall undoubtedly work for good , to them that love god. . what those things are , which are especially intended , in that comprehensive term [ all things . ] some there are , as augustine with others , who understand it universally , of all things whatsoever , whether good or evill , extending it even to the sins of the saints . it 's true , god doth often bring good our of these evils ; making use of former sins , to be forces against future : as the thorn , that did hurt in the garden , will be of use in the hedg ; sin often becomes its own death , which was intended to be the death of the soul : there 's nothing that doth make the sinner more weary , and wary of sin , than sin it self ; the review of what we have done , doth oftenest fright us from doing so any more . when you look back on sin , and see its face , ( for sin carries its face in its back ) you 'l fear it the more , when ever you meet it again . there 's no argument doth more effectually humble , and break the heart , and make it more fearful , and watchful against sin , than the shame , and the smart of those sins we have fallen by : he that hath felt the wound , will take heed how he playes with edge-tools . this is true , god doth often make this use of sin , to be its own cure : and therefore 't is not seldom seen , that the chief of sinners have come to be the chief of saints . yet , besides , that this is not the subject matter that the apostle is here treating of ; let those that bring sin within the compass of this promise , and make this to run into the sence of it ; that even all the sins of the saints shall work for their good , let such tell us , how , or in what way it 's imaginable , that the sinful decayes of such who backslide from god , and never recover to their former life , and vigour , but live and die in a languishing state of soul ; let them tell us , how such sins can be imagined to work for their good : till then , we must enter our dissent from this interpretation . this then is not the sence of the promise , that all sins shall work together for good . and yet if it were , it would be but a poor argument , to take the more liberty to sin , because god will turn it to good ; this would be even as rational , as for a man to tear his flesh , break his bones , pluck out his eyes , burn his house , &c. because god will turn all his suffering to good : he is little better than mad , that would not conclude such a man out of his wits . others restrain it to the evill things that befall the saints ; not the turpia , but the tristia , their sufferings and afflications ; to that vanity , and those vexations , they are in bondage under , and under which , with the whole creation , they groan and travail in pain , waiting for their redemption ; of which , the apostle had been treating in the former part of the chapter . and yet while they pitch the sence , especially on such things as these ; they grant it may be extended to all other things , sin only excepted ; ad omnes res , creaturas , eventus , tum secundos , tum adversos : to all things and events , whether prosperous or afflicting . so paraeus , with others . and these i take to have hit the right . all heavy things , all the sufferings and afflictions of the saints ; and not only these , but all things else whatsoever , that in the whole course of providence be their lot or portion : all the dealings of god with them , all the dispensations of providence towards them , shall all work for their good . . what is that good , which these things work to the saints ; or in what sence all things may be said to work good to them . the sence in generall is this ; they shall all work to their welfare ; they shall all happen to them for the better : there shall nothing befall them , but one time or other , they shall have reason to say ; 't was well for me , that it was thus with me . the wisdom and goodness of god , did cut out suce portions continually for me , did lead me thorow such a series and succession of cases and events , which though i could not understand , yet now i see that every condition , every contingency and occurrence of my life , through which providence led me , was useful , and could not well have been wanted , but it would have been the worse for me . thus in the generall . particularly , for the fuller understanding what good it is that all things to , consider , that there is a twofold good of the saints ; such as they obtain and enjoy , whilest they are in via , in their way or course ; or such as they shall obtain , when they are in termino : when they are gotten to the end of their way , when they are come to their place . or thus ; there is a three-fold good of the saints , temporall . spirituall . eternall . . temporall good , or our bona corporis , the outward good things of this life , which may serve , and please , and delight us in these dayes of our pilgrimage ; which may abide with us , and attend us to our graves , but there will take their leave of us . . spirituall good , or our bona animae , and those are either , . external , as the ordinances of god ; the light , liberties , and priviledges of the gospel ; the society , and communion of saints , and our peaceful and plentiful enjoying of them . . internal , as spiritual grace , faith , love , hope , patience , &c. . eternal good , or that glory and joy , that everlasting rest and peace , the possession of that inheritance incorruptible , and undefiled , that is reserved in heaven for us . now here note these things . . that our bona corporis , our outward good things , are only good for us , as they are conducible ad bonum spirituale , to the good of our souls . the bona viae , are only good in the event , when they tend to the bonum patriae . this world is but a nursery for eternity ; we are planted in this , in order to our transplanting into the other world ; and whatever we have here , is either good , or evill , according to the respect that it bears to hereafter : as far forth as our immortal part is improved by these perishing things , so far forth onely are they good for us . he that hath this worlds goods , and is not hereby made more rich towards god ; he who prospers in this world , and yet his soul doth not prosper ; much more , he whose worldly fulness becomes the emptiness , and leanness of his soul : are these good things good for him ? is he in prosperity upon a true account , whose soul prospers not ? it is not ever good to prosper in the world ; it cannot be universally said , it 's good to be rich , it 's good to be in health , it 's good to be in honour , it 's good to be at liberty ; the contrary may sometimes be true ; it 's good to be poor , to be sick , to be in disgrace , to be in bonds ; the necessity of our souls doth not seldom require it : then alone is it good to be full , and to abound , when our outward abundance farthers our spiritual welfare . christians , could we receive this truth , that our outward good things are only good for us , as far forth as they conduce to our spiritual good ; could we receive this truth , and live under the power of it ; what a different judgment should we then have of all these worldly matters , from what we have ? and how strangely would the course of this world be then changed ? would there then be such violent and eager pursuing these carnal things ? would there then be such whining , and complaining , and murmuring at every cross providence ? we would then say , this may be good for me ; good for my soul , how sad soever it looks . . that external spiritual good things , the ministry , and ordinances of the gospel , &c. are so far good to us , as they conduce to our internal spiritual good : and they being ordinarily so , it must be concluded , that ordinarily it is good for us , that we enjoy them , and be not deprived of them . god may see the cutting christians short of those priviledges , and liberties , to be sometimes needful for them ; and then even this also makes for their good : whereof more anon . . that our inward spiritual good , is good for us , so far forth as it tends to our eternal good : and therefore grace is ever good for us . it 's ever true ; it 's good to be holy , good to be humble , to be in the fear of god , and to flourish in his grace . we may have too much money , too much credit , but we can never have too much grace . our greatest flourishing and fruitfulness in grace , will certainly abound to our more full reward . . note , that this is the plain sence , and meaning of the promise , all things shall work [ for good , ] that is , whatsoever befalls , shall certainly promote our internal , and eternal welfare ; and as far forth as the outward priviledges of the gospel , yea , and the good things of this life , conduce towards this , all shall work for these also . if it be good for us to rich , if it be good for us to be in honour , good for us to be at liberty ; good for our souls , good in reference to our eternal state ; if it be good for us that we enjoy the ministry of the gospel ; there shall nothing befall us , that shall hinder ; there shall be nothing wanting to us , that might further this our good . the summe is , that all providential dispensations shall be so ordered , that we shall want nothing but what it 's better want than have : we shall uffer nothing but what we cannot well be without , but what the good of our souls requires ; and that which we do possess , and that which we do suffer , shall not fail of bringing about its end , the advancing our eternal good . and if this be the meaning , what a glorious promise is this ? what can any rational man desire more ? nothing shall befall him but shall be for his good : he shall be deprived or kept short of nothing , but what he had better be without than have . he that is unsatisfied with this promise , it is either from lust or unbelief ; either he doth not believe , that god is true , and will perform this word : or else 't is because his lust must be satisfied , though with the denyal of his reason and interest ; he that desires an estate in the world , ease , pleasure , liberty , or any thing else upon any other terms , but as they may be for his reall good , hath as much lost his wits as his faith : and he that will take upon him to know what 's good for him , better than god , may as well take upon him to govern the world. you may with as good reason , desire a feaver , or a dropsie , that you may have the pleasure of your drink ; as for the pleasures that carnal things would bring you in , to desire them , when they would be a snare to your souls . . to whom these things shall work for good ; to them that love god , to them that are called according to his purpose : to the people of god ; who , you see , are here described by their election and vocation , [ the called according to his purpose ] and their sanctification , [ they that love god , ] love is , as i told you before , the fulfilling of the law. love god , and you will live in the obedience of his whole will : these are the people , to whom this promise is made ; prove your calling and election , prove your sanctification , and you may write your names in this glorious promise ; all things shall work for your good . to those that are rebels , and reprobates from god , all things shall work together for evil . whil'st things hurtful work together for good to the saints ; all good things work together for the hurt of sinners : their peace hurts them , their plenty hurts them , their pleasure hurts them ; yea , both their prosperity , and adversity ; their plenty , and their poverty ; their pleasure , and their trouble ; their honour and disgrace , every thing that befalls them , turns to their prejudice . their prosperity destroy● them ; their table is their snare ; their pleasures are their plagues ; and their very punishments are turned into sin : every thing that befalls them , heightens and hardens them in their wickedness , and ripens them for vengeance . god is not with them , and therefore nothing prospers with them . god is with his saints , and therefore nothing comes amiss to them , but all for their greater advantage : christians , this is your portion , and your peculiar , wherein the men of this world shall neither partake with you , nor be ever able to deprive you of it . . how all things shall work for their good ; in special , how shall the evill things , the sufferings of this life be for their good : how can this be ? must we disbelieve our senses , lay down our reasons , ere we can believe the scriptures ? must we call evil , good ; and good , evil ? must we count darkness light , and light darkness ? is pleasure pain , and pain pleasure ? is loss gain , and gain loss ? is ease torment , and torment ease ? doth religion make things cease to be what they are , and to be what they are not ? or at least , must we believe , that darkness is the mother of light , that good is the daughter of evil ? can we gather grapes of thorns , or figs of thistles ? can darkness give light , or death it self bring forth life ? must we say , that contraries no longer destroy , but produce each other , and that the womb brings forth its own destruction ? how can these things be ? but must god give a reason of his actions , or else they are not ! though evil cannot bring forth good , darkness cannot bring forth light ; yet , cannot god bring forth good out of evill , light out of darkness ? though darkness cannot bring forth light ; evil cannot bring forth good , by a natural causation ; yet , cannot god make evil an occasion of good ? though it do not work efficiently , yet can it not work objectively neither to it ? though the torment the medicine puts men to , be not ease yet , may it not work towards ease ? may not the storm , though it help not , yet hasten the labourer on his work , the traveller on his way ? may not the darkness of the night , make more diligent in the day ? may not sickness teach men more temperance , and poverty more frugality ? but to proceed more distinctly ; how can the saints evil things work to their good ? that they do so , cannot be denyed , unless we will deny , not only scripture , but common sense , and experience ; but how comes it to pass ? i answer , in . particulars : . the afflictions and tribulations of the saints are the way that leads them on to the possession of that good , which god hath intended to them ; afflictions are the way of the kingdom ; the cross is the way to the crown . acts . . through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of god. psal . . , . thou broughtest us into the net , thou hast laid affliction upon our loyns , thou hast caused men to ride over our heads : we went through fire and water , thou broughtest us into a wealthy place . observe it ; their troubles are their way to their triumph ; their very falling into the net , their way to escape . their enemies boast ; escape ! arise ! yes , let them free themselves with such hopes while they will , we have them sure enough , we have them under foot , we have them in the net : if this be their way , wee 'l keep them in their way long enough ; now we have them down , they shall not be able to rise . i , but yet it appears , through all this the lord led them forth into a wealthy place . the high-way of the proud is not their more ready way to the dust , than the dust of saints is their sure way to honour . when israel were to go to canaan , they must take the brick-kilnes , the red sea , the wilderness , jordan , in their way : could any one have imagined , that the bondage , the straits they were under , the doubling their tasks , the cruelty of their task-masters , their enclosure at the red sea , did mean any good to them ? yet , how fell it out at last ? their darkest dispensations had light in their latter end ; their greatest bondage leads on to their greatest liberty . every cross providence , is a step to the accomplishment of the promise ; the wheel is ever moving on to its end ; it moves still forwards , even when it seems to go quite backwards : as the river , by its many turnings and windings , forwards and backwards , is still in motion to the sea , when it seems to be running quite contrary . christians , if ever the salvation of god seems to be removed farther off from you ; if the work of god should at any time seem to go backwards ; if cross winds should turn the whole course , so that you appear rather to be marching back to egypt , than on to canaan ; yet be not discouraged ; though your way be an unlikely , and unpromising way , though you be led about forwards , and backwards , yet still you are making on : though the lesser wheels be never so cross and contrary in their motions , yet the great wheel is still moving right on to your blessed and hoped end . god intends your good , your spiritual good here , your eternal good hereafter : and believe it now , for he will let you see it hereafter , that those very things which most threaten your miscarriage , and a total abortion of your hopes , are made all to concur to the bringing them about , and to your more full and speedy possession of them . note farther here two things . . all things work ; not they shall work , de futuro , but de presenti , they do work ; as the apostle says , the mystery of iniquity ; so we may say , the mystery of the saints redemption doth already work ; the work is already on the wheel , and every wheel is in its motion for you : not onely your brethren ; the saints and angels , who all are praying for your peace , and seeking your good , but your enemies also , the dragon , with all his armies , are at work for you ; all the councils of this world , are already sitting upon the very matter : god hath call'd them together for this purpose , the pope , with all his conclave ; the jesuits , priests , monks , and friars , with all their covents ; yea , the devil , with all his conclave of hell , are all at work for the good of saints . it 's true , they mean not , nor intend any such thing , their designs are against you ; they count , they are working for themselves ; as 't is said concerning the assyrian , isa . . , . god sent him forth upon a design of his own , to execute his counsel , in the punishing o● hypocrities ; to purge out the chaff from the wheat● nevertheless , he meaneth not so , nor doth his heart thi●● so : the assyrian minds not what god's design is 〈◊〉 but follows his own design ; fights for himself , an● spoils for himself ; but god's design is still carrye● on by him , though he think not of it . all the events in the world are driving the sam● way ; every disease or infirmity that comes upo● you , every loss that you sustain , every scoff or re●proach that you suffer ; the shame in your faces the sorrow of your hearts , the torment in you bowels , the aches in your bones , are all workin● your good . all the changes of your conditions , you fair weather and your foul , your sun-shine and you clouds , your plenty and your wants , your eases an● your pains , your liberties and your prisions , are 〈◊〉 making for you ; your good is already working 〈◊〉 all these things . see christians , what an harvest of blessedness 〈◊〉 growing up to you , out of this promise ; the seed 〈◊〉 already sowing , your good is already working ; go● is at work , the whole creation is at work , men an● angels , good men and evil men , friends and enemies , heaven and earth , and hell , are already ing●ged to work your good . . they work together , that is , as some understand it , they work together with god : all these second causes work together with the first cause ; or 〈◊〉 others , they work together amongst themselves there is such a concatenation and concentring of 〈◊〉 these second causes , in the same design , that however they seem to thwart , and cross , and destroy som● of them , what the others build and advance , yet the● are all united in their end ; they jointly contribute to the weal of the saints . though , if i mistake not , this latter be the more sence of the two : yet i know no reason , why both may not be understood . in the hand , and under the conduction of providence , all these lower things concur and co-operate in the good of the church . by the way , observe , what an harmony there is , in all the works of providence : the most cross and thwarting occurrences , do all conspire , and go hand in hand , to bring about the same end. as the differing vertues of various drugs , do all concur to make up the medicine : as the differing sounds of several strings or instruments , do altogether make up the melody : as the differing colours in a picture , the dark as well as the brighter , do jointly contribute to the beauty of the piece ; no less do the most contrary , and contradictory actions and events , both make up the beauty of providence , and jointly subserve that one end , to which , by an unseen hand , and an all-seeing eye , they are directed , and intended . . the evill things that befall the saints , come upon them to keep out worse things . where ever the cross comes , if it had not come , something worse might ? the cross may be a means to secure from the curse : the curse was slain on the cross of christ ; and our cross also hath its use , to the delivering us from it . cor. . . we are chastened of the lord , that we should not be condemned with the world ; periissem nisi periissem : i had died , if i had not suffer'd : 't is more mens cases , besides his that spake it ; 't is no bad exchange , to have a cross in stead of a curse . . the evill things of the saints , prepare them for better things ; that they may work good for them , they are working them to good ; working out their sinne and iniquity , wearying them of sin , hosea . . i will hedge up her way with thorns , then shall she say , i will return : sin brought in afflictions into the world , and afflictions help to carry sin out ; the cross , to which sin was once nail'd , is now nail'd to sin : the saints can seldom be medling with sin , but they find it too heavy for them ; the cross , that is nail'd at the farther end of it , makes it a burthen which they cannot bear . in some sence , not onely the bloud of the lamb , but the bloud of the sheep may purge away sin ; though onely the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 can expiate and take away the guilt ; yet the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may have their place , in purging away the filth of sin : by this shall the iniquity of jacob be purged , and this is all the fruit to take away his sinne . our lord beats the devil with his own weapons , by those very means , purging his saints , by which he endeavours to pollute them ; making those very persecutions , by which he labours to force them from holiness , to fix them in it : a fawning world does them more mi●chief , than a fuming devil , by that the devil hath cast up his cards , he will find himself a loser by all his rage . christians , comfort your hearts ; those flouds that are cast forth against you , shall but wash you the whiter , and make you more meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light : your purgatory prepares you for your paradice . no unclean thing must enter in thither ; and you are not like to be made so clean , as by falling into the ●ands of the unclean . the saints never look so well ; like sheep come from the washing , as when they come up from the pots , their very black makes them comely . oh christians ! what a comfort would it be , if your experiences might come in , and seal to this truth : if you could say , thus it hath been with me ; before i was afflicted , i went astray : i was proud , and vain , and wanton , and slothful , and carnal , but now have i kept thy word . sinners , whatever your mind be in persecuting the saints , never think to debauch them by it ; if that be your aim , you mistake your course ; the living spark which god hath kindled in them , will not be blown out , but be blown up , by your puffing at it ; the dirt you cast upon them , doth but scour them the brighter : you take the best course you can , to keep them closer to the lord , and his way : the warm sun , will more hazard the loss of their garments ▪ than the blustring wind : let them alone , the spirit of the lord within them , will be too hard for hell , with all its black regiments ; and will not onely secure them , but advance them yet higher , by all their assaults . these stars shine the brightest , when the night is darkest : when you have done your worst , 't will be the better with them ; though they will not thank you , yet they will thank god , for what they have suffer'd by you . if this be your aim , to make them like your selves , you may set your hearts at rest , and give over such a vain attempt : your fury is like to do as little to force them , as your vertues are to invite them to a compliance with you . your faces are too foul to draw them into your love , and yet not fierce enough to drive them into your fear . sathan , try thy utmost strength and skill , and if thou losest not by thine own play at last , if thou find'st not the poor people of god gotten nearer heaven , by thy attempts of plucking them down to hell , ●hen let thy lyes be believed , before the everlasting gospel . christians , make me not asham'd in this same confident boasting of you ; yea , contradict not your god , by suffe●ing your selves to be corrupted by evil men . the lord himself hath adventur'd deep upon your integrity and stedfastness : the honour of his truth and faithfulness lies at stake , he hath said , they shall not be afraid of any evil tidings , their heart is fixed , trusting in the lord , psal . . . he hath said , by this shall their iniquity be purged , and this shall be all the fruit , to take away their sin . god hath said , all things shall work together for good to them . they shall not be the worse , but the better , for all that befalls them : they shall love me and my holy ways the more , they shall cleave unto me the closer , they shall be made more pure , and more tender : by all they suffer for righteousness sake , they shall love conscience , and their integrity , and faithfulness to it , never the worse , for that it hath cost them so dear ; but shall prize it the more , and be the more wary and tender , how they pollute and turn aside from it . god hath adventur'd deep on you , make not him a liar ; the devil and his instruments will be ready to say , concerning you , as once he did to the lord , concerning his servant job : put them into our power , let us have the handling of them a while , and thou shalt quickly s●● what truth there is in them ▪ or what trust there is to them ; they 'l curse thee to thy face , they 'l deny thee to thy face , they 'l eat their own words , they 'l be ashamed of their god , their godliness , and confidence . let god be true , christians , and the devil a liar ; be living commentaries on this blessed text : let the world , and their black prince see , that they cannot make you miserable , because they cannot make you sinners like themselves : that you are still the more upright , for falling into the hands of a crooked generation : let them see , that though your god will not suffer you , yet you are contented , to serve him for nothing . that though his he●ge be re●●oved from you , yet your heart is not removed from him : be able to say , though all this be come upon us , our heart is not turned back , neither have we deelined thy way . let your standing and increasing in the grace of god , and abounding in the works of righteousness , be a standing witness for god in the world , and a seal to his scriptures , and in special to the glorious truth of this text. . the evil things of the saints , prepare better things for them ; their sufferings go into their reward : as the sufferings of christ abound in us , so our consolation also aboundeth by christ : every suffering comes with a comfort in its belly ; and the sweet is so great , as swallows up the bitter ; 't is a hundred fold , that the saints gain by all their losses in this life , but how great shall their reward be in heaven , cor. . . our light affliction , which is but for a moment , worketh for us a far more exceeding eternal weight of glory . they shall not onely have weight for weight , measure for measure ; their load of glory , for their load of sufferings ; but they shall have over-weight , over-measure ; good measure , pressed down , heaped together , and running over , shall then be given unto them : according to their deep poverty , shall be the height of their riches ; according as their blackness hath been in their houses of bondage , shall be their brightness in the land of promise ; for all thy shame thou shalt have double : the double of thy reproach in renown , the double of thy tears in triumphs , all thy bottled tears shall be returned in flagons of joy , yea in rivers of eternal pleasure . by this time christians , you see what glory there is in this good word : all things shall work together for good to them that love god. and that none may have the face to say all this is but conceit ; i shall , in the next place , bring in clear , and undeniable evidence , that it is certainly , and unquestionably , so as hath been said : and therefore know , . that all things do , and shall certainly work , for good to them that love god. this ( besides the testimony of this scripture ) i shall make evident , from these three propositions : . there is a divine providence that governs the world. . the design of providence , is the accomplishment of the good purpose and promise of god. . the providence of god shall never fail of accomplishing its end. . there is a divine providence which governs the world ; the epicur●ans , who deny providence , and leave all on chance and fortune , may as well deny that there is a god , which yet they are asham'd to stand to . of epicurus himself it was said , quem nihil pudendum pudet , pudet tamen deum negare . it can be no way reconcileable to the infinite wisdom of god , who made this glorious fabrick , with the various creatures therein , either not to determine them to their ends , or else to take no care for their accomplishing those ends they are determined to . the whole current of scripture is so plain in these matters , that he that runs may read : let the following scriptures , amongst others , be considered . psal . . . the lord reigneth , let the earth rejoyce , let the isles be glad , psal . . , . the eyes of all wait upon thee , and thou givest them their meat in due season : thou openest thy hand , and satisfiest the desire of every living thing . psal . . . thou preserved man and beast . psal . . , . promotion cometh , neither from the east , nor from the west , nor from the south ; but god is the judge , he putteth down one , and setteth up another . amos . . shall there be evil in a city ▪ and the lord hath not done it ? psal . . , . deliver my soul from the wicked , which is thy sword ; from men which are thy hand . the confessions of those infidels , nebuchadnezzar and darius , speak the same , dan. . . all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing , and he doth according to his will , in the army of heaven , and among the inhabitants of the earth ; and none can stay his hand , or say unto him , what doest thou ? dan. . . i make a decree , that in every domi●ion of my kingdom , men tremble , and fear , before the god of daniel ; for he is the living god , and stedfast for ever ; and his kingdom that , which shall not be destroyed ; and his dominion shall be even unto the end : he delivereth and rescueth , and he worketh signs and wonders in heaven , and earth ; who hath delivered daniel from the power of the lions . but more distinctly , the lord governs all inanimate and sensitive creatures , in their actions ; he orders the stars in their courses . the stars in their courses , he made to fight against sisera . he governs the winds , and the flouds ; he bringeth forth the winds out of his treasures , he rides upon the wings of the wind. he maketh the clouds his chariots , he sitteth on the flouds ; the thunder , and the hail , and the rain , and the frosts , are all at his command . he giveth snow like wooll , and scattereth the hoar frost like ashes . he casteth forth the ice like morsels ; he sets bounds to the sea , which it shall not passe ; the birds of the air , the beasts of the field , the fishes of the sea ; yea the stones and dust of he earth , are all at his beck . more especially , he rules an governs the men of this world. he sits in all the counsels of men , though they see him nor ; he orders all their decrees ; there 's no decree can passe , unless god gives his vote . he rules in all the actions of men ; even those things that are acted through our improvidence , come not to passe without the providence of god. he rules in all the changes that are in the world ; he changes the times , and the seasons ; he changes kingdoms , and governments ; he removeth kings , and setteth up kings ; he make war , and creates peace ; he bendeth the bow , and he breaketh the bow , and cutteth the speare in sunder , and burneth the chariots in the fire : peace , and war , health and sickness , plenty and famine , life and death , are all the disposures of his hand . he orders all the events and causalities of the world ; even from the greatest to the smallest . without him , not a sparrow shall fall , nor a hair of the head shall perish : though there be to men , yet to the lord there are no causalities , or contingencies . but all things come to passe , according as his hand and counsel had before determined . . the design of providence ( as it respects the elect ) is the accomplishment of gods good purpose and promise . providence governs the world , and the purpose and promise governs providence . all the works of providence have rationem mediorum ad finem . god doth nothing in vain ; it is not consistent with the wisdom of god , to do any thing for nothing . god would have his people look farther than to the things that are before them , because all those things have a farther aspect themselve . all the works of providence have a double aspect ; they look backward , to the purpose and promise ; and they look forward , to the end for which they are ; as they look backward , so they have truth in them , exactly answering the purpose and promise from which they have their birth . as they look forwa●d , to their end , so they have good in them ; and that good ( their subservience to their end ) is the reason of their being . here note . things . . that the subserviency of things to their end , is the goodness of them ; if the end be good , the means must ( as such ) be good also ; if what god hath purposed and promised be good , then all things that fall in between , having the respect of means to their accomplishment , must upon that account be good . if our crosses and afflictions , do subserve the bringing about of gods good will , and good word , we must say concerning them , good are the works of the lord. it is not , how any thing looks , or feels at present , but what it meanes , and to what it tends . if the potion be bitter , and yet it tends to health ; if the messenger be ill-looked , and ill-favoured , and yet comes upon a good errand , you may bid them welcom . and thus all the providences of god are good . if you should ask of any providence , wherefore art thou come ? comest thou peaceably ? comest thou for good ? they must all answer , yes ▪ peaceably , for good and no hurr . 't is but to help all that good into thy hand , which hath been in the heart , and hath proceeded out of the mouth , of thy god that loves thee . there is not a messenger of sathan , that comes to buffet thee , but is also a messenger from-god , that comes to thee for good . they very thorns in thy flesh shall serve thee for playsters , thine eye-sores shall be thine eye-salve , and thy very maladies thy medicines . . that this relative goodness of all the works of providence , is the reason of their being . therefore god doth what he doth , that hereby he may do what he hath said and intended . i do not say that the reason of gods taking this or that me●ns , is alwayes from any thing in it self , or for its natural tendency to such an end above any thing else ; god hath his choice of means , he can chuse here or there at pleasure , can make use of what he will to serve his design ; but the reason why things are , is this , god in his wisdom , saw their ordinability to this good end , and thereupon in his providence , he orders and brings them to passe . so that now , what ever befalls a christian , he hath this to allay and take off the grievousness and sharpness of it ; this had never been , but for the good will , and good word of the lord to me . the lord god hath said he will bless me , and do me good ; he will heal me , and sanctifie , and save me , and now he is about it ; by this , he is working that salvation for me . christians , you have no reason to say , if the lord be with me , why am i thus ? why so poor , why so pained , why so persecuted , so scorned and trampled upon ? sure , if the lord had meant my good , it would have been better then 't is with me : no , no , 't is because the lord is with thee , and means thee well , that he deals in this manner with thee . the design of his providence towards thee , is the accomplishment of his promise . . the providence of god shall never fail of accomplishing its end . there is nothing wanting that might give us the fullest assurance hereof . for , . the providence of god hath power with it . he is the almighty that hath promised ; he that ruleth in the earth , dwelleth in the heaven , and doth whatsoever he will. our god is in heaven , and doth whatsoever he will. i will work , and who shall let it ? is . . who can stay his hand , or say unto him , what doest thou ? were it not for our unbelief , our case would be still the same , in greatest difficulties , as when the coasts are most clear . we might say of difficulties , as the psalmist of darkness ; there is no darkness with thee , to the the day and night are both alike . difficulties are no difficulties with thee , nor is there difference betwixt hard and easie . he can save with many , or with few ; and with none , is as well as with some . we once read he had too many , but never that he had too few , to bring about his work . oh how do we disparage the power of god , when our difficulties make us doubt ? is he god , and nor man ? is he spirit and not flesh ? wherefore then dost thou doubt ? whatever god hath said he can do : believe he is a god ▪ and thou wilt never say , how can these things be ? . the providence of god hath wisdom with it ; he is the onely wise , he is the all wise god ; he knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations . pet. . . he knoweth what is good for his saints , and when 't will be in season ; he understandeth what is proper , and pertinent to every case . what 's proper to every purpose , to every people , to every person , and for every season ; he knowes when 't is a season to abate , and when to exalt ; when to afflict , and when to deliver ; when to put on the yoak , and when to take off the yoak ; when to pull down , and when to build up ; every thing is beautiful in its season . if mercies come out of season ▪ mercies would be no mercies ; and if troubles come in their season , troubles should be no troubles ; he knowes the best method , and means to his end ; the finest means ; he sees sometimes , the unfittest to be the fittest ; the most unlikely unpromising means , do often best serve gods end . christians , if you would receive every dispensation , as coming from the hands of the wise god ; you would never quarrel with your lot , nor say of any thing that befalls , i might be happy , but this stands in my way . if you would give god leave to be wiser than you , you would say where ever you are , its good for me to be here , this is my way to my rest . . the providence of god hath faithfulness with it . ps●l . . . all the paths of the lord are mercy and [ truth ] to them that keep his covenant , and his testimonies . psal . . . his works are done in truth . gods works may be said to be done in truth , in a double sence , in reality . in fidelity . . in reality , not in specie , or in shew onely , but indeed . gods comforts , are comforts indeed , gods salvation , is salvation indeed . the devil will come with his gifts , with his comforts , and deliver●nces ; but they are for the most part , but spectra , like himself , shews , and apparitions ; quite another thing , than what they seem to be : sinners comforts , deliverances , enjoyments , wherewith the devil feeds them , do leave them in as poor a case , and worse than they found them : you will never thank the devil for his kindness , when you have prov'd them what they are . if you do not find your selves as fast bound , in the midst of all your liberties ; if you be not warp'd up in as many sorrows , after all the joys he hath procured to you ; if the glittering glories , the gloring pleasures he entices you by , and entertains you with , prove not trash and dirt , and meer lies in the end , then say , the devil hath forgotten his trade of lying : the devils works will be even like himself , false and deceitful . but god is true , and all his works are done in truth . . in fidelity , his work are according to his word . king. . . thou hast spoken with thy mouth ▪ and hast fulfilled with thin● hand in thy faithfulness thou hast afflicted me . psal . . not onely in thy faithfulness thou hast saved me , in thy faithfulness thou hast comforted me , in thy faithfulness thou hast succoured me ; but in thy faithfulness thou hast afflicted me ; in thy faithfulness thou hast humbled , and broken me , and cast me down . the promise of god is , that we shall want nothing ; we shall neither want his staffe , nor his rod ; neither comforts nor crosses ; neither joys nor sorrows ; we cannot well want either , and we shall want neither , because god is faithful . you may not onely write down with the apostle , god is faithfull , and will not suffer you to be tempted above that which you are able to bear ; but you may write also , god is faithful , and will not suffer you to want a temptation . when 't is seasonable , your hear●s shall be glad ; and if need be , for a season you shall be in heaviness . god is faithfull , he will ever be true to himself , and therefore to you . tim. . . he abideth faithfull , he cannot deny himself . should he be false to his people he cannot be true to himself , to his purpose and promise ; his word is not yea and nay . god is not as a man , that he should lye , or the son of man , that he should repent ; that he should say , and unsay ; that he should say , and not do ; you may write gods name upon every word he hath spoken , you may write his name [ i am ] upon all that he hath said : it shall be . now christians , put these three particulars together , and if you cannot spell out the conclusion out of them , the providence of god will certainly accomplish his good purpose and promise concerning you : you are of little understanding as well as of little faith. if god governs the world , and nothing comes to pass but by his providence ; if providence governs according to gods purpose and promise ; if providence cannot fail of accomplishing both ; if god be almighty and can , if god be wise and knowes how , if god be faithfull and true , let the devil if he can , with all his sophistry , evade the conclusion , that he will certainly do all that good for you , which he hath purposed and promised : if god be not able to perform , he is not good ; if he mistake his way , if he use impertinent , improper means , he is not the all-wise god. if he do not actually perform what he is able , and knows how to do , when he hath said it , he ceases to be the true god : so that the matter is brought plainly to this issue ; if god be god , if god be the all-wise god , if god be the true and faithful god , this word which he hath spoken , [ all things shall work together for good to those that love god , ] shall not fail of its accomplishment in its season . having thus proved the doctrine , i shall , after i have added a few words by way of caution , and answered an objection or two against the sence , i have given , of this promise , and subjoyned a few particular inferences , descend to the general application . . by way of caution . . limit not the lord to your time and way ; god will make good his word , but you must give him leave to take his own season . he that believeth shall not make haste ; believe god , but do not prejudge nor precipitate , lest you fall into temptation . put no more into the promise , neither for matter nor circumstance , than god hath put in it : put not that into the promise , which god hath not put in it , lest you miss and come short of that which god hath put in it . let others mistakes and miscarriages be warnings to you : till god hath manifestly said , do not you say , this is the time ; build not your confidence on conjectures , your faith on the strongest presumptions ; left your faith prove but a fancy , and your confidence your confusion : make not the promise of god of none effect , by looking for its effect out of season . believe not your selves into infidelity : consider , acts . . it is not for you to know the times and the seasons , which god hath put in his own power . study the word , and it commentary , the works of god , but be sober in your conclusions . this you may safely depend upon , and this will be enough , if you have no more : god will make good his good word to you , sooner or later , in one time or other , in one way or other ; in the best time , in the best way ▪ in the appointed time , the vision shall speak and shall not lye ; habak . . . though it may tarry , wait for it ; because it will surely come , and will not tarry ; at least , at the end of the days , when you shall stand in your lott ; when you shall be gotten on the banks of canaan , and shall thence look back on the promises and providences of god , you shall see and say , god is faithful , there hath no● failed one word of all that he hath promised : now i understand , though once i could not , how every wheel was turning , every instrument was moving , every event was working towards my good and eve●●● welfare . . let not your expectation cause an abortion . let not your looking for mercy , hinder the working of your affliction : it is not seldom , and the lord grant it be not too common a case , that our door of hope becomes a door of sin . w● do not set our selves with that seriousness , to humble , to pu●ge our selves from our iniqui●ies , as we would do , did we apprehend ou● case more desperate ; our fears and our ●or ow● have not their kindly work upon us our hope hinders it . we might have been more broken hearted , had it not been for our hopes of building up : as it is with a person who conceives himself to be dying ; he then falls ●o praying and repenting , and setting his heart in order , because he must die ; but upon a little hope of recovery , he layes by his dying thoughts , and preparations . christians , when ever you are under afflictions , take heed that your expectation of deliverance to be near , put it not so much the farther off . watch narrowly over your selves , and look di●igently to it , that your hope of redemption do not harden your hearts , nor hinder your humiliation and repentance . hope in god , and wait for the promise of his comming : but know , that till the rod hath done its work , it is not like in mercy to be laid by ; and it 's better to be continued in the furnace , than to be brought forth with your dross unpurged away . against this blessed truth , there are some objections ; as , object . . can it ever be said , that the removall of the gospel , and the preaching of it , can be for good ? sol. this is an hard truth ; but yet a truth ; that even this shall work for good to those that love god. . it 's true , that the removal of the gospel , and the ministry of it , is a most grievous judgment ; and that which carries with it a greater evidence of wrath , and divine displeasure , against a people , than any thing that ever befalls them in this world. how great a judgment it is , we may guess , if we observe those scripture-expressions by which it 's set forth : it 's called the famine of the word , amos . . the glory departed , sam. . the kingdom of heaven taken away , matth. . . the salvation of god sent away , acts . and can there be any thing worse befall a people ? a soul-famine , an eclipse of their spiritual glory , the shutting up of the kingdom of heaven , the carrying away of the salvation of god : what worse thing can come unto them ? it 's a great wonder there should be no deeper sense of this most dreadful of evils , than is mostly found : men little understand what they do , who either in a way of merit , o● instrumentallity , procure , and bring on this plague ; and few understand , or are sensible , what they herein suffer ; to be an instrument in this hellish work , is an office for a devill ; and the suffering of such a plague , ( to them that understand it ) is an hell above ground . this darkness is the very same for kind , with the darkness of hell ; as the light of the gospel is the same in kind , with the everlasting ligh● : as glory under age ; so is this thick darkness , in specie , and in semine , the darkness of the pit . oh , what an hell of wickedness doth this world then become ! the devil is then in his region ; is let loose , rules the world at pleasure , deceives , devours , destroyes souls , without contradiction ; takes them captive at his will , carries them down by whole shoals to destruction : those that observe what a world there is , where the gospel is not ; what oaths , curses , blasphemies , belluine lusts then abound ; what lions , tygers , wild bulls , wild boars , men then become one to another , need not be to seek for an argument , to prove there is an hell ; they see an hell above-ground . these dark and dismal seasons , are the devill 's marts , where he may vent his hellish wares , his snares , and temptations , his deceits and delusion● and every abominable thing , by whole sale : there 's nothing so false , so vile , and abominable , but he can put it off at pleasure ; adultery , drunkenness , witchcraft , sodomy , buggery , blasphemy idolatry , atheism , any thing that sathan hath offer , hee 'l find customers enough to receive : and the truth is , the devil may spare his pains ; men then need not a devil to damn them , they 'l do it fast enough of their own accords . oh 't were happy , if saints were so busie in improving their light , to hasten them heaven-wards , as sinners do their darkness , to hurry them to hell. oh the sad proofs , that the world affords of this dreadful truth : look into all the dark corners of the earth , especially there where there hath been light , and see , if you find not all this fully proved to your hand . can he then be accounted a christian , whose heart doth not tremble at the thoughts and the fears of such a sore judgment ? he is both dark and dead indeed . to whom such a mist is not as the first-born of death , or the king of terrours . christians , if ever this should be your case , make not light of it ; and take heed , how sad soever it may seem in its first appro●ch , that no tract of time do wear off the sence of it . those that are weary of the gospel , that cry out of too much preaching , that are sick of the light that shines unto them , you may know by what hath been said , what judgment to have of them . but is it not strange , that there should be any such ? that those that have lived in the light , and seen somthing , what difference there is between light and darkness , should yet love darkness , rather than light ? is it not yet more strange , that any that pretend to be set up for lights , should be for da●kness ? that the prophets should be against prophecying ; that the pulpits should ring against preaching ? some there are , that are not ashamed to tell us , that hence come all our mischiefs and miseries ; to tell us , and to stand to it , that there 's now , in such a land as this , little need of preaching ; that it had its use in the first publishing and planting of the gospel ; but now that the gospel is receiv'd , and embraced , and competen●ly understood , there 's now little more need of preaching , praying , and reading may now serve turn . i would put in a word or two to such . no need of preaching ? why ? is the end of preaching accomplish'd ? till the end be attained , there 's still need , that the means he continued : and what was the end of preaching ? was it men's instruction onely , to bring them to the knowledg of christ , to turn them from darkness to light ? was it not for their conversion also , to turn them from the power of sathan unto god ? yea , and their edification and building up in holiness to salvation ? let these following scriptures be consulted , act. . . eph. . , , . the apostle peter , pet. . , . told those christians to whom he wrote , that he would , and he thought it meet so to do , to put them in remembrance , as long as he lived , and to stir them up to their duty ; though , says he , you know and be established in the present truth . you say , you need no more preaching the preacher can tell you no more than you know already ; and might not these have better said it , when the apostle acknowledgeth of them , that they did know ; and more than that , were establish'd in those very truths , he meant , to continue preaching to them ? and yet he tells them , it 's meet they be still put in remembrance of them : sure peter's authority weighs not so much with these men , as his , that pretends to sit in peter's chair : but hath the gospel indeed done its work , and reached its end ? witness the objectors own cases . let not onely their lewdness and impenitency , but their ignorance and unbelief , come in and testifie , whether it hath or no. they that have most need themselves , are they that say , there 's no more need of preaching . there needs no more argument , to stop such mouthes , but the shewing them themselves : or if it should have done its work upon you , yet hath it done its work upon all ? are there no unbelievers left ? have all men faith ? faith comes by hearing ; and how shall they hear without a preacher ? if you say , they have bibles to instruct them , and their own consciences to preach to them , i answer ; first , for their bibles , two things : . those that are no friends to the pulpit , are none of the best friends to the bible : those that would not that the people should hear , care not how little they read the scriptures : and be sure , when ever preaching is let fall , the bible will in a little while be laid aside . . understandest thou what thou readest ? how canst thou without a guide ? he knows but little of the scriptures , that doth not understand , that they are hard to be understood . there are , the apostle tells us , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the scriptures , things hard to be understood : as there are many 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to all that read , so to many that read , all are so . the vulgar can as well read the scriptures , without their own eyes , as understand them without the preacher'● lips. till we come to hold , that ignorance is the mother of devotion , or that images are lay-mens gospell ▪ till then , let it be granted as necessary , that the preacher's lips preserve knowledg . . for conscience , let the word , at least , be p●eached so long , till it be made manifest in the consciences of the hearers : that conscience that hath not been sufficiently preached to , will prove an insufficient preacher : let preaching be con●inued , till the word be manifested in the consciences of all the hearers ▪ and if you will needs have it so , then let it be forborn . secondly , hath the devil yet given over preaching , and are the preachers yet silent ? hath the devil yet given over his preaching ? his deceiving souls , his perverting the good ways of the lord , and discou●aging persons from walking in them ? sure there 's need that christ be preached , while there is a devil that impeaches him . hath the devil them that preach him every day , and must not christ have them that preach him , at least , every sabbath-day ? may once a moneth , or once a quarter , be enough for these , when every day , and all the day-long , doe● scarce suffice for those ? when , or where are evill men silent ? are they not preaching daily ? in the house , in the streets , in the taverns , on the stage , i● the stews ? preaching by their oaths , their curses ▪ by their l●es , by their scoff● , by their habits , b● thei● cups , by their w●ores , and almost by all their words and work● ? and is there no need that christ be any longer preached any where , when the devil is preached every where ? if in such a case the preachers of christ should altogether hold their peace ▪ might we not expect that the very stones would cry out ? this is but a seasonable demand . let faith and holiness , first have none found that preach against them , before those that preach them , be concluded , such as may well be spared : but what need we reason any longer , in a case so plain , wherein i can have no adversaries , but such as the apostle had , when he fought with beasts at ephesus . whosoever is an adversary to prea●hing , is either an infidel , or a brute . i shall onely leave one word for such to ●hew upon , and so leave them and their cause to the judgment of god , act. . . it was necessary that the word of god should have been first spoken to you ; but because you put it from you , and judge your selves unworthy of everlasting life , lo we turn unto the gentiles ? let all back-friends to preaching , pause s●dly upon that word ; you have prevented the judgment of god , by putting the word from you , you have given your selves your own sentence , you have judged your selves unworthy of everlasting life . well , by what hath been said , notwithstanding all that can be said against it , it appears , that the removal of the gospel , and the preaching of it , is a grievous judgment . . this grievous judgment shall yet work to the good of saints : that which comes in wrath on some , may be in mercy to others : 't is the ignorant , the unconverted , the unbelieving part of men , on whom the vengeance of this judgment falls : 't is those that are weary of the word , that can worse it . sinners , you that say to the seers , see not ; to the prophets , prophecie no more to us ; let us alone , we have enough of this preaching ; if god once say , as you say , let it be according to their word , 't is your souls are like to go for it : and 't is not the least aggravation of the sorrows of the saints , the misery they see , hereby coming on you : as for themselves , ( that i may answer more distinctly ) . the gospel shall never be totally removed from them ; they shall never see days of famine : if they never again hear the joyful sound from without , they shall have it within . the word which they have receiv'd , shall be in them a well of water , springing up unto eternal life : if the showers and the rain fail , yet the spring which is within them , shall supply that want : if they have no bible in the house , no preaching in the pulpit , yet they have 〈◊〉 bible in their hearts , a preacher in their breasts , th●● shall instruct and comfort them . pharaoh's dream ▪ and the interpretation of it , shall be to the egyptians , and not to israel . the lean kine shall not devour the fat ones ; there is a store-house , from whence they shall be supply'd . whatever scarcity there be , this is certain not one of them shall want a viaticum , to bring them to the● journeys end . god will not suffer one of his ele●● to starve or perish in the way : there shall not fa● means of one kind or another , till the whole bod●●e perfected and built up : till ( we all ) come unto p●rfect man , unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of christ . . that scarcity , that does at any time befal the● shall happen to them for the better , and not for th● worse . . for who knows , when ever the ministry is removed , but it may be in orde● to a greater glory : it 's return ? perhaps , god's sending away pasto● from a people , may be as paul's absence from the romans , that they may return , in the fulness of the blessing of the gospel : or as onesimus his departing from philemon : perhaps , they therefore depart for a season , that they may be received for ever : or , if this should not be the case of any particular church , if they should return no more ; yet , . their want of means shall supply their want of means ; their want of means shall be their means : when they have no preacher , their empty pulpits shall preach to them ; this most smarting of rods will have its voice . if they have no longer the light with them , their darkness shall instruct them ; if they want their [ burning ] lights , the very cold shall preserve and increase their inward vigour ; the wickedness of others , shall make them more holy ; the violence of evil men upon sin , shall enkindle their zeal for god ; the darkness that 's here below , shall make them to live more above , and all this shall make to their fuller reward . 't is a greater ver●ue to keep up the heart , to keep on our way , where there is a want , than where there are abundance of means and helps ; and an higher vertue shall have a greater reward . . the failing of the word , will bring back to their memories , and upon their own hearts , that which they have receiv'd ; and as the emptiness of the stomach , will cause a second and better concoction , and turn it into better nourishment ; when there are no more loaves , they 'l gather up the fragments , that nothing be lost ; the less there is , more to be h●d ; the more reckoning , and the better use they will make of what they h●ve ; their present want , will be a rebuke of their former wantonness : their want of remembrancers , will help their mercies , and whet their appetites . every old truth , that hath been too much laid by , will then be pretious . . whenever ordinary means fail ▪ god will either find extraordinary means fail , god will either find extraordinary , or else will feed them more imm●diately from himself . psal . . . god hath promised , that those that fear the lord , shall want no good thing . if that be meant of temporal good things ▪ yet sure , it will yield us an argument , that will reach the present case . if god will provide for their carkases , much more for their souls . if god will supply them with less necessaries , then doubtless he will not be wanting , in what 's absolutely necessary . psal . . , , . the lord is my sh●pheard , i shall not want ; and so on , throughout the psalm . surely goodness and mercy shall follow me , all the dayes of my life ; and i shall dwell in the house of the lord for ever . here we have the psalmists conclusion , and it's foundation ; or his confidence , and it's ground ; his foundation , or ground is , the lord is my shepheard , his conclusion and confidence is , i shall not want ; that is , neither for body , nor soul ; as appears by the following part of the psalm . if davids logick , and his faith too , does not fail him , the conclusion is firm ; let the lord be his shepheard , and he shall not know famine or want . gods relation to his people , is their security , for a sufficient provision in all times . if the lord be their shepheard , he must see them fed ; he must either find them those that shall , or do it himself . he must either find them pastors , or be their pastor ; he must either provide them , or be their pasture . if ordinary means fail , he must find extraordinary , if both fail , he must be instead of means to them . here two things . . that god stands engaged , as the shepheard of his people , where ordinary means fail , either to provide them extraordinary , or to feed them more immediately from himself . . that extraordinary means , or no means , when god brings his people to it , will be better than their ordinary means , . that god stands engaged , as the shepheard of his people , where ordinary means fail , either to provide them extraordinary , or to feed them more immediately , from himself . feed them he must , or he cannot be faithful ; and if means fail , he must supply that want one way or other . now god is faithful , and will not see his sheep to starve . isa . . , . when the poor and needy seek water , and there is none , and their tongue faileth for thirst , i the lord will hear them , i the god of israel will not forsake them . i will open rivers in high places , and fountains in the midst of the vallies , i will make the wilderness a poor of water , and the dry land , springs of water . oh what a good world is here , for the poor saints to live upon , in hard times . it is interpreted , to have an immediate reference to the outward , and yet a special respect also , to the spiritual wants and distresses . and it will appear , if we compare it , with the like expressions . chap. . . i will poure water upon him that is thirsty , and floods upon the dry ground , i will poure my spirit on thy seed , and my blessing upon thine off-spring . from the former scriptures note , . that the poor people of god , may sometimes be ( as to the visible soul-provisions ) but in a poor case . needy , and hungry , and thirsty , their hearts fainting , their tongues failing for thirst , and their waters dryed up . [ if they seek water , and there be none . ] . all the wants and straits of the saints , are before the lord. [ i the lord will hear . ] christians , though those that should , will not , yet he that can , will hear the cryes of your souls ; all your faintings , and pantings , and longings for the water of life , are before your e●es , and come up into the eares of the lo●d of sabbath . . god hath more wayes than one , to relieve the wants , and refresh the bowels of his hungry ones . he hath extraordinary means for extraordina●y ca●es . if they can find no common rivers , he will open , or make new rivers 〈◊〉 high places , the dry places , the very rock wil● yield a river , when god commands it . . gods extraordinary provisions shall not be scant● , and penurious , but rich and plentifull . 't is not some drops , or now and then a draught , a little to stay the longing , or barely enough to keep them alive ; he prepares them rivers , fountains , pools , springs of water , [ i will open rivers in the high places , fountains in the vallies , &c. ] whereever they be cast , in the high places , in the vallies , in the wilderness , in the dry lands , whereever they be cast , i will cause provision enough to meet them ; though they have neither bag nor bottle , nor any thing to carry with them , they shall not want ; the river shall meet them , springs shall arise and break forth to them . . they are not the wanting , but the thirsting , the seeking souls , whom god will supply . when the poor and needy [ seek ] water , and there is none . oh christians ! how many poor are there , that sit down by their poverty ; who if they starve , yet will not beg , their emptiness hath taken away their appetites . these are sad souls ; 't is a sad sight , to behold a company of hunger-bitten souls , sit weeping , and sighing , seeking after the bread , and water of life , and finding none ; but to see empty , and yet not hungry ; fainting , and yet not panting souls ; to see souls even dying away for want , and yet not desiring or craving a supply , this is a much sore● spectacle . a starveling thirstless soul , is next to a ghost . well , if ever such souls find , who never seek water , 't is more than god hath promised them . 't is they that seek water , to whom god will open a river . . what ever difficulty there be , to furnish the hungry sain●s , with a sufficiency of provision , yet one way or other , it shall be done . i [ the lord ] will hear . i [ the god ] of israel , will not forsaken them . upon me be all their wants . i am [ god ] and can , i am [ their god ] the god of israel , and will , provide for them . they must and shall be provided for ; whatever course i be put to take , i must not see them starve . the lord will not be wanting to them , if his word be not heard , his works shall speak ; if preachers cannot , providence shall preach to them ; if their f●iends cannot , their enemies , their stripes , their wounds , their rods , shall instruct them . thy rod and thy staffe comfort me . if they have no other , the sun , moon , and stars , the fouls of the air , the beasts of the field , shall be their prophets , and apostles . if all should fail , yet the spirit of the lord shall not fail , to be their teacher and comforter . . extraordinary means have more in them , than ordinary , and no means more than means . . extraordinary me●ns , when ordinary cannot be had , are sweeter , and better feeding for the saints , then ordinary would be . the l●ss of the creature , the more of god ; the less of common providence , the more of special grace . water out of the rock , was more pretious than out of the river ; the manna of the wilderness , was ( to them that understood it ) better than the milk of canaan . elijah never made better meals , than what he got out of the ravens mouth . i have heard of woman , in great distress of soul , who received comfort , when the word was brought her by the mouth of a child , which she had failed of receiving from the mouths of many excellent ministers . . no means , often prove better than means ; when i say , no means , i do not understand simply none , means they shall have , of one kind or other ; their understandings , their memories , their secret duties , prayer , meditation , &c. but by no means , i understand nothing from without , no ordinances , friends , societies , books , &c. gods feeding of a soul , more immediately , is much sweeter , then when he sends provision by the hand of another ; the samaritans hearing christ● words , from his own mouth , was much more to them , than the same words reported by the woman . dulcius ex ipso fonte . water is the purer , the nearer the fountain ; the bread that comes down from heaven , is better bread , than that which grows up out of the earth , though that be originally from heaven also . by how much the more immediately our comforts come from he●ven , by so much the more they have of heaven in them . if upon the failing of publick communion , it be made up so much the more in secret , sure the saints have no reason to complain . and whether this be not so , let the prisons , into which the saints have been sometimes cast ▪ the wilderness into which they have been sometimes banished ; let elihu's songs in the night , peters , pauls , silaghs songs in the prison , in the stocks , stand forth and testifie . if prison joyes , and exile comforts , have not been often both fuller and sweeter to them , than when they have rolled in manna , and lived in the fulness ▪ and freedom of all helps and means ; then not a few christians , have either mistaken , or mis-reported their experiences . to pretend to live above ordinances , whilest god affords them , is a wickedness that some men have to repent of ; but where god denies them , he doth , he will provide a better subsistence without them . now lay all this together , and then you will see , that even this also , this most grievous of judgments , the famine of the word , when ever it befalls , shall work for good to those that love god. christians , chear up your hearts ; whatever drought , or dearth , may fall upon the world , you are provided for , you shall have enough . if the shoures fail without , you have within you , that which shall spring up to eternall life . if your streams should be dryed up , if your pastures should be trodden down , you have a god , that will be both your pastor and pasture . if the rive● fail you , the rock shall supply you ; what you want in ordinary , you may look to be made up in extraordinary means . the drying up of the waters , shall but drive you up to the spring-head . if ever the stars fail you , god shall but exchange star-light for sun-light ; while there 's light in the sun , you shall not walk in darkness . see but to this , make sure that this god is yours , and he must find out a comfortable feeding for you ; if you can but say davids first words after him , the lord is my shepherd ; you may then with confidence , say the whole psalm after him . i shall not want , he will make me to lie down in green pastures ; he will lead me by the still waters ; though i walk through the valley of the shadow of death , i will fear no evill , thy rod and thy staff shall comfort me . thou shalt prepare me a table in the presence of mine enemies ; surely goodness and mercy shall follow me , all the days of my life , and i will dwell in the house of the lord for ever . . there is another objection , that seems to have ●ore difficulty in it . suppose a saint to fall into distraction , and thereby to be deprived utterly of the use of his reason , and so to live and die . how can it be imagined , that this can work for his good , either in this world , or the world to come ? can any good arise , out of an incapacity of any longer doing , or receiving good , or patiently suffering evil ? can either his grace here , or his glory hereafter , be increased or advanced , by a man's being converted into a mere bruit ? . there 's no doubt at all , but this may make for the churches good : is there nothing that others may learn out of such a sad providence ? if others may reap good by my evil , is it nothing to me ? may it not be said to be good for any particular saint , to bear the sorest affliction , by which the church may have benefit ? he hath not much of a saint , to whom , if it were afore-hand proposed , whether for the benefit of the church , he would be content , if god see it good , to fall into such a calamity : he hath little of a saint , that would deliberately refuse it . doubtless , a sincere christian , who would count his usefulness to the good of the whole body , to be his good , would say even concerning such a message , were it brought to him , good is the word of the lord : and that which afore-hand , he would judge to be good for him to submit to , may it not be good for him to be under ? . it may also be more directly for his particular personal good . for , . it may do him the same good , which death will do for him : concerning which , the apostle says it is yours , cor. . that is , it is for your advantage : it may take him from the evil to come ; from those sorrows , and that trouble of heart , which god might fore-see falling upon him , by any calamities , coming either on the church in general , or himself , or family in particular : which being deprived of his reason , and power to reflect on , he cannot feel , or in the least be afflicted by . if you reply , but the remedy is worse than the disease : to be useless and unserviceable is less eligible , than to be sorrowful and afflicted : will any man chuse to fall into a lethargie , or apoplexie , because 't will secure him from the torment of a feaver ? if there be any weight in this reply , i shall adde a farther answer ; which , if i misjudge not , will cut off all r●plyes . . who knows , what sins and temptations he might have fallen into , and fallen by , had not the lord by this means prevented it ; he might possibly have been a back-slider , have fallen into gross sin , by which he might have been a terrour to himself , and a scandal to the gospel ; and is it not good for him , that this is prevented ? is not that affliction 〈◊〉 mercy , which secures from such iniquity ? who can say it is not thus ? that the lord foresaw he would have fallen into sin , and for prevention , brought him into this affliction : who can say , it is not thus ? if none can , then this is no objection . if you reply , you say [ it may be ] this is the case ; and i may as well say , [ it may be not ] ; there might be no such thing , that god fore-saw , as the reason of this providence . 't is but a conjecture , and an uncertainty , when you have made the most of it : be it so ; yet it will fully answer my end : i am not now proving , that all things work for good to the saints , that 's sufficiently done already : but you are objecting against it ; and till you prove your objection , which you can never do , unless you prove , that this is not the case ; you must give me leave again to tell you , your objection comes to nothing . and so at leng●h you see this blessed , glorious , comfor●able truth , stands it's ground , and triumphs over whatever hath any shadow of contradiction to it . by the way , learn hence two things : . rejoyce in this promise of god : hath the lord put in thy name here , let thine heart say , it is enough . be more joyful in this , that god hath thus undertaken the care of thee , than if god had wholly put thee to thine own hand ; giving thee power to help , and liberty to chuse for thy self . in what wilt thou rejoyce , if not in this , that the whole creation are ingaged to do thee a kindness , to help thee into the possession of thy god ? thou mayst now not onely submit to , but thankfully embrace every providence , knowing upon what errand it comes to thee ; for good , and not for hurt . thou mayst now triumph , not onely in the consternations , but in the triumphs of thine enemies . whether they ride over thy back , or thou tread on their neck , 't is all one , the issue will be the same . thy troubles and thy consolations differ only in their countenance ; with what ever grim face thy afflictions look , there are smiles under ; learn to see through them , and thou mayst see light on the further side . believe this word , thou mayst read it written upon every thing that befalls thee : there 's no messenger that comes , but brings this promise in his hand , even this shall work for good . read it , and rejoyce . . lay thy self down quietly under it . no more perplexing or distracting cares , what shall become of thee ; no more unwarrantable shifting for thy self : let god alone . shift not for thy self , lest god leave thee to thine own shifts . let not the violence of evil men disturb thy peace , or provoke thee to unpeaceableness . what ever provocations thou mayst have , avenge not thy self , neither give place unto wrath , murmuring , or fears . in thy patience possess thy soul , thy god , and his good word : thy strength is to sit still . stand still and see the salvation of god ; thou hast nothing to do but to be h●ly let that be thine only care ; thy god will see to it thou shalt be happy : he is faithful that hath promised . love god , and leave thy self and thy whole interest in this blessed word , all things shall work to thee for good . by this time you see something of the riches of this promise : god is in the promise ; the god of peace , the god of power , the god of patience , the god of hope ; the heart of god , the help of god , the presence of god ; by vertue whereof , all that ever befalls them shall work for their good . methinks the hearing of this promise opened , should set your souls , and all that is within you a crying out , oh that this were my portion ! where ever my lott do fall , as to outward things , though in a prison , though in a desert , though on a dung-hill ; let the lott of my soul lye in this promise , the god of peace shall be with you . w●y brethren , will you take up with godliness : you have learned , and received , and heard the word of the lord ; the word of faith , the word of righteousness , and holiness , will you hearken to , will you obey these words ? these things do , and the god of peace sh●ll be with you . oh what foolish creatures are we , that ever we should be afraid of religion , afraid of holiness , afraid to own , obey , and follow god and his holy wayes . what unreasonable fears are these , to those that believe the scriptures ? if the scriptures be true , this is the only way , this following god in holiness , to put your selves out of all danger , to put your selves into the heart , arms , presence , protection , of the almighty god of heaven and earth . oh that i could perswade you in thither , and there leave you ; if you are once in the lords arms , you are safe enough , into what ever hands you fall . use . by way of application , let me once more speak a few words , . to the ungodly . . to the godly . . to the ungodly ; my work with them shall be to perswade and direct them , how to get into this peacefull and blessed state : amongst the ungodly , . there are some who are far from the kingdome of heaven ; as , . those upon whom the ministry of the gospel hath done nothing at all ; that miserable forlorn multitude of the grosly ignorant ; who as they were born blind , have had all their dayes such a mist of thick darkness abiding upon them , that they are uncapable , without a miracle , of being savingly wrought upon . speak unto them of faith in christ , of repentance unto life , of obeying the gospel , in the plainest way possible , and you will be as a barbarian to them , as one of a strange language , they know not what you say ; if you should speak greek or latine to them , they would understand it as well , as the plainest truths of the gospel : a poor minister of christ may break his heart , and rend his bowells , in mourning over them ; may draw forth his soul in the most melting expressions of his compassions to them , may break his brains , in studying how to convey a little light into them , and yet cannot help them , cannot make them to understand so much , as that they understand nothing . their minds are so wholly blinded by the god of this world , that the light of the glorious gospel of christ , though it shine round about them , cannot find so much as a cranie into their hearts ; but being alienated from the life of god , through the ignorance that is in them , they give up themselves to lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness ; walking in the lusts of their hearts , after the course of this world , in riot , luxury , excess of wine , revellings , banquettings , covetousness , lying , blasphemies , and abominable adulteries , and ido●atries ; and yet remain without any conscience of sin , or fear of their danger ; being as natural b●uit beasts , as if they were made for slaughter and destruction . are there none such in this place ? doth not the earth every where groan , our land mourn , our congregations travail in pain ? is not this congregation black'd and burthen'd with such miserable creatures ; who after all the instructions , counsells , wooings , warnings , threatnings , and judgments of god , which have been in their ears , and before their eyes , remain to this day a stupid , blockish , brutish generation , without the least sense of their sin , or wish to be delivered from it ? oh you blind and dark souls , consider and understand , if it be possible , these two scrip●ures , cor. . , . if our gospel be hid , it is hid to those that are lost . in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of those that believe not , lest the light of the glorious gospel should shine unto them . this darkness is from hell ; the prince of darkness hath held you under your blindness ; and this darkness leads to hell to the blackness of darkness for ever : you are lost , you are lost souls , lost for ev●r , if the gospel leave you in this state of blindness in which you have so securely continued to this day . isa . . . it is a people of no understanding , therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them , he that formed them will shew them no favour . . those upon whom the gospel hath seemed to have done its work ; but it is its strange work . there are two works which the gospel doth : some it enlightens ; others it smites with blindness : some it softens ; others it seals up under hardness : some it gains over to christ ; others it gives up to the unbelief and impenitence of their hearts . isa . . . make the heart of this people fat , and make their ears heavy , and shut their eyes ; lest they see with their eyes , &c. go and preach to this people , but preach them into hardness and blindness : because they refused to see or hear , let the light put out their eyes ; let the joyful sound strike them deaf , and stop their ears : never leave hammering them , till thou hast hammered them into rocks , or anvills . some there are that have so trifled with convictions , baffled conscience , and suffer'd their lusts so to resist and bear down their light ; that have had so many heats , and colds ; so many thawings and freezings ; that have taken up so many purposes , and made so many promises , and yet all comes to nothing ; that the gospel hath received a charge from the lord , to make an end of its work : go , sayes god , and make an end with these men ; i 'le be mocked by them no more ; i 'le be trifled and dallied with by them no longer ; wound them no more , fright them no more , perswade them no longer ; make their hearts fat , their ears heavy , and shut their eyes , and give them up to their hearts lusts , that they may walk in their own counsells , and fill up the measure of their iniquities . you , that after all the warnings you have received from the lord , and after some workings of them , sometimes upon your consciences , are yet going after your lusts , prostituting your selves to your belluine and sensual pleasures , filling up daily the measure of your iniquities . oh tremble , and consider sadly , whether this be not likely to be your case ; that the gospel hath even done with you , and given you over unto an impenitent heart , and reprobate mind . in hope , that how near soever you are to this dreadful state , you may be yet one step at least short of it , i shall this once more adventure a few words upon you , together with them that i have already mentioned : and first let me reason a little with you . . art thou one of them that obey the gospel , or not ? art thou one of them that love god , one of the called , according to his purpose , or not ? art thou not an alien , an adversary against god , and a rebel against his word ? let thy conscience speak , let thy ways speak , let thine oaths , and thy drunkenness , and thine adulteries , thy scoffing at god , and his holy ways , thy hating his instructions , and kicking at his reproofs , thy hardnings against his calls , thy treacherous dealings in his covenant , and the vows of god that are upon thee ; let these speak what thou art : is this that which god hath chosen and called thee to ? are these the things thou hast learned , and received , and heard of him ? did he ever say , these things do and the god of peace shall be with you ? thou needest no other conviction , than that of israels , jer. . . how canst thou say , i am not polluted ? see t●y way in the valley , and know what thou hast done . how canst thou say , that thou art not a wretch ? with what face canst thou deny , but thou art an enemy of god , and of all righteousness ? see thy way in the valley , trace the footsteps of tby life ; behold thy practices and thy course : sure thou art very blind , if thou behold thy self in this glass , and doest not see thy face , as the face of a devil . there are some , whom it may be harder work to convince , who have the face of a christian , the tongue of a saint , but within , the heart of a beast . hypocrites are as hard to be convinced , as hypocrisie is hard to be detected . but thou who carryest thy wicked heart in thy forehead , upon thy tongue , upon the palms of thine hands , and in the very prints of thy feet , whose malice against god and his holiness , may be read in every look , in every word , in every line of thy life ; needest thou any further proof , that thou art not of god ? thou mayst as well put me to prove , that hell is not heaven , that the devil is no saint , as that thou att no christian . dost [ thou ] love god , art thou under the hope of the promise ? ask thy wayes man , and let these tell thee . . doest thou mean to keep at this distance from god to the death ? doest thou in earnest ? is there nothing in those rich promises , that have been laid before thee , which thou canst wish 't were thine ? is there no such word in thine heart , oh that my lot were here ! art thou content thy name should be left out for ever ? is there so little in the peace of god , that thou canst sell it for the pleasures of sin ? art thou content that nothing should prosper with thee , but that every thing should be a gin , and a snare , and a curse to thee ? art thou content , that the pit should be thy place , eternal wrath thy portion , and that every creature , every comfort , every cross that comes , should give thee a pluck down from heaven , and a kick towards hell ? canst thou think they mean thee any thing else , when all does but harden thee in thy sin , and make thee kick against thy god ? art thou so unwilling to leave thy sins , for the hope of the promise of god , that thou art content to give up thy hopes , for the love of thy sins ? darest thou say , let me have my part in the pleasures and contentments of this life , and i am cnntent to relinquish my part in christ ? let god let me alone in my sins , and let him damn my soul ? let me live at my ease , and my liberty , and let my name be blotted out of the book of life : i am content to take my ylace , and my lot , among the damned in another world , so i may have my pleasure with them in this world ? and doest thou say less , or other than this , whilest thou refusest , or resolvest against following thy god ? he that refuses to accept of the redemption of christ , upon the holy terms , upon which 't is offer'd , says , in effect , i am lost , i am sold for a captive to the devil ; my first father sold me for an apple , christ would now buy me back again to my self ; but , for my part , i am content that the first bargain stand : as to my interest , i confirm the bargain : as for my soul being sold to the devil , to the devil let it go . this is the voice of every wilful refuser of the terms of the gospel . oh wretch ! does not thy heart tremble ? does not thy hair stand on end ? do not thy knees shake ? and are not the joints of thy loins losed , to consider , what thou hast done , and art still a doing ? sinners , i have but little more to speak to you ; but shall that little be nothing ? hitherto you have stood it out , and will not be perswaded , by ought that god hath spoken by me : but oh ! must i leave you thus ? why may not a word at parting , do more than all that hath been spoken ? oh that it might ! shall neither my first , nor last words prevail with you ? what if [ my ] last , should be [ your ] last ? if the l●st that i must preach , be the last that you must must hear ? there is a day set , that will be your last day : there is a sabbath , that will be your last sabbath ; there is a sermon , that will be your last sermon : there is a warning , that will be your last warning : oh what if this should be it ? if the lord should take your this days deniall , for your final answer , and never ask your consent again for ever ? but whether it be your last , or no , i must be henceforth silent to you ? and oh will you send me away with so sad an heart , with the sorrow and shame of the disappointed ? will you break my heart , by persisting to harden yours ? is this all that i shall have , to return to the lord , that sent me unto you ? i have declared thy name un●o them , but they did not regard it : i have invited them to come to thee , but they would not follow me : i have warned them to return from their sins , but they would not hearken ? are you willing that i shall give in this answer , and bear this witness against you at the great day ? sinners hearken ; is there not one blind person among you , that is yet willing to have his eyes open'd ? is there not one captive to lust and vanity , that 's willing to be set free from his bondage ? is there not one more that will be perswaded to be wise , and to prefer an immortal soul , god , glory , eternity , before his bruitish perishing pleasures ? is there not one drunkard more , that will yet be perswaded to be sober ? not one vain person that will be perswaded to be serious ? am i making my last draught among you , and shall i take nothing ? not one soul more ? if you will not yet be prevailed with , then hear the word of the lord , ezek. . . if thou warn the wicked , and he turn not from his wickedness , he shall die in his iniquity , but thou hast delivered thy soul. but if there be any few relenting hearts among you , who are brought but thus far , to cry out , why what must i do ? i would leave with such , these few words of counsel , and oh that my counsel might be accepted by them . . get a deep sense of thy dreadful state : what art thou sinner ? what is thy state ? at ease ? in peace ? out of fear ? in pleasure ? what , and yet a sinner ? in the bond of iniquity ? captive to the devil ? without christ ? without the promise ? under the curse ? study these scriptures , joh. . . he that committeth sin , is the servant of sinne . ver . . ye are of your father the devil . tim. . . held captive by him at his will. act. . . in the gal● of bitterness , and the bond of iniquity . joh. . . the world lyeth in wickedness . psal . . . vpon the wicked he shall rain snares , fire , and brimstone , and an horrible tempest , this shall be the portion of their cry. psal . . . like sheep they are laid in the grave , death shall feed upon them . rise sampson , the philistims are upon thee ; awake sleeper , the devil is upon thee ; death is at thy back , the grin is at thy heel , the curse is over thy head , thy very next step may be hell ; thou lyest in wickedness to day , and mayst be in fire and brimstone before to morrow : sure thou art in a dead sleep , that canst take thine ease in such a lodging . is this the state thou art so loath to change ? is this the state thou so boastest of , and blessest thy self in ? when thine heart is merry with thy wine , swell'd with thy pride , jolly amongst thy companions ; put in such a serious question : but what am i all this while ? let this thought , sawce thy sweet morcel , spice thy pleasant cups , and be the burthen of thy merry songs : after this , hell , snares , fire and brimstone , the vengeance of eternal fire . oh an heaven , a paradice , oh my dear pleasures , oh my sweet daughter , oh my merry days , what mortal can part with you ? i but what comes after ? what is there at the bottom ? look a little before thee , and if that sight turn not thy stomach , sure thou art sufficiently hardy . study thy case , and tremble ; and when thou tremblest , there 's hope thou wilt turn . think not of repentance , or escaping from thy sinful state , till thou see and fear it . we read , isa . . . that christ was sent , to open the blind eyes , and to bring out the prisoners out of prison . if the prisoners eyes be shut , 't is to little purpose , that the prison doors be open : their eyes must be first open'd , not onely that they may see their way [ out , ] but that they may see themselves [ in ] prison . open thine eyes sinner , if ever thou wilt escape ; open thine eyes , and see where thou art ? thy fools paradice , wherein thou blessest thy self , is thy souls prison , where thou art like to be held under eternal bondage . . give a present bill of divorce to every sinne ; hug not death one minute longer in thy bosom : if thou lovest thy life , say not of any one sinne , nothing but death shall part thee and me : no , nor so much as this , yet a little while , and i will let thee go . to day , to day , if you will hear his voice ▪ hearden not your hearts . . dread it as hell , that thy hope in christ , should lessen thy fear of sin . let not the hope of a saviour be thy damnation . make not christ the pandor of sin ; continue not in sin because grace hath abounded . . break off from thy companions in sin ; wilt thou love them to the death ? christ and thy soul can never be married , till thy soul and sinners be parted . escape for thy life , get thee up from the tents of these men ; linger not . thou art held under the power of the devil , by cords , and by knotts ; by the cords of thy sins , and by the knots of thy companions . there 's no hope that the cords of sin will be broken , till the knots of evil companions be loosed . sinner , these binding cords will , if thou look not to it , become whip-cords to torment thee . oh take heed thou never come to be lashed with such knotted cords ! thy companions in sin , as they now heighten thy pleasures , so will they hereafter sharpen thy plagues . sinners comfort their hearts with this thought , that if they be damned , they shall have store of company : but let them know , that the fire of hell will burn just so much the cooler , for the multitudes that are there : as the fire of their chimney does , for the store of fewell . when thou art charmed with the roaring of thy companions in the ale-house , think what musick their roaring with thee will make , when you shall all meet in your eternal prison . away from evil company ; you will remember hereafter , when 't is too late , how much , and with how little success , i have laboured with you in this thing . . bafflle not conscience once more . awakened sinner , charm not thy conscience into silence , nor dash it out o● countenance . thy conscience is the only friend that god or thy soul hath left within thee . thy will , and thy affections , and thine appetite , are all gone ; the devil hath stoln them away , and hired them all against thee , thou hast nothing but poor conscience left . thy conscience hath been often upon thee ; pleading with thee for god , and for pity to thy soul : it hath warned thee , reproved thee , and often whisper'd thee in thine ear ; what dost thou mean ? whither art thou going ? when wilt thou return ? away with thy sins , have done with thy companions , no more of this drunkenness , this riot , this covetousness ; thou art a lost man , thy soul is lost , if thou go on . thus conscience hath warned thee , and thou hast sometimes hearkned to it ; and spoken it fair . the throbs , and the pa●gs , and the wounds thou hast felt and received from it , have wrung from thee , now and then , a promise : well , through the grace of god , i 'le hearken to conscience , i 'le be a new man : away from me ye sinners , i will keep the commandments of my god. and yet shortly after , when thy temptations return , thy companion ; come , all 's forgot●en ; and along thou goest , as a fool to the stocks , or an ox to the slaughter ; and this hath been thy way and thy manner , from time to time : now and then conscience draws a sigh , or a tear from thee ; and by and by receives a kick or a stab . beware sinner ; conscience will not alwayes be thus us'd . if ever it speak again , say it not nay . its next word may be its last ; if ever thou weariest it into perpetual silence , then farewell all for ever . conscience is the only friend thou hast left . convinced soul ! how wilt thou bear the revenges of an awakened abused conscience ? all thy bafflings of it here will be repeated over in eternity : how will all this look when it shall meet thee before thy judge ? save thy self from that hour : baffle not conscience once more . . let not the greatness of thy sins , nor the difficulty of christ's terms , hinder , or discourage thee , from making a present close with christ . say not , his yoke is too heavy his cross is too grievous for me to bear ; or my sins are too great for him to bear . set the throne against the yoak , the crown against the cross , infinite merit and mercy , against mighty sins ; and go unto jesus , cast thy self on his blood , and bowells , and put thy self under his yoke and scepter . if he will give life to thee , be content that he give laws to thee : and as ever thou expectest to live by him , be resolved to live to him , and no longer to thy self . go to jesus , and when thou goest , take with these two scriptures , ▪ matth. . . come unto me , all ye that are weary , and heavy laden , and i will give you rest ; take my yoke upon you , and learn of me , and you shall find rest unto your souls . joh. . . him that cometh unto me , i will in no wise cast out . . fall close to duties , and keep close to ordinances . . let secret , and family prayer be thy daily exercise . count not thy self a christian , till thou give thy self to prayer . . let not reading the word , catechising , &c. be strangers in thy house . . prize , improve , and sanctifie sabbaths ; the lord on those dayes comes down upon eis mount , to meet thy soul , to commune with thee , to bless thee , to feed thee , and fill thee with whatsoever thy soul desireth or wanteth . get thee up to meet thy god : but remember when thou goest , leave thy stuff behind thee . . view often , and take an account of thy self , of the in-come and success of all thy duties : what is all my praying , reading , hearing , &c. come to ? what is brought forth ? is the work done for which all these are ? are my sins and my soul parted ? are my companions in sin abandoned ? is christ and my soul united ? beware you never make praying , and hearing , to serve you [ instead ] of believing , and repenting . but to help you on to it . remember these seven words when i am gone : . get a deep sense of thy dreadful state . . abandon presently every sin . . let not thy hope in christ lessen thy fear of sin . . shake off every sinful companion . . baffle not conscience once more . . make a present close with christ . . fall close to duties , and keep close to ordinances . these things do , and the god of peace shall be with you : but remember , there 's no peace , saith my god , to the wicked . . there are others that are near the kingdome of god. thou art not far from the kingdom of god. there are some that are like ephraim , hosea . . cakes half baked ; like agrippa , almost christians ; acts . . almost thou perswadest me to be a christian ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , thou hast brought me within a little of christianity . they are come to the threshold of saving faith ; within a step of sincere godliness . they have been professing , and praying , and hoping , and wishing themselves in , and yet are short of it . they have been enlightened , in the knowledg of christ ; have tasted of the heavenly gift ; have felt something of the sweetness of christ ; have been made partakers of the holy ghost , of many excellent and useful gifts ; have tasted of the good word of god , and the powers of the world to come . they have set out after christ , have left the blind and prophane world , much behind them ; have escaped much of the pollutions of this world ; left many sins , taken up with many duties , have a name among the saints , have suffered many things for the name of christ ; and notwithstanding all this , here they stick , they cannot give up themselves fully to christ ; something or other , either the world , or their companions , or their pleasures , or their ease , or their sloth , hath such hold on them , that they cannot , unreservedly , resolvedly , give themselves up to the dominion of jesus christ ; nay , it may be , they cannot tell w●y , yet they cannot do it . though they can say , i would be , yet they cannot say , i will be , the lord's . these are near the kingdom of god ; but yet short of it . he that cannot say , i will be , can less say , i am , the lord's . but here i must distinguish of two sorts , of almost christians . . there are some that have reached to almost ▪ and are still reaching forwards ; the state of such is hope●ul , though it be not safe . oh that we could see more such almost christians ! . there are others that have reached to , and rest in almost ; who mistaking almost , for altogether , do there take up their stand . these are far from the kingdom of god. brethren , i much fear , that among the number of professors , there are more of these almost christians , than we are aware of : oh it would make our hearts shake to consider , how far many go , to what degree , of resignation , resolution , affection , action , submission to sufferings , they attain ; and yet fall off at last , and thereby shew they were still short of christ ; they went out from us , because they were not of us . i particularly pity many of the more sober gentry , who have a good will to religion , and a fair respect for the professors of it ; countenancing holiness , doing many worthy things for the name and servants of god ; refraining from the vitiousness , and vanity , of many of their rank and quality ; who yet dwelling in temptations , being entangled in carnal correspondencies , entertained with an affluence of carnal delights and pleasures ; and finding hereby a strict self-denying and mortified life , to be of greater difficulty to them , than to men of lower rank , are apt to think it not of such necessity ; who may possibly upon a narrow enquiry discern , after all their good hopes of themselves , and the great opinions of others concerning them , that they are yet short of that simplicity , and godly sincerity , which alone will prove them christians indeed . blessed be god , there are amongst us such , those who have broken through all temptations ; have adventured upon the disobliging all the world ; have hid down their honours , pleasures , friends , and all their carnall interests whatsoever , at the feet of christ ; and preferring a close communion with god , the peace of a good conscience , the joyes of religion , yea the very reproach of christ : above all their worldly honours , and fleshly pleasures , have given themselves up to the power of the gospel , and an exemplary spiritual and heavenly life . but it is to be feared , least there be also such , who have deservedly gain'd great respect among the saints , and gone far along with them , who yet are come but to the threshold of christianity ; and being afraid to put in , there they are in danger to perish everlastingly . quod fere fit non fit . he that is , but almost saved , is damned for altogether . oh friends , what do ye mean ? will you loose all the ground you have gotten , all the things you have wrought ? shall all your sufferings for the name of christ be lost , and in vain ? after you have tasted the bitterness of the cross , will you not go one step farther , and take the joys of the cross ? is the work of regeneration brought to the birth , and shall it at last miscarry , and prove an abortion ? would one step more land your souls in the kingdom of god , are you gotten so near a shore , and will you perish in the harbour ? are you gotten off from the tents of the edomites , and gotten even to the borders of canaan , and will you not enter ? are you gotten to pisgah , and have a view of the land of promise , and see that it is a good land ? are you come so near , a● to see , that true holiness is such a beautiful state , such a blessed state , and do you wish your selves in , and will you yet die on the other side jordan ? you have prayed , put on ; a little more prayer may do it : you have laboured , and reasoned with , and perswaded your hearts , give not over , a little more labour may prevail . oh that i knew what to say more , that might bring you on . oh that the lord would yet put one word or other in my mouth , that might overcome you ! that i might shoot one arrow more , that might strike home , use one argument more , that might be cogent , and gain your full consent to christ ; that i might see you safely landed ere i be parted from you . oh think , think what a dreadful disappointment this will be for you , that are come so near to godliness , as that you verily think you have attained it ; if after all the joys , pleasures and hopes , the little religion you have had , hath fed you withall ; you should at last have a tekel written for your doom ; and hear that cutting word pronounced upon you . thou art weighed in the ballance ▪ and art found wanting . with you also would i leave a few words . . loose not both worlds , this world thou hast lost already , by leaving them so much behind thee ; loose not that which is before , for want of coming on a little farther : think not of hanging always betwixt heaven and hell ; in the other world there 's no middle , either go back , or come on , turn thee to the right hand or to the left . . mistake not all most , for alltogether , such a mistake may be mortall . do not too easily conclude , thou hast already attained ; if thou takest something of christianity to be all , thy all is nothing . 't is a wonderful thing , to see how easily men satisfie themselves in a matter of such weight and intric●cy . thine heart is deceitful , try it thoroughly before thou trust it . one g●ain too light , and thou art undone . god , glory , soul , eternity , all lye a● stake ; one tittle short of sincerity , and all lost . be jealous of thy self , never give over suspecting thy state , till thou hast put it past suspition : conclude not , till thou hast thoroughly disputed the case , give not over the dispute , till the matter be no longer disputable . canst thou be too sure ? the least mistake is as wide as heaven and hell ; the bottomless gulf reaches home to the threshold of glory ; thy tantum non , will be as much as the devil looks for , onely not in , though never so near , will be thy eternal perdition . . beware that this thought , one time or other , i shall have more power , slacken not thy present care and labour . let not thy hopes undo thee . lose not a present opportunity , in hopes of future ability . labour each day , to bring the matter to a present issue ; and that with no lesse earnestness , than if this day were to give a finall determination ; and thou wert sure , that thou wert just come , to thy now or never . . let not a small matter part christ and thee , heaven may not cost thee half so much more , as it hath cost thee already . art thou come within one peny of thy lords price , and shall that break the bargain ? . let not thy oyl thou hast gotten , serve onely for fewel for thy fire . let not thy common grace thou hast obtained here , be of no other use , but to add to thy confusion hereafter : every beam of light that hath shined to thee here , will add to the horrour of thine everlasting darkness . every drop of honey thou hast tasted in religion , will be thy gall and worm-wood , in the day of thy condemnation . be not more miserable hereafter , for that thou hast been less wicked here ; the remembrance how fair thou wert once for glory , will be one of the sharpest teeth of thine everlasting worm . . lastly , be all or nothing ; come up hither , or get thee down to thy lot ; particularly , . be all unto christ . . let christ be all to thee . . let all christ be accepted , and improved by thee . . be all unto christ ; have none to please but christ , and for christ ; h●ve nothing to seek but christ , and for christ ; resolve against reserves and limits ; give up all , and keep back nothing ; say not , thus much i can spare , and no more ; hitherto i will go , and no farther . divide not thy self , thy love , thy care , thy aims betwixt christ , and any thing else . let thy whole soul run in one channel . rest not short of a full resignation , and when thou hast resigned , repent not . . let christ be all to thee ; say not , i must have an estate too , my friends too , my pleasures and my ease too ; let christ be enough , and all to thee ; father , mother , house , lands , portion ; say concerning all thou hast else , be thou mine lord , and let these go their way . . let all of christ be accepted and improved by thee . divide not thy self , and divide not christ ; leave not any thing of thy self , for any but christ , refuse not any thing of christ , for thy self . think not thy all , too much for thee to give , nor christ's all , too much for thee to embrace . thy half will not satisfie christ , nor will half of christ suffice thee . thou must give and have , and therefore resolve to give and take , all or none . let all christ be accepted , and improved by thee . . the merit of his blood . . the light and authority of his law. . the power of his spirit . . accept the merit of his blood ; renounce thine own , and rely on his righteousness ; as god hath , so do thou , lay on him , all thy iniquities . think not of sanctification , without satisfaction . think not to satisfie in the least , by ought that thou canst do , let that lie upon him . judge thy self , but seek to be justified alone through faith in his blood . say unto the lord , what i owe to thee , put it upon his account ; my christ must answer for me . . accept , and submit to the light and authority of his law. think not , he is thy priest , unless he be thy prophet , and thy king : if he must answer for thee , let him instruct thee , and be thou willing to learn of him ; since he hath bought thee , let him govern thee ; say not of any thing he requires , this is too much to do , since he said not to thee , 't is too much to die . count not thy self a christian , whilest thou art unwilling to receive the utmost light , or to submit to the utmost of thy duty ; say not of any one thing , of all that christ requires , this i must have abated , and then i will be his . . accept and exert the power of his spirit , the spirit of the lord is a spirit of power . the same argument which the apostle uses to prove himself a minister of christ , is necessary to prove thee a christian , cor ▪ . , . since ye seek a proof of christ speaking in me , which to you ward is not weak , but is mighty in you . though he was crucified through weakness , yet he liveth by the power of god ; for we also are weak in him , but we shall live with him by the power of god. ( ye seek a proof of christ speaking in me , ) ye put me to prove that i am a minister of christ ; why , here 's the proof of it , my preaching hath not been weak , but mighty in you ; it hath been followed and attested , by the power of christ , which hath wrought mightily in you ; as weak as we are , yet the power of christ hath been manifested and magnified in us . doest thou seek a proof of thy christianity ? why , here must be the proof , that though thou art weak of thy self , yet thou livest in the power of god , which is mighty in thee . though thou canst do nothing of thy self , yet thou art able to do all things through christ which strengthens thee . thou sayst thou art willing , but thou art weak ; thou desirest to be , and to do , what god would have thee , but thou canst not perform . this may comfort and support thee much , under thy failings and miscarriages in some particular duties ; but if this be thy case in ordinary , in the main of thy life ; that to will is all thou hast , thou art not a christian . he that hath not the spirit of christ , is none of his . and he that hath the spirit of christ , it is in him as the living power of god , actually carrying him on in an holy life . ezek. . . i will put my spirit within you , and cause you to walk in my statutes ; and ye shall keep my judgments , and do them . i will not onely command , perswade , incline you , but [ cause ] you . it shall be done , my spirit shall bring you on , and help you through . ye [ shall ] keep my statutes , and do them . where ever the spirit of god hath breathed in the life of grace , there are more than breathings out after a gracious life . sincere grace hath more in it , than wishings and wouldings , than attempts and overtures ; life is a power to act . phil. . , . work out your own salvation , for it is god that worketh in you , to will and to do . where ever god worketh the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 velle , he works also the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 operari . where ever god works [ in ] he gives us a power to work [ out ] the works of christianity . oh rest not , till thou find thy self in●ued with this power from on high , and inabled to go through with thy work : they are not thy attempts , but thy atchievments : they are not thy offers at an holy life , but thy acting it , that must prove thee a christian ; he that doth righteousness , is righteous . be it thus with thee ; be all to christ , let christ be all to thee ; let all christ be accepted and improved by thee ; heartily accept the merit of christ's righteousness , submit to the light and authority of his law ; get thy self possest with , and live in the power of his spirit : be it thus with thee , come up hither , and then thou art safe : thy almost is now come to altogether ; and if i must ●ow leave thee , thou wilt be the better able to spare me : these things do , and the god of peace shall be with thee . thou art gotten into sanctuary ; and now whatever tossings and tumblings , whatsoever unpleasing or afflicting changes ▪ may be thy lot in this world , thou may'st sing that requie●● to thy self , return unto thy rest , o my soul , for the lord hath dealt bountifully with thee : go thy way , eat thy bread with joy , and drink thy wine with a merry heart , for god now accepteth thee . though thou walkest through the shadow of death , thou may'st now sit thee down under the shadow of thy lord , with great delight , and with great security , whose fruit shall be ever sweet to thy tast : though thou dwellest in mesech , and hast thy habitation among the tents of kedar , yet thou may'st lay thee down in peace , and take thy rest , for the ▪ lord doth , the lord will make thee to dwell in safety . . to the godly . happy souls , the god of peace is with you , all things shall work for good to you ; onely that he may continue with you , continue you with him , in the obedience of that gospel , to which you have deliver'd up your selves . my exhortation to you shall be . . general ; respecting the whole course of your lives . . particular ; respecting your daily walk . my general exhortation shall be bottom'd on that of the apostle , phil. . , . let your conversation be , as it becometh the gospell of christ ; that whether i come and see you , or else be absent , i may hear of your affairs , that you stand fast in one spirit , with one mind , striving together for the faith of the gospel . in nothing terrified by your adversaries , which is to them an evident t●ken of perdition , but to you of salvation , and that of god. [ let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel ] walk worthy of the gospel ; let your lives be suitable , and answerable to the holy gospel which you profess . . let your lives answer the ends of the gospel , the ex●ltation of the name , and glorious grace of god in christ ; live an humble , self-denying , self-abasing ; this is a christ exalting life . . let your lives answer the dignities , and honours the gospel invests you with ; you are the children of god , the heirs of glory , the spouse of christ , the bride , the lambs wife : you are a royall priesthood , an holy nation , a peculiar people ; know your priviledges , and do not live below your selves ; defile not your glory , by stooping to a carnal and earthly life : a jewel is not more unbecoming a swines snout , than fleshly husks a saints palate : 't is below you , who are a peculiar people to your god , to live in common with the men of this world : humble your selves , into the least of saints , but do not humble your selves into bruits : live in the spirit , converse with god , be dealing for glory , honour , and immortality . . let your lives answer the names , which the gospel puts upon you ; doves , lambs , lillies ; be harmless , peaceable , gentle , beautiful , fragrant , sending forth a precious savour in the world. . let your lives answer the riches , the reward , the crown , the kingdom , which the gospel sets before you . live a contented life , be satisfied , be well pleased , with what you have here , be it little or much ; disgrace not your portion , the gospel allots you , as if it were a poor insufficient portion : let your souls say , how small an handful soever you have of this earth , it is enough , christ is mine : a discontented christian says , christ is not enough , heaven is not enough : let the contentation of thy spirit , declare before the world , that the lines are fallen to thee in a pleasant place , and that thou hast a goodly heritage : do not put this scorn upon god , and glory , that thou must be beholding to the devil , to mend thy portion . christian , either thou art within the promise , or a stranger from it : either thou hast the god of peace with thee , or not : if not , me thinks thou should'st find other matter to take up thy thoughts , and not have leisure to perplex thy self with every ●●ivial want ; that thy meat , or thy drink , or thine house , or the carriage of thy friends towards thee , are not according to thy mind ; thy soul , thy soul man , thy life is in danger . oh what an eternity art thou like to have of it ? canst thou want a god , a christ , an heaven , and thine heart never stir at it ? and is the dissatisfaction of thy vain mind or appetite such a burthen ? is the devil in thine heart , and it never moves thee ? and shall an ill neighbour be a vexation to thee ? canst thou feel a feather , when thou hast a talent upon thee ? the curse , the curse of god is upon thee : i cannot wonder [ thou ] should'st be discontent ; but me thinks these small matters , by a man in thy case , should not be minded . if christ and the promise be thine , is not that enough ? are not all things enough ? god is all things : he that hath the son , hath not onely , with him , but in him , all things : are all things nothing with thee ? what would'st thou have more than all ? the heathens acknowledged , that vertue is sufficient . it was a maxime , among the antient philosophers , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , vertue is self-sufficient : a vertuous man hath no need to be beholding either to friends or fortune : he hath enough in himself . the apostle tells us , that godliness , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , with its self sufficiency , is great gain , tim. . . solomon tells us , prov. . . a good man is satisfied from himself . he hath that within him , out of which his satisfaction grows . a christian hath the whole gospel within him , he hath christ , the promise , the everlasting god ; heaven , glory , within him : as rich as he is , he may truly say , omnia mea mecum porto . he carries his [ all ] in his heart , and can thence get out a living , a sufficiency , for all times , cases , and wants : cast him out naked , out of his habitation , out of his countrey , yet he carries all with him , he leaves not an hoof behind him . christians , leave it to the poor of the earth , to carnal men , ( the richest of them is poor enough ) leave it to them to be discontent : a carnal man hath so many to be beholding to , to patch up his contentment , that 't is no wonder he falls short of it ; the sun , the clouds , his fields , his folds , his friends , his enemies , his honours , his pleasures , his meat , his drink , his house , his mony , yea the devil & all , & his lusts , every creature must come in with their part , to contribute to his contentment : if but one thing fails him , there 's something wanting to make it up : nay , if none fail , but they all do their best to please him , yet all will not do , in the fulness of his sufficiency he is in straits . when he hath all he can have , his still hungring heart cries out of what it hath , vanity of vanities , all is vanity . leave it to these , christians , who have nothing but emptiness to fill their souls withal , leave it to them to be discontented . will you lay the same imputation upon the god of glory ? the discontent of a christian , is a kind of blasphemy : it proclaims concerning god also , and all the glory of the gospel : this also is vanity ; vanity of vanities , all is vanity . christians , study your riches more , count over your treasures ; dwell more in your god , and his gospel : read over your priviledges , promises , and hopes ; feed more on that bread of life , drink more freely of those living springs , which are broken forth to you : prove more what godliness hath in it : get out the sweetness and the pleasure of it , ( none in the world live such a voluptuous life , as he that lives most with god ) get out the pleasure of godliness ▪ lie more at the breasts , suck harder ; press the clusters and the wine , and milk will come ; make the most of religion , and you will have enough ; never blame it for empty , or unsatisfactory , while there is more to be h●d . gad not into other pastures , ●un not from flower to flower , keep you home : let not your god find you in another field : if you keep with god , the less you have of creature-vanities , the more full will your contentment be . christian , honour thy god , and his gospel , let his breasts satisfie thee , and erre thou always in his love. let the world read the gospel-sufficiency in thy souls pleasure , and satisfaction with it alone . . let your conversations answer the supports of the gospel , and its succours . live a patient life ; jam. . . be patient , brethren , unto the coming of the lord. patience is a grace suited to our present gospel state . i may call it , a friend that 's born for the day of adversity . if you are christians , you have need of patience ; and if you have patience , you need no more . jam. . . let patience have her perfect work , that you may be entire , lacking nothing . patience , is a submitting , sedate , and calm frame of spirit , whereby a christian , from gospel grounds , is born up under all his troubles , and born throug● all his duties . betwixt patience and contentedness , there is this difference ; contentedness is the quiet of the heart , and its satisfaction with its smallest portion of good things . patience is the quiet of the heart under the greatest pressure of evill things . a patient spirit is a submitting spirit ; it 's heartily content that god should have his will. with whatsoever god is pleased , it will not be displeased . it 's the lord , let him do whatsoever seems good in his eyes . what seems good in god's eyes , shall not seem evil in mine . it is a calm and quiet spirit : it will not strive nor cry , nor lift up its voice in the street ; it can mourn , but it does not murmur ; it can feel , but it will not fret at the hand of god. a patient person is ever composmentis ; has the command and government of his spirit ; keeps it sober , and in due order ; doth not rave , and rage . impatience is a kind of frenzy ; such persons are besides themselves . in our patience we possess , and by our impatience we lose our souls : we lose the rule and government of them , the peace and the use of them . an impatient man is besides himself , both as a man and as a christian . . he is besides himself as a man : impatience turns reason out of doors ; and for the affections , they are all in an uproar , and will know no command or government . . he is besides himself as a christian ; turned quite out of course : duties , comforts , experiences , hopes , all are laid aside . keep you quiet , keep the peace in your heart , and you keep your heart . in this calmness and quietness , it bears up under troubles . patience hath fortitude in it , it neither frets , nor faints , under all its ●ur●hens . christians [ must ] bear , and patient christians [ can ] bear any thing that comes on them . the proper exercise of patience , is enduring : he endures not that suffers only , but that can bear what he suffers . it bears through its duties : the passion of a patient person doth not hinder his action . he holds his course , keeps on his way , whatever load he hath in his back . he ( runs ) with patience , the race which is set before him ; he is not discouraged nor diverted from his holy course by any suffering it costs him . and indeed , christian patience stands not in a bare forced quiet , in a biting in , or keeping down , our fretting aestuations , from venting themselves in word or carriage , or in a sullen silence or stupidity ; but in the maintaining such a tranquillity of spirit , under all we suffer , as that we can still , both enjoy and serve the lord. he is a patient christian , that is as much a christian in a storm , as in a calm ; that can pray , believe , love , bless god , follow god , and keep his way , when he smites , as when he smiles . lastly , in all this , a christian is upheld and carried on , from gospel grounds . 't is not a naturall hardiness apathy , 't is not the spirit of a man that does sustain his infirmities ; 't is upon the everlasting gospel that he stands . there are three things especially , that bear him through . his viewing , the hand of the lord. the end of the lord. the help of the lord. . he sees the hand of the lord in all that befalls him : whence was davids patience ? psal . . . i was dumb , i opened not my mouth , because thou lord didst it . whence was elie's patience ? sam. . it is the lord , let him do what seems him good . whence was job's patience ? job . . the lord hath given , the lord hath taken away , blessed be the name of the lord. by the way note , that a godly man is not only patient under his afflictions , but thankful . he is not only thankful for mercies , but for chastisements . 't is not only , the lord hath given , blessed be his name ; the lord hath built me up , the lord hath filled me , the lord hath hedged me , blessed be his name : but also , the lord hath taken away , the lord hath humbled me , broken me , undone me , left me naked , left me nothing , blessed be the name of the lord. this by the way . . he sees the end of the lord ; that god intends his good by all that comes upon him . he knowes that all things , and therefore this which is upon him , whatever it be , shall work to him for good . . he feels the help of the lord. when the hand of the lord is upon him , he feels also the hand of the lord under him : underneath the everlasting arms , deut. . . the gospel , as it hath allotted him many tribulations , so it hath allowed him mighty supports . a mighty god , who is the rock of ages , isa . . a merciful high priest , who being tempted himself , is able also to succour those that are tempted , heb. . . pretious promises , pet. . gracious experiences , rom. . . patience worketh experience . this last support , [ experience ] hath all the rest in it . experience is the whole gospel proved . a patient , experienced christian , hath proved all things , what they are ; hath proved the world , and what it is , and the worst it can do : hath proved the word , and what there is in it : hath proved what god is , what christ is , what grace , and peace , and a good conscience are : tribulation often takes away god , and his gospel ; and we never so well prove what god is , as when we have him alone ; what grace is , what a good conscience is , as when we have nothing else left us . our religion never shews so much what is in it , as when it 's most put to it . when the adversary hath gotten the greatest advantage of us ; of the sun , of the wind , of the ground ; when he presseth with most violence , with most fury upon us , then we best know , what the weapons of our warfare are . the comforts and supports of religion are not known , either of what strength , or of what sweetness they are , till they are thus proved . hezekiah had never such a taste of his integrity , as when he received the message of death . stephen had never such a sight of heaven , as through a storm of stones , christ is never so sweet in a prison . when god meets his saints in a wilderness , then he speaks comfortably to them . a patient christian hath more or less experience of all this ; and hence is he supported , keps quiet under all his sufferings , and carried with courage on his way . be patient therefore brethren unto the coming of the lord. you have need of patience , and no excuse for your impatience . the sufferings of the gospel call for patience ; and the supports of the gospel will condemn your impatience . if you will be godly , count upon it that you have a great fight of afflictions to endure . venture not into the fight without your armour : an impatient creature is a naked souldier ; how easily will sathan destroy , whom he hath once disarmed . the more you [ can ] the less you [ shall ] suffer . secure your spirit , and you save your self from harm . there 's no dart shall hurt you , that does not hit your heart . keep your heart whole , and the devil loses all his shot . be patient , and you possess your souls ; keep your souls , and the enemy loses the day . christians , 't is of great consequence to you , to be of a patient spirit , and 't is a great duty ; there 's much more in it , than every eye observes . when i perswade you to patience ; know , that 't is no smal thing that i am perswading you to : 't is no less than , . to the whole of christianity . . to the height of christianity . . to the whole of christianity : to be truly patient , hath as much in it , as to be a christian : to be ho●y , humble , meek , mortified , self-denying , crucified to the world , heavenly minded ; all this you must be , or you cannot be patient . patient and proud ? patient and peevish ? patient and unmortified , earthly-minded , a self-seeker ? this is as great a contradiction , as to be proud and humble , fleshly and spiritual , earthly and heavenly , a christian and no christian . if ever you will be possessours of this grace , you must be partakers of all grace . get a believing , broken , self-denying heart ; get your spirits furnished with the love of christ , the hope of the gospel , the contempt of the world ; live above in the other world : let christ , glory , honour , immortality , be the portion of your souls , and the pleasure of your lives , if ever you would be truly patient . . to christianity in the height of it . in pressing you to patience , i am herein pressing you to get assurance . without assurance though patience be possible , yet you 'l find it both difficult , and very impe●fect . what patience , when i question whether my sins be forgiven ? whether god be reconciled , and be not dealing with me as an enemy ? what patience , when i doubt , whether my afflictions be not the pension of a bastard , rather than the portion of a son ? when i am not sure , but my present sufferings are sent to carry me down to eternal sufferings ? i am in misery and perpetual torments : never a day without its evils ; i can see no end of it , nor it may be never shall ; this or worse may last for ever . oh if i were sure it would be well at last , i could be quiet ; but for ought i know , the furnace i am in , may be the very mouth of hell : the diseases , the wounds i am under , may be sent to let out my soul into everl●sting burnings ; how can i be patient under such doubts and fears ? make god sure , christian , make heaven sure once ▪ and then thou may'st set thine heart at rest ; then thou may'st almost as easily exercise , as thine enemies find thee exercise of , thy patience . christians , if you will be patient , you must be painful : give diligence ; be diligent in making your calling and election sure : be diligent in duty , be vigilant against iniquity : if you will be patient , be impatient of sin , and you will be patient of sorrow ; make sin sure ; get it slain by the cross , and buried in the grave of your lord , sealing the stone , and setting a watch : have nothing to conflict with , in the day of your affliction , but your affliction : beware of carrying guilt with you up upon the cross ; let ▪ not the gall of guilt be mingled with the vinegar of affliction : a mortified spirit will deaden all our pain , and a pure conscience will bear all our burthens . till this be done , i must tell you , you will find suffering to be hard service . 't is an easie matter to talk of the sufferings of the gospel , and to boast great things afore-hand ; as you know who did once , and what came of it ; though i die with thee , i will never deny thee . but when it comes to the pinch , when troubles come upon us , when the hand of the lord touches us , and touches where it 's most tender ; brings those calamities on us , which are most contrary to us , strips us of those comforts which are most dear to us , takes away all from us , and leaves us naked ; when we feel the smart of the rod , when every stroke fetches blood ; when the feet are hurt in the stocks , and the iron enters into the soul ; when the vinegar and the gall comes , when the thorns and the nails of the cross are struck in ; when shame and reproach , when scorn and contempt , when hunger and thirst , when cold and nakedness , when bodily torment and pain , are all measured to you for your portion , and mingled in your cup : if ever god should call you out , to take your part with that cloud of witnesses , heb. . who were tortured , had trialls of cruell mockings and scourgings , of bonds and imprisonment ; who were stoned , were sawn asunder , were tempted , were slain with the sword ; wandring about in sheep-skins , and goat-skins , being destiture , afflicted and tormented ; wandring in deserts and mountains , in dens and caves of the earth : if ever this should be your case , then you will know how much there is in christian patience ; and how necessary self-denyall , mortification , living in the faith , and fellowship of god , and the power of his spirit , and assurance of his love , are to your patient possessing of your souls . believe i● , christians , the gospel hath not furnished us with such large provision of graces comforts , promises , hopes , for nothing ; you will find need enough of them all . such amazing astonishing trialls you may be called out to , as nothing less , than the richest stock of promises , the greatest treasure of experiences , the highest pitch of spiritual graces , your greatest conquest over lust and the world , your living under the fullest influences of divine power , and the clearest sense of divine love , will furnish you with an enduring spirit ; nothing less will , but this will do it . get sin , and the world under , make god sure , make the promises sure ; live in a daily conflict with sin , contempt of the world , and exercise of all graces ; live in the obedience , vision , and fruition of your god , and then you are ready for the enemy . let your sufferings be what they will , come when they will , your souls are at anchor , and shall have a continual calm within , how tempestuous soever the weather be . as a farther encouragement , and help to this great duty , consider , that your patient suffering will be , . your witness to the gospel . . gods witness to your adoption . . the cure of your corruption . . your triumph over temptation . . the improvement of your sanctification . . the advance of your glory . . your patient suffering will be your witnesse to the gospel ▪ who were that cloud of witnesses , mentioned heb. . . but the suffering saints ; that army of martyrs recorded chap. . whose patience is set forth as a pattern to those that should come after : these are the witnesses . what was it by which they bare witness , but by their patient suffering ? to what did they bear witness , but to god and his gospel ? what witness did they bear ? why , that the gospel is true : the sufferings of the saints , are their seal to the gospel : as he that believeth , so much more , he that suffereth in faith , hath set to his seal that god is true . in the faith and patience of the saints , may be seen ( as the seal in the wax ) the prints and impressions of the truth , and faithfulness of god. god hath said , he will uphold , he will not forsake them : and their patience shews , he doth uphold , he hath not forsaken them . . that the gospel is a glorious gospel : that god is a good master , that it 's good being with christ any where ; that they are no losers by their religion , but that it's wages are above it's work , and its pay above its pain . it were not possible , when they prove how much the gospel costs them , but they should be weary of it , and repent of their faith , and renounce their profession , if they did not find the lord a good pay-master . the apostle tells us , cor. . . that christians are the epistles of christ , or his letters of commendation to the world , in whom may be read his excellencies and glory , and the incomparable advantages of his service . and as all christians , so especially suffering christians : the character of christ is never so visible and legible , as when 't is written in bloud . the bowels , and bounty , and kindness of god our saviour , never appear'd in more glory , than upon [ his ] cross ; and there 's no such lively transcript of them , as upon [ our ] cross . on his cross , his bloud ; on our cross , his spirit , and the precious grace and comforts of it , are most plentifully shed forth , pet. . . if ye be reproached , that is , and endure it ▪ the spirit of glory , and of god , resteth upon you . the spirit and influences of a crucified jesus , do never shine forth to such advantage , as in his crucified saints . upon the patience of a saint , under the sufferings of christ , he that runs may read , this written , i serve a good master . our patient suffering is our witness to christ and his gospel . christian , when god sends thee to calvary , he sends thee thither as a chosen vessel , that thou should'st there bear his name before the world. art thou impatient at this ? what canst thou not bear this honour thy god hath laid upon thee ? hath god chosen thee , thee amongst all they brethren , to do him this honour , and wilt thou be angry , that he did not ra●her choose some other ? 't was an unworthy answer , of a good man , m●ses , when god sent him to egypt , to appear for him before pharaoh , and to be the deliverer of his people , exod. . . send , i pray thee , by the hand of him whom thou wilt send . send whom thou wilt , any body but me . by our sinful shifting our selves of trouble , or our murmurings under them , we say the like ; send whom thou wilt to witness for thee , but let me go free : let me have my ease , and my quiet , and my liberty , and take this honour , who will for me . unworthy spirits ! oh me thinks , christians , we should rather step one before another ; and when our lord demands , who will go with me ? who will bear my cross ? me thinks we should readily answer ; i will go ; let me bear it lord ; and not grudge as we do , that he puts us to it . our impatience bears false witness against god , and his gospel ; what 's the voice or the meaning of impatience , less than this ? whatever is said in honour of the gospel , what a blessedness , what an ineffable advantage 't is , to all that heartily own it ; yet having prov'd it , i find it even as much as nothing , by that all the costs and charges of it are cast up : the comforts of it will never ballance them ; set one against any other , the bad against the good , the bitter against the sweet : set one against another , and i have made but a bad bargain , by becoming a christian . this is the voice of impatience . christian , thou passest over thy murmuring , as a light evil ; as if thy pain might excuse they pettishness : as if it were , because 't is so common , a very small thing : but is it nothing to bely god , to bear false witness against his gospel ? thy repining at the sufferings of christ , is next to repenting that ever thou wert a christian . brethren , let us do the lord this right , by the patience of our spirits , to confess before the world , that all the sufferings of this life , are not worthy to be compared to the glory that shall be revealed ; and looking unto jesus , the author and fi●●sher of our faith ; let us learn of him , for the joy that is set before us , to indure the cross , and despise the shame : that we may sit down at his , as he is set down at the right hand of the throne of god. secondly , your patient suffering , will be god's witness to your adoption , heb. . . if ye endure chastening , god dealeth with you as with sons : the lord doth not use to deal so with strangers . afflictions are gods family discipline . yet mark , 't is not , if the suffering alone will not prove our son-ship , ( the rod is for the fools back , as well as the childs ; ) but patient suffering will , for . patient suffering is it self , an evidence of our adoption : it is the mark of the lord jesus upon us . if thou hast both the same lot , and the same spirit , that was upon christ , there 's thy lords mark upon thee , whereby he marks thee out for one of his own . men had need of other marks to prove them christians , than what the rod hath made on their backs ; 't is our quiet submitting to it , and that upon gospel grounds , as hath been before shewed , that must do it , and this will be evidence enough . none but a son will thus submit . . the suffering state of christians , is ordinarily attended with other evidences . sufferings will set patience on work , and patience will set every other grace on work . whatsoever it be , that findes work for patience , will therein find work for faith , and love , and hope , and self-denyal . christians never appear so much believers , so humble , so mortified , as under the cross . if there be any faith , or love , or hope in the heart , 't will appear in the day of adversity . if there be any fire under the ashes , throw on water , and then you shall hear it , when , it may be before , you could see none there . as solomon sayes , folly , so we may say , wisdom , grace is bound up in the heart of a child , but the rod of correction will fetch it out . we seldom know , either how bad , or how good our hearts are , till they are thus proved ; this i did to prove thee , and to know what was in thine heart . besides , this is the season , when ordinarily there are most plentiful illapses , and incoms from above . god seldom sends such tokens of his love , as to his children in prison . the light of his countenance he often reserves for their darkest estate , he sets to his seal , when the wax is on fire . there have been christians , that would never believe that they were such , till god hath told it them at the stake ; the highest joyes , the fullest sence of everlasting kindness , have been most ordinarily the portion of gods martyrs . when hell is let loose upon them , then heaven is most open . many christians have met with such refreshings in their bonds , that their enlargement hath been their prison . if this be so christians , who would fear sufferings ? who would not be patient ? would it comfort you , to know that god is your father ? be patient , and you shall know it . what would you not bear , so you might be sure you are the lords ? it may be you have been held under doubt and fears , and sad uncertainties , hitherto all your dayes ; you have gone about from duty to duty , from ordinance to ordinance , from christian to christian , enquiring , and mourning , and complaining , and crying out . oh if i were sure that christ were mine ; that my faith , and my love , and my hope , and my obedience were sound , and sincere , such as would prove my adoption , then i could be quiet : why , if ever god calls thee to sufferings , follow him chearfully : he calls thee out , to prove to thee , that thou lov'st him : fear not to go up with him on the cross , assu●ance is a fruit , that most ordinarily grows on that tree . let hypocrites only fear sufferings , 't will be sad indeed to them ; there 's many a self-deceiving professor , that never suspected himself to be an hypocrite , till persecution made him an apostate : that 's a woful case , to have sufferings come upon him for the gospel's sake , only to tell him , that he hath no part in christ nor his gospel . let hypocrites be afraid and unquiet , but let saints be patient . the same trialls which will prove them bastards , will prove you sons . . your patient suffering is the cure of your corruption . sufferings are our medicine for corruption , and patience our cure : to what degree of patience a christian hath attain'd ; that degree of power hath he gotten over iniquity . till lust be conquered , there 's no patience : if there be but one unmortified corruption remaining , and an affliction comes and grates upon that , this will provoke ; there 's no bearing it . whence is impatience , but from this , for the most part , that we cannot bear any violence that 's offered to lust ? what is patience , but this , that we can bear that pain , that lust , when pinch'd , will put us to ? quietly to suffer , our pride , our envy , our passion , our sensual appetities , to be cut short of what would gratifie them ; and freely to leave them under that which comes to kill and crucifie them ; to be able to want that fuell that feeds , and endure that water that doth quench these fires ; this is patience . when our pride is strip'd of its ornaments , our appetites depriv'd of their delicates , our covetousness of its substance , our flesh of its ●ase ; and we either feel no smart , or can bear the smart of it , then we are patient . and when we can thus leave our corruptions , to whatever sufferings come upon them , without taking part with them in their sufferings ; then lust is conquered . lust no longer lives nor maintains its power and interest in us , than whilest , in all its afflictions , we are afflicted ; when we feel its sufferings as our sufferings , its disappointments and dissatisfactions as our own , and fly out against whatsoever falls upon it , as if it fell upon our souls . when we can say , 't is my passion that suffers , but not i ; 't is my covetousness that suffers , my pride that suffers , but not i ; and let them suffer ( for me ) , let them be pinch'd , and pain'd , and starved , and die ; none of all this shall move me : nay , herein i do and i will rejoyce : there 's patience . patience is lust conquered . christians , you complain of corruption , you tell one another sad stories , what a burden , what a bondage 't is you are under , whilest lust hath such power in you ; what briars and thornes , what plagues and stings they are in your hearts ! you pray , and you mourn , and groan , and sigh in your selves , waiting for your redemption from this bondage and misery . oh for an humble heart ; oh for a broken mortified spirit ! oh this earthliness , this envy , this peevishness , this slothfulness● i am weary of my life because of these daughters of heth. wretched man that i am ! who shall deliver me from this body of death ? why , would you be delivered ? be patient under afflictions ; they are the executioners sent from god to slay your enemies , the m●dicines sent from you● physician to cure your diseases : never quarrel with affliction , unless you resolve to be friend corruption . w●at , will you be so foolish , as not to be patient of your disease , nor your remedy ; either bear the cross , or else never make your selves believe , but you can bear your sins well enough ? whatever your complaints are , 't is a sign they come not very deep ; 't is an argument , that sinne sits light , where the cross lies so unsupportably heavy . . your patient suffering , will be your triumph over temptation : a patient christian is a conquerour over all the world ▪ by this alone ▪ naked job overcame the devil : when sathan and his instruments have persecuted you into patience , they have therein brought their neck● under you● feet . this brazen wall will make their short recoil on their own heads and hearts : your patience will be a shield to yours , and a sword in your enemies souls . be patient , and you have won the field , and gotten the day . they will have no hope to drive you to sin ▪ where they see you can suffer . this was job's triumph , and shall be yours ; in all this job sinned not , nor charged god foolishly . you may now make your boast in the words of the apostle , rom. . . who shall separate us from the love of christ ? shall tribulation , or distress , or persecution , or famine , or na●edness , or perill , or sword ? in all these things , we are more than conquerours through him that loved us . . your patient suffering , will be the improvement of your sanctification , heb. . , . we have had fathers of our flesh , which corrected us , and we gave them reverence : shall we not much rather be in subjection to the father of spirits and live ? for they verily , for a few days , chasten'd us after their pleasure ; but he , for our profit , that we might be partakers of his holiness . the fathers of our flesh correct us , and so doth the father of spirits ; they , at their pleasure ; he , for our profit . you 'l say , it may be , for what profit ? what profit is there in our blood ? in our bonds , in our poverty ? why , there is this profit ; we are hereby made partakers of his holiness . there 's seldom any towardliness in a child , till it be whipt into him . god's school of affliction , is a nursery for heaven : were it not for his house of correction , sion would quickly become as sodom . seldom does any come out thence , but their complexion shews where they have been . 't is with them that feel the hand of the lord , as 't was with him that saw his face ; his face did shine ; his very spitting in their faces ; doth wash them the cleaner . of all saints , there are none raised so high towards the third heaven , as those that have been in the deep : no providences give such a lift to the soul , as those that most humble . christians , what ever pains you travail under , believe it , the births may be such , as will make you forget your sorrow . i have heard of an holy woman , who used to compare her afflictions to her children ; they both put her to great pain in the bearing ; but as she knew not which of her children to be without , notwithstanding her . trouble in the bringing forth , so neither which of her afflictions she could have wanted , notwithstand the sorrow they put her to in the bearing , heb. . . no chastning for the present is joyous , but grievous ; but afterwards it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness , to them that are exercised thereby . oh when you see the fruit , where then will your sorrow be ? joh. . . a woman when she is in travail hath sorrow , because her hour is come ; bue as soon as she is deliver'd of the child , she remembreth no more the anguish , for joy that a man-child is born into the world. if the joy of the birth will make you forget , why should not the hope of the birth make you to bear the pain ? beloved , would you bring forth fruit unto god , and will you not bear the plough and the harrow ? will you expect an harvest , and yet must god let you lye fallow , and still sow among thorns ? let me ask you , and answer deliberately : would you be more holy than you are , more fruitful than you are , or would you not ? if you would not , you are no christian ; si dixeris sufficit , defecisti : if you would , is that desire conditional ? you would increase , so it co●● you not overmuch labour and pain ; that desire comes to just so much , as no desire at all : or is your desire of an increase , absolute ? would you be more holy , whatever it cost you : do you so prize , and love an holy , and fruitful life , that you are heartily content , that god should take his own course with you , should take any course that 's needful , to bring you on to it ? can you freely say , oh lord , i am weary of this tri●ling , i am weary of this dead and barren life ; lord quicken me , lord inlarge me , lord perfect thy work , and fulfill in me all thy good pleasure of thy ▪ will : so thou wilt but hear me in this thing , i freely put it into thy hand , to take thine own way , and use thine own means . use the word , or the rod. command me , or chastise me , spare not this flesh for all its crying , strip me of what thou wilt , inflict on me what thon wilt , throw me whither thou pleasest , let me not want the most bitter pill that 's needful , any thing , any thing lord ; i hope i can be poor , if thou wilt have me so ; i can be in pain , in disgrace , if thou wilt have me : but i cannot be unholy , i cannot bear it to be such a starveling in the sta●e of my soul. lord , for more holiness , lord for more life , and care , and zeal , and fruit , let me have it , upon what terms thou pleasest ; onely let me have it . can you say thus to the lord ? i hope you can ; what , and yet be displeased , if he take you at your word ? can you pray thus , and yet repine and murmur that the lord hears your prayers ? christian , when the lord comes to deal roughly with thee , entertain his chastisements , whatever they be , with this thought . now the lord is about to give me my hearts desire ; now is my day of hope . this distress , this sorrow and anguish , the lord hath brought upon me , may be come to perform that work which i have long'd to see : what the word hath been so long a doing , and yet is not done . what sacraments , prayers , mercies , have been so long a doing , and yet is not done . now is the time , this may be the means to bring it about . this bitter cup hath health in the bottom ; this plough , and these deep furrows it makes , look towards an harvest . the work is doing that i have been so long a begging . this froward , this senseless , this sloathful , this earthly , barren heart , which i feel to day , i hope now , in a little time , i shall be rid of for ever . if this be the meaning of my troubles , i hope it is , i will wait , i will wait for this fruit , and if this be the fruit , oh welcome , welcome this blessed providence . . your patient suffering shall be the advance of your glory . remember what i have told you already , your suffering shall go into your reward ; according to your deep poverty , so shall your riches be : as 't was said concerning babylon , rev. . . how much she hath glorified her self , and lived deliciously , so much sorrow and torment give her . so shall it be said concerning you ; how much they have been abased , and afflicted for me , so much joy and glory give them . as sure as the persecutings of the ungodly shall meet them in hell ; so certainly shall the perfecutions of the righteous , meet them before the throne of god. this shall be written on their everlasting crowns , here is the patience of the saints . by this time you see christians , that a suffering state is not so formidable , nor patience under it so impossible , nor your impatience so excusable , as your hearts are apt to tell you . suffering you cannot avoid , but you may abide them ; your carnal hearts will cry out , i can't endure , and therefore whatever shift i make , i must avoid them . the gos●el tells you , you may endure ; but ( if you will be christians ) you can't avoid them . all that will live godly in christ jesus , must suffer persecution . well , since it 's thus , gird up the loins of your minds , and follow your lord. consider him that endured such contradictions of sinners , and be not weary , nor faint in your minds : the captain of your salvation was made perfect through sufferings ; and ( if ye will be patient ) so shall you his followers . turn to your strong hold , ye prisoners of hope ; prove to the world that your faith is no fancy , nor ▪ your rock a refuge of lies ; that your profession o● holiness is not a meer talk , or vapour . fear not to bear yours , and thankfully accept your lords testimony ; when the lord hath fulfilled his sad predictions , let your faith and patience seal to the fulfilling his promises . when●ver the hand of the lord touches to the quick , and you feel in earnest , that 't is hot service to be a christian ; when your flesh begins to fly in your face , and cryes out against your soul , either as zipporah against moses , ● bloody husband hast thou been to me ; or as job's wife to him , curse god and die , chide it into silence ; thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh . if it will still kick , and fling , and groan out to thee , doest thou still retain thy integrity ? hearken not to it ; leave it to groan alone ; as thy flesh hath left thy soul to groan alone under sin ; so let thy soul leave thy flesh to groan alone , under affliction . while thy soul is quiet , there 's the glory of patience , though extremity of torment make thy flesh to roar ; nay the more the flesh roars , and the soul yet keeps silence , the more patience . if your fears affright you , and prophecy to you before hand , oh i shall never be patient ; if the foresight be so dreadful , what will the encounter be ? yet be not discouraged . you say you could be content to suffer , if you were sure you could be patient ; that is , you would venture into the water , if you had first learn'd to swim ; why when you are in , then you will learn , and not before . tribulation worketh patience , where it findeth none ; when you are in the fight , you 'l find your weapons ; your very sufferings will learn you to bear . 't is the flesh that flings , and frets , but by that it hath been tamed in the house of affliction , it will be quieter . be jealous of your selves while you will ; let not fore-hand presumption , hinder fore-hand prep●ration . but whilest you suspect your selves , distruct not your god ; follow the cloud of witnesses , and lean on the rock of ages ; and when you are put hardest to it , let your soul take sanctuary here , when my flesh and my heart faileth me , god is the strength of mine heart , and my portion for ever . lastly , as that wherein i shall take in most of these former particulars . let your lives answer that spirit of holiness which the gospel hath powred forth upon you ; let your lives be gracious and holy lives . particularly , . let the grace of the gospel be visible , and conspicuous in your lives ; shew forth the vertues ▪ of him that hath called you out of darkness , into his marvellous light ; let your lives be the image of that holy doctrine , or the holding forth of that word of life , which you have received . admire that grace of god , which hath appeared to you ; and let his grace appear , and be admired in you ; let grace appear in you , in its purity , power . . in its purity , represent your god , and your christ , and your religion , in its holiness , to the world. teach the world to love , or at least , to reverence holiness , by letting them see it before their eyes . holiness hath such a glory in it , that it will command respect and reverence , when it is clearly seen . let your paths be pure ; as god hath separated you , so separate your selves from the lusts of men , to the law of your god. keep your selves upright in thee sight of god ; keep your selves unspotted of the world ; if they will be spotting of you , let it be onely with your beauty spots ; your wisdom , truth , holiness , mercy , meekness , patience ; the excellencies , and vertues of your god appearing upon you . let this , that you are too pure , too precise , too tender , too watchful , too fearful of sin , too zealous against sin , be all they have to charge you with . keep thee from thine own iniquities ; say not so much as this , i am my beloveds , and my beloved must be mine . kick out thy dalilahs . thou must part with thy darling , or thy god ; let there be no secret league , let there be no peace , betwixt thy soul and any iniquity ; to which thou mayst either steal out , to delight thee , or turn in to hide thee ; let no iniquity be thy leisure or protection ; if when thou art pursued by a persecuter , any sin , as jacl to sisera , should call to thee , turn in hither , and thou mayst escape , remember the nail , and the hammer ; let no iniquity find a corner in thee to lodge in quiet , that thou mayst not think to find a corner with it , where thou mayst lodg in safety ; say to all thy sinful delights , and sinful hopes , get you gone , i will neither love you , nor trust you ; however thy sin may please thee , whatever it may promise thee , be sure thou wilt find it a sting in thy soul , and a stain upon thy glory . keep your selves from the sins of others , beware of the leaven , of the proud pharisee , of the formal and vain-glorious scribe , of the extorting publican , of the debauched prodigal , the ambitious diotre●hes , the vir●lent tertullus , the backsliding demas ; beware of all epidemical leaven , the sickness of the times you may live in : take heed lest you be dtawn away with the errours of the wicked , and so swimming down the stream , you fall from your own stedfastness : let sinners come up to you , go not you down to them . let them never say of any of you , the man is become as one of us ; our spot is become the spot of his children . let your lives be a rebuke to the ungodly world , whil'st you live as the children of god , without rebuke in the midst of the world. . in its power ; let the power of grace be seen , in its preserving its self , in its being , and vigorous exercise , against all the powers of hell : the st●ength of a man is seen in this , that he can bear wind and weather ; can live any where , without impairing his heal●h : the strength and mettal of a sword is seen in this , that iron will not turn its edge : true grace is such a plant , that all the weeds of the field , and thorns of the forrest , are not able to choke : that will indure not onely the summers heat , but the winters frosts . christians , prove your gr●ce to be a right plant , the right seed , the seed of god ; let it bear up against all the world ▪ let not the winds of persecution put out your light ; nor the waters cast out of the serpents mou●h ▪ quench your love , nor so much as cool your zeal ; especially take heed , that the d●agon's tail do not draw you down amongst the falling stars . you know what a world you live in ; you know the old quarrel , betwixt the seed of the woman , and the serpent , both what it is , and that it hath been kept on foot , through all ages , to this day . you know the [ white ] at which sathan , and all his archers , have been so long levelling , and so ho●ly discharging ; the white stone in your breasts , the white robe on your backs : a good conscience , and a holy life , are the mark , upon which all the fury of earth and hell is spent . oh now prove your grace to be grace , by its preserving it self against all this violence . let the devil see you will be holy , whether he wil or no : let the evilworld see , you wily be godly , do what they can ; though they may make you poor , and destitute , and naked , yet let them despair of ever making you ungodly : let g●ace hereby appear to be grace , and the mighty power of god in you : which that it may do , . let grace ripen towards glory ; let not the scorching sun wither your blossoms , but ripen your f●uit . if you would hold out , get you on : if you would not have your something to come to just nothing , increase your store . let your spark grow up into a flame , your grain of mustard-seed into a tree . i tell you a myst●ry , the tallest cedars on god's mountain will best escape the wind , whil'st the lower shrubs are in greater danger of being overturned ; if you would stand sure , get you up on the higher ground . christia●s , befool the devil , let him see himself a loser , by all his stirs he makes against you . it is not the fi●st time , that his cross winds have prov'd the most auspicious gales , to put the saints the sooner into harbour . what he hath intended for a withering storm , hath often prov'd a fruitful dew : those very clouds he expected should rain down snares , have often drop'd down fatness : if you will go on , hell shall hel● you forward ; the devil's rods on your back , shall but help to mend your pace ; his thorns shall be spurs in your sides : by stripping you of your fleshly delights , he shall but starve your lusts , his friends ; his burthens shall be your ballast , to make your course more steady : christians are seldom in such a thriving and prosperous state , as when they are just come out of the hands of a persecuting devil . christians , grow in grace ; there 's no season ▪ but may be a growing season : grow in grace , and in the knowledg of our lord and saviour jesus christ : let that living spring , which is broken forth in you , be like the waters of the sanctuary , ezek . . which at their first rising , were but up to the ankles ; but a little further were up to the knees , a little further they were up ●o the loins , and at length they grew to a g●eat river , waters to swim in , the bottom whereof could not be felt . it may be the waters of grace do yet run low with thee , a little bay will stop , or turn the stream ; thou art yet gotten but to ankle deep , or knee deep , get thee on , stay not , till thy spring become a river ; let every day , every duty , every experience , yea every affliction , adde to thy streams ; that as the accession of every little brook to the main channel , raises the water as it passes along , so it may be with thy soul ; that the farther thou goest on , the fuller thy banks may be , till thou comest to be like jordan in the harvest , whose waters fill all its banks . to quicken thee on in this growth in grace , consider , . that a little grace will make but poor work with thy mighty sins ; where grace is low , lust is high ; and how is an infant like to stand before a man of war ? . that a little grace will not suffice , to bear thee up in great afflictions ; that which thou may●st make a shift with in a calm , will not serve thee in a storm . . that a little grace will be sadly put to it , if ever thou come to have but little means of grace . . that he that hath but little grace , is like to have no assurance that he hath any at all . if thou would'st have power over corruption , if thou would'st stand in the day of temptation , if thou would'st not starve in the day of famine , if thou would'st have the comfort of the grace thou hast , let it grow up to its fuller stature ; grace , when it is come to age , will speak for it self , and shift for it self the better ; which whil'st it is in its infancy , neither knows , nor can help it self . christians , let your grace grow , and let the fruits of it increase : let your fields ripen to the harvest . i may say concerning sinners , no● as our lord said , behold , the fields are already white to he harvest ; but behold the fields are already black to the harvest . the word is ready to be given ▪ come , put in thy sickle , the harvest is ripe , the wickedness is great . the fields of tares are already black to the harvest : but oh when shall it be said of you : behold the fields are white to the harvest ? shall evil weeds grow so fast , and shall onely the good corn be at a stand ? brethren , let your fruits grow more plentiful , and more perfect daily : let that scripture be verified in you , prov. . . the path of the just is a shining light , that shineth more and more unto the perfect day . let your hearts be so fill'd with the fulness of god , that your paths may drop fatness . let it be said of you , as of the spouse , cant. . . and chap. . . her lips dropped as the honey comb , and her hands dropped sweet smelling myrrhe . let your lips drop as the honey comb ; as you have drunk in the milk and honey , that comes down from above , so be ever dropping it down to others : let something of the sweetness , something of the fatness , that you have receiv'd from above , be always dropping down : be dropping ▪ according to what you have drank : as you see sinners , of whom 't is said , they drink iniquity , to be always dropping iniquity ; dropping oaths , dropping lies , dropping scoffs and reproaches : so let it be said of you , they drink the dew of heaven , and this they are dropping down . let no child , no servant , no friend , come into your company , and go away without some sweet drops from your lips : a word of heavenly instruction , a gracious admonition , a word of encouragement , or a quickning word , let them have ; or lift up a prayer , and drop down a blessing upon them . something or o●her of the dew of heaven let them feel flowing from our lips. let your lips drop as the honey comb , and your hands drop sweet smelling myrrhe . let your holy practices , your holy examples , second , and set on your wholesom counsels and instructions . let your words be savoury , and your works be gracious : let lip and life speak the same things , and lead on the same way . christians , by your nursing up the souls , and fruits of others , you will ripen and increase your own . if you should look on all the fruit as little , which your selves have brought forth to god , you will have this to comfort you , that you have born more upon your brethren's knees : the fruits of those fields which you have planted , or water'd , will abound to your account . bring forth much fruit unto god , and be much in immediate converse with god , phil. . . our conversation is in heaven . be more elevated and raised in your spirits daily , above things sensual and carnal . above carnal delights . above carnal discouragements . . above carnal delights ; live more purely in the spirit , let your hearts be wrought up to such a spiritual frame ; that all the joys , pleasures , and comforts , of your lives may be spiritual . let the lord be all your delight , psal . . . let it be with you as much as may be , as it is with the saints already in glory ; to whom god is all ; who being changed into his image , and dwelling in his presence , are satisfied in him . let god alone , be as much to you , as god and all the world. let the fashions , and pleasures ▪ and delights of this world , be so much beneath your spirits , that it may neither be an abatement of your joy , to want ; nor an addition to your content , to possess them . let the light of all these lower sparks , be swallow'd up in god ; when the sun shines , all the stars disappear , and are not needed . lift up thine eyes christian , and see , what pleasures there are within the veil : come , drink thy fill of this new wine , let thy faith draw the curtains of eternity , and take a view of those heights , & depths , ●nd lengths , and breadths , of that glory and joy , which there it may discover . look on him that sits on the throne , and those everlasting treasures of light , holiness , goodness , and mercy , which are ●treaming from his face ▪ on those overflowing bowels of kindness and compassion ; on those rivers of pure and ete●nal pleasures , rest , and peace , that rise from that glorious throne , and run through the city of god. behold the tree of life , and feed thy soul on its pretious fruit , whose very leaves are for the healing of nations . hearken to , and fill thine ears and heart with , those triumphs and exultations , those reptures and extasies , of unspeakable and glorious joys ; those blessings and praisings , those hallelujahs that are tuned upon the hearts and tongues of the heavenly chore , the glorious angels , and the spirits of just men made perfect , by the vision and fruition of thy god , the god of glory . look on , and possess , this joy and glory ; say to thy soul , as god 〈◊〉 abraham , gen. . . lift up thine eyes , and look from the place where thou art , northward , and southward , and eastward , and westward , though all the coasts , and all the dimensions of the blested land of promise , and holy city ; and then say , come soul , take up thy rest here , all this is thine , look and love , love and long , long and hope , hope and rejoyce in hope , of this glory of god. look on thy god , and never leave looking , till thou art changed into his image , and satisfied with his image ; and here let thy delight and thy dwelling be . . above all carnal discouragements , from any adversaries , or dangers , wherewith you are baited and affrighted , as you walk in the lord ; let the joy of the lord be your strength , let your sun be your shield , let your hope be your confidence , and fear not your du●y nor danger . look to your hope , and you will laugh at fear . dwell in your reward , and you will not be afraid to dwell in your duty : but of this , a word more by and by . thus much for general directions . . i shall next give you some special directions for your daily walk . generalls necessarily depend on , and subsist in , particulars . as there can be no religion in a kingdome , unless it be first in particular families , nor none in families ▪ unless it be in particular persons ; so a general course of christianity there cannot be , unless it be supported in our particular daily walk . the advice i am giving you , i have in part borrowed for your use , which some of you may possibly have received elsewhere . before i give you the particular directions , i shall first premise these things : . count upon this , that the directions i am now giving you , ( if you ever mean to bring it to any thing ) will cost you pains and labour : and how can you count your selves christians , if you refuse to be at the necessary cost of christianity ? if you think to be christians without labour , or if you wil● stand out from christianity , to save your labour , you are alike wise in both . either come to a resolution to fall upon an industrious painful life , or 't will be in vain to give you counsel . . practice ▪ the directions i shall give you in pursuance of your covenant with god ; wherein you have engaged to take the strictest severest laws of christ , for the rule of your life . what i am pressing on you , for the matter of it , is no more than you have bound your selves to , as christians . remember your bonds , and let this holy practice be followed on by you , as the paying your vows . remember daily , the vows of god are upon you , and there is not any material thing here prescribed to you , which falls not under your vows . your covenant , if your eye be much upon it , will be a cord to hold you to your work . . press hard for sensible communion with god in all your duties . . keep up a spiritual and holy frame from duty to duty . remember what i have elsewhere spoken to you more at large , on these two particulars . see that there be religion in your duties , and confine not your religion to your duties . . be watchful . the life of all religion lies much here ; whatever you resolve upon , will come to nothing without it . watchfulness is the executioner of your will. let your eye be upon your rule , and your work. especially watch against your prevailing sins . there 's no christian that observes himself , but may find some one sin or more , that in regard of their power over him , are taller by the head and shoulders than all the rest . in some pride , in others worldliness , in others passion , in others slothfulness . it may be , if thou searchest , some one of these four , or possibly some other , may be it , that by a specialty thou may'st call [ thine iniquity . ] find out what it is , and know , that there thy main work lyes . in vain wilt thou strive in other duties , till that which hinders be removed out of the way . fight neither against small nor great , but against the king of israel . where the enemy most ordinarily makes his breach upon thee , set the stronger guard. let thy daily conflicts be here , and observe diligently , with what success . . walk on thy course in the name and strength of the lord jesus . live by faith. depend on christ for the assistance of his mighty spirit . forget not this , for otherwise thou wilt go but lamely on . these things premised , i shall now give you the particular directions . . directions for the evening . every evening before you sleep , withdraw your selves from the world , and having set your heatts as in the presence of god , charge them before god , to answer to these following interrogatories . . concerning your duties . q. . did not god find me on my bed , when he expected me on my knees ? . was there not more of custome and fashion , than of conscience and affection , either in my secret , or family duties ? . had i any sensible communion with god in my duties ? . have i not neglected , or been careless and overly in reading the word , and holy meditation ? . concerning your sins . q. . do i live in nothing , that i know to be a sin ? . have i kept me from mine iniquity ? what victory have i yet gotten over it ? . am i a mourner for mine own , and the sins of the land ? . concerning your temptations . q. . have i feared , watched against , and not run into temptation ? . what temptations have i overcome this day ? . have i had a care of my company ? . concerning your heart . q. . have i held mine heart in a serious , spiritual , gracious frame ? have my calls to duty ever found me in a preparation to duty ? . hath the lord been ever before mine eyes , and eternity upon mine heart ? . have i been much in holy ejaculations ? . have i not given liberty to the workings of pride , sinful anger , discontent , or impatience ? . have i made conscience of evil thoughts ? . concerning conscience . q. . hath my conscience neither been blind nor dumb , nor my heart deaf or headstrong against it ? . have i done nothing against , nor with a doubting conscience ? . have i neither defiled mine own , nor wittingly scandalized my brother's , conscience ? . concerning your tongue . q. . have i bridled my tongue ? . have i spoken evil of no man ? . hath the law of the lord been in my mouth ▪ as i sate in mine house , or went by the way , as i was lying down , and rising up ? . concerning your talents . q. . have i not wasted or vainly spent any part of my estate ? hath neither my pride had a share , nor my appetite more than its share ? . have i not sent christ away without an alms ▪ when i had it by me ? . have i redeemed my time from needless visi●s . idle imaginations . fru●●le●s discourse , and unnecessary sleep ? . have i not lost an opportunity this day , of doing or receiving good ? have i not neglected to exhort or reprove , when occasion hath been given ? and if i have been reproved , how have i born it ? . concerning your tables . q. . did i not sit down , with no higher ends than a beast , only to please my appetite ? did i eat and drink to the glory of god ? . did i not eat or drink to excess ? . did i not rise from the tablewithout letting fall any thing of god there ? . did i not mock god , when i pretended to crave a blessing , or return thanks ? . concerning your calling . q. . have i been serving the lord this day , in my particular calling ? . have i not been idle ? . have i not over eagerly minded my earthly affairs ? . have i defrauded no man , wronged no man ? . have i dropped never a lye , no broken promise in all my dealings ? . concerning your relations . q. have i faithfully discharged , and done nothing against my duty to my relations ? have i behaved my self as a christian husband , wife , parent , child , master , servant ? . concerning your carriage to those within . q. have i carried my self towards all saints , . lovingly , delighting in them . bearing with them . covering their infirmities . . peaceably , not provoking them to envy ? . profitably , provoking them to love and good works ? . concerning your carriage to those without . q. have i carried my self to those without , . wisely , that they have not been a snare to me , nor i through my fault , become a prey unto them . . inoffensively : have i not been a stumbling-block to them ? . courteously and compassionately , that i might the better win upon them ? . concerning providences . q. . have i diligently observed all the remarkable providences of god towards me , especially such as have come in , as the returns of prayer ? . have i been thankful for my daily mercies ? . have i born this dayes crosses ? . concerning the use of your liberty . q. have i kept my self far enough within my bounds ? in summe , q. . what have i done for god or my soul this day ? have i not lost one day more ? . have i led , this day a diligent watchful self-denying life . directions for the morning . . if through necessity or carelesness , you have omitted the reading and weighing these questions in the evening , be sure to do it now . . ask thy self . waht sins have i committed ? what duties have i omitted ? against which of these rules have i offended , the day foregoing ? and renew thy repentance , and double thy watch. . examine , whether god were first and last in thy thoughts , morning and evening . . be careful to set thine ends right , for all the day . an advertisement . if you want time to make daily enquiry upon every one of the forementioned particulars , ( they being so many ) set a mark upon , or write out such of them , as most especially concern your case , and let not them be forgotten . think not thy self excused from this course , because 't is too long ; when , if need be , thou may'st thus make it shorter : better cut short , than wholly give out . for the help of the weaker , i shall gather out these few of the chief interrogatories , which when they are straitned for time , they may only use ; and to which they may add more as they have occasion and opportunity . q. . was i serious , and had i any sensible communion with god , this day , in my secret , and family duties ? . hath it been my care to keep mine heart in an holy frame , from duty to duty ? . have i been much in holy ejaculations . have i not given liberty to the working of pride , sinful anger , discontent , or impatience ; nor so much as to vain thoughts ? . have i not inordinately minded earthly things ? . have i kept me from [ mine ] iniquity , and not liv'd in any known sin ? . have i wronged no man in word nor deed ? . have i been temperate and self-denying in the use of the creatures ? . hath the law of the lord been much in my mouth ? . have i not sent christ away without an alms , when i had it by me ? . have i not lost an opportunity of doing or receiving good ? . have i not neglected nor done any thing against my duty to my relations ? . what have i done for god or my soul this day ? have i not lost one day more ? . have i been diligent and watchful ? christians , here is a course prescribed , which by the ordinary assistance , which the lord doth not deny , you may take up if you will ; and which if you conscientiously observe , will be , without doubt , through the blessing of god , attended with great suc●ess . and those that do not take up this course , or some other equivalent to it , let them never think to ease their hearts , by idle complaints , i can't attain to such a holy , even , fruitful , heavenly life , as i desire , i would , but i cannot ; god will abhorr such lazy complaints , and look upon them as they are , a meer device to keep you quiet under a sloathful heart . set your whole duty daily before your eyes , charge it upon your hearts , take an account of your selves , how you discharge it ; set upon it as that which is no other than you have vowed to th● lord ; commit your selves , and your waies to him for success : and if this doth not mightily conduce to advance you in point of holiness , and establish you in point of peace , then say , that both the precepts and promises of the gospel have deceived you . and thus i have set before you that holy conversation which becometh the gospel . take up this holy course , let this be your life you mean to lead ; and let it be carried on , in an holy union . in an united contention . in an holy boldness . . in an holy union ; so the apostle there adds , stand fast in one s●irit with one mind . never look to thrive in grace , if you do not live in peace . the decayes of christianity lye much upon the score of the divisions of christian . the devil hath also taken up that maxim , divide et impera , rent them and ruine them . the reason why our love is so cold , is because our differences are so hot . the reason of so little zeal against sin , hath been the great strife among brethren . the combinations of sinners have not so much prejudiced the power of holiness , as the contentions of saints . there are not a few who go under the name of saints , that have maintained disputes about religion so long , till they have disputed themselves out of all religion ; their searching for truth , hath been the loss of both love and life . christians , if ever you would be any thing , be one ; be of one heart , of one mind , holding the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace . it were greatly to be desired , that the people of god were both of one heart , and of one way : but if this may not yet be , if there cannot be vniformity , yet let there be vnity , betwixt all that fear the lord in truth . a few words i shall leave with you for your direction herein : . divide not from the head , to unite with any pretended members ; hold not with them , that hold not with the head. sell not truth , clear , fundamental truth , to buy peace . . divide not from real members , lest you hereby prove your division from the head. christ hath but one body , if you be not in union with the body , you are divided from the head . . see the head in every member ; see christ in every saint . . prize christ where ever you see him . love christ , and love his image ; if you will not slight christ , slight not any saint . see'st thou an humble , meek , patient , broken-hearted , self-denying , mortified christian ; in whatsoever unpleasing form ( as to matters circumstantiall ) he appears , despise him no● , reject him not . . prize peace and union , as the strength and honour of the body . . pursue peace and union , with the utmost strength of thy soul. and that you may obtain it , . let all parties that are named of christ , be humbled under former divisions . what peace so long as god is angry ? oh how have we provoked the lord , by provoking one another ! let him only who hath been without sin in this matter , be without sorrow and shame . sure they are hard hearts , who are not broken under such breaches . let us not mistake our selves , nor mis-call that zeal for god , which god will call pride , and peevishness . i speak not against our being offended , either with errour or iniquity ; we may not call evil , good ; or darkness light , for peace sake ; but at our unreasonable passions , against whom we suppose erring brethren . if the reproach of the gospel , the hardning of the perverse , the stumbling of the weak , if the hindring of edi●ication , the promoting of confusion , and every evil work , which have been the sad effects of our divisions ; if pride and haughtiness , if vanity and wantonness , if envy and uncharitableness , which have been the womb from which our contentions have sprung , be matter of humiliation , then sure we had need be brought upon our knees : we must be melted , e're we can be moulded up into one . . let all parties unite sincerely in their ends : let the honour of christ , the advancement of practical godliness , the destruction of the interest of the flesh , the edification of the whole body , in faith and holiness , be look'd at with a single eye , and pursued with a plain and honest heart ; let not the interest of a party , the affection of superiority and dominion , the carrying on of selfish or fleshly designs , let the god , or the christ , you are driving for , unbyass your spirits , take the right mark , and let your motions be sincerely level'd at it . if we were once set right in our ends● , an accommodation of all our differences , about , the means , would be more facile and feisable , prov. . , . the integrity of the upright shall guide him , the righteousness of the perfect shall direct his way . humble , single , honest hearts , are most like to hi● upon the good and honest way : if we had nothing 〈◊〉 do , but to please the lord , we should not have much to do to please one another . . let all parties unite in this rule , do as you would be done by ; that is , as being well informed , and advised , and freed from evil , and discomposed affections , ( for so the rule is to be understood ) you would that men should do unto you : allow to others , what you challenge to your selves ; or would , if you were in their circumstances : deny not what you would demand : the same liberty , the same charity that you would expect from other christians , allow to them . . no longer tie up christ to a party . say not , loe here is christ , and not there : say of all believers , though of different forms , as we are christs , so they are christs . of all the subdivisions of protestants , that are considerable amongst us , there 's no party , the union with which makes us , or the seperation from which únmakes us , christians . we had need to have more to shew for our christianity , than that we are presbyterians , independents , anabaptists , episcopal , or erastians ; and the devil must have more to prove us no christians , than this , that we are in union with either of these , or in separation from them . . in matters circumstantial , be not over-hasty in stamping a jus divinum on things disputable and doubtful : put no more weight , nor a greater necessity , on any thing , than god hath evidently put on it ; and spend no more of your zeal about it , than is proportionable to its weight and evidence . . allow for the imperfect state the church is in , we know but in part ; and till that which is perfect is come , and that which is imperfect is done away , we must bear with one another , if in any things we be otherwise minded . . stretch not your authority beyond your line , take not too much upon you : think not to bring all others , in every thing , to your standard ; impose not your consciences , as a law upon others . . put not conscience to the ill office of being a meer make-bate , catch not up every notion , and presently charge it upon conscience , as that which must be maintained , though to the greatest prejudice of the whole interest of religion , and so rent and run away from all those that agree not with you . be not rash , be not heady ; be tender , but be wary ; be well instructed , if you will be truly tender : first carefully inform thy conscience , and then peaceably follow it . of what is that conscience tender , that is not tender of making wounds and rents , in the body of christ ? . beware of censurings and judgings , of biting and devouring one another . if ye bite , and devour one another , ye shall be consumed one of another . let him that is without fault , cast the first stone at his erring brother . be not bitter against the bitterness of others : if others sowerness offend thee , yet let it not leaven thee : be not reviled into a reviler , scoffed into a scoffer ; overcome evil with goodness : 't is not seldom that our invectives against others bitterness , are more keen and cutting , than what we complain of : justifie not what thou judgest ; practise not thy self , what in the same breath thou condemnest in thy brethren : throw not back thy brother's fire-balls in his face , le●t in censuring him , thou be also thine own judge : pursue not matters in difference over hotly , but learn modestly and meekly to differ , where you cannot agree . . let your conversation be so holy , humble , and heavenly , carry your selves in such simplicity , and godly sincerity , towards god , towards one another , and towards all men , that you may command each other to believe , that however you agree not about your mother , yet you are all the children of the same father ; that you are of god , and that the spirit of the living god dwelleth in you . . hold communion in the things wherein you agree , and charity where you differ : may you not pray , and fast , and hear , and hold christian conferences together ? sure there is not overmuch of gospel spirit , where this will not be granted ? . impose not on each other any hard and unnecessity conditions of your communion . suppose , upon your differing judgments , there be in some things different practices , which some of you iudge less warrantable , whil'st the consciences of others allow and use ; press not the relinquishing such questionable practices , as the condition of your communion ; especially , if they be not mingled with the daties wherein you joyn , but are used by any of you , at other times , or in other assemblies . excommunicate not them from you , excommunicate not your selves from them , with whom christ holds communion . judge not that christ withdraws , from all those , who are not in every thing , of your mind and way ▪ destroy not all communion , by seeking after a purer , than in this out imperfect state , we shall ever attain . according to this principle , ( no communion at all , if not in all ) where shall we rest ? in all societies something will offend . . and lastly , in your communion receive not one another to doubtful disputations : let your prayers , conferences , and all holy exercises , be studiously so managed , that there may be a sweet accord of your spirits therein : come not together to strengthen parties , or propagate opinions : let all matters of controversie be waved ; and hereof let there be such mutual assurance given aforehand , that you may be together , without fear of becoming thorns or snares one to another : which , if it be not unanimously consented to , and inviolably observed , your communion will be impossible , or dangerous . christians , are the clear and fundamental truths of the gospel , and the more necessary and weighty duties of religion , sufficiently understood and practised ? are your souls safe ? is your calling and election sure ? is the love , and life , and zeal of god , grown up to that maturity , that you need not mutual help this way ? have you any spare time from these things , to spend in perplexing controversies ? build up one another in your most holy faith , provoke one another to love , and to good works , encourage , establish , and strengthen one another in the known ways of holiness , and if you find not this both better work , and work enough for you , then take your liberty . these things do live in peace , and love , and the god of peace shall be with you . hear , oh all ye friends of christ , by what oblique names soever unhappily distinguished ! will you come and be friends one with another ? are you for peace ? your god is the god of peace : your jesus is the prince of peace : your gospel is the gospel of peace ; and will you not be perswaded to be sons of peace ? your god is one , your mediator is one , your faith one , your baptism one , your hope one ; you are one body , one spirit , and will you not yet be one soul ? oh how hopeful would our condition be , were our hearts generally set upon peace ! we should certainly obtain , did we more resolvedly pursue it : and what should hinder ? have you not yet enough of your contentions , and quarrellings ? have not your souls been sufficiently neglected , your lusts strengthned , your faith weakned , your love withered , your comforts wasted , your names blemish'd , your holy profession blamed ? hath not your god been sufficiently provoked , and the devil sufficiently gratified ? are your bellies so filled with gall , and your mouths with gravel , and have you not yet enough of your contentions ? christians , slight not these counsells and warnings . as you would prove your selves the friends of christ , be ye followers of peace . study , oh study these things that make for peace . follow peace with all men , as much as in you is , but especially with the houshold of faith. let there be no longer strife betwixt us , for we are brethren . yet alwaies remember , i am pressing you to an holy union ; whil'st i perswade you to follow peace , i must still add [ and holiness : ] i perswade you not to pursue peace , upon tearms dishonourable or prejudicial to truth ; they must have both together , that will be blessed in either : truth without peace , is as a jewel without its cabinet ; peace without truth , is as a cabinet with nothing in it . peace without holiness , is as a fair and promising shell , with a rotten , or worm-eaten kernell ; holinesse without peace , is as a pretious kernel , under a crack'd and broken shell . they that have peace without truth , have nothing worth the securing ; they that have truth without peace , have little security for what they have . peace without truth , is beauty without worth ; truth without peace , is worth with its beauty marred . let both go together , and then they will be , both the columna ecclesiae , the pillar of the church , rendring it consistent within it self ; and the corona ecclesiae , its crown , rendring it comely and glorious before the world. be it thus with us , and then sathan look to thy self , thy kingdom shall down amain ; when thou canst no longer hold up division , thou losest thy dominion . then saints lift up your heads , your communion shall be sweet , your glory shall be gre●t , your light shall shine , your fruit shall abou●d , the smell of your spices shall slow forth ; your adversaries shall envy , and your king shall grea●ly delight to see your beauty . oh may this grace , thi● peace be granted us from the lord ; and let all that love the prosperity of sion , say amen . . in an united contention . striving together ( saith the apostle ) for the faith of the gospel . unite , but strive ; strive not one against another ; christian against christian , but strive together ; let your contention be in communion . strive together against sin , and unbelief ; against hypocrisie , and ear●hliness ; strive against strife , and debate , and envyings , and judgings ; strive together with god , in your prayers , and supplications : we often pray , but our prayers do not agree : by keeping at such distance , we know not one anothers hearts , and are , so many men , so many minds ; every one prayes according to his single apprehension , and affections : what one prayes , another unprayes ; insomuch , that we should put the lord to do contradictions , if he must give particular answers to all our prayers . and possibly , that may be the reason , why the lord defers his answer so long , he will st●y till we are better agreed what we would have . matth. . . if two of you agree on earth , touching any thing that they shall ask , it shall be done for them of my father which is in heaven . s●rive together in all holy and united endeavours , to comfort , confirm and establish one another in the faith of the gospel . keep up the communion of saints , and an united contention against sin and unbelief ; remember heb. . . . in an holy boldness , in nothing terrified by your adversaries . in nothing , that is , either in no degree ; not at all terrified : or else in nothing , that you have to do ; be frighted out of no part of your duty : or el●e at nothing that they do , or threaten to do against you . be not afraid to be holy . tell your adversaries , when they have said and done their worst , you must , and you will , make bold to serve your god. fear them not , and they cannot hurt you ; they never hurt you , unless they divert you from your duty . to establish your hearts in this holy boldness , and against your carnal fears , . consider , that , . by how much the more you fear god , by so much the less you will fear men . . by how much the more your fear sin , by so much the less you will fear trouble . . by how much the less your adversaries fear god , by so much the less need you to fear them . . believe : psal . . . i had fainted , but that i believed . faith is a buckler against fears and faintings , ephes . . . above all , take the shield of faith , whereby you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the devill . [ the shield of faith ] a shield is a wall of partition , interposed betwixt a person and harm ; 't is only our apprehensions of harm that raise our fear : faith will save a christian harmless , and thereby preserve him fearless . the shield is ordain'd for a security to all parts ▪ and against all assaults . some pieces of our armour are appropriated to one part only ; the helmet is for the head , the breast-plate for the breast , the girdle for the loins , the shooes for the feet ; but the shield is a moveable , that is to be lifted up , where ever the blow comes . faith is an universal security . faith may be said to be a shield , . instrumentally : as it provides us of a shield , as it lifts up a shield , and sets a guard upon the soul to secure it . it holds up christ for a shield ; it holds up the promises for a shield : the very commands , and i●stitutions , of god , for a shield , and safe-guard to the soul. sometimes the sense of guilt assails and weakens the heart : it is not so much any thing without us , as something within us , that raises our fears . how small a matter will fright a guilty soul ? guilt will make every stroke a stab . it 's the barb of the arrow , the venome on the dart , or the sore of the heart , that makes every stroke formidable and terrible . 't is the guil●less soul that hath courage , and boldness . hic murus ahaeneus esto — now against this dreadfull dart , faith holds up a buckler , with a crucified jesus upon it ; and so that 's quenched . sometimes darkness and uncertainties , about the way that we are in raises our fear . a christian that knowes himself in his duty , in his way , is out of fear . clearness gives boldness . whil'st we question the warrantableness of the way we are in every shadow of danger will shake us : against such fears , faith holds up a buckler , with this inscription , have not i commanded thee ? it shews the command , and in that , our warrant , and in our warrant our security . when we question whether our worship , for which we are like to suffer , be right or no , faith holds up an institution for our ●hield . if this fear ( oh i shall not hold out , i shall deny my lord , and his faith , if put to it ) assails the soul ; here faith holds up the promise for a buckler : he hath said , i will not fail thee , nor forsake thee : so that we may boldly say , the lord is my helper . . formally ; faith not only lifts up a shield , but is our shield ; the very believing in a crucified jesus ; the very believing the command , the institution , the promise , stayes and supports the heart , against whatsoever may befall it ; i had fainted but that i believed . christians , whatever your duties , difficulties , despondencies , straits , temptations , afflictions , weaknesses , are ; believe , and you shall be carried through ; believe , and you shall be established ▪ believe in christ , and you shall dare to follow christ ; believe in christ , and you shall go through with christ , and hold out to the end . believe , and you shall neither fear , faint , nor fall . your faith will both keep you faultless , and save you harmless , and thereby secure you from sinking , and fainting , in your minds . if this be not enough , let me add , that faith will yet farther scatter all your fears , by this double act : . it will put your reward into your h●nds . . it will put all your troubles to a present end . . it will put your reward into your hand ; it will set the crown on your head , even whil'st the cross is on your back . faith makes things to come , present , heb. . . it is the subsistence , or being , of things hoped for ; it gives being to the good things promised , before they are . hope carries the eye to the object ; looks on things to come , as to come : faith brings the object to the eye , looks on things to come , as come ; it looks on distance of time , as god looks on it ; on a thousand years but as one day . it looks on god's saying and doing , on god's promising , and performing , as all one . it a●●●dates glory , and gives a kind of present possession of it in hand , rom. . ( in ) all these things we are more than conquerours : in tribulation , in persecution , in famine , in nakedness ; [ in ] all these things we are more than conquerours : not onely afterwards we shall be , but in all these things , even whil'st we are under them , we are more than conquerours : the conquest is obtained in the very entrance of the combat . this is the victory that over cometh the world even our faith. believe christian , and thy faith will be thy victory , thy shield will be thy palm . . it will put all our troubles to a present end : faith looks on things to come as present , and thereby , on things present as past : it looks on all things , according as they will be in their issue and end : it looks on things to come , according to what they will be , when they are come . it looks on things present , according to what they will be , when they are past . it sees all passing , and considers it as past already . it sees all passing , the world upon its wing , the fashion of it passeth away . it sees the riches of the world upon their wings ; the pride , and the pomp , and the gallantry , and the glory of the world , upon their wings : and it sees the poverty of the world , the troubles of the world , all upon the wing . it look ; on the blackest clouds , as flying clouds , and it considers all , as gone already . it looks on the clear , that is , beyond the clouds ; it says , as god says , babylon is fallen , is fallen : not onely it shall fall , but it is fallen , and shall not be able to rise . and what place can there then be left for fear or fainting ? was the red sea a terrour to israel , when they saw themselves gotten to the other side ? did sampson's [ dead ] lion fright him ? will the remembrance of what you [ have ] suffer'd be a terrour to you , when you have gotten through , and are come out of tribulation ? why , open the eye of your faith , and see the coast already clear ? you will see the red sea behind you , the wilderness behind you , jordan behind you , and your selves gotten safe on the banks of canaan . come on soul , what should hinder thee ? may be , thou supposest , thou hast a great fight of affliction to indure ; grant thou hast , yet fear none of those things [ thou shalt ] suffer , till thou canst fear those things thou [ hast ] suffer'd . though thou be now putting on thy armour , believe , and thou may'st boast as if thou hadst put it off : death where is thy sting ? grave where is thy victory ? where is the fury of the oppressour ? thine enemies are already under thy feet man , death it self is swallow'd up in victory . christians , cherish , improve , increase your faith , and this will clear your way of all your fears . wherfore didst thou doubt , oh thou of little faith ? oh 't is a sign our faith is but low , when our fears are so high . the day , the lord hears you in this prayer , lord increase our faith , he delivers you from your fears : wax st●ong in faith , and you will wax bold in your god. . be humble ; 't will be your advantage , that you stand on the lower ground : he whose heart hath already laid him in the dust , will not fear how low his enemies can lay him . . be peaceable ; your preces & lachrymae , will be your best weapons : the guilt of your unquiet and unwarrantable resistance , will weaken your hearts , more than all your partakers will strengthen your hands , prov. . . say not , i will recompence evil , wait on the lord , and he will save thee . patient and peaceable suffering , will be the best way to abash your persecutors , and embolden your souls . now gather up all these particulars , and you have the conversation that becometh the gospel ; wherein , that i may perswade , as well as direct you , consider these following arguments ; . this is to them , to your adversaries , an evident token of perdition : this united , humble , peaceable , unanimous boldness , in your holy course , whereby you walk in the spirit and power of the gospel , and are ●ot frighted or terrified out of it ; this is , and will be to your persecutors , an evident token of perdition . the falls and slaws in the lives of saints , and their quarrellings and divisions amongst themselvs , do strengthen the hands and the confidence of sinners against ●hem : the fears and faintings of saints , are the flushings of sinners ; when saints hang the wing , sinners lift up the head. the majesty and beauty of an holy life , joyned with an humble and patient magnanimity and undantedness , will be a dart in the liver of the enemies of it , it is an evident tok●n [ to them ] of perdition : it is not onely a death-token [ upon them ] , persecution is a black mark of a son of perdition ; but it is an evident token [ unto them ] : it will read them their doom ; it will make their own hearts to fall upon themselves , and their own consciences to give them their sentence . . this is to you an evident token of salvation , [ but to you of salvation ] the word is sure . to him that ordereth his conversation aright , will i shew the salvation of god. if we be dead with christ , we shall also live with him ; if we suffer with him , we shall also be glorified together with him . to him that overcometh , will i give to sit with me on my throne , even as i have overcome , and am set down with my father on his throne . fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer . be thou faithful unto the death , and i will give thee a crown of life . [ salvation , and that of god ] there 's much in that addition [ and that of god ] it notes , that the salvation of the suffering saints shall be sure , great . . it notes , that their salvation shall be sure : you shall certainly be saved , for god hath undertaken for it ; that 's the import of the expression . if it be god that justifies , who shall condemn ? if it be god that will save , who shall destroy ? the matter is sure , you shall be saved , and that of god. it may be sathan will promise , hearken to me , and i will save you harmless . but he is a liar and a deceiver ; he is weak and cannot , false and will not . it may be the evil world will tell you , if thou wilt cast in thy lot with us , take our advice , follow our example , come along with us , thou may'st save thy self all this harm and loss . but there is as much trust to the children , as to the father of lies : but if the lord god , the god of power , the god of truth , says , i will save , who shall say nay ? . it notes , that their salvation shall be great : the great god will do for them great things ; he will save them by a mighty salvation . he will save them against all those mighty hindrances that lie in the way . who art thou , o great mountain ! before zerubbabel , thou shalt become a plain . all the difficulties , and unlikelihoods , all the astonishing , and flesh-non-plus-ing obstacles , that stand in the way of their redemption , will be nothing before the mighty god. he will save them from their mighty sins , sufferings , and fears ; from the vanity and vexations of this earth , and from the vengeance of eternal fire . christians , do but go on , walk with christ , suffer with christ , and fear none of those things , which you shall suffer : and this shall be to you an evident token of salvation , and that of god. . consider again the argument of the text : these things do , and the god of peace shall be with you . what encouragement there is in this promise , i have already shew'd you . two things i shall onely mention here , one of which hath been insisted on already . consider , first , if god be with you , all shall make for you . secondly , if god be with you , you shall shortly be with god. . if god be with you , all shall make for you : remember what you have heard out of rom. . , ● . christians , perhaps you will not know , how ●o make a good construction of some providences ●hat may possibly befall you , before you die . such cases there may be , that providence may seem to be 〈◊〉 plain contradiction of the promise . suppose the people of god , in any nation under heaven , should ●t any time have not onely an innundation of temporal calamities , famine , and pestilence , and ●word , oppression , rapine , and cruelty ; but a floud of spiritual judgments also , breaking in upon them ; a famine of the word , an eclipse of the light of the glorious gospel among them ; their green pasture trodden down , their pure waters ●uddled , god's spiritual worship made to give place to will-worship , superstition and idola●ry ; the institutions of god , to the inventions of men ; his house made an habitation for dragons , for the scritch-owl , and the bittern , for ziim and ●im , and every unclean thing . and that , in such a time , when they had given themselves to more than ordinary praying , and fasting , and humbling themselves , and repenting of their iniquities ; when they had set their faces towards sion , and were full of hopes , that the lord was about to build , and to plant ; to cast out their rubbish ▪ to repair their ruines , to bring in their peace like a river , and to establish his tabernacle amongst them . suppose that in such a time , the lord should even spit in their faces , should dash all their hopes , and put into their hands a cup of trembling ; should bring trouble upon their loyns , and cause darkness to cover their faces ; should expose them to scor● and contempt , make them a reproach , and a by-word ; should suffer them to be trampled upon , as the filth of the world , and the off-scouring of all things . suppose you should have liv'd in such times and places , and have heard them complaining thus ; all things work for good , why we see all things fall cut for the worse ; so far are our evill things from working for good , that our good things have wrought our hurt . not onely our outward good things , our peace , and our plenty , but our spiritual good things , have undone us ; our spiritual liberties , and priviledges , our ordinances , our duties , our prayers , our fastings , our zeal for the lord of hosts ; not only our sins , but our prayers , our repentings , our reformings have undone us . we have prayed , and fasted , to good purpose ; we have even prayed our selves into poverty , contempt , darkness , confusion ; into the snares that have been laid for us , and into the hands of those that hate us . all these things are against us ; all our fears are come upon us ; all our comforts , yea , ●nd our hopes too , are running from us ; the whole ●ourse of providence , seems to be driving on to our 〈◊〉 ruine ; every day , every hour , it grows darker ●nd darker , worse and worse ; every spoak of the wheel , every turn of the wheel , renders our condi●●on more helpless , and hopeless . our adversaries 〈◊〉 become rampant ; our soul is filled with their ●●orn and fury ; our friends , are as a broken tooth , 〈◊〉 a foot out of joynt ; our hopes are a spiders web , 〈◊〉 as the giving up the ghost ; the almighty causes 〈◊〉 his storms , and billows , to passe over us ; one day ●●lleth another , one night certifieth another , and ●●ophesies to us , nothing but destruction upon de●●ruction , desolation upon desolation ; and where i● 〈◊〉 promise of his coming ? the hope of israel is ●●leep , her saviour is a stranger ; the ark of god is ●●ken , the glory is departed ; yea , and god himself ●●ems to be gone over to the camp of the philistins , ●nd marching against us ; we have waited for light , ●ut behold obscurity for brightness , but we walk in ●arkness ; the harvest is past , the summer is ended , ●nd we are not saved , neither is there yet any to ●ell us how long . suppose you should have stood by , and have ●een or heard any such things any where in the world , would you not have said , can any good come ●ut of such a dark abysse ? out of such a concatena●●on of so many dreadful and dismal providences ? why , by what hath been already said , you might have ●nswered thus , stay but a while , till the whole wheel ●e come about , till god hath brought off his work ●rom the wheel ; and then you shall see , providence ●nd the promise , meeting together , and kissing each other , and shall be able to say in this case , what solomon did in israels , king. . . blessed be god , tha● hath given rest to his people israel , according to all tha● he promised ; there hath not failed [ one word ] of all his good promise , which he promised by the hand of his servants . christians , whatever may come upon you , at any time , while you live in this world , distrust not you● god , not be at all dismayed ; you shall see the day● either here , or hereafter , and 't will be never the worse , if it be not till hereafter ( take it upon the credit of this word , all things shall work togethe● for good ) you shall see the day when your hearts shall rejoyce and say , oh 't was happy for us , that matters went so cross with us . 't was happy we were so poor , and brought so low , and laid in the dark , and st●ip'd so naked , of all that we either took pleasure , or put confidence in . now we see , that the lord had a more glorious design , that he was carrying on for us , step by step● by every thing that came upon us , than we were aware of , or could have imagined . it 's true , the shimeis have been cursing , the ishmaels have been mocking , the rabshakes have been railing , the ploughers have been ploughing , the hunters have been pursuing , and had almost overtaken , overcome , and swallowed us up quick ; but blessed be our god , that hath not turned our captivity , and saved us by a mighty salvation ; but hath done us good , by all their mocking , and cursing , and raging against us : now we see , there was such light sowing in our dark dayes ; such a peace , a sowing in those deep furrowes ; such an harvest of joy sowing in the days of our tears , as hath now sprung up unto this glory , and blessedness . we are beholding to the devil , and his instruments ; our enemies have befriended us , though much against their wills : we could never have shined with such beauty on earth , had we not been scoured with such unclean wispes ; we could never have laid up such treasure in heaven , as by their cursings , and cruel persecutions , our enemies have laid up for us . so our lord hath told us , great is your reward in heaven , matth. . . blessed are you that are persecuted , blessed are you that are reviled for my sake , for righteousness sake ; for great is your reward in heaven . it had not been so great , had it not been for our great tribulations : hell hath given us a lift nearer the throne of glory . comfort and encourage your hearts with these words . . if god be with you , you shall shortly be with god ; father i will , that those whom thou hast given me , be with me where i am : and if i go and prepare a place for you , i will come again , and receive you to my self , that where i am , ye may be also . if we suffer with him , we shall also reign with him . come ye blessed of my father , inherit the kingdom prepared for you , from the foundation of the world. so shall we be ever with the lord. brethren , you that lie among the potts , 't is but a little time , and you shall hear that word , come up hither , into the kingdom , the inheritance , prepared for you . there are two comes , or calls of our lord ; the first come , is , come and work with me , come and watch with me , come and follow me . the second is , 〈◊〉 and rest with me ; your work is done , your watch is over , your race is run , come and enter into my rest . the first come is , come down with me , from the pride , from the pomps and jollities , of this present world ; come with me into the wilderness , into the valley of tears , come and suffer with me , come and die with me . the second come is , come up with me , up out of the wilderness , up out of your prisons , up from your bonds : your jubilee is come ; come up with me : come , put off your prison-garments , and put on your robes ; shake off your fetters , and take up your palms ; lay down your cross ; and take up your crown : from your prisons , to your palace ; from the stocks , to the throne : you that have descended with me , are the same who shall now ascend with me , to my father and your father , to my god and your god. the first come , is the come of a suitor ; come grant me your love ; give me your hearts , and accept of mine : this is the errand , upon which his ambassadours are dispatched ; as abraham's servant , to take you as a wife for your lord. this is the meaning of all those jewels , and bracelets , they bring in their hands ; the lord sends servant upon servant , epistle upon epistle , token upon token , and all speak the same word , come , come , come away and accept of your lord , and be married to him . the second come is , the come of the bridegroom , come home with me , into my holy city , into my royal mansion ; come into my chamber , come into my bosome ; come and lodg between my breasts , live in my presence , and rest in my love for ever . christians , my business whil'st i have been with you , hath been , to bring you to god , to espouse you christ ; and you that have already , or will yet at last be perswaded to give your consent , and will give me leave to make up the match , i can give you assurance , that he will shortly come and make up the marriage ; and must say to you , as naomi to ruth , ruth . . sit still my daughter , till thou see how the matter will fall ; for the man will not be in rest , till he have finished the thing this day . sit still , christians , till you see how matters will fall ; and however they fall , know , your lord will not be in rest , till he have finished this thing , and brought you home , to be with him where he is . i am now parting from you in this confidence , that however , after a few dayes i shall see your faces no more in this world , yet i shall shortly meet you in the bride-chamber of glory , where we shall ever be with the lord. beloved in the lord , i must now leave you , but give me leave e're i go , to deal freely with you , and yet a little further , in the close of my day , this once more to open my heart to you ; and to tell you , . what my parting fears , . what my parting wishes for you are , which i carry upon my spirit . . my parting fears , i go off from you with , are especially these : . i am afraid , that there are many of you , upon whom i have bestowed my labour in vain ; i am afraid that i have instructed you in vain , exhorted , perswaded , beseeched , and reproved you in vain : 't was the apostle's case , and his fear , concerning the galatians , chap. . . it is my grief , that when i would have no more to speak , but an healing word , a comforting word ; i must yet drop down a bitter word on some of you ; that when i would speak onely from mount gerizim , i must yet again speak to some from mount ebal ; that when i would leave a blessing behind me upon you all , i am like to leave some bound under a curse . it 's grievous to me thus to speak ; yet for the discharge of my duty , and for your own necessity , bear with me : i am afraid , that whil'st i have been preaching to you , of an incorruptible crown , of an everlasting rest , a kingdom of joy and glory : i am afraid there are many of you , that have no part nor lot in this matter , but are still in the gall of bitterness , and bond of iniquity ; if the gospel be hid , it is hid to them that are lost : and are there none among you , from whom this gospel is hid ? hid as to the light of it , hid as to the saving power , and efficacy of it ? i am afraid there are too many ; i am afraid there 's many a blind eye , many an hard heart , many a spirit still in prison , under the power of their lusts , and bruitish sensu●lity : i am afraid there are many such among you ; and are not you afraid so to ? oh that you were ! . i have a greater fear than this ; i am afraid of some of you , that not onely all my past labours , but this last will be lost also . those that stand it out to their last day , do usually stand it out in their last day . blessed be god , that there are amongst you those , over whom my soul is comforted : to whom i can speak in the words of the apostle , rom. . . god be thanked , that ye were the servants of sin ; but ye have obeyed from the heart , that form of doctrine that hath been delivered unto you ; and being now made free from sin , you are become the servants of righteousness . oh that i could thus speak ! oh that i could thus rejoyce over you all ! but as the apostle said to the corinthians , cor. . . i fear , lest when i ( come ) i shall ( find ) you such as i would not . so must i say , with a grieved heart , i fear that now i am going i shall leave you such as i would not . i would not leave one blind person , one vain person , one loose liver , not one unbeliever , or impenitent , amongst you all . oh what a good day , would this day of my departure be ; what light would there be in this dark evening , were it thus with you : if i might see you all recovered out of the snares of the devil , every man's eyes open'd , every man's fetters off , every man's prison broken , and his soul escaped from that deadly bondage : if every poor deadly creature among you , who yet lies bound hand and foot , in his grave clothes , might now at last stand up from the dead , and live the life of god , this would be mine and your great rejoycing . but oh i fear with this apostle , cor. . . my god will humble me , and grieve me , and afflict me , to see in what an woful plight , i must leave divers of you . oh ye sons of the night , you poor , ignorant , and da●k souls , upon whom the light hath shined , but your darkness comprehendeth it not : oh you poor , obstinate , and hardned souls , upon whom i have been ploughing , as upon rocks , and hewing as upon adamants , who still remain under as great hardness , as if no dew nor rain had ever fallen on you . oh you poor , half-bak'd , almost christians , that have taken up your stand in your present attainments ; my soul is under great fears , and must weep in secret for you , whil'st my tongue must be henceforth silent : oh every soul , that is without fear of himself , my soul is afraid for you , the fearless soul is in a fearful state . sinners , let my fears be your fears : what , is there such astonishing guilt upon you , and yet not afraid ? such a dreadful roll writ against you , and yet not afraid ? so many sabb●ths , sermons , warnings lost , and never to be recalled ; nor any assurance left of one sermon , or warning more , and yet not afraid ? such a subtil devil , such a deceitful heart , such a tempting world , that you have to deal withall ; such a black and bottomless pit into which you are falling , and yet not afraid : oh what stocks and stones hath the gospel to deal withall ! beloved , i have labour'd much with you , both publiquely , and from house to house , to bring you under a due fear and jealousie of your selves ; but hitherto your hearts have been too hard for me : oh yet for trembling hearts , tremble and sin not ; fear and pray , fear and hope , fear and repent ; work out your salvation with fear and trembling . oh if my fea●s were once become your fears : your fears would become my hopes ! oh what a day-spring of hopes , would arise from the shaking of secure hearts ! these fears would be as the thicker darkness , fore-runners of break of day . . my parting wishes , and desires for you , are , . that the good seed which hath been sown amongst you , were well rooted in every heart : i wish that my twenty yea●s ministry among you , may not be lost labour , to any one of your souls . . i wish that your next seeds man , may be more skilful and successful ; that the good lord will provide you a man , that may teach you in wisdom , gain you in love , lead you on to life , by an holy example ; and if the lord grant you this mercy , i wish that such an one may be deatly priz'd and chearfully accepted by you . god keep this flock from a ravening wolf , and a deceitful shepheard . . i wish that there may be no root of bitterness springing up amongst you ; that there be no divisions or contentions , but that you may live in peace and love , that the god of peace and love may be with you . . i wish that this place , where so much good seed hath been sown , may become a fruitful field , that the fruits of faith and repentance , the fruits of righteousness and holiness , may be in you , and abound ; that you may be neither barren , nor unfruitful ; that religion , in the power and practice of it , may so visibly flourish , in the several persons , in the several families , of this congregation , that they that go by , may see , and say , this is the field which the lord hath blessed . . i wish , that whatever clouds may at any time gather over you , may not fall down in a withering storm , or a sweeping floud , but may pass away in a mist , or dissolve into a fruitful dew ; that no persecutions , or temptations , may ever carry you down the stream with evil men , nor blight any hopeful beginnings , that are budding forth in any of your souls : if tribulation should be any of your lots , i wish it may not be to you , as the hail of egypt , but as the dew of hermon . . i wish you a joyful harvest , that you may reap in eternity , what hath been sown in time ; may you now sow in righteousness , and hereafter reap in mercy : may every one that is now sowing in tears , for ever reap in joy : may you that go on your way weeping , bearing pretious seed , return with joy ▪ and bring your sheavs with you : may the showers of this day , be the watering of your seed , that it may spring up to eternal life . brethren , my hearts desire for you all is , that you may be saved ; and if there be any persons , that bear evil will to me , my particular wish for them , is , the good-will of him that dwelt in the bush be those men's portions for ever . these are some of my wishes for you ; will you joyn your wishes with mine : will you turn your wishes into prayers , and let this be your prayer ; the lord grant thee thine hearts desire , and fulfill all thy mind . brethren , do i wish you any harm in all this ? if not , if it be to wished , that the word of christ were rooted in your hearts , and your souls thereby rooted in the grace of god ; if it be to be wished , that your lusts were rooted out , your sins dead and dried up , your foot gotten out of the snare , your souls brought into the fold , your fruits of righteousness and holiness abounding , and growing up unto eternal life : if all this to be to be wished , then give in your votes with mine ; wish and pray , pray and press on , press on and wait for the accomplishment of this grace in you all . i tell you again , i wish you well ; and not onely i , but the lord god that hath sent me to you : the lord jesus wishes you well ; he wishes and wooes , wooes and weeps , weeps and dies , that your souls might live , and be belssed for ever : he hath once more sent me to you , even to the worst amongst you , to tell you from him , that he 's unwilling you should perish ; that he hath a kindness for you in his heart , if you will accept it : he hath bloud and bowels for you ; bloud to expiate your guilt , to wash away your filth ; and bowels to offer you the benefit of his bloud ; with this wish , oh that it were theirs ! oh that they would hearken and accept ! onely i must add , that the lord hath two sorts of wishes concerning sinners : the first is , oh that they would hearken ! oh that they would come in , be healed , and be saved , deut. . . this wish is an olive branch , that brings good tidings , and gives great hopes of peace and mercy . his last wish is , oh that they had hearkned , that they had accepted , psal . . . oh that my people had hearkned to me . luk. . . oh that thou hadst known in this thy day , the things that concern thy peace . this wish hath nothing but dread and death in it : it is the black flagg hung out , that proclaims eternall wars . the sence is , israel had once a fair time of it ; a time of love , a time of grace , a time of peace : oh that they had hearkned then , that they had known the things that concern their peace ! but woe , woe to them , 't is now too late , the door is shut , the season is over , the day is past ; but now they are hid from thine eyes . there are three deadly darts in this wish [ oh that thou hadst ] it includes in it these three cutting words , thou hast not . thou mightest . thou shalt not for ever . . there is this in it , [ thou hast not . ] what have i not ? why , thou hast not known the things that belong to thy peace . thou hast had the door of glory , the gate of heaven open to thee , and hast been call'd for , and invited in , but thou hast lost the opportunity . thou knewest not when thou wert well offered , nor would'st take notice what a day was before thee , what a price was in thine hand ; thy peace , the gospel of peace , the prince of peace , a kingdom of peace was set open , offered , and brought home to thy doors , but thou hadst so many other matters to look after , that thou tookest no notice of it , but hast let it slip . there 's one dart. [ thou hast not known . ] there 's a gospel gone , there 's a christ gone , there 's a soul , a kingdom lost . . there is this in it , [ thou mightest . ] oh that thou hadst ? why , might i ? yes thou might'st , if thou wouldst thou mightst . thy god did not mock thee , when he preach'd peace to thee ; he was willing , and wish'd it thine ; if thou wouldst , thou mightst have made it thine own ; but whilest he would , thou wouldest not . there 's another dart [ i might have known ] i have none to thank but my self for the loss , mine undoing was mine own doing . there are no such torments , as when the soul flies upon it self , and takes revenge on it self ; oh the gashes that such self-refluctions make , soul , how camest thou in hither , into all this misery ? oh 't is of my self , my self , that my destruction is . the door was open , and i was told of it , and was bid come in , but i would not . that i am lost and undone , was not my fate , which i could not avoid , but my fault and my folly . it seems to give some ease of our torment , when we can shift off the fault . it was not i , but the woman , said adam , it was not i , but the serpent , said the woman ; if that had been true , it would have given ease , as well as serv for an excuse . this thought [ 't was mine own doing ] tears the very caul of the heart . oh i have none to blame but my self , mine own foolish and froward heart . this is my ignorance , this is my unbelief , this is my wilfulness , my lusts , and my pleasures , and my idols , that i was running after that , have brought me under this dreadful loss . 't was my own doing . . there is this in it , [ thou shalt not for ever . ] oh that thou hadst ! why , may i not [ yet ? ] is there no hope of recovering the opportunity ? not one word more , not one hour more , may not the sun go [ one ] degree backward ? no , no , 't is too late , too late ; thou hast had thy day ; from henceforth no more for ever . there 's the last dart , [ times past ] there 's the death , the hell , the anguish , the worm that shall gnaw to eternity . this one word [ time 's past ] sets all hell a roaring ; and when it s once spoken to a sinner on earth , there 's hell begun . go thy way wretch , fill up thy measure , and fall into thy place . the gospel hath no more to say to thee , but this one word , because i have called , and thou refusedst , i have stretched out my hand , and thou regardedst not , but hast set at nought all my counsels , and wouldest none of my reproofs ; i also will laugh at thy calamities , and mock when thy fear cometh ; when thy fear cometh as desolation , and thy destruction cometh as a whirle-wind , when distress and anguish cometh upon thee ; then shalt thou call , but i will not answer , thou shalt seek me early , but shalt not find me . beloved , my hopes are , and i am not able to say , but that you are yet under the first wish ; oh that they would . christ is yet preaching you to faith , and sends his wish along with his word , oh that they would believe . christ is yet preaching repentance and conversion to you , and wishes , o that they would repent , that they would be converted ; and to this wish of my lord , my soul , and all that is within me , sayes amen . brethren , will you yet again say your lord nay ? shall christ have his wish ? shall your servant for jesus sake shall i have my wish ? will you now at last consent to be sanctified , and to be saved ? let me have this wish , and i dare promise you from the lord , you shall have yours , even whatever your soul can desire . b●ethren , this once hear , this once be prevailed upon ; be content that your lusts be rooted out , and your lord planted into your souls . be content to be pardoned , content to be converted , content to be saved . this once hear , lest if ye now refuse , ye no ●ore be perswaded with , oh that they would ! but be 〈◊〉 ever confounded with , oh that they had ! lest all our wishes , and wooings of you , be turned into weepings , and mournings over you ; this once hear ; oh that you would . i heartily thank you , for your good wishes , and good will towards me ; for your willing and chearful entertainment of my person , and attendance on my ministry . and particularly , for your passionate desire of my longer stay among you . which desire if god had not , my soul could not have denyed you . though the almighty , to whose pleasure it 's meet that we all submit , hath said nay to that wish of yours ; yet let your souls say amen , to this last of mine , that the lord god would dwell among you , and in you , both now and for ever . and having thus finished my labours among you , i shall now close up with this double account . . of my discharge of my ministry in this place . . of my deprivall . and shall so commit you to god , and to the word of his grace , which is able to build you up , and to give you an inheritance amongst all them that are sanctified . . of my discharge of my ministry ; what my doctrine and manner of life hath been , is known to you ; and what my aim and intent hath been ; is known to god. the searcher of hearts , knowes , that 't is the salvation of souls , that hath been the mark at which i have levelled . my way hath been to use all plainness , that i might be made manifest in your consciences : weaknesses , and infirmities , both natural and sinful , ( the lord pardon it ) i have had many . i am sensible , that much more might have been done , both in publick and in private , had it not been for a weakly body , and a sloathful heart . i repent that i have had no more zeal for god , no more compassion to souls ; i repent that i have been no more constant , and importunate with you , about the matters of eternity . oh eternity , eternity , that thou wert no more in the heart , and lips of the preacher in the hearts , and eares of the hearers . but while i thus judge my self for my failings . blessed be god for any sincerity to his name , and good will to your souls , that he hath seen in me . blessed be god , i have a witness in my conscience , and i hope in yours also , that i have not shunned to declare to you , the whole counsel of god. brethren , i call heaven and earth to witness this day , that i have set before you life and death , good and evil , and have not ceased from day to day , to warn you to choose life , and that good way , that leads to it ; and to escape for your lives , from the way of sin and death . oh remember the many instructions i have given you , the many arguments whereby i have striven with you , the many prayers that have been offered up , for the guiding and gaining your souls , into the path of life , and the turning your feet out of the way of destruction . oh might i be able to give this testimony concerning you all , at my departure , they have troden in the right path , they have chosen the good part that shall not be taken from them . brethren , beloved , with whom i have travelled in birth , that christ might be formed in you ; i must shortly give up my account in a more solemn assembly ; will you help me to give it up with joy , by shewing your souls before the lord , as the seal of my ministrie . every sincere convert among you , will be a crown of rejoycing to me in that day . so let me rejoyce , and let my joy be the joy of you all . what shall i say more ? if there be any consolation in christ , if any comfort of love , any bowels and mercies ; if the glorie of the eternal god , the honour of the everlasting gospel , the safety of your immortal souls , the incorruptible crown , the exceeding , eternal weight of glory , weigh any thing with you , then once more let me be●eech you , by all this , to hearken to that word of the gospel , which god hath spoken to you by me . . of my deprivall . the most glorious morning hath its evening ; the hour is come wherein the sun is setting , upon not a few of the prophets ; the shadows of the evening are stretched forth upon us ; our day drawes , our work seems to be at an end . our pulpits , and our places must know us no more . this is the lords doing , let all the earth keep silence before him . it is not a light thing for me , brethren , to be laid aside from the work , and cast out of the vineyard of the lord ; and it must be something of weight , that must support under so severe a doom . i know there are not a few , that will add to the affliction of the afflicted , by telling the world , 't is their own fault , they might prevent it if they would ; whether this be so or no , god knoweth , and let the lord be judge . blessed be god , whatever be , this is not laid to our charge , as the reason of our seclusion , either insufficiency or scandall . you are not ignorant , what things there are imposed on us , as the condition of our continuing our ministration ; which how lawful and expedient soever they seem in the judgment of many , yet have the most specious arguments that plead for them , left me utterly dissatisfied in my conscience about them . i must profess before god , angels , and men , that my non-submission , is not from any disloyalty to authority , nor from pride , humour , or any factious disposition , or design ; but , because i dare not contradict my light , nor do any thing concerning which my heart tells me , the lord sayes , do it not . after all my most impartial enquiries , after all my seeking counsel ▪ from the lord , after all my considering , and consulting with men of all perswasions , about these matters , i find my self so far short of satisfaction , that i am plainly put to this choice , to part with my ministry , or my conscience . i dare not lie before god and the world ; nor come and tell you , i approve , i allow , i heartily consent , to what i neither do , nor can ; but must choose rather , that my ministry be seal'd up by my sufferings , than lengthned out by a lie : through the grace of god , though men do , yet my heart shall not reproach me while i live ; if our heart condemn us , god is greater than our hearts , and knoweth all things . but however , though i must now no longer act as a minister . i shall , through the grace of god , endeavour peaceably , and patiently , to suffer as a christian . i should , to testifie my obedience to authority , have become all things to all men , to the uttermost that i could , with any clearness of heart : but since matters stand so , that i must lose my place , or my peace , i chearfully suffer my self to be thrust off the stage . and now welcome the cross of christ , welcome reproach , welcome poverty , scorn , and contempt , or whatever else may befall me on this account . this morning i had a flock , and you had a pastour ; but now behold a pastour without a flock , a flock without a shepheard : this morning i had an house but now i have none ; thi● morning i had an living , but now i have none : the lord hath given and the lord hath takes away , blessed be the name of the lord. beloved , i am sensible of many weaknesses and disadvantages i am under , which may rende● a suffering state the harder to be born ; help me by your prayers ; and not me onely , but all my brethren also , with whom my lot must fall ; pray for us for we trust that we have a good conscience , in all things willing to live honestly . pray , . that god would make our silence speak , and preach the same holy doctrine , that we have preached with our lips. . that he would give supports answerable to our sufferings ; that he who comforteth those that are cast down , will also comfort his servants that are cast out . . that according to our earnest expectation , and our hope , as always , so now also , christ may be magnified in us , whether it be by life , or by death . and thus , brethren , i bid you all farewel , in the words of the apostle , cor. . . finally , brethren , farewel , be perfect be of good comfort , be of one mind , live in peace ; and the god of peace and love shall be with you . and that god of peace , that brought again from the dead our lord jesus that great shepheard of the sheep , through the bloud of the everlasting covenant , make you perfect in every good work , to do his will ; working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight , through jesus christ ; to whom be glory , for ever and ever , amen . finis . the minster of cirencester's address to the dissenters of his parish occasion'd by the death of their preacher : together with the answer that was made thereto and his reply to that answer : to which is prefixed a letter relating thereto from the right reverend father in god edward lord bishop of gloucester. harrison, joseph. approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing h estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) the minster of cirencester's address to the dissenters of his parish occasion'd by the death of their preacher : together with the answer that was made thereto and his reply to that answer : to which is prefixed a letter relating thereto from the right reverend father in god edward lord bishop of gloucester. harrison, joseph. [ ], p. printed by t.m. and are to be sold by ric. chiswell and j. barksdale, london : . "to my well-beloved friends and parishoners who do not frequent the communion of the church" signed: joseph harrison. reproduction of original in the union theological seminary library, new york. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng church of england -- apologetic works. dissenters, religious -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - john pas sampled and proofread - john pas text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the minister of cirencester's address to the dissenters of his parish . occasion'd by the death of their preacher . together with the answer that was made thereto , and his reply to that answer . to which is prefixed , a letter relating thereto , from the right reverend father in god , edward lord bishop of gloucester . ecclus . xxi . . if a skilful man hear a wise word , he will commend it , and add unto it : but as soon as one of no understanding heareth it , it displeaseth him , and he casteth it behind his back . london , printed by t. m. and are to be sold by ric. chiswell , at the rose and crown in st. paul's church-yard , london ; and i. barksdale , bookseller in cirencester . . to the reverend m r. joseph harrison , minister of cirencester . sir , i have read your address to the dissenters of your parish , with the very idle and trifling answer thereto , and your reply to that answer ; and advise you to publish the whole , unless you can be content ( as i know you cannot ) to take so much good pains to little purpose . your address is a very commendable instance of your hearty concern conscientiously to discharge that great trust which is committed to you ; and your defence thereof is as good a proof of your being no less able than desirous to do the office of a pastor , even towards those who refuse to own you as such . i wish the most sincere in the several sects which have renounc'd communion with us , could but think it possible that they may be in an error , and thereupon be perswaded to read , with any impartiality , what is written against , as well as for , their separation : i should not then doubt , but this deplorable schism would wear off apace , among those who make not a trade of it , and are not wolves in sheeps clothing ; since i am most certain , that the errors of popery are not more plainly detected and expos'd , than have the principles of our protestant separatists been abundantly confuted , and the great vanity of their pretences demonstrated , to all that are capable of seeing with their own eyes . that god would bless this very good endeavour of yours , to the reducing of such to his church as are gone astray , and the more confirming those , who have hitherto been kept by his grace in the communion thereof : and , that he would crown all your labours with happy success , and make you as instrumental to the reforming of the lives of your people , as the rectifying of their judgments , is the most hearty and humble prayer of , sir , your very loving friend and brother , edw. gloucester . to my well-beloved friends and parishioners , who do not frequent the communion of the church . tho' it has pleased god to take away him whom your selves had appointed and setled here , as a distinct and peculiar teacher of your own , yet i must tell you , that this parish is not yet ( thro' god's blessing ) deprived of a minister , who will be ready , to the utmost of his power , to serve every member thereof in the great and concerning interest of their souls . it is i my self , who am here placed according to the laws of god , and by the laws of the land , and i do now offer my self ( before you make choise of any other ) to minister before god , and for you , in all the offices of religion , according to the order and constitution of that primitive and apostolical church established among us , to which i am inseparably tied by my reason and conscience , and in all manner of sacred and solemn obligations . this church , my brethen , is the church you ought to hold communion with , our parish-church is the place where you ought to serve and worship god ; and i ( how unworthy soever ) am the only person whose proper business it is to perform any ministerial office in this parish , and against whose either life or doctrine , i hope , no just exception can be made . i do therefore most passionately exhort , and earnestly beseech you all , in the bowels of jesus christ , that you will , as you tender the peace of church and state , and the welfare of your own souls , stedfastly adhere to the communion thereof . if your separation is grounded upon real scruples of conscience , you should certainly endeavour to have them answered and removed ; and i shall be very ready , and i trust in god , able to give full satisfaction to any one that shall desire it of me. but if the reason of any one's dissenting from us be only humour or prejudice , he can never think that either of them will bear him out at the great day , for keeping up a schism in the church of god , and rending and dividing the body of christ . before you resolve to carry on the separation , i entreat you , for your own soul's sake ( for whose everlasting happiness i have a tender regard ) to consider well the grounds and reasons upon which you do it , for schism is not certainly so slight a matter , and so small a crime , as some people think it to be . and if nothing will disswade you from maintaining the divisions among us by bringing in another preacher , i hope you will take care that he be a person of prudence and temper , one that will strictly confine himself within the bounds and limits of the act of toleration , and who will be very cautious of doing any thing that will give disturbance in a parish , which is at present in a very peaceable and quiet state , notwithstanding the differences among vs as to some matters of religious concern ; as to which also i most humbly beseech god , in his due time , to unite us. i am your affectionate pastor , and sincere lover of your souls , joseph-harrison . the ministers reply to the dissenters answer to the foregoing invitation of them into the communion of the church . most dearly beloved in christ ; i cannot express how , much i am concern'd , that the paper which i sent among you upon so christian an errand , and the message it contain'd , expressed in so inoffensive and obliging a manner , and writ with that sincerity and purity of intention , as if i had been immediately to have answered for it at the dreadful tribunal of heaven : i cannot i say , express my concern , that such a paper as this should be so far from having any good effect upon those it was sent to , as to exasperate them against it , its author , and the church , into whose communion its business was to invite them , to so high a degree , that when i laboured for peace , and spake unto them thereof , they made themselves ready for battle . as for the reflections and uncharitable censures which have been made upon me , either upon the account of this , or any other matter , i do most heartily forgive them , and humbly beseech god to do so too ; and also to support me with courage and patience under all the opposition and contempt which i have already , and must expect to meet with , even in the discharge of my duty : and this is all the return i shall make to them . but forasmuch as my kind invitation to you is answered , not by an humble and modest excuse of your selves , but by a paper which is stuffed with false accusations of our church , and uncharitable censures of those in her communion , i think it will become me to endeavour , not only your conviction , by shewing you how ill a defence you have made , and how weak those arguments are , which are here brought in defence of your separation from us ; but also to vindicate our church from the ill-grounded charges there layd against her of idolatry , judaism , popery , schism , vnlawful impositions , superstitions , and traditions . heavy charges these are , and yet they are all either expressed , or clearly implyed in this paper , and the sentence of damnation passed upon us into the bargain . i shall not stand to examine into the charity of the man that writ it , but into the arguments he produces to prove all these things ; and if they do appear to have no solid foundation , but on the contrary , to be weak and sallacious , or rather no arguments at all , you must either renounce the separation , and come to church , or bring better reasons for your refusal so to do ; which i believe your cause will not admit of , or that however none of you can do it . i am not much concerned to know who my answerer is , only i shall say , that if he had thought fit to have sent his paper to me alone , with his name subscribed to it , i should have contented my self , that the matters in controversie should have been amicably debated , either in private letters , or in private conversation , betwixt him and me alone . but since he has sent it abroad , and put it into your hands , to harden you in your separation , and widen the breach between us , i cannot think that i have discharged my duty towards you , till i have shewed you the weakness of those arguments , by which , those that call themselves the authorized ambassadors of christ , pursue those vnchristian ends. whether the answer i have returned be sufficient , i must leave to your judgments to determine , but that you may better apprehend the force of what is said on both sides , i have faithfully transcribed the answer to my paper , according to the copy i met with , and replyed to it paragraph by paragraph . read both then without prejudice , and god almighty enable you to judge righteous judgment , and give you grace sincerely to act according thereto . answer . sir , i have lately received a paper , with your name subscribed to it , which makes me think that it is of your own inditing ; and were all in it according to the rule we ought to walk by , the word of god , i should have been silent without making any reply against it ; but when you tell us our parish is not through god's blessing deprived of a minister , who will be ready to the utmost of his power , to serve every member thereof , in the great and concerning interest of their souls : for my part , i should most readily accept of your offer , were you but duly qualifyed for so great a work. reply . i should not have known what he meant by his telling me , he believes it to be of my own inditing , had i not heard that some of the party questioned it , and endeavoured to blast the success of it , by denying me the reputation of composing a few lines , so easie for any body to have done ; and wherein the main thing commendable , is the honesty of the design , and that it is better english than the answer to it . but what if in consideration of the great abilities of the persons i sent it to , and the severe examination , i might justly presume it would fall under , by the learned ambassadors , i had called in the assistance of my brethren , what fault had i been guilty of ? or , what just ground of exception was that against the matter of it ? and suppose a number of us should be in consult for two months together , how to reply to their answer to a poor paper that was ( as it easily might be ) drawn up , transcribed into several copies , and dispersed abroad in two or three days time ; could those quick gentlemen handsomely find fault with us ? or would this be any thing to the merits of the cause ? no , this could not be ; for he himself says , that if all in my paper were according to the word of god , he would have made no reply . but then he should not have replyed , without shewing wherein 't was contrary ; which he has not directly offered at , as to any one line thereof . nor should he , or any of the party reject the offer of my service , upon the account of my being vnqualified , without shewing wherein it is that i am so . if he mean personal qualifications , i will only say with st. paul , who is sufficient for these things ? but be my defects never so great , yet if i am ready , to the utmost of my power , to promote the salvation of every soul in my parish , i doubt not but to come off well at the last day , and that ( whether you will or no ) god will graciously accept my sincere , though weak endeavours . but mr. baxter tells you , that if the minister of the parish be tolerable , tho' weak and cold , if you cannot remove your dwelling , then publick order , and your souls edification must both be joyned as well as you can . answer . i confess you tell us you are placed here according to the laws of god , and that your church is the primitive apostolical church , but i am well-satisfied , that you are not able by scripture to prove either of your assertions . reply . and so i tell you still , and tho' confident assertions of christs authorized ambassadors may go a great way with poor ignorant people , who are deluded into that opinion of them ; yet i am well satisfied he cannot disprove me by scripture : and this is what he ought to have attempted ; for since as to my orders , ( without which i hope he does not think i act ) i am upon the same bottom with all the clergy of england , till he sheweth wherein our church deviates from the ancient church , i shall esteem it a sufficient proof , ( equivalent to an express text of scripture ) that i am placed here according to the laws of god ; because i was ordained and placed here by those , with whom christ hath left the power to send forth labourers into his vineyard ; and that our church is primitive and apostolical , because its faith , worship , government and discipline are such . answer . as to your being inseparably tyed by reason and conscience , and all manner of sacred and solemn obligations , sir i am heartily sorry for you , and look upon it as your great vnhappiness that you are so confined . reply . if this person had any real occasion to be sorry for me upon this score , i should heartily thank him for his pity ; but undoubtedly it is the great duty , and the great happiness of every man , sincerely to follow the dictates of his reason and conscience , and strictly to keep the sacred and solemn obligations he lyes under . answer . although you tell us this church is the church we ought to hold communion with , and our parish church the place we ought to serve and worship god in , and that you , how unworthy soever , are the person whose proper business it is to perform any ministerial office in this parish , this doctrine i doubt not but will take with the church of rome ; for they will tell you , that their church is the church you ought to hold communion with , and the parish church , the place you ought to serve and worship god in , and will give as good proofs for what they assert as you have in your paper . reply . i wish with all my heart that this doctrine would take with those of the church of rome in this kingdom ; but if he means that papists may urge the same thing to invite protestants into their communion , i would fain ask this man , whether he does in his conscience think , that they may do it , upon as good grounds and reasons as we do ? for that 's the question , and not whether they can give as good proofs as any i have in my paper ; for as there was not room , so neither was it the business and design thereof to give proofs . to those who wanted them , and desired them of me , i offered to give the best satisfaction i was able . answer . sir , as to your life and doctrine against which you hope no just exception can be made , it is best known to god and your conscience how you have lived , and what doctrine you have preached and believed : only i shall say this , that if you can make it appear you have lived and preached according to the rule christ hath set us , you may expect peace and comfort at the last day , but till then you may never expect us to embrace the exhortation , altho' we tender the peace of church and state and the eternal happyness of our own souls above all earthly things , and do hope through grace stedfastly to hold communion with that church whereof jesus christ is the head , against which the gates of hell shall never prevail . reply . it is a strange way to put me upon the proof that my life and doctrine hath been according to the rule christ hath set us . he should rather have asked those that have heard and conversed with me . if he , or any of those whose cause he espouses , have any objection against either , let them , in the name of god , speak and spare not ; let them be as inquisitive as they are desirous to find faults . i fear not the utmost effort of their malice : but do thou , o god , be merciful to me a sinner : enter not into judgment with thy servant , o lord , for in thy sight shall no man living be justified . if nothing appears against either my life or doctrine , you ought in charity to believe both to be agreeable to god's word , and then ( according to your champion himself ) to embrace the exhortation i made you . you may pretend as great a tenderness as you please for the peace of church and state , yet it is undeniable matter of fact , that by the separation , both are mightily disturbed and disquieted ; and tho' i am unwilling to carry the controversie so high , as to dispute , whether ( according to the laws and rules of catholick communion ) you do hold communion with that church of which jesus christ is the head : yet i beg leave to tell you , that jesus christ is not the head of this or that particular sect or party of christians only , but of the whole catholick church , of which our establish'd church being a true and sound part or branch , by vertue of your profession to hold communion with that , you will ( if you drive the argument as far as in its just consequence it will bear ) find your selves obliged to hold actual communion with this . but to save my self the trouble of pursuing this argument as far as it will go , i refer you to the case of church-communion , stated by a learned hand for your right information . and i pray , as mr. baxter advises you , endeavour to understand the right terms of church-communion ; especially the unity of the universal church , and the universal communion which you must hold with all the parts . and hereupon i desire you 'll let me ask you , whether or no you do not really believe the establish'd church of england to be a true church of jesus christ , a church of which he is the head , and with which he holds communion ? the most eminent and sober nonconformists , as it can and has been proved , have own'd her to be a true church ; that she is sound and true as to her doctrine ; that her worship , for matter and substance , is good , and for edification ; that her ministry is true , and the same for substance which christ hath establish'd . nay , they have not only own'd the church of england to be a true church , but have looked upon it as the most valuable in the world , both as to the church it self , and as to the ministry of it : and i dare be confident , that there is not an honest true presbyterian in england , but will say ( if he will be ingenuous ) that the church of england ( by which i alwaies mean that establish'd church from whose communion you separate ) is a true member of christ's body , and that christ holds communion with her . now ( as the presbyterians of old asked their brethren of the separation , so ask i you ) if we be a church of christ , and christ hold communion with us , why do you separate from us ? if we be the body of christ , do not they that separate from the body separate from the head also ? answer . sir , give me leave to tell you our separation is grounded upon real scruples of conscience , and there is but one way i know of to answer them , and that is , to take away the cause of them ; for i can assure you , that it is neither humor nor prejudice that is the cause of our dissenting . reply . if you have not endeavour'd all you can to have your scruples satisfied and removed , you do thereby shew your selves to be glad of them , and that therefore humor and prejudice have the greatest share in your separation . but if after your best endeavours for satisfaction in those matters which make you withdraw from our communion , you cannot obtain it ; your case is the more pitiable , and the more excusable , and i am by no means concerned at the liberty which is indulg'd you . but to answer your scruples at so dear a rate , as the taking away our liturgy , and the abolishing of episcopacy , ( which you do more than intimate is the cause of them ) is what , i hope , our governours will never consent to ; for ( make what use of it you please ) i do think them more valuable than your company at church , as earnestly as i do desire it . answer . but if you would know , i will tell you , it 's the liturgy , or service-book , in which you impose such things on us , in order to church-communion , as the word of god hath not required , but on the contrary forbidden . prov. . . add thou not unto his words , lest he reprove thee , and thou be found a lyar. deut. . . ye shall not add unto the word , i command you ; neither shall ye diminish ought from it . what will ye then say for your selves , when god shall say unto you , who hath required these things at your hands ? sure i am , to do more in the service of god than he hath required , will but vndo us ; therefore the wise man exhorts , be not righteous overmuch , why shouldst thou destroy thy self ? remember corah , dathan , and abiram , and their company , who for doing what was not required , were all consumed , the earth opened her mouth , and swallowed them up . reply . now he speaks out . and tho' the things you mainly scruple at , such as the cross and surplice , are more properly instances of obedience to human authority than terms of church-communion , which may be held by a lay-person , in the more constant services of prayers and preaching , without joyning in those things he dislikes ; yet if it be true , that the things imposed in our liturgy are forbidden by god , then i own , that the fault of the schism lies in us , and that you have very good reason for your separating from us . and if this assertion were but as well proved , as 't is confidently asserted , i would never again read the service-book : but if you think me duly qualified for so great a work , will preach to , and pray for you in the mault-house ; tho' i have hitherto most affectionately loved the habitation of god's house , and the place where his honour dwells , and was alwaies glad when they said unto me , we will go into the house of the lord. let us therefore well examine the proofs he produces for an assertion deliver'd with so much confidence , to say no worse of it . he alledges two texts of scripture which are useless and impertinent , till it be proved , that we make real additions to the word of god. those he mentions in the psalms shall be consider'd by and by . that which i presume he here means , is , that the things enjoyn'd in our service-book , being not commanded by god in his word , are additions to it ; and that therefore these two texts of scripture are an undeniable proof of the unlawfulness of them , this must be his meaning , if he has any at all in what he says , and i think i have represented it with all the advantage he can desire . but now , if we are guilty of making additions to the word of god , we either do what that forbids , or appoint somewhat else instead of what god hath appointed ; or we add such expositions to the commandment , as the end of it is thereby frustrated ; or we make that which is not the word of god to be of equal authority with that which is ; or else we give the same efficacy to humane institutions as god does to his : but he can never charge us with any of these . and how then can he charge us with additions to the word of god ? for adding , is adding to the substance , and making the thing added of the nature of the thing it is added to ; but when the substance remains entire , as much after this humane appointment as it was before it , it cannot be called an addition to it , in the sence the scripture takes that word in . but to the argument which these men draw from deuter. iv . . dr. fowler , ( our present bishop ) a great while ago , replied , that if they be not mistaken in the sense of these words , they will prove more than is intended to be proved , or than they would have true ; namely , that nothing is to be done out of , as well as in , the worship of god , but what is expresly and particularly commanded . but episcopius ( who may be listen'd to in this matter , because no episcopalian ) hath shewed that these words [ ye shall not add unto the word which i command you , neither shall you diminish ought from it . ] are no new precept , but only signifie , ye shall not transgress the commandments of god , by doing any thing contrary to them , which is to add ; or by omitting any thing required by them , which is to diminish . and therefore , tho' ignorant people may be scared with the improper application of that of isa . . , yet it cannot belong to us , who place no farther religion and acceptableness in our prayers and services , than as they are accompanied with that sincerity , faith , repentance , and obedience , without which god told the jews he had no delight in their sacrifices , tho' they were of his own appointing ; nor had required them to tread his courts without these divine qualifications . but if we must answer to that question , who hath required these things at your hands ? then i tell you ( for god knows it , and we are not afraid to appear before him upon that account ) that forasmuch as these things are no where forbidden , we comply with them in obedience to that word which requires us to obey them that have rule over us , and to submit our selves to every ordinance of man for the lord's sake . and if this be the word of god , how comes this man so uncharitably to pronounce the sentence of damnation upon us , and tell us , we shall be but undone , ( as if that were not punishment enough ) for doing more in the service of god than he hath requir'd ? why , he grounds it upon eccles . . , & numb . . as for the exhortation of the wise man , ( if the best commentators i have seen understand it right ) 't is the best advice i can give to you , it being interpreted of heat and zeal more than needs , without reason and discretion ; which as it makes all the schisms in the world , so produces a great many other evils . i appeal to the whole world , whether it is not properly returned upon you , who are transported into an excessive z●●l and rage against innocent ceremonies , and meer circumstances of worship , and which are declared to be so , and no way essential to religion by that church which uses them . and to this you must give me leave to add the other part of the verse , ( which he left out ) neither make thy self over-wise : do not ( without some better grounds ) oppose your private opinion to the judgment and authority of a whole nation : and , in particular , of as pious and learned a clergy as any the whole world can shew . consider that it is possible you may be mistaken , and that it does not become you to assume that infallibility to your selves , which you deny to the church of rome . as for the example of corah , dathan , and abiram , if it be well consider'd , our case cannot be made parallel to it : but it highly deserves your consideration , whether you are not in some measure guilty of the like crime ; which did not consist in doing what was not required , but in actual rebellion against moses and aaron , the ministers of god ; and therefore against god himself . what a strange consequence then is this ! corah , dathan , and abiram , and their company , were all consum'd for murmuring and revelling against moses and aaron ; and therefore we shall be undone for obeying the commandments of those god hath placed over us . certainly there is a more natural inference to be drawn from this amazing instance of god's judgments upon disobedient persons , and were there not a strange mist before your eyes , you could not but see it , and make a more suitable application of it . answer . sir , give me leave to tell you , that whatsoever is placed in god's worship without the command of god , is an idol ; for none hath power to ordain or place a ceremony in christ's church but himself , who is king of it . a clear proof you have , numb . . . and it shall be unto you for a fringe , that you may look upon it , and remember all the commandments of the lord , and do them , and that you seek not after your own heart , and your own eyes , after which you used to go a whoring . reply . i believe never poor man undertook such a task as i have done , to answer so much impertinence . but since i have begun , i must have patience , and that will carry me through it all . he would fain possess the people ( among whom this paper was to be shewn with so much triumph ) with an opinion , that we have idols in our church : but does he think that i can swallow things without chewing , as they do ? that he begs leave to tell me , that whatsoever is placed in god's worship , without the command of god , is an idol ; i. e. it is the representation of some divine or beatified object , which is as such propounded and set up for adoration . was there ever such a wild assertion ? or could any man think it possible , that he should so luckily hit upon such a text of scripture to prove it by ? god commands the children of israel to put fringes upon the borders of their garments , to be a remembrancer to them of god's commands and their duty of obedience ; ergo , whatsoever is placed in god's worship , without the command of god , is an idol . where the consequence is , i profess , i cannot see : but if your eyes are clearer than mine , i desire you to examine the strength of it in another instance , besides that of the cross and surplice . the laying the hand upon , and kissing the book , in the taking of an oath , ( which is both a natural and instituted part of worship ) is appointed without the command of god , and therefore the laying the hand upon , and kissing the book , is an idol , or rather the book it self . a clear proof you have , numb . . . but possibly i may carry this matter further than he intended . he took it perhaps for an undoubted truth , which wanted no proof , that whatsoever is placed in god's worship , without the command of god , is an idol ; and therefore he might not urge this text of scripture for the confirmation of that , but to prove , that none hath power to ordain or place a c●remony in christ's church , but himself , who is king of it . but since he herein directly opposes one of the thirty nine articles , the opinion and practice of the whole church of god , and even st. paul's direction to the corinthians , to appoint whatsoever shall be tending to decency and order ; he should certainly have given some better proof than a text out of the old testament , which does not relate to the worship of god ; and which , in my opinion , would much better have proved , that the parliament should not have enacted , that poor persons receiving parish collection shall , in an open and visible manner , wear a badge , and that too upon the shoulder of the right sleeve of the uppermost garment ; because , as one of them once told me , ( when there was formerly such a private order among our selves ) it was no where commanded in the word of god that they should be marked like sheep . answer . again , that which is man's device , and hath been an idol in god's worship , must of necessity be an idol still in the worship of god ; but the ceremonies mention'd in the service-book have been idols in god's worship , as the cross and surplice ; ergo they must be idols still in the worship of god. read josh . . , there the lord commands joshua , saying , up , sanctifie the people , for thus saith the lord god of israel , there is an accursed thing in the midst of thee , o israel . nay , god tells joshua , he would not be with them any more , except they destroyed the accursed thing , i. e. the babylonish garment which achan had taken and hid in the midst of his tent. for this he and his sons and his daughters , and all that he had , must be stored with stones , and burned with fire . reply . i shall take his syllogism to task presently : but beforehand i cannot but observe what an excellent textuary this man is , and how happy in his application of scripture . i have read the seventh chapter of joshua , and i refer him back again thereto , and also to co. , v. , . where joshua accurses jericho , and every thing in it , and forbids the israelites , under the penalty of bringing a curse upon the camp , to meddle with any thing therein : but achan , contrary to this express prohibition , had taken the accursed thing , and had also sto●●● and dissemoled also , and put it amongst his own stuff , ch. , ver. . what was this accursed thing which he stole ? ver. , it was a goodly babylonish garment , and two hundred shekels of silver , and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight , them he coveted and took . so that , you see , the reason why achan was so severely punish'd , was his absolute disobedience to the command of god , in taking of that which god had cursed : his stealth , covetousness , and dissimulation . now what is the consequence of all this ? does it appear that the babylonish garment was a surplice , or so much as used in the worship of god ; or that the wedge of gold was a cross or that achan's crime in stealing the garment was greater than that of stealing the two hundred shekels of silver ? tho' this learned expositor explains the accursed thing by [ that is , the babylonish garment ] . but if the babylonish garment had been a surplice , and used by them in the worship or god , what then ! was it therefore an idol , and an accursed thing , and therefore to be burned ? i answer positively , no ; because for that very reason , all the silver , and gold , and vessels of brass , and iron , were to be brought into the treasury of the lord. but all the silver , and gold , and vessels of brass , and iron , are consecrated unto the lord : they shall be brought into the treasury of the lord , ch. . . and this i urge as an argument against his triumphant syllogism ; every proposition of which , and the consequence also , i utterly deny . for , st , that which hath been an idol in god's worship , must not of necessity be an idol still , if it was not an idol in its own nature , or made so by a standing and positive law. i deny his minor also ; for , allow that the cross , and surplice , and other ceremonies , have been used in idolatrous worship , yet it does not follow that they were idols , unless they had some prototype , or represented some divine object , and were set up for adoration . things lawful in themselves may be used in idolatrous worship , such as time , place , habit , and posture ; but the● i● no more follows from thence , that they were idols , than that the vessels of brass and iron , before mention'd , were idols ; or that the holy water and vestments are idols , which are used , when they say mass , in the church of rome . but supposing that both his propositions are true , yet his consequence is very false , that the cross and surplice must be idols still , or ( as i suppose he would now word it , if he had it to revise again ) idolatrous : for when idolatry is not in the nature of the thing but in the use , take away the use and the idolatry ceaseth ; and consequently it may be lawfully used where there is no idolatry in the worship , and no idolatry in the use of it : and if it be not to be used , it is not because it is unlawful in it self to use it , but because it is forbidden by god , as was the case among the jews , or because of some circumstances that make it inconvenient and dangerous . thus it was lawful to eat that meat which had been offer'd to idols , when it was afterwards exposed to sale in the shambles , or set upon the table at an entertainment , because it was thereby restored to a common use . it is then no more idolatry to use a white garment , ( or a ceremony ) or a temple , or observe a day , or to use a prayer that has been used or observed in idolatrous worship , or by an idolatrous church , than it was to eat meat that had been offer'd to idols . purifie the gold , and separate the dross from it , and the gold is not the worse for the dross that was before mingled with it . scrape the walls , and cast out the infected materials of it , so that the house be freed from the leprosie , and it might have been as well inhabited as if it had never been infected . and this is the upshot of that charge of idolatry , which he would fain fasten upon us . he can produce nothing that is idolatrous among us . the cross and surplice , he says , have been used in idolatrous worship ; but if we allow him what he says , it does him no service , forasmuch as the abuse of things in themselves lawful , even to idolatrous purposes , is no argument against the lawful use of them . and this is answer enough to what he says about the original of the surplice ; for let its parentage be as base and scandalous as he would have it thought to be , yet it does not make the use of it unlawful , if the thing it self is not so . answer . the vnlawfulness of this babylonish garment will further appear , if we look into the original whence we had it . some authors tell us , we have it from heathen rome , which in her idolatrous service did apishly imitate aaron's garments ; as it is instanced in the reign of numa , eight hundred years after the law. others tell us , we have it from the druides , the mad heathen priests among the gauls and brittons , or from the antichristian rome , or lastly , from the priestly office of aaron , which heathen and popish rome hath impiously follow'd , denying thereby the lord jesus to be came in the flesh , who with his graces was typified out by those goodly and beautiful garments , which being shadows , are done away , and christ the body is come . for us then to imitate them in their relicks , or to devise a priestly garment of our own head in god's worship , is to rob christ of his honour exceedingly , and to make our selves deeply guilty of will-worship : for had not god clothed those garments in the law with a particular and punctual command for matter and manner , they had been ridiculous things ; they made the holy garment , saith moses , as the lord commanded , exod. . which latter words [ as the lord commanded ] are repeated nine several times in this chapter , intimating , they did not swerve one jot from god's direction , teaching all god's servants thereby , that they contain themselves within the limits of god's word , and bring nothing into the service of god of their own invention , for the apostle calls that will-worship . reply . this babylonish garment he has mighty spite to , and to render it the more odious , he would gladly derive its pedigree , but he is not genealogist enough to do it . authors , he would have me know he has read , but who they are he is afraid to tell , lest it might be made appear he has read none of them , or has made as bold with them at he has done with the bible , and misinterpreted and misapplied them , as he has done this sacred book ; or that , however , they are such deep learned men as himself , who know nothing of the matter . the surplice is derived from some-body , he knows not who , either from heathenish or antichristian rome , from the mad heathen priests , or from aaron's garments , which were good and beautiful in themselves , and yet had been ridiculous , if god had not appointed them . what if i should say , some authors tell us , it was derived from christ and his apostles ; how would he disprove me , or prove that it was not ? but what if , without enquiring from whom it was first derived , or by whom else it was or is used , i should say , as i do , that it was a garment used in the primitive church , as an emblem of , and an admonition to the priests of that purity and innocence , wherewith they ought to be clothed ; and that we use it in conformity to their practice , and for the same reasons ; and withal thinking it a decenter garment to perform ministerial offices in , than either coat or cloak ; what , i say , can he urge against this ? or , what reason can he give why the governors of the church may not prescribe what habit for the clergy , whether in the time of divine service , or out of it , which they shall think most grave , and most decent ? or if he will tell me why a dissenting preacher goes in black , rather than in yellow ; if there be any thing of reason in what he says , i will improve it into one , for wearing the surplice during divine administrations . but what if this be taken from the garments of aaron , as he knows not whether it is or no ? why ! then those that use it , do thereby deny christ to be come in the flesh ; but for what reason does he say this ? because aarons garments were types and shadows of christ , who being now come , they are to be done away . if he is such a logician , as really to think this to be good arguing , yet it will not at all conclude against the use of the surplice , till he has shewed first , what it was that was typifyed and shadowed out thereby , which is now abolished by christ ; and proved secondly , that it is used by us out of any judaizing principle . what this weak man means by imitating them in their relicks , i know not ; but i leave it to be tryed by what has been already said , whether to devise a priestly garment of our own head in god's worship , be to rob christ of his honour exceedingly , and to make our selves deeply guilty of will-worship . but let me a●k him , does the scripture any where say so ? or does the apostle any where call this will-worship ? why does he not quote chapter and verse ? or deduce it by some logical and natural inference ? no body i hope will believe this man , purely upon the score of his confidence : god having cloathed those garments under the law with a particular and punctual command , the jews had been guilty of manifest disobedience , if they had not made them as the lord commanded ; but being goodly and beautiful garments , they could never have been esteemed ridiculous , if god had commanded nothing at all about them and his commanding them , is i think , a good argument , that in themselves they were not so . it is , i must confess , very observable , that there is so much humane learning in this man and his party , that they can count nine , but what if god had commanded ninety times in one chapter , that the aaronical garments should only be made so and so , is it any thing to us , who , according to himself , are no ways concerned in those ceremonies and shadows of the law , and to whom god has not given one particular direction in such matters , but left us to the general rules of decency and order , and the custome of the churches of god ? we are therefore left at liberty , to use such garments , as shall be judged most agreeable thereto ; god under the gospel , having neither forbidden , nor commanded the use of any : if it can be proved he has , then farewel surplice . and here i cannot but wonder , that since this man joyned the cross with the surplice , in his general charge and indictment , he did not also as particularly plead against that ceremony , and endeavour to expose it , by deriving its pedigree likewise . but as to the lawfulness of the use of the cross , i refer the reader to the case of the cross in baptism , by dr. resbury . this old plea for separation has been again and again answered by those who have writ in the defence of our church ; but , to make short work on 't , i will only ask whether this that you assert ; namely , that we are not to bring any thing of man's invention into the service of god , nor use any thing in his worship , but what he has commanded , be the word of god , or ? if it be not , how come you to impose it upon us for such , or charge that upon us for a sin , which is not the transgression of any law ? if it is the word of god , then it is either expresly such , or it is a clear inference and deduction from his express word . you cannot pretend the former , and therefore that which you say ; is , that it clearly follows from god's particular prescribing the garments of aaron , and ( to give this man another argument ) the whole levitical service . the consequence remains still to be proved : and against the truth of it , i urge the practice of the jewish church , who made no scruple of ordering divers things for which there was no command , and yet they were never blamed for them by the prophets , or our saviour . particularly david's design of building an house without god's command , or his so much as speaking a word to him about it , was so far from being faulty , that god commended him for it . hezekiah continued the feast of unleaveed bread seven days longer than the time appointed by the law. mordecai and esther made an ordinance for the yearly observation of the feast of purim , without any command from god that we read of . of the four fasts mentioned zach. . there was only one commanded . the feast of the dedication is known to be of modern and humane institution , and yet it is as well known that our saviour honoured it with his presence . there was no appointment for the singing a paschal hymn after the passover , and yet our saviour and his disciples observed that usage , and which therefore will not , i presume , be said to be sinful . now if the addmittance of certain usages not commanded was not sinful under the law , where the manner of divine worship was particularly specified , how comes it to be so now under the gospel where there is no such particular prescription , nor hardly any thing more than such general rules as i have before mentioned , which are to be respectively applied by superiors and inferiors ; such as , let all things be done decently , and in order ; and submit your selves to every ordinance of man , for the lord's sake . this seems to me to be answer enough to what this man has said about the vnlawfulness of using any thing in the worship of god , but what he himself hath commanded ; but that i may if possible confute and silence , if not convince the urgers of this grand objection , and even those who may perhaps manage it after a better manner , than this weak arguer has done : i will present to your consideration what the right reverend the bishop of our own diocess hath with great clearness written upon this subject . it is indeed a great deal to transcribe , but it is so full and pertinent to the business in hand , that my pains therein will be well bestowed , if you will but vouchsafe it an impartial reading . in his discourse of christian liberty , chap. p. . he is speaking to that notion of christian liberty , which makes it to consist in freedom from those laws of men , that command things indifferent relating to religion and the worship of god ; and makes it appear to be wild and false by these considerations . first , this notion of christian liberty tends to introduce sad disorder and confusion into the churches of christ , and will certainly do it if practised upon . i need not go about to prove , that the order of ecclesiastical as well as civil societies consisteth principally in the due regulation of things in their own nature indifferent . st. paul hath enjoyned that in the church , all things be done decently in order , cor. . . but how shall they be so done , if it be a violation of our christian liberty to have any thing imposed upon us by our governours for decencies and orders sake ? particular rules being not given us in scripture about this matter ; which to be sure would have been , were they not left to the determination of the governours of each church , upon supposition that 't is possible to give such as would well suit all churches . calvin , upon those words of st. paul , cor. . . now i praise you brethren , that you remember me in all things , and keep the ordinances as i delivered them to you , doth thus express his sence about this matter : saith he , we know that every church it left free to appoint a form of polity for it self , because our lord hath prescribed nothing certain . and he speaks this , you see , not as his own sense only , but as the sense , and that undoubted too , of his other brethren of the reformation : whose judgment , were it needful , we might largely produce to the same purpose . but there is no need of it , those very persons , who have been most zealous for the contrary opinion , being forced to contradict it in their practice : and , for orders sake , to determine such things in their several church administrations as are left perfectly undetermined in scripture , ( of which might be given very many instances ) notwithstanding their clamours against the church of england upon this , as modest as she is in her impositions . secondly , this notion of christian liberty is so great an infringment of the liberty christ hath left to ecclesiastical governours as not to leave them so much as it is certain the governours of the jewish church were invested with , who yet were bound up and determined in a very great number of particulars . over and above the multitude of rites and ceremonies which god himself did annex to the substance of his worship , we read of not a few others that were added by men. we have a large account of such in maimonides , in his book de cultu devino , and the holy scriptures themselves present us with diverse such without the least intimation of god's dislike of them . besided some of those which i mentioned , he gives other instances viz. king solomon's hallowing the middle part of the temple for sacrifices , king. . . the se● hours of prayer in the temple , acts . several alterations , and particularly that of the gesture , in eating the passover ; the which christ declared his approbation of by his conformity to them , mat. . . those two known rites of the jews , not commanded in the law , viz. that of joyning baptism with circumcision in admitting proselytes , and that of post coenium , or feast after the passover . and these two our saviour was so far from condemning , upon the score of their being of humane institution , that his two great sacraments received their rise from them . the texts which are chiefly urged , to prove the unlawfulness of bringing any thing into the worship of god , but what he hath himself prescribed , are those in the old testament , wherein god declareth his displeasure against some of the israelites , for doing those things which he commanded them n●t ; and one in the new , but cited out of the old , where our saviour reprehendeth the pharisees for teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. those texts in the old testament are lev. . , deut. . , jer. . , c●●p . . , chap. . . but i wonder that those who produce these texts for such a purpose , could not see without our shewing it to them , that they all speak of such things as god did not only not command , but had strictly forbid . in lev. . , the thing which god saith he commanded them not , was nadab and abihu's offering strange fire before the lord ; which was an act of disobedience to a most express law , chap. . , . that in deut. . , not commanded by god , was a most hainous sin and a black transgression of the first commandment , viz. serving other gods , and worshipping of them , the sun , the moon , and the host of heaven . that not commanded , jer. . , was not only contrary to the law of god , but a horrible wickedness condemned by the light of nature , viz. the burning of their sons and their daughters in the fire , in the valley of hinnom . that which god saith , he commanded not , neither came it into his mind , jer. . , was the same unnatural wickedness , viz. the burning their sons with fire for burnt-offerings to baal ; and that in jer. . , was the causing of their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire unto molech . but what doth god's condemning such abominable practices as these signifie , towards the proving it unlawful to use or impose certain innocent rites and circumstances in divine worship , which are not expresly and particularly required by god ; but may be truly said to be in the general required by him , as such are necessary to the decorous management of his worship , and agreeable to the foremention'd rule , of doing all things decently , and in order ? and whereas the urgers of these texts for tire ' foresaid purpose do reply to us , that tho' they cannot deny but the instances of the things not commanded mention'd in each of them , are things also prohibited , yet they are pertinently insisted upon by them , because it is tacitly implied in god's expressing them as things only not commanded , that things not commanded in his worship offend him as well as things prohibited . to this i briefly answer , that this is subtile arguing indeed , except it can be shewed , that god doth any where condemn the doing in his worship what is lawful in its own nature , and no where forbidden by him , under the notion of a thing not commanded ; which i dare affirm cannot be shewed . and i add , that nothing is more absurd , than ' to build doctrines upon idioms of the sacred language ; but this is too commonly done by the men we are now dealing with ; as i am able to shew in too many instances . and if we should turn the scales , and argue thus : such and such things are not forbidden by god , therefore they are commanded ; we should not be guilty of a grosser absurdity than they are , in inferring from god's not having commanded them , that he hath therefore forbidden them . and as to that text in the new testament , mat. . . but in vain do they worship me , teach●● for doctrines the commandments of men. it is manifest , that that which is condemned in the pharisees here is the setting up of their own constitutions instead , or in the place of god's , and those too contrary to god's commandments . this is evident from the context . our saviour saith , ver . , why do you transgress the commandments of god by your traditions ? that is , saith irenaeus upon these words , they did not only frustrate the law of god by prevarication , mixing wine with water ; but they also set their law in opposition or contradiction to the law of god , &c. and , that so they did , appears by what follows , ver . , , . for god commanded , saying , honour thy father and mother , &c. but ye say , whosoever shall say to his father or his mother , it is a gift by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me , and honour not his father , he shall be free . thus have you made the commandment of god of none effect by your tradiction . and next follows a citation out of isa . . , according to the septuagint , whereof these words are part , viz. ye hypocrites , well did esaias prophesie of you , saying , this people draw nigh unto me with their mouth , and honoureth me with their lips ; but their heart is far from me . but in vain do they worship me , teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. we will also consider these words as they are recited by st. mark , ch. . , with the verse following , howbeit in vain do they worship me , teaching for doctrines the commandments of men : for laying aside the commandment of god , ye hold the tradition of men , as the washing of pots and cups , &c. that is , according to dr. hammond's paraphrase upon the place , you are those hypocrites that profess great strictness in performances towards god , and practise in some external things more than god commands you , and impose those on others , as the commands of god , when they are only humane ordinances . as for the inward purity of the heart , and actions , to which all god's laws of washings did refer , you take no care of them , transgress against this substantial part of religion in the fonlest manner , and spend all your time in these external superfluit●●s , washing of pots , &c. the ordinances of your rabbins only . but , what are the hypocritical and wicked doings here condemned , to governours determining of external circumstances of administration in the worship of god , which are not only innocent in themselves , but also not set up in the place of , or justling out , any thing commanded by god , nor yet imposed as the commands of god. but who can have the forehead to fasten such high presumptions as these upon our church ? but i proceed , thirdly , as this notion of christian liberty is an enfringement of the liberty which is left to governours , so is it also greatly injurious to the peoples liberty : for it is a very highly to be priz'd instance of the peoples liberty , that they may , without giving god an offence , conform to such laws as oblige them only to indifferent things . and it will be an intolerable straitning and confining of our liberty , it will be a very bondage to us , to be alwaies obnoxious to the penalties which are the sanctions of such laws , and to other manifold inconveniences that follow upon disobeying them . christian liberty , according to this notion , is so far from being worthy of our saviour's purchasing , that 't is infinitely more desirable to be without it , in regard of the extreamly-mischievous consequences which follow upon quarrelling with authority about harmless matters , which have not the least ill influence upon your souls , whereby not only those who refuse obedience are exposed in their own persons and families to great evils , both temporal and spiritual , but also the whole community , the church and state too , by their means . this we all know , at this day , by very sad experience . this , i say , is such a liberty as is the occasion of lamentable mischiefs , both publick and private , but i am wholly to seek what good can accrue thereby , and therefore we may safely warrant it to be no liberty of our blessed saviour's procurement , but the contrary . if we were well instructed in the nature of the gospel-dispensation , we should be very certain , that whatsoever doth no way tend to the depraving of our souls , and the bringing us into bondage to sin , ( which we have proved to be the only opposite to our grand christian liberty ) cannot be unlawful to us christians , because not prejudicial to the ultimate design of the gospel , which is the making us free from the dominion of sin. to which design we have shewed all the precepts of our saviour , the promises and threatnings , ( and i may add doctrines too ) are subservient . and on the contrary , we may be as sure , that whatsoever is apt to hinder the promoting of this design must needs be unlawful under the gospel ; as all that are not blind , or do not shut their eyes , may easily see this same pretended christian liberty most sadly doth . and there is nothing more apparent , than that obedience to authority , in all things not forbidden by the divine laws , doth mightily tend to the promoting peace , love , humility , self-denial , and the like christian virtues : but disobedience in such matters doth as much occasion the gratifying of those devilish lusts , pride , uncharitableness , contention , wrath , sedition , &c. fourthly , those that pretend it to be such a violation of christian liberty , to be obliged by mens laws to things indifferent , if they will be true to themselves and their own principles , must not only refuse obedience to the injunctions of such things , but to the prohibitions also of such things ; as they must not do such as are commanded to be done , so they must do such as are commanded to be forborn ; for it is as great an infringement of our liberty to have indifferent things forbidden us , as to have them impos'd upon us : 't is a no less intrenchment upon it , to be tied up from what we may , antecedently to the magistrate's authority , do , as to be commanded what we may omit . so that if the things which the dissenters now refuse to do , because commanded , should hereafter be forbidden by authority , they would be obliged , in order to the maintenance of their christian liberty , to be every whit as zealous for them as now they are against them : nor were they so honest as they should have been , but false to this their principle , and shamefully betray'd their liberty , in so patiently submitting , when time was , to the severe prohibition of the same things , tho' it was by an usurped power too . what a strange liberty is this , which , in its natural consequences tends to make people so humour some , cross grain'd , and opposite to government ! surely it can't be christian , but the most unchristian liberty . if this free-dealing should offend any , i should be sorry for it , but must withal take leave to tell the offended , that it is an evidence of exceeding great weakness , not to say worse , to be angry with those who endeavour in the spirit of meekness to convince us of our dangerous mistakes . but such is the fate of conscientious opposing popular and prevailing errors , that it seldom meeteth with better success than kindling the passions , and sharpening the tongues ( and pens too ) of those who are most obliged to be thankful for it . but wisdom is justified of her children . what answer can be returned to this discourse i cannot see ; but if , notwithstanding all that can be said , these men will still persist in it , as their modest and humble opinion that the bishop , and all the most learned men of the christian world are mistaken , and that , let them say what they please , they do believe it to be really true , that nothing is to be done in the worship of god , but what he himself hath expresly commanded ; then i must ask , how they come so sharply to accuse vs of the breach of it , with whom the cross and surplice are no parts of the worship of god , when the charge falls as heavy , if not much more heavy upon themselves ; who not only sprinkle in baptism , and sit at the lords supper without any command , but sing their preachers hymns to the praise and glory of god ; and who worship god in a conceived prayer of their own invention , to the utter exclusion of that prayer , which our saviour in express words hath taught them when they pray , to say , luke . . where it is delivered upon a quite different occasion from that in the other gospel . st. matthew indeed brings in our saviour delivering this paper , as a pattern to square ours by ; but st. luke as an express form of words , which when we pray , we are punctually to make use of . but strange as it is ! these men , who would be thought the most sanctified persons of the place they live in , will rather implicitely own themselves so wicked as not to be fit to use this prayer , than admit of such an undeniable argument as that is of the lawfulness of a set form which i must confess , i wonder this man i am now dealing with , took no notice of . but i conclude from his silence herein , that their real opinion is , that those invectives which they so commonly use against forms of prayer in general , and ours in particular , are only fit to amuse ignorant people with , and not well enough grounded to be openly defended , though they help to keep up a party . since there fore he durst say nothing about this , i pass it by , and if there be any well-meaning people among you , that are disatisfied therein , i refer you to those two unanswerable treatises writ by dr. scott in vindication of publick forms , and to dr. beveridges sermon upon that subject , to convince you of the vsefulness and excellency of our common prayer . that which gave me occasion to mention this , was the instances i pitched upon to shew , that you not only used things in the worship of god without the command of god ; but that ( swerving from the example of the jews , whose doing as the lord commanded moses you so much insist upon ) you omit that which christ himself particularly prescribed in the worship of god. how highly absurd therefore is it for any one to object that to another , of which he himself is no less guilty ; nay much more , when besides what i have already urged , it is done with this disadvantage of inequality ; that the inferior who owes a defference to authority in things doubtful and indiferent , seems to obtrude upon the superior that which he would not have the superiour to impose upon him . there is yet one thing more which i would gladly know of you who speak so much of doing nothing about the worship of god but what christ hath commanded , and it is this : what law of christ is there which enjoyns you to hold your meetings just then when the publick service of god established by law is performed ? this is neither the law of christ , nor the practice of a great many of your brethren in other places ; nor can you assign any truer reason for it , than that you are not content to enjoy your own way of worshipping god , but you must also undermine , and subvert ours ; which you are obliged to joyn in , though not under the penalty of the law , yet in point of conscience and in obedience to the preceptive part of it . upon the same accounts likewise you are as guilty of will-worship as we are , granting it to be true that to bring any thing of our own invention into the service of god be will-worship . but this being a word that you often make use of , especially in your calumniating of us , i will venture to give you the meaning of it , that you may both understand it , and know how rightly to apply it . this word is not used above once in the whole bible , and that by st. paul , col. . . and therefore he must be his own interpreter , and we must fetch the meaning of the expression from the matter wherewith it is connected . if you look a little back in that chapter , you will find the apostle forbids worshipping of angels , verse , and then he speaks against such superstitious people , as made it unlawful to marry , to eat some kind of meats , to touch or come near some things , none of which god hath made sinful , but they were the meer commandments of men , verse , . now those that were of this humour he immediately after , ver . . charges with will-woship . so that according to the judgement of the learned ( which i hope i may have the liberty of quoting as well as my antagonist . ) a will-worship is erected , when either the worship due to god is given to a creature , or when any thing is so enjoyned to be done , or not to be done , as if it were the will and commandment of god , when it is a meer constitution of the will of man. having now found out what will-worship is , let us impartially examine who are most guilty of it , you or we. and because i may be thought partial in this enquiry , or however not duly qualified to make it , let the learned man ( now a reverend father of our church ) that assisted us in finding out the meaning of will-worship , state the case betwixt us , and let us on both sides rest satisfied in his determination . he is speaking to a person of the same kidney with the man that has engaged me in all this trouble , and thus discourses him . i am sure you will not make us guilty of the first sort of will-worship , because none are more against it than we . as for the second , our church hath declared to all the world that none of those things you boggle at , are imposed under the notion of necessary , or religious in themselves , or as commanded by god ; but are of an indifferent nature , and only used as decent and comely in the judgment of the present governours , who can alter these things , and constitute something else in their room , if they see it fit ; which they could not pretend to , did they think them necessary . but then , as our church is not guilty of will-worship in the apostles sence ; so , on the other side i know not how to excuse those from that very guilt , who oppose what is ordained among us as unlawful , and forbid us to use those rites and orders , because sinful things . for they make that to be necessary to be forborn and left undone , which god hath not made so , but left indifferent ; and so they in effect , condemn those as sinners whom god acquits from all blame . as those in the apostles discourse , said , touch not , taste not , handle not , so you say , knees not , pray not by a form , wear not a surplce , &c. now since you think ( as those men did ) to please god by not doing those things which he hath no where forbidden ; i do not see but you commit the very fault which the apostle reproves , i. e. you make that necessary not to be done , ( if we will be true worshippers of god ) which he hath not made necessary not to be done , but left us at liberty to do it if we please . by which means you make a religion of your own , and study to honour god by abstaining from these things , by which he never said that he was dishonoured . o that all tender consciences would seriously consider this ; for they would soon discern that your ministers by forbidding those things now in dispute , lay greater burthens upon the consciences of their brethren , and clog them with more duties , than god hath laid upon them . whereas we , who think those things may be done , lay no other burthen upon the conscience than what god himself hath laid ; which is , to obey our governours in all things , wherein he himself hath not bidden us to do the contrary . answer . i shall only touch of additions in the service book , there are added three whole verses to the fourteenth psalm , and one verse to the thirteenth psalm . reply . if it be granted , that there are those additions he speaks of , yet it was not the mistake of the common prayer book , but of the translations which the common prayer followed , viz. the septuagint and vulgar . but i wonder how he came to be so cautious as not to call these additions to scripture , for that certainly was his meaning . the additions to the th psalm are accounted for in one of the old bibles , by this note ; that of this th psalm , the th , th , and th verses , which are put into the common translation , and may seem unto some to be left out in this , are not in the same psalm in the hebrew text , but are rather put in more fully to express the manners of the wicked , and are gather'd out of the th , th , and th psalms , the th of the prophet isaiah , and the th psalm , and are alledged by st. paul , and placed together in the d to the romans . but the saying , that there is a verse added to the th psalm , is a notorious falshood ; there are only these words , i will praise the name of the lord most highest ; which are in the seventh psalm , and the last verse . what then can this man be thought to mean ? would he insinuate , that these additions are inventions of our own , or that they are inserted by the church , upon some wicked selfish design ? i hope it appears that they were not , nor we , upon the score thereof , obnoxious to the penalty of deut. . , before quoted by him . but i would fain know whether they are not deeply guilty of the crime they charge us with , who teach , that nothing is to be used in the worship of god , but what is prescribed by god himself ; for if that be not a scripture truth , then what an addition is this ? do not they who teach this for a scripture-rule and precept , impose upon mens consciences as much as papists , and like them and the pharisees of old , teach the traditions of men for the doctrines of god ? nay , is not this directly contrary to the gospel it self , which tells us , that sin is the transgression of a law ; and that where there is no law , there is no transgression ? and thus you all along see with how keen an edge those weapons turn upon you , which you make use of in fighting against us . answer . in a word , i may say of all the ceremonies in the service book , as one of your own church saith of the succession of church-officers , and in particular that of bishops : he tells us , that our english bishops received their orders in the communion of the church of rome , and ergo they had as good orders as any of the church of rome ; they must needs be as good when they are the same : but 't is but a weak proof for the succession of their bishops , when they must go to rome for it . reply . one would think it were high time for you to have done with this old accusation of popery , and that you should have more prudence , than to give us occasion to upbraid you with your fawning upon , and sneaking to it in the late reign , while the bishops and clergy of our church made such a brave and vigorous defence against it , even to the hazard of their all. if indeed it be true , that our bishops received their orders in the church of rome , then his [ ergo ] is good , and the only good one he has made in this paper , and the argument is a good one against the papists , and no weak one neither for the succession of church-officers against you , if you pretend to impugn it ; which if you do , it lies at your door to prove a failure in their succession , since our bishops are in possession of their authority . he ought to have quoted his author , for a reason before mention'd . but , what if it be true , is therefore episcopacy unlawful , or the succession of our bishops not good ? he may as well argue , that the water is not good , or comes not from the fountain-head , because the conduit thro' which it is convey'd is faulty . but since this man questions the succession of our bishops , and upbraids us with having our orders from the church of rome , it is but reasonable to demand , whether your preachers have any orders at all ? and if they have , whence they had them , and thro' what channel they were convey'd down to them ; and whether you have any arguments to urge for the validity of their orders , which we cannot with much more reason make use of to prove the goodness of ours ? but we may see how far envy and malice will sometimes make people overshoot themselves . this man , rather than not send forth his bolt at our bishops and clergy , will strike at the whole reformation , and call in question the validity of the orders of all the reformed churches : of luther and calvin himself , nay , even the authority of their own ambassadors . as for our ceremonies , tho' they be superstitiously abused by the papists , yet that is no argument against the present use of them in the church of england , who retains them not because they are of rome , but of an ancienter date than that now corrupted church ; and if they are therefore unlawful , because they are used by her , then every thing done in that church is so , which , i suppose , you will not say . we only reformed from the errors and corruptions of that church , and not from what was apostolical , primitive , and innocent , because they used it . and whatever opinion these people would have others entertain of them , yet their admired mr. calvin declares in express words , that he would not have any man think him so austere , or bound up , as to forbid a christian , without any exception , to accommodate himself to the papists in any ceremony or observance ; for , says he further , it is not my purpose to condemn any thing but what is clearly evil , and openly vicious . but for a full answer to all you object against us upon this score , i refer you to the case of symbolizing with the church of rome , by dr. eowler , our present bishop , where he quotes those very words of mr. calvin . answer . sir , we desire not separation , but reformation ; for , i hope , we have all of us so tender a regard for the everlasting salvation of our own souls , that we shall endeavour to make choice of such a minister as may be able to divide the word of truth aright , and give to every one their portion in due season . reply . i have observed but very little coherence in any part of this paper , but i see none at all in this clause ; on the contrary , the very design of chusing another minister is a proof beyond denial of your desire of separation . your reformation was the drift of my paper , and 't is nonsense for you to retort it upon us , till you have given some better proofs , that there are really such faults in the constitution of our church , as ought to be amended . but if the reformation you desire be as to matters which you either have proved , or can prove , to be really evil , i doubt not but the next convocation that sits will readily gratifie you herein ; nay , i verily think that they would take away some of those ceremonies you scruple , or however leave the use of them to every ones liberty , as the canons of have done , bowing towards the east ; if you could secure them against the evil consequences of unnecessary alterations ; or give them sufficient grounds to believe that the dissenters of this kingdom would then vnite in the communion of the church ; or that the major part of you , who are distinguish'd from the other sects by the name of presbyterians , would thereupon come over thereto ; or indeed , that such a method of proceeding would not drive more out of the church than it would bring in . but if the reformation you talk of be such as would maim , and wound at least , if not vnchurch us , or however lay us open to all manner of confusion , it is unreasonable you should be complied with , and you do thereby plainly shew your desires to be either after ascendency over us , or separation from us . of which another evidence is , that you use no endeavours to get your selves satisfied of the lawfulness of joyning in our worship . you only read books , and hear persons of one side . you are full of prejudice against us , and are glad of any pretence to separate from us . you cry out against the common-prayer , but pray let me ask you , and answer it to your consciences , have you ever seriously and impartially read and examin'd that book ? have you a desire to hold communion with us , if you could perswade your selves that you might lawfully do it ? have you proposed your scruples to the divines of our church ? or , have you read what they have written in order to your satisfaction ? if you have done all these things , then you have acted fairly . but then let me ask again , have you met with any of your own teachers , that are able to give a sufficient answer to their arguments ? they may possibly put you off with noise and clamour instead of true reason ; but certain it is , they have none of them yet answer'd those excellent things that have been writ in the defence of our church . if they think their cause so good , and themselves able to defend it , let them try their skill at mr. hooker's ecclesiastical polity , and the several treatises writ by our divines in the reign of king charles the second , not above two of which were ever answer'd ; but those answers were replied to , without ever a rejoinder ; some or all of which i would have those among you , that have time and capacities for it , to peruse , particularly those that i have already had , or shall have , occasion to mention or refer to , as also a perswasive to communion with the church of england , by the late bishop of chichester ; and the case of indifferent things , by the present bishop of that diocess ; the discourses about conscience , and a scrupulous conscience , by the present archbishop of york , and dr. calamy ; wherein you will be inform'd how far that pretence will and will not bear you out in your separation . our church is freed from the imputation of popery by dr. hooper , and all your objections against the common-prayer answer'd by dr. claggett and dr. comber ; which latter has largely and devoutly explain'd and paraphras'd upon every part of it . mr. evans has in two parts stated and resolved for you the case of kneeling at the holy sacrament . and several more discourses there are , all writ with that candour and calmness , which , if you have leisure , is sufficient to invite you to peruse and consider them . and indeed one would wonder , that after so many excellent tracts writ in vindication of our church , there should be such a person as a dissenter in england . i have all or most of these things by me , and the use of them is at the service of any of you , that will desire and accept of it ; but you must put in practise the advice of epictetus , which is , to seek after truth with the indifference of travellers , who matter not whether their way be to the right or left , or forward , so that it lead them to their journeys end . answer . sir , as for your accusing us of schism , the keeping it up in the church of god , and rending and dividing the body of christ , and all for separating from those errors the church is guilty of , from which we have a commandment to separate our selves ; come out from amongst them , saith the lord , and touch not the unclean thing , and i will receive you ; now whether it be right to obey god or man judge ye . now , if you can make it appear that it is schism to obey god rather than man , and that it 's a rending and dividing the body of christ , when we contend but for the pure administration of his ordinances according to his own appointment . now if you can prove this , i will yield you the cause . reply . your saying that i accused you of schism , the keeping it up in the church of god , and rending and dividing the body of christ , is false , i did not positively charge you therewith . i signified to you the guilt and danger of that crime , that you might take care not to incurr either , by separating upon humor or prejudice , without just grounds and reasons . and i was purposely thus cautions in expressing my self , that i might not baffle my own design , by saying any thing that might disoblige or exasperate persons whom i had some grounds to suspect were self will'd , and too inclinable to be soon angry ; but since you will force me to speak out , i 'll tell you my mind freely ; and because this man seems to exult in vindicating you from that charge , and says it wholly upon us , i will endeavour to make it appear , that notwithstanding any thing he has said , you are schismaticks still . that therefore which i do say , and for which i have both good reason and good authority , is this , that forasmuch as you withdraw your communion from that church ( that i mean to which i invited you ) with which you lawfully may , and with which therefore you ought to communicate , you cannot be excused from the sin of schism , at least as to the matter and outward act of it ; because , where-ever there is an actual separation from a church with which we ought , and with which we may lawfully communicate , there is an actual schism commenced , let the pretence for the separation be what it will. how far you are chargable before god with the formal guilt of schism , i know not , i must leave that to your consciences and the searcher of hearts , who knows whether your separation be occasion'd through the fault of your wills , or the weakness of your understandings ; whether through passion , or humor , or interest , or from the misfortune of your circumstances as to education , or any other matter : i hope the best , and judge as charitably as i can , and that is as charitably as any man living . this was , and this is still my real opinion , and there is nothing said in your paper to induce me to alter it ; for , unless the errors you separate from be such as make communion absolutely unlawful , you can never produce a command to withdraw your communion from the national church , where the divine providence hath placed you , and especially from that church wherein you were born and baptiz'd . that cor. . , which you pretend as a command , will not stand you in the least stead , till you have proved our service to be idolatrous , and we unbelievers , of whom you will find that the apostle speaks , if you will but look to v. , and as the margin directs you to isa . . , whence these words are cited , where the prophet bids the whole body of the jews to fly out of babylon ; and therefore it must be something worse than gross ignorance to apply it to such a separation as you are in . i doubt not but the errors ( as you call them ) mentioned in this paper , are thought by you to be the greatest of any in our church , and yet even these have been abundantly vindicated from that imputation ; and christ's own ordinances are administred by us , according to his own institution , without any such defect or addition , as alters their nature , and destroys their vertue . and what purer administration and ordinances men would have , than those of our saviour's own institution , without any corrupt and sinful mixtures to spoil their vertue and efficacy , i cannot tell ; nor durst this man positively say in his paper , that christ's ordinances are not thus purely administred by us , notwithstanding his sly and malicious insinuation to the contrary . but granting , that in the administration of christ's ordinances there be some particular modes and rites accompanying them , which are not commanded in the gospel ; if they are such as do not destroy the efficacy , or alter the nature of the ordinance , they cannot be pretended unlawful , or the ordinance ever the less purely administred , because the vnlawfulness of any thing depends upon its being forbidden , and the purity of divine administrations upon their agreement with the institution . thus the sacrament of the lord's supper is administred exactly according to the institution of our blessed saviour , and because it is the most solemn part of christian worship , and deliver'd to the receiver with a most devout and affectionate prayer , that the body and blood of our lord jesus christ , which was given and shed for him may preserve his body and soul unto everlasting life , and therefore requires the utmost devotion and reverence of both soul and body , it is order'd to be received kneeling . thus also is baptism purely administred , and after the person is baptized , and solemnly received into christ's church , he is signed with the sign of the cross , in tok● that hereafter he shall not be ashamed to confess the faith of christ crucified , but manfully to fight under his banner against sin , the world , and the devil , and continue christ's faithful soldier and servant unto his life's end . and at the baptism of infants , persons are deputed by the parents , exp●icitly in the infant 's name , to make that vow and stipulation which those who allow of their baptism must however suppose to be tacitly and implicitly made by them ; and also to give collateral security to the church for the religious education of the infant ; the design of which institution was , to provide against the remisness or mortality of the parents , whose obligation to breed up their children in the fear of god is never the less , but is , on the contrary , thought to be already so great , by the laws of nature and religion , that they themselves cannot be more strictly bound . it is indeed to be lamented , that the regard to this appointment is not answerable to the piety and excellency of its design , but it ought to be consider'd , that that is the fault of the men , and not of the constitution , and that those who object against it upon this score may themselves help to remedy it . now if , when christ's ordinances are thus purely administred , it be not a rending and dividing the body of christ , so highly to contend for such modes of administration , which are not more scriptural , but only more agreeable to their own fancies , as to separate from , and break the peace of christ's church ; if , i say , this be not a rending the body of christ , i know not by what name to call it , and i believe my opponent will be hard put to it to give it a more proper one . but allowing that those you insist upon be errors ; are they fundamental ones ? are they destructive of true christian faith and practice ? did i not know the power of passion and prejudice , i durst be confident you will say they are not ; but , however , i positively assert they are not , and defie all the dissenters in england to prove that they are . if they are not , then your own writers shall instruct you in your duty . private brethren , says mr. noys , may not separate from churches , and church ordinances , which are not fundamentally defective neither in doctrine or manners , heresie or prophaneness . dr. owen asserts , that many errors in doctrine , disorders in sacred administrations , irregular walking in conversation , with neglect and abuse of discipline in rulers , may fall out in some churches , and yet not evacuate their church-state , or give sufficient warrant to leave their communion , and separate from them . mr. cotton saith , vnless you find in the church blasphemy , or idolatry , or persecution , ( i. e. such as forces them to leave the communion ) there is no just ground of separation . observe , saith mr. baxters , ( in his catalogue of the faults of nine churches in scripture ) that no one member is in all these scriptures , or any other , commanded to come out and separate from any of all these churches , as if their communion in worship were unlawful : and therefore before you separate from any , as judging communion with them unlawful , be sure that you bring greater reasons than any of these recited , were . and this advice he gives to his brethren , teach them to know that all men are imperfect and faulty , and so is all mens worship of god ; and that he that will not communicate with faulty worship must renounce communion with all the world , and all with him . mr. calvin assigns two marks of the visible church , the word of god truly preached , and sacraments administred according to christ's institution ; and saith , that altho' there be many faults and corruptions in such a church , yet as long as it retains those marks , separation from it is not justifiable ; nay , altho' some of those faults be about preaching the word , and administrations of sacraments ; for saith he , all truths are not of equal moment ; but as long as the doctrine according to godliness , and the true vse of the sacraments is kept up : men ought not to separate upon lesser differences ; but they ought to seek the amending what is amiss , continuing in the communion of the church , and without disturbing the peace and order of it . i had not , i own , the opportunity of consulting every one of these authors ; but i have given you their sence and very words upon the unquestionable authority of those two reverend bishops of our church , the present bishop of worcester , and the bishop of chichester . the former whereof , in his vnreasonableness of separation , hath with great evidence proved , that all the old non-conformists did think themselves bound in conscience to communicate with the church of england , and did look upon separation from it to be a sin , notwithstanding the corruptions they supposed to be in it . and the latter , in his case of lay-communion , produces the concurrent testimony of the most eminent non-conformists , that there is nothing required in the parochial communion of the church of england , that can be a sufficient reason for separation from it ; and though he has collected the sence of a great many , yet you may believe him , when he tells you , that for one hundred , he could easily have produced two , if the cause were to go by the poll. these reverend authors do not put their readers off with only telling 'em , that the learned observe , and some authors say so and so ; but they quote book and page , and which therefore , if you have a mind to be further satisfied , you your selves may consult . those non-conforming ministers might probably be under such prior engagements , or dislike some things so far , that they could not satisfie themselves in making the declarations and subscrpitions which are required of ministers , in order to preserve the peace of the church , and the unity of christians , which does so much depend upon that of its officers and teachers . but there being no declarations or subscriptions required of the people , nor any thing more , than to attend upon , and joyn in the worship practised and allowed in the church , they , according to the doctrine of those gentlemen , ought not to separate . to which i shall not need to add any more , than that remarkable annotation of the reverend mr. pool , upon luke . . one thing , says he , there is observable : the pharisees and scribes and priests had in those days much corrupted the worship of god by their traditions , yet they retained the substance of gods institution : we find both our saviour and his disciples , and other people of god not wholly forsaking the jewish church because of its corruptions : yet we cannot think they joyned with them in any thing of their will-worship ; from whence we may learn a tenderness as to a total separation from a church , and the lawfulness of attending divine ministrations , though attended with vsages which we approve not , provided there be no idolatry in the service . and the truth of it is , if separation be justifiable , upon the score of some small ( whether real or fancied ) errors , which may be in any church , then communion must not be held with any part of christ's church if not with ours ▪ for she is certainly as free from error as any church in the whole world , and the living in her communion , like members of so holy an institution , as safe a way to salvation as any i know in the world . and i so firmly believe what i say in this matter , that i challenge all her adversaries to compare ours , and other churches with the word of god , and the primitive church ; and if they cannot produce one that is freer from error in doctrine and worship , than she is , or comes nearer to the primitive pattern ; nay , if amongst all competitions and contending sects among us , there is not one to be found , that delivers the truths of the gospel with greater purity and sincerity : that doth teach a religion more holy and useful ; that lays greater stress upon a pure mind , and a blameless and undefiled life ; that doth give more forcible arguments for vertue , or more powerful disswasives from vice ; the● i hope you will have better thoughts both of her , and my invitation of you into her communion ; and be convinced that you have no just grounds to continue in your separation , upon pretences of impurity in her , or greater purity elsewhere . but i would have you speak out : is communion with us sinful , or is it not ? if you say it is , you say it without proof ; you therein contradict the opinion of the most eminent of the old presbyterians ; you oppose your selves to the opinion and practice of the most candid and most honest among those now alive , who do not wholly separate themselves from our communion ; and if your own teaches will be true to their real sentiments , i dare be confident , they will not say so ; nay , you do herein condemn your own practice of occasionally joyning with us now ; and unless you will declare , you were then mistaken in your judgments , you make your selves guilty of base hypocrisie in constantly joyning with us , when the penalties of the law were inflicted upon those that refused it . if you say that communion with us is not sinful , and that therefore you may occasionally joyn with us ; then let the assembly of divines draw the consequence ; who say , that to separate from those churches ordinarily and visibly , with whom occasionally you may joyn without sin , seemeth to be a most unjust separation . that which you quote for one , i have shewed to be no command for you to leave our church ; nor can you make it any way applicable thereto , till you have proved that there is something taught or practised in our church , which is as bad as the unclean thing , there spoken of . but did i , or ever any man else say that it was schism to obey god rather than man ? and therefore what need he put me to prove it ? but that is not your case , my brethren , you causelessly and willfully separate from a sound part of christ's church , and if that is not schism , i will yield up the cause for ever . but let us more particularly examine this mans notion of schism , and see whether , even according thereto , you be not guilty of it . answer . i know schism properly signifies a cutting in two , a disagreeing in m●●●● , a division in the church of christ , consisting in an vnity in matters of faith , so that they are truly schismaticks that are divided from the external communion of the true church , viz , that do not own all the ordinances of the true church , or if they own them , do not live in the exercise of them ▪ these are the persons that are guilty of schism . now how deeply guilty of schism you are who charge us with it , i shall leave all honest men to judge . now if you cannot prove that we own any thing in point of doctrine or discipline in our church that is not according to the word of god , how can you have the face to accuse us of schism ? if you have any thing to accuse us of in point of doctrine or discipline let us have it , and i doubt not but we shall be able to clear our selves of all your false accusations . reply . schism he knows not well what to make of ; he gives me the 〈◊〉 signification of the word it is true , but when he comes to apply it , he says 't is a division in the church of christ consisting in an vanity in matters , of faith ; either as if the vnity of the church consisted only in an vnity in matters of faith , or that schism were a separation from the true church in matters of faith : but besides vnity in matters of faith there is an unity and communion of saints in worship ; and whether he knew it or no , if he separates from the true church in matters of faith , he is an heretick more properly than a schismatick ; for a man may be a schismatick , and yet be right as to the main articles of faith. if he is divided from the external communion of the true church , he is a schismatick ; or to explain it in other words , if he does not own all the ordinances of the true church , or if he does own them , does not , however , live in the exercise of them , viz in the external communion of the true church , this person is guilty of schism . now i leave all men that have sence , as well as honesty , to judge , whether you or we are divided from the external communion of the true church , and consequently which are schismaticks . we own all the ordinances of the true church , and live in the exercise of them . we are in communion with all the sound parts of christ's church all the world over . they own our church as their sister , and give her the right hand of fellowship , and highly condemn you for your separation . the church of rome only accuses us of schism , and the charge would be good against ours with respect to her , if we had no better reasons for separating from her , than the dissenters in england give for their separation from vs . our separation from the church of rome has been sufficiently cleared from the charge of schism , and when you have brought as good arguments , in defence of your dividing from external communion with us , we shall then pronounce you not guilty of it neither . but , till then , till you prove that ours is not the national establisht church , with which you lie under an obligation to communicate ; that this established church is not a sound part of the church of christ , and that she imposes sinful terms of communion ; till i say , you have done all this ; i shall continue my accusation of schism , as long as you continue in your separation ; and put as good a face upon it , as the godly learned of old did ; who say , that every unjust and rash separation from a true church ( i. e. when there is no just , or at least no sufficient cause of the separation ) is a schism , and that there is a negative and a positive schism . the former is , when men do peaceably and quietly draw from communion with a church , not making head against that church , from which they are departed : the other is , when persons so withdrawing do consociate and withdraw themselves into a distinct opposite body , setting up church against church ; which camero calls a schism by way of eminency : and farther 〈◊〉 , there are four causes that makes a separation from a church , 〈◊〉 . first , when they that separate are grievously and intollerably persecuted : secondly , when the church they separate from is heretical : thirdly , when it is idolatrous : fourthly , when 't is the seat of anti-christ . and where none of these four are found , there the separation is insufficient , and schism . now we are fully assured , that none of these four causes can be justly charged upon our congregations , therefore you must not be displeased with us , but with your selves , if we blame you as guilty of positive schism . this was the presbyterian doctrine in those blessed days of , to those who stood in divided congregations from them : and , if it was good doctrine then , i am sure it is much more so now , as coming from vs to you. in what sence you call your separate meetings a church , i know not ; but if you think that they deserve that name more than the quakers , or anabaptists , or independants , who all assume that title to themselves , then i must tell you that i take your church to be a schismatical church ; for let your faith be as right as that of the creeds , and your discipline ( if you have any ) as free from fault , as you would have the world think you to be ; yet if you are divided from the external communion of the true church , in the exercise of the ordinances of the true church , i. e. if you do not joyn with the true church in prayers , hearing the word , and receiving the sacraments , your own paper makes you schismaticks ; and i must freely own , i do not see how any man can be acquitted therefrom , who being a member of a particular established church , does , upon any pretended offence taken against such rites , modes and ceremonies , ( which are thought convenient by that church ) separate himself from the publick worship , when the substantials and essentials thereof are so unexceptionable as ours are . but forasmuch as your notions and discourses about the true church , and about schism , seem to be so confused and extravagant : before i dismiss this point , i desire you will give me liberty to instruct you in the meaning of a christian church , which i am apt to believe you do not rightly understand . now , among the several acceptations of the word church ( one whereof belongs to the place consecrated and set apart for the publick assemblies of christians ) the church in the language of the new testament ( of intelligent writers , and indeed of all men that understand themselves , when they talk about it , especially with reference to communion ) doth generally signifie the christian church , either as it is catholick , or as it is particular . the christian church , considered as catholick or universal , signifies the whole body of christians , dispersed upon the face of the whole earth , and so it comprehends all persons , and all particular churches professing christianity . and whosoever shall make a defection , or separation from this church will be found guilty of a manifest , dangerous most abominable schism , or rather apostacy . this general and universal church , tho' but one body , is yet made up of several particular members , or churches ; and by a particular christian church , we understand a number of men , of the same country ; professing christianity , formed into a society under lawful governours , and governed by such laws and rules as are not different from , but agreeable to the laws and rules of the catholick church . and if any man or number of men , who are members of that society , shall , without just cause separate themselves from the communion thereof , he or they so doing , are certainly guilty of schism . such a church as this , was the church at corinth , the church at jerusalem , the church at ephesus , the church of the thessalonians , the church of laodicea , the church of smyrna , the church of pergamus , the church of thyatira , the church of sardis , the church of philadelphia ; and such a church as this is the national establisht church of england , which through a collection of several parochial congregations , is yet properly but one particular church , by reason of the same bond of faith , worship and government , whereby they are all united , and so make one , true , sound , and pure part of the catholick or universal church . except then , there be a more just cause of separation than you either have alledged , or can alledge , it must be a very great sin to erect new churches , and separate in the acts of prayer and sacraments from the body of a church and nation . for so at corinth st. paul told them , whilst one was for paul , and another for apollos , and there were divisions among them , they were carnal , and walked as men , cor. . . and at rome he bids them mark them who cause divisions and offences , and not adhere and associate with , but avoid them , rom. . . or to enforce this in the words of the presbyterians , whereby they of old pleaded for unity and uniformity , we are loth to speak any thing that may offend you , yet we entreat you to consider , that if the apostle call those divisions of the church of corinth , ( wherein christians did not separate into diverse formed congregations of several communions , in the sacrament of the lords supper ) schism , cor. . . may not your secession from us , and professing you cannot joyn with us as members , and setting up congregations of another communion , be more properly called schism ? and i must tell you further , that it is never the less so in you , upon the account of the act of toleration , which cannot , nor does not pretend to exempt you from the duty of conformity , but only from the penalties of nonconformity . your separation is not one jot the more reasonable , or more just than it was before ; and those that were concerned in the drawing up of this paper seem to be sensible of this , in that they do not urge the plea of toleration , but put their cause upon another issue , viz. the merits of it . but however , mr. norris has cleared this case , in his charge of schism continued , notwithstanding the toleration . and now that i may be even with my gentleman for his idol-syllogism , i sh●●● sum this whole matter in a syllogism ; all the parts whereof have been sufficiently proved to be as true , as that was proved to be false ; and it runs thus , whoever separate from a church , with which they may lawfully communicate , are guilty of schism : but you separate from a church , with which you may lawfully communicate ; therefore you are guilty of schism . or if you would rather that i should put the argument into form , in your own words , it stands thus , whoever are divided from the external communion of the true church are schismatiks . but you are divided from the external communion of the true church ; therefore you are schismaticks . the major or first of these propositions is your own . the minor or second proposition , is true also , because it is undeniable that the church of england is a true church , and too sadly apparent , that you separate from external communion with her in the exercise of prayers and sacraments , the ordinances of the true church ; whence the conclusion necessarily follows , that you are schismaticks . and if so , then i beseech you lay to heart the words of mr. ball , one of the most learned and judicious non-conformists before the wars , as dr. stilling fleet stiles him in his mischief of separaton , where he quotes him for them , speaking of separation , he calls it , a renting the church , the disgrace of religion , the advancement of pride , schism and contention , the offence of the weak , the grief of the godly who be better setled , the hardning of the wicked , and recovery or rising again of anti-christianism ; nay , even persecuting the lord jesus in his host , which they revile ; in his ordinances which they dishonour ; and in his servants , whose footsteps they slander , whose graces they despise , whose office they trample upon with disdain . answer . and i hope god will so direct us in choosing our minister that we shall make choice of such a one as will eandeavour to keep with in the bounds and limits of the laws of god and man , and in particular the act of toleration , and one i hope that will give no disturbance in the parish , unless you will be disturbed , as i fear you are and have been for the preaching of the gospel ; you know such men there were in the apostles days , these men say they do exceedingly trouble our city , you know who they were that were accused , those who were the faithful ambassadours of jesus christ . reply . i did not desire you to take care in the choice of a minister , there is no room for that as long as i live , and i am not legally dispossessed . but if you must have another preacher , who , in your judgements , is better qualified than i am , i wish still that he may be a man of prudence and temper , one that will strictly confine himself within the bounds and limits of the act of toleration ; which restrains him wholly to the meeting-house where he is licenced , in the exercise of his talent of preaching ; gives him no indulgence to perform any other ministerial office either there , or in any other place ; nor to rail , and revile , or speak against the church and common prayer , either in his sermons , or elsewhere ; nor to go about to seduce people from the established service , and their own proper minister . there is no toleration that i know of for these and the like practises to either him or any other , and therefore i think it is good and kind advice both to you and him , to keep within the bounds of that act , for fear an enquiry should be made , whether all such , who do not observe the conditions of the indulgence , be not as liable to the law as if they had none . but let him be as cautious as he will , not to transgress that particular law , he must not pretend that he observes all the laws of god and man , if he sets up altar against altar , church against church , and heads a separation from the external communion of the true church of christ ; and be he who he will , and let his pretence be what it will , if he sets himself here in opposition to me , and that true church of which i am a lawful minister , i must say of him that he does exceedingly trouble our city ; and that too by teaching customs which are not lawful for us to receive neither to observe , being members of the church of england ; for if any man seem to be contentious , we have no such custom , nor the churches of god : from whence we may ( by the way ) observe , that the apostle disputing , concerning an ecclesiastick ceremony , with the corinthian church , appeals to the custom of the churches of god , as sufficient to confute even the most contentious , without any express determination of the word of god , in matters of that nature . i know very well who they were that said these men do exceedingly trouble our city , and of whom they spake it , and upon what principle they spake it ; and i know that your application of it to me is not parallel in any of these ; but i am sure that the expression , as applied by me , is , as to the matter of fact , true ; and i know further that they were the children of edom , that cryed out upon jerusalem , down with it , down with it , even to the ground . it is , i do own , a daring and provoking piece of impudence to have a company of vzziah's ( unto whom it appertaineth not to burn incense unto the lord , but to the priests the sons of aaron , that are consecrated to burn incense ) compared with the holy apostles of our blessed saviour , who gave such undeniable proof of the divinity of their commission . and a good man cannot but be troubled at the injustice and confusion of breaking in upon sacred rights , and invading holy offices : but however i do assure you , that having ( as i hope ) now discharged my duty to the full in this particular , i shall give no farther disturbance to my self , than to lament our divisions , and beseech god to compose them , and to take what care i can to secure the rigths and priviledges , which do yet belong to the church and minister of this parish , from being either withheld or encroached upon . and this , as it is all the disturbance or indeed incivility that i have offered you ( notwithstanding sufficient provocation ) during the time that i have been in this place ; so need you not be apprehensive of any other from me for the future . only forgive me that wrong , and give me leave to maintain my fidelity to the church ; to be firm to my subscriptions and my vows of ordination ; constantly to use and ( as well as i am able ) to defend that liturgy , which i have solemnly testified my approbation of , in the presence of god , and in the face of his congregation . pardon me in these things , and excuse me that i am resolutely bent not to speak beneath the dignity of my function , and the station i am in ; and you may depend ( according to the opportunities you give me of performing them ) upon all the good offices which can reasonably be expected , from either a good neighbour , a charitable christian , or an honest minister . answer sir , you charge us with causing divisions among us , by bringing in another preacher ; as if the preaching the gospel by the authoriz'd ambassadors of god were the only cause , whom , alas ! you do not consider it 's the unlawful impositions , superstitions , traditions , that is the principal cause of those divisions that we are among us ; for all those are removed , we cannot be united . reply . and notwithstanding this impertinent cant , i say still , that the bringing in another preacher does , and will maintain the divisions among us ; and further , that such preachers are the main , if not the only true causes of them , thro' the just judgment of god upon a sinful people , who have not lived answerably to their holy profession , and that excellent church which god in wonderful mercy , and by miraculous providences , hath established and preserved among us . and i shall alwaies be of that opinion , till it is proved , that those men are ambassadors authorized by god to preach the gospel in this nation ; and that there are any unlawful impositions , superstitions , and traditions in our church , which are a just cause for the people to forsake their own pastors , and give themselves up to the guidance of those intruders . and this is a sufficient reply to his complemental conclusion with the false accusation of vnlawful impositions , superstitions , and traditions ; clamorous phrases , which every ignorant wretch can make use of when he has a mind to reproach our church . methinks it would have been but fair dealing to have made good this charge , by shewing what vnlawful things we impose , wherein we are superstitious , and by what traditions we make the word of god of none effect : but he knows , that to cry out against any man of a different opinion , is enough to raise the whole discontented party against him . if he thinks he has given sufficient proof of vnlawful impositions in our church , i think i have proved he has not ; and in reference to whatsoever is imposed upon us , meerly by the churches authority , i shall only further say , that none of the things imposed are unlawful in themselves ; that to abridge authority is the exercise of their power in things of a middle nature , that are of themselves indifferent , and neither simply good or evil , is to cancel and make authority useless , because their power lies mainly in things of that nature , since things that are simply and absolutely good are commanded by god himself , and things that are in themselves evil forbidden by him ; that if , where some are impower'd to give orders , others are not under an obligation to observe them , authority is nugatory and ridiculous ; and , that before these latter days there were never any christians in the world that held themselves bound not to do a lawful thing , meerly because it was commanded and imposed upon them ; which makes obedience and observance of those things a duty in us , which before they were clothed with a particular and punctual command , were no ways obligatory . what this man means by traditions i can hardly guess . as for traditions about matters of doctrine , we hold none , but those which are deliver'd to us in the writings of the penmen of holy writ ; and for the proof of the authority of those sacred books , we look upon the written tradition of the church to be a good argument . if by traditions he means the customs and ceremonies of the church , then they have already been consider'd as far as he gave me occasion to do it . and i shall only add , that i do believe what the church of england declares in the th article of her religion , that whosoever , thro' his private judgment , willingly and purposely doth openly break the traditions ( i. e. customs ) and ceremonies of the church , which be not repugnant to the word of god , and be ordained and approved by common authority , ought to be rebuked openly , &c. as to the charge of superstition , it will most certainly fall where that of will-worship did ; and the same instances prove you as guilty of the one as the other . what this man's notion of superstition is i cannot tell , but ( to use the words of a judicious author in this case ) i look upon the men of his way to be the most superstitious people upon earth ; they declaim against things in their own nature innocent and useful , as if they were forbidden by god. when we represent to our selves the deity , as one that is pleased with the imaginary notions that we groundlesly entertain of things , this is the superstition that poysons the soul and all its faculties . when we say , that such a thing is forbidden by god , only because we forbid it our selves , this is to teach for doctrines the commandments of men ; but to regulate actions that are indifferent in their nature , according to the prudent determination of our superiors , cannot fall under that censure , else all societies , both civil and ecclesiastical , must be involved in the guilt . when we say things are unlawful that are not unlawful , when we prefer human institutions to the commandments of god , when we overvalue things beyond their own nature , dignity , and order in which god hath placed them ; when we esteem the means more than the end , and separate the ecclesiastical laws from their relation and subserviency to the laws of god ; when our thoughts and notions of things are so confus'd , that we mistake their subordination one unto another , and practise according to such notions ; then we put light for darkness , and darkness for light . our best performances must needs be tainted with folly an superstition , and we worship god not according to the dictates of true reason or revelation , but according to the dark idea which we form to our selves : this is superstition in its true colours . superstition is a piece of blind service , and therefore unacceptable ; a bastard kind of worship , that proceeds from pusillanimity and unreasonable fear . if we struggle for the opinions and fancies that are but of yesterday , in opposition to the doctrine and practices of the catholick church , we believe our selves rather than the gospel , we are superstitious in the strictest notion ; and to set up our own decrees against the suffrage of so many ages , is arrogance and vanity in the highest sence . or , in shorter and perhaps plainer terms , superstition is a needless fear in matters of religion , which makes a man either not dare to do those things which he hath a liberty to do , or think he must upon pain of damnation do those things which he may as well let alone . so that , if either all , or any part of this be a right account of superstition , we are as free therefrom as from vnlawful impositions and vnjustifiable traditions : and it appears , that there is no necessity that any thing be removed , but that superstitious humor and untractable temper which reigns so powerfully among your party , in order to accomplish that blessed vnion which all good men endeavour after , and pray for . and now , my brethren , upon a serious review of what i have written , i do think that i hare returned a full and more than sufficient answer to that paper which was drawn up in defence of the cause of separation , and triumphed in ( even to my face ) as unanswerable . i have followed the author of it step by step , and have not omitted to take notice of the most impertinent thing he has said . the close attendance which i have given to so silly and trifling a scribbler cannot be answer'd for any other way , than by telling the real truth , which is , that i thought my self in duty bound with meekness to instruct those , in my own parish , that oppose themselves , tho' with never so weak arguments ; that i cannot think it becomes us , who have taken the ministry thereof upon us , to suffer so excellent a church to be run down , and its constitution publickly and privately decry'd , and in the mean while stand still , as it we were either afraid to speak , or else had nothing to say in its defence ; that tho' the prejudices of its adversaries are , it is to be fear'd , too strong to be removed , it is however proper to shew the weakness of their arguments , thereby to keep its own members firm in its communion , and to arm them against the slight of m●n , and cunning craftiness , whereby they lie in wait to deceive : and if i can but obtain this , by the pains i have herein taken , i shall have no cause to repent thereof . these are the principles upon which i have acted in this whole affair , and therefore tho' you may deprive your selves of the benefit thereof , by unkind resentments and uncharitable censures of this work , yet you cannot rob me of the satisfaction of having done what i took to be my duty , nor spoil the acceptableness of an honest and well meant endeavour , with that god who neither sees nor judges as man doth . where obstinacy and perverseness put a bar in the way , and mens judgments are corrupted with passion and prejudice , there can be no hopes of doing good . but they who , divesting themselves of all these , are really desirous of it , may , i hope , receive some satisfaction from the considerations i have offer'd , however in the books i have refer'd the reader to . i beseech you therefore to reduce your judgments to an even poise , impartially weigh and consider things , and for a conclusion of all , suffer the word of exhortation from your own reverend mr. baxter . i advise you , that if there be parish-churches orderly setled under the magistrates countenance , whose teachers are sound , and promote the power of godliness in concord , tho' an able minister should gather a separated church in the same place , out of that and other neighbouring parishes , and should have stricter communicants and discipline , be not too forward to joyn your selves to that separated church , till you can prove , that the hurt that will follow by discord , offence , division , encouraging of schism and pride , is not like to be greater than your benefit can compensate . indeed , he says , where liberty is such , as these mischiefs are not like to follow , ( as among us you see they do ) take your liberty , if your benefit require it . but then he adds in the very next words , if this separated church be a factions antichurch , set up contentiously against the concordant churches , tho' on pretence of greater purity ; and if their meetings be imploy'd in contention , and reviling others , and making them odious that are not of their mind , and in killing the love of christians to each other ; and in condemning other churches as no churches , or such as may not lawfully be communicated with , and in puffing up themselves with pride , as if they were the only churches of christ ; avoid such separated churches , as the enemies of love and peace . do not peevishly pick quarrels with the prayers of the church , nor come to them with humor some prejudice ; think not that you must stay away , or go out of the church , for every passage that is disorderly , unmeet , yea , or unsound or untrue ; for the words of prayer are the work of man. and while men are fallible imperfect , and sinful , their prayers , and praises , and preaching will be like themselves : and he that is the highest pretender and the peevishest quarreller hath his own failings . division is wounding , and tends to death ; abhor it as you love the churches welfare , or your own . the wisdom from above is first pure , and then peaceable ; never separate what god conjoyneth . it is the earthly , sensual , devilish wisdom which causeth bitter envying , and strife , and confusion , and every evil work. blessed are the peace-makers . this advice is so proper and applicable to your case and circumstances , that i only need to add the words of st. paul , which i desire every soul in my parish to look upon with as much regard , as if they had been immediately and particularly spoke to them by the blessed apostle himself . if there be therefore any consolation in christ , if any comfort of love , if any fellowship of the spirit , if any bowels of mercy , fulfill ye my joy , that ye be like , minded , having the same love , being of one accord , of one mind . follow peace with all men , and holiness , without which no man shall see the lord. i am your faithful and affectionate pastor , jos . harrison . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e poor man's family book ed. p. . john . tit. . . poor man's family-book . p. . case of lay-communica . friendly deb. part i. p. . christ . libert . p. . heb. . . pet. . . answer to the vnlawfulness of com. pray-worsh . p. . cor. . , . numb . . . kings . chron. . . est . . . zech. . . mac. . . john . . mat. . . cor. . . pet . . mat. . . friendly deb. part . p . preface to the com. prayer . john . . rom. . . misch . of sep. p. . friendly deb. part . . p . friend . deb. par . . p. . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . misch . of sep. p. . cor. . . presb. of scotland . enquiry into the new opinion , &c. by a. m. d. d. p. . p. . p. . fr. deb. par , p. . poor man's family-book . p. . p. . p. . phil. . , . heb. . . the difference of the case, between the separation of protestants from the church of rome, and the separation of dissenters from the church of england approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; 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(eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) the difference of the case, between the separation of protestants from the church of rome, and the separation of dissenters from the church of england clagett, william, - . williams, john, ?- . [ ], p. printed for thomas basset ... and fincham gardiner ..., london : . written by w. clagett. cf. dnb; nuc pre- ; halkett & laing ( nd ed.). also attributed to john williams. cf. halkett & laing ( nd ed.). errata: p. . reproduction of original in union theological seminary library, new york. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng church of england. dissenters, religious -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - robyn anspach sampled and proofread - robyn anspach text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the difference of the case , between the separation of protestants from the church of rome , and the separation of dissenters from the church of england . london , printed for thomas basset at the george in fleetstreet , and fincham gardiner at the white horse in ludgate-street . . the difference of the case , between the separation of protestants from the church of rome , and the separation of dissenters from the church of england . since the happy reformation of this church , they of the romish perswasion have with their utmost art insinuated , that our reformation proceeded upon principles destructive of all order and government in the church ; and that it naturally tends to endless separations . to this end they have laid hold upon that advantage which the divisions amongst protestants have offered them , and said that the reasons upon which we ground our separation from the church of rome will hold to justify the separation of the dissenters from the church of england . and the truth is some of the dissenters have been so indiscreet , to say no more , as to alledge the same thing . and i am very sorry that men of the same perswasion with us in opposition to the impious errors and practices of the roman church , should give so much countenance to that grievous charge upon the reformation , as some of them have done . the papists are too much beholden to them for giving the occasion of this accusation : but to joyn with them in the same charge , is too great a kindness in all reason , and indeed destructive of the common cause of the reformation , by insinuating one of these two things , either that there was no reason for this separation on either part ; or else that notwithstanding our pretended reformation , we are still as bad as the church of rome ; for otherwise they cannot have the same reason to separate from us , that we had at first to separate from that church . i shall endeavour with gods help to shew in a short and plain discourse upon this subject , that the cases are vastly different ; and that we have very good reasons wherewith to justify our separation from the church of rome ; and that the dissenters who forsake our communion cannot by any good consequence from those reasons , warrant their separation from our church . in this attempt , i am sensible that i have adversaries on both sides ; and that it often happens to be a nice and hazardous business to determine between two extremes . but i hope there is no reason to apprehend great danger in this case ; since it is the same false charge against the reformation , in which these extreme parties agree ; and it is of that nature , that 't is all one whether i confute it against the papists , or against the protestant separatists , for if it be disproved against one , 't is shewn to be unjust in both . this is our case , that as we charge those of the separation from our church with schism , so do the romanists charge us of the church of england with schism too : but with this difference , as we pretend , that we have good reason for that , so have not they for this . for schism is a causeless separation from a church . and we think we may appeal to all disinteressed and judicious christians , that we have shewn our separation from rome to be grounded upon just and necessary causes ; but that the dissenters have shewn none such for their separation from us . and when all is done it should not incline any man to think that the truth is either with the romanist or with the dissenter , because the charge of schism is laid by the romanist against us , and by us against the separtist with equal confidence , unless he sees withal that it is laid with equal justice . for it was not indeed to be expected , but that when some protestants demanding a farther reformation , separated from our church , this pretence would soon after be set on foot both by those of the church of rome , and by those of the separation . it lay fair for them both , and right or wrong was likely to be taken up by both ; since it would serve exceedingly well to help a bad cause and to give popular colours to the weak arguments , both of the one and of the other side . the romanist was not likely to forego such an advantage as the separation of our dissenters gave him , to disgrace the reformation amongst those that loved unity . nor was the separatist likely to omit that advantage , which our reformation gave him , to commend his separation from us under the notion of a farther separation from rome , to those that abhorred popery . and therefore it will stand all discreet persons in hand to weigh the merits of the cause on both sides , and not to admit any prejudice against our communion in favour either of the papist or the sectary , meerly because they both say that in justifying our separation from the papist , we vindicate the separation of the sectary from our selves . i must not in this narrow compass pretend to enter upon a discussion of the several questions controverted between us and our adversaries on both sides : but shall take it for granted , that what has been said in answer to the several objections of the dissenters against our communion has been well argued against them : and likewise that in charging the church of rome with those several corruptions in doctrine and practice , which have made her communion intolerable , we have said upon each point no more than what has been well proved against that church ; and which upon all fit occasions , we shall , by the grace of god , be ready to make good again . but my principal design is to shew that there is no manner of inconsistence in the way we take to vindicate our selves from schism charged upon us by the church of rome , with those principles upon which we accuse our dissenting brethren of that fault , who separate from the church of england : and that the romanist cannot take our arguments against the separation of the dissenters , to condemn our reformation ; nor the separatist our reasons against the communion of the romanist , to acquit himself in forsaking the communion of our church . this i conceive will be made to appear . . by laying down the reasons on both sides ; those by which we pretend to justify our separation from the church of rome ; and those upon which the dissenters lay the stress of their separation from us . . by comparing them together , that we may judg wherein and how far these cases agree with , or differ from one another . in laying down the reasons on both sides , i shall begin with the grounds upon which this church separated from the church of rome ; and then proceed to those upon which the dissenters separate from us . . to the church of rome charging us with schism we answer in general : that our separation from her was necessary by reason of those corruptions in her communion , which we could not comply with against the conviction of our consciences . more particularly we say , that this church of england had no dependence upon the authority of the church of rome , which she might not lawfully throw off , and that she does not owe any subjection to the bishop of rome , but had just power without asking his leave , or staying for his consent , to reform her self . and withal that the church of rome ought to have reformed her self , as we have done , since there were most necessary causes for so doing ; the communion of that church being defiled with the profession of those damnable errors , and the practice of those superstitions and idolatries which we have done away . to this purpose we challenge those of that communion with the particulars of their doctrine of transubstantiation , their sacrifice of the mass , their service in an unknown tongue , their half communion , their worship of images , their adoration of the host , and the rest of those abominations , whereof the communion of that church doth in great part consist . we acknowledge that we separated from them in these things , when we reformed our selves ; but in so doing we were not guilty of schism from the church of rome , and that if nothing else were to be said , because this church owes no subjection to that : but withal that the causes of the reformation being so necessary as we pretend them to be , the separation of communion that ensued upon our being , and their hating to be reformed , was on our side just and necessary upon that account also , and therefore not schismatical . so that our answer is twofold . . that the church of england being by no kind of right , subject to the roman , or any forreign bishop , had full power and authority without asking leave of forreigners to reform her self . and this we say would have cleared her from the imputation of schism , if the causes of the reformation had not been so necessary as indeed they were . if before the reformation there had been no unlawful conditions of communion required in the western churches , and all the fault that could have been found in them , had amounted to no more than bare inconveniences and imprudence in the manner of their discipline , or in ordering the outward mode of worship ; it had yet been free for the church of england to have reformed those lesser faults within her self , though no other church would have done the like . and though for such defects remaining in other churches abroad she ought not to have separated from their communion ; yet she might very justly and commendably free her self from them at home . but if a forreign church suppose that of rome , should hereupon have abstained from the communion of this church , till we had returned to the former inconvenient , though lawful rites , and customs , that forreign church had been guilty of schism in so doing . and if the church of england not willing to part with her liberty and to prostitute her authority to the usurpation of the see of rome , should have adher'd to her own reformation , she had not been guilty of the breach of communion , following that her resolution ; because she had done nothing , but what was within the compass of her just power to do , and in which she was not liable to be controuled by any other church . we say with st. cyprian , that the episcopal government of the church ought to be but one , spread abroad amongst bishops , many in number , but heartily agreeing together . but with the same excellent man we say too , that it is equal that every one of them should have a part of the flock assigned to him , which he is to govern , remembring that he is to give an account of his management to god. which he said , in asserting the freedom of the african churches from subjection to the roman . this we think is justly applicable to our case . the church of england is a national church , once indeed under the usurpation of the roman bishop , and at length rescued from that servitude ; we are at present united together by common rules for government and worship , consulted upon and agreed unto by the bishops and presbyters in convocation , and then made laws to all the particular churches of this kingdom , by the authority of the soveraign . these laws shew the reformation of the church ; and they do not want any authority they ought to have , for wanting the consent of the roman bishop , upon whom we have neither ecclesiastical nor civil dependence . for if any one single bishop of the african church might determin causes , and judge matters of ecclesiastical cognisance ( which yet was seldom done in things of moment without the advice of collegues when the church had rest from persecution ) and this without allowing appeals to rome ; much more may the bishops of a whose christian kingdom confederate together to order church matters independently upon the see of rome , especially being required thereunto by their christian soveraign to whom they all owe subjection and obedience in all things , saving their common christianity . so that if the causes of the reformation had not been so weighty as indeed they were , yet considering the authority by which it was effected ; our separation from rome thereupon ensuing was wholly guiltless on our part , it being necessary unless we would submit to the unjust and tyrannous claims of a forreign bishop . . to the charge of schism laid against us by the romanist , we answer also , that the conditions of communion required in the roman church , were many of them vnlawful to be submitted unto ; since we could not communicate with her without professing doctrines that are plainly contrary to gods word , nor without doing several things that are clearly and particularly forbidden by it . and since it is not in the power of any man or church , to dispense with our obligations to the laws of god , we could not be obliged to preserve communion with the bishop of rome and his adherents , upon those terms . but because catholick communion ought to be preserved , they ought to have put away those scandals from amongst themselves , which since they have not done , though the separation is equal on both sides , yet the schism is not ours but theirs only . and therefore we farther say that if the corruptions of the roman church ( which god forbid ) should ever come to be establisht in this church of england again by the same authority that has abolisht them ; it were not only lawful , but a necessary duty to separate from the communion of this church in that case . we have that reverence of church authority , and of the supreme magistrate , that we will submit to their determinations in all things wherein god has left us to our own liberty . but if they command us to do things contrary to his determination , and to take that liberty which he has not given us , we must remember that we are to obey god rather than man. we have that sense also of the mischief of divisions and separations , and of the duty of maintaining church-communion , that if the laws of god be but observed , we are not only ready to comply with what our own superiours impose upon us , for the sake of peace and unity at home ; but if we were to go abroad , we should observe the customs of other churches , though perhaps very different from ours , and this for the sake of maintaining one communion of christians every were . but neither abroad , nor at home can we purchase unity of communion at so dear a rate as to break gods commandments for it . we know it is a good thing for all the parts of the church to have but one communion , but we must not do evil , that even this good may come : and least of all that evil which church communion and church authority were in great part designed to prevent . for as we believe that christ formed his disciples into a spiritual society , so we have great reason to conclude that one main end hereof was , that by the communion of christians under their governours , the holy truths and laws of god concerning his worship and our salvation might be more advantageously held forth to the world , and more effectually guarded and maintained . and therefore to keep this communion one as much as in us lies , we will do any thing required by our superiors that god has left us free to do or not : but to deny that holy truth or any part of it , or to break any of those divine laws , for the sake of which this communion it self was instituted , neither of these things dare we do to prevent divisions and separations . and we are as sure that transubstantiation , adoration of the host , worshiping of images , praying to the dead and praying in an unknown tongue , are repugnant to several express texts of scripture , not to say to common sense and reason : we are i say as sure that they are the plain laws and truths of god to which these things are contrary ; and withal that to guard these truths god instituted a church , and a communion of saints , as we are that there was any such thing as a church instituted , or church communion required . and truly if separation , when there is such cause for it , as we pretend , were not a necessary duty , it might becom the duty of christians to be united in scandalous impieties and damnable errors . and i think no body will say that in such things one communion is either to be desired or excused , but rather to be broken , and that every man is concerned as much as his salvation is worth to break away from it . and we are certain it can never be necessary to any mans salvation to be a schismatick . upon this account , we say , that they who in queen mary's days chose to lay down their lives , rather than return to the communion of the roman church , were so far from being schismaticks that they were gods martyrs in so doing . and had it been , or should it be our lot to have this choice so hard to flesh and blood offered to us ; we trust , that through the mighty grace of god , we should follow the faith and patience of those holy men and women , who sealed this cause with their blood , meekly suffering under the displeasure of that just authority , the unjust commands whereof they could not honestly obey . this plain , though general account , we give of the separation of the church of england from the church of rome . and if we pretend no more in our own defence against that church , than we can prove , we have reason to think our selves safe on that side . . let us now see upon what principles and by what pleas the dissenters defend their separation from the church of england . to us therefore charging them with schism upon this account , they answer also , that our communion is corrupt , and that they cannot with a safe conscience continue in it ; and that they are bound for greater purity of worship and ordinances , to divide from us . but in making out this general answer they do not all go the same way , nor do some of them allow those to be good reasons for a separation , which others think substantial enough . that in which most of them do agree is in assigning some ceremonies injoined in our church , concerning which some of them say that they are unlawful to be used in gods worship ; others of them , that there is great cause to doubt whether they be lawful or not ; and these dare not join in our communion with scrupulous and unsatisfied minds . the things of this sort are the sign of the cross in the office of baptism , ( though this be made by the minister only ) kneeling in the act of receiving the eucharist , and the ministers wearing a surplice in publick worship . the other faults they find with the liturgy , however they are thought by the generality of dissenters to be a reason sufficient to ground separation upon , are not i think produced by those that should best understand the cause , as amounting to make our communion directly unlawful . but yet there are that say , they ought not to prefer a worse mode of serving god before a better : and the mode which themselves observe being better they are to prefer that before ours , and therefore to separate from us for the most part . others go yet further from us , and take liturgies , and prescribed forms of prayer to be unlawful to be used , or at least suspect them so to be . and all these do generally dislike the form of diocesan episcopacy : however they seem not to lay the stress of their separation upon that , since they acknowledge our churches to be true churches of christ , and if it were not for other things , might be lawfully communicated with , although they are governed by bishops . and because the civil authority concurs with the ecclesiastical in requiring conformity to our church laws , they do not pretend those laws to be enforced by an authority to which they are not bound to submit . and therefore as far as i can find they rather chuse to justify their separation upon the account of the unlawfulness , or suspected unlawfulness of the things imposed , or upon the preference of a better communion then ours is . but out of these i must except the independents who acknowledge no other church to be agreeable to the word of god , but such a company of christian people united one to another by a particular covenant under officers of their own chusing , as can at once assemble in the same place for the worship of god. and these men think the very constitution of our church to be reason enough for a separation from it . i will take notice of no other dissenters at present , but those that separate upon some one , or more of these grounds ; which may be reduced to three . . that a national church authority , is an usurpation upon particular congregations , which are pretended to be the only churches of christs institution , and that every such church has full power in it self to order all things relating to worship and discipline , and is not of right accountable to any other authority for the order it shall take to govern it self in these things ; and therefore the independents , as i said , think themselves clear of the guilt of schism as having separated from a church which is not of christs institution . for they take an independent congregation only , to be such . but yet these are willing to come in with the other dissenters for their interest in the next ground of separation , upon which all of them , as far as i can judge , hope to find the surest footing ; and that is , . that the conditions of our communion , those namely before mentioned , are not lawful for a christian to submit unto . and here i include those that do but scruple the lawfulness of those things which are injoined in our church . for they that say positively they are unlawful , and they that but suspect them to be unlawful , produce the same arguments , the former to justify their peremptoriness , the latter their scruples . the reasons i say upon which they go are the same , only they work up some of them to a greater height of confidence then others are come to ; and some again they leave altogether doubtful what to say , whether to conclude for us or against us . they agree in blaming our church for requiring things to be done in gods worship which he has not commanded , some also of which have been and still are done by papists in their idolatrous services , from whom we ought to depart in all things that are not necessary to be done . upon these grounds some pretend to be sure , others to be afraid that to suffer their children to be signed with the sign of the cross , to kneel at the communion , to be present at divine service where a surplice is worn , and to submit to liturgies and prescribed forms of worship , are unlawful . and these reasons i find owned in the case of indifferent things used in gods worship , stated on the behalf of dissenters , just now published . for thus that author declares in their behalf , we cannot , saith he , conceive it possible that in things of divine worship , things of an indifferent nature should be the just matter of any human determination , farther than the particular practice of the person determining . and again , where in matters of worship god hath wrote ors , whether by his pen in sacred writing or by his not prescribing the particular circumstances , no man can blot them out ; though themselves may as to their own practice , for this or that time or act , where they cannot use more than one of those postures or circumstances . that is ; where god hath left men at their liberty to do this , or that , they may determin themselves , but no human authority may determin for them . farther , as to things in gods worship not determined by god , they judge every man is sui juris and ought to be determined by god alone to this , or that ; i. e. he can be obliged to this or that part by god only . and he says plainly that , most of them are confident that in matters of worship no superiors may restrain what god hath left at liberty . in pursuance of this general principle he says , some posture in an human action being necessary , and none by god determined in every act of worship ; where there is no determination , they believe themselves at liberty , and think they ought not to be determined by any thing but their own practical judgment , according to present circumstances : it is a liberty with which god hath made them free . again , he acknowledges that they judge it vunlawful to obey laws concerning words in prayer which god hath left at liberty , and concerning habits and gestures , supposing them to be left at liberty , and that none who is to use them verily judgeth them vnlawful . and he intimates more then once that things not necessary , and ordinarily used in idolatrous and superstitious services may not , in their judgment , be lawfully used : how well he has proved these positions i am not concerned to examine ; but leave him for that to his learned antagonist . these observations are particular enough for my purpose , which is to shew the difference between the ground of our separation from the roman church , and those of their separation from us whom this gentleman defends . . there are those who , for all this , seem not to think our communion unlawful in it self , since they can sometimes communicate with us in our whole service . but they judge the way of the separate meetings to be more perfect , and a better means of edification ; and the ground of their separation is this , that it is unlawful to communicate ordinarily in a more imperfect way of worship and enjoying the ordinances of the gospel , where a better may be had . . i come now to the second point which is to compare the grounds of separation on both sides together ; that we may judge wherein they differ or how far they agree . . i do acknowledge that the most general ground of all is the same on both sides , or at least may be so ; that is , that we separate from the church of rome , in a full perswasion of conscience , that so we ought to do ; and that the dissenters separate from the church of england with the like perswasion . but how far this agreement makes the case of separation the same on both sides ; and whether it will equally justify the the church of england's separating from rome , and the dissenters separating from the church of england , will be considered , time enough after all the other reasons are compared . . the next general reason on both sides alledged is , that separation was necessary for greater purity of worship and ordinances . we for greater purity separated from rome : the dissenters for greater purity separated from us . now whether this may or may not reasonably be pretended by the dissenters in their case , as well as by the church of england in hers , will best oppear when we have laid together the particulars exaepted against on both sides , by us with reference to the communion of the church of rome , by the dissenters , with reference to the communion of the church of england ; and have also considered the way of maintaining objections against the terms of communion with rome or england , that is peculiar to each side . but , . there is not the same plea offered to justify the separation in both cases with respect to that authority by which the conditions of communion are prescribed . for we of the church of england do unanimously deny that the bishop of rome hath any just authority to make rules for the communion , or to prescribe laws for the government of our church . but all the dissenters do not question the lawfulness of that authority by which our liturgy is establisht , and those things which they object against are required . for those of the presbyterian perswasion amongst us , however they dislike diocesan episcopacy , yet seem not to insist upon it in their late writings , as a ground of separation from this church ; but if other things were reformed according to their mind , they would submit to our bishops , and by their conformity contribute to uphold the order of this national church . but then the independents indeed must in consequence of their principles , deny that bishops singly or jointly , whether with the civil authority or without it , have any right to prescribe to their congregations in matters ecclesiastical , since in these things they hold their members to be accountable to no authority under god , but that of the congregation to which they belong . and now i shall compare the two cases of separation with respect to three things which will , i conceive , comprehend all the forementioned pleas on both sides ; that is with respect , . to authority . . to terms of communion , and under this head to the common pretence of separating for greater purity . . to the plea of conscience . . with respect to authority . we are divided from the church of rome as one particular constituted church from another , neither of which has any authority to prescribe to the other in matters ecclesiastical . and therefore as i said before , tho the terms of the communion of that church were not unlawful , yet if she would have no communion with us , unless we would be govern'd by her laws : and if our church governours should use their own liberty and authority to prescribe to us what they judged more sutable to the general rules of scripture and more conducible to the great ends of christianity : the separation ensuing upon that churches affecting an usurpation over us , could not be schismatical on our part , who are not the subjects of the bishop of rome : but upon the part of that church it would be so for her exercising an authority , where she has no right so to do . but the case of the dissenters is far otherwise , who separate from this national church in which they were born and baptized , and where they live . for by thus doing we say that they withdraw their obedience from their lawful governours ; from whom if they divide , especially if they set up a communion distinct from that of their superiors , and of the congregations under them , they are guilty of manifest schism , unless the terms of communion be unlawful . for it is by no means sufficient to clear them of this fault , that those things which fall within the compass of church authority are not well order'd ; because , although this were true , yet in these things their practice is to be determined by that authority . for we think it very evident that no society can be united and maintained without this principle , that a lawful authority is to be submitted unto and obeyed by inferiors in all lawful things , and that the mere imprudence or inexpedience of its determinations , cannot absolve them from their obligation to comply therewith . now that it is a lawful authority upon which the constitutions of this national church stands , i think no man can deny that will grant a national church it self to be but a lawful constitution . for there is the concurrence both of civil and ecclesiastical superiors to give them force . the bishops and presbyters first agreed upon the same rule and order for church government and worship , which being afterward approved by the lords and commons in parliament , was then made a law by the king. so that if the confederation of the particular churches of this kingdom to govern themselves and to serve god in religious assemblies , by the same rule , and according to the same term , can become the matter of a law obliging all christians amongst us to conformity ; here is no auhority wanting to induce such an obligation . and it is to be consider'd that every one who separates from that parochial congregation where he lives , and betakes himself to an opposite communion , had been guilty of schism in so doing , although the churches of this kingdom had not been united as they are into a national form ; but each bishop with his presbyters had made rules for religious assemblies independently upon the rest . but now the fault of such separation is heinously aggravated as the case stands by these two considerations . . that those orders or impositions upon the account whereof he separates from the parish where he lives , were made by the common advice of the pastors of christs flock in this kingdom ; and that for a common rule to them all : which method was a most proper means to unite their particular churches more closely one to another , and to edify and strengthen them by such union . therefore that separation which would have been blameable of it self , is so much the worse as it tends to break so profitable an union , and to expose the authority of so many church governours to contempt , as contributed towards it by their advice and consent . . that since the rules thus agreed upon are made laws also by the soveraign power ; such schism is aggravated farther by disobedience to the lawful commands of the civil authority under which we live , and to which all particular churches in this kingdom do owe obedience in all lawful things . and now i believe our presbyterian brethren will grant that upon these accounts there is a vast difference between the cases of separation from the church of england and from the church of rome in point of authority . but then i must confess the independents are likely enough to say , that these impositions are as truly usurpations upon particular congregations , as if they had been enforced upon this kingdom by a pretended authority from rome . and if there were no difference between saying and proving , we might here be at a considerable loss . however this must be granted , that an english bishop may have good authority to govern his diocess , and a presbyter his parish here in england ; and yet it may be foolish and unjust in a forreign bishop to claim any authority over the one or the other . and i hope they will not deny that the king has good authority here , though the pope has none ; nor that the laws of the land concerning religion and gods worship , do bind the consciences of the kings subjects something more , than if they had wanted the authority of the legislative power at home , and came to us from abroad with nothing but the seal of the fisherman to recommend them ; i. e. that in this latter case we might have refused them as wanting authority , but not so in the former ; but that the matter of them being supposed to be lawful , they ought to be complied with . and whereas the independents suppose the independency of their congregations to be of divine right , both in opposition to episcopal superiority , and to national church-government , this we must leave to the merits of the cause between them and us . and i may as well take it for granted , that their pretended right to independency has been as clearly argued of novelty and weakness , as the popes pretended right to supremacy has been ; argued i say of more novelty , and almost as much weakness . but to step a little out of the way of my present business ; i may appeal to all understanding persons , who cannot judge of the learning used on both sides ; whether that notion of a church or of church-communion is likely to be true , which makes it impossible for the particular churches of a christian kingdom to be united under the soveraign authority in the observation of the same rules advised upon , and the same laws made for the benefit of them all . in the mean time i conclude this head with saying , that though the pope has no authority in this kingdom , yet it follows not that every particular congregation must be independent . and i challenge any man to take any one argument used by any of our church to prove the independency of our church upon the bishop of rome , and make it hold to prove the independency of a congregation , either upon a national or episcopal church if he can . wherefore supposing the decrees of the bishop of rome to be of no good authority amongst us ; and our own laws in matters ecclesiastical to want no good authority , the conditions of communion being otherwise lawful on both sides ; then the separation ensuing upon our refusal to submit to those decrees , would not be schismatical on our part ; but the separation of our independents , and all others amongst us refusing to submit to these laws would be so on their part . and thus much for the difference in point of authority . . we are to compare the cases also with respect to the terms of communion relating to matters of faith and worship . and in the first place the dissenters acknowledge that the faith professed in this church is pure and intire , and that she does not require the profession of any doctrine in order to her communion , which a good christian has reason to suspect . and this makes a great difference between the terms of communion with our church , and the terms thereof with the church of rome , which requires the profession of gross and palpable errors , of all whom she admits to her communion . but the great ossence is taken at our forms of divine service , and the ceremonies thereunto belonging . and the offended parties are of three sorts . . those that do not directly charge any of our practices in worship as sinful , but suppose some of them to be inexpedient and vnedifying : and they that separate upon this account must acknowledge this difference in the case , that whereas we separating from rome forsook an unlawful communion for one that was lawful ; they separating from us forsake a lawful communion for one that they believe to be better . and of these i shall take notice again in a fitter place . . another sort are they who pretend something more , that is , that they scruple the lawfulness of the things enjoined , and that they ought not to communicate with us so long as they remain under these doubts . and these men also must confess a great difference between the reason upon which they separate from us , and that for which we separate from the church of rome : since we are past doubting in the case , and positively affirm those conditions of communion with the church of rome , which we complain of , to be in themselves unlawful . and in consequence hereof , they must not deny that there is a great difference also between those grounds upon which they and we pretend against that church the unlawfulness of her impositions , and those upon which they suspect the like of ours ; and that is , that the roman church is by us attacqued with clear and unquestionable evidence of reason and scripture against her ; but that it remains doubtful whether there be any good evidence in scripture against us ; concerning which more will be said under the next head . in the mean time it does by no means follow , that because separation is just and necessary , where some things are required to be done which we certainly know god has forbidden ; therefore it is just and necessary also where other things are required , concerning which we do not know but they may be lawful . . the third sort are they that pretend these forms of worship , and ceremonies , which the former either scruple , or judge only inexpedient , to be indeed sinful , and to render our communion not only suspected , and less desirable , but plainly vnlawful . and i grant that these are the men who come up to the point ; and if they could but make good what they say , they would shew their separation from our church to be grounded upon one general reason of our separation from the church of rome , which would sufficiently clear us from the imputation of schism , if no other reason were to be given . but i believe a very wide difference of the case will appear when we come to consider , . the particular practices themselves which are by us said to be unlawful in the communion of the roman church ; and those which by the dissenters are said to be unlawful in ours . and . the way and means by which we pretend to prove those , and that by which they pretend to prove these unlawful . . let us consider the particulars themselves . the dissenters do with us condemn as unlawful , prayers in an unknown tongue ; the adoration of the host ; worshipping the cross , and the like practices of the roman church in her forms of worship , from which they acknowledge also that we have purged our communion . but they say we have retained other practices something akin to these , though not quite so bad ; for instance kneeling at the communion ; wearing the surplice ; signing with the sign of the cross ; and some of them add , the publick use of forms of prayer . now all that i design under this head in comparing the former and the later particulars together , is to shew , that the unlawfulness of the former being supposed , the unlawfulness of the latter cannot be from thence inferr'd ; and that for this plain reason , because the questions concerning the one and the other , are perfectly distinct from one another . for as the bishop of rome's having no authority here in england , shall not hinder the authority which our bishops exercise in england from being lawful and good : so to pray in an unknown tongue may be absurd and contrary to scripture , but for all this forms of prayer in a language understood by the whole congregation , may not only be lawful but profitable , and in most cases necessary . the adoration of the host may be an idolatrous practise ; yet to kneel in the act of receiving the eucharist , where such adoration is disclaimed , shall be no such practise . we may sign the baptized , insant with the sign of the cross ; and yet not worship that sign : we may do the former in token of the obligation which baptism layeth upon us : without attributing any of that virtue or efficacy thereunto , which makes the popish use of it foolish and superstitious . what practice is there in the roman church which we as unlawful have abandoned , from whence the unlawfulness of wearing a surplice , or seeing it worn , can with any colour of reason be drawn ? in a word , what erroneous doctrine in the church of rome , or unlawful practice confess'd by the dissenters to be by us rejected , can be assign'd , from which the unlawfulness of any of those things excepted against in our liturgy can be inferr'd ? let them take any one argument used by us to prove such or such a particular condition of communion unlawful which that church requires , and by that argument prove some condition unlawful in ours , if they can . but perhaps they will say , that if they can prove this by other arguments , the case in general will still be the same . this i confess and therefore i proceed to the second point which was , . to shew the difference between the way and means by us used to prove those conditions of the roman communion vnlawful , which we except against ; and the manner of arguing used by the dissenters against us . now our way is plain and direct ; for we prove those particulars in the roman worship unlawful which we condemn , by this argument that they are forbidden in gods word , and this we prove by those express and particular places of holy scripture to which they are repugnant . and if we fail not of producing such testimonies against the corruptions of that church , we have the advantage against the papists . and if the dissenters charge any condition of our communion with repugnancy to gods law , and can as clearly shew where he hath forbidden it , they have the like advantage against us . now indeed they say that the things imposed upon them , however weesteem them but indifferent , are by themselves judged unlawful . thus the forementioned author saith could they [ dissenters ] but look upon the forms and rites of our worship under that notion [ of things indifferent ] possibly their contest would neither be great nor long . i do not like these words , for that which may be may not be ; and possibly the contest would be great and long , though they should look upon these things as indifferent . however he saies , that we suppose those things indifferent which they cannot but judge vnlawful , as they have often told their brethren . but how do they prove them unlawful ? do they shew where god hath forbidden them ? as we , for instance , produce the second commandment to tshew that in that commandment god hath forbidden he worship of images , so do they ; or can they produce any such testimony of scripture against kneeling when we receive the eucharist ? and as we alledge , cor. against praying in an unknown tongue ; can they shew us any text in all the bible against praying by a form of words ? no ; this is not what they pretend to do . but then we are apt to conclude , that if these things be not forbidden , that they are at least indifferent , and therefore lawful . and which is something more , we have their leave also thus to conclude , seeing there is none of them but agreeth with us in our notion of indifferent things viz. that they are such things as by the divine law are neither enjoyned nor forbidden : things undertermined by the law of god in nature or scripture . how then do they prove those things unlawful to be done in gods worship , which god hath not forbidden either in the law of nature or scripture ? to make short work of it : those particulars in our communion which they except against , are unlawful , because they are not necessary to worship , nor commanded by any express law of god. which is as much as to say , that though they are indifferent because they are neither enjoyned nor forbidden by the law of god in nature or scripture ; yet they are not indifferent , and that because they are not enjoyned . so that whilst our brethren allow the determination of indifferent things to authority , they take away with one hand , what they give with the other . for according to their principles there is nothing left for authority to determin , as to the ordering of gods publick worship . for one would think that the matter of such determination should be those things , which god hath left to our liberty . but you are mistaken if you think so ; since for this very reason that they are left at liberty , it is unlawful for one man be his authority what it will , so long as it is but human authority , to determin in them for another ; and it is unlawful for this other man to submit to his determination . for we are told that the light of nature directeth us to use the most convenient circumstances for the worship of god , and the law of nature will enforce men in doing actions , to use time and place . for other things , such as the postures of prayer , or words used in prayer , the holy scripture is every where as sufficient to us as the law of moses was to the jews , which commanded as to the passover the offering a lamb or a kid , and left it to the discretion and conveniency of the offerer to determin which — . so for standing , sitting , or kneeling at prayer , god indeed hath left the one or the other of them to us not determined , leaving it to our choice or conveniency which to use , who sometimes cannot use standing , another time cannot use kneeling . he hath commanded us to pray , and that with our voice , as well as our hearts ; but that he hath not told us what words we should always use — . god hath therefore left us at liberty what words to use , as he left the jews at liberty whether to offer a lamb or a kid — and moses might by the same authority have tied up all the jews to offer none but kids , or none but lambs , as superiors can tye up inferiours to use none but such or such words in prayer . and the jews might every whit as lawfully have obeyed moses in such a command , as we can obey any superiors in such a case . that is , it had been vnlawful in the jews to have obeyed moses in such a case , and it would be vnlawful in the dissenters , and it is vnlawful in us to obey our superiors in any of their determinations concerning things in gods worship which god hath left at liberty . how this author hath pursued his argument , is not my business to consider . it is sufficient for my design to shew the vast difference between the grounds upon which we charge the church of rome with requiring unlawful terms of communion with her in her worship , and those upon which the same fault is imputed to the church of england by the dissenters . we prove our charge , by shewing , that god hath forbidden what that church requires to be done : they prove theirs against us by shewing that god hath left those things at liberty which are required in this church . we shew that the church of rome injoyns practices that are vnlawful for any man to determin himself to : they shew that this church enjoyns practices which are not vnlawful for a man to choose for himself ; but for authority to choose for him . the things they except against in our communion are in themselves indifferent , and they cannot make them unlawful otherwise then by fetching a compass about , and pretending that they are then unlawful to be done , when our superiors require us to do them . and now i may leave it to the judgment of all men that can consider a case without great prejudice , whether there be reason to forsake the church of england upon the account of unlawful terms of communion pretended to be in her worship ; as well as upon the same account to leave the communion of the church of rome ; that is , whether a thing may become unlawful in gods worship for not being commanded by god , and for being enjoyned by man ; because every thing that god hath forbidden is neither lawful to be commanded by man ; nor to be done , though it be so commanded . i know not whether some of our brothers party may not think that he hath given us too much advantage by reducing the question to this state. but i think it is not his weakness but the weakness of his cause that has led him to it . for they are not able to prove the unlawfulness of the present impositions in order to communion , but upon such principles as these are . and i may appeal to mankind concerning the difference of the case between them against us , and us against the church of rome in this matter ; that the reason of our separation from rome will not justify their separation from us , nor that the reason upon which we challenge them of schism , can fly in our own faces , when the church of rome challengeth us of the same crime . but i shall say no more of this point at present , because i foresee occasion of resuming it presently in another place . but this author offereth another reason also of the vnlawfullness of those things that are required , and that because they have been and still are used in idolatrous services , and are not of themselves necessary to be used by us . i think i may venture to say that this reason has been sufficiently exposed . but my business is to note the difference of the case : we separate from rome , because otherwise we must communicate with her in her idolatry , which is necessary not to be done : the dissenters separate from us , because otherwise they must do some things not necessary to be done , which have been and still are done by idolaters . again the dissenters , as he says scruple kneeling in the act of receiving the communion , because there is an objectum motivum , as he calls it , before their eyes . i think he means because the elements are worshipped by the papists , who say they believe them to be no longer elements , but god himself . and to kneel therefore when we take these into our hands , is to give some occasion to others to think that we worship the elements ; and therefore the dissenters question the lawfulness of an adoration of god under these circumstances . i am glad if it be but question and scruple , though i am sorry 't is so much . but whether they only scruple kneeling upon this account , or more than scruple it , for this gentleman does not always speak so distinctly as i could wish : there is however this difference in the case ; that whereas one principal reason why we separate from the papists , is because we dare not worship bread , which without all question is idolatry ; one reason why the dissenters separate from us , is because we who have so loudly declared against that idolatry , do worship ( not the bread , which we believe to retain its own nature , but ) god only , as they themselves confess , when we partake of that bread. and here i may be content to let the matter rest , that whether we consider the particulars pretended to be unlawful in both communions ; or the way taken by us to prove those unlawful which the church of rome would impose upon us , and that way which the dissenters use to make out the like charge against the church of england , the difference is so great , that the charge of schism which , upon this account , viz. of terms of communion in worship , we bring against the dissenters for separating from us , cannot with reason and modesty be returned upon our selves for separating from the church of rome . i have now compared the two cases with respect to authority and terms of communion . but before i proceed to compare them with respect to the plea of conscience ; i shall endeavour to represent some other differences of the case that are plainly consequent upon one or both of those differences which we have already considered . and they are these three ; . the difference of the case , with respect to separation for greater purity of worship and ordinances . . the difference with respect to that common question who shall be the judge ? . the difference of the principles upon which either side separates , as to their tendency either to maintain , or to overthrow one communion amongst christians . . with respect to separation , for greater purity of worship and ordinances . the dissenters say , that if for greater purity england separated from rome , others also may for greater purity separate from england . and because i perceive this consequence is insisted upon , not only by well meaning people , but by some that would not be thought the meanest of the party , i shall examin it as throughly as i can ; hoping to gain the readers pardon , if i repeat some things that have been already discoursed ; but which are necessary to be observed in order to a right understanding of this matter . the ground i shall proceed upon in discoursing of this consequence , is that we and the dissenters do not understand the same thing by greater purity . by the impurity or corruption of the roman communion which is the principal reason of our departing from it , we understand the sinfulness thereof ; and by separating from that church for greater purity we therefore mean forsaking her communion that we might not partake in her sins ; which otherwise we could not avoid . to make good this charge , that her communion was and still is corrupted in this sense , we have but that one plain way already declared . we shew that there are several doctrines which she professeth ; several things in her worship which she practiseth , that are plainly contrary to the truth which god hath revealed and to the laws which he hath delivered to us : and that those errors and these practices are not of a slight nature , but that they grate upon the very foundations of christianity : and moreover , that she exacteth the profession of the one , and the doing of the other from all her members . so that when we say , that we separate from that church for greater purity , we mean that there are several impure , or sinful conditions of communion required in that church , with which , as she has ordered the matter , we must pollute our selves , and of which we our selves must be guilty , if we communicate with her at all : and therefore it was necessary for us to depart from her , because it is most necessary not to deny the truths or break the laws of god. therefore also by saying that we separated for greater purity , we mean not that we have forsaken but some corruptions only of the roman worship , as if our communion were now indeed purer then theirs though not so pure as it ought to be . this is not our meaning : for we contend that this church hath purged away all those practices , and abolisht all those rules relating to gods worship , which are contrary to his word ; and by consequence that there is no impurity left in the conditions of our communion ; so that any man whose conscience is rightly informed may communicate with us without sin. wherefore this comparative expression of separating for greater purity from the roman church , respecteth the state of that church , supposing indeed that all the conditions of that churches-communion were not impure , but withal implying that some of them , and those truly not a few , were so ; and therefore that her communion was not pure enough for any christian to join in it with a good conscience . thus i have shewn what we understand by separating for greater purity , and how we maintain this plea in answer to the church of rome . now therefore although the dissenters use the same plea in words , in answer to us , yet if they do not understand the same thing by it that we do , nor attempt to make it out by shewing wherein our communion is corrupted with such conditions as oblige the members of this church to do what god hath forbidden , or to neglect what he hath commanded them to do , or to contradict what he hath revealed ; this plea i say if it be not made out by such particulars as these , is by them weakly brought to justify their separation from us , by our example in separating from rome . and though the general pretence may serve to delude injudicious people , who have not learnt to distinguish between reasons and colours ; yet it will neither acquit them before god , nor in the judgment of wise men who can easily discern and will impartially consider the difference of the case . it is indeed a plausible colour for their separation from us , that we separated from rome for greater purity ; and but a colour unless they could shew wherein our communion is impure , or which is all one , what are those conditions thereof which be sinful or repugnant to the laws of god. but what is it that they mean by this greater purity of worship for which they separate ? wherein doth this purity consist ? let reasonable men judge . extemporary prayers are more pure than forms of prayer : to receive the communion sitting or standing is more pure than to receive it kneeling . to omit the sign of the cross after baptism , is more pure than to use it . and the ministers praying in a coat or a cloak , is more pure then to pray in a surplice . but till they can shew that our way in any of these instances is forbidden by god , either they cannot justly pretend that it is impure ; or at least they must confess that they mean by impurity , something else when they charge it upon us , than what we mean by it , when we charge it upon the communion of the romish church , and therefore that they do not use the same plea against us , that we produce against that . for with us impurity is sin , and an impure communion is a communion in which we cannot communicate without sin , i. e. without transgressing the law of god. but as far as i can see , impurity with them must go for something else , that is , either for doing things that god hath not forbidden , or for the omitting of things that he hath not commanded . and if the church hath power in indifferent things ; and that be pure , against which there is no law ; their pretence of separating for greater purity is altogether groundless , unless they can prove that they cannot have communion with us , without neglecting to do what god commands , or doing what he forbids . therefore the former discourse concerning terms of communion shews that there is a vast difference between this plea as it is used by us , and as it is used by the separatists against us . for we do not separate from the communion of the roman church upon this principle that the church hath no power to make orders for the worship of god in matters that are left to our liberty , or to prescribe rites and ceremonies that are not contrary to gods word . but upon this principle as far as we can judge , do the dissenters separate from us ; and the main controversie we have with them is , whether it be within the compass of human authority to prescribe in things of this sort ; and consequently whether it be part of the duty of christians to submit unto , and in their practice to comply with such prescriptions . they will not deny , that we shew the church of rome where the scripture forbids what that church requires , and this , through all those instances of their corruption in worship , for which we pretend it necessary for us to depart from her communion . now if the dissenters can shew the like of any condition in our communion i promise to recant all that i have said in behalf of the church of england , under this head of the purity of her communion , and instead of vindicating my defence of our church as to this particular , to depart from her communion in that thing , whatever may come of it , from this time forwards . and i trust that through the grace of god i should not for the sake of any worldly interest , either resist the evidence of any clear argument tending to my conviction , or act in contradiction to a convinced conscience and judgment , in a matter of this high nature . but to deal plainly , the dissenters seem to be very sensible of the uncasiness of this task , that is , of proceeding in the same method to convince us of vnlawful terms of communion , which we use against the church of rome . they go another way to work , and it would make an indifferent man suspect their cause , to see what shifts they use to make good their pretence . they demand of us where scripture commands , or what need there is of those things , which our church requires . they pretend that the liberty of christians does in great part consist in this , that they ought not by man to be determined to any practice in gods worship , to which god , or the nature of the thing has not determined them . they say , that the appointment of significant rites and ceremonies is a derogation from the royalty of christ , and the sufficiency of the scriptures . and to give some countenance to these pretences they would perswade us that the scripture it self intimates some such thing , as if nothing were to be done in gods worship but what is by god himself commanded , excepting always those circumstances necessary to action , the choice whereof must yet be left to every man , and , as we are now taught , authority must not so much as meddle with them . to this purpose we are told of the pattern in the mount , of strange fire that was not commanded , and of the unlawfulness of adding to , or diminishing from the law of moses : as if these places of scripture made all impositions concerning the order of divine worship , as unlawful , as the express word of god shews so many particular practices of the roman church in her worship to be . but leaving these attempts of theirs to be examined in the more particular controversies : who sees not what a wide difference there is in the particular management and application of this general proposition , that we must not communicate with any church in impurity , between the church of england against the papists , and between the dissenters against the church of england ? for we are secure against all just accusation from the church of rome if this one proposition be true , that it is not in the power of any church to dispense with the laws of god , or to absolve us from our obligation to keep them . but the dissenters cannot avoid the justice of our charge against them , unless this proposition be true also , that the church hath no authority in things of an indifferent nature , to prescribe such in divine service , as shall be thought most agreeable to the general rules of reason and scripture , and most sutable to the great ends of chrstianity . now if what we say in these things will hang well together , that is , if the former proposition be true , and if the truth thereof , shall not hinder the latter from being false ; then with very good reason may we pretend that it was necessary for us to separate from rome for greater purity , or for the avoiding of sin : but the dissenters will have no just ground from our example to pretend the same , in their separation from the church of england . and , i think , the difference is plainly enough confess'd by those of the separation that hold occasional communion with our church to be lawful , that is who think it lawful to communicate actually with us upon occasion , though they are all the while members of separate churches . for if our communion is polluted with sinful conditions , how comes it to pass that this occasional communion as they call it , should be more lawful then constant communion ? unless they will say it is lawful sometimes to break gods commandments , but not lawful to do it ordinarily . but i know they will not say so . and therefore when they say that they cannot without sin become members of our churches , though without sin they can sometimes join in our publick worship ; they seem to suppose that the way of worship in the separate meetings , is more perfect than ours in respect of those things which do not fall under any particular law of god , but may be ordered better or worse , as men are more or less prudent , or as they take greater or less heed to the general rules of reason and scripture concerning things indifferent . and withal that there is so much more gravity , decency , simplicity and tendency to edification in the outward mode of their worship , that it would be a sin to let it fall , or in practise to prefer ours before it . but by this i think any body may see what a difference there is between what we , and these men mean by the same pretence of refusing to communicate , where it cannot be done without sin. for our meaning is , that there are such conditions of communion in the church of rome , that as the case stands , it would be a wickedness to communicate with her at any time . but they mean no such thing against us , since without scruple they can sometimes communicate with us ; only they suppose they have set up a more perfect communion ; and they do not forsake our communion as unlawful in it self , but they think it their duty to prefer a better before it . so that in this pretence for separation , these men do not understand purity in opposition to sin , or breaking any of gods commandments ; but purity in opposition to a less convenient or prudent ordering of the outward mode of worship . that is , they do not understand the same thing by separating from the communion of a church for greater purity , that we understand by it : nor can they urge that pretence for separation from us , as we do urge it against the church of rome : and consequently our reason of separating from that church for greater purity , does not hold to justify their separation from us . upon consideration of the whole matter i hope the papists will find no protestant of our church easy and silly enough to be deluded by such superficial colours as these are . you see , say they , what is become of leaving the communion of the church for greater purity . the protestants at first forsook the catholick , i. e. roman church for greater purity . and do not the presbyterians forsake the church of england for greater purity ? and so do the independents set up their congregations for greater purity . and the anabaptists for the same reason depart from them : and the quakers from them all : and there is no end of breaking communion upon such pretences as these are ; which are as good against your selves , as they are against us : and therefore you may choose whether you will return to the church from which you first brake away under pretence of reformation , or whether you will follow your principle till you are refined into quakers , or it may be into a more absurd and mad sort of people than the quakers themselves are . it is a lamentable thing to see men of common understanding couzened by such palpable fallacies as these are ; though it is not to be wondred at , that the agents of the roman church make the best use of them , they can ; since a foul cause must be beholden to such artifices as these , to blanch it over . but i pray might there not be such corruptions in your church , that we with good reason might pretend it necessary to forsake your communion for one that was purer ; and yet there may be none in ours to give any man just cause to leave us upon that pretence ? is it impossible that it should ever be just and necessary to depart from the communion of a church upon the account of her corruptions , because every man that has a mouth , and can speak , may say if he please , that he separates for greater purity , though there be no reasonable cause to say so ? or does it follow that because our dissenters are mistaken in believing that we have given them sufficient cause to deal by us , as we have done by you , that is , to forsake our communion for greater purity , as we have forsaken yours upon the same account ; that therefore we also must needs proceed upon mistakes in so doing ? what if some of them are erroneously perswaded that they ought not to submit to human orders in the performance of gods worship , if there be no particular warrant in gods word for them ; may not we for all this be sure that your church requireth men to do things which god hath particularly forbidden ? and if we be sure of this upon the plain grounds of reason and scripture ; should we be afraid to reject your communion in these things , because another sort of men are so unreasonably wilful as to reject our communion for the sake of things that are nothing like to these ? what if they conceiving that our forms of prayer are not so edifying , that our rites and ceremonies are not so expedient , but rather vnlawful as being human inventions ; what , i say , if they lay so great a stress upon these things as to set up a communion which they fancy to be more refined and unexceptionable ? may they not be to blame in all this , and yet the church of england not be liable to blame , but worthy of commendation for departing from you in your latin service , your half communion , your praying to dead men and women , your giving divine honors to a wafer and your other gross superstitions and idolatries ? although our church had not ordered her publick worship so discreetly and carefully , but that in sundry things it might be reformed to good purpose ; it might yet by no means be necessary for any of her members to forsake her communion ; but it would on the other hand be their great fault so to do , so long as she holds forth all the necessary means of salvation and requires nothing to be professed , or to be done that is contrary to gods word . but yet it would be necessary to renounce the profession of your impious errors , and to forsake you in all things wherein your selves have departed from the plain truths of reason and christianity , and contradicted the plain word and laws of god. though it may happen that a man may do so foolishly , as to run himself upon great inconvenience in forsaking his habitation , because there is some petty disease reigning thereabouts , which is known to endanger no mans life ; yet it may be wisely done by another man to run his country when the plague is raging in every corner of it , especially if he could know that it were impossible for him to escape , if he should tarry there any longer : and yet , i suppose , you will not deny but the one as well as the other may pretend that he left his dwelling for the sake of better health , and more safely : but i hope you will grant that the later pretends this like a wise-man , though the other does it like a fool. the case we are upon is much what the same . from you it was necessary to depart for the sake of greater purity ; but so it is not necessary for you or others to depart from us ; and yet others may take the same plea into their mouths against us , and we may not be able to help it ; though we can well shew , that they have no good reason for it . and thus much for the difference of the case with respect to separation for greater purity . . i proceed next to consider the difference with respect to that common question , who shall be the judge ? the church of rome arrogating to her self an infallibility in determining all questions of faith , doth in pursuance of this claim deny private persons the liberty of examining her definitions by the holy scriptures ; and requireth them to acquiesce therein without more ado , as there is great reason they should , if indeed they have reason to believe her infallible . the church of england pretendeth not to infallibility ; but we say that she is not deceived in those points which she propounds to be believed as necessary to salvation nor in rejecting those other articles which the roman church propounds under that notion : and agreeably to this pretence she hath translated the holy scriptures into plain english , which are the best means whereby to judge , if what she says be not true ; she not only alloweth the people to read them , but exhorteth and requireth them so to do , and causeth them to be publickly read to the people in all religious assemblies . by this means she traineth up her members to an ability of judging , according to their several capacities ; not only concerning all that she teaches them to believe , but also concerning all that she teaches them to do as their duty to god or man ; so that she does not bring them up , as the church of rome educates her children to an implicit faith , and a blind obedience . but yet the superiors of our church do challenge a right to judge in some things for the people commited to their charge , and will not allow that in those things they should judge for themselves ; and they are all things that relate to publick order , and which may without sin be determined one way or another , but are capable of a better or worse determination ; that is , all indifferent things . we say that things of this nature being determined by a competent authority , ought without farther inquiry into the reasons of such determination , to be done by all that are under that authority . as for the peoples faith in god , and their obedience to him in doing what he hath commanded and avoiding what he hath forbidden , our church does not resolve that into her own authority , but into those very reasons upon which they that are in authority do build their own faith and obedience ; which reasons are included in the holy scriptures . but as to her appointments and orders in all things neither injoined by god himself , nor by him forbidden , she expecteth submission to them upon the account of her own authority ; and alloweth not us to judge of the expediency or inexpediency of them before we will conform our practice to them . all which is so to be understood that still her authority in these things is supposed to be of god , and the duty of submitting thereunto required in the general precepts of obedience to superiors . but if any man ask , who is to be judge of things indifferent as to a mans practice , whether his own conscience or his superior ? i answer that as to a man 's own practice , himself is to be judge what things are indifferent , and which consequently come within the compass of human authority to determin . for it is plain enough that by the same rule which sheweth us what is duty , and what is sin , we come to judge of what is indifferent . and therefore when we grant to private persons a judgment of discretion concerning sin and duty , we cannot deny them the right to judge what is neither duty nor sin , but indifferent ; which is the sum of what the author of the case in behalf of dissenters hath said upon that matter . but then how can authority pretend to abridge private persons of judging , as to their own practice concerning indifferent things ? to this i answer in the words of the same author , where he acknowledges his adversary to have said well to those who cannot comply with some things required in the liturgy and can say no more then that they think them not decent , not expedient , not orderly , for , says he , no private person is a judge of these things . which is an excellent saying , but so directly contrary to the main principles of his book , that i wonder how it fell from him . we are then to judge whether the things required by authority be indifferent , that is , lawful ; and then to judge no farther as to our own practice : but for the decency and expediency and orderliness of those things to leave our superiors to answer to god for that . our doing them is warranted by our rule , which is to obey authority in all lawful things . now it is things of this sort only , and with respect to order and decency , and prudent determination of what is most likely to edify , that our superiors pretend to judge for us what is , and what is not to be done ; so as to allow us no right to judge for our selves , about them . they claim obedience to their constitutions in these things , upon the account of their authority , which , when the matter is lawful , should without more ado conclude our practice . indeed they judge also what faith we are to profess , what worship we are to offer up to god , and what life we are to lead , in order to our receiving the benefit of church communion ; and by consequence they do take upon them to judge in our behalf , what are the articles of the christian faith , what is the true christian worship , and what it is to lead a christian life . for otherwise it were impossible that the ministers of christ , should discreetly and honestly use that authority which he hath left them to take into the church those that are duly qualified for it , and to turn out those that are no longer fit to be continued in it . but still there is a great difference between their judging for us in those things , and in the matters aforementioned . for they suppose that the articles of the christian faith , and the commandments of god , are the same that ever they were from the beginning of the church ; and that it is not in the power of man to make any alterations in these standing rules of christianity , and that obedience is not due to any authority of man going about to make such alterations . from whence it follows that private persons should be able to judge wherein true christianity consinsts as well as their superiors , that they also may offer up unto god a reasonable service . to which end the bible is put into all mens hands ; the meaning of the scriptures is opened in our religious assemblies ; the people are trained up to understand the particulars of christian faith and obedience , with the reasons and motives thereof , that as we said before , they may be able to resolve their faith into the same grounds of divine authority , upon which the bishops and pastors of the church do themselves believe . and we do unanimously acknowledge , that if this church makes the profession of false doctrine , or the braking of any of gods commandments , a condition of her communion ; they that upon this account separate from her communion are before god clear of the guilt of schism in so doing . and here she makes all private persons judges for themselves , whether she doth this or not , and that by training them up the best way she can , to be able to inform themselves in these matters . but the case is otherwise with respect to indifferent things relating to gods worship . for though our superiors profess that they are not to meddle , in adding to or taking from the faith and the commandments of god ; and though they appeal to private persons , that they do not in fact usurp an authority to this purpose , which they profess to disclaim ; yet in these indifferent things , they claim a power to add , or diminish , or to make such expedient alterations , as they shall think fit to be made ; and this without being any way accountable to the people for their discretion in so doing , before their orders be obeyed : and we say that whoever they are , that will not be concluded by authority in these things , but upon any pretence whatsoever taken from them , do break away from the communion of the church , they are guilty of schism in so doing . and this must be truly said , if what that author himself hath said be true , that no private person is judge of those things . and now i think any one may see a vast difference between the claim of the church of rome , to be the only judge of what she imposes upon her members , and the claim of the church of england to the same with reference to hers ; that in the former case it is unjust and unreasonable ; but in the later very equal and necessary , and which no man that is not over-ruled by a fit of passion and prejudice , but must allow to a competent authority . whereas therefore we have considered the points in question between the dissenters and our selves , with respect to prudence , expedience , and better edification : we say withal that this is more than we were bound to do in order to the conviction of dissenters , that it is their duty to conform to the liturgy and the laws of the church . and that because the authority by which they are establisht obligeth us to submission ( if there be nothing in them to make our communion with the church sinful ) though we should be so arrogant as to think we could have ordered these matters with more discretion , if our advice had been taken . but if , setting aside the consideration of authority , we have moreover shewn that upon all accounts of decency and expediency , forms of prayer are to be preferred before extemporary prayers , and that the particulars now excepted against are so far from betraying any want of judgment in those that prescribed them , that they are indications of the great wisdom and caution wherewith they proceeded ; we have not , i say , performed this , believing it necessary to prove the separation to be vnjustifiable , but intending to shew thereby that it is more inexcusable . and although it was no part of our design to render those of the separation more inexcusable by this performance , yet i beseech them to take care that it happens not so in the event . if after all , it be asked what an inferior is to do , that judgeth those things to be vnlawful , which his superiors in full perswasion that they are indifferent at least , require him to do ? i answer , as all men that have a sense of honesty will answer ; that whilest he is perswaded that they are unlawful , he ought to forbear them . but then , as no man of understanding will deny , he is yet a sinner before god for refusing that obedience to a lawful authority , which he ought to perform ; since in order to the performance of it , he might and ought to understand his duty better than he does . for as the forementioned author says , things indifferent and things commanded and forbidden are not things which we fancy , but which indeed are so . if the light of nature , and the holy scriptures are a rule of what is duty , and what is sin , they are a rule also of what is indifferent : and the same light that shews what is necessary to be done , and what is necessary not to be done , does withal shew what is lawful to be done or to be forborn . and as an erroneous perswasion that something is lawful which god hath forbidden , will not acquit any man , that hath the means of better information , from sin , in doing according to his perswasion of the lawfulness of what he does : so neither will any mans erroneous perswasion that his superiors require him to do what is vnlawful , when the thing it self is lawful , acquit him of the guilt of disobedience in following that perswasion . in what degrees this or that mans ignorance in these things is culpable , god only knoweth for the most part , and therefore he only can judge the world in righteousness . but more or less culpable it is in all that have means of knowledge . and it concerns every one of us , as we love our own souls , to consider impartially , what god hath commanded and what he hath forbidden in his word , and consequently what he has left to our liberty ; and that because his word is a rule sufficiently plain as to these things . for if those to whom god hath given authority , being corrupted in their judgments by passion or any worldly interest , take those things to be lawful which god hath forbidden , and impose them upon all that are subject to their rule ; their perswasion shall not hinder their being grievous sinners against god , nor exempt them from being answerable to him for abusing their authority , and for all the pernicious consequences thereof in drawing some men into wicked practices , and in punishing others for well doing . and by like reason , if subjects not rightly attending to the rule of their duty , are grown to a perswasion that those things are vnlawful , which their superiors injoin them to do ; whereas indeed they are indifferent ; and thereupon refuse to do them : this perswasion shall not acquit them before god , nor hinder them from being answerable for abusing their liberty , and for all the pernicious consequences of their disobedience , in setting a bad example , in breaking the peace of the church , in disturbing publick order , and , which very often happens , in giving occasion to the worst of men to profane the name of god , and to speak evil and blasphemous things of his holy religion . i say , ignorance will help no more in this later case than in the former , because it is as easie for the subject to know what is indifferent , as for the ruler to know what is vnlawful . these considerations i confess do more properly belong to the last plea of conscience ; but it was very convenient to touch upon them here , where we have been inquiring what things they are , in which authority is to over-rule private judgment , and to determine the practice of inferiors ; and withal how great a difference there is between the church of rome , and the church of england in answering this common question : who shall be the judge ? . i come now to the last difference consequent upon the two first respecting authority , and terms of communion , and that is the difference of the principles upon which each side separates , as to their tendency either to maintain , or to overthrow one communion amongst christians . this will fall under a double consideration . . that of maintaining one communion amongst christians in this kingdom . . that of maintaining one communion with forreign churches . i shall begin with the first . . as to vnity at home . the romanist pretends that upon the grounds of our reformation , divisions and separations will be endless amongst us ; we also pretend that the principles of the separation from the church of england , tend to the same : but with what difference of reason on each side , it is easy to judge by what has been said already . we have reason to think there would be no end of divisions , if a competent authority , injoining nothing but what is lawful to be done in the communion of christians , is not to be obeyed : and certainly this may be very true , although it be false , that to submit to the authority of the roman church , and that too in things unlawful to be done by any christian , or by any man , is necessary to prevent divisions . we say farther , that there can be no need of an ecclesiastical tyranny on the one hand , and a blind obedience on the other , to keep those christians together in one communion that live within one jurisdiction ; if a due use of authority in lawful superiors on the one hand , and a dutiful subjection of inferiors thereunto , on the other , would do the business , as most certainly it would . but if some men will be stubborn , we cannot help that , any more than we can hinder other men from being tyrants . but we are sure it concerns both the one and the other , as much as their salvation concerns them , not to be so . and if this consideration will not keep them within bounds , and make them wise and honest ; they must answer it to god one day . and in the mean time subjects that suffer vnjustly for refusing to obey the wicked commands of their superiors , must bear it as patiently as they can , and by their prayers to god , and their meek obedience to their rulers in all lawful things , endeavour to recover themselves into their good opinion . and superiors that are vexed with froward and disorderly subjects who break christian communion when no just cause is given them , must do what they can to lay the truth before them ; and if this be to no purpose , they must use their authority as prudently as they can to prevent the evil example from going farther . we are sensible what advantages the papists make to themselves against our reformation by the examples of dissenters , and the dissenters by the papists . when the papists have men and women of weak understandings to deal with , they tell them , that the reformation is run out into several sects and parties , and no man can tell where separation will end : if therefore you love vnity , return to the church of rome where we are all of one faith and communion . the separatists on the other side set off their claims to an unrestrainable liberty of choosing in what communion to worship god , by shewing to their proselytes the tyranny of the roman church . now we of the church of england are as much against the tyrannical vsurpations of that church as the dissenters , and as much for vnity against causless separation , and for obedience to lawful authority against stubbornness , as the romanists . and both these upon principles that consist well with one another . we say on the one side that a foreigner should not affect an authority over us , and that those who have the authority , ought to require nothing in the communion of christians , but what is agreeable to gods word , and lawful to be done : and on the other side , that in such things we ought to do what is commanded , and by no means to run into a separate communion . upon these principles we departed from rome , and stick where we are ; and i trust that through the grace of god , we shall neither go back to rome , nor run after the separation , there being no need , either of the former to preserve vnity , or of the later to avoid tyranny . to draw to a conclusion of this matter ; the main reason of our separation from rome was this , that we could not continue in her communion , without doing things that god hath plainly forbidden : the reformation of our church was at first effected by , and hath all along stood upon good and just authority : she does not only hold forth all necessary means of salvation , but she requires nothing to be done in her communion that is contrary to gods word . and therefore we hold our selves bound under the pain of schism to continue in her communion . now i do not understand how upon these principles men must run into endless separations , unless it be impossible for us ( whatever we pretend ) to know who are our lawful governours , and to know what god hath commanded , and what he hath forbidden us to do . and i must confess if these things be impossible to be known 't is a foolish thing for any man to trouble his conscience with cases of communion and separation . as for the dissenters ( to omit the independents whose churches are in their very constitution inconsistent with submitting to a common authority in matters of worship ) they have forsaken us for nothing but because the forms of our worship , or our two or three ceremonies in it , are not commanded in gods word , and because in things left otherwise to our liberty , we are determined by the authority of our superiors : or because these things might be better ordered , and because the communion which they have taken upon them to set up in opposition to the church of england is purer than ours , though ours be a lawful communion . now these principles do indeed tend to endless separations unless these men could tell us either how we could be united in one communion , though all of us believed it vnlawful to obey a competent authority that should presume to determin any indifferent things relating to gods worship ; or what particular communion that is from which it would be vnlawful to separate even upon this principle ; that there is no obligation to communion , where there is any thing possible to be mended in the outward mode of gods worship . in a word , they that separate upon just and necessary cause as the church of england hath done from the church of rome , and stop there , are not to be charged with the consequence of their practice , who separate without such causes , as the dissenters do from our church . and if they have proceeded farther than they are able to justify themselves by the principles of our reformation , they must answer for it themselves . . the principles of our reformation do not obstruct our communion with any true church of christ abroad , where there are no unlawful terms of communion . but so do the principles of the dissenters separation . by the same reason that our governours determin one common order of worship and discipline for the churches over which they have authority ; the governours of other churches also may determin in these things according to their prudence for the people subject to their authority . and we , who blame the church of rome for interposing her authority amongst us , with whom she has no more right to meddle than any other forreign church has , must in all things that come within the liberty of christians , leave other churches that are as independent upon vs as we are upon rome , to their authority and liberty . and this is what our church has expresly declared . in these our doings we condemn not other nations nor prescribe any thing but to our own people only , for we think it convenient that every country should use such ceremonies as they shall think best to the setting forth of gods honor and glory , and to the reducing of the people to a most perfect and godly living without error or superstition , and that they should put away other things , which from time to time they perceive to be most abused , as in mens ordinances it often chanceth diversly in divers countries . in pursuance of which excellent and truly catholick declaration , i would not only communicate with foreign churches , who differ from us in nothing but matters of from and ceremony ; but if i were amongst them , i should observe their establish'd modes and forms of worship ; and though i thought our own way at home , worthy upon all the accounts of order and decency and tendency to edification , to be preferred before theirs ; yet i should not only conform to their way ; but religiously abstain from creating any prejudice against it in the minds of christian people in those places ; and rather do all that honestly i could to bring those to a favourable opinion of it , who were prejudiced against it . this is that rule which st. austin thought should take place , not only in respect of those orders which were establish'd by synods of bishops , but in respect also of those customs which had crept into particular churches though it was hard to tell why or how they came in . in things of this nature saith he there is one most wholesom rule to be observed , that wherever we see any of them obtain which are neither contrary to faith nor good manners , and have some tendency to edification , we should not only abstain from finding fault with them , but commend and practise them our selves . and yet he complains in this very epistle of the multitude of ceremonious observations , in which particular churches differed from one another , and wishes that a reformation were made by authority . thus in the foregoing epistle , speaking of the different observations of divers places , for instance , that some fast upon the saturday and some do not , &c. and of all other things of this kind which are to be accounted indifferent ; nothing , says he , does more become the gravity and prudence of a christian , then to do after the manner of that church into which he shall happen to come . then he relates st. ambrose his celebrated answer to monica about things of this sort : when i am at rome i fast on the saturday , when i am here at milan i do not fast . and so when thou comest into any church , observe its customs if thou wouldest neither give just cause of offence , nor take offence without cause . this advice st. austin magnified highly , and the more he thought of it the better he liked it . for , says he , i have often with great sorrow considered how the minds of weak christians have been disturbed , by the quarrelsom humour and superstitious niceness of some of the brethren , who upon very slight grounds of reasoning , or being addicted to their own customs at home , or fond of what they have observed abroad , raise such wrangling disputes about things that cannot be clearly determined either by the authority of holy scripture , or the vniversal tradition of the church catholick , or by the consideration of what is best for reformation of life , that they seem to reckon nothing well done , but what they do themselves . i shall add no more but that plain rule he gives elsewhere to this purpose : as to things in which the scripture defines nothing certain one way or the other , the custom of the church , and the decrees of our ancestors , are to be held for law. now by this and much more that might be produced , we may see what the true notion of that liberty was which the ancient church allowed in matters of indifference . not that there was no rule in the particular churches for the ordering and regulating of things of this sort : for we find the bishops did use their authority in these things , over their charges , as st. ambrose's words to st. austin's mother about the forementioned case do plainly imply . resist not thy bishop in this matter ; but what he does , that do thou without any scruple or dispute : and besides those particular customs , the variety and multitude of which st. austin complains of , there were the determinations of episcopal synods concerning things not determined in scripture , which he does not complain of . but their liberty consisted in this , that the rules of this sort establisht in the communion of any church , were not imposed upon foreign churches ▪ and catholick communion was not broken upon the account of different rites , and customs . for though st. austin was sorry to see the minds of some weak christians troubled about questions of this kind , yet i do not find that he had any occasion given him to complain that communion was broken upon these accounts ; as before his time it had been , by pope victors rashness in presuming to excommunicate the asiatick bishops for observing easter upon the fourteenth of march ; had not irenaeus and other wise and moderate persons seasonably interposed . to apply all this to the matter in hand : since the church of rome has made such things conditions of communion with her as are in st. austin's phrase contrary to faith and good manners , our separation from her upon this account , does not at all hinder us from communicating with any true church in the world , that does not bar us out by unlawful terms of communion . for in things that god hath left at liberty , this church persumes not to interpose her authority abroad ; nor refuses the communion of those churches whose customs and observations are different from ours meerly because they are different . nay , let the church of rome her self make an end of imposing false doctrines and wicked practices , and there will be an end of our separation from her : let her give over commanding things that god hath forbidden , and makeing articles of faith of things that are not revealed , but are indeed contrary to sense and reason ; and she may for us use her authority at home in things indifferent ; and though she be guilty of great abuses even in this kind , which need a reformation ; yet i for my part should not break communion with her for these things , if she would throughly purge her self from the other . in the mean time we are of one communion with all foreign churches that presume not to change the faith , nor to contradict the laws of god ; and this we should demonstrate by actual communion with them , if we had occasion to go abroad amongst them . but this makes our case very different from that of the dissenters who separate from the church . for so long as they withdraw from our communion for the sake of ecclesiastical order that are not contrary to gods word , and separate from us upon this principle , that every thing is unlawful in gods worship which is not commanded in scripture , but enjoined by our superiors only ; they must not upon those principles have communicated with any church in the primitive times , when there were far more vncommanded rites and vsages establish'd , for the regulating of worship , than now there are in our church . and upon these principles they must not communicate with any reformed churches abroad , since how different so ever the external mode of their worship may be from ours , yet some they all have , and that consisting of rules not determined by gods word , but by the law or custom of man. to new england they must not go , hoping to find a communion there lawful to be embraced upon these principles . the nonconformists to our liturgy and discipline that are there , will stand to their own censures concerning worship and discipline , and will make out by their church authority such as it is , what they cannot shew chapter and verse for . our separatists if they go thither shall find no other use of their liberty allowed there , but conformity and compliance with that way of worship and government which there obtains . it is a plain case that they who separate from our church upon the account of unommanded rites and practices in gods worship , are something more obliged by this principle to avoid communion with all foreign churches ; if rules for customs concerning things indifferent are to be found amongst them all , as most certainly such rules more or fewer all of them have : for in the former case our separatists are disobedient to their proper governours and pastors , whose authority over them is some thing more clear and indisputable , than that of the governours of other churches where they might happen to go . and therefore if they will not in things of this nature , be determined by an authority at home , there is less reason to believe their consciences will suffer them to be determined therein by one abroad . i conclude therefore that though our reformation leaves usfree to communicate with all churches abroad , that do not require sinful terms of communion as the church of rome does ; yet the separation of the dissenters from us proceeds upon grounds destructive of communion with any church in the world. indeed i believe , most of our dissenters would communicate with several reformed churches abroad , but in so doing they must depart from the principles upon which they separate at home ; unless they can find a reformed church , which exerciseth no authority in forms of prayer , nor in any indifferent things for the external regulation of publick worship . but where such a church is to be found , i am yet to be informed . and thus much concerning those differences of the case , that are consequent upon the difference in point of authority and of terms of communion . . i come now to consider the last plea i propounded which i confessed was not only common to both sides , but which also may be as truly alledged on the one side , as on the other . and that is the plea of conscience . the dissenters say that they separate from us , being perswaded that they ought so to do . and i must needs say that some degree of integrity is implyed in this plea , if honestly it be made ; and such a degree it is , as without which no man can be an honest man. and therefore instead of going about to make it questionable whether indeed it be out of conscience , that they generally separate from us ; i shall here admit it , adding only that it stands every one of them in hand , to be as sure as they can be , that there is this reason at least for their separation from us . and i hope none of them will take this admonition in ill part ; since i charge my self and desire all the people of our own communion to be careful that we be fully perswaded in our own minds that in duty to god we are bound to separate even from the church of rome ; and that we do not either chuse one communion or refuse another for carnal and worldly interest . for we say the very same thing , viz. that in conscience we are perswaded , that to forsake the communion of the church of rome , and of every church in her communion , as the terms of her communion now stand , is a necessary duty . but then if we had no more to say for our selves then this comes to , we should make but a very weak apology for our separation from the roman church , and have some reason to be ashamed of it . for , to deal plainly , this is no more then what a turk or a jew may say for refusing to become a christian , and no more then what he may truly say too , that is , that his conscience will not let him be a christian , since he is verily perswaded that christianity is not from god , so far as it is contrary to the religion by him professed . now this , if it be truly said , shall make him a more honest turk or jew , than another that is in his conscience convinced of the truth , which with his mouth he denies , yet it shall not make that which he professes to be more true in his mouth , than it is in the mouth of a hypocrite . and i suppose no christian will say that his pretence of conscience though it be not meer pretence , will acquit him of sin in rejecting the gospel of christ when it 's offered to him with reasonable evidence . from whence i think it follows , that the misinformation of his conscience , or his erroneous perswasion is his sin. and therefore though it be true that we do separate from the roman communion out of conscience ; yet whether we do well upon the whole matter in this or not , must be judged of by those reasons upon which we are perswaded that so we ought to do , and not meerly by our perswasion it self . for otherwise we should lay down a principle that would vindicate a man in the greatest errors that can be profess'd , and justify him in the most wicked things that can be done under an erroneous perswasion that those are not errors and that these are not wicked things . wherefore i beseech all those that forsake the communion of the church of england , upon a general and loose perswasion of which they are able to give little or no particular account , that they do well in forsaking us , and that they should sin in communicating with us : i beseech them , i say , to lay this to heart , and a most evident truth it is , that if their perswasion be erroneous , they are notwithstanding their perswasion guilty of schism : and withal , that if they are perswaded , this is no great matter , as i plainly perceive they are for the most part , yet if schism be a very great and aggravated sin ; neither will their ignorance acquit them of guilt proportionable to the heinous nature of the sin. for my part i should not envy their safety , could i believe they had reason to be secure , upon giving this account of their separation and that honestly too , that they are satisfied in conscience about it ; and there is an end . but i have reason to warn them of the danger of such presumption ; since many of the jews and heathens that delivered up the servants of christ to be killed for their profession , were doubtless satisfied in conscience , that they did god service in so doing . and for ought i know some that have served the ends of the bloody church of rome , may have been so perswaded too . but do you think that god will give them thanks for what they did , because of their good meaning ? and if you do not think so ; you have no reason to conclude that you shall be acquitted from your separation , if a sin it be , and a great one too , meerly because you do not believe it to be a matter of any great consequence , or indeed any fault at all , but rather a duty . i do not know to what purpose divine truth is made known to us by nature and by scripture , and the laws of god are written upon our hearts , and these and more laws besides written in the gospel , if we might yet be safely ignorant of our duty as we are men , or as we are christians , and of that truth which is necessary to the performance of that duty . to what end hath god made known his will , and given us the means of knowing it , and a reasonable nature to make us capable of using those means , if ignorance might still be pleaded in our justification ? for my part i cannot tell , and let him that cannot look to it , that no prejudice nor passion , nor laziness , nor worldly interest lye at the bottom of his heart either to hinder his searching , or if he searches , to hinder his finding out that divine truth , which is the rule of his duty . i say this the rather , because no body will deny that it is well said . but it fares with this as it does with many other good sayings , it is still by all acknowledged to be good , but it is by few well applied . but thus far at least i may desire those of the separation to apply it to themselves , that if they vnnecessarily divide themselves from the communion of this church , the perswasion of their conscience that they are bound to divide from us , will by no means bring them off in so doing from the condemnation that belongs to that sin. to break the communion of christians is quite contrary to the ordinance and institution of christ , who made his church one body ; and the consequences of it are very destructive of all the great ends of christianity , and in such cases , the blame is very great , wherever it lies ; and i will be bold to say , it could not be very great , if it were hard for an honest and unprejudiced mind to find what ought , and what ought not to be done to maintain vnity of communion amongst christians . and therefore it concerns every man as he tenders the salvation of his soul , to look to it , that the cause of his separation be just . for this is one of those cases wherein a meer perswasion of conscience , will not secure a man acting according to it from sinning against god. and from hence it is evident that this plea that we cannot in conscience hold communion with the church of rome , may in our mouths be a very good plea against the papists , as without question it is if our consciences are rightly informed as to the points controverted between them and us : but the same plea in the mouths of the dissenters against the church of england , may not be good , as most certainly it is not , if they are perswaded that our church hath given them just cause for their separation , when there is indeed no such matter . and therefore we may at least hope that they will all of them now seriously apply themselves to consider the merits of the cause between them and us , which they are now in an especial manner bound to do , since the charity of the ministers of this city hath made the doing of it easie to all persons , that will be at the pains to judge for themselves , and that by bringing down the particular questions in controversy between them and us to the capacity of ordinary christians . and if they will not use this opportunity that is given them to consider these things they will have the more to answer to god ; and they most of all that disswade them from it . to conclude this point : whereas the papists declaim against our separation from them , under pretence of conscience , as if this had shewn the way to all sorts of sectaries to separate from us upon the same pretence : we hope that all persons who are not willing to be deceived , will be able to distinguish between a misguided conscience on the one hand , and a well informed conscience on the other ; and then proceed to examine the reasons of our separation , whether they be not just and necessary ; and if they find them so to be , that they will acquit us from all their blame , who separate without such reasons . for it is very foolish and unjust not to allow the pretence of conscience to be good in any case , because it is not so in all cases . surely if one mans conscience tell him that he may and ought to rebel , while himself does not believe that 't is rebellion he is going about ; this hinders not , but another man may lawfully and justly pretend conscience for his loyalty , and duty to the government . and though in some places of the world , there are sovereign princes , who extend their authority for the maintaining of damnable errors , and the suppressing of gods holy truth , and all the while believe that they use their power as they ought to do ; yet this shall not hinder but that princes who believe and profess the true religion , and withal protect and encourage it with their authority as much as they can , being fully perswaded that so they ought to do , that they , i say , shall for this receive gods thanks and rewards , while the former shall go without them . in like manner conscience may be pretended for disobeying the just laws of that authority which god hath set in the world , and in the church ; but this shall not hinder his plea from being good , who pretends conscience for refusing to commit idolatry , though all the powers under heaven should require him so to do . men may by mistake , think they do god good service in murdering his servants ; for this has been done by you of the church of rome . and if in such plain cases as these , your understandings have been so foully corrupted , it is not so greatly to be wondred at , that the judgments of other men are so perverted by interest and passion , as to believe themselves countermanded by god in things required by their superiors ; but in which it would not be their sin , but a performance of their duty to obey . and yet i hope this answer whether it be better to obey god or man , judge ye , was once truly and pertinently made ; and may be so again . and so much for the difference of the case with respect to conscience ; which was the last thing to be considered . and now i know that all this will signify very little to any man that brings not an honest mind with him to consider it , or who had rather take his opinions in these things upon trust , than be at the pains to judge for himself . but why should a man disparage himself so much , as not to use that understanding which god hath given him in matters that concern his salvation ? why should he be such an enemy to himself , as not to let go a dangerous mistake , when he may enjoy the truth instead of it , if he will use reasonable diligence to consider what is said on both sides ? give me leave to put you in mind of your duty in this case , in the words of an ancient christian writer in all matters of practice and duty it concerns every man to use his own judgment and discretion , in searching for truth , and in weighing what is fit to be done , rather then to be betrayed into error and sin , by such a credulous reliance upon others , as if himself had not the reason of a man , and were incapable of consideration . god has given to every man his share of wit both to find out some things by himself , and to weigh those which he hears from others . 't is natural to all men to love wisdom , and to desire the knowledge of the truth . and they make fools of themselves , who without discretion take the words of their leaders for all that they say , and follow them more like beasts , than like reasonable creatures , which words are not so to be taken , as if it were dishonourable or dangerous to any man to make use of the help of others in learning the truth : for this were to destroy the use of the ministry in the church of christ , and to take away the benefit of mutual endeavours to lead one another into a right understanding of our duty . but for all this , it may be a very foolish and unmanly part , and it may betray us into very dangerous errors , not to use our own judgment at all in matters of sin and duty , and in opinions leading to the one or the other ; but instead thereof to rely altogether upon their authority whom we have taken for our guides . this is what we say both to the people of the popish , and of the dissenting party ; that if they would apply themselves with ordinary diligence , and with a sincere mind , to find out the truth in thse cases they would not meet with any great difficulty to perplex them in the way ; especially if they whose authority they very much rely upon , would speak as plainly and clearly to the points in question as , without vanity i may say , we have hitherto done . we do not desire them to stop their ears against those whom they follow at present : all that we beg of them is , that they would not take every thing upon trust , that others tell them in these matters , but hear what we also have to offer to them , and not only hear , but consider and weigh it with the best judgment they have . and let me say this to all those whom i now speak of , whether papists or dissenters , that if you set your selves with a sincere desire of being rightly informed , to compare our reasons , with them whom hitherto you have trusted , some advantage you will gain by it , whatever the success be . for if the truth be not on our side , you will in all likelihood get this benefit by it , to be confirmed in your own way , upon better grounds than you had before . but if it be , it is then to be hoped that through the grace of god you will discorn it , and entertain it , for which blessing you and we shall have great reason to yield our hearty thanks and praises to the father of lights ; who giveth wisdom to them that ask him . but if you should be so unhappily prejudiced on the wrong side as to miss this benefit , yet let me tell you it will turn to some good account for you at last , that you took pains to be better informed ; and that you were not altogether wanting to your selves to come to a right understanding of your duty in these particulars , by disposing your selves to impartiality , and by reading , and meditating , and praying in all this , for the illumination of gods holy spirit . and now , i trust , there is little need to tell you , that if your leaders discourage you from taking this pains , it may justly make you suspect that your cause will not bear the trial. if they would keep up your confidence by their own , and all the while divert you from comparing one thing with another , and from trying what is said on both sides ; you have sufficient cause to question either their honesty or their understanding . and the more unwilling they are that you should examin what we and they say , the more reason do they give you to resolve that you will do so . i have shewn how greatly different the case of the true english protestant is from that of the papist on the one hand , and that of the separatist on the other . and though the difference be so very notorious as it is , yet we know the popish priests have represented our reformation under such colours , as to make it look like fanaticism , and the dissenters are made to believe on the other hand that our reformation is but a better sort of popery . and some little popular things are said on both sides to make these pretences look like truth . but now i have brought these colours into the light ; and if you will but take upon your selves to use your own eyes , you may , i think , easily discern that you have been all this while abused . at least i have given you reason enough to make farther inquiries , and to consider more particular questions . but if upon reading this general discourse , you should resolve to keep where you are , and to trouble your selves no farther ; i am confident the true reason thereof must be this , that you are afraid to proceed , lest you should be convinced ; and this is nothing less than wilfully to bar up your minds against the knowledge of the truth . for though i have no conceit of this performance , as if i had done any great matter in it ; yet i am conscious to my self that i intended honestly all along , and i am sure i have written plainly , and have laid some things together that may give just occasion to any well meaning papist or sectary to question the safety of the way he is in at present ; especially if he has never troubled himself to consider these things before . and now i do heartily desire you all , for i cannot desire this too often or too earnestly ; that you would take the word of god for your rule , and propound the rewards of another life for your end , and set the fear of god before your eyes , whilest you consider and examin these things . it is our concern for the safety of your souls , as well as for the welfare of this poor church so distressed with adversaries on both sides , that putteth us forward upon all occasions , to lay these things before you . do not therefore read these books which are indeed publisht for your sakes , as if they were written against you . there is not one of us , i am confident but is troubled to see you expose your selves to the penalties of the laws of the land that are against you : but we are more sorry to consider , that at the same time you do also incur the high displeasure of god. we would sain have you to avoid both the one and the other . and if you would hearken to us , the worst you would get by it , is to live with less disturbance in this world , but whether that should prove true or not , you would walk in a more safe and plain way to heaven , than that which any of you are in at present . and i hope you would not grudge that good which this church should receive by your return to us , when you would do your selves so much more by it . if therefore you think our importunity troublesom , pray remember what it is that makes us importunate ; and let no misconstruction of the design of your friends , render their honest endeavours ineffectual to your conviction . we would have you understand the truth , and do your duty ; and as this end is charitable , so you must needs grant those means to be charitable also , by which we are contributing towards it . it is indeed our concern that these means should take place , but it is yours something more , if you are under great and dangerous , mistakes as i am perswaded you are . but if you should be so prejudiced against us as to think that we write these controversies more in concern for the temporal interests of this church , than for your spiritual good , pray will you make this profitable use of that hard thought , as to excel us in this matter , by being more careful not to mix any carnal and worldly affection with your judgment in reading these things , then you imagine us to be in writing of them . be as strict as you will in examining what we say in behalf of our church ; only be willing that truth should overcome ; and consider that if that prevails against your errors , you indeed are the conquerours , and that the greatest gain will be yours , both in this world and in the world to come . i have no mind to prejudge which party it is that we may hope to win more of to the truth than of the other ; being very willing to believe that there is no cause of despairing to do good on either side . as for the dissenters ; methinks , it should not be hard to disswade the most of them , from breaking the communion of that church any longer , with which they agree in the substance of faith and worship , and from differing with authority for the future about things indifferent . the cause of the separation , as it is managed by themselves is so very slight , that one would hope they should be of themselves something afraid to venture their being schismaticks upon it , and consequently that they should be ready to consider what has been said to shew that there is indeed no just cause given them to separate from our church ; and that there is no reason to call any thing popery which they dislike in our communion ; as some of them have done to the great disadvantage of the protestant religion ; since as much as in them lay , they have made the world believe that the cause of popery is better than it is ; and that it doth not consist only of opinions and practices that cannot be defended , but of some also that may . and it is not the least kindness that the indiscreet zeal of some protestants hath done to the church of rome , that they have inveighed against some things , which may be easily justified , as if they also were popish corruptions . and the learned men of that church have not been behind hand in making use of this advantage , and that by straining their utmost wit , to represent the protestant religion under such colours , as if it stood in opposition to episcopacy and liturgy , and to all ecclesiastical canons and constitutions . and i am perswaded the dissenters cannot do the protestant religion a greater kindness , than by forbearing to give them this occasion for the future . for let a cause be never so good in it self , it is never likely to thrive in their hands , who instead of pressing their adversaries with what they can never maintain , are still forward to deny what they are well able to prove . as for the papists amongst us , their mistakes in faith and worship are so gross and foul that if they would give themselves a little time to consider what has , and what may farther be said to convince them ; i do not doubt but all of them that are endued with a competent understanding , and an honest sense of things , would soon feel those palpable errors , into the belief and practise of which they have been hitherto deluded , by an unreasonable deference to the authority of the church of rome ; and no longer stand off from the communion of the church of england . the bigger any fault is , one would think , it should be more easily spied . now these men separate from us meerly because we have abandoned those wicked doctrines and practices , which are of themselves a most necessary cause of separation from any church in the world , that should impose them . and therefore they of all men are the most notorious schismaticks that can be imagined . and i beseech god to open their eyes to see it ; and to recover into the way of truth all such as have erred and are deceived ; that those who have hitherto been obstinate may prove all things , and that those who can be perswaded to consider these things , may hold fast that which is good . rom. . , . and the god of patience and consolation grant us to be like minded one towards another according to christ jesus . that we may with one mind and one mouth glorify god , even the father of our lord jesus . amen . finis . erata . page . line . for term read form. p. . l. . for cppear r. appear p. . l. . r. l cor. . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e ad antonianum , ep. . ad cornclium , ep. . case on behalf of diss . p. . p. . p. . . p. . p. . & c. case on behalf of diss . p. . p. . p. . case . p. , . case in behalf of dissenters . p. . p. . p. . p. . preface to the liturgy . ad januarium . ep. . ep. . ad casulanum . ep. . ep. . ep. . lactant. lib . de origine erroris . sect. . thess . . . a true and exact copy of a treasonable and bloody-paper called the fanaticks new-covenant which was taken from mr. donald cargill at queens-ferry the third day of june, anno dom. one of their field-preachers, a declared rebel and traitor ; together with their execrable declaration published at the cross of sanquhair upon the twenty two day of the said month of june after a solemn procession and singing of psalms by cameron the notorious ring-leader of and preacher at their field-conventicles, accompanied with twenty of that wretched crew. cargill, donald, ?- . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing t estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : or : ) a true and exact copy of a treasonable and bloody-paper called the fanaticks new-covenant which was taken from mr. donald cargill at queens-ferry the third day of june, anno dom. one of their field-preachers, a declared rebel and traitor ; together with their execrable declaration published at the cross of sanquhair upon the twenty two day of the said month of june after a solemn procession and singing of psalms by cameron the notorious ring-leader of and preacher at their field-conventicles, accompanied with twenty of that wretched crew. cargill, donald, ?- . p. printed by the heir of andrew anderson ..., edinburgh : . "printed and published by order of his majesties privy council in obedience to his majesties commands in his letter dated at windsor-castle the th day of july, ." "the declaration and testimony of the true-presbyterian, anti-prelatick and anti-erastian persecuted-party in scotland": p. - . this item appears at reel : as wing c (cancelled in wing (cd-rom, )), and at reel : as wing t . reproduction of original in the harvard university library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng dissenters, religious -- england. covenanters. great britain -- history -- charles ii, - . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - john latta sampled and proofread - john latta text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a true and exact copy of a treasonable and bloody-paper , called , the fanaticks new-covenant : which was taken from mr. donald cargill at queens-ferry , the third day of june , anno dom● : . one of their field-preachers , a declared rebel and traitor . together with their execrable declaration , published at the cross of sanquhair , upon the twenty two day of the said month of june ; after a solemn procession , and singing of psalms , by cameron , the notorious ring-leader of , and preacher at , their field-conventicles , accompanied with twenty of that wretched crew . printed and published by order of his majesties privy council , in obedience to his majesties commands , in his letter dated at windsor-castle , the th . day of july , . edinbvrgh , printed by the heir of andrew anderson , printer to his most sacred majesty , anno domini . . a true and exact copy of a treasonable paper , called , the fanaticks new-covenant . we under-subscribers , for our selves , and all that joyn with us , and adhere to us , being put to it by god , our consciences , and men ; do bind our souls with a solemn and sacred bond , lest on the one hand weshould be carried away with the stream of the apostacy and defection of the church in this time , and on the other hand , lest we should ( not being so engaged ) evanish in vanity , and be without a right rule in good designs : we have judged it our duty again to covenant with god , and one another , and to publish this declaration to the world of our purposes , that men may know our most inward-thoughts , the rules that we walk by , and the outmost ends that we have before our eyes for this intent , that these who are lovers of god , zealous of his reigning in glory , and desirous of reformation , and the propagation of his kingdom , may have occasion no more to be jealous of our intentions , and others may have no ground to load us with odious and foul aspersions ; but , that all knowing the truth of us , if they shall strive against us , and truth with us , shall do it without excuse , and against conviction ; and that these who shall joyn with us , may do it upon solid and undoubted-grounds , and both they and we may expect grace from him , faithfully to persevere , and happily to be successful in so good purposes . it is true , we are not ignorant of the great unmindfulness , failing , counteracting , and mocking that has been in our former vows and covenants with god , and of the great judgments that hath , and are like to follow such impious and sinful dealing with god in such weighty matters , ( for which we both ought and desire to be humbled before him , ) which cannot but make us with great trembling of heart enter into new ones , knowing both our own weakness and readiness to relapse , and the great hazard and danger of such relapses ; yet , the desire of recovering and preserving a remnant , and the conviction of this , as the most convenient mean , the zeal to gods glory , and christs reigning , ( which is the highest and most acceptable duty man can perform to god , ) hoping for his mercies , ( who is witness to the integrity of our hearts and rightness of our intentions , ) that he will instruct , direct , accept , and prosper us , we go forward , declaring , that nothing else but what we here express is our design . i. we covenant and swear , that we take the only true and living god , father , son , and holy ghost , to be our god , and betakes our selves to the merits and righteousness of his son , as the alone righteousness that can justify us before god ; and that we take his scriptures and word to be the object of our faith , and rule of our conversation in all things ; and that we shall give up our selves to him , to be renewed , instructed , and in all things ruled by his spirit , according to that word ; and shall earnestly endeavour by his grace , to render to him that love , worship , and obedience , that his word requires , and his goodness engages us to . ii. that we shall to the outmost of our power , advance the kingdom of christ establish'd throughout the land , ( if at any time hereafter god shall give us this opportunity ) righteousness and the true reformed religion , in the truth of its doctrine , in the purity and power of its worship and ordinances , and in its discipline and government , and free the church of god from the thraldom , tyranny , incroachment , and corruption of prelacy on the one hand , and erastianism on the other . and that we shall to our power , relieve the church and subjects of this kingdom , ( we being called thereto , by his giving of us power , power being gods-call to do good , ) of that oppression that hath been exercised upon their consciences , civil rights and liberties , that men may serve him holily , without fear , and possess their civil rights in quietness , without disturbance . iii. that we shall endeavour to our outmost , the extirpation of the kingdom of darkness , and whatsoever is contrair to the kingdom of christ , and especially idolatry , and popery in all the articles of it , as we are bound in our national covenant ; and superstition , will-worship , and prelacy , with its hierarchy , as we are bound in our solemn league and covenant ; and that we shall with the same sincerity , endeavour ( god giving us assistance ) the overthrow of that power that hath established that prelacy and erastianism over the church , and exercises such a lustful and arbitrary tyranny over the subjects , seeking again to introduce idolatry and superstition in these lands , contrair to our covenants : and in a word , that we shall endeavour the extirpation of all the works of darkness , and the relicts of idolatry and superstition , ( which are both much enlarged and revived in our times , ) and execute righteous judgment impartially ( according to the word of god , and degree of wickedness ) upon the committeis of these things , but especially blasphemy , idolatry , atheism , sorcery , perjury , uncleanness , profanation of the lords-day , oppression and malignancy , that being thus zealous for god , he may delight to dwell among us . iv. seriously considering , that the hand of our kings has been against the throne of the lord , and that now for a long time , the succession of our kings , and the most part of our rulers with him , hath been against the purity and power of religion and godliness , and freedom of the church of god , and hath degenerate from the vertue and good government of their predecessors into tyranny , and hath of late so manifestly rejected god , his service and reformation , as a slavery , as they themselves call it in their publick papers , ( especially in these last letters to the king , and duke of lauderdale ) disclaiming their covenant with god , and blasphemously inacting it to be burnt by the hand of a hang-man , governed contrary to all right laws divine and humane , exercised such tyranny and arbitrary government , opprest men in their consciences and civil rights , used free subjects ( christian and reasonable men ) with less discretion and justice then their beasts ; and so not only frustrate the great end of government , ( which is , that men may live godly , holily and peaceably under them , and might be maintained in their rights and liberties from injury and wrong ) but hath also walked contrary to it , so that it can no more be called a government , but a lustful rage , exercised with as little right reason , and with more cruelty then in beasts , and they themselves can be no more called governours , but publick grassators , and publick judgments , which all men ought as earnestly to labour to be free of , as of sword , famine , or pestilence raging amongst us ; and besides , hath stopped ( instead of punishing ) the course of law and justice against idolaters , blasphemers , atheists , murderers , incestuous and adulterous , and other malefactors ; and instead of rewarding the good , hath made butcheries and murthers on the lords people , sold them as slaves , imprisoned , forfaulted , banished and fined them , upon no other account , but for maintaining the lords right to rule consciences , against the usurpations of men , for fulfilling their vows , and repelling unjust violence , which innocent nature allows to all ; of all which , and moe particulars , we can give ( we speak as before god ) innumerable and sure instances : neither can it be thought that there is hope of their returning from these courses , having so often shewed their natures and enmities against god and all righteousness , and so often declared and renewed their purposes and promises of persevering in these courses . and , suppose they should dissemble a repentance of these evils , and profess to return to better courses , being put to straits , or for their own ends , ( for upon no other account can we reasonably expect it ; ) and though it might be thought , that there might be pardon for what is done , ( which we cannot yet see to be , without the violation of the law of god , and a great guiltiness on the land , from which guiltiness the land can never be free , but by executing of gods righteous judgments upon them for omitting of so greatly deserved , and so necessarily requisite a justice ; ) yet they cannot be believed , after they have violated all tyes that humane wisdom can devise to bind men ; and beside , there will be something of folly found , to think to bind a king that pretends to absoluteness : and our fathers , or rather our selves , at first judged it not warrantable to receive him , without consenting to , and swearing of the covenant : and if so , the renouncing and disclaiming thereof , we ought at present to judge to be a just and reasonable ground of rejecting him upon these grounds , being assured of gods approbation , and mens , whose hearts are not utterly byassed , and their consciences altogether corrupted , and knowing assuredly , that the upholding of such , is to uphold men , to bear down christs kingdom , and to uphold sattans , and the depriving of men of right government and good governours , to the ruining of religion , and undoing of humane society . we then seeing the innumerable sins and snares that are in giving obedience to their acts , on the other hand , seeing if we shall acknowledge their authority , and refuse obedience to their sinful commands , the endless miseries that will follow , and siding with god ( who we hope will accept and help us to a liberation from their tyranny ) against his stated and declared enemies ; do reject that king , and these associate with him , from being our rulers , because standing in the way of our right , free and peaceable serving of god , propagating his kingdom and reformation , and overthrowing satans kingdom , according to our covenant ; and declares them henceforth to be no lawful rulers , as they have declared us to be no lawful subjects , upon a ground far less warrantable , as men unbyassed may see ; and that after this , we neither owe , nor shall yield any willing obedience to them , but shall rather suffer the outmost of their cruelties and injustice , until god shall plead our cause , and that upon these accounts ; because , they have altered and destroyed the lords established religion , overturned the fundamental and establish'd laws of the kingdom , taken altogether away christs church and government , and changed the civil government of this land ( which was by king and free parliaments ) into tyranny , where none are associat to be partakers of the government , but only those who will be found by justice to be guilty of criminals , and all others excluded , even those who by the laws of the land by birth had a right to , and a share in that government , and that only , because not of the same guiltiness and mischievous purposes with themselves : and also , all free elections of commissioners for parliaments , and officers for government , are made void by their making those the qualifications of admission to these places , which by the word of god , and the laws of this land , were the cause of their exclusion before , so that none can look upon us , or judge us bound in alledgeance to them , unless they say also we are bound in alledgeance to devils , they being his vicegerents , and not gods. v. we then being made free , by god and their own doings , he giving the law , and they giving the transgression of that law , which is the cause that we are loosed now from all obligations , both divine and civil to them , and knowing that no society of men that hath corruption in them , ( which alwayes is ready to beget disorders and do injuries , unless restrained and punished by laws and government ) can be without laws and government , and withal desiring to be governed in the best way that is least lyable to inconveniencies and tyranny : we do declare , that we shall set up over our selves , and over all that god shall give us power , government , and governours , according to the word of god , and especially according to that word , exod. . v. . moreover , thou shalt provide out of all the people , able men , such as fear god , men of truth , hating g●vetousness ; and that we shall no more commit the government of our selves , and the making of laws for us , to any one single person , and lineal successor , we not being tied as the jews were by god , to one family , government not being an inheritance , but an office , which must be squared , not to the interest and lust of a man , but to the good of the commonwealth , and this kind of government by a single person , &c. being most liable to inconveniencies , ( as sad and long experience may now teach us , ) and aptest to degenerate into tyranny . moreover , we declare that these men whom we shall set over us , shall be engaged to govern us principally by that civil or judicial law given by god to his people of israel , especially in matters of life and death , and in all other things also , so far as they teach , excepting only that law , ( viz. anent slaves , ) which does not agree with that christian liberty established in all christendom , ( only violated by our tyrants , and some others of late , ) and that of divorces and poligamy ; the one being not a law , but a permission granted upon the account of the hardness of their hearts , the other being a sinful custom contrair to the first institution of marriage , crept in into the church : we know that men of malignant and perverse spirits , that has not a higher god than a wicked king , which suits only with their lustful licentiousness , and it may be others with them that seemed to be of better principles , will raise an ignorant clamour upon this , that it is a fifth-monarchy , and we fifth-monarchy-men , and will labour to amuse the people with strange terms , and put odious names on good things to make them hateful , as their way is ; but if this be their fifth-monarchy , we both are , and ought to be such , and that according to his word . vi. it being the work of the ministers of the gospel , to preach , propagate , and defend the kingdom of god , and to preserve the doctrine , worship , discipline , government , liberties and priviledges of the same , from all corruptions and incroachments of rulers , and all others . and seing , that the ministers of the church of scotland , ( at least the greatest part of them before ) not only were defective in preaching and testifying against the acts of these rulers , for overthrowing religion and reformation , abjuring our covenant made with god , establishing a government in the church , which that king calls his own government , ( and so not gods , ) contrair to our covenant ; against inacting of that blaspemous ( so calvin calls that supremacy of henry the eight , upon which this prerogative is founded , and from which it is derived , and is no less , if not more injurious to christ , and inslaving to his church , ) and sacrilegious prerogative given to a king over the church of god , and against the other acts and incroachments of his church , and hindered others also who were willing , and would have testified against them , and censured some that did it , ( for which , together with the other causes in their trust and administration , we may say , god hath left them to do worse things ; ) but also hath voted in that meeting , ( which they are pleased to call an assembly of ministers , but how justly , let men judge , ) an acceptation of that liberty , founded upon , and given by vertue of that blasphemously arrogated and usurped power ; and hath appeared before their courts to accept of that liberty , and to be enacted and authorized there as ministers , and so hath willingly ( for this is an elicit act of the will , and not an act of force and constraint ) translated the power of sending out , ordering , censuring , ( for as they accept of their liberty from them , so they submit to their censures and restaints , at least all of them who were yet tried with it , and others of them appeared and acknowledged before their courts , that they would not have done these things that they were charged with , if they had thought it would have offended them , ) ministers departing from the court of christ , and subjection to the ministry , to the courts of men , and subjection to the magistrate , ( which had been impious and injurious to christ and his church , though they had been righteous and lawful rulers , ) and by their changing of courts , ( according to common law ) hath changed their masters , and of the ministers of christ are become the ministers of men , and bound to answer to them as oft as they will ; and as by the acceptation of this liberty in such manner , they have translated the power , so they have given up and utterly quit the government , and a succession of a presbyterian ministry ; for as these were not granted them of their masters , so they exercise their ministry without them , and so by this , as the ecclesiastick government is swallowed up in the civil , ( if the rest had followed them ) the ministry should have also been extinct with themselves , and the whole work of reformation had been buried in oblivion , not so much as the remembrance of it kept up : these , together with the other of their commissions in preaching , the lawfulness of paying that tribute declared to be imposed for the bearing down of the true worship of god , ( which they falsly termed seditions conventicles , ) and their advising these poor prisoners to subscribe the bond , and consequently could not but so advise all others , if put to it , ( for the hazard that men were in , will not make a real change of the morality of that action , ) and beside , the rest may be put to it upon the same hazard , and so if the one should advise , ( which consequently they must do , ) and the other should subscribe , this would altogether close that door which the lord hath made use of in all the churches of europe , for casting off the yoke of the whore , and restoring the truth and purity of religion and reformation , and freedom of the churches , and should have stopped all ingress for men , when once brought under tyranny , to recover their liberty again . these ministers then , not being followers of christ , who before pontius pilate , gave a good confession , which was , that he was a king , and no king , if he have not power to order his house and subjects , and they not following him , nor his ministers , if not asserting and maintaining of this his kingly power , against all incroachers and usurpers of it ; and besides , we being commanded , if any brother walk disorderly , from such to withdraw ; and although in the capacity we now are in , we neither have , nor assumes to our selves authority to give out definite and authoritative sentences of deposition and supension against these ministers ; yet we declare , which is proper for us to do , that we neither can , nor will hear preaching , nor receive sacraments from these ministers that hath accepted of , and voted for that liberty ; and declares all who have encouraged and strengthened their hands , by hearing and pleading for them , all those who have traffiqued for an union with them , without their renouncing and repenting of these things , all those that do not testifie faithfully against them , and after do not deport themselves suitably to their testimonies , and all who joyn not in publick with their brethren , who are testifying against them ; we declare , that we shall not hear them preach , nor receive sacraments from them , at least , till they stand in judgment before these ministers , and be judged by them who have followed the lord , and kept themselves free of these defections : and as our hearts hath cleaved to these ministers , while they were on the lords side , and subjected our selves to them , so we shall still cleave to those that abide following him , and shall be subject to them in the lord. vii . then we do declare and acknowledge , that a gospel-ministry , is a standing ordinance of god , appointed by christ , to continue in the church , until the end of the world ; and that none of us shall take upon him the preaching of the word , or administring the sacraments , unless called , and ordained thereto , by the ministers of the gospel : and as we declare that we are for a standing gospel-ministry , rightly chosen , and rightly ordained , so we declare , that we shall go about this work in time to come , with more fasting and praying , and more careful inspection into the conversation and holiness of these men that shall be chosen and ordained , the want of which formerly , hath been a great sin , both in ministers and people , which hath not been the least cause of this defection . the declaration and testimony of the true-presbyterian , anti-prelatick , and anti-erastian , persecuted-party in scotland . it is not amongst the smallest of the lords mercies to this poor land , that there hath aways been some who hath given a testimony of every course of defection which we were guilty of , which is a token for good , that he does not as yet intend to cast us off altogether , but that he will leave a remnant , in whom he will be glorious , if they ( through his grace ) keep themselves clean still , and walk in his way and method , as it hath been walked in , and owned by him in our predecessors ( of truly worthy memory ) their time , in their carrying out of our noble work of reformation , in the several steps thereof , from popery and prelacy , and likewise from erastian-supremacy , so much usurped by him , who it is true ( so far as we know ) is descended from the race of our kings ; yet he hath so far deborded from what be ought to have been , by his perjury and vsurpation in church-matters , and tyranny in matters civil , as is known by the whole land , that we have just reason to believe , that one of the lords great contraversies against us is , that we have not disowned him , and the men of his practices , whether inferiour magistrates , or any others , as enemies to our lord and his crown , and the true protestant and presbyterian-interest in their hands , our lords espoused bride and church . therefore , although we be for government , and governours , such as the word of god , and our covenants allows , yet we for our selves , and all that will adhere to us , as the representatives of the true presbyterian-church , and covenanted nation of scotland , considering the great hazard of lying under such a sin , do by these presents , disown charles stuart , who hath been reigning , or rather ( we may say ) tyrannizing on the throne of scotland , or government thereof , ( forfaulted several years since by his perjury and breach of covenant with god and his church , ) and usurpation of his crown and royal prerogatives therein , and many other breaches in matters ecclesiastick , and by his tyranny and breach of the very leges regnandi in matters civil ; for which reasons , we declare , that several years since he should have been denuded of being king , ruler , or magistrate , or having any power to act , or to be obeyed as such : as also , 〈…〉 of christ , captain of salvation , we declare war against such a tyrant and vsurper , and all the men of his practices , as enemies to our lord jesus christ , his cause and covenants , and against all such as have strengthened him , sided with him , or any ways acknowledged him in his vsurpation and tyranny , civil and ecclesiastick , yea , and against all such as shall strengthen , side with , or any ways acknowledge any other in the like vsurpation and tyranny , far more against such as would be tray or deliver up our free reformed mother church , into the bondage of antichrist , the pope of rome . by this we homologat the testimony given at rutherglen , the twenty ninth of may , . and all the faithful testimonies of these that have gone before us , as of these also that have suffered of late ; and we do disclaim that declaration published at hamiltoun , june . chiefly , because it takes in the kings , interest , which we are several years since loosed from , because of the foresaid reasons , and others , which may after this ( if the lord will ) be published . as also , we disown , and by this resente the reception of the duke of york , a profest papist , as repugeant to our principles and vows to the most high god , and as that which is the great ( though alace too just ) reproach of our church and nation : we also , by this , protest against his succeeding to the crown , and whatever hath been done , or any are essaying to do in this land ( given to the lord ) in prejudice to our work of reformation . and to conclude , we hope none will blame us for , or offend at , our rewarding these that are against us , as they have done to us , as the lord gives the opportunity . this is not to exclude any that hath declined , if they be willing to give satisfaction to the degree of their offence . given at sanqhuair , the . of june , . these are the true and exact copies of the fanaticks new-covenant , and declaration ; collationed with the originals , which are kept amongst the records of his majesties privy-council ; and attested by al. gibson , cl. sti. concilij . and will. paterson , cl. sti. concilij . finis . a plea for moderation towards dissenters occasioned by the grand-juries presenting the sermon against persecution at the last assizes holden at sherburn in dorset-shire : to which is added an answer to the objections commonly made aganst that sermon / by samuel bolde ... bold, s. (samuel), - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing b estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a plea for moderation towards dissenters occasioned by the grand-juries presenting the sermon against persecution at the last assizes holden at sherburn in dorset-shire : to which is added an answer to the objections commonly made aganst that sermon / by samuel bolde ... bold, s. (samuel), - . [ ], p. printed for r. janeway ..., london : . reproduction of original in huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng bold, s. -- (samuel), - . -- sermon against persecution. dissenters, religious -- england -- early works to . dissenters, religious -- early works to . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - judith siefring sampled and proofread - judith siefring text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a plea for moderation towards dissenters : occasioned by the grand-juries presenting the sermon against persecution , at the last assizes holden at sherburn in dorset-shire . to which is added , an answer to the objections commonly made against that sermon . by samvel bolde , author of the sermon against persecution . if a man walking in the spirit and falshood do lie , saying , i will prophesie unto thee of wine and of strong drink , he shall even be the prophet of this people , mic. . . they build up zion with blood , and jerusalem with iniquity , mic. . . qui pacem & concordiam in ecclesia vult esse , oportet eum rerum necessariarum confessione contentum esse , jac. acont . strat. l. . london , printed for r. janeway , in queens-head-alley in pater-noster-row , . a plea for moderation towards dissenters , &c. amongst the many stratagems satan has invented and made use of to hinder the progress of true christianity , his engaging some pretenders to it , to appear extreamly concern'd and zealous about vnnecessary rites and ceremonies , has not been the least fatal . for by advancing this point , he hath induced many carnal , vicious , and sensual men to embrace this profession , with ( as it is very probable ) a particular design to supplant its power . it is undeniably evident , that the primitive strict discipline of the church , with relation to manners , did decay answerably to the proportion of warmth , and zeal , men were allowed to lay out about little indifferences . and when the church was so far corrupted , as to busie her self mainly with making and executing such decrees and orders as did only relate to some external and unnecessary circumstances , she did apparently decline the vigorous prosecuting those things in which religion doth indeed consist . and i am perswaded , one of the principal things which hath hindred good men from an universal concurrence , in observing the same orders about indifferent things , is their observing that by this means , that strictness of practice , and holiness of conversation , which should most of all be minded , was in a great measure neglected , and almost decry'd as a needless singularity and preciseness . it is certain this did open a very wide door for those to enter into the communion of the church , and prevailed very much for the continuing of them in that communion , and for the having of them incouraged and carest , whose vicious courses made christianity evil spoken of by strangers ; and who according to the ancient rules and canons of the church , should have had the censures of the church inflicted on them , to the casting them out of her communion , not any more to be admitted , without giving extraordinary evidences and demonstration of their being brought to better minds . and this sort of people having thus insinuated themselves into the church , did soon obtain so great an interest , as to alter the very design , intention and vse of those instances which were appointed by christ himself . they procured such restrictions to be laid on peoples communicating in divine ordinances , that whereas before none were to communicate , but such as had in the course of their lives given good evidence that they feared god , and worked righteousness , now none must communicate but only those who would observe such outward orders , humane constitutions , and vnnecessary rites . and whereas anciently the censures of the church , especially excommunication , was not inflicted on any , unless they were stubborn opposers of the christian faith , or were guilty of some great immorality in their practice , they had now brought the christian religion to consist mainly in two points , viz. dignity and outward rites , and consequently the censures of the church were inflicted principally for peoples not being implicitely and blindly obedient . there was now nothing known to be disorderly walking , but not observing appointed rites ; nor no disobedience , but when people would not own their authority in every thing they injoyn'd . and then men might be as vicious as they pleas'd , swear , and be drunk , and commit all manner of lewdness , and yet be admirable zealous christians , because they were for the church . but if a man were ever so pious , strict , chast , and every way truly religious , yet if he would not pay them every groat they did unjustly demand , or would not observe every ceremony they did injoyn , they presently summon'd him , and if he would not then yield a blind obedience to their order , they forthwith gave him to the devil . men , tho extreamly vicious , yet having not worn away all sense of religion , are willing to strike in with that way , which has most publick countenance , especially if they perceive that some outward formalities are by that part most rigidly insisted on , and that by shewing a great zeal for these things they may both satisfie for their other immoralities , and be reputed , according to common vogue , religious to a high degree . and no wonder then , if such as these do in any age give out themselves for the only sons of the church , when they find the observation of these outward ceremonies is very consistent with the lusts and vices they are most fond of , and that much profit will accrue , by prosecuting others who are not satisfied in these things , and whose exemplary lives are a reproach and shame to them . men being very loath to put themselves to the trouble of a holy life , are very ready to embrace any thing , which may but dispence with that ; and if but listing themselves under such a party may but shelter them under a disguise of religion , none more ready than such to be known by distinguishing names , none more zealous in the defence of every tittle and punctilio that lies most remote from those essential duties wherein the kingdom of god consists , viz. righteousness , peace , and joy in the holy ghost . but that church is undoubtedly under very unhappy circumstances , which cannot have any owned for her children , who will not imitate the worst of men in their groundless zeal , their inhumane barbarity , and their detestable and most enormous immoralities . and as i have hitherto been speaking of what has been done in former ages , so i will adventure to say at present concerning pretenders to the church of england ; if there be any who go under this character , who would willingly bring this church under the same unhappy circumstances i have before mentioned , they are the greatest enemies she can possibly have . as satan has proved too successful formerly , in endeavouring to fill the church with wicked superstitious men , so he has done himself great , service , by instigating people to force others to comply in the use of needless rites , by great and pressing penalties . for this hath proved a very powerful expedient to advance two of those designs he doth principally endeavour to have furthered in the world . . it yields a very plausible pretence , under which wicked men may vent their wrath , and envy , and malice . for tho these bigots talk of the church and religion , yet they give too much evidence in their carriage , that what they do is the fruit of that rancour they have long cherished in their breasts , and which has quite cankered their spirits . the pretences these men do make , are but colours under which they may more decorously vent their venom and malignity . . it tends much to the utter extirpating of that love , and charity , and meekness , which are commended by christ and his apostles as the vital parts , the honor and glory of the christian religion . satan has created the church much trouble by causing divisions amongst christians . sometimes he has suggested errors and false doctrines to some who have professed christianity , and then has irritated them to make parties , and adhere resolutely to those tenets against all the demonstrations the orthodox could give them both of the falseness of their opinions , and how pernicious they would be in their consequences . but i think he has done religion more disservice by hurrying men into undue and peevish heats about humane devices , than he has been able to do , by instigating men to broach and publish such doctrines as have had an immediate plain and direct tendency to overthrow christianity . for under a pretence of the innocency of these former instances , and the great benefit some pious men have concluded would follow from the use of them , and the plausible arguments they might easily urge for them , he has first of all prevailed with men to lay out too much of their zeal about these things , and then by degrees has gone so far , as to obtain those very instances , which were at first designed by good men to be used only as decent and comely ceremonies , to be taught and injoyned as doctrines of christianity . we have too many instances of this in the church of rome . i will mention but one . there is no great doubt to be made , but that the primary design of those who first brought pictures and images into churches , was innocent ; but these had not been long there , before satan corrupted mens minds , and drew them to pay them a divine and religious worship . yea he prevailed with the leading and governing part of the church to espouse that cause so heartily , the did contend and declare that images not only ought to be set up , but to be worshipped . every man who hath taken any tollerable notice of the history of former times , must certainly know the church of christ has been often very miserably torn and rent , and divided , on the account of indifferent ceremonies . some have stubbornly refused to comply in the use of those rites for which others have had an extraordinary kindness , and these being impatient of that denial , have been too fierce and rigorous in imposing what they have said they did believe would be very useful . and what has been just matter of complaint in former ages , is thorough the craft of satan , and wicked hypocrisie of carnal men , a more than ordinary ground of fear and trouble to this present generation . we who profess our selves protestants , have stood a great while at some distance , and of late our difference has been exceedingly heightened , nay it is to be feared many attempts have been made by some sort of people , to render us wholly unreconcileable . this is the more deplorable , and has a more direful aspect , because we do on both sides lie under more then ordinary ingagements to unite as speedily and firmly as we can . besides the nature and tendency of our religion , and all that excellent provision christianity doth make to keep its professors from jars and unseemly quarrels , making meekness , and peace and love , and condescention , and mutual forbearance , some of its vital parts . besides this , and all the ordinary inducements to union , we are now in a very audible and visible manner called on , and importuned to do all we can on each side to unite . we must either unite , or we must perish . it is high time to leave off insisting on little punctilio's of honour ; we ought duly to weigh our circumstances , and the nature of the things we contend about , and if our dangers be unmeasurably great , and the things we differ about such as will not bear so great a weight , as the loss of our religion and all our rights , we must yield something on either side , and that side must be willing to part with most , that can do it with greatest ease , and most innocence . many eminent persons have imploy'd their thoughts to find out expedients by which our common enemy , the papists , may be hindred from getting so much advantage by our differences as they expect . no doubt the papists have had a great influence in increasing our divisions . they have been industrious in labouring to exasperate men , and work their passions beyond all government and moderation . nay tho some of our make-bates , who do wholly imploy their talents to widen our differences , do pretend to the church of england , i am verily perswaded they are either real papists , of very mischievous instruments in popish hands , to effect and bring about the common ruine of protestants . the weakening of the protestant cause , be it under what pretence soever , is undoubtedly very serviceable to the papists ; and whether this be done , by keeping up mutual animosities and contentions amongst us , to the weakening and impairing the strength of both sides , or by irritating the superior and prevailing part to squeeze and subdue the other by their power and might , is equally acceptable to them . this latter cuts off that supply the stronger part would undoubtedly have from the other , when assaulted by the common enemy . it is policy in the papists to imploy some of their own party to counterfeit , and feign , and pretend themselves of the church of england , and then ingage them and others under that pretence to endeavour the ruine of those they call dissenters , not only because they hate them , but because they know that having done thus , they shall be more successful in attempting the church of england . however , they are certain , if they can make us the executioners of their rage against our fellow protestants , they shall be better able to grapple with , and execute their own wrath on the church of england , when single and by her self . he that incouraged the two countrymen in their quarrel , and provoked them to fight with one another , till they were both absolutely tired , and when they were thus wearied , did murder them both , would no doubt have taken his revenge on the survivor , if one of them had killed the other . amongst the many methods and expedients found out for effecting a firm and lasting union amongst protestants , i think dr. stilling-fleet in his early years did hit on a very clear and infallible one , if it might be universally attended to , and countenanced by those in power . were we so happy but to take off things granted unnecessary by all , and suspected by many ; and judged unlawful by some ; and to make nothing the bounds of our communion , but what christ hath done , viz. on faith , one baptism , &c. allowing a liberty for matters of indifferency , and bearing for the weakness of those , who cannot bear things which others account lawful , we might indeed be restored to a true primitive lustre , far sooner than by furbishing up some antiquated ceremonies , which can derive their pedigree no higher than from some ancient custom and tradition : god will one day convince men that the union of the church lies more in the unity of faith and affection , than in uniformity of doubtful rites and ceremonies . it is a very great instance of the deplorable degeneracy of this age , that there are so many professed enemies to all moderation towards them who have different apprehensions concerning the indifferent appendages to our publick worship . nay their zeal against this moderation transports them into such indecencies , they will not only have it expunged the number of christian virtues , but they dare decry all who own and plead for it , as the worst of men . instead of observing that rule given by the apostle , let your moderation ( a virtue inclining us to such a kind of benign and equitable temper in our conversing with one another , whereby we may endeavour to preserve concord and amity in our treating concerning those things about which we differ ) we known unto all men , they seem to read it backward , and do in their practice publish to the world , they be resolved to let their rage and fury be known to all men . but the hurt would not be so great , if they would only publish their wilde and untameable temper under a private name , and not strive to injure and bespatter the church of england , by pretending her patronage . moderation is not only a christian duty , but a peculiar ornament to any church which doth espouse and practise it . and therefore those who do labour to represent the church of england under another character , by pretending to her in their fierce and outragious carriages , do as much as they can to baptise her antichristian , and under a pretence of justifying themselves in their worst demeanor , do strip her of one of the greatest excellencies , and chiefest ornaments the christian church doth enjoy , and can glory in . the ordinary matters , in dispute between us and other protestants , are not of that moment we should be so zealous and passionate about them . christian love and charity must not be lost and thrown away for such things . indeed where these are in any considerable degree , they will do very much to allay and quench those heats , into which passionate and inconsiderate people are too apt to be unduly hurried . we have at this time greater things which call for our zeal and concern to be imployd about : and the dangers we are in of losing them should mightily operate on us , and make us cautious , lest by any unsuitable carriage we should be any way instrumental to make that breach wider , through which popery is apparently labouring to thrust her self in amongst us . the great and weighty matters of religion , the very fundamentals of christianity are now assaulted by the papists . and if they can get but a little more advantage , we shall be in danger of having new articles added to our creed , and new sacraments administred in our churches . and therefore whilst in danger of having such innovations obtruded on us , we cannot have any time on leisure ( if heartily concerned for our religion and our souls ) to fall out and quarrel with one another about old rites and ceremonies . it is very sad to consider with what heat our present differences are managed on every hand , and that which doth very much hurt , is that debauch'd and lewd people are suffered to blow up our divisions into much greater flames and distances , than they would rise to , if only learned and serious , and pious men had the manageing of them . what! is it not high time to agree amongst our selves , now that hannibal is at our gates ? shall we give no hopes of an union amongst our selves , till being sacrifices to our enemies fury , we meet on both sides in popish flames , to witness to the same religion ? such blustering boisterous tempers as are all for the great river euphrates , which runs with a torrent and a mighty noise , and refuse the still waters of shiloah , which run soft and gently , as the prophet speaks , isa . . . such are no friends to peace , because 't is the latter which is the river whose streams must make glad the city of god , psal . . . that is , must promote the quiet and flourishing state of the church , as a reverend prelate hath elegantly exprest it . it is true and pure christianity we must mainly discover our zeal for ; and for other matters we must reduce them to their proper sphere and place , and allow them no more of our affection and zeal , than in their own nature they deserve , and the exigence of the church doth call for . our saviour lays no stress on any thing but real practical religion ; he does rather caution us against too much zeal about mint and cummin ( lest this should eat up the heart and life , and spirit of our devotion ) than oblige us to a particular and eminent discovery to great and extraordinary warmth about those things in which real religion is not immediately concerned . we find the apostles upon mature deliberation , and when they had the immediate assistance and guidance of the spirit , would lay no more on the disciples , than what was then necessary . and it would be no difficult thing to shew that they were not rigid towards those who did omit , and even refuse , afterwards to observe some of those injunctions they concluded necessary to be observed in that juncture of affairs , when they made that determination . i know some do insist very much on this question , whether the apostles had not power to determine indifferent ceremonies , so as to oblige the church in her several administrations to the use of some , and to forbear the use of all others ; and whether if any professors of christianity should obstinately have refused to comply with those orders , the apostles might not innocently and justly have excommunicated them for their contempt ? such kind of questions as these are very unnecessary , and i am affraid those who are so frequent in proposing these things in company , as some in the world are , have a design to trepan and insnare the unwary . i will say no more to this point at present than st . first of all , that i believe the apostles had as much authority and power , as any of those have who pretend to be their successors . ly . that they had so great a measure of divine grace communicated of them , as did effectually restrain them from using their authority arbitrarily , or in an inordinate and hurtful way . ly . they never made use of their power , that we read of , about these indifferent and unnecessary points . and therefore whether they would have proceeded to such censures as some talk of , if they had appointed any number of rites , and had not been obeyed , is not evident enough , to convince and satisfie inquisitive men . the question lies mainly here , whether if they had exerted this power , without divine direction , they would have resented every thing , imperious and haughty men have in after ages called contempts , with the same passion they have done ? 't is plain they thought it , if not more christian , yet more prudent , to forbear laying snairs in peoples way , and chose rather to suspend the exercise of their authority about these things , than to make any unseasonable use of it , and than vindicate it by so severe a course , as their delivering men unto satan did amount to . ly . i think it will be very difficult for any man to make it appear , that for some hundreds of years after the apostles , the christian orthodox church did ever require any thing more than common christianity as a term of church-communion . or that any ceremony was for so long a time imposed on the church . this is not designed in the least to reflect on the church of england , or to expect against any of her orders ; it is designed only to shew , . that neither christianity in the general , nor the being of a particular church , is concerned in our dispute ; and that therefore , considering our present circumstances , there is no need of discovering such immoderate heat in this business , as some men do manifest , and expect that all who pretend to the church should approve . . that some of those who do dissent from us , may have more plausible pretences for what they do , than some , who are inconsiderately furious against them , do imagin . but allowing that there may somtimes happen such cases , that the church may , and ought to proceed to great severity with some offenders , we cannot reasonably conclude hence , that every difference about outward rites and ceremonies , especially if managed with meekness , and other christian virtues , by those who do dissent , must be treated and prosecuted in that manner . this would be to make the church transcribe that quack's folly , who perceiving a skilful chyrurgeon had saved a mans life , and done him great service by cutting off his legg , when desperately gangreen'd , did advise one who was troubled with the head-ach to have his head cut off . the same medecine will not cure every disease , nor may the same remedy be applied to every part . moderation in these lesser things is certainly very desirable ; it may do the church great service . and whilst we are not obliged by any law to prosecute and ruine those who are not of our judgment in these things , either unnecessarily to turn informers our selves , or to wheedle or threaten others into such courses , is very unbecoming any who profess they have a desire to befriend the protestant religion in this day . the church of england is undoubtedly a very strong , and would be ( if it were not for these violent and headstrong bigots , who indanger the ruining the protestant religion under a glorious name and pretence ) an impregnable bulwark against popery . but she is not so by her injoyning any ceremonies , in which point she and other protestants do difler , but in her close and immovable adhering to those doctrines and practices which are common to us , with the generality of our sober and only scrupulous dissenters , and which are directly contrary to and destructive of popery . i dare affirm , that if the rites and ceremonies now in use in the church of england , should be altered , some changed , and some laid wholly aside , by the same authority which did at first injoyn them , the church of england would still be as impregnable a bulwark against popery , as now she is . and i am fully satisfied there is no man will deny this , unless he be either a real papist , or an ignorant superstitious fool. nor is this all that may be alledged , why we should be cautious of dealing harshly with those who differ from us in these things , and against whom we have nothing else to except . for the very consideration of the fruit and effect the continued imposing of these things has had on many , should both abate our vehemence against dissenters , and make us generally more inclinable to desire that some abatements might be legally made in these things , for the satisfying of those , who still remain unsatisfied . there are two dreadful events , which have followed these impositions . . many worthy , pious , and otherwise every way qualified persons , have been hindred from either entering or continuing in the lords vineyard , to labour and work publickly there . . the constant imposed use of these things hath almost unavoidably begot in the minds of ignorant and vulgar people , a belief that they are indispensably necessary , and undoubted parts of those ordinances to which they are annexed . i have known several who would as willingly have had their children and relations not baptized at all , as not to have the sign of the cross added . and this , not because it is required by authority , but because ( as they have professedly and openly owned ) they thought the baptism not good and valid without it . nay i have known when many arguments would not satisfie people , that private baptism without the cross ( and i know not how any man can justifie the use of the cross in that case ) was sound and true baptism , tho they have professed they did believe the child could not live half an hour . and in such cases the sign of the cross is i think at least contradictio in adjecto . and some of these were such i should scarce have believed had been so ignorant or superstitious , if i had not had a particular knowledge of it . and however both these effects might happen directly contrary to the primary design in appointing them , yet when these fruits do apparently spring from thence , whether naturally or only by accident , they may be enough to make those who have the greatest zeal for the power of godliness , desire that no more stress may be laid on these things , than their own nature will bear . for notwithstanding all the caution the church hath used to prevent these ill effects , by declaring her own design , and the true use and importance of these things , that has not been universally effectual to answer her design . neither her rubricks , her canons , no nor the admonitions of her clergy , have been so effectual to prevent mistakes and false conceptions about these things , as the constant , uninterrupted , and injoined use and practice of them , has been to ingender and create them in some mens minds . nor is it altogether improbable , but more minds would have been leavened with such false notions , as those mentioned before , if these things had been universally submitted to , and the contests and differences about them had not awakened people to consider them more distinctly , and get themselves acquainted with the proper design and true use of them . nor have i only observed , that some do misunderstand the church in injoyning the use of these ceremonies , by the particular knowledge i have had of their laying too much stress on these things , and looking on them as assential parts of ordinances , but i am inclined to think that many others are sensible what kind of thoughts some pretenders to our church have of these things . and this from the reasons some active men gave , why they would not yield to any alteration , when that admirable project of uniting us was on foot , and was managed by those eminent and glorious members of this church , lord keeper bridgeman , sir matthew hale , and dr. wilkins , afterwards bishop of chester . one reason why some zealous clergymen would not yield was , because , many such concessions might also shake those of our own communion , and tempt them to forsake us , and go over to the church of rome , pretending that we changed so often , that they were thereby inclined to be of a church that was constant and true to her self . i am for my own part well enough satisfied of the lawfulness of the several things required , but i see not any reason why i should be angry with others , because the same arguments which do convince me , have not the same influence on them . there are several arguments made use of to commend conformity in these things , and to prove the lawfulness of them , as now in use ; but they have not all that force and power on me , that some of them have . and it may be those arguments which sway most with me , are not so prevalent with others as some of the rest , which i cannot discern to be so concluding . now as it would be very absurd and ridiculous , if i and another , who are full conformists , should quarrel , because we are not equally affected with the same arguments ; so it would be very unreasonable , according to that measure of light i enjoy , if i should be testy with , and fierce against another , because he is not convinced in this unnecessary point by any of the arguments i can alledge for it . the church has said a great deal to signifie her own sense of these things , and to acquaint the world how innocent her design is in the use of them ; but seeing this declaration has not been of force to open some mens eyes , or to remove their scruples , 't is certain the removing some of the things themselves which are most insisted on , and scrupled by dissenters , would more effectually convince them ( if authority should see fit to try that expedient ) how indifferent she doth esteem them . this brings to my remembrance that apologue beza made use of , after grindal had acquainted him with the import of the rubrick which was designed to prevent those ill consequences beza did suspect . the apologue was very much to this purpose , a certain nobleman having finished his house , did suffer a very great stone he had no occasion for to lie before the house , at this stone people did very often stumble , when they walked that way in the dark , which occasioned some complaints ; the nobleman would not suffer it to be taken away , but ordered a lanthorn should be hung over it . this not effectually securing people from the inconveniences which happened by its lying there , the nobleman was at last intreated to remove both the stone and the lanthorn , by doing of which he would both ease himself of much trouble , and do the people good service . having said thus much in general , by way of plea for moderation towards some who do dissent from the church of england , i will add something more particularly , being as it were loudly and earnestly called to it , both by the dorcetshires grand jury's presenting , at the last assizes holden at sherburne , my sermon against persecution , and by the noise and stir some who would be thought great men do make about that sermon ; in which i have said but little in comparison of what may truly be said for some dissenters . for there i have only accidentally faln on that point , and have engaged no further , than to warn some hasty and inconsiderate people , that they do not rashly and furiously engage in prosecuting their quiet , religious , honest and peaceable neighbours , lest by ruining them on the account of some differences they do not rightly understand , they should at last be found guilty of such a sin , as cannot be expiated by the little , sleight , and frivolous pretences they are at present inclined to urge for their own vindication . what i will further say in this matter , i intend to bring under these heads . st . i will say something of the matter in dispute between us and the dissenters . ly , i will give both a general and particular account of the people i plead for . ly , i will very briefly answer those objections i understand are ordinarily in these parts raised against my sermon . and here i shall have occasion to shew , that the exercise of that moderation i plead for , will very well comport with true conformity . st . i will say something of the matter in dispute betwixt us and the dissenters . i do not doubt but there are some who do except against the form of our church government , pleading a jus divinum for some other . but i do not intend to meddle much in this controversie ; for i never yet found any argument pleaded by the several pretenders that way , that could fully satisfie and convince me of the jus divinum of any one particular form of church government . very learned and pious men do disagree in this point , yea they apply some of the best arguments they can joyntly agree in for the evidencing of what they assert , with great strength , to their own different ways . nay the learned'st who have appeared for the jus divinum of episcopacy , have in their agreeing on this notion , suspected each others arguments , and have therefore found out different hypotheses on which they would superstruct this common notion , and prove it undeniably to the world . and indeed the ways they have taken to clear and confirm this notion , are some of them directly destructive of others . saint hierom's account of original of episcopacy , does in the judgment of very learned men carry a great deal of probability with it . and the learned dr. hammond has scarce given a full , absolute and satisfactory answer to all that blondel offers in vindication of that notion . no nor does mr. maurice's reflecting on some litte instance in st hierom , to invalidate his notion , render it so ridiculous and uncooth , as he seems to fancy . but allowing dr hammonds notion , it quite throws the priesthood out of doors , and makes the middle order a meer humane invention , and so degrades the priests more than those did , who occasioned st hierom's advancing them ( as some think ) too high , and making them to differ very little from bishops . the truly eminent dr. burnet , who is equally famous for his universal learning , as for his excellent and extraordinary historick talent , and who above most writers , is solid and victorious in his reasonings , does in my apprehension offer the most plausible account for the jus divinum of episcopacy . but i think i shall scarce ever be made an absolute proselyte to that doctrine , till i see a more clear , full , and distinct answer to dr. stilling fleets most rational and elaborate irenicum , than any yet extant . and the naming of this last book will be enough to manifest that an owning of the jus divinum of episcopacy is not necessary to conformity . some who insist very much on this jus divinum run their notion a great deal too far , and their keeping such a stir as they do about succession ( whereas i cannot find that any of the first fathers did insist on any other succession , than a succession in faith ) will suggest to some men , unrecoverable doubts concerning all our ministry , and the validity of all our administrations . there has been a great dispute concerning the possibility of personal assurance of salvation . this doctrine of succession will go a great way to determine the question in the negative . and indeed it offers too great occasion ( if we allow the notion ) to question the validity of most ministrations in the world . for , supposing that some were anciently made bishops by presbyters , as the most learned arch-bishop vsher durst have undertook to have proved , and for a belief of which , we have a great deal of ground from what st. hierom saith of the bishops at alexandria . for these not receiving their power in a regular way , viz. not from those who had authority and commission to communicate and give it , all the ordinations they did afterwards celebrate , will prove null ( according to this principle ) ; and of how vast and wide an extent this might be , or how long a time this spurious communication of orders did continue , is too difficult a point for the most curious and exact critick to resolve . nay , for ought any one can tell , some of the ordinations , which now go for currant , might appear , if they could be run up to those ages , to derive from some of those impotent and unauthorized bishops . 't is a very hard task for people to undertake to prove to themselves , the administrations they partake of are valid , by proving the valid ordination of him who ministers . for , it is not enough that one who is called a bishop , and was consecrated according to the rules of a particular church , did ordain him who officiates , but you must prove that that bishop's ordainers , and so upwards , till you come to them who were ordained by the apostles , had every one of them a true , regular , episcopal ordination . and it will be a very unsafe , tho it may appear to be an easie way , to perswade people to be satisfied with a belief that the providence of god is obliged to maintain this succession unblemisht in the world . for he may do that , and yet the greatest part of those ordinations , which are called episcopal , be notwithstanding invalid , because of some mixture , either further distant , or nearer at hand . but tho this notion obtains very much in these days , our great church-men , and those who were high enough for episcopacy formerly , had other thoughts , and abhorred to strain their opinions to countenance such uncharitableness , as this notion doth include . for , when some were to be ordained bishops for scotland , an. dom. . dr. andrews , then bishop of ely , proposed a question concerning the consecration of those bishops , whether they must not first be ordained presbyters , because they had not received ordination from a bishop ? but dr. bancroft , arch-bishop of canterbury , maintain'd there was no need of it ; for the ordination given by presbyters , when bishops could not be had , must be owned lawful . and then the bishop of ely did acquiesce , the other bishops being of that judgment . that which i design to take notice of , as the matter in dispute between us and the dissenters , is the ceremonies we use , and they do scruple . and i must needs say , i apprehend it a very great unhappiness that such divisions should be amongst us , and continue so long , whilst occasioned by such things as are but trifling and frivolous , when compared with the great things in which we agree . tho i plead for moderation towards those who cannot come up to us in these things , and that busie intemperate people , who lye under no obligation to interpose and make themselves acceslary to the causing of fines and mulcts , or heavier censures , to be inflicted on their sober , honest , pious , but scrupupulous neighbours , may not have any incouragement in their doing thus , but may meet with those checks and reprimands as shall prove effectual to restrain them from that course ; yet i do heartily wish all could be fairly satisfied concerning the lawfulness of the several things which are now appointed . but i think much may be said by them who are satisfied concerning these things , to shew the great reasonableness of compassion and tenderness towards them who do at present dissent . besides , i perceive that by the serious and diligent use of those methods which are universally acknowledged most agreeable with a christian church and ministry , many of those for whom i plead may be prevailed with to a considerable compliance in a little time . for i have known several , who have been wholly proselyted to our church , by the practical sermons , exemplary lives , and the rational serious discourses of some of our clergy , and by the calm and meek endeavours they have used to satisfie their judgments , and remove their scruples . and i do not doubt but if these and the like courses were every where duly observed and incouraged , it would evidently appear there is not the thousandth part of that need to use more severe methods , which some apprehend there is . but it is a great unhappiness , we have so many who pretend to the church of england , who are her greatest disgrace , and who will not allow we make any proselytes to the church , unless we do prevail with them to sit , ordinarily ten times as long in a tavern or alehouse , as the longest service appointed for any day in the year , and a sermon of near an hour long at the end of it , will oblige them to stay at church . it would undoubtedly be a great honour to our church , if all who pretend to her , would lay out the chief of their zeal for real religion , and then labour to win on , and proselyte those who do dissent in these lesser things , by condescending and yielding what they may , and treating them with meekness and love . the very appearances of a calm temper have a charm in them , but the effects of them in concurrence with other prudent methods , are most irresistible . in sum , it is better to be over-run and ruined in the ways of meekness , than to conquer all the world by cruelty . in the one we bear the cross , and suffer for righteousness sake ; in the other we triumph in the garments of antichrist , died red with the blood of those , who , tho in errors , yet may be good men in the main , for ought we know . thus speaks the learned dr. burnet , who in all his writings discovers an eminently primitive , christian , healing spirit . i might mention many things , now i am taking notice of the great matter in dispute between us , which may incline sober and pious minds to dislike all unnecessary heat and severity towards those who are not able to attain to so great a latitude in relation to these things , as we are satisfied with . but i will neither multiply instances to an irksom number , nor insist on those i shall name , so as to make them tedious . i will name but seven things , and they are such as will conduce something to abate that violent and unaccountable peevishness some have allowed themselves in , if considered with that candor and equanimity which becomes every christian , and every man who would judge fairly of things . st . it is unquestionably certain , that the closer any church doth keep , or the nearer she approach to the first churches , in their simplicity , and fredom from humane inventions , the more justifiable she will be . she will be the freer from those contagions which are too apt to prevail when way is given to every thing that either a subtle man can represent as plausible , or a pious affectionate man may apprehend useful . i do not plead for reducing the church to its ancient and primitive poverty , nor do i in the least incline to that opinion , that there may not be some external difference in the church when under prosperous circumstances , from that she observed when persecuted and under storms . but undoubtedly , there is no absolute necessity of making new terms of communion , because the outward face of affairs is altered . the less there is of humane inventions mixed with the worship of god , the more genuine and the liker it is to that which the apostles and primitive christians did observe . nor do we find that outward circumstances were very much insisted on by the orthodox , till very considerable corruptions were crept into the church . and tho this doth not argue or conclude against the lawfulness of any thing the church of england doth injoyn ( for i do not urge it for that end ) yet it may induce us to have much charity and tenderness for them , who have such a regard to what was only observed and injoyned in the first churches , they are almost afraid to deviate from them , even in such particulars as are innocent and free . the first churches were so taken up with the great , necessary , and substantial parts of religion , they had no time to fall out and quarrel about indifferent , circumstantial appendages . indeed we do not read of any contendings about these things till some , either very ill , or very weak men , had a mind to lay an unnecessary and uneasie yoke on the rest of their brethren . there ought to be a great deal of care taken , when ever any unnecessary instances are admitted so much as to border on the worship of god. for god is very jealous of his honour , and we can scarce be too wary in giving way to humane inventions in divine service , because our minds are too prone to adhere over-much to what is sensible . nay , we too easily give more way and room to those particulars which are at first commended under very specious , colourable , and innocent pretences , than we can afterwards justifie to be lawful . however , this is apt to lay us too open to the treacherous insinuations with which cunning and subtle men will labour to commend to us other instances which be directly sinful . but we must take heed not only that we yield not in things really evil , but that we do not transgress due bounds in the use of those things which are harmless . a very ill use has been made of many things which were without doubt originally well intended ; yea , those very particulars which devout and holy men have found serviceable to them in the raising of their affections to the best things , have been of ill consequence when peremptorily injoyned on all . there ought not any thing to be universally required of all men in the service of god , but what has either equal agreeableness to all mens tempers , or a direct and certain tendency to advance the interest of religion more or less in all men . for , some instances which are proper to excite and quicken devotion in some mens breasts , have not the like tendency in reference unto others ; and the goodness of the end will not justifie an universal imposition , till you can first of all make all men of one complexion . ly . teaching that humane authority has an unlimited power to impose any thing on the church which is not expresly forbid in scripture , may be of dangerous consequence . it is generally acknowledged ( i think ) by most parties , that it doth pertain to humane authority to determine those circumstances relating to the worship of god , which do belong to those acts , considered as they are humane acts. some circumstances must unavoidably accompany every external religious performance , because it is impossible for man to act , and his acts be stript of all circumstances ; and therefore it is generally allowed , that those circumstances without which the joint celebration of divine ordinances cannot be observed , should be determined by humane authority . as to other ceremonies , which are not necessary to these performances , some do apprehend they are left free by christ , and therefore should not be constrained and compelled by men . there have been great disputes in the church about this matter . and some have declared their sense in very large words , even so as to make way for the bringing of very strange innovations , into the church . for , st . it is not demonstrably certain , that humane authority has power any further , than to restrain and punish disorders , and indecencies in the church . and if so , tho we our selves may be satisfied to serve god in the way appointed by authority , we cannot thence fairly conclude it lawful to ruine others who serve god without our ceremonies , but in a way that is grave and decent as well as ours . for , if it should at last happen , notwithstanding all the probabilities we have on our side , that the extent of humane authority in these matters , is only to keep men within decent and comly bounds , and to punish them when they are disorderly , irreverent , and rude ; and that it doth not reach to determine one way decent and orderly , so as to make all other wayes , ( which are in themselves equally decent ) unlawful ; i say , if it should thus fall out at last , then all those who do unnecessarily engage themselves in the immoderate courses i am disswading from , may wish , when it is too late , they had followed the safest advice . ly . the limitations usually prescribed to the exercise of this power , by those who yield it in a great measure , are such as will not secure us from all the dangerous inconveniences which do attend this power when unlimited . indeed , if humane authority has such a power belonging to it of right , as some do affirm , there cannot be very much said on the point . and therefore i will only propose two questions for such to think upon . quest . . who has power to circumscribe and restrain it within the bounds they do sometimes prefix ? quest . . how shall we be secured , when under the conduct and government of either a popish , or very supersti●ious prince , from having all those popish ceremonies injoyned which were in force in the latter part of king henry the ths reign ? if the publick and governing judgment and conscience must be undeniably the rule and standard in these things for all the governed , i cannot discern how we can be excused from an obligation to observe all those rites and ceremonies that were then appointed , if we be ever so unhappy as to be cast under the influence of a prince who can be prevailed with to be superstitious enough to think those ceremonies not too many , and that they are ancient , and expedient ; especially if he do declare them to be required , as that king did , not as parts of worship , but for a more honourary , and decorous performance of it * . ly . the things we contend about , are of such a nature , they cannot bear so much weight as some would lay upon them . there have been in most ages a sort of pretenders to religion , who , like aesop's dog , have parted with the substance for an empty shadow ; only in this they appear worse , because he catching at both , lost what he had , they willingly part with the substance , and aim at no more than an outward shew . it was thus in our saviours time . the scribes and pharisees , yea the priests and high-priests , the ruling clergy in those days , did suffer , nay teach men to break divine laws , if they would appear zealous for their doctrines and superstitions . for ought i can perceive , men might then commute for as many sins , by crying , the temple of the lord , the temple of the lord , as some hope to do now by crying , o the church , the church . these things are at best but meer accidental and separable appendages . they may ( if authority see fit ) be removed , and religion remain as entire and pure at it is with them . and therefore for a man to be as zealous about these , as if religion it self did lye at stake , is every jot as absurd and foolish , as if a man should pay the very same respect and veneration to a princes meanest servant , which he and all other men acknowledge due only to the prince himself . but when men can no more trample religion under foot , neither regard its doctrines , nor live agreeably to its precepts , and yet will be peevish and fierce against all who are not as ceremonious as themselves ; when they will ordinarily swear , and be drunk , and commit all sorts of wickedness with greediness , and yet express an extraordinary zeal for these circumstantials ; this is to imitate him , who when he has cut his sovereigns throat , does bow , and cringe , and appears extraordinarily respectful to his page or footboy . how unseemly a thing is it , to hear a drunken swearing debauchee , declaiming against dissenters , and crying out , the church , the church ? 't is much more fit the censures of the church should be inflicted on such men , to the throwing of them out of her communion , till they obtain more grace , and learn more modesty , than that they should patronize and defend their lusts by such a plea. these things are not matters of such moment , that moderate and pieus men should lay forth much of their zeal about them . men on both sides may go to heaven , and when they are there , they will not quarrel about such things ; why then should those things create such distances at present ? nay sufferings and the sight of death can reconcile and unite their hearts and affections , who may at present be unduly hot either way . ridley and hooper were perfectly reconciled , notwithstanding their former differences about such matters as these , when they were both to suffer for the protestant religion ; yea ridley , who was on the conforming side , does now write to hooper , who had scrupled some things , that now he was entirely united to him , tho in some circumstances of religion they had formerly jarred a little . and he adds , it was hooper's wisdom , and his own simplicity , that divided them , every one following the abundance of his own sense . but now he assured him , that in the bowels of christ , he loved him in the truth and for the truth . dr. burnet's reflection on this is very useful . it had been happy ( says he ) if the fires that consumed those good men , had put an end to these contests , and if those who have been since ingaged in the like , will reflect more on the sense they had of them , when they were now preparing for eternity , than on the heats they were put in concerning them , when perhaps ease and plenty made their passions keener , they may from thence be reduced to have more moderate thoughts of such matters . those who are so stiff in this day , and do industriously prosecute to the utmost those brethren who are of the same religion they pretend to , and do differ only in these lesser unnecessary points , yea dare declaim against , and rail at them , who were so much of late for effecting a true reconciliation , and a lasting union amongst us , in a legal way , are certainly very far from approving themselves true-sons of the church of england . for parliaments , whose authority alone has given a sanction to these things , are most sit to take into their consideration whether it be convenient to make any alteration or not ; unless men will have them to be unaltereble . and if any think them so , they may learn from the church of england her self , how much they have apostatized from her , and what dirt they endeavour to fling in her face . for she saith expresly , they may be altered . and no meaner a conformist than mr. thorndike , doth say , the form of service now inforce by law may be acknowledged capable of amendment , without disparagement either to the wisdom of the church that prescribed it , or of the nation that enacted it . mens laying too much stress on these things , and treating others too rigorously for not believing or practising in these matters as they like best , has occasioned more mischief than i can easily describe . what mr. burges said concerning ceremonies , in his sermon before king james , was very true and moderate . viz. they are like the roman senators glasses , which were not worth a mans life or livelyhood : for ( saith he ) this senator invited augustus caesar to a dinner , and as he was coming to the feast he heard a horrid outcry , and saw some company drawing a man after them that made that noise . the emperour demanding the cause of that violence ; it was answered , their master had condemned him to the fish-ponds , for breaking a glass which he set a high value and esteem upon . caesar commanded a stay of the execution , and when he came to the house , he asked the senator whether he had glasses worth a mans life ? who answered ( being a great lover of such things ) that he had glasses he valued at the price of a province . let me see them ( saith augustus ) . the senator then brought him to a room very well furnished : the emperor saw them beautiful to the eye , but knew withall they might be the cause of much mischief , therefore he brake them all , with this expression , better all these perish than one man. my author saith he left it to his majesty to apply , and so do i to the reader . did those we call dissenters refuse to yield as ready and free a submission and obedience to any of the laws we look on as purely civil , as any amongst our selves , i do not know any man that would plead for them , tho they were prosecuted with great severity . but if their consciences are so strait they cannot yield in these other instances relating to religion , it will be generally allowed they are not to be blamed whilst their consciences are so affected * , and to say peremptorily it is not conscience , but humour and fancy , is not only placing your selves in god's throne , and taking too much upon you , but it is every jot , as uncharitable , as some mens proceedings are severe . especially considering they are made of flesh and blood , as well as we conformists be ; and they know ( it may be better than we do , even by experience ) what the difference is betwixt a warm house , and a cold and nasty prison , betwixt the poverty and other inconveniences under which many of them suffer , and the comfortable enjoyments many of us do share in . thousands of pounds , and hundreds by the year , would be money to them , as well as to any of us . and if it be not conscience that makes them deny themselves , as to these things , but it must still pass for fancy and humour , 't is such a humour ( i believe ) most of those who are fiercest against them , are very little acquainted with . that passage of st. austin deserves to be particularly considered , and often thought on , where he tells us it is a very unworthy and unbecoming thing , to condemn and judg one another for such things as will not render us of greater or of less value with god. indignum est ut propter ea quae nos deo neque digniores , neque indigniores possunt facere , alii alios vel condemnemus vel judicemus . ly . i never yet met with any argument ( especially that i can at present call to mind ) for the absolute inforcing of some particular needless ceremonies to be observed in the church by all who live under one civil government , but what would be of the same force if it were applied to all the churches in the world . there is as much reason ( i think ) that every church , and every congregation for the service of god , throughout the world , should observe the same ceremonies ( if we only respect the observations and reflections heathens , strangers , and enemies to our holy faith will make , when they see that in one and the same nation people professing the same religion do observe different rites ) as that all the congregations in one nation should : because the enemies of christianity have the same ground to make the very same reflections on our religion , when they observe that those who profess the same religion , and own the same faith , and use the very same ordinances in different nations , have such a disagreement amongst themselves , they cannot consent together in the use of the same rites . for the reason of their reflection in this case , is grounded on the unity of their faith and religion . and it is universally acknowledged they make up but one church , in how many kingdoms and nations so ever they be . now what peculiar reason can be given , on the account of religion , why it is more unseemly , and will give greater occasion of offence , for several congregations , which are but parts of one and the same particular church , or for several particular churches , which are but parts of the national church , to observe and use different ceremonies , than for several national churches , which are but parts of the one universal church , to do so . and seeing the notion of catholick communion is particularly insisted on at this time , and urged with some earnestness , some solid and weighty reason , ( such as may satisfie inquisitive men ) should be given , why catholick communion should not have catholick terms . but i cannot perceive any such , in the writings of dr. sherlock , the great manager of this argument , tho' he doth assert , that all christians are bound to joyn in communion with that part of the church where the providence of god doth place them . ly . long and often experience hath made it undeniably evident , that the putting of penal laws rigorously in execution against humble , modest , conscientious dissenters , ( and i plead only for such ) hath not answered the design and end for which they were intended . and therefore it may be more excuseable , if those who were formerly very warm for the prosecution of dissenters , do now after so many years experience begin to be more moderate , and desire that a more amicable expedient may be found out to compose our differences ; severity is not a proper method for the satisfying of mens judgments , or the removing of their scruples . and tho' the using of such courses may hinder people from assembling so publickly as they desire , nay may make some comply in opposition to their own judgments , yet it never made any real proselytes ; it has rather prepared the minds of others to have a greater compassion towards , and liking of them . and therefore when ever by accident , necessity , or of choice the reins have been let loose , and they have found any indulgence , those very persons , who according to some mens thoughts were reclaimed , have faln off , and multitudes of others have discovered an unwonted inclination towards them . this is evident in all the instances historians do relate , and particularly in all those a late author hath taken notice of , with a design to urge and promote the severe and rigid prosecuting of all dissenters , without any difference . severity has conduced as much as any thing to the growth and spreading of nonconformity , as all those instances do demonstrate . for the more any tollerable party is afflicted and frown'd upon , the more is that party admired and owned , if such occurrences do happen , that any favour and kindness must be shewed unto it . and the true reason why the nonconformists did multiply so numerously when the publick state of affairs did require them to be indulged , was not because they were then tollerated , but because they had been before treated with obvious roughness and severity , and under that usage had demeaned themselves with a very becomeing and graceful exemplary carriage . if you will absolutely vanquish and root out nonconformity by severe methods , there are two things at least which you must have a peculiar regard to , and be able to effect . st . you must lay an invincible check and restraint upon gods providence , so that he may not suffer any publick occurrence to intervene , which will make it necessary to tollerate and indulge those who do dissent , till you have effectually subdued them all , and absolutely destroy'd both root and branch . for if there should be a publick necessity to indulge them , after they have been vigorously prosecuted for a time , their numbers will undoubtedly be much greater than they were before . and there is scarce an instance to be given of moderate dissenters being prosecuted with great warmth and unecessary heat , but , in a little time after , there has been some or other very notable emergency which has rendred it very necessary to have them entertained with great clemency and gentleness . . if you destroy them all , with an indifferent , undistinguishing hand , you must keep a strict and constant watch over them after they are dead , lest a greater generation of the like sort do arise and spring out of their blood and ashes . nay , you must be able to stop and stifle the cry of their blood , lest otherwise the nation being so throughly drench'd with it , the clamorous noise of that blood coming into gods ears , do provoke him to pour out such dreadful vials on us , as will make us at once to cease being a church or people . it is an excellent , true , and very useful observation which bishop taylor made concerning force and extremity in matters of religion . viz. when religion puts on armour , and god is not acknowledged by his new testament titles , religion may have in it the power of the sword , but not the power of godliness , and we may complain of this to god , and amongst them who are afflicted , but we have no remedy but what we must expect from the fellowship of christs sufferings , and the returns of the god of peace . ly . it was never known that any indifferent ceremonies were universally imposed in a knowing age , and the judgments and opinions of all good men did consent and agree to them . indeed i think there never was such an attempt made , till popery had got a great influence over the christian world . i am perswaded there never was an universal compliance in imposed indifferences , till popery had involved people in a more than egyptian and almost inextricable darkness . some do think it would be as commendable to oblige all men to have the same face , as to have in every respect the same judgment . indeed men would have just ground to wonder , if a law should be made , requiring all men to be of one bulke , and stature , and forbidding them to eat and drink ( at least in company ) if they fail to observe it . but i am sure i have some where read of a certain expedient that was sometimes made use of to make dwarfs , and breed them to be all of one bigness . it was not any such stratagem as procustes used to make his friends and visitants of one length , viz. cutting off their heads if they were too long , and racking them ought of joynt if they were too short . this looks like the persecuting way made use of in some forreign parts of the world , when mens judgments and consciences do not answer the politick standard . the way i speak of , differs very much from this . for it will let people grow till they be of a just size , and then stops them that they shall not increase one jot . 't is couping them up at first , and then dieting them proportionably , and never suffering them to stir out of their first enclosure , till they have not only stuft it quite up , but are quite past growing . if you would have all men of the same mind in every thing relating to the service and worship of god , and what men call so , the most effectual expedient will be to involve them in the same gross ignorance in which their ancestors were held under the romish yoke . there is no way so likely to make men to entertain any thing without scruple , as keeping them in so much darkness they cannot see , or making them so dull they cannot examine things . people are never brought to a servile submission to all kind of impositions , till they have for some time been inured to an implicite faith , and then you may obtrude on them what you please . ly . very great and considerable alterations have been made in our rubricks , our publick service , and our articles , in order to the bringing of the papists to join with us in our worship , and to prevent our giving them so much as the colour of a pretence for their withdrawing from our communion . and if so much might be parted with to gratifie our worst and most implacable enemies , even them who differ from us in the very substantials of religion , is it not highly reasonable we should express some moderation and tenderness towards them , who are in every thing of the same religion with us , and do only differ about some unnecessary ceremonies ? but there are too many who pretend to this church , who discover they are of the mind that we cannot manifest too much complacency in those who are avowedly of the popish perswasion , nor appear inexorable enough towards our afflicted fellow protestants . how many are there who pretend to be sons of the church of england , and yet dare openly declare they have a greater aversion to protestant dissenters than popish recusants ? what hopeful church of england men will these be , if the sins of this nation should rise so high as to provoke god to pour on us the vials of his displeasure , and to imbitter , nay poison them all , by adding the greatest of all other plagues , making us subject to a popish governor ? dr. heylin tells us there was great care taken for expunging all such passages in the book of common prayer , &c. as might give any scandal or offence to the popish party , or be urged by them in excuse for their not coming to church , &c. in the litany that most excellent passage was expunged , where we pray to be delivered from the tyranny and all the detestable enormities of the bishops of rome . in the communion-service a whole rubrick against the popish doctrine of the sacrament was expunged . and in the original copy of the articles there is a very considerable addition to the th article , which doth expresly declare that no christian ought either to believe or profess the real and corporal presence of the flesh and blood of christ in the encharist , giving a very strong and invincible reason for it . but because some alledged that such an express definition against a real presence might drive from the church many who were still of that perswasion , &c. therefore those words were by common consent left out . is it not a very strange and unreasonable thing that some great pretenders to the church of england , should think it lawful , and consistent with their pertaining to that church , to be familiar , and converse ordinarily with , nay feast , and it may be revel and be drunk with professed papists , and yet fail at , and declaim against others who are much truer conformists than themselves , because they dare visit , and have sober and neighbourly communication with pious , honest , sober , peaceable protestant dissenters ? i offer these things to peoples consideration , not to except against the lawfulness of any thing the church of england doth injoyn and practise , but only to mind some who do unnecessarily ingage in the prosecuting of their honest peaceable neighbours , that there are several things which have some weight in them to oblige us to forbear all unnecessary severity towards people who are not yet in every thing of our judgments . but some will be ready to say , what do you plead for all sorts of dissenters , or only some particular sects ? and if so , why do you not name the sects you plead for ? i answer , i am against all sects , parties , and divisions in the church , and i look on all the factious reproachful names people professing themselves christians are listed under , as pernicious devices of the devil to help forward division , and to molest and injure that common christianity we do all pretend to . i am sorry any who profess themselves christians do lay so much stress on any thing in which christianity is not immediately concerned , as to give occasion for people to coin any other name , by which they may be distinguished from others , than that by which the disciples and believers were first called at antioch . i do not consider people by the names of reproach atheists and prophane men do set on them , but by what i do really find them in their open profession and general practice . but that you may know more distinctly who they be i plead for , i will now say something to the second point i proposed . which is , ly . to give both a general and particular account of the people for whom i plead . and in general , i plead for all who deserve the character i gave in the preface to my sermon against pesecution , of many dissenters with whom i had particular acquaintance . i believe there are many of the same stamp and merit amongst them , with whom i never had any acquaintance . let people come under what denomination soever , if i can discern no just ground to doubt but god will accept them , i think i owe them a very great respect and deference ; and therefore i do profess i rejoyce in the conversation of all whom i apprehend i have good cause to believe do fear god and work righteousness , and i mourn to consider how differences are kept alive and heightened betwixt them and other good men . we all ought to have a great tenderness for , and regard to all those who are vigorous protestants ( that is , who profess and own all the doctrines of christianity the church of england doth , and do oppose and reject all those tenets which are truly popish : for it is not mens owning or renouncing some indifferent ceremonies , which makes them protestants , or of the reformed religion ) who are exemplarily pious and virtuous in their conversations , and who live peaceably and soberly , and do not indeavour any unlawful alteration in the government . i plead for moderation towards such as were known some time since to the kings majesty , and all who answer that character he was pleased to give of them who had attended on him in holland . his words are these , when we were in holland we were attended by many grave and learned ministers from hence , who were looked on as the most able and principal assertors of the presbyterian opinions , with whom we had as much conference , as the multitude of affairs which were then upon us would permit us to have , and to our great satisfaction and comfort , found them persons full of affection to us , of zeal for the peace of the church and state , and neither enemies ( as they have been given out to be ) to episcopacy or liturgy , but modestly to desire such alterations in either , as without shaking foundations might best allay the present distempers which the indisposition of the time , and tenderness of some mens consciences had contracted . those nonconformists do deserve a peculiar respect and kindness from our church , who really scrupeling some things , do comply with us as far as possibly they can under their present apprehensions , and do publickly declare themselves against erecting altare contra altare , nay who are particularly cautious of pressing others not to conform . indeed if all who do at present dissent , and are capable of examining the matters in difference betwixt us , would carefully lay aside all partiality and prejudice , and not dare to indulge themselves in making parties , or in suggesting unnecessary doubts to any , but would rather comply themselves to the utmost they are able , and perswade others to joyn with us in divine ordinances , by removing and answering those objections and scruples which are sometimes alledged , and which they themselves are satisfied are of no force , i am perswaded they would do themselves great right , the church of god much service , and be greatly instrumental towards the composing those differences which have long weakened the protestant interest , and given too great advantage to the common enemy . and such as these there are undoubtedly amongst them we call dissenters . nay i am perswaded the reverend mr. baxter , ( tho' by some reproachfully and very desingenuously called the provincial of the protestant schismaticks ) hath by his writings , practice , and advice , prevailed with as many to be in communion with our church , as any one man whosoever in the kingdom . and the very learned mr. hickman has not only often declared in private his aversion to disswade any against conformity , but has also published in print his dislike of nonconformists being over zealous in pressing others not to conform . more particularly i plead for moderation towards , st . men of such learning as mr. baxter , mr. hickman , &c. these and many more have given the world undeniable and very signal evidences of their being men of extraordinary reading and judgment . they are great ornaments in their generation , and very shining lights in the church of god. the christian world will ( no doubt ) have a great veneration for them as long as it shall endure . future ages will honour their memories with all the respect and intimations of high affection found christianity will allow , when their inveterate malicious enemies shall have their names continued only to be used as a proverbial obloqui and reproach . ly . men of such loyalty as mr. cooke , mr. harrison , and mr. kerby , &c. these have adventured further , and suffered more for the king , than most ( nay it may be any ) of those who under these present favourable circumstances do talk so much of loyalty and obedience . it is easie talking of these things when this is the way to preferment . but these i have named , did talk and preach for them , when they were in danger of losing their lives for doing so . it seems very strange to me that those who could keep their places in the late times of usurpation , and on the turn of affairs could swallow down , and dispence with more than some of their neighbours could , should now be thought more loyal than those who lost their benefices in those days , nay were imprisoned and in danger of losing their lives too , because of their avowed adhering to the king , and cannot dispense with the same oaths , and some other instances to redeem their benefices , others could to keep them . ly . men of such extraordinary charity , modesty , and other eminent virtues as mr. tho. gouge was , and others amongst them are . there are very many amongst them we call dissenters , who are so eminent for the practice of the best , and in this age the most rare virtues , it will be no disparagement for at least some conformists to propose them as patterns to themselves ; and more particularly in the exercise of moderation towards them who differ from us in judgment even in such instances as we have a singular kindness for . the pious and reverend dr. tillotson thinks mr. tho. gouge , before named , worthy to be a pattern in this to men of all perswasions . his words are these . allowing others to differ from him even in opinions which were very dear to him , and provided men did but fear god , and work righteousness , he loved them heartily , how distant soever from him in judgement about things less necessary . in all which he is very worthy to be a pattern to men of all perswasions whatsoever . now what crime is it for a conformist to plead for moderation towards such men as these ? or for a son of the church of england to endeavour to give some check to the immoderate heat and peevishness of those furious and head-strong bigots , who by unnecessary ingaging themselves in prosecuting their peaceable religious neighbours , do indanger the weakening the protestant interest , and the making the church of england her self a sacrifice to the rage , and trophy of the conquest of her most inveterate and indefatigable enemies ? but however innocent and justly commendable the thing is in it self , the practice of it does not appear so safe , and to have such general countenance as it deserves . this is evident enough by the treatment the late sermon against persecution hath had amongst men of certain characters . but the world will in time be satisfied that places and garments do not make men better . they may yield them greater opportunities than they had before to discover what they truly are . tie ass was an ass as well when he had the lions skin on his back , as when it was off . nay that lions skin must be very large that can cover and hide the asses ears . can the ethiopian change his skin , or the leopard his spots ? then may ye who are accustomed to do evil , learn to do good . notwithstanding such a stir is kept about the sermon before named , the exceptions ordinarily alledged against it , by the very dons themselves , are very pitiful and trifling , ye i must acknowledg they do better become them , whose faces would flatter the world into a belief they pretend to be men , than indictments and deprivations ( which are now talked of ) do . dly . the objections pretended against the sermon are chiefly these two . . how can i who am a conformist , and consequently satisfied of the lawfulness of every thing required by the church of england , be against punishing them , who will not comply with what i my self acknowledge lawful , and do practise ? ly . that it is very unbecoming one who receives profits from the church of england ( and to use their own canting phrase ) sucks the churches breasts , to apologize and plead for them who dissent from the church . now any man who hath either eyes or any thing else in his head , may easily perceive these exceptions are not so much against the sermon , as against my self . and therefore i will take the less care in answering them . for i think all such absurd and feeble reflections are best confuted by a due contempt . the first objection is proposed by way of query , and asks how i who am a conformist , and consequently satisfied of the lawfulness of every thing required by the church of england , can be against punishing them who will not comply with what i do acknowledg lawful , and do practise ? ans . st . there may other more agreeable methods be used to make proselytes , against which i never spake one word . solid arguments , strong reasons and authorities are more fit for confutation of an error , and satisfaction of different judgments . when the emperor took a bishop in compleat armour , he sent the armour to the pope with this word , haecinae sunt vestes filii tui ? ly . there is a great difference betwixt a mans being satisfied of the lawfulness of things , so as to direct his own practice in the use of them , and his being convinced of the necessity of them , so as to be induced thereby to justify or approve the unnecessary head-strong and furious courses , some prophane loose fellows do take against them who are not equally satisfied with him , by the evidence he hath . there is no reason i should pull a mans eyes out of his head , because he cannot see , what i either do see , or at least fancy i see . ly . the greatest , the wisest , and the learnedst men this church was ever blessed with , have had the same thoughts that i have , and did believe the moderation i plead for very consistent with true conformity . we need not ( saith his present majesty ) profess the high affection and esteem we have for the church of england , as it is established by law. — nor do we think that reverence in the least degree diminished by our condescentions , not peremptorily to insist on some particulars of ceremony , which however introduced by the piety and order of former times , may not be so agreeable to the present , &c. the eminent judge hale , at his entring on that employment , did oblige himself to observe this , amongst many other excellent rules , viz. that i be not too rigid in matters purely conscientious , where all the harm is diversity of judgment . and it is further said of him that , besides great charities to the nonconformists , who were then as he thought too hardly used , he took great care to cover them all he could from the severities some designed against them , and discouraged those who were inclined to stretch the laws too much against them . it is very well known that dr. wilkins , late bishop of chester , was a man of as prodigious universal learning , and of as clear and solid a judgment , as any man the christian world was ever adorned with ; and it is as well known that he was equally famous for his moderation towards dissenters before he was made bishop , as for any of his other extraordinary accomplishments : and after he ascended the episcopal seat he continued the same man he was before , and made that diocess ( as it is very well known there , and in most other places ) the most flourishing and truly religious part ( i think i may truly say ) of all christendom , by the happy influence under divine grace his eminent moderation , zealous piety , and most christian government had in those parts . and the eminent and reverend dr. tillotson , in his preface to the reader before that bishops sermons lately published , has this most remarkable passage concerning his moderation . and i purposely mention his moderation , and likewise adventure to commend him for it , notwithstanding that this virtue , so much esteemed and magnified by wise men in all ages , hath of late been declaimed against with so much zeal and fierceness , and yet with that good grace and confidence , as if it were not only no virtue , but even the sum and abridgement of all vices ; i say , notwithstanding all this , i am still of the old opinion , that moderation is a virtue , and one of the peculiar ornaments and advantages of the excellent constitution of our church , and must at last be the temper of her members , especially the clergy , if ever we seriously intend the firm establishment of this church , and do not industriously design , by cherishing heats and division among our selves , to let in popery at these breaches . ly . they are generally the worst men ( especially if they be clergy-men ) who are most for violence in relation to those who differ about some little indifferences . nay , what is more , if you consider all perswasions , you shall find they are the most illiterate , unsteady , prophane and debauched pretenders to any perswasion , who are most for severity towards modest dissenters . even amongst the papists , who were so hot and furious as gardiner , and bonner , men who were not only flagitious in their lives , but had no more than an empty supersficial learning . but tonstall , who was truly a scholar , abhorred that severity towards mens persons the others were fond of practising . it is observable ( saith dr. burnet ) that the best clergy-men have been always the most gentle to those who differed from them ; for they confiding in the goodness of their cause , and in that true merit of which every one that has it , must be conscious to himself , and yet without pride or vanity , are persuaded that by the methods of love and meekness they shall , with the help of some time , and the use of all due prudence and caution , overcome errors and schisms : but the unworthy , who know that a good cause may be spoiled , but is not likely to prevail in their hands , and who will not trouble themselves with the slow and laborious methods of conquering errors , are always apt to fly to extream and cruel courses ; since they know they must either prevail by these , or by none at all . the second objection saith , it is very unbecoming one who receives profits of the church , to plead for them who dissent from the church . i answer , first of all , that there is no unseemliness at all in any ones countenancing and pleading for that which all religion , equity and reason do justifie and prompt men to . ly . they are extreamly stupid and dull , who cannot distinguish betwixt pleading for peoples dissent , and pleading that they may be treated with more mildness , than some are inclin'd to use . i do not plead for their dissent , to justifie that , but do only endeavour to shew that much may be said for moderation towards some who do dissent , against the fierce debauched people who are their greatest opposers . ly . they discover no good opinion of the church , who would perswade the world she maintains her ministers for no other end , but either to preach up severity against all who scruple some indifferences , or to keep them silent , that they do not decry the violent courses some lewd prophane pretenders to her do put in practice : would not this be to make our ministers like that old register i have heard of in one of the ecclesiastical courts , who would not suffer a certain church-warden to be at rest , till he would present his neighbours who came not to the sacrament ? the church-warden being at last overcome by his importunities , did get a presentment drawn out , and amongst those names which were set down , there was one which had mr. before it . the register spying this , thought it would be very convenient to begin with this man : and accordingly had him summoned to the court , and began to mannage the business very briskly . but another who had a great veneration for the court , being present , and hearing that man called , applied himself immediately to the register , and ask'd him what he meaned to do ? why , said the register , i will make this man go to the sacrament before i have done with him , for all his mastership . nay then , said the other , you 'll spoil all ; for this gentleman is one of vs , he will swear and be drunk as well as the best of us . say you so , quoth the register , then the case is altered . and immediately he called the church-warden , and child him very sharply , telling him he was a most impudent and villanous rakehell , in that he durst adventure to present so worthy a gentleman as that was . why , said the church-warden , he did not come to the sacrament . why sirrah , answered the register , you are not to present all who do not come to the sacrament , but only those who scruple to receive the sacrament on their knees . some do lay a great stress on this , that several who are in eminent places in the church are against both my sermon and my self . but for my own part i do not much concern my self for that , with me it is a small thing to be judged of mans judgment . i am willing to pay every man the respect his particular place , character , office and quality can require . but i hope it is no fault for a man to wish and pray that the church of england may never sink , perish , no nor suffer by the false and insiduous tricks of some who pretend to her . 't is not the opposition of enemies on all hands that can do us so much hurt , as the scandal and folly of pretending friends . some are apt to believe , that evil designing men have insinuated themselves into places of trust and power , and that a degenerate kind of pretenders to the protestant religion do make a great figure at present amongst us . whether they have ground or no for that surmise , is no business of mine to determine . yet if any man do think he hath too much ground for such suspition , when he does deliberately read a late book set forth by mr. tho. jones , i do declare if he will be delivered from those thoughts , he must not come to me , but go to some body else who understands those things better . if phaeton drive the chariot of the sun , the world , will be soon on fire , i , mean such in the church whose brains like the vnicorns run out in the length of the horn , such who have more fury than zeal , and yet more zeal than knowledge or moderation . the overdoing of conformity , that is , making more necessary to conformity than the laws of the land have made necessary , is as great a fault as nonconformity . and whoever will not be content with a man's doing as much as true conformity doth oblige him to , but will expect he should be rought and severe with every one who dissents from him , is a superfine conformist ! and i take all such ( of what degree soever they be ) to be the greatest and most dangerous enemies to our church , of any sort of men in the world. from the subtle and deceitful craftiness , and the violent rage and force of this sort of men , and of their brethren and companions the papists , the merciful and good lord deliver every sincere and hearty protestant . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e dr stilling . pref. to his iren. ireni● : p. . phil. . . bp. wilkins serm. p. . bp. wilkins serm. p. . bp. andrews serm. jacobus acontius is of the opinion , that god doth not allow the church to use severe courses , even against hereticks , lest these , when they obtain the power and government , should treat the orthodox in the same manner . his stratag . satan . and the book called the samaritan , and those tracts called , the conformists plea for the nonconformists , which do all savour of a most christian , moderate , and healing spirit , do particularly deserve to be read , digested , and considered , over and over again , by those who are inclined to suffer their hasty and passionate tempers to have their whole swinge . these would do them much more real service , if attended to , and obobserved , than those trivial scraps of paper can , which they do weekly dote upon , and which at best can only furnish them with a few jejune , puerile , and nauseous notices , and for the most part do impose on their beliefe the most scandalous and enormous untruths . life of sir math. hale . p. . vid. hieron . comment . in epist . ad titum , v. . vindication of the primitive churches . epist . . ad evag. prof. to his rights of princes . a notion , the learned and studious mr. dodwell , has taken a great deal of pains about , in his treatise of schism . epist . ad evagrium . a. b. spotswood's history . exhortation to peace and union . p. . our present sovereign doth in his declaration concerning ecclesiastical affairs take notice , that some ceremonies may even lessen that piety and devotion , for the improvement whereof they might happily be first introduced , and consequently may well be dispensed with p. . * vid dr burnet's hist . of the reformation . vol. st . addend . numb . st . of rites and ceremonies . p. . history of the reformation , part . d . p. . of ceremonies before the common prayer . due way of composing differences . wilson's history of great britain , p. . * i do not say it is superstition for any man to abstain from doing what he apprehends to be unlawful by virtue of a general command , for this is a moral duty , and obedience to those places of scripture which bid us abstain from all kinds and appearances of evil . dr. stillingfleet's serm. of the nature of superstition . p. . discourse 〈◊〉 about church-unity , &c. remarks on the growth and progress of nonconformity . some are great admirers of that book . but i must affirm , and so will every intelligent & unprejudiced reader , that the author has neither discovered that candor and ingenuity in the manner of his writing , nor that evidence of truth and faithfulness in his historical relations , nor that strength and clearness of reason and logick in his arguings , which might justly be expected from one who would attempt to treat on such a subject . epist . ded. before his treatise of holy living , &c. hist . reform . p. . dr. burnet's hist . reform . part . . p. . his majesties declaration to all his loving subjects , &c. concerning ecclesiastical affairs . p. . the nonconformists vindicated from the abuses put on them by mr. durel and mr. scrivener . p. , . the same men ( saith mr. baxter ) that then wrote again●t me for the changers and usurpers have since bin the fierce accusers of us who opposed th●● ready way of confuting mr. baxter , p. . vid. more in his . true hist . of councils defended . p. ●● . consider mr. john how 's pious peaceable epist . dedic . before his treatise of delighting in god. serm. at the funeral . of mr. tho. gouge p. ● . jer. . . whitlock's memor . an. . his majesties declaration concerning ecclesiastical affairs . p. . dr. burnets life of sir matthew hale . p. . id. p. . hist . of the rights of princes , &c. p. . cor. . . bishop wilkins serm. p. . elymas the sercerer . dr. stilling . irenic . p. . dr. loyd now bishop of st. asaph saith of the admirable bishop wilkins , that he conformed himself to every thing that was commanded , beyond which for any men to be vehement in little and unnecessary things , either for or against them , he could not but dislike , and oft called it fanaticalness . funer . serm. p. . a defence of the vindication of the deprived bishops wherein the case of abiathar is particularly considered, and the invalidity of lay-deprivations is further proved, from the doctrine received under the old testament, continued in the first ages of christianity, and from our own fundamental laws, in a reply to dr. hody and another author : to which is annexed, the doctrine of the church of england, concerning the independency of the clergy on the lay-power, as to those rights of theirs which are purely spiritual, reconciled with our oath of supremancy, and the lay-deprivations of the popish bishops in the beginning of the reformation / by the author of the vindication of the deprived bishops. dodwell, henry, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing d estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions 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(eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a defence of the vindication of the deprived bishops wherein the case of abiathar is particularly considered, and the invalidity of lay-deprivations is further proved, from the doctrine received under the old testament, continued in the first ages of christianity, and from our own fundamental laws, in a reply to dr. hody and another author : to which is annexed, the doctrine of the church of england, concerning the independency of the clergy on the lay-power, as to those rights of theirs which are purely spiritual, reconciled with our oath of supremancy, and the lay-deprivations of the popish bishops in the beginning of the reformation / by the author of the vindication of the deprived bishops. dodwell, henry, - . [ ], p. [s.n.], london : . attributed to henry dodwell. cf. dnb. reproduction of original in bristol public library, bristol, england. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project 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the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng dodwell, henry, - . -- vindication of the deprived bishops. hody, humphrey, - . -- letter from mr. humphry hody, to a friend, concerning a collection of canons. hody, humphrey, - . -- case of sees vacant by an unjust or uncanonical deprivation. welchman, edward, - . -- defence of the church of england. church of england -- bishops -- early works to . nonjurors -- early works to . bishops -- england -- early works to . dissenters, religious -- legal status, laws, etc. -- england -- early works to . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - judith siefring sampled and proofread - judith siefring text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a defence of the vindication of the deprived bishops . wherein the case of abiathar is particularly considered , and the invaliditly of lay-deprivations is further proved , from the doctrine received under the old testament , continued in the first ages of christianity , and from our own fundamental laws . in a reply to dr. hody and another author . to which is annexed , the doctrine of the church of england , concerning the independency of the clergy on the lay-power , as to those rights of theirs which are purely spiritual , reconciled with our oath of supremacy , and the lay-deprivations of the popish bishops in the beginning of the reformation . by the author of the vindication of the deprived bishops . london , printed mdcxcv . the contents . § i. the doctor 's late book no answer to the vindication . page § ii. the baroccian m. s. disproved by the vindicator , and not defended by the doctor p. . § iii. the doctor has not offered , at any answer to the argument against him in the first part of the vindication . p. . § iv. he grants the proposition principally disputed between us , concerning the invalidity of lay-deprivations , and takes no care to prevent the consequences of that confession p. § v. the doctor gains nothing by his changing the state of the question ▪ p. . § vi. the doctor 's whole proof unconclusive , admitting the invalidity of lay-deprivations . p. . § vii . the doctor 's limitation of his own pretended self-evident maxims do all of them prove our case unconcerned in it . chap. i p. . § viii . submission of subjects to the ecclesiastical usurpers is sinful by the law of god. p. . § ix . such submissions would make the ecclesiastical subjects , accomplices in the injustice . p. . § x. the same submission in the clergy is sinful , on account of the oaths of canonical obedience they have taken to the rightful possession . p. . § xi . our principles afford better reasons why the unjust deprivations of synods may be received without the deprived bishops consent , than those insisted on by the doctor . p. . § xii . there is great disparity between the obligations of a competent and an incompetent authority . p. . § xiii . no reason to reckon on the presumed consent of the injured bishops by an invalid deprivation , for discharging their subjects consciences , from duty to them . p. . § xiv . our deprived fathers gives publick significations , that they do challenge their old rights , as far as is necessary in their circumstances . p. . § xv. the oaths of canonical obedience to our fathers still obliging . p. . § xvi . the complyance with usurpers is also therefore sinful , because usurping bishops are really no bishops at all . p. . § xvii . the evil of sin and scandal in complying , greater than that of persecution which is avoided by it . p. . § xviii . the evill of schism not avoided , but incurred by complying with the usurper p. . § xix . the abuses that may follow on compliance , are a just reason to refuse it , where it is not otherwise in conscience due . p. . § xx. no security that have compliance will not be abused . p. . § xxi . that abuse is a greater mischief , than , that it can be made amends for by the doctor 's expedients . p. . § xxii . the main design of the doctor 's new book , in arguing from facts already overthrown by the vindicator . p. . § xxiii . the doctor himself is unwilling to stand by the consequences of such facts as himself produces . p. . § xxiv . the doctor 's remarks against the reasoning of the first part of the vindication concerning the possession of cornelius , turned against himself . p. . § xxv . the doctor 's book afforded no subject for a reply , but what would be personal . p. . § xxvi . the doctor 's turning the dispute , to later facts draws it from a short and decisive , to a tedious and litigious issue . p. . § xxvii . we have no reason to suffer our selves to be overruled by him in these arts of diverting us . p. . § xxviii . we decline his topick of facts rather because it is undecisive , than because we think it dis , advantagious to us . p. . § xxix . for want of some other subject relating to the vindication , we pitch on the case of abiathar . p. . § xxx . this fact is not commended in the scripturs as a precedent . p. . § xxxi . the magistrate could not by the doctrine of that age have any direct power over the priest-hood . p. . § xxxii . the benefits of the priest-hood out of the power , and far greater than any in the power , of the civil magistrate p. . § xxxiii . the ancient jews , of the apostle's age did believe their priest-hood available to a future and eternal state. p. . § xxxiv . and consequently did expressly own it far more honourable than the magistracy its self . p. . § xxxv , this same reasoning holds on account of the priest-hood representing god tho' without relation to a future state. p. . § xxxvi . and that also according to the opinions of those times . p. . § xxxvii . solomon's act of abiathar was only of force , p. . § xxxviii . which force might in the consequence render the exercise of his right unpracticable . p. . § xxxix . yet solomon was in conscience obliged to be cautious in exercising this force against the priest-hood . p. § xl. what solomon did was only to fulfil , what god has before threatned against the house of eli. p. . § xli . abiathar was not then the high-priest , properly so called , but zadoc . p. . § xlii . there were in those times two high-priest at once ; the chief , such as zadoc was , of the family of eleazar , the lower such as abiathar , of the family of ithamar . p. . § xliii . no deprivation of the posterity of phineas in those times . p. . § xliv . zadoc put in the room of abiathar , as to the courses of ithamar , which were not under him before . p. . § xlv . the jews by our principles could not justifie a separation , on account of abiathar . their case not like ours . p. § xlvi . when invasion had passed into a prescription , as in our saviours time , he that was in possession had really the best title . p. . § xlvii . among the jews the true high-priest was to be known by his possessing the one altar : among the christians the true altar was known by its being possessed by the true bishop . p. . § xlviii . the reasons for exemption from the power of the prince stronger in our deprived fathers case , than in the case of abiathar . our bishops are properly priests p. . § xlix . the gospel priest-hood more noble than that of abiathar , &c. p. . § l. this reasoning admitted in the apostolical age , &c. by clemens romanus , &c. p. . § li. he does it by the same principles , as agreable to the constitution of the gospel . p. . § lii . he draws the like inferences , in practice as we do . p. . § liii . the laity cannot now pretend to any indirect right of depriving bishops , as the jewish princes could in the case of the jewish priest-hood . p. . § liv. our reasoning against the magistrates rights of deprivation in spirituals proceeds universally , and therefore in the case of temporal crimes ; also the owning such a power would have been pernitious to the primitive christians also , whowere charg de with temporal crimes . p. . § lv. the spiritual rights of our fathers have been now invaded by civil force . bare characters without districts not sufficient to preserve the church as a body . p. . § lvi . supposing the church and christian state had made one body , ret more had been required to make that supposition applicable to our present case , which is not yet taken notice of . p. . § lvii . the prince on account of his being a christian , has no title to any spiritual authority . p. . § lviii . a whole nation by baptism may be made one society in the church , without prejudice to their being still a society distinct from it . p. . § lix . the churches obligations are more necessary for the subsisting of the state , than these she receives from the state are for hers . p. . § lx. the benefits received by the state from the church , are also greater then those which the church receives from the state. p. . § lxi . if the state had been capable of conferring the greater obligations , yet a good pious magistrate could not in reason , desire such a recompence as should oblige the church to yeild any of her ancient rights . p. . § lxii . princes have been allowed by the church a right to keep persons out , not yet canonically possessed , but not to turn any out , who were already in possession of bishopricks . and that without any proper cession of right on the church's part . p. . § lxiii . the power of turning out bishops once possessed too great to be granted on any consideration whatsoever . p. . § lxiv . in this case particularly no temporal favour whatsoever can make amends for the loss of the benefits of the spiritual society . there can therefore be no implicite contracts for such an exchange that can in equity oblige the ecclesiastical governours to performance , tho' it had been in their power to make such a contract . p. . § lxv . but here it is not in the power of ecclesiastical governours to make such a contract . p. . § lxvi . it is not agreable to the mind of god ; that the church should so incorporate with the state , as that the bishops should be deprivable at the pleasure of the civil magistrate p. . § lxvii . the magistate is by no means a competent judge of the church's interests . p. . lxviii . the surrender of the clergy in henry the viiiths . time , cannot oblige their posterity now lxix . no reasoning from the rights of the jewish princes to the rights of christian princes now . § lxx . our present deprivations not justifiable by even our present secular laws . p. . § lxxi . the conclusion . p. . a defence of the vindication of the deprived bishops . § i. the doctor 's late book , no answer to the vindication . what the vindicator thinks of the answers that have been made to his defence of our deprived fathers , himself best knows . for my part , i should not have concerned my self for him , if i had not been over-rul'd by the judgments of others , for whom i profess a veneration , rather than my own . i have that due esteem for his adversaries , which their excellent abilities deserve , particularly for dr. hody . his diligence in history none questions that i know of . i also value his skill and judgment in it , much more than many who are concern'd on his side of the question here debated . nor do i deny but several things are very well observed by him in this very work i am now considering at present ; though i think it more hastily and tumultuarily laid together than several of his other writings . the only thing that made me think a reply needless , was that in all the learning he has shewn , i could find nothing that i thought any indifferent person could think proper for satisfying conscience in the single point here in question , nothing that could give me the least reason to doubt of the arguments principally insisted on by the vindicator . for other things not relating to that , i thought our candid adversaries themselves would excuse us when they considered the disadvantages on our side , the difficulties of the press , the displeasure of our pretended superiors , much more considerable than any argument that i could find produced either by him or any other adversary . § ii. the baroccian m s , disproved by the vindicator , and not defended by the doctor . so far i am from trusting my own opinion in this matter , that i would gladly know some particular of the doctor 's book , that even our adversaries , who are so clamorous for a reply , think sufficient to excuse their schism against the charge of the vindicator . his baroccain m s has already been proved impertinent to our present dispute . the vindicator has shewn that the occasion of his writing did not oblige his author to defend the validity of lay-deprivations ; he might have added , that his author himself was not ignorant , that synods did intervene in several of his instances , which must have made so many of them perfectly impertinent to his design , if that had been to vindicate the validity of lay deprivations . that is not all : the vindicator has also shewn from the canons subjoyned at the end , and suppressed by the doctor , that the author could not design the defence of lay deprivations . nor has the doctor offered at any thing that might shew such a design consistent with those canons , or the author's subjection to them . yet those canons alone are decisive to our purpose , both as to the sense of the constantinoplitane church , and of that author as a member of it , whether they were part of his work or not ; concerning which , the impartial reader is to judge whether what the doctor has said , be sufficient to purge his wilful suppressing them . the vindicator has also shewn the author not only remoteness from , but ignorance of the times he writes of . nor has the doctor proved , or pretended any thing to the contrary . nay , even of the facts enumerated by him , there are but few that the doctor has thought fit , on second thoughts , to assert independently on his authority . it cannot therefore be on this account , of vindicating his m s , that any impartial reader can judge the doctor 's performance to be a just reply to the vindicatoin § iii. he has not offered at any answer to the arguments against him in the first part of the vindication . but whatever becomes of the so boasted m. s , a conscientious person , who was only sollicitous for truth , not victory , will easily excuse the doctor , if he had at least been pleas'd to clear our present case , relating to the lay-deprivation of our holy fathers , and the schism that necessarily follow'd upon it . yet even here i could find nothing that could pass for answer , with an indifferent conscientious arbitrator . facts without right , none can think proper for satisfying conscience ; yet this is all which is so much as pretended in this book . the whole question of the * magistrates right , for doing what has been done , is reserved for another book . and then i thought it seasonable enough to reply , when a question was debated , that did indeed concern our consciences . so far his book is from being a just answer , as to the proving what himself asserts . but for that also , we can wait his leisure , if the doctor had been pleased in the mean time , at least , to weaken what had been produced for our cause by the vindicator . we would gladly have been excused from the violence we have offered our selves , in forbearing their communion , and we should have thought our selves obliged to him for it , if he had cleared what was objected to the contrary in that very book which he pretends to answer ; if he had shewn , that notwithstanding what is there objected , we might still continue in their communion , with safety to our souls , and consistency to the discharge of a good conscience . what we had to say on this point , was professedly insisted on in the former part of the vindication . this ought in the first place to have been considered by him , if he had regarded our consciences , as that which was necessary to dispose us for considering his other proofs or answers . but in vain we have expected it . he does not so much as pretend to consider that first part in his whole book . how then can any unprejudiced judge take the doctor 's book for an answer to the vindication ? he also grants the proposition principally disputed between us concerning the invalidity of lay-deprivations , and takes no care to prevent the consequences of that confession . that is not all : he also grants that which the vindicator designed in that place principally to prove , the * invalidity of lay-deprivations . this concession the vindicator has drawn into its just consequences , that then the deprived bishops must still be bishops , and bishops of the same jurisdictions , and retain their right to their subjects obedience in their several respective jurisdictions , as much ( with regard to conscience ) as if such depriving sentences had nevre been decreed . none can doubt , who knows what invalidity imports , but that invalid censures , leave cases exactly in the same condition as to conscience , in which they find them : that therefore as it would have been schismatical to have set up altars and anti-bishops in the same districts against our h. fathers , in case the depriving act had never passed , on the same account it is so still , in case the deprivation proves invalid . that , as in that case , that the depriving act had not passed , communicating with the schismatical altars , had involved the bishops and churches that had been guilty of it , in the same schism with the principal and original schismaticks ; so also it must , by the same parity of reason , do so now , invalid sentences not being capable of making a disparity . now what can any one preteud , that has been suggested by the doctor for securing himself against these just inferences , from so unwary a concession ? for my part , i can find no place where he does so much as offer at it . where then can be his answer , if even himself grants all that we are concerned to assert in the question principally disputed between us ? § v. the doctor gains nothing by his changing the state of the qustion . this being so , what advantage can the doctor propose to himself , by changing the state of our present question , from a dispute concerning the magistrates † right of deprivation , to another concerning the lawfulness of submission in the ecclesiastical subjests , to the invaders and intruders ? i grant indeed , that these two questions are not directly the same . but it is abundantly sufficient to the vindicators purpose , if the disproof of the magistrates rights , do by necessary consequence infer the unlawfulness of submission in the subjects to the invaders of ecclesiastical districts , not otherwise vacated than by such lay-deprivations . and this it does by the inferences now mentioned . invalid deprivations leave as much right in conscience as they found , and therefore as much obligation to duty in the subjects . the subjects therefore still owing duty to the invalidly deprived bishops , must be guilty of sin , if they pay the same duty to their rivals : and for committing sin , the doctor does not , nay , dares not own , even an irresistible force to be sufficient . if he should , i know none of his mind , besides the old gnostik and elcesaite hereticks . thus pertinent it is to disprove the magistrates right of deprivation , in order to the disproving the lawfulness of submission in the ecclasiastical subjects , on the pretence of irresistible force . § vi. the doctor 's whole proof unconclusive , admitting the invalidity of lay-deprivations . but the doctor pretends that it was neither the design of the author of his baroccian m. s. in writing it , nor his own in publishing it , to prove the right of the lay magistrate for spiritual de privations i easily agree with him , that it was not the design of the author of this m. s. and i shall as easily excuse him from designing it , if it be consistent with the exigency of his cause which engaged him to the publication . but can he deny at least , that his design in publishing it , was to purge his party from the guilt of the present schism ? can he deny that in order hereunto , his design was to prove the lawfulness of submission in the subjects of the deprived destricts to the ecclesiastical intruders ? his own words in these particulars are too manifest to leave him to the liberty of denying them . let him then try his skill , wether he can from this m. s. or from any thing offered in his book , prove the lawfulness of such submission in the ecclesiastical subjects on the supposal now mentioned , of the invalidity of lay deprivations . if he can , he may then indeed , but not till then , call the disproof of the magistrates right for spiritual deprivation , and the consequent proof of the invalidity of such deprivations , when attempted impertinent to his design in publishing his m s. but how will he undertake to do this ? does he think the facts alone , either of his m. s. or his book , sufficient for this purpose , supposing them such as he is concerned they should be , instances of submission , upon lay , or otherwise invalid deprivations , to usurpers of the vacated thrones ? dare he stand by the consequence , that a like enumeration of as many facts in as large a distance of the like times , is sufficient to prove the practice allowable , nay , exemplary , to succeeding generations ? if he dare not , he must think of some other way of proving them well done , than barely this , that they were done . this will reduce him , whether he will or no , to the merit of the cause . and how is it possible for him to prove submission to the usurper lawful and unsinful , till the subjects be first fairly discharged from their duty to the first incumbent ? how can he prove them discharged from their first duty , if the lay deprivation be not sufficient to discharge them ? and how can he pretend it sufficient for that purpose , if it was from the beginning null and invalid ? thus he will find the disproof of the power of the lay-magistrate for spiritual deprivations to be more pertinent , than perhaps himself could wish it , for overthrowing his pretended lawfulness of submission in the ecclesiastical subjects to persons obtruded on sees no other way vacated , than by the authority of a lay-deprivation of the civil magistrate . § vii . the doctor 's limitations of his own pretended self-evident maxime , do all of them prove our case unconcerned in it . chap. . but the doctor pretends to demonstrate ( no softer word it seems would serve his turn ) the truth of his proposition ; and god forbid we should not yield to demonstration . but i confess , i very rarely find great solidity joyned with great confidence : however , we must not prejudge it , but examine whether it will answer the character with which he has possessed us concerning it . his demonstration therefore he draws first , from the reasonableness of it . secondly , from the authority and practice of the autients . the reasonableness of it , he grounds on this certain and self eviden-maxime , that whatsoever is necessary for the present peace and tranquillity of the church , that ought to be made use of , provided it is not in it self sinful ; and the ill consequences which may possibly attend it , are either not somischievous to the church , or at least not so likely to happen as the evils we endeavour to avoid . but upon the supposed invalidity of lay-deprivations this submission of the ecclesiastical subjects to the usurper of the ecclesiastical throne , will not come under the limitations proposed by the dr. himself , of his self evident maxim. i have already shewn that , on this supposal , this submission to the usurper will be in it self sinful . and the same observation may be applied to his other limitations , if the case propos'd be judg'd by our principles . the consequences which we think will follow from this obligation he layson our ecclesiastical superiors , to yield their rights as often as they are invaded , where nothing but the right is concerned ; and the liberty he allows ecclesiastical subjects to desert their superiors , if they think fit to assert their rights ; we think tend , by inevitable consequence , to the perfect subvertion of the church as a society . and this consequence is worse than can be feared from the persecutions of erresistible force ( if we can agree , as the primitive christians did , to keep our stations ) or from the divisions of them who will not agree to maintain society with us in a state of independance on the civil magistrate . and natural consequences from principles , are evils more likely to hapen , than any that depend on the wills of mutable men. so that be his maxim never so self-evident , yet there is not one of the doctor 's own limitations , but excludes his own case , as judged by our principles from being concerned in it . this perfectly discharges us from all concern in the instances by which he pretends to prove his maxim received by the antients as self-evident . yet it were easie to answer them , if we were concerned to do so . they are generally in things indifferent , and changeable by their different circumstances ; and the dispensations were made by persons in authority , without prejudice to any third persons right . so that not one of his instances reach our case . but the subjects of our dispute are not mutable , nor depend on circumstances . as the ecclesiastical society was designed by christ not temporary , but perpetual ; so the essenital cements of it must have been so too . and such are the rights of governours , and the duties of subjects . these if they be taken away for a moment , dissolve the society , and therefore cannot be left to the prudence of governours for the time being , because the very supposal of the case , destroys the very being of the government and of the society , and therefore leaves no governours in being , that may consider such circumstances , and suit their practices accordingly . § viii . submission of subjects to the ecclesiastical usurpers is sinful by the law of god. but though the doctor answers nothing produced by the vindicator for proving such submission of the subjects to an intruder sinful ; yet he pretends to prove it unsinful . but so unhappily , that not one of his proofs hold for the purpose for which he has produced them . first , he pretends the scripture silent in our case ; and therefore that such submission is not forbidden by any express law of god. yet he denies not but that the law of god commands us to be obedient to our governours , to them also who are over us in the lord. but where there are two competitors , and both claim our obedience , to which of these two our obedience ought to be payed , this he says , it leaves to our wisdom to determine . but will he therefore pretend that disobedience to any particular governour in our age , is not against the express law of god , because no law of god is express in determing any particular person now living to be our governour ? this will overthrow all divine obligations to any since the apostles age. now only in this but in most other duties relating to men , the determining circumstances are settled by human authority ; yet none does therefore pretend , but that the offence against the duty so circumstantiated , is against the law of god. the law of god requires duty to parents . but who are to be taken for our parents , not only nature , but the laws of men have determined in several cases , as in that of adoption , which is ancienter then moses himself , and in the other of our civil and spiritual parents , who are generally concluded in that divine commandment . so in the case of murther , it is certain , that only illegal killing , by a person not authorized , or for an unjust cause , is forbidden in the th commandment . but they are human laws which pitch upon the person who is to be vested with the authority of life and death , and which determine the cases wherein death is to be inflicted . so also in the case of adultery , it cannot be jugded what facts are chargeable with that crime , but by the laws of matrimony , which depend on the particular constitutions of the places , and are accordingly various . but in no case this is more evident , than in that of the th commandment . theft is all that is there forbidden , which cannot be applied to any fact , but by supposing the determination of human laws concerning property , which are again very various . for some persons have been excluded from all property , as slaves , and unemancipated children . and the determinations of property in persons capable of it , are so different in different places , that what is property and the violation of it , theft in one country , is not so in another . yet what casuist has ever doubted , but that disobedience to parents , murther , adultery and theft , are still violations of the law of god , notwithstanding that the imputation of these crimes to particular facts , does now generally depend on circumstances determined by human law ? if therefore by our , wisdom , the doctor means the wisdom of the subjects themselves , as if the scriptures had left the determination of these circumstances to that , his observation it not true . the subjects are to be concluded by the wisdom of their superiours ; and that upon account of the divine law , which obliges them to duty to superiours in general , which is to be so expounded , that it may extend to all our superiors for the time being , in what time or place soever . this therefore will oblige us to take all the ways of conveying power to particular persons by the constitutions of particular societies , not only for human , but divine establishments . i am sure st. cyprian looks on all particular bishops in his own time , as appointed by god and christ. and in this way it is manifest , that they who are intruded into places vacated by an incompetent authority , cannot be taken for the bishops to whom the subjects obedience is due by divine law. this also is as certain from the reasonings and principles , as well as the sayings , of st. cyperian . § ix . such submission would make the ecclesiastical subjects accomplices in the injustice . the doctor adds secondly , that submission to the usurpars does not make us accomplices in the injustice . but why , if our duty still be owing to the rightful claimers , as it must notwithstanding an invalid deprivation ? the only reason he pretends , is that refusal of duty to the usurpers would only draw ruin ; upon the clergy themselves who should refuse it , and cannot restore the rightful owners whom the state has deposed thus this divine takes persecution , and deprivation of revenues , for ruin ; and sufficient to excuse from the duty which may still remain , notwithstanding any thing he has pleased , or can plead , from a deprivation which himself has granted to be invaild . i am sure his texts teaches us otherwise , that persecutions incurred for duty , are not ruin , but gain , a hundred fold even here , besids the future eternal rewards . nor can any one believe otherwise , who believes our revealed religion . nothing but flesh and blood , and a carnal prospect , can make these things appear as the doctor has represented them . but he says , their refusal of obedience to the intrudors , cannot restore the true owners to their rightful possession . what then ? will this therefore excuse them for joyning with the usurpers , for thereby maintaining their unjust possession in opposition to those who have a better title , which title themselves were obliged to maintain ? can he reconcile this with their old duty , or excuse themselves , for violating that duty , from being accomplices in the injustice ? but the suggestion is not true which he insists on , that the refusal of obedience to the intruders , and paying it to the lawful pastors , would not continue the rightful poslesiors . it would not indeed continue them in their possession of their secular dues , or of any thing of which the state could deprive them . but it would continue them in a possession of those things for which our consciences are concerned , i mean of spiritual ; in such a possession as is consistent with a persecution from the state ; in such a possession as was enjoyned by their holy ancestors in the first and purest ages . this we might continue to them , whether the state would or no , if we could find in our hearts to agree among our selves , as the primitive christians did , to be unanimous in performing our duty to them . and so far is the prospect of the publick good from obliging us , as the doctor pretends , to the contrary ; that that very consideration of the publick good , is that which we principally insist on for our purpose . it is certainly for the publick good of the spiritual society , that the rights of its governours , and the duties of its subjects , should be preserved inviolable . and it is for the publick good also , that the interest of less valuable societies , should give way to the interests of that society which is more valuable . and it is withal , as certain , that the spiritual , is the more valuable society . i cannot foresee what part of this reasoning the doctor can question , if he will be true to the interests of revealed religion . § x. the same submission in the clergy is sinful , on account of the oaths they have taken to the of rightful possessors canonical obedience . he proceeds , and says thirdly , that such compliance with an usurping ecclesiastick governour , is not sinful on account of the oath of canonical obedience to the lawful possessor . and why so ? because the bishop so deprived , can no longer govern . but god be praised , our bishops can still govern , if their clergy and laity would obey . and that the clergy will not obey , the doctor ought to shew how it is reconcileable with their oaths of obedience , by some other topick than what he has here insisted on . our bishops are not banished , are not imprisoned , are not confined , nor any way disabled from exercising that actual government , which relates to conscience , and which is practicable in a persecution . yet the primitive christians did not think their bishops disabled for governing , when they were in exile , as long as they maintained a correspondence with their clergy . so st. cyprian , even in his exile , exercised his authority , and was obeyed by his . carthaginian clergy st. athanasius was banished further into the west , which perfectly disabled him for keeping up that ordinary correspondence with his alexandrian clergy which was requisite for actual government . yet this was not then thought sufficient , either to give them leave to joyn with any of those who were substituted into his place by suspected arian synods , as well as by the imperial authority ; or to set up any person , without his leave , of as unsuspected orthodoxy as himself . while he was living , and might return to a capacity of governing , they did not think themselves discharged from their duty to him , on the doctor 's pretence of the publick good . i have already also shewn , how that pretence in this case , makes against him , and am not willing to repeat what has been there said . if the church's intention be regarded , as the doctor seems to regard it here , she certainly could never intend that her governours should be robbed of their spiritual right , and her subjects discharged from their spiritual subjection , and her body thereby dissolved at the pleasure of the sacrilegious encroaching magistrate . this dependance of the subjects is so universally the interest of all churches and bishops in general , and indeed of all societies , as that i know not any shew of reason the doctor has , to make it the private intention of the bishop , in opposition to the publick intention of the church . it is an invidious interpretation , and a very false one , which he gives of the oath , when he makes it in effect the same as if they should swear , that they will for the bishop's sake , oppose the welfare of the publick , and break the union of the church , and leave the communion of it , and adhere to the bishop , though they should have no reason to do so , besides this bare oath . no need of this . the welfare of the publick , and the union of the church require that in affairs of publick spiritual interest the judgment of the subject ought to be concluded by the judgment of the bishop , at least to the practice , which perfectly overthrows the doctor 's interpretation , and makes it impossible that those considerations should ever really interfere , which the doctor makes so opposite . and st. cyprian's definition of a church , that it is a flock united with the bishop , makes it impossible that the true church's communion can ever be left in adhering to the bishop . but this perhaps the doctor will call a saying of st. cyprian , and a sort of theological pedantry , as he is used to stile other , the like doctrines and principales of the cyprianick and purest ages , when they are urged to oblige him to any thing that may give him occasion to shew , what he calls , his fortitude . what he pretends with his usual confidence , without the least offer of proof , that particularly here in the church of england , the oath of canonical obe dience is always taken with this supposition , that the civil power as well as the ecclesiastical , do allow the bishop to govern , we shall then believe , when he shall be pleased to prove it by some stronger topick than his own authority . the oath it self has no such matter expressed in it . and he should have pitched on some expression in it , if there had been any , which ( in his opinion ) might seem to imply it . our civil laws require that our ecclesiastical causes should be determined by ecclesiastical judges , which , if they had been observed , had left no room for the case of lay deprivations . § xi . our principles afford better reasons why the unjust deprivations of synods may be received without the deprivea bishops consent , than those insisted on by the doctor . that a synodical deprivation , though unjust , discharges the subjects from the obligation of the oath of cononical obedience , is usually admitted . but not for that reason which the doctor has given for it . the division which might otherwise follow in the church , and the publick disturbance which might follow thereupon , if they were not so discharged , are equally applicable to the opposite pretenders , and could afford the subjects no directions with whether of them they ought to joyn . the true reason ought to decide the title , and therefore ought to be such as one only of the rivals can pretend to . that is , that the synod , however unjust in its way of proceeding , is notwithstanding to be allowed as a conpetent judge ; and therefore that , on that account , its sentences ought to hold in practice , till repealed by a higher authority of the same kind , that is , by a greater synod . but an incompetent jude leaves things in the same condition in which it found them , and ought not , in conscience or equity , to have an effect at all . nor can it therefore impose on the consciences of the subjects any , the least , obligation , even to acquiescence . nor does it follow , that because the bishop's conscent may not be necessary to oblige him to stand to the unjust sentence , that therefore the reason of his obligation to acquiescences is not grounded on episcopal consent . the consent of his predecessors on the valuable consideration of having the conveniences of synodical debates , may conclude him while he enjoys the same valuable considerations . and the consent of his collegues may oblige him also , who have the right of judging with whom they will observe the commerce of their communicatory letters . their agreement in denying him their communicatory letters , is , in effect , a deprivation , when what he does is not ratified in the catholick church . this will go far to hinder his cummunion from being catholick , which may go far also towards the absolving his subjects from duty to him , if by joyning with any other , they may have the benefit of catholick communion . but this following the judgment of episcopal predecessors , or of the episcopal colledge , will by no means , allow the subject that liberty which the doctor disputes for , of deserting their bishops on their own private judgments concerning the publick good . it will not follow , that that necessity must excuse them , which has no other consideration on which it may be grounded , desides that of an irresistible force . § xii . there is gre●● disparity between the obligations of a competent , and an incompetent , authority . but the doctor ( it seems ) can see no difference , as to acquiescence in a case of necessity , between what is done by a competent , and what by an incompetent , authority . it is strange that a person so able to judge in other cases , where interest permits him to judge impertially , should not see it . the obvious difference now mentioned is , that the deprivation by an incompetent authority leaves subjects under obligation to duty , from which they are discharged , when the authority , though acting unjustly , is notwithstanding competent . thence it plainly follows that , where the obligation to duty is taken away , there compliance is not sinful . and where it is not sinful , it may be born with in the case of that necessity , which is the result of an irresistible force . but where the obligation to duty remains , and the compliance is therefore sinful ; i know no tolerable casuisty that allows it upon such necessity . the doctor himself , as we have seen already , excepts it in his own stating of the case . tenants do not usually hold their tenures by oaths : but where they do ; i am sure all creditable antiquity thought them under stricter obligations to performance than ( it seems ) the doctor does . the peace and tranquillity of the publick are , no doubt , useful considerations for understanding the sense of oaths , in which they oblige to performance . but the doctor might have been pleased to consider that here are two publick , oftentimes incompareble , interests concerned in the obligation of oaths . there is the publick interest of those to whom , as well as of those by whom , the faith is given . and all fair and equal dealing casuists prefer the former before the later in oaths given for the security of others . how than can the doctor make the good of sworn tenants in general to put restrictions on oaths given for the security not of the sworn tenants , but of the liege lords in general , for whose security the obligations are undertaken ? he ought to prove that a conqueror can daprive a bishop of his spiritual power if he be pleased to reason upon it . that the church of jerusalem supplyed the place of narcissus , when they thought him dead , does not prove that they had thought themselves at liberty to have done so , if they had known him to have been living . whatever present incapacity he might have been under for the administration of his office , they might have thought themselves obliged to stay for him , as the alexandrians did for st. athanisius . st. chrysostomes case is less for his purpose . he only desired his people to submit to the bishop that should be substituted after his decease . yet even in that he prevailed not with them , the schism of the joannites being continued many years after , till an honourable amends was made to his memory . during his own life time he was so far from it that he challenged their duty to himself , and dissuaded their complying with the schismaticks . § xiii no reason to reckon on the persumed consent of the bishops injured by an invalid deprivation , for discharging their subjects consciences from duty to them . the doctor here foresees an answer , that i do not find was ever admitted by the vindicator , and therefore will only concern them on whose principles it is made . that is , that in such difficult cases , it is presumed that the deprived bishop gives his consent , and that this presumption must be reckoned on to discharge the subjects from their duty to him with regard to conscience . it is a most extravagant remissness thus to permit the interpretation of the oaths to the desires and interests of those who are to be obliged by them , that whenever the observing them puts them upon any straights , they shall then be at liberty to betray their own faith , and his security for whose sake they had undertaken them ; and that by so unreasonable a persumtion of his consent whose security was thus provided for . it utterly ruines the whole design of giving this security by the way of oaths . that is , to oblige them in such cases wherein no considerations can oblige them , but those of conscience , where their corrupt affections , should incline them to the contrary , and where there is no visible force appearing that may make the inconveniences of breaking their faith greater than those of keeping it . that is , perfectly to disoblige them in that very case wherein the psalmist does most commend the observation of oaths , that is , when they are to the hindrance of those who must observe them : nor does it follow that because the consent of an injured governour may indeed be presumed in acts of government , for a time , which do not by any consequence affect his title ; therefore it may be presumed also in acts wherein his consent would be inconsistent with his design of continuing his claim , when he neither has , nor intends to relinquish it . nor does it follow that , because in some cases , wherein publick considerations may prevail with them , good men may patiently submit to the prejudice of their own right ; therefore they cannot be good men , who do not submit in cases , wherein the same considerations of the publick ( of which they only have a right to judg who have a right to authority ) do , in their judgments , make the insisting of their rights more necessary and becoming them . if rights must always be surrendred by good men as often as ill men are pleased to invade them ; in vain are laws for determining or defending them . in vain at least must good men ( who ought to be the favourites of wise and just lawmakers ) expect the benifit of laws , if they must never plead their rights . in vain are good men trusted with such rights as are the publick interests of their societyes , if they , who are otherwise the more trusty for being good , must here upon that same consideration of their being good men , be obnoxious to those impressions of conscience which must make them think themselves obliged to betray them ; if that very consideration that the publick and their own private interests are coincident , must make them as prodigal of the publick interests as they would be of their own . nor has the doctor , nor any other that i know of , insisted on any considerations particular to our present case , but only on such general ones , as ( if they proved any thing ) would prove in general , that all good men are obliged to surrender their rights whenever wicked men are pleased to invade them . § xiv . our deprived fathers give publick significations that they do challenge their old rights , as far as is necessary in their circumstances . upon these terms the doctor is pleased to tell us , that he is fully persuaded that our ejected fathers are very worthy and good men . but not without a manifest design . they must , if they will maintain the place he has admitted them to in his good opinion , be true to that idea of good men by which he is resolved to try them ; give up those rights whose maintenance may oblige him and his brethren to any temporal loss . and is not this a very obliging reason to induce them to it , that they must give up the trust committed to them of the publick interests of god and of religion , rather than he and his brethren should hazard their temporal and private interests in maintaining those rights , by contributing no more on their own parts than what is otherwise their duty to them ? they must have agreat stock indeed of that which he is pleased to call goodness , if this way of reasoning can make them think themselves obliged to him . much more , if , upon this pretence of kindness , he may be allowed to beg , what he can never be able to prove , that they are obliged in conscience rather to surrender their rights , than that he and his obliged brethren should be obliged to any hazard in maintaining them . this one would think too much for him to persume till he were better able to prove it . but the greater easiness of presuming , than proving , makes him very hold indeed , when he prosumes that our h. fathers themselves give their consent that their successors should be acknowledged . yet he pretends reason why we ought to presume it . and what may that be ? that they have never by any pablick signification of their wills , lay'd claim to the obedience of their people ; and do not now exercise their episcopal power as before . but truly conscienticus observers of oaths would rather persume on the oaths side than against , it , least otherwise if god should help them no otherwise than they perform what they have sworn by him , the from of the oath it self should prove a dreadful imprecation . this was , i am sure , regarded in the cases of edward the ii. and richard the ii. the subjects did not content themselves with a presumed consent to what was done in deposing them , gathered only from their silence ; but they desired and procured an express renonciation of their rights , and an express releastment from the oaths which they had taken to them formerly . this reason therefore alone would hinder such persons from undertaking second inconsistent engagements , that they had not yet been expresly discharged from the first . so far they would be from reckoning on their silence alone as sufficient to discharge them . for there are besides , especially in such circumstances as ours , obvious reasons why silence only should not be taken for an argument of a presumed consent . the fear of those under whose violence they suffer may hinder them from publick signification of their dissent , and yet , ( it seems ) nothing under a publick signification will satisfy the doctor . if this fear should less influence so worthy and good men , yet the fear of miscarrying might , in prudence , discourage them from attempting what they might easily foresee that they should never be able to go thorough with . and how could our h. fathert hope to succeed under so manifest and general a desertion of those who owe duty to them , and know they do so ? but it is not very human in our adversaries by their notorious undutifulness to oblige our fathers to this silence , and than ironically to turn their silence into an argument of a presumed consent . in the mean time these considerations make it plain that it is very possible for them to continue their claim , though they should give no publick significations of doing so . and their cnotinuing it , though without any publick signification , is sufficient to our obligation with regard to conscience , till they give a publick signification that they will discharge us . for that is sufficient to continue their old notorious claim they had to our duty before the pretended deprivation . i know no other case wherein our advarsaries where concerned , in which they would think it just to presume that persons living under a notorious force do therefore surrender their rights because they do not further provoke their oppressors by an open signification of their claim . but if nothing less than a publick signification of their claim will content the doctor , methinks he should have acquainted us what acts they are of episcopal power which he expects from our h. fathers as publick significations of it . does he expect that they must signify their minds herein juridically , as they did formerly , from their courts and their cathedrals ? but he knows these are in the power of those who have pretended to deprive them . he knows their officers and subordinate governours will not now obey them . must they publickly warn those who are in possession of their cures and parishes ? but how can they expect more duty from them who follow the revenues into the schism , and who are in actual communion with , and under the pretended obligation of oaths of canonical obedience to , their rival schismaticks ? what could they expect from such a publication of their dissent , ( besides their gratifying the doctor ) but to expose their own authority , without any prospect of publick benefit that might countervail it ? what but a fruitless exasperation of their persecutors ? would he have them fix publick protestations against what has been done , in publick places ? but the worthy dean of worcester's case is a notorious instance how such a publication would be resented . i hope he will not own any design of urging them to such difficulties only to gratify him , if he has really that veneration for them which he professes to have . by all the episcopal acts that are necessary , and of which their circumstances are capable , they do already publickly signify their insisting on their old title . i know no episcopal acts , necessary for our present condition , but what they readily exercise as they see occasion for them . they exercise them in dioceses not otherwise vacated than by the schism , without the ordinaries leave , and to persons not owning the ordinaries communion , which also our h. fathers themselves abstain from . these are publick significations that they do disown the state communion as schismatical ( not only as using unlawful offices ) which cannot be justified on any other terms but their challenging their old rights , and condemning their schismatical rivals . § xv. the oaths of canonical obedience to our fathers still obliging . so , unreasonable are the gratifications expected by the doctor from their lordships , whereas , all things considered , there is no reason why he should expect any gratification at all . for if they will not discharge him from his duty , he is however resolved not to pay them any . for he puts the case of a bishop forbidding his people , on their oaths , to accept of any other bishop , and then asks , what must be done in such cases ? is the church perjured if she accept of another ? will our adversaries say that she is ? he knows our mind very well that we know not how to excuse her . and what has he to prove the contrary ? nothing but the voice of flesh and bloud ; a hard saying ! who can bear it ? but this learned divine knows very well that the hardness of a saying ( especially if it be only so to flesh and bloud ) is no argument to prove it false . he knows it was not so in that very passage whence he borrows the expressions . he knows it is not so in all cases of persecution , and of doctrins that may deserve to be maintained by suffering . and he urges nothing peculiar in our present case . but he cannot imagine that the welfare and prosperity of mankind does depend upon so ticklish and uncertain a point as that of an ejected governors consent . that , if he refuses to give his consent , all the church , or the nation , must be made a sacrifice to him . so he represents the case very invidiously . as if the competition were between the private interests of the governour and the good of the community . he therefore fancies that the false principles on which this nation is built is this , that the oath that is taken to the governour , is taken only for his sake . but though that principle which he calls folse be really in the constitution of some particular gouernments , and therefore is not universally false ; yet neither , on the contrary , is it universally true . particularly , it is not true in the case of the ecclesiastical government . this government is not a property of the governours , but a trust committed to their management for the good of others , rather than of themselves . yet though this be the case , it is the publick interest of the whole society , that all the members of it be unanimous in defending the particular persons in whom the government is vested , against a forcible dispossession . it is the publick interest , that no rights whatsoever be overpower'd , because if they be , no rights whatsoever neither private nor publick , can be secure ; but may be also overpower'd by the same precedent . it is yet more particularly the publick interest , that those rights be secured against all force , upon which the security of all the particular rights of the whole society depend . such are those of the supream governours who if they be not enabled to defend themselves , can never be able to protect either the whole body , or any particular members of it , in possession of the rights to which they were intitled by the constitution . upon this account it has been accounted the interest of societies in general , that they be unanimous in defending it . for this will make the government better able to defend it self , and protect its subjects in their rights , if it have the united assistance of the whole society , not subdivided into several little interests . it has also been thought the publick interest of societies rather to be concluded by their governours , as to their practice , in their judgment concerning the publick good , than to be permited to embroyl their whole bodies by forming subdivided factions and intestine animosities , which is the natural consequence of being allowed the use of their private judgements , even concerning the publick good in a society already constituted . thus the doctor may see how even the regard of the publick good may oblige him to hazard all that he calls ruin , in asserting the rights of suprem governours , by reasons anticedent to the oath it self , and independent on his pretended false principle , that oaths are taken only for the sake of governours . these reasons proceed , though the government of the churches had been like many humane governments , founded on humane institution , and the agreeing consent of its respective members . but the reason of hazarding all for the rights of our ecclesiastical superiors holds more strongly . for god himself has so constituted his own church as to oblige us , in regard of all interests , to the strict dependence on our ecclesiastical governours . as schism is the greatest mischief that can befall any society ; so a society , such as the church is , that must subsist over all the world , independent on the secular arm , nay under pesecution from it , must be in the greatest danger of schism . and god has accordingly most wisely contrived his spiritual society so as to secure it from that danger , by making it the greatest interest of the church in general , and of all its members considered severally , to adhere to their spiritual monarch . it is certainly their greatest interest to keep their mystical communion with god the head of christ , and with christ the head of his mystical body the church . but this , god has made no otherwise attainable but by maintaining a communion with his visible body by visible sacraments , obliging himself to ratify in heaven what is transacted by the visible governours of the church on earth . thus he admits to his mystical union those who are admitted by the visible governours of his church into his visible body , and excludes from the mystical union those who are by the church governours excluded from the union that is visible . so the apostle st. john reasons that whosoever would have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 communion with the father and the son , must not expect it otherwise than by the communion with that visible body of which the apostle himself was a member st. joh. i. . so our saviour himself makes the despising of those who are authorized by him to be the despising of himself , and not only so , but of him also who sent him . and in st. joh. xvii . he makes his mystical union to be of christians among themselves as well as with himself and the father . and upon this dependend the dreadfulness of excommunication , and indeed all obligation to discipline , and the penances imposed by it in the primitive church but there was none in the visible constitution of the church that represented god and christ under the notion of a head but the biship . and therefore he was taken for the principle of unity , without union to whom there could be no pretensions to union with god and christ. this was the doctrine of st. cyprians age , and not his only , but of that of ignatius , and not only of ignatius , but of that which was apostolical , grounded on the notions then received among the jews concerning their union with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the archetypal high priest , by their union with the high priest who was visible . how then can the doctor make any interests either publick or private , separable from those of adhering to our bishops , and thereby avoiding schism by discountenancing usurpers of their lawful thrones ? § xvi . the complyance with usurpers is also therefore sinful , because usurping bishops are really no bishops at all . the doctor now proceeds in the th and last place , to shew that this complyance with the new intruders is not sinful on account of the objection insisted on by the vindicator , that the usurpers are in reality no bishops at all . this matter were indeed very easy if all the vindicator had produced for his purpose had been only a saying of st. cyprian , and a saying nothing to his purpose . he might then indeed wonder that the vindicator should pretend to raise so great a structure on so weak a foundation . but considering what the vindicator had said to prove the saying true , one might rather wonder at the doctors confidence in slighting and overlooking what one would therefore think him conscious that his cause would not afford an answer to . the vindicator had proved it more than a saying , that it was the sense , not only of st. cyprian , but of all the bishops of that age , who all of them denyed their communicatory letters to such an intruder into a throne not validly vacated , thereby implying , that they did not own him of their episcopal colledge , and therefore took him for no bishop at all . the vindicator shewed withal that it was agreable to the principles and traditions of that age , derived by tradition from the apostles , and therefore that they had reason to say and think so too . the vindicator farther proved it independently on their saying or thoughts ( however otherwise creditable in an affair of this kind ) from the nature of the thing it self , that where there could be but one of a kind , and two pretenders could not therefore be both genuine , the validity of one title is to be gathered from the invalidity of the other . but to what purpose is it to produce proofs if the doctor will take no notice of them ? but cornelious ( with relation to whose case st. cyprian uses this expression , that the latr bishop is not second , but none ) the doctor says , had never been deposed , but was still the possessor , which he takes for a disparity from our deprived fathers case . he was deposed as much as it lay in the power of the pagan emperour to do so . he was set up , not only as the christian bishops then generally were , without his consent , but notoriously against it . he was as much grieved at it as if a rival had been set up against him for the empire . and he had kept the see vacant for a considerable time after the martyrdom of fabianus , doing all that he could do to hinder the clergy from meeting in such a way as was requisite for supplying the vacancy . let the doctor himself judge what decius could have done more for deposing him . however the doctor tells us that cornelius was the possessor . very true . but not in regard of any possession of which the emperour could deprive him . and indeed in no higher sense than ours are , as shall appear hereafter . cornelius was possessed of no more temporals of which the state could deprive him . and our h. fathers are still , notwithstanding the invaled deprivation , in as firm and indisputable a possession with regard to conscience , as cornelius . so unhappy the doctor is in proving the doctrine , which he calls the saying of st. cyprian , nothing to to the vindicators purpose . what the doctor adds that he cannot believe so great and wise a man as st. cyprian could have been of another opinion from himself , we are not much concerned for till he shall be pleased to produce some better arguments why he should not be so . one would think he wanted better arguments when he insists upon the fairness of the elections of the usurpers for legitimating their call. he knows very well the liberty our laws allow the canonical electors , that they must choose the person proposed , or a premunire , but he must never expect to be restored to the rights of his function if he , and such as he , will not only betray their own rights , but plead for their adversaries invasion of them . the doctor enthymeme the vindicator will then be concerned to take notice of when the doctor can shew it in his book . but the doctor thinks he has got an argument to prove that an unjust synod can deprive no more than an incompetent authority . and why ? because a synod proceeding unjustly cannot deprive of the right . for to him , he says , it is absurd that any unjust sentence should take away the right . hence he iners that a bishop substituted in the place of another unjustly deprived by a synod , must also be no bishop , if a bishop substituted into a place vacated by a lay deprivation be also none . this would indeed hold if a bishop deprived wrongfully by a competent authority retained as much right as he who had been deprived no otherwise than by an authority that were incompetent . but the doctor , methinks , might easily have discerned the difference if he would have been pleased to judge impartially . all the right that he has who is deprived unjustly , is only a right to a juster sentence , either by an appeal to a superior authority , if the authority which has deprived him be subordinate ; or in the conscience of that same authority which had deprived him , if it be it self supreme . but till the competent authority put him into possession , he has no right to the consequences of possession , the duties of the subjects , and the actual benefits ▪ of his office. nor has he any right to possess himself of the place by violence , but must use legal means of recovering what is already his due in conscience . this he knows is the sense of our legal courts concerning sentences pronunced by competent , though corrupt , judges . but where the dispossession is by a judge not competent , the injured person may make use of force for regaining his possession , and in the mean time he retains an actual right to all the duties and benefits of his office during his dispossession . this our laws would allow the doctor , if the king of france , or any other force not seconded with a legal right to use that force , should dispossess him of his fellowship of wadham colledge , and substitute a successor into his place . our laws would notwithstanding own him as the true fellow , entitled to all the duties and priviledges of the fellowship , and would not allow his rival as a fellow , nor indemnify any that should pay him the dues belonging to the place , not allow him the plea of a forcible entry , if the doctor should recover his possession by force . but none of these things would be allowed him , if himself had been ajected , and his rival substituted by the unjust sentence of a corrupt judge , but in a legal court. thus he may see a better reason than what is given by him for our submission to an unjust deprivation of a synod . the actual right of the bishop so deprived to the duty of his ecclesiastick subjects , and the priviledges of his place , are really taken from him , till he be again possessed by the acts of those who are empowered by the laws of the society to give possession . and all the right he has , is only in the consciences of those who are empowered by the laws for it , first to be put into the possession , and than to all the other benefits and privildges annexed by the law to be legal possession . this is very consistent with a paying the rights consequent to possession , to another , till the possession be legally restored . but even the legal possession by the laws of the church , and with regard to conscience , cannot be affected by an invalid deprivation of an incompetent judge . § xvii . the evil of sin , and scandal in complying , greater than that of persecution which is avoided by it . having thus , as well as he could , proved this compliance with the usurper's unsinful , the doctor now proceeds to the other limitations of his self evident maxim. he therefore endeavours to prove that the evils following upon disowning the intruders are greater and more like to fall out than those which are likely to follow upon complying with them . i have already proved the contrary . what now remains , is only to answer what he produces to prove his own assertion . the evils they pretend to avoid by complying , are a schism and a persecution . these he says are two evils as great as can possiably befal thè church . i easily agree with him concerning the former , that it is an evil of the first magnitude . but the latter was never counted so by truly christian spirits in the flourishing times of our religion , then martyrdoms were courted with as much ardency and ambition as preferments have been since , as sulpitius severus has long since observed . then the apologists tell their persecutors that it was rather for their sakes than their own that they vouchsafed to write apologies . then they always gave thanks when they received the sentance of death for so glorious a cause . then they bemoaned the unhappiness of their own times if they had no persecutions , as origen expresly : then nothing troubled them more than that they lost their lives cheaply upon their beds , as appears in st. cyprian de mortalitate . the doctor is no doubt well acquainted with ignatiu's epistle to the romans , full of an ardent zeal of losing his life for christ , and earnest expostolations with the romans that they might not so much as use their interest with god in prayers for his deliverance , telling them that he would take it for an argument of their good will to him if they would not be so desirous of saving his flesh , and of their ill will if they should prevail with god for his safety , even by an interposition of an extraordinary and miraculous providence . and when blondel takes upon him to judge of the heroical ardor of that age by the cold and degenerous notions of his own ; our most learned bishop pearson has proved his actions far from beīng singular by many more very express testimonies of those most glorious times of our christian religion . nor are the canons against the provoking persecutors , which the doctor takes notice of , near so old as these great examples of desiring and meeting persecution , nor indeed till the abatement of the first zeal appeared in the scandalous lapses of warm pretenders . none such were made whilst they were true to their profession , so that the consenting practice of the best times was far from the doctors mind in reckoning persecution among the greatest evils that can possibly befal the church . they did not take it for an evil , but rather for a favour and a benefit . and though it were allowed to be an evil , yet the utmost that can be made of it is that it is an evil only of calamity , the greatest of which kind conscientious casuists have never thought comparable with the least evil of sin. i might add also , that scandal also , as it is a cause of sin , is a greater evil than persecution . our saviour himself pronounces wo to him by whom the scandel cometh , and the fire of hell which never shall he quenched . and these are evils which the doctor himself must own to be worse than that of persecution . the doctor therefore must not insist on the persecution avoided by this complyance with the intruders , till he has cleared the condition of avoiding it , from not only sin , but scandal also . if he thinks deposing all bishops in general , to be in earnest a just cause for him to shew his fortitude , let him bethink himself how the matter is now in scotland . it were easie by just consequences from the grounds and principles of ecclesiastical commerce , to shew how that case would concern him in england , if it were convenient . if christ were equally to be enjoyed in the communion of the true bishops and their schismatical rivals , we should be as willing as he to keep off the evil day as long as we could . flesh and blood would easily perswade us to it , if it were safe . but he knows very well , that the catholick church in the purest ages , never believed our mordern latitudinarian fancies , that schismaticks have any union with christ , whilst they are divided from his mystical body the church . if this were true , or if he thought it himself true ; i do not understand how he could reckon schism among the greatest evils that can befal the church , if even schismaticks may enjoy christ , though they be in open hostility with his authorized representative . §. xviii . the evil of schism not avoided , but incurred , by complying with the usurpers . as for the case of schism which he pretends to be avoided by them by their compliance with the usurpers , this evil is so far from being avoided , as that it has been occasioned by it . the doctor cannot deny but that their communicating with the intruders , has occasioned a notorious breach of communion , which on one side or the other , must needs be schismatical . all therefore that he can pretend , is , that they , by complying , are not chargable with the crime of the schism that has been occasion'd by it . how so ? it is because if we had also done as they have done , there had been no schism . very true . but it had been full as true , if they had done as we have done . this pretence therefore leaves the criminalness of the breach as uncertain as before , and necessarily puts them ( for tryal of that ) on the merit of the cause . and if that be enquired into , all the presumptions , as well as the particular proofs , are in favour of us , and against them . we were plainly one before this breach . as therefore the branch it self is new , so the guilt of it must be resolved into the innovations that occasion'd it , which will , by unavoidable consequence , make them chargeable with the breach who were guilty of the innovations . the innovations that have caused the breach , are the disowning our old bishops , and substituting others in their places , whilst themselves are living , and continue their claim , and are not deprived by any authority that had really a power to deprive them . but in these instances , they , not we , have been the aggressors and innovators . do we own the old bishops for the true bishops of these sees , of which they have pretended to deprive them ? and did not they do so too , as well as we , before the deprivation ? and what had they to pretend for themselves , why they do not so still . besides this very sentence of deprivation , which the doctor owns to be invalid ? and how can they justify their disowning them upon a sentence confessedly invalid ? this new behaviour of theirs , they must wholly own , as it is new , to be their own . we only continue to own our holy fathers , as dr. hody himself and his brethren did formerly . as for the second act , the setting up new bishops in opposition to our fathers , they cannot excuse themselves from being the innovators , and concerning us , they cannot pretend it . they have made the new bishops who consecrated them , and they also who own them by communicating with them , or their consecrators , these have intirely been the acts of the ecclesiasticks . yet without these , all that the lay-power could have done , could never have formed a schism , nor divided our communion . and as to what has been done on both sides , we can better excuse our selves , than they can . could they and we have consented to have acted uniformly , there could have been no schism : but we can better account for our not complying with them , than they can for not complying with us . on their side , they have nothing to plead but worldly considerations . they could not doubt of the lawfulness with regard to conscience , of doing that on their side , which , if done , had prevented the schism . they can pretend no obligation in conscience , for setting up other bishops , as we can , for not owning them ; till they can prove us fairly discharged in conscience , which they , as well as we , were obliged in , in regard of the old true proprietors . they could pretend no cementing principles essential to the subsistence of the church , as a society , and a communion independent on the state , obliging them to comply with these encroachments of the politicions , for making spiritual considerations to give way to temporals . they could pretend no catholick authority of the church , in any age , approving what was done by them , as we can of the best and purest ages , for what has been done by us. they could not pretend any such united authority , of even the church of england , before this change , for many things wherein we differ now , as we can . so far thay have been from avoiding schism by these compliances , or from purging themselves from the guilt of the schism which has followed thereupon . § xxi . the abuses that may follow on compliance , are a just reason to refuse it , where it is not otherwise , in conscience , due one inconvenience the doctor himself foresees , which he seems to own as justly chargeable on their principle : that by a submission to the possessor , the civil governour is like to be encouraged to tyrannize over the church , and to turn out such bishops as he does not like , whensoever he pleases , though never so unjustly . this must necessarily be the consequence of defending such practices in such a way as the doctor has done , not by conside rations particular to the present case , but by such topicks as the doctor has insisted on , which ( if they prove any thing ) proceed in general , that is , prove bishops obliged in general , to yield their rights as often as they are invaded , and subjects as generally absolved from their duty to such bishops though the bishop should think fit to assert their rights . both of these are asserted by him on account of the irresistibleness of the force which brings on the violence , which is an argument that must always hold on the side of the state , in all disputes that she has with the church . these things asserted by ecclesiasticks , such as the doctor is , must for ever encourage the laity , who are not acted by great skill , as well as good inclinations to religion , to believe they do well in what they do of this kind , and therefore to repeat it without any scruple . but how does the doctor pretend to avoid this consequence ? he first pretends that the same inconvenience is in all manner of government . particularly , that a synod may also be encouraged to unjust sentences by our acknowledging an obligation to submit to such sentences , if passed synodically . but we are far from making abuses arguments for denying just rights : nor does our cause require it . we are only for denying obedience to an incompetent authority , that invades rights which do not belong to it . and for this it is certainly a very just reason for denying them what they have no right to , if yielding will encourage them to the like injuries and usurpations frequently , which it must needs do , if they must never expect opposition , how frequently soever they are pleased to renew the injuries ; nay , if persons concerned against them , shall encourage them in the belief that they are no injuries at all . however if the injustice had been equal in the encroachments of incompetent judges and synods ; yet the danger is not . in synods nothing can be transacted but by a majority of the episcopal order . so the episcopacy it self is secured by a majority of suffrages against any mischief that can be acted against it synodically . but in a lay judicatory , the whole authority may combine against them , and ( god knows ) is too likely to do so in these days of irreligion , when their revenues are more regarded than their function . this authority therefore is not to be trusted to dearest friends , who are in any disposition to be otherwise . much less to those who are under present jealousies and disaffections to their whole order . § xx. no security ●ere that compliance will not be abused . the doctor adds secondly , that here in england it is not the will of the prince that can turn out a bishop . and that king and parliament may by compliance be encouraged to depose bishops at pleasure , that supposition , he says , is wild and extravagant . as if he had never heard of a parliament , even in england , that did not only deprive bishops at pleasure , but episcopacy it self . as if he knew not that men of the same principles are notwithstanding qualified to serve in our parliaments as if he were perfectly ignorant of the case of scotland , where notwithstanding the interest the bishop have by the fundamentals of the government , as on of the three states in which the legistative power is seated ; yet not bishops only , but episcopacy has been extirpated , as far as the votes of the laity can contribute to the extirpation of it . there the doctor may see , what he seys he cannot imagine , that what he calls king and parliament can concur for the deprivation , not of a bishop only , but of episcopacy . and we have little security that it shall not be put in practice , if we must by principles , as he does , allow them to do it here , upon an occasion that they shall judge extraordinary . that extraordinary occasion is not very difficult to be found by them , who make spiritual considerations give way to temporal . the use of the cathedral revenues for carrying on the present expensive war , is likely enough to be judged so . and the psalmist , who was himself a king , has warned us not to put confidence in princes . the doctor indeed tells us , that the bishops here have the same security that other subjects have . i am sure they ought to have it , not only for the reason of the things , but by our constitution . their rights ought to be accounted more sacred than any other rights or liberties of the subjects and therefore more inviolable . all the sacredness that has been made use of by our legislators for securing them , has been derived from the interposition of the clergy , who , if they be not treated as sacred themselves , can never secure other rights which have no other sacredness than what they derive from the intervention of the clergy . but if he considers how little laws often signify considering those who are allowed the authority of authentically interpreting and executing them , and what principles are now allowed in those who are thought qualified for that authentical interpretation and execution ; i know no sort of subject that he could pitch on that either have been , or are likely to be , treated so arbitrarily by our legislators . the laity in henry the viii ths time , dissolved whole bodies of the clergy , and alienated their revenues , without any consent of those bodies , or of any authorized to represent them , without any legal trial or eviction in any form of law. when has any such thing been ever attempted against any lay bodies by their representatives in parliament , who were chosen to preserve , not to oppress , the liberties of those who chose them . the other states have presumed to eject the spiritual state , who as a state , have as sacred a right in the fundamental constitution of the legislative power as themselves . and the commons have turned that president against the temporal lords . what if the lords spiritual and temporal should turn it upon the commons also ? could they think this agreeable to the design of the constitution ? the law certainly never intended such violences between those who are equally fundamental to the legislative power , and who have no legal judges or tribunals appointed by the law for determining differences between them by way of judicial process and authority . thus the doctor may plainly see , that in the opinion of those who justify these proceedings , and who are therefore likely to plead them as precedents , clergy-men have not the same securities that othe subjects have , if persons so principled , make a majority in our legislative assemblies . i say no more at present for making application , how probable it is for such principles to gain acceptance with the majority . i should be as willing as any to presume better things , if i could see reason to believe them . but our best security is certainly to assert principles that my not put it in the power of any to ruin our spiritual society , and to be true to them . he adds , there is nothing more manifest than that this inconvenience is not so likely to happen as those evils we endeavour to avoid . why so ? these , he says , are certain and present , that only possible . if they be certain and present how can they pretend that , by their compliance , they have avoided them ? if they have not avoided them by complying ; how can they pretend that the benefits of their compliance can have made amends for all the further injuries they may expose the church to for the future , by suffering such ill practices to pass into precedents for want of a timely opposition ? methinks he should have made the avoidal of the feared evils certain and present , not the evils themselves , if he would have spoken consequently to the exigence of his case . but it is too true , that the evils themselves are present , and that their compliance has not avoided them : the schism is so notoriously . and so is the persecution also to all that will be true to their old principles , and to their old communion . for , what favour has been shewn on condition of deserting old principles , can by no fair interpretation be extended to that church , whose principles they were . so far as they hold firm to their old principles , they are still liable to the persecution ; and so far as they desert them , so far they also cease to be of the church , whose principles they have deserted . few persecutions have been so severe , but that they might have been avoided by desertion . but the further inconvenience likely to follw on this compliance , is more than possible . it is as probable as most events are that depend on humane wills. it is a natural consequence , and a consequence likely to be drawn by persons so principled ; and there are but too many that are so , and too tempting occasions to put them in mind of , and to engage them on , such inferences . § xxi . that abuse it a greater mischief than that it can be made a mends for by the doctors expedients . yet ly , should this inconveniences follow ; the doctor thinks himself provided against it . though the government should be so very dissolute as to turn out frequently the bishops of the church without any just cause ; yet who ( says he ) can look upon that mischief to be comparable to that of a schism and a persecution ? if he could find in his heart to be as much concerned for a more noble society , when it can intitle him to nothing but sufferings , as he is for a less noble one , that can give him revenues ; i cannot think he could be so indifferent for bearing frequent injuries by invalid deprivations of its governours , which cannot discharge subjects from their duty in conscience to those which are so deprived , he would be sensible , how this would tend to the dissolving such a socièty that must have its governours removable at the pleasure of a hostile society , whensoever but pleased to invade rights not belonging to it , without any remedy or relief by insisting on their own rights , which the doctors principles make unpracticable . and what schisms or persecutions can be worse to a society than dissolution ? he would be sensible , there is now a schism , and a persecution . that our late common body is now divided , that his late brethren upon principles of conscience are now persecuted ; if he could not otherwise believe , he would feel , if he had the compassion of a living member : if he had the zeal of the apostle , when he used that passionate expression , who is offended , and i burn not ? if he had any sense of the afflictions of joseph . he would be sensible of the many future schisms that must follow upon the frequency of these encroachments , upon his own loose principles , that neither allow bishops to assert their own just rights , nor oblige subjects to stand by them when they do so , as long as there shall be any bishops that shall think themselves obliged to assert them , and subjects that think their doing so will not discharge themselves from duty to them ; that is , as long as there are any that are true to the concenting principles of the church as it is a society and a communion . he would be sensible , that upon such brethren as these , such frequent encroachments would draw frequent persecutions . so far his principles and practices are from securing our common body from schisms and persecutions . but it seems he has forgot all concern for his old brethren upon the surest most uniting principles of brotherhood ; nay for our common body , and of the terms upon which it was common to us formerly . if he had not , he would not think our common body so unconcern'd in our divisions , and our persecutions . but what , says the doctor , can the suffering of a few particular men be , when compared with the peace and tranquillity of the whole church besides ? not so much undoubtedly , if the few had been men of singular opinions , of no consequence for the good of the whole ; if they had not been such as all ought to have been , if they would cement into a body by any solid uniting principles . the suffering of such , how few soever , would have involved the whole church , if all its members had been such as they should have been . it is therefore the unhappiness of a church that such members are but few . so far it is from being a consideration to be boasted of that the majority avoids sufferings by doing otherwise than becomes them . if the doctors regard to multitude alone had been true ; then whenever there was an apostaoy , the church would be , by so much , the more happy , by how much , the more had been engaged in the apostacy . these multitudes would call themselves the church as confidently as the doctor and his party do now , and would as little regard the sufferings of a few particular men as our late brethren do . i am sure the antient catholicks did not so little regard the sufferings of a few particular men , in a common cause . in the eastern empire there were very few that incurred the displeasure of constantius besides athanasius and paulus . in the west no more than five bishops are reckoned that suffered for their constancy . the rest might have pretended generally to as much peace and tranquillity as our adversaries do now . yet he was not than taken for a true catholick , who was as unconcerned as the doctor is , for the few particular men that suffered . nor do i see but that the cause of episcopal authority , and ecclesiastical subjection , is of as great and common importance to the church in general as any one article of the faith can be . this the vindicator has proved , nor has the doctor vouchsafed any answer to what he has produced for it . indeed the whole expedient insisted on by the doctor seems very strange to me , that he should think to secure the church from schism by allowing subjects to desert their ecclesiastical superiours on pretence of irresistible force , and by by renouncing all principles that may oblige ecclesiastical subjects to adhere to their ecclesiastical governours , whensoever the state shall be pleased to refuse to pretect them , and thereby renouncing all principles that may oblige them in conscience to continue a society independent on the state. these principles and practices leave them at liberty to form and maintain as many schisms as they please , when the decrees as the church are not seconded by the civil power . how then can the maintaining so licentious principles be taken for an expedient for preventing schism ? the doctor withal would have us consider , that it was not for the bishops that the church was established ; but the bishops were appointed for the sake of the church . hence he concludes , that it is not the welfare of the bishops as the bishops are these or or those men , much lese of some few particular bishops but the welfare of the whole church in general that is chiefly to be regarded . this is a pretence for all rebellions and innovations whatsoever , to make the persons invested with authority , to be regarded only as private persons , whose interests are different from those of the publick , which the innovators pretend to promote by removing their private persons , and substituting others in their stead . nor indeed need any rebel desire any more . let the head of the rebellion be the particular person , and the controversy is soon determined . he will pretend no quarrel with the publick , but only whether he or the present possessor shall be the particular person that is to be intrusted with the publick ; and to be sure , will pretend it to be for the publick interest , that of the two , himself should rather be the man , if for no other reasons , at least for those of the doctor , viz. irresistible force , and the peace and tranquillity of the whole , which he is otherwise resolved to disturb . and the same pretence is applicable to any other from of government as well as that which is monarchical . the administration of it cannot be managed but by some few chosen out of the whole body , and then those few are only so many particular persons , against whom the publick good may still be pretended , if others may judge of it . but this is so general a principle of rebellions and intestine discords , that all well constituted societies have used all means they could think of , to secure themselves against it . how private soever the interest might seem to particular persons to have the government committed to them , or to be invested in a right to it , yet when once they were possessed , or had a right , the publick has thought it self concerned to oppose , and to provide against , a violent dispossession , and has allowed no pretences of publick good , where the dispossession could not be compassed by any other means than by force . hence these very severe laws against any thing that might look like force to the persons of governours , especially those that were supreme , hence their arts of making their persons sacred , to secure them from those violences against which the force even of the community it self was not able to secure them . what need of all this care , if they had thought it fit still to have regarded them only as particular persons ? the book of judith , when it would express how the nations despised king nabuchodonosor , does it thus : he was before them as one man jud. i. . what difference is there between this language , and that of the doctor ? the same societies , have also taken security that no pretence of publick good should ever be made use of against the persons of governours , by allowing none others for judges of the publick good besides the persons invested with the government , and allowing them so to judge as to conclude all private persons . and there was reason why societies should be so concerned against violent removals of their governours , because they cannot be violently removed whithout violence to the whole societies which are obliged to defend them . if therefore they do their duties , the whole societies must suffer violence , and he over-powered in the removal , which must consequently subject them to the arbitrary pleasure of the forcible usurper . and to take the doctors way is yet worse , to desert their governours . this perfectly dissolves the government and disables the governour to do any thing of his duty to the publick . thus it appears how destructive it is to his whole cause to own the deprivations of our h. fathers invalid . where then can be his answer , if even himself grants all that we are concerned to assert in the question principally disputed between us ? § xxii . the main dedsign of the doctors new book in arguing from facts already overthrown by the vindicator , yet no notice taken of what was there said . but far be it from me that i should oblige him to any unwary concessions , if at the same time he has produced any thing solid in his book to prove them unwary . i am therefore willing to consider the main design of his book , if i can even there find any thing that can deserve the name of an answer , that is , that is not either acknowledged to be unsufficient by himself , or that had not before been prevented by his adversary . and what is , upon these accounts , made unserviceable , cannot certainly , in the sense of any just judge , be taken for a solid and satisfactory answer . the main design of his answer to the vindication is still to carry on the argument by him imputed to his baroccian m. s. to prove by an enumeration of facts ( which the doctor will needs have pass for precedents ) that deprivations by the lay-power have been submitted , to , and the intruders own'd by the subjects of the dioceses out of which the lawful possessiors had been uncanonically ejected . now this being nothing but the old argument , i cannot , for my part , see any reason the doctor can pretend , why the old answer of the former part of the vindication may not still be insisted on as sufficient , till at least , he offer at something to the contray , which he has not as yet so much as attempted . the vindicator has there shewn the unconclusiveness of that whole topick from naked facts , without something more particularly insisted on for proving them justifiable by true and defensible principles . especially in those lower ages in which the author of the baroccian m. s. deals , and to which the doctors new examples are reducible , the vindicator has shewn , that nothing is to be presumed to be well done , which has no other evidence of its being so than that it was actually practiced in those degenerous ages . and what has the doctor attempted to the contrary ? nothing , but that he has added some new facts to those enumerated by his baroccian author , and that he has endeavoured to defend some of the old facts that they were such as he pretended them . but neither of these things can pass for answers , whilst that part of the vindication remains unanswer'd . for how can he secure his new facts when all of their kind have been prov'd unconclusive ? and to what purpose does he endeavour to prove those few , he has meddled with , of his authors facts , to have been for his purpose , when the former part of the vindication has already evidenced that tho' they were so , that would not be sufficient for carrying his cause ? § xxiii . the doctor himself is unwilling to stand by the consequences of such like facts as himself produces . so far he has been from answering , that himself confirms the vindicator's sence upon this argument . * he professes beforehand his own unwillingness to be concluded by such instances as himself has produced , though they should appear to be against him . why so , if there had been any reason that he should have been concluded by them ? why so , if he did not thereby own that the reasons given by the vindicator against the argumentativeness of such facts were solid and concluding ? and how then can he find in his heart to insist principally in his following book on that very kind of facts , which he has acknowledged so unsafe to be relyed on in his preface ? he cannot pretend to argue ad hominem , when the vindicator had so expresly enter'd his exceptions against that whole argument . he cannot do it in his own person , when he professes himself unwilling to stand by the consequen ces of it . and how can he have the confidence to obtrude that upon us , which he does not believe himself ? in what sense can he take this whole reasoning for argumentative when it does not proceed ex concessis ; when it proceeds on one premiss , at least , not granted by either of the parties cancern'd in the dispute , neither by us , nor even by himself ? how can he possibly mistake a book , which proceeds principally on such reasoning as this , for a solid and satisfying answer . § xxiv . the doctors remark against the reasoning of the first parts of the vindication concerning the possession of cornelius turned against himself . thus it appears that the principal answer of the vindicator to the doctors book remains still in its full strength untouched and unconcerned in all the doctor has said in his new book . what is it therefore that he can pretend to have answer'd in it ? what is it that either makes his book need , or his brethren so clamorous for , a reply ? has he answer'd the vindicators argument for us , from facts more justifiable , more agreeable to principles , and to principles more certain and indisputable in the times of greatest ecclesiastical authority , in the earliest , and purest , and unanimous ages ? on this he has bestowed one single paragraph , in which he has offered nothing that can affect the principal lines of the vindicators reasoning and hypothesis . * all that he pretends is to observe one single disparity between the case of the primative christian bishops and ours . yet so unhappily , that even that disparity , upon a closer examination is likely to prove none at all . he tells us that cornelious was in poffession when novatian was set up against him . very true . but how can he deny that our fathers were in as true a possession , with regard to conscience , when their rivals usurp'd their thrones , as cornelius was ? he can pretend no possession of which our fathers were deprived but such as depended on the pleasure of the pretended secular magistrate . the secular act could not pretend to deprive them of any thing but what was secular , their baronies , their revenues , the priviledges annext to their function by the fovour of the secular powers . and can he pretend that cornelius was possessed of any thing of which the magistrate could deprive him ? as for spiritual rights , i cannot see the least disparity but that our fathers were as properly possessed of them as he was ; as properly as any can be in a state of persecution and independence on the civil magestrate . our bishops were consecrated and installed with all the solemnities requisite for a compleat possession , before the contrary encroachments were thought of . that possession was acknowledged and ratified by all the acts of intercourse and spiritual correspondence , by which any spiritual possession can be acknowledged by our natinal church of england . this possession of spirituals has not been touched by any spiritual authority , that can be pretended a proper judge of spirituals , that might discontinue this possession as to spirituals , and with regard to conscience . all this our h. fathers can truly plead , for their possession as to spirituals , at the time of the schismatical consecrations . and what can the doctor say more for the possession of cornelius against novation ? his district and jurisdiction as to spirituals , were manifestly not own'd by cornelius for favours of the magistrate . this being so , we need not depend on a saying ( the vindicator prov'd it independently on st. cyprian's saying it ) that second bishops are no bishops for proving his intruders to be none . the doctor himself confesses , that a second , that is , a schismatical bishop , an intruder into a see already filled and possessed , is no bishop , is confessed to be st. cyprian ' s doctrine . and this has now appeared to be their case for whom he is here concerned . § xxv . the doctor 's book offorded no subject for a reply , but what would be personal . besides ; these great neglects and omissions of the doctor were so separable from an accurate management of the cause and so peculiar to his person , that i knew not how to secure my answer from meddling with his person , with whom i had no mind to deal in any other way than that of civility and respect . in reference to the principal argument relating to conscience , he has brought so little new , as would hardly afford subject for a useful answer . yet the shewing that he did so , which was requisite to be done , if an answer were made at all , methought looked like a design of exposing his person , which i was willing to be excused from . i have always liked those defences best , which had the least mixture of personal considerations , not only as more christian , but also as more useful to those who are disengaged . this made me think it more advisable to wait till either the doctor himself , or some other able author would be pleas'd to attacque the principal strength of the vindication . § xxvi . the doctor 's turning the dispute to later facts draws it from a short and decisive , to a tedious and litigious , issue . but the principal discouragement of all from answering was , that the doctor seemed to me to draw the whole management of this cause from a shorter and decisive , to a tedious and unconclusive , issue . the doctor 's talent lies in history , and therefore he is willing to bring this question also to an argument that may give him an occasion to shew his skill in history . had not this been his case , why could he not be prevailed on , to say something to the reason of the thing ? especially having in the title of his book , promised a stating of the question . but where he pretends to have performed his promise , i cannot guess . i can find nothing in his book , but what concerns bare matter of fact. had he offered at any stating of the question , why would be not at least take notice of the distinction of facts observed by the vindicator , of the facts excepted against , and the facts allowed by him , for argumentative ? had he not allowed the distinction , at least he ought not to have produced more facts of the exceptionable kind , till he had either answer'd the vindicator's exceptions against them , or at least produced stronger arguments of his own , to prove his own facts also argumentative . if he did not think fit , either to answer the vindicator's reasons , or to produce his own , why did he not confine himself to the practice of the first ages proceding on pinciples than received by the whole catholick church , and fundamental to all the discipline then practised ? had he done so , the vindicator professing himself ready to joyn issue with him on those terms , had been indeed obliged to answer him but how can he expect an answer , when the vindicator's exceptions against the whold kind of facts he deals in , remain , i do not say unanswer'd only , but , not so much as attempted by him . § xxvii . we have no reason to suffer our selves to be overruled by him in these arts of diverting us. what himself designed in so unreasonable ways of proceeding , i will not pretend my self so privy to his thoughts , as to be able to determine . but it is easie to observe the interest of his cause in it . it shews indeed a greater variety of his reading , than if he had confined himself to the precedents of more decisive times but withal , it obliges us , if we follow him in all his instances , to write larger books than we can ever hope to get printed in the difficulties of the press on our side . we cannot hope to satisfy him , by answering some of his instances , if we do not all . and why must we be obliged to follow a way of his prescribing , which we cannot hope to go through , when we can reduce the whole dispute to narrower , and yet more conclusive bounds ? he gives us small encouragement to gratify him in this case , when he tells us that he will not be concluded by what we can say upon it , though we should prove the practice of these later ages , from which he will not be restrained , otherwise than he pretends it was . and why must we take so much pains to no purpose ? why should he desi●e it of us , it his design had been to satisfy conscience , either his own , or ours ? § xxviii . we decline his topick of facts , rather because it is undecisive than because we think it disadvantageous to us. considering the difficulties of our case , how hard it is even to get small discourses printed , it concerns us to endeavor all prudent arts of contracting the question into as narrow a compass as we can , and by no means to suffer our selves to be distracted to impertinent arguments , till what we have to say on pertinent ones be first satisfied . this will be sufficient , perhaps more than so , to fill up what can be allowed , whilst the intruders have the power of the press . we shall not envy the doctor the pleasure of seeing his challenges and gantlets refus'd , if he will not be pleas'd to confine them to more useful subjects . he has already seen a specimen of what might have been answer'd to all the facts he has or can produce , in what the vindicator has said to the facts insisted on in his baroccian m. s. the ages he deals in , were very degenerous from the piety and skill of their primitive ancestors , to whose judgments we appeal . yet i do not think any of them so far debased , as that they either did , or would have insisted on the doctor 's plea , that lay deprivations were sufficient to discharge them from their duty to their spiritual superiors . he that is so forward to make challenges , would do well to shew us one single instance wherein this doctrine was directly defended , i do not say by the ecclesiasticks only , whom i take for the most competent judges of ecclesiastical doctrines , but even by the parasites of the lay power . for my part , i remember not one single one . the emperors themselves who acted so precipitantly as to deprive without synods , did however after use their uttermost endeavours to get a synodical ratification of what they had done before by violence and indirect artifices . so far even they were sensible how little what they did of that kind , would be regarded in relation to conscience . this is sufficient to let the doctor see that our declining this topick , is not for want of sufficient advantage against him in it , if the press had been as free for us , as it is for him ; but because it is impertinent and unsatisfactory . § xxix . for want of some other subject relating to the vindication , we here pitch on the case of abiathar . this i thought sufficient to shew how little the vindicator is obliged to return any reply to the doctor 's pretended answer , till the doctor can be prevailed on to try his skill on the former and principal part of the vindication . but this is so particular to the doctor 's personal management of the cause , that i could not think this alone worthy the reader 's trouble in perusal of it , without some other subject of more importance to the cause it self . this therefore made me think of selecting something of the doctor 's book , which ( though it cannot be taken for an answer to the vindication , which had said nothing concerning it ) yet might give an occasion for clearing a particular prejudice against us , insisted on by many more besides him , abstracting from the principal topick of his book concerning facts in general . of his kind , i take the case to be of solomon's deposing abiathar , which may , even on the doctor 's account , deserve a more particular consideration , because he seems to have taken the greatest pains , in amassing the several hypotheses relating to it , of any one particular in his book . here they find a high priest * removed from his office by solomon , and another , that is zadoc , † put in his room , yet without the least scruple concerning the validity and acceptableness of zadok's ministry , with relation to god and conscience . this they think exactly parallel to our present case . § xxx . this fact is not commended in the scripture as a precedent . but fist , this fact is barely related in the scripture , without any censure on it , whether it was well , or ill done . and it is not indeed condemned , so neither is it excused or justified from any right asserted in solomon to do it . yet the whole force of reasoning from it as a pre sedent , must suppose it well done , for which they have not the least intimation in the holy writers . the whole enquiry , whether it was well , or ill done , must therefore be derived from other reasonings from the sense of that age , by which it may appear whether solomon had any right in offices of the priest-hood , by which he might be enabled to grant , or hinder , the practice of it , so as to oblige god to ratifie what he did concerning it . and for this it is much more certain . § xxxi . the magistrate could not by the doctrine of that age , have any direct power over the priest-hood . dly , that the magistrate had no direct power of intermedding in the offices of the priest-hood , according to the sense of the sacred writers . this appears not only from facts much more argumentative than this is , but also from principals professedly asserted in those times the facts are , saul's being deprived of his kingdom , for presuming to sacrifice in the absence of samuel , though he pretended a * force that obliged him to do so . then also the fact relating to uzzah , † who was struck dead upon the place , for presuming out of good will , to stay the ark , in danger ( ashe thought ) of being overturn'd , only because he was not one of the priests by office , who were alone allowed by god even to touch it . a third is that of king uzziah , * who likewise , for presuming to sacrifice , was punished by god with leprosy , ( which in those times was taken for a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and plainly supposed as such in all the discipline of moses relating to it ) and by being so , removed from the administration of the government , of which he was thereby rendred incapable . here are facts attested by the same authority as the other of abiathar was ; but not so nakedly related . the facts themselves discover not only the sense of the writers , but of god himself . his interposing his own authority in the cases , shews plainly that those facts were highly displeasing to him , and piacular ; than which , what can be more decisive for our purpose ? nay god took particular care , through that whole dispensation , to assert the rights of the prie sthood , as immediately depending on himself , more than he did , even for the magistracy . in the † rebellion of corah , dathan , and abiram , he asserted the priest-hood , not only against the reubenties , but the levités also . and * aaron's rod that blossomed , was laid up for a monument against such mutiniers for all suceding generations . plainly to exclude the whole body of the laity , from ever more presuming to pretend to it , † that no stranger that was not of the seed of aaron , come near to offer incense before the lord ; that he be not as corah , and as his company . so the holy writer expresly . and that even kings were not excepted , appeared manifestly in the examples now mentioned of saul and uzziah . and before the institution of kings , the cause was carried against the whole body of the people , in the cases of corah and aaron's rod. nay to cut off all pretensions of the priest hood being virtually at least , and eminently included in the regal office , the holy writers do still suppose the priest hood to be the nobler office of the two. as it advanced the dignity of the peculiar people that god had separated them to himself from all other nations , so in the same way of reasoning , it is a preference of the tribe of levi above all other tribes , that god had * separated them from the congregation of israel . accordingly , when the right of primogeniture was taken from reuben , and divided between levi and judah ; the priest hood , as the principal part of it , was given to the elder brother of the two. and as it advanced the whole nation of the israellites above all the nations of the earth that god himself , the supream infinitely perfect being , was their portion , and the lot of their inheritance ; and that indeed it was the segullah or peculium in contradistinction to all other nations ; so when the same god is pleased to stile himself the levites portion , that very appellative imports their excellency above all the other tribes out of which the kings were chosen , and makes them a peculium in contradistinction to the other peculium , which had no other title to that stile , but what was common to the whole nation in general . §. xxxii . the benefits of the priest-hood out of the power , and far greater than any in the power , of the civil magistrate . nor can this be thought strange , if we consider the opinions than generally receiv'd concerning the benefits then expected from their perist-hood , far greater than could be pretended to by the civil magistrate . this was indisputable , when its benefits were believ'd to extend to the future life as well as this , as it was generally believed by the jews of the apostolical age ( excepting only the sect of the sadducees , ) and as we christians are assured of it now in the times of the gospel . whether those rewards were by god eexpresly cove nanted for , or only as a divine gratuity reserved for the peculium as his favourites , more than could be expected from the letter of the covenant ; or whether they were implicitely understood , as included in the mystical sense of the covenant it self , as either discovered by the mystical reasonings , or the oral traditions of their ancestors , is not perhaps so easie to determine . yet certain it is , that they were actually and generally believed by the jews of the apostolical age. this appears in that it is noted as a singularity in the sadducees to deny them ; thence it appears , that the three other sects of the pharisees , essens , and galilaeans , were all agreed against the sadducees in asserting them . and how inconsiderable the interest of the sadducees was then , appears in the apostle's taking sanctuary in the single sect of the * pharisees alone for securing himself against them . now all the challenge of the. benefits proper to the peculium , depended on the right they had to partake in the publick sacrifices , and the covenant transacted in them . god's promises were his part of that covenant , and the covenant is expresly said to have been by sacrifice , psal. l. . that being the ordinary way used in those times of transacting covenants between mankind also . as therefore it was in the power of the priest-hood , to which the right of sacrificing was then confined , to admit to , or exclude from , the participation of the sacrifice , so it must consequently have been in the power of that sacred function , to grant or deny , these benefits , which were not attainable otherwise than by those sacrifices but these are benefits manifestly beyond the power of the magistrate , and manifestly greater than any to which his power does extend . the magistrate can conser no title to future and eternal rewards to persons otherwise never so well qualified for receiving them . he cannot oblige the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to ratify in heaven , what is transacted by him on earth , as the high priest could , who was ( in the sense of those times ) taken for his authorized representative . god , at his first permission of kings , neither suppressed the priest hood , nor united it in the person of the king : and therfore there can be no pretence that what was not otherwise in his power , was put in his power thence forward by any particular provision or gift of god. how than could he pretend to to that power ? how could he give or take away a power from others , to which himself could not pretend ? how could he suppose his act would be ratified in heaven ? or how imagine god obliged by it , to reject the priest whom he as prince was pleased to reject , and accept of others who were permitted only by his authority to officiate at god's altar ? and what could all his intermedling in these matters signify , if he cannot oblige god to ratify what is done by him ? if notwithstanding god should accept of the person rejected by him , and reject the person obtruded by the civil magistrate ? nothing certainly , with regard to conscience , which is the principal consideration in this case . § xxxiii . the ancient jews of the apostle's age did believe their priest hood available to a future and a eternal state . i cannot for my life , conceive how our adversaries can avoid the force of this argument , if the benefits procured by the sacerdotal office were thought spiritual , and principally relating to a future and eternal state ; things perfectly out of the power of the magistrate , and incomparably exceeding whatsoever is within it . and that this was the sense of that age , i need not insist on the article of our own church . it sufficiently appears from the earliest coaeval monuments of that age , not only that they thought the sacerdotal office to have influence on the future state ; but that they did on that very account , believe it superior to the office of the civil magistrate . besides what i now mentioned concerning their agreement against the sadduces , the two only jewish authors that we have undoubtedly coaeval with the apostles , philo and josephus , are both of them sufficiently clear in these particulars , that the priests ministry was thought available for the future state , what can be clearer than those words of philo ? where he tells us , that * priests and prophets were men of god , and therefore did not vouchsafe to account themselves of any particular city in this world , or citizens of the world in general ( as some of the philosophers did ) but soared above all that was sensible , and being translated to the intellectual world , fixed their habitations there , being registred in the city of incorruptible incorporeal ideas . and it were easie to shew , that the language and notions of the n. t. concerning the correspondence between the visible priest hood on earth , and the archetypal † priest-hood of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in heaven , and between the visible tabernacle in jerusalem , and the true ‡ tabernacle in heaven , not pitched by men but god , were perfectly agreeable to these notions of philo , who was such as the apostles were before their conversion to the christian religion ; and that all the benefits of their outward ministry , were thought due to this mystical communication with that which was invisible ; by which it may appear , that those words of philo were perfectly agreeable to his avowed principles . now how could the magistrate pretend to promote or interrupt this mystical communication between the earthly and heavenly offices ? how could he therefore advance any person to that dignity , or exclude him from it ? josephus also is as clear in owning a future state , which by these principles could not be claim'd by any but on account of this mystical communication , and consequently of that priest hood , which was thought to have a just title to it . he also expresses that state by the laaguage of the * christians also of that age. to these i might add the testimony of a third tewish hellenist , the author of the apocryphal book of wisdom . he also , personates solomom making the temple built by himself to be a resemblance of the holy † tabernacle which god had prepared from the beginning . which shews , that this mystical communication was understood , even then when that author lived , who seems to have been elder than even the apostles themselves . how could the magistrate pretend to any right in affairs of this nature ? § xxxiv . and consequently , did expresly own it for mor honourable than the magistracy it self . so far is he from any right to intermeddle in these matters , that if these things be true , the priest hood must needs be own'd for an authority of a higher nature , and more noble than even the magistracy it self . nay , this very consequence was inferred from those principles , and own'd as true in that very age. philo owns it for the highest honour possible : speaking concerning the words of moses there mentioned , * using ( says he ) an hyperbolical expression of honour , god , he says , is their lot , with relation to the consecrated gifts , on two account : one , of the highest honour , because they are partakers of those things which are by way of gratitude , allotted to god : the other , because they are employed on those things alone which belong to expiations , as if they were guardians ( or gurators , that is the roman word ) of the inheritances . the similitude seems to be taken from the roman custom of making tutors and curators of young heirs , whose estates , till they themselves came to age , were said to be the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of such tutors and curators , being till then , at their disposal supposing that the revenues of god were so at the disposal of the priest , as the estates of the young heirs were so at the disposal of the curators . this philo takes to be the reason why god was pleas'd to call himself the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the priests , as if god himself had been their pupil , which was indeed a very hyperbolical expression of the highest honour that could be ascribed to mortals . but this is general only . he else where expresly equals , nay prefers the dignity of the sacerdocal office to the regal . he equals them in that same discourse . it is manifest , says he , that the law prescribes that reverence and honour to the priests , which is proper to the king. in another place he prefers the priest hood . these are his words ; † priest hood is the properest reward of a pious man , who professes himself to serve the father , whose service is better , not only than liberty , but also than a kingdom . nor was this a singular opinion of philo. jesephus also is of the same mind . the scripture it self owns the power of moses to have been regal , when it calls him a * king in jeshurum ; when it says , that the † voice of a king was among the israelites , there being no other besides moses who could pretend to it . and his right was as absolute , and as free from any judicatory then established , that could call him to an account , as any of the kings themselves . this , at least , is manifest , that the supream power of the jews as to seculars , which is all that i am concerned for at present , was lodged in him , and in him alone , and that he had no rival in it . yet moses himself , as josephus personates him , owns his brother's priest-hood as preferable to his own office of the magistracy . for so he makes him speak concernig his disposal of the priest-hood : ‖ if i had not had regard to god and his laws in giving this honour . i would not have endured to pass my self by , to give it to any other . for i am more nearly related to my self , than i am even to my brother , and more disposed to love my self them him . he plainly supposes him to have denied himself in what he had done in distribution of those offices , which he could never have said , with any consistency , if he had reserved himself the nobler office of the two. this mr. selden was not aware of , when he therefore conceives the author of the testaments of the patriarchs to have lived in modern times , because he prefers the priest hood before the civil magistracy , as if that doctrine had been first brought in , in the times of the popes encroachments on the right of princes in the west . had he recollected himself , he might have found the same doctrine in the east , and in those earlier ages , wherein no examples could be found of such encroachments . he might have remembred that the work he there disputes of , was brought by lincolnieufis first from the east to these western parts , and therefore was written by an eastern author , where there were no bishops pretending to a civil independency on the empire , or to a right of deposing princes , and absolving subjects from their oaths of allegiance , who might have been gratified by such doctrines . for my part , i take that work to have been written in the apostolical age. it is expresly quoted by origen , long before such encorachments on temporal rights were thought of it is written in the hellenistical greek hebrew stile , then ordinarily used , when the apostolical converts had formerly been for the most part jews , bevond the skill of the modern times to have imitated it . besides , it mentions the apostolical times as the last times , a mistake frequent in the reasonings of those times , but which could not have been believed by any who lived at an age's distance from them . it has very little ; if any thing , relating to the destruction of the temple by titus , which the design of the author would have obliged him to have been large in , if he had lived after it . these things considered , will make that work also fit to be considered , as another testimony of the sense of the jews in the ages of the apostles ; the style and notions of the author making it , every way , seem probable that he was a convert from them . this doctrine therefore being then believed , must perfectly have destroyed all pretensions of the magistrate in affairs of this nature , at least , in the opinion of those who believed it . the magistrate of this world , could not , in his own right , challenge any power in things relating to the other world. the only way therefore left him , by which he might challenge it , must have been some donation of god. yet niether for this was there any the least pretence . no text of written revelation ever so much , that i know of , as pretended for it . and no likelihood for it , in the nature of the thing it self . no probability , that god would intrust concernments of a nature incomparably more noble , with a magistracy less noble than the trusts committed to it . no probability , that god would hereby expose interests so much in themselves more valuable and dearer to himself , to the hazard of being postponed to those less noble ends for which the secular magistrate was principally concerned . these things supposed , cut off all pretensions of right , imaginable in such cases . and the dreadfull examples of god's severity against meddling in holy things without right ; even in the cases of saul and uzziah , who were themselves invested with the supream civil authority , must have been thought sufficient to deter all posterity from intermedling in such matters , without very just and evident claims of right for doing so . § xxxv . this same reasonning holds on account of the priest representing god , though without relation to a future state. nor did this reasoning hold only our supposition that the benefits of the priest-hood were thought to extend to a future state. though it had only related to this world , as all other priest hood besides that of the jews , did undoubtedly ; yet even so , there was no reason to believe the civil magistrate had any rights to dispose of it . this at least was thought certain that the high priest who could oblige god to accept him and his obligations , ( without which all his ministry must have been unavailable ) must first have been suppos'd to derive authority from god. had the priest only represented the people , there might have been some pretence for the magistrates interest in appointing and removing the person of the priest , as being himself invested with all the power that can be derived from an original purely humane . but as the priest has a power of blessing and cursing authoritatively , so as to oblige god to ratify his blessing and curses , as men have qualified themselves respectively ; so it is certain that he cannot oblige god , unless he represent god , which he can never do , unless god have granted him authority to do so . and as he does not only offer the peoples prayers and sacrifices , but offers them with a title to acceptance , so he must himself be a person acceptable to god on account of his office , which he cannot be presumed to be if he come into his office any other way than god has appointed for his admission . indeed the whole ground of his obliging god depends on god's promise , which is god's part of the covenant . and in this regard none can oblige god but the priest , and no priest but he who has before been appointed by god to do so . covenants are mutual , and therefore require , and give security , on both parts concerned in them . the priest therefore , as , in a lower sense , mediating in this covenant between god and man , is to procure security on gods side , as well as on ours . this he cannot do but by obliging god to promise performance on his part , of what is to be done by him as his part of the covenant . and that promise being god's part of the covenant , he cannot be obliged to it any other way than as he is obliged to the covenant it self . nor can he be obliged by the covenant , if the priest be not first authorized by him to covenant for him , and to oblige him by that act of his own authority . thus there , fore it appears that the priest as a common mediator in a covenant between god and man , must therefore be invested with a divine , as well a humane , authority . § xxxvi . and that also according to the opinions of those times . nor was this reasoning only true , but also believed to be so in the times i am now discoursing of . st. paul plainly supposes it as true of priests in general , in his reasonings in the epistle to the hebrews , that priests ought to be authorized by the god for whom they are to officiate . every high priests taken from among men is ordain'd for men in things pertaining to god , that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sin. heb. v. i. and he tells us by whom they were so taken and ordained , v. . no man taketh this honour to himself ; but he that was called of god , as was aaron . the proposition is universal . accordingly he observes that christ also glorified not himself ; to be made an high priest : but he that said unto him , thou art my son , to day have i begotten thee , v. . and that he also was called of god an high priest , though of the order of melchisedec . v. . the duty must be universal , when he reasons thus upon it from the aaronical priest-hood ( which himself counts of another order chap. vii . . ) to that of melchisedec . the apostle here speaks exactly according to the sense of the old testament . god there also says concerning aaron and his sons : i have given your priests office unto you. numb . xviii . . and again : behold i also have given thee the charge of mine ●eave offerings , of all the hallowed things of the children of israel . unto thee have i given them by reason of the anointing , and to thy sons , by an ordinance for ever . v. . this was said after the punishment of korah , and the second confirmation of the priest-hood to them , by the blossoming of aarons rod. no doubt with a design to intimate that they who should come in otherwise , should be as korah and his company ( so it is expressed chap xvi . ) though not in the miraculousness of their punishment , yet at least in the unacceptableness of their ministry . it is withal observable further , that gods giving the priest hood is said to have been by reason of the anointing , that is , by the rites of consecration . it is certain . god did intend , as in other things , so particularly in his priests , on occasion of whom he says it , to be sanctified in them that come nigh him , lev. x. . in order whereunto it was requisite that they also should be holy as he was holy : this was a federal and external holiness , upon account of their being initiated into their office by the external and federal rites of consecration , among which this of the anointing was the principal . whosoever therefore was not thus anointed , was , for that very reason , presumed not to be holy , nor therefore acceptable to god , and consequently uncapable of the priest-hood . but this anointing required not only the holiness of the oyntment , but of the person also that administred it , and that in a higher degree than could belong to the civil magistrate . the princes indeed had an unction , and were by that enabled to perform some lower acts of consecration . so solomon makes the prayer of dedication of the temple . but the principal consecration of the temple was by the sacrifices , in which the forementioned examples of saul and uzziah shew that the prince had no right to intermeddle . what moses did in the consecrating aaron and his sons , was by special direction from god , and before god had confined to priest hood , and therefore could not be made a precedent afterwards . after that first consecration was performed , we never find moses any further intermeddling , but he leaves all the acts of priest hood afterward to them who , by that first consecration , were authorized for them . the unction and holiness of the priest-hood did so far exceed the unction and holiness of the regal power , that the princes intervention in the consecrating of a priest could not , in the sense of those times , be taken for the act of god , requisite for giving a priest-hood . it is very true , the king , on account of his anointing , was counted holy. and so were all the congregation holy . numb . xvi . . and it is reckoned among the privildeges of the peculium in general , that they were a holy-priest-hood . yet that did not excuse them from a great piacular crime , whenever they invaded any offices of their own priest-hood . every lower degree of holiness was counted prophane in comparison of that which was above it . as therefore the gentiles were reputed prophane in comparison of the jews , who were equal in holiness to the gentiles priest hood ; so the laity of the jews were reckoned prophane in comparison of the levites , as the levites also , in comparison of the ordinary priests , and those also in comparison of the high priest ; and were accordingly treated by god , it they presumed on offices higher than those committed to them . though therefore the prince was more holy than the laity . yet that did not warrant his invasion of the office of the meanest levite . so far it was from giving him any power over the high priesthood it self . he had no power of inaugurating , and therefore had none of exaugurating , to speak in the old roman pontifical style . § xxxvii . solomons act on abiathar was only of force . thus it appears on all accounts , that judging by the doctrines received in that age , solomon could not pretend any direct power , for depriving abiathor of his priest hood . hence it follows ly , that all that solomon could do , on account of his regal power , was only to exercise that external force on him , which he might justify , on consideration of his secular crime , as his sovereign in seculars , which though it could not in conscience deprive abiathar of his right yet might ( in the consequence ) make all the exercise of his right impracticable . and indeed the words of the text imply no more than what was the effect of pure force . so solomon thrust out abia thar from being priest unto the lord , kings . . and that very agreeably to the true importance of the word there used . the vulgar latine renders it ejecit . the lxxii . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . the hebrew roo is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the lxxii . render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , but most frequently , as in this very place , by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , words all of them denoting violence . nor can we think that this word , rather than any other that might have been used , was chosen without a particular design . that seems to be to let us understand , what i have now been proving , that solomon could not make abiathar cease to be a priest unto the lord by any judicial determination that might directly affect his right , but by the force now mentioned , which might make the exercise of his right impracticable . this solomon might do by banishing him from jerusalem , and confining him to anathoth . § xxxviii . vvhich force might , in the consequence render the exercise of his right impracticable . for it is to be remembered , that the jewish priest-hood included seveveral secular rights , which must therefore have been in the power of the secular magistracy ; and as to the spiritual offices , was so confined to places , which the magistrate could hinder the priests from by his power of external force , that , in case he would make use of his force to hinder them , the whole exercise of the right of priest-hood would thereby be rendered impractable . it included , by divine institution , many secular rights . particularly , as to the oracle of urim , by which many secular causes were to be determined , and by which , ( on account of the governments being theocratical ) the supream civil magistrate as well as the subject , was in conscience to be concluded . this was consulted by the elders of israel concerning their designed expedition against the * benjamits , by saul on the miraculous victory of † jonathan , by david in the cases of sauls exepedition against him , and the treachery of the men of keilah , and his own expedition against the philistians . and the elders of israel , even in the time of joshua , are blamed for not * asking counsel at the mouth of the lord in the case of the peace made with the gibeonites , by which we understand the obligation of the civil magistrate , as well to consult , as to observe this oracle . and in private cases , when a cause fell out † too hard in judgment , that is , for the decision of the ordinary judges , between blood and blood , between plea and plea , and between stroke and stroke , as in the time of moses , they consulted him , and he consulted god ; so afterwards the ordinary course was , to make the ultimate appeal to the priests ( no doubt the high priest more principally , ) and to stand to their award under of pain death . these causes which concerned blood and blood , and stroke and stroke , were undoubtedly secular , as also the capital punishment to be afflicted on those that proved refactory . these secular rights god annext inseparably to the priest-hood . but the execution of them wholly depended on the power of the sword , which god was pleas'd intirely to permit to the civil magistrate , whom the priests could therefore only oblige in conscience , which obligation if the magistrate would not regard , it was fully in his power to hinder the execution of such decrees . so also , even the spirituals of that sacerdotal office depended on things in the power of the civil magistrate . the lawful priest himself could sacrifice no where but in the temple , and at the altar of jerusalem , and in the particular vestments prescribed by the law. if he did , such sacrifices would not only be unacceptable , but piacular . this the romans very well understood , when , by locking up the vestments in the fort antonia , and by keeping a guard there that should command the temple , to which the fort was contiguous , they engrossed the disposal of the high priest hood intirely to themselves . and it was also in the power of solomon to make the whole exercise of abiathar's priest-hood impracticable , by the like force which he had a right , as a prince , to exercise , where he should judge it necessary for the good of the secular society , for which he was principally concerned . this was an indirect power over abiathar's spirituals in order to his own temporals . § xxxix . yet solomon was in conscience obliged to be cautions in exercising this force against the priest-hood . but then it is to be considered further ly , ( by the opinions of those times grounded on reasons lasting still ) princes , though they had that power annext to their office , were notwithstanding obliged in conscience , to be sparing in the use of it against such holy persons as abiathar was . holy places were every where , by the consent of civilized nations , allowed the right of protecting such as fled to them , if they were not guilty of the highest piacular crimes . thus it was in the case of * adonijah , and others mentioned in the old testament . thus , in the cases of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and supplices , among the greeks and romans , the piaculum cylonianum among the athenians was famous . though † cylon justly deserved what he suffered , yet because some of his party were killed in the sanctuary , the displeasure of the deity , on that account , was to be atoned by a solemn expiation , which was performed by epimenides . and if the places were thus reverenced on account of their consecration , much more the priests from whom they received it . this is exactly the reasoning of our blessed saviour in a * like case . accordingly it was a general rule : † touch not mine anointed , for whose sakes even ‖‡ kings also are said to have been reprov'd . this was the security of the whole peculium of israel , among the many nations through whom they passed in their expedition from aegypt to canaan . this was the security of the prince himself , that none could * stretch out his hand against the lord 's anointed , and be guiltless , that is , without being guilty of a piacular crime . and how could solomon hope that assassinates would regard his own anointing , if himself had violated an anointing so much greater and holyer then his own , from whence his own was derived ? this reverance also to holy persons obtained by the consent of civilized nations , which is to us an argument of the law of nations . aesop as a person holy and beloved of the gods was revenged by them . the like was their opinion of several poets also , as pindar , stesichorus , &c. and this also was among them translated to the interests of the civil magestrate , the tribunes of the people among the romans were first secured by it . afterwards the emperours were so also , by having the tribunitian power and the pontificate annexed to their office. and how far this opinion prevailed , even among the jews of those earlier ages , appears plainly in the murder of abimeleck and the priests by saul . his own * servants could not be prevailed upon to do it . none indeed but † doeg the edomite , who being of an other nations might be supposed to have less regard for the jewish consecration . and there was particular reason for this revernce to the priest-hood in the jewish governments as it was theocratical . as it was such , the magistrate was more particularly obliged to do every thing according to the mind of god himself whose vicegerent he was . and god being the principal and supream governour , he was as much concerned in every thing , to take care that it were performed according to his pleasure , as every inferior magistrate is bound , at his peril , to do every thing according to the mind of the supreme legislator , rather than his own . this would oblige the prince to value every thing according to the esteem that god was pleased to put upon it . and therefore to make religion his principal care as it was certain god did , and to make his own interest to give way to the interests of religion , and the honour of his own function , to the honour of the priest-hood , as he would approve himself faithful in the trusts committed to him . that god had given the less noble office a more effectual security , as to this world , against encroachments , he had reason to look on as a wise provision for the publick , that where there might otherwise have been the most specious pretentions , and consequently the greatest temptations to encroaching , there might be the lesser advantage for it . but it ought by no means to embolden him to be the first aggressor . he had reason to fear , in those ages so famous for the frequency of divine interpositions , god himself might the rather think himself the more obliged , by the rules of his own providence , to vindicate the sacred power , by how much the more he had left it destitute of humane patronage . uzziah afterwards found it so . this therefore must have obliged solomom to use the coercive power granted him , rather in his own defence , than in a way that might , even in consequence , look like violence to so holy an office , § xl. what solomon did was only to fullfill what god had before threatned against the family of eli. and to make it probable that solomon had these very considerations before him , to contribute nothing by his legal force to this deprivation , but what was agreeable to his own station and the mind of god ; i observe ly that the text it self gives a reason of what he did , perfectly suitable to such thoughts , that he did it only as an executioner of the prediction of samuel concerning the removal of the priest-hood from the house of ithamar . the words are these : * so solomon thrust out abiathar from being priest to the lord , that he might fulfil the word of the lord , which he spake concerning the house of eli in shilo . i know very well that this particle that , is used in the n. t. when a prophesy was fullfilled in the event , though he who fulfilled it knew nothing of the matter . but the circumstances of this place make it probable that solomon knew what he did , and intended the accomplishment of that prophesy , and that what he did was done by him purposely , for that very end , that he might fullfill it . the prediction was very notorious , being twice repeated , first by a man of god , sam. ii. , then by samuel also , chap. iii. . as the first initiation of him into his prophetick office , which recommended him to all israel from dan to beersheba , as one that was established to be a prophet of the lord , v. . it was also in both cases notified to eli himself , that all , as well friends as enemies , might know it . how therefore can we believe solomon ignorant of it ? then the distance of the time between eli and abiathar was such , as that there was reason to expect that it should be fullfilled in abiathar , if it were fullfilled at all . such punishments of the children for the parents were not usually deferred beyond the fourth generation , as appears from the words of the d commandment . so also in the heathen history , the treachery of gyges against candaules was punished in croesus , who was in the fourth generation descended from gyges ; as jehu's conspiracy was also , in his fourth generation , in the sacred history . by these examples we find a consent in those traditions of the earlier times . and the distance between eli and abiathar could not be less . * josephus indeed makes eli to have been the grand-father to abiathar . but it is certain that they were further removed than so . abiathar was himself the son of ahimelech , and ahimelech the son of ahitub . so ahitub must have been his grand-father . thus it appears that abiathar was , at least , in the fourth generation from eli , whose sin was to be punished in him . further yet , ahitub is said to have been the brother of ichabod , the son of phineas , the son of eli , sam. xiv . . thus abiathar will be the vth from eli , ( if both terms be included ) and in the th generation , in the utmost way of counting possible . there was therefore no reason to expect any further delay of that punishment which had been so long before predicted . and therefore abiathar was the person in whom it was to be expected . this being so , solomon could not but look on it as very providential , that abiathar should be permitted by god to fall into the conspiracy of adonijah , and thereby to incur his royal displeasure , in whose power it was to execute the divine sentence on him , by that power of force which god had committed to the prince . it tended withal very much to confirm the same observation , that , for above years since his first evil ( for so many years were contained in davids reign reckoned from the death of saul ) abiathar should have no posterity that might succeed him in his office , if this was indeed his case . for by this it appar'd necessary that if he were depriv'd , the whole family of ithamar should be deprived also , at least the family of eli , as the prophesies forementioned had foretold . for as for the rest of his family , saul seems to have destroyed it universally . these observations put together might give reason to believe , that this was the very time design'd by god for the accomplishment of this prophesy . at the same time zadok was firm to solomon's interests , which seemed to tend to fullfil the prophesy to phineas of an everlasting priest-hood , implying that the time should come , when the whole succession from aaron should be confined to the family of phineas , which therefore was not to fail together with the other collateral branches derived from aaron . but i rather believe , that abiathar's family did not fail intirely , which still makes further for my purpose , that what solomon did in this matter , was really with a design and prospect on the prophesy it self . otherwise , had he only designed a personal punishment for abiathar , that might have been done by removing him form the priest-hood , and substituting the next of the family of ithamar in his place . what he did more is not , any other way , so well accountable , as by supposing him to have had a direct design of fullfilling the prophesy . it is otherwise as apparent from the prophesy it self , that eli was to have a posterity that was to survive the fulfilling of the prophesy , as that they were to be deprived of the priest hood by it . what else can be the meaning of those words ? * and it shall come to pass , that every one that is left in thine house , shall come and crouch to him ( the faithful priest before mentioned , not of eli's family ) for a piece of silver , and a morsel of bread , and shall say put me ( i pray thee ) into one of the priests offices , that i may eat a piece of bread . now , in this way of reasoning here mentioned , god himself had declared his pleasure that abiathar , and the house of ithamar too , should be deprived of the priest-hood ; and deprived at that very time . so that solomon had nothing more to do in it , than to use that lawful power god had given him for forcing him out of his possession . § xli . abiathar was not then the high-priest ▪ properly so called , but zadok . but whatever solomon's concernment was in the deprivation of abiathar , i add farther , ly that it was not an example , so far it was from being a precedent , of a deprivation of a high priest properly so called . i deny not but abiathar was a high priest , but not in the appropriated sense . the n. t. history and josephus , mention whole bodie of high-priests , who with the bodies of the scribes , made up the jewish judicatories relating to religion . these might consist , partly of those who had been high-priests , partly of the heads of the several sacerdotal families , partly of the heads of the sacerdotal courses . but the high priest concerned in our present despute , is he only who answered our christian bishops , as a principle of the unity of the jewish communion , as the bishops are in the christian. this could have been only one , the chief of all who were called by the common name of high priests , who could be the principle of unity . and i deny abiathar to have been high priest simply in this appropriated sense . * for zadoc is frequently mentioned with him , yet so , as that he is always preferred before him . and this , in davids time as well as solomon's , which plainly shews that this superiority did not begin from the expulsion of abiathar . from that time he was alone , and therefore had so little reason to be reckoned in the first place , that he had no reason to be joined with him at all . indeed he was every way superiour to abiathar , as well in order of time , as in the dignity of his office. in order of time . for he is joined not with abiathar only , but with † ahimelech also , and so joyned with him as still to have the precedency of him also . if ahimelech be the true person designed to be joined ▪ with zadok in these places , he cannot be the son of our abiathar , * as the doctor fancies , because both places refer him to the time of david if he were his father , then as it is certain that ahimelech was put to death by saul , so it must be certain that zadok who was coaeval with him , must have been in the time of saul also , and before abiathar . but perhaps there may have been an easie transposition of ahimelech the son of abiathar , instead of abiathar the son of ahimelech , in both places . so they will be parallel to those other places now mentioned , where they are so joyned , and the time of both will agree with the time assigned them in the text , that of david , whose reign will hardly admit of any collegue for zadok , besides our abiathar . besides , as the time of david is inconsistent with either a son or a father of our abiathar , so neither was the father of our abiathar , the son of another abiathar , but of ahitub . unless possibly both father and son of had both names , that of ahimelech and of abiathar also . it is certain that ahimelech the father , under whom david did eat the shew bread , is in the gospel called * abiathar . but whether i may securely reason from these readings or not , it is certain from the unanimous consent of so many other places , that zadok was high priest , and superiour to abiathar in that office , even in the time of david . this is at once sufficient to overthrow the doctor 's fancy , that zadok's high-priest hood commenced from the expulsion of abiathar , and those of josephus also , and of the rabbins , who made the high-priest hood , for many generations , translated from the family of eleazar , to that of ithamar , and not restored to its true oncient course , till this dishonour of abiathar . § xlii . there were in those times two high-priests at once ; the chief , such as zadok was , of the family of eleazar , the lower , such as abiathar , of the family of ithamar . they had no books to inform them in this matter more than we , no other coaeval writings but the scriptures , which no where assert any such matter in plain terms the only way remaining therefore how they might gather this opinion thence , must be by their own reasoning and consequences . and it is not very difficult to guess what those might be . there is indeed no high priest mentioned in the interval from phineas to abiathar , but eli , ahias and ahimelech , all of the race of ithamar . thence they conceived that all the stock of phineas for that time , were private persons ; not-invested with the high-priest hood . but the name of high priest is never given to any of those predecessors of abiathar , much less in the appropriated sense of which i am now discoursing . how then do they come to know that they were high-priests in the sense here disputed ? is it because ahias ministred before the ark , and ahimelech and abiathar gave divine answers to david ? but how do they know that this office of giving responses by urim , was so the prerogative of the first high-priest , that it might not in his absence agree to the lower high priest of the junior family ? why might not the two families take their turns , for the mutual ease , in these offices of attending the king , as the ordinary priests did afterwards in their courses in attending on the temple ? and why might not these times fall on the courses of ithamar ? the great occasion of their mistake is , that judging of the customs of these more ancient times by more modern practices , they thought none capable of wearing the ephod , by which the oracle of urim was given , but the high priest , properly so called in the appropriated sense , in which there could be no more at one time , but one . and that which gave them this occasion , was , that this ephod is reckoned among the garments peculiar to the high priest , in contradiction to the priests of lower orders . but upon a closer examination , they might have found that the high-priesthood , as to the execution of it , was common to aaron and all his sons , and therefore that the vestments were so too , only with dependence on him , while he lived , and on him who should afterwards succeed him in his prerogatives , as first and chief of those who did yet all partake in the execution of the high-priest-hood . this seems clear in all the places where the high-priesthood is spoken of in the pentaeuch . aaron is hardly ever mentioned without his sons , as joint sharers with him in it . the first command was , that * aaron and his sons should be taken from among the children of israel , that he might minister in the priest office. they are * consecrated together , and by one common form , which seems plain to imply , that the power communicated by that form , was common also , only reserving the rights of the prerogative . their † washings were the same , and their * unction also , which was the principal rite of consecration , which entitled them to all the right they could pretend to as the lord 's anointed . the † offerings were also common among them , both those which were to be shared by them , and those which were offered for them . the form of * blessing the people prescribed to both , is exactly the same . and from this power of blessing , the † apostle reasons , in judging the greatness and excellency of priest-hoods . the * levites also were given in common to aaron and his sons . and even in this very particular of the vestments , aaron is not mentioned alone , but his sons also are joined with him . the holy † garments were for aaron and his sons , that he might minister unto god in the priest's office. that he alone is so often said to minister , even when they also are joyned with him , shews plainly their dependence on him , as a principle of unity . accordingly all aaron's sons were joyned with him in this affair . so the text runs , * that he may minister unto me in the priest's office , even aaron , nadab and abihu , eleazar and ithamar , aaron's sons . so that all the four should have had high-priests , if they had all of them left posterity . this is expresly given as the reason why the common rights were only succeeded to in the families of eleazer and ithamar , that the other brethren left no posterity . † nadab and abihu died before their father , and had no children ; therefore eleazar and ithamar executed the priest's office. wherein then consisted that appropriation of those vestments to the high priest properly so called ? that there was but one of those vestments made , which could therefore , on no occasions , be worn by any more than one at once : that these were in the custody , or at least , at the disposal of the first high-priest , and could therefore be worn by none of the rest , without his particular favour and indulgence : that they were therefore worn only by that high priest , who was the principal in the particular respective ministry : that therefore they were worn by the first high priest as often as he ministred , because he never could be other than principal ; but by the second , never but when , by the absence of the first , he thereby came to be principal . and hereby a clear account is given how the high-priest's office was performed , in case of the sickness , or uncleanness , or any other incapacitating circumstance , of him whose particular duty it was . in this case , the second high-priest might perform it for him . this was a case which might probably and frequently fall out , and therefore was particularly to be provided for in the constitution . the rather , because in the day of expiation it might have been of formidable consequence to the whole nation , if the solemnity of that great day had been omitted , even on what account soever , and thereby the annual sins of the peculium had not been attoned for . the rabbinical sagan , is not a scriptural but chaldee term , and therefore wholly derived not from well-attested traditions , but later reasonings . § xliii . no deprivation of the posterity of phineas in those times . thus therefore it appears , that all the conjectures of the private life of the posterity of phineas , till the expulsion of abiathar , are perfectly groundless and precarious . they who first thought of it , ought to have considered how this was reconcilable with the promises made to phineas of an * everlasting priesthood , if either he , or his immediate posterity , had been deprived of the priesthood , and not restored till so many ages after . none could have thought it reconcilable , who had lived in those ages before the restitution . nor are there any later demerits of phineas pretended , that might occasion , nor any prophecies that gave the least warning of , even that interruption , in an age whose rewards and punishments were particularly adapted to mens behaviour in this world. it now appears , that ithamar's posterity might , by this constitution , officiate as high priests , without being so in the strict ense of the word . it also appears , that on account of the same constitution , zadok was before abiathar , as being of the elder family of eleazer , and that therefore his being always mentioned before abiathar was grounded on the real greater dignity of his priesthood before that of abiathar . whilst aaron lived , we have seen how his pre-eminence , and his sons dependance was maintain'd , by his being said to do what they all assisted him in . this therefore being the prerogative of the principle of unity , must have descended from aaron to his successor in the prerogative . accordingly we find , at aaron's death , that the right of his vestments did not descend to his sons in common , but only to * eleazer . this josephus himself confesses to have been 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , on account of his primogeniture . what made him then not think on some better account than that he gives , why zadok is preferred to abiathar , even in the time of david ? all the reason he gives for it is , that he was his , that is , david's † friend . how is this reconcilable with what he says elsewhere , that the posterity of phineas did * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , were private persons till this restitution of the priesthood by solomon , to the family of phineas , at the expulsion of abiathar ? yet even in this † later place also , he owns that zadok was high priest under david . could the restitution be made by solomon , and yet zadok be high priest in the time of david ? was it likely that so religious a prince as david could prefer a private person before the high priest , only because he was his friend ? but it was the plain testimony of the scriptures asserting the priesthood of zadok in the time of david , that forced josephus to these contradictions to his own reasonings . he might have found a better title for zadock than david's friendship , if he had but remembred that zadok had the same title with eleazer , which himself had founded on the right of primogeniture . but we need not ground zadok's right on the bare opinion of so inconsiderate , and therefore so inconsistent , a writer . the scripture it self is sufficiently clear in this matter . speaking of the garment's of aaron , no doubt those peculiar to the high pristhood strictly understood , it adds , * and that son that is priest in his stead , shall put them on seven days when he cometh into the tabernacle of the congregation , to minister in the holy place . the sacred writer manifestly supposes only one of his sons that had so frequently been joined with him in the administration of his office , who could succeed him in the right to the vestments : and who could that one son be , by the customs of those times , who could plead the best title to succeed him in incommunicable indivisible prerogatives , but the eldest ? how then can we doubt of the title of zadok before abiathar , zadok being descended from the elder brother ? § xliv . zadok put in the room of abiathar , as to the courses of ithamar , which were not under him before . but then the difficulty will be , how these words are to be under stood ; zadok the priest did the king put in the room of abiathar , kin ii. . not certainly , of his being then put first into the high priest's office , if what i have already proved hold true , that zadok was already possessed of a nobler station in the priesthood before , than abiathar himself was . that had been a degradation of zadok , rather than a promotion of him . but we have another , and an easier and more probable account of it . * david had before divided the two sacerdotal families of eleazar and ithamar , into four and twenty courses , whereof sixteen were of the house of eleazar , and only eight of the family of ithamar . those of the family of ithamar were committed then to the care of abiathar : for him i understand , as i said before , by the name of abimelech , who was indeed the son of abimelech . the room therefore into which zadok succeeded upon this exile of abiathar , was the management of those eight remaining courses of ithamar , which were not under him before . thence forward therefore , all the twenty four courses were under the disposal of the house of eleazar . yet so , that the high-priest of the family of eleazar , did not immediately take care of them , but committed them to another nominated , as it should seem , by himself , but not one of the house of ithamar . this i take to be the second priest mentioned , kin. xxv . . jer. lii . . in contradistinction to the chief priest , who was the high priest properly so called , in the confined sense of the word . and these eight courses of ithamar , i take to be meant by them who are elsewhere called the † priests of the second order , not hitherto so commonly understood . and perhaps the levites also of the second degree , chr. xv. . were they whose particular office it was to attend these priests of the second order , the whole tribe of the levites being given , as i observed before , to aaron and his sons , in common . and that these second priests , under the house of eleazar , were not , as formerly , confined to the house of ithamar , i take to be the ground of the inconvenience the posterity of eli were like to be reduced to by this change , as it is expressed in the prophesy concerning it , that they were to crouch to this second priest , in order to their being put into one of the priests office , sam. ii. . there was more necessity of crouching now , when they had to do with one not so nearly related to them , than when they were always secure of having one to deal with , who was of their own family . this might be the sagan , mentioned by the rabbins , in the language used after the captivity , who , though he were more subject to the true high-priest of the house of eleazar than formerly , might yet be serviceable to him in the same capacites that those were in , who had been of the house of ithamar , in officiating for him , when himself was under any legal impediment for performing his own duty , in his own person . § xlv . the jews , by our principles , could not justify a separation on account of abiathar . their case not like ours . hence it follows ly , that , even by our principles , the jews had no reason to make any separation on abiathar's account , though we should suppose him deprived , not unjustly only , but invalidly also . for supposing his deprivation invalid , all that can follow is , that still he retain'd the same right as to conscience , which he had before . but even that would not have sufficed for to justifie a separation , on his account . even before , not he , but zadok ; was the principle of unity . so that , in case of difference , they were still secure in adhering to zadok , in opposition to all others whatsoever , whoever he were that occasioned the separation . even before , therefore , zadok , owed no duty to him , but he to zadok ; and consequently , not zadok , but he . had been guilty of the schism that would have followed upon the difference . if such an invalid deprivation could not affect , or weaken , the title of abiathar , as to conscience , much less can it be pretended to affect that of zadok , who was not any way concerned in it . even before , the duty of the communicants , in case of such division , had been still owing to zadok ; and therefore they also must have involved themselves in the schism , if , upon pretence of their duty to abiathar , they had violated their more sacred and obliging duty to zadok , to whom abiathar himself owed duty , as well as they . indeed they owed abiathar no duty at all , but in subordination and dependence on their antecedent duty to zadok : and therefore when that subordination and dependance had been taken away , as it must have been by a notorious separation , they could not then owe abiathar any duty at all ; and therefore thy must have broken their duty to zadok , in paying any to abiathar . for thus it is in other subordination also . whilst a general does himself observe his own sovereign , his soldiers cannot pay their duty to the common sovereign , without paying it to the general , who has the sovereign's authority to exact duty from them . but if the general , revolt , they are judged rebels , as well as he , to the common sovereign , if , upon any pretence whatsoever , they pay him any duty at all . so far this case therefore is from being paralled to that of our present holy fathers , that here the reasoning and the duty lie directly contrary . if our fathers still retain their right in conscience ( as they must , if the sentence of deprivation be invalid , with regard to conscience , as pronounced by them who have no right to judge them , in relation to their spiritual ) then their rivals can have none in the same jurisdictions , and the whole charge of schisms must lye against them , and those who maintain them in their invasions of our father's rights . how can they then apply here the case of abiathar ? § lxvi . when invasions had passed into a prescription , as in our soviour's time , he that was in possession had really the best title . thus far i have proceeded on the sense and reasonings of those earlier times of the jews , which is certainly the truest and solidest way of judging concerning obligations and duties incumbent on the subjects then . and by these it has appeared , that the civil power could not pretend to any right of depriving priests of their right as to spirituals , and with regard to conscience . this consideration did restrain princes of their own nation , who had any regard to their duty to god , from putting the case . but when they were not under the government of princes , who were of their own nation and religion , but under those who did not think themselves obliged by the positive laws of god , to protect the priests from the legal power of force which god had committed to them ; this was the time indeed , wherein we find examples of true high-priests , even properly so called , who were deprived by the secular power . here therefore were two cases ; one was , when the practice of intrusions was now grown so frequent , that no high-priest living had a better title ; the other , upon the first invasion , when the true predecessor was still living , and had not renounced his right . the former , was the case in the time of our saviour . the old way of deriving the succession to the next of the family who was legally qualified for it , having none of those corporal blemishes which by the law could make him uncapable of it , ( on which account eleazar succeeded aaron ) was long before that laid by a prescription sufficient to antiquate it . for many generations , it had been disposed of by the secular princes who had the power of the temple , first by the macedonians , then by the romans , to persons no otherwise qualified than by their being only of the family of aaron . there was therefore then no person living who had a better title as to the designation of his person , than the pleasure of the civil magistrate who had the command of the temple , and the sacerdotal vestments . as soon therefore as any person was once possessed of the temple and the altar , the same way as his predessor had been , his right , was every way , as good as the right of any other , who could pretend against him ; in which case , the publick interest , ( which is inseparably right ) for ending controversies , has always given proference to the possessor . both of them were as well consecrated into the office by spiritual persons , as well as invested by the lay-power into the possession of the externals requisite for executing the spiritual office committed to them . and that the later was consecrated into his predecessor's place , both without the consent , and by the subjects of his predecessor , was as applicable to all his predecessors as himself , and therefore must as much weaken their title also , as it did his , and make them only equal to him , on this consideration also . this would resolve the right only into some dead person , whose rights all laws determine with their lives , especially were no person living is concerned in them . all therefore that can be said in this case is , that what ought not to have been done at first , was now done , and ratified by providence , the same way as all other humane governments , as well secular as sacred , are usually changed by prescription ; which by the law of nations , and with relation to the good of mankind , and governments in general , is , in process of time , judged sufficien to extinguish an original right , and to make that a right which at first was no other than invasion and violence . this holds especcially where the right is only personal , as that of the priest-hood was ; and the person made uncapable of holding it . mutilation alone was sufficient to have taken away the right of the priest hood , by the same law that gave a right to it , and therefore much more death . this was really the case , when our blessed saviour communicated with the high-priests , obtruded by the romans . josephus himself observes , that whereas the high priest-hood was before for life , then it was not so , but during the pleasure of those who had the power of the temple . and i know no eternally obliging law frow the nature of priest-hood in general , that makes it essential to the priest-hood to be for life , more than for any other humane office. if it were therefore changeable , such a prescription was undoubtedly sufficient for actually changing it . and if this case hold any where among christians , it does so , at present , among the constantinopolitane greeks . they also now are brought to that pass , that their patriarchs have not their power given them for life at the time it is given them , but during the pleasure of the infidel magistrate . the greeks therefore are under no obligation of conscience to assert the rights of any predecessor , by refusing communion with his successor , because the predecessor himself had no better a right ; and the successor , has on this account , an equal right , but , on account of possession , a better than he . but this can , by no means , be applied to the case of our present fathers . they , at their consecration , had a power given and intended for life , which is not yet taken from them by the power , that gave it them ; and therefore have manifestly , by our present constitution , a better title than their successors . they are indeed thrust out of their possession as abiathar , but with no such evidence of the divine sentence passed against them , as was in his case . we have , as yet , no prescription for such violences ; nor have we to deal with an infidel magistracy , as they had . heathen governours , might with more consistency to their own principles , use such violences so frequently , as at length , when all were dead who had a better title , to make them pass into a prescription . this can , by no means , become christian princes , defenders of the faith , nor christian parliaments ; mueh less , members of our late flourishing churches in these dominions . this i say , on supposition only of the legality of our civil establishment . § xlvii . among the jews , the true high-priest was to be known by his possessing the one altar . among th christians , the true altar was known by its being possessed by the true bishop . if our adversaries will needs reason from precedents of those times , they must put a case exactly parallel with ours , of a high-priest possessed of a title unquestionably better than his successors , yet violently forced , as ours are , out of his possession . this case , i grant , did frequently befall the jews when they were subject to infidel magistrates . but it was in such times whose practice we cannot reckon upon as infallible , as we can upon that of our blessed saviour and his apostles . here therefore we cannot reckon upon their bare practice , that , what was done , was as it ought to be , purely on this account alone , because it was done ; but , independently on that , we must enquire what the principles then received obliged them to do , if they would approve themselves true to them . and here , i have already shewn that external force alone was sufficient to make all exercise of the priest hood impracticable , to the person so deprived by secular force . hence it follows , that it was not in their power directly to assert his right , by communicating with him in acts of his sacerdotal authority . for him to erect any other altar , where it might be in his power to officiate , besides that in jerusalem , was condemned as schismatical , by the doctrines of those ages , in the case of the samaritans , and upon the same accounts as the worship in the high places had been condemned in the scriptures , and as the altar built by the tribes beyond jordan was condemned , till they knew the true design of that altar , that it was only for a monument of their interest in the altar of jerusalem , not for opposite sacrifices . the only way therefore left them to assert his right , had been to have abstained from communicating in the sacrifice of his rival in the temple . but there is great reason to believe that that was more than they could justify then ; and that reason , peculiar to their constitution at that time , which therefore cannot be drawn into consequence now under the gospel , nor applyed to the case of our present holy fathers . it is certain that their communion then was as much confined by god to the one altar at jerusalem , as to the one high priest. the only consideration remaining , is whether of the two regards was principal . that is the proper way to determine , whether was to give way to the other , where both could not be had : that is , whether that altar was to be taken for the one altar designed by god , where the true high priest officiated , who had the nearest title in the order of succession from aaron ? or , whether that high priest was to be taken for the true representative of god , and thereby could oblige god to performance , who officiated at the altar of jerusalem , provided he were otherwise qualified , by being of the posterity of aaron , and of the line of phineas , and fairly consecrated by those who had power to consecrate him , though he were not the next that was legally qualified , of that very line . and we have reason to believe , that the altar was the principal consideration in the design of god , who thereby secured the communion against schismatical factions , even of the high-priests themselves , by allowing none for his authorized representatives but those who were possessed of that one altar . for jerusalem alone is called the holy city , st. matt. iv. . xxvii . . and so call'd in the jewish coins for that very reason , because that was the place where men ought to worship , st. joh iv. . that only was the place whither they were to bring their tythes and offerings , and where all their males were , thrice a year , to appear in person . so that all face of publick worship must have been laid aside at the pleasure of their infidel princes , if one obtrusion of a remoter person , in the order of the succession , might have sufficed to hinder their communicating there , which none can think but that god did intend to lay greater stress on , than on the immediate order of the succession . it is certain , they could not , by the law it self , challenge their dues for maintenance any where else than there , nor eat several of the oblations any where else than in that holy place in their temple . which shews plainly , that the dues of priesthood were not due to them on any other condition , than that of their officiating in that very place designed by god for their holy offices . hence it appears , that what right they might pretend , when they were excluded from the altar of jerusalem , was only such a remote right as men ordinarily have to offices , before their admission into the legal possession of them . they are indeed wronged if they be not admitted as the law requires ; but till they be admitted , the same laws allow them no title to the profits , and duties , and dependencies annexed to the office. this was the practice of the jews , when there were exumples of violent exclusion of those who by the law had a right to possess the temple and altar , but did not actually possess them . and by the reasoning now mentioned , the practice appears to have been agreeable to the mind of the divine legislator , but the case is quite different in our fathers case under the gospel . by the apostolical ignatius it appears , that the bishop is the standard of our christian altars : that where he is , there the peculium is to * assemble ; and they only who do so , can , by the laws of christianity , be properly called the † church : that his altar is the true altar ‖ and his eucharist the only * valid eucharist : and that no acts of ecclesiastical authority are † acceptable to god , or can expect a ratification by him , which are performed any where else than where he is , or without his ‖ leave . this ruins all consequences from their practice then to our present case . § xlviii . the reasons for exemption from the power of the prince stronger on our deprived fathers case , than in the case of abiathar . our bishops are properly priests . hitherto i have considered the case of abiathar in general , as it concerned the jews , with some general strictures only , with relation to our present case . i now proceed farther to consider the same reasonings , insisted on by the principles of those ages , for proving abiathar exempt , as to his spirituals , from the jurisdiction of solomon , with relation to the constitutions of the gospel , which are those by which our present fathers rights are to be estimated . here therefore i design to shew that the same reasonings hold , and hold with more evidence and force , for our deprived fathers rights , than they did for those of abiathar . first therefore our episcopal fathers rights are as properly ( indeed in a more noble sense ) the rights of a priesthood as those of abiathar were . so that it is very proper to reason from one to the other . i know how very difficulty this is admitted by many . and yet i wonder it should be so , considering that it is manifest in the reasonings of the writers of the apostolical age , who reason from one to the other as plainly as i do , which reasonings must be perfectly unconclusive as proceeding on four terms , if the notion of priesthood be not supposed univocally common to ours , as well as the jewish ministry . thus the apostle reasons in the case of maintenance : do ye not know that they which minister about holy things , live of the things of the temple ? and they which wait at the altar , are partakers of the altar ? even so hath the lord ordained , that they which preach the gospel , should live of the gospel . god's ordaining there , is supposed as known by them to whom he argues , from what god had constituted in relation to the jewish priesthood , and temple , and altar ; which could by no means be applicable to his design for proving an obligation under the gospel , for maintainance of the gospel ministry , but by supposing our case the same with theirs , that we have a priesthood , a temple , and an altar , as properly as they . the same apostle reasons on the same supposal , when he compares our eucharistical bread and wine , and the communion we have with christ by them , with the communion maintain'd both by the jews and the gentiles , with their respective deities , by sacrifice . with the jews , in these words : behold israel after the flesh : are not they which eat of the sacrifices , partakers of the altar ? v. . here plainly he supposes our partaking of the one bread , in the words immediately preceeding , to be the same thing with us , as the eating of the sacrifices , and partaking of the altar . how so , if our eucharist had not been properly a sa●rifice ? with the gentiles . where he compares our drinking the cup of the lord , with drinking the cup of devils ; and our partaking of the lords table with partaking of the tables of devils v. . and our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with christ v. . with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with devils , v. . it plainly appears , that the table of devils was furnished with no other feasts but sacrifical , and they are expresly called sacrifices , v. , . these things also plainly shew , that the benefits expected by the christians from their eucharist were transacted , according to the then receiv'd notions both of jews and gentiles , by sacrifices , as properly so called as the others were , as to all intents and purposes of legal transaction . so again , the same apostle owns the sacrifical style , when he calls that an altar which he had elsewhere called the lords table : we have an altar whereof they have no right to eat , which serve the tabernacle . that altar he compares with meats in the verse before , and therefore must probably mean the eucharistical altar . besides the jews did pretend to the heavenly altar , as is clear from the places formerly produced from philo. but it was notorious that their priests as such had no right to the christian eucharistical altar , nor did they ever pretend to it . this therefore was more unquestionable , and more fit to be reason'd on , for the apostles purpose . so also clemens romanus argues from the sacredness of the jewish priest hood , to the like sacredness of the gospel ministry . and from the like notions of an altar , ignatius also reasons in the places already mentioned . so many precedents we have of reasonings of this kind in the apostolical times themselves . and if he consider the things themselves sedately , i see no reason why we should think these notions strange in that age. the jewish sacrifices themselves were not then thought available as they consisted in shedding the bloud of brutes , but as they represented the archcetypal sacrifice of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and as covenanting symbols gave the communicants a right to what was represented by them . this was the truly beneficial notion of a covenant transacted by sacrifice . and in this sense , i cannot conceive how our adversaries can deny our eucharist the name of a sacrifice , as properly , as it agreed to any used among the jews . our eucharist also was designed by our lord to represent his own archetypal sacrifice on the cross. and not only so , but as a covenanting symbol , to convey a right to that sacrifice , so represented , to the worthy rightly disposed communicant . what therefore can our adversaries desire more for satisfying the proper beneficial notion of a sacrifice ? wine may , by christs appointment , signify his bloud to covenanting beneficial purposes , as well as real bloud itself . § xlix . the gospel priest-hood more noble than that of abiathar . the same reasoning therefore holds now which did then ; but now more strongly . this therefore being supposed that our gospel ministry is a priestheod ; i add further ly , that it is a nobler one than that of abiathar this i am sure is proved or supposed in all the n. t. reasonings , that whatsoever was common to the old and the new peculiam , was still more excellent under the new peculium than that which answer'd it under the old . i cannot now spare leisure to give instances . it is at present sufficient for my purpose , that what was less certain concerning the jewish priest-hood , is more certain in ours ; that the principal design of ours is to oblige god to performance of promises , as his part of the new covenant , explicite and clear , not only implicite as formerly , in relation to spiritual and future and eternal benefits , which none but god is able to perform . in this regard the new 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of which our lord is a mediator , is called a better testament , hebr. vii . . as introductive of a better hope , v. . a better covenant established on better promises . hebr. viii . life and immortality being elsewhere said to be brought to light by the gospel . and the priest hood relating to this new covenant is preferred before the other levitical one , in that levi in abraham pay'd tithes and received a blessing from melchisedec , as the lesser from the greater . hebr. vii . , . in that the priest-hood of the new testament is an everlasting one , as all archetypal ideal beings were supposed to be , in the sense of the platonick hellenists , whose language and notions the apostle alludes to in those places . not only as it was eternal in the individual person of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , but also as it was to be so in the succession of the gospel ministry , which was never to give way to any other future dispensation , as that of the law did . besides , in that here the entrance into heaven the true tabernacle , was more immediately performed by the archetypal high priest himself ; hebr. viii . , . than under the law , where it was only shadowed by the high-priests entring into the holy of holyes hebr. ix . . this also advanced the dignity of the gospel priest-hood , even in the ministers themselves as representing the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 more immediately , and under a noble depensation than they did who were of the order of aaron . hebr. vii . . to this also the apostle adds that the melchisedekian priest hood , as it was for ever , so it was also by an oath , of which there was no use in the constitution of the levitical priest hood . hebr. vii . , . thus therefore it every way appears that the consequences inferred in the case of abiathar , must hold here , but with more force and cogency . if the levitical priest hood exceeded the dignity of the civil magistracy , much more the evangelical priest-hood must do so too . if that required a divine call greater than could be given or repealed by the civil magistrate , this must do so also . if the unction of the priest hood then so far exceeded the unction of the civil magistrate , as that the magistrate could not invade the office without sacriledge and a piacular crime , much less can he now justify his invasion of a priest-hood , so much holier than that was . if the sacredness of their office then was thought sufficent to awe all conscientiou , magistrates from offering any thing that might look like violence to such holy persons ; a greater sacredness of our priest hood now ought in reason more to awe the magistrate now under the gospel dispensation . the punishment of such encroachments was indeed more frequent and visible then , but in the apostle's reasoning , it is sorer now : hebr. ii. , . x. . i am sure it must needs be so , if we believe our religion , that it s not being inflicted here is only a reserving it for the future state. § l. this reasoning was admitted in the apostolical age. particularly by clemens romanus . he also vindicates the churches rights against lay-deprivations from jewish precedents . nor are these consequences only just from this concession , but ly , agreeable also to the actual sense of even that apostolical age. the necessity of a divine call for priest-hood in general is owned by the sacred author of the epistle to the hebrews , as we have seen formerly , and therefore could not be denyed by him concerning the gospel ministry , which i have also shewn that he believed to be a priest-hood . the dignity also of the priest-hood above the magistracy is plainly own'd by the author of the testaments of the twelve patriarchs . this also will be another testimony of the christians of the apostolical age , if what i have said before prove sufficient for shewing that he lived and wrote in that age. however , we have an author unquestionably of that age , so clear and evident for our purpose , that i cannot foresee what any of the vindicators adversaries can be able to reply to him . that is , the apostolical clemens in his famous epistle to the corinthians . and which is more , what he says , he says in prospect of a case as like ours as those times were capable of . some of the laity who were inspired with the spiritual gifts mentioned cor. xii . , &c. had then taken upon them to make a faction against the established governuors of the church , who restrained them from the disorderly liberties they had been used to , before the government had been introduced and settled among them . before , they had been used to honours not suitable to their station , but their gifts ; but government being settled , they were thereby obliged to confine themselves within the decorum of their station . hence that emulation and envy he there complains of , when persons formerly more regarded for their gifts , were now engaged in duty to give way to others less gifted , but in a more eminent station . this made those gifted brethren mutinous , and the esteem they had acquired by their gifts so recommended them , as that a defection followed so universal , that the governours were forced out of their possession . clemens calls it a † deprivation , or by words implying it , and argues against it exactly as we do , on the principles already mentioned . he insists on the care that god had taken formerly for asserting the rights of the jewish priest hood , and to let them see that it was himself who had appointed them to that honour . * when the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fell out , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he observes how god decided it by the blossoming of aarons rod. this plainly implyes , that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or emulation so often by him reproved in the schismaticks , concerned the priest-hood also . he observes the care god had taken then , that all their † offices should be performed in their due order . this might be purposely to warn the gifted brethren to forbear the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cor. xiv . . when now there was an order of men purposely allotted for the eucharistical sacrifices . he enumerates all ranks of their subordination , ‖ high priests , priests and levites , nay laicks also . he seems therein to intimate , that they were laicks who were guilty of that invasion of sacerdotal offices , agalnst which he there disputes , that is , who were guilty of the deprivations now mentioned . indeed he supposes such a deprivation to be an invasion of sacerdotal offices not tolerable in a layman . and when he says this concerning the laity in general , who can doubt but that christian magistrates must be concluded in the consequence of what he there discourses ? the same indignity of the schismaticks , as to their station in the church , is implyed in what he elsewhere says , that they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , dishonourable against those who were honourable . against these therefore he so disputes , that laymen ought to be so far from pretending to exclude the ecclesiastical governours , that even inferior ecclesiasticks ought not to presume upon the offices of those who were superior to them in the ecclesiastical subordination , as the levites were not to intermeddled in the function of the common priests , nor the common priests , with that of the high priest among the jews . he therefore obliges them , to perform their * eucharistical offices in the rank and station wherein god had placed them , not transgressing their bounds as they had done fromerly , as it should seem , in imitation of the old prophets , who had , as prophets , taken upon them , not only to communicate , but to officiate in sacrifices . this he implys as a thing that ought no longer to be born with , since the eucharistical ministry was now settled and established . he therefore observes further to this purpose , that among the jews , whoever had been guilty of such invasion , had suffered † capitally for it . he seems to allude to the known stories of corah , dathan and abiram , and uzzah , among whom were examples of encroachments of both sorts , some of the laity , on the sacerdotal function in general , such were dathan and abiram , who were reubenites ; some of inferior , on the superior sacerdotal stations . thus he argues from these precedents under the law , to prove the like obligations under the gospel . so far he was from our late brethren's fancies concerning the unconclusiveness of such arguments in this very case of the priest hood . §. li. he does it also by the same principles , as by him owned agreeable to the constitution of the gospel . so far , i say , he was from that , that he makes such invasions more formidable now , under so much a nobler dispensation . so his following words imyly : * take care , my brethren , lest , by how much our knowledge of the divine mysteries ( that is the importance of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in that age ) is advanced , by so much our danger be advanced also . and so far he was from being obliged , by any exigency of his cause , to argue as he does , from precedents under tthe law , if that way of reasoning had not then been judged , solid ; that he tells us , that christ also had made the like provision for securing the gospel ministry from the like encroachments . he tells us therefore , that the apostles being forewarned by our lord , that the like contentions should arise among the christians , concerning the * name of bishop , as had been before , among the jews , relating to the † priest hood ; had therefore , in their * foreknowledge of that very event , taken the like care for preserving the office from the like invasions . the apostles here mentioned , i take to be st. peter , and st. paul , who had by their common labours planted both churches , that of rome , from whom this epistle was written , and that of corinth , to whom . as therefore , he calls them in this place , ‖ our apostles , so elsewhere he says , that st. peter and st. paul had set a noble example of patience * among us . these two places thus compared together , give us to understand who the apostles were of whom he there speaks . he therefore further acquaints us with the expedients those apostles took for securing the holy office from these foreseen invasions . he says , they themselves † put several of those persons into their office , of whom he was then discoursing ; that is , of those who had been deprived by these laical mutiniers . this therefore , it seems he looks on as an argument , that they who had been put in possession of their places by persons of the supream ecclesiastical dignity , should not be dispossessed at the pleasure of the laity , who , how great soever their station might be otherwise , yet were not regarded in their ecclesiastical judicatories , but according to their ecclesiastical honours , ( st. james ii. , , , , . ) which in the laity were none at all . but there were at that time , in their ecclesiastical presbytery , some substituted in the place of those of the first settlement , who were since deceased . and for these also he makes the apostles to have taken care . he tells us , that in foresight of this case , they provided for an * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , an inheritance that others might succeed into their places . possibly it ought to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as denoting an additional law to those other † 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , received from our lord , which had formerly been mentioned by this same author . so , in imitation of plato's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , philo , as i remember , calls deuteronomy by the same title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as given a little before moses his death , after the collection of his former laws . so our author teaches us , that this law also for securing the succession , was given by these apostles , after they had now settled the church of corinth , and ordained as many as they then thought necessary for the government of it . that is the notion of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , it signifies in him afterwards . as appears by another ‖ example very little distant from this same place . he tells us therefore what this additional law was , that they who were to be substituted in their places as they died , were to receive their authority from persons of the highest rank in the church . that i take to be the notion of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as that signifies to be had in reputation , and as on the contrary contemptible persons are said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , like the proletarii or capite censi in the roman matricula of citizens , registred as so many names , not for any considerable benefit that their cities receiv'd from them . these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 therefore , were such as by the apostles themselves were designed for supplying the apostolical office after their deprature , in filling up the vacancies of those presbyters , who had been put in office by the apostle , themselves , as they ●ell this therefore st. clemens , in this reasoning , takes for a great presumption , that the laity who were of the lowest rank in the church , should take upon them to displace those who had been put into their office by the highest ecclesiastical authority . and yet the laity whose case he speaks of , where prophets , and spiritually gifted persons , which gifts were always admitted for fairer pretences to spiritual power , than all the worldly grandeur , and the secular terror of the civil magistrate . prophets had been allowed that power even in sacrificing , which never was allowed the secular prince . yet even against these , st. clemens asserts rights of the church , by the very same topick insisted on by us , that the power of the church was derived from god himself . we see he ascribes this power of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the authority of the apostles . so he also derives the authority of the apostles themselves , from god himself . * the apostles taught us the gospel from our lord jesus christ , jesus christ from god. christ therefore was sent by god , and the apostles by christ ; so both missions were orderly according to the will of god. his designed inference therefore with reference to his cause was , that they who had been put in office by an authority so manifestly and nearly derived from god , ought not to be turn'd out of their office by a power that could not pretend to any such power derived from god at all . in all these gradations , he supposes none that gave it to the laity , on which account it is , that he overthrows all right they had to claim it . how then can the magistrate pretend to it ? § lii . he draws the like inferences from those reasonings , in practice , as we do . thus then the reasons from our principles , and therefore supposes them generally known , and as generally granted , even in that happy age. that is not all : he pursues those principles to the same uses in practice , that we are making of them now . do we cleave to our deprived fathers , notwithstanding the lay deprivation ? we do therein no more than what he advises also . * let us reverence , says he , the lord jesus christ , whose blood was given for us . let us pay a veneration to our rulers ; let us honour our presbyters . † let us cleave to the innocent and rïghteous , for these are the elect of god. do we complain of the desertion of our bishops . and betraying of the ecclesiastical rights , as schismatical ? and are we deeply concerned at the consequences which have followed upon it , distructive to our common religion ? and does not he the same ? * your sebism has deprived many , has driven many to despondency , to doubting of religion , and all of us to grief . i wish we could not also apply his following words to our present case : ‖ and yet your sedition holds on . do we heartily wish that the schismatical rivals would think of repentance , and returning to their duty ? and how are we therein singular ? does not he recommend the like thoughts to the schismaticks of his own time ? these are his words . * you therefore who have laid the foundation of the sedition , be subject to the presbyters , and be disciplined to repentance ; bending the knees of your heart , learn to be subject , laying aside the haughty and insolent arrogance of your tongue . how worthy are his following words of their consideration ? ‖ for it is better for you to be little , and of good repute in the flock of christ , than seeming to have preheminence to be cast off from his hope . let them never complain of the severity of our censures , when they find this holy unconcerned apostolical fellow labourer of st. paul , judging as hardly in a parallel case . we here see , that he thought such schismaticks out of the flock of christ , and cut off from his hope . he elsewhere adds , with reference to the same case , and the same persons , † christ is of those who are humbly minded , not of those who exalt themselves over his flock . plainly denying them any interest in christ , whilst they continued in that condition impenitent , that is , whilst the rivals hold their schisinatical preheminence . he tells us , that * it is no small crime , if we cast them out of their bishoprick , who have offered their sacrifical gifts unreprovably and holily . he accordingly adds ; † it behoves us therefore , brethren , to cleave to such examples . for it is written , cleave unto those who are holy , for they who cleave to them , shall be made holy . and again , in another place , he says , with the innocent thou wilt be innocent , and with the perverse thou wilt be perverse . he supposes no holiness reputed by god for such , but in the true communion . thence he adds , * let us cleave therefore to the innocent and righteous , for those are the elect of god one of the prerogatives of the peculium , is to be the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the chosen generation . so that in confining the elect of god , to the true communion , he must necessarily be supposed to confine the peculium to it also . his following exhortation therefore firts our circumstances , as well as it did his . † why are there strifes and anger 's , and divisions and schisms , and war among you ? have we not one god , and one christ , and one spirit of grace that is shed upon us ? and is there not one calling in christ ? why do we draw and tear asunder the members of christ , and foment seditions against our own body , and come to such madness , as to forget that we are members of each other ? may this pathetical exhortation of so great a person , prevail with our brethren to study some expedient for securing our ecclesiastical liberties , and healing the breach they have been driven into by carnal politicks ! what a glory wou'd it be to them who are princpally engaged in it , to do what he invites them to ? * who is there among you generous ? who is merciful ? who full of charity ? let him say , if the sedition and strife and schisms be for my sake , i depart , i go away , where you please , and do whatsoever is required by the multitude . only let the flock of christ have peace with the presbyters , who are set over it . he who would do so , would gain to himself great glory in the lord . how much would it advance their honour here , and their peace hereafter , if they would turn their emulations for preheminence , into those more noble ones of humility , and peace , and condescention ? the worthy doctor , since his ingenuous owing his † mistake of the design of clemens , discover'd since by the vindicator , may be presumed , by this time to be sensible , now much it is more proper to make such addresses to his . fathers , than ours . he must , at least , acknowledge the making them so , to be more agreeable to the design of st. clement . § liii . the laity cannot now pretend to any indirect right of depriving bishops , as the jewish princes could in the case of the jewish priesthood . thus it appears , that by the principles , even of the apostolick age ▪ no laity whatsoever can pretend to any direct power over our ecclesiastical governours , with regard to their purely spiritual and ecclesiastical rights . i now proceed to shew thly , that they cannot now pretend even to an indirect power ( such as i shewed that princes might pretend to the● ) of depriving our bishops with regard to conscience . for neither of the reasons given there , will hold her . they cannot make their right impracticable now , as they could do then , by excluding them from any particular place , from which it is in their power to exclude them . their consecrations and eucharists are not now confined to cathedrals , as the sacerdotal acts of the jewish priesthood were to the temple , but are equally valid , where ever they are exercised within their ow jurisdictions . this hinders them from being perfectly useless when they are excluded from cathedrals . nor has god fixed upon any particular places , to which he has confined his own acceptance of them under the gospel . but as we have seen from ignatius , ( for i now descend no lower ) the one acceptable altar now follows the one bishop , not the bishop the altar . this hinders the additional right formerly accruing to a possessor , purely on account of his possession , which was then sufficient to make a possessor's right better , which without possession , would have been worse than that of an excluded predecessor . nor indeed is there that reason now , as was then , to expect that god should confine the exercises of the evangelical priesthood to a particular place . their religion then was confined to a particular nation , and was part of the national constitution , as it was theocratical . there was therefore all the security given that laws could give , that their princes should always patronize it . one of another nation was uncapable of the office , any other way than by conquest . and that did necessarily suppose the subversion of the laws themselves , and therefore of all the security that could be given by law. but the evangelical priesthood was first instituted by christ , and settled by the apostles , in a time when the kings of the earth stood up , and the rulers were gathered together a-against the lord , and against his christ , acts iv. , not only without the consent of , but in opposition to all the civil powers then being . and therefore to have made it depend on the pleasure of the magistrate then , had been perfectly inconsistent with a design of securing and perpetuating it . and that could not have been avoided , if it had depended on any thing that was in the power of the persecuting magistrate . it was instituted and established under actual and violent persecutions , and therefore must have been fitted with provisions that might enable it to subsist under a state of persecution , by a power perfectly disentangled from the secular power . to this it was requisite , that it should be under no obligation of conscience , to depend on any thing that was in the power of the persecuting magistrate , as it must have done , if it had been obliged by god to any one particular place . it was also requisite , that this priesthood being constituted by god as the cement of a spiritual society , all that was requisite for managing that society , should have been by god , ( who was pleas'd to found that society ) conferred on the priesthood , as its right in conscience , and therefore by the same divine power , exempted from the right of the civil magistrate . for all that this priesthood could have to recommend duty to the consciences of its subjects in a state of persecution , was only its sacredness , and the obligation that lay on god to ratify his own act , in inflicting the censures denounced by it against refractory persons ; and therefore they must be very well satisfied , that the censures were denounced by one to whom god had given a lawful authority to denounce them . otherwise , they could not think god obliged to ratify them . and for this it was absolutely requisite , that they should believe the magistrate to have no right in those cases wherein those censures were concerned . otherwise , they could not think god oblig'd to ratify them , if they had been invasions of the right of the magistrate . but the districts were then absolutely necessary for making the churches censures , as settled out by lord and his apostles practicable . by them the bishops knew what persons were liable to their particular respective jurisdictions . by those the subjects olso knew the particular bishops to whose censures they were obliged to pay a deference . if the bishop had censured persons not belonging to his jurisdiction , by the settlement then made by the apostles , they could not think god obliged to second him in his usurpations , and therefore could be under no obligation to regard such censures . it was therefore absolutely necessary that the right of preaching the gospel , and settling districts , without the leave of the possessing magistrates , must by god have been made the right of the ecclesiasticks , in reference to conscience , and therefore could not at the same time have been the right of the civil magistrate . what then will become of the doctor 's imaginary contract ? bellarmine fancies , that when the magistrate was baptized , he also was supposed to make an implicite contract with the bishop , that his crown should be at the bishops disposal , whenever the bishop should judge that his holding it would be inconsistent with the churches interest . this is as reasonable as the doctor 's pretended contract , that on consideration of the leave allowed by the magistrate for preaching and settling districts in his dominions , the bishops make an implicit contract with the magistrate that they will submit to be deposed by him . when he shall judge their holding their places hurtful to his worldly interests . if either of these implicite contracts would hold bellermines is the more likely of the two , that the lesser worldly interests should give way to the spiritual . but from what has been said , it appears that the right of making districts , was a right inseparable from the authority given by god for making , and governing proselytes all the world over . if therefore it be not the magistrates , but their own ; what reason have they to make any , however implicite contracts , for that which is their own already ? § liv. our reasoning against the magistrates right of deprivation in spiritual proceed universally , and therefore in case of temporal crimes , also the owning such a power would have been pernicious to the primitive christians also , who were charged with temporal crimes ▪ the magistrate therefore cannot , by the constitutions of the gospel , pretend to any ●ight , whether direct , or indirect , for depriving our bishops of their spiritual power . this our adversaries themselves do not deny , where the causes pretended for their deprivation , are purely spiritual . but where the case is temporal , as it is here in our fathers case , there they think that the magistrate may punish them , not only by secular punishments , but by deprivations , as to the exercising of their spiritual right in districts contained within his dominions . but all that can fairly follow from their crime being secular , is no more but this , that it properly belongs to the cognizance of the secular magistrate , and is therefore justly punishable by them who have a just title to the supream secular authority , that is , in such a way ▪ of punishment as properly belongs to the right of the magistrate . and we allow that to extend as far as the secular honours , and revenues , by the secular laws annexed to their office , nay to their persons also , as to what is personal to them . this is perfectly sufficient to secure the magistrate ( in case not only a single bishop , but the whole synod , should prove guilty of violating their duty to him ) whatever the doctor pretends to the contrary . but that this will give him any new right of punishing . which he cannot pretend to by the nature of his office , our adversaries have not yet pretended to prove . till they do so , or till they answer what has now been produced to prove the contrary , that his right of magistracy does no way reach the spirituals of our bishops , no nor their right to exercise them in jurisdictions contained in his dominions ; we may as easily deny , as they assert , that power of deprivation , by them ascribed to the magistrate . one would think , that when we have proved the nature of the spiritual power , such as that it is not in the power of any but god , or those authorized by god for this purpose , to deprive them of that power who have once received it ; and that neither the things themselves transacted by the spiritual power are in the power of the magistrate , nor that god has given the magistrate any authority to represent him in these matters , which may oblige him to ratify in heaven what the magistrate , in his name , pretends to act on earth : it should unavoidably follow that the magistrate has not this power at all , which if he have not in general , he cannot have in this , nor in any other particular case assignable by our adversaries . why are they therefore so unreasonable as to expect , after we have disproved this power in general , that we must be put to the further trouble of disproving it in a particular case ? they themselves can easily perceive the partiality of their demands in other the like cases . they who , on the other side , are for the encroachments of the clergy upon the rights of the magistracy in order to spirituals , in case of heresy , do so far proceed successfully , when they shew that heresy is a crime properly cognizable by the spiritual judicatories , and that magistrates , as well as others , are subject to such judicatories in matters purely spiritual . but then the consequence would only be , that a magistrate , so convicted of heresy , might by such spiritual judges be deprived of his right to communion , and consequently of all the spiritual rights and benefits , to which he is entitled as a member of the true communion . this is the utmost that spiritual judges can pretend to , or wherein they can expect that god will second and ratify their determinations . but when they proceed further to forbid all civil conversation with the magistrate , to deprive him of his civil rights , to absolve his subjects from their duty of civil obedience : these are consequences , which , i believe our adversaries will not defend . yet how they can avoid being obliged to it , if they will be true to the consequences of their reasonings in this case , for my part , i cannot understand . for why may not the church assume a right of punishing temporally , a crime that is really allowed to be of spritual cognizance , if the magistrate ; for a temporal crime , may inflict a deprivation of spirituals ? i do not now insist on what we have to say , as to the validity of the sentence given against our fathers , in respect of the temporal authority that can be pretended for it . however , that is , at least , sufficient to shew , that it is only the judgment of those , who have given judgment , against them , that they had even temporal authority sufficient for it . and if the secular powers may deprive bishops , for any crime , which they who deprive them , shall be pleased to call temporal ; and if we also , are obliged to think such deprivatons sufficient to discharge us from the duty we owe them , with regard to our conscience : i cannot see how the primitive christian bishops could have escaped such deprivation . julion the apostate pretended temporal reasons for most of his persecutions , purposely to hinder the sufferers from the glory of matyrdome . and even in the earlyer persecutions , secular crimes were imputed to the christians . that was the case when the burning of rome was charged upon them in nero's time , and the burning of the palace at nicomedia , in diocletian's ; when the stories of the dog and candle ; and oedipodean incests and the mothers of children , were pretended to be proved against them , by the extorted confession of some slaves in the time of marcus antoninus . their very meetings came under the laws de sodalitijs , and de hetaerijs , and de factionibus . and their refusing to swear by the genij of the emperors , or to sacrifice for them , were by the interpretation of those times reducible to the laws of loesa majestas , which we call treason . will our adversaries therefore grant that , on these accounts , those pagan emperors might have deposed the christian bishops , and absolved their subjects from their duties in conscience owing to them ? if they will , we are very sure our glorious ancestors of those ages were not of their mind . and let our adversaries themselves judge , whether we have most reason to follow , as guides of our conscience . besides the advantage the primitive christians had for knowing tradition better , this was also a manifest one ; that our late brethren's practice goes along with their worldly , interests , and indeed never began , till motives of such interest inclined them to it ; but the practice of the primitive christians was directly contradictory to such interests . § lv. the spiritual rights of our fathers have been now invaded by civil force . bare characters . without districts not sufficient to preserve the church as a body . but the strangest answer of all is , that our adversaries cannot yet be perswaded that our h. fathers spiritual rights have yet been invaded by secular force . as this way of defence signifies their unwillingness to undertake the patronage of such invasions , i confess , i am not a little pleased with it , in regard to the liberty it may allow them hereafter , if god shall be pleased to turn our captivity , to defend the rights of their own function , when they may be defended without danger . and i do not know why , even now , the clergy should be forward and active in promoting a casuistry that may absolve the magistrate from the obligation incumbent on him in conscience for their protection . but it is a strange degree of confidence to deny the fact. had they not set up other bishops to exercise spiritual power in the same jurisdictions , they might indeed pretend to it , but having done so , it is from thence we date their schism . nor do i see , how they can avoid the charge of it . for if the spirituals of our fathers be yet untouched , then they must still have the same right over those same jurisdictions , as to spirituals , as they had , and as was own'd by our adversaries themselves formerly . if so , their rivals , exercising spiritual power in the same jurisdiction without their leave , must be looked on as invaders of their yet untouched uninvaded spirituals rights . if so , they must , in the language of st. cyprian be foras , be aliens , be non secundi , sed nulli . not barely on the authority of that holy martyrs saying , but as the vindicator proved , from the nature of the spiritual monarchy , which allows no more than one at once , without conscent , to have a right within the same jurisdiction . it is very plain from hence , that their right to their particular districts and jurisdiction , even as to spirituals , is actually invaded by their intruders . and we have now , and so had the vindicator formerly , shewn the settling of districts in order to spiritual jurisdiction , to be a right of the church , independent on the favour of the civil magistrate . we have shewn that the church , as well as the state , was by christ and his apostles made a visible body , and that their way of knowing the visible governours , and subjects of this visible , body , was , even from the apostles time , taken from the extent of those visible districts ; that they who lived in these districts , were all subjects to the governours of the districts , and that the governours of those districts as to spirituals were the particular governours to whom the christian inhabitants of those districts , ow'd obedience as to spiritual : that whatever right the magistrate had formerly , that might seem inconsistent with these rights , was by god himself taken away from the magistrate , in order to the making this way of propagating the gospel , practicable ; yet so , that power enough was still left for securing the authority of the magistrate , as to temporals : that the first christian magistrates , found the church possessed of these districts , and the bodies of the christians , in the several districts , possessed also of the opinion of the independency of those districts , as to spirituals , on the civil magistrates ; which they had always made appear , in all difference between the magistrate and the bishops , by their unanimous adherence to the bishops , as to spirituals : that therefore those districts , as to spirituals , were never derived from the favour of the magistrate , and therefore not obnoxious to his disposal . here therefore this whole dispute is reducible to a short dilemma . if the presumed magistrate has not invaded the spiritual districts of our fathers ; then the intruders are schismaticks for intermeddling with those rights which their predecessors are not deprived of . and all others also must be schismaticks who own and communicate with the intruders . if the rivals be not intruders , they must needs say that the predecessors have lost their right , even to those districts , as to spirituals . and how they should come to lose it but by the sole act of their magistrate , i know nothing that our adversaries can pretend . there is manifestly no act of the church , that they can so much as pretend for it . their character , they say , is not yet touched . no wonder it should not , since the schoolmen , from whom they borrow the term of character , hold characters to be indelible by any humane authority whatsoever , not only secular , but ecclesiastical also . however all the use our adversaries make of their remaining character , is only to make them restorable to their old jurisdictions , without a new consecration ; and in the mean time , to legitimate some acts of epicopal power , which must no be supposed to depend on a relation to a particular jurisdiction . but this character , that has no relation to a particular district , could not be sufficient for preserving bodies ( such as the church was designed to be by , them who founded it ) in a state of independency on the civil magistrate ; bodies , as then understood by the ecclesiasticks , being determined and distinguished by such districts . the allowing therefore the heathen persecuting magistrates a power of dissolving the relation of all the bishops of their dominions , to particular districts , had parfectly dissolved all particular churches , as bodies , when the magistrate was pleased to dissolve them ; and therefore cannot be agreeable to the design of christ and his apostles , who intended to perpetuate churches , as bodies , independent on the state . and it is certain , that this power of discharging ecclesiastcal governours from the districts in their own dominions , was not own'd in the civil powers by the apostles and earliest christians . had it been so , the apostles themselves must have quitted jerusalem , when they were forbidden by the sanbedrim , and sought out other converts and districts , wherein they might exercise their function and character . but where could they seek or find them , but the same objection , would still recur from this right of the civil magistrate ? there must therefore have been no churches in the world , if this doctrine had been allowed of . but it is certain , that the apostles did still challenge and exercise their jurisdiction in jerusalem , and were own'd and seconded in doing so , by the christians inhabitants of that city , against all the persecutions of the magistrate , and were all of them own'd by god , by the credentials that followed them , which could never have been , if these their practices had been usurpations . and all the right that bishops then had for obliging the whole catholick church , was grounded on the commerce of communicatory letters , and the common interest of all , to ratify the acts of particular districts . thence it appears , that all exercise of epicopacy , as catholick , was grounded on the right , each bishop had to a particular district . so vain are our adversaries pretences for making our bishops , bishops of the catholick church , though deprived of districts , in order to the exercising any episcopal act for preserving the face of a body , under a persecution . § lvi . supposing the church and christian state had made one body , yet more had been requisite to make that supposition applicable to our present case , which is not yet taken notice of . but the principle pretence of all that our adversaries insist on , is , that in those earlier times , the church was indeed a society distinct from the state , and whilst it continued so , the deprivations of the state , could therefore not extend to spirituals , which were the constituts of the church as a society distinct from it : but that there is no necessary consequence , because it was so then , that therefore it most be so now : that the reasoning from the sense and practice of those times , does indeed hold where the case is the same as it was then , that is , where the state consists of infidels ; but not in ours , wherein the state professes the christian , religion . this is suggested by the worthy author of the defence of the church of england , as he calls it , from the charges of the vindicator . and he has therein managed the reasoning part of this dispute better than the doctor , in that he has pitched on the particular proposition , which he thinks needs further proof in the scheme of the vindicator , seeming withal to allow that if this also be cleared , the rest of the vidicators proof will hold , as being firmly superstructed on it . this therefore brings the question to a short issue , and affords a further subject of useful discourse , for improving what has been said already , and i therefore return my hearty thanks to that author for it , only wishing that he had allowed himself a larger scope for making that out , which if proved , would have been so very considerable for his purpose . supposing he had proved his assertion true , yet other things , remain'd to have been proved further , for making it applicable to our present case . something more had certainly been requisite for his purpose , than barely to suppose the magistrate barely christian. he might easily have foreseen that , even among christians , there are different communions , on account of herisy and schism . if the magistrate therefore be guilty of either of those , he is as uncapable of uniting with the church in one cmmunion , as if he were an idolator . and i suppose all the ground that worthy person has for making a believing prince's case different from that of an infidel , in order to the church's coalition into one body with the society that is governed by the believing prince , must be the church's union in communion with him , which it cannot have with an infidel . for that political union , which is requisite for secular government , as far as it is consistent with difference in communion , as to spirituals , the orthodox are as capable of maintaining with infidel princes , as they are with either heriticks , or schismaticks . and for applying that case , he might have considered further , how far communicating with schismaticks in other places , and setting up schism where he found the true communion established by law , and allowing no patronage of law , without schismatical conditions , may go to prove a prince's case schismatical . then supposing the church and state united into one society , he should have enquired further , why this union must rather be under the secular , than the spiritual , common monarch . this , i am sure , is against the general rule of subordinations , to make the more noble power subject to that which is less so ; and therefore ought to have been proved by reasens peculier to this particular coalition of two societies into one . such peculiar reasons i doubt are more then ever we can expect from him . but supposing both these difficulties surmounted , that the church had a prince of one communion with her , and that the two societies now united , were to be governed rather by the prince , than the metropolitane ; yet still another question remained worthy his consideration , how long this union was to hold ? if irrevocably , then the church would be left destitute of a power , necessary for her subsitence , whenever the prince should apostatize to infidelity , or an infidel should succeed him by the rules established for the succession . if therefore the church's power be granted revocable , the enquiry then would be , whether the grant can in reason be supposed to hold any longer than the prince's protectoon of her . if so ; then whether , when he revokes his protection granted on conscionable terms , and persecutes his fellow brethren , for no other reason , but for being true to the principles of the old communion , this be not the very season wherein they are , in conscience , absolved from their old grants , and are perfectly free to resume their old spiritual liberties ? i know our adversary will understand me , without any further application . § lvii . the prince 〈◊〉 account of his being only a christian , has no title to any spiritual authority . these things , i say , had been requisite to make his doctrine practicable , if it had been proved , and proved as well as himself desires to prove it . but , for my part , i am perfectly of the vindicators mind , nor do i see any reason to doubt but that his whole proof will hold , if this be the only suspicious proposition concerned in it . i see no reason , why the church should loss her liberties , or princes gain more power by their conversion , than they had before . the nature of the thing , does not the least require it . princes , when they are received into the church's communion , are received , as other laicks are , by baptism ; which can therefore intitle them to no more power , than other christians , who are admitted into the same society , the same way , as they are . as therefore baptism alone confers no spiritual authority to others , no more it can to the prince , who has no preheminence above them , on this account . when therefore he is baptized , he still remains , in reference to spiritual power , no more than a private person , as all others do , who have no more spiritual authority given them , than what is conferred upon them in their baptism . how then comes he by this power in spirituals , which our adversaries challenge for him ? all our forementioned reasons proceed as validly against his claim of spiritual power , whilst he continues only a lay-man , tho' baptized , as they did before his baptism . still , the spiritual power is grounded on the power of rewarding and punishing spiritually , by admitting to , or excluding from , the spiritual benefits of the society . still , the power of that admission to , or exclusion from , those benefits , depends upon the power of the incorporating rites ; which being granted , admit into the body , or if denyed , exclude from it . still the incorporating acts , are the two sacraments , as we are baptized into , the spiritual body , and as we are made one spiritual body , by our partaking of one bread : so that none can have the power of these incorporating acts , who has not the power of administring the sacraments . still , the power of administring the sacraments , is proper to the evangelical priest hood ; and it is still , as unlawful for princes to invade the sacerdotal offices , as it was under the old law , when the prince was obliged to be always of one body , with the priest-hood , in reference to religious acts of communication . still , the reasoning of st. clemens holds that laymen are only to meddle with acts properly laical , and proceeds with more force than in the case wherein that holy apostolical person used it . the gifted laicks had been baptized as well as our believing princes , and in that regard were every way equal with them . but as they were endued with spiritual gifts , they were better qualified for extraordinary calls to acts of sacerdotal power , than princes can be by any pretensions to , or advantages of , worldly grandeur . baptism indeed makes the prince and the church one society , as the prince is thereby incorporated into the priviledged society of the church , but then , this baptismal union is rather of the prince to the bishop , than of the bishop to the prince , and therefore on the bishop's terms , not the prince's . how then can the prince's being receiv'd into the church as a private person , and as a subject to the spiritual authority , intitle him to any of that same authority , to which by his baptism , he professes his subjection ? he is indeed so far from being a publick person in his baptism , that the obligation and benefits of his baptism , are wholly personal to himself , none of his subjects , being in the least , concerned in it . if he had acted as a publick person in it , his single act had obliged all his subjects , and would have consequently intituled them to all the benefits of his stipulation . but this is more than our adversaries will pretend in this case . how then can an act purely personal , intitle him to an accession of spiritual authority ? § lviii . a whole nation , by baptism , may be made one society in the church , without prejudice to their being still a society distinct from it . thus far therefore it is certain , that a prince's admission into the church , is not alone sufficient for a coalition of the state into one body with the church , because that other body of the state , whereof he is head , is not the least concern'd in this act of his as a private person , not as a publick , much less as a head of any body at all . suppose we therefore the generality of a state converted and baptized also . this will indeed make them one body with the church . but on the same terms as it made the prince one , that is , on the church's terms , not on theirs : that is , by so many repeated personal acts qualifying them for , and receiving baptism , as there are supposed to be particular persons in that whole secular society , and as so many private persons , not as invested with any publick authority in another society . still , therefore , proselites of that kind , how numerous soever , can never hurt the authority of that society , into which they are incorporated only , as so many private persons . a whole nations therefore , how populous soever , coming in on these terms , cannot change the spiritual society from what they find it . they add to the numbers of the subjects of the spiritual society , and in that regard , should rather advance , than diminish , the authority of that new society into which they are incorporated and as their accession to the church cannot make any change in the government of the church , so neither in their one . their admission into the church being only the act of so many private persons singly considered , can therefore not concern them as a society , can therefore no way affect them as publick persons , and as concerned for the government of the society , into which they were incorporated before . there is therefore on neither side any explicite renunciation of ancient rights , nor yet by any fair interpretation . their coalition into one body with the church , does not dissolve the same relation they had formerly to different societies , on different considerations . the bishop , though he act the part of a publick person in admitting them into his own spiritual society , does not thereby put off his former subjection as to temporals , nor acquire any thing inconsistent therewith . nor does the magistrate by his subjection in spirituals , profess any thing not fairly reconcilable with his temporal sovereignity . their coalition therefore into one body , is very well consistent with their still continuing as distinct societies as they were before . nor does our worthy adversay object any thing to prove the contrary , but that upon conversion and baptism of the seculars , the church and state consist of the same persons . how should the church and state make two distinst societies , says he , where the church and state consist of the very same persons ? the very same way , say i , as our k. edward the iii. was , at the same time , a sovereign of england , and subject of france , when he swore homage to philip of valois for his dominions in france . yet who doubts but england and france were then two distinst and perfectly independent societies ? the same way as the bishop himself was the head of the church , and yet a subject of the state , therefore a member of both societies , antecedently to any such conversions , or any pretence that could be therefore made , for a coalition of both into one society . conversion therefore , thought it bring all persons into one society of the church , yet does not hinder but that the two societies of the church and state , continue as distinct from each other as formerly , whilst the same things remain that made them two societies formerly . and conversions do not hinder but that they may still remain so . still , the spirituals and temporals , are as distinct as ever . still , the same right continue for the bishops to be the competent judges of spirituals , as the magistrate are , of temporals . still , the same distinction of laws continues , by which the two societies are governed as formerly . that the church is to be governed by the church , which are made by a consent of the ecclesiasticks , and that the state is governed by the laws , which receive their sanction from the lay-authority . still , the independence continues , that the bishops are as supream unappealable judges for spirituals , as the magistrates are for temporals . conversions i am sure , do not hinder , but that this also might have remained as it did formerly . for such a coalition of the two societies as our adversary reasons for it , would be necessary that the government of one of the societies should surrender , or acknowledge a dependence on the government of the other . but neither of them can be pretended at the first conversions of magistrates . neither of them now , in the case of the church of england . the name of head , on which our adversary insists , is long ago laid aside by q. elizabeth . and one of our articles disowns all pretensions of our princes to the power of preaching the word , and administring the sacraments . this article is ratified , and made law by an act of parliament . upon these considerations , we can fairly take the oath of supremacy , as thus intrepreted by the legislators themselves , without owning any subjection of the bishops , as to causes purely spiritual , to the supream magistrate , even in england . so far the church and state are yet , even here , from being made one society , as our adversary pretends . the examples of bishops taking out patents for the right of giving orders , were , i believe , never known before the reign of henry the viii . and that i hope our adversary himself will not plead as a reign of presidents . if he do , the liberties of the people will be no more secure , than those of the clergy . nothing was security against him , who made such manifest invasions on the two fundamental securities , magna charta , and his own oath , taken at his coronation . thus clear it is , that conversions alone could not make any change in the rights of power in spirituals , of which the church was possessed before , notwithstanding that the converts are thereby made one body with the church , with which they were not one formerly . § lix the church's obligations are more necessary for the subsisting of the state , than those she receives from the state are for hers . if therefore the majestrate will lay claim to a right in spirituals , it must be on some other account than bare conversion . that , he must rather lose , than gain by , as i have already shewn , because in his conversion he comes to the bishop's terms , not the bishop to his . our adversaries therefore have another pretence for his superiority in purely spirituals . that is , the benefit that the church enjoys by the magistrate's favour and protection , the honours and profits annex'd to the sacred offices , and the security she has thereby against adversaries , and the assistance of the secular arm for reducing rebellious subjects by secular coercions . for these things they think her obliged in gratitude , to remit some of her former rights , by way of compensation for them . and this obligation in gratitude they conceive sufficient to engage her to an implicite and intrepretative contract to continue this remitting of rights on her part if she will , in reason , expect that the magistrate shall continue his favours . but , i confess , i cannot see , proceeding on principles that must be granted by all who believe religion , but that the disadvantage will still lye on the side of the magistrate . for by this way of reasoning , the implicite contract for remitting rights , will lye on that side which is most obliged ; and that side will appear most obliged , which receives more benefit by the commerce than it gives . for this consideration of remitting right , on account of gratitude , comes only in by way of compensation for what is wanting on its own side , to make the benefit it confers equal to that which it receives . but i cannot imagine how the magistrate can pretend his favours equal to those which he receives by religion , especially the true religion . so far he is from exceeding them , so as to expect any compensation for arrears due to him on ballancing his accounts . it is by religion , and by those obligations which nothing but religion can make sacred and inviolable , that he holds his very throne it self . if he hold his throne by compact , nothing but religion can hold the subjects to the contract made by them . if by any other right , nothing but that can oblige them to pay him that which by any sort of right soever is his due . where he has no force to exact duty from them , nothing can restrain them but ties of conscience , and nothing alse can lay a restraint on their conscience but religion . where he has a power of force , yet even that is not near so formidable at the irresistible power of heaven , and the fear of future and eternal punishments . no considerations but those , can curb them from secret practices , which oftentimes subvert the greatest humane force by degrees insensible , and therefore unaviodable . nor is any religion so conget on these accounts , as that which is truest and most acceptable to god. god may be obliged , by the general laws of providence , for the general good of mankind , to inflict imprecations made for securing faith , even in false religions . but he is most present at the offices of his owe establishment , and therefore they have the greatest reason to fear them who imprecate in that form which is most suitable to the ture religion , no religion so formidable at that which threatens future and eternal pains in case of violation . no religion can so well assure us of the future and eternal state , as revealed religion . no revelation so well evidenced by credentials attesting it in ages of writings and accurate information , as our christian religion . no one communion even of christians , so just and equal against invasions on either side , either of the church , or the magistrate , as that of the primitive christians ; and of these churches which lately came the nearest to those primitive , in these late flourishing dominions . thus it is every way certain , that the church does more contribute to the security of the state , than that secular protection , which is all the state can contribute , does to the security of the church . the church can subsist by her own principles , if she will be true to them , without the support of external power . the state cannot subsist without force , nor secure her possession of a coercive power , without the support of religion . thus , even in point of necessity , the church is more necessary to the state , than the state is to the church . § lx. the benefits received by the state from the church , are also greater than those which the church receives from the state. nor only so . but the obligations on the church's side are greater , and more beneficial to the seculars , than those of the seculars can be to the ecclesiasticks . and this is withal a great consideration in judging concerning the measures of gratitude , and the extent of what is to be done , in order to a compensation . the greatness of the benefit on one side , is the principal thing that requires additional offices on the other side , to make an equality on both sides , which is that which we call a compensation . indeed the necessity of it is no otherwise a consideration in this matter , than as the need we have of a thing adds to the price expected for it in ordinary commerce . but the benefits of religion are without compare beyond all that can be pretended from the power of the state. consider we the supream magistrate in his own person ; and all that he enjoys as a prince , is not to be mentioned with what he may expect as a member of the true cammunion , and a professor of the true religion . our saviour himself has told us , that his gaining the whole world , is no purchase nor profit , if he lose his own soul for it , and that nothing can make amends for such a loss . the magistrate who believes his christian religion true , cannot avoid believing this . and how can he that does so , think the church in his arrear for his favour and protection ? this is , and in reason ought to be , of more censequence to him than his crown and scepter , which are a very small part of the purchase mentioned by our lord , nay , than the flourishing of the whole community for which he is concern'd . but we may consider him further as a publick person , inspired with a publick spirit , and with all that zeal for the good of his community , which becomes his noble publick station . consider him as devested from all private , though greater interests , in his acts relating to the publick ; yet even so he must believe the whole society , for which he is concerned , more obliged by being admitted into the true church , than that any thing that he can do by the power and interest of his whole society , can ever recompence it . so far he is from any hopes of supererogating and obliging the ecclesiasticks more than they deserve , though all the favour done , were no more than their admitting his whole society , into the true communion . the saving of one soul is , in our saviour's now mentioned doctrine , a greater benefit than what can be performed by the greatest worldly power . but the receiving his whole community into their priviledged society , is a publick benefit to the whole community , and a benefit of the highest kind , far exceeding that of which a single-soul is capable , which yet is too great for him to hope to recompence . as therefore he is obliged upon account of his socitey , to be grateful for kindnesses received from the church , so he never can hope by all the publick power of the society of which he is possessed , to make even with the ecclesiasticks . when he has done all he can , his good will must by the ecclesiasticks be accepted for his deed . how can he then oblige them to any further accounts on their part ; that are to be made up by cession of their just rights ? even as to temporals , the whole body of the state , and the prince as concerned for the body , are more obliged to the true religion , and the society in which alone it is to be had , than they are ever able to requite . not now to mention the temporal blessings to which they are hereby intitled , godliness having the promises of this life , as well as of that which is to come ; all that justice in conversation , all that sweetness and obligingness which their duty to god obliges religious persons to shew to all with whom they converse ; all that sincerity and open heartedness which makes mankind love , and trust , and please each other , are the most genuine fruits of the true religion , where it is heartily believed and practised . it can therefore be nothing but inconsideratness , and disbelief , and forgetfulness of the true value of things upon sober consideration , that can tempt the magistrate to think that the church is so over-obliged to him for his protection , as to need a compensation . § lxi . if the state had been capable of conferring the greater obligations , yet a good pious magistrate could not , in reason , desire su●h a recompence as should oblige the church to yield any of her ancient rights . it rather on the contrary appears , that the greatest obligations are on the church's side , and that therefore what compensation by cession of ancient rights , was necessary on account of gratitude , was rather to be expected from the magistrate . the best and most pious magistrates have always thought so , who were certainly the most competent judges of matters of religion . yet supposing it possible , that the state could supererogate ▪ a pious magistrate would never desire nor accept of such a recompence , as should oblige the clergy to yield their ancient and original rights , conferred on them by god himself at their first establishment . he would presume that power was necessary for the good of the spiritual society , which god was pleas'd to put them in possession of , antecedently to the favours of secular princes , and could not find in his heart to deprive the spiritual society of any power which god himself had judged necessary for it . he might the rather presume it concernin a society instituted under a persecution , and designed to continue the same under all the revolutions , not only of his own , but all other states in the world. he would consider himself also as a trustee of the power committed to him by god , and therefore under an obligation to manage the trust in that way that he could judge most agreeable to the mind of him who had committed the trust to him . he would therefore think himself obliged to value all things according to the value that god has put upon them ; principally to regard that which was principal in the design of god , and to make all other considerations subservient to it , which god intended should be so . this would oblige him to make all designs for the temporal prosperity of his subjects , ultimately useful for the publick good of their souls . this would oblige him further , to mind that in the first place , and principally those expedients which more immediately tend to the promoting it , and all other temporal politicks no otherwise , nor further , than as they also may promote it , or at least be consistent with it . and in this way of reasoning , i know not how he could avoid preferring the spiritual , before his own authority , and therefore managing his own authority in subserviency to it , for the promoting and supporting it , not for diminishing it . this i am sure every truly christian magistrate , must look on as more solid and judicious reasoning , from the principles of the christian religion , and securer therefore for his last accounts to god , and his soul 's eternal interest , than to suffer himself to be influenced in matters of so momentous a nature , by atheistical fooleries and flirts of being priest-ridden . this therefore being supposed , how conscious soever such a magistrate might be of his own good will to the church , yet he would not be willing to accept of any branch of that power which god had judged necessary for her , that himself might have the managing it for her interest . he would not think it for the glory of his time , upon any pretence whatsoever , to leave that holy society more destitute of power than he found her . he must needs think , that god's own settlement of it was the wisest , that they were fittest for administring the power , who , by the nature of their function were best qualified to understand the causes in which it was conversant , and who were most concerned for the good of the society , for whose use god had given it ; and who by obligations of conscience , and by being destitute of external force , were the least likely to design , and least able to carry on encroachments to the injury of lriva powers . he would not be willing that a successor should be trusted with an administration of such a power , which , if ill administred , might prove of so dangerous consequence to the church's walfare , and for whose good meaning he has not that security as he has for his own . he would not easily trust , even his own partiality , of his own mutability , with it . these would be the natural reasonings of a generous and well minded prince : and methinks they should be so of pious and generous parliaments also . here has been very much zeal pretended for securing our church against a popish successor : this should make those who call themselves protestant parliaments , unwilling to challenge that as a right of parliaments in general , which may put it in the power of a popish parliament , and indeed of any other that may be of another communion , to dissolve our church , as this power of lay deprivations will certainly do , if they may be allowed as sufficient to discharge us from our spiritual duties to our so deprived bishops . § lxii , princes have been allowed by the church a right to keep persons out , not yet canonically possessed ; but not to turn any out , who were already in possession of bishopricks . and that without any proper cession of right on the church's part . thus it has appear'd , that a well meaning magistrate to the interest of the church , and religion , has neither obligation nor equity to expect such a cession of spiritual rights on the churches part , as a compensation for his protection , nor would himself be inclinable to think he had any . what ill meaning ones may expect , is not worthy our regard . such are too partially concerned , to be taken for competent judges in affairs of this nature : they neither deserve such a cession , nor indeed are fit to be trusted with it . however we deny not , but that the magistrate has a right in the disposal of those favours which are requisite for the churches interest in order to a legal settlement and protection . and he has withal thereupon a right to expect a security to be given him for his own temporal power , against invasions from the ecclesiasticks , in consideration even of that act of justice , of securing them also from the like invasions from the temporal power , by his employing it in their defence , though he be otherwise obliged in conscience to protect that which himself believes to be the true religion and the true communion . but then this is no proper cession of spiritual rights . for even antecedently to the amicable correspondence between the church and state , the church was as much obliged in conscience to forbear encroachments on the temporal rights , as the magistrate was on the spiritual . only the difference was , that before the correspondence , the church her self took upon her to judge concerning the trustiness of the persons put in office by her , having then no access to the civil magistrate ; but afterwards she suffered him to judge himself of his own security . that was by not having bishops imposed upon him to enjoy his temporals annexed to their office , without his own approbation which was no more than what was generally reasonable on equal terms . this sometimes allowed him a power at first of stopping any person proposed if he did not like him , sometimes of pitching on the person by the right of a lay patron . so also he was allowed to judge concerning canons , whether they might prove prejudical to the temporal government , before he seconded them with his temporal government , and by secular coercions , which was also very just and equal , without any cession on the churches side . for this was only allowing him to judge where his own power and right was concerned . but then this right was only to keep out a person who was not yet possessed of the power he pretended to , by even the spiritual right of consecration , and therefore no act of authority upon a bishop properly so called , but only on a candidate for the office. but there was never any act of the ancient church so much as pretended , that i know of , that ever allowed princes to turn bishops out of their spiritual rights , without synods , when they were once canonically possessed of them . no emperors of the same communion that acted sedately , and like persons who regarded principles , who ever attempted it , without at least packing or pretending synods for the deprivation of bishops . the canons omitted by the doctor are sufficient , if there were no more , to shew that this was , at least , the sense of the church , and jurisdiction of the constantinopolitan patriarchate . and even this power that was allowed , was allowed on obligation of interest , not of conscience . none could pretend to the temporals annexed to the episcopal office without the princes consent . and whilst the correspondence between the church and the prince held , there was no need of separating the spiritual rights form the temporal . but the church was at perfect liberty in conscience , if she was willing to want the temporals , to give the spiritual power alone , and much more to continue it , where it was already given , if she judged the prince's impositions more prejudicial to her spiritual society , than his favour was advantageous ; and when that case fell , she was to judge . thus much therefore may be allowed the magistrate on account of his own right , without any thoughts of cession of the church's rights , and without any acknowledgment of obligation from the magistrate that should make a cession necessary , or so much as reasonable . and the acknowledging a liberty in the magistrate to keep out , does not in any equity of interpretation infer a right to turn out bishops , and absolve their subjects from their duties to them in spirituals , and with regard to conscience , this being greater than the right that is confessed . thus therefore there is not the least ground for an implicite compact on the church's side , for cession of her rights and liberties . for this cannot be proved , but from the nature of a greater obligation , than can be othewise made amends for , without a cession , or a grant of things greater than that of deprivation : neither of which can be here so much as pretended , and therefore the church cannot in reason be pretended to have done it by a tacite consent , or an implicite compact . and for an explicite compact , that may seem to have agreed to it , i do not think our adversaries can pretend any , before that reign of violence , against sacred rights , especially , of henry viii . a prince unbounded by any sense of right whatsoever whether sacred or secular . § lxiii . the power of turning out bishops once possessed , too great to be granted on any consideration whatsoever . indeed the nature of this is such as cannot be granted by any society that is absolute , on any consideration whatsoever . no obligations that can be lay'd on a society can be valued by it more than its own subsistence . it must be , to be capable , of receiving obligations , and it must have a security of its continuance , in order to its having a security , that the obligations shall be continued also . it s subsistence therefore is antecedent to all possible obligations , and therefore the securing that , is of more importance to it than any possible obligations . no present obligations , can be a sufficient recompence for them , to put it in the power of another , to dissolve and destroy them as a society . especially such obligations , which concern them principally , as they are a society . they are therefore only obligations perpetual , that can pretend to be an equivalent for a society , ( that may promise to it self perpetuity , if governed by it self ) to put it self in the power of another society , of interests seperable from its own . but that such obligations to their society , shall be perpetual , they can have no security , unless they be first secured , that the society it self shall be so . and for this , it is a very justly suspicious circumstance , if the magistrate , who pretends to confer the obligations , refuses to do it , but on condition that the bishops will submit to hold during his pleasure . he who designs to weaken the security they have already , is justly to be suspected of a design on the security it self . and the church must needs look on it as a diminution of the security , for her subsistence , if from subsisting as long as her self pleases , ( so she may do , whilst she has her own government in her own hands ) she must be reduced to depend on the pleasure of another , of affections variable from her interests . she has therefore reason to break off all treaty with a magistrate , who should openly treat with her on such terms , as the sheep were obliged to do ( in the apologue of demosthenes ) when the wolves are said to have made specious proffers of peace , and future kindnesses , on a like condition that the dogs ( which were the only real security the sheep had to oblige the wolves to performance ) should be delivered up to be destroyed by them . so semiramis when no doubt with great professions of good will , she had prevailed with ninus to allow her the liberty of commanding his dominions for one only day , secured it to her self for ever , by destroying him before the time appointed for her resignation . for to allow this power to the prince of depriving the supreme governours of the church , i know not how it can be contrived without danger of ruine to the whole society , or at least , without lessening the security it has , whilst it is confined to the ecclesiasticks . to allow him a power of derpiving alone , without a power of filling their sees by substituting successors , will not indeed involve us in schisms by communicating with those who administer their jurisdiction for them by authority derived from themselves , tho' the bishops themselves cannot interpose in the administration of it . but it will at least disable the incumbent ordinary , to perform any episcopal office for his life , if the the magistrate be pleased so long to disable him for it . and by the same reason as this is granted concerning any one , it may hold concerning the whole episcopal college in the dominions , if he be pleased , with a design of ruining the spiritual society , to deprive them all for the same term , of their several lives . for this must evidently hazard the whole succession , and dissolve the constitution of the church , and in the next age , at least , in the opinion of the greatest part of christendom , if none of the bishops in being , be permitted to secure the succession by new consecrations . for this is a power greater , than what is supposed to be in those who exercise their jurisdiction in their absence . the presbyteries , may perform what is requisite for their own time . but the power of ordination , is not given them , without which a succesion cannot be secured to posterity . to provide against this intolerable consequence , the church is obliged to take care that the supplying the sees with new bishops , be not deferred so long till the whole episcopal order be extinguished . either therefore the magistrates deprivation must discharge the subjects from their obligations in conscience to the first bishops , or it must not . if it do not discharge them , the second bishop who is consecrated into a full see , where duty is still obliging , must be a schismatick , and break the spiritual society in pieces by intestine divisions among themselves . if he may discharge them , then his depriving all the bishops , must be taken for a discharge of the subjects of all the diocesses in his dominions , from their duty to all their bishops , which must consequently disable them to do any episcopal act in any of them all , for preservation of the church , or of their own order , if the obligation of such deprivations , may be supposed to extend to conscience . thus the church must necessarily be dissolved and destroyed whenever the magistrate with the consent , and assistance of the greater society , shall be pleased to dissolve it . this is inevitable wherever two absolute independent societies by compacts do unite in one , under the government of one of them as absolutely supreme . our adversaries themselves will grant it in the other case of encroachment of the ecclesiasticks , on the rights of the secular magistates . when the pope was allowed a power of depriving princes of their crown , and absolving their subjects from their duties , and oaths taken to them , it was impossible for secular governments to defend themselves against the pope , tho' then the removal only of the person was the thing pretended . in this case , our adversaries themselves are sensible that the whole society is concerned in him , who has the power of the whole society , and the whole right of governing is concerned when a possessor is put out , who has as much right by the establishment as any other can have who shall pretend to succeed him . and why can they not see the inevitableness of the same consequences , in the contrary encroachments of the state upon the church , maintained by themselves . this therefore is a power too great to be recompenced by any possible obligations the state can put upon the church , and therefore such as ought not to be alienated upon any possible pretence of obligation . § lxiv . in this case , particularly , no temporal favour whatsoever can make amends for the loss of the benefits of the spiritual so ciety . there can therefore be no implicite contracts for such an exchange that can in equity oblige the ecclesiastical governours to performance , tho' it had been in their power to make such a contract . particularly , this reasoning holds in our present case , more strongly than it would in others . it may indeed be possible , by being members of another society , that all the particulars of which a society does consist , may enjoy greater advantages by being dissolved into another society , than by being a society by themselves , and at their own disposal . and a case may therefore fall out , wherein a less beneficial society , may not only put their liberties in the power of another more beneficial society , to be by it disiolved at pleasure , but may also actually surrender their very liberties themselves , in consideration of greater benefits , to all the particulars of the less beneficial society , not only than those which they possess on account of their incorporation , but also than that liberty also which they enjoy on account of their independency , which is it self also a very valuable benefit , and adds considerably to the other advantages of their present society , in the common esteem of mankind . but for this , two things are requisite to make the case practicable , neither of which are applicable to the subject of our present discourse first , the benefits of the new society , must indeed be more valuable than those of the old one , together with their liberty considered into the bargain . dly . they who are possessed of the rights of the old society , must be possessed of them on their own accounts , not as trustees of any other , that so they may have no further obligation to preserve them , than their own present interests in them , and may therefore be at liberty to accept of considerations of graeter present interest . if either of these considerations fail , they cannot think themselves obliged in equity to stand to such a contract , especially where no more is pretended than an implicite one , not expressed in words , but gathered only from considerations of equity . and here neither of them can be so much as pretended . first it cannot be pretended that any secular favours or immunities whatsoever can make amends for the benefits of their present spiritual society . this has been proved already . i shall therefore here take it for granted . indeed it is in our present case so very manifest , that i need no great favour of our adversaries themselves to give me leave to do so . supposing it therefore granted , all the rules of equitable reasoning in the sense of those ages wherein the state first became christian , will relieve the church against any such pretentions , as are here insisted on , of an implicite contract for surrendring her independency . societies had in the roman civil law ( which is the best standard for judging what was thought equitable in those times ) the same favour as minors , from being obliged by over-reaching contracts . and indeed there was reason for it , when their interests were transacted by others who as seldom consulted the sense of the communities , as guardians did their pupils , and who were liable to as just suspicions of corrupt insidious dealings , and private interests , as guardians were . this therefore would allow the church a restitution in integrum , a perfect rescission of such a contract , made in her name by her representatives , where the disadvantage was in it so manifest , as the alienating spiritual rights in exchange for temporal ; and the contract had yet proceeded no further than to be implicite only and interpretative . indeed here the very representatives themselves might expect to be relieved in equity . for , receiving a valuable consideration , is that which is expresly mention'd , even in our modern contracts , even where that valuable consideration it self is not mentioned , purposely to prevent their revecableness , if it had not been mentioned . it is therefore supposed that when the consideration is not valuable in comparison with the right contracted for , it is but reasonable in equity , that such a contract be rescinded . especially , where the contract is not expressed in words , there is no reason in equity to presume that any such alienation was intended . all that can be pretended in this case , is , that the prince's favour , and protection , is accepted of by the representatives of the church . but how does it appear , without an explicite contract , that it is accepted of with a design of entring into a contract ? how does it appear , that it is accepted of as a consideration ? how does it appear , that any right , on their own side , is intended to be parted with in consideration of it ? how does it appear , but that it is thought already sufficiently required in the favour already conferred on the prince and his subjects , in admitting them into a society so much more beneficial than their own ? if any cession of rights , had been thought of , why must it needs be of a right , so essential to its subsistence and continuance , as that is of the independence of the supream govornours of their own society ? how can it appear , that in accepting of the prince's favours , such a contract as this was ever thought of ? nay the very unequalness of it would be in equity a strong presumption , that it was not though of , nor intended , nor ever would have been consented to , if it had been expresly insisted on . it is certain many kindnesses are accepted of , without any thoughts of a contract , it is strongly presumable such an alienation as this , would never have been consented to , if it had been thought of . here is no proof of a contract , but bare acceptance . on these considerations , there can be no reason or equity to oblige the ecclesiasticks to stand to so partial an interpretation of a contract imposed on them by their adversaries . indeed there can be no such contract at all , as an implicite one , which can be no otherwise proved , but by reasonable equitable interpretation . § lxv . but here it is not in the power of the ecclesiastical governours to make such a contract . thus much might have been pleaded for discharging the church officers from these obligations , though they had indeed a power to oblige themselves thus far , and had no more to do in this matter , than to consider whether there were prospects of present interest sufficient to induce them to it . but that is not the case here . all they can do , on any consideration whatsoever , by any however explicite compact is not sufficient to alienate that power , by which the church must again subsist , whenever the magistrate deserts her . for this power is not her own , but a trust commited to her by god , and a trust committed to her , with a design the power should be perpetuated . whatsoever therefore she does , she cannot oblige god by an act of alienation of it . so a servant that should alienate his lord's rights without his leave , cannot hinder his lord from challenging them again , nor any other servant who is impower'd by his lord to demand them . this is allowed among our hired servants , and much more with the roman slaves , to whom the scriptures allude in this matter . ( the apostles themselves call their office a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 words in the language of that time importing slavery . ) such were usually then intrusted with stewardships . and the lower degree of slavery , that of a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 st. paul looks on as a higher dignity of his apostolical office. and he calls his power a trust , and a dispensation , and looks on himself as under an obligation of fidelity , to discharge it according to the mind of him who had committed the trust to him . this was undoubtedly to signify the nature of his power by the roman civil laws received at that time , which allowed servants to acquire actions to their masters , but not alienate them without their express command . the apostles themselves therefore were not at liberty to alienate this trust committed to them upon any considerations whatsoever of their own private convenience ; nor much less can they do it , who now succeed them in a power , indeed derived from them ; but in many particulars more limited than theirs was . besides this power is intrusted with them not for themselves only , but for the interest also of souls in general . thence it appears that they cannot be allowed to dispose of it on considerations relating to their private interests . as it is a trust for others , the same notions will take place here which did with the roman tutors and curators , who where also officers in trust for managing an interest which was none of their own . nothing they did to the prejudice of the pupil could oblige him to performance . especially if they presumed to alienate any part of the inheritance entrusted with them on considerations of private interests of their own . such contracts were perfectly rescinded , and left no obligation on him to ratify them when he came to age , as other contracts might , which were beneficial to him . here therefore they could lay no obligation on god , to ratify their alienation of the power intrusted with them , to the civil magistrate . and yet without a right obliging god to ratify what was transacted by the ecclesiastical governours , all the conveyances they could pretend to make of their spiritual rights to the magistrate , must be perfectly insignificant for then god may still own him for a bishop who is deprived by the magistrate , and disown that person as an intruder , who is substituted into his office by the lay power . for it is god's act alone that can determine the question as to right , and with regard to conscience seeing therefore the ecclesiastical governours cannot confer a right upon the magistrate to have his acts ratified by god ; after all the compacts they can make , the right continues as it was before . they who had the right of making and depriving bishops , have the same right still , and may resume the exercise of it when they please , and are obliged to do so , as they will approve themselves faithful to their trust , when they shall judge the exigences of the church to require it . what then can their contract signify , be it never so express ? it on the contrary appears , that no consideration whatsoever of private interest , can be a reasonable inducement for ecclesiastical governours to enter into such contracts , not only because they cannot validly oblige themselves , or confer any valid right upon the magistrate in this matter , which he had not before ; but even in consideration of their own interest . suppose the favours of the magistrate were indeed sufficient to countervail the personal benefits they enjoyed , purely on account of their being the heads of a distinct independent body ; yet it cannot be denyed but that the punishment they have reason to fear from god on account of their falshood to their trust , is without comparison greater than what can be recompenced by the civil magistrate . § lxvi . it is not agreeable to the mind of god , that the church should so concorporate with the state , as that the bishops should be deprivable at the pleasure of the civil magistrate . indeed the nature of the spiritual society as constituted by god is such , as that it cannot be thought agreeable to the mind of god , that it should so concorporate with the state , as wholly to depend on the authority of the civil magistrate , so as that its supream governours , the bishops , should be subject to him in spirituals also . it is not agreeable to his mind that the more noble society should be subjected to that which is less noble ; that the interests of souls which are more valuable in his esteem than all the kingdoms of the world , should depend on the pleasures of particular princes , and the interests of their particular little districts . it is not agreeable , that he should trust a government of principal importance , in the hands of those who are not likely to regard it , as their principal employment , who make the world their principal study , and take their understanding that , and its concers throughly to be the principal accomplishment they are capable of , for the discharging of that which they take to be their principal office , and who either take no pains at all to understand the concerns of religion , or do it no otherwise than as it is consistent with their other employments , which are not indeed of that importance as matters of religion are . it is much more likely that he intended that it should continue , as himself had settled it at its first establishment , in the hands of those whose principal care it should be to mind it as it deserves , that is , principally , and other things , no otherwise than as they may prove subservient to it . it is no way likely that he would have religion left to their disposal , who by their office think themselves obliged to be swayed principally by their worldly interests , than which there is hardly any thing more contradictory to the great ends of religion ; to make reformation of manners necessary to be begun by courts , which are usually the originals of the corruptions of that kind , and the great hindrances to well meant designs of reformation . an obvious consequence of such a trust would be , that religion , which princes do not take for their principal work , must be made subservient to their worldly politicks , which princes generally take for their principal employment . and who can think that god would ever intend that a religion at first established in a state of independency on the secular power , should afterwards be brought to a state precarious , and depending on the pleasure of the secular magistrate ? gods establishing it otherwife at first shewed plainly that it was better for the church to be independent on the state , whensoever there should be any difference between it and the secular magistrate . this withal we are certain of , that god is not changeable as man is ; but that whilst the same reason holds , or when the same case returns , his mind will be the same as it was before . when ever therefore the magistrate who has once favoured the church , shall again desert it , and withdraw his protection from it ; we must then conclude that the church is in the same condition she was in before the magistrate received her into his protection ; and therefore that it is gods pleasure also that she should subsist then , as she had done before , on her own government . on her own government , i say , as well qualified now , as formerly , for continuance , and perpetuity , by its independence on the pleasure of the magistrate . this is indeed the only way of knowing gods pleasure concerning a case , where no now revelation is so much as pretended , as none is here , even by our adversaries . this therefore being certain , that , in case of a new breach , gods pleasure is that the church should again be independent ; it will be also certain , that in the interval ; whilst the good correspondence holds between the two societies , god cannot allow such an alienation of power as shall disable her , in case of a now breach , to persist on her old terms . this will requite that the old society be preserved with the old government of bishops during the interval . for the church is not such a society as other humane ones , that can be set up at pleasure by the agreement of the particular members of which it consists , whenever they are free from other antecedent inconsistent obligations . this is a society erected by god , and requires governours authorized by him more than other civil societies do , for obliging him to confer spiritual blessings exceeding the power of the members considered in themselve . god has given them no reason to expect , when the breach shall fall , that he will extraordinarily empower men immediatly as he did the apostles . the only way therefore for securing the continuance of the church , is to keep up a body of governours . authorized by the apostles in that succession , which has been derived from them to our present times , which cannot be , unless the succession it self be continued on , in all the interval of good correspondence . this therefore requires that they do not suffer themselves so to be incorporated into the state , as to have no governours of their own acting by a highery authority than what can be derived from the prince . this consideration alone is sufficient to disprove our adversaries fancy concerning the coalition of the two bodies , under the king as the common head of both of them , when , in the mean time , the church is obliged to continue in her bishops a power not derivable by any patents from the king . this power therefore not derived from him , must be perfectly independent on him . and indeed no power but what is so , can justify , and make practicable , a resumption of ancient rights . for what ever depends on the magistrate , may , and will in course , be taken from the bishop when the correspondence is interrupted . if therefore , when it is taken away the bishop has then no right to govern , he cannot expect god will ratify any exercise of a power to which he can pretend no right . but without god's ratifying what is done by the authority , and good reason to presume that god is obliged to ractify it , such a government can signify nothing for keeping the society in a body , that has nothing to recommend it , but consideratinos relating to god and conscience . the alienation therefore of this power so necessary for securing the society , being so plainly against the mind of god in giving the power , no act of alienation of it , can expect a ratification from god , and therefore it must be originally null and invalid . § lxvii . the magistrate is by no means , a competent iudge of the church's interests . besides , there are other things so peculiar to the design of god , in instituting the spiritual society , that make it by no means probable , that it was his pleasure , that it should coalesce into one society with the state under one common supream government , both for spiritisals and temporals . it is inconsistent with the office of the supream magistrate , to endure that his subjects should live under a state of perpetual violence from another power , without using his utmost endeavours to resit it . the church may , and often must , submit to a persucution , when it is not otherwise in her power to avoid it but by resistance . she may with great generosity choose a persecution , when she judges it to be for the interests of religion , and it is her glory to overcome evil with good , and to subdue her enemies rather with patience and constancy , than arms and open violence . she can still subsist and gain by such a state , whereas the civil state is perfectly dissolved when once that violence becomes irresistable . the magistrate is , by the law of nations , allowed to return violence for violence , and to do many things when provoked by his enemy , which the church can never decently do on any provocation whatsoever . it is for the interest of the magistrate ( if he look on religion as his interest ) that the church should be free in her actings for reformation of manners , which she cannot be , if the bishops must , at his pleasure , be turned out of their office , for no other reason , but their being faithful to it . the church withal was designed by god for a society that should correspond all the world over , as they did anciently by their communicatory letters , as to spirituals . for her censures can significe nothing for reclaiming hereticks or ill livers , if they extend no further than her own jurisdiction ; if they exclude not from catholick , as well as diocesan communion . she ought therefore to enquire into new opinions , as they may occasion difference of communion , that she may neither recommend heriticks to the communion with foreign churches , nor receive them to her own communion , if recommended by them . this cannot be done by single bishops , because in these things , at least , they are to proceed by a common rule , and unanimously , not as in other things , only by a majority of suffrages , because no differences of faith can be born with in the same communion , as differences of opinion may be , in other things of lesser importance . this will require frequent synods , such as they had farmerly before the state was christian , twice a year in course , besides what greater synods , might be thought necessary on extraordinary emergent cases but these cannot be had , if they must depend on the pleasure of the local magistrates . general synods cannot be had on these terms , without a general peace , and freedom from jealousies , in all the worldly state , or till all the dioceses in the world should come under the power of one secular magistracy . nor were there any synods of that kind before the conversion of the empire of the christian religion . however , the church was even then possessed of a right of meeting in provincial synods for her own affairs , without asking the magistrates leave , pursuant to the general right given her by god for propagating her religion . and even those provincial synods had such a correspondence as was absolutely requisite for settling unanimity and a good under standing between them . but since they have depended on the pleasure of local magistrates , not only this correspondence , but also the subordinate provincial and national synods have been discontinued . nor can this catholick correspondence which is notwithstanding so necessary for all ( even diocesane ) discipline , be retrieved , without the consent of so many local magistrates , as have churches in their dominions , if the churches must be concluded by these pretended contracts . but certainly christ could never intend , that a thing so universally necessary for that discipline which is to be continued in all ages of the church , should depend on a consent of so many different minds and interests as are veryrarely to be expected in any age. i see not therefore why it should be expected that christ should ratify such compacts against his own designs . § lxviii . the surrendry of the clergy in henry the viiith ' s time , cannot oblige their posterits now . thus it appears , that no contract has been made generally , and that none can be made validly , for alienating the church's right , of which she was possessed before the conversion of princes . thence may be judged how little obliging those act of the clergy in the sacrilegious reign of henry the viiith were , for obliging themselves and their posterity , never to meet for affairs concerning their spiritual function without the prince's leave . had that right been a property of their own conferred on them by a humane conveyance for the private benefit of their function , they might indeed have pretended a right to oblige posterity by those acts of resignation . but considering it as a right not conferred , but entrusted by god himself for greater ends than their own private interests ; thy can pretend no right to hinder posterity from resuming the priviledges then surrendred , whenever they shall judge them necessary for those great ends for which their function was entrusted with them . especially what the magistrate either has , or can do , in consideration of that surrendry , falling infinitely short of being an equivalent . besides it is manifest , that the surrendry then made , was perfectly forced on them , as well as the fine was laid upon the whole body of the clergy ' on account of the praemunire they had incurred for owning cardinal wolsey's legatine power . it has therefore , on that account also , that consideration of the force by which it was extorted , for discharging posterity , from its obligation , which , added to the considerations now mentioned , will free it every way from the obligation of the contract . all that can be said for it , must be grounded on some antecedent right that the prince might pretend before his force ; and therefore it must not wholly be resolved into this extorted surrendry . for if the prince had no right before his force , he could have none afterwards , on account of conscience , whatever he might pretend by human secular laws . for his force without any antecedent right , had been no other but downright injustice , which could not entitle him , nor his successors , to any right in conscience . especially where the right it self is of that nature , as it is here , that it belongs to a higher than human secular judicatory . it therefore concerns our advesaries to consider what they can pretend for that right antecedent to that force . and i think what has already been proved , sufficient to cut them off from all pretensions of right by the constitutions of the gospel . for i have shewed , that the church was possessed of a right to govern her self independently in visible districts and jurisdictions before any conversions of princes . i have shewn withal , that no contract either was made , or could be made , that could dispossess her of that right , with regard to conscience . if therefore they will pretend to any such right antecedent to the forcible surrendry , it must be on some other topick than that of the constitution of the gospel . the tell us therefore , that the jewish kings in the old testament , ordered many things relating to religion . thence they infer , that our princes have the same power now . but , granting the fact true , that the jewish princes were invested with that power , it will however by no means follow , that our christian princes must be so now , if what i have already proved , hold true . for having directly proved , that the constitution of the gospel is otherwise ; the question then will be , whether precedents are to take place . and that in this case , cannot be difficult , according to the ordinary rules of judging concerning the practice of inconsistent laws . these rules are , that laws of greater importance take place of laws of lesser importance ; that later laws of even the same legislative power take place of elder laws , as being so far virtually repeals of them as their practice proves inconsistent : that laws more suited to present circumstances take place of those which were made on a remoter prospect of our present circumstances . and by all these rules there can be no doubt but that now all such legal precedents are to be overruled by the peculiar constitutions of the gospel . this , i am sure , is generally admitted in other reasonings of this kind . and there is nothing peculiar pleaded in this case , why jewish precedents should rather overrule here than in other instances . much less is there any reason , why they should take place at a distance , upon the first conversions of princes , when it is so manifest that they did not do so at the first settlement of the christian churches . however , as to this particular of deprivation , i have already given my reasons against the magistrates right , even in the times of the jews , and have answer'd already what has been pretended to the contrary , from the case of abiathar , and those other later deprivations by the heathen magistrates . and this is at present our principal dispute . § lxix . no reasoning from the rights of the jewish princes to the rights of christian princes now . indeed in this whole matter concerning reasoning from the jewish to the evangelical priesthood , i have taken care to argue barely from what was common to them both , the nature of priesthood in general , and in those very instances wherein even the apostolical christians admit the argument . our adversaries on the contrary when they reason from the princes power then , to the power of christian princes now ; they do not argue , as i have done from the priesthood simply considered , but from the power annexed to the priesthood , yet seperable from it , according to the design of god in the particular constitution . the power of governing the society , whose holy rights are administred by it , is , i confess , very seperable from the right of priesthood in general , and whether it was actually annexed to it , or not , is therefore to be judged by the particular constitution . but particularly for the jewish state , i rather believe that it was not annexed to it . for the right of government as annexed to the priesthood , is founded on the right the priest has to oblige subjects by excluding refractory persons as such , from partaking in his sacrifices . but so much erastus has , i think well observed , that the only things that then hindred from the sacrifices , were only legal incapacities , such as not being of the holy seed , or being under some legal pollution ; not any whatsoever immoralities of life . and therefore the punishment for not standing to the award of the priests was capital , as being a disobedience to so much of the secular government , as it was theocratical ; not exclusion from the sacrifices of those who had been contemned by the delinguent nor indeed was there that necessity that the government ; even as to spirituals , should be annexed to the priesthood then , as there is under the gospel now . the prince was then always obliged to be a jew , and therefore of the religion establish'd for that nation by god himself . now his being of an other than the true religion , is no hindrance by our modern constitutions , from having a lawful right to the secular government . then the prince had a better pretence , as the head of the theocracy , to command in affairs concerning god ; than any prince living can now , when no state pretends to be theocratical . then all the concerns of the peculium were confined to that single nation which was wholly commanded by one prince . now the concerns of every national church , are mixed with those of all the other national churches in the world , with whom their prince has no concern at all . this very consideration makes the national church's interests seperable from the interests of their prince ; of which he can therefore be by no means presumed a competent judge . that priesthood was not intended to be practicable in a time of persecution and independence on the civil government . on the contrary , the want of all the exercises of their religion was the most dejecting consideration of their captivities , and one of the greatest inducements for good men to be earnest with god in prayer for a restoration . they were then to be without a * priesthood , without an † ephod , without a teraphim . and the ‡ temple of the lord was the principal thing bemoaned by them who pretended any zeal for their nation or religion . no doubt on account of their losing all the comfort of sacerdotal ministrations which could be performed in no other place besides that particular temple . then the loss of their daily * sacrifices was the highest calamity that the antichrist then expected could bring upon them . and the perfect uselesness of the priests afther the destruction of the temple made titus put the priests to the sword when the obstinacy of the jews had obliged him to destroy the temple . so clear it was , that that was not a religion capable of subsisting in a persecution , as to the exercises of it as a communion . but it is withal as clear that our church was instituted in a persecution with a power of depriving disobedient subjects of the benefits of communion , and with a power of exercising sacredotal offices in that very state of independecy on the civil magistrate . and indeed that state was principally provided for here at the first institution of the church , which was not so much as designed in the jewish church , besides , the clear and express revelation of spiritual and eternal benefits conveyed by our evangelical priest-hood is a thing peculier to the gospel . yet this alone is sufficient to put it beyond all pretensions , even of a theocratical magistracy , designed only for temporals . thus therefore it every way appears that more power is by god himself annexed to the evangelical , than to the legal priest-hood . this therefore is sufficient to overthrow our adversaries reasoning here , that our princes now may challenge all that power that the jewish princes could formerly . for they cannot challenge that which , though it was not then , has yet been since annexed to our evangelical priest-hood . § lxx . our present deprivations not justifiable by even our present secular laws . yet after all , we can even from the laws of of our countrys , and the supremacy settled by those very laws , except against the sentence of deprevation passed against our fathers , as to their spirituals . the supremacy in causes ecclesiastical is , by all the acts made concerning it , vested , not in the parliament , but in the king . and even as it is in the king , it was never intended for him , so as that it might be in his power to confound the several courts and jurisdictions to which causes are appropriated by the laws themselves . the acts for the supremacy , even in temporals , do not allow him to transfar any cause from the court appointed for it to his own hearing out of it , nor even to any other court , than that to which the cognizance of it does properly belong . this holds , as in other cases , so in this also , of the deprivations of spiritual persons . and it is own'd to hold by mr. hooker himself in that very book to which we are referred by our adversaries . he owns it with express application to the case of the king himself , the seat of the supremacy in spirituals . he tells us , that , all men are not for all things sufficient , and therefore publick affairs being divided , such persons must be authorized judges in each kind , as common reason may presume to be most fit . which cannot of kings and princes ordinarily be presumed in causes meerly ecclesiastical ; so that even common sense doth rather adjudg this burthen to other men. he owns that bishops alone were before accustomed to have the ordering of such [ ecclesiastical ] affairs . he confesses , that virtuous emperours . such as constantine the great was , made conscience to swerve unnecessarily from the custom which had been used in the church , even when it lived under infidels . i know not why others should not emulate the example of so great a prince , if they also would be esteem'd , in the judgment of so great a person , virtuous . i know not why it should not be counted commendable also in them , if they also had made conscience to swerve unnecessarily from these acknowledged antient ecclesiastical liberties . he owns , that this same excellent prince ratified the order , which had been before , exhorting the bishops to look to the church , and promising , that he would do the office of a bishops over the commonwealth ; and when he did take cognizance of causes of this kind , yet this great person doubts whether he did so , as purposing to give them judicially any sentence . here we find plain confessions , that the church was in possession of these liberties before the conversion of this first christian emperor , and that emperor himself was so sensible of this possession that he made a conscience of invading it . and who could better judge of his right as a christian prince , than he who was the first example of it ? mr. hooker does indeed think that constantine abstained from what he might lawfully do . but he seems plainly to grant that the emperor was of another mind , when he says he made a conscience of doing what mr. hooker thinks he might have done . that same judicious person adds further , with reference to our particular laws in england : there is no cause given unto any to make supplication , as hilary did , that civil governours , to whom common wealth matters only belong , may not presume to take upon them the judgment of ecclesiastical causes . if the cause be spiritual , secular courts do not meddle with it . we need not excuse our selves with ambrose , but boldly and lawfully we may refuse to answer before any civil judge in a matter which is not civil , so that we do not mistake either the nature of the cause , or of the court , as we easily may do both , without some better direction than can be by the rules of this new sound discipline . but of this most certain we are , that our laws do neither suffer a spiritual court to entertain in those causes which by the law are civil ; nor yet , if the matter be indeed spiritual , a meer civil court to give judgment of it . thus mr. hookeer . and he proves what he says in the margin from passages of the laws themselves , and the book de nat. brevium , and bracton , plainly asserting the difference of those two jurisdictions . i am sensible what a scope i have here of enquiring into the laws themselves , and proving this independently on the testimony of this admirable man. but perhaps i have already said more than can be printed in this difficulty of our circumstances . i therefore say no more at present , but refer our adversaries to him . the rather because he is indeed against me in making the church one body with the believing state , and because one of our adversaries has expresly insisted on his authority . both these reasons , as well as the distance of the age he lived in , are sufficient to clear him of any , the least , suspicion of partiality on our side . even in this very cause he defends the use of lay persons joyn'd in commission with spiritual ones for determining spiritual affairs . and possibly he may do so by examples ( if all examples must pass for precedents , ) since henry viiiths usurpations . but when king james the ii , added laymen in the same commission with the bishops concerned in the case of the bishop of london , with a power of deprivation or suspension ab officio , as well as a beneficio ; it is very well known that his lordship excepted against the competency of his lay judges , that as a bishop of the catholick church he ought to be tryed by bishops only . his lorpship would do well now to remember his own plea then , in order to the judging of his own case now , how he can justify his communicating with those who are set up against his colleagues deprived no otherwise than by a lay power . it is well known that his council then learned in our laws insisted on this plea as maintainable by our present laws made since the constitution of the ecclesiastical supremacy . and what good church of england man was there then that did not think the plea very just and reasonable ? let those lawyers be pleased to recollect what they had to say on that case , and try whether it will not also affect our present deprivations . it is very certain that the liberties of h. church are the very first things provided for in magna charta . and the coronation oath , so that if these things be not inviolable , nothing else can be so , being fundamental to all the security that can be given by our present constitution . and it is no way reasonable , that bare precedents , without express acts for alienating such rights as these are , should be thought sufficient for extinguishing a claim grounded on so inviolable a security . if they be so , henry the viiith made such precedents for violating magna charta , and the coronation oath too , that no liberties of the people can now be secure . and it is withal as certain , that in the disputes which occasioned the passing magna charta , this particular of the exemption of the clergy , was one point principally insisted on . nay , it was insisted on then to higher purposes than were reasonable , or than i am concerned for now , so far as to exempt them from secular courts , even when they were guilty of secular crimes , and even so it was most frequently determined in favour of the clergy . that was becket's dispute , which generally prevailed in the following ages , when he was canonized , and when henry the iid had submitted to pennance for what he had done in opposition to him . this case of their exemption as to their spirituals , which is all for which i am now concerned , was than so generally acknowledged , even by the laity themselves , that there was very little occasion of disputing it . rarely was it ever invaded , and more rarely yet ( if ever ) was that invasion defended by themselves who were guilty of it , till the unhappy times of henry the viiith . so uncontroverted was the right for which i plead , that i do not think our adversaries can give one single instance of substituting a successor into a see vacated by no better , than a lay deprivation . this privilege therefore against lay deprivations , was so undoubtedly the sense of magna charta , and the coronation oath , that on that account , as well as in point of right , all patriots ought to be zealous for it , as well as all good christians ; all who have a true concern for those two fundamental securities of property as well as of religion ; all who are so wise , as to foresee how far precedents of violating them in one instance , may proceed for violating them in others also . § lxxi , the conclusion . i hope the worthy defender of the present dividers of the church of england will , by this time , see that this proposition questioned by him . concerning the distinction of the church , even from a christian and orthodox state , is as firmly proved as any other particular of the vindicators whole hypothesis . i hope he will also find it conformable to those very same authorities he was pleased to porduce against it , that of mr. hooker , and even of our church of england , as settled by our ancient laws . though the compass i am obliged to confine my self to , will not allow me to follow either him or the doctor into other arguments , or into particular applications of this i have insisted on ; yet i have endeavoured to urge my argument so , as to obviate whatever they have said that might otherwise have seemed to weaken it . i now leave and recommend the success to him whose cause i have endeavour'd to plead , not as i would , but as i was able . a good cause alone is indeed a very great advantage above artifices of wit and subtilty , in pleading for an ill one . that is all that i pretended to . but it is god alone that must give the word to the preachers , and dociliey to the hearers . and it is his usual way to glorifie his own power , in the weakness and contemptibleness of well-meaning instruments . this title i have , and this alone , to his assistance and blessing on the management , that it will appear to be his own work , if the good cause it self do not suffer by my concernment in it . the same good god dispose our adversaries to follow the truth rather than their worldly interests ; to consider impartially what is said , how contradictory soever it may seem to their fleshly inclinations , to examine with their more sagatious judgments , rather what the cause it self would afford to be said for it , than what has been said by me . he alone can revive in them their old love of the truth of peace , of unity ; their former seriousness in these concerns of the greatest importance to them ; their former , or even the primitive zeal for the interests of the church and of religion in this unbelieving apostatizing generation . when he shall be pleased to do so , we may then hope to see endeavours for healing the breaches themselves have made ; we may then hope to see them ambitious of doing it on the most honourable terms that may be for the church's security against future invasions , and against the precedent of making spiritual interests give way to worldly politicks ; we may then hope to see them again as much concerned as we are , nay , as we ought to be , that our church and our communion may not depend on the precarious pleasure of a persecuting magistrate . how much more pleasing a sight must this be to all generous and christian tempers than our present divisions and scandals , and animosities ? when , o when , shall it once be ? finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e * preface to the reader : the vindication of the civil power , in depriving a bishop for political crimes , i reserve for a particular treatise notes for div a -e * pref. to the reader . i grant at present , that all lay-deprivations are invalid . notes for div a -e † pre. to the reader . notes for div a -e thess. v. ●● . ●●● . xiii . ●● . notes for div a -e matth. xix . e● . mark . . notes for div a -e ch. . p. . . p. . notes for div a -e see unity of priesthood nec . to unity of comm. p. . &c. notes for div a -e psal. xv. . notes for div a -e p. ●● notes for div a -e p. see p. . p. . p. . notes for div a -e p. sulp. sever. sacr. hist. l. . orig in num. hom. x. pearson , vind . ign , part . c. notes for div a -e ● . . notes for div a -e p. . notes for div a -e p. ●● . p. ●● . notes for div a -e * preface to the reader : should our adversaries be able to produce such an example ( as i think they will never be able ) 't will advantage their cause but little , especially if it be one of the later ages , since it is not agreeable to the practice of the church in general . notes for div a -e * c. . §. p. . . c. . p. . notes for div a -e see above , § xxiii . notes for div a -e * kings ii. . † v. . notes for div a -e * sam. xiii . . † sam. vii . , . * kings xv. . chron. xxvii . . to . † numb . xvi . * numb . xvii . , , . † numb . xvi . . * numb . xvi . notes for div a -e * 〈…〉 xxiii . . notes for div a -e * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 philo de gigantib . p. . ed. paris . . † heb. iv. . vii . . ix . . . ‡ heb. viii . , , * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 joseph . macab . c , . [ see mat. v ii . . s luke xiii . , ] again , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . cap. . [ st. luke xx. . ] the bosome of abrahan is there mentioned in the translation of that work by erasmus p. edit . colon. whether from any greek he had i know not . but i think it is in the ms. of new-colledge . see also josephus ' s oration , l. iii. bell jud. c. p. . † wisdom ix . . notes for div a -e * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 philo de praem . sacerd. p. . edit , paris . . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ibid p. . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . philo de monarcia , p. . * deut. xxxiii . . † numb . xxiii . . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . joseph . antiquit . lib. iv . cap. pag. . see also lib. iii. cap. . pag. . edit . colon. . notes for div a -e * judg xx. . . sam , xiv . , . † sam. xxiii . , ● , , . sam. v. , . chr. xiv . . . * josh. ix . . † deut. xvii . , , , . notes for div a -e * kings i. . † thucyd. lib. . * st matt. xxiii . , . † chr. xvi . . ps. cv . . ‖‡ chr. xvi . . ps. cv . . * sam. xxiv . . xxvi . , , . * sam. xxii . . . † v. . notes for div a -e * kings ii ● . * joseph anti. lib. viii . c. * sam. ii. . notes for div a -e * sam : xv. . . xvii . , xix . . xx. . kings iv. . chr. xv. . † sam. viii . . chr. xviii . * chap. ii. s. . p. . * st. mark. ii. . notes for div a -e * exod. xxviii . . chr. xxiii . . * exod. xxix . , &c. lev. viii . . &c. † exod. xxx . . xl . . . * exod. xxx . . † lev. ii . . vi . . vii . . xx iv . . chr. vi . . * numb . vi . . † heb. vii . ▪ * numb . iii. . iv. . . viii . . . . † exod. . xxviii . . . * exod. xx ▪ viii . . † chr. xxiv . . numb . iii. , , . notes for div a -e * numb . xxv . . * numb . xx. , . joseph . ant. lib. iv. c. . † 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 joseph . ant. lib. vii . c. . p. . * joseph . ant. lib. viii . c. . p. . † 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . * exod. xxix . notes for div a -e * chr. xxiv . ● . ● . † kin. xxiii . . notes for div a -e joseph . ant. l. xx . c. . p. ●● . notes for div a -e * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ignat. epist. ad smyrn . n. . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 etist . ad magnes . n. . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. ibid. n. . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . epist. ad philadelph . inscrip . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . ibid. n. . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . epist. ad trall . n. . † 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 epist. ad trall . n. . ‖ ut quis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sit . quid sit faciondum , it a hortatur . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 epist. ad eph. n. . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 epist. ad philadelph . n. . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . epist. ad trall . n. . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . epist. ad smyrn . n. . † 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . ibid. ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . ibid. notes for div a -e chr. ix . cor. x. , . . heb. xiii . . clem. rom. ep. ad corinth . notes for div a -e tim. i. . notes for div a -e † 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 n. . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . n. . † 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. n. . ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 n. . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . n. . † 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . n. . notes for div a -e * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 n. . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . n. . † 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . n. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . n. . ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 n. . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . n. . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . n. . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , n. . † 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 &c. n. . ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. n. . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . n. . notes for div a -e * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 n. . † 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . n. . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . ibid. ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . ibid. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . n. . ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . ibid. † 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . n. . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . n. . † 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 n. . * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . n. . † 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ibid. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . n. † ch. . p. . notes for div a -e bellarm de rom. pontif. lib. v. ● . letter to a f●●end . p. . notes for div a -e * chr. xv. . † hos. iii . ‡ jer. vii ● . * dan. vii . . , . ix . . xi . . xii . . joseph . bell jud. l. vii . notes for div a -e hook. eccl. polie . book viii . p. . ed. lond. . ibid. p. . ibid. p. . defence of the church of england , p. . a brief refutation of the errors tolleration, erastianism, independency and separation delivered in some sermons from i job. . i, preach'd in the year : to which are added four sermons preach'd on several occasions / by mr. james fergusson ... fergusson, james, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing f estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a brief refutation of the errors tolleration, erastianism, independency and separation delivered in some sermons from i job. . i, preach'd in the year : to which are added four sermons preach'd on several occasions / by mr. james fergusson ... fergusson, james, - . [ ], p. printed by george mosman, and are to be sold at his shop ... edinburgh : . reproduction of original in union theological seminary library, new york. table of contents: p. 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tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng sermons, english -- th century. toleration -- controversial literature. dissenters, religious -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - judith siefring sampled and proofread - judith siefring text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a brief refutation of the errors of tolleration , erastianism , indepéndency and separation . delivered in some sermons from joh. . . preach'd in the year . to which are added four sermons preach'd on several occasions . by mr : james fergusson , late minister of the gospel at kilwinning . edinbvrgh . printed by george mosman , and are to be sold at his shop in the parliament-close , anno domini mdcxcii . to the honourable m r. francis montgomery of giffine . honoured sir , so soon as i resolved upon the publication of the following papers , i fixed on you as the only person to whom they should be addrest : and indeed , whether i look on the author , or on my self , i conceive i was many wayes obliged so to do . for as to the author : you are a worthy branch of the noble and ancient family of eglintoun , whereof god had given him the peculiar charge and oversight in the ordinary course of his ministry : a family which ( as himself somewhere testifies ) were his great encouragers in going about all the parts of his function , with joy and not with grief ; and for which he had sent up many fervent prayers to the throne of grace , of the effects whereof you your self me ( blessed be god ) yet a living instance . it was to that noble patriot and zealous instrument of our late reformation , your grand-father , and to the noble earl your father ( then lord montgomery ) and to your most examplarly pious and religious mother , that the author did dedicate his exposition of the epistles to the galatians and ephesians ; and as all who have the honour to know you , are glad to see you so naturally trace the religious example of your honourable predecessors , in your firm adhering to your principles , and purity of religion , your encouraging of piety and persons pious , your streight , sincere and vpright deportment towards all ( a quality as eminent in that noble earl your grandfather , as rare in this generation ) so i nothing doubt , but that if it had pleased god to have spared the author , to publish any other of his works , he would have looked upon your self , as the most proper person , to whom he should present them . as for my self : your respect to the author's memory with your undeserved kindness to all his relations , and to my self in particular , do strongly oblige me to take all occasions for testifying my thankful acknowledgements . and i presume i can scarce give you a more acceptable testimony of my gratitude , than the presenting you with the ensuing papers , which tho the publication be posthumous , yet i hope a serious perusal of them , will be sufficient to supersede any further commendation : and indeed my near relation to the author , will not allow me to speak either of him or his works , what perhaps others might : and therefore without giving you any further trouble , but commending you and your vertuous lady to the protection of the almighty ; and wishing , that as god has blessed you with an hopeful off-spring , who are as so many living images of your selves , in whom you see your own lives renewed , & who by their good enclinations , do already give us cause to expect the best of them ; so you and they may live together till you see them prove a comfort unto you ; and that after you are gone , they may be no less vseful in their generation , than now you are ; i shall humbly crave leave to subscribe my self in all duty , honoured sir , your most obliged , and most humble servant james fergvsson . to the reader . there are divers years past , since the reverend , learned , and pious author of the following discourses , fell a sleep in the lord , and is gone to receive the fruit of his labours , from the chief shepherd of the sheep : yet we have in his memory a lasting proof of the truth of that word , pro. . . the memory of the just is blessed and that of psalm — the righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance : their memory is precious and honourable : for i can truly say , though i have heard many , of high and low degree speak of master fergusson , i never heard any make mention of him but with honour and respect , as a man of great piety and learning , and eminent for prudence and moderation . and i am confident , there will be no need of epistles of recommendation , for any of his works , to any who either knew himself , or have perused his judicious and pious treatises , published already , on the epistles to the galatians , ephesians , philippians , colossians and thes●alonians . nor am i so presumptuous , as to imagine my testimony could raise the esteem of any thing done by so famous and worthy a man : but being his mediate successor to the parish of kilwinning , where he did for many years labour in the work of the gospel ; and being desired by his son of the same name , i could not deny to express the esteem i have for his memory , though i had not the advantage of knowing him while he lived . i am informed the following discourses , were the subject of divers sermons , delivered to that people , in a time when there was much need of warning ; it was after that through a boundless tolleration , a deludge of errors had broken in upon england , and the sectarian army having subdued scotland , and dispersed themselves in all the parts of it , corrupt men and seducers among them , did endeavour to pervert the people from the truth : then it was ( anno . ) when this worthy author , as a faithful watchman , gave to his flock warning of the danger ; and that they might be rooted and grounded in the truth , did represent to them the necessity of a sound and well-informed judgement , in order to holiness and salvation ; and for that end did excite and direct them to try the spirits ; and afterw●rd ▪ for their further instruction and establishment in the truth , took notice of some particular errors , by which they seem'd to be in greatest hazard at that time ; and did in a plain and convincing way , refute the errors , and confirm the truth , making alwayes some practical improvement of what he had delivered . although the reverend author was known to be a great master of school-learning , and was invited to be professor of divinity in the famous university of glasgow ( which yet he humbly refused ) yet he did not calculate these discourses for the school or court ; but being to speak to a countrey congregation , wherein were many common people ( for whom they seem to have been intirely designed , since the author could never be induced to publish them in his own time ) he had such a sense of the holy apostles example cor. . , . that he choosed to speak to the edification of the meanest ; and he had a peculiar faculty of making things intricate , plain and easie to be understood . and i am confident that those who are not for pleasing their fancy with fine notions , or their ear with jingling-words , but desire to have their judgement informed , and their conscience satisfied , will find here that which will be very edifying : for his endeavour is , that controversies be clearly stated ; and with great perspicuity and solidity doth he confirm the truth by scripture and reason , and confute the contrary error ; and all this without bitterness or wrath , but with such calmness and moderation of spirit , wherein he did excell ; so that ( as i am informed ) divers of the english army , though of a contrary judgement , did resort to hear him ; i know not what effects his teaching of these truths had on them , but by the blessing of god , these of his own flock were so established in the truth , that not one of them was seduced from it . and i cannot but record it to the praise of god and commendation of that congregation , and for the encouragement of any who may be invited to be their pastor , when i , to their and my grief , am to be separated from them , to a more difficult post ; i say , i cannot but record it , that as that congregation of kilwinning , hath since the reformation , been blest with eminent learned and pious men , mr glasford . mr bailie , mr fergusson and mr rogirs ; so they have by the blessing of god on their labours , been kept not only sound in the faith , but united among themselves , when others have been wofully divided : and they have alwayes shewed a great love to the gospel , and all the ordinances of the lord jesus , and the ministers thereof : and i pray that their fruit may abound more and more . if some expressions concerning the opinion of independents , or congregational men , seem severe ; it would be remembred , that the author doth not speak against persons , but against things ; and in a time when many errors followed that division about church government ; and the debate was hot about it , and fear that it should have taken place in scotland : but considering the zeal these of new-england have discovered against error , and their united way of acting in association and synods , when they think there is need , and the love that hath been in time of common tryal , and the late essay which hath been made for an accomodation , betwixt presbyterians and them in england ; i suppose if our reverend author had lived until this time , he would have concluded , the difference may be so lessened , that it need not hinder their walking together , in that wherein they are agreed , nor their endeavours to keep the vnity of the spirit in the bond of peace . i do not know of any particular design of publishing these discourses now , when they have been kept hid for fourty years , but that the author's son having long delay'd and declin'd to publish them , though frequently and seriously advis'd to do it by many , he was advertised that some would publish the imperfect notes received from his mouth , in the time of hearing , which being incorrect , might not only prejudge the authors name , but the truth , and others edification . if these ( as is hoped they will ) be acceptable and useful , what yet remains unprinted of these discourses , may see the light in due time . there are here subjoyned four sermons of the reverend author , which the publisher and others hope may be found of good use , and may make way for the communicating more of his pious and judicious sermons , which are longed for by them who knew him , or his other works . it had surely been of great advantage to the church , had it pleased god to have spared this judicious and pious author till now , and that he had published more of his works in his own time : but seing our infinitely wise and good god hath disposed otherwise , it becometh us to submit : but if by this , or any other of his works , god get glory , and the church be edified ; the publisher will rejoice and bless god , as having attained his end . and if the reader peruse his works with the same spirit wherewith they seem to be spoken and written , i am confident he will not fail of profit . now that the spirit of truth and holiness , would lead thee and all his people , into all truth , and help them to edify one another in love , and that he would bless his churches with truth and peace , and send out many faithful labourers into his harvest with a double measure of the spirit that was in mr. fergusson and other eminently holy men who then lived , shall be the prayer of , christian reader , thy souls cordial well-wisher . george meldrum . edinburgh , june . the contents . sect . i. of doctrine in general , and the tryal thereof : being some doctrines raised from the text , introductorie to the main purpose . pag. : ad . doctr. i. error is to be eschewed . pag. . doctr. ii. orthodoxy , or a right opinion in the matters of truth , is as much to be stu●●ed as holiness of life . pag. . doctr. iii. as at all times , so chiefly when there is danger of spreading of error , there is most need that love should be intertain'd betwixt pastor and people : where are some directions for a ministers carriage , in order to the keeping of the affections of his people , while he is refuting their errors . pag. . doctr. iv. the spirit of error began very early to trouble the church . where are some reasons for which the lord suffers errors to spread , pag. . doctr. v. the foulest errors go out oftentimes under fairest names , and are backed with most specious pretences . pag. . doctr. vi. when foul error is holden out under fair names , and backed with fair pretences , there is a danger lest people drink them in and believe them . where are things that speak this hazard . pag. . doctr. vii . ministers the servants of god are not to clap peoples heads , or to indulge them in this inclination of theirs to error , but on all hazards they are to testify against it : where are reasons for which people ought to reverence much what warnings of this kind are given by ministers . pag. . doct. viii . it is not gods way that people , because there are differences about religion , should therefore believe no religion : where are directions for the unlearned to walk by , in order to difference of opinions among the learned pag. . doctr. ix . how fair soever the pretence is that a doctrine is colloured with , it should not be taken upon trust , but must be brought to a tryal . where are some directions how to walk betwixt popish tyranny , and sectarian confusion . pag. . doctr. x. the right tryal to be taken of doctrines preached , or any otherwise vented is , to try whether they be of god or not . where is shown what is requisite to a doctrines that it may be said to be of god. pag. . doct. xi . there are many doctrines pretending to the spirit , which yet being brought to the touchstone will be found not to be of god. p. sect . ii. the doctrine of toleration try'd , and foundnot to be of god. wherein , as in all the errors following , first , the question is stated . . arguments are brought for confirming the truth , and vindicated from the opposites exceptions . . the opposites objections are answered , and refuted from scripture and reason . . the truth being vindicated , is applyed to a practical vse . pag. . sect . iii. the doctrine of errastianism try'd , and found not to be of god. pag. . head l. there is a church government 〈◊〉 forth in scripture . ibid. head ii. the power of church government belongeth not to the civil magistrate . pag. sect . iv. the doctrine of independency try'd , and found not to be of god. pag. . head i. the power of church government is in the church officers , and not in the body of church members . ibid. head. ii. the highest power of church government is not in church sessions , or congregational elderships . pag. . paragr . i. there is a plate-form of the government of many congregations , by one common presbytry holden out in scripture , pag. . paragr . ii. there is a plate-form of government by synods over many particular presbytries held forth in scripture . pag. . paragr . iii. infertor church judicatories are subject superior . pag. ▪ sect . v. the doctrine of separation try'd , and sound not to be of god. pag. head i. shewing what is required for making one a member of the visible church . ibid head ii. no separation from a true church , or gods worship in the church , because of the sins of fellow-worshipers . pag. a sermon preach'd before the synod at glasgow , april . . from cor : . . pag. . sermon second preach'd at irving , foom psalm : . immediatly before the giving of the communion , being a preparation sermon in order thereto . pag. sermon third preach'd at kilwinning may from luke . . vpon the munday , immediatly after the giving of the communion . pag. . sermon fourth , preach'd at kilwinning , from acts : . vpon the munday immediatly after the giving of the communion . pag. . a brief refutation of the errors of tolleration , &c. sect . i. of doctrine in general , and the tryal thereof . john ch . . ver . . beloved , believe not every spirit , but try the spirits whether they are of god. the body of this epistle , as we shew'd when first we entred upon the handling of it , runs upon three heads : the first is upon marks whereby to discern real grace , to wit , who had it , and who not . the second runs upon exhortations to several duties of sanctification ; chiefly , love to the brethren , that christians would love them that love god , love grace wherever they saw it . the third head whereon it runs is , exhortations to constancy , in avowing truth against error . in this fourth chapter there are two of these heads , according to which we may take up the chapter in two parts . in the first , there is an exhortation to stand by truth , and to beware of those who would seduce people from it : and that to ver . . in the second part , there is a renewing of the former exhortations , to love the brethren : and a confirmation of it , by a number of new arguments , to the end : both which have been handled already , and yet the apostle returns again to them , because exhortations against error cannot be enough inculcate , and therefore he reiterats them again and again . in the first part of this chapter , there is , . an exhortation . . there are arguments to enforce the exhortation . the exhortation is set down in the former part of the first verse , believe not every spirit , that is , lend not an ear to every point of doctrine covered over with a fair name , but bring every doctrine to the touch-stone . there are two things considerable in this exhortation : first , there is the compellation he gives them , a warm and kindly stile , beloved ; and then secondly , there is the exhortation it self : and in it there are two things . . what they should not do . and . what they should do . for the first , what they should not do . believe not every spirit . some take the spirit here for preacher , believe not every preacher . and some for doctrine , believe not every doctrine : but both may well be joyned together thus , believe not every preacher who pretends the spirit for his doctrine . for the second , what they should do ; it is to try the spirits whether they are of god. he bids them not cast at all doctrines , because there are some errors vented for truths , as the natural heart is ready to do : but , he exhorts , that they would bring every spirit to the right touch stone . thus much for opening up the words . we intend ( if the lord give us liberty ) to speak somewhat largely on this verse of those doctrines or errors which are most like to trouble our church ; therefore we shall raise some doctrines before hand , which may make way for what we intend . doct. i. the first is , from the apostles dehorting believers from false doctrine , by many arguments . hence observe , that christians would by all means eschew any thing that may tend to seduce them from the pure truths of jesus christ : particularly , that they would beware of error , heresy , and any thing of that sort : hence there are so many exhortations in scripture , to stand by the truth , to be rooted in the faith , and to eschew contrary error : so it is a duty lying on christians , to be guarding and watching against error , or what is contrary to truth . reas : the reason is , because errour is a sin , and a very dangerous one . we shall shew the danger of it in three things : i. it is dangerous , because of the desert of it ; it is damnable . peter . . false prophets are spoken of there as those who bring in damnable heresies , that is highly , condemnable : we shall afterwads show in what respect heresies are damnable . . errours are dangerous sins , because they steal subtily in upon people , and people do too readily relish them : so there are many whose nature abhorres gross sins against the second table , as fornication and such like ; and yet the devil gets them hooked , by this sin of error : nature is born with a cry against gross sins committed against the second table , and so naturally there is some kind of loathing in people at them ; but it is not so in the sins of error : sathan can transform himself into an angel of light , and plead conscience , whereas he intends to bear down truth : so the sins of error are dangerous , because subtile . . they are dangerous in this respect , that as they creep easily in ; so when once they are in , it 's hard to get them shut to the door again : and that because deluded conscience pleads for them . people tainted with error think themselves right , and therefore whatever is brought against them , conscience casts at all as wrong . now in other sins , to wit , such as are against the second table , altho affection plead for them , yet usually peoples light does witness against them : and so in this respect , it is more hard to get a sin of error thrust out , where it is once rooted , than the sin of prophanity it self . vse . this doctrine may serve to fit you for receiving the following doctrines ( which if the lord will , we are to speak of ) tending to the refutation of divers errors . error in doctrine is a subtile temtation , the temtation of the time , a dangerous temptation ; because it hath now many advantages to plead for it . now if the lord shall bless the following discourses , they may prove an antidote against it : and what we have now said , shew's how great need ye have to guard against it : it is a dangerous sin , and so ye had need to be armed against it . doct. ii. again , a general doctrine arriseth from the connexion of this chapter with the preceeding ; in the preceeding , the apostle hath been all alongs stirring up christians to sanctification of life , to eschew prophanity , here he subjoyns an exhortation to cleave to the truth . which gives us this obeservation , that an orthodox judgement , or a right opinion in the matters of truth is as much to be studied as sanctification of life , and the contrary of them both is equally to be eschewed : that is to say , a child of god is bound to guard himself , and to watch as much against heresy and error , in the matter of opinion , as against prophanity and gross sins in the matter of practise . we had need to clear this , because there is a conceit in people , whereby they are ready to think , that for the matter of opinion , it makes not much what men be , many that have error may have grace , grace and error , say they , are consistent : and so if men live well it matters not much what be their opinion . we grant indeed every error does not destroy grace , and grace is consistent with some errors , yet every error does in so much weaken the work of grace within a man. and secondly , error is consistent with grace as other dam-sins are ; as david's adultery was consistent with grace . and that is the point to be proven , that error in the matter of doctrine is as much to be abhorred by the child of god , as gross sins in the matter of their practice . reas. we shall bring several things to clear this truth to you , and the first is this ; scripture doth equally discharge both : it is as much in guarding against error as prophanity . so in hebr. , . be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines : for it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace : and in coloss. . . bewar lest any man spoil you through philosophy — we need not insist to multiply scriptures to this purpose ; any that are acquaint with scripture ( especially the epistles of the new testament ) will find exhortations against error to be as pressing as against any sin else . secondly , as scripture discharges both alike , so it aggravates the sin of error as much as the sin of prophanity . there is nothing almost that scripture brings to aggravate gross sins against the second table , but it uses the same to aggravate error : in the epistle to the gallat . . . adultery , fornication lasciviousness , &c ▪ are called the works of the flesh : an odious name : but in ver . . heresy gets the same name also , and is rekoned up amongst the works of the flesh. so in the epistle to the coloss. , . a superstitious mind is called , a fleshly mind . let no man beguile you of your reward , in a voluntary humility . and worshiping of angels , intruding into those things which he hath not seen , vainly puft up by his fleshly mind . and both get one name . thus in peter . , . if fleshly lusts be aggravated from this that they fight against the soul , they are soul destroying sins : so heresy and error are branded with a worse name in the peter . — who privily bring in damnable heresies . heresy is damnable a soul destroying sin , not for this respect only that they deserve damnation ; for the meanest sin of infirmity is damnable that way , in it self it merits damnation : therefore this scripture must mean somewhat more when it calls heresy damnable , than to rank it amongst our ordinary infirmities : neither are they called damnable in that sense as if the soul guilty of heresy could not be saved ; for many hereticks have repented unto salvation : but they are called damnable sins , as other gross sins are called damnable ; that is to say justly and highly condemnable . they are damnable because they marr the work of grace , they marr the thriving of grace , the lively acts of grace ; even as davids adultery , ( so long as he lay under it ) did . reas : there is a third reason to prove this point and it is this ; stability of the heart in grace , and stability of the mind in truth , stand and fall together : so that upon the mind 's wavering in the matters of truth , the heart will begin to waver in the matter of grace also : prophanity followeth upon error , error received and imbraced oftentimes endeth in prophanity at the last : and therefore it should equally be watched against with prophanity it self . now to make what we have said appear viz. that error in the matter of truth , and prophanity against holiness of life , usually go along together : ye would first look to experience , experience makes this good , that error for the most part ends in a prophane godless life ; scripture experience clears it , so the apostle jude descrives these hereticks he speaks of to be vile livers : and later than scripture experience makes this good also , that error and prophanity , for the most part , follow hard upon the heels one of another : it 's true sathan ensnares people at the first to error , by a pretence of leading them to a more strick way than others : but the thing he is aiming at is still more loosness . ye need not seek a more clear proof than what ye see before your eyes : did ever ye see a more godless company of men than divers of those hereticks amongst us , who were first drawn on to error , by a pretence of walking after a more strict way of holiness than others ? they could not joyn in worship with the presbyterians ( many in their churches were so prophane as they pretended ) but would gather churches of their own , and would joyn with none but those that had evident signs of grace ; and so came of it . they would be stricter than god would have them , and therefore many of them have turn'd so abominably loose and so experience aboundantly clears that error and prophanity do follow hard one upon another ; but we shall clear it also from scripture : and our first proof is from those scriptures holding forth that error in the matter of doctrine hath usually its rise from some unmortifyed lust within which makes way for such an error so rom : , . . — i beseech yo● , brethren , mark them which cause divisions and offences , contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned ; and avoid them . now from whence come these divisions contrary to the right doctrine ? v. for they that are such serve not our lord jesus christ , but their own belly : and by good words and fair speaches deceive the hearts of the simple . unmortified corruptions within bloweth wind in their sails , so the root of korah dathan and abiram's error whereby they laboured to bear down magistracy and ministry was an unmortified root of pride within them ; they had a fair pretext for it , a pretext of liberty ; are not all the lords people holy ? and may they not rule as well as yee ? a fair pretext indeed ! but the root was pride : they could not endure to be ruled over , and so they will rule themselves : thus when jeroboam makes separation from the church of jerusalem he hath a fair pretext for this king. , — it is too much ( saith he ) for you to go up to jerusalem . there is the pretext ; but the root of the matter was a lust within , stirring him up to secure to himself the enjoyment of that which was not his own ; and this ambition breeds fear , that if they go up to jerusalem , to worship , his power would quickly turn to nothing . so ver . . if this people go up to do sacrifice in the house of the lord at jerusalem , then shall the heart of this people turn again unto to their lord , even unto rehoboam king of judah , and they shall kill me . there is the matter , a desire of reigning was the cause of his idolatry and schism , an unmortified lust within was the root and rise of his error . and secondly scripture holds out , that as error is the daughter of prophanity , so it is the mother of prophanity ; as it rises from prophanity , so it tends to more prophanity , christs words import this john . . then said jesus to those jews which believed on him ; if ye continue in my word then are ye my disciples indeed , if ye adhere and keep closs to the truth , then shall ye attain to walk as my disciples . and it imports on the other hand , that if ye drink in error , ye shall not be my disciples indeed . and so , as prophanity is the mother of error ; so it is also the daughter of error , this serves to clear the point . that a child of god should as much watch and guard against error , as he should do against other gross sins or prophanity of life . for use , this doctrine serves for reproof first to those who would have tolleration of all opinions in the matter of religion , and no coercive mean to curb error : and that because , say they , it may curb piety . which followes no more than that the suppressing of fornication will curb piety , the one is as dangerous as the other , and god's people may fall in the one as well as the other ; and therefore the one should be as well curbed as the other ▪ nay i may say that that which is called liberty of conscience is the most capital sin in a kingdom : it is all one as if a king would proclaim liberty , to drink , to swear , to whore , and to steal ; for both are alike evil , and where the one is , commonly the other is also : and therefore to proclaim liberty to the one is to proclaim liberty to the other . we think there is no heart zealous of gods glory , but should abhorre such a thought as this . vse . secondly , the doctrine reproves those who think opinions are free ; many reason thus , if ye lead an holy life it matters not what be your opinion , whether for presbytery , independency , arminianism , prelacy , or popery , your soul is in no hazard , if ye be kept from gross out breakings ; but this doctrine showes , this sort of reasoning to be a gross mistake : for , besides that error speaks an unmortified root in the heart . heresie and error in themselves are damnable , and are reckoned up among those sins which debar from the kingdom of heaven , galat. . verse . hereticks as well as murderers are excluded , and therefore folks would not jest and play with matters of religion , so as not to care what side they be on . thirdly , this doctrine gives another use , as ye would eschew prophanity of life ; so beware of errors against the truth : for the one of those , ends in the other . grant the error pretend to much of strictness , the upshot or issue of it is still to prophanity ; and therefore ye would advise well when tentations to error are presented , before ye drink in any thing contrary to truths received , if ye would not have it read in the looseness of your life afterward . many whose lives were very strict , when they began first to change their way , were in a short time led by their new light to a prophane godless life . vse . fourthly , seeing errors have their rise from some unmortified root within ; therefore as ye would be keeped free from error , subdue corruptions within . we are ready to think that godless men , will stand out best against error ; but it will prove otherwise ; unmortified lusts , of any other thing , will prove the greatest friends to error , such as a lust of pride to be eminent ; of covetousness , to get your arms full of the world run as it will , a lust of laziness in duties that will make you drink in that error that casts at all duties as needless : so , for an antidote against the works of the flesh , ( whereof heresie is one , galat. . verse . ) the crucifying of the lusts of the flesh is brought as one . doct. iii. we come to the words themselves , and and therein is to be considered , first , the stile , beloved , a warm and kindly compellation . the point we are to raise is , from comparing the stile with the matter which the apostle is about : he is to warn them to beware of error , and yet he gives them a loving stile , beloved believe , &c. and it gives us this doctrine , that as at all times , so chiefly when there is danger of spreading of error , there is most need that love should be entertained betwixt pastor and people . so we find paul labours to bear in himself on peoples affections , especially in galat. . ver . and . ye observe dayes and months , &c. i am afraid of you , lest i have bestowed on you labour in vain . there he reproves them for their error , and in the verse he bears in on their affection , brethren , i beseech you be as i am , for i am as ye are , ye have not injured me at all . and so in the corinth . . v. . through the whole epistle he hath been speaking against their error , and all along he bears in on their affection , especially in the place cited . and i will very gladly spend , and be spent for you , though the more abundantly i loved you , the less i be loved , &c. abundance of places shew his practice to have been this way . the reason is , first , because when people begin to differ , they are ready to cast at these who differ from them , chiefly , those who would curb them : for there is still a spirit of pride with error , it cannot endure to be contradicted , or , the least thing to be spoken to its own prejudice if not all the more warily , it will foam and rage , and if it cannot bear down the contrary truth , yet it will labour to bear down him that speaks it . so hereticks are called murmurers , complainers , jude verse . so a minister in reproving error . would guard against this danger , lest he do more hurt than profit , and all the issue of his pains be to work a prejudice against himself . and secondly , this argument will be the more strong , considering the evil that comes by prejudice . there is nothing that makes people run faster headlong into error , than prejudice against faithful pastors . therefore this hath been the devil's method , first , to bear down the ministry , by making the people first cast at one , then at another , and so at all ; that their ears being once stoped with prejudice at what ministers say , their ear may be boared to let in any error that the devil or his instruments pleaseth to vent : therefore a minister would make it his study so to behave himself , that there be no ground of prejudice given by him , but that all his carriage may savour of a resolution to entertain love. now because our fear is that error may spread , and that ( if the lord give us leave ) we intend from this verse to speak to the most infecting errors : we shall solve this question , what a minister is to do for entertaining love : for clearing of this , we shall first shew what he is not to do , he is not to be silent at error , for fear of irritating and losing affection ; that were not love , considering what is said of the nature of error : it is all one as if we would not reprove a loose liver for fear of angring him . secondly , neither is he to speak against them in a cold-rife manner , as if it were a thing indifferent , whether they return to a right judgement or not : no , he must ( as he would be faithful to god ) aggravate the evil of error to the utmost , declare its hazard , denounce what scripture pronounceth against it , whether it anger them or not ; better anger and loose them , than anger god. what then must he do ? answer , as in other sins he must first reprove them , levit. . ver . . and secondly so reprove , as it may argue love to the person reproved , jude ver . . only there would be this difference betwixt reproving of error and other sins , other sins may be inveighed against without pains to convince the person reproved that such are sins , nature is born with a cry against such ; but error hath an erring conscience to stand up in its behalf ; therefore the most of a ministers work would be in convincing from the word , that the thing he holdeth is error : otherwise , to inveigh against what he holdeth , without this , will harden him more , he will look on it as the man's passion , and that he hath nothing to say from scripture or reason against what he holdeth . . in dealing with erring persons , there would be a difference put betwixt seducers , and those who are seduced : those who are rooted in error , and those who are only doubters , so jude verse . for use , ye may see from this what a great task ministers have , and how great need of help there is from people to ministers in erring times . in some respect it is harder to deal with one man tainted with error , than with twice so many prophane livers : a prophane mans conscience must readily say the same that we say , and so , keep us at reverence : but an erring mans conscience speaks against us , takes us to err , and so readily cannot endure us , and yet we must speak , venturing in gods strength : but there is need so to speak , least in speaking we loose more then we gain . the next thing that followes is , the exhortation , believe not every spirit : that is , do not credit every doctrine that hath a fair pretence , or every preacher that pretends the name of the spirit : from this we learn , that the spirit of error began very early to trouble the church , in the primitive times when the apostles were yet living , there were even then some who contradicted them to their very face ; so the averrers of circumcision , justification by workes , denyers of the resurrection . &c. reas : . the reason is first , because the spirit of error is shameless , it will affront the most convincing evidences ; for it is natures brood , and credit is so engaged in it , that it trampleth upon all that would bear it under , if an apostle were speaking a sectarian spirit would out-dare him : it is an affronted and malapert spirit . secondly , the lord saw it fitting , that in the latter ages of the church his people should be tryed by erring spirits , and therefore , he would have the primitive times troubled with them also , that we might be the less troubled ; seeing that even the apostles themselves were not fre'd from such like perplexity , as to have to doe with spirits of error . but there is an other reason why the lord suffers his church , both in former times , and in latter times , to be troubled with the spirit of error , set down in the corinth : . verse . for there must be also heresies amongst you , that they which are approved , may be made manifest among you . there must be heresies , there is a must be put upon it : now this is not an absolute necessity , but a necessity or a must be upon the supposition of gods most wise decree , to permit wise decree , to permit and suffer those things for most wise ends ; and the end for which he permitts them to be , is first , for the tryal of persons , and secondly , for the tryal of truth . first , for the tryal of persons , this end is set down in the verse cited heresies and hereticks must be , that they which are aproved may be made manifest among you . the spirit of heresie let loose , hath a discovering efficacy with it , it discovers who are of a humble frame of spirit , and who are proud , lofty , conceity , and of a selfish spirit : it discovers who are light , weak , and easily carried away with any thing , unstable minds , as the apostle speaks ; and who are more solid , and ballanced with the spirit of sobriety , and solid wisdom , that is from above . it discovers these who have put a price on truth , that they will buy it , but will on no termes sell it , and also discovers those who have put no price upon it , or that will suffer little for it . that is the first end why hereticks must be , to discover persons and try them . and secondly , hereticks , in the lords wise providence , tend to the tryal of truths , and the making of them brighter and clearer , they scoure truths , ( so to speak ) so that the disputs of hereticks , and venting of error , make truth the brighter . the more debating there is betwixt these two , error grows the blacker , and truth the clearer . when the lord hath a mind to have a truth cleared and rooted in his peoples spirits , he does in his infinite wisdom take this way , a strange way indeed and yet making much for the purpose : he will let some error arise to oppose the truth , through occasion whereof more light breaks out to the clearing of the truth . these are reasons why hereticks must be . vse . the use is , seeing the spirit of error began so early to trouble the church in the apostles time , that were guided with an infallible spirit , then ye are not to wonder that error should trouble the church now when there are not such infallible lights as these : the spirit of error is a bold darring spirit it will dare to contradict god himself , and find out some shift , to cast at that which god himself sayeth : as may be seen gen : . the lord said the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt die : and sathan contradicts it , thou shalt not surely die . and so no wonder there be such impudence seen in the spirit of error now , as to cast at any thing which gods servants say , seeing satan still acts the instruments of error . vse . but secondly , from this doctrine learn not to quarrell with gods most holy and wise providence , in that he suffers so many errors to be . we are ready to think that if god had that care of his church , covenant and cause , as men would think he had , he would not suffer such effronted spirits , and such blasphemous hereticks to prevail , and to outdare his truth : but that is to quarrel the lords providence and without a ground : he whose furnace is in zion can make all the tryals of the time that arise from error to contribute much for the clearing of truth ; by this means he will rouse up his people to study truth , to understand it better , to search out grounds for it , and that is one advantage ; only ye would know also , that these times will be discovering times , they will discover many a corrupt heart , many unstable hearts and light heads , many proud spirits , and many that have lusts lurking within them : so that many will choose that religion that will gratify their lusts most ; for , there is not an error that sathan hatches , but there is one lust or other within people that speaks for it ; and there is nothing more ready to make people take in error , than their harbouring of unmortified lusts. so in . timoth : cap : . the apostle speaking of those who should be caried away with false teachers says in the . v. for of this sort are they which creep into houses , and lead captive silly women laden with sins led away with diverse lusts : unmortified lusts are as fuel to make the fire of zeal for error to burn very hot in peoples bosom , and so error will try people this way . doct : v. next observe he sayes believe not every spirit , that is , believe not every doctrine that hath the name of the spirit , and fair pretences put upon it , as if they were the doctrines of the spirit of god , believe them not . from this we learn. that the foulest errors go out oftentimes under fairest names , and are backed with most specious pretences , what fouler errors than these spoken of here , the denying of the son of god : and yet what fairer names than the spirit ? what fairer pretences than that they are doctrines taught by the spirit of god ? we will find this of all errors spoken of in scripture , for the most part , cora● , dathan , and abiram's error whereby they rose up against the magistracy of moses , and preist-hood of aaron , hath a fair pretence for it . ye take too much upon you moses and aaron , are not all the lords people holy. and jeroboams error , his idolatry in setting up the calf at dan and bethel , hath a fair pretence kings . it is too fair for you &c. the peoples ease , and the publick good is the thing he pretends though his design was far otherwise : and so these that urged justification by works , and opposed the way of free grace , and being justified by faith , they had their fair pretences : o! say they , to cast off workes from justification , will make people secure wee may sin that grace may abound ; very taking pretences all of them , and as taking as any that error is now covered over with . the reason of the doctrine is from the cause for which the tempter presents error under fair colours , and specious pretences , which is this ; that he may make the error the more taking : for these are the baits he puts on the hook that he may deceive and catch the simple . therefore for use of this doctrine , ye would not be deceived with fair pretences , or ravishinglike expressions , that error may be fairded over with : see what the apostle paul sayes to this purpose thess : cap. , v. . where speaking against an error , he beseeches them by the coming of the lord jesus christ , that they be not soon shaken in mind , or troubled , neither by spirit , nor by word , nor by letter as from us , as that the day of christ is at hand . it supposes that the spreaders of that error had all these three pretences . first● they pretended the spirit , that it was a doctrine taught them by the spirit of god , accompanied by his presence in their spirits with more than ordinary flashes , and raptures , and in-bearings of the spirit of light. and secondly , that they had the word or scripture to alledge for it . and thirdly , they picked somewhat out of pauls letters for them , so would they say : in speaking against us he contradicts himself : these are fair pretences ; and yet , sayes paul , be not shaken in mind with them . so , say i , ye would guard your self against the fair pretences which error may have , and look not only to the out side , but to the inside of them , and then ye will find most bitter serpents lurking under fairest flowers . as for example , the mother of all error tolleration hath a fair pretence for it , viz. that good men may err , and so in suppressing error ye may suppress piety : a fair pretence , but it hath afoul end . for by this meanes blasphemers , denyers of god and jesus christ , must have liberty to vent their damnable errors , if so be that they can but pretend conscience , and so stable roome must be given in christs church , to every unclean beast that ever was hatched in hell. the antinomian errors again have a fair pretence , o say they , christ hath become sin for us , and therefore it is taken off from us , so we are not bound to repent for it , for to say that we are to repent were to take the burthen off from christs back , and to put it on our own : these are specious words without solidity , but they contradict scripture truths where they are narrowly looked to : peter was a justified person , and yet when christ looked on him he weeped bitterly : davids sin was pardoned , and christ had taken the burthen of it , and yet david was to repent of it , and to be corrected for it , and so the lord tells him that the sword should not depart from his house because he had made the enemies of the lord to blasphem ; and yet sin was not laid upon david to satisfy divine justice for it : only he must get on the fingers to make him more warry , and to scar all justified persons in time coming from doing the like . we might so run through all the errors of the time , as that of independency , whereby power is denyed to presbytries , o , say they , to put power in presbytries and make them receive appeals from congregations , it is to tyrannize over particular flocks ; and therefore say they , nothing is better than that every congregation have compleat power within themselves , and be left to their own guiding , not being countable to any judicatory above them , but only to christ : this seems a specious bait for such as would have liberty , but when it is duly pondered , it will be found most contrary to truth : for by this means , if a particular flock should err , and if one should suf●er wrong at the hands of a particular session , there is no remedy to repair the oppressed man , and to bring the erring congregation to a right mind : and how far this is derogatory to jes●s christ who was perfect in all his house , any man may judge : we might run through more of them , but because we have a mind to refute these errors by themselves , we shall insist no further here , having said enough to clear the point , that the most dangerous errors may be born in under the fairest pretences ; and therefore ye would not take all to be gold that glisters , take not all for truth that is decked up with a bundle of brave , high , ravishing expressions . doct. we proceed , believe not every spirit , sayes he ; he speaks not this in vain . it supposes he saw an inclination in them to believe : the point of doctrine that ariseth from it is , that when foul error is holden out under fair names , and backed with fair pretences , there is a danger lest people drink them in and believe them ; for john saw that hazard , and therefore gives them a watch-word : so in the of the rom. ver . . for they that are such serve not our lord jesus christ , but their own belly , and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple : their baits hook'd the simple , before they were aware . we need no further proof of this , than the example of our neighbour church in england ; errors which could not have been named , but people would have loathed at them : such as the arminian error against free grace ; &c. yet being decked with the name of new light they are greedily drunk in by too too many , wee shall give some reasons to make you sensible of this hazard : how great danger there is , when error is in spreading , that people be taken off their feet with it : we shall point at four or five things that speaks this hazard : and the first is , the proneness of our nature to drink in untruths : we see this in eva , for error is natures brood : and , as we said , error is the copy of some lust , and therefore it soon infects : truth again , it hath nothing in us , no party for it in our hearts , and therefore it is harder to make us take with it ; there must be word upon word , and precept upon precept ; we drink in truth slowly and after much pains taken upon us , we are hut to begin to learn it ; but the spirit of a man is quick to take up error : ye will find men more able in a short time to debate for error , than in a long time to debate for truth , i would seek no greater presumption that such a tenent is an error than this , that as soon as it is set on fire , it runs through great numbers , and sets their spirits on edge for it , we are not so hot for truth , it is not our nature to be so taken with it . reason . then there is a second thing that speaks this hazard , and it is , the shallowness of peoples apprehension , together with their foolish hast before they try ; from the shallowness of many it is , that they cannot put a difference betwixt a fair pretence , and a foul error that is hid under it , and from the hast of peoples spirit it is that they ingage suddainly with any thing having the colour of truth ; and being once ingaged they are still the more and more involved : these two laid together are another thing to point out this hazard . reason . we may add a third , and this is desire of novelty in people spoken of in timoth : chap : , v. — after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers , having itching ears . and they shall turn away , &c. where by the way observe , that lust within is the cause of drinking in error from without : but the thing we mark , is , that they have an itching ear lusting after new things , and this comes from their little practising of old truths . reas : there is a fourth reason , and it is the diversity of baits and pretences that is put upon several errors , according to peoples several humors : so subtile is sathan that he puts a bait on for every appetit ; there are some that are piously strict and are enclined so to be , both towards themselves and others , and he hath a bait to catch those , to wit , a pretence of strickness which the error of separation is covered with , for this error alloweth church fellowship with none but these that have a real evidence of grace in them : it is a way think they to shame natural men. again there be some whose humor is for looseness , he puts on a bait to gratify this humor also , let them believe in christ and let them live as they like , sayes the antinomian , and so according to peoples several humors , there is a bait put on by the devil upon error : now when these baits and peoples humors agree , it is like powder and fire , presently they kindle . reas. there is a fifth thing which speaks this hazard , and it is this ; the lord , that error may be a tryal , in his holy justice lets out more than ordinary parts and abilities , on spreaders of error , and on the spirits of people when they are taken with it : the lord for a judgement to themselves , and for a tryal unto others , gives them as we speak , a cast of their craft , he elevates them above their ordinary sphere , or what is their ordinary way : and this we speak not without scripture , it is said of false antichristian teachers they shall come with l●ing signs and wonders ; and there is a spirit of error which he foretells shall accompany error , be not soon shaken in mind neither by spirit nor by word , &c. in that place that we already cited thess : , . when we look on all these things we hope we have made out the point : viz. that foulest errors even when they are colloured with fairest pretences , there is a danger , lest people drink them in . the use of the point is , if there be this hazard then ye would be afraid of your selves , it is said , the righteous fear alwayes . i would seek no clearer mark of any person that is like to be taken in the snare , than that they think themselves so stout and stedfast that no error will gain upon them : and i would think it an evidence very good , when people are afraid of themselves , and do humble themselves , in the sense of their own weakness , and are employing christ daily to bear them through , for blessed is he that feareth alwayes . only remember that this fear would be of the right stamp : and for clearing this , we shall point at three or four things , wherein this holy fear does consist , specially with reference to error . first where ●his fear is , there will be a labouring to root truth in the heart : ye know , when people are affraid of losing any thing , that they will labour by all meanes to be sure of it : a man that hath this holy fear over himself , lest he be ensnared with error will study to gett truth rooted in the heart . prov : . . the spirit of god speaketh of hiding of understanding , putting it in the secret place of the heart . a second thing accompanying this fear , is a forecasting what truth may cost you ; there would be a fore-casting of this , and a taking an essay of the cross before hand , and this for fear lest that to eschew suffering ye quite the truth , if the tryall come on you unexpectedly ; paul while he is exhorting the disciples to stedfastness , informs them that through much tribulation we must enter into the kingdome of heaven , acts . . then there is a third thing accompanying this holy fear , and that is , a fear to venture on temptations to error , except there be a providence putting to it , of necessity ; and this fear rises from the sense of our own weakness to engage with , or stand the shock against temptations , this is implyed in that direction which the apostle paul gives timoth : , . at the end of the verse — from such turn away v , . for of this sort are they which creep into houses — : when a man is sensible of his own weakness , the fear of his being ensnared will keep him from walking among snares . a fourth thing accompanying this holy fear is , that tho ye find these truths ye have had once sealed to your spirits begin to be questioned , and that ye are not able to answer what is brought against them , and so perchance your judgment may incline to think , that what ye thought once to be truth is now error ; yet where this holy fear is , ye will rather suspect your own want of knowledge to discern , than any way suspect the truth to be untruth ; and it will make you at least abstain from venturing even on that which your light points out for the time . now by these ye may know what is the fearlessness that makes people to be in danger , and it is this , when it makes thee so inconcerned that thou never labours to get truth brought lower than thy head : when thou never casts an account what truth may stand thee ; when thou art so confident of thy own wit and knowledge , that thou will venture uncalled to dispute with sectarian spirits ; or when any thing is born in as truth contrary to what thou hast maintained , as a truth before , and contrary to thy covenant engagment , thou grippes presently to it without once suspecting that thy own shallow understanding may be deceived . this , i say● speaks a fearlesness that borders neigh unto error , doct : vii . the doctrine that followeth next from these words believe not every spirit , is , that ministers the servants of god are not to clap peoples heads , or indulge them in this inclination of theirs to error , they are not to humor them in it ; but on all hazards they are to testify against it : therefore , sayes john , believe not every spirit , so also the apostle paul does very sharply inveigh against people , when they are beginning to tamper with error : and lest people should say paul and john were apostles , and knew what was error and what was truth , being guided by an infallible spirit , and that therefore they might stoutly testify against error ; but for other ordinary ministers , they may err as well as other people , and so it is ill reasoned from what the apostles did to what ministers may now do : therefore to clear this we shall give a place where paul bindes it as duty on every ordinary minister to to testify against error . in the acts ch : . v. . therefore take heed unto your selves , and to all the flock , over the which the holy ghost , hath made you overseers , &c. and in the . verse he gives an instance wherein they were to take heed to the flock , for i know this , that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you , not sparing the flock . verse . also of your own selves shall men arise , &c. so it is a duty lying on all ordinary preachers , to watch over their people , lest they be seduced with error , and that because first of that which we spoke of before , that error in the point of truth should be as much eschewed by people as other particular sins ; and therefore ministers are bound to guard people against it . and secondly , truth is a precious jewel and therefore in a special manner , they ought to contend for it . and thirdly the souls of people ought to be pretious to ministers , and therefore ministers ought to watch over them , they ought to guard them against error ; because , as other sins , so error is a damnable soul-destroying sin . and therefore as ministers love truth and souls committed to them , so they must watch over the people , and guard them against error . vse i. this show's the great task lying upon ministers at every time , but chiefly in an erring time : we spoke somewhat of this before how difficult it is for a man to meddle with reproving of error , more difficile than to reprove prophanity ; because a prophane man's conscience is convinced of the evil of his way ; and therefore however he may be displeased with free preaching against his sin , yet his conscience clears the minister ; and thus he keeps him , at least , at some reverence : but it is not so in a soul taken with error , the misinformed conscience speaks for it , and ther●fore whatever is spoken against him , he casts at it as error and untruth ; and readily the man that speaketh it may lose respect for his pains , and yet we see the word of god binds it on ministers to speak against it . vse . but secondly , if it be so that ministers be bound to reprove error and testify against it ; then the people are bound to take the word of reproof from them : we mean not that they should be so bound as what ministers say should be the bible , but this much we say , that people should presume as much on them as another , to ask councel from them as much as from another ; and to respect them as much as any other : and that for these reasons , first , because the publick minister hath a promise which private men have not , at least not such an ample grant , as it is matth : . . goe ye therefore and teach all nations , &c — and lo , i am with you alway ▪ even unto the end of the world. it doth not exeem them indeed from erring themselves ; but the promise , is there more largly given to them than to others . and secondly ministers as called watch men have the charge of peoples souls : god hath charged them with them , which he hath not charged others with : there is not a charge of peoples souls , laid on private men by way of office ; every one is bound indeed by way of charity , to take a care of the souls of others , contrair to that of cain , am i my brothers keeper . but beside this tye of charity lying on sent ministers , there is a tye by vertue of a particular charge ; so that place act : . take heed to the flock over which the holy ghost , hath made you overseers . he hath given them a special charge , and so they are charged in a special way with peoples souls . then there is a third reason , it is sathan's method to bring in error on people by casting in prejudices betwixt them and sent ministers , which we have cleared sometimes from scripture , and so it should be watched against , lest sathans subtility prevail so far as to bring people to dis-respect their ministers , for if that be once gained he hath prevailed very much . doct : viii . now further , he sayes , believe no● every spirit . but bring them to the tryal . doe not cast at all but try the spirits , hence take this doctrine : it is not gods way , that people because , there are differences about religion , should therefore believe no religion , that is not gods way . so matth : . we see the apostles practise , christ sayes unto them , whom say they that i am ? say they , some say tha● thou art john the baptist , some elias , others jeremiah , or one of the prophets . but whom say ye that i am ? they do not answer , we know not what to say , there are so many different sayings about thee , but say they , thou art christ the son of the living god. reas : so people are not to cast at all religion because there are differences about it ; and that because , first , that were to give way to the devils plot ; his design in raising up error about religion is , to make people atheists , so as not to care for any religion ; and so when the use which thou makest of different opinions , is that thou wilt believe none , thou fulfillest the devils design . secondly , thou makes use of gods providence to thy destruction . the lords providence in raising up error is , to make men seek more after the knowledge of the truth : and when thou makest that use of it , to cast at all religion , thou mockest the holy counsel of god to thy own ruin . the use then of the doctrine is , to reprove those of this stamp ; to wit , prophane atheistical men that make no differences about religion but this : let church-men once agree among themselves what 's right , and what 's wrong ; untill then , the back of our hand to altogether ; that is a wofull way . indeed there may be a doubt proposed here viz. what else shall poor ignorant people do about differences in religion , but to lay aside the care of all , when they see every party have their own reasons stronger than these poor people can answer ; i answer , there are some directions grounded on scripture , which if we walk by , may bring us to a safe shore , amidst these rocks of contrary opinions ; and the first is this , that for differences that concern not peoples practice , i would not have people trouble themselves much with them ; as for example , our late unhappy differences about the publick resolutions ; the lord hath taken the occasion of them away ; so i would not have any troubling themselves much about them : whatever differences in matters of practice fall in , it seems to be a safe rule , that when the occasion of such practices are removed , all contention about them should be laid aside . secondly , as to the differences wherein peoples practice is concerned , take these rules : first , for these that are uncontraverted truths make conscience of the practice of them , which will help to the knowledge of other things ; this rule christ prescrives , john . . sayes he , if any man do his will , he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of god , &c. there is something that thy conscience is clear of to be duty , and although the differences of opinion might be some excuse to make thee keep off from these things about which there is difference , yet how art thou excused for neglect of these things which thou art convinced to be duty , as prayer , reading the word , &c. secondly , we would know , whatever be the contrary opinions about matters of religion , yet there is but one true way ; and the knowledge of this one way may be attained to , by those who seek humbly after it : at least , if thou be judging thy self , and as a damned bankrupt or d●vour by nature , be closing with christ , and drawing grace from him to make thee holy ▪ thou wilt attain to the knowledge of as much of these things debated , as will take thee home to heaven . a third direction is , that ye should beware of calling in question any of these truths that once have been sealed into your spirits by the spirit from the word of god , john ver . look to your selves that we lose not those things which we have wrought , the point of truth that people have got thus sealed to their conscience , should not readily be called in question . a fourth direction is this , that in seeking out truth under differences , we should beware of loftyness of spirit , cor. . it is said the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets , how much more ought the spirits of private persons to be subject to the voice of christs ambassadors speaking in his courts . this is not as if we would make ministers sayings the peoples rule to walk by : but this much will follow that in a constitute church where discipline is exercised , there should be that humility in people , that wh●n doubts arise concerning any point of received truth within the church , they should offer their judgement , and the reason of it to the prophets and christs courts to be tryed , before they lay down any new opinion as a solid truth : that much is contained under this , the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets , if it mean any thing at all . doct : ix . now we proceed . the next thing that we come to , is , what people should do , try the spirits , and the rule of tryal is , whether they are of god. the first point we learn is , that how fair soever the pretence be , that our doctrine is colloured with , it should not be taken upon trust : but the spirits must be tryed . such we see was the practice of the b●reans , and they are commended for it , they would not take the apostles doctrine on trust . act : . . these were more noble than those in thessalonica , in that they received the word with all readiness of mind and searched the scriptures dayly whither those things were so . they would not take the apostles doctrine on trust : and this is a command given by paul writing to the thess : epistle ch : . v. . prove all things after he had said , despise not prophecyings , so that doctrines should be brought to a tryal , whatever be their fair pretences . reas : the reasons are first : because foulest errors may be coloured over with fairest pretences . and secondly the scripture sayes , all men are lyars ; that is to say , all men may err , and therefore words cannot be the ground of divine faith ; for faith must have an infallible ground as ephes : . . and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets , &c. i. e. the word preached by them , and dictated by the spirit of god. vse . this doctrine reproves first , the papists that will have nothing tryed , that comes from the church ; but all taken upon trust , hence is it that many swallow such monsters of absurdities , as the errors of transubstantiation , purgatory , merite , mals , and such like , for which they have no other ground , but because their church sayes so ; but this doctrine holdeth out another duty that who ever heareth any doctrine proponed by one or other , they are bound to pass their judgment on it , try the spirits . now that we may walk betwixt extreams , the papists on the one hand , who set up tyranny , and these sectaries on the other hand , who set up confusion ; we would know there is a twofold judgement to be passed on doctrine : publick judgement , and private judgement : publick judgement again , is either , peremptorily absolute , or limited . a publick peremptory judgement is , that which binds the conscience to obey simply that which is spoken , and none have this judgement , but god himself . secondly , there is a publick judgement which is limited , and this is a publick declaring and holding out that which is found to be god's mind in his word , which does not bind absolutely , but in so far as it agrees with the word ; and this judgement belongs to publick church judicatories met together in christs name : they are like the lyon-herauld set forth to proclaim the royal acts , if he proclaim that which is contained in the principal acts , it binds ; but if he add any thing of his own , it binds not . next , there is a private judgement of discretion , and this belongs to every christian : every man in relation to his own practice , is bound to pass sentence on what is held out to him by others , that if it be right , he may embrace it , but if wrong , he may reject it ; but his private judgement is not binding to others . now this private judgement , or this judgement of discretion is necessary , because all men may err ; councils may err , synods , &c. and secondly , their error will not excuse private christians to follow them in their error : sayes christ , when the blind leads the blind both falls into the ditch . and therefore there must be a judgement of discretion in private persons to try what they hear . and this much for guarding against the popish tyranny ; but least this doctrine be abused to cast at all publick church judicatories , we shall next speak somewhat to guard against sectarian confusion : first , although publick church judicatories have not power to bind consciences ; yet when men are in a doubt concerning a point of truth , their judgement ought to have more weight than the judgement of private men : and that not only because there are more gifts exercised together , but mainly because there is a promise annexed to the commission given by christ to publick church judicatories , matth. . . where two or three are gathered together in my name , there am i in the midst of them . and secondly , from this it followes , that there would be a kind of loathness to differ from publick church judicatories ; a man's grounds would be well examined , l●st if differing from these judicatories , they also differ from truth . and thirdly , when they differ they are to bear them at reverence , although in such a point they should err , yet for their authority , they are to be reverenced : this much is granted by us to church judicatories , but no further , they are not to be made the rule of our faith. vse . it reproves those who are lazie , and cannot endure the trouble of trying what they hear , but take things on trust , and have no more but such a mans authority , he is of that way and opinion , and therefore they are fire and flint , tooth and nail for it , as much as if they had the word of god for it : we have seen much of this in the unhappy differences that have fallen out in our time , which i have no pleasure to speak much of , and therefore we proceed to another doctrine . doct. x. the next thing then that we observe is from what he sayes , try , &c. whether they be of god ; that is the tryal : the doctrine is this , that the right tryal of doctrine is , to try whether they be of god or not , and this point puts us to give marks whereby it shall be known what doctrine is of god , and what doctrine is not of god ; and here we shall speak to two things . first , we shall show what are the marks that necessarly infer a doctrine to be of god. and secondly we shall speak of other things that do not infer necessarly a doctrine to be of god , but for the most part follow upon such a doctrine . for the first , that which makes doctrine necessarily to be of god , is , if it be according to the rule of the word . so when the bereans are commended acts . the rule they went by in the tryal of paul's doctrine , is the scripture : and this is isa●a's rule , chap. . ver . . to the law and to the testimony , &c. he would have all doctrines tryed by the word of god : so the word is the rule , and that doctrine which has the word for it , is of god ; and whatever doctrine has not the word for it , is not of god : all spirits , even the spirit of god himself , must be tryed that way : and that because the word is a perfect rule : i give only two places of scripture to clear the perfection of this rule . first , the heavy plagues pronounced against those who add to this rule : the word is so perfect , that if an angel should come and pretend a purer rule , let him be ( sayes paul ) anathema , gal. . . there is another place which proves the perfection of this rule according to this point in hand , timoth. . , . all scripture is given by inspiration of god , and is profitable for doctrine , for reproof , for correction , for instruction in righteousness . that the man of god may be perfect , &c. so there is as much in the word of god , as may make the man of god perfect : and this in relation to doctrine and instruction , it is profitable for doctrine and instruction , it will make a man perfect in that , as well as in reproof . vse , this reproves , first the papists , they cast by the rule of the word , and will have their traditions , and their po●es decrees to be the rule . but of this enough already in the preceeding doctrine . in the second place , it reproves the sectaries , some whereof reprove the word , they will have a higher tryal and rule to examine by ; and it is the inbearing of gods spirit , say they , he is the spirit of truth , and can he bear in a lye : but , say we , how know they the spirit of the devil by the spirit of god , except they bring it to the word . so the word is the rule , yea and the last rule . but here is a doubt which we shall speak to . this is a very hard task , may some say , for poor ignorant people to try doctrines by the word ; the word it self is obscure , and every one pretends the word , all parties will say that they have the word , and so it is hard for us to know what is of god , and what not , if we have no other rule but the word : i answer it is very true , there are very few sectaries who will not pretend the word : and yet it does not follow that ye may cast by the word . but secondly , we say , although the word be in some places obscure , and although men of opinions as contrary to the word as light is to darkness , may every one of them wrest the word , yet there is as much of the word clear , if it be rightly studied , as will make a man know what is right , and what is wrong . hence that epithet given to the word , the word of the lora is a lamp to direct thy paths . the word of the lord is not unfitly compared to a sea , wherein elephants , i. e. men of greatest parts and learning may swime , and readily lose their fect , how great soever their parts be , if they rely upon them . and yet it may be compared to a shallow calm running stream , wherein lambs , that is , men of mean gifts , may wade , and find out gods mind in it , if they be humble and take gods way for searching of it . but say ye , what is that way of god wherein people may hope , so as not to miscarry in the searching out of gods mind in his word . in answer to this , we shall give several directions . first , a man that would not mistake gods mind in his word , should be a diligent reader of it , acts . . — and searched the scriptures daily , &c. it was their daily task . and secondly , reading of the word should have prayer going alongs with it , prov : . . yea if thou cryest after knowledge , and liftest up thy voice for understanding , ver . . if thou seekest her as silver , and searchest for her as for hid treasures : then , &c. this crying and seeking is certainly in prayer , as well as in other means . when people joyn prayer with the reading of the word , they will more readily attain to the knowledge of gods mind , than a man that takes no more with him but his own natural parts . thirdly , the word should be read with meditation , psal : . . — in his law doth he meditate day and night . and fourthly , with self-denial . prov. . . trust in the lord with all thine heart , and lean not to thine own understanding . we should go to the word with a deep sense on us of our own ignorance to seek light from it . there are several other directions how people may be led to get the meaning of the word ; we shall speak of some . first , obscure places being compared with these that are more clear , will be clear also : there are some places obscure , but the lord hath been so graciously condescending in contriving the scriptures that there are other places to make them clear : so there is an obscure place : we are not under the law but under grace which at first seems to sound as if people needed not to take heed to the law ; but there is another place , that clearly shows how we are not under the law there is no condemnation to them that are in christ. they are freed from the condemning power of the law , but not from the directions of it . secondly , in obscure and dark places of scripture on which men according to their several conceptions , would father several senses , the meaning that agrees most with the ●nalogy of faith should be taken : this is that which paul calls the forme of wholsom words . so there is a place controverted he laid on him the iniquit● of us all , says the antinomians all our sins were laid on christ , and so do what we will , we are not bound to seek pardon or mourn for t●em ; for our sins are laid on him , and so we have none : now this gloss is contrary to the whole current of scripture , which holds out that believers have sin in them , a body of death . john , . if we say we have no sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us . it holdeth out believers at their best condition as mourning for sin , and praying for the pardon of sin rom. . psalm . . so that this antinomian sense cannot be right , because it is contrar to the whole current of scripture ; and therefore the laying of our iniquities on him , must be the guilt and punishment of our iniquity , and not the being of sin it self , which was bound upon christ : so another place the promoters of tolleration pleads from , is that in phil. , . that counsel that paul gives let us therefore , as many as be perfect , be thus minded , and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded god shall reveal even this unto you : say they , there is tolleration whatever be peoples differences , let them walk according to their light ; we say again , that what paul sayes of mutual forbearance must not be extended to all errors ; but it must only be applyed to these that were errors of infirmitie ; as rom : . . we then that are strong , ought to bear the infirmities of the weak , and not to please our selves . and that the opposite meaning cannot be right , because it is contrair to the current of many other scriptures , which command hereticks to be excommunicat . an heretick after the first and second admonition reject . and not so much as bid them god speed : so this is another way to know the meaning of the scripture . and this much now for directions to help you in the study of gods word , that you may attain to know gods mind in it ; and so to know whether a doctrine be of god or not . we thought to have spoken of these other marks which do not infer necessarly a doctrine to be of god , but for the most part do follow on such a doctrine ; but the time being now ended , i shall only name them : first , that doctrine which is of god will have holiness following upon it : and so that doctrine of the antinomians that tends to prophanity of life cannot be of god. secondly , that doctrine that is of god tends to exalt christ. john . . speaking of the spirit of truth , he sayeth , — he shall take of mine and shall shew it unto you . and so that doctrine of the papists , i mean their doctrine of merit , is not of god. thirdly , that doctrine which is of god humbles men , as error doth fill men with pride : thus those sectaries that are spoken of in jude are called lofty ; and so the doctrine of separation is not of god , because whatever be the pretence of strickness that it caries along with it , there is an over-weaning conceit of the man's self and undervaluing of others , that cleaves to this error and secondly , it maketh people orderly in standing for it : so is it said of christ his voice is not heard in the streets . now these marks as we have said do but usually follow , for because of the corruptions of men even the doctrines that are of god may want these properties , and the doctrines that are not of god may have a shew of them ; and therefore the first mark to wit , the word , is the adequate rule , so that all doctrines ought to be brought to it . whatever be the shew any doctrine hath , whether of holiness , exalting christ and free grace , whatever shew it have of humility and orderly carriage , in those who profess it in their avowing of it : yet if it be not according to this rule , ( viz. the word of god ) it is not of god. doct : xi . we come now to our main design , to wit the refutation of some of the most dangerous errors of the times . the ground of what we are to speak to this purpose is taken from the following doctrine , which is evidently imported in the words ; to wit , that there are many doctrines pretending to the spirit , which yet being brought to the touchstone will be found not to be of god. for while he bids us try the spirits whither they be of god , he evidently insinuates that there are some spirits which being brought to the tryal will be sound faulty , and not to be of god. i shall , god willing , give instances of this , and accordingly make it out upon the most taking , dangerous , and most erronious doctrines of the times , particularly upon those following : first , the doctrine of tolleration . secondly , the doctrine of erastianism . thirdly the doctrine of independency . fourthly , the doctrine of separation . fifthly , the doctrine of the ordinary preaching by unsent men . sixthly , the doctrine of antinomianism . and lastly the doctrine of anabaptism : in all which we shall with the lords assistance make it appear here , that however they pretend to be doctrines warranted by the spirit of god in his word , yet they are not so warranted , in a word we shall show they are not of god. sect : ii. a brief refutation of the error of tolleration . we shall begin with the error of tolleration ; of all opinions in the matter of religion , a doctrine that is much cryed up among sectaries , and a doctrine that is very taking ; what ( thinks people ) if they get leave to serve god according to their own conscience , they need not trouble themselves what others do . our purpose is to show that this doctrine , though it pretend to the spirit , is not of god : and for this end we have read these places of scripture whereupon we are to ground the most of what is to be said against this error . * i begin to refute this error of tolleration first , because it is the sectaries main refuge , it is their holy of holys wherein they shelter themselves in their grossest errors : what , say they , it is our conscience and who dare meddle with conscience but the god of conscience . secondly , we think it needfull to begin with it ; first , because of all other errors it is the most dangerous and damnable , in so far as other errors do only evert these particular truths of scripture to which they are contrary ; but by this one error ( this monster of tolleration ) way is made to evert all the truths contained in scripture , and to the setting up all errors contrary to every jote of truth : and in the mean time there shall be no power on earth to hinder it , or take order with it , in prosecuting of this , we shall follow this method first , we shall clear the state of the question secondly , we shall bring our arguments for confirming the truth , and vindicate them from the adversaries exceptions . thirdly , we shall bring forth their arguments , and shall refute them from scripture and reason . and fourthly , we shall apply the whole to some practical use . first , for the state of the question , what a thing this tolleration is that we labour to refute : there is a two-fold tolleration of error : there is a church tolleration and a state tolleration . a church tolleration is , that whereby it is pleaded that error and heresy should have liberty to be vented and go free even from church censure ; such as suspension from the sacraments or excommunication . there are but few sectaries of any note that plead for tolleration in this latitude , and that because the scripture is so plain against it . paul sayes , an heretick after the first and second admonition reject . therefore they are content that church-censures such as excommunication be inflicted on hereticks , providing , first , that they be free from civil censure . secondly , that excommunication be inflicted for no error , but for these that are contrary to fundamental points of truth , or as some say contrary to the very light of nature : upon these and no other will they have excommunication to strike . though this be not the main question which we are to insist upon : yet we shall lay down some assertions contrary to their doctrine , even in this point . and first , we do not see what reason can be brought to exeem hereticks from civil censure ; but the same may be brought to exeem them from church censures also ; if conscience , as they say , be free from the one , what reason but it should be free from the other also ? and if fear of civil censure against those who err do as they say enforce the conscience , and make people hypocrites ; we see not but the fear of church censures may do the same : or if , notwithstanding of church censures , the conscience is not forced , the service not constrained , which they grant , then notwithstanding of civil censure it is not forced , or the service constrained either : and so from their own grounds this vast tolleration of error falls to the ground . secondly , we cannot assent to that which they affirm , that excommunication is not to be inflicted for any error ; but these which are contrary to fundamental points of religion ; and that because christ gives us a rule upon what faults excommunication should strick ; to wit , on every scandalous fault done against a brother , or the church wherein the offender persists obstinate , and will not be reclaimed : so matth. . . and if he shall neglect to hear them , tell it unto the church , but if he neglect to hear the church , let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a pubican . that is , excommunicate him . now , for what faults he is to be excommunicate , they are set down v. . moreover , if thy brother shall trespass against thee &c. so it is a scandalous trespass wherein the offender does persist and remain obstinate , on which according to christ's rule , excommunication should strick : now sure it is , there are many errors not contrary to fundamental truths : such as many points of arminianism , antinomianism &c. which yet persisted in are scandalous both to particular christians and the church ; and therefore according to christs rule , excommunication should strick upon other errors than those contrary to the fundamental points of religion , which is contrary to their assertion . thirdly , neither can we assent that excommunication should strick on no other errors but those contrary to the light of nature , and that not only because of what is presently said , that excommunication should strick against every scandalous sin done against a brother , or the church wherein the offender does persist and remain obstinate ; but also according to that rule whereby they maintain that excommunication should strick on no other error , but these that are contrary to the very light of nature ; it would follow that the publisher of these errors following ( or the like against fundamental truths ) should not be censured : to wit , that the scriptures are not the word of god. that jesus christ was an impostor , a deceiver : that we are not justified by free grace ; say according to that rule , such hereticks should not be censured , no not ecclesiastically ; because these errors are not against natures light , but scripture light only ; for natures light teacheth not the truths which are contrary to these errors . this much for church tolleration , but , as said is , concerning this is not the present contraversy . the main question then is , concerning state tolleration . concerning which some do affirm . that whatever the church may do in inflicting church censures on hereticks , maintainers of heterodox opinions : yet , say they , no civil punishment , such as death , imprisonment , mulcts , or fines , should be inflicted on any error or blasphem whatsoever ; providing the maintainers of them carry themselves peaceably , do not trouble the state , or do evil against the commonwealth in civil things : we again on the contrary do hold , that it is the duty of the civil magistrate to suppress error , heresie , and every sin against the first table , as well as it is his duty to suppress adultery , fornication , sedition , and other sins against the second table : and that he is not only bound to suppress errors and blasphemies , that are contrary to fundamental truths , or the light of nature ; but all error contrary to other points of truth . now for clearing the state of this question , and freeing it from some odious imputations that may be cast upon it : before we come to arguments we shall lay down these assertions : first , we do not say that the magistrate is bound to punish hereticks at the first step ; pains should first be taken to inform them , the judgement of the church is antecedent , and their labour is to convince gainsayers : so this must go before the magistrates duty , they must be found obstinate before the magistrate medle with them , or punish them civilly ; especially if their errors be not horrid blasphemies against god and natures light , in such the magistrate is not bound to give so much forbearance . secondly , we do not say that all errors and heresies are to get alike punishment ; but according to the degrees of the guilt that is in them , even as it is in sins committed against the second table : murder is a more hainous fault than fornication , and therefore the magistrate is bound to punish it more highly . even so is it in sins done against the first table ; blasphemies done against god , or a denying of the true god , is a higher sin than worshiping of the true god after a false manner ; and therefore the magistrate is bound to punish it more severely . thirdly , as we do not say , that every error and heresie is to receive the like punishment ; so neither do we say that every one that maintains the same error is to be alike punished , for there are some that are seducers , or drawers on of others to error , disturbers of the peace of the church , ring-leaders ; there are others again that are only seduced and drawn away to error ; and these last , although they should not be tollerate , yet the power of the magistrate is to be exercised more sparingly towards them . so secondly , there are some rooted in error , confirmed in it , who will not hear instruction : there are others that are but weak , and are seeking light , whose way evidenceth them to be conscientious , only for the time they are ignorant , and in humility seeking after light ; and these last , the magistrate , as all other christians , is to bear much with , according to rom. . . we then that are strong , ought to bear the infirmities of the weak , &c. now this being said to clear the question , we come to arguments to make out this truth , to wit , that the magistrate is bound to suppress and punish error , heresie , and other sins against the first table , as well as he is bound to punish adultery , theft , and other sins against the second table . the first argument we bring is , from the approven practice of kings and magistrates under the old testament , from which we form an argument thus : if it was the approven practice of kings and and magistrates under the old testament to suppress error , heresie and blasphemy , then magistrates under the new testament are bound to do the like : but , so it is that it was the approven practice of kings and magistrates under the old testament to suppress error , heresie and blasphemy and other sins against the first table : therefore , magistrates under the new testament are bound to do the like : for confirming of this argument there are two things to be made out : first , that it was the practice of the magistrate under the old testament to suppress error and heresie . secondly , as it was their practice , so their practice herein is approven of god , otherwise it were not binding unto others ; for kings and magistrates did several things wherein they were not approven , and so not binding unto us now : the first thing then we are to clear is , that this was the practice of magistrates under the old testament : and we shall begin first with abraham's practice , genes . . . for i know him , that he will command his children , and his houshold after him , and they shall keep the way of the lord , to do iustice and iudgement , &c. secondly , with jacob who was a magistrate in his own family : and we shall see him employing his power to suppress false religion . in the of gen. vers . . then jacob said unto his houshold , and to all that were with him , put away the strange gods that are among you , and be clean , and change your garments . and in the verse , and they gave unto jacob all the strange gods which were in their hands , and all their ear-rings which were in their ears , and jacob hid them under the oak which was by scechem . the third practice which we shall observe , is that of asa in the chron. . vers . . and asa did that which was good and right in the eyes of the lord his god. verse . for he took away the altars of the strange gods , and the high places , and broke down the images , and cut down the groves . verse . and commanded judah to seek the lord god of their fathers , and to do the law and the commandment . and in the verse also he took away out of the cities of judah , the high-places and the images , &c. and we shall find it in chap. . vers . , . and they entred into a covenant to seek the lord god , &c. that whosoever would not seek the lord god of israel , should be put to death , whether small or great , whether man or woman . and in the . v. he employes his power in this point against his own mother maachah . and also concerning maachah the mother of asa the king , he removed her from being queen , because she had made an idol , in a grove : and asa cut down her idol , and stamped it , and burnt it at the brook kidron . the fourth practice shall be of king manasseth . chron : , . ( ye would mark such places for ye may have need of them ) and he took away the strange gods , and the idol out of the house of the lord , and all the altars that he had built in the mount of the house of the lord , and in jerusalem , and cast them out of the city . v. — and commanded judah to serve the lord god of israel . the last practice that we shall name is , that of josiah chron : . v. , , . and the king stood in his place , and made a covenant before the lord , to walk after the lord. &c. and he caused all that were present in jerusalem and benjamen , to stand to it . &c. and josiah took away all the abominations out of all the countries , that pertained to the children of israel , and made all that were present in israel to serve , even to serve the lord their god ; let this suffice to make out the first point , that such were the practices of kings and magistrates under the old testament . the second thing to be cleared is , that as these were their practices ; so they were approven practices : and this is clear ; first from gods approbation given to them in that place before cited , chron. . . asa gets a testimony , that he did that which was good and right in the eyes of the lord his god. and wherefore ? for he took away the altars of the strange gods , and the high places , and broke down the images , &c. and secondly , we find that jehu , although he was hypocritical , was rewarded of god , for suppressing of false worship : in kings . . and the lord said unto jehu , because thou hast done well in executing that which is right in mine eyes , and hast done unto the house of ahab , according to all that was in mine heart , thy children of the fourth generation , shall sit on the throne of israel . we might bring several other evidences , that these their practices were approven of god , but what is already said may suffice . the patrons of tolleration bring several exceptions to weaken the strengh of this argument , which we shall propone in as full strength as they come to our hand ; and take them off : and the first exception is this , say they , the practice of judah and israel under the old testament cannot be binding to magistrats under the new , because they were typical kings , and the actions they did were typical of somewhat to be done by christ , and so not binding to us . to this we reply . first , that however this our hold concerning the practices of the kings of judah and israel after they entered canaan who were typical kings ( as they say ) of this typical land , that they could not be binding to magistrats now ; yet we find it was the practice of jacob before the the kingdom of israel was erected , and so what he did was not done by him as a type of christ , but a moral duty ; and he was approven in it ; we find also when heathen kings came to the knowledge of god , they employed their power this way and were approven in so doing ; and surely they will not call heathen kings types of christ : we shall give one instance of this in the seventh chap : of ezra v. . there a decree comes out from atraxerxes a heathen king. whosoever will not do the law of thy god , and the law of the king , let judgment be executed speedily upon him , whither it be unto death , or to banishment or to confiscation of goods , &c. now lest it should be said this was a rash act , and so not binding : therefore there is something in the text equivalent to god's approbation of it ; to wit , ezra's blessing the lord that he had made such an act verse . but we give a second answer , to the objection : although it were granted that all the king 's of israel were types of christ , as we do not grant it in all , especially in those who were wicked and godless men , it does not follow that what they did in punishing false doctrine , they acted therein as types of christ : and if so , then it does not follow , that it is not binding now ; except they will say that whatever was done by any who were types of christ in no wayes binding unto others ; and if so they may as well argue , that what magistrates under the old testament did in punishing sins against the second table , such as adultery , murder , were done by them as they were types of christ ; and so not binding to magistrates now : yea , upon the same ground they may infer that davids prayers and tears for sin were no copy for us to follow ; why these were acts of one who was a type of christ. yea by the same reason , they may reject the whole scripture of the old testament , as not binding unto us , because forsooth , it was written by the prophets , and such as were types of christ , and so not binding to us . thus we see what absurdity the giving way to such an exception will draw unto , and therefore it is to be rejected . but their second exception seems more plausible and it is this , say they , the practice of the kings of israel doth not argue up fully to that which we do hold , because their practice did not strike on every error against truth , but only idolatry ; and not all idolaters , but those that made apostacy and served false gods ; and not all of those , but these only that seduced and drew away others to serve the false god. now it does not follow from their punishing of idolaters , who worshiped a false god ; that therefore magistrates are bound to punish hereticks worshipping the true god though in a false way , this is the strength of their exception ; to which we reply . first , that though it were true which they say that the practice of the kings of israel did extend but to idolaters , and those that seduced and drew away others to serve false gods , yet it does not follow but it may be binding to magistrates now to punish hereticks worshipping a true god in a false way , and that because of this rule necessarly to be admitted in expounding of scripture , that when the command of god does strick against any one sin most usual in the time , by rule of proportion , it stricks against all sins of that kind , as in the second command there is nothing expresly forbidden but the worshipping of god by graven images ; and that because the worshipping of god by images was the sin most in use at that time ; yet under graven is forbidden all wayes of worshipping of god invented by men ; and so although it were true that the practice of godly kings did strick but against idolatry , yet by rule of proportion all sins of that kind should be suppressed : to which add , that when the high degree of any sins by divine law is to be punished by death , common equity will infer , that lesser degrees of sin are to be punished by a lesser punishment at least . secondly , to what they say , that the magistrate did only punish idolatry under the old testament . we answer that it is false , they did punish other errors also , and such as would be thought light of now ; and this we shall instance in several particulars . first , they punished will worship in serving the true god , and this we see by comparing two places of scripture : the first is the kings , , . speaking of josiah , and he brought all the priests out of the cities of judah , and defiled the high places , where the priests had burnt incense : so he employes his power against the high places , for the removal of their way of worship . the other place of scripture to be compared with , is the chrov : . . ( which tells us the nature of their high places ) nevertheless , the people did sacrifice still in the high places , yet unto the lord their god only . so that this worshipping on the high places , was not that kind of idolatry whereby a false god was worshipped ; but a way of their own , whereby they worshipped the true god , and yet josiah suppresseth even this kind of false worship . secondly , we find that magistrates did employ their power for suppressing of the breakers of the sabbath day , and and punishing those that married strange wives , which yet were not idolaters and apostats from the true god ; a noble example whereof is in nehemiah . from verse , to . there is a large history what pains he took to reform the people to keep the sabbath day , therefore in the . v. then i testified against them , and said unto them , why lodged ye about the wall ? if ye do so again i will lay hands on you . he threatens to employ the civil power for suppressing of that error , and this is not idolatry . and secondly , we find that the magistrates employed their power generally , for suppressing any error that was contrary to any article of the covenant : so where we read in the chron : . , . and the king stood in his place , and made a covenant before the lord — &c. and he caused all that were present in jerusalem and benjamin to stand to it . and the heads of the covenant are not only against those who were seducers , but also against those that were seduced : so we find it in exodus , v. . in that idolatry of worshipping the golden calf , when moses came down from the mount in his zeal to the glory of god , he not only punished aaron , but also the people : and more than this , he armes the levits , as the avengers of god's justice , and proclaims that every man should avenge the lord upon his very brother : thus we have made out in the first argument taken from the practice of the kings of israel and judah , and have vindicated it by scripture from their exceptions brought against it . the second argument shall yet be grounded on the old testament , and it is taken from the many commands and precepts , that are given in scripture to godly kings and magistrates and others to punish blasphemers , false prophets and idolaters , hereticks , sabbath breakers , and seducers , from whence we form this argument : that whatever was commanded to be done by magistrates under the old testament as a part of their duty , this magistrates under the new testament are oblidged to as a part of their duty also : but magistrates were commanded under the old testament to suppress idolatry , blasphemy , and heresy and that they were to do as a part of their duty as magistrates : and therefore it is a duty lying on magistrates under the new. the thing we have to prove is , that this was a command given to magistrates under the old testament and that as a part of their duty as magistrates . and for this look over these places of scripture exod. . . he that sacrificeth unto any god , save unto the lord only , he shall be utterly destroyed . there is a command given to the magistrates . and so in levit . , . and thou shalt speak unto the children of israel , saying , whosoever curseth his god , shall bear his sin . v. . and he that blasphemeth the name of the lord , he shall surely be put to death . so in the . of deut : . if there arise among you a prophet , or dreamer of dreams , and giveth thee a sign or a wonder . &c. through the whole chapter there are commands given to the magistrate to punish false worship . we shall only add another , and that is taken from the fourth command , where a charge is laid on the magistrate as well as the master of a family to make use of his power for keeping of the sabbath , and to see to the keeping of it by others also . thou shalt do no manner of work , thou , nor they son , nor they daughter — this command is given to the magistrate as well as to the master of the family , as appears from those things . first , by vertue of this command nehemiah the magistrate of god's people , did make use of his power to punish sabbath breakers in that place we cited in nehemiah . . secondly , it appears from this that the gates spoken of their , nor any thing that is within thy gates , is a term which aggreeth not to a single family , but a whole city , even to the circuit of a whole kingdom : of the word [ gates ] is taken in scripture gene● : . — and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies : it followeth as in that respect , therefore he speaks to the magistrate , no master of a family having such large power . and thirdly , the power there spoken of , is to be extended to strangers : now the chief care of stangers did belong to the magistrate , and not to the master of a family , therefore nehemiah the magistrate extends this power of his to the strangers that came to buy and sell on the sabbath day , nehem : , the adversary brings several exceptions against this argument which we shall propone and take off . the first exception is , say they , those were judicial laws , and so now are expired with their common-wealth : answer , this is a common refuge to sectaries where any practice is brought from the old testament against them , presently they cast at it upon this account as not binding to us under the new : therefore we shall speak so much the more unto this point : by a judicial law is meaned a civil law , so the force of their argument is this : the civil law of one kingdom is not binding to another , but these were civil lawes belonging to that kingdom ; therefore , they are not binding to us . to this we answer , first , that they cannot say this of all the laws instanced , particularly of that law of the fourth command : it is a moral law binding to all , secondly , we answer , the rest of these laws are moral and binding to all magistrates , yea and that for these reasons : because first , abraham , and jacob , and other magistrates that were among the jews did practice these laws even before the judicial law was given out by moses ; and so they behooved to be moral . yea heathen kings that were not under the judicial law of moses , as not being members of their commonwealth , when they came to the knowledge of god , they made use of their power to suppress idolatry , which certainly was through vertue of the moral law , commanding them so to do : not the judicial law , that they were not under . a third answer we give , that though what is said were true . viz. that these laws were judicial : yet it does not follow that they are not now binding to magistrates . to understand this , there were two things in their judicial laws , as in our civil laws . yet , there was somewhat that concerned the kingdom in particular as that law , that servants should be freed from their service at the seven years end . and the law of inheritance to be keept within the tribe , and this part of the law did fall with their common-wealth . but their was another thing in their judicial laws , and that is somewhat of common equity belonging unto all , such as laws for punishing sins done against the moral law ; and in this far the judicial law is binding to us : because there is not a syllable in the new testament for abrogating of it , and so must bind , being given by god. and jesus christ and his apostles reason from this judicial law ; as in corinth : . . it is written in the law of moses , thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treade thout the corn : and in several other places : so is it in the civil laws in other kingdoms : as for example , that witches should be punished by death , and burnt to ashes , is a civil law in scotland : now there is somewhat there of common equity , to wit , that they should be punished by death ; but the particular way of putting them to death , to wit , whither by strangling drowning &c. or the burning of their bodies to ashes , is not of common equity : other kingdoms may use another way of execution , as pleaseth them best . there is a second exception they bring against this argument , say they : if their laws were binding to us , then they would be binding according to all their circumstances : and if so , then all persons , whole cities , yea beasts behoved to be stoned to death : for so is the command deutro : . now say they , what massacring would this be . to take off this exception , we answer : there are two things in a law , there is first , the substance of the law , secondly , the circumstances of it : now a law may hold according to the main substance , and yet not according to these circumstances : we shall clear it in an example , the law of hospitality binds all nations as to the substance of the things commanded by it , but there were some circumstances joyned with this law , according to the nature of the people to whom it was given ; such as the washing of feet , and kisses of charity ; and according to these it is not binding ; and so that command , that false worship should be punished , is substantial and binding unto all ; but that it should so be punished as to put children , women , beasts , young and old to death , was suited according unto the temper of that people unto whom it was given , being so naturally prone to idolatry , and therefore were by more fearful punishments to be scarred from it , and so in that respect is not binding unto others . we may add where this law is repeated , as exod : . . deutr : . . . and cap : . . it is only repeated in the substance of it , and the way and manner is not mentioned . secondly , we find that jacob and other magistrates who were before the law did not execute it according to thir circumstances ; yea and the jewish magistrates as moses and josiah ezod : . and king , did not tye themselves precisely to execute the law according to all these circumstances ; and so it remaines that though these circumstances do not bind the magistrate yet the law according to its substance is yet binding . there is a third exception they bring , say they , the magistrate under the old testament had an infallible rule whereby he might know what was heresy and what not , to wit his consulting the lord by vrim and thummim . but the magistrates under the new testament have not this infallible rule , and so it does not follow from the duty of magistrates under the old testament , that the same should be done by the magistrates under the new. to which we answer , this exception suppones first , that magistrates under the new testament may punish those whom they know certainly to be hereticks , and surely there are sundry hereticks of this kind , which he may know as well as if he had consulted with vrim and thummim . secondly , this exception of theirs doth suppone , that the magistrate under the new testament hath no way left him how to come to know infallibly what is heresy , what not , which is false ; he hath the word of god , his spirit speaking by it , which is more infallible than that of the priests getting their answer from vrim and tummim : for it might be doubted whither the priest had taken up the answer right or not ; or if he was faithful in giving it , according as he had received it . yea peter sayes the word is more sure than any voice from heaven , peter . thirdly , this exception does suppone that the magistrate under the old testament took this course of consulting with vrim and thummim , for knowing who was hereticks , idolaters , and who not : but this is false ▪ it was only the written word which they consulted with , for knowing what was heresy , what not is● : . . to the law , and to the testimony , &c. and for the application of the rule to persons , that they might know who were the hereticks , we never read that they consulted vrim and thummim , but used a judicial process against the person challenged , and proved the fact by witnesses : so deut. . . there must be a scandal of idolatry upon the man challenged , and if it be told thee , and thou hast heard of it , and enquired diligently , &c. and it must be proved on him by witnesses , verse . as the mouth of two witnesses , or three witnesses , shall he that is worthy of death , he put to death . they except fourthly , that in the infancy and nonage of the church god typed out things spiritual by things earthly , and so those punishments were types of spiritual censures , excommunication and hell , and therefore are not now to be put in practice : we answer first , excommunication and damnation were things present to the jewish church , and so they had no types of them . secondly , this is to turn scripture to allegories , and by this same reason we may cast at punishments of sins against the second table , as being types of spiritual censures , hell and damnation , and there is as much ground for affirming the one as the other . this much for arguments from the old testament . we shall next hint at some arguments from the new testament . first , if so be that it were unusual for magistrates to meddle with men in matters of religion , then certainly jesus christ and his apostles should have used this legal defence , when the magistrate called them before him to answer about their doctrine , they would have said , ye have no place to challenge us for our profession , for matters of opinion are free ; but we do not hear that they declined the judge , or used any such defence , for sure christ and his apostles would have left no lawful mean unessayed . there is a second argument taken from rom. . . where speaking of the civil magistrate the apostle sayeth , for he is the minister of god to thee far good , but if thou do that which is evil be afraid , there is set down the object of the magistrates power and the extent of it , and it is set down indefinitly , upon him that doth evil . and therefore if hereticks , maintainers of falle worship , be doers of evil , they fall under the magistrates power . now that spreaders of heresie are doers of evil , we did prove in the second doctrine raised from this verse , where we shew that heresy and error was as much to be eschewed , as adultery and other sins against the second table ; and the magistrate as magistrate should put forth his zeal against them as much ; and all the places commanding zeal against error ( which are not few ) in the new testament proves this , for they bind every one according to his place ; the minister according to his place , and the magistrate according to his . there is one exception they make much of against this argument , and it is this ; say they , by doers of evil , cannot be meaned these that are taken with error and heresy , and other sins against the first table : and that because the evil that is here spoken of , is the evil that is mentioned in the beginning of the verse , but if thou do that which is evil be afraid , it is an evil , say they , that any that were guilty of it had need to be afraid of the magistrate because of it , and so it is not meaned the evil of error and heresy against christian truths : for the magistrate here spoken of , is the roman emperor and senate , who themselves were enemies to christian religion , and so none needed to be afraid of them for spreading errors , but rather for mantaining truths ; and therefore the doers of evil here meaned , must be the controveeners of the emperors civil laws , and not hereticks and such like . for answer , this exception is grounded on a wrong supposition ; for by the magistrate is here meaned , not only the roman magistrate , but all magistrates in general doing their duty as they ought . paul indeed takes occasion from the roman magistrate to speak here what is the duty of all magistrates ; and it is clear from several circumstances of the text : we shall mark one of them from the first words of the text , for he is the minister of god to thee , now sure it is , this must be meaned of magistrates in general , and not astricted only to the roman magistrate ; he not being the minister of god unto every one who was to make use of this scripture . there is another circumstance of the text , proving this in the v●rse , for rulers are not a terror to good works . now sure this must be expounded of the office of magistracy in general , and of that which magistrates should be , and not of the roman magistrate , who then was well known to be a terror unto many good works , not only unto christian , but also unto moral vertues . we shall give you only another argument shortly taken from that prophecy , revel : . . a prophecy t●at the civil magistrate shall bring down the antichrist , and that error of the roman religion , as a most acceptable work to god : and so the magistrates hand is not bound up from punishing error and heresy against the first table , no more than from punishing other sins done against the second table . and this much for our arguments brought in defence of the truth . in the third place , we promised to bring forth some of their arguments and solve them ; herein we need not spend much time for this being truth , there can be nothing said against it , which is truth : yet there being some nimble spirits to propone arguments which every one cannot answer ; we shall stay a little on this third point also . the first thing they object is this : if so be that it were the magistrates duty to punish error and heresy then jesus christ would have reproved the jews for tollerating the pharisees and saduces : but so it is he never reproves the jews for so doing : nothing of that kind is recorded by any of the evangelists . to this we answer , first , that it does not follow that christ did not reprove the jews , because it is not written : for john sayes chap. . . he did speak many things which are not written ; so it follows not . but secondly , we say , although it be granted that christ did not reprove them , yet it follows not that their neglect was not a sin. for first , by that reason we might say that the mgistrate should not punish theft , because christ speaks nothing of the punishment of it in the new testament : neither , secondly , reproveth he the church for not censuring them , and yet it followeth not but that they ought to be censured that way . and thirdly , god had revealed his will before . and fourthly , it would have been for no purpose to have stired up the magistrate to this duty then , for the sectarie● themselves had the power that was of it . and lastly , the jews at this time had not the power of civil punishment in their hands , but the romans , and so it was not in their power to punish . there is a second objection which they bring from the apostle paul's words in the epistle to the philipp : . . where speaking of differences among christians , he sayes , let us therefore as many as be perfect , ●e thus minded : and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded , god shall reveal even this unto you . say they , we see what was paul's judgement , that notwithstanding of differences , there should be heart waling or uniting ; and therefore the magistrate should not be stired up to censure those who err. to this we answer , paul speaks nothing there of state toll●ration ; for then the civil powers were not for christ , but of church toll●ration in respect of that meekness and tenderness which christs servants should have in inflicting of church censures , for fear of breaking love : secondly , he commandeth not all errors to be thus tollerated ; for so he should contradict himself in another place , where he sayes , an heretick after the first and second admonition reject . and thirdly , paul limits that tolleration that he would have here ; and that in two things . first , as to the time , how long , god shall reveal even this unto you . and secondly , he supposes the persons differing from them should walk with them in things wherein they differ not , according to the same rule , and so make no separation . now it does not follow that those who remained obstinate in their error should be still tollerated , and that the censure of the church should not strick on them at all ; chiefly if it be such an error as causes rents and schisms , for he sayes , take heed to those that cause divisions and offences , and avoid them , rom. . . their third objection is , that this is contrary to the way the apostles took with those that erred , their way was to watch against them that erred , acts . . for i know this , that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you , not sparing the flock . verse . therefore watch — that which the apostle commands is , to watch against them . and in rom. . . now i beseech you , brethren , mark them which cause divisions and offences — and avoid them . and in the timoth : . . it is said , and the servant of the lord must not strive ; but be gentle unto all men , apt to teach , patient . now , say they , this is a far other way than to stir up the civil magistrate against those who differ from us , this savors not of the meek spirit of christ. i answer , it is the duty of ministers to watch against error , and that is one mean for suppressing of error and heresy ; but one mean destroyes not another : it does not follow that this which is in controversy is not another mean also , neither is it contrary to that meekness commanded to wait on them , more than to deliver to satan , or to curse , and excommunicate apostates , with that great curse called , anathema maranatha , cor. . . they may as well say , it is contrary to christs meek spirit to establish the sword in the hands of the christian magistrate , according to rom : . . for punishing sins against the second table , and so under this pretence , adulteters , murderers , seducers , thieves , and all should go free unpunished . but they do far mistake the meekness of jesus christ , christs meekness is not to let people live in their sin , to let vile hereticks trample on truth , destroying souls : and in the mean time binding up the hand of the magistrate , that he dare not hinder it ; this were a disrespect to truth , and cruelty to poor souls in danger to be carried away ; which our lord was very tender of . there is a fourth objection from matth. . . taken from the parable of the tares ; where the kingdom of heaven is compared to a man that sowed wheat , and the wicked one comes and sowes his tares among it , and both is bidden let grow till the harvest . now , say they , by these tares is meaned hereticks ; therefore they should not be plucked up by the sword of the civil magistrate . we answer , if they astrict the word tares to hereticks , in this sense , that the sword of the civil magistrate should not be used against them ; by the same reason they may say , that they should not be disputed against , for that is a plucking up of them also . secondly , we answer , that by the tares that are commanded here to be suffered let grow up to the harvest , is no more meaned hereticks than other scandalous livers : and this we shall make out from christs exponding the parable , verse — and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend ▪ now hereticks are not all things that offend , other scandalous livers offend also . thirdly , by the tares is meaned , them that do iniquity , vers . . now others besides hereticks are such . and fourthly , if by the tares were here meaned hereticks , then by the [ wheat ] are meaned only the orthodox , and so every man that is orthodox should — shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of heaven , vers . but there are many who are orthodox ▪ who yet are evil livers , and so will never go to heaven . and therefore by the [ wheat ] must only be meaned the truly regenerate ; and so by the [ tares ▪ ] must not only be meaned hereticks , but all other evil-doers . and further , by this it would follow that hereticks should not be excommunicate , for that is a rooting out . but what can be meaned by the tares then : for whatever be meaned by them , it will follow that by this parable verse ▪ they should be tollerated ; and to say that all vile scandalous persons should be tollerated , is more absurd than that only hereticks should be tollerated . answer , if we narrowly observe christs exposition of the parable , we will find that part where he bids , let both grow together until the harvest , is not exponed , although he expone the rest , which doubtless he would not have omitted , if it had been his mind that we should have built any doctrine of this kind on it ; therefore we say this is not christs meaning , that he would have all men ( how godless and scandalous soever ) let alone ; for that were contrary to other places of scripture : but that christ is to show that when all pains are taken by christs officers for purging the church , yet there will be alwayes some hypocrites in it , and it is christs mind , though he hath given order to censure scandalous offenders , yet that his servants should not press after such a separation of the precious from the vile , as to have all the weeds and wicked in heart to be cast out ; lest when they gather out the graceless tares , they should root out also the gracious [ wheat ] with them . object . . there is a fifth objection from luk : . : where christ reproves james and john for seeking fire to come down from heaven to consume the samaritans ; and from this they argue : that when people refuse christ in his person , much less when they oppose him in his doctrine , it is not his mind that they should be punished , but admonished and waited on : but before we answer they must prove the quarrel was for religion . now this cannot be made out for the reason why james would have ●ire coming down from heaven , was , because of an act of inhumanity in denying lodging to christ ; and that because of the great envy and hatred betwixt these two people the jews and samaritans . the second answer we give is , although the quarrel had been for religion , yet it makes not against this doctrine ; because they were wholly idolaters , utterly ignorant of the gospel ; and our doctrine is not that when a nation is lying in idolatry , that the first thing that should be done is the magistrates sword to slay them , or to seek fire from heaven to consume them : we say it is utterly unlawful to goe with fire and sword to force the indians to embrace the christian faith ; only they should be taught , instructed and restrained from spreading blasphemies , reproaching the son of god &c. our question is whether or not a people that are members of the visible church , that have bound themselves by covenant to adhere to the christian truths , whether or not when they fall away from truth to damnable error , the magistrate may make them stand to their covenant , as josiah did chron : . . and he caused all that were present , to stand to it . object . . the sixth objection is this ; say they , if magistrates may punish error and heresy , then he may force the conscience ; for what they hold , is as they profess , according to the light of their conscience : now to force the conscience is a fearful sin , who dare meddle with conscience but the god of conscience . answer : this argument seems plausible ; but for answer to it we say , conscience cannot be forced properly , only we say that the magistrate may punish for , or restrain sin in such outward motions as come from an evil informed conscience , and if this be a sinful forcing of the conscience then it were a sin to punish those who from conscience killed the apostles john , . — the time cometh , that whosoever killeth you , will think that he doeth god service . yet we hope none will say the punishment of such would be a sinful forcing of the conscience ; so it were a sinful thing to punish those who made their children to pass through the fire unto molech , under the name of conscience● these and many other absurdities would follow on this tenet of theirs , that none ought to be punished for any thing they do following the indytments of a deluded conscience . what have there not been , and yet are , hereticks who pretend conscience for the vilest villanies of the world ? the jesuits pretend conscience for stobbing kings and magistrates . the g●ost●cks to have wives common . and ancient hereticks hath made it a point of conscience to practice adultery , and some present hereticks to marry their sisters , so that the ●igher in blood the persons married are , the marriage is to them the more spiritual , and a number of such like villanies . now will any think it a sinful forcing of conscience to punish such , whatever they tatle of conscience . but secondly , to what they say , for the magistrate to punish men for error , is a persecuting of men for conscience . to this we answer : then it should follow that god commanded sin to the godly magistrates under the old testament , for it is clear they had a command to punish men for idolatry . thirdly , if this be a persecuting of conscience then it is a persecuting of conscience to preach against error , to refute it by good reason . to make this consequence clear , know as there is a persecution with the hand , so with the tongue , and it is the bitterest persecution that is , called job . ▪ the scourge of the tongue . and the mocking of christ was one of the fearfullest persecutions he met with he trusted in god &c. and so according to this doctrine it were unlawful to preach against them &c. why ? for it is a sin to persecute them for concience . but fourthly , our answer is ; it is not the hurt inferred that makes sinful persecution , but it is the cause for which the punishment is inflicted . there is a seventh objection they bring against this truth , and it is this , say they , if magistrates were bound to punish error and heresy , it would lay a tye on magistrate ; to know what is truth , and what is error ; now , say they , there are many intricate questions about the nature of error and truth , which the generality of magistrates are ignorant of , and therefore say they according to this doctrine , we put power in the hand of the magistrate whereby he may punish those that profess the truth , if the magistrate mistake , and take truth for error . a dangerous doctrine , if magistrates turn ignorant or corrupt . this seemeth plausible : but we shall answer to it . if this argument hold strong then it would follow that the civil magistrate hath no power to punish sins against the second table ; for there are a number of difficult questions even about these , as in some cases of murther , incest , matters of false witness : and the lord sayeth deut. . . if there arise a matter too hard for thee in judgement , between blood and blood , between plea and plea , and between stroke and stroke , &c. which suppones there are many doubtful questions even about things civil which the generality are ignorant of : and so it may fall out they may punish the honest man for the knave ; and yet this doth not evert the ordinance of magistracy , neither doth it follow that he hath no power to punish for civil crimes ▪ secondly , they may argue as well against what is commanded to masters of families , that he receive not an heretick within his house john v. . and timoth : , . for of this sort are they which creep into houses , &c. rom : . , . now i beseech you brethren mark them which cause divisions — and avoid them . &c. by all which he supposeth certainly they have some knowledge to judge who are hereticks and who not ; else how could they elchew them ; and so they may argue as well against these commands , as against this doctrine : for may they say , this is to put it on masters of families to know who are hereticks , who not , to know what is truth and what not , and this the generality of masters of families are ignorant of ; and so a power put on them to barr the door on honest men , in stead of an heretick : now when they free these commands from these consequences we shall free this doctrine from them also . thirdly , neither the word nor this doctrine putteth a power on magistrates to punish truth , their power is only to punish error : they may indeed so abuse their power , but it followeth not that therefore they have no power to punish error : no more than because that a godless magistrate as nero was , may abuse his power to oppress , murther honest citizens , and do other acts of injustice against the second table ; that therefore the magistrate hath no power to punish theeves , robbers , murderers , because either through mistake or wickedness , he may abuse it to punish innocent men ; whatever remedy is left for the magistrates abusing of his power under the one , the same is left under the other , as insome cases suffering , in others resisting . there is an eighth objection they have against this truth , say they , we make the mean unproportionate to the end , no outward force can convert a man and br●ng him to christ , it makes men but hypocrites , the blast of the kings horn or outlawry can make no man a member of christs body , that must be done willingly , not by compulsion , and this were to cudgell people out of their opinions . to this we answer , that our doctrine doth not hold forth that the power of the magistrate is any mean to convert souls : only this it doth hold forth that the power of the magistrate is a mean to restrain men from doing sinful acts against christ ; as asa made use of his civil power to keep down idolatry , it puts people indeed on the profession of outward obedience , and to this it is very proportioned . and therefore secondly , though the blast of the kings horn cannot make a member of christs invisible body , by working grace ; yet it may be a mean in its own kind for making a member of the church visible , by with-holding from sinful acts , and putting them on acts of outward obedience . a third answer we give , that the power of the magistrate doth not make men hypocrites of it self , but through the corruption of man's heart , who makes himself an hypocrite . the end of this ordinance , what it is in it self is set down in deut : . . and all israel shall hear , and fear , and shall do no more any such wickedness as this is , among you . that is the end , that they being moved by their example , should abstain from such like worke : but that they do this hypocritically , is from their corrupt nature , who fears him more who can kill the body , than him who after he hath killed the body can cast both soul and body into hell. we answer lastly if this were a good argument why a magistrate should not make use of his power to punish for false doctrine because throw occasion thereof many turn hypocrites : then say we , it should follow that the magistrate should not make use of his power to punish incests , adulteries , murders , thefts &c. because it is the occasion of many hypocrites , who abstain more from such , for the fear of punishment , than for the fear of god ; yea according to this doctrine it should follow , that the preaching of the word should be unlawful , because through the occasion of it many turn hypocrites under it . there is a ninth objection they have against this truth , and it is this , say they , by this power we give to the magistrate to punish error and heresy , we give him the power of church judicatories , to judge of doctrines , error and heresy . in answer to this we shall speak more fully in the 〈◊〉 doctrine , only for the present this giving power to the magistrate to punish error and heresy , gives him not a publick judgement to discern , what is error , and what not , as a judge in church matters ; but only a judgement of discretion in relation to his own act : as for example , when the lord gives power to masters of families , not to let hereticks come into their house , it is not a putting the power of church judicatories in their hands . iv. the last thing we promised to speak to you of , was to give you some use of this : and the first is , to reprove those who think opinions are free , and that none ought to be punished for such , we grant as we said that there would be a difference amongst errors , some more damnable , some less ; and so to be less punished : and there is a difference to be put amongst persons , some are seduced , some whose conscience is seared , some venting their darkness , some seeking light : in such there should be a difference observed . again the magistrate is to deal one way with a community , another way with some persons , before it come to such an hight . and lastly , he is to deal otherwise with errors that cannot be mantained without troubling the peace of the church and state , and those that break not love , nor strike not at any material point of truth ; the last happily may be tollerate , if the maintaine●s of them do not evidence contempt : but not so the first . these and such like distinctions may be to qualify this power ; but to deny it altogether , is the most damnable doctrine that ever was vented , the devil cannot take a shorter course to undoe religion , and there can be no heart zealous for god but he must loath it ; and therefore look so on it : think not , what is that to you what others do , if ye get leave to serve god your self : is that all your zeal for god , that if ye get leave to serve him , ye care not that all beside you spit on his face , and serve the devil . vse . hence see what an account those magistrates have to make , who make no use of their power this way for god , if they get their own houses built , cares not for his , if rebellion against themselves be curbed , cares not for the curbing of rebellion against god. this was the sin of the parliament of england , though they entred into a covenant with the most high god , that they would suppress error and heresy , they never employed their power that way ; and that because they durst not for angring of their army , and therefore god hath suffered their army to overturn them , and set themselves and whom they please in their place ; and now they by their practice give tollerat●on to all ; and this is the way to strengthen them . i say in the name of the lord , if they repent not , it shall be the way to ruine them , a people swearing in their low condition to root out heresy , &c. and god blessing them from that day ; and within a few years carrying themselves as if they had sworn to do the contrary , to suffer all , encourage all , invite all the devils in hell to vent what blasphemies they please ; and for their encouragement to give them surety that no power in brittain shall hinder them , was there ever such an affront done to god ? think ye that he will sit with it ? no , if he should make the one half avengers of a broken covenant against the other , he will not . it is noted of asa , chron. . . gods way , to keep magistrates sure , and their kingdoms quiet , is to be zealous against false worship : no , but ( say they the way is not to anger hereticks , they are the surest pillars of our commonwealth , but woe to , and will be to , that common-wealth that is builded on such pillars . and if scotland , or any party in it , joyn with them on these terms , our woe is but coming . he is a jealous god chiefly in the matter of his service , as is clear from the second command . the third use is , if this be an ordinance of god to put power in the magistrates hand to punish error , it should make you scar at error and labour to be grounded in the truth : for we see error is a sin that god hates , and it is a sin that god will have the magistrate to punish , and so a sin that he himself will punish if the magistrate do neglect it . it is natural to men to think , if they can live a good life , it is the less matter what be their opinion ; but the lord judges not so ; for as he will have other sins punished by the magistrate , so he will have these punished also . and such as he usually punisheth himself , by fearful plagues , when the magistrate neglecteth his duty , in punishing other sins , so doth he in those . we might speak much from history of fearful judgements sent immediatly by god upon hereticks , but we shall here close . sect : iii. a brief refutation of the doctrine of erastianism . head i. that there is a church government held forth in scripture . having thus show'n that the doctrine of tolleration is not of god , i proceed to demonstrate this also in some other of the most dangerous errors of the times ; we shall begin first with these errors which are about the government of the church ; and that because the government of the church is the hedge of the doctrine ; for if once the government be brangled or shaken the wild boar of the wilderness cometh in easily and corrupteth the doctrine : therefore it is that the devils main design hath been against the government of the church to blast and storm this wall on all hands . the summe of what we have to say in this is , to make out these four points : first , that there is a government appointed by christ in his church distinct from the civil government . secondly , we shall show that this government is not in the hands of the civil magistrate , but in the hands of christs own officers , which he hath appointed for governing his house , by inflicting of church censures , enacting of church canons , so as they are not to act by derived power from the magistrate , and appeals are not to be made from them to the magistrate . thirdly , we shall endeavour to prove , that this power of church government is not in the hands of private christians , or the community of the faithful : but in the hand of christs own officers , ministers and elders . and lastly , we shall endeavour to prove that this authority and government is not in the hand of particular congregations or particular elderships , independently from other judicatories above them : but that this power is given to them , so as they must be subject to superior judicatories . in which propositions we will meet with these errors that are most dangerously opposite to church government at this time . the first two propositions are contrary to the doctrine of erastians , and the last two are contrary to the doctrine of independents ( as they are commonly designed ) first , we shall engage with erastianism and our scope in this shall be as in the former , to show that however it pretend to the spirit , yet when it is brought to the tryal it will be found not to be of god. this doctrine or error hath its name from the prime author of it called erastus , a doctor of medicine who upon some discontent did first vent it : to wit , that ministers should only meddle with preaching ; but should have no power to meet in church judicatories , sessions , presbyteries , or such like , nor should they punish scandalous sins with church censures , such as suspension or excommunication ; but that all power whatsoever in a nation , both in church and state , should be in the hand of the civil magistrate . this doctrine so soon as it was vented , did get , and does yet get many followers , chiefly among state divines , and christians that know more of wordly policy than christian simplicity , so that in a short time if god prevent it not , it is like to swallow up all other controversies about church government , so plausible and pleasing it is to the powers of the world , who cannot well endure to have christ reigning besides them . psalm : . . let us break their bands assunder , and cast away their cords from us . both sectaries and malignants do aggree in this error , to take the power of discipline out of the churches hand 's . the spiritual power of church censures in the hands of christs officers , is an eye sore to both of them . but to come nearer to the point , there are two heads of this erastian doctrine which we shall labour to refute . the first , is most gross , whereby they affirm , that there is no particular church government set down in scripture ; in a word , that there is no government in the church by divine right ; but that this government is left in the hands of the civil magistrate , whether to erect any government at all in the church , or not : or if he please to erect one , that he may establish that government which suits best the well-being of the civil state : so that according to this doctrine the civil magistrate may establish episcopacy this year , the next year he may establish presbytry , and the third year he may cast both and establish independency ; and if he like , he may find out a government different from any of these , and establish it . the second erastian error is this , whereby they affirm whatever government be in the church ( whether grounded in scripture or not ) that according to scripture it is in the hands of the civil magistrate and that he is the chief fountain of church government . in opposition to the first error we lay down this conclusion , which ( god willing ) we shall make good , that jesus christ the king and head of his church hath established a particular form of church government in his word , which to alter is not in the power of any state whatsoever . he hath set down a way for punishing scandals , for inflicting church censures , enacting church canons ; and hath not left this in the arbitriment of kings or parliaments to set down any government they please . in prosecuting which point we shall follow that method we keeped in refuting the doctrine of tolleration . we shall first clear the state of the question . secondly , we shall bring arguments to confirm the truth . thirdly , we shall answer these arguments the adversary brings against the truth : and so we shall apply all to use. i. and first , for clearing the state of the question , take thir two assertions : first , we do not affirm that all the circumstantials of church government is set down expresly in the word ; but only first , that all the substantial parts of church government have a warrand in the word and are therein so fixed and established , as they are unalterable by any state whatsoever . and secondly , as to the circumstantials that relate to this government ; we say , they are set down under general rules , sufficient for the ordering of them : such as , let all things be done in order and to edification . our second assertion is , we are not to enter here to show , what is the particular kind of government that is appointed in the word , and what things falls under the power of church governours , and in what relation they are to handle them , what are the nature of these censures , and how in all these things they differ from the civil power : it would take long time to clear these . the thing we aim at is only , this general : that jesus christ the king of his church and lord of his house hath set down in his word a particular way for governing of his house distinct from the civil , which is not in the power of any state to alter . we proceed now to arguments for comfirming this truth . ii. the first argument is this , if so be that under the old testament , there was a particular form of church government different from the civil , set down in the word ; then there must be also the like set down under the new ; but ▪ so it is that there was a particular way set down under the old testament for governing the church : therefore , there must be the like set down under the new . for making out this argument , there are two things we have to clear . the first is , that there was such a government as this under the old testament warranted by the word . the second thing to be cleared , is , that therefore and upon the same reason there must be also the like under the new. for proving of the first , that there was a particular government of the church different from the gvernment of the state under the old testament , we shall clear two things . first , that they had church judicatories different from the civil judicatories ; and to prove this we shall cite two places of scripture : the first is , in chron : . , , . ye may read the place at leasure ; but there are these things in it proving that there was a church judicatory distinct from the civil . first , we see that there is a judicatory made up of the church-men of the levits and priests , in verse . secondly , we see that the things they judged of were spiritual matters distinguished from civil things by calling the the first sort , the matters of the lord , and the second , matters of the king , v. . thirdly , we see that in this judicatory a church-man was moderator , in the verse and behold amariah the chief priest is over you . and fourthly , we see that the sentence of the court was execute by church-men in the end of the vers — also the levits shall be officers before you . all which being laid together , makes out clearly that under the old testament ●●●re was a church judicatory different from the civil . the second place is in jeremiah . . . . where we have these things to make out the present point . first , we see that there were two judicatories in the v. there is a judicatory of the priests and prophets condemning jeremiah as a false prophet : again in the . and ● . v. we see there is a civil judicatory made up of states-men when the princes of judah hard these things , then they came up from the kings house — &c. so it is plain they had a church judicatory for church matters , as well as a civil judicatory for civil matters . the second thing that we are to speak to in order to the proving of the first point , to wit , that there was a government of the church different from that of the state among the jews , is this , that as they had church judicatories different from the civil , so they had also church censures different from civil punishments , as we have amongst us . and first , publick confession of scandalous sins was in use among them , we shall clear it from one place of scripture ezra . . . and ezra the priest stood up , and said unto them , ye have transgressed — now therefore make confession unto the lord god of your fathers , &c. there is confession of sin appointed for a fault that was scandalous to wit , their marrying with strange wives . now this confession was not only private to god , nor on a fast day , but a personal publick acknowledgment , after particular examination of all one by one . and we gather this from the . v. where it is said — neither is this a work of one day or two — &c. and in the . v. three moneths was spent on the business , so that this was a personal acknowledgment given by every one of them , after the examination of their guilt , as we do in our church judicatories . secondly , besides this publick confession they had the censure of suspending scandalous men from the ordinances , as we do suspend from the sacrament of the lords supper ; we will find this in david his appointing of the offices of the priests . among the rest it is recorded of jehoiadah chron. . v , . and he set the porters at the gates of the house of the lord , that none which was unclean in any thing should enter in . they were suspended from the ordinances because of their uncleaness , and for the neglect of this the priest's are reproved in ezek. v , . her priests have violated my law , and have prophaned my holy things : they have put no difference between the unclean and clean neither between the holy and prophane . they let all come rushing together to the ordinances : and for this they are reproved . thirdly , they had among them the sentence of excommunication , which is set down under the name of cutting off from among the people . and in the new testament it is expressed by the name of casting out of the synagogue , which certainly was excommunication . it is a ridiculous alledgence that they say , by cutting off , was meaned the inflicting of temporal death by the sword of the magistrate ; for the uncircumcised man-child , he that had touched a dead body and did not wash after it , were to be cut off ; now who would think that such were to be put to death . the second thing to be made out is , that therefore there must be a church government under the new testament , seing it was so under the old ; and the reason is , because no necessity can be alleadged for a ●hurch government then , but the same necessity is now . is not the church a mixed multitude now , as well as then ? is there not as great need to separate betwixt the precious and the vile now , as then ? is not the church now a feild of wheat and tares as well as then ? is there not need to keep the ordinances pure now , as then , by the fence of government ? is there not need now to suppress sin as well as then ? is not christ perfect in all his house as well as moses ? yea , in a word there can nothing be alleadged for a necessity to have a church government under the old testament , but the same may be brought to prove the necessity of it under the new. the second argument we bring to prove this point is taken from the native end of church government which is spiritual , to wit — for the edifying of the body of christ : ephes : . . to gain the soul of our offended brother to repentence matth : . . it is — that the spirit may be saved in the day of the lord jesus . corinth . , . so the end of the church government is a spiritual end , and therefore it must have a divine original : church government whose end is spiritual can be no humane ordinance , for such produceth no supernatural effects ; therefore it must have a higher warrand for it than that of the magistrate . our third argument is taken from this , that all the substantials of church government are set down expresly in scripture , from which we make this argument : that government whose substantial parts are all set down expresly in scripture , the magistrate hath no power to alter it , or put an other in its place ; but so it is that all the substantial parts of church government are set down expresly in scripture : therefore , the magistrate hath no power to alter it . the thing we have to make out in this argument is this , that all the substantials of church government are set down in scripture ; and to clear this we shall reckon up five things . first that church officers have their warrand from scripture thess : . tim : . . let the elders that rule well , be counted worthy of double honour , especially they who labour in the word and doctrine . there is a ruler , or an officer with power to rule , established in gods house . what they say , that by ruling there is meaned preaching , because ministers guide people by preaching , is a frivolous exception : and that because of what is in the end of the verse — especially they who labour in the word and doctrine . so labouring , in the word and doctrine , is one thing , and ruling is another thing , and not one and the same , as their exception affirmeth . but we shall find a more clear place for it in heb. . . obey them that have the rule over you , and submit your selves there are officers established with power to rule , and the people are commanded to submit and give obedience to them , and so there are rulers , officers established in gods church . secondly , the courts and judicatories of the church have a warrand in gods word ; and for this see matth : . , . and if he shall neglect to hear them , tell it unto the church — verily i say unto you , whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven — the adversaries are so shamless that they say , by the church is here meaned , the civil magistrate , and that the complaint should be made to them : but it is sure the civil magistrate is not here meaned . and to prove it , the judicatory here meaned is that whereof the apostles should be members , and therefore in v , . it is said whatever ye [ to wit the apostles ] shall bind on earth — &c. now sure it is jesus christ gives no power to his ministers to sit in civil courts , and to judge of civil business . the third substantial of church government that hath warrand in the word is , the subordination of lesser judicatories to greater ; and this is warranted in act : , . where paul and barnabas come up from antioch , to a general council at jerusalem ( because the controversie in hand could not be ended at antioch ) where there is a court with power , they determine the question , censure the schismaticks , giving them the name of lyars v. . the fourth substantial of this government set down in scripture is , the order of proceeding in relation to censure . . by private admonition , then more pub●ick matth : . . the fifth thing is , the nature and kind of thir censures , which are not bodily , as taking● way the life ; but spiritual , to wit , admonitions , reproofs , casting out of the church , matth : — let him he unto thee as an heathen and a publican . now from all this , it evidently appears that christ hath set down all the substantials of church government in his word : and seeing he hath done so , what man dare alter it , taking any prudential way for the good of the church at his pleasure : yea there is a charge given to preserve all these inviolable till christs coming ; tim : . . i charge thee before god , and the lord jesus christ , and the elect angels , that thou observe these things , without preferring one before another , doing nothing by partiality . so that which christ hath set down concerning the government of his house is unalterable by any person whatsomever , till the coming of jesus christ. so much for the third argument . there is a fourth and it shall be our last , which is this , if so be that christ hath left his house without any particular government , only referring it to the civil state , to appoint what government they please ▪ it would reflect much on the wisdome of jesus christ ; for the church visible is his kingdom , his house , his vinyard ▪ his garden ; and shall we say that he hath appointed no laws to govern no courts to guide this kingdom , but left it to the civil magistrate , to appoint by whom and how it pleaseth him best : a king of clay would not do so with his kingdom , much less he who is the king of glory . this for the arguments to confirm the truth , we shall in the next place answer their objections . iii. the first is ( say they ) from tim : , . the word of god is able to make a man perfect ; and therefore there is no need of government . we answer , this same argument may as well strick against magistracy . but secondly , we say ( which we made already appear ) that the government of the church is grounded on the word ; hence their argument proveth not , because the government of the church is a part of the word , and is commanded by it ; and so it is not an adding to it : but if they say the bare preaching of the word is enough ; we answer , not to detract any thing from the word preached , which is the mean appointed by god to save souls , yet the exercise of dicipline is necessary also . it is necessary ( we say ) for three reasons . . to keep the ordinances of god from being polluted by the rushing foreward of dogs , and scandalous persons . all the preaching that can be , to bid scandalous men keep back , will not do . then . it is necessary for keeping the church from being infected by the contagion of scandalous men . hence sayeth the apostle paul , a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump : therefore put the incestous man from among you . . it is necessary for the good of the soul that is censured : so in the thess : . — note that man , and have no company with him , that he may be ashamed . and cor : . . excommunication serveth for the destruction of the flesh , that is , to tame and mortify its lusts : and so although the word be only the necessary mean for the converting of souls , yet it doth not follow that the government of the church should not be exercised , to wit , that the word may work the better . the second objection is this , that all the arguments we have to establish a church government by divine right are taken from the churches practice in the apostles time , and commands given them ; but it does not follow that what was then , should be a rule now ; and they give this as the reason of the difference ; because the magistrate was then a pagan , and so would not meddle with these things ; but the case is now otherwise when the magistrate is turned christian. we answer first , by this it is granted , that church government was an institution of christ , at least in the primitive times , now sure it is that every thing instituted by christ layeth on a perpetual obligation , except christ in his word hath set a period , that it should be only so long : so if this argument of theirs have any force , they must show from scripture that christ hath appointed this period for church government , so as it should be only in force under an idolatrous pagan magistrate : and that the power of it should cease under the christian magistrate : but no place of gods word can be given for the proof of t●is ; but on the contrary a command is given , that which christ delivered to the apostles , timoth. . should be keeped to his second coming , and therefore it remains a perpetual ordinance . secondly , we answer , that if this were true , then the case of the church should be worse under the christian than the pagan magistrate ; if so be that under the one , they have an intrinsecal power to purge and keep his church free from scandals , but not under the other , would not this be hard . thirdly , we answer , that the reasons for which the church did exercise government , in the primitive times , were taken from common equity , and so are binding to the church at all times . we find this cor. . . where a command is given to exercise discipline by excommunicating of the incestuous person : the reasons given are , first , the good of the mans soul verse . secondly , the good of the church to be keeped from infection , vers . . now the church is bound to see to these at all times . we come to the fourth thing , which is a word of vse : and it serves . to reprove those who think debates about the government of the church useless and of no value : to what purpose is it ( say they ) what be the government , and who governs , if sin be punished , and the word preached . i answer ' it is of much moment : for , from what is said it appears that church government is an ordinance of god , a part of his word , and they who evert it , or gives way to the everting of it , give way to evert a part of the word of god ; yea to the bringing down of the government of christs own house . it is a point of truth that concerns no less than the royal diadem of christ , and all who have got good of truth are bound to stand for it ; yea it is more than an ordinary truth : the question is concerning ch●ists kingdom , if he have a kingdom of his own distinct from the kingdoms of the world ; if he shall have ●is own laws , office-bearers , courts , censures , according to his will in his word ; or if all he hath left to that purpose be to scra●ched out , and the civil magistrate to appoint what laws , rules , courts , he pleaseth in christs house : so it is a point relating to his kingdom , a doctrine to be avowed , and a point of truth worth the sustering for , and which some have suffered for and boasted in it , yea it is a point of truth that hath this advantage beyond other truths , that christ hath suffered for it himself in his own person , for it 's clear that this was the only point he was accused on by p●late , and he avowed it luke . . that he had a kingdom , though not of the world , yet in the world. we shall find , that this point was chiefly laid to christs charge in john . . , , , . and this was the p●int that was driven home by the jews 〈◊〉 christ , john. . it was his 〈◊〉 on the cross , jesus christ of nazareth king of the iews . and this was the point that straitned pilate most , and put him to it to make christ suffer , joh. . so this point hath this advantage , that in a special manner christ s●ffered as a martyr for it : should any then think it a little thing to suffer for ? god forbid . yea we may think it an honour . the second use , if so be that church government is an ordinance of god , then those intrusted with it , such as ministers and elders , would discharge it as service to god , so as to be countable to him ; t●ere should be an other frame of spirit , when men are in church judicatories , than when they are in civil judicatories : these are ordinances of men , thir of god , and require more than a common frame of spirit . alas ( we may say ) for the unministerial like carriage of ministers and elders , may justly provoke god to thro us out altog●ther . a third vse of this point is , that seeing church government is an ordinance of jesus christ , then ye that are people should obey and submit to those that are over you in the lord , otherwise if it be not t●us looked on it may provoke the lord to remove the hedge from us ; and if this were , god knoweth what we would be : we are evil now , but if people got leave to do every thing that seemeth good in their own eyes , we could not but be much worse : ye see what ye are with it but know not what ye will be without it . and so much for the first head of erastian doctrine . head ii. the power of church government belongeth not to the civil magistrate . the second head of erastian doctrine , which we are to prove not to be of god , is , that whereby they affirm , that all the power of church government is in the hands of the civil magistrate . and here there are some differences among themselves : some giving him all power to dispence all church ordinances , and this as a magistrate , without a call from the church ; and so to preach and to administrate the sacraments : others again content themselves to ascribe to him only a power of jurisdiction to make church laws , to inflict church censures . and herein they also differ , some puting this power wholly in the hand of the magistrate : others conjunctly with the ministers ; a third placeth it in him as the fountain , and in church-men but as his deputes ; so that they are to act by vertue of a commission from him , and meddle only with these things that he gives them warrand for , and so to meddle with them as to be lyable to an appeal to him as the supream judge in all church matters . we contrary to all these shall make out this following assertion : to wit , that the civil magistrate as a magistrate hath no power either to preach , or administrate the sacraments , nor yet to make church laws , or inflict church censures , either by himself or others as his deputes ; but all this power doth belong wholly to church officers , ministers , and elders : which power they are to execute without dependency on the civil magistrate ; so that they are not lyable to appeals to his court ▪ neither hath he power to rescind the sentence pronounced by them . in following out of this point , we shall go on as in the former , we shall first clear the state of the question . secondly , we shall bring arguments for the truth , thirdly , we shall bring their arguments against the truth , and refute them . fourthly , we shall apply the whole to some use . . first , for clearing the state of the question take this assertion ; that however we do not give the civil magistrate power of church discipline , or the power of governing the church , yet we give him much power about church matters . our divines following the word of god , give the christian magistrate a threefold power about church matters . . a defensive protecting power . , a ruling power . and . a punishing power . first , they give him a defending power , and that is grounded on that promise made to the church in isa. . . and kings shall be thy nursing fathers , &c. by this power the christian magistrate is to do three things . . by his power he is to encourage , countenance , and advance by his authority and example the publick exercise of all gods ordinances ; and so defend the church in her liberties that are given to her by christ : this was the practice of those godly kings under the old testament : so did asa , chron. . to verse ● . and jehoshaphat . chron. . , . , . and other godly kings . they encouraged others in the service of god ; they countenanced them , and by their authority and example allured others to the practice of godliness ; which i ower christian magistrates have yet . . by this power they are to provide the church with all external necessaries ; as publick convenient p●aces of meeting for gods worship , and publick mantainance for the church officers , &c this we see was hezekiah's practice chron. . . moreover , he commanded the people that dwelt in jerusalem , to give the portion of the priests , and the levites , that they might be encouraged in the law of the lord. and it was jo●●ah's practice chron. . he repaired the house of the lord , the publick place of gods worship . . by this defending power of the christian magistrate , he is to remove all outward impediments lying in the way of god's worship , such as prophanity , idolatry , heresy , and blaspemy , as we did prove at length in the former controversy . secondly , we give to the christian magistrate a ruling power about church matters : by this power . he may convocate church judicatories , command them to meet , and to enact canons , and to make rules for governing the church ; although he cannot make church laws himself : so pious magistrates under the old testament did call synods , as david chron. . and he gathered together all the princes of israel , with the priests and levites . . by this power the christian magistrate is to confirm the acts of the church judicatories , and to give the force of a civil law : only herein we differ from the papists , they say the magistrate should do this blindly , he is only ( say they ) the churches echo to ●ay amen to what they conclude : but we say the magistrate is not to do this blindly , we allow to him a judgement of discretion to try whether what they conclude be right or not , and accordingly he is to add his authority or not ; and yet this makes him not a judge in church matters , but only a judge of his own actions . . by this power the magistrate is to take inspection of the carriage of church judicatories , so that all things be rightly managed by them ; so as if they should conclude a point of injustice , though he may not rescind their act himself ; yet he may command them to resume the the matter , take it to their second thoughts , give reasons to the contrair , exhort them to their duties from time to time , until the matter be rightly concluded : only it is still the church judicatory that must rescind their own act. by this ruling power the magistrate may do much : when the church is corrupt he may reform it : that is , when church judicatories are all wrong , that they will do nothing for his upstirring , in this case the magistrate may lay the church judicatory aside , and do that himself which they should do : his power in this case is extraordinary , he may reform by his own power , as godly josiah did king . and as asa and jehoshaphat . at such a time magistrates may do much this way : but extraordinary cases are not to be made ordinary rules . thirdly , we give to the magistrate a coactive punishing power about church-matters , and by this power we affirm that all the persons of church-men , and their goods are lyable to the civil magistrate in things civil : according to that , let every soul be subject to the higher powers ( contrary to what the papists teach ) so that if a church-man should commit a civil crime , the magistrate by his own power may punish him ; as solomon did abiathar . . by this coactive punishing power he may see to the observation of divine and church laws , and punish those that are contemners of them by civil punishments . there are several examples of this ; as that of josiah he made all the people stand to the covenant . now , by all that is said ye may easily perceive , that we give to caesar that which is caesars ; although we give him not what is gods : we give him much power about the church , but not the power of governing the church . we shall clear this by a simile , how the magistrate may have much power about church-matters ; although not power of governing the church : ye know the civil magistrate , or church sessions , have much power about matters belonging to husband and wife , parents and children , so as to censure and punish them for their unnatural carriage towards each other , and to see every one do duty to another ; and yet neither the civil magistrate nor church session hath marital or husbandly power over the wife , or parental power over the children so as they might challenge the same duties from them , to be done to themselves , which the wife oweth to her husband , or the children to the parents ; the husband and parents only have that power : so it is here , the magistrate hath much power about church matters , but he hath no church-power properly so called ; that belongeth only to christs own officers . secondly , for clearing of the question take this assertion , what we deny to the christian magistrate in the power of governing the church , we deny it to him only as a magistrate ; for so we laid it down in the conclusion to be proved , a magistrate as a magistrate hath no power in governing the church , otherwise if a christian magistrate be chosen an elder , he hath power of church government , being joyned with the rest : only we say as a magistrate he hath no power to govern the church . ii. we come to the second thing which is our arguments to confirm the truth , and the first argument is this that jesus christ hath given no warrand to the civil magistrate for the government of his church , and therefore he hath no right to it . , we say , that christ in his word hath given no warrand to the magistrate for governing his church : and this will appear from all these places where mention is made of any warrand given to any , of church government ; there is no word of the christian magistrate in any of them , only mention is made of apostles , ministers and elders : so in matth : . . the power of governing the church to bind and loose is given to peter in the name of the rest of the apostles , but no word of the civil magistrate . and matth : . . the power of excommunication is given to the church and if he shall neglect to hear them 〈…〉 be — &c. the church of ministers and elders hath the power , but no word of the civil magistrate and so in timoth : and titus the scope of which epistles is to instruct ministers concerning the right way of governing the church , what is spoken there , is spoken to them and to ministers succeeding to them , but there is no mention of the civil magistrate . and therefore we may conclude he hath no right from jesus christ for governing the church : and what he would challenge of that kind is but an usurpation and intruding unto that , to which he hath no right . our second argument is , if the power of the church government belong to a magistrate as a magistrate , then it belongeth to every magistrate but this were absurd . we say , if the power of governing the church did belong to a magistrate as a magistrate ▪ then it should belong to every magistrate , for whatever belongs to one as such , belongs to all such . now this hath many absurdities following on it ; for by this rule heathen magistrates might have power of church government , and be church governours , which were absurd ; for they are not church members . then secondly , women might be church governours , for they may be magistrates in some cases , and yet they may not speak in the church . yea thirdly , by this it should follow that children not come to age might have the power of church government , for they may be magistrates , when magistracy goeth by succession ; now children cannot have the power of church government for that power is not to be exercised by deputies , but by the persons themselves who are intrusted with it . a third argument to confirm the truth is this , that magistrates as magistrates are not church officers ; and therefore they have no power to govern the church . the consequence is clear , for if magistrates have power to govern the church , then they must be church officers , if any thing make a man a church officer , then power to govern the church will do it , for state government and state officers are relata , and have a mutual relation one to another , and so must church government and church officers have a mutual relation one to another : but in the next place it is evident , that a magistrate as a magistrate is no church officer , and that because among all that roll , set down in the word of god , wherein christ reckons up his officers , there is no mention made of the civil magistrate . ephes : . there is a roll verse . and he gave some apostles , and some prophets , and some evangelists and some pastors , and teachers . but no word of the civil magistrate : and in rom : , , . there is an other roll of church officers , but no word of of the civil magistrate — whether prophecy , let us prophecy according to the proportion of faith : or ministery , let us wait on our ministering : or he that teacheth , on teaching : &c. but neither in this place or any other is there any mention of the civil magistrate : only some of our adversaries mutter somewhat of cor : . . that by governments there mentioned is meaned the christian magistrate , but it is easily refuted , for the text speaketh evidently of such governours , as the church had at that time ; and god hath set some in the church — &c. now the church at that time had no christian magistrate , nor for above years after . so by governments cannot be meaned the christian magistrate but the ruling elder , who is often spoken of in other places . our fourth argument to prove this point is , that the church did enjoy full power of government within her self , and accordingly did exercise it , near years , before any magistrate was a christian , and so the church hath this power within her self yet . for the first part of the argument , it is evident if we consider : first , that which is not controverted , to wit , that in the space of years after christ , there was not a magistrate a christian : if we consider , secondly , that all this time the church had full power of church government within her self ; and therefore paul sayes to timothy tim : . . neglect not the gift that is in thee , which was given thee by prophecy , with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery . so they had power of ordination , power also to dispence censures , as excommunication . cor : . , — when ye are gathered together — to deliver such a one unto satan , for the destruction of the flesh , &c. and they had power to relax from excommunication : so cor : , . where paul commands to relax the excommunicate man from that sentence , sufficient to such a man is this punishment , which was inflicted of many . v. . so that contrariwise , ye ought rather to forgive him , &c. fourthly , they had synods meeting together , making binding canons to guide the church . act : . the synod of apostles , elders , and brethren meet together , determine a controversie , and censure those who had troubled the church . thus the first part of the argument is made out , to wit , that the church did enjoy full power of discipline within her self long before any magistrate became christian , and therefore it followes that this power is yet in the churches hand , and not in the magistrates . and that because if the church at that time had right to dispence this power , as undoubtedly she had , then they must make it appear how christ took this right from her and transferred it to the civil magistrate , which they cannot do . our fifth argument is to obviate that which they say , that ministers are but the magistrates deputes : from which we argue thus : if church officers in inflicting censures be the magistrates deputs , then whatever the church judicatory does the magistrate may do it also , for none can delegate more right to ther than what he hath himself : and so by this it should follow that the magistrate might ordain misters himself by imposition of hands , he might excommunicate ; and if he may do this , by consequence he might also preach , administrate the sacraments &c. for what right can be pretended to the one , which may not be extended to the other ; and so there should be no need of pastors and teachers , but the magistrate might do all . our last argument is taken from the distinction which the scripture holdeth out betwixt ecclesiastick and civil power , scripture condemneth church-mens usurping the civil power , and states-mens usurping the church power : church men are forbidden to judge or meddle with civil things by christ himself luk : . , . . and so the civil magistrate may not meddle with church power either : there are two kings we read of to be heavily punished for their transgression in this kind ; saul , for offering a burnt-offering sam : . . and vzziah , for burning incense chorn. . . he would go in and burn incense ; and therefore the lord smites him with leprosie . and surely reason would say , if it be a sin for church officers to exercise the civil government , then it is a sin for the civil magistrate to take to himself the only supream power of church government , and ingross it wholy to himself . iii. we come to the third thing we promised to speak to , and that was the answering of the opposites arguments . the first argument they bring against this truth is , that godly magistrates under the old testament had the power of church government : and therefore so should christian magistrates have it under the new. wee answer , that their argument proves nothing , except they also prove , that what power of church government magistrates had then , they had it as magistrates : for we grant indeed what did belong to magistrates as magistrates under the old testament , does belong to magistrates under the new ; but it may not be granted , that that which belonged to magistrates then under other respects , doth belong to magistrates yet . for clearing of this , it is to be observed that there were many magistrates extraordinary men under the old testament . so moses gives out laws and ordinances for ordering the church ; but we find in deut : . . moses was a great prophet and a type of christ. the lord thy god will raise up unto thee a prophet from the midst of thee , of thy brethren , like unto me ; unto him ye shall hearken . so david appointed the office of the levites that divided their courses ; but david was a prophet . chron : , . and he appointed according to the order of david his father , the courses of the priests to their service : thus in another place it is shown how david did this at the direction of other prophets , chron. . . and he set the levites in the house of the lord with cymbals , with psalters , and with harps , according to the commandment of david , and of gad the kings seer , and nathan the prophet : for so was the commandment of the lord by his prophets . and so from these and such like practices they can no more infer the power of the magistrate now in church matters , than we may infer the power of church-men in civil-matters from the example of church-men under the old-testament : for church-men did meddle with civil-matters in extraordinary cases : as eli the priest , he governed the state : and samuel , in cutting agag in pieces . elisha in anointing jehu to be king : and jeho●ada the priest , in causing kill attaliah the usurper , and making joash king. all which we grant were extraordinary acts , and so cannot be an ordinary rule for church-men to have such power in civil things now : and so must they grant concerning these extraordinary practices of civil judges , in medling sometimes with church matters . the second argument they use is this , if so be that magistrates were set over church officers to receive appeals from them , it would make them afraid to go beyond their duty : but if they have none above them , there is danger of their ambition and abusing of discipline . to which we answer , first , ministers are men indeed , and as other men , are ready to abuse their power ; but if the danger of abusing power be a good argument to take power from them , then there should be no power in the hands of any : for what kind of men are there to be found , who are not in danger to abuse their power , and so all must be left in confusion . we give a second answer , that the same argument may be used against the abuse of preaching the word , and administrating the sacraments , for the danger is as great ; and yet the erasitans ( the most part of them at least ) will not say that the magistrate , for preventing of this abuse , may step into the pulpit himself and preach better , and administer the sacraments better , there is another way to curb that abuse ; and so is it in the matter of governing the church , there is danger indeed of abusing that power : but we say in like manner , that for that the magistrate may not sit down and take the power of church government himself : there are other means left to prevent this danger : which shall be our third answer , wherein we shall show some of these means appointed by god for preventing the abuse of power in the hands of the church-officers : first , there are some remedies in the church power it self , to wit , the subordination of judicatories : so that although a congregational eldership should wrest justice ; yet there are above them presbyteries , and above them synods , and above them general assemblies . now it may be conceived that an act of injustice will hardly get through all those , before it be branded with some deserved mark : but secondly , though all church officers should connive one at another , and so the faults of ministers go through unpunished , yet there is some remedy left even in the civil power : for although , for the reasons foresaid , he may not take upon him the power of the church judicatory under pretence of righting their abuses , no more than he may take upon him to preach , for preventing their abuse of preaching : yet he may do several things . . if church officers commit a civil crime , he may curb them by his own authority . . if church judicatories meddle to judge in civil things which concern a mans life or estate , the magistrate may make null what they conclude and punish them for abuse of power ; for therein they medled with what belonged not unto them . . grant the matter be meerly ecclesiastick wherein they abuse their power , yet the magistrate may do somewhat here also : he may command them to resume the matter , he may compear in person and reason the matter , and bid them see to it in the name of the lord , and stir them up to judge it better , and he may go from one judicatory to another till he get this done : as for example , if it be a censure wrongously inflicted ; but yet it is still the church judicatory that must ranverse their own censure . the third argument they use against this truth is , if the power were put in the hands of the civil magistrate , it would be a mean to decide all the whole controversies about church government , which are managed with so much animosity on all hands : prelates plead that they should have the power of it : independents that particular congregations : presbyterians , that sessions , presbyteries , synods , general assemblies , should have the power of it , the former being subordinate to the latter , sessions to presbyteries , &c. hence ariseth all our debates : now were not this good to take it from all , and give it to the magistrate . we answer . it is a way to end the difference , such as solomon did to the two women striving about the living child , it shall be none of yours , a way that relished not with the kindly mother of the child , kings . . secondly , we answer , this argument may take with natural hearts who would buy peace at any rate ; but not with those who are taught of god to buy the truth and not to sell it ; for it holdeth out a way to end controversies , which is not god's : his way is to establish what is right , and to quite what is wrong : but this way tends to suppress both right and wrong , such peace-makers will not be blessed . thirdly , the presbyterians may borrow this argument against prelates , independents , erastians , and have better right to it , and so it will run thus : if church government were put in the hands of the presbytery , it would establish and settle all differences in the matter of church government betwixt prelates , independents , and erastians : now if this arment be good when they use it for them , it must be also good when it is used for us : but i doubt if they will admit of such like reasoning , and so neither can we . there is a fourth argument they use , say they , jeremiah appealed to the civil magistrate jerem : . and so paul act : . he appeals to caesar. we answer , let that place of jeremiah cap. . be read , and nothing will be found to prove that jeremiah makes any appeal to the civil judicatories : but secondly , though he had appealed , yet it does not prove that it is lawful to appeal to the magistrate in a church business ; for the sentence which the priests had past on jeremiah was civil , thou shalt surely die , v. . now it was the princes duty to see to it . that innocent jeremiah should not be put to death , especially by those who had no powet to inflict such a punishment . as for that instance acts . , . about paul's appealing to caesar , it makes nothing to these purposes ; he appeals only from festus , an inferior civil magistrate to the superior ; and this we are not against . but secondly ; though paul had appealed from a church judicatory , yet this makes nothing to confirm their doctrine : for the cause here whereabout paul was to be judged , was a civil cause , to wit , treason against caesar , and a thing worthy of death . now we do teach , that a church-man may appeal to a civil magistrate , when he is questioned about his life ▪ and for a civil crime ; but hence it followeth not , that we may appeal from a church judicatory , when the cause is ecclesiastick and no wayes civil . their last objection is taken from king. . . whereof they make much , the words are , so solomon thrust out abiathar , from being priest unto the lord : from which they argue thus : here is a civil magistrate inflicting a church censure , to wit , deposition of a church-man , to wit , of abiathar the priest , solomon thrust out abiathar from being priest unto the lord : therefore , christian magistrates have power to dispence church censures : yet we answer , solomon did nothing here but what we yeild to any magistrate , for a civil magistrate may inflict a civil punishment on any person whatsomever for a civil crime ; and so was the present case : abiathar's fault was treason , in assisting adonijah to the crown against solomon , appointed by god to it . secondly , the censure inflicted by solomon was not a church censure , but civil , to wit , banishment to anathoth , as appears from verse . and therefore what is mentioned in verse . he thrust out abiathar from being priest unto the lord , is not the censure directly intended by solomon , but that which followed upon his banishment from jerusalem , ipso facto ; because the office of the priests could not be exercised but at jerusalem . iv. in the last place it follows , that we give a word of use from all we have said . the first use , if so be that jesus christ hath appointed a government in his house , as is proven , to be exercised by his own officers , then know that those magistrates that would ingross this power to themselves , so as to have his courts and censures depending on them , or rather taken away , and others put in their place , do highly incroach on the regal power of our king jesus christ. and this seemeth to be the great sin of the times , atheists , prophane men , plead for it ; as looking for more forbearance to their lusts from civil powers , than from christs own courts . civil powers plead for it ; they are not content that christ let them reign , and that they let christ reign besides them ; but they must have him thrust out of his throne , and made to plead at their bar ; and so no wonder christ overturn kingdoms and governments : it was the parliament of england's fault , they feared lest christs courts should have wronged their priviledges ; hence they would not allow him his priviledges : they set up indeed a government in christ's house , but it was a lame one ; they durst not give christs courts their full power , but so as to be their deputes : and therefore they have dashed themselves against that corner-stone christ jesus , until they are struck in pieces , their fear is come upon them . what they feared from christs courts , they have met with at the hands of their own servants : our kings have still been afraid of this , and malignants also going under the name of royalists ; they thought they could not get their throne secure if so be christ got leave to reign besides them ; and this among many others hath made their throne shake . o that kings would be wise and kiss the son , it would be their wisdom to be faithful in what is committed unto them ; but for the government of his house it is not in their charter , and so a thing that will not thrive in their hands , their prudential laws and rules will do no good . secondly , yee would ground your self in this truth ; it may cost you much , and though it should stand you never so much , it is worth the avowing . christ himself suffered on this account ( as we have already shown ) and others of his servants have thought it their glory to be called unto suffering for it . who am i ( saith master welsh ) that he hath not only called me to be a preacher of glad things , but also to be a sufferer for his cause and kingdom ; to wittness that good confession , that jesus christ is the king of saints , and that his church is a most free kingdom ; yea as free as any kingdom under heaven : that she is free in her government from all other jurisdiction on earth except only christs : we are waiting ( saith he ) with joyfulness to leave the last testimony of our blood for the confirmation of this truth ; if it would please our god to be so favourable , as to honour us with that dignity . thus he. and who knowes how soon he may honour some of us with that dignity : a dignity indeed to suffer for the royal crown and diadem of our lord jesus . sect : iv. a brief refutation of the doctrine of independency . head i. the power of church government is in the church officers , and not in the body of church-members . the dayes by-past we spake against the doctrine of erastianism , and shew you , that however it had many fair pretences , yet it is to be reckoned among those doctrines which are not of god. we are now , with the lords assistance , to speak against the doctrine of independency , ye remember when we entered on these controversies about church government , we shew you there were four points of truth which we should labour to make good : the first was , that jesus christ the head of his church , had appointed in his word a way for the governing and ruling of his church , and that he had not left it to the power of the civil magistrate , king or parliament , to establish what way of government they please . the second point was , that this government of the church which christ established in his word was not in the hands of the civil magistrate , to be executed by him . thir two points we have made good in our former disputs against erastianism . the third point of truth is this ; that jesus christ the head of the church hath not committed the power of governing his church unto the body of believers , to the community of church members : but hath established it in the hands of his own officers , ministers , and elders . the fourth point of truth which we promised to prove was this , that jesus christ the head of the church hath not given particular elderships and church sessions , the supream power of church government in their hands , so as that there should be none above them to call them to an account ; but that they are subject in the lord to superior church judicatories ; such as presbytries , synods , and general assemblies . these two last points we are to make out in refuting this doctrine of independency . this error of independency above all other we may call a fountain error : it is the sluce , whereby an entrance is made to all other errors of what sort soever . this is the error whereby the most part of those that hath fallen from the way of truth these years by past , have been first hooked ; they first turned independents , yet rested not long there , but proceeded from evil to worse . our scope shall be in this as in the former points to show , that however it hath many fair pretences , yet when it is brought to the tryal , it will be found not to be of god. there are two main heads of this error of independency opposit to the two last points of truth , which we promised to make out . the first is , that whereby they affirm , that jesus christ has given the power of governing the church unto all those that are members of the church , although they be not ministers or elders : to the community of believers as they call it . the second head of their error is this , they do affirm that jesus christ hath intrusted particular congregations , elderships , or church sessions with the highest power of church government on earth ; so that there is no judicatory above them to call them to an account . as for the first head of their error which we are to speak against at this time . therein they have different opinions among themselves ; some affirming that the power of governing the church is given to the body of church members , the community of believers , without the minister and elders ; yea a power over them to ordain them , censure , depose them , and inflict all other church censures : others give them this power conjunctly with the church officers , ministers , and elders . secondly , some give only the power and authority to govern , to the church members ; but for the exercise of that power , they allow it to the elders : yet so as to the peoples deputs , to whom they must give an account : others give the people not only the power and authority , but also the exercise of this government ; so that the people may sit down in church judicatories themselves , enact church canons , inflict church censures &c. thirdly , some give them the exercise of this power only in some things ; as the excercise of the power of jurisdiction , to make church canons , and inflict church censures ; but not to preach . others give them a full exercise of authority to do all . we in opposition to all these , lay down this conclusion , which we shall labour to make good from the word of god , and solid reason ; to wit , that jesus christ hath not given to the body of church members , or to private christians either the power or exercise of church government , neither in whole nor in part , but hath intrusted it wholly to his own officers , ministers , and elders . i prosecuting this point we shall follow forth the former method . first , we shall clear the state of the question . secondly , bring arguments for the truth . and thirdly , we shall propone and answer their arguments brought against the truth . and fourthly , we shall shall apply the whole to some use . i. for clearing the state of the question , th●a it may be known what we do grant to private christians , and what we deny , several distinctions would be given . first , there is difference betwixt church power or authority , and christian priviledges : we do grant several christian priviledges to private christians , but these do not infer any church power , or authority of governing the church . as for example , we do grant to the people a power of electing their own officers , ministers , or elders , we grant to them a power to try the spirits whether they be of god. i : e : they are not to believe blindly what ministers say , but have a power to try what they say in relation to their practice , to pass a judgment of discretion upon it , whether it be according to the word or not . we grant these priviledges to the people but none of them doth infer any church power , which we clear in both . first , the peoples power in electing their minister , doth not infer any power of church government in them , and that because it is not the peoples election or their choise that makes the minister to be a minister , or gives him authority to exercise the ministerial calling ; but it is the act of ordination , by imposition of the hands of those who are church officers , that makes the man the minister , and gives him authority . we shall find this , acts , . where the peoples election and ordination by church officers is clearly distinguished . wherefore brethren , ( say the apostles ) look ye out among you seven men of honest report , full of the holy ghost , and wisdom ( there is the peoples election ) whom we may appoint over this busines , there is the church officers part : though the people look them out and choise them , that gives them not the power of their calling untill the church officers appoint and ordain them . secondly , the power of trying the spirits doth not infer any such power or authority of government in the people , otherwise it should follow that the people of berea , who did try pauls doctrine , act. . . and compared it with the word whetber those things were so , had authority over paul , which none will affirm . a second distinction to clear the state of the question is this , there is a great difference betwixt those to whom the authority of governing the church is given , and those for whom , or for whose good it is given : although we deny that the power of governing the church is given to private believers , yet we grant it is given for them . so all ordinances are given for the good of believers : as it is ephes : . . and he gave some apostles , and some prophets , aud some evangilists , and some pastors , and teachers : for the perfecting of the saints , &c. and in this respect cor : . , . all is said to be theirs — for all things are yours , whether paul or apollos or cephas , or the world , or life , or death , or things present , or things to come , all are yours , i. e. given for their good : but hence it will not follow , that because church discipline is given for them , that therefore they have the power of it ; for in this respect paul is given to every particular believing woman , and yet it does not follow that women have pauls authority . and so the body of the particular church hath not this power in their hands although the power be given for their good . a third thing for understanding the state of the question ; we do willingly grant to private christians power to admonish , exhort in the lord , out of charity : and this they may extend even to ministers , say to archippus take heed to thy ministry . but this liberty to admonish by way of charity , doth not import any church power in them over those whom they rebuke , no more than pauls rebuking of peter gal : . . doth infer a power in paul above peter . so ye see what we do grant to private christians ; and what we deny : the sum whereof is this . that jesus christ hath not given them any power of church government , or the exercise of it , either in whole or in part , but has intrusted it wholly to his own officers , ministers , and elders . this for clearing the state of the question . ii. we come now to arguments for clearing the truth , and the first is this , that jesus christ hath given no warrand to private christians for governing his house , or for the exercise of this government ; and therefore they have no right to it . the consequence must be clear : for none has right to play the part of a governour in christs church , except those who have a warrand in his word for it . now that private christians have no warrand in his word for governing the church , either expresly , or by good consequence , either by precept or promise , or any thing else , it is clear from this that in several places of the word this power is denyed unto them : so rom : . they must not exercise the power of preaching for how shall they preach except they ●e sent . v. . now the whole communi●y of believers cannot be sent , besides they have no ability to discharge this office , there is but one of a thousand that can convince gainsayers : is apt to teach , that is ; able to cut and divide the word aright ; and so they have no power to preach . and secondly , from this it will follow that they have no power to administrate the sacraments , for christ jesus hath joyned both these powers in one commission , he gives no power to any to aministrate the sacraments , but those to whom he gives power also to preach matth , . go ye therefore and teach all nations baptizing them-&c . power of preaching , and administrating the sacraments go together . and so seeing the one power is denyed to them , the other must be denyed also . thirdly , they have no power to ordain ministers , or to execute any other act of church jurisdiction , for they have no ability to try ministers gifts , there is no precept commanding them to do it , there is no practice in the new testament proving that ever they did it , as shall be more fully cleared in answering the arguments they bring for it ; and so they have no right to govern the church . the second argument for the truth is this , that this doctrine of theirs , whereby they give the power of governing the church to private christians , doth overturn the order established by jesus christ in his house ; and therefore they have no right to it : the consequence none may doubt of ; for nothing appointed by god doth evert the order established by himself . now that this doctrine of theirs , whereby they put the power of governing the church in the hands of the people , doth evert the order appointed by christ is clear ; because his order is , that some be watchmen , some watched over , some rulers , some to submit : some governours , some to be governed : some sheepherds , some the flock : but if so be that all the members of the church had the power of governing in their hand , then all should be overseers , watchmen , rulers , governours ; and none more than another , if so be that power to govern should flow from this , that they are church members ; for all are so alike . the third argument we bring for the truth is this , that to whomsoever christ jesus hath given warrand for governing the church , to those he gives promises of sutable abilities for discharging of that great trust ; but so it is , that jesus christ hath not gifted , neither promise to gift every christian , nor yet requireth he answerable gifts for government from them : and therefore he hath given them no warrand for governing the church . for the first part of the argument , that those to whom he gives the power of church government he doth also promise them sufficient abilities for their trust , is clear , for how could it stand with the wisdom of god to commit the great affairs of his house to those whom he hath not qualified to that purpose ; besides no instance can be given that ever he trusted any with those things , but he promised them furniture , and in some measure enabled them accordingly : so when he sendeth forth moses , jeremiah , isay , &c. he giveth them furniture ; and when he sendeth out the apostles he furnishes them for that end ; so john . , then said jesus to them again peace be unto you as my father sent me , even so send i you . there is the commission given them : and upon the back of this in v. . and when he had said this , he breathed on them ; &c. there is the furniture : and so does he to ministers whom he entrusts with this power , he promises them furniture , matth ; , — and lo , i am with you alway , even unto the end of the world. there a promise made to the apostles , and in them to the ministers , as appears from these following words even unto the end of the world. and so these promises could not be fully verified in the apostles , who were to die within a little , but in ministers their successors , to the worlds end . now it is very evident he hath neither made such promises to every particular believer , for governing the church ; neither doth he perform them unto them what ? is every believer furnished with that measure of knowledge , prudence , and wisdom , that is required for the right managing of the affaires of church government ? yea , god doth not require it of them : and so certainly it stands not with his wisdom to have committed the power of church government to all and every one of believers . this for ou● third argument . our fourth argument for the truth is , if so be that the power of governing the church belongeth to church members , then it belongeth to them either as they are gifted for it , and chosen out for that purpose : and if so , then we have our intent ; for then all are not church governours , but only those who are gifted and chosen , and so , church officers : or it belongs to them as believers , or church members , and if so , then it belongs to all , for every one is a church member as well as another , and every one that hath faith , is a believer as well as another , and whatever priviledge floweth from faith , belongs to every believer , the meanest as well as the greatest . so if the right of church government be grounded on faith and grace , then every believer , and none but believers , should have the right of it , from whence shall follow many absurdities ; as that children as well as parents , the simple as well as the wise ; women as well as men , may preach , administrate the sacraments , lay on hands in ordaining the ministers , sit in sessions , inflict censures , excommunicate , and what not . secondly , then none but believers should have right to church government . so none hath power to baptise , censure &c. but they that have grace . and upon this people should have reason to doubt whether they be rightly baptised or not , because they know not if the minister who baptised them had grace or not ; and if he wanted grace , he had no power of church government by this doctrine ; and so no power to baptise . we bring a fifth argument for the truth , and it is this , private christians are in no place of scripture acknowledged to be church governours , there are no names nor titles given to them , importing this power to be in them , as is given to church officers tim : . . let the elders that rule well , be counted worthy of double honour and corinth . . . and god hath set some in the church , first apostles , secondly prophets , thirdly teachers , &c. but no title of that kind is given to private christians ; yea they are set down plainly under names in opposition to governours : as the flock to overseers . acts . . take heed tberefore unto your selves and to all the flock over the which the holy ghost hath made you overseers . &c. yea and are commanded to honour , obey , submit to their governours set over them , and distinct from them , hebr : . . obey them that have the rule over you and submit your selves . &c. now it is strange to imagine , that christ should have intrusted them with highest power of government ; and yet in all the stiles he gives them , there is nothing imported of that power , but much of their subjection ; surely he hath not done so with officers , as we have shown ; and let any discover the reason of the difference . a sixth argument for the truth is this , if so be that the power of governing the church be given but only to some , then it does not belong to all ; but , so it is that the power of governing the church is only given to some ; therefore , not to all church members . the first part of the argument cannot be denyed ; for the second , that it is only given to some , see those proofs that limit this power only to some as ephes : . . and he gave some apostles and some prophets , &c. some and therefore not all cor : . . ( which we cited before ) and god hath set some in the church , first apostles , secondly , prophets , thirdly teachers , there are but some that he hath set for governing his house and therefore not all and heb : , . obey them that have the rule over you , and submit your selves &c. tim : . . ( as is likewise before cited ) there are some then that rule , to whom the rest ought to submit ; and so all are not rulers . there is a seventh argument for clearing the truth . and it is this , that power which jesus christ hath not set down rules and limits to order it by in his word , is not of god ; but he hath set down no rules how to direct the managing of church power in the hand of church-members ; therefore it is not of god. the first part of our argument , that whatever power is appointed of god , he hath set down rules how to order it , is very clear ; as we may prove by the enumeration of lawful powers : he hath set down rules how to regulate the power of a king , that he play not the tyrant ; he hath set down rules to regulate the power of masters , parents by : so the power in the hand of the church officers is regulated , that they rule with diligence , rom. . . and so through the epistles to timothy and titus : but so it is that he hath set down no rules to order church government by , in the hands particular believers . for in no place of the word will such rules be found , ye that are the flock govern the pastors and feed them , watch over the people of god , lay hands suddenly on no man. i say there are no such directions given to private christians ; and therefore this pretended power is not of god. our last argument for the truth is , if so be the power of governing the church doth belong to every church-member ; then every church-member is bound in conscience to attend all church judicatories , to wait on the deciding of all ecclesiastical questions : but what inevitable confusion would follow on this ? how long time would it take to inform people about the circumstances of things ? how tedious would it be to hear every mans judgment to the point ? and what distractions would it be to peoples callings ? this certainly would bring great confusion ; and so such a power as this cannot be from god , who is the god of order . these are now the arguments for the truth . iii. in the next place we shall answer their arguments brought against the truth . the first they use is grounded on coloss. . . a command there is given to the body of believers in reference to the minister , say to archippus , take heed to the ministry which thou hast received in the lord. from this they infer , that people have power to censure their minister ; and so have church authority . we answer , they make much of this argument , and yet it is little worth : for they build their power to censure upon this that they have power ( to say ) a poor reason . so matth. . . say to the church , or tell the church : it is the same word that is here used ; but to infer from this that one man had authority over the church , were very ridiculous . surely if he had commanded a judicial act of authority , he would have said command and charge archippus with all authority , as in the like case he speaks to timothy ; but as we shew in the state of the question , private christians have power to exhort and admonish one another , yea their pastors ; but this doth not import any power of church-government over others , else women who are not permitted to speak in the church , should have power of church-government , to make church canons , censure and ordain their ministers ; for they are bound to exhort and admonish as occasion offers . obj. . a second argument they bring from act. . . when peter comes up to jerusalem , verse . the people challenge him saying , thou wentest in to men uncircumcised , and didst eat with them , and verse , he begins to clear himself to them , and rehearsed the matter from the beginning , &c. and from this they reason thus : that the church hath power to call peter to an account ; and therefore they have power to censure for scandals . it s answered first . besides the people , there were apostles and brethren there verse . secondly , we answer , it doth not follow because peter purgeth himself of a scandal unjustly laid upon him , that therefore they had power to censure him ; for every christian is bound to clear himself to another christian of that which he is stumbled within his carriage ; yet one private christian hath not church power over another to censure : so peter was bound to clear himself before any one of them , and if he had done wrong , to take with it , but that that one could not be a church judicatory having power to inflict censure on peter , our opposits themselves will grant . obj. . a third argument they bring against the truth , is from revel . . . i have a few things against thee , because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of balaam . the spirit of god here is wri●ing to the church of pergamus , and after he hath commended them for their doctrine , he reproves them for not exercising discipline against these hereticks , to wit , balaam , iesabel and the nicolattans . now from this they argue , the whole church is reproved here for not executing discipline against these hereticks ; and therefore they had power to do it , otherwise they would not have been reproved for the neglect of it : but that all were reproved , they prove from vers . . and its connection with the . say they , these who are commended in the . are rebuked in the verse , i know thy works , and where thou dwellest , even where sathan's seat is , &c. but so it is , that not only the ministers and elders , but all the people , dwelt where sathan's seat was : therefore they all are reproved answer , it followeth well that they are all reproved for one fault : but not that they were accessory to it after one and the same way . it was the rulers part judicially to cast out these vile hereticks : it was the peoples part to have stirred up the rulers to it : now because these were neglected on both hands , both have their own guilt ; and so both reproved for their respective guilt : the people are reproved for not mourning to god for the tollerating such like abominations ; and their not stirring up the rulers to take course with them : but it will not follow that they were reproved for not sitting down in the judicatory and inflicting censures themselves , that was the rulers fault : and therefore we deny that they are all rebuked for their accession to that guilt in the same way ; and we clear it thus , doubtless the teachers did not teach against these vile hereticks ; now there were women there , and yet surely they are not rebuked for not preaching against them , for they ought to be silent in the church : so their fault , as of all other church members , was of another kind , to wit , their not mourning nor stirring up the officers : and so it followes that it was their duty to mourn , stir others up to their duty , which we grant . but not to exercise the power themselves , for that is not the thing they are reproved for . obj. . the fourth objection is grounded on mat : , , if he shall neglect to hear them , tell it unto the church : but if he neglect to hear the church , let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican . whence ( say they ) the power of church censure is in the hand of the church ; but so it is church officers are never called the church ; neither can they be so called without the body of the people : therefore the power of the church censures is in the hand of the body of the people . wee answer , this argument will make more against them than us , and that because they grant that neither women nor children have hand in church government , but only professing men : now they shall get no place in scripture wherein the name of the church is given to the body of the men assembled without women and children . secondly , we grant that the name of the church is very sparingly given to officers without the people : yet we say . . 't is given them in some places ; as for example acts . . it is said of paul. when he had landed at caesarea , and gone up , and saluted the church , &c. now by the church here certainly cannot be meaned the body of profess●rs which did amount to many thousands of people as shall appear from acts . . in its own time : so by the church must be meaned the chief men and rulers of the church . for paul having so short time to stay , he seeing them but at the by , could not have saluted every one , man by man ; and therefore certainly , it must be the prime men of the church . but secondly , the name of the church is very usualy given to rulers and judges whether ecclesiastick or civil , without the people in the old testament , so psalm , . god standeth in the congation of the mighty : the same word rendred there congregation is rendred the church elsewhere ; and by the congregation there , is meaned the judges , and not the people : so we find it taken for the rulers by comparing exod : . . . with deut : . . chron : . . where solomon takes up the whole congregation with him : and yet that congregation is exponed v. . to have been chief-men and rulers , so that usualy in the old testament , the word ( church ) is taken from rulers . and thirdly , it must be so taken in this place also , for in the verse following he telleth what a church he meaned by , v , , verily i say unto you , whatsoever yee shall bind on earth , shall be bound in heaven : &c. speaking to the apostles : so it must be the church of rulers who are so called , because they represent the church , doing her business wherein she is concerned . objection fifth , this were ( say they ) to establish a yoke of tyranny over church members , if power be put in the hands of officers to make acts binding to them , and they to have no hand in making these acts themselves . we answer it is no yoke of tyranny to instruct officers with power to be over the people in the lord : to rule them according to his will ; to make use of their power not for destruction but for edification . and this is all we do teach . it s true , church officers may abuse their power , but there is no power were it never so good but coming in mans hand may be wrongly used . but secondly , there is as great danger of tyranny in the independent way , and more also , than in this ; for if the major part of the congregation should enact what is wrong , and press it on the fewer and better part ; would not that be tyranny ? and surely there is as great liklyhood of this , as of what they say , that the eldership may press unjust acts upon the congregation : and as it is as likly , so it is more remeedless , for though a congregation or any in it be wronged by the elerdership , they have a superior judicatory to complean to , according to our doctrine : but if the lesser part of the congregation be wronged and tyrannized over by the greater , according to their doctrine , there is no power under heaven to right the wrong , to call the oppressing party to an account : so of all governments under heaven independency is the most tyrannical . obj. vi. the sixth objection they bring against the truth is from matth : . . where christ sayes i will give unto thee the keyes of the kingdom of heaven : and whatsoever shall be bound on earth — &c. it is agreed on by both sides , that by the keys there is meaned , the power of governing the church . now from this place they would infer that the keys are given to the body of the people : we shall propone and answer three of their objections , whereby they labour to prove this consequence : the first is this , the keys are given to the church built on the rock whereof christ spake in the preceeding , v. but sure it is , all that are believers are built on this rock ; therefore the power of the keys are given unto them . we answer , what they say that the power of the keyes are given to the church built on the rock , is said without a ground ; for he doth not say vnto this church built on a rock do i give the keys of the kingdom of heaven ; but i give it to thee peter : sure none needs to learn our lord to speak ; and this change of person is not without a reason , in the preceeding verse , he says — upon this rock i will build my church . now if christ had meaned to have established the government in the hands of the body of the church , he might have as easily said unto this church will i give the keys &c. but he says not so , but changes the person , unto thee to wit , peter will i give the keyes besides this also every believing woman is a part of this church built on the rock ; and yet according to their own grant , the power of the keys is not given unto them . the second argument they bring from this place is this : the power of the keys is given to those whom peter did represent : but , peter did represent all believers , the body of the church : therefore , the power of the keys is given unto them . for answer to this , we deny what is affirmed , that peter in this place doth represent all believers , he doth but represent the rest of the apostles , and those who were to succeed to the apostes in preaching the word and administrating the sacraments : and this we shall make good from other places of scripture wherein the grant of this power is renewed and confirmed : the first place is john . . then said iesus to them again , peace be unto you : as my father hath sent me , even so send i you , and v , ; whosoevers sins ye remit , they are remitted unto them , &c. where it is clear the above mentioned grant is renewed , and renewed to the apostles . secondly , he did not only represent the apostles , but all ministers who succeed to the apostles in preaching the word and administrating the sacraments ; as in plain also from matth : . , . where ye will find these things clear . . that there is a grant of power by jesus christ unto the apostles . that this grant is made there not only to the apostles but to these who should succeed to them in preaching and baptizing to the end of the world : for it is said — lo i am with you alway ; even unto the end of the world. and so from this we retort the argument on themselves , that the power of the keys is given to these whom peter did represent : but , so it is , peter did represent the apostles , and ministers who were to succeed to them in preaching the word &c. and therefore , the power of the keys is given unto them . they argue thirdly from this place that the grant of the keys is of as large extent as peters confession v. , thou art christ the son of the living god. now this confession belongs to all believers , and so also must the power of the keys , we answer , . that the grant of the power of the keys doth belong to all who hold out peters confession , hath no ground but their own assertion . and . we say it is false , for this confession belongs to all faithful women and children as well as men , who yet by our opposits own concession have not the power of the keys . their last objection is taken from cor : . . where the apostle commands the church of corinth to excommunicate the incestous person to deliver such a one unto sathan , for the destruction of the flesh , that the spirit may be saved in the day of the lord jesus . now , say they , this command is given unto all the church , because there is no exception , and therefore not to elders only ; as also the command is as large as the reproof in v. . and ye are puffed up , and have not rather mourned , &c. now sure it is there were moe reproved than the church officers ; and therefore the command belongs to others than these . in answering this argument , we shall first retort it on themselves , for if so be the argument hold good it would follow that women and children had power of excommunication ; for if the command be to all without exception , then they are not excepted ; and if the command be given to all to whom the reproof is given , then it is to them , for doubtless women and children mourned no more than the men : and so they should have power to excommunicate also : now this were absurd and against themselves ; and so the two main pillars whereon they build their argument , fall to the ground ; to wit , that the command is given to all without exception ; and that it is of a like latitude with the reproof . but secondly , we answer to the point , that all who are acquaint with scripture know that god useth to give commands indefinitly to the whole church , which he will not have applyed to every one in the church but only to those persons to whom , according to their respective callings , interest , or relations , the command doth belong : we shall make this clear from cor : . . where paul speaketh generally to the saints at corinth : ye may all prophecy one by one , &c. the command is given indefinitly to all , and yet sure it is not the apostles mind that all to whom he writs should do this , but only they who had abilities and a call to it ; and therefore he sayes in the preceeding , chap. . are all apostles ? are all prophets ? are all teachers ? &c. so in thess : . . and to esteem them very highly in love for their works sake , &c. now if this be a duty lying on all to whom the epistle is directed , then the ministers had been to esteem highly to themselves for their own works sake ; for the epistle is written to them among the rest ; now this were absurd and so it must be intended for the people . so is it here the command is given indefinitly to all , yet the matter is not to be done by all , but only by some , to wit , the church officers , and this appeareth evidently from cor. . . he was speaking to them concerning the same case in hand , to wit , the relaxing of the incestous man from excommunication , and sayes he , sufficient to such a man is this punishment which was inflicted of many . now he doth not say inflicted of all ( as they would make the words bear ) but inflicted of many : yea ( as the learned observe ) the word ( many ) signifieth , the chief ones ; it is the same word that is matth : . — a greater than jonas . so paul explaines himself , that it was not all but the chief ones , to wit , the rulers , by whom the censure was to be inflicted . and this now for answering their objections . iv. in the nixt place we shall come , and apply the whole purpose to a threefold use. and the first is : seeing this error , as we have now made evident , it is not of god : i would have you suspecting fair pretences that a doctrine may be coloured over with ; there is no error that hath a fairer pretence than this hath : it is the liberty of the saints , say they , should not they judge others ; a fair pretence ; and yet it is but the same that korah dathan , and abiram had , and so we need to stumble the less at it — ye take too much upon you ( said they ) seing all the congregation are holy every one of them , &c. numb- . . the second vse is to private christians , that ye would do your duty : and secondly , content your selves with your duty . and first do your duty , whereof many come short . doubtless many at the hearing of this doctrine will cast off all care , seeing the care of the church is laid on the officers thereof ministers and elders ; nay but as we shew in the clearing of the state of the question , although power of governing the church be not in the hands of all believers , yet there is a duty lying on them to admonish and exhort , even their ministers , say to archippus take heed to thy ministry . yea it is a duty lying on private christians , that when your private admonition doth not the business , ye are bound to delate it to the church : we see this matth : . where christs institutes this order v , . . to tell thy brother privatly , and if that will not do , bring two or three moe witnesses with thee : then if that do it not , tell it to the church : so it is a duty lying on every church member to admonish and rebuke , even their ministers and elders ; to stir them up when slack , and when that will not do , to tell it to others . and we would charge you to make more conscience of this duty than usually ye do . a second part of your duty we told you was to try the spirits in reference to your practice , ye are not bound to take a doctrine on trust from ministers , tho apostles , nay not from angels — though we , or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you , than that which we have preached unto you , let him be accursed . galat. . . and private christians come short of this part of their duty also ; many seeking no other reason of their faith than what ministers preach , it is a loose ground ; for ye are commanded to try the spirits . but secondly , as ye would make conscience of your duty , so ye would content your selves with your duty , ye would look on church officers and reverence them ; ye are not to say , what is more in them than in our selves , may we not be as fit as they , they may erre as well as we : grant it be so , yet they are gods ordinance , appointed by the god of order , and he who reproacheth them , reproacheth his ordinance , and breaketh down the hedge appointed by god. the third vse is directed to church officers , those whom the lord hath instructed with this power , ye would make use of it for edification and not for destruction , ye should so carry your selves in your places as not to tempt the people of god to despise your office. when the lords people hear of an elder to be a tipler , or a swearer , it is a temptation to them to despise both that elder and his office : many surely in this are stumbling blocks to people , as eli's sons made the people abhorr the offering of the lord. the truth is , it is no great wonder that the government of the church be losing weight in the minds of many , if it were but for this one reason , that they who are intrusted with it do not labour to beautify it ; it is looked on by many as a place of respect and not of office ; if a man be richer than his neighbour , he thinks he is not respected if he be not an elder ; and having goten the name he cares for no more : now , is that the way either to make people respect thy person or thy office. let me obtest and charge all of you who have taken on this heavenly calling , as ye will answer on your hazard to jesus christ the chief sheepherd that ye would study by all means so to walk in it , as to beautify it , and that so much the more , as the devil is labouring to disgrace it . and this now for the first head of independency . head ii. the highest power of church government is not in church-sessions , or congregational elderships . we come now to the second head , and it is , that , for which mainly they are called independents : the point they affirm is this , that every particular church session or congregational eldership is instructed with the highest power of church government on earth , so that there is no power in the church above them to call them to an account , when they go wrong , to rescind any act once concluded , though it were never so unjust : they grant that a synod of ministers and elders may meet to consult about matters , but withall affirm , that they have no ecclesiasticall power to command in the lord any congregation whatsoever : so that if a man be wronged by a session : as for instance , if he be unjustly censured ( as it may very readily fall out ) he must sit with his wrong , there is no power to right it till christ come in the clouds : or if a particular congregation divide , turn hereticks , run wrong ( as many of the independent congregations doe ) there is no church power to heal the breach , unless it be by giving an advice , which they may either follow , or not follow , as likes them best . we again grant , that particular elderships have a power from jesus christ to exercise discipline in these things which concern the congregation in particular ; but as for other things of more publick concernment , that is to say , things that concern other congregations as well as them , these ought to be handled by a superior judicatory ; and that even in those things of particular concernment , they are lyable to appeals , and the inspection of the superior judicatory ; so that wherein they shall be found wrong , partial , or erronious , they may be called to an account . for shewing the fashood of this error ▪ as also for the vindicating of the government of the church of scotland , that is now so much spoken against , we shall labour to make out , with the lords assistance these three truths from the word of god. the first it this : that , besides the power of church government that christ hath given to particular elderships , there is also holden forth in his word , a plat-form or a copy of the government of many congregations by one presbytry over them all in common . the second truth that we shall make out is this : that besides the church government that christ hath established by presbytries , there is also holden out in the word greater church judicatories , to wit , synods made up of commissioners from several presbytries instructed with power of church government from christ also . and thirdly , we shall labour to make out this truth , that the inferior judicatories are to be subject to the superior ; as sessions to presbytries , presbytries to synods , synods to general assemblies : so that the superior judicatories have power over the inferior in the lord , to receive appeals from them , and complaints 〈◊〉 them , to censure them for miscarying in the matter of discipline , and to enact church canons or conclusions binding to them , which inferior judicatories are bound to obey in the lord. ¶ i. there is a platform of the government of many congregations , by one common presbytery holden out in scripture . concerning the state of this question i only premit this , that however we have the very name of this presbytry whereabout we dispute holden out in tim : . . whereby i might easily show is meaned the presbytry we plead for ▪ yet we shall not dispute about names ; though the name were not , yet it is sufficient that the thing be in it , and this we shall make good , to wit , that in scripture is holden out a pattern of the government of many congregations by one common presbytry . the proof of this point we might instance almost in all the churches that were planted in the apostles time : as in the church of jerusalem , the church of antioch , ephesus , thessalonica , corinth , and of rome : we might easily make it appear that those churches were not single congregations , but presbyterial churches , under one common government : but in stead of spending of time in pointing out this in all these churches , we shall instance it only in the church of ierusalem ; that by this one ye may know what to judge of the rest . and first concerning the church of jerusalem planted by the apostles , we shall labour to make out thir two things . . that in that one church there were many particular congregations . and . that all these particular congregations made up but one church , and was guided by one common presbytry , and judicatory , set over them all in common . which two being made out , the point we intend will appear evidently , to wit , that there was here a government set over many congregations in one common judicatory ; such as our presbytry is over all the particular church-sessions in the bounds . the first thing we shall make out is this , that there were moe congregations in the church of jerusalem than one , and this from four grounds . first , from the multitude of church members that were in jerusalem . secondly , from the multitude of pastors , teachers , and elders , that were there , moe than could get work in one single congregation . thirdly , from the diversities of languages that were among the people of that church . and fourthly , from the way of their meeting and the place they resorted to for gods service . and first , for the multitude of church members that was at jerusalem , if we compare place with place , we will find that they amounted to many thousands , and so behooved to be moe than one single congregation . take a view of some of these places acts . . they are numbred to be about ane hundred and twenty . and act. . . there are added unto them about three thousand souls : and then in v. . there is daily addition of moe and moe — the lord added unto the church daily such as should be saved . act. . . we see yet a greater increase ; there are about five thousand — and the nu●ber of the men was about five thousand , concerning which five thousand it is necessarly to be understood that they were added presently , excluding the rest of the numbers before spoken of , for the last part of the verse must be exponed according to the first part : howbeit , many of them which heard the word believed , now certainly that is meaned of others besides those that were before added ; and so this five thousand must be a new number , fiftly , in acts . . besides all these it is said and believers were the more added to the lord , multitudes both of men and women . and sixtly , in act. . . and the word of the lord increased , and the number of the disciples multiplied in jerusalem greatly , and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith. they multiplied , and multiplyed greatly ; and these were not only the common people , but the leaders and priests also , who doubtless would bring multitudes with them by their example : now all these being considered , any understanding man may easily conceive , that so many thousands , as these would amount to , behooved to be cast in moe congregations than one , and could not be one single congregation . before we proceed to the second ground of our proof , we shall shew you first what they say against this : there are three things mainly they object : and the first is , that the most part of those who were converted by the apostles were strangers , who had not their dwelling at jerusalem ; and so did not remain members of that church : and for this they cite act : . , . where it is reckoned that among the number of the hearers , there were parthians , and medes , and elamits , and the dwellers in mesopotamia , &c. to this we answer that though those men came out of those far countries being godly men , who come in expectation of the messias his coming , who was then expected ; yet they were dwellers in jerusalem for that time , and for this see act : . . and there were dwelling at jerusalem jews , devout men , out of every nation under heaven . so they had taken up house and were dwelling there : and in v , . where peter began his preaching he sayes — ye men of judea , and all ye that dwell at jerusalem , be this known unto you , &c. secondly , we answer , dwell where they please , they were members of this church at jerusalem ; and this appears from several things that are ascribed to them by the holy ghost , which cannot be spoken of any but members of that church : so in verse . it is said — and the lord added them unto the church daily . secondly , in verse . they continued daily with one accord in the temple , and breaking bread from house to house , &c. thirdly , in verse . they sold their possessions , and gave their goods into the church treasury , for the help of the poor . and fourthly , we find in act. . . that they all joyned in choosing the deacons and officers of the church . now sure these are actions that belong to none but church-members . this for their first objection . their second objection is this , say they , the holy ghost sayeth expresly , that they did meet all at one place , as if it were on purpose to evince our argument , and that the whole multitude did come together , as for instance act. . . it is said , they were all with one accord in one place , and in the same chapter verse . they continuing daily with one accord in the temple , &c. and it is also said , act. . . then the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them , &c. and verse . and the saying pleased the whole multitude . now to take off this exception which seems to be the most plausible of their objections : first , consider what we spoke from the scripture of their number , and what thousands were in this church : and let any reasonable man conceive how it could be possible that all those should meet in one place ; and therefore that meeting in one place must be taken in another sense : it 's observed by the learned , that the word here turned , meeting together in one place , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth not always signify a meeting together in one room , but the agreeing of the affection and judgement in one thing : and for the clearing of this they cite , act. . , — why did the heathen rage , and the people imagine vain things ? the kings of the earth stood up , and the rulers were gathered together against the lord , &c. now it is the same word that is there turned ( in one place ) which is here turned ( gathered together ) and certainly no place of scripture will prove that herod , pontius pilate , jew and gentile did all meet in one place to consult about the death of christ : but only they agreed in one judgement , and hearty affection about it : and so the meaning may well be taken thus , in t●is other place . but yet to speak to these places further : for act. . . that they were all with one accord in one place , it makes nothing against our argument : for the number was not then so great , as we shew it grew afterwards , and so they might well meet in one place . the same answer we give to that in verse . they continuing daily with one accord in the temple . they were not then come to the full number that afterward they came to : so that although they might all have continued in the temple at that time , yet afterwards they could not . and secondly , we answer ; it doth not prove the point they bring it for , it is only mentioned they came to the temple to hear the word , but not that they were all of one congregation , partaking of all ordinances in one place ; for it is said afterwards , they brake bread from house to house , meaning the sacrament of the lords supper , which they did partake of from house to house in their particular congregations : so that place makes more against our opposits than against us : for the other place in act. . . when the apostles and believers were come to a greater extent , yet the apostles call the whole multitude to them , and it is said , the saying pleased the whole multitude . to this we answer , by the whole multitude cannot be meaned all before spoken of : and therefore we say , by the whole multitude , is meaned a great multitude : as in that of luke . . where it is said , that the whole multitude of the countrey of the gadarens round about , &c. it is not to be imagined that man and mother-son , or every individual person came out to meet christ , but only a great multitude ; or otherwise the whole multitude may be taken , for the whole multitude of those that were present , as luke . . and the whole multitude of the people were praying without , when zacharias was offering incense . now this must not be understood that all the multitude of the people of jerusalem was there , but only of the whole multitude that was present . this for their second objection . their third objection is this : though it be granted that the number of believers was such before the persecution that fell out , act. , . yet when that persecution came , there were no more left than might meet in a single congregation , for the text faith , they were all scattered abroad throughout the region of judea and samaria , except the apostles , to this we answer , that if it be granted that there were moe congregations before this persecution ; then it makes out the point we are to prove . but secondly , neither do we yeild that which they affirm , that by the persecution mentioned act. . . the multitude was brought to such a few number , as they could make up but one congregation ; it is said indeed , they were all scattered except the apostles : but by this ( all ) is not meaned all the professors , but all the preachers , and there are several reasons to prove it ; for it is said , saul made havock of the church , verse . now if he had meaned that all the professors were scattered , where should saul have gotten men and women to hail to prison ; and that this was done in jerusalem , paul himself acknowledges , act. . . a second thing to prove that this ( all ) that was scattered , was the ( all ) of the preachers and not of the professors , is that in verse . where it is said , they were scatered abroad , every where preaching the word , so that it astricts the scattering mainly to those who were preachers : for certainly the whole multitude could not have gone to preach the word . and thirdly , the apostles remain still at jerusalem , as appears from the first verse , now to what end and purpose should the apostles have stayed there behind the rest , except there had been several flocks there , with whom they stayed with the hazard of their lives to confort them against the persecution , which had driven their preachers from them . but a second answer is , that however they had been so scattered in the beginning of the persecution , that there was no more of them than made up a single congregation ; yet in process of time they so multiplyed , that they behooved to make up many congregations : and for this ye may find out several places , as act. . . they were multiplied , and act. . . speaking of jerusalem , the word of god grew and multiplied . but we shall take one place for all , in act. . . where the elders relate to paul the exception that the people had taken at him for his going to the gentiles — thou seest , brother , how many thousands of jews there are which believe , &c. now the word rendered thousands in the greek is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies ten thousands ; so there were not only thousands , but ten thousands ; yea , and many ten thousands there ; and so moe than could be edified in one single congregation . and that these were of jerusalem , is clear from verse . they are informed of thee , &c. and from verse . — the multitude must needs come together , &c. now this is from the first ground of our proof . . the second ground from whence we are to prove , that there were moe congregations in the church of jerusalem than one , is taken from the multitude of christs officers ; that there were so many that it had been a shame for them all to wait upon one flock : we find the apostles were there , as in act. . . about the choosing of the deacons : we find they were also there in acts . v. . now besides the apostles we find there were other church-officers in jerusalem , as in acts . verse last . there were elders there , where he is speaking of jerusalem , as it appears in verse . besides there were prophets in it , as in verse . of the same chapter , and in these aayes came prophets from jerusalem unto antioch . and it is the judgement of several interpreters , that the seventy disciples whom christ sent out to preach , were still at jerusalem ; and that they were of the number of these hundred and twenty mentioned act. . . now let any man consider if it was likely , especially when the harvest was so great , that so many of the apostles should be ordinary hearers of the word , and only one but to speak ; especially when we consider , that when christ sent out the twelve disciples only , he sent them not out all together , but two by two ; and so certainly a wise man may well conclude , that there behooved to be moe congregations there than one , yea many congregations . this is for the second ground of our proof . the third ground is taken from the multitude of languages that were in jerusalem , act. . , , . . . and act. . which diversity did necessitate them to enjoy the ordinances in divers distinct congregations in their own language ; and that it might be so , the spirit furnished the apostles with diversity of languages . the fourth ground to prove this point is taken from the way of their meeting , which was not in void capacious rooms built for the purpose , as we now have ; for they had not then the civil magistrate for them , to allow places of meeting for the purpose ; but only in private houses , upper chambers , houses allowed to them by private christians ; as act : . . and surely it cannot be conceived that their houses could contain so many thousands ; and therefore of necessity they could not meet all in one congregation . thus we have made out the first point , that there were moe congregations than one in jerusalem . we might prove the like in the other churches of ephesus , antioch , corinth , rome , thessalonica , that there were moe congregations than one there also : and that from the multitude of believers the scripture speaks of , the multitude of preachers , diversities of languages ; but for brevities cause we pass to the other point , which is the second thing we have to make out , and it is this . ii. that all these congregations in jerusalem were under one government , there was one common judicatory that ruled them all in common , as our presbytry is over all the congregations within its bounds : and for clearing of this we lay down three things . the first is that although there were many particular congregations at jerusalem , yet they are called but one church : so in several places they are called the church , act : . . . . &c. and by the way this refutes one of the independent tenets , whereby they affirm : that the name of church is never given under the new testament , but to those who meet ordinarly in one place , for the discharging of all parts of gods worship . but to the argument , for what reason could they be called one church ? not because they met together in one place for the ministration of the word , sacraments and prayer ; for those were dispensed to them in their singular congregations severally , and so certainly they are called one church ; because they were under one government , one eldership above them to govern them : as the church of scotland is called one church , because all her congregations are governed by one general assembly . secondly , we add to the former , in this one church , made up of many churches we find there are ruling elders ; so we find in act : . . and act : . , . and when they were come to jerusalem , they were received of the church , and of the apostles and elders , &c. now they are not called the elders of a particular flock at jerusalem ; but the elders of the church ; and therefore did meet in one common judicatory . the force of this argument cannot be spoken against by our opposits , who prove their particular elderships from the same ground as in act : . . mentioning of the elders of the church of ephesus ; from whence they reason thus : ephesus was a particular congregation , we read there were elders in this church , therefore there was an eldership who met together for governing that church in common . they must give us liberty to reason that same way thus , we find at jerusalem was a church made up of many particular churches , we find elders in this church ; therefore there was an eldership who met together for governing of this church or these churches in common . but thirdly , to make this argument yet stronger , not only there are elders in this church , but we find they meet together for acts of jurisdiction , belonging to the whole church in common . for proof of this see act : , . the contribution that is gathered for supply of the saints is sent to the elders : now what the elders should do with it , may be gathered from a place like it act : . . . where it is said : they sold their possessions and laid down the price at the apostles feet . and distribution was made unto every man , according as he had need . so doubtless the contribution was given to the elders , for this end that they might have distributed the same to the poor in the whole church ; and so it was an act of government tending to the good of the church . further we find this more clear act : . . they meet together , and judicially set down a way to paul for removing of a church scandal , by satisfying the offended , and purifying himself after the manner of the jews , in v , . do therefore this , &c. so we see their elderships meeting together for removing a scandal . we find a third place to confirm this ; act. . . , we shall afterward make use of the whole chapter to prove the power of synods ; only this much at present to the purpose in hand . we find the elders met , and make binding acts to the churches under them . so we have made out the first point , that there is a government of many congregations under one presbytry holden out in the word . the main thing our opposits flee to at the last is this ; that granting it to be true , that there were many congregations in jerusalem before the persecution in act : . and that they had one government above them ; yet that doth not infer a government by presbytry ; for they were governed by the apostles ; we read not of any elders in that church before the dispersion , at which time they were brought to so few a number , that they might all meet in one place : so that though there was one common government then , by elders ; it inferrs not a presbytry but a congregational eldership only . this is the sum of all that is said to this . for answer , they grant to us , that after the persecution there was a common eldership over the church of jerusalem . and secondly , we have proved that there were moe congregations than one there , even after the dispersion : and we have also proved that they had elders over them in common ; so that whatever was before the dispersion , yet even from their own concession it followeth , that there was a presbyterial government in jerusalem after the dispersion . secondly we answer , they can hardly prove that there were no elders in jerusalem before the dispersion : it s true we read not of elders until act. . but when they were first instituted , we read not . thirdly , we answer , that though there were not elders to govern them in common , yet it is enough for us that the apostles did govern them in common ; for they were also elders : so they call themselves , john ver . . peter . . but secondly , as they were elders , so what they did in these acts of government , they did it as elders : for what they did as apostles is not imitable now , but what they did in governing the church is imitable , such as ordaining of officers , distributing of alms. again , what they did as apostles , one of them might do it alone ; but here they do it in collegio , act. . and reserve the peoples part of election to them . now they never met together to write scripture ; nor sought the peoples concurrence for any act meerly apostolick ; so it is clear the church was governed by them as elders ; and so the churches even then were under one common eldership . and this now for the first thing we promised to make out , to wit , that the scripture holdeth out a pattern of the government of many congregations by one common presbytery . ¶ ii. there is a plat-form of government by synods over many particular presbyteries holden forth in scripture . the second thing we promised to make out is this , that as the scripture holdeth forth the power of presbyteries , so also the power of a synod ; by which we mean church judicatories above presbyteries , as they are above sessions , or congregational elderships . i. for understanding the question , these synods or greater meetings of church officers , are of three sorts : some made up of several presbyteries , and these are provincial synods , ( such as commonly we have twice a year ) or they are made up of several synods within a nation ; and these are general assemblies . or thirdly , they are made up of several churches of several nations , or commissioners from them ; and these are called universal councils , or general synods of the christian world. now all these differ from presbyteries , not only in this . that they are more ample ; but also in this , that the government by presbyteries is the common ordinary way of government held out in scripture : but synods for the most part are more rare , and upon particular emergent ; as act. . that synod was called upon an occasion of division in the church of antioch , which troubled other churches about . secondly , all these kinds of greater synods , the provincial synod , and the synod of a nation , and the universal councils , do not differ in nature and kind , but only in less and more ; wherefore it is not needful that we hold out every one of them from scripture , it is sufficient that we hold out the power of synods in the general , which is to be applyed to every kind in particular : for so we find it in scripture in other things . particulars are infinite ; and therefore in things of one and the same kind general rules are sufficient ; or a rule for one particular , which keeping the just proportion , is to be applyed to other particulars of the same kind , as matth : . christ sets down the way of walking in private scandals , speaking nothing of publick scandals : not as if jesus christ did mean that publick scandals should be passed over , but that the same rule may serve for these , keeping the just proportion : even so is it here ; if the nature of synods be held out in the word , that is enough , though it speak nothing of the bounds to which they should extend , whether of one province , or of all the provinces of a nation ; no more than it is particularly set down in scripture , what should be the number and bounds of a particular congregation . there is a third thing for clearing of this question : the independents and we agree in this , that the word gives ground for meeting of synods ; only we differ about their power : they grant that in case of division or scandal , synods may meet and give their advice in matters doubtful ; only they say , that synods have no power of jurisdiction to command others in the lord to embrace their determinations , we on the other hand maintain that they have this power , and that the scripture holdeth out such a power belonging to them . ii. we might instance this in act : , in the choice of matthias , which was done by no particular church ; for here were the apostles , whose paroch-church was the whole world : here were the brethren of christ from galilie v , . some from jerusalem v. . this meeting did a church business of common concernment to the whole christian world , and so behooved to be done by those who did represent them , and therefore this behooved to be a general council . but to clear the point more fully , we shall take act : . where this synod we plead for is held forth clearly : the history is plain : a difference ariseth in antioch about circumcision , this cannot be composed in antioch it self ; so they send up commissioners to jerusalem to determine this matter , where there is a synod of apostles and elders , and they determine the question . now that it may appear the synod we plead for is here ; consider first , that there was a church meeting or judicatory here ; none may doubt of this , as is clear v , . secondly , consider , that this judicatory is made up of commissioners from the several presbyteries , we see that commissioners from the presbytry of jerusalem was there v , . and commissioners from the presbytry of antioch act : . paul and barnabas and others . now that these were commissioners , and had voice appears from act : . . where the decree that was then made was ascrived to all the elders who were present . it is very likely that there were other commissioners there also from syria and cilicia ; for they are joyned with antioch in the letter v. . for what other reason cannot be imagined , except that as they were alike troubled with the heresy as antioch was , so they had their commissioners there as antioch had , and therefore these acts are binding to them in a special manner , however it is clear that there were commissioners from the presbytry of jerusalem and of antioch , so the meeting was made up of two presbytries ; and by the same rule it may be made up of moe . thirdly , we would consider that this meeting made up of commissioners from several presbytries makes binding acts unto other absent churches , who were present only in their commissioners ; and there are several things to clear this : first , they determine the question in v , . secondly , they impose their determination on the churches to be keeped by them : so in the letters they wrote to the church of syria and cilicia v , . the word that is turned there a burthen , signifies a law or a decree , and so we find it in act : . . there their conclusions are called decrees which were ordained of the apostles and el●ers at jerusalem , and which were to be keeped : from all which it is clear they did make acts binding other congregations . thirdly , we find they put forth an act of censure on the false prophets v , . they called them lyars , a brand of infamy . it 's true they censured them not with excommunication , for it was time enough to doe that , when they knew they were become incorrigibly obstinate , according to the common rule , an heretick after the first and second admonition reject . by this i hope , ye perceive clearly a pattern for greater synods , a judicatory made up of commissioners from several presbytries ; and these making binding laws to other churches , who were absent in their persons , and only present in their commissioners iii. their main objection against this is , that the apostles were here , who were guided with an infallible spirit to determine ; and so this can be no rule for our synods , made up of men wanting that assistance . to this we answer , that this if it prove any thing will make against our opposits themselves as well as against us ; for they hold that here is a pattern of a synod for advice , so if their argument hold against us in the one , it must hold also against them in the other . secondly , we shew before that the apostles were also elders , and sometimes acted as elders ; now if it can be proven that they acted as elders here , it breaks the strength of their objection . but this is clear , first , paul and barnabas are sent by the church of antioch , they willingly submit act : . now in their apostolick office they were not directed by me● , and so surely here they acted not as apostles . secondly , the apostles all along go not on that way , as when guided by an infallible apostolick spirit ; for they state the question , and debate it in v , . now when they write scripture , they do not use advice , nor do they debate what they shall conclude , but speake all as immediatly inspired ; but here they debate . and ●aving found truth , by force of reason they conclude , as any other assembly , upon like assurance of scripture warrand , may do , it seemeth good unto vs being assembled with one accord , &c. in v , . thirdly , when the apostles did determine any thing as apostles , and were guided by the immediatly inspiring spirit of god , then they did determine the question fully that nothing needed to be added : but so it was not here , for peter v , th gives his judgment , that believers were freed from the ceremonial law : what he saith is true indeed ; yet it speaketh not fully to the point , untill james addeth somewhat , to wit , that however the gentils were freed from the ceremonial law , yet to eschew the scandal of the weak jews , they were to abstain from things strangled &c ▪ v , . and therefore , they acted not as apostles , except we would say , that peter as an apostle intending to determine a controversie , yet did not speak fully to the point , which were an injury to that immediately inspiring spirit , by which they were acted in penning scripture , fourthly , because the decrees of the synod are put forth in the name and by the authority not only of the apostles , but elders also , act : . . . act. . . act. . . now surely ordinary elders did never concurr with the apostles in acts of their apostolick office ; as penning scripture , &c. from all that is said , it is most clear , that the apostles here acted as elders , leaving a pattern for such like judicatories upon the like occasions , to the end of the world : which is the second point . ¶ iii. inferior church judicatories are subject to superiour . the third point we have to make out is this : that inferior church judicatories are subordinate to the superior , as sessions or congregational elderships to presbytries , presbytries to synods , &c. so that the greater have power of government over the lesser : for receiving appeals from them , complaints of them , enacting of church canons ; unto which the inferior ought to be subject in the lord. the point in short is , that particular elderships are not independent , so as to do what they please , without being accountable to any judicatory above them ; but presbyteries are over them in the lord. we shall follow the former order : first , to clear the question . secondly , to bring arguments for the truth . thirdly , to answer arguments against the truth . fourthly , to apply it to use. i. for the first , we allow unto particular congregations an eldership and power of discipline within themselves , to judge of these things that are of their particular concernment : but as for things wherein other congregations are concerned with them , we hold that such do belong to superiour judicatories according to the rule , what belongs unto all should be handled by all . secondly , we do not give power to any one single congregation above another : we say , that all congregations ( the least as well as the greatest is equal in power ; this way was the bishops tyranny , that made all the congregations of the diocess subject to the cathedral church , the parish where the bishop lived : so that all others were to subject themselves to it , and the great lord bishops laws which he gave out in it . we do only say , that all particular congregations should be subject to a presbytery , made up of elders taken from among themselves , wherein no congregation can challenge power more than another : the meanest hath as great power in them as the greatest . thirdly , we do not say that the power of presbyteries or synods are absolute , so that whatever they conclude should stand for a law ; or that they ought to be obeyed in every thing . we affirme their power is a limited and ministerial power , it is a power in the lord ; so that put the case , if a presbytery or synod should conclude a thing that is wrong , they are not to be followed blindly . we allow to every particular christian a judgement of discretion , whereby they should compare the acts of church judicatories , with the rule of the word , and accordingly either to choice or refuse : only herein we say , first , that particular christians should have a kind of loathness to differ from the judicatories of the church , arising from a secret kind of diffidence and distrust of their own light and understanding ; so that although they are not to follow others blindly , yet they are to suspect themselves rather than them ; we mean when the matter is dubious . secondly , we say , that when the case comes that it is evidently seen that superiour judicatories have gone wrong , private christians are to differ from them indeed , yet so as to give great reverence and respect to the judicatory , even when they are necessitate to dissent from their acts , least by their furious zeal they cast all loose and into confusion . but to come to the point , the question is , whether all the power of church government be in the hands of particular elderships ; and so if particular elderships be independent : or if jesus christ hath warranted presbyteries to be above them in the lord. we maintain the last : and we clear our part the controversy from several arguments . ii. the first argument is taken from the many defects that are in this way of independency , where the whole power is put in one congregation ; so as to be countable to none : we shall reckon four or five of these defects ; and indeed very great defects . first , according to this way of theirs , there is no authoritative way in christs church to right a man that is wronged by a particular congregation ; as put the case that an eldership should wrong a man by censuring him unjustly : according to their way , he must sit with the wrong , there is no remedy to him till christ come in the clouds . there is a second defect according to this independent way of theirs : there is no authority in the church to heal breaches in a congregation : put the case that a people should divide from the elders , or the elders among themselves , or that one congregation may have a contest with another : now in these cases , suppose both these parties to be wilful , as too usually it falls out , so as they will not yeild to any advice , without authority to back it : now what remedy is left in such cases without the assistance of a presbytery , that hath power over both parties , to command them in the lord to do what is right : and can we think that christ hath left no remedy in his house for such evils , as may so frequently fall out . thirdly , the independent way leaveth no authoritative mean for holding down pluralities of religion ; for if so , then let a particular congregation set up what religion they please ; suppose it be popery : there is no authoritative mean to hinder it : but in the way of presbytery it is otherwise : presbytery is christs weeding-hook to weed out heresies ; so we observe wherever it is set up it bears heresy down ; and no wonder ; for judicatories are so subordinate , one to another , that what is overseen in the one , is taken notice of in the other . fourthly ; by this way of theirs , there is no authoritative mean for unity and uniformity in the publick service of god among congregations ; but every one being left to themselves , will take a way of their own ; this congregation one way , and that congregation another way ; which doubtless would prove a great stumbling block to the weak , not knowing unto what congregation to joyn , because of the great diversity among all . put the case ( to clear it in some things whereby ye may guess at others ) that in one congregation they would both read and expound , in another , they would only read : in others the line were not read for singing ; and in another , it were read : in some congregations children were not baptized but in time of sermon , in others , that baptism were administrate at other times also : in some congregations two prayers before a sermon , in another but one : in another the conclusion sung , in another not . now though the strong would not stumble at these things , knowing that such in their own nature are , for the most part at least , indifferent ; yet to the weak christian they might prove a ground of stumbling ; for usually such presently stamp conscience on that part of the difference which they like best , and hence arise contests , janglings , and matter of renting the church . now there is no way in independency left for preventing of this . fifthly , the way of independency leaves no remedy to a congregation wanting a minister , for tryal of the next that comes ▪ whose tryal is left wholly to the people by this way of theirs : how slight that tryal would be , any may judge ; how few parishes can try a minister in his abilities , if he be apt to preach , convince gainsayers , watch against ravening wolves &c. now this is remeeded in the way of presbytery , according to pauls rule tim : . . that ministers be ordained — with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery . this for the first argument , from five great defects in the independent way ; other defects also might be instanced , but these may suffice . our second argument is taken from matth. . . . . where jesus christ layes down a way for the removing of private scandals , or dealing with an offending brother ; from whence we argue thus , if christ hath laid down a way for gaining an offending brother , how much more for gaining an offending church : it s above all doubt that a church may offend , walk inoderly , wrest justice . now surely gods care must be no less of the whole church than of one member : so that our consequence holds : but we assume , there is no way to heal the scandal of an offending congregation or particular church , but by compleaning to a presbyterial church above them : this is evident , for . our opposites themselves will not censure them-themselves : they cannot be both judge and party . . it appears from the rule of proportion , for by that same rule that private christians are to be compleaned of to that eldership whereof they are parts ; so the eldership is to be compleaned of to that presbytry whereof it is a part : and if the christian liberty of the private christian be not taken away by the one , so neither is the just power of the eldership taken away by the other . our third argument is from that which we handled before , that in scripture is holden forth government by presbytries over single congregations , and by synods over presbytries , from whence we argue thus , that the way of governing the church in the apostles times was by presbyteries and synods ; and therefore the church should still be so governed . for the first part of our argument that the way then of governing the church was by presbytries and synods , it was proved before : so we have only to speak to the second part of our argument , that therefore the church should be governed so now : and to clear this consequence , consider these things . . that whatever is recorded of the practice of the churches in the matter of government in the apostles times , can be for no other end but to be a pattern for imitation to the churches in after times , for whatsoever things were written afore times was for our learning and instruction rom : . . . those primitive churches were planted by the apostles ; now who can imagine but what the apostles did of that kind , was according to the directions given them by christ ; a promise of whose presence they had with them in their ministry , and if so , then their practice must be a rule to generations following cor : . . be ye followers of me , &c. . we make the practice of the apostles then , to be a rule for us in other things ; as from their practice in giving the people liberty in choising their own deacons act. . we argue , that the people may choise their own officers yet : and from their practice in having ruling elders in the church tim : . . we argue , that we should have ruling elders yet : so from their practice in having the office of deacons we argue , that we should have them yet : and from their practice in celebrating the lords supper on the lord's day act : . we argue , therefore we should celebrate it on that day yet . now if so be that their practice should be a rule to us in other things , why not also in church government by presbytries and synods ; especially seeing that we have made out , that their practice is as clear in this as in other matters . a fourth consideration to strengthen this argument is this , that the churches now have these same reasons to move them to submit to that government , which the church in the apostles times had ; and a law or practice is still binding , so long as the reason of the law remains : now the reasons that moved the church in the apostles time to submit to presbyterial government , was first , because there were many things of common concernment to all the congregations in jerusalem , and therefore they were governed by one presbytry as said is : so there are many businesses of common concernment to many particular congregations now , and therefore it should be so yet . secondly , in act : . there ariseth a controversie in antioch , and because the controversie cannot be composed in the presbyterial church of antioch , therefore it is referred unto a synod made up of many presbytries , all concerned in it : so there are businesses of common concernment to many presbytries yet , and some that cannot be ended in one presbytry , and therefore there should be synods for composing of these things yet . and seeing the apostles extraordinarly assisted , ( one whereof might have composed the controversie ) would nevertheless have a synodical convention for ending controversies ; much more ought we to do it whose gifts are far inferior to theirs . by all which it remains clear that the practice of the church then in that point , is binding to us now . argument fourth , there is no pattern of such an independent congregation , by precept or practice in the whole scripture , where one particular congregation , with one pastor , and their eldership , did exercise or may exercise all church government , in all its acts , and that independently : therefore &c. the antecedent is true . first , an instance cannot be given of ordination of ministers by one congregation . secondly , by precept and practice ordination is to be by moe pastors than one ; as act : . . act. . . act : . . tim : . . so it is clear , that it is by pastors , and many pastors , and so cannot be by a single congregation , where there is required , and should be ( say they ) but one pastor . as to what they say of the church of corinths excommunicating the incestous man. we answer , corinth was a presbyterial church . and secondly , it proves not that they might excommunicate independently , for if a controversie had arisen about it , which they could not have ended among themselves , they were to have their recourse to a synod , by the same reason for which the church of antioch had , acts . argument fifth , if so be that congregations be independent , and no benefit of appeals allowed to the party grieved , then the state of the christian churches were in greater slavery than the jewish ; but this is absurd ; for christians are in an estate of greater liberty ; as appears from galat. . . therefore &c. for clearing the first proposition ▪ we lay down these things ; first , there was a subordination of judicatories in the jewish church ; as might be made out from several places , we take one chron : . . where there is a supream ecclesiastical judicatory v , . the matters they handle come to them from other judicatories : and deut : . . sheweth the matters to be handled by the supream judicatory are such as had been before the inferior court , but found too hard to be judged there ; so that here was a refuge for the party wronged by the inferiour court : now if there be no such refuge left to christians , we may certainly say , the state of christiansis most hard , being left under the tyrannical sentence of the unjust eldership , and no power to right them ; when the oppressed jew might appeal to the superior judicatory . we might further argue from this , whatever was in the jewish government that was neither ceremonial , nor judicial ; but moral ; that is binding to us ; for the moral law bindeth all alike , and is not abrogate : but this , that there was subordination of judicatories for the relief of the grieved party among the jews , was moral , not ceremonial , nor judicial . it is true that all things were determined by an high priest , among the jews , who was typical of christ , and of his supremacy in judgment : so the papists argue ill from the high priest to the pope : but it is as true , that the subordination of judicatories for things of harder knowledge , and relief of the oppressed party , was typical of nothing ; but moral and of the law of nature , which forbids party to be judge ; which will naturally follow if there be not subordination of courts . yea further we shall not find that this law is given to moses in the pattern upon the mount , but was taught by the light of nature to jethro , and by him given to moses exod. . . it shall be that every great matter they shall bring unto thee , &c : iii. we come now to answer their objections many whereof we have taken off in the first two heads ▪ as for the rest we shall not trouble you with those that are frivolous , as indeed the most part are , we shall only pitch on these that ●eem to carry some shew of reason , and whereof they boast most . their first objection is from matth : . . this church , say they , is a parochial church , and christs mind is that the business should be here ended , without any appeal from it . answer christ means not only a particular singular congregation , but also , if not mainly , a presbyterial church : for first , the particular church cannot sometimes heal the distemper , as when it is divided , or when the church it self is scandalous , as oft may fall out by giving a wrong sentence ; so that if christ had meaned only a particular church should be compleaned to , and in no case a judicatory above them , then his remedy should have come short in curing the desease for which he intends it , which to say were no small imputation to jesus christ. secondly , christ here alludes to the government of the jewish church , as appears from the censure of the obstinate to be reputed as an heathen , the same which was among the jews : and from the plainness of the speach , tell the church ; which could not be otherwise understood , if he had not alluded to the jewish judicatory , besides which , they knew no judicatory , for such offences as christ spoke of to them , there being as yet no particular church which had given its name to christ. now ( as we cleared before ) the judicatories among the jews which were to be complained to for scandals , were not only these who were in their single synagogues or congregations ; but also superior courts , to which it was lawful to appeal from the lesser courts . thirdly , christ meaneth here of such a church , as were the churches of jerusalem , antioch , &c. but these ( as we have already cleared ) were presbyterial churches or judicatories , having the oversight of many congregations : now sure these being the first churches instituted by the apostles , must not be excluded from the power of government given by christ to his church in that place . their second objection is this , that the dependency of churches upon presbytries layeth on a yoke of tyranny and subjection upon particular congregations , equal to the tyranny of bishops : and if the church must be in bondage , it is better to be subject to one lord bishop , than under a number of ministers and elders in presbytry or synod . for answer , we make no other subjection here than what the independents themselves make ; for they make ten in a congregation subject to five hundred , and the lawes of the five hundred to be binding to the ten : so make we many churches to be subject in the lord to all their own pastors and elders , conveened in a presbytry ; what more subjection is there in the one than in the other ? secondly , it is an unjust comparison to compare bishops tyranny with presbytries . for . the government by bishops was humane , this is divine . . the bishop being but one man did by himself alone govern , and that ad arbitratum , nor had he any to answer to ; but here moe pastors and elders are joyned together , who are by mutual advice to rule gods people , according to the word of god. . the government by the bishop was altogether extrinsecal to , or without the particular churches : for the bishop was none of their members , nor yet chosen by them ; but presbyteries and synods are not so , they are wholly made up of members and commissioners from those same very churches , where they govern , and so it is wholly intrinsecal . . we say government by presbyteries is so far from being in its own nature tyrannical , as that it is the greatest remedy against church tyranny ; because it is a city of refuge , for all these who are oppressed in their particular congregations ; for if in the independent government one be wronged , he must sit with it , till christ come and right him : neighbour churches may advise and request , but the cong●egation advised , is not bound to follow it ; but h●●e when the eldership doth wrong , there is a refuge to a presbytery , and above them to a synod , &c. object : . government by presbytery layeth upon ministers and elders the charge of other flocks than these of whom the lord made them overse●rs , to wit , the charge of all the churches in the bounds of the presbytery : they are elders to all these churches ; because they govern them . answer , it followeth not that they have the charge of all these congregations in particular , and in every thing that concerns the duty of an elder ; so that they are bound particularly to catechize , to visit , &c. only they are elders to them in things common to all , and as they are joyned in the court with others : and this is not absurd , for in our parliament , commissioners from shires are judges to the whole kingdom : but how ? it is as they are joyned in parliament , not by themselves alone ; it is in matters common to the shire , not in other petty particular affairs ; and so it is here , they are elders to all the congregations indeed , as they are joyned together in the presbytery ; but not by themselves alone : in things of common concernment to the whole particular congregation , not in these duties belonging to every congregation in particular . object : . if this subordination , and judicatory above judicatory were of divine institution , it s like scripture would have spoken more plainly of it ; not leaving it to be drawn out by so many far fetch'd consequences . answer , we have already given sufficient warrand for this government by clear consequences from scripture ; and consequences from scripture are scripture , else we must cast at many points of divine truth which have no other ground but scripture consequence : as the trinity ; and change of the sabbath ; yea we see christ himself grounding a material point , to wit , the resurrection , upon scripture consequence , mark . . . we must not teach god how to set down his mind in scripture ; we perchance think , it had been a plainer way to have cast matters of religion to so many heads ; by which means many controversies should have been shunned , but he hath thought otherwise : the lord in wisdom hath scattered the parcels of every truth through his book , intermixing it with other subjects , as the gold is in the mine , and this to exercise his people in searching out his mind from scripture . iv. in the last place , we come to make some vse of what is said . and the first vse is this , if it be so that this government by presbytery is grounded on the word of god , then ye would know it is not a thing of nought we are contesting for , it 's a part of that truth once delivered to the saints , and a truth of no small concernment : what would become ( think ye ) of particular congregations , if they had none above them to call them to an account ? what divisions , strifes , heresies , schisms would ensue ; if people were informed of these contests that have fallen out among our opposits themselves , where this way of independency was followed ; the one half renting from the other , excommunicating one another ? it might make moderate men scar at it : but we need se●k no other evidence of this , than by looking on scotland and england these years by past . in the church of england , presbytery could not be set up , independency was pleaded for , and practised ; and what is become of it , sathan hath vomited out a floud of errors , that there were never more , nor more gross in any time of the christian world ; yea all the rotten graves of old heresie are digged up , and now avowed : socinianism , in denying christs righteousness in the matter of justification : anabaptism , in denying the baptizing of infants : arianism , in denying the trinity : and many other such like . yea there are some errors there that were never before heard of : some affirming , there is no church they can joyn with : and therefore , they turn seekers . some are above all preaching , prayer and all ordinances : and all these are the fruits of independency . again , look on the fruits of the presbyterial government in scotland where it hath been in vigour , god hath made it an hammer for battering down the beginnings of error : so that these twelve years bypast not any one error hath come to any strength : and this all under god from presbyterial government , being his institution : our judicatories were indeed terrible , as an army with banners , though indeed we are now like to turn contemptible . god himself heal our breaches . secondly , guard against the errors that would draw you from this truth ; if ye cannot carry the grounds we have been speaking of with you , yet ye may remember ye once heard this truth confirmed from scripture and reason ; that so when ye meet with temptations to quite it , ye may advise well before ye yeild . i would press this ▪ so much the more , as that this doctrine of presbyterial government is the butt of sathan's envy , the thing he would have most gladly overthrown , as that which stands most in his way ; for so long as it stood in its integrity , we might in the lords strength have defied the devil to have brought error into scotland . and indeed it is the thing he sets himself to brangle , to get the hedge once plukt up , that so the wild boar of the wilderness may come in . and ( believe me ) there is nothing makes me more affraid , than that through gods permission , the devil shall get a deludge of error brought in on scotland ; because those who have been intrusted with this government have weakned the power of it , by divisions among our selves ; a copy is casten how that erronious spirits need not stand much on the authority of assemblies , when they would cross their designs : we are affraid , yea we may be past ●ear and conclude . that presbyteries , synods , &c. have lost much of the weight they had lately in mens consciences . only let me intreat you in the bowels of christ , that ye would put a difference betwixt the government it self , and the persons who are intrusted with it ; doe not charge the faults of the one upon the other : the best things that are may be abused ; and it is peoples tryal to put difference between the good of a thing , and the abuse of it . the government is good , and of god ; and the abuse of it is evil and of men : what is of god , cleave to it , and stick fast by it ; what is from mens corruptions , mourn for it : pray themselves may get a sight of it : and thus ye shall walk in an eaven way . ye had need to deal with god to ground you in the knowledge of these things ; for we know not how soon we may be put to it , to quite them : only remember they are truths ye have sworn to maintain with your hands lifted up on high . sect : v. a short refutation of the error of separation . head i. shewing what is required for making one a member of the visible church . we have gone through these controversies , which are about the government of the church : we are now to refute some dangerous errors of doctrine . and first , we shall begin with the error of separation . the errors of separatists are many , but we shall only engage with two heads of them , which are the main . the first is that which they teach concerning the constitution of the visible church ; or who it is that should be received members of christs visible body . the second is that which they hold to be the duty of every sincere christian , viz. that when they spy any corruption in a church wherein they are members , as if persons scandalous be admitted to the lords supper ( seeing they ought all to be gracious who come there ) then ( say they ) it is their duty to keep back from the communion ; and not only so , but to quite that church , and set up a new church of their own . we shall begin first with that doctrine that concerns the constitution of visible churches . and therein we shall follow our usual order : first , clear the question . secondly , bring arguments for the truth . thirdly , answer those they bring against the truth . and fourthly , apply the whole to some use. i. first , for clearing of the question , ye would know what church it is concerning which the controversy is . first , it is not that place where gods people meet to go about gods publick worship , ( such as this house we now are in , which is called the church by a figure , improperly ) but it is the people gathered together in it ; which people are really and properly the church ; although the house be so called , because it contains them , by an usual figure . the church that we are to dispute of , is made up of men and women : and not that which is built of timber and stone . secondly , the controversy betwixt us and them is not concerning the invisible church , that is called the church of the first-born , those who by vertue of their effectual calling are united to jesus christ the head , are living members of his mystical body , and draw spiritual influence from him . concerning the church taken in this sense , there is no controversy betwixt us and the separatists , but that the members of this church are only made up of believers , are all gracious , because this church is christs mystical body , a royal priest-hood , the lambs wife , all fair , undefiled ▪ &c. thirdly , the question then is concerning the church visible , which is , a company of men and women , who have according to the tenor of gods covenant with the visible church an outward ecclesiastical ( which is in its kind a real ) right to enjoy the outward priviledges of the children of god. this being the church about which the controversy betwixt us and the separatists is , we shall speak a litle to clear what is meaned by it ; and first , the church is called visible , not because the members of it may be seen : for in that respect the church invisible , the church of believers , may be called visible ; for the members of it being believing men and women , may be seen also : but the difference betwixt the churches in those two senses , is taken from that which makes one to be a member of the one church , as it differs from that which makes one a member of the other . that which makes one man a member of the invisible church , is true grace , sincere faith , inward marks thereof : now grace is a thing that cannot be seen by another certainly : it s true there are outward effects of it ; but they are such , that a hypocrite may have the counterfeit of them , so as the one cannot be discerned from the other by a beholder . the nature of grace is only known infallibly and certainly to god ; and therefore this church is called invisible . again that which makes a man or woman a member of the visible church is something that may be seen ▪ something that may be judged of , by those who have power to receive members into the church , and cast them out from it . secondly , we said that this visible church is a company or society of men and women , that have an ecclesiastical right to enjoy the outward priviledges of the sons of god. for understanding what is meaned by enjoying of outward priviledges , we shall show you that there are outward priviledges , and inward priviledges of those who are the sons of god. inward priviledges are jesus christ himself ; a right to him , a saving right to the covenant of grace , and life eternal ; these are the inward priviledges of the sons of god : and only believers have right to those : painted hypocrites have no right to them . but secondly , there are outward priviledges of the sons of god ; such as these , to be ordinary hearers of the word preached : to be taken a care of by jesus christ his servants : to have liberty to come to the sacraments : these are outward priviledges , and these are priviledges that a member of the visible church hath a right to . we said they had an ecclesiastical right or a church right to them : that is , such a right as gives warrand to the church for receiving them to enjoy these priviledges , and yet possibly they have not a right to them before god : as for example , when there is a painted hypocrite in a congregation , who makes conscience seemingly to use the means : that man hath an ecclesiastical right to come to a communion ; such a right as may warrand the minister for admitting of him , although he have not a right to come before god ; god will challenge the hypocrite for coming , and not the minister for suffering him to come . yet we are still to consider that tho' this ecclesiestical right be not saving , yet it is real in its kind , being founded upon gods covenant with the visible church , and his ordinance of admitting such therein . now ye may know somewhat by this , what we mean by an ecclesiastical right , it 's that which gives warrand to church officers to admit a man to enjoy these outward priviledges : and so ye may know what we mean by the visible church whereof we dispute . there are several differences betwixt us and the separatists , concerning the visible church . first , they affirm that there is no visible church on earth ; but a single congregation ; as many as may meet in one place . this we refuted in the former controversie ; by shewing that in the church of jerusalem there were far moe than could meet in one single congregation ; yea many particular congregations ; and yet are called but one church . secondly , they differ much from us , as also from the truth , concerning the power they give to this visible church , they give them the full power of church government , and that independently from any chuch power on earth : this difference also we spoke of in the preceeding debate ; and so we shall stand now no longer upon it . thirdly , we differ concerning that which gives a being to the church visible ; they say , to make a society of people a visible church , so as to have right to partake of the priviledges there of , it is requisite that all the members of that society swear a covenant one to another , wherein they bind themselves to submit one to another in the lord , to walk in all the ordinances of god , and not to leave that society till liberty be given them by the rest : so that tho a man should be never so truely godly and gracious , yet if he take not such a covenant , and if he swear not such an oath , he is without the visible church , he is in the state of a ●agan , to live and to die without any church ordinance . the judgement of our church , and that of truth herein is this , that wherever a man comes out of one particular congregation ( which we call a paroch ) to another , by his so doing he comes under a duty and obligation , which he is bound to before god , and the congregation also , to discharge himself in ; namely all the duties pertaining to a member of that particular congregation or paroch to which he comes , although he swear not such an oath . we say , secondly , he may also swear to do these duties . but thirdly , to bind this on all the consciences of the members of the church , to take such an oath , so as if they take it not they are not church members ; we say , it is will worship not commanded by god , either by practice or precept , in old or new testament . we might easily prove that jesus christ never took this way to gather a visible church . but the main difference is the fourth , and that is concerning those who are to be kept or received members of the church visible ; or who they are that have right to these outward priviledges we spoke of : that which they hold in this point is , that they would have all visible churches disolved , and then churches gathered out of these , wherein none are to be received or admitted to partake of church priviledges , so as to be under the care of ministers , admitted to the sacraments &c. but those who have evident positive signes of grace , and these not only evident to the minister and a few moe , but to all the members of the congregation , so that every one in the congregation must be convinced , so far as men can attain unto , that he hath grace , or else he is no member of the visible church ; by which rule they model congregations ; but there was never a congregation since christ was on the earth so constitute , except their own ; for according to this rule they will cast out the two part , and of some congregations , leave ten parts and take but the eleventh , leaving all the rest as pagans , without baptising their children , or admitting themselves to any church priviledge : this is what they hold . as for the judgment of our church , and that which is according to the word , take those assertions . first , we hold that every man indeed that is a member of the visible church ought to have grace ; so that he sins against god and his own soul if he have it not ; and all the priviledges he enjoyes will do him no good without it . we say in this respect , all the members of the church ought to have grace ; but to say , that they so ought to have grace , that none of them must be admitted to be a member of the church visible without it , this we deny : it is ill reasoning from unanswerableness to an obligation to a forfaulture of priviledges : for every man that is a magistrate ought to have grace ; so as he sins against god if he have it not ; yet a man may be a lawful magistrate , and have the priviledges of a magistrate , although he have not grace . secondly , we do willingly grant that in the constitution of our church , and admitting of people to the lords table : our practice comes far short of the rule ; there is not that care taken to purge out scandalous persons as should be , our practice is indeed short of the rule ; but our rule which we shall hold out ( as we shall prove ) is good. to know then what is the rule according to which we should admit men to be members of the church . first , there are some who are admitted to some priviledges only , and not to all ; as to baptism : and these are members of the church incompleatly , they are members , but not so fully ; and those are , infants that are born within the church visible ; they are members , although not to be admitted to the lords supper . now betwixt us and the separatists herein , to wit , whether infants should be baptized , there is no difference . secondly , there are some who are admitted to all priviledges of the visible church ; and those are members compleatly and fully : and concerning those the dispute is : who are those that ought to be admitted to all the common priviledges of the visible church ? they mantain ( as we heard ) that none should be admitted but those that can give evident signs of grace to the satisfaction of the consciences of all within the church . we hold first , that if it be known that men be baptized . and secondly , if they be free of scandal . and thirdly , if they submit themselves to the doctrine of the gospel , and have some competent knowledge of the grounds of the christian religion , if these things i say be in a man , we hold that he is to be received , although he cannot give evident signes of the reality of the grace of god in him to all. and this is the controversie . ii. now we come to prove that which we hold by arguments . the first is john the baptist did not follow this rule of theirs in receiving members to the church , and therefore it is not the right rule : that john the baptist did not follow this rule will appear , if we consider luke . wherein consider , who it was whom john baptized v , . now when all the people were baptized , &c. it was all the people . consider secondly , what he requires of this people before he baptize them , we shall find in the preceeding words that he seeks no more than that they would be convinced that they were wrong before . and secondly , profess an earnest desire to amend . so we find in v , . and the people asked him , saying , what shall we do ? and the publicans in the . v , do the same , who yet were but course men. and in the v , the souldiers likewise demanded of him , saying , what shall we do ? now these questions import this much , that they were convinced they were wrong , and professed at least a desire to become better ; and accordingly john instructs them , thus and thus ye shall do ; and without more ado in v , . he baptizes them . now it is not possible that john could have got positive signes from every one of them to convince him that they had real grace ; far less that every one of the multitude could have been perswaded in conscience of the reality of grace in each other ; and therefore the rule of admiting men to be members of the visible church cannot be this , that every one to be admitted should have evident signes of grace , satisfactory to the consciences of all : john sought not this of those whom he received , it 's true he fals very sharply on the scribes matth. , v , — o generations of vipers , who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come . but it is as true , when he hath rebuked them , as ill as they were before , seing now they professed a desire to amend , he baptizes them in v , . i indeed baptise you with water &c the same ( you ) whom he spoke to in v. . as is clear from the connexion of every verse . if it be objected that they were not received to be members of the church , although they were baptized . we shall once for all clear that baptism sealeth up a mans right of membership in the church visible . we find this from the apostles practice act : . . where the way is how they received men to be church members , it is said they were baptized &c. and those who were baptized are said to be added to them and added to the church v , last , so in act. , . the eunuch was received by baptism to be a member of the visible church . so saul act : . . and lydia act. , . secondly , circumcision was a seal of the jews right of membership in the visible church under the old testament , and therefore baptism is a seal of our right to be members of the visible church under the new ; for baptism in the new testament is come in the same place with circumcision in the old testament . this is for our first argument . the second argument is taken from the practice of the apostles , and it is this , the apostles went not by that method of our opposits in admitting members of the visible church , this was not the rule they followed : therefore it is not the right one . we clear this was not the rule which they followed from act. . . where in one day there are three thousand added to the church . now surely none can imagine that it was possible that every one of these three thousand could be perswaded in conscience of the regeneration of one another . it is true peter binds on them to repent ; but it is as true that on their desire to be admitted to be members of the visible church , and some evidence of their conviction , he receives them ; although there were many of them did not even this much in sincerity . for anamas and saphira were but hypocrits ; so no more is required of simon magus act. . . and so of demas , who afterwards forsook paul. yea if we look to the rule which christ walked by , he sought no more but a profession to follow him , and he sought no more of judas , to make him not only a member of his society , but an apostle and minister ; christ knew him well enough to be a hypocrite : and yet upon his professed desire to follow him , admits him to his company , yea makes him a minister : so that this rule which separatists so much cry up , was neither followed by jesus christ nor his apostles . the third argument we bring is this , there was never a church before or since christs dayes whose members , all of them , could give evident signes of grace to each other ; and therefore it cannot be a rule of gods appointing , that the church visible must be made up of only such . we prove the antecedent ; sure the church of israel in moses time was not such , every member was not such a visible saint , so as he was known to be gracious ; for sayeth moses deut. . . yet the lord hath not given you an heart to perceive , &c. and oftimes they are upbraided as stiff-necked . secondly , we must suppose the purest churches comming nearest the rule , to have been in the apostles dayes , and yet the members of those churches were not of this kind . so the church of corinth was a church that the apostles themselves planted and preached to , and yet we shall find many in this church who were so far from giving evident signes of grace one to another , that there were many there scismaticks cor : . many there fornicators that paul writes against : there were many there drunkards , yea and drunk about the time of the lords supper . and those he reproves cor : . yea there were some there who denyed some of the fundamental points of the christian religion as the resurrection : as appears from chap : . so this church of corinth , was not such . secondly , the seven churches of asia spoken of revel : . . were churches that had the candlestick among them , churches that were in christs hand , that he took a care of , and yet they were not such , as every member of those churches had real signes of grace , otherwise the spirit of god would not have said so often , if any man have ears to hear &c. if he had not supposed that there had been in them blind , obdurate , carnal hearers . thirdly , the same may be said of the churches of rome , galatia , thessalonica , and of all the churches that ever we hear or read of since christs days , never one of them was such : and therefore we may safely conclude that this rule of theirs cannot be right , seing neither christ nor his apostles nor the church in any age did follow it . we bring a fourth argument and it is this : that cannot be a right rule of gathering churches , that would hold out a number of gracious souls from being members : but , this rule of theirs would do so : therefore , it cannot be the right rule . for the first part of our argument none will doubt of it . and secondly , that this rule of theirs would hold out many truly gracious , we prove it : for first there are many that have grace , that for want of parts they cannot express the thing they have , they are so far from giving evidences of grace to others , that they cannot satisfy themselves ; some so proud , some so passionate , so worldly , so talkative , so imprudent , that it will be hard for any to satisfy themselves that there is grace in them . thirdly , the way of some is so hid , or rather gods way in them so hid , that for any thing people can see in them , they are nothing different from natural civilians , and yet many of such will make clear and satisfying discoverys of gods grace in them at their death : the work of grace then appearing that was long under ground . and now according to this rule of theirs , these are all to be holden out of the visible church , and put in the place of pagans ; and so that cannot be christs rule . our fifth argument to prove the point is this , that cannot be a rule of admitting members to the church visible , which puts the church in perpetual danger of renting : but , this rule of theirs puts the church in a perpetual danger of being rent : therefore , it cannot be the right rule . we shall clear that this rule of theirs puts the church in a perpetual hazard of being rent : for there are some more easy to be satisfied of the signes of grace than others , so that which will be a lawful church to one , will not be so to others . secondly , there are some that in progress of time will grow more strick in searching : hence that which was a true church to him the last year , will be no church to him this : and so this rule of theirs keeps the church in a continual hazard of being rent , of separating after separating , while they cast off all . this hath made the most part of all their churches rent , and one part to excommunicate another . yea hence many of that way cast off all churches at last , and turn seekers ; cast off all serving god with others , all use of publick means , only serving god apart and by themselves alone ; because they cannot be sure enough that any others have grace but only themselves . there is a sixth argument taken from the similitudes and comparisons under which the church visible is holden forth in scripture ; which similitudes do shew there is not that strictness required in admitting members to the visible church as the separatists judge ; it 's compared to a draught net cast into the sea , that gathereth fishes good and bad matth : . secondly , to a field wherein is wheat and tares , ibid. thirdly , it is compared matth : . to a table of guests , where there are some with , and some without a wedding garment . fourthly , it is compared to a house wherein are vessels of honour and dishonour ; and to a fold of sheep , and goats ; and in every church there are many called but few chosen : now how shall tares , chaff , goats , &c. give convincing signes of that which they have not : certainly these similitudes seem to speak , that there needs not so much waling or picking out , in admitting members to the visible church , providing they be free of scandals ; once take them in , and and then let the word work on them ; this great waleing and separation will be when the net comes to the shoar , when the great harvest comes , when the sheep and goats are severed . this much for arguments for the truth . iii. we shall in the next answer their objections , whereby they labor to prove , that the church visible should only be made up of such church members as can give satisfactory signs of grace to each other . obj. . their first objection ( which is the most specious ) is taken from these glorious s●●ies given to the church in scripture . they are called saints ; a chaste ●●rgine spoused to christ ; sons and daughters of the lord almighty ; and christs mystical body , whose members are all gracious : now , say they , seing the church hath these stiles in scripture , should any be joyned to the church , but such , who to the uttermost of our discerning have grace ? for answer , if this argument conclude any thing , it will conclude that none should be members of the visible church , but those who have real grace ; for none is a partaker of christs● mystical body , the lambs wife &c. but such only now this , our opposites themselves will not affirm , they grant there may be painted hypocrites in the church , and the scripture saith the same ; for ananias and saphira , judas , and simon magus , were such ; and so these places of scripture , if they prove any thing , will prove more than they will grant . but to answer directly , ye would know that in the church visible there is a company of good and bad , sincere christians , and painted hypocrites : now the scripture speaks of them sometimes according to the better part , and sometimes according to the worse part ; where it speaks of them according to the better part , it speaks so of them as if there were not one evil man among them all , hence are these stiles , the lambs wise , sons and daughters of the almighty , called to be saints , &c. they are so according to the better part. again when it speaks of the visible church according to the worse part , it gives such names as if there were not one good man among them all ; it calls them stif-necked , a rebelious house , children that are corrupters ; now , as it were ill argued , to conclude from these places where such stiles are given to the church , that every one within the church were corrupters , stif-necked , &c. and not one seeking god : for there he gives them those stiles from the evil part among them : so it is also ill argued from these places where the scripture calls them the lambs wife , sons and daughters of the almighty , &c. that they were all of them so ; and we shall clear it more fully from the church of corinth , cor , , . they get many glorious stiles , they are called the sons and daughters of the almighty , they are called a chast virgin , &c. cor , , . now there were many schismaticks among them , some denying the resurrection , some vilifying pauls doctrine , many who were contentious , drunkards , fornicators ; so that these stiles cannot be verified of the members of the whole church , but only of the better part that was among them : even as men speaking of an heap of chaff and corn , will call it an heap of corn ; not that there is nothing but corn in it , but because the corn is the best part : and so the church visible ( wherein is a mixed company ) is denominated from the better part sometimes in scripture , and called sons and daughters of the lord almighty ; and sometimes from the worse part , and called stiff-necked , &c. obj. ii their second objection is taken from act , . . where it is said — and the lord added unto the church daily such as should be saved . say they , god added no other to the church but such as would be saved , therefore we should adde no others . for answer , if any thing follow from this , it would follow that none should be added to the church but these who are believers really , for no other will be saved : but this is against themselves : and therefore our second answer is this , that the meaning of the words must be , that he had a chief care of adding those to the church who were to be saved : but it is not said that he added no other ; for the same chapter sayes , he added moe ; v , , whole three thousand were added , and yet all those were not to be saved ; for there were ananias and saphira , and doubtless many other hypocrites among them . obj. iii. the third objection is taken from matth , . . in the parable concerning the kings banquet , where he bids his servants go and invite to the marriage , and finding one wanting the wedding garment ( says he ) — friend , how camest thou in hither , not having a wedding garment ? now ( say they ) this is a reproof to those who admitted him to this priviledge . we answer , this is quite contrair to the scope of the parable , if we look to the command v , , goe ye therefore into the high-ways , &c. they are commanded to invite all , and to hold out none for want of the wedding-garment ; for that being inward is only discernable by god. indeed this parable will shew this much , that ministers may admit people to communions , and yet christ will come with an after search , and find many there whom he will cast , that ministers have admitted : ye ought not to think that every man that comes through a ministers tryal is in a good state ; the place says , that christ found one wanting the wedding garment ; but it sayes not that ministers should let none come but those that had the wedding garment ; and to shew that this is the scope of the parable , see v , . there it is said , for many are called , but few are chosen . ob. iv : their fourth objection is taken from rev. . , . the lord speaking there to the church of ephesus , sayeth , nevertheless , i have somewhat against thee , because thou hast left thy first love remember therefore from whence thou art fallen , and repent , and and do the first works , or else i will come vnto thee quickly , and will remove thy candelstick out of his place , &c. from whence they argue thus : none are to be admitted to the church who will ruin the church but , all those who cannot convincingly prove their regeneration , will ruin the church : therefore they ought not to be admitted . we answer , that the last part of their argument is false : for there are many gracious persons keeping their first love , who yet can neither satisfy themselves nor others in the truth of their regeneration , and that will not ruin the church . secondly , we answer , to the first part of their argument , where they say that every one who hath not real grace will ruin the church : it is not universally true , for then there should be no hypocrites in the church at all , neither known nor unknown , for hypocrites can do no other thing but that which is tending to the ruin of the church ; now themselves will not say that all hypocrites are debarred ; for they admit some such ; and scripture saith the contrair in the admission of annanias and saphira : and so some must be admitted , who , if god look not more to his own mercy than to their me●●t , and more to the respect he hath to others than to them , can do nothing but ruin the church . obj. v. their last objection is taken from tim : . . having a forme of go●liness , but denying the power thereof : from such turn away . therefore none are to be admitted but those who can give satisfactory signes of their regeneration . for answer : it is a gross mistake ; for if we look to the place , those who have only a forme of godliness , he tells what they are , high-minded &c. v , . and in the v , subtile hereticks who lead away the simple . now we say none such ought to be admitted , for those are scandalous : but what they say doth not follow ; for many cannot give satisfactory signes of their regeneration , who yet are not gross livers , nor scandalous , nor seduceing hereticks ; and so not of the number of those from whom paul bids turn away . and thus we have answered the strongest of their objections . iv. use. i. this doctrine being thus cleared , ye ought not to look on what our opposites hold in this point as a matter of small moment , neither ought ye to suffer your selves to be deceived with the pretence of strictness with which they cover it . it is a doctrine that hath fearful consequences : for by this , the third part of the best churches that ever were , shall be put in no better case than pagans themselves , to live without all ordinances , their children without baptism : and this will hold off many who have true grace ; for how many are there ( even of those ) who cannot give convincing signs of grace , either to themselves or others . by this rule mens consciences shall still be held in an uncertainty , whether they may stay members of such a church or not ; because they can hardly be satisfied , whether all in it have convincing signs of grace or not . now the judgment of our opposits is , that if the rule be not keeped conscientiously , christians ought to separate . by this rule an insupportable burthen is put on christians , not only to examine themselves , but also the inward state of others : by this rule , all the churches that ever were in the dayes of the prophets , christs , apostles , or in the primitive times , have been in the mist ; all living and dying without the visible church , and so without baptism , and so as pagans . as also this shew of strictness beyond whatever god hath commanded , doth ever end in looseness , as appears by the separatists present practise ; for , what ever they speak against the looseness of other churches , that we are but a mixture of drunkards and loose prophane livers ; yet there is as great looseness in their own churches as in any other , for they make no scruple to admit hereticks , covetous vain , proud boasters , almost of all sorts , if so be they agree with them in principles against presbyterians . this rule puts men in an overweening conceit of themselves ; others are nothing to them , all are unclean or at best but civil , natural , moral men ; but they are the godly , saints , and what not ? now that doctrine which in its natural consequence puts people to overvalue themseves and undervalue others , is certainly not of god. this rule of theirs makes way for infinite janglings , and carrying on of self interests , under pretence of holiness ; for when the rule is , that which every particular man thinks signs of grace , such is the corruption of the best , that it will not be applyed to all alike ; to some they will be too strict , to others more lax , as affection caries ; untill at last they think all good enough , who are for their way ; and all others , but natural , worldly , and carnal , who are not so . i may say that this hath been one of the most unhappy doctrines that ever the devil hatched ; for it is that whereby sathan hath carried on his design mainly these years by past ; many such deceivers crying up strictness , whereby they have made themselves to be respected by some , and terrible to others , while under this pretence , they have born down christ , truth , and holiness . i speak not this to countenance looseness nor to give a dash to holy strictness ; it is our sin ( and we are plagued for it ) that we have not walked according to our rule ? yet i love no further strictness than what christ commands , let us stretch out our arms to invite sinners , to give outward obedience ; and then when they are in , let us hew them with the word and discipline ▪ this was christs way , and his apostles way , as we have proved : so when separatists say to you , that there are such sinful mixtures in your churches , that an honest man is polluted to come among them ; and so it is better to stay in your chambers with a few of a gracious temper , and let the rest run to the devil ; tell them , christ and his apostles made no such separation ; and ye desire to be no stricter than they were : only this is not to plead for our coming short of christs rule in our practise ; that scandals are too easily past ; that so many ignorants are admitted to the lords table , is our sin , and so not to be pleaded for . this for the first head of separation . head ii. no separation from a true church , or gods worship in the church , because of the sins of fellow-worshipers . we are now to speak of the second head , concerning separation from true churches , and the true worship of god in them , because of the sins of fellow-worshipers . i. that which our adversaries hold concerning this , is , that the presence of wicked men at ordinances do defile the ordinances to the godly : therefore , say they , where ever there is any corruption in a church , or where prophane or wicked men are suffered to be in it , the godly are bound to abstain from the lords table , and not to communicate with the mixed multitude ; and because they hold it is not lawful for any to live in any church , where they cannot enjoy the whole ordinances of god : therefore they maintain that the godly are bound to separate from that church , and to make up a church of their own , by gathering out so many of the godly that are in it , as they can get , and make a little congregation of their own , choosing any of them to be a minister , and some one or two to be elders , and so they set up a church against a church , a church in the bosome of a church . this is not a new error , it troubled the church of christ long since , in the fourth century or somthing more than three hundred years after christ : the donatists , a kind of hereticks arose and troubled the church for a long time , and did teach the same very thing ; against whom the godly fathers of the church in that time did write : yet because this error was carried on with a shew of holiness and strictness more than ordinary , it took such deep rooting in the mindes of some well minding people ( some of them at least ) that it could not be driven out by force of argument , till the lord did leave the mantainers of this error to fall into other vile abominations , for all their pretence of strictness ; which made all others to loath them : and before it could be gotten rooted out of the minds of men , it troubled the church almost . years together . the same is the errour which we have now to refute . that ye may know what is the doctrine of our church , that we are sworn to , and which is grounded on the word , in this particular , take it up thus ; first , we hold that the church should be reformed from all corruptions , and that wicked scandalous men should be casten out of the church , at least debarred from the lords table : this we hold , and herein there is no difference betwixt us and the separatists : but the question is , when the church officers do not their duty ( as often it falls out ) what through negligence , and what through other corruptions , and what through a base want of courage ; so that sometimes the rule is not put in practice ; by which means all wicked men are not kept back from the ordinance of the lords table ; and some corruptions are tollerated : the question ( i say ) is , what the godly should do in that case ? and concerning this we hold , first , that in such a case , it is lawful for a godly person to remove his dwelling , and go dwell in another congregation , where he may have the ordinances more purely administrated ; there is no tye laid on him , for binding him to remain constantly where he is , if he may conveniently remove . secondly , we hold that if he cannot conveniently remove from that congregation ; he may remain a member of it without sin , although he know there be several things which god is angry with in it , providing he keep his own hands clean of these . thirdly , we hold that as long as the godly man stayeth in that congregation where there are abuses of that kind tollerated , he is bound according to his place to endeavour the remedy of them , he is bound , according to christs rule to admonish these who are wicked and scandalous ; and if his admonition do no good , he is bound to delate them to the eldership that they may be censured : if they be censured , it is well , he hath gained his point : but if they be not censured , or not so fully as he would , he is to regrate the matter to god and mourn for it . but fourthly , we hold , that so long as he stayes in that congregation , he is not bound to keep back from gods worship , as from the lords table , or from any part of service in it self lawful , because there are wicked men joyning with him in it : far less is he to make a rent in the congregation or to draw away a number with him , to set up a little church for themselves . and this is now the question we are to debate about . the separatists say , he is bound to keep back from the communion ; if any be admitted to it who is prophane or wicked ; and that lest he be defiled with them . we say , if the worship and service be lawful and pure in it self , he sins in keeping back from it , notwithstanding that others joyn with him in it , whom the church officers should keep back . we grant indeed , when the service is not pure and lawful in its self ; as for example , when communion cannot be had except the people kneel , and so worship the bread : in that case , every man is bound to keep back , that would keep himself free of sin ; not because there are wicked men going to the table ; but because the ordinance is gone about in a sinful way . but our question is concerning worship in it self lawful ; that is to say , when a communion is administrated by a minister lawfully called ; when that table gesture , which christ himself used , is keeped at it ; when in all other things done according to his command ; what godly persons should do in that case , when scandalous persons one or moe are suffered to come to the table : we hold , that notwithstanding of their being there , he is bound to come foreward ; and the wicked man's being there defiles only the worship to himself , and not to those , who come in honesty . this much for the state of the question . ii. having cleared the question , we come to our arguments for the truth ; viz. that the presence of wicked men does not defile the worship of those that are godly : and that the godly should not keep back from lawful commanded duties , because wicked men have their hands at them . arg i. our first , argument is taken from the church of the jews in christs time ; any who know the history of the gospel , know that it was a very corrupt church , in christ time , in doctrine and manners ; their preachers the scribes and pharisees were debauched persons ; they perverted the law , the blind led the blind : and when the preachers were such , ye may judge what the people were ; and yet we find that christ and his apostles did joyn with them in the lawful worship , for first , christ himself came yearly up to the feast at jerusalem . secondly , he is so far from commanding his apostles , and those who believed in him , to keep back from the ordinary worship , because of wicked men among them , that upon the contrair he forbids them to stumble at any thing of that kind ; and commands them to come to the lawful worship : as matth : . . . then spake jesus to the multitude , and to his disciples , saying , the scribes &c. which is as if he had said do not keep back from the lawful worship , because they are but godless men that go about it ; what they preach according to the word , do that , and for their wicked life follow them not in it . arg : ii. our second argument is taken from the church in the old testament : we find , for the most part , many corrupters and graceless men that were members of that church ; both of the preachers , and people ; and yet we never find that the godly did loath the lawful worship or keep back from it because of that : yea we find , the lord commands them to joyn in the lawful worship ; and when they would separate , he reproves them for it . we shall make this appear from three or four times of the church of the old testament . the first is , moses time ; there was a great mixture of prophane men in the church at that time ; as ye will find deut : . ( only remember this all along that the point we are speaking to , is not to plead for keeping prophane men in the church ; we shew those should be removed ; but the question is , when they are keeped in , what the godly should do in that case ; if they should turn back and leave that church ) i say we find , deut : . the church at that time , for the most part , was not very sound , they corrupted themselves , their spots were not the spots of children ; yet we never read that moses and the godly did withdraw from the commanded worship , because such were at it ; yea , on the contrair , we find them joyning with them , deut : . moses enters into a covenant with them , preaches to them , prayes for them : yea deut : ● . . . . the lord commands the people to come up to the publick worship , in the place where he should choose to place his name , and go about the lawful commanded duties : tho ( doubtles ) there would be many wicked men among them . the second time of the church in the old testament , which we take to prove the point is , in joshua's time ; there were then great mixtures of wicked men among them ; as appears from joshua . . . he bids them put away the strange gods , so there were numbers of them corrupt in the way of worship , and yet we find in the same chapter v , . that joshua conveens them altogether to a solemn piece of worship , and enters into a covenant with god , and preaches to them on that subject : now surely joshua would not have done this , if so be the presence of wicked men did defile the worship to the godly : and if it had been a sin in the godly to stay with the wicked when about worship . the third time is in elijah's time , kings . we find at that time there were some godly , seven thousand that had not bowed their knee to baal ; we find also an atheistical multitude in verse . the body of the people halting betwixt god and baal ; they would neither say that god was their god , nor that baal was their god ; and yet elijah called all together to a solemn worship , a solemn sacrifice ; that is gone about verse . and there was preaching and praying to that purpose . now surely , if so be the presence of that godless multitude , which elijah could not get reformed in a hast , had prophaned the worship to the seven thousand godly , elijah would never have been accessory to that sin : a fourth time is from solomons time to hezekiah's : there was great corruption tollerated in the church then ; as worshipping god in the high-places , as is clear through the whole tract of the history of that time ; and there was much prophanity of life in that time ; which also appears from the frequent sermons of the prophets to that purpose ; and yet we never read that the prophets did separate from the lawful worship , because of that mixture in the church : yea on the contrary we read they did joyn with them in every lawful duty , chron. . asa gathers all together , and enters into a covenant with them : isaias , jeremiah , and the rest preaches to them , prayes with them . now if the presence of wicked men had polluted the service to them , then isaias his preaching and praying , and joyning with the people in worship should have been defiled to him. a fifth instance is taken from samuel . . eli's sons the priests were prophane men : whereupon the godly began to abhor the worship ; and so it is said in verse . wherefore the sin of the young men was very great before the lord , for men abhorred the offering of the lord. and to speak the truth , it was little wonder they did so : for in verse . we find the priests were so godless that they did ly with women that assembled at the doors of the tabernacle of the congregation : little wonder then that the godly did loath and withdraw : but does the lord approve of their withdrawing , notwithstanding of that reason ? no , we see in verse . where eli the prophet speaks to his sons , sayes he , nay my sons : for it is no good report that i hear ; ye make the lords people to transgress : their abhoring the offering of the lord because of wicked men that had their hands at it , is called ( a transgressing ) ye make the lords people to transgress . from all which it is clear . that the presence of wicked men doth not defile the worship to the godly , providing they come honestly themselves : and that therefore the wickeds presence should not keep them away . there is an exception which our opposits have against this argument : and it is taken from the state of the church in the old testament ; they say , that to separate from the church in the old testament was impossible , there being no other church to joyn with ; the service was then annexed to the temple ; and so the case of the church under the old testament , was far different from the case under the new. we might answer several things unto this : as first , if so be that the presence of wicked men doth defile the worship to the godly , then the godly had been bound to withdraw from the church , even under the old testament , although there had been no other church to joyn with : better to be out of the church visible than to be in it , if we must sin by abiding in it . but to answer more briefly , we shall find instances in the new testament that make separation unlawful , as well as in the old , which instances shall make up our third argument . arg , iii. our third argument . in the church of corinth there was a prophane multitude , cor , , . we find there were schismaticks in it . chap , v. v , . we find incests were tollerated , chap. v , . we find there were men of contentious spirits , going to law before infidels . yea in that chapter , we find there were some pleading the lawfulness of fornicatio● ; and chap , . we find there were drunkards among them ; and such drunkenness as was most abominable ; for some came drunk to the lords table , v , . and chap , . we find there were some infected with a dangerous heresy the denying of the resurrection . and so a number of very offensive things were among them , but after all , the apostle . tho he reproves them very sharply yet he no where sayes , ye that are godly stay away from joyning in worship , because of such mens joyning ; but on the contrair he approves their coming together to go about the ordinances , only reproving the wrong way they came in . so chap , . v , . first of all when ye come together in the church i hear there be divisions among you . and v , . when you come together therefore unto one place , &c. he doth not reprove their coming together , but suppones it as a thing lawful , only he reproves them for their divisions . so in the church of galatia , there was much corruption among them , they were bewitched with heretical doctrine o foolish galatians who hath bewitched you , &c. cap , . v , , they had begun in the spirit but were like to end in the flesh , v , . in the church of ephesus were many who had fallen away from their first love , revel , , . the church of sardis , revel : , . did tollerate prophane persons such as defiled their garments ; and yet we never read the spirit of god commanding to separat from worship because of them : indeed he reproves them sharply for their corruption ; for their falling away from their first love , for their tollerating prophane wicked men ; but he sayes not all ye that are godly turn your backs upon that church ; make up a new church of your own ; but directly approves their joyning together in what was right . so it is clear that separation from the ordinances is no more to be tollerated under the new testament than it was under the old. arg : iv. our fourth argument to prove the point is this : the sins of wicked men only defile the worship to themselves : therefore , not to others . we shall find for this two places of scripture : matth. . in the parable of the guests coming into the kings supper , there is one that wants a wedding garmant verse . the master of the feast finds him out , and sayes , friend , how comest thou hither , and he was found speechless . the master of the feast sayes not all ye guests are defiled because this man sits with you ; as should have been said if his presence had defiled the worship to them : but only he reproves the man himself ; the sin is thine , and thou shall bear the blame of it . the second place is , cor. . . he that eateth and drinketh unworthily , eateth and drinketh damnation to himself : he sayes not , he eateth and drinketh damnation to all , but to himself . it would necessarily follow according to this doctrine , that he did eat judgment to all , if so be the presence of the wicked man did defile the ordinance , or make it sinful to the rest that communicate with him : and therefore in the preceeeding words it is said , let a man examine himself , &c. he sayes not when ye are coming to the table , let everyone of you examine your neighbour , which would necessarily follow , if the presence of the wicked man did defile the ordinance to the rest , but all he sayes is , let every one examine himself , &c. it 's true the permitting of a wicked person to come to the communion is the sin of the church guides , but it is not the sin of fellow communicants , seeing he is admitted to communicate with them : for he only defiles the worship to himself . arg. v. our last argument to prove this point is , that from this doctrine of our opposits , it would follow ; that the dignity and worth of ordinances did depend on instruments , or upon those that are partakers of the ordinance , if so be that the sins of the instruments , or of fellow-worshipers did defile the worship : now this is most absurd ; the dignity of ordinances depends on him whose they are : the word of god , however preached , is his word ; it s true we are ready to cast at the word because of instruments : but whoever he be that preaches , the word is the word of god , and worthy to be received : and so the sacraments , whoever they be that joyn with me in them , lose not their worth and efficacy to me , who am seeking christ in them , though worthless men have their hand at them : and the reason is , i do not communicate with them in what they do wrong , let god and them reckon for that ; the root of my communion is christ ; in so far as they lay hold on christ , i communicate with them ; in so far as they do otherwise , i do not . the wicked man professes communion with christ , and seals up an outward fellowship with the visible church : i communicate with him in that : but in so far as he doth this hypocritically , i do in as far separate from him . and this much for the arguments confirming the truth . that the presence of wicked men doth desile the ordinances to none but to themselves . iii. in the next place we come to bring to the touch-stone the arguments they use against the truth , we shall shortly propound the most plausible of them and take them off . obj : : the first objection is grounded on the cor. . wherefore come out from among them , and be ye separate &c. this is the stongest of their arguments : the lord commands the corinthians to come from among them and separate ; and therefore ( say they ) when there are wicked men coming together with the godly , the godly ought to separate from them . but to shew you the vanity of the argument we shall answer it by reading out the rest of the verse ; for it is clear what the apostle aims at — be ye separate , saith the lord , and touch not the unclean thing &c. he bids them only separate from sinful actions , and not from lawful duties . that ye may see yet further the vanity of this reason , know , it was the custom in the church of corinth cor. . when idolaters would invite some of their christian neighbours , they would go with them , and eat with them at their idol feasts , and they thought they might lawfully do it , because they knew their idols were not true gods , and so by their eating they intended no worship to the idol , as these idolaters did who did eat with them , but did it only to satisfy their hunger and keep up common friendship : now paul discharges them from this kind of communion , and this is it he points at here , be separate , do not meddle with their idol feasts because it was indeed communion with them in their idolatry : and so it doth not follow , because paul bids the corinthians be separate from heathens , in doing a thing sinful , that therefore he forbids christians to joyn in a lawful worship with the church of christ. obj. ii. their second objection is taken from rev : , . and i heard another voice from heaven , saying , come out of her , my people , that ye be not partakers of her sins , and that ye receive not of her plagues . but this place is pitifully misapplyed to the purpose ; for its evident that the apostle john is there speaking of whoorish rome , and is commanding all gods people to separate from the antichristian church ; now let any judge if that be not loose reasoning , we are commanded to separate from rome , who hath overturned the foundation of religion , worships the creature instead of the creator , therefore we are to separate from christs true and purest churches and gods worship in them , if so be prophane men be keeped in them : it is a senseless consequence . obj. iii. their third objection against the truth is taken from cor : ● . . but now i have written unto you not to keep company &c. say they , we are forbidden to eat our ordinary meat with wicked men , and far more we are forbidden to eat at the lords table with them . to this we answer , that indeed it is the shame of christian churches , and our sin , that scandalous and ignorant persons are admitted to the lords table ; but when they are admitted partly through the neglect of ministers , and partly through abounding corruptions , it doth not follow that every private christian is to cast himself out of the church , because wicked men are admitted . as to this place here spoken of , it s true every tender christian is forbidden to use familiar society with fornicators , but it is not simply forbidden , as if it were unlawful at all times to eat with them ; for even paul himself eats with heathens act : . . so the thing here forbidden is , that the lords people should not use intimat society with wicked men ; yet so as when they cannot get it eschewed , it is lawful both to eat and drink with them ; as put the case we could not get it otherwise , it were lawfu● for us to eat with them following pauls practice and so it follows in the matter of the lords table , if it be in ministers power to hold them back , if they do it , it is well ; if not , it doth not follow , that private christians who have no power to debarr them , and so cannot get eating with them eschewed , without neglecting of a duty , are bound to separate . obj. iv. their fourth objection is from cor : . — know ye not that a litle leaven leaveneth the whole lump ? scandalous men infect the church ; and the church being infected , infects the worship ; and so if i come to the worship it is infected to me , and i do sin . now this is a consequence far from pauls words , a litle leaven , sayes he , leaveneth &c. therefore cast out the incestous man. but he doth not say , if he be not put out ; cast out your selves . as for that they say that prophane men infect the worship , it is without ground : it s true prophane men oftimes infect these among whom they live ; but they do not infect the worship : for the way that prophane men infect these among whom they live , is not physical , as the pest infects every thing it toucheth ; but they infect by their evil example : and so a prophane man may infect another man , but by his evil example cannot infect the worship , because the worship is not carried away with evil example , as a man is : and so if i can keep my self from following their example , the worship is pure and clean to me . obj. v. their last objection is ( say they my coming to the table with them is a countenancing of them in their profanation of the holy things : so i partake with them in their sins , & say amen to what they do : and therefore better for me to withdraw . we answer , this is a plausible argument to deter people that are tender , but when tryed , it will be found weak ; for if so be this argument do hold for separating from the lords table , it will conclude also that we should not hear preaching with them for our hearing preaching with them is a countenancing of them , as well as our coming to the sacrament with them ; and the wicked man profaneth the holy things in the one , as well as in the other ? and by this it should follow that jesus christ should have been polluted ; which were blasphemy to speak , by his preaching to prophane multitudes ; for in that he countenanced them . therefore secondly , for a more full answer we say , worshipping with them is not a consenting to their sin , except it were in our power to hold them out , but not otherwise ; thou doest say amen to what they do profess , that they are serving god , doing the commanded duty ; but not to their hypocritical way in doing of it : did christ say amen to the pharisees way of hearing although he preached to them : so neither doest thou : but as is already said thou approves of them in so far as they do the commanded duty ; but that it is done impenitently , thou by thy joyning in the worship approves it not . this for their objections . iv. for use , our first is this : to regrate that there is so much occasion given to this error in the churches of christ , we may regrate that there are so many of the members of the church prophane and wicked ; and that people walk not like their holy calling ; we may regrate that the officers of the church , ministers , and elders , do not purge out scandalous persons , do not labour to find them and censure them , and debarr them from communions ; but most of all it is to be regrated , that many of those , who should purge out others , their life is such that they deserve to be purged out as scandalous themselves : for this cause it is that the lord threatens to rent the church ; and if he should let men arise among our selves , under pretence of pious strictness , to cast at our worship , we behoved to say , just is the lord : although on the other hand it is no excuse , but a fearful sin to them , who by their carriage rent and undoe the church , because of some corruptions that are in it . use ii. the second use is , that ye would , not think all alike guilty that may encline to this error of separating from lawful worship , because of wicked men's being admitted to it . it 's true there may be some piously strict , that upon the one hand , loath at that which is good , when they cannot get it but in wicked mens company , and upon the other hand , because they cannot live without the ordinances , therefore they encline to make up a litle church of good men of their own choise : by which means the devil takes advantage of their zeal to make them dishonour god by runing to the other extreme : now although the humour of such should not be given way to , yet those who encline this way from a desire of strictness are much to be pitied . but on the other hand , we are not to think so of the ring-leaders of this error ; it hath been found by experience that such have been more carried on by a conceit of their own holiness , than any true love to holiness it self ; it hath been usually found in heady men who had a mind to make a rupture in t●e church , that this has been the method they used to walke in , to cry up holiness in themselves , and to cry down all who differed from them , as untender : that so they might carry all with them at last ; at least to rent and divide the church : to such we will say nothing , but christs curse , and the churches for renting her bowels , will fall on them. but unto the other we will speak something , that is , to those who are piously strict and really loath at the good service of god , because such persons are at it who should not be there . to those i shall say ; first , know what it your duty . and secondly , what is not your duty in reference to prophane men ; oft-times we mistake our duty and leap over it , to what is not our duty : now your duty in reference to prophane men , is not to take your hands from the ordinance , because their hands are at it ; to turn your backs on your duty because prophane men join with you in it ; it will be but a small excuse to pretend when god reckons with you , when the lord will say , what made you neglect such a duty ? to say . lord i grant it was my duty , but i could not , because such men were at it : therefore ye should know your duty in reference to those , and it is this , in the place where ye live , when ye see a fault committed , ye should tell the guilty persons of it ; if the fault be open , and a fault ye can get proven , ye ought to delate it to those who have power to censure them , if so be they may be gained by this mean ; or if not , ye have done your duty : or if the church do their duty in casting out the obstinate , then ye have your intent : but if so be that notwithstanding ye have done your duty , yet the church do not theirs , in purging the house of god : in this case , ye are to regrate the matter to god , to mourn for it , ye are to testify that ye do not approve their way , and in so doing ye have done your duty , and may have peace : for the presence of the wicked man makes not the work sinful in it self to you , he eats and drinks damnation to himself , and not to you ; his presence doth not make the worship sinful to thee ; and so it looses thee not from they obligation to join in the worship : for if that were true , that the presence of wicked men did defile the worship to thee , then christians would be in a very hard condition : for there was never a church so pure , but there were some admitted to it , whom a man truly tender would think should not be there ; there was never a church so pure but a tender man zealously strict would find some to challenge ; and so according to that doctrine there should be no church that a tender christian could joyn with ; and so he should be forced to serve god apart and by himself alone : and this hath been the separatists way , they have separated from one church to another , till at last they could get none to join with ; and so turned seekers , that is , a sect who think there are none they can join with ; and therefore , they cast off all publick duties , and serve god by themselves alone ; because they can see none so holy as themselves . and therefore ye would suspect zeal when joyned with error ; and fear error most when it is covered over with zeal : for error is never so dangerous , as when it gets on the mask of zeal , it being then most cruel and most impudent : people then have no will to medle with it , lest they should seem to be enemies to true piety ; and therefore because it is suffered and born with , it turns impudent until it undo all . i only give one word to guard this , and so i shall end . there is not one error that we refute , but if not guarded , prophane men may abuse it , and so may they this , to cast at those who are piously strict , though in an orderly way : and therefore , we say it is every christians duty to walk tenderly , and to be so strict towards others , as god requires of him . the thing we have refuted as an error is only this , that because a man cannot get all duties gone about by all , so strictly as god commands ; that therefore he will separate from altogether : but withal we did show , that not only a man should be strict on himself ( where right strictness will alwayes begin ) but also do what in him lyes , according to his duty and calling , that the ordinances of god may be keeped pure by others . finis . a sermon preached before the synod at glasgow . april , th . . the first sermon . corinth . . . now i beseech you , brethren , by the name of our lord jesus christ , that ye all speak the same thing , and that there be no divisions among you : but that ye be perfectly join'd together in the same mind , and in the same judgement . this text begins a new purpose , so it is not necessary to speak much for clearing of the dependance and cohesion : only ye would know somewhat of the state of this church at the time when this epistle was written , which will help us not a little to take up the occasion and scope of the words read . paul having planted a church at corinth , was after driven from thence by the sury of the jews , as appears from acts . . in whose absence , partly through the malice of satan , partly through the subtilty of false apostles , the church was rent in factions ; some taking part with one pastor and some with another , according to the diverse estimation they held them in , for their humane eloquence , great knowledge , and other parts . the church being thus rent , the apostle addresseth himself timously to the cure of this so great an evil : but because he was almost out of request with the most part of that people ; tho as he himself , chap. . v. . declares , he had begotten them in christ jesus through the gospel ; therefore as a skill'd physician being to administer a bitter potion , he suggereth the brim of the cup , by shewing , that whatever was their respect to him , yet his affection did remain the same towards them ; and this he insisteth on from the beginning to the tenth verse , wherein he falls upon the sore he intends to cure , to wit , their factions and schism's , obtesting them gravly in the name of jesus christ , that they would set about the healing of these woeful rents , before they should turn to worse . in the words there are two things , , a duty to which they are exhorted . . some arguments moving them to set about this duty . the duty is last in order of the words , and propounded in three sentences : . that ye all speak the same thing . . that there be no divisions among you . . that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind , and in the same judgement . the duty pressed in all these may be taken up in two . . an evil they were to eschew . . a good which they were to follow. the evil to be eschewed is in the second sentence , to wit , that there be no divisions or ( as it is in the original ) schism's among you . i shall not enter to speak of the nature of schism , or how it differeth from heresy ; it is sufficient for the opening up of the text , to know what divisions or schisms the apostle meaneth by here : and that is know'n from the following verse , to wit , their factious sidings in extolling one minister , and debasing another , with many fruitless janglings and other bad consequences following thereupon , whereof doubtless this was one , the engaging of the ministers themselves in parties for upholding their dependants , so verse . — every one of you saith i am of paul , and i of apollos , and i of cephas — one saith paul is best , let us follow him : another sayeth , nay , but apollos is best , we 'll follow him : a third saith , cephas is better than them both , i 'le follow none of them : now away with these fruitless contests saith he . in the next place . there is the good to be followed , and that is threefold , in opposition to three sorts of evils which usually accompany schism in a church . the first evil accompanying schism , is , flat contradiction , first among ministers , and next among people ; when not only their opinions do differ , but they are so hot upon the business , that at all occasions they proclaim their differences ▪ in opposition to this , he exhorts them to speak the same thing , that is , they would beware of contradictions in a matter of so small importance ; wherein they agreed , they would speak to that ; wherein they differ'd , they would forbear others , spending their time and parts upon more edifying purpose . the second evil accompanying schism in a church , is , renting of affections , when the members of one body turn cold-rife one towards another and their affection dyeth : in opoosition to this evil he exhorts them to be joined together in the same mind , or the same affection . it 's true , the word here rendred mind , is used indifferently for the whole faculties of the soul , as the understanding , will , and affections ; but the understanding being spoken to under the word judgement , which followeth ; we think with some of the best interpreters , that by the mind here is meaned the affections : so the thing he presseth in the second place , is , that not only they would forbear others in the matter of their publick expressions , but also would labour to blow at the coal of their almost dying affections the third evil accompanying a schism , is , difference of judgement ; and in opposition to this , he exhorts them to be perfectly joined in the same judgement . the meaning is , they would labour to remove the root of the difference by coming to one judgement : not as if the apostle had been careless what judgement they had been of , providing they had been one ; no , the one part of every contradiction is truth , and there is no truth which the apostle would have denied for peace . this for the duty pressed : next there are some arguments perswading to this duty . as . there is the apostles insinuation , partly in his affectionate exhortation , i beseech you , partly in his lovely compellation , brethren . . there is his grave obtestation — by the name of our lord jesus christ — that is to say , as the name of christ is dear to you , which ye profess so much respect unto , so set about the cure of these factions and fractious sidings and schisms , by which his name suffereth so much . there is a third argument to enforce this duty , in the words perfectly joined , whereby the apostle hints at the great evil the church was under by the present schism , and the great good they should attain to by the removal of it . the word in the original is borrowed from the office of chirurgeons , and that part of it which consists in the mending of broken bones , and setting in joynt of dislocated members : so it imports . that through occasion of the schism they were put all out of joynt : all the members of the church were dislocated , and therefore unfit , so long as they remained in that case , for doing of any good office to the body . . it imports , that their following of his advice for removing of the schism , would set every member of the body in it's own place , and so enable the body for going about actions profitable unto it self , which now ( the whole members being out of joynt ) it could not do . this this much for opening up the meaning of the words . divers points of truth , arising from the several branches of the text , might here be handled ; but i intend to insist upon one arising from the scope which will comprehended the most part of the rest ; it is this , vnity in the church , is a thing much to be laboured for and sought after ; and division and schism in a church , is much to be eschewed . in prosecuting this doctrine i shall first distinguish vnion , that we may know what vnion is meaned . . i shall confirm the point . . by scripture . . by reason , . i shall apply the doctrine for our vse . first then , to know what vnion the text and doctrine speaks of : it 's fit you know , that there are several sorts of union . . there is an union of the church invisible , the tye and bond whereof is inward graces : all the members of the church invisible are united to christ the head by faith , and one to another by love. this is not the union here meaned , the text speaks of a visible union of the church visible , in opposition to a visible rent and schism . secondly , there is an union of the church visible , and of it's members among themselves . this again is twofold ; the first is that vnion , which is necessary to the being of a church , and the being of a member : so that a church cannot be a church , nor a man a member of the visible church without it : wherein this vnion consists , is controverted betwixt us and the independants . but the doctrine meaneth not of this vnion either ; so we insist not on it . the vnion pressed in the text , is such , that the church at corinth for the time did want , and yet remained a church . the union therefore here meaned is , a second sort of union belonging to the visible church : to wit , that which is necessary to the well-being of a church ; without the which tho a church remain a church , yet she losseth much of her outward beauty , her authority is much weakned , her great work , which is the edification of her self in love ( eph. . . ) is much retarded : she remains a church , but not such a church as is described , cant. . . who is she that looketh forth as the morning , fair as the moon , clear as the sun , and terrible as an army with banners ? a divided church is not such a church . but for further understanding of the vnion here pressed , ye would know that this union which is necessary to the well-being of a church is threefold . . there is an union in judgement , when there is no considerable difference among the members of the church , in the matter of opinion ; when all think the same thing . and this is here pressed , be prefectly joined in one judgement . . there is an union in heart and affections spoken of act. . . the multitude of them that believed were of one heart , and of one soul. and this union is also here pressed , — be perfectly join'd together in the same mind , or in love and affection , as we shew'd in the opening up of the words . . there is an union in practice , and that is , when whatever difference there is in judgement , yet it 's not openly proclaim'd : publick contradictions and eristick debates are eschewed , and an unanimous joint practice in these things , wherein there is agreement , is followed . and this union is also pressed in the text , i beseech you — that ye all speak the same thing . so it 's clear the text means all these three sorts of union , the doctrine intends them all , and as might be made evident , other scriptures press them all. only this , we would know , the order wherein they are pressed , to wit , so as every breach in the former , is not to make a breach in the latter ; every difference in judgement , is not to make a rent in heart or affection ; nor , tho a rent be in both , doth it infer necessarly a divided practice , at least in these things wherein there is agreement : and for that , the scripture is clear , especially philipp . . , where v. the apostle supposeth difference of judgement among the philippians , as to the point he is there speaking of ▪ and subjoineth for matter of practice , v. . nevertheless , whereunto we have already attained , let us walk by the same rule , that is to say , tho we cannot agree in all things , yet let us eschew the prolaiming of our differences , by our contrary practices . this much for the first thing , to wit , what union the doctrine presseth . it is an union necessary to the well-being of the visible church , particularly , an union in judgement , an union in affection , an union in practice : an union all these wayes is to be sought for and laboured after , yet so as , if we cannot attain to union in the former , we are yet still to endeavour it in the latter . for confirmation of this truth we might cite several scriptures . . these wherein this union is promised to the church , and that as a rich covenant blessing , such as jer. . . — i will give them one heart , and one way that they may fear me for ever — the like is in ezek. . . . these scriptures wherein this vnion is highly commended : especially ps. . . behold how good and how pleasant it is , for brethren to dwell together in vnity — and so through the whole . . these scriptures which hold out the mediator's prayer to the father for this union , joh. . . that they all may be one , as thou father art in me , and i in thee , that they also may be one in vs — and so v. . . those scriptures where this union is expresly enjoyned and pressed whereof there are many ; such as philipp . . , , . if there be — any consolation in christ , if any comfort of love , if any fellowship of the spirit , if any bowels and mercies ; fulfil ye my joy , that ye be like minded , having the same love , being of one accord , of one mind . and cor. . . finally brethren , farewel — be of one mind , live in peace — . and lastly , these scriptures where division contrary to unity is condemned , as rom. . . — i beseech you , brethren , mark them which cause divisions and offences , and avoid them . but for further confirmation of this truth , we shall in the next place , bring foreward some reasons , concluding the equity and necessity , of seeking after , and entertaining of unity in the church , which shall also serve as motives to the duty . reason . union furthers edification : so eph. . . union is pressed ; and one fruit among many to be reaped hereby , is ( v. . ) the edifying of the body of christ. and as unity furthers edification , so division marreth it ; divisions in a church , tho about small things , yet if stiffly mantain'd , prove a great stumbling block to the weak ; they are put to doubt all truths , because men gracious and learned doubt of some : so division not only marreth progress in the building , but striketh at the very foundation of what is already built . reas. . divisions in a church make the ministers contemptible : of all men ministers suffer most this way , because usually they are most active in beginning and upholding the division ; and usually even these who have truth for them , suffer much ( if not most ) this way : paul , tho an apostle , and a man for truth , yet he lost much of the former esteem he had amongst the corinthians , though once they would have pluck'd out their eyes for him , yet through the division , their distemper grew to such an hight , that he was look'd on as contemptible — rude in speech — yea a fool , and what not ? as appears from cor : . . ch. . , . reas. . the essential unity of the church , and the many things wherein a church agreeth that way , should enforce this union . the apostle paul , eph. . draweth a strong argument for unity and peace in the church , from this ground . the duty is propounded v. . endeavouring to keep the vnity of the spirit in the bond of peace . and v. , , . it is pressed by this argument , there is on body , and one spirit , — one lord , one faith , one baptism ; one god and father of all ▪ — here are many ones together in two or three lines , as if he had said , what a shame is it for you who are so many wayes one , to rent in pieces for a thing of so small moment . reas. . divisions in a church turn away every man's eye from his main task ; i mean from the joint opposing of satan's main design , to be wrangling one with another : it 's satans policy when he intends to bear down truth in a church , to set those who should oppose him most , by the ears about smaller things , that so he may carry his point with less difficulty ; herein making use of matchiavils ( or rather his own ) principle divide & impera , divide and carry . it 's often seen that the nearer those who differ come to one another , they drive on their point against others with the greater animosity and eagerness ; the jews and samaritans were at greater variance than jews and heathens : and the reason is this , the less the difference is , they have the more hopes to bring others to their mind , hence their mutual on-setts are more furious , and their disappointments the more bitter , the higher they were in their hopes ; and in the mean time while they mind nothing so much as to bear down one another , satan cometh good speed in bearing down of truth and them and all. reas. . union when once lost in a church , is hardly ever again attained : we read act. . . that paul and barnabas parted , but we hear nothing of their meeting again . and church history sheweth us , that schisms in a church for almost just nothing have continued incureable for some generations , until not only the authors and ring-leaders of the schism , but also their disciples were removed by death . osiand . gent. . reas. . when a rent is made in a church , as it is hardly curable , so it still groweth wider : it is easier to know whereabout a rent begins , than whereat it will end . the greatest of church divisions ( some of them at least ) have been observed to have had but small beginnings , hence is that commonly received maxim omne schisma desinit in haresin . the faction of the donatists at first made but a schism separating from the communion of the church , upon pretence of some faulty officers and mixed communions , but it was not long until they fell into several heresies . the doctrine being thus explained and confirmed , from scripture ▪ and reason , i shall now apply it to use. our first use is for refutation . the doctrine refutes , at least layeth a just odium upon ; the doctrine of separation , and that way which is called independant or congregational , in so far as it is made up of such principles , as lay a foundation for the perpetual renting of the church : of which principles i shall reckon four. the first is , that principle , whereby they maintain the lawfulness of gathering churches , out of churches , acknowledged by themselves to be true churches . a most dividing principle , in so far as it gives way for every man to separate from his own , and to join himself with another church supposed purer , with contempt of the former congregation . to gather churches out of churches , is the way to destroy , but not to heal diseased churches ; it is to destroy many churches for making up of one , as if one going about the cure of a natural body should cut off and take out all the sound members , and leave the rotten and diseased members , either to cure one another or to perish . a strange and desperate way of cure. a second dividing principle in that way , is , the rule according to which they will have ecclesiastick judgement pass'd upon their church members , to wit , conviction of their inward good estate , which rule being variable and uncertain , some will judge one way , some another , according as they are more or less enclined to charity ; yea the same man at several times , will have a various judgement of the inward state of another , according as the presumptions and probabilities , ( by which only he is led to judge of what is within , ) are more fully or sparingly represented : hence there is a seed of breach upon breach : but god hath not left his church in the matter of authoritative judging to walk by such uncertain rules . a third dividing principle in the independant way is this , that all church power is solely in a particular congregation . hence if a particular congregation go wrong , tho but made up of seven persons ( which is a competent number with them ) there is no authoritative mean in all the churches of the world to reclaim them . this must needs open a door to as many divisions as there are churches . a fourth dividing principle is , that there is not a catholick visible church , yea no church visible , but a particular congregation ; and another principle they hold which followeth upon this , to wit , that a minister can exerce no acts as a minister , to any but those of his own flock . hence . there can be no communion of churches as churches , there remaine●h only a communion of members : there can be no church act from one church , or many towards another . the results and determinations of the most famous synods , made up of never so many churches , are to be look'd upon but as the actings of so many private christians . yea , . hence it will follow that there can be no communion amongst members of several congregations , in publick church ordinances , as in hearing the word jointly from a sent minister , in receiving the seals together ; for according to this principle a minister cannot authoritatively preach , nor in any respect administer baptism or the lords supper unto any , though never so gracious , except to those of his own flock ; no not tho they be occasionally present when he is dispensing these ordinances unto his own : which consequence is expresly granted by some of the chief of that perswasion . so it is a principle which destroyeth all communion of churches and members ; and therefore inconsistent with union . several such like principles in that way might be reckoned out , concerning which the doctrine warrandeth us to say this much ; if unity be so necessary , and so much to be sought after , then such dividing principles cannot be of god. our second use is for direction : if unity be so necessary , and so much to be laboured for , then we are to bewail that we our selves are so far , and every day a step further from it : our divisions grow i fear all the three wayes , and in all ranks ; our heads are divided , our tongues divided , yea and our hearts divided , synods are divided , presbyteries are divided , congregations divided : ministers divided , people divided ; yea , and in some places families divided : husband and wife , father and son , mother and daughter , master and servant , yea and all divided . we are as mad-men , every one eating the flesh of his own arm. manasseh , ephraim ; and ephraim manasseh : and they together against judah — an evil never enough lamented , and the more to be lamented that there is no appearance how it shall be helped . there are many things may make us look upon the present division as our saddest affliction and greatest weight : i shall reckon six things . . the many particular evils which upon an exact search , it will be found our divisions have brought upon peoples own spirits . how much of our precious time is spent in vain jangling , by which our heart cannot but ●e made worse ? many , i fear too too many so taken up with their heads that they forget their hearts ; the sweetness and profit of mutual converse and fellowship is much marred ; our mutual freedom and benefit that way much impaired : our peace with god by our hot debates ▪ untender expressions , and bitter and unnecessary reflections of times brangled and shaken . a second thing that may make us look on our present divisions as our great weight , is , the name of praise which this church hath had for unity in times by-past amongst the reformed churches . in the harmony of confessions , the preface to the confession of faith of the church of scotland , makes mention of this as a rare priviledge of this church beyond many , and that which makes her very name famous among churches abroad , that for the space almost of sixty years she had keep'd unity with purity without either schism or heresy . now if unity hath been formerly this church's praise , how sad and weighty is it , and how woeful men are we , that this breach should be under our hand ? a third thing to make our present division weighty is , that it is the greatest weight which gods people up and down the land lyeth under , it 's a weight beyond all other weights and sufferings : and if it be their weight , it ought for many reasons to be much more ours . fourthly , our divisions , and courses taken for carrying them on , hath given a deeper inward wound , to the government of christ's house than all the outward power of the world could have done the leading of us by pairs to a stake for our adhering to the government and constitution of our mother church , our imprisonment , banishment , the laying of congregations desolate for that cause , could not have shaken the minds of many , in relation to these truths , so much as our own divisions and practices following thereupon have done . an inward disease is more dangerous , and weakeneth more than outward blows . fifthly , our division may and ought to be the more weighty , the more of judgement is in it : and certainly there is much of wrath and judgement in it . it is a judicial stroak ; for all see it's evil , the most part are weary of it , and yet cannot fall upon the right way for putting an end to it : yea , no course hitherto essayed for union , but it hath proved an hightning of our division ; and so it will until it come to that hight which god in his just judgement will have it at ; however it 's clear that wrath is in it , much of judgement is in it , and that should make it weighty : we side one against another , and god is siding against us both . sixthly , this should make our division have a particular weight with us in this synod , that we drink most of its bitter fruits : we are the stage whereon this cruel dividing spirit acts its game most : none in time past so united as we , but none now so divided ; and even this may give us sad thoughts of our accession to the beginning and fomenting of this woeful rent . our third use is of direction also following upon the former , if union be such a good ; if division such an evil ; and if our divisions be so much to be bewailed ; then we ought to have some thoughts towards the making up of our breach ▪ there ought to be some guardings against these evils which may follow upon it , until it be made up . the prosecuting of this use , as it is the most part of our work , so it is the most difficult ; and i fear also , considering our present distempers , and deep engagements lying on every one almost to his own way , that for the time it shall be but fruitless : yet being led to it by the word of truth , and not knowing when the lord may make it have it 's own fruits , whether now or afterwards , i shall with the lords help adventure on it . and therefore in pressing this use , i shall speak to three things . . i shall show what things i conceive as necessary to be eyed by us while we aim at union , if so we would have our aim's effectual . . because a compleat union is not soon to be expected , i shall give some directions for the management of our differences , so as the church of christ may have the less hurt by them at least . lastly , i shall propound some considerations to people , for preventing of stumbling , and making shipwrack upon our divisions . as to the first , i shall mention six things we should carry alongs with us while we aim at union . unto all which i premit one general , as tending to give life to all the rest , without which all our endeavours for union , though otherwise never so regular , though guided with never so much prudence , though prosecuted with never so much zeal , will prove ineffectual ; and it 's this : that both ministers and people should be more in seeking after god's face : so long as we remain at a distance from him , no wonder we grope as blind-men in the dark , and cannot come nigh one to another : it 's granted by all , that jesus christ hath much withdrawn from the spirits of his people : there is not so much of life conveyed by preaching , not such access granted in prayer ; no such delight in means ; no such joy in his presence ; this is granted by all and in a manner regrated by all , but lamented by few ; and fewer yet make it their work to have the lord returning and shewing himself as sometimes he hath done : and until this be , we can look for the less success of any attempts made for the removal of this our sore stroak : but if god would return , it were then easy work : one glimpse of him , filling the house with his glory , would scatter the clouds of mutual jealousies , make us , as men ashamed , steal from all our dividing principles ; would put to silence all our turbulent distempers ; and make us blush at our proud and selfish animosities : o! for more of god , then would all be well . but i come to the particulars to be eyed by us while we aim at union . first , it is not to be expected that our union will begin at our uniting in judgment , in that question about which our unhappy differences began . it was the judgment of some from the beginning , that the standing at a distance in other things , until we should be united in that , should put us at a further distance , even in that . our union in practice first , will be the shortest cut to bring us unto union of judgement about that question , if ever we shall come to it at all . hence publick debatings before the people , and such as tend to make others odious who are not of our way , is not the way for union . such work irritateth , but convinceth not . it 's true no truth may be quit for union , no , not the least , quisquil●a veritat●● praetiosissima , the very refuse of truth is most precious : yet that the positive asserting of some truths may be forborn for peace's sake , i believe is granted by all , and there is good reason for it : only there is one exception here necessary , to wit , when truth is impugned , then there is a necessity to speak for it , at least till there be such a testimony given to that opposed truth , as may ●e rested upon . and in this case some may be made unwillingly to speak , as the apostle paul was once in defence of his own estimation , cor. . . i am become a fool in glorying , ye have compelled me : for i ought to have been commended of you : — as if he should say , god knows , i have no more delight to speak of this subject , than ye have to hear me , but your indiscretion forceth me to it . a second thing to be carried along with us , while we aim at union , is , no union of this kind of which the doctrine speaks , can be expected in the church , except there be an union in one supreme representative ; land that such an one whose authority we may stand under for the present . as it is in the civil state , so is it in the church as to this purpose , no union can be there , as of one actually incorporate body , except it be under one and the same supreme rulers : so is it in the church , so long as there is no agreement about one and the same supreme representative , under whose authority we may stand for the present , but one part standeth for it's authority , another is contrary unto it , or setting up another against it , in this case the matter is clear , there is no compleat union but a fixed schism , or at the best a strong tendency unto it . a third thing to be eyed is , if so our union must be under one supreme representative , then such ways of union will do no good as carry not alongs the body : an union if not with the body , instead of healing , doth widen the rent . a resolution or desire to unite with a few not caring for the rest , will not produce an union , i mean of the church , altho it may be of a stronger party in the church . these few would possibly as gladly unite as others would have them , if it were not evidently a strengthening of the breach . fourthly , yet a part ought to labour with the body for condescending , as low as warrantably can be , for peace's sake : only a caveat must be here , they are so to deal with the body to condescend for vnion , as to beware of making a new rupture in the body upon their not granting : for that were in a desperate way to make a new rent , because others will not take our way for removing of the old. fifthly , if we desire an hearty cordial vnion , it would be endeavoured without rubbing upon the credit . . of persons . . of parties . . of ordinances . if the credit of all can be held up , it 's well . he is no friend to vnion that would endeavour the contrair : but if some must suffer , love to the publick and zeal for god , will teach that the former is to yeild to the latter , viz. persons to parties , and the credit both of persons and parties , yea , and of both parties themselves , if need be , are to stoop for upholding the authority of divine ordinances . a litle of this self-denial would do much good : but how litle of it is there to be found ? sixthly , dividing principles and such as tend of their own nature to obstruct union , should be abandoned : there is one principle often spoken of by some , and now made more publick , which if maintained , in our judgment will close the door upon union in hast , to wit , that it is unlawful to sit in an assembly with those , who have enacted persecution against the godly . and this in the sence of the propounders , & as it is expresly , tho injuriously , applyed by them , is as much as to say , it is unlawful to joyn in any assembly made up for the most part of those who acted in and approved of our late controverted assemblies : now if it be unlawful to joyn in an assembly made up for the most part of such , why not also unlawful to join in a synod or in a presbytry likewise made up of such , yea and to join at a communion table where the most part are such . and indeed some ( of the people chiefly ) draw out their principle to this full length . a principle which ( to say no worse of it ) striketh at the very throat of peace ; and , if stood to , makes it desperat ; and so i hope is , and will be disowned by all who cordially pretend to peace and union in the church . these i conceive and many moe should be eyed by us in our aiming at union , if we would have our endeavours effectual : but because a compleat union in an ordinary way is not to be so soon expected , i shall in the next place give two directions for managing our differences ; so as the church of christ may have less hurt by them at least . the first direction is , that we ought to guard against these tentations , which our standing division may readily make way for , whereof i shall mention three . the first tentation is this , an oversight of every other fault almost , whether in ministers or professors , providing they be true to the party . a party is a dangerous thing , and in nothing more dangerous than in this , that it driveth men , if not all the more tender , to take fidelity unto the party to be the prime , if not the only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and badge of honesty , and enclines them to look on all other things , whether corrupt principles , or loose practices , as excusable infirmities . a woeful tentation ! and destructive both to truth and piety ; and therefore ought so much the more to be guarded against on both hands , a second tentation is , the secret wishing after , and rejoycing in the slips one of another . an evil so woeful that david complains to god of it even in his avowed enemies , ps. . . — when my foot slippeth , they magnify themselves against me . and jeremiah complaineth of it in his false friends , ch. . v. . they — watched for my halting . and yet an evil that even good men , if once engaged in parties , will have a battel with , a third tentation upon our standing divided , and which is also to be guarded against , is , a bending of our selves to the outmost of light , and possibly beyond it , for strengthning of our selves , to the doing of these things , in relation to these who now rule , which not long since we would have abhorred both in our selves and others . it is very possible that as gifts blind the eyes of the wise , exod. . so the seeming advantage unto that which we conceive truth , may draw out somewhat like an approbation to such like work , from those of our own judgement , and if these do approve , it is the less matter ( think we ) that others do disapprove : but we ought to remember there are others to sift our actions : forreign churches abroad , our own conscience , being sober and settled , and above all god the judge of all. a second direction for managing our differences , is , that we ought not to be so taken up with others as to take our eye off from guarding against that which is satan's main design against the church of christ at this time . satan does as a subtile warriour labour to raise a mutiny among the forces which should oppose him , that while they are wrangling one with another , he may carry his point , without stroke of sword. being to insist a little on this direction , i shall first speak to what i conceive to be satan's main design against the church at this time . , i shall give some directions to manage our differences , so , as not to further this his main design , nor yet to be short-coming in our duty against it . and first , for taking up what is satan's great design , we shall in a word or two lay before you a wonderful contexture , as it were of god's wisdom and satan's malice , since the first beginnings of the christian church even untill now . there is no truth almost but satan's malice hath set it self in some one age of the church or other , to bear it down ; and god's wisdom hath still overshot satan , making use of his malice in opposing truth , for the further clearing of that truth , which he intendeth most to obscure and darken . satan's first design in the first ages of the christian church was to beat down that great fundamental truth of christs divinity : but after long debate this truth was fully cleared by the means of several worthies , whose spirits the lord stirred up in these ages to mantain that so much opposed truth : satan therefore being beat off this strong fort of christianity retired a little , and laboured next to bear down the truth of christs humanity : but the tru●h hereof , the more it was opposed , growing the brighter , the lord making light break up convincingly in the midst of hot debates ; satan retired a little further yet , and bent his whole force in the following ages against the vnity of christs person : and next against the distinction of his natures . but satan not prevailing this way either , he set himself to undermine christ jesus in all his offices . . by setting up the infallibility of popes and councils against his prophetical office. . the doctrine of merit in the matter of justification against his priestly office. . the doctrine of free-will and power of it in man's conversion to god , against the inward part of his kingly office. and for the outward part of it , he set himself to wrest the scepter of christ's government from his own office-bearers , and put it in the hands of popes , cardinals , arch-bishops and bishops . but after long contest , truth is now aboundantly cleared and confirmed in all these . thus , as one saith , the lord jesus hath been content to dispute his ground by inches with the devil , until almost he hath beat him out of all ; only satan hath no will to quit it so , it seems to us he is now giving his last and sorest on-set ; on which in a desperate way he is to venture all ; wherein his design is evident , to cast all in a confusion . first , by trampling under foot the outward court of god's house , i mean the constitution of his church visible , by the doctrine of renting and separation ; and next to deprive the catholick church visible , and all her considerable members , of all government , by the doctrine of independancy , which confineth the whole power of the keys within the narrow circuit of a particular congregation ; whereby all the particular churches are left as so many small boats in a storm , to dash one against another , having no intrinsical authoritative mean to make them steer an even course without rushing one upon another . thus satan aimeth to cast all in confusion , that he may undo all . what in former ages he could not do in destroying gospel truths by piece-meal and one by one , he intends now to do it by whole sale , and all at once ; for if once the bottom of the ship be split , and the rudder broken , the precious ware contain'd in it , can hardly be preserved . now that satan's main design is to deface these truths which are about the constitution and government of the visible church , that thereby all may be covered with confusion , appeareth , in that not only the method god hath hitherto keeped , doth point at it ; there being few other points of truth to clear , but also the thing speaketh for it self , the main speat of the errors of the time running directly contrary to these ; so that certainly , as god intends to clear truth in these , so it 's not the least part of satan's main design against the church of christ at this time to obscure truth in these . this then being satan's design , i shall in the next place give some directions how to manage our differences so , as not to further this main design , nor yet be short coming in our duty against it ; of which directions i shall reckon three . first , we ought to examine opinions and practices , even tho by us conceived just and lawful , how far they may contribute for furtherance of that design ; and in that respect should be more circumspect and sparing at least in medling with them . thus the apostle paul gal. . . would not circumcise titus , tho circumcision at that time was a thing lawful , as appears from his circumcising of timothy , act. . . much about the same time , and yet he would not circumcise titus : the reason is v. . there were false brethren present ; who would have taken advantage of that his practice , to confirm themselves in their opposition to that truth , which satan intended most to bear down at that time ; to wit , the freedom of the christian church from the yoke of mosaical ceremonies : therefore he thinks himself bound to abstain from that practice , tho in it self lawful , and which in some other cases would have been necessary : and that lest by that his practice he should have been advantageous to satan's main design against the church of christ at that time . it 's true truth remains still truth , however satan abuse it , yet seing all grant that the venting of some truths at sometimes is unseasonable , and so for that time may be forborn ; and seing it would seem that nothing makes a truth more unseasonable , than when it is known that satan will make bad use of it , for bearing down that truth which god intends mainly to clear ; it will follow that the venting of such a truth ought to be at least with great modesty , and much holy circumspection , if not altogether forborn for that time . for application of this direction , i will not say much : only i shall propose it to your serious thoughts , whether or not the late proceedings in opposition to the supreme judicatories of the church , together with the tenets whereupon they are grounded ( which for peace's cause , and from unwillingness to give the least occasion of irritation , i forbear to name ) whether or not , i say , these ( even supposing the lawfulness of the practices , and truth of the opinions ) seem not to have been unseasonable for the time ; as being apt to be abused for leading people upon the errors of the time : such as the contempt of ecclesiastical judicatories ; quarrelling the constitution , and separating from the fellowship of our church . i fear much it will be hard for people ( not acquainted with subtile distinctions ) to conceive , that any corruption amongst those with whom we converse , can make civil fellowship with them unlawful , but it must make church fellowship , especially communion-table fellowship , with the same persons , to be as much , if not much more , unlawful . but i forbear , not being without hopes but that brethren gracious and wise will ponder what they hold , and what they practise , when they see bad use made of it , beyond their own intention and purpose . there is one thing further i shall say for application chiefly upon the other hand , and it is this , such practices ought to be eschewed , as may prove unjust , and unnecessary irritations unto people , to cast themselves head-long upon the errors of the time . i do not love that any thing should be done of purpose , to make people ( as we say ) kyth or appear in their colours , i mean , to bring out these practices , the seed whereof thou conceives to be already within ; which at the best is to cast a stumbling block before the blind . i might reckon several practices which are not only irritating , but also in themselves sinful ; such as , promiscuous admissions of clean and unclean to the lord's table ; little pains taking by ministers to instruct people with knowledge ; shewing much of passion , but little of reason , against errors . there be many whose zeal is honestly fervent against error and confusion , who yet by these , and such as these , are not a little indirectly instrumental to the furtherance of it . our second direction how to manage our differences so as not to further satan's main design , is , that all , especially ministers , would beware of such things as of their own nature do prove , and by constant observation have proven , fore-runners of error and confusion : of which i shall reckon three . the first thing to be eschewed , is , unscriptural expressions while speaking of things religious , as , cases of conscience , exercises of mind , and scripture truths : an affected way of bringing forth old truths in new and uncouth phrases , high soaring notions , serving more to astonish than inform the hearers , paul tim. . . bids , hold fast the form of sound words , and not only of sound doctrine : it was calvin's observation in his time , and severalls since , that those who coin new words and strange expressions , tending only to amuse the hearers , are in hazard to be carried away themselves , and to carry others with them , unto some new and dangerous opinions . . ye must beware lest a disgust of old truths spread amongst the people , together with an itching after new things , new opinions , new cases , new fellowships , new teachers . ye'll find tim. . , . that itching ears in people go before the turning the ear from the truth . for preventing whereof ministers should be much in the inculcating of old soul-saving and soul-humbling truths ; and for keeping these still fresh and savory , much of the need of christ should be pressed ; to a soul-hungring for christ , every bitter thing is sweet , but a soul full of conceit loatheth the hony-comb . a third thing predisposing to error , and so to be guarded against , is , the undervaluing of the ministry . it hath been satan's method in drawing on people towards error at all times , and in no time more than these of late . first , to make them despise their faithful ministers ; that once getting the ear stopped by prejudice against thes● he might get the more ready access for his emissaries to infect them with damnable errors . it is the observation of a reverend writer of late , speaking to the same purpose , that the galatians were easily seduced , so soon as they were made to disgust paul their faithful teacher . this much for the second direction for managing of our differences so , as not to come short in defence of these truths , which satan is labouring most to deface . our third direction , is , to be watchful over the first buddings of error that way : there are some lesser errors whereby satan scoureth the field , and maketh way for these great ones which he mainly intends : whereof as to the present case i shall mention some . concerning which , whatever we might speak from our own knowledge of the propensity of severals towards some of them ; yet i shall rather choise to speak of them in the abstract , as such , that if people should be taken with them , will make way for that confusion which satan mainly aimeth at . error . the first whereof is , that no man truly godly , ought to be censured for opinion or practice , which we conceive he owneth or practiseth from grounds of conscience , tho his opinion or practice tend never so evidently to the renting of the church . error . secondly , that the presence of scandalous persons at the lords table , defileth the ordinance unto all who communicate , knowing such to be there . error . thirdly , that a minister scandalous , tho not judicially proved such , ceaseth to be a minister , so that it is unlawful to receive either word or sacrament at his hand , or to join in discipline with him . error . fourthly , that there is no special tye upon people to countenance the ordinance , in that congregation whereof they are members : but a liberty left to go constantly where they may be most edified , tho with the discouragement of those whose hands they are bound to strengthen . i have only mentioned these tenets without refutation , being confident that none of christs ministers , to whom herein i mainly speak , will own them : only i shall point at three things ministers should make conscience of as their duty , in relation to these or such like . first , as it is our duty to watch against prophanity and scandal upon the one hand , so to be learning where any thing of this kind vents it self either in practice or contentious reasoning . secondly , we should not think lightly of such , when they do appear ; and that because , . they do evidently make way for satans great design in these times , which is to cover the church of christ with confusion . . because that however possibly such do not reflect so much upon our own ministry as upon others , who we may conceive have justly procured their own grief , yet a year or two may lay them down at the door of him who thinks himself for the time at greatest distance from them , and that with so much the more weight , as that he did not resent these evils sooner . . such would not be thought of lightly , because experience sheweth , that the simple overseeing of such , is not the way to root them out , but rather to make them take strength . and therefore the third thing that ministers should make conscience of in relation to such , is , to set about the curing of them , wherein ye are to eye two caveats . . as ye would thrive so set about the cure of one evil as not to neglect another ; they are not to be approven , if any such be , who in their reproofs bend themselves wholly against error , but little against prophanity and vice ; neither are they to be approven , if there be any such , who pass over the reproof of error wholly , because the person to be reproved will hardly take with it ; or that prophane men will take occasion to mock at piety because of it : these things require indeed that the duty be wisely and tenderly done , but not that it be left altogether undone . a second caveat to be eyed is , your cure should be more in convincing arguments , than in bitter reproofs : else it will be taken but for the venting of passion , and that ye have nothing to say in reason ; which will make the disease worse . this much for the second branch of our last use. the third shall be some considerations to the people , especially , for preventing their stumbling and making shipwrack upon the present divisions . the first consideration is this : the church in all ages hath been afflicted with divisions from the apostles time even till now : yea , in the very time when the apostles were alive themselves , we read act. . . that two great apostles paul and barnabas were so divided , that they parted one from another : the word made use of in the original , to express their contention , signifieth , the high fit of a fever ( a paroxism ) it is the very word ; the spirit of the lord thereby insinuating , that their contention cast them , as it were , in the rage of a fever ; and yet the matter whereabout the contest fell out was not very great : much like that , which was the fountain of our woful rent , to wit , whether mark who had before deserted the work , should be again employed in it , the one would have him , the other would not ; hence they part company . and what divisions fell out amongst the primitive churches almost presently after they were planted by the apostles , the epistles of paul to the romans , corinthians , galatians , &c. make it very clear . and for the times following the history of the church doth abundantly testify , that from the apostles death to this very age , the church hath still been shaken with rents and schisms , in some one place or other ; and these sometimes even amongst the most gracious men of those times , as augustine , hierom , zuinglius , luther , and calvin , together with several others , whose names , if it were pertinent i might recite . so that ye are not to stumble at the present divisions : there is no new or strange thing befallen us : the church of christ in all ages hath been tryed with the like . a second consideration to prevent stumbling at our present divisions is , that god hath foretold church divisions should be , cor. . . there must be also heresies among you — and he hath not only foretold that simply they must be , but so a● he should have an holy hand in them , matth. . . i am come to set a man at variance against his father , and the daughter against her mother — so that he hath an holy hand in church divisions , he permits them to be , and for wise reasons , whereof i shall reckon three . . he permits divisions to be , that men's spirits may be thereby tryed . so cor. . . there must be heresies among you , and wherefore ? — that they which are approved may be made manifest . there is a great deal of evil lurking in peoples spirits , unsound principles in some , seeds of loose practices in others , pride , conceit , and other unmortified distempers , in a third sort ; and divisions in a church decipher those . . divisions are sent for the clearing of truths : this , as we shewed before , has been gods method from the beginning , when he had a point of truth to clear , he hath suffered men to contradict it , and the more it hath been contradicted , it hath still grown the brighter . . he permits divisions to be , that in his holy justice they may be a stumbling block to the wicked ; if thou think there are so many opinions , and so many religions , that thou 'l care for no religion , until wiser people than thou agree among themselves ; then church divisions and difference of opinions in gods just judgment are thy destruction . a third consideration to prevent stumbling at our present divisions is , that some good use may be made of them in the mean time ; i shall first speak to some bad uses of them which ye are to eschew : and then to speak to some good uses of them which ye are to seek after . . the first bad use of the present divisions is , from them to take occasion of rejoycing , that ministers are set together by the ears : a woeful use ! thou rejoycest in that which is the gospels shame , the godly's weight , and god's dishonour ; and god shall rejoyce in thy shame and ruin another day for it . . another bad use is , because of them to wish that the work of reformation had never been begun ; as having such ills following upon it : an use which the carnal israelites did often make of their present strait , would god ( say they ) we had never come out of egypt . an use which speaks , that for all thy professed adherence to the work of god and covenant , yet thou hast never thought upon it as his work ; else a blast of affliction could not have put thee so soon out of love with it . . the giving over of your selves to a spirit of loosness , it being a lawless time : some ministers may possibly make this use of the present division , but it is a woeful use , and such as will deceive : god may of purpose have sent such a time that thou may without fear fill up thy cup , and so be taken course with afterwards for all together . . it is a bad use of them , to observe only which of the wayes do afford most advantage , where the sun of prosperity is most like to shine , that ye may strike in there , but with a resolution , if the wind change ye will change also : a bad use and unworthy of a man , much more of a christian man , whose profession is to be ruled by conscience , scripture and reason ; and not by self-interest and advantage . . the last bad use of the present division is , to blow at the coal ; making it your work what ye can search out and scrape together , from the carriage of these who differ , that ye may vent it , and make them odious by it . a base uncharitable and unchristian use. a thing so woeful that david complains of it in his very enemies . ps. . , . every day they wrest my words ; all their thoughts are against me for evil . they gather themselves together , they hide themselves , they mark my steps when they wait for my soul. this is a thing i may say , which hath had it's own hand in the hightning and continuance of our differences , if that which solomon saith , prov. . . be true , as it is most true , — where there is no tale-bearer the strife ceaseth . these now are bad uses which ye are to eschew , but out of the eater cometh meat , there is some good use may be made of our present divisions , and that ye should seek after . the first good use is , that from these separating stirs ye would labour to be convinced of abused vnion . our division speaketh that union hath not been improven aright , neither amongst ministers nor professors , there hath been much of carnal joy , triffling over of time , but little and too too little of god in our fellowship : and therefore in his just judgement he hath given us some other thing to set our teeth on edge with , ye should be convinced of this , and be humbled for it . a second good use of our present division is , ye should press so much the more after peace with god , if strife with men be so wasting and wearisome , what will gods feud be ? if peace with men be so hard to get , seek the more of peace with god : seek the more of his smileings , the more thou meets with of men's frownings : seek the more warmness in him , the more of coldness thou meets with from men ; seek the more of counsel and direction from god , the more reservedness thou finds in others from whom thou was wont to get sweet counsel . this were a sweet use of our present divisions ; an exposition of sampsons riddle indeed ; for thus out of the eater should come meat , and out of the bitter should come sweet . thirdly , by these divisions ye may discover much evil in your spirit that was before undiscovered , what a deal of pride , not enduring to be opposed ? what carnal emulation at the good of others ? what rejoying at their slips ? what eagerness of spirit in the pursuit of things of little worth , when more excellent are neglected ? what violent eruptions of unmortified nature , bending after courses unwarrantable for making of our point good , except grace did bear them down ? ye find such a discovery of some things , such as may make you abase your selves before god. fourthly , our present divisions may confirm us in the main , and settle us more than ever in the belief of those so much opposed truths concerning the government of christ's house , and constitution of visible churches : and that because those who are divivided and oppose one another much , yet for the most part do agree in these . if a mans house stand after the shaking of many strong winds , he concluds the foundation is good , this is a strong argument for truth , that our divisions factions and oppositions , one against another , do not shake our minds in relation to it . fifthly , our present divisions may be a spur to more diligence in dealing with god for helping foreward of his so much retarded work. he is an unhappy man who , when the ship of the church is at the point of shipwrak , will not use violence against his own laziness , and improve his interest with god , that he would help his tossed church at a dead lift . oh! that there were more of this use ; the generation of those that seek god are fallen asleep : many are the means that god hath used to rouze us up ; we have had the calm voice of the word ; and that hath not done it ; we have had the thunder-claps of sad sufferings from without , and that hath not done it : and now the earth-quakes of heart divisions within , have shaken all : and , if god prevent not , will overturn all. and if this awake us not , oh! lord what will thou do next ! i shall now shut up all with the words of my text , now i beseech you , brethren , by the name of our lord iesus christ , that ye all speak the same thing , and that there be no divisions among you ; but that ye be perfectly joyned together in the same mind , and in the same iudgment . i know , as matters now stand , this , and all we have spoken from it , may prove but threshing on the water , as to the thing by us intended : yea , and very like it may be made use of for the hightning of prejudices , and further increase of our strife ; and if so be , i am at a point what to answer : that even this will confirm unto me the truth of what i have said , to wit , that our divisions are an evil much to be lamented ; it is a judicial stroak , in so far as nothing can be said for the removal of it , but thereby one way or other it taketh strength ; it is a strong fire , that when water is poured upon it , blazeth up the higher ; it is a dangerous disease in the natural body , which is so prev●lent , as to turn the very medicine applyed , unto the nature of that vicious humour , whereby the disease is further fed and nourished . and yet tho all this should be ( which god avert ) i have another thing to say , and it is the ground of my comfort as to our present sad stroke ; that jesus christ who hath found out the way to make god and man one , when they were at variance , hath ways enough to reconcile us one to another , tho our divisions were at a greater hight than yet they 're come to : and if he hath pleasure in us he will make us one , tho it should be on our own expenses : he may possibly do it by sending us to one common goal , or some such like thing ; for our adhering to the cause of god , covenant and precious liberties of the kingdom of our lord jesus christ , that precious trust committed unto us by him , and transmitted unto us by our zealous and faithful predecessors , who in the obtaining and preservation of them , loved not their lives unto the death . if he have pleasure in us he will make us unite , and if no other thing will do it , he will make such like work as this do it : and it 's very like such like work may be ere long : for shall we look on our mother church oppressed and bereaved of these priviledges which are left unto her by her lord and husband , in his latter will and testament , and shall we not so much as in ways competent for us , upon all hazards resent it ? shall stronger powers usurp upon the church's right and in the mean time , shall we by our mutual janglings , encourage them to go on in this woful work ? or shall we resent these wrongs the less , or secretly approve of them , becasue possibly that which is our own design for weakning one another is thereby promoved ? god forbid . now the god of peace establish our peace with himself , and give us peace one with another in himself . a sermon preached at kilwinning , immediatly before the giving of the communion . being a preparation sermon in order thereunto . the second sermon . psalm . . behold , thou desirest truth in the inward parts : and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom . this psalm is one of davids penitential psalms , wherein his conscience being first awakned , and made sensible of his sin , he pleadeth hard for god's mercy & grace , and especially for the pardon of his sin ; which petition he insists upon most , and doth again and again inculcate it . the words read in the first part of this verse , hold out somewhat which god mainly called for , and david aimed at , as a necessary ingredient in his penitential address unto god ; without which nothing he could do in any duty of god's service , or particularly in this which he is presently about , would have been acceptable to god , and which being obtain'd and in exercise , all he did was the more savoury ; and therefore he maketh mention of it in the midst of his prayer and present exercise , that thereby he may both mind his heart , of the great necessity there was to have it , and also may chear up his weighted spirit somewhat , in confidence that he would be accepted of god in his present address , seing he had something of that necessary ingredient , which god doth so much require , desire , and accept of . the thing it self is expressed by the word ( truth ) behold thou desirest truth in the inward parts , &c. whereby is not meaned truth in the judgement , opposed to error ; nor truth in people's words , opposed to the sin of lying , and speaking untruth ; but it is truth in the heart and affections , called here truth in the inward parts ; in a word , it is the grace of sincerity and singleness of heart ; for so is this grace often expressed in scripture , isai. . . i have walked before thee in truth , saith hezekiah ) and with a perfect , upright , or sincere heart . and ephes. . having their loins girt about with truth , &c. that is , with sincerity and single-heartedness . this then is that truth which god requires as a necessary seasoning ingredient in all duties , and especially in all religious performances ; and which david here holds out with a behold , as the thing which above any other thing he had aimed at , and yet would aim more at , in his penitential address unto god. we have then in the words , . a note of attention ( behold ) which david prefixeth to that which he is to say ; i call it a note of attention , for that is the use it serveth for in this place , as i shall clear afterwards . . there is that which he subjoineth to this ( behold ) the lords complacency and delight in the grace of sincerity , and the exercise of it , as that without which his present address could not be savory or acceptable to god : thou desirest truth in the inward parts . i shall observe two things in general before i come to the particulars of the text. . from this , david holds out the rule he had walked by and was to walk by for making his present address to god , in confessing of sin , and pleading hard for pardon , acceptable . hence take this doctrine . that it is not enough that we do somewhat of commanded duties , but we must labour to do what we do in some measure acceptably : david not only confesseth sin , and pleads for pardon , but he aims to do it in truth , that so he may do it acceptably ; for while he saith , god did desire truth in the inward parts , it is evidently implyed that he aimed to have it : there is reason for this ; because , if the thing we do be not done acceptably and in the right manner , though the thing done be never so good in it self , the doing of it is but lost labour unto us : thus though it was a piece of commanded duty under the old testament to offer up sacrifices to god ; yet when people made not conscience to discharge this duty in the right manner , all they did was to as little purpose , as if they had done nothing at all ; hence isai. . . to what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me ? saith the lord : &c. yea , the more excellent any duty is in it self , and the greater good is to be had by going about any duty in a right and acceptable manner , the greater is the hurt and damnage which we incurr by it , when we advert not how we do it ; and when , without taking heed to our feet , we rush foreward to it , and carry our selves but carelesly in the mean time that we are imployed about it : what more excellent , comfortable , and soul edifying ordinance is there than this of a communion , which through god's mercy ye have yet the liberty of approaching unto ? is it not a feast of fat things ? of wine on the lees well refined , wherein we feast with christ and upon christ , his broken body is meat indeed , the most excellent that heaven or earth can afford : and yet ( saith paul ) if ye come not to this ordinance in the right manner , if ye set not your selves so to go about it as that ye may be accepted in your work , if ye eat or drink unworthily without previous examination of your selves , ye shall eat and drink damnation and judgement to your selves ; not only shall your table prove a snare , but your meat be turned into poyson ; and therefore consider this in the entry , and labour to have it imprinted on your hearts , that it is not enough to come rushing foreward to your work not considering how ye come ; your coming ought to be according to the direction given , eccles. . . keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of god , &c. as at all time , so especially when ye approach unto such a dreadful ordinance a this is , whereof the advantage is so great , if ye come right , and the hurt and hazard so unspeakably great , if ye come wrong . but secondly observe yet in general , that in going about commanded duties in some measure acceptably , ye ought now and then to reflect upon the manner and way of your discharge of duty , even in the mean time when ye are about it : for so doth david here , he casts an eye upon the right manner how he should have prayed , to wit , in sincerity and truth , even in the very midst of his prayer , while he saith unto god , behold , thou desirest truth in the inward parts , and thus christ in luke . . saith unto his disciples , in the very mean time they were hearing . take heed therefore how ye hear : and surely our hearts do oft turn formal , vain , wandering and lumpish , or heavy , in the service of god , because we do not seriously mind how sinful , shameful , and unseemly it is that it should be so : a check of this kind in time , and seasonably , to a vain , straying and wandering heart , would do much through god's blessing to make it halt : david doth this oft , especially psal. . . where he turns his speech from god , and gives himself a rebuke and check for the present unsuitable frame of heart wherein he then was , why art thoucast down , o my soul ? ( saith he ) and why art thou disquieted in me ? hope thou in god , &c. so that this reflecting upon the manner and way how ye discharge duty , even in the mean time when ye are about it , is useful : when ye find your heart out of frame , a serious timous check given unto it , will prove an effectual mean to reclaim it : besides , if upon your reflecting thus , ye find matters tollerably right , and your heart in such a frame for the main , as the lord requireth , it will furnish you with matter of boldness , courage , and confidence : as here it doth david , who having found somewhat of this truth and this upright and sincere frame of heart , in his own inward parts , he takes ground of confidence from that , to expect that god who had given him this , could also give him more , in the hidden part ( saith he ) thou shalt make me to know wisdom . for vse , this doth shortly speak two things . . the service of god is a work not of the outward man only , but also and mainly , of the inward man : the heart and mind of a man must be exercised in it , if so be go rightly about it ; and that many wayes : and this is one way , the heart must be exercised by reflecting now and then upon it self , and observing its own present frame and disposition , how it comes up to the rule prescrived by god , for making what we do in the service of god acceptable . and next it speaks the great guilt of many in god's service , a piece of the iniquity of our holy things , for which we ought to be humbled ; that many times whe● our tongue is busie our heart is idle , when our outward man is present , the inward man is away , and gets liberty to depart from god without check or challenge . this is it that god complains of , isai. . . — this people draw near me with their mouth , and with their lips do honour me , but have removed their heart far from me . but now i come to the words in particular . david prefixeth a ( behold ) while he is to speak to that which was necessarly required for making his adress acceptable to god : behold is somtimes a note of admiration prefixed to such things as are wonderful , as isai. , . behold a virgin shall conceive● and bear a son &c. and so it may be taken here , it is indeed a thing wonderful that god should desire or delight in truth in the inward parts , or that any thing which is in us , or proceeding from us should be lovely to him ; there is such a mixture of unlovely sinful dross in every thing of that sort . but we think it doth rather serve here ( as often elswhere ) for a note of attention ; only taking it so , ye must consider that david's design and aim hereby is not so much to stirr up god as his own heart , and the hearts of others in whose hands this piece of scripture should come , to take heed to the following purposes . we shall from this shortly mark two things . the hearts even of the best have need of being stirred up to take heed unto what is the lords mind concerning the right and acceptable manner in going about comman●ed duty ; for therefore doth david see it needful to pluck his own ear ( as it were ) for making himself more attentive to this subject , by prefixing a behold a note of attention unto it , behold thou desirest truth in the inward parts . the truth is , if we get the substance of duties gone about , we are ordinarly too apt to think that it is but needless scrupulosity , to be anxious about the manner how to do it ; so are we in prayer , so are we in hearing , and so are we also in coming to communions ; when ever occasion is offered , and an outward call or invitation given us to come , there is none almost but his conscience will challenge him if he stay aback ; but as to the qualifications of the call , and what is required of you for coming acceptably , it is a wonder to see with what a careless ear the most part do hear any thing of that sort ; as if the communion were a charm to work upon people whether they be fitted to receive it or not ; so that sermons for preparation do serve ( as to many ) for no other use , but for a customary ceremony , and to fill up so much time . these necessary directions which are given you to come in the right manner and the warnings you get , telling you how dreadful a thing it is to come wrong , are minded no longer by the most part , than the mean time they hear them , and by some scarcely so long : hence certainly it is that the lord is not so familiar with the hearts of people at his own feast as sometimes he hath been ; it is no wonder , because we come not as prepared guests with a wedding garment to meet with him ; yea doubtless hence it is that the lord doth threaten so hard to draw his table , and to suffer men to impose upon us a dead lifeless formal way of worship , that therein we may see the copy of our own hearts , who if they get the outward form gone about , they care little for the inward life , power , and substance ; and surely if ever it come to this , ( as god knows how soon it may ) that all our religion shall consist in threed-bare imposed forms , and that more pains be taken by ministers to press upon people the observance of these forms , than the very life and substance of religious performances , we must justifie the lord in it , for that is the very copy of our formal hearts . our love to and resting on formality may provoke the lord to wreath the yoke of a dead , lifeless and formal service on our necks , that we shall not be able to shake it off , though we would . the lord oftimes shapes out cross dispensations in the publick , according to these sinful distempers which are common and prevalent in the hearts of people , that therein they may see the unlovely representation and idea of their own heart jer : . . he 'l suffer even the prophets to prophesy falsly , and the priests to bear rule by their means , if his people love to have it so . but secondly , the consideration of this your dulness and aversness to hear what is the lords mind , concerning the right and acceptable manner of going about commanded duties , should make you so much the more to stir up your selves , to give diligent heed unto any thing that is spoken to that purpose ; for therefore in order to his own upstirring doth david prefix a note of attention ( behold ) to the purpose in hand . . directions of that kind are needful to be given ; for ( as ye heard ) though ye do all that is commanded , as to the substance and matter , yet if ye do it not in the right manner , all ye do is to no purpose , as i cleared from isaiah . . if it be needful that such directions be given , then it is needful that ye diligently hear them , else ye cannot obey them , ye'l but leave them where ye find them , as oft-times ye do ; in which case your hearing them doth but aggravate your guilt in the neglect of them . . our backwardness and aversness to hear and lay to heart what is spoken to that purpose ; though it be great , yet is not such , but if it be wrestled against and manfully opposed it may be overcome ; it is only our giving way to it without resistance , which makes it strong , importunate and shameless , when our setting our selves seriously and in earnest to wrestle against it , would make it to cede , according to that word , jam. . . resist the devil , and he will flee from you . i shall not insist on this , only this serves in place of a preface for stiring you up to hear and lay to heart what i am to say on the rest of the text , which holds out the lords mind ( as to one thing at least ) concerning the right and acceptable manner of going about commanded duties , and especially this duty which now ye are called to , of approaching to the lords table : the lord desireth truth in the inward parts . it 's true , not only what ye heard from the former note , but your own experience at such times doth shew your hearts are woefully backward to hear and lay to heart any thing that is spoken to this purpose ; but seeing the thing is needful , and so needful as that all your other pains , without coming up to what ye hear to this purpose , will be to no good purpose : therefore ye ought to bestir your selves , striving in earnest against your own backwardness : and if ye seriously set your selves to strive against it , i doubt not but ye will get it overcome , at least in part . this much for the note of attention ( behold ) i come next to that which is subjoined , to . this ( behold ) viz. the lords complacency and delight in the grace of sincerity , and the exercise of it , as that without which david's present address could not be savory or acceptable to god : thou desirest truth in the inward parts . we 'l find three things in the words , for clearing what it is which makes our performances accepted of god. . in general , it is somewhat which god desires , approves , or loves , thou desirest , &c. . it is somewhat in the inward parts , not so much that which is external , and seen by men , as what is internal , and known only to god , and the man 's own self . . one main particular hereof is condescended on , to wit , truth , the grace of sincerity and the exercise of that grace , thou de●irest truth in the inward parts , of all which i shall endeavour so to speak , as that therein ye may see both your bypast failings for your humiliation , and also may see a rule to which ye ought to conform your selves for time to come ; as in the practise of all duties , so especially in your address to god at this time . first then observe , the rule of going about commanded duties acceptably and in the right manner is god's approbation : for david doth not propose unto himself to follow that which would please his own humour , or the humour of others , but that which god desires , loves and approves of ; behold ( saith he ) thou desirest truth , &c. as if he had said , the t●ing o lord which i aim at , is , that which thou desires and approves : thus the lord saith to abraham gen. . . walk before me , and be thou perfect , he ● have his approbation ( hinted at in the words before me ) the rule of his walking acceptably : this was the rule which christ himself when he came unto the world did walk by , psal. . , , , sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire — then said l : lo , i come — . i delight to do thy will , o my god : and there is reason for it , if we consider . that god is our main party to whom we must give an account for all we do ; we must give an account to others also , but he 'l reckon with us when all others have done with us . . he hath tyed us to this rule and will reckon with us according to it , deut. . . ye shall observe to do therefore as the lord your god hath commanded you : you shall not turn aside to the right hand , or to the left. and therefore . ye must look mainly to what he approves or disapproves , else all ye do will be to no good purpose , matth. . . they do their alms , that they may have glory of men , verily i say unto you , they have their reward . this ought to make you search what is the rule ye walk by , and to which ye labour to conform your selves most , in your walk : and for your more easie search , i shall point at some who walk not by this rule . . those walk not by this rule , who set themselves to come up in their way not to what god desires , but to what the time , and any party who bears ●way in the time , desire : this is the rule which the pharisees would have had all in their time to walk by john. . . have any of the rulers ( say they ) or of the pharisees believed on him ? and it is the rule that many walk by in all times ; they know no other religion than that of the times , and which pleaseth them best who bear the greatest sway ; so that if such should change their way every year once , they will not scruple much to change it as oft . this is the rule which these did follow whom god doth threaten , hos. . . they make the king glad with their wickedness , and the princes with their lies . they cared not what they did if so they might please their king and rulers by it : such are time-servers , men-pleasers , and so cannot be god-pleasers ; for ( saith paul ) if i yet pleased men , i should not be the servant of christ. . those walk not by this rule of god's approbation and desire , whose highest design in the point of duty is , to follow the example of others ; and whose great enquiry is , not so much to know what god desires , as what others do ; and rest upon that as sufficient that they may do the like : this is the rule which god forbids to follow , exod. . . thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil , &c. and broad is the way which leadeth to destruction , and many there be that go therein : and yet it is a rule which many follow , both as the matter what , and the manner how they do it : how many are there , that though they want not their own convictions and challenges for several things they themselves are conscious of , yet if there be many who are under the power of the same evils with themselves , they force themselves to take peace and hold on , because there are many guilty of the same fault : alas , that is but a very poor ground of comfort , to go to hell with company , and speaks but very little zeal for god's honour , else the more thou seest it trampled on by others , thou would be the more tender of it ; and consequently the more common any sin is , thou should hate it the more , because god gets the more dishonour by it : this was david's way , rivers of tears ( saith he ) run down mine eyes because of the wicked who transgress thy law. . those walk not by this rule , who walk only by that which their own carnal wit and natural reason approves ; how many are they , who though they cannot but know that god in his word requires more exactness in their walk , yet they rest on that which they think their own carnal wit thinks may suffice ; they 'll do what they can in religious duties , which indeed is but to do what they please ; but for further , god must forgive them : thus they 'l medle with what is easie , pleasant , and profitable , in religion ; but for what is hurtful , burthen some , or may bring loss , they 'l never owne that ; because their carnal reason suggests unto them , that less than that may serve the turn , religion is good , but people ought not to impoverish or destroy themselves for it : thus many do easily dispense with themselves for the neglect of all painful hazards and expensive duties ; such as to deal their bread to the hungry , to choose affliction rather than to sin ; not to recompense evil with evil , but evil with good , to cleave unto christ and truth when the wind of tryal and persecution blow hard in their face . these and such like duties are not much stood on by the man that walks by this rule of carnal reason . as also the duty of mortifying your predominant , cutting off of the right hand , plucking out of the right eye , and that painful duty of heart-searching , and self-judging , as at all times , so chiefly when ye are coming to a communion , carnal wit will suggest to you that such precise strictness is not needful . now this rule is flatly contrary to that which is here prescribed , the rule of gods approbation : for the carnal mind is enmity to god , and flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven . . those walk not by this rule whose great endeavour is to conform themselves , not so much to what god desires , as to what they themselves find peace in , and who if they get not troublesome challenges from conscience for their way , do take it for granted that their way is good enough , and do never set themselves to enquire further about it : now this is an unsure rule : for . many may have peace in that which is just opposite to what god requires and desires . ye'l see deut. . . how the prophane ruffian cryeth , peace , he shall have peace , though he add drunkenness to thirst : as it were in despite of god. but , . tho' thy conscience be not thus fear'd , yet it may be sleeping , because thou takes no pains to get it awakened ; and if thou wouldst but rouze it up , and make it pass impartial sentence upon thy way , there are many things thy conscience would give thee little rest in , for which now thou finds no check or challenge . . it would be considered , whether conscience now and then do not give you some gentle checks for many things , tho it wound not sore , because ye do quickly command it to silence , so that it doth not speak to purpose , being overaw'd so that it dare not speak . in either of which cases , peace of mind is not a safe rule to walk by ; for ye may have peace in that which god approveth not . i come now to the second thing here expressed , for clearing what that is , that makes our performances accepted of by god : it is somewhat in the inward parts , not so much that which is external and obvious to the eyes of man , as internal and only known to god , even the hidden man of the heart . it 's true the man who would walk acceptably , must also look to that which is external , to wit , that which god hath commanded , according to philip. . . finally , brethren , whatsoever things are true , whatsoever things are honest , whatsoever things are just , whatsoever things are pure , whatsoever things are lovely , whatsoever things are of good report ; if there be any vertue , and if there be any praise , think on these things . so he is not to over look all things external , or look on them as things indifferent , if they be honest , pure , of a good report , and any vertue in them , he must set about them : only the great work of such a man should ly most about his heart and inward parts ; how to get it brought up to duty and keeped at duty : for john . . god is a spirit , and they that worship him , must worship him in spirit and in truth . the heart is the thing which god doth mainly seek . my son ( saith solomon ) prov : . . give me thy heart . and he doth so seek it , that if he get it not , he cares not for all the rest , isai. . . this people draw near me with their mouth , and with their lips do honour me , but have removed their heart far from me , &c. i might here run out in a sad complaint that the religion of the times is almost all out-side-work ( at least in very many ) who the longer they live make the less ado about the heart : and is it not so , if when ye neglect the external part of duty ye get a challenge , but if that be discharged ye have peace , though there be no more care about the heart than if ye had none ? but as to your accquitting your selves in this particular of making your great work ly about the heart and inward parts , try your selves but by these three things . . what is your care to restrain and mortify heart sins , which the apostle calls the filthiness of the spirit , as high conceit of your selves , and your envying of the good of others , because it overshadows you ; the sin of fretting and repining under cross dispensations ; of not reverencing god in , and being contented with your lott . try i say what your cares and endeavours are to mortify these and such like heart sins ; . try what conscience ye make to discharge inward and spiritual duties , which require only the inward man to be acted in them ; as the duty of meditating on god , keeping intercourse and fellowship betwixt your hearts and him , the duty of self judging , and calling your self to an account every night of the days work , the duty of stooping to god under cross dispensations , and constructing aright of every thing that god does . try i say what conscience ye make , to discharge those and such like spiritual duties . . try in what way your greatest care doth run in these duties which require both the outward and inward man ; is your great care to act from right motives , and for right ends ? or rather do ye not on the contrair take but litle care what be the frame of your heart within , if ye but get the outward work done , and a fair out-side which none can challenge ? is your desire not only to exercise your tongue in praying , your voice and art in singing praises , but also and mainly , to exercise your spiritual graces , your faith , your humility , your love , your repentence for sin , and your joy in god ? i fear if ye try by these marks , many of us shall find , that though the inward parts be that which god desireth most , yet it is that whereof we do give him least , which makes a great part of our duties to be but shadows of duty ; they have the external draughts and lineaments , shape and proportion of duty but no more ; they are painted duties , like a painted man without life , a painted fire without heat , let the tryal of your self in these , and judging of your selves for them , be a part of your preparation : and take this for a further part of it from the same ground , if ye would have what ye do about your preparation , accepted of by god , let your great work ly about your heart , how to get it brought to duty , and wrought up to some good frame ; for the lord desireth mainly the inward parts ; and where your backward , dead , and lumpish hearts will not move or drive for you , beseech the lord to draw them , and make them willing in the day of his power . but now lastly , i come to the particular here condescended on as a necessary ingredient , for making our performances acceptable and savoury viz. the grace of truth and sincerity , behold thou desirest truth in the inward parts . and it gives us this doctrine that the grace of sincerity and the exercise of it , is abosolutely necessary for making our duties acceptable to god ; it 's so necessary that the lord will accept even very little where it is , when he i reject much where it is wanting : we 'l see both these if we look to the scripture verdict of two kings of judah , the first is , asa , he was guilty in many things , there were very visible defects in him as sufficient that they may do the like : this is the rule which god forbids to follow , exod. . . thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil , &c. and broad is the way which leadeth to destruction , and many there be that go therein : and yet it is a rule which many follow , both as the matter what , and the manner how they do it : how many are there , that though they want not their own convictions and challenges for several things they themselves are conscious of , yet if there be many who are under the power of the same evils with themselves , they force themselves to take peace and hold on , because there are many guilty of the same fault : alas , that is but a very poor ground of comfort , to go to hell with company , and speaks but very little zeal for god's honour , else the more thou seest it trampled on by others , thou would be the more tender of it ; and consequently the more common any sin is , thou should hate it the more , because god gets the more dishonour by it : this was david's way , rivers of tears ( saith he ) run down mine eyes because of the wicked who transgress thy law. . those walk not by this rule , who walk only by that which their own carnal wit and natural reason approves ; how many are they , who though they cannot but know that god in his word requires more exactness in their walk , yet they rest on that which they think their own carnal wit thinks may suffice ; they 'll do what they can in religious duties , which indeed is but to do what they please ; but for further , god must forgive them : thus they 'l medle with what is easie , pleasant , and profitable , in religion ; but for what is hurtful , burthen some , or may bring loss , they 'l never owne that ; because their carnal reason suggests unto them , that less than that may serve the turn , religion is good , but people ought not to impoverish or destroy themselves for it : thus many do easily dispense with themselves for the neglect of all painful hazards and expensive duties ; such as to deal their bread to the hungry , to choose affliction rather than to sin ; not to recompense evil with evil , but evil with good , to cleave unto christ and truth when the wind of tryal and persecution blow hard in their face . these and such like duties are not much stood on by the man that walks by this rule of carnal reason . as also the duty of mortifying your predominant , cutting off of the right hand , plucking out of the right eye , and that painful duty of heart-searching , and self-judging , as at all times , so chiefly when ye are coming to a communion , carnal wit will suggest to you that such precise strictness is not needful . now this rule is flatly contrary to that which is here prescribed , the rule of gods approbation : for the carnal mind is enmity to god , and flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven . . those walk not by this rule whose great endeavour is to conform themselves , not so much to what god desires , as to what they themselves find peace in , and who if they get not troublesome challenges from conscience for their way , do take it for granted that their way is good enough , and do never set themselves to enquire further about it : now this is an unsure rule : for . many may have peace in that which is just opposite to what god requires and desires . ye'l see deut. . . how the prophane ruffian cryeth , peace , he shall have peace , though he add drunkenness to thirst : as it were in despite of god. but , . tho' thy conscience be not thus fear'd , yet it may be sleeping , because thou takes no pains to get it awakened ; and if thou wouldst but rouze it up , and make it pass impartial sentence upon thy way , there are many things thy conscience would give thee little rest in , for which now thou finds no check or challenge . . it would be considered , whether conscience now and then do not give you some gentle checks for many things , tho it wound not sore , because ye do quickly command it to silence , so that it doth not speak to purpose , being overaw'd so that it dare not speak . in either of which cases , peace of mind is not a safe rule to walk by ; for ye may have peace in that which god approveth not . i come now to the second thing here expressed , for clearing what that is , that makes our performances accepted of by god : it is somewhat in the inward parts , not so much that which is external and obvious to the eyes of man , as internal and only known to god , even the hidden man of the heart . it 's true the man who would walk acceptably , must also look to that which is external , to wit , that which god hath commanded , according to philip. . . finally , brethren , whatsoever things are true , whatsoever things are honest , whatsoever things are just , whatsoever things are pure , whatsoever things are lovely , whatsoever things are of good report ; if there be any vertue , and if there be any praise , think on these things . so he is not to over look all things external , or look on them as things indifferent , if they be honest , pure , of a good report , and any vertue in them , he must set about them : only the great work of such a man should ly most about his heart and inward parts ; how to get it brought up to duty and keeped at duty : for john . . god is a spirit , and they that worship him , must worship him in spirit and in truth . the heart is the thing which god doth mainly seek . my son ( saith solomon ) prov : . . give me thy heart . and he doth so seek it , that if he get it not , he cares not for all the rest , isai. . . this people draw near me with their mouth , and with their lips do honour me , but have removed their heart far from me , &c. i might here run out in a sad complaint that the religion of the times is almost all out-side-work ( at least in very many ) who the longer they live make the less ado about the heart : and is it not so , if when ye neglect the external part of duty ye get a challenge , but if that be discharged ye have peace , though there be no more care about the heart than if ye had none ? but as to your accquitting your selves in this particular of making your great work ly about the heart and inward parts , try your selves but by these three things . . what is your care to restrain and mortify heart sins , which the apostle calls the filthiness of the spirit , as high conceit of your selves , and your envying of the good of others , because it overshadows you ; the sin of fretting and repining under cross dispensations ; of not reverencing god in , and being contented with your lott . try i say what your cares and endeavours are to mortify these and such like heart sins ; . try what conscience ye make to discharge inward and spiritual duties , which require only the inward man to be acted in them ; as the duty of meditating on god , keeping intercourse and fellowship betwixt your hearts and him , the duty of self judging , and calling your self to an account every night of the days work , the duty of stooping to god under cross dispensations , and constructing aright of every thing that god does . try i say what conscience ye make , to discharge those and such like spiritual duties . . try in what way your greatest care doth run in these duties which require both the outward and inward man ; is your great care to act from right motives , and for right ends ? or rather do ye not on the contrair take but litle care what be the frame of your heart within , if ye but get the outward work done , and a fair out-side which none can challenge ? is your desire not only to exercise your tongue in praying , your voice and art in singing praises , but also and mainly , to exercise your spiritual graces , your faith , your humility , your love , your repentance for sin , and your joy in god ? i fear if ye try by these marks , many of us shall find , that though the inward parts b● that which god desireth most , yet it is that whereof we do give him least , which makes a great part of our duties to be but shadows of duty ; they have the external draughts and lineaments , shape and proportion of duty but no more ; they are painted duties , like a painted man without life , a painted fire without heat , let the tryal of your self in these , and judging of your selves for them , be a part of your preparation : and take this for a further part of it from the same ground , if ye would have what ye do about your preparation , accepted of by god , let your great work ly about your heart , how to get it brought to duty , and wrought up to some good frame ; for the lord desireth mainly the inward parts ; and where your backward , dead , and lumpish hearts will not move or drive for you , beseech the lord to draw them , and make them willing in the day of his power . but now lastly , i come to the particular here condescended on as a necessary ingredient , for making our performances acceptable and savoury viz. the grace of truth and sincerity , behold thou desirest truth in the inward parts . and it gives us this doctrine that the grace of sincerity and the exercise of it , is absolutely necessary for making our duties acceptable to god ; it 's so necessary that the lord will accept even very little where it is , when he●l reject much where it is wanting : we 'l see both these if we look to the scripture verdict of two kings of judah , the first is , asa , he was guilty in many things , there were very visible defects in him trary to that which the law of god required : as particularly , he caused imprison the prophet who reproved him chron : . he did not remove the superstitious high places , and yet see what the spirit of god saith of him king , . the high places were not removed : nevertheless asa his heart was perfect with the lord all his days . implying that because he was a sincere upright hearted man , the lord overlooked his many other failings . so much is also implyed in hezekiah's prayer , and the answer it gets from god chron. . . . the good lord pardon every one that prepareth his heart to seek god , the lord god of his fathers , though he be not cleansed according to the purification of the sanctuary , and the lord hearkned to hezekiah and healed the people . the other is king amaziah chron : , . he did that which was right in the sight of the lord , but not with a perfect heart . implying that though he did many things which in themselves were right and good , yet because his heart was not single , sincere , and straight , in what he did , the lord doth not regard it ; which cleareth the thing i said before , that the grace of sincerity and exercise of it is so necessary , that the lord will accept even very little where it is , and will reject much where it is wanting . now for opening up this grace of truth and sincerity a litle , in order to the application of the point : know , sincerity is a grace which looketh mainly to the inside , therefore it is here called truth in the inward parts : if thou be a sincere man , an israelite indeed in whom there is no guile , though a fair outside , may please onlookers , because they see no further , yet it will not please thee , because thou knows it will not please god , he desireth truth in the inward parts . but of this already . . sincerity and truth of heart makes a man's tongue and heart to go together in all his deportment , whether to god or man ; the sincere hearted man is not a double man , he labours to be that in effect which he gives himself out to be . thus . john . ▪ truth is opposed to ●air words which are no more but words ; my litle children ( saith he ) let us not love in word , neither in tongue , but in deed and in truth . implying where word and deed go not together , there is no singleness , sincerity , or truth there . . sincerity aims at the right end , and works from right , approven and spiritual motives . the apostle paul philip : . , . puts this difference betwixt the sincere and unsincere man , the sincere man works out of love and good will to christ and truth , the unsincere man again works the same work , and as much of it , but he works out of envy and strife , for some base and by ends . this grace of sincerity and truth makes a man look not only to the substance of his actions , that they be right and commanded , but also to the manner of them , and chiefly that they be from spiritual motives and for a right end , that is , for god's glory , thy own salvation , thy neighbours good and edification . now for vse , ye would try if there be not much want and inlake of this truth and sincerity among us ; it 's true every inlake and failing in the exercise of sincerity will not prove a man to be unsincere ; as every act of hypocrisie will not make a man an hypocrite if so he do not countenance himself in it ; if so he do bewail it and flee to jesus christ to get pardon for it , and strength to subdue it : it is not for this end i would have you to search and try your inlakes in the exercise of sincerity , that ye may give your selves over for rotten-hearted hypocrites : but that you may bewail it , take with it , judge your selves for it , flee to christ to get it pardoned , and to get grace to amend it ; and your making this use of your foul failings , as to this point , shall be a clear evidence , that though there has been much unsincerity , and shameless hypocrisie in you , yet ye are no real hypocrites ▪ but the main use of the point is , that as ye desire to come to the lords table acceptably , and in the right manner , so deal with god sincerely and in truth , that is , let your great work ly about your heart and inward parts to get some right frame and disposition put on them , whereof i spoke before ; only an humble , hungring frame , thirsting after communion and fellowship with him , is a good frame at such a time . again let your coming flow from spiritual motives , and level at right and approven ends ; but especially deal sincerely and in tr●th with god , by labouring to be that indeed , which by your act of coming to the communion ye give your selves out for . now ye give your selves out for many things . . your coming saith , that ye have need of christ , and must be at him ; and therefore deal sincerely and in truth with christ , in searching out and being affected with the need ye have of him. . your coming to the lords table speaks that ye are weary of your old masters , and have a real mind to change them ; now i beseech you deal sincerely and in truth with god , and see it be so that ye are really weary of your old lusts which formerly enslaved you ; and that ye have a mind indeed to quite them . . ye do hereby give out that you have a mind to take god for your master , to enrol your self in the list of his soldiers to fight against the devil , the world , your own flesh , and every thing which is an enemy with him ; deal in truth and dissemble not with god in this : see ye come not to give god a day , with a secret purpose to give the devil an year . . ye do hereby give out , that you mind to close with christ on his own terms ; see ye deal sincerely with him in this also ; and for this end , ponder well and think on the terms before hand , for if ye close a bargain with him on his own terms , and so deal sincerely and in truth with him ; ye must first take him freely , for come and buy ( saith he ) without money and without price . isai . . and therefore ye must not keep back from him , or come heartlesly to him , because ye find no worth in your selves for which ye should be beloved by him : if ye do so , ye deal not sincerely and in truth with him. . if ye take him on his own terms , and so deal sincerely with him , ye must take him wholly , not only as a priest to save you , but as a king to rule in you : if ye mind to make no other use of christ but to get your by-past sins pardoned by him , that ye may take on a new score in time to come , ye deal not sincerely and in truth with him ; ye pretend to take him on his own terms , and that is to take him wholly ; and yet ye will not take him as a king to rule over you . . ye must take him with all the hazard that may follow upon your taking of him , ye must take him with a resolution to ●leave to him , through well and through woe , aswell when the world frowns upon him , as when it smiles , otherwise ye deal not sincerely with him : for these are his own terms whereon ye pretend to close with him ; if any man ( saith he ) will be my disciple , les him deny himself , take up his cross and follow me . and lastly , ye must take him irrevocably , for it is an everlasting covenant : so that if the next day when the sensible fruits of a communion do not answer your expectation , ye loose your grip and quite the bargain , ye do not deal sincerely and in truth with him. i shall shut up all i have said , by giving some motives for making you deal thus sincerely and in truth with him . know . he is dealing sincerely and in truth with you ; he minds indeed to close a a most blessed bargain with you , and with all of you who mind to take him at his word , and to give him credit ; and if ye will but credit him , ye shall find from experience ere long that he hath been sincere , real , and in earnest with you : and to the end ye may trust him , he gives the most speaking evidences of his real sincerity towards you which can be given : before ye take a tryal of him , ye have his word for it , his writ for it , his oath for it , and ye shall have his seal and pledge of it ▪ even , that he shall be all that to you which he gives himself out for : so that i may well say , the lord is dealing sincerely and in truth with you , and therefore do ye so with him. . your dealing thus sincerely and in truth with him , ( as i shew'd before ) will make him overlook your many other failings , which otherwise he will take notice of , and reckon on your account . . if ye deal not sincerely and in truth with him now , it is a venture when , or if ever again ye get such another occasion to do that which ye now leave undone . many of us have often at such times dealt deceitfully with god , our hearts have not been straight before him : and yet for all this , he gives us a new offer , that notwithstanding all that is come or gone , he shall be our god , and we his people ; and if ye close with this offer in truth , and on his own terms , ye shall find him to be forth-coming according to his offer ; but if ye shall slight him , and deal deceitfully with him , seeming to close a bargain with him when really ye do it not , it is a venture ( i say it over again ) if ever ye get such another offer . the shaddows of the evening , in respect of the bright sun-shine of pure ordinances we have hitherto enjoy'd , seem to be stretched out upon the land , and our sun drawing towards a declining ; but though that should not be , yet who is there among you can infallibly promise , that he shall ever see another communion ? yea or hear any number of sermons after this . and therefore while it is to day hear his voice ▪ and harden not your hearts : behold now , this very present ( now ) is the acceptable time and the day of salvation ; and therefore seek the lord while he may be found , and call upon him while he is near . a sermon preached at kilwinning , may th . . upon the munday immediatly after the giving of the communion . the third sermon . luke . . and blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me. beloved in the lord , that place cor. . . — we preach christ crucified unto the jews a stumbling block , — hath had its accomplishment in all ages , and in no age more than in this ; jesus christ and his way of working , both with churches and particular souls , hath been a stone of stumbling and rock of offence to many ; yea moe and moe are stumbling still , what through one occasion or other ; many who once did seem to run well in the way to heaven , in the way of truth , and in the way of piety , have either already taken up , or are in hazard to take up , such an halt , as christ may be conceived to say , to those very few who seem resolv'd to follow him through better and worse , as once he said joh. . . vnto the twelve ( when many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him ) will ye also go away ? i have therefore chosen this text to speak from , now immediatly after having engaged your selves to walk in christs way , that thereby ye may guard against that woeful common evil of being offended in christ , or of stumbling and taking up an halt in his way of truth and piety , notwithstanding all the stumbling blocks and rocks of offence ye may meet with : for blessed is he ( saith christ ) whosoever shall not be offended in me . the words are a part of christs answer to that question propounded to him by two of john's disciples at john's desire , verse . — art thou he that should come , or look we for another ? ye may wonder that john who knew christ so well , should have moved such a question : but the answer is , first , tho souls know christ never so well , they 'l desire and have need to know him better , and to get what knowledge they have of him confirmed to them , especially in the day of trial ; for john was now in prison ▪ and dly . they 'l desire that others may know him also ; for it appeareth from what goeth before , that john propoundeth this question for his disciples satisfaction , and to satisfy their doubts more than his own . christ's answer hath two parts ▪ . he bids them shew john what they saw him doing , verse . — tell iohn ( saith he ) what things ye have seen and heard , how that the blind see , the lame walk , the lepers are cleansed , the deaf hear , the dead are raised , to the poor the gospel is preached . if ye ask what makes this to the answer of the question ; i answer , it maketh much , for it shews he was doing that which scripture foretold the messias would do , isai. . , . and therefore he behoved to be the messias . . in thir words he answereth a main objection against this truth taken from christ's own low condition and the practice of his followers , which made many bear off him : for they expected a glorious messias , a great earthly monarch ; and because christ was but obscure and mean , therefore they stumbled and were offended in him : to this christ answereth , — blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended ( or scandalized ) in me . the word rendered here ( offended or scandaliz'd ) seems to be a metaphor taken from travellers , who having dashed their foot or leg at some stone or block in the way , do stumble or take up an halt so as they can go no further , at least advance not so quickly in the way as they did . and secondly , while he sayes offended in me , take this first actively ; and so the meaning is , they should not take occasion of stumbling from any thing in christ or in his way . . it may be taken passively , so as to point out the way that we should not stumble nor take up an halt in ; for there are some wayes , to wit , every sinful course and way , that it were good for people to stumble in , and turn their backs upon : but this way wherein we should not stumble , is christ himself , and the way of truth and piety prescrib'd by him , blessed is he saith christ ) who shall not be offended in me . as if he had said , happy is that man who taketh not occasion from me , or any thing in my way , to stumble or turn his back upon me , and that course of truth and piety wherein i have commanded him to walk . the words are but one entire proposition and sentence , i need not therefore spend time in dividing them ; but shall come to the doctrines . first , the lord applyeth the general prophesies concerning the messias in the old testament to himself in particular ; shewing they were verified in him ; for the words ( in me ) have in them a direct answer to the question propounded by john's disciples , and shews the messias was come ; and that he is that messias . whence we might mark , that jesus christ the son of mary , who was born in bethlehem , brought up in nazareth , and crucified in jerusalem , is that very same messias , who was to come and promised to the fathers . we might observe ly , that before he gave this answer that he was the promised messias whom they were to follow , and not to stumble at , he doth first prove by scripture that it was so , while he hids john's disciples tell their master , he was doing such miraculous works as the scriptures did foreshew none but christ should do . whence we might learn , that all questions and debates about religion should be determined from scripture , and according to the rule set down in scripture : for here when a question ariseth among john's disciples , if jesus the son of mary was the promised messias ? neither john the baptist ( than whom there was not a greater prophet among these that are born of women ) yea nor christ himself who was greater than he , do take it upon them to determine in it : but john sends them to christ , and christ sends them to the scripture for a solution . thus , to the law and to the testimony ( saith the lord , isai. . . ) if they do not speak according to this word , it is because there is no light in them . the neglect of this rule hath been the in-let to humane traditions , without , and contrary to scripture , both in worship and government in the antichristian church : and if this rule once be laid aside , there can be no end of humane ceremonies , untill all that trash which is in the roman church be brought in upon the church of god : for if the authority of a man can make way for one , it may also make way for all the rest . but passing those , the two following doctrines are these that i intend most to insist upon , and both of them are implyed . . that there are many stumbling blocks in christ's way , whereat people are apt to offend , take up an halt and stumble . and yet , secondly , there is nothing of that kind which ought to make us stumble : for if there were not some stumbling blocks , christ needed not so much guard against them ; and by his guarding against them , he shews we should not stumble at them . i shall prosecute both these poins joyntly . . by condiscending upon some of these rocks of offence from which the jews at first , and many since , have taken occasion to stumble at christ , to take up an halt in his way , and to turn their backs upon it . and . by making it evident that there is no ground or reason why ye should stumble at any of them . first , the jews stumbled at the meanness of christs person . they could never take him , whom they looked on as a carpenters son , accompanyed with a train of poor fisher-men , to be their long looked-for glorious messias . and there is a rock like to this which many yet do break their neck upon and stumble at , to wit , the meanness of a ministry ; their spirits cannot digest to be reproved , contradicted , and ( as they think ) trampled upon , by silly bodies : and therefore , they must have ministers ; some of them at least , advanced to the highest pitch of wordly honour ; as thinking it will be less disgrace to be controlled , reproved , and made to stand in awe by such ; which is in effect to stumble at the way which god thinks meetest for saving souls ; even that his servants may have but little of outward worldly dignity , whereby the efficacy of their work on souls may not be imputed to them but to him , and usually gods own way comes best speed , cor. . paul , speaking of the mean and afflicted condition of christs ministers , saith — we have this treasure in earthen vessels , that the excellency of the power may be of god and not of us . . the jews stumbled at christs doctrine : the doctrine of justification by faith laying hold on christs righteousness , rom : . . they could not submit themselves unto the righteousness of god. and his condemning of the very first motions of the heart to sin ; as appears by christs vindicating the law from the corrupt glosses of the scribes and pharisees , matth. . . &c. thus the doctrine of christ , especially the strictness of it , and that acuracy of holiness enjoyned by it , is a stumbling block unto many yet : how many are they who would willingly embrace christ's doctrine , so as to profess themselves christians ; but to be so strick laced in your practice as that ye must dye to the world , deny your selves , pluck out the right eye , cut off the right hand , and so as ye dare not lye , no not for gain , nor drink to excess with your commerads ; nor curse and damn your selves , no not when ye are in ●assion ; no , nor avenge your selves with your own hand when ye have gotten a wrong ; this they think sounds harsh , and must either have liberty in things of that kind , otherwise they 'l altogether quite it. . the jews did stumble at the simplicity of the gospel and gospel ordinances : they could not endure the laying aside of the levitical ceremonies , which made the worship of god somewhat glorious to the carnal eye , and therefore was that way of religion called , gal : . . . the rudiments of the world , and pedagogy of the law fitted for the church while she was in her infancy ; as rudiments and pedagogues are for babes and children ; now that the jew 's did stumble at the way of christ because of it's simplicity , and because of the laying aside that outward dress of mosaical ceremonies . is clear from the many disputes which paul hath throughout his epistles to that purpose . and this hath been frequently a ground of offence and stumbling to many since , who could not , or cannot think but god is better pleased with his worship , when it s decked up with a number of humane ceremonies , that may breed ( as they think ) humility and devotion in the worshipers , than when it s gone about in that plain simple way wherein our lord jesus christ hath enjoyned it . but this were to make people wiser than god ; for if he had thought such things needful , or that they would prove acceptable to him , could he not easily have commanded them ; but now he hath not only not commanded , but also forbidden any thing of that kind , col : , . wherefore if ye be dead with christ from the rudiments of the world● why , as though living in the world , are ye subject to ordinances . touch not , taste not , handle not ; which all are to perish with the using after the commandments and doctrines of men ? evidently teaching that the lord did not abrogate his own ceremonies under the old testament , that men might appoint theirs under the new. and as to that which is suggested , that humane ceremonies added to worship are a means to quicken devotion , as the papists affirm of their images and relicts ; the apostle tells us in the following verse , which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in will-worship and humility — they seem to be such , but really are not : it 's but a shew of wisdom , devotion and humility which is wrought by any mean of man's invention . . men are ready to stumble at christ and his way , because of the sinful infirmities of instruments and ministers : let them , say they , mend their own faults , and we will mend ours ; but as long as ministers , the best among them , have their own faults , some pride , some avarice , some worse , let them reprove our faults as they please , we will hold on and be doing ; for if sin were as ill as they say it is , would not they themselves be more afraid of it : but herein ye must know that ye stumble at the wisdom of god : for as ye heard from cor : . . we have this treasure in earthen vessels , that the excellency of the power may be of god , and not of us . he might have preached to you by sinless angels ; but this makes more for the glory of god , when he makes use of men puzled with a body of death like your selves , as an hammer in his hand to beat down the body of death in others ; for we must say in this case , no thanks to the preacher , but unto god. . men are ready to stumble at the scandalous out-breakings of others : especially of those whom christ hath employed as instruments for promoting his kingdom in peoples hearts ; no doubt this made many stumble at christ and his way , that judas one of his own company for covetousness did sell his master , and hang'd himself afterwards . and indeed such scandalous slips in those do prove dreadful stumbling-blocks , first , to profane men , who have no love to religion , but lie at a catch to lay hold on any thing whereby they may throw dirt upon it , and here they get the very thing they wish : hence ( saith christ ) woe to the world because of offences , they think themselves happy because of offences , for they have got that which makes religion hateful : but our lord saith , woe be to them because of offences , for they prove stumbling-blocks and break-necks to them . again they prove dreadful stumbling blocks to godly weak ones , whose face is thereby covered with shame , so as they have not the courage to go on in christs way , and set their face against the storm of reproach , and disgrace , which is raised up with such like work : but notwithstanding , know there is no reason to stumble at christ or his way for any thing of that kind : because . he approveth no such scandalous outbreakings ; his word condemns them in all , and in none more than in his followers : because david by his fall made the enemies of god to transgress , therefore the sword never departed from his house . . he permits such offences to be , for holy wise and just reasons , or that wicked men may thereby get occasion , to vent that inward spite they still carried against religion and godliness ; and so in gods holy justice be permitted to break their necks upon them . and . that all ( even the best ) may see therein their own weakness before a tentation , and what unspeakable obligations they are under to god , that they are not made examples of humane frailty unto others , as others are to them . and ly that all may learn not to have the persons of men in admiration , to love truth and cleave unto it , not for the piety of men who owne it , but from that worth that is in truth it self : so as that tho the very ministers themselves who preach it should run away from it , or by their scandalous outbreakings thro durt upon it , yet ye may still adhere to it : in which case , that whereon others stumble and break their neck , should make you advance the faster in your way , and god should bring you meat out of the eater . a th thing that proves a stumbling block unto many is , diversity of opinions : there are so many religions , and opinions about religion , they know not which to follow , let all men once agree among themselves and then thy , i 'l choose , but till then they 'l forbear ; and so in effect do mock at all religion . but neither should this be : for in the deep wisdom of god there must be heresies — that they which are approved may be made manifest . cor : . . besides it lyeth not in the devils power so to confound matters but that humble seekers of god will find out the right way , he that guids the blind in a way they know not , will lead such : there are proud conceity people , even tho otherwise good , and there are also careless profane people , that is , such as look upon all religion as policy ; who are most like among such uncertainties , to lose their way . . people are ready to stumble at christ and his way , because of the quality of his followers ; it 's the poor receive the gospel : john . . have any of the rulers or of the pharisees believed on him ? and as christs followers are of the poorest sort ; so usually the cross is their livery through many tribulations ( saith paul ) they must enter the kingdom of heaven . and who is poor , sickly , tender , despised , mocked at , afflicted in body and mind , if christs followers be not ? but there is no reason for stumbling at christ and his way for this ; and if thou stumble at it , thou stumbles at the wisdom of god , who cor : . — hath chosen the foolish things of the world , to confound the wise ; and — the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty ; and base things of the world , and things which are despised , hath god chosen — and as to the cross they get noe more of it than what is needful for them . peter , — though for a season ( if need be ) ye are in heaveness — it is needful , and they find it needful ; so as many times they will be made to say , they could not want one dram of it ; besides that the bitter cross makes christ the sweeter to them , and so sweet , as to furnish them with more contentment in their crossed condition , than a king hath , who swayeth a scepter ; psalm . . the light of gods countenance made david glad &c. to this add , their heaven is not here ; and the lord of purpose maketh earth bitter to his followers , that heaven may be the sweeter when it cometh . . not only common calamities from god , but bitter persecutions from men , attend the way of godliness ; and these make many stumble and take up an halt . christ our lord matth. . . speaks of a sort of men , who — when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word , by and by they are offended . and the experience of all times sheweth that many formerly forward do then faint : neither want they their pretended reasons , for they are made to suffer as evil doers , often as disloyal or seditious persons , which to some , makes sufferings more terrible than any other thing . again , they 'l but faint and shame the truth when they are put to it , and therefore think it better to quite it in time ; and how can they be answerable to god , to run the hazard of losing all they have in the world , and to make themselves and posterity beggars ; to this add , what if sufferings should run higher than goods , even to their life ? they are not ready to dye , and so they may lose their souls ; besides they yeild but in a little , but quit not all ; and therefore it is not wisdom ( think they ) to be too peremptor , these and such like reasons make many stumble at persecution and a suffering lot , when it attends god's way and those that walk in it ; but there is as little cause to stumble at christ and his way , at this , as for the rest ; for seeing christ our lord and master went to heaven through a sea of many sad sufferings , why should it be look'd upon as a matter unbeseeming , or a ground of stumbling , that it is with the servants as it was with their lord , and with the disciples as it was with their master : christ strives to prevent his disciples stumbling by the same reason , john , . again , a suffering lot hath still , when it followed christ's fellowers , made christs way , the way of truth and piety , a gainer : it hath ever proven so , as might be made appear both from scripture and ecclesiastick history : as it was with the apostle paul phi●p . . . so hath it been , and so it will be , with all christ's suffering followers — i would ( saith he ) ye should understand — that the things which happened unto me , have fallen out rather to the furtherance of the gospel : this ever hath , is , and will be , god's none-such way , wherein none can follow him , to make his truth , his work , his church , his interests , thrive best when they are born down most : as the children of israel exod : . . who — the more they were afflicted , the more they multiplied and grew and therefore to stumble at christ's way because of persecution , and a suffering lot which usually doth attend it , is nothing else but to break our neck upon the deep and infinite wisdome of god ; because he takes his own way , the surest and speediest way , to make his church to grow ; and will not take ours . besides all these pretexts and excuses of stumbling on this account may be easily answered : for tho it hath been the lot of gods servants , even when they have suffered for righteousness , to be suffering in the eye of the world as evil doers ; yet , in that case men must think it enough that they approve themselves unto god ; and that there is a day coming when their integrity shall be brought forth as the light. , cor : — with me ( saith the apostle ) it is a very small thing that i should be judged of you , or of man's judgment — he that judgeth me is the lord. again none ever suffered that for him which he did suffer for them ; he takes nothing from men but what he hath first given unto them , neither puts he them to more than what he doth fit and strengthen them for : it holdeth constantly , in the mount the lord will be seen . and pet : . . if ye be reproached for the name of christ , happy are ye ; for the spirit of glory and of god resteth on you — and when people are put to the outmost of what can be expected , even to lay down their lives ; what is it but a paying of their debt a little sooner ? for once die they must : and tho they should shift the matter at that time , how quickly may god take their life from them another way ; possibly in a long lingering and pineing sickness , with greater torment , and a gnawing worm of conscience besides : and for any loss of goods , lands , and inheritance , that either people themselves , or others of their relations may sustain , by cleaving to christ's way in a suffering time ; it is not to be valued to the loss of god's favour and countenance , which cannot but follow , if men do otherwise ; god's peace and favour , the light of his countenance listed up , is that hundred fold , more than houses , brethren , sisters , children , and lands , which a man who suffereth the loss of all these things for christ's sake and the gospels , shall receive even now in this life : as our saviour teacheth mark. . , . so besides that god hath a thousand ways to make up to men any loss of that kind : at least so far , as no man who sets his face towards heaven , shall want a competency for carrying him there , and when a man 's once there , he needs no more : matth : . — seek ye first the kingdom of god , and his righteousness , and all these things shall be added unto you . and many things may fall out that may impoverish you , in which ye will neither have that honour nor satistisfaction which attends the christians loss for christs sake . and tho ceding for a little might put a storm of trouble by ; yet he that is not faithful in the little , will never be faithful in that which is more ; and it is satan's policy at all times to draw out the cause of sufferings to small things ; as moses's hoof , mordecart's beck , and daniel's opening of his window : in which case , to wit , the case of confession , even small things become great . from all which it 's aboundantly clear there is no real reason why any should stumble at christ and his way , because of peresecution , or a suffering lot which usually doth attend it . but a ninth and last thing which makes people , ready to stumble at christ and his way , and not only at one piece of his way , but the whole bulk of godliness , and turn perfect atheists , is , the temporizing temper of ministers ▪ when , alas so much the more is our shame ! it is usually observed the generality of ministers ( almost of all countries ▪ ) are of that religion and way which is most in credit , and which the sway of the court runs most for : thus among papists , almost all are papists ; in sweden and denmark , almost all are lutherans : and here with us , and in france and holland , almost all are calvinists : and that which increaseth the scandal and rock of offence is , when it is observed they easily turn their tongues to speak the language of all times , forewardly crying up such a way the one year , when the ruling power is for it , and not only crying it up , but engaging their credit and conscience by the most solemn tyes which can be imagin'd amongst men to promote it , and pressing , with all the most serious vehemency that men can use , upon the lords people to do the like . and yet when times change , and that they perceive the promoting of such a way doth not make for their worldly interest , they will cry it as much down again : as if there were no respect to be had , either to god , conscience , or credit ; but only to peoples interest and standing . thus in the dayes of constantine the great a godly prince , all the ministers almost were orthodox : again , in his son constantius his dayes , almost all of them ( even the same men who had been at the council of nice and condemn'd the arian heresy ) turned arians : hence it was then said , vnus athanasius contra totum mundum . and as it was in that age , so hath it been almost ever since , the sway of the court and ruling power of the times , hath carried with it the generality of ministers too great a length , to say and unsay , as they did enjoin them . this i grant is indeed a rock , which of any other hath in it most of offence , a rock whereon many a soul hath made shipwrack : and if the mighty power of god did not preserve his own elect , it were a worlds wonder , if it did not banish all sence of religion out of the world , making all flesh turn irreligious atheists : but notwithstanding the word of the lord doth furnish us with something to say of this rock also ; that there is no reason why any should stumble at christ's way for it . and . because both scripture and humane histories do shew , that though it hath been so almost in all times ; yet the lord hath guided the matter so , that he hath still keep'd a church to himself . i have shewed so much already from church history in constantine's time : and for scripture history , ye know in elijah's time , kings . . the torrent of defection was so prevalent , that for any thing could appear to such a sagacious man as elijah , he , and he only , was left alone . and rev. . . there were but a few names left in sardis which had not defiled their garments with the iniquity of the times . . this may also contribute to remove stumbling , that the lord , amongst all the most general defections of ministers , hath ever keeped some streight : so as the way of truth and piety is not left without a witness , and some encouragement to those that walk in it . in achab's time there was one elias , yea several others , tho elias knew not of them : and in sardis there were a few names at least , who had not defiled their garments . whe● the arians so far prevailed , that it was said , the whole world groaned and wondred at it self that it became arian , yet there was one athanasius . and when antichrist was to prevail , it is shown rev. . . that notwithstanding all the tyranny of antichrist , and the torrent of corruption in these times , god should have his two , that is , tho not many , yet some few witnesses . . the lord in his deep wisdom doth measure out such a dispensation for heightning his churches tryal , and that these who keep their garments clean may come forth as gold. it is but an inconsiderable tryal , and calls for little resolution to stand it out , when all the lord's ministers speak one thing , lifting up their voice as a trumpet , and denouncing the dreadful judgements of god on all who turn their back on truth and piety ; but when the generality of ministers at any time do blow the trumpet of defection from the lord , that speaks loyalty indeed , if then , notwithstanding such defection , people stand to the lords banner , and in nothing be moved from it : and that because the trumpet gives an uncertain sound , speaking one thing one day and another thing the next : so that to stumble at christ's way because of this when it falleth out , is to stumble at the wisdom of god. . therefore should no man stumble at christ nor his way for this , because the lord in all times hath made it , and no doubt will yet make it , tend to the advantage of his way in the close ; so as afterwards , times growing more favourable , the church of god hath thereby been freed from a fleece of time-servers , who would never otherwayes have discovered themselves : besides that others who through weakness , had turned aside in some degre●● with the torrent of the time , somewhat against their heart , have been made to acknowledge their weakness to god's glory : and so make up by their repentance , the breach they had made on god's way by their fall. and consequently for any to stumble at christ's way because of this , is to break their neck on that , which in god's method doth make his way most lovely in the close . there are other two points yet which might be handled jointly as the former ; the one expressed , the other implyed , and both of them serve to confirm the last , to wit , that whatever we meet with in christ's way , we should not love christ nor his way the less : none of these things should make us take up an halt in his way , much less turn our back upon it . for . it is an happy thing not to stumble at christ or his way : this is expressed in the text. . the man who is offended in christ , who turneth his back upon him because of stumbling-blocks or rocks of offence in the way , that man is an unhappy man and cursed . i might prosecute both these points , but for the time i shall forbear , and only say something in answer to a needful question : i think one may readily ask what i call christ's way whereat we should not stumble ; for there are men and parties of several wayes , there are papists and protestants , sectaries , socinians , formalists , anabaptists , prelatists or episcop●l-men , presbyterians , independents , and quakers , every one whereof , have their own way about religion ; and no doubt all of them will call their own way christ's way : and therefore it is needful to know which of these wayes are christ's way indeed , that so we may not turn our backs upon it . in answer to which question , it cannot be expected ( if it were but for the time ) i can enter in a debate concerning what is right or wrong , what is christs , what is not christs in all those wayes ; i shall therefore only give you some general directions for finding out what is christ's way amidst the tide and torrent of so many contrary opinions : and these such , that upon the one hand i think there is no man having his right wits about him , with the least grain of piety , but he must give his assent unto them ; and yet such as through god's blessing , being rightly improven , shall not leave you without a guide what to choose as god's way , and what not . first then , i doubt not it will be taken for granted by all. that the way of christ whereat we should not stumble , are the essentialls of piety and christianity ; i mean faith in jesus christ , repentance unto life , holiness and tenderness of walk in eschewing all known sin , and coming up to the practice of all known duty : this is it i intended mainly all alongs , to wit , that notwithstanding all the forementioned rocks of offence , ye would not turn profligate , profane , debauch'd , and irreligious atheists ; but hold on in the way of substantial piety notwithstanding of all , and over the belly of all . . but this is not all : it 's but a loose way of religion , and very near to no religion at all , for a man to pretend to no more but adhere to the practice of substantial duties , and the faith of fundamental truths , while in other things he sayes and unsays , and rolls about with the times : for hereby they may suffer the devil to do with the most part of scripture what he pleases : for truths absolutely necessary to salvation are but few , the lord in mercy having so provided , that the meanest capacity may explicitly comprehend them and all of them , seing they cannot be saved without them : but tho there be some few truths only of absolute necessity for salvation ; yet there are others in their own kind also necessary , to wit , for gods glory and your own comfort , and the lord will have you sticking closs by these truths once knowing them to be truths , as well as by others ; and that because a great part of christ's way lyeth in a mans adherence even to these truths , to wit , god's glory and the man 's own comfort : and a profane loose and indifferent spirit as to these , doth both in the nature of the thing and in god's just judgement , beget in progress of time , profane indifferency and atheism as to other more great and substantial truths : so doth the apostle paul inform the galatians , ch. . . a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump . thus then the great question is to know which is christ's way in truths of that sort , that so we may not stumble at it : for which in the first place take paul's rule , philipp . . . nevertheless whereto we have already attained , let us walk by the same rule . and john . look to your selves that we lose not these things that we have wrought — in a word , whatever a man is perswaded on good ground to be christ's way , let him stick closly by that as his way , and whatever he meet with , beware of doing any thing wherein his own heart will condemn him . i say this , because there are some truths of an inferiour nature , which are as clearly revealed in scriptures as other more substantial truths : and consequently a man may as much be perswaded of the one as the other : and tho another man may think , or say he is perswaded of the contrary error that it is truth , and be deceived : yet it follows not that the man who is perswaded of truth to be truth is deceived likewise ; there is a man who in his dream thinks certainly he is awake and speaking , that man certainly is deceived : but it were a strange thing to conclude from that , that the man who is really awake cannot know if he is so , but must alwayes suspect he may be deceived and in a dream . this much then for things out of doubt , and wherein a man upon good grounds hath attained to a full perswasion of the truth that is in them . but the greatest question of all is , concerning points of the truth whereof we are not absolutely perswaded without some scruple and ground of doubt to the contrary , how we may know what is god's way in those . and for this i shall give you some marks . st . the light of nature will teach us in things doubtful to encline to the surest and safest side , and that against which least can be said : as for example , in that controversy concerning the adding of sacred significant ceremonies invented by man to god's worship : as ; bowing to altars , kneeling at the communion , signing with the cross at baptism , &c. those who plead such additions to be superstitious and unlawful , do bring deutr. . . what things soever i command you , observe to do it : thou shalt not add thereto , nor diminish from it , and such like scriptures for a proof . the patrons of ceremonies answer ▪ that god forbiddeth such additions only which are contrary to the word , but not such as are besides the word neither forbidden nor commanded by it . now that is the very answer which papists give to our protestant divines , while we use the same scripture for an argument against all their superstitious ceremonies invented by men : and indeed if that door be once opened , a door is opened not only for one or two , but all the ceremonies of the church of rome , for on that ground only do they plead for them : when we ask what warrand have they from scripture for their frequent crossings , their use of salt , spitle , exorcisms in baptism , their use of holy water , baptising of bells , pilgrimages , and pennances ? they answer it is enough of warrand for the church to command them , that they are not expresly condemned in scripture . now seing the way that is pleaded for such ceremonies casts up so wide a gap ; it 's sure , that to abstain from them altogether , is the safest . . that way in things doubtful is most like to be christ's , the chief promoters whereof are not carried on with by-ends , self designs to acquire worldly honours or riches , or fa● benifices to themselves , but on the contrary , the very thing they plead for , and that part of the contradiction which they mantain , is , that nothing of that kind , further than honest compitency , and ministerial respect , should be bestowed on christ's ministers . and upon the other hand , it is a shrewd presumption at least that such a way is not christ's , wherein the chief promoters do palpably seek themselves and their own worldly interests : the apostle paul useth to lay great weight on this mark , especially rom. . . — such serve not our lord iesus christ , but their own belly — so that if they seek their own bellies they serve not our lord jesus christ. and philipp . . , — many walk — that are the enemies of the cross of christ — whose god is their belly — who mind earthly things . if it be evidently seen they mind earthly things , they are but enemies to the cross of christ. . when people doubt about several wayes which of them is christ's way , they are to stick by that unto which they are most engaged , and by more solemn tyes obliged , until ( at least ) they be clearly convinced it is wrong , for very common understanding will judge that to be the surest . . that way which by the grant of its adversaries hath ground in scripture for it ; tho they also say men may change it , must certainly look more like christ's way than the contrary which is confessed by its prime maintainers to have no ground in scripture , but that the great warrand which is given for it , doth●ly in the authority of men . even an heathen king artaxerxes did know so much , that every thing in the house of god behooved to be done according to the revealed will of god ; whence he issueth forth a decree ezra ; , . whatsoever is commaded by the god of heaven , let it be diligently done , for the house of the the god of heaven : for why should their be wrath against the realm of the king and his sons ? lastly , that which tends most to the promoting of piety , and is attended most with the fruits of a godly life , and tender conversation in it's most eminent mantainers and followers , and this not for a little short flash only at it's first beginning and when it is as it were upon it's tryals , but at all times when ever there was any controversie about it , that way i say looketh most like to christs way : for all his way and every piece of it tendeth unto that to make people lead a godly and holy life titus . — the grace of god that bringeth salvation , hath appeared to all men : teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts , we should live soberly , righteously , and godly , in this present world. and upon the contrary , that way , whereof the most zealous mantainers and and followers , as to their generality have been still plagued with prophanity and looseness ; that way i say looks not like the way of christ. wee 'l find christ himself doth lean no small weight on this mark matth. . , where he gives a general rule whereby to try false prophets and teachers , to wit , the fruits and effects which their doctrine hath upon their own lives and conversations ye shall know them ( saith he ) by their fruits : do men gather grapes of thorns , or figs of thistles . and verse . wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them . now all these things are such undoubted truths as none will get them deny'd in the general , and yet such as through gods blessing being rightly improven , may give people light in the former question , to know which is christ's way , among the many waye● on foot in the church of god ; so as we need not any further application , but exhort you with the apostle paul tim : . . consider what i say , and the lord give thee understanding in all things . a sermon preached at kilwinning , upon the munday immediatly after the giving of the communion . the fourth sermon . acts . . who when he came , and had seen the grace of god , was glad , and exhorted them all that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the lord. the scope of my sermon yesterday from jeremiah . . was to bring you to god : the text in hand holds out a main duty ye should make conscience of when ye are brought to him , and have closed with him , as all of you by your approaching to the lord's table profess ye have done . your duty now is with purpose of heart to cleave unto the lord. i shall not run far back for finding out the connexion of this purpose with that which goeth before : only ye may observe that luke the penman of the holy ghost in this history of the acts , doth shew ( from verse of this same chapter ) how that through occasion of that persecution which the church at jerusalem met with after steven's death ▪ mentioned chap. ) the gospel being preached by those who were forced to fly for their lives did wonderfully spread as far as phan●ce , & cyprus , and antioch ; and many in these regions and kingdoms were taken with it , for verse , the hand of the lord was with them , and a great number believed , and turned unto the lord. whereupon as is shown v. . when these tidings came to the church at jerusalem , they sent forth barnabas ▪ a man of extraordinary parts and calling ( for he was an apostle , as is clear from acts . . ) i say the church sends him as far as antioch , for helping foreward the work. and in this verse we have barnabas his coming to them , and what he does when he comes : who when he came , and had seen the grace of god , was glad , and exhorted them all , that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the lord. in which words we have these things consideraable . . barnabas his coming to antioch . . we have what he saw when he came , he saw the grace of god , to wit , the wonderful effects of god's grace , in bringing so many to embrace the doctrine of the gospel . . we have what this sight did work upon him . . it made him glad . . it brought a pithy needful exhortation from him to these new converts , the sum whereof is here set down — that with purpose of heart , they would cleave unto the lord. what explication is needful , i shall insist on as i go through the particulars . first , it is mentioned he came to antioch . but we hear nothing of any great train he carried along with him , or any great solemnity at his reception , tho he was an apostle the highest office-bearer in the church : but only that he came , doubtless in a sober way as became a minister of christ : it was a thing then unknown in the world for church-men to go accompanied with trains like princes , and that whole countrey sides and greatest personages in them , behooved to wait upon their grandeurs . it never was well with the church of god since church-men began to overtop peers and nobles . but the thing i mark from this is , that barnabas tho an extraordinary office-bearer in the church and an apostle , doth nevertheless obey the orders of the church at jerusalem : for it 's mentioned v. . that the church at jerusalem sent him forth , and here , that he did come accordingly : now what this church at jerusalem was , to whose directions he subjected himself , is clear from act. . . it was the church of elders or presbyters , even a presbytry as hath been made out convincingly these years by-past against the independants . to the direction of which elders , the apostle paul did submit himself there , as barnabas doth here . from which it is clear , that even the apostles and extraordinary office-bearers of the church were very respective and tender of that authority which jesus christ hath given to his church and the judicatories thereof . this appears chiefly in two things . first . when there were churches constitute and church judicatories erected to manage the discipline of the church , the apostles did not exercise power of jurisdiction over these churches by themselves alone , neither in the ordination of ministers , nor in the censuring or excommunicating of scandalous offenders , but tho they were without doubt universal pastors of the whole church , yet they did remit the same to ordinary church judicatories : thus paul doth not ordain timothy to be a minister alone , but admits the ordinary presbytery to do it . tim. . . neglect not the gift that is in thee , which was given thee by prophesy , with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery . and cor. . he clearly speaks of the power of excommunication as residing in the church judicatory at corinth , and reproves them for their not making use of that power in excommunicating the incestuous person , and stirrs them up to their duty . v. , . that in the name of our lord jesus christ when ye are gathered together , and my spirit with the power of our lord jesus christ. v. . to deliver such an one unto satan , for the destruction of the flesh , that the spirit may be saved in the day of the lord jesus . a second thing wherein the apostles did show their respect to church judicatories was this which is here mentioned in the text , that in many things they were ordered by , and subject to their directions : thus in the place cited acts . . the church of elders or presbyters at jerusalem give their injunctions to paul that for removal of an offence that many thousands of jews had taken against him he should publictly practise some of the jewish ceremonies in purifying himself and shaving his head , which were at that time things indifferent : and accordingly it's mentioned v. . that paul did follow their direction : all which shews that the authority of church judicatories was very much tendred even by the apostles themselves . the bishops do indeed boast themselves to be the apostles successors , and their only successors , i shall not stand upon this , it being made very clear by protestant writers against the papists , in the controversy about the pope , that the apostles had no successors , as to what was extraordinary in their office ; and as to that which was ordinary in it , as to preach the word , dispense the sacraments , and exercise church discipline over particular churches , that they have in these all ministers for their successors : but passing that , what i am now on is , that the bishops of these latter times have encroached more upon the power and priviledge left by christ unto his church and church judicatories , than ever the apostles them-themselves ( whose successors they give themselves out for ) did . for as i have cleared from the present doctrine , the apostles did leave the matters of ordinary jurisdiction to be managed by ordinary church judicatories ; but so do not they , the whole body of christ's ministers within a church ( though they were all gathered together ) may neither ordain a minister , nor excommunicate a scandalous offender , but this must be done only by the bishop , and such as ●e doth substitute under him for it . again the apostles were in some things at least subject and ordered by the directions of church judicatories , but so are not they , such a condiscendance could not stand with their honours and dignities . secondly , we have in the text what barnabas saw among them when he came , and this is called , the grace of god. the meaning whereof is not as if all of them had been converted and indued with saving grace , neither doth grace here signify gods grace inherent in them , but gods grace and free favour which he saw in the effects of it , in that it wrought so powerfully in bringing a great many to embrace the doctrine of the gospel among whom there ( doubtless ) were many sincere and real converts , though all of them were not so . however the thing he saw was , the mighty progress and success of the gospel ; and this occasioned by a strong and cruel persecution ( mentioned verse ) the ministers are forced to flee from their flocks ; wherever they go they preach , gods grace and mighty hand accompanies their labour to the conversion of many thousand souls , this is the grace which barnabas saw . hence take this doctrine , that sadest persecutions for truth do frequently prove an occasion of the gospels spreading : thus it was act : . . saul — made havock of the church , entring into every house , and haling men and women , committed them to prison . v. . therefore they that were scattered abroad , went every where preaching the word , even as far as ph●nice , cyprus and antioch , as it is ver . of this chapter the making havock of the church occasioned the enlargement of the church , which hath frequently fallen out since , which gave ground to that true and ancient saying , the blood of martyrs is the seed of the church . the reasons why the work and grace of god thrives best at such times may be many . as . peoples ears are then bored and readiest to drink in the word with greediness , because then they have little other comfort left them : affliction and persecution is a tasty sawce to make the word relish , psal. . v. . when their judges are overthrown in stony places , they shall hear my words for they are sweet . . at such times the servants of christ are more diligent in their work , as they can have access to it , and more fervent in dealing with god by prayer for a blessing to their work , because the thriving of their work is all the reward which they can then expect . and . the lord doth then , usually countenance the labours of his servants most , because they are most despised , few do then care for them , or takes any notice of them . and therefore the lord takes this way , both to hearten them and to put respect upon them . and . the couragious , constant and cheerful enduring of hardships and sufferings for truth , doth commend that truth for which they suffer , unto others , even to indifferent spectators ; and makes them enquire after it , and desirous to know what so much worth there can be in it . i shall not insist for application , hasting forward to the latter part of the text , only if it be so , then people are not to lookupon persecution and a suffering time for truth , whenever it comes , as so sad , so dismal , and dreadful a thing , for this at least may be expected to be lovely in it ; the same truth which men labour to bear down , shall spread the faster and the further . and that this is so , the following doctrine will shew . another doctrine ariseth from the first effect this sight did work on barnabas , it made him glad , for so saith the text , who when he came and had seen the grace of god was glad . the doctrine is this , that the gospel and truth do spread , and gain ground among people , is matter of joy and gladness to a godly heart , though the times were otherwise never so sad : for there were many things to make barnabas sad at this time , if we consider . how they had stoned the first martyr stephen to death , a man full of the holy ghost , and used him so as if he had been the most notorious malefactor that ever the earth carried . and . the prosperous state of the churches enemies , the scribes , pharisees , high-priests , a company of degenerate corrupt church-men , who at that time did sit at jerusalem , guiding all things at their pleasure , that if any did but mutter against their state and dignity , though in the furthest part of all the realm , their hand could easily reach them ; they needed no more but hound out a saul with a commission if it were to damasc●s to take them , and bring them bound to jerusalem . as is clear from acts . , . and . if ye consider his own poor condition , and that of others the servants of christ at that time , who were hunted from corner to corner , yea from kingdom to kingdom . these , and many such things as these , were at that time to make barnabas sad , and yet this makes him take all in the better part , and in a manner digest all , that when he came he saw the grace of god had accompanied the labours of his despised servants , and a rich income of souls to the knowledge of christ and the gospel . and when he saw this , he was glad ; he is in some sort so transported with it , that in a manner he forgets stephen's death , he envyeth not the prosperous state of the churches enemies , no● doth much resent his own hard lot , or that of others , who were christs faithful saints and servants . all which cleareth the doctrine , that the spreading of truth will make a godly heart glad ▪ though the times otherwise were never so sad . thus was it with the apostle paul , philip , . . the things which happened unto me . ( saith he meaning his bonds , imprisonment and other harsh usage ) have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel . whereupon v. . he breaks out , what then ? notwithstanding every way , whether in pretence or in truth , christ is preached ; and i therein do rejoyce ; yea , and will rejoyce . for vse . try your selves by this , what it is that makes you glad , is it the thriving of gods work in souls ? the down-bearing of sin ? the growth of piety ? if so , it speaks thee to be a man of barnabas temper : and upon the other hand , if things of that kind do rather make the sad ; and if the back-going of gods work , the destroying what he hath built , the plucking up of what he hath planted , the thriving of sin and wickedness ▪ the general loosness of the times ; if ( i say ) these things make thee glad ; it speaks thee to be a man of a woful temper , a very godless heart . but . if this be a thing that will make a godly heart gla● , in the saddest of times , then pray to god for it ; that it may be so , that the work of god may thrive in hearts , that those woful spiritual plagues of security , deadness and hardness of heart may be removed , and the gospel may take many by the heart who never hitherto knew the power of it . it 's easie for god to bless his truth in the mouth of his despised and persecuted servants , and to make a gracious change , tho wickedness were at the greatest hight : and if he do it , whatever may be the other sadness of the times , thou who art a godly heart shall have reason to be glad , yea and thou shall be glad , tho thou were lying bound in a prison with paul , thou shalt in a manner forget thy sorrow , and in that thou wilt rejoyce . but i come now to the d . effect which this sight did work in barnabas ; it brought a pithy needful exhortation from him to these new converts : for saith the text , — when he had seen the grace of god he was glad and exhorted them all , &c. i observe first in general that this was the eirand the church of jerusalem had sent him on , at least the chief part of it , and that which he minded most , therefore his discharging this part of his commission is only mentioned , even his exhorting of them and confirming them , by preaching to them . hence this is clear , that preaching and exhortation is one part at least of the ministerial office , yea and a great part of it : it is such a piece of the ministers duty , that both the converted and unconverted have need of it , and such need , that in an ordinary way they cannot be saved without it . it 's needful to the unconverted , for rom. . . — faith cometh by hearing — and cor. . . — it pleased god by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe . it 's needful also to the converted , as is clear both from this text ( for after he had seen the grace of god among them , he seeth it needful to exhort them ) and from acts ▪ , . the apostle paul did confirm the disciples , and exhorted them to continue in the faith , exhortation and preaching even to those that are already converted , is god's mean to confirm them . in a word , it will neither be good for the converted nor unconverted among us if ever it come to this ( as the lord knoweth how soon it may come ) that preaching shall be looked on as no part , or a very inconsiderable part of the ministers duty , or a thing indifferent whether he preach or not , providing ye read , sing , or say a set service , which within a little cannot but wear threed-bare to people by frequent hearing : alas ! how little food is there in such like work for hungry exercised souls ? how little stuff to rouze up or work upon the dead drouzie secure conscience ? we read in scripture that apostles , evangelists and ministers , were sent out to preach and to mind that as a great part of their work , yea and to mind it more than the administration of the sacraments , cor. . . — christ sent me not to baptize but to preach the gospel . — that is , not so much to baptize as to preach ; but we never find they were sent out to read , say , or sing a set service , and much less , that they did place the stress of religion on such a service , caring the less , if that were done , whether there had been preaching or not : alas ! beloved , when we consider how much plain and powerful preaching , fervent and soul-piercing exhortation hath been in britain , and how little use , the generality have made of it , and how much they have undervalued it : it were little wonder though liberty to preach were taken from ministers , or preaching ministers removed from people , and such set over them as can do no more than what any school boy may do , even to read an homily or old printed preaching , and to chant over a service book . but i come to the exhortation it self , or rather the sum of what barnabas preached to them : for we may not think he spoke neither more or less than these very words : doubtless he ran out and enlarged excellently on these heads ; but this was the sum of what he said , he exhorted them all that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the lord. here we have two things . . the thing exhorted to , or what he would have them do , which is to cleave unto the lord. . the manner wherein he would have it done viz. with purpose or resolution of heart . as to the first , the thing exhorted to , is , to cleave to the lord jesus christ , who usually gets the name of lord in the new testament : and the word rendered [ cleave unto him ] signifieth also continue with him . now the lord to whom he exhorts them to cleave , or to continue with , is , the lord christ himself , who tho bodily absent , yet is spiritually present , and as to the merit , vertue , and all the fruits of his death , is offered to us in the promise : and the way how we c●eave to the lord thus , is , by faith , and the continuing in the exercise of that grace : this is it which is called ab●●ing in him . joh. . . and dwelling in him . . joh. . . take this then for the first piece of this large and comprehensive duty to which ye are here exhorted , that ye who have fled to christ by faith , cleave to christ , and continue with him , that is , mantain what ye have do●●ein closing with christ , beware of loosing these grips ye have laid hold on , but frequently renew them , that so ye may cleave the nearer to him . this is nece●●ary , for . satan will not fail to let showers of tentations flee at you , to drive you from him , and make you loose your grips ; and surely ye shall be made to loose them , unless you put on a resolution thus to cleave unto him. . this cleaving to him , and abiding in him , is the cause of fruitfulness , joh. . , . i am the vine ( saith christ ) — he that abideth in me and i in him , the same bringeth forth much fruit : it is little wonder there be but few fruits after a communion , because instead of cleaving to the lord , and mantaining what ye have done in closing with him , and instead of doing it over again , ye do on the contrary upon the least cross dispensation begin to question the reality of what ye have done , and to retire as men ashamed , because ye have hoped . now that ye may thus mantain what ye have done in closing with the offer of christ held forth in the promise , and so cleave to the lord in the exercise of faith ; i shall recommend to you these three things . . labour to be tender in your walk ; for tenderness of walking is a fruit of faith , and the want of it will beget a suspition that ye have no faith nor ever had it , and if ye suspect ye want faith ye can have little heart to cleave to the lord by exercising it : there is nothing which more obstructs our boldness in adhering to our interest in christ , and in our cleaving to him by faith , than untender walking . . dwell much in the daily sence of your wants , this will put you frequently to employ him : when people want water within doors , they must of necessity run often to the well with the bucket to draw , but when ye wear out of acquaintance with your emptiness and wants , and think ye have a fountain and sufficient stock in your selves , ye'l make but little use of faith , and seldom use making of it makes it to decay , that ye cannot make use of it when ye would . . do not needlesly and without a ground call in question the reality of your former closing with him ; for that , as i told you before , will make you heartless to set to it of new ; or however ye question the reality of what ye have done already , yet see that in no terms ye question your right to close with him by faith , and believe in him for time to come : for whatever thou hast done formerly , the gospel offer is yet at thy door , and a command from god unto thee to close with it , and if thou hast not done it in earnest before , thy need is so much the greater to do it frequently and in earnest now . but now to proceed , by ( the lord to whom he exhorts them to cleave , is not only meaned the lord himself as he is offered in the promise , but generally all that he hath recommended to our care , as an evidence of our respect to him , thus we testify our respect to absent friends by owning their concerns and interests , and if ye ask what these things are that the lord christ hath recommended to our care , i answer in two words , first , his truth , and next his service . so that . ye are to cleave unto , and continue in his truth against error ; according to what the apostle jude commands , v. ▪ — ye should earnestly contend for the faith , ( to wit , the doctrine of faith or truth ) which was once delivered unto the saints . we are to cleave to and continue in his service , whether the duties of immediate worship we should cleave to these against superstition , voluntary neglect , will-worship and idolatry : or the duties of our particular callings and stations ; all which should be gone about as service to him ; so servants are to do their service with good will , as to the lord , and not to men , ephes. . . now that cleaving to all these is meaned by cleaving unto the lord , appears from deutr. . . and . . where cleaving to the lord is explained by fearing the lord , by obeying his voice , by serving him and swearing by his name . now to speak a little to each of these . . ye must cleave to and continue in his truth . gaius is commended for this joh. . even that he walked in the truth ; and prov. . . we are bidden buy the truth and sell it not ; and ye heared from jude , — ye should contend for the truth : for error contrary to truth is of a damning nature , peter . . they are called damnable heresies ; and error in point of truth makes way for prophanity and loosness of life , a sound heart and an unsound head cannot well subsist ; therefore doth peter epist. . . call error — the error of the wicked ▪ for helping you to this needful duty of cleaving to the lord , by cleaving to his truth , i shall recommend to you these things . . beware of scepticism , or making all truths debateable , or those truths especially which may bring you in greatest hazard to confess or cleave to : this is down right contrary to the cleaving to truth here enjoined . . do not undervalue any truth , say of no truth as lot said of zoar , ( is it not a little one ? ) and so i may skip from it . it 's true there is a difference among truths , some greater truths and some smaller ; but as it is of sins , so it is of errors , the lesser alwise doth make way for the greater , and there is no truth which cometh not from the god of truth ; and therefore no truth which ye should look on as a thing indifferent , whether ye think so or otherwise of it : besides in times of defection from truth , it is the usual artifice of persecuters to extenuate those truths they labour to bear down , as things indifferent , and very triffles ; when in the mean time their own practice doth give the●r profession the lie ; for if they thought them things indifferent and triffles , why would they persecute m●n for adhering to them ? besides tho some truths be not so absolutely necessary to salvation , but a man may be saved tho he think otherwise , yet it doth not follow we should be careless of all such : thus tho a man's hand be not so absolutely necessary but he may live without it , yet he were a mad man who on that account would wittingly and willingly cut it off : besides an error in some truths , which will not damn one , may condemn another who knows at least may easily know it to be an error , and yet will live and die in the justification of it without repentance . . ye ought chiefly to cleave to those truths which ye are most engaged to owne , either by god's sealing them to your spirits , or by catechising and instructing you from your very childhood in them , so that ye are put out of all doubt of the truth that is in them , or by bringing you under most sacred tyes of solemn vows and oaths to maintain them ; i say , ye ought to look upon it as your duty chiefly to cleave unto such truths . joh. . look to your selves that we lose not those things that we have wrought ; and solomon saith , it is not safe after vows to make enquiry . if a man's conscience grow once so wide as to let such truths pass through either for errors or triffles , he may perswade himself there is not a truth in all the bible , if he be hard put to it that he 'l stick at , but that meeting with a pressing suitable tentation he 'l let it slip through after them . we are to cleave to truth not only by retaining the knowledge of it , and by giving assent to it in our judgements but also by giving a modest and faithful profession and confession of that truth on all hazards when we are called to it : this is commanded pet : . . be ready alwise to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you , with meakness and fear , and rom : . . — with the heart man believeth unto righteousness , and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation . this is necessary both for the honour of god , truth being a piece of his name which we are bound to confess rev : . — thou holdest fast my name and hast not denyed my faith — and its necessary also in order to our own salvation for whosoever ( saith our saviour ) will confess me before men , him will i also confess before my father which is in heaven ; but whosoever will deny me before men , him will i also deny before my father which is in heaven . this now as upon the one hand it doth not justify unseasonable confession contrary to matth : . — cast not your pearls before swine , lest they trample them under their feet , and turn again and rent you ; so upon the other hand it reproves those who dar not or will not give a confession of the truth even when they are called to it , and much more those who deny the truth either expresly , or interpretativly , that is , when they do that which men are apt to take and have reason to take for a denial of the truth , tho they do not deny it in so many words . but secondly , we must cleave unto the lord by cleaving to and continuing in his service , for that is the other thing which he hath recommended to our care , as an evidence of our respect to him : joshua bids the people , take diligent heed — to cleave unto the lord and serve him , jos : . . now this holds first of the ordinances he hath appointed for his service and immediate worship : ye must cleave to these . in order to which . . beware of will-worship , or doing that in his worship which he hath not commanded , colos , . wherefore if ye be dead with christ from the rudiments of the world : why as though living in the world , are ye subject to ordinances ? to wit , ordinances and commandments of men in gods service , as he explains verse . and he gives some instances of them verse . touch not , taste not , handle not . it is true men may appoint the outward circumstances of order and decency for going about these parts of god's worship which he hath commanded ; such as are time and place , what hour of the day ye shall meet at publick worship , and in what place , and such like , which are common both to civil and religious actions ; but they may not under that pretext , appoint new practices of worship to god , or significant engaging ceremonies : as for example , that the sign of the cross be used in baptism , as a token we shall not hereafter be ashamed to confess christ crucified ; and that ministers preach with a white shirt or surplice above their garments , to signify the holiness of their calling ; or as the ancients did ordain those who were baptized to wear white garments for the space of eight dayes after baptism , to signify their being washen from sin : for by that same rule , they may command every one to taste vinegar and gall at the communion , as a sign that they shall not be ashamed of christ who died so : and to put on an helmet , breast-plate , and other armour in time of publick worship , to signify our resolution to fight the battle against sin and satan so long as we live ; and suck or drink in milk publickly in time of divine worship , in token that by faith we draw in the sincere milk of the word , that we may grow thereby . now any may see that to command these and such like , were to appoint new work in gods service , and more than to do that work he hath appointed orderly and decently . besides many things of lesser moment and of the same nature with these ; i mean significant ceremonies are appointed by god in his law , to which there is yet added that sanction , deut. . . what thing soever i command you observe to do it , thou shalt not add thereto , nor diminish from it . so that the appointing any such things in the worship of god is an adding to gods law which is there prohibited . i shall be more brief in the following directions for cleaving to the ordinances of gods immediate worship : and therefore . beware of irreligious impiety in neglecting these ordinances : ye are commanded to wait upon them , pray without ceasing , despise not prophesying ( or preaching ) speak to your selves in psalms and hymns , give attendance unto reading . ye cannot cleave to the lord in these ordinances if ye neglect to go about them ; ye must countenance publick ordinances , make conscience of secret duties . . beware of formality in going about them , by resting in an out-side work ; but above all things , strive to bring the heart up to them , otherwise ye do not as ye ought , cleave unto them , god is a spirit , and will be worshiped in spirit and in truth , the lord will not rockon you to cleave unto them , tho ye be present at them , if so your heart be far away from them . dly . beware of up-sitting or back-sliding from making conscience of them , after ye have once begun ; that it be not said of you as the apostle paul said once of the galatians , ye have run well , but who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth . otherwise ye do not cleave unto them . but further , this cleaving to the lord , by cleaving to and continuing in his service doth hold in the duties of our particular callings and stations . and in order to your cleaving to these , or to the lord by making conscience of these . . do not neglect them ; i mean those duties which ye owe , whether as servants , or as masters ; as parents , or as children ; as husbands , or as wives ; as magistrats , or as subjects : much of the life and power of religion is manifested in the conscientious discharge of such duties ; and a man manifests best what he hath by making conscience of such ; rom : . . ye are not to be sloathful in business . . what ye do even in things of that kind , strive to do it as service to the lord. for ( as i have shew'd ) so much is enjoyned servants ; thus shall ye cleave to the lord , even by going about your ordinary calling , when ye discharge the duties thereof as service to him , that is , when ye do them because he appoints you so to do , and that ye may adorn religion , and take away all occasion of reproach , by your conscientious diligence in the practice of them . . let not the duties of your particular stations make you neglect the duties either of publick or private worship , there is time for both , ye cannot cleave to the lord in the duties of the one sort , if they shall justle out the duties of the other . strive to keep communion with god even in the practice of such duties , by sending up secret thoughts and pithy ejaculations to god among hands ; as nehemiah did chap. . by labouring to make a spiritual use of every thing that occurs , or which ye meet with . this much now for their cleaving to the lord , the thing he would have them to do . i shall now speak a little only , to the manner wherein the lord would have it gone about ; it s with a purpose or resolution , and a purpose of heart . . it 's with a purpose and resolution , he would have them take on a fixed resolution to do , and that as an help to make them do : hence take this doctrine , that ye may cleave to the lord and continue constant and stedfast in his truth and service , ye must take on a fixed resolution and purpose so to do , i suppose ye have taken on such a resolution as this at your coming to the lords table , but tho ye have done it , yet your wisdom will be every day to renew it : david had taken on such a purpose , psal. . — i am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress , yea he binds himself by an oath to it , psal. . , i have sworn , and i will perform it , that i will keep thy righteous judgments this is that piece of the spiritual armour called ephes : . — the preparation of the gospel of peace . even a prepared , ready , resolute purpose in the lords strength , to go on in the way of truth and duty , notwithstanding of any hazard , hardship , or difficulty , i say it must be a purpose taken on in the lords strength , for without him we can do nothing ; for sayeth david psal : . . i will go in the strength of the lord god. now ye must labour to bring up your hearts to such a resolute purpose as this , to go on in the way of truth and duty , notwithstanding hazard , hardship and difficulty : for . the want of such a resolution or purpose will not keep off tryal and trouble , neither will the putting of it on , hasten tryals . job . . should it be according to thy mind ? he will recompense it , whether thou refuse or whether thou choose . . couragious resolution and purpose to fear no opposition but to charge through all difficulties and hazards , is half victory jam : . . resist the devil and he will fly from you . . when a resolution and purpose is once laid , to undergo all that ye may meet with in the way of truth and duty , it is usually attended with cheerfulness in duty : now god loveth a chearful giver , when upon the contrary if an unexpected storm of tryal and trouble come on a man before he be fully resolved to endure the worst of it , it doth at least very much damp and weaken him , if it do not wholly make him quite the way . . the promise is made only to the persevering and resolved man ; he that endureth to the end shall be saved , when the backslider in heart shall be filled with his own wayes ( prov : . . ) that is , he shall meet with some plague and judgment in his way , which will make him weary of it and be grieved of his undertaking e're all be done , tho this usually comes out of time . the vse is for reproof to those who are like the israelites in elijah's time , halting betwixt two opinions , and can never suffer themselves to come to an even-down resolution and purpose on all hazards to cleave to the lord , to his truth and his service , whatever it may stand them ; but do either think to put the evil day far from them , by imagining they 'l one way or other shift it : or if they see no probability in this , but that once it will be at their door ; yet they keep themselves irresolute , in an hovering suspense what to do when trouble cometh ; whence so soon as they meet with a tentation , they begin to capitulate with it , when they should resolutely repell it , and after a little capitulating , they 'l find out some shift or other to beguile themselves , and so do give up their armes and basely yeild . lastly , this purpose and resolution to cleave unto the lord must be a purpose of the heart . it 's true every purpose is a purpose of heart if it be real ; but there are some purposes which are not real , but naked convictions of the judgement , that such and such things should be done , which some are apt to take for a purpose of heart , when they are only of a heart and a heart , or of a double and deceitful heart , but not of a single and sincere heart : ye should therefore labour to be single and sincere in your purpose and resolution of cleaving unto the lord , such a purpose as your heart may be engadged in it . for which cause ye must . . forecast what such a resolution may stand you , otherwise if ye look over that , or look not unto it , your purpose will not be sincere , and ye will not stick by it : and when the thing comes ye looked not for , ye'l do the thing ye thought not : and even that which to think on now would make you say with hazae● kings . . is thy servant a dog , that he should do this great thing ? . beware of a mixture of unsincere motives and by-ends : if ye resolve to cleave to the lord either for temporal advantage , or to get a name of constancy or to eschew the imputation of changeableness this will argue unsincerity in your purpose , and consequently it will not hold out long : let your eye therefore be single , in being acted from spiritual motives , love to christ , love to truth , so shall your purpose be a purpose of heart . if your purpose to cleave to the lord be sincere and a purpose of heart , then the whole man , your soul , your body , all the faculties of the one and members of the other , must be ready to follow out their whole purpose . for the heart commands the whole man , your purposes and resolutions which have nothing of action following , are not purpose's of the heart ; as when ye purpose to cleave to the lord in the mortifying of such a sin , and yet ye have not power to keep from the occasions which lead unto it ; ye purpose to cleave to such a truth , and yet cannot endure to be at the pains to get your selves rooted grounded and established in the faith and knowledge of it . i say no more but remember the text , and be exhorted to cleave unto the lord , his truth , his ordinances , his service , with purpose of heart . finis . errata . page . line . dele wise decree , to permit . p. . l : , for , too fair . read , too farr . p. . line . for , in : r. is . p. . l : : dele ( . ) add ( ; ) p : . l : : r : is to be . p : . l : : for , misters r : ministers . p : : l : : for i. r : in. p. : l : : for promise r : promised . p. . for congation r. congregation : p : . in the title r. preached at irving . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e * the author did in the beginning of his sermon read several texts of scripture . a few words to the king and both houses of parliament vvorthy their consideration in a weighty concern; to wit, the effect of the execution of the late act, made against meetings and conventicles, so called; through which very many of the innocent people of god have, and do deeply suffer. milner, richard, fl. . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page image. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing m estc r this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a few words to the king and both houses of parliament vvorthy their consideration in a weighty concern; to wit, the effect of the execution of the late act, made against meetings and conventicles, so called; through which very many of the innocent people of god have, and do deeply suffer. milner, richard, fl. . sheet ([ ] p.) s.n.], [london : printed in the year, . signed at end: rich. milner. place of publication from wing. in response to the conventicle act. reproduction of the original in the friends' house library, london. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng conventicle act -- early works to . quakers -- early works to . dissenters, religious -- law and legislation -- early works to . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - mona logarbo sampled and proofread - mona logarbo text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a few words to the king and both houses of parliament , vvorthy their consideration in a weighty concern ; to wit , the effect of the execution of the late act , made against meetings and conventicles , so called ; through which very many of the innocent people of god have , and do deeply suffer . and this is very certain and observable ( as one deeply concerned in suffering by the aforesaid act , my mind became exercised in a consideration of the effects thereof ) that it saddens the hearts of many , yea indeed the generality of all people , to see those they know to be honest neighbours , and good common-wealths people in their countrey , to have their known truly gotten goods and estates driven away and spoyled , and that for nothing but the tenderness of their consciences towards god , and for worshipping him in spiri● and truth ; it being so much contrary to the principle of justice in all people , even those that have but morality and civility in any measure concludes is to be , and indeed cryes it out to be a sad thing ; that men and ●eople the● live peaceably and harmlesly amongst their neighbours , and under the government , should be so pilledged and rob●●● their estates , even to the impoverishing many , both widdows and fatherless ; that how can you think 〈◊〉 to be a wo●k for god , or any thing like him or his service ? or how can you think it to be a likely way to convince or bring people out of errors or heresie● , if you conclude us to be such ? or how can it be like to bring people from a false church , if so , to a true ? since it is so unagreeable to the spirits of all civil people , and that especially to the equal principle of god in all . and also it is observable , that the execution of it , is very burthensome and troublesome to the executioners ; as we see by experience , the constables and other officers all up and down the countrey cry out , what a trouble it is to them , to make such havack of their neighbours goods , so that as several of them say , they can neither eat nor sleep for trouble to drive their neighbours horses and cattle by droves to the markets and fairs , there to stand with them , and be as gasing stocks to the people ; and then the people gather into companies , and talk together and shake their heads , for very trouble to see such cruelty and barbarous work in so peaceable a nation . and it is also observable , that many the informers and putters on in this work are commonly of the most vilest , and wickedest , beggarly , profainest sort of all people , such as have either wasted their own estates , or such as are slothful , idle , vagrant fellows , that never had estates , nor will not work ; but having this advantage given them , and that by authority , seek and chuse rather to live upon the ruines of other me●s estates . oh! will you consider , was ever the like advantage given to the very 〈◊〉 of a nation ; to vaunt themselves as they do , not only over the serious , engenious improving part of the nation ; but also over the magistrates , if they do not readily execute the wills of these informers : such is their impudence they being backed with authority , as they perceive themselves to be by the late act ; oh! how can you think that a government , or a true church , or a nation can any way be advanced by such unequal works and wretched in s ; truments , as have neither regard to god nor good men , nor good government , but to drive on their own wicked design , to mine honest mens estates : and so , if the diligent and laborious people must be oppressed , that they cannot improve , and the idle and slothful sort will not improve , but wast and destroy the work of the diligent , the world will become like a wilderness . written by one called a quaker , who is a deep sufferer by the late act against meetings in the county of chester , rich. milner . this th day of the d . month called april , . i stand convicted at this present , by geoffery shakerley governour of chester-castle , in the sum of fourscore and six pound five shillings , for my self and my wife , by vertue of the late act against meetings : besides , i had taken from me twelve kine three or four years since month forty pound , for a fine of twenty pound , by vertue of the same act. there being ten or twelve widdows , and fatherless families , who have not left some them a skillet to boyl their children milk in ; most of them have no estates , but what they pay yearly for , r. m printed in the year , . by the king. a proclamation. charles r. charles the second, by the grace of god, king of scotland, england, france, and ireland, defender of the faith, &c. to all and sundry our good subjects whom these presents do or may concern, greeting: we having, with the advice and consent of our parliaments, past so many acts in favour of the protestant religion, against field-conventicles,... proclamations. - - scotland. sovereign ( - : charles ii) approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page image. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing c estc r this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) by the king. a proclamation. charles r. charles the second, by the grace of god, king of scotland, england, france, and ireland, defender of the faith, &c. to all and sundry our good subjects whom these presents do or may concern, greeting: we having, with the advice and consent of our parliaments, past so many acts in favour of the protestant religion, against field-conventicles,... proclamations. - - scotland. sovereign ( - : charles ii) charles ii, king of england, - . sheet ([ ] p.) , edinburgh, printed by the heir of andrew anderson, printer to his most sacred majesty. anno dom. . re-printed at london, [london] : [ ] at end of text: given at our court at white-hall, the . day of june, . and of our reign the thirty one year. arms ; steele notation: defender place one. reproduction of original in the folger shakespeare library, washington, d.c. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng dissenters, religious -- scotland -- early works to . jesuits -- controversial literature -- early works to . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - mona logarbo sampled and proofread - mona logarbo text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion c r honi soit qvi mal y pense royal blazon or coat of arms by the king. a proclamation . charles r. charles the second , by the grace of god , king of scotland , england , france , and ireland , defender of the faith , &c. to all and sundry our good subjects whom these presents do or may concern , greeting : we having , with the advice and consent of our parliaments , past so many acts in favour of the protestant religion , against field-conventicles , whereby our subjects were withdrawn from publick ordinances , in such ways as exposed them to hear jesuits , or any other irregular preachers , and were at last debauched to meet with arms in formed rebellions ; we might have expected a most hearty concurrence from all such as resolved to live religiously and peaceably in suppressing those disorders : in place whereof , magistrates having by their negligence , and masters by their connivance , hightned those distempers into a formed rebellion , founded upon extravagancies , inconsistent with the protestant religion and our monarchy ; which , we having by the mercy of god , and the affection of our subjects , overcome so totally , that our clemency cannot be liable to any mis-construction : we have therefore thought fit , with the advice of our privy council , to recommend the vigorous execution of all our former laws and proclamations against such rendezvouzes of rebellion ; commanding hereby our judges , magistrates and officers of all ranks and degrees to apprehend , condemn and punish all such as frequent any field-conventicles , the ministers by death , and the hearers by fining , and otherways according to the prescript of our laws ; such as bear arms there , being to be demained as traitors , conform to our former proclamation , dated the . day of may last , and ordaining that all masters shall be lyable for presenting such of their tennants , and such as live upon their ground to underly the law in our justice-airs , conform to the sixth act , par. third james the fifth . as also , we most peremptorily command all in office under us , to prosecute with all legal rigor , those inhumane and execrable murderers of the late arch-bishop of st. andrews , and all such as have had accession thereto , by concealing or ressetting the assassinates . but we , being desirous to reclaim all such in that our ancient kingdom , as have been misled by ignorance , or blind zeal ( the pretexts of disorders ) and to convince all indifferent persons , that too great severity is as far from our design , as our inclinations , have according to the power reserved to us , by the fifth act , and second session of our second parliament , suspended the execution of all laws and acts against such as frequent house-conventicles in the low countreys on the south-side of the river of tay only : excepting always the town of edinburgh , and two miles round about the same , with the lordships of musselburgh and dalkeith , the cities of st. andrews and glasgow , and stirling , and a mile about each of them ; being fully resolved , not to suffer the seat of our government , nor our universities to be pestred with any irregularities whatsoever . and for a further evidence of our protection to all who resolve to live peaceably , we hereby suspend all diligences for fines upon the account of conventicles , except such fines as are imposed by our privy council , and such fines of inferiour judicatures , as were uplifted or transacted for , prior to the . of may last , and all letters of intercommuning , and other executions , except in so far as concerns those who were our actual servants , or in publick trust . but to the end , that none whom we may justly suspect , shall under the colour of this favour , continue to preach rebellion , schism and heresie ; we hereby ordain all such as shall be suffered to preach , to have their names given in , and surety found to our privy council for their peaceable behaviour , only one preacher being allowed to a paroch ; and none to be allowed who have appeared against us in this late rebellion , nor none who shall be admitted by the un-conform ministers in any time hereafter . assuring all those to whom we have extended this favour , that if they or any of them , shall for the future frequent any field-coventicles , or disturb the peace of these our kingdoms , we will secure our people , and maintain our authority and laws by such effectual courses , as in ruining the authours , cannot be thought rigid , after so insufferable and unnecessary provocations . this our forbearance being to continue in force only during our royal pleasure , as we shall see those dissenters deserve our favour . and to the end , all our good subjects mave notice of this our royal will and pleasure , we do hereby command our lyon king at arms , and his brethren heraulds , macers , pursevants , messengers at arms , to make proclamation hereof , at the mercat-cross of edinburgh . given at our court at white-hall , the . day of june , . and of our reign the thirty one year . by his majesties command , lauderdale . god save the king . edinburgh , printed by the heir of andrew anderson , printer to his most sacred majesty . anno dom. . re-printed at london . the modern pleas for comprehension, toleration, and the taking away the obligation to the renouncing of the covenant considered and discussed. tomkins, thomas, ?- . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; 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(eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) the modern pleas for comprehension, toleration, and the taking away the obligation to the renouncing of the covenant considered and discussed. tomkins, thomas, ?- . [ ], p. printed for r. royston ..., london : . attributed to thomas tomkins. cf. nuc pre- . reproduction of original in the university of illinois (urbana-champaign campus). library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large 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and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng dissenters, religious -- england -- early works to . toleration -- early works to . comprehension -- early works to . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - rina kor sampled and proofread - rina kor text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the modern pleas for comprehension , toleration , and the taking away the obligation to the renouncing of the covenant , considered and discussed . london , printed for r. royston , bookseller to his most sacred majesty . mdclxxv . a scheme of the contents . how little cause our dissenters have , either for separation or alteration pag. , . an account of the design of a book entituled , of the religion of england p. the design of it inconsistent and unpracticable p. , the terms of communion , which the church of england imposeth , are not sinful in the opinion of the most learned among the dissenters p. there is no sinfulness objected by them as to the . articles p. . liturgy p. . canons or ceremonies p. it is no sufficient objection against our ceremonies , that they are not by god commanded p. nor , that they are significant p. nor , that they grieve a pievish sort of men p. there is no sinfulness , in that the church imposeth new bonds and terms of communion p. of the assent and consent ibid. of renouncing the covenant p. certain articles of the covenant , that make it dangerous not to be renounced p. artic. . p. artic. . p. artic. . p. artic. . p. artic. . p. artic. . p. of the conclusion of it p. an instance in a known presbyterian who did renounce publickly the covenant , as to the most meritorious part of it , voluntarily , long before the kings restauration p. how it comes to pass , that the presbyterians and other dissenters , whose opinions and pleas are mutually so inconsistent , do agree in their clamours for liberty of conscience p. they themselves cannot agree , what liberty of conscience is , and what are its true bounds p. of comprehension , and how little will be gained by granting it p. of unlimited toleration p. the dissenters own testimony against toleration p. of comprehension without toleration p. , what the presbyterians ought to do before they be admitted into the church by comprehension p. , , what shall be done with the private mans conscience , when it is inconsistent with that which the conscience of the governour dictates , whether of the two shall over-rule p. religion hath very great influence upon the peace of any government . magistrates , not alone in point of interest but conscience , are to have great care of religion . p. objections and authorities against this , answered . p. of the use of force in propagating religion . p. of that text , cor. . the weapons of our warfate are not carnal . ibid. that objection , force may not be used in pulling down antichrist , therefore not in propagating religion , retorted . p. of the argument drawn from the example of the kings of israel or judah . p. testimonies out of scripture for the magistrates authority in using force for the propagating religion . p. , the apostles when they were brought to to answer before the governours of that time , did not deny their authority . p. universal toleration contrary to scripture . p. the magistrate by becoming christian , if he hath no addition , hath yet no diminution of his power . p. of that smalness of difference , that is pretended between us and the presbyterians . p. a comparison between the severities used now against the covenant , and those used by them in imposing it p. how far they approve of episcopacy and liturgy p. the inconveniencies that attend liberty of conscience p. how much toleration is better than comprehension p. conscience absolutely taken , no safe rule either of actions or tenets . p. of the mischiefs liberty of conscience is like to bring to religion p. of new light p. government p. by what means this liberty is dangerous to government p. the private consciences of men are not ordinarily trusted in their common dealings p. what ends they propose to themselves , that promote liberty of conscience p. their unwillingness to renounce the covenant , shews how little they repent of it p. objections answered p. taken from their . number ibid. . merit p. . assistance against popery p. . their hindering trade p. . france & holland have good experience of it . p. . civil penalties in religion , make men hypocrites p. an apostrophe to the dissenting brethren p. a postscript p. errata . page . line . for what may the meaning , r. what may be the meaning , p. . l. . for into his , r. in this . considerations concerning comprehension , toleration , and the renouncing the covenant . he who endeavours to make any alteration in a setled government either of church or state , is obliged by all the rules of justice and of prudence to alledge some very good cause , why it is that he doth do so ; alteration being in it self so great an inconvenience , as that it ought not by any means to be attempted , but for some weighty reason . now as to the church , as it is by law established ( not withstanding all the fearful outcries which of late have been made against it ) i would fain have any of our dissenting brethren to answer directly , whether there be any one thing sinful in her communion , or only some things ( as they conceive ) inexpedient ? if only inexpedient ( as there is good cause to believe , that the most considerable persons , and those in no small numbers among them , do suppose no more ) then i would fain know , whether inexpediency alone is a sufficient and just cause of separation ? and how well soever any particular man among them may think of the grounds of his own separation ; there is very good evidence , that there are abundance among themselves who do plainly perceive , and much lament it , that by the means of this present separation , there hath been an entrance made for such doctrines and practices into this nation , which are chargeable with ( to phrase it modestly ) the very highest degrees of inexpediency . when the rule and measures of inexpediency are well considered of , and regard is had to that great variety of respects in which one and the same thing may be both expedient and inexpedient ; it will then be found , that inexpediency is a thing , which private persons cannot easily determine , indeed are no competent judges of : besides if it were a clear case , that in the present settlement there were something not altogether so expedient as were to be wished : is this a sufficient warrant for any not only to mislike so much of the law as they think capable of being mended , but withall openly and avowedly to separate , to unite and joyn in great combinations against the publick constitutions , only because they are not arrived , in their esteem , at all possible degrees of perfection ? he who can submit to no law but such a one as is exactly made to his own mind in all particulars , must resolve , for any thing i know , never to obey , as long as he lives , any law which is not of his own making ; and not only so , but he will find that he must not obey many laws of his own making for any long time neither : if therefore a supposed inexpediency be the utmost of the charge , as i suppose in the end it will appear to be , then all wise men should consider with themselves , whether any fancied alteration can be secure from equal , if not greater dangers ? and before that any such alteration be made , it seems to be but just and equal that the new model be agreed upon by those who do design it , and that it be proposed either to our governours , or to the publick view , that it may be examined , before admitted ; and seeing that it is to be of lasting consequence , it is to be hoped that it will not be too hastily concluded upon . a late ingenious person set forth an handsome discourse upon this argument , entituled , of the religion of england , asserting , that reformed christianity setled in its due latitude is the stability and advancement of this kingdom . wherein he hath attempted something like a model of a future settlement ; his discourse is plausible , and desires seem to be bent on peace , and many of his principles look as if they did seem to tend much that way , but there seems to be this one thing very observable in his whole way of writing , that with great art he doth very dexterously take care not to come too close up to the argument , and he brings his reader even to the very point where the business lies , and almost unperceivably steals by and passeth on to something else ; and to a narrow view it will appear plainly , that he keeps himself within the compass of such wide generalities , that he leaves the reader in the same uncertainties in which he found him . the draught of his design is to be seen , sect. . pag. . which doth consist in these three contrivances . first , that there is to be an established and approved order : but , because that this alone he finds not to be sufficient ; therefore in the second place , there is to be a provision for a sort of men who cannot come within the establishment , and they are to be tolerated under certain restrictions : nor is this all ; for neither the establishment alone is sufficient , neither will a toleration of dissenters from it suffice ; and therefore in the third place , there are another sort of men , who must be only connived at . each of these particulars are afterwards considered : the establishment hath the honour of the first place , and hath , as it well deserves , incomparably the greatest part of the pains bestowed upon it , and of this he tells us , sect. . that it must not be loose and in●●herent , but well compacted , that it may attain the ends of discipline , which are to promote sound doctrine and godly life , and keep out idolatry , superstition , and all wicked errour and practice that tends to the vanquishing of the power of christianity : now these things do not require a constitution of narrower bounds than things necessary to christian faith and life , and godly order in the church , now is it not very plain , that such a comprehension as is here described , that it shall be enabled to attain all these great and publick ends here provided for , hath left no place for toleration or connivance ? and accordingly both those things are hudled together , and in a very few words dispatched , sect. . pag. . i shall lay them down and leave the reader to judge upon them : as for others that are of sound belief and good life , yet have taken in some principles less congruous to national settlement , i would never be a means of exposing them to oppression , contempt and hatred , but would admit their plea as far as it will go , &c. nevertheless , their liberty pleaded for is not to be inordinate but measured and limited by the safety of true religion in general , and of the publick and established order , &c. and now i shall take leave to desire those persons , who cannot come within the comprehension , to consider with themselves , how very little they are beholding to this their advocate ; he hath not in the least intimated to us what kind of principles those are which he would have connived at , as being only less congruous to a national settlement ; nor given us any manner of mark whereby to know them : besides , whatever favour he doth intend for these dissenting brethren , he hath so clogged it with many qualifications and limitations , that he hath rendred it so plainly useless , that i much doubt whether he did ever really intend them any favour at all . first , they must be of sound belief and good life , secondly , their plea must be admitted as far as it will go ; now how far that is he hath not told us : thirdly , their liberty must not be inordinate , but must have two measures ; first , the safety of religion in general : secondly , the safety of the publick established order . upon these terms , and upon the whole matter , i think , that it is no easier a thing to understand the nature and bounds of that settlement which our author is here designing , by the placing of several sorts of men in the three ranks of , first , an establishment ; secondly , a toleration ; and thirdly , a connivance , with this reason , for the two latter ; for if god hath received them , why should their fellow-servants reject or afflict them causlesly ? every true christian should be tender of all that love the lord iesus in sincerity ; i understand , i say , as little by all this , what those particulars are which he would have from us , as if he had contented himself with mr. sterry's three forms of believers ; and methinks the one harangue is as edifying and intelligible as the other : let us receive one another into the glory of god , as christ receiveth us , though that cloathing of the outward form be not on the same fashion in all , nor on some so well shaped as on others , to the proportion of the body , which is christ. the lord iesus hath his concubines , his queens , his virgins ; saints in remoter jorms , saints in higher forms , saints unmarried to any form , who keep themselves single for the immediate embraces of their love , in his epistle before england's deliverance from the northern presbytery . now in these two gentlemen of very differing dispensations , there are three sorts of people proposed to our care , and it is not unlikely that they may be suited each to one another : but this one thing is remarkable in that discourse of mr. sterry , that the presbyterians can , at the very best , hope for no higher rank than that of christ's concubines , as being according to the tenor of that sermon , if at all saints , at the very best , saints in the remoter forms . the more moderate sort of independents may indeed by him be accounted queens , as being saints in higher forms , but for christ's virgins , who are unmarried to any form , and keep themselves single for the immediate embraces of their love ; i cannot imagine who these should be , unless those saints who are above ordinances : and for my own part , i must freely profess , that for all the account which our author hath given us of his three contrivances of comprehension , toleration and connivance , i cannot at all perceive but that mr. sterry's way of sorting out the several ranks of saints , doth well suit with , and is proportioned to it : and here let any sober man judge , whether the settlement pretended for in the first of these three proposals be not absolutely unsetled again in the two other . but in the next place i must go on to consider a pretence , much oftner supposed than owned , and that is this ; suppose that the terms of the communion of the church are not only inexpedient , but really sinful ; if so , then i shall readily grant , that the church ought not to be communicated with , while the terms of her communion are such . but in this part of the argument i shall presume to say with some confidence , and i hope without offence , that however the teachers of the separated congregations may sometimes slily insinuate some such jealousies into the heads of their unwary hearers ; yet it is not easie to find a considerable man amongthem , who will not be ashamed to own it publickly , or who doth himself really believe it . now though this assertion may seem to carry something of uncharitableness in it ; because that the separation from the church is so avowed and pressed upon the people , as if that it were highly necessary , and that communion with the church was highly criminal ▪ at least in the opinion of the teachers . it being a plain case that the people are wheedled into separation , upon the account that they suppose their teachers know it to be unlawful : now as to this , i must needs say , it is shrewdly to be suspected , that there is in this case a very great cheat imposed by the preachers and the people upon one another , and by both upon the whole nation ; because that it is as often evident as there is occasion for making it so , that among the pastors and the flock there are not many , who in a time of tryal approve themselves to be in good earnest ; i have been credibly informed ( not to say that i am able to make it good ) that mr. calamy did before his majesty , and divers lords of the council profess , that there was not any thing in the constitutions of the church to which he could not conform , were it not for the scandalizing of others ; so that in his esteem the constitutions of the church were in themselves innocent , and the whole objection against them lay in the mistakes of other men . mr. tombs the leader of the anabaptists , hath writ a book to shew the lawfulness of resorting to the publick congregations . the author which i before mentioned assures us in behalf of the presbyterians , that they not only maintain the doctrine of the church of england , but likewise communicate in her publick worship , in his second discourse of the religion of england , pag. . by which acknowledgment we may take an estimate of the honesty of their separation . nay , i shall venture to say thus much farther , that the lawfulness of joyning in the publick worship is understood by the layety as well as clergy amongst them , is evident from these three things : first , that there are those persons to be named , who came to church before the act of oblivion , who never did since : secondly , that immediately after the act of uniformity , whilst the hopes of toleration were very uncertain , there was a much greater conformity both in the city of london , and over the whole nation than ever hath been since : thirdly , that i have enquired and could never learn that there was so much as one example to be given of any one of all the patrons or proselytes of the conventicles who did leave the smallest office whatever , rather than he would , in obedience to a late act of parliament , joyn in the prayers and receive the sacrament of the lord's supper according to the order of the church of england : from which it doth appear plainly , that in these mens esteem , either there is no sin in communicating with the church of england , or else , that these gentlemen of so extreamly tender consciences , can deliberately commit a sin , and that when they are performing the most solemn act of adoration of almighty god , and with all the shews of devotion imaginable : and seeing that these things are so , is it not huge pitty that a setled church , and a church in great reputation over all the reformed parts of christendom , should be run down by a meer noise of conscience , when it is very plain that when ever there is a real case put , where conscience ought to shew it self , that then no such thing appears , neither is there the least evidence that it is so much as thought upon . if there be any objection against the present constitution ; it must be either against the articles , the liturgy , the canons or the ceremonies ; as to the articles , there is scarce so much as one objection pretended against them , farther than as they relate to the following heads ; and if there were , such an objection could not easily be alleadged by the people as a just excuse for their non-conformity , because they are not at all concerned for to subscribe them , unless they bring upon themselves a voluntary obligation by some act of their own , as taking a degree in the university : but in this point many words are needless ; for besides the testimony of all churches abroad , we have at home two witnesses beyond all exception to the innocency and honour of the articles , even the two late celebrated advocates , the one for comprehension , the other for toleration : the former assures us in the behalf of those whose cause he pleads , that they do receive the doctrine of faith contained in the articles of religion , pag. . and again pag. . that they heartily embrace the english reformation established by law , &c. and that they do assent to the doctrine of faith contained in the articles of the church of england , and worship god according to that faith , pag. . the peace-offering doth likewise bear witness for us of that great esteem which is bore unto the articles of the church of england in all the reformed churches abroad , and withal doth assure us in behalf of the independents at home , that as to all which is purely doctrinal in them they do fully embrace and constantly adhere to , &c. and accordingly he undertakes to profess in the name of them all ; we have no new faith to declare , no new doctrine to teach , no private opinion to divulge , no point or truth do we profess , no not one , which hath not been declared , taught , divulged and esteemed as the common doctrine of the church of england , ever since the reformation , pag. . thus far therefore our way is clear , that the doctrine of the church is sound and esteemed to be so in the opinion of its greatest adversaries . in the next place therefore we are to consider , whether any reasonable plea for separation can be drawn from any just exception which may be taken against the liturgy ; and here there are two sorts of men to be considered : first , those who dislike all forms of prayer in general : secondly , those who are only disgusted at some particular things in ours . as to those who are against all forms of prayer ; i believe that the number of them , among considering persons , is not so great , as that any great regard ought to be had unto them ; and this must needs be so , for a reason which can never fail ; for it cannot choose but seem strangely absurd and infinitely unbecoming the great distance which is between us and almighty god , and that great awe which we ought to bear unto him ; that all the expressions of the publick devotion of every congregation in the whole nation should be left to the arbitrary , and especially the extemporary conception of each single person , who is bold enough to venture upon the taking so much upon him . it were very strange if this kingdom should at this day be ignorant , how very frequently folly , heresie , nay and blasphemy , hath been uttered in such kind of prayers ; and it is utterly impossible , that upon the indulgence of any such liberty , such extravagancies , can with any security be provided against ; and it is not unlikely that the greatest pretenders to the highest attainments in that way would be not a little out of countenance ; if so be that their own prayers were faithfully taken from their mouths , and after some reasonable space of time , when they might be supposed to have forgot them , presented to their view . and that which renders this evil utterly intolerable , is this , that these prayers which either really are extemporary else only pretended to be so ) are under that pretence recommended and regarded by the people as the only way of praying by the spirit ; and by that very means the ever blessed spirit is , as far as these mens endeavours can be succesful , entituled to all the follies , vanity , and weaknesses , all the sin and errour , and even those very blasphemies which are every day committed against him . and i think all good christians are concerned to endeavour , that if a liberty must be given to these persons to go on and to abuse the people , yet however that it may be done some other way , and they not permitted to bely the holy ghost . as for forms of prayers , the great reasonableness and even necessity of them is very apparent , and in scripture it self there are examples enough to be produced ; and if any man pleaseth to enter upon that argument , i no way doubt but there will be those found who will debate it with him . it shall suffice at present only to say , that our saviour christ did compose a form of prayer , and gave it to his disciples to use : now if , as great numbers of the people are brought to believe , that there is no praying by the spirit , besides praying ex tempore , then no man ever did , or ever could say christ's prayer by the spirit of christ. now , as to the other sort of persons , who have some exceptions against some expressions in our liturgy ; those things have been so fully examined , that of late we have heard very little of them : and the matter of it is all along so clearly unexceptionable , and so fitted for the common use of all christians , that all controversial expressions were designedly avoided : insomuch that i do not know of any considerable sect amongst us which may not joyn with us in every expression in it , except the socinians . now here perhaps some jealousies may arise in the minds of men , that if there were not some real exception against the liturgy , then so many good teachers would not lay it aside ; nay , and not only so , but , as far as mens intentions can be guessed at by their words and actions , very much abhor it . now , as to the behaviour of our dissenting brethren in this particular , i shall desire their admirers to remember this one thing , that his majesty not long after his happy restauration did put ●orth a declaration concerning ecclesiastical affaires , wherein he did very graciously indulge , much to the dissatisfied part of the clergy , in hopes thereby to win upon them ; and in that declaration he did propose this unto them , as a way whereby they might shew their gratitude for so great a condescention , that they would read so much of the liturgy as themselves had no exception against : but with many of them he could not prevail for so much as one syllable , not one collect , no nor so much as one chapter according to the rubrick ; so much doth yielding work upon that good-natur'd generation . now whether this refractoriness , as to the whole book , and every part and parcel of it , could possibly proceed solely and altogether from conscience , and not very much , if not altogether , from design or humour , let their best friends speak . in the next place , now as to the canons , i do not know that there doth or can●ly any objection against them which our present debate is concerned about ; because they are no immediate parts of the publick worship , and therefore can be no cause of the present separation , especially as to the people . as to the canons made in the year . i must needs confess , that the scotch commissioners did complain much against them , and some english gentlemen made witty speeches upon them ; but they had both of them the ill luck to confess the real cause of the pique which they had against them , viz. the acknowledgement of his majesties authority as being independent , and above all coercion , either papal or popular . a doctrine which i must needs say was very inconsistent with those designs which those angry patriots were at that time carrying on . and i am very much mistaken if , at this very day , a great part of that quarrel which is taken up against the church be not founded upon this , that it is too faithfully devoted to the interests of the crown ; and that many persons are presbyterians , independents , fifth-monarchy-men , &c. as so many sanctified disguises under which they act the part of common-wealths-men . in the next place come we therefore to the ceremonies ; and there indeed the noise is very great . an excellent person , who for his pious labours upon a noble argument , and much more worthy of his pen , deserves much honour , hath in this part of the question exprest much more concern , than , i hope , himself upon a serious review will admit the cause to bear , in a book entituled , liberty of conscience upon its true and proper grounds asserted and vindicated , &c. hath thus expressed himself , p. . how may we lament over the present imposition of the ceremonies now enjoyn'd among us in england , which are no part of divine truth , nor any of christ's institutions , but things perfectly humane in their creation ; and yet are enforced by the civil power upon the practice and consciences of men . now here , with all due respect to that learned gentleman , i shall desire him to take notice , whether it be not an excellency and a felicity almost peculiar to the church of england , that in all her constitutions , her greatest adversaries are forced to betake themselves to the scanning of a few ceremonies , to find a cause , or , to speak more properly , a shew of controversie ; and that himself in his own great judgment hath not been able to find out any other flaw in the matter of all her laws , as much soever as he doth mislike the imposition of them . as for the cermonies themselves , the exceptions , or at least the clamours are very many ; that they are uncommanded by god ; that they are significant ; that they are will-worship ; that they are teaching for doctrines of god the commandments of men ; and lastly , that they do give scandal . as to the ceremonies being uncommanded by god , i never heard of any man who pretended them to be otherwise ; and therefore it is most clear and certain , that that church doth not teach for doctrines of god the commandments of men , which doth own publickly , that these are not the doctrines of god , but only the commandments of man : and if any man doth mistake in this case , which is a thing incredible that any should do so ; but if there be such a one , i am sure that the mistake is his own and not the fault of the church : for she hath taken care to prevent it , in the chapter of ceremonies before the common prayers , wherein she declares that the ceremonies which are retained , are retained for discipline and order , which upon just cause may be altered and changed , and therefore are not to be esteemed equal with gods law. but however , this is plain in the nature of things , that although among the ceremonies no one in particular is necessary , yet in general it is necessary , so far as order and decency is necessary , that some such there should be . but in the next place there is an objection , supposed to be of much greater force , and that is this ; that the ceremonies are significant : and here i must needs confess , that if they could have alledged , that the ceremonies had been insignificant , the objection had been much more worthy of having some notice taken of it ; because that the very nature and whole use of ceremonies doth consist in being significant . and in this i appeal to all mankind , whether in any one action sacred or civil , any one ceremony was ever instituted , unless it were in order to the signifying , denoting or expressing something by it . nor is thisall ; for the church hath taken care not only to vindicate the innocency , but withal to declare the usefulness of the significancy of her ceremonies in the fore-mentioned preface ; that they are neither dark nor dumb ceremonies , but are so set forth that every man may understand what they mean and to what use they do serve : so that it is not like that in time to come they should be abused . and after all this , methinks , our brethren of the presbytery should for their own sakes have had a great care of making use of this objection , as being themselves as liable to it as any other persons . the authors of the admonition to the parliament in queen elizabeths days , part . have recommended sitting at the sacrament , upon this very superstitious score of significancy ( as in our case they always call it ) in these words : as in the old testament eating the paschal lamb standing , signified a readiness to pass ; even so in the receiving it now sitting , after the example of christ , we signifie rest , that is , a full finishing thorough christ of all the ceremonial law , and a perfect work of redemption wrought , that giveth rest for ever . and in our own dayes , in that which by them was looked upon as a considerable act of divine worship and religious adoration , the entring into a publick solemn national covenant with almighty god , as they phrase it : the doing of this was prescribed with several ceremonies uncommanded in scripture , and by themselves intended to be very significant ; as it to be found by every one who pleaseth to look in the ordinance of febr. . . in this case without referring us to any book , chapter , or verse ; they thought it sufficient to say , that it is ordered and ordained by the lords and commons in parliament , that the said covenant be solemnly taken in all places , and for the better and more orderly taking thereof , that these directions ensuing are appointed and enjoyned to be strictly followed : of which directions the thirteenth is this , the manner of taking it to be thus ; the minister to read the whole covenant distinctly and audibly in the pulpit , and during the time of reading thereof the whole congregation to be uncovered ( which by the way is a much greater shew of reverence than they have taken care for , either at the reading of the ten commandements , or our saviour's sermon upon the mount ) and at the end of reading thereof all to take it standing , lifting up their right hand bare . now i think that it is highly requisite for these men to consider with themselves , whether every one of all their own pleas of the purity and simplicity of the gospel way of worship without the mixture of humane inventions , and their bold surmises of invading the throne of christ by determining those things which christ hath left free , have any the least force against the ceremonies of the church , which they have not against this prescribed formality of their own , in taking the covenant . but after all which is possible to be said in order to the clearing of the mistakes about the ceremonies , there is an objection which is supposed not to be capable of any answer to be made unto it ; and that is this , that be they what they will in themselves , good men are offended at them , they grieve thousands of the godly brethren , and though we should grant such men to be mistaken , yet we must not offend our weak brethren . the case of scandal hath been so often and so clearly stated , that i shall say the less upon it ; and therefore , instead of the argument , i shall rather choose to say something to the persons who use it . in the first place i shall readily grant , that if any persons are really offended at the use of the ceremonies , in their own way of understanding that word , they must needs be very weak brethren , and i shall only ask them the old question , how long they will be weak ? and i shall profess my self to have no very honourable opinion of the means of knowledge , the opportunities of choyce attainments which are to be had in the conventicles : if so be that those , who are such weak brethren as not to be got above such silly scruples , are looked upon to be sufficiently gifted to be publick teachers amongst them . in the next place i shall ask , who taught the people to be offended at a few harmless ceremonies ? who raised all their causless scruples , infused so many senceless jealousies , and not being content to have at first infused these needless fears , do still go on to nurse up and cherish them ? who first betrayed great numbers into folly , and ever after continued to humour them in it ? he who can conform himself , and yet refuseth to do so , for fear lest his auditory and acquaintance should abate in their esteem or contributions towards him ; if he means sincerely , & to shew himself an honest man , he ought to deal faithfully with his admirers , & tell them really what himself thinks , communicate the satisfaction which he hath received , and perswade them not to be longer needlesly afraid where no fear is : it is very plain that the generality of dissenters do entertain wild suspicions about the service of the church , upon no other ground than an implicite faith which they have in the skill and honesty of their teachers . such and such a one is a very precious and knowing man , and do you think that he would not conform , if he did not know conformity to be a sin ? the pastor and his flock in this case do mutually guide and are guided by each other ; he makes it his business to please and humour them , , and they look upon it as a great mark of their judgment , and an infallible token of their election to admire him . but if the weakness of these our brethren hath so great a privilege entailed upon it , as that we must do nothing which they have taken a fancy against ; a thing in it self lawful and imposed by lawful authority , must immediately become unlawful , if so be that any scrupulous man can be brought to entertain a foolish jealousie about it : then is this kind of weakness endued with a very strange degree of omnipotence ; because that upon this supposition , the very mistakes of men are able to alter the nature of things ; a thing in it self innocent , doth according to this doctrine , immediately become unlawful , as soon as ever that any fanciful deluded man doth erroneously conceive it to be so ; but methinks that those who pretend to be such eager asserters of christian liberty , as this sort of men have always done , should , of all other persons , the least endure to have it thus trifled with ; as to have it believed to be openly exposed to lie perpetually at the mercy of all the humour , melancholy , artifice , cheat and discontent in the whole nation . but if this be the meaning of those texts of scripture , where we are commanded to avoid the giving of scandal ( as most certainly and evidently it is not ) that the actions of all private men , and the authority of all publick constitutions must be as often over-ruled as any single person is , either by his own folly or by the arts of other men , imposed upon to believe evil of them ; then can no man tell in any matter of action sacred or civil ( except in the matters of immediate and plain divine precept ) what one thing shall be lawful for him to do in the very next moment . but if it be thus appointed by the apostle , that the mistakes of other men , though we should suppose them to be well-meaning ones , are to have so uncontrollable an influence upon the actions of all private persons , and the decrees of all publick ones ; if it be thus , i say , it will thence follow very apparently , that there is a great necessity lying upon the government , of taking care what kind of persons are intrusted with teaching the people . for if conscience , though never so erroneous , are of right , and by apostolical appointment to have so great a regard had unto them ; then of all things great circumspection should be used , and security taken , for the understanding and honesty of all those who are intrusted to be guides of consciences . for if the errors of conscience are things of so great authority , as to be an immediate supersedeas to our whole christian liberty , to all sorts of humane laws , then it is the greatest phrenzy imaginable , to grant a promiscuous liberty to whoever pleaseth to teach and instruct the people . alas ! the vulgar are easily imposed upon ; and it is not impossible but that we may find in our days , what st. paul did in his , that there are those who will speak lyes in hypocrisie because of advantage ; and bring their auditories to admire those very doctrines which themselves do heartily despise ; outwardly court their hearers , and inwardly laugh at them . and in the mean time , are not religion and government like to be at a very fine pass ? when who so pleaseth shall have the privilege of making all possible advantages of that very scruple which himself was author of ; and , when all other objections fail , shall be allowed to plead his own exemption from all obedience to the settled constitutions , from the dissatisfaction of other men , who , if it had not been for him , had never entertained the least thought of being dissatisfied . but in the next place it is frequently urged , that those terms of communion are not looked upon as sufficient , which were always looked upon as such in former days ; but there are newer and straiter bonds added to them ; a new declaration of assent and consent : and besides all this , the consciences of men are provoked , which otherwise would have remained silent , if not satisfied ; new scruples are raised in the minds of men , which before lay buried , and which would otherwise have been quite forgot ; in that it is not thought sufficient that the covenant should be laid aside , but that it should be formally renounced ; and not only so , but it is required that men must swear not only for themselves , but that no man else is obliged by it . now after all this wonder , there is not any one thing which is not very easily accounted for : for surely it hath been among men not at all unusual , nor in it self strange , that where former securities have been found too slight , to add others to them . as for the declaration of assent and consent , the addition which it doth make to the former subscriptions is not so considerable , as to raise a scruple in the mind of any man who was real in them . and i suppose that the great mystery which is pretended to lie in the terribie sound of assent and consent , which the people are taught to be affrighted at , as if some dismal meaning were hid under it , is nothing else but an art to raise their jealousie , that so they might be the better prepared for the finding out some plot or other in the following renunciation of the covenant . a thing which was ordered not without great cause ; and it is very suspicious that that cause doth not only continue , but increase , as appears but too plainly from this , that there is so great a clamour raised upon it . and this cause did in a great measure proceed from themselves , and that great stir which they made about the obligation of the covenant , in the first and second year immediately after the restoration of his majesty , both from press and pulpit : parties were made in the city , and endeavoured to be made in parliament , for the owning of that obligation . it was with great confidence urged , that it was a publick and national oath , binding all persons of this nation , whether they did swear it personally or not , and all posterity after us in their particular places ; and all that shall succeed into the publick places and politick capacities of this kingdom , to pursue the things covenanted for : and this obligation is for ever to remain and abide , and by no humane act or power to be absolved or made void ; as , amongst others , mr. crofton hath endeavoured to prove at large in his famous writings on that subject . and , to speak the truth , if we once admit the grounds which this party of men do go upon , what he doth alledge hath great reason in it ; it being very evident , that those clauses which he doth produce out of the covenant , do suppose all posterity to be involved in them : and this he urgeth not as his own single opinion , but as the sence of his whole party ; and , besides the evidence of the thing , he alledgeth , the testimony to the truth of jesus christ and the covenant , by the london ministers , dec. . . several of which are at this present preachers to the separated congregations ; in which it is plainly declared , that it is not in the power of any person or persons upon earth to dispence with or absolve us from it . nay , the power of parliaments , which in other cases is allowed to be large enough , is in this bound up , as mr. cr. tells us , p. . that the parliament consisting of lords and commons , and that in their publick capacity as a parliament , the house of commons assembled in their house , and in formality of the body of the nation , with their speaker before them , went unto st. margarets church in westminster with the greatest solemnity imaginable , did , as the representative body of the kingdom , swear this covenant : which , as a farther testimony that it was a national covenant , they caused to be printed with their names subscribed , and to be hanged up in all churches , and in their own house , as a compass whereby ( in conformity to right , reason and religion ) to steer their then debates , and to dictate to all that shovld svcceed in that place and capacity what obligation did before god ly upon the body of this nation . those who plead for the removal of the renunciation of the covenant , either they do believe , that the covenant doth oblige at this time , or , that it doth not oblige ; if they do believe that it doth not oblige , why may they not declare that they do believe it not to do so ? one reason may indeed be given , why the preachers themselves may believe the covenant not to oblige , and yet that they should by all means avoid the declaring that they do thus believe ; and that is this , that they would have the people believe it to have an obligation , although themselves believe it to have none . a perswasion this , which , in some juncture of affairs or other , they may chance to make very great use of ; and that this may not be altogether incredible their procedure hath not been one jot honester than this amounts to in another part of the controversie between us . it is well known that there are among them , and not among the meanest of them who have believed the liturgy and ceremonies to be very innocent , and yet could be never brought to say one word to the people of this their belief ; but on the other side now , if they are really perswaded that the covenant doth carry a lasting obligation along with it : in that case i shall not , during that perswasion of theirs , desire them to renounce it ; but withall i must crave their leave to add this further , that during that perswasion of theirs , i think it but reasonable , that the government should cast a very watchful eye over them . and of this i shall give an account from the covenant it self , wherein there are so many things , and of such fatal and universal consequence , covenanted for , that the whole nation is highly concerned that no considerable part of it should look upon themselves , and every body else , as lying under the obligation of the oath of god , to watch all opportunities wherein they may accomplish such great and publick mischiefs , as will appear by a particular consideration of the thing it self . article . that we shall sincerely , really , and constantly , through the grace of god , endeavour in our several places and callings the preservation of the reformed religion in the church of scotland , in doctrine , worship , discipline , and government against our common enemies : the reformation of religion in the kingdoms of england and ireland in doctrine , worship , discipline , and government , according to the word of god , and the example of the best reformed churches : and shall endeavour to bring the churches of god in the three kingdoms to the nearest conjunction and vniformity in religion , in confession of faith , form of church-government , directory for worship and catechizing ; that we and our posterity after us , may as brethren , live in faith and love , and that the lord may delight to dwell in the midst of us . in which article it is easie to observe many things lyable to very just and material exceptions ; as first , by what authority can any private man in england , if he keeps himself within his own place and calling , intermeddle either in the preservation or alteration of the religion and government of the church and kingdom of scotland ? nay , by what authority can any person in this kingdom whatever , be he in what publick capacity he will ( his majesty only excepted , or those who act by commission from him ) have any thing to do with the concerns in that kingdom ? and secondly , this first part of the article may upon very good grounds be supposed to be inconsistent with the remaining parts of it : for we are sworn to preserve the doctrine , discipline , &c. of scotland , and withall , to bring the three kingdoms to the nearest uniformity in religion , confession of faith , form of church-government , directory for worship and catechizing ; so that scotland must necessarily be our pattern ; and yet in the same breath we are sworn to reform england and ireland , according to the word of god , and the example of the best reformed churches : and it is more than possible , that our own church , as it is already by law established , or at least some other church beyond the seas , may come altogether as near the word of god , as that of scotland : and what is to be done in that case ? and in the third place , all the other dissenters whatever , besides the presbyterians , are highly concerned to see that the covenant is not looked upon as a thing of any obligation ; because that that is express for uniformity , and as such , is not less than absolutely inconsistent with liberty of conscience ; and as hard thoughts soever as the smaller sects have entertained concerning the bishops ; they are much more concerned to secure themselves against not a few , nor the least considerable , among their own dear brethren , article . that we shall in like manner , without respect of persons , endeavour the extirpation of popery , prelacy ; that is , church-government by archbishops , bishops , their chancellors , and commissaries , deans , deans and chapters , archdeacons , and all other ecclesiastical officers depending on that hierarchy ; superstition , heresie , schism , profaneness , and whatsoever shall be found contrary to sound doctrine , and the power of godliness , lest we partake in other mens sins , and thereby be in danger to receive of their plagues ; and that the lord may be one , and his name one in these kingdoms . as to the former part of this article , that which concerns the overthrow of the established government of the church , i shall only say this , that the modesty of these men is in this case very admirable , and there is no doubt to be made , but that in any other kingdom it would be thought to be so ; in that they do expect to be admitted into the preferments of the church , and to be allowed to be publick preachers in it ; and yet at the very same time , they do desire to be excused from declaring , that they are not of a perswasion , that there doth ly an obligation by oath upon them themselves , the whole nation , or ( to say no more ) at least upon some other person , who ought to be nameless , to overthrow the whole frame of the government of that church , which they desire to be admitted into the preferments of , and particularly of that bishop by whose hands they are admitted . i would fain know whether there be any other part of the world , where any persons dare to demand of the present establishment , that it would for their sakes so far relax it self , in order to their admission into it . sure these menimagine , that the church is in a very great necessity of them , that it cannot stand one moment without them ; when , in the very terms of their admission , they do demand no less than this , that a new law should be made on purpose , whereby they may be privileged from declaring , whether or no it is lawful for them to suffer the church to continue two moments longer than there shall arise an opportunity , wherein they may be able to overthrow it . as for the remaining part of the article concerning superstition , heresie , schism , profaneness , and whatsoever shall be found contrary to sound doctrine or the power of godliness , &c. i shall leave that to our friends of the presbytery and their separating brethren to dispute about it : and it is clear enough , that they are altogether as unlike to agree in those particulars , as i am with either of them : as lovingly as ever they may look upon one another at present , i am sure that the covenant , when opportunity serves , will be found to be levelled as directly against the conventicles , as against the cathedrals . i shall observe no more in this article besides the great charitableness of the conclusion , that the lord may be one and his name one in the three kingdoms : as if the church of england followed after strange gods , and that those ordained by her were really no other than , as they are often stiled according to the good manners which the people learn of too many such preachers , the priests of baal . art . . we shall with the same sincerity , reality and constancy in our several vocations , endeavour , with our estates and lives , mutually to preserve the rights and privileges of the parliament and the liberties of the kingdoms ; and to preserve and defend the kings majesties person and authority , in the preservation and defence of the true religion and liberties of the kingdom : that the world may hear witness with our consciences of our loyalty , and that we have no thoughts and intention to diminish his majesties iust power and greatness . this article hath been very much and very much insisted on and gloried in for the seeming loyalty of one expression in it : but , in order to a right understanding ; let us consider how affairs stood at that time : it is well known , that the compilers and enjoyners of this covenant were , at that very time , in actual arms ( i hope that it is no offence , if i say in actual rebellion ) against the king. this very covenant was a great instrument by which they did carry on their design then on foot against him : the king was betrayed and sold by one part of the covenanters , those from scotland , he was bought , imprisoned , and in effect deposed by another part of the covenanters , those in england , and by the most loyal of them , even the lords and commons assembled at westminster ; who by their votes of non-address , febr. . . ( which , let us note , was long before the seclusion by the army ) did declare , first , that they will make no farther addresses or applications to the king : and in the fourth vote , that they will receive no more messages from the king , and do enjoyn that no person whatever do receive or bring any message from the king to both or either houses of parliament , or to any other person ; which votes they published with a declaration , wherein they lay down some few of those many reasons ( as they express it ) why they cannot repose any more trust in him. nay , long before that time , when the scots complained of some rigours used towards his majesty , as being contrary to the covenant , the house of commons did return them this answer , novemb. . . we observe that you mention the defence of the king twice , from the covenant ; but in both places you leave out , in the preservation of the true religion , &c. a main clause without which the other ought not to be mentioned . which very answer themselves did afterwards receive from their own army , in a declaration from st. albans , novemb. . . where they reminded their masters of their own doctrine , the defence of the king , say they , is to be understood with this restriction ; in the preservation of , &c. or otherwise the whole proceedings of both kingdoms in makeing and maintaining war against him in defence of religion and liberties are questionable for breach of covenant ; since that way of preserving did probably tend to the destruction and was without any safe provision , either for his person , or that authority which can properly be called his , or understood in conjunction with his person ; but that therein his person might probably have been destroyed under the sword or by a bullet , yea was ordinarily endeavoured to be so , as well as the persons of others in arms with him ; and that authority of his was certainly opposed and endeavoured to be destroyed thereby , instead of being defended . remonstrance from st. albans , p. . indeed , about the time of the king's murther , many of the covenanters did declare themselves a little dissatisfied with that way of proceeding against him ; and did ( how reasonably upon their own grounds , i know not ) urge the covenant for his preservation : but of their behaviour in this case , i shall give only the account of an author , who lived in those times when they had opportunities enough to have taken what account of him themselves pleased . his words are these , in a book entituled , a short view of the life and reign of king charles the first , monarch of great britain , pag. . the presbyterians carried on this tragedy to the very last act , from the first bringing in of the scots to the beginning of the war , and from the beginning of the war till they had brought him prisoner to holmby-house , and then quarrelled with the independents for taking of the work out of their hands , and robbing them of the long expected fruit of their plots and practices . they cried out against them in their pulpits and clamoured against them in their pamphlets for that , of which themselves were at least parcel-guilty , et si non re at voto saltem regicidae , &c. on the other side , the independents , who washed their hands in the blood of the king , seemed as desirous as the presbyterians to wash their hands of it : by them it was alleadged more calmly , that they had put charles stuart to death , against whom they proceeded as the cause of so much bloodshed ; but that the king had been muthered a long time before by the presbyterians , when they deprived him of his crown , his sword , his scepter ; of his crown , by forcing from him those prerogatives which placed him in a throne of eminency above his people ; of his sword , by wresting the militia out of his hands , by which he was made unable to protect them ; and of his scepter , in divesting him of his power of calling parliaments , and of his negative voyce in making those laws by which he was to govern all estates of men under his dominion : and more than so , they had deprived him of his natural liberty as a man ; of the society of his wife , as he was a husband ; of the conversation of his children , as he was a father ; of the attendance of his servants , as he was a master ; and in a word , of all those comforts which might make life valued for a blessing : so that there was nothing left for the independents to do , but to put an end to those calamities into which this miserable man , this vir dolorum , as he might very well be called , had been so accursedly plunged by the presbyterians . to which i shall only add this farther , that notwithstanding all that loyalty which the covenanters have so often boasted of , from the obligation of the covenant ; yet it is well known , that the covenant was placed by themselves as a bar between him and his throne , that without submitting to this , they could not endure to think of his restauration to that ; and this to so high a degree , that even in ianuary , . notwithstanding the apparent danger which the king's life was known to be in , yet even then , the general assembly of scotland did violently oppose all courses thought upon for his relief , and pressed earnestly , that his majestie 's concessions and offers concerning religion may directly and positively be declared unsatisfactory to the parliament , and that there shall be no engagement for restoreing his majesty to one of his houses with honour , freedom and safety , before security and assurance be had from his majesty by his solemn oath under hand and seal ; that he shall for himself and his successors consent and agree to acts of parliament enjoyning the league and covenant , and fully establishing presbyterian government , directory of worship , and confession of faith in all his majesties dominions ; and that his majesty shall never make opposition to any of these , or endeavour any change thereof . vid. declar. of jan. . . now therefore , seeing it is so plain a case , that in the opinion of the compilers and enjoyners of the covenant ; all the fore-mentioned violences both might and ought to have been used against the king , by vertue and in pursuance of the covenant : it thence follows unavoidably , that his majesty is not a little concerned to be very watchful over all those persons who are so tender of the honour of the covenant , that they demand it as the condition of their admission into the church , that they may by no means be questioned concerning their opinion about its obligation . article . we shall with all faithfulness endeavour the discovery of all such as have been or shall be incendiaries , malignants or evil instruments , by hindering the reformation of religion , dividing the king from his people , or one of the kingdoms from another , or making any faction or parties among the people contrary to this league and covenant , that they may be brought to publick trial , and receive condign punishment , as the degree of their offences shall require or deserve , or the supreme iudicatories of both kingdoms respectively , or others , having power from them for that effect , shall judge convenient . it is very well known what the meaning of incendiaries and malignants is , in this article : and it is shrewdly to be suspected , that those who are perswaded of the obligation of this oath , are likewise perswaded , that those incendiaries and malignants , have not as yet been brought to condign punishment ; and whatever benefit the covenanters themselves may receive by an act of oblivion , it is much to be suspected , that those who are covenanted against are looked upon as not capable of receiving any advantage by it : and there is reason to believe , that those who scruple the validity of that act of parliament which declares against the obligation of the covenant , are by no means to be trusted , lest , if opportunity should serve , they would not likewise scruple the validity of that act of parliament which gave them indempnity . for thus , according to their own grounds , they may argue , the act of oblivion is against the covenant , and then it followeth in the next place , that it is against their consciences ; it is against the oath of god lying upon themselves and upon the whole nation and upon all posterity , and no humane act or power can absolve them or any one else from it ; and every thing done against the covenant is null and void , the whole nation being bound up by it to all ages . for therefore it was that the covenant was hung up in the parliament , as a compass whereby to steer their debates , and to dictate to all , who shall succeed in that place and capacity , what obligation doth before god lie upon the body of this nation , as i have before observed . now upon these mens suppositions , there is no security to be had , but that they who passed an act of oblivion , to pardon any thing done against the covenant , are involved in guilt and liable to punishment for so doing ; and are upon those very accounts to expect , when providence shall put an opportunity into the hands of these zealots , the very same return which the prophet made to ahab , king. . v. . thus saith the lord , because thou hast let go a man whom i have appointed to destruction , therefore thy life shall go for his life , and thy people for his people . the next thing which i shall observe in this article is this , that those persons who covenanted together , among other things , to maintain the liberties of the kingdom , have so far forgot themselves , as that in that very covenant they have set up an arbitrary government : the rule of condign punishment here set down , is not any known law , no , not so much as a new one of their own making ; but , as the degree of their offences shall require or deserve , or the supreme iudicatories of both kingdoms respectively , or others having power from them for that effect , shall judge convenient . by which words it is plain , that they did not look upon it as sufficient to take an arbitary power into their own hands , but likewise did delegate it to as many else besides as they pleased . art . . whereas the happiness of a blessed peace between the kingdoms , denied in former times to our progenitors , is by the good providence of god granted to us , and hath lately been concluded and settled by both parliaments ; we shall each one of us , according to our place and interest , endeavour that they may be conjoyned in a firm peace and vnion to all posterity , and that iustice may be done upon all wilful opposers thereof , in manner expressed in the precedent article : according to the preceding article , i. e. as shall be judged convenient . the modesty of these men is very admirable , in that they would out-face the world , that england and scotland were never at peace in former times , or , rather their language is something mysterious , that the two nations were never at peace till they had involved them in a war. but as in the former article they were , as i have shewed , tender of the liberty of the subject ; so in this they have been very careful of the authority of his majesty , in that they have taken upon them to make peace with another kingdom without him ; and withal when that very peace was nothing else , besides their joyning forces against him . art . . we shall also according to our place and calling , in this common cause of religion , liberty and peace of the kingdoms , assist and defend all those that enter into this league and covenant , in the maintaining and pursuing thereof ; and shall not suffer our selves directly or indirectly , by whatsoever combination , perswasion or terrour to be divided and withdrawn from this blessed vnion and conjunction ; whether to make defection to the contrary part , or to give our selves to detestable indifferency or neutrality in this cause , which so much concerns the glory of god , the good of the kingdom , and the honour of the king : but shall all the dayes of our lives zealously and constantly continue therein against all opposition , and promote the same according to our power against all letts and impediments whatsoever : and what we are not able of our selves to suppress or overcome , we shall reveal and make known , that it may be timely prevented and removed : all which we shall do in the sight of god. from which article it it is plainly to be seen , that those who do believe themselves to lie under the obligation of this covenant , are and ought to be looked upon as a party already formed and combined together against the whole nation besides , having a common band to unite and tie them fast together : and this is such an union as they look upon as sacred and indissoluble . and the ends , in order to which they are thus combined , are in their esteem such , as that nothing can excuse the least intermission in their pursuance after them , besides an absolute impossibility , and even in that case it is lawful for them only , to delay so long , as to expect a more favourable season : for they are according to this article , never to be wrought over to so much as a detestable indifferency or neutrality in this cause of god ; but zealously and constantly to continue therein against all opposition , all letts and impediments whatsoever . and having now laid down the six articles of the covenant , i shall only add a few of the last words of the large and solemn conclusion of it ; wherein they pray god to bless their proceedings herein with such success as may be an encouragement to other churches , groaning under , or in danger of the yoke of antichristian tyranny , to joyn in the same or like association or covenant , to the glory of god , the enlargement of the kingdom of iesus christ , and the peace and tranquillity of christian kingdoms and common-wealths . it hath been often said in the behalf of the presbyterians , that they did not engage in the late war under a less authority than that of the two houses of parliament : what authority the two houses of parliament have in raising a war against the king shall be no part of this enquiry , nor whether the lords and gentlemen who at that time staid at westminster were the two houses of parliament ? be these two things as they will , although it is not unknown what may be said as to both those cases ; yet however the covenant , hath informed us of another sort of authority under which a war may be raised at any time against all the kings in europe : because in these words is held forth a publick invitation to all subjects whatsoever , who do either really groan under , or are in any danger of any thing , which our folk have pleased to call , or themselves shall chance to fancy to be a yoke of antichristian tyranny , to enter either into this or the like association or covenant . now i suppose , that it is no easie task to make out , that all kingdoms have parliaments endued with so large a share of the soveraignty , as that they have authority to take up arms against their respective princes : and if there were such parliaments every where , this invitation is only made to the christian churches , without taking the least notice of parliaments ; nay with a full assurance that there were no such parliaments to be taken notice of . so that by this doctrine the church alone may enter into association against the state upon the score of religion ( especially if it can but cry out antichrist ) may engage the subjects of all europe against their soveraigns , be they princes or commomwealths . i know very well that those who urge the taking away of the declaration enjoyned concerning the renouncing of the covenant , have one evasion whereby to avoyd entring into the merits of the cause , and that is this , the seeming unreasonableness of that clause ; also i hold that there lieth no obligation upon me , or any other person from the oath commonly called the solemn , &c. is it not unjust that one man should be bound to swear to the obligations of another ? as plausible soever as this may seem , no doubt it is but an evasion ; for it is well known whom they mean by that other person whom they suppose to be obliged ; and besides to make this case seem much harder than it is indeed ; they endeavour to perswade us , that this renunciation is what really it is not ; for it is plain , that this declaration is not an oath , nor any thing like one , only we are called upon to declare what our opinion is in a case there put to us ; we are so far from being required in this case unto the swearing for any one else ; that we are not called upon to swear for our selves , we do not swear that there doth ly no obligation either upon our selves or any other person , but only that we do not believe that there doth . and after all this , the pretence of being scrupulous about declaring any thing concerning the obligation of any other person hath one great reserve in it : for , the very supposal of the possibility of that is in effect to say , that the covenant as to the matter of it is in every particular respect lawful ; for unless it be lawful in every particular respect , no body can be obliged by it ; and if once it be granted to be a lawful oath , it will be very easie thence to deduce that it is obligatory to more persons than one . and thus i have taken a short review of the covenant , wherein it is very plain that there are many things of such universal and dangerous consequence therein covenanted for , as do render it not altogether unworthy the care of those who are in publick places to consider a little with themselves , what the meaning of it is , that so many men do profess themselves to have so deep a sense of the obligation of the covenant , as that a law must be made on purpose to gratifie them in that humour : the publick constitutions must veil to their unknown scruples , and with the honour of having the wisdom of the whole nation confess it self to have been all along mistaken , they expect to be admitted publick preachers ; this plea is such a one as doth look as if it had some deep meaning in it , and ought to be thoroughly understood before admitted ; i shall end this argument as i did begin it ▪ either these men do believe that the covenant doth oblige , or , they do not believe it , if they do not believe it to oblige , i cannot see what honest reason can be given why they should scruple to declare this their belief ; but on the other side , if they do really believe that the covenant doth oblige them , it is much more adviseable , that this perswasion should keep them out of the church , than that they should bring this perswasion into it : and whereas the law-makers hoped that the peevishness of this sort of people would within some reasonable compass of time have grown weary of it self , and accordingly had provided that the declaration against the covenant should , within a few years , of course have become antiquated ; the clamours of these men have given so reasonable a jealousie about their retaining their old principles , as may well serve to awaken the caution of those in authority , so far as to put them in mind of giving new life to their old act , and enlarging the terms of its duration : for seeing that the dissenters do value themselves so much upon their remembring the covenant ; our governours have no small concern to let it be seen , that neither do they forget it . to all which hath been already said , i shall add this one thing ; it may not unjustly seem a cause of much wonder how it should come to pass , that the covenant should be looked upon as a thing much more sacred and indissoluble now than it was in former dayes ; that correspondence which mr. ienkins , and a great many other london ministers held with the scots , for the sake of which he and others were cast into prison , will not be denied to be in pursuance of the obligation of the covenant , and of that part of it which they are alwayes glorying in , the loyal and meritorious part , as to the authority of his majesty : now i dare appeal to any member of his present congregation , whether he hath not renounced this part of the obligation of the covenant , in these following words . to the supreme authority , the parliament of the common-wealth of england . the humble petition of vvilliam ienkin prisoner . that the providence of god hath in the iudgement of your petitioner as evidently appeared in the removing of others from , & investing your honours with the government of this nation , as ever they appeared in the taking away or bestowing of any government in any history of any age in the world. that he apprehends that a refusal to be subject to this present authority under the pretence of upholding the title of anyone upon the earth is a refusal to acquiesce in the wise and righteous pleasure of god ; such an opposing of the government set up by the soveraign lord of heaven and earth , as none can have peace either in acting or suffering for : and that your petitioner looks upon it as his duty to yield to this authority all active and chearful obedience , even for conscience sake , &c. here is a plain renunciation of all the obligation of the covenant , so far as respects the king ; the good man is quit by providence , nay did not that whole party , as scrupulous as ever they may now seem , from that time forward ever afterward till the laying aside the family of cromwels , absolutely lay aside all thought of any manner of obligation either to king or covenant . and now after all these dangers which will be perpetually impending over us from the covenant , and which we can never be secure from , so long as there is the least pretence remaining among us , that that oath is at all obligatory ; there is another thing which may justly raise our wonder , and may concern us much more than the generality of us are aware , to enquire what may the meaning of it ; and that is this , to consider how it doth come to pass , that the presbyterians and the other sectaries do all at present unite in the common plea of liberty of conscience ; for it is very plain that in this part of the debate between us , their inclinations , judgements and interests are very different , and their pleas utterly inconsistent . it is not so long ago , but that some alive remember it , that the sweet noyse of liberty of conscience made a very pleasant sound , and the dissenters from the legal establishment were all for a while hugely taken themselves , and did endeavour to charm each other with it ; but within the compass of a very little time , they themselves could not tell what to do with it , fell out with one another about the nature , bounds , and limits of it ; and even at this very day it is a clear case , that any private person , without the least entrenching upon the authority of his superiours , may sa●ely undertake , that all the pretenders to liberty of conscience in the whole nation , shall every one of them have their utmost wish , in the very same moment that they themselves shall all agree about it ; i must needs say that this plea is at the first view something specious , and hath some shews of reason in it ; but if it be a little narrowly looked into , it will be found to be a fine word , which no body knoweth the meaning of , a thing which looks prettily , but is of no manner of use , which very many persons do admire , and very few if any at all will in the least endure . and to make this evident , let us consider that this liberty of conscience must be either limited , or unlimited ; if limited , it is by no means to be called liberty of conscience ; nay , it is a plain giving up of the cause , for it is an actuall granting , that conscience is neither so sacred , nor hath any right to be looked upon as so tender a thing , but that it both may and ought to have bounds and limits set unto it ; and i believe that there are few men who are not of this mind , or , if they are not at present , a little experience will quickly bring them to be of it . now if conscience be to be limited , then they who do not like those limits which the law hath already set unto it should do well ( when they have obtained lieve for their so doing ) to propose those other limits which they see cause to desire ; and after they are agreed themselves about those limits , let them in a dutiful manner offer them to their superiours , alledge their reasons , and among them , let them by no means omit this one , which they so often boast of and triumph in , the great numbers , and quality of those persons who are agreed upon those bounds and limits , who will acquiesce and rest satisfied in them : and without the doing of this , the raisers of all these clamours do nothing else but put an intolerable affront upon the wisdom and authority of the nation , to demand so importunately the alteration of the setled constitution , in order to the gratification of no body knoweth whom , why , or in what , either how far the alteration is desired , or what is designed to be the effect of any such alteration . let , i say , the dissenters , who take themselves to be considerable enough to expect a publick change for their sakes , declare concerning themselves and their intentions , we are they who do desire an alteration ; we do desire it to be made only thus far , and then we will acquiesce in it , and in our several places and callings ( according to a known reading ) will endeavour to make all others to acquiesce in it ; and we know , that all the sober , serious , peaceable , godly , knowing , conscientious part of the nation will joyn with us in it . when the noise-makers have done this , then , and not before , it will be seasonable to harken unto them : upon these terms , i say , and only upon these , their proposals will be in a condition to be taken into consideration : when it is once known what the desires of any party are , then there is room for enquiry , whether or no , or how far they carry reason in them . and it may sometimes so chance , that such demands as are not altogether reasonable in themselves , may yet in some sort be thought fit to be complied with in regard of the number , quality , merits or interest of those persons who appear to be fond of them . in a debate about the alteration of a legal establishment , there are two things highly considerable ; . the nature of the alteration it self ; . the nature of those who desire it , who they are , how many , and what kind of people . now these are things which themselves alone are qualified to make out unto us ; and till they have done that , authority is scarce in a capacity to concern it self about it : for it can have no measures to take , nor propose to it self any end ; it can neither know what concessions to make , nor to whom ; can have no way the least assurance , either what will satisfie , or who they are who are to be satisfied . and as for the late device of comprehension , the nature of of it is as yet unknown , and he must be a bold man who will undertake for the event of it . as to that which is by ordinary persons to be understood of it , it amounts to no more than a pretty artifice of saving the reputation of about a dozen persons , who are sick of their present separation from the church , and stand in need of a plausible pretence under which to return unto it : their credit will not suffer them to renounce their old principles , and they are weary of sticking longer to them . now if the pride of these men should be thus far gratified , who can secure us of any great effect from it ? will their hearers imitate their teachers in their compliance upon these terms or abhorr them for it ? and if we had any assurance in getting above these difficulties , yet however , as to all those who do not come within the comprehension , every one of all the pleas of liberty of conscience and persecution remain as they were before , so that such a purchase will be upon no prudent estimate worth the price we pay for it . these two things therefore i take to be very clear ; first , that liberty with bounds and limits set to it , is not liberty of conscience : . that if any other bounds and limits are to be set besides those which the law hath already set , it is very requisite , indeed necessary , that those limits should be known before admitted , agreed upon among themselves before they be desired from their superiours . but because i very well know that how reasonable soever this way of procedure is in it self , yet that the concerned gentlemen will find more than a few difficulties in it ; i shall therefore enquire a little into the other member of the fore-mentioned division , and that is , such a toleration as is unlimited . and here i do freely confess this , that all the pleas which pretend to shew the reasonableness and usefulness of liberty of conscience do plainly prove this , if they do prove any thing at all : and the late authour of humane reason hath been so much honester than many of the writers upon this argument , that he hath fairly owned the conclusion which his premises naturally do tend unto . now that which here doth first offer it self to our consideration , is this : how it doth come to pass that in this part of the argument the presbyterians of late have observably been very silent ? there was a time when in this case their zeal was as warm as any mans , and nothing in the whole world was in their esteem more frightful , more intolerable than toleration . in the year , . this point of indulgence was a matter of high debate , and the dissenters from the presbyterian way did desire the same liberty from their impositions which they had both of them before joyned in des●●ing from the national settlement ; their pretences were at least equal , they had the same natural right to freedom which any other men had , they had the same pleas of christian liberty , and besides all this they had another very good title upon which they might expect indulgence from the presbyterians in point of merit ; the same arguments the sectaries shewed to be in common between them both , and withall had this to add farther , that their arms added that assistance , without which the presbyterians could never have been able to have brought themselves into a condition , to have enjoyed that liberty as to themselves , which the other sects by their joynt concurrence did put them into a condition to grant , and therefore very well deserved to have received from them . but in those dayes , their dear brethren , to whom they were much beholding for their joynt concurrence in prayers and arms ; their mutual contributions of blood and treasure , and whom at present they smile most sweetly upon , did receive the harshest usage which was in their power to give them , and it was no small matter of publick complaint , that they were not permitted to handle them with much greater roughness : to omit many others there then came out a book entituled , wholesome severity reconciled with christian liberty , licensed by ia. cranford , wherein we are told , that liberty of heresie and schism is no part of the liberty of conscience which christ hath purchased for us , but that under these fair colours and handsome pretexts sectaries infuse their poyson , their pernicious , god-provoking ; truth-defacing , church-ruinating and state-shaking toleration . to which author i shall only add the more publick testimony to the truth of iesus christ , and to our solemn league and covenant , as also against the errours , heresies , blasphemies of these times , and the toleration of them , subscribed by the ministers of christ within the province of london , december . . which i have already mentioned , but in this part of the argument shall insist something more largely upon ; because they were such a body of men as were looked upon as very considerable , and sufficiently qualified to speak the sence of their whole party to great advantage : and besides that some of them are yet living and preachers at this day to the separated congregations about the town . now i would ●ain know of these gentlemen , whether they are of the same judgment now about toleration , as they were then ? if they are , then methinks they should do very well to declare it , and so much the rather , because that by their behaviour one would guess that their minds were altered ; in that they do so far comply as to joyn counsels and interests with those whom formerly they bore testimony against : again , if they are of the same mind about toleration now as they were formerly ; then all the under sects have great cause in time to beware of them , ought to look upon them as very false brethren , who want nothing but opportunity to take away that liberty which now indeed is common to them with the rest of their brethren , but they never intended it for any but themselves . and on the other side , if they are not of the same mind about toleration now as they were formerly ; then they ought in all honesty to declare to the world how much they were formerly mistaken , in that they raised such fearful outcries against that toleration which is an innocent and an useful thing ; the giving of which is ( as it is now said ) the duty and interest of all government , is indeed no other than the permitting to us that liberty with which christ made us free , or rather , which is the right of nature , the common birth right of all mankind . in the preface to the aforesaid testimony they tell us of the spreading heresies and cursed blasphemies of those times , which had born down the authority of the scriptures and our solemn league and covenant ( very fitly joynned : ) and then they add , but above all our souls are wounded to think with wha● hope and industry , a toleration of all these evils is endeavoured , and with what a wellcomed boldness sundry odious hereticks , which in other places have been banished and branded with infamy , do vent their poysonous opinions amongst us ; as if they intended to make england a common receptacle of all the sinful dregs of foreign countries as well as former ages , pag. . as if all the errours , heresies , sects , schisms , divisions , looseness , prophaneness , and breach of covenant among us , were small matters ; what secret and publick endeavours , projects , methods and practices are there amongst us to bring in an universal , boundless , lawless , abominable and intolerable toleration , to the filling up of the measure of our iniquities , and the pulling down god's fierce indignation upon this nation , and pag. . instead of vnity and vniformity in matters of religion , we are torn in pieces with destructive schisms , separations , divisions , and subdivisions , &c. and instead of extirpation of heresie , schism , prophaneness , we have such an impudent and general inundation of all these evils , that multitudes are not ashamed to press and plead for a publick , formal , vniversal toleration . and having thus shewed how great their zeal was in this case , i shall likewise lay down their reasons for it , which with great earnestness they did express in these following words , pag. . a publick and a general toleration will prove an hideous and complexive evil of most dangerous and mischievous consequence , if ever ( which god forbid ) it should be consented to by authority , for hereby , first , the glory of the most high god , will be laid in the very dust ; secondly , the truth of christ , yea all the fundamentals of faith will be r●●ed to the very ground ; thirdly , all christ's ordinances , offices , worship , religion , yea and the very power of godliness will be utterly overthro●● ; fourthly , thousands , and ten thousands of poor souls which christ hath ransomed with his own blood , shall be hereby betrayed , seduced , and endangered to be undone to all eternity . fifthly , magistracy and ministry , and with them all religious , and comely order in the church and commonwealth will be plucked up by the very roots . sixthly , reformation in religion , in doctrine , worship , discipline and government shall be utterly made voyd . seventhly , england shall be swallowed up with sects , schisms , divisions , disorders , and confusions , and become an odious sink , and a common rec●ptacle of all the prodigious errours , lies , heresies , and blasphemies , libertinism and profaneness in the world ; so that rome it self shall not be a more odious puddle and cage of all abominatio●s and uncleannesses . eighthly , the godly shall sit down and lament among us . ninethly , the wicked shall rise up and insult over us . tenthly , all the nations about us shall be amazed at us . eleventhly , all the reformed churches shall be ashamed to own us , they shall all cry out against us ; is this england that covenanted and swore to the most high god such a reformation and extirpation of popery , prelacy , superstition , heresie , schism , prophaneness , and whatever shall be found contrary to sound doctrine , and the power of godliness , and after so long a travel hath she brought forth an hideous monster of toleration ? and again , pag. . hath england heretofore had such a large share of gospel-enjoyments ; and doth she now render to the lord for all his benefits a detestable toleration ? dost thou thus reward the lord , o foolish england and unwise ? twelfthly , and to conclude , seeing we have just cause to fear , that if this toleration be entertained among us , the righteous god of heaven and earth will be provoked to plague us yet seven times more , and at last to translate his very gospel and kingdom from us unto another nation : therefore upon all these considerations , we the ministers of iesus christ do hereby testifie to all our flocks , to all the kingdom , to all the reformed churches , as our great dislike of prelacy , erastianism , brownism and independency ; so our utter abhorrency of anti-scripturism , popery , arri●nism , socinianism , arminianism , antinomianism , anabaptism , libertinism , and familism , with all such like , now too rife among us . it were endless to transcribe all which hath been said by the presbyterians against toleration ; and therefore it is not a little strange , how much for some years they have endeavoured after it : but sure their separating brethren cannot be so forgetful of what hath been but so very lately past , as not to cast a very watchful eye over them , to suspect their kindness , and be hugely jealous of their present concurrence with them ; it being not very credible , that their moderation is greater than formerly , and that which makes all the difference is no other thing than this , that their power is not altogether so great . it hath been no unusual thing in the world for men to unite in their endeavours in order to very differing ends ; to dissemble for a while their mutual resentments , and to have less kindness for those very persons they do cabal with , than for those whom they do cabal against . a common interest for a while keeps them close together , and out of that they each hope for their particular advantages ; and both sides hug and applaud inwardly their own arts and dexterity , in that they see the way chalked out how they shall be able to supplant their friends , as well as ruine their enemies . thus the presbyterians may at present joyn their endeavours in attaining that liberty , which they hope in time to take away , not only from those whom they at present desire to grant it , but likewise from those who now enjoy it together with them : the independents , anabaptists , &c. must needs remember how the presbyterians bore testimony against that toleration of them which they could not hinder : they could no more endure those who fought on their side to dissent from them , than they could those who fought against them . remember ( gentlemen ) you all fought for liberty of conscience ; and yet your fellow-soldiers would not allow you that which you shed your blood for , and for their own obtaining of which , they were much more beholding to your arms than to their own . the pretences of all the differing sorts of dissenters are so vastly distant , as to be utterly inconsistent ; and whatever correspondence is between them at present , it ought not to be looked upon , either by themselves or any one else , as any union or agreement which is of late made between them , but merely as a combination against that settlement which they are all weary of ; and as soon as ever that is again overthrown , we shall then see that all their old quarrels will return as formerly : the tender consciences of divers sizes will immediatly fall as foully upon one another as ever they did : presbytery will be stiled the yoke of antichrist , and independency the mother of confusion ; the one will be stiled egypt , and the other , babel . if any particular sect among them doth desire indulgence , and means nothing else besides a bare permission to serve god in its own way : if there were nothing else but this in the case , its request then would with all submission be put up single and by it self ; that so an account might be taken both of the principles and of the persons , how innocent the one , and how peaceable the other ; and what influence either of them are like to have upon the present settlement either of church or state : and surely it ought not to be looked upon either as unreasonable or assuming , if the government doth look upon it self as concerned to have a great regard to it self both in point of duty and in point of safety . and in such an enquiry as this , the quality , numbers , and temper of the petitioners for such indulgence are of no small consideration . and this way of procedure , that each single sect should speak by and for its self , and state its own particular case , is methinks the fairest course which can be taken ; and such a one as those dissenters , who are conscious to themselves of no ill meaning , should look upon as highly advisable for their own sakes : it being very obvious to the most ordinary prudence , that it may be frequently advisable upon divers particular and material considerations , to indulge some kinds of liberty to such and such sorts of dissenters , which is by no means fit to allow to others ; much less to allow promiscuously to all . but to take that course which they have always done since his majesties restauration , that they should all joyn in a common cry , as if they had one common cause , is very suspicious ; especially considering that they are divided among themselves in this very point of liberty of conscience , notwithstanding their unanimity in calling for it . some rumours have of late been spread indeed all over the town concerning such a kind of comprehension as should leave no room for toleration : how well grounded such reports have been i will not undertake ; it is but in vain to make an uncertain guess at what kind of proposals may possibly be offered by some persons ; and to fancy at all adventures who they are or may be who are in any likelihood to be concluded by them . but because it is said publickly enough and by no mean persons , that the presbyterians , at least the chief and leading men among them ▪ are ready now to enter into the church , upon some reasonable abatements to be made unto them : and when they are once gained , the other sects will not be considerable enough to expect , that any toleration should be allowed unto them . if this be the case , as it is by some of themselves pretended to be , then the case is much altered from what it lately was : reformed christianity in its latitude , which came out in . and the defence of it in . are express , not 〈…〉 only for comprehension but likewise for toleration , and besides that for a connivence also . and a later treatise entituled , indulgence not to be refused ; comprehension humbly desired , which came out . is express for toleration ; and against that part of his design he makes this objection : the presbyterians in former times wrote and preached against toleration and indulgence , and if they do now fall in with it , they contradict themselves . to this he answers , that some did , some did not ; and there was a reason then which ceaseth now : and besides , many of those who declared against such a toleration are dead and gone , and there are others postnati to those times who now suffer , p. , . so that it seems , these two advocates for the comprehension were for a toleration . if the minds of these men be changed since that time , it were not unfit that they should give publick notice of it , especially for this reason : it is well known , that in the private discourses and in their printed books , the people have been moved to express much pity toward the dissenters , and not a few exasperated against the government by the perpetual noise of persecution , liberty , conscience , moderation , forbearance , tenderness , compassion , indulgence ; and that this hath not been the peculiar phrases of such or such a particular sect , but the common language of all of them . now if this device of comprehension do take place , then all those pleas as to all parties but one will remain as formerly but if the presbyterians do really intend to come into the church now , upon such & such abatements to be made unto them , and finally and for ever to shake hands with their old brethren ; it were but reasonable to expect that they should do these two things : first , that in their present meeting-houses they should use so much of the common-prayer as they can lawfully , and mean hereafter to use , and observe so many of the orders and ceremonies of the church , as they are perswaded of the innocency of ; and take the first opportunity of declaring to their hearers their resolutions of conformity , thereby to prepare them to conform likewise : secondly , they should declare , as formerly , against liberty of conscience , as a thing which they do by no means approve , and are resolved never hereafter to have any thing to do with . if , i say , these men do desire that any publick distinction should be made between them and other dissenters , they themselves should do well to own such a distinction ; if we go into their conventicles we cannot find any such great difference in the way of worship between the presbyterians and others , as thence to be able to distinguish them . if we go into their company their complaints are much of the same strain , and not seldom in the same syllables . if there are any among them ( as it is to be hoped there are ) who are sincere , modest , and peaceable , who mean better than their neighbours ; the law cannot help it if they suffer for being taken in bad company : it is not unlikely that they might have fared much better themselves if they had not had such partakers ; their own case might have been looked upon as pitiable , if they had not joyned with such dangerous adherents . if this course ( i say ) were taken , that each sect did urge its own plea single , by and for it self , there were then some ground for charity , and we might possibly have some hope , that their aims looked no higher than an indulgence : and by so inoffensive a way of asking favour , authority would have some ground whereupon to be perswaded , that they would use any favour which they could obtain with the very same modesty with which they do desire it : but when they shall all unite with a joynt consent in one and the same clamour for that very demand , about which themselves neither ever did , nor ever can agree ; and within which pretence no one name is wide enough to comprehend them , besides that of non-conformity , viz. dissenters from the present constitution : of which dissent it is more than possible to alledge , not only divers , but contrary reasons , and doth only tell us what it is they would not have , but not at all what they would have . it is but too evident , that indulgence is not the only thing aimed at , but is only proposed in order to something else ; and the plausible name of conscience may upon these terms be suspected to be only a handsome artifice whereby to disguise that combination , which no other word is solemn enough to authorize , or of compass large enough to be a sufficient shelter for ; and by which they hope to become a match for some common enemy : and accordingly as their success doth chance to happen in that , each sect doth flatter it self with the particular advantages to be reaped from it . and in this i am the more confirmed , because that the late act of parliament against conventicles , which hath been the matter of so much lamentation and complaint , hath been so tender , even of the needless scruples of conscience , as to allow these men their own fancies in their way of worship in their own families , and four of their neighbours to joyn with them : but these good men are persecuted , if they are only tolerated ; they lose their ends unless they make proselytes , and have opportunities to form themselves into parties . but if this plea of conscience be so very omnipotent , as that it must bear all things down before it , and no other consideration whatever must in the least presume to stand in its way : suppose the case should so happen , as that this plea should become so utterly inconsistent with it self , as that it is impossible but that in one respect or other , it must necessarily be over-ruled ; and this is a case which may occurr very frequently : as for example , suppose that my conscience tells me , that i ought to be of this or that opinion , and not only so , but that i am obliged not only to entertain it my self , but withall to vent and propagate it to others ; and on the contrary , the magistrates conscience tells him , that he is appointed by god to be a keeper of both the tables , and that it is his duty to take care not only of peace , but truth ; and the doctrines which i am so very fond of are not only erroneous , but likewise of very ill consequence , both as to the souls of men and to the publick peace ; and that to so high a degree , as that he is firmly perswaded , and as he really believes and thinks himself able to give a very good account upon weighty grounds , that he should be much wanting , both to the duty which he oweth to god , and the care which he ought to take of his people , both as to their temporal and eternal welfare , if he doth not make use of his authority in the restraining me from venting any such pernicious doctrines within his dominions . what now is to be done in this case ? my conscience tells me , that i am obliged to preach such and such doctrines , as being precious and soul-saving ones , the truths of god and gospel-discoveries ; the king's conscience tells him , that they are the doctrines of devils ( as saint paul did upon occasion declare some doctrines to be ) and that he ought not to give me liberty to preach any such in his kingdom : what now is to be done in this case ? here is conscience on both sides ; the king is as firmly perswaded as i am , and thinks himself as well informed as i either am or can be ; if the king restrains me from preaching after my own way , then i cry out that he is a persecutor : he replies , that i am a seducer , nay , a blasphemer , and he neither will nor ought to suffer any such in his countries ; either his conscience or mine must over-rule ; both cannot be satisfied ; one or other must necessarily either yield or alter ; or else i must preach , and he must punish , and the almighty must at his own time be judge between us ; and in the mean time as to all the purposes of this world , the king's conscience hath reason to expect to be more authoritative than mine , and withall he is concerned to take care both of himself and all other men , to judge both as to his own particular , and likewise as to the concerns of his whole nation . if it be replied in this case , that the king's conscience ought to yield , because it is an errour in him to think that he is at all concerned in points of this nature ; that religion is no part of his care , his business is only to look after the civil government , and the publick peace ( a pretence frequently insisted on : ) the answer to this is very plain , and might easily be enlarged upon , as to many particulars , i shall only mention these two things ; first , that religion hath a very great influence upon civil government , and the publick peace ; and therefore if so be , that the civil government and the publick peace be within his care ; then religion ought by no means to be excluded from it , as having so great an influence upon it . in the next place , as to the pretence that the magistrate is in an errour , if he looks upon himself as concerned in this particular ; it is more than possible , that that very pretence will upon examination appear to be the greater errour : and in general the subject is no more free from errour than the soveraign . and this need not seem news to us of this age and nation ; and to speak the truth , it is no easie matter to find out any age or nation , where it hath not been sadly evidenced , that seducers will quickly be found in great abundance , where liberty hath been given for the people to be seduced by them : and after all this , it will be no impossible task to make out , that magistrates are obliged not only in interest , but likewise in point of conscience , to have a great care of religion ; and to use that authority which they received from god , so far to the honour of him who gave it , as by no means to suffer his truths to lie all openly exposed to all the lusts , designs , and mistakes of men ; to all the knavery and all the folly of every one who is either willing to deceive , or liable to be deceived . and of this i shall now endeavour to give a brief account both from reason and scripture , the necessity of the thing , and the authority both of the old and new testament . but here a great many rubs are thrown in our way , by the fore-mentioned author of liberty of conscience upon its true and proper grounds asserted and vindicated : proving that no prince nor state ought by force to compel men to any part of the doctrine , worship or discipline of the gospel . london , printed in the year . which methinks is not very different from the doctrine of the blody tenent dedicated to both houses of parliament in the year . it is the will and command of god , that ( since the coming of his son iesus ) a permission of the most paganish , iewish , turkish , or antichristian consciences and worships be granted to all men in all nations and countries . but whatever the assertion of our author is either in it self , or in its consequence , i shall briefly enquire into the arguments he brings for it . pag. . that the civil and ecclesiastical power are things perfectly in themselves distinct , and ought in their excercise to be kept so , &c. and , the magistrate hath ways , such as christ thought sufficient , to promote the good of religion , and propagating the growth of the gospel , without drawing the civil sword , which will make no more impression in spiritual concerns , than it will do upon a ghost which hath no real body , &c. and p. . to use force in religion is wholly unlawful in any hand whatever ; because it is by no means appointed by christ to bring about any gospel-end : for the magistrate to enforce the laws of the gospel by temporal power , or to compel men into the gospel by such a power , is to act without the least precept or precedent ; to induce an engine to execute the gospel contrary to the nature of christs kingdom ( which is not of this world ) and contrary to the nature of all gospel-institutions . doth not paul positively deliver this , that the weapons of the gospel are not carnal but spiritual , and mighty thorough god : the sword of the spirit is the weapon by which christ doth all ; yea , by which he will destroy antichrist , the greatest gospel-enemy the world hath produced . the sum of which is briefly this : . that force is a very incompetent method to be used in matters of belief and perswasion : . that it is unlawful . . because christ hath no where commanded it , we have neither precept nor precedent for it : . because st. paul hath plainly forbid it , where he says that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal . now , as to these suggestions which do frequently recurr in this question , i shall at present only briefly touch upon them , premising this , that our author , like to all the rest who have dealt in this cause , is as much concern'd to answer these and all the rest of his arguments against using the secular interposition in matters of belief , as any of those he writes against ; because he himself doth very much approve and commend such interposition where he likes the cause in behalf of which it is made use of . now , though this may seem strange , because it is directly contrary to his whole book , yet it is very plain ; and i shall not expect to be believed upon my bare word , but desire the author himself , or any one besides who makes a doubt of it , to consider these words which we have pag. . constantine and the christian emperours after him , till the church of rome had cheated them into subjection , took upon them the care and oversight of all religious things : among our selves we reap the advantage of our kings and princes care and concern in that enjoyment we have of the protestant religion . now this assertion of that learned gentleman is evidently true ; but then it happens here as it useth in the other discourses for toleration : when the evidence of truth hath forced from them one reasonable concession , that one concession doth plainly give away from them nothing less than their whole cause : for , pray tell me , constantine and the christian emperours are here commended for their care and oversight in religious things ; and so our own kings for securing to us the protestant religion : now was not all this done by laws and penalties , and the civil sword , and was there any possibility of having it done any other way ? this being premised , as to the exceptions themselves , i briefly say this ; if no force is to be used in matters of religion , because it is an incompetent method , as being able to reach only to the body and estate , but is by much too weak to reach unto the mind ; this is a difficulty not at all peculiar to the gospel , but common to that with all other dispensations . the mind of a man was as much a spirit under the law as it can be now ; and the sword was made of as meer matter in those days , as it can be in these : and therefore thus far the case is one and the same . as to the second exception , that all force is now unlawful , because christ hath not commanded it , they have been told , and have had it proved to them too in many parts of the puritan controversie , that many things are lawful which there is no particular command for ; that a thing becomes unlawful , not by being not commanded , but by being forbidden : and this leads me directly to the third exception , that all force is plainly forbidden by st. paul , when he says , cor. . v. . that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal . now this saying of the apostle is so far from being a hibition of all coercion in the affairs of religion , that it doth plainly refer to a very great coercion , which himself did in these very words threaten for to use , viz. the censures of the church in such a manner as to carry temporal penalties along with them , in manner miraculous , visible and extraordinary : and therefore it followeth in the next words , that those weapons which in themselves might be supposed weak , yet if they were better looked into would be found to have a strength from god , which they had not from themselves ; for they were not meerly carnal , but mighty through god for the bringing down strong holds : and to render it clear that these words have a penal meaning in them , it follows , that these weapons are able to cast down imaginations , and every high thought that exalteth it self against the knowledge of god , and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of christ : and to put it out of all doubt , that those weapons had a coercive power in them , the apostle adds , in a stile much beyond exhortation and advice , nay , much beyond a bare reproof , that in the strength of them he would revenge all disobedience . and as for the last most pressing and convincing consideration , that if force was to be used in any affair of religion at all , it was of all others the most to be justified in order to the pulling down of antichrist , the greatest of all other gospel-enemies : but even in that case it ought not to be used , and therefore most certainly not in any other ; the sword of the spirit being the only weapon by which christ will destroy antichrist , the greatest gospel-enemy which the world hath produced . i shall not here take an advantage which i have already mentioned , that the sword of the spirit doth in scripture signifie something which carries coercion along with it ; but shall be contented that that word be understood in the common meaning of it : and upon that supposition i believe that this assertion of this learned gentleman will scarce pass for true doctrine in the separated congregations ; i am sure that there was a time when it would not have done so , and i never yet heard that in this point their minds were altered : how unlawful soever it may be for the magistrate to make use of the civil sword in a cause of religion ; i am sure that it hath been often preached as a great gospel duty , though in a rebellion , to make use of the military one . we have not forgot how often the zeal of the common people was inflamed against the king , by telling them that the cause then fought for was the cause of god , that their persons and estates were all too little to be sacrificed in this concern of religion , and the question really was , whether christ or anti-christ should be king ? and so i return to our author . amongst all the arguments which are brought to prove the compulsory power of the magistrate under the gospel , the greatest weight is laid upon the practice of the kings of israel and judah , and what they did under the law in compelling men to the worship of god then established . in the due consideration whereof we shall find the truth in hand no wayes invalidated , and that what was then done by the kings of israel and judah , cannot reasonably be now made a rule to magistrates under the gospel : and that the analogy will no way hold , may be made appear both from the different station and posture those kings were in from all magistrates now , and also from the different condition of the church then and now , and many circumstances peculiarly relating to both . first , the worship and policy of the jews , being in it self typical , and representative of what was to come hereafter , their government was likewise so , and in their kings very eminently . secondly , god was pleased in those times upon all eminent occasions of reformation in his worship and proceedings of that nature to send prophets to declare his positive mind , and to put an end to all doubts , that could be about such things : nay , some of the kings themselves were prophets immediately inspired , and did not only take care of the worship established by moses , but did themselves by divine authority bring in things of a new institution into the worship of god. thus david did , and solomon in bringing musick into the temple , and setling the courses of the priests , and were divinely inspired to write part of the holy scriptures : no magistrate now can pretend to any such power in themselves , nor have they any such extraordinary direction to guide them ; but are punctually obliged to whatever christ hath revealed in the gospel : and therefore in this respect the analogy holds no way good . the sum of all which is , that no argument ought to be drawn from the examples of the kings of israel or iudah , whereby to prove the power of any present magistrates over the affairs of religion ; by reason of the great difference between those magistrates and ours , especially in these two respects : first , that they were typical : secondly , that in such cases they had either prophets sent to them , or themselves were divinely inspired . and in this part of the argument , if i had a mind to enlarge farther than i needs must , i believe that i should find it an easie matter , to find our authour to have committed sundry mistakes in assigning the difference between the state of the church , and the condition of magistrates , as it was under the law ; i shall not dispute whether the law , fulness of the magistrate's using coercive power under the law was typical of this , that such coercive power should not be lawful under the times of the gospel : but in the second place i shall venture to say this , that several of the constitutions made by the iewish kings , were such as stood in no need either of direction from prophets commissioned for that purpose , or any immediate inspiration given in to them themselves ; and in this part of the debate i shall go no farther than the instances which our author here layes down , of bringing musick into the temple , the setling of the priests courses , two things certainly which without inspiration , common prudence would abundantly serve to assist any man in : but to shew how little need there is to insist upon any thing of this , i shall produce an instance of the magistrates coercive power in matters of religion , which shall not be liable to any of all these , however frivolous exceptions , as having in it not any thing peculiar to the ordinances of moses . and i shall fetch it out of the book of iob chap. . v. , , . if i beheld the sun when it shined , or the moon walking in brightness , and my heart hath been secretly enticed , or my mouth hath kissed my hand , this also were an iniquity to be punished by the iudges , &c. here now is an offence purely spiritual , a crime meerly against religion , not any otherwise at all against the state , or any particular member of it ; a sin indeed it was against god , but such an one as did consist in a meer mistake about him , and such a mistake as was in that age and part of the world very frequently committed ; and yet it is said to be an iniquity to be punished by the iudges . so that it seems in the dayes of iob , the civil magistrate was thought to have in himself a power , and was concerned to look upon it as a duty incumbent upon himself , to take care not only of the safety of himself and his people , but likewise to look after the honour of almighty god. now whatever may be pretended for that natural liberty , which every man is now a-dayes supposed to have a full right to , to be permitted the enjoyment of his own way of worship , we do find that things of this nature were before the dayes of moses , and without relation to any of his laws , under the restraint and authority of superiours , who were to be in this as well as in any other affairs , not only guides but governours . i suppose that without breach of modesty , a man may with some confidence affirm , that if it had not been within the due bounds of that power which of right did belong to abraham , that it would never have been recorded for his everlasting honour by god himself , that he would command his children and houshold after him to keep the way of the lord , not only advise or exhort , but command , as we have it , gen. . . and abraham's family was so large , as that gen. . . he is stiled a mighty prince . and in this place we are to consider that it is very plain , that every one of all those arguments , which do assert liberty of conscience by way of right so far as to exempt religion from the authority of the magistrate , doe , at least with equal force exempt it from the authority of parents , masters , or who ever else besides : for this must needs be very evident , that if this liberty be such a natural indefeasable right as that no humane power whatever can take it away from us , then as the regal power cannot take it away ; so for the same reason neither can the paternal or despotical : nay farther , if so be that these pretenders are in the right , and that such a liberty in matters of religion , and the profession of that liberty be one part of liberty , with which christ hath made us free , and which we are accordingly called upon to stand fast in , as being purchased for us by our redeemer's blood , then the same argument doth return upon us again at least with equal , if not with greater force ; for as the king ought not to deprive us of any degree of that liberty with which christ made us free ; so neither ought any parent or master presume to do any such thing ; and liberty of conscience must upon these terms receive as little interruption in families as in kingdoms : no imposition must upon these terms be endured in any house , school , or colledge , as to forms or hours of prayer , no words , no nor no gestures must be prescribed ; every child or servant hath the free liberty to remonstrate in behalf of this invaluable and frequently insisted on priviledge , that no man must dare to determine what christ hath left free , for in christ there is no difference of any age or quality , high and low in him are all alike . the chief , if not only ground of mistake in this particular is this , that in the new testament we have not an example of a civil magistrate exercising his civil power in defence of the gospel : now that which renders this exception utterly insignificant , is this , that in the new testament we do not read of any civil magistrate who was a christian. and nothing can be plainer than this , that the magistrates which then were did look upon religion as a thing within their cognizance , and accordingly , as they did not believe the doctrine of the gospel to be true , they did call them to account who did either profess or propogate it : and if this had been one alteration which the gospel had brought into the world , that from henceforth religion , contrary to the sentiments of all former ages , should be absolutely exempt from the cognizance of any magistrate , and that every man's conscience was so sacred , as that god alone was fit to be the judge of it ; it is not a little to be wondred at , that in this new epocha and strange alteration of affairs , the apostles did take no manner of notic● of this change , and when they had so fair opportunities and proper seasons ; as when they themselves were called in question about matters of religion , did never in the least insert this in their apologies , that religion was no part of the civil magistrates business : when st. paul was questioned about heresie , he made no such exception against the tribunal he was called before ; that heresie was a thing which they had nothing to do to enquire about , but gave them an account that the doctrine which he preached was not heresie . and that we may root up the very foundation of all mistakes in this matter , it is very evident , that among all the precepts , which we meet with in the new testament , concerning moderation , condescention , bearing with one anothers infirmities , it is very evident , that not any one of them hath any manner of relation to our great idol of liberty of conscience ; they being plainly given to private persons , & many times in relation only to their own passions , and where not so limited to certain cases , occasional emergencies , and with a clear reference to their not having as yet time or opportunity of being sufficiently instructed : but as for the governours of the church they are sufficiently called upon to watch over their respective flocks , and to take care that wolves do not break in upon them , they are called upon to exercise the whole power with which they were intrusted , viz. the power of excommunication , a thing which comes so near the question now in debate , that it was not seldom assisted with temporal penalties : and though it is often suggested into his argument , that the outward sword can act no more upon the mind of men than upon a ghost , yet st. paul , cor. . . was of the opinion , that the destruction of the flesh ( a phrase well known to signifie diseases , and such like inflictions on the body ) was a very likely method by which the spirit might at length come to be saved . the soul and the body though of a distant nature have so near an union , such common interests , and so great an influence one upon another , that what doth affect the one , the other cannot choose but be so far concerned in , as at the least to consider it : and this is obvious to the most ordinary experience , and hath seldom failed of a great effect , whenever it hath been made trial of . and if it were not so , it would not only supercede all correction in religious affairs , but in civil ones likewise . now that any such kind of liberty of conscience was brought into the world by the revelation of the gospel , as that every one should henceforward without control profess and propagate what opinion soever he either did really or would pretend to believe , i take to be a thing so far from being according to to the rule of the new testament , that i must profess my self to be very much mistaken , if so be that this thing be not contrary not only to some few texts , but to a considerable part of the whole design of it . in the th of the ephes. v. . we read of several orders and degrees of men instituted and appointed for this very purpose , that they might take care of the perfecting the saints , the work of the ministry , the edifying the body of christ ; that we be henceforth no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine , by the slight of men and cunning crastiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive . now is it credible that an unbounded licence for all manner of opinions , was ever intended by st. paul to be a thing to be looked upon , as being according to the mind of christ ; who tells us of a whole order of men appointed by christ , whose duty it should be to take care , that men should not be tossed to and fro , and carried about with every wind of doctrine . and this consideration will be of so much the greater force both as to the care which ought to be taken of souls , and withal as to the ends of government , and all the purposes of humane life : if we do but keep in mind the caution which is here given us by the apostle , that every thing is not gold that glisters ; that fair pretences may have very ill designs lodged under them : the being tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine is it self certainly a very great evil and of very ill consequence . but the deluded persons themselves have one good preservative against it , when they are by such an infallible authority forewarn'd and assured , that this doth frequently come to pass by the slight of men and the cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive : now in this case i would appeal to common sense , whether it be a thing adviseable upon the scores either of piety or prudence , that such deceivers should have an unbounded liberty , to seduce all those whom at any time they shall be able to impose upon ? it is plain that st. paul was so far from being of this mind , that he calls upon the ecclesiastical officers in this case to make use of the highest censures which they were entrusted with , i wish they were cut off that trouble you , gal. . . now i would fain know whether when this which our apostle doth advise is done , that according to the rules of scripture , any one or more are cast out of the communion of the church upon the account of corruption either in doctrine or manners , it be agreeable to common sense , that this person or persons , so cast out of the church according to the rules above supposed , should in the same kingdom , nay , in the same parish , have a right to set up another ? that being cut off as a rotten member from one church , he may from thence assume the privilege to create himself the pastour of another , which he no doubt will be forward enough to tell us is a much purer one . now the want of exercising the censures of the church in this very case of false doctrine we find to be a thing highly blame-worthy , rev. . . where it is said to the angel of the church of pergamus , i have a few things against thee , because thou hast them who hold the doctrine of balaam ; and ver. . thou hast them who hold the doctrine of the nicolaitans : now the governour of this church is not charged in the least that he himself did hold these false doctrines , but that there are those within his communion who do hold them ; as again the complaint is renewed , v. . to another angel , i have a few things against thee , because thou sufferest that woman iezebel , which calleth her self a prophetess , to teach and seduce my servants to commit fornication , and to eat things sacrificed to idols . from all which it is very plain , that this natural or christian right of propagating whatever opinion men do chance , or fancy , or pretend to be of , was a thing which st. iohn was utterly unacquainted with , and blames the governours of the church for suffering a false prophetess to teach and seduce the souls committed to their charge . and let any reasonable man consider with himself , whether the condition of the common people be not lamentably expos'd to innumerable and unaccountable dangers , if so be that by publick authority they shall lie exposed to every one to deceive , who can and will. st. paul , ti , . . . gives us notice of some hereticks of his time , whose words do eat as doth a canker ; he names the men and the doctrines , hymeneus and philetus , who say that the resurrection is past already & overthrow the faith of some : and this doctrine of theirs by the benefit of liberty of conscience hath been preached since their days ; and as often soever as that time shall come which st. paul doth so much bewail , tim. . . that men will not endure sound doctrine , but after their own lusts heap to themselves teachers , having itching ears . authority will be found useful as well as instruction , and government be needful as well as exhortation . in the second epistle of st. peter , c. . v. , , . we read of false prophets and false teachers who shall priv●ly bring in damnable heresies ; the consequence of which is there said to be very dreadful both to themselves and others , they shall bring upon themselves swift destruction : but this is not all , for this kind of infection is not only fatal but contagious ; as it is expressed , v. . many shall follow their pernitious ways . now if errours are so pernicious to the souls of men , and withal of a very spreading nature , is it a thing advisable that there should be an unbounded licence for entertaining and receiving , spreading and propagating them ? and this consideration will appear evidently to be the more forcible , if we withal remember , that it is more than possible , that doctrines in themselves false , may be known to be false by the men who teach them ; and with great art and demureness many may endeavour to perswade others to those things of which themselves are not really perswaded . and let no man look upon this as any harsh or uncharitable censure of mine ; for it is so far from being a suggestion of mine , that it is in express terms taught by the apostle , v. . thorough covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you : so that heresie may be a solemn way of setting up for a cheat ; separation a very gainful trade ; the getting a meeting-house , a religious method of setting up a shop , where the more numerous and ignorant his auditors ( otherwise called his chapmen ) are , so much the more it is in his power to put off what wares he will , and to set what prices he pleaseth upon them . and thus i think i have made it somewhat plain , from the new testament , that that liberty of conscience , which of late hath so often been called for , is nothing like any part of that christian liberty which the writers of that book did ever think of ; that they themselves did exercise , and require of others to exercise the whole ecclesiastical power in points of doctrine as well as manners ; and that was the whole power they were intrusted with ; that this power of theirs , though in it self wholly spiritual , was yet by an immediate interposition of god attended upon with temporal penalties , and by the apostles known and intended so to be . so that in this case it happened to them in vindicating their authority , as it did in another in the exercise of their charity ; they could not give the poor man who begged at the gate of the temple money ; but they could give him the use of his limbs ; they had no silver nor gold , but what was much better they had ; they could say , rise up and walk : so in this case they had not in those days the sword of the magistrate ; but when it was seasonable they made it evident , that the want of that was abundantly supplied by the sword of god. now all this being premised , there is very little need certainly for men to require a particular express precept for the power of the civil magistrate in matters of religion ; seing the authority of the civil magistrate over the affairs which related to the worship of god was acknowledg'd and exercised over all the world ; the original of which practice we find to be of as early date as magistracy it self . it is notorious , that the kingly and the priestly office was of old in one and the same person ; and when by the appointment of god , they came to be separated , there is not the least shew that this separation was made out of any favour to liberty of conscience ; nor the least in●●●uation that holy things should for all ages and dispensations to come be looked upon as no part of the princes care : nay , this is so far from being any thing like the case , that in that very nation , wherein that separation was made , the civil power did all along retain the right and did frequently use that right of his in interposing authoritatively in religious affairs ▪ and he did do this both by the appointment of god , and at other times without any especial appointment but by his original right of magistracy , when there was an exig●●●y of affairs which did require it ; nay , and in matters of outward order , and the more decent celebration of divine offices , he did not always tie himself to the express rule of the written word , but according to his own prudence ; and what he did thus without especial commission is in scripture recorded with great approbation . the instances are too well known to stand in need of being insisted on . our forementioned author tells us , p. . that a magistrate , by becoming a christian , hath no addition of power to what he had before , which is readily granted him ; let him have but so much , and he will stand in need of no more . they who exempt all affairs of religion from the authority of the magistrate must prove that christ did take much from his authority , viz. the whole cognizance of sacred things , a power known to have been used by jews as well as gentiles . and however the clergy have been frequently and falsly traduced in this particular , that in order to ends of the●● own they have flattered princes with a power , which really did not belong to them . it is well known that the writers of politicks have asserted this prerogative of princes as earnestly as the divines have done : instances would here be endless ▪ i shall therefore shew you the thing granted by a known scholar , but no divine by profession , and that is the excellent grotius , omnes ( saith he ) qui de republica aliquid lectu dignum scripsêre , hoc jus in sacra non partem summi imperii , sed etiam potissimam atque praecipuam vocant , de imperio , c. . p. . now i must needs confess that our forementioned author doth , p. , . not only assert the princes power in matters of religion , but proves it very well ; and at last concludes , that it is a great weakness to think otherwise : but then he adds , p. . that the prince must by no means in this case use the sword ; and having said this , he seems a little suspicious , as if that limitation had quite spoiled his whole concession , as indeed it doth . but his wonted courage doth immediately return again ; nor need it see● strange that the magistrate should have the care and oversight of that where he is not to use the temporal power , &c. now , i think , it is not easie to be imagined what effectual care the magistrate can take but that ; our author tells us indeed of another way , viz. he is to see it done by the spiritual means which christ hath appointed , p. . but if this be all which he may do , this may be too little : for suppose those spiritual weapons do meet with such persons , who do slight , undervalue and stand in open defiance of them ; doth all that concern and care , which our author , but one page before , asserts the magistrate to be intrusted with , in looking after the honour of god and the souls of men , amount to no more but barely this , that he is to see the spiritual censures of the church made use of ; and if men have no more religion than to despise and laugh at them , he is to stand still and look on while they are so doing ? this learned gentleman confesseth and contends for it , that the magistrate is in his station bound to take care of gods honour , p. . and yet thoroughout his whole book he is ever afterward very zealous , that he must by no means use the sword in order to it : now , how a magistrate can in his station act , where this is interdicted him , is a thing not easily apprehended . when a magistrate , as such , declares his pleasure , common sense tells us , that the meaning is , that if we do not bear a fitting regard to that his declaration , it must be at our own peril ; and without this i do not apprehend how his authority doth appear to be any greater than that of any other man. again , if the king be to govern the people , religion must then be a very considerable part of his care , as being a thing wherein his government will find it self to be very frequently and very highly concerned ; there being nothing more evident nor experienced than this , that according to the right or wrong measures which may be taken of religion , the people may be wrought upon to do either very much good or very much evil , even as to the affairs of this life : there are not a few doctrines , which this nation is no stranger to , which is a prince hath not power to forbid the spreading of , god shall be extreamly dishonoured , himself be in a fair way to be deposed ▪ and his subjects ruined ; and he shall pl●inly see all this , and upon these me●s terms not in the least be able to help it : and this naturally leads 〈◊〉 to our next consideration , the many great inconveniencies which attend liberty of conscience both in relation to religion and government , the worship of god , and the publick peace . but before i enter upon this part of the argument , i must again return so far back , as to take some notice of that common rumour about the town , of such a project in hand as will ( if the success can be supposed to answer the great hopes which are conceived of it ) make all that labour needles● and that is the fore-mentioned comprehension : in behalf of which the undertakers are said usually and openly to alledge this , that if that be yielded to , there will be then no need at all of toleration ; for , by that means the church will be so strong by the accession of her new friend● , that she may safely contemn , and by their help easily overcome all her other enemies ; and withall they are persons already so very near us ▪ that there are none but inconsiderable matters in debate between us ; for they allow episcopacy , approve the liturgy , abhor sacriledge , believe our articles , and already can and often do communicate in our publick worship . now as plausible and taking soever this plea is , yet methinks that there is no one part of it which doth not carry something of wonder in it . first , it is well known that there was a time when the presbyterians did joyn with , invite , encourage , and protect all other sectaries , that by their assista●ce they might be enabled to ruine the church ; and therefore it ought to be well considered upon , by what means it is brought about , that their minds come now to be so f●r altered as that they will now joyn with the church in the suppression of all the other sects : nay , and very lately the leading persons of that way did joyn interests with the pap●sts , and mutually engage for assistance to p●●liament other in stopping of bills in 〈◊〉 preparing against both of them ▪ in the next place , if the difference between us and them are so inconsiderable , as they pretend , then surely there was no need of the last war upon any religious account . there was no need of that grievous complaint against some of those thing● which a preacher at this day in aldersgate-street made before a mock-parliament , september . . praysed be that god who hath delivered 〈◊〉 from the imposition of prelatical i●novations , altar-gen●-flections , and cri●gings with crossings , and all that popists trash and trumpery : and truly ( i speak no more than what i have often thought and said ) the removal of those insupportable burthens counter 〈◊〉 all the blood and treasure shed and spent in these late distractions ( nor did i as yet ever hear of any godly men that desired , were it possible , to purchase their friends or money again at so dear a rate , as with the return of these , as have those 〈◊〉 anti-christian yokes rei●pos●● upon us : and if any such there be i am sure that that desire is no part of their godliness , and i profess my self in that to be none of the number : here we see that mr. ie●kin is very positive and express in the case ; that the differences are so great between us , that all the blood shed , whether in the field or on the scaffold , was all little enough to be shed in order to the removal of so great evils ; and yet there w●● shed in this quarrel the blood of the king , many of the nobles and gentry , & of vast numbers of all other ranks , orders and degrees amongst 〈◊〉 : if the differences between us be so inconsiderable , as it is now said , then methinks there was but little cause for that great zeal of mr. calamy's , which he exprest in guild●hall , october . 〈◊〉 in order to the perswading the ci●y unto a liberal contribution toward bringing in the scots , in order to the preservation of the gospel , 〈◊〉 he several times expresseth himself in that speech , as if the diffe●ences were in his esteem , and in the esteem of that grave and reverend assembly of ministers there present with him , so very considerable , that the chief concerns of the gospel did depend upon them ; and accordingly he made use of this pretence as his chief art , whereby to wheedle the city out of their money at that time : let me tell you , if euer ( gentlemen ) you might use this speech , o happy penny , you may use it now , happy money that will purchase my gospel , happy money that will purchase religion , and purchase a reformation to my posterity ; o happy money and blessed be god that i have it to lend : so that it seems these gentlemen have two measures which upon different occasions they do make use of : when they have a mind to collogue with authority , then the differences between them and the regular clergy are mere trifles and very inconsiderable ; but when there is a season offered , wherein it is safe to animate and inflame the people , the● the differences are of that moment , that no treasure , no blood is sufficient to be laid out in a debate of that concernment , or in the words of the forementioned speech ; if i had as many lives as i have hairs on my head , i would be willing to sacrifice all these lives in this cause : lastly , if the differences between us be so very small , sure there can be no great cause for their present obstinate separation . but if these men are really and in good earnest desirous of coming into the church . it is very fit that in order to that they should declare whether they will leave those principles which have hitherto divided them from it , or whether they are resolved to entertain those principles still , or any of them : if they will leave their principles the churches arms are open to receive and to embrace them ; but if they mean ●o retain their principles , or any of them , their room may be more desirable than their company ; for upon those terms the difference is in no likelihood to amount to any more than this , that instead of remaining in a schism from the church , they will thereby be inabled to make a schism within it ; or if they are at length brought to be perswaded to part with any of their principles , will they be so honest as to declare that they have been so far mistaken , and desire their followers to get out of those snares which they in former dayes did lay for them ; and particularly will they renounce the covenant ? it was very good advice which the right reverend father in god the lord bishop of winchester gave his majesty , in his epistle before the coronation sermon , when he reminded him of that wise resolution of his royal grandfather , henry the fourth , that he was ready at any time to make a peace with any of the leaguers ▪ but he would never make any peace with the league . now if they look upon it as any hard measure that they should be called upon to renounce the covenant : let them not at all wonder , if the regular sons of the church have not forgot those rigours with which it was imposed , the many mischiefs which have been wrought , and are something apprehensive of those mischiefs which may at this day be wrought by it ; if so be that the renunciation of it should be laid aside ; which will certainly be interpreted as at least a tacit confession , that that injuction was unreasonable , and such a one as a man of a tender conscience could not submit to ; and that is a fair preparation for the opinion that the covenant is really a thing which doth oblige us . but because that moderation is at this time a word much in fashion ; let us compare the severities used in behalf of the covenant with this which is so much complained of as being against it ▪ it is indeed , by reason of the clamours by themselves raised about its obligation , established by a law , that none shall be admitted to publick trusts in universities , schools , or the church , who will not renounce its obligation ; but the covenanters did not think this a sufficient security in their case ; mr. calamy tells us in his fore-mentioned speech , in the name of himself and the reverend ministers with him , with great joy and triumph ; that there was not one person in the kingdom of scotland who is not a covenanter , and the●e shall not one abide among them who will not take this covenant . now this mr. calamy , from the beginning of the long parliament till the day of his death , was a ringleader of that party of men who do now plead for comprehension , & do earnestly at this time desire that they may be dispensed with , for renouncing the covenant . and if the counsel of these divines had been of as great authority in the army , as it was with the two houses , that which mr. calamy doth magnifie in scotland would have been a pattern for the same course to be taken in england . but seeing that the covenant is more sacred with them than the oaths of alleagiance and supremacy , will they , if they should be thus far condiscended to , be so grateful to his majesty as to declare their opinions against the war raised against his father ? will they in lieu of renouncing the covenant take an oath wherein they will assert , that the war raised by some lords and gentlemen sitting at westminster , under the name of the lords and commons assembled in parliament , by a commission granted to robert earl of essex , was unlawful , as being against the known laws both of god and of the nation ? if they refuse this , seeing that we know that many of these very men for whom comprehension is desired did preach up the war , if they will not declare against it , it is shrewdly to be suspected that their mind is the same as formerly , and the only change which is , is in the posture of affairs . but because it is now said in behalf of these men , that they allow episcopacy , and approve of a liturgy , nay of ours : that we may not be imposed upon by any ambiguous generality of words ; it is but requisite that in this they would declare particularly in what sence it is that they allow and approve both these things ; for if by things past we may guess at things present ; by episcopacy they may mean but presbytery ; by the bishop may be understood a kind of a prolocutor . every assuming presbyter may at any time say as one of them lately did , that he is as good a scripture bishop , as he w●o sate upon the bench ; or perhaps look upon a bishop only as a civil officer in order to some legal purposes : and by a liturgy they may mean only such a ●orm of prayers which may be either used or le● alone , or rather a thing which is ( if ever to be ) permitted only to those who are persons of such small sufficiency as not to be able to pray without it , and so instead of being a duty is intended meerly as a disparagement : or it may be the common prayer may be allowed as a way of spending the time till the company is got together , and then comes the prayer which the spirit is the immediate author of , and which alone hath the promise of any blessing made 〈◊〉 it . unless , i say , that these persons be required to express their minds very particularly in these and all other matters of debate between us , we shall be alway● a● a loss , how much of the good old cause they resolve to stick to ; and without some satisfaction in these things we have reason to be jealous , that they have , after so many other disappointments , pitched upon this contrivance , as a very likely one , whereby the church may , by their admission , become divided against it self : the pulpits may quickly be brought to speak in very different languages , and the hearers strangely distracted between the several abettors of the very distant measures of the old and new conformity . they who have kept out of the church thus long , rather than they would not have their wills in such and such matters in debate between us ; it is scarce to be hoped , that when they are brought into the church , by being yielded to in them , that they will not with the same art and industry keep up in the minds of men a good opinion of that cause which they have so long contended for : at the least they will take what care they can , that those of their former hearers whom they shall be able to bring along with them , ( if they shall be able to bring any store of their hearers along with them , which is no small question ) shall for ever be kept under bondage to every one of all those scruples , by which they have been able to retain dominion over them : and they who have all along been , observably upon all occasions , admirably expert at interpreting all things to the utmost possibilities of all advantage , as to themselves and their cause , it is not to be expected from them , that they will not interpret this condescention as a complete justification . and unless the modesty and gratitude of these men be strangely increased of late , beyond what it hath used to be , our governours are not like to receive any other return than this ; that god hath at length begun to return again , and in some sort to own his people and his cause : he hath now opened the eyes of the parliament , and let them see their error in imposing the renouncing the covenant ; and who knows what more a gracious god may do for so gracious a people ? and that reputation which hath thus long engaged them to pretend their cause of separation to be just , can do no less than continue to engage them to avow its having been necessary . so that the church will by this means be weakned by having one great security taken from her ; those men will be admitted into her , of whose affections and designs she hath abundant cause to be highly jealous ; and who , by obtaining their present demands , will , according to their old customs , be thereby emboldned with the like restless importunity to make more demands , and perhaps in a little time be inabled to take what farther they please , without so much as asking it : and by this means the people will become extremely divided , both amongst themselves and from the government . and when that is done , there will be so many left out of this comprehension , that the noise will not be much less than it is already : and whatever accession can be supposed to be made to the church by the coming in of her new friends , will be more than over-ballanced by the loss she will receive in the stability of her principles and the unity of her children : she will be the less able to defend her self against the exceptions of the romanists , and be at no small loss for an answer to the clamours of other sectaries , who can pretend as great grievances , and alledge as plausible reasons why they should be gratified ; so that the work of coalition ( as it is called in the newest word ) as often soever as it is done , will be just as often to begin again . as to any other particulars of that comprehension which is now so much endeavoured , seeing they have not thought fit to let us know them , i shall not venture to make a guess at them , but shall go on to another contrivance , and in the opinion of many a more promising one , and that is , toleration , which is frequently said to be an expedient which will gratifie many more , and more considerable persons than can be hoped to be brought within the compass of any one comprehension . now it is by no means a thing to be wondred at , if so be that the proposal of toleration be in it self at the first view very plausible , and in the eyes of very many persons exceeding acceptable : it looks like a privilege which every man hath an interest in , which , seing it is enjoyed by all alike , no man should take himself to have any cause to envy it to any other . now this liberty of conscience , however it hath obtained to be the general darling , yet , methinks , in the very name there is something which offers it self to our consideration , which is at least worth our enquiry ; whether the very demand doth not carry in it an exception against it self ? how doth it appear that conscience hath any such absolute right to liberty ? hath it no rule which it ought to walk by ? hath it no obligation to follow any besides its own light ? if this be not the case , then liberty and conscience are two words , which are very unfit in great variety of cases to be joyned together . i shall readily grant , that to act against our conscience is always a sin ; but then i shall add this further , that it is very frequently a grievous sin to act according to it : conscience may in some cases condemn , but there are very many cases wherein it cannot justifie . i know nothing by my self ( saith st. paul ) yet am i not hereby justified ; and farther , i may self thought verily that i ought to do many things contrary to the name of iesus , &c. the scripture tells us of seared consciences , reprobate minds , men whose minds and consciences are defiled . from all which expressions , it is very clear , that conscience is not a safe rule for any man to act by in his private capacity . and in the next place , as conscience is very far from being a safe rule for any man to act by in his private capacity ; so it is by no means advisable , that men should be so far trusted , as to teach according to it in any publick places : st. paul assures us , that by this permission dangerous contentions shall arise , by reason of the perverseness of men , when in the nature of the things there was no real cause for them , ● tim. . . they will strive about words to no purpose , to the subversion of the ●earers . and , ● tim. . . he tells us of seducing spirits , who teach the doctrine of devils : tim. . for many verses together , he describes a sort of very wicked men , of whom in the close he gives this character , that they have a form of godliness , but deny the power thereof ; that they creep into houses and l●ad captive silly women laden with divers lusts : and again we read of those who bring in damnable her●sies ; and again , which directly cometh up to the point in hand about toleration , whose mouths must be stopped . thus far therefore our way is clear ; . that according to the doctrine of the new testament , conscience is not its own rule , is not entirely left to it self in its own way of acting : . that those who are allowed to be publick preachers are not to be intrusted with an absolute liberty of propagating whatever opinions themselves either really are or shall pretend to be of ; of which i have already spoke , and therefore shall add no more upon that point besides the laying down some of the many inconveniencies which will unavoidably arise upon the granting of any such liberty in these two respects , . of religion , . of government . first , as to religion ; and here the case is very clear , that such a liberty is the most ready way in the world to make religion weak and despicable , by being crumbled into an unaccountable and every day encreasing variety of sects and schisms : what one other contrivance can possibly be thought upon , whereby to expose religion to the frequent and seemingly just scorn of unbelievers than this ? that it should by publick authority be openly exposed to all manner of ridiculous and incongruous pretences unto it , to all kinds of dotage and imposture , to all the folly and all the falseness which is to be met with among the sons of men : that every one who hath but a freak in his brain shall have free liberty , if he pleaseth , to christen it a motion of the spirit , and every humour though never so unheard of and extravagant , shall have by law a priviledge ( if it will but claim it ) to recommend its self as a degree of further light : here we shall see men shaking all day , as if the spirit came to them in convulsions , and as the humour increaseth we shall see them run naked about the streets , as if with the old man , they had put off all degrees of modesty : the scripture shall be frequently so interpreted , as that no man in his wits can possibly understand it , it both hath and may be allegorized so far as to leave no manner of sence or truth in any one word of all the history of it ; its laws may be so commented upon , as to carry in them no manner of obligation : among our selves the family of love had gotten a fancy that christ was not any one person , but a quality whereof many are partakers , that to be raised is nothing else , but to be regenerated or endued with the said quality , and the separation from them which have it , and them which have it not , is judgment● now where ever this liberty is indulged , the grand and concerning articles of our faith , our saviours taking humane nature upon him , the resurrection from the dead , and the last judgment , are all given away in exchange for two or three fanciful expressions . the history of the creation hath of old been made but an allegory ; the garden of eden a 〈◊〉 trope ; it is to little purpose to alledge that with equal reason it might be said , that by the whole race of mankind was not to be understood any real beings , but only so ●any handsome figures , and by the universe is not to be understood a creation , but a strain of wit , for reason in such like cases will be no more harkned to , than scripture : so likewise it 〈◊〉 been taught , that christ shall descend from heaven in a metaphor , and we be catched up into the air in a moral way ; the new heavens and the new earth are nothing else but the world changed by their example into their opinions : and if this liberty be allowed , all miracles and all mysteries will be quickly changed into so many whimsies ; for what is it which self-conceit cannot inspire , or madness prove , or that man admit , who cares not to know what himself means ; or whether he doth or not , if he be once got under the plausible shelter of liberty of conscience himself , what is it that he may not impose upon vast multitudes , who though never so well meaning in themselves , are yet liable to be overreached by the arts of other men : the dangers of this kind are not possible to be reckoned , because they encrease and vary at their own pleasure ; neither is there any man living , who can possibly tell us how many and how gross absurdities such a liberty as this may bring into the nation in the very next moment . this very devise of liberty of conscience , which many , who look upon themselves as wise men and no ill christians , are fond of , is the very same , by which one of its shrewdest adversaries did hope to drive christianity out of the world , and that too by its own assistance ; and to that end he granted a promiscuous liberty for all dissenting christians to enjoy the publick exercise of their several ways , in hopes thereby to engage one of them against another , and by that means to make his advantage upon all of them : for so we read of iulian , that when his long contrived project of restoring heathenism began to be put in effectual execution , that this was the course which he pitched upon , as that which was most likely to bring his design about , to grant liberty of conscience to all dissenting christians , as ammianus marcellinu● hath it lib. . vtque dispositorum roboraret effectum , dissidentes christianorum antistites cum plebe discissâ in palatium intromissos monebat , ut civilibus discordiis consopitis quisque nullo vetante religionisuae serviret intrepibus ▪ here was a man very tender of consciences , but what think we was his reason for all this indulgence and moderation , we may read it in the next words , quod agebat ideo obstinate , ut dissentiones augente licentiâ non timeret , unanimantem postea plebe●● nullas infestas hominibus bestias ut sunt sibi ferales plerique christianorum expertus . this wise and subtle adversary knew very well that this was a ready way to destroy christianity , to give a free liberty and a full opportunity for every one who pleased to divide it : so that this sage contrivance of ours is but the christianity of an heathen , the taking up the moderate counsels of a profest apostate ; and our wisdom in preserving religion doth express it self in those very ways , by which as wise men as our selves have thought the ready way to overthrow it . indeed it is hardly credible , that any person who understands humane●nature , who considers how many are its weaknesses , and how violent its passions , who is a judge of consequences , or hath at all observed the course of affairs , can in the least be fond of any such device as this kind of liberty , who hath not within himself a very great design against the present religion of that kingdom where he doth propose it . but , alas ! that is but a small part of this evil , even our common christianity will be hard put to it , if it must wrestle with all the difficulties which toleration will immediately bring upon it : that faith is in no great likelihood of remaining long pure and sound , which is exposed to whosoever pleaseth to corrupt and to defile it there is one principle well known amongst us , which where-ever it is admitted , there is no doctrine of faith whatever , nor rule of good life which can be able to stand before it , and that is the doctrine of new light , or private illumination : this is an evil which cannot be watched with too much care , because it always hath it in its own power to occasion how many and what kinds of mischief soever it self pleaseth ; and withall it is with great ease pretended to by every one who will ; and there are every day to be met with too many persons too readily disposed to be imposed upon by such pretences . some romanists have with great scorn insulted over the reformation , upon the account that this evil hath made a shift to creep into it ; whereas this is a difficulty which all religions are liable to be abused by ; a folly with which the church of rome doth exceedingly abound , and to which she is indebted for some of her chief orders , as being plainly founded in it . the quakers in england are neither more ridiculous , nor as yet so impious as the al●●brados were in spain , nor do the blasphemous phrenzies of david george exceed those of evangelium aeternum . this is an ill weed which will grow in all soils , and spread exceedingly ; and infallibility it self is but an equal plea , and therefore is , upon such occasions , glad to call in to its assistance its temporal advantages . this very pretence doth scarce leave a man within the possibility of being confuted ; what authority is ●here to be produced which is fit to come in competition with this perswasion , that i have an immediate suggestion from the holy ghost : the scripture it self hath but one and the same original , and is of an elder date , and , if i please , is as imperfect in respect of my revelation , as that of moses was in respect of that of christ. this evil is liable to to be as endless as thought or art can make it , as boundless as imagination , and hath as great variety of shapes to appear in , as there are possibilities in the world for any man to be either willing to deceive or liable to be deceived . what a fatal influence the now contended for liberty of conscience had upon the most considerable articles of religion , within a small compass of time , we may learn from the forementioned testimony of the london , and the attestation of the cheshire-ministers . i shall set down some of the articles against which those errors were , but will not defile my paper with the errours themselves . against the divine authority of holy scriptures ; against the nature and essence ; against the being of any god ; against christ as mediator ; against the obligation of the moral law ; against ordinances ; against lawful oaths , against the future state of mens souls after this life , denying the immortality of them . but besides religion , such a liberty will be quickly found to have a sad influence upon government and the publick peace . and as this sort of liberty will expose truth to perpetual and unavoidable dangers , and withal hath left it no possibility of a sufficient defence against them ; so it hath a natural tendency towards destroying the publick peace : and not only so , but to the disturbance of all societies , and even of every private family . opinions have a great influence upon actions , and engage men not only upon good , but upon very bad practices . he who is allowed to raise a sect , hath a very fair opportunity put into his hands of making himself the head of it , as being such a party ; and by being permitted to have their consciences , will have but too many opportunities of having their persons and purses at his disposal likewise . hence it is , that though some princes have been sometimes forced to suffer dissenters from the established profession ( by reason that they were so numerous , or so subtil , that they could not go about to suppress them without discovering how unable they were to do so ; ) yet they always looked upon such dissenters as the next door to enemies ; and accordingly had a perpetual eye and guard upon them , as those who of all other were the most likely to be the authors or occasion of the next disturbance . it is a great mistake , though it be often found amongst the greatest persons , that sects are things fit only to be despised , because that men of parts and fortune are neither easily nor usually seduced by them : but it ought likewise to be considered , that ambition , revenge , covetousness , humour and discontent may engage those who are not in earnest themselves seduced , to appear in all seeming earnest to seduce others . i shall readily grant , that both the beginning and the greatest growth of sects are amongst the meanest people , those whose fortunes are as low as their understandings ; but then they do not stay altogether among them , but spread farther ; like a pestilence , which may begin in an obscure alley , but in a little time no part of the city or kingdom may be free from it . besides , are not the vulgar people the hands , the tools , the instruments which the greatest must always make use of ? and is it not known by frequent experience , that a deception once got among them , may by a little connivence thrive so far , as to be able to dispute for superiority , and instead of demanding an indulgence , refuse to give one ? and , by how much the ordinary sorts of people are less masters of reason than others , with so much the greater ease they may be wrought upon to engage in those courses ; which by men who understood better , would be looked upon as evidently unreasonable . now this is an error which hath been frequently committed by wise men in great places : they look upon the errors and follies which the common people are drawn into , as things very fit to be indulged , as being only so many occasions for themselves to droll upon ; but by their so doing they have often found the return , which abner did of sporting himself with lives , as these mighty sages do with lives and souls , sam. . . let the young men arise and play before us ; but with him they are at last convinced , that , ver. . it is bitterness in the latter end . the safety of all government doth depend upon this , that it is certainly stronger than each single person , and in taking care of this , that as to any kinds of union or joyning forces together , that there may be no such things but under the guidance of the magistrate , and by his appointment ; & so long as this is taken effectual care of , though the discontented persons be never so many , yet because they have no way of uniting ; they are but so many single persons , scattered , weak and insignificant , having no opportunities of any common council , they can never joyn in any common design . but let them once have but so much as any one phrase to know one another by , any setled place for their constant meetings , and a set and known company for them to meet with , and any bond whatever which doth unite them , and they presently become a distinct people , and begin to be dangerous , as having an interest , counsels and body of their own , which the government is not manager of , nor privy to , but shall quickly find it self highly concerned by all means to provide against . let it once be permitted to crafty , active , talking , lying and designing men , to instil into the minds of all sorts of people , the necessity , usefulness , piety , or rare excellency of any one thing or contrivance whatever , beyond that which the present laws and establishment doth provide for ; and is not here a most readily prepared matter for any bold boutefeu to work upon , who will take upon him to help the nation immediately to so fine a thing ? hath not any such undertaker a vast and already formed party in all parts of the kingdom ? let him but represent to them , that the present government is the only rub in their way , between them and their so fancied happiness ; and is it not very likely that this will be the very next consequent resolution ; let us remove that obstacle , so publick a good is much to be preferred before any particular form or family ; the welfare of the nation is the great end , and governours themselves were created but in order to that , and consequently are to cease as often as that end can be better attained without them . though the pretence be nothing but conscience , yet every discontent will joyn to make the cry both loud and general . schisms do of themselves naturally grow into parties , and , besides , are most plausible occasions for any else to joyn unto them ; the gathered churches are most excellent materials to raise new troops out of , and when they are thus fa● prepared , they are easily perswaded to be at the service of any one who will attempt to lead them on . if all men were wise and honest , if every one understood well , and would act accordingly ; upon that supposition conscience might have a much greater trust reposed in it than can be now adviseable : and if we could flatter our selves so far as to take that to be the case , this would no more supersede the necessity of the coercive power of laws in religious matters , than it would upon the same grounds supersede it in civil ones . for no laws which ever were or can be in the world can possibly provide in any degree for those large measures of justice , equity , mercy , and all kinds of fair dealing , which would infallibly every where be met with , if all men did take care to keep a good conscience ; truth , justice , temperance , &c. are things which every man's conscience doth and must needs tell him that he is obliged to , yet were it not for fear of the law , we should find that conscience is not alone to be trusted in these which are her natural and familiar ojects : and this is a thing so known and granted on all hands , that it is not usual with men in their dealings among one another to trust purely , in matters of any moment , to one anothers conscience . and seeing we acknowledge that conscience may so often prevaricate in these plain and obvious things , where she is so easily found out ; we have no great cause to trust to her fidelity , that she will not also dissemble in those things which are more remote and obscure , and hidden from the very best of our discovery . let those therefore , who plead for liberty of conscience , consider ; that there are two sorts of men , which ought to be provided against , to keep this contrivance of theirs from being absolutely the most senceless and dangerous in the whole world ; and upon their grounds it doth not appear to be so much as possible to provide against them : first , those who are not honest , and these may pretend conscience if they will , and in that case religion and government ▪ truth and peace are like to be most admirably secured , when they are authoritatively permitted to the arbitrary management of every designing atheist , who will but take upon him to be an enthusiast : and in the second place , as all men are not honest , so all men are not wise , and as the former sort may pretend conscience , so the latter are perpetually liable to be imposed upon by the innumerable , however absurd pretences unto it : those laws are not fitted for the temper of this world , which are made upon this supposition , that every one who looks demurely is presently in good earnest , that men say nothing but what they think ; let us but consider that it is very possible for men to personate , and then we shall not be very eager to desire a general license for every one who hath a mind to become a publick cheat. and then from these diversities of judgments , and many times when they are only different forms of speaking , there will immediately arise great distances of affection : for these divisions , of reuben there will be great thoughts of heart , sur●●zings , censures , jealousies , raylings , evil speaking , animosities , peevishness , malice , perverse disputings , & every evil way : each congregation will have at least some one little proposition peculiar to its self , which all its proselytes must be known by , which all their thoughts must be perpetually running upon , & every one else must be called upon to come up to : the smallest gathered church cannot hold its members together , unless it hath some particular thing to engage them upon , & to have them known by , for they cannot with any face separate from all mankind , but they must have something to say for it , this contrivance however it be absurd and dangerous will notwithstanding that , have alwayes many who will be very fond of it ; for it is a most ready way for every forward fellow to think himself some body , because he hath adopted himself into such a sect ; and then the next thing which he is to think upon is to try if he can improve the notion a little farther ; for if so , he shall be the more taken notice of : and if he finds that his addition is but a little taking , he will then forsake his masters , to set up for himself , divide from that church of which he hath been long a precious member to gather a purer of his own . and so his new light will serve most bravely for himself to shine in . but if this had been a new and unheard of invention , the contrivers might then have been allowed to entertain vast hopes of it ; but alas , it hath been often tryed , and hath alwayes brought confusion along with it : and is it to be wondred at , that in variety of worships the one doth look upon the other as erroneous , and perhaps impious ? and then how lamentably must that city be divided whose inhabitants think themselves bound , as they love god to hate one another ; and it hath been often seen , that a common enemy hath crept in at these intestine divisions , and destroyed both , while the one , by reason of different communions , did not enough care to help the other . be our apprehensions about divine matters never so different , i grant that we ought not for the sake of them to be wanting in the common duties of humanity to one another , or in our mutual endeavours after the publick good. i readily grant , that to be wanting in our assistance in either of these cases , is a great error ; but alas ! it is too general an one , and law-makers are to consider not only what men ought , but what they use to do . why shall i fight ( saith one ) for a prince who is an idolater ? and why should i ( saith another ) take any care to relieve that city which is only a bundle of schismaticks , the greatest part whereof are in my esteem blasphemers likewise ? ieroboam understood this very well , he did not cast off the true god , but only set up another way of worship , as easily concluding that by perswading them to be of another religion , he should easily keep them to be another kingdom ; when their faiths were once divided , the nations would never care to unite again . and pray , tell me , what shall a prince do in that case , where are diverse ways of worship allowed and frequented in the same nation ? shall he discountenance the professors of any one , by keeping them out of all office and employment ? if so , he disobligeth that whole profession , loseth so many hearts ; who sure will think themselves to be very hardly dealt with , in that they are disrespected only out of their zeal for god , and because they follow the best of their light. and what are they like to think of such a state , which doth refuse to employ them meerly upon this account , because they have tender consciences , and dare not be present where the gospel is de●iled by a profane mixture of humane inventions ? or , secondly , shall the prince carry himself equally and indifferently towards all perswasions , countenance and prefer them all alike ? this can hardly be , because that he himself must be of some one , and that will think it self not fairly dealt with , if it have not some preeminence : and when he endeavours to shew himself indifferent to all perswasions , there will enough be immediatly ready to give it out , that he makes use of all religions for his own ends , but himself is really of none ; and so perpaps none of them will be really for him : and thus by endeavouring to displease neither party , he shall certainly displease them both , at least the zealots of all sides will represent him at the best as one lukewarm , and as such , only fit to be spit out of all their mouths . men may talk of their fine projects as long as they please ; but surely where the church is already so settled , as that it hath a great dependance upon the government , and the government hath a standing influence upon that , those politicks must needs be very strange , which go about to alter or unsettle or put any check upon such a constitution : and in opposition to a clergy thus regulated , it is no kindness sure to the monarchy , to to go about to set up such a ministry 〈◊〉 depends purely upon the people : and when the whole method of the preachers maintenance and reputation must consist in the various arts by which he can either guide or follow the several humours of each of his congregation ; no man can tell what it is possible for a good crafts-master to perswade the multitude unto . but this danger , how great and plain soever it be , yet in the opinion of the great promoters of the desired ecclesiastical confusion , is so far from being looked upon as any inconvenience , that it is in all likelihood the true and real and only reason which makes them to be so very fond of it , to desire it with so great earnestness , and never to be put off by never so many denials and disappointments . the church is one great rub in their way between them and the crown ; and therefore because they find that they cannot directly demand the present removal of it , they have bethought themselves of two plausible methods whereby to prepare the way for doing it another time : first , to open the door to let the churches old enemies in upon her , and for all the care which shall be taken to give them liberty , to bring their old enmities along with them ; and by that means the church will be not only weakned , by being divided within her self , but besides there will be a part of her self always ready to betray her , and give her up . one sort of the projectors desire only thus much , and that will satisfie them : another sort there are , who think it not sufficient that the church be only weakned within , unless there be a free liberty for whosoever pleaseth to train up as many as he can prevail with to come and learn of them the several ways by which the church , when occasion offers it self , may be set upon from without : and it is well known , that these gentlemen are not unacquainted with new models of civil as well as ecclesiastical administration . and having thus pointed at some few of the innumerable inconveniences of toleration , i shall add once more , that some care ought to be taken of the present device of comprehension ; that if it be thought fit to be granted , it may be upon this condition , that all who receive benefit by it , should be obliged publickly before their congregations to declare their approbation of the liturgy , in a form to be appointed by authority for that purpose , and to renew that declaration on certain days to be likewise appointed , and to read the common prayer themselves , and not to leave it always to mean persons , who shall only be appointed to slubber it over , to spend the time till the company is got together ; and then one of the precious men shall come and put himself in all the most solemn postures imaginable , and in fact say to the people ( as dr. heylin's chamber-fellow was served after a short grace ) dearly beloved , let us praise god better : and withal , that security should be taken , that this conformity of theirs be not used merely as an expedient to keep them in publick employment ; that so they may be the more ready , when opportunity offers it self , to assist providence in carrying on the great work of a thorough reformation . and this advice is by no means to be despised , as a thing perfectly needless , because that as great a conformity as for ought appears is now intended , hath been formerly advised and submitted to upon this very account , to prepare matters the better for an intended change. this mr. calamy ( in his apology against mr. burton , quoted in the collection called evangelinur armatum , p. . ) alledgeth for himself to have been one of his own old arts : as for the service-book , let mr , burton know , that at a meeting at my house , it was resolved by above a hundred ministers , after a long debate , upon divers weighty considerations , that all that could in their iudgments submit to the reading of some part of it , should be entreated for a while to continue so to do . to this our dissenting brethren then present did agree , and one of them made a speech to manifest his concordance . this is enough to give any man satisfaction for the late laying it down . and proportionably to this , it is a thing well known , that some very well affected to the good old cause , do for all that conform to the use of the ceremonies of the church , under the sanctified excuse of submitting to them as burthens . now these , i think , are competent fore-warnings to authority to take care to secure it self against any ill use which is possible to be made of any abatements towards that sort of people , who in this very case do profess themselves to act without sincerity , and to make use of all the arts which they can think of . and in the next place their great earnestness in desiring to be dispensed with for renouncing the covenant , doth in them plainly shew a very great fondness remaining toward it , and if yielded to , would in authority appear more than a tacit confession , that it had hitherto been to blame in its zeal against it . their restleness in this is not to be wondred at , because they are sworn never to be wrought over to an indifferency or detestable neutrality : but that authority should be wrought over to shew kindness to such a combination against it self , or that any should propose it to the old cavaliers to give leave to their old persecutors to believe themselves under the oath of god , to bring every one of them to condign punishment , is a thing which may justly raise all mens wonder . i confess indeed , that by the last bill of comprehension it was provided ( and so perhaps it may in this ) that no man should dare to say , that the covenant doth oblige under such a penalty , &c. but it is much to be doubted that such a provision may not be sufficient ; for let us consider this one thing : those persons , concerning whom our present debate is , are such as are to be entrusted to be guides of consciences , and if this renunciation be once taken off , then they have liberty enough to insist upon the obligation of the covenant amongst their confidents , without coming within the danger of the law. let us remember that the holy league in france was taken by above half the kingdom , before the king did ever so much as hear of it . but , to make this matter plain , i shall propose a case very like it in our own kingdom . suppose that any man out of the great tenderness which he pretends to have for the consciences of men , should propose that the oaths of allegiance and supremacy should be by act of parliament taken away , upon this very pretence , that oaths are not to be multiplied but upon great necessity ; that the consciences of men are nice and tender things , and ought not to be disquieted by being pried into ; and disputable points of government are not fit matters to be put into an oath : ought not such a person to be looked upon with a very jealous eye , as being ill affected to his majesties person , his crown and dignity ? he himself and all his favourers will , no doubt , reply , no ; because he doth at the same time offer a security in it self as good and more fit to be taken , and that is this , that it shall be very punishable for any man to say , that our soveraign lord king charles is not lawful and rightful king of these realms , &c. and that the pope hath any power or authority to depose the king , &c. he , i say , who should propose this alteration , ought in all reason to be looked upon as a better subject to the pope than to the king. and so likewise , and for the same reason , those , who with so great eagerness and importunity have so often endeavoured the taking away the renunciation of the covenant , ought to be very much suspected , lest they have in their eye something which is of much higher consideration with them , than either the settlement of the church or the safety of his majesty . it now remains that i consider the great objections which are urged against all which is already said , which are these , that comprehension , say some , others toleration , others both , are fit to be granted ; . by reason of the great numbers who do desire it : secondly , in respect of their great merit , they being persons in whom doth consist a great part of the sobriety , industry , frugality and wisdom of the nation , and particularly the presbyterians have deserved well of his majesty . thirdly , it is very adviseable to grant a liberty at this time to these persons by reason of the great assistance which they are able to afford us against popery ; and fourthly , that if a liberty be not given , it will be a very great inconvenience to trade . fifthly , toleration of several forms of religion , is a thing which we may see a good effect of among our neighbours in france and holland : lastly , civil penalties are of no use in religion , but only to make hypocrites . to all which pretences i return this . first , that the numbers of these men are not in any degree so great as they do pretend ; it is indeed one of their great and old arts to make all the shew they can possibly , and to boast of those numbers which they cannot shew ; one who is as well acquainted with the muster rolls of these parties as any man , doth plead for an indulgence by this very argument , that they are not so considerable as that any danger needed to be feared from them . peace-offering , p. . what are we that publick disturbance should be feared from us , nec pondera rerum nec momenta sumus ; by what way or means , were we never so desirous , could we contribute any thing thereunto ? what designs are we capable of ? &c. so that it seems this is an argument which they can either use or lay aside , as occasion offers it self : they can either wheedle authority into pity and forbearance upon the account that they are so inconsiderable , as that no danger can possibly be feared from them ; or otherwise they can hectour authority , as being so considerable , as that there is no danger so great , but if they are disobliged , it may reasonably be feared from them . in the second place , is it any wonder that these men do appear in some numbers , considering how easily many honest well-meaning persons may be seduced by the zeal and vehemence of some who are seduced themselves , and the various arts of others whose great design is to seduce as many as they can possibly : and again , are there not some remainders of the old army yet alive , committee-men , sequestrators , purchasers of crown and church lands , and otherwise interested in the late rebellion ? besides vast multitudes of the common people depending on them , who must needs be glad of so many solemn occasions of meeting one another , by which they keep up their acquaintance and correspondence , and put a very serious face upon their goad old cause , and find many opportunities to he mutually serviceable to one another in their private affairs , and of joyning counsels against the publick . and do they not breed up their children and relations in the very same principles with themselves ? now the greater numbers there are of such people so much the greater care there ought to be taken that they be not permitted to meet together . the meeting-place is very well fitted for a religious rendevouz , and the spiritual master of the camp may not only deliver out his orders at the same time with , but may stamp upon them the authority of the oracles of god. but in the next place , if the government would please but to own it self , the numbers of these men would presently appear to be very inconsiderable ; and this hath no oftner been tryed than it hath been found to have been accompanied with good effect . in queen elizabeths dayes , these mens predecessours were very troublesome , made grat noise with their great numbers , and the great dangers which would arise by disobliging them ; and they had some great favourers in court upon some accounts , which were not very religious ; but when by reason of their insolent provocation in the year . when the queen was in all her fears from the spanish armado , and in a condition , as they thought to deny them nothing ; they so far provoked her , as to alienate her mind for ever from them : their boasted of numbers did immediately abate , and the laws were immediately submitted to , as soon as ever they did perceive that it was but in vain to think of longer triffling with them : so likewise it hapned in king iames his dayes , their loud clamours were presently silenced , as soon as ever the king declared himself resolute at the conference at hampton-court : nor would the act of uniformity have had any less effect , if it had not been accompanied with a general discourse at the same time of a toleration to follow immediately upon it . and i appeal to the consciences of several of the preachers in the separated congregations , whether they did not leave their livings upon this very hope , which without it they would have never done ? besides , the numbers of the dissenters ought by no means to be looked upon , as an argument for toleration by any , because , it is not looked upon as such by themselves : this very point being a thing about which themselves are highly divided , and would by no means if they could help it grant to one another . but besides their numbers , they are now to be considered in point of merit ; but this is a part of the argument in which i do delight so very little , as that i must gratifie my own temper so far , as to say very little in it . the faults of other men are things which i by no means delight to dwell upon , even when it is necessary , i take it to be very irksome : as they are particular persons , i have nothing to say to any one of them , and whatever degrees any of them have attained to in piety and virtue , in any kind of intellectual , moral , and religious accomplishments , i pray god that they may every day increase more and more in them , and that both here and hereafter they may receive the comfort and reward of whatever is truly good in them . but as they are a party , i take it to be very clear , that their merit hath not been very great , either to the crown or nation , and in this it were easie to be very large , for one who delights in that which to me is a very ungrateful employment . in the histories of queen elizabeth , king iames , king charles the first ; there is too much to be found on this argument , and his majesty which now is , when he was in the hands of these men , what usage he did receive from them , though his royal clemency hath been graciously pleased to pardon , yet his loyal subjects have not quite forgot it . as to the next pretence , that it is adviseable to grant these men an indulgence at this time , by reason of the great assistance which they are able to afford us against popery : this is such an objection which the regular sons of the church will scarce be able to refrain themselves from looking upon without some indignation : the writings of the bishops and episcopal divines have hitherto been had in great esteem over all the reformation ; no men thought to have had a better cause to defend ; no men looked upon as better able to defend it : not to mention the many worthies in queen elizabeth , and king iames his dayes , whose names are , both at home and abroad , had in great and deserved honour : i shall only mention some few who since the beginning of the present controversie have wrote against the puritans as well as papists , and accordingly have fell under the indignation of both parties , viz. arch-bishop laud , arch-bishop bramhal , bishop taylor , doctor hammond , and mr. chillingworth . how many ages will the nonconformists take to breed up a man equal to any one of these ? bishop sanderson , a person of known learning and judgment , in a preface to a body of sermons , printed some years before his majesties return , takes occasion to declare his opinion concerning the controversie between the church of england , and church of rome , as it useth to be handled by the non-conformists ; his words are these : that they preach against popery , i not at all mislike , only i could wish that these two cautions were better observed served than ( as far as i can conjecture of the rest by the proportion of what hath come to my knowledge ) i fear they usually are by the more zealous of that party : first , that they do not through ignorance , prejudice , or precipitancy , call that popery which is not , and then under that name and notion preach against it ; and then secondly , that they would do it with less noyse and more weight ▪ &c. now it is well known , that bishop sanderson was a person of great learning and judgment , and withall a person of very great humility and modesty , and who did very little delight in undervaluing the meanest person living ; and yet he expresseth his thoughts concerning the writings of the non-conformists against the church of rome , to be liable to these two not inconsiderable defects : first , that they did not understand the question ; secondly , that they did not know how to pitch upon such arguments as were fit to be made use of . and withall some pages afterwards he adds this , that even in these times of great distraction , and consequently thereunto of so great advantage for the factors for rome , none have stept into the gap more readily , nor appeared in the face of the enemy more openly , nor maintained the fight with more stoutness and gallantry than the episcopal divines have done , as their late learned writings testifie : yea and some of them such ( as beside their other sufferings ) have layen as deep under the suspicion of being popishly affected a● any other of their brethren whatsoever : that by the endeavours of these episcopal divines some that were bred papists have been gained to our church , others that began to waver , confirmed and settled in their old religion , and some that were fallen from us recovered and reduced , notwithstanding all the disadvantages of these confused times ; and of each of these i am able to produce some instances . but i profess sincerely , as in the presence of god , and before the world , that i have not known ( at least i cannot call to remembrance ) so much as one single example of any of this done by any of our anti-geremonian brethren , whether presbyterian or independent . now whether our separating brethren have been improved in their abilities , or have been more fortunate in their successes in their disputings with the romanists since that time , it lies upon them to make out ; i am sure that the writings of the most eminent persons now among them were then extant : since which time there hath indeed appeared a body of sermons , being the united labours of sundry of them , but of any miracles which either have or are likely to be wrought by them , the world both is , and it is to be feared will be for ever silent . if therefore we take these men into the church , our church will be so much the less defensible , as having admitted into it persons whose principles are no way justifiable ; and withal with express leave not to renounce the most unjustifiable of all their principles . and for their assistance against the romanists , it doth not as yet appear , that it will be so valuable as to countervail the advantage we shall give the church of rome by taking these into our church . if we suffer them to remain in bodies distinct from the church , then the romanists have an advantage , if they please to use it , to take up what disguise themselves shall suppose to be fittest for them . how easie a thing is it for a priest to set up for a gifted brother ! and what one opinion is there imaginable , which may not be brought in under the pretence of a farther degree of new light ? whether all the stories be true of friars who have preached in meeting-houses , i have not had an opportunity of being so well informed , as to venture to say any thing ; but i am sure , if they will , they have there fair opportunities offered : and if it be not as yet seasonable to set up directly for their own church , they may however prepare the way by pulling down of ou●s . and notwithstanding all the zeal which the non-conformists do declare against popery , it is well known that they know very well how to joyn both counsels and arms together : the leading men of both parties in ireland were wonderfully great together , all the while that the design was managing against my lord of strafford ; and here in england , in the declaration which the king set forth concerning the success of the battel at edge-hill on october . . he hath left this memorial to all posterity ; all men know the great numbers of papists which serve in their armies , commanders and others ; the great industry they have used to corrupt the loyalty and affection of all our loving subjects of that religion ; the private promises and vndertakings that they have made to them , that if they would assist them against vs , all the laws made in their preivdice shovld be repealed , &c. as to the next objection , that the suppressing of conventicles will be a great hindrance to trade : i must needs confess that this is a thing which would have great weight , if it had any truth in it . that trade is a thing of great and general concern , is so plain and confessed a thing , as that there is no need of spending many words whereby to prove it : our wisest kings have always thought themselves concerned to make laws and all manner of provisions whereby to promote and encourage it ; and there is scarce any man so mean , but that he doth in one degree or other receive some benefit by our commerce with other nations . not to enter into particulars , i shall only name one , which is indeed the measure of all the rest , and that is money ; which is not a thing of our own growth , but it is a thing without which those things which are of our own growth , cannot without great difficulty pass from one hand to another . our ships are our bulwarks , nay , they are more than so ; for they not only keep other nations from coming to us , but they carry us to them : they make the sea to be our earth , the whole world to be as it were our native soil , by bringing home to our doors whatsoever groweth in any corner of the universe . it was trade which brought tyre to be called the city of ioy , the crowning city , whose merchants were princes , and whose traffickers the honourable of the earth , esay . , . it was by the benefit of trade that this city is again said to have heaped up silver as dust , and fine gold as mire in the streets , zech. . . it is absolutely necessary for us , if we will be secure of our own land , to keep up a proportionable strength at sea. and besides this necessity in point of safety , it brings innumerable advantages in point of improvement ; carrying from us our own commodities which we can spare from our own use , and in return bringing us whatsoever the world doth afford , for use , delight , strength or ornament . it is a thing by which vast multitudes do alone subsist and altogether depend upon , which great numbers do thrive and flourish by ; by which his majesty hath a brave addition to his revenue , and every man besides doth in his degree find many comforts and conveniencies in his way of living : it is the great employer and rewarder of all sorts of ingenuity and of industry ; by means whereof we every day see men advanced to wealth and honour , to live comfortably to themselves , and with great benefit to their country . it is a thing in it self clear , that trade is very highly and universally beneficial , and those who are but ordinarily versed in it are able to reckon many admirable advantages which i cannot so much as think upon . it remains now that i enquire whether there be any such inconsistency between trade and uniformity in religion , as is generally ( though without any ground which i could ever hear ) pretended ? these two things have in their nature no manner of repugnancy , and if there be any repugnancy , between them , it doth not proceed from them themselves , but from something else , which it is to be hoped may be removed , and neither of these two things the worse for the removal of it ; and what that is i shall now enquire . it is well known that this argument from trade hath been used in former days , when there was no manner of occasion for it ; but however it served as a pretence , whereby to amuse the people , and make them clamour against the government . i instance in the case of my lord of strafford : what a noise was raised all over the town , that there could be no trade in the kingdom till execution was done upon him : and whosoever raiseth any such cry shall have always some ready to joyn with him in it , because there will be always those who will want trade : and let him but tell them that the court and the bishops are the only causes of this their want , and it is no wonder if they cry out with the loudest , down with them , down with them to the ground . indeed if the bishops in england did pretend to the same power with the presbyteries in scotland , then indeed it might so happen that the traders might have some cause to be jealous of them ; for those gentlemen did at the assembly at glascow , . pass an act concerning salmon-fishing ; another about salt-pans , roger l' estrange , p. . by act of assembly at dundee . they prohibited all trading with any of the king of spain's dominions , and they put down the munday-market at edinburgh , spotswood , p. , . but in this case the shoo-makers thought fit to assert their christian liberty against the impositions of the presbytery , and tumultuously gathered together , and threatned to chase the ministers out of town ; upon which the market continued : which , as that grave historian tells us , did cause much sport at court , where it was said , that rascals and soutars could obtain at the ministers hands what the king could not in matters more reasonable . that trading hath , ever since the restauration of his majesty , been very high , notwithstanding the many complaints about it , it is very evident to any man who is never so little acquainted with the custom-house ; but that it hath not answered to the height of all mens hopes , is not to be wondred at , if we consider some things which have hapned , which the act of uniformity was no way concerned in : first , there was a war with france and holland , by which it was not to be avoided , but that many merchants must needs become very great sufferers : secondly , at the very same time there was a raging plague , not only in london but in most of the other trading places of the nation ; which did not only sweep away great numbers of our trading people , but may easily be supposed to have had an unhappy influence upon trade it self : thirdly , to accompany these two great difficulties there came a dreadful fire , the loss by which is inestimable : and fourthly , there hath been a second dutch war. now there are none of all these things can happen to a nation , but trade must unavoidably suffer by , and feel it ; and then the wonder will be very little if we consider that we have suffered by them all . and these are things so publickly known , that it is to be admired , that men should have the confidence to take no notice of any one of them ; but if they hear of any difficulties which the trading people do wrestle with , presently overlook all these notorious causes , and enter into long harangues about common prayer and ceremonies . i may add that besides the fore-mentioned calamities ; if we are out-done in point of trade by our neighbours in holland , it is not to be wondered at , if we consider the nature of our country , and the manners of our people . our country hath in it self a great plenty of all things necessary for the life of men , which holland hath not ; they must trade or they cannot live , which is not our case : and if necessity makes men expert , and their being expert brings them to thrive ; it is not to be wondred at : it is this very necessity which every day makes vast numbers among them , glad to submit to all the labours & hazards of all the seas in the world , & all this purely to support their lives with very course fare , and very small wages ; now the goodness of our country affording to our people a more comfortable subsistence upon much easier terms than is to be had among them , is one plain cause why our people are not easily to be brought to take that pains , run into those dangers and submit to those severe terms , which with them is not less than absolutely necessary : not to say any thing of the return of their long voyages , what vast advantages do they make by fishing upon our own coasts , which we alwayes complain of , but will by no means betake our selves unto . again he who hath got a vast sum of money by trading , hath here in england a perpetual conveniency of purchasing land with it , and by that means he himself or his son doth become a country gentleman , which in holland is not to be done ; by which means trade is amongst us given over , when men come to be masters of such great sums of money as to be best able to command it , and to reap the most considerable advantages by it : in holland because trade is the thing which every one is to trust to , their wives and children are all instructed in the mysteries , and inured to the business of it , and so the stock and experience of a family descends from father to the son , and increaseth from generation to generation : now it is far from being a miracle , that their merchants should be able to out-do ours , who are frequently left by their parents as large or larger sums of money to begin with , as ours take themselves to be very well satisfied with and give over : they go on and improve what we look upon as more adviseable barely to enjoy , and by that means prevent an increase which would have come easily , and too often waste and consume what they in a few years are by reason of their great stocks inabled without difficulty to treble . and besides that different way of disposure of the plenty of the rich which is between them and us : they make another and greater advantage of the necessities of the poor , than we either do or can do , or it is fit for us to do : they make their people to work harder , fare harder than any of ours will do , to take smaller wages , and by that means they are something helped in being able to under-sell us : and besides the masters of trade do themselves live much more frugally than we do in point of dyet and apparel , and other heights of living , and studiously avoid many unnecessary ways of expence , which we are ( perhaps too apt ) to be fond of . and whatever is expended must needs take off so much from improvement ; which consideration prevails with them to be very sparing till they are very rich , and not to pretend to any of the wayes of vanity , till they have brought themselves into a condition to carry on their material concerns with the best advantage . now is it any wonder , if there were nothing more in the case than this , that in trade they should much out-do us ? and there is little doubt to be made of it , that he who is better acquainted with that people than i am , will be able to reckon many other particular things wherein they differ from us in order to this great design , which have no manner of relation to liberty of conscience , and which would have the same effect without it , as they can possibly have by it . as to our selves and our present case , there are but three things ( which i can learn ) pretended , by reason of which it is possible to be supposed , that the putting the act against conventicles in execution can draw any prejudice upon trade : first , that merchants who are not willing to conform , will not come over and settle in england : secondly , that the most eminent traders being non-conformists , they will either forbear trading to the utter undoing of all such workmen ( as weavers , &c. ) who do depend upon them , or leave the kingdom and carry their profitable trades along with them ; which will bring a great decay of trade here , and carry away that benefit , which england might have received , to that , whatever country they shall please to settle in . thirdly , that merchants beyond sea ( as roman catholicks , &c. ) will not be easily perswaded to trust their estates in the hands of those who are not of their own religion , and they who are , being lyable to such prosecutions as by our laws they are liable unto , will be fearful of having any estates in their own hands , and look upon it as more adviseable to forbear trading , rather than to be liable to so many difficulties ; these are the three most considerable objections which i have hitherto been able to meet with , and to each of these i have this to offer by way of return . as to the first , that this severity will discourage forraign merchants from comming over to us : it is a mistake to think that the church of england is such a bug bear to the rest of the reformation , as that the religion of that is looked upon as sufficient cause to hinder any great numbers of valuable persons from coming over to dwell in the nation . it is by no means clear that any store of them do at this time desire to transplant hither , and if they did , it is more than possible that some other of our civil constitutions may be greater bars in their way , than the act against conventicles , and particularly the want of a register : and that person must have more than ordinary intelligence , who can be able to secure us , that there are such numbers of considerable merchants at this time designing to come over , and are diverted only by the news of the bill against conventicles going to be put into execution ; as that the advantage and addition of those persons , and that trade to the nation should be 〈◊〉 great , as to overbalance those many and unavoidable inconveniencies which i have already shewed , that religion and government must be exposed to , by the grant of liberty of conscience . it doth not remain in our memories that in cromwel's time , when there was liberty given to all except papists and prelatists , that any were by that liberty encouraged to come over , at least not any such number as to be considerable . but suppose it should so happen , that some eminent merchants should design to come over ; i could never yet hear , nor am i wise enough to think upon any reason , why the act against conventicles should more fright them from england , than the inquisition doth from other countries , as spain , italy , and portugal ; and yet in those countries merchants have their factories , and drive their greatest trade : besides strangers merchants have as much encouragement in this particular , as can reasonably be desired ; the french have their church , the dutch theirs ; nay , even the iews have theirs , and all aliens of 〈◊〉 reformation have even by the very act of uniformity an express provision made for them , as to the enjoyment of their own way of worship at the pleasure of his majesty ; and if they do meet and keep to their own language , they need fear no more in this country than in any other . as to the second thing alledged , that if the act against conventicles be put in execution , the most eminent traders being non-conformists , they will leave off trading , and by that means undo all sorts of workmen who do depend upon them , and not only so , but leave the nation , and carry their trades away along with them . now that this is a thing of more noise than weight , will appear if we examine it with a little care. that some eminent merchants are non-conformists is undoubtedly true ; but that the most eminent are so , i am sure is not true , and could easily make it appear , if it were fit to mention the names of particular persons : but so far as it is true , doth any man in his wits imagine , that the act against conventicles will make them either quit their profitable . trades , or fright them out of the kingdom ? it doth neither condemn them to be hanged nor burned , neither doth it so much as touch their persons or estates for being non-conformists , but permits them to be of what religion they please , and alloweth them the free exercise of their religion in their families : it cannot therefore be easily imagined , that people will be so far out of their wits ( though i must confess that fanaticism will go a great way toward putting them out of them ) as to leave their settled and profitable trades , their native country , relations and friends , only because they cannot publickly shew the exercise of their mode of worship ; whereas they may freely enjoy it in their own families , and be known to do so , without the least interruption in any of the forementioned conveniencies : especially considering , that merchants of that eminency , that their case deserves to be taken notice of in a case of this publick concern now under debate , are very well able to keep ministers in thier own houses , and may do it with far less charge and prejudice , than either going into some other countrey , or the forbearance of their trades will put them to . but i shall for once suppose two things , whereof the first is evidently not true ; the second not at all likely , that the most eminent merchants are non-conformists , and that upon that account they will forbear trading : but even upon these terms it is to be hoped that those they deal with will not be utterly undone , whatever may be pretended : for put the case that three or four of the most eminent merchants should dy , or ( which i wish did never happen ) break ; every dayes experience shews us , that the clothiers they deal with , and consequently the weavers , and other workmen depending upon them , are not presently ruined , or so much as out of employment , but do immediately find other merchants to deal with ; the trades of those who either give over trading , or dy , being alwayes continued by their sons , or partners , or shared amongst those who have been their servants , or other merchants who deal in the same commodity , and to the same places . but suppose that the putting the laws in execution should so far distract any numbers , as to make them run out of the kingdom : let it be considered whither they will run , only into holland , where they cannot more freely enjoy the exercise of their religion in their own families , nor converse more freely with one another about it , than they may do here in england . all the difference is , that here they cannot meet in great numbers , and i leave it even to the non-conformists themselves to judge , whether that one conveniency of meeting in great numbers be a sufficient enticement to any rational man to exchange england for holland ? but put the case , that they do go into holland , or into some other country ; i did never yet meet with any man who could demonstrate to me how they could carry away their trade of merchandizing , though they were never so willing ; live in holland they may , and drive their usual trades here in england by their correspondents , in which case the nation will only loose the common profit of their eating , drinking and wearing : but to carry away the trade of the nation with them , is not possible , if they leave any merchants behind , as i am sure they will many more , and more considerable than any who will go away ; and by withdrawing themselves into other countries , they will but leave their trades to be shared amongst better men and better subjects ; so that by leaving the kingdom , instead of prejudicing , they would occasion a very great blessing unto it , by carrying away with them the divisions , but not at all the trade of the nation . when the act against conventicles was first made , this argument against it from trade was much insisted on , and i remember a story was raised about some great dealers in the west , who had with-drawn their stock , left off all business , by which means vast numbers of poor people , who did depend on them , were utterly undone : this matter seemed so considerable , as that several of the most eminent persons in the nation did meet together to consult about a remedy for so great , and as it was said , so growing an evil . but when this matter came to be enquired into , i could never learn that it had any thing more than a great deal of noise in it . there is an eminent city in this nation , inferiour perhaps to none except london , wherein this artifice was made use of to fright the magistrates from suppressing the conventicles : a great rumour was spread up and down , that if they might not have liberty to meet as formerly , then they would all with-draw their stocks , which would be a great detriment to his majesty , and a vast loss to the city , and leave the poor to be provided for by their respective parishes . but the raisers of all this clamour did quickly find that they had to do with those who were at least as great masters of trade as themselves , and accordingly it was undertaken by those who were very well able to make it good ; that if the dissenters did think fit to withdraw their stocks , there should immediate care be taken that the trade of the city should be carried on to the very same height which it was at , without the least abatement , or leaving any one work-man out of as good an employment as he had before : it was so far from being feared , that it was desired that they would withdraw their stocks , and that they may be the better encouraged to the so doing , provided that they would give security that they will not trade at all , neither by themselves , or others for them , nor in other mens names , they shall at any time have a good sum of money given them , if that may move them to it . let us not be vainly afraid , where no fear is : do we know the non-conformists no better than so , that we should suspect them of being apt to give over their profitable trades ? it had been a more rational jealousie to have looked upon them as more intent upon any imaginable way of getting of money , than on any settlement of religion , of what sort soever : and perhaps it would be not only no ill experiment to destroy this argument , but withall as likely a way to reduce them , as any which can be thought upon ; if there were a law , that those who refuse to conform , or at least who meet at conventicles , should not be permitted to trade : such a law indeed would be terrible to them ▪ and i hope the bare mention of it will make them forbear to use this kind of threatning us with that , which to themselves alone will be , if at all , dreadful . as to the third objection , that merchants beyond seas ( as roman catholicks , &c. ) will be afraid to trust their estates in the hands of those who are not of their own religion , &c. it is of so little weight as to require but a very few words ; it being evident that all kinds of merchants at this day do correspond , and alwayes have corresponded with others not of their own religion , papists with protestants , protestants with papists , &c. what other pretences there are in this case , wherein trade may seem concerned , i do not at present call to mind , and therefore shall go on to the next suggestion why a toleration of several wayes of religion may not do as well here as it doth amongst our neighbours in france and holland . as to france , the different professions of religion there , hath not been without many sad effects upon both parties , and hath so sanctified the animosities on each side , that it hath prevailed upon both , out of zeal to god , to let aliens and enemies into the bowels of their native country . but their case and ours is vastly different ; the hugonots , who are there tolerated , have those merits to plead which our non conformists have not ; and besides , they do not divide into several communions among themselves , neither would any such thing be permitted either by the government , or by the reformed church it self . as to holland , liberty of conscience is a thing which they were not brought to admit of by second thoughts , and after mature deliberation , but were necessitated upon by the nature of that cause upon which they first united among themselves , and the constitution of that government they fell into . one part of their cause was a deliverance from the impositions of the church of rome , as exercised after the imperious manner of the spanish government : now liberty in matters of conscience was the most natural word in the world in this case to be made use of ; freedom from the present pressures was the thing immediately in their eye , and many of their neighbours at the same time had the same aim : and as they were then only agreed what they would not have , but not at all what they would have , they invited all , that all might come to their assistance . but besides this , one religion was not easie to be brought into so many several independent governments , as go to the making up of those states . for as sr. william temple tells us , chap. . of their government , p. . they are not a common-wealth , but a confederacy of seven soveraign provinces united together for their common and mutual defence , without any dependance one upon another , &c. nay farther , that each of these provinces is likewise composed of so many little states and cities , which have several marks of sovereignty within themselves , & are not subject to the sovereignty of the province ; not being concluded in many things by the majority , but only by the universal concurrence of voyces in the provincial states . to this let us add the great variety of persons which by reason of the wars and persecutions of those times , came into , and embodied with them , out of france , germany , england ; and is it to be wondred at , if not knowing how to agree in any one way they permitted divers ? such a kind of liberty therefore as is now contended for amongst us , cannot so properly be said to be given by these states , as to have grown up with them ; and though it be a part of their nature , is one of their inconveniencies ; and this hath not been unperceived by them . in the affair of barnevelt it was found that religious differences could find a way of intermingling themselves with state-quarrels , and the states did then think fit to make laws about what they called erroneous in point of doctrine . as to religion the effects of liberty of conscience are in those countries plainly to be seen in the daily growth of popery and socinianism , and of men altogether indifferent , as to all kinds of articles of belief ; things which by the same means may be brought into england , and indeed upon the admittance of which , are not to be kept out of it . the states of the united provinces may indeed keep themselves safe from all disturbances which may arise from enthusiastick lunacies , by reason of their garrisons and standing army , without which no security can be had against the dangers of toleration . and seing that the case of england is in both these respects very different from that of holland , & it is to be hoped is intended so to continue , an argument of this nature taken from them ought by no means to be looked upon as what ought to conclude us by it . now that the argument from holland ought by no means to be looked upon as conclusive to us , either as to comprehension or as to toleration , doth appear in these two things : . in the constitution of our government , as being very different from theirs ; . in the condition of those people amongst us who dissent from the government . . as to the constitution of our government , comprehension is with us much more unsafe than the same thing would be in holland ; because the preachers do there depend altogether upon the states pay , and have no other tenure but during pleasure ; whereas a beneficed man with us hath a free-hold , and is not to be turned out but by a legal way : by which advantage he may fence with authority , and may publicky deliver such things which the people may very well understand , and yet the law may not be able to take any hold of him . and of this , i doubt , we should have sudden experience , if these men could be admited by law into sure and certain possessions upon their own terms ; and i am the more apt to suspect this , because i could never yet hear that this sort of men was ever wrought upon by being yielded to : and if their gratitude and good nature should upon this occasion begin , it will be so much the more welcome as it is less expected . but as comprehension among us , considering the persons who do desire it , and their declared principles , is much more unsafe than the same thing would be in holland , by reason of the constitution of our government in reference to the clergy ; so likewise for the same reason is toleration more unsafe here than it would be there , if we do consider the temper of those people who dissent from us . holland , as i have already mentioned , hath a standing army , and so considerable a one , that the publick peace shall infallibly be secured by it , whether their preachers , or whoever else can be perswaded by them , will or no. and how confidently soever the argument from holland is now adays made use of , to induce us to grant the like liberty , there was a time when this very argument was looked upon with great scorn : the author of wholsome severity , &c. doth censure the states of the united provinces with great sharpness upon this occasion , p. . and compares the toleration there given to differing sorts of dissenters , to the toleration given by the pope to courtizans . and besides , the various sorts of perswasions there do not use to question the lawfulness of tolerating one another , as ours have always done . i have already shewed , that the presbyterians would by no means tolerate the independents , if they knew how to help it ; and i shall now in a word shew , how unwilling the independents are to tolerate the presbyterians , or other sects which in their inclinations they do not favour . and this is no new discovery of mine , but a thing which did discover it self as early as there was occasion for it , as we read in teh forementioned book called wholsome severity reconciled with chistian liberty , p. . in new england there hath been severity enough ( to say no worse ) used against hereticks and schismaticks . and here i must appeal to the consciences of those who now plead so much for liberty of conscience and toleration in this kingdom ; were they able to root out the presbyterians and their way , and could find civil authority inclinable to put forth the coercive power against it , whether in that case would they not say , that the magistrate may repress it by strong hand , if it be not otherwise to be repressed ? it is not without cause that i put this quaere to them ; for m. s. p. . doth allow of the magistrates fighting against a doctrine which is indeed superstition , heresie or schism , and only pretendeth to be from god , when it is indeed from men . also that pamphlet called , as you were , p. . tells us , that it was neither gamaliel's meaning , nor mr. goodwins , that every way pretending to be from god must be let alone ; but that only we are to refrain and let it alone till we are out of danger of fighting against god , while we endeavour to overthrow it . now i assume that there are some who plead for liberty of conscience , who profess that they are certain , and fully assured upon demonstrative proofs , that the presbyterial way is not from god nor according to the mind of iesus christ : therefore according to their principles , they must allow of the putting forth of the civil coercive power against the presbyterial way , &c. mr. sterry likewise , who was the great preacher at whitehall in the dayes of mr. oliver cromwel , in a sermon preached , nov. . . called england 's deliverance from the northern presbytery , compared with its deliverance from the roman papacy , upon ier. . , . it shall no more be said , the lord liveth that brought up the children of israel out of the land of egypt ; but the lord liveth that brought up the children of israel out of the land of the north , &c. which sermon was printed by order of those gentlemen who pleased to call themselves a parliament , gives us such an account of the presbyterians , as was very grateful to the powers then in being ( though it was to the presbyterians that they owed their very being ; ) i shall lay down his very words : in his epistle he saith thus ; right honorable , i have desired in my preaching , in my prayers , to work with god even for the opening of the eyes of men , to see that the same spirit which lay in the polluted bed of papacy may meet them in the perfumed bed of presbytery , &c. to which purpose i have in my sermon represented the same spirit which dwells in the papacy , when it enters into the pvrer form of presbytery , as fvller of mystery , so fvller of despite and danger , &c. in the sermon it self ; many daughters have done vertuously , but thou excellest them all : so may england now say to the lord , in many mercies , as especially that in saving us from this bloody design of the egyptian papacy , thou hast done graciously and wonderfully ; but this last mercy , by which thou savest us from the black plots and bloody powers of the northern presbytery hath exceeded them all . and in that sermon he doth all along prefer the papists before the presbyterians , the consequence of which doth not amount to toleration of them : nay , our brethren in new-england , though their constitution hath as much of liberty of conscience in it , as any place in the world , yet have found it to be a thing so very troublesom , as that they are grown quite weary of , and have put very severe restraints upon it : of which in the second part of the excellent friendly debate , p. . and the third part , p. . any man may be abundantly satisfied ; and it is well known that quakers were hanged in new-england , which was a severity they did not meet with , either at rome or at constantinople . mr. edwards in his answer to the apologetical narration , p. . draweth an argument against toleration from the judgment of the divines in new england , who are against the toleration of any church government , or way but one . for the discipline of iesus christ ( as we have it in church government and church covenant discussed ( question . ) is not arbitrary , that one church may practise one form , and another another form , as each one shall please , but is one and the same for all churches , and in all the essentials and substantials of it unchangeable , and to be kept till the appearing of iesus christ : and if that discipline which we here practise be ( as we are perswaded of it ) the same which christ hath appointed , and therefore unalterable , we see not how another may be lawful : upon which account they will not in new-england tolerate brownists , anabaptists , antinomians , quakers , and so careful they are in this matter , that they make such enquiries into the inward sentiments of the minds even of the laity , as among us are not usual ; and in such points too wherein the publick government is not concerned . mr. cotton the greatest divine in new-england , and a precious man , is against toleration , and holds that men may be punished for their consciences , as appears by his letter to mr. williams , & mr. williams his answer , both printed , & his exposition on the vials , vial. . p. , . & vial. . p. . where he answers this objection , conscience should not be forced , and this is his answer ; why do you think that hereticks were not as conscionable in the old testament as now ? if any man had a conscience to turn men from god , he would have men of as much conscience to cut them off : so that upon the whole matter it doth appear that this loud demand of toleration is a very disingenious , nay a dishonest one ; because it is asked by those who ( if the power were in their hands ) would neither allow it to those they now ask it of , no nor so much as permit it to one another . one instance of their barbarity in this kind will not be tedious ; the presbyterians denied his late majesty the attendance of his own chaplains in his own family , for the exercise of his own devotion ; and as the presbyterians denied him the use of the common-prayer whilst he was alive , the independents would not allow him to be buried by it after he was dead . let them reflect a little upon their own demeanour in this case , and then be as loud as they please in crying out for moderation ; tenderness , forbearance , condi●cension . and so i go on to the last objecti●n , that civil penalties do only make hypocrites . this were an excellent argument against all laws whatsoever if it were well pursued ; but on the other side i take it to be a very clear case , that toleration makes hypocrites ; for it renders it safe for any man , in order to whatever end , to pretend some dissatisfactions against the present ecclesiastical constitutions , when in his own mind he hath none : and this effect it hath had from the first moment of his majesties restauration , unto this time : many preachers then possessed of benefices went away from them , because the right owners returned to them again , and yet these men pretended scruples against the common prayer and ceremonies , and so were looked upon as sufferers for their conscience , and have ever since subsisted upon the strength of such pretensions : of those who by the death of the right incumbents continued in their ill-got possessions till the act of uniformity : how many refused to conform more out of shame than conscience ? they could not without blushing practise those things which they formerly preached against , especially in the same place where they had done so ; and accordingly some have conformed in other countries than where they lived before , and more did proffer it , if they could have obtained to have been provided for : and of those who did go out at saint bartholomews day , . how many were there who went out upon the great assurance which they had from their agents in london of returning again in a few weeks with honour ? and among the people how many are there who go to conventicles meerly to get custom , as finding it to be a succesful way , by becoming members of such a church , to get the trade of such a party . i have now considered the inconveniencies of that fine project called liberty of conscience , and the various pretences by which of late it hath been recommended to us : how much soever these imperfect reasonings of mine may have fallen below the dignity of the argument , i shall be so just to my cause , as to refer the reader where he may receive compleat and abundant satisfaction , viz. to those excellent votes of the honourable house of commons , february . . where there is a full state of this affair drawn up with an equal height of piety and wisdom ; the reasons full and clear , carrying in them all the advantages of strength and evidence : those renowned gentlemen did then shew that they were able with their pens to give an account of that cause , for which very many of themselves , and , fathers did honourably draw their swords , and knew very well how to assert that church by all the rules of christian prudence , as well as they did formerly set inimitable patterns of christian courage in suffering for it . there we may see and admire how those glorious worthies came up to the greatness of themselves , and of the argument ; and indeed they were both worthy of one another , they to defend , and that to be defended ; and as nothing was ever better penned than those reasons , so there was scarce ever a better occasion ; the best church in europe , was then bore witness to by the best house of commons which ever sat in this nation : those votes shall for ever remain as a lasting monument as of the zeal and religion , so of the incomparable endowments and abilities of those who drew them up . and now i shall presume to offer a few words to our dissenting brethren , that they would seriously bethink themselves what the causes of their separation are , how few , how slight ; that they would with them compare the effects of it , what they have been , what they are , what they may come to be : such things have already been brought about in church and state ( by means of those divisions which the soberest among you did begin and foment , and none but they were valuable enough to give support and countenance unto ) as they themselves ( we are perswaded ) did not intend , nor would fore-see till they found it too late for to prevent them : alterations are things which the generality are naturally apt to be very fond of , but it is very seldom , and for a very little while , that they are found to answer the hopes conceived of them : indeed if it were once agreed upon what those things were which would give a general satisfaction , and put an absolute end to this long and uhappy controversie , such a proposal were at least worth a consideration : but if there be as great variety of demands as persons , and if it be as earnestly desired among great numbers , that their neighbours should not be indulged , as that themselves should , and we have for many years found it by a dear bought experience , that when men are once gone beyond the rule , they wander every where , and without end ; why should you not at last look upon it as adviseable to return to the rule again ? especially considering , that those of the greatest consideration among you are not against the having any rule at all , neither as yet have you been able to agree upon any other . if it be to be wished that there should be any church at all , that church must have articles , and must have canons ; there is not the smallest society in the world can be kept together in order to the meanest end , but there must be some rules which all its members must submit unto , and be guided by : if therefore there ought to be kept up among us any such thing as the assembling our selves together in order to the publick worship of almighty god , then this must be done at some time , in some place , and after some manner , in some words , and by some person appointed to attend upon the doing it : now if there be nothing of all this left to be determined by humane wisdom and authority , but that this whole thing with every one of all the circumstances of it are already determined in holy writ : the church of england would be so far from opposing any thing of this , that she would gladly conform in all particulars to these divine establishments , and would be hugely thankful to any of our dissenting brethren , if they will please to shew her whereabouts she may read the form of publick worship , and withal the precise method of that order and decency which ought to be used in it : for she hath been hitherto so unhappy , as not to know of any but general directions , which she hath endeavoured with all faithfulness to pursue : but after this discovery she will take care , that her children shall serve god in no other way than that of his own immediate appointment , if she can but once learn directions where to meet with it . but if there be no such way of worship , both for the thing it self and all its circumstances , prescribed by god ; then so much of it as is not done by god , must unavoidably be done by such men whom god hath set over us , and who in such cases are to be to us instead of god. and let us consider , that the ceremonies which are retained are very few , very ancient , and very becoming ; and to prevent all jealousies of the least manner of superstition in the retaining them , the church hath taken care to declare against all the abuses which they were liable unto in the times of popery . you value your selves upon being successors to the old puritans ; but do you imagine that they would in the least have allowed many of those things which you have been the authors of , or at least of which you have been the instruments , and into which we hope you were not brought by any formed resolutions of your own , but driven upon by those necessities in your affairs which your zeal had unawares drawn you into ? instead therefore of being jealous of any concealed mischiefs in a few decent rites and comely usages , you are highly concerned to remember what have been the evils of your own schism , which you know your selves to have begun , and we are willing to believe did not see to the dismal end of ; and which upon your own principles you will never be able to provide against : the liberties which you take , have encouraged and defended others in taking such liberties , as no doubt you have been often sorry to see your selves undeniably alledged as patrons and examples of . and unless you can alledge some more necessary causes of separation than you hitherto have been able , you must be very partial judges in your own case , if you do not look upon your selves as responsible for the consequences of all those separations , which by your arms and authority any else was enabled to make , first with you and after from you . whatever suspicions you may entertain concerning conformity , you will never be able to make a bar strong enough to keep out the dreadful effects of non-conformity . if no settlement is to be complied with , but such a one which each particular man doth in his own private thoughts take to be the most adviseable in all respects as to matter and circumstance , and no longer than it doth appear to be so , then there is never like to be any settlement in the world , at least not of any long continuance . i shall in this case make use only of the words of an eminent non-conformist , in a treatise which i have already mentioned , entituled , of the religion of england , asserting , that the reformed christianity settled in its latitude is the stability of the kingdom , p. . such is the complicated condition of humane affairs , that it is exceeding difficult to devise a rule or model that shall provide for all whom equity will plead for : therefore the prudent and sober will acquiesee in any constitution that is in some sort proportionable to the ends of government . and again , p. . nevertheless , if , when all is said , some dissatisfaction doth invincibly possess the iudgment , in that case christian humility and charity as well as discretion adviseth such persons to acquiesoe in their private security and freedom , and not to reach after that liberty that may unsettle the publick order , and ●●dermine the common safety . although it be a great , a seasonable and a concerning truth , that it is more glorious to confess an error than to continue in one , yet because it may seem a severe truth , i shall no more than barely mention it : if in earnest you are at least weary of divisions , do all which in you lieth on your part to put an end to them ; and this you cannot pretend to have done , till you have complied with the publick order as far as you believe you may lawfully , and where you cannot obey you may yet be silent . if there be a ceremony which any one among you believes that he ought not to conform to , doth it thence follow , that he is obliged to make parties against it , and for the sake of that one to abstain from all the rest , and to avoid all those other parts of the church-service and communion , where the rite which he scruples hath no manner of place ? again , when from the cause you fly into great commendations of your party , you should do well to avoid such expressions as , instead of tending to bespeak the favour and compassion of authority , do rather tend to awake its caution and to raise its jealousie : that which doth but look like a threatning is by no means fit for an inferiour to put into his supplication . not only the honour , but the safety of all government doth depend upon this , to demurr at least upon the granting of that request , which he who puts it up doth actually take before he asks , and in the very form of his asking it , doth more than insinuate the great danger which may be in denying him . and this methinks doth appear to have been an indecorum in your eminent advocate in his discourse of the religion of england , p. . sect. . how momentous in the ballance of the nation those protestants are that dissent from the present ecclesiastical policy : where he tells us of their great number , their great interest , their great commerce , their many relations , their great understandings and discretion ; and in the close of all he adds , nor do they want the rational courage of english men the meaning of which words are at least very suspicious , as to the king , and as to the church : since the late discourses of their endeavours after an union , their former separations do not only continue , but are managed in the same manner as formerly : on their parts we do not hear of any beginnings toward a complyance : one man indeed there was who made a profession of something of this , but what reserves he had in his mind , whereby to render that profession of his insignificant , let his after-practises teach us , and withall give us warning what trust to repose in any general though never so fair promises . and thus i have briefly and plainly laid down some of the most obvious exceptions against the late much discoursed of projects , comprehension , toleration , and a third made up of both them : comprehension may indeed proceed from an excess of goodness in those who are ready to grant it ; but it is not very clear that those who are the most likely to desire it ; will be most ready to make a good use of it : indeed as to the thing it self , it is kept so much in the dark , that it is not , except by some very few , if by any , understood , who they are who either do desire or would accept it , or upon what terms it would be either given or taken ; and as the nature of this thing is unknown , so will the issue be most uncertain . as to those two abatements which are usually mentioned , the taking away of assent and consent , and dispensing with the obligation of renouncing the covenant ; they are things which carry great and apparent dangers in them . he who desires to be excused from giving his assent and consent , can hardly be able to give any other account of that his desire than this : that he doth not believe the doctrine of the church , or doth not mean to conform to the orders of it . as to the other particular , the dispensing with the renouncing of the covenant ; the very proposal is methinks a very bold one , if we consider what was the occasion of the covenant ; who were the authors ; the time in which it was entred into , the ends in order to which , what are the contents of it , & how perpetual & indispensible they have all along declared the obligation of it to be , what effects it hath had already , & at any time may have upon the king , the church , the nation , and in an especial manner , upon the old cavaliers . and then as to toleration , i have shewed the inconveniencies to be innumerable and unavoidable , which it may at any time bring upon either of them ; there is no imposture which at this door standing alwayes open , may not enter into the church : no danger which by a dexterous management of such an unbounded licence , may not have a very fair & easie passage made for it into the state. and as for any mixture of these two contrivances , it will be so long before the bounds and limits can be agreed upon to be set between them ; so many things are to be considered of , before these two can with any satisfaction to either be suited to one another , that an enquiry may i suppose be safely put off until a time of greater leisure . the end. a postscript to the reader . when i had put an end , as i thought to your trouble ( good reader ) and my own , there came to my hands a new pamphlet , entituled , certain considerations tending to promote peace and good will amongst protestants , very useful for the present times : the design of which is to promote the forementioned comprehension , which the author doth endeavour to put a very good colour upon by laying down several propositions ; the third of which is this , that the late civil wars in england were not begun for the extirpation of episcopacy and liturgy , or to settle the presbyterian government here , but merely for civil rights , as he adds afterwards . now if this gentleman only means , that the grandees of the party had in their hearts no manner of zeal for or against any form of religion , any farther than as thei● other ends and designs were carried on by it , i shall readily grant it him ; ●ay , i shall say this farther , that , besides religion , the civil rights of the nation were but plausible colours , by which the leading men of that party did set off their other ends ; such as revenge , humour , discontent , covetousness and ambition . and this they were told publickly by one whom they knew to be able to make it good , in the excellent declaration of aug. . . themselves know what overtures have been made by them , and with what importunity for offices and preferments , what great services should have been done for us , and what other undertakings were ( even to the saving the life of the earl of strafford ) if we would confer , such offices upon them . but that religion was the thing which they did make shew of , and by which they drew abundance of well meaning but deluded people to their assistan●● , is so plain , and known so publickly , that it is no little wonder , that any should offer to outs●●● the nation in so no●●●ious a case . did not every press and every pulpit declare against episcopacy , liturgy and cere●onies ? did not the lords and commons , by their votes of march . . resolve upon the question , that an army be forthwith raised for the safety of the kings person , &c. and preserving the true religion ? &c. did they not in iuly following put forth a delaration concerning the miserable distractions and grievances this kingdom now lieth in , by means of jesuitical and wicked cousellours now about his majesty ? wherein they tell us over and over again of the protestant religion , a great change of religion ; that they should be for ever earnest to prevent ● civil war and those miserable effects which it must needs produce , if they may be avoided without the alteration of religion , &c. and in their resolutions to live and die with the earl of essex , they tell us , that their army was raised , for the maintenance of the true protestant religion . the pla●e , wedding-rings , thimbles and bodkins had never been brought in , if it had not been that the cause was so often called , the cause of god. let any man read the remonstrances and declarations of the two houses , and then see whether religion was not one of those things which they all along declared their zeal for ; and accordingly in all the parliaments quarters , the poor surplice , the organs and the common prayer-book were the first objects of all their fury . but because this present design of comprehension is particularly intended to gratifie some clergy-men , let us enquire under what name they recommended the war unto the people : was it not under the name of gods cause ; the setting christ on his throne ; fighting the lords battels ? there is a collection of their sermons printed , which will not suffer any man to doubt of this ; out of which there is enough gathered to this purpose in , evangelium armatum . and this mr. baxter hath in a late book confessed as to himself : when the wars began , though the cause it self lay i● controversies between king and parliament ; yet the thoughts that the church and godliness it self was deeply in danger by persecution and arminia●is● did much more to byass me to the parliaments side , than the civil interest ( which at the heart i little regarded . ) this author likewise confesseth , that whatever was the cause at the first , it soon became a war for religion . and mr. love , a person mentioned by this author as one of great merit , in his sermon at the vxbridge - treaty complains of the so long letting alone the two plague-sores of episcopacy and common prayer-book . the seventh proposition is this , that the parliamentarians in the beginning of our troubles declared , to abhorr and detest all designs of deposing and murthering his late sacred majesty . that they did declare against any such thing i readily grant , and , amongst other reasons , for this , laid down by our author , that it had been else impossible for them to have gained the people as they did . but that there were among the chief contrivers of the wars , those who had a design upon the kings crown and life , is a thing where of there is great evidence . if it be lawful to fight with a king , why is it not lawful to kill him ? swords and bullets are things which are by no means to be used against that person which we think we ought not to destroy : and of the great danger which his majesties person was in at the battel at edge-hill , himself hath informed us in a declaration on that subject . and in the remonstrance of may . . the lords and commons did plainly assume to themselves a right to depose the king , in these words ; if we should make the highest precedents of former parliaments our patterns , there would be no cause to complain of want of modesty and duty in us , when we have not so much as suffered those things to enter into our thoughts , which all the world knows they put in act . in which words there is thus much plainly contained , that whatever former parliaments have done , they take themselves to have a right to do ; now former parliaments have been over-awed into the deposing of kings : now that they had their eyes upon those particular proceedings of former parliaments , appears by those words , all the world knows what they put in act : his majesty in his answer to that declaration of theirs , tells us of two gentlemen who said publickly , unreproved in the parliament house , one , that the h●ppiness of this kingdom did not depend upon him , or upon any of the royal branches of that root ; another , that he was not worthy to be king of england : and as for the royal power it was plainly demanded from him in the nineteen propositions . the eighth consideration is this , that the non-conforming presbyteri●●● had both their hearts and hands in the restauration of his majesty to his royal throne , for which mr. love , and mr. gibbons lost their heads . of all things i should least have e●pected , that the advocates for the presbyterians should have insisted upon their merits to his majesty , or the royal family , for which their best apology is the act of oblivion ; and if they would have insisted , yet however methinks they should of all men not have made mr. love the person to have insisted on : as for that party of the scots , which he corresponded with ; it is no part of their wisdom to remind his majesty of the usage which he found from them . as to mr. love , the learned author of sa●aritanism hath informed us ; p. . that at the execution of archbishop la●d , he uttered these words with great triumph , art thou come little will ? i am glad to see thee here , and hope to see the nest of the bishops here e're long ; and having dipped his handkerchief in his blood , he rode with it to vxbridge , and used these words ; here is the blood of that proud prelate , i hope for more of their bloods e're long . and this doth against my will lead me to the consideration of his sermon at vxbridge , at the time of the treaty . amongst many scandals cast upon the king , he herein compares him to charles the ninth of france , who after a treaty of peace made the massacre , and to antiochus , of whom we read , dan. . . that through his policy he shall cause craft to prosper i● his hand , and by peace shall destroy m●ny , and , after the league made with him he shall work deceitfully : after these great complements toward the king , he tells us in his preface ; 't is the sword , not disputes or treaties which must end this controversie , wherefore turn your plowshares into swords , and your pruning-hooks into spears to fight the lords's battles , to avenge the blood of the saints which hath been spilt , it must be avenged either by us , or upon us : let me but quote the words of the prophet jeremiah , chap. . vers . . cursed be he that doth the work of the lord negligently : cursed be he that keepeth his sword from blood , &c. and i will be bold to say this , that the most malicious suggestions which are insisted upon in the votes of non-address are to be met with in one page of that sermon , p. . we read 't was the lord who troubled achan , because he troubled israel . o that in this our state-physicians would resemble god , to cut off those from the land who have distempered it . meli●s est ●t per●at vnus quam vnitas . he tells us , pag. , , of three sorts of persons , with whom peace is not to be made : first , truce-breakers : o what deceitful work hath our parliament met with on the very nick of treaties for peace , &c. secondly , idolaters are not meet persons to have a peace with , jehosaphat was checked for having an affinity with ahab an idolatrons king , because he loved him that hated the lord , therefore wrath was upon him from the lord : but asa ●as commended because he removed maachah from being queen , because she was an idolatress : i may say , what jehu said to joram , what peace can there be so long as the whoredoms of jezebel the queen are so many , we may make peace with papists now , but who will give us assurance that they will keep their covenants : thirdly , men wholly under the guilt of much innocent blood are not meet persons to be at peace with , till all the guilt of blood be expiated and avenged , either by t●e sword of the law , or the law of the sword , else a peace can neither be safe nor just , and pag. . are peace and truth the ingredients which must heal us ? o then dote not too much upon this treaty of peace , which is this day beginning : and again , will the blood-thirsty rebels of ireland , the idolatrous papists of england , the pompous prelats , the rest of the corrupt clergy , and the profaner sort of the nation , who joyn hand in hand together : are these likely to be patrons of truth ? deceive not your selves , there is little likelihood of peace with such : what i said before , i say again , either they must grow better , or we must wax worse , before we can agree . i should willingly have suffered these things to sleep , but that our author forced me upon it , by insisting upon the merits of mr. love , and mr. love himself in his speech upon the scaffold justifies himself as to all that he had done in relation to the publick differences ; i bless my god , i am free from the blood of all men , &c. i do declare that i dy with my iudgment set against malignity , i do h●●e both name and thing , i still retain as vehement a detestation of malignant interest as ever i did : and again , i dy cleaving to all those oaths , vows , covenants , protestations , that were imposed by the two houses of parliament , as owning them , and in dying with my iudgment for them . to the protestation , the vow and covenant , the solemn league and covenant . this author cannot deserve any way so well of the party he pleads for , as not to give us occasion to enquire into past matters : for whatever inconveniencies may be expected from comprehension or toleration , by the nature of the things themselves , they will be found to be very much ascertained and increased , if we consider the persons who do desire either of them : i suppose we shall hear no more of the merits of love , and if this gentleman doth think fit to change him for any other instance : i shall advise that he would pitch upon such a person as hath wrote nothing , nor been in any publick employment , lest otherwise he should force us upon those enquiries which will be , it is to be doubted little for the credit of him whose name is brought in question , and which i shall take very little delight in . the end. a brief catalogue 〈◊〉 books newly printted and repri●ted for r. royston ; bookseller to his most sacred majesty . antiquitates christiane , or , the history of the life and death of the holy jesus , as also , the lives , acts , and martyrdoms of his apostles . in two parts , the first part containing the life of christ , written by ieremy taylor , late bishop of down and connor ; the second , containing the lives of the apostles , by william cave , d. d. chaplain in ordinary to his majesty . the second part of the practical christian , consisting of meditations and psalms , illustrated with notes , or paraphrased ; relating to the hours of prayer , the ordinary actions of day and night , and several dispositions of men. by r. sherlock , d. d. rector of winrvick . a serious and compassionate enquiry into the causes of the present neglect and contempt of the protestant religion and church of england , &c. the third edition . a collection of several treatises concerning the reasons and occasions of the penal laws . viz. i. the execution of justice in england , not for religion , but for treason : written by the lord treasurer burleig● , dec. . ii. important considerations , by the secular priests : printed a. d. . iii. the iesuits reasons unreasonable : . the end. a lively picture of lewis du moulin drawn by the incomparable hand of monsieur daille, late minister of charenton. daillé, jean, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; 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(eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a lively picture of lewis du moulin drawn by the incomparable hand of monsieur daille, late minister of charenton. daillé, jean, - . 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ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng du moulin, lewis, - . dissenters, religious -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - taryn hakala sampled and proofread - taryn hakala text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a lively picture of lewis du moulin , drawn by the incomparable hand of monsieur daille , late minister of charenton . london , printed for rich. royston bookseller to his most sacred majesty , . a word to the dissenting brethren . there is none of you , that knows any thing of the protestants abroad , but hath heard of the fame of m. john daille . whose praise is so great not only in the reformed churches of france , but in this and other parts of the world , that i have some hopes you may suffer your selves to be disabused , by a man of such credit and authority for learning and piercing observation ; for goodness and humility ; for modesty , humanity , and all sort of vertues : and no longer give any belief to what lewis du moulin hath written , or shall hereafter write against this church , or any member of it ; when you see , by the help of such a glorious light as m. daille was , what kind of man this l. du moulin is ; of how small judgment , fidelity , or care about what he says ; and of how great vanity , rashness and passion ; or rather rage and fury . which render him so unfit to be a writer , that they quite blind his eyes ; and will not let him understand any thing truly , though never so clear in it self , if it be contrary to his humour . you will find this character abundantly ▪ made good in what follows ; which i have taken out of m. daille's preface to his vindication of his apology for two national synods of france , printed at amsterdam , . read it i beseech you patiently , and consider it impartially till you come to the end ; where you will find mr. baxter agreeing with him in his censure of lewis du moulin . who is not so considerable , that any of those learned divines whom he abuses should trouble themselves to give him an answer : but leave the world to judge of him by this impartial character of m. daille ; who sets him forth in his proper colours . m. daille his character of lewis du movlin . when i think , as m. daille begins his preface , of the calamitous state of the church at present , it calls to mind that miserable face of things , which that most eloquent writer s. basil * expresses , in a no less sad , than elegant description of his times . for as we suffer the rest of tho●e most grievous evils which he there mentions ; so more especially , and above all the rest , that outragious discord among fellow-citizens , and members of the same body ; which that excellent father deservedly deplores . a discord so mad , that , as he says of his countrymen , while we fall furiously upon one another , we fall and are overthrown by one another ; and if the enemy do not first smite us , we receive a wound from our auxiliary ; and if he be slain , our fellow-souldier rises up against us . this hath hap'ned to many excellent men in our memory ; and now we see those who have had many conflicts with our enemies , and still are in arms against them ( even that great champion of the protestant cause among us , dr. stillingfleet ) assaulted by those , who in all reason , should have helpt to defend them . a most deplorable thing this is , and never to be enough lamented , that men should have so little sense , as after all the confusions and calamities they have brought upon themselves and us , they should again put us in the same dangers ; by joyning at this time , in their fierce oppositions and calumnies , with those who endeavour to pull down this truly reformed church . and that , when it is visible they have nothing to set up in its stead , nor can possibly come to settle and be linkt together in any order : but are so divided , that they must remain a great many little independent bodies , which will be apt perpetually to clash one with another , till they indanger the loss even of the christian religion . i know indeed , there are many honest men among those that dissent from us , who have no such intentions ; and for their sakes it is that i write what follows : that they may help to convince their erring neighbours of the evil design of such men as would perswade them , the church of england hath been long looking toward popery . among whom lewis du moulin is a notorious ringleader : who hath come forth ( as that famous writer m. daillé complains in his case ) more than once or twice , with great outcries against it : in his patronus bonae fidei , in his late celeusma , and now again in his true account , as he calls it ( that is most false and scandalous report , for so you shall see his words are to be expounded ) of the several advances the church of england hath made towards rome ; printed this year . in which he hath the impudence ( be not angry with that word , you shall hear m. daillé charge him with the utmost height of impudence ) to say ; that this design of carrying on the romish interest , hath been strenuously pursued ▪ and advanced ever since the happy restauration of his sacred majesty , by the prelatical party , is a thing both so visible and deplorable , that it stands not in so much need of proofs , as of our tears . p. . which black calumny ought to fill the heart of every dutiful child of this church , with a just indignation ; and hath moved me as soon as i meet with it ( which was not till the middle of the christmas holy-days ) to bestow a few spare hours , in shewing how bad an accountant he is , and how little his bawlings signifie ( it is m. daillé his word , if i rightly translate vociferationes ) to which the smallest suspicion or surmise will so furiously provoke him , that it is impossible to stop his mouth . this is none of my censure , but what that great man says of him , as i shall show presently ; when i have only desired ( as he doth ) it may be remembred , that i am not the aggressor ; but only beat back the assaults that are made upon our church : and that i contend not ( god forbid i should ) to drive brethren out of our borders ; but that they may not cast us out of theirs . as this lewis du moulin endeavours to do ; by bearing the world in hand , that our greatest divines are marching towards popery . in which lewd calumny he fully justifies this character which m. daillé gave of him above xx. years ago : and i have too much reason to believe he is not grown better , but much worse , since that time . first , that he is tam pusilli animi , of so impotent a mind , that a very small matter did not only put him into a commotion , but into a rage : and made him go out of his way to be revenged , with such an animosity ; that he exceeded the bounds not only of a preface ( wherein he declamed against that famous divine ) but of piety , honesty , reason and humanity . this is bad enough ; and yet , there is far worse , which follows ; for he found him of so implacable a spirit ; that , secondly , he was not able to mitigate him by the most courteous usage and the civilest ways he could think of to appease his fury . which wrought nothing upon a man , who had an ungrounded fancy working in his head , and a great deal of choler boiling in his breast ; which made much stronger impressions upon him , than all the reason and all the kindness in the world. the business , in short , was this , he had a conceit that his father was injured by m. daillé . who thereupon sent him a message to assure him , that there was no such thing intended , as that which he called a disrespect to his father : and that he would e're long satisfie the world in print about it . but this civility ( they are his own words ) produced nothing but his scorn and mockery : and instead of answering , he fell a raving ; returning a reply to m. daille his apologie , more like a mad man , than one that disputed either of divine , or of humane things . which frency , wherewith he is still possessed , and i doubt is now incurable , must be his excuse for the rest of his faults , which m. daillé hath occasion there to mention . among which i must not forget his high presumption ; in writing a book about the power of the ecclesiastical presbytery , against the common opinion of protestants : and yet at the same time arraigning those that take the liberty to differ , as he imagines , from mr. calvin . what doth this man think of himself , who is so bold , as to pretend to the height of orthodoxy , though he dissent from the commonly received doctrine among protestants ; and yet to charge those with advancing towards popery , who dissent only from him , or , at the most , only from some protestants : ( as shall appear before we have done ) and that not so much in their opinions , as in the explication of them ? he would blush at these things , if it were not for another ill quality ; noted there by m. daillé : which is , that he hath such a forehead , as made him impudently deny that to have been written , which all men read in print . give me leave to relate the story as m. daille tells it , and in his own words : for it will be of great use , to demonstrate ( st ) that he writes meerly as his affections and passions dictate to him , and therefore ( dly ) there is as much reason to believe he may as impudently affirm what is not true , as he denyed what is : but above all ( dly ) it will discover the very root of his malignity , and lay bare the bottom of the quarrel he hath with us . you must know then that m. daillé had written , that dr. twisse accused peter du moulin , ( this lewis his father ) who deserved very highly of the reformed church , of prevarication ; in his hypothesis concerning the object of reprobation : whereby he had too much promoted the arminian cause , and pulled up by the roots the orthodox doctrine of election : nay , that twiss feared not to affirm the aforesaid peter du m. was filthily mistaken , and brought back again plain downright arminianisme to the reformed church , &c. unto these words of daillé 's , this lewis du moulin ( pretending to vindicate the honour of his father ) answers in so strange a manner , that it is hard to say ( i write still in m. d. 's words ) whether his arrogance and frowardness to m. daillé , or his impiety to his father be most wonderful : for m. daillé who most highly praises his father , he condemns ; but dr. twiss his fathers false accuser , he absolves : the former he inveighs against , in savage words , reproaches and railings ; the later he adorns with great elogiums and commendations : m. daillé he pronounces to be guilty of injuring his father ; but dr. twiss to have always treated him honourably ; and that he never hurt him in word or in writing : or if there were any contention between them , that it was handled friendly , and without any asperity . thus this great vindex or defender of his fathers glory adventures to write against the common sense of all the world. for is there any body so stupid ( says m. d. ) so void of sense , that will think the patron of a cause is not at all hurt by him , who says , that he prevaricates ? is that divine honourably treated by another , who accuses him of the most dangerous heterodoxy ? and affirms he doth turpiter hallucinari , filthily mistake ; and promotes the cause of the adversaries , and destroys his own ? call you this honourable and friendly usage , when a man is publickly traduced ; and not only opposed by many arguments , but said to bring back again ( and that couragiously and without tergiversation ) that very heresie into his church , which he had confuted ? and all this is not only said , but pertinaciously contended to be true , by dr. twiss ; to the great grief of all sober persons , except this son of p. du moulin's . who is so far from complaining of dr. twiss , that he is highly pleased with him and huggs him . he cannot indure dr. twiss should be reprehended , and denies he injured his father at all . o bonum & pium filium ! ( says m. d. upon this occasion ) o good and dutiful child ! o how dear ( may i say ) are some opinions to him ? in which , whosoever dissents from him , he will tear them in pieces : but let those who agree with them , say what they please of his best friends , nay of his own father , they shall not ●ail to have his good word . hence , hence are the tears , that he now ●peaks of . this raised his spleen , and put him into a new fit of raving at our divines ; who jump not with him in some opinions , which are falsly called arminianisme . if they were but as rigid as he , in some beloved doctrines , for which he doted upon dr. twiss ; we should not have heard a word of their inclination to popery : but he would have found some excuse or other for all their faults ; nay , been so kind as to magnifie and praise them , whom he now abominates . for in favour of dr. twiss , his fathers sycophant ( as m. daillé calls him ) he doth little less than say , his father was a prevaricator , a heretick &c. for he says his father was not injured by dr. twiss , though he hath accused him of these things . this is his egregious piety to his father , which he so much boasted of ; and his ardent zeal for truth and sincerity ; that is , his monstrous fondness of his own opinions . which made him defend his father in such a fashion , that he betrayed him ; so to vindicate his honour , that he not only absolved his fierce adversary from all blame , but bestowed upon him very great praises . thus this most vain man , says m. daillé , doth not understand that he hath this reward from heaven for his calumnies against me ; ( god so whirling about with secret furies , his mind disordered by a most unjust hatred ) that while he accuses me of a false crime , he falls into a true one himself : and violates his fathers fame , by a base prevarication ; which he pretended was by me abused . take another instance of his extream great vanity , and proneness to rail at the greatest men without consideration ; judging of them meerly by their according with him in all things . there was a little difference between his father and amyraldus ; which was sweetly composed , as soon as they came to talk together : and to the joy of all good men , they were not only perfectly reconciled ; but the common friends of both ( and of the kindred of this lewis ) published the very kind letters which passed between them . now what doth this vain man and great admirer of such a father ? he presently falls upon amyraldus ( as m. d. tells us ) and singles him out from all others , to pour forth upon him omne virus , &c. all the venom and bitterness of his slander and evil speaking . he rakes up again all that they , like good men , had resolved should be buried and forgotten : and is very angry also , ( as if it were an intolerable crime ) that he could see no body in all france , that would raise a tumult and storm together with him against those that were of amyraldus opinion . how could a man more clearly and petulantly condemn the judgment even of his own father , or oppose his will , and rescind his acts , as much as lay in him ? and if you would briefly know how he treated amyraldus ( and so the less wonder at his virulent declamations against our divines ) m. d. tells us , he calls his doctrine , fanatical , heretical , arminian , ( and that is as bad with him , if not worse than popery ) worthy to be interdicted and anathematiz'd . this is another demonstration , that railing is his peculiar gift , wherewith his ill nature and rancor hath abundantly endowed him , and that when he is in the fit of his fury , he cares not what words he uses ; but pours forth , as was said before , omne virus , the whole venome that is in his heart , upon the least occasion . for he hath nothing worse to say of a man , than that he is an arminian : ( unless he add the word socinian ) whom ( it appears by a passage in his late account of the church of englands advances towards rome ) he abominates more than he doth a papist . for speaking there ( pag. . ) of the bad instruments that have filled england with their books , for these fifty years last past , he says , they might have been pardoned , if they had only relished of popery , and had not been infected with the venome of arminianisme , pelagianisme , socinianisme , and the maximes of mr. hobbes . behold here now a new instance ( which i cannot omit ) of the partiality and ungoverned passion of this most vain man. who instances there in the books of dr. heylin , mr. thorndike , bishop taylor , archb. bramhall , &c. and would perswade us they are of that pestilent nature ; ( though they abhorred pelagianisme and socinianisme , &c. more than himself : and maintained their doctrine to be that of the church of england , not of arminius ) but lets mr. andrew marvell pass quietly for an innocent writer , nay extols and admires him so much , as to call him ( pag. . ) that great man ; though he hath in a most scurrilous manner abused the venerable council of nice , and expressed therein the very dregs of socinianisme , or something else no less heretical . for this great man of his , has told the world that the nicene council imposed a new article or creed upon the christian world : and called that explication which they made of the ancient belief , concerning the son of god , ( this being the very thing they insisted on , that they made nothing new , but only declared what had been always received from the beginning ) a gibberish , of their own imposing ; a cant , wherein they forced others to follow them : and in plain terms represents those fathers who were there assembled , as a company of pitiful dunces ; who gave sentence as their chaplains directed them . this is that mr. marvell , whom he and others so much praise ; but had he been of our side , should have been condemned to the pit of hell. consider i beseech you ; what dreadful out-cries should we have heard ; had any person among us said any thing like to this blasphemy ? this very lewis would have called him , that great villain ! or that great devil , or such names as i cannot invent . but out of sweet mr. marvell's mouth , it is received without any indignation . he may be a socinian , or at least an arian , or perhaps believe nothing ; and he has not a syllable to say to him . nay , he praises him ; and , as if he were some heroe , sets a mark of his very high esteem upon him . mr. marvell is not only a great man ; but that great man. for what i pray ? what is the cause of this strange difference , that he can see no fault in him , and nothing but faults in others ? but only this , that mr. marvell is one of his own gang ; a man for his tooth ; a great giber and biter ; whose work it was to rail at the church of england . in such a great man as this , how should he see any thing amiss ? this one new-found vertue dazled his eyes , and made him overlook all his vices . which is a further demonstration that the judgment which this lewis du moulin passes upon any person , is not worth a straw ; nor deserves the least regard . for he judges of men , as he loves or hates : and he loves and hates , according as they agree with him , or differ from him , in some opinions . of which he is so fond , that he will magnifie the very worst of men , if they be of his mind ; but vilifie the best ( as we saw just now in the case of amyraldus ) if they be of another . and what a faculty he hath in this , and how large a conscience , to take the liberty to say any thing against those , with whom he is displeased ; will appear more fully in the remaining part of the character , which we find of him , in m. daillé . who , leaving the consideration of the respect this lewis had to his father , and looking into the disputation it self , ( wherein he pretended to give a stab to m. d.'s cause ) could find nothing in his invective , though he carefully examined it , but a great heap of lies , impostures , calumnies , and railings ; together with a little sprinkling of histories and fables . which censure of m. daillé's , is the perfect and most exact character , of his late invective against the church of england . and the fountain also from whence such filthy streams flow , is the very same now that it was then ; viz. his studium causae , ( to use m. d.'s words , which i may render ) his zeal for the cause , in conjunction with the highest degree of rashness ; which suggested to him such abundance of lies and impostures , that to the title of professor of histories ( which then he had ) might well be added ; and of fables . of the first of these , his lying , m. d. gives many instances ; and this among the rest ; that he confidently affirms m. d. had changed his opinion , of which he was x. years before ( as if he knew his mind better than himself ) and had rather be listed among the arminians than keep his place among the contra-remonstrants : and that amyraldus was a patron of the jesuits ; with such like stuff . which is just like to what he says now of dr. stillingfleet ; that he believes the government without bishops , to be most conformable to the practice of the apostles ( p. . ) but since the church has heaped upon him plurality of great benefices , he would have us believe the holy ghost has inspired into him other thoughts concerning the english hierarchy , p. . which is as true ( and no truer ) as that amyraldus was become a patron of the jesuits : and is in part confuted by himself in the very next words ; where he quotes his epistle before his apology for archbishop laud , for a proof of his change ; which was written ( every body knows ) when the church had honoured him with none of her preferments . of the second also , his impostures , there is no less number than of his lies : as when m. daillé says that a few are of such or such an opinion ; he makes him to say there are none , &c. but i shall not trouble the reader with that matter ; nor give a large account of the third , his calumnies , though he abound in them as much as any of the rest , and they grow up even to the height of impudence , malignity and petulancy . it will be sufficient to tell you , that you may know the man ( as m. d. speaks ) that he branded , insigni calumni● , with a remarkable and notorious calumny , all the divines of their churches , who had lived in france for twenty years past , or that then were alive ; both them that were of amyraldus his opinion , and them that were not . the one he condemned of tyranny , the other of idleness and sloth ; for suffering the method of amyraldus to reign among them . which clearly shows that this lewis du moulin is as great an enemy to the divines of the french church , if they differ from him in the least punctilio ; as he is to those of ours : and that he cannot speak with moderation , of any thing he doth not like ; but presently it is tyranny or popery , or some such dreadful monster . he hath no mercy upon the dead neither ( as m. d. there shows ) but rails upon blondell , as a favourer of arminianisme ; and upon that great divine john camero ; and spares not his own uncle andrew rivet ; because in that synod ( which this lewis stomachs , because it did not throw camero out of the church ) he was the author of a gentler opinion , than some would have followed . for he hates any thing that is gentle and soft ; and nothing less will serve him than proscriptions , anathematismes , and the most severe sentences upon all that is not agreeable to his sentiments . as for the fourth thing , his evil speakings and railings , m. d. tells us his whole disputation abounds with them . to omit what he says against him , i will only instance in what he says of amyraldus . whom he hath the impudence to call ardelionem ; that is , a busie fellow ; a man of an unquiet mind , that can fix no where . never reflecting ( so fiery is his brain ) that this reproach , as m. d. observes , agrees far better to his own dear self , who was a divine , forsooth , a physician , an historian , and a philosopher : whereas amyraldus never medled with any thing but divinity ; which was his profession . it would be endless to mention all that i have observed , to justifie that part of the character which m. d. before gave of him ; that he being a man whose mind is disturbed with causless hatred , god is pleased in a secret manner to make him thus vertiginous , or giddy-headed : and it would be too tedious to make good the rest of his description of him , which is scattered here and there in m. d. 's preface , where you may find him charged with absurdities ; ridiculousness ; cavilling ; speaking things which exceed the height of impudence ; ( and , than which nothing can be more scurrilous , or more frantick ) insana , mad things , proceeding rather from anger and rage , than from any judgment . in short , he says he is a trifler ; a man of little reason ; easily deceived with slight appearances of things which are not ; more confident than plautus his pyrgopolinices , contemning not only those that he opposes , but making little account of other writers on his side in comparison with himself . these are hard sayings , some will be apt to think : but from thence the sober reader may be able to judge what kind of creature this lewis is . whom a person of such temper as m. daillé , who never gives a hard word to our greatest adversaries , but in all his other writings ( as lewis himself confesses ) had expressed a most candid spirit , was forced to handle in this manner . nothing but such a sharp and publick rebuke from so excellent and holy a divine , as m. d. was , could do any good upon a man of such a cankered spirit . who is not cured neither by this severe method , but is rather grown more virulent ; and spits out his venom with greater spite than ever against this poor church of england . for the haughty fierceness of this cholerick man , and his resolution not to be convinced of any thing , that is against his conceptions , appears in this . that when m. daillé had alledged an cxxiv . witnesses from among the fathers , and from the protestants lxv . and brought no fewer testimonies than twelve hundred , for his opinion ; this man , with great gravity , and no small charity , blows them all away with one strong breath : pronouncing that m. daillé intended to cheat the unskilful ; and had either put these testimonies upon the rack , or drawn them awry to another sense . and this he is pleased to say , pythagoras like , without troubling himself to prove it . for out of that multitude of testimonies , he only singles out a place of mr. calvins ; which he , falsly too , pretends was not alledged intirely . what shall we do with such a man as this ? or what regard is to be had to him ? who confidently , and yet carelesly shoots his bolt ; and expects to be believed , because he says it . and he says it in a passion , or rather rage ; and out of virulency of spirit : which makes him think he sees things , which are raised in his imagination meerly by his fury . and how little a thing will do it , you may judg by this ; that all this ill usage of m. daillé , was only for maintaining that christ dyed for all mankind ; and thereby put them into a possibility of salvation , if they do not refuse the grace of god. a doctrin which the church of england always asserted , and is one of her articles . and , though this man would have the world believe the contrary , yet master baxter hath plainly demonstrated against him ; that herein he either betrays his ignorance , or too much confidence . you may read his censure of this matter in his preface to disputations about the sacraments . where ( having taken notice that this lewis had said ; amyraldus his method pleased no body in england , but one single baxter ) he writes in these terms : i meet with so many of amyraldus mind in the point of universal redemption , that if i might judge of all the rest by those of my acquaintance , i should conjecture that half the divines in england are of that opinion . and then proceeds to show it is a thing famously known , that this hath been maintained by writing , disputing and preaching , by as excellent divines , for learning , judgment , holiness , and powerful preaching , ( as far as we can judge ) as ever england bred : mentioning among others archbishop usher , and the divines sent to the synod of dort , &c. and then concluding , are not these more than unus baxterus ? and now i mention mr. baxter , i shall desire this may be seriously considered , before i conclude ; that if lewis du moulin had that honest zeal in him to which he pretends , he would have handled mr. baxter as smartly , and complained of him as heavily , as he doth of any men he hath accused for advancing towards popery . for though he be not of the church of england , yet no body is more guilty of what he objects to our divines ( if it be a crime ) than mr. baxter ; in what he hath written about faith , and justification and christs imputed righteousness : which he explains just as those men whom he reviles ; who have no other opinions about these things ( i am well assured from my acquaintance with them ) than what mr. baxter himself hath . nor is there any man alive among us , from whom lewis du moulin ( unless he have changed his mind ) differs more , than he doth from mr. baxter . for he defended , as m. daillé observes , this monstrous opinion against his own brother , cyrus molinaeus , that we are not justified by faith , but justified before we have faith . which mr. baxter i am certain accounts a portentous doctrine , as well as m. daillé : and hath also said all that this lewis condemns in the discourses of our divines about faith , in this short sentence ; it is all one in my account to believe in christ , and to become a christian . and yet we hear not one word or syllable ( such is this man's partiality ) of mr. baxter's leading the way to popery . no , by no means ; he hath something of the nonconformist in him ; and for that reason he spares him . but time was when such fiery spirits as l. du moulin reviled mr. baxter , just as he doth the divines of our church . they said he attributed too much to good works ; nay , according to mr. eyre and mr. crandon , the papists give no more to works than he ; who taught the people , also they said , to depend too much upon their guides ; and in down-right terms , he was called a papist . and all , because he left their way of speaking , and endeavoured to make things plainer , and state them more clearly : which is all the fault they can now find with those persons , whom l. du moulin hath belied , and grosly abused by his impostures . they may , if they think it worth their while , bestow a particular answer upon him , and show how he hath misrepresented them : but in my poor opinion they had better never trouble themselves with such a reviler : whom no body will mind , that will consider this description which m. daillé hath given of him . or it may be sufficient for any of them to say in the name of the rest ( i beg their pardon , if they think i take too much upon me in directing them what to do ) as mr. baxter doth to those , who would have had him made a particular reply to mr. crandons book ; god hath given me my hours for better and more useful works . and if any object that the ignorance of common people is such ; that confidence , and railing , and slanders will take with them , as if they were valid arguments , and therefore have need of as diligent confutation ; i answer , it is not in my power to cure the ignorance of such people , nor the slanderous tongues or pens of such writers . and if i must write as long as slanderous tongues will make me work , or ignorant men need it , then i shall have work enough to do , and my labours be at the command of every man's vices . if any object farther , that our divines are bound to vindicate their reputation , i may answer for them , as mr. baxter doth there , ( in his confession of faith , p. , . ) that god hath suffered the calumniator to play his part so grosly , &c. that i think such a tongue is not much capable to diminish a man's reputation ; nor is it any way needful to vindicate it from such . yet if you please take mr. baxter 's judgment also of this man , whereby you may see what kind of understanding he hath , and how fully i have vindicated their reputation . you may find it in his preface to the disputations about the sacraments ( printed the same year with m. daillé 's book forementioned ) where he censures that book , in the preface to which he used m. daillé so coursly . a book , says mr. baxter , that hath much learning , and more truth than is fairly used ; the face of it being writhen to frown upon them that own it ; and parties wronged , where truth is defended ; though , through the unhappiness of the distinctions , oft clouded when it seems to be explicated ; and through — i know not what , the controversie seldom truly stated . in short , he says , it is an ungrateful task to answer a writing , whose error is a multiplication of palpable untruths in matter of fact : but he lays no less than xx. considerations in his way , where his conscience , he tells him , may find them . at the end of which he cries out , ( mark it i beseech you ) this is the faithfulness of the world ! it shames and grieves me to say , of fiding divines ; and as much almost to say , of a publick professor of history in oxford : for the principal honour of an historian , is his veracity , and impartial fidelity ; and how much of that his preface to the paraenesis is guilty of , i leave to consideration , &c. this is mr. baxter's judgment of the understanding , and sincerity of lewis du moulin : who ought to submit unto it , and confess himself unqualified to be a writer ; for ( if he speak his true mind in his late book , p. . ) he thinks mr. baxter to be one of the sincerest persons in the world , and the most disengaged and free in his judgment . to which , would to god our dissenting brethren would be pleased to trust , and to rely upon mr. baxter's judgment so far , as not to give much credit to the reasonings or reports of a man , who hath such a flaw in his understanding , and such partiality in his affections ; as make the one very weak , and the other very false . as it will be very easie to demonstrate , if they shall still think him so considerable , as to expect a particular discovery of all the falsities , impostures and calumnies , wherewith his late book abounds , and hath grosly abused both the dead and the living . i will now forbear the instances , because i had rather employ my time otherwise ; and would gladly hope they will so seriously weigh , what opinion mr. baxter , and m. daillé ( who was no less sincere , and free , and disinteressed in his judgment ) have of this troublesome man's ability and honesty ; as to consider how little credit is to be given to what he hath written , in his most false account of our advances toward rome . where , for example , he affirms in his furious rage and passion , ( . ) that the prelates in their proceedings have exceeded the barbarousness of the heathens in the persecution of the christians , p. . and ( dly ) that there are some excellent protestants who see as much reason to abhor the ways of the church of england , as those of rome , p. . and , dly , ( to name no more of his mad , frantick sayings ) that the best interpretation can be made of the present zeal of the prelatical party against the papists , is , that they are awakened by the love they have to their benefices ; which they hoped the papists being their kind friends , would have suffered them to have kept , but now see they meant to have all , p. , . what is all this but lewd and ignorant , if not malicious railing ? it being apparent ( to speak one word of the last ) that many years before the late popish plot was discovered , the prelatical party , as he calls them , were not only awake , but honestly gave the nation warning of their danger ; and were the only men that did it ; for the non-conformists were either then asleep , or so silent , that we could hear nothing of their fears of popery ; but they lay still , fondly hugging the indulgence that was given them . this is known to all those , that have observed any thing of the passages of late years : and may satisfie all those , who have any list to be rightly informed , how little conscience this man makes of what he says . and therefore as they ought not to mind what he hath written ; so it would be well if they would consider how little good , or rather how much hurt they are like to get by what he intends to write . i mean his ecclesiastical history ( which he tells us he designs ) composed by a man , who , in mr. baxter's opinion , wants the principal quality of an historian , veracity and impartial fidelity , of which he says he is not much guilty : his error in writing being ( when he had to do with him , and then he was publick professor of history at oxford ) a multiplication of palpable untruths in matters of fact . a foul error indeed ; which made mr. baxter ashamed , and grieved his heart , as it ought to do all other good men , to think there is no more honesty , among men that pretend conscience : so much partiality in siding divines ; and so little faithfulness in a publick professor of history . o that all those who now greedily entertain his books , would lay it to heart ! and see how they suffer themselves to be misled ; and what kind of men they are , who labour might and main , to make the breach wider between us , than really it is . let them open their eyes and behold , what such violent spirits are a doing : disgracing the best men in the church , and making the world believe they are marching towards popery ; when they are ready , i am confident , to lay down their lives rather than submit to it , or move one step towards it ; though they might thereby not only keep all their dignities , but have the addition of all that the papacy is able to heap upon them . why are you so injurious to such men ? who are not angry with you , because you dissent from them ; if you did not withall rail upon them ; or love , and cherish those that do . this shows you would destroy them , and pull our church in pieces . men of this spirit are not content , meerly not to be of it ; but they would have it not to be . else we might all joyn together against the common enemy ; though we cannot in all things agree one with another . but as long as they take this course , they become also an enemy , of another sort : and cannot justly blame those of our church , who , they complain , cry out against them and remember them of old things ; when they should , in their opinion , only preach against the papists . why do they tempt them to it , by their out-cries against the church ; and by pouring forth such scurrilous language in their pamphlets ? for my part , i hope the greatest part of the body of non-conformists , do not desire to destroy this church . but they that rave so furiously against it , give too much ground to men to believe otherways : the rest not contradicting them , nor endeavouring to bring them to moderation . which is a work now very seasonable for them ( and which they are always calling for from our men ) if they would indeed secure this church ; and perswade the members of it , that they desire not to subvert or unsettle it . let them openly declare , that they look upon this lewis du moulin , as no better than m. daillé and mr. baxter have described him : one , whose reports they do not trust ; a vain writer and malicious , if not mad and distracted . who endeavours to infuse ungrounded jealousies into your minds of the divines of our church : many of which he would perswade you have for these hundred years been moving towards popery : at least since the beginning of the reign of king james , have been daily making nearer advances to it . and yet , when by such wicked suggestions , this church was pulled down , how few of them were there found , that revolted unto popery ? how can these things consist together ; that men should be making their advances nearer and nearer to rome , and not then close with it ? why did not the corrupt party ( as he terms it ) then follow their inclinations , if they had any that way , when there was so great a temptation ? all their maintenance being then taken away ; and little hope left of seeing it restored ? this , one would think , should open your eyes , to see how you have been cheated by evil minded men : and make you more careful , how you involve your selves in a new guilt of the same kind ; by joyning with those among you , who would once more destroy this church , which hath been so miraculously restored : and had not been in such danger , as now it is , if it had not been for the miserable havock and confusion , which you made by the last war. for which , i doubt , you have not shed any tears ; nor ( to use this man 's own words , p. . ) are touched as you ought to be : though he would have us believe ( p. . ) your life is a continual practice of repentance . for then , he that says this , would not have had the confidence to affirm , almost in the same breath , ( p. . ) that they who are distinguisht from us , by the names of puritans , presbyterians , independents , fanaticks , &c. are the best christians , the best protestants , the best englishmen , the most loyal subjects , the greatest pillars , burtresses and supporters of monarchy , &c. and that the party which comes nearest to the doctrine and practice of the calvinists and puritans , have above all others ( mark i beseech you the audacious vanity of the man ) observed the command of the apostle to the romans , cap. xiii . let every soul be subject to the higher powers . if this be to repent ; i know not what it is to justifie your selves , with the highest degree of impudence . pardon the expression ; for i intend it only to such men as lewis du moulin ; who if he had truly repented , would in stead of writing such a book as this , have made an honest acknowledgment in print , that you are the true cause of all our present evils . some of you more remotely ; others more immediately . for the late war was raised ( not in obedience sure to romans xiii . . let every soul , &c. ) the bishops pull'd down , the liturgy exploded by the very best of you . and then , the worser sort of you plotted the death of the king : upon which followed , the banishment of the royal family into a strange land : where , if one of them changed his religion ; i pray consider to whom that , and all the mischievous consequences of it , ought originally to be imputed . i would prosecute this a little further ; if i did not think it better to leave you to follow it your selves , and press it home , in your own consciences : which you may do without being angry at any body , but your selves . whereas , should i attempt it , perhaps you would be as much inraged at me , as you were at the author of the friendly debate . whom you ought to have heartily thankt ( though now you will scarce forgive him ) for his plain dealing ; in calling to your mind all that folly and madness ( to omit other things ) into which your people ran , when you had overturn'd the best constituted church in the world. you should have all taken shame to your selves for it ; and then you would not have called his bare relating these things , a reproachful usage of you : nor would lewis du moulin have again blown the same coal , which raised before such a terrible combustion ; viz. about the inclination of the church of england to popery . which is a calumny devised meerly to kindle the peoples wrath against us : for if the reasons he gives for it were worth any thing , they as nearly touch , i have shown already , the best men among the nonconformists , as any of the church of england . mr. baxter , for instance , who in the main point of faith and justification , is of the same mind with those whom this railer accuses : as he might have been informed , even from the friendly debate ; if he had read it for any other end , than to bark at it . let him read again , p. , &c. especially p. . of the third part , and he will be convinced , if he be not one of those who have eyes to see , and see not ; that mr. baxter hath been as much to blame , as any body ; if there be any fault to be found about such matters . and for his clearer conviction i will point him to another passage in the book there quoted , ( disput . of justification , p. . ) like to which he will not easily find in the men whom he hath exposed to the peoples hatred . i have heard , says mr. baxter , as eminent divines as most i know ( some yet living ) in a publick meeting say , that bishop usher , and mr. gataker affirmed , that the papists did not fundamentally differ from us , in the point of justification . by this he may know something of mr. baxter's mind , and other eminent divines of his acquaintance ; and therefore either leave his bawling , or in his next book open his mouth wider ( as there is reason ) and tell the world , with tears running down his cheeks , that alas ! alas ! there is a corrupt , rotten party among the nonconformists too : who are as bad as those among the episcopal clergy . for every body knows mr. baxter is a leading man , and hath a great many followers ; and there are other eminent divines also of his mind : who must all now be proclaimed , by this great and careful defender of pure religion , to be in the number of those , who endeavour to bring in popery , at least a mungrel one ( as he speaks , p. . ) that comes pretty near to the true popery . nay , such is the fiery nature of his spirit , that if his mighty love to nonconformists do not allay it , he will scarce oblige mr. baxter so much , as to injure him with moderation and modesty ( which as the world goes , mr. b. there tells us , he must take for a favour ) i mean , acquit him from the charge of gross popery . though i will tell him before-hand , how little he will care for his , or any other mens censures of this kind , ( and therefore , why should our divines value them ? ) for he may read , if he please , in the next page these memorable words ; and i suppose he is still of the same mind . since i have heard of late times , what it is that goes under the name of antichristianity and popery , even with many that are able to call themselves orthodox , &c. i confess i begin to have charitable thoughts of a man that is but freed from the charge of gross popery ; and if those tongues should free him also from the imputation of all the finer popery , i should begin to suspect that somewhat is amiss . and he may find , if he think good , an answer there , in what immediately follows , to all that he says about socinianisme : which was laid at mr. baxter's door , as well as the other . to this fine pass had your folly brought things in the late times . and will you never see your errors ? or not ingenuously acknowledge them ? will you still go on to lay load upon the men of the church of england , and to say that they have undone us ; when it is so apparent , there is nothing you now complain of , but you were the first causes of it , and have brought it upon your selves , and us ? be not angry , i pray , at this plain english ; but repent , and behave your selves so , that we may be convinced , you mean not again to imbroil us ; and then you shall never , by my consent , hear a word more of these matters ; nor be troubled with the name of lewis du moulin , though he should remain still impenitent . we will let him rail , and vomit up all the gall of bitterness that is in his heart ; without any contradiction . he shall have full liberty to vie with the devil himself in his calumnies ; and we will leave him only to answer to god for it . as he must shortly , for this foul-mouth'd slander ( than which it is hard for hell to invent one more false ) that it will appear by a cloud of witnesses fetched from our english doctors , &c. that they have got into the tents of pelagius and socinus , made a meer mockery and illufion of the holy trinity ( which heaven knows , they to a man confess and adore ) turned into raillery the sacred mysteries of the christian religion , and do laugh at the imputative righteousness of jesus christ , at justification by faith ; and have preached that heathens may do good works , as meritorious and well pleasing to god , without the grace of jesus christ , &c. as the alms and prayers of a devout cornelius , p. . which are accusations that have not one word of truth in them ; but were suggested to him by his own inraged imagination , which most unjust hatred to us ( to use m. d. 's words again ) hath disturbed ; or by his unconscionable jealousies , ( to speak in mr. baxter's phrase ) which will not let him understand aright . for i am as sure there are no such divines , not one ; much less a cloud of witnesses to these things ; as i am that amyraldus was no patron of the jesuits ; m. daillé no arminian ; mr. baxter no papist ; and that they are not persecuted , who are suffered to write even such books as this without any punishment . but i will leave those divines , as i said , to purge themselves , if they think fit ; or turn him over to the author of the friendly debate : who can , i fancy , if he will attempt it , make this lewis repent at least of this ; that he hath mentioned his book with such reproach : when it is visible , in my poor opinion , it is nothing so sharp and severe upon the n. c. as m. daillé is upon their champion l. du moulin . and yet ( such is their partiality , of which i pray god they may all repent ) they never speak of m. daillé , but as of a holy man of an excellent temper , who is highly reverenced by all the party ; but generally condemn the other , as a prophane and scurrilous writer , an enemy of the people of god , and i know not what . o the power of studium causae , as m. daillé calls it , zeal to serve the cause , and affection to a side ! i beseech again the father of lights to give them a better mind ; and us all grace thoroughly to search and try our ways ; and to see and acknowledge our errors . that 's a good prayer , will some perhaps be apt to say , who dislike all the rest , and we have a wish for you , as you have for us ; that you would see and reform the present error that is among you , in accusing us of intending to destroy the government . is not that as great an out-cry every where , as this of du moulin's ? i answer sincerely ; there are many , i believe , very jealous of you , and declare it freely : but their suspicions are raised by such kind of writings as his ; which clearly demonstrate , they think , that the dissenters , at least such as he , intend to stir up the hatred of the people against the men of our church , as much as against the papists , if not more : ( for he mentions the lord castlemain , p. . with far more respect , than he doth our divines ) the consequence of which can be nothing else , than an indeavour to pull us in pieces . but for my part , as i said before , i am willing to hope the main body of n. c. are not so disposed : though there be factious spirits among them ( too many ) that would thrust them forward to our , and their own destruction . they understand better , and are better inclined , i hope , than to pull down a well setled government ; when , it is apparent , as i have noted above , they can set up none in the room of it : and the best demonstration they can give of this , will be to disown such writers as l. du moulin , by some publick declaration : and therein assure us , that they mean not to disturb the church of england , as it is established ; but will heartily joyn with us , against the papists , to uphold and maintain it : desiring only to have their own just liberty under that government ; which they will highly deserve , when they have contributed to its support . as for the project of lewis du moulin , it is as vain as himself ; for were the ceremonies ( which he most unconscionably reviles as popish ) removed out of the way , it would not make up the breach : but the main body of non-conformists would still remain divided from us ; because they will not admit of a prescribed form of prayer . nay , he himself , i have too much reason to believe , would not be satisfied , unless the articles of the church of england be expounded to the sense of mr. calvin : which will never down with very great numbers of the dissenters , no more than with them among us , against whom he hath spit out all this venome . but i must not inlarge upon this subject , having other business that expects me ; now that the twelve days are expiring . in the midst of which , i told you , his book first coming to my hand , i imployed the remainder of them , as you see , in giving this short account of it , and of him . who may thereby be convinced , that we are not so ill taught , as to spend our time in the play-house , or with a pack of cards : ( which he would have you believe is the common divertisement of our ministers , p. . ) though i think that had been far more innocent , than to be writing such books as his . for therein i should , at the worst , only have done a little harm to my self : whereas his business is to abuse the nation with false reports ; nay to poison it with destructive opinions ; and t● slander those divines , as men that satisfie themselves with the profession of a superficial piety , ( p. . ) who are most laborious in their studies ; devoutly attend the divine service ; and make it their business by word and writing to do good to men. jan. . . the end . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e * de sp. sancto cap. . ☞ ☜ ☞ ☜ ☞ ☞ ☜ ☞ three letters tending to demonstrate how the security of this nation against al future persecution for religion lys in the abolishment of the present penal laws and tests, and in the establishment of a new law for universal liberty of conscience penn, william, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing p estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) three letters tending to demonstrate how the security of this nation against al future persecution for religion lys in the abolishment of the present penal laws and tests, and in the establishment of a new law for universal liberty of conscience penn, william, - . p. printed, and sold, by andrew sowle ..., london : . attributed to penn by wing and nuc pre imprints. 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ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng liberty of conscience. dissenters, religious -- england. church and state -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - jonathan blaney sampled and proofread - jonathan blaney text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion three letters tending to demostrate how the security of this nation against al future persecution for religion , lys in the abolishment of the present penal laws and tests , and in the establishment of a new law for universal liberty of conscience : with allowance . london , printed , and sold , by andrew sowle , at the three keys , in nags-head-court , in grace-church-street , over-against the conduit , . three letters , &c. the first letter . sir , upon the receipt of your last letter , i was , at first , a little troubled to perceiv the censorious judgment you pass upon my politics , in reference to the grand business of liberty of conscience . but after a little consideration i comforted my self . for i not onely remembred your constant favorable regard towards those of different perswasions from yours , but i observed also , even in that very letter , that you agree with me in this fundamental principle , that no man ought to be persecuted for matters of meer religion . and this agreement in so great a principle made me hope that , notwithstanding our present difference , it would be no hard matter for you and me to agree in our particular conclusions , and consequently in our conduct . to procure that agreement there is nothing requisite but honesty and sense . let us but examin thorowly whither that principle leads , and let us be tru to the result of our own examinations , and the work wil be don . but perhaps so strict a subjection as this to the consequences of that principle , however just and reasonable in it self , may seem unto you a little unseasonable in this conjuncture ▪ nay , i must acknowledg to you ▪ that i my self also am not so much master of my passions , as to let reason have always that absolute dominion that belongs to it . the fear of being deceived , by a party of men who plead for liberty , makes me somtimes doubtful in determining upon the practice of what i acknowledg to be a duty . i am convinced that the interest of this nation , as wel as the laws of christianity , requires an absolute , vniversal , equal , and inviolable liberty of conscience . nothing that dos not tend to the ruin of the government , or to the prejudice of the people , which is but one and the same thing , should be made the occasion of laying any restraint upon any man. but where i see ground to fear that the granting of this liberty should serv onely to put a power into their hands that now demand it , wherby they may be able hereafter to take it away from others , truly in that case i am apt to hesitate upon the point ; or to say better , i confess that i hesitate not at al. for i would by no means that a specious hope of christian liberty should betray the nation into a new unchristian slavery . thus far i am sure i agree with you . we would have liberty with security of its continuance : not otherwise . now i intreat you to examin whether or no , in the rest , you agree with me . i ask then , if so be it can be demonstrated that the penal laws , and tests too , may be taken away without exposing the nation to any hazard of persecution by the roman catholics ; nay , if a far better security may be provided against that persecution than those present laws and tests do afford us ; wil it not be an act of equity and wisdom , as wel as christianity , in that case , to abolish them ? this security being supposed , nothing can hinder us from complying with that design , but such considerations as arise from the covetousness and ambition of ingrossing al honorable and profitable imployments unto our selvs , and those of our own perswasion . but wil any considerations of that nature , when they interfere with a public interest and an avowed duty , be justifiable , or even excusable , either before god or man ? i cannot doubt but your determination in that point wil be the same with mine . those considerations are too sordid to be of any weight with an honest mind . your objection , i know , in reading these questions , wil arise from a diffidence that any new security of this nature , either wil or can be granted us . there indeed perhaps you and i may differ in our opinions . but however , to com as near as we can , i wil at present suspend my own hopes , and concurring with your doubts , consider onely what is our duty , and the duty of al honest men , even in this supposed doubtful conjuncture . an example in the like case , not many years ago , when the nation was in as great a ferment as it is now , may direct us . those that supposed there could be no other real security , against the fears that possest them , than that odious bil of exclusion which they promoted in parliament , professed nevertheless their constant willingness to listen unto any expedients that should be offered for that purpose . if they did not then comply with any of those expedients , it was the heat of faction that hindred them ; and they have since on al occasions acknowledged their error . let us therfor profit by their example . let us imitate them in that reasonable disposition which they profest , and be careful to avoid those heats which caused their actual miscarriage . in a word , let us , at least , put the thing to a trial. let it be referred to the wisdom of a parliament to weigh the expedients that may be invented or offered for our security . let moderate men be chosen into that parliament ; and not such as ar ingaged , by along habit of persecuting , to keep up the present penal laws , as tools already fitted for their hands . til we be called to that election-work , let us each of us endeavor to dispose our selvs , dispose one another , and as occasion offers dispose our friends , to that spirit of wisdom and moderation which is now so necessary . and til this business have been weighed in parliament , let us a little suspend our judgment upon it , and have always a great care that we obstruct not the good we desire by heighting any doubtful jealousys to an irreconcilable extremity . these ar the rules of my politics , which i hope you wil now look upon a little more favorably then you seemed to do in your last letter . at present i wil trouble you no further . but if what i have now said prove acceptable , i shal be very ready , upon your desire , to explain further my inmost thoughts upon any the nicest circumstances of this great affair . i am &c : the second letter . sir , i am heartily glad that my last letter has given you any measure of satisfaction . but i perceiv by your new quaerys , that i have ingaged my self , in the close of that letter , to a greater task than i was aware of . it is not enough to have satisfy'd you so far as i have gon , but i must either continu to answer your new difficultys , or else joyn with you in owning them to be unanswerable . i must either shew you the very expedients that may be contrived for securing us against any future persecution by the roman catholics , or else acknowledg that no such thing either can or wil be don . that is a little hard . the thing may be felzable , tho i should not be able to demonstrate it . others may know more than i can . nay , indeed the truth is that i know so little , and others have already said so much upon this subject , that , as i cannot pretend to make any new discoverys in it , so neither am i willing to repeat just the same things that you have read els-where : and between those two difficulties i am somthing straitned in complying with what you desire . nevertheless since i am ingaged , i wil rather hazard to repeat what may have been hinted at already by others , than refuse to explain unto you my own conceptions . the security we demand must be considered either as it lys naturally in the thing it self ; i mean in the repeal of al old penal laws and tests , and in the sanction of a new great charter for liberty of conscience ; or else as it may be fortify'd by such expedients as the wisdom of a parliament may think sit to propound , and his majestys goodness may vouchsafe to grant . but this last consideration belongs not to my province . it becoms not private persons to anticipate . parliamentary deliberations , much less to prescribe rules unto his majestys conduct . it suffices me , in that respect , to know that his majesty has been pleased , by often reiterated promises , to assure us that he wil concur with his parliament , in any thing that may be reasonably offered for the establishment of such a law of christian liberty as may never be broken . i am not curious to pry further into those matters , until his majesty shal think fit in his wisdom to disclose unto the nation the treasures of his goodness . and to speak freely to you , as a friend , i am yet the less curious about it at this time , nor any ways impatient to know more , until a parliament may be ready to deliberate thereupon ; because i know already , that there ar a sort of men in the nation who watch upon every occasion , with al the arts that malice can invent , to blast any thing that shal be offered for the advancement of this christian design . leaving therfore the consideration of this accessional security that we look for , i wil now apply my self to consider onely what prospect of security the thing it self dos in its own nature afford us . when we discourse about this security , i suppose we both of us understand it onely with relation to the hazard that may arise from taking away the tests . for as to the penal laws , singly considered , i think al men that have souls large enough ( as i am sure you have ) to prefer the general good of their country before the narrow advantages of a party , wil agree that it is no less the interest of this nation to abolish them , than the duty of al mankind to forbear persecution . there is no hazard in the abolishment of those penal laws . now what the hazard may be in abolishing the tests , wil be best perceived by considering the effect of their imposition . the effect , in which the protestant interest consists , is that the roman catholics ar thereby excluded from al places of public trust , either civil or military . this , i should have said , is the intent of them . but how far the real effect fals short of that intent , and how far it must needs fal short therof in the reign of a catholic prince , is too evident to need any demonstration . nevertheless , supposing that the roman catholics were indeed therby debard from entring into any public imployments , what is the advantage that protestants , or that the nation in general , pretend to receiv by their exclusion ? i know you wil tel me that we have therby our security against that principle of persecution which we think inseparably joyned to their religion . they wil not be able to impose their religion upon us , nor persecute us for not receiving it . that is the tru end , and we wil suppose it to be real effect , of the tests . you do not pretend sure that the exclusion of the roman catholics from such imployments is any security to our civil rights , or to the fundamental constitution of our government . they ar english men as wel as we . the civil rights of english men ought to be no less dear to them than to us . and if any malicious surmizer should presume to imagin that his majesty had a design to raise his own prerogative upon the ruin of the peoples libertys , we have reason to believ , by many past instances , that men of another religion , much more numerous and powerful than the roman catholics , would be found no less ready instruments , but far more proper ones , for the effecting of that work . the best defence that i know against those imaginary fears , and the most becoming dutiful subjects , is to comply chearfully with his majesty in al things reasonable ; that so an unreasonable refusal may not force him upon new methods , and make us feel in the end what we ar perhaps too slow to conceiv , that omnia dat qui justa negat . but i return to the consideration of our being secured against persecution by the exclusion of the roman catholics from public imployments . in very good time , that the church of england ▪ now looks for such a security ! i am sure others have not been secured against it , by the public administration of her members . however , let us consider how it is that the tests secure us , or how it is that they hinder them from entering into those imployments . it is not as a wal or barricado that confines them to a certain inclosure , out of which they cannot move ; nor is it as a charm or spel that , by any magic vertu , hinders them from acting . it is onely as a law , which , by the penalty annexed to it , aws their minds , and makes them fearful to transgress it . they dar not enter into public offices , lest they should be punished for the breach of that law which forbids them to do it . but , pray , who is it that should punish them for that offence ? they know very wel that in this reign they ar in no danger . that law is now dispensed with . the onely bridle therfore that restrains them from transgressing it , is evidently the fear of its being revived in the reign for the next successor ; because it is a law whose penalty they wil be always liable unto , whensoever the government shal think fit to exact it . now if this be the only ground of their exclusion from public offices , and consequenly of our pretended security ; i say if it be onely the force of a law that works that effect ; pray let us consider if another law might not be contrived , to secure us much more effectually against persecution , that this exclusion of them either dos or can do . let us therfore have a law enacted , which , in abolishing al those penal ones , and al the tests too that ar now complained of , shal establish a vniversal and equal liberty of conscience , as a magna charta of religion , with al the ingaging circumstances that the wit of man can invent to make it inviolable . let that liberty be declared to be the natural right of al men , and any violation therof be therfore accounted criminal . let not onely every actual infringment of that law , but every motion , proposition , or contrivance , exprest either in word or deed , tending any way to the invalidating of it , be esteemed and declared an vndermining of the fundamental constitution of our government , and accordingly to be punishable with the utmost severitys , even as felony or treason . let the extent of this law reach al conditions and al degrees of men , ecclesiastical , civil and military , from the highest lord to the meanest beggar . let not future parliaments themselvs be exempted from the danger of infringing it ; but let any proposition tending therunto , tho even in either house of parliament , be not onely reputed a transgression therof , but expresly declared to be the highest and worst of al transgressions ; and let no parliamentary , or other priviledg whatsoever extempt any such offender from the severest punishment , no more than they can do it now from that of treason . and after al this , and what more the wisest heads may invent , let the king himself be humbly beseeched to suffer in it a clause , by which , reserving al other rights of his prerogative inviolated , he may solemnly renounce the onely right of dispensing with this law , or of pardoning any transgressor of it in any case whatsoever . supposing now that such a law as this should be enacted , i beseech you to consider if it do not answer the end of securing us against persecution , infinitely better than the present tests that exclude the roman catholics from public imployments . it wil secure , in the first place , al the dissenting protestants from the present penal laws , which the tests do not : and it wil indeed secure al partys against al persecution , in every respect far better than they do . it wil do it in a direct manner : wheras they work onely by a weak and strained consequence . it wil do it upon the solid grounds of religion , truth and equity : wheras they ar built onely upon precarious , partial and unjust principles . it wil be declared to be in its own nature indispensable : wheras they are every day dispensed with . it wil be established by a more solemn sanction : and it wil be inforced by more awful and terifying penaltys . these advantages , as you see , do al appear in the simplest prospect that we can take of the thing it self , in its own nature ; in the meer abolishment , i mean , of the laws of persecution , and the establishment of a law of liberty ; without the help of any further expedients . that is the onely thing that i proposed to my self to explain . and i cannot but now hope that even this explanation , how imperfect soever it be , wil convince you that it is not so dangerous a work to abolish the tests , nor so difficult to establish a lasting security against persecution , when those tests shal be abolished , as som people industriously endeavor to perswade us . but i perceiv that i have been already too tedious upon this argument . wherfore without further application or improvement thereof , i now refer what i have said to your examination , and submit to your judgment , resting always &c. the third letter . sir , since i have had the good fortune to please you the second time , i am resolved to try it a third . i have endeavored , as you have seen , to make it appear that it is not impossible to contrive a more equitable and vnexceptionable law than the tests , which wil secure us also infinitely better than they do , against the danger of being persecuted by the roman catholics . now you answer me that this law , tho it should be consented to , would be less security to us against the roman catholics than the tests : because by it they would be admitted into the legislative , as wel as executive , parts of our government ; wheras by the other they ar wholly excluded from both . and an exclusion , say you , especially from the legislative power , is a far better security than any regulation whatsoever that can be made about their conduct in it : because , when once admitted into that capacity , there wil be stil reason to apprehend lest they should break thro the rules prescribed for their conduct , and change even the laws themselves at their pleasure . this is indeed very specious . but i intreat you to consider , in the first place , that the exclusion we talk of by the tests is onely imaginary , not real . we please our selves with a notion , while we ar frustrated of the thing . a dispensation dissipates al that bulwark into dust and aire : while on the contrary the regulation i have propounded is to be declared and made absolutely indispensable . which is no inconsiderable advantage on the side that i incline to . but this is not al. your objection prompts me to a further defence of my proposition . nothing wil serve your turn but an absolute exclusion of those that may have a minde to hurt us , from al manner of share , either legislative or executive , in our government . be it so . i am very wel pleased to join issu with you upon that point . the hurt we fear , and desire to fence against , is persecution . let us therfore , in god's name , exclude al persecuting papists , and protestants too , from those imployments . but let al those that have a spirit of moderation and charity , joyned with other necessary qualifications , be promiscuously admitted into them , whatsoever be their profession of religion . it is not the notion of transubstantiation that hurts us . why should we therfore make that the ground of an exclusion ? let us go to the tru ground of the matter , and do our work at once , effectually . in a word : let this act it self , that we are projecting , be the fundamental test for the admission of al persons into al manner of public imployments , or for their exclusion from them . let every member of both houses of parliament , before they ar admitted to sit there , be obliged to subscribe a declaration , importing that they solemnly profess , and , in the presence of god , sincerely acknowledg the natural equity of this great law ; and that they in like manner promis never to infringe it , nor either directly or indirectly to promote any design of undermining or invalidating it in any manner whatsoever . let al those that shal presume to sit in either house , without having first subscribed that declaration , be liable to the severest penaltys that shal be annexed to the foresaid law. and let al future acts ( if any such there should be ) passed by a parliament not so qualified as by this law shal be required , be declared illegal and nul . nay further , if it may be thought any strengthning to our security , let also al other public officers , as wel as the members of parliament , be obliged , upon their entrance into those offices , to subscribe the same solemn declaration , upon the hazard of the same penalties , and of the illegality and nullity of al their proceedings . let al that govern , or teach , or any way officiate in ecclesiastical affaires , either in church or conventicle ; al judges , justices , juries , magistrates , military commanders both by sea and land , with al the inferior and subordinate officers depending upon any of them , from the highest to the lowest , be al subject to the same rule . this is the test against persecution that we have been long since advised to , by one of the earliest and strongest writers upon this subject ; but which the nation seems not yet to have enough reflected upon . if this be not judged a sufficient security , i wish those that perceiv the defects of it would propound unto us any thing better . i shal be always for chusing the best . but however , in the mean while , i think al men must agree that , if it be indeed persecution that we desire to fence against , this is infinitely a better security in that respect than the present penal laws and tests ar . and therfore , provided this may be granted , i cannot but yet hope that there wil appear to be among us men wise enough , and honest enough , and those too , numerous enough , to sway the nation to consent to their abolishing . i have said already that , upon the supposition of this security there can be nothing but private ambition or avarice capable to raise an opposition against this generous design of universal liberly . but surely no private interest wil be capable to bear up long against the general interest of the nation . now it has been often asserted by many , and demonstrated with great evidence , that those whose interest it is to desire liberty ar far more numerous than those that oppose it . but if in that there should at present be any mistake , i am sure , when once this liberty shal be established , it wil then be visibly and indisputably the interest of al partys to maintain it . al the several interests of the nation wil be then drawn up into one circle , and the extremitys wil touch each other . the church of england and protestant dissenters , how opposite soever in other respects , wil therby becom inseparably cimented into one common caus. and , tho we should suspect the roman catholics to have contrary inclinations , yet the strength of the others union wil oblige them , for their own safety , to concur in promoting the general good. yet for al this , i wil not stick to acknowledg that such a suspicion of an inclination to persecute , in any that may be uppermost , is not altogether unreasonable . the examples of persecutions rais'd at one time or other , by al partys that have had the power to do it , authorize those fears . but for that very reason , i say , that this is the fittest time that ever we can expect , to settle this liberty in england : because the power is now in the hands of the weakest party , which is therfore least able to strain it . and if once that settlement be made , the united interest of al partys in the advantages it brings along with it , wil in human appearance secure it against the possibility of ever being shaken hereafter . these considerations , you see , afford a second prospect of our security in the establishment of a law of liberty ; in that it wil be the interest of al partys to maintain it : and they afford also an incitement to set about that work ; becaus of the seasonableness of the opportunity : which things deserv exceedingly to be attended unto . but after so palpable a demonstration , as i think i have given , of that security , in the frame of the law it self , i have no mind now to intertain you with any thing that may appear more speculative , tho in effect it be no less solid . my meaning in this is , that i have shown onely the possibility of this security . but whether or no it wil be just granted in the manner that i conceiv it , is what i cannot answer for . i rather hope it wil be made much better . but however , after this plain appearance of the possibility of the thing , i think i may resume what i said in my first letter , as an advice of som weight ; that , in this conjuncture , it is both the duty and the interest of the nation to put this business to a tryal , in a grave and moderate parliament ; and not by any means to make that impossible , by faction , jealousy , or despair , which seems easily obtainable by a prudent conduct . let this be our constant aim , to have liberty setled by a law. that is the mark that ▪ i shoot at ▪ and i would be very loath that other peoples errors , or humors , should make me miss it . we ought al to be singly ▪ intent upon our own duty ; and if we keep so , we cannot fail to know it . which way soever we turn our reflections , in these matters of politics , they wil always bring us back to the same center . the general good is the rule and touch-stone , by which al must be tryed and measured . that general good can never be attended unto , much less procured , without the general satisfaction of al partys ; nor that satisfaction without this equal and general liberty which i have been pleading for . now therfore that every one may the more easily discern their own duty , while we ar in this evident possibility of obtaining such an equal and secure liberty ; i would have the church of england , in the first place , consider with how much justice the odium of a self-interessed and sordid partiality , wil be cast upon her by al men , in case she stil continu to obstruct it . let her consider that , and be ashamed . in the next place , if the protestant dissenters should suffer themselvs to be fooled out of this liberty , by the cunning of their old adversarys ; i would have them consider how obnoxious they yet ly , even at this very hour , to the redoubled lashes of the same laws under which they have so long groaned . let them consider that , and tremble . and if the roman catholics should ever attempt to overstrain the advantages they may receiv by this liberty , when it shal be established ; i would have them consider that in gaping for the shadow , they wil be in danger to lose the substance . let them consider that , and be wise . i have now don . lonely again beg of you to pardon the tediousness of al these considerations , and to believ me to be most sincerely and affectionately yours , &c. finis . hereticks, sectaries, and schismaticks, discovered to be the antichrist yet remaining and the great enemies of the peace of this kingdome the question rightly stated and debated ... : with a hint about ordination and the covenant. ellyson, john. this text is an enriched version of the tcp digital transcription a of text r in the english short title catalog (wing e ). textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. the text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with morphadorner. the annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. this text has not been fully proofread approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. earlyprint project evanston,il, notre dame, in, st. louis, mo a wing e estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) hereticks, sectaries, and schismaticks, discovered to be the antichrist yet remaining and the great enemies of the peace of this kingdome the question rightly stated and debated ... : with a hint about ordination and the covenant. ellyson, john. [ ], , [ ] p. [s.n.], london : . attributed to john ellyson. cf. halkett and laing ( nd ed.). reproduction of original in bodleian library. imperfect: t.p. and preliminary pages partially illegible. eng heresy -- early works to . dissenters, religious -- england. a r (wing e ). civilwar no hereticks, sectaries, and schismaticks, discovered to be the antichrist yet remaining, and the great enemies of the peace of this kingdome. ellyson, john d the rate of defects per , words puts this text in the d category of texts with between and defects per , words. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - john latta sampled and proofread - john latta text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion ●●●eticks , sectaries , and schismaticks , ●…vered to be the antichrist yet ●…ining , and the great enemies of the peace of this kingdome . ●… question rightly stated and debated . ●…paration to the great day of humili●…ation on march . next ensuing . ●… a hint about ordination , and the covenant . ●… them that call evill good , and good evill , that ●…esse for light , and light for darkenesse , isay ●… ●…e good , but if the salt hath left its savour , where●…e salted , it is good for nothing but to be cas●…●…oden underfoot of men . matth. . . with●… . . london , printed in the yeare , . to the right honourable the high court of parliament . noble princes and patriots , remember in all your lawes and ordinances , that as iesus christ ( who is the faithfull witnesse , and will be one day for his truth and people ) is the prince of the kings of the earth , and hath ▪ made the saints who are his anointed ones ( iohn ▪ . ) kings and priest to god and his father , so is he the one onely law giver , who is able to ●ee● and destroy , and hath commanded the kings of the earth , i 〈…〉 ch his anointed , nor doe his prophets harme , for he reproveth even kings for their sak●● ▪ if hee have made them first and prophets , who shall hinder them to offer up spirituall sacrifices to god ▪ ● pet. . ▪ and as good stewards of the manifold grace of god to minister the gift one to another ▪ as every w 〈…〉 e received it : pet. . . for every scribe who is in 〈…〉 ted vnto the kingdome of heaven , bringeth out of his treasury things new and old , matth. . . if the saints as bottles be filled with new ●ine of the spirit , they cannot but poure it forth 〈…〉 e their friends , that which they have seene and heard , and in 〈…〉 ns soules have tasted of the word of life they cannot but declare and speake , iohn . . . compared with acts . . iohn . . have an eye therefore i beseech you , to the designes of such men who would engage you to cast up bankes , that you might stop the 〈…〉 ng of these waters , for these floods will carrie all before him , and who ever perswades you to it , i tell you even weeping ▪ 〈…〉 of the lord 〈…〉 and 〈…〉 to give 〈…〉 to antichrist , and the image of the 〈…〉 that as many as will not worship the image of the beast 〈…〉 killed notwithstanding the dreadfull do●m● 〈…〉 himself ▪ revel. . . if any man doe 〈…〉 beast and his image , and receive his marke in his for the 〈…〉 his hand , the same shall drinke of the wrath of god , and they shall have ●o rest day nor night &c. be wise now therefore , oy●● princes , be instructed yee iudes of our earth , kisse the sonne least he be angry and ●ee perish in the way , though yee have already steered our weather beaten ship , through many angry waves , and billowes , and thinke you are come neere to the faire havens of peace and happiness as yet if instead of honouring iesus christ , and submitting to his royall 〈…〉 you shall be either flattered or threatned to set your 〈…〉 under any ●otin● or pretence whatsoever against the saints , and to kick against the pricks , you will yet miscarry and split upon this rock , and in all your debates and consultations shall be dash't in p●ices like a potters vessel , for whosoever shall full on that stone shall be broken grave senators , consider the holy spirit . zach. . . hath foretold that in the day of the gospel , the lord will make jerusalem , ( viz. the saints ) a burthen some stone to all people , all that burthen themselves with it shall be out it peices though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it● : those men who stickle most against the saints under the name of hereticks and schismaticks shall be discovered to be such themselves , but as our saviour said , they are wise in their generations , and they dealt with you herein as the crafty and ingenious horse courser , with his untaimed and 〈…〉 ly pranser , speaks ●●ire , streak●● and scratches him , whilst he bee mounted into the saddle , and then he strikes , and spurs , and gallops , till he have broken him to his will : they be speake you as having a great power in the worship of god , over the consciences , of men , but i beseech you receive no honour from these men who thus cry up your power and authority that they may be honoured by you , and derive power and authority , from you againe to be unrighteous iudges both ●ver your selves and other men , as their reverend fathers the bishops were , they seeke their owne things and not the thing of iesus christ , but it concerne● their interest , by this craft they have their livings : and they know that if permission be once given to the saints freely to make knowne the 〈…〉 of the spirit , which ●ath wrought so mightily in them , their 〈…〉 of naturall reason , though decked and ad●rned with systems 〈…〉 philosophy , and schoole divinity , will not be able to 〈…〉 in competion with it , greater is he that is in the saints , then 〈…〉 that is in the world , the teachings of the spirit , shall be more 〈…〉 full and effectuall to take h●ld of the hearts of men , then all 〈…〉 workes and writings of their ▪ postillers and commentators can ●● these cannot speake so to the consciences of poore christians as the spirit 〈…〉 and the feet of such as can bring glad tydings of 〈…〉 to such poore soules are exceeding beautifull , and will bee , 〈…〉 the opposition of these men . most honoured worthies , pray observe with me , how babylon the mother of harlots , fornications , and abominations of the 〈…〉 ( which are chiefly spirituall and doe concerne our worship ) 〈…〉 this name written in her fore head mystery , her workings are and have been still mysterious , hardly to ●● found out and traced , but i have indeavoured as a blood ▪ hound to pursue her , for by those characters of bloodinesse you shall be 〈…〉 to know her , the beast whereon shee sits is bloody coloured , her garments are dyed in blood , revel. . . . . in her habitation is found the blood of prophets and of saints . cap. . her drinke where with she makes her selfe drunke , is blood of the saints , and the kings , and inhabitants of the earth , have beene 〈…〉 drunks with her wine ; england , oh england hath for●●●ly pl●id the beast with her , if not the beast under her on which hath sitten , and for this cause we have had of late , blood given ●● to drinke , for we were worthy ; let it , oh let it be so no more let not england againe make war with the lambe , for 〈…〉 the lord of lords , and king of kings , revel. . suppose grave senators those men so much miscalled were indeed such as they are represented to be , and their presbyterian adversaries 〈…〉 their churches without crime or error ( which is most 〈…〉 ) and so might justly cast them out t● yet since our saviour christ hath commanded , that the tares and the wheat should grow together till the barvest , what cruelty is this toward such men , 〈…〉 live peaceably among men , unblameable in their conversation , pay you tax and tribute , and in a word , doe in all things which the apostle paul exercise themselves to keep faith and a good conscience towards god and men , what cruelty i say is it , that the cit●… magistrate should be incensed against them & should by all wayes be solicited , not to give them a toleration that it , not to suffer them when they have so faithfully engaged for them : the field in the parable must have some interpretation , it must have reference to church or state , christ would have them suffered some where , but their adversaries who pretend so much for christ , are indeed in this particular as in many other things antichrist , i. e. against christ , he saith let them grow together , these men say nay , let them be pulled up , lamentable will the condition of many people in this kingdome , and other places be , if many choise young men and others , who are ordained by iesus christ to eternall life and glory , and have received a large portion of the spirit of jesus christ ( the only teacher of his people ) whereby they may edifie and build others up in the most holy faith , if the mouths of these must be stopped for want of that empty and fruitlesse ( as is conceived ) ceremony of ordination , which the doctrine ( peradventure ) of the presbyterie of scotland hath tought , their consciences to startle at and deny : for in the i. booke of the disciplin of the kirke of scotland commanded to be practised in the same kirks . anno dom. . under the head of admission , this they teach . pag. . other ceremony then the publick approbation of the people , and declaration of the chiefe minister , that the person there presented is appointed to serve the church . we cannot approve , son all be it , the apostles used imposition of hands , yet seeing the miracle is ceased , the using of the ceremony , we iudge not necessary . if any gift were conveyed who would deny , nay , who would not rejoyce to be partaker of it but whilst men see that this is but a vain imitation of that primitive apostolical presbytety , who had received from iesus christ and could convey to others such gifts of the spirit for the ministry of the gospel as have been lost whilst we have been under the power of antichrist , and such as none of the sons of men have received at this day , and therefore cannot bestow on others , they are exceedingly troubled in their spirits , & can iudge the ceremony at the least but a taking of gods name in vaine : let my counsell then ( wise counsellors ) be acceptable touching these men , that as in all your declarations whilst you had any need of them either in their persons or estates , 〈…〉 have ingaged to be tender towards them ; which tendernesse they could conceive to be no lesse then a continued liberty in 〈…〉 severall wayes of worship , which they then enjoyed , and not after the lesse of many of their lives , and a parting with a good part of ther lively . hoods for your preservation , an imprisoning of their persons , and a wasting of the remainder , by attendance , suites , fees , fines , and such other charges as necessarily attend such a condition . and all this for the practise of those very things you seemed then to allow in them , when you thus time after time declared tendernesse towards them , oh doe not , doe not thus keep promise with them , let not this ●e the recompence you give them for all the labour of love they have shewed unto you , doe not for the gratification of a few men , who from sion colledge either vent their considerations contrary to your ordinances , when they like them not , or send you votes , orders and ordinances ( though sub●illy and mediately by the assembly ) at their pleasures , which you must confirme or be rayled at in every pulpit in the city , and have the 〈…〉 against you ▪ and se●t crying 〈…〉 you for 〈…〉 such things , as i dare say not one of a thousand of them knowes or understands , having a strong influence also by their emissaries upon the adjacent counties that they may concur with them in their destructive wayes and actions , if these men can 〈…〉 you thus already , before they have any power in ther hands , consider i pray what they would doe , if power should be given them according to their desire , we have too lately bought repentance from their predicessors the bishops at too dear arate al which i lay before you , and if you please to peruse this tract , you shall see these men proved the greatest hereticks and schismaticks in the kingdome at this day : and as touching these men who are so much reproached by them , you shall find them to be according to what they understand , pure in religion , having not the forme , but the power of godlinesse in their publique and private meetings , dayly praying the lord for you , innocent in their lives , inoffensive in their conversations , peaceable in the places where they live , and obedient to your iust power . our lord iesus christ in all his goings out with them in th●se few last yeares , not only opening their purses , buts their very bowels and hearts , making them ready and willing to spend & to be spent for you , hath given both to your selves & al the world in all ages to come , a sufficient demonstration of their harmlessenesse , integrity & faithfulnesse unto you , and if you wil not beleeve these speaking out on their behalfe , neither would yee , if an angel from heaven should come and witness for them . now the god of wisedome give you to dis●erne betwixt truth , and errour betwixt good and evill , friends and enemies , saints and hereticks : and to hearken to the wise counsell of gameliel , a great statist concerning the sectaries of those times : acts . . . . with which i shall conclude , take heed to your selves what you intend to doe at touching these men , refraine from these men , and let them alone ; for if this counsell or worke be of men it will come to naught , but if it be of god ; yee cannot overthrow it , least happily yee be even found fighters against god . i verily thought i ought to doe many things against the name of iesus . and many of the saints did i shut up in prison , i punisht them oft , and compelled them to blaspheme , and i persecuted them even to strange cities . to every reader . i have endeavoured in this discourse so farre as the present opportunity and time would give me leave to undeceive thee : however to hint out truth and a way to others , who have more leisure for prosecution : the stile is without quaintnesse , plaine and familiar , that i might not speake to the meanest ( for whom i mainly did intend it ) as a barbarian : if you please to cast your eye upon this word of distinction following , it may give you some light for the better understanding of the whole discourse , and being kept in memory will in some measure enable thee ( if thou have any knowledge of the things of christ ) to judge of truth and errour in reference to the severall partyes it makes mention of . a church or an assembly may be said to be true or false in respect . of their foundation . . of their members . . of their ministry . of their doctrine . . of their institutions or ordinances . . of their placing and exercise of power . such assemblies or churches who have not god in christ for the foundation or obiect of their worship , can in no sence be called true or christian churches , as the turkes who worship mahomet , &c. and such as doe lay this foundation may , in some sence be called true or christian churches . but then as they depart from the truth of scripture either in their members , ministry , doctrines , institutions or ordinances , right placing or exercise of power or administration of discipline , ( if you please so to cal it in any , some or all of those , so may they be ) said to be more or lesse false or antichristian , which is a building wood , hay , and stubble upon the foundation , as by the book of the revelation , it appeares antichrist hath done in all ages ; all which must be destroyed with fire , i shall make no farther applycation : consider what is said , and the lord give thee understanding in all things . the wisest of meer men hath said it , that there is no new thing under the sun , but that which hath been is at this day , and what is now shall be afterwards , if god prevent not : under base and odious names , persecution hath in all ages been the saints portion . the scribes and pharisees in our saviours time , boasted , that had they lived in the dayes of their fathers they would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets ; yet these very men cruelly persecuted ( and put to death some of ) the apostles , and crucified jesus christ , who was the lord , not onely of the prophets , but of life and glory too ; though he himself did forewarn them of it , and so brought upon their own heads all the bloodshed upon earth , from righteous abel to zacharias : and i fear that all these things are coming upon this generation ; else , what may be the reason , that whilest those that are called , and faithfull , and chosen in the land , who have been with the lamb , and who have through the power of the lamb overcome that part of the beast , ( viz. ) that antichristian and malignant power , that hath risen up against them at this time , in this nation ; whilest these i say , after all their travell and sorrow , in expence of blood and estate , are thinking upon the sweet fruit of their long endured hardships , and hazards , and peace , others have whet their tongues sharper then any two edged sword , and have dipt their pens in the blacknesse , yea , and darknesse of hell it self , continually sending forth most railing and bitter speeches , and are thus afresh preparing war against them : if new troubles be not creating for these men ; what mean those daily invective alarms , ( by such who are called the ministers of jesus christ too ) which from presse and pulpit , are ratled in the ears of our most worthy senators , and other subordinate magistrates in the kingdom , incensing , and provoking them , contrary to their own judgements and reason , against such , who by gods even miraculous blessing upon their weak endeavours , have been theirs , and the kingdoms saviours : sometimes dashing hell fire in the faces of their consciences to fright them ( if possible ) into the same persecution and condemnation with themselves ; and then otherwhile , beseeching them , as they tender the blessings , peace , and prosperity of the nation , that they would rise up in indignation against these heretiques , sectaries , and schismaticks ( for so they call them ) the seducers , and deceivers of the people to their utter extirpation ; the old way of satan , the great seducer of the nations , and all such who cleave to this present world , to besmear the faithfull and godly of the land in all ages with names of ignominy and reproach , and so to fall upon them to their ruin and destruction : witnesses of which truth , have the prophets been in all ages , yea , christ himself and his apostles , with all the faithfull martyrs to this yery day ; whose accusations still were , these men are pestilent fellows , movers of sedition , ring leaders of sects , broachers of strange doctrines , teaching things contrary to the law , seducers , stirrers up of the people , drawing disciples after them , speaking against caesar , troublers of the state , and the like ; but the saints are in expectation , that these men who thus resist the people of god , as sometimes jannes & iambres withstood moses , shall not proceed much farther , & that their folly shal be made manifest to all : for this wicked one , and all such as act from him and for him , shal the lord consume shortly by the spirit of his mouth , and destroy with the brightnesse of his coming , as hath in some measure been fulfilled already in our dayes , and shall be more and more , till babylon be wholly fallen , as a milstone to the bottom of the sea , never to rise again any more , and till the beast be taken , and with him the false prophets , and be cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimston . if new gives and fetters be not contriving for the saints ; why are the poor , misled , and ungratefull citizens , so constantly hurried on with most troublesome and unwearied paines to remonstrate , petition upon petition , and act contrary to the priviledges of parliament , their own interests , and the kingdomes ; little dreaming what a foundation they are laying for their own destruction , if affairs be transacted after their desires , numerously , and tumultuously , and now formally attending day after day at westminster , as if they intended to force the parliament to some unjust laws or ordinances against other men , for satisfaction of their own carnall lusts , and others who continually instigate and solicite them to this service : saying in their hearts , we will not have this man to reign over us , come let us kill him and the inheritance shall be ours : let us traduce these men , petition against them , and every way make them vile and odious to the magistrates and the people : that now they have subdued the enemy for us , we may divide the places of honour and profit amongst our selves ; passionately , and with uncivill language , every where complaining of them , as hereticks , sectaries and schismaticks , and such , who though they have ventured lives and estates for their preservations , yet because they differ , but ( it may be ) in some petty circumstance , or opinion from them , must be thought unfit to breath in the same common aire with them , and to enjoy the common priviledges and liberties of native subjects ; though if any , they have most right unto them , as by birth claiming the same interests with others , and having redeemed them well nigh lost , by their own prowesse and valour in the field . but to stop the rage of these unstable waters ; for the waters upon which the whore sits , are multitudes and people ; and to still this out cry ( if possible ) let us consider who these people are , and whether or no indeed & truth , any such persons may be found amongst us , who are so called ? we will first then inquire after the names themselves , and see what they hold forth unto us , and what may be concluded thence . secondly , we shall prove , that though the presbyteriah churches were truly constituted , and ordered according to the rule of the word ( as indeed they are not ) yet maintaining any errour either in judgement or practice , that the rest of the christians in the kingdome , who joyne not themselves to them , cannot truly and properly be termed schismaticks for this . thirdly , we shall clear it ( we hope ) to every reasonable understanding that in case these names of hereticks , sectaries and schismaticks be truly to be applied to any persons in this nation , that themselves & no others do so properly deserve that name , and that they onely make the rent and division that is amongst us : for these names we shall speak of them according to the scriptures onely , that foundation , upon which if we build , we shall stand fast like to mount zion , which cannot be removed , and from which if we turn aside , we cannot but be shaken into dust , being built upon the quick-sand of every unstable mans fancy , of whom the holy ghost hath said , psal. . . verily man , yea , every man at his estate , his best estate is vanity , nay altogether vanity , and that to be laid in the balance , he is lighter then vanity ; nay plainly , he is a lie : beware then of men , especially such men ( wo be to them ) who shut up the kingdom of heaven against men , who love the uppermost seats at feasts , vvho tithe mint , and anise , and comin , and passe over judgement , mercy , faith and the love of god ; our too much doting upon men hath forced this expression : to return then , heresie is a greek word , having its derivation from {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} which signifies to chuse , so that it holds forth in the generall no more then the choice of any opinion , either good or bad : so it was used amongst the heathens , vt non sum in eadem tecum haresi , i e. opinione , i am not in the same opinion with thee : learned passor saith , it s used in a good sence , act. . . after the way which men cal heresie , so worship i the god of my fathers : the religion of the apostles appointed by our lord jesus christ , was then called by those who were the strictest professors of that time , the great rabbies , and doctors of the people , ( but blinde leaders of the blinde ) heresie , or a sect ; i wish that now , that which comes neerest to christs institution , and his apostles , were not so judged by the most of men , and those who think themselves the wisest too : but the world by wisdome knows not god , and this wisdome is no better then foolishnesse with god : you see briefly , what the name heretick imports ; the choice of an opinion not generally received ; though sometimes it falls out to be the truth , even the truth it selfe , the way , the truth , and the life , even christ himself . the next word , which is sect , whence comes the common name sectaries , a word now so much in use ; and this is no other , then the latine of the former greek word , made into english , as you may see , acts . . chap. . . and elsewhere , where you finde mention made of the sects of the saduces and pharisees ; and the originall word is still {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} the heresie of the saduces and pharisees , and so in the place fore quoted , acts . the choise of christ , and the true christian religion is called a heresie ; so that these two words signifie but one and the same thing , only one is the greek word , and the other is the latine of it , as you may see further in the cor. . , . which place i alleadge , that we may finde out fully the meaning of the last word which is schisme , & hath its etymologie from the greek word {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} , findo , to cleave , or rent asunder , as you may finde it used in matth. . . chap. . . luke . . and many other places , so that schisme is properly a seperation or division in a body , whose parts were before united , and in scripture signification holds forth a division , or discention in judgement , or opinion from others in what was before received and maintained together with them ; there must be a vnion or conjunction before this parting and division , according to the true and proper sense of the word , or else it cannot be a schisme ; the full understanding of the word you may have in iohn . and . . compared with cor. . . the two first texts tels us there was a division among the people : and in the last the tearms heresie , sect , and schisme , are used promiscuously , and seem to signifie but the same thing , as in ver. . i heare there are schismes among you ▪ and i partly beleeve it ; and in the . the apostle renders the reason of this beliefe ; for there must be heresies , or sects ; or it must be so , for this cause , that those that are approved may be made manifest : so here you have all together , and hold out but the very same to us , or at most , that one is the cause , and the other the effect ; because the choice of an opinion differing from others , is oft , and hath been an occasion to those that entertain that opinion , to divde from others in their practise : also thus , heresie hath usually in the ordinarie sense of men , referred to the judgment , and schisme to the practise . and because the churches of the new testament were every way true and sound , both in respect of their foundation , members , ministry , doctrines , institutions , and censures , in their primitive apostolicall planting , therefore those that were once joyned to them , and then chose out any opinion to themselves , differing from them , and upon that opinion made a division and seperation in their practise , were in the true genuine signification of the words , truly and properly hereticks and schismaticks so called ▪ but because the churches of iesus christ straight after , & even in the apostles time , begun to decline from their first purity , & every way , & to wax worse and worse , till the man of sin , mentioned , thess. . . . came fully to be revealed , which hath now been for many hundred of yeares , therefore such could not be hereticks and schismaticks : who after the apostles time , and in succeeding ages took up opinions , which were contrary both to the doctrine and practise of those declining churches ; which were now no longer the true churches of iesus christ , according to their originall institution and plantation , but the falfe and faigned churches of antichrist , which were to succeed and come in the room and stead of the true ones , as is cleare by the whole book of the revelations , which is mainly a propheticall history , and narrative of the rise , reign , and ruine of antichrist ; where you may see how large his territories are , & how far his power reacheth , especially in that i ext of rev. . where it it said ver. . that all the world wondered after the beast ; and ver. . all that dwell on the earth shall worship him , whose names are not written in the lambs book of life . and behold these names are the men who in all ages have been accounted the hereticks , sectaries , and schismaticks of the times ; and these names are they , who are so esteemed at this very day ; as is most evident to such ; whose eyes are anointed with the eye salve of the spirit of god , to discern of things that differ , in reference to the present age wherein they live , which is confirmed every day by those who do come after them ; so were the waldenses reckoned in their times ; the wicklevites , our own country men in their generation ; the hussites , and the jerman lutherans in theirs , all esteemed , and nicknamed hereticks and schismaticks by the people of that age in which they lived , but have been even ever justified by the succeeding generations more and more ; as being such who have been enlightened to depart from the errours of those times , and have revived , and uncovered some remnants and sparks of divine light and truth , which had been raked up in the ashes of the filthy abominations , superstitions , and traditions of that antichrist , the church of rome : and here by the way observe who they are , and whose poyson it is ▪ even of the divell and antichrist , that men blasphemers , truly so called , spit out daily against new light , not that it is indeed new , but the old light and truth newly discovered again , and cleared from those foggs and mists , which arose out of the bottomlesse pit ; happy is it for those men , if they sin of weakness , it may be forgiven ; but if of malice or wilfulnesse ; let them remember , that all sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven , but the blasphemy against the spirit ( the spirit of light and truth , by which christ enlighteneth every one that comes into the world ) shall never be forgiven neither in this life , nor that to come : i. e. not at all : dear country-men , consider that the mystery of iniquity was not at his ful heighth presently , nor did the man of sin grow up to his full age in a little time : neither was materiall nor antichristian rome built in one day ( as it is in the proverb . ) it was the work of many generations to establish the throne of antichrist ; and it will require no small time to unthrone him againe ; the stones of this babell must be pulled down , not all together , but one after another there are . severall angels who have their . severall vialls to powre out for the destruction of the beast rev. . and these all have their severall times wherein to effect their works : and as divers ages before us , have had their chair in this service ; we also in our generation must have ours , and that not the least , though probably it may be the last , else most ( if not all ) who have laboured to unfold this mysterie , have been deceived , though very much of it be yet undiscovered to the most : now if wee look at the manner of his destruction , the apostle tels us , thess . it shall be by the spirit of the mouth of christ , and the brightnesse of his comming : the spirit and the light are all together instruments in the hand of christ , to bring to passe this great destruction ; and whoever speakes against the one must blaspheme the other : let those men then , who boast of the spirit , beware how they reproach the light , least they grieve the holy spirit of god in others , and quench it in themselves ; which is believed to be done in some of them already , their abilities being blasted , in regard of what they have been heretofore : i have insisted awhile in opening of these names , that men may see how improbable ( if not impossible ) it is , that those men who were but a few years since the greatest champions , against bishops , crosse , surplisse , and altar-worship , and such things as are now generally sworn against , as antichristian , and after this day the highest opposers of antichrist in this kingdome , in the remainders of him , those that were formerly lookt on as the great puritans , and non conformists , the tearmes of reproach then in use ; how unlikely i say is it , that these very men should be now turned hereticks , sectaries , and schismaticks , any other then what they then were , after they have so faithfully served the parliament in this great cause of religion and liberty , with the losse of blood and estate : they are indeed such hereticks &c. as they before mentioned , who have in all ages ▪ opposed the wayes of the man of sin in his erroneous doctrines and practises of idolatry , and superstitions , and no other , which shall be further manifested in the ensuing discourse ; yet before i passe to the second thing ▪ give me leave to answer an objection , which may be framed thus : object . if those that are called hereticks , &c. be no other then such as have opposed antichrist in all ages then you seem to confound our churches , with that of the church of rome , and how weak this assertion is , who sees not , when we are so long since departed from her , and are therefore hated by her , and are our selves deemed to be hereticks and schismaticks for this , in her account . answ . true it is , there hath been in many things a departure from the church of rome , wherein she is erronious , and amongst them england hath had a share , but there are yet many things wherein she agrees with her , the extirpation of some of which hath too lately cost her dear ; and she will be sooner or later at farther expence , and charge in the same kinde ; for the casting out of those other things that remain amongst us , if jesus christ by the wisdom and tendernesse of this parliament , or otherwise finde not out some expedient for prevention . quest . but you will say , these are but words , if there be such things indeed , discover them ; we are upon a reformation and have engaged our selves by solemn covenant , each one to go before another in the example of a reall reformation , in all duties we owe to god and man . answ . if it be so , solomen tels you its better not to vow , then ( having vowed ) not to perform ▪ remember the invocations and attestations of the great god , as the searcher of all hearts for your performance , and for your help herein ; and for answer of this question , i shall insist onely in one particular , which as a fountain , if you will follow , will run out into many streams , and doth in a manner contain in it all the rest ; and it is this , a spirit and principle of persecution , contrary to the great command of iesus christ , which he calls the royall law of love , and to the great duty of christians , love , which is termed the fulfilling of the law , by this saith christ , shall men know ye are my disciples : i. e. reall christians , if ye love one another , this is the duty which in scripture is every where pressed , and was slighted and neglected generally by all before our troubles and sorrows came upon us ; the want of this was the true cause of that bitter and cruell persecution of the godly , in regard of their consciences , by the bishops and their adherents in their popish and antichristian courts of high commission , commissaries , and chancellors ; and the want of this love , was the cause too of our oppressions in our estates in the other courts of the kingdom , ( both legall and illegall ) so that all these were turned into gall and wormwood , and our laws by wresting of them , were instead of remedies , no better then nets and snares unto us , and the further men went this way commonly , the more were they insnared , and entangled . but you will say , these courts are now removed with their judges , there is now no more fear of these , these yokes are taken from off our necks , wherefore do you yet complain ? i answer , though we have fought , and sworn down archbishops , bishops , with all their rabble and dependents , and so are likely to receive no further damage by them , and these yokes which they created for us are castaway ; yet if the same spirit and principle remain within us and amongst us , it will act the same things , though in another form and shape , and persecutions , fines , and imprisonments , to the utter ruin of families , shall yet be the portion of the saints in this kingdom , the beginnings whereof , as they are felt by some already , so are they feared almost by all , and are too visible to every discerning eye : and if you yet further demand of me what this spirit and principle is , which will thus manifest it self to the persecution and destruction of the innocent and faithfull in this kingdom ; i answer , it is that very spirit of satan and antichrist most contrary to the gospel spirit of love , which is described by the apostle in . thes. . . which is yet remaining amongst us , even this , that some of the sons of men , sit as god in the temple of god , exalting themselves above all that is called god , or is worshipped : every saint is a temple of the living god , cor. . . whoever then , whether a particular person , or a collective body in this temple exalts himself above god , or that which is worshipped , which is nothing else but god , for god only is to be worshipped ; this is the antichrist : the meaning is , when god hath given commands , rules , and directions in his word to those that are his in iesus christ for his worship and service , and iesus christ hath sent his spirit into their hearts to perswade them of the force of these commands , and of the manner of this worship , ( for his sheep hear his voice , and will not follow a stranger ; ) if there be any man , sort , or rank of men whatever , that take upon them to judge of these commands , and to interpret these rules for others , so as to enforce obedience from others to their interpretations : this i conceive is the antichrist , who sits as god in the temple of god , ( the spirits and consciences of men ) and so exalts himself above all that is called god , or worshipped , i. e. will be obeyed in the place , and stead of god , and above him , god commanding one thing to the conscience , and he another . this is popery , and the very top of all popery , the very life , blood , and spirit , that runs through the whole body of it : for what makes the pope but this , that he takes upon himself , to be the infallible interpreter , and judge of the scriptures , and all the papists that do not acknowledge him so to be , yet place this infallability some where , either in the church , or in a generall counsell , and when that cannot be had , the pope with his consistory , are in the place of it , so that the papists do all of them , professe an infallibility of judgement , and interpretation of the scriptures , and this makes them to impose upon men according to their own pleasure , yet with some shew of truth and reason . but for other men amongst us , who do in their own words deny this infallibility of interpretation , and yet to impose upon others what they do interpret , as if they were infallible ; as it is in it self ridiculous , so is it in my thoughts an aggravation of the crime , and makes it more antichristian in them , then in the pope himself ; who peradventure acts in this according to what he holds , but these , just contrary to what themselves believe , and professe . i could tell you of a people , who deny themselves infallible , yet use to determine all their ecclesiasticall controversies , and they are very large ( for in ordine ad spiritualia , i. e. in reference to the church they can take in much ) by a nationall assembly , and in a vacancy of that , by a committee or commissioners chosen from amongst them , with a chair-man , or a consistory rather , answering that of the cardinals with the pope , to whom if obedience be not yielded , processe is made to excommunication , and after that to confiscation , banishment , and death ; whether this copy do not answer the originall pattern at rome , you that know , judge , and tell me , if it be not as like it , as ovum ovo , and one apple to another : now if this be that reformation which men so earnestly pursue , that which is the very spirit , life , & soul of popery , which hath given denomination and being to it , by which it hath grown up , and come to his full height & strength , by which it is upheld to this very day , whereby it brought into the world all its hereticall & hellish doctrines , all its damnable & paganish idolatries , all its apish & childish fopperies , ceremonies , & superstitions , and from which it acted all its cruel burnings , hangings imprisonings , murthers , massacres , rebellions , treasons , powder-plots , and what ever men can call detestable and devilish . if i say this spirit must yet be kept amongst us , put it into what form or beautifull shape you please , call it by what name you will , let it act out under what notion of religion , or reformation you can imagine , it is the same antichrist still , & no other : and now fellow covenanters , i think it is time for us to lay our hands upon our hearts , and consider where we are , what we are doing and whether we are going , if instead of having our faces sion ward , we be not posting back again to rome , though not in the old road . if it be so ( as alas , it is too true ) be not deceived , god is not mocked ; it s not crying , the temple of the lord , the temple of the lord , reformation , government , suppressing sects and heresies , these vain words will not save us , whilest we foment this spirit of antichrist , this principle of hatred , persecution , & division in one another , that some of us must judge for our selves , and others too in the things of christ , that we must interpret the word , as if we were infallible , ( when we acknowledge we are not so ) and must impose our own fullible sences , and interpretations upon others ; and in case of non-conformity , must force obedience from them : whilest we thus bite , and devour one another , let us take heed that we be not devoured one of another , this reformation is not after the gospel ; god is love , and he that dwels in love , dwels in god , and god in him ; and christ so loved us , as to lay down his life for us , leaving us an example , that we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren , and not to take away the lives of the brethren because they differ from us ; our lord jesus christ and his ministers are of another minde all the new testament over ; the weapons of our warfare , saith st. paul are not carnall , but mighty through god , and not through the arme of flesh : so tim. . , . the servants of the lord must not strive but be gentle unto all men , patient , with meeknesse instructing them that oppose themselves , if god peradventure will give them repentance : and tit. . . shewing all meeknesse to all men ; look also into the . chap. of the romans ; and you shall see of what different judgement and practises the saints were there , as they held contradictions , so did they practise them too , one would eat , another would not eat ; one would regard a day , and he did this to the lord , i. e. because he was perswaded the lord had so commanded , another would not regard a day , and he did this to the lord too , being perswaded the lord required no such observations ; friends here were contradictions amongst saints , in things of the highest nature in point of worship ; most of the old puritans , and non-conformists of this kingdom , know well what it is to keep or regard a day ; they can tell you that the most spirituall worship , and the highest and chiefest service of iesus christ , was concerned in it , and was meant by it ; it was surely no indifferent thing , as we have been perswaded to believe , matters of religious cognisance were contained in it , the apostle speaking of it , as done unto the lord , men observing , or not observing , as conscious of that duty , which the lord had enjoyned them , or of that liberty wherewith iesus christ had made them free ; now what is the apostles councel in this controversie , doth he advise to censuring , condemning , fining , imprisoning , or killing one another ; no such thing , but the contrary : let not the weak judge the strong , and let not the strong despise the weak , chap . ver. . which he confirms with severall reasons , every man stands or fals to his own master , ver. . according to that of our saviour christ , math . . call no man rabbi , for one is your master , and all ye are brethren ; and ver. . we shall all stand before the judgement seat of christ ; and then ver. . every one shall give an account of himself to god ; and chap. . . the strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak , and not please themselves ; and ver. . let every one please his neighbour , for good to edification , which he backs with this inforcing reason , ver. . for even christ pleased not himself , and the conclusion of the whole matter is this , ver. . wherefore receive you one another , as christ also received us to the glory of his father ; if christ love , receive , and imbrace you , although of differing judgements and practises ; go ye and do likewise , do ye love , receive , and imbrace each other . these scriptures are full , and if opened , would spin the thred of my discourse longer then i intended ; but there is very much in them , if the lord would give us an understanding that we might beleeve them● friends , they are our gospell , and i shall leave them with you ; as those which shall one day rise up in judgement against such as have imbraced them , and yet walk contrary to what they report unto us . undoubtedly the meanes that christ hath appoynted to propagate his gospell , and to advance his kingdome , is the sword of the spirit , and not the sword of st●●le ; by this it is that antichrist hath so enlarged his dominions , as you may see , revel. . . and therefore heare his doom , which shall surely be accomplished on him , and all such too , as in this kind take part with him , ver. .th that leads into captivity , must go into captivity ; and he that kills with the sword , must be killed with the sword ; here is the patience and faith of the saints , according to that of our saviour , matth. . . they that take the sword , shall perish by the sword ; and before i shall passe from this , i beseech you , as you tender the comming of iesus christ his kingdom , which you daily pray for ; and the peace and welfare of this your own native kingdome where you live , that you would seriously consider with your selves , whether this usurpation of power over the bodies of the saints , in respect of spirituall things , ( as antichrist himself hath done in all ages ) may not be the true and adequate cause , why the lord hath suffered the sword to bathe it self in blood , and to make it selfe drunk with the blood of the slain in these parts for divers past , and for many more in the parts beyond the seas ; so rev. . . they have shed the blood of saints and prophets , and thou hast given them blood to drink , for they are worthy : and what improbability is there of peace amongst us , whilest this devillish spirit of hatred and persecution ( for the devill was a murtherer from the beginning ) which hath given antichrist his denomination , life , and being , doth yet abide , is nourished and maintained by us ? and so i come to the second point , wherein i shall be brief , which is : that though the presbyterian churches were truly constituted and ordered according to the rule of the word ( as indeed they are not ) yet maintaining any errour either in judgement , or practise , that the rest of the christians in the kingdom , who joyn not themselves to them , cannot truly and properly be termed schismaticks for this . i have told you formerly in this discourse , whilest i opened the severall words , that according to the true nature of the word , schisme signifies a dis-union , division , or cleaving asunder of parts , which were before united in a solid body : let us apply this to the businesse in hand , and schisme is nothing else but a division ▪ or separation in judgement and practise of persons from some church or body , to which they were before united : and when i pray was it that those who are now called hereticks , sectaries , and schismaticks , were joyned together in a body with those who are termed presbyterians , and who put these names upon them ? who can with any face affirm that ever these men were members of any presbyterian churches in this kingdom of england , or ever had union or communion with them as such ? how can they then be said to make a schisme or separation , to part away , or divide asunder from them ; who knows not , that they are but of yesterday , if so they may be said to have yet any being to this day , some few it may be shuffled together after a fashion here in this great city , but few or none else , throughout the kingdom , and who knowes not also , that many of these men , who are thus reproached by them , were such as they are in their opinion and practises long before there was any noise , hope , or expectation of any presbyterian government or churches to be erected in this kingdom . object . neither will it help them to say they were members of the church of england in the bishops times , and the church consists of the same members still . ans. but it s notoriously known , that many of them were not so , having long before discovered filthinesse in her skirts , and if upon the common abjuration of those officers , offices , and wayes , the same filthinesse , tyranny , superstition , &c. being generally by discourses , conferences , arguments , debates , laws , ordinances , and oaths made known to many more , ther have according to their protestations , and covenants forsaken those wayes , and are come up farther in a reformation then the common light of the state will yet reach to , who shall lay this as a crime unto their charge , when as the higher powers , through a speciall hand of providence engaging men in a solemn covenant for reformation , have necessarily forced them hereunto ? i answer , if the members be such ( as indeed it is too true ) this cannot but be a just cause of breaking from them , though men for such a separation , ought not to be termed schismaticks ( for schisme is alwayes a causlesse seperation ) whilst they depart rather from their corruptions , then their communion ; being ready to joyn with them in such acts of piety , wherein they are not obliged to professe or practise , what they are perswaded is eroneous ; but i conclude this argument with this assertion : that to leave the church , and to leave the externall communion of a presbyterian church , is not one and the same , but two distinct things : the first is done by ceasing to be a member of the church , i. e. by ceasing to have those requisites which make & constitute a man a member of it , ( viz. ) faith and obedience : the second by refusing to communicate with such a church in her publike worship and service of god : i affirme this as a certain and undoubted truth ▪ that there is no necessity of communicating with true believers in evill actions ; when men are convinced , know , and believe they are so ; nay , i assert farther , there is a necessity herein of seperation from them : and men may without scruple , forsake and renounce the receiving and practise of some opinions and observances , the which your churches hold , and in which they do communicate , but i maintain , that this is done without heresie or schisme ; because they have cause to do so , and no man can have cause to be a heretick or schismatick ; and so i passe to the third position , which is : that in case the name of sectaries & schismaticks be truly applicable to any persons in this nation , that themselves and no others can so properly deserve that name ; and that they only make the rent and division that is amongst us ; my reason is , because these men endeavour to force and compell others to the opinion and practise of such tenants , as themselves maintain for true , when others are convinced they are false ; a thing themselves did laetly much complaine against , and which was hatefull and detestable in the old episcopacy , but is of a sudden grown very laudable , and lovely in our new presbyterie ; i shall hold forth this truth in these two assertions , which i shall place as bul-warks , to defend these poor harmlesse sectaries , from all the force the presbyterian enemy can raise against them . . that not every separation , but onely a causlesse or needlesse separation from the externall communion of any church is the sin of schisme . if this position be not sound , there can be no justification of the protestants separation from the church of rome , nor of those eminent saints , who have in all ages born witnesse against the errours of that church . . that antichristian spirit and principle of persecution , which makes some men to impose on others , under penalties , a necessity of professing known errours , and practising known corruptions , is a sufficient , just , & necessary cause of separation , and that this is the cause which protestants alledge , to justifie their separation from the church of rome : now that divers things practised by the presbyterian churches are errors , known so to be to those that depart from them : none without the highest breach of charity can deny , nor with lesse impudency affirm they endeavour not that others should believe the same , or suffer . all that men forsake in them is onely the beliefe , practise , and profession of their errors : and for men not to forsake the belief of their errours , having discovered them so to be , is impossible , and not to forsake the practise and profession of them , is damnable hypocrisie . let them free their churches from requiring the belief , practise , or profession of any errour , or whether they will or no , they must free such as depart from them , from being schismaticks : for schism there cannot be in leaving their communion : unlesse men were obliged to continue in it : and man cannot be obliged by man , but to what either formally or virtually he is obliged by god : for all just power is from god ▪ god the eternall truth , neither can nor will oblige us to believe the least , and the most innocent falshood , to be a truth , that is , to erre● nor to professe a known errour , which is to lie : thus you see that whilest they require the belief , practise or profession of any errour amongst the conditions of their communion , the obligation of mens communicating with them ceaseth , and so the imputation of schisme , and the names of horsticks and secta its vanish into nothing , but lie heavy upon themselves for making mens separation , just and necessary , by requiring unnecessary , and unlawfull conditions of their communion ; either let them prove then , that they erre not at all , or forbare those odious names , or at least apply them rightly ( as they ought ) to themselves . if men would be themselves , and would be content that others should be so in the choice of their religion , the servants of god , and not of men ; if they would allow that the way to heaven is no narrower now , then christ left it ; if all men that believe the scriptures , would free themselves from prejudice , and passion , and sincerely endeavour to finde out the true sence of them , live according to them , and require no more of others , but to do so : who doth not see ( sith all necessary truths are plainly and evidently set down in scripture ) there would of necessity be amongst all men , in all things necessary , unity of opinion , unity of love , and a spirit of mutuall toleration : by which means all schisme and heresie would be banished the world , and those wretched contentions , which now rend and tear in pieces , not the coat , but the members and bowels of christ ( which mutual pride & tyranny , cursing , killing , and damning , would fain make mortall ) should speedily receive a most blessed conclusion : by this means indeed , should the lord be one , and his name one in the nations , which onenesse is not meant of any outward form , but of the onenesse of love , and affection in the spirit : doubtlesse , at this day , the most vehement accusers , are the greatest schismaticks , and those who talk of uniformity , do drive at tyrannie , and will have peace with none , but their slaves and vassals . by a late learned antagonist of the church of rome , ( and that whilest the prelates were in their pride ) it was truly said , nothing is more against religion , then to force religion , humane violence may make men counterfeit , but cannot make them believe , and is good for nothing , but to breed form without , and atheism within . besides if this means of bringing men to embrace any religion , were generally used , as if it may be justly used in any place by those that have power , and think they have truth : certainly , it cannot with reason be denied , but that it may be used in every place , by those that have power as well as they , and think they have truth as well as they , what could follow but the maintenance perhaps of truth , but perhaps only of the profession of it in one place , and the oppression of it in a thousand ; what will follow , but the preservation perhaps of unity , but perhaps only of uniformity in particular states , but the imortalizing of the great and lamentable division of christendom and the world . therefore what can follow from it , but perhaps in the judgement of carnall policy , the temporall benefit and tranquility of temporall states and kingdoms , but certainly the infinite prejudice , if not the desolation of the kingdom of christ , and therefore it well becomes them who have their portions in this life , and serve no higher state then that of england , scotland , or ireland , ( nor this neither no farther then they may serve themselves by its ) to maintaine by worldly power and violence their state inframent religion : but they that the indeed lovers of christ , of truth , of the church . of mankinds , ought with all courage to oppose themselves against it as antichristian , and a common enemy to all these . they that know there is a king of kings , by whose will and pleasure kingdoms stand and fall , they know , that to no king , or state , any thing can be profitable , which is unjust : ( our experiment is too neer us at this day ; the desolations of our state are witnesses hereof , ) and that nothing can be more evidently unjust , then to force weak men by the profession of a religion , which they beleeve not , to loose their own eternall happinesse , least they loose their temporall estates and quietnesse , there being no danger to any state from any mans opinion : unlesse such , by which disobedience to authority , or impiety is taught : unlesse this bloody doctrine be joyned with it , that it is lawfull for the magistrate by humane violence , to enforce men to his own religion : oh let not our magistrates in this , take part with the scarlet whore , who for these many ages hath daily sacrificed thousands of poor innocent christians , under the name of hereticks , sectaries , and schismaticks : doubtlesse , if our lord jesus christ himself would have submitted to the expositions and interpretations which the priests and doctors had at that time given out upon the scriptures , they had never crucified him , and put him to such open shame : but because , that he and his apostles after him would according to that new light , which they had received , endeavour to set up a reformation ( all which was yet no other then a clearer , and fuller declaration of what the scriptures did hold forth ) above and beyond the light and understanding of these men , who were no other , then the divine presbyterie of those times , therefore received they such hard measure from them , and suffered as blasphemers and hereticks under them , and by their censure ; we have a law , and by this law , he ought to die , joh. . . pilate ( though the supream magistrate ) was no other but their executioner then , as the civill powers have been in all generations since to this sort of men , who under a pretence of holinesse , have daily embrewed their hands in innocent-blood . before i end , there are some texts of scriptures , which seem repugnant to what hath been asserted , and would be answered , as , object . that in tit. . . him that is an heretick , after the first and second admonition , reject ; this text placeth a power somewhere , both of judging hereticks , and proceeding against them . answ . i answer , true it is in the primitive and apostolical churches ; amongst the rest of those gifts , which were powred forth by jesus christ upon the saints , this was one , discerning of spirits , cor. . . but this gift amongst others in the apostacy , and falling away of the churches ( which was foretold by the apostle , thes. . . and ioh. . . where the holy ghost saith expresly , that instead of the spirit of christ , the spirit of antichrist should come , and was already ) was lost ; and because of the want hereof , the saints , whom god hath stirred up to bear witnesse to the truth in their severall ages , ever since have unrighteously suffered , been persecuted and put to death , under this notion and name of hereticks . secondly , in case some heresies may be so grosse , that even to this day , he that runs may read , and the saints according to that small measure of the spirit , which they have received might judge them so to be ; yet this text belongs to the church as their portion , and not to the civill magistrate , as a magistrate ; and what censure or punishment soever this rejection was , it was to be executed by the ecclesiasticall , and not by the civill power ; so that to apply such texts as this to the power of the magistrate , is one of the most grosse , and palpable wrestings of scripture that can be , and yet is too common amongst the gentlemen of the jus divinum tribe in their discourses , printed , and unprinted , as i my self not long since ( before the house of commons at a publique fast ) heard that of rev. . . because thou sufferest that woman iezabel , &c. which was written to the angel of the church of thyatira , either weakly or wilfully alledged , to justifie their power ( viz. the magistrates ) in spirituall things , by which you may take a scantling of that gift among them . thirdly , supposing churches with this gift of discerning , and so this power among them , yet can it not be lawfull for them to proceed against men who hold heresies ( nor indeed can they be properly so called ) unlesse they have acknowledged , and profest the contrary thereunto before , and so have departed from that truth , which in their communion they maintained ; which appears from this next verse , to that we have in hand , tit . . where the apostle saith , that a heretick is self condemned ; {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} i. e. that light which he had formerly received , doth now judge him & condemn him ; as it was in iulian the apostat , who was forced to confesse at last vicisti galilee : i conceive men , who never made any more profession of christian religion , then what they have been passive in from their forced baptisme , and education , having at no time attained to any thing , which hath been so much as like a new birth , or change in them , and so were never reckoned , or esteemed by saints among the number of saints , or admitted into their fellowship , or communion ; such men ( what tenets , or errours soever they take up ) are rather to be accounted prophane persons , or atheists , then hereticks : as it were improper to call either a jew , or turk a heretick in scripture-sense , though they deny christ to be the son of god : which i confirm from that place of pet. . . where the apostle mentioning false teachers , which should being in damnable heresies ; he saith , they were such as did deny the lord that bought them , i. e. though their consciences had received such convictions from the spirit that iesus christ was the lord and saviour of the world , and so had given themselves up to him as such , yet they afterward brought in those doctrines which denied this again . object . the next place objected , is rom. . . where the magistrate is said to be a minister of god for wrath upon him that doth evil . now if you adde to this , gal. . . it appears that heresie is an evil work , being there reckoned among the deeds of the flesh , and so punishable by the civill power . answ . these places thus united , i suppose , do enforce the objection , and make it stronger then i have yet anywhere met with it . but i answer , there are in the same , gal. . , . severall other works of the flesh numbred up together with heresies , which yet i conceive , the civill power cannot possibly take cognifance of , as hatred , emulations , envyings , and the civill magistrate can no more draw his sword against the one , then against the other , no more against heresie , then against hatred , emulation , and envy . secondly , for that place of the romanes , it was a scripture written to the christians , living under heathen magistrates ; th●se surely had no cognizance of the severall controversies , or opinions , which might fall in amongst the christians , in the profession of their religion , which the heathens so much hated , and therefore heresie cannot fall under the power of the sword , there mentioned ; and if so , let all men judge , how truly and properly these men apply the word ; and whether this be not a wringing of the scripture like a nose of wax and a perverting of it to their own , and other mens destruction : i should have spoken more fully to this point , but that i finde my self prevented by mr. iohn goodwin , in his late book called hag●●mastix , from pag. . to pa● . . a piece worthy the sight of such men , who enquire after truth . one great question yet remains , to which i shall speak a word or two , and so end . q. if heresie & schism be of such a doubtfull nature , and so hard to be found out ; if hereticks and schismaticks prove to be such , whom we least suspected ; if that gift of discerning , whereby they should be known , be lost in the apostacy of the churches ; if the imposing our own fallible thoughts , and expositions upon the consciences of other men be antichristianisme , and a setting up of the man of fin ; what shall be done in regard of our solemn league and covenant , whereby we are engaged to endeavour the extirpation of h●r●sta and schisme , and to bring the churches in the three kingdoms to a vniformity , & c. ? answ. i say concerning the covenant , in reference to the presbyterians , as they sometimes spake of the church , in reference to the prelates , they dazle the eyes , and astonish the senses of poor people , with the glorious name of the covenant : this is the gorgans head , that hath enchanted them , and held them in bondage to their presbyterian errours ; all their speech is of the covenant , the covenant , neglecting in the mean time , god and the scriptures . it matters not for other things in the covenant , as you may see in the next answer , so as men will but walk according to the same ( in their interpretation ) in an outward uniformity of religion , and in a visible form of church government , and worship , then which nothing can be more against the power of godlinesse , which consists in an invisible , and internall breathing , panting , working , and acting of the soul toward god , for god is a spirit , and they that worship him , must worship him in spirit and in truth : all outward forms imposed , do but ordinarily , and commonly breed atheisme and hypocrisie : it were well therefore that the civill powers would be carefull , how they engage carnall men in religious covenants , and about spirituall things . i answer , we seem very zealous for extirpation of that which is neither in our cognizance nor power , and for prophanesse , and such things as are against the power of godlines , which in the same clause we covenant against , and against which the laws of god and men are in force ; and which are certainly and undoubtedly in the cognizance of the civill power , and for which he must give an account to god ; how doth every one cry out upon the neglect of these ? whose eyes , and ears are not full of the reelings , railings , belchings , vomitings , swearings cursings , lyings , stealings , brawlings , and fightings of drunkards , liars , adulterers , whoors , prophane , gracelesse , godlesse persons ? and yet these are altogether , or in a great measure unpunished , due execution of laws against these were a right reformation indeed , acceptable to god , and all good men : sin , open , grosse , palpable sin , doth so abound every where , that no just man can walk up and down , without vexing his righteous soul , for the unclean conversation of the wicked : remember who those men are ( reproved by our saviour , matth. . ) that thus strain at a gnat , and swallow a camel . i answer , that we are in our severall places and callings , to endeavour against these , ( in like manner art. . ) now god calls us out against these men , ( in case we could discern them infallibly ) not with a sword of steel , but the sword of the spirit , the word of god , which is mighty through god , to convince gain-sayers , and the servant of the lord must strive no otherwise then thus , as i shewed before ; if men will but truly and faithfully ( as they have opportunity , ) hold forth that light they have , to others , to turn them from their errours , and in other things walk as christians ; i dare say , they have done all that god requires of them in this case , so as they may boldly look god in the face , at the great day of appearing : and the covenant ( sano sensu ) can have no other interpretation then this . to shut up all , i doubt not , but i have at least wise opened a way to let in truth amongst us as concerning this particular , and to engage others , who may have a greater portion ; both of time and strength to vindicate , & maintain what hath been asserted ; and if these things which are written , be not yet convincingly satisfactory to each ingenuous , and non-pre-engaged reader ; let there be for all parties , independents , brownists , anabaptists , an equall liberty , of debate , conference , discourse , and presse with the presbyterians , if each of them be not able to prove from scripture , their own way and practise to come neerer to the pattern of truth , then the presbyterian , ( though i suppose none of them to be exactly according to the rule , for it s reserved for the glory of the new ierusalem to have nothing that defiles , or is a lie to enter into it ) i am confident they will desire no toleration ; and if they do , then you must necessarily conclude with me , it is most equall , & that the presbyterians are the greatest hereticks ( as being in the choice of their opinions further off from the truth of scripture then the rest ) & the greatest schismaticks ( as practising according to those opinions ) that are at this day in this nation . a question for a kingdom to answer . a kingdom hath three parties into which it is divided , and these three are distinguished by three notions , prelaticall , presbyteriall , independent , two of these grew into one , against the other one party , which was more great and considerable then these two , and overcame it ; and then these two , that ( as one ) overcame the third , resolve back into two again : and one of these two endeavour now to overcome the other : upon this , let it be considered , whether that one party , which was at first , overcome by two in one : ( now since one of these two are dissolving , and suppressing the other , that made one with it ) be not likely to be the overcomer , and prevailing party over both these ? a question for a church to answer . a national church was once episcopal , and seeks for extirpation , and suppression of a few that were called hereticks , and schismaticks , and non-conformists to it , by imprisonments , banishments , &c. and yet these few , and inconsiderable party , increases , and prevails against all this power , and nationall government . vpon this , let it be considered , whether a new nationall government , armed with a like power , and proceeding against a far more numerous party , called hereticks , schisma●icks , and non-conformists to it ; be able to extinguish these , upon the experience , of the insufficiency , & unsuccesfulnesse , and weaknesse of the same power , and force , exercised to the same end , and designe as before . finis . revel. . because thou art luke-warme , and neither cold nor hot , i will spew thee out of my mouth . verse . thou sayest i am rich , and increased with goods , and have need of nothing : and knowest not that thou art wretched , and miserable , and poor , and blinde , and naked . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a e- rev. . . rev . . iam. ▪ psal. . ▪ . acts . . . . notes for div a e- eccle. . . mat. . ier. . . revel. . . revel. . . mat. . iuke . tu●●ie . rev. . . ioh. . . thes. . ier. . . cor. . rev. . . point . i. ☞ . point . thes. . . smect. sect. . ioh. . . conclus . rev. . an appeal for judgement unto the righteous principle of god in every conscience, against the persecutors of the innocent. r. c. (richard crane) approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page image. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing c estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) an appeal for judgement unto the righteous principle of god in every conscience, against the persecutors of the innocent. r. c. (richard crane) broadside. [s.n.], printed at london : . signed at end: r.c. [i.e. richard crane] attributed to crane by wing. reproduction of original in the huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng freedom of religion -- england. dissenters, religious -- england. persecution -- england. great britain -- history -- charles ii, - . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - mona logarbo sampled and proofread - mona logarbo text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion an appeal for judgement , unto the righteous principle of god in every conscience , against the persecutors of the innocent . a woful lamentation is taken up for you , who make it your work to persecute the innocent peaceable people of god , and do devise cursed and wicked snares , to bring them under the penalty of the late cruel and bloody edict , in malice forged against the righteous , and in greater malice by many of you put in execution ; god eternal judge between you and us in this matter . i do chalenge you all in the fear of god , one by one ( i say , our persecutors ) to make it appear what wrong is it we have done to the nation in general , or to any one of you in particular , that we must be made the mark of your implacable fury , and that nothing will serve or satiate that blood-thirsty spirit , but an utter extinction and extermination of us all out of our native soil , where god eternal hath given every one of us a lot ; and as we are english-men and a free-born people , our interest is as large and ample , in that lot by god bestowed on us , as yours is who persecute us ; and we have as much right to breath in england as your very selves , ( setting your places aside ) seeing it is given us of god , and enjoyed through his favour , and not of man. must it be so , that except we do prostrate that pre●●●●s life that god hath raised in us through the son of his love , at the feet of your perverse wills , that we must not abide in the land of our nativity , but be most cruelly banished from wives , children and relations ? and except we will commit the deadly sin ( that is ) to sin against the light of god in the conscience , must we be exposed to seek our sustenance in an unknown land , and there to spend the remnant of our dayes , which are but few ? the will of our god be done , and let his will be my life for ever , saith my soul : but let this be unto you known , it is for well-doing , and not for any evil , that any of you can , or ever could justly charge or accuse us with ; and in god's fear we challenge any of you our persecutors , to prove our meetings seditious , or that we do , or ever did contrive insurrections therein . what though you have a president which ye urge , is it anything to us ? we are clear from henceforth and for ever from that spirit ; and as for any false charge or accusation against us concerning our meetings , as hath been said , it never could nor will be proved , that we were or are seditious , or contriver of insurrections ; therefore god eternal arise , and judge in the consciences of all concerning this thing , and make decision , holy father , that our innocency may appear to our adversaries . and our lives and practives are well known unto the people of this nation of england , and therefore we do make our appeal to the just principle of thee in them for judgement , and our life in which we have held forth the testimony of truth amongst them , is of a longer date and standing than yesterday , and not a certain sect , as hath been said ; for our gathering is out of sect and schism , into that life that erreth not , and in which is no rent ; and this will god eternal in due time make known , not only to the people of this nation , but unto the whole world. and do not call this your cruel work of persecution , execution of justice , as i have heard some ; for the execution of justice is a work of another kind , than to come with armed men amongst a company of innocent men and women , ( who are really met together in the peace and fear of god , to worship him in the movings of his power , life and spirit , which is neither subject to time nor place , because that that life & spirit comprehends both ) and most inhumanely to hale them out , and so to lead them before men appointed to send them to prison , and then to drive them like flocks of sheep through your streets unto your dismal holes , there to remain during the wills of our drivers ; who , because they would accelerate and hasten their cruel work begun , they even take the shortest way to destroy us , by cutting short the time ordered in their cruel edict , having a liberty allowed them therein ●or that purpose . o dreadful god! is the long imprisonment ●nd extent of time , all the favour that must accrue unto us ( if it may be so called ) for the respite we are to have in our native land ? my very soul bleeds within me , to see the cruelty and ●ard-heartedness of this generation of men ; and all this for our well-doing , in answering the requirings of that life god infinite hath raised in us in our day and generation . and known be ●t unto you , this is not the execution of justice , but the oppression of the just , which seeks no revenge against you , neither can do , ●ut leaves it to the lord who is a righteous judge , and will in due ●ime recompence every one according to his work . and is not justice perverted , and truth turned into a lye amongst many of you ? cast your eyes abroad , and behold , behold , the intolerable wickedness that is committed here in and about this city , of all sorts ; o what swearing , whoring , drunkenness , carding , dicing , stage-playing , puppit-playing , and mountebank shewes , with all manner of unclean , obscene , wicked and scameless sports and vanities are practised , and most of them allowed without controul , and as i have heard say , licenced by authority . now here is justice to be done , and the execution of it would be pleasing both to god and good men . o take pitty and compassion upon the young and tender plants of this great city , who are poisoned dayly with these abominable practices above-mentioned ! o turn your sword upon these cursed vanities , which tend to nothing but the ruine both of body and soul ! my life hath been bowed down even unto death , having felt the weight of these wickednesses committed in and about this city , and considering with sorrow the state of the youth and tender plants of this place , who are made to drink-in the poison of the devils drollery , poured forth of these execrable bottles , who manage those cursed practices above-mentioned . consider , consider , are these meetings to be tolerated , and to enjoy full fruition of liberty , and ours to be suppressed ? are these more congruent with a righteous and well-disciplin'd government , than meetings to worship god eternal in his spirit and in his fear ? and are they more for the benefit and profit of a nation , than they that wholly are peaceable in all their practices , as experience hath shewed , and could never be otherwise proved ? let god's just principle in all your consciences answer unto these things , and give judgment : and what you do , or may be suffered to do unto us , we in the will of god forgive you ; and know and be assured of this , we have no enmity unto any particular of you whatsoever , and to such as know not what they do , we can say , father forgive them . r. c. printed at london , in the year , . remarks on remarks, or, the rector of bury's sermon vindicated his charge exhibited against the dissenters for endeavouring to corrupt the word of god justified and farther confirmed : also the absurdities and notorious falsities of mr. owen and other pretended ministers of the gospel are detected and expos'd / by thomas gipps, rector of bury. gipps, thomas, d. . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing g estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) remarks on remarks, or, the rector of bury's sermon vindicated his charge exhibited against the dissenters for endeavouring to corrupt the word of god justified and farther confirmed : also the absurdities and notorious falsities of mr. owen and other pretended ministers of the gospel are detected and expos'd / by thomas gipps, rector of bury. gipps, thomas, d. . [ ], p. printed for ephraim johnston ..., london : mdcxcviii [ ] errata: p. [ ] reproduction of original in the bodleian library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng owen, james, - . -- remarks on a sermon, about corrupting the word of god. bible -- criticism, interpretation, etc. dissenters, religious -- controversial literature. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - elspeth healey sampled and proofread - elspeth healey text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion remarks on remarks : or , the rector of bvry's sermon vindicated : his charge exhibited against the dissenters for endeavouring to corrupt the word of god , justified and farther confirm'd . also the absurdities and notorious falsities of mr. owen , and other pretended ministers of the gospel are detected and expos'd . by thomas gipps , rector of bury . siquis est , qui dictum in se in clementiùs existimet esse , sic existimet ; sciat responsum non dictum esse , quia laesit prius . terent. eunuch . prol. london , printed for ephraim johnston , bookseller in manchester , mdcxcviii . errata . pag. . lin. ult . r. attack , p. . l. . for acts read accounts , p. . l. . r. remarker , l. . r. manchester , p. . l. . r. remarker's , l. . r. intolerable , p. . l. . for the r. that , p. . l. . dele ? p. . l. . r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , l. . after 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 add by , p. . l. . r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , p. . l. . r. divisions , p. . l. . r. subprior , p. . l. . for noising r. nosing , p. . l. . r. convivae , p. . l. ult . r. voaligon . chap. i. in these parts of the nation , for any thing i ever heard or knew , there had been for some years a perfect peace , at least a cessation of arms between the church of england and the dissenters , there was no writing , no publishing invectives , no raising of the old disputes , nor so much as preaching against one another , at least not in any foul and exasperating manner : our common danger ( i verily thought ) and our common interest , like a charm , had laid the devil of contention , and confin'd him to his own place , never to enter in among us any more , till peace , plenty and security from foraign enemies should ( as 't is too apt ) conjure him up again , and embroil us with new disorders . but contrary to all expectation , even when our public affairs were at a low ebb , and whilst we were strugling with greater difficulties , then we could hope of a suddain to surmount , the peaceable men ( as they affect to be call'd ) blew the trumpet , and when we dream'd of no such thing , assaulted us in our very camp. in the year . appear'd at manchester , an author of prodigious confidence , who , without any just provocation , caus'd to be printed his scurrilous libel entituled — notes upon the lord bishop of salisbury's four last discourses , &c. it is incredible how the dissenters hugg'd and commended it as one of the sweetest morsels they had ever tasted . and tho' it's ingredients were mostly gall and wormwood , impudence and slander , yet was it in their mouths as honey for sweetness . by it's title one would imagin it calculated for the meridian of salisbury diocess : but 't was compos'd at manchester , there best known , and design'd to expose the members of the church of england in those quarters . we lay at that time ( as i hinted before ) in a profound peace , and had given no occasion for such a sudden and surprizing attach . the notes pretend indeed to be an answer to the bishop's four discourses , and the libeller plainly tells the world , that he was induc'd to write as he did , because my lord of salisbury had ( as he speaks ) reflected upon the dissenters as separatists ; but this will not ( i presume ) excuse the authors rudeness , and the calumnies , which he fill'd that pamphlet with . it must be confest , that excellent prelate in one of his four discourses directed his clergy , how to demean ' emselves towards separatists ( meaning the dissenters : ) but at the same time he us'd 'em with all the meekness and charity , that is due unto those , who differ from us . he gives 'em no hard words , neither pursu'd 'em with any offensive language : his business there was not to prove the charge of schism upon them ( that was taken for granted between him and his clergy , ) but to shew how they were to be brought back into the fold , and into unity with the church : to which purpose he distinguish'd between those , who separated thro' ignorance or prepossession , and others whom worldly interest , ungovournable passions , or some evil affections had prevail'd with to depart from our communion . the former ( he said ) are to be dealt with , with a great deal of tenderness and candour , are to be pitied rather then insulted over , they are not the schismatics which st. paul calls carnal : their ignorance will happily find the same mercy at the hand of god , as we hope our own will in other cases . but the latter the carnal schismatics , being such , as are gone out from us , not upon any true principle of conscience , but on some carnal worldly design , were to be handled more roundly , and their wounds lay'd open with more sharpness and severity . after this manner the good bishop wrote unto his clergy , nor can i recollect any thing said by him , that could exasperate any sober and conscientious dissenter : i am sure the note-maker pretended nothing else , but the supposing them separatists . now by carnal schismatics , are ( i reckon ) to be understood all tho●e , who upon any worldly account whatever , desert the churches , and joyn themselves to the separate assemblies ex . gr . a person leaves the parochial communion , and runs to the barns , induc'd thereto thro' the restless importunity of his wise an heiress , to secure unto himself and family her estate , and to keep peace at home . this man is the carnal separatist , st. paul and the bishop speak of . his religion is vain , it hangs on his wife's apron-strings not on his own conscience ; he abandons the authority , which god has given him over his wife , and truckles to hear as adam did unto eve. in a word , he suffers his wife to usurp the dominion to command him , whom she ought to obey , and to prescribe rules to him , of whom she ought to learn , and to be instructed . upon the same principle such a man would turn mahometan , as solomon did idolater . kings . . but to return to the bishop of salisbury and the notes . i cannot see that the dissenters had just cause from any thing spoken in that discourse , to treat his lordship and the whole body of the church of england , in so unmannerly and contemptuous a manner , as the note-maker has taken the liberty to do . it had been proper enough for any one of 'em to have endeavour'd to shake off the imputation of schism , and to have fasten'd it upon us , provided he had us'd the same temper of meekness and candor as my lord of salisbury has done : no body then would have blam'd him . but a man must be excus'd , if , when he wants arguments to make good his point , he lashes out into down-right railing and billingsgate . for the famous note-maker has loaded us with all the spightful reflections and malitious imputations and artful declamations , which ill nature , want of good breeding , or a corrupt phancy could furnish a profess'd buffoon with . it is not my intention to confirm this in particulars , and to that end to pursue this libeller thro' every paragraph or page . it shall suffice to observe that he has impeach'd us expresly as the persons , who have been the cause of that deluge of atheism , socinianism , popery , lewdness of manners , ay and of the schisms too , which have crept into the church and kingdom ; and this he has done without any other occasion or provocation pretended , than the bishop of salisbury's supposing the dissenters separatists in his letter to his own clergy ; or ( i may rather say ) than the too gentle expressions , which he in vain bestow'd upon these schismatics , the foxes and the firebrands of this poor church and nation , as he might more truly have styl'd ' em . a little after the ' foresaid libel was come to my hand , i was presented with another call'd a sermon preach'd at the opening of a separate chappel by mr. baldwin . this gentleman being greatly pleased ( i was told as much by one that heard him say it ) with the note-makers admirable performance , and declaring , that there were a great many biting truths in it ( that is , that we of the church of england are all of us promoters of atheism , socinianism , popery , schism and decay of morals in this nation ) suffer'd his said sermon to peep abroad , thinking doubtless with himself to reap some of the honour due to that mighty undertaking of trampling underfoot the establish'd church of engl●nd . i have already in another way delivered my mind of this sermon of mr. baldwins , and perhaps shall hereafter let the world see how weak and absurd it was . here only let it be observ'd , that he took upon him to revile the church of england with arminianism , and with popery , and now and then according to his weak power ( for he had a willing mind ) to give us an impertinent wipe on some other acts : how justly it makes no matter with such men ; it sufficeth them that they have some pretence to reproach us , and confidence enough to load us with calumnies . semper ego auditor tantum ? nunquamne reponam , vexatus toties rauoi theseide cod●i ? do these men in good earnest think , after they have first brav'd us and openly provok'd us with lies and slanders , to cast us into a sleep with a dose of opium , to stop our mouths with maxims , which they are not at all careful themselves to observe ? i mean those of having sincere affection to the truth , deference towards superiours , and charity towards neighbours , especially in a conjuncture , whenour civil as well our religious interests do so loudly call for the exerciss of ' em ? to say nothing here of the want of charity , of truth and sincerity in those notes , has the author paid due deference to his superiours ? if he has , why did he not own his libel by affixing his name to it ? at least , why not the name of the printer ? that we might have gratify'd our curiosity with the knowledg of so celebrated a writer . the matter is plain : the note-maker has paid such deference to his superiour my lord bishop of salisbury , as happily would have cost him dear , if he had not been incognito . but this is not the first time , that the rulers of the people have been evil spoken of by authors , who walk the streets in masquerade , and wound their honour behind the back . it will perhaps be ask'd , what 's this to the minister at oswestry ? if an unknown person at manchester has writ a tart book against the episcopal party ? and i also ask what was it to the minister at oswestry , if the rector of bury preach'd a sermon in vindication of the church of england against the lancashire dissenters ? but there is no great mystery in this : the rector had in another treatise discover'd the ministers design'd corruption of st. chrysostom , a piece of pious fraud , which ought never to be forgotten , and therefore the minister with the help of his friends at manchester , was to give his adversary a diversion on some other subject , and to patch up his broken credit with remarks on the rectors sermon . i said , with the help of his friends at manchester , but i rather believe the note-maker was principal in the remarks . mr. owen is the pretended author of 'em , and as i suppose sign'd 'em : yet any one , who reads the minister at oswestry his other writings , may easily discern such a different air in the remarks from his other undoubted performances , as will force him to conclude , that mr. omen is but the reputed father of this spurious off-spring . or what , if one should guess the remarks to be the work of a club of ministers , of which he at manchester was president pro tempore ? this is certain that the remarks in their way to london took a tour to manchester ; there we heard of 'em long before their publication , and had some account of 'em also . there they receiv'd their last finishing strokes ( 't is thought ) and there they were drest up with all the gaudy feathers and embellishments , which the wit of the party could furnish them with . so that if one ask'd the remarker his name , and he would please to return a fair answer , he must say , my name is logion , for me are many . but the great question is , who is this note-maker , who from behind the curtain like the heathen priests delivers his oracles ? what is his name ? unto whom does he belong ? 't is no difficult matter to resolve this knot : that he is a dissenter , no one can doubt , that he is one of that party in manchester was once fairly acknowledg'd unto me by another , who is in their interest , and of no small reputation among them , who also added , that the notes were but a preface to another work which the author intended to set forth , i suppose to the remarks . so then this solomon's porch is as big as his temple , his preface as large as his book , and the mighty work we were put in hopes of , is dwindled into a few sorry remarks upon the rectors sermon . but we may make yet a clearer discovery of the note-maker , if we will but consider that a dissenter within the parish of machester frankly own'd , that a certain minister of the gospel at manchester wrote those notes . we need no more evidence . only it deserves to be observ'd that the defence of , &c. ( a book since publish'd by the minister at oswestry ) was sent down not to the author at oswestry , but to the minister at manchester to be revis'd and corrected , as if mr. owen were not able to rectify the mistakes committed in the printing his own book . this manifests a confederacy and correspondence between 'em , and from hence it may be fairly gather'd , that the notes and the remarks have been done in a great measure by the same hand at manchester . but especially , when we see 'em so like one another both in their features and their drapery , we cannot suffer our selves any longer to doubt , but the remarks were hammer'd out at the same forge , or at least polish'd by the same skilful hand , as were the notes . but be these things as they will , i thought it not improper to give the foresaid brief account of the notes on the bishop of s. four disconrses , if it were only to vindicate my self from the common aspersion , as if i were the occasion of the disturbances that are now among us , whereas i profess and i hope it is already prov'd , that the note-maker has been the troubler of israel . 't is he who first blew up the coals of dissention , which before lay as it were dead in the ashes . do the dissenters think that our hands and our tongues must be tied , whilst theirs are at liberty and let loose to pursue us in the most contemptuous manner , with all the bitterness that malice and rage can inspire 'em with ? or can they hope to lull us asleep into patience and stoical apathy , that they may with the greater ease and security torment and oppress us ? shall they prescribe unto us charity towards them , whilst they are unmercifully teasing and exposing us ? what a master-piece of religious hypocrisy is this to stile themselves ministers of the gospel ( of peace they wisely leave out ) and chalk out the way wherein we are to walk , but in the mean time transgress it themselves : to bind heavy burthens and lay them on our shoulders and not move 'em with one of their own fingers ? in short there is no colour for their complaints , that we write and preach controversies , that we tax our adversaries with their faults , that we set 'em forth with some zeal and warmth : 't is themselves which compel us , tho' non vident id manticae quod à tergo est , they cast their own sins behind their backs . they have hitherto at most been paid , but in their own coin , and receiv'd the common measure of justice quid pro quo , with this difference and advantage on our side , they were the aggressors , and nature it self teaches us to stand on our guard , and to protect our selves , whether it be by offensive or defensive weapons . it must then be confest , that the two first mention'd writings , the notes on my lord bishop of s. four discourses , and mr. baldwin's sermon at the opening of a new erected meeting-house drew the rector into the present skirmish , which he was unwilling to decline , least our cause should suffer by silence , and the dissenters vainly imagin they had got any advantage of us . that saying of the wise man came into my thoughts — answer a fool according to his own folly , least he be wise in his own conceit . i see no reason then but a man may be angry , and rescent the injuries of an adversary with some indignation , the apostle permits it , eph. . . and solomon teaches that — to every thing there is a season , and a time to every purpose under the heaven , among the rest , that there is a time to speak , and a time of war. and was it not high time to speak , when we were by the note-maker treated with scorn and insolence , and such things were laid to our charge , which , if true , would justly render us odious to god and man ? and unworthy the protection of the government . i thought fit therefore to make use of the policy of scipio africanus , to carry the war into the enemies own country , and to lay unto the dissenters charge a crime , which i believe was prov'd upon them better than atheism or socinianism was or can be upon us . hereat the two ministers at oswestry and manchester grew angry , and have made remarks upon my sermon : 't is what i look'd for , and design'd , to the end the world may see , that these sober and charitable men can be intemperately angry , when they apprehend themselves touch'd to the quick , and therefore ought to give others leave to be sensible of the injuries first done 'em without any provocation . briefly , i am not surpriz'd at the remarks , which are fraught with so much venom and rancour . i never expected mercy at their hands , who have no mercy , no not in the times of peace , and when no occasion is given 'em to break out into passion , who in their calmest mood , when meekness and charity seems to sit on their brow , and when the whole face is in appearence o're-spread with universal sweetness and smiles , are even then , as i have learn'd by experience , designing mischief in their hearts against their neighbours , and secretly undermining ' em . upon the whole matter , then the declamatory and popular insinuations of the remarks in his ep. dedic of want of sincere affection to the truth , of deference to superiours , and of charity to neighbours and other like strains against false and malicious accusing our brethren , with all the dirty stuff wherewith this fierce champion of the good old cause has bespatter'd the rector , recoil into the note-maker and the remarker own faces , and lie heavy upon the whole body of the dissenters and some of the politic and intreaguing trimmers in and about manchester . now in the reply , i give unto the remarker i will not make it my profest business like a merry andrew to mind little else than the making sport with my adversary , as he has done with me , that 's the least in my thoughts : i will take care chiefly to attend unto the argument it self , and see that firmly establish'd , not caring much what becomes of the drolling and the scoffing part. altho' , if now and then , when his intollerable absurdities and impieties require it , i take the freedom to shew him his own face in his own glass , 't is hop'd i may merit pardon of the candid reader . chap. ii. being a reply to that part of the remarks which mr. owen calls the preface . the remarker here in the enterance , promises his reader an idea of the rector's sermon , but is not as good as his word . he has presented us with whatever he believ'd would bear a dispute , and which he had the least colour to make a flourish with among the common people , but he has overlook'd , and neglected the most considerable things advanc'd against the exceptions of mr. de laune , which he ought not to have past over , since he understood that gentleman's defence . instead then of an idea of the rector's sermon , he has presented the reader with a specimen of his own cavilling humour . this is an hopeful beginning , when he who is pretending to vindicate others from the charge of diminishing from the word of god , stumbles at the very threshold , and makes no difficulty to diminish from the words of his neighbours . if sacriledge or robbing of god be a crime , i am sure burglary or stealing from one's brother is no virtue : and if the former is by law punishable without benefit of clergy , so is the latter also . mr. de laune ( as i mention'd in my sermon ) had alledg'd against our establish'd worship , that in the psalms used in the liturgy are left out the ancient hebrew titles , which are ( says he ) original and parts of the holy scripture , having a tendency towards the unfolding the misterys therein contain'd . hereunto i reply'd , that it were well , if the dissenters would first prove , that those hebrew titles are original and essential parts of the holy scripture . this mr. de laune ought to have done before he so roundly and peremptorily challeng'd us with corrupting the word of god : but he did not so much as attempt it . mr. owen has now endeavour'd to supply that defect , tho' at the same time he professes he will not enter into this controversy : but whether he will or no he 's got into it before he 's aware , and argues that , the titles are as ancient as the psalms themselves for ought appears to the contrary , they being in all the hebrew and greek copies , that over i have seen : that the jewish church receiv'd 'em as parts of scripture , and they are most of 'em translated by the lxx and by theodotion symmachus and aquila , as also by the targumist : that they are received in the christian church as canonical scripture ; jerom translates them in his version , and they are in the modern versions : that some of 'em are undeniably canonical , as that of the th psalm mention'd sam. . others of them must be prefix'd by the pen-man , or by a person divinely inspir'd : for they refer to passages of history not mention'd in the body of the psalm , & c.. vnto all which i answer . that the subscriptions of st. paul's epistles , are to be found in all the greek copies i have seen or heard of , save that of claromont , are always translated and taken into our modern versions , and yet the remarker will not own them for canonical scripture . it does not then hence follow , that the hebrew titles are essential parts of the psalms , no more than that the subscriptions are canonical . that the jewish church receiv'd the titles and annext them to the psalms i will not dispute : but that they receiv'd them as essential parts of the psalms , is the question , we receive the postscripts of st. paul's epistles , and the very english contents of the chapters of the bibles , but we esteem neither canonical . the subscriptions of st. paul's epistles are translated into all or most languages , the italian , spanish , french , high dutch , low dutch , english ( and scotch i imagin ) all christian churches receive 'em , yet not as canonical scripture , but ancient records affixt unto the epistles , when and by whom is not known . the like may with reason be said of the titles . it must be confest , that the subscriptions of the epistles , are not the same in all the ancient m. ss . nor in the syriack and arabick versions , from whence it is rightly concluded ; that they were not annext thereunto by any inspired person : and for the very same reason i argue , that the titles of the psalms are not canonical scripture , there being great variety to be observ'd in them : if we compare the hebrew , the greek and the oriental versions , not two of 'em agreeing one with another in their titles . that the title of the th psalm is to be found sam. . is very true : but it does not follow , that an inspir'd person affix'd it unto the th psalm , as it now lies in the collection of psalms commonly call'd the psalter of david . so that those words , as plac'd before the . psalm , may in strictness be said not be to canonical there , tho' they be canonical , sam. . ex. gr . mr. delaune has accus'd us for foisting verses into the th . psalm , and does therefore certainly imply , that they are not essential parts of that psalm , tho' no body will deny 'em to be canonical scripture in other places . the like may with as good reason be said of the title of the th . psalm . that the other titles were prefixed by the pen-men , or by some other divinely inspired person ( which is the question in controversie ) is not prov'd from that reason , sc . because the titles refer to passages of history not mentioned in the body of the psalms . 't is a great mistake to affirm , that the titles refer to passages in history not mention'd in the body of the psalms , as i could easily shew , if it were worth the while . true , there are no particular and very obvious expressions in many psalms , relating to the historical passages to which the titles refer ; but there are general ones , which gave the collectors of the book of psalms an occasion of affixing those titles to the psalms . ex. gr . in the th . psalm , tho' moses and the israelites are not mention'd in it , yet many verses of that psalm , and particularly the th . and the th . verse , were thought to allude unto the condition of the israelites in the wilderness , whose stubbornness god punish'd by cutting their live ▪ short of what in the course of nature in those days is supposed to have been the ordinary length of mans life . by such general and obscurer passages in the body of the psalms ( i do imagin ) observing men were induc'd to prefix the titles . thus bishop pearson after the same manner has with great judgment and curiosity fixt the time and the occasion of all the treatises and epistles of st. cyprian grounding himself upon sundry passages , which he observ'd in them , and accordingly the time and occasion is affixt unto the beginning of every epistle and treatise in the oxford edition . but to return to mr. owen's reason . the titles ( says he ) refer to passages of history not mention'd in the body of the psalm . this is a good argument , ( if it were true ) that the titles were not added by the pen-men themselves , nor by any divinely inspired person ; and that they are not canonical , but the conjectures of meer men , which is the reason also ( i suppose ) why many psalms have no titles at all , and many none to any purpose at all , some , whose titles are grounded on very dark and doubtful expressions in the body of the psalms , and some in the . have titles , which the hebrew text has not . all which variety arises from the ignorance , or inobservance of those who prefixt the titles , which would not have happen'd , if the titles had been added by some inspir'd person . having refeli'd the remarkers arguments brought to prove the titles to be essential parts of the psalms , i will try what may be said in proof , that they are not , at least , not of a certainty , essential parts of the psalms . in the first place , then i argue , that if some , or if any one title may justly be question'd , then this renders all the rest suspicious . that of the th . psalm , a prayer of moses the man of god , seems not to have been added by any divinely inspir'd person . there are plausible reasons to be given , why moses did not compose it . for thus the psalmist speaks , ver . . the days of our years are threescore years and ten , and if by reason of strength , they be fourscore , yet is their strength labour and sorrow ; for it is soon cut off , and we fly away . now the life of man in moses's time was much longer than seventy or eighty years . job , who was ( 't is thought ) contemporary with moses , liv'd years , even after his afflictions , and at length died being old and full of days , ( chap. . , . ) levi liv'd years , ( exod. . . ) ●●●●th lived years , ( 〈◊〉 . ) amram . ( ver . . ) aaron was years old when he dy'd , ( numb . . . ) joshua dy'd being years old ( chap. . . ) miriam according to isaaeson , ( see numb . . . ) was years old . caleb . ( josh . . . ) and was alive , ( judg. . . ) and jethro , ( heb . exod. . , &c. act. . . exod. . . chap. . ) must needs have been an years old and upwards . yea , ehud the judge an age or more after joshua lived to be above years old , having govern'd the israelites eighty years , ( judg. . . ) but above all , this moses , the man of god , the suppos'd pen-man of this psalm , was eighty years old when he was sent unto pharaoh ( act. . , . ) this must be before he could pen the psalm : he afterwards attain'd unto the th . year , and then dy'd : his eyes were not dim , nor his natural force abated , deut. . . it is not then likely that moses was the author of this psalm , because the body of the psalm does not at all agree with the times , wherein that man of god flourish'd , and himself had no occasion of complaining of the shortness and labour , and sorrow of our days , including himself . it must be confest , that this point is bandy'd by learned men , and sundry answers are offer'd to the arguments produc'd , which i will not trouble the reader with , only let it be consider'd , that several authors in mr. pool's synopsis deliver their opinion very cautiously , veri simile est mosem hunc psalmum composuisse , say they . 't is but likely then at most . i add , greg. nyssen reckons this psalm among those which had no title according to the jews . and basil says , david wrote it , and adds , that it wants an inscription , tho' he himself gives it one . of the . psalm likewise he notes that it had obtain'd a right inscription , implying that inscriptions were human additions . i 'll produce one other instance . 't is the title of the . psal . a psalm of david , when he changed his behaviour before abimelech , who drove him away and he departed . the king of gath here meant is call'd achish , sam. . . and not abimelech , from whence the truth of this title may be doubted . we are told indeed that abimelech was a common name of the kings of the philistines , as caesar and augustus were of the roman emperors . but i am not satisfy'd with this . for i read but of one , at most two successive philistine kings of that name , gen. . . chap. . . kings of gerar. this was in abraham and isaac's days . but to fancy that the name of abimelech was continu'd among the philistine kings unto ) the days of david about years is not very likely , we meeting not with any one king so call'd in all that interval of time , save one of the kings of israel , judg. . . who had no other name besides . nor is the achish king of gath any where call'd abimelech , except in this title . now that which might give occasion unto this mistake in the title of his psalm was , that in the said first of sam. . there it mentior made of ahimelech the high priest of the israelites , whose congress with david takes up the nine first verses of that chapter , and may with some appearance of reason therefore be said to have occasioned that error in the title of putting ahimelech for achish . that the book of psalms has receiv'd some humane additions may be argu'd from those words rack'd to the . psalm , at the end , the prayers of david the son of jess are ended , which is manifestly false , if the titles of the psalms are true , there being very many prayers of david , which follow in this book of psalms . if any stress should be laid upon the distinction between prayers and psalms , i reply that the . psalm is call'd a prayer of david ; and the original word is the same in both , sc . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 differing only in number . besides the psalms that follow the are as truly prayers as they which go before it . some body then not inspir'd has either transpos'd the psalms , or else added to them the foresaid conclusion of the . psalm , being either misplac'd , or thrust into the text. it is not then impossible , but the like may have been done at the beginning of the psalms by prefixing titles unto them . there are titles added to very many psalms in the version , which are not to be met with in the hebrew . for example , psal . . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . jeremy compos'd this mournful song in the name of the captives at babylon , as any one will grant , that considers the subject matter of the psalm , and compares it with the state of the israelites in jeremiah's time . i ask then , is this title divinely inspir'd ? and yet jerome translates it , and comments upon it , as he does upon other of the seventy titles . lastly , the oriental versions the syriack and the arabick and the chalde● paraphrase oft-times want titles , frequently change 'em , and sometimes add titles , when neither the hebrew nor the greek lay claim to any at all , which could never have happen'd , if they had been canonical scripture . theodoret seems to believe the inscriptions canonical , as being found ( so he says ) in the psalms , when the seventy translated 'em into greek . but gregory nyssen who flourish'd half a century before him , observes , that among the christians ( who used the seventy translation ) some psalms have the inscription of the prophet , but not among the hebrews ; that sometimes the first sentence of the psalm , ( so i understand him ) is put into the place of the title both with the christians and the jews after the manner of our liturgy translation ; that the jews rejected the titles of some psalms , which the christians receiv'd . he reckons of this kind , viz. , , , , , , , , , , , & psalms . none of which ( it should seem ) had at that time among the jews any inscription , tho' at this day all but the second have . he no where pleads for the divine authority of the titles . how could he , when there was such a disagreement between the jews and christians about ' em ? he also speaks , as if some titles were receiv'd by ecclesiastical custom : but 't is hard to determine at this time of day , which are by divine inspiration , and which by custom . from the whole some will be apt to conclude , that the hebrew titles are not essential parts of the psalms , but the conjectures and additions of uninspired persons . i for my share am of that opinion . all must confess that they are not canonical scripture of a certainty , which was all i insisted on in the sermon ; and therefore that mr. delaune did unworthily , when he positively objected to the church of england , that she had left out of the psalms some original parts , meaning the titles , when 't is not certain , that they are original . the minister at oswestry here takes fair leave of his client , and bids him shift for himself as well as he can , having no more to say in behalf of mr. delaune . only , whereas i put the question , why the titles were not all translated into plain english , if they were so serviceable to the unfolding the mysteries contain'd in the psalms , he surlily tells me the bishops ( they being the translators of the bible into english ) could best resolve the question . i thank him heartily for this , and desire the good people among the dissenters , to think of it . mr. owen has herein done my lords the bishops some justice before he was aware in acknowledging , that the scriptures being in the english tongue is owing to their labours , learning and piety . but 't will be objected , that they have not translated all the titles . true : neither have the dissenters , tho' they had power and opportunity in the reign of the long parliament and oliver ; and had more lately liberty to do it , if t were worth the while , and a matter of so great moment , as mr. de laune has made the world to believe . if it might not be thought a digression from my present purpose , i would observe , that the mysteries in the psalms ( as far as i am able to judge ) are those , which relate unto jesus christ , or those principally ; but there is not one title in the hebrew , which is at all useful to the unfolding any of these mysteries . for i do profess that after i am told it is a psalm , a song , a song or psalm , a psalm of david , a prayer of moses , a psalm at the dedication of davids house , a psalm for the sabbath , sent to such or such a chief musician , on what instrument it was to be sung , a golden psalm , a psalm of instruction , of degrees , &c. i am just as wise as i was before , as to the mysteries contain'd in such psalms . the like i affirm of the rest of the titles ? 't was therefore unfair in mr. de laune to bear his ignorant and unobserving readers in hand , as if the titles unfolded the mysteries of the psalms . to the other questions i there put , the minister returns but a very sorry and evasive answer , thus , they are not worth — answering . however , he might methinks have diverted his friends in and about manchester with a jest or two . they would have taken it for a solid answer , and cry'd him up as the jews did herod , act. . . but to the end the impartial reader may see , that at least some of my questions were to the purpose , and ought to have been reply'd to , or else mr. delaune left in the lurch undefended , and convict of dealing very dishonestly with us , i will draw one or two of those questions into the form of an argument , and then it will be seen , whether they are worth answering , or whether mr. owen were able to answer 'em , so as to vindicate mr. delaune , or get any advantage of the rector . setting aside then the controversie about the titles ( which i will now suppose are cononical scripture of a certainty ) yet mr. delaune had no reason to accuse us of leaving them out of our liturgy translation , which we sing or say ; because the dissenters themselves leave 'em out of their psalms in meter , nor do they sing 'em at their divine worship . mr. delaune therefore had no room to complain of us , when the dissenters were guilty in the same kind . it will be time enough to quarrel with us , after they shall have amended their own fault . in the mean while they are so much the more inexcusable , that they have not to this day reform'd , what they seem to be perswaded is amiss . but the truth is , were it never so manifest and certain , that the titles are essential parts of the psalms , yet i believe neither the church of england , nor mr. delaune , nor his vindicator , nor any wise dissenter would think fit to advise the singing them , or putting them into meter at the head of the singing psalms . mr. delaune's exception therefore was nothing but noise and cavil , and impertinence , which was the thing i design'd , and did effectually demonstrate in my sermon . instead then of saying my questions , are not worth answering , the remarker should have done me right , and his client no injustice by confessing fairly , that mr. delaune impeach'd the church of england without cause , and that himself was not able to justifie him . but he must be excus'd . his business and his head lies another way , viz. abusing the rector and bantering the ignorant and innocent people of his own party . he has been so far from exercising charity to his neighbours , that he has not been just to any side , no not to himself . in plain terms he has bely'd himself , and pretended the contrary to what he could not but know , sc . that those questions merited an answer in the controversie between mr. delaune and me . . in the next place mr. delaune excepted against the establish'd church , that we read some select portions of scripture , commonly call'd epistles and gospels , and not the intire chapters , which ( says he ) is a curtalling and mangling the scriptures , which thereby become quite another thing , than the evangelists intended in the gospels , or the apostles in the epistles , altogether ruining the scope and connexion in divers places . to this i reply'd , that the dissenters sing some small portions of psalms , which with them is not curtailing or mangling the psalms : that they read single chapters , into which the inspir'd pen-men did not divide their writings , as well as not into those shorter sections call'd epistles and gospels ; that 't is as lawful ( and perhaps as edifying ) to read these , as whole chapters , that there is often a connexion between chapter and chapter , which binders not the dissenters reading them severally ; that this is every whit as much disturbing the scope of those places , as our reading the epistles and gospels is : that those paragraphs of scripture have two senses , a relative , and an independent sense : that tho' the relative sense cannot be understood without its neighbouring parts , yet it is not ruin'd thereby ; to omit for a time is not ruining the scope ; nor doing it the least injury . that the independent sense however is still safe ; that by the rule imply'd in this objection , the dissenters ( who are not very fond of reading any at all ) will be oblig'd to read many chapters together , happily whole books , and to sing the . psal . at once . and what says the remarker to all this ? he suggests that we omit reading some scriptures ( even whole chapters and books as he gathers from our kalender ) which seems to be a diminishing from the word of god. this is nothing to the defence of mr. delaune , but a digression from the argument in hand , which is call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and is meer cavil and shuffling . it betrays the weakness of mr. owen's defence of mr. delaune . our omitting chapters and books will not vindicate mr. delaune's unjust accusation of us about reading the epistles and gospels . as for the rest of my reply to mr. delaune , the remarker puts me off with this slight answer , i leave him and mr. delaune to argue , &c. but mr. delaune is long since dead ; where and when we shall meet , god only knows : i am pretty sure not in this world. mr. owen perhaps with the help of our lancashire exorcists will undertake to bring mr. delaune back again . why not ? they who can cast out devils , 't is probable can raise the dead . one miracle is as easily wrought as another ; yet still the mischief is , tho' these wonder-workers should conjure him up again , as the woman of endor did samuel , i am not sure the rector would have the courage to meet him . in plain terms mr. o. has declin'd the cause , being as little able to make good the objection laid against us , as the accuser himself was . . mr. delaune tax'd the establish'd church , that in the liturgy . translation of the psalms three whole verses are foisted into the th . psalm , immediately after the third verse . hereunto i return'd , that the inspir'd pen-men of the new testament had done the same , cor. . , , v. that is , had put distant passages of scripture together , and cited 'em as one single and intire testimony , that st. paul had borrowed these very three objected verses at least from other psalms and books of the old testament , and inserted them with the other parts of the psalm into rom. . . v. &c. the which i suppose is sufficient to justifie us . and what has the minister reply'd unto all this ? why just nothing at all : he has not so much as taken the least notice of it , so as to vindicate mr. delaune's groundless clamour against us , that 's out of doors . ne'rtheless something he has to say against the rector , which whether it be to the purpose is no matter ; 't will make a noise among his party , and that 's all . he acquaints us then from jerome , that the said three verses were transcrib'd out of romans into psal . . that they are not in the lxx . and that none of the greek interpreters have commented upon them . my answer hereunto is : . that this is nothing to the argument before us . it acquits us from the charge of mr. delaune . it was not the church of england then which foisted those three verses into psal . . besides we have the authority of st. paul , and of the primitive church to warrant our continuing them in psal . . . as for jerome i do here protest against him , as unfit to be a witness in this case . he too warmly espous'd the defence of the hebrew text against the lxx , and manifestly betray'd his partiality . he car'd not what in his heat he said or wrote for the support of his own opinion . let any one consult his hebrew questions and traditions on genesis , and it may be he 'l be of my mind . here arguing for the hebrew against the lxx , because forsooth st. luke ( act. . . ) agreed not with the hebrew text , but with the septuagint , he gives that holy evangelist this scurvy character , lucae qui ignotus & vilis & non magnae fidei in nationibus ducebatur . i 'll not english the words , because i will pay some deference to the presbyterian father . this only i say , he who sticks not to revile the inspir'd evangelist after this manner , is unworthy to be believ'd in any thing he affirms upon this point in controversie , or indeed in any else . . i would desire to know when , and by whom , those three verses were transcrib'd out of st. paul into the th . psalm . 't was done before st. paul was born for any thing i know . . whereas jerome affirms ( as mr. owen tells me ) that these verses are not in the lxx . translation , i ask , where then did jerome find 'em , and how came he to enter into the dispute about ' em ? looking into the place , jerome ( i find ) confesses the verses are in vulgatâ editione quae graece 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dicitur & in toto orbe diversa est . i do not well understand him , but it seems the copies of the scripture then in ordinary use , whence eustochium argu'd , had these verses , and jerome acknowledges , there was a greek edition call'd the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or vulgar , which had the said verses in it , tho' jerome's had 'em not , if he is to be credited . but by whom and when these verses were put into this vulgar edition of the seventy , jerome says not . the vatican copy mr. owen confesses to be one of the best , that has these three verses : i dare not then believe that the seventy translation in jerom's days was without ' em . be this as it will , 't is manifest that the church of england added 'em not to psal . . that st. paul made no scruple to join distant places of scripture to one another ; and how this should become so heinous a crime in us to follow those examples , mr. owen is yet in arrear to account for in behalf of mr. delaune . mr. delaune moreover asserted , that the three verses are not in any of the original copies , whereas if there be many , as is imply'd in those words , the greek must be one , as i noted , and there they are ▪ and i further acquaint the remarker , that they are in the arabick and aethiopick versions also . of this the minister has ne 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quidem , not one syllable . only because i took occasion hereupon to offer unto consideration , whether the greek copy be not as good as the hebrew at this day is , and grounded my self upon the judgment of the learned isaac vossius , he endeavours to make his party believe i design'd to depress the authority of the hebrew copies . surely this minister never considers what he writes . if i had affirm'd roundly ( which i did not ) that the seventy's version is as good as the hebrew , this would not have been any disparagement unto the hebrew , tho' it would be an advancement to the seventy : except mr. owen thinks that the commendation of one man is the reproach of another . i don't think it any dispraise unto st. matthew , if in answer to jerom's foremention'd disparagement of st. luke one should affirm that st. luke's writings are of as good credit as st. matthew's . in short , tho' i am inclin'd to believe the seventy to be of divine authority , 't was never in my thoughts to depress the hebrew . so that it were sufficient for me to justifie the choice of my text , tho' it were to be found in the hebrew only . it has ( i do believe among them who are as ignorant as himself ) past for a current piece of wit , when he thus speaks : if the seventy be of at good authority as the present hebrew , it is very uncertain what becomes of the rector's text : thus the rector by maintaining one absurdity runs himself into more , and by advancing the seventy has lost his text. but how does this follow ? when at the same time the hebrew is allow'd to be as good as the seventy . the rector then had his liberty to chuse his text out of which copy himself pleas'd . besides it falls out scurvily to the shame and confusion of the remarker , of mr. tallents his supravisor , of all his fellow-helpers about oswestry and manchester , that the rectors text is in the seventy , yea in the vatican exemplar , yea in that very edition , whereof mr. owen makes mention , and which he has by him . tell it not at oswestry , publish it not at manchester , that so many presbyterian ministers , even when they are labouring to vindicate ' emselves from the charge of corrupting the word of god , are at the same time robbing and diminishing from it . in two words , the rector has found his text , but the ministers have lost their jest and their honesty too . the rector's text is not indeed plac'd in the same order in the vatican seventy , as in the hebrew , and our english versions . but one would have thought the gentleman at manchester , who has the liberty of a good library there , must have found the rector's text rightly plac'd both in the frankford edition of the seventy , and in the complutensian bible also . but they were so fond of a jest that rather than lose it , they would forfeit their sincerity . i would now inform 'em , where they may meet with the rector's text in the proverbs , according to the vatican copy it self , but that i believe they knew it well enough themselves . instead hereof i desire 'em to read a little forward to the th . ver after the rector's text , where agur makes this prayer , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , remove far from me vanity and lies . it cannot be deny'd , the seventy has been corrupted , and by consequence must not be allow'd as good as the hebrew copy , if the hebrew be perfect and intire as it came out of the hands of the pen-men , or of some inspir'd collector of the books and volumes therein contain'd . but isaac vossius has abundantly prov'd the hebrew copy corrupted , and i do not care to repeat what another has with so much learning and judgment said before me . one of mr. owen's reasons against any early corruption of the hebrew is drawn from the testimony of philo the jew mention'd by euseb . prepar . evang. . . that passage of philo is in euseb . prep . evang. l. . c. . pag. . here philo speaking of the israelites obedience to the law of moses , acquaints us , the israelites reverenc'd that man ( moses ) so much , that whatsoever seem'd good unto him they all approv'd of it . so that whether he devis'd this form of government of his own head , or whether he receiv'd it from , heaven , they accepted it as no other than from god ; and for the space of so many years ( i cannot determine how many , but above two thousand ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , alter'd no one word of what he ( moses ) wrote , but suffer'd tho' it were a thousand deaths rather than be perswaded unto any thing contrary to his laws and customs . it is not to be doubted but the religious jews were always very careful to preserve moses intire and free from all manner of corruption , even in the least tittle , as the christians have been to their power in preserving the new testament . but philo aims not in this place to assert any such thing of the jews ( tho' mr. owen seems to understand him thus , and for what reason any one may guess , renders the passage , than suffer the law to be changed in any one point : ) that which philo affirms is , that the jews alter'd none of moses's laws . this will appear by examining the signification of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , translated word by mr. owen . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is indeed often render'd verbum & vocabulum , but as often dictum & sententia , or an intire proposition ▪ hesychius expresses its conjugate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a law or ordinance ; and so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , are in the new testament us'd for some complex sentence or proposition , and are synonymous with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . thus the ten commandments are call'd the ten words , exod. . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the decalogue , the ten commandments , or the ten words . so then philo's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , imports that the religious jews alter'd not one single commandment of moses . but it follows not hence that there was no alteration not in any word or point . this might happen ( tho' the jews did it not wilfully ) for any thing philo offers to the contrary . it is yet more manifest from the authors precedent discourse , where he speaks of the laws and statutes of moses , and from what follows in this very period , where he explains himself thus , rather than be perswaded unto any thing contrary to his laws and the customs . 't was the laws of moses then they were careful of , and not the words , syllables or letters , according to philo in this place . tho' the jews were careful to preserve the scripture from corruption ; yet theodoret grants that before esdras corrected it , it had been depraved partly through the negligence of the jews , partly by the impiety of the babylonians ( he means in the seventy years of the babylonish captivity . ) it may with much more reason be thought , that the scripture was corrupted again ( by the same means ) after the prophets were ceased from among the jews , and they had been harrassed by the greeks and romans for some hundreds of years . the invention of the masora ( as he goes on ) has been an effectual means to preserve the purity of the hebrew copies , and renders it impossible , that any corruption should have crept into them , says buxtorf . doubtless , before christ's birth the honest jews us'd all their endeavours to preserve the scripture uncorrupt , and yet who sees not that there might notwithstanding many corruptions steal into the hebrew text , and designedly be thrust into it ? 't was no hard matter for cunning rabbies to alter words and letters , and still to keep the just number of ' em . when we is alter'd into ye there still remains the same number of words and letters in that . act. . v. i do not affirm , that the hebrew was corrupted in any material thing till after the destruction of jerusalem . nevertheless it might have been corrupted before the fifth century , when the masora is said to be invented . yea , 't is matter of fact , that the jews had corrupted the hebrew bible long before that time , if mr. owen will please to give any credit to st. justin martyr , who flourish'd above years before jerome . i shall have occasion in another place to prove this by some testimonies drawn out of justin . to conclude , 't is but lately since the christians receiv'd the hebrew bible from the modern jews , who may very well be suspected to have made bold with it in prejudice to the christian religion . and whether it be fit we should build upon the bare testimony of the jews only , deserves some consideration . for therefore it was , that in my sermon i spoke not of the ancient hebrew copies , but of that which we have at this day from the later jews . in short , i ( says he ) will not dispute at this time the authority of the septuagint : nor will the rector call into question the purity of the hebrew , 't is not necessary to decide the controversie between mr. delaune and me . whatever becomes of the seventy , or the hebrew , 't is false what he put upon us . the church of england foisted not those three verses into psal . . but if we had first done it , we are excusable , the psalm being thus put together by st. paul , mr. delaune then ought not to have vilify'd us for foisting them into that psalm . men who will take the liberty of misrepresenting others in such nasty expressions deserve to be told of their own faults in more cleanly language . . the rector observ'd from rev. . , . that the canon of scripture is there ( for ought we yet know ) shut ▪ up . i exprest my self thus cautiously ( for ought we yet know ) because the passage alledg'd properly refers unto the book of the revelations , tho' the learned sometimes accommodate it unto the whole scripture . but the critick at oswestry would insinuate , as if the rector expected more revelations still , and an enlargement of the canon . and is mr. owen certain we shall not have more divine revelations before the end of the world ? i expect 'em as little as he : but 't is one thing to suppose it possible , and another to look for it as probable or promis'd . god has indeed ty'd our hands , thou shalt not add , but he has not ty'd his own , whatever this solomon of our age deems to the contrary . god we know added to his own word even after agur had warn'd us , not to add thereunto ; and he may ( if he please ) once more add unto it , after 't is forbidden unto us in st. john ; what he will do , is another question . i am as well content with what we have already , as the minister can be . but as agur doubtless thought it possible god might add unto his own word ( as he did afterwards ) so 't is not impossible , but he may yet add thereunto , for ought i know , or the remarker himself dares affirm . if he or his revisor at manchester know , that god will send us no more revelations , than what we have already receiv'd , they might do well to assure the world of it by the spirit of prophesie , and so contradict ' emselves in the same breath . if any sort of men should presume to add unto the canon of scripture , i know none more likely than those , who make such mighty boasts of the spirit of god. they have made one pretty good step towards it already . they who dispossess daemoniacks , will in good time heal all manner of bodily diseases , remove mountains also , and throw 'em into the sea. who then shall make any difficulty of entertaining their doctrines , as the oracles of god ? the rector laid down this other rule , then we diminish from the word when we cast away never so little of it . upon which words the minister has the following remark , i leave it to consideration , whether the titles be not a little part of the word of god , and own'd for such in our authoriz'd bibles . that has been consider'd already ; but if they are own'd for parts of the word of god in our authoriz'd bibles , then we of the church of england do more especially own 'em ; we cannot then be accused of casting them away . but if to leave 'em out of the liturgy translation be a casting 'em away , then the leaving 'em out of the singing psalms is the same . these tender-hooft-creatures , who are convinc'd that the titles are part of the psalms , and ought to be inserted into every translation , yet against the dictates of their own conscience prefix 'em not , neither demand 'em to be prefix'd unto the singing psalms . who ever hereafter can believe , that they have any conscience at all ? or rather is it not to be suspected , that they have two consciences ? with the one accusing us , and with the other excusing themselves for the same thing . on this head i instanc'd in the jews , whom justin martyr disputing with trypho charg'd with corrupting and expunging out of the scripture several places , which pointed at the messias . ay , says the minister , with corrupting the seventy , but not the original hebrew , which he ought to have taken notice of . and why so , sweet sir ? i demand your reason . is it because 't is no fault to corrupt the seventy ? or because the places were intire in the original hebrew text ? this latter cannot be a reason , because it is not true , that the places objected by justin against the jews were then intire in the original hebrew . for the jews doubtless would have vindicated themselves , and not have suffer'd that scandal to pass so smoothly and unanswer'd . they would have let justin know , that their hebrew bibles were intire in all the places by him alledg'd , or else that they never belong'd unto the scripture . it must be confest then the hebrew copy was corrupted in st. justin martyr's days , the several passages by him mention'd to be thrust out of scripture , being then ( and still are ) wanting in the hebrew text as well as in the seventy . for instance , that father produces psal . . . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , say among the heathen the lord hath reigned . but justin tells trypho , that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had been struck out by the jews , and that the place originally ran thus , the lord hath reigned from the wood , or cross . but if they had been in the hebrew , can any one think trypho so dull as not to have told justin as much ? nor are these words from the cross found in the hebrew or seventy at this day . the reason of the jews knavery herein is obvious , viz. because those words from the wood were an illustrious prediction of the manner of christ's death , and by consequence a plain testimony of his being the messiah , the brightness of which evidence they were not able to behold ▪ and therefore raz'd out the words . in short , the cross of christ was to them a stumbling block in the prophesie as well as in the accomplishment . lastly , the hebrew copy in jerom's days wanted the same words , from the wood he took no notice at all of 'em either in his version , or in his commentaries . in mr. pool's synopsis i find many arguments against justin , charging the foresaid corruption upon the jews ; but they are of no weight , if it be considered , that faminius nobilius in his scholia on this place writes thus , apud sanctum august ▪ & in psalterio veteri & romano sequitur à ligno ; eoquo modo affertur à sancto cyprian . just . mart. tertulliano , sancto leone papa & in hymno ecclesiastico , regnavit à ligno deus . besides this most ancient father and martyr , and the most learned too of all others in and before his time has produced a great many examples of the like kind , and not a few whole periods or smaller sections intirely expung'd , which the jews then living and disputing with him were not able to deny , or any ways palliate . so that all the pretended care of the jews notwithstanding , the hebrew copy had been corrupted early in the second century , and according to vossius soon after the destruction of jerusalem by vespasian , and remains so unto this present time . i must not pass over vossius's main argument , but will represent it in very few words . he shews , that the ancient jews believed their messiah would come about the year from the creation ; and that they expected him about the time when jesus was born , those two periods being coincident . it follows hence , . that they believ'd the world years old at the birth of jesus . . that the ancient hebrew copies reckon'd years from adam to jesus ; else the jews could not have been in expectation of the messiah when jesus was born , if their chronology had then been the same as it is this day . . from the whole it must be confest , that the modern hebrew copies are corrupted , the world according to them , being at the birth of jesus but about years old . the years wanting in the present hebrew are supply'd in a great measure by the seventy's copy in the chronology of the patriarchs , the remainder are made good out of the intervals of the judges of israel , and the reigns of the persian kings , which the jews have shorten'd , and drawn the christians into their error . hereunto may be added another observation near of kind unto the former . st. luke , chap. . , , v. affirms , sala was the son of cainan , cainan the son of arpbaxad . but gen. . , v. sala is reckon'd the immediate son of arphaxad , and cainan quite left out in the hebrew copy , whereas the vatican seventy agrees with st. luke ; which is a demonstration , that the jews have corrupted the hebrew . by this one artifice of theirs are lost years . i expect here the remarker , or the note-maker will for the sake of the hebrew , give the holy evangelist such another character , as upon the like occasion their friend jerom did . that corruption of psal . . . v. is known and acknowledg'd by all . the jews read it thus , as a lion instead of , they pierced my hands and my feet . so the evangelist mark . . and the seventy more truly have it ; the difference is but the half of a very small letter , sc . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( which is less than that between y and w ) and the epenthesis of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which is common among 'em in other cases . but after all this it was nothing to me or to my argument in the sermon , whether the jews corrupted the seventy only , or the hebrew also , or both . i 'll suppose it was the seventy only , which is all mr. o. contends for ; yet still my bill of indictment laid against the jews must be found . for the scripture is the word of god , in whatever language 't is written . they who would excuse the jews for corrupting the seventy only , and not the hebrew , in good time will defend the corrupting the english version only , and not the original greek . but if the latter defence will not bring off the false cameronian , neither will the former justifie the faithless jews . i wish then the jews , the scotch presbyterians , and mr. o. in the name of his brethren in england to concert these matters among ' emselves for the good of christendom . the rector briefly noted that the samaritans and sadducees rejected all but the five books of moses ; and the minister calls this a vulgar error ; let us see on what grounds . mr. owen pleads , that whereas josephus affirms , the sadducees to have receiv'd the law only ▪ the historian in another place explains himself as if he meant , the written law in opposition to the oral . in proof whereof he sends me back unto the th . b. and chap. i am there and read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. but now i will shew that the pharisees having receiv'd from the fathers many things as legal , which were not written in the law of moses , deliver'd them unto the people . and for this cause the sadducees rejected them alledging , that those things only were to be accounted legal which were written ( sc . in the laws of moses ) but that they ought not to observe the traditions of the fathers . i will not insist upon this that some learned men have thought the prophetical books of scripture were by the sadducees reckon'd among the oral traditions of the fathers ; nor will i deny , ( tho' there be reason to doubt ) that josephus's passage in his eighteenth book is to be understood in the same sense as that in the thirteenth book , and that they explain one another . however this be , he speaks only of the traditions added unto the laws of moses , which the sadducees rejected ; but not a syllable concerning the prophetical writings , which whether the sadducees rejected , or not , remains still to be examin'd . mr. o. assures us 't is a vulgar error . but mr. pool in his synopsis , informs me , 't was the constant opinion of the fathers , and never contradicted , til scaliger and drusius of late advanc'd the contrary opinion . i hope the minister will not thrust down the fathers into the vulgar forme . the sadducees in all probability would never have deny'd the resurrection , if they had entertain'd a just esteem of the prophetical books : hence , our lord , overlooking all the other more plain and convincing testimonies in the prophetical writings , singl'd out that of moses , exod. . . i am the god of thy father , the god of abraham , &c. as the most proper and effectual argument , ad hominem , in proof of the resurrection , which the sadducees on their own principles cou'd not deny , tho' they might have avoided the other . but the remarker sends me to the learn'd dr. lightfoot for further satisfaction herein , vol. . pag. , . i am content to stand to this gentleman's judgment . dr. lightfoot then pag. . grants that the samaritans might so reject all the books of the old testament , ( except the pentateuch ) as to forbid their being read in the synagogues . even this concession alone were ( i should think ) sufficient to my purpose . the sadducees and samaritans forbad the rest of the scripture to be read in the publick congregations . if the hagiographa , and prophets were now by a positive order forbid to be read in our churches , we should have mr. o ( i question not ) soon about our ears as men , that put a slur upon the word of god , and question'd its divine authority . but dr. l. further adds , pag. . that it was one fundamental of the sadducees faith , that no article in religion ought to be admitted , which cannot be made out plainly from the five books of moses . from hence it appears that they did not believe the other books of scripture to be of equal authority with the pentateuch , nor sufficient of themselves to establish any doctrine of faith. now whereas the doctor argues and proves out of his rabbins , that the sadducees and samaritans us'd and read , and believ'd all the other books , as well as the pentateuch , and that they were not ignorant of 'em , nor accounted 'em tales and of no value ; and again , that those books were known to 'em , and of authority among ' em . all this i readily grant , for they doubtless highly esteem'd the rest of the scripture , and ●in●d it in confirmation of any doctrine reveal'd by moses , as we christians do the primitive fathers , tho' uninspir'd . i have been longer on this trivial subject , than i intended . only let the reader mark how the two ministers are here advocating for the samaritans and sadducees , as they before undertook the protection of the other jews . in good time the dissenters will comprehend these also . some of the quakers and anabaptists , the modern sadducees and mahometans i mean the socinians ) and almost all the nation of schismaticks and hereticks are in their interests already : the samaritans and jews are happily coming into the confederacy . . the rector laid down this observation also : we diminish from the word , when we lay it aside as not necessary , or not the supreme rule of faith. hereunto mr. o. answers , this implys , as if there were some other at least subordinate rules of faith. we know no other rule of divine faith , but the holy scripture . the man thinks verily he has caught me now . but i am not afraid to say there are many subordinate rules of faith , and do pretend here to teach him them , because he seems to be ignorant of them . i reckon then that whatsoever confirms or illustrates any doctrine is a subordinate rule of faith , for whatsoever doth make manifest is light , eph. . . such are the ancient creeds , catechisms , decrees of councils , testimony of fathers , consent of adversaries , the instructions of parents , the dictates of wise and good men , the voice of conscience , the light of natural reason , the preaching of the word , the intimations of providence , and lastly universal tradition ; every one of which when it administers light to the divine truths contain'd in the word of god , are subordinate rules of faith. but of all these universal tradition may on very good grounds be accounted a rule . for i ask mr. owen , why he believes the scripture to be divinely inspir'd , but because 't is transmitted unto us as such by universal tradition ? the excellency of its moral precepts , the high strains and noble flights of piety , which we meet with there renders it worthy every good man's acceptation ; true ! but they prove not that 't was written by inspiration . for then plato and seneca , st. ignatius and st. clemens romanus , the seven wise men of greece , ( and mr. o. may reckon himself the eighth , if he please ) and a thousand other celebrated authors might lay claim to inspiration . the miracles reported in scripture to have been wrought by the authors or divine writers of the books do not evince 'em to have been written by inspiration , until it be first made out that those writers did work those miracles : and this cannot be proved at this time of day , but by tradition . so then it is the universal testimony of the church in conjunction with that vein of intrinsick goodness and piety running through all the holy scriptures , which convinces us , that they were deliver'd by persons inspir'd and authoriz'd thereto by god. tradition therefore is at least a subordinate rule of faith , and confirms the divine authority of the books of scripture . another perhaps would affirm it the first and leading rule . but i give mr. o. liberty to assign it which place he pleases . only i ask , whether this minister of the gospel , who pretends to be a teacher of others , and a guide of the blind , was ever yet able to give a solid reason of his own faith , and of the hope that is in him . he can never do it without the help of tradition . the rector added under this head some things concerning the sufficiency , perspicuity and supreme authority of the scripture , which this critick ( being it seems in a better humour than ordinarily that generation of men are ) is pleas'd out of his great condescension to declare , are well asserted . but i must confess i like not the rector one jot the better for this commendation , and yet wish i could in any measure return his complement , and let him know , that he has said any one thing well and wisely in his remarks master , ( said those vile and hypocritical pharisees and herodians ) we know that thou art true , and teachest the way of god in truth , &c. when at the same time they had a design upon jesus christ to puzzle and insnare him with a cramp question . so my adversary here notwithstanding his commendations has something against the rector . some men can never be pleas'd , and the remarker is one of that number i perceive . tell me ( says he ) is it lawful to impose indifferent things ? his words are , were this principle practically acknowledg'd it would soon heal our breaches , &c. as who should say , did we once lay aside vnscriptural terms of communion , and thereby practically acknowledg the sufficiency , perspicuity and supreme authority of the scriptures , all would be well in a trice , an end then would be put to our divisions . verily if this would do the feat , i would embrace it with both arms : i 'd do any thing for the purchase of so valuable a blessing . but how comes this wise seer to look so far before him , as to assure us of this good issue ? the experiment has been once made already but without success . time was when episcopacy was exploded , and the unscriptural terms of communion here complain'd of laid aside ; but were our breaches soon healed ? it was so far from that , that they were not healed at all , nor ever will be upon the presbyterian and congregational principles . our division were increas'd and multiply'd , schisms and heresies grew to be as numerous as the heads of hydra . in short , i know no way of healing our breaches but that every man should obey them that have the rule over 'em in all lawful things , q.d. which are not forbidden by god. for why should any one presume to scruple or call that unclean , which the lord has not made so ? they are much more superstitious who abhor a surplice , than they who wear it . i lastly observ'd , that we diminish from the word when we add any thing to it . i mention'd the apocrypha which the romanists insert into the canon of scripture ; and the minister cavils here at our reading the apocrypha , and omitting some confessed parts of holy scripture . i might with as good reason ask him , why do the dissenters neglect the reading of the word of god to make way for their own sermons and expositions ? but this were to be like mr. owen to cover one suppos'd fault with another . i answer then , that this exception is nothing to my argument ; that it is not a just vindication of the papists ; that to read the apocrypha is not to canonize it ; to omit reading some parts of scripture is not to cast 'em out of the canon ; that in all our publick offices and assemblies we read something of holy scripture ; that the word of god has not prescrib'd any certain and constant quantity to be read ; that we read perhaps more scripture in one month , than the dissenters do in three . that the story of bell and the dragon ( wherewith the dissenters usually make most sport , and which mr. o. stiles fabulous ) is by many wise men believ'd true . but grant it to be a fiction or fable , or in more civil and modest terms a parable , 't is however a wise and grave one , able to instruct and beget in us a sense of god's providence and protection of holy men zeal for his glory and hatred of idolatry . many think the book of job of this kind a parable . our lord himself spake many great truths , and wrapped them up in parables or feigned stories , and thereby made and left stronger impressions upon the hearts of his followers . the dissenters oft-times in their sermons make use of profane stories , whose truth is not supported by divine authority . as for our leaving out some few books or chapters , or never reading them in our publick congregations , there are many good reasons for it ; particularly for our omitting the greatest part of leviticus , and all solomon's song . they have been insisted on too often to be here needlesly repeated . chap. iii. being an answer to mr. owen's first chapter . in the sermon against corrupting the word of god , i took particular notice of acts the th . v. . where , as 't is found in several impressions of our english bibles , we is changed into ye , that is , the apostles are turn'd out of doors , and the people put into possession of a power , to which they can lay no claim , i observ'd that hence a question might be started , whether the people or the apostles did appoint the seven unto their office , and by consequence whether the people or the bishops have authority to appoint parochial ministers . but having set aside this enquiry , i betook my self unto the examination of this various lection . i first vindicated the place , and restor'd it to its right reading ; then i proceeded to search when the corruption first stole into the text and found it to have happen'd . this done i made hue and cry after the authors of it . in the pursuit i laid hold on the dissenters , as persons justly to be suspected , . because when this alteration first happen'd presbytery was in the ascendant . . the corruption favours the dissenters . . is a disadvantage to episcopacy then . . i took a presbyterian in the manner , supporting the popular government upon the credit of this false reading , and thence concluded that party guilty at least of abetting and countenancing the corruption . this method i think was clear and easie , tho' mr. o. has endeavoured with much artifice to perplex it . i will not concern my self any farther to justifie my way of handling the argument , the business now before me is to consider , how he would extricate his friends . he begins in this chapter , and all that he here offers in vindication of the dissenters is , that several editions of the bible abound with such errors as are destructive of the sense . to evince which he has produc'd a catalogue of above twenty errata's in his own bible , ( several of 'em as bad as that in the acts , as he says ) which it would be unreasonable to impute unto the dissenters . whereunto i reply , . that he is so unfortunate , as whilst he is stopping one , and that the first hole like a bungler he makes two . mr. o. thus represents his amendment of eph. . . according as he hath chosen us — that she should be holy : it should be that we should be holy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . she ( says he in this first instance ) should be we ; and ( says the rector ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . i am apt to suspect mr. o. is defective somewhere , else surely he would not have overlook'd these errata's in that book of remarks , which he favour'd me with , and corrected with his own pen. but because at the same time he desir'd me to take no advantage of mistakes in printing , i 'll say no more . altho' if he thought it reasonable on my part , he should have been so fair as to have remembred the golden rule , quod tibi non vis , &c. but his business is to give laws to others , not to observe 'em himself . . tho' he might justly be suspected in the account given of these errata's ; ( for he who will make bold with his own lxx , will not be very scrupulous to misrepresent his own english bible ) yet i will admit his observations as to the number to be true nevertheless , . tho' such errors reckon'd up by mr. owen are destructive of the sense ; yet they do not establish any untruth , nor favour any side in the controversies now on foot among us , neither lastly , has the diligent mr. owen given us one example of the same error repeated in several editions . there can then no doubt be made , but these were accidental and unwilling slips , and the remarkers observations will do him no service . that erratum in the th . act has , as he assures us , been continued in ( at fewest ) editions ; it establishes a sense contrary to the meaning of the holy ghost there , and favours a side in the controversie between the dissenters and us . it is then altogether improbable ( i think ) that this erratum should be thus multiplied by chance only . . an error of the press deserves not to be taken to task , when no ill use is made of it ; but when 't is improv'd to the advantage of a cause , and to the prejudice of the truth , it is both just and necessary to take notice of it and to expose them , who make it their own , and a wilful error too , citing 〈◊〉 in support of their own opinion or practice . it may not be improper here to speak of the places of scripture , which the remarker has challeng'd me with , as having quoted 'em wrong , and not kept my self precisely to the very word , and to their order in the texts . . i have not altered the sense , neither pretended to promote any private opinion or design thereby . . this liberty is and ever has been taken by all , who alledge the holy scripture in their writings and discourses , not scrupulously tying themselves up unto the very words . st. paul himself in that . rom. , &c. is guilty of all those minute and trifling exceptions which the remarker has laid against me , as may easily be seen by comparing him with the places from whence 't is thought by my adversaries the apostle took his testimony . mr. owen ex. gr . taxes me for putting the singular instead of the plural . st. paul does so , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , whose mouth ( plural ) but in the hebrew 't is his mouth , psal . . . and in the seventy , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , whose mouth , ( sing . ) i use different words , and of somewhat different significations ▪ so does st. paul , destruction and misery , &c. ver . . in the hebrew , wasting and destruction , or breaking , isa . . . i observe not the scripture-order of words ; nor is st. paul exact in this , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : in the seventy , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . i leave out whole words : the same is true of st. paul , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : their feet are swift to shed blood , v. . in isa . . . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , their feet run to evil being ready to shed ( innocent ) blood , almost the same in the hebrew . here also st. paul has wholly omitted what is in the hebrew , their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity . i change words , even so st. paul writes , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , v. . for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , isa . . . they have not known , instead of , they know not , in the hebrew the pre●er for the present time . i further note , our lord himself ( or the evangelists ) and the pen-men of the new testament have left out words in their citations . therefore my lord bishop of cork and ross confesses , the sacred pen-men of the new testament content themselves with the general sense of the text not following that , ( the seventy ) or any other version ( not the hebrew ) that we know of . and again , they used a liberty , — not following ever the expressions of any other known translation , or indeed of the original it self , the hebrew , &c. p. . for this he cites jerom also . for instance , i read exod. . . i am the god of thy father , the god of abraham , &c. but , the god of thy father is left out , mat. . . mark . . luk. . . and 't is fathers in the plural , act. . . one might produce infinite examples of this kind . mr. baxter also must come in for his share , as will afterward appear . so putid and ridiculous a remark is that of the author , p. . allow men ( says he ) a liberty of a literal variation from the language of the holy ghost , the sense and meaning cannot be long secur'd . i may well be content to be corrected by mr. owen , who takes upon him to reprove jesus christ , st. paul and the three evangelists ; yea , and the great mr. baxter also . having thus fully answer'd his argument in this and the fourth chapter , i must consider one or two ref●ections he has here cast upon us . he mentions , the shameful scandals of some of our clergy too notorious , &c. if it were fit to play such a prize , i durst undertake to point out as many scandalous dissenting ministers in lancashire , as he can clergy-men . he twits me here also ( and oft in the remarks he makes himself sport ) with what i said of my self , sc . that my diligence and observation had not been a little in searching the several editions of the bible , &c. now what i propos'd to my self was not to search after all the corruptions of this kind in the bible , nor all the impressions , wherein this was to be found , much less after all the other less material and accidental errors of the press . i employ'd my self only to discover the first faulty impression , whereinto this corruption had stollen , and the remarker , with all his curiosity and exactness , has not been able to out-do me . for any thing he knows , i have hit upon the right year , viz. . i have no reason to be asham'd yet of my diligence and observation , tho' mr. owen may be of his misrepresenting me so often on this score . mr. owen here denies the dissenters to have been concern'd in this corruption , and is very angry at the suspicion cast upon 'em for their countenancing or promoting it . my answer here is only this , fecit quisquam quantum voluit . they who take the advantage and are willing the corruption should pass for good among their disciples , and ( which is the case of the cameronian ) give it entertainment are justly taxt with the mischief done , the receiver being always as bad as the thief . chap. iv. in which a reply is made to mr. owen's second chapter . my first argument ( which was to bring the dissenters under a suspition of contributing to this corruption , these are my words , tho' mr. owen would have his reader believe i now positively charge 'em with it ) my first argument ( i say ) is taken from the circumstance of time . the alteration of the text into ye happen'd in the year , presbytery being then in the ascendant , and all things in preparation and tending toward the subversion of episcopacy , &c. mr. owen answers , . two events may happen at the same time , which have no relation to one another . right , when there is nothing else to be alledg'd for confirming the suspicion grounded on the circumstance of time , they may then have no relation to one another . but i ever thought this a good presumptive argument in conjunction with others , which is the case before us , the turbulency of the times , the sway of the populace , and the corruption of this place all looking the same way , viz. the extirpation and overthrow of episcopacy . . he asserts that i my self acknowledge the first error was an unwilling one , and cites my epistle dedicatory for this . mr. owen cannot speak truth for his heart . the remarks are all of a thread , lyes and stories , which we shall see he pursues unto the end . the rector's words in the epistle are , when an error , which one would have hop'd was an unwilling one , is supported with another , which must be confest and believ'd a wilful one , that is , when the presbyterian government , is publickly maintain'd by a text of scripture manifestly corrupted , &c. the unwilling error here spoken of is the presbyterian government ; but 't is the error in the text , which is call'd a wilful one , as any man will at first sight discern , but one , whose business it is not only to justifie others in corrupting the scripture , but who himself perverts his adversaries words . this is his sincere affection to the truth , and charity to his neighbour . yea , mr. o. himself just before ( pag. . ) had acknowledg'd that i call'd it a wilful error in my epistle dedicatory , behold here what an ingenuous and sincere adversary the rector has to do with . ay , but p. , & . the rector calls it an unfortunate oversight , a meer error of the press , an accidental slip , an unhappy mistake . true : yet unto the two first i have added , i am willing to believe , and as we will suppose it was at first , which it was not necessary to repeat any more . these words then shew that having taken a presbyterian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in the very fact , and endeavouring to establish his own perswasion by this false reading of the place , i would not any longer insist on the former circumstantial proofs of the first corruption , i needed 'em not : the matter was plain and could not be deny'd , viz. that the dissenters at least have contributed to the increase and continuance of this corruption , ( p. . ) and setting it up for authentick , p. . hereby we see this remarker deals with the sermon , as mr. o. knows who did with the holy scripture , mat. . telling our saviour , he ( god ) shall give his angels charge concerning thee , but leaving out a main part of the text , to keep thee in all thy ways . . the minister objects against the rector , that he is grievously out in his chronological history , for presbytery was not in the ascendant in england anno , as he suggests . i would not for any thing be found tripping in this part of my argument , especially after i have been taught this grave and edifying lesson , that god is the author of all topography and geography , as well as genealogy and chronology . i will then try whether the rector can be vindicated , and that in a very few words too . the foundation of mr. owen's mistake is the blunder he has made about the signification of these words , being in the ascendant , which he understands of being in full power and authority , as if it were the same with having the ascendant , as the phrase is sometimes used now a days . but the astronomers * will inform him , that the eastern quadrant of the heavens is call'd the ascendant ; and a star is said to be in the ascendant , when having past the imum coeli , and being got into the ascendant it bends its course up towards the medium coeli , and the meridian , that 's to say , is ascending . alluding hereunto i affirm'd , that in the year , presbytery was in the ascendant , that is , was rising , and so it was ; that prodigious and terrible blazing star the covenant , that very year began to appear in the british hemisphere in scotland , and soon drew the eyes ( i wish i could not say the inclinations ) of a great part of england upon it . i will not abuse my reader with an elaborate and tedious proof of this . 't is notorions , that presbytery had then its foot in the stirrup , tho' it had not yet got into the saddle , that is , was in the ascendant ( or mounting ) tho' it had not yet attain'd unto the zenith or vertical point . and that this was my meaning appears from the following words , when all things were in a preparation and tended to the subversion of episcopacy , p. . for i very well knew , and i believe scarce any body is ignorant , that the head of the noble earl of strafford was not yet lopt off by an unpresidented fiction in law call'd accumulative treason , and which was not to be drawn into example for the future ; that the innocent a. b. laud was not yet murther'd , no tolerable evidence being produc'd against him ; that the university of cambridge was not yet purg'd of the episcopal party , nor the heads of the colledges turn'd out of their free-holds , imprison'd , and lastly clapt under deck with design either to be expos'd in some foreign country , or perhaps to be sunk into the bottom of the sea , where they could tell no tales , as the arrians serv'd some of the trinitarians ; that the sacred blood of the royal martyr was not yet spilt by an extraordinary commission and authority assum'd at the instance of the rabble and the red-coats . these among many others were the pillars and supports of the church ; and so long as they flourish'd , and in some measure kept up their heads from sinking into the descendant , the presbyterians ( it 's true ) could not be said to have been in the ascendant , as the minister ignorantly understands that phrase . i have repeated these old stories to shew , that it is not probable i could imagine that presbytery was so early , that is in , elevated or set up on the pinacle of the temple , as also to cure some men ( if it may be ) of that scurvy disease of rubbing on old sores . they may see we want not materials to set them forth , and are able to lay unto their charge far more mischievous and exorbitant actions , than they to ours . whatever a. b. laud did it was in the course of law ; but the presbyterians proceedings were arbitrary , tyrannical , violent and illegal . lastly , hereby the younger sort will learn what deference the presbyterians have heretofore paid to their superiors , and what charity they had towards their neighbours , more than other folks , and what all ranks and orders of men in this kingdom must expect of 'em hereafter , if they once more have the ascendant . all the question that remains is , whether presbytery was that year in the ascendant , as these words truly signifie , that was on the rising hand in england . this cannot be doubted of , nor will be deny'd by men of sense , who know any thing of the rise of the civil war. i will not therefore spend my time , nor weary the reader 's patience with the proof of it . only i crave leave to consider the view of the state of cambridge , which ( says he ) was not presbyterian or puritan in , when and where the corruption is suppos'd to have first happen'd . the sum of the account which he receiv'd from mr. fra. tallents is , that all the heads of the colledges , that is sixteen persons , were for the church . i 'll suppose this ; yet it follows not , but that the university ( a great part of it ) was then inclining to presbytery . mr. owen here talks like one , who knows not cambridge , nor had diligence enough to inform himself , and the old gentleman mr. tallents is ( i am afraid ) past his memory and judgment , i will not say his integrity : i am sure he has not given a true and exact information of the university . for besides these sixteen heads of colledges , there are the fellows of the several colledges , the scholars of the houses , noblemen , fellow-commoners , pensioners , and sisars or servitors , which in all make up the number of in ordinary ( i believe ) besides the said heads of the colledges . so that my gentleman has reckon'd without his host , and i am oblig'd to bring him to another account . among these there might be , and i am sure there was a great number which favour'd presbytery , as will appear from the colledge of emanuel . six colledges were not long after furnish'd with heads out of emanual , which got the nick-name about this time of pure-emanuel , from the abundance of puritans in it . i my self knew very well the ' foresaid six heads by face . they were masters of king's , trinity , st. john's , jesus , clare-hall , and emmanuel it self . i think i may add another of christ's colledge . i spare their names . moreover , in trinity colledge oxford , there are but twelve fellows , ten of which were turn'd out at the purgation , and their places all supply'd by a like number from cambridge . 't is manifest then that a great part of the university was not well affected to episcopacy . mr. o. might do well to ask mr. tallents , whether he was well affected to episcopacy in or . i might add that the king 's and parliament's armies were no sooner in the field , but the scholars were up in the university , and fighting , some for the king , and some for the parliament , and that with various success too . from the whole then it may be gather'd , that it was not impossible , but that the corruption of the th . of acts might have been first contriv'd at cambridge in the year . the ferments which the whole nation and the university it self were then in might give a favourable opportunity and encouragement to the attempt ; it being too frequent , and as it were natural unto most men to adore the rising sun. the minister has labour'd to prove , that the reformation in scotland was first cast into the presbyterian plat-form . the contrary hereunto is fully prov'd in that learned treatise , entituled , the fundamental charter of presbytery examin'd and disprov'd , &c. he means the article in the claim of right , ( apr. . . ) wherein prelacy is asserted to be and to have been a great and insupportable grievance and trouble unto the ( scotch ) nation , and contrary to the inclination of the generality of the people ever since the reformation ( they having reformed from popery by presbyters ) &c. the author of the foresaid treatise has at large , and ( if the records to which he appeals be true , as i think no doubt can be made of 'em ) by undeniable evidence overthrown all those pretences for presbytery mention'd in that article . i will offer here a little out of that book unto the reader for a taste , remitting him to the treatise it self , which ( if i am not mistaken ) is worth any man's perusing : i am sure it gave me infinite satisfaction . he tells us then , that there were many prelates , who concur'd in that work , ( sc . the reformation from propery ) as the bishop of galloway , and of argyle , the abbots of lundoris , of culross , of st. colmes-inih , of coldingham , of st. mary isle , of aberbrothoick , of kilwinning , and of newbottle ; the prior of st. andrews , and the subperior . fundament . chart. p. . he further shews , that not one martyr , confessor , or any that had an hand in the reformation in the year , declar'd for presbytery or against episcopacy , pag. . not john knox himself , pag. . but that superintendency was erected by knox , p. . that knox compil'd the first book of discipline , anno . pag. . that in the year . the scots being delivered from the french slavery by the english assistance , subscrib'd to the religious worship and rites of the church of england . [ this is taken out of buchanan , p. ] p. , , . that the scotch protestants used the liturgy of the church of england in their publick devotions , anno . p. , , . that in the fifth head of the first book of discipline establisht at perth , anno , it was appointed that the council should nominate superintendents , p. , . that the superintendents had districts and diocesses under them ; that there were but ten or twelve design'd , for the whole kingdom ; that they collated or instituted parish-ministers , p. . that they depos'd parish ministers , if occasion requir'd ; that the superintendents were to be admitted , ( that is ordain'd ) not by the parish-ministers , but the neighbouring superintendents , p. . that their income was five times as much as that of parish ministers , p. . that they were constant members of general assemblies ; that all inferiour ministers were bound to pay them canonical obedience , p. , . that they appointed diocesan synods and fasts , p. . that appeals were made to them from parish judicatures , p . that in the second model at leith , jan. . - , it was agreed the old politie should revive , p. . the old names and titles of archbishops and bishops retain'd , and the old division of diocesses take place , p. . that the reformation continu'd upon this bottom till , by consequence , that prelacy was the government of the scotch church from the beginning of the reformation for fifteen years , and not alter'd then but with much difficulty and struglings , as it fellows in th●… author . but let it be suppos'd , that the reformation of scotland was first cast into the presbyterian platform , it proves not that presbytery was the first and most ancient government of the kirk of scotland , but only that at the time of reformation it was agreeable to the scots inclination . for i shall in another paper hereafter to be publish'd prove , that the church of scotland was govern'd by bishops of old time . and therefore i am still of the opinion , that the scotch kirk put away the wife of its youth , i mean episcopacy , when it reform'd from popery , and join'd it self unto an harlot ( i mean presbytery . ) 't is an odd way for an husband to reform his wife by superinducing and noising her with a strange woman . ay , but the rector reflects upon the king , says the remarker . this is the first time i ever heard of a presbyterian having any due regard unto a king's honour , and perhaps it will be the last , if the commonwealth principle gets a little more footing amongst us . but let us examin what truth is in the accusation . when the scotch parliament had intimated unto the king their inclination unto presbytery , the king tells his commissioner , that he believes it is so , and therefore is willing to condescend unto their petition ; 't is no reflection on the king ( i hope ) to deride the scots reason . the rector himself verily believes , that presbytery is agreeable to the scotch parliament's inclination , but intends not thereby to reflect on himself . in short , the scotch parliaments reason for the act , was their inclination , but the king 's was to please and comply with them . he has been more kind unto them ( i am afraid ) than they mannerly and thankful unto him . now whereas the act affirms also , that the presbyterian government is agreeable unto the word of god , as well as to their inclination ; it was in my opinion very sawcily done of ' em . had it not been sufficient to acquaint the king , that presbytery is agreeble to the word of god , but they must needs farther tell his majesty , 't is agreeable to their inclination , as if they had said , sir , 't is our mind it should be so , we must have this point granted us , or else , &c. finally this expression , agreeable to the word of god , is of doubtful construction . it may imply , that in their judgment no kind of church-government being in scripture expresly establisht , presbytery as well as any other sort is agreeable , that is not contrary to the word of god. their inclination then determin'd their choice , and was made the reason of it . before i dismiss the vindication of my first argument , i must look back to an observation of the author's , a very wise one i will assure you before hand , and must not be forgot . you 'l find it p. . where ( i having call'd the cameronians by the name of circumcellians , and very rightly too ( as were easie to make out ) he notes that the rector overlooks a little rule of grammar in rendring circumcelliones , circumcellians . mr. owen is just as good a grammarian , as he is an astronomer . i know no rule of grammar that i have transgrest . the pedant would ( i imagine ) have it render'd circumcellions ; for so we englishmen are call'd saxons , not saxans . but my rule in rendring latin words into english , is to follow the custom of my country , and those who have gone before me as to words ; and 't was horace's long since , who was a better grammarian than mr. owen , or his reviser at manchester . he teaches me to conform my self to the usual way of speaking : — si volet usus , quem penes arbitrium est & jus & norma loquendi . i have heard frequently the circumcelliones call'd circumcellians in english . i read 'em so render'd by mr. rogers in his first propos . on the th . article . i find the same in cole's english dictionary in octavo . he was a profest master of the english tongue . but perhaps mr. owen may find 'em rendred circumcellions also . be it so . 't is then indifferent which way we write 'em , and i hope mr. owen will allow me my liberty in an indifferent thing . lastly , the remarker might have attributed this little mistake to the transcriber or printer , if he had so pleas'd . i am willing to deal so with him , when i read cacilius instead of caecilius . p. . my second argument was , that the corruption in appearance favours the dissenters , and their design against episcopacy , that ( if any ) they may be suspected as willing to have it at least continued and propagated . the question then here between mr. owen and me is , whether the corruption favours the dissenters , and their design against episcopacy . i determine it in the affirmative , and prove it by giving an account of the church of england's and the dissenters judgment and practice . of the first . after a person is nominated , chosen or presented unto a church or congregation , the bishop first ordains him ( if he was not in orders before ; if he was ) then the bishop institutes and appoints him by an act altogether distinct from his ordination , as we believe was the case of the deacons . but tho' the elders or pastors among the dissenters ( who answer to our bishops ) ordain persons unto the ministry , yet the people or congregation both chuse and appoint 'em , as they please and can best agree among themselves . does not then reading the place , ye may appoint , favour the peoples power of heaping to themselves their own teachers . the heads of agreement give me no satisfaction in this point . they lay down this rule : 't is ordinarily requisite , that every particular church in the choice of its minister consult the pastors of neighbouring congregations . but what if the pastors of neighb'ring congregations differ in judgment from the people of that particular church ? why this is an extraordinary case , and then it must go on the people's side , for so 't is imply'd in that head. to speak freely these heads are meer shams to make the world believe that the united brethren were come to some agreement and settlement among themselves . but those loose words ordinarily requisite , spoil all , and leave the people still to do what seems good in their own eyes ▪ they may , if they please , ask the approbation of the neighbour pastors ; and if they obtain it , well and good ; but and if they think 〈◊〉 , they may let it alone , or conclude contrary to their advice , when they believe it an extraordinary case . and who must be judge of this but the people ? in fine , our national , provincial and classical presbyterian government , is fairly given up , and dwindled into independency , where the people domineer over their pastor , and over one another also . mr. owen argues , that the dissenters had no necessity to corrupt this place , the people's power being just before abundantly asserted in those words , look ye out among you . here ( he says ) the people chuse the deacons . i answer they chose not the seven persons immediately into the office design'd 'em , but only nominate , present , and commend 'em to be approv'd and appointed thereunto by the apostles . for if the people's looking out and presenting the seven unto the apostles , was an effectual appointing them over the business , why is it afterwards added , whom we ( the apostles ) may appoint over this business , or as the various reading has it , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , whom we will appoint over this business . did the apostles appoint , after the people had before appointed 'em unto that business ? the remarker would obviate this by another device , the people ( says he ) chose the deacons , the apostles ordain'd or appointed 'em so chosen , plainly intimating the ordaining and appointing is the same thing . here is not the place to dispute this matter , thorowly : suppose ordaining and appointing the same thing , then the people's looking out and presenting the seven unto the apostles was not the appointing or establishing them in their office. because the apostles appointed them afterwards . nor were the apostles oblig'd to accept the people's choice and presentation , for then it had been impertinent to add , whom we may ( or will ) appoint . the alteration then of the text into ye mightily favours the power of the peoples appointing their own ministers . mr. owen further objects that i have elsewhere granted , that the choice of the persons to be presented unto the apostles was made by the people . tentam. nov . true. and i am of the same opinion still , being under no necessity to alter it , that i am sensible of . the multitude sought out the seven to be presented unto the apostles , and gave this testimonial of them , as must be suppos'd , that they were men of honest report , full of the holy ghost and of wisdom . but still the apostles appointed them over the business , and not the people . whereas if you read ye then the people must be confest to have appointed the deacons , and according to mr. owen , belike ordain'd 'em too . i might add ( what would have been a sufficient answer unto mr. owen's cavil ) that the cameronian at least thought the alteration gave some countenance to the presbyterians , else why did he alledg it . but the minister acquaints me , that the seven deacons were no ministers of the word and sacrament in the judgment of the dissenters , and the westminster assembly , only ministers of tables , in other words , overseers of the poor . i cannot help these men's judgments , if they do not or will not see it , 't is because there is no light in them . i appeal to the law and to the testimony of the scripture in this and the eighth chapters . i will not repeat the evidence . i only ask why do they not ordain their overseers of the poor as the apostles did by their own confession ? i can imagine no other reason , but because it is against their inclinations , and looks like a ceremony . to● conclude this argument : the remarker suggests , as if i were not ( according to my own principle that is of the people's chusing their own ministers ) rightly invested with the rectory of bury . i have already accounted for this in the pref. to tent. nov . the remarkers business is not to argue soberly , but to cavil . i advise him in the mean time to examin his own breast , whether he obtain'd his former post at wrexham by fair honest means : to ask himself the question , whether he did not betray and by a paultry trick supplant mr. barnet his predecessor and step into his place ; whether he did not discover the secrets of his inward friend and confident , who disclos'd his heart to him , as to a confessor . i might moreover tell mr. owen , that time was when the presbyterians decreed it lawful for a minister to take a presentation from a patron . this conclusion was made in the provincial meeting at preston , july . . as i find it registred in the fifth meeting of the second classis at bury , july . of the same year . but the case it seems is alter'd ; they have now quitted this principle ( i imagin ) unto the independents , who have requited them with submitting ( in ordinary ) unto the laying on of the hands of the presbytery . a man cannot tell where to find these people . herod and pontius pilate are at length friends ; how long 't will continue , time must shew . i am told there are some dissenters , or nonconformists among 'em already . my third argument was to this purpose , that the episcopal party can not be imagin'd to have designedly corrupted this place , nor to have conniv'd at it since ; for that would be to destroy , what their church government seems to be built on . hereunto the minister replies , that this proves nothing against the dissenters , who do not charge the episcopal party with it . but i return , if it were designedly done , or at least , if it were afterwards countenanced and propagated with design , as i shall once more prove by and by , then because mr. owen has acquitted us , the dissenters must confess guilty . and if bishops are ( as we contend ) properly the apostles successors , if the deacons ( as has been said ) were ministers of the word and sacrament , then i am not absurd nor singular in hinting at an argument for episcopacy from this text , as others before me have done . but because this man of grammar once more gives us a cast of his office , and quarrels at the word seems , which ( says he ) is as much as if i had contradicted my self , and by saying seems to be built , had confest , it was not really built upon it . i must again shew what an unhappy critick and puny grammaticaster he is . let him then turn to act. . . there he 'l read , it seemed good to the holy ghost , and unto us ; and chap. . . it seemeth unreasonable , &c. was this as good as to say , it was not good to the holy ghost , &c. or it was not unreasonable to send a prisoner to rome and not signifie the crimes laid to his charge ? several other examples of this kind i could produce out of scripture , and human authors were it worth the while . i only note that tully in an hundred places uses videtur , when he intends to affirm . thus horace , tres mihi conviva propè dissentire videntur poscentes vario multum diversa palato . dissentire videntur pro dissentiunt , as the following words evince . lastly , there is not a more common way of disputing than the opponents ushering in their arguments thus , videtur quod sic . they do not thereby mean to intimate , that what they are about to prove true is false . the remarker then and his assistants have made a fearful stumble here and run their — heads against the authority of scripture and all good authors . nay i will confute them out of mr. owen's own mouth , pref. pag. . which ( says he , meaning our omitting to read some books of scripture ) seems to be a diminishing from the word of god , i e. according to mr. owen's criticism , is not diminishing from it ; why then does he retort it upon us as if it were ? my fourth and last argument was deduc'd from the cameronians citing this corrupt place in favour of the people's power of appointing over themselves their own teachers and ministers . the minister objects , that the story concerns not the english presbyterians , that he expected i would have instanc'd in some english presbyterians ; who have made use of this false reading , that the scotch evidence , is but hear-say , that 't is scarce credible a cameronian should assert a doctrine directly contrary to the presbyterian principles , that the error of one man ought not to be charged upon all . in answer to all this , i say , . that for the matter of fact i think it unquestionable . 't is thus : the honourable colonel fairfax reported this fact unto the reverend mr. piggot vicar of rochdale in the hearing of several persons then present , in particular of mr. rob. mills a shop-keeper in rochdale , and a known dissenter . after mr. p. had satisfy'd 'em about the true reading of the place in the original . the company then at rochdale consulted several english bibles , which they sent for from private houses , and found them corrupted in like manner ; whereupon col. fairfax declar'd , that he thought the presbyterians had some knavish design . a german gentleman then in the company with them pull'd a dutch testament of luther's translation out of his pocket , wherein he read we , and then added , he was certain the presbyterians in germany and in scotland ( where he had lately been ) were knaves , and it was well if they were better in england . mr. owen demanded a particular account of this fact ; and i have given it him . these latter circumstance i would have bury'd in oblivion , had not my adversaries importunity forc'd me to make 'em thus publick . 't is mr. o. they are beholden to for it . . the english presbyterians are like to bear the burden of their brethren in scotland . as they deal with us , they should be content to be dealt with themselves . they have no colour of complaint , when they duly consider what they have done unto us . . i promise him presently an example of an english dissenter , who has made use of this false reading . . i am apt to believe almost any thing even contradictions of a cameronian . but the comfort is , this is not one . the cameronian pleaded not against ordination by the hands of the presbyteries ( as mr. owen like a sophister represents the case ) ; but for the peoples appointing their own ministers of tables . therefore he read the place ye the people . . that 't is no unusual thing for the error of one man ( or a few ) to be imputed to the rest of that party . thus ( to make use of his own instance ) haman's offence was reveng'd upon many thousands of the persons , and saul's upon seven of his children . and thus the note-maker fell foul upon the whole body of the episcopal church for a supposed fault of my l. bishop of salisbury . ay , but the cameronian was an ignorant man happily . i had thought there were no ignoramus's among the presbyterians . if a man will believe 'em hereabouts , all their geese are swans . every little mushroom , as soon as he first prickt up his ears in the pulpit , is immediately cry'd up as an angel sent from heaven , tho' he sprung out of the earth as it were , but a few days before . chap. v. being a reply to mr. owen's third chapter . the minister goes on and objects , that no protestant dissenters have ever urg'd the corrupt reading in favour of a popular government of the church in their writings . 't is a bold touch this , to be so positive in a negative . has he read all their writings ? i 'll give him an example of one , who tho' he urg'd it not in writing or in print , yet alledg'd it in a disputation . one mr. jolly some while ago ( since dead ) at duckenfeild hall produc'd that text in the th . act as alter'd into ye against the reverend mr. ellison rector of ashton-under line ; i have permission from the said mr. ellison to assure the world of this under his name and testimony , and which he will be ready to verifie any other way , that shall be reasonably requir'd of him . take another of the like kind : there is a gentleman now living at bolton ( ready upon demand to attest the truth of what i here relate ) who heard some dissenters in a dispute about religion cite acts . as the cameronian did . but being told 't was false printed , they reply'd that they reading it so in several , and especially the scotch bibles , knew not but it was as true as the other . these dissenters were not ( 't is confest ) ministers , but doubtless had been furnish'd with this argument grounded on this false reading by some of their leaders , who ought to have dealt with 'em more sincerely . 't is remarkable here how they more especially appeal'd to the scotch bibles . i believe mr. owen will be wiser , than to give us another catalogue of the corrupted editions in scotland , tho' he has in part promis'd it . i shall be beholden to him , if he 'l be pleas'd to answer my expectation herein , since i have not my self interest enough among 'em to procure an accompt . i hope by this time mr. o. is in some reasonable measure satisfy'd . the remarker further argues , that had the corruption been design'd in favour of the dissenters , it would have been promoted , when they were uppermost . to fortifie this objection , he has taken pains to examin the editions of most years from to , and observes , that most of the faulty editions happen'd in the reign of king charles the second , when the bishops had the management of the press , that the faulty editions amount to thirty-eight according to his collection , almost equal in number to the other , which were not corrupted . let us now see what is to be said unto all this . . i cannot tell , whether the dissenters would have promoted the corruption when they were uppermost . i am sure there was no need of doing it after they had gain'd their point by another method , that of the sword. by the way we never heard of altering religion in england by dragoons , till the presbyterians first oblig'd this kingdom with that new invention in the late civil war. . tho' far the greater number of faulty editions were set forth in king charles the second's days , when the dissenters were undermost , yet they may be suppos'd to have promoted the corruption even then . i never yet could learn , but they found means at all times to influence the press in spight of authority . . the bishops had not in king charles the second's reign the management of the press . that had been a long while in the hands of men having receiv'd it by patent to them and to their assigns , who claim it as their freehold and inheritance ; nor can they easily be controul'd in their business . the lawyers in westminster hall will tell you as much . the bishops have nothing to do ( no authority ) to print , license , order , over-look , or to correct the impressions of the bible ; but the king's printers have the sole power lodg'd in them ; and for the errors committed in printing are answerable to the king , or to the law only . 't was needful to set the ordinary reader streight in this matter , because the remarker has so often harpt upon it , and entertain'd us with a great deal of stuff , which having no foundation of truth betrays his ignorance or malice against his superiors , unto whom he owes more deference . . 't is acknowledg'd by mr. owen , that there have been ● . editions faulty in this place , besides those in scotland , and at oxford of late ; and besides mr. clark's and mr. baxter's false prints , and the same repeated in their form of church government . who can believe an erratum to have been thus often repeated by chance ? let the minister give us an instance of any other mistake in printing , whereupon depends any controversie in religion , so frequently committed in different volumes , in so many presses , by so many printers , and in so many distant places , at cambridge , oxford , london and edinburgh ; and it shall suffice : till then i desire to be excus'd , if i continue to believe and assert the text to have suffer'd by design . here i must acknowledge my self beholden to the remarker , who by the great pains he has taken in hunting after the corrupted editions has strengthen'd my argument , and left no place for his defence of the dissenters . to justifie my self yet further against the censures of some men , who have believ'd that the charge , which i exhibited against the dissenters in my sermon , was not sufficiently made out by such proof or circumstances , as might have been expected in a thing of this nature , i shall here present the reader with a parallel case , which i find in a b. laud's speech in the star chamber . it begins p. . the puritans had in a label accus'd the prelates , that to justifie their proceedings they ( the bishops ) had forg'd a new article of religion brought from rome giving them full power to alter the doctrine and discipline of our church at a blow , and had foisted it into the beginning of the th . article , anno . the clause complain'd of is , the church ( the libeller expounded it the bishops ) has power to decree rites and ceremonies , and authority in controversies , ( the libeller said in matters ) of faith. this clause is a forgery ( said the libeller ) not to be sound in the english or latin articles of edward the sixth , or q. elizabeth , ratify'd by parliament . the archbishops answer unto this heavy charge is , that the aforesaid clause was by these men , or at least by some of their faction razed out of the article to weaken the just power of the church to serve their turns ; that the said clause was in the english articles printed , , , and in the latin , which was the first or one of the first copies printed but some few months after the articles were agreed on . the a. b. further confirm'd this from the publick records in his own office under the hand of a publick notary , viz. that the said clause was in the th . article . what then , and where lies the mystery of iniquity ? why he tells us that in the year , there were some , who refus'd to subscribe ; that in the same year the articles were printed both in latin and in english , and that this clause was left out of both ; and that this could not be done , but by the malicious cunning of that opposite faction ; and ( for some reasons there given ) it was no hard matter to have the articles printed , and this clause left out . the archbishop adds out of the records , that all the lower house of convocation subscrib'd the articles that very year , with the said clause in them ; and then concludes , i do here openly charge upon that pure sect this foul corruption of falsifying the articles of the church of england . let them take it off , as they can . let then the ingenuous reader determin , whether i had not as good , yea the same reasons to impeach the dissenters for this corruption of acts . at least for propagating it ; and whether the archbishop's charge laid against the puritans is not lyable to the same or greater objections than mine against the dissenters . but that 's admitted as reason in one man's mouth , which will not pass from anothers . but to come nearer to my present argument . besides the conjecture of col. f. and the suspicion of the german gent. before spoken of , which 't is natural for any man in such cases to discover , i further add , the right reverend edward lord bishop of cork and ross in his treatise entitul'd , scripture authentick , and faith certain , p. . took notice of this corruption of act . . and further says , p. 't is not improbable it might be done at first with design , and particularly of those who would establish the peoples power not only in electing , but even in ordaining their own ministers . i must now take notice of some things , wherewith the remarker has imbellish'd this chapter of his to give it a more agreeable relish unto the reader 's palate . no dissenters ( says he ) have ever urg'd this corrupt reading against the bishops and ceremonies . how came ceremonies here to be brought in by the head and shoulders , and who ever thought that ye had any thing to do with the ceremonies tho' we have ? these mens brains are so full of ceremonies , that they fancy they see 'em in every book , and in every controversie . so the knight imagin'd he saw a giant , and prepar'd himself for the combate ; but it prov'd a wind-mill ; so fearful and superstitious men see spirits or hobgoblins , where ever they go . mr. owen informs his readers ( the greatest part of whom will doubtless take it for truth ) that i confidently affirm without the least proof that the scotch bibles are generally faulty in this passage , ser. p. . my words there are , having now just reason to suspect the scotch bibles generally faulty in this passage . mr. o. changes 'em into , confidently affirms without proof . whether i have just reason or not to suspect it , is submitted to the judgment of the impartial reader ; why else did the cameronian send a great congregation to their bibles , where they might find it so ? but for mr. owen to make the world believe , that i confidently affirm'd it without proof , is an impudent slander not to be parallel'd ( i think ) except in the plea for scripture ordination , and the five disputations of church government and worship , of both which more anon . that mr. owen a minister of the gospel ( as himself says ) modest mr. owen , who has an affection for truth and charity for his neighbours , should in the face of the world scandalize his brother , and not blush nor repent of it , nor in a private way recal and correct it ( he knows my meaning ) is extraordinary . tell it not in gath publish it not in ashkelon . i beg pardon for gathering a flower in the ministers garden . i am not wont to make so bold with him . but 't is a choice one i perceive , i found it in his plea ( p. . ) in his defence , ( p. . ) and we shall presently meet with it again in these remarks , ( p. . ) i was therefore ambitious to have it for once in my posie . 't is no wonder to me that the minister is so terribly frighted at the motion of a fire , especially at his own door . — tua res agitur , paries cum proximus ardet , vcaligon . i can't blame him then for being concern'd . if forgeries once begin to be sacrificed unto the flames , the plea may happily take fire , and receive its just reward . but it may be 't is the light of the fire which offends him more than the heat . 't is natural for such as the minister , whose talent it is to corrupt authors , to love darkness rather than light . every one that doth evil hateth the light , neither cometh to the light , least his deeds should be discovered , joh , . , . but why should the note maker be so startled at my proposal ? time was when he had not such an aversion unto the burning of books . this calls to my mind how lewis the th . after he had burnt many goodly cities , with his bombs , and forc'd the confederates unto the same method of annoying their enemies , made hideous complaints of that barbarous way of fighting , which he would never be sensible of , till it came to his own turn . well! but why burn the holy bible for one single corruption ? why ? because an error which appears in masquerade , and under the disguise of scripture being discovered deserves no pity being of so much the more dangerous consequence . a spy , when he is taken , is always put to death , but an open enemy is only made a prisoner of war. the concern which my adversaries here shew , least this corruption should be publickly executed , and their willingness to have it live still under the protection of the holy bible render it impossible for 'em to dissemble its parentage any longer . if we will be govern'd by the judgment of solomon , the bantling must belong unto them , at whose doors it has been laid . whose else should it be ? but theirs , who palpably discover an affection and tenderness towards it , and burn their own fingers rather than the impostor should be flung into the fire . chap. vi. an answer to mr. owen's fourth chapter . the minister has undertaken here a defence of mr. baxter , whom the rector charg'd with abusing the scripture and leaving out the word these , act. . . and being accus'd of this long since by dr. hook , never attempted a reply or vindication of himself . if mr. baxter was capable of being excus'd in this matter , yet of all men living mr. owen ought not at this time o' th' day to have taken upon him that province . he has now himself stood twelve months and upward publickly indicted for a like forgery , and has not yet been able to assoil and clear himself . it seems unreasonable that one criminal should plead the cause of another . mr. b. is not likely to be brought off by the minister ; who cannot , or has not as yet , made any tolerable defence of himself . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 't is impossible that a man , who manages his own affairs ill , should do his neighbours wisely . the minister pleads in behalf of mr. baxter , that he was not at leisure nor dispos'd to take notice of every trifling accuser . and yet the rector had prevented this excuse by shewing , that mr. baxter had spare time enough to acquaint the world with the most trivial and ridiculous passages of his own life . cunning men are never dispos'd to answer , when they see it impossible ; tho' there be a sort of men who will always be medling . the minister excuses mr. baxter from our lord's silence towards his accusers at the time of his condemnation , mat. . . if mr. baxter had not in the whole course of his life been continually engag'd in controversies , and then at his death had not left us an account of his performances in the history of himself , which is a perpetual monument of his pride , and intemperate heat against his betters and superiors ; but had been content at last to have died with the meekness of a lamb ( as our lord did ) not opening his mouth , there had been some colour for this comparison . but because he left behind him his own life wrote by himself in so haughty and contemptuous a manner towards his adversaries , which one may call his dying words , and design'd it for the press , he cannot , with any reason , nor in any measure be excus'd from the silence of jesus christ , but will pass henceforth for an egregious example of self-sufficiency and a restless disposition . being dead he yet speaks , and even in the grave is carrying on the squabbles and controversies , which he made a dust with , when alive . i will not deny , but mr. baxter after the text alledg'd has ( at least in my own opinion ) explain'd well enough what necessary things are there meant , and how they became necessary . and i do allow that no indifferent things ought to be impos'd except when they are casually become in some sort necessary . but that , which i contend for is , that our ceremonies and our indifferent things ( at least in our own judgments ) are at this day necessary in the same sense as some of those are , which the apostles injoyn'd , act. . but it is not a proper place to dispute this point here . only mr. b.'s craft deserves to be observ'd . he by omitting the word these leaves an impression upon the mind of his readers , that no indifferent things at all ought to be impos'd on any account . many were unable , and others take no notice of his explication following . the point which mr. b. was arguing in the petition for peace , was that no indifferent things might in any wise be impos'd upon scrupulous consciences , which is manifestly and in the most general and unlimited sense , the proposition is capable of , asserted in that text , if you leave out the word these , that is , the two or three things there mention'd . mr. b. ( says mr. owen ) when he cites the words of scripture does it in a different character in italick letters as in that very page , cor. . . but act. . . is cited in this authors own roman character ; and therefore he intended not to transcribe the very words . well , tho' there is no great matter in this , yet i have look'd into the page , and find it quite otherwise . a man must not trust mr. owen further than he sees him . he 'l be sure to deceive you if you do . he is not content to belye his adversary only , but he 'l venture hard in the defence of his friend also . the words of that text , cor. . . are cited by mr. baxter not in different italick , but in his own roman letters , and go before the quotation . 't is the following passage of scripture , tim. . , . which is put into italick letters , i might lastly shew what liberty mr. b. takes seven times in this very place , and some few that follow , in citing scripture not verbatim , but with some variation , which is the heinous crime laid to my charge , and so dangerous to the security of the sense and meaning of the scripture . but 't is hoped i have sufficiently vindicated my self on that account already , and have got mr. baxter now on my side against the ministers at osmestry and manchester , if his assistance were good for any thing . i am further inform'd , that had mr. b. cited the very words of the text he would have rendred them in the second person thus : it seemed good unto the holy ghost , and to us , &c. o te bollane cerebri foelicem ! what a goodly remarker's this ! to us in the second person ? here mr. owen has given us another instance of his mighty skill in grammar . i ever thought the pronoun us was of the first person . but to make sure i took the opinion of a little boy of seven years old ; who confirm'd me in it . these people the remarker and the note-maker , tho' they pretend so much deference to superiors , yet ( i perceive ) have no respect unto persons . but it is pleasant to consider how these men , who pretend to be skill'd in the hebrew grammar and rabbinical criticisms , who talk at so confident a rate of the masora , and of the keri's and cethib's , are yet to learn the first rudiments of all languages , and know not the very english accidence . were not the lads too big , l'd advise 'em to go to school again , and learn it a little better . and yet for all this there 's a mystery in the mistake . their inclinations are still towards the second person , as some bodys else was in citing act. . . nor shall mr. baxter escape so . for , as 't is no small impiety to misquote the scripture , so 't is some iniquity to corrupt good authors . i am perswaded he , who makes no conscience of doing the latter , will make no great scruple of the former . now mr. baxter cites and renders that passage in jerom's celebrated epistle to evagrius ( potentia divitiarum & paupertatis humilitis vel sublimiorem vel inferiorem episcopum non facit ) in the affirmative ; whereas in all the editions i have seen or can hear of , 't is in the negative non facit , and jerom's argument requires it should be so . nor could it be the slip of mr. b.'s amanuensis or printer , as any one may know , who will look into the design of the author in that place . and now my hand 's in , it may not be improper here to take the remarker once more to task by demanding a reasonable account , why he , having in his plea corrupted st. chrysostom , has not yet satisfied the world in that particular . he has indeed endeavour'd it in the defence of , &c. p. . but very poorly , as i will now make to appear . his first excuse is , that 't is but a syllabical mistake . and he says true , 't is no more ; yet 't is of such a nature , that it quite overthrows the sense and opinion of the fathers , changing it from a negative to an affirmative proposition . he might every whit as well have altered that text , wherewith he adorns the title-page of his remarks , and turn'd the negative precept into a positive one , thus , thou shalt bear false witness against thy neighbour , and then have argu'd 't is but a syllabical mistake . i am apt to think the latter syllabical mistake of the commandment would have suited the remarks much better , than the true reading , i having demonstrated that he has more than once born false witness against the rector . . he imputes the error unto the transcriber , and neglect of correcting it in the errata's this will not pass muster , good mr. owen . the matter you were proving will not bear it , as i told you long since , and you could not gain say it . for tho' your memory be never so good , and mine so bad , yet as you have reliev'd mine , i 'll rub up yours . you had affirm'd in your plea , ( as i observed to you formerly ) that evangelists were extraordinary church officers , such as were not resident and fixt in one place , but past from one city or province to another . you endeavour'd to make out this first from eusebius , who writes , that the evangelists 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , then you add , with whom agrees chrysostome , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. in english thus ( according to eusebius ) , did pass over into other countries and nations : and according to chrysostome , they did — go up and down every where . now st. chrysostome says , they did not go up and down every where . if then you had cited chrysostome in the negative ( as you ought ) he would not have agreed with eusebius ; and so instead of confirming your point by this father's testimony , you would have confuted it . your design therefore necessitated you to corrupt that place in st. chrysostome , that you might confirm your point by a second testimony . in a word by discharging your own fault upon the amanuensis ( or printer ) you have cover'd one piece of foul play with another . . mr. owen would vindicate his innocence by alledging , that he lay under no temptation of altering 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because he needed neither eusebius nor chrysostom's testimony to confirm his opinion . for the acts and epistles of paul make it evident . that 's to say mr. o. wrote a plea for scripture ordination , and in this part of his argument , and in this place produc'd not a word of scripture , but only two authorities out of the fathers , which yet he now pretends he had no need of ; that is , he had no need of the only proofs he produc'd . for tho' now in his defence he tells us , that it is evinc'd from scripture , yet in his plea he not so much as intimated any such thing . he boasts of his many hundred quotations : and had he no need , or did he intend to make no use of them to what purpose then did he cite ' em ? indeed , indeed , friend , this is a very idle and boyish excuse , and deserves a rod rather than a confutation . . i will confess he has in part accounted for his leaving 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , out of chrysostome , having at length sound one edition without it , tho' 't is one of the worst , and does him as much harm as good , for in aggravates his altering 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that very edition of donat veron . whence he transcrib'd his testimony having this passage of chrysostome in the negative . lastly , he contends he has chrysostome on his side without that alteration . this i shall hereafter examin , at present i submit it to the judgment of the learned , whether this is sufficient to justifie him . we sometimes pardon those that steal for necessity , but certainly punish wanton offenders . it being now manifest , that mr. owen must have purposely corrupted st. chrysostome , and that he has not been able in any tolerable manner to clear himself from this charge , i crave leave of the reader to let him know , what some dissenters have frankly own'd , which is to the purpose following , that if mr. owen is indeed guilty of the crime laid against him , he is a great * rogve , they supposing ( i believe ) at the same time that he would certainly aequit himself . if he has acquitted himself i am content to bear the reproach ; if not let his peers see to it , whether they have pronounc'd a just sentence upon him , and will give him his due title of honour for the future . he has no shift , that i can imagin , but fairly to plead ignorance , and that he knew not the difference between 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . but the mischief is , as he cannot truly ( i believe ) so neither would he willingly plead ignorance in so small a piece of knowledge . he had much rather ( i am perswaded ) his honesty should be call'd into question , than his abilities ; and would chuse to pass for a cunning r — rather , than an innocent ignoramus . in short , i would advise him to be sincere for once , to acknowledge what he cannot deny nor palliare , viz. that he was under a temptation to corrupt st. chrysostome . let not the old diverb affright him ; i promise to absolve him , provided he will do so no more , which is a penance i fear he 'l never be prevail'd with to submit unto . for , as i was th' other day dipping in the remarker's tutamen evang. or defence of scripture ordination , i chopt upon pag. , . and found him thus arguing , where doth luke mention paul's preaching the gospel in illyricum , which we are sure he did before his imprisonment at rome , rom. . . here is a gross and design'd corruption of scripture to serve a cause . 't is in the original , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and in english , round about unto illyricum , as if he had said as far as illyricum ; but not in illyricum , as mr. owen aim'd to prove . i expect no other defence for this his shameless falsifying the holy scripture , but that 't is a syllabical mistake , that 't was the transcriber's error , that he was under no temptation , &c. there are two things more which i must not pass over without some reflections on them before i conclude . the first is the mighty character the minister has bestow'd upon mr. baxter . the second is his reproaching me for my natutural or providential misfortunes . as to the first , i observe he calls mr. baxter , that great man , p. . 't is a great scandal to religion in my opinion , when men keep themselves within no compass in the commendation of those of their own party , representing them as stars of the first magnitude in the firmament of the church , whereas hundreds of 'em put together would make but a dim light like that of the milky-way , or of an empty cloud ; but much more , when they stretch their praises beyond all the boundaries of truth and modesty . i meet with several instances of this kind in the life of mr. n. h. one is that the said n. h. was wonderfully supported and blessed by god , to such a degree as that he lived creditably and provided well for his family under very narrow circumstances ; whilst his adversary mr. st. having no charge but great incomes , was scarce able to sustain himself , and at length died in debt . there needs nothing more to discover the malice of this story than in a few words to let the world know , that the widow of the said mr. st. is in very good condition to this day . i wish mr. n. h.'s posterity were so . this is all i think fit to say at present on this occasion , unless i should be bold to exhort mr. o. h. to be a little more charitablee to his nearest relations , who are not in so prosperous condition . the note-maker ( as i guess ) or who ever he be that set forth the life of mr. p. acquaints the world that they who were present , observ'd him make his ordination vows and promises with great humility of spirit . and again , after he had taken his degrees at cambridge . by these last words a man would imagin that mr. p. had attain'd unto the degree of master at least ; but i have heard it oft affirm'd hereabout , that he never took any degree at all . mr. p. indeed before his ordination produc'd a certificate of his taking the degree of batchellor in arts ( as the class-register informs me ) and was wont always to affirm it upon occasion . but this does not convince me , and forces me to call his truth into question . for i am morally certain that he never took any degree , if the publick register of the university may be trusted . but what will not some men if it may any ways contribute to the credit of the cause , and buoy up the reputation of the heads of the party ? as for his making his ordination-vows and promises with great humility of spirit , i have this to say , that 't is spoken at random , yea and against pretty good evidence to the contrary . is this consistent with the forgery of the foremention'd certificate ? besides , how can any one know another man's humility of spirit ? what man knoweth the things of a man , save the spirit of man , which is in him ? cor. . . and altho' we may make charitable conjectures of men's inward dispositions from their outward deportment ; yet in the case of mr. p. there was less ground for this , he being naturally and at all times and in all his actions of a very staid , grave and demure behaviour . but that which i insist on is , that mr. p. just between his ordination and examination when the classis inquir'd into his gracious qualifications , in which ( 't is said ) he gave good satisfaction , had marry'd a young woman without her parents consent , yea against their declar'd mind . himself therefore at that time stood guilty of the breach of the eighth commandment . he had entic'd the woman unto the breach of the fifth , and engag'd a young man by marrying them to be a partaker in both . it can hardly enter into me , that mr. p. was so remarkable at that time for humility of spirit . i intend not hereby to lessen mr. p. in any thing , wherein he was justly commendable . i very well know he was afterwards and in the main a good man , excepting always his being engag'd in the schism . for this i praise him not , and especially because tho' the writer of his life assures us he declar'd upon his death-bed , that he repented himself not at all of his nonconformity ( that may be true ) ; yet i have oft heard it from very good hands , that in the year , he would have conform'd , had not the gray mare been the better horse . the sum is , our nonconformists commend one another at adventure , without reason , above measure , and beyond truth , which i cannot allow of . thus the remarker stiles mr. baxter , great ; but , if truth may be spoken , tho' he made himself great and busie , yet he was but a very little man ; however far from truly deserving that character . if to value and commend a man's self to write the minutes of his own life , to aggrandize his own name and performances , publishing in a vain glorious manner , what pains he had taken , what difficulties he had strugled with and surmounted , and yet at the same time to insist on the most trifling and dirty parts of his actions , even how well his physick wrought ( therefore i said the minutes of his own life ) , if such a man can merit the title of great then is it justly given to mr. baxter . if to raise one's own reputation upon the ruin of other men's , to trample upon their good name , to expose their infirmities , and transmit 'em to posterity , to spare neither great nor small , neither friend nor foe , neither stranger nor neighbour , no not father nor grandfather , so it may contribute something to his own glory , if such a man deserves the title of great , then is it well bestow'd on mr. baxter . if to speak evil of the rulers of the people , to be continually declaiming against superiours , undermining and overturning governments , speaking evil of dignities , snarling at their laws , spurning against their commands , deriding their conduct , triumphing over their misfortunes , and being never at ease , but when he was embroiling the peace of the nation ; if such a man may be stil'd great , let mr. baxter have the honour . if to follow the camp , and like ravenous birds hover about armies , attending the events of battel , and waiting for the prey : if to have been in the heat of a man's zeal forward to change , and ways of blood , and for that reason fearful god would not let him have an hand in the peaceable building of his church , nor to see it ; and yet still against the admonitions and checks of his own guilty conscience , to be always busie in projecting it , making a perpetual noise and eternal wrangling about church-government to no purpose . but , i say , if to be forward to promote war and bloodshed entitles a man to be called great , then may it be allow'd mr. baxter , as well as caesar and pompey , as solyman and lewis xiv . some doubtless will look upon this as hard measure and severe , especially when the great man spoken of is gone to his everlasting rest . and i readily grant it is severe enough . but why then did mr. baxter take the liberty to rip up the faults of the ancient fathers , to fling all the dirt on them , which malice and rage , and intemperate zeal , and a curious but ill-natur'd search into their failings and miscarriages could furnish him with ? in short my apology for this is , dehinc ut quiescant porro mon●o ; desinan● maledicere , malefacta ne noscant sua . . whereas the remarker and his reviser , take the liberty to reflect upon me about my use of spectacles , i am not asham'd to own that age and distempers have at length driven me unto this very ordinary shift . i believe they themselves have a tenderness for life , and would be glad to number the days of their pilgrimage as far as i have , and be content at last to betake ' emselves to their spectacles . but there is no discretion , much less humanity , least of all piety to reproach any man for his natural infirmities , how bold soever they make with his morals . they might have remembred the story of the prophet elisha , king. . . and tho' there is no great fear of bears tearing these scoffers at divine providence , yet god has other means in his power to chastise this insolent way of remarking upon his just and wise administrations . but of all men living the reviser at manchester ought to have expung'd this witticism . god has not been so liberal to him in the perfection of these parts , but the rector is still able to vye with him , and can perhaps see as far into a mill-stone as he can . in retort then , i 'le only present him with a passage out of horace : heus tu ? janoras re ? cùm tua pervide●… oculis mala lippus inunctis , cur in amicorum vitiis tam cernis acutum ? — at tibi contra evenit , inquirant vitia ut tua rursus & illi . if it be reply'd they mean't not to meddle with my natural infirmities , but glanc'd only at my reading my sermons : be it so : even this is to despise me for my weaknesses . what if i have not a good memory , or not a voluble tongue , or not a sudden invention , such as may enable me to discharge the office of preaching off hand in so agreeable a manner , as some few can ? and as , if at all , it ought to be done ? or what if all this be an effect of the want of self-sufficiency and too great distrust of my self ? i had rather be thought deficient in some of these qualities , than be admired for those boon-graces of confidence and impudence . i chuse rather by the help of my eyes with the advantage of my spectacles to deliver my sermons in a set form of words readily and roundly pronounc'd ( as i wish more would do ) than utter ex tempore a great deal of rambling incoherent stuff with hums and ha's , and vain repetitions , which tho' they are pretended for the benefit of the audience , yet are indeed design'd for the preachers own ease , and to get time to pump for some new matter , and what to say next . in short , i rather bestow my pains in composing my own sermons , as well as i can , that they may smell of the oyl and of the lamp according to the poor ability , which god has given me , than serve god and my congregation with that which cost me nought , that 's to say , than preach other men's works by heart , as mr. o. knows who did . the close . it was once in my thoughts to have sum'd up the whole , that has been said , and to set it in a plain and shorter view before the reader ; but there is no room left for such a repetition . i only desire it may be remembred that mr. owen and his brethren having undertaken the defence of the dissenters charged with countenancing and propagating the corruption of the word of god , have at the same time , as far as in them lay , corrupted it . they have endeavour'd to cast out of the greek bible a considerable section together , with the rector's text , and thrown it over-board . mr. owen has falsified rom. . . meerly to serve a turn . they have unfairly misrepresented the rector every where ; but they have openly with a bare-fac'd and unparallel'd confidence downright bely'd him in that passage of the epistle dedic . and that other of the serm. pag. . whether these men ought to be believ'd in any thing they say or write , is left to the judgment of the candid and impartial reader , what is to be thought of the party , when the advocates themselves are thus plainly detected in so many forgeries , is not hard to determine , whether my adversaries will have the grace to ask god , the church , and the rector pardon for these scandals , is to be question'd . they are too far gone and hardned in their impiety , i am afraid . being plung'd over head and ears in debt they 'l despair of making any satisfaction . their predecessors ( as in the case of the articles of the church of england before spoken of in archbishops laud's speech ) began this trade long ago , and it has been their continual practice ever since , as we see at this day . how many slanderous reports of the rector have within a few months been rais'd by that party , is well known , and more still ( 't is to be suppos'd ) are upon the anvil . the sin seems like gehazis leprosy hereditary , and threatens to cleave to them and to their seed after 'em for ever . but the comfort is , that as hypocrisie so lying when discovered tends to the authors greater shame and disadvantage . as for the principal matters debated in these papers , viz. the corruption of act. . 't is refer'd to the judicious reader whether i had not reason on my side , when i tax'd the dissenter with the design , at least of continuing it . it favour'd the schism , which was then hatching , and it began in a juncture , when all hands were at work , and no stone was left unturn'd to overthrow the purest and most flourishing church in the world : it has increased and multipli'd since in so many impressions of the bible , that 't were sensless to believe it a casual error : it has been publickly cited in the pulpit for authentick and in private disputes urg'd and desended as the true reading . what would any man have more to make good the charge laid against them , and what better evidence can be given ? except one had been sometime engag'd in their interests and in their counsels , which i thank god i never was , and by his grace never will be . i have not made it my business to provoke my adversaries with all the keen and tart reflections , which offer'd themselves many , and especially such as seem'd most exasperating i rejected upon second thoughts , tho' his paultry treatment of me deserv'd it not at my hands . but i remembred that other saying of the wiseman , prov. . . my purpose then hereafter is intirely to lay aside this way of controverting , and to leave mr. o. scolding by himself . for i perceive by that little i have read of his tutamen evang. or defence , &c. ( which i intend in due time to reply unto and to the remainder of his plea , &c. ) that he has there likewise pursu'd me , as far as his malice and rancor ( for which i never gave occasion ) enabled him , tho' very silily godwo● , and very flatly in comparison with the remarks , the reason whereof i have hinted before . let him then go on and prosper : i 'll give him no further diversion or trouble of this kind . when the raging fit is over , and mr. o. is come to himself , he will perhaps see that his tutamen is but like a taylor 's bill , that after his impertinent excursions , his froward reflections on the person of his adversary , the fulsom commendations of himself , and the nauseous repetition of the same things over and over again are struck off ; there will little remain , but what may be without the expence of much labour easily answer'd . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e ezek. . . notes p. . cor. . . notes p. , , . remarks epist . dedic . prov. . . eccles . . , , . notes for div a -e serm. p. . pref. of remarks p. . annals cyprian . argum. ad psal . . pref. p. . serm. p. . &c. pref. p. . serm. p. . see cor. . , , . compared with isa . . . jer. . , . pref. rem . p. . pref. ad lib. . in is . tom. . . tom. . pa. . par , edit . serm. p. . pref. p. . pref. p. . pref. p. . in the hebrew , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pref. p. . serm. p. . pref. p. . pref. p. . serm. pag. , . serm. p. pref. p. . serm. pag. , . rem . p. . see just . pag. , , , . & alibi edit . paris . gen. . . see alex. copy . chron. . c. serm. p. . pref. p. . antiq. l. c. . isidor . l. . ch. . mat. . . serm. p. . pref. p. . mat. . . pref. p. . serm. p. . pref. p. . notes for div a -e rem . ch . pag. . the scripture authentick , p. . rem . ch . . p. . notes for div a -e serm. p. . r●m . p. . r●m . p. . serm. p. . serm. p. . rem . p. . o. h 's family-altar . * see mr. leyb . cursus math. p. . rem . p. . in the last printed tables they amounted to , and upwards , taking in the colledge-officers and servants . rem . p. . rem . ibid. serm. p. . de arte poeticâ . ser. p. . rem . p. . ser. p. . rem . p. . rem . p. . notes for div a -e rem . p. . rem . p . a. b. l's sp. p. . pag. . pag. . pag. . pag. . pag. . rem . p. . rem . p. . notes on bishop s. . disc . p. . notes for div a -e luc. epig. . rem p. . serm. ep. ded. rem . p. . five disp . p. . pag. . def. p. def. p. * as for this broad expression , 't is none of mine , i declare it . letter to dr. hill , in hyp. vnvail'd , p. . ecclesiast history . rem . p. . horat. l. . ● . . a welsh narrative, corrected, and taught to speak true english, and some latine. or, animadversions on an imperfect relation in the perfect diurnall, numb. . aug. . . containing a narration of the disputation between dr griffith and mr vavasor powell, neer new-chappell in mountgomery-shire, july . . griffith, george, - . this text is an enriched version of the tcp digital transcription a of text r in the english short title catalog (thomason e _ ). textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. the text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with morphadorner. the annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. this text has not been fully proofread approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. earlyprint project evanston,il, notre dame, in, st. louis, mo a wing g thomason e _ estc r this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (thomason tracts ; :e [ ]) a welsh narrative, corrected, and taught to speak true english, and some latine. or, animadversions on an imperfect relation in the perfect diurnall, numb. . aug. . . containing a narration of the disputation between dr griffith and mr vavasor powell, neer new-chappell in mountgomery-shire, july . . griffith, george, - . [ ], p. printed by a.m. for john browne at the guilded acorn in s. pauls church-yard, london : [i.e. ] thomason recieved his copy sept. , . annotation on thomason copy: "sept. ". reproduction of the original in the british library. eng powell, vavasor, - . -- perfect diurnall. griffith, george, - . -- bold challange of and itinerant preacher. dissenters, religious -- england -- early works to . a r (thomason e _ ). civilwar no a welsh narrative, corrected, and taught to speak true english, and some latine. or, animadversions on an imperfect relation in the perfect griffith, george b the rate of defects per , words puts this text in the b category of texts with fewer than defects per , words. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - elspeth healey sampled and proofread - elspeth healey text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a welsh narrative , corrected , and taught to speak true english , and some latine . or , animadversions on an imperfect relation in the perfect diurnall , numb. . aug. . . containing a narration of the disputation between dr griffith and mr vavasor powell , neer new-chappell in mountgomery-shire , july . . pruritus disputandi fit scabies ecclesiae . henr. wotton mil. london : printed by a.m. for john browne at the guilded acorn in s. pauls church-yard . . reader , be plesed before thou readest to correct these faults , and other mistakes which are through the printers negligence . page . l. . reade praesertim . l. . r. art. . p. . . . r. propagation . p. . l. . r . and l. . r. ingenuous , p. . l. . r. assistants . p. . l. . r. congregation p. . l. . r. asaph . p. . l. . for or r. of p. . l. . del. comma . l. ult r. merioneth . p. . l. . . r. dirge's . p. . l. . r. ashamed . p. . l. . r. severall p. . l. ult. r. scripture . animadversions on an imperfect relation in the perfect diurnal , numb. . aug. . . i presume it is the printer that saith it , [ i have given you a short and exact narrative of that meeting , and the disputes then held for your satisfaction . ] but i must tell him , that it is neither exact , nor satisfactory : as he is abused himself , so he is made an instrument to abuse others . it is short indeed , that is , of truth and ingenuity , and consequently short also of exactnesse . montgomery . july . nar. the news that filleth all mouths at present in these parts , is the late dispute between dr griffith , and m. vavasor powel at new-chappel in montgomery : that day appointed was july . the doctor promised a sermon , but performed not . anim. it is an ill sign , a bad omen when you begin to faulter from truth , and fail in your exactness so soon in the very beginning , specially in a circumstance impertinent to your undertaking , only to shew your rancour and itch to cast aspersions on the doctor . to whom was it that he promised a sermon , can you tell ? if you cannot tell to whom , you must be forced to acknowledge , to no body as you know : and so you can alledge no promise ; and where no promise was , no performance on that behalf was to be expected . i was present my self when the gentleman that built the chappell , moved the doctor in it , when there was some speech of the dispute intended , saying , i hope you will bestow a sermon on us : the doctour replied , that he could not promise ; for his indisposition of health , and weakness of body was such , that if any thing else was done , he could not hope to be able to hold out to preach , and this in the hearing of divers gentlemen of note and credit . nar. the place appointed could not contain the people , therefore they were fain to have the disputation without doors : when they were setled on both sides , the doctor would go on with the disputation in latine — animad . in giving an exact narrative , it was necessary you should have told , what the doctor said and did , and for what reasons then expressed ; and not involved all in one generall phrase , the dr. would have latin . and therefore seeing you have omitted so prolix a passage , the ground and foundation of all that which you call a dispute ; give me leave truly to inform the reader . the doctor first turned himself unto the company , and spake to this effect : this unusuall concourse of people met together bodeth some extraordinary expectation , and speaketh the occasion to be unusuall . a strange thing , a wonder scarce heard of in an age , to hold a solemn academicall disputation in the country , a sphere not proper for it . he observed , that the company met together , consisted of three sorts of men ; many professed scholars that expected satisfaction in the way of learning : divers gentlemen of rank and quality , who though not professed artists , yet no strangers to the sciences and wayes of disputation ; and their expectation also he conceived might be the same : the third sort unlearned women and illiterate men , that knew not how to judge of such matters : his desire therefore was unto this meaner sort , that they would have a little patience , while they should dispute , as was agreed , more academico , promising that whatsoever passed , it should faithfully be declared unto them in the way and language they were capable of . hereupon m. powel and his company began to cry out , english ; but the better sort , if not the greater number , latin : in this time of noise , m. powell said somewhat of prayer ; the doctor replied , that was not unthought of , nor should be forgotten : then in prosecution of his desire to give satisfaction to the principall part of the assembly , he went on thus ; age igitur , accingamur ad opus : seduti solent in scholis disputaturi , nihil aggredi , presertim in re theologicâ , insalutato numine , brevi saltens precatiunculâ ordiamur . suscipe causam mean , in quantum etiam tua est , o domine susceptor meus , adversus omnes eos , quicontra te tuosque , & veritatem tuam insurgunt . tu qui via es , & veritas & vita , deduc nos in viam tuam in quâ ambulemus ; ut spiritus tuus deducat nos in omnem veritatem , & veritas tua ostendat nobis vitam & salutare tuum . illumina intellectus nostros , ut in lumine tue videamus lumen , ut in lumine gratiae thae perducamur ad lumen gloria thae , & in lumine verbi tui videamus & despiciamus lumen illud scientiaesaecularis & naturae . da sedium tuarum assistricem sapientiam , ut divinam voluntatem tuam rectè intelligamus , & fideliser & studiosè excquamur , per jesum christum dominum nostrum . amen . the prayer ended , ( wherein m. powel twice indeavoured to interrupt the doctor , in loud english , ) the doctor began to repeat and state the questions in latin : but m. powel and his company began to clamour , and others on the other side to require the contrary to what they cried out for . the doctor to prevent all occasion of tumult , m. powell withall yeelding unto him in point of learning , condescended to repeat the questions as they were proposed to him by m. powell in english . quest . . whether your calling or ours be most warrantable , and nearest the word of god ? quest . . whether your mixt wayes or our wayes of separation , be nearest the word of god ? the doctor told him , that in regard they were comparatively propounded , they could not be clearly and well disputed of in that way ; and therefore either of them was to be reduced to distinct and positive conclusions . in the first question two propositions , the one affirmative , the other negative , . the calling of the ministers of the gospel in the church of england is warrantable and according to the word of god . this he said was in terminis the confession of our church , acts . and attested unto by all the reformed churches in their confessions . . your calling ( if opposite to and distinct from this ) is not warrantable nor according to the word of god . then added , that he came not there to alledge any thing against their calling , untill they gave him fuller account of it , what it was ; when m. powel declared himself , what his opinion is , whether erastian , socinian , brownist , anabaptist or enthusiast , he would consider what to say unto it : in the mean time he stood only to defend the doctrine of that church whereof he is a minister and member . in the second question are two conclusions also : . the first affirmative . our parochiall , which you call mixt congregations , are according to the word of god . this concerns the discipline of the church , setled and establised by laws both of church and state , avowed in the practice of all christian churches . the second negative , . your wayes of separation are not according to the word of god . m. powell approved well of the doctor's cleerness in thus opening the questions . when it was expected m. powell should begin the dispute , he desired he might have the liberty to propose some rules , as he called them , and they were three : . that nothing which should passe in that dispute , should be made publike ( he meant i beleeve , set out in print , ) without knowledge and consent of both parties . the dr. assented readily , and hath exactly observed the rule : whether they have done so or no , this narrative is a sufficient testimony . . that the dispute might be held in the spirit of love and meekness . which the dr. assented unto also , and performed accordingly . he leaveth them to answer for themselves , and all true lovers of truth and peace to judge between them . . the third proved to be no rule , but a tempting question : in what capacity do you stand there , as an episcopall man or a presbyterian ? the dr. replied , that that was nothing to the question , but if he had any thing to say against either , he would answer for either . but m. powell still pressed , whether are you ? the dr. answered , i am both ; if you will needs know , i am an episcopall presbyterian . then m. powell repeated his words : so there was an end of the rules . then he went on ( as you might expect , being past his rules ) irregularly , using all means and artifices he could devise to evade and desert his question , which in fine he did wholly ; professing , that he had nothing to say against the church of england , or the calling of her ministers : but he was only against such as abused their calling . and thereupon he proposed another question , do you undertake to defend the corrupt part of the ministry ? the doctor answered , no : he was accountable for no man's errors , neither would he defend his own , when they were made to appear unto him to be errors . and to evidence that personall miscarriages did not abate the calling , he instanced in judas , who was an apostle , though he were withall a devil . whereunto m. powell very wisely replied , will you be judas then ? what return was given him by a stander by , you may remember if you please : but the doctor made no answer , demeaning himself as became him in christian meekness , despising such obloquies . narrat . but because that would give no satisfaction to the people , for whose sake chiefly the disputation was intended , is was concluded it should be in english . animad . how it was concluded , and upon what ground , is told you before . but you irrationally conclude , before you had delivered the premises : such is your exactness . by the people surely you mean here the ignorant only ( for all the knowing part of the company were of the contrary minde ) and to intend satisfaction by way of disputation , to such as do not know what belongeth to disputation , is a senseless device . the doctor sure had some interest in the intention , as challenged to be a party and an actor in the dispute , and he should best know his own intentions in it : and i heard him say , he had no mean regard to m. powel's satisfaction , who expresseth so much doubt in his letter , if the latine of it will bear any construction . as for m. powel's intentions , they are also best known unto himself . but it should seem by you , that all he aims at is , to be well thought of by the ignorant , and applauded by the multitude : and much good may it do him with his popularity . narrat . the doctor being desired to pray , prayed in latin : the greatest part of the people accounted what he said little better then a latin mass . an. it is not true that any request was made unto him ; there was indeed an intimation only of the fittingnesse of praying upon such an occasion , which the doctor presently apprehended and conformed unto : your glosse and censure on his prayer is both arrogant and uncharitable . arrogant in assuming to your self to know the hearts of the greater part of the company , what they privately thought of it : then uncharitable in endeavouring to cast the aspersion of popery upon it . it is well known the doctor was ever of another strain , and hath withstood popery both by writing and preaching for above these twenty years , as much as any minister in wales . your preachers are in the consequence good agents for the papists : it is too evident popery is more improved amongst us since the indiscreet execution of the late act of propogation , then it was in above twenty years before . the prayer it self , because there are copies of it given by some that took notes there , you have here given you to prevent mistakes . it will vindicate it self to all undepraved judgements from all kind of reference either to mass or popery . narrat . the doctor being asked whether be stood there in the capacity of an epispocall man , or a presbyter , &c. answered . &c. — an. of this passage you have a fuller account then here is given before in its proper place : wherein m. powel's drift was easily discerned , hoping to finde by this means an occasion to discover some diversity or opinions in the moderator and the doctor : but the design failed . narrat . the doctor brought along with him m. hildersham , a presbyterian , to be moderator , who was altogether on the doctors side . an. true it is that m. hildersham came along to the place with the doctor , as did many others , whom he did not bring , but they rather did bring him to the place , as it is usual with friends . neither did m. hildersham come as a moderator , for there was another able and well known orthodox divine of the neighbourhood desired to do that office for the disputants , who had also in part promised to be there upon the day , and the doctor did rely upon it . but as he was taking horse that morning , a gentleman delivered him a letter from his intended moderator , excusing himself in regard some urgent occasion had intervened , which necessarily called him another way . upon this occasion m. hildersham being their in place , and known to be fit for such an employment , both for his integrity and learning , was desired by the doctor to take the place upon him ; and so you have the truth , which you failed in the delivering . what m. hildersham is , is well known throughout the land , a grave , learned , orthodox divine : what his opinion is in point of church-government ( for that is all shou'd rationally be understood by your stile of presbyterian , though happily you may seem uncharitably to extend it further ) he is able to give you a full and just account when he shall be lawfully required to do it . true it is , he esteemeth of the doctor as of his brother and friend , but not so as to side with him in any error : amicus plato , sed magis amica veritas : and if you be remembred , m. hildersham did voluntarily . when he was desired to moderate , professe that he would do it to the best of his understanding impartially : so that your saying the moderator was altogether on the doctors side , inferreth that the truth also was altogether on his side , inferreth that the truth also was altogether on his side , at leastwise in the moderators judgement ; for otherwise he professed to become his adversarie , if he said or maitained any thing against the truth . narrat . m. powel would have justified the communion of saints in gathered churches , which is called separation : but the doctor would be respondent for his own calling and parish . an. both parts here are misreported ; although for substance it be not much material , yet men should speak but truth in mean matters : i do not remember that the communion of saints was so much as spoken of in this instant : neither did the doctor assume any undertaking for his parish ? but when m. powell would have waved the first proposition , and go to the next , or haply to that of separation , which it should seem he had most mind unto ; the doctor bid him keep to the question , and either take the propositions in order , or let them all alone . narrat . that the people might not be disappointed , mr. powell was content , signifying to the doctor that his arguments would have reflexion upon his person , which he had endeavoured to shun . animad . what m. powell endeavoured to shun appeareth plainly by the story , that is , disputing of the question which he himself propounded , and therein the people were altogether disappointed of their expectation : for they expected the ministry of the church of england should have been disabled by him , and then the way had been open to the new discipline . but m. powel's reflecting upon the doctor's person was a manifest design . and the arguments shew it , that it did not only reflect upon him by a secondary diverted motion , but directly aimed to reproach him out of a depraved intention . that party looketh on the doctor , as a man standing in the gap before them . nar. the doctor became respondent , and m. powell urged a syllogisme against his ministry , which wast his ; they that are not qualified , elected and ordained according to the word of god , they have not their call from god . but you are not qualified , elected and ordained according to the word of god , therefore you have not your calling from god . animad . became ! how ? by some new change of the scene ? was he not respondent from the beginning ? he undertook not at all to oppose , but only to answer , as he was challenged . as for the syllogisme , the conclusion is inverted , and it is not against his ministry , but intended only against his interest in the ministry . but let it pass . nar. the doctor said it was a false syllogisme , because it consisted of negatives . the moderator , priests , scholars on their side triumphed , because the syllogisme was false respect of the form : the hearers approved of the matter ; but the doctor , moderator and scholars on that side , would by no means allow of the syllogisme — . animad . the doctor excepted against the syllogisme , as false , consisting of all negatives ; and he stil persisteth in it against all the new artists , affirming that no such syllogisme was ever allowed of in disputation . as for the triumphing as ye ignorantly call it , ( it was not a triumph , but a deservedly caused laughter ) it did not follow immediately upon the doctors excepting against the syllogisme ( for then all was husht , and all expected that m. powell should either alter or 〈◊〉 it : ) but on another passage which intervened , and you have very wittinglly and for shame left it out . give me leave for setting of things right to call it to your remembrance , if you have forgotten it . m. powell persisting in his error or opinion of the syllogisme , was desired by the doctor , to tell him in what mood and figure it was ; and he after some pause and consideration answered , that it was in barbara : and thereupon was raised that generall laughter , which you are pleased to call triumphing : an absurdity so gross , that it deserved hissing . narrat . so through this cavilling ignorance m. powell was much obstructed in arguing . animad . you say very right , m. powell was much obstructed in arguing , so that he knew not what to say , nor which way to turn himself , being so extremely laughed at : all he could say in this passage was cavilling , and that occasioned by his ignorance , ignorance of the first elements of art and logick ; every freshman can say , ass●rit a , negat e , sed universaliter ambae , and syllogizari non est ex particulari . neve negativis rectè concludere si vis . and ignorance of the grounds of art : shall i give you a reason why a negative syllogisme concludeth nothing ? because the inference dependeth wholly upon the relation and dependance between the termes , and that dependance cannot appear , except it be affirmed in one of the premises . but let me say what i will , you still plead art , and authority for your ignorance . for shame ! is it not enough for you to bely the living , and abandon reason , but ye must abuse the arts and defame the dead ? they were not , i mean keckerman and burgersdicius , sush silly artists , as you make your selves and them too . i have neither of the authors by me ; therefore i pray you lock on them again , and examin them . it may possibly be , the printer hath deceived you ; or it may be , you do not better ( that is , not well enough ) understand theirs , then other mens latine . i shall tell you anon my conjecture , who in probability might be the contrivers of this doughtie narrative , but will first indeavour to shew you the grosseness of this ignorance that obstructed m. powell , by some examples . what say you to this syllogisme , no unreasonable creature is to be taken to be in capacity to dispute : but a m , or v.p. is not an unreasonable creature . ergo , a.m. or v.p. is not to be taken to be in capacity to dispute ? fort the major i refer my self to the mr replicants in the last act at oxford , whose first thesis in comitiis was ; bruta non possunt ratiocinari . the minor i refer unto themselves . so what remaineth but that they either except against the syllogisme , and so i have my desire : or deny the conclusion ; and that would make them more ridiculous , and that i would not wish my greatest enemy . or what say you to another ? suppose the dr. had urged thus against your separation , that which is according to the word of god , is not to be spoken against . your way of separation is not to be spoken against . ergo your way of separation is not according to the word of god . i doubt not but m. powell may as well finde a barbara for this in the second figure , as for the other in the first , which consisted all of negatives ; and i will expect his answer when he hath studied the question a little better . one more yet , because it may concern or come into the hands of some divines , nulla creatura est deus . nulla , i.e. ne una quidem personarum in trinitate . neque pater , neque filius , neque spiritus sanctus est creatura . ergo nulla , sive ne una personarum in trinitate , neque pater , neque filius , neque spiritus sanctus est deus . is not this fine work for an atheist , an arrian , or macedonian heretick ? and can ye be stall in love with your new logick ? if this will not convince them of their ignorance , i think i may well enough be excused for saying any more . only one humble request i have to make unto the parliament , that when red castle is made an university ( as there was some talk of it not long since ) mr. a.m. or v.p. may be the logick professors , upon condition , that he teach the young sophisters this secret not yet revealed unto the world , of making good negative syllogismes in barbara ; i confesse , it is a hard task , but they may be rewarded out of my tythes , and others ejected dunces and antiquated logicians . narrat . though the form of the syllogismo be very true according to the rules of art and the authority of the best logicians , as keck . burgers . animad . this is answered , i beleeve , sufficiently already , and i shall adde no more ; but only acquaint you by the way , that it is on this passage i ground my conjecture i spake of , concerning the author of this exact narrative , suo ipsius indicio periit sorex . teren. for this piece agreeth exactly , as face answereth face , with a note which was shewed me taken out of m. mosiyn's exposition at poole , cor. . july . some of you were at the dispute . to that which was informed upon , we have since consulted with the best logicians in these later dayes : they say it was true according to logick , and arts in universities , and scholars , and form , &c. i trouble you with no more of his silly nonsense vented the next week again at oswestrie , aug. , . the narrative , ye see , is grounded on the same consultation with logicians , and so sent up , contrary to their own rule , without consulting the doctor . the matter is fully cleered before ; i leave the arts , universities and scholars to speak for themselves , who can soon vindicate themselves from the reproach and scandal such ignorance can cast upon them . in the mean time , they must take this notice from me , that the separatists are upon disclaiming all interests in arts , and universities , and scholars : for what said m. mostyn in his preachment july . we did not stand upon logick , but by the truth ; what is to sway us but scriptures ? an ingenious confession , we did not : and ye do not yet , it seems . if ye stand not upon logick , we are to expect but small account of any other art or science from you . for logick is ars artium , the key and gate or entrance into all the rest ; and if ye care not for the arts , ye are not for universities : and take away universities , and then farewell scholar . you stand not upon logick ! you animal , you stand not upon reasoning then , and yet you take upon you to dispute forsooth , that is , to prate without reason . for what else is logick , but a method , form and rule of reasoning orderly for the perfecting of a mans natural discourse ? but that you stand not upon . what then ? but by the truth . what ? do you swear ? or it may be , you mean , you●… and by the truth . you do indeed , as contraries , juxt a se posta : and your falshood maketh it to appear brighter and more glorious ; your daily prating instead of preaching , hath made god's word very precious amongst us : and one orthodox true sermon is more set by now , then an hundred heretofore ; such is the famine of the word , which you have caused by your propagating the gospel . what is to sway us but scripture ? my friend ! is logick no help to the interpreting , and applying of scripture ? let me tell you , that what the lawyer faith of his profession , is very true of yours and mine , scire leges non hoc est , earum verba tenere , sed vim & potestatem . it is not your potting of text , wherein by the help of a concordance the word separate may be found , that proveth your tenents ; but you should demonstrate , that the scope and meaning of the text is pertinent to your purpose . and that you can never do without reason and logick . but enough of this unreasonable ●●uff and folly of yours . narrat . the doctor formed the syllogisme in a way which himself liked , and so the disputation went on . animad . the doctor formed the syllogisme , that 's true indeed ; but you misreport the occasion , not his own humour or liking , but because m. powell and his assistance could not do it , and that the disputation might be no longer obstructed through their ignorance . for you may remember , if you please , that when they were at a stand , the doctor sid , i partly know what you would have , and if you cannot form your argument into a good syllogisme , i will help you , which accordingly he did , and thus he is requited for his pains . may he be so serv'd again for me , when he doth them any such curtesie against himself . narrat . m. powell took the first particular in the syllogisme and proved , that the doctor was not qualified , because he was not qualified with the gift of prayer , in regard be used the same set form of prayer for many years together before and after sermon , which he alwayes read . forms of prayers are to supply the want of the gifts , so the doctor wanted the gift , and was not qualified . the dr. denied that a form of prayer did exclude the gift of prayer . animad . here are some things of your own putting in to shreds of the dispute . you put in . for many years together ; it was not said then , and your saying it now is an untruth . the dr. hath used many forms of prayer , and all he useth , he alrereth on occasions : and he doth it upon a grounded perswasion , that it is the most edifying way , and most usefull and convenient for the people . . you put in , which he alwayes read : an untruth too , and intended for a calumny , the lord forgive you . . forms of prayers are to supply the want of gifts . no such thing then spoken of ; and i need not trouble my self here impertinently to examine it . there are more uses then one of set prayers . neither will i trouble the reader with all the passages in urging this argument , which in effect do signifie as much as nothing . all was fully answered in that compendious position of the doctors : the use of forms of prayer doth nor exclude the gift of prayer . against which mr. powell offered not any proof . and for the doctors personall qualification in this particular , he hath given sufficient testimony , that he hath one gift more then his opponents have amongst them all , to wit , the gift of praying in true latine . narrat . m. powell desired that he would answer the force of the argument , and produce scriptures for his deniall , that his words might satisfie the people . animad . grant this passage to be true in substance ( in expression it is not ) it maketh little or nothing for the opponents credit . when the doctor had denied the major proposition , which was this , he that useth a form of prair , hath not the gift of prayer , it was a senselesse demand , or a miserable shift in him to call for an answer to the force of his argument ; whereas the denying of the proposition did plainly shew it to be of no force . for what force can there be in falsse premisses : and an unreasonable thing to require scripture of a respondent for every thing he denieth ! the truth is this , when m. powell knew not how to prove the proposition denied , he would have the doctor to shew a reason why he denied it ; who replied , it was reason sufficient , that it was false ; and it was the opponent's part to prove the contrary . then came the assistants in to help , mostyn , nevet , edwards , confidently affirming , it was usuall in the school to require a reason for the denying of any proposition ( m. nevet indeed said he had heard it ; ) the scholars on the doctors part , being many of both universities , decried it . the moderator also telling them , they insisted on a thing unheard of , and in it self unreasonable . the doctor himself put an end to this impertinent debate , who told them he had some reason to know the laws and use of disputation , as most there , and he never knew of any reason required for the denying of any simple proposition , nor of the denying of any consequence , untill the argument be grown to too great a bulk in proving consequence upon consequence . for when one argueth enthymematically , and his consequence is denied , his way to prove it is per rationem consequentiae , which being made the antecedent layeth the ground of another enthymeme , the whole former argument making the conclusion ; and so forward , argument after argument , and enthymeme by enthymeme , untill it come to eleven . by that time the conclusion consisting of all that went before , will be grown so great and full , that a weak memory can scarce retain or well remember it . therefore when it was come to that pitch , the use was to require a reason of the deniall of the last consequence . if a reason was given , the opponent was to endeavour to shew it to be invalid ; if no reason given , it was free then for the disputant to return to his first antecedent , and go on to prove it . against this the opponents had nothing to object , and so desisted . but m. powell asked the doctor , by what scripture he could prove a form of praier ? for that 's altogether m. powell's disputing , asking questions : the doctor answered , it was sufficiently authorized , luk. . where our saviour taught his disciples a form of praier : m. powell replied , our saviour wrought miracles , will you work miracles ? it was answered , no , it did not follow ; our saviours precepts and other imitable actions are different from his miracles . narrat . the doctor , moderator , and scholars on their side , had not one word to speak . animad . sure , if they were silent , it was in expectation of some proof from m. powell of his proposition , but none came ; and so if you had meant to speak truth , you should have said , that neither m. powell nor his assistant mostyn , nor m. nevet that prompted both , had one word to say ; and so it would have followed more rationally in your narrative narrat . then m. powell went on to the second particular of his syllogism , and proved that the doctor was not rightly elected . animad . went on and proved ? nay , stay there ; that is not yet done , your meaning is , he did his endeavour , as the man did that threshed in his cloak . but i had almost forgotten to put in minde of another passage by the by , which you would have called triumphing , if you had conceived it fit to be mentioned . was there not a generall laughter justly raised , when m. powell thinking to approve himself sententious and learned , chanted it aloud , debet mendacem esse memorem ? sed transeat hoc cum cateris erroribus . narrat . that he that is rightly elected , is elected by a congregation of saints . but you are not elected by a congregation of saints , ergò . the doctor denied the minor , saying , he was elected by saints ( when as indeed he was placed there by the bishop , and imposed upon them , rather then chosen by them . ) animad . this last clause or parenthesis was no part of the dispute . sorry they were sure , that it was then omitted , and therefore they have here inserted it , after consultation in the narrative . somewhat they must say to the dead bishop , as well as to the living doctor . but god be thanked , the survivor is able to answer for both . you should have considered , that the election here disputed against , was his election to the function or ministery , and that 's a different act from his election to a place or charge wherein to exercise his ministry . in regard these men are so forward to seek to deprave the doctor on this behalf , he is ready to give the world an account if need be of either : for present satisfaction i have with importunity extorted from him out of publike instruments this brief account of his elections . his election to his calling or ministery was in oxford , by the society whereof he was a member , and continued so to be untill he was bachelor in divinity . then for the exercise of his calling he was elected by the university , and sent by expresse license or commission under their publike seal , ad praedicandum evangelium per universam angliam , i. e. to preach the gospel throughout all england ; a grace not granted unto any , but after performance of the exercises required by statute in that behalf , that is , answering in the divinity schools , and preaching quatuor laudabiles conciones infra praecinctum universitatis . he was elected also by a reverend prelate the late bishop of asap to be his domestick chaplain , and by him presented , by the right invested in him by the law of the land , first to the rectory of new-town , then of l'landrinio , and lastly to l'lanymynech , where he hath constantly resided these eighteen years , and was received by the respective parishes with approbation and comfort . how and upon what grounds popular elections of bishops and pastors were devolved to some one or more , eminent in every respective diocese or division , with the consent of the people , i will not trouble my self now to shew you . but granting , that a formal election by vote were necessary in this case ( and the doctors academicall elections are known to be such , all graces passing there by suffrage ) yet m. powell hath too hard a task of it to unsaint so many ; and that he must do , before he can by this medium inferre any thing against the doctors calling . intreat m. powell to have a charitable opinion or his own progenitors among the rest . to my knowledge his grandfather and grandmother were of the doctors charge or flock . narrat . m. powell proved the minor thus ; he that is chosen by ignorant and scandalous men is not chosen by saints . but you are so chosen , ergò . the doctor said , his parishioners were visible saints . animad . you heard before what apology m. powell made for himself , how sorry he was that his arguments must have reflexion upon the doctor's person ; but here you see , that without scruple or preface , his zeal doubtlesse set him on against charity at once to scandalize and defame the whole parish . they are beholding unto him for his unchristian opinion of them , whom he doth not know so much as by ●ace . when they are weary of the doctor , they have small encouragement to choose him for their minister , or lift themselves in his congregation . but you say , the doctor said , the parishioners were visible saints ; wherein you commit a double errour , . in not reporting his full answer . . in imposing words on him which were not his . the doctor told you , that the scripture speaketh of two sorts of saints , some by speciall calling and election of grace , others by generall vocation to , and profession of the name of christ . the former we are not to judge of ; the doctor thought it sufficient to be elected by saints of the later sort . and for the phrase , visible saints , it came not from the doctor , but m. nevet ( i will not say as sexeca did of claudius , eâ parte , quâ melius loquebatur ) although his back was to the assembly all the while . narrat . m. powell asked , where be your saints ? a knowing gentleman , a lawyer , of the doctors parish , stood up , and m. powell desired leave to ask him a question , to know whether he were a saint : the question he asked , was , what was the image of christ in the soul ? upon this there was much bustling , and prompting , and doing , yet no answer came . animad . the same way of captious arguing ye see still asking questions ; where are they ? as if , if they were not there to be catechized by him , they must be no where . 't is true , the gentleman that stood up is a knowing man , too knowing to be of your ignorant opinions ; the greater your fault , that knowing him to be such , you should so misreport him . as if there were any knowing gentleman , that knew not how to answer m. powell . when m. powell had uncivilly , unjustly branded all the doctors parishioners with scandall and ignorance , it was very seasonable and necessary , for so knowing a man to let the company know he was sensible of the obloquy , and to stand up in his own and his neighbours just vindication . m. powell desired leave to ask him a question . you say right ; but you should have told the reader all in an exact narrative : and therefore have added m. powell desired of the doctor leave to ask his parishioner a question . it should seem by this addresse , that m. powell thought the doctor assumed unto himself such peremptory command and power over his charge , as m. powell himself doth over his separated congregation , that no man is to ask them a question , nor they to answer without his leave : the jesuites mode right , nihil sine licentia superiorum . but the doctor pretends to no such priviledge ; he is amongst them ( as you know who ) as one that serveth . and therefore replied ; he might do that without his leave . but the gentleman himself well knowing his own liberty , told m. powell his own leave should be granted before it could be expected he should answer his question ; but for that time he freely gave it . m. powell there upon asked him , how is the image of christ wrought in the soul ? the gentleman answered instantly without prompting , inwardly by the spirit , outwardly by the word . m. powell had nothing to say against the answer : and being out without asking any more leave , asketh another question , and that you have hit upon ; what is the image of christ in the soul ? whereunto the gentleman beginning , an answer was immediatly interrupted by m. powell , crying out scoffingly and without cause , look how they prompt him : the gentleman replied , he neither had nor needed any such help to answer m. powell or any of his assistants : to which assertion divers ministers and scholars there present then gave their suffrage and publike testimony . and the moderator in particular told m. powell very truly , that the gentleman had bestowed more time in the university and the waies of study , knowledge and learning , then he or any of his assistance . the gentleman beleeving m. powell by his uncivill scoffe , unwilling to receive an answer , offered none afterward directly to that question : but conceiving himself to have a fair right to retaliate in the way of questioning , specially considering his first condescention to m. powell , he asked him ( the fittest way to answer such a questionist ) and that very pertinently to the argument in hand , whether there were no scandalous persons amongst them ? m. powell answered , none . the gentleman again asked , what , no adulterers ? m. powell made no answer , nor any for him ; but a stander by , said , yea , adulterers and buggerers too . the company understood his meaning without saying any more . for all the countrey ringeth of it . &c. the goals and publike records of the respective counties of denbigh , montgomery , and merrion are the ground and evidences of this passage : whereof i need say no more , i would there were not so much of truth in thus much . but as for the gentlemen , however these men value his knowledge , i am sure they are indebted to his charity . for i have heard him heartily wish , they could as easily wipe off from their churches the foul blot of these horrible and monstrous waies of propagation of the gospel , as he shall the imputation of ignorance in the particular wherewith this false narrative endeavous to asperse him . narrat . m. powell went on to prove he was chosen by ignorant , superstitious and scandalous men . and he did it by instance in a number of his parishioners , who sang psalms before a dead corps buried that very morning the dispute was . animad . it fell out , i mean , this instance , very opportunely , m. powell had wanted an argument else . to such as it is the doctor answered . . for matter of fact , he knew nothing of it : he was himself at the interring of the body , and he never heard nor knew of any singing either before or after . neither did he ever give any countenance to such needlesse singing by the way . . for the charge it self , singing of psalms is neither scandalous nor superstitious , neither do the papists use such singing ; there is a great deal of difference between davids psalms and dirgo's trentals , and the like : and a vast difference between the intention in singing in the reformed churches , and the popish funerals . it is the opinion and intention or use that formally make the superstition , singing of psalms is a spirituall duty or exercise ; and the meer prefence of a dead corps is no supersede as unto it . . for the consequence or force of the argument , i shall desire the reader to observe it . a few of the doctor's parishioners did sing psalms coming to bury a dead corps , july , . therefore they were superstitious and scandalous that elected him or approved of his election , mar. , . except m. powell prove this wilde consequence , his new argument brought him by good intelligence that morning fresh and fasting , will stand him in no stead at all for the invalidating of the doctor's election by those of whom the most or greater part are saints in heaven . and he conceiveth himself bound in charity to think so of them . and m. powel with all his holinesse is able to produce no colour of evidence to the contrary . narrat . upon this they were ashamed : then the moderator stood up to help : he propounded this question , whether they might not be saints , though they sung before a dead corps ? unto which m. powell answered , it was against the directory . animad . shame in their faces that deserve it . if they were ashed i am sure it was of you , that have hardened your foreheads that ye cannot blush for your lying and impudence . let the world judge by the whole story who had the cause to be ashamed . and though m. powel thought himself facete in popping the moderator in the mouth with the directory , yet every one that hath any understanding may discern that it doth not reach at all unto the demand or question . the parishioners were in ill case , if every thing they do against the directory must presently unsaint them ; and the moderator , and the doctor in as bad condition , if every thing that 's done in their parishes unwitting to them , must presently make null their election and calling , because it is against the directory . narrat . so he past to the third particular in the syllogism , that he was not rightly ordained . m. powell urged a syllogisme to try how they were instructed about ordination , thus , they who are ordained according to the word of god are ordained by apostles or evanglists : but you are not so ordained , ergo . the doctor did adde , or by their successors . animad . if they had not been better instructed before they came there , they might have returned as wise as they came for any thing of divinity or other sciences that was to be learned from the opponents ; for they want a great deal of instruction . the doctor did adde , you are still too short of the exactnesse you professe . you should have said , if you be a scholar specially : the doctor distinguished of the apostles considered either in their persons , or their office , commission , and successor . if m. powel meant it of the apostles in their persons , the doctor denied the major proposition , if of them in their office and successors , he denied the minor . as for evangelists , as such never any writer said that they were intrusted with the power of ordination , and if you be remembred , there were proofs given of the necessity of succession , and continuance of a power to ordain . but m. powell never offered to make any proof of either of the premises . narrat . there were many passages too and fro about the succession of the apostles and evangelists . animad . some there were about succession of apostles : but for succession of evangelists , the doctor and his friends , i beleeve , never heard of any to continue in the church . what the passages were you do not tell us : nor will i trouble my head with recollecting them . if any of them had been such , as might but seemingly be conserved for the advantage of your of your cause and glory of the day on your part , all men may presume , you would not have concealed them . and since you have passed them over in silence , let them lie dead for me . i am confident the doctor never conceived he could any way improve his credit by disputing with such as you . and i know his christian temper so well , that he destreth no mans disgrace . narrat . the moderator said , the doctor was infirm in body , which he hinted sevirall times before , and desired an end of the daies disputation . animad . this is not truly said neither . for about this period he first spake of it , and i do not well remember that he spake of the doctors infirmity but twice in all . but be it as you will . the matter is not great . it was time to call for an end of the disputation , when after three hours wrangling it was scarce begun . for neither of the questions proposed were hitherto disputed of , but wholly declined : only the doctor and his charge were brought upon the stage , or to a popular bar to be arraigned before an ignorant multitude , or at least made marks for their mighty and sharp arrows , even bitter words . but , god be thanked , you do not finde any enormous crimes laid to any of their charge : and for any thing yet appeareth , they may all be as good saints , as the best of the new congregations . for the worst god blesse me from comparing with them . narrat . m. powell said , he might choose any other in his stead . but they urged an end , animad . this passage is not remembred neither by diverse who were present , and would gladly have embraced the opportunity to take up the cudgels against m. powell and his brethren : and i am told , that assoon as the doctors back was turned , there went a young man to one of the bench , and challenged him to try his skill at the same weapon , but was refused . nar. nay , said m. powell we have said nothing for our ministers , gifted men , separation , we desire you to stay . as for the ministers it was declared how they were gifted , elected , approved . animad . truly ye had said as much as comes to nothing all the while . and nothing can be remembred , that you say was declared for the ministers . all i understood was what m. powell declared for himself , viz. in the way of his calling . he had somewhat from the bishop ; afterward he received imposition of hands with fasting and prayer by a presbytery in london ( so m. powel is an episcopall presbyter as well as the doctor , and there is some hopes they may agree in time , when this youthfull heat is a little over ) by them he was sent to the assembly of divines for approbation ( by your favour , if it were so , the course was a little preposterous . for examination and approbation should regularly go before ordination . ) and lastly allowed he was by the parliament . the doctor took his word for his own story . as for any other ministers , how they were gifted , elected , approved , there was not a word spoken , as either i or any of my acquaintance that were present can remember . whereby the reader may observe how m. powell declined wholly both parts of his first comparative question , alledging nothing against the ministery he hath so so long traduced , and for amends making his own in nothing different from it : and in that case he might well expect to meet no opposition from sober men . narrat . as for the gifted men , they were sent forth upon triall . animad . it may be so ; the doctor never troubled himself to enquire after them , neither who they were , nor yet how gifted . it may be , you mean , the smith , weaver , capper , souldier , &c. that are sent about , and well rewarded , to try what they can propagate . of them there was no more said in effect but this . m. powell asked , whether it might not be lawfull for a man unordained to preach for triall . it was answered that it was : and it was usual both in the universities , and before other governours of the church . ye● , i have known a bishop , and he is still living , that would not be induced to lay hands on any stranger , before he had heard him preach . but then the doctor asked mr. powell , how long they were to be probationers ; how many sermons would be sufficient for triall , and who to judge ; or to that effect . to which he received no answer . the tradesmen i now mentioned , have been these two or three years upon their triall , as it seemeth , and are likely to be longer yet for all i know . narrat . severall scriptures were urged for separation , and how they were necessitated to separate by reason of persecution and corruption in those times . anim. it is not urging scriptures that will serve the turn ( never any heretick so desperate , but could make a shift to do so ) but proving by scripture , that vindicateth truths , and makes them credible . you would have the world beleeve you did so . but it appeareth partly by your own difference , that it was otherwise . for if it had been so , it would have bin well worth your labour , to have acquainted the reader with the particular texts , how applied to the matter in hand , and how answered ; which because you have wholly omitted ( such is your exactnesse ) give me leave briefly to supply . the first scripture urged was , num v. . or . it is not much materiall whether . to which the doctor answered immediately , that that scripture was nothing at all to the purpose which mr. powell alleadged it for ; being a peculiar case , wherein the lord in an extraordinary dispensation gave a speciall command to the innocent part of the congregation to separate from the rest , to the end he might execute his justice in an exemplary unusuall way upon the guilty , in that very instant . by opening the story , he shewed the hainousnesse of the sin , the greatnesse of gods displeasure against it , and the extraordinary judgement thereupon : and that extraordinary occasionall commands of god to that people are not to be drawn into example by us . and for this particular the jews case and mr. powel's were in no circumstance alike . mr. powell said nothing to the contrary , but went on to another scripture ; and that was cor. , . with such a one no not to eat . the dr. being weary of standing in the heat of their impertinencies , staid not to presse him to apply the text , or form his argument out of it ; but presently answered , that that scripture was nothing to their purpose of separation neither ; as might plainly appear by the scope and sense of the whole chapter ; wherein the apostle first proposeth the case of the incestuous person , then blameth the corinthians for what they did in that behalf ; directeth them to proceed to censure against him , to excommunicate him ; giveth the use and reasons of his command , and extendeth the discipline to other scandalous offendors also , adulterers , railers , covetous , extortioners , &c. such also are to be excommunicated according to the expresse command , v. . put away the wicked person from among you . this scripture speaketh of the censure of the church , not of gathering congregations ; of putting away corrupt members from the church , not of gathering a church of severall congregations . this being said , mr. powell made no reply ; but went on to a third place of scripture . . tim. . . from such turn away . the dr. presently told him , . that the relative such was to be referred to all the sorts of sinners , whereof the foregoing verses gave a catalogue ( and the moderator said they were nineteen in number ) and desired to know whom mr. powell charged to be so guilty . . the charge there to timothy , a governour of the church , is but turn away , which is a signe of dislike or displeasure ; a command to shew no countenance to such , but reprove them rather . not to leave his station , and to go and gather a new church , but ( if the force of the word must be extended further ) to turn such out of the church , as he was invested with power , being a bishop , so to do . mr. powell replied , the doctor said rightly , that the word , such , was to be referred to all that went before . and then he went on to another place of scripture . acts . . the dr. without looking on any book all the while , told him , that text answered it self by the circumstances . the apostles case and theirs was nothing alike : the apostle had to do there with hardned , blaspheming jews , and idolatrous heathen , infidels , that set themselves against the name of christ , and profession of christianity , to persecute it . it was time for him to separate and be gone , when it was not safe to stay any longer . then mr. powell replied , this justifieth my separation , for i was persecuted ( i do not well remember how long since ) . the doctor answered , he was able to say nothing to things he knew nothing of heretofore . for the present , god be thanked they had no such cause to complain . master powell then took occasion to acquaint the company with an affront a gifted brother met with lately at dolgelly in merionethshire , neer thirty miles off : he was violently plucked out of the pulpit , and his blood drawne . this was news to the most part of the company . but since i hear , the man was an unordained tradesman , sent forth it should seem for triall ; and this was part of it . and this is all that was alledged for necessity of separation in case of persecution . and this is all the commotion in wales , as i beleeve , spoken of in the beginning of the diurnall . they want some pretence to bring the souldiery againe amongst us . narrat . when the dr and moderator perceived how all things were , they had nothing to say against him , and were quite silent . anim. you should have considered , that the doctor and moderator came not there to oppose , but answer ; and that they had done ; and expected either further opposition , or liberty to be gone . the dr. might well be silent , being grown so hoarse , that his voice was hardly audible . the dr. faith indeed , he had a purpose to have concluded with a short speech to the company , recollecting the passages ; but wanting voice to do it , he turned away in silence ; leaving the reader now to do it for him . narrat . there was nothing intended against the godly ministers of england , nor their people , though of differing judgements . animad . no , what say you to the dr. and his people ? are they not godly ? or was there nothing here intended against them ? speak the truth , or eat these words again , or give your selves the lye . the time was , when the commissioners for the propagation of the gospel gave the doctor this testimony , tanquam à tripode ( i meane the chaire man in the name of the rest ) that he was a man without exception , and somewhat more , which is not here so pertinent to relate . and for point of difference in judgement , master powell expressed himself more then ordinarily charitable , saying he was perswaded that many that dissented from him in opinion , of severall professions , some papists also , might be saved . what was done by the other party after their departure , it cannot be expected that the doctor or any of his company should give any accompt . i was told indeed , i cannot say how truly , that a young man of master powel's company drew some people after him to the side of the common ; and there inveighed against learning and all such as professe it , doctors and others . it may be , it was not so : but if it were , it is no news amongst them . the doctor was told beforehand by a knowing friend , what would be the issue of this businesse ; and he himself professed he expected no other , but such indeavours to blast his credit , as are here used in this narrative : well knowing that what luther applied unto himself , is indeed every good mans case . hos scio pro certo , quod dum cum stercore certo , vinco seu vincor , semper ego maculor . this for a truth i apprehend , whil'st with a t — i do contend , prevaile i , or prevaile i not , i am sure to take a spot . i am confident the doctor will give me little thanks for my poetry , who delighteth not in recriminations , although interpretative . and it is too apparently known whence all the dirt is taken up , which they have endeavoured to fling in his face , even from the sink of their own corruption . so farewell master narrative : and learn to be more faithfull and exact in your relation of the next dispute . finis . animadversions on a late paper entituled, a letter to a dissenter upon occasion of his majesties late gracious declaration of indulgence by h.c. care, henry, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; 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(eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) animadversions on a late paper entituled, a letter to a dissenter upon occasion of his majesties late gracious declaration of indulgence by h.c. care, henry, - . p. printed for john harris ..., london : . attributed to henry care. cf. bm. reproduction of original in huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng halifax, george savile, -- marquis of, - . -- letter to a dissenter. dissenters, religious -- england. great britain -- history -- james ii, - . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - taryn hakala sampled and proofread - taryn hakala text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion animadversions on a late paper , entituled , a letter to a dissenter upon occasion of his majesties late gracious declaration of indulgence . by h. c. london , printed for john harris , at the harrow against the church in the poultrey , mdclxxxvii . animadversions on a late paper , entituled , a letter to a dissenter , &c. what severities towards the persons , what havock and devastations on the goods and estates of peaceable english men , have some years past been practised by strained interpretations , and a rigorous execution of the several penal laws , is sure too late to be forgot by the sufferers , too notorious to be denied by the actors . during this storm the dissenters of all sorts filled earth and heaven with loud and mournful complaints , both of the iniquity of those laws , and the persecution they thereby suffered ; which was become so intolerable , that many actually transported themselves to forreign parts ; multitudes more , out of a sense of their present hard usage , or just apprehension of further prosecutions , were upon the wing ready to fly at the first opportunity to the remotest desarts , chusing by a voluntary banishment from their native country to expose themselves to all hazards abroad , rather than continue under those evils which they either felt or feared at home . and as oppression is apt to make even wise men mad , not a few distracted with these frightful idea's , suffered themselves to be embarqu'd in designs no less unwarrantable in their own nature , than destructive in the event . in the height of this consternation , and when no interest but that of his majties own princely generosity and the publick - weal , could necessitate him to it ( the western rebellion being crush't and all his enemies at his feet ) the king was pleased to publish his healing declaration for a general liberty of conscience , together with the grounds and reasons inducing him thereunto ; it being no sudden or occasional overture to serve a present turn , but the well-weigh'd and long-confirmed result of his royal judgment , which as he had many years ago declared on sundry occasions , so 't is not unknown to whom we owe the retarding thereof so long , and consequently all the disasters attending that unhappy obstruction . by this gracious declaration , as his majesty did freely and fully ease all his nonconforming subjects from those pressures under which they had groaned for so many years , and put them into an equal capacity with the rest of their fellow-subjects , to serve his majesty and their countrey , without violating their consciences , ( a natural birth-rightpriviledg , which they were before debarr'd of ) so he particularly expressed his kindness to that party who call themselves , the church of england , by his royal assurance , that they should without any molestation , fully enjoy all their possessions , as well as the free exercise of their religion . now who that considers men as acting like rational creatures , could have imagined but such a very gracious procedure , would have obliged all his majesties subjects to a most joyful resentment of so vast a favour ? who would not have thought that the church-men ( who seemed to value themselves upon nothing more than their steady loyalty , and intire passive obedience ) should have been extreamly pleased , that their prince , though himself of a different communion , was so far from putting them on the practice of that uneasy vertue , as on the contrary he vouchsafed so peculiar a regard of them , as to continue them in the figure of the national church , and sure enjoyment of all their former advantages , except that unaccountable one of forcing all others , ( altho by destructive means , and dangerous to the publick repose ) to conform to their particular schemes , which yet themselves own to be indifferent . at worst , if they could be supposed capable of such an unreasonable peevishness , as not to be satisfied , because their nails were pared , and they could not scratch their neighbours so as heretofore ; yet it could not be doubted but all the dissenters of whatever denomination , would with the highest gratitude receive such an indearing indulgence ; the rather because his majesty not only assured them of it for his own reign , but engaged to do his part for continuing it to their posterity . but as what is offered with the right hand is not seldom received with the left ; and the best actions frequently happen to be traduced by the sinister interpretations of those that postpone the publique tranquillity to their own pettish humours , little self-interests , or perhaps only silly vanity of appearing more sagacious at the politicks than their neighbours . no sooner was this incomparable declaration emitted , but some rigid churchmen vext by a spirit of pride to think that their power of domineering should be in the least abbridged ; and gaul'd with envy to behold dissenters admitted to any degree of royal favour ( which they hop'd to engross wholly to themselves ) studying likewise by some wheadling artifice to manage the dissenters so , as that they should expose themselves to his majesties just displeasure , as a sort of savage animals , that like tygers can never be rendred tame ; men that would not be quiet under any government , but like trouts must be always swimming against the stream ; people without conscience , reason or common sence ; whom no kindness could reclaim , no clemency oblige ( for in such hideous characters they always represented them ; ) and withal designing that the rods which themselves had both procured , and so mischievously made use of , might still be reserved in lavender for a more opportune juncture , in order to smarter lashes on all that will not truckle to whatever ceremonies their reverencies should think fit to impose . upon these and such like motives , i say , a strange sullen murmur , and grouling humour has ever since possess'd most of the violent church-men , to repine at or reproach his majesties proceedings , to incense or amuse the people with fears and jealousies , and especially to cajole the dissenters not to regard this indulgence with that respect they ought to do , or at least to discourage them from contributing their share towards rendring it perpetual . to reach these ends , the malecontents aforesaid have had their clubs , and cabals , and little associations acted by united councils , not altogether perhaps uninfluenced by foreign correspondencies ( as 't is said , they had once heretofore on somewhat alike occasion ) with some that have found liberty of conscience , too advantagious a plant to themselves , to suffer it , by their good wills , to thrive any where else . the high-flown church-men have endeavoured to affright such honest country gentlemen , as they thought bigotted to their establishment , with outcries , that this indulgence will certainly blow up the church of england , and then good-night to the protestant religion , and so farewel to all their abbey-lands . on the other side the latitudinarian divines , as being for their reported moderation of greatest credit and interest among the non-cons , have been inveigled by specious pretensions , to amuse and bug-bear the dissenters with a noise of the snake in the grass ; that the constitution of england was unhoop'd , all the laws of civil property shaken , by the king 's dispensing with the penalties of these irreligious religious ones ; that this indulgence was only a scaffolding erected for the building up of popery , which would be thrown down as soon as the intended structure was compleat , &c. these insinuations were managed at first with caution , till having ( as they thought ) by private whispers sufficiently prepossess'd their own party , and created preparative jealousies amongst others ; to crown the work , out comes a paper , called a letter to a dissenter , &c. wherein all that wit or malice would rake together , to invenom mens minds with false impressions , is muster'd up , and boldly published to the world. no sooner was the press delivered in hugger-mugger of this hopeful brat , but many grave dons ( appointed for that cue ) stood ready to admire and recommend its charming features : industriously were the papers spread , ( and some crape gowns appeared so fond of promoting it , as if they had a mind to play the interlopers on the hawkers ) printed it was more than once or twice , and at last in a single sheet for conveniency of postage , that no corner of the land might be unattempted by this excellent specimen of the church of england's loyalty . as for the author , since he is so kind to himself , as to play bo-peep with the publick , under the mask of a couple of letters only , i am not solicitous to enquire after either the quality or habitation of a certain uncertain t. w. whom perhaps i am never like to find ; not did i certainly know the gentleman , should i descend to personal reflections , how obnoxious soever he might happen to be to them ; that is a base and sneaking practice used only by such as thereby confess themselves over-match'd in the argument . for this reason too , i shall not qualify the paper with any harsh epethites ; whether it fall within the statute of false news , or without it ; whether it should be called libellous or seditious , or somewhat worse , are questions that belong not at all to my province . that which i apprehended my duty ( both as a disinterested honest man , a good subject , a hearty lover of the future peace of my country , and a sincere professor of , and well-wisher to the protestant religion , that it may be established on such a foot as may for ever preserve it free , both from the danger of being persecuted , and the scandal of persecuting any others ) was to consider the purport and end of this writer , atd the reasons he offers ; and since these , to the best of my understanding , appear repugnant to all those obligations , i hope i may be allowed to offer my conception thereupon without any just offence ; to antidote the unwary against those mischievous notions , which i conceive he would instil into their minds , under the flourishes of a gaudy rhetorick . for it must be acknowledged , that this pamphlet is wrote with a great deal of art , full of pert sallies of wit , and gay language , plausible expressions of kindness , and a stile altogether accommodated to amuse and inveigle ; but for strict truth , or solid arguments , the author has been pleased to dispense with his readers expectations . to premise thus much , i thought not altogether impertinent , that the state of the case being rightly apprehended , we might have done the sooner , and the reader , if he please to divest himself for a while of prejudice and partial affections , may be the better enabled to judg of what is offered on either side : and so let us come to the matter . here 's a letter from some body to a dissenter — very good ! what has the illustrious unknown t. w. to say to his humble dissenting servant ? why truly , after an envious reflection on the late addresses in general , and a fine-spuninsinuating banter , he has a pair of advices to communicate to him : . that he must suspect his new friends . . that he must not hazard the publick safety , neither by desire of ease , nor of revenge . to the first we can give no categorical answer till we better understand his meaning , which i shall enqire after by and by : but as for the last , i hope there is no dissenter in england but was before fully convinced that it was his duty ; and so the gentleman might have spared the pains of his elaborate letter in that respect . but he has also some news to tell him , viz. that the papists ; always make their first court-ship to the church of england ; that they are not in their hearts so fond of the dissenters , as to their principles , but civil to them , in regard their interests at this juncture happen to unite in aliquo tertio , viz. a repeal of the penal laws , under which they have both smarted , and are in danger to do so again ; and that therefore one reason ( and perhaps with many , the only reason ) why they are content to allow them liberty , is because they would thereby get a little for themselves and their posterity . having made these wonderful discoveries , our author proceeds to open his budget full of supposals , mixt with known falshoods , and thence conjures up a parcel of horrid inferences , and upon the whole concludes , that we had as good be down-right atheists , as consent to part with the penal laws ; — and so he is , dear sir , your most affectionate humble servant . this is the sum and substance of the pamphlet , when stript of its top-knots and gallantry ; and were not vulgar ears more open to rhetorick than logick , there need no more be said to expose its shallowness and vanity ; but since the trifle is become so celebrated , i shall briefly overhaul the particulars . his first instruction to dissenters is , that they have cause to suspect their new friends ; and have they none to suspect their old enemies ? the truth is , the dissenters would gladly be friends with all their fellow-subjects , that there might be an union in affections , and all the mutual offices of justice and humanity , tho under different apprehensions about matters of religion ; nor can they so much as guess at any expedient able to accomplish that glorious end , viz. to render both governours and people easy and safe , by extirpating the otherwise perpetual feuds and fears , each party much needs entertain against the other ( those infernal winds which so often have raised storms , and more than once ship-wrack'd civil states . ) and in a word , to give god and caesar each his due ; unless it be by a total abolishment of those penal laws ( that have hitherto obstructed all these blessings ) and establishing liberty of conscience on so firm a legal basis , that it shall not be in the power ( how violent soever the inclination may be ) of any one party to invade the immunities of the rest . but this will not answer our authors end ; 't is too plainly evident by this affected term of new friends , which runs through all his paper , he principally means the king ; who indeed has been the best friend the dissenters ever had on this side heaven ; and yet some people are so prodigiously ungrateful as to persuade them not to thank him for 't . but if we must always mistrust new friendships ; then we must not credit the very late pretensions on behalf of the church of england , that she is sorry for her past rigours , or will be more kind for the future : with what forehead does this gentleman urge us to suspect the solemn repeated promises of our soveraign and yet at the same time expect we should take his bare word , who neither gives us his own name , nor produces any commission from that church , for what he undertakes in hers ? but why must we needs suspect our king ? is it because amongst the many royal qualities he is invested with ; a punctual veracity , and generous disdain of all little tricking dissembling arts , has been signally remarkable ? no it is , because the church of rome cannot by her principles allow liberty to hereticks ; and because the men of taunton and tiverton are on a sudden grown eminent for loyalty ; and because the quakers give the king thanks with a boon grace : — worthy reasons ! but let 's examine them apart . as for the first , our author exaggerates it with his usual floridness thus , p. . this alliance between liberty and infallibility is bringing together the two most contrary things that are in the world. the church of rome doth not only dislike the allowing liberty , but by its principles it cannot do it . wine is not more expresly forbidden to the mahumetans , than giving hereticks liberty to the papists . they are no more able to make good their vows to you , than men married before , and their wife alive , can confirm their contract with another . the continuance of their kindness would be a habit of sin , of which they are to repent , and their absolution is to be had upon no other terms , than their promise to destroy you : — thus he. and because 't is a popular argument frequently made use of , i shall endeavour to give it a full answer . . what the church of rome's principles are , or what by them she can , or cannot do , i shall not here take upon me to determine ; for many of her principles are very abstruse , even this of infallibility , she has not been pleased to determine where and in whom particularly it resides ; and she can do great things , as for example ( if i am not * misinformed ) she offered once to allow of our common-prayer-book , and that i hope you 'l say was kindly done of her . nor do i see any such necessary contrariety between infallibility and liberty ; for though a man should think himself infallible , ( if any can in good earnest think so ) it does not follow , that he must beat , spoil or kill all that will not own such his assumed infallibility ; at least liberty and infallibility may agree , as well as we find by woful experience conformity hath done with nonconformity ; and if dissenters must be persecuted , 't is much alike to them , whether it be by a fellow-protestant or a papist's hand ; only the former , act somewhat the more absurdly in imposing on others , since they confess they may perhaps be in the wrong themselves . . but however these things may happen to be , 't is plain the gentleman does not here argue a propos ; for we have nothing to do with the church of rome , she is no party to the transaction : the dissenters have never that i know of , entred into any treaty about reconciliation with her in principles , whatever others have been nibbling at . our concern lies with a prince , our natural soveraign , who altho he be of that communion , has solemnly avowed to all the world , that it has been , and is his constant sense and opinion , that conscience ought not to be constrained , nor people forced in matters of meer religion . in pursuance of which principle , his majesty has at present restrained the execution of the penal laws and assured the dissenters that they shall enjoy the same ease during his reign ; and that he would be ready to contribute his part toward rendring the same perpetual , both by repealing those laws , and confirming the right of free exercise of religious worship , and securing by law such a settled and permanent freedom of conscience from being invaded by any party whatsoever for the future . the question is , whether the dissenters ought not thankfully to embrace his majesties most gracious offer herein , and not be wanting on their part towards bringing it to effect ? to which i should answer affirmatively , and take it to be their true interest and only preservative . for , . how far soever the church of rome's pretensions to infallibility , or her aversion to those she calls hereticks may extend , we find in fact , that it does not render all her members so extravagant as to venture on impossibilities , and act contrary to their own apparent interest ; quia desunt vires is allowed by their hottest casuists , a sufficient ground for tolerating hereticks ; else every one of her sons should be obliged under pain of damnation to run a muck against all mankind that differ from her ; whereas we see many places , where both papists and protestants live very quietly together , and that there have been and are princes of the roman creed that have and do tolerate different religions , without esteeming themselves ever the worse catholicks ; nor does the pope venture to excommunicate them on that account . i doubt not but those of the protestant cantons in switzerland believe as much as any of our dissenters that there is idolatry in the church of rome ; and there is no question but those of the popish cantons believe the other to be rank hereticks , yet they both in a friendly manner coalesce into one and the same republick , and live quietly together for their mutual preservation ; neither the miscall'd heretick thinking himself bound to invade the civil rights of the supposed idolater ; nor the imagined idolater once dreaming that he can never go to heaven , without a promise to destroy his neighbour , because he fancies him to be an heretick . nor do the roman catholicks of the vnited provinces ( whose numbers are not inconsiderable ) esteem themselves bound to cut their compatriots throats , but on the contrary have as vigorously as any drawn their swords ( even though against the most catholick king ) in defence of their common liberties . by all these and many other like instances that might be given , it appears that roman-catholicks , notwithstanding their principles , can sometimes live very sociably with protestants , where their common safety and interest requires it ; and that this is their case in england , shall presently be shewn . but in the mean time , this may serve in some measure to answer and take off that vulgar reproach now commonly thrown at dissenters , that they joyn with papists to set up popery , by destroying the church of england ; of which charge neither branch is true ; they joyn not with papists to set up , but rather to keep down popery , and not to destroy the ch. of england , but rather to establish it upon firm and lasting grounds ; to give every party their right in an uninterrupted freedom of conscience , and prevent any of them from using violence to the other . to joyn with people of another persuasion in a certain respect where our several interests happen to unite , may be done without the just scandal of favouring their opinions , so when the pope expostulated with cardinal d' ossat ambassador from king henry the th of france , that his master had entred into an alliance with the dutch , who were hereticks , to the danger of the church ; that most prudent minister of state replied , that his holiness need not wonder how in reason of state those of different religions might joyn together for political ends , without hazard of altering religion ; thus david sought protection of the philistines , and abraham redeemed the sinful sodomites ; that he took it to be upon the same ground , that his holiness himself not long before received a persian ambassador , who was so far worse than an heretick , that he never pretended to the name of a christian . — with which reason the pope was pleased to acquiesce . whatever principles bigotted people may have advanc'd , wise princes have , and always will endeavour to act according to reasons of state and their true interest . the poets tell us , that the gods esteemed themselves obliged by no oath , but when they swore by stix : the judicious bacon mythologizes it thus , that though some princes scorn to be slaves to their words , yet when their interest runs parallel with their promises , you may rely upon their performance . to remove our suspicions in this case , we have not only the greatest verbal assurances that can be given from the most steady and generous of princes , but also the concurrence of his interest , together with that of all those of his communion . it is his interest , as to begin , so to continue liberty of conscience ; as it allays animosities , secures his own peace , encreases people , augments trade , advances his royal revenue . and to settle it upon an impregnable foot , seems the greatest kindness he can do those of his own persuasion ; to give them any encouragement to hope further , will certainly embroil his affairs , and in the end may probably occasion some great disaster on that party ; they being at most not much above one in sixty , nay perhaps not one in a hundred , ( for i conceive our author may too much under-calculate , when he makes them but one in two hundred ) in number compared with the rest of his subjects ; the force of which over-proportion is also much augmented by their inbred aversion to popery , than which nothing can be more visible throughout the nation ; whereunto add that the next heirs in prospect are both protestants , and bestowed in protestant alliances , which must needs unravel all the web , and perhaps before it may be compleatly woven . so that if any of the warmer religious orders should think of pushing on any present advantages , so far as to make theirs the national religion ; as they are most unlikely to succeed in such a rash attempt , so the nobility and gentry of their party , and all that have estates ( who must ride out any contingent storm and stand at mark , whilst others may retreat to safe covert abroad ) cannot be so dull as not to foresee that whether they fail or prosper at present , they must certainly expect to pay for it severely hereafter , and they cannot tell how soon , therefore will undoubtedly be cautious of countenancing any such precipitate measures ; but rather being content with the liberty of their own consciences and enjoyment of their natural priviledges in common with their fellow-subjects will adjoyn their endeavours towards transmitting that ease and happiness to their posterity , upon so comprehensive a foundation , that it shall be the general interest of the nation to perpetuate it . it may therefore upon the whole matter , be most reasonably , as it ought most dutifully be believ'd , that his majesty's reiterated promises deserve our entire confidence ; that a prince so wise and generous will not expose both his own ease and grandeur , the repose of his realms , the honour of his name , nay the honour of his religion , together with the future safety of all that profess it in these realms , to such inevitable hazards ; but rather that he intends ( as he has frankly declared ) no more than to make his reign easy to himself , and all his people , to leave those of his own perswasion ( as well as others ) in a condition less burdensom than for some reigns past ; and by these sweet and gentle methods at once secure the future tranquillity of his kingdoms , and raise a perpetual monument of his own wisdom and clemency , whereunto his great experience as well as natural goodness do dispose him ; the past example of a mighty monarchy reduced to a great declension chiefly by the maxims of an over-zealous fierceness ; or that more modern and terrible one of another ( the consequences of which may perhaps be foreseen without consulting astrology ) are no very inviting precedents for a prudent prince to follow ; especially when the difficulties here are so much more insuperable than they were in either of them . but after all this very question , whether we shall trust or suspect , is in truth impertinent , and has no room in our present case . his majesty , though he well deserves , is yet so gracious as not to require our confidence gratis , he offers a legal establishment of our common religious freedom ; you shall have at the same instant as good security as can be devised , provided terms be not insisted on , that are naturally repugnant to that liberty intended to be confirmed ; for if it be not general , it cannot be effectual ; but by a general security equally including all parties , the fears and jealousies of each must vanish , and their several interests concentre to continue inviolable : for whatever may be the desires and inclinations of roman catholicks , 't is certainly their interest to secure themselves with the multitude ; and if it prove a security to them , 't is so to others : if not to others , it will likewise fail them when they may need it ; therefore they are as much concern'd as any , to make a sound provision . that which defends the whole , preserves every part ; but a partial security is imperfect and dangerous . as to the particulars , or modalities of such security , 't is the work of the great council of the kingdom : and as it would be a sawcy vanity for a private person to prescribe , so it can be no less presumption in any to say , that the wisdom of the nation can find no expedients instead of the tests , which without being ( like them ) appropriated to the interest of a single party , or invading mens civil rights or priviledges for matters of conscience ( as they do ) may yet no less , nay more effectually prevent all apprehensions of any one parties over-running the rest . if laws be no security , then the controverted laws and tests are none : if they be , then why may not another legal provision , better , because more comprehensive , and founded on more equal and reasonable principles , secure us all as well as those ? these reasonings to my mean apprension , seem not inconsiderable ; but the whole is with all deference submitted to the consummated prudence of his majesty and his two houses of parliament , when he shall think fit to convene them . the letter-writer's next suggestion why we ought to distrust , is , because sudden changes are not natural , and how miraculous a thing it is , that the men of taunton and tiverton should now be above all other eminent for loyalty . — good sir ! either cease , or encrease your astonishment ; there are other strange violent metamorphoses abroad , altogether as surprising ; the old declaimers against fears and jealousies become the busiest promoters of them ; the former magnifiers of prerogative swagger for magna charta ; they that have an hundred times avowed , that they had rather be papists than presbyterians ; they that have spent their best breath for more than twenty years in invectives against dissenters , and promoted the most violent prosecutions against them , as often as the government did not restrain them , are now ( if your news pag. . be true ) overflowing with the spirit of peace , charity and condescension . and all their former haughtiness is for ever extinguished . this is certainly a sudden unexpected change , and therefore we are inclinable to take your advice pag. . and pause a while before we believe it ; for since we are satisfied our features are not altered , we are apt to conclude , neither is your opinion of us , whatever may be pretended . we forget not the affairs of taunton and tiverton , and could say there were more than dissenters concern'd ; but suppose them such , were it not the severities which they had already suffered from the church of england , and those more astonishing ones , they were made believe they must unavoidably encount●r under a roman-catholick prince ( the very thing continued to be insinuated in this paper ) that plung'd and hurried them into that desperate defection ? and when by his majesties gracious declaration they were secur'd from those dismal apprehensions , could less be expected than that returning to their duties , they should express themselves eminent for loyalty ? is it any wonder that the cause ceasing , the effect should also cease ? or can we think that gospel-saying a paradox , that those to whom much has been forgiven , should love much ? let us not flatter our selves , or calumniate others ; rebellion and loyalty ( as one has well observ'd ) subsist not so much in parties as persons ; good , that is , true christian principles , are excellent qualifications to advance the peace of civil government : but since the majority of those that profess them , rarely walk up to those self-denying rules ; if we turn over histories , and survey the transactions of the world , 't will appear that the interest of societies is that which generally secures their obedience . that government which protects most , and leaves fewest uneasy , being likely to be freest from discontents , and consequently from disturbance ; for when all is done , the magistrate that protects and ch●rishes any sort of people in his dominions , may justly require their service , and safely rely upon their obedience ; but if he persecute them , whether papists , church of england-protestants , or dissenters , though perhaps he may violently force many of them to an outward compliance , yet he can never prudently rest upon their affections . as for the quakers ( on whom our facetious author is pleased to exercise his merry vein ) if any have been so censorious as to declare them not to be christians , yet they themselves profess the contrary , and have patiently undergone sufferings equal at least with any other party , to make good their claim to that title , however they are men , and on that score , leading peaceable inoffensive lives , ought to be free from persecutions , or being compelled by outward force to a religion that can only be propagated and entertain'd by love ; and also , if they deserve it , may be made use of , and preferred in civil matters as well as others ; since we , and i think most other nations of the christian name refuse not to suffer jews to live quietly amongst us , notwithstanding they are open denyers of our ever blessed saviour . hitherto we find this author's arguments of no force to persuade us to abandon our interest and duty , which are both inseparably wound up in our lawful endeavours to get the penal laws repeal'd . — but if he cannot delude us with sophistry , he will affright us with mormo's and hobgoblins ; give him leave but to suppose for you , & then if you do not runout of your wits , he pronounces your courage too dangerous a virtue to be commended . but as he offers no proofs for his supposals , so they are founded neither on truth nor probability . he imagines some criminal alliance between the roman catholicks and dissenters , when there is nothing more than a joint concurrence ( prompted by their common interest , and justified by the first principles of religion , reason , and policy ) to remove unwarrantable and oppressive shackles upon conscience , and withal at the same time advance such a legal establishment as may secure , not only themselves , but all others too , in their rights , both as men and christians . and what need was there of any mediators armed with power of giving encouragements and rewards to induce men to such an innocent undertaking , no less advantagious to all others ( nay more to the church-men ) than themselves ? as part of this alliance or an effect thereof , 't is plain , he reckons the dissenters returning of thanks to his majesty for his declaration of indulgence , and then at once to cast an insolent reflection on his majesty , or his ministers of state , and to expose the dissenting ministers as mercinaries , such as act not upon principles of conscience or honour , but may easily be drawn by a little money to any lewd compliance , although to the ruin of the protestant religion , and subversion of all our municipal laws , and the very constitution of our english government , ( for elsewhere he brands addressing with no less mischievous tendencies , see pag. . & . ) he proceeds to advance two most scandalous charges . the first , pag. . by way of suggestion , as if some ( formerly implied in a like negotiation ) had now by authority , sprinkled mony among the dissenting ministers . the other , pag. . in a positive affirmation , that the first draughts of the addresses ( he speaks generally , that fly abroad every week , and with an air of scorn and malice , — murther us with another to the same ) are made by the priests [ which cannot otherwise be meant than of roman priests ] and that the dissenters part is only to write them out fairer . — [ his kindness it seems will allow them to be the better scribes , tho such dunces as not able to express their own thoughts so well as certain invisible fathers who know nothing of them . ] now if both these , be ( as i dare , with all assurance , averr , they are ) utterly false , then i hope the world will partly understand the temper of the writer , and design of his paper , and entertain both with that abhorrence , due to one that regards neither respect to his prince , nor justice towards his neighbours , nor any measures either of charity or truth or common honesty ; so he may but reach his ends , of dividing the dissenters amongst themselves , and exposing them all to the contempt and hatred of others ; fomenting misapprehensions and jealousies , thereby to frame an engine both for their ruin , and for continuing the exorbitant power of that party for whom he is an advocate . but how do we demonstrate that there is no truth in the particulars he hints at ? i confess it is impossible apodictically to prove such an universal negative ; but if offering as much towards it as the nature of the thing will bear , may be sufficient , i doubt not but to satisfy all the impartial world. . the manner of our author 's talking , argues a consciousness of guilt , and has all the natural features of a libel ; nothing asserted , but blind hints , and innuendo's thrown out ; baits fair enough to catch gudgeons , and make them swallow the calumny ; but yet so cautiously worded , as to secure a retreat when taxed with down-right slander . his hypothesis he thought , might amuse , but where is his assumption that should prove ? if those men that formerly sprinkled mony amongst the dissenting ministers , should ( says he ) by the same avthority now do the like , and disburse where they cannot otherwise persuade . — he ought to have added ; — but those very men have now done the same , — which being proved , and not till then , he might have inferred ( as he does ) that is seems rather an evidence than a presumption of the deceit ; whereas now , his discourse is a rope of incoherent sand , and may thus , and much better be retorted , — if this author have only dreamed , or invidiously forged this supposal , as is highly probable , because he produces no testimony for it , ( which in reason it must be thought he would have done , could he have procured any ) then 't is rather an evidence than presumption of deceit , and something else which i am not willing to express by its proper name . . this insinuation about sprinkling of mony consists of two parts : . that such a thing was once , and by authority too , done formerly , to the dissenting ministers . . the like again now by the very same men. — here we are left altogether in the dark when , or how long ago this formerly was ; but it seems 't was within memory , because by the same negotiators . now i do well remember , that dr. owen in the preface to a book , intituled , an enquiry &c. partly in answer to the reverend dr. stillingfleet's discourse of the unreasonableness of separation , printed anno , takes notice of a report then advanced , that the nonconformists some of them at least , do receive , or have received money from the papists to act their affairs , and promote their interest . and then he tells the world , that 't is such a malicious frontless lye as impudence it self would blush at , that those by whom it was first whispered probably understood better than the nonconformists what influence money , or the things which they knew how to turn into it , had into their profession and actings in religion ; whereunto he adds ( i had almost said prophetically ) these words , ☞ it seems to me that some such men are afraid , lest the present opposition unto popery should issue in such an establishment of the protestant religion , as that hereafter it should not be in the disposal of any , nor in their power to make a bargain of it , either for their advantage , or in their necessity . and a little after , speaking of dissenters , he says , however they may be traduced or accused , they will continue in giving the highest security that conscience , profession , principles , interest and actions can give of their stability in the same [ protestant ] cause ; only the desire to be excused , if they make not use of this notable engine for opposing of popery , namely , the stirring up of jealousies , fears and animosities amongst protestants , which others judge serviceable to that end. and in the next page , because i know my self herein peculiarly reflected on , i do avow , that never any one person in authority , dignity , or power in the nation , nor any one that had any relation unto publick affairs , nor any from them , papist or protestant , did once speak one word to me , or advise with me , about any indulgence or toleration to be granted unto papists ; i challenge all the world who are otherwise minded , to intermit their service for a season unto the great false accuser , and prove the contrary if they can ; the persons are sufficiently known of whom they may make their enquiry . thus that learned worthy man. — and can any body that knew him , judg that he would either in piety or prudence print at such a rate ( in a time when enow would have been ready to detect it ) , if what he so amply and earnestly denies , had in it any colour of truth ? yet since he remarks , it was at that time become a publick slander , 't is highly probable this was what our author would hint at , in the first branch of his supposition , if at least he thereby meant any thing , or had so much as any old baffled story whereon to ground the figment ; for , perhaps , we shall wrong the gentlemans invention , not to ascribe it altogether to his own teeming imagination . . non entis nullae sunt affectiones , if there were no such pecuniary sprinklings heretofore , then none now , according to the letter-writers own account , for he supposes the latter to be done by the same instruments , and in the same methods ; and so all his tattle about ministers who having fallen under such temptations , are engaged to continue their frailty , by the awe they are in , lest it should be exposed , &c. becomes insignificant . . if there were any such artifices of bribing ministers , or of having addresses penn'd by jesuits , or other popish priests , sent to dissenters whose part was only to copy , sign , and present them , it is most reasonable to believe , that such intrigues must be practised upon those that most early addressed , to the end others might be invited to follow . but so far is this from any resemblance of truth , that the first addressers in this kind , were so scrupulous as not to impart their intentions to any but those of their own communion , till the form was adjusted and agreed upon amongst themselves . and for the full detection of any such practices as are insinuated , i have commission from persons sufficiently able to answer such an engagement , to advertise and assure all the world , that if any person or persons can make appear either , that there was any money or moneys worth whatsoever , directly or indirectly , given , promised , or propounded to any of the persons that did first address , viz. that of the baptists , that of the presbyterians , or that of the congregational persuasion of london , to dispose them , or any of them , to make such address ; or that there was any draught or copy of any of the said addresses , or any part thereof ( drawn by any person or persons , other than some of those that subscribed the same respectively ) ever sent , shewn , or proposed to any of the subscribers , that then the person or persons making such discovery , shall , upon his or their application to the bookseller , whose name and habitation is hereunto prefix'd , receive directions where and of whom , he or they , and every of them making such discovery , may and shall ( besides most hearty thanks ) have , and be honestly and bonâ fide paid a reward of fifty pounds of lawful money of england . the rest of his supposals are of the same leaven both for truth and charity . who are those dissenters , and on what part of the globe do they dwell , ( for sure they must be antipodes to ours ) that preach up anger and vengeance against the church of england ? that are under a contract which obliges them upon a forfeiture to make use of inflaming eloquence ? that apprehend their wages would be retrench'd , if they should be moderate ? — quite contrary , they have , with a most christian moderation , so far overcome the resentments of their past hard usage , or present provocations , that they treat that church with all friendliness and respect ; but think they mean her no harm when they wish those dangerous weapons out of her hands , which she has so long indiscreetly made use of , only to ruine other innocent people , and stab her own reputation . does this sir politick t. w. or w. t. ( for some criticks think that the truer reading ) imagine liberty of conscience , or freedom to worship our creator in such manner as we are convinc'd to be most agreeable to his will , without being jailed or undone for the same ; and without being scarr'd by sever temporal penalties to joyn externally and hypocritically in a religious worship , which our consciences tell us is sinful ; does he , i say , conceit this noble priviledg , so cheap and vile a thing that none will appear for it but such as are either suborned with money , or have deserved to be hang'd ? is it not a pretty notion , and much becoming a statesman , that those who chiefly to assert liberty of conscience ( though in a very bad and irregular way ) incurr'd the want of a pardon , must after such pardon obtained , needs act against their consciences , if they offer to perswade any to endeavour the settling such liberty regularly in a legal course ? nor is his next politick squint less impertinent , as if one prince might not for reasons of state continue friendship with another , whose conduct in some particulars he highly disapproves ; nor know i how , in that case , he can more effectually declare such dislike , than by steering a direct contrary course himself . his noise of solliciting addresses , the tyring post-horses with circular letters , and threatning , where perswasions would not serve to procure them , is all but the product of a very bold imagination ; and he has been sufficiently challenged to give but one single instance . sure the gentleman is master of no great stock of gratitude at home , that he can think the whole nation so wondrous barren of it , on one of the most glorious occasions that ever were given for that good-natured vertue to display it self . rather than fa●● of advancing jealousies , he seems willing to contradict himself , as well as truth ; and both complains of the dissenters for their forwardness , and yet would have the world believe they were very backward in addressing — but still , wherein i pray , lies the harm of the thing it self , that either there should need such variety of artifices to draw in the unwilling ; or that can render them criminal that did with all ready zeal make those grateful acknowledgments ? this he undertakes to tell us , pag. . & . ( for i follow the first edition ) and the sum of his discourse amounts to neither more nor less than this . that the king's declaration for liberty of conscience was an irregvlar act [ very dutifully spoken ! ] therefore the dissenters ought not to have taken any notice of it , but to have forborn the publick exercise of their religion , till a parliament had allowed it [ which if he and his associates can help it , shall never be ] but since they did not only receive the benefit granted , but publickly return his majesty thanks for it , they thereby give a blow to all the laws by which their religion and liberty are to be protected , and fall foul upon magna charta [ which chapter of it i beseech you sir ? ] gave up their right in the laws ; for after giving thanks for the breach of one law , they lose the right of complaining of the breach of all the rest . this is sed news ! but as good luck would have it , there is not one article of it true ; for the kings's declaration was in it self , not only a very pious , prudent and gracious , but ( according to the antient constitution of this realm ) a most legal act. the dissenters had been the most inexcusably peevish people in the world , if they had not accepted of it , the most ungrateful if they had not thankfully acknowledged it , and will be the most stupid neglecters of their own interest , both religious and civil , if they do not exret all their endeavours towards having it established for posterity by a law. upon this occasion it may be expected , that i should enter into a long discourse in affirmance of his majesties right to dispense with coercive laws in matters of religion : but since that is already done by a far better hand in a just treatise ( which may possibly er'e long see the light ) i shall not actum agere , or inlay my copper with that noble author's gold ; but content my self to say in general , . that as it was the right of our english kings by the common law , so it has been confirmed to themby several statutes and they have accordingly exerted it time out of mind ; and particularly 't is reserved to the crown by the statute of car. cap. . for preventing and suppressing seditious conventicles , in these words , — ; provided , that neither this act , nor any thing therein contained , shall extend to invalidate or avoid his majesties supremacy in ecclesiastical affairs ; but that his majesty and his heirs and successors may from time to time , and at all times hereafter , exercise and enjoy all powers and authority in ecclesiastical affairs as fully and as amply as himself , or any of his predecessors have , or might have done the same ; any thing in this act notwithstanding . . as to what is alledged touching all other laws , being by this precedent shaken ; and that such as give thanks for the breach of one law , preclude themselves from complaining of the breach of all the rest ; because on the like ground the king may repeal any other statutes without common consent in parliament . — it may readily be answered ( besides what has been already pointed at in the foregoing graph ) that there is a great difference between repealing a law , and relaxing or dispensing with the penalty ; the first can only be done in parliament , the latter has been always adjudged to be part of the royal prerogative . for example , the law dooms every person convicted of burghlary or picking a pocket , to die : our kings have frequently in all times remitted the execution : was this ever thought to be a repeal of those laws ? or any infringment of all the rest ? and if it be so in civil cases , wherein the subject is concerned in the injury , and where the matter to be restrained by the laws , is not only malum prohibitum , but malum in se , not meerly evil , because forbidden , but forbidden because intrinsecally evil ; then ( a fortiori ) much more strongly it follows , that his majesty may suspend the execution of the penalties , which by these laws relating to ecclesiastical affairs , are inflicted on actions or defaults so far from being in themselves criminal , that a very great part of them are undoubtedly allow'd by the laws of god , nature , and reason . and so much the rather may his majesty exert this right , since these penal statutes generally in their preambles ( which are claves legum , the keys that open to us the occasion , and consequently the main scope and end of enacting them ) affirm that they were made for the security of the princes person , and to prevent treason , insurrections and sedition ; so that his majesty is principally and immediately concern'd therein ; and since he must be allowed the best judg of his own security , if he shall find that there is no need of putting such statutes in execution to that end ; but rather that the non-execution thereof will more conduce to his safety , and the publick repose ; and therefore thinks fit to supersede or forbear the exacting the penalties , where is the wrong ? to whom the injury ? so that hitherto neither was the king's declaration an irregular act , nor the dissenters thanking him for it any such desperate business as to make them forfeit their right in all other laws of their country ; but most true it is that whilst these church-driving laws stand in force , if the execution of them happen into some hands , we know by experience that there are a thousand very small matters , of which any one , by the dexterous management of the gentlemen of doctors commons , is enough not only to strip any man of his interest in the laws , but send his body to the gaol , and ( in their aprehension ) his soul to the devil to boot . and who can but blush to hear some people upbraid the romanists with that tenet , that faith is not to be kept with hereticks ( which yet they , with the highest asseverations , disclaim ) whilst at the same time , themselves would have so many laws kept on foot , that give opportunity to every villain to cheat any honest man , by taking advantage of his conscientious dissent in matters of religion , from the establish'd mode ; witness the pleading of excommunication in bar of a just action ; and the disablement o● so many to maintain any suit at law , or in equity , unless they first both receive the sacrament according to the usage of the church of england , and take the tests . but — parcius ista viris — the gentleman owns , that the church of england preserving too long the bitter ▪ taste of that vsage they had received in the times of our former confusions , sacrific'd their interest to their revenge . [ a great truth , i had almost said , the only one in his paper . ] but now ( quoth he ) they are sensible of their mistake , all their former haughtiness is for ever extinguish'd ; therefore you may securely trust them , that in the next parliament [ if you dissenters will be quiet and suffer them to carry elections as they please ] they will do you reason ; ay , and you shall have liberty , and the papists never a bit. is there any body that deserves not to wear a muckender , but must needs see through all this ? what better hopes can dissenters conceive of another parliament of bigotted church-men than of the last ? who were generally stanch that way . to go about to wheadle us with promises of liberty to protestants , but exclusive of romanists , is , at this time of day , such a palpable banter as only shews the contemptible opinion they have of the dissenters intellectuals . can it be imagined , that the king can ever pass it ? would it not be extravagant rudeness to offer it ? nay , have not they themselves already by their proxies made overtures to the direct contrary ? to pretend now , that they were only the instruments , not the authors of the late violences towards dissenters , as it exposes their prudence and honesty in the fact , so it manifests their insincerity in the excuse ; did they not by concert throughout the nation both in pulpits , prints , and practices , instigate and warrantize those outrages ? have we not seen them in person animating informers , and with their own hands in some places pulling down meeting-houses . nay so high had the inveterate venom swell'd , that even distressed foreign protestants felt part of its fury ; for by some of their good wills none of the poor ruinated hugenots , should have had any share of that noble charity which royal mercy had allow'd to be collected , and true english bounty plentifully contributed for their relief ; but they must notwithstanding starve , unless they would first conform to certain rituals , which either they did not understand , or else could not be supposed ( according to their education ) able in conscience to comply with , and so in flying one rape upon their souls , were dangerously exposed to another . yet notwithstanding all these too common and unwarrantable transports , it must be acknowledged , there were divers of the establish'd clergy who kept themselves free from that epidemical infection of the persecuting spirit , who did christianly interpose , and venture far in their endeavours to stem the impetuous torrent : the author of the several conformists pleas for the nonconformists ; the reverend protestant reconciler ; honest mr. b — lds , and probably more than i have met with , did publickly appear in print ; and others in their sermons and practices declared their more healing and pacifick principles . may their names be never mentioned without respect and honour ! may they never stand in need of that compassion which they so bravely vouchsafed to others under persecution ! may their memories be had in perpetual renown ; and especially let their moderation for ever be imitated ! but as to the generality of those that pride themselves with the title of churchmen , it cannot be denied , that as they reproach'd such their moderate brethren with the odious nick-name of trimmers , so themselves went on jehu's pace , nothing but a strict and severe execution of all the most rigorous laws would content them ; they daily both irritated magistrates and the skum of the people to the holy work ; at guild-hall-chappel we have heard such enflaming rhetorick as this ( speaking of the dissenters ) let them not call it persecution , 't is a just and necessary prosecution , and the most they can suffer , is the least they deserve . in pursuance of such pulpit-maxims , laws , tho too harsh in themselves , were wyre-drawn abundantly further than the apparent intent of the makers . common justice denied to any that appeared under the character of dissenters ; palpable perjuries wink 't at ; riots made not only of the most peaceable assemblies to worship god , but of the friendly visits of relations ; nay where the small number found , were not sufficient to colour a legal prosecution on that pretence , a servant attending one that came to surprize them , has been clapt in for a party in the indictment , and an outragious fine thereupon enforced to be paid ; as in the case of a worthy citizen near london-bridg ; how juries brow-beaten , and forc'd to present men on the eliz. contrary to their consciences ; some troubled on a double conviction before two several magistrates for one and the same offence ; the fines frequently extravagant , as one man at a sessions in surrey was compell'd to pay down pound , for being at one meeting . in brief , no wood came amiss to make arrows of , for the destruction of the dissenters ; delenda erat carthago , all nonconformists were to be ruined in all places , after the example of bristol , &c. at this pass matters stood when his majesty vouchsaf'd to hold forth his golden scepter , and put a stop to all these outrages and calamities : and what security does this unknown author give us , that it may not be so again one day , if these penal laws be not utterly removed ? how does it appear that the sentiments of the church of england towards dissenters are chang'd , unless it be to a greater degree of malice ? or that their haughtiness is for ever extinct , but rather encreased ? for example , but ten miles up the thames , a good while since the declaration , a parson refus'd to bury a child , because baptized by a nonconformist-minister , so that all the company assembled for the funeral were forc'd to depart , and the infant 's corps to be kept above ground all night ; and hardly would he be induced by any entreaties to permit its interment the next day , and then too without vouchsafing his reverencies presence . i would not file particular mens failures to the reproach of a community amongst whom are so many learned worthy men ; but this i cannot forbear to say , that if the church of england would be credited , she ought publickly declare against the persecuting spirit , and make her repentance as notorious as the scandal : whereas her contesting so stifly for the continuance of the penal laws , argues too broadly that she still retains the very same inclinations . and indeed this mighty stir and outery of keeping up the tests , or else we are all undone , is no more than that of old , great is diana of the ephesians ! for by these laws and tests the church-men ( though but one part , and that not the greatest , of the nation ) have not only engrossed and secured to themselves all the preferments and offices , all places of profit , honour , and trust throughout the kingdom ; but also an opportunity of ruinating all , or any of the other parties at pleasure . these are too sweet morsels to be disgorg'd without some reluctancy ; and they may be excus'd in policy , if they use all efforts to continue their enjoyment , or hopes at least , of such absolute advantages ; but in the mean time the dissenters will be unpardonably remiss , if they hearken to the voice of these charmers , and neglect such an opportunity of enfranchizing themselves and posterity . nor can i imagine what our author means by that hectoring rhodomantado , pag. . how his church can in a moment bring clouds again , and turn the royal thunder upon the dissenters heads , blow them off the stage in a breath , if she would give but a smile , or a kind word : that the least glimpse of her compliance would throw them back into a state of suffering , and draw upon them all the arrears of severity which have accrued during this time of kindness to them : — but she will not allow her self to be rescued [ from what ? ] by such unjustifiable means , but chuseth to bear the weight of power , rather than lie under the burthen of being criminal . and to the same purpose he talks elsewhere , that his church had the first court-ships , which she rejected , and is ready to suffer , rather than receive all advantages that can be gain'd by a criminal compliance . — now besides the most insolent aspersion hereby thrown on his majesty ( as if he were rather her servant than her soveraign ) that she can so easily induce him to violate his solemn promises for her pleasure ; i would gladly learn what this expected and so much courted smile might be , that can perform such miracles ? what it was his church refused , rather than criminally comply with ? was it that her sons should all turn papists ? this indeed would notably vary the scene of affairs , and by casting the over-ballance to that party , alter the politick interest ; and yet even in such case the dissenters would trust god's providence and the king's word for their security . is it that they should consent to repeal all the penal laws against roman catholicks , with a reserve of those against protestant dissenters ? i am much more confident there never was any such shameful partial dealing proposed unto them , than i am , that it was never voluntarily offered by them . but if it should be true , that they have made frank overtures to rescind the laws against the romanists , and secure them in the next reign , provided themselves might be continued in their prosecuting protestant dissenters in this ; and that the same was rejected with a generous indignation worthy of such a proposition : then it will not be difficult to guess both at the nature and prevalency of their boasted smiles , and what kindness dissenters are to expect at their hands , notwithstanding all their fair pretensions . either the church of england opposeth liberty of conscience in general , and then justly engageth the body of the nation against her ; or only that of roman catholicks , and then they recede from their own principles , for it cannot be forgot that they heretofore told the dissenters , there was as much reason the roman catholicks should be tolerated as they ; and to confirm it , many of her communion frequently declared , that they would rather be romans than presbyterians . but it may still be urg'd , that the church of england is now no more for persecuting , and would be content to give up all the penal laws on either side ; but cannot , dares not , part with the tests ; especially the last , whereby only roman catholicks are kept out of parliament . for if she quit this guard ; presently the two houses may be full of roman catholicks , who will establish their religion by law , or perhaps pretend it actually in possession jure postliminii , and so the protestant religion shall be utterly suppress'd , and the writ , de haeretico comburendo revived , &c. this is the topping objection , but i think a very satisfactory answer may be given to it . for , . not to repeat what has already been offered of the king's promises , the paucity of the romanists , and how their interest stands in prospect of futurity , i cannot but remind you , that no body that i have met with , supposes the removal of the tests , without some equipollent provision in the very same act , that may obviate these fears . and 't is inconceivable that the wisdom of the nation so refined , should yet be so barren , as not to be able to contrive some civil security as strong and safe , without hampering of conscience . for why may there not be a civil test form'd , altogether as effectual , and yet not so obnoxious to exceptions , as these religious ones ? . if we can secure due elections and regular returns , we are safe ; for undoubtedly the free-holders , citizens and burghers of england are not very fond of chusing roman catholicks for their representatives . . as to any apprehensions , that by taking away these laws , the roman should pretend a right to be the national , establish'd religion , by vertue of any antiquated statutes , that may easily be dash't by an establishment or confirmation of the present church of england , as to all its priviledges , but such as are compulsory by temporal penalties , altogether unadequate means to secure religion , and unnecessary to the well-being of a gospel-church . . what if in the same bill that vacates all the old penal laws , it be by the king in parliament , asserted and declared , that liberty of conscience is part of the constitution of this kingdom ; the natural birth-right of every english man ? and that all persons endeavouring to undermine of subvert such settlement , shall be adjudg'd criminal , and liable to such penalties as shall be thought fit ; all acts tending thereunto , in themselves ab initio and for ever void . and every member of either house of parliament , obliged before he sits or acts , solemnly to make some such declaration . . or what if all the penal laws , together with the test , debarring from offices and imployments , be abrogated , and only that relating to members of parliament be kept on foot ? will none of these expedients , or such better ones as may be contriv'd , allay your fears ? that which alone must conclude any honest man's judgment , is the resolution of this single question . whether persecution in it self be lawful ? that is , whether for meer opinions , or exercise of religious worship , tho different from the national form , yet no ways disturbing the publick peace , injuring civil society , or violating morality , any persons whatsoever ought according to the law of god or nature , be punish'd by death , banishment , mulcts , fines , or imprisonments , or be rendred liable unto any forfeitures of , or preclusions from those advantages and priviledges , which otherwise they might justly pretend to , or ought to enjoy ? they , and they only , that will undertake to justify the affirmative , may reasonably appear for the continuance of the penal laws and tests . but then , if they assert any kind of persecution to be lawful , they ought also to tell us the bounds and limits of it , why the penalties may not be sanguinary as well as pecuniary , positive as well as privative ? why we may not burn a man for his supposed error in religion , as well as take away his goods , or his birth-right ? on the other side , all those , who cannot but acknowledg such statutes , and all prosecutions thereupon to be unwarrantable , as being against the main tendency of the gospel , contrary to our lord's rule of doing as we would be done by , and opposite to the maxims of reason and civil policy , are bound in conscience as well as interest to declare and use their utmost endeavours for the abolition of all these burthensom destructive laws . nor will they be affrighted with any imagined bad consequences , or a noise of what advantages ill men may design to make by such a repeal ; for as we are not to do evil , that good may come on 't , so we must not omit doing right , whatever may be the sequel . let us perform our duty , and then we may rest assured , that divine providence which superintends all the affairs of this fading world , will dissipate the councils of any architophels , and either preserve us from , or support us under the worst they can contrive . but if the dissenters wilfully lose this opportunity which god and the king have graciously vouchsafed ; and shall in distrust of providence , as well as his majesties word , multiply to themselves groundless fears ; and for certain supposed politick ends , quit both their duty and interest , to rely on egyptian reeds , and future improbable expectancies , the courtesy of a sort of people , whose tenderest mercies they have found to be cruel ; and will assist to continue those very statutes which their own consciences cannot but tell them , are irreligious and unjust , and under the lash of which they have so lately and so severely smarted ; and by reason of this resolute error against their own convictions and experience , shall happen hereafter to fall under a more dreadful persecution , than ever heretofore ; ( 't is no matter by whose hand : ) must they not with confusion of face , acknowledg they have justly deserved it ? and that themselves have chiefly contributed to their own miseries , and entail'd a plague on all their posterity ? he who is convinced , that persecution for religion is unlawful , and yet refuses to contribute all he can towards removing those laws ( which either positively or privatively , for they both depend on the same bottom ) injoin such persecution ; let him pretend what fears and jealousies he will of ensuing dangers from the doing of it , i know not how to excuse him from the just imputation of being either a fool or an atheist . 't is true , our orator asserts , that 't is as justifiable to have no religion , as wilfully to throw away the humane means of preserving it . but because i always thought religion was best to be preserved by religious methods , and that a church built upon the rock , needs not the feeble suports of civil force ; i would gladly learn what humane means are necessary or expedient , or indeed adequate to preserve true religion ? sure i am the christian religion held up its head , not only without , but against such means for the first centuries ; and yet then it was that it most flourish'd in purity , and spread it self throughout the world ; but as soon as politicians would be adding their humane means to preserve it , and interwove it with interest of state , from thence we commonly date its declension . in a word , if it be the interest both of the papists of this nation , and of all protestant dissenters , to have a general liberty of conscience firmly setled : if this be no real disadvantage to the church of england , but only keeps her from engrossing all offices and employments , which caused her to be envied ; and from ruining her innocent neighbours , which made her hated ; and is both her guilt and her shame : if by the gospel , no man is to be abridged of any of his civil-rights for his different opinion in religion ; since we may have as good security for the enjoyment of this liberty for ever as we our selves can reasonably contrive ; since we have felt and found so many evils attending persecution , and never any good , it seems to me unaccountable why we should not all readily and harmoniously agree to the total extirpation of all tests and penal laws for religion , and heartily endeavour the establishment of that vniversal liberty , which only can render the nation lastingly quiet and happy . i am not so unacquainted with the ill-natur'd world , as not to foresee , that for this free publication of my thoughts , i must expect to encountre a thousand scandals and calumnies ; but — — hic murus ahaenus esto , nil conscire sibi . being conscious of nothing but an unbiass'd honest intention , i can smile at , and pitty the impotent malice of false reports . having taken up that resolution of quinctius cincinnatus — vellem equidem vobis placere , quirites ! sed multo malo vos salvos esse , qualicunque erga me animo sitis futuri . the end . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e * see my lord coke's charge given at norwich assizes , aug. th page of the sheet f. ( for 't is not paged . ) a letter writ by mijn heer fagel, pensioner of holland, to mr. james stewart, advocate giving an account of the prince and princess of orange's thoughts concerning the repeal of the test, and penal laws. fagel, gaspar, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing f estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a letter writ by mijn heer fagel, pensioner of holland, to mr. james stewart, advocate giving an account of the prince and princess of orange's thoughts concerning the repeal of the test, and penal laws. fagel, gaspar, - . stewart, james, sir, - . p. [s.n.], london printed : . caption title. imprint from colophon. reproduction of original in the huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng test act ( ) dissenters, religious -- legal status, laws, etc. -- england -- early works to . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - mona logarbo sampled and proofread - mona logarbo text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a letter , writ by mijn heer fagel , pensioner of holland , to mr. james stewart , advocate ; giving an account of the prince and princess of orange's thoughts concerning the repeal of the test , and the penal laws . sir , i am extream sorry , that my ill health hath so long hindred me from answering those letters , in which you so earnestly desired to know of me , what their highnesses thoughts are , concerning the repeal of the penal laws , and more particularly of that concerning the test : i beg you to assure your self , that i will deal very plainly with you in this matter , and without reserve , since you say that your letters were writ by the king's knowledge and allowance . i must then first of all assure you very positively , that their highnesses have often declared , as they did it more particularly to the marquis of albeville , his majesties envoy extraordinary to the states , that it is their opinion , that no christian ought to be persecuted for his conscience , or be ill used because he differs from the publick and established religion ; and therefore , they can consent , that the papists in england , scotland and ireland be suffered to continue in their religion , with as much liberty as is allowed them by the states in these provinces ; in which it cannot be denied , that they enjoy a full liberty of conscience . and as for the dissenters , their highnesses do not only consent , but do heartily approve of their having an entire liberty , for the full exercise of their religion , without any trouble or hindrance ; so that none may be able to give them the least disturbance upon that account . and their highnesses are very ready , in case his majesty shall think fit to desire it , to declare their willingness to concur in the setling and confirming this liberty , and as far as it lies in them , they will protect and defend it , and according to the language of treaties , they will confirm it with their guaranty , of which you made mention in yours . and it his majesty shall think fit further to desire their concurrence in the repealing of the penal laws , they are ready to give it ; provided always that those laws remain still in their full vigour , by which the r. catholicks are shut out of both houses of parliament , and out of all publick employments , ecclesiastical , civil and military : as likewise all those other laws , which confirm the protestant religion and which secures it against all the attempts of the roman catholicks . but their highnesses cannot agree to the repeal of the test , or of those other penal laws last mentioned , that tend to the security of the protestant religion ; since the r. catholicks recieve no other prejudice from these , then the being excluded from parliaments , or from publick employments . and that by them the protestant religion is covered from all the designs of the r. catholicks against it , or against the publick safety ; and neither the test nor these other laws can be said to carry in them any severity against the roman catholicks upon account of their consciences : they are only provisions qualifying men to be members of parliament , or to be capable of bearing office ; by which they must declare before god and men , that they are for the protestant religion . so that indeed , all this amounts to no more than a securing the protestant religion from any prejudices that it may receive from the r. catholicks . their highnesses have thought and do still think , that more than this ought not to be askt , or expected from them : since by this means , the roman catholicks and their posterity will be for ever secured from all trouble in their persons or estates , or in the exercise of their religion ; and that the roman catholicks ought to be satisfied with this , and not to disquiet the kingdom because they cannot be admitted to sit in parliament , or to be in employments ; or because those laws , in which the security of the protestant religion does chiefly consist , are not repealed , by which they may be put in a condition to overturn it . their highnesses do also believe , that the dissenters will be fully satisfied when they shall be for ever covered from all danger of being disturbed , or punished for the free exercise of their religion , upon any sort of pretence whatsoever . their highnesses having declared themselves so positively in these matters , it seems very plain to me , that they are far from being any hinderance to the freeing dissenters from the severity of the penal laws ; since they are ready to use their utmost endeavours for the establishing of it : nor do they at all press the denying to the r. catholicks the exercise of their religion , provided it be managed modestly , & without pomp or ostentation . as for my own part , i ever was and still am very much against all those , who would persecute any christian because he differs from the publick and established religion : and i hope by the grace of god to continue still in the same mind ; for since that light , with which religion illuminates our minds , is according to my sense of things , purely an effect of the mercy of god to us , we ought then , as i think , to render to god all possible thanks for his goodness to us : and to have pity for those who are still shut up in error , even as god has pitied us , and to put up most earnest prayers to god , for bringing those into the way of truth , who stray from it , and to use all gentle and friendly methods for reducing them to it . but i confess , i could never comprehend how any that profess themselves christians , and that may enjoy their religion freely and without any disturbance , can judge it lawful for them to go about to disturb the quiet of any kingdom or state , or to overturn constitutions , that so they themselves may be admitted to employments , and that those laws in which the security and quiet of the established religion consists , should be shaken . it is plain , that the reformed religion is by the grace of god and by the laws of the land , enacted by both king and parliament ; the publick and established riligion , both in england , scotland and ireland ; and that it is provided by those laws , that none can be admitted either to a place in parliament , or to any publick employment except those that do openly declare , that they are of the protestant religion , and not roman catholicks ; and it is also provided by those laws , that the protestant religion shall be in all time coming secured from the designs of the roman catholicks against it : in all which i do not see , that these laws contain any severity , either against the persons or estates of those who cannot take those tests , that are contrary to the roman catholick religion , all the inconveniences that can redound to them from thence , is that their persons , their estates and even the exercise of their religion being assured to them , only they can have no share in the goverement , nor in offices of trust , as long as their consciences do not allow them to take these tests : and they are not suffered to do any thing that is to the prejudice of the reformed religion . since , as i have already told you , their highnesses are ready to concur whith his majesty for the repeal of those penal laws , by which men are made liable to fines or other punishments . so i see there remains no difficulty concerning the repealing the penal laws , but only this , that some would have the roman catholicks render'd capable of all publick trusts and employments , and that by consequence , all those should be repealed that have secured the protestant religion against the designs of the roman catholicks , where others at the same time are not less earnest to have those laws maintained in their full and due vigour ; and think , that the chief security of the established religion consists in the preserving of them sacred and unshaken . it is certain , that there is no kingdom , common-wealth , or any constituted body or assembly whatsoever , in which there are not laws made for the safety thereof ; and that provide against all attempts whatsoever , that disturb their peace , and that prescribe the conditions and qualities that they judg necessary for all that shall bear employments in that kingdom , state or corporation : and no man can pretend , that there is any injury done him , that he is not admitted to imployments when he doth not satisfie the conditions and qualities required . nor can it be denied , that there is a great difference to be observed in the conduct of those of the reformed religion ; and of the roman catholicks towards one another : the roman catholicks not being satisfied to exclude the reformed from all places of profit or of trust , they do absolutely suppress the whole exercise of that religion , and severely persecute all that profess it ; and this they do in all those places where it is safe and without danger , to carry on that rigour . and i am sorry that we have at this present so many deplorable instances of this severity before our eyes , that is at the same time put in practice in so many different places . i would therefore gladly see one single good reason to move a protestant that fears god , and that is concerned for his religion , to consent to the repealing of those laws that have been enacted by the authority of king & parliament , which have no other tendency but to the security of the reformed religion , and to the restraining of the roman catholicks from a capacity of overturning it ; these laws inflict neither fines nor punishments , and do only exclude the r. catholicks from a share in the government who by being in employments must needs study to increase their party , and to gain to it more credit and power , which by what we see every day , we must conclude , will be extreamly dangerous to the reformed religion , and must turn to its great prejudice : since in all places , those that are in publick employments , do naturally favour that religion of which they are , either more or less . and who would go about to perswade me or any man else to endeavour to move their highnesses , whom god hath honoured so far as to make them the protectors of his church , to approve of , or to consent to things so hurtful , both to the reformed religion , and to the publick safety . nor can i , sir , with your good leave , in any way , grant what you apprehend , that no prejudice will thereby redound to the reformed religion . i know it is commonly said , that the number of the roman catholicks in england and scotland is very inconsiderable ; and that they are possessed only of a very small number of the places of trust : tho even as to this , the case is quite different in ireland : yet this you must of necessity grant me , that if their numbers are small , then it is not reasonable that the publick peace should be disturbed on the account of so few persons , especially when so great a favour may be offer'd to them ; such as the free exercise of their religion would be : and if their numbers are greater , then there is so much the more reason to be affraid of them ; i do indeed believe that roman catholicks , as things at present stand , will not be very desirous to be in publick offices and imployments , nor that they will make any attempts upon the reformed religion , both because this is contrary to law , and because of the great inconveniencies that this may bring at some other time both on their persons , and their estates : yet if the restraints of the law were once taken off , you would see them brought into the government , and the chief offices and places of trust would be put in their hands ; nor will it be easy to his majesty to resist them in this , how stedfast soever he may be ; for they will certainly press him hard in it , and they will represent this to the king , as a matter in which his conscience will be concerned ; and when they are possessed of the publick offices , what will be left for the protestants to do , who will find no more the support of the law , and can expect little encouragement from such magistrates ? and on the other hand , the advantages that the roman catholicks would find in being thus set loose from all restraints , are so plain , that it were a loss of time to go about the proving it . i neither can nor will doubt of the sincerity of his majesties intentions , and that he has no other design before him in this matter , but that all his subjects may enjoy in all things the same rights and freedoms . but plain reason , as well as the experience of all ages , the present as well as the past , shews , that it will be impossible for r. catholicks & protestants , when they are mixed together in places of trust and publick employments , to live together peaceably , or to maintain a good correspondence together . they will be certainly always jealous of one another ; for the principles and the maxims of both religions are so opposite to one another , that in my opinion i do not see how it will be in the power of any prince or king whatsoever , to keep down those suspitions and animosities , which will be apt to arise upon all occasions . as for that which you apprehend , that the dissenters shall not be delivered from the penal laws , that are made against them , unless at the same time the test be likewise repealed : this will be indeed a great unhappiness to them ; but the roman catholicks are only to blame for it , who will rather be content that they and their posterity should lie still under the weight of the penal laws , and exposed to the hatred of the whole nation ; than he still restrained from a capacity of attempting any thing against the peace and the security of the protestant religion . and be deprived of that small advantage ( if it is at all to be reckoned one ) of having a share in the government and publick enjoyments ; since in all places of the world this has been always the priviledge of the religion that is established by law ; and indeed these attempts of the roman catholicks ought to be so much the more suspected and guarded against by protestants , in that they see that roman catholicks , even when liable to that severity of penal laws , do yet endeavour to perswade his majesty , to make the protestants , whether they will or not , dissolve the security which they have for their religion : and to clear a way for bringing in the roman catholicks to the government , and to publick employments : in which case there would remain no relief for them but what were to be expected from a roman catholick government . such then will be very unjust to their highnesses , who shall blame them for any inconveniency that may arise from thence ; since they have declared themselves so freely on this subject , and that so much to the advantage even of the roman catholicks . and since the settlements of matters sticks at this single point , that their highnesses cannot be brought to consent to things that are so contrary to laws already in being , and that are so dangerous and so hurtful to the protestant religion , as the admitting of roman catholicks to a share in the government , and to places of trust , and the repealing of those laws , that can have no other effect but the securing of the protestant religion from all the attempts of the roman catholicks against it would be . you write , that the roman catholicks in these provinces are not shut out from employments and places of trust ; but in this you are much mistaken . for our laws are express , excluding them by name from all share in the government , and from all employments either of the policy or justice of our countrey . is it true , i do not know of any express law , that shuts them out of military employments ; that had indeed been hard , since in the first formation of our state they joyned with us in defending our publick liberty , & did us eminent service during the wars ; therefore they were not shut out from those military employments , for the publick safety was no way endanger'd by this , both because their numbers that served in our troops were not great , and because the states could easily prevent any inconvenience that might arise out of that ; which could not have been done so easily , if the roman catholicks had been admitted to a share in the government , and in the policy or justice of our state. i am very certain of this , of which i could give very good proofs , that there is nothing which their highnesses desire so much , as that his majesty may reign happily , and in an intire confidence with his subjects , and that his subjects being perswaded of his majesties fatherly affection to them , may be ready to make him all the returns of duty that are in their power . but their highnesses are convinced in their consciences , that both the protestant religion and the safety of the nation , would be exposed to most certain dangers , if either the tests , or those other penal laws , of which i have made frequent mention , should be repealed ; therefore they cannot consent to this , nor concur with his majesties will ; for they believe they should have much to answer for to god , if the consideration of any present advantages should carry them to consent and concur in things which they believe would be not only dangerous but mischievous to the protestant religion . their highnesses have ever pay'd a most profound duty to his majesty , which they will always continue to do ; for they consider themselves bound to it , both by the laws of god and of nature : but since the matter that is now in hand , relates not to the making of new laws , but to the 〈…〉 those already made both by king and parliament ; they do not see how it can be expected of them , that they should consent to such a repeal , to which they have so just an aversion , as being a thing that is contrary to the laws and customs of all christian states , whether protestants , or papists , who receive none to a share in the governments , or to publick employments , but those who profess the publick and established religion , and that take care to secure it against all attempts whatsoever . i do not think it necessary to demonstrate to you how much their highnesses are devoted to his majesty , of which they have given such real evidences as are beyond all verbal ones ; and they are resolved still to continue in the same duty , and affection ; or rather to encrease it , if that is possible . i am , sir , yours , &c. nov. . . london printed in the year . the loyal baptist, or, an apology for the baptized believers ... occasioned by the great and long continued sufferings of the baptized believers in this nation / by thomas grantham ... grantham, thomas, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing g estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : a, : ) the loyal baptist, or, an apology for the baptized believers ... occasioned by the great and long continued sufferings of the baptized believers in this nation / by thomas grantham ... grantham, thomas, - . [ ], p. printed for the author and are to be sold by tho. fabian ..., london : . contains two title pages, with the same imprint, but different dates, the first appearing t.p. dated , the second, . "containing i. his humble resolution to be a constant conformist to the scriptures, and especially in these four great duties, viz. . to honour all men, . to love the brotherhood, . bound and filmed at reel : a with g following: the second part of the apology for the baptized believers. this item appears at reels : a and : . reproductions of original in the british library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng baptists -- apologetic works. dissenters, religious -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - judith siefring sampled and proofread - judith siefring text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the loyal baptist : or an apology for the baptized believers . containing i. his humble resolution to be a constant conformist to the scriptures , and especially in these four great duties , viz. . to honour all men. . to love the brotherhood . . to fear god. . to honour the king. according to peter . . ii. his unfeigned endeavour for unity in the truth with the church of england ; wherein is shewed what 〈◊〉 a distinction in communion between the parochial 〈…〉 those of the baptized believers : wherein fourteen 〈◊〉 lately published by mr. n. t. m. a. in defence of infant-baptism , are considered , and answered . iii. his plea for church-assemblies to be permitted to the baptized believers . to which purpose is declared , iv. the nature of his call to christianity , and to the work of the ministry . occasioned by the great and long continued sufferings of the baptized believers in this nation . by thomas grantham , a servant of christ . job . . as for me , is my complaint to 〈◊〉 ? and if it were so , why should not my spirit be troubled ? causabon's birth of heresy , c. . p. . in all ages men have never been contented with the true adoration instituted by god : but instead of external signs instituted by god , — they have forged and brought in their own inventions . london , printed for the author , and are to be sold by tho. fabian at the bible in st. paul's church-yard , . the loyal baptist : or an apology for the baptized believers . being also an earnest persuasive to them and all christians , to study to be quiet , and do their own business , in these important particulars , viz. i. to honour all men. ii. to love the brotherhood . iii. to fear god. iv. to honour the king. delivered in two sermons upon pet. . . by thomas grantham , a servant of christ . my son , fear thou the lord , and the king : and meddle not with them that are given to change . prov. . . but — whether it be right in the sight of god , to hearken unto you more than unto god , judg ye ? acts . . london , printed for the author , and are to be sold by tho. fabian at the bible in st. paul's church-yard , . to all the baptized believers in england , &c. grace and peace through christ our lord be multiplied . the great apostle st. paul , having taught the christian churches in creet their duties towards god , and towards caesar ; and leaving titus ( a messenger of the churches ) behind him there , very strictly warns him to put them in mind of their subjection to principalities , and powers , and to obey magistrates . knowing how impossible it would be to propagate the profession of christianity , if christians did not adorn their profession with a meek and harmless conversation towards all men , and especially by their obedience to those in authority . and considering the manifold temptations that attend christians in these days upon that account , i thought it my duty , as one that has obtained mercy to be faithful , to do my best in giving warning to my brethren , lest any of them should be ensnared with ill principles , or specious pretences , to speak or do any thing that may be inconsistent with gospel-rules , either in things relating more immediately to almighty god , or to the king's majesty , and those that are in authority under him . such heady persons there were in the apostle's days , and therefore the less strange if now some such be found in the best of churches , as are not afraid to speak evil of dignities : all ages and sorts of christians have been troubled with such evil-workers . and as it hath been the care of faithful men all along to protest against them , that the truth ( which such wretches only prophane by their profession of it ) might not be worse thought of because of them ; so let it be our care to bear a faithful testimony against all such in these days . and i beseech you brethren , whom god hath made as guides to the rest , that you give all diligence to teach and instruct those under your charge , in the duties which pertain to every state of life ; as well as in things which pertain to the worship of our gracious god : for these are the things which become sound doctrine , and of these our obedience to magistrates is not the least . i commit the ensuing discourses to the consideration of all christians , and to the blessing of god , and remain , your brother , and servant in the gospel , tho. grantham . the loyal baptist : or an apology for the baptized believers . being also an earnest persuasive to them all , to study to be quiet , and to do their own business , in these important particulars , viz. i. to honour all men. ii. to love the brotherhood . iii. to fear god. iv. to honour the king. delivered in several discourses upon pet. . . honour all men , love the brotherhood , fear god , honour the king. this great apostle , st. peter , having preached christ in many countries , thought it meet to leave some monuments of his holy doctrine with all the churches . and having in two sacred epistles assured them of the certainty of the doctrine which he had preached , and that it was no fable or new device , but the very truth which from the beginning god made known to his prophets : he then exhorts them to stedfastness , and to hope to the end for the grace or fulness of glory , which shall be brought to all true christians at the revelation or second coming of christ . he warns them to beware of sin , chiefly that root of malice , envy and hypocrisy , ( for these are usually complicated in one ) : for as it gave being to all our misery , and has been all along the ruine of nations , churches , and communities ; so we are advertised that it will abound towards the end of the world. to avoid this damning iniquity , we are willed to consider our new birth , and as new-born babes to evidence our delight to be in the sincere milk of the word of god , not in the vanities of this world , where we are but pilgrims and strangers ; assuring us , that as christ is the sure foundation to support his church : so , ( however some builders do set him at naught ) he is the head of the corner , and will certainly in time confound the disobedient , pet. . , . howbeit , lest christians should be too impatient of the seeming delay of christ's exaltation , and of the manifold tribulations which in the mean time they must suffer ; he further warns them to be of an obedient and submissive spirit to such as are in authority , and to adorn their profession , by an honest conversation , as the best way to silence their opposers ; for so is the will of god , that with well-doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men , pet. . . for tho it be very true that all christians are the lord's freemen , cor. . . yet they may not maliciously despise any man , nor dishonour any man , much less any that are in authority : christianity being indeed the greatest obligation that any man can be under , to preserve and chearfully to give to all their dues , in respect of love , honour , fear , tribute , custom , &c. god is to have the things which are god's , princes the things which are theirs , and all men ( as well those that are not christians as those that are ) must have that love and honour which is their due even from the servants of christ . thus then we approach the text ; which calls upon us to honour all men , love the brotherhood , to fear god , and to honour the king. in which directions is briefly contained the whole duty of a christian man. as , . his duty in general to mankind , honour all men. . his particular duty to the church of god , love the brotherhood . . his special duty to almighty god , fear god. . his obedience to the higher powers , honour the king. in opening these words , we shall consider the genuine import of them . . honour all men. ( . ) the word honour here , according to the greek , may be understood thus , esteem all men highly , value all men at an high price , or count them precious : and hence , tremelius reads the place omnem hominem in honore habite , have all men in high esteem or honour . and in this direction is implied that lowly and gracious spirit , that friendly and amicable temper which all christians should have and evidence towards mankind : for he that is not of a lowly spirit , cannot honour all men. ( . ) by all men , we must not here admit of the exception of any man as such ; but forasmuch as they are all the off-spring of god , it is the will of god that a due esteem be given to them all , as the most noble part of his creation under the sun ; — and but a little lower than the angels , psal . . . love the brotherhood . by love here we may safely understand , a more special kind of love than that which we owe to all men , which is well expressed , in the epist . of john , whom i love in the truth , for the truths sake which dwelleth in us . hence some of our translators render the words thus , love brotherly fellowship . and the rhemists tells us , that this speech often commendeth the vnity of all christians among themselves . . fear god. the original imports an awful dread , or such a fear as causeth trembling ; and 't is the same word used , mat. . . where it is evident such a fear is intended : but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. by the fear of god therefore in this place , we must understand the dutiful observance of his revealed will ( for so the fear of god is sometimes taken ) as ever we expect to see his face with comfort : and here the fear of man is excluded , because it brings a snare , prov. . . and is a fatal prevention to the service of god. . honour the king. ( . ) the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does not barely signify honour , or esteem , in this place ; but a magnificent or splendid kind of honour : for so hath the lord ordained for his vicegerents , giving them the title of gods in psal . . . ( . ) it is carefully to be considered what king is immediately meant in our text : he could be no king of israel , for the kings of israel had failed long before this epistle was written ; and tho christ was born king of the jews , yet he did not enter upon his regality with respect to the government of that , nor any other nation : but plainly tells us , his kingdom is not of this world. nor did the apostle speak of any christian king , for as yet none of the princes of this world knew christ , cor. . . the king therefore here immediately intended was an heathen king , the king of the romans , who at that time ( as historians relate ) was both of very wicked life , and idolatrous in his religion , calling himself pontifex maximus , as being chief about the worship of jupiter . and yet , s. peter will have him honoured even by those who had put themselves under the yoak of christ , their heavenly king. and st. paul expresly requires the same , rom. . . wherefore from the text thus explained , we should learn these four things . i. that christians must by no means be of an haughty , scornful , nor wrathful spirit towards any man ; but of an humble and gentle behaviour , to pay the debt of honour to all , and to esteem them precious . ii. brotherly fellowship , love and concord , are to be sought for , and maintained by all christians , one with another , as such . iii. christians must have an awful fear of god before their eyes , that in matters of religion they may serve him only , and not provoke him by sinful courses , nor by the fear of man. iv. christians are bound by gospel-rules to be good subjects to princes , to honour their persons , and conscienciously to obey their authority . these propositions do harmonize with the doctrine which is according to godliness . for the first ; that christians must by no means ( as they tender their claim to the venerable title of christian , and to any part in the kingdom of christ ) be of an haughty , scornful or wrathful spirit against any man , is a doctrine needful to be proclaimed by an heavenly herald , by the voice of an archangel , even to that part of the world called christendom : for who can sufficiently bewail the almost utter absence of this gracious spirit , which abounded in the author and first professors of christianity ; and the undeniable appearance of a spirit of a quite contrary nature at this day , in all parts of the world where christ is named ? from whence come wars and fightings ? come they not hence , even from pride ? as it is written , prov. . . only by pride cometh contention . what greater injuries , indignities , and dishonours can be offered by mortals one towards another , than are amongst the several orders professing christianity ? yea , very often by men of the same order , one towards another ? so very far are the generality of christians from obeying the voice of our text. and look how far they are gone from the spirit of humility and tenderness , which leads all that have it to esteem mankind very precious ; so far they have lost the christian religion , as will appear in proving the first proposition . to which purpose , . we shall give precendency to our lord christ , who perceiving an haughty spirit peeping forth in his chosen disciples , even then whilst the very mirror of meekness and humility was before their eyes , does solemnly denounce unto them , ( and in them to all christians ) that except they were converted , and became as little children , they should by no means enter into the kingdom of heaven . luke . . and therewithal gives notice of a wo impending or coming upon the world , from that spirit of pride and ambition , in this so early an appearance of it , which yet notwithstanding seems to have over-run the church in all ages , to the scandal of religion . but would so small a fault in the chosen disciples , ( as it may seem , in respect of that which is now every where to be found ) shut heaven against them , unless those converted souls were converted in that case ? let us tremble to think of this . it 's clear from this instance , that such as are of an haughty mind , cannot honour all men. they are bladders puffed up with this wind ; break this bladder , there is meer emptiness . their goodness vanishes , when they cannot lift themselves above others . whereas the truly gracious soul studies how to serve god , and all men for his sake ; and thus to honour them , is the greatest respect that any christian can give to men. thus did our lord himself honour all : he took upon him the form of a servant . phil. . . and indeed his great design in his life and doctrine , was to restore mankind to a state of grace , and reconciliation with god , and thereby to amity and concord one with another . . next to our saviour , let us hear his beloved disciple john. he often speaks to the whole church under the title of little children ; and the metaphor is very fit for christians , as in other respects , so chiefly in this , to put them in mind , they must in no wise be of a lofty and wrathful spirit . he tells us , the love of god is not in those men , who have the pride of life in them , john . , . they cannot honour , esteem , or count all men precious , till that image of christ , which standeth in humility , be formed in them . . the apostle paul , cor. . , . does not only teach the brotherhood , that they must shew all meekness to all men , and give no offence to jew nor gentile ; but puts himself ( as becomes all true ministers of christ ) for a patern to the flock . tho ( saith he ) i be free from all men , yet i have made my self servant unto all , that i might gain the more . — i am made all things to all men , that i might by all means save some . cor. . , , , , . how precious did he count the jewish nation ! ( tho they generally hated him ) he could be content to be undone himself , rather than they should be lost . rom. . . and no less concern'd for the poor gentiles , that they also might be happy . rom. . . and hitherto did tend the scope of all his labours , to warn , teach , and to present every man perfect in christ jesus . col. . . . and forasmuch as the tongue is the ordinary witness of the spirit of pride , and that whereby all men are incident to dishonour one another , he strictly obligeth all christians to let their speech be always with grace , seasoned with salt , that they may administer grace to them that hear them . col. . . and he that will obey our text , to honour all men , must remember that he speak evil of no man , ( an impiety which god knows even reigns amongst christians . ) the tongue is an unruly member , a world of iniquity . and hence the apostle james is very bold , telling us , our religion is vain , if we bridle not that member . jam. . , , , , . how can that tongue be fit to bless god , to profess the christian religion , which is exercised in cursing , speaking evil , or wishing ill to any man ? my brethren , these things ought not to be . doth a fountain give sweet water and bitter at the same place ? this is not to be found in nature , nor to be expected in grace . christians must be known to all men by their fruits of righteousness , meekness , goodness , and faith ; otherwise men shall never be moved to glorify god in their behalf . . that christian who will honour all men , must love all men ; without this , he cannot esteem them , nor count them precious . whom we love not , we have no delight to honour . it is in a manner peculiar to the christian doctrine , that men should love their enemies , pray for them that persecute them and despitefully use them . let us therefore pay this debt , to honour all men in love. he that will do this , must bear mankind upon his heart in prayer and supplication . tim. . . this is a lesson for christians , as such , they must love their neighbours as themselves , and all men are their neighbours . the royal law obliges them to it ; jam. . . if ye fulfill the royal law according to the scriptures , thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self , ye do well ; but if ye have respect to persons , ( that is , love one , and hate another ) ye commit sin , and are convinced of the law as transgressors . were christians filled more with this fruit of the spirit , we should see an end of these animosities , opprobrious and abusive epithets , or brands of reproach and infamy , which are daily cast upon men , and too frequently found among christian men. it is to be lamented , that men who are precious in the esteem of god , should not be esteemed so by one another . but honour all men , says our text ; and the arguments to enforce the duty are many , of which , some we will urge in this place , and the first shall be this : first ; they are men as well as our selves , our equals by creation , the workmanship of the hands of the same god ; and therefore are we bound to honour all men , as men ; nor can we slight , despise , or dishonour them , but we dishonour our selves : for they are flesh of our flesh , and god hath made of one blood all nations of men , to dwell upon the face of the earth ; and he is the god of the spirits of all flesh . and thus we have all one father ; as one god hath created us , we are all his off-spring : not as some prophanely have said , that man is no more god's off-spring than an hog ; for he did not consult the creation of any thing , as he did the creation of man , gen. . nor did he breath into the nostrils of hogs , the same spirit of life and wisdom which he breathed into man. david admires the goodness of god in the degnified state of man , psal . . , . and let us beware of base thoughts concerning man , lest we value him no more than the beasts of the field , and so dishonour him , whom god created in great honour , and to this day ( notwithstanding his fall ) hath set him over the works of his hands . all men are our brethren , let us honour them as such ; for what brotherhood soever we attain , yet our humane fraternity is antecedent , and not made void by any post-fraternity , which is good , but rather more indeared . this was seen in st. paul , the nearer his relation was to god upon the account of christianity , the more was his love , and the greater his sorrow for his brethren according to the flesh , rom. . . let not christians think , that their relation , nor obligation of nature to mankind , is destroyed or made less , by their being christians ; such a vain conceit will alienate us from our own flesh , and make us quite pervert the text , which puts us in mind that our religion does strongly engage us to honour them all . it was a vertue in the philosopher , who would not be accounted of this or that nation , tribe , or city , but entitled himself a citizen of the whole world ; meaning , he had an equal respect for mankind ; and if his relation might be an honour , he would be related to them all , that he might honour them all . secondly ; christains must honour all men , because god himself hath honoured them all , setting his love upon them , and manifesting it to them , and that divers ways : as , . in the common acts of his providence , of which we have an excellent account in the th psalm , to which i refer you . it is he that giveth them fruitful seasons , filling their hearts with joy and gladness ; he gives them life and breath , and all things . hence they ( even all nations ) are called his people , and the sheep of his pasture , psal . . , . and upon this very ground are required to pay their debt of thankfulness unto him . . god has greatly honoured mankind in the gracious act of redemption ; i say , in this he has greatly esteemed all men , and counted them very precious . that god hath done this for all men , nothing can be more plain than these testimonies : there is one god , and one mediator between god and man , who gave himself a ransom for all . tim. . . we see jesus made a little lower than the angels , for the suffering of death . — that he by the grace of god should taste death for every man. heb. . . for all have sinned , and come short of the glory of god , being justified freely by his grace , through the redemption which is in christ jesus . rom. . , . he is a propitiation for our sins , and not for ours only , but also for the sins of the whole world. surely he that against the light of these plain testimonies , can or will think that god neglected the greatest part , or any part of mankind , in the most important business of redemption , must needs have a very low esteem and dishonourable thoughts of that part of mankind , cannot value them much above the fallen angels or devils , for whom no ransom was given ; and consequently they cannot honour all men. the devils are but sinners , shut up to the judgment of eternal fire , without means of recovery ; and these men , that narrow up the redemption of man to the elect only , shut up the remainder of men in that condemnation which is inevitable . and what honour can belong to such ? how should we count them precious , if indeed god hated them from all eternity ? it is not saying , that we know them not by name , and therefore ought to honour all men , that will salve the business : for the truth is , if we heartily honour all men , we must be sure that god would have us do so ; and of this we cannot be sure , if we think god made them only to damn them : for if the esteem or honour which we give to all men , proceed not from sincere love to them , and desire of their happiness , it is but hypocrisy , no true honour ; for the honour which we owe to all men , is not founded upon any thing wherein they are dignified above us , but upon those blessings or favours from god , which are common to us all , and wherein he has made no difference between one and another . and therefore if we truly esteem , love , and wish all men well in the case of their salvation , me must believe that god does so too , or else we cannot do it heartily . augustine's speech here is worthy of remembrance ; o vehement love ! that god for man's cause can vouchsafe to become man ! who can hate man , whose nature and likeness he beholds in the humanity of god ? surely , if god has not loved all men in christ , we have no cause to count them precious , because we see them not favoured in the humanity of god. . that our god counts all men precious , may be seen in the order given , that the word of peace or reconciliation may be preached to all men , or , to every creature ; to be made known to all nations for the obedience of faith. mat. . . rom. . . surely this message , with the messenger and messengers that brought it to all men , does stupendously evidence , how precious god accounts all men. he may justly demand , what could have been done to evidence my love to man , and the precious esteem i have of him , which i have not done . has he not sent his apostles , whose words have gone to the uttermost parts of the earth ? rom. . yea , he hath sent his son , whom he hath made heir of all things ; yea , he hath sent thus to those that would not accept these tokens of love , estimation , or honour . john . . mat. . . surely it is an act of honour towards the party visited , when the king comes to visit the beggar , yea , the traytor . whence is this to me , said elizabeth , that the mother of my lord should come to me ? and whence is this to man , or what honour hath god conferred upon man , that our lord himself should come to man , to redeem him by the death of the cross , and to make all men see what is the fellowship of this mysterious piece of godliness , ( which is god manifest in the flesh , &c. ) by the light of the gospel ? thirdly ; christians must honour all men , because this is one effectual way to recommend the way of christianity , or the truth which we profess , to the acceptance of all men. and hitherto may be referred these and the like rules ; walk in wisdom towards them that are without . if you salute your brethren only , what do you more than others ? the servant of the lord must not strive , but be gentle towards all men. render to no man evil for evil , but overcome evil with good. shewing all meekness to all men. giving a reason of the hope that is in you , with meekness and fear . that christian that shall walk towards all men according to these rules , shall certainly honour all men , and greatly recommend the truth to them all ; for thus shall he himself become an epistle of christ , read and known of all men. . cor. . . i shall conclude this first doctrine with a solemn protestation against all such as would set up their religion by violence , blood , and treachery , by what name soever distinguished ; for if this be their scope , they have not known christ , nor the divine power of christianity . cain leads the van to this unreasonable troop , who never did nor can honour all men , till they be delivered from this principle : no , they desire to kill , that they only might be honoured . by this unchristian sort of christians , what unspeakable butcheries have been committed ! hundreds of thousands in a neighbouring nation , in this age , cruelly destroyed . what hangings , burnings , and tormentings all europe over ! and this pretendedly to advance holy church ! as if our saviour's house must be built with blood , when yet he plainly tells us , he came not to kill men , but to save them , and sharply rebukes his disciples , when such a spirit appeared in them . and have we not seen a refined generation , ( as they would be thought ) peeping forth , with the name of blood , or the smiting principle , written on their forehead , with direction to their proselites to pray , that god would destroy all oppressior and oppressors from off the face of the earth ? lord ! what is this ? the greatest part of mankind peradventure are oppressors in one thing or other ; and must a christian pray for their destruction , or for their conversion ? sure the latter is the duty of all christians . tim. . , . they cannot desire such a woful day , but that mercy may be extended , knowing that themselves were sometimes foolish , disobedient , living in malice , hateful , and hating one another . tit. . but alas ! do not these men pray for their own destruction ? who sees not that such a principle is pregnant with oppression ? o let all christians beware of it . and let us pray for them that hate us , persecute us , and speak all manner of evil against us falsly , for his names sake , who hath called us not only to believe , but also to suffer for his sake . thus leaving all men of bloody , violent , and treacherous principles , to consider what spirit they are of ; how unlike our lord christ ; how different from the primitive christians ; how contrary to humanity it self , which teaches all to do to others ( not as they do ) but as we would they should do to us : we shall proceed to the next point of doctrine , grounded upon the second direction in the text , love the brotherhood . doct. ii. brotherly fellowship , love and vnity is carefully to be endeavoured and maintained by all christians . this brotherhood being not natural , but spiritual and mystical , admits of a twofold consideration : . in the largest sence the word ( and use of it in scripture ) will bear . . in a more strict and special sence . in the first , we must comprehend all that own the holy scriptures for the rule of faith , believing in the only true god , the father , son , and holy-ghost , ( for these three are one ) ; that christ died for our sins , and rose again for our justification ; that live soberly , according to the general rules of christianity , tho they may be diversly persuaded in the methods of christian worship . or i could be content , ( if the state of christianity would bear it in these days ) to express my self in this case in the words of st. paul , cor. . . all that in every place call upon the name of our lord jesus christ ; among whom he found diversities of opinions , as well as disorders in practice of ordinances . not that he allows either , but labours to reform both , yet so as he would preserve amity among them as they were brethren , tho some of them were carnal , cor. . others allowing themselves a very dangerous liberty in religious matters , even to eat things sacrificed to idols ; some doubting of the resurrection , others very loose in their devotion at the lord's table ; they were some tumultuous , others otherwise vicious , cor. . now whether the apostle , in his exhortations to unity , intends , that notwithstanding these errors they should hold ample communion with the erroneous ; or whether , upon adhering to reproof by him given , and their obeying the epistles which he sent to them , he obliges them to maintain and uphold their communion , is the business to be considered . the first it is not like to be , for then few errors , either in doctrine or life , could break this brotherly fellowship among christians . and then to what purpose are these rules given ? mark them which cause divisions and offences , contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned , and avoid them . rom. . . withdraw your selves from every brother which walks disorderly , &c. thess . . . surely all that can be required , as to unity with these christians , is a brotherly compassion , to encourage what we can the truth they hold , or the good they do ; to hold with them in the common cause of christianity , against the common enemy of it . i conceive the latter to be the only safe way , viz. that notwithstanding their great carnality , weakness of judgment , or frowardness in their erroneous opinions , &c. if now they would receive the counsel of the lord's messenger , or which the lord by his messenger had sent unto them , that then the brotherhood once found among them should still continue , tho they had too evidently forfeited their privileges . thus to take the apostle's meaning , is to make him harmonize with himself . thess . . . if any man obey not our word by this epistle , note that man , and have no company with him , that he may be ashamed ; yet count him not an enemy , but admonish him as a brother . but to take the apostle in the first sence , would make him irreconcileable to or with himself . so then , paul did not advise the faithful at corinth , to hold ample communion with those of ill life , and erroneous principles in the necessary parts of religion , such as the resurrection , and separation from idolatry doubtless are ; for he that denies the first , denies christ to be risen , makes the apostles false witnesses , and the faith of christians vain . cor. . , , . and the second makes men uncapable to serve god : ye cannot drink the cup of the lord , and the cup of idols ( or devils . ) cor. . . let us then consider the second , or more strict sence of the word , brotherhood , in our text. and here we must take it , as it pertains to truly constituted and well-governed societies of christians : for undoubtedly god intended to have the christian religion stated and maintained in all nations , according to the pristine simplicity of the gospel , without the mixtures of legal ceremonies , or humane innovations : for when jesus gave commission to his apostles , to teach all nations , baptizing them ; and then , to teach them to observe all things whatsoever he commanded them . mat. . , . and gave being to this order , to continue to the end of the world , it must needs be highly rational on the part of all such , as do piously stand to this form of doctrine , as explicated and delivered to the churches , rom. . . heb. . , . and consequently it must needs be very pleasing to god , and commendable in the church , that his institutes be kept with the greatest exactness , as they were delivered at first , cor. . . for if once variations in either the doctrinal or practical parts of the christian religion be admitted , there can be no certain duration of any truth . a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump , gal. . . and this the apostle speaks too , with relation to the imposition of some legal rites , which once had a divine original and use in the church of god , and yet now could not consist with obedience to the truth . gal. . . ye did run well , who did hinder you , that you should not obey the truth ? hence saint paul would not give place to st. peter himself , ( when too much symbolizing with legal ceremonies , gal. . ) that so the truth of the gospel might continue in the churches of galatia ; plainly shewing , that as light and darkness cannot dwell together , so the gospel is exclusive of legal ceremonies and humane innovations . and seeing all must grant , there has been a very great departure from the truth of the gospel , both in doctrine and practice , there cannot be a better method ( i suppose ) thought on , to amend what is amiss in the christian world , ( and thereby to restore true brotherly fellowship ) than that used by our lord , mat. . . to reform a corruption among the jews , and such an error too as had a shew of scripture-authority for it , ( i mean the case of divorce ) yet our saviour suppresseth that custom , by referring to the primitive institution of marriage ; from the beginning it was not so . and upon this text , how well does our brethren ( i mean the sober and pious in the church of england ) defend themselves against popish innovations , both in opinion and practice ? one of them speaks thus : as touching each of these errors , we can say with our saviour , in this present correption of the pharisees , that from the beginning it was not so ; and we care not whence they come , unless they come from the beginning . this hath ever been ( saith he ) the rule , the warrantable rule to reform a church . when esdras was intent on building the temple , he sent not to ephesus , much less to rome ; he did not enquire into the rituals of numa pompilius ; but had recourse for a temple , to that of solomon ; and for a rite , to that of moses . indeed for things meerly indifferent , ( as he observes ) there must be preserved a liberty in all churches to consult and do for the best . i dare not say as he , to make constitutions ; ( for that 's a great word ) but to manage her affairs with decency , order , and charity . but to come more directly to our doctrine , which is , brotherly fellowship ; love and vnity is carefully to be endeavoured and maintained by all christians . certain it is that our love , as christians , may go much further than our actual communion in all things christian , may do ; and yet this love it self is a kind of fellowship . the angels have fellowship with us , and acknowledg themselves our fellow servants , rev. . . and yet they do not partake with us in all our acts of religion , but only by approbation and corroboration , in things which are well done . now the best or most orderly sort of christians cannot conceive a greater disproportion between their churches , and the churches of the most erring ( if but well-meaning ) societies that conscientiously profess love and obedience to christ : and even hence , we are obliged to hold as much brotherly fellowship with them , as we can , especially that of love and brotherly compassion . for when we consider , that even some of all sorts of christians will rather dye , than basely deny their lord and master , we cannot but have fellowship with such in our spirits , whilst it is the same ( and not a feigned christ ) to whom they shew their utmost testimony of love. and this consideration alone , may suffice to take away that imbitteredness , which is too often found among christians dissenting one from another : let their appellations be what they will , so that they believe in the true christ , and live well , being also faithful to what they know . and tho they be never so angry with me for opposing them in their traditions , or erring notions otherwise , yet i must have a brotherly tenderness towards them all for the truths sake which dwelleth in them . but now , for ample or full communion , i see not how that can be attained and maintained , but where there is antecedent to it , an union both in doctrine and practice , in things necessary to the true constitution and government of the church of christ . and seeing also our differences about these things are not small , or trivial ; it cannot ( i think ) be better ordered , than that a friendly distinction , and brotherly forbearance be permitted as to ample communion ; for that men cannot comfortably nor peaceably join together till they be agreed in these things . i see not that the difference betwixt paul and barnabas was so great ( as to the thing about which they differed ) as the things about which christians differ in these days ; and yet its certain their contention being great ( for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies provoking , gauling , and imbittered speeches , and minds , say the learned ) it is certain they could not transact their affairs in the gospel together , but apart . and this was written perhaps to shew , that a competent unity in judgment must precede our actual communion , and till that be attained among us , there is a necessity ( in regard , partly of human frailty , and partly in regard of some precious truths ) to forbear one another , without destroying the truth to which we have attained respectively . and this is the greatest love we can extend to one another , under these difficult circumstances . . to pity and heartily to pray one for another ; for the servant of the lord must not strive but be gentle towards all men , in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves . . there must be all patience exercised , and compassion shewed to the ignorant , and those that are out of the way , especially where the scruple is tender and conscientious . and in the mean time , the faithful minister of god must hold fast the form of sound words , he must teach the same doctrine which was committed to his trust by the apostles . he must warn others that they teach no other doctrine . he must not give place to jewish , or other fables . and the church must so walk in christ , as they first received him , rooted in the foundation-principles , established and built up in him : not carried about with every wind of doctrine , but speaking the truth in love , must endeavour to grow up into christ in all things . in a word , it is the duty of this brotherhood to stick close to the whole councel of god , and not to partake with other mens sins , or errors in life or religion ; which cannot be done , where contrarieties in doctrine and practice about things necessary to the true state and government of the church of christ , are allowed in the same fellowship or community . love the brotherhood . this fraternity are in a special manner to love one another . . because god himself hath loved them with a special kind of love : and if god so loved us , we ought also to love one another , john . it is happy when the love of christians is founded upon this bottom , viz. the manifestation of god's love to them , and not upon any thing of human excellency ; for this is to have mens persons in admiration , and not to admire this , behold what manner of love the father hath bestowed upon us ! . because this is the sweetest manifestation , that we are the children of god ; for in this is manifest the children of god , john . . namely , that they love their brethren : and every one that loveth , is born of god. and our saviour makes it the true character of christianity : by this shall all men know that ye are my disciples , if ye love one another , joh. . . . because this is the uniting grace among christians , this makes their society sweet , their fellowship desirable , it s a fellowship of love , phil. . . this makes them like david and jonathan , they are bound in one girdle , and their love was wonderful . . because this makes the sufferings of christians easy ; when those that suffer love them , in defence of whose faith they do suffer ; and see themselves beloved of their brethren , even then when all men seem to hate them . this made paul himself rejoice in his sufferings , phil. . , . i rejoiced in the lord greatly , that now at the last your care of me hath flourished again , — ye have well done that ye have communicated with me in my affliction . let us touch the things briefly , which may be sure evidences of this brotherly love. . if then we love the brotherhood , we are much concern'd about them in our thoughts . for what is the object of a man's love , is the subject of his meditation . all true lovers know this by experience ; and let the love of the brotherhood exceed our love in other cases . an instance of this love we have in st. paul , col. . , . for i would that ye knew what great conflict i have for you , and for them of laodicea , and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh : that their hearts might be comforted , being knit together in love , &c. . if we love our brethren , we bear them much upon our heart in our prayers ; we cannot forget them if we rightly love them . paul made mention of him in every prayer of his whom he dearly loved , tim. . . let all christian brethren do so too , for we cannot do less for any of them , or for many of them we can do no more . . if we love the brotherhood , we will esteem them highly , according to the vertues which we see in them , john v. , , . and whom we love we will commend , and advance as much as we can , because it 's the native property of love to do so ; as appears in the interchanges of love in the song of solomon , between christ and his church : and is the way too , to encrease love , as all experience shews . . if we love our brethren , we will to our best defend their reputation against those that injure them . thus paul vindicated not himself only , but those faithful ministers which were with him , when some reported of them that they walked after the flesh , and said , let us do evil that good may come ; whose damnation , for such vile reproaches against the servants of christ , he avers to be just . . if we love the brotherhood , we will to our power relieve their necessities . for he that hath this worlds good , and sees his brother want , and shutteth up the bowels of his compassion , how dwells the love of god in him ? and saith another apostle , if a brother or sister be destitute of daily food , and ye say , be ye filled , and give them not those things that are necessary , what doth it profit ? wherefore let love be without dissimulation . let it be fervent . for to this end were our souls purified in obeying the truth through the spirit , even unto unfeigned love of the brethren , pet. . . . the last evidence . if we love the brotherhood , we will seek and preserve as much as we can , the peace of the whole , and the prosperity of every part . pray for the peace of jerusalem ( saith david ) they shall prosper that love thee ; for my brethren and companions sake i will now say , peace be within thy walls , and prosperity within thy palaces . how greatly does the true son of david , our lord jesus , pray for this blessing upon the whole church , that they all may be one , as he and his father are one ? and what christian will not tremble to think of doing any thing against the tenour of his blessed prayer ? i will conclude this point with a solemn protestation against those evils which chiefly hinder the love of the brotherhood ; and the first is pride . . only through pride cometh contention ( saith the spirit ) ; when men are admirers of themselves , proud , boasters ; they soon become despisers of those that are good , and enemies to the love of the brotherhood . diotrephes being got to this point , presently makes havock of the church , by casting the brethren out of the church that shewed their brotherly love to the travelling ministers . and why ? because he loved to have the preheminence , insomuch as he spared not to undervalue the apostle himself . aproud professor cannot love the brotherhood . . as all proud men are enemies to brotherly love ; so most of all such as take themselves to be infallible about things most disputable , being vainly confident that god is opposed when their impositions are not obeyed . these men commonly drive furiously , rend and tear , if their mandates meet with dislike or non-reception . these men will ever stand strenuously upon niceties , and make things which are doubtful , and meerly indifferent , to become necessary . . those who make gain their godliness , are great enemies to brotherly love , these are called greedy dogs by the prophet , greedy wolves by the apostle ; these seek their own , not the things of christ . they are enemies to him ; their god is their belly , they mind earthly things ; they change with every wind for preferment . they are lovers of their own selves . they teach things which they ought not , for filthy lucres sake . they love not the brotherhood , but their money . thus much to the second point . we come now to the third part of our text. fear god. hence the doctrine has been propounded thus . doct. iii. christians must have an awful fear of god before their eyes , that in matters of religion they may serve him only , and not provoke him by sinful courses , nor by the fear of man. to come rightly to the performance of this duty , we must endeavour to have a right knowledg or belief of this god whom we are to fear , for this our saviour makes to be the weighty part of our religion , faith , and the fear of god. now in this faith , which anteceeds the fear , worship , and service of god , we must consider the essence and attributes of god. in the first , he is infinitely beyond the reach of our knowledg , or finding out unto perfection . job . . it is but a small portion that we know ( or can know ) of him in this world. faith therefore satisfies it self , with knowing that god is : or , that there is one god. that he is a spirit eternal , pure , omnipotent , immutable , invisible , merciful , faithful , holy , just and good ; and that he is infinitely and perfectly so , and whatsoever else may be said to represent him great and glorious ; great in his sovereignty and dominion , glorious in his doings towards the children of men. in a word , faith apprehends or believes this god to be , whatsoever his word declares him to be , which together with his works of creation and providence are the intelligencers to mortals , his good spirit also helping and illuminating all that heartily seek after him . howbeit this faith is not of the same magnitude in all that have it , but 't is of the same nature , — to all that have obtained like precious faith with us , through the righteousness of god , and our saviour jesus christ , pet. . . to fear god , is indeed a duty incumbent upon all men , and not upon christians only . and for the better performance of this great duty , it is good to know the cause , why mankind of all other creatures is bound to fear god ; i say , mankind only , of all sublunary creatures : for from other creatures god expects not this , nor do they pay it to him , not having capacity , and so no necessity on them to do it . but they are subjugated to the fear of man , who is placed over them as supream , psal . . , . gen. . . indeed i do not find that this fear and dread of man , was upon the creatures below him , till after the earth was accursed . it is true a dominion was given man over them in his innocent estate , gen. . . but that he should have ruled them with rigour , as now , i find not , but do conceive that the terrour of man to the brute creatures , and their disobedience to him , are effects of the curse ; and its certain the curse was the effect of sin. but in these things let us not be too curious . now whether in case man had not sinned , he should have been obliged to fear god as now , or whether he should have properly feared god at all , may be enquired here ? to which it may be answered , that seeing god had endued man with excellent reason and judgment , and yet put him in a mutable state , and gave him notice that his state was such , when he gave him a law with a penalty upon the breach of it . in the breach of which he should surely dye , gen. . . it follows that man was even then bound to fear , and to stand in awe of his majesty from the beginning before sin was upon him . so that sin is not the original cause of the fear of god , but his bounty towards man , and absolute sovereignty over him , are the grounds of it . and hence we may learn , how just , how necessary it is for us who are of the fall'n race of adam , not only for that we are under these original obligations , and for that the covenant which we are under as christians , tho a covenant of grace , yet is truly conditional ( whatever some murmur to the contrary ) to fear the god of heaven , and to stand in awe of his majesty . behold therefore the goodness and severity of god! on them that fell , severity ; but towards thee goodness , if thou continue in his goodness : otherwise thou also shall be cut off . rom. . . heb. . . but it is furthermore our duty , for that we are more subject to err than adam was , for all grant he had free-will , and sufficiency of ability to stand had he used it . but tho some of us do hold we have a liberty of will , yet we must all confess our power to be very small , without intervening grace , either to resist temptations , or to do acts of righteousness . not that we are sufficient to think any thing as of our selves , but our sufficiency is of god , cor. . . there is a distinction of fear towards god much spoken of , to wit , a servile fear , and a filial fear . the first they would exclude from a christian . but if by servile fear be intended no more than to fear god , as a good servant is to fear his master , i can see no reason to exclude it : if i be a master , where is my fear ? saith the lord. mal. . . it seems god's servants must fear him . but perhaps the meaning of the distinction is this : by filial fear is meant an holy dread , lest we do any thing that is evil , or leave undone the thing that is good ; and by servile fear , is meant a fear of punishment only . if this be it , i shall say little to it , believing , whoever makes this distinction , would have all men , and specially christians , to fear god so as to depart from all evil , and to do good , lest judgment be the portion of their cup from the lord. fear god ; that is , stand in awe of his majesty , worship and serve him , and him only . sam. . . only fear the lord , and serve him with all your heart . psal . . . he is thy lord , and worship thou him . thou shalt worship the lord thy god , and him only shalt thou serve . mat. . . this is god's right , we must only pay it to him . when peter was put upon this strait , whether to please or fear men , when his service to god was the matter in question , his speech was very frank and resolute , acts . . whether it be right in the sight of god , to hearken unto men more than unto god , judg ye . this then must ever become good christians in matters of religion , to stick close to that which is right in the sight of god , however it may be countermanded by man. the condescensions of holy paul were so wisely attempered , as even then when he was made all things to all men , and paying his debt of love to the wise and unwise , so as to be without law to them that were without law , and under the law to them that were under the law ; yet he was not without law to god , but under the law to christ ; he would not sin to please any , nor do evil that good might come : for the fear of the lord is clean , the beginning of wisdom , and that which must keep us company all our days ; else we lie open to the fiery darts of satan , which will both hit and hurt , where the fear of the lord is absent . therefore blessed is the man that feareth always . this is that grace which held joseph back from uncleanness , nehemiah from self-endedness in god's service , when others made it burthensom : this did not i , saith he , because of the fear of the lord. work out your own salvation with fear and trembling , saith the apostle . i trembled in my self , that i might rest in the day of trouble , saith the prophet . i exceedingly fear and quake , said moses . i am so troubled i cannot speak , said david . and shall we not exceedingly fear , and stand in awe of that majesty , which made these pillars in the church to tremble ? beware of a stupid and careless spirit , for that will soon prove a revolting spirit . jer. . , . david makes that awful fear of god an express duty to all ; psal . . . thou , even thou art to be feared ; and who may stand in thy presence , when once thou art angry ? without a godly fear no service to god is acceptable . heb. . and he is therefore greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints . thus much in general . we shall now endeavour to describe the man that walks in the fear of god , in a few particulars . and , . he that truly fears god , worships and serves him , must be delivered from the fear of man. when david is considering how to fear or serve god aright , psal . . . he tells us , he will walk at liberty ; he will have his heart free from that which hinders due obedience to god. and as to matters of religion , christians are christ's freemen . and therefore our saviour ( who was the most faithful to caesar that ever man was ) in this case absolutely prohibits the fear of man ; fear not him that can kill the body . and it is certain , the fear of man brings a snare , as appears in the case of the pharisees : they could not confess christ , tho they believed in him , for they feared to be put out of their synagogues ; they loved the praise of men more than the praise of god. he that thus fears man , cannot fear god. let us hear the apostle paul , he is plain ; do i now persuade men , or god ? ( that is , do i preach the doctrine of god or man ? ) if i yet pleased men , i should not be the servant of christ . we see here the difference between a faithful christian and minister of christ , and those that serve the times : the latter always preach something that is of man , lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of christ ; the former fears neither men nor angels , so as to give consent to another gospel , or any thing which perverts the gospel of christ . gal. . to . . he that truly fears god , will give to god the things which are god's . this rule , of all others , should be observed by christians , because it proceeds from christ himself , upon such a special occasion , mat. . . as wherein the right of kings , and god's right over men are enquired into , and the case determined by the lord christ , to the silencing his captious adversaries . caesar's right must be given , and god's right must not be with-held . earthly things , or our obedience in civil cases , is here stated upon caesar ; there is therefore a necessity , that obedience in religious cases be due to god , or else he has nothing peculiar in or over us . sith therefore god almighty has reserved all religious obedience to himself , and that we must every man give an account of himself unto god , cor. . let all that fear god , give to him in religious performances , the things which have his image and superscription upon them , lest he reject both the offering , and the offerer , with , who hath required this at your hands ? did not god provide by his express law , that his sacrifices should not be changed at man's will , a good for a bad , nor a bad for a good ? lev. . . does not isaiah cry out against them that presumed to change god's ordinances , as breakers of the everlasting covenant ? isa . . . it fared very ill with nadab and abihu , for offering that fire which god commanded not . levit. . , &c. the corinthians were smote with sickness and death , for prophaning the lord's table with their own supper , cor. . , . david himself was afraid of god , when he altered the manner of carrying the ark of god , chron. . and this instance made him afterwards give to god the things that were god's , namely , to serve him in due order , chron. . let the use of all be , to provoke us to serve god with godly fear , to stand in awe of his word , to serve him with all possible exactness , according to the very rules therein contained , that we may have the commendation of good and faithful servants , as it was in the case of noah , gen. . . thus did noah , according to all that god commanded him , so did he . . he that truly fears god , will ever preserve a good conscience towards god. but this can never be , where the inner man is not pure , and the heart delighted with the service of god. of some we read , that they profess high , but their minds and consciences are defiled , tit. . . others that so walked before the lord , as to gain this reputation , that they did that which was right in the sight of the lord , but not with a perfect heart . chr. . . now god is he that perfectly knows the heart , and searches the heart , and takes pleasure in uprightness ; and he knows , and will make all men know , that as the wilful nectlect of duties , i mean religious duties , are an evidence of an evil conscience ; so the keeping back part , or serving god deceitfully , or serving god under a colour , without conscience of the service , are the same , and shall , with the persons so worshipping him , be rejected , as those that do not fear god. for it shall come to pass in the day of the lord's sacrifice , that he will punish them that swear by the lord , and that swear by malcham ; and them that are turned back from the lord , and them that have not sought the lord , nor enquired after him . zeph. . , . . he that feareth god , will not resist the power of princes ; yet will he do what god commands , tho all the princes in the world forbid him ; nor will he do what god forbids , tho all the princes in the world should command it . what our christian obligations to princes are , i hope to shew , in handling the next direction in our text. we are here only to shew , that no worldly power can make void what god commands , nor make that lawful which god's word forbids . the god of heaven forbids worshipping or bowing down to images or idols , exod. . nebuchadnezzar commands the contrary , dan. . , . under pain of suffering the fiery furnace . now this was a mighty prince , to whom god had given a kingdom , and great glory ; yet shadrach and his companions would not do his command , but told him plainly , they would not serve his gods , nor worship the golden image which he had set up . dan. . . it has been the unhappiness of earthly gods , to countermand the commands of the god of heaven , without which there would have been but few martyrs : but the greatness of their multitude shews the certainty of this truth , that god's will must be obeyed , what troubles soever attend us from the princes of this world for so doing . indeed i find this doctrine owned by most . for the papists themselves , upon acts . . say thus : if any magistrate command against god , that is to say , forbid catholick christian men to preach , or serve god , this same must be their answer , ( meaning that answer which peter gave , &c. ) tho they be whipped or killed for their labour . and dr. fulk allows the note , but yet would not have the papists to have any benefit by it , ( so partial are men , when uppermost . ) we see then , by consent of christians generally , the voice of god must be obeyed in things religious , tho the princes of the earth say nay . and to this agrees the holy psalmist , psal . . . princes sate and spake against me ; that is , they sat on the throne , and dereed things against him : but thy servant did meditate in thy statutes . he would not depart from the ways of god , tho he was persecuted . psal . . . princes perfecuted me without a cause , but my heart standeth in awe of thy word . but here it may be fit to obviate an objection . it will be said , tho it is true , that all that fear god , are bound thus to obey god , and not man , in matters of religion , and to suffer patiently , rather than to sin ; yet whether in things indifferent , which are neither commanded nor forbidden ; if princes here make ufe of their authority , christians are not bound to obey actively ? as for example , about the place of worship , &c. to this it may be answered ; seeing god has forbidden no place , if that were all the business , he were a mad man that would not actually obey ; and consequently he is bound to obey authority in every case that is like it ; as thus : it is a duty for a nation , in a time of common calamity , to humble themselves by fasting and prayer ; and doubtless 't is best this be done at the same time , and none so fit to order this as the magistrate : if therefore authority command the tenth , twentieth , or thirtieth day of such a month , for such a service , i doubt not but he should be guilty of sin , that should in this refuse such time , meerly because it is appointed by the magistrate's authority . and if there be an hundred cases of this kind , the same answer must be given in them all , for ought i see ; or else under pretence of fearing god , we shall dishonour the king , which is a sin of an high nature . tho christians be subjects to princes , yet princes are subjects to god , and in the sphere where god has set them , can do nothing more pleasing to him , than to promote the interest of religion , by discountenancing prophaneness and irreligion , and by giving encouragement to the lovers of it . but then as they are subjects to christ , they are fellow-servants with their subjects , ( yea , the angels think not themselves too high to be called so , rev. . . ) and therefore must with their subjects be obedient to one lawgiver , even jesus , and not assume power to make laws for the consciences of men in religion , nor to force them to go beyond their knowledg and faith in things of that kind , seeing what is not of faith is sin , and we must every one give an account of himself unto god. . the last particular i shall insist upon , as necessary to the true fear of god , is to avoid covetousness and worldly-mindedness . covetousness is said to be idolatry . and he that is a covetous person , makes little further use of religion , than to be a cloak for his iniquity ; he fears not god , he serves not the lord christ , but his own belly ; for this he preaches , for this he prays , and without this he will do neither . these are the men that make merchandize of the word of god , supposing ( as the apostle saith ) that gain is godliness . i meet with a notable passage in our english chronicles ; in the sixth century , 't is said , the clergy of britain set all their mind to serve god , and not the world , the heart , and not the belly : wherefore then were they had in great reverence and honour . but as they encreased in earthly treasure , so they decreased in heavenly treasure . fab. chron. part . cap. . let all that fear god , beware of this evil disease , especially such as are ministers of christ . no man can serve two masters ; ye cannot serve god and mammon , saith our saviour , mat. . . thus much of the fear of god ; let us now consider the debt which we owe to our king. honour the king. altho by the order of our text , we are to speak of this weighty subject in the last place , yet it is not the least part of our duty : for as the ancient christians were wont to speak , so it remains an eternal truth , that as god is above the emperor , so none other is above the emperor but god. and consequently our duty , next to almighty god , is to our prince ; as we see here in our text , the honour of the king is provided for , next to the fear of god. we have already shewed , in the opening of the words , that the king here meant , or immediately spoken of , was an heathen king , and a great idolater in his religion ; and yet the holy-ghost does here oblige all christians , even of the highest rank , to honour such kings , peter himself , and consequently all his successors not excepted ; for indeed he had learned this obedience of one higher than himself , even jesus christ , and therefore must needs recommend the same to all christians . and hence the doctrine is , doct. iv. all christians are bound by gospel-rules to be good subjects to princes , to honour their persons , and conscienciously to obey . their authority . . to evince this great truth , it may be needful to shew , that kingly power or government is of god. not in the sence ( prophanely objected by some writers ) wherein plagues , diseases , and punishments are of god ; for the apostle paul doth expresly contradict such an ungodly exposition , rom. . , &c. wherein he avers , even of the same kingly power spoken of by peter , that it was ordained of god ; that the magistrate was god's minister to the christian man , ( as well as any other ) for good , to execute wrath upon him that does evil. which word , minister , refers evidently to him that bears the sword of justice , and not to the power only , which yet he affirms to be of god , and confirms it by this argument , for there is no power but of god ; the powers that be , are ordained of god. and this is the only comfortable ground of obedience to the higher powers , to be well satisfied in this , that whether it fall out our obedience shall be active or passive , yet therein we conform our selves to the will of god , or to his ordinance ; and he that shall resist the power , does resist the ordinance of god. . that kingly government is of god as clearly , if not more clearly than any other form of government , is very plain from the text it self , considered with the context , vers . , . submit your selves to every ordinance of man for the lord's sake , whether it be to the king as supreme , or unto governours , as unto them that are sent by him , &c. where supremacy over all persons in things civil , is so clearly given to the king by god himself , even over governours , as well as the people governed , that it must in no wise be denied . . if it be objected , that tho the power magistratical be of god , yet the form or mode of it is of man , because ( according to the greek ) pet. . . may be read thus , submit your selves to every humane creature . to this i say ; the words , humane creature , are better understood of the laws made by humane authority , than of the magistrates themselves : for as the most high god , and he only , can give being and power to a divine law , insomuch that no power on earth can create such a law ; so earthly gods , and none but they , can create and give power to an humane law ; and laws thus made , are rightly called humane creatures , or ordinances of men , ( as our english expresses it . ) and when laws are thus made , tho they should happen to be ill laws , ( as it sometimes happens to be so ) yet they must be obeyed , ( either actively or passively ) because the power magistratical must not be resisted ; only the error of an ill law must be refused by all faithful men , especially in matters of religion , as we have shewed before . . this great power which god hath given to kings and rulers of the earth , to make laws , is ( as i conceive ) the chief cause why they are called gods , psal . . . i have said ye are gods , and all of you are children of the most high : that is , because of that resemblance which they have to god himself , being decked with power and majesty , to make and execute laws ( in this lower world ) which concern the children of men as such . . and as to the form of kingly government ( for this is all that i can find in my text ) : let us hear what god himself saith . by me kings reign , and princes decree justice ; by me princes rule , and nobles , even all the judges of the earth . what can be said more in this case ? if any shall say , 't is not god , but wisdom that speaks these words , prov. . , . i answer , it is folly that makes the objection , for this wisdom is the voice of god , because it is the wisdom of god. kings are called the lords anointed . and not only the kings of israel , but even heathen kings also . isa . . . thus saith the lord to his anointed , even to cirus . now cirus was king of persia , ezra . . . . if yet it be said , that government , but not the form of government , is of god , but of human choice , &c. i answer , i speak not of a government to be formed , and not yet in being ; but of one established : and therefore , i say , the distinction is dangerous . but how shall it be a power or government without its form ? does god make an ordinance or any thing else without form ? if so , what can you call it ? it is the form that gives every thing to be , or at least to be called what it is . it 's bad venturing to say , that god makes an ordinance , and leaves man to form it , as to the essentials of it . and seeing no nation can long endure , without government , nor that government subsist without form. it seems necessary that both be acknowledged to be of god ; and consequently , where the form of government is regal or kingly , it is of god , and as such to be had in honour . that god does by his providence order and permit men to transact , order , and settle the mode of government , in nations which yet are unsetled in that respect , does not prove that the form or settlement when made is not of god , or not to be esteemed so ; because in such an emergency , the voice of the people , together with god's providence , must herein be acknowledged the voice of god. for thus in an ordinary way is that saying true , by me kings reign , and princes decree justice . by me princes rule , and nobles , even all the judges of the earth . it was the most high god which gave nebuchadnezzar a kingdom , majesty , glory and honour , dan. . . who then may question his regal power to be of god ? it 's ill murmuring , worse disputing , worst of all to fight against god. surely , if nebuchadnezzar must have this honour given to him as king , even by daniel that servant of god , because by the almighty he was thus exalted , altho otherwise he was a sinful man , a great idolater ; it must needs resolve all doubts that may arise , about the warrantableness of kingly government , and all christians obedience to it , with respect to all kings under whom they live , whatsoever . if it be objected , that some may usurp kingly government , and some that have it may abuse it . i answer ; tho this be true , yet it is nothing to the purpose ; for this is incident to all other forms of government . and when god permits such things , it 's usually for the sins of the people , as it is written , for the transgressions of a land , many are the princes thereof , prov. . . he gave them a king in his wrath : but this was because israel had rejected god , and his prophet samuel . otherwise god had promised to give his people a king , numb . . . yea , the government of moses himself was after a sort a regal or kingly government , deut. . , . if then it so fall out , that kings or other rulers do oppress their subjects , i know no remedy for the subject but prayers and tears , that god would turn their own hearts more to his fear , and the heart of their prince towards them ; ( for the hearts of kings are in his hands : ) and with patient suffering , and humble supplication , to seek for favour . for rebellion must by no means be admitted , for it is as the sin of witchcraft ; being against god , as well as against the king , because it is against the ordinance of god. and hence tertullian well said , the christian knows that the emperor is constituted of god. and saith the prophet , i have delivered all these countries into the hands of nebuchadnezzar : who then may take them out of his hand ? sure none but god , who sets up one , and puts down another , as pleases him . for he that gives can only rightfully take away , and he doth so when men abuse what he gives . mene , mene , takel vpharsin , god hath numbred thy kingdom , and finished it , — and given it to the medes and persians , dan. . , . if it be objected from that passage , they have set up kings , and not by me ; that kingly government is of man , not of god. i answer ; this rather proves the contrary , for here a disorder only is reproved in the way of doing that , which they could not do rightly but by him , that is , god. they so set up a king , as they rejected god , that he should not reign over them , sam. . . hence it was that samuel gave them that reproof and exhortation , sam. . . ye have done all this wickedness , yet turn not aside from following the lord , but serve the lord with all your heart . but god did not deny them a king : no , but he had given them direction how to chuse them a king , deut. . , , . and most certain it is , that of all civil governments which god hath set up in the world , kingly government is the most frequent , and permanent , so far as the scripture gives any account of this matter : and indeed it holds the nearest resemblance to that government which god himself exercises over the world in general ; for he is king of kings , and his kingdom ruleth over all . let us then come more directly to the text , honour the king. and , . of the honour which we owe to his royal person . we must esteem it very highly , and behave our-selves towards him with that fear and reverence which belongs to him , as placed next unto god. my son , fear thou the lord and the king , prov. . . give unto caesar the things which are caesar's , and to god the things which are god's . so the text , fear god , honour the king. we see the king holdeth the next place of honour unto god. hence tertullian , personating the christians of his time , says , we honour the emperour as a man next unto god. and saith optatus , above the emperour there is none but god , who made the emperour . if we will honour the king's person , or esteem him highly , we must not only upon all sit occasions , give him ( with reverence ) his place and titles of honour ; but also defend his person with the hazard of our own , as those did who would not suffer king david to hazard himself , saying , thou art worth ten thousand of us . let us hate to think or speak evil or contemptuously of him whom god hath exalted , and set over us . we find a remarkable instance of true love and loyalty to a prince , sam. . , , . here tho ittai was willed by the king , not to put himself in danger for him , yet he answers thus , as the lord liveth , and as my lord the king liveth , surely in what place my lord the king shall be , whether in death , or in life , even there also will thy servant be . this poor exiled stranger ( for such he was ) shall rise up in judgment against many native subjects , who have done quite contrary hereunto even in our days . . we must honour him in love. sincere love , and loyal affection , as he is king , can in no wise be wanting in a good subject : nor can we honour the king heartily , if we do not love him entirely . now he that truly loves his prince , has him much in his serious thoughts , especially when he prays to the god of heaven : he will not then forget him whom he truly loves , whom he honours in love. if he love him , he will pray for him ; perhaps that is all the good he can do his prince ; and in this a mean subject may serve his king , as much as any , so that his prayer be serious and godly . it is highly observable , how the duty of making prayer for all men , and particularly for kings and rulers , with supplication , intercession , and giving of thanks , is required of christians ; especially of those in the ministry : that by the ministers constant and devout performance of this duty in behalf of all that are in authority , the hearts of the people may be more endeared towards their prince , and themselves hereby instructed to perform their duty , and manifest their love to their governours in like manner , tim. . , . and to enforce the exhortation to this duty , the apostle tells us , that it is good and acceptable in the sight of god our saviour , vers . . . the next demonstration of honouring the king , shall be taken from the manner of our language , and the matter of our discourse when concerned to speak of him , or of his doings . in these we must hate the thoughts of scurrility , or reflecting expressions ; for the tongue is the index of the mind , and we are expresly forbidden to curse or speak evil of the king , even in our bed-chamber ; for these things are so odious , that providence will fight against such as do so , and the iniquity of such doings will return upon the offenders : for a bird in the air shall carry the news , and that which hath wings shall tell the tidings , eccles . . . are they not marked out in scripture for the worst sort of men , that are not afraid to speak evil of dignities ? more daring and presumptuous than angels , who are great in authority , and may lawfully do more than men , yet they dare not bring a railing accusation against the devil , who is the prince of darkness ; but they refer the wrong done to them unto god , who both can and will rebuke him . but why may not the good angels rebuke satan ? why they know ( as wicked as he is ) he could do nothing about the body of moses , nor any thing else , without license from the almighty : he must indeed be withstood in his temptations , but he must not be rail'd on it seems . and then what manner of men are they that will take liberty to rail on their princes , if they do not what they would have them ? nay , tho they should do evil , yet must they in no wise be evil spoken of . thou shalt not revile the gods , nor speak evil of the ruler of my people , exod. . . acts . . object . but have not the prophets reproved kings when they did evil ? i answer , yea ; god reproved them by his prophets frequently . and no doubt that men of god , such as have commission from him , may and ought to deal faithfully with kings and rulers , when they do that which is evil in the sight of the lord. but this is that which is intolerable , that the errors or infirmities of princes should be made the subject of mens discourse : surely they are rather to be lamented before the lord in secret . is it meet to say to a king , thou art wicked ? and to princes , ye are ungodly ? job . . the true sence of these interrogatives is , no. it is by no means thus to reflect upon a king. st. paul having spoken rashly , acts . . corrects and excuses himself , by saying , i wist not , brethren , that he was god's high priest : for it is written , thou shalt not speak evil of the ruler of my people . let christians beware of this evil disease which reigns in these days . let them remember , they are bound by gospel-rules to honour the king , next to god himself . thus much of the honour which we owe to the king's person . let us now consider , how we are obliged by gospel-rules to obey his authority . and here , . let the subject consider how much god has set him below his prince , for obedience seldom issues from a lofty mind . it 's not impossible for a subject , in conceit , to be a prince's mate , and then subjection is death to him . that passage concerning mephibosheth , the son of jonathan , sam. . . was written for our learning . when he considered the majesty of king david , and his own condition as a subject ; what is thy servant ( saith he ) that thou shouldst look upon such a dead dog as i am ? such self-abasing thoughts in a subject ( especially those of low degree ) does argue an heart full of desires to honour him whom god has exalted as his king , and a mind willing to obey him . let christians learn by this example . . our saviour hath led us the right way : give unto caesar the things which are caesar's . but what things are they ? why the things which bear his image and superscription . whose image and superscription is this , says christ ? they say , caesar's . therefore , saith christ , give unto caesar , &c. we may hence fairly infer , that whatsoever bears the king's authority , or is required in his name , must be obeyed . submit your selves to every ordinance of man , for the lord's sake , whether it be to the king as supream , or unto governours , as unto those that are sent by him . mark , if they be sent by him , they bear his image , or superscription , they represent the king ; submit , submit , either actively or passively , here 's no resisting , for here comes caesar . only here it must be minded , caesar's superscription is only to be put to the ordinances of man. none can put a divine character upon a law but god ; and we must give to god the things which are god's , divine obedience , or obedience in all divine things , to god ; civil obedience , or obedience in all civil things , to caesar . thus has our saviour divided the matter of christians ( and all mens ) obedience to god , and to caesar . let us hold to this most just settlement , a better cannot possibly be given . . st. paul will have christians subjection to caesar , to proceed from them of pure conscience , or for conscience sake , rom. . not only wrath. and of this reason wills that we give all the assurance that we can to princes , that we are heartily their subjects ; and willingly obedient in all things which concerns their government over us . this principle of obedience in the heart , will make our obedience to princes delightful and durable ; they that have this good principle in them , will never be weary of any reasonable labour , service , or hazard for their king : where it is wanting , the king can put no confidence in them . this is so reasonable , so necessary , that he that hath not such an heart for his sovereign , is unworthy the name of a subject : he is no subject . from this principle , we are to pay tribute also , rom. . , . and not grudgingly . and when princes see men ready , in conscience of their duty , to serve them as god's vicegerents ; how naturally will this draw back again the influence of all princely favours ? that prince who is thus happy in the obedience of his subjects , will doubtless , as a loving father , contrive the best to make his subjects happy under his government . . how clearly is our duty to our superiors delivered by st. paul , tit. . , &c. put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers , to obey magistrates , to be ready to every good work . let the power be in this or the other form ( for all nations have not the same form of government ) you must not dispute that , you must chearfully obey , as becomes men of a ready mind , to do the good commanded by magistrates ; you must not ask whether they be heathen kings , or christian kings : you must obey all kings or magistrates , for they are god's ministers , attending on this very thing ; i. e. the government of the world : a very necessary thing , without which human society cannot subsist . here is no limitation of time for your subjection to princes , powers , and magistrates ; you are under this obligation so long as st. paul's epistle to titus is canonical . let not then any idle dream of the change of dispensations subvert you from the simplicity of the gospel-rules delivered in this great case , in which the happiness of christian men , as such , is much concerned : for , who shall harm them if they be careful followers of that which is good ? pet. . . but if it so fall out , that notwithstanding your care in this matter , ye must suffer for righteousness sake , then happy are ye , &c. for still religious obedience is due to god , and must be paid to him . . this place , tit. . . commands christians to be ready to every good work . obj. what if the powers command otherwise ? what then ? for answer to this , we know we have an obligation to obey god antecedent to that of our obedience to kings ( as has been shewed . ) he commands us to abstain from every appearance of evil , thess . . . wherefore if the power shall be so unhappy to command otherwise , as it fell out in the case of nebuchadnezzar , dan. . there the penalty must be patiently endured . and then the powers are still obeyed . and tho some vainly upbraid us , that there either is no such thing as passive obedience ; or that our obedience in this is like the obedience of a felon , when he goes to the gallows , &c. such blind byards may be pleased to know , the felon hath ordinarily nothing to chuse , but must necessarily dye : whereas the suffering christian has life and liberty offered if he will but worship so , or so . now here he chuses rather to suffer , than to do that which he conceives ( at least ) to be sin in the sight of god , that so he may be a faithful witness for god ; and therein a blessing to his prince and to his nation , which is his only way to silence the ignorance of foolish men ; whose unwary objections reflect not only upon all true martyrs since the world began , but upon christ himself , who for this cause was hated and persecuted , because he bore witness to the truth , joh. . . and that the works of the world were evil , john . . . but if it should happen that princes should some way intrench upon the civil rights of their subjects ? what then must we do ? what then ? why it is dangerous to contend with them in such cases ; we are taught otherwise by the example of our saviour , in his direction to st. peter , in the case of paying tribute to the roman magistrates , mat. . , , . for it is evident from this place , that our saviour was not obliged by law to pay custom or tribute , but was free in that case ; yet it being demanded , he advises peter to pay it , both for himself , and his master : so careful was he to avoid offences , that he will pay tribute , and advises his followers to do it too , tho it be in their own wrong . a good precedent to all christians to be humble , and not to contend with authority in or about indifferent things : would god they would consider it . . but it may here be demanded , whether princes may not warrantably punish such as submit not to the religion by them established , from the example of king artaxerxes , ezra . . . whosoever will not do the law of thy god , and the law of the king , let judgment be executed speedily upon him , whether it be unto death , or to banishment , or to confiscation of goods , or to imprisonment ? i confess , this objection requires a serious answer . and with submission to better judgments , i shall say a few things in answer to it . and it seems by the scope and contexture of the commission given to ezra by artaxerxes , that these things are evident : . that the king did not himself embrace the religion of the jewish nation , but retained still his former religion ; for tho he did fear the god of israel , yet he never calls him his god , but the god of heaven , and the god of ezra , &c. . that god had by a special providence , and motion from himself , disposed the heart of the king of persia , to give free liberty to the jews , which were captives in his dominions , to go forth to serve their god ; vers . . i make a decree , that all they of the people of israel , and of his priests and levites in my realm , which are minded of their own free will to go up to jerusalem , to go with thee , — to do whatsoever shall seem good to them , after the will of your god. . the king does not only give a present supply to ezra , as a free-will-offering to the god of israel , vers . . but also provides for his necessary supply for the future , out of the king's treasury , vers . . . the king fearing the displeasure of the god of israel against himself and his sons , does require ezra , that whatsoever was required by the god of heaven should be diligently done . . the king also empowers ezra to set magistrates and judges over the people , and in so doing , gave ezra a magistratical power , or made him a magistrate ; and so gives order , that whosoever would not be obedient to him should be punished , vers . , . this is the sum of the commission given to ezra by the king of persia . in all which , nothing appears , that any of his subjects should be compelled to alter their religion , nor be forced to be all of one religion : but a free liberty is given to the jews , ( as well as to others ) to serve their god according to his law , and a restraint laid upon them that would hinder them . and ezra is empowered ( indeed ) to punish those that were under the law of moses , according to that law , if they would not do it ; and such as withstood his authority , as a magistrate , which he received from the king , were to be punished by the law of the king of persia , who had the power of life and death in his hand , which the jewish nation had not at this time . . we may learn hence , that it is indeed a blessed thing for all kings to fear the god of heaven , and to advance the interest of religion in their dominions ; and it is as evident , that religion must always be setled according to the law of god , with the greatest care that may be , and none punished for keeping the law of god ; but for breaking the law of god , and the law of the king , which did concur with the law of god. here were great punishments assigned ; and yet not to be insisted on too rashly , in the times of the gospel , nor in cases purely evangelical , or of the christian religion , as it is dignified above the principles of common reason and morality : in these cases i cannot see how it should be in the power of magistrates to compell any against their will , seeing it's god , not man , that makes christians . ephes . . . we are his workmanship , created in christ jesus unto good works , which god hath before ordained , that we should walk in them . and god gives none the privileges of his children , until they be his children ; nor are they his children , till they be born , not of blood , nor of flesh , nor of the will of man , but of god. john . , . . nor must we deny , but acknowledg , that god's vicegerents are authorized by the almighty to be keepers of both tables , so as to defend his sovereignty , and to encourage true religion , against atheists and idolaters , that worship a creature instead of the creator ; for so it is written , job . , , . if i beheld the sun when it shined , or the moon walking in brightness , and my heart hath been secretly enticed , or my mouth hath kissed my hand ; this also were an iniquity to be punished by the judge , for i should have denied god that is above . now let us write ( or desire the lord to write ) the words of our text in our hearts ; honour all men ; love the brotherhood ; fear god ; honour the king. surely that christian , that shall make it his business to do these things heartily , shall be acceptable to god , and approved of men ; there shall be no occasion of stumbling in him . but if christians be too busy to inspect matters of state , or to meddle with those that contrive or project any thing to the disturbance and subversion of the government in the kingdoms where they live , they shall never be able to recommend their religion ( be it never so good in it self ) to the acceptance of their governors , nor to obtain from them to be nursing-fathers to it ; but shall certainly expose themselves to the displeasure of god , as well as to the wrath of princes . and god himself will vindicate the honour of his ordinance of worldly government , against all that despise it , as well as against all that abuse their power in it ; for there is no respect of persons with god. rom. . . let me therefore exhort you , my brethren , ( as you know it has been my manner these thirty years ) to follow peace with all men , and holiness ; to study to be quiet , and especially in troublesom times ; to fear the lord and the king , and meddle not with them that are given to change , prov. . . many have undone themselves by itching after changes in worldly government . god only knows what is best for you , and for the nation . they that are weary of this , are soon weary of that ; few know what they would have ; and who is able to devise any thing that will please all humors , and suit all interests ? bless god for your prince , and for the peace you have enjoyed under him , and pray for him , and for all that are in authority , that under them ( if the will of god be so ) you may lead quiet and peaceable lives in all godliness and honesty . they that will not pray for all that are in authority , do not fear god , for they contemn his word , tim. . . they do not love , and so they cannot honour the king. you are at present under sufferings , for the consciencious performance of what you believe to be your duty towards god in matters of religion ; humble your selves under the mighty hand of god , and suffer patiently what trials it shall please god to exercise you under , that ( as our apostle hath it , pet. . . ) the trial of your faith being much more precious than that of gold that perisheth , tho it be tried with fire , might be found unto praise , and honour , and glory , at the appearing of jesus christ . i say no more ; the lord direct you . amen . now if it shall please god , to bring this faithful ( tho unpolished ) discourse to his majesties royal hand , i do hereby in all humility prostrate my self at his royal feet , with this humble supplication . that it would graciously please his majesty , according to his wonted goodness , and princely clemency , to consider and pity the distressed condition of many of his faithful subjects , who dissent from the church of england in the case of infant-baptism , and some other ceremonies , and cannot in conscience to god conform to them ; nor deny the exercise of their religion , of which they are convinced , and persuaded to be according to the will of god. o let our lord the king consider , that this is the greatest strait that any honest christian can be put upon , either to deny what he believes to be true , or profess that to be true , which he believes to be otherwise . o let the god of heaven be always his majesties chief counsellour ; that by his direction he may rightly distinguish between those that are harmless in his realm , and such as have abused his kindnesses ( which have been very great , and thankfully to be remembred ) and that the present severities against the innocent may be abated and removed , lest they be made miserable in their native countrey . god almighty bless the king , &c. finis . the second part of the apology for the baptized believers , wherein the grounds of infant-baptism are reviewed : in answer to fourteen arguments , delivered by mr. nathaniel taylor , m. a. in a sermon on matth. . . entituled , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . and therewithal , the reasons of the separation of the baptized believers , from the pedobaptists , modestly propounded . upon the occasion of their great and long-continued sufferings . by t. grantham , a servant of christ . london ; printed for the author . . an apology for the baptized believers , &c. presented to all pious and well-disposed christians in the church of england . sect . i. honoured and beloved brethren , to prevent a mistake , and to remove an aspersion too frequently cast upon us , be pleased to know , that tho we differ from you and others , in some things relating to the constitution and government of a true church , yet we do not therefore arrogate to our selves alone the christian name , nor exalt our selves in our imaginations above others ; but do believe and hope , that the number of the saved ones will be gathered out of all sorts of christians , who heartily love god and our lord jesus christ , and live holily and charitably among men , tho they be diversified in respect of ceremonies , by reason of the place and government where they live : yea , we have charity for all men , who are faithful to the means of grace afforded them , how small soever , knowing that our god delights in mercy , and does not exact the utmost farthing of any man. but for all this , as it is certain there hath been abundance of errors introduced among christians , so it has pleased god to raise up a people still to testify against them , ( the memories of whom are blessed , tho they were frequently persecuted . ) so we believe it a duty incumbent upon us , to bear our testimony to what truth we know , and not to partake with any in their by-paths in life or religion , and yet endeavour as much as in us lieth , after unity and concord with all that fear god , and own the christian profession . to which purpose we have humbly proposed what we thought concern'd us , in order to a better understanding and compliance , in our friendly epistle to the bishops and ministers of the church of england , published some years ago , but has not been publickly taken notice of , till lately one mr. taylor , a person of worth for his integrity , and zeal for the protestant interest , and for his gentle disposition towards such as fear god , tho differing from him in the case of ceremonies . it hath pleased him ( i say ) to take notice of our said epistle , and to offer something in order to a composure of differences , which i confess , with him , to be a thing greatly to be desired . but then he is pleased to shew us nothing of mitigation , or hopes of the removal of the things which hath occasioned our disunion , but does rather wholly charge the cause of division upon us , and supposes our difference about baptism , to be the chief cause of our dissenting from the church of england . but tho this is indeed a matter of great importance , because true baptism is antecedent to church-communion ; yet that which is greater in our judgment , is that open prophaneness , which , god knows , reigns and rages in the church of england , and therewithal , the utter neglect of discipline to reform those iniquities ; and also that persecuting spirit , which appears even in too many of the guides of the church , by whose cruelty our sufferings have been much augmented . for these causes we have thought our selves concerned to make this our christian apology , in which we crave leave to use that freedom of speech which the matters depending do require . and yet , seeing we must acknowledg that we are not infallible , ( as neither does the church of england pretend so to be ) we shall speak under correction , and by the help of god , with resolution to submit to a clear conviction , if indeed it shall appear , that the things wherein we dissent are justifiable on the part of the church of england ; but till this be done , it would be hypocrisy and baseness in us , to violate our consciences in things pertaining to religion , to obtain favour from men ; for if we should so please men , we should not be the servants of christ . gal. . . and we do the 〈◊〉 desire to be heard at this time ; partly , for that mr. taylor is pleased to impute folly to us , in separating from the church of england , because we allow of the most of the thirty nine articles ; but especially being thereunto required by some of eminency and great authority in the church of england , who also told us , that unless we could shew , that the church of england does hold some error in point of faith , or that she does practise something in her religion which is sinful , we cannot justify our separation from her . and whether we be able on this wise to vindicate our present separation , is the business which we pray may be seriously considered . sect . ii. a brief account of the reasons why the baptized believers cannot conform to the ceremonies of the church of england . reserving all due honour to the church of england , so far as she holds the truth in the thirty nine articles , and as she is a good fortress against much popish superstition and idolatry ; we shall humbly make our objections in three particulars , . concerning infant-baptism . . concerning her discipline . . concerning her imposing of ceremonies . from all which we think we may safely argue thus : it is lawful , just , and needful , to maintain a prudent and friendly separation from such a church , as does believe , hold , and maintain such things , as are evidently and actually destructive of that christian liberty , wherewith christ hath made his churches free ; and of that sacred baptism , and holy discipline , which christ ordained to continue in all churches to the end of the world. but the church of england does believe , hold , and maintain such things , as are evidently and actually destructive of that christian liberty , wherewith christ hath made his churches free , and of that sacred baptism , and holy discipline , which christ ordained to continue in all churches , to the end of the world. ergo , it is lawful , just , and needful to maintain a prudent and friendly separation from the church of england in her present parochial constitution . supposing the major is not to be denied by any christian , we shall endeavour to make good the minor. to begin with sacred baptism . it is evident from the scripture , and partly from the confession of the church of england , that the things prerequisite to baptism , on the part of every one who is to be joined with the church militant , or to be baptized , are these : . they ought to have the gospel preached , or some way made known to them . . to believe the gospel . . to repent of sin. and , . willingly to put on christ in baptism . or to express it in short : they are , first , to be dead with christ ; and then , secondly , to be buried with christ by baptism . now that the church of england does hold such things as are evidently and actually destructive of this baptism , may in our judgment be thus proved : . she believes , holds , and does teach others to hold , that all , or the very most of her church-members are regenerate , without hearing the word of god , without faith , without repentance , or any knowledg of god ; and so believes what neither we , nor any body else can understand to be true , and errs in faith. . yet she does not believe that her members are regenerate at all , till she cross or sprinkle them with water ; neither does she know ( because she has no ground to believe ) that infants are thereby made anew , so as to become the children of god , and heirs of heaven ; and believing this without possibility ( ordinarily ) to know it to be true , she errs in faith. . she believes , and maintains , that those ought to be baptized , whom she knows do not , cannot believe , nor repent , nor in any measure know god , nor any duty of religion ; and herein she errs ( as we conceive ) concerning the faith. . she believes and maintains , that sponsors do believe and repent for infants , or that infants do perform faith and repentance by their sponsors ; and believing these things , and teaching her youth to believe them , without any ground from the word of god , she believes amiss , or errs in faith. . she holds , that persons may lawfully be baptized when they are asleep , and does actually pretend to baptize infants when they are asleep , which we think verily must needs be a very great error both in faith and practice . . she believes , holds , and maintains , that crossing or sprinkling is a lawful way of baptizing , when indeed it is no baptizing at all . insomuch as those that use that mode , dare not speak as they act , saying , i sprinkle thee in the name , &c. their conscience bearing them witness , that the sacred act of baptizing in the name , &c. cannot be expressed by the word , sprinkling : they therefore believing what they know is not true in this matter , must needs err in faith , as well as in their practice . and this error has in a manner destroyed the way of baptizing used by john baptist , christ and his apostles . . thus tho we grant , that the church of england is no less zealous for the doctrine of baptism than our selves , yet it is apparent to us , that she hath accidentally lost this holy ordinance , both in respect of the subject and manner of it , and in the due use and end of it , which was not appointed ( nor fitted ) to receive new-boru infants into the church militant . and by this unwarrantable change she has defaced the state , and lost the praise of a true church , cor. . . because she has not kept this ordinance , as it was delivered by christ and his apostles ; but hath rather suppressed it , and much oppressed those that labour to restore it to its due use and practice in all churches , which is a great aggravation of all these her errors in faith and practice , concerning sacred baptism . sect . iii. concerning discipline . what manner of discipline the church of christ ought to observe , is sufficiently declared , matth. . cor . thess . . tit. . and other places . and it is very well expressed by a minister of the church of england , in his def●nce of the thirty nine articles of the church of england , in these words : the manner of proceeding in excommunication is , first by gentle admonition , and that once or twice , given with the spirit of meekness , even as a brother , if the fault be not notoriously known , and next , by open reprehension ; afterward by publick sentence of the church , to put him from the company of the faithful , to deliver him to satan , to denounce him an heathen , and a publican , if no admonition will serve , and the crimes and persons be very offensive . thus he . and to this discipline we can heartily subscribe , it being indeed the very same which is religiously observed by the baptized believers in this age and nation . but where now shall this discipline be found in the church of england ? does any one assembly , or court , of the church of england observe it ? or does she not practise that in her courts , which is too evidently destructive of it ? for so far as we can understand , instead of this brotherly admonition , men are clandestinely presented and accused , and often excommunicated for they know not what . what man is now taught or bound by any order of the church of england , that in case his brother trespass against him , by defaming his reputation , offering injury to his person , or by wronging him in his substance , to take that brotherly course prescribed to all christians , mat. . ? or if he would take this course , what congregation is empowred or allowed to hear or determine the strife , as sin is in such cases committed against god ? we see not how it is possible for the offended , to do his duty in an orderly way to the offender ; if he go about it , he shall probably be derided both by teacher and people : so far is he from obtaining justice against the offender , in any congregation of the church of england , because the ancient discipline is an unknown thing to the people generally . and for want of this christian government , are men continually exposed to suits and troubles in courts of law , wherein the poor can have small help ; as it is written , eccles . . . ( old translation ) if thou seest the poor to be oppressed , — marvel not , — for one great man keepeth touch with another , and the mighty men are in authority over the poor . . but that which is more grievous : we do not see that open prophaneness can be met with , or suppressed by your discipline : for suppose a man be given to swearing , lying , drunkenness , and lascivious talking , ( as god knows , a great number of the members of the church of england are known to be such ) your discipline seems to have no power in such cases : for thus saith one of your own ministers : who minds canon , that prohibits common swearers , common drunkards , notorious whoremasters , and whores , &c. from the blessed sacrament of the lord's supper ? do not even bishops hear men swear a thousand oaths , and either do not , or dare not use any discipline against them ? but now if a good man do not stand up , and bow to the altar at the name of jesus , when the creed is read , because he dares not pay greater reverence ( in a religious way ) to any writing , than he pays to the holy scriptures ; if he dares not use the sign of the cross in baptism , nor sprinkle his child , &c. then shall he be prosecuted as a great sinner , cast to the devil , and laid in prison ; yea , he is sentenced already : for in canon . thus we read : whosoever shall affirm , that the rites and ceremonies of the church of england are — superstitious , or such — as men who are zealously and godlily affected , may not with any good conscience approve them , use them , or as occasion requireth , subscribe unto them ; let him be excommunicated ipso facto , and not restored , until he repent , and publickly revoke such his wicked errors . . thus ( as we conceive ) the discipline of righteousness , mercy , and charity , established by christ , is laid aside ; and a mercenary court set up , holding the traditions of men , instead of christ's institutions , in ecclesiastical government , who also live voluptuously upon the sins of the people . but as for the reformation of evil manners , or the making peace and concord , alas ! it is not sought for , nor indeed expected from these courts . and as the reverend grosthead said at rome , when he saw all things ruled by money , so may i say of the courts under consideration , o money , money , what wilt thou not do there ? as for the opprobrious language prohibited by the canon , we think it uncomely for any to use it , tho we dissent from the ceremonies themselves . sect . iv. concerning imposing of ceremonies . . all divine ceremonies ordained by christ , or his apostles , we reverence , and religiously observe and keep , as they were delivered . . that any church since their days , hath just power to make and ordain divine ceremonies , to be any necessary parts of the worship of god , we see no ground to believe ; much less , that such ceremonies may lawfully be imposed under pain of excommunication , banishment , imprisonment , loss of estate and life . for tho it is certain , god has given power to the rulers of the world , to make , change , or disannual laws in point of civil government ; yet we believe all the power on earth cannot make one institute or divine ceremony in religion . and therefore we cannot but think the church of england erred from the rule of righteousness , in decreeing rites and ceremonies which god has not commanded . . for when we see how sharply fome were reprehended by st. paul , for bringing the christian churches in galatia under some legal ceremonies , which once had a divine original and use in the church of god , as invaders of the liberty wherewith christ had made them free ; averring also , that if they were subject to them , christ should profit them nothing . gal. . , . we can see no ground to free the protestants from sin , who either take up scriptureless ceremonies from the papists , or invent ceremonies themselves ; but least of all , when they force men , will they , nill they , to conform to such ceremonies , or else to be ejected , and delivered up to satan . and surely it was very unreasonable for her bishops to consent to a law , that pious men , only dissenting in these things i from the church of england , should be banished , or else hanged as felons , without benefit of the clergy . and we humbly desire , that the severity of that law may be considered and mitigated . . but if it shall be said , that the ceremonies of the church of england , ( as the sprinkling of infants , the sign of the cross in baptism , bowing to the altar , to name no more at present ) are not sinful ; then how shall we be ever able to reprove a papist , for using holy water , bowing to the image of christ ? &c. certainly , if we must submit to the ceremonies of the church of england , in her present constitution , we must submit to theirs too , where they have power on their side to enforce them . but he that shall impartially consider what a learned protestant hath said of the sinfulness of that one ceremony of the sign of the cross in baptism , in his book entituled , against symbolizing with antichrist in ceremonies , will see great cause to avoid touching with any such inventions , however they may be supposed to have had an harmless use among christians at the first . but who sees not , that when such ceremonies have got the reputation of religion upon them , and are forced on by humane laws , what incredible miseries they have brought upon the christian world ? how have they lorded it over kings and kingdoms , over the estates , liberties and lives of christians ? who sees not , that being thus set up , they are sometimes more set by , than sincere faith , and an holy life ? as if all true religion ( and loyalty too ) were only to be judged of according to mens submission to those humane innovations . for it is notorious , even in this our land , that let a man but conform to all the ceremonies , he shall live honourably , let his life be never so debauched almost : but let a man refuse these ceremonies , out of conscience to god , because they are not from heaven , then he is envy's mark , let his life be never so just and harmless . such effects should lead us to consider what the causes are . and because we are speaking of ceremonies , we crave leave to enquire , what means the ceremony of the ring in marriage ? why are we forced not only to use it , but to use it in the name of the father , and of the son , and of the holy-ghost ? the church of england blames the papists for saying marriage is a sacrament ; but shall we then make a sacrament of a ring ? sure you make the ring as sacred in marriage , as you make the water in baptism . such usages as these , we fear , give the papists too much cause to use this speech , a protestant is but a papist scar'd out of his wits . it is not then any thing of prejudice or obstinacy , which makes us to stand off from the communion of the church of england , but an unfeigned desire to serve god aright , and a godly fear , lest by touching with these unwritten traditions , we should bring our souls under guilt in the sight of god. howbeit , if any can convince us , that the church of england is justifiable in these things here objected , we shall suspect our selves to be mistaken in other things , which we here mention not . now may it please the god of heaven , to put it into the hearts of the guides of the church of england , to consider these things . . that none of these ceremonies about which we differ from them , are required of christians in the holy scriptures . and that therefore , . to enforce them by excommunication and penal laws upon the consciences of men , is more than god requires of you , or any body else . and surely if the making these things necessary to our communion were but removed , so that things which are not delivered in the word of god were left at liberty , we should not stand at so great a distance from the church of england , as now we do : for tho we are verily persuaded , that these things objected against by us are errors , and therefore prudently to be amended ; yet we believe the imposing of them is a thousand times more offensive in the sight of god , and more grievous to the souls of men , because ( as we conceive ) god's authority is then usurped by man , and mens fear towards him is then taught by the precepts of men. and yet we know , and indeed must confess , that many things , as to the more convenient performance of religious services in a church-way , are left to the prudence of the church , guided therein by the general rules in the word of god ; and some things also ( which are not of the essence of christianity ) will seem doubtful to some , and clear to others . and therefore there will be a continual necessity of brotherly forbearance one towards another , in some sinless ceremonies , as many things may be so esteemed , whilst not made the boundaries of communion , and forced upon christians against their consciences . for example : tho sitting be the most safe gesture at the lord's table , because nearest to christ's example ; yet if any in humility , and of devotion to god , think it their duty to receive kneeling , this surely cannot justly offend any christian . and thus also bowing at the name of jesus , being left at liberty , when , where , and upon what occasion the conscience of a christian may be most pressed to do it , need not offend any , tho it is apparent such bowing is not the meaning of the text , phil. . . and the same may be said of well-composed prayers ; so that still such forms be used as a matter of christian liberty , and not imposed by law as necessary . and could things be managed with such moderation , ( as certainly the state of the inhabitants of this land does much call for it ) in a friendly and brotherly spirit , 't is hoped our animosities would abate , and charity would endear all that are upright towards god one towards another , tho labouring under many weaknesses , or dark circumstances . but whilst one party stands up with a sword in their hand , or with power to thrust men into goal , and rifle their estates , unless they will all submit to their will and pleasure , not only without , but perhaps in some things against the word of god , ( the pretended rule to all protestants in matters of religion ) this lays a necessity upon all that are of noble and truly christian spirits , to testify against such cruelty , and unmanly proceedings , and to assert the true christian doctrine and liberty , and christ's sovereign authority only , to make laws for his church , as such , altho for so doing they suffe the loss of all things which are dear to them in this world ; and therewithal , to stand off from the communion of such unreasonable men , as have not learned to do to others , as they would have others to do to them under their differing opinions , when in a state of subjection to those who differ from them . thus much briefly of the reasons or causes of our separation . we will now consider what mr. n. taylor brings to make good poedobaptism . and the rather , because he says he has defended infant-baptism both by scripture and reason . let us hear how he doth this . mr. nathaniel taylor' 's fourteen arguments for infant-baptism , considered and answered . before we answer his arguments , we will take notice of some of his concessions . and , . he saith , baptism of water is not absolutely necessary to salvation . pag. . . he tells us , st. paul joins the word of god with this baptism , in order to the purifying christ's church , that acting on the soul , and this terminating on the body . and that st. peter's assertion is clear that it is not water purifying the flesh , but the answer of a good conscience towards god that saveth . pag. . . he tells us also , that the premising the word disciple ( matth. . . ) implies none to be capable of baptism , who are not disciples of christ , and members of the church . pag. . . and further , that christ would have his ordinances performed by an external administration , wherein the subject might be in the nearest capacity of understanding . pag. , . . he grants , that childrens baptism , and church-membership , are not mentioned in the new testament . pag. . from all which a man may very fairly argue , and conclude against infant-baptism thus . if infants are undoubtedly saved without baptism ; and are members of christ's church without baptism , and that the word of god must act upon the soul in true baptism , so as that the subject of baptism must have the answer of a good conscience : and if none be capable of baptism , till they be disciples of christ , according to matth. . . and ought to be in the nearest capacity of understanding what is done in the external administration of baptism . and if infant-church-membership and baptism be not mentioned in the new testament ; then infants ought not to be baptized . but all this is true , saith mr. taylor : therefore i conclude infants ought not to be baptized . and thus his book ( i will not say ( as he ) may be soon blown away ; but it ) may seem to be soon answered : and his learned title very unsuitable . for how shall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , when it is not mention'd in the new testament ; can that be orthodoxal baptism which is not mentioned there ? sure this is incredible . but let us hear his arguments , by which he undertakes to vindicate infant-baptism both by scripture and reason . mr. taylor 's argument . if our christian privileges be as great as the jews were , then our children are rightly baptized : but our christian privileges are as great as the jews were : therefore our children are rightly baptized . answer . because mr. taylor says he offers his reasons for infant-baptism , in order to a composure of differences , and i do believe he means as he says ; i shall therefore endeavour to answer them with all love and sincerity , as becomes a christian . and , i say , . that upon a fair distinction , both propositions may be denied . for , if the question be of external privileges only ; then whether we respect outward advantages in the world , or rites and ceremonies in the church pertinent to infants ; the minor is to be denied : for the jews were under a sure promise of a fruitful land , and external peace and glory , as a nation , whilst they did truly walk according to the laws of god , of which advantages their children were partakers as well as others . but on the other side , the christian church by how much she is more faithful , by so much the more is she subject to persecution : as may be seen in the differing estate of the faithful church at smyrna , rev. . , . and the unfaithful church at laodicea , rev. . . or if we rerespect rites and ceremonies , then 't is certain , even in the judgment of all christians , the jews had more ceremonies belonging to their infants , than belongs to christian infants . for besides the rite of circumcision , there was an offering to be offered for them , and they were to be presented in the temple , and to partake of the passover , exod. . , . ( and therefore mr. taylor does ill to deny it , pag. . ) whereas the poedobaptists only contend for the external rite of baptism to belong to their infants . but if by the word privileges in the argument be meant some higher thing than external ceremonies , then the minor is true : for as god was gracious to infants in the jewish nation , as to the business of salvation : so is he such to the infants of every christian nation in the world. but if now you be displeased , because i do not prefer , or at least equalize christians infants with jewish infants , in respect of external ceremonies . then let me freely tell you , that i do believe the privileges of christians is greater than the jews , even in this , that god accepts our infants to his grace , and to glory , without imposing the burthen of any ceremony at all upon them . for seeing he has by the gospel taken away that bloody ceremony of circumcision , and by our lord christ declared infants to have right to the kingdom of heaven , without imposing any ceremony upon them instead of circumcision , i say , herein our privileges are greater than the jews , and in this sense i confirm your minor. but then i deny the consequence of your major : for you may plainly see that our christian privileges ( when compared with the jews ) stand not in having external ceremonies , but rather in being freed from them . even as it cannot be doubted but that the children of seth , henoch , and noah , &c. had as great privileges as the jews , and yet it is certain [ and plainly confessed by augustine ] that they had no ceremony or sign of regeneration belonging to them that we read of . aug. de civ . dei , lib. . cap. . thus your chief fort being demolished , what reasons you bring to defend it signifie nothing ; however we shall meet with them in the following arguments . mr. taylor 's argument . those who were circumcised under the law , may be baptized under the gospel : but children were circumcised under the law : therefore they may be baptized under the gospel . answer . . i answer to the major . if by [ those ] you mean all those that were circumcised under the law : then the major is not true . for first , all male-servants which were bought with money , must needs be circumcised , they might not else dwell in the family : ( gen. . , , . exod. . , , . ) but no such imposition is laid upon families under the gospel , cor. . . if by [ those ] you mean infants , then i deny your major : for tho infants were circumcised under the law , it does not follow that infants may be baptized under the gospel : nor do your arguments , brought to make it good , prove it at all . for , . tho baptism succeeds circumcision as the sacrament of initiation , yet it does not follow , that the same persons , or persons no otherwise qualified than the infants of the jews , or servants bought with money , are to be admitted to baptism ; because circumcision belonged to the natural seed of abraham as such , whether in the covenant or no ( as in the case of ishmael , ) and to his servants as such . but baptism being the sacrament or washing of regeneration , belongs to those who are born from above ( as such ) ; hence 't is said , gal. . . we are abraham's seed , because we are christ's , so , as to have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts : gal. . . and not that they are christ's , because they are abraham's seed . this vast difference therefore between the communicants of the church jewish , and the church christian , shews a great difference between the carnal ordinances of the law , and the spiritual ordinances of the gospel : so that it is no good arguing from infants right to the one , to their right to the other . . you say our children are as capable of being baptized , as the jews were of being circumcised . but this is denied : for the jews had a command to circumcise infants , and that made them capable of that ceremony ; but without a command none were capable of it : for some infants might be as capable of circumcision in respect of strength , on the seventh day , as others on the eighth day ; but the command not empowering any to circumcise till the eighth day , made all children that died before the eighth day uncapable of circumcision . again , you will not say that any man , as such only , is capable of baptism , because you grant they must first be disciples , and , as such , baptized . nor will you say , that all infants , as such only , may be baptized , because you do not think god has required the infants of the turks to be baptized . so then , unless you can shew that god has required our infants to be baptized , they have no capacity for it . we conclude then , whatever may be urged as a capacity for baptism , yet without a command from god , to baptize our infants , is meer will-worship and presumption . . you say , that the precept of receiving parent and child into covenant stands unrepealed to this day . but if by receiving into covenant , you mean a receiving to the duties of the covenant , what you say is not true ; for the covenant of circumcision is repealed . gal. . . behold , i paul say unto you , if ye be circumcised , christ shall profit you nothing . and there was never any covenant , but the covenant of circumcision , which obliged parents to bring their infants to the ceremonies of religion : so then infants are not under the burthen of any ceremonies of religion at this day . i marvel you should here say , there is no countermand of the ancient jewish practice of receiving children to circumcision . either the printer has wrong'd you , or else you hold the jews are yet bound to circumcise their infants . . you argue from christ's being proposed as mediator of a better covenant , that therefore this great privilege ( you mean , bringing infants to ceremonies of religion ) is not repealed . but the truth is far otherwise ; for the covenant of christ as mediator , is therefore better than the covenant of the law , because he has taken these ceremonies out of the way , and accepts poor infants without any other ceremony instead of them ; yea , the covenant is therefore better to believers themselves , in that they are obliged but to a very few ceremonies , whilst the jews laboured under a burthensom yoke of many ceremonies . and if your way of arguing were good , it would prove , that the gospel is worse to believers , than the law was to the adult jews , because they had abundance of religious privileges , to wit , ceremonies , and believers have but a very few . now who would think , that wise and good men should thus grope at noon-day ? . you quote acts . , . and say , that this text expresly avers your conclusion . but it is certain , the promise there , is not of bringing infants to any ceremonies , and so does not at all favour your conclusion ; for the promise being of the pouring out of the gifts of the holy-ghost , according to the prophecy of joel , concerns not infants in infancy , saith dr. jer. taylor . and as for the precept in the text , [ to wit , repent , and be baptized every one of you , ] 't is as certain that concerns not infants ; for infants are just persons , which need no repentance , and consequently as little need the baptism of repentance . i rather therefore adhere to dr. jer. taylor , than to mr. nath. taylor in this case ; and i find that erasmus and diodate do expound this text as we do . . now , sir , your great strait seems to be this : you think the children of heathens have as great privileges as we allow to the infants of christians . let me answer freely ; i do believe , that through the grace of christ their infants , dying such , are in as sure a capacity for salvation as our infants . and why should this offend , that seeing infants are equally concluded under sin in the first adam , god should have equally mercy upon them in the second adam . nay , does not mr. taylor himself tell us , p. . that it 's dreadful to believe , that all infants which die unbaptized , are damned . and that any of them shall be damned , he cannot prove , seeing he says , he cannot implead them of sin , in not being baptized , being not capable of desiring it . well , i thank him for this , and shall requite him by granting , christians infants are more happy in some gracious respects , than the infants of the heathen , being the seed of many prayers , and piously devoted therein to almighty god from the womb , and have the advantage of an early education in the christian religion , that they may be as timely baptized as may be : on the other side , the infants of the heathens are perhaps devoted to idols , as the jews did sometimes devote theirs to moloch . but yet , as we do not think that god sent the jews infants to burn in hell , because their parents burnt them to moloch ; so neither ought we to think , that he will punish the infants of the heathen with devils , because their parents devoted them to idols ; for as for poor infants , what have they done ? . you answer not our objections , by saying , the covenant of grace , gen. . , . is permanent to the worlds end , &c. for tho this were true , yet that the ceremonies which there accompany that covenant , were to continue to the world's end , and should pertain to infants to the world's end , you neither believe your self , nor can any man prove , that any ceremonies by order from christ should belong to infants to the world's end , seeing it is granted , that infant-baptism is not mentioned in the new testament . and if i yield you your five considerations following , pag. . i do not see that you gain any thing as to the point in question ; i therefore proceed . . i think you mistake , where you write that we say , those that had right to circumcision were a spiritual seed ; for we know that the carnal seed had right to it : what therefore you would build upon this mistake falls of it self . but whereas you would infer , that baptism , as well as circumcision , belongs to the carnal seed , it is certainly a great error . it is true , some that are hypocrites may come to sacred baptism , but then they profess ( at least ) to be otherwise , and are not admitted as hypocrites , nor as men only , ( as you seem to urge , numb . , p. . ) but as they declare themselves christians , or spiritual . and therefore it is said of the whole church , ye are all the sons of god by faith in christ jesus ; for as many as have been baptized into christ , have put on christ . gal. . , . and again , col. . ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands , in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh , by the circumcision of christ . [ therefore , rom. . ] we are buried with him in baptism . and besides this , your church makes baptism a visible sign of an inward or spiritual grace ; and does affirm of all whom she admits to baptism , that they are regenerate , and born anew : which shews that in this point we agree , that the inward work of grace should be in all that are baptized . . i grant , that jeremiah and john baptist were sanctified , or separated to god from the womb , the one to be a prophet , the other to be the fore-runner of our lord christ ; yet i deny , that these extraordinary cases are to be made the rules for us to baptize by . god knows what we will be from our birth to our death ; but these things are hid from us . things revealed and commanded belong to us . we may not presume to think either of men or infants above what is written ; to say , this is sanctified from the womb , and that not ; this is a believer , and that not , &c. but shew us a rule to baptize infants , and we will dispute no further . mr. taylor 's argument . those who are within the covenant of grace , may be baptized : but children are within the covenant of grace : therefore children may be baptized . answer . . the major being taken universally , for all that are in the covenant of grace , then it is to be denied ; for god never made that the rule of baptizing . nay , when circumcision was in the greatest use , yet all that were in the covenant of grace were not to be circumcised . such were the many thousands of male infants , who died before they were eight days old ; these were in covenant , and their salvation as sure as if they had been circumcised . the females also were in covenant , yet not to be circumcised . if you say they were not capable , learned authors tell you otherwise , and name some nations who circumcise both sexes to this day . by this you see your major runs upon a false supposition . . and if by those who are within the covenant , you mean some of those , then your argument comes short of the question , viz. whether all that are in the covenant of grace may be baptized ? but let us try your minor. the covenant of grace hath two parts , . a declaration of god's mercy in mans redemption ; in this respect i grant , infants are within the covenant of grace . . a declaration of mans duty in point of faith and obedience ; in this sence i deny infants to be in the covenant . let us hear therefore how you confirm your minor. . you say , it is verified , in that baptism is the seal of the covenant now , as circumcision was under the law , &c. and therefore those who are under the participation of the covenant , may be admitted to the seal , &c. . but why do our brethren of the church of england speak of the seal in the singular ? they used to tell us , the covenant has two seals , to wit , baptism , and the table of the lord. and i will abide by it , that the lord's table is as truly a seal of the covenant , as baptism . yet you deny infants this seal , tho you know when they first baptized infants , they also brought them to the lord's table , and this custom continued six hundred years . but i deny your consequence ; it follows not , that all that are in covenant may have the seal of baptism . and you tell us , that god's grace is universal , pag. . yet you will not say that baptism is universal ; it belongs but to those who restipulate , and enter into covenant upon the terms of faith and repentance . acts . . when they believed , &c. they were baptized , both men and women . and here the city of samaria generally received the gospel , and yet not an infant baptized . . but how shall i understand you , where you say , that children never excluded themselves from the covenant of grace , because not actual vnbelievers , and none but such were ejected ? and where you presently say , they have the covenant belonging to them with their believing parents ? have infants no benefit by the covenant of grace , unless their parents believe ? alas ! poor infants ! but sure god does not exclude infants from the covenant of grace , made for mankind in christ , because their parents believe not ; no , i will hold to your first saying , that none but actual vnbelievers are rejected . . that the holiness mentioned , cor. . . is only legitimacy , or lawfulness of birth , you would have to be only a gloss of the anabaptists . but how can you fairly take it for any other , seeing it is taken immediately from the sanctification of the unbelieving husband , as the word [ else ] being rightly referred , makes evident . upon which consideration , erasmus expounds this place expresly as we do , yet he was a poedobaptist . and austin long before him said , whatever that holiness is , cor. . . it is certain it is not of power to make christians , or remit sins . sir , if you consider the scope of the place , cor. . you will find , some in that church were in doubt whether they might dwell with their unbelieving yokefellows . st. paul resolves the doubt in the affirmative , and gives this reason for it : the unbelieving husband is sanctified to the believing wife ; and if he were not so , their children were unclean , but he being sanctified , their children were clean ; for marriage is honourable among all , and the marriage-bed undefiled , heb. . therefore let not the husband put away his wife , nor the wife depart from her husband . . what you say further to this argument , being built upon a wrong supposition , viz. that we deny infants to be within the covenant of grace , falls of it self . for we say with you , till they by actual unbelief exclude themselves , the grace of god extends to them , as well as to others , in respect of their salvation . mr. taylor 's argument . those who have right to the blessings of the covenant , have right to baptism : but children have right to the blessings of the covenant : therefore they have right to baptism . answer . . this argument is upon the matter the same with the former , and therefore upon the former distinction the major is denied : for tho infants have right to all the blessings of the covenant which they have need of , yet they have no right to the duties of the covenant , which they have no need of , because god requires no duties of them . . and tho you say , that our concession ( that infants are within the covenant of grace ) proves that infants have right to all the privileges of the covenant ; yet this is contrary to your own judgment , for you your selves deny them right to the lord's table , and indeed all other privileges , as much as we do , except your crossing and sprinkling them . what you say further here , is often repeated , and will be considered in the following arguments ; and if i repeat in my answers , you have compelled me . mr. taylor 's argument . those who are capable of being engaged in covenant with god , are capable of baptism : but children are capable of being engaged in covenant with god : therefore children are capable of baptism . answer . . this argument , ( as most of the rest ) may be retorted thus ; they that are capable of being engaged in covenant with god , are capable of the lord's table : but infants are capable of being engaged in the covenant , &c. ergo , they are capable of the lord's table . which sufficiently shews the unsoundness of your argument . but let us examine the proof of your major . . to this purpose you tell us , that infants are in the power of their parents , to dispose of , as to temporals and spirituals . and your reason is , because parents are obliged to take the greatest care imaginable of their childrens souls , for their education in the fear of god. well , now i see why you use not the word infants , but children , all along in your arguments : you know that infants , such as you sprinkle , are not capable of any education at all . they cannot be taught the fear of god. they then cannot be engaged in covenant by the means of education , nor can they in that state be brought up in his service , in respect of religious ordinances : so that instead of proving , you have lost your minor. . what you argue , from deut. . , , . will never prove that infants are capable of entering into covenant with god in their own persons ; but that their parents did engage to bring them up in the laws of god ; and what this is to the purpose , i do not imagine . is it therefore my duty to baptize my children , without a command from god to do so , meerly because by the covenant of grace , and rules of christianity , i am to do my best to teach my children the fear of the lord ? this is very inconsequent , and will as much oblige me to bring my infants to the lord's table , as i have shewed . this last you will not allow , because god requires it not ; and for the same reason i refuse to bring my infants to baptism , tho i believe it my duty to do all that i can to engage them in covenant with god , by christian education in the fear of god , that they may serve him in all his commands and ordinances blameless . . wherefore in answer to your argument : if by infants being capable of being engaged in covenant with god , you mean the parents engagement to educate them in the fear of god , &c. then i deny your major , and say , those who are only capable thus to be engaged with god in covenant , are not capable of baptism . but if you mean , a personal and actual entring into covenant with god , then i deny your minor , and all the experience of the world confutes you . . you shall never be able to prove that infants are capable of fasting and 〈…〉 duties , tho you seem to affirm it ; and what 〈…〉 the beasts ) and that fast was pleasing to 〈…〉 arises to prove that either infants , or the 〈…〉 any duty to god , nor that they are therefore to be brought to the participation of baptism , nor any other religious ordinance , without order from god to do it . yet if a man were disposed to syllogize from hence after your manner , he might as strongly plead for one error , as you do for another . . the capacity of jewish children for circumcision , or other rites of the law , depended chiefly on the will of god to order it so . prove that it is his will to have infants baptized , and we will not mention their incapacity . if it be not his will , wherefore is it done ? who has required it ? mr. taylor 's argument . those who are members of christ's church , ought to be baptized : but children are members of christ's church : therefore children ought to be baptized . answer . if by the church of christ , you mean all that since the death of christ , shall be saved ; then i deny the major . for the infants of the poor indians may be saved , yet in your judgment they ought not to be baptized . but if by the church of christ , you mean only such as are in the actual profession of the gospel : then i deny the minor , and retort your argument thus . . those who are members of the church , ought to continue in the apostles doctrine , and in fellowship , and in breaking of bread , and in prayers . but &c. ergo , &c. the major is proved , acts . . cor. . they continued stedfastly in the apostle's doctrine , and fellowship , and in breaking of bread , and in prayers . we being many , are one body and one bread , for we are all partakers of that one bread. these things were spoken of the whole church , which was in these places engaged in the actual profession of the gospel . now see how you can defend your self against my minor , and therein you will easily see the infirmity of your own . . but to prove your minor , you say , the children of the jews were with their parents church-members under the law , and that law is not yet repealed . but if by their church-membership you mean , their right to , and their parents act in bringing them to ceremonies in religion , the contrary is true . the covenant of circumcision being repealed , as it was an obligation to the children of israel , and never made with any nation since ; nor any other covenant extant where such things are imposed upon infants . . that the children of converted jews , lost not their privileges , is not true , if by privileges you intend ceremonies ; but if by privileges you mean a being delivered from the law of ceremonies , then i grant it . and it is certainly a greater privilege that children are under a declared right to the kingdom of god by christ , and his gracious blessing a part of them , as a pledg for the whole , than if he had ordained a law to baptize them in order thereunto . and it is also certain , that the jewish church-state , being dissolved upon the death of christ , and the gospel-church , confirmed in the gift of tongues , &c. no person could rightly stand a member of the jewish church , which was the only church that ever had command from god to bring their infants to rites of religion . . you still urge , that the gentiles had equal privileges with the jews . and i grant they have greater privileges , but not in rites and ceremonies , but rather in being accepted without them , as touching their infants , and with a very few as touching themselves . but you say further , that the children of parents who did not believe , were rejected ; therefore the children of believing parents , or gentiles , are church-members . and here , i confess , i know not how to reconcile you to your self , where you say , none are excluded from the covenant of grace but actual vnbelievers , pag. . sure the son shall not dye for the sin of the parents , so as to go to hell with them . shall not the judg of all the earth do right ? . you say , children are either members of the visible church of christ , or else are visibly of satan's kingdom , there is no medium between these two . surely i did not think mr. taylor had been of this opinion ! no papist can say worse of poor infants . here you condemn many thousands of infants ; god give you a better understanding . are infants of jews , turks , and indians all of the visible kingdom of satan ? no , i will believe my saviour , who saith , it is not the will of his heavenly father that one of these little ones should perish , mat. . . and sure i am , that none are truly of satan's kingdom , but such as are his subjects . for he has no right over any by creation , and purchase , as god and christ have . now it being clear , that infants are none of satan's subjects , it must needs be very injurious , to say they are visibly of his kingdom . but being created by god , and redeemed by christ , and never offended in their own persons , it is rational to think they are in god's favour , as it appears the infants of the ninevites were , jonah . in his gracious arms we shall therefore leave them , and proceed . mr. taylor 's argument . those who are disciples of christ may be baptized : but children are disciples of christ : therefore children may be baptized . answer . . the minor is denied . infants are not disciples of christ , neither does god and christ own them for such , as you affirm . but you bring acts . , , . to prove it , and say , that the yoak which the jews would have laid upon the new converted gentiles , was circumcision , which pertained to children who were circumcised the eighth day , and yet it is laid too upon the disciples necks . but sir , do you think this to be rational , that because the jews would have laid the yoak of circumcision on the necks of the disciples , that therefore all were disciples upon whom they would have laid that yoak ? sure this is a very unlawful consequence : no better than this ; you would lay the yoak of crossing and sprinkling upon infants , therefore all are infants upon whom you would lay the yoak of crossing and sprinkling . again , they that were preserved in the ark of noah were men and women : therefore all that were preserved in the ark of noah were men and women . you may easily see these consequences are very untrue , and verily so is yours . for tho the false apostles would have laid the yoak of circumcision upon the necks of the disciples , yet all were not disciples whom they would have circumcised : for 't is said , they taught the brethren , except they were circumcised , &c. they could not be saved . but you cannot imagine that they taught infants . if acts . be diligently read , it will expound it self ; for vers . . the disciples are said to be such as from among the gentiles were turned to god. and all that are called disciples , vers . . are called brethren , and as such they are written unto by the assembly , vers . . and the epistle is said to be read to all the multitude ( meaning of the disciples , ) who thereupon are said to rejoice for the consolation : sure these were no infants . . but you say , they are disciples in that ; tho man cannot teach them , yet god can , and may . well , i thank you for your ingenuity . it is true ( as you say ) man cannot teach , or make infants disciples ; and then to be sure , they are not intended by our saviour to be made disciples , by what he says in your text , mat. . . for all that are to be made disciples , by that commission , are to be made such by men : so that you are evidently besides your text , in all that you say to this argument , and you are beside your own exposition of your text also , which i will here set down , as you give it , pag. . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , going to disciple all nations , instruct them in the principles of my religion ; and then being disciples , baptize them : so that there is a discipleship pre-existent to baptism ; and indeed the premising the word disciple , implies none to be capable of baptism , who are not disciples of christ , and members of his church . these are your words . 't is true , you say infants will be proved to be disciples . but surely , not by saying as you do here , that god can make them disciples , or teach them : for it is no good arguing from what god can do , to say he has done it , or will do it . for god can , of the stones in the street , raise up children unto abraham , but i may not therefore say the stones in the srreet are the children of abraham . you say indeed , that god hath given several instances of his teaching several from the womb , but you can neither name the persons , nor shew us what he taught them ; however if you could , such miraculous operations are not given for general rules . god once taught a dumb ass to speak , and to reprove a prophet ; but it would be bad arguing from this instance , that asses are disciples : and yet this is a clearer instance of god's teaching the ass , than you can give of his teaching any infant . . but seeing you put infants discipleship upon the account of god's teaching them , you must have some competent ground to believe that he has miraculously taught them , before you baptize them ; or else you destroy your exposition of the text , which avers , that there is a discipleship pre-existent to baptism . and when you shall shew me the infant whom god hath taught , or made a disciple , i believe i shall not oppose your baptizing that infant , and this is as much as you can desire . . but you say further , that god hath promised to teach children . what , sir , in their infancy ? let us see your proofs ; isa . . . all thy children shall be taught of the lord , and great shall be the peace of thy children . john . . it is written in the prophets , and they shall be all taught of god. every man therefore that hath heard and learned of the father , cometh unto me . certainly had you read those texts with their coherence , and considered , that our saviour himself in the latter expounds the former , you would never have imagined , that god here promises to teach any infants , much less all the infants in the christian nations ; for it is very apparent , they that are taught according to these scriptures , have heard and learned of the father , so as to come to christ . and indeed the meaning is , that god speaking to us by his son , ( who is very god , john . ) had now made good that gracious promise , isa . . . all thy children shall be taught of the lord. but you have another text , acts . . can any man forbid water , that these should not be baptized , who have received the holy-ghost as well as we ? now he that reads this place , will easily see , that the persons here spoken of were only such as were assembled to hear peter , in whatsoever they should be commanded of god ; and that the holy-ghost fell on all that heard the word . which place therefore can with no shew of reason be brought , to prove that infants are taught of god. however , when you shall find an infant , that has received the holy-ghost , as well as the apostles ; then for my part i shall not forbid water , that you should baptize him , provided you first be baptized your self . . you will have infants to be disciples , because christ ( you say ) commands the receiving of them in his name ; and you quote luke . , . mat. . . luke . . i have carefully read all these places , but can find no command to receive infants in the name of christ , much less to receive them by baptism . it is true , christ called a little child unto him , and said , whosoever shall receive this child in my name , receiveth me . now this child was able to know what christ said , and is no fit instance to prove an infant of eight days old to be a disciple of christ ; neither does this text call this child a disciple , but the disciples are distinguished from it . and yet it ( and so any little child ) may be a good precedent even to disciples , to learn humility and simplicity by ; and so may a lamb or a dove serve to teach us to be humble and harmless , yet they are not therefore disciples . neither can the receiving this child , ( or any other in like case ) be understood of receiving them by baptism ; for then you may read the place thus , whosoever baytizeth a child in my name , baptizeth me ; but this is both false and absurd . and besides , he that is baptized , may be rather said to receive christ , than he that baptizeth , in that action . or would you make our saviour to say , he that baptizeth an infant in my name , receiveth me ? if so , i would know by what authority you take the word , receiveth , for baptizing in the first place , and in the second for something else . surely , if to baptize an infant in the name of christ , be a receiving of christ , it 's an easy thing to receive christ , especially for the priest , who pretends to baptize infants daily . but sure it is as much the duty of other christians to receive children in the name of christ , as the priests ; for the word is , whosoever shall receive this child in my name ; and therefore it cannot be meant of baptizing them , and then these scriptures prove not your argument at all . . you urge , that infants are members of earthly kingdoms , and i grant it ; and also i grant , that they belong to the kingdom of heaven , and so are of the universal church : but this proves not that they are disciples at all ; for the infants of heathens are members of kingdoms , and may go to heaven , and yet you think they are no disciples for all that . and if infants may in some sence be said to be god's servants , psal . . . yet this proves not that they are disciples ; for all creatures , as well sensitive , vegetative , as rational , are said to be his servants , yet all creatures are not christ's disciples . mr. taylor 's argument . to whom christ grants imposition of hands , to them belongs baptism : but to children christ grants imposition of hands : therefore to them belongs baptism . answer . . if the major proposition be taken universally , that to whomsoever christ granted imposition of hands ( or touching ) in any case , that to them belongs baptism , then the major is not true ; for he touched or put his hand upon the dead , yet baptism belongs not to the dead , luke . . if it be said , christ touched the bier , not the dead ; i answer : he touched the childrens cloaths , when he took them in his arms ; but he took the dead damsel by the hand , and said , talitha , cumi , damsel , i say unto thee , arise . mark . . thus much to the major ; now to the minor. . if by laying on of hands , you understand that which by christ's doctrine , heb. . . is made a standing ordinance in his church , and in order next to baptism , as is evident you do ; then i deny your minor : for that ordinance was not yet instituted , nor useful , because the end of it was not yet to be received ; for the spirit of promise was not yet given , nor as yet to be given , because jesus was not yet glorified , john . wherefore your misinterpretation of mat. . , , . is injurious to truth , and would prefer these infants to the apostles , in the reception of the first-fruits of the spirit , unless you think christ laid hands on the children , without obtaining the end or essect of the service . so then it 's clear , that this laying on of hands , or touching infants , ( for so it is expressed both by st. mark and st. luke ) cannot with any fairness be understood of that laying on of hands which follows baptism , and therefore is no proof at all for your minor. . the church of england does not believe that infants are fit subjects for laying on of hands , and therefore does not understand this text , mat. . of that laying on of hands which follows baptism ; neither does mr. taylor himself believe that confirmation belongs to infants : if otherwise , they are very unfaithful , in that they were never known to lay hands upon any one infant for confirmation , as i can hear of . but how comes it to pass that mr. taylor will baptize infants , when yet he confesses their baptism is not mentioned in the new testament , and yet not plead for their confirmation , till they be capable to own their covenant made in baptism , when yet he pretends , ( tho i dare say he believes it not ) that text , mat. . , &c. is express for that laying on of hands which follows baptism , to be granted to christ to infants ? pag. . . mr. taylor says , that christ confirmed , or laid hands on the baptized . i shall entreat him to make this plain , for i would gladly see it well proved ; however , i am sure his doctrine orders it to be done , and that 's sufficient . what you say further here , is either what we oppose not , or what is answered elsewhere , save only your last particular , which now we shall consider . . their coming to christ ( say you ) is their becoming his disciples or proselites : suffer them , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be proselites to me . if to this i should answer , with tertullian , veniant ergo dum adolescunt , &c. let them come therefore when they are grown up ; it will be thought too little , tho god knows ( how hasty soever men are to get them sprinkled ) they are slow enough to bring them to christ , when they are capable to be taught ; i will therefore answer further : do you think that when infants are brought to a priest to be sprinkled and crossed , that then they are brought to christ ? or can christians no other way bring their infants to christ ? or do no infants belong to christ , but those who are so brought ? these things will not be asserted , i think , yet let us go as far as we can by the light of the text. by this example of christ , i think the ministers of christ may lawfully pray for a blessing in behalf of all the infants of those that shall desire it ; and that it is well done in those parents that do desire the prayers of the church , or her ministers , for their infants . and this is as much as can be fairly urged from this text , as imitable for us . for the touching by our saviour's hands , may be a point too high for us , unless we will also touch the dead , &c. which ( i hope ) is not written for our example . but now if the minister will needs baptize my child , because i bring it into the congregation , and desire prayer to be made to god for his blessing upon it , he herein goes beyond the example of christ , and beyond the text , and therefore there i must leave him , his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 notwithstanding . for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ex verbo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , quod est advenio quoniam veniebant , est ethnicis ad judaismum , saith the learned , and i think infants cannot change their religion , nor was it fit to call an infant of a jew , a proselite when it was brought to circumcision ; and consequently as improper to call the child of a christian a proselite . however , all that can lawfully be done to proselite an infant ( if you will needs have that term used ) is but to devote them to christ by prayers for his blessing , but not a syllable for baptizing them . mr. taylor 's argument . if the faith of the parents entitles the children to the covenant , then it entitles them to baptism : but the faith of the parents entitles the children to the covenant : therefore the faith of the parents entitles the children to baptism . answer . . the consequence of the major may well be denied : for tho it should be some ways true , that the faith of the parents entitles the children to the covenant , yet it follows not , that it entitles them to the performance of , or submission to the things which they understand not , nor are able to perform . and whither would such a consequence lead us , if we should follow it ? what duty should not infants be entitled to , as well as to baptism ? but let us see whether the minor be well proved ; you quote acts. . and think it a clear place to prove that the faith of the parents entitles the children to the covenant . but this text says not a word to that purpose ; for peter derives the title both of parents and children from the promise of god : and builds the title of all the called of the lord , and of them that were afar off also , upon the promise of god , and not upon the faith of abraham himself . besides , the promise here is of the gifts of the holy ghost , and therefore not pertinent to infants , as i have shewed : here is therefore no proof at all of your minor. i think it were better to say , that by faith a christian knows his child has an interest in the covenant of grace , than that his faith entitles his child to it . i fear this minor is a very dangerous assertion , and that partly because the consequence of such an opinion is to shut out all infants from the covenant of grace , who have not faithful parents to entitle them to it : and in truth it seems to swell with too much boldness , and carnal presumption ; but i spare you . . the faith of the jews and proselites did not entitle their children to the covenant of grace ; but they themselves being incorporate into that church-state , their children , by express command from god , had a title to legal priviledges : but the covenant of grace ( for that 's it we dispute , tho you leave out the word grace in your argument ) extended to infants by god's free redemption , which he purposed for them , in christ , from the foundation of the world ; or else what shall become of the many thousands of infants of unbelievers ? . you can never prove , that the faith of the jaylor , or lydia either , did entitle their infants to the covenant , for you cannot prove they had any children . and it is so exceeding plain , that all that were baptized in these two families were believers , that i wonder much that you should say , that on the believing of the jaylor and lydia , the whole families were baptized . pray read acts . . to the end , and you will find that they that were baptized , were actual believers , and capable of being consolated by the apostles . mr. taylor 's argument . those who are capable of the kingdom of heaven , are capable of baptism : but children are capable of the kingdom of heaven : therefore children are capable of baptism . answer . . the major being taken universally , for all that may go to heaven , it may very well be denied ; for mr. taylor dare not deny a capacity of salvation to some of the infants of the jews , and yet mr. taylor himself does not think they are capable of baptism ; for he makes the faith of the parents necessary to the entitling them to baptism , which in this case is wanting . . that the greater includes the less , is not universally true ; for women have a capacity to go to heaven , yet they have no capacity to be bishops , which is less than going to heaven . infants are not capable of the lord's table , which is less than to go to heaven . indeed , this argument being admitted to be good , would bring infants to all privileges in the church-militant , as well as to baptism ; for thus a man might argue : those who are capable of all the privileges of the church triumphant , are capable of all the privileges of the church militant , ( for the greater includes the less ) : but infants are capable of all privileges in the church triumphant ; ergo , &c. and if it be unreasonable ( as you say it is ) to deny the external sign , to those to whom christ hath granted the internal grace ; pray , why are you so unreasonable , as to deny your infants the sign of the lord's table , seeing you affirm they are regenerate , and born of water and the spirit ? but if you were put to prove , that infants , whom you sprinkle , have the inward grace which entitles to baptism , you would never be able to make demonstration to your own , or any wise man's satisfaction ; for is not the inward and spiritual grace , repentance , whereby sin is forsaken , and faith , whereby the promises of god are stedfastly believed ? and what infant did you ever know thus qualified for baptism ? mr. taylor 's argument . all who are believers , ought to be baptized : but children are believers : therefore children ought to be baptized . answer . . the minor proposition , that infants are believers , is not true . and i answer in the words of dr. hammond , who saith , ( letter of resolut . p. . ) i shall profess to be none of those that are concerned in the question , whether infants have faith ? i freely confess to believe , that faith is so necessarily founded in vnderstanding , that they that have not vnderstanding , cannot have faith , whether actual or habitual . and dr. jer. taylor tells us expresly , whether infants have faith ? is a question to be disputed by persons , that care not how much they say , and how little they prove . thus these two pillars of the church of england explode your argument , as an egregious error . . and for that place , mat. . , . by which you would prove infants believers , the learned of your own church expound it to a contrary sence , and take the little child that believeth , to be a true christian , that hath laid aside all worldly pride , whereby he is become abject in the sight of the world. i shall not contend with you about the proper signification of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ( professing my self no scholar ) tho ludovicus vives useth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for an houshold-servant . but it is sufficient to my purpose , that you dare not say infants are actual believers ; ( nay , you confess , they have not actual faith : and for imputative faith , ( if there be any such thing ) yet it can be no rule for the baptizing any body , seeing it is not revealed to whom faith is imputed ; and whilst you say , god may esteem infants as believers , another may as well say , he may esteem them as baptized also ) ; i say , your granting infants have not actual faith , you can take the word , believeth , mat. . . only by the figure called prosopopoeia , if you will needs have the child an infant of days . and if it be good arguing from hence to the baptism of infants , then you may argue as strongly for baptizing the whole creation , ( if you can tell how ) for it is said to groan , expect , and wait for the manifestation of the sons of god , and to be delivered from the bondage of corruption . rom. . . we conclude then , that it is not a figurative faith , but an actual faith , ( at least by profession ) that entitles to the reception of baptism . . we do not say , that god will impute unbelief to infants , but only to those that refuse to believe ; and tho we know infants are not believers , yet we do not say or think they are unbelievers , they being not capable to sin against god in that case , or any else . and unbelief presupposes a capacity in the subject , and means sufficient , to believe , and yet the creature refuses to believe . the sin of unbelief therefore being no way chargeable upon any infant , it follows by necessary consequence , that they have no capacity for faith. neither do we pretend to judg mens hearts ; for tho god has ordered faith to be a pre-requisite to baptism , yet we are only to judg of the profession of faith , not of the sincerity of it . and as it is true , as you say , that infants cannot play the hypocrite ; so it 's true , they cannot play the christian , and therefore not fit for the duties of christians , of which baptism is one . mr. taylor 's argument . they who are capable of the ends of baptism , may be baptized : but children are capable of the ends of baptism : therefore they may be baptized . answer . . if by the ends of baptism , you mean the things which concern god's mercy in the redemption of man only , then the major is denied ; but if by the ends of baptism , you mean the things required on mans part , then the minor is not true ; for mortification and vivification are the ends of baptism on man's part , of which infants are not capable ; for they cannot put off the body of the sins of the flesh , nor have they any need so to do , neither can they rise to newness of life . and tho i grant , ( and have often said it ) that we ought to devote our children to god in the best manner we can ; yet to go beyond the word of the lord under that pretence , will neither profit us , nor our children . . what you say here , of baptism being a seal to infants , &c. is answered before . and surely the word heathen , ( so often used by you ) as it imports sometimes an enemy to god , ( yet being of it self of no ill signification ) infants are not so to be accounted heathens ; nor doth the word , christian , as it imports a follower of christ , belong to infants . so that this is only a noise of words , to talk that our infants are not distinguished from the infants of heathens , tho i have shewed a difference between them . mr. taylor 's argument . whom the church of christ ever received to baptism , may still be baptized : but the church of christ hath ever received children to baptism : therefore they may be baptized . answer . . the minor proposition is not true , and therefore i do deny , that the church hath always received infants to baptism . and indeed you do not so much as pretend any thing from the scriptures to prove it , but , before , do honestly confess , that infant-baptism is not mentioned in the new testament ; and therefore certainly it will be impossible to prove , that the church did always receive infants to baptism . and it is also very observable , that eusebius , who wrote the history of the church for four hundred years after christ , does not so much as mention infant-baptism at all . . but how then does mr. taylor prove his minor ? why , his chief author to that purpose is mr. walker , in his book called , a modest plea for infant-baptism ; which book in that part has been answered by mr. de-laune , to which i refer the reader . the sum of which answer is to prove , that all mr. walker's testimonies from antiquity for infant-baptism , for the first years after christ , are either invalid , or taken out of forged and spurious books . and it is more than sufficient to ballance mr. walker's and mr. taylor 's bold assertion , that the catholick church hath always received infants to baptism , by the contrary testimonies of ludovicus vives , and dr. barlow ; the first expresly saying , in old time none was brought to baptism , but he was of sufficient years to know what that mystical water meant , and to require his baptism , and that sundry times . the other tells us , there is neither precept nor practice in scripture for infant-baptism , nor any just evidence for it for about years after christ . . you say , that for many hundreds of years the question [ about infant-baptism ] was not moved . but this is a great mistake ; for tertullian did question it , as an unwarrantable practice , in the beginning of the third century ; as is shewed by mr. tombes , and others , who have diligently enquired into the ancient customs of the church . . the first instance which you bring for the practice of infant-baptism in our nation , is that in king ina's time , about the year ; but we can prove it was opposed by the britain bishops two hundred years before this . see fabian's chron. part . fol. . . you say , the deferring of baptism among the ancients , was not for their questioning infant-baptism . but sure , if they did think themselves too young to be baptized , at twenty or thirty years of age , they could with no reason think their children old enough for baptism at seven or eight days old . extremes have undone all ; they were too slow , and you are as much too quick . but the proper time for baptism is , when men attain to the new birth ; baptism is therefore rightly call'd the washing of regeneration . . you seem to hold , that infant-baptism was lawfully practised by god's people before christ , and even from the apostles time since christ : but i wonder by what law ; you give us none but mr. walker's book , which is very well answered by mr. de-laune , in his book entitled , truth defended . and i am sure , the best antiquity says nothing for you . mr. taylor 's argument . that doctrine which introduceth many vnchristian consequences , is erroneous : but the doctrine of the antipoedobaptists introduceth many vnchristian consequences : therefore the doctrine of the antipoedobaptists is erroneous . answer . . the minor proposition is not true ; for our doctrine in the case of baptism is true , and truth does not introduce any erronious consequences . now that our doctrine is true , appears thus : because it fully agrees with your text , mat. . . even as it is expounded by your self , in these words , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , going to disciple all nations , instruct them in the principles of my religion ; and then , being disciples , baptize them . this you say , and this we say ; the only difference is , we do as we say , but you say and do not : you therefore must needs be in the error in this case . . but let us hear what you have against our doctrine . first , you say , it opposeth the whole current of scripture , nullifies many scripture-promises and privileges , and destroys the covenant of grace , as the premised pages manifest . but i hope the premised answers do manifest the charge which you bring against our doctrine to be very unjust . and seeing you are the men , and not we , that have changed the ordinance of baptism , you may justly fear the censure of the prophet , isa . . . for breaking the everlasting covenant . see the place , and consider it seriously . . you say , our doctrine introduceth the world into gentilism or heathenism , and makes christ's church always gathering , and never gathered . but how can you say this , seeing we are for the teaching or discipling all nations , and every person in the nations , as they are capable , and god gives his ministers opportunity ; and we take the same way to do this which the apostles used ; according to our ability ; i. e. to preach the gospel to every one that will hear us , and to bring up our children in the nurture and admonition of the lord ? and what tho the church be thus always gathering , does not mat. . , . warrant this practice to the end of the world ? and if you do not thus gather your children to christ , they will never be christians by your crossing and sprinkling them . . your talk of excluding infants from the covenant , is answered before , and proved untrue ; what you add , of our introducing of despair of the salvation of infants , shews your self-contradiction . for now you seem to make infant-baptism so necessary to salvation , that if they be not baptized , we must despair of their salvation : than which what can be a more erronious consequence of your doctrine of poedo-baptism ? . it is apparent that our doctrine makes the covenant established by christ better than yours ( whatever you say here to the contrary ) ; not only because we assert the grace of god in the business of salvation to extend to infants more generally than you do : but also for that it shews , god has not imposed any ceremonies upon them , as he did upon the jewish male infants of eight days old . whilst your doctrine makes your crossing and sprinkling them of such importance , as that if it be denied them , despair of the salvation of infants is genuinely introduced , pag. . as if god had tyed the salvation of all the infants in the world to a ceremony . thus does your doctrine make the covenant established by christ , worse than the law of moses ; for under it the greater part of the infants of the jews were saved , without being circumcised , to wit , all the females , and all the males under eight days old : but you have no hope for infants male or female , tho but of a day old , if it be not sealed with your pretended baptism . lord , whither will men go when they forsake thy word ! they will make christ an impostor , if infants be not capable of baptism : see mr. taylor 's book , pag. . n. . . you say , our doctrine equals the children of christians with the children of turks , &c. but we have shewed the advantage to be on the part of the children of christians . and what if god , willing to magnify his mercy and goodness , has provided a saviour for the innocent babes ( dying in infancy ) throughout the world ? what need this trouble any body ? must our eye be evil , because his is thus bountiful ? we know that he hath concluded all under sin , that he might have mercy upon all . and if god hath not mercy on poor dying infants , so as to save them all by christ , pray shew what mercy he hath upon them ? sure it had been a mercy they had never been born , but not one iota of mercy to be born , only to cry , dye , and go to hell. can you think that such doctrine befriends the covenant of grace ? i think not . . to what you say ( or have said ) about the form of baptism , you much mistake us if you think we do not baptize in the name of the father , son , and holy ghost . the article of our faith , which you point to , was not written ( as i conceive ) to teach any to dispense baptism in different forms of words , but to shew that the name of son is to be taken , as he is our lord and saviour . yet let me tell you , that i can shew it under the hand of some now in your ministry , that says matth. . . does not impower any to use that form of words in baptism , and shews also that the learned are not agreed in that matter . however , i am one with you , as to the use of the form there set down , and no other . of the manner of using baptismal water . . mr. taylor grants , the mode of baptizing is laid down by our saviour , and expressed in the word baptizontes , baptizing them , mat. . . now this is very well , and i am glad he has done this holy ordinance so much right , as to acknowledg christ to lay down ( in his commission mat. . . ) the manner or mode in which it ought to be performed . but then , i am sorry to see my good friend so soon forget himself , as in the very next page to tell us , that the mode of baptizing is an indifferent thing ; left to the prudence of the church , whether to dip or sprinkle . neither of them being commanded , nor either of them absolutely forbidden by the precept of baptizing . what shall i say to this ? if baptizontes be the precept for baptizing , and yet commands nothing , neither to dip nor to sprinkle , nor absolutely forbids either , sure then we keep no command in doing either , nor do we break any in omitting both . pity it is , that men to uphold their own tradition , should thus fight against both scripture and reason . for , if our saviour , by the words baptizing them , command nothing , then its best to do nothing ; if he command both dipping and sprinkling , then both must be done ; if he command but one of these , then but one of them must be done : let him chuse which he will , he must chuse but one . but yet he tells us otherwise , pag. . for saith he , the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 equally admits of both significations , as is granted by the best criticks : and quotes chiefly mr. walker's doct. of bapt. p. . to p. . for answer , i say , if the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do equally signify dip and sprinkle , then unless we will be unequal we must do both ; or else shew which of them may lawfully be omitted . as for mr. walker's book , i have seen it , and observed that he plays with the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , till he makes their signification altogether uncertain , and sets the learned together by the ears about the meaning of these greek words . and indeed , according to mr. walker , no man can certainly know when he hits right upon the thing to be done in obedience to this precept , baptizing them . as if our lord should leave his apostles , and they leave us to guess at his meaning ; in a passage wherein he commands nothing certainly . and yet to go round again , however we use water in the name , &c. we can hardly go besides the meaning of christ : for if we dip the subject in the element of water , we are right ; if we sprinkle it upon any part of the body , ( for you can assign no one part more than the other ) we are right still ; if we dip the head only , or only the foot , we are right ; if the head , or breast , or hand only be sprinkled , still we are right . now who can think , that our saviour should use an ambiguous word , which is to guide us in matter of fact ? do not men that thus deal with the word baptize , make him the author of all our contests in this case ? and assuredly mr. walker has run many a one into a maze , about the meaning of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and i am sorry to see mr. taylor to follow him . but sith he refers me also to mr. leigh's crit. sac. he shall do well to mark what he saith ( even as quoted by mr. walker , p. . ) the reason ( says he ) why 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is put pro lotione & mundatione , is , because such as are immersed ( that is , dipped ) come out of the water washed or cleansed . so then , to baptize , is to dip the subject in the element in the name , &c. and that which is no small , but a most importent confirmation of that mode ( and only that ) is the baptism of christ's own person ; for mr. walker cannot deny , that the greek in mark . . being rightly rendred in english , is thus read ; jesus came — and was baptized of john into jordan , and therefore he may be confident he was not sprinkled , for it would be nonsence to say he was sprinkled into jordan ; but good sence and plain truth too , to say he was dipped into jordan . and yet for all this , mr. walker fights stoutly both against truth and reason , leaning only upon the single authority of bernard , and will have sprinkling to be meant or signified by the word baptize , as well as dipping . and mr. taylor says the same , tho many learned writers contradict them both . but it shall suffice here to set down two , both equal in learning and vertue to these our present opposites . the first shall be that truly famous man , dr. jer. taylor , in his rule of conscience , l. . c. . if you would attend to the signification of the word , baptism signifies plunging in water , or dipping with washing . and saith keckerman , immersion not aspersion ( that is , dipping not sprinkling ) was the first institution of baptism , as it doth plainly appear from rom. . . syst . theol. but for all this , mr. walker pretends antiquity for sprinkling , and it is strange to see what learned men will say , when they are set to defend error . we will but touch two of his most ancient instances , that you may see the bottom of the business . . he goes as high as the second century , and takes an instance of sprinkling from the service of the daemons ( that is , devil-gods ) but why so ? because he supposes the heathen used sprinkling in the service of their daemons , in imitation of the christians practice . but the truth is , it 's more to be feared , that unwary christians did fall to imitate the heathens ; for we are told so in effect , even by a learned popish author , which for the plainness of the testimony , i will here faithfully transcribe . he saith , — this chief chair of the church being translated from antioch to rome : he [ peter ] and his successors , were very careful and vigilent to reduce the christian religion ( being as yet indigested , unpolished , and little practised ) and the professors thereof , into better order and vniformity , out of the law of moses ( which christ came not to abolish , but to fulfil ) out of the civil and politick government of romans , greeks and egyptians , and out of both sacred and prophane rites , laws , and ceremonies of other nations , but most especially by the wholsom doctrine and direction of christ jesus , and the inspiration of the holy spirit . see a book called , the manners , laws and customs of all nations , pag. . behold here the springs of human inventions and ceremonies . mr. walker's second instance , is a story of one sprinkled with sand , instead of water ( the water being scarce , and the party like to dye ) : but alas they could not dip the sick into the sand , and however their zeal may be commended , their action is not to be commended at all : it shews their folly , for it 's better to be without a ceremony , when we cannot possibly have it in god's way , than to set up our own devices in the stead , and place , and use of it . for i will ( saith god ) have mercy and not sacrifice . and thus we shall leave mr. walker to consider his sandy foundation for his sprinkling infants . . mr. taylor says , sprinkling cannot nullify baptism , and therefore our dissenting brethren are to blame , to make our baptism to be essentially corrupted , and not to be accounted baptism , because not performed by dipping . to this i answer ; when our saviour commanded to baptize , he commanded but one , not divers kinds of actions ; and to do that , which is not only contrary to his own blessed example in this very thing , but also such an act as cannot with any equity of speech , or good sence , be called baptism , is to err essentially in the performance of it . and so great is the difference between dipping and sprinkling , that such as sprinkle infants dare not speak as they act , when they pretend to baptize : no , they dare not say , i sprinkle thee in the name of the father , &c. which they might well say , if the word baptize does equally signify dipping and sprinkling . we are not therefore to blame , to labour to have this ordinance kept as it was delivered , for sure if it be our duty to keep god's ordinances , it 's our duty to keep them as they were observed by christ , and the primitive churches . and so far as the manner of doing this command of christ is essential to the ordinance , dipping is of the essence of it , without which it cannot be called baptism . again , all the scriptures which command to baptize , do expresly command to dip the party to be baptized , and therefore mr. taylor is to blame , to say , there is not one place of scripture which in express words commands dipping , pag. . yea , sir , your text , matth. . . commands dipping : for were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 translated into plain english , it must be rendred by dipping . and i pray sir , consider , whether you could not with a good conscience translate it so ? and on the other side , whether your conscience would not accuse you , should you translate the text , teach all nations , sprinkling them ? i dare say no man dare thus read the text. why then do they thus act ? shall we speak one thing , and do another ? so speak ye , and so do ye , as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty ; to wit , the gospel . . what you urge from the legal washings , has been answered by the learned of our way , and particularly by mr. danvers , who says , i have carefully examined all the places in the old testament , where the word dipping or baptizing is mentioned , and do find it is expressed by the hebrew word , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as minceus and dr. hammond observe . the septuagint do render the word tabal in the hebrew , by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and with all the translators , both the latin , dutch , italian , french , and english , do translate to dip ; the word rendred washing , being another word , as the following scriptures inform you , gen. . . exod. . . lev. . . & . . & . , . levit. . . deut. . . john . . numb . . . kings . . i cannot think therefore , that you can conscionably parallel rom. . , . col. . . with the jewish washings , which are expressed by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , not the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( as mr. danvers further shews . ) and sure i am , that rom. . and col. . is so very clear for our way of baptizing , that the learned of your way do grant these places allude to the ancient way of baptizing , which ( say they ) was by dipping the party into the water . . what you say of your sprinkling to be as significant as dipping , is not true ; for indeed unless it be commanded to signify the death , burial , resurrection of christ , and our mortification and vivification , it can signify none of these things . otherwise every time you wash your hands , might signify what is signified in your baptism ; yet you will not say it doth so . and the same answer may serve to what you say , of sprinkling and dipping , being equally obliging ; for unless god hath given them to oblige , they have no obliging nature or virtue in them . . what you say of the searcity of water , can be no plea for you that have no want of it , whatever it may be for them that have it not . but sure , where god gives not straw , he will require no brick . he does not make baptism so necessary , that we shall perish if we cannot , but rather if we will not obey him therein . . your surmise , that dipping seems an indecent thing , is indecently said , both by mr. walker , and your self , seeing it may be done as decently as your sprinkling ; for your talk of transparent garments , shews your unacquaintedness with the right way of baptizing . and know this , your ruffling ladies in their gorgeous apparel , may work upon your pravity of heart sooner , than to behold and humble penitent sinner , cloathed in comely , tho mean garments , to be buried with christ by baptism . . to your objection about the coldness of the climate , you need but put on the garment of love to god and his truth , and act from a principle of faith , and you need fear no ill , tho this path may seem to you as the valley of the shadow of death . yet if any person be really weak of body , and cannot be satisfied to delay , ( as i confess that may be dangerous ) there may such care be taken , as in the eye of reason no inconvenience need be feared . and if the water be frozen , ( as you object ) surely he that will allow us to thaw that for our natural , will not blame us , if we do so for our spiritual use . . does plunging or dipping take away the understanding ? why , not more now than in christ's time. and is it so necessary that the understanding act in the duty ? i marvel then why you baptize persons ( as you call it ) when they are asleep . . what you say of the great labour of dipping , and the impossibility for one man to baptize in one day , and that it is therefore unreasonable to think the apostles did dip all that they baptized , &c. i answer ; first , you grant then , that they dipped some that they baptized ; prove now that they sprinkled so much as one , and the dispute is at an end . secondly , but sir , what need was there for one man only to baptize the three thousand ? acts . . does not mr. walker himself suppose , that there were of the hundred and twenty disciples , eighty two in a ministerial capacity , to wit , the seventy two , besides the apostles ? surely they might easily baptize three thousand in a few hours . but you will now prove the lawfulness and reasonableness of sprinkling ; let us hear what you say . . you now make sprinkling not only equally signified in the word , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , but to be more congruous with its genuine signification ; your reason is , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being a derivative , can admit of no larger signification than its primitive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which we find ( say you ) in the history of nebuchadnezzar , when like a beast , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , he was wet with the dew of heaven . but for answer ; . i say , this place in dan. . will never prove , that sprinkling is more congruous to the genuine signification of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , than dipping : for nebuchadnezzar being seven years to live with beasts , out of habitation or house , was sufficiently washed , especially being probably naked too ; so that this kind of wetting holds some resemblance with plunging in water , there being no part free from the water thus rained upon nebuchadnezzar : in which respect , it seems , the septuagint renders or expresses his lying open to the snow , hail , rain , or dew , so long a time , by the word , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . and , . my answer is , that the greek here is hyperbolical , and not properly to be understood ; and our translators knowing this , did not ( as i suppose ) translate the word according to its proper signification , our language not well bearing it in that case , but according to the thing which was to befall nebuchadnezzar . and it seems very disingenuous , for you to conclude from this hyperbole , that sprinkling is more congruous to the signification of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , than dipping , tho in so saying you contradict most of the learned that have interpreted the word , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . and i am sure , ( and you know it much better than i can tell you , for my learning is nothing , when compared with yours , ) that our lexicons , dictionaries , and grammars , do make the prime signification of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be a dipping , as they do who dye colours ; and scapula does not make 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , nor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to signify sprinkling at all . . what you say in your d , d , th , and th . particulars , is answered before ; but here you say , the church was never confined to that mode of dipping , but had several ways of baptizing , dipping , or sprinkling , &c. i answer : what usages the church has had , is not the question ; but the ground of her doings is the matter of our enquiry : but yet i will venture to say , she was always confined to dip , if she kept that ordinance according to christ's own example , which i think is a better expositor of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , than any lexicon in the world. . the alteration of the manner of this ordinance , has not only occasioned us to say , you that only cross and sprinkle are not baptized ; but the muscovites declare the latin church to be unbaptized for the same reason . for this you may read daille on the fathers , lib. . p. . where he tells us ; the custom of the ancient church was to plunge those they baptized over head and ears in water , as tertullian , cyprian , and epiphanius testify . and this is still the practice of the greek and russian cnurch at this day , as cassander de baptismo , pag. . and yet notwithstanding this custom is now abolished by the church of rome ; and this is the reason why the muscovites say that the latines are not rightly and duly baptized . thus he . nor is this the only cause why we think your pretended baptism a nullity , for your error about the subject is more than the other . . what you say further is , to make us believe that christ did not go into the water ; that the eunuch went to the water only , because the preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies ad , to . but your conscience will tell you , it signifies into , as well as to ; and indeed you grant it : and then to what putpose do you quarrel our translation ? however , we have proved that christ was baptized in the river : and 't is expresly said of the many thousands which came to jordan , that they were all baptized in the river , confessing their sins . now , sir , here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , cannot be rendred to the river , nor with the river , ( without egregious folly ) and then 't is very plain , that they were all dipped in the river ; for it had been absolute folly to go into the river to sprinkle the face , hand , or any other part of the body . seeing then they went into the river to baptize , it shews it cannot rightly be done without going into the water : and therefore of necessity we must understand , dipping is the only true mode of baptizing . . i marvel how any wise man can look upon that text , john . . john baptized in enon , — because there was much water there , and so much as think sprinkling to be a lawful way of baptizing . if he will use any of his wit , he cannot but infer , baptism could not be rightly done with a few drops of water , seein john chose enon , because there was much water there . and what tho 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signify many waters ? yet it does not signify many rivers ; but by the noise of many waters , is often meant the noise of much water in one source or channel . however , you say , the greek signifies the confluence of these two springs , jordan and jaboc ; but yet you are unwilling that they should yield so much water as might suffice to dip in . and yet the scripture tells you elsewhere , that jordan overflows all her banks at certain times ; and lithgow , that was at it , will give you an account , that it is a river sufficient to dip a bigger man than your self in . but here , you say , is no mention of dipping . yes , sir , but there is ; for when you hear , that john was baptizing in enon , he was either dipping or sprinkling . the latter would make the speech absurd and nonsensical ; the former therefore was his business , for he was dipping in enon , near salem , because there was much water there . your church therefore is very much to blame , in leaving the way of truth , and following her own tradition , and is therefore the cause of our present disunion , and will be till she turn to the truth , both in the subject and manner of baptism , or at least forbear to impose upon us without authority from heaven . what you add , by way of answer to some of our objections against infant baptism , is answered in my reply to dr. stillingfleet , and mr. j. barret , which is bound up with my book of primitive christianity , and to that i will refer you . what you add about sureties or god-fathers , &c. i shall not take notice of at this time , and indeed the usage is so odd , that dr. jer. taylor well said , if it had been god's will to have had them , it is to be supposed he would have given them commission to have transacted the solemnity with better circumstances , and given answers with more truth ; for if the god fathers answer in the name of the child ( i do believe ) it is notorious , they speak false and ridiculously . and this is even enough to say to such an innovation : but what absurdity is it , which being once made a cannon by learned men , will not find some to daub it up with untempered mortar ? could men but remember nadab and abihu , lev. . they would fear to add to , or take from the ordinances of christ , under what pretence of piety or prudence soever . thus sir , i have briefly answered your arguments , and hope i have not mistaken your sence in any passage i except against . and for a conclusion , i crave leave to say , that the way to obtain that unity which is so desirable , between the baptized believers and the church of england , is not to fall to it by disputation , but by proposing what abatements may be made about such things as are not mentioned in the scripture , ( as this of poedo-baptism ) is not ) or at least what mitigation may be hoped for , as to the imposition of such things : and on the other side , i trust in the lord that you shall call for nothing from us , wherein we may submit without sinning against god , but we shall gladly hearken to you . in the mean time , constant prayer to god for the blessing of truth and peace , and friendly conference between the leading men on both parts , may do much to further so good a work , specially if his majesty would be graciously pleased to permit such friendly treaties . but of writing many books there is no end . sect . iv. a plea for the church-assemblies of the baptized believers . many and very great has been the sufferings of the baptized believers in this nation , since the publication of the act , entitled , an act to prevent and suppress seditious conventicles . and if the meaning of the said act be to restrict all christian assemblies , ( except the parochial ) to the number of four persons , besides the families where they do assemble , we see not how we can , with safety to our souls , conform to the limits thereby prescribed . but forasmuch as the said act pretends only the prevention and suppression of seditious conventicles , we humbly conceive , that those who are free from seditious designs in their meeting together to worship god , are rationally acquitted from the imputation of sedition ; and consequently no man can conscienciously prosecute any of us upon that statute , being utterly unable to prove any such crime against us ; nor could any ever yet convict us of such an evil , nor , by the grace of god , shall they ( i hope ) ever be able to do it . upon a due enquiry it will evidently appear , that it is the lord himself that hath ordered his people to convene or congregate , for the better discharge of the great duties of prayer , preaching , and the celebration of other his holy ordinances ; to which holy ends he has allowed , not four persons only , but the whole church , in any town or city , to come together into one place , among whom also such as do not believe the gospel , are allowed to appear , in order to their illumination , and this without any limitation in respect of number : so that it seems to exceed the due bounds of humane power , to use restraint , where god hath given such gracious liberty . cor. . , , . jam. . , . heb. . . forasmuch then as god has not given any power upon earth , to forbid any christian , or such as desire to know christ , to hear his word at any time , or in any place ; but on the contrary , commands every man that hath an ear , to hear what the spirit saith unto the churches , rev. . . saying , to day if ye will hear his voice , harden not your hearts , psal . . . proclaiming to every one that thirsteth , to come and take of the waters of life freely : isa . . . to whose gracious invitation the spirit and the bride ( the church ) agreeth , saying , come , rev. . . it must needs be very dangerous for any man to say , do not come , when they desire to drink of these living waters , which flow in the lively preaching of the gospel of christ . and how can we think that our gracious god , who in things pertaining to this life , will not allow us to say to our neighbour , go away , and come again to morrow , and i will give , when we have it by us , prov. . , . will ever accept us with a well-done , good and faithful servant , if in the more weighty matters of his law we put men off with delatory answers ? behold , now is the accepted time ; behold , now is the day of salvation . it must be granted , that the church is the light of the world , a city set upon a hill , that cannot be hid ; whilst therefore we are conscionably , and ( we trust ) groundedly persuaded , that we are a part of this church , a necessity lieth upon us , to make manifest the savour of the knowledg of christ in every place . for as it was truly said to christ , that no man doth any thing in secret , and himself desires to be known openly : so neither must the church of christ obscure her light by a secret profession of christianity , lest she contradict her own prayer , and the practice of the primitive churches , held forth in these words : god be merciful to us , and bless us , and cause his face to shine upon us , that his way may be known upon the earth , and his saving-health among all nations . and now , lord , behold their threatnings , and grant unto thy servants , that with all boldness they may speak thy word . — and they spake the word with boldness . — and they overcame him by the blood of the lamb , by the word of their testimony ; and they loved not their lives unto the death . — and became followers of the churches of god , having received the word in much affliction , with joy of the holy-ghost . and if for the like faithful testimony we must still suffer , as we have done , we shall rejoyce , as christ hath exhorted us . the church is taught of god to hold fast , not her faith only , but also the profession of her faith ; and this not by starts and girds , as men give them license or toleration , but with all constancy , and without wavering . and surely our lord foreseeing , and by his apostles foreshewing what would come to pass , required that this profession be held without wavering in the business of church-assembling , heb. . . because without such assemblies , the whole service of god ( in a church-way ) is like to fall to the ground . this duty , as it is of greatest importance , so it is founded upon heavens authority : forsake not the assembling of your selves together . and it is granted by the learned protestants , that against the law of god or nature no contrary custom doth ever prevail . [ dr. field of the church , lib. . ] he that doth any thing by command from the king , contrary to the command of god , does not fear god , ( saith dr. savage , chaplain to k. charles ii , in his dew of hermon , p. , to . ) and , speaking of the first preachers of the gospel , he saith , their rulers enjoined them not to preach christ , and therein they did well to disobey ; for otherwise they had not feared god , inasmuch as tho their rulers were above them , yet god was above them both . — for in commanding any thing contrary to the word and will of god , they abuse their power , either through their ignorance or wilfulness ; and in that case meerly passive obedience is to be yielded . these latter sentences are the more remarkable , being written by one of his majesties chaplains , in answer to a book written by the baptized believers in this age , entitled , sion's groans for her distressed ; which book , whilst he pretends to confute , he has confirmed it , in the main scope and intent of it . as it is impossible , by mulcts and penalties to overcome the faithful professors of the truth , ( for that which is of god , men cannot overthrow , acts . . ) so neither will those that are zealous for error , be vanquished by that way . and the mischief is , their errors are by their sufferings made the more taking with those of weak judgments . what then is the result of persecution for religion ? is it not commonly this , that the hypocrites or time-servers do fill that church which has the power of the magistrate on her side ? and suppose she have the truth on her side , yet those temporizers come not to her communion for the truths sake , and therefore cannot be a blessing to her , nor she to them ; nay , these shall , the soonest of all others , betray her , when ever time shall minister occasion ; for those who are not true to god , and their own conscience , will never be faithful to men. they worship not the king of heaven , but the earthly crown and scepter , much like euripus , carried headlong sometimes this way , sometimes that way . socrat. lib. . cap. . but , shortly , to sum up what is or might be further said in this case . . to restrict our assemblies to the limits of the said act , is to obey man rather than god , who gives liberty , without limiting the numbers of those that meet , to worship him in a church-way . and whilst we believe our assemblies are true churches , we must endeavour to meet in god's way , whoever countermands it . . for thus to limit our assemblies to the number of four ; will certainly destroy all our church-assemblies : for , suppose some congregation or church consist but of an hundred persons , these being divided into fours , have no church-assembly , unless every of these four be a church . and if the magistrate have just power to divide us into fours or fives , he has power to subdivide us into two's , and by consequence to dissolve all our assemblies . i confess , a small number may constitute a true church . gregory thaumaturgus , tho a bishop , had a church consisting but of seventeen persons . [ basil . de spirit . sanct. cap. . ] our saviour has promised his presence , where two or three are met together in his name . but then in his name , signifieth in his authority , and according to his appointment . now christ has no where appointed , that four , and no more , should come together into one house or place ; no , tho an hundred persons be come together , if more do come , they cannot be prohibited by all that power which god has given to man , as we have shewed . . our zealous country-men of the parochial way , would think it very unlawful to be limited in their meetings to fours or fives ; and yet they ought to be restrain'd from seditious practices as well as others ; and we do by as good right think it unlawful for us to be so restrained . we hope our legislators did not intend at all to exalt their authority against the lord , whose power is above all . but yet when these laws come to be executed upon good men , by the industry of mercenary fellows , meerly for worshipping god , then are they turned into snares to the ruin of the innocent , and dishonour of that power which gave them being . and all this falls out , for want of better provision in the said laws , to convict men of sedition , than only because they were observ'd to preach or pray . . wherefore , being fully satisfied that our assemblies are true church-assemblies , and that upon the strictest enquiry we are able to make into the due nature and order of such assemblies , we conceive our selves indispensibly bound by the word of god , the examples of the first and best churches , and the tie of conscience , as regulated by a sincere love of religion , to hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering or changing , by reason of the change of times , or man's laws . being also rationally persuaded , that the more publick and free men are to serve the lord , the less danger of sedition . wherefore , with innocent hearts , and pure hands , ( as to any design of sedition ) in the strength of christ , we will keep his way , and let the lord do with us as seemeth him good . sect . v. of the baptized believers call to christianity , and to the work of the ministry . when our saviour commanded his apostles to teach all nations , and to preach the gospel to every creature , we do not doubt but their performance of this his gracious will , may truly be said to be the calling of the gentiles , or nations : and that men enjoy a great mercy ( for which they ought to be very thankful ) to be born in a nation to whom the gospel has been preached , and received by their progenitors : and that it is also a great blessing to be born under the government of christian princes ; and we believe we ought to love and honour our nation , and the rulers of it , upon this very account ( as well as for the obligation of nature and laws ) viz. because they assert the interest of christ jesus in general as well as we . nor is it our business to destroy the state of christianity received in any nation ; nor at all to despise the ministry that conscientiously upholds it ( but only to labour that christianity may be delivered from the errors that have encumbred it , by reason of the change of governments and interests , or corruptions of the ages past . ) and in this consideration , as we look upon our nation to be a christian nation ; so we count our selves much more happy in being members of a nation that owns the true god , christ jesus to be the saviour of the world , the scriptures to be holy and true , and that faith and holiness is the way to true blessedness , than to have been of any other nation whatsoever . but yet for all this there is a great truth in the words of tertullian , i. e. we are not born , but made christians . and therefore , we do not think that our meer birth of christian parents does qualify us , or give us an actual right to christ's ordinances ; but to this end we believe , and know , that every person ought to have the gospel preached , or some way made known to them , and that a work of real grace ( or the new birth ) at least by a solemn profession , must precede our baptismal covenant ; to this the scriptures give full consent , john . , . cor. . . eph. . . pet. . . and thus we , and ours ( so many of them as the lord our god does call by the preaching of the gospel ) are actually incorporate with the church of christ militant , and engaged thenceforth in the high and holy calling , and actual profession of the christian religion . . but now , whether we have any lawful call to the work of the ministry , is the business to be a little considered , partly , for that some of our late persecutors were pleased to suggest the contrary ; and partly to put our selves upon the strictest trial , even in this case where we are supposed to be the most deficient . the questions in this case to be resolved , are , . whether a succession of ordination from man to man , down from some of the apostles , be absolutely necessary to a due call to the ministry ? or , . whether the same means that is of authority sufficient to make men christians , be not also sufficient to make ministers ? in answer to these questions , we shall do little more than offer what we have formerly written upon this subject . and tho the papists are the men who stand most stifly for succession , as necessary , yet of late we find our friends of the church of england looking that way , as if they would justify their ordination in a successive line from man to man , through the papacy : which thing is disclaimed by dr. luther , with the greatest vehemency , in these words . whoso loveth christ , ought to endure any thing , rather than to be ordained by the papists ; because in their ordinations all things are carried with such wicked preposterousness , that if they were not mad , and blind , they would perceive how they mock god to his face ; — being stricken with an universal blindness , they do not so much as know the word of god , specially the bishops who ordain . — let me be counted a fool , a knave , a lyer , if there be any one of them , ordain'd by them , who dare say , that at such time as he received orders , he was commanded to dispense the mysteries of christ , or to teach the gospel , — but they ordain sacrificers of the unbloody sacrifice of the mass , and to hear confessions , &c. thus far luther . and the oath which they take at their ordination ( as set down by mr. bullinger ) is very un-gospel-like , the sum of it is in these words , that the priest will be a true subject to the pope , obey the decrees of the fathers , and of the church ( i. e. the roman church ) and that he will persecute hereticks . beza censures all ordination taken from the papists . let us hear him speak . what ordinary vocation is that which you say the first reformers had , excepting some few of them , is it not the pall ? shall we think then , that the popish orders are valid , in which there is not any preceding enquiry into manners ? no such enquiry or procedure , as is inviolably to be made , or observed , by divine right in elections , and ordinations , — shall we think so highly of their ordinations , that as often as any false bishops are converted to true christianity , immediately all the filth , uncleanness , and impurity , collated , is washed away ? nay , but with what face or conscience will he be able to forsake popery , and not abjure his irregular ordination ? or if he do abjure it , how can he by virtue thereof claim authority to teach ? thus these two pillars of the protestant reformation , are so far from deriving their call to the ministry , through the papacy ( as some late protestants pretend to do ) that they do utterly reject any ordination which comes from them . nor was luther and beza ordained after they came from the papists . ( mr. stub's occas . quaer . ) but beza is said to defend his call to the ministry , by instances of those that were called extraordinarily , as isaiah , daniel , amos , zecharias , &c. these things premised , we may assume , that either of these ways ( as approved by our reformers respectively ) could we go to defend our call to the ministry , as well as they : being first , many of us , ordained by those who received ordination from you , and some may run with you to bishop cranmer , who was ordained by the papacy ; and then proceed , till we come up to clemens , or lucius , and so to st. peter . and as for the pretence of beza , or luther , about their extraordinary call , it 's not impossible for us to give as fair a demonstration of it , as either of them , ( specially if we take the rules given by mr. beza , to judg of such a call by , to be cogent , viz. good life , sound doctrine , and the election of the people . ) but to be plain , we do not very well like either of these ways . not the first , it is so sordid , as that the papists themselves in deriving their call through the papacy , are forced to take it from so many false pretended popes , or diabolical popes , even witches and devils incarnate ( by their own confession ) that they make but a lamentable succession of it in the end . and especially , if stapleton may be regarded ( tho a papist ) who tells us , that it is not a bare and personal succession , but lawful succession , which is a note of a true church ; and defineth that to be lawful succession , when not only the latter succeeds into the void rooms of those that went before them , being lawfully called thereunto , but also hold the faith which their predecessors did . now let this rule be honestly stood by , and we are sure the papists shall never be able to prove a succession of many points of their faith , and doctrines from the apostles , whilst the world stands , and consequently neither can the protestants derive a lawful succession from them . we like not the second way , for we will not compare with isaiah , daniel , amos , nor zechariah , in respect of their immediate mission . but this we say , that our call to the ministry is no otherwise extraordinary , than our call to believe the gospel is so ; or , as it stands clear from all the idle ceremonies used by papists , or others in their ordinations , or as it is ordered ( as near as we can ) according to the word of god. and is the sacred word of power to beget us to god , and by the assistance of his spirit to make us his children , or christians ? and is it not of power or authority sufficient to enable us to worship god in his own ordinances , which were made for christians , and not christians for them ? this seems justly ridiculous . we make no doubt but that it 's easy with god ( and no extraordinary thing ) to raise a people to himself , in a nation where all have corrupted the way of christianity , ( or lost the state and praise of a true church ) meerly through his blessing upon the reading and diligent searching of the scriptures , ( i speak of a nation where the scriptures are received , as that is our case . ) the truth is , all the ways of god's worship , are ( in the word ) made ready for us , and laid at our doors , and we do but take up gladly , what others let lie as useless things , that they may hug their own devices . but now to silence a papist for ever ( which some will think to be a difficult undertaking ) ; do they not allow ( even by the pen of the learned bellarmine , chap. . ) that even an heathen , that is not baptized , may administer baptism in case of necessity ? and this they esteem a valid baptism . and why then may not we , when god hath opened our eyes to see any other truth , as well as that , enter upon the dutiful observance of it in the best way we can , our circumstances ( especially the case of necessity ) being considered ? for is not necessity as good a warrant to take up the practice of , or to restore one truth as well as another ? certainly , one ordinance is as sacred as another , and where churches are setled , ought to be dispensed in the most honourable way , and by the most fit instruments , even christ's ministers . wherefore , till the papists shall recal their opinion about baptism , and prove a succession as necessary to baptism as ordination , they can with no shew of reason , insist upon the necessity of ordination to be founded upon succession . but further , it 's evident from the scriptures , ( acts . ) that a succession is not necessary to true ordination ; for tho the apostles were yet living , it was not thought necessary that they should impose hands upon barnabas and paul : but this is done by gifted men , or the prophets that were in the church at antioch . the only question here to be resolved is , whether this laying on of hands was for ordination ? the papists do hold it was ; some protestants deny it ; but some protestants do affirm it . mr. churchman , in his history of episcopacy , tells out of chrysostom , that tho paul was an apostle neither of men , nor by men , yet as for the work to which he was separated , ask the said father ( saith he ) and he will tell you , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , that it was the office of an apostle , and that he was ordained an apostle here , that he might preach the gospel with greater pewer , — and certainly that he had not the apostleship before , may be made manifest by that which followed after . but tho some protestants doubt whether this were paul's ordination ( tho the matter is clear of it self ) yet here is the ordination of barnabas without all question ; and then it is evident that there was an interruption of succession in the case of ordination , even in the apostles days , and therefore by no means to be held to be necessary in our days , who are so far removed from the times of the holy apostles , that in vain do men think to find a clear and undoubted succession , of any one ordinance from them . wherefore we may safely conclude , that where the truth of the gospel is received , with the gifts of god's spirit ( as that was the case at antioch ) there is a sufficiency of power on the persons so gifted , with the advice of the church to send forth , or appoint men to the work of the ministry ; altho 't is true , this course is most warrantable in the case of necessity , and in no wise to be done in contempt or wilful neglect of that way , which is more ordinary and regular . howbeit , to tye all power of ordination so strictly to the persons of men ordained , by such as were ordained by the apostles themselves , would in all likelihood throw the power of ordination out of the church of god at this day ; especially if we stand upon the due election and qualification of persons so claiming succession from the apostles themselves . and because due qualifications , and election , is as necessary to a true minister of christ , as ordination , seeing it 's most certain , that unless god do first make men ministers , it 's impossible for the church ( rightly ) to make them ministers . we shall here add , that besides his moral vertues , and spiritual gifts , he that is regularly called to the ministry , must first be a true member of the church , and chosen by a true church to that sacred employment . and then we may boldly ( yet modestly ) suppose , that true ordination ( at least in some part of it ) is only found in the congregations of baptized believers at this day : for , where true baptism is not , ordination cannot be regular . again , due election is found amongst them , whilst neglected both by papists , and prelatists . and further , the true form and order of ordination is found in our churches . the first is evident of it self , no baptism , no due ordination ; is a truth without exception among all that own ordination . and for the second , 't is certain none are ordained to any office in the baptized churches , till elected by the consent of the church , or the major part , to whom they are to minister . and herein they follow the footsteps of the apostles , acts . when one must be chosen in the room of judas , the , which was the whole assembly , allowed the choice of two : and good reason there is , that where all are equally concerned , they should all be satisfied in the choice of such , as to whom they commit the care and feeding of their souls . when the seven deacons were to be ordained , the whole church is consulted , acts . and the election made by them who knew the qualification of the persons . and as holy scripture , so antiquity stands with us in this case . the nicene council , writing their minds to the church at alexandria , concerning some that were to succeed other bishops , gives these directions : if so be they shall seem to be worthy , and the people shall chuse them . what rules were to be observed in respect of their worthiness for ministerial employment , may be gathered from clement , epist . ad corinth . having ( saith he ) made trial of them by the spirit , to be bishops and deacons . and again , others well approved of , should succeed into the office and ministry , who therefore have been constituted , — by famous and discreet men , with the good liking and consent of all the church , — and who withal , have of a long time had a good testimony from all men. leo gives the same direction ( epist . . c. . ) charging , that none be ordained against the wills and petitions of the people : and again , epist . . the custom was that he should be chosen of all , that was to be over all , and wills , that the liking of the people and their testimony be sought : that in ordinations , the rules of the apostles and fathers ought to be observed ; that he that is to be over the church , should not only have the allowance of the faithful , but the testimony also of them that are without . cyprian is as clear for us , ( ep. l. . ) the people who full well and perfectly know the life of him that is to be ordained bishop , are to be present , and to be chosen with their allowance , who know the conversation of every one . and he brings salinius ( his colleague ) for instance , who was chosen by the voice of the whole brotherhood , and the judgment of the bishops which came together . each church stands free ( saith dr. bilson , perpet . govern. ) by god's law to admit , maintain , and obey no man as their pastor without their liking ; and that the peoples election dependeth on humane fellowship , and first principles of humane society and assemblies . dr. field informs us , that this right of the people hath been invaded many ways : . by great personages and magistrates . . when the bishops grew to great pomp , and the clergy began to be enriched by benefices , elections were , and to this day are made according to the interests of the rich and strong , whilst the people are not only deprived of , but become ignorant , that any right remains in them to chuse their own ministers or pastors . now this privilege , tho lost in most national churches , is restored and maintained in the baptized churches , where none are elected messengers , bishops , or deacons , without the free choice of the brotherhood where such elections are made . and after such election of persons of known integrity and competent ability , we proceed to ordination , with fasting and prayer , and the laying on of hands , according to the scripture ; acts . . when they had fasted and prayed , they laid their hands on them , and sent them away . thus for the ordination of messengers , ( which after the manner of some are called bishops . ) acts . . and when they had ordained them elders in every church , and prayed with fasting , they commended them to the lord , on whom they believed . acts . , . and they chose stephen , a man full of faith , and of the holy-ghost , and philip , and prochorus , and nicanor , and timon , and parmenas , and nicholas , whom they set before the apostles ; and when they had prayed , they laid their hands on them . thus for the ordination of deacons . all which apostolical practices are religiously restored and observed in the churches of the baptized believers , without any devised adjuncts of our own or others . by all which it may appear , they have a lawful call to the work of the ministry . here i meet with an objection ; 't is doubted by some , whether a man having received ordination as a presbyter , may afterward have ordination as a messenger of the churches of christ , the objector supposing that the first ordination is sufficient , only the church must give him another commission . this objection i answer three ways : . by antiquity . . by reason . . by scripture . . antiquity is directly against this objection , being rather for a threefold ordination than only one , as i shall shew by and by . but first , i marvel how the objector would give a man a ministerial commission without ordination , the church having no other way at all to give commissions but by ordination ; nor can any man tell us , how she can give her commissions ministerial , but by the very act of her ordination ; and according to the nature of her ordination , such , and no other is her commission . now our ancients understood this , and therefore did usually bring men gradually to the degree of a bishop , ( i. e. a messenger , according to the scripture , bishop , or overseer , being a name common to elders in the primitive times . ) thus chrysostom was first ordained a deacon , then a presbyter , after that he was ordained bishop of constantinople , by theophilus bishop of alexandria . and saith the learned bilson , in the primitive church they were first deacons , and upon trial , when they had ministred well , and were found blameless , they were admitted to be elders ; and after that , if their gifts and pains so deserved , they were called to an higher degree : so that every one , by the ancient discipline of christ's church , before he could come from ministring to governing in the church of god , received thrice , or at least twice , imposition of hands . . reason tells us , that every man that is called to the work of the ministry , ought to have a commission ( that is , an ordination ) commensurable to his ministry . it is christ's peculiar to give commission by the word of his mouth only , the church cannot do so ; she must confer ministerial authority in some solemn rite or ceremony . this is plain in the case of deacons , it was not sufficient for the apostles to say ( of persons eminently qualified ) we order or appoint them to serve tables , or , look ye to the poor : but besides their great qualifications and election , they must receive their commission or authority by prayer , with the laying on of hands , else they have no commission . in like 〈…〉 be solemnly ordained , before the holy-ghost hath made him an overseer of the particular flock committed to his charge . and then in reason , if he have a far greater charge afterward committed to him , he has need of a commission ( that is , an ordination , for other commission there is none ) to enable him to take care of many churches , and to plant new churches in the world. we read not of any messengers , that acted as such in that great trust , without an ordination agreeable to their work ; and it is ill venturing to send men out with a commission too short for their employment , it being irrational so to do , and without any good example . let us see then what the scripture will say in favour of our answers . . the apostles had a twofold apostleship ; the one limited to the jewish nation , mat. . the other of extent to all nations , mat. . if they were ordained to either , then they were ordained to both ; and the latter seems to be the more solemn and formal ordination , not only for that when christ had given them order what to do , he lift up his hands , and blessed them , luk. . . but also gave them order to tarry at jerusalem , until they were endowed with power from on high . when their work was particular or limited , they had a limited commission ; when their work was universal , they had an universal commission . sure the church , who hath no way to give commissions but by ordination , shall do well and wisely to follow christ , the author of all her power , when she delegates or gives it forth to any of her ministers . this answer may suffice , yet we add : barnabas is confessed to have been one of the seventy disciples , and had a divine authority from christ to preach the gospel to the jews ; but when he is sent to preach to the gentiles , he hath a new commission , even an ordination , as appears , acts . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e psal . . . rev. . . tim. . . psal . . . prov. . . notes for div a -e i see the th of elizabeth . luk. . , , . exod. . . lev. c. . socrat. l c. , . a letter to a dissenter, upon occasion of his majesties late gracious declaration of indulgence halifax, george savile, marquis of, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; 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(eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a letter to a dissenter, upon occasion of his majesties late gracious declaration of indulgence halifax, george savile, marquis of, - . [ ], p. printed for g.h., london : . reproduction of original in union theological seminary library, new york. attributed to halifax, george savile. cf. nuc pre- . created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng dissenters, religious -- great britain. freedom of religion -- great britain -- early works to . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - andrew kuster sampled and proofread - andrew kuster text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a letter to a dissenter , upon occasion of his majesties late gracious declaration of indulgence . london : printed for g. h. . a letter to a dissenter , &c. sir , since addresses are in fashion , give me leave to make one to you . this is neither the effect of fear , interest , or resentment ; therefore you may be sure it is sincere : and for that reason it may expect to be kindly received . whether it will have power enough to convince , dependeth upon the reasons , of which you are to judge ; and upon your preparation of mind , to be perswaded by truth , whenever it appeareth to you . it ought not to be the less welcom , for coming from a friendly hand , one whose kindness to you is not lessened by difference of opinion , and who will not let his thoughts for the publick be so tyed or confined to this or that sub-division of protestants , as to stifle the charity , which , besides all other arguments , is at this time become necessary to preserve us . i am neither surprized nor provoked , to see that in the condition you were put into by the laws , and the ill circumstances you lay under , by having the exclusion and rebellion laid to your charge , you were desirous to make your selves less uneasie and obnoxious to authority . men who are sore , run to the nearest remedy with too much hast , to consider all the consequences : grains of allowance are to be given , where nature giveth such strong influences . when to men under sufterings it ossereth ease , the present pain will hardly allow time to examine the remedies ; and the strongest reason can hardly gain a fair audience from our mind , whilst so possessed , till the smart is a little allayed . i do not know whether the warmth that naturally belongeth to new friendships , may not make it a harder task for me to perswade you . it is like telling lovers , in the beginning of their joys , that they will in a little time have an end . such an unwelcome style doth not easily find credit : but i will suppose you are not so far gone in your new passion , but that you will hear still ; and therefore i am under the less discouragement , when i offer to your consideration two things . the first is , the cause you have to suspect your new friends . the second , the duty incumbent upon you , in christianity and prudence , not to hazard the publick safety , neither by desire of ease , nor of revenge . to the first : consider that notwithstanding the smooth language which is now put on to engage you , these new friends did not make you their choice , but their refuge : they have ever made their first courtships to the church of england . and when they were rejected there , they made their application to you in the second place . the instances of this , might be given in all times . i do not repeat them , because whatsoever is unnecessary , must be tedious , the truth of this assertion being so plain , as not to admit a dispute . you cannot therefore reasonably flatter your selves , that there is any inclination to you . they never pretended to allow you any quarter , but to usher in liberty for themselves under that shelter . i refer you to mr. coleman's letters , and to the iournals of parliament , where you may be convinced , if you can be so mistaken , as to doubt ; nay , at this very hour , they can hardly forbear , in the height of their courtship , to let fall hard words of you . so little is nature to be restrained ; it will start out sometimes , disdaining to submit to the usurpation of art and interest . this alliance , between liberty and infallibility , is bringing together the two most contrary things that are in the world. the church of rome doth not only dislike the allowing liberty , but by its principles it cannot do it . wine is not more expresly forbidden to the mahometans , then giving hereticks liberty is to papists : they are no more able to make good their vows to you , then men married before , and their wife alive , can confirm their contract with another . the continuance of their kindness , would be a habit of sin , of which they are to repent , and their absolution is to be had upon no other terms , than their promise to destroy you . you are therefore to be hugged now , onely that you may be the better squeezed at another time . there must be something extraordinary , when the church of rome setteth up bills , and ossereth plaisters , for tender consciences : by all that hath hitherto appeared , her skill in chirurgery lyeth chiefly in a quick hand , to cut off limbs ; but she is the worst at healing , of any that ever pretended to it . to come so quick from another extream , is such an unnatural motion , that you ought to be upon your guard ; the other day you were sons of belial , now , you are angels of light . this is a violent change , and it will be fit for you to pause upon it , before you believe it : if your features are not altered , neither is their opinion of you , what ever may be pretended . do you believe less than you did , that there is idolatry in the church of rome ? sure you do not . see then , how they treat both in words and writing , those who entertain that opinion . conclude from hence , how inconsistent their favour is with this single article , except they give you a dispensation for this too , and by a non obstante , secure you that they will not think the worse of you . think a little how dangerous it is to build upon a foundation of parodoxes . popery now is the only friend to liberty , and the known enemy to persecution : the men of taunton and tiverton , are above all other eminent for loyalty . the quakers from being declared by the papists not to be christians , are now made favourites , and taken into their particular protection ; they are on a sudden grown the most accomplished men of the kingdom , in good breeding , and give thanks with the best grace , in double refined language . so that i should not wonder , though a man of that perswasion , in spite of his hat , should be master of the ceremonies . not to say harsher words , these are such very new things , that it is impossible not to suspend our belief , till by a little more experience we may be inform'd whether they are realities or apparitions : we have been under shameful mistakes , if these opinions are true ; but for the present , we are apt to be incredulous ; except we could be convinced , that the priests words in this case too , are able to make such a sudden , and effectual change ; and that their power is not limited to the sacrament , but that it extendeth to alter the nature of all other things , as often as they are so disposed . let me now speak of the instruments of your friendship , and then leave you to judge , whether they do not afford matter of suspition . no sharpness is to be mingled where healing onely is intended ; so nothing will be said to expose particular men , how strong so ever the temptation may be , or how clear the proofs to make it out . a word or two in general , for your better caution , shall suffice : suppose then , for argument's sake , that the mediators of this new alliance , should be such as have been formerly imployed in treaties of the same kinde , and there detected to have acted by order , and to have been impowered to give encouragements and rewards . would not this be an argument to suspect them ? if they should plainly be under engagements to one side , their arguments to the other , ought to be received accordingly ; their fair pretences are to be looked upon as part of their commission , which may not improbably give them a dispensation in the case of truth , when it may bring a prejudice upon the service of those by whom they are imployed . if there should be men who having formerly had means and authority to perswade by secular arguments , have in pursuance of that power , sprinkled money amongst the dissenting ministers ; and if those very men should now have the same authority , practice the same methods , and disburse , where they cannot otherwise perswade : it seemeth to me to be rather an evidence than a presumption of the deceit . if there should be ministers amongst you , who by having fallen under temptations of this kinde , are in some sort engaged to continue their frailty , by the awe they are in least it should be exposed : the perswasions of these unfortunate men must sure have the less force , and their arguments , though never so specious , are to be suspected , when they come from men who have mortgaged themselves to severe creditors that expect a rigorous observation of the contract , let it be never so unwarrantable . if they ▪ or any others , should at this time preach up anger and vengeance against the church of england ; may it not without injustice be suspected , that a thing so plainly out of season , springeth rather from corruption than mistake ; and that those who act this cholerick part , do not believe themselves , but onely pursue higher directions , and endeavour to make good that part of their contract which obligeth them , upon a forfeiture , to make use of their inflaming eloquence ? they might apprehend their wages would be retrenched if they should be moderate : and therefore whilst violence is their interest , those who have not the same arguments , have no reason to follow such a partial example . if there should be men who by the load of their crimes against the government , have been bowed down to comply with it against their conscience ; who by incurring the want of a pardon , have drawn upon themselves the necessity of an intire resignation : such men are to be lamented , but not to be believed . nay , they themselves , when they have discharged their unwelcome task , will be inwardly glad that their forced endeavours do not succeed , and are pleased when men resist their insinuations ; which are far from being voluntary or sincere , but are squeezed out of them by the weight of their being so obnoxious . if in the height of this great dearness by comparing things , it should happen , that at this instant , there is much a surer friendship with those who are so far from allowing liberty , that they allow no living to a protestant under them . let the scene lie in what part of the world it will , the argument will come home , and sure it will afford sufficient ground to suspect . apparent contradictions must strike us ; neither nature nor reason can digest them : self-flattery , and the desire to deceive our selves , to gratifie a present appetite , with all their power , which is great , cannot get the better of such broad conviction , as some things carry along with them . will you call these vain and empty suspitions ? have you been at all times so void of fears and jealousies as to justifie your being so unreasonably valiant in having none upon this occasion ? such an extraordinary courage at this unseasonable time , to say no more , is too dangerous a vertue to be commended . if then for these and a thousand other reasons , there is cause to suspect , sure your new friends are not to dictate to you , or advise you ; for instance , the addresses that fly abroad every week , and murther us with another to the same ; the first draughts are made by those who are not very proper to be secretaries to the protestant religion ; and it is your part onely to write them out fairer again . strange ! that you who have been formerly so much against set forms , should now be content the priests should indite for you . the nature of thanks is an unavoidable consequence of being pleased or obliged ; they grow in the heart , and from thence shew themselves either in looks , speech , writing , or action : no man was ever thankful because he was bid to be so , but because he had , or thought he had some reason for it . if then there is cause in this case to pay such extravagant acknowledgments , they will flow naturally , without taking such pains to procure them ; and it is unkindly done to tire all the poast-horses with carrying circular letters to sollicite that which would be done without any trouble or constraint : if it is really in it self such a favour , what needeth so much pressing men to be thankful , and with such eager circumstances , that where perswasions cannot delude , threatnings are imployed to fright them into a compliance ? thanks must be voluntary , not only unconstrained , but unsollicited , else they are either triffles or snares , they either signifie nothing , or a great deal more than is intended by those that give them . if an inference should be made , that whosoever thanketh the king for his declaration , is by that ingaged to justifie it in point of law ; it is a greater stride than , i presume , all those care to make who are perswaded to address : if it shall be supposed , that all the thankers will be repealers of the test , when ever a parliament shall meet . such an expectation is better prevented before , than disappointed afterwards ; and the surest way to avoid the lying under such a scandal , is not to do any thing that may give a colour to the mistake : these bespoken thanks are little less improper than love letters that were sollicited by the lady to whom they are to be directed : so , that besides the little ground there is to give them , the manner of getting them , doth extreamly lessen their value . it might be wished that you would have suppressed your impatience , and have been content for the sake of religion , to enjoy it within your selves , without the liberty of a publick exercise , till a parliament had allowed it ; but since that could not be , and that the artifices of some amongst you have made use of the well-meant zeal of the generality to draw them into this mistake ; i am so far from blaming you with that sharpness which , perhaps , the matter in strictness would bear , that i am ready to orr on the side of the more gentle construction . there is a great difference between enjoying quietly the advantages of an act irregularly done by others , and the going about to support it against the laws in being : the law is so sacred , that no trespass against it is to be defended ; yet frailties may in some measure be excused , when they cannot be justified . the desire of enjoying a liberty from which men have been so long restrained , may be a temptation that their reason is not at all times able to resist . if in such a case , some objections are leapt over , indifferent men will be more inclined to lament the occasion , than to fall too hard upon the fault , whilst it is covered with the apologie of a good intention ; but where to rescue your selves from the severity of one law , you give a blow to all the laws , by which your religion and liberty are to be protected ; and instead of silently receiving the benefit of this indulgence , you set up for advocates to support it , you become voluntary aggressors , and look like counsel retained by the prerogative against your old friend magna charta , who hath done nothing to deserve her salling thus under your displeasure . if the case then should be , that the price expected from you for this liberty , is giving up your right in the laws , sure you will think twice , before you go any further in such a losing bargain . after giving thanks for the breach of one law , you lose the right of complaining of the breach of all the rest ; you will not very well know how to defend your selves , when you are pressed ; and having given up the question , when it was for your advantage , you cannot recal it , when it shall be to your prejudice . if you will set up at one time a power to help you , which at another time by parity of reason shall be made use of to destroy you , you will neither be pitied , nor relieved against a mischief you draw upon your selves , by being so unreasonably thankful . it is like calling in auxiliaries to help , who are strong enough to subdue you : in such a case your complaints will come too late to be heard , and your sufferings will raise mirth instead of compassion . if you think , for your excuse , to expound your thanks so as to restrain them to this particular case , others , for their ends , will extend them further ; and in these differing interpretations , that which is back'd by authority will be the most likely to prevail ; especially when by the advantage you have given them , they have in truth the better of the argument , and that the inferences from your own concessions are very strong , and express against you . this is so far from being a groundless supposition , that there was a late instance of it , the last session of parliament , in the house of lords , where the first thanks , though things of course , were interpreted to be the approbation of the king 's whole speech , and a restraint from the further examination of any part of it , though never so much disliked ; and it was with difficulty obtained , not to be excluded from the liberty of objecting to this mighty prerogative of dispensing , meerly by this innocent and usual piece of good manners , by which no such thing could possibly be intended . this sheweth , that some bounds are to be put to your good breeding , and that the constitution of england is too valuable a thing to be ventured upon a complement . now that you have for some time enjoyed the benefit of the end , it is time for you to look into the danger of the means : the same reason that made you desirous to get liberty , must make you sollicitous to preserve it ; so that the next thought will naturally be , not to engage your self beyond retreat , and to agree so far with the principles of all religions , as not to rely upon a death-bed repentance . there are certain periods of time , which being once past , make all cautions ineffectual , and all remedies desperate . our understandings are apt to be hurried on by the first heats ; which , if not restrained in time , do not give us leave to look back , till it is too late . consider this in the case of your anger against the church of england , and take warning by their misstake in the same kind , when after the late king's restoration , they preserved so long the bitter taste of your rough usage to them in other times , that it made them forget their interest , and sacrifice it to their revenge . either you will blame this proceeding in them , and for that reason not follow it , or if you allow it , you have no reason to be offended with them ; so that you must either dismiss your anger , or lose your excuse ; except you should argue more partially than will be supposed of men of your morality and understanding . if you had now to do with those rigid prelates , who made it a matter of conscience to give you the least indulgence , but kept you at an uncharitable distance , and even to your more reasonable scruples continued stiff and inexorable , the argument might be fairer on your side ; but since the common danger hath so laid open that mistake , that all the former haughtiness towards you is for ever extinguished , and that it hath turned the spirit of persecution , into a spirit of peace , charity , and condescention ; shall this happy change only affect the church of england ? and are you so in love with separation , as not to be moved by this example ? it ought to be followed , were there no other reason than that it is a vertue ; but when besides that , it is become necessary to your preservation , it is impossible to fail the having its effect upon you . if it should be said , that the church of england is never humble , but when she is out of power , and therefore loseth the right of being believed when she pretendeth to it ; the answer is , first , it would be an uncharitable objection , and very much mistimed ; an unseasonable triumph , not only ungenerous , but unsafe : so that in these respects it cannot be urged , without scandal , even though it could be said with truth . secondly , this is not so in fact , and the argument must fall , being built upon a false foundation ; for whatever may be told you , at this very hour , and in the heat and glare of your present sun-shine , the church of england can in a moment bring clouds again ; and turn the royal thunder upon your heads , blow you off the stage with a breath , if she would give but a smile or a kind word ; the least glimpse of her complyance , would throw you back into the state of suffering , and draw upon you all the arrears of severity , which have accrued during the time of this kindness to you , and yet the church of england , with all her faults , will not allow her self to be rescued by such unjustisiable means , but chuseth to bear the weight of power , rather than lye under the burthen of being criminal . it cannot be said , that she is unprovoked ; books and letters come out every day , to call for answers , yet she will not be stirred . from the supposed authors , and the stile one would swear they were undertakers , and had made a contract to fall out with the church of england . there are lashes in every address , challenges to draw the pen in every pamphlet ; in short , the fairest occasions in the world given to quarrel ; but she wisely distinguisheth between the body of dissenters , whom she will suppose to act , as they do , with no ill intent ; and these small skirmishers pickt and sent out to picqueer , and to begin a fray amongst the protestants , for the entertainment , as well as the advantage , of the church of rome . this conduct is so good , that it will be scandalous not to applaud it . it is not equal dealing , to blame our adversaries for doing ill , and not commend them when they do well . to hate them because they persecuted , and not to be reconciled to them when they are ready to suffer , rather than receive all the advantages , that can be gained by a criminal complyance , is a principle no sort of christians can own , since it would give an objection to them never to be answered . think a little , who they were that promoted your former persecutions , and then consider how it will look to be angry with the instruments , and at the same time to make a league with the authours of your sufferings . have you enough considered what will be expected from you ? are you ready to stand in every borough by vertue of a conge d eslire , and instead of election , be satisfied if you are returned ? will you in parliament , justifie the dispensing power , with all its consequences , and repeal the test , by which you will make way for the repeal of all the laws , that were made to preserve your religion , and to enact others that shall destroy it ? are you disposed to change the liberty of debate , into the merit of obedience , and to be made instruments to repeal or enact laws , when the roman consistory , are lords of the articles . are you so linked with your new friends , as to reject any indulgence a parliament shall offer you , if it shall not be so comprehensive as to include the papists in it ? consider that the implyed conditions of your new treaty are no less , then that you are to do every thing you are desired , without examining , and that for this pretended liberty of conscience , your real freedom is to be sacrificed : your former faults hang like chains still about you , you are let loose only upon bayl ; the first act of non-compliance , sendeth you to jayl again . you may see that the papists themselves , do not rely upon the legality of this power , which you are to justifie , since the being so very earnest to get it established by a law , and the doing such very hard things in order , as they think to obtain it , is a clear evidence , that they do not think , that the single power of the crown is in this case a good foundation ; especially when this is done under a prince , so very tender of all the rights of soveraignty , that he would think it a diminution to his prerogative , where he conceiveth it strong enough to goe alone , to call in the legislative help to strengthen and support it . you have formerly blamed the church of england , and not without reason , for going so far as they did in their compliance ; and yet as soon as they stopped , you see they are not onely deserted , but prosecuted : conclude then from this example , that you must either break off your friendship , or resolve to have no bounds in it . if they do not succeed in their design , they will leave you first ; if they do , you must either leave them , when it will be too late for your safety , or else after the s●●●caziness of starting at a surplice , you must be forced to swallow transubstantiation . remember that the other day those of the church of england were trimmers for enduring you , and now by a sudden turn , you are become the favourites ; do not deceive your selves , it is not the nature of lasting plants thus to shoot up in a night ; you may look gay and green for a little time , but you want a root to give you a continuance . it is not so long since , as to be forgotten , that the maxime was , it is impossible for a dissenter , not to be a rebel . consider at this time in france , even the new converts are so far from being imployed , that they are disarmed ; their sudden change maketh them still to be distrusted , notwithstanding that they are reconciled : what are you to expect then from your dear friends , to whom , when ever they shall think fit to throw you off again , you have in other times given such arguments for their excuse ? besides all this , you act very unskilfully against your visible interest , if you throw away the advantages , of which you can hardly fail in the next probable revolution . things tend naturally to what you would have , if you would let them alone , and not by an unseasonable activity lose the influences of your good star , which promiseth you every thing that is prosperous . the church of england convinced of its errour in being severe to you ; the parliament , when ever it meeteth , sure to be gentle to you ; the next heir bred in the country which you have so often quoted for a pattern of indulgence ; a general agreement of all thinking men , that we must no more cut our selves off from the protestants abroad , but rather inlarge the foundations upon which we are to build our defences against the common enemy ; so that in truth , all things seem to conspire to give you ease and satisfaction , if by too much hast to anticipate your good fortune , you do not destroy it . the protestants have but one article of humane strength , to oppose the power which is now against them , and that is , not to lose the advantage of their numbers , by being so unwary as to let themselves be divided . we all agree in our duty to our prince , our objections to his belief , do not hinder us from seeing his vertues ; and our not complying with his religion , hath no effect upon our allegiance ; we are not to be laughed out of our passive obedience , and the doctrine of non-resistance , though even those who perhaps owe the best part of their security to that principle , are apt to make a jeast of it . so that if we give no advantage by the fatal mistake of misapplying our anger , by the natural course of things , this danger will pass away like a shower of hail ; fair weather will succeed , as lowering as the sky now looketh , and all by this plain and easie receipt . let us be still , quiet , and undivided , firm at the same time to our religion , our loyalty , and our laws , and so long as we continue this method , it is next to impossible , that the odds of two hundred to one should lose the bett ; except the church of rome , which hath been so long barren of miracles , should now in her declining age , be brought to bed of one that would out do the best she can brag of in her legend . to conclude , the short question will be ▪ whether you will joyn with those who must in the end run the same fate with you . if protestants of all sorts , in their behaviour to one another , have been to blame , they are upon the more equal terms , and for that very reason it is fitter for them now to be reconciled . our dis-union is not only a reproach , but a danger to us ; those who believe in modern miracles , have more right , or at least more excuse , to neglect all secular cautions ; but for us , it is as justifiable to have no religion , as wilfully to throw away the humane means of preserving it . i am , dear sir , your most affectionate humble servant , t. w. a fannaticks mite cast into the kings treasury being a sermon printed to the king because not preach'd before the king / by henry adis. adis, henry. this text is an enriched version of the tcp digital transcription a of text r in the english short title catalog (wing a ). textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. the text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with morphadorner. the annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. this text has not been fully proofread approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. earlyprint project evanston,il, notre dame, in, st. louis, mo a wing a estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a fannaticks mite cast into the kings treasury being a sermon printed to the king because not preach'd before the king / by henry adis. adis, henry. this text is an enriched version of the tcp digital transcription a of text r in the english short title catalog (wing a ). textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. the text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with morphadorner. the annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. this text has not been fully proofread [ ], , [ ] p. printed by s. dover, london : . "a declaration of a small society of baptized believers undergoing the name of free-willers about the city of london": p. - . reproduction of original in the british library. eng sermons, english -- th century. dissenters, religious -- england. a r (wing a ). civilwar no a fannaticks mite cast into the kings treasury: being a sermon printed to the king, because not preach'd before the king. the second edition adis, henry c the rate of defects per , words puts this text in the c category of texts with between and defects per , words. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - rina kor sampled and proofread - rina kor text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a fannaticks mite cast into the kings treasury : being a sermon printed to the king , because not preach'd before the king . the second edition , corrected and amended . by henry adis , a baptized believer , undergoing the name of a free-willer ; and also most ignomineously by the tongue of infamy , called a fannatick , or a mad man . silver and gold have i none , but such as i have give i thee , acts . . first read , then judge ; and judge nothing before the time , because the wise man saith , that to him that iudgeth a matter before he heareth it , it is folly and shame , prov. . . london , printed by s. dover , for the author , . delivered into the kings own-hands by the author , the th . day of chisleu , in scripture so called , zech. . . which is the th . month , and therefore vulgarly called november , . to charles the ii , of england , scotland , france and ireland , king . may it please thee , o king , i am come now to present thee with that mite , the composing of which i have been very much pressed to in spirit , ever since thou wast brought again into this land of thy nativity , with that great solemnity and triumph ; the noise of which hath rejoyced the hearts of forregn princes , daunted the spirits of thy domestick enemies , made thy friends merry , and the rude multitude mad , even to the sadning the hearts of the truly vertuous ( and as i judge ) not because thou art restored again , for the meerly rational may plainly behold in it an high act of divine providence : but the moon-sick madness of the multitude , yet unrepented of , together with the revived and dayly continued acts of abomination in stage-playes , may-games , and pastimes , with the many bitter and most horrid oaths and execrations , uttered almost in every corner , by nine-pinn , nine-hole , and pigeonhole-players , and to the poysoning the youth of our age , in that multitude of dammy and debauched bawdy-houses , even the foul and detestible shame of a christian kingdom ; is that they fear is gathering into a black thick cloud over the land , and in special over rude , revelling , ranting london ; out of which it is to be feared ( unless nineve●…s repentance intervene ) will be poured out one or more of those three heavy judgments of god , plague , sword , or famine . therefore , o king , i have brought thee an antidote , both for thee and thine , the which haply may prove bitter to the taste , and will hardly go down ; yet let me assure thee upon the word of an honest man , there is nothing hurtful in it , there is not so much as an unwholsome bud , nor a stinking weed , but all precious flowers and wholsom herbs , newly gathered out of the garden of god by a faithful hand , and tempered together by a sincere heart ; and is a potion of that rare vertue , that if it be willingly taken and well digested , it will take down the tinpany of pride , and utterly dry up the dropsicall humours of all abomnations ; it will perfectly recover out of the consumption of vertues , and fortifie the heart against all vice whatsoever ; it will strengthen the stomack , both to receive and retain wholsom and sound doctrine , and perfectly purge out the iniquity of all your holy things ; it will purge the brain from all fansical , formal frenzy , and cause it only to study the great things of gods law ; it will perfectly purge out melancholy , and generate joy unspeakable , and full of glory ; it will dry up the overflowing issues of sin , and nourish up a soul unto eternal life ; it will operate upon the inward man so , as that there will be a sudden change in the outward ; it will make the proud person , humble ; the lofty , lowly ; the careless careful ; the rich in this world , rich in good works ; the spotted and painted face , truly panitent : to be short , it will operate upon the luxurious , lascivious and licentious ; and indeed upon all , so as that it will take down the inordinate beat of lust , and make such a sweet composure , as that it will set love , joy , fear , zeal , pitty , and piety upon their right objects ; it will perfectly purge out all envy and malice , blood-thirstiness , hatred , with all uncharitableness , and create in the room thereof , love , joy , peace , long-suffering , gentleness , goodness , with meekness and temperance ; it will operate upon all complexions and sexes , and upon all ranks and subordinations of men of all ages ; and as i said before , if willingly received and well digested , it will make the prince pittiful , just and pious , and the subject loving , faithful & loyal ; it will make great persons noble , with that true berean nobility , and joyn goodness to their greatness , ( a rarity indeed ) it will make the middle sort of men moderate , and cause them to use the world as if they used it not ; yea , it will make the very beggers of the blood royal of heaven , and children of god , yea kings and priests to god , and to christ ; it will make the sluggish and slothful , watchfully vigilant , and the vitious , truly vertuous ; it will make the child dutiful , and the parents indulgent , the servant painful , and the master pittiful ; it will keep the virgin chaste , and breed loyalty in the married ; it will make youth sage and grave , and gray hairs truly honourable ; it will make the bond-man free , and the free-man a fellow citizen with the saints , and of the household of god ; it will make the poor man , truly rich , and the rich by poverty of spirit blessedly poor ; it will corroborate the cow-hearted , and cause the coward earnestly to contend for the faith : in fine , it will so purge out the old leaven , as that it will make a man become a new lump ; it will make a meer natural man , truly gratious , and cause him to put off that old man with all his deeds , and put on that new man , which after god is created in righteousness , and true hulyness : and thus when old things are passed away , ye may evidently behold all things to become new ; for though a spiritual man be produced , yet he is not like a spirit , so as to be invisible , but apparently you may behold his dialect changed , and his aspect altered ; for that tongue that in the old man was an unruly member , and full of deadly poyson , oaths , execrations , and debauched abominations ; is in the new man , an instrument to set forth the praise of god , and to tell what god hath done for his soul , to talk of the majesty of christs kingdom , and to declare his power . the eye that was never better satisfied then when it was beholding vanity , is now looking within the vail , where the forerunner . is entred , it is now beholding the goodness of the lord , and enquiring in his temple , and diligently seeking after that one thing necessary , that once mary chose . the feet which before were swiftly running to shed blood , are now in zions pathes , readily running the way of gods commandements . the hands which before were other wayes employed , are now handling of the word of life , which their eyes have seen , and their ears have heard , the which their tongues also are now ready to declare ; that so others may partake of that fellowship , which they have with the father , and his son jesus christ . to conclude , it is an antidote of such a transcendent vertue , that being rightly applyed , according to the ensueing direction , it will translate a creature out of the kingdom of darkeness , into the kingdom of gods dear son ; and also cause him there with enoch and noah , to walk with god . o king , silver and gold have i none , but such as i have give i thee ; i give it thee freely , dispose of it at thy pleasure , for freely through mercy i received it , it cost me nothing that was worth the keeping , i parted not with so much as one mite for it , but that which for some time was my daily insupportable burthen , which at length grew so ponderous , that it weighed me down , even to the very brink of hell , the horrour whereof , darius-like , caused me to forsake my meat , and also my sleep to pass from me , it being a mountainous confused lump of iniquities , transgressions and sins , the fruits of my labours from my cradle some forty years in the devils slavery , in which i was led captive by him at his will ; the parting with which was my great gaine , not only by lightning my burthen , but by an enlightning the eyes of my understanding , to the beholding and laying hold on him who is invisible . and thus o king , through grace i became a fannatick , or a mad man , as some call me . and now let me beg thee , o king ; first , neither to slight the gift for the meanness of the giver , nor the potion , because not compounded by the direction of a colledge of phisitians , that have read many authors ; but the rather esteem it , because it is an experienced receipt , and because as the physitians use to say , probatum est , is engraven upon it . and secondly , let me beg thee , o king , to make use of it thy self ; for , sure i am , thou hast need of such an antidote ; the whcih if thou dost , i am confident i need not then beg a third boon of thee , to recommend it to thy great family , viz. to those that are under thy charge ; for that is one part of the excellent vertue that souls are made partakers of , that well digest it , viz. that when they are converted , they will be provoked then , to strengthen their brethren . and now , o king , i shall at present cease to ask more at thy throne , but shall apply my self to the throne of grace , and there beg the lord , to give thee as much true joy in reading , as he in mercy gave me in writing it , and that as he hath begun this good work , to put this antidote into thy hand , so he would perfect the same , that he would sweeten it to thy taste , and help thy disgestion ; and seeing he hath declared himself to be such an one that waiteth upon souls , that he might be gracious unto them , that he would wait upon thee with the sweet incomings of his own spirit ; and in special , whilst thou art taking this potion , that he would visit thee with his loving kindness , so , as that it may effectually operate upon thee , to the bringing forth the fruits thereof in thy life and conversation , to the honour and glory of him , who hath already done such great things for thee ; into whose care , direction and protection , he shall now commend thee , who is , and by his assistance shall ever be , thy loyal subject to pray , but neither to swear , nor fight for thee , yet faithfully to obey thee in all things , that god requires in his scriptures of truth ; who never did fight against any of thy predecessors , nor never shall resolve to fight against thee , nor any of thy successors , henry adis. an after-writing to the king . marvel not , o king , at my single-hearted conclusion , in that i said , i shall neither swear nor fight for thee , neither conclude me peremptorily peevish , nor factiously rebellious , because i am so plain : but by the way know , that in conclusion , thou wilt find him to be thy truest friend , that dealeth plainliest with thee , for one dram of down right honesty , is of more true worth , than a whole pound of fawning flattery ; for mine own part , although i am by trade an upholdster , yet know , o king , i come not to sow pillows under thy elbows , i fear thou hast artificial work-men at that work already , and too many too , for thy future good ; but what i have received of the lord , in the singleness of my heart , and in plainess of speech , i declare unto thee , take it as thou wilt , and do with me for it as thou pleasest , the meaning of it i yet understand uot , but sure i am , i have more than a common impulse to the work , however it will fare with me i matter not , i both hope and pray it may prove of good use to thee : therefore i shall beg thee in gods fear , to consider seriously what thou dost , when thou shalt force men to swear ; for he that will fight for thee , and he that will swear for thee , being thereto constrained , will be as ready , if it stand with his own interest , both to swear and fight against thee ; for men generally make little conscience of keeping constrained vowes . o king , thou hast been tutored by experience , the best master ; and i need not tell thee , that coustraint and restraint are two exstreams , and therefore dangerous to deal withal . voluntarily some there are , but others being thereto forced , have already to their hearts trouble sworn against thee : and now , if thou shalt again compel them to swear for thee , what is it less than to ravish their consciences , and to force them most abominably to forswear themselves ? a ready way to pull down gods judgements upon the nation ; for so saith the prophet , jer. . . for because of swearing the land mourneth : so also saith another prophet , hos. . . they have spoken words , swearing falsly , in making a covenant : thus judgement springeth up as hemlock in the furrows of the field . and lest i be found guilty of such a heinous sin , i shall resolve to trust a man upon his bare word , rather than force him to swear ; for he that for his own benefit will not regard the keeping his word passed before god to man , will for his own advantage be as careless both of god and man , in slighting his unwilling vow . therefore in this , o king , be perswaded to leave men to their liberties ; and know , that englands subjects will be sooner won by their kings kindness , than brought under by his cruelty : it is the love of christ that constrains his ; so let thy lenity allure thine . and be entreated to shake off all slavish carnal fear , and cast thy care and burthen upon him , who hath hitherto taken such care for thee , render thou but to him according to his benefits bestowed upon thee , and confident i am , that the keeper of israel , who neither slumbreth nor sleepeth , will watch thy subjects hearts , so , as that they shall be kept close to thee ; for when a mans wayes please the lord , he will make his enemies to at peace with him . prov. . . and think not to make thy self strong , by forcing thy subjects to forswear themseves , in sweariug for thee , l●…st he that swore by himself , when he could 〈◊〉 by no greater , stretch out his sin-revenging hand against thee ; but rather say to thy subjects , as the lord christ saith to his , mat. . . swear not at all : and i being one of his subjects , this is one reason , o king , why i told thee in plainness of speech , that i cannot swear for thee ; and because he farther requireth me , thar i should love my enemies , and do good to them that hate me , and pray for them that daspitefully use me , mat. . . this is another reason , o king , why i cannot fight for thee : and i being a branch in that vine , of which the root and off-spring of david is the root , and from whom onely i dayly through mercy receive sap , vigour and fresh supplies of grace , for the strengthening and supporting of my inward man , dare not have so much as a thought to swear thee to be supream of that body of which christ is the head ; and because the lord by his prophet , jer. . . saith thus , at what instant i shall speak concerning a nation , and concerning a kingdom , to build and to plant it ; if it do evil in my sight , so that it obey not my voice , then will i repent of the good wherewith i said i would benefit it : this is also another reason , o king , why i cannot swear nor fight for thee ; for if thy actings shall nor answer gods end ( if his word be true ) thou must then expect a removal , and a pulling down ; and if i shall swear , or fight , to support thee , when by thy actings thou shalt cause god to pull thee down ; what is it less than for me to he found fighti●…g against god ? and besides , a servant of the lord must not strive , but be gentle to all , tim. . . and by the way know , that these resolves were not intended to thy self only , but also to those that were in power after thy father , and before thee , were these things manifested ; as by my declaration in the end of this book , is evident . therefore , o king , if thou shalt seem to counter-mand my loyalty to him , who bought me at so dear a price , as the shedding of his own pretious blood , acts . . i shall desire thee to judge between me and my god , and shall ask thee in the words of peter and john , acts . . whether it be right in the sight of god , to hearken unto thee , more than unto my god ? i shall desire thy self to be judge . and thus , o king , having ( i hope ) given thee a rational account , of my down-right and single-hearted conclusion of my epistle to thee dedicated ; i shall now tell thee in the faithfulness of my soul , that by the law of the same law-giver , i am bound not onely to pray for thee , tim. . . but also to obey thee in all civil things , that are agreeable to the mind of god , revealed in his scriptures of truth ; and also to render tribute , custome , fear and honour , both to thee , as god hath set thee over us , and to all others sent by thee , rom. . . pet. . . whose obedience upon the word of a christian , without 〈◊〉 or fighting , either for or against thee ( god assisting ) he shall faithfully continue ; who resolveth ( unless for his i●…nocent judgement , thou either deprive him of life , or banish him this land of his nativity ) to remain till death , thy loyal subject , henry adis. a word to the reader . reader , the common proverb goes , that every little makes a mickle ; and the kings treasuries being empty , whilst the parliament and city are throwing in their rich gifts , i ( with the poor widow in the gospel , have cast in my mite , let the king take it how he pleaseth , sure i am , he will take it amiss , if he take it not well ; for god is my witness , i intended it for good , and so it will prove , if rightly improved ; and is of that worth , that it may be said of it , as our saviour said of the widows mite , it will prove worth all ; not for the quantity , but for the quality of it ; not for the beauty , but for the blessedness ; not for the eloquence , but for the excellency of it ; theirs being material , but this supernatural ; theirs perishing , but this permanent ; theirs onely to feed , cloath and pamper the body , but this to nourish , strengthen , and to support the soul . reader , i was neither bred a scholar nor a courtier ; therefore thou must expect in it neither complement nor curiosity ; neither was i ever out of this land of my nativity ; therefore look not for any forreign rarities , but such only as are to be found in the garden of god . it is a home-spun piece , wherein there is little eloquence , and less flattery , but store of down right honesty , with abundance of fidelity ; a ponderous weight , of the truest love , wrapt up in an homely garment of the best loyalty . to be short , it is that which i know , must undergo many censures ( if not my self severely sentenced for it ) both by the critical church-man , and the carnal church-member , the flattering courtier , and the flouting citizen , the learned lawyer , and the illiterate rustick ; but let them say what they will , and do with it and me what they please , i much matter it not ; for in my composing of it , i had a good conscience ; which , sure i am , in the midst of the worst of miseries , will be to me a continual-feast ; for i look upon it , to be a part of my generation work , to speak a word in season , to the cherishing of vertue , and the bearing my testimony against vice , as far as the lord hath enabled me to the beating it down ; and so , to be guilty of the blood of none , but to have a conscience alwayes void of offence , both towards god , and towards man , and to have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness , but to reprove them . reader , in fine , it is a part of my talent , the which i dare not hide in a napkin ; and seeing it cannot be permitted to be employed where it ought , at mine own peril i dare not but minister it where i may : therefore take and read it , after which , if thou find benefit by it , bless god for it , and crave his assistance , that thou mayest make a right use of it ; for it is his , and mine no otherwise , than from him , through mercy i have received it . neither do i so highly praise it , for any thing that i have infused into it ; but for what through mercy i have been made partaker of by it ; by divine assistance , i have composed it , and the shearcher of all hearts knows , it is neither pay , nor praise i aim at , for my reward is with him : but if the glory of god , the well-being of his people , the good of the king , or the benefit but of one soul be thereby produced , he hath his end ; who desireth according to the ability received , to remain , thy faithful friend in the truths of jesus , henry adis. an after-word to the reader . reader , i knowing the temper of the spirits of the generality of the sons and daughters of men of this nation , in this juncture of time , cannot but expect that thou shouldst be something unsatisfied with my plainness of speech ; and my terms of thy , thee , thou , and o king , in my discourse to the king ; and also , in that i afford him not those titles that some men are pleased to put upon him , and therein i am perswaded thou wilt be ready to judge me , as one that am either peremptorily slighting , or peevishly undervaluing the king , because i do not say and do , to and for him , as thou haply canst and dost . or at the best , for the plainness of my speech , thou wilt conclude me to be one of those new-lighted men of our age ; commonly distinguished by the name of quakers , because that in their speakings and writings , they generally use the same terms ; and to say truth , if they did not speak the language , and wear the cloathing of the sheep of christ , they could not ( wolf-like ) so easily deceive as generally they do . therefore reader , i do hereby assure thee , that i am not of that synagogue ; for through mercy i can groundedly , and upon a good account let thee know , that i walk by the direction of a more surer word of prophesie , to which i shall endeavour by the assistance of the eternal spirit , to take good heed to ; and from which i shall warrant the soundness and manner of my speech ( though it be in such plainness and without flattery ) to be of god . and because these notionists have some of canaans language in their mouths ; i shall therefore no more forbear the using of it , than the apostle peter did the confessing of christ to be the son of the living god , mat. . . because the devil in so many words acknowledged the same , mat. . . mark . . luke . . neither shall i resolve to alter my habit , because these men being deceived , run up and down in the sheeps cloathing , deceiving ; but shall patiently wait upon god for a manifestation of them and all others , to be of the synagogue of satan , who say , they are iewe●… , and are not , but do lie . in the mean while reader , in christian love i shall further endeavour thy satisfaction , and in the singleness of my soul , i shall let thee know , that i both do and shall honour the king , with that honour and respect that the lord requireth i should ; as in this discourse , compared with my declaration in the end of this book folded , is evident ; although as thou haply mayest judge in my so speaking , i rudely behave my self . therefore for thy farther satisfaction , know , that as i am a servant to the most high god , and a member of a church of christ ; so i look upon it to be my duty , to regulate my conversation as becometh the gospel of christ , and to walk in the footsteps of the flock of god gone before ; who , though according to the requirement of god , they were obedient to kings , rulers and governours , yet they gave them no other language than in this my discourse i give to king charles ; witness that discourse the prophet daniel had wi●…h that head of gold , that king of kings , 〈◊〉 king of babylon , daniel . . who said , as for thee , o king , thy thoughts came into thy head ; and thou , o king , sawest , &c. and in ver. . and thou , o king , art king of kings . ver. . and thou art this head of gold . verie . and in dan. . . it is thou , o king , that art grown and become strong , and thy greatness is grown and reacheth unto heaven , and thy dominion unto the ends of the earth ; yet they shall drive thée from men , and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field ; and they shall make thée to eat grass as oxen ; and they shall wet thée with the dew of heaven ; and seven times shall pass over thée , till thou know that the most high ruleth in the kingdom of men , and giveth it to whom he will , v. . wherefore ; o king , let my counsel be acceptable to thée , a●…d break off thy sins by righteousness , and thine iniquity by shewing mercy to the poor , is it may be a lengthning out if thy tranquility . but lest any man should say , that nebuchadnezzar was a heathen ; and therefore the prophet gave him neither the titles , nor that due respect that otherwise he would have done . in answer whereunto , i shall lay before thee the prophet david , a king in israel , and a man after gods own heart ; who , if it had been his due by gods appointment , could as well have become the ti●…le of sacred , and most sacred majesty , as any he that i ever read or heard o●… , either before or after him , to this very day ; yet we read , that when the prophe●… came to him in the case of uriah the hittite , he said no●… , may it please your sa●…red majesty ; but nathan said unto david , sam. . . thou art the man . and v. . thou hast killed uriah th●… hittite with the sword , and taken his wife to be thy wife ; now the●…fore the sword shall not depart from thy house . neither did ●…he woman of t●…koah , in absoloms case , come with a , may it please your ●…st sacred majesty , for we may plainly understand what her dialect was to king david , sam. . . even , help , o king . then said she , v. . i pray thée , let the king remember the lord thy god , that thou wouldest not suffer the revenger of blood to destroy . many more examples of this kind might be sufficiently multiplyed , if need●…ul . but to come nearer , even to the dispensation we are now under ; peter said unto the lord christ , to emanuel , even to god with us , mat. . . thou art christ the son of the living god . and the apostle paul being a prisoner , and coming to make his defence , acts . , . he said , i think my self happy , king agrippa , because i shall answer for my self before thée , this day ; for i know thée to be expert in all customes and questions among the jews ; wherefore i beseech thée ( not your most sacred majesty ) but i beseech thée to hear me patiently . and in v. . & . at mid-day , o king , i saw a light from heaven , — and a voyce speaking unto me ; whereupon , o king agrippa , i was not disobedient to the heavenly voice , v. . and in v. . king agrippa , believest thou the prophets ? i know thou beleevest . and paul said , v. . i would to god that not onely thou , but all that hear me this day , were both almost and altogether such an one as i am , except these bonds . even so shall i say to thee , o reader , i would to god that as to my judgement , thou wert even such an one as my self , that so thou mightest give to caesar , onely the things that are caesars , and to god the things that are gods . and , reader , consider with thy self , that if the lord christ reproved him that said to him , good master ; saying , why callest thou me good ? there is none good but one , even god , luke . . even so do i say to my self ; why should i dare to call the greatest of men , most sacred ? when it is an attrib●…te that properly and peculiarly belongs to god himself , and was never given to man by god ; and to me , it seems to be one of those names of blasphemy upon the seven heads of the beast , rev. . . and no better than a flattering title . the which with another of the kings titles , had i but the priviledge of his ear but one little pittance of time , i question not , but by divine assistance , i should so discover the unlawfulness thereof , as that he would himself refuse to own them . and for me to flatter him , or any man else , i dare not for these reasons : first , lest thereby i bring my self and mine , under the sin-revenging-hand of god . and , secondly , lest i thereby ensnare others . first , least i endanger my self and mine ; because , if jobs words be true , who saith , that he knoweth not to give flattering titles ; if i so do , my maker ( saith he ) would soon take me away , job . , . and should i be found so doing , god would no more excuse me , tha●… him ; for saith the prophet david , psa. . . the lord will cut off all flattering lips , and the tongue that speaketh proud things ; and also saith that upright man job , he that speaketh flattery to his friend , even the eyes of his children shall fail , job . . so that as i tender the good of my self and mine , i dare not do it . and secondly , i dare not do it , lest i endanger others ; for a man that flattereth his neighbour , spreadeth a net for his feet , saith the wisest of men , prov ▪ . . for saith he , a flattering mouth worketh ruine , prov. . . and this is that which was the destruction of king herod , act. . . for saith the text , on a set day , herod arrayed in royal apparel , sate upon his throne and made an oration unto his subjects ; who upon the hearing thereof , began to flatter him ; for saith the text , the people gave a shout , saying , it is the voyce of a god , and not of a man ; and immediatly the angel of the lord smote him , because he gave not god the glory ; and he was eaten of worms , and gave up the ghost : had not his subjects given him that flattering applause , he had not robbed god of his glory , and so the angel had not smitten him . so that in this i question not , but i shall evidence my love to the king more , than they that so flatter him . therefore this shall be my resolution ( the lord assisting me ) to continue treading in the footsteps of the flock of god gone before , and shall conclude with my self , and say with that queen , hester . . and if therein i perish , i perish ; for i had rather suffer by man in obedience to my god , than by the sin-revenging hand of god , to be cut off in his displeasure . and thus , reader , having given thee an account of my manner of speech to the king , which is none other than what he popple of god in former ages used , both under the law , and under this gospel dispensation : i shall take my leave , and desiring the lord to set it home upon thy heart , and that it may be satisfactory to thee , that so thou mayest not have a prejudice in thy spirit against him , who desireth to do nothing , either in word or action , but what may tend to the glory of god , the good of his own soul , and the enlightning of those with whom he doth converse ; who shall be ready in christian love , to give thee a verbal satisfaction , to any thing that in this discourse may be thy dissatisfaction , and to remain thy friend therein , to serve thee , henry adis. a fannaticks mite cast into the kings treasury . chron. . . but hezekiah rendred not again according to the benefits bestowed upon him ; but his heart was lifted up : therefore there was wrath upon him , and upon judah and jerusalem . these words themselves have a dependancy upon the story going before , and are no other but a declaration , or manifestation of the kings unthankfuluess to god , for his mercies bestowed , and of the sad consequences thereof . but hezekiah rendred not again according to the benefits bestowed upon him ; but his heart was lifted up : therefore there was wrath upon him ▪ and upon judah and jerusalem . had this discourse been spoken as it is now written to thee , o king , many distinctions might have been made , and several and remarkable observations hinted at , which might have been very useful ( if diligently minded , and as effectually put into practise ) some of which for brevity sake i shall here omit , and shall first run over the story that occasioned the spirit of god to lay down these words , and therein briefly hint at some things i shall judge useful ; and then in the strength of the same spirit , come to the handling of the wo●…ds themselves . good hezekiah after the death of his father king ahaz , began his reign , as we may read , chron. . . who had set his son so 〈◊〉 a copy , that in truth he could not write after it without blotting ▪ and therefore he leaves the steps of his father , and walks in the pathes of david , and some others of his fore-fathers . for ahaz ( his father ) reigned sixteen years in jerusalem , but he did not that which was right in the sight of the lord , like david his father , chap. . . for he walked in the wayes of the kings of israel ( which were the wayes of jeroboam the son of nebat , who made israel to sin ) and also , or over and above their abominations , he made molten images to balaam , v. . and burned incense in the valley of the son of hinnom , and burned his children in the fire , after the manner of the heathen , v. . he sacrificed also ●… and burned incense in the high places , and under every green tree , v. . for which mis-actings 〈◊〉 , god delivered him into the hands of the kings of syriah●…and into the hands of the kings of israel , who smote him with great slaughter , v. . whence we may note , that when kings , rulers or governours , act contrary to the mind of god , god raiseth up adversaries against them , as once he did against solomon , kings . . and as ahaz continues his mis-actings , so god encreaseth his adversaries ; for the edomites also came and smote judah , and carried away captives , v. . yet for all this , ahaz returned not to bim that smote him ; therefore the philistines also had invaded the cities of the low-countreyes , and had taken several towns and villages , and came and dwelt in his land , vers. . whereupon ahaz sends out for help to suppress his enemies , but all in vain , so long as he continues an enemy to god by wicked works . for at that time ahaz sent to the kings of assyria to help him , v. . to whom ahaz gave gifts out of the lords house , and out of the princes houses ; but they helped him not , v. . but distressed him , v. . whence we may further note , that whilst men continue wicked , their blessings become curses , and their hoped for helps , hindrances . and thus whilst ahaz is under the sin-revenging hand of god , the saying of the prophet isaiah is in him made good , isaiah . . why should ye be smitten any more ? ye will revolt yet more and more . for with our first parents in the garden , gen. . . ahaz runs surther from his god , and returneth not to him that smote him . and with the fierce dog earnestly snaps at the stone that is thrown at him , little considering the hand that threw it . and thus whilst men are quarrelling at second causes , they loose both the benefit and the blessing of gods chastising hand ; and therefore cannot with david ( that man after gods own heart ) say , as once he did , psal. . , . it was good for him that he was afflicted , for before he was afflicted he went astray ; but now ( saith he ) i have kept thy word . thus whilst david is making a right improvement of gods chastising hand upon him , he is made sensible of gods faithfulness towards him ; which causeth him thankfully to acknowledge the same ; and to say , v. . i know , o lord , that thy judgements are right , and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me : he now sees the dealings of god herein towards him to be such , as that he makes that sanctified use of it , as once moses the servant of the lord required of israel , deut. . . thou shalt also consider in thine heart , that as a father chasteneth his son , so the lord thy god chasteneth thee . and so saith our apostle , heb. . , &c. — my son despise not thou the chastening of the lord — for whom the lord loveth he chasteneth , and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth . men lie under the chastising hand of god , as wax and clay in the heat of the sun , whose heat so mollifieth the wax , as that it becomes plyable and fit for the impression of the seal ; whilst the clay ( though before soft ) yet is thereby hardened , made stiff , and so brittle , that it will rather break , than in the least conform to the seal . and thus , it fares with king ahaz , he grows worse and worse ; for in the time of this distress , did he trespass yet more and more , saith the text , cor. . vers. . for he sacrificed to the gods of damaskus , which smote him ; and he said , because the gods of the kings of syriah helped them , therefore will i sacrifice to them , that they may help me , vers. . thus whilst men forsake the true god , they trust on them which by nature are no gods : and so become as senseless , and as sottish as they . for they that make them , are like unto them ; and so are all they that put their trust in them , psal. . . and as if these mis-actings of his were not enough to make him , and his people sufficiently miserable ; he crowns , as it were all his former evlls , with this tripple crown of abominations ; first , he cut in pieces the vessels of the lords house . secondly , he shut up the doors of the lords house . and thirdly , he sets up a false worship in every corner of jerusalem , to burn incense unto other gods , v. , . thus whilst men relinquish their knowledge of the true god , they are given up to blindness of eyes , and hardness of heart ; to commit all abominations with greediness ; for so saith our apostle , rom. . , . and as they did not like to retain god in their knowledge , god gave them up to a reprobate mind , to do those things which were not convenient , being filled with all unrighteousness , &c. and thus whilst ahaz is committing sin with greedilness , ahaz is made partaker of its wages ; for the wages of sin is death , rom. . . and seeing ahaz will thus forget god in his life time , god at length will deprive him of a possibility of remembring him at all ; for in death there is no remembring of thee ; and who shall give thee thanks in the pit ? psal. . . ahaz being thus deprived of life , hezekiah now cometh to succeed his father in the crown and government : and seeing the several mis-actings of his father , and the sad consequences that attended both him and his people thereupon , is not willing to heir his fathers punishments ; and therefore wlll not act in his fathers sins , but makes an evident manifestation of his experimental knowledge of them ; and also of his utter detestation to them ; together with a publick declaration of the intentions of his heart , for a thorow reformation throughout his whole realm ; for he gathered the priests and the levites together into the eaststreet , chap. . v. . and said , v. . our fathers have trespassed and done that which was evil in the eyes of the lord our god , and have forsaken him , and have turned away their faces from the habitation of the lord , and turned their backs , v. . also they have shut up the doors of the portch , and put out the lamps , and have not burnt incense , nor offered burnt-offerings in the holy place , unto the god of israel : wherefore saith he , v. . the wrath of the lord was upon judah and jerusalem , and he hath delivered them to trouble , to astonishment , and to hissing , as ye see with your eyes ; for saith he , v. . our fathers have fallen by the sword , and our sons and our daughters , and our wives are in captivity ( for this ) and now it is in mine heart to make a covenant with the lord god of israel , that his fierce wrath may turn away from us , vers. . therefore he calls upon the levites and the priests , to be active in the work , and not to be negligent in the places god had set them in , verse . a glorious reformation is likely to succeed , when a prince , not out of custome , but out of conscience , shall begin the work ; and the more likely it is to prosper , when his zeal thereunto shall thus cause him to provoke them , who indeed should have first stirred him up to the work . and in this reformarion , the first work that he enters upon , is the opening and repairing the door of the lords house , and to cause the levites to sanctifie themselves , and to sanctifie the house of god , and to carry forth the filthiness out of the holy place , v. , , . the direct way to a happy reformation , and as ready a way to have with god a reconciliation ; for if the iniquity of our holy things be not done away , what will it avail us , though we thrive never so well in our secular affairs ? for saith our saviour , mat. . . for what is a man profited , if he shall gain the whole world , and loose his own soul ? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul ? in this reformation , hezekiah's speed equals his willingness ; and like a pair of heisers accustomed to the yoak , they draw both together ; for as it was his first work , to have respect to the cleansing of his holy things ; so it was his care to do it in the first year of his reign ; and not late in the year , but in the first month of that first year ; for so saith the text , chron. . . he in the first year of his reign , in the first month , opened the doors , &c. and this is that which i am perswaded is well pleasing to god , when men sleep not upon good resolutions , but puts them into present and effectuall practise ; for no man can call to morrow his : therefore the counsel of the spirit of god is good , which he hath given by the wise man , eccles. . . whatsoever thy hand findeth to do , do it wich thy might , for there is no work , nor device , nor knowledge , nor wisdom in the grave , whither thou goest . hezekiah began to reign when he was five and twenty years old , cha. . . and he did that which was right in the sight of the lord , according to all that david his father had doue , v. . and as by faith moses , when he came to years , refused to be called the son of pharaoh's daughter , choosing rather to suffer afflictions with the people of god , than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season ; esteeming the reproach of christ , greater riches than the treasures of egypt ( because ) he had respect to the recompence of reward , heb. . . so hezekiah being five and twenty years old when he began to reign , refused to walk in the wayes of sin , as ahaz his father had done , but begins with discretion to consider what was well-pleasing to god ; and therefore he learns to write by a perfect copy , he takes a man after gods own heart to be his pattern , though they that hated him without a cause , were more than the hairs of his head , though his enemies were mighty , psal. . . though he became a proverb to many , verse . and though they that sate in the gates spake against him ; and though he became a song to the drunkards , ver. . yet these and such reproaches as these , shall not frighten him , but hezekiah will do according to all that david his father had done ; david we see was no allower of drunkenness ; for the drnnkards made songs of him , as they do now in this our dayes upon those that desire to walk in the integrity of their hearts before the lord , as david did ; david opened not a door to any manner of licenciousness ; neither doth hezekiah , when he comes to reign , go to the house of laughter , but to the house of god ; he runs not to hawkings , nor huntings , revellings , nor dancings , riotings nor banquetings , he sets not up , nor tollerates stage-playes , may-games , nor pastimes ; but comes to a serious consideration what the mind of god was , that so he might pleas●… him , to the eternal well-being , both of himself and those that were under his charge ; therefere with spéed he opens the doors of the lords house , and begins to put away the iniquity of his holy things . now know , o king , that hezekiah was a good man , and went on in his reformation in gods way ; let me therefore beg of thee , as thou tenderest thy souls good to eternity , take him for thy pattern , begin thy reign as he did his , look into thy holy things , see what there is amiss there , consider the common-prayer , whence it came and whither it tendeth , weigh it with its appurtenances in the ballance of the sanctuary , try it by the touch-stone of gods word , see whether it b●… not too light , of what god would have it to be ; see also whether the inventions of men have not made it too heavy , thou canst not be too exact therein ; for he that doth in his service to god , more than what god commands , doth too much , and is no better than a will-worshipper ; he that doth less than god commandeth him , doth too little . consider also , which is the door of gods house , and open that , for christ himself saith , that many false prophets will arise , and shall deceive many ; and therefore he requireth his disciples , not to go out to them , mat. . , . therefore the opening of any door will not serve the turn ; hezekiah opened the door of the lords house : therefore for the lords sake consider what thou doest , take that counsel from the spirit of the lord , which is recorded in thes. . , . prove all things , and hold fast that which is good , and abstain from all appearance of evil . take notice of the dispensation thou art under , and do thy generation work in gods way ; the church of christ under the gospel , is not national , but congregational ; hezekiah was of the race of the jews , and a king of judah ; it was hezekiahs work to open the doors of the material temple , scituate in jerusalem , where god had under that dispensation promised his presence , kings . . so that if hezekiah had opened any other door , he had been a sinner as well as his father ahaz , who opened another , when he shut those material doors , where the jews had a right to worship , as they were in a national church-communion , upon the due administration of that fleshly ordinance of circumcision , peremtorily upon the eight day , gen. . . under which he that neglected to circumcise his male infant upon the eighth day , did it too late , and after gods time , and that infant was to be cut off from the people , v. . and he that did it before the eighth day , did it too soon , and before gods time , and so became a transgressor . we usually say in our common proverb , that it is dangerous jesting with ●…ged tools ; so may i safely say , it is a dangerous thing to cross the design of god ; it is a desperate design to undertake to open that which god hath shut , or to shut that which god hath opened . god hath shut the doors of a national church , then let men fear to open it ; and god hath opened the door of a congregational church , let souls tremble at the thought of shutting it ; for so saith the lord christ , john . , , . believe me ( saith he ) the hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain , nor yet in jerusalem worship the father ; ye worship ye know not what : we know what we worship , for salvation is of the jewes ; but the hour cometh , and now is , when the true worshippers shall worship the father in spirit and in truth : and saith peter , now i perceive of a truth , that god is no respecter of persons , but in every nation he that feareth him , and worketh righteousness , is accepted of him , acts . , . so that church-fellowship and son-ship with god , is entailed upon persons under the gospel , not upon the account of the bare subjection to the ordinances , as it was under the law , but upon the account of their faith ; for saith the apostle , ye ( members of the church of galatia ) are all the children of god by faith in christ jefus ( which faith working by love , hath evidenced it self to be true , by working you to obedience to gods ordinances ) for so many of you as have been baptized into christ , have put on christ . and as no uncircumcised person was to ●…at of the passeover under the law , exod. . . so of christ our passeover , who is sacrificed for us under this gospel-dispensation , corinth . . . is no unbeliever to have communion , corinthians . . to . and as under the law it was charged upon the jews as a sin to bring the uncircumcised into the material ▪ temple , ezek. . , . because circumcision was the inducting ordinance of cod under that dispensation : so also under a gospel-dispensation , we dare not administer that inducting ordinance of baptism , without faith in god be firct begotten . so that if persons shall require from us the administration of that ordinance , we shall no more dare to do it than philip , who first would have an account of the eunuch's faith , before he baptized him ; for so saith the text , acts . . if thou believest with all thy heart , thou mayest ; who immediatly made a confession of his faith ; and this is according to the commission of christ , mark . vers. . which saith not , that he that is baptized , but he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved ; so that it is a dangerous thing to make the strait gate that leads to life , wider than god hath made it . therefore know o ▪ king , that thou art under that dispensation , in which the ax is laid to the root of the tree , and wherein every tree that brings not forth good fruit , is to be hewen down and cast into the fire , mat. . . under which persous are forbidden to plead their birth-priviledges , v. . as that they are children of believing parents , or sons and daughters to abraham ; but under that dispensation by which they are all the children of god by faith in christ iesus ( as aforesaid ) who have actually manifested their faith by their obedience , in their putting on of christ by baptism , as that church did , gal. . , . such as are chosen out of the world , john . . john . , . separating themselves according to the requirements of god , from false and babylonish worship , revel. . . cor. . , . being begotten to the faith , philemon . tim. . . tim. . . titus . . by the preaching of the word , james . . cor. . . and quickned by the spirit , john . . rom. . . eph. . , . col. . . being born again , john . . john . . john . . not of corruptible séed , but of incorrup●…ible , pet. . . not of flesh nor blood , nor after the will of man , but of god , john . . being born of water and the spirit ; without which , if we may believe our blessed saviour himself , john . . no man can enter into the kingdom of heaven ; the necessity whereof is fully laid down by the apostle , pet. . . who speaking of the preservation that noah had by the ark from that deluge of water , gen. . . the like figure whereunto even baptism ( saith he ) doth now ( under this gospel-dispensation ) save us ; not by washing away of the filth of the flesh , but the answering a good conscience towards god by the resurrection of jesus christ ; as if the apostle should have said , it is not the washing the body in water , that is of this saving nature , but it is the going into the water in a conscionable obedience to the command of god , to have our sins mystically washed away by faith in the blood of christ ; and so also saith the apostle , acts . . and now why tarriest thou , arise and be baptized , & wash away thy sins , calling on the name of the lord ▪ and the same apostle writing to titus , makes a clear discovery by what means god on their parts saved them , titus . . . who hath 〈◊〉 us ( saith he ) not by deeds of righteousness that we have done , but by the washing of regeneration , or ( as the old translation renders it ) by the fountain of the new birth , and renewing of the holy ghost ; by water-work , and spirit-work ; the spirit operating upon , and working up a soul conscionably to obey god in that holy ( though amongst men that much despised ) ordinance of water-baptism . and thus the apostle tels us by what means christ hath clenfed his church ; viz. with the washing of water , by ( or according ) to the word , eph. . . and thus some in the church of the corinthians , who formerly were unrighteous , even fornicators , idolaters , adulterers , effeminate , abusers of themselves with man-kind , thieves and robbers ; were by this spirit and water-work washed and clensed : for so saith our apostle , cor. . . and such were some of you ; but ye are washed , but ye are sanctified in the name of the lord jesus , and by the spirit of our god : so that a church of christ , or house of god under a gospel-dispensation , is to be built up of lively stones , a spirituall house , an holy priesthood , to offer up spiritual sacrifices ( that will be ) acceptable to god by jesus christ , pet. . . of which the building of the material temple was a type ; for , as the house which solomon built , kings . . was built of stone made ready before it was brought thither ; so that there was neither hammer nor ax , nor any tool of iron heard in the house , when it was in building : so in the gathering or building a gospel-church , persons are to be fitted , hewen and squared , before they are laid into this building ; they are to repent from dead works , and to have faith in god , before they be baptized ; that as that was a material , so this a spiritual house ; as those stoues were dead , these lively ; as those stones so soon as they were laid into the building , and the work finished , they became a house fit to sacrifice in ; so these lively stones being brought together , are fit presently , actually to offer up spiritual sacrifices , such as god will accept ; they being in jesus christ , first mystically by faith ; and secondly , actually by their obedience ; and faith and obedience being gods twins , we dare not in the least entertain so much as a thought to separate them . so that , o king , if thou with hezekiah wilt open the door of the lords house , it is not a national , but a congregational door thou art to open , which is not to be compulsive , but perswasive ; for so saith a true gospel-minister , knowing therefore the terrour of the lord , we perswade men , cor. . . now then we are ambassadors for christ , as though god did beseech you by us ; we pray you in christs stead , be ye reconciled to god , v. . whence we may note , that a gospel minister is not to be like the general of an army , to frighten , beat or fight men into faith ; but as an ambassador to perswade and invite , and gently to treat with , and to entreat into the way of god ; the one being diabolical , but the other evangelical , and the way of love being gods way ; this is one of the distinguishing characters of a true gospel-minister , whom the love of christ hath constrained , which causeth men to look upon them , to be fa●…naticks , or mad men ; for so saith our apostle , cor. . . for whether we be besides our selves , it is to god , or whether we be sober , it is for your cause ; for the love of christ constraineth us : and saith he , in chap. . . i will not be burthensom to you , for i seek not yours , but you ; ( and he gives this in as a reason , for saith he ) the children ought not to lay up for the parents , but the parents for the children ; and i will very gladly spend and be spent for you , though the more abundantly i love , the less i am loved ; and such are made over-seers of the flock of god by the holy ghost , acts . . who feed it , and take the oversight thereof , not by constraint , but willingly ; not of filthy lucre , but of a ready mind , pet. . . as good stewards of the manifold grace of god , pet. . . such are good shepherds , and not hirelings , who will lay down their life for the sheep , john . . whilst others being made overseers by men , instead of feeding the flock , feed upon the flock ; as those careless shepherds , spoken of ▪ ezek. . , , . against whom a woe is pronounced , who feed themselves , who eat the fat , and cloath themselves with the wool , and kill them that are fed , but feed not the flock ; who strengthen not the diseased , nor heal the sick , nor bind up the broken , nor bring again that which is driven away , nor séek that which is lost , but rule them with cruelty ; as the prophet saith , micah . , . who hate the good , and love the evil ; who pluck off their skins from off them , and their flesh from their bones ; who eat the flesh of my people , and stay their skins from off them ; who break their bones , and chop them in pieces as for the pot , and as flesh for the chaldron , v. . who bite with their teeth , and cry , peace ; and he that putteth not into their mouths , they make war against him ; who are hirelings , and not true shepherds ; who formerly , if a fatter benefice came in the way , would not stay till the wolf came , but hearkned to that call , and left the sheep , to secure themselves from the wolves , if they would : but such are false apostles , deceitful workers , transforming themselves into the apostles of christ : and no marvel , saith our apostle , cor. . , . for satan himself is transformed into an angel of light , ver. . therefore it is no great thing , if his ministers also be transformed into the ministers of righteousness ; whose end shall be according to their works ; whilst the true apostle is as frée to give , as fréely he hath received , who is ready to preach the word , and to be instant in season and out of season , and to reprove , rebuke , and exhort , with all long-suffering and doctrine , according to that good advice , tim. . . and thus , o king , having in some measure given thee the character of a gospel-church , and ministry ; i shall now beg thee in gods fear , that thou have a care thou open the right door : open not the broad gate that leads to destruction , instead of that narrow way that leads to life , mat. . , . if ●…hou incendest to do gods work , have a care thou doest it in gods way . and that i may the better perswade thee there unto , i shall briefly lay before thee two or three examples , of gods severity against those that have been careless therein : moses and aaron the servants of the lord , numb. . who but for smiting the rock , when they should have spoken to it , died in the wilderness , and were not suffered to carry israel into the land of canaan , as we may fully understand by comparing the eight verse with , , . to . with numb. . . to . with deut. . if saul will save alive those which god will have destroyed , saul must deeply suffer for it , sam. . but more of this anon : and if akan will take of the accursed things , akan must deeply suffer ; for saith the text , joshua . , . and joshua said , why hast thou troubled us ? the lord shall trouble thee this day ; and all israel stoned him , his sons and his daughters , his oxen and his asses , and his sheep , and burned them with fire : the lord give thee , o king , an understanding heart , to consider things aright . but to proceed , hezekiah doth not onely stir up the priests and levites to the work of reformation , but also all judah and jerusalem , and wrote letters , chap. . . and made a decree , and made proclamation , that they must come up to jerusalem , to keep the passeover unto the lord ; for they had not done it of a long time in such sort as it was written , ver. . whence we may note , that in hezekiah's reformation , he reformed not according to what had been their custom of a long time , nor to what his father before him did ; but according as it was written , according to the law of god : and this is that which makes the work to thrive in his hands ; when he doth gods work in gods way . therefore let me beg thee , o king , as thou tenderest thine own good , now thou art upon thy reformation , to take hezekiah for thy pattern , have the word of the lord for thy warrant , see thou do it according to the written law of god ; for such a reformation onely will stand , and thou with it : but if thou do it according to the former customs , and what thy father did before thee , thou sawest that fell , and him with it : for what is of man , will come to nothing , but if it be of god , it cannot be overthrown , acts . , . and know , o king , that much knowledge and true light hath broken forth within these twelve years , and what men might do in ignorance , haply may be excusable , which now cannot ; for so saith our apostle , acts . . in the times of this ignora●…ce god winked at , but now he commands all men every where to repent : and let no man despise my speech , in saying , much knowledge and true light is within these few years ▪ broken out ; if they shall , i must answer them after the manner of peter , answering those scosfing jewes , in that then so much admired-at giving out of the spirit , acts . , . we are not fannaticks or mad men , as ye suppose in so saying ; but this is that which was spoken of by the prophets , dan. . . many shall run to and fro , and knowledge shall encrease ; for saith the prophet , haba . . . the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the lord , as the waters cover the sea : therefore be sure , o king , thou have , thus saith the word of the lord , for thy warrant ; for god is a jealous god , and will not be served with any thing , but what is of his own . and this did hezekiah throughout all jndah , and wrought that which was good , and right , and truth before the lord his god ; and in every work that he began in the service of the house of god , and in the law , and in the commandments , to seek his god , he did it with all his heart ; and saith the text , he prospered , chap. . , . whence we may note , that whilst hezekiahs heart was upright to god , god prospered him ; and thus we find in holy writ , that whilst men with a perfect heart , have a careful eye in all their undertakings to please god , god hath a tender eye over them to prosper them : and thus whilst joseph is answering his lustful mistris , with a how can i do this great wickedness and sin against god ? gen. . . though joseph by her revengeful malice be cast into prison , yet god is with him , v. . and god gives him favour in the eyes of the prison-keeper , insomuch that the prison-keeper looked not after any thing that was under his hands ; and the reason is added , vers. . because the lord was with him ; and that which he did , the text saith , the lord made it it prosper . and thus whilst daniel in the babylonish captivity , is resolved in his heart not to defile himself with a portion of the kings idolatrous meat , nor of his wine , god bringeth daniel iuto favour and tender love with the prince of the eunuches , dan. . , . insomuch that the eunuch will venture his head to the king his master , rather than daniel shall want that food he desires , v. , . a good encouragemant for the people of god in the very worst of times , even to take up a resolution , to eye god in what he would have them to do in all things , and not at all to fear the faces of men , though never so great ; for if shadrach , meshach and abednego , will not bow to nebuchadnezzars image , but keep themselves close to their god , god will keep as close to them ; and one like the son of man shall walk with them in that seven times hot fiery furnace , to preserve them , dan. . , . will daniel petition no other but the true god , though against the decree of the king ? that god will send his angel , to shut the mouths of the lyons , that they shall not hurt him , daniel . . . therefore suffer me to bespeak thee and thy people , o king , in the language of azariah the son of obed , which he once uttered to king asa , chron. . . hear thou me charles , and all england , scotland , ireland , and in particular thou proud , voluptuous and vain-glorious city of london ; the lord is with you whilst you are with him ; if ye seek him , he will be found of you ; but if ye forsake him , he will forsake you . and let not the king be angry , if one that is counted a fannatick speak once more to him , not in his own language , but in the words of the spirit of the lord , in the prophet david to his son , chro. . . and thou solomon my son , know thou the god of thy fathers , and serve him with a perfect heart , and with a willing mind ; for the lord searcheth all hearts , and understandeth all the imaginations of thy thoughts ; if thou seek him , he will be found of thee , but if thou forsake him , he will cast thee off for ever . thou knowest , o king , thou hast had a casting off , and that that casting off may not be for ever ; be perswaded to turn to thy god with all thy heart . we usually say , that he that would move another to weep , must first cry himself , he must first begin the passion ; thus god hath done , god hath begun a work , god hath first troden a path for thee , o king , to walk in , god hath made a return to thee most miraculously , and far ( i presume ) beyond thine own expectation , or the imagination of many others ; therefore , o king , prepare to meet thy god , have a care thou walk not in any by-path , but onely and alone in that path of returning , which god hath troden for thee ; and as god hath been miraculous in his returning to thee , o be thou as eminent in thy returniug to him ; this is that which i am confident the lord looketh for at thy hands ; for so saith the lip of truth it self , luke . . for unto whomsoever much is given , of him shall be much required ; and the same voice hath the spirit of the lord in my text , but hezekiah rendred not again according to the benefits bestowed upon him ; therefore wrath fell upon him , and upon judah and jerusalem . and that i may come to the handling the words themselves , i shall briefly shew what god did for hezekiah , that caused him to look for so suitable a return from hezekiah . after these things , and the establishment thereof , chap. . . that is , after the reformation that hezekiah had made , as i have in part laid down , and as in the three foregoing chapters is more particularly discovered ; after these things , and the establishment thereof , sennacherib , king of assyria , came and entered into judah , and encamped against the fenced cities , and thought to win them to himself . whence we may note , that though men walk never so close with god , yet they cannot be exempted from the malicious endeavours of wicked men : david we know , is recorded in holy writ , to be a man after gods own heart , who in the confidence of his soul , sometimes can say , the lord is on his right hand , he shall not be moved , psal. . . and anon in psal. . . he begs of the lord , to hide him under the shadow of his wings , from the wicked that oppress him , and from his deadly enemies : now he will not fear what man can do unto him ; and anon , he cryeth out , that one day he shall fall by the hand of saul . good men are at an uncertainty of quietness , or tranquility , on this side the grave : if the sons and daughters of god had too much happiness and peace in this life , they would then begin to settle upon the lees , and satisfie themselves with that which cannot profit : god knows what is fitter for his , than they do themselves ; and therefore it is that he suffers his dearest children to undergo great tryals , and that for several reasons . first , for the tryal of their faith , according to that of judg. . . i will not , saith the lord , drive out any of the nations which joshua left when he died ; and the reason is added : that through them i may prove israel , whether they will keep the way of the lord , to walk therein , as their fathers did keep it : therefore saith the text , the lord left those nations , without driving them out hastily , neither delivered he them into the hands of joshua , v. . according to that of the apostle , pet. . . that the tryal of your faith being much more precious than of gold that perisheth , though it be tryed with fire , may be found unto praise , and glory , and honour , at the appearing of jesus christ . a second reason may be , for the encrease of their graces , according to that saying of the apostle , james . , . knowing that the tryal of our faith worketh patience ; and therefore the apostle paul did glory in tribulations , knowing that tribulation worketh patience , and patience experience , and experience hope ; and hope , saith he ; maketh not ashamed , rom. . , . a third reason may be , because troubles and afflictions being rightly improved , worketh good to a soul to eternity ; and so saith our apostle , cor. . . for our light affliction , which are but for a moment , worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory ; whilst we look not at the things which are seen , but at the things which are not seen ; for the things which are seen , are temporal ; but the things which are not seen , they are eternal . and further , god by these actings keeps a soul close to himself , and thereby gives it opportunities continually , either to pray , or to praise him , for deliverances . for this invasion , together with the abominable blasphemies of sennacherib , drives hezekiah to his god ; and so saith the text , for this cause , hezekiah the king , and the prophet isaiah , prayed and cryed to heaven , vers. . men that walk close with god in time of prosperity , can with boldness go to god in time of adversity , with an assured confidence of a gracious answer : hezekiah and isaiah no sooner pray , but speed ; and another opportunity is now put into their hands , to return again with praises in their mouths , to the throne of grace ; for the lord sent an angel to cut off all the mighty men of ualour , and the leaders and captains in the camp of the king of assyria : so he returned with shame of face to his own land ; and when he was come into the house of his god , they that came out of his own bowels , slew him there with the sword , v. . whence we may note , that when gods people cry to him , there is no staying the raising an army or money , or the making or providing ammunion ; but when they are in a suffering condition , they dispatch a messenger to heaven in a moments time , to the captain of their salvation , who himself was made perfect through sufferings , heb. . . and such a messenger who can neither be stayed by the way , nor his message intercepted , even the spirit of truth , who will tell the truth of their cause , and help their infirmities , and express their condition with groans that cannot be uttered ; and he that searcheth the heart , knoweth what is the mind of the spirit , rom. . , . god is a free agent , and cannot be limitted to any means , but acteth how , when , and which way he pleaseth . for hezekiah and isaiah no sooner pray , but an angel is as soon dispatched into the camp of sennacherib ; ( for are they not all ministring spirits sent forth to minister for those who shall be heirs of salvation , heb. . . ) and this angel destroyes his mighty men , captains and men of valour : hezekiah we see spake truth , when he encouraged the people , saying , be not dismayed at the king of assyria ; for there is more with us than with him ; with him there is an arm of flesh , but with us is the lord our god , to help us and to fight our battels , ver. . and . happy it is then with the people of god , when they can trust god for their deliverance ; and observe that word of command from the captain of their salvation , mat. . . then when they shall hear of wars , and rumours of wars , nation against nation , and kingdom , against kingdom , that then they be not troubled ; but can take that good advice that once moses gave to israel of old , exod. . . even to stand still and see the salvation of god , which he will work for them . the angel finisheth his work with speed , which causeth sennacherib with shame & confusion of face , with speed to return into his own land . whence we may note , that whilst men depend upon an arm of flesh , upon every defeat , their spirits are more or less dejected : whilst he that trusteth in the lord , is not afraid of evil tidings ; for his heart is fixed , psal. . . when sennacheribs confidence in which he trusted ; viz. his great men , his captains , and his men of valour were brought down , then shame , as a vail , begins to cover his face ; whilst the righteous are bold as a lyon , and shall not be ashamed in the evil time , psal. . . an arm of flesh will fail ; for all flesh is grass , and all the goodliness thereof as the flower of the field ; the grass withereth , and the flower fadeth , because the spirit of the lord bloweth upon it : surely , the people is grass , saith the prophet , isaiah . . and . therefore the people of god trust in their god , because that in the lord jehovah is everlasting strength , isaiah . vers. . the text saith , that s●…nnacherib , when he returned , he went into the house of his god : now , his god was one of the gods of the heathens , which had neither eyes to see , not ears to hear , hands to handle , nor feet to walk ; and so uncapable of doing him good , as that he could not give good advice , nor afford good assistance , neither to him , nor to his people ; yet such is his zeal , notwithstanding his wickedness , as that he must into the house of this his god . whence we may note , that the worst of men generally are under some form of worship , either to a false god , or to the true god after a false manner , in which usually they are very zealous , although in other things desperately wicked . whence we may further note , that it is not zeal under any form , that makes that form the true form of godliness ; but it is the special appointment of god in his word of truth , that is the onely and alone way god will be worshipped in ; in which he requireth men to be zealous : the apostle paul whilst he was in his unregenerate condition , his zeal led the way , and marched in the van , whilst his knowledge lay behind in the rear , which caused him so to make havock of the church , as he himself confesseth , phil. . . gal. . . cor. . . and saith he , acts . . i verily thought with my self , that i ought to do many things , contrary to the name of jesus of nazare●…h ; which thing i did in jerusalem , and many of the saints did i shut up in prison , having received authority from the chief priests ; and when they were put to death , i gave my voice against them , v. . and i punished them oft in every synagogue , and compelled them to blaspheme ; and being exceedingly mad against them , i persecuted them even unto strange cities , v. . but this i did , saith he , ignorantly in unbelief , tim. . . and thus it fares often times with many in things about religion , according to that principle of the church of rome , that their ignorance is the mother of their devotion . and is it not so in this our day with thousands in this land of our nativity , that are of lewd , wicked , and debauched conversations , yet are very zealous for their common-prayer ? and though they will be drunk many of them , and live in known abominations all the week long , yet such is their blind zeal , that they must needs to their common-prayer on the sunday , they think themselves undone else : this i know by experience , it was so with my self for a long time together ; but now through mercy , i can say with the apostle paul , cor. . . i thank god i am what i am ; though some call me a fannatick , or a mad man . i would not be mistaken , i do not here go to beat down zeal ; for it is good to be zealously affected alwayes in a good matter , gal. . . but i would have zeal ●…oyned with knowledge , and so set upon its proper and right object ; for the jews , we know , had a zeal to god , but not according to knowledge , rom. . . by which zeal of theirs , they went about to establish a righteousness of their own , and contrary , or , in opposition to christ , who is made of god unto his , both wisdom , righteousness , sanctification and redemption , cor. . . thou , o king , as thou art now upon thy work of reformation , see thy zeal run not before thy knowledge , lest thou with the apostle paul , make havock of the church of god , and waste it ; ( sure i am , thou wilt not want perswaders thereunto : ) but let me beg thee in gods fear , first to inform thy judgement aright , regulate that according to the rule of gods word ; and then joyn zeal to thy knowledge , that so they may draw in one yoak together ; and suffer me to bind this pers●…vasion close to thy conscience , for thy eternal good , with that saying of the apostle , james . . to him that knoweth to do well , and doth it not , to him it is sin . the next thing considerable in this one and twentie●…h verse , is , that those that came out of his own bowels , slew him with the sword . whence we may observe , that whilst men are acting against gods people , out of a blind zeal , to bring them at an under , and to root them out ; god then appears for his people , and brings their enemies low , and many times maketh their nearest relations to become their greatest enemies : for it is in vain for men to fight against christ ; it is hard for them to kick against the pricks ; yet thus inconsideratly do all those that fight against his people , and he looketh upon it as done to himself ; for so saith the lord from heaven , acts . . saul , saul , why persecutest thou me ? and he that receiveth you , receiveth me , mat. . . and in as much as you did it not to one of the least of these , you did it not unto me , mat. . . thus in a most miraculous manner , & without effusion of blood , god , on hezekiah's part , delivered hezekiah & the inhabitants of jerusalem , and guided him on every side : and thus god hath done for thée , o king . and this was one great cause why god expected an answerable return from hezekiah ; and to me it seems as a reason , why thou , o king , shouldst render to the lord according to his benefits bestowed on thee ; seeing god thus , or in such a miraculous manner , hath wrought such a deliverance for thée and thy friends , without blood-shed . the next thing that god did for hezekiah , was , he recovered him from a mortal distemper ; for so saith the text , ver. . in those dayes hezekiah was sick to the death , and he prayed unto the lord , and he spake unto him , and he gave him a sign . this text is but an abstract of what we have fully laid down to us , in king. . , , . and isa. . . the which texts we must have some recourse to , if we intend to have a full discovery of what god did for hezekiah , in kings . . the text saith , in those dayes hezekiah was sick unto death , and the prophet isaiah the son of amos came to him and said unto him , thus saith the lord , set thy house in order , for thou shalt dye , and not live ; and hezekiah turned his face towards the wall , and prayed unto the lord , and said , remember now o lord , i beseech thee , how i have walked before thee in truth , and with a perfect heart , and have done that which is good in thy sight ; and hezekiah wept sore . and it came to pass after isaiah was gone out into the middle court , that the word of the lord came unto him , saying , turn again , and tell hezekiah the captain of my people ; thus saith the lord , the god of david thy father , i have heard thy prayers , i have séen thy tears ; behold , i will heal thee , on the third day thou shalt go up to the house of the lord . many things there are in this passage worthy consideration ; and the first thing that i shall take notice of , is , that hezekiah was sick unto death , and he must set his house in order , for he must dye , and not live ; yet hezekiah prayed unto the lord , and he healed him . whence we may note , that many of the resolves of god , concerning the sons and daughters of men , are not absolutely peremptory , but many times conditional ; for yet forty dayes , and nineveh shall be destroyed ; yet when nineveh repents , god repents of the evil he intended against them , jonah . , , . and thus saith the lord by his prophet , jer. . . at what instant i shall speak concerning a nation , and concerning a kingdom , to pluck up , and to pull down , and to destroy it ; if that nation against whom i have pronounced , turn from their evil ; i will repent of the evil that i thought to do unto them . and at what instant i shall speak concerning a nation , and concerning a kingdom , to build and to plant it ; if it do evil in my sight , that it obey not my voice , then will i repent of the good wherewith i said i would benefit them . so also saith the lord to ely ( upon the misdemeanor of his sons ) by that man of god , sam. . . i said indeed , that thy house , and the house of thy father should walk before me , for ever ; but now the lord saith , be it far from me ; for them that honour me , i will honour ; and they that despise me , shall be lightly esteemed . now know , o king , that god is about to re-build and to plant thee and thy people again , and if thou and they shall answer god in acts of obedience , and do that which is well-pleasing in his sight , he then will go on to perfect what he hath begun : but if thou and thy people , and in especial this proud , prodigal , vain-glorious , and most voluptuous city , that hath all this while sate as a queen , and known no sorrow , shall not answer god in his expectations ; then be it known to thee and them , that god will repent him of the good he intended both to thée and them ; and as he overturned thy father , and those that overturned him , and hath been for some considerable time , overturning , overturning , overturning in this land of thy nativity ; so know , o king , that he is as able to overturn thée as them , without thou and they make to him suitable returns ; for of a truth , god is no respecter of persons , but in every nation , he that feareth him and worketh righteousness , is accepted of him , acts . , . therefore in gods fear consider thy actings . but to proceed , king hezekiah prayes , and god heals : and thus whilst the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the lord , the prayer of the upright is his delight , prov. . . and hezekiah turned his face to the wall , and said , remember i beseech thee , o lord , how i have walked before thee in truth , and with a perfect heart , &c. he onely is likely to thrive at the throne of grace , who in his appeals to god can plead the uprightness of his heart , and the sincerity of his soul ; and whilst some are questioning , how god doth know , and whether there be knowledge in the most high ? psal. . . hezekiah is earnestly begging the searcher of all hearts , before whose eyes all things are naked and open , to remember the actings of his former dayes . happy it is with thy soul , that in his sickness , can plead with god the good actions of his health . thus whilst hezekiah is praying to the lord , the lord shews himself to be what in the scriptures of truth he is recorded to be ; even a god hearing prayers , psal. . . and hezekiah must experience him to be such a one ; for saith the lord , go , tell hezekiah the captain of my people , i have heard his prayers , i have seen his tears . god is a tender-hearted god , and when his people are moved to passion , upon a right account , he then shews himself a compassionate god to them , and this he did to israel of old , when they were in egypt under their hard task-masters ; for the lord said , i have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in egypt , and have heard their cry , by reason of their task-masters ; for i know their sorrows , and i am come down to deliver them , exod. . , . god is not onely said to hear the prayers , and see the tears of hezekiah , but he is as ready to help ; for so is his promise , psal. . . call upon me in the day of trouble , i will deliver thee , and thou shalt glorifie me . a good refuge for all gods people to flie to in time of distress . and here note , god doth not onely raise hezekiah from his bed of sickness , but he also promiseth to adde fifteen years to his dayes . thus he giveth power to the faint , and to them that have no might , he encreaseth strength ; even the youth shall faint and be weary , and young men shall utterly fail ; but they that wait on the lord , shall renew their strength ; they shall mount up with wings of an eagle ; they shall run and not be weary ; they shall walk and not be faint . isai. . . and seeing it is so then , o king , be perswaded to wait upon god , that so it may be a lengthening out of thy tranquility ; question with thine own soul , whether god hath not added to thy dayes ; remember with thankfulness the hollow oak , with all gods transactions towards thee in that juncture of time , when an arm of flesh failed thee at worcester ; not forgetting thy safe passage in that little vessel that rides in thy constant view ; and when thou lookest on that , suffer me to be thy remembrancer , to perswade thee , that with thankfulness of heart , thou remember whence thy deliverance came ; and that thou give to god a suitable return , for that i am confident god expects from thee ; and withall seriously to consider the sad consequences of ingratitude : for hezekiah rendred not again according to the benefits bestowed upon him , but his heart was lifted up ; therefore wrath was upon him , and upon judah and jerusalem . god doth not onely promise to heal hezekiah , and to add fifteen years to his dayes ; but further he giveth him ( according to his own request ) a sign , and such an one , the like of which neither before nor since was known ; for most miraculously he alters the course of the heavens , for the sun who like a bridegroom coming out of the chamber , and rejoyceth as a strong man to run a race , psal. . . is by the great power of god called back again fifteen degrees . whence we may take notice of the great condescention of the great god , for the satisfying his faithful ones . and this was his dealing with gideon , judges . who requires a sign , that the angel talked with him , v. . and the angel put forth the end of his staff that was in his hand , and touched the flesh , and the unleavened cakes that gideon had provided , and there arose fire out of the rock , and consumed them . and again , when gideon by gods appointment was to relieve israel from the hands of the midianites , amalekites , and the children of the east , that were gathered together in the valley of jezrecl , judges . . gideon requires a sign , if god would deliver israel by his hands , ver. . and gideon also propounds his own satisfaction ; behold , saith he , v. . i will put a fleece of wool in the floor , and if the dew be on the fleece onely , and it be dry upon all the earth besides , then shall i know that thou wilt save israel by my hand , as thou hast said ; and saith the text , it was so , v. . for he rose up early in the morning , and thrust the fleece together , and wringed out of the fleece a bowl full of water : yet this will not fully satisfie gideon , but he must come to the lord , as once abraham did , when he petitioned for sodom , gen. . with an once more ; for gideon said unto god , let not thine anger be hot against me , i will speak but this once ; let me prove i pray thee but this once with the fleece ; let it now be dry onely upon the fléece , and upon all the ground let there be dew ; and god did so that night ; for it was wet upon all the ground . it is good then for s●…ls to be single-hearted to god , that god may be satisfactory to them . thus having particularly discovered the manner of gods merciful dealings towards hezekiah ; i shall now come to the words of my text ; wherein is briefly discovered hezekiah's unthankful behaviour to god . but hezekiah rendred not again according to the benefits bestowed upon him , but his heart was lifted up ; therefore wrath was upon him , and upon judah and jerusalem . and because the main drift of the spirit in the text is , to discover hezekiah's neglect , in not rendring to god , and the sad consequences thereof ; i shall therefore first consider what rendring is , before i come to draw any teachable conclusions from the text . rendring , then simply so considered , is none other , but a giving to god or man that which is their due ; for so saith the spirit , chron. . . give unto the lord the glory due unto his name ; and rom. . . render therefore to all men their dues , tribute to whom tribute is due , custom to whom custom , fear to whom fear , honour to whom honour ; as if he should say , give freely to god and man that which belongeth to them , according to the saying of the lord christ himself , mat. . . give to cesar the things that are cesars , and to god the things that are gods . there is also a rendring spoken of in scripture , by way of requital , for some benefit bestowed , or injury done ; and this is sometimes called rendring , and sometimes recompencing and requiting , as in that of luke . , . when thou makest a dinner , or a supper , call not thy friends , nor thy brethren , nor thy kinsmen , nor thy rich neighbours , lest they also bid thee again , and a recompence be made thee ; — but call the poor , the maimed , the blind , and the halt , and thou shalt be blessed ; for they cannot recompence or requite thée ; and in tim. . . where children and nephews are required to requite their parents ; and thes. . . where it is the advice of the spirit , that no man should render evil for evil to any man . so that there is a rendring belongs to man from man , simply so considered , as they stand in such or such relations ; as children to parents , servants to masters , wives to husbands , or subjects to princes : and there is also a more respective rendring due to men , as they are benefactors , or better than ordinary in those relations ; as from a child to an indulgent father , from a servant to a very bountiful master , from a subject to his priuce , as he is wise and prudentially careful , laying about him every way , for the better well-being of his subjects ; one that refuseth the way of rehoboam the son of solomon , who threatned to make the burthens of his subjects heavier and heavier , and to be worse to them than was his father ; kings . . but to such an one that will undo the heavy burthens , and let the oppressed go free , according to that of isa. . ●… i say , to such a father , master and prince , there is a more tender , respective , affectionate rendring due , and that by way of requital , to answer the love , bounty and care of such a father , macter or prince . and this is that rendring in my text that god expecteth from hezekiah , that as he had been a bountiful and a full-handed god to him ; so he expected that hezekiah , though a king , should have had his mouth filled with his praises . for when the king of babylon sent ambassadors to him , to enquire of the wonder that was done in his land , chron. . . god expected that then he should have shewed the ambassadours , how miraculous god had been in delivering him from his enemies , and recovering him ; and in satisfying his request , in causing the sun to run retrograde , in token of the certainty of his recovery , and of the fifteen years addition to his dayes ; by which means god would have been glorified in the eyes of the heathen ; which is that that god requireth , that his people should sing forth the honour of his name , and make his praise glorious , psal. . . and also saith the lord by the prophet , isai. . . let them give glory unto the lord , and declare his praise in the islands . a good lesson for thee to learn , o king , that when ambassadours are sent from forreign princes , to congratulate thy condition , that then thou remember before them , to glorifie that god , and set forth his praise , who hath been so miraculously bountiful unto thee . but hezekiah rendred not again according to his benefits bestowed upon him , but his heart was lifted up ; therefore wrath fell upon him , and upon judah and jerusalem . quest . but here it may be demanded , when a person may be said , to render duely to god . answ. to this i answer , a person may then be said to make suitable returns , or duely to render to god , when in the relation he standeth in , he shall as much as in him lieth , act faithfully both to god and man , according to the mind of god , whether they be men or women , as they stand in the relations of servants or masters , children or parents , wives or husbands , subjects or princes : and because the subject matter of my text is concerning prince and people , i shall not stand to particularize the duty of the other relations , but shall as briefly as i may , come to a discovery of what i know from the scriptures , to be the mind of god in those relations that concern my text . and first of the duty of a subject to his prince ; a subject may properly be said duely to render unto god , when according to the saying of the lord christ , mat. . . he doth give to cesar the things that are cesars , and to god the things that are gods ; when he doth that in the worship of god that is agreeable to the mind of god , revealed in that plain directory , the holy scriptures of truth : and when according to that rule also he doth render to his prince tribute , custom , fear and honour , according to the direction of the spirit , rom. . . a more full discovery hereof is laid down in my declaration . and secondly , a prince may properly be said to render duely to god , when he doth also follow the direction of the same spirit in the directory ; who saith , sam. . . he that ruleth over men , must be just , ruling in the fear of god . this fear of god , is that which made good nehemiah , when he was appointed governour over the land of judah , neither he nor his brethren not to eat the bread of the governour , nehamiah . . for saith he , v. . the former governours that were before me , were chargeable to the people , and had taken of them bread and wine , besides forty shekels of silver ; yea , even their servants bare rule over the people ; but saith he , so did not i : and he addeth this as a reason , because of the fear of god : and this is that which the wise man telleth us , is the sum or substance of all that is required from man , in the twelfth chapter of his ecclesiastes , and the thirteenth verse . let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter , fear god , and keep his commandments ; for this ( saith he ) is the whole duty of man : and so saith the prophet , micah . . he that shewed thee , o man , what is good . and what doth the lord require of thee , but to do justly , and to love mercy , and to walk humbly with thy god ? pritnces , rulers , governors and magistrates then , are required to do tha work for which they are set up , for they are gods vice-gerents , set up by him for the due administration of justice , and not to be a terrour to good works , but to the evil ; and are continually to attend upon that very thing , rom. . , , , . in that antient history of the succession o●… the saxon monarchs , page . it is recorded to the yet lasting fame of edgar , sometimes a king of this island , that he was so endowed with that heaven-bred , and most heroick principle of the due administration of justice ; as in his circuits he took so strick an account of the due execution of his laws , and of the demeanour of his great men , and especially of his judges , as that he severely punished them , as often as he found the execution of their places ballanced either with bribery , or partiality : so that ( saith the story ) there was never less robbery , deceit nor oppression , than in the reign of this worthy king . therefore let me beg thee , o king , as thou tenderest thy own good , both here and hereafter , rule with diligence , and with king edgar let after-ages know to thy lasting praise , that thou hadst a delight to do thy subjects good , in seeking judgement , in relieving the oppressed , in judging the fatherless , and in pleading for the widow , in being a terrour to evil works , and in shewing thy self a 〈◊〉 of them that do well . measure thy subjects actions by a direct rule : and as thou art a king over three kingdoms , such as make much ad●… about their christianity , see that their actions be christ-like ; for the assuming either the title or form of christianity cannot do it ; for from such as have not the power of godliness , there ought to he by the people of god a turning away , tim. . . for , every one that nameth the name of christ , is to depart from iniquity , tim. . . and it ought to be their onely care , to have their conversation as becometh the gospel of christ , — striving together for the faith of the gospel , phil. . not for the promotion of stage-playes , dancings , may-games , and pastimes ; for christians are to abstain from all appearance of evil , thes. . . and as pilgrims and strangers they are to abstain from fleshly lusts , which war against the soul , pet. . . and the lust of the flesh , the lust of the eye , and the pride of life , is not of the father , but of the world , and must perish with the world , joh. . . be careful therefore , i beseech thee , o king , of the actions of thy subjects , it stands thee in hand so to do ; for a fruitful land god turneth into barrenness , for the wickedness of them that dwell therein , psal. . . yea , and thou maist fare the worse for it too ; for the transgression of a land , many are the princes thereof ; but by a man of understanding and knowledge , the state thereof shall be prolonged , saith the wisest of the sons of men , prov. , . o then , in the fear of him that accepteth not the person of princes , nor regardeth the rich more then the poor , job . . in the fear of him that leadeth princes away spoiled , and overthroweth the strength of the mighty ; that poureth contempt upon princes , and weakneth the mighty ; that taketh away the heart of the chief of the people of the earth , and causeth them to wander in a wilderness , where there is no way , job . , , . in the fear of him that bringeth princes to nothing , and maketh the judges of the earth , as vanity , isai. . . in the fear of that god , that hath done such great things for thee , be perswaded for thine own good , to render to him according to his mercy bestowed , in seeing the due administration of justice without respect of persons ; that so thou mayest relieve the poor oppressed of thy people , that of a long time have groaned under the administration of male-justice . and know , o king , that as thou art to do justly ; so thou art required to love mercy , it is that which god accepteth before sacrifice ; for so saith the prophet , hos. . . for i desired mercy , and not sacrifice , and the knowledge of god more than burnt-offerings ; for by mercy and truth iniquity is purged , and by the fear of god men depart from evil , prov. . . for mercy and truth preseve the king , and his throne is upholden by mercy ; for he that followeth after righteousness and mercy ; findeth life , righteousness and honour , prov. . . a good man is merciful and lendeth , and his seed shall be blessed , psal. . . yea , blessed are the merciful , for they shall obtain mercy , mat. . . but he shall have iudgement without mercy , that hath shewed no mercy ; and mercy rejoyceth against judgement , james . . the neglect of shewing mercy , is that which caused the wrath of god to burn hot against israel of old , zech. . . for thus spake the lord of hosts , saying , execute true judgement , and shew mercy and compassion every man to his brother , and oppress not the widow , nor the fatherless , the stranger , nor the poor ; and let none of you imagine evil against his brother in his heart : but they refused to hearken , and plucked away the shoulder , and stopped their ears that they should not hear , &c. therefore came a great wrath from the lord of hosts , v. . then be perswaded , o king , to shew acts of mercy , thou hast objects enough to exercise it upon ; and know , that pure religion and undesiled before god and the father , is this , to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction , james . . not to make fatherless and widows , to bring them to affliction . and in thy shewing mercy , take the advice of the spirit of god , in rom. . . to do it readily , and with cheerfulness . thou hast begun already to tread in this way , in thy act of oblivion , let not the malicious endeavours of any , though never so great , pervert thy steps ; for it is one of zions paths . a third thing that is required of thee , o king , is , that as thou art to do justly , and to love mercy ; so also , to walk humbly with thy god . but here it may be demanded , when a person may be said to walk humbly with god ? to this i answer ; a man may then be properly said , to walk humbly with his god , when he goeth not before god , or without god in his actions ; but that in all his undertakings , he doth that which is required of him by god , in order to his humble obedience to god , whether it be in the worship and service of god , or in his actings towards men : thus enoch walked with god three hundred years , gen. . . and enoch walking with god , god was so well pleased therewith , as that he exempted him from the pangs of death ; for so saith the text , v. . and enoch walked with god , and was not ; for god took him : enoch walked with god faithfully ; for without faith it is impossible to please god , heb. ii. . and we find him so recorded in that catalogue of faithful ones , heb. ii. . by faith enoch was translated , that he should not see death , and was not found , because god had translated him ; and before he was translated , he had this testimony , that he pleased god . thus noah also walked with god , gen. . . and when a world of wicked men and women , for their ungodliness must be drowned ; the lord said unto noah , come thou , and all thy house into the ark ; for thee have i seen righteous before me in this generation , gen. . . thus also zacharias and elizabeth , the father and mother of john the baptist , who walked with god , luke . , . who were both righteous before god , walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the lord , blameless . so that i say , to walk humbly with god , is to follow god fully in all his laws , statutes , ordinances , and appointments . and thus the church and people of god , are required to be followers of god , as dear children , eph. . . that as children are to follow the directions and appointments of their earthly parents ; so gods people should follow the directions and appointments of their heavenly father ; and should walk in the foot-steps of the flock of god , gone before ; who run neither before nor without god ; but with the prophet david , psal. . . in the laws , statutes , ordinances and appointments of god : thus they walked humbly with their god . so that this is that which i would willingly lay before thee , o king ; and also beg and entreat thee for thine own good , seriously to consider of , that to walk humbly with god , is not to walk in any way , but in that which is well-pleasing to god ; in that way which is by himself directed , for his to walk in ; for persons cannot be said to be no more forreigners and s●…rangers , unless they become fellow citizens with the saints , and of the houshold of god ; being built upon the foundation of the prophets and apostles , jesus christ himself being the chief corner stone , eph. . , . by which means onely , they grow up an holy temple in the lord , in whom they also are builded together for an habitation of god , through the spirit , ver. , . then consider thy standing , o king , and with hezekiah purge out the filthiness of thy holy things , in order to thy walking humbly with thy god ; in order to thy rendring duely to god , for thy great mercies received , considering the danger of not rendring . for hezekiah rendred not again according to the benefit done unto him , for his heart was lifted up ; therefore wrath was upon him , and upon iudah and ierusalem . thus having shewed in some measure the occasion of the words of my text ; i shall now come to the handling of the words themselves . but hezekiah rendred not again according to the benefit done unto him , for his heart was lifted up ; therefore there was wrath upon him , and upon judah and jerusalem . the words in themselves contain these four particulars . . gods benefits bestowed upon hezekiah . . hezekiah's unthankfulness to god . . the reason of hezekiah's unthankfulness . . the sad consequences of his unthankfulness . . gods benefits bestowed upon hezekiah , in these words , accordcording to the benefit done unto him . . hezekiah's unthankfulness to god , in these words , but hezekiah rendred not again . . the reason of hezekiah's not rendring , in these words , for his heart was lifted up . . the sad conseqnences of hezekiah's not rendring . and they are two fold , and implyed in these words : . therefore there was wrath upon him ; and , . upon iudah and ierusalem . but hezekiah rendred not again according to the benefit done unto him , for his heart was lifted up ; therefore there was wrath upon him , and upon judah and jerusalem . thus having laid down the occasion of the words of the text , and the particulars contained in the text ; i shall now proceed to lay down , what teachable conclusions may be drawn from the text ; which are these three : . that god requires suitable returns for benefits bestowed , though from the greatest of men or nations ; upon the neglect whereof , god punisheth without respect of persons . . that many times god punisheth a people , for the miscarriages of their governours , whether in church or state , or in a particular family . . that outward enjoyments many times do so affect the heart of man , as that they lift it up , even to the forgetting of god , and to their own ruine . to the first of these , that god requires suitable returns for benefits bestowed , though from the great est of men or nations ; upon the neglect whereof , god punisheth without respect of persons . king david , i presume , was well acquainted with the truth of this assertion , which made him so earnestly enquire , what he should render to god , in psal. . after a full declaration of what god had particularly done for his soul ; he oryeth out , ver. . what shall i render to the lord , for all his benefits bestowed upon me ? and in v●… . and . he gives in his resolution , i will , saith he , take the cup of salvation , and call upon the name of the lord ; i will pay my vowes unto the lord now , in the presence of all his people ; and in psal. . . these vowes are upon me , o god , i will render praises unto thee . but for the proof of this point ; consider , nebuchadnezzar king of babylon , who dreamed a dream , which to him was very terrible ; insomuch , that his spirit was troubled , and his sleep brake from him , dan. . . then the king commanded to call the magicians , and the astrologers , and the sorcerers , and the caldeans , to shew the king his dream ; to whom he promised great rewards , if they could shew him the dream , and the interpretation , ( for it was gone from the king ) but if they could not , then he threatned death to them , and ruine to their houses , vers. , , , . the which they could not do ; and thereupon a command went out from the king , to slay them : the executioners of whose will sought daniel and his fellows also to slay them . then daniel enquired of arioch the captain of the kings guard , the reason of the hastiness of the decree from the king , who telling him the matter ; daniel went in to the king , and desired time that he might shew the king both the dream , and the interpretation ; the which being granted , he suddenly after came and told it the king , v. . thou , o king , sawest , and behold a great image ; this great image , whose brightness was excellent , stood before thee , and his form was terrible . this images head was of fine gold , his breast and his armes of silver , his belly and his thighs of brass , his leggs of iron , his feet part of iron , and part of clay ; thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands , which smote the image upon his féet , that were part of iron and part of clay , and brake them to pieces . then was the iron , the clay , the brass , the silver , and the gold broken to pieces together , and became then as the chaff of the summer threshing-floors , and the wind carried them away , that no place was found for them ; and the stone that smote the image , became a great mountain , and filled the whole earth . this is the dream ( said daniel ) and i will tell the interpretation thereof before the king . thou o king , art a king of kings , for the god of heaven hath given thee a kingdom , power , and strength , and glory ; and wheresoever the children of men dwell , the beasts of the field , and the fowls of the heaven hath he given into thine hand , and hath made thee ruler over them all ; thou art this head of gold . by all which we see , that god had done very much for nebuchad●… , and made him king of kings , and higher than all the kings of the earth : yet when nebuchadnezzar rendreth not to god according to the benefits bestowed , god takes him down from all his pomp ; when nebuchadnezzar forgat god that made him so great , and begins to sacrifice to his own net , as he did , dan. . . for said the king , is not this great babylon , that i have builded for the house of my kingdom , by the might of my power , and for the honour of my majesty ? thus whilst he was glorying himself , instead of glorifying god , god takes him down ; for so saith the text , v. . whilst the word was in the kings mouth , there fell a voice from heaven , saying , o king nebuchadnezzar , to thée it is spoken , the kingdom is departed from thée , and they shall drive thee from men , and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field ; they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen , and seven times shall pass over thee , until thou know that the most high ruleth in the kingdom of men , and giveth it to whom he will ; and saith the text , v. . the same hour was the thing fulfilled upon nebuchadnezzar . so that in him we see the assertion made good , that god requires suitable returns for mercies bestowed , though from the greatest of men or nations . this man was so great , as that there was none greater ; for he was over all ; not a king over some few countries , or an emperour over seven nations , but a monarch , one that had an unlimited and an universal power , v. . yet when he comes to walk contrary to god , god walks contrary to him ; when he refuseth to glorifie god , god will be glorified upon him . the like we may see in king saul , sam. . the prophet samuel came to him , and appointed him his work from god ; and in his so doing , he first layes before him what god had done for him ; and giveth it in as a reason , why saul should perform the will of god ; for saith he , v. . the lord sent me to anoint thee to be king over his people , over israel ; therefore hearken thou unto the voice of the word of the lord ; thus saith the lord , i remember what amalek did to israel , how he laid wait for him in the way , as he came up out of the land of egypt ; now go and smite amalek , and utterly destroy all that they have , and spare them not , but utterly destroy both man and woman , infant and suckling , ox and shéep , camel and asse , amalek lay in wait , to have destroyed israel ; now god takes israels cause in hand , and amalek must be utterly cut off . it is good for the people of god , to let god alone with his own work ; for vengeance is mine●… and i will repay it , saith the lord , rom. . . and gods time is the best time to revenge in ; for so saith the lord by his prophet , zephaniah . . wait ye upon me , untill the day that , i rise up to the prey ; for my determination is , to gather the nations , that i may assemble the kingdoms , to pour upon them mine indignation , even all my fierce anger ; for , all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousie : for , saith the prophet , it is the day of the lords vengeance , and the year of recompences , for the controversie of zion , isai. . . and saith the lord , i am jealous for jerusalem and for zion , with a great jealousie , zach. . . for precious in the sight of the lord , is the death of his saints , psal. . . and psal. . . when he maketh iniquision for blood , he remembreth them , and forgetteth not the cry of the humble . had israel been the revenge of his own quarrel , it had not made so much for israels comfort , neither would amalek have had his deserved due ; israel might have under-done the work ; for israel knew not the bent of amaleks spirit , so well as he that took the work in hand ; for god sees not as man sees , man onely knows the outward act , but god also the intention and thought of the heart ; god without all question knew that amalek intended the utter ruine of israel ; and therefore amalek must be utterly destroyed : for god is a righteous god , and commonly deals with men by the law of retaliation ; for adoni-bezek said , threescore and ten kings having their thumbs and their great toes cut off , gathered their meat under my table ; as i have done so god hath done to me , judges . . and nathan said unto david , sam. . . thou hast done evil in the sight of the lord , thou hast killed uriah the hittite with the sword , and hast taken his wife to be thy wife ; now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house , &c. and i will take thy wives before thine eyes , and give them to thy neighbour , and he shall lye with them in the sight of the sun ; for thou didst this secretly , but i will do this before all israel , and before the sun . and the prophet samuel also said unto king agag , sam. . . as thy sword hath made women childless , so shall thy mother be childless among women ; and samuel hewed agag in pieces before the lord . it is good for men then in all their undertakings , to do to others , as they would have others to do unto them : and this is that golden rule , that the lord christ himself layes down , mat. . . all things whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you , do ye even so unto them ; for this is the law and the prophets : and that he might the better bespeak his people to a strict observation of this lesson , he requires them in the first and second verses , not to judge , lest they be judged , for saith he , with what judgement ye judge , ye shall be judged ; and with what measure ye met , it shall be measured to you again : the perfect law of retaliation . i am the willinger to say the more to this , though i am upon a digression , because , if possible , i might keep others from transgression ; for there are many in this our day , i know , that are ready and willing to run head-long to the ruine of the people of god here , though it be to the ruine of their own souls hereafter , and that to eternity ; for so saith the lord christ himself , mat. . . then shall the king say to them on his left hand , depart from me , ye cursed , into everlasting fire , prepared for the devil and his angels ; for when i was an hungry , ye gave me no meat ; i was thirsty , and ye gave me no drink ; i was a stranger , and ye took me not in ; naked , and ye cloathed me not ; sick , and in prison , and ye visited me not ; for , inasmuch as ye did it not to one of these little ones , v. . or the least of-these my brethren , ye did it not unto me , v. . whence i would have all persecuting spirits to take notice , that if christ at that great day will be so strict upon men , for omitting the doing of that good , that they might have done to the people of god ; that he will be far more stricter with them , for doing acts of violence against them ; for god is very tender of his people , however men esteem of them ; and so saith the prophet , zach. . . he that toucheth you , toucheth the apple of his eye . god hath been eminent in his judgements of late dayes : and therefore let all persecuting spirits , hear , and fear , and tremble , for the lord will appear mightily for his people . but to return to our matter : king saul being fully commissionated for this work of amaleks destruction ; and being perswaded to the faithful performance thereof by samuel , upon the account of what benefits god had done for him ; yet saul rendred not according to the benefits bestowed upon him ; and therefore he was looked upon as a rebel astainst god , sam. . . in that he saved the best of the sheep and oxen , and king agag alive ; and this caused god to rend the kingdom from him , v. . and this is that , together with his going to the witch of endor , that also cost him his life ; for so saith the text , chron. . . so saul died for his transgression , which he committed against the lord , even against the word of the lord , which he kept not ; and also for asking counsel of one that had a familiar spirit , to enquire of it : so that in saul also we see the assertion made good , that god requires suitable returns for benefits bestowed , though from the greatest of men or nations ; upon the neglect whereof , god punisheth without respect of persons . it is neither the name , dignity nor power of the greatest of kings , that can exempt them from the sin-revenging hand of god ; for tophet is ordained of old , saith the prophet , isaiah . . yea , for the king it is prepared , he hath made it deep and large ; the pile thereof is fire and much wood ; the breath of the lord like a stream of brimstone doth kindle it . neither is it the greatness of a nation or a people , that can excuse them , if they be found sinning against god ; witness israel of old , a nation like the sands of the sea shore , or as the stars in the firmament for number ; yea , the lords portion ; for so saith the text , deut. . . the lords people are his portion , jacob is the lot of his inheritance ; the vineyard that his own right hand hath planted , psal. . . such as in their day had the highest priviledges of any nations under the heavens ; for so saith the prophet david , psal. . , . he shewed his word unto jacob , his statutes and his iudgements unto israel , he hath not dealt so with any nation : and as for his iudgements , they have not known them ; yet for all this , by reason of gods sin-revenging hand upon them , the apostle paul takes up a great lamentation , rom. . the beginning , and tells us , that he could wish himself , that he were accursed from christ , for his brethrens sake , concerning the flesh ; who , saith he , are israelites , to whom pertaineth the adoption , and the glory , and the covenants , and the giving of the law , and the service of god , and the promises ; whose are the fathers , and of whom concerning the flesh , christ came . yet notwithstanding all these high priviledges , the prophet is sent to them with a message from the lord , isaiah . , . go , saith the lord , and tell this people , hear ye indeed , but understand not ; and see ye indeed , but perceive not ; make the heart of this people fat , and make their ears heavy , and shut their eyes ; lest they see with their eyes , and hear with their ears , and understand with their hearts , and convert , and be healed . and what 's the cause of all this , may some say ? answ. the prophet that was sent on this message , with other of the prophets , will give a perfect answer , and tell you , that israel did not render unto the lord according to his benefits bestowed ; and therefore wrath was upon them from the lord ▪ for god had planted them a noble vine , wholly a righteous seed ; but they were turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto him , saith the prophet , jeremiah . . and the prophet isaiah sings the same song , isaiah . , &c. now will i sing , saith he , to my well beloved , a song of my well beloved touching his uineyard . my well beloued hath a uineyard in a very fruitful hill , and he fenced it and gathered out the stones thereof , and planted it with the choisest uine ; and he built a tower , and set a winepress therein , and he looked that it should bring forth grapes , and it brought forth wild grapes . v. . the vineyard of the lord of hosts , is the house of israel , and the men of judah , his pleasant plant ; and he looked for judgement , but behold , oppression ; for righteousness , but behold , a cry . and therefore god calls themselves to judge the cause , v. . and now , o inhabitants of jerusalem , and men of judah , judge , i pray you , between me and my vineyard , what could have been done more to my vineyard , that i have not done in it ? and now , saith he , go to , i will tell you what i will do to my vineyard , i will take away the hedge thereof , and it shall be eaten up ; and break down the wall thereof , and it shall be troden down ; and i will lay it waste , it shall not be pruned nor digged ; but there shall come up bryers and thorns . and for these mis-actings of theirs , the lord by his prophet , isai. . . takes up a great complaint , saying , hear o heavens , and give ear o earth ; for the lord hath spoken , i have nourished and brought up children , and they have rebelled against me ; the ox knoweth his owner , and the asse his masters crib ; but israel doth not know , my people do not consider : ah! sinful nation , a people laiden with iniquity , a seed of evil-doers , children that are corrupters ; they have forsaken the lord , they have provoked the holy one of israel to anger , they are gone away backward : by reason whereof , we see the lord looks upon their holy duties as nothing , even as vanity ; and their burning of incense , an abomination unto him . whence we may note , that though men be in the perfect and real way of god , as to his worship ; yet , if they do not render to god , if their conversation answer not their profession , the best of their worship is but vain and abominable in gods sight ; and such as god is weary to bear , isai. . . and such persons are looked upon as enemies to the crosse of christ , phil. . . and god looked upon them to be so to him : and such as he will not long be burthened withal ; for so saith the prophet , isaiah . . thus saith the lord of hosts , the mighty one if israel , ah! i will ease me of mine anversaries , i will avenge me on mine e●…emies : and we find this threatning was made good upon them , zach. . , . therefore , saith the prophet , it is come to pass , that as he cryed , and they would not hear ; so they cryed , and i would not hear ; but i scattered them with a whirl-wind among all the nations whom they knew not , &c. and so they continue a scattered people to this very day . so that we see the assertion made good in them also , that god requires suitable ▪ returns for mercies bestowed , though from the greatest of men or nations ; upon the neglect whereof , god punisheth without respect of persons . so that we see the point fully proved upon nebuchadnezzar and saul , two great and potent kings ; and also ugon israel , the greatest of nations ; and that not onely upon the account of multitude , but also the greatest priviledged nation under the heavens . i shall not spend time to lay down the reasons of the point ; but in a word shall say what the lord christ saith , luke . . to whom much is given , of him shall be much required . and so i shall come to some uses , that may be made of the point . for , as practice is the very life of profession , so the uses of a sermon , being well applyed , become words spoken in season ; which the wise man saith , are like apples of gold in pictures of silver , prov. . . and seeing it is so , that god requires suitable returns for benefits bestowed ; upon the neglect whereof , god punisheth , &c. this then may serve for a use to great ones ; and first , to thy self , o king , to exhort thee in the name and fear of cod , seriously to consider particularly what god hath done for thee , how god hath preserved thee both abroad and in this land of thy nativity ; and let me humbly beg thee once again ; seriously to consider the hollow oak , and that little vessel which rides in thy constant view , and those that were acting in and by them , for thy personal preservation ( the which , if report be true , thou hast in a great measure already done , which is very commendable ) but this is that , o king , that i am chiefly pleading for , that thou wouldst endeavour to look through and beyond them , even to the finger and power of that god that wrought in and by them ; not only for thy temporal , but also ( if thou beest not wanting to thy self ) for thy eternal preservation , if thou dost make suitable returns to him ; that so wrath may not follow . to this purpose , consider every one of thy thoughts and intentions , and examine them before thou put them into action , see whether they tend to a suitable returning to god , for such great benefits received from god , or not . and if this , o king , be the bent of thy spirit , and thy continued practice , i can assure thee from the word of the lord , that it will be a lengthning out of thy tranquillity ; for so saith the wisest of men , by the assictance of the eternal spirit , prov. . . when a mans wayes please the lord , he will make even his enemies to be at peace with him ; and not onely so , but thou shalt also have a benefit hereafter , and that to eternity ; for so saith the lord by the mouth of a king , psal. . . whoso offereth praise , glorifieth me , and to him that ordereth his conversation aright , will i shew the salvation of god . and secondly , o king , seeing many great ones in this nation have had a great share in the benefits god hath bestowed upon thee ; this may serve for a use of exhortation also to them , to perswade them to consider seriously what god hath done for them in doing for thee ; and further to examine what suitable returns they have already made , and what rendrings they intend to make to god for such great benefits bestowed . i desire to urge this the rather , because i see many of their coaches standing daily , where i fear they cannot duly render to god according to such mercies bestowed ; and therefore i shall desire to discharge my conscience to them , in letting them know , that without holiness no man shall see the lord , heb. . . and without faith it is impossible to please god , heb . . which faith comes by hearing , and hearing by the word of god , heb. . . and not by hearing scurrility in stage-playes , may-games and pastimes : consider o ye great ones , that are guilty of such actings ; and know , that god requires other things from you ; and make suitable returns to god , lest god return his judgements with indignation , and so the last be worse than the first : for we usually say , that relapses are dangerous , and many times prove worse than the first distemper . thirdly , seeing god requires suitable returns for benefits bestowed , though from the greatest of men or nations ; upon the neglect whereof , god punisheth without respect of persons . this then may also serve for a use of exhortation and examination to this nation , considered as a nation : and as some have said , they ( to wit ) the nation was a body without a head ; meaning , they were without a king ; for the king is the head , or supream , pet. . , . according to that of samuel also to saul , sam. . . and samuel said to saul , when thou wast little in thine own sight , wast thou not made the head of the tribes of israel ? and the lord anointed thee king over israel , &c. so that now , o england , thou canst not so complain , for by a miraculous hand thy head is restored to thee again ; examine thy self now what benefit thou hast received ; and also , how thou art bettered thereby : dost thou render to god according to his benefits bestowed ? art thou grown more holy than thou wast ? or rather , art thou not grow openly prophane , out of a sense of gods great love to thee ? dost thou rejoyce before the lord with trembling ? or rather , is not thy rejoycing such , as that it would and doth , even make a truly regenerate soul tremble to behold it ? art thou rendring to god , for bringing this great design about without shedding of blood ? or rather , is not thy behaviour such , as suddenly may cause god to open another vein to the effusion of thy bloud , even to the confusion of thy face ? art thou rejoycing , that the sword in all visible probability is now sheathing again ? and is not that rejoycing such , that may justly cause god to command it to run thorow thy borders a second time ? art thou humble before thy god , o england , out of a consideration of thine own unworthiness , and of gods great love to thee in these things ? or rather , art thou not grown more haughty ? and may not the lord take up a complaint against thee and thy daughters , o england , as once he did against his people of old ? isa. . . and say to england , and in special to london , because thy daughters are haughty , and walk with stretched out necks , and wanton eyes , walking and mincing as they go , and making a tinkling with their feet ; therefore the lord will smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of england ; and the lord will discover her secret parts in that day : or when the lord shall say so to england , then will he take away the bravery of their tinkling ornaments about their feet , and their cauls , and their round tiers like the moon , and the braslets , and the mufflers , the bonnets , and the ornaments of the leggs , the changeable suits of fantastical attire ; and instead of their sweet powders , a stink ; instead of a girdle , a rent ; instead of their crisped and well-set hair , baldness ; and instead of a stomacher , a girding of sack-cloth ; and burning instead of beauty ; and cause a second time their men to fall by the sword , and their mighty in war ; for england is full of distempers ; so that god may justly say of her , as once he said of israel , isa. . . from the sole of the foot , even unto the head , there is no soundness in it , but mounds , and bruises ; and putrified sores ; they have not been closed , neither bound up , nor mollified with ointments ; for the judgements nor the mercies of god , have neither allured nor restrained them from their iniquities , but to this very day she hath her tinpenny of pride , being also full of the dropsical humours of all abominations ; and yet in a deep consumption of all true piety , pitty , penitency , patience and purity ; by which means she is become very perverse , peevish , prophane and pittiless . therefore , o england , consider what god after all his judgements and mercies requireth of thee ; and for the time to come , meet thy god with suitable returns , lest god meet thee again , in some or all his three fierce judgements , sword , pestilence or famine ; either to thy speedy rooting out , or thy consuming lingring ruine . consider what i say , and the lord make thee wise . and secondly , seeing it is so , that god requires suitable returns for benefits bestowed , though from the greatest of men or nations , &c. this then may serve for a use of reproof to all , from the highest to the lowest , from him that sitteth upon the throne , to him that grindeth at the mill , even to the hewer of wood and drawer of water ; to all that have received , and have not duly rendred , to such who like the swine under the acorn tree , have greedily swallowed down all the benefits that comes from , god , never so much as once looking to god , nor to him that sends them ; and to say truth , it fares generally with men as with those leapers , luk . . where ten were cured , & but one found to return praise : and indeed it is ten to one , whether men generally know it really to be their duty , or not ; therefore i shall commend this use to all that have not rendred , and shall let them know in the words of solomon the wise , that he is in the way of life that keepeth knowledge ; whilst he that refuseth reproof , erreth , prov. . . for he that hateth reproof is brutish , prov. . . and shame shall be to him that refuseth instruction ; whilst he that regardeth reproof shall be honoured , prov. . . and therefore i shall desire all , seriously to consider the danger of not rendring . for hezekiah rendred not again according to the benefits bestowed upon him , but his heart was lifted up ; therefore wrath fell upon him , and upon judah and jerusalem . and so i shall pass to the next teachable observation . . that many times god punisheth a people for the misactings of their governours , whether in church , state , or particular families . for the proof of which point , let us consider king david , who as to the integrity of his inward-man , was upright before god ; therefore we have this testimony of him , that he was a man after gods own heart , sam. . . yet this integrity of his was accompanied with some imperfections , which caused gods wrath to burn hot against his people , as we may read , sam. . . for king david by the instigation of that enemy of mankind , was moved to number his people , by which means the wrath of god was kindled against israel ; for so saith the text , sam. . . and again the anger of the lord was kindled against israel ; and he moved david against them to say , go number israel and judah . quest . but here it may be asked , how i prove this to be done by the perswasion of that evil one , seeing the text doth not in so many words say so ? answ. to which i answer ; the text in sam. . . nor in any other part of the chapter , doth not in so many words prove it ; but if according to the teaching of the apostle paul , cor. . . we compare spiritual things with spiritual ; the holy ghost will make a clear discovery ; for compare this ▪ sam. . . with , chron. . . we shall find this , he that moved david in this , sam. . . is that enemy of mankind , that evil one , or satan ; for so saith the text , chron , . . and satan stood up against israel , and provoked david to number israel . quest . but here it may be farther demanded , what was israels sin ? seeing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , what had israel done ? answ. i answer ; israel was not at this time ( as we read of ) acting in any gross or known sin ; yet isràel must be punished : which proves our assertion to be true , that god many times punisheth a people for the misactings of their governours , &c. quest . what then was davids sin , may some say ? answ. i answer ; davids sin lay in numbring the people ; for so saith the text , chron. . . and god was displeased at this thing ; therefore he smote israel . quest . was the numbring of the people then the only cause , that moved god to slay with the plague threescore and ten thousand ? as we read , vers. . answ. yea , so saith the text , v. . for david said unto god , is it not i that commanded the people to be numbred ? even i it is that have sinned and done evil ▪ but as for these sheep , what have they done ? let thy hand , i pray thee , be on me and on my fathers house , but not on thy people , that they should be punished . quest . is it so dangerous a thing then to tell over , or number the people , may some say ? answ. i answer ; that to tell over or number the people , simply so considered , is not sin ; for then it were a sin for joshua to number the people , josh. . . or to number the eleven , acts . . who were numbred ; for they gave forth the lots , and the lot fell upon matthias , and he was numbred with the eleven . but to number the people , so as to put confidence in an arm of flesh ; to number the people so as to depart from the lord , this is an accursed thing ; for so saith the prophet , jer. . . thus saith the lord , cursed be the man that trusteth in man , and maketh flesh his arm ; and whose heart departeth from the lord : and this i humbly conceive might be davids sin ; for if we cast our eye but into chron. . we shall find joab , the captain of davids host , destroying the country of the children of ammon , and rabbah , and slaying three giants in three several overthrows of the philistines ; and the devil knoweth right well how to make his advantages . he knew , that god was jealous of his honour ; and if he could but work up danid to put confidence in an arm of flesh , or to give glory to the multitude of his armed men ; this was an advantage good enough against israel ; this was that which would cause god to weaken his strength , by taking them away , and have a controversie with them : and thus god doth in mercy to his people , when they begin to put ●…fidence , or set their hearts upon creature-comforts , god is then rea●… 〈◊〉 take them away ; and thus god is said , to hedge up their way with thorns , hos. . , . and to make a wall that they shall not find their w●…y ; and they shall follow after their lovers , but shall not overtake them , they shall seek after them , but not find them ; for saith the pro , isai. . . the wind shall carry them away , vanity shall take them . we may see this assertion farther proved in the egyptians , in those ten plagues that came upon them , for the hardness of the heart of pharaoh their king ; what misery did they endure in that weeks time of the waters of the rivers being turned into blood ? exod. . , . what did they endure by reason of the plagues of froggs , lice and flies ? exod. . , , . in those plagues of murrion and hail ? exod. . , , . in those plagues of locusts , and darkness ? exod. . , . and in the death of all their first-born , both of man and beast ? exod. . . the like we may see threatned against israel of old , by reason of the misactings of their princes , judges , priests , and prophets , micah . . hear , i pray you ( saith the prophet ) ye heads of the house of jacob , and princes of the house of israel , that abhor judgement , and pervert all equity , v. . that build up zion with blood , and jerusalem with iniquity , v. . the heads thereof judge for reward , and the priests thereof teach for hire , and the prophets thereof divine for money ; like the priests and prophets of england at this day ; and they likewise , as those of old , will lean upon the lord , and say , is not the lord among us , no evil can come upon us ? but though they say thus ; what saith the prophet ? therefore shall zion for your sake be plowed as a field , and jerusalem shall become heaps , and the mountain of the lords house , as the high places of the forrest . so that we may see , that for the mis-actings of church-men , that teach for hire , and divine for money ▪ zion , or the church , shall be punished , yea plowed as a field , and laid waste , and the mountain of the lords house become as the high places of the forrest ; as well as for the perverting of judgement and equity by the princes and judges , jerusalem , or the kingdom , shall become heaps ; for there will be a scattering of the sheep , for the negligence of the shepherd ; yea , so saith the prophet , isa. . . for the pastors are become brutish , & have not sought the lord ; therefore they shall not prosper , and all their flock shall be scattered . and so saith the lord christ by john the revelator , speaking to the angel , or the pastor of the church of ephesus , revelation . . remember ( saith he ) from whence thou art fallen , and repent , and do thy first work , or else i will come unto thee quickly , and will remove thy candlestick o●…t of his place , except thou repent . as if he should say , thou art the light of the church , and the feeder of the flock ; the church or people , are the candlestick that upholds thee , and the flock that employes thee , and unless thou repent of thy deadness , thy dulness , thy drowsiness , thy coldness , thy carelesness , and thy carnality ; i will suddenly remove thy candlestick , i will soon disperse the flock ; and then , what will become of thee ? who wilt thou feed ? who wilt thou light ? thy talent will then be under a bushel , and not on a candlestick , to give light to those that are in the house . this assertion we may also see made good in or upon private families . that god many times punisheth a people for the misactings of their governours , whether in church , state , or particular families . when abraham was journying into egypt with his wife sarah , being driven thither by a famine , gen. . he said unto sarah his wife , v. , &c. behold now , i know that thou art a fair woman to look upon ; therefore it shall come to pass when the egyptians shall see thee , that they shall say , this is his wife , and they shall kill me , but they will save thee alive ; say i pray thee , thou art my sister , that it may be well with me for thy sake , that my soul may live because of thee . whence by the way we may note ; first , that famine and outward distresses possibly may attend the dearest of gods children ; for we see abraham that friend of god , was driven into egypt by reason that the famine was grievous in the land , v. . and secondly , that the fear of the loss of life , may stand with the nature of true faith ; for abraham the father of the faithful , said , when the egyptians shall see thee , they will say , this is his wife , and they will kill me ; therefore say , thou art my sister . : and paul the apostle , a faithful soul , whose life being laid wait for , was let down by the wall in a basket , acts . . yea , the lord christ himself refused to walk in jury , but walked in galilee , because the jews sought to kill him , john . . but to our matter , upon abrahams saying , that sarah was his sister , vers. . and upon the commendations of sarah to pharaoh by his princes , sarah was taken into pharaohs house , and abraham was well entreated by pharaoh for sarahs sake , v. , . yet the lord plagued pharaoh and his house with great plagues , because of sarah , abrahams wife , v. . pharaoh sins , and that ignorantly too , in taking abrahams wife into his house ; for so saith the text , v. . for pharaoh called abraham , and said , what is this that thou hast done unto me ? why didst thou not tell me she was thy wife ? why saidst thou she is my sister ? so i might have taken her to me to wife . though pharaoh sins , i say , and that ignorantly too , as it is clear he did ; yet his house must be plagued with great plagues . whence by the way , i would have all to take notice , that it is not ignorance that will excuse or shroud , neither the meanest nor the greatest of men , from the sin-revenging hand of god . and secondly , that god takes special care for his faithful ones , so as that he will not respect persons when they evilly entreat them ; for so saith the prophet , psal. . , . he suffered no man to do them wrong ; yea , he reproved kings . for their sake ; saying , touch not mine anointed , and do my prophets no harm . and thus as abraham was travelling towards the south countrey , whilst he so journed in gerar , the lord reproved abimelech also , king of gerar , for his sake , gen. . for abraham ( again ) said of sarah his wife , she is my sister ; and abimelech king of gerar sent and took sarah , v. . but god came to abimelech in a dreame by night , and said unto him , thou art but a dead man , ( a sharp reproof indeed ) and he gives him a reason for his so saying , for the woman ( saith he ) which thon hast taken is a mans wife , v. . yet saith the text , abimelech had not come near her , v. . and abimelech said , lord , wilt thou stay also a righteous nation ? said he not , she is my sister ? and she , even she her self said , he is my brother ; in the integrity of my heart , and innocency of my hands have i done this , v. . and god said unto him in a dream , yea i know that thou didst this in the integrity of thy heart , for i also withheld thee from sinning against me ; therefore suffered i thee not to touch her , v. . whence i would note also by the way ; first , that he who is the searcher of the heart , and tryer of the reins , takes a perfect account of the bent of the spirits of the sons and daughters of men . and secondly ; that accordingly he either restrains souls from sinning against him , or else gives persons up to commit sin with greediness ; for so saith the text , and as they did not like to retain god in their knowledge ; therefore god gave them up to a reprobate mind , rom. . . but this is that in the seventh verse , that makes the assertion good ; now therefore ( saith the lord ) restore the man his wife , for he is a prophet , and he shall pray for thee , and thou shalt live ; and if thou restore her not , know thou , that thou shalt surely die , thou and all that thou hast . the like we may see made good in achans family , josh. . that when achan had taken of the accursed things , that goodly babylonish garment , the silver , and the wedge of gold ; the judgement extended not onely to the punishment of himself , but also to his whole family , and all that was his ; for so saith the text , josh. . . and joshua and all israel with him , took achan the son of zerah , and the silver , and the garment , and the wedge of gold , and his sons , and his daughters , and his oxen , and his asses , and his sheep , and his tent , and all that he had : and v. . they burned them with fire , after they had stoned them with stones . now the lord christ saith , mat. . . that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every truth shall be established ; and i having proved each particular in the assertion by two witnesses at the least ; that god many times punisheth a people for the misactings of their governours , whether in church , state , or particular families . and now , lest i make my lines too numerous , i shall forbear to lay down any reasons of the point ; but shall proceed to some uses that may be for our present benefit . and seeing it is so , that god many times punisheth a people for the misactings of their governours , whether in church , state , or particular families : this then may serve for a use of exhortation to thee , o king , to thee , and to all kings , princes , and governours of nations , pastors , and elders of congregations , and masters of families , as they tender their own good , and the good of those that are under them , that they walk before the lord , and go in and out before their people in singleness of heart , and in the sincerity of their souls , as in the sight of god , having a single-eye to the glory of god , and the good of the souls that are under their charge , carefully watching over all their thoughts , words and actions , so as that they bring not the judgements of god upon their people by their misactings ; and to be often with the lord in prayer , that so they may have his direction and protection in all their enterprises and undertakings , to the comfort of their own souls , and the peace , benefit and well-being of those that are under them . and secondly , this may also serve for a u●… of exhortation to all subjects , though they be pastors , or elders of congregations , and masters of families , as well as members of churches , or children , or servants in particular families , that they be often at the throne of grace in the behalf of their kings , princes and governours ; and in special , that englands subjects be often with the lord in the behalf of their king , who from his long exile and restraint , is brought again into this land of his nativity , which is so full of licentiousnes , luxury and lasciviousness , revilings , rendings and tearings , roarings , rantings and swearings , with those abominations of stage-playes , may-games and pastimes , pride and prodigality , that god in mercy would be pleased to direct his heart so , as that he be not won either to own , or allow of them ; but to disown , diswade and discountenance them : and that god would farther strengthen both his heart and hand , to prosecute that lovely , laudable , prudent , pious , conscientious and christian , that truly noble and most heroick princely proclamation , by him issued forth at his first coming amongst us again , and since by him seconded by another ; that so england , though now even a sink of abominations , may by the good hand of god upon us , by his industry , become as it shall be once said of jerusalem , to be a praise of the whole earth . and that god would direct him so to consider of his holy things , as that he present nothing to god , but what is commanded by god , that so god may not only crown him with a crown of gold here , but also with that crown of glory , which shall never fade away . and that he be thus found rendring to the lord , considering the danger of the neglect thereof . for hezekiah rendered not again according to the benefits bestowed upon him , but his heart was lifted up ; therefore wrath was upon him , and upon judah and jerusalem . and thirdly , this may serve for a use of exhortation , to members of congregations , and children , and servants of particular families ; that they be also constant in this duty of prayer , in the behalf of their respective pastors , elders , fathers or masters , that they may be so directed by divine assistance , that as under their prince , so likewise under them , they may lead a peaceable , a quiet , and a godly life , in all godliness and honesty . and so i shall passe to my third and last teachable conclusion , viz. thirdly , that outward enjoyments do many times so affect the heart of man , as that they lift them up , even to the forgetting of god , to their own ruine . the great jehovah knowing right well the nature of things , as he was the maker of thom ; and the temper of mans heart , as he was the former of it ; when he caused moses to let israel know the particular priviledges they should enjoy in the land of canaan , deut. . he giveth them this caution , v. , , . that when they had eaten and were full , and had built goodly houses , and dwelt therein , when their heards and flocks , their silver and their gold was encreased , that then their heart should not be listed up . but the truth of this assertion we may see verified in belshazzar king of babylon ; for when daniel was sent for to read and interpret the haud-writing on the wall , to belshazzar , dan. . . he said , o king , the most high god gave unto thy father a kingdom , and majesty , and glory , and power ; and for the majesty he gave him , all people , nations and languages trembled and feared before him : whom he would he slew , and whom he would he kept alive ; whom he would he set up , and whom he would he put down ; as thou dost now , o king : but when his heart was lifted up , and his mind hardned in pride , he was deposed from his kingly throne , and they took his glory from him , and he was driven from the sons of men , and his heart was made like the beasts , and his dwelling was with the wild asses , they fed him with grass like oxen , and his body was wet with the dew of heaven , till he knew that the most high ruleth in the kingdom of men , and that he appointeth over it whomsoever he will . whence we may note , that as his heart was lifted up , and his mind hardned in pride , so it was upon the account of his high enjoyments , to the forgetting of god , who dispensed them to him ; which we see was the cause of his casting down . the like we may see in uzziah , chron. . . who after the death of amaziah his father , was made king of judah , and he reigned in jerusalem fifty and two years , and he did that which was right in the fight of the lord : and v. . he fought god in the dayes of zechariah , who had understanding in the visions of god , and as long as he sought the lord , god made him to prosper ; and he went forth and warred against the philistines , and brake down the wall of gath , and the wall of jabneh , and the wall of ashdod ; and god helped him against the philistines , and against the arabians ; and the ammonites gave gifts to him , and his name spread abroad , even to the entring in of egypt ; for he strengthened himself exceedingly , and he built towers , both in jerusalem and in the desert ; and digged many wells , for he had much cattel , both in the law countrey , and in the plains ; husbandmen also , and vine-dressers : moreover , he had an host of fighting men , that went out to war in bands ; his chief men or captains of war , were two thousand and six hundred : and vers. . he made in jerusalem engins of war , made by cunning work-men , to be on the towers , and on the bulwarks , to shoot arrowes and great stones withal ; and his name spread far abroad , for he was marvellously helped , till he was strong : but when he was strong , v. . his heart was lifted up to his destruction ; for he transgressed against the lord his god , and went into the temple of the lord ; and burned incense upon the altar of incense . and he was struck with leprosie , and died without cure . thus whilst uzzia sought the lord , v. . god made him to prosper : but when his heart was lifted up , and he forgat god , god left him , and punished his sin with a disease , that to him proved mortal . whence we note , that when uzziah separates himself from his god , by forgetting him ; god by that leprosie separated him from the priviledges of his house , and the society of men , and from all things that were the cause of his hearts lifting up ; for so saith the text , ver. . and uzzia the king was a leper until the day of his death , and dwelt in a several house , being a leper ; for he was cut off from the house of the lord : and jotham his son was over the kings house , judging the people of the land . and thus we see the lord had a controversie with the prince of tyrus , against whom he gave out a commission to the prophet , ezek. . . saying , son of man , say unto the prince of tyrus , thus saith the lord , because thine heart is lifted up , and thou hast said , i am a god , i sit in the seat of god , in the midst of the seas ; yet thou art a man , and not god , though thou set thine heart as the heart of god . and the reason of the lifting up of his heart is rendred in the fourth and fifth verses , which proves our assertion fully ; for saith vers. . with thy wisdom and with thy understanding thou hast gotten thee riches , and hast gotten gold and silver into thy treasuries . and v. . by thy great wisdom , and by thy traffick hast thou encreased thy riches , and thy heart is lifted up , because of thy riches . v. . behold , therefore i will bring strangers upon thee , the terrible of the nations ; and they shall draw their sword against the beauty of thy wisdom , and they shall defile thy brightness . and v. . they shall bring thee down to the pit , and thou shalt die the deaths of them that are slain in the midst of the seas . and vers. . thou shalt die the death of the uncircumcised , by the hand of strangers ; for i have spoken it saith the lord . thus whilst mens hearts are lifted up , and they forget god in the enjoyment of outward things ; and with the rich man in the gospel , luke . . begin to live to themselves , and to sing a requium to their souls ; the lord we see brings them down with a , thou fool , this night shall they require thy soul from thee . so that we see the point also fully proved . viz. that outward enjoyments , many times do so affect the heart of man , as that they lift it up even to the forgetting of god , to their own ruine . several uses might be made hereof , the which for brevity sake i shall here omit . and shall onely this say , that we see by common experience , that they that are hunger-bit , when they come to their full of diet , they run upon it with greediness , like israel of old , sam. . . who flew upon the spoil , and took sheep and oxen , and calves , and slew them on the ground , and the people did eat them with the blood : which was contrary to the law of god , and which became their sin . even so hunger-bit souls many times eat with that eagerness , that they do not onely sin in their excess , but also surfeit themselves to the loss of their lives . this then may serve for a use of caution to thee , o king , that of a long time hast been a stranger to this land of thy nativity , and hast been forced to wander from one kingdom to another nation , from one language to another people , in penury and want ; and now being come to three kingdoms of thine own , flowing with milk and honey , and yet abounding in all manner of excess of riot ; let me caution thee in the fear of the lord , that thou surfeit not thy self upon the profits nor pleasures thereof ; nor , let thy men of valour , neither domestick nor forreign , that are lately come over to thy assistance , cause thee to put thy confidence in an arm of flesh ; lest thy heart be lifted up , and so thou forget thy god to thine own ruine : neither surfeit thy self with too much blood-shed , lest thou make thy self blood-guilty , and so god begin a new inquisition ; but rather shew pitty and compassion , love and lenity , and rather lament than launce ; and rather triumph over the killing thy corruptions than thy subjects ; and resolve to refer thy will to the lord , who saith , uengeance is mine , and i will repay it , rom. . . i would here be understood in a good sence ; for i do not desire the obstruction of the due administration of justice , but that it may be so administred , that mercy may be intermixed therewith ; and also that relenting and sobriety , and not exaltation and inhumanity , be in the execution . for i know , that it is an ordinance of god ; for magistrates are set up for the punishment of evil doers , rom. . , . for the law is not made for the righteous man , but for the lawless and disobedient , for the ungodly and for sinners , for unholy and prophane , for murtherers of fathers , and murtherers of mothers , for man-slayers , for whoremongers , and for them that defile themselves with man-kind , for man-stealers , for lyars and perj●…red persons , or any thing else that is contrary to sound doctrine , tim. . , . and seeing the apostle saith , that in many things we offend all , james . . for if we say we have no sin , we deceive our selves , and the truth is not in us , joh. . . o then , be perswaded to bring thy self to the bar of gods justice , and there arraign , judge , and condemn thy self ; for , saith our apostle , cor. . . if we would judge our selves , we should not be judged ; but when we are judged , we are chastened of the lord , that we should not be condemned with the world . and this , o king , is the readiest way i know of , to render duely to god , and to keep thy heart from being lifted up , that so wrath fall not upon thee and thy kingdoms . i beseech thee then in the fear of the great jehovah , consider what i say ; and the lord in mercy make thee wise ; that as thou art an heir to a crown of gold here , so thou mayest he made partaker of that crown of righteousness which never fadeth away ; which , saith the apostle , the lord the righteous judge shall give to 〈◊〉 at that day , and not to 〈◊〉 onely , but unto all them also that love his appearan●…e , tim. . . and so , o king , let thy soul in the singleness , thereof eccho with mine , and say , even so , come lord iesus , come quickly . a declaration of a small society of baptized believers , undergoing the name of free-willers , about the city of london . we well knowing , that we are and have been mis-represented to the people of this and other nations , as well by particular letters from friend to friend , as by publick intelligence in pamphlets and news-books , by which means we have been rendred odious in the eyes almost of all , and , as it were , made a by-word , and a hissing to all ; were notwithstanding willing , according to the requirement of our saviour , luke . . in our patience to possesse our souls , and silently to wait upon our god , for a clearing of our innocency , and the cleannesse of our hands in his eye-sight : but lately having had a view of a declaration , dated the th , of december last , made by some persons of the particular judgment , in which some others of another perswasion have joyned , to the which in severall particulars we cannot in the least assent ; we therefore thought it our bounden duty for the vindication of that truth , which we are in present profession and practice of , as also fearing lest they having declared to publick view , we by our silence should be looked upon , either to be of the same judgment with them in what they have declared , or else guilty of all or some of those five particulars they in that declaration say the baptists in general are charged withall ; have therefore set pen to paper , and shall first give a particular of the said five charges , and then , as in the presence of god , lay down our real judgments , and perswasions , grounded upon scripture record , to those charges ; by which it will be apparent that we are not guilty of them at all , and that we differ from the said declarers in point of judgment ; and if we shall in any thing therein derogate from the minde of god , we shall desire in the spirit of love to be rectified by better judgments , from the word of truth , and shall think our selves happy gainers in such a christian reproof . say they , we being mis-represented to the nation ; . as such as are opposite to magistracy . . that we would destroy the publick ministry of the nation , who differ from us in some things about religion , . that we do countenance the people called quakers , in their irregular practice . . that we do endeavour a toleration of all miscarriages , in things ecclesiastical and civil , under pretence of liberty of conscience . . that we desire to murther and destroy those that differ from us in matters of religion . to the first , we positively say , that we are so far from opposing magistracy , as that it would be to us matter of great rejoycing to know who were our magistrates : but farr greater to see such set up who are men fearing god , and hating covetousness , that so 〈◊〉 might be duly executed without respect of persons , and judgment 〈◊〉 down like water , and righteousness like a mighty stream ; that so there might be no more leading into captivity , & that complaining in our streets might have an end : but for our parts to take a carnal weapon in our hands or use the least violence either to support or pull down the worst ▪ or to set up or maintain the best of men , we look not upon it to be our duty in the least ; much lesse to have a thought of endeavouring to set up our selves , either directly or indirectly ; for were we abilitated and furnished with such endowments as might render us capable of being rulers , yet could we not allow our selves to act as magistrates , because we are a people chosen out of the world , john . . and look upon ou●… selves as pilgrims and strangers in the earth , heb. . . pet. . . but this we know to be the mind of god , from rom. . the beginning , pet. . . tit. . . that we are to be subject to , and not to resist the powers , because they be ordained of god ; and as god sets them up , so he requires his sons and daughters to render to them tribute , custom , fear and honour , romans . . and we further declare , that it is our bounden duty i●…obedience to our god , to pray for kings , and all that are in authority , ●…tim . . . so that we are so far from opposing them , as that we say it is our duty to obey them , in all civil things that are agreeable to the mind of god ; and if they shall require any thing from us that is contrary to his mind and will , revealed in his holy scriptures of truth , we say we are not to resist them ; but if in conscience we cannot obey them , then we are patiently to suffer under them , whatever they shall inflict upon us for our non-obedience to their requirements : and to this we yet further declare , that it is our real judgment , as to things spiritual , not to own them as our law-givers in the least , for there is one law-giver which is able to save , and to destroy , jam. . . which is the lord , isa. . . and therefore , if they shall at any time impose upon us laws in point of worship , that is , either to worship a false god , or the true god after a false manner , we by gods assistance shall tell them with shadrach , meshach , and abednego , dan. . . that we are not carefull to answer them in that matter , yet shall not violently resist , but with them patiently suffer under them , as aforesaid . to the second , that we would destroy the publick ministry of the nation , that differ from us in some things about religion ; we do declare , that if there be a destruction intended between us , we must leave it at their doors , and desire them to judge between the all-seeing god , the searcher of all hearts , and their own consciences , what they have intended by their so often pressing parliament men , from time to time , for a suppression of all that are not of their judgment in matters of religion : and upon search made , if they find themselves guilty of a desire of any such destruction to us , we shall beg them in gods fear , to break off that evil by timely repentance , and make their peace with god ; as for our parts , we are so far from desiring any revenge against them , or any other that shal desire or endeavour our ruine , as that in the presence of god , we shall rather pitty than envy them , and according to the requirement of our law-giver , mat. . . pray for them , and their conversion , not at all in the least desiring or , endeavouring their confusion . that there are many things wherein the publick ministry of the nation and we differ , in matters of religion , both in doctrine and discipline , is very clear ; and that we designe or so much as desire the destruction of them , or any other persons whatsoever , for such differences , or any other matters concerning our selves , we hope in our further answer to this , and to the fourth and fifth particulars , we shall manifest to be as clear ; and also therein discover our selves to be the peaceable lambs of christ ▪ john . . the great shepherd and bishop of our souls , pet. . . pet. . heb. . . who doth require us to learn of him , for he is lowly and meek , matth. . . yet notwithstanding , we do declare , when or wherever some of us shall conveniently meet with any of them , either in private or in publick , we shall resolve ( god assisting ▪ us ) to contend earnestly with them , for the faith once delivered to the saints , according to that exhortation of the spirit of god by his apostle , jude . and 〈◊〉 them , and all oppositions , and 〈◊〉 whatsoever , as good 〈◊〉 of jes●… chri●… , ti●… . , . fight the good fight of faith , tim. . . in which combate we are confident , we neither shall hazard life , nor draw blood ; for through mercy we can say , with our apostle , cor. . , . that though we live in the flesh , yet w●… war not after the flesh , for the weapons of our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not carnal . to the third , that we 〈◊〉 the peopl●… called quakers in their irregular practice . to this we answer , and god is o●… witness , we lie not , that we are so far from countenancing the quakers , or our selves in any irregular practice , as that if we our selves be found i●… any such actings , we shall not violen●…ly oppose , but patiently subject to such penalties as the breach of such lawes calls for : it would have been well , if the afsertors had declared wherein this irregular practice doth consist , that so we might have given a more particular answer ; yet we hope by what hath and shall be declared , it will be easily judged , that w●… for our parts are no such people as the baptists generally are reported , and some ●…hew themselves to be . to the fourth , that we endeavo●…r a tolleration of all misc●…riages in things ecclesiastical and civil , under 〈◊〉 of liber●…y of conscience ▪ if by endeavouring a tolleration of all miscarriages in things ecclesiastical , the assertors intend amongst our selves in our own assembles : we shall answer them , as in the presence of god , the searcher of all hearts ; that we are so far from any such toleration , as that we at this very day go under a reproach by that people we formerly walked withal , because in the reallity of our souls , and the integrity of our hearts , we cannot allow of some things , that we judge to be of that nature amongst them ; we well knowing , that the lord christ requires a perfect observation of , and a universal obedience to all things whatsoever he commanded , mat. . . and that as well to what hath been laid down by his apostles , given in by the incomes of that spirit that was to lead them into all truth , and to shew them things to come , iohn . . which are also the commands of christ , cor. . . as to those that were laid down by himself , iohn . , . so that we positively say , that if we shall allow of any miscarriages either in doctrine or discipline amongst our selves , to 'thwart the mind of christ revealed in his scriptures of truth , we can expect no better answer from him , than a proclamation of our worship to be a vain worship , as once he declared against the jews , matth. . . and therefore if miscarriages rise amongst us , we are to bring such miscarriages to the the touch-stone of gods word , and so weigh them in the ballance of the sanctuary , and finding them either too heavy or too light , that is , either adding or diminishing from or to the mind of christ , we are the●… to repair to those wholsome lawes left us in scripture record , for the regulating of such miscarriages , according to the 〈◊〉 of them , as they are private or publick , or more or less in their several agravations ; and as they are committed by persons standing in such o●… such relations : we say the more of this , because most persons think , and many do not stick to say , that we live and act in things ecclesiastical , as libertines , and without church-government , because we withdraw our selves from the publick assemblies ; but did such persons rightly consider , what the discipline of the ministry of the nation is , in their parochial assemblies , who professe themselves to be the true spouse and church of christ , and compare it with the mind of christ revealed in the scriptures of truth , who gives law●… to his church , which is that body of which he himself is the head , ephes. . . . . col. . . . . they would then finde themselves to be the libertines , and not we ; and therefore we shall earnestly desire all that are unacquainted with the true discipline of the church of christ , well to weigh , and seriously to consider these statute laws of christ , in that case provided , tim. . . tim. . , . ephes. . . matth. . . tim. . , , . tim. . . tim. . . tit. . . thes. . . thes. . . cor. . , , . the which , as we will answer the contrary at the great day of account , we dare not in the least wilfully violate or neglect . but if by miscarriage●… in things ecclesiastical , they mean that we endeavour a tolleration of all miscarriages amongst them in their assemblies , we shall in the presence of god clear our selves and say , we have nothing at all to do with them , in such matters ; for we say , they are without as to us , cor. . , . and so we look upon our selves to be as to them : and if any one shall seem to be troubled at this term without , and object and say , that we are all the creation of god , and what need these expressions of , stand at a distance , i am more holy than you ; to such ●…e shall answer in the spirit of love and meeknesse , and god is our witnesse without ostentation , that it is true , all the sons and daughters of adam are the sons and daughters of god by creation , but few by regeneration and adoption , for many are called , but few are chosen , matth , . . for not the hear●…rs of the law , but the doors shall be justified , rom. . . and not every one that saith , lord , lord , shall enter into the kingdome of heaven , but he that doth the will of the father , matth. . . we well know , that many will say , these are hard sayings , and cannot well bear them ; but to such we shall give a direction in our post-s●…ript , where from one of us they may expect , and we hope also find good satisfaction as to the tearm without . that we own liberty of conscience we confesse ; but under that or any other pretence ; to endeavour a toleration of any miscarriages , either in things ecclesiastical , or civil , we have given ( we hope ) full satisfaction ; for seeing it is the will of our master , to have the tares and the wheat grow together till the harvest , matth. . . and that our heavenly father doth exercise his long-suffering to the whole bulk of man-kind , not willing that any should perish , but that all should come to repentance , pet. . . we look upon it to be our duty to follow god , as dear children , and thus to walk in love , ephes. . , . and therefore are like-minded , having the same love , phil. . . and therefore do further declare , that we are as free , that all others should enjoy their liberties , as we our selves , of what judgment soever they be ; we well knowing , that some are called at the eleve●…th hour , as well as at the first and third , matth. . , . and had the apostle paul ▪ been plucked up whilst he was a tare , a persecutor , a blasphemer , tim. . . and the chief of sinners , v. he had never been such choyce wheat , to satisfie , refresh , enable , enliven , inlighten , encourage , build up , and instruct , correct , and reprove the building of god ; cor. . . the house of god , heb ▪ . . the houshold of god , ephes. . . the sons and daughters of god , cor. . . nor that body of which christ is the head , col. . . and therefore we cannot but say again , that we are as free that all others should enjoy their liberties in the things of god , as we our selves ; we well knowing , that every one must give an account of himself to god , rom. . . for every one shall receive the things done in the body , according to what they have done , whether it be good or bad , cor. . . matth. . , . but either to procure or maintain our own or others liberties by force of armes , or the least violence , we can find no warrant from the scriptures of truth in the least , which is that only and alone rule that we walk by , for all the remedy that we find there recorded is , that if they persecute us in one city , we may flee into another ; and this we see acted by our saviour himself , john . . and by his parents , matth. . . and the apostle peter , acts . . and saint paul , acts . , . cor. . . and to follow our master , and to tread in the footsteps of the flock of god gone before us , we judge it very safe ; but to resist by force of armes , or use the least violence , we judge unwarrantable . to the fift and last particular , that we would murther and destroy those that differ from us in matters of religion . to this we cannot but answer , that so to do we judge were not so much as common humanity , much less religion or christianity ; but our religion is , pure and undefiled before god and our father , which is , to visit the fatherless and widdows , not to make fatherless & widdows ; and to visit them in their afflictions , not to murther and destroy their relations , to bring them under afflictions : but to this we further answer , that this and the th particular we judg seem to contradict one another , for murthering and destroying for difference in matters of religion , and liberty of conscience cannot stand together , nor in the eye of reason can they be charged against one and the same persons ; for murthering and destroying for difference in matters of religion , destroyes liberty of conscience ; and liberty of conscience swallows up and drowns murthering , and destroying for difference in matters of religion ; so that it argues , that the assertors of these things are yet in babylon , and confusion , with those our apostle writ of , in tim. . . not knowing well what they say , nor whereof they do affirm ; yet notwithstanding seeing we are therewith charged , in order to the discharging our selves of this confused burthen , we shall in the singleness of our souls yet farther discover our real judgments , as to the main intent of the charge , which is murthering and destroying ; and add this further , that we read of a threefold sword in scripture . . the sword of the spirit , which is the word of god , ephes. . . . the sword of justice , which is the magistrates sword , rom. . . the sword of steel , usually so called , which is the sword of slaughter , isa. . . ezek. . , . the first of these we are required to take to us , and put on , ephes. . , , . and thus to be strong in the lord , and in the power of his might , whose might was evidenced once , again and again , by using this sword skilfully , matth. . , , . for it is mighty through god , to the pulling down of strong holds , casting down imaginations , and every high thing , that exalteth it self against the knowledg of god , and bringing into captivity , &c. and having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience , cor. . , , . and is profitable for doctrine , for reproof , for correction , for instruction in righteousness , that the man of god may be perfect , thorowly furnished unto all good works , tim. . , . for we wrastle not with flesh and blood , but against principalities , powers , the rulers of the d●…kness of this world , ephess. . . . not for nor against the magistrates , parliaments , nor armies of the world , the best of whose strength is flesh and not spirit , who shall be destroyed together , isa. . , , . mat. . . as for the sword of justice , or the magistrates sword , we are to be subject to it , as we have fully declared , and not to resist it , which sword takes revenge on no man before he be apprehended , charged , heard , and by good evidence convicted , and sentence according to the fact proved , given , and then an immediate commission given to an executioner , according to the fact and sentence , for the putting this sword in execution . but the sword of slaughter , without examination or due consideration , is many times put in execution to the slaying and destroying of friends as well as enemies ; witness those slaughters , and woundings in this city , in the late insurrection . and for our acting in this sword , we can find no warrant from scriptures in the least , for that sword being once procured by peter , and another of the disciples , and that by an immediate commission from christ , the work being finished for which it was intended , we find an immediate and peremptory command for the sheathing it again ; and this reason rendred from the lip of truth it self , for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword , matth. . . for whosoever will save his life shall lose it , matth. . . and we find no tolleration in holy writ to the people of god for the drawing it again in the least , neither by precept or example . but lest this countermand should not be looked upon to be a sufficient warrant for its continuance in its place , by the people of god for the time to come , the lord christ , amongst several other weighty things , sent to the seven churches in as●…a , and in them to us , by john the revelator , is not backward to remind them , and us in them of it again , as a matter of no small concernment ; and ( as we judg ) lest it should not be taken so much notice of by us in this our day , as he would have it , he bringeth it in , in the midst of a discourse , not long before the rise of the man of sin , when one of the heads of the beast is wounded , as it were to death , and that deadly wound was healed , rev. . . intimating thus much , as we apprehend , that as kingly power hath had a wound in these nations , even as it were unto death , so we know , that the design of god shall be brought about , and the scriptures must be fulfilled , for that deadly wound shall be healed , rev. . . and we finding the spirits of the generality of the people of the three nations very high in this juncture of time , in the behalf of kingly government , like israel of old , sam : , so that by the face of things , as they appear to us in this last change , we do discern , as through a glasse darkly , that the deadly wound is now going to be healed , although we do really judge , that several that are in present eminent power , intend no such thing , no more then the jews in the crucifying of christ , intended the bringing the great design , and fore-appointment of god about , acts . . by all which we judge , that caution was intended chiefly to us upon whom the ends of the world is come ; and lest we should not be so mindful of our duties as he would have us , he makes as it were a proclamation , to bespeak our better attention to what he intendeth , & saith , rev. . , . he that hath an ear to hear let him hear ; he that leadeth into captivity , shall go into captivity ; he that killeth with the sword , shall be killed with the sword . here is the faith and patience of the saints , that whilest others are leading into captivity , and killing with the sword , to pull down , or set up this or that power , man , or government ; to give a deadly wound to kingly power , or to heal that deadly wound again , that then the people of god should in their patience possess their souls , and in the midst of these revolutions , exercise their faith , as once that prophet did , hab. . . and faithfully to depend upon god for his preservation and protection , keeping themselves pure and undefiled from leading into captivity , or killing with the sword , lest they themselves be led into captivity , & killed by the sword ; thereby evidencing themselves to be the peaceable flock of christ , chosen out of the world , joh. . . and following their master the lord and prince of peace , isa. . . thes. . . being regulated by his requirements in the gospel of peace , romans . . ephesians . . having received from the god of peace , rom. . . rom. . . cor. . . that spirit , whose fruits is love , joy , peace , long-suffering , gentleness , goodness , faith , meckness and temperance , against which there is no law ; that as they are christs , so they should evidence that they have crucified the flesh with the affections and iusts , gal. . , , . but lust being not crucified , it breaks forth into wars and fightings ; for when men lust and have not , then they kill and desire to have , james . , . and when the people of god shall act thus , the spirit of god brands them with those ignominious names of adulterers , and adulteresses , informing them , that what they are fighting for , is enmity against god ; and that if they obtain it , they are enemies to god , james . . and we well knowing , that whilest we are friends to the world , we are enemies to god ; dare not in the least have to do in the world , so as to set up our selves , or to side with any , either in setting up , or pulling down ; and how can a mans love to the world be evidenced more , than in venturing his life for it ? according to that saying of our saviour , john . . and we further declare , that as we are to be a peaceable people upon the account of action , so we look upon it to be our duty , to keep our selves from oaths , engagements , and covenants , either for or against this or that person , government , or persons whatsoever : for because of sweaping the land mourneth , jerem. . . for the lord hath a controversie with the inhabitants of the land , because there is no truth , nor mercy , nor knowledge of god in the land ; for by swearing , and lying , and killing , and stealling , and committing adultery , they break forth , and bloud toucheth bloud , saith the prophet , hos. . , , . and saith the same prophet , hos. . , . they have spoken words , swearing falsly , in making a covenant ; thus judgement springeth up as hemlock in the furrows of the field ; and we not knowing what the cabinet counsel of god is in this our day , upon the account of government , dare not in the least have so much as a thought to engage in any such thing , lest we be found fighters against god ; according to the saying of gamaliel , though in another case , acts. . . and therefore do declare our resolution herein , that we shall not ( god assisting us ) enter into any engagement whatsoever , upon any such account ; yet shall this say again , that we shall not violently resist the imposers of any such engagements , but shall patiently suffer the penalty of our non-obedience , as aforesaid . and we further declare , as in the presence of god , who is the searcher of all hearts , that as it hath been some of our great trouble for a long time , to see some of those that are in the same faith and order with us , so acting ; so it is now become even an overwhelming burthen upon our souls , to see them generally running such a precipitant course ; by which actings of theirs , the mouths almost of all men are opened against them , and that truth they profess , most ignominiously branded and reproached . and therefore we further declare , that in the sight of god , angels , and men , that we bear our testimony against them in their present actings , and cannot stand by them , nor have communion with them therein , nor with those that strengthen their hands in standing by them ; and must tell them in the words of our savior , luke . . that they know not what spirit they are of ; for , the son of man ( their master ) came not to destroy mens lives , but to save them . the premises considered , we shall appeal to the judgement of all rational men , whether we are guilty of what we are charged withal , or not ; yet if they shall still go on notwithstanding to use us reproachfully , for the name of christ , we shall be so far from endeavouring or desiring a revenge , as that in the words of christ , we shall in our requests at the throne of grace , cry out and say , father , forgive them , they know not what they do . post-script . forasmuch , as the said declarers , in their answer to the first particular in their declaration , do call the independants and presbyterians their christian friends ; the which , however it is they so complement with them , yet in reality ( we judge ) they cannot own them as such upon a scripture account ; as also , because one mr. william alleyn , in a book lately by him published , intituled , a retractation to separation : in which book , in the whole currant of it , all the scriptures that he brings which were written by the immediate directions and incomes of the holy spirit of god , to the churches , as they were in the faith and order of the gospel , he applyeth to , and also for , and in the behalf of episcopals , independants , and presbyterians , who are opposite both to the doctrine and discipline of those churches , he intending thereby to perswade us , if possible , to a belief , that they are the true and visible members of that body , of which christ is the head ; the which book , by gods assistance , is intended suddenly to be answered by one of our society , who resolveth to entitle it , the retractators work , scaned ; or , the conceptions and supposals of mr. w. alleyn , regulated by scripture record : in which , with other things , a gospel-believer , or a true church of christ , upon a gospel account , is intended to be stated ; the which is hoped will be so plain , that it may prove instrumental to the undeceiving of some that are under a deceipt , by means of that , and such deceitful discourses as that is ; in which answer it is farther hoped , that those that are unsatisfied with our tearm without , in our answer in our declaration to the fourth particular , may receive also good satisfaction ; and in the mean time we desire all to take notice ; that though we thus speak , yet we have good thoughts of those friends that go under those denominations , and do own them , and all others , of all other opinions whatsoever , in union , so far as they own god , christ , and their truths ; but to own the best of men to be members of that body , of which christ is the head , and so to have communion with them , either to make them our mouth in prayer to god for us , or gods mouth in speaking forth his truths to us , or in breaking of bread at the table of the lord , we cannot own them in the least ; our reasons , we hope , will be fully laid down in the answer to the said book . henry adis . richard pilgrim . abel hutchins . william cox. in behalf of themselves , and those that walk with them . london : re-printed by s. dover , in christophers alley , in martins near aldersgate , . and formerly printed the th day of the th month , heathenishly called in honour to their god janus , january , . som free reflections upon occasion of the public discourse about liberty of conscience and the consequences thereof in this present conjuncture in a letter to a friend / by one who cordially imbraces whatsoever there is of tru religion in al professions, and hates every thing which makes any of them hate or hurt one another. penn, william, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; 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(eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) som free reflections upon occasion of the public discourse about liberty of conscience and the consequences thereof in this present conjuncture in a letter to a friend / by one who cordially imbraces whatsoever there is of tru religion in al professions, and hates every thing which makes any of them hate or hurt one another. penn, william, - . p. printed, and sold, by andrew sowle ..., london : . attributed to penn by wing and nuc pre imprints. 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ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng liberty of conscience. dissenters, religious -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - john latta sampled and proofread - john latta text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion som free reflections upon occasion of the public discourse about liberty of conscience , and the consequences therof in this present conjuncture . in a letter to a friend . by one who cordially imbraces whatsoever there is of tru religion in al professions , and hates every thing which makes any of them hate or hurt one another . licenced august the th . . london , printed , and sold , by andrew sowle , at the crooked-billet in holloway-lane in shoreditch , and at the three keys in nags-head-court in grace-church-street , over-against the conduit , . som free reflections , &c. dear sir , the information you gave me upon my first arrival here of the great ferment that is now raised in mens mindes by the kings late declaration for liberty of conscience ; and the counsel you were pleased to giv me therupon for my own conduct , that i should be cautious in asserting any opinions contrary to the currant stream of the times ; this information , and this counsel , i say , were so prudent and so friendly that i acknowledg my self obliged to you for them , and therfore i now return you my hearty thanks . i know not how you came to imagin that such a precaution was necessary for me , who have been so long a stranger to my own country , and by consequence , who am not much wedded to any of those particular factions , that have this long while miserably divided it . but i must confess to you , that so it is . the news i had heard of that declaration abroad , had been so pleasing to me , as seeming the only possible cure for those unhappy divisions , that without your previous advice i should have been astonished at the dislike i have heard exprest of it by many of my best friends ; and perhaps not able therupon to refrain from opposing them , so directly as might have lost me their esteem and friendship which i am very desirous to conserv . wel , it is to you then that i ow the obligation of some prudent reservedness , which i have yet maintained in all occasions of converse about public concerns , during these eight or ten days that i have been here : and it is to you therfore that i am now resolved to address my self for further directions . such a reservedness has indeed in it a prudence which self interest wil always exhort unto : but when the matter is of public and great concernment , so narrow a confinement seems unsuitable to the generous principle of universal charity , wfiich the christian religion insites us unto . that principle , you know , is apt to move me when occasions seem to require it . and therfore that i may not er in my general aim of contributing towards the public good , i desire you to weigh with me those considerations which have rendred the prospect of a general liberty of conscience so pleasing to me ; that i may , upon your better advice , either propagate or stifle them , as shal appear most consonant to my duty . the thing in it self is so agreeable to the nature of mankind , and to the particular laws of the truly primitive christian religion , that it is much to be wondered how so sociable a creature as man is , and so meek a creature as a christian ought to be , should have ever infringed such an excellent rule . can any thing be more reasonable than for every man to allow unto another that liberty which he desires for himself ? can any thing be more peaceable than that principle , which , allowing such a liberty , dos therby take away the occasion of bitterest contention ? the very light of nature directed the wise heathens unto it , during som thousands of years ; insomuch that whatever other differences hapned among them , upon account of civil interest , their societies were never disturbed by the disagreement of their conceptions in matters of religious speculation . the jews , who had greater reason than any other nation to set a high valu upon their own law , as having received it by an extraordinary ministration , yet nevertheless attempted not to force any one to a compliance therwithal , who lay not under the same conviction as themselves . the primitive christians , who reasonably may be supposed to have had the truest sense of their great master's instructions ; were so far from inculcating any principles of persecution , that they exclaimed against the practice of it , as the greatest mark of that antichristianism which had been ▪ fore-told them was to spring up in the world. the arguments with which this principle of liberty , or toleration , has been defended ar many and strong . but it would be very superfluous in me to insist upon them unto you , who have seen and heard them repeated of late years in a thousand forms , and who i know ar your self ▪ convinced of the natural equitableness of the thing , not withstanding al the inconveniencys that you have represented to me in its practice . i wil therfore ad only one reason for it , which seems to me invincible , and then pass to the consideration of those inconveniencys , which is my main design . i say then that the establishing of any religious perswasion by force is unreasonable , because indeed it is impossible . the minde of man is not capable of receiving any conviction but either by sensible proof , or rational demonstration . blows and torments may force an outward complyance , but they cannot work any change in the heart ; and therfore , neither can any such forced complyance be acceptable to god , because 't is only the heart that he looks after . thus then it is evident that al the effect of any forcible imposition in religion , in those that ar so forced , can be nothing but hypocrisie ; and consequently that nothing can be more unjust , nor more ridiculously absurd than to attempt the establishment of any religion by such like means . let it be therfore concluded between you and me , as i know it is , that no man has right to impose upon another in matters purely religious ; which is to say , that every man has right in those matters to enjoy his own liberty . and now let us examine what advantages or inconveniencys may arise from that liberty in the present conjuncture of affairs in england ; and consequently , whether a prudent and an honest man ought sincerely to wish for it , and contribute unto it , in such opportunities as providence puts into his hands , or no. that is the very question which now concerns me , and therfore i wil endeavor to lay it before you as plainly and as impartially , as i can . the liberty of conscience now aimed at in england , in the ordinary discourse of people , implys no less than the change of our laws ; and that especially in those two important heads , the penalties imcumbent upon dissenters , and the test for the discovery of dissenters . these have been looked upon by som as the bulwarks of our security ; and therfore it is not much to be wondred if the discourse of their removal dos alarum those mens mindes . nevertheless if it be considered how little security those things have been unto us , how little rest they have procured us ; nay on the contrary , what discontent and murmuring , what contests and factions they have raised and fomented among us ; i say , if this be considered , methinks the ground of mens present apprehensions should in a great measure be taken away . what good is it , in truth , that those laws have don us ? they have not hindred the spreading of any fanciful opinions among the different sects into which we ar divided . but they have rendred al those sectaries discontented , inclined them to sedition and rebellion , and therby made the government it self uneasy and unsecure . this is plain matter of fact , most evidently visible to every one that dos not wilfully blinde himself . why therfore should any one be alarumed at the change of those laws which we have experienced to be so insignificant , not to say so contrary unto the very ends for which they were established ? and why should not we al much rather rejoyce at the prospect of this new experiment of liberty , which affords more lively hopes of stable comfort ? truly the design appears to me so plausible , that i cannot conceiv any thing but interest capable to blinde mens mindes in the consideration of it . but to that supposition of mine it may perhaps be here replyed with confidence ; that it is indeed interest which causes the reluctancy we ar speaking of , and that their interest being such , it is fitting men should maintain it , and oppose al innovations contrary therunto : for this they think sufficiently , authorized by that fundamental maxim , of salu● populi , &c. which affirms the peoples interest to be the supremest law. this maxim indeed i allow to be unquestionably just ; and if their application of it to this case be so too , we must acknowledg they have reason , and joyn with them . but if , on the contrary , the continuance of the test and penalties be only the interest of a very smal part of the nation , and that the general interest of the whole lys in the liberty now designed , then wil the force of their main artillery be found pointed against themselves , and their argument easily destroyed . it is necessary therfore to consider whose interest it is to introduce this liberty , and whose to oppose it ; that we may judg which of the two is the most general . but that judgment is so easy , that no man can be long in suspense about it . the whole body of dissenters from the church of england , however subdivided and distinguished in other things , ar al united & comprehended in that common cause . they have al been straitned , persecuted and oppressed ; and therfore nothing can be more natural than for them to desire liberty and ease . now this collective body of the several dissenters is manifestly greater than the church of england alone . but besides these , it is also evident that a great part of the church of england it self , i dar boldly say the best part of it , those learned and rational divines , i mean , who have somtimes by opprobry been termed latitudinarians , ( tho in truth , the word sound nothing but honorable ) those have always declared themselvs of moderate principles , their interest lys also evidently in moderation and forbearance , because they ar no less hated by the severer sort of their own brethren than even the disienters themselvs ; and the people that have been influenced by their doctrin is so numerous , that the remaining strict and narrow-spirited church-of - england-men , whose interest ingages them to maintain their own priviledges by infringing the just rights of their neighbours ; this remaining number , i say , is so smal in comparison of the whole body of the nation , that it is even ridiculous for them to build their pretences upon the forementioned maxim , which in effect is directly contrary therunto . now if this be so indeed , that liberty of conscience is not only the right of every particular man , but also the general interest of the whole nation , methinks no man ought any longer to be a shamed of , or alarumed at the project of it ; but rather every honest man ought to contribute his endeavours that it may succeed . yes , may somday , if it were only liberty of conscience that were pretended to , there could be little objected against it : nay , it must be confest that the bent of the nation that way is now so strong , that the most part would freely enough consent to the abolishing of those penal laws which have hitherto restrained it . but , say they , that is not al. those that design the abolishing of the penal laws , do at the same time design to take away the test , and therby not onely to permit the exercise of the roman catholic religion , but also , to admit roman catholics into a share of our government ; which , they ad , is a consideration wholly of a different nature from that of meer liberty of conscience , and the practice wherof would be very unpolitic . this is the objection that makes the great cry in this conjuncture . those that endeavour to introduce liberty of conscience aim also to take away the test : those that would take away the test ar secret if not open papists : and both the one and the other , under pretence of liberty of conscience , ar betrayers of the tru libertys and fundamental laws of their country . with this cry many modest and honest men ar born down , and silenced . and indeed it requires more than ordinary courage and strength to bear up against so impetuous a torrent . but when all is don , truth and reason ar able to bear up against any thing : and therefore i will now examin impartially whether they be found on the side of these objectors , or of the forementioned patrons of liberty . two things especially ar here to be inquired into . first , whether the test , as it is by law imposed upon roman catholics , be really an intrenchment upon the natural and just liberty of their consciences , or whether indeed it be a meer political thing of a different nature , without any relation therunto . and in the next place , whether the taking away of that test may probably prove advantagious or prejudicial to the general interest of the nation . upon these two considerations lys the stress of this whole debate . now to the first , i must needs affirm that in my opinion the imposing of that test is a thing of a mixt nature . it is indeed political , because the design of it is to exclude the roman catholics from public imployment : but it is also religious , because it makes their opinion in religion the condition of that exclusion : and therefore it can in no wise be said to be of so different a nature from the liberty of conscience we are speaking of , as to have no relation at al therunto . on the contrary , i conceiv not how any one can doubt it to be an infringement of that liberty . for those imployments being not hereditary , the way to them is by nature open to every man , according as his capacity and other circumstances may fit him for them . now if a person otherwise duly qualified for such an imployment ▪ which might inable him and his family to live in ease and comfort , shall by reason of some opinion in religious matters be excluded from that imployment , and therby exposed to penury and hardship ; this indeed is not a direct putting that person to death for that opinion , but it is a taking away from him that talent which nature or industry had given him as a provision for the comfort of his life . and can any one now say that such a practice is not a burden or a snare to that mans conscience ? what real difference is there , i beseech you , whether the laws of the land do authorise a minister of justice to oppress and torment a man for his opinion , or that they cast the man himself into such circumstances that his own necessities do the same thing ? surely there is none at al. it is as clear therfore as noon day that the imposing of this test is a straitning of the natural and just liberty of such a persons conscience . and therfore whoever dos acknowledg in general that liberty of conscience is a right of nature and of christianity , as hath before been hinted , must in particular acknowledg that the test is unwarrantable , because it is an evident infringement therof . now the far greater part of the nation , at this day , seeming inclin'd , by that reason , to the abolishing of penal laws ; if they would act consonantly to their own principles , they ought , for the same reason , to desire the abolishing of the test also . this point being once gained , that the imposing of this or any other such like test , in matters of religion , is an infringment of our natural and christian liberty , the remaining considerations that ar urged in favor of it , ought not to be of any great weight with upright and honest-minded men. tho som advantage might be pretended to be found in the doing of it , we ought not for any advantage to transgress so fundamental a law. we must not sin that grace may abound . we must not do evil that good may ensue . those ar known precepts ; and if they were attended to , this debate might here be ended . but interest , interest , is a strange thing . people ar possest with an opinion that the admitting of roman catholics into a share of our government is against the interest of the nation : and therefore they still think they ar bound to oppose it , per fas & nefas . i must therfore go on still further , in examining now whether the extending of liberty of conscience so far as i have shown that it ought to go , viz. to the taking away of the test , and by consequence to the admitting roman catholics into publick offices , be contrary to the general interest of the nation or no. that we may judg rightly of this question , we must consider in what circumstances the nation is now scituated , both in respect of the head and body of it . our prince is a catholic : and we our selves ar divided into several sects , of which the catholics ar in number the least considerable . the interest of all those sects , excepting only a smal number of rigid and narrow-spirited church of england men , has been already shown , to lie in toleration and liberty . but there is no reason to expect the king should indulge them in that beloved liberty , unless they consent to allow him the same liberty for those of his own perswasion . now that indulgment and that consent do necessarily imply the same extent on the one side as on the other . the protestant dissenters claim a right to public imployments : and shall not the king demand the same right for catholic dissenters also ? he may do it so much the more reasonably as the conformity of their principles with his may naturally induce him to confide more in their affection and fidelity . this being so , and the liberty which we thirst after not being obtainable at any other price , who can be so unmannerly and so il natured as to refuse unto the king that which they demand of him for themselves ? or who can be so childlishly humorsom , and so devilishly malicious , as to refuse unto themselvs their own reasonable and necessary comforts , rather then allow others to enjoy the like ? so strange an extravagance as that can not , certainly , fal into very many heads . for it being evident by this consideration , that al those whose interest obliges them to desire liberty for themselvs ( which is to say the far greater part of the nation ) ar obliged by the same reason to allow the same liberty , in its utmost extent , unto others : because their own is not otherwise obtainable : i say this being so , though it may seem hard to say , yet really it is much harder not to suspect som defect either in the intellects or integrity of those that oppose it . but prehaps i sing of victory too soon . the opposers of that branch of liberty which i now plead for , wil be apt to tel me that it is not simply upon the account of their religion that the roman catholics ar excluded from any share in our government ; but because their principles tend to the oppression of others , and make them restless until they themselves become absolute masters . this objection indeed would have som force if it proceeded from persons who were themselvs innocent of the crimes they impute unto others : but where al are equally guilty , it may be wondred with what forhead any one can produce it . the plain truth is , that ever since religion became twisted with secular interest , and the profession of divinity became a trade , al sides have strove to get uppermost ; and being so , have persecuted their fellows . the invention of new creeds or tests , and the persecution of dissenters , is too too ancient . the tru simplicity of our saviors and his apostles doctrin , and the meekness of their spirit , lasted not many ages : i dar not say how few years . but let us look nearer home . calvin , the great institutor of presbyterianism , shewed the narrowness of his spirit in the niceness of his theological system , the cruelty of his spirit in the death of servet ; and his followers have trod faithfully in his steps , as well by the frequent superfoetation of their articles of pretended orthodoxy , as by their persecution of dissenters where they have had power , and by their resistance even in open war , where they have been abridged of the privilidges they pretended unto . shall i instance also in our church of england ? i am loth to discover our own shame . but , alas , it lys already too open , without my discovery . she has persecuted ever since her first establishment : and som of the penal laws then made , ar now the very subject of this present debate . this guilt has been universal . and if jesus christ should now say unto the partizans of al sects , as of old unto the pharisees who accused the woman taken in adultery , let him that is innosent cast the first stone , i am perswaded the effect would now be the same as then ; they would al go away convicted . let not that therfore be urged against any one unto which al ar equally obnoxious . an objection looses al its force when it may so justly be retorted against the objector . o but , will som say , the case is not equal . the danger is greater from the roman catholics than fromothers , in that the very principles of their religion do dissolve their obligation to fidelity , and leave them at liberty to pursu the advancement of their church by the violation of al the most sacred bonds with which other men ar tied . for shame , let us in the end learn to be more equitable , and not impute unto any man as a principle of his religion that which he utterly disowns . if there have been men amongst them of such pernicious principles , have there not been such also amongst us ? if som of their casuistical doctors have palliated in som occasions the crimes of treason and rebellion , have not som of our zealous ministers in other occasions incouraged unto the same ? we want not our authors that maintain mischievous principles , no more than they want theirs : witness the list of those condemned not long ago by the vniversity of oxford . now will any presbyterian think he has fair play shown him by those that shal impute unto him al the consequences which may be drawn from the writings of buchanan ; or a church of england man from those of julian johnson ? crimes are personal . and societies must not be condemned for the miscariages of particular persons . let every man then bear his own burthen . let us al henceforward cease from criminating others with things wherwith we our selves may be so justly recriminated . now the surest way to stifle these reproaches is by mending the faults . wherfore let us now on al sides study to reform whatever is amiss : let us unanimously renounce the principle of persecution : and let that be the only test , upon which our government be modelled , as has been already judicially advised by another hand . in doing so , there is no fear but the common union and interest of al parties , in a league of mutual liberty , will be incomparably a better security for us against any particular usurper , then our several factions have been hitherto one against another . but stil this answer is not direct enough . those that ar partys in such a case are seldom sensible of the danger wherwith they threaten others , but always intent upon those dangers wherwith they conceiv that others threaten them . it is not sufficient therfore to tel them that the danger on both sides is mutual . no , they expect that on their side there should be no danger at al. let us endeavor therfore to satisfy them in that point also : and then let them shew themselves to be worthy citizens , by a cheerful compliance with their own duty , and our common interest . what can this danger be that is apprehended by the taking away of the test ? that the papists should lord it over us , and with an open force extirpate our religion by the ancient method of fire and fagot , or work our conversion by the new mode of dragooning ? but that is not rationally to be apprehended from so inconsiderable a number of men as they ar . is it supposed that their numbers may increase , and in the end grow formidable ? that argument strikes more directly against the toleration of their religion than against the abolishing of the test : for it is the toleration alone which will giv them oppertunity of spreading their doctrins , and laboring to make proselites . wherfore that argument ought not to be urged by those who acknowledg that toleration to be a natural right and a christian duty ; which certainly most men now do , and al men ought to do . no , but it wil be said that the temptation to popery wil be yet greater , by the open way to advantagious imployments , when the test shal be taken away . but do not those objectors see and consider the uncertainty of the continuance of those advantages , or perhaps even some stinging consequence attending them , under a protestant successor ? ay certainly they ar not so blinde as to be ignorant therof . experience has shown them already the force of that antidote in som eminent instances , which may assure them that no poisonous effects , at least no mortal ones , ar now to be apprehended from this guilded pil of preferment . i might here ad many other considerations to dissipate this panic fear . as , the spirit of the nation , now animated more than ever against popery . the interest of the papists themselves to keep within modest and moderate bounds , lest too great a stretching after things out of their reach , should make them lose their present footing . and , not improperly , the word of a king , who has solemnly promised us that he will not suffer any man to be oppressed in the just liberty of his conscience : of a king , i say , who dos not now first begin to affect that language , but who has been long known to assert the same principle : of a king , who values himself more upon his integrity and faithfulness than upon all the glories and advantages of his crown : and of a king , in fine , whose interest as wel as honour obliges him to keep his word . these ar al considerations of weight . but after a demonstration of the impossibility that the roman catholics should arrive to that strength as to be able to hurt us , ( tho we suppose them to be never so willing ) it is superfluous to inlarge upon topics of a weaker nature . that which cannot happen in humane probability , need not be feared in humane conduct , nor ought it to be objected in humane consultations . i wil therefore here stop the course of these reflections ; which i must acknowledg do now seem unto me strong enough to dissipate those fears which your prudence first instilled into my minde , and to incourage an honest heart to go on streight forwards , as providence shall enable him , in the present work of this day , notwithstanding any opposition or reproach that may attend it . the thing in it self is good . and therfore i declare to you , that i will no longer be ashamed or afraid to shew my approbation of it , and to dispose others ▪ as i may be able , unto the same sentiments . i ought indeed , in good manners , to have expected your judgment , before i made so express a declaration of my own . but i know your honesty too wel to doubt of your concurrence herein , and your friendship too wel to fear any hard censure for my transgressing those little rules of formal decency . let us both of us put our hands to the work , in gods name , in the sphere where we are placed . and to begin the attempt , if you judg that these reflections of mine may be in any degree useful unto the public , i giv you free liberty to disperse them as you think convenient . but that permission ingages me to ad yet a few words more ; which ar not indeed much needful to your self , but may perhaps not be unuseful to others . in perusing what i have writ , i cannot but suspect that a prejudice may arise against me in some mens mindes , from the disinteressedness i have shewn in respect of the different sects of protestants ; as if i were my self a papist , and designed wholly to favorize that party . to obviate that prejudice , i therfore desire the world may know that i am so far from being ingaged in any party , that i sincerely desire the distinctions of all parties may be obliterated amongst mankind , and that al the ends of the earth may be brought into subjection and obedience unto the gospel of the holy jesus , and own no other name or profession but that of christianity . oh what glorious days , oh what transporting comforts , and solid happiness , would that temper of spirit bring into the world ! then would the root of contention be cut up , when al men were engaged in the same cause . disputes would surely cease , when men came to know that the religion which jesus christ came to institute upon earth ▪ consists not in any airy speculations , nor shadowy ceremonys , but wholly and solely in actual obedience to his holy precepts . they would then easily infer , from such a foundation ; that notions and doctrins , and much more outward cults , ar only so far necessary unto salvation as they ar proper to influence mens lives . they would then know that the grace of god which bringeth salvation hath appeared unto al men ; and that therfore it doth not ly hid in difficultys and obscuritys , which few or none do comprehend ; but that the rules it prescribes us ar plain , even to the meanest capacitys , teaching us , that denying vngodliness and worldly lusts , we should liv soberly , righteously , and godlily in this present world. this would make al men more intent upon then duty , upon the strict observance of the rules of justice , of truth , and of universal charity and good-wil towards one another , which is the choicest flower in al the garland of christian vertues . and in the same proportion as those vertues increased , stil further knowledg , and a sound judgment in divine truths would increase with them ; and the seeds of discord would at the same time be destroyed . we should then turn our swords into plow-shares , and our spears into pruning-hooks ; we should not learn war any more , but rest fearless under our own vines , and our own fig-trees , and every man walking in the name of his god. princes would not then press uniformity in things of smal consequence , with a violence only tolerable in occasions of the most fundamental and greatest importance : subjects would not refuse conformity in things indifferent , with a headstrongness only excusable in points most essential : nor would either the one or the other mistake those fundamental and essential points , when al were agreed that they consisted only in piety , sobriety , and vertu . an authority tempered with sweetness , and a subjection mixed with lov , would make al estates of men as happy as our frail condition of mortality can admit . this thought , you see , has a little warmed me ; and no wonder it should : for indeed it is the only fire that heats my zeal , the only spring that gives motion to my sluggish and indifferent temper . god grant that it may kindle som measures of a like flame , nay a higher measure , i beseech him , in those that read it . then should i hope daily to see more and more considerable advancements in the work that providence seems to be now acting in the world. shal i explain my meaning ? why not ? i am sure it tends not to the injury of any man , and therfore it can not be reputed criminal . wel , 't is this . the persecution we have heard of in france , i am wel informed , has inspir'd a strange spirit of reformation into the romish clergy themselvs : they acknowledg the abuses that ar in their church , as far as ever its outward oeconomy and public authority wil admit : they preach openly at paris against al manner of superstition and idolatry ▪ they instruct their auditors in a spiritual adoration of the supreme deity : they do not rack the consciences of their penitents with any strict determination in points incomprehensible , but they turn them wholly to the essential dutys of life : and in this manner they endeavor to produce and maintain vnity between themselvs and their new converts , as they cal them , in the bond of peace . this appears to me an antiperistasis to the designs of the authors of that persecution ; a rebound guided by providence , which produces a far different effect from the direct blow . but this is not al. we have heard of somthing like it in italy , and in spain ; which has already made som noise and a very considerable progress in those countrys . perhaps indeed these things may be censured by som doctors of that communion , who ar as much wedded to their old-fashioned popery as the narrower sort of church-of-england-men ( amongst protestants ) ar wedded to their liturgical rites and ceremonys . but however it is one step , nay a great advancement , towards a general inlightning of mens minds in tru religion , which i strongly hope wil be conducted by providence to a happy issu . and as i contemplate the prospect of our english liberty , as a dispensation of gods own direction , extended unto us by a hand from whence we least expected it ; as an instrument more exactly fitted by him for the atchievment of this great work than those others aforementioned ; so i heartily wish that al tru-hearted englishmen would put their hands unto this work ; that we may be al found diligent laborers in the vineyard where we ar placed , faithful servants in the improvement of the talent committed unto us , and by no means barren and unfruitful in the knowledg of our lord jesus christ , unto which we have so much pretended . pardon , i intreat you , this excursion . it is now time for me to return to my first theme , and draw towards a conclusion of this tedious letter . those that read it with unprejudiced eys wil easily discern that i write it not to serve the interest of any one party , further than that interest tends to the general good : and that i despise the censures of al partys , in comparison to the satisfaction i propound unto my self in contributing towards that good. my rule is streight . let others make theirs so too , and we shal al infallibly arrive at that happy rest which we al breath after . i wil sum up what i have said , or supply what i have omitted , in a few words . liberty of conscience is the natural right of mankind , and the general interest of england . penal laws and tests ar direct infringements of that right , and they tend evidently to the ruin of that interest . wil we therfore acquit our selves like honest and prudent men , let us settle our selves in that our natural priviledg , and let us abolish every thing that is opposite therunto . let us abolish those things , i say , we that ar private persons , in perswading every man his neighbor to that disposition : and when we shal be called to it , let us elect such members to serv in parliament as shal be disposed to consent unto the abolishing of them by law. that is the surest means to ingage the king unto us , and to ingage us al unto one another . his government wil be so much the more easy as he finds his people the more compliant with his just desires ▪ and our security wil be so much the greater , nay it wil be intire , when our propertys , our libertys , and our religion , shal be defended by the common union of al partys against our onely public enemies , al turbulent and ambitious innovators . i am , dear sir , yours , &c. finis . dissenters sayings the second part : published in their own words, for the information of the people : and dedicated to the grand-jury of london, august , / by roger l'estrange. l'estrange, roger, sir, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; 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(eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) dissenters sayings the second part : published in their own words, for the information of the people : and dedicated to the grand-jury of london, august , / by roger l'estrange. l'estrange, roger, sir, - . 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ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng dissenters, religious -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - judith siefring sampled and proofread - judith siefring text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion dissenters sayings . the second part. published in their own words , for the information of the people . and dedicated to the grand-jury of london , august . . by roger l'estrange . london , printed for ioanna brome , at the gun at the west-end of st. pauls church-yard , . to his unknown friends , the grand-jury for london , august . , viz. will. whitehill , fore-man , henry strode , ioas bateman , tho. shepherd , ralph cooke , joseph caril , valentine adams , joseph bowles , anthony s●…oman , andrew boult , theophilus hawson , maurice king , j●… . b●…ll , john cutlo●…e , john cowley , jonathan leigh , william pendlebury daniel mercer . gentlemen , the kindness you have already shew'd to the observator , i cannot but in common honesty take as done to my self , and i dare here assure ye , that what obligations soever you shall hereafter lay upon l'estrange , shall be acknowledg'd by the observator . you were pleased , on wednesday the . of august last , at justice-hall , in the old-baily , to present nathaniel thompson , benjamin took , and joanna brome , for maliciously printing and publishing or causing to be printed or publish'd , three scandalous and seditious papers and libels , entitled , . the loyal protestant , and true domestick intelligence : . heraclitus : and . the observator , tending to the advancement and introduction of popery , and to the suppression and extirpation of the true protestant religion within his majesties realms and dominions : and this terrible presentment was usher'd into the world with this preface , [ we the grand-jury , sworn to enquire of offences committed within the city of london , do upon our oaths , present , &c. now there are three quaeres ( gentlemen ) which ( if i durst be so bold ) i would presume to offer ye upon this prologue . first , being sworn to enquire : have you impartially enquir'd , or not ? ly . if ye have enquir'd , are these three pamphlets all the enormities that you have discover'd upon that enquiry ? ly . what 's become of all the rest ? for you are as well sworn to present , as to enquire . these are quaeres that i have sometimes formerly mov'd ; and the answer was , that these three papers were thrown in your porridg-dish . now if ye stumbled upon 'em by chance , where 's your enquiry upon oath ? or if ye found any thing else , what 's become of your oath of presentment ? if ye had but taken me to your assistance , i 'de have carry'd 〈◊〉 where you should have 〈…〉 and sedition ; pulpits , cabals , and coffee-houses of the same cloth and colour . i 'de have brought ye acquainted with the voxes , vindications , and the black-box men : a new set of jack straws & wa●… tylers : ( but where 's old walworth with his dagger ? ) i 'de have shew'd ye twenty new schemes of christianity , as well as of policy ; the doctrine of the insufficiency of christs death and passion ; of deposing kings ; of placing the fountain of power in the people ; scripture-proofs for speaking evil of dignities : and in one word , the scenes dispos'd , and the stage fitted for the second part of the tragedy of muncer , and the curtain ready to be drawn . i could have gotten ye a key to the soul-saving-state-confounding-sheriffs case , and let ye into the mystery of that incomprehensible dispensation . it is a great blessing to a government , for men upon their oaths , in the administration of publique duties , to be nicely and casuistically instructed in the bounds and measures of swearing : and this is a piece that cuts out perjury from damnation , to a hairs breadth ; and will bring ye a true-protestant conscience within the very smell of fire and brimstone , and yet carry him off again as whole as a fish , into his ready way to the land of promise . now here would have been enormitywork , e'en as much as ye could have turn'd you 〈◊〉 to . but what 's all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 ? 〈…〉 dick janeway's paper says that , first , he hath wickedly and maliciously endeavour'd to sow dissention and discord amongst protestants , thereby to render them an easier prey unto their common enemies the papists . pray gentlemen , d' ye call this the presentment of a grand jury , or a final verdict upon the merits of the cause , to say first , that a man has done such a thing , and then to pronounce that he did it with such an intention , or to such an end ? but now to the article . so far has the observator been from labouring dissention and discord , that no man has more declar'd himself against it , or taken more pains to lay open the moral impossibility of peace in the state according to this constitution , without a strict uniformity in the church : but if you would have fix'd your presentment aright upon this head , you should have presented the enemy in the parable that sow'd the tares : and if you will but look into the third section of this book , for your better satisfaction , you will find that the dissention and discord that you talk of , was sow'd forty years ago ; and that what we see now , is only an after crop . the second point is , countenancing and abetting the villanous contrivances of the popish conspirators , who have endeavoured to cast fictitious plots upon protestants , thereby to make way for their own hellish plot to take effect . that is to say , the observator is in the popish plot. why do ye not inform against him to the king and council then , and say where , and when , and how , and what ? why do ye not name the contrivances , and say who are the conspirators ? or what if ye should set forth your grievances in a protestant mercury , or get little hancock to open your case in one of his news-letters ? he 'l do 't for pence a piece , and that 's just eighteen pence for his reward . i do assure ye gentlemen , i am in no other contrivance then to do the part of an english protestant , a loyal subject , and an honest man , towards the upholding of the government ; and i was once within a trifle of a halter , for being in that popish conspiracy ( as they call'd it once before ) with the late king : and if the same word , and the same humour be now taken up again , i am in just such another plot. the third charge is the vilifying and bringing into the disesteem of his majesty , and the whole nation , the commons of england , when assembled in parliament , by arraigning and impudently condemning their proceedings . you forget ( my masters ) that impudence is the surname of the greatest phanatique in the three kingdoms ; and that the epithete , villanous , fits him too as if it had been made for him . therefore for the future , i would advise ye to put your slanders 〈◊〉 better language . and now to the accusation , the observator does first defie ye to shew one line in all his writings that will bear the sence you have impos'd upon 't . and dly , the late long parliament which the fanatiques have loaden with so many reproaches , had at least as many good patriots , protestants , and subjects in it , as any parliament since . nay , there is one of your number ( at least ) who has said positively that l'estrange is a papist , which is as false , as if mr. presenter had gap'd , and the devil himself had spit in his mouth . but it is come to that pass now , that a man cannot speak a word in favour of the ecclesiastical order and discipline , but it comes presently to be an arraigning of the commons in parliament . . the observator is charged with endeavouring to render his majesties protestant subjects in general , and more particularly those in this city , suspected to him by mis-representations of , and odious reflexions upon their legal proceedings in their common-halls , and common-councils ; as also by false and ignominious reflexions upon some of their magistrates ; and by arraigning the integrity of juries of this city , for bringing in verdicts according to their judgments and consciences . be you your selves now the iudges ( my masters ) which are the rather to be complaind of ; those that defame the most eminent of your citizens , or those that vindicate them : those that make it a crime to be dutiful to the king and the church ; or those that assert the honour and conscience of that obedience ? and this is the very case betwixt those seditious scriblers , whom you have not touch'd at all , and the observator . and which is yet more remarkable ; after all your seeming fierceness against popery , ye have not so much as presented one single papist . what ye mean by odious reflexions upon your common-halls and common-councils i cannot imagine , unless it be that some notice has been taken of the freedom of a gentleman that said he knew before-hand , london was to be burnt , and had several checks ( as is reported ) from the court it self for 't . if that be the point , i shall take the freedom to tell ye , that it is wonder'd at to this day , that it was never put home to him , how he came to the knowledge of it . and though i am not conscious of any one disrespectful thought toward this famous city in my whole life ; saving in the late rebellion , when the fanatique rabble had torn the government of it to pieces by the same methods that are now prescrib'd and practic'd over again by hundreds of enflaming libels ; yet if such a thing had been , i do not know how your common-halls , and common-councils come to be more sacred than the debates of the house of commons , and of his majesties privy council ; which are daily abus'd by malicious forgeries ; by contemptuous and defamatory reflexions without controll : provided only that the misrepresentation be made on the right side ; as in the printed copies of several loyal speeches , and unanswerable reasonings in the right of the crown , where only the general drift of the speech is set forth without any thing mention'd of the argument . as to the abusing of your magistrates , i am of opinion they would have found it out themselves , if any such thing had been . and then for your juries bringing in verdicts according to their consciences , they are sworn to find according to allegations and proofs , and not when the law determines one thing , for them to think another ; for at that rate , 't is at their choice to make an honest man guilty , or a criminal innocent , and at once to overthrow the reason and the end of government . the law says 't is treason in the people to conspire the death of the king ; but the phanatiques make it treason in the king to deny the sovereignty of the people , as you will find abundantly , and particularly clear'd in several sections of this pamphlet . but neither is the observator chargeable even with this article . the observator is lastly presented for endeavouring to disgrace and discountenance religion it self , by an ironical , immoral , and atheistical of writing against such as he endeavours to stigmatize by the name of true protestants . now if i were well enough acquainted with ye , gentlemen , i would most humbly beseech ye to expound this word religion . is it one persuasion that is single and true to it self ? or is it a medley of various and disagreeing opinions in the matters of holy worship ? tell me now ( i beg of ye ) how it is possible to bring one and the same truth to a consistence with a hundred and fifty divided , implicated , and inextricable errors : nay , and they are boundless too ; for there are monsters in heresies as well as in bodies , which by a promiscuous liberty of mixture and confusion , must necessarily produce still new and new diversities to the end of the world . but you shall have this religion better decypher'd by some of your own doctors in the following papers ; and i shall particularly remit ye to the oracles of dr. j. o. w. j. and r. b. and you will find in the conclusion that the uniting of dissenters is just such another piece of non-sence , as the separating of your selves together . now for the appellation of a true protestant , it is but calling of those people by the name , which they have given themselves : and not with any regard to the reformed religion neither ; but in a reflecting way of discrimination from those of the establishment ; for in the naming of themselves true protestants , and taking the whole schism into that distinction , what is this but to intimate that those of the church are false protestants , from whom they have divided . this is the first step toward the explaining of those false protestants to be papists . but what they are they will tell you themselves , if you will but consult their sayings : and i do not find that there belongs any great matter of complement to this sort of true protestants . i should not have been thus free with ye , gentlemen ( before company ) if the observator had not prevail'd upon me to follow your example , in giving countenance to the publishing of so many thousand copies up and down the city , at the election on michaelmas day last , and all over the kingdom , by a scum of mercenary intelligencers : insomuch , that whosoever gives credit to those papers , must necessarily believe the observator to be one of the greatest rascals upon the face of the earth : and i do confidently affirm , that they are infinitely greater that publish him so to be . if the presentment had taken place , and the matter gone on in a due form of law , a man might have had a speech yet for his money , but this way of proceeding runs to the tune of four and forty , and condemning the poor rogue to the gallows over again , without a hearing . i would not be ungrateful to any man , any manner of way ; and i could not tell how to pitch upon a more suitable acknowledgment than by this dedication . first , it was your pleasure to set your presentment abroad with a kind of a noverint universi ; and i have taken the best care i could here , to make it twice as publique as it would have been otherwise . dly , you were pleas'd to do honour to the observator , by printing your names to the scandal ; and for that reason they are here likewise exposed with his vindication . dly , in regard that ye are men of bus'ness , and not at leisure perhaps to turn over books ; and zealously affected over and above to the reputation of an odd sort of christians that style themselves true protestants , what more agreeable present in this world could i make you , than this collection of true-protestant-sayings , ready drawn up to your hands , where you shall see all their virtues common-plac'd , their graces drawn to the life , their agreement among themselves , their affection to the king and church ; the moderation of their principles , and the tenderness of their hearts towards their sovereign , faithfully and impartially set forth and transmitted to posterity by themselves , and effectually sign'd , seal'd , and deliver'd to the world , for the use of future generations by their own rabbies . gentlemen , i am with all reciprocal affection , your most humble servant , roger l'estrange . the contents . § . . of toleration , pag. . § . . the fruits of a toleration , p. . § . . the dissenters harmony among themselves , p. . § . . the dissenters behaviour toward the government ; and first the clergy , p. . § . . the dissenters behaviour towards the civil government , p. . § . . the presbyterians opinion of the covenant , p. . § . . dissenters liberty of conscience , p. . § . . the power of the kirk , p. . § . . principles and positions , p. . § . . tumults encouraged . and chiefly by the [ able , holy , faithful , laborious , and trulypeaceable ministers of the gospel ] p. . ( petition for peace , p. . ) § . . the war iustified , p. . § . . reformation by blood , p. . § . . the murder of the king encouraged , p. . § . . the king's murder iustifi'd . p. . §. . dissenters sayings , &c. ( ) toleration hath done much more toward the rooting of religion out of the hearts of many men in seven year , then the enforcing of uniformity did in seventy years . cawdrys independency , a great schism , . p. . ( ) a toleration hath all errors in it , and all evills . edwards gangreen . p. . ( ) a toleration would be the putting a sword in a mad man's hand ; a cup of poyson into the hand of a child , a letting loose of madmen with firebrands in their hands ; an appointing a city of refuge in mens consciences for the devil to fly to ; a laying of a stumbling block before the blind ; a proclaiming liberty to the wolves to come into christs fold to prey upon the lambs . neither would it be to provide for tender consciences , but to take away all conscience . the harmonious consent of the lancashire ministers with their brethren in london . subscribed by . . p. . ( ) a toleration would make us become the abhorring , and loathing of all nations , and being so palpable a breach of covenant , would awaken against us the lord of hosts to bring a sword upon us , to avenge the quarrell of his covenant . mr. noise of new england of the power of magistrates . p. . ( ) that doctrine that cryeth up purity , to the ruine of unity , is contrary to the doctrine of the gospel . vindication of the presbyterial government and ministry . . p. . ( ) that religion which carries in the front of it a toleration of different religions , and not sufficient to keep the body of christ in unity , and purity , is not the government of christ. ibid. ( ) liberty in all matters of worship and of faith , is the open and apparent way to set up popery in the land , bax. non-con . plea. pref. ( ) must he have his conscience , that makes no conscience ? what ? he that hath sin'd away his conscience ? if conscience be a sufficient plea , the papists may come in for a childs part . if conscience goes against the word ; deponenda est talis conscientia . get conscience better enform'd . the conscience of a sinner is desil'd . . tit. . conscience being desil'd , may erre ; conscience erring may suggest that which is sinfull . there is nothing can bind a man to sin . watson to the commons . dec. . . p. . ( ) a toleration of independent churches , and government , with opinions and practise , against the magistrates duty lay'd down in scripture . edwards full answer . p. . [ it is against the solemn league and covenant for reformation . p. . ] [ a shrew'd temptation to make many fall , and a means of confirmation in the way of errour . p. . ] [ a toleration of one or more different ways of churches and church-government , from the church , and church-government establish'd , will be to this kingdom very mischievous , pernicious , and destructive . p. . ] [ it hath ever been from first to last , a fountain of evil , and a root of bitterness , of many bitter divisions and separations among themselves , of manifold errors and other mischiefs in those churches and places where they liv'd . p. . ] ( ) will mercifull rulers set up a trade for butchering of souls , and allow men to set up a shop of poyson , for all men to buy , and take , that will : yea , to proclaim this poyson for souls in streets , and church-assemblies , & c ? baxters self-denial . epist. monitory . ( ) we must either tolerate all men to do what they will , which they will make a matter of conscience , or religion , and then some may offer their children in sacrifice to the devil ; and some may think they do god service in killing his servants , &c. or else you must tolerate no errour or fault , in religion ; and then you must advise what measure of penalty you will inflict . baxters church-divis . p. . . ( ) i have known too many very honest hearted christians , especially melancholique persons , and women , who have been in great doubt about the opinions of the millenaryes , the separatists , the anabaptists , the seekers , and such like ; and after earnest prayer to god , they have been strongly resolv'd for the way of errour , and confident , by the strong impression , that it was the spirits answer to their prayers ; and thereupon they have set themselves into a course of sin . ibid. p. . [ it is very ordinary with poor fantasticall women , and melancholique persons to take all their deep apprehensions for revelations . ibid. p. . ( ) if we do through weakness , or perverseness , take lawfull things to be unlawfull , that will not excuse us in our disobedience . our errour is our sin , and one sin will not excuse another . baxters . dispute . p. . ( ) oh what a potent instrument for satan is a misguided conscience ! it will make a man kill his dearest friend , yea father or mother , yea the holyest saint , and think he doth god good service by it . and to facilitate the work , it will first blot out the reputation of their holiness , and make them take a saint for a devil . bax. saints rest , p. . ( ) take heed how you tolerate schism ; for in little time without great care it will open the door to heresy . hodges to the commons . mar. . . p. . ( ) divisions , whether they be ecclesiasticall , or politicall , in kingdoms , citys , and familyes , are infallible causes of ruine to kingdoms , cityes and familyes . calamy to the commons . dec. . . p. . ( ) lyes would not take , if they were not commended by the holyness of the person , and guilded over as a rotten nutmeg with gold. vines to the commons . mar. . . p. . ( ) we must not judge of faith by the person , but of the person by the faith. ibid. ( ) that horse of superstition and idolatry , upon the back of which , the devil hath in former times made war against the church , is slain under him , and now he is mounted upon a fresh horse of another colour , called liberty of opinion ; falsly call'd liberty of conscience . ibid. ( ) if conscience be warrant enough for practices and opinions ; and liberty of conscience be a sufficient license to vent or act them , i cannot see but the judicatories either of church or state may shut up shop , and be resolved into the judicatory of every mans private conscience , ib. p. . ( ) the severall bands of anabaptists , antinomians , familists , libertines and separatists are so multiply'd , that they begin to threaten and speak big words . walker to the commons . jan. . . p. . ( ) the hand of god is apparently gone out against your ways of separation and anabaptism . baxter to the separatists . april . . . ( ) we do again renew our solemn league and covenant , wherein , the securing , and ●…reserving the purity of religion . against all errour , heresy , and schism , and namely independency , anabaptism , antinomianism , armintanism , socinianism , familism , libertinism , scepticism , and erastianism , and the carrying on the work of uniformity , shall be studi'd and endeavour●…d by us before all worldly interest . nepthaly . engagement to duties . ( ) ob. there are many of em ( the sectaries ) holy and pious men . a●…s . why should you think to say , he is an honest or a pious man , should be a foolish plea , in the case of abusing coin , theft , treason or the like ; and yet should be of weight and force in this far greater business ? hodges to the com. p. . ( ) now if prophane , or erroneous persons shall excommunicate themselves from the 〈◊〉 ordinances of christ , either by negligence , or going a whoring after any sects or schisms , and say , their conscience must be free to do so , then the magistrate by his positive laws must fetch them in , and command obedience to those publique . ordinances in the church , as the kings of iudah did , . chron. . &c. the ordinances of excommunication stated ; and licensed . iohn downham . feb. . . p●…ult . ( ) if the parliament and synod shall by publique consent establish a presbyteriall church-government , as most consonant to gods word . — independents and all others are bound in conscience to submit unto it , under the pain of obstinacy , singularity , & c. in case they cannot really , by direct texts and precepts prove it diametrically contrary to the scripture . — — prins full answer to io. goodwin . p. . ( ) that courtesy , which no man can obtain of the independents , where they have authority , viz , in new-england ; that courtesie , should they not be suiters for here in old england . adam stewarts duply . . part. . p. . ( ) the late generall assemblyes of the church of scotland , and their commissioners have born testimony against independency , erastianism , antinomianism , anabaptism , &c. a testimony against toleration from the kirk of scotland , . p. . ( ) sins committed by the misunderstanding of gods word may be punish●…d , therefore sins of conscience . mr. noise minister of new england , of the power of magistrates . p. . ( ) schism of it s●…lf , even with sound doctrine in every point is a most grievous wickedness , which exceeds all other wickedness . i might out of the fathers enlarge and shew the great evil of schism both in it self , and the effects of it ; how 't is a greater evil to rend the church , then to worship idols : yea that martyrdom it self cannot profit a schi●…matique ; that 't is so great an evil , that the ●…loud o●… martyrdom cannot blot it out . ( so cyprian , and chrysostom ) and god hath more severely punish'd it then murther , and other great crimes . korah , dathan and ab●…ram , for their schism were punish'd more severely with the earth opening and swallowing them up quick then cain , and then those who made an idol . edwards further discovery , p. . ( ) if the devil had his choice whether the hierarchy , ceremonies , and liturgy should be establish'd in this kingdom , or a toleration granted , he would chuse and prefer a toleration before them ; and give up all those for a toleration of divers sects , and different churches . edwards full answer . p. . . a treatise against toleration , and pretended liberty of conscience : wherein by scripture , sound reason , fathers , schoolmen , casuists , protestant divines of all nations , confessions of faith of the reformed churches , ecclesiasticall historics , and constant practice of the most pious and wisest emperors , princes , states , the best writers of politicks , the experience of all ages ; yea , by divers principles , testimonies and proceedings of sectaries themselves , as donatists , anabaptists , brownists , independents , the unlawfullness and mischief in christian common-wealths and kingdoms , both of an universall toleration of all religions and consciences ; and of a limited and bounded of some sects only , are clearly proved and demonstrated , &c. edwards's casting down the last and strongest hold of satan . notes upon §. . toleration destroys religion . ( ) all errors in 't . ( ) instead of easing consciences , it takes away all conscience . ( ) a scandalous breach of covenant . ( ) contrary to the gospel ( ) and the government of christ. ( ) the ready way to popery . ( . ) erroneous consciences not to be permitted . ( ) a toleration of independency is intolerable ; contrary to the league and covenant . a temptation to , and a confirmation in error . destructive of government . the root of bitterness , and divisions , and of manifold errors . ( ) an erecting of a trade for the butchering of souls . ( ) a license to all iniquity , ( ) it gives a countenance to euthusiasms , and leads to diabolicall illusions . ( ) and trains us from one sin to another . ( ) a misguided conscience is an instrument for satan . ( ) it carrys us from schism , to heresy . ( ) ruines kingdoms cityes and familys . ( ) the piety of a person cannot iustify the error . ( . ) the horse of superstition and idolatry ( ) it dissolves all iudicatoryes . ( ) and threatens the publique peace , ( ) god hath declared himself against it . ( ) a breach of covenant , ( ) a sectary , as criminal as a felon . ( ) erroneous persons excommunicate themselves . ( ) independents bound to submit to the parliament , and synod . ( ) they that will not allow liberty ought not to ask it . ( ) the generall assembly of scotland expressly against it . ( ) sins of conscience punishable . ( ) schism worse then murder , or idolatry . ( ) toleration is the wish of the devil . ( ) scripture , reason , fathers , schoolmen , casuists , protestant divines and all the reformed churches against it . ( ) how comes it now to be so criminall to deny these people a toleration , which they themselves account to be wholly intolerable ; or with what face can they call the refusal of that liberty to themselves by the name of a persecution , which they look upon in all other cases , as against the rules of government and conscience to grant ? this shall suffice as to their iudgement of a toleration in it self . we 'le take it next in the consequences , and effects . §. . the fruits of a toleration . ( ) the incursions of the wild boars of the forest upon the vineyard of the lord , cannot but flow from the not setting up of the hedge of discipline ; and that when in the kirk of christ , there is not one lord , one faith , one baptism , there must arise many false christs , and false prophets , insomuch that ( if it were possible ) they should deceive the very elect. the kirks testimony against toleration , to the london ministers . ( ) will any parliament , state , or nation ( think you ) suffer such a government to take root among them , which will un-king , un-parliament , un-church , un-nation them altogether , and make each several congregation , an absolute monarchy ? &c. prins full reply upon io. goodwin . p. . ( ) satan and his ministers transform themselves into angels of light , false teachers usually come to seduce men in sheeps cloathing , there is no heretique , schismatique or sectary whatsoever so pernicious , gross , and detestable , but pretends his way , doctrine , practise , to be the way and truth of christ. prinns full answer cited by io. goodwin . innocency and truth . p. . ( ) this new way , and the separation of independents from their parish churches , is an encouragement , to all the separatists , brownists , anabaptists , antinomians , socinians and libertines , that are in and about the city . the antidote against the contagious air of independency . p. . ( ) all sorts of mechanicks take upon them to preach and baptize , as smiths , taylers , shoomakers , pedlers , weavers , &c. edwards discovery of sectaries p. . ( ) from all these errors , here syes , blasphemyes , and practises of the sectaryes , you may see what a great evil and sin , separation is , from the communion of the reformed churches ; and how highly displeasing to god , for men to make a schism and rent in the church of god in a time of reformation : god punishing the schism & separation of our times with so many heresyes , blasphemyes , wicked practises , &c. edwards further discovery . p. . ( ) the punishment of schism and separation from the church is separation from god ; heresy , blasphemy , atheism , uncleanness , unrightcousness , &c. ibid. p. . ( ) one ask'd what kind of bird the holy ghost was . the virgin mary hath been call'd a — they could write as good scriptures as the apostles . paul was a novice , and understood not christ in the promise . edwards gangrena . p. . ( ) one w●…b , blessed god that he never trusted in a crucify'd christ ; nor did he believe him to be the son of god , nor the scriptures divine ; but human invention . — he affirm'd there was no more resurrection of a man then of a beast . edwards catalogue and discovery of the sectaryes , p. . [ christs human nature is de●…il'd with original sin , as well as ours . p. . ] ( ) one maintain'd that god was the author of sin ; that all lyes came out of the mouth of god , and quoted a place in the book of kings sor't , that no man was sent to hell for any sins , but cast thither only because god would have it so . edwards catalogue of errors . p. . [ an anabaptist , and a great sectary came to mr. greenhill , and said he might as safely baptize a dog , as a believers child . ibid. p. . ( ) a brick-layer , of hack●…ey affirm'd that he for his part understood the mystery of god in christ better th●…n st. paul ; and he sayd of the scriptures , they were as other writings of men . every one writ as they had conceiv'd . ibid. p. . ( ) on february . . it was deliver'd at a conventicle in bell-alley , that christ was no more god then he , or any of them there , and that they were as much god as christ was . and mr. noy spake it in the hearing of some divines of the assembly , that to his knowledge the denying of the divinity of christ was a growing opinion . ibid. ( ) one s. o. a dipper is reported by mr. edwards after he had baptiz'd a woman to bid her gape , and she gap'd , and he did blow three times into her mouth , saying words to this purpose , either receive the holy ghost ; or now thou hast receiv'd the holy ghost . the same person was also question'd at ch●…lmsford . for the death of a young woman that dy'd upon dipping . gangr●…na . part. . p. . ( ) a preacher at sandwich in kent ( a washball-maker ) pray'd to the trinity to take care of these three kingdoms . god the father of one ; god the son , of the second ; and god the holy ghost , of the third . ●…b . p. . ( ) where is your god ? ( says one b●…ggis ) in heaven , or in earth ? alo●…t or below ? or where doth he sit ? &c. gangraen . p. . par. d . ( ) a woman having a desire to be re-baptiz'd , and having pull'd off all her cloaths to the naked skin , ready to go into the water ; but forbearing , during the time the dipper pray'd ; she cover'd her secret parts with both her hands , the which the dipper espying , told the woman , that it was an unseemly sight to see her hold her hands downward ; it being an ordinanee of jesus christ , her hands with her heart should be lifted up towards heaven ; ( as he shew'd her how he did ) but she refusing for modesty's sake , could not be re-baptiz'd . edward's catalogue of errors . p. . ( ) christmas day is a superstitious day ; and will ( if observ'd ) bring in idolatrous worship . pearn at s. dunstans in the west . de. . ( ) o lord thou hast given us never a victory this long while for all our frequent fasting . what dost thou mean , o lord , to fling us in the ditch , and there leave us . vines at st. clements temple bar. ( ) o lord , do not thou stand a neuter ; but take one side , that we may see which it is that is thy cause . cradock of nun ▪ eaton . aug. . . ( ) if the devil , the turk , and the people should think to compound with christ , and say , thou christ ; thou shalt have so many kingdoms , ond let us enjoy the rest quietly . christ will never do 't . he will either have all , or none ; he will either kill , or be kill'd ▪ feakat black-fryers aug. . . ( ) i prosess ( saints ) we must go lay our heads together , and consult what we shall ask god next ; for he will give us whatsoever we ask ; and so he hath done these seven years . id. ibid. ( ) we must agree together to ask something now for iesus christ ; for we have enough for our selves already . we have peace enough , prosperity enough , and enough of every thing . feake . aug. . . ( ) o lord , when shall we hear the sound of christs horse-heels . feakat black fryers , sep. . . ( ) what ailed you , ye mighty armies at keinton , newbery , york , naesby , that ye fled , and were driven backwards ? what ailed you ye strong treasons , close conspiracyes , that ye trembled and fell , and your foundations discover'd before you could take effect . they saw thee o jesus ! they saw thee appearing in the midest of us , so they fled before us . sterry to the commons . no. . . p. . ( ) when christ was crucifi'd , did not all forsake him ? had but a few of that inconstant multitude , which but a while before had cry'd hosanna , stuck close to christ , in likelyhood they had deliver'd him . carter to the commons aug. . . p. . ( ) this year god by a providence hath buryed this feast ( christmas day ) in a ●…ast , and i hope it will never rise again . calamy to the commons , dec. . . p. . ( ) i ask whether the repetition of these words , [ our father , &c. ] after men have been long praying for the things contained in them , as the manner of some is , be not so remote from any pretence or colour of warrant in the scripture , as that it is in plain terms , ridiculous . d. io. owen . vindiciae evangel . p. . ( ) as men set traps to catch vermine , so god appoints heresyes to insnare arrogant , and self-presuming , or vicious and self-defiling men , bagshaw of heresyes . p. . ( ) where is the god of marston-moor ? and the god of nase●…y ? is an acceptable expostulation in a gloomy day . o what a catalogue of mercyes has this nation to plead by , in a time of trouble ! god came from naesby , and the holy one from the west , selah , &c. d. owens eben-ez●…r , p. . ( ) god had so wonderfully wrought upon the spirits of men , particularly on those soldiers who were to fight the bishops battels in scotland , that they pull'd down the railes , threaten'd the priests , and kept such a visitation in their progress , as the bishops hardly ever had done since q. elizabeths days , case to the commons . gods waiting . . ( ) let me tell ye , if ever ( gentlemen ) you might use this speech , o happy penny , you may use it now , happy money that will purchase my gospel , happy money that will purchase religion , and purchase a reformation to my posterity ; o happy money ; and blessed be cod that i have it to lend . e. calamy's speech at guild-hall . oct. . . ( ) the lord iesus hath his concubines , his queens , his virgins , saints in remoter forms , saints in higher forms ; saints unmarried to any forms , who keep themselves single for the immediate embraces of their lord. sterry's englands deliverance . epistle . ( ) god did not measure iob in his wallops , but when he was cold , as we do not measure milk when it wallops and seeths but when it is cold : bridge's first and last in suffering . p. . ( ) i will gently lead those that are with young , that is ( saith he , ) christ will be very kind to those saints that step aside ; and he thus comforts those that are big with young in a sinfull sense ; o ye sinning ewes who have been big with young ! hath not he gone after you , and sound you , and laid you upon his shoulders rejoycing ? it may be thou hast been wand'ring , like dinah from thy fathers house , and art big with young , and afraid to go home ; but fear not , go and try ; he will not cast you out of doors , though you come with big bellyes , he will deal gently with you though with young , and then , it is our glory to be christs ewes , and that when a man is big with young , and cryes out o my belly , my belly ! here is a point of comfort that christ is sweet to such persons . — afterwards he cryes out : o blessed ewes ! o believing ewes ! and o believing bees that suck the hony of sin-hatred out of the wormwood of sin-acted . in another place he tells us , that christ accounts their very stammerings sweet ; meih , meih , saith the little one , and the mother counts it musick . durant's sips of sweetness upon isaiah . . reprinted . ( ) i dare speak it as confidently , as i believe the revelation to be divine scripture , that what viol soever is pouring out , the issue will be , anti-christ shall loose , and christ shall gain . marshall to the commons . iune . . p. . ( ) not only is that covenant which god hath made with us , founded in the bloud of christ , but that also which we make with god. caryl oct. . . p. . ( ) beloved can ye forget the soldiers ? i say , the soldiers , who have spent their bloud for christ , as christ did for them , even their own precious bloud in gods cause at newbery . evans to the earl of essex at st. clements . sept. . . ( ) you who sit at the right hand of the lord iesus in this common-wealth , as the lord jesus sits at the right hand of his father in that kingdom which is over all , &c. sterry to the commons . no. . . epistle . ( ) all you that have contributed to the parliament , come and take this sacrament to your comfort . case . ( ) one redman of castle-dunnington in leicester-shire in opposition to the order of the church , deliver'd the sacrament in the afternoon , in ale. notes upon §. . toleration will make way for false christs , and false prophets . ( ) destroy all government ( . ) introduce schisms , and heresies . ( . . ) authorize mechanicks to preach ( . ) tear the church to peices . ( ) divide us from god. ( ) give encouragement to blasphemy , prophaneness and dissolution of manners . ( ) and so to the end. how can the dissenters press for a toleration now , after this agreement among themselves , that it must inevitably draw after it the ruine , and confusion , both of church and state ? §. . the dissenters harmony among themselves . ( ) does not the apostle prophesy , that in the last days perillous times shall come , for men shall be lovers of themselves , covetous , boasters , proud , heady , high-minded , having a form of godlyness but denying the power thereof . ever learning , but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth . yea , such as will not endure sound doctrine , but after their own lusts , will heap to themselves teachers , having itching ears , turning away their ears from the truth ; and will be turned into fables and fictions , new lights , and revelations . and are not your thus pretended new-lights , the very persons ; thus delineated , by your own confessions , and practices too , even murmurers , complainers , desirous to walk after your own lusts , and having mens persons in admiration for advantage . yea , take heed ( i say ) ye be not found to be those clouds without water carried about with w●…des , and those wand'ring stars which the apostle iude speaks of , which know not when , or where , immutably , to fix your faith and judgments : whereas our presbyterians , and all other true believers , are allways ( . cor. . . phil. . . and chap. . . &c. ) stedfast , unmoveable , standing fast in the lord in one spirit , and in one mind , striving together for the faith of the gospell , and not tossed to and fro , like children , carried about with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men , as too many scepticall independents are , to the great obloquy and scandall of religion . picture of independency . p. . independent ( ) you complain of your misery , and bondage , sorrows , and oppressions , and troubles of the church . what ails you ? what troubles you ? who oppresses you ? where is the least shew of oppression , or cause of complaint minister'd to you ; except it be because you are not suffer'd to oppress your brethren ? can you feed upon nothing but bloud , yea , the bloud of your brethren ; that though you have every thing else , you so complain of sorrow and oppression ? is this your sorrow and oppression , that you cannot oppress ? pulpit-incendiary . . p. . p. ( ) our sectaries , in their sermons , prayers , pamphlets , discourses , petitions , all cry out of persecution , and accuse the orthodox presbyterians of persecution ; yea , when for their seditious , tumultuous libellous scoffing , wicked lying , scandalous reports , books and practices , they have been questioned , there 's nothing in their mouths but persecution , and of unheard-of prosecution of the godly . i am of the mind if any of them should come to be imprison'd and hang'd for stealing , killing a godly presbyterian , plotting against the parliament and city , in seizing upon their forts , or some parliament-men ; one or other of them would cry out of persecution . edwards gang. p. . i. ( ) the way sirnamed presbyterian , conjures all mens gifts , parts and industry , into a synodical circle , and suffers them only to dance there . jo. goodwins theomachia . p. . p. ( ) independents are beasts , grolls , puffoists ; wild-geese , a company of juglers , sticklers against parliament and presbytery ; a generation of cunning deceivers , and fighters against god , violaters of all the laws of god and nature ; the most dangerous sect that ever yet the world produc'd ; a company of rats among joyn'd-stools ; despisers of magistracy , a generation of men not worthy to give guts to a bear , moon-calves ; all the independents put together , have not so much learning as one of a thousand other ministers . a wheel-barrow , ( such as they trundle white-wine vinegar on ) fitter for them then a coach. bastwick cited by burton in his brief answer . p. . i. ( ) that reformation which is forward , rough , peremptory , impatient , imperious , and will gather where it hath not strewed , and reap where it hath not sow'd ; exact obedience , and subjection from those , to whom it hath not effectually taught , or perswaded obedience , and subjection ; nor ever gave any tolerable account unto truly conscientious , and considering , and disinteressed men of any worthyness in it , why it should be submitted unto , and cannot be iudg'd a reformation according to the word of god. jo. goodwins cautions . p. . p. ( ) the independents are railers , revilers , slanderers , covenant-breakers with god and man , ordinary lyers , notorious calumniators and false accusers ( such as in holy scripture are call'd , diaboli , devils ) heretiques , open seducers , and causers of division , and offences , contrary unto the doctrine of christ ; such as all christians have a special command to take heed of , and to shun ; and are prohibited to receive into their houses , or bid god speed , or so much as to eat with , they are no visible saints , nor good daemons : and therefore no true form'd churches , nor to be communicated with in holy things . burton , cited by bastwick . independency not gods ordinance . p. . i. ( ) mr. john goodwin says in his theomachia ; that the presbyterian is a bloudy , unpeaceable , and persecuting way , a way much damping and deading the flourishing improvements of the gifts and graces of the saints . picture of independency . p. . p. ( ) independency , a seminary of schisms , and dangerous divisions in church and state — a floud-gate to let in an inundation of heresyes , errots , sects , libertinism , and lawlessness , without means of suppressing them , when introduc'd . prinn cited by burton . vindication of independency . p. , . [ pharisaical , spiritual pride , vain-glory , singularity , self-conceitedness , of superlative holiness , ib. . i. ( ) if ephraim be against manasseh , is it any ways like but manasseh will be against ephraim ? and god himself , prophecying of ishmael , told his mother , that he would be a wild man : and that his hand should be against every man ; and every mans hand against him . undoubtedly that way , whose hand shall be against every way , will find that the hand of every way will be against it : and then what manner of peace can reasonably be expected under the predominancy of such a way ? goodwins theomachia . p. . p. ( ) the independents have now the sword in their hands , and they think their party strong enough to encounter any adverse and opposing party ; and they profess they care not how soon they come to cutting of throats ; and speak of nothing but the slaughtering and butchering of the presbyterians . bastwicks postcript to burton . i. ( ) at the beginning of this parliament , the whole kingdom sided with both houses in the vindication of their liberties , and so it continued untill such as did overmuch idolize presbytery , prevail'd for a bill to damn episcopacy , root and branch , that presbitery might succeed it , with it 's fascibus , and fustibus , with its pontificalibus , and synodalibus , nothing to be ahated which concern'd either wealth , or iurisdiction , only an episcopall tyranny to be exchanged for a presbyteriall slavery . answer to prinnes . queryes p. . p. ( ) with what faces and consciences can ye think to obtrude your independent ways and fancies upon us , &c. picture of independency . licensed by cranford . . i. ( ) as the bishops would call men puritans , and non-conformists , and so persecute them ; so will the presbytery call men schismaticks , heretiques , antinomians , separatists , and do the like . jo. goodwins answer to mr. prinns full reply . p. . p. ( ) the assembly of c●…renton , judging the sect of independents to be not only prejudicial to the church of god , in so far , that it endeavours to bring in confusion , opening a gate to all kinds of singularities , and extravagancies , and taking away all means of any remedy to the evil , but also most dangerous to the state ; where ( if it had place ) there might be as many religions set up , as there be parishes , or particular congregations ; doth enjoyn to all the provinces , and particularly to the maritimes , to take heed that the evil takes no foot in the churches of this kingdom ; to the end , that peace , and uniformity , as well in religion , as in discipline , may be inviolably preserv'd ; and that nothing be brought in amongst us , which may alter in any kind the service due unto their majesties . an extract of the act. dec. . . i. ( ) the spirit of the ten-horned beast ( rev. . ) is now making war with the lamb , ( which is likely to be his last war , babylons fall following in the next chap. ) and this spirit warreth under new colours ; not red , but white , whose word is reformation , and this under a fair colour of a covenant , by virtue whereof , pretending a just title to the war , he hopes by the help of the remonstrance , and the prime authors thereof , and their adherents , to enact a new bestiall tyranny , over souls , bodies and estates , under new names , and notions . burton's conformities deformity . ep. ded. p. ( ) the independents worse then diotrephes , or the pope , most diabolicall tyranny , lording it over gods clergies , fellows of goatham college , not knowing their primer in politicks , nor their cat●…hisme in divinity . i. ( ) the church of england is a true whorish mother , and they that were of her , were base begotten , and ●… astardly children , and she neither is , nor ever was truly married , ioyned , or united unto iesus christ in that esponsal ba●…d , which his true churches are , and ought to be , but is one of anti-christs nationall whorith churches , and cities spoken of revel . . . &c. the church of england is false and anti-christian ; and as she is a false and anti-christian church , she shall never make true officers and ministers of jesus christ — as i●…nnes and jambres , withstood moses , so do these men also resist the truth . li●…urn cited by bastwick . indep . &c. p. . [ yea , when they write most mildly against the presbyterians , they call them lyons , bears , wolves , tygers , baals priests , the limbs of anti-christ , the anti-christian brood , the devils ministers , presbyterants . ibid. p. . ] p. ( ) the independents are taken up in biting and devouring one another ; in hatred , variance , emulations , wrath , strife , seditions , heresies , envyings , &c. bastwick's indep . not gods ord. p. . i. ( ) i challenge our brother for taking christs name in vain , when in stead of finding christ set upon his throne in their congregations , we find there no more then an image , such as michal had made up instead of king david ; or as those that in mockery made of christ a pageant king , stripping him , and putting on him a scarlet robe , and on his head a crown of thorns , and in his hand a reed ; saluting him with hail king of the jews . burton cited by bastwick . independency not gods ordinance . p. . p. ( ) i here present ye with a catalogue , or black bill of the errors , heresies , blasphemies and practises of the sectaries of this time ; broached and acted within these four last years in england : and that in your quarters ; and in places under your government and power , for which i tremble to think lest the whole kingdom should be in gods black bill . edwards gangren . . ep. ded. to the lords and commons . i ( ) this whole postcript ( of bastwick ) is a very cento , and farrago , or hodge-podge of invectives , sarcasms , scurrilous scoffs , incendiary incentives to stir up the state , and all sorts of people , to root out , and cut off all those that are of the independent way , as they call it . burtons brief answer to bastwick . postcript . p. ( ) oh the faithfullness , dutifullness , patience , long-suffering , forbearance of the presbyterians ! their dutifullness and patience in waiting upon the parliament ; their faithfullness in not abating in their zeal and respects to them ; oh their love , kindness and tenderness to the independents , yea to other sectaries also , who have had something of christ , and grace in them ; and have not fal'n into errors , and blasphemies , rasing their foundations . but now on the other hand ; the sectaries , ( though a contemptible number , and not to be named at the same time with the presbyterians ) have not waited upon the parliament and assembly , for the reformation , but preach'd against it , and stir'd up the people to embody themselves , and to joyn in church fellowship , gathering churches , setting up independent government ; re-baptizing ; and dipping many hundreds , &c. edwards discovery , p. . i. ( ) such an oracle of infallibility , and s●…ch a supremacy as 〈◊〉 ▪ true-bred-english-christian can interpret for other then anti-christian tyranny ; and all under the name of a christian-presbyterian church-government . burtons conformities deformity . p. . p. ( ) ambitious , proud , covetous men — libertines and loose persons , who have a desire to live in pleasures and enjoy their lust , and to be under no government , they are fierce and earnest for independency , and against presbytery . all wanton-witted , unstable , erroneous spirits of all sorts ; all heretiques , and sectaries , strike in with independency , and plead they are independents . edwards further discovery . p. . i. ( ) their ordinary councells ( the presbyterians ) drive at two main things ( yet both reduc'd to one head , to wit , tyranny ) the one , tyranny over our bodies , estates , free-holds , liberties , laws , and birthrights of all english free-born subjects : the other , tyranny over our souls , and consciences . burtons conformities deformity . ep. ded. . p. ( ) independents are most obstinate rebells , both in opinion , and practise ; and perfidious violators of such a main and principal foundation , as will inevitably ruinate all other fundamentals of true religion , if allow'd unto them . colemanstreet conclave visited . pref. . [ i say and hold that all sorts of independents among us , ( separating themselves into their private conventicles , and unwarranted church-way , as they call it , against all authority and power of the king and parliament , the unquestionable sovereign and supreme magistracy , ordain'd by god himself ; and in resisting whose ordinance , they apparently oppose and resist , even the lord god of heaven himself ; are not by any means to be admitted or permitted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , ●… . 〈◊〉 is ●…heir separation , or division from us , to be so 〈◊〉 or so 〈◊〉 by us , as to give any the least allowance to them . ibid. ] i. ( ) is presbytery , because parochial , classical , provincial , l●…ss tyrannical , then episcopacy , because many rule in that , and in this but one ? or rather not more tyrannical , because one tyrant is not so much as many together ? evil in a community , is stronger , and more diffusive then in unity . saltmarsh'es answer to ley. . p. . p. ( ) korah , dathan , and abiram rose up against moses and aaron , as our independents do now adays , against the most just and righteous authority of parliaments , and their power ; in constituting under them for their assistance , in matters of religion , the synods , or assembly of divines at westminster , even as the lord appointed and constituted aaron under moses in holy things . coleman-street conclave , parallell to the reader . . i. ( ) the idolatrous heathen , sought to maintain their idolatrous religions by the same stratagems , methods , and ways , which the ord'nance for the preventing of the growing , and spreading of herefies , proposeth for maintaining the religion of christ. modest and humble queries printed , london . . p. . p. ( ) the apostles , in many places of their writings , speaking of heretiques , and false teachers in their times , and proph●…sying of those in after times , both the popish faction , and the sectarian , speak of them as apostates , antichrists , false prophets , seducers , deceivers , idolaters , blasphemers , and their doctrines , and ways , as apostacy , idolatry , blasphemy , worshipping of devils , seducing , and such like . edwards against toleration . . p. . i. ( ) in the latter days , false christs and false prophets shall arise , saying , loe ! here is christ , or loe ! there he is , &c. — wherfore if they shall say unto you , ( see here how our saviour ingeminates the caution as a thing of serious consideration , ) behold he is in the desert ; go not forth ; behold he is in the secret chambers ; ( mark her ▪ 〈◊〉 how near our saviour comes to our sectaries practices , and rebellious church-ways , as they call them , now adays : or he is in shops , barns , and such like private conventicles . ) believe it not . colemanstreet conclave visited . p. . . p. ( ) the congregationall men swore to endeavour uniformity ; and yet practice this day , multiformity of religions , & have put to the sale the bloud of many gallant men in scotland , that so they may buy with their lives , cursed liberty of conscience . but will it not be bitterness in the end ? rutherfords free disputation . . p. . [ we know no service to the state done by these men , but that they set up with the sword , all the blasphemous and hereticall sects and religions , that tho. muncer , or iohn of leyd●…n fancy'd contrary to the oath of god. ib. . ] i. ( ) was there ever any thing done in the bishops time , or any thing attempted to be done by this generation of men , in the day of their greatest interest and power in the kingdom ; of that bloudy consequence to those godly persons , ministers , or others , whom they most hated , and sought to crush as this ord'nance , ( to prevent the growing and spreading of heresies , &c. ) if once establish'd , is like to be to far greater numbers , of truly pious and conscientious men. some modest and humble queries . p. . notes upon §. . i shall not need to cut up this section by paragraphs ; but rather recommend it whole , to the consideration of any indifferent reader . these are the people that assume to themselves the title of the kings best subjects , and the church of englands true-protestants ; when yet at the same time , they do with their own lips , and pens , declare themselves the implacable enemies of order , and of one another . they call for indulgence contrary to law , from those whom they themselves destroy'd for living and acting according to the law ; and to whom ( so far from mercy ) they never shew'd so much as humanity , or common pity . they demand a comprehension with that church , which they do ioyntly pronounce to be anti-christian . they make use of religion , and tenderness of conscience , as their plea for a common union with the church : and yet what is it , but the same pretense of religion and conscience , that causes all those mortal feuds among themselves ? what religion can be expected from men of these outragious principles ? what peace with so many implacable antipathies , and oppositions ? what truth , from such a medly of pernitious errors ? and what trust can be given to those , that never kept faith either with god or man ? nor ever agreed , but in order to the ruine and confusion of the state ? would they be united ? ye see 't is dangerous and impossible . dangerous in respect of the publique ; and impossible among themselves ; for they make it no less then matter of damnation , to suffer one another . now according to these practices , and positions , let the world iudge of the design . §. . the dissenters behaviour toward the government ; and first , the clergy . ( ) pernicious deceivers , presumptuous shepherds , baalamites , blazing-stars , glosing hypocrites with god , fasting-pharisaicall preachers , miserable guides , counterfeit-false prophets , sycophants , trencher-priests , conscience-brokers , dangerous and pestilent seducers , sectary-precise preachers , trecherous watchmen , sworn soldiers of anti-christ , &c. barrow and greenwood . cited in bancrofts survey of holy discipline . p. . ( ) this new parcell of mockery , and iesuited popery , as bad as any in the mass-book [ i. e. a collection of prayers and thanksgivings used in his majesties chappel , &c. and publish'd by his majesties command . . ] ( ) croaking frogs clergy ) that crept into the kings chambers , who are known by the gutter whence they came , out of the dragon , out of the mouth of the beast and the false prophet . they are the spirits of devils , who go forth unto the kings of the earth to gather them to battle , &c. the frogs heads are like their caps [ quadrata ranarum capita . ] here is work for the parliament , that the king may have no more croakers in his chambers . wilson to the commons , sep. . ( ) a stinking heap of atheisticall and roman-rubbish , a rotten rabble of slanderous priests and spurious bastard sons of belial , who by their affected ignorance , and laziness , their false doctrines , and idolatrous & superstitious practises , in gods worship ; by their most abominable evil lives and conversations , had , like hophni and phinehas , made the lords ordinances to be even abhorr'd by the people . vicars iehovae iireh . p. . . ( ) who among us . years ago imagin'd that this land should be healed of the two great plague-sores of this land ; viz. the common-pruyer book and episcopacy ; of the lesser scabs , of deans , and prebends , chancellors , arch-deacons , queristers , promoters , &c. together with the spiritual courts , and all the trumpery of their superstitious ceremonies . loves sermon . at uxbridge ian. . . p . ( ) if justice be at a stand , and cannot take hold of living delinquents , to keep the ax from rust , let justice be executed upon liveless delinquents . are there no altars , no high-places , no crucifixes ? &c. greenhill to the commons . ap. . . p. . ( ) throw away the rubbish , out with the lords enemies , and the lands ; vex the midianites ; abolish the amalekites , else they will vex you with their wiles , as they have done heretofore . let popery find no favour , because it is treasonable ; prelacy as little , because it is tyrannicall : but establish god , his truth , and ways . coleman to the commons . au. . . p. . ( ) god was weary of our new-moons and sabbaths , and the calling of our assemblies ! he could not smell in our common feasts ; our sacrifices were an abomination to him , through the noisomness of those corruptions which hophni and phinehas ( superstitious and wicked men in the priesthood ) mingled with them . strickland no. . p. . ( ) the hierarchy is become a fretting gaugreen , and spreding leprosy , an insupportable tyraany ; up with it , up with it to the bottom , root and branch , hip and thigh ; destroy these amalckites , and let there place be no more found . coleman to the par. au. . . p. . ( ) our cathedralls are in a great part of late become the nest of idle drones , and the roosting place of superstitious formalities . coleman to the commons au. . . p. , ( ) how was this honourable and famous city of london furnish'd ? even just as ieroboam furnish'd bethel , with the idlest , the most superstitious of all the rest . id. ibid. ( ) an ungodly generation that weep with a loud voice , and complain their gods are gone ; their god episcopacy , their god liturgy , the organ , and the surplice , the cross , &c. stanton to the commons ap. . . epistle . ( ) our religion and liberties are setled by the laws of the land , not so israels in egypt . and therfore the anti-christian party , in their attempts to wrest them from us , are more unjust and cruell , then of old was egypt . ibid. p. . ( ) how many dumb devils are now casting out of many parishes in the land ? bond to the commons , mar. . . p. . ( ) what had we got if the prelaticall party had been set up ? what could we have expected from them , but superstitions , innovations , illegalities , bondage of our estates , i iberties and consciences ? burroughs to the commons . sep. . . p. . ( ) i profess that i cannot expecta complete deliverance from these and other like oppressions , but by the extirpation of the frame [ of prelatical government ] ash to the commons . mar. . . p. . ( ) the violence that is done to me , and my flesh , be upon thee o papacy , shall the inhabitants of ireland say : and my bloud upon thee o prelacy , shall england say . newcomen to the commons , nov. . . p. . ( ) prophane sons of belial , ( the clergy ) who like ely's sons made the people abhor the offering of the lord. love , ian. . . p. . the two plague-sores , episc pacy , & common-prayer-book . p. . episcopacy , iure diabolico . p. . ( ) the church committed to persons illiterate and insufficient ; dumb dogs — men swallowed up with wine and strong drink , whose tables are full of vomit and filthyness , whoremongers and adulterers , who as fed horses neigh after their neighbours wives — priests of baal , bacchus , and priapus , sons of belial &c. whites first century . epistle to the reader . ( ) of all the nations that have renounc'd the whore of rome , there is none in the world so far out of square as england , in retaining the popish hierarchy . epist. before the demonst. ( ) the english prelacy is the product of proud ambition , and arrogancy , and contrary to the express command of christ. baxters . disputations p. . ( ) bishops are thorns and thistles , and the military instruments of the devil . baxters concord . p. . ( ) prelacy is a government which gratifieth the devil and wicked men . disputations . p. . contrary to the word of god , and apostolical institution . ibid. p. . against the will of christ , and the wellfare of the churches . ibid. pref. . ( ) your churches bear with drunkards , whoremongers , railers , open scorners at godlyness , disputations p. . the most ungodly of the land are the forwardest for your ways . you may have almost all the drunkards , blasphemers , and ignorant haters of godliness in the country to vote for ye . . disp. pref. p. . to the adherers to prelacy . ( ) what is this prelacy ? a mere anti-christian encroachment upon the inheritance of christ. d. owen . thanksgiving sermon oct. . . p. . ( ) they ( the episcopal clergy ) are as zealous for crosses and surplices , processions , and perambulations , reading a gospel at a cross-way , the observation of holy days , the repeating of the litany , or the like forms in the common prayer , the bowing at the name of the word iesus , ( while they reject his worship ) the receiving of the sacrament , when they have no right to it , and that upon their knees , as if they were more reverent and devout then the true laborious servants of christ ; with a multitude of things which are only the traditions of their fathers ; i say they are as zealous for these , as if eternal life consisted in them . where god forbids them , there they are as forward as if they could never do enough ; and where god commands them , there they are as backward to it ; yea as much against it , as if they were the commands of the devil himself . and for the discipline of christ , though all parts of the world have much opposed it , yet where hath it been so fiercely and powerfully resisted ? the lord grant that this harden'd , willfull , malitious nation fall not under that heavy doom luke . . . but those mine enemies which would not that i should reign over them , bring them hither and slay them before me . baxters saints rest. part . p. . ( ) if the parliament should hereafter see a convenience in prelacy for this kingdom , were not this oath then prejudicial either to the parliaments liberty or the kingdoms felicity ? this objection supposes that the most wicked anti-christian government may be a lawfull government in point of conscience . coleman at st. margarets westminster upon entring into the covenant sep. . . p. . ( ) who cannot witness the superstitious abuse of englands liturgy ? superstitious , say i ? nay , idolatrous ; what was by the smectymnuan episcopo-mastix alledg●…d of the liturgy twenty year ago , i doubt is verify'd of it still . ierubaal ridivivus p . . ( ) the church of england evidently declare themselves limbs of anti-christ ; therefore there is no communion to be kept with such in their publique worship . vindicia cultus evangelici . . p. . ( ) the ministry of the church of england is false , superstitious , and idolatrous ; therefore it is unlawfull for the people of god to joyn in it . ibid. p. . [ the persons performing the publique worship in the church of england , are no officers appointed by christ ; but an anti-christian ministry , such as design'd the ruine of godlyness , and idolaters . ibid. ] ( ) i mean to make the godly reader see the distress and danger we were plunged in by the nefarious plots of iesuiticall priests and perfidious prelates ; for i may most justly link them together , like simeon and levi , brothers in iniquity , combining , and complotting to reduce us to the accursed romish religion . vicars . iehovah iireh . p. . ( ) how comes it to pass , that in england there is such encrease of popery , superstition , arminianism . and prophaneness , more then in other reformed churches ? doth not the root of these disorders proceed from the bishops , and their adherents , being forced to hold correspondency with rome , to uphold their greatness , and their courts and canons , wherein they symbolize with rome ? and whether it be not to be feared , that they will rather consent to the bringing in of popery , for the upholding of their dignities , then part with their dignities for the upholding of religion ? smectymnuus p. . ( ) the prelates late canonsand oath purposely contrived for the perpetuating of their hierarchy , and their other treacherous endeavours against the state , joyning with the papists , and with them labouring to bring all into confusion , hath helped thus far toward the taking them away root and branch , marshall to the commons , iune . . p. . [ the roman emperors wasted the saints in ten several persecutions ; but all these were nothing in comparison of this destroyer , all their loins not so heavy as the little finger of anti-christ . ibid. p. . ] ( ) we may answer all queries about the reign of christ thus , the blind begin to have their eyes unseal'd , the lame do walk at liberty , proud ones are abas'd , the mighty ones are put from their seats , errors discountenanc'd , truths enquir'd after , ceremonyes and superstitions are cast out , monuments of popery and paganil●…i cast down . caryl to the commons april . . . p. . ( ) never were there grosser idols in rome then those things , as they were used by some , and what is abus'd by superstition ; ought not to be retain'd . sedgwick . i●…n . . . p. . ( ) such a generation of men there were amongst us that by complyances with idols and idolatry went about to drive god away , and what consistence can there be between the ark and dagon , between god and idols . strickland , no. . . p. . ( ) 't is now more then manifest that rome and hell had long since taken councell ; by working to extirpate all protestant religion ; as for dissolving our laws , the introducing arbitrary government , it was but a design on the by to cajole , and hire the court to their party . ward , deut. . . p. . ( ) israel will not be cured without a full and total extirpation o all the accursed things and persons also . fair-cloth on iosh. . . p. . ( ) these ecclesiasticall offices , ceremonies , and discipline , are set up by the pope , and are an appendix or tayl of anti-christ . d. holmes on pet. . v. . . p. . ( ) they are butchers and horse-leeches ; these dragons tyranny , and bloud-thirsty proceedings are inexcusable . ha ya any . p. . and martins protestat . ( ) episcopacy must not be moderated nor reserved ; but presently and wholly taken away . answer to london-petition , fol. . ( ) the church ministry , and worship in england , are all anti-christian , from which , all gods people are in duty and conscience bound to separate themselves . eight propositions . ( ) the bishops must be utterly extirpated , no less then the romans rooted out the very name of tarquins , for the tyranny they had exercis'd : a wind to fan or cleanse will not serve their turn ; but it must be a full mighty wind to root up , and carry away the very foundation of their being . sions plea , and christ on his throne . ( ) strike neither at great nor small ; but at these troubles of israel . smite that haza●…l in the fifth rib ; yea , if father or mother stand in the way , away with them , down with the colours of the dragon , advance the standard of christ. sions plea. p. . and . notes upo●… §. . you have here the spirit of the godly party , and the false-true-protestants , set forth in their own words : and in such terms too , as paganism it self would blush at . there never was any design manag'd with so little regard to the rules of government , or the measures of charity ; truth , good manners ; or ( in one word ) of humane society . never any order of men certainly ; never any constitution , treated at that scurrilous , barharous , scandalous , and malicious rate . and yet all this while , these sanguinary , and violent incendiaries are iuggled , and impos'd upon the multitude , as the only men to reform our manners , and advance the purity of the gospel . let but the reader now compare this ribaldry with the language of the holy ghost ; this reviling of dignities with the practices , and precepts of christ and his apostles ; this uncharitable censoriousness , with that caution of our saviours , judge not , that ye be not judged ; this cruelty of rigour , and persecution with the dictate of christian forbearance ; the ways and consciences of our new-gospel professors with those of former times ; and he will easily resolve himself whether these methods , and motions be from heaven , or hell ; and how far , even in the point of ordinary prudence , as well as of christian piety , we may safely deliver our selves up to the conduct of these guides ; whose example , as well as doctrine runs directly counter to that which has been transmitted unto us by our saviour jesus christ. it will not need any artifice , or flourish to render these impious extravagances odious to any man that shall duly consider them ; for they carry their shame , and their condemnation in their foreheads . §. . the dissenters behaviour toward the civil government . ( ) what iunto's of hell have been found out ? what plots discover'd ; what cabinets of letters detected ; what actions described ; what hearts anatomiz'd ? popery , prerogati●…e , protestations , plotters , prelates , all come to light , and found desperate , and devilish . lightfoot to the commons . au. . . p. . ( ) the same spirit that actuated cain to kill his brother abel ; actuated the pharisees to kill the servants , the sons of god ; the same hath actuated these men to kill the saints . they all walk by the same bloudy principles : they have the same enraged spirit : with the same hellish rage ; rage which reacheth up to heaven , by which they have shed any of the bloud of the saints , they would have shed all ; if all the bloud that was shed from abel to this time , did run in the veins of any one child of god , they would open that vein , and let out that bloud , and spill it as water upon the ground . caligula's bloudy wish is in all their hearts ; oh that all the saints and servants of god had but one head , that with one blow i might strike it off . heyrick to the commons , may. . . p. . ( ) what shall we think of that legion ( of devils , i had almost call'd them ) who now possess the land ; and after the manner of devils indeed , seek all to rent and tear it in pieces ? i mean that colli●…vies , that heap , or gathering together of the scum and dross , and garbage of the land ; that most accursed confederacy , made up of g●…bal and ammon , and amalek , philistins , with the inhabitants of tyre , of iesuits , and papists , and atheists ; of schismaticall and infamous persons in all kinds ; with that bloudy and butcherly generation , commonly known by the name of cavaliers . io. goodwins anti-cavalierism . p. . ( ) qu. what is your name ? an. cavalier . qu. who gave you that name ? an. my seducers and deceivers in my innocency , wherein i was made a member of the church of rome , and consequently a limb of anti-christ , an enemy to all godliness , a child of the devil , and an inheritor of the kingdom of darkness , amongst the infernall spirits that rule in the air of this terrestriall globe . watsons cavaliers catechism . . p. . ( ) to call a man defender of the faith , who is a persecutor of it : o call a prophane tyrant , gracious ; o what abomina●… le falsity and flattery is this ? to call wicked , perjur'd , prophane lukes , or bloudy-minded popish arch-bishops , your grace ; what is it less then blasphemy ? it were fitter to call them your vice , then your grace . mene tekel , p. . ( ) there is very little difference between devils and wicked men . i may say without breach of charity , devils incarnate are made subject this day ; and their subjection's the subject of this days rejoycing . caryl on luke . . p. . ( ) this is the curse of god on that party ; notwithstanding god sets himself against them , yet they will not come in and repent , for god takes no pleasure in them to give them repentance . butroughs on i say . . p. . . ( ) if the retinue of iim and ojim about his majesties person , those hairy apostates from humanity it self , be in the bishops judgment , the service of god ; well may he say that the king suffers for the protection of the service of god. or if the ruine or destruction of the lamb by those walking sacks of bloud , the cavaliers , be the preservation of our laws from corrupt interpretation , it is somewhat a tolerable conjecture to think the king may suffer by it . os ossorianum . io. goodwin . p. . ( ) the cavaliers catcekism : or the reformed protestant , catechising the anti-christian papists , malignants , incendiaries , and other ill-affected persons under the name of cavaliers . ( ) i went ( saith he [ the king ] of his going to the house of commons ) attended with some gentlemen ; gentlemen indeed ; the ragged ●…fantry of stews and brothels ; the spawn and shipwrack of taverns and dicing-houses . iconoclastes . p. . a prayer for the preservation of his majesties person , &c. priest. right responds . ( ) o lord guard the person of thy servant the king. from jesuites , papists , irish rebels , and evil councellors about him . people . resp. who putteth his trust in thee . not we hope in the arm of flesh , as cavaliers , delinquents , and such enemies to the kingdom . priest. resp. send him and his armies help from thy holy place . not from denmark , belgia , france , spain , and ireland . people . resp. and evermore mightily defend them . from the insinuations of incendiaries & other promoters of this war. priest. resp. confound the designs of all those that are risen up against him . to withdraw him from his parliament , and the protection of his best subjects . people . resp. and let not their rebellious wickedness approach near to hurt him . nor any more to rob , spoil , and kill the poor people of this nation . priest. resp. oh lord hear our prayer . that our king may speedily return home from destructive misleaders . people . resp. and let our cry come unto thee . and the cry of thy peoples blood , in ireland , and england . cavaliers new common-prayer-book unclasp'd . p. . ( ) the woful miscarriages of the king himself , which we cannot but acknowledg to be many and very great in his government , that have cost the three kingdoms so dear , and cast him down from his excellency into a horrid pit of misery , almost beyond example , &c. vindication of the london ministers , p. . . ( ) the kings letter , full indeed of much evil , and demonstration of no change of heart , from his former bloody , cruel and unkingly practices , of the ruin of himself and his kingdom , as much as in him lay . vicars chron. p. . ( ) all good consciences shall condemn that course : it shall be easier for sodom and gomorrah in the day of judgment , than for such a court. admonition to the parliament . p. . notes on §. . this section is of the same spirit with the former , and only a malevolent continuation of the same design , for the overturning of the government , by rendring the king , his majesties ministers , and his friends , and the whole frame of the civil state , despicable , and as odious as the other did the bishops and the clergy . what a rabble of bug-words have we here hudled together in the first paragraph ? ( num. ) what a diabolical , and uncharitable iudgment pronounc'd upon the whole party of the king ? ( and ) what an irreverent mockery upon the catechism of the church ? ( ) what can be more insolent toward the person of our sovereign ? ( ) how rude , and how un-christian is the character pronounc'd upon the cavaliers ? ( from to . ) and then see the turning of his late majesties devotions , in his distress , into droll and buffon . ( ) the lewd reproaches cast upon that pious prince in the depth of his afflictions , by the london ministers , even in their pretended service to him : ( ) the clamorous outrage of vicars's revilings : ( ) and the parliament as ill treated by others of the same stamp , as these people treated the king. §. . the presbyterians opinion of the covenant . ( ) the covenant was the parliaments sword and buckler ; for when the cavaliers shall see ye come armed with the covenant , they will run , run , run from the presence of the lord of hosts . colemans exhortation-sermon to the commons . ( ) as god did swear for the salvation of men , and of kingdoms ; so kingdoms must now swear for the preservation and salvation of kingdoms , to establish our saviour iesus christ in england . nye upon the covenant . ( ) we know ( o lord ) that abraham made a covenant ; and moses and david made a covenant , and our saviour made a covenant ; but thy parliaments covenant is the greatest of all covenants . a lay-preacher at banbury in his prayer . ( ) look upon your covenant , i beseech ye , and do justice upon delinquents impartially , and without respect of persons . palmer to the commons , aug. . . p. . ( ) none but an atheist , papist , oppressor , rebel , or the guilty desperate cavaliers , and light and empty men can refuse the covenant . coleman , sep. . . p. . ( ) this despised covenant shall ruin malignants , sectaries and atheists : yet a little while , and behold he cometh , and walketh in the greatness of his strength , and his garments dyed with blood. oh for the sad and terrible day of the lord upon england ; their ships of tharshish ; their fenced cities , &c. because of a broken covenant . rutherfords letters . p. . ( ) i think it my last duty to enter a protestation in heaven , before the righteous judge , against the practical and legal breach of covenant , and all oaths impos'd on the consciences of the lords people , and all popish , superstitious mandates of men . ruth . lett. p. . ( ) in the league and covenant , that have been so solemnly and publiquely sworn , and renewed by this kingdom , the duty of defending , and preserving the kings majesties person , and authority , is joyned with , and subordinate to the duty of preserving and defending the true religion and liberties of the kingdoms . gillespy's useful cases of conscience . p. , . ( ) look upon the covenant to which we have lift up our hands . i tremble when i read it . we covenanted , not only against prel●…ey , but popery ; not only hierarchy , but heresie ; not only sin but schism . watson to the commons . decemb. . . ( ) will not these abjurers of the covenant , of all others , be the very chief of sinners , whilst they become guilty of no less then the very sin against the holy ghost ? or at least border as near to it as possibly may be ? o amazing vengeance ! oh most dreadful of all iudicial strokes that can fall upon the reprobate minds of men ! may not the dismal doom of francis spira be here remembred ? and solomons backslider in heart , who shall be fill'd with his own ways ? prov. . . though to commit murther upon the high-way , and to do it deliberately , and in cool blood too , be a most horrid crime against the very light of nature , and against the second table ; yet how short doth it come of this ; the highest of all crimes imaginable ? a crime that murthers conscience ! that murthers souls ! that murthers religion it self ! a crime against the first table ! most immediately against the sovereign god! and the greatest of that nature , that men can be guilty of . three mens speeches . p. . ( ) q. whether seeing the covenant was made to god almighty , all persons by the covenant were not bound to bring delinquents to punishment ? and whether the long parliament did not declare the late king to be a delinquent , let god and the world judge ? the valley of achor , . q. . ( ) i do solemnly declare , as a dying man , who dare not dissemble ; that as i thought , and still aver that the erecting of this abjured prelacy is the cause of much of the sin in the land , and of all the sufferings of the lords people ▪ so i had no worse design , then the restoring of the work of reformation according to the covenant , and more particularly , the extirpation of prelacy ▪ &c. naphtali . the testimony of alexander robertson , p. . ( ) oh might this privilege be offered to the apostate angels , which kept not the covenant of their creation , nor consequently their first estate , and to the rest of the damned souls in hell ? would god send an angel from heaven to preach unto them a second covenant , upon the laying hold whereon , and closing wherewith , they might be receiv'd into grace and favour : how would those poor damned spirits bestir themselves ? what rattling of their red hot chains ? what shaking of their fiery locks ? in a word ; what an uproar of joy would there be in hell , upon such glad tydings ? case's quarrel of the covenant . dec. . p. . ( ) there is much sin in making a covenant on sinful grounds , and there is more sin in keeping it ; but when the preservation of true religion , and the vindication of iust liberties , meet in the ground-work , ye may swear , and not repent ; yea , if you swear , you must not repent . caryl , oct. . . p. . ( ) let them first shave their heads , and pare their nails , as the strange virgin of old was commanded to do , and so let them enter into that sacred and dreadful covenant . bond to the commons on isa. . . oct. . . p. . notes upon §. . it is but suitable that the blasphemy , heresy , and sedition that went to the framing of this oath of conspiracy , should be follow'd with an answerable measure of wickedness , in the promoting of it , and in the execution : whereof you have here three notorious instances . ( num. , , . ) and a clause that draws blood upon the king himself . ( ) a brand upon all the refusers of it ; ( ) and another sanguinary clause . ( ) a protestation against soveraign authority . ( ) and a jesuitical exposition of the meaning of it . ( . . ) the breach of it , no less than a sin against the holy ghost . ( ) and the murther of the late king iustifi'd , upon the obligation of it . ( ) the malice of the confederacy own'd at the last gasp. ( ) a most impious and phantastical exaggeration of the blessed privileges of that brand. ( ) the cheat. ( ) and a foppish allusion to the pretended solemnity and sacredness of it . ( ) so that upon the main , the covenanters do assert , first , the indissolvable tye of that oath : secondly , the intent of it to be the dissolution of the government : and in the third place , so often as every they move for a toleration , they do as good as desire the king in plain terms , that he will be graciously pleased to give them leave to serve his majesty as they did his father . §. . dissenters liberty of conscience . ( ) that there may be a thorough and speedy proceeding against blind guides , and scandalous ministers , by whose wickedness people either lack or loath the ordinances of the lord ; and thousands of souls perish , and the removal of the ark from among us , is ( to the trembling of our hearts ) evidently threatned . and that your wisdoms would find out some way to admit into the ministry such godly and hopeful men as have prepared themselves , and are willing thereunto ; without which , there will be such a scarcity of able and faithful ministers , that it will be to little purpose to cast out such as are unable , idle , or scandalous . the assemblies petition to both houses of parliament , july . . husbands collections , ( part ) fol. . his highness , by the advice of his council doth publish , declare , and order that no person or persons aforesaid , do , from and after the first day of january , . keep in their houses or families as chaplains , or school-masters for the education of their children , any sequester'd or ejected minister , fellow of a college , or school-master , nor permit any of their children to be taught by such , upon pain of being proceeded against in such sort as the said orders do direct in such cases . and that no person who hath been sequestred , or ejected out of any benefice , college , or school , for delinquency , or scandal , shall from and after the first day of january , keep any school either publick or private , nor any person who after that time shall be ejected for the causes aforesaid . ( ) and that no person , who for delinquency , or ●…candal , hath been sequester'd or ejected , shall from and after the first day of january aforesaid , preach in any publick place , or at any private meeting of any other persons then those of his own family ; nor shall administer baptism , or the lords supper , or marry any persons , or use the book of common prayer , or the forms of prayer therein contained , upon pain that every person so offending in any of the premises , shall be proceeded against as by the said order is provided and directed . olivers declaration , nov. . . a confession of faith to be agreed by your highness , and the parliament , according to the rule and warrant of the scriptures , to be asserted , held forth and recommended to the people of these nations , so that this liberty be not extended to popery or prelact . humble petition and advice . may . . notes on §. . not to cloy the reader with repetitions out of my first part , upon this subject ; i shall pass over the whole history of the late persecution , with this short note upon 't : that as it was levell'd at the destruction both of church and state , so it fell heaviest upon persons of condition , honesty , and letters , as the men most sensible of the tyes of honour and duty . and i shall now content my self with these few instances of the rigour of those times ; which methinks might stop the mouths of those that cry out so loud against the uncompassionate severity of the present age. what were the blind guides , and scandalous ministers , &c. ( num. ) but the canonical clergy , that were forc'd away from their livings , and their families , by a popular rage and violence , under the countenance of that diabolical slander ? neither was the loss of their lawful possessions , and the ordinary comforts of life sufficient to expiate for their piety , integrity and virtue , without their adversaries doing as much as in them lay , to starve them too . ( and ) and this was the liberty of conscience of those days . is it not a reasonable proposition now , for those men that gave no quarter to the church upon that revolution , to mutiny for the same liberty again of destroying it ? and for the whole schism that from time to time , by common agreement , excluded the prelacy , to expect that the ecclesiastical government should be now torn to pieces in their favour ? §. . the power of the kirk . ( ) if the prince , with gideon , nadab , abihu , and saul , will intermeddle with gods warrant , as she ( q. eliz. ) hath done with matters of religion , with god's matters , she must think it no injury to be disobey'd . soldier of berwick cited by the author of an answer to a factious libel , entitled , an abstract of several acts of parliament , &c. ( ) kings no less then the rest , must obey and yield to the just authority of the ecclesiastical magistrates . ecclesiastical discip. p. . ( ) the consistory may , and ought to admonish the magistrate , which is negligent in punishing vice. danaeus . par. . isag. li. . cap. . and also may upon knowledge of the cause taken , excommunicate , even the chief magistrate , unto the which he ought to submit himself . ibid. ca. . ( ) princes must remember to subject themselves to the church , and to submit their scepters , to throw down their crowns before the church ; yea to lick the dust of the feet of the church . t. cartwright . p. . ( ) every eldership is the tribunal seat of christ. beza de presb. p. . ( ) the holy discipline ought to be set up , and all princes to submit themselves under the yoke of it : what prince , king , or emperour shall disanul the same ; he is to be reputed gods enemy , and to be held unworthy to reign above his people . knox exhort . to eng. p. . &c. ( ) our church-history tells , that mr. andrew melvin , that faithful and zealous servant of christ , would not answer before the king and the council for his alledged treasonable discourse in a sermon , until he had first given in a plain and formal protestation ; and the like was done by worthy mr. david blake upon the like occasion ; and the protestation was approved , and signed by a good part of the church of scotland , . hist. indul. p. . ( ) the irreligiousness , antichristianism and exorbitancy of this explicatory , and ( as to some things ) ampliatory act , and assertion of the kings supremacy in church-affairs ( of nov. . ) this supra-papal supremacy . hist. indul. p. . ( ) the accepters of the indulgence are chargeable with high treason against the king of kings , our lord iesus christ. hist. indul. p. . ( ) christ breaks and moulds commonwealths at his pleasure . he hath not spoke much in his word , how long they shall last , or what he intends to do with them : only this , that all kings and kingdoms that make war against the church , shall be broken a pieces ; and that in the end , all the kingdoms of the world shall be the kingdoms of our lord , and his saints ; and they shall reign over them . marshal to the commons , june . . p. . ( ) what was our posture and practice , after we had so stupidly stood by , till we saw the whole work overturn'd , without offering to interpose effectually to prevent its ruine , or to fall with it ? hist. of indulgence , pref. . ( speaking of the action of bothwell-bridge . ) ( ) the father having given to christ all power , both in heaven and in earth , and the rule and regiment of this kingdom , he hath committed to monarchies , aristocracies or democracies , as the several combinations and associations of the people shall between themselves think good to elect and erect . god leaves people to their own liberty in this case . case on isaiah , . . p. . ( ) they were carrying on a malignant interest ; to wit , the establishing the king in the exercise of his power in scotland , and the re-investing him with the government in england , when he had not yet abandoned his former enmity to the work and people of god ; and the securing of power in their own hands under him . gillespies useful case of conscience . p. . ( ) there was a sin in the peoples joyning , because few or none of those who did joyn , did give any testimony against the magistrates employing of the malignant party . ibid. ( ) after the treaty was brought to some close , the king did , before his coming to sea , receive the sacrament of the lords supper from one of the prelatical chaplains , and according to the service-book , &c. notwithstanding the commissioners of the kirk did represent the evil thereof to him . gillespies useful case of conscience discuss'd . p. . another exception , that the king did not think his father guilty of blood. ibid. ( ) was there not cause to scruple at the taking of this oath [ of allegeance ] which would have imported , . a condemning of the convention of estates in scotland , . . a condemning of the parliaments , an. . . . . . . . as also the committees and parliaments thereafter , an. . . . . a condemning of all the acts made by these parliaments . . a condemning of all the meetings , councils , and conventions of the subjects , at the beginning of the late work of reformation . . a condemning of the league and covenant . . a condemning of scotlands joyning with , and helping of england in the day of their streight . . a condemning of the renewing of the national covenant , . . . a condemning of the general assembly , . and several others thereafter . . a condemning of scotlands rising in arms in their own defence against the popish , prelatical , and malignant party . . a condemning of their seizing upon forts and castles in their own defence [ an apol●…getical relation of the sufferings of the scotch ministers , . p. . . ] ( ) we ought to consider ( the conditions of the kings letter of indulgence to the kirk , iune . . ) what is accounted living peaceably , and orderly , by such as propose this qualification : and that sure to speak it in the smoothest of ter●…s , is a negative compliance with all their tyranny , oppression of church and country , blood-shed , overturning of the work of god , establishing iniquity by law , perjury , apostacy , re-establishing of perjur'd prelates , and abjured prelacy . hist. of indulg . p. . ( ) we remarque further , that the letter saith , that none of these ministers have any seditious discourses or expressions in pulpit or elsewhere : and what is understood here , by seditious discourses or expressions we cannot be ignorant ? but now what conscientious ministers can either tacitly promise such a thing , or upon the highest peril , forbear to utter such discourses ? or who can think that any such thing can be yielded unto , who considereth what god requireth of ministers , in reference to a corrupted and apostatized state ? and what the weight of the blood of souls is . hist. indul. p. . ( ) the unparallel'd perfidy , and breach of covenant : the most abominable , irreligious , inhumane , and tyrannical acts made for establishing of this wicked course of defection . hist. indul. p. . ( ) christ and his apostles were the greatest of conventicle preachers , and almost preached no other way , wanting always the authority of the supream magistrate , and yet not waiting upon their indulgence . hist. indul. p. . ( ) they have power to abrogate and abolish all statues and ordinances concerning ecclesiastical matters that are found noysom and unprofitable ; and agree not with the time , or are abused by the people . book of discipline , cap. . [ to discipline must all the estates within this realm be subject , as well the rulers , as they that are ruled . lib. disc. cap. . ( ) as the ministers , and others of the ecclesiastical state are subject to the magistrate-civil , so ought the person of the magistrate be subject to the kirk spiritually , and in ecclesiastical government . lib. disc. c. . ( ) as ministers are subject to the judgment and punishment of the magistrate in external things , if they offend ; so ought the magistrates to submit themselves to the discipline of the kirk , if they transgress in matters of conscience and religion . ibid. ( ) the national assemblies of this country ( called commonly the general assemblies ) ought always to be retained in their own liberty , and have their own place ; with power to the kirk to appoint times and places , and convenient for the same : and all men , as well magistrates as inferiors , to be subject to the judgment of the same , in ecclesiastical causes , without any reclamation , or appellation to any judge , civil , or ecclesiastical within the realm . lib. disc. c. . ( ) the princes and magistrates not being exemed , and these that are placed in the ecclesiastical estate , rightly ruling , governing , god shall be glorified , &c. lib. disc. c. . ( ) the ministers exerce not the civil jurisdiction ; but teach the magistrate how it should be exercised according to the word . ( ) to disobey or resist any that god hath placed in authority ( while they pass not over the bounds of their office ) we confess , or affirm to be sin . large confess . art. . ( ) we confess and avow that such as resist the supream power , doing that thing which appertaineth to his charge , do resist god's ordinance , and therefore cannot be guiltless , ibid. art. . ( ) blasphemy , adultery , murder , perjury , and other crimes capital , worthy of death , ought not properly to f●…ll under censure of the kirk , because all such open transgressors of gods law ought to be taken away by the civil sword. book of discip. cap. . ( ) in the fear of god , we signifie unto your honours , that whosoever persuades you that ye may pardon where god commandeth death , deceives your souls , and provokes you to offend god's majesty . book of disc. cap. . ( ) the magistrate commandeth external things for external peace and quietness among the subjects : the minister handleth external things only for conscience-cause . lib. disc. cap. . ( ) if the offender abide an assise , and by the same be absolved , then may not the church pronounce excommunication ; but justly may exhort the man , by whose hand the blood was shed to enter into consideration with himself how precious is the life of man before god , and how severely god commandeth blood , howsoever it be shed , except it be by the sword of the magistrate , to be punished : and so may enjoyn unto him such satisfaction , to be made publick to the church , as may bear testification of his obedience and unfeigned repentance . psalm-book in the order of excommunication . ( ) wanton and vain words , uncomly gestures , negligence in hearing the preaching , or abstaining from the lords table , when it is publiquely ministred ; suspicion of avarice , or of pride ; superfluity or riotousness in chear or raiment : these we say , and such others , that of the world are not regarded , deserve admonition amongst the members of christs body — — if he continues stubborn , then the third sunday ought he to be charged publiquely , to satisfie the church for his offence and contempt , under the pain of excommunication . psalm book in the order of publique repentance . ( ) it is ordained , that every thursday , the ministers and elders in their assembly or consistory , diligently examine all such faults and suspicions as may be espied , not only amongst others , but chiefly amongst themselves . psalm-book . sect. of the weekly assembly . ( ) in every notable town , we require that one day beside the sunday be appointed to the sermon and prayers ; which during the time of sermon , must be kept from all exercise of labour , as well of the master as the servant . lib. disc. cap. . of policy . notes on §. . there can be no better antidote against the poyson of a presbyteria●… government , than the very orders of their discipline , which are the most unanswerable condemnation of the party . you have here a more than papal tyranny in the usurpations of the kirk over kings and princes in the first clauses : treason it self exempted from the cognizance of the civil power . ( num. . ) the kings supremacy not only disclaimed , but the bare acknowledgment of it made criminal . ( & ) all the governments of the world subjected to the holy discipline , and rebellion it self abetted and maintained . ( & ) sovereign power vested in the multitude . ( ) the restoring of the king condemn'd . ( & ) and the objections against it ; his receiving the sacrament from a prelatical hand , according to the order of the church , and the charging his father with the guilt of blo●…d . ( ) the taking of the o●…th of allegiance and the acceptance of the kings indulgence pronounced utterly unlawful ( , ) conventicle-preachers warranted from the precedent of christ and his apostles . ( ) the ministers above their sovereign . ( , , . ) princes upon their good behaviour , and accountable to the presbytery , if they transgress their bounds ( , , , . ) the power of life and death taken from the magistrate . ( , ●… , ) the minister us●…rps the civil power . ( ) the presbytery take upon them to punish malefactors when the law has acquitted them . ( ) and call people to account for their very thoughts , cloaths , gestures , nay a suspition is enough to make a body lyable to their censure . ( ) they make two sabba●…hs in the week more than god ever commanded ; and by the same authority they may set apa●…t all the rest . ( . . ) this is enough said to shew the shameful and intolerable rigour of that government . §. . principles and positions . ( ) when the supream magistrate will not execute the judgment of the lord , those who made him supream magistrate under god , who have under god , sovereign liberty to dispose of crowns and kingdoms , are to execute the judgment of the lord , when wicked men make the law of god of none effect , sam. . . so samuel killed ag●…g , whom the lord expresly commanded to be kill'd , because saul disobey'd the voice of the lord. lex rex . p. . ( ) shall it excuse the states to say , we could not judge the cause of the poor , nor crush the priests of baal , and the idolatrous mass ▪ prelates , because the king forbad us ? lex rex . p. . ( ) the kings power is fiduciary , and put in his hand upon trust , and must be ministerial , and borrow'd from those who put him in trust , and so his power must be less , and derived from the parliament . lex rex . p. . ( ) the magistrate hath no power to suppose things doubtful and disputable , upon the practice of any in the service of god ; and therefore it cannot be lawful for any to obey him when he so imposes . e. bagshaw of things indifferent . part. . p. . ( ) our fundamentals were not made by our representatives , but by the people themselves ; and our representatives themselves limited by them ; which it were good that parliaments as well as people would observe and be faithful to : for no derivative power can null what their primitive power hath established . the english-man . p. . ( ) royal primogeniture alone , without the peoples consent , is no rightful title to the government ; nor hath the eldest son , or heir of the king , any right to the government by birth , unless the people consent to chuse him thereto . mene-tekel . p. . ( ) the parliaments of england , and often the people without the parliament , have ( in their addresses to the king ) given him the title of lord , in a way of honour and respect ; but when he hath refused to perform his duty to them , and endeavoured by his unlawful prerogative to abridge them of their liberties , they have made him understand his relation , and by force of arms asserted their own privileges , and sometimes compelled the king to perform his duty , other times deposed him from the government ; as the people of israel did rehoboam upon the same account ; and so have most , if not all the nations in the world done the same . ibid. pag. . ( ) rising up against authority it self , the ordinance of god , and disobeying the powers therewith vested , standing and acting in their right line of subordination , is indeed rebellion , and as the sin of witchcraft ; but to resist , and rise up against persons abusing sacred authority , and rebelling against god , the supream , is rather to adhere to god as our liege lord , and to vindicate both our selves and his abused ordinance from man's wickedness and tyranny . naphtali . p. . ( ) the power of the king abused to the destruction of laws , religion , and subjects , is a power contrary to law , evil , and tyrannical , and tyeth no man to subjection . lex rex . p. . ( ) if we consider the fountain-power , the king is subordinate to parliament , and not co-ordinate , for the constituent is above that which is constituted . lex rex . p. . ( ) whensoever a king , or other supream authority creates an inferiour , they invest it with a legitimacy of magistratical power to punish themselves also in case they prove evil doers ; yea , and to act any other thing requisite for the praise and encouragement of the good. io. goodwins right and might well met , . p. . ( ) the people is not king formally , because the people is eminently more than the king ; for they make david king , and saul king. lex rex . p. . ( ) the laws are in the hands of the parliament to change or abrogate as they shall see best for the common-wealth ; even to the taking away of kingship it self , when it grows too masterful and burdensome . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . p. . ( ) the parliament sit in that body , not as his subjects , but as his superiors , call'd , not by him , but by the law ; not only twice every year , but as oft as great affaire require , to be his counsellors and dictators , though he stomack it , nor to be dissolved at his pleasure , but when all grievances be first removed , all petitions heard and answered . ibid. p. . ( ) our covenant was not taken without the royal authority of the king , though it be condemn'd by his personal command ; for as long as this parliament of england continueth , the royal authority and power is annexed to it , by vertue of that act of continuance : so that the king of england , in his power , may still be at westminster , though king charles in his person be at oxford , or elsewhere . the covenanters catechism , . p. . ( ) if a people that by oath and duty are obliged to a sovereign , shall sinfully dispossess him , and contrary to their covenants , chuse and covenant with another ; they may be obliged by their latter covenants , notwithstanding the former . ho. com. p . ( ) though the perfidious parliament ( or rather mock parliament ) have lately betrayed their own trust , and our liberties ; making it treason for us to mention the cruel tyranny and oppression we groan under ; yet by the ancient laws of england , this man that rules at present , is no rightful king of england ; but by oppressing the nation , and persecuting the lords people , hath loss the title of a king , and the name of a king doth not agree to him , but tyrant is the name due to him . mene-tekel . p. . ( ) q. whether the title of supream , be not rather nominal than real ? valley of acbor . p. . ( ) our war has been proved over and over ( to unbiast consciences ) to be just. caryl to the commons . april . . p. . ( ) if the king raise war against the parliament upon their declaration of the dangers of the common-wealth , in that case people may not only resist him , but also he ceases to be a king. baxter , h. common-wealth . thes. . ( ) it is our duty to yield to this authority all active and chearful obedience in the lord , even for conscience sake . ibid. ( ) a refusal to be subject to this authority , under the pretence of upholding the title of any one upon earth , is a refusal to acquiesce in the wise and righteous pleasure of god. ienkins petition . printed oct. . . ( ) the king must command , not only according to god's , but man's laws : and if he do not so command , the resistance is not a resistance of power ; but will. bridges to the commons , feb. . . pref. ( ) let not the sons of belial say there is no law now ; let them not be as when there was no king in israel , every man doing that which was right in his own eyes ; let them know that the kingly power resides in the high court of parliament . pickering . no. . . epist. ded. ( ) subjects do promise obedience , that the magistrate might help them ; which if he do not , they are discharg'd of their obedience . goodman . p. . ( ) judges ought by the law of god to summon princes before them for their crimes , and to proceed against them as against all other offenders . obedience . p. . ( ) scotland fought for themselves , and their own safety ; and whatever law will warrant nations now to joyn together against the turk , will warrant scotland their joyning with england against their common-enemy . apologet. relat. p. . ( ) a war raised by the parliament against the common enemy , in defence of the kings honour , the safety of the people , and the purity of religion , cannot be condemned as unjust and illegal . apol. rel. p. . ( ) it was the common practice of the parliaments of scotland ( and lex currit cum praxi ) to rise in arms against their kings , when they turned tyrants . ibid. . ( ) it is lawful for the inferiour and subordinate magistrates to defend the church and common-wealth , when the supream magistrate degenerates and falleth into tyranny , or idolatry ; for kings are subject to their common-wealths . canterburies doom . p. . &c. ( ) the parliament have declar'd the supream power to be in themselves exclusively without a king or house of lords . and they are the powers that now are , as hath been cleared . saunders . mar. . . p. . ( ) it is altogether lawful for the parliament to take up arms for the defence of the liberty , or any other imaginable cause against any party countenanced by the kings presence against his laws . baylyes review . p. . ( ) the votes , orders , and ordinances of the lords and commons in parliament , even without or against the kings personal command , are to be obey'd and observ'd . c●…oftons fastening of st. peters fetters . p. . ( ) a reformation is setled by highest authority , in despight of papists , prelate , pope or devil . staunton to the commons . april . . p. . ( ) is it so high a crime for the great council of the nation to determine things necessary for the safety of king and kingdom , without consent of his majesty , when it cannot be obtained ? newcomen to the commons . nov. . . p. . ( ) you are ambassadors of the greatest king. the great things of heaven and earth are committed to your care ; the glory of iehovah , the gospel of christ , the welfare of churches , the good of kingdoms , and in some respect , of the whole christian world , is in your hands . greenhil to the commons . april . . p. . ( ) there is no danger in resisting acts of tyranny ; for tyrants exercising tyranny , are no terror to evil doers . apol. rel. . ( ) the authority and gods ordinance can never do wrong ; but the corrupt person placed in authority may offend , so that the king as king , is one thing , and the king acting tyranny is another thing . knox hist. li. . p. . notes on §. . the king render'd accountable to his subjects . ( num. , . ) his power fiduciary , and not to be obey'd in doubtful cases . ( , ) the people the fountain of power . ( , . ) and may depose their sovereign if he fails in his duty . ( ) the abuse of his power is the forfeiture of it . ( , . ) his parliament is above him . ( , . ) and so are the people . ( . the parliament are his superiors , and may depose him . ( , . ) the kings power at westminster , though his person may be at oxford . ( ) the people may discharge themselves of their allegiance . ( ) the crown forfeitable and f●…rfeited . ( ) supremacy only a complement . ( ) the late war justifi'd , and the resistance lawful . ( , . ) cromwel to be obey'd for conscienoe sake . ( , . ) resistance allowable . ( ) the parliament are supream , and the subjects obedience conditional . ( , . ) princes punishable as well as others . ( ) the scottish invasion defended . ( , . ) and the taking up of arms against tyrants . ( ) kings subject to their states . ( ) the commons , and the parliament-war defended ( , , , , , & . ) tyranny is not gods ordinance . ( , . ) let the reader judge now what any man can design , that exposes and supports these positions , but the ruin of the government . §. . tumults encouraged , and chiefly by the [ able , holy , faithful , laborious , and truly-peaceable preachers of the gospel : ] petition for peace . p. . ( ) it is not unknown , nor unobserved by the wise , that the ministers have been very serviceable to the civil state , and to the military too : not only by their supplications to god for good success in all their undertakings , and their happy proceedings in all their warlike marches and motions , as at the removal of the ark , ( num. . . ) rise up lord , and let thine enemies be scatter'd ; let them that hate thee flee before thee . but ( ) by their informations ; and ( ) solicitations of the people to engage both their estates and persons in the case of god and their country . iohn ley's examination of the new quere , . epis. ded. to the lord mayor . ( ) and we do not repent of any part of our pains , or pressures , or perils , so long as we may be serviceable to so good a cause , and to such good and gracious masters , as under christ they [ the parliament ] have hitherto approved themselves towards us : and i hope we may without boasting , say by way of apology , that we have not been altogether their unprofitable servants , in respect ( ) of our interest in , and ( ) endeavours with the people ; ( without whom the greatest kings are rather cyphers than figures , and destitute both of honour and safety , prov. . ) ( ) to inform their iudgments , and ( ) to enflame their zeal , and ( ) to oblige their consciences , and ( ) to fasten their affections in loyalty and fidelity to those worthy patriots , whom they have in their choice and votes of election entrusted with the religion , the lives and estates of themselves and their posterity . hyde , p. . sect. . ( ) after-ages will abominate their baseness and villanies , that have lifted up their hands against the parliament : but the fsthers , the mordecais , the religious patriots , that have acted in this sphear ; the brave soldiers , whose lives were not dear unto them ; the faithful ministers , ( the horse-men and the chariots of israel ) they shall be had in everlasting remembrance . heyrick to the commons , may. . . p. . ( ) you are required to commend to god in your prayers , the lord general , the whole army employ'd in the parliaments service , as also in your sermons effectually to stir up the people , to appear in person , and to joyn with the army ; to stand up for our religion and liberties , as is desired and expected by the army , and the committee for the militia in this city . penningtons order to the london ministers , ap. . ( ) the work of reformation still goes on . there we do get ground ; as to perfect a protestation into a covenant ; to ripen an impeachment into a root and branch : and in a word , to settle an assembly of divines as a general refiners fire , to try all metals of the church . bond. to the commons . march . . p. . ( ) the assembly petition'd both houses for a fast , and the removing of blind guides and scandalous ministers , destroying all monuments of idolatry and superstition ; the executing of justice upon all delinquents , according to the solemn and religious vow and protestation for that purpose ; that so god , who is now by the sword avenging the quarrel of his covenant , beholding the integrity and zeal of the two houses , might turn from the fierceness of his wrath , hear their prayers , go forth with their armies , and perfect the work of reformation , &c. ex. col. july . . p. . ( ) i must truly tell ye , that before these late wars , it pleas'd the lord to call me by his grace , through the work of the ministry ; and afterwards keeping a day of humiliation in fasting and prayer , with mr. simeon ash , mr. love , mr. woodcock , and other ministers in laurence-lane , they did so clearly state the cause of the parliament , that i was fully convinc'd in my own conscience of the justness of the war ; and thereupon engaged in the parliaments service , which ( as i did , and do believe ) was the cause of the lord. i ventur'd my life freely for it , and now dye for it . nine mens speeches . axtel at his execution . p. . ( ) it cannot be unknown how much we , and other ministers of this city and kingdom , that faithfully adhered to the parliament , have injuriously smarted under the scourge of evil tongues , and pens , ever since the first eruption of the unhappy differences , and unnatural war between the king and parliament , for our obedience to the commands and orders of the honourable houses , in their contests with his majesty , and conflicts with his armi●…s . london-ministers vindicati●…n . . p. . ( ) when we consider how much it concerns the honour of our master , and the good of all , to preserve our ministerial function immaculate , we dare not but stand by , and assert the integrity of our hearts , and the innocency of all our actings ( in reference to the king and kingdom ) for which we are so much calumniated and traduced . ibid. p. . ( ) doubtless the lord is highly displeased with their proccedings in the treaty at newport , in reference to religion and covenant , concerning which they accepted of such concessions from his majesty , as being acquiesced in , were dangerous and destructive to both . the kirks testimony against toleration . p. . . ( ) i pray look on me as one that comes among you this day , to beat a drum in your ears , to see who will come out and follow the lamb. marshall . . ( ) the sabbath-day following , next after their arrival to london from branford , the godly and well-affected ministers , throughout the city , preached and praised the lord publiquely , for their so joyful and safe return home to their parents , masters , and friends , exhorting those young soldiers of christ's army royal still to retain 〈◊〉 be forward and ready to shew their courage and zeal 〈◊〉 of gods cause , and their countrys welfare , shewing 〈◊〉 of their adversaries to have introduced popery and 〈◊〉 kingdom , and assuring them that this war , on 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 waged and managed by papists , an army of papists being 〈◊〉 the kings command , contrary to his vows , protestations , and deep asseverations to the contrary . iehova-iireh . p. . ( ) my house was a receptacle for godly ministers in the worst of times : here was the remonstrance fram'd against the prelates : here were all meetings , &c. mr. calamy's apology against burton . . ( ) you must do , and you must do , and yet you must do , and yet ye must do , as long as there is a penny in thy purse ; as long as there is strength in thy hand ; as long as there is breath in thy body , &c. sedgwick's speech at guildhall . octob. . . ( ) i may not omit here to speak of all the faithful presbyterian ministers in this city , as well as through the country ; those chariots and horse-men of our israel , though now forgotten ; many of the which , not only ventur'd their lives in battel , but by holding up their hands as moses did , when the people of israel fought against the enemy , and by the lifting up their hearts and voices to god with strong crys , made all our armies abroad , and our counsels at home to prosper , and all our undertakings happily to succeed : neither is that all , but by their wisdom , vigilancy , and powerful and persuasive preaching , they were the principal means under god of keeping the people here , and every where , in obedience to the parliament , by resolving their doubts , satisfying their scruples , and going before the people to their abilities , yea ( many of them , to my knowledg , out of zeal to the cause ) beyond their abilities , in all contributions , animating and encouraging others to bring in their plate and moneys , and whatsoever was of price and esteem with them ; exhorting them , now if ever , to stand for their religion , lives , liberties , and the liberty of the subject . bastwicks appendix to indep . &c. p. . ( ) i am one who out of choice and judgment have embarqued my self , my wife , children , estate , and all that 's dear to me in the same ship with you , to sink and perish , or to come safe to land with you , and that in the most doubtful and difficult times . — pleading your cause , justifying your wars , satisfying many that scrupled ; and when your affairs were at lowest , and the chance of war against ye , and some of the grandees and favorites of these times were packing up , and ready to be gone ; i was then highest , and m●…st zealous for ye : preaching , praying , stirring up the people to stand for ye ▪ by going out in person , lending of money , &c. edwards gangraena . ep. ded , notes upon §. . after these proofs and declarations of the ministers zeal and industry , for the promoting , supporting , and carrying on of the late bloody , impious , and unnatural war , let not any man take upon him any longer to acquit the nonconformist divines of the guilt and consequences of that execrable rebellion . you have here under their hands , and from their own tongues , not only a confession of the fact , but a valuing of themselves ( even to the degree of vanity and ostentation ) for what they did toward the advancing of that sedition , as a most meritorious service . nay , they do not stick to acknowledge that the war could hardly have proceeded without them . there 's no evading or qualifying the dint of this charge , since we have their own papers in iudgment against them . §. . the war iustified . ( ) let us set hand and heart , and shoulder and all , to advance the lords sion to a perfection of beauty , and to set up christ upon his throne . whites centuries . pref. . ( ) did ever any parliament in england lay the cause of christ and religion to heart , as this hath done ? — did ever the city of london , the rest of the tribes , and the godly party throughout the land , so willingly exhaust themselves that christ might be set up ? marshal to the commons , . p. . and then let all england cry that our blood , our poverty , &c. are abundantly repaid in this , that there is such a concurrence to set up the lord christ upon his throne , to be lord and christ over this our israel . p. . ( ) as the spirit of the lord came upon sampson , and iephta●… , and david , so hath it been in our conflicts : the spirit of the lord hath come upon our noble general , and all our commanders : the spirit of the lord hath come upon our gallants . gentlemen , young men , faithful country-men , renowned citizens : so that he that was we●…k among them is as david ▪ and he that was as david , hath been as the angel of the lord. case to the commons , . p. . ( ) tell them from the holy ghost ( says beech ) from the word of truth , that their destruction shall be terrible , it shall be timely , it shall b●… total . serm. licensed by mr. cranferd , p. ●… . and ibid. o give th●…nks unto the lord , for he is gracious , and his mercy endur●…th for ever ; who remembred us at 〈◊〉 , for his mercy endureth for ever ; who remembred us in 〈◊〉 shi●…e , for his mercy endureth for ever : who remembred us at leicester , for his mercy , &c. who remembred us at taunt●…n , for his mercy , &c. who remembred us at bristol , for his mercy , &c. p. . ( ) as sampson with the philistims , so let us die with babylon ; if we cannot out-live anti christ , and the enemies of reformation , let us adventure our selves to death in the cause , yea l●…t us take h●…ld of the pillars of the church of dagon , of the temple of anti-christ , and say , now let me die with anti-christ , rome and babylon . bond . p. . ( ) god hath put you in his own place , god hath grac'd you with his own name , lord of hosts , general of armies ; god hath committed to your care what is most precious to himself , precious gospel , precious ordinances , a precious parliament , a precious people ; god hath called forth your excellency as a choice worthy to be a general , and the champion of iesus christ , to fight the great and last battel with anti-christ in this your native kingdom . palmer to the e. of essex , . ep. ded. ( ) whether the stupendious providences of god manifested among us in the destruction of the late king , and his adherents , in so many pitcht battels , and in this nations universal forsaking of charles stuart , and the total overthrow of him , and his army ; whether by these providences , god hath not plainly removed the government of charles stuart , and bestowed it upon others , as ever he removed and bestowed any government by any providence in any age ? whether a refusal to yield obedience and subjection to this present government be not a refusal to acquiesce in the wise and righteous pleasure of god , and a flat breach of the fifth commandment ? w. ienkins's conscientious quaeries , . p. . ( ) the pren●…ices and porters were stimulated , and stir'd up by god's providence ; thousands of them to petition the parliament for speedy relief . palmer to the e. of essex , . ep. ded. ( ) remember how far i have gone with ye in the war : and shall i be affraid of my old most intimate friends ? bax. holy com. pref. to the army . ( ) if i had known that the parliament had been the beginners , and in most fault , yet the ruin of our trustees , and representatives , so of all the security of the nation ▪ is a punishment greater than any fault of theirs against the king can from him deserve ; and their faults cannot disoblige me from defending the common-wealth . ho. com. p. ●… . ( ) if the king venture into battel , and hazard his person , we are sorry for it ; and he hath been most humbly requested by the honourable houses of parliament not to expose his royal person unto such extremities . but i●… his evil council prevail more with him , than the good advice of the parliament , we wash our hands in innocency , and plead not guilty of any evil that may befall his majesties person in the like occasions . in the mean while we must not forbear to defend our religion and liberties against our bloody enemies , but go on couragiously , and play the men to fight for our people , and for the cities of our god. sam. ●… . & . the covenanters catechisms , . p. . ( ) i think i have not read of many assemblies o●… worthi●…r men since the apostles days . bax. answer to dr. s●…llingfleet . p. . ( ) phinehas executes justice upon great ones , and what follow'd ? a commotion ? no , g●…d's w●…ath was ●…urn'd away , and a covenant of peace made . greenhil . april . . p. . ( ) this is a time wherein we should all unite against the common enemy that seeks to devour us all . calamy to the commons . decemb. . . p. . notes on §. . it is no wonder , after the foundation of a war so fairly laid , to see the peaceable preachers of the gospel ( as they call themselves ) well ●…nough satisfied to reap the fruits of their own labours : nor could any other be expected , then that the seeds of so pestilent a sedition should quickly grow up into a rank rebellion . the best that can be said for them , is , that the broil went farther then they intended ; or otherwise , that they were misled into a mistake of the question in hand : but even in this point also , they have left themselves without excuse ; for 't is a clear case , that their zeal and confidence increas'd with their successes . and all their care was at first for his majesties honour and safety , and to bring him home to his parliament , out of the hands of cut-throats and papists . they were up at every turn , with the maxim , that the king could do no wrong ; and all the blame was laid upon his ministers . this way of pretended tenderness for his majesties authority and person , implys their secret consciousness of a legal duty ; only 't was too early days yet to take off the masque . now their judgment upon the point was the same afterwards , as at first ; but as they gather'd strength they grew bolder too , and the last violence was no more than the putting of their first thoughts in execution . and whoever observes the method and the scope of their proceedings , will find their principles varying with their fortunes ; and the deepest professors of veneration for the dignity of the king , and his government in the beginning prove the most daring insulters upon his imperial regalities and honour in the conclusion . but to the next section . §. . reformation by blood. . ●… have often thought that too much mercy towards malignants hath made more delinquents than ever iustice hath punished . mercy should not weigh down iustice. loves serm. at uxoridge , ian. . . p. . ( ) moses bids all the levites consecrate their hands to god. what to do ? to kill three-thousand . ( no sewer ) of the idolaters f●…ll that day , &c. how brave a pattern have we here for those that are in magistracy and authority ? all you honourable and beloved , that god hath called to any place of authority and trust ; consider but this of moses here , the meekest man upon the earth , yet what a pattern is he to you herein ? how excellent a champion is he for god upon the people ? herle to the lord mayor , &c. lond. . p. . ( ) probably the way to sheath one sword , were to draw another ; and if the sword of iustice did more , the sword of war would do less : the physitian , by way of revulsion , stops bleeding by letting blood ; and did england bleed enough in the malignant vein ▪ we have cause to think that other sad issues of blood would be stopt and staunched . staunton to the lords , oct. . . p. . ( ) iosiah executed the justice and vengeance of god upon the instruments of the kingdoms ruin , the idolatrous priests ; digging the very bones of some of them out of their graves , the same lord direct you , &c. then let not the man escape , whom god appoints out to punishment . marshal to the commons , dec. . . p. , . ( ) let none think it bloody divinity , if i say execution of judgment is good ; phinehas stood up and executed judgment , and so the plague was staid . staunton to the commons , april . . p. . ( ) how highly were caleb and ioshuah esteemed of god for being couragious , when others flagg'd in the business , and thrunk at evil tydings ? had not phinehas , the son of eleazar , a covenant of peace made to him and his posterity , for being zealous in gods cause among the people ? why should i tell ye of gideon and barak , and sampson , and the rest ? in a word ▪ men of this spirit , are the only men in god's book . gypps . ass. div. nov. . . p. . ( ) it is somewhat a sad thing to note , little justice hath been done upon bloody ▪ traiterous delinquents , enemies to god and man , more than what the lord himself hath done by the hand of war. it may be that fearful way of execution hath and will continue till the more desirable sword of justice be drawn to purpose , in the cutting off the incendiaries of our combustions , the sons of belial , whom god hath put into your hand to punish . hardwick ass. di. to the commons , june . . p. . ( ) moses was the meekest man on earth in his days ; a man full of pitty , and yet he hangs up many , very many of the heads of the people against the sun before the lord. staunton ass. di. to the commons , octob. . . p . ( he is a cursed man that with-holds his hand from shedding of blood , or that shall do it fraudulently ; that is if he do it as saul did against the amalekites , kill some , and save some . if he go not through with the work , he is a cursed man , when this is to be done upon moab , the enemy of gods church . marshal to the commons . feb. . . p. . ( ) if this work be to-revenge gods church against babylon , he is a blessed man , that takes and dashes the little ones against the stones , id. ibid. p. . ( ) there is a sad sentence ( king. . . ) which he was angry to hear to whom it was pronounced , verse . but he found it true to his cost three years aft●…r , when it seems he had altogether forgotten it , ( king. . ) therefore i humbly intreat you to ask gods consent first , whether he will spare such or such , or pardon them ; and if he will not , you must not . palmer . ass. di. june . . p. . ( ) by wicked we must understand all known transgressors and delinquents against the law of god and man ; all dangerous ma●…ants . shall david give you a list of them in psalm . or shall 〈◊〉 ●…dd somewhat to the catalogue ? ( king. ) hear what he saith , first , an ambitious , traterous favourite ; so he took off adomjah . dly . a rotten priest ; so he cashe●…r'd eliathan . dly . a bloody treacherous cavalier ; so he executed ioab . and thly . a railing malignant ; and so he cut off shimei . bond. printed london , . p , . ( ) be not wanting to the execution of justice ; you know there is a curse pronounced against them that do the work of the lord , thou it be a bloody work ) negligently . strickland to the commons , decemb. . . p. . ( ) thou gav'st a cup into the hand of england , and we drank of it . then thou carried'st it to scotland and ireland , and they drank of it . now thou hast carried it to holland ; and they are drinking of it . lord , carry it also to france , to spain , and to rome , and let it never be out of some or other of their hands , till they drink and be drunk , and spew , and fall , and never rise any more . feak at black-●…yars . s. p. . . ( ) i will never believe that this navy was made on purpose for the breaking of our neighbours in p●…eces ; and there an end . we shall at last joyn together , and do such work for god as was never done in the world . we shall carry the gospel with our navy up and down to the gentiles , and afterward we shall gather home the iews out of the isles first ; for those are them shall first be called , and the ships of tharsis shall do it . beloved , what this tharsis is , i have made a little search , but shall enquire further ; they i●… seems shall be the first active , and i am sure there are none in such forwardness as ours at pre●…ent . feak at christ-church , aug. . . ( ) blessed be god that you have now put into the scales of justice the archest prelate of the land. bond. ass. di. to the commons . mar. . . . p. . ( ) the hearts of your true friends are griev'd that so many delinquents are 〈◊〉 ●…d , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but very few of them brought to their trya●… . when e●…jah had done execution upon ●…aa ▪ priests , there was rain enough . salway . october . . p. . ( ) cut down the malignants with the sword of justice ; root them out , and consume them as with fire , that no root may ●…ring again : let the mischief fall upon their own heads , that the land may be eased , which hath a long time , and doth still groan under them as a heavy curse . walker . jan. . . ( ) men wholye under the guilt of much innocent blood , are not meet persons to be at ▪ peace with , till all the guilt of the blood be expiated and avenged , either by the sword of the law , or law of the sword ; else a peace can never be sate nor just . loves englands distemper . p. . at uxbridge treaty . ( ) the people of england bless their god , that he hath taught your hands to war , and laid the necks of your enemies under your feet . love to the commons , novemb. . . ep. ded. to lord fairfax . ( ) go on couragiously . never can ye lay out your blood in such a quarrel . christ shed all his blood to save you from h●…ll : venture all yours to set up him upon his throne . marshal's panegyrick , jan. . . p. . ( ) why should any think that god will give into our hands those delinquents that are in arms against the great judicatory of the kingdom ? if justice be not done upon those that are in our hands already . palmer to the commons , aug. . . p. . ( ) you know how israels sparing the canaanites , ( iudg. . . ) cost them full dear . id. p. . ( ) shew not the least countenance to the detestable neutrality that is practised by many . god writes in his books , write you in yours all neuters , enemies . heyrick , ass. di. to the commons , may . . p. . ( ) as for apostates that are false to their covenant , let not your eye pitty them , let not your hands spare them . id. p. . ( ) shew your felves a parliament of justice ; let the world know it ; lay the ax to the root of delinquency . greenhil to the commons , ap. . . p. . ( ) some fear execution of justice w●…ll kindle a fire ; but fiat iustitia & ruat mundus . id. p. . ( ) what soldiers heart would not start , deliberately to come into a subdu'd city , and take the little ones upon the spears point : to take them by the heels , and beat out their brains against the wall , what inhumanity and barbarousness would this be thought ? yet if this work be to revenge gods church against babylon , he is a blessed man that takes and dashes the little ones against the stones . marshal to the commons , feb. . . p. , . ( ) it was gideons answer to the men of succoth and p●…nuel ; when the lord hath delivered zeba and zalmunnah into my hands , then wi●…l i tear your flesh with briars and thorns of the wilderness : then will i beat down your towers , and slay the men of the city , and accordingly be did it . such like doom and execution shall politique neuters receive from the hand of christ. id. p. . ( ) we have mighty sins , and mighty sinners , which make mighty dangers . greenhill to the commons , ap. . p. . ( ) you are the supream court of justice ; let the sun be dark , and the sea dry , before your streams do cease flowing . id. p. . ( ) in publique calamities , the sacrifice of a wicked man is a peace-offering , and may prevent great wrath . id. p. . ( ) 't is the sword , not disputes nor treaties that must end this controversie ; wherefore turn your plow-shares into swords , and your ▪ pruning hooks into spears , to fight the lords battels ; to avenge the blood of saints which hath been spilt . it must be avenged either by us , or upon us . love at ▪ uxbridge , jan. . . pag. . ( ) the slaying of the moabites is called the work of the lord : the children of moab are among us . the lord give us wisdom to see our way and work . i●… . ibid. ( ) works of justice are a part of gods general design at this time . you cannot but remember the service of phinehas , in executing of judgment when it was a sad time with israel , and the double reward that follow'd it . bond to the commons , march . . p. . ( ) they which stand out this year , i fear not to say they have sin'd this sin , which is to death , which god will not , which men should not pardon ; but if your charity be yet above my faith — — yet your sence cries loud unto ye , they have shed innocent blood , precious blood , the blood of the sons of god , which god will not , nor you may not pardon . heyrick to the commons , may . . pag. . ( ) the mouths of your adversaries are open'd against ye . the hearts of your true friends are grieved , that so many delinquents are in prison , and yet but very few of them brought to their tryal . i know that your occasions are many and pressing ; but i beseech ye , lay hold upon the next opportunity for the doing of it . remember your late covenant , when elijah had done execution upon baals priests there was rain enough ( king. . ) who knoweth how soon the lord may bless us with a holy peace , and blessed reformation , if justice were more fully executed ? salway to the commons , oct. . . p. . ( ) i have been in the heat of my zeal so forward to changes and ways of blood , that i fear god will not let me have a hand in the peaceable building of his church , nor to see it ; for i have been always taken off when i attempted it . r. baxter's letter from kidderminster to dr. hill. hypocrisie unveil d , . p. . ( ) you fight for god ; you fight for iesus christ ; you fight for the holy ghost . a spiritual knap-sack for the parliament soldiers . p. . num. . ( ) happy shall he be that taketh this cursed malignant , and prelatical brood , and dasheth him against the stones . ravillac redivivus . p. . ( ) honourable patriots , christ is gone out with his triumphing army , conquering and to conquer ; and if you want arms , or money , or horse for their accommodation , god is the great landlord of heaven and earth . art thou then gods tenant , and dost owe him knight-service , and plough-service , and doth he want thy horse , and shall not he have it , & c ? t●…sdale to the commons . p. . ( ) 't is not disputes nor treaties must end this controversie ▪ therefore turn your plough-shares into swords to fight the lords battel , to avenge the blood of saints that have been spilt . leech his sermon , . ( ) up and be doing , you that are about the work of the lord , your enemies are bread ready to be eaten , and yield you refreshment . ibid. ( ) there is no vertue wherein men resemble the lord more lively than in executing justice , and in extirpation of those achans , you will cut off the wicked , and procure the felicity of the chosen . faircloth on iosh. . ●… . p. . ( ) worthies of israel , it lies on you to enquire out this babylonish company , and to repay them an eye for an eye , tooth for tooth , burning for burning , ear for ear , liberty for liberty , and blood for blood. bridges on revel . . . p. . ( ) after the first-born of egypt were slain , the children of israel were deliver'd , and for the chiefest of these incendiaries , certainly the primogenit being taken away , we may well hope for a glorious deliverance . burton , june . . p. . ( ) that which is best , though evil , will be counted good , after reformation , as he is counted innocent , who scapes at tryal ▪ simpson on prov. . , . p. . ( ) he who now startles and staggereth , delayeth and refuseth , with the parliament and their party , to bear and use arms against the prelates , papists and atheists , with all the frie of antichristian factors and panders , is no other than a rebel and traytor against god. boden to the committee of kent , iun. . . p. . ( ) posterity may have cause to sit down and curse the day — if we look upon , and dash not in pieces the bones of babylons brats , thus boldly and bloodily , contrary to law & reason , risen up amongst us and against us , and god's true religion professed by us . ibid. p. . [ let all th●…se who are in authority hence learn to do justice , and execute vengeance upon those babylonians , which god hath put into their hands : do it speedily , do it throughly : the doing of justice upon the wicked , is the way to safeguard the righteous . without question the hand of god is upon us , and we lose many in the field , because we are too merciful to those in the fold , ibid. p. . ] ( ) there is no dallying with god now , much delay hath been used already ▪ too much . god is angry , and he seems to ask this once more ; will you strike , will you execute iudgment , or will ye not ? tell me ; for if you will not . i will , i will have the enemies blood , and yours too , if you will not execute vengeance upon delinquents : the day of vengeance is in my heart , and the year of my redeemer is come , isaiah . . case to the commons , . p. . notes upon §. . here are three and twenty divines ▪ famous in their generations , blowing the coal of a civil war , and heating the furnace seven times better then ordinary ; calling , like horse leeches , fer blood , blood , and pretending ( in a manner ) to expiate for that horrid rebellion , by so many consecrated murders , which are only wrapt up in scripture phrases ▪ as the execution of judgment , justice running down like a stream , &c. and the wickedness looks then as if it were hallow'd , which is no more , in short , then playing the devil in gods name , and dedicating the oblation of humane sacrifices to the everliving god , as to an insensible idol . but to what end serves argument , in the face of so many pregnant and undeniable proofs ? it is true , or not , that what i have here recited , is an authentique evidence , both for the words , and for the authors of them ? and if the matter of fact be honestly reported , let but any man consider , if we follow these guides , whither they 'l carry us at last , and how great a scandal 't is to christianity to suffer such hearts and hands as these to serve at the altar . §. . the murder of the king encourag'd . ( ) those mine enemies which would not that i should reign over them , bring hither and slay them before me ▪ let me see them executed , kings , rulers , people conspiring rebellion against the lord , and against his christ. maynard to the commons , octob. . . p. . ( ) let us he active against the kings and prince , of the earth , those claws of the cruel beast . feak at black friers , sept. ●… . . ( ) the quarrel is not now with us only de terminis & la●…tibus , touching bounds or land-marks , touching privileges and liberties ; but whether christ shall reign over us , or we shall basely y●…ld our necks under the yoke of anti-christ . pet. smith , may ●… . . p. . ( ) the king is fallen from faith in thee , and become an enemy to thy church . is it not he that has sinned and done evil indeed , but as for these sheep , what have they done ? let thy hand we pray thee , o lord our god , be on him , and on his fathers house ; but not on thy people , that they shall be plagu'd . a lecturer in south-hampton , aug. . ( ) nothing has so much deceived the world as the name of king , which is the ground of all mischiefs , in the church of christ. corb●… , a lecturer in glocester-shire , iuly . ( ) o lord , if thou wilt not eless us with a king , bless us without one . ●…arkin a lecturer in greenwich , iune . ●… . ( ) neither let your eyes spare , though there are great ones that are guilty . the highest court may reach the highest persons . causes and not persons are to be heard in your parliament , heyrick to the commons , may . . p. . ( ) god will make the sons of princes bow down unto ye : the greatest that have afflicted ye , and despised ye , shall lye at your feet , id. p. . ( ) if the king be a murderer , adulterer , or an idolater , he shall suffer according to gods law ; not as a king , but as an offender . knox hist. . ( ) when great delinquents go unpunished , divine providence is brought to the bar and question'd ▪ greenhill to the commons ▪ april . . p. . ( ) this arrow ( prayer ) will find a joynt in ahabs armour , ( king. . . ) draw this arrow as iehu did against iehoram , with your full strength , and doubt not but it will in gods time smite our romish iehoram at the heart , ( king. . . ) and sink him in his chariot and chair of pride . green to the commons , april . . pag. . ( ) oh right honourable , take glorious resolutions to your selves , though your fathers may stand before you , and your brethren and friends press about you ; though your mother should hang on you , i mean the nearest relations ; throw down the one , and break through the other , and trample upon the third , that your souls may cleave to the ways of god , to the ways of justice and righteousness : you know the rule is , fiat iustitia , & ruat mundus . brooks to the commons , decemb. . . p. . ah right honourable , as you would not have your services thrown as dung in your faces , look that justice and judgment run down as a mighty stream . ibid. p. . [ right honourable , guilty persons that be by you sinfully acquitted , their sin god will charge upon your account . and therefore , as you would not have the guilt of other mens sins upon you , hold on in the way of well doing : let justice and judgment run down as mighty streams , ibid. p. . ] ( ) phinehas is the man that executes judgment , a man unthought of for such a service . hence observe , that when god hath work to do , he can find our work-men . a phinehas , with zeal in his heart , and a iavelin in his hand , to thrust through the proudest zimries and cosbies , the most daring sinners . staunton to the commons , octob. . . p. . ( ) when esther was advanc'd , she would not lose her opportunities ; she will in to the king , although contrary to a law. she will have the liberty of her people , and hamans head off , and venture her life to accomplish it . if i perish , i perish . iosiah , hezekiah took their opportunities , and made a thorough reformation in iudah . you know what great things elijah did , inspiciente , & reluctante rege . greenhill to the commons , april . . p. . ( ) when the kings of the earth have given their power to the beast , these choice soldiers will be so faithful to the king of kings , as to oppose the beast , though armed with king-like power . cheynel to the commons , may . ▪ p. . ( you see the faithful people make no scruple at all of fighting against the beast though their enemies were like enough to say , that by fighting against the beast they did rebel against their own kings . id. ibid. ( ) others say , rebellion against the king is the cause of judgment upon the nation ; but rather the not timous rising to help the lord and his oppressed people against the mighty , is the cause . rutherford to the lords , june . . p. . notes on §. . we have now brought ye step by step ▪ from the blind and pretext of a reformation , to the highest pitch of wickedness ; and the train was both laid and fir'd in the pulpit . undutiful thoughts bring forth seditious words ; and those seditious words are naturally follow'd with violent and treasonous actions ; and when people come once to be plung'd into a rebellion , all other sins ( even of the highest magnitude ) flow like streams into that ocean , till at last mens consciences grow c●…llous and obdurate , as under a iudicial reprobation . it could never be else , ( if it may be said without offence to charity ) that so many of the principal and known actors in the late execrable tragedy , should now wipe their mouths after it , and fall so comfortably to the old work again , without any sort of reluctancy , or remorse . but it will be said , perhaps , that it was not so much a thirst after the blood of their sovereign that pusht them forward to these extremities , but that they were forc'd upon desperate courses by their interest and despairs . this would be a sorry excuse ( god knows ) for committing one of the most diabolical and flagitious villanies imaginable : even allowing that they had no other way left them for their security . but alas ! you will find in the next and last section , this plea remov'd ; where ye shall see the same persons that here cry'd , crucifie him , crucifie him , triumphing , and ( only for the malice sake ) exulting in the contemplation of that hideous murder . §. . the kings murder iustifi'd . ( ) it is now high time ( after so long an interruption of enemies ) for the parliament , and army , concurrently to appear to do their duty , not only by executing justice upon the person of the king , and his adherents , but also in new modelling and settling such a frame and fundamental constitution of government in the kingdom , as god shall put into their hearts , to be most convenient and useful for the welfare and safety of the people . little benjamin . licensed by gilb. mabbot . p. . ( ) did not this grand pretended father of this nation , destroy a multitude of his best children ? and would he not gladly have slain all the rest upon further opportunity ? was it not high time the parliament should execute judgment upon him ? ibid. p. . [ the general and his councel do , and have performed their duty in all their proceedings , concurring with the parliament , to execute justice upon the grand delinquent , and also upon some of the chief of his w●…cked counsellors and adherents . ibid. p. . ( ) hath not the king been a corrupt fountain ▪ poysoning every stream and rivulet he had access unto ? and would he not have done so still , if he had not been cut off ? a●… is not justice executed , a good means to establish the faith of the land in rest and peace , with their lives , estates , laws , liberties and privileges , anciently and inherently in themselves ? ibid. p. . ( ) shall the parliament of england be now blam'd for cutting off that 〈◊〉 of u●…pers , and tyrants , and reducing affairs to their first 〈◊〉 and right principle ? or will the people of england , after 〈◊〉 experiences . center t●… liberties and freedoms in a c●… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of succession , and lose their common-wealth 〈◊〉 personal glory of a young pretender ? the portraicture 〈◊〉 kings of england . p. . ( ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no power but ●…s of god. is not the late king with his heirs and s●… is d●…p ●…ssed by god ? saunders a●… ●…ter to the judges , march . ●… . p. . ( ) god hath been pleased of late to make a sad breach among us , taking away from us our former pilot , the late renew●…d protector , who when he had fought the nat●…ons battels , carried through the wilderness , preserved us from the 〈◊〉 and fury of our enemies , and brought us within sight of the premised land , gave up the ghost laid down his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and his life together , with whose fall the nation was 〈◊〉 : his death covered all the faces of sob●… and considerate persons with paleness , and their hearts with sadness , as if peace , prosperity , reformation , the gospel , all lay drawing on , and would be buried in the same grave with him . but blessed be god — ther●… and her 〈◊〉 placed in his room . while he directs the course , let us till the sails with our praying breath ▪ moses it is true is dead ▪ but we have a 〈◊〉 succeeding him : let as pray that what th●… other happily beg●…n , this may more happily finish , and bring the accomplishment of all your right-br●…d hopes : and what they said to 〈◊〉 , let us say unto his highness , according as we heark●… unto moses in all things , so 〈◊〉 we hearken unto thee . only the lord thy god be with thee , ●…s he was with moses . slater's protectors pr●… or the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by a praying people , octob. . . p. ▪ . ( ) for my part , i have oppos ▪ d the tyranny 〈◊〉 the king ▪ love 's speech . sect. i did , 't is true , 〈◊〉 is my p●…ce a●…d calling the 〈◊〉 of the late kings and were he al●…ve again , and should i live longer , the ca●… being as th●… it was ) i should oppose him longer . englands ●…per , sect. . ( ) as for the title of this prince , ( who would fain be accounted the right heir , let us but remember from whence he had it , and how 't is now tainted : were it never so just , the treason of the father hath cut off the son. true port. p. . ( ) charles the father is gone to his own place , and so is charles the son likewise ; he being in his own proper nation , scotland ; let us keep him there i●… we be wise , and intend to be happy , & let england disdain to be under the domination of a foreign power for the future . the true portraiture . p. . ( ) if the god of heaven , the god of truth , have writ your names aright , with the beams of the noon day sun in the eyes of all the nations in the world : you are the saviours of the oppressed , the conquerors of tyrants , and the breakers of those clergical yoaks , &c. the beacons quench'd ; dedicated to the parliament of the common-wealth of england , , ( ) there are great and mighty works in hand in this nation : tyrants are punish'd , the laws of oppressors are broke , bloody revengeful people in war disappointed . i. o. a thanksgiving sermon for the scots defeat at worcester , oct. . . p. . [ a monarchy of some hundred years continuance , always affecting , and at length wholly degenerated into tyranny , destroy'd , pull'd down , swallow'd up , ibid. p. . ( ) if any persons in the world had cause to sing the song of moses and the lamb , we have this day . the bondage prepar'd for us was both in spirituals and temporals . about a tyrant full of revenge , and a discipline full of persecution hath been our contest : whether the yoke of the one or the other should by the sword and violence be put upon our necks and consciences is our controversie , ibid. p. . ( ) he that is entrusted with the sword , and dares not do justice on every one that dares do injustice , is affraid of the creature , but makes very bold with the creator . owen to the commons , jan. . . p. . ( ) doubtless never was there any person under heaven ( speaking of the late king ) sentenced with death upon more equitable or just grounds in respect of guilt and demerit . jo. goodwins defence of the sentence passed on the king. p. . ( ) gods providences , ( that is , his permission of events and success ) are antecedent declarations of his good will and approbation . [ a resusal to be subject to this authority ( the parliament of the common-wealth of england ) under the pretence of upholding the title of any one upon earth , is a refusal to acquiesce in the wise and righteous pleasure of god ; such an opposing of the government set up by the sovereign lord of heaven and earth , as none can have peace , either in acting in , or suffering for . w. ienkins petition , octob. . ( ) if there be any in this assembly that thinks not this ( union ) a sufficient retribution and satisfaction for all his twentieth part , for all his contributions , for all his payments and hazards , i say he is blind ; i say his heart is not right with god. marshal to both houses , jan. . . p. . [ all christendom , except the malignants in england , do now see that the question in england is , whether christ , or anti-christ , shall be lord and king , ibid. p. . ] ( ) q. whether the whole kirk of scotland in their letters sent to the king at oxford ( as in mays history ) hath not judged the late king guilty of the blood of thousands of his best subjects — and if so , whether the laws of god or man give any pardon or dispensation to kings , more than to others ? if not , whether his judges are not sufficient to justifie it ? valley of achor . q. . [ q. whether beside the guilt of blood contracted upon himself in the wars of england , and scotland , he was not also guilty of the blood of ireland ? ibid. q. . ] ( ) no sober and impartial person can condemn their position , who denying that a tyrannous magistrate was the minister of god to them for their good , did plainly assert the lawfulness of self-defence , and holy reformation , without the violation of the ordinance of god. naphtali . p. . ( . ) as he , [ the late king ] to acquit himself hath not spar'd his adversaries , to load them with all sorts of blame and accusation , so to him , as in his books alive , there will be us'd no more courtship than he uses ; but what is properly his own guilt , not imputed any more to his evil councellors ( a ceremony us'd longer by the parliament than he himself desired ) shall be laid here without circumlocutions at his own door . that they who from the first beginning , or but now of late , by what unhappiness i know not , are so much affatuated , not with his person only , but with his palpable faults , and dote upon his deformities , may have none to blame but their own folly , if they live and dye in such a strucken blindness , as next to that of sodom , hath not happen'd to any sort of men more gross , or more misleading . miltons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . pref. ( ) the people exorbitant and excessive in all their motions , are prone oft-times not to a riligious only , but to a civil kind of idolatry in idolizing their kings ; though never more mistaken in the object of their worship ; heretofore being wont to repute for saints those faithful and couragious barons , who lost their lives in the field , making glorious war against tyrants for the common liberty , as simon de momfort , earl of leicester , against henry the third . thomas plantagenet , earl of lancaster , against edward the second . but now with a besotted and degenerate baseness of spirit , except some few , who yet retain in them the old english fortitude , and love of freedom , and have testifi'd it by their matchless deeds , the rest embastardiz'd from the ancient nobleness of their ancestors , are ready to fall flat and give adoration to the image and memory of this man , who hath offer'd at more fetches to undermine our liberties , and put tyranny into an art , than any brittish king before him . ibid. pref. ( ) whosoever sheddeth man's blood , by man shall his blood be shed ; we find here no exception . if a king therefore do this , to a king , and that by men also the same shall be done . ibid. pag. . ( ) to have brought the king to condign punishment hath not broke the covenant , but it would have broke the covenant to have sav'd him from those judicatories which both nations declar'd in that covenant to be supream against any person whatsoever , ibid. p. . — — [ god hath testifi'd by all propitious and evident designs , whereby in these latter times he is wont to testifie what pleases him ; that such a solemn , and for many ages unexampled act of due punishment was no mockery of justice , but a most grateful and well-pleasing sacrifice : neither was it to cover their perjury as he accuses , but to uncover his perjury to the oath of his coronation . ibid. ( ) this is the cause of the kingdom , the king should have helpt , &c. but did not , then it became the duty of the parliament to have relieved the kingdom , but they did not ; her necessities great , and many petitions concerning them were slighted and burnt , waited many years for help ; our oppressions not removed , all complain dangers encrease , no remedy appears , they not help us , nor tell us how long it will be before this parliament will be at an end , that we may have another , to see if they will help us ; when all falls , no ground of hope of life is left , danger eminent , and no other means of help left , this is a cause of necessity . now it 's the duty of the army to help , and if they had not , it had been their sin , if not their overthrow ; if they had suffer'd it to perish , the kingdom had been well holpen up with a remedy in extremity . an answer to john geree , &c. . p. . ( ) as to the blood of the king , i have not in the least any guilt lying upon me , for i have many a time sought the lord with tears , to know if i have done amiss in 't , but 't was rather confirm'd that the thing was more of god than of men. nine mens speeches . harrison . p. . [ i go to suffer upon the account of the most glorious cause that ever was in the world . ibid. p. . blessed be the name of god , that i have a life to lose upon so glorious and so honourable an account . p. . ( ) i dye , not in the lord only , but for the lord , and think not that this blessed cause shall be lost ; for it shall reach to the end of the earth . think not your prayers lost , for your prayers and tears with our blood shall come down shortly upon babylon . mr. carew's speech , p. . ( ) i cannot confess any guilt : it is such a cause that the martyrs would gladly come again from heaven to suffer for , if they might — i look upon it as the most noble and high act of justice that our story can parallel . nine mens speeches , cook. p. . ( ) i bless gods name , he hath engaged me in a cause not to be repented of . scott . ibid. p. . ( ) in all that is past , i could never yet suffer so much as a wish to pass through my thoughts , oh that i had not been engaged in this thing ! or that i had before forty-eight deserted this cause ! barkstead to a friend . three mens speeches . ( ) i do believe , at long-run there is not a man that fears the lord will have any reason to be sorrowful for engaging in that good old cause , which i am now to seal with my blood again , as i have many a time done . i am satisfied in my soul , that it is a most just and glorious cause , &c. three mens speeches . coll. okey . ( ) as it is unquestionably lawful on serious and real grounds to depose and do justice on kings and princes , as other magistrates , so never was there a greater and more universal concurrence of all reasons and circumstances , and a greater harmony of the laws of nature , reason , prudence , and necessity to warrant any act then was found , and may be discerned in that act of justice upon the late king. english translation of the scot declaration , . p. . notes on §. . i shall now briefly and plainly sum up the whole matter , and leave it with the reader to consider of . you have in the first section a full and unanimous testimony of the presbyterians against toleration ; nay against any sort of toleration , either in doctrine or in discipline , and in what degree or measure soever , as a thing utterly impious , and therefore insufferable . this , me-thinks , should be sufficient to stop the mouth of a presbyterian , when he demands a toleration ; that he himself pronounces it a wicked thing to grant it . in the second section , he sets forth the fruits and consequences of it to be not only the certain destruction of church and state , but an inlet to licentious prostitution of manners , and the most blasphemous of herefies . with what forehead now shall a presbyterian desire that liberty from the government , which he declares in his own conscience will be the ruin and damuation of the allowers of it ? in the third section , the dissenters do not only make it a matter of conscience , to disagree among themselves , but fall even to cutting of throats upon the very question . what is the meaning then of their pressing for a union among men of so many several persuasions not to be united ? and what do they talk of brotherly love , and agreement for , among men of principles as inconsistent as fire and water ? in the fourth section you may observe the rude and implacable animosities of the dissenters toward the ecclesiastical state , where they declare themselves tyed in conscience to do their utmost endeavours towards the overthrowing of it . what would you think of half a dozen good fellows that should come to the ma●…er of a house , and tell him , sir , we are very uneasie on the wrong side of the door , you 'l do us a great favour to let us into your 〈◊〉 , that we may rifle ye , and cut your throat for your pains . is it not the same thing 〈◊〉 a phanatique to make the same proposition to the church , when they declare before hand that they will destroy it if they can ? and the case of the civil government in the fifth section holds exactly with the former of the ecclesiastical ; for kings are to be pull'd down as well as bishops , for the establishing of christ upon his throne . the covenant ye see in the sixth section , is an oath of conspiracy , set up against an oath of allegeance : and on the other hand , an oath ( if i may say so ) of anti-canonical obedience . by this oath , the presbyterians reckon themselves indispensably bound to oppose the king and the church . would they have the king now to indulge any man without renouncing that covenant , by which , every unrenouncer accounts himself oblig'd to depose his majesty ? in the seventh section is set forth in few words , the inexorable rigour of all sorts of dissenters toward the episcopal party . with what equity now can these several schisms make it a point of conscience in the government to grant them a common indulgence , who both joyntly and severally agreed in the giving no quarter to those of the religion establish'd ? the eighth section advances the authority of the kirk to a more absolute degree of sovereignty over king and people , than ever the papacy it self pretended ; and supported upon the same pretensions too ; so that to demand a toleration of the presbyterial government , is only to desire his majesty that he will d'off his imperial crown , and strike to the consistory . in the ninth section lies fairly expos'd the hazard of abating any thing in the strictness of ecclesiastical discipline , in regard of the principles and positions of these people , even if the men themselves were honestly inclin'd . take notice of the positions , and never doubt it , but men of deposing principles will proceed ( if they have opportunity ) to deposing actions ; and reckon that they do god and their country good service too : especially when it seems no more to them than the placing of authority upon the right foundation . in the tenth section you will find the operation of the former principles in the animating , pressing , and irritating of the people to commotions and tumults , and still the dissenting divines in the head of the controversie ; and the pulpits and presses the fountains of our calamities . never did any people speak fairer at first , or do fouler things at last , then those pretended peaceable ministers of the gospel : and had they but come into the world time enough , boccalini would never have drawn his intelligence from new-spain of the shepherds dogs being all turn'd into wolves , when he might have found so much a more lively instance nearer home of those that were set to guard and defend the sheep , transform'd into the merciless devourers of them . in the eleventh section you will find a rebellion justifi'd , by the same lips that had call'd god a thousand times over , to witness the integrity of their hearts , and the loyalty of their intentions : and with imprecations also , not to be mention'd without trembling . iudge what credit now is to be given to the fair professions of this sort of people . in the twelfth section you would take these godly ministers ( as they style themselves ) to be members rather of a corporation of common executioners , then of an assembly of divines , by their outragious and insatiable thirst of blood ; and yet th●…se practices are recommended to the multitude , as the inspirations and duties of the gospel . and it is not common blood will serve their turns neither ; nor any thing less than the sacred life of their sovereign , to appease their holy wrath ( section . ) and to attone for the sins of the nation . and in the last section , ( as if it were to put themselves beyond the possibility of repentance , and to preclude the ordinary course even of god's boundless mercies ) they pass an approbation upon the whole tract of their proceedings , and ascribe to almighty god , one of the most execrable acts of cruelty and injustice that ever was committed upon the face of the earth , since the crucifixion of his blessed and only son. new as to the contrivers , the principal actors and asserters of this unexampled wickedness , what clearer evidence can ye desire then what is here deliver'd unto ye in their own words and writings ? the end . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e presbyterian . the reformation reform'd, or, a short history of new-fashion'd christians occasioned by franck smith's yesterdays paper of votes, september, . . l'estrange, roger, sir, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing l estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) the reformation reform'd, or, a short history of new-fashion'd christians occasioned by franck smith's yesterdays paper of votes, september, . . l'estrange, roger, sir, - . [ ], p. printed for joanna brome ..., london : . reproduction of original in union theological seminary library, new york. attributed to roger l'estrange. cf. nuc pre- . created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng smith, francis, d. . dissenters, religious -- england. great britain -- history -- charles ii, - . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - ben griffin sampled and proofread - ben griffin text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the reformation reform'd : or a short history of new-fashion'd christians ; occasioned by franck smith's yesterdays paper of votes , september , . . london : printed for joanna brome , at the gun in st. pauls church-yard . mdclxxxi . the preface . the author of franck smith's paper , entituled [ votes of the honourable the commons of england , assembled in the late parliament at westminster , in favour of protestant dissenters ] is very little seen ( i perceive ) in the history of the commons of westminster , and the said protestant dissenters : he would never have stopt at a broad-side else ; and almost the one half of that too , spent in remarque and descant on the other . now with honour to the commons of . and . and with all due respect to whatever they did ; and to whatever they would have done ; i shall take the freedom to inform the people , that the commons of . and . did a great deal more for the protestant dissenters than ever these other gentlemen , either did , or intended to do . you 'l say perhaps , that the protestant dissenters of the forty-one-edition did what they did , for themselves , and only out of a kindness to the children of their own mothers . as to that point , let the matter e'en go as the courteous reader pleases . we are not here upon the how' 's and the why' 's ; but in one word , upon the fact ; and you shall have it as plain , as the best authorities of those times can tell the story : that is to say , husbands his two volumes of collections , and scobel's acts and ordinances : unto which i shall refer ye , and you shall there see the blessed fruits of an union of dissenters , and a thorough-reformation : monarchy reduc'd within the bounds of law : the king made a glorious prince in his person ; and his dignity provided for ; his people setled in peace , and his royal revenue in plenty . you shall there understand the meaning of moderating the exorbitant power of the bishops : clearing the service of god , of anti-christian ceremonies , and human inventions , and setting up that which they call a painful , conscientious , and gospel-ministry in the land. you shall there learn what it is for the subjects to be secur'd in their lives , liberties , consciences and estates ; for you 'l find , in the holy idiome , that when a man is imprison'd , transplanted , put to death , sequester'd , plunder'd ; his person , life , and estate , is said ( for so much ) to be secur'd . and so is his conscience , when he comes to be put a ship-board , or immur'd betwixt four walls , for not taking the covenant . you will see there , what is intended by securing the person of the king , and his revenue , church-lands , delinquents estates , &c. and according to the dissenters lexicon , the true sense of easing the people . were they not eased of their liberties , their fortunes , their lives , their governours , and their teachers ? what a blessing it was to have a wanton , and a plethorique nation , eas'd of a matter of sixty millions of money besides by-blows ? and in short , what can be a greater ease to any man , than to have nothing left him either to lose , or to care for ? and then to have a blessed assembly of divines at last for his confessors to absolve ▪ him , for the contempt of god and his commandments ? and who but the protestant-dissenters still ; for the heirs and executors , upon this wonderful revolution to all changes of government . [ it is far from our purpose or desire say the remonstrators , ( exact collections , pag. . ) to let loose the golden reins of discipline and government in the church , &c. [ our intention is only to reduce within bounds , that exorbitant power which the prelates have assumed unto themselves , so contrary both to the word of god , and to the laws of the land ; to which end we past the bill for the removing them from their temporal power and employments , that so the better they might with meckness apply themselves to the discharge of their functions . exact col. pag. . well! and what was the business all this while ? only [ the preserving the peace and safety of the kingdom from the malicious designs of the popish party . ex. col. p. . ] and what were the remonstrants next ? only [ his majesties most humble and faithful subjects , the commons in the present parliament then assembled . ex. col. pag. . ] what might be the drift of such a rabble of calumnyes , crouded up into that remonstrance ? the government wanted mending ( it seems ) and if his majesty would but have minded his own private business , and left them to manage matters of state , [ we doubt not ( say they ) but god will crown this parliament with such success , as shall be the beginning and foundation of more honour and happiness to his majesty than ever yet was enjoyed by any of his royal predecessors , ex. col. pag. . ] i shall not need to tell ye the kindness these people had for protestant dissenters ; when only papists , and the canonical sons of the church of england , ( under the notion of church-papists ) were excepted from time to time out of all their dispensations : and not only the episcopal clergy , but the service-book it self ; and all the friends , both of the order and discipline cast out of all terms of christian accommodation . the pretext was popery too : but so soon as ever they had gotten the prey in the foot , they presently laid down their religion , and took up the booty ; and their ostentation of loyalty concluded in the subversion o● the monarchy ; as under the colour of a reforming zeal they overturned the church . and let not any pretend to qualifie the crime by acquitting themselves of an actual hand in the horrid regicide , or in giving advice upon that single point : the majesty of the king was murder'd in that very remonstrance ; and the doctrine and design of it laid open the way in a direct line from the pen to the scaffold but they themselves , in the third of their own actions , are the best expositors of their thoughts and designs ; so that without any further comment , i shall only recommend ye to the tract of their proceedings , as it stands upon record in their own writings : wherein i have been so far from forcing any thing beyond the clear import and meaning of it , that i have been partial rather on the other hand , in representing it less than i have found it . when you shall plainly see , and thoroughly consider the miserable prospect of wickedness and slavery that i have here set before ye , if mr. baxters saints themselves should rise out of their graves again , and tell ye what they suffer in another world , for what they did in this , neither would you believe them , though coming from the dead ; if after all this , you remain insensible of so fair a warning . the reformation . &c. an ordinance of both houses of parliament for the ordering of the militia of the kingdom of england , and dominion of wales . february . exact collections , pag. . resolved , that this answer of his majesty is a denyal to both houses of parliament concerning the militia , and that those that advised his majesty to give this answer , are enemies to the state , and mischievous projectors against the defence of the kingdom . march . . exact collections , pag. . resolved , that the kingdom be forthwith put into a posture of defence , by authority of both houses , in such a way as is already agreed upon by both houses of parliament , march . ex. col. pag. . resolved , that the ordinance of the lords and commons in parliament for the safety and defence of the kingdom of england , and dominion of wales , is not any way against the oath of allegiance . march . exact collections , pag. . resolved , that the several commissions granted under the great seal to the lieutenants of the several counties , are illegal and void . ibid. resolved , that whosoever shall execute any power over the militia of this kingdom , and dominion of wales , by colour of any commission of lieutenancy , without consent of both houses of parliament , shall be accounted a disturber of the peace of the kingdom . ibid. resolved , &c. that in this case of extream danger , and of his majesties refusal , the ordinance agreed on by both houses , for the militia , doth oblige the people , and ought to be obeyed by the fundamental laws of this kingdom . ibid. resolved , that when the lords and commons in parliament ( which is the supream court of judicature in the kingdom ) shall declare what the law of the land is ; to have this not only question'd , and controverted and contradicted , and a command that it should not be obey'd , is a high breach of the priviledge of parliament . march . pag. . resolved , that the declaring of sir john hotham traytor , being a member of the house of commons ▪ is a high breach of the priviledge of parliament . april . . . pag. . resolved , that the command of his majesty to call capt. philip skippon , sergeant major general of the forces of london , to attend his majesties person at york , is against the law of the land , and the liberty of the subject . march . . pag. . resolved , that it appears that the king ( seduced by wicked counsel ) intends to make war against the parliament who ( in all their consultations and actions ) have proposed no other end unto themselves , but the care of his kingdoms , and the performance of all duty and loyalty to his person . may . . pag. . resolved , that whensoever the king maketh war upon the parliament , it is a breach of the trust reposed in him by his people , contrary to his oath , and tending to the dissolution of this government . resolved , that whosoever shall serve or assist him in such wars , are traytors by the fundamental laws of this kingdom , and have been so adjudged by two acts of parliament , and ought to suffer as traytors . rich. ii. hen. iv. ibid. resolved , that those that are actors in the putting of the commission of array in execution , shall be esteemed as disturbers of the peace of the kingdom ; and betrayers of the liberty of the subject . june . . p. . resolved , that an army shall be forthwith raised for the safety of the kings person , defence of both houses of parliament , and of those who have obeyed their orders and commands ; and preserving of the true religion , the laws , liberty , and peace of the kingdom . july , . . pag. . resolved , that shall be commissioners for raising of monys , horse and plate upon the propositions , and shall have power to appoint commissaries to value the horse , and treasurers to receive the mony and plate . oc. . . p. . resolved , that shall have power to seize and apprehend all delinquents , that are so voted by the parliament ; and all such others as delinquents , as have , or do shew themselves opposite and disobedient to the orders and proceedings of parliament . ib. p. . to pass over those ensuing votes that were only leading to the execrable accomplishments of their work in the murder of the king and change of government ; we shall give ye now their votes of no more addresses . resolved , that they ( the lords and commons ) will make no further addresses or applications to the king. resolved , that no application or address be made to the king by any person whatsoever , without the leave of both houses . resolved , that the person or persons that shall make breach of this order , shall incur the penalty of high-treason . resolved , that the lords and commons do declare , that they will receive no more any message from the king ; and do enjoyn , that no person whatsoever do presume to receive or bring any message from the king to both , or either of the houses of parliament , or any other person . baker's chron. p. . resolved ( further ) that no message be received from the king upon pain of treason , and that the general take care of his person , and a council of war draw up a charge of treason against him . baker , p. . january , . . the ordinance of the kings tryal turn'd into an act of the commons alone ; and a faction in the city suborn'd to petition for justice against the king. thus was his sacred majesty voted from one calamity to another , till they consummated their enterprize in the diabo●ical murder of their sovereign , and the change of the government . notes and resolutions , ut supra , in further favour of protestant dissenters . an order of the commons for tonnage and poundage . mar. . . ex. col. p. . an order of commons concerning four subsidies , and other money unpay'd . mar. . . ex. col. p. . subscriptions towards the propositions for ireland . ex. col. p. . a special order of the commons concerning the free order of the county of buckingham . ex. col. pag. . an order of both houses concerning poll-mony . may , . . exact col. pag. . propositions by the lords and commons for bringing in of mony , plate , horse , horsemen and arms. june . . ex. col. . a declaration of the lords and commons , that the estates of delinquents and malignants shall be toward the publick charge of the kingdom . septemb. . . exact collections . pag. . an order of a committee concerning horses to be brought in . sept. . . ex. col. pag. . an order for raising dragoons , and l. sept. . ex. col. pag. . an order for raising one thousand dragoons upon the publick faith. oc. . pag. . a declaration for more mony upon the publick faith. no. . ex. col. . an order of the lord mayor for borrowing . l. no. . ex. col. pag. . an ordinance for the twentieth part of all such as have not contributed toward the propositions for mony , plate , &c. ex. col. pag. . an ordinance for the speedy execution of the said ordinance . ex. col. pag. . an order to break open locks and doors . exact collection . pag. . an order for advance of mony , dec. . ex. collections . pag. . an order concerning purveyance . ex. col. pag. . an ordinance concerning tonnage and poundage . pag. . several orders for the promoting subscriptions . jan. . pag. . an ordinance for assessing eight counties that had not contributed . pag. . an ordinance for assessing malignants . pag. . an ordinance for new contributions . pag. . an ordinance for rating new-castle coal . february , . pag. . an ordinance for a weekly assessment . mar. . p. . additions to an ordinance for assessing all the kingdom . pag. . an ordinance for raising moneys for the defence of exon. husbands collections , part . pag. . mar. . . an order against paying rents to delinquents . fol. . an ordinance for raising money upon hereford . fol. . an ordinance for sequestring delinquents . ap. . . fol. . an order for borrowing ordnance of the east-india company . fol. . an order for taking up l. fol. . an ordinance for raising mony for the isle of wight ▪ fol. . an ordinance for sequestring delinquents . fol. . an ordinance of l. weekly out of bucks . fol. . an order for sequestring committee-men that neglect their duties . fol. . an order for contribution for maim'd soldiers . fol. . an additional ordinance for seizing horses and goods of malignants . fol. . an ordinance for borrowing horsemen and mony on the publick faith. fol. . an order for contribution for redemption of captives fol. . an order for raising moneys to pay the forces in the eastern association . fol. . an ordinance for seizing horses , goods and chattels of malignants in the eastern association . may. . fol. . an ordinance for maintaining portsmouth , &c. fol. . an additional ordinance for sequestring delinquents estates in lancashire . fol. . an ordinance for raising moneys in southwark , &c. fol. . an ordinance for taking horses for the parliaments service . fol. . an order for the speedy raising moneys . . an ordinance for the fifth and twentieth part . . an ordinance for raising moneys for ireland . . an additional order for the committee of sequestrations in lancashire . . an ordinance for raising moneys out of the eastern association . . an ordinance for coll. long to take up moneys in several hundreds in essex . . an ordinance for raising horses for the parliament . . an order for haberdashers-hall to assess within miles of london . fol. . an order for assessing . l. a week on the borough of southwark . june . . fol. . an order for a rate to be set on coals . fol. . an order for sequestring the archbishop of canterbury . fol. . an ordinance to advance mony for salop. . an ordinance for new subscriptions for ireland . july . . fol. . a declaration for moneys on the publick faith. . an ordinance for moneys for northampton . . an ordinance for a new impost . . an ordinance for raising horse for the earl of manchester . . an ordinance for impressing of men. aug. . . fol. . an order for raising foot and dragoons . . an order for raising money and horse in essex . . an ordinance for impressing souldiers for the eastern association . . an ordinance for taking an oath within the lines of communication . fol. . an order for impressing men in london and westminster . . an ordinance for speedy raising of money in london and the liberties . . an ordinance for sequestring such member's estates as neglect their service . . an order for raising money for relief of ireland . fol. . an ordinance for a weekly tax on the eastern association . sept. . . an ordinance for raising moneys by way of excise . fol. . an order for publishing the ordinance of sequestration of the king , queen , and prince's revenue . . an order for raising money for advance of the scots army . oct. . fol. . an ordinance for the excise upon wines . . an ordinance for raising moneys for northampton . fol. . an ordinance for assessing the estates of absent members . . a penalty upon beer and ale-brewers for not paying of excise . . an ordinance for raising l. &c. for our brethren in scotland . . an ordinance for raising moneys for magazines , &c. no. . . fol. . an ordinance concerning customs for plymouth , fol. . an order for returning the names of such as take not the covenant . fol. . an order to raise l. for guernsey and jersey , dec. . . fol. . an order for divers persons to take the covenant at margarets westminster . . an ordinance disabling any man within the city of london from any place of trust that shall not take the covenant , fol. . an ordinance of excise upon flesh , victual and salt. jan. . . fol. . an ordinance for regulating the university of cambridge , and removing scandalous ministers . . an ordinance for taking the covenant through england and scotland . feb. . . an ordinance for a new assessment in middlesex . fol. . an ordinance for a weekly meal . mar. . . fol. . an ordinance for continuing the excise , ap. : fol. . an ordinance for felling of timber in waltham forrest , and out of delinquents woods for the use of the navy . fol. . an ordinance for maintaining of forces in the seven associated counties ; may. . fol. . an ordinance for raising money for forces in salop. june . . fol. . an ordinance for continuing four months assessments upon southampton , surrey , &c. . an ordinance for a new excise upon allum , coperas , &c. july . . . an ordinance for a new excise upon herring , aug. . . . an order for raising mony for ireland . . an ordinance for four months weekly assessment on the seven eastern counties . sept. . . . an ordinance for continuing the ordinance for excise , twelve months longer . . an ordinance ●or a weekly assessment on the county and city of gloucester . oct. . . fol. . an ordinance for raising . l. fol. . an ordinance for a weekly assessment in the county of northampton . fol. . a weekly assessment throughout the kingdom . f. . an ordinance for raising l. &c. by way of loan for ▪ our brethren of scotland . december , . . fol. . the excise on flesh victual and salt continued . . an assessment for the isle of wight continued . . an ordinance for raising moneys to redeem captives . jan. . . fol. . an ordinance for continuing several ordinances of excise . fol. . an order for a monthly tax of l. february , . . fol. . an ordinance for continuing the subsidy of tonnage and poundage . fol. . an ordinance enabling my lord. admiral to impress mariners . fol. . an ordinance for a tax of three hundred pound a month upon essex . march . . fol. . an ordinance for draught-horses , and for payment of coat and conduct-money . fol. . an ordinance for con●inuing a w●ekly assessment upon gloucester . fol. . ad ordinance for the militia o● london and sub●committees to press men . march . . fol. . a tax of l. upon lincoln . ap. . . fol. . an ordinante for raising of money out of delinquents estates for the garison of gloucester . may . . fol. . an ordinance for a collection for taunton . fol. . an ordinance for raising monys in the county of derby . fol. . an ordinance for a council of war in kent . june . . fol. . an ordinance for the general to press men in all places of his march. fol. . an ordinance for raising l. a month for the scots . . an ordinance for raising l. for the scots . fol. . an ordinance for raising monys for the county of rutland . . an ordinance for raising l. to reduce oxford . july . . fol. ● . an ordinance for raising horse . . an ordinance for raising ten thousand pound , &c. . an ordinance for the continuing of assessments in the county of northampton . aug. . . fol. . a monthly assessment upon lincoln . fol. . a tax on several counties for reducing newark . . assessment for sir thomas fairfax his army continued six months longer . pag. . assessments for the scots army continued four months longer . . assessment for ireland continued six months longer . . an order that no prisoner go abroad without leave of the committee for prisoners . . an ordinance for maintenance of garisons . sept. . . fol. . an ord. for raising horse , and dragoons ▪ . an ord. for taking of the fifth part from delinquents wives . . an ord. for supply of the brittish army in ireland . . an order for advance of l. oct. . fol. . an order for contribution for leicester . . an order for a collection for the protestants in ireland . n● . . . . an order for an additional excise . . an order for raising moneys in the eastern association . decemb. . . fol. . an order for raising l. for the scots . . an order for a collection for the town of manchester . . several orders for payment of the army . . . an order for pay of waggoners . . an order for raising horse for defence of the city of london . jan. . . . an order for taking away the court of wards . feb. . . fol : . an order of the committee of the west for a weekly contribution . mar. . . . an order for all such as have born arms against the parliament , to depart the city before the sixth of april next . march . . . an ordinance for a court martial in london and westminster . apr. . . fol. . assessments for the army continued four months longer . . the commons declaration for the ancient fundamental government of the kingdom . . an order for continuing the excise . apr. . . fol. . an order for cavaliers to depart miles from the city of london , by may . may . . fol. . an ordinance to raise moneys for ireland . . an order for taking the negative oath , and national covenant . june . . . an order for execution of legal process against any in custody for delinquency . . an order forbidding any that come out of the king's quarters to go armed while they remain in or near london . july . . an order for abolishing archbishops and bishops , and setling their lands upon truststees , for the use of the common-wealth . oct. . . . an order for the advance of l. fol. . an order against letting sequestred estates to the owners . no. . . . an order concerning the lands and estates of excepted persons . . a declaration for payment of our brethren of scotland l. and they to depart this kingdom . . an order for sale of bishops lands . . scobels collection . the subsidy of tonnage and poundage continued . march . . fol. . an ord. for raising . june . . fol. . for raising money for the army , &c. fol. . for re-establishing the duty of excise , &c. aug. . . fol. . an order to disable delinquents to bear any office or place of trust , or have any voice or vote in elections . oct. . . fol. . the subsidy of tonnage and poundage further continued . dec. . . fol. . for raising l. for ireland . jan. . . . for the settling of the presbytery . fol. . for raising l. a month for six months . feb. . . fol. . the form of church government agreed upon . aug. . . fol. . the assessment of sixty thousand pound a month , continued for six months longer . oct. . . fol. . the style of the law alter'd . jan. . . part . fol. . an act prohibiting the proclaiming any person to be king of england and ireland . ibid. the kingly office in england and ireland abolished . mar. . . part , . fol. . the house of peers abolished . fol. . an act for raising l. a month , &c. ap. . . fol. . deans and chapters , &c. abolished . ap. . fol. . a penny per gallon excise upon all foreign salt. june fol. . an act for borrowing l. june . sol . . an act for sale of the goods and personal estate of the late king , queen , and prince . july . . fol. . an act for sale of their honors , mannors , and lands , &c. july . fol. . for continuing the assessment of l. per month. aug. , . fol. . for the speedy raising and levying of mony by way of new impost , or excise . au. . fol. . for removing all papists , officers , and soldiers of fortune , and divers other delinquents , from london and westminster , and confining them within five miles of their dwellings . feb. . . fol. . an act for a high court of justice . mar. . . fol. . an assessment for six months of l. the first three months , and sixty thousand the other three . may . . fol , . further power given to the high court of justice . aug : . . fol. . for sale of mannors , of rectories and glebe-lands , late belonging to archbishops , &c. oct. . . fol. . for raising l. a month for four months , &c. no. . fol. . for establishing a high court of justice in norfolk , suffolk , &c. dec. . fol. . for a seal of the common-wealth of england , jun. . . fol. . an act for the sale of the fee-farm-rents , &c. feb. . fol. . for continuance of the customs . march , . pag. . an imposition upon coal . mar. . . fol. . for continuing the assessment of a month. ap. . fol. . an act for continuing the high court of justice . jun. . ibid. for the sale of several estates forfeited , &c. july . fol. . an act for sale of goods belonging to the late king , queen and prince , july . . fol. . correspondence prohibited with charles stuart or his party . aug. . . fol. . the assessment of l. a month continued . sept. . . fol. . the commissioners of the militia enabled to raise mony for the present service . september , . . fol. . the high court of justice continued . sept. . fol. . a tax of l. a month for six months . dec. . . fol. . an act making void all honours or dignities given by the late king since january . . feb. . . fol. . an act for disabling delinquents to bear office or to have any voice or vote in election of any publick officer . oct. . . fol. . an assessment of l. a month for six months . dec. . . fol. . for exposing to sale divers castles , houses , &c. belonging to the late king , queen and prince . dec. . . fol. . an act for continuance of the customs , mar. . . and for continuing an imposition upon coal . ibid. for continuing the receits of the excise . septemb. . . fol. . the tax of l. a month continued . no. . . fol. . an order for continuing the excise . decemb. . . fol. . the tax of l , a month continued . june . . fol. . a high court of justice established . june . fol. . an act for appointing the excise of allum and coperas . aug. . . fol. . an act for renouncing and disannulling the pretended title of charles stewart . fol. . . for taking away the court of wards . fol. . the subsidy of tonnage and poundage continued . fol. . a tax of l. a month. fol. . for raising l. sterling in scotland . fol. . an assessment of l , a month on england . on scotland , and on ireland , for three years . fol. . by the protector . a proclamation prohibiting delinquents to bear office , or to have any voice or vote in the election of any publick officer . his highness the lord protector hath by and with the advice and consent of his council ●hought fit to publish and declare ▪ and doth hereby signifie his will and pleasure to be , that no person or persons of what quality or condition soever , whose estates have at any time heretofore been duly sequestred , or their persons imprison'd for their delinquency , or who did subscribe or abet the said treasonable engagement ( ) or have been in any wise aiding , assisting or abetting the late king or his family , or allies , or any other the enemies of this state and common-wealth , shall be elected , or give his or their uoice or uote in the election of any person or persons to any office or offices , place or places of trust , power , or government , within this common-wealth ; or shall hold , exercise , or execute by him , or themselves , or his or their deputies or assigns , any such office or offices , place or places within the same , until his highness command be further known , on pain of his highness displeasure , and such penalties and punishments as may and shall be severely inflicted on them as disturbers of the publick peace , and contemners of his highness iust commands herein , &c. sept. . . here follows an extract of some clauses and passages out of the humble petition and advice of the knights , citizens and burgesses assembled in the parliament of the common-wealth , which was presented to his highness , may , . and his highness answer thereunto , was read by the clerk of the parliament , in these words . the lord protector doth consent . wee 'l give you first a tast of the stile ; and then shew you by what measures they proceeded for the securing of their government , which for the ●olicy and prudence of them may serve for a rule and precedent for other princes and s●ares to walk by . we the knights , citizens , and burgesses in this present parliament assembled , taking into our most serious consideration , the present state of these three nations , joyned and united under your highness protection , cannot but in the first place , with all thankfulness , acknowledge the wonderful mercy of almighty god in delivering us from that tyranny and bondage both in our spiritual and civil concernments , which the late king and his party designed to bring us under , and pursued the effecting thereof by a long and bloody war , &c. scobels acts. fol. . part . that all and every person and persons who have aided , abetted , advised or assisted in any war against the parliament , since the first day of jan. . ( unless he or they have since born arms for the parliament , or your highness ; or otherwise given signal testimony of his or their good affection to the common-wealth , and continued faithful to the same ) and all such as have been actually engaged in any plot , conspiracy or design against the person of your highness , or in any insurrection or rebellion in england or wales since the sixteenth day of december . shall be for ever disabled and made uncapable to be elected , or give any uote in the election of any member to sit or serve in parliament . that for scotland none be capable to elect or be elected to sit or serve in parliament , who have been in arms against the parliament of england , or against the parliament in scotland , before the first day of april . ( except such as have since born arms in the service of the parliament of england , or your highness , or given other signal testimony of their good affection ) nor any that since the said first day of april , . have been in arms , or otherwise aided , abetted , advised , or assisted in any war against the parliament of england , or your highness , except such as since the first day of march , . ( old style ) have lived peaceably , and thereby given testimony of their good affection to the parliament and your highness . scobel . fol. . part . that all uotes and elections , given or made contrary , or not according to the qualifications aforesaid , shall be uoid , and of none effect ; and that if any person or persons so uncapable as a foresaid , shall give his or their uote for election of members to serve in parliament ; all and every such person and persons so electing , shall lose and forfeit one years value of his and their respective , real estates , and one full third part of his and their respective personal estates . ibid. a confession of faith to be agreed by your highness and the parliament ▪ according to the rule and warrant of the scriptures to be asserted , h●ld for●h and recommended to the people of th●s● nations , so that this liberty be not extended to 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 . &c. ●hat all and every person and persons , who have aided ab●tted advised ▪ or assisted in any war against the parliament , since the first day of january , ● ● . ( unl●ss he or they have since born-arms for the parliament , or your highness , or otherwise given s●gnal testimony of his or their good affection to the common wealth , and continued faithf●l to the same ) and all such as have been actually engaged in any plot , conspiracy , or design , against the pers●n of your highness , or in any insurrection or rebellion in england , or wales , s●nce the sixteenth day of december , . and for scotland ▪ that all and every person and persons who have been in arms against the parliament of england , or against the parliament in scotland , before the first day of april , . ( except such as have since born arms in the service of the parliament of england , or your highness , or given other signal testimony of their good affection ) and every person or persons that s●nce the said firs● day of april , . have been in arms , or otherwise aided , abetted ▪ advised , or assisted in any war against the parliament of england , or your highness , except such persons who having been in arms or otherwise abetted advised or assisted in any war ag●inst the parliament of england , or your highness since the fir●● day of april , . and were not in arms against the parliament of england , or against the parliament of scotland , before the first day of april , . and have since the firs● day of march , . ( old stile ) lived peaceably , and thereby given testimony of their good affection to the parliament , and your highness be made uncapable for ever , of holding or enjoying of any office or place of publick trust , in these three nations , or any of them . scobel . part . fol. . may. . . we shall give you a touch here of oliver's politiques though of a former date . we have ( says he ) in our own judgement such clear and convincing grounds to justifie our proceedings with those men , ( the cavaliers ) which could scarcely be expected in cases of secret treasons and conspiracies ; a bare correspondency wherein hath been always accounted capital ; and if the supreme magistrate were in these cases tyed up to the ordinary rules , and had not a liberty to proceed , upon illustrations of reason , against those who are continually suspected , there would be wanting in such a state , the means of common safety : conspiracies could never be prevented , nor would the precipitations of our enemies from one mischievous design to another , ever hurt them . [ a declaration of his highness by the advice of his council . oct. . . pag. . ] and again : that character of difference between them and the rest of the people , which is now put upon them , is occasioned by themselves , not by us ; there is nothing they have more industriously laboured in than this , to keep themselves separated , and distinguished from the well-affected of this nation : to which end , they have kept their conversation apart , as if they would avoid the very beginnings of union ; have bred and educated their children by the sequestred , and ejected clergy , &c. ibid. pag. . ] and therefore we leave to all mankind to judge , whether we ought not to be timely jealous of that separation , and to proceed so against them , as they may be at the charge of those remedies which are required against the dangers they have bred . ibid. pag. . wee 'l shew ye now the kindness of our double-refin'd-protestant-dissenting-reformers to the orthodox clergy , as well as laity , and ye shall e'en take it at length as it comes to me . a declaration of his highness , with the advice of the council in order to the securing the peace of this common-wealth . his highness the lord protector , upon advice with his council , finding it necessary for the reasons , and upon the grounds expressed in his late declaration , to use all ▪ good means to secure the peace of the nation , and prevent future troubles within the same , hath thought fit to publish and declare , and by and with the consent and advice of his council doth publish , order and declare , that no person or persons whatsoever in england or wales , whose estates have been sequestred for delinquency : or who were actually in arms for the late king against the then parliament , or for charles stuart his son , or have adhered to , abetted , or assisted the forces raised against the said parliament , do from and after the first day of december , . buy , use or keep in his or their house or houses , or elsewhere , any arms offensive or defensive , upon pain that every person and persons so offending shall forfeit and lose such arms , and be otherwise proceeded against according to the orders of his highness and the council , for securing the peace of the common-wealth . and his highness by the advice of his council doth also publish , declare and order , that no person or persons aforesaid , do , from and after the first day of jan. . keep in their houses or families as chaplains or school-masters , for the education of their children , any sequester'd or ejected minister , fellow of a colledge , or schoolmaster , nor permit any of their children to be taught by such , upon pain of being proceeded against in such sort as the said orders do direct in such cases . and that no person who hath been sequeste●d , or ejected out of any benefice , colledge or school , for delinquency or scandal , shall , from and after the said first day of january , keep any school either publick or private , nor any person who after that time shall be ejected for the causes aforesaid . and that no person , who for delinquency or scandal hath been sequester'd or ejected , shall from and after the first day of january aforesaid preach in any publick place , or at any private meeting of any other persons than those of his own family , nor shall administer baptism or the lords supper , or marry any persons , or use the book of common-prayer or the forms of prayer therein contained , upon pain that every person so offending in any the premises , shall be proceeded against as by the said order is provided and directed . november , . , you 'l find in mercurius rusticus's general bill of the mortality of the clergy of london ; what work the protestant-dissenters made among the london ministers , from . to . in the parishes within the walls ( besides st. pauls ) outed . pag. . in the parishes without the walls , outed . pag. . in the out-parishes , outed . pag. . in the adjacent towns besides the abbey and islington . outed . ibid. querela cantabrigiensis will tell ye what havock they made in the university of cambridge , where they ejected near two hundred , besides nine masters , and three more dead . to say nothing of their breach of faith , sacrilege , plunders , imprisonments , and personal outrages over and above . neither did oxford , when it came to their turn to suffer , scape any better than cambridge had done before . for no sooner had his majesties defeat ended the late rebellion in the field , but a new war was raised in the house of commons , about dividing the spoyl ; in which contest the independent faction out-witting the presbyterian , there was no triumph left for the presbyterian but to insult upon them they call'd the common enemy ; and being hopeless of any other empire , contented themselves now to sit down with the honour of being executioners , of destroying and doing mischief . to this end when the independents found it their interest to gain upon the nation by pretences to moderation and liberty of conscience , the other party pursued the covenant-principle of root and branch , as vigorously as ever : and accordingly , the presbyterian divines , by importunity and unwearied solicitations at the house of commons door , and in the pulpit press'd hard , and at last procur'd an ordinance for the visitation of the university of oxford , ( see mr. hen. wilk . sermon ) wherein ten were named ( who were formerly members of the university , but all of them either expell'd or censur'd for their demerits ) to be visitors : and to countenance their proceedings , about fourteen more , country-gentlemen and lawyers : but the whole transaction was carried on by those good men who were to visit themselves into the preferments of this place . any five having full power to hear and determine in all cases by the ordinance , which bore date may . . accordingly , on the fourth of june , they summon the university to appear before them , between the hours of nine and eleven , and that their usurpation might have all necessary formalities , a sermon was to precede , where mr. harris , ( the man who was famous for sanctifying the holding six livings at a time and rendring it no plurality ) held forth so long , till the time prefixt was elapst , this being observed by the vice-chancellor , who commanded all the university-men then in expectation of their doom in the convocation-house , to depart home . the visitors being in some disorder by this little disappointment , and the contest between the two juntas growing still higher , the university-men so contriv'd delays , by putting in little stops with the committee in london , that these reformers were forced for a time to desist . but in october following , having procured an order ( dated the eighth , . ) for sending the vice-chancellor , dr. fell , prisoner to london , they began a closer siege , and april . . return'd in earnest to revenge themselves not only of the malignity but the resistance of this place . and having with them a noble person , they make him first their chancellor , and he in gratitude , creates them doctors , forcibly breaking open and rifling the lodgings of the heads of colleges , and rifling the treasuries : particularly at christ-church : the dean prisoner in london , ( where he contracted the sickness , whereof soon after he died , ) the chancellor , attended by a file of musqueteers , and his clergy-bailiffs , brake open● his lodging ; and having for about a fortnight quartered soldiers upon his wi●e , who with her family was there , she and her children were violently haled out by the rude soldiers into the quadrangle . dr. sheldon , and dr. hammond , were made prisoners in the town . and the heads of houses , expell'd at this time , were as follows . dr. fell , dr. sheldon . dr. bayly . dr. oliver , dr. hammond , dr. gardiner , dr. pain , dr. sanderson , dr. morley . dr. newlin , dr. harvey , dr. ratcliff , dr. potter , dr. pitt . dr. stringar , dr , mansel , dr. walker , dr. prior. mr. whitwick . there were expelled the university , on june , . and july . . one hundred thirty seven persons ; who were commanded also by the governours order to depart the town , upon pain of being used as spyes , their expulsion being grounded upon the order under-written . whereas by several orders of the right honourable committee of lords , resolved , that all and every person and persons whose names are under-written , be depriv'd and remov'd from their respective places in their several colledges , and expell'd the university for their high contempt of the authority of parliament . and the execution of the order aforesaid hath been referr'd to us the visitors of this university . we therefore do require all and every of the persons , whose names are here under-written , forthwith to remove accordingly . and in case any person ▪ or persons refuse to obey and remove , the soldiers of this garrison are by order of the lords and commons aforesaid , desir'd to cause the said orders to be put in execution . by order of the visitors . ra. austen . mr. richard howe . mr. walter dayrel , &c. after this they went on , but by lesser numbers , and upon several pretences , to make a thorough reformation ; ejecting some for refusing the engagement , others for absence , and some few for submitting too late . it may be observ'd that of the university-men who were visitors all but two were obnoxious to the old establish'd university . cheinel had been denied his degree . wilkinson had been questioned for a sermon before the war , which he had preacht at st. maries . mills had been from his infancy a rebel to his governours in christ-church , and was expell'd by the king 's express command . corbet had been questioned by the local visitor . sir n. b. mr. wilkinson and rogers were for their engaging against his majesty , by his order removed from their headships : so that only mr. reinolds remains , and mr. harris , who were not visibly preingaged , upon spight as well as interest . so soon as they were come ; mr. reinolds becomes dean of christ-church ; harris , president of trinity ; cheinel , of st. johns ; old dr. wilkinson , of magdalens ; henry wilkinson , fellow of magdalens , and canon of christ-church ; mr. rogers , canon of christ-church ; dr. mills , student and canon of christ-church , both together . as soon as entred , they fell to dividing the spoil . in magdalens they share the stock of mony left from the founder time , as sacred . there and elsewhere they make havock of woods , nay sell the timber of the very colledge from off the walls : ( so they did at christ-church , ) rack the tenants ; insomuch that in christ-church , the dean and canons there , ( in that short time they were possess'd of it ) purchast more lands , than all their predecessors had done from the time of the foundation to their coming . as to their reformation of manners , they made most colleges publick-tipling-houses : strong beer and ale being sold in the college-butteries , and sent for into the town as frequently as from common alehouses . the advance of learning , was the laying aside all scholastick exercises , and running after extemporary sermons , and then repeating them . the reformation of religion , was the laying aside all the devotions of the church , and particular founders : nay of the lords prayer , insomuch that there were not left four persons in the whole university , who durst repeat it before their sermon . the perfect abolition of the communion ; it being not so much as once administred during the whole time of their reign . in christ-church , the same person , who before his expulsion administred the sacrament ; at his return after twelve years , delivered the next sacrament there in that cathedral , and great college for divines . it is remarkable that after the great clamor against vice in this university ; no man during the whole fury of this visitation , was ejected for any thing but his loyalty , and for not daring to violate his oaths of allegiance to his prince , his oaths to the university , and to his local statutes : nay every one of these gentlemen which punisht this their consideration of their duty , were likewise obliged by the same oaths . postscript . you have here a naked and historical deduction of a sublimated reformation , under the reign of our late protestant dissenters of execrable and infamous memory ; and as time is the mother of truth , so past-ages are the best glass of those to come ; for mutations in governments as well as in natural bodies , proceed by a leading connexion of causes and effects . here 's neither any need , or possibility of rendring things worse than they were by partiality and descant ; for as it is one of the foulest pieces of story that ever yet came to light ; and of the most audacious affronts to the laws of god and man , the duties of common faith , humanity , order , and religion , that ever yet perhaps was offer'd in the face of the sun : so i have in this summary of those oppressions , very honestly left the actors themselves to be their own historians ; and without any malevolent construction , exposed them to be try'd and judg'd by their own records ; and for the truth of what is here set down , i remit my self to the credit of their own journals . and so far have i been from enflaming the reckoning , either with the number of particulars , or the weight of aggravations , that i have left out several notorious instances of tyranny and wickedn●ss , and barely made a report of the heads and titles of many arbitrary votes and ordinances , without reciting several clauses in the frame and body of them ; sufficient to have struck the reader with indignation and horrour . it is not yet that in the publishing of these papers i would be understood to pass a complement upon the party , in speaking better of them than they deserve , or less-ill rather , than they have done of themselves : but i have consulted brevity and christianity in the case ; that i may keep my self within charity and compass . but what 's the end of this pamphlet then you 'l say ? it is to lay before the reader the scheme of a popular reformation ; and to bid them beware of the leaven of the pharisees . in short , i would not have people poyson'd over again , by mistaking hemlock for parsley . now pray what were the pretences of one and forty ? fears of popery , absolute power , evil councellors , corrupt magistrates and ministers , prelatical rigour ; popish ceremonies ; ecclesiastical discipline , &c. and are not these the very complaints of this day ? and are not franck smith's dissenting protestants the very picture of that godly party ? these grievances must be remov'd they cry'd ; and we say the same thing now too . but by what means ? by a parliament ; and so say we too . well , and the late king call'd several parliaments , and by his royal prerogative dissolv'd them too , when he saw occasion : and so has his gracious majesty now in being . but at length betwixt the credulity of his own goodness , and the importunity of some of his treacherous subjects , he made one false step that ruin'd him past recovery : and that was the passing of a bill , for the continuance of that fatal parliament , till it should be dissolved by the consent of both houses . this king , god be praised , hath held his hand as to that point . but the thing nevertheless has been fairly offer'd at , in several papers of news , and expostulatory libels ; insisting upon it as the right and claim of the people ; and all to be back'd with an association too after the model of the covenant . now who were the sticklers i pray for that reformation ? were they not brownists , anabaptists , separatists , independents , antinomians , presbyterians , fifth-monarchy-men , ranters ? and in one word , the whole mass of men , of the most sanguinary , and heretical principles , gathered together under the cloak of people of tender-consciences , and the godly party . and have not we our dissenters now to match their godly party ; and of as many sorts almost as there went beasts into the ark ; and of as inconciliable aversions ? these are the people , that make it their business to find faults in the government ; and for want of matter of fact to work upon , they invent and create it . these are the men that set up for reformers of the church and of the state : and yet at the same time , many of these sects deny magistracy and ministry to be the ordinance of god ; and make it their profession to labour the destroying of the kingdoms of this world in order for the clearing of their way to the reign of king jesus . and these sects ( in good time ) must be united for the security of our religion and government , that declare themselves the enemies of all government , and implacable adve●saries each to the other . this will be call'd the stif●ing of the popish plot ; a blowing of the coal betwixt king and people ; and a design to stir up heart-burnings among his majesties subjects . this was the very method of the scandal and calumny too of the late times , that was cast upon every man that crossed the humour of the faction . how many rotten lords , popish bishops , straffordians , malignants , and jesuited papists , were people called ; for acting according to their consciences , and opposing the torrent of that hypocritical sedition ? and thus far , the parallel runs true ; a yorkist , a pensioner , a sham-plotter , a masquerader , a tory , or the like ; but the scene of things to come is yet in the dark ; and we have no better way then from what 's past to take a caution against the future . and to that end it is , that i have now committed these sheets to the publick . the establish'd-religion was to be reform'd ; and they ran it so far , till not only christianity , but even the moral duties of religion it self were almost extinguished . did they not stile themselves the kings best subjects too ; till ye see what came on 't upon the upshot ? the liberty of the subject was a great point with 'em too ; and what was the end on 't ; but the subjecting of the nobility , gentry , and all the honest and industrious people of the nation to a rapacious committee of blasphemous hereticks : a major general , and a red-coat ; and our estates , liberties , and lives , laid at the mercy of those vermine to seize , sequester , imprison , hang and draw at pleasure ? the king wanted but a matter of thirty thousand pound for his expedition against the scots : and the city ( alass ! ) were so poor , they were not able to furnish it ; and yet how many millions did they voluntarily bleed afterwards toward the raising and supporting of a rebellion ? but this was a thing not to be done , till they had first deliver'd up the government of the city into the hands of a faction . our modern whiggs are just of the same temper in the cas● of the french , as the godly party were then in the case o● the scots . not a cross to be gotten , unless his majesty will pawn his crown for 't . that is to say , if the clamorous party without doors may have their wills. i have here presented ye a draught of the effects of one reformation : and as ye like that , ye may consider of the fellow of it . the end . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e ☞ ☞ persons disabled to be elected or to elect members of parliament . forfeiture for electing contrary , or not according to the qualifications . ☜ a co●f●ssion of faith shall be agreed wi●h in 〈…〉 pr●●●cy . pers●●s d●sabl●d to ●old offices of trust. ☜ ☜ the rehearsal transpros'd, or, animadversions upon a late book intituled, a preface, shewing what grounds there are of fears and jealousies of popery marvell, andrew, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; 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(eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) the rehearsal transpros'd, or, animadversions upon a late book intituled, a preface, shewing what grounds there are of fears and jealousies of popery marvell, andrew, - . the second edition, corrected. [ ], [i.e. ] p. printed by a.b. for the assings [sic] of john calvin and theodore beza ... london : . attributed by wing to andrew marvell. an answer to bishop parker's preface to bishop bramhall's vindication. errors in paging. imperfect: print showthrough, tightly bound, with loss of print. reproduction of original in the huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng parker, samuel, - . dissenters, religious -- england. church and state -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - tcp staff (michigan) sampled and proofread - john latta text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the rehearsal transpros'd : or , animadversions upon a late book , intituled , a preface shewing what grounds there are of fears and jealousies of popery . the second edition , corrected . london , printed by a. b. for the assings of john calvin and theodore beza , at the sign of the kings indulgence , on the south side of the lake lemans , . animadversions upon the preface to bishop bramhall's vindication , &c. the author of this presace had first writ a discourse of ecclesiastical policy ; after that , a defence and continuation of the ecclesiastical policy ; and there he concludes his epistle to the reader in these words : but if this be the tenance i must undergo for the wantonness of my pen , to answer the impertinent and sl●…nder exceptions of every peevish and disingenuo●…s caviller ; reader i am reformed from my 〈◊〉 of scribling , and do here beartily bid thee an eternal farewel . now this expression lies open to his own dilemma against the nonconformists confessing in their prayers to god such heinons enormities . for if he will not accept his own charge , his modesty is all impudent and counterfeit : or , if he will acknowledge it , why then he had been before , and did still remain upon record , the same lewd , wanton , and incontinent scribler . but however , i hoped he had been a clergy-man of honour , and that when herein the world and he himself were now so ●…ully agreed in the 〈◊〉 of his writings , he would have kept his word ; or at least that his pen would not , so soon have created us a disturbance of the fame nature , and so far manifested how indifferent he is as to the business either of truth or eternity . but the author , alas , instead of his own , was faln now into amaryllis's dilemma : i perceive the gentleman hath travelled by his remembring chi lava la testa al asino perde il sapone , and therefore hope i may without pedantry quote the words in her own whining italian ) s'il peccar è si dolce e'l non peccar si necessario , o troppo imperfetta natura che ripugnia la legge . o troppo dura legge che natura offendi . if to scrible be so sweet , and not to scrible be so necessary ; o too frail inclination , that contradicteth obligagation : o too severe obligation , that offendest inclination . for all his promise to waite no more , i durst always have laid ten pound to a crown on natures side . and occordingly he hath now blessed us with , as he calls it , a preface , shewing what grounds there are of fears and jealousies of popery . it will not be unpleasant to hear him begin his story . the ensuing treatise of bishop bramhall's being somewhat superannuated , the bookseller was very sollicitous to have it set off with some preface that might recommend it to the genius os the age , and reconcile it to the present juncture of affairs . a pretty task indeed : that is as much as to say , to trick up the good old bishop in a yellow coif and a bulls-head , that he may be fit for the publick , and appear in fashion . in the mean time 't is what i always presgaed : from a writer of book●… , our author is already dwinled to a preface-monger , and from prefaces i am confident he may in a short time be improved to endite tickets for the bear-garden . but the bookseller i see was a cunning fellow , and knew his man. for who so proper as a young priest to sacrifice to the genius of the age ; yea , though his conscience were the offering ? and none more ready to nick a juncture of affairs than a malapart chaplain ; though not one indeed of a hundred but dislocates them in the handling . and yet our author is very maidenly , and condescends to his bookseller not without some reluctance , as being , forsooth , first of all none of the most zealous patrons of the press . though he hath so lately forfeited his credit , yet herein i dare believe him : for the press hath ought him a shame a long time , and is but now beginning to pay of the debt . the press ( that villanous engine ) invented much about the same time with the reformation , that hath done more mischief to the discipline of our church , than all the doctrine can make amends for , 't was an happy time when all learning was in manuscript , and some little officer , like out author , did keep the keys of the library . when the clergy needed no more knowledge than to read the liturgy , and the laity no more clerkship than to save them from hanging . but now since printing came into the world , such is the mischief that a man cannot write a book but presently he is answered . could the press but once be conjured to obey only an imprimatur , our author might not disdain perhaps to be one of its most zealous patrons . there have been wayes found out to banish ministers , to fine not only the people , but even the grounds and fields where they assembled in conventicles , but no art yet could prevent these seditious meetings of letters . two or three brawny fellows in a corner , with meer ink and elbow-grease , do more harm than an hundred systematical divines with their ●…weaty preaching . and , which is a strange thing , the very spunges , which one would think should rather deface and blot out the whole book , and were anciently used to that purpose , are become now the instruments to make things legible . their ugly printing-letters , that look but like so many rotten-teeth , how oft have they been pull'd out by b. and l. the p●…blick-tooth-drawers ! and yet these rascally operators of the press have got a trick to fasten them again in a few minutes , that they grow as firm a set , and as biting and talkative as ever . o printing ! how hast thou disturb'd the peace of mankind ! that lead , when moulded into bullets , is not so mortal as when sounded into letters ! there was a mistake sure in the story of cadmus ; and the serpe●…ts teeth which he sowed , were nothing else bu●… the letters which he invented . the first essay that was made towards this art , was in single characters upon iron , wherewit●… of old they stigmatiz'd slaves and remarkable offenders ; and it was of good use sometimes to brand a schismatick , but a bulky dutchman diverted it quite fro●… its first institution , and contriving those innumerable syntagmes of alpha●…ets , hath pestred the world ever since with the gross bodies of their german divinity . one would have thought in reason that a dutchman at least might have contented himself only with the wine-press . but , next of all , our author , beside his aversion from the press , alledges , th●…t he is as much concerned as de-wit - or any of the high and mighty burgomasters , in matters of a closer and more comfortable importance to himself and his own affairs . and yet whoever shall take the pains to read over his preface , will find that it intermeddles with the king , the succession , the privy-council , popery , atheism , bishops , ecclesiastical government , and above all with nonconformity , and j. o. a man would wonder what this thing should be of a closer importance , but being more comfortable too , i conclude it must be one of these three things ; either his salvation , or a benefice , or a female . now as to salvation he could not be so much concern'd for that care was over ; there hath been a course taken to insure all thar are on his bottom , and he is yet surer of a benefice ; or else his patrons must be very ungrateful . he cannot have deserved less than a prebend for his first book , a sine-cure for his second , and for this third a rectorship , although it were that of malmsbury . why , thenof necessity it must be a female . for that i confess might have been a sufficient excuse from writing of prefaces , and against the importunity of the book-seller . 't was fit that all business should have given place to the work of propagation . nor was there any thing that could more closely import him , than that the race & family of the railers should be perpetuared among mankind . who could in reason expect that a man should in the same moments undertake the labour of an author and a father ? nevertheless , he saith , he could not but yeild so far as to improve every fragment of time that he could get into his own disposal , to gratifie the importunity of the bookseller . was ever civility graduated up and inhanc'd to such a value ! his mistris her self could not have endeared a favour so nicely , nor granted it with more sweetness . was the bookseller more impotunate , or the author more courteous ? the author was the pink of courtesie , the bookseller the bur of importunity . and so , not being able to shake him off , this , he saith , hath brought forth this preface , such an one as it is ; for how it will prove , he himself neither is , nor ( till 't is too late ) ever shall be a competent judge , in that it must be ravish'd out of his hands before his thoughts can possibly be cool enough to revive or correct the indecencies either of its stile or contrivance . he is now growing a very enthusiast himself . no nonconformist-minister , as it seems , could have spoke more extempore . i see he is not so civil to his readers as he was to his bookseller : and so a. c. and james collins be gratified , he cares not how much the rest of the world be disobliged . some man that had iess right to be fastidious and confident , would , before he exposed himself in publick , both have cool'd his thoughts , and corrected his indecencies : or should have considered whether it were necessary or wholsome that he should write at all . forasmuch as one of the ancient sophists ( they were a kind of orators of his form ) kill'd himself with declaiming while he had a bone in his throat , and j. o. was still in being . put up your trumpery good noble marquess . but there was no holding him . thus it must be , and no better , when a man's fancy is up , and his breeches are down ; when the mind and the body make contrary assignations , and he hath both a bookseller at once and a mistriss to satisfie ; like archimedes , into the street he runs out naked with his invention . and truly , if at any time , we might now pardon this extravagance and rapture of our author , when he was pearch'd upon the highest pinacle of ecclesiastical felicity , being ready at once to asswage his concupisence , and wreek his malice . but yet he knows not which way his mind will work it self and its thoughts . this is bayes the second . — 't is no matter for the plot — the intrigo was out of his dead — but you 'l apprehend it better when you see 't . or rather , he is like bayes his actors , that could not guess what humour they were to be in : whether angry , melancholly , merry , or in love. nay insomuch that he saith , he is neither prophet nor astrologer enough to for etel . never man certainly was so unaquainted with himself . and , indeed , 't is part of his discretion to avoid his acquaintance and tell him as little of his mind as may be : for he is a dangerous felllow . but i must ask his pardon if i treat him too homely . it is his own fault that misled me at first , by concealing his quality under such vulgarcomparisons as de-wit and the burgomasters . i now see it all along ; this can be noless a man than prince vol●…cicius himself , in dispute betwixt his boots which way his mind will work it self ; whether love shall detain him with his closer importance , parthenope , whose mother , sir , sells ale by the town wall : or honour shall carry him to head the army that lies concealed for him at knightsbridge , and to incounter j. o. go on cryes honour : tender love saith nay . honour aloud commands , pluck both boots on . but safer love doth whisper , put on none . and so now when it comes that he is not prophet nor astrologer enough to foretel what he will do , 't is just , for as bright day , with black approach of night , contending , makes a doubtful puzzling light ; so does my honour and my love together , puzzle me so , i am resolv'd on neither . yet no astrologer could possibly have more advantage and oportunity to make a judgment . for he knew the very minute of the conception of his preface , which was immediately upon his majesties issuing his declaration of indulgence to tender consciences . nor could he be ignorant of the moment when it was brought forth . and i can so far refresh his memory , that it came out in the dog-dayes , — the season hot , and she too near : 〈◊〉 mighty love ! j. o. will be undone , according to the rule in davenant's ephemerides ; but the ●…eads which at this moment , and under the present . schemes and aspects of the heavens he intends to treat of ( pure sidropdel ) are these two : first , something of the treatise it self . secondly , of the seasonableness of its publication ! and this , unless his humour jade him ( 't is come to a dog-trot already ) will lead him further into the argument as it relates to the present state of things , and from thence 't is odds but he shall take occasion to bestow some animadversions upon one j. o. there 's no trusting him . he doubtless knew from the beginning what he intended . and so too all his story of the bookseller , and all the volo nola's , and shall-i shall-i's bebetwixt them , was nothing but fooling : and he now all along owns himself to be the publisher , and alledges the slighter and the main reasons that induced him . would he had told us so at first ; for then he had saved me thus much of my labour . though as it chances , it lights not amiss on our author , whose delicate stomach could not brook that j. o. should say , he had prevailed with himself much against his inclination , to bestow a few ( and those idle ) hours upon examining his book : and yet he himself stumbles so notoriosly upon the very same fault at his own threshold , but now from this preamble he falls into his peface to bishop bramhal , though indeed like bays his prologue , that would have serv'd as well for an epilogue , i do not see but the preface might have past as well for a postscript , or the headstal for a crooper . and our authors divinity might have gone to push - pin with the bishop , which of their two treatises was the procatarctical cause os both their edition . for , as they are coupled together , to say the truth , 't is not discernable , as in some animals , whether their motion begin at the head or the tail : whether the author made his preface sor bishop bramhal's dear sake , or whether he published the bishop's treatise for sake of his own dear preface . for my own part i think it reasonable that the bishop and our author , should ( like fair gamsters at leap-frog ) stand and skip in their turns ; and however our author got it for once , yet if the bookseller should ever be sollicitous for a second edition , that then the bishops book should have the precedence . but besore i commit my self to the dangerous dep●hs of his discourse , which i am now upon the brink of , i would with his leave make a motion ; that instead of author , i may henceforth indifferently call him mr. bays as oft as i shall see occasion . and that first , because he hath no name or at least will not own it , though he himself writes under the greatest security , and gives us the first letters of other mens names before he be asked them . secondly , because he is i perceive a lover of elegancy , of stile and can endure no mans tautologies but his own , and therefore i would not distast him with too frequent repetition of one word . but chiefly , because mr. bayes and he do very much symbolize ; in their understandingt , in their expressions , in their humour , in their contempt and quarrelling of all others , though of their own profession . because , our divine , the author , manages his contest with the same prudence and civility , which the players and poets have practised of late in their several divisions . and lastly , because both their talents do peculiarly ly in exposing and personating the nonconformists . i would therefore give our author a name , the memory of which may perpetually excite him to the exercise and highest improvement of that virtue . for , our cicero doth not yet equal our roscius , and one turn of lacy's face hath more ecclesiastical policy in it , than all the books of our author put together . besides , to say mr. bayes is more civil than to say villain and caitiff , though these indeed are more tuant . and , to conclude ; the irrefragable doctor of school-divinity , pag. . of his defence ; determining concerning symbollical ceremonies , ha●h warranted me that not only governours , but any thing else , may have power to appropriate new names to things , without having absolute authority over the things themselves . and therefore henceforward , seeing i am on such sure ground , author , or mr. bayes , whether i please . now , having had our dance , let us advance to our more serious counsels . and first , our author begins with a panegyrick upon bishop bramhal ; a person whom my age had not given me leave to be acquainted with , nor my good fortune led me to converse with his writings : but for whom i had collected a deep reverence from the general reputation he carried , beside the veneration due to the place he filled in the church of england . so that our author having a mind to shew us some proof of his good nature , and that his eloquence lay'd not all in satyr and invectives , could not , in ny opinion , have fixed upon a fitter subject of commendation . and therefore , i could have wished for my own sake , that i had missed this occasion of being more fully informed of some bishop's principles , whereby i have lost part of that pleasure which i had so long enjoyed in thinking well of so considerable a person . but however , i recreate my self with believing that my simple judgment cannot , beyond my intention , abate any thing of his just value with others . and seeing he is long since dead , which i knew but lately , and now learn it with regret , i am the more obliged to repair in my self whatsoever breaches of his credit , by that additional civility which consecrates the ashes of the deceased . but by this means i am come to discern how it was possible for our author to speak a good word for any man. the bishop was expired , and his writings jump much with our author . so that if you have a mind to dy , or to be of his party , ( there are but these two conditions ) you may perhaps be rendred capable of his charity . and then write what you will , he will make you a preface that shall recommend you and it to the genius of the age , and reconcile it to the juncture of affairs . but truly he hath acquitted himself herein so ill-favour'dly to the bistop , that i do not think it so much worth to gain his approbation ; and i had rather live and enjoy mine own opinion , than be so treated for , beside his reflection on the bishop , and the whole age he lived in ; that he was , as far as the prejudice of the , age would permit him , an acute philosopher ( which is a sufficient taste of mr. bays his arrogance , that no man , no age can be so perfect but must abide his censure , and of the officious virulence of his humour , which infuses it self , by a malignant remark , that ( but for this acuter philosopher ) no man else would have thought of , into the praises of him whom he most . intended to celebrate ) if , i say , beside this , you consider the most elaborate and studious periods of his commendation , you find it at best very rediculous , by the language he seems to transcribe out of the grand cyrus and cassandra , but the exploits to have borrowed out of the knight of the sun , and king arthur . for in a luscious and effeminate stile he gives him such a termagant character , as must either sright or turn the stomach of any reader ; being of a brave and enterprising temper , of an active and sprightly mind , he was always busied either in contriving or performing great d●…signs . well , mr. bayes , i suppose by this , that he might have been an over-match to the bishop of cullen and the bishop of strasburg in another place , he finished all the glorious designs that he undertook . this might have become the bishop of munster before he had rais'd the siege from groningen . as he was able to accomplish the most gallant attempts , so he was always ready not only to justisie their innocence , but to make good their bravery . i was too prodigal of my bishops at first , and now have never another lest in the gazette , which is to our authors magazine . his reputation and innocence were both arm or of proof against tories and presbyterians . but methinks mr. bayes having to do with such dangerous enemies , you should have furnished him too with some weapon of offence , a good old fox , like that of another heroe , his contemporary in action upon the scene of ireland , of whom it was sung . down by his side be wore a sword of price , keen as a frost , glaz'd like a new made ice : that cracks men shell'd in steel in a less trice , than squirrels nuts , or the highlanders lice . then he saith ; ' t is true the church of ireland was the largest scene of his actions ; but yet there in a little time , he wrought out such wondrous alterations and so exceeding all belief , as may convince us that he had a mind large and active enough to have managed the roman empire at its greatest extent . this indeed of our author 's is great : and yet it reacheth not a strain of his fellow - pendets in the history of the mogol : where he tells dancehment kan , when you put your foot in the stirrop , and when you march upon horseback in the front of the cavalry , the earth trembles under your feet , the eight elephants that hold it on their heads not being able to support it . but enough of this trafh . beside that it is the , highest indecorum for a divine to write in such a stile as this [ partplay-book and part romance ] concerning a reverend bishop ; these improbable elogies too are of the greatest disservice to their own design , and do in effect diminish alwayes the person whom they pretend to magnifie . any worthy man may pass through the world unquestion'd and safe with a moderate recommendation ; but when he is thus set off , and bedawb'd with rhetorick , and embroder'd so thick that you cannot discern the ground , it awakens naturally ( and not altogether unjustly ) interest , curiosity and envy . for all men pretend a share in reputation , and love not to see it ingross'd and 〈◊〉 , and are subject to enquire , ( as of great estates suddenly got ) whether he came by all this honestly , or of what credit the person is that tells the story ? and the same hath happened as to this bishop , while our author attributes to him such atchievments , which to one that could believe the legend of captain jones , might not be incredble . i have heard that there was indeed such a captain , an honest brave fellow : but a wag that had a mind to be merry with him , hath quite spoil'd his history . had our author epitomiz'd the legend of sixty six books de virtutibus sancti patricii ( i mean not the ingenious writer of the friendly debates , but st , patrick the irish bishop ) he could not have promis'd us greater miracles . and 't is well for him that he hath escaped the fate of secundinus , who ( as josselin relates it ) acquainting patrick that he was inspired to compose something in his commendation , the bshiop foretold the author should dy as soon as 't was perfected . which so done , so happened . i am sure our author had dyed no other death but of this his own preface , and a surfeit upon bishop bramhall , if the swelling of truth could have choak'd him . he tells us , i remember somewhere , that this same bishop of derry said , the scots had a civil expression for these improvers of verity , that they are good company ; and i shall say nothing severer , than that our author speaks the language of a lover , and so may claim some pardon , if the habit and excess of his courtship do as yet give a tincture to his discourse upon more ordinary subjects . for i would not by any means be mistaken , as if i thought our author so sharp set , or so necessitated that he should make a dead bishop his 〈◊〉 ; so far from that , that he hath taken such a course , that if the bishop were alive , he would be out of love with himself . he hath , like those frightfull looking-glasses , made for sport , represented him in such bloated lineaments , as , i am confident , if he could see his face in it , he would break the glass . for , hence it falls out too , that men seeing the bishop furbish'd up in so martial accoutrements , like another odo bishop of baieux , and having never before heard of his prowess , begin to reflect what giants he defeated and what damsels he rescued . serious men consider whether he were ingaged in the conduct of the irish army , and to have brought it over upon england , for the imputation of which the earl of strafford his patron so undeservedly suffered . but none knowes any thing ofit . others think it is not to be taken literally , but the wonderful and unheard-of alterations that he wrought out in ireland , are meant of some reformation that he made there in things of his own function . but then men ask again , how he comes to have all the honour of it , and whether all the while that great bishop usher , his metropolitane , were unconcerned ? for even in ecclesiastical combates , how instrumental soever the captain hath been , the general usually carries away the honour of the action . but the good primate was engaged in designs of lesser moment , and was writing his de primordiis ecclesiae britanicae , and the story of pelagius our countryman . he , honest man , was deep gone in grubstreet and polemmical 〈◊〉 , and troubled with fits of modern orthodoxy . he satisfyed himself with being admired by the blue and white aprons , and pointed at by the more 〈◊〉 tankard bearers . nay , which is worst of all , he undertook to abate of our episcopal grandeur , and condescended 〈◊〉 to reduce the ceremonious discipline in these nations to the 〈◊〉 simplicity . what then was this that bishop brambal did ! did he like a protestant apostle , in one day convert thousands of the irish papists ? the contrary is evident , by the irish rebellion and massacre , which , notwithstanding his publick employment and great abilities , happened in his time so that after all our authors bombast , when we have search'd all over , we find our selves bilk'd in our ●…on : and he hath erected him , like a st christopher in the popish churches , as big as ten porters and yet only imploy'd to sweat under the burden of an infant . all that appears of him is , first , that he busied himself about a catholick 〈◊〉 among the churches of christendom . but as to this , our author himself saith , that he was not so vain , or so presuming as to hope to see it 〈◊〉 in his day●…s . and yet but two pages before he told us that the bishop finished all the glorious designes which he undertook but this design of his he draws our in such a circuit of words , that 't is better taking it from the bishop himself , who speaks more plainly always and much more to the purpose . and he saith , pag. 〈◊〉 . of his vindication , my design is rather to reconcile the popish party to the church of england , than the 〈◊〉 of england to the pope . and how he manages it , i had rather any man would learn by reading over his own book , than that i should be thought to misrepresent him , which i might , unless i tarnscribed the whole . but in summe it seems to me that he is upon his own single judgment too liberal of the publick , and that he retrenches both on our part more than he hath authority for , and grants more to the popish than they can of right pretend to . it is however indeed a most glorious design , to reconcile all the churches to one doctrine and communion ( though some that meddle in it do it chiefly in order to fetter men straighter under the formal bondage of fictitious discipline ; ) but it is a thing rather to be wished and prayed for , than to be expected from these kind of endeavours . it is so large a field , that no man can see to the end of it : and all that have adventured to travel it , have been bewildred . that man must have a vast opinion of his own sufficiency , that can think he may by his oratory or reason , either in his own time , or at any of our author 's more happy juncture of affairs , so far perswade and fascinate the roman-church , having by a regular contexture of continued policy for so many ages interwoven it self with the secular interest , and made it self necessary to most princes , and having at last erected a throne of infallibility over their consciences , as to prevail with her to submit a power and empire so acquired and established in compromise to the arbitration of an humble proposer . god only in his own time , and by the inscrutable methods of his providence is able to effect that alteration : though i think too he hath signified in part by what means he intends to accomplish it , and to range so considerable a church and once so exemplary , into primitive unity and christian order . in the mean time such 〈◊〉 are sit 〈◊〉 pregnant scholars that have nothing else to do , to go big with for forty years , and may qualifie them to discourse with princes & statesmen at their leisure ; but i never saw that they came to use or possibility , no more than that of alexanders architect , who proposed to make him a statue of the mountain achos ( and that was no molehil ) and among other things , that statue to carry in its hand a great habitable city . but the surveyor was gravell'd , being asked whence that city should be supplyed with water . i would only have ask'd the bishop , when he had carv'd and hammer'd the romists and protestants into one colossian-church , how we should have done as to matter of bibles . for the bishop , p. . complains that unqualified people should have a promiscuous licence to read the scriptures : and you may guess thence , if he had moreover the pope to friend , how the laity should have been used . there have been attempts in former ages to dig through the separating istmos of peloponnesus ; and another to make communication between the red-sea and the mediterranean : both more easie than to cut this ecclesiastick canal , and yet both laid by , partly upon the difficulty of doing it , and partly upon the inconveniences if it had been effected . i must confess freely , yet i ask pardon for the presumption , that i cannot look upon these undertaking church-men , however otherwise of excellent prudence and learning , but as men struck with a notio , and craz'd on that side of their head . and so i think even the bishop had much better have busied himself in peaching in his own diocess , and disarming the papists of their arguments , instead of rebating our weapons ? than in taking an oecumenical care upon him , which none called him to , and , as appears by the sequel , none conn'd him thanks for . but if he were so great a politicion as i have heard , and indeed believe him to have been , me-thinks he should in the first place have contrived how we might live well with our protestant neighbours , and to have united us in one body under the king of england , as head of the protestant interest , which might have rendred us more considerable , and put us into a more likely posture to have reduced the church of rome to reason . for the most leading party of the english clergy in his time retained such a pontifical stiffness towards the foreign divines , that it puts me in mind of austine the monk , when he came into kent , not deigning to rise up to the brittish or give them the hand , and could scarce afford their churches either communion or charity , or common civility . so that it is not to be wondred if they also on their parts look'd upon our models of accomodation with the same jealousie that the british christians had as austin's design , to unite them first to ( that is under ) the savons , and then deliver them both over bound to the papal government and ceremonies . but seeing hereby our hands were weakned , and there was no probability of arriving so near the end of the work , as to a consent among protestants abroad ; had the bishop but gone that step , to have reconciled the ecclesiastical differences in our own nations , and that we might have stood firm at home before we had taken such a jump beyond-sea , it would have been a performance worthy of his wisdom . for at that time the ecclesiastical rigours here were in the highest ferment , and the church in being arrayed it self against the peaceable dissenters only in some points of worship . and what great undertaking could we be ripe for abroad , while so divided at home ? or what fruit expected from the labour of those mediating divines in weighty matters , who were not yet past sucking-bottle ; but seem'd to place all the business of chri stianity in persecuting men for their consciences , differing from them in smaller metters ? how ridiculous must we be to the church of rome to interpose in her affairs , and force our mediation upon her ; when besides our ill correspondence with foreign protestants , she must observe our weakness within our selves , that we could not , or would not step over a straw , though for the perpetual settlement and security of our church and nation ? she might well look upon us as those that probably might be forced at some time by our folly to call her into our assistance ( for with no weapons or arguments but what are fetch'd out of 〈◊〉 arsenals , can the ceremonial controversie be rightly defended ) but never could she consider us as of such authority or wisdom , as to give ballance to her counsels . but this was far from bishop bramhall's thoughts ; who , so he might ( like caesar ) manage the roman empire at its utmost extent , had quite forgot what would conduce to 〈◊〉 peace of his own province and country . for , p. . he settles this maxime as a truth , that second reformations are commonly like metal upon metal , which is false heraldry . where , by the way , it is a wonder that our author in enumerating the bioshp's perfections in divinity , law , history , and philosophy , neglected this peculiar gift he had in heraldry ; and omitted to tell us that his 〈◊〉 was large enough to have animated the kingdoms of garter and 〈◊〉 at their greatest dimensions . but , beside what i have said already in relation to this project upon rome , there is this more , 〈◊〉 i confess was below bishop brumhall's reflection , and was indeed fit only sor some vulgar politician , or the commissioners of scotland about the 〈◊〉 union : whether it would not have succeeded , as in the consolidation of kingdoms , where the greatest swallows down the less ; so also in church-coalition , that though the pope had condescended ( which the bishop owns to be his right ) to be only a patriarch , 〈◊〉 he would have 〈◊〉 up the patriarchate os lambeth to his mornings-draught , like an egg in muscadine . and then there is another danger always when things come once to a treaty , that beside the debates of reason , there is a better way of tampering to bring men over that have a power to 〈◊〉 . and so who knows in such a treaty with rome , if the alps ( as it is probable ) would not have come over to england , as the bishop design'd it , england might not have been obliged , lying so commodious for navigation , to undertake a voyage to civita vechia ; but what though we should have made all the advances imaginable , it would have been to no purpose : and nothing less than an entire and total resignation of the protestant cause would have contented her . for the church of rome is so well satisfied of her own sufsiciency , and hath so much more wit than we had in bishop 〈◊〉 days , or seem to have yet learn'd ; that it would have succeeded just as at the council of trent . for there , though many divines of the greatest sincerity and learning , endeavoured a reformation , yet no more could be obtained of her than the nonconformists got of those of the church of of england at the conference of worcester-house . but on the contrary , all her excesses and errors were further rivited and confirmed , and that great machine of her ecclesiastical policy there perfected . so that this enterprise of bishop bramhall's , being so ill laid and so unseasonable , deserves rather an excuse than a commendation . and all that can be gathered besides out of our author concerning him is of little better value for he saith indeed , that he was a zealous and resolute assertor of the publick rites and solemnities of the church . but those things , being only matters of external neatness , could never merit the trophies that our author erects him . for neither can a justice of peace for his severity about dirt-baskets deserve a statue . and as for his expunging some dear and darling articles from the ptotestant cause , it is , as far as i can perceive , only his substituting some arminian tenets ( which i name so , not for reproach , but for difference ) instead of the calvinian doctrines . but this too could not challenge all these triumphal ornaments in which he installs him : for , 〈◊〉 suppose these were but meer mistakes on either side , for want of being ( as the bishop saith pag. . ) scholastically stated ; and that he , with a distinction of school-theologie , could have smoothed over and plained away these knots though they have been much harder . for the rest , which he leaves to seek for , and i meet casually with in the bishop's own book ; i find him to have been doubtless a very good-natur'd gentleman . pag. . he hath much respect for poor readers ; and pag . he judges that i●… they come short of preachers in point of effu●…acy , yet they have the advantage of preachers as to point of security . and pag. . he commends the care taken by the canons that the meanest c●…re of souls should have formal sermons at least four times every year . pag. . he maintains the publick sports on the lords-day by the proclamation to that purpose , and the example of the reformed churches beyond-sea : aud for the publick dances of our youth upon country-greens on sundays , after the duties of the day , he sees nothing in then but innocent , and agreeable to that under-foot of people . and pag. . ( which i quoted before ) he takes the promiscuous licence to unqualified persons to read the scriptures , far more prejudicial , nay , more pernitious , than the over-rigorous , restraint of the romanists . and indeed , all along he complies much for peace-sake , and judiciously shews us wherein our seperation from the church of rome is not warrantable . but although i cannot warrant any man who hence took occasion to traduce him of popery , the contrary of which is evident , yet neither is it to be wondred , if he did hereby lye under sometimpuration , which he might otherwise have avoided . neither can i be so hard-hearted as our author in the nonconformists case of discipline to think it were better that he , or a hundred more divines of his temper should suffer , though innocent , in their reputation , than that we should come under a possibility of losing our relgion . for as they ( the bishop and i hope most of his party ) did not intend it so , neither could they have effected it . but he could not expect to enjoy his imagination without the annoyances incident to such as dwell in the middle story : the pots from above , and the smoak from below . and those churches which are seated nearer upon the frontire of popery , did naturally and well if they took alarm at the march. for , in fact , that incomparable person grotius did yet make a bridge for the enemy to come over ; or at least laid some of our most considerable passes open to them and unregarded : a crime something like what his son de groot ( here 's gazotte again for you ) and his son-in-law mombas have been charged with . and , as to the bishop himself , his friend ; an accusatory spirit would desire no better play than he gives in his , own vindication , but that 's neither my business nor humour : and whatsoever may have glanced upon him was directed only to our author ; for publishing that book , which the bishop himself had thought fit to conceal , and for his impertinent efflorescence of rhetorick upon so mean topicks , in so choice and copious a subject as bishop bramhal . yet though the bishop prudently undertook a design , which he hoped not to accomplish in his own dayes , our author , however , was something wiser , and hath made sure to obtain his end . for the bishop's honour was the furthest thing from his thoughts , and he hath managed that part so , that i have accounted it a work of some piety to vindicate his memory from so scurvy a commendation . but the author's end was only railing ; he could never have induc'd himself to praise one man but in order to ●…ail on another . he never oyls his hone but that he may whet his razor ; and that not to shave , but to cut mens throats . and whoever will take the pains to compare , will find , that as it is his only end ; so his best , nay his only talent is railing . so that he hath , while he pretends so much for the good bishop , used him but for a stalking-horse till he might come within shot of the forreign divines and the nonconformists . the other was only a copy of his countenance : but look to your selves , my masters ; forin so venomous a malice , courtesie is always fatal . under colour of some mens having taxed the bishop , he flyes out into a furious debauch , and breaks the windows , if he could , would raze the foundations of all the protestant churches beyond sea : but for all men at home of their perswasion , if he meet them in the dark he runs them thorow . he usurps to himself the authority of the church of england , who is so well bred , that if he would have allowed her to speak , she would doubtless have treated more civilly those over whom she pretends no jurisdiction : and under the names of germany and geneva , he rallies and rails at the whole protestancy of europe . for you are mistaken in our author ( but i have worn him thread-bare ) if you think he designs to enter the lists where he hath but one man to combate . mr. bayes ye know , prefers that one quality of fighting single with whole armies , before all the moral virtuesput together . and yet i assure you , he hath several times obliged moral virtue so highly , that she ows him a good turn whensoever she can meet him . but it is a brave thing to be the ecclesiastical draw-can-sir ; he kills whole nations , he kills friend and foe ; hungary , transv●…lvania , bohemia , poland , savoy , france , the netherlands , denmark , sweden , and a great part of the church of england , and all scotland ( for these , beside many more , he mocks under the title of germany and geneva ) may perhaps rouse our mastiff , and make up a danger worthy of his courage . a man would guess that this gyant had promised h●…s comfortable importance , a simarre of the beards of all the orthodox theologues in christendom . but i wonder how he comes to be prolocutor of the church of england ! for he talks at that rate , as if he were a synodical individuum ; nay , if he had a fifth council in his belly he could not dictate more dogmatically . there had been indeed , as i have heard , about the dayes of bishoy 〈◊〉 , a sort of divines here of that leaven , who being dead , i cover their names , if not for healths sake , yet for decedcy , who never cou'd speak of the first reformers with any patience ; who pruned themselves in the peculiar virulency of their pens , and so they might say a tart thing concerning the foreign churches , cared not what obloquy they cast upon the histo ry , or the profession of religion . and those me●… undertook likewise to vent their wit and 〈◊〉 choler under the stile of the church of england and were indeed so far owned by her , that wha●… preferments were in her own disposal , she ra●… ther conferred upon them . and now when the●… were gone off the stage , there is risen up 〈◊〉 spiritual mr. bayes ; who having assumed to him●… self an incongruous plurality of ecclesiastical of●… fices , one the most severe , of penitentiary u●… niversal to the reformed churches ; the othe●… most ridiculous , of buffoon-general to the churc●… of england , may be henceforth capable of an●… other promotion . and not being content to en●… joy his own folly , he has taken two others int●… partnership ; as fit for his design , as those tw●… that clubb'd with mahomet in making the 〈◊〉 an : who by perverse wit and representatio●… might travesteere the scripture , and render 〈◊〉 the careful and serious part of religion odio●… and contemptible . but , lest i might be mistake as to the persons i mention , i will assure th●… reader that i intend not huddibras : for he is man of the other robe , and his excelleut tha●… hath taken a ●…ight far above these whiflers : tha●… whoever dislikes the choice of his subject , ca●… not but commend his performance , and calculat●… if on so b●…rren a theme he were so copious , wha●… admirable sport he would have made with an ec●… clesiastical politician . but for a daw-divine not onely to foul his own nest in england , bu●… to pull in pieces the nests of those beyond 〈◊〉 't is that which i think uncedent and of very ill ex●… ample . there is not indeed much danger , 〈◊〉 book , his letter , and his preface being writ in en●… glish , that they should pass abroad : but , if they 〈◊〉 printed upon incombustible paper , or by reason of the many avocations of our church they may escape a censure , yet 't is likely they may dye at home , the common fate of such treatises amongst the more judicious oyl-men and grocers . unless mr. bayes be so far in love with his own whelp , that , as a modern lady , he will be at the charge of translating his works into latin , transmitting them to the universities , and dedicating them in the vaticane . but , should they unhappily get vent abroad ( as i hear some are already sent over for curiosity ) what scandal , what heart-burning and animosity must it raise against our church : unless they chance to take it right at first , and limit the provocation within the author . and then , what can he expect in return of his civility , but that the complement which passed betwixt . arminius and baudius should concenter upon him , that he is both opprobrium academiae , and pestis ecclesiae . for they will see at the first that his books come not out under publick authority , or recommendation : but only as things of buffoonery do commonly , they carry with them their own imprimatur ; but i hope he hath considered mr. l. in private , and payed his fees. ) neither will the gravity therefore of their judgements take the measures , i hope , either of the education at our universities , or of the spirit of our divines , or of the prudence , piety , and doctrine of the church of england , from such an interlooper . those gardens of ours use to bear much better fruit . there may happen sometimes an ill year , or there may be such a crab-stock as cannot by all ingrafting be corrected . but generally it proves otherwise . once perhaps in a hundred years there may arise such a prodigy in the university ( where all men else learn better arts and better manners ) and from thence may creep into the church ( where the teachers at least ought to 〈◊〉 well instructed in the knowledge and practice 〈◊〉 christianity ) so prodigious a person i say may 〈◊〉 there be hatch'd , as snall neither know or 〈◊〉 how to behave himself to god or man ; and 〈◊〉 having never seen the receptacle of grace or 〈◊〉 science at an anatomical disfection , may 〈◊〉 therefore that there is no such matter , or no 〈◊〉 obligation among christians ; who shall 〈◊〉 the scripture it self , unless it will conform to 〈◊〉 interpretation ; who shall strive to put the 〈◊〉 into blood , and animate princes to be the 〈◊〉 tioners of their own subjects for well-doing . a●… this is possible ; but comes to pass as rarely and 〈◊〉 as long periods in our climate , as the birth of false prophet . but unluckily , in this fatal year seventy two , among all the calamities that 〈◊〉 logers foretel , this also hath befaln us . i woul●… not hereby confirm his vanity , as if i also belie●… ed that any scheme of heaven did influence 〈◊〉 actions , or that he were so considerable as 〈◊〉 the comet under which they say we yet labou●… had sore-boded the appearance of his preface . 〈◊〉 no : though he be a creature most noxious , 〈◊〉 he is more despicable . a comet is of far 〈◊〉 quality , and hath other kind of imployment . 〈◊〉 though we call it an hairy-star , it affords 〈◊〉 prognostick of what breeds there : but the 〈◊〉 strologer that would discern our author and 〈◊〉 business , must lay by his telescope , and use a 〈◊〉 croscope . you may find him still in mr. calvin head . poor mr. calvin and bishop bramhal , 〈◊〉 crime did you dye guilty of , that you cannot 〈◊〉 quiet in your graves , but must be conjured up 〈◊〉 the stage as oft as mr. bayes will ferret you ? 〈◊〉 which of you two are most unfortunate i 〈◊〉 determine ; whether the bishop in being alway●… ●…ourted , or the presbyter in being alwayes rail'd 〈◊〉 . but in good earnest i think mr. calvin hath the better of it . for , though an ill man cannot by ●…rasing confer honour , nor by reproaching fix 〈◊〉 ignominy , and so they may seem on equal terms ; yet there is more in it : for at the same time that we may imagine what is said by such an author to be false , we conceive the contrary to be ●…rue . what he saith of him indeed in this place did not come very well in ; for calvin writ nothing against bishop bramhal , and therefore here it amounts to no more than that his spirit forsooth had propagated an original waspishness and salse orthodoxy amongst all his followers . but if you look in other pages of his book , and particularly pag. . of his defence , you never saw such a scar-crow as he makes him . there sprang up a mighty bramble on the south-side the lake lemane , that ( such is the rankness of the soil ) spread and flourished with such a sudden growth , that partly by the industry of his agents abroad , and partly by its own indefatigable pains and pragmaticalness it quite over-ran the whole reformation — you must conceive that mr. bayes was all this while in an extasy in dodona's grove ; or else here is strange work , worse than explicating a post , or examining a pillar . a bramble that had agents abroad , and it self an indefatigable bramble . but straight our bramble is transformed to a man , and he makes a chair of infallibility for himself , out of his own bramble timber . yet all this while we know not his name . one would suspect it might be a bishop bramble . but then he made himself both pope and emperor too of the greatest part of the reformed world. how near does this come to his commendation of bishop bramhal before ? for our author seems copious , but is indeed very poor of expression : and , as smiling and frowning are performed in the face with the same muscles very little altered ; so the changing of a line or two in mr. bayes at any time , will make the same thing serve for a panegyrick or a philippick . but what do you think of this man ? could mistriss mopsa her self have furnished you with a more pleasant and worshipful tale ? it wants nothing of perfection , but that it doth not begin with once upon a time ? which master bayes , according to his accuracy , if he had thought on 't , would never have omitted . yet some critical people , who will exact truth in falshood , and tax up an old-wife's fable to the punctuality of history , where blaming him t'other day for placing this bramble on the south-side of the lake leman●… . i said , it was well and wisely done that he chose a south sun for the better and more sudden growth of such a fruit-tree . ay , said they , but he means calvin by the bram ble ; and the rank soyl on the south-side the lake lemane is the city of geneva , situate ( as he would have it ) on the south-side of that lake . now it is strange that he , having travelled so well should not have observed that the lake lies east and west , and that geneva is built at the west end of it . pis●… , said i , that 's no such great matter , and , as master bayes hath it upon another occasion , whether it be so or no , the fortunes of caesar and the roman empire are not concerned in 't . one of the company would not let that pass , but told us if we look'd in caesar's commentaries , we should find their fortunes were concern'd , for it was the helvetian passage , and many mistakes might have risen in the marching of the army . why then , replied i again , whether it be east , west , north , or south , there is neither vice nor idolatry in it , and the ecclesiastical politician may command you to believe it , and you are bound to acquiesce in his judgment , whatsoever may be your private opinion . another , to continue the mirth , answered , that yet there might ●…e some religious consideration in building a town east and west , or north and south , and 't was not 〈◊〉 thing so indifferent as men thought it : but because in the church of england , where the table is set altar wise , the minister is nevertheless obliged to stand at the north-end ( though it be the north-end of the table ) it was fit to place the geneva presbyter in diametrical opposition to him upon the south-side of the lake . but this we all took for a cold conceir , and not enough matured . i , that was still upon the doubtful and excusing part , said , that to give the right situation of a town , it was necessary first to know in what position the gentleman's head then was when he made his obseavation , and that might cause a great diversity , as much as this came to . yes , replyed my next neighbour : or , perhaps some roguing boy that managed the puppets , turned the city wrong , and so disoccidented our geographer . it was grown almost as good as a play among us : and at last they all concluded that geneva had sold mr. bayes a bargain , as the moon serv'd the earth in the rehearsal , and in good sooth had turn'd her breech on him . but this , i doubt not , mr. bayes will bring himself off with honour : but that which sticks with me is , that our author having undertaken to make calvin and geneva ridicule , hath not pursued it to so high a point as the subject would have afforded . first , he might have taken the name of the beast calvinus , and of that have given the anagram , lucianus . next , i would have turn'd him inside outward , and have made him usinulca . that was a good 〈◊〉 name to have frighted children with . then he should have been a bram●… ●…till , av , an indefatigable bramble too : but after 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 have continued ( for in such a book a passage in a play is clear gain , and a 〈◊〉 loss if omitted ) and upon that bramble reasons grew●…s plentiful as black-berries , but both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and they stain'd all the white aprons so , that there was no getting of it out . and then , to make a fuller description of the place , he should have added ; that near to the city of roaring lions there was a lake , and that lake was all of brimstone , but stored with over-grown trouts , which trouts spawned presbyterians , and those spawned the millecantons of all other fanaticks . that this shoal of presbyterians landed at geneva , and devoured all the bishops of geneva's capons , which are of the greatest size of any in the reformed world. and ever since their mouths have been so in relish that the presbyterians are in all parts the very canibals of capons : in so much , that if princes do not take care , the race of capons is in danger to be totally extinquished . but that the river rhosne was so sober and intelligent , that its waters would not mix with this lake perillous , but ran sheere thorow , without ever touching it : nay , such is its apprehension lest the lake should overtake it , that the river dives it self under ground , till the lake hath lost the scent : and yet when it rises again , imagining that the lake is still at its heels , it runs on so impetuously that it chuseth rather to pass through the roaring lions , and never thinks it self safe till it hath taken sanctuary at the popes town of vinion . he might too have proved that calvin made himself pope and emperour , because the city of geneva stamps upon its coyn the two-headed imperial eagle . and , to have given us the u●…most terror , he might have considered the alliance and vicinity of geneva to the canton of bern , the arms of which city is the bear , ( and an argument in heraldry , even bishop bramhal himself being judge , might have also held in divinity ) and therefore they keep under the town-hoose constantly a whole den of bears . so that there was never a more dangerous situation , nor any thing so carefully to be avoided by all travellers in their wits , as geneva : the lions on one side , and the bears on the other . this story would have been nuts to mother midnight , and was fit to have been imbellished with mr. bayes his allegorical eloquence . and all that he saith either by sits and girds of calvin , or in his justest narratives , hath less foundation in nature : and is indeed twice incredible , first in the mattet related , and then because mr. bayes it comes from : or , to express it shorter , because of the tale and the tales man. he is not yet come to that authority , but that his dogmatical ipse dixits may rather be a reason why we should not believe him . if master bayes will speak os controversy ; let him enter into a regular disputation concerning these calvinian tenets , and not write an history . or , if he will give us the history of calvin , let him at the same time produee his authors . and whether history or controversy , let him be pleased so long to abate of the exuberancy of his fancy and wit ; to dispense with his ornaments and superfluencies of invention and satyre , and then a man may consider whether he may belie●…e his story , and submit to his argument . but in the mean time ( for all he pleads in pag. . of his defence ) it looks all so like subterfuge and inveagling ; it is so nauseating and teadious a task , ●…hat no man thinks he ows the author so much service as to find out the reason of his own categoricalness for him . one may beat the bush a whole day ; but ast●…r so much labour shall , for all game , only spring a butterfly , or start an hedghog . insomuch that i am ever and anon disputing with my self whether mr. bayes be indeed so ill-natured a person as some would have him , and do not rather innocently write these things ( as he professes pag. . of his presact ( so exceeding all belief , that he may make himself and the company merry . i sometimes could think that he intends no harm either to publick or private , but only rails contentedly to himself and his muses ; that he seeks only his own diversion , and chargeth his gun with wind but to shoot at the air. or that , like boyes , so he may make a great paper-kite of his own letter of . pages , and his preface of an h●…ndred , he hath no further design upon the poultry of the village . but he takes care that i shall never be long deceiv'd with that pleasing imagination : and though his hyperboles and impossibilities can have only a ridiculous effect , he will be sure to manisest that he had a selonious intention . he would take it ill if we should not value him as an enemy of mankind : and like a raging indian ( for in europe it was never before practised ) he runs a mucke ( as they call it there ) stabbing every man he meets , till himself be knockt on the head . this here is the least pernicious of all his mischiess : though it be no less in this and all his other books , than to make the german protestancy a reproachful proverb , and to turn geneva and calvin into a common place of railing . i had alwayes heard that calvin was a good scholar , and an honest divine . i have indeed read that he spoke something contemptuosly of our liturgy : sunt in illo libro quaedam tolerabiles ineptiae . but that was a sin which we may charitably suppose he repented of on his death-bed . and if mr. bayes had some just quarrel to him on that or other account , yet for divinities 〈◊〉 he needed not thus have made a constant 〈◊〉 place of his grave . and as for geneva i never perceived before but that it was a very laudable city , that there grew an excellent grape on the south side of the lake leman , that a man might make good chear there , and there was a pallmal , and one might shoot with the athalet , or play at courtboule on sundayes . what was here to inrage our author so that he must raze the fort of st. katherine , and attempt with the same success a second escalade ? but the difficulty of the enterprize doubtless provoked his courage , and the honour he might win made the justice of his quarrel . he knew that not only the common-wealth of switzerland , but the king of france , the king of spain , and the duke of savoy would enter the lists for the common preservation of the place : and therefore though it be otherwise but a petty town , he disdain'd not where the race was to be run by monarchs , to exercise his footmanship . but is it not a great pity to see a man in the flower of his age , and the vigour of his studies , to fall into such a distraction , that his head runs upon nothing but roman empire and ecclesiastical policy ? this happens by his growing too early acquainted with don q●…ixot , and reading the bible too late , so that the first impressions being most strong , and mixing with the last , as more novel , have made such a medly 〈◊〉 his brain pan that he is become a mad priest , which of all the sorts is the most 〈◊〉 . hence it is that you shall hear him anon instructing princes , like sancho , how to govern his 〈◊〉 : as he is busied at present in 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 of germany and geneva . had he no friends to have given him good counsel before his understanding were quite unsettled ? or if there were none near , why did not men call in the neighbours and send for the parson of the parish to perswade with him in time , but let it run on thus till he is fit for nothing but bedlam or hogsdon ? however thought it be a particular damage , it may tend to a general advantage , . and young students will i hope by his example learn to beware hence-forward of overweening presumption and preposterous ambition . for this gentleman , as i have heard , after he had read don quixot and the bible , besides such school-books as were necessary for his age , was sent early to the university : and there studied hard , and in a short time became a competent rhetorician , and no ill disputant . he had learnt how to erect a thesis . and to defend it pro or con with a serviceable distinction : while the truth ( as his camarade mr. bayes hath it on another occasion . before a full pot of ale you can swallow , was here with a whoop and gone with a hallow , and so thinking himself now ripe and qualified for the greatest undertakings , and highest fortune , he therefore exchanged the narrowness of the uuiversity for the town ; but coming out of the confinement of the square-cap and the qurdrangle into the open air , the world began to turn round with him : which he imagined , though it were his own giddiness , to be nothing less than the quadrature of the circler . this accident concurring so happily to increase the good opinion which he naturally had of himself , he thenceforward apply'd to gain a like reputation with others . he follow'd the town life , haunted the best companies ; and , to polish himself from any pedantick roughness ; he read and saw the playes , with much care and more proficiency than most of the auditory . but all this while he forgot not ●…he main-chance , but hearing of a vacancy with a noble man , he clapp'd in , and easily obtained to be his , chaplain . from that day you may take the date of his preserments and his ruine . for having soon wrought himself dexteriously into his patrons favour , by short graces & sermons , and a mimical way of drolling upon the puritans , which he knew would take both at chappel and table ; he gained a great authority likewise among all the domesticks . they all listened to him as an oracle : and they allow'd him by common consent , to have not only all the divinity , but more wit too than all the rest of the family put together . this thing alone elevated him exceedingly in his own conceit , and raised his hypocondria into the region of the brain : that his head swell'd like any bladder with wind and vapour . but after he was stretch'd to such a height in his own fancy , that he could not look down from top to toe but his eyes dazled at the precipice of his stature ; there feil out , or in , another natural chance which push'd him headlong . for being of an amorous complexion , and finding himself ( as i told you ) the cock-divine and the cock-wit of the family , he took the 〈◊〉 to walk among the hens and thought it was not impolitick to establish his new acquired reputation upon the gentlewomens side . and they that perceived he was a rising man , and of pleasant conversation , dividing his day among them into canonical hours , of reading now the common-prayer , and now the romances ; were very much taken with him . the sympathy of silk began to stir and attract the tippet to the petticoat & the petticoat toward the tipper . the innocent ladies found a strange unquietness in their minds , and could not distinguish whether it were love or devotion . neither was he wanting on his part to carry on the work ; but shisted himself every day with a clean surplice , and , as oft as he had occasion to bow , he directed his reverence towards the gentlewomens pew . till having before had enough of the libertine , and undertaken his calling only for pref●…rment ; he was transported now with the sanctity of his office , even to extasy : and like the bishop over maud●…in colledge altar , or like maudlin de la croix , he was seen in his prayers to be lifted up sometimes in the air , and once particularly so high that he crack'd his scul against the chappel ceiling . i do not hear for all this that he had ever practised upon the honour of the ladies , but that he preserved always the civility of a platonick knight-errant . for all this courtship had no other operation than to make him still more in love with himself : and if he frequented their company , it was only to speculate his own baby in their eyes . but being thus , without competitor or rival , the darling of both sexes in the family and his own minion ; he grew beyond all measure elated , and that crack of his scull , as in broken looking-glasses , multipli'd him in self-conceit and imagination . having fixed his genter in this nobleman's house , he thought he could now move and govern the whole earth with the same facility . nothing now would serve him but he must be a madman in print , and write a book of ecclesiastical pollicy . there he distribu●…es all the territories of conscience into the princes province , and makes the hierarchy to be but bishops of the air : and talks at such an extravagant rate in things of higher concernment , that the reader will avow that in the whole discourse he had not one lucid interval . this book he was so bent upon , that he sate up late at nights , and wanting sleep , and drinking sometimes wine to animate his fancy , it increas'd his distemper . beside that too he had the misfortune to have two friends , who being both also out of their wits , and of the same though something a calmer phrensy , spurr'd him on perpetually with commendation . but when his book was once come out , and he saw himself an author ; that some of the gallants of the town layd by the new tune and the tay , tay , tarry , to quote some of his impertinencies ; that his title page was posted and pasted up at every avenue next under the play for that afternoon at the kings or the dukes house : the vain-glory of this totally confounded him . he lost all the little remains of his understanding , , and his cerebellum was so dryed up that there was more brrins in a walnut and both their shels were alike thin and brittle . the king of france that lost his wits , had not near so many unlucky circumstances to occasion it : and in the last of all there is some similitude . for , as a negligent page that rode behind and carried the kings lance , let it fall on his head , the king being in armour , and the day hot , which so disordered him that he never recovered it : so this gentleman , in the dog-days , stragling by temple-bar , in a massy cassock and surcingle , and taking the opportunity at once to piss and admire the title-page of his book ; a tall servant of his , one j. o. that was not so carefull as he should be , or whether he did it of purpose , le ts another book of four hundred leaves fall upon his head ; which meeting with the former fracture in his cranium , aud all the concurrent accidentk already mentioned , has utterly undone him . and so in conclusion his madness hath formed it self into a perfect lycanthropy . he doth so severely believe himself to be a wolf , that his speech is all turn'd into howling , yelling , and barking : and if there were any sheep here , you should see him pull out their throats and suck the blood . alas , that a sweet gentleman , and so hopeful , should miscarry ! for want of cattle here , you find him raving now against all the calvinists of england , and worrying the whole flock of them . for how can they hope to escape his chaps and his paws better than those of germany and geneva ; of which he is so hungry , that he hath scratch'd up even their dead bodies out of their graves to prey upon ? and yet this is nothing if you saw him in the height of his fits : but he hath so beaten and spent himself before , that he is out of breath at present ; and though you may discover the same fury , yet it wants of the same vigor . but however you see enough of him , my masters , to make you beware , i hope , of valuing too high , and trusting too far to your own abilities . it were a wild thing for me to squire it aster this knight , and accomprny him here through all his extravagancies against our calvinists . you find nothing but orthodoxy , systems , and syntagms , 〈◊〉 theology , subtilties and 〈◊〉 . demosthenes ; tankard-bearers ; 〈◊〉 ; controversial : general terms without foundation or reason assigned . that they seem lik words of cabal , and have no significance till they be decipe . 'd . or , you would think he were playing at substantives and adj●…ctives . and all that rationally can be gathered from what he saith , is , that the man is mad . but if you would supply his meaning with ●…our imagination , as if he spoke sense and to some determinate purpose ; it is very strange that , conceiving himself to be the champion of the church of england , he should bid such a general defiance to the calvinists . for , he knows , or perhaps i may better say he did know before this phrensy had subverted both his understanding and memory , that most of our ancient , and many of the later bishops nearer our times , did both hold and maintain those doctrines which he traduces under that by-word . and the contrary opinions were even in bishop prideaux's time accounted so novel , that , being then publick professor of divinity , he thought fit to tax doctor heylin at the commencement for his new fangled divinity : cujus , saith he , in the very words of promotion , te doctorem creo. he knew likewise that of our present bishops , though one had leisure formerly to write a rationale of the ceremonies and lituygie , and another a treatise of the holiness of lent ; yet that most of them , and 't is to be supposed all , have studied other contoversies , and at another rate than mr. bayes his lead can fathom . and as i know none of them that hath published any treatise against the calvinian tenets , so i have the honour to be acquainted with some of them who are in tirely of that judgment , and differ nothing but , as of good reason , in the point of 〈◊〉 . and as for that , bishop . bramhal page . hath proved that calvin himself was of the episcopal perswasion . so that i see no reason why mr. bayes should here and every where be such an enemy to controversial skill , or the calvinists . but i perceive 't is for bishop , bramhall's sake here that all the tribe must suffer . this bayes is not a good dog : for he runs at a whole flock of sheep , when mr. b. was the deer whom he had in view from the beginning . however having foil'd himself so long with every thing he meets , after him now he goes , and will never leave till he hath run him down poor mr. b. i find that when he was a boy , he pluck'd bishop bramhall's sloes , and eat his 〈◊〉 ; and now , when he is as superannuated as the bishop's book , he must be whipp'd 〈◊〉 , there is no remedy . and yet i have heard , and mr. bayes himself seems to intimate as much , that how-ever he might in his younger years have mistaken , yet that even as early as bishop bramhall's discourse , he began to retract : and that as for all his sins against the church of england , he hath in fome la●…we treatises cryed peccavy with a witness . but mr. bayes doth not this now look like sorcery and extortion , which of all crimes you purge your self from so often without an accuser ? for first ; where●… the old bishop was at rest , and had under his last pillow laid by all cares and contests of this lower world ; you by your necromancy have disturb'd him , and rais'd his ghost to persecute and haunt mr. b. whom doubtless at his death he had pardoned . but if you called him upto ●…sk some questions too concerning your ecclesiastical policy , as i am apt to suppose , i doubt you had no better answer than in the song : art thou forlorn of god , and com'st to me ? what can i tell thee then but miserie ? and then as for extortion ; who but such an hebrew jew as you , would , after an honest man had made so full and voluntary restitution , not yet have been satisfied without so many pounds of his flesh over into the bargain ? though j. o. be in a desperate condition , yet methinks mr. b. not being past grace , should not neither have been past mercy . are there no terms of pradon , mr. bayes ? is there no time for 〈◊〉 ; but , after so ample a confeffion as he hath made , must he now be hang'd too to make good the proverb ? it puts me in mind of a story in the time of the guelphs and ghibilines , whom i perceive mr. bays hath heard of of : they were two factions in italy , of which the g●…elphs were for the pope , and the ghibilines 〈◊〉 the emperour ; and these were for many years carried on and somented with much animosity , ●…o the great disturbance of christendome . which of these two were the nonconformists in those days i can no more determine , than which of our parties here at home is now schismatical . but so 〈◊〉 they were to one another , that the historian said they took care to differ in the least circumstances of any humane action : and as those that have the masons word , secretly discern one another ; so in the peeling or cutting but of an onion , a gu●…lp and vice versa would at first sight have distinguished a ghibiline . now one of this latter sort coming at rome to confession upon ashwednesday , the pope or the penitentiary sprinkling ashes on the man's head with the usual ceremony , instead of pronouncing memento homo quod cinis es & in cinerem revertêris , changed it to memento homo quod ghibilinus es , &c and even thus it fares with mr. b. who though he should creep on his knees up the whole stairs of scholastick 〈◊〉 , i am confident neither he , nor any of his party , shall by mr. bayes his good will ever be absolved . and therefore truly if i were in mr. b's case if i could not have my confession back again , yet it should be a warning unto me not without better grounds to be so coming and so good natured for the future . but whatever he do , i hope others will consider what ufage they are like to find at mr. bayes hand , and not suffer themselves by the touch of his penitential rod to be transformed into beasts , even into 〈◊〉 , as here he hath done with mr. b. i have in deed wondered often at this bayes his insolence , who summons in all the world , and preacheth up only this repentance : and so frequently in his books he calls for testimonies , signal marks , publick acknowledgment , satisfaction , recantation , and i know not what . he that hath made the passage to heaven so easie that one may fly ehither without grace ( as gonzales to the moon only by help of his gansas ) he that hath 〈◊〉 its narrow paths from those labyrinths which j. o. and mr. b. have planted ; this overseer of god's high-wayes ( if i may with reverence speak it ) who hath paved a broad ca●…sway with moral virtue thorow his kingdom ; he methinks should not have made the process of loyalty more difficult than that of salvation . what signal marks , what testimonies would he have of this conversion ? every man cannot , as he hath done write an ecclesiastical policy , a defence : a preface : and some , if they could , would not do it after his manner ; least instead of obliging thereby the king and the church , it should be a testimony to the contrary . neither , unless men have better principles of allegiance at home , are they likely to be reduced by mr. bayes his way of perswasion . he is the first minister of the gospel that ever had it in his commission to rail at all nations . and , though it hath been long practised , i never observed any great success by reviling men into conformity . i have heard that charms may even envite the moon out of heaven , but i never could see her moved by the r●…etorick of barking . i think it ought to be highly penal for any man ro impose other conditions upon his majesties good subjects than the king expects , or the law requires . when you have done all , you must yet appear before mr. bayes his tribunal , and he hath a new test yet to put you to . i must confess at this rate the nonconformists deserve some compassion : that after they have done or suffered legally and to the utmost , they must still be subjected to the w●…nd of a verger , or to the wanton lash of every pedant ; that they must run the 〈◊〉 , or down with their breeches as 〈◊〉 as he wants the prospect of a more pleasing nudidity . but i think they may chuse whether they will submit or no to his jurisdiction . let them but ( as i hope they do ) fear god , honour the king , preserve their consciences , follow their trades , and look to their chimnies ; and they need not fear mr , bayes and all his malice . but after he hath sufficiently insulted over mr. b's ignorance and vanity , with other complements of the like nature , in recompence of that candor and civility which he acknowledges him ta have now learnt towards church of england , mr. bayes forgeting what had past long since betwixt him and the bookseller ) saith in excuse of his severity , that this treatise was not published to impair mr. b's esteem in the least but for a correction of his scribling humour , and to warn their rat-divines that are perpetually nibling and gnauing other mens writings . now i must confess mr. bayes this is a very handsome welcome to mr. b. that was come so far to see you , and doutless upon this encouragement he will visit you often . this is an admirable dexterity our author hath ( i wish i could learn it ) to correct a man's scribling humour without impairing in the least his reputation . he is as courteous as lightning , and can melt the sword without ever hurting the scabbard . but as for their rat-divines , i wonder they are not all poysoned with nibling at his writings , he hath strewed so much arsenick in every leaf . but however , methinks he should not not have grudged them so slender a sustenance . for though there was a sow in arcadia so fat and insensible that she suffered a rats nest in her buttock , and they had both dyet and lodging in the same gammon ; yet it is not every rats good fortune to be so well provided . and for push-pindivinity , i confess it is a new term of art , i shall henceforward take notice of it , but i am afraid in general it doth not tend much to the reputation of the faculty . and now , though he told us at the beginning , that the bookseller was the main reason of publishing this book of the bishop and his own preface , he tels us that the main reason of its publication was to give some check to their present disingenuity , that is to say to that of j. o , and j. o. be it at present . he is come so much nearer however to the truth , though we shall find ere we have done that there is still a mainer reason . wnen i first took notice of this misunderstanding betwixt mr. bayes and j. o i considered whether it were not execution day with the latine alphabet : whether all the letters were not to suffer in the same manner , except c. only , which ( having been the mark of condemnation ) might have a pardon to serve for the executioner . i began to repent of my undertaking , being afraid that the quarrel was with the wole cris-crosrow , and that we must fight it out through all the squadrons of the vowels , the mutes , the semi-vowels , and the liquids . i foresaw a sore and endless labour , and a battle the longest that ever was read of ; being probable to continue as long as one letter was left alive , or there were any use of reading . therefore , to spare mine own pains , and prevent ink-shed , i was advising the letters to go before mr. bales , or any other his majesties justices of the peace , to swear that they were in danger of their . lives , and desire that mr bayes might be bound to the good-behaviour . but after this i had another phancy , and that not altogether unreasonable ; that mr. bayes had , only for health and exercise-sake , drawn j. o. by chance out of the number of the rest , to try how he could rail at a letter , and that he might be well in breath upon any occasion of greater consequence for , how perfect soever a man may have been in any science , yet without continual practice he will find a sensible decay of his faculty . hence also , and upon the same natural ground , it is the wisdom of cats to whet their claws against the chairs and hangings , in mediation of the next r●…t they are to encounter . and i am confident that mr. bayes by this way hath brought himself into so good railing case , that pick what letter you will out of the alphabet , he is able to write an epistle upon it of pages ( i have now told them right ) to the author of the friendly debates . now though this had very much of probability , i had yet a further conjecture : that this j. o. was a talisman , signed under some peculiar influence of the heavenly bodies , and that the fate of mr. bays was bound up within it . whether it be so or no i know not : but this i am assured of , without the help either of syderal magick or judicial astrologie , that when j and o are in conjunction , they do more certainly than any of the planets forbode that a great ecclesiastical politician shall that year run mad . i confess after all this , when i was come to the dregs of my phansie ( for we all have our infirmities , and mr. bayes his defence was but the blewjohn of his ecclesiastical policy , and this preface the tap-droppings of his defence ) i reflected whether mr. bayes having no particular cause of indignation against the let●…ers , there might not have been a mistake of the printer , and that they were to be read in one word io that use to go before paean : that is in english a triumph before the victory or whether it alluded to 〈◊〉 that we read of at school , the daughter of inachus ; and that as juno p●…rsecuted the heifer , so this was an he-cow , that is to say a bull to be baited by mr. bayes the thunderer . but these being conceits too trivial , though a ragoust fit enough sor mr. bayes his palate , i was sorced moreover to quit them , remarking that it was an j consonant . and i plainly at last perceived that this j. o. was a very man as any of us are , and had a head , and a mouth with tongue and teeth in it , and hands with singers and nails upon the●… : nay , that he could read and write , and speak as well as i , or master bayes , either of us . when i once found this , the business appear'd more serious , and i was willing to see what was the matter that so much exasperated mr. bayes , who is a person , as he saith himself , of such a tame and softly humour , and so cold a complexion , that be thinks himself scarce capable of hot and passionate impressi●…ns . i concluded that necessarily there must be some extraordinary accident and occaon that could alter so good a nature . for i saw that he pursued j. o. if not from , post to pillar , yet from pillar to post , and i diserned all along the footsteps of a most inveterate and implacable malice . as oft as he does but name those two first letters , he is , like the island of fayal on fire in three●…ore and ten places . you see , mr. bayes , that i too have improved my wit with reading the gazettes . were you of that fellows diet here abour town , that epicurizes upon burning coals , drinks healths in scalding brimstone , scraunches the glasses for his desert , and draws his breath through glowing tobacco-pipes . nay to say a thing yet greater ; had you never tasted other sustenance than the focus of burning glasses , you could not shew more flame than you do alwayes upon that subject . and yet one would think that even from the little sports , with your comfortable importance after supder , you should have learnt when j. o. came into play , to love your love with an j. because he is judicious , though you hate your love with an j , because he is jealous : and then to love your love with an o. because he is oraculous , though you hate your love with an o. because he is obscure : is it not strange , that in those most benign minutes of a man's life , when the stars smile , the birds sing , the winds whisper , the fountains warble , the trees blossom , and uuiversal nature seems to invite it self to the bridal ; when the lion puls in his claws & the aspick layes by its poyson , and all the most noxious creatures grow amorusly innocent : that even then , mr. bayes alone should not be able to refrain his malignity ? as you love your self , madam , let him not come neer you . he hath been fed all his life with vipers insteed of lampres , and scorpions for crayfish : and if at any time he eat chickens they had been cramb'd with spiders , till he 〈◊〉 so invenomed his whole substance that t is much safer to bed with a mountebank befoe he hath taken his antidote . but it cannot be any vulgar furnace that hath chafed so cool a salamander . 't is not the strewing of cowitch in his genial-bed that could thus disquiet him , the first night . and therefore let 's take the candle and see whether there be not some body underneath that hath cut the bed-cords , there was a worthy divine , not many years dead , who in his younger time being of a facetious and unlucky humour , was commonly known by the name of tom triplet . he was brought up at pauls-school , under a 〈◊〉 master , dr. gill , and from thence he went to the uuiversitythere he took liberty ( as 't is usual with those that are emancipated from school ) to tel tales , and make the discipline ridiculous under which he was bred . but , not suspecting the doctor 's intelligence , comming once to town , he went in full school to give him a visite , and expected no iess than to get a play-day for his former acquaintance . but , instead of that , he found himself hors'd up in a trice ; though he appeal'd in vain to the priviledges of the 〈◊〉 , pleaded adultus , and invoked the mercy of the spectators . nor was he let down till the master had planted a grove of birch in his back side , fot the terrour and puplick example of all wags that divulg the secrets of priscian and make merry with their teachers . this stuck so with triplet , that all his life-time he never forgave the doctor , but sent him every newyears-tide an anniversary ballad to a new tune , and so in his turn avenged himself of his jerking pedagogue . now when i observed that of late years mr. bays had regularly spawned his books ; in . the ecclesiastical policy ; in . the defence of the ecclesiastical policy ; and now in this preface to biwop bramhal , and that they were writ in a stile so vindictive and poynant , that they wanted nothing but rime to be right tom triplet ; and that their edge bore always upon j. o. either in broad meanings or in plain terms ; i begun to suspect that where there was so great resemblance in the effects , there might be some parallel in effects , there might be some parallel in their causes . for though the peeks of players among themselves , or of poet against poet , or of a conformistdivine against a nonconformist , are dangerous , and of late times have caused great disturbance ; yet i never remarked so irreconcileable a spirit as that of boyes against their schoolmasters or tutors . the quarrels of their education have an influence upon their memories and understandings for ever after . they cannot speak of their teachers with any patience or civility ; and their discourse is never so flippant , nor their wirs so fluent as when you put them upon that theme . nay , i have heard old men , otherwise , sober , peaceable and good-natured , who never could forgive osbolstone , as the younger are still inveighing against dr. busby . it were well that both old and young would reform this vice , and consider how easy a thing it is upon particular grudges , and as they conceived out of a just 〈◊〉 , to slip either into 〈◊〉 petulancy of inveterate uncharitableness . and had there not been something of this in his own case , i am confident mr. bayes in his ecclesiastical policy , in order to the publick peace and security of the government , could not have failed to admonish princes to beware of this growing evil , and to brandish the publick rods if not the axes against the boyes , to teach them better manners . and he would have assured them that they might have done it with all safety , notwithstanding that there were in proportion an hundred boyes against one preceptor . but therefore is it not possible that j. o. and mr bayes have known one another formerly in the university ; and that ( as in seniority there is a kind of magistracy ) bayes being yet young j. o. conceiv'd himself in those dayes to be his superiour , and exercised an academical jurisdiction or dominion over him . now whether j. o. might not be too severe upon him there for all men are prone to be cogent and supercilious when they are in office ) or whether mr. bayes might not make some little escapes and excursions there ( as young men are apt to do when they are got together ) that i know not , and rather believe the contrary . but that is certain that the young wits in the universities have always an animosity against the doctors , and take a reculiar felicity in having a lucky hit at any of them . i rather suppose that after mr bayes had changed the place , and his condition , to be the noblemans chaplain , that he might commit some exorbitance in j. o's opinion , or preach or write something to j. o's reproach , and published the secrets of the holy brotherhood : and that j. o. having got him within his reach , did therefore ( figuratively speaking ) — instead of maid jilian take up his malepillian , and whipt him like a baggage — as tom triplet expresses it . this might well 〈◊〉 mr. bayes his choler , who , considering himself to be now in holy orders , and conceiving that he had been as safe as in a sanctuary under his patrons protection , must needs take it ill io be handled so irreverently . if it were thus in fact , and that j. o. might presume too much upon his former authority to give him correction ; yet it is the more excusable , if mr. bayes had on his part been guilty of so much 〈◊〉 . for though a man may be allowed once in his life to change his party , and the whole scene of his affairs , either for his safety or preferment ; 〈◊〉 , though every man be obliged to change an hundred times backward and forward , if his judgment be so weak and variable ; ye there are some drudgeries that no man of honour would put himself upon , and but few submit to if they were imposed . as suppose one had thought fit to pass over from one perswasion of the christian religion unto another ; he would not chuse to spit thrice at every article that he relinquish'd to curse solemnly his father and mother for having educated him in those opinions , to animate his pnew abquaintances to the massacring of his former camarades . these are businesses that can only be expected from a renegade of argier or tunis ; to over-doe in expiation , and gain better credence of being a sincere musulman . and truly , though i can scarcely 〈◊〉 that mr. bayes hath so mean and desperate intentions , which yet his words seem too often to manifest the offices however which he undertakes are almost as dishonourable . for he hathso studied and improved their j 〈◊〉 as he calls it , heard their sermons and prayers so attentively , searched the scriptures so narrowly , that a man may justly suspect he had formerly set up j. o's profession , and having the language so perfectly , hath upon this juncture of affears betaken himself to turn spy and inteligencer ; and 't is evident that he hath travell'd the country for that purpose . so that i cannot resemble him better than to that politick engine who about two years ago was employed by some of oxford as a missionary among the nonconformists of the adjacent counties ? and , upon designe , either gathered a congregation of his own , or preach'd amongst others , till having got all their names , he threw off the vizard , and appear'd in his colours , an honest infromer . but i would not have any man take mr. bayes his fanatical geography for authentick , lest he should be as far misled , as in the situation of geneva . it suffices that mr. bayes hath done therein as much as served to his purpose , and mixed probability enough for such as know not better , and whose ears are of a just bore for his fable . but i. o. being of age and parts sufficient either to manage or to neglect this quarrel , i shall as far as possible decline the mentioning of him , seeing i have too upon ( further intelligence and consideration ) found that he was not the person whom mr. bayes principally intended . for , the truth of it is , the king was the person concerned from the beginn●ng . his majesty before his most happy and miraculous restauration , had sent over a declaration of his indelgence to tender consciencee in ecclesiastical matters . which , as it was doubtless the real result of the last advice left him by his glorious father , and of his own consummate prudence and natural benignity ; so at his return he religiously observed and promoted it as far as the passions and influences of the contrary party would give leave . for , whereas among all the decent circumstances of his welcom return , the providence of god had so cooperated with the duty of his subjects , that so glorious an action should neither be soiled with the blood of victory , nor lessened by any capitulations of treaty , so not to be wanting on his part in courtesy , as i may say , to so happy a conjucture , he imposed upon himself an oblivion of former offences , and his indulgence in ecclesiastical affairs . and to royal and generous minds do stipulations are so binding as their own voluntary promises : nor is it to be wondred if they hold those conditions that they put upon themselves the most inviolable . he therefote carried the act of oblivion and indempnity thorow : that party who had suffered vastly in the late cumbustions not refusing to imitate his generosity , but throwing all their particular losses and resentments into the publick reckoning . but when it came to the ecclesiastical part , the accomplishment of which only remain'd behind to have perfected his majesty's felicity , the business i warrant you should not go so , ( as i shall have occasion to say more par●icularly . ) for , though i am sorry to speak it , yet it is a sad truth , that the animosities and obstinacy of some of the clergy have in all ages been the greatest obstacle to the clemency , prudence and good intentions of princes , and the establishment of their affairs . his majesty therefore expected a better season , and having at last rid himself of a great minister of state who had headed this interest , he now proceeded plainly to recommend to his parliment effectually and with repeated instances , the consideration of tender consciences , after the kings last representing of this matter to the parliament , mr. bayes took so much time as was necessary for the maturing of so accurate a book which was to be the standard of government for all future ages , and he was happily delivered in of his ecclesiastical pollicy . and though he thought fit in this first book to treat his majesty more tenderly than in those that followed , yet even in this he doth all along use grea●… liber●…y and pr●…sumption . nor can what he objects , 〈◊〉 ●… , 〈◊〉 weak consciences , take place so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 them as upon himself : who , while his prince might expect his compliance , doth give him counsel , advises him how to govern the kingdom , blames and corrects the laws , and tells him how this and the other might be mended . but that i may not involve the thing in generals , but represent undeniably mr. bayes his performance in this undertaking , i shall without art write down his own words and his own quod scripsi scripsi , as they ly naked to the view of every reader . the grand thesis upon which he stakes not only all his own divinity and policy , his reputation , preferment , and conscience , of most of which he hath no reason to be prodigal ; but even the crowns and fate of princes , and the liberties , lives and estates , and , which is more , the consciences of their subjects , which are too valuable to be trusted in his disposal , is this , pag- . that it is absolutely necessary to the peace and government of the world , that the supream magistrate of every commonwealth should be vested with a power to govern and conduct the consciences of subjects in affairs of religion . and p he explains himself more fully that unless princes have power to hind their subjects to that religion that they apprehend most advantagious to publick peace & tranquility & restrain those religious mistakes that tend to its subversion , they are no better than statues and images of authority . pag. . a prince is indued with a power to conduct religion , and that must be subject to his dominion as well as all other affairs of state. p. . if princes should forgo their soveraignty over mens censciences in matter of religion , they leave themselves less power than is absolutely necessary , and in brief : the suprea●… government of every commonwealth , where-ever it is lodged , must of necessity be universal , absolute , and uncontroulable in all affairs whatsoever that concern the interests of mankind and the ends of government . p , . he in whom the supream power resides , having authority to assign to every subject his proper function , and among others these of the priesthood ; the exercise thereof as he has power to transfer upon others , so he may if he please reserve it to himself . p. . our saviour came not to uns●…ttle the foundations of government , but left the government of the world in the same condition he found it , p. . the government of religion was vested in princes by an antecedent right to christ . — this being the magisterial and main point that he maintains , the rest of his assertions may be reckoned as corollaries to this thesis , and without which indeed such an unlimeted maxime can never be justified . therefore , to make a conscience fit for the no●…se , he says , p. . men may think of things according to their own perswasions , and assert the freedom of their judgments against all the powers of the earth . this is the prerogative of the mind of man within its own dominions , its kingdom is intellectual , &c. whilst conscience acts within its proper sphere , the civil power is so far from doing it violence , that it never can . p. . mankind have the same natural right to liberty of conscience in matters of religious worship as in affairs of justice & honesty ; that is to say , a liberty of judgment , but not of practice . and in the same pagehe determins christian liberty to be founded upon the reasonableness of this principle . p . in cases and disputes of publick concernment , private men are not properly sui juris , they have no power over their own actions : they are not to be directed by their own judgments , or determined by their own wills , but by the commands and determinations of the publick conscience ; and if there be any sin in the command , he that imposed it shall answer for it , and not i whose whole duty it is to obey . the commands of authority will warrant my obedience , my oobedience will hollow , or at least excuse my action , and so secure me ●…rom sin , if not from error ; and in all doubtful and disput able cases , 't is better to err with authority than to be in the right against it : not only because the danger of a little error ( and so it is if it be disputable ) is outweighed by the importance of the great duty of obedience , &c. another of his corollaries is , that god hath appointed ( p. . ) the magistrates to be his trustees ●…pon earth , and his officials to act and determin in moral vertues and pious devotions according to all accidents and emergencies of affairs : to assign new particulars of the divine law ; to declare new bounds of right and : wrong , which the law of god neither do●…h nor can limit . p. . moral virtue being the most material and useful part of all religion , is also the ut●…ost end of all its other duties . p. . all religion must of necessity ●…e resolved into entbusiasm or morality . the former is meer imposture ; and therefore all that is true must be reduced to the latter . having thus enabled the prince , dispenced with conscience , & sitted up a moral rel●…gion for that conscience ; to shew how much those . moral virtues are to be valued , p. . of the preface to his ecclesi●…stical policy he affi●…ms that t is absolutely nec●…ssary to the peace and happiness of kingdoms , that there be set up a more severe government over mens consciences and religious perswasions , than over their vices and immortallities . and pag. . of the same , that princes may with less hazard give liberty to mens vices and debaucheries than their consciences . but for what belongs particularly to the use of their power in religion ; he first ( p. . of his book ) saith , that the protestant reformation hath not been able to resettle princes in their full and natural rights in reference to its concerns : p. . most protestant princes have been frighted , not to say hector'd out of the exercise of their ecclesiastical jurisdiction . p. . if princes will he resolute ( and if they will govern ●…o they must be ) they may easily make the most stuborn conscience bend to their resolutions . p. . princes must be sure to bind on at first their ecclesiastical laws with the straightest knot , and afterwards keep them in force by the soverity of their execution , . speaking of honest and well meaning men : so easy is it for men to deserve to be punishment for their consciences , that there is no nation in the world , in which were government rightly understood and duly managed , mistakes and abuses of religion would not supply the galles with vastly greater numbers than villany . p. . of the preface to ecclesiast . policy . of all villains the well-meaning zealot is the most dangerous . p. . the fanatick - party in country towns and villages ariseth not ( to speak within compass ) above the proportion of one to twenty . whilst the publick peace and settlement is so unluckily defe●…ted by quarrels and mutinies of religion , to erect and create new trading combinations , is only to build so many nests of faction and sedit●… , &c. for it is notorious that there is not any sort of people so inclinable to seditious practices as the trading part of a nation . and now through many as material passages might be heaped up out of his book on all those and other as tender subjects , i shall conclude this imperfect enumeration with one corallary more , to which indeed his grand thesis and all the superstructures are subordinate and accommodated . p. . princes cannot pluck a pin out of the church , but the state immediately shakes and totters . this is the syntagm of mr. bayes his divinity , and system of his policy : the principles of which confine upon the territories of malmsbury , and the stile , as far as his wit would give him leave , imitates that language : but the arrogance and dictature with which he imposes it on the world , surpasses by far the presumption either of gondibert or leviathan . for he had indeed a very politick fetch or two that might have made a much wiser man then he , more confident . for he imagined first of all , that he had perfectly secured himself from any mans answering him : not so much upon the true reason , that is , because indeed so paltry a book did not deserve an answer ; as because he had so confounded the question with differing terms and contradictory expressions , that he might upon occasion affirm whatsoever he denyed , or deny whatsoever he affirmed . and then besides , because he had so intangled the matter of conscience with the magistrates power , that he supposed no man could handle it thorowly without bringing himself within the statute of treasonable words , and at least a premunire . but last of all , because he thought that whosoever answered him must for certain be of a contrary judgment , and he that was of a contrary judgment should be a fanatick ; and if one of them presumed to be medling , then mr. bayes ( as all divines have a non-●…bstance to the 〈◊〉 ceciltanum , and ●…o the act of oblivion and indempnity ) would either burn that , or tear it in peices . being so well fortified on this side upon the other he took himself to be impregnable . his majesty must needs take it kindly that he gave him so great an accession of territory , and , lest he should not be thought rightly to understand government , nay lest mr. bayes by virtue of p. . should not think him fit to govern , he could not in prudence and safety but submit to his admonition and instructions . but if he would not , mr. bayes knew ay that he did , how to be even with him and would write another book that should do his business . for , the same power that had given the prince that authority could also revoke it . but let us see theresore what success the whole contrivance met with , or what it deserved . for , after things have been aid with all the depth of humhne policy there happens lightly some ugly little contrary accident from some quarter or other of heaven , that frustrates and renders all ridiculous . and here , for brevity and distinction sake , i must make use of the same priviledge by which i call him mr. bayes , to denominate also his several aphorisms or hypotheses : and let him take car●… whether or no they be significant . . the unlimited magistrate . . the publick conscience . . moral grace . . debauchery tolerated . . persecution recommended . and lastly , pushpin divinity . and now , though i intend not to be longer than the nature of avimadversions requires , ( this also being but collateral to my work of exam ning the preface , and having been so abundantly performed already ) yet neither can i proceed well without some preface . for as i am oblged to ask pardon if i speak of serious things ridiculously ; so i must now heg excuse if i should hap to discourse of ridiculous things seriously . but i shall , so far as possible , observe decorum , and , w●…atever i talk of , not commit such an absurdity , as to be grave with a busfoon . but the principal cause of my apology is , because i see i am drawn in to mention kings and princes , and even our own ; whom , as i think with all duty and reverence , so i avoid ●…peaking of either in jest or earnest , lest by reason of my private condition and breeding , i should , though most unwillingly , trip in a word , or fail in the mannerliness os an expression . but mr. bayes , because princes sometimes hear men of his quality play their part , or preach a sermon , grows so insolent that he thinks himsels fit to be their governour . so dangerous it is to let such creatures be too familiar . they know not their distance , and like the ass in the fable , because they see the spaniel play with their masters leggs , they think themselves priviledged to paw and ramp upon his shoulders . yet though i must follow his track now i am in , i hope i shall not write after his copy . as sor his first hypothesis of the unlimited magistrate , i must for this once do him right , that after i had read in his th . page , that princes have power to bind their subjects to that religion they apprehend most advantageous to publick peace and tra●…quility ; a long time after , not as i remember till pag. . when he bethought himself better , he saith , no rites nor ceremonies can be esteemed unlawful in the worship of god , unless they tend to deba●…ch men either in their practices or their conceptions of the deity . but no man is in ingenuity obliged to do him that service for the suture ; neither yet doth that limitation bind up or interpret what he before so loosly affirmed - however take all along the power of the magistrate as he hath stated it ; i am confident if bishop bramhall were alive ( who could no more forbear grotius , than mr. bayes could the bishop , notwithstanding their sriendship ) he would bestow the same censure upon him that he doth upon 〈◊〉 , p. . when i read his book of the right of th●… 〈◊〉 ma●…estrate in sacred things , he seem'd to me to come too near an erastian , and to lessen the power of the keys too much , which christ left as a legacy to his church . it may be he did write that before he was come to full maturity of judgement : and some other things , i do not say after he was superannuated . but without that due deliberation which he useth at other times ; ( wherein a man may desire mr. bayes in mr. ba yes ) or it it may be some things may be changed in his book , as i have been told by one os his nearest friends , and that we shall shortly see a more authentick edition of all his works , this is certain , that some of those things which i dislike , were not his own judgment after he was come to maturity in theological matter . and had mr. bayes ( as he ought to have done ) carryed his book to any os the present bishops or their chaplains , for a licence to print it , i cannot conceive that he could have obtained it in better terms than what i have collected out of the . page of his answerer : notwithstanding the old pleas of the jus divinum of episcopacy , of example and direction apostolical of a parity of reason between the condition of the church whilst under extraordinary officers , and whilst under ordinary , of the power of the church to appoint ceremonies for decency and order , of the patern of the churches of old ; ( all which under protestation are reserved till the first oportunity . ) i have upon reading of this book , found that it may be of use 〈◊〉 the present 〈◊〉 of affairs , and therefore let it be printed . and as i think , he hath disobliged the clergy of england in this matter ; so i believe the favour that he doth his majesty is not eqvivalent to that damage . for that i may , with mr. bayes his leave , prophane ben john son , though the gravest divines should be his flat●…erers ; he hath a very quick sense , ( shall i prophane horace too in the same period ? ) hunc male si palpere 〈◊〉 undique tutus . if one stroke him ilfavouredly , he hath a terrible way of kicking , and will fling you to the stable-door ; but is himself safe on every side . he knows it's all but that you may get into the saddle again ; and that the priest may ride him , though it be to a precipiece . he therefore contents himself with the power that he hath inherited from his royal progenitors kings and queens of england , and as it is declared by parliament , and is not to be trepann'd into another kind of tenure of dominion to be held at mr. bayes his pleasure , and depend upon the strength only of his argument . but ( that i may not offend in latin too frequently ? he considers that by not assumining a deity to himself , he becomes secure and worthy of his government . there are lightly about the courts of princes a sort of projectors for concealed lands , to which they entitle the king to begg them for themselves : and yet generally they get not much by it , but are exceeding vexatious to the subject . and even such an one is this bayes with his project of a concealed power , that most princes as ee saith have not yet rightly understood ; but whereof the king is so little enamour'd , that i am confident , were it not for prolling and momolesting the people , his maj●…sty would give mr. bayes the patent sor it , and let him make his best on 't , after he hath paid the fees to my lord keeper but one thing i must confess is very pleasant , and he hath past an high complement upon his majesty in it : that he may , if he please , reserve the priest-hood and the exercise of it to himself . now this iudeed is surpr●…sing ; but this only troubles me , how his majesty would look in all the sacerdotal habiliments , and the pontifical wardrobe . i am asraid the king would find himself incommoded with all that furniture upon his back , and would scarce reconcile himself to wear even the lawn-sleeves and the surplice . but what : even charles the fifth , as i have rerd , was at his inauguration by the pope , content to be vested , according to the roman ceremonial , in the habit of a deacon : and a man would not scruple too much the formality of the dress in order to empire . but one thing i dou●…t mr , bayes did not well consider ; that , if the king may discharge the function of the prest-hood , he may too ( and 't is all the reason in the world assume the revenue . it would be the best subsidy that ever was voluntarily given by the clergy . but truly otherwise , i do not see but that the king does lead a more unblamable conuersation , and takes more care of souls than many of them , and understands their office much better , and deserves something already sor the pains he hath taken . the next is publick conscience . for as to mens private consciences he hath made them very inconsiderable , and reading what he saith of them with some attention , i only found this new and important discovery and great priviledge of christian liberty , thar thought is free . we are howexer obliged to him for that , seeing by consequence we think of him what we pleaser and thii he saith a man may assert against all the powers of the earth : and indeed with much reason and to great purpose ; seeing , as he also alledges , the civil power is so far srom doing violence to that liberty , that it never can , but yet if the freedom of thoughts be in not lying open to discovery , there have been wayes of compelling men to discover them ; or , if the freedom consist in retaining their judgments when so manifested , that also hath been made penal . and i doubt not but beside oaths and renunciations , and assents and consents , mr. bayes if he were searched , hath twenty other tests and picklocks in his pocket . would mr. bayes then perswade men to assert this against all the powers of the earth ? i would ask in what manner ? to say the truth i do not like him , and would wish the nonconformists to be upon their guard , lest he trapan them first by this means into a plot , and then preach , and so hang them : if mr. bayes meant otherwise in this matter , i confess my stupidity , and the fault is most his own , who should have writ to the capacity of vulgar read●…rs . he cuts indeed and saulters in this discourse , which is no good sign , perswading men that they may , and ought to practise against their consciences , where the commands of the magistrate intervenes . none of them denies that it is their duty , where their judgments or consciences cannot comply with what is injoyned , that they ought in obedience patiently to suffer ; but further they have not learned . i dare say that the casual divinity of the jesuites is all thorow as orthodox as this maxime of our authors : and as the opinion is brutish , so the consequences are develish . to make it therefore go down more glibly , he saith , that ' t is better to err with authority , than to he in the right against it in all doubtful disputable cases : because the great duty of obedience outweighs the danger of a little error , ( and tittle it is if it be disputable . ) i cannot understand the truth of this reasoning ; that whatsoever is disputable is little ; for even the most important matters are subject to controversie : and besides , things are little or great according to the eyes or understandings of several men ; and however , a man would suffer something rather than commit that little error against his conscience , which must render him an hypocrite to god , and a knave amogst men. the commands ( he saith ) and determinations of the publick conscience ought to carry it ; and if there be any fin in the command , be that imposed it shall answer for it , and not i whose duty it is to obey ; ( and mark ) the commands of authority will warrant my obedience , my obedience will hallow , or at least excuse my action , and so secure me from sin if not frfm error ; and so you are welcome gentlemen . truly a very fair and conscionable reckoning ! so far is this from hallowing the action , that i dare say it will , if followed home , lead only to all that sanctified villany , for the invention of which we are beholden to the author . but let him have the honour of it ; for he is the first divine that ever taught christians how another man's sin cou●…d confer an imputative righteousness upon all mankind that shall follow and comply with it though the subject made me ferious , yet i could not read the expression without laughter : my obedience will hallow , or at least excuse my action . so inconsiderable a difference he seems to make betwixt those terms , that if ever our author come for his merits to be a bishop , a man might almost adventure instead of consecrated o say that he was excused . the third is moral grace . and whoever is not satisfied with those passages of his concerning it , before quoted , may find enough where he discourseth it at large , even to surfeit . i cannot make either less or more of it than that . he overturns the whole fabrick of christianity , and power of religion . for my part , if grace be resolv'd into mortality , i think a man may almost as well make god too to be only a notional and moral existence . and white-apron'd amaryllis was of that opinion : ma tu sanctissima honest à che sola sei d' alma ben nata inviolabil nume . but thou most holy honesty , that only art the inviolable deity of the well-born soul. and so too was the mortal poet : ( for why may not i too bring out my latin shreds as well as he is , quaesitum ad fontem solos deducere vorpos ) nullum numen abest fi sit prudentis — there is no need of a deity where there is prudence ; or , if you will , wheae there is ecclesiastical policy . but so far i must do mr. bayes right , that to my best observation , if prudence had been god , bayes had been a most damnable atheist . or , perhaps only an idolater of their number , concerning whom he adds in the next line — sed te nos facimus fortuna deam caeloque locamus . but we make thee fortune a goddess , and place thee in heaven . however i cannot but be sorry that he hath undertaken this desperate vocation , when , there are twenty other honest and painful wayes wherein he might have got a living , and made fortune propitious . but he cares not upon what argument or how dangerous he runs to shew his ambitious activity : whereas those that will dance upon ropes , do lightly some time or other break their neks . and i have heard that even the turk , every day he was to mount the hig●…-rope , took leave of h●…s comfortable importance as if he should never see her more . but this is a matter forreign to my judicature , and therefore i leave him to be trayed by any jury of divines : and , that he may have all right done him , let half of them be school-divines and the other moity systematical , and let him except against as many as the law allows , and so , god send him a good deliverance . but i am afraid he will never come off . the fourth is debauchery tolerated . for supposing as he does , that 't is better and safer to give a toleration to mens debaucheries than to their religious per●…wasions , it amounts to the same reckoning . this is a very ill way of discoursing ; and that a greater seve●…ity ought to be exercised over mens consciences than over their vices and immoralities . for it argues too much indiscretion by avoiding one evil to run up into the contrary extream . and debauch'd persons will be readyhence conclude , although it be a perverse way of reasoning , that where the severity ought to be less . 〈◊〉 crime is less also : ●…ay , even-that the more the●… are deba●…ch'd , it is 〈◊〉 that the punishment should stil●… 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 ; but however , tha●… it were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and unadvisable to 〈◊〉 a●…d 〈◊〉 on the r●…ligious hand , lest they should 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 greater penalties . mr. bayes would have done much better had he sing led out the theme of religion , he might have loaded it with all the truth whieh that subject would bear ; i would allow him that rebellion is as the sin of witch-craft , though that text of scripture will scarce admit his interpretation . he could not have declaimed more sharply than i , or any honest men else , would upon occasion against all those who under pretence of conscience raise war , or create publick disturbances . but comparisons of vice are dangerous , and though he should do this without design , yet , while he aggravates upon religion , and puts it in ballance , he doth so far alleviate and encourage debauchery . and moreover ( which to be sure is against his design ) he doth hereby more confirm the austerer sort of sinners , and furnishes them with a more ●…pecious colour and stronger argument . it had been better policy to instruct the magistrate that there is no readier way to shame these out of their religious niceties than by improving mens morals . but , as he handles it never was there any point more unseasonably exposed ; at such a time , when there is so general a depravation of manners , that even those who contribute towards it do yet complain of it ; and though they cannot reform their practice , yet feel the effects , and tremble under the apprehension of the consequences . it were easie here to shew a man's r●…ading , and to discourse out of history che causes of the decay and ruine of mr. bayes his roman empire , when as the moralist has it , — saevior armis luxuria incubuit , victumque 〈◊〉 orbem . and descending to those times since christianity was in the throne , 't is demonstrable that sor one war upon a fanatical or religious account , there have been an . occasioned by the thirst of glory & empirethat hath inflamed some great prince to invade his neighbours . and more have sprung from the contentiousness and ambition of some of the clergy ; but the most of all from the corruption of manners , and alwayes fatal debauchery . it exhausts the estates of private persons , and makes them fit for nothing but the high-way or an army . it debases the spirits and weakens the vigor of any nation ; at once indisposing them for war , and rendring them uncapable of peace . for , if they escape intestine troubles , which would certainly follow when they had left themselves by their prodigality or intemperance , no other means of subsistence but by preying upon one another ; then must they either to get a maintenance , pick a quarrel with some other nation , wherein they are sure to be worsted ; or else ( which more frequently happens ) some neighbouring prince that understands government takes them at the advantage , and , if they do not like ripe fruit fall into his lap , 't is but shaking the tree once or twice , and he is sure of them . where the horses are , like those of the sybarites , taught to dance , the enemy need only learn the tune and bring the fiddles . but therefore ( as far as i understand ) his majesty to obviate and prevent these inconveniencies in his kingdoms , hath on the one hand never refused a just war ; that so he might take down our grease and luxury , and keep the english courage in breath and exercise : and on the other , ( though himself most constantly addicted to the church of england ) hath thought fit to grant some liberty to all other sober people , ( and longer than the are soy god forbid they should have it ) thereby to give more temper ond allay to the commhn end notorious debauchery . but mr. bayes nevertheless is for his fifth : persecution recommended : and he does it to the purpose . julian himself , who i think was first a reader , and held forth in the christian churches before he turnd apostate and then persecutor , could not have outdone him either in irony or cruelty . only it is god's mercy that mr. bayes is not emperor . you have seen how he inveighs against trade : that whilst mens consciences are acted by such peevish and ungovernable principles , to erect trading combinations is but to build so many nests of faction and sedition . lay up your ships , my maers , set bills on your shop-doors , shut up the custom-house ; and why not ajourn the term , mure up westminster-hall , leave plowing and sowing , and keep a dismal holy-day through the nation ; for mr. bayes is out of humour . but i assure you it is no jesting matter . for he hath in one place taken a list of the fanatick ministers , whom he recons to be but a hundr●…d systematical divines : though i believe the bartlemew-register or the march-licenses would make them about an hundred and three or an hundred and four , or so : but this is but for rounder number and breaks no square . and then for their people , either they live in greater societies of men ( he means the city of london and the other cities and towns-corporate , but expresses it so to prevent some inconvenience that might betide him but there their noise is greater than their number . or else in country towns and villages , where they arise not above the proportion of one to twenty . it were not unwisely done indeed if he could perswade the the magistrate that all the fanaticks have but one neck , so that he might cut off nonconformity at one blow . i suppose the nonconformists value themselves , though upon their conscience , and not their numbers : but they would do well to be watchful , lest he have taken a list of their names as well as their number , and have set crosses upon all their doors against there should be occasion . but till that happy juncture , when mr. bays shall be avenged of his new enemies , the wealthy fanaticks , ( which is soon done too , for he saith , there are but few of them men of estates or interest ) he is-contented that they should only be exposed ( they are his own expressions ) to the pillories , whipping-posts , galleys , rods and axes , ; and moreover and above , to all other punishments whatsoever , provided they be of a severer nature than those that are inflicted on men for their immoralities . o more than human clemency ! i suppose the division betwixt immoralities and conscience is universal ; and whatsoever is wicked or penal is comprehended within their territories . so that although a man should be guilty of all th●…se heinous enormities which are not to be named among christians , beside all lesser peccadillo's expresly against the ten commandments , or such other part of the divine law as shall be of the magistrates making , he shall be in a better condition , and more gently handled , tha●… a well-meaning zelot ; for this is the man that mr. bayes saith is of all villains the most dangerous : ( even more dangerous it se●…ms than a malicious and ●…meaning zelot ) this is he whom in all kingdoms where government is rightly understood , he would have ●…demned to the galleys for his mistastakes and abuses of religion . although the other punishments are more severe , yet this being more new and unacquainted , i cannot pass it by without some reflection . for i considered what princes make use of galleys . the first that occurred to me was the turk , who according to bayes his maxim , hath established mahometism among his subjects , as the religion that he apprehends most advantagious to publick peace and settlement . now in his empire the christians only are guilty of those religious mistak●…s that tend to the subversion of mahometism : so that he understands government rightly in chaining the christians to the car. but then in christendom , all that i could think of were the king of france , the king of spain , the knights of 〈◊〉 , the 〈◊〉 , and the rest of the italian 〈◊〉 . and these all have bound their subjects to the romish religion as most advantagious . but these people , their gallies with immoral fellows and debauchees : whereas the protestants , being their fanaticks and mistakers in religion , should have been their ciurma . but 't is to be hoped these princes will take advice and understand it better for the future . and then at last i remembred that his majesty too 〈◊〉 one gally lately built , but i dare say it is not with that intention : and our panaticks , though few , are so many , that one will not serve . but therefore if mr. bayes and his partners would be at the charge to build the king a whole squadron for this use , i know not but it might 〈◊〉 very well ( for we delight in novelties ) and 〈◊〉 would be a singular obligation to sir john 〈◊〉 dutel , who might have some pretence to be 〈◊〉 neral of his majesties 〈◊〉 . but so much 〈◊〉 that . yet in the mean time i cannot but 〈◊〉 mr. bayes his courage ; who knowing how 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a villain a well-meaning zelot is , and 〈◊〉 ing calculated to a man how many of them there 〈◊〉 in the whole nation , yet dares thus openly stimulate the magistrate against them , and talk of nothing less , but much more than pillories , whipping-posts , galleys and axes in this manner . it is sure some sign ( and if he knew not so much he would scarce adventure ) of the peaceableness of their principles , and of that restraint under which their tender consciences hold them , when nevertheless he may walk night and and day in safety ; though it were so easie a thing to deifie the divine after the antient manner , and no man be the 〈◊〉 . but that which i confess would vex me most , were i either an ill or a well-meaning zealot , would be , after all to hear him ( as he frequertly does ) sneering at me in an ironical harangùe , to persuade me , forsooth , to take all patiertly for conscience-sake , and the 〈◊〉 example of mankind : nay , to wheedle one almost to make himself away to save the hangman a labour . it was indeed rear that 〈◊〉 in the primitive times , and the tyred magistrates ask'd them , whether they had not ha'ters and rivers and precipices , if they were so greedy of suffering ? but , by the good leave of your ●…lence , we are not come to that yet . non tibi sed petro : or rather , sed regi . the nonconformists have suffered as well as any men in the world , and could do so still if it were his majesty's pleasure . 〈◊〉 duty to god hath hallowed , and their duty to the magistrate hath excused both their pain and ignominy . to dye by a noble hand is some satisfaction : but when his majesty , for reasons best known to himself , hath been graciously pleased to 〈◊〉 of your rigors , i hope mr. bayes that we shall 〈◊〉 see when you have a mind to 〈◊〉 with your comfortable importance that the entrem ses shall be of a fanaticks giblets : nor that a nonconformists head must be whip'd off s 〈◊〉 as your nose drivles . 't is sufficient , sir , we know your inclination , we know your abilities , and we know your lodging : and when there is any further occasion you will doubtless be sent for . for , to say the truth , this bayes is an excellent tool , and more useful than ten other men . i will undertake that he shall , rather than fail , be the trepanner , the informer , the witness , the atturney , the judge ; and , if the nonconformist need the benefit of his book , he shall be ordinary too , and say he is an ignorant fellosh , non legit : and then , to do him the last christian office , he would be his hangman . in the mean time , let him enjoy it in speculation , secure of all the imployments when they shall fall . for i know no gentleman that will take any of them out of his hands , although it be an age wherein men cannot well support their quality , without some accession from the publick : and for the ordinary sort of people , they are , i know not by what disaster , besotted and abandon'd to fanaticism . so that mr. bayes must either do it himself in person , or constitute the chief magistrate to be his deputy . but princes do indeed understand themselves better most of 'em , and do neither think it so safe to intrust a clergy-man with their authority , nor decent for themselves to do the drudgery of the clergy , that would have past in the days 〈◊〉 saint dominick : but when even the inquisition hath lost its edge in the popish countries , there is little appearance it should be set up in england : it were a worthy spectacle , were it not ? to see his majesty like the governor in synesius , busied in his cabinet among those engines whose very names are so hard that it is some torture to name them ; the podostrabae , the dactylethrae , the 〈◊〉 , the rhinolabides , the cheilostrophia , devising as 〈◊〉 say there are particular diseases , so a peculiar ra 〈◊〉 for every limb and member of a christians body . or , would he ( with all 〈◊〉 be it spoken ) 〈◊〉 his kingdom of england for that of macassar ? where the great alcanum of government is the cultivating of a garden of poyionous plants , and preparing thence a 〈◊〉 , in which the prince 〈◊〉 a dart that where it does but draw blood , rots the person immediately to pieces ; and his office is with that to be the executioner of his subjects . god be prais'd his majesty is far of another temper : and he is wise , though some men be malicious . but mr. bayes his sixth , is that which i call his push●… divinity . for he would perswade princes that there cannot a pin be pull'd out of the church , but the state immediatly totters . that is strange . and yet i have seen many a pin pulled out upon occasion , and yet not so much as the church it self hach wagg'd . it is true indeed , and we have had sad experiments of it , that some clergy-men have been so 〈◊〉 that they have rather exposed the state 〈◊〉 ruine , than they would part with a pin , i will not say out of their church , but out of their sleeve . there is nothing , more natural then for the ivy to be of opinion that the oak cannot stand without its support : or , seeing we are got into ivy , that the church cannot hold up longer than it underprops the walls : whereas it is a sneaking insinuating imp , scarce better than bindweed , that sucks the tree dry , and moulders the building where it catches . but what , pray mr. bayes , is this pin in pallas's buckler ? why 't is fome ceremony or other , that is indifferent in its own nature , that hath no antecedent necessity but onely as commanded , that signifies 〈◊〉 in it self , but what the 〈◊〉 pleases , that even by the church which commands it , is declared to have nothing of religion in it , and that is in it self of 〈◊〉 great moment or consequence , only it is absolutely necessary that governours should enjoyn it to avoid the evils that would follow if it were not determined . very well , mr. bayes . this i see will keep cold : anon perhaps i may have a stomach . but i must take care lest i swallow your pin. here we have had the titles , and some short rehearsal of mr. bayes his six p●ays . not but that , should we disvalise him , he hath to my knowledge a hundred more as good in his budget : but really i consult mine own repose . but now among friends , was there ever any thing so monstrous ? you see what a man may come to with divinity and high-feeding . there is a scurvy disease , which though some derive from america , others tell a story that the genoues●s in their wars with venice took some of their noblemen , whom they cut to pieces and barrel'd up like tunny , and so maliciously vented it to the venetians , who eating it ignorantly , broke out in those nasty botches and ugly symptoms , that are not curable but by mercury what i relate it for is out of no further intention , nor is there any more similitude than that the mind too hath its nodes sometimes , and the stile its baboes , and that i doubt before mr. bayes can be rid of 'm , he must pass through the grand cure and a dry diet. and now it is high time that i resume the thread of my for●er history concerning mr. bayes his books in relation to his majesty . i do not find that the ecclesiastical policy found more acceptance than could be ●●●ected f●om so judicious a prince : nor do i perceive that he was ever considered of at a promotion of bishops , nor that he hath the reversion of the arch-bishoprick of canterbury . but if he have not by marri●ge barr'd his way ; and it should ever fall to his lot , i am resolved instead of his grace to call him always his morality . but as he got no preferment that i know of at court ( though his patron doubtless having many things in his gift , did abundantly recompence him ) so he mist no less of his aim as to the reformation of ecclesiastical-government upon his principles . but still , what he complains of pag. . the ecclesiastical laws were either weak●ned through want of execution , or in a manner cancell'd by the opposition of civil constitutions . for , beside what in england , where all things went on at the same rate , in the neighbouring kingdom of scotland there were i know not how many mas johns restored in one day to the work of their ministry , and a door opened whereby all the rest might come in for the future , and all this by his majesty's commission . nay , i think there was ( a thing of very ill example ) an arch-bishop turn'd out of his sea for some misdemeanor or other . i have not been curious after his name nor his crime , because as much as possible i would not expose the nakedness of any person so eminent formerly in the church . but henceforward the king fell into disgrace with mr. bayes , and any one that had eyes might discern that our author did not afford his majesty that countenance and favour which he hath formerly enjoy'd . so that a book too of j. o's happening mischievously to come out at the same season , upon pretence of answering that , he resolved to make his majesty feel the effects of his displeasure . so that he set pen to paper again , and having kept his midwife of the friendly debate by him all the time of his pregnancy for fear of miscarrying , he was at last happily delivered of his second child , the defence of the ecclesiastical policy , in the year . it was a very lusty baby , and twice as big as the former , and ( which some observed as an ill sign , and that if it lived it would prove a great tyrant ) it had , when born , all the teeth , as perfect as ever you saw in any mans head. but i do not reckon much upon those ominous criticismes . for there was partly a natural cause in it , mr. bayes having gone so many months , more than the civil laws allowes for the utmost term of legitimation , that it was no wonder if the brat were at its birth more forward than others usually are . and indeed mr. bayes was so provident against abortion , and careful for some reasons that the child sho●…ld cry , that the onely question in town ( though without much cause , for truly 't was very like him ) was , whether it was not spurious or suppositious . but allegories and raillery and hard words appear in this his second book , and what i quoted before out of bishop bramhal , p. . with allusion to our author , is here faln out as exactly true as if it had been expresly calculated for bayes his meridian . he finds himself to have come too near , nay to have far outgone an erastian , that he had writ his ecclesiastical policy before he was come to maturity of judgement , that one might desire mr. bays in mr. bays , that something had been changed in his book . that a more authentick edition was necessary , that some things which he had said before , were not his judgment after he was come to maturity in theological matters . i will not herein too much insist upon his reply where his answerer asks him pertinently enough to his grand thesis , what was then become of their old ●…lea of jus divinum ? why , saith he , must you prescribe me what i shall write ? perhaps my next book shall be of that subject . for , perhaps he said so only for evasion , being old excellent at parrying and fencing . though i have good reason to believe that we may shortly see some piece of his upon that theme , and in defence of an aphorism of a great prelate in the 〈◊〉 king's time , that the ki●…g had no more to do in ecclesiastical matters , than jack that rubb'd his horses h●…els . for mr. bayes is so enterprising you know , lo●…k too 't , i le doo 't . he has face enough to say or unsay any thing , and 't is his priviledge , what the school-divines deny to be even within the power of the almighty , to make contradictions true . an evidence of which ( though i reserve the further instances to another occasion that draws near ) does plainly appear in what i now principal●…y urge , to show how dangerous a thing it is for his majesty and all other princes to lofe mr. b●…s his favour . for whereas he had all along in his first book treated them like a company of ignorants , and that did not understand government , ( but that is pardonable in mr. bayes ) in this his second , now that they will not do as he would have them , when he had given them power and instructions how to be wiser for the future , he casts them quite off like men that were desperate . he had , you know , p. . of his first book and in other places , vested them with an universal and unlimited power , and uncontroulable in the government of religion ( that is , over mens consciences ) but now in his second , to make them an example to all incorrigible and ungrateful persons , he strips and disrobes them again of all those regal ornaments that he had superinduced upon them , and leaves them good princes in qu●…po 〈◊〉 he found 'm , ●…o shift for themselves in the wide world as well as they can . do but read his own words , p. . of his defence , parag . . and sure you will be of my mind . to vest the supreme magistrate in an unlimited and uncontroulable power , is clearly to defeat the efficacy and ob●…igatory force of all his laws , that cannot possibly have any binding virtue upon the minds of men , when they have no other inducement to obedience but only to avoid the penalty . but if the supreme power be abs●…ute and unlimi●… , it doth for that very reason remove and evacuate : all other obligations , for otherwise it is restrained and conditional ; and if men lye under no other impulsion than of the law it self , they lye under no other obligation than that of prudence and self-in●…est , and it remains intirely in the choi●…e of their own discretion whether they shall or shall not obey , and then there is neither government nor obligation to obedience ; and the principle o mens complyance with the mind of t●…ir superif ours , is not the declaration of their will and pleasure , but purely the determination of their own judgments ; and therefore 't is necessary for the security of government , though for nothing else , to set bounds to its jurisdiction ; otherwise , like the roman empire , &c. i know it would be difficult to quote twenty lines in mr. bayes , but we should encounter with the roman empire . but observe how laboriously here he hath asserted and proved that all he had said in his first book was a mee●… mistake before he were come to years of discretion . for as in law a man is not accounted so till he hath compleated , and 't is but the la●… minute of that ●…ime that makes him his own man , ( as to all things but conscience i mean , for as to that many are never sui juris ) so though the distance of bayes his books was but betwixt and , yet a year , nay an instant at any time of a man's life may make him wiser , and he hath , like all other fruits , his annual maturity . it was so long since as . p. . that this universal unlimited and uncontroulable power was the natural right of princes 〈◊〉 to christ , firmly established by the unalterabls dictates of natural reason , universal practice , and consent of nations , that the scripture rather 〈◊〉 than asserts the ecclesiastical ( and so the civil ) jurisdiction of princes . 't was in . p. . that it was absolutely necessary ; and p. . that princes 〈◊〉 that power to bind th●…ir su●…cts to that relegion that they apprehend most advantagious to public●… peace , &c. so that they derive their title from eternal necessity , which the moralists say the gods themselves can not impeach . his majesty may lay by his dieu and make use only of his mon droit : he hath a patent for his kingdom under the broad-seal of nature , and next under that , and immediately 〈◊〉 christ , is over all persons and in all causes aswel ecclesiastical as civil ( and over all mens consciences ) within his majesty's realms and dominions supream head and governour . 't is true , the author sometimes for fashion-sake speaks in that book of religion and of a deity , but his principles do necessarily , if not in terms , make the princes power paramount to both those , and if he may by his uncontroulable and unlimited universal authority introduce what religion , he may of consequence what deity also he pleases . or , if there were no deity , yet there must be some relgion , that being an engine most advantagious for publick peace and tranquillity . this was in . but by . you see the case is altered . even one night hath made some men gray . and now p. . of his second book , he hath made princes accountable , ay and to so severe an auditor as god himself . the thrones of princes are established upon the dominion of god and p . ' t is no part of the princes concernment to institute rules of moral good and evil , that is the care and the pre●…ogative of a superiour law-giver . and p. . he owns that if the subjects can plead a clear and undoubted preingagement to that higher authority , they have a liberty to remonstrate to the equity of their laws . i do not like this remonstrating nor these remonstrants . i wish again that mr. bayes would tell us what ●…e means by ●…he term , and where it will end , whether he would have the fanaticks remonstrate : but they are wary , and asham'd of what they have done in former times of that nature : or whether he himself hath a mind to remonstrate , because the fanaticks are tolerated . that is the thing , that is the business of this whole book : and knowing that there is a clear and undoubted preingagement to the higher authority of nature and necessity , if the king will persist in tolerating these people , who knows after remonstrating , what mr. bayes will do next ? but now in summe what shall we say of this man , and how had the king been served if he had followed bayes's advice ; and assumed the power of his first book ? he had run himself into a fine premunire , when now after all he comes to be made accountable to god , nay even to his subjects . and by this means it happens , though it were beyond mr. bayes his forcast , and i dare ●…ay he , would rather have given the prince again a power antecedent to christ , and to bring in what religion he please ; he hath obliged him to as tender a conscience as any of his christian subjects , and then good night to ecclesiastical policy . i have herein indeavoured the utmost ingenuity toward mr. bayes , for he hath laid himself open but to too many disadvantages already , so that i need not , i would not press him beyond measure , but to my best understanding , and if i fail i even ask him pardon , i do him right . 't is true , that being distracted betwixt his desire that the consciences of men should be persecuted , and his anger at princes that will not be advised , he confounds himself every where in his reasonings , that you can hardly distinguish which is the whoop and which is the holla , and he makes indentures on each fide of the way wheresoever he goes . but no man that is so●…er will follow him , lest some justice of peace should make him pay his five shillings , beside the sc●…ndal ; and it is apparent to every one what he drives at . but were this otherwise , i can spare it , and 't is s●…fficient ●…o my purpose that i do thus historically deduce the reason of his setting forth his books , and shew that it was plainly to remonstrate against the power of his prince , and the 〈◊〉 that he hath taken of governing ; to set his majesty at variance not onely with his subjects , but with himself , and to raise a civil-wa●… in his intellectual kingdom , betwixt his controulable and his uncontroulable jurisdiction . and because , having to do with a wise man , as mr. bayes is , one may of●…en gather more of his mind out of a word that ●…rops casually , than out of his whole watchful and serious discourse , when he is talking of matters of policy 〈◊〉 that require caution ; i cannot slight one passage of mr. bayes , page . where raging bitterly against all the presbyterians and other sects , and as much against the allowing them any tenderness , liberty , toleration or indulgence , he concludes thus , tenderness and indulgence to such men , were to nourish vipers in our own bowels , and the most sottish neglect of our own quiet and security , and we should deserve to perish with the dishonour of sardanapalus . now this of sardanapalus i remember some little thing ever ●…ince i read , i think it was my justine ; and i would not willingly be such a fool as to make a dangerous 〈◊〉 that h●…s no foundation . for if mr. bayes in the preface of his defence , to excuse his long 〈◊〉 before it were brought forth , places it partly upon his recreations : i know not why much more a prince should not be willing to enjoy the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of this life , as well , as to do the common 〈◊〉 . but i am thinking what mr. 〈◊〉 meant by it ; for every similitude must have , though not all , yet some likeness : now i am sure there were no nonconformists and ●…byterians in sardan●…lus his days , i am ●…re also that sardanapalus was no clergy man , that he was no ●…ject ; but he was one of the 〈◊〉 crea●…ures , that instead of ●…cising his ecclesiastical power delighted in spinning ; till some body come in on the sudden , and ca●…ching him at it , cut his th●…d . come 't is better we left this argument and the company too , for you see the 〈◊〉 , you see the sentence : and who ●…er 〈◊〉 be , there is some prince or other whom mr. 〈◊〉 will have to perish . that p. . i●… indeed not so severe , but 't is pretty well ; where , on the same ●…ind of subject , 〈◊〉 the prince against those people , he saith , that prince that h●…th f●…lt the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , if aft●… that 〈◊〉 shall be per●… to regard their fair 〈◊〉 at such 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they 〈◊〉 power , without other evident and unquestionable tokens of their conversion , deserves to be king of the night . now for this matter , i believe mr. bayes knows that his majesty hath received such eviden●… and unquestionable tokens of loyalty from the non-conformists ; otherwise his own loyalty wo●…ld have hindred him from daring to use that expression . and now i should continue my history to his third book in hand , the preface to bishop bramhal . but having his second book still before me , i could not but look a li●…tle further into it , to see how he hath left matters standing betwixt himself and his answerer . and first i lighted on that place where he strives to disintangle himself from what he had said about trade in his former book . here therefore he defies the whole fanatick world to discover one syllable that tends to its discouragement . let us put it upon that issue , and by this one example take the patern of his ingenuity in all his other contests . whoop , mr. bayes , pag. . with what conscience does the answerer tell the people that i have reprelented all tradesmen as seditious , when 't is so notorious 〈◊〉 on●…y suppose that some of them may be tainted with seditious principles ? if i should affirm that when the nobility or clergy are possest with principles that incline to rebellion and disloyal practices , they are of all rebels the most dangerous , should i be thought to impeach them of treason and rebellion ? holla , mr. bayes ! but in the th . page of your first book you say expresly , for 't is notorious that there is not any sort of people so inclinable to seditious practices as the trading part of a nation . is this the same thing now ? and how does this defence take off the object●…on ? and yet he tears and insults and declaims as if he had the truth on his side . at last he strives to bring himself off and salve the matter in the same page . with , in brief it is not the rich citizen , but the wealthy fanati●…k that i have branded for an 〈◊〉 beast , and that not as wealthy but as fanatick . subtle distinguisher ! i see if we give him but rope enough what he will come to . mr. bayes ; many as proper a man as your self hath march'd up holborn for distinguishing betwixt the wealth and the fanatick : and moreover let me tell you , fanatick money hath no ear-mark . so concerning the magistrates power in religion , wherein his answerer had remark'd some unsafe passages : whoop mr. bayes ! p. : of his first book before quoted : unless princes have power to bind their subjects to what religion they apprehend most advantagious , &c. they are no better than statues of authority . holla bayes . pag. . of the second book : this bold calumny i have already i hope compe●…ently enough discovered and detested . yet he repeats this fundamental forgery in all places , so that his whole book is but one huge lye pages long . judge now who is the forger ; and yet he roars too here as if he would mix heaven and earth together . but you may spare your raving , you will never claw it off as long as your name is bayes . so his answerer it seems having p. . said , that bayes confines the whole duty of conscience to the inward thoughts and perswasions of the mind , over which the magistrate hath no power at all : whoop bayes , page . of his first book , let all matters of mere conscience , whether purely moral or religious , be subject to conscience only , i. e. let men think of things according to their own perswasions , and assert the freedom of their judgments against all the powers of the earth . this is the prerogative of the mind of man within its own dominions its kingdom is intellectual , &c. p. . liberty of conscience is internal and invisible , and confined to the minds and judgments of men ; and while conscience acts within its proper sphere , the civil power is so far from doing it violence , that it never can . holla bayes p. of his second book , this in down right english is a shameless lye. sir , you must pardon my rudeness , for i will assure you , after long meditation , i could not devise a more pertinent answer to so bold an one as this . i believe you mr. bayes : you meditated long , some twelve moneths at least ; and you could not devise any other answer , and in good earnest he hath not attempted to give any other answer . i confess 't is no extraordinory conceit , but t is the best repartee , my barren fancy was able to suggest to me upon so rude an occasion . well mr. bayes ! i see it must come to a quarrel ; for thus the hectors use to do , and to give the lye at adventure , when they have a mind to try a mans courage . but i have often known them dye on the spot . so his answerer p. having taxed him for his speaking against an expression in the act of parliament of to eliz. concerning the wednesday fast. whoop bayes pag. 〈◊〉 . of his first book . the act for the wednesday fast the jujunium cecilianum ( our ecclesiastical poli●…ician is the better states man of the two by far , and may make sport with cecill when he pleases ) was injoynd with this clause of exception , that if any person should affirm it to be imposed with an intention to bind the conscience , he should be punished as spreader of false news . so careful was the supreme magistrate in those dayes not to impose upon the conscience ; and the wisdom of it is confirmed by the experience of our time : when so eminent a divine , as i mentioned before , thought fit to write 〈◊〉 whole volumne concerning the holiness of lent ; though , if i be not deceived , this doctrine too i●… prohibited by act of parliament , under the same penalty . but , saith bayes there , the matter i●…deed of this law was not of any great moment , but this declaration annexed to it proved of a satal and 〈◊〉 consequence . 't is very well worth reading at large : but in short the consequence ( or the occasion 't is no matter when i have to do with bayes ) was , that princes how peremptory soever they have been in asserting the rights of their supreme power , in civil affairs , they have been forced to seem modest and diffident in the exercise of their ecclesiastical supremacy . now , holla , bayes . p. . of his second book . to what purpose does he so briskly taunt me for thwarting mine own principles , because i have censured the impertinency of a reedless provision in an act of parliament . observe , these are not the answerers but bayes his own words ; whereby you may see with what reverence and duty he uses to speak of his superiors and their actions , when they are not so happy as to please him . i may obey the law , though i may be of a different perswasion from the law-givers in an opinion remote and impertinent to the matter of the law it self : nay , i may condemne the wisdom of enacting it , and yet at the same time think my self to lie under an indispensable obligation to obey it : for the formal reason of its obligatory power ( as any casuist will inform him ) is not the judgment and opinion of the law-giver , but the declaration of his will and pleasure . very good and sound mr. bayes : but here you have opened a passage ; and this is as imper●…t in you and more dangerous than what you blamed in that act , that the non-conformists may speak against your ecclesiastical laws ; for their casuists then tell them that , they lying under an indisp●…sable obligation not to conform to some of them , do fulfil and satisfie their obedience in submitting to the penalty . i looked further into what he s●…ith in defence of the ●…gistrates assuming the priesthood ; what for his scheme of moral grace ; what to palliate his irreverent expressions concerning our blessed savio●…r and the holy spirit ; what of all other mat●…ers obj●…cted by his answerer : and if you will believe me ; but i had much rather the reader would take the pains to examine all himse●…f , there is scarce any thing but slender trifling unworthy of a logician , and beastly railing unbecoming any man , much more a divine . at last , having readit all through with some attention , i resolved , having failed so of any thing material , to try my fortune whether it might be more lucky , and to open the book in several places as it chanced . but , whereas they say that in the sortes virgilianae , wheresoever you light you will find something that will hit and is proper to your intention ; on the contrary here , th●…re was not any leaf that i met with but had something impertinent , so that i resolved to give it over . this onely i observed upon the whole , that he does treat his answerer the most b●…sely and ingratefully that ever man did . for , whereas in his whole first book there was not one sound principle , and scarce any thing in the second , but what the answerer had given him occasion to amend and rectifie if he had understanding ; after so great an obligation he handles him with more rudeness than is imaginable . i know it may be said in mr. bayes his defence , that in this his second book he hath made his matters in many places much worse then they were before . but i say that was bayes his want of understanding , and that he knew not how to take hold of so charitable an opportunity as was offered him , and 't was none of the answerers fault . there are amongst men some that do not study always the true rules of wisdom a●…d honesty , but delight in a perverse kind of cunning , which sometimes may take for a while and attain their design , but most usually it fails in the end and hath a foul farewell . and such are all mr. bayes his plots . in all his writings he do●…h so confound terms , he leaps cross , he hath more doubles ( nay triples and quadruples ) than any hare , so that he thinks himself secure of the hun●…ers . and in this second book , even the length of it was s●…me policy . for you must know it is all but an epistle to the author of the friendly debate ; and thought he with himself , who hath so much leisure from his own affairs , that he will read a letter of another mans b●…siness of eight hundred pages ? but yet , thought he again , ( and i could be content they did read it ) in all matters of argument i will so muddle my self in ink , that there shall be no ca●…ching no finding me ; and besides i will speak always with so magisterial a confidence , that no modest man ( and most ingenious persons are so ) shall so much as quet●…h at me , but be beat out of countenance : and plain men shall think that i durst not talk at such a rate but that i have a commission . i will first , said he in his heart , like a stout vagrant , beg , and if that will not do , i will command the question , and as soon as i have got it , i will so alter the property and put on another periwig , that i defie them all for discovering me or ever finding it again . this , beside all the lock and advantage that i have the non-conf●…rmists upon since the late times ; and though t●…ey were born since , and have taken more sober principles , it shall be all one for that matter . and then for oratory and railing , let bayes alone . this contrivance is indeed all the strength of mr. bayes his argument , and as he said , ( how properly let the reader judge ) pag. . before quoted , that mo●…al virtue is not only the most material and usefulpart of all religion , but the ultimate end of all its other duties : so , railing is not onely the most material and useful part of his religion , his reason , his oratory , and his practise ; but the ultimate end of this and all his otherbooks . otherwise he i●… neither so strongly fortified nor so well guarded , but that without any ceremony of trenches or approaches , you may at the very fir●… march up to his counters-scarp without danger . he puts me in mind of the incorrigible scold , that though she was duck'd over head and ears under water , yet stretched up her hands with her two thumb-nails in the nit-cracking posture , or with two fingers divaricated , to call the man still in that language lousy rascal and cuckold . but indeed , when i consider how miserable a wratch his answerer has rendred him , and yet how he persists still , and more to rail and revile him ; i can liken it to nothing better betwixt them , than to what i have seen with some pleasure the hawking at the magpy . the poor bird understand●… very well the terrible pounces of that vulture : b●… therefore she chatters amain most 〈◊〉 , and spread●… and cocks her tail , so that one that first saw and heard the sport , would think that she insulted over the hawk in that chatter , and she 〈◊〉 her train in token of courage and victory : when , alas , ' 〈◊〉 her fear all , and another way of crying the hawk m●…cy , and to the end that the hawk finding nothing but tail and feather to strike at , she may so perhaps shelter her body . therefore i think there is noth●…g in my way that hinders me , but that i may now go on to the history of this m. b●…yes his third book , the preface to bishop bramhall , and to what juncture of affairs it was reconciled . his majesty ( perhaps upon mr. bayes his frequent admonitions , both in his first and s●…cond book , that princes should be more attentive and confident in exercising their ecclesiastical jurisdiction , though , i rather believe , he never design'd to read a line in him , but what he did herein , was only the result of his own good understanding ) resol●…ed to make some clear tryal how the non-conformists could bear themselves under some liberty of conscience . and accordingly he issued on march the th . his gracious declaration of indulgence , of which i wish his majesty and the kingdom much joy , and as far as my slender judgment can divine , dare augurate and presage mutual felici●…y , and that what ever humane accident may happen ( i fear not 〈◊〉 bayes foresees ) they will , they can never have cause ●…ent this action or its consequences . but here 〈◊〉 bayes finding ●…at the king had so vigorously exerted his ecclesiastical power , but to a purpose quite contrary to what mr. bayes had always intended , he grew terrible angry at the king and his privy council : so that hereupon he started , as himself says , into many warm and glowing meditations : his heart burnt and the fire kindled , and that heated him into all this wild and rambling talk ( as some will be forward enough to call it ) though he hopes it is not altogether idle , and whether it be or be not , he hath now neither leisure nor patience to examine . this he confesses upon his best recollection , in the last page of this preface : whereupon i cannot but animadvert , as in my first page , that this too lies open to his dilemma against the non-conformists prayers : for if he will not accept his own charge , his modesty is all impudent and c●…unterfeit : if he does acknowledge it , he is an hot-headed incendiary ; and a wild rambling talker , and in part , if not altogether , an idle fellow . really i cannot but pitty him , and look upon him as under some great disturbance and dispondency of mind . that this with some other scattering pas●…ages here and there , argues him to be in as ill a ca●…e as ti●…erius was in his distracted le●…ter to the senate : there wants nothing of it but the dii deaeque me perdant wishing , let the gods and the goddesses confound him worse than he finds hi●…self to be every day confounded . but that i may not l●…se my thred . upon occasion of this his majesties gracious decla●…tion , and against it , he writes this his third bo●… the preface to bis●…op bramhad , and accordingly w●… unhappily delivered of it in june ( i had forgot , ) or july , in ●… . for he did not go his 〈◊〉 time of it , but miscarried ; partly by a fright from j. o. and partly by a fal he had upon a closer ●…portance . but of 〈◊〉 his three bolts this was the soone●… shot , and 〈◊〉 't is uo wonder if he mis●… his mark , 〈◊〉 no care where his ar●…ow glanced . but what he saith of his majesty and his cou●…cil , being toward the latter end of his discourse , 〈◊〉 forced to defer that a little , because , there being no method at all in his wild rambling talk ; must either tread just on in his footsteps , or else i sha●… be in a perpetual maze , and never know when i co●… to my journeys end . and here i cannot altogether escape the mentioning of j. o. again , whom ( though i have shown th●… he was not the main cause of publishing bayes 〈◊〉 books ) yet he singles out , and on his pretence 〈◊〉 down all the nonconformists ; this being , as he imagined , the safest way by which he might proce●… first to undermine and then blow up his majesti●… gracious declaration . and this indeed is the le●… immethodical part in the whole discourse . for 〈◊〉 he undertakes to defend , that railing is not only lawful , but expedient . secondly , that though he ha●… railed , the person he spoke of ought 〈◊〉 to have ●…ken notice of it . and thirdly , that he did not rai●… as to these things i do not much trouble my my 〈◊〉 nor interest my self in the least in j. o.'s 〈◊〉 no otherwise than if he were john a nokes , and heard him ra●…l'd at by john a stiles : nor yet wou●… i concern my self unnecessarily in any ma●… behalf knowing that 't is better being at the beginning of feast , than to come in at the latter end of a fray. fo●… 〈◊〉 so 〈◊〉 should , as o●…ten it happens in such rencoun●… 〈◊〉 only draw mr. bayes , but j. o. too upon my back , i should have made a sweet business on 't for my self . now as to the lawfulness and expedience of railing ; were it not that i do really make conscience of using scripture with such a drolling companion as mr. bayes , i could overload him thence both with authority and example . nor is it worth ones while to teach him out of other authors and the best precedents of the kind , how he , being a christian and 〈◊〉 divine , ouht to have carried himself . but i cannot but remark his insolence , and how bold he makes upon this argument , p. . of his second book , with the memories of those great persons there enumerated , several of whom , and particularly my lord verulam , i could quote to his confusion , upon a contrary and much better account . so far am i from repenting my severity towards them , that i am tempted rather to applaud it by the glorious examples of the greatest wits of our nation , king james , arch-bishop whitgift , arch-bishop bancroft , bishop andrews , bishop bilson , bishop montegue , bishop bramhal , sir walter rawleigh , lord bacon , &c. and he might have added mr. tarlton with as good pretence to this honour as himself . the niches are yet empty in the old exchange ; pray let us speak to the statuary , that , next to king james's we may have b●…yes his effigies . for such great wits are princes fellows , at least when dead . at this rate there is not a scold at bi●…gsgate but may defend her self by the p●…ttern of king james and arch-bishop whitgift , &c. yet this is passable , if you consider our man. but that is most intolerable p. . of the preface to hi●… first book , where he justifies his debauched way of writing by parallel to our blessed saviour . and i cannot but with some aw reflect how near the punishmen●… was to the offence ; when having undertaken so prof●… an argument , he was in the very instant so infatuate●… as to say that christ was not only in an hot fit of ze●… but in a seeming fury too and transport of passion . but however , seeing he hath brought us so good vouchers , let us suppose what is not to be supposed , that railing is lawful . whether it be expedient or no will yet be a new question . and i think mr. bayes , when he hath had time to cool his thoughts , may be trusted yet with that consideration , and to compute whether the good that he hath done by railling do countervail the damage which both he in particular and the cause he labours , have suffered by it . for in my observation , if we meet with an argument in the streets , both men , women , and boys , that are the auditory , do usually give it on the modester side , and conclude , that he that rails most has the least reason . for the second , where he would prove that though he had railed , yet his answerer j. o. ought not to have taken notice of it , nor those of the party who are under the same condemnation , but that he should have abstracted and kept close to the argument , i must confess it is a very secure and wholesome way of railing . and allowing this , he hath good reason to find fault with his answerer , 〈◊〉 he does , for turring 〈◊〉 his book , though without turning it over i know 〈◊〉 how he could have answered him , but with his hat , 〈◊〉 with mum. but for ought i can see in that only answer which is to his first book , he hath been obedient and abstracted the argument sufficien●… ; and 〈◊〉 he hath been any where severe upon him , he hath done it more cleanly , and much more like a gentleman , and it hath been only in showing the necessary infeferences that must follow upon the authors maxim●… and unsound principles . but as to any answer to bay●… his second book or this third , for ought i can see j. o. sleeps upon both ears . to this third undertaking , to show that he hath 〈◊〉 rail'd ; 〈◊〉 shail not say any thing more , but let it 〈◊〉 judg'd by the company , and to them let it be refer'd . but in my poor opinion i rever saw a man thorow all his three books in so high a salivation . and therefore , till i meet with something more serious , i will take a walk in the garden and gather some of mr. bayes his flowers . or i might more properly have said i will go see bedlam and p●…k straws with our mad-man . first he saith , that some that pretend a great interest in the holy brother-hood , upon eve●…y slight accident are beating up the drums against the pope and po●…ish plots ; they discry po●…ery in every common and usual chance , and a c●…imny cannot take fire in the city or suburbs but they are immediately crying jesuites and firebals . i understand you , sir. this , mr. bayes is your prologue , that is to be spoke by thunder and lightning . i am loud thunder , brisk ligh ning i. i strike men down . 〈◊〉 fire the town — lo●…k too 't wee 'l do ot mr , bayes , it is something darg rous medling with th●…se matters . as innocent persons as your self , have 〈◊〉 the fury of the wild multitude , when such a calamity hath disordered them . and after your late severity against tradesmen , it had been better you had not touched the fire . take heed lest the reasons which sparkle , forsooth , in your discourse have not set their chimnyes on fire . none accuses you , what you make s●…ort with , of burring the ships at chatham , much less of blowing up the thames . but you ought to be careful , lest having so newly distinguished bet●…t the fanatick and his wealth , they should say , that you are distinguishing now betwixt the fa●…icks and their houses these things are too edged to be jested with : if you did but consider that not onely the holy brotherhood , but the so●…er and intelligent citizens are equally involved in these sad accidents . and in that ●…mentable conflagration ( which was so terrible , that though so many years agoe , it is yet fresh in mens memories , and besides , is yearly by act of parliament observed with due humiliation and solemnity . ) it was not trade onely and merchandise suffered , which you call their diana ; and was not so much to be considered ; but st. pauls too was burnt , which ●…he historians tell us was diana's temple . the next thing is more directly levell'd at j. o. for having in some latter book used those words , we cannot conform to arminianism or socinianism on the one hand , or popery on the other . what the answerer meant by those words , i concern not my self . onely i cannot but say , that there is a very great neglect somewhere ; wheresoever the inspection of books is iodged , that at least the socinian books are tolerated and sell as openly as the bible . but bayes turns all into mirth , he might as well have added all the - isms 〈◊〉 the old testament , perizzitism , hittitism , jebusitism , hivitism , &c. no , mr. bayes , that need not ; and though this indeed is a very pretty conceit , and 't were pity it should have been lost ; yet i can tell you a better way . for , if rhiming be the business , and you are so good at tagging of points in a garret , there is another word that will do it better , and for which , i know not how truly , you tax your answerer too here , as if he said , the church of england were desperately schismatical , because the independents are resolved one and all , to continue separate from her communion . therefore let schism , 〈◊〉 you please rhime to - 〈◊〉 . and though no man is obliged to produce the authority of the greatest wits of the nation to justifie a rhime , yet for your ●…ear sake , mr. bayes , i will this once supererogate . the first shall be your good friend bishop 〈◊〉 , ●…ho among many other memorable pa●…ages , whi●…●…elieve were 〈◊〉 ●…on that he never thought fit 〈◊〉 print his own book ; p. . teacheth us , not absurdly , that it was not the 〈◊〉 opinions of the church of rome , but the obtruding them by laws upon other churches , which warranted a separation . but if this will not doe , vous ave●… doctor th●…rndikes deposition in print , for he , i hear , is lately dead . the church of england in separating from the church of rome , 〈◊〉 guilty of schism before god. i have not the book by me , but i am sure 't is candidly recited as i have 〈◊〉 it . then ( to show too that there is a king on this side ) his present majesty's father in his declaration 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . affirms that a book , entituled , appello caesarem or an appeal to caesar , and published in the year . by richard montague then batcheler of divinity , and now bishop of chichester had op●ned the way to these schisms and divisions which have since ensued in the church , and that therefore for the redress and remedy thereof , and for the satisfaction of the consciences of his good people , he had not only by publick proclamation called in that book , which ministred matter of offence , but to prevent the like danger for the future , reprinted the articles of religion , established in the time of queen elizabeth of famous memory : and by a declaration , before those articles , did restrain all opinions to the sense of those articles , that nothing might be left for private fancies and innovations , &c. and if this will not amount fully , i shall conclude with a villanous pam●…let that i met with t'other day ; but of which a great 〈◊〉 indeed was the author . and , whereas mr. bayes 〈◊〉 alwayes desying the nonconformists with mr , 〈◊〉 ecclesiastical 〈◊〉 , and the friendly debate , i 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 , ' though i have a great reverence for mr. hooker , who in some things did answer himself , that this little book , of not full eight leaves , hath shut that ecclesiastical polity , and mr. bayes's too , out of doors : but for the friendly d●…bate , i must confess , that is una●…swerable . 't is one mr. hales of eaton ; a most learned divire , and one of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of e●…and , and most remarkable for his suff●…r ●…gs in the late time●… , and his christian patience under them . and i re●…kon it not one of the least 〈◊〉 of that age , that so eminent a person should have been by the iniquity of the ●…es reduced to tho●…e necessities under which he lived ; as i account it no small honour to have grown up into some part of his acquaintance , and convers'd a while with the living remains of one of the clearest heads and best prepared breasts in christendom . that which i speak of is his lit●…le treatise of schism , which though i had read many years ago , was quite out of n y mind , till loccasionally light upon 't at a 〈◊〉 stall . i hope it will not be tedious , though i write 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 few ( and yet whatsoever i ●…mit , i shall have left behind more ) material passages . schissm is one of those theological scarcrows with which they who use to uphold a party in religion , use to fright away such , as making inquiry into it are ready to relinquish and op●…ose it , if it appear either erroneous or suspicious . schism is , if we would define it , an unnecessary separation of : christians from that part of the visible church of which they were once members . some reverencing antiqu●…y more than needs , have suffered themselves to be scared with imputation of schism more than needs . nothing absolves men from the guilt of s●…sm , 〈◊〉 true and unpretended conscience . but the judgments of the a●…cients many times ( to speak most gent●…y ) are justly to be 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 the cause of 〈◊〉 is ●…essary , ●…ere not he 〈◊〉 separates , but he th●…t is the cause of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the schismatick . where the occasion of separation is unnecessary , neither side can be excused from guilt of schism . but who shall be the judg ? that is a point of great difficulty , because it carries fire in the ta●…l of it : for it brings with it a piece of doctrine which is seldom pleasing to superiours . you shall find that all schisms have crept into the church by one of these three waies , ei●…her upon matter of fact , or upon matter of opinion , or point of ambition . for the first , i call that matter of fact , when something 〈◊〉 required to be done by us , which either we know or strongly ●…ct to be unlawful . where he instances in the old great controversie about easter . for it being upon error taken for necessary that an easter must be kept , and upon worse than error ( for it was no less than a point of judaism forc'd upon the church ) thought further necesseary that the ground of the time for the feast , must be the rule left by 〈◊〉 to the jews : there 〈◊〉 a stout question , whether 't was to be celebrated with the jews on the fourteenth moon , or the sunday following . this caused as great a combustion as ever was ; the west separating and refusing communion with the east for many years together . here i cannot see bus all the world were schismaticks , excepting only that we charitably suppose to excuse them from it , that all parties did what they did out of conscience . a thing which befell them by the ignorance , for i will not say the malice of their guides ; and th●…t through the just judgment of god , because , through floth and blind obedience , men exa●…ed not the things they were taught , but like beasts of burthen patiently couched down , and indifferently underwent all whatsoever their superiours laid upon them . if the discretion of the chiefest guides of the church did , in a point so trivial , so inconsiderable , so mainly fail them , can we without the imputation of great grossness and folly , think so poor-spirited persons competent judges of the questions now on foot betwixt the churches ? where , or among whom , or how many the church shall be , it is a thing indifferent : what if those to whom the execution of the publick service i●… committed , do something , either unseemingly or suspicious , or peradventure unlawful ; what if the garments they wear be censured , nay , indeed be suspicious . what if the gesture or adoration to be used to the altars , as now we have learned to speak ? what if the homilist have preached or delivered any doctrine , of the truth of which we are not well perswaded , ( a thing which very often falls out ) yet , for all this , we may not separate , except we be constrained personally to bear a part in it our selves . nothing can be a just cause of refusing communion in schism , that concerns fact , but only to require the execution of some unlawful or s●…spected act. for , not only in reason , but in religion too , that maxim admits of no release , cautissimi cujusque praeceptum , qued duobitas ne feceris : that whatsoever you doubt of , that you in no case do . he instances then in the second council of nice , where , saith he , the sy●…od it self was the schismatical party in the point of using the images , which , seith he , all acknowledge unnecessary , most do suspect , and many hold utterly unlawful : can then the injoining of such a thing be ought else but an abuse ? can the refusal of communion here be thought any other thing than duty ? here , or upon the like occasion to separate , may perad venture bring personal troub●…e or danger , against which it concerns any honest man to have pect●… 〈◊〉 . then of schism from opini●…n ; prayer , confession , thanksgiving , reading of scripture , administration of sacraments in the plainest and the simplest manner , were matter enough to furnish out a sufficient liturgy , though nothing either of private opinion or of church pomp , of garments , of prescribed gestures , of imagery , of musick , of matter concerning the dead , of many superflu ities which creep into the church , under the name of order and decency did interpose it self . to charge churches and liturgies with things unnecessary was the first beginning of superstition . if the fathers and special guides of the church would be a little sparing in incumbring churches with s●…perfluities , or not over-rigid either in reviving obsolete customs , or imposing new : there would be far less cause of schism or supersti●…ion ; and all the inconvenience likely to ensue , would be but this , they should in so doing yield a little to the imbecility of their inferiours ; a thing which saint paul would never have refused to do . it is alike , unlawful to make profession of known or suspected fal●…hood , as to put in practise unlawful or s●…spected actions . the third thing i named for matter of schism was ambition , i mean episcopal ambition ; one head of which , is one bishops claiming supremacy over another , which , as it hath been from time to time a great trespass against the churches peace , so it is now the final ruine of it . for they do but abuse themselves and others , who would perswade us that bishops by christs institution have any superiority over other men further than positive order agreed upon among christians hath pre●…cribed . time hath taken leave , sometimes , to fix this name of conventicles upon good and honest meetings . though open assemblies are required , yet , at all times while men are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pious , all meetings of men for mutual help of 〈◊〉 and devotion , wheresoever , and by whomsoever celebrated , where permitted without exception . in times of manifest corruption and perseru-tion , wherein religious assembling is dangerous , private meetings , howsoever besides public●… order , are not onely lawful , but they are of necessity and duty . all pi●…us assemblies , in times of persecution and corruption , howsoever practised , are indeed , or rather alone , the lawful congregations : and publick ass●…mblies , though according to form of law , are , indeed , nothing else but riots and conventicles , if they be stained with corruption and superstition . do you not see now , mr. bays , that you needed not have gone so for a word , when you might have had it in the neighbourhood ? if there be any coherence le●…t in y●…ur scull , you can●… but perceive that i have brought you authority e●… to pr●…ve that schism ( for the reason we may discourse another time ) do's at least rhime to ism. but you have a peculiar delight and selicity , ( which no man 〈◊〉 you ) in scripture-drollery , ●…othing less 〈◊〉 taste to your palat wherea●… otherwise you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so far in italy , that you could not escape the ti●…les of some books which would have served your turn as well , ca●…dinalism , n●…potism , putanism , if you were in a parox 〈◊〉 of the ism's . when i had ●…rit this , and undergone so grateful a p. 〈◊〉 for no less than that i had transcribed be●…ore cut of ●…ur author ; i could not upon compariug them both together , but reflect most seriously upon the difference of their two ways of discoursing . i could not but admire that majesty and beauty which sits upon the forehead - of masculine truth and generous honesty : but no less detest the deformity of falshood disguised in all its ornaments . how much another thing it is to hear him speak , that hath cleared himself from forth and growns , and who suffers neither sloth nor fear , nor ambition , nor any other tempting spirit of that nature to abuse him , from one , who as mr. hales expresseth it , makes christianity lackque to ambition ; how wretchedly , the one to uphold his fiction , must incite princes to persecution and tyranny , degrade grace to morality , debauch conscience against its own principles , distort and mis-interpret the scripture , fill the world with blood , execution , a●…d massacre ; while the other needs and requires no more but a peaceable and unprejudicate soul , and the native simplicity of a christian-spirit ! and me thinks , if our author had any spark of vertue unextinguished , he should , upon considering these together , retire into his closet , and there lament and pine away for his desperate follie ; for the disgrace he hath , as far as in him is , brought upon the church of england by such an undertaking , and for the eternal shame to which he has hereby coudemn'd his own memory . i ask you heartily pardon , mr. bayes , for treating you against decorum here , with so much gravity . 't is possible i may not trouble you above once or twice more in the like nature ; but so often at least , i hope , one may in the writing of a whole book , have leave to be serious . your next flower , and that indeed is a sweet one , dear heart , how could i hug and kiss thee for all this love and sweetness ? fy , ●…y , mr. bayes , is this the language of a divine , and to be used , as you ometimes express it , in the fa●… of the sun ? who can escape from thinking that you are adream'd of your comfortable importance ? these are ( as the moral sa●… calls them in the claenl est manner the thing would bare ) words left betwixt the sheets : some body might take it ill that you should misapply your courtship to an enemy . but in the roman empire it was the priviledge of the hangman to deflour a virgin before execution . but , sweet mr. bayes , ( for i know you do nothing without a precedent of some of the greatest wits of the nation , ) whose example had you for this seeming transport of a gentler passion . then comes , wellfare poor macedo for a modest fool. this i know is matter of gazette , which is as canonical as ecclisiastical policy . therefore i have the less to say to 't . onely , i could wish that there were some severer laws against such villains who raise so false and scandalous reports of worthy gentlemen ; and that men might not be suffered to walk the streets in so confident a garb , who commit those assassinates upon the reputation of deserving persons . here follows a sore charge : that the answerer had without any provocation , in a publick and solemn way , undertak●…n the d●…fence of the fanatick cause . here , indeed mr. bayes , you have reason , and you might have had as just a quarrel against whosoever had undertaken it . for , your design and hope was from the beginning , that no man would have a●…swered you in a publick and solemn way ; and nothing would vex a. wise man , as you are , more than to have his intention and counsel frustrated . when you have rang'd all your forces in battel , when you have plac'd your canon , when you have sounded a charge , and given the word to fall on upon the whole party ; if you could then perswade every particular person of 'm , that you gave him no provocation , i confess , mr. bayes , this were an excellent and a new way of your inventing to conquer single , ( 't is your moral vertue ) whole armies . and so the admiring dr●…ve might stand gaping till one by one , you had cut a●…l their throats . but , 〈◊〉 . bayes , i cannot discern but that you gave him as much provocation in your first book , as he has you in his evangelical love , church peace and unity , which is the pretence of your issuing this preface . for , having for your dear sake ( beside many other troubles that i have undertaken , without your giving me any provoration ) sought out and perused that book too , i do not find you any where personally concern'd , but as you have , it seems upon some conviction , assumed to your self some vices or errours against which he speaks in general , and with some modesty . but for the rest , you say upon full perusal , you find not one syllable to the purpose , beside a perpetual repetition of the old out-worn story of unscriptural ceremonies , and some frequent whinings , and sometimes ●…avings , &c. now to see the dulness of some mens capacities above others . i upon this occasion , begun , i know not how it came , at p. . and thence read on to the end of his book . and from thence i turn'd to the beginning and continued to p. . and could not all along , observe any thing but what was very pertinent to the matter in hand . but this is your way of excusing your self from replying to things that yet you will be medling with , and nibling at : and 't is besides a pretty knack ( the non-conformists have it not alone ) of frighting or discouraging sober people from reading those dangerous trea●…ises , which might contribute to their better i●…formation . i cannot but observe , mr. bayes , this admirable way ( like fat sir john falstasse's singular dexterity in sinking ) that you have of answering whole books or discourses , how ●…ithy and knotty soever , in a line or two , nay sometimes with a word . so it fares with this b●…ok of the answerers . so with a book or discourse of his , i know not , of the morality of the lords day ; which is answered by a septonary portion in the hebdomadal revolution . so , whether book or discourse 〈◊〉 also know not of the self-evid●…ncing light of the scripture , where bayes ●…ffers ( and i●… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 strange ) to produce as good proofs for it out of 〈◊〉 alcoran . so i show'd you where he answers de●… with 〈◊〉 . and one thing more comes into my●…mind ; where , after he has blunder'd a great while to bring himself off the magistrates exercis●…ng the pristh●…od in his ●…wn person , he concludes wi●…h an irresistible defence against his answerer , this is suitable to the genius of his i●…genuity , and betraies him as ●…uch as the word intanglement , ●…hich it the shiboleth of all his writings . so he defeats all the gross bodies of orthodoxy with calling them sys●…emes and syntagmes . so you know he answers all the controversial books of the calvinists that ever have been written , with the tale of robin hood , and the migh●…y bramble on the south-side of the lake l●…man . mr. bay●…s , you cannot enough esteem and esteem this faculty . for , next to your single beating whole a●…mies , i do ●…ot know any virtue that you have need of so often , or that will upon trial be found more useful . and to this succeeds another flower , i am sure , though i can scarce smell ●…ut the sense of it . but it is printed in a distinct character , and that is always a cer●…ain sign of a flower . for our book-sellers have many arts to make us yield to their importunity : and among the rest , they promise us , 〈◊〉 at it s●…all be printed in fine paper , a●…d in a very large and fair let●…er ; that it shall be very well examined that there be no errata ; that wheresoever there is a pretty conceit , it shall be marked out in another character . but my greatest care was that when i quoted a●…y serten●…e or word of our author's , it might be so discernable , ●…lest i should go for a plagiary . and i am much offended to see that in several places he hath not kept ●…ouch with me . the word of mr. payes's that he has here made notorious , is categoricalness : and i obs●…rve that wheresoever there comes a word of that termir 〈◊〉 shows it the ●…ame honour ; as if he had a mind to make bayes a collar of n●…sses . what the mystery is , i cannot so easily imagine ; no more than of shiboleth and intangl●…ment . but i doubt mr. bayes is sick of mary complicated diseases ; or to keep to our ●…hime , sicknesses . he is troubled ●…ot o●…ly with the ismes but the nesses . he might , if he had pleased , here t●…o to have show'd his wit , as he did in the others , and have told us of sheern●…ss , dorgioness , innerness , a●…d cathness . but he might very well have ●…mitted it in this place , knowing how well he had acquitteed himself in another , and out of the scripture too , which gives his wit the highest relish . 't is p. . of his first book , where , to prove that the fruit●… of the spirit are ●…o more than morality , he quotes saint paul , gal. . ●… . where the apostle enumerates them ; love , joy , peace , patience , gentleness , goodness , faith , me●…kness , and t●…mperance , but our author tra●…slates joy to chearfulness , peace to peaceablen●…ss : faith to faithfulness . what ignorance , or rat●…er , what forgery is this of scripture & religio●… ? who is there of the systematical , german geneva , orthodox divines , but could have taught him better ? who is there of the sober , intelligent , episcepal divines of the church of england , but would ab●…or this interpretation ? yet , when his answerer , i see , ●…bjects this to him , p. . bayes , like a dexterous sch●…lastical disputant , it being told him , that joy is not ●…ress , but that spiritual joy which is unspeakable ; that peace is not peaceable●…ess in his sense , but that peace of god which through jesus christ is wrought in the bearts of believers by the holy ghost ; and that f●…ith in god is there intended , ●…ot faithfulness in our duties , trusts or , ●…ffices : w●…at does he doe ? p. . he very ingenu●…usly and wisely , when he is to answer , quite forgets that faith was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : and , having supprest that , as to the rest he wipes his m●…uth , and rubs his forehead , and saith the cavil is but a little one , and the fortune of cae●…ar and the roman empire depend ●…ot upon it , and ther●…fore be will not trouble the reader with a critical account of the reason of his translation . no , don't mr. bayes , 't is very we●…l ; let it alone . but , though not the fortunes of caesar and the roman empire , i doubt there is something more depends upon it , if it be matter of salvation . and i am afraid besides , that there may a curse too belong to him who shall knowingly add or diminish in the scripture . do you think b●…shop bramhall himself , if he had seen this , could have abstained ( p. . before quoted , ) from telling our author , that the promis●…uous licence given to people qualified or unqualifi●…d , not only to read but to interpret the scriptures according to their private spirits or ●…articular fancies , without regard either to the anal●…gy of faith , which they understand not , or to the int●…rpretation of the doctors of former ages , is more preju●…icial ( i might bett●…r say ) pernicious both to whole so●… , than the over-rigorous restraint of the romanists . the next is a piece of mirth , on occasion of some discourse of the an●…werers , about the morality of the the lords-day : where it seems he useth some hard words , which i am naturally an enemy to ; but might be done of purpose to keep the co●…roversy from the white-apro●…s , within the white surplices , to be more learnedly debated . but this fares no better than all the rest . there is no kind of morality , i see but ray●…s will try to debauch it : oh what ●…difying doctrine , saith be , is this to the whit●… - 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a●…d doubtl●…ss th●…y would with the jews , so●…r roast themselves , than a small joint of 〈◊〉 upon the sacred day of rest. now , i do not , neither , i believe , does bayes himself know any of them that are thus superstitious . so that mr. bayes might , if he had pleased , have spared his jibing ●…t that day , which hath m●…re sacredness in it by far than many , nay than any of those things he pleads for . but when men are once adepti and have attain'd bayes his height , and divinity at least is rightly understood , they have a priviledge it seems , not only to play and make merry on the sabbath day , but with it . after this i walked a great way through bushes and brambles before i could find another flower : but then i met with two upon one stalk ; on occasion of hi●… answers having said someting of the day of judgment when men should be accountable . ob , saith he , we shall be sure to be accounted with at the day of judgment ; and again , ah sweet day , when these people of god shall once for all , to their unspeakable comfort and support , wreak their eternal revenge upon their reprobate enemies . this puts me in mind of another expression of our authors ●…luding too this way . 't is an easie matter by this dancing and capering humour to perpetuate all the controversies in the world , how plainly soever determinable , to the coming of elias : and after this rate shall the barbers bason remain mambrino's helmet ; and the asses pannel a furniture for the great horse , till the day of judgment . now , good mr. bayes , i am one that desire to be very well resolved in these things ; and though not much indeed , yet i attribute something to your judgment . pray tell us in good earnest , what you think of these things , that we may know how to take our measure of living accordingly . for , ●…f indeed there be no judgment , no account for what is done here below , i have lost a gre●…t deal of precious time , that i might have injoyed in one of the fruits of you●… spirit , that is chearfu●…ss . how many good ●…ests have i balk'd , even in writing this book , lest i should be brought to answer for every profane and idle word ! how frequent opportunities have i mist in my life of ge●…iality and pleasure , and fulfilling nature in all its ends ! how have you frighted the magistrate in vain , from exercising hi●… uncontrolable ecclesiastical power , with the fear of an after-reckoning to god almighty ! and how have you , p. . defeated the obligatory force of all his laws , and set his subjects at liberty from all obligations to the duty of obedience : for they lye under no obligation , you say then , but of prudence and self-interest . but unless there hath been some errour in our education , and we have been seasoned with ill books at first , so that we can never lose the impression , there is some such matter , and the governour had reason , when he trembled to hear saint paul discoursing of that subject . the fanatical book of martyrs ( for we will not with some call the bible so ) tell●… us some old stories of persons that have been cired by some of them to appear at such a day , and that by dying at the same prefixed , they have saved their reconnoissances . and in the scot●…h history we read of a great cardinal that was so summoned by poor mr. g●…ichard , and yet could not help it , but he must take that long and sad journey of death to answer at the grand assizes . if therefore there be such a thing . i would not for fear , and if there be not , yet i would not fear good luck sake , set that terrible day at defiance , or make too me●…y with it . 't is possible that the nonconformists many of them may be too censorious of others , and too confident of their own integrity . others of them are more temperate , and perhaps destitute of all humane redress against their sufferings : some of those make rash chanlenges , and the other just appeals to appear at that dreadful tribunal . in the mean time , 't is not for you to be both the enemy ●…nd their judg. much less do's it ●…fit you , because perhaps they speak too sillily or demurely of it , or too breaving and confidently , therefore to make a meer mockery of the whole ●…usiness of that supre●…e judge and judicature . and one thing i will say more , though slighter ; that , though i am not so far gone as campanella was in the efficacy of words , and the magi●…k of the face , and pronur ciation , yet i marked how your answerer look'd when he spoke of the day of judgment . very gravely , i assure you , and yet without any depressing or eral●…ing his supercil●…um's : and i have most often observed that ferious words have produced serious effects . i have , by this time me-thinks , gather'd enough : nor are there many more left , unless i should go for a flower to the du●…ghil , which , he saith , is his only magazin . and this being an expression which he has several times used ( for no nonconformist repeats so often ) i cannot but remark , that besides his natural talent , mr. bayes hath been very industrious , and neg●…ected no opportunity of acquiring a perfection of railing . for this is a phrase borrowed from a modern author lately dead , and i suppose bayes had given him a bond for repayment at the day that he spoke of so lately . there are indeed several others at which i am forc'd to stop my nose . for by the smell , any man may discern they grew upon a ranker soil , than that on the south-side of the lake lemane , even upon the bank of the thames in the meadow of billingsgate : as that of the lye , which , he saith , no gentleman , much less a div●…ve , ought to put up . now if this were to be tryed by a court-martial of the brothers of the blade , 't is to be considered whether it were the down-right lye , or whether it were onely the lye by interpretation . for in the disputes of the schools there is nothing more usual , than hoc est ●…rum . hoc est salsum . but this passes without any blemish of honour on either side , and so far it is from any obligation to a challenge or a duel , that it never comes to be decided , so much as by the study-door key . but quod restat probandum do's the business without demanding other satisfaction . then , if it were the down-right lye ; it is to be examined who gave the lve first : for that alters the case . and last of all ( but which is indeed upon a quarrel the least material point , yet , it too comes under some consideration . ) which of the two was in the right , and which of them spoke truth , and which lyed . these are all things to be discussed in their proper places . for i do not observe that the answerer gave bayes the down-right lye. but i find that bayes gave him the lye first in terms . and as to the truth of the things controverted and alledged , there needs no more than the depositions that i formerly transcribed concerning bayes his own words . but all this is only a scene out of bays his rebearsal . villain , thou liest , — — arm , arm , valerio arm , the lie no flesh can bear i trow . and then as to the success of the combate — they fly , they fly who first did give the lye. for that of caitife , and other provocations that are proper for the same court , i will not meddle further . and for the being past grace and so past mercy ; i shall only observe that the church of england is much obliged to mr. bays , for having proved that non-conformity is the sin against the holy ghost . there remains but one flower more that i have a mind to . but that indeed is a rapper . 't is a flower of the sun , and might alone serve both for a staff and a nose-gay for any noble-man's porter . symbolicalness is the very essence of paganism , superstitio●… and idolatry . they will and ought sooner to broyl in smithfield , than submit to such abominations of the strumpet and the beast . 't is the very potion wherewith the scarlet-where made drunk the kings of the earth . heliogabalus and bishop bonner lov'd it like clary and eggs , and always made it their mornings-draught upon burning days ; and it is not to be doubted but the seven vials of wrath that were to be poured out upon the nations of the earth under the reign of anti-christ were filled with symbolical extracts and spirits : with more such stuff which i omit . this is i confess a pretty posy for the nose of such a divine . doctor baily's romance of the wall-flower had nothing comparable to 't . and i question , whether , as well as mr. bayes loves preferment , yet though he had lived in the primitive church , he would not as heliodorus bishop of trissa , i take it , that renounced his bishoprick rather than his title to the history of theagenes and chariclia , have done in like manner : nay , and have delivered up his bible too into the bargain , before he would quit the honour of so excellent a piece of drollery . this is surely the bill of fare , not at the ordination-dinner at the nags-head , but of the excusation-dinner at the cock ; and never did divine make so good chear of owens peas-porridge and scrinture . good mr. bayes , or mr. t●…der , or mr. cartwright ( not the non-conformist cartwright , that was you say ( as some others too of your acquaintance ) converted : but the player in the rehearsal ) this divinity i doubt was the bacchus of your thigh , and not the pallas of your brain . here it is that after so great an excess of wit , he thinks fit to take a julep and resettle his brain , and the government . he grows as serious as 't is possible f●…r a madman●… , and pretends to sum up the whole state of the controversie with the nonconformists , and to be sure he will make the story as plausible for himself as he may : but therefore it was that i have before so particulurly quoted and bound him up with his own words as fast as such a 〈◊〉 could be pinion'd . for he is as waxen as the first matter , and no form comes amiss to him . every change of posture does either alter his opinion or vary the expression by which we should judg of it : and sitting he is of one mind , and standing of another . therefore i take my self the less concerned , to fight with a wind-mill like quixote : or to whip a gig as boys do , or with the lacqueys at charing-cross or lincolns-innfields to play at the wheel of fortune , lest i should fall into the hands of my lord chief justice , or sir edmond godfroy . the truth is in short , and let bayes make more or less of it if he can ; bayes had at first built up such a stupendious magistrate , as never was of god's making . he had put all princes upon the rack to stretch them to his dimension . and , as a streight line continued grows a circle , he had given them so infinite a power that it was extended unto impotency . for though he found it not , till it was too late in the cause ; yet he felt it all along ( which is the understanding of brutes ) in the effect . for , hence it is that he so often complains , that princes knew not aright that supremacy over consciences , to which they were so lately , since their deserting the church of rome , restored . that in most nations . government was not rightly understood , and many expressions of that nature : whereas indeed the matter is that princes have always found that uncontroulable government over conscience to be both unsafe and unpracticable . he had run himself here to a stand , and , and perceived that there was a god , there was scripture ; the magistrate himself had a conscierce , and must take care that he did not ixjoin thirgs apparently evil . being at a stop here , he would therefore try how he could play the broker on the subject side●… and no pimp did ever enter into seriouser disputation to vitia●… an innocent virgin , than he to debauch their consciences . and to harden their unpractis'd modesty , he imboldens them by his own example , shewing them the experiment upon his own corscience first . but a●…er all , he finds himself again at the same stand here and and is run up to the wall by an angel : god , and scrip●…ure , and consc●…ence will not let him go further : 〈◊〉 he owns , that if the magistrate injoins things apparert'y evil , the subject may have liberty to re●… . what shall he do then ? for it is too glorious an enterprize to b●… abandon'd at the first rebuffe . why he gives us a new translation of the bible , and a new commentary . he saith that tenderness of conicience might be allowed in a church to be constitu●… , not in a church constituted already . that tenderness of conscience and scandal are ignorance , pride and obstmacy . he saith , the nonconformists should communicate with him till they have clear evidence that it is evil . this is a civil way indeed of gaining the question , to perswade men that are unsatisfied , to be satisfied till they be dissatisfied . he threat●…s , he rails , he jeers them , if it were possible , out of all their consciences and honesty ; and finding that will not do , he cails out the magistrate , tells him , these men are not fit-to live , there can be no security of government while they are in being : bring out the pillories , whipping-po●…s , gallies , rods and a●…es 〈◊〉 ( which are 〈◊〉 ultima 〈◊〉 , a clergy-mans ●…last argument , ay , and ●…is first teo : ) 〈◊〉 pull in pieces all the tradi●…g corporations , those nests of faction and sedition . this is a faithful account of the sum and intention of all hi●… undertaking , for which i confefs , he was as pick'd a man as could have been employ'd or found out in a whole kingdom : but it is so much too hard a task for any man to archieve , that no goose but would grow giddy with it . fo whereas he reduces the whole controversie to a matter of two or three symbolical ceremonies ( and if there be nothing else , more the shame of those that keep such a pudder ) it is very well worth observing how he ha●…h behaved himself , and how come off in this dispute . it seems that the conformists d●…fine a sacrament to be an outward visib●…e sign of an inward spiritual grace . it seems that the sacraments are usually called in the greek symbola . it seems further that some of the nonconformists , under the name therefore of symbolical ceremonies , dispute the lawsulness of those that are by our church inj●…yned , whereby the nonconformists can only intend that these ceremonies are so applyed , as if they were of a sacramental nature and institution , and that ●…erefore they are unlawful . our authors answeer handling this argument , does among other things ●…ake use of a pertinent passage in saint austin , signa ●…uum ad res divinas perti●…t sacramenta appellantur . what does mr. bayes in this case ? for it went hard ●…ith him . why , as good luck would have it , not being willing that so great a politician , to the irrepa●…able damage of the church , shonld yet be destroy●…d , j. o. had forgot to quote the book and page . now though you send a man the length of your weapon , and nam●… your second ; ye●… mr. bayes being , as you see 〈◊〉 , admirably read in the laws of 〈◊〉 , knew that unless the time and place be appointed , there is no danger . he saith therefore , p , . of his second book , that he should have advantage on his side , if he should lay odds with him , that there is no such passage in all the volumns of saint austin . — but however , that it is neither civil nor ingenuous to trouble him with such objections , as he cannot answer without reading over eight or ten large volumns in folio . it was too much to expect from one of so much business , good augustulus : quum tot sustineas & tanta negotia solus ; res sacras armis tuteris , moribus ornes , legibus emendes — s which may be thus translated : when you alone have the ceremonies to defend with whipping-posts , rods and axes ; when you have grace to turn into morality ; when you have the act of oblivion and indemnity and the ecclesiastical declaration of march to tear in pieces ; it were unreasonable and too much to the dammage of the publick to put you on such an imployment . i ask your pardon , mr. bayes , for this paraphrase and digression : for i perceive i am even hardned in my latine , and am prone to use it without fear or reverence . but , mr. bayes , there might have been a remedy for this , had you pleased . where then were all your leaf-turners ? a sort of poor readers you as well as bishop bramhal ought to have some reverence for , having made so much use of them to gather materials for your structures and superstructures . i cannot be perswaded , for all this , but that he know●… it well enough , the passage being so remarkable in it self , and so dirtyed with the nonconformists thumbs , that he could not possibly miss it : and i doubt he does but laugh at me now when , to save him a labour , i tell him in the simplicity of my heart , that even i my self met with it in ep. 〈◊〉 ad marcellinum , and the words these , n●…mis autem longum est convenienter disputare de 〈◊〉 fignorum quae cum ad res divinas pertinent sacram●…nta appellantur . but whether there be such a place or no , he hath no mind that his answerer sho●…d make use of it : nor of the schoolmen , whom before he had owned for the authors of the church of england's 〈◊〉 ; but would bind up the answerer to the law only and the gospel . and now mr. bayes saith he will be of the school-mens opinion as long as th●…y sp●…ak sense and no longer , ( and so i believe of saint aus●…'s ) that is to say , so long as they will serve his ●…urn : for all politicians shake men ●…ff when they have no more use of 'm , or find them to 〈◊〉 the design . but , mr. bayes why may not your answerer or any man else quote st. austin , as well as you may the scri●…re ? i am su●…e there is less danger of perverting the place , or of mis-interpretation . and though perhaps a nonconsormist may value the authority of the bib●…e above that of the fat●…ers ; yet the welch have a proverb , that the bible and a stone do well together : meaning perhaps , that if one miss the other will hit . you , that are a duellist , know how great a bravery it is to gain your . ee●…emys sword , and that there is no more home-thrust in dispu●…ation , th●…n the argumentum ad hominem . so that if your adversary fell upon you with one of your own fathers , it was gallant●…y done on his part ; and no less wi●…ely on yours to fence in this m●…nner , and us●… all your shifts 〈◊〉 put it by . for you too , mr. bayes , do know , no man better , that it is not at all times safe nor honourable to be of a fathers opinion . having escaped this danger ; he grows , nor can i blame him , exceeding merry : and insults heavily over symbolical wheresoever he meets with it , for in his answerer i find it not . but wheresoever 't was it serves to good purpose . for no man would imagine that he could have received so universal a defeat , and appear in so good humour . a terrible disputant he is , when he has set up an hard word to be his opponent ; 't is a very wholesome thing he knows , and prolongs life : for all the while he can keep up this ball , he may decline the question . but the poor word is sure to be mumbled and mowsled to purpose , and to be made an example . but let us , with mr. bayes his leave , examine the thing for once a little closer . the non-conformists , as i took notice before , do object to some of the rites of the church of england , under the name of symbolical or significant ceremonies . they observe the church of england does in the discourse of ceremonies printed before the common prayer book , declare that the retaining of those ceremonies , is not onely as they serve for decent order and godly discipline ; but as they are apt to stir up the dull mind of man to the remembrance of his duty to god , by some special and notable significancy , whereby he may be edified . they further observe the church of england's definition of a sacrament : that it is an outward visible sign of an inward spiritual grace . they find these ceremonies , so constituted , impos'd upon them by authority ; and more-over , according to our authors principle , made a new part of the divine law. they therefore quarrel and except against these under the notion of sacraments , and insist that the church is not impowred to institute such ceremonies under such obligations and penalties as they are imposed . or , if you will , in stead of church you may say rather the magistrats : for as much as our author hath pro hac vice delivered the keys and the whole power of the house into his hands . now the author having got them at this lock , crys victory . nothing less will serve him than a three days triumph , as if he had conquered europe , asia , and africa , and let him have a fourth day added , if he please , over the terra incognita of geneva . there is no end of his ostentation and pageantry : and the dejected non-conformists follow the wheels of his chariot , to be led afterwards to the prison and there executed . he had said p. . of his second book , here cartwright begun his objection , and here he was immediately check'd in his carrear by whitgift ( you might mr. author , for respect sake have called him at leaft mr. if not archbishop whitgift ) who told him plainly , he could not be ignorant that to the making of a sacrament , besides the external element , there is required a commandment of god in his word that it should be done , and a promise annexed to it , whereof the sacrament is a seal . and in pursuance hereof , p . our author saith , here then i fix my foot , and dare him to his teeth , to prove that any thing can be capable of the nature or office of sacraments that is not established by divine institution and upon promise of divine acceptance . upon the confidence of this argument 't is that he hectors and achillezes all the non-conformists out of the pit in this preface . this is the sword that was consecrated first upon the altar , and thence presented to the champions of the church in all ages . this is that with which archbishop whitgift gave cartwright his death's wound : and laid the puritan reformation a gasping . this is the weapon wherewith master hooker gained those lasting and eternal trophies over that baffled cause . this is that with which bishop bramhal wrought those wonderful things that exceeded all belief . this hath been transmitted successively to the writer of the friendly debate , and to this our author . it is in conclusion the curta●● of our church . 't is sir salomon's sword , cock of as many men as it hath been drawn against . wo wo●… the man that comes in the way of so dead-doing a tooll , and when weilded with the arm of such a scanderbag as our author . the non-conformists had need desire a truce to bury their dead . nay there are none left alive to desire it : but they are slain every mother's son of them . yet perhaps they are but stounded and may revive again . for i do not see all this while , that any of them have written , as a great prelate of ours , a book of seven sacraments : or attempted to prove that those symbolical ceremonies are indeed sacraments . nothing less . 't is that which they most labour against , and they complain that these things should be imposed on them with so high penalty , as want nothing of a sacramental nature but divine institution . and because an humane institution is herein made an equal force to a divine institution , therefore it is that they are agrieved . all that they mean , or could mean , as far as i or any man can perceive , is only that these ceremonies are a kind of anti-sacraments , and so obtruded upon the church , that without condescending to these additional inventions , no man is to be admitted to partake of the true sacraments which were of christ's appointing . for , without the sign of the cross , our church will not receive any one to baptism , as also without kneeling no man is suffered to come to the communion . so that methinks , our author and his partners have wounded themselves only with this argument : and have had as little occasion here to sing their te deum's , as the r●…man emperour had to triumph over the ocean , because he had gathered periwinkles and scallop shells on the beach . for the author may transform their reasonings as oft as he pleases ( even as oft as he doth his own , or the sctiptures ) : but this is indeed their fort out of which 〈◊〉 do not see they are likely to be beat with all our authors canon : that no such new conditions ought to be imposed upon christians by a less than divine authority , and unto which if they do not submit , though against their consciences , they shall therefore be dep●…ived of communion with the church . and i wonder that our author could not observe any thing in the discourse of i vargel cal 〈◊〉 , that was to the purpose , beside a perpetual repetition , of the outworn story of unscriptural ceremonies , and a peculiar uncouthness and obscurity of stile ; when as this plea is there for so many pages distinctly and vigorously i●…sisted on . for it is a childish thing ( how high soever our author magnifies himself in this way of reasoning ) either to demand from the non-conformists a patern of their worship from the scripture , who affect therein a simplicity , free from all exterio●… circumstances , but such as are natural or customary : or else to require of them some particular command against the cross , or kneeling , and such like ceremonies , which in the time of the apostles and many ages after were never thought of . but therefore general and applicable rules of scripture they urge as directions to the conscience ; unto which our author gives no satisfactory solution , but by superseding and extinguishing the conscience , or exposing it to the severest penalties . but here i say then is their main exception , that things indifferent , and that have no proper signature , or significancy to that purpose , should by command be made necessary conditions of church-communion . i have many times wished for peaceableness-sake that they had a greater latitude ; but if unless they should stretch their consciences till they tear again , they cannot conform , what remedy ? for i must confess that christians have a better right and title to the church , and to the ordinances of god there , than the author hath to his surplice . and that right is so undoubted and ancient , that it is not to be innovated ●…pon by humane restrictions and capitulations . bishop bramhall p. . saith , i do profess to all the world , that the transforming of indifferent opinions into ●…ssary articles of faith , hath been that insana laurus , or cursed bay-tree , the cause of all our brawling and contention . that which he saw in matter of doctrine he would not discern in discipline , whereas this among us , the transform●…ng of things , at best indifferent , into necessary points of practice , hath been of as ill consequence . and ( to reform a little my seriousness ) 〈◊〉 shall not let this pass without taking notice that you mr. bayes , being the most extravagant person in this matter that ever i heard of , as i have shown , you are mad , and so the insana laurus ; so i wish you may not prove that cursed bay-tree too , as the bishop translates it . if you had thought of this , perhaps we might have mi●…ed both the bishops book and your preface ; for you see that sometimes no man hath a worse friend than he brings from home . it is ●…ue , and very piously done , that our church does declare that the kneeling at the lords supper is not injoyned for adoration of those elements , and concerning the other ceremoni●…s as before . but the romanists ( from whom we have them , and who said of old , we would come to feed on their meat , as well as eat of their porridge ) do offer us here many a fair declaration , and distinction in very weighty matters , to which nevertheless the conscience of our church hath not complyed . but in this particular matter of kneeling , which came in first with the doctrine of transubstantiation , the romish church do reproach us sence in the bread and wine , do yet pay 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or other the same adoration . suppose the anti●…t ●…agans had declared to the primitive christians , that ●…he offering of some grains of incense was only to per●…ume the room , or that the delivering up of their bibles , was but for preserving the book more carefully . do you think the christians would have palliated so 〈◊〉 , and colluded with their consciences ? men are prone ●…o err on that hand . in the last king's ●…ime , some eminent persons of our clergy made an open defection to the church of rome . one , and he yet certainly a protestant , and that hath deserved well of that cause , writ the book of seven sacraments . one in the church at present , though certainly no less a protestant , could not abstain from arguing the holiness of lent : doctor thorndike lately dead , left for his epitaph , hic jacet c●…pus herberti thoradike praebendarij hujus eccle●… qui vivus veram reformatae ec●…lesia rationem & modum precibus studiisque prosequebatur , and nevertheless he adds , tu lector requi●…m ei & beatam in christo resurrectionem precare . which thing i do thus sparingly set down , only to shew the danger of inventive piety ; and if men come once to add new devices to the scripture , how easily they slide on into super●…tition . therefore , although the church do consider her self so much as not to alter her mode 〈◊〉 the fancy of others , yet i cannot see why she ought to exclude those from communion , whose weaker consciences cannot for fear of scandal step further . for the non-conformists , as to these declarations of our church against the reverence to the creatures of bread and wine , and concerning the other ceremonies as before , will be ready to think they have as 〈◊〉 against the clause , that whosoever should atfirm the wednesday fast to be imposed with an intention to bind the conscience , should be punished like the spreaders of falso news ; which is , saith a learned prelate plainly to them that understand it , to evacuate the whole law. for all human power being derived from god , and bound upon our conscinces by his power , not by ma●… , he that faith it shall not bind the conscience , saith it shall be no law , it shall have no authority from god , and then it hath none at all ; and if it be not tyed upon the conseience , then to break it is no sin , and then to keep it is no duty . so that a law without such an intention is a contradiction . it is a law only which binds if we please , and we may obey when we have a mind to it , and to so much we are tyed before the constitution . but then if by such a declaration it was meant , that to keep such fasting-days was no part of a direct commandment from god , that is , god had not required them by himself immediately , and so it was abstracting from that law no duty evangelical , it had been below the wisdom of the contrivers of it , no man petends it , 〈◊〉 man saith it , no man thinks it , and they might as well have declared that that laiw was none of the ten commandments , p. of his first book . so much pains does that learned prelate of his take ( who ever he was ) to prove a whole parliament of england . coxcombs . now i say that th●…se ecclesia●…ical laws , with such declarations concerning the ceremonies by them 〈◊〉 , might , muta●…is mutandis , be taxed upon the same top●…k . but i love not that task , and ●…hall rather leave it to mr. bayes to paraphrase his learnd prelate . for he is very good at correcting the 〈◊〉 of laws and lawgivers , and though this work indeed be not for 〈◊〉 turn at present , yet it may be for the future . and i have heard a good engineer say , that he never 〈◊〉 any place so , but that he reserved a feeble point , by which he knew how to take it , if there were occasion . i know a medicine for mr. bayes his hiccough ( it is but naming j. o. ) but i cannot tell certainly , though i have a shrew'd guess what is the cause of it . for indeed all his arguments here are so abrupt and short , that i cannot liken them better , considering too that ●…requent and perpetual repetition . such as this , why may not the soveraign power bestow this priviledge upon ceremony , and custom , by virtue of its prerogative ? what greater immorality is there in them when determined by the command and institution of the prince , than when by the consent and institution of the people ? this the tap-lash of what he said , p. . when the civil magistrate takes upon him to determine any particular forms of outward worship , 't is of no worse consequence than if he should go about to define the signification of all words used in the worship of god. and p. . of his first book . so that all the magistrates power of instituting significant cerem-onies , &c. can be no more ●…rpation upon the consciences of men , than if the soveraign authority should take upon it self , as some princes have done , to define the signification of words . and afterwards : the same gesture , and actions are indifferently capable of signifying either honour or contumely : and so words ; and therefore 't is necessary their signification should be determined &c. 't is all very well worth reading . p. . of his second book . 't is no other usurpation upon their subjects consciences than if he should take upon him to refine their language , and determine the proper signification of all phrases imployed in divine worship , as well as in trades , ar●…s and sciences . p. . of the same ; once we will so far gratifie the tenderness of their consciences and curiosity of their fancies , as to promise never to ascribe any other significancy to things than what himself is here content to bestow upon words . and . of the same . so that you see , my comparison between the signification of words and ceremonies stands firm as the pillars of the earth , and the foundations of our faith. mr. bayes might i see , have spared sir salomon's sword of the divine institution of the sacraments . here is the terriblest weapon in all his armory ; and therefore i perceive , reserved by our duellist for the last onset . and , i who am a great well-wisher to the pillars of the earth , or the eight elephants , lest we should have an earth-quake ; and much more a servant to the kiag's prerogative , lest we should all fall into consusion ; and perfectly devoted to the foundations of our faith , lest we should run out into popery or paganism ; have no heart to ●…his incounter : lest if i should prove that the magistrates absolute unlimited and uncontrolable power doth not extend to define the signification of all words , i should thereby not only be the occasion of all those mischiefs mentioned , but , which is of far more dismal importance , the loss of two or three so significant ceremonies . but though i therefore will not dispute against that flower of the princes crown , yet i hope that without doing much harm , i may observe that for the most part they left it to the people , and seldome themselves exercised it . and even augustus casar , though he was so great an emperour , and so valiant a man in his own person , was used to fly from a new word though it were single , as studiously as a mariner would avoid a rock for fear of splitting . the differences of one syllable in the same word hath madeas considerable a controversy as most have been in the church , betwi●…t the homousians and the hamoiousions . one letter in the na●…e of beans in languedoc , one party calling them faves ; and the other haves ; as the transposition only of a letter another time in the name of a goat , by some called crabe , and by o●…hers cabre , was the loss of more mens lives than the distinguishing but by an aspiration in shiboleth upon the like occasion . so that if a man would be learnedly impertinent , he might enlarge here to shew that ' ●…is as dangerous to take a man by the tongue , as a bear by the tooth . and had i a mind to play the politician , like mr. bayes , upon so pleasant and copious a subject , i would demonstrate that though the imposition of ceremonies hath bred much mischief in the world , yet ( shall i not venture too upon one word once for a tryal ) such a penetration or transubstantiation of language would throw all into rebellion and anarchy , would shake the crowns of all princes , and reduce the world into a second babel . therefore , mr. bayes , i doubt you were not well advised to make so close an analogy betwi●… imposing of significant words and significant ceremonies : for i fear the argument may be improved against you , and that princes finding that of words so impracticable , and of ill consequence , will conclude that of ceremonies to be no less pernicious . and the nonconformists ( who are great traders you know , in scripture , and therefore thrown out of the temple ) will be certainly on your back . for they will appropriate your pregnant text of let all things be done decently and in order , to preaching or praying in an unknown tongue , which such an imposition of words would be : and then , to keep you to your similitude , they will say too that yours are all latine ceremonies , and the congregation does not understand them . but were not 〈◊〉 dominion of words so dangerous ( for how many millions of men did it cost your roman empire to attain it ! ) yet it was very unmannerly in you to assign to princes , who have enough beside , so mean a trouble . when you gave them leave to exercise the priesthood in person , that was something to the purpose ; that was both honourable , and something belongs to it that would have help'd to bear the charge . but this mint of words will never quit cost , nor pay for the coynage . this is such a drudgery ; that rather than undergo it , i dare say , there is no prince but would resign to you so pedantical a soveraignty . i cannot but think how full that princes head must be of proclamations . for , if he published but once a proclamation to that purpose , he must forthwith set our another to stamp and declare the signification of all the words contained in it , and then another to appoint the meaning of all the words in this , and so on : that here is work cut out in one paper of state for the whole privy council , both secretaries of state , and all the clerks of the council , for one kings reign , and in infinitum . but , i cannot but wonder , knowing how ambitious mr. bayes is of the power over words , and jealous of his own prerogative of refining language , how he came to be so liberal of it to the prince : why , the same thing that induced him to give the prince a power an●…ecedent and independent to christ , ●…nd to establish what religion he pleased , &c. nothing but his spight against the nonconformists . i know not that thing in the world , except a jest , that he would not part with to be satisfied in that particular . he hoped doub●…less by holding up this maxim ; to obtain that the words of the declaration of mar●… . should be understood by contraries you may well think he expected no less an equivalent , he would never 〈◊〉 have permitted the prince even to define the signification of all words used in the worship of god , and to determine the proper signification of all phrases imploy'd in divine worship●… nay , mr. bayes , if it be come to that , and you will surrender your liturgy to the prince , i know not what you mean ; for 't is bound up with your bible . was it ever heard that that book so sacred , and in which there could not one error be found by all the presbyterians at the worcester-house-conference , should , upon so uncertain a prospect , be now abandon'd so far as that every word and phrase in it may receive a new and ●…ontrary signification ! but the king for ought i see likes it well as it is ( and therefore i do so too ) . yet in case his majesty should ever think fit to reform it , and because such kind of work is usually referred back to some of the clergy ; i would gladly put in a caveat , that our author may in no ca e be one of them . for 't is known that mr , bayes is subject to a distemper ; and who knows but when he is in a fit , as he made such mad alterations of the f●…uit of the spirit in the epistle for the day , he may as w●…ll in●…ert in some other part of the service , wellfare poor macedo for a modest fool ; and then , oh how i hug th●… , dear heart , for this l and pretend that the supreme magistrate should stamp upon it a signification sacred and serious . i would not have spoken so severely of him , but that his more laboured periods , as he calls them , are so often fill'd with much bolder and more unwholesome translations . but however that he may not at his better intervals be wholly unemployed in the work of ●…lniformity , i should recommend to him rather to turn the liturgy and the rationale into the universal language , and so in time the whole world might come to be of his par●…sh . when he was drawn t●…us low , did not 〈◊〉 you , stand need of tilting ? he had done much more service to the cause , had he laid by all those cheating argumentations , and dealt candidly , like the good arch deacon not long since dead ; who went about both court and countrey , preaching upon the clok●… left at troas , and the books , but especially ●…he parchments . the honest man had found out there the whole liturgy , the canonical habits , and all the equipage of a conformist . this was something to the matter in hand , to produce apostolical example and authority : and much more to the purpose than that beaten text of doing all things decently and in order . one argument i con●…ess remains still behind , and that will justifie any thing . 't is that which i call'd lately rationem ultimam cleri ; force , law , execution , or what you will have it . i would not be mistaken , as though i hereby meant the body of the english clergy , who have been ever since the reformation ( i say it without disparagement to the foraign churches ) of - the eminentest for divinity and piety in all christendom . and as far am i from censuring , under this title , the bishops of england , sor whose function , their learning , their persons i have too deep a veneration to speak any thing of them irreverently . but those that i intend only , are a particular bran of persons , who will in spight of fate be accounted the church of england , and to shew they are pluralists , never write in a modester stile than we , we ; nay , even these , several of them , are men of parts sufficient to deserve a rank among the teachers and governots of the church . only what bishop bram●…al f●…ith of grotius his defect in school divinity ; unam hoc maceror & doleo tibi deesse . i may apply to their excess and rigo●…r in matter of discipline . they want all consideration , all moderation in those things ; and i never heard of any of them at any time , who , if they got into power or office , did ever make the least experiment or overture towards the peace of the church and nation they lived in . they are the politick would be 's of the clergy . not bishops , but men that have a mind to be bishops , and that will do any thing in the world to compass it . and , though princes have always a particular mark upon these men , and value them no more than they deserve , yet i know not very well , or perhaps i do know , how it oftentimes happens that they come to be advanced . they are men of a fi●…ry nature , that must always be uppermost , and so they may increase their own slendor , care nor though they 〈◊〉 all on flame about them . you would think the same day that they took up divinity they divested themselves of humanity , and so they may procure and execute a law against the non-conformists , that they had forgot the gospel . they cannot endure that humility , that meekness , that strictness of manners and conversation , which is the true way of gaining reputation and authority to the clergy ; much less can they content themselves with the ordinary and comfortable provis sion that is made for the ministry : but , having wholy calculated themselves for preferment , and grandeur , know or practise no other means to make themselves venerable but by ceremony and severity . whereas the highest advantage of promotion is the opportunity of condescention , and the greatest dignity in our church can but raise them to the title of your grace , which is in the latine vestra clementia . but of all these , none are so eager and virulent , as some , who having had relation to the late times , have got access to ecclesiastical fortune , and are resolved to make their best of her . for so , of all beasts , none are so fierce and cruel as those that have been taught once by hunger to prey upon their own kind ; as of all men , none are so inhumane as the canibals . but whether this be the true way of ingra●…iating themselves with a generous and discerning prince , i meddle not ; nor whether it be an ingenuous practice towards thosewhom they have been formerly acquainted with : but whatsoever they think themselves obliged to for the approving of their new loyalty ; i rather commend . that which astonishes me , and only raises my indignation is , that of all sorts of men this kind of clergy should always be , and have been for the most precipitate , brutish , and fanguinary counsels . the former civil war cannot make them wise , nor his majesties happy return , good natured ; but they are still for running things up unto the same extreams . the softness of the universities where they have been bred , the gentleness of christianity , in which they have been nurtured , hath but exasperated their nature ; and they seem to have contracted no idea of wisdom , but what they learnt at school , the pedantry of whipping . they take themselves qualified to preach the gospel , and no less to intermeddle in affairs of state : though the reach of their divinity is but to persecution , and an inquis●…on is the heig●…t of their policy . and you mr. bayes , had you lived in the dayes of augustus caesar ( be not ●…andalized , for why may you not bring sixteen hundred years , as well as five 〈◊〉 into one of your plays ) would not you have made , think you , an excellent privy coun●…ellour ? his father too was murdered . or , ( to come nearer both to our times , and your resemblance of the late war , which you trumpet always in the ear of his majesty ) had you happen'd in the time of henry the fourth of france , should not you have done well in the cabinet ? his predecessor too was assassinated . no , mr. bayes , you would not have been for their purpose : they took other measures of government , and accordingly it succeeded with them . and his majesty , whose genius hath much of both those princes , and who derives half of the blood in his veins from the latter , will in all probability not be so forward to hearken to your advice as to follow their example . for these kings , mr. bayes , how negligent soever or ignorant you take 'm to be , have , i doubt , a shrewd understanding with them . 't is a trade , that god be thanked , neither you nor i are of , and therefore we are not so competent judges of their actions . i my se●… have oftentimes seen them , some of them , do strange things , and unreasonable in my opinion , and yet a little while , or sometimes many years after , i have sound that all the men in the world could not have contrived any thing better . 't is not with them as with you . you have but one cure of souls , or perhaps two , as being a noblemans chaplain , to look after : and if you make conscience of discharging them as you ought , you would find you had work sufficient , without wri●…ing your ecc●…esiastical policies . but they are the incumbents of whole kingdoms , and the rectorship of the common people , the nobility , and even of the clergy , whom you are prone to affirm when possest with principles that incline to rebe●…ion and disloyal parctices , to be of all r●…bels the most dangerous , p. . the care i say of all these , rests upon them . so that they are fain to condescend to many things for peace-sake , and the quiet of mankind , that your proud heart would break before it would bend to . they do not think fit to require any thing that is impossible , unnecessary , or wanton , of their people ; but are fain to consider the very temper of the climate in which they live , the constitution and laws under which they have been formerly bred , and upon all occasions to give them good words , and humour them like children . they reflect upon the histories of former times , and the present transactions to regulate themselves by in every circumstance . they have heard that one of your roman emperours , when his captain of the life-guard came for the word , by giving it unhandsomly , received a dagger . they observe how the parliament of poland will be their kings taylor , and among other reasons , becau●…e he would not wear their mode , have suffered the turk enter , as coming nearer their fashion . nay , that even al●…xander the great had almost lo●…t all he had conquered by forcing his subjects to conform to the persian habit . that the king of spain , when upon a progress he enters b●…scai , is pleased to ride with one leg naked , and above all to take care that there be not a bishop in his retinue . so their people will pay their taxes in good gold and silver , they demand no subsidy of so many bushel of fleas , lest they should 〈◊〉 same answer with the tyrant , that the subject could not furnish that quantity , and besides they would be leaping out still before they could be measured , and should th●…y fine the people for non-payment , they reckon there would be little got by distraining . they have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a certain queen being desired to give a town-seal to one of 〈◊〉 , lighting from horse , sate down naked on the snow , and left them that impression , and though it caused no disturbance , but all the towv-leases are letters-pattents ; kings do not approve the example . that the late queen of sweden did her self no good with saying , io 〈◊〉 voglio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bestie but afterwards resigned . that the occasion of the revolt of switzerland from the emperor and its turning comm●… wealth , was only the imposing of a civil ceremony by capricious governour , who set up a pole in the high-way , with a cap upon the top of it , to which he would have all passengers be uncover'd , a●…d doobeysance . one sturdy swi●… , that would not conform ; thereupon overturn'd the government , is 't is at large in history . that the king of 〈◊〉 lost flanders chiefly upon introducing the inquisi●…on . and you now mr. bayes will think these , and 〈◊〉 h●…ndred more that i could tell you , but idle stor●…s , and yet kings can tell how to make use of ' m. and hence 't is that instead of assuming your unhopable jurisdiction , they are so satisfied with the abundance of their power , that they rather think meet to abate os its exercise by their diseretion . the gre●…er fortune is , they are content to to use the less extra●…gancy . but because i see , mr. bayes , you are a little deaf on this ear i will talk somewhat closer to you . in this v●…ry matter of ceremonies , which you are so bent upon , 〈◊〉 , your mi●…d is always running 〈◊〉 , w●…en you should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 not you think that the king 〈◊〉 every word you said , although he never gave your book 〈◊〉 reading ? that you sey , that the clause 〈◊〉 . of the wed●…day-fast has been the original of all the puritan-disorder●… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is now reduced only to two or three symbolical ceremonies . that these ceremonies are things indifferent-in their own nature , and have no antecedent necessity , but onely bind as they are commanded . that they fignifie nothing in themselves but what the commander pleases . that the church it self declares that there is nothing of religion or adoration in them . that they are no parts of religious worship . that they are onely circumstances . that the imposing of a significant ceremony , is no more than to impose fignificancy upon a word . that there is not a word of any of these ceremonies in the scriptures . that they are in themselves of no great moment and consequence , but 't is absolutely necessary that government should in●…oyn them , to avoid the evil that would follow if they were not determined : and that there cannot be a pin pull'd out of the church , but the state immediately totters . do not you think that the king has considered all these things ? i believe he has ; and perhaps , as you have minced the matter , he may well think the nonconformists have very nice stomacks , that they cannot digest such chopp'd ●…ay : but on the other side , he must needs take you to be very strange men , to 〈◊〉 these in fpite down the throats of any christian. if a man have an antipathy against any thing , the company is generally so civil , as to re●…rain the use of it , however not to press it upon the person . if a man be fick or weak the pope grants a dispensation from lent , or fasting dayes : ay , and from many a thing that strikes deeper in his religion . if one have got a cold , their betters will force them to be covered . there is no end of similitudes : but i am led into them by your calling these ceremonies , pins of the curious , and that is se●…led ( god be prai●…ed ) pretty fast in his throne , to try for experiment , whether the pulling out of one of these pins would make the state totter . but , mr. bayes , there is more in it . 't is matter of conscience : and if kings do , out of discretion , connive at the other infirmities of their people ; if great perfons do out of civility condescend to their inferiours ; and if all men out of common humanity do yield to the weaker ; will your clergy only be the men , who , in an affair of conscience , and where perhaps 't is you are in the wrong , be the onely hard-hearted and inflexible tyrants ; and not only so , but instigate and provoke princes to be the ministers of your cruelty ? but , i say , princes , as far as i can take the height of things so far above me , must needs have other thoughts , and are past such boys-play to stake their crowns against your pins . they do not think fit to command things unnecesfary , and where the profit cannot countervail the hazard . but above all they consider , that god has instated them in the government of mankind , with that incumbrance ( if it may so be called ) of reason , and that incumbrance upon reason of 〈◊〉 . that he might have given them as large an extent of ground and other kind of cattle for their subjects : but it had been a melancholy empire to have been only supreme grasiers and soveraign shepherds . and therefore , though the laziness of that brutal magistracy might have been more secure , yet the difficulty of this does make it more honourable that men therefore are to be dealt with reasonably : and conscientious men by conscience . that even law is force , and the execution of that law a greater violence ; and therefore with a rational creature not to be used but upon the utmost extremity . that ral punishments do never reach the offender , but the innocent suffers for the gui●…ty . that the mind is in the hand of god , and cannot correct those pe●…swasions which upon the best of it natural capacity it hath collected : so that it too , though erroneous , is so far innocent . that the prince therefore , by how much god hath indued him with a clearer reason , and by consequence with a more enlightned judgement , ought the rather to take heed lest by punishing conscience , he violate not onely his own , but the divine majesty . but as to that mr. bayes , which you still inculcate of the late war , and its horrid catastrophe , which you will needs have to be upon a religious account : 't is four and twenty years ago , and after an act of oblivion ; and for ought i can see , it had been as seasonable to have shown casars bloody coat , or thomas a beckets bloody rochet . the chief of the offenders have long since made satisfaction to justice ; and the whole nation hath been swept sufficiently of late years by those terrible scourges of heaven : so that methinks you might in all this while have satiated your mischievous appetite . whatsoever you suffered in those times , his majesty who had much the greater loss , knowing that the memory of his glorious father will alwayes be preserved , is the best judge how long the revenge o●…ght to be pursued . but if indeed out of your superlative care of his majesty and your living , you are afraid of some new disturbance of the same nature , let me so far satisfie you as i am satisfied . the non-conformists say that they are bound in conscience to act as far as they can , and for the rest to suffer to the utmost . but because though they do mean honestly , 't is so hard a chapter for one that thinks himself in the right to suffer extremities patiently , that some think it impossible ; i say next , that it 's very seldom seen that in the same age , a civil war , after such an interval , has been raised again upon the same pretences : but men are also weary , that he would be knock'd on the head that should raise the first disturbance of the same nature . a new war must have , like a book that would sell , a new title . i am asham'd mr. bayes that you put me on talking thus impertinently , ( for policy in us is so ) . therefore to be short , the king hath so indulged and obliged the non-conformists by his late mercy , that if there were any such knave , there can be no such fool among them , that would ever lift up an ill thought against him . and for you mr. bayes he is assured of your loyalty , so that i think you may enjoy your living very peaceably , which i know is all your business . 't was well replyed of the english man in edward the fourths time , to the french man that ask'd him insulting , when they should see us there again ? when your sins are greater than ours . there are as many occasions of war , as there are vices i●… a nation : and therefore it concerns a prince to be watchful on all hands . but should kings remember an injury as long as you implacable divines do , or should we take up arms upon your becks , because your e●…clesiastical policy is answered , to revenge your quarrel , the world would never be at quiet . therefore mr. bayes , let all those things of former times alone , and mind your own business ; for kings , believe me , as they have royal understandings , so have g●…ntlemens memories . and now , master bayes , i think it is time to ●…ake my leave , having troubled you with so long a 〈◊〉 . onely before i quit this matter , because i ●…lo not love to be accounted singular in my opinion , 〈◊〉 will add the judgement of one author , and that 〈◊〉 pertinent as i could pick out to our purpose . i have observed that not onely other princes , but queen elizabeth too hath the misfortune to be much but of your favour . but for what reason i cannot pos●…ibly imagine ; for none ever deserved better as to ●…he thing of uniformity , unless it be the ill luck she had to pass that impertinent clause in the act of the fifth of elizabeth , of the jejunium cecilianun . you cannot , for her sake , indure the wit or learning of her ●…imes , but say , pag. . of your second book , though this trifling artifice of sprinkling little fragments of wit , and poetry might have passed for wit and learning in the days of queen elizabeth , yet to men of learning , reading and ingenuity , their vulgar use has sullied their lustre , and abated their value . this is indeed , mr. bayes , a very labour'd period , and prepared by you , i believe , on purpose as a model of the wit and eloquence of your days . but not onely so ; but page . of the same book , i think you call her in derision , and most spightfully and unmannerly , plain old elsibeth . and those that knew her humour , think yon could not have disobliged her more than in ●…iling her so ; both as a woman , which sex never love to be thought old , and as a queen who was jealous , lest men should therefore talk of the succession . besides the irreverent nick-name you give ●…er , that you might as well have presumed to call her queen bess , or bold bettrice . now to the end that that queen of famous memory may have a little female revenge upon you , and to give you a rast of the wit and learning even of her times ; i will sprinkle here one fragment , which not being a scholar-like saying of antient poet or philosopher , but of a reverend divine , i hope , master bayes , may be less displeasing to you . the man is park●…r , not robert parker , who writ another treat●…se of ecclesiastical policy , and the book de cruce●… , for which if they had ●…atch'd him , he had possibly gone to the gallows , or at least the gallyes . for he was one of those well-meaning zealots , that are of all villains the most dangerous . but it is the arch-bishop of canterbury , parker , ( for if i named him before without addition , 't was what i learnt of you speaking of ●…hitgift ) he in his book de antiquitatibus ec-●…clesiae britannicae , page . speaking of the slaughter of the monks of bangor , and so many christians more , upon the instigation of austin the the monk , who stirred up ethilbert king of kent against them , because they would not receive the romish ceremonies ; useth these words , et sane illa prima de romanis ritibus indu●…ndis per aug●…stinum tunc excitata contentio , quae non nisi clade & sanguine innocentium brittannorum poterat extingui ; ad nostra recentiora tempora , cum simili pernicie cadeque christiano●…um pervenit . cum ●…nim illis gloriosis ceremoniis à purâ primitivae ecclesiae simplicitate recesserunt , non de vit●… sanctitate , de evangelij praedicatione , de spiritus sancti vi & consolatio●…e multum laborabant ; sed novas indies altercationes de novis ritibus per papas singulos additis , qui neminem tam excelso gradu dignum qui aliquid . ceremoniosi non dicam , monstrosi inauditi & inusitati non adjecisset ; instituebant . suggestaque & scholas fabulis rixisque suis implebant . nam prima ecclesiae species simplicior & integro & interno dei cultu , ab ipso verbo praescripto , nec vestibus splendidis nec magnificis structuris decorata , nec auro , argento gemmisque fulgens fuit : et si liceat his exterioribus ut modo animum ab illo interiori & integro dei cultu non abducant ; curiosis & morosis ritibus ab illâ prim●…va & rectâ simplicitate evangelicâ degeneravit . illa autem in romanâ ecclesiâ rituum multitudo ad immensum illius magni augustini hipponensis episcopi temporibus creverat : ut questus sit christianorum in ceremoniis & ritibus duriorem quàm judaeorum , qui 〈◊〉 tempus libertatis non agnoverint , legalibus tamen sarcinis non humanis praesumptionibus subjiciebanter ; nam paucioribus in divino cultu quàm christiani ceremonii●…●…tebantur . qui si sensisset quantus deinde per singulos papas coacervatus cumulus accessit , modam christia●…um credo ipse statuisset ; qui hoc malum tunc in eccle●… viderat . videmus enim ab illâ ceremoniarum con●…entione nedum ecclesiam esse vacuam ; quin ●…omines ●…lioquin docti atque pii de vestibus & hujusmodi nugis ad huc , rixoso magis & militari , quàm aut 〈◊〉 aut christiano more inter se digladiantur . these words do run direct against the genius of some men that contributed not a little to the late rebellion , and , though so long since writ , do so exactly describe that evill spirit with which some men 〈◊〉 even in these times postest , who seem desirous ●…pon the same grounds to put all things in com●…ustion , that i think them very well worth the la●…our of translating . [ and indeed , that first con●…ention then raised by augustine about the introducing of the romish ceremonies , which could not be quenched but by the blood and slaughter of ●…he innocent britains ; hath been continued e'n to our later times , with the like mischief and murder of christians . for when once by those gloriou●… ceremonies they forsook the pure simplicity of th●… primitive church , they did nor much troubl●… themselves about holiness of life , the preachin●… of the gospel , the efficacy and comfort of the holy spirit : but they fell every day into ne●… squab les about new-●…angled ceremonies added 〈◊〉 every pope , who reckoned no man worthy of 〈◊〉 high a degree but such as invented somewhat , 〈◊〉 will not say ceremonious , but monstrous , unhea●… of , and before unpractised ; and they fill'd th●… schools and the pulpits with their fables 〈◊〉 brawling of such matters , for the first beau●…y 〈◊〉 the church had more of simplicity and plainnes●… , and was neither adorned with splendid vestmen●… nor magnificent structures , nor shin'd with gol●… silver , and precious stones ; bt with the int●… and inward worship of god , as it was by chri●… himself prescribed , although it may be lawfull 〈◊〉 ●…se these external things , so they do not lead th●… mind astray from that more inward and inti●… worship of god ; by those curious and crab●… rites it degenerated from that antient and right 〈◊〉 vangelical simplicity . but that multitude of 〈◊〉 in the romish church , had unmeasurably increased in the times of that great augustine the bishop of hippo , in so much that he complain●… that the condition of christians , as to rites an●… ceremonies , was then harder than that of th●… jews ; who although they did not discern the ti●… of their liberty , yet were only subjected to leg●… burthens , instituted first by god himself , nor 〈◊〉 humane presumptions , for they used fewer 〈◊〉 ●…emonies in the worship of god , than christi●… who , if he could have foreseen how great a 〈◊〉 of them was afterwards piled up , and added by 〈◊〉 several popes , he himself doubtless would have restrained it within christian measure , having already perceived this growing evil in the church . for we see , that even yet the church is not free from that contention : but men , otherwise learned and pious , do still cut and flash about vestments and such kind of tri●…les , rather in a swashbuck-ler and hectoring way , than either like philosophers or like christians . ] now mr. bayes , i doubt you must be put to the trouble of writing another preface against this arch-bishop . for nothing in your answerer's treatise of evangelical love does so gird or aim at you , for ought i can see , or at those whom you call the church of england , as this passage . but the last period does so plainly delineate you to the life , that what st. austine did not presage , the bishop seems to have foreseen most distinctly . 't is ●…ust your way of writing all along in this matter . you bring nothing sound or solid . only you think you have got the great secret , or the philosophers ●…tone of railing , and i believe it , you have so ●…ultiplied it in projection : and as they into gold , so you turn every thing you meet with into railing . and yet the secret is not great , nor the pro●… long or dificult , if a man would study it , and make a trade on 't . every scold hath it naturally . it is but crying whore first , and having the 〈◊〉 word , and whatsoever t'other sayes , cry , oh ●…hese are your nonconfor mist's tricks , oh you ●…ave learnt this of the puritans in grubstreet . o●…●…ou white-aprond gossip . for indeed , i never ●…aw provident a fetch : you have taken in before ●…and of all the posts of railing , and so beset all 〈◊〉 topicks of just crimination , foreseeing where 〈◊〉 are feeble , that if this trick would pass , it were ●…possible to open ones mouth to find the least sault with you . for in your first chapter of your second book , beside what you do alwaies in an hundred places when you are at a loss , you have spent almost an hundred pages upon a character of the fanatick deportment toward all adversaries . and then on the other side , you have so ingrossed and bought up all the ammunition of railing , search'd every corner in the bible , and don quixot for powder , that you thought , not unreasonably , that that there was not one shot left for a fanatick , but truth , you see , cannot want words : and she laugh too sometimes when she speaks , and rather than all fail too , be serious . but what will you say to that of the arch-bishops , than either like philosophers or like christians ? for the excellency of your logick , philosophy and christianity in all your books , is either , as in conscience , to take away the subject of the question : or , as in the magistrate , having gotten one absurdity , to raise 〈◊〉 thousand more from it . so that , except the manufacture and labour of your periods , you have done no more than any school boy could have done on the same terms . and so , mr. bayes , goodnight . and now good-morrow mr. bayes ; for though it seems so little a time and that you are now gen●… to bed , it hath been a whole live-long night , and you have toss'd up and down in many a troublesome dream , and are but just now awaked at the title page of your book : a preface shewing wh●… grounds there are of fears and jealousies of poper●… it is something artificially couch'd , but looks , 〈◊〉 if it did allow , that there are some grounds 〈◊〉 fears and jealousies of that nature . but here 〈◊〉 words it , a consideration what likelihood , or how 〈◊〉 danger there is of the return of popery into this nati●… ●…ad he not come to this at last , i should hav●… thought i had been all this while reading a chapter in mountagu●…'s essayes ; where you find sometimes scarce one word in the discourse of the matter held forth in the title . but now indeed he takes up this argument and debates it to purpose . for i had before begun to shew that he had writ not only his two former books but especially too this preface , with an evil eye and aim at his maj●…sty , and the measures he had taken of government . and whoever will take the pains to read here , will soon be of my mind . his majesty had i said , the th of march . issued his declaration of indulgence to tender consciences . he , on the contrary , issues out thereupon , all in hast and as fast as he could write , this his remonstrance or manifesto against indulgence to tender consciences : and to make his majesties proceedings more odious , stirs up this seditious matter , of what probability there is of popery . and this he discourses , to be sure , in his own imagination very cunningly . for he knows that there was an act of parliament in this kings reign with a greater penalty than that of eliz. of spreading false news , against reports of this nature . and therefore , he resolves to handle it so●… warily , that he himself might escape , but might draw others that should answer him , within the danger of that act , and that he may lay the crime at their doors . but , notwithstanding all his slights and l'gerdemain , it doth eno●…gh detect his malice & ill intention to his majestios government , that he should take this occasion , altogether foreign and unseasonable , to raise a publick and solemn discourse through the whole nation , concerning a matter the most odious and dangerous that could be exposed . so that now , no man can look at the wall , no man can pass by a booksellers stall , but●… he must see a preface shewing what grounds ther●… are for fears and jealousies of popery . it had been something a safer and more dutiful way of writing , a preface shewing the causelesness of the fears and jealousies of popery . for i do not think it will excuse a witch , to say , that she conjur'd up a spirit only that she m●…ght lay it , nor can there be a more dexterou●… and malicious way of calumny , than by making a needless apology for another , in a criminal subject . as , suppose i should write a preface showing what grounds there are of fears and jealousies of bayes his being and atheist . but this is exactly our authors method and way of contrivance ; whereby more effectually by far than by any flying coffee-house tattle , he traduces the state , and by printing so pernicious a question , fills all mens mouths , and beats out all mens eyes with the probability of the return of popery . had he heard any that malignly and officiously talk'd to such a purpose , it had been the part of one so prudent as he is , not to have continued the discourse . had he ( as he hath a great gift that way ) pick'd up out of any mans talk or writing , matter whereof to make an ill story ; there was a better and more r●…gular way o●… proceeding , had he meant honestly to his majesties government , to have prevented the evil , and to have brought the offender to punishment . he should have gone to one of the secretaries of state , or to some other of his majesties privy council , and have given them information . but , in stead of that , i am afraid that in the survey of this business , we shall find , that even some of them are either accused , or shrewdly mark'd out with a character of our authors displeasure . therefore , i will now come nearer to his ma●…ter in hand , although it concernes me to be careful of coming too near , nor shall i dwell too long upon so jealous and impertinent a subject . to consider what likelihood or how much danger there is of the return of popery into this nation . the ●…he very first word is ; for my par●… i know none . very well considered . why then , m●… . b●…yes , i must tell you , that if i had printed a book or preface upon that argument , i should have thought my self , at least a fool for my labour . the next considerer is mine enemy ; i mean he is an enemy to the state , whoever shall foment such discourses without any likelihood or danger . yet mr. bayes you know , i have for a good while had no great opinion of your integrity ; neither here . i doubt you prevaricate a little with some body . for i suppose you cannot be ignorant that some of your superiors of your robe did , upon the publishing that declaration , give the word , and deliver orders through their ecclesiastical camp , to beat up the pulpit-drums against popery . nay , even so much that there was care taken too for arming the poor readers , that though they came short of preachers in point of efficacy , yet they might be enabled to do something in point of common security . so that , though for so many years , those your superiors had forgot there was any such thing in the nation as a popish recusant , though polemical and controversial divinity had for so long been hung up in the halls , like the rusty obsolete armour of our ancestors , for monuments of antiquity ; and for desision rather than service ; all on a sudden ( as if the th of march had been the th of november ) happy was he that cold climb up first to get down one of the old cuirasses , or an habergeon that had been wor●… in the dayes of queen elizabeth . great variety there was and heavy doo . some clapp'd it on all rusty as it was , others fell of oyling and furbishing their armour : some piss'd in their barrels , others spit in their pans , to scowr them . here you might see one put on his helmet the wrong way : there one buckle on a back in place of a breast . some by mistake catched up a socinian arminian argument , and some a popish to figh●… a popish . here a dwarf lost in the accoutrements of a giant : there a don-quixot in an equipage of differing pieces , and of several parishes . never was there such incongruity and nonconformity in their furniture . one ran to borrow a sword of calvin . this man for a musket from beza : that for a bandeleers even from keckerman . but when they came to seek match , and bullet , and power , there was none to be had . the fanaticks had bought it all up , and made them pay for it most unconscionably , and through the nose . and no less sport was it to see their leaders . few could tell how to give the word of command , nor understood to dr●…ll a company : they were as unexpert as their soldiers aukward : and the whole was as pleasant a spectacle , as the exercising of the train'd-bands in — shire . but mr. bayes ( for i believe you do nothing but upon common advice ) either this was all intended but for a false alarum , and was only for a pretence to take arms against the fanaticks ( which you might have done without raising all this din and obloquy against the state and disquieting his majesties good subjects : ) or else you did really think ( and who can help misappreliensions ? ) that you did know some likelihood or danger of the return of popery i crave you mercy mr bayes , i took you a little short . for my part i know none , you say , but the nonconsormists boysterous and unreasonable opposition to the church of england . this i confess hath some weight in it . for truly before i knew none too , i was of your opinion mr. bayes , & believed that popery could never return into england again , but by some very sinister accident this expression of mine is something uncou●…h , and therefore because i love to give you satisfaction in all things mr. bayes , i will acquaint you with my reason of using it . henry the fourth of france , his majesties grandfather , lived ( you know ) in the dayes of queen elizabeth . now the wit of france and england , as you may have observed , is much of the same mode , und hath at all times gone much after the same current rate and standard ; only there hath been some little difference in the alloy , and advantage or disadvantage in the exchange according to mens occasions . now henry the fourth , was ( you know too ) a prince like bishop bramhall , of a brave and enterprising temper , and had a mind large and active enough to have managed the roman empire at its utmost extent ; and particularly ( as far as the prejudice of the age ( old elsibeths age ) would permit him ) he was very wittie and facetious , and the courtiers strove to humour him alwaies in it , and increase th●… mirth . so one night after supper he gave a subject ( which recreation did well enough in those times , but were now insipid ) upon which , like ●…oyes at westminster , they should make french verse extempore . the subject was , un accident sinistre . straight answers , i know not whether 't was bassampierre or obignè : un sinistre accident & un accident sinistre ; de veoir un p●…ere capuchin chevaucher un ministre . for when i said , to see popery return here , would be a very sinister accident ; i was just thinking upon that story ; the verses , to humour them in translation , being only this , o what a trick unlucky , and how unlucky a trick , to see friend doctor patrick , bestrid by father patrick ! which seem'd to me , would be the most improbable and preposterous spectacle that ever was seen ; and more rediculous for a sight , than the friendly debate is for a book . and yet if popery come in , this must be , and worse . but now i see there is some danger by the non-consormists opposition to the church of england , and now your business is all fixed . the fanaticks are ready at hand to bear the blame of all things . many a good job have i seen done in my time upon pretence of the fanaticks . i do not think mr. bayes ever breaks his shins , but it is by stumbling upon a fanatick . and how shall they bring in popery ? why th●…s , three wayes . first , by creating disorders and disturbances in the state , secondly , by the assistance of atheism and irreligion . thirdly , by joyning with crafty and sacrilegious statesmen in confederacy . now here i remark two things . one , that however you do not find that the fanaticks are inclinable to popery , only they may accommodate it by creating disturbances in the state. another is , that i see these gentlemen , the fanaticks , the atheists , and the sacrilegious statesmen are not yet acquainted ; but you have appointed them a meeting ( i believe it must be at your lodging , or no where ; ) and i hope you will treat them handsomly . but i think it was not so wisely done , nor very honestly , mr. bayes , to lay so dangerous a plot as this ; and instruct men that are strangers yet to one another , how to contrive ●…ogether such a conspiracy . but first to your first . the fanaticks you say may probably raise disturbance in the state. for they are so little friends to the present government , that their enmity to that is one of the main grounds of their quarrel to the church . but now , though i must confess it is very much to your purpose , if you could perswade men so , i think you are clear out , and misrepresent here the whole matter . for i know of no enmity they have to the church it self , but what it was in her power alwayes to have remedied , and so it is still . but such as you it is that have alwayes strove by your leasings to keep up a strangeness and misunderstanding betwixt the king and his people ; and all the mischief that hath come on 't does lye much at your door . whereas they , as all the rest of mankind , are men for their own ends too : and no sooner hath the king shown them this late favour , but you mr. bayes , and your partners reproach them for being too much friends to the p●…erogative . and no less would they be to the church , had they ever at any age in any time found her in a treatable temper . i know nothing they demand , but what is so far from doing you any harm , that it would only make you better . but that indeed is the harm , that is the thing you are afraid of here our author divides the discourse into a great elogy of the church of england ; that if he were making her funeral sermon , he could not say more in her commendation ; and a contrary invective against the nonconformists , upon whom ( as if all he had said before had been nothing ) he unloads his whole leystal , and dresseth them up all in sambenitas , painted with all the flames and devil●… in hell , to be led to the place of execution , and there burnt to ashes . nevertheless , i find on either side only the natural effect of such hyperboles and oratory , that is , not to be beleived . the church of england ( i mean as it is by law established , lest you should think i equivocate ) hath such a stock of solid and deserved reputation that it is more than you ( mr. bayes ) can spoyl or deface by all the pedantry of your commendation . only there is that party of the clergy , that i not long ago described , and who will alwaies presume to be the only church of england , who have been a perpetual eye-sore , that i may not say a canker and gangreen in so perfect a beauty . and , as it joyes my heart to hear any thing well said of her ; so i must confess , it stirs my choler , when i hear those men pride and boast themselves under the mask of her authority . neither did i therefore approve of an expression you here use : the power of princes would be a very precarious thing without the assistance of ecclesiasticks , and all government do's & must ow its quiet and continuance to the churches patronage that is as much as to say , that but for the assistance of your ecclesiastical policy , princes might go a begging : and that the church , that is you , have the juspatronatus of the kingdome , and may present whom you think fitting to the crown of england . this is indeed something like the return of popery ; and right petra dedit petro , petrus diadema rudolpho . the crown were surely well help'd up , if it were to be held at your convenience , and the emperour must lead the patriarchs ass all his life-time . and little better do i like your we may rest satisfied in the present security of the church of england , under the pro●…ection of a wise and gracious prince : especially when besides the impregnable confidence that we have from his own inclination , it is so manifest , that he never can forsake it either in honour or interest . this is a prety way of cokesing indeed , while you are all this while cutting the grass under his feet , and animating the people against the exercise of his ecclesiastical supremacy . men are not so plain-hearted ; but they can see through this oblique rhetorication and sophistry . if there be no danger in his time of taking a pin out of the church ( for that it is you intended ) why do you then speak of it in his time , but that you mean mischief ? but here you do not only mow the grass under his feet , but you take the pillow from under his head . but should it ever happen that any king of england should be prevail'd with to deliver up the church , he bad as good at the same time resign up his crown . this is pretty plain dealing , and you have doubtless secur'd hereby that princes favour : i should have thought it better courtship in a divine , to have said , o king , live for ever . but i see mr. bayes , that you and your partners are very necessary men , and it were dangerous disobliging you . but in this imprudent and nauseous discourse , you have all along appropriated or impropriated all the loyalty from the nobility , the gentry , and the commonalty , and dedicated it to the church ; so , i doubtyou are a little too immoderate against the body , of the nonconformists . you represent them , to a man , to be all of them of republican principles , most pestilent and , eo nomine , enemies to monarchy ; traytors and rebells ; such miscreants as never was in the world before , and fit to be pack'd out of it with the first convenience . and , i observe , that all the argument of your books is but very frivolous and trivial : only the memory of the late war serves for demonstration , and the detestable sentence and execution , of his lute majesty , is represented again upon the scaffold ; and you having been , i suspect , better acquainted with parliament declarations formerly upon another account , do now apply and turn them all over to prove that the late war was wholly upon a fanatical cause , and the dissenting party do still go big with the same monster . i grew hereupon much displeased with my own ignorance of the occasion of those troubles so near our own times , and betook my self to get the best information concerning them , to the end that i might , if it appear'd so , decline the dangerous acquaintance of the nonconformists , some of whom i had taken for honest men , nor therefore avoided their company . but i took care nevertheless , not to receive impressions from any of their party ; but to gather my lights from the most impartial authorities that i could meet with . and i think i am now partly prepared to give you , mr. bayes , some better satisfaction in this matter . and because you are a dangerous person , i shall as little as possible , say any thing of my own , but speak too before good witnesses . first of all therefore , i will without farther ceremony , fall upon you with the but-end of another arch-bishop . 't is the arch-bishop of canterbury , abbot , in the narrative under his own hand concerning his disgrace at court in the time of his late majesty . i shall only in the way demand excuse , if , contrary to my fashion , the names of some eminent persons in our church long since dead , be reviv'd here under no very good character ; and most particularly that of archbishop laud , who , if for nothing else , yet for his learned book against fisher , deserved for another fate than he met with , and ought not now to be mentioned without due honour●… but those names having so many years since escaped the press , it is not in my power to conceal them ; and i believe archbishop abbot did not write but upon good consideration . this i have premised for my own satisfaction , and i will add one thing more , mr. bayes , for yours . that whereas the things now to be alledged relate much to some impositions of money in the late king's time , that were carryed on by the clergy ; i know you will be ready to carp at that , as if the nonconformists had , and would be alwayes enemies to the kings supply . whereas , mr. ●…ayes , if i can do the nonconformists no good , i am resolv'd i will do them no harm , nor desire that they should lye under any imputation on my account . for i write by my own advice , and what i shall alledge concerning the clergies intermedling with supplies , is upon a particular aversion , that i have upon good reason , against their disposing of our money . and mr. bayes i will acquaint you with the reason , which is this . 't is not very many years ago that i used to play at picket ; and there was a gentleman of your robe , a dignitary of lincoln , very well known and remembred in the ordinaries , but being not long ●…ince dead , i will save his name . now i used to play pieces , and this gentleman would alwayes go half a crown with me , and so all the while he sate on my hand he very honestly gave the sign , so that i was alwaies sure to lose . i afterwards discovered it , but of all the money that ever i was cheated of in my life , none ever vexed me so , as what i lost by his occasion . and ever since , i have born a great grudge against their fingring of any thing that belongs to me . and i have been told , and show'd the place where the man dwelt in the late king's time near hampton court , that there was one that used to rob on the high-way , in the habit of a bishop , and all his fellows rid too in canonical coats . and i can but fancy how it madded those , that would have perhaps been content to releive an honest gentleman in distress , or however would have been less griev'd to be robb'd by such an ●…ne , to see themselves so episcopally pillaged . neither must it be less displeasing alwaies to the g●…ntry and ●…ommonalty of england , that the clergy ( as you do m●… . bayes ) should tell them that they are never sui juris , not only as to their consciences , bu●… even as to their purses ; and you should pretend to have this power of the keys too , where they lock their money . nay , i dare almost aver upon my best observation , that there never was , nor ever will be a parliament in england , that could or can refuse the king supplies propo●…ionable to his occasions , wi●…hout any need of recou●…se to extraordinary wayes ; but for the pick●…hankness of the clergy , who will alwaies p●…sume to have the thanks and honour of it , nay , and are ready alwayes to obstruct the parliamentary aids , unless they may have their own little project pass too into the ba●…gain , and they may be g●…atified with some new ecclesiastical power , or some new law against the fanaticks . this is the naked truth of the matter . whereas english men alwayes love to see how their money goes , and if the●…e be any interest or profit to be got by it , to receive it themselves . therefore mr. bayes i will go on with my business not fearing all the mischief that you can make of it . there was , saith he , one sibthorp , who not being so much as batchelor of arts , by the means of doctor pierce vice-chancelor of oxford , got to beconfer'd upon him the title of doctor . this man was vicar of brackley in northamptonshire , and hath another benefice . this man preaching at northampton , had taught , that princes had power to put poll-money upon their subjects heads . he being a man of a low fortune , conceiv'd the putting his sermon in print might gain favour at cou●…t , and raise his fortune higher . it was at the same time that the business of the loan was on foot . in the same sermon he called that loan a tribute , taught that the kings duty is first to direct and make laws . that noting may excuse the subject from active obedience , but what is against the law of god or nature , or impossible ; that all antiquity was absolutely for absolute obedience in all civil and temporal things . and the imposing of poll-monie by princes , he justifi'd out of st. matthew : and in the matter of the loan , what a speech is this , saith the bishop , he observes the forwardness of the papists to offer double . for this sermon was sent to the bishop from court , and he required to licence it , not under his chaplin , but his own hand . but he , not being satisfi'd of the doctrine delivered , sent back his reasons why he thought not fit to give his app●…obation , and unto these bishop laud , who was in this whole business , and a rising man at court , undertook an answer . his life in oxford , faith archbishop abbot , was to pick quarrels , in the lectures of publick readers , and to advertise them to the bifhop of durham that he might fill the ears of king james , with discontent against the honest men that took pains in their places , and setled the truth ( which he call'd puritanism ) in their auditors . he made it his work to see what books were in the press , and and to look over epistles dedicatory , and prefaces to the reader , to see what faults might be found . 't was an observation what a sweet man this was like to be , that the first observable act he did , was the marrying of the earl of d. to the lady r. when she had another husband a nobleman , and divers children by him . here he tells how , for this very cause , king james would not a great while endure him , 'till he yeilded at last to bishop williams his importunity , whom notwithstanding he straight strove to undermine , and did it at last to purpose : for saith the ar●…hbishop verily , such is his undermining nature , that he will under-work any man in the world , so he may gain by it . he call'd in the bishop of durham , rochester , and oxford , tryed men for such a purpose , to the answering of my reasons , and the whole stile of the speech , runs we , we. in my memory , doctor harsnet then bishop of chichester , and now of norwich ( as he came afterward to be arch-bishop of york ) preached at white-hall upon , give unto caes●…r the things that are caesars ; a sermon that was afterwards burned , teaching that goods and money were caesars , and so the kings : whereupon king james told the lords and commons that he had failed in not adding according to the laws and customs of the countrey wherein they did live . but sibthorp was for absolutely absolute . ●…o that if the king had sent to me for all my money & good●… , & so to the clergy i must by sibthorps proportion send him all . if the king should send to the city of london to command all their wealth , they were bound to do it . i know the king is so gracious he will attempt no such matter ; but if he do it not , the defect is not in these flattering divines . then he saith , reflecting again upon the loan which sibthorp called a tribute . i am sorry at heart , the king 's gracious majesty should rest so great a building on so weak a foundation , the treatise being so ●…lender , and without substance , but that proceeded from an hungry man. then he speaks of his own case as to the licensing this book , in parallel to the earl of essex his divorce ; which to give it more authority , was to be ratified judicially by the archbishop . he concludes how finally he refused his approbation to this sermon , and saith , it was thereupon carried to the bishop of london , who gave a great and stately allowance of it , the good man not being willing that any thing should stick with him that came from court , as appears by a book commonly called the seven sacraments , which was allowed by his lordship with all the errours , which have been since expunged . and he adds a pretty story of one doctor woral , the bishop of london's chaplain , ●…olar good enough , but a free fellow-like man , and of no very tender conscience , who before it was lic●…nsed by the bishop , sibthorps sermon being brought to him , hand over head approved it , and subscribed his nam●… . but afterwards he●…ring more of it , went to a counsel at the temple , who told him , that by that book there was no meum nor tuum left in england , and if ever the tide turn'd , be might come to be hang'd for it , and thereupon woral woral scr●…ped out his name again , and left it to his lord to license . then the arch-bishop takes notice of the instructions for that loan . those that refused , to be sent for souldiers to the king of denmark . oaths to be administred with whom they had conference ; and who disswaded them , such persons to be sent to prison , &c. he saith that he had complain'd thrice of mountagues arminian book , to no purpose : cosins put out his book of seven sacraments ( strange things ) but i knew nothing of it , but as it pleased my ld of durham and the bp of bath , so it went. in conclusion , the good arch-bishop for refusing th●… licence of sibthorps sermons , was , by the under-working of his adversaries , first commanded from lambeth , and confined to his house in kent , and afterwards sequestred , and a commission passe●… to exercise the archie piscopall jurisdiction to the bishops of london , durham , rochester , oxford , and bishop laud ( who from thence arose in time to be the arch-bishop . ) if i had leisure how easy a thing it were for to extract out of the narrative a just parallel of our author , even almost upon all points ? but i am now upon a more serious subject ; and therefore sh●…ll leave the application to his own ingenuity , and the good intelligence of the reader . about the same time ( for i am speaking within the circle of , and . caroli ) that this book of sibthorps , called apostolical obedience , was printed , there came out another of the same stamp , intitled religion and allegiance , by one doctor manwaring . it was the substance of two sermons preached by him at whitehall , beside what of the same nature at his own parish of saint giles , therein he delivered for truth , that the king is not bound to observe the laws of the realm concerning the subjects rights and liberties , but that his royal word and command in imposing loans and taxes without common consent in parliament , does oblige the subjects conscience upon pain of eternal damnation , that those who refused to pay this loan , offended against the law of god , and the kings supream authority , and became guilty of impiety , disloyalty and rebellion . that the authority of parliament was not necessary for raising of aids and subsidies , and the slow proceedings of such great assemblies were not fitted for the supply of the states urgent necessities , but would rather produ●…e sundry impediments to the just designs of princes . and after he had been questioned for this doctrine , nevertheless he preached again , that the king had right to order all as to him should seem good , without any mans consent . that the king might , in time of necessity demand aid , and if the subject did not supply him , the king might justly avenge it . that the propri●…ty of estate and goods was ordinarily in the subject , but extraordinarily in the king : that in case of the king's need , he hath right to dispose them . he had besides , entring into comparison , called the refusers of the loan , temporal recusants , and said , the same disobedience that they , ( the papists as they then called them ) practise in spirituals , that or worse , some of our side , if ours they be , dare to practise in temporals . and he aggravated further upon them under the resemblance of turks , jews , corah , dat●…an and abiram which last , said he , might as well liken themselves to the three children ; or theudas and judas , the two incendiaries in the daies of caesar's tribute , might as well pretend their cause to be like that of the maccabees , as what the refusers alledged in their own defence . i should not have been so large in these particulars , had they been only single and volatile sermons , but because this was then the doctrine of those persons that pretended to be the church of england . the whole quire sung that tuno , and instead of the common law of england , and the statutes of parliament , that part of the clergy had invented these ecclesiastical lawes , which according to their predominancy , were sure to be put in execution . so that between their own revenue , which must be held jure divin●… , as every thing else that belong'd to them , and the p●…ince's that was jure regio , they had not left an inch o●… propriety for ●…he subject , it seem'd that they had granted themselves letters of reprisal against the laity , for the losses of the church under henry the eight , and that they would make a greater havock upon their temporalities in retaliation . and indeed , having many times since ponder'd with my greatest and earnest impartiality , what could be the true reason of the spleen that they manifested in those daies , on the one hand against the puritans , and on the other against the gentry , ( far it was come , they tell me , to jack gentleman ) i could not devise any cause , but that the puritans had ever since the reformation , obstructed that laziness and splendor which they enjoyed under the popes supremacy , and the gentry had ( sacrilegiously ) divided the abby-lands , and other 〈◊〉 morsels of the church at the dissolu●…ion , and now was the time to be revenged on them . while therefore the kingdome was turned into a prison , upon occasion of this ecclesiastical lo●… and many of the eminentest of the gentry of england were under 〈◊〉 , they thought it seasonable to recover once again their antient glory , and to magnificate the church with triumphant pomp and ceremony . the three ceremonies that have the countenance of law , would not sussice , but they were all upon new 〈◊〉 , and happy was he that was endued with that capacity , for he was sure before all others to be pre●…'d . i here was a second service , the table se●… altar wise , and to be called the altar , candles , crucisixes , paintings , imagery , copes , bowing to the east , bowing to the altar , and so many several cringes and genuflexions , that a man unpractised stood in need to entertain both a dancing ma●…er and a remem brancer . and though these things were very uncouth to english proteslants who naturally affects a plainness of fashion , especially in sacred things ; yet , if those gentlemen 〈◊〉 have contented themselves with their own formalitie , the innovation had been more excusable . but many of these additions , and to be sure , all that had any colour of law , were so imposed and prest upon others , that a great part of the nation was ●…'n put as it were to fine and ransom upon this account . what censures , what excommunications , what deprivations , what imprisonments ? i cannot represent the misery and desolation , as it hath been represented to me . but wearied out at home , many thousands of his majesties subjects , to his and the nations great loss , thought themselves constrained to seek another habitation , and every country , even ●…hough it were among savages and caniballs , appear'd more hospitable to them than their own . and , although i have been told by those that have seen both , that our chu●…ch did even then exceed the romish in ceremonies and decorations ; and indeed , several of our church did therby frequently mistake their way , and from a 〈◊〉 kind of worship , fell into the roman religion ; yet i cannot upon my best judgement believe , that that party had generally a design to alter the religion so far , but rather to set up a new kind of papa●…y of their own , here in england . and it seemed they had , to that purpose , provided themselves of a new religion in holland . it was arminianism , which though it were the republican opinion there , and lo odious to king james , that it helped on the death of barnevelt , yet now they undertook to accomodate it to monarchy and episcopacy . and the choice seemed not imprudent . for on the one hand , it was removed at so moderate a distance from popery , that they should not disoblige the papists more than formerly , neither yet could the puritans , with justice reproach these men , as romish catholicks ; and yet , on the other hand , they knew it was so contrary to the antient reformed doctrine of the church of england , that the puritans would never imbrace it , and so they should gain this pretence further to keep up that convenient and necessary quarrel against non-conformity . and accordingly it happened , so that here again was a new shiboleth . and the calvinists were all studiously discountenanced , and none but an arminian was judg'd capable and qualified for imployment in the church . and though the king did declare , as i have before mentioned , that mountague's ( arminian ) book had been the occasion of the schisms in the church ; yet care was immediately taken , by those of the same robe and pa●…ty , that he should be the more rewarded and advanced . as also it was in manwarings case : who though by censure in parliament made incapable of any ecclesiastical preferment , was straight made rector of stamford-river●… in essex , with a dispensation to hold too his living in st. giles's . and all dexterity was practised to propagate the same opinions , and to suppress all writings or discourses to the contrary . so that those who were of understanding in those dayes tell me , that a man would wonder to have heard their kind of preachings . how in stead of the practical doctrine which tends to the reforming of mens lives and manners , all their sermons were a very mash of arminian subtilties , of ceremonies and decency , and of manwaring , and sibthorpianism brew'd together , besides that in their conversation they thought fit to take some more license the better to dis - 〈◊〉 themselves from the puritans . and though there needed nothing more to make them unacceptable to the sober part of the nation , yet moreover they were 〈◊〉 exceeding p●…agmaticall , so intolerably ambitious , and so desperately proud , that scarce any gentleman might come near the tayle of their mulesand many th●…ngs i perceive of that nature , do even yet stick upon the stomacks of the old gentlemen ●…f those tim●…s . for the english have been alwaies very tender of their religion , their liberty , th●…ir propriety , and ( i was going to say ) no less of th●…ir reputation . neither yet do i speak of these things with passion , considering at more 〈◊〉 how natural it is for men to desire to be in office ; and no less natural to grow proud and intractable in office ; and the less a clergy man is so , the more he deserves to be commended . bu●… these things before mentioned , grew yet higher , after that bishop laud wa●… once not only exalted to the see of canterbury , but to be chief minister . happy had it been for the king , happy for the nation , and happy for himself , had he never climbed that pinacle . for whether it be or no , that the clergy are not so well fitted by education , as others for political affairs , i know not ; ●…hough i should rather think they have advantage above others , and even if they would but keep to their bibles , might make the best ministers of state in the world ; yet it is generally observed that things miscarry under their government . if their be any counsel more precipitate , more violent , more rigorous , more extreme than other , that is theirs . truly i think the reason that god does not bless them in aff●…s of state , is , because he never intended them for that imployment . or if government , and the preaching of the gospel , may well concur in the same person , god therefore frustra●…s him , be cause though knowing better , he seeks and ma nages his greatness by the losser and meaner maxims . i am confident the bishop studied to do both god and his majesty good service , but alas how utterly was he mistaken . though so learned , so pious , so wise a man , he seem'd to know nothing beyond ceremonies , arminianism , and manwaring . with that he begun , and with that ended , and thereby deform'd the whole reign of the best prince that ever weilded the english scepter . for his late majesty being a prince truly pious and religious , was thereby the more inc●…ined to esteem and favour the clergy . and thence though himself of a most exquisite understanding , yet he could not trust it better than in their keeping . whereas every man is best in his own post , and so the preacher in the pulpit . but he that will do the clergyes druggery , must look for his reward in another world . for they having gained this ascendent upon him , resolv'd what ever became on 't to make their best of him ; and having made the whole business of state their arminian ja gles , and the persecution for ceremonies , did for recompence assign him that imaginary absolute government , upon which rock we all ●…uined . for now was come the last part of the archbishops indiscretion ; who having strained those strings so hig here , and all at the same time , which no wise man ever did ; he moreover had a mind to try the same dangerous experiment in scotland , and sent thither the book of the english liturgy , to be imposed upon them . what followed thereupon , is yet within the compass of most mens memories . and how the war broke out , and then to be sure h●…ll's brook loose . whether it were a war of relig●…on , or of liberty , is not worth the labour ●…o enquire . which soever was at the ●…op , the other was at the bottome ; but upon con●…dering all , i think the cause was too good to have been fought for . men ought to have trusted god ; they ought and might have trusted the king with that whole matter . the arms of the church are pray●…rs and tears , the arms of the subjects are patience and petitions . the king himself being of so accurate and piercing a judgement , would soon have felt where it stuck , for men may spare their pains where nature is at work , and the world will not go the faster for our driving . even as his present majesties happy rest●…uration did it self , so all things el●…e happen in their best and proper time , without any need of our officiousness . but after all the fatal consequences of that rebe●…lion , which can only serve as sea-marks unto wise princes to avoid the causes , shall this sort of men still vindicate themselves as the most zealous assertors of the rights of princes ? they are but at the best well-meaning zealots . shall , to decline so pernicious counsels , and to provide bet●…er for the quiet of government be traduced as th●… author does here , under these odious terms of forsaking the church , and delivering up the church ? shall these men alwayes presume to usur●… to themselves that venerable stile of the church of england ? god for●…id . the ind●…pendents at that rate would have so many distinct congregations as they . there would be sibthorps church , and manwarings church , and montagues church , and a whole bed-roll more , whom for decencies-sake i abstain from naming . and every man that could invent a new opinion , or a new ceremony , or a new tax , should be a new church of england . neither , as far as i can discern , have this sort of the clergy since his 〈◊〉 return , given him better incouragements to steer by their compass . i am told , that preparatory to that , they had frequent meetings in the city , i know not whether in grubstreet , with the divin●…s of the other party , and that there in their feasts of love , they promis●…d to forget all former offences , to lay by all animosities , that there should be a new heaven , and a new earth , all meekness , chari●…y , and condescention . his majesty i am sure sent over his gracious declaration of liberty to tender consciences and upon his coming over , seconded it with his commission under the broad seal , for a conference betwixt the two parties , to prepare things for an accommodation , that he might confirm , it by his royal authority . hereupon what do they ? notwithstanding this happy conjucture of his majesties restauration , which had put all men into so good a humour , that upon a little moderation temper of things , the nonconformists could not have stuck out ; some of these men so contriv'd it , that there should not be the least abatement to bring them off with conscience , and ( which infinuates into all men ) some little reputation . but to the contrary ; several unnecessary additions were made , only because they knew they would be more ingrate●…ull and 〈◊〉 to the noncon●…ormists . i remember one in the let any , where to false doctrine and her●… , they added schism , though it were to spoil the musick and cadence of the period ; but these things were the best . to show that they were men like others , even cunning men , revengeful men , they drill'd things on , till they might procure a law , wherein besides all the conformity that had been of former times enacted , there might be some new conditions imposed on those that should have or hold any church livings , such as they assur'd themselves , that rather than swallow , the nonconformists would disgorge all their benefic●… . and accordingly it succeeded ; several thousands of those ministers being upon one memorable day outed of their subsistence . his majesty in the meantime , although they had thus far prevail●…d to frustrate his royal intentions , had reinstated the church in all its former revenues , dignities , advantages , so far f●…om the authors mischievous aspe●…sion of ever thingking of converting them to his own use , that he restored them free from what was due to him by law upon their first admission . so careful was he , because all government must owe its quiet and continuance to the churches patronage , to pay them , even what they ought . but i have observed , that if a man be in the churches debt once , 't is very hard to get an acquaintance : and these men never think they have their full rights , unless they reign . what would they have had more ? they roul'd on a flood of 〈◊〉 , and yet in matter of a lease , would make no difference betwixt a nonconfo●…mist , and one of their own fellow sufferers , who had ventu●…'d his life , and spent his ●…state for the king's service . they were 〈◊〉 to pa●…liament , and to take their places with the king and the nobility . they had a new liturgy ●…o their own hearts desire ; and to cumulate all this happ●…ness , they had this new law against the fanaticks . all they had that could be devised in the world to make a clergy-man good natur'd . nevertheless after all their former suffering●… and after all these new enjoyments and acqu●…sitions , they have proceeded still in the same tra●…k . the matrer of ceremonies , to be sure , hath not only exercised their antient rigor and severity but hath been a main ingredient of their publick discourses , of their sermons , of their writings . i could not ( though i do not make it my work after 〈◊〉 great example , to look over epis●…les de●…icators ) but observe by chance the title page of a book ' to●…herday , as an e●…bleme how much some of the●… do neglect the scripture in respect to their darling ceremonies . a rationale upon the book of common-prayer of the church of england , by a sparrow d. d. bishop of exon. with the form of conse●…ration of a church or chappel , and of the place of christian buri●…t . by lancelot andrews late lord bishop of winchester . sold by robert pawlet at the sign of the bible in chancery lane. these surely are worthy cares for the fathers of the church . but to let these things alone ; how have they of late years demean'd themselves to his majesty , although our author urges their immediate dependance on the king to be a great obligation he hath upon their loyalty and fidelity ? i have heard that some of them , when a great minister of state grew burdensome to his majesty and the nation , stood almost in defiance of his majesties good pleasure , and fought it out to the uttermost in his defence . i have been told that some of them in a matter of divorce , wherein his majesty desired that justice might be done to the party agriev'd opposed him vigorously , though they made bold too with a point of conscience in the case , and went against the judgement of the best divines of all parties . it hath been observed , that whensoever his majesty hath had the most urgent occasions for supply , others of them have made it their business to trinkle with the members of parliament , for obstructing it , unless the king would buy it with a new law against the fanaticks . and hence it is that the wisdome of his majesty and the parliament must be exposed to after ages for such a supoeer●…eation of acts in his reign about the same business . and no sooner ean his maje●…ty upon his own best reasons try to obviate this inconvenience , but our author , who had before our-shot sibthorp and manwaring in their own bows , is now for retrenching his authority , and moreover calumniates the state with a likelihood , and the re●sons thereof of the return of popery into this nation . and this hath been his first method by the fanaticks raising disturbance : whereupon if i have raked farther into things than i would have done , the author's indiseretion will , i hope , excuse me , and gather all the blame for reviving those things which were to be buried in oblivion . but , by what appears , i cannot see that there is any probability of disturbance in the state , but by men of his spirit and principles . the second way whereby the fanatick party , he saith , may at last work the ruine of the church , is by combining with the atheists , for their union is like the mixture of nitre and charcoal , it carries all before it without mercy or resistance . so it seems , when you have made gun-power of the atheists and fanaticks , we are like to be blown up with popery . and so will the larks too . but his zeal spends it self most against the atheists , because they use to jear the parsons . that they may do , and no atheists neither . for really , while clergy men will , having so serious an office , play the drols and the boon-companions , and make merry with the scriptures , not only among themselves , but in gentlemen's company , 't is impossible but that they should meet with , at least , an unlucky repartee sometimes , and grow by degrees to be a tayle , and contempt to the people . nay , even that which our athour alwayes magnifies , the reputation , the interest , the seculiar grandure of the church , is indeed the very thing which renders them rediculous to many , and looks as improper and buffoonish , as to have seen the porter lately in the good doctors cassock and girdle . for , so they tell me , that there are no where more atheists than at rome , because men seeing that princely garb and pomp of the clergy , and observing the life and manners , think therefore the meaner of religion . for certainly , the reputation and interest of the clergy , was first gained by abstracting themselves from the world , attending their callings , humility , strictness of doctrine , and the same strictness in conversation ; and things are best preserved by the same means they were at fi●…st attained . but if our author had been as concern'd against atheisme , as he is against their ●…isrespect of his function , he should have been content that the fanatick preachers might have spent some of their pulpit sweat upon the atheists , and made a noise in their ●…ars , about faith , communion with god , attendance upon ordinances , which he himself jea●… at so pleasantly . neither do i like upon th●… same reasons his manner of discourse with the atheists , where he complains that ours are not like those good atheists of formertimes , who never did thrust themselves into publick car●s and concerns , minding nothing but love , wine , and poetry . nor in another place , put the case the clergy were cheats & juglers , yet it must be allowed they are necessary instruments of state to aw the common people into fear and obedience , because nothing else can so effectually inslave them ( 't is this it seems our author would be at ) as the fear of invisible powers , and the dismal apprehensions of the world to come : and for this very reason , though there were no other , it is fit they should be allowed the same honour and respect , as would be acknowledged their due , if they were sincere and honest men . no atheist could have said better . how mendicant a cause has he here made of it ; they will say , they see where the shoo wrings him , and that though this be some ingenuity in him , yet it is but little policy . nay . perhaps they will say , that they are no atheists neither , but only , i know not by what fate , eve●…y day , one or othe●… of the clergy does , or saith , some so redi●…ulous and foolish thing , or some so pretty accident befals tha●… that in our authors words , a man must be very spl●…tick that can refrain from laughter . i would have quoted the page here , but that the author has , i think for evasion sake , omitted to number them in this whole preface . but whether there be any 〈◊〉 or no , which i question nore than witches , i do not for all this , take our author to be one , though some would conclude it ou●… of his principles , others out of his expressions . yet really , i think ●…e hath done that sort of men so much service in his books , by his ill handling , and while he personates one party , making all religion re●…iculous , that they will never be able to requi●…e him but in the same manner . he hath ope●…ed them a whole treasure of words and sentences , universally applicable ; where they may ri●…e or ●…huse things , which their pitti●…ul wit , as ●…e call●… it , would never have been able to invent and flourish . but truly , as the simple parliment ●… eliz. never imagined what cons●…quence that clause in t●…e wednesday 〈◊〉 would have to puri●…anism , neither did he what his per●…ds would have to atheism ; and yet though he is so more excusable , i hope , i may have the same leave on him , as he on that parlia●…nt , ●…o censure his impertinence . to cl●…se this ; i know a lady that chid her master of the horse for correcting the page that had sworn a great oath . for , saith she , the ●…oy did therein show only the 〈◊〉 of his courage , and his acknowledgment of a 〈◊〉 . and indeed , he ●…ath approv'd his religion , and justified himself from atheism much after the same manner . the third way and last ( which i being tired , am very gl●…d of ) by which the fanaticks may raise disturbances , and so intraduce popery , is by joyning crafty and sacrilegious states-men into the confederacy . but really here he doth speak concerning king , and counsellors , at such a rate , and describe and characterize some men so , whomsoever he intends , that though i know there are no such , i dare not touch , it is too h●…zardous . 't is true he passes his complement ill-favouredly enough . the church has at present an impregnable affiance in the wisdom , &c. of so gracious a prince , that is not capable of such counsels , should they be suggested to him : though certainly no man that is worthy to be admitted to his majestrus favour or privacy ; can be supposed so fool-hardy or presumptuous as to offer such weak and dishonourable advice to so wise and able a prince ; yet princes are mortal , and if ever hereafter , ( and some time or other it must happen ) the crown should chance to settle upon a young and unexperienced head , this is usually the first thing in which such princes are abused by their keepers and guardians , &c . but this complement is no better at best , than if discoursing with a man of another , i should take him by the beard . upon such occasions in company , we use to ask , sir , whom d●… you mean ? i am sure our author takes it alwayes for granted , that his answerer intends him upon more indefinite and less direct provocations . but our author does even personate some men as speaking at present against the church , they will intagle your affairs , indanger your safety ; hazard your crown . all the reward you shall have to compensate your misfortunes , by following church counsels , shall be that a few church men , or such like people , shall cry you up for a saint or a martyr . still your , your , as if it were a close discourse unto his majesty himself . though if these were the wor●… that they said , or that the author fathers upon them , i wish the king might never have better councellors about him . but if the author be secure , for the present , in his majesties reign , fear●… not popery , not forsaking ●…he church not assuming the church revenues , why is he so provident ? why put things in men's heads they never thought of ? why stirr such an odious , seditious , impertinent , unseasonable discourse ? why take this very minute of t●…me , but that he hath mischief , to say no worse , in his heart ? he had no such remote conceit ( for all his talk ) of an infant coming to the crown . he is not so weak but knows too much , and is too well instructed , to speak to so little purpose . that would have been like a set of elsibeth players , that in the country having worn out and over acted all the playes they brought with them from london , laid their wits together to make a new one of their own . no less man than julius caesar was the argument ; and one of the chief parts was moses , perswading julius caesar not to make war against his own countrey , nor pass rubico●… . if our author did not speak of our present times ( to do which nevertheless had been sufficiently false and absurd ) but writ all this meerly out of his providence for after ages , i shall no more call him bayes , for he is just such a second moses . i ask pardon , if i have said too much , but i shall deserve none , if i meddle any further with so improbable and dangerous a business , to conclude , the author gives us one ground more , and perhaps more seditiously insinuated than any of the former ; that is , if it should so prove , that is , if the fanaticks by their wanton and unreasonable opposition to the ingenious and moderate discipline of the church of england , shall give their governours too much reason to suspect that they are never to be 〈◊〉 in order by a milder , and more gentle government than that of the chu●…ch of rome , and force them at last to scourge them into better manners , with the briars and thorns of th●…ir discipline . it seems then that the discipline contended about , is worth such an alteration . it seems that he knowes something more than i did believe of the design in the late times before the war whom doth he mean by our governours ? the king ; no , for he is a single person . the parliament , or the bishops . i have now done , after i have ( which is i think due ) given the reader , and the author a short account how i came to write this book , and in this manner . first of all , i was offended at the presumption and arrogance of his stile ; whereas there is nothing either of wit , or eloquence in all his books , worthy of a readers , and more unfit for his own , taking notice of , then his infinite tautology was bur●…ensome , which seem'd like marching a company round a hill upon a pay-day so often , till if the muster master were not attentive , they might r●…ceive the pay of a regim●…nt . all the variety of his treat is pork ( he knows the story ) but so little disguised by good cookery , that it discovers the miserableness ; or rather the penury of the host. when i observed how he inveighs against the trading part of the nation , i thought he deserved to be within the five mile act , and not to come within that distance of any corporation . i could not patiently see how irrevorently he treated kings and p●…inces , as if they had been no better then king phys and king ush of b●…anford i thought his profanation of the scripture intolerable ; for though he alledges that 't is only in order to shew how it was misapplyed by the 〈◊〉 , he might have done that too , and yet preserved the dignity and beverence of those s●…cred writings , which he hath not done ; but on the contrary , he hat●… in what is properly his own , taken the most of all his ornaments , and 〈◊〉 thence in 〈◊〉 s●…urrilous and sacrilegious s●…ile ; insomuch that were it honest , i will undertake out of him to make a better , than is a more ridicul●…s and 〈◊〉 book , than all the friendly debates bound up together . me thought i never saw a more bold and wicked attempt , than that of reducing grace , and making it a meer fable , of which he gives us the moral . i was sorry to see that even prayer coul●… not be admitted to be a virtue , having though hitherto it had been a grace , and a peculiar gift of the spirit ; but i considered , that that prayer ought to be discouraged , in order to prefer the licargy . he seem'd to speak so little like a divine in all those matters , that the poet might as well have pre●…ended to be the bishop davenant , and that description of the poets of prayer and praise was better than out au●…hors on the same subject●… canto the th , where he likens prayes to the ocean ; for prayer the ●●●an is where diver●●● men steer their course each to a several coast , where all our interests so discordant lye , that half beg winds , by which the rest are lost . and praise he compares to the union of fanaticks and atheists , &c. that is gunpowd●r ; praise 〈◊〉 devotion fit for mighty minds , &c. it s utmost force , like powder , is unknown . and though weak kings excess of praise may fear , 〈◊〉 when 't is here , like powder , dangerous grown , heavens vault receives , what would the palcae tear , indeed all astragen appear'd to me the better scheme of religion . but it is unnecessary here to recapitulate all , one by one , what i have in the former discourse taken notice cf. i shall only add , what gave , if not the greattest , yea the last impulse to my writing . i had observed in his first book , p - - that he had said some pert and pragmatical divines , had filled the world with a buzze and noise of the divine spirit ; which seemed to me so horribly irreverent , as if he had taken similitude from the hum and buz of the humble bee in the rehearsal . in the same book , i have before mentioned , that most unsafe passage of our saviour , being not only in an hot fit of zeal , but in a seeming fury and transport 〈◊〉 passion . and striving to unhook 〈◊〉 hence . p. . of his second book , swallows it deeper , saying , our blessed saviour did in that action take upon him the person and priviledge of a jewish zealot . take upon him the person , that is personam in●… . and what part did he play ? of a jewish zealot . the second person of the trinity ( may i repeat these things without offence ) to take upon him the person of a jewish zealot , that is , of a notorious rogue and cut throat . this seemed to proceed from too slight an apprehension and knowledge of the duty we owe to our saviour . and last of all , in this preface , as before quoted , he saith , the nonconformist preachers do spend most of their pulpit-sweat in making a noise about communion with god. so that there is not one person of the trinity that he hath not done despight to : and lest he should have distinct communion with the father , the son and the holy ghost , for which he mocks his answerer ; he hath spoken evil distinctly of the father , distinctly of the son , and distinctly of the holy ghost . that only remain'd behind , wherein our author might surpass the character given to aretine , a famous man of his faculty . qui giace ill aretino chi de tutti mal disse 〈◊〉 d' adido ma di questo si sensa perche no'l conobbe . here lies aretine , who spoke evil of all , except god only , but of this he begs excuse , because he did not know him . and now i have done . and i shall think my self largely recompensed for this trouble , if any one that hath been formerly of another mind , shall learn by this example , that it is not impossible to be merry and angry as long time as i have been writing , without profaning and violating those things 〈◊〉 are and ought to be most sacred . finis . the defence of the nonconformists plea for peace, or, an account of the matter of their nonconformity against mr. j. cheney's answer called the conforming nonconformist, and the nonconforming conformist : to which is added the second part in answer to mr. cheney's five undertakings / by richard baxter. baxter, richard, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing b estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) the defence of the nonconformists plea for peace, or, an account of the matter of their nonconformity against mr. j. cheney's answer called the conforming nonconformist, and the nonconforming conformist : to which is added the second part in answer to mr. cheney's five undertakings / by richard baxter. baxter, richard, - . 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of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng baxter, richard, - . -- nonconformists plea for peace. j. c. -- (john cheyney). -- conforming nonconformist and the nonconforming conformist. dissenters, religious -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - jonathan blaney sampled and proofread - jonathan blaney text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the defence of the nonconformists plea for peace , or an account of the matter of their nonconformity , against mr. cheney's answer , called the conforming nonconformist , and the nonconforming conformist . to which is added the second part in answer to mr. cheney's five undertakings . by richard baxter . london , printed for benjamin alsop , at the angel over against the stocks-market . . the preface . reader , too many of the contentions of this age do tell the world how much the several parties differ in piety and malignity , humility and pride , love and malice , meekness and cruelty ; but i think verily the controversie here managed between this brother and me , doth but tell you how weak and fumbling a thing mans understanding is here in the flesh , and what great diversity of apprehensions all men have in many things , who agree in the main ; and how diversity of lights or appearances , may cause great and confident contrariety of judgments , yea , and changes in the same person . the difference between paul and barnabas , and peter and paul. gal. . tell us how far the best of mortals are from perfection . our difference i think is not caused by contrariety of worldly interests , ( which yet divided even abraham's family and lot's , and much worse , joseph's brethren from him ) for as neither of us have any great matters of worldly wealth , but our daily bread ( which is enough , ) so i am perswaded that he seeketh no such thing , and i am sure i cannot if i would , who daily expect to give up my account , and carry about me a thorn in the flesh , enough to cure at least the expectation of fleshly and worldly pleasure and prosperity . read not therefore these books , as the conflict of enemies , but as the consultation of unfeigned loving friends who fain would understand the truth : you see he abhorreth the silencing or persecuting the ministers of england for nonconformity : yea , and all disaffection on such accounts . and though i shew the great mistakes in his writing , impute them not to the habitual weakness of his judgment ; but to the badness of his cause . to the newness and crudity of his thoughts about it : for though he hath been long a publick conforming minister , yet it is but lately that he hath received the satisfaction which he here expressed , being before purposed no more to declare or subscribe what he here defendeth : and new thoughts are seldom well digested . i speak this the rather because some say that he is an honest weak man , that hath shewed his good will to defend their cause , but was not able to do it as it will shortly be done by some greater men that are about it . but my opinion is that his concessions and coming so near the truth doth give him so much advantage against us , that the ablest of them that stand at a greater distance , are like the more to marr their matter , and assault us with less success than he . and i advise his reader to pardon such slips in the book which i confute , as concern not much the cause in hand , but are only the oversights of the well meaning author . as when pag. . he distributeth the learned ministry into several degrees ; of which one is such as have no learning , and another such as have a little , &c. it 's easie to know that this was a meer oversight . and in his supplement pag. . when he saith [ god himself doth assent and consent to the use of all the lyes and wickednesses of men and devils ] . it 's like the reader will think that he meaneth by the use , that [ men and devils use to lye and do wickedness , ] or act these sins : if so , it were odious blasphemy indeed : but by conference i have cause to believe that the author's judgment is sound in those points ; and therefore that it is but an heedless speech , and that he meaneth no more but that [ god consenteth when lyes and wickednesses are committed that men make good use of them in esse cognito , ] as to repent of them or hate them or take warning to avoid the like ; and that god himself will use them as occasions of some accidental good ; as sickness is used to honour the skill of the physician : and that the word assent slipt in because his cause was in his thoughts . if you say , this is a ridiculous equivocation : to make such use of the liturgie in esse cognito as to hate it , or perswade from it , no enemy will deny ; but what is that to using it ? to use the liturgie is to read and practise it , and so to use lying and wickedness is to lye and do wickedly : that which you call sin objective in esse cognito is not sin indeed , but the idea of it : but it is the real liturgie which we must make a covenant to use . ans. and who can manage an ill cause without somewhat that is too like it ? and who doth any thing which needeth no repentance or amendment ? and who is so wise as to speak wisely at all times ? let us pity one another , and pray for a teachable mind , and long for the world of concord in perfection . o how much harder is it to justifie proud schismatical silenccers and persecutors of the just , than to excuse the failings of the weak ! and with how great a difference shall they be shortly judged , as sure as there is a day of judgment to be expected ! yea , how much easier will it be for sodom and gomorrah , for indians and americans at that day , than for those that malignantly oppressed men of most serious piety , and fought against christ as by his own pretended authority , and in his name . the contents of the following book . chap. i. the occasions and reasons of answering mr. ch's . book . chap. ii. of reordination , equally sinfull with rebaptization in the judgment of greg. m. § . the ordination required , supposed the persons were not ordained before . § . mr. chey's . exceptions , glosses , &c. removed . § , . chap. iii. of the several orders of ministers . mr. ch's . trifling in the ambiguity of the word order noted . § . . chap. iv. of the bishop's oath to the arch-bishop . chap. v. of the oath of canonical obedience . chap. vi. of the words receive ye the holy ghost . sorts of mission or commission given by christ to his ministers . chap. vii . mr. c ' s . section answered . i. e. with pity : concerning those words to the people . to come forth and make their exceptions to the person ordained . chap. viii . of the damnatory clauses in the athanasian creed . chap. ix . about the certainty of baptized infants salvation made an article of faith . mr. c. gives no answer to mr. b's objections . § . bishop of ely ' s judgment . § . a case put at the conference at the savoy , with bishop sanderson ' s answer . ibid. reply to that answer , with bishop morley's return to it , and the removal of that return . ibid. chap. x. about coming to the sacrament of the lords supper without a full trust in gods mercy , and a quiet conscience . chap. xi . of the use of the apocryphal writings as they are imposed by the calendar and rubrick , to be approved of and consented to . chap. xii . concerning consenting to the imposition of reading the liturgy every day . chap. xiii . about denying christian burial to unbaptized infants and persons excommunicated . chap. xiv . touching confirmation . chap. xv. whether we may declare our consent that none should be admitted to the communion , till he be confirmed , or desirous and ready to be confirmed ? chap. xvi . concerning the sole sponsion of god-fathers in the liturgie . chap. xvii . concerning the imposing of kneeling at the lords supper . chap. xviii . of the cross in baptism . as a consecrating , dedicating sign . § . reasons against it . ibid. the silence of christ in this matter . . it seemeth to accuse christ's law of imperfection . . christ commissioned not his apostles to institute any new sacrament of the covenant of grace . whether it be made a sacrament . § . of gods prohibition . deut. of adding or diminishing . § . mr. c's argumentum ad hominem considered § . the antient christians practise . § . mr. c's objection removed . § . the meaning of the second commandment in forbidding images . § . mr cheney's concession . § . a full explication of the nature of that sign . § . answer to the great bishops notions . § . of the efficacy of sacraments , from aquinas . &c. § . more objections answered , and cavils removed . § . &c. chap. xix . about giving the sacrament to all parishioners thrice a year . chap. xx. of accusing those that are refused the communion within dayes . the true case of the parish minister's power to suspend his own act , and not give the sacrament against his conscience in particulars . § . chap. xxi . of the chancellor's office . of mr. c. thirteen parts of discipline . § . proved to be defective . § . objection answered . § . what power the parish minister hath in publishing an excommunication . § . chap. xxii . of the surplice . chap. xxiii . of the rule for finding easter day . chap. xxiv . concerning our assenting , consenting to , and approving of the many disorders and defects in the liturgy . chap. xxv . whether we may assent to the preface for justifying all that was in the book before ? chap. xxvi . whether the act of uniformity be any part of the book to which we are required to give our consent ? chap. xxvii . about declaring it unlawful to take arms by the kings authority against any commissionated by him . chap. xxviii . of the obligation of the covenant handled at large . per tot . chap. xxix . about the exposition of oaths and laws . chap. xxx . several false devices of mr. ch. for stretching of subscriptions , covenants , and professions . the vanity of which is discovered . chap. xxxi . mr. cheney ' s conclusion evidenced to be a bundle of mistakes and impertinencies . chap. xxxii . a full and clear answer to mr. ch's . supplement . the second part . mr. cheney's five undertakings considered . quest. whether it be certain by gods word that infants baptized dying before actual sin be undoubtedly saved ? quest. whether may unconverted ones within the church demand and receive the lords supper ? quest. whether a minister may put from the sacrament those of his parish who be christned people , and come to church , and joyn in the publick worship , and tender themselves to receive , being under no sentence of excommunication ? quest. whether the common sort of ungodly christians are to be cast out of the church by penal excommunication , and used as excommunicate ones ? quest. whether mr. baxter's doctrine and principles concerning particular churches be sound and good ? a defence of the non-conformist's plea for peace , against mr. j. cheny , the non-conforming conformist . chap. i. § . dear brother , i have diligently read and considered your book , and think it my duty to give a short account of the effect . i have reproved many that blame you for not telling me first of it , and knowing what i could say to it , before you ventured to publish it ; . because of our true love and acquaintance : . because a man should be willing to try and hear the utmost , before he engage too deep : . because if you mistake , it is many and heinous sins that you may be guilty of , by hardening multitudes in impenitency . to which i answer then , . i consulted not you before i wrote , and why then must you needs consult me . . a wise man can conjecture what may be said against him , without asking . . you might suspect some hinderance to that which you judged a necessary duty . . you have heard and read what the non-conformists say , as i did what the conformists say , without any further consultation . but i am most impatient with them that suspect your intention and design , and do hereby profess to them that know you not so well as i do , that i do from my heart believe you to be a better man than my self , of good judgment in other things , of greater meekness , patience , humility and self-denyal ; and do verily believe that your end was to promote christian love and concord ( which was mine . ) and as i wrote to cure mens uncharitable thoughts of the non-conformists ; so did you , to cure or prevent mens thinking worse of the conformists than they do deserve ; an end that 's good and necessary . § . but our measures of understanding are so various , that it is no wonder that we differ about the means : and therefore lest i should be guilty , . of deserting the truth , and cause of righteousness . . and of the loss of the plaister which i made to heal the ulcerated minds of the haters and reproachers , and silencers of them that deserve it not . . and of the sin of such as be drawn by your book to that which hath the aggravations which i named , and fear my self , i shall take the freedom of telling you and others , my thoughts of your performance in your book . § . i. i perceive it is not your design to draw any man into so much conformity as will procure him allowance in the publick approved ministry : and then what the better will the church be for his change in all the rest , while one point of non-conformity will keep him out as well as a hundred ? for . you profess that you cannot justifie all , though you fain would . . you over-pass some in your defence . . you call your self a non-conforming conformist . . you are fain to fly from your country , being an excommunicate man , and to live in a poor condition among strangers , to keep out of the goal , to avoid the writ de excommunicato capiendo ; and yet you lived under the worthy and learned bishop pearson , accounted one of the most moderate and best in england . and what good would so much conformity do the church ? can we serve them in a prison any better than non-conformists may ? but let us consider of your defence it self . § . ii. you would have your reader have my book before him , and you profess to answer it ; and yet you profess so far to lay it by your self , as . to omit answering a great part of it , especially which justifieth our preaching and assemblies ( yea i think you plead for them ; ) and my large answer to the charge of schism you seem to approve , which we accept , and so that is no part of our controversie . § . . but you also avoid the defence of the corporation declaration , which is a matter of so great importance to all the cities and corporations of england , as perhaps may prove more considerable than the silencing of a thousand of the best preachers among us for non-conformity . but i blame you not for not doing more than you are able . § . . but why did you avoid the order of my book 's objections ? and also the answering of any chief intimated reasons ( while yet i did but intimate some few disclaiming argumentations ? ) why do you tell us , that you take them as you remember them , without the book , and satisfie your own conscience , while you seem to answer the book ? and what drew you to begin with reordination ( which none of the antient non-conformists are put upon ? ) but your disclaiming to defend the oxford-oath , and your profession that some part of the subscriptions and declarations by the law enjoyned to ministers , you never made your self , doth bid us to believe you , that it is to draw men to think mildly of conscientious conformists , that you write , if not to judge conformity lawful , and a duty in case of silencing , &c. ] and i doubt not but you will so far prevail . but when you tell us of a noble man impeached of treason , that made it his business only to put by that charge , you may remember that when the great and good duke of sommerset had so done , and the shout was made for his being found not guilty , he was yet ( though the king's uncle and protector ) beheaded as a felon : such a justification doth little good . and you say truly [ i am not to yield to the smallest sin to save my life . ] § . i see not how this agreeth with what you say , after that mens weakness and ignorance may make it their duty of two perceived sins proposed to them , to take the safer side , and that is to avoid the greater ] answ. . doubtless it is a gross contradiction to say , it is a duty to choose , or not avoid the least sin : for that is no sin which a man is not bound to avoid ; and undoubtedly when two sins are proposed , every man is bound to avoid both , though not as equal with equal zeal : and god never necessitateth man to choose either , or not to avoid both : but if our own badness disable us from avoiding both , we must be most careful to avoid the greater . i cannot pray without sinful dulness , or imperfection of faith : but i must rather avoid a total omission than imperfect performance , for all the faults are eminently in this . no sin is to be done on pretence of avoiding a greater sin : but sometime the avoiding of a great sin , may make another thing ( e.g. the omission of that which else would have been a duty ) to be then no sin , that else would have been a sin. negative commands bind ad semper . § . you say , if the non-conformist err , it is on many accounts a safe error , because it is confessedly a refusal to subscribe and conform to a number of things in their own nature indifferent : rigid conformists confess them to be but trifles comparatively , the church might be without them and yet do well : and moderate conformists confess them to be burdensom , and the church might be and do better without them , or if they were left to each man's choice and will. answ. but if we prove them far from indifferent , non-conformity will prove a necessary and great duty : however , i doubt the imposers will give you as little thanks for this description of the case , as they do us for non-conformity ▪ specially when you add that for this , [ we are thought seditious , factious , schismatical , worthy to be silenced , imprisoned , anathematized , and used as intolerable . ] they will not love the glass that sheweth them such a face as you dislikingly describe . especially when you tell them that you [ are satisfied that it is in it self a great and dreadful sin , to silence the non-conformists , and do by them as hath been for these many years . ] and [ blame those loose conscienced men , who think that their humours , opinions , lusts , and proud and imperious wills , are fit to be the standard of unity , uniformity , and edification to all the churches . ] this is but cold pleading for conformity . chap. ii. § . you begin with reordination . and , st . i told you how the church in all ages hath commonly abhorred it : the canons , called the apostles , depose both the ordainer that doth it , and the ordained . gregory magnus , equalleth it with twice baptism ( which perhaps you may think lawful too ) you are for it upon reason toties quoties . you tell us how loth we should be as to condemn that which so many worthy men held as were the old conformists : and may not i tell you that you should be more cautelous how you contradict all ages of the church , even to this day . § . had you heard as great a man as i have done , declare that he could not take them for ministers , or take the sacrament of them that had not episcopal ordination ; and had you heard my l. chancellor hide give such reasons openly for re-ordination as i did ; and had you seen the writings of so learned a bishop as i have seen , to prove such no ministers as are ordained but by presbyters , and heard such men , and so many argue for it as i have done , you could not have thought that the judgment of those that impose reordination , was , or is , that men are true ministers of christ that are ordained by presbyters only ? so that your sense of the imposition is feigned . § . it is a known thing that the church of england is not of your singular opinion for reordination : you may as well feign them to be for rebaptizing : they all renounce it with our consent : therefore they that require men to be ordained by bishops , must needs hold that they had no true ordination before ; or else they should be for that which they abhor . so that it 's past doubt , you talk of you know not what , when you make this to be but the singular opinion of one mr. dodwel , disowned by all ; though much in his book besides , be by most disowned : and it is not every later bishop that made the law , or altered the liturgy , § . you say that [ ordination once validly done by eminent presbyters , and grave substantial ministers , it doth to all intents and purposes make him a compleat minister . ] and elsewhere you maintain the validity of presbyters ordination : and say , that it is a taking god's name in vain , when it is done without urgent reasons . ] i have moved to you , that the present imposers suppose the contrary , ( and i think , considering how much the king and parliament left to the judgment of the convocation ) the present settlement proveth what was the convocations judgment , who are the present church of england's representative . ) they that are against reordaining , and yet call men to be ordained , certainly judge them unordained before : and you are to take your ordination , and speak the words in the known sense of the imposers ; or else you equivocate : and what reasons have you to deceive them ? at least it is notorious scandal to seem to do it in an ill sense . and when you pretend that your ministry else must be forsaken , we say , no : it is but to save you from suffering for your ministration , as long as you can use it on suffering terms : and you have not escaped suffering , nor saved your ministry by conforming . if you would rather suffer , than not preach to non-conformists when you had an allowed church of conformists , should not we rather suffer than by our reordination submit to that which is the churches or laws publick professing that we were no ordained ministers of christ before ? when after that we have never the more liberty for our ministry , unless we conform to all the rest . i remember three worthy men re-ordained one fourteen , and two seventeen years ago , that had never the more liberty to preach . § . you say that [ ordination by eminent and senior presbyters is episcopal ordination , though not in the vulgar sense . for a bishop and presbyter in the sense of scripture are the same ] ans. . remember this when you subscribe to the distinction of order . and i believe you cannot name two bishops in england ( if one ) that had a vote in parliament and convocation for making the imposing laws that were of your mind : nor two that will now say , that it is lawful to be twice ordained presbyter : and remember . that it is the act of uniformity that requireth this last ordination . . that the bishop of london , of lincoln , of hereford , came into their places since ; and were none of the legislators . § . you say [ if the presbyters excel those bishops , ordination by them is more excellent than by these ] ans. . and yet can you assert that they are distinct orders , when the power of ordaining is made the chief part of the bishops order ? i that am against you stick at this somewhat more than you , when the law and canon make the bishop of the quorum . and as i was ordained by a bishop ; so i never joyned with presbyters in ordaining any man , nor did venture to lay hands on any in an ordination . chap. iii. § . your second section is of our assent to the words in the book of ordination of the notoreity of the antiquity of the three distinct orders . and . you justifie it by telling us that [ difference of holiness , wisdom , usefulness may be said to make different orders . ] but this is too lusory in a serious business . words of art or science are to be understood according to the use of the men of that art or science : and the many old school disputes , and controversal writers tell us long ago , how they understood the word [ orders ] as offices in specie differing from degrees in the same species . in your equivocal sense you say true , that there are more than three orders , or threescore : yea , in the usual sense of old they had seven orders , and yet they held bishops and presbyters to be but one of the seven ; as i shewed you out of spelman in aelfrick's canons of this church of england , in the very times of popery . § . you say you make it not an article of your faith , that this sense of episcopacy is evident to all men that diligently read scripture and antient writers . ] but the question is , whether you assent to it , ( or more ? ) if not , how can you say you do ? the bishop of hereford in naked truth hath given you some reasons of dissent , and bishop usher , and many such have done so before him . § . whether you hit their sense or not , gather by what i said to your former point of re-ordaining . chap. iv. § . you next choose to speak of our assent and consent to the bishop's oath [ to subject himself in obedience to the arch-bishop , and to his seat or metropolitan church , and to his successors . ] and you tell us that all men are bound to subject themselves one to another : this again is too gross equivocating . do you believe that this is the species of subjection , which is meant in the book and oath ? § . you better tell us , that being episcopus primae sedis , he may be reverenced as the fore-man of a iury. ] but is this obeying him , and his church and successors ? is not this also equivocation ? do they swear obedience to the fore-man and his successors ? ] § . your best answer is , it is enjoyned by authority . ] and if it were but obeying them in civils , or circa sacra , in matters determinable by the king ; this answer had much in it : b●● when it is intended to be in the exercise of the word , and keys , and matters which christ hath predetermined , those non-conformists that are not for the divine right of arch-bishops , cannot assent and consent to it : and those of them that are for it , do ( with you ) hold that there should be parochial bishops , or to every church ; and that those that you call diocesans are indeed arch-bishops : and they are not for arch-bishops over arch-bishops , lest it lead you to a pope , ( as he was in the empire at least . ) § . and successions so often prove unhappy , that we like not setting up one church over another to the end of the world , when we cannot justifie it at all . they that are ( contrary to the carthage fathers ) for a bishop of bishops , would yet have him their ruler but as an arch-bishop , as general officers in an army over the colonels , but not that our church shall be set over many others ; much less to swear to unknown successors . § . and i told you divers old councils condemned bishops swearing inferiours to them , as the cause of many mischiefs ; and sad experience taught them to make that canon . chap. v. § . next you speak of the oath or covenant of canonical obedience : and you . doubt whether it be an oath . in the act of ordination it is but a covenant : but ( what they do now ) i know not ; but heretofore it was also imposed as an oath . you tell me of my concessions : i grant that ●o far as they exercise but such power as belongeth to officers of the king , we may obey him in covenanting to obey them . but it is in the exercise of the keys proper to christ's special officers , that the book meaneth , which you assent to ; even in matters of sacred guidance , excommunication and absolution . and you say nothing to satisfie . those that are under obtruded and unlawful bishops , that come in so contrary to christ's and the old churches order , as that the old canons decree them to be no bishops ▪ . nor to satisfie those that think chancellors use of the keys to be unlawful . . nor those that think that officials , surrogates , commissaries , arch-deacons , being no bishops , have no just power but what the king may give them , and not a superior power of the keys ( see dr. hammond's explication of it . ) § . but after you think that none but the bishop is the ordinary ; but the church-laws and common use contradict you , and call all these , when judges of the court , your ordinaries . § . and i told you ( which you pass over ) that this is condemned by the decrees of antient councils as a mischievous thing . § . you say , it binds us not to obey the canons , else the oath of allegiance would bind us to it , and all the statute-laws . ] answ. this hath more seeming strength than the rest . but . if it did hold , it removeth but one branch of the difficulty . . and indeed he that sweareth obedience to the king , doth swear to obey him according to the law : and so he that sweareth obedience to the bishop , may mean more , and include mandates ; but he cannot reasonably mean less , and exclude the governing laws . but yet as we never meant that the king's laws are all blameless , or that we will obey them if they command us to sin against god , but only will shew our submission by suffering : so i confess our oath to bishops , as such , can mean no more . but then , were i under a king , whose very frame of laws were unlawful , as tending to extirpate piety , i should doubt whether i might simply swear to obey him as my governor . how far the canons are more unmeet instruments for true church-government than our laws are for civil government , i will not here enquire . chap. vi. § . your fifth section is about the words [ receive the holy ghost , &c. ] in ordination . . two things you include in the sense : . inward qualifications . . investiture . but i told you . inward qualifications are presupposed , and the person examined accordingly . . i never heard or knew of any that received them by ordination . . by investiture it is the ministerial office that is given them : to none of this do you answer . but you say , christ used the words , and no extraordinary thing then conferred , &c. ] ans. . if christ intended their after-reception of the holy ghost at pentecost , it followeth not that we must use such words , that can promise or give no such spirit . . there were five several sorts of mission or commission then given to christ's ministers . . christ sent out the twelve and seventy temporarily to preach , do miracles , and return ; and gifted and blessed them accordingly . . he chose twelve as related to the number of the tribes , and ordained them stated apostles to the jews , or circumcision ; and he qualified them accordingly by his spirit . . he ordained them apostles to all the world ( indefinitely ) and accordingly renewed their commission : for this he qualified them with ordinary gifts of his spirit initially now at his resurrection , together with their new commission , and more fully and miraculously at pentecost : you know how ignorant the apostles were of christ's death , sacrifice , resurrection , ascension , &c. till he was risen : and then christ opened their understandings in these articles , and gave more faith ( and answerably we must conceive other grace was given ) than they had before . this cannot be denyed : and is not this giving of the holy ghost more than man must now pretend to imitate ? . besides these , there were after-missions of particular apostles ( as paul and barnabas ) or particular messages in particular provinces . . and there was the ordaining of bishops or elders as fixed guides of particular churches : and these being ordinary officers , were ordinarily to be qualified before they were ordained , and not to receive their abilities by their ordination : and this is the ordination that we have to do with . chap. vii . § . your sixth section requireth pity , rather than reply : the church that a bishop is ordained to , is many hundred parishes ; the bishop of lincoln hath many counties . you know by whom the bishops are chosen , and where consecrated : the words were originally used to the church over which the bishop was placed . and is it serious dealing to send word to none of them of your time , or place , and then call to men in a church in london , or a private chappel , to come forth and speak their exceptions ? if you can prove that this may be assented and consented to , you have a stronger proving faculty than i have . chap , viii . § . i see nothing satisfactory to the objections which i made about the damnatory passages in athanasius's creed . and i had reference much to a manuscript , in which mr. dodwel is the objector , and the bishop of lincoln supposed the answerer ; which he doth with great learning and impartiality . but to his argument , that we are not to assent to the truth of the passages excepted against , because we read the apocrypha , and yet the church intendeth not to bind us to believe some untruths in it ( which he nameth ; ) i answered , that athanasius's creed is part of the book which we must assent to , but the apocrypha is not . i make less my self of this scruple than the rest , because i have reason to believe athanasius meant it well ; when i have not the same assurance of the meaning of the authors of some late impositions . chap. ix . § . . your sect. , about the certainty of baptized infants salvation , being made here an article of faith , i have much more to say against : but you answer not to any of the strength of my objections . . and how strange is it that you saw a manuscript of bishop usher's , telling us of [ this clause coming surreptitiously into the book , ] whereas he was dead two years before the book was altered , or that clause put in ? indeed , there was another in that sounded almost like it , which meant no more than that [ a baptized child hath all that is necessary to salvation , ] supposing his right , ( ex parte ecclesiae ) though he die without confirmation , or the eucharist , which were formerly given to infants : but this never said what the new article saith . § . you say , many conformists say , it is no part of assent and consent , because it is not used as part of the church service , and they subscribe to no more . ] answ. name not those conformists , lest you dishonour them . do they declare their assent to all things contained in the book , and mean only the service which they must say ? or do they [ consent to the use of all , ] and take an article of faith to be put in for no use ? intreat them not to take the oath of allegiance and supremacy , with that latitude and exceptiousness . § . you say , you can assent to it in a sound sense : and [ it's more than you can prove that all infants are saved , but all that have right before god are saved , but not those that have no right before god. answ. . but you were told that the church signifies her sense by the canons , which forbid the minister ( on penalty ) to refuse any child , that hath god-fathers , not excepting pagans , infidels , atheists , or apostates : why did you not answer that ? . a right before god , signifies either properly to be a child that is under the promise of pardon , in the sense of cor. . . else were your children unclean , but now they are holy . ] and of such i am of your mind . or else it signifieth only one that the minister hath , coram deo , a right to baptize . and so he hath as to any adult atheist , or heathen ( or his child ) if he deceitfully profess christianity . i suppose you speak in the first proper sense . but if you think that the sense of the rubrick you are mistaken . no one knoweth better than bishop gunning , and he will tell you otherwise , viz. that god's merciful covenant giveth us right to bring any child in the world to be baptized for salvation , as it giveth any man right to take in an exposed orphan into his house . and if the sponsor were to become proprietor , and take the child for his own ( as abraham circumcised the children born in his house ) i would not dispute against it , though i were in doubt : but i have proved to you that the liturgy , or canon , oblige the sponsor to no such thing , nor are they to profess it : and you your self suppose the contrary , that the parent is the first covenanter : this rubrick then speaketh of any child , and you limit it to the seed of the faithful , and so equivocate . at our conference at the savoy , . before the bishops , i put this true case ; [ i have in my parish a profest infidel , that derideth openly the scripture , and the life to come ; but for fashion saith beforehand , i will bring my child to be baptized , and say as the book requireth , and refuse my child if you dare . ] the reverend bishop sanderson was in the chair , and answered me , none of them contradicting , that if i baptized him according to the church of england that requireth god-fathers , i need not scruple it . i askt him , by whom that child had right more than any other heathen's child ? seeing , . the god-father is oft as bad as the parents . . and the god-father taketh not the child as a proprietor for his own . bishop morley answers , that he knew some that did take them , and educate them as their own . i answered , . the canon , or rubrick , require it not . . i never knew one man yet that did it , or that ever thought that as a sponsor , he was obliged so to do . . if it were otherwise ; poor mens children could get no god-fathers , and rich men would have none . and what 's this then to the sense of the article in question , that speaks of all baptized children ? ( it being of the baptized quâ tales , and an indefinite in re necessaria . ) you dare profess that of all , and undoubtedly certain by the word of god , which you think is — true but of those that have right before god. and may not one profess any thing at that rate ? besides , i that know why the old words were changed into these , and by whom it was brought in , urged and procured , am fully satisfied of the sense of them that did it , by experience . your exposition of the doctrine of baptism here adjoyned , is very sound and good . as to your catholicon which gets down all , i may cause you to cast it up anon . chap. x. § . your th section , about not coming to the sacrament without a full trust in god's mercy and a quiet conscience , tells us what the imposure should have said , when i only except against what they have said . the case is so gross , i am apt to think they meant as you say ; especially when i consider that those must be ruined that have not a quiet conscience , if they will not , or dare not communicate . but if well meaning men put me to assent to words of a contrary signification in the common use , i had rather approve their good meanings , than their imposed words , through oversight so expressed . chap. xi . § . about the use of the apocrypha , you quite mistook the question : it was not chiefly whether you may use or read it , but whether you may approve and consent to the calendar and rubrick which imposeth it , to be read ; yea , those books of tobit , iudith , bell and the dragon , &c. if you say that you consent not to the calendar and rubrick , i ask , . is it not contained in the book ? . is it of no use , when the use is named in the preface ? cannot we thus say any thing required , and mean what we list by it ? teach not the papists to take the imposed test and oaths at such a rate as this . § . you say , it is not on lords days . answ. on the week days god must be worshipped purely , and according to his will. § . you say , it 's more than you can prove that any thing is false . why did you not answer the two instances which i gave out of the bishop of lincoln's excellent manuscript ? and how much may you find in dr. io. reynolds , and many other protestants against the papists ? § . you say , if any thing be fabulous , it may be read as an instructive parable , some cite aesop ' s fables . ] answ. but dare you consent to the reading and imposing of aesop's fables , or any other , to be read in stead of god's word , under the same name of lessons , so many days in the publick worship ? chap. xii . your th section saith no more , but that you see nothing but one may consent to the imposed reading of the liturgy every day to save his liberty . ans. . i gave you a reason against covenanting so to use it every day , which you answer not . and. . why took you no notice that it is the books imposition of this , which you must consent to , and not only the practice ? is not the imposing precept [ contained in the book ] yea , and is it of no use ? . and why do so few conformists so use it ? chap. xiii . § . in your th section you joyn several things . . about denying christian burial to the unbaptized infants , and the excommunicate , as not signifying their damnation . but if you take in the foresaid rubrick articles that pronounceth certain salvation to them if baptized , you may see what is like to be the meaning of the church here : and also if you read , how they use to expound their anathema , or major excommunication ; and on what account it is often made . doctor heylin tells you , that the necessity of baptism was one of bishop laud's first thesis's publickly maintained in oxford . you are now excommucate your self , but not with that anathema which is of the hardest signification . but this is little to my objected case . . but the doubt is about the words , that in sense pronounce all others that are buried in england , saved . and you would make us believe that the rubrick , which excepteth the excommunicate and the other two sorts only , meaneth also the excepting of the excommunicable , or notorious wicked men. but by such stretches what words may not protestant or papist take by an exposition of his own making ? if three sorts excepted limit you not from excepting more ; what can do it ? i have tried the sense of the most leading man in these liturgick changes that i know , whether he would consent that the words should be further extended to except the excommunicable , or notoriously flagitious ; and he most contemptuously rejected it , as if it would leave power to every presbyter to damn whom he would ( and to excommunicate men after death ) without a bishop . . but you will prove your feigned sense to be right , because the canon . saith , [ if the party deceased were denounced excommunicate ( majore excommunicatione ) for some grievous and notorious crime , and no man able to testifie of his repentance , the prayers are not to be said at his burial . ] ans. could you have more evidently confuted your self ? the church alloweth you , yea , requireth you to forbear the said prayers , . if it be a notorious sinner . . excommunicated . . and that ( majore excommunicatione . ) . and there be no proof of his repentance . and hence you can infer , that the church meant it also of notorious sinners not excommunicate . what alchimy is this ? whereas the church is herein specially careful that the priest may not be the judge : what need the major excommunication be put in , if it were not meant ? the canon here declareth the churches sense more obligingly , than any bishop can do . chap. xiv . § . what you say of the whole substance of confirmation referred to the parish pastor , the ceremony only reserved to the bishop , is all without book , and a meer mistake , as the bishops will soon tell you , and common experience . had you heard what the bishops at worcester . house before the king and lords said against inserting into the king's declaration of ecclesiastical affairs , that one word [ consent ] viz. the minister's consent to the confirming of those of his flock , and how it after came in ; you would not have talkt at this rate of our consent . chap. xv. § . your fourteenth section is of the doubt [ whether we may declare our consent that none should be admitted to the communion , till he be confirmed , or desirous and ready to be confirmed ? to this . you say of your own head , that confirmation is not intended for them that have been already admitted to the lord's table ; ] without any proof , though clean contrary to your covenant of conformity . the words are , that [ none are to be admitted till , &c. ] and you say , that by [ none ] is meant [ none except all that have been so already admitted , that is , most of the communicants by far in england , and all that come out of france , holland , scotland , &c. ] what a great limitation hath this [ none ? ] none except almost all , or most . boccaline tells us of a device at rome to make a man's throat swallow a pompion ; and then no doubt any physician may procure the swallowing of a pill . § . but you are perswaded you shall not meet with one person that will not desire it rather than be put from the sacrament . ans. . but it is not your own practice only that you must profess consent to , but to the use of the rubrick , as it is a law to all others : do you think no other shall meet with such , because you may not ? . remember that the confirmation in question is little kin to that which i and mr. hanmer have written for : a very learned bishop told me lately , that it is for the giving of the holy ghost by imposition of hands : and ( whatever you feign ) it is confined to the order of bishops . do you know what dallaeus de confirmat . hath said against it ? and that all are against it as with us that are against diocesan prelacy ? i know few non-conformists in england , that are for it , or desire it . when i pleaded for it in . hoping to have reduced the english confirmation to that which i described in my treatise of confirmation , had you but heard how much the truly learned , judicious , honest dr. wallis said against it , who is a publick professor in oxford , a conformist , and the king's chaplain , you would not think that you shall never meet with any that will not desire it , &c. . i think most of england are unconfirmed ; if they desire it , what keepeth them from it ? . they may not desire it , and yet not be kept from the sacrament : for he that receiveth it not of you , or any conformists , may receive it of others : and all the conformists that ever i saw deliver the sacrament , give it to the unconfirmed , and never ask them whether they desire it . and yet you must covenant not to give it to any such as desire not confirmation and consent that this be imposed on all others . § . but you say , such a remote possibility shall not keep you from conformity . ] that is , you will consent to the use of this rubrick , which requireth , that none in england give the sacrament to any that desire not our episcopal confirmation , which almost all the non-conformists desire not ; and most of england shew by their practice , that they desire not , because you conceit that you shall meet with none such your self , who perhaps may never administer the sacrament , ( at least till you are absolved from your excommunication . ) and yet you are so honestly against division , that you will not separate from the non-conformists , and their assemblies , though you suffer for it . these things hang not well together . chap. xvi . § . your th section is against my greatest objection ; the manner of baptizing by god-fathers sole sponsion , in the liturgy : where you take your own order , and not mine ( to satisfie your self , ) and put four questions , and overlook the main , or say as good as nothing to it . my first question is , which way the child cometh to have right to baptism , any more than all the infidels children in the world ? that is , whether the meer sponsion of god-fathers who adopt not the child , nor take him for their own , nor are at all required to do so , do give or prove a right to baptism ( and consequently to undoubted salvation or pardon ) in all the infants of apostates , sadduces , infidels , brutists , arrians , socinians , wicked men , atheists ; yea or of any other ? i told you how conformists and other divines here differ ; but you easily pass by the difficulty . . and the next question is , whether the church of england require any ground of title in the infant besides the sponsion of the fore-described god-fathers , and god's general promise ? and i have proved that they do not : it is not the parents christianity or faith that they require , nor the grandfathers , nor any pro-parents , or adopters or proprietors . nor do they ask , whose child it is ? but forbid us to refuse any that have god-fathers ; nor do they suffer the parent to be one of the god-fathers , but forbid him so much as to speak there , as dedicating his own child to god , and forbid us to urge him to be present : yet are they utterly disagreed of the child's title : some say it is from god's covenant only ; and that all children on earth have title , and want but one to offer them to baptism , as he may take in an exposed orphan . some say that the god-fathers act is his title to baptism . some say , it is the churches faith. and by the church some mean the ministers ; some mean that parish ; some mean the diocesan church ; some the national church ; and some the universal church : but you seem to think the title is from the parent , but you speak it not out , nor much meddle with the case ; and the church seemeth not to be of that mind ; though st. paul say [ else were your children unclean , but now are they holy . ] § . but you say , the parent is not excluded nor forbid to be present . ] ans. but . no man in the town is forbid to be present : doth it follow that any man giveth title to the child who may but be present if he will ? if the parents faith were thought necessary to the title ( or a pro-parents ) the book would require it , and require the minister to take account of it , or at least would suffer the parent to be one of the sponsors , or to speak one word of sponsion , all which is expresly forbidden by the canon , and by the book appropriated to others . § . but you say , if he will he may profess and covenant for his child , yea , the minister may and ought to urge and require him . ] ans. what , and yet conform ? when he is forbid , and the minister forbid to suffer it ? § . but say you , [ the canon is no part of the liturgy , nor are we bound to it wherein it is against the liturgy and good order . ] ans. . by the can. . we are all to subscribe to use no other form in administring the sacraments but the liturgy : and you shall be no minister here if you subscribe not to that canon , though you should say , it is against good order . . the liturgy it self appropriateth the whole sponsion to the god-fathers . . our question is of the churches sense herein : and it is the same church the made the canons ; and still owneth them : therefore in the canon the church expoundeth her sense , more obligingly than you , or any bishop can expound it . so that for you to assent and consent to the form of baptism in the churches sense , and when you have done , to say that you may and must go against it , because the canon binds not , is a method of conforming , which i will not follow you in . § . what you tell me of my decision in my directory , is nothing to our present case . but you say , the canon supposeth the parents as present , or consenting and principal , for he procureth the god-fathers , and the sureties are his deputies , or seconds , and yet undertakes not the parents duty . ] ans. i have proved to you that the canon , or church , neither foundeth the title in the parent , nor permitteth him any sponsion ; and professedly layeth it all on the god-fathers , saying ; that it is by that the child believeth , and promiseth , performeth , &c. and no such word of the parents faith : nay , all children of infidels or atheists ; must be thus baptized . this therefore is your meer disproved fiction . secondly , that the parent must procure the god-fathers , no way proveth that he is supposed to be a christian or consent , or that he is the principal sponsor : for it is for the child's sake , that the law bindeth him to get sponsors , and all atheists and infidels among us , are bound to send their children with sponsors to be baptized as well as christians . § . you say , the sureties undertake not to do the duties of a parent , nor more than they can do , &c. ] ans. then it is not undertaken at all : for all that is to be undertaken is by them , and nothing at all required of the parents . § . as to the interrogatories , and profession , that the child is said to repent , believe , forsake the devil , consent , &c. and not only to be the child of one that repenteth , believeth ( which is his title ) you say it is but to oblige the infant : but professing to believe and repent at present , and promising to do it hereafter , are different things . but you say , these words may be submitted to till better may be had . ] ans. and why may you not say so of any untruth ? but the question is , whether they may be consented to , and approved ? § . as to the great question , [ whether it be the intention of the book that we deny baptism to such as cannot procure god-fathers , and god-mothers , or to such as out of conscience scruple and refuse to procure them , and will stand as undertakers themselves ▪ ] you say , no surely . ans. alas , how little know you what the conformity is which you defend ? . are not all ministers to subscribe to administer the sacraments in no other form than the liturgy ? canon . . doth not the liturgy make the god-fathers office necessary ? and a great part of the baptismal office is the ministers speech to them and their answer , and the charge laid on them . can you say all these words if no sponsor be there ? or can you have such answers ? . doth not the church command that no parent be god-father to his own child , and no questions or answers be used but the words of the liturgy ? . and did you ever know a child baptized without any sponsor ? you rightly call your self the non-conforming conformist ; for you plead for it and against it , in the same lines ? your contradiction meeteth through all your book . § . you add , [ if it be lawful to violate a divine command to save the life of a beast ( the sabbath ) sure it is lawful to violate a humane rule , or order , rather than cast infants out of the church , and deny them christian baptism . ] ans. it is so : and therefore it is unlawful to consent to that which i must not do , and to covenant to use that which i must not use . if i must not obey it , i must not covenant to obey it . but perhaps you mean that the law-makers intended , that in such cases the ministers have leave to violate it , and admit men to the communion that will not have god-fathers , for god intended such liberty in his law. ans. god's law was not violated by david , the priests , or the disciples , in the instanced cases of the sabbath : for he never forbad them what they did in those circumstances : yea , his law had been violated [ i will have mercy and not sacrifice ] had they done otherwise ; and he hath no contradictory laws : it is said that the priests in the temple brake the sabbath and are blameless , that is , they violate materially the outward rest of the sabbath , but they violate not god's law ; else they were not blameless . but you can prove no such things by the church laws in question , as that ministers may break them by admitting such persons to the sacrament as it excludeth . for , . you covenant to administer only according to the liturgy . . the canon punisheth all ministers that give it against the prohibition . . and the rubrick excludeth your supposed power of dispensation . can you believe your self that the meaning of the liturgy and canon is [ none shall be admitted that desire not god-fathers , except such as will not out of an erring conscience ? ] are those then admitted , that through prophaneness desire not god-fathers ? if so , then you make the sense to be [ those that have not god-fathers shall not be admitted to that sacrament , except all that will not , viz. conscienciously , or prophanely . ] if not , then the sense must be [ you shall admit none to that sacrament that have no god-fathers , through parents prophaneness , but all that have none through scruple of conscience . ] and who cannot pretend such scruple ? and who will not pretend it , when that will justifie them ? and how would the bishops reproach such an exposition , which either maketh every priest a judge of mens hearts , ( whether their pretence be true or not ) or else admitteth all that will not have god-fathers , while the admission of any of them is expresly forbidden ? it is a stretching exposition indeed which is against the whole form of the office , and the express words of the churches canon , [ no parent shall be god-father to his own child . ] try whether any two bishops in england will allow you any such exposition . if such be allowed in this case , why not in all other like it ? and so the meaning of law , canons , and rubrick be , [ you shall do thus except when you have moral reason against it , such as is mercy , which must be preferred . ] do you know how many have been fined and sent to goal for preaching , though they pleaded for it mercy to mens souls ? do you believe that it was the meaning of the parliament and bishops , [ you shall keep no conventicles , nor omit the liturgy or ceremonies , or subscription , &c. unless when mercy is to be preferred ? ] they that have auditors that cannot bear the liturgy , when they omit it in mercy to the flock . i pray you get us an authentick signification of this sense . the words cited by you in the preface to the articles of are impertinent to our business : it followeth not that you have leave to break the laws when you think mercy requireth it , because they are not equivalent to the eternal word of god , nor bind conscience as of necessity in the nature of them considered in themselves ] , and not in the authority of the commander . again i ask , shall any man escape punishement by such a plea of mercy ? are not two thousand ministers silenced , and more , that pleaded mercy to themselves and others , for the reason of their non-conformity ? did your learned , pious , moderate bishop , excuse you for that plea ? doth not the express words of the law , and canon , and rubrick , and the sentence and execution of all judges to this day , confute your exposition and exception ? you truly say [ it is a sin to make a false construction of the law. ] but if against the express words , and scope , and common judgment and execution , you will presume to put your sense , which is merciful , because charity thinketh no evil . any thing , almost , may be so said , consented to , and sworn . i have spoken with a papist that hath taken the oath of supremacy , and wrote for it ; because it is to be supposed that it is only the spiritual power called pastoral , which the pope claimeth over england , or such give him ; and only the power of the sword which the king claimeth , and denyeth to him and foreigners . and he citeth a fairer pretence for his exposition than you do here for yours : and thus all may take up the oath of supremacy that hold but the popes spiritual supremacy over us and all the world . what words can be so bad , that a man may not feign in charity a good sense of ? § . you say the liturgy alloweth private baptism without the cross , and god-fathers . ans. . thence i must gather , that it doth not so allow publick baptism ; no not on pretence of necessity and mercy ; else why had they not exprest their allowance of one as well as of the other ? . and even there , it must be repeated after in the congregation with god-fathers that believe , and promise in the name of the child ; ( and in the house there is nothing named , or required of the parent , but some one ( whoever ) is only to name the child . ) § . in the margin you say [ there is no express prohibition in all the liturgy , tying ministers in no case , to baptize without the cross , and to give the sacrament to kneelers only : and to baptize none without sureties . ] ans. i am glad that your whole writing favoureth of that spirit of love and christian peace and forbearance , as your dislike of these things signifieth . and while we agree about the sense of god's law , we shall not break charity for our differing of the sense of the laws of man : but seeing you put these great points ( of my non-conformity ) here together , i shall briefly repeat the reasons of my exposition against yours . words are to signifie the mind and the matter . if the book speak intelligibly , so as to oblige us to one sense , it 's nothing to our case whether the prohibition be express . i. the liturgy-rubrick saith [ there shall be for every male-child to be baptized , two god-fathers , and one god-mother ; and for every female , one god-father , and two god-mothers . ] ii. the whole transaction , beside prayer to god , and the act of baptizing , is mainly speech to the god-fathers , and demands of them , and their answer , by professing abrenunciation , faith , desire to be baptized , resolved obedience : they must name the child . they are exhorted to see that the child be taught what a solemn vow , promise and profession he made by them , &c. and to be brought up to the bishop to be confirmed . iii. in the baptism of the adult , the god-fathers are called but [ witnesses ] as not giving the person title to baptism . but in the baptism of infants , they do profess and covenant in the child's name , and he doth it by them , as his very title . iv. the catechism saith , that repentance and faith are required of persons to be baptized ; and , as the old book said , they perform them by their sureties ; so the new one saith , they promise them by their sureties , and therefore are baptized . v. for the cross , the liturgy saith [ here the priest shall make a cross on the child's fore-head ] . and it referreth us to the canon for the sense and reasons . vi. the communion-rubrick saith , [ he shall deliver it into their hands , all meekly kneeling . ] vii . the last rubrick saith , [ it is ordained in this office , that the communicants shall receive the same kneeling . ] viii . the same church by can. . requireth every minister to subscribe that he will use the form in that book prescribed in publick prayer , and administration of the sacraments , and no other . ] ix . and the can. . saith , [ no minister when he celebrates the communion , shall wittingly administer the same to any , but to such as kneel , under pain of suspension ] . can the church more plainly speak the sense of her liturgy ? you say it is against schismaticks . yes , . that is the end ; and the words express the means . . and it is expository , calling those schismaticks that scruple and refuse to kneel . x. those that say the liturgy hath any thing contrary to the scripture , or that the ceremonies are such as he may not use , approve , &c. are excommunicate ipso facto : and therefore as schismaticks not to be admitted to the sacrament till they repent of that their wicked errour , can. , , , . xi . can. . all ministers shall observe the orders , rites and ceremonies prescribed in the book of common-prayer , as well in reading the holy scriptures , and saying of prayers , as in administration of the sacraments , without either diminishing , in regard of preaching , or in any other respect ( note that ) or adding any thing in the matter or form thereof . xii . can. . [ no parent shall be urged to be present , nor be admitted to answer as god-father for his own child ; nor any god-father or god-mother shall be suffered to make any other answer or speech than by the book of common-prayer is prescribed in that behalf . ] if yet the church have not declared her sense of the liturgy , but that i may baptize without cross or god-fathers , and give the sacrament to them that sit , rather than refuse them , i can understand no mans words . and what can constrain an unwilling person to understand ? xiii . yet i say again , if i practice on any pretence of mercy , according to your rule , the judges will condemn me ; the justices will send me to the common gaol , among rogues , to lie six months , and will fine me twenty pound , and forty pound a sermon , as i have tryed ; and the bishops or their courts will excommunicate me , and prosecute me to lay me in gaol ; as you have tryed who fly to escape it . and are not these made judges of the sense of the law ? and will not all this convince us what it meaneth ? because you have put three of the chief matters of my non-conformity here together , i have answered all together . if you will prefer the judgment of the bishops before all this , i pray you do not pretend that some honest bishop ( that had no hand in our changes and silencing ) saith to you in private ; but get it us under the hands of many of them , if you can [ that because mercy is to be preferred before sacrifice , we may baptize without the cross , and god-fathers , and may give the sacrament to them that kneel not , if they dissent through consciencious fear of living . ] chap. xvii . § . in your sixteenth section you profess your liking of sitting at the lord's supper rather than kneeling : how then can you declare [ assent , consent and approbation ] to the liturgy ( expounded by the canons ) which in plain words , and by sharp penalties on dissenters , so much preferreth kneeling before sitting . § . your preferring the preaching and hearing of the word , and prayer , and praise , as more excellent than the carnal ( you mean the outward ) part in the lord's supper , is very far from conformity to the common sense of the bishops , who ordered the altaring of the communion tables , and commended bowing towards them , and suspended so many ministers on such accounts ; even far from the sense of arch-bishop laud , expressed in his life by dr. heylin , and of the whole church of england expressed in the canons of . § . i answered before your conceit that the liturgy alloweth you to give the sacrament to them that kneel not , and your distorting the canon , because the title is against schismaticks , when they mean that those that kneel not , shall be taken and excluded as schismaticks , and so excommunicated ( as i have proved ) and not that the word is distinguishing and limiting , allowing you to admit those to sit that are not schimaticks . the bishops will deride that exposition . they that heard us at the savoy , can tell you who that dr. ( now a dean ) was , who craved leave to have disputed the case against me , and to have proved [ that it is an act of mercy to those that scruple and refuse to receive the sacrament kneeling , to deny them the communion of the church therein . ] chap. xviii . § . your seventeenth section is for the cross in baptism . i distinctly proved that the church imposeth it [ as a symbol of our christian profession , and as a consecrating dedicating sign , by which . god's part of the covenant is signified , even the grace by him given , and the duty by him imposed on us . . and the receiver's part is signified , and by solemn engagement there professed , even his faith in christ crucified , and his resolution and self-obliging consent or covenant to be the lords as dedicated to him , and to perform all the future duties of the covenant , and that this is the true description of a sacrament of the covenant of grace . the word [ sacrament ] larglier taken , may signifie no more than man may institute : but a sacrament strictly taken as thus described , i suppose man may not institute . . because christ hath instituted two as an act of his royal prerogative . and if any institution be proper to his kingly and priestly power , it must be such : no other can be named excluding this . and if none be proper , what is it for him to be great and one law-giver to his church ? if legislation , the chief part of supreme government , be common to him and bishops , why is not that royally common ? . and if christ would have had any more sacraments of the covenant of grace , he would have somewhere expressed his commands and directions to his ministers to make them : but he that hath given them full commands and directions for preaching , prayer , baptizing , and his supper ; and for their other duties for the flocks , hath not said a word to them of this ; either biding them make new sacraments , or telling them how many , or directing them what , or how to do it ; nor how to use them when made ; nor promising to bless them . . to make more , seemeth to accuse christ's law or institution of imperfection : subordinate actions do not so : but to make ordinances ejusdem generis , with those which he made , not as a meer man , nor as a meer minister , but as mediator , or king of the church , doth seem to say , that christ left half his work undone . did he institute baptism and his supper , as a meer man , or a meer minister ? then à quatenus ad omne any man , or any minister may do the like , and make more sacraments : but if as king of the church , and as saviour , then none but our king of the chuch and saviour may do the like . christ hath instituted one day of each week to commemorate his resurrection , as god the creator instituted a weekly sabbath ( as i have proved in a peculiar treatise . ) men may set apart one day in a year for special thanksgivings , or commemorations , and one day in a week , e. g. in a time of plague and danger , to fast and pray , &c. but if any should make another weekly day of holy observance , to commemorate the same work of christ's resurrection , or our redemption , which christ did separate that day to commemorate , i think he would be both an unjust accuser of christ's law , as insufficient , and an unjust usurper of his prerogative . . and it is considerable to me , that though christ so extraordinarily commissioned and qualified his apostles to record his words and acts in scripture , and settle church-orders and inferiour offices , and teach the nations to observe all that he had commanded them ; yet even them did did he never commission to make a new sacrament of the covenant of grace ; nor did they ever make one ; but contrarily rebuked those that would but have kept up some of the old ceremonies , divine or humane : and was not the cross a stumbling and foolishness to the world in the apostles days ? and yet they never made such a sacrament . and who hath equal power with them ? § . if any say the church doth not make it a sacrament , i answer : . it is not the name that we contend about , but the thing . . i have before proved it by the constitutive parts which you answer not . . if christ had instituted the cross as the church doth , [ as a badg of our christianity , dedicating the child to god as a solemn covenanting figure , by which the minister in god's name , and in the persons , pronounceth him consecrated and engaged , as signifying both god's part or grace of the covenant , and mans part or duty . ] i ask , whether you would not have c●●led this a sacrament ? and if it want but divine institution and benediction , it wanteth indeed a due efficient , but it is still a humane sacrament , though not a divine ; and therefore an unlawful sacrament . i would but know whether men may make new sacraments of the covenant of grace , or not ? if yea , how many ? and quo jure ? § . and god's prohibition , deut. . of adding or diminishing , is not washt away so easily as your words would make men believe . you say , it reacheth to the whole duty of man , and government of the church , &c. ans. there be some things in the duty of man and church-matters , that god hath left to man : to do those is no addition to god's laws : but to do the like work that god by his law hath done , which he never left to man , seemeth to me the addition there forbidden : e.g. if men had made another tabernacle , another ark of the covenant , another holy vestment for aaron , another sacrament like circumcision , or the passeover ; he that so reproved their worshiping in the high places , would have reproved these . § . but the sum of your defence is ad hominem to my self , for granting the lawfulness of humane private professing signs , and of the cross as such : it 's strange to me , that you that are so judicious , can discern no more difference between , . private and publick church-actions . and , . between a bare professing sign in genere , and a sacramental covenanting-dedicating symbolical sign in specie . . every sacramental symbol is a professing sign : but every professing sign is not a sacramental symbol ( a solemn sacramental celebration of a mutual covenant , by an investing signification of the parts of both the covenants . ) doth it follow then , that because men ( yea , any man ) may make a professing sign of his mind , that man ( yea , every man ) may make a new sacrament ? an israelite might have lift up his hand to signifie consent to a duty , or to answer a question : but might he therefore have imitated circumcision , or the passeover ? when a man is baptized , if you ask him whether he consent , he may signifie it by bowing , lifting up his hand , by writing , which are all but to the same use as speech : but he must sacramentally signifie it by the reception of baptism , as the instituted solemn covenanting symbol of his religion . but for any to make to the church of christ , a new sacramental symbol for such a covenanting use , is another matter . a man that at the lord's supper , is asked whether he consent to christ's covenant , may signifie it as aforesaid : but he may not therefore joyn to the sacrament such another covenanting symbol of christianity , e. g. to make ( or consent to , and approve and use ) a law that all christians shall , solemnly after the eucharist , have their heads anointed with oyl , to signifie that they are members of christ , and hereby covenant with him and the holy ghost , as signifying his grace received , and their duty performed and promised ; and this applied by a minister officiating , as by his commission . § . i perceive by your mistaking inferences , that you understood not my distinction of private and publick , and thought i had meant secret , or open , or before few or many : whereas i speak in the sense that these words are commonly used in politicks , e. g. when they distinguish index publicus & privatus , res publicae & privatae , actiones publicae & privatae , &c. publick is that which either belongeth to the society , or a publick officer as such : as a meer subject is homo privatus , so his actions and affairs , meerly as his , are private : the aerarium of the commonwealth though kept secretly is the publick treasure . the judgment of a publick judge , when few are present in his chamber , is iudicium publicum ; and the judgment of a meer arbitrator before thousands , is iudicium privatum : a private man's arbitrary words or actions in westminster-hall at the bar , are actiones privatae . § . i have more reverence for the ancient christians , than to be a bold condemner of all their actions , which i wish they had not done ( and had they foreseen the consequents , they would not have done ) . and i must , fide humanâ , give some credit to those ancient writers , specially such as augustine , who tells us of miracles adjoyned to some use of the cross : and considering how they used it , i find it was ( when those things were done ) as a private arbitrary professing sign , such as it would have been to say by words [ i am a christian , ] or [ i trust in christ , ] or [ i am not ashamed of a crucified saviour . ] and if when one asked them of their faith , or derided them for trusting in a crucified man , they answered by crossing , i judge them not for so doing : the occasions and persons might excuse such a private professing action . but if they would turn this into a publick church-ordinance by a law , and into a humane sacrament of the covenant of grace , requiring all to receive it as the common badge of christianity ; i reproach not the approvers , but i dare not approve it , or so use it . § . you say , [ we must reduce what is said in the canon to the words in the articles , and the liturgy , for they contradict not themselves . ] ans. there is no shew of contradiction . if the church in three books express her sense , must i not set all together , and take them in all ? and when the liturgy purposely referreth the unsatisfied to the canon for her sense and reason , it 's an odd way of expounding it , to forsake the canons exposition , and say , i reduce it to the liturgy . doubtless all three together express their sense . § . the second commandment forbad not all private use of images , either a civil , or meer memorative or monitory private ( yea , or publick ) use . as it forbad not iacob to pitch a stone of remembrance , or the israelites to make a memorative and monitory altar , and yet forbad such an altar for worship to be erected without god's order . but it was external symbolizing with idolaters by images , which the second commandment forbad ; that is , either worshiping them , or god by them ; or by setting them up in the place of worship , seeming so to do . so it is not all use of a cross that breaketh the second commandment . when you have proved lifting up the hand , or laying it on the book , &c. to be sacraments , i shall further answer you : or if the second commandment oblige us not to use christ's sacraments ( as it is now one of christ's commandments ) then i shall confess that it forbiddeth not us to devise the like . § . you say , [ if it be a sacrament , it would be universally unlawful . if baptism had not been ordained by christ , it would have been traiterous and sinful to use it as a sacrament . ] ans. you grant us enough ; i durst not have used the word traiterous so boldly , lest i should anger the conformists . but when did you prove that every professing sign is used to the same use in specie , as the covenanting dedicating symbol of the cross is ? this was a supposition not so easily to have been begged . § . as to my simile , that baptism is christ's badge or colours ; it illustrates in the point of similitude : and so it doth , that the king would take it ill to have a publick badge of the order of the garter to be added to his star by a private subject , much more for any to make a law for all his subjects , to be known by a badge of private invention . you say , that it 's lawful to wear those colours in the troop , which he may wear out . ans. yes , if he may wear them out in specie to the same use and ends . but if you at a funeral wear a black ribbon , and your general 's colours be white ; and some souldiers will make a law , that the badge of all the souldiers shall be black ribbons , joyned to the white , it would not then be lawful for you in or out of the troop to wear that black as the badge of a souldier , much less to declare that you approved of , and consented to the imposition . and when you tell me , i allow the use of it , i tell you , i allow not your use prescribed by the church . you say , i can never prove that christ forbad it : and yet you say before that , it 's traiterous to have made a sacrament ( without christ. ) but you affirm , that it 's made but for the same use in baptism , which i allow out . but why did you not give some answer to my express proof of the contrary ? or why put you me so oft to repeat it ? it is an outward visible sign , by which in the solemnizing of the covenant between christ and us , the person is dedicated to god , by receiving the said sign of the grace of the covenant , and the obligation of the covenant , and of the persons professed consent and engagement to the duties of it . . that it is a badge of christianity , the thirtieth canon saith twice . . that it is an honourable badge by which the infant is dedicated to the service of god ; the same canon saith . . that it is a covenanting sign , both the celebrating words , and these of the canon shew . . that it is a sign of professed consent to the covenant-duties there named [ not to be ashamed to confess the faith of christ crucified , and manfully to fight under his banner against the world , flesh and devil , and to continue christ's faithful servant and souldier to his lives end . ] the words shew , and none denyeth . . that it is an obliging sign , both as imposed by god's minister , and as self-obliging by the said professed consent , is also exprest in the same words . and this is it which is called the covenant-vow . the person is vowed or devoted to god by two sacramental signs , baptism and the cross. . that it signifieth also god's grace given by that covenant , the words of the expository canon shew : [ to dedicate them by that badge to his service , whose benefits bestowed on them in baptism , the name of the cross did represent [ to the service of him that dyed on the cross. ] . yea , that it is an investing sign , delivering the church-priviledges , appeareth in the words : [ we receive this child into the congregation of christ's flock , and do sign him with the sign of the cross. ] . and that it is to operate grace morally on the intelligent , is exprest in the foresaid words of instructing and obliging signification , with the preface of the liturgy [ to stir up the dull mind of man to the remembrance of his duty to god by a notable and special signification whereby he might be edified . ] § . anno . endeavouring to prevent what followed , i used these same reasons with the great bishop , who , i think , hath had the first and and chief hand in the matter as it standeth , and he denyed but two things of the sacramental cross ; . that it is of god's institution , which he thought essential to a church-sacrament : to which i say , it is a humane unlawful sacrament ; but that it is not divine we easily grant . . that the cross giveth grace . i answered , that effectually it doth not , because god will not bless unlawful means : but it is appointed by man to give or work grace . this i proved , . because as it is a receiving sign into the church , it delivereth by investiture the relative grace of church-priviledges . . as the water of baptism worketh morally , by signifying the washing of christ's blood ; so the cross is to operate morally , by signifying christ's crucifixion , the benefits of the cross , and our duty . but he laid the stress of his cause on this assertion , that sacraments , as such , are to give grace otherwise than by such moral operation ; and it is no sacrament that is not instituted to give god's grace otherwise than morally . ] i told him how commonly protestants maintain that they are not instituted to give grace physically ; but only morally , and by investiture in relations . and here we broke . and because i must expect that from others that are driven to it , this will be the last refuge ; i will add , that even the wisest papists themselves do maintain only such moral causality in sacraments . § . and here , with respect to the forementioned article of the certainty of baptized infants salvation ; and also the answering of this objection , i shall cite some of their words , to shew you at how great a loss the most learned papists are about things that every poor english minister may be certain of , or profess to hold , or else be silenced or ruined : though it be ascribing too much to the opus operatum in sacraments that we grievously accuse the papists of . i. aquinas of the efficacy of sacraments , saith , . that they are aliquo modo causae gratiae . . not meerly causa sine qua non . . aqua baptismatis habet operationem propriam in corpus , & ut instrumentum divinae misericordiae , habet effectum ulteriorem ; non ad gratiam quasi eam attingens in virtute principalis agentis , sed ad dispositionem praeviam ; quae in quibusdam sacramentis est character , in aliis aliquis ornatus animae proportionatus characteri . . in sacramentis est aliqua virtus supernaturalis quae est ipsis principium agendi in quantum sunt instrumenta divinae misericordiae . et haec virtus est ens spirituale , incompletum sive intentionale . scotus and ockam confute this at large ; and pet. de aliaco card. cameracensis ( a most judicious school-man ) briefly after them in . q. . b. c. contending that sacraments are properly no causes of grace , but improperly ; because deus in sacramentis ordinavit sic agere , non quod ipsa sacramenta agant : et de tali ordinatione & libera promissione ipse certificavit ecclesiam : vel ex sola voluntate alterius ut causa sine qua non , quae non invenitur in naturalibus ; sed ( sicut meritum ) in moralibus ; & proprie non est causa : et quod sacramentum sive per virtutem propriam , sive per virtutem ei collatam , non est proprie causa efficiens alicujus dispositionis in anima ad gratiam praeviae ( aut ipsius gratiae . ) so that their judgment is , that it is only conditio sine qua non , dispositiva , moralis ( improperly called dispositiva , ) and not of the effecting , but the reception of grace . a man that doth use god's ordinance , being in the way where god doth give his grace , and performeth the receptive condition : yet none of them deny a moral objective causality on the considering adult . and brianson in . q. . fol. . . doc . concludeth sacramenta non sunt causa effectiva gratiae , sed selum per modum meriti ; per ea datur gratia citing ricardus , scotus , aureolus , fr. perusius , &c. against thomas and alexand. herein . and . q. . concl. . fol. . he saith [ baptismus indiget fide , ( quae est dispositio & fundamentum omnium sacramentorum ) vel in se , ut in adultis ; vel in alio , ut in parvulis , pro quibus sunt fide-jussores paternus & materna . ] and if so , what undoubted certainty is there of thousands whose god-fathers themselves have no true faith. and , quod ficte recipientes baptismum non habent gratiam baptismi , dicunt scholastici . vide brianson , in . q. . doct. . fol. . and even pope gregory . ( hildebrand ) in roman council saith , [ that neither feigned faith in baptism , nor feigned repentance in penance , do save any . ] i know what some say for the saving of all heathens , infidels , or atheists infants , snatcht perhaps by military force to baptism , viz. ex fide ecclesiae , of which i have spoken elsewhere ( in christ. directory . ) but their proofs i take for error and worse . and as to this and their causality ex opere operato , suarez saith , ( de legib. li. . c. . pag. . col. . de circumcis . ) nam etiam ipsa fides parentum erat conditio necessaria , & sine qua'non ; & tamen de illa non dici potest quod gratiam daret infanti ex opere operato , nec quod gratiam contineret ; imò nec causa justificans parvulos dici potest , nisi latè aut improprio modo , sicut dicitur de quolibet remedio seu conditione sine qua non . ] whence he inferreth , that circumcision did not justifie infants . and even petr. à sancto ioseph . saith ( thes. univers . de sacrament . pag. . ) sacramentum est signum sensibile divinitùs institutum longo tempore durans , sanctitatem aliquam , saltem externam , conferens , & veram significans : et pag. . though with the highest he hold , that [ sacramenta novae legis conferunt gratiam , idque ex opere operato & immediate ; duplicem scilicet ; aliam respondentem dispositioni , aliam ipsi sacramento , cum antiqua adultis nullam conferrent nisi ratione dispositionis : yet he saith , [ sacramenta novae legis non producunt gratiam physice sed moraliter . ] and when the papists that must exceed in ascribing to sacraments , have no more to say , and are at such a loss , we leave it to the judgment of the impartial , whether no protestant should be suffered to preach the gospel without ruine , who cannot declare that [ it is certain by the word of god , that infants baptized and dying before actual sin , are undoubtedly saved , ] none excepted : and whether physical , or any but relative and moral efficacy be essential to a sacrament ; or any save aptitudinal , or fitness , to convey . to fit receivers . and whether as to the new article of faith , it had not been enough for us to have said as the synod of dort. art. . c. . [ quandoquidem de voluntate dei ex verbis ipsius nobis est judicandum , quod testatur liberos fidelium esse sanctos , non quidem natura sed beneficio faederis gratuiti , in quo illicum parentibus comprehenduntur ; pii parentes de electione & salute suorum , quos deus in infantia ex hâc vita evocat , dubitare non debent . ] and i dissent not from the old rubrick , [ that no man shall think if any detriment shall come to children by deferring of their confirmation , he shall know for truth , that it is certain by god's word , that children being baptized , have all things necessary for their salvation , and be undoubtedly saved . ] that is , without any other sacrament , supposing them to be the children of the faithful : and i am sorry any dispute of mine occasioned any one to endeavour the altering of these words so much for the worse . but i have long digressed . § . if god's word were not the sufficient law by which your cause and ours are to be tryed , i would vie with you against your plea from humane opinion , or authority : and shew you , . that the apostles not using it , will weigh down the ancients and others using it . . that the ancients used it not so ill as we must do , as a sacrament of the covenant ; but as a meer professing sign of their not being ashamed of christ ; till it did degenerate by degrees . . that the learning and piety of them that have refused it , hath been equal to theirs that so used it . . that he that readeth bernard , gerson , kempis , thauluus , gerhardus , zutphaniensis , sales , and abundance such ( yea , persons of resolution ) will think there have been very holy papists ; and for number they exceed the protestants : and yet that proveth not popery to be lawful . . that the baptized's white garment , milk and hony , not kneeling on lord's days , &c. were more generally used of old , and yet are not now so well thought of : nor the giving the eucharist to infants , nor the millenary doctrine , much the ancients language , like the arrians , which p●tavius citeth . § . your main argument you say , is , that [ ye obey that command , mat. . . and christ doth not forbid you to use the cross. ] ans. as if you should say , when i celebrate christ's two sacraments , i obey his commands ; and he hath not forbidden me to use two ( or ten ) more . as when you are commanded to believe in christ as your saviour , it is implied that you must take no other for your saviour ; so when you are commanded to hear and obey him as the great prophet and king of the church , it is implied that you hear and obey no other as such : and therefore give to no other any of the prerogatives of christ , and ascribe nothing to man's law which is proper to his , which you confess to make a sacrament is : lest your hear , in vain do they worship me , teaching for doctrine the traditions of men : if it be sin , it is worse than suffering . do you think worshiping in the high places , was worse than this ? § . you plead the law of nature , even mercy to the magistrate's soul , to keep him from silencing and persecuting ; and to the peoples souls , that they may have good ministers . ] ans. what then ? if the cross be lawful to be used as prescribed , then no doubt i should use it . if it be not , must i sin when the magistrate bids me to save him from persecuting me ? the martyrs might so have saved bonner and gardiner , by a lye : but this is no saving them : for if they first draw me to sin , endanger my soul , and would silence me , or destroy my body if i did not ; this doth increase their guilt , and not diminish it . . and you may exercise mercy to the people , as ministers did the first years , in a suffering way , and by good example , better than by sin , and consent to corrupt the ministry and church . § . you call the crossing , and such things [ trifles and bawbles , on which weak and childish minds dote , yet wise parents may please their children with bawbles ] ans. . the bishops will be more offended at this , than the non-conformists : they that cannot allow us the pity due to weak children , will not take it well to be told that we are fathers , and they the children whom we must please with bawbles . and you say , [ the external part of baptism , is not so excellent as prayer or preaching ] water . and words , be not matters worth our comparing ; but remember , words are part of baptism too ; and the solemnizing the great vow and covenant between god and believing sinners , on the terms and to the great ends of baptism , is a high transaction of unspeakable concern : and it 's shame to many that cry out against anabaptists , that they reverence it far less than they . § . but you say , [ we assent not , and consent not to the imposing of it . ] ans. nor i , and therefore i will not say that i do . is not the imposing of the cross expresly in the book ? and do you not plead for it openly , declaring that you assent and consent to all things contained in it , and prescribed by it ? what can be plainer ? § . you say , [ i t 's better to do a doubtful small evil , than forbear a certain and great good. ] ans. negatives bind ad semper , but affirmatives do not . and that which is evil and not good , is ill called better : no evil must be done that can be avoided : none that good may come of it . the apostles and pastors of the three first ages did good against the will of governors . what if a man doubt whether a lye or perjury be sin in such a case ? must he therefore do it that he may preach without persecution ? it is no duty to you , much less a greater which you cannot do , but on condition you will sin. § . you say that [ though he that doubteth is damned if he eat , the case is not like the using of the cross , because there is liberty . ] ans. i have said so much of rom. . in my treatise of the church called , that i need not add much more . the advantage seemeth to me more on the other side : they that did eat , or forbear , did it in conscience to the will of god , as they that kept a day or not . but that text expresly commanding even church-governors , to do nothing contrary to mutual forbearance in such things ; here conscience towards god is set against our obeying the supposed unlawful command of man , and our escaping persecution . the iews then persecuted those christians that would not conform to their law in meats and days , even to the death , and more sharply than the romans did : and they seemed to be scandalized by them , to the hindrance of their conversion . why then , was that case free , and ours of the cross not free ? chap. xix . § . your th section is about giving the sacrament to all the parishioners , thrice a year . you say , it could not be the churches meaning to give it to all . ans. darkness is a great advantage to one that must be hid , or run away ; and confusion to one that must defend an error . they are two distinct parts of our dissent , . that all the parishioners are enjoined to communicate thrice a year . . that we are enjoined to give it ( not to all , but ) to more than we can with a safe conscience . you prove that there are limitations to the last ; but that proveth not that they are so to the first . do you think that it will excuse a man that communicates not , to say , [ i am not willing to be confined , ] or [ i am out of charity , ] or ( i am a scandalous sinner , ) or ( the church did suspend me for scandal , or contumacy : ) if it will , the papists may save their estates , or others called new recusants at least : but the law and liturgy , and canon , all shew the contrary : if they are unfit , it 's long of themselves , say they : and that shall not excuse them from a gaol . you will say , it commandeth them not to receive unfit , but to be fit and then receive . ans. true : but , . all the parish of natural capacity are commanded to be fit and then receive , and punished if they do not , though morally never so unfit . . fitness is not gotten by bare commands . . there are multitudes unfit , and ought not in that unfitness to receive , that the law layeth no hold on for any other fault ; and many that cannot receive it ; much less can the minister by the law keep away . too many know themselves to be secret atheists , and more to be infidels , or sadduces , that believe no life to come : many are conscious of secret fornication , drunkenness , stealing , deceiving , &c. rhe minister or magistrate is no judge of these : yet if they communicate not , they break the rubrick and law , and are to be punished . many hundreds are conscious of secret unpreparedness , and many timorous honest people so afraid of eating and drinking judgment , &c. that they dare not come : and many on many accounts are unwilling ; and yet all these are commanded to come . in a word , no unwilling person hath right to the sacramental benefits : and yet all such are commanded on great penalties to communicate thrice a year . . and i hinted how many were forced to admit to our wrong and theirs ; which you answer not . chap. xx. § . your th section is for our accusing those that we refuse to the ordinance , within fourteen days , that he may proceed against them according to the canon . and first you tell us a strange thing , which were it true , would half reconcile me to the english sort of prelacy , viz. [ that the lesser excommunication out of a particular congregation , seems to be allowed to all the parish ministers ] . say you so ! what a sleep have i been in these years , ( since i have been ordained it's years ) that never could hear or read of any such thing ? i have indeed read some honest passages like it , in the reformatio legum ecclesiast . published by iohn fox , which died before it was born , and only shewed the good purposes of king edward , and his divines . but in our articles , canons , liturgies , or book of ordination , i can find no such thing , nor imagine what could thus deceive you . nor can i see any such thing in cosms's tables , nor in any conformist's writings , which describe our church government . what was in doctor mocket's book that was burnt , i know not ; by the execution done on it , and their hatred of arch-bishop abbot , i should think it was as likely to be there as any where : but if it were , it is no proof . the laws and authorized church-canons and forms , must decide the case . were there but any tolerable parish discipline , i would never quarrel against diocesans ; nay , could i but have been a pastor , and not a meer slave , or executioner of the will of others , against my conscience . § . i cannot imagine what you mean , unless it be that the canon and rubrick say , that we shall not admit to the communion , such [ as be openly known to live in sin , notorious , without repentance , nor any who have maliciously and openly contended with their neighbours , till they be reconciled ; nor any that desire not confirmation . ] but , . do you take this temporary suspension of my act of delivering this man the sacrament , to be the minor excommunication , viz. our of that particular congregation ? you are much mistaken , as any bishop or chancellor can tell you . he is member of that congregation still : you only suspend your own act , and his reception , till his case be tried and judged by the chancellor , or diocesan , whether he shall be cast out , or not . . nay , could all our importunity with the bishops , have prevailed but for a power in the parish minister , ( for pastor they would not have been called ) to suspend his own act , and not give , or deny the sacrament against his knowledg and conscience , i should not have said much against diocesans , nor any reasonable appeals to them . but i will tell you what i take our case to be , after my long enquiry . i. the great parishes that have many score thousand souls , are such as the priest ( or incumbent , i may call him ) knoweth not one of a multitude of his parishioners . ( and bishop taylor of repentance pref. saith , a man cannot take charge of , or answer for the souls that he knoweth not . ) and though fame say , that in such a parish there are multitudes of atheists , infidels , hobbists , brutists , socinians , drunkards , whoremongers , perjured , &c. while they are almost all strangers to the minister , he can deny the sacrament to none of them pro tempore . and how can the incumbent know in such parishes what they are ? ii. if he know a man to be a papist , if he be a church-papist , or have a dispensation , he cannot on that account deny him the sacrament . yea , dr. heylin in the life of arch-bishop laud , maketh it his commendable design to have drawn the papists into our churches , ( as they were , say some others , in the beginning of queen elizabeth's reign ; and this , say they , is to be a queen elizabeth protestant , to be one that will communicate with the papists in our liturgy . ) but many good ministers dare not give the sacrament to a papist , till he repent and renounce the papal universal government , and their grossest corruptions . iii. if the minister know any man to be an adulterer , fornicator , drunkard , or heretick , or infidel , by private conference , confession , or other notice , and cannot prove it , he must give him the sacrament . iv. if he ( that converseth not with one of an hundred himself ; and can know them but by hear-say ) shall hear a neighbour or two , or ten , report that such a one is taken by those that converse with him to be an heretick , atheist , infidel , scorner at christ and scripture , a fornicator , drunkard , &c. he cannot deny him the sacrament unless the reporters will stand to it as witnesses . and it 's known , . that few that can prove it will tell it the minister . . good people that hear it , cannot prove it . . those that can prove it , and privately tell it , will not trouble themselves , and offend their neighbours , by witnessing it openly . what need we more than experience ? do not your books and complaints tell us , that not only coffee-houses and taverns , but other places are witnesses of abounding atheism , infidelity , or sadduceism ; and that our parishes have great numbers of them ? and how many such have you known in london excommunicated , or openly suspended ? and are not the london ministers able good men , that would do it if they could ? ask them why it 's never done . if you say , that such come not , but excommunicate themselves : i answer , . are they not still members of the parish-church ? . how doth the minister know that they come not , who knoweth very few of his parishoners ? . it 's known by their acquaintance , that such ordinarily communicate so far as to satisfie the law. for what should hinder them when it is their interest ? v. if the minister should have private proof against one atheist of forty ; or one drunkard or fornicator of many , if he cannot get his witnesses to travel far , and for nothing become odious to the accused , to attest it before the chancellor or bishop , the minister must give him the sacrament after he is acquit by the court for want of proof . vi. if proof be brought , and the proctors fail managing it , or the chancellor favour the accused , or the man resolve before he goeth [ i will say , i repent , and then deny me the sacrament if you dare , ] or if his saying he repenteth , satisfie the judge that knoweth him not , while the minister that is his neighbour heareth no sign of it ; but contrarily of his malice against him for accusing him , he must still give him the sacrament , if the chancellor acquits him . vii . nay , if he be excommunicated first , and by friends , fees , or saying i repent , get the chancellor's absolution , he must be received to communion , though the minister see not the least sign of his repentance , but the contrary . viii . if ignorance be so common in the parish , that we have reason to judge that of twenty or thirty thousand parishioners ( more or fewer ) one half of them understand not the very essentials of christianity , and of the sacrament ; yet the minister must refuse none . i that have but three servants , can seldom have all three such as with my plain teaching will be brought while they are with me , to understand all the essentials , and be capable of the sacrament . and though in general experience telleth us of the great numbers of such , yet the minister cannot know them . he that knoweth not their faces , much less ever catechized half . and commonly children and ignorant people will say the words of the creed and lord's prayer , when they are grosly ignorant of the sense . . and if the minister know such an one to be so grosly ignorant , the law giveth him not power to deny him the sacrament . ix . how should the minister have power to excommunicate one out of a particular church , when his parish is not a particular church , but a part of a diocesan church only ? it 's known , now it is maintained by bishops , that the diocesan is the particular church ; that it is no church that hath not a bishop of its own : that ecclesia est plebs episcopo adunata ; and therefore the name of pastor is usually appropriated to the bishop ; and in most places of the liturgy where bishops , pastors and curates were joyntly named , one of the two first is put out of the new book , and only bishops and curates , or pastors and curates mentioned : and who can cast out of a church , that is no church in the rulers sense ? x. i have had many parishioners that have made me know that they take me for none of their pastor , nor will do ; nor themselves for any of my flock ; and yet to satisfie the law , or fame , or humour , they will demand the sacrament . a minister cannot refuse such a one , but must do the one part of a pastor's office to them that disclaim the relation . xi . if i upon strong suspicion of gross ignorance , would desire my neighbours ( aged or young ) to come and speak with me , and would try them and instruct them ; or if i desire to confer with them on a just private suspicion of heresie or atheism , or accusation or fame of wicked living ; and if they refuse to speak with me , or give me any answer or account , but shut their doors against me , and bid me meddle with my own business , i have no power to refuse them the sacrament . xii . i have known many persons , that for fear of being guilty of the body and blood of christ , would be in danger of desperation or distraction , should they receive it : yet if , for fear of an excommunication , such unwilling ones come , i must give it them . and i know too many that let me know , that though they will have the sacrament , they do not consent to the essentials of the sacramental covenant , but think christ's terms too hard ( till they have sinned longer ; ) yet these must i admit to the sacrament . xiii . on the other side , i must give it none that dare not take it kneeling , nor any that think conformity unlawful , nor that the canon calleth schismaticks . xiv . i must give it to none of the most worthy of my flock , whom the bishop or lay-chancellor will excommunicate , if it be but for not paying fees , or not appearing at his court. xv. the priest must publish the chancellor's or bishop's excommunication , if against the most conscionable of his flock . xvi . and he must publish the chancellor's or bishop's absolution , though he know the party to be most unworthy . xvii . he hath no power to judge whom to take into the church by baptism , but must baptize any child of atheists , brutists , heathens , infidels or hereticks , that have but god-fathers , who never take them for their own , though his conscience be against it , as is aforesaid . xviii . he hath no power to forbear pronouncing absolution from all sin in absolute terms , to any sick man that will say he repenteth , and desire it , though by never so much evidence the priest judge it to be either counterfeit , or from meer attrition or fear , without love . xix . i have proved that he hath no power to forbear pronouncing all atheists , infidels , brutists , adulterers , drunkards , worldlings , &c. saved , at their burial , except the unbaptized , excommunicate and self-murderers . xx. in a word , the priest is so far from having the power of excommunicating out of a particular church , that he hath no power to do the necessary previous acts . . if he would tell him his fault privately , the sinner may refuse to speak with him , as is said . . if he would take two or three witnesses , he may refuse yet to speak with him , or hear him . . if he would tell the church where he hath communion , and would publickly admonish him before them all , and pray for him by name , that he may repent , he doth more than he can answer , and the man may have his action against him accordingly at law. xxi . if a minister will prosecute at the bishops court all that he hath cause to keep from the sacrament ( as he must do within fourteen daies ) . it will take him off all his ministerial studies almost , in many great and wicked parishes . it will be work enough to travel long journeys as an informer . . it will spend all his benefice , in the charge of journeys , proctors , and bringing witnesses so far . . he shall but get the hatred of sinners , and never be like more to do them good : whereas , had he power to use true pastoral discipline with them , his love and tenderness might possibly melt them into repentance , which a chancellor's court , so like a civil judicature , and putting them to great expences and danger , is unlike to do . nor did i ever in my whole life know one sinner brought to repentance seemingly serious , by their courts . xxii . to conclude , if the minister have power to keep any from the sacrament for fourteen daies , till he prosecute them , they will as members , have all other communion with that church even in prayer , praise and thanksgiving , and the baptizing of his child , &c. albaspineus ( that great and notable describer of the churches customs ) tells us , that the old excommunication did shut them out of all other church-communion , as well as the sacrament ; even their oblations were not accepted . if i understand the case of the parish-priests , and their power of discipline , this is it . and is this the power of the keys or excommunication ? if you ask me , how i would have all this remedied ; i have oft enough answered it , and will not here repeat it . only i would have a minister have some such freedom as a school-master or philosopher hath in his school ; and not a meer slave or agent of others , to take in and use , and exclude and say , as strangers to the flock command him , against his conscience and knowledge of the case ; till it be proved , that it shall justifie him at judgment for all such actions , to say , the law , bishop or chancellor commanded me . § . you tell us as by your many years experience , that private repelling by counsel and persuasion , may serve with most . and . i wonder that you that had but a small country chappel and no church at all , where near neighbours might easily be spoken with , should talk of your experience as an argument against that which is of notorious matter of fact. . shew me where law , canon , or rubrick , giveth power to the priest to refuse a parishioner that saith , [ i take you not for my pastor , nor to have any authority over me , but as the bishop's curate , to do what the law bids you , and i will not speak with you . ] . do you not now dwell in london ? where parishes are so great that the parson can do no such thing on one of a multitude , nor doth so much as know them ? and know you not that de facto , there are multitudes that will refuse , and scorn to give you any account , or hear you , or come to you , or admit you to any such discourse with them ? i had the most obedient tractable people to deal with that ever i knew : and yet i had some that attempted by present violence to murder me , for admonishing them , and forbidding them the sacrament ; and many that would give me no other account of themselves , but demand of me to deliver them the sacrament as the canon and liturgy order it , whenever they appear at church and require it : hundreds and thousands will stoop to no other terms in the great parishes of england . § . i confess , if ever i had been thought tolerable under our prelates , and had thought my self able ( as i do not ) for the care of some of the smaller parishes , i should have most trusted to the new liturgy for my power to keep away some of the grosly ignorant [ as being not ready to be confirmed , ] because they know not the catechism . but now i perceive by you , this were not like to serve my turn ; for you say , [ it is only for those that never yet communicated , ] when as multitudes of the aged are grosly ignorant of the essentials that have long communicated . . and divers of these grosly ignorant persons are confirmed long ago . bishop morton was one of the learnedst and best bishops , that ever i knew : and when i was fourteen or fifteen years old , i and my school-fellows , and abundance of boys and girls , when he came into the country , went as to some spectacle , and without any certificate , or question to us , or instruction of us , we all kneeled in a long row in a church-yard , in the path-way , and as he went by , he laid his hands on every one , and huddled over a short collect , of which i scarce understood one sentence that he said ; and i was never the wiser , nor fitter for the sacrament that i perceived . § . but you say , that [ the order binds to a repelling by publick admonition and church power notifying to the congregation , such a man's crimes and scandals , as a fornicator , &c. and warn him not to come to the sacrament , till he have made open confession of his sins , and reformed his life . ] ans. what order is it that binds us to this ? if you mean christ's order , we must do it : if you mean the churches , where shall we find it ? this is like the rubrick new article of faith , which will silence us all who are not certain by god's word , that baptized infants ( without exception ) are undoubtedly saved ; and yet that charity was wanting that should but once have cited the text that maketh it undoubtedly certain . a short labour for so great an end. so when you might know how very far it would go to reconcile me to our prelacy , could i but prove what here you say , yet you will not so much as tell me where to find it : nay , if you that have studied the law , would but have told me how to escape , when i am accused for doing it . § . but your next is too apt to provoke laughter , viz. [ suppose you honestly tell the ordinary , that the uncapable are too many to be presented , lest violence make them worse , and excommunicating them signifie nothing , but endanger them to rise in rebellion , or mutiny , and turn you and us out of place ( that reason is considerable ) or quite leave our assemblies , and turn quakers , papists , infidels , and precipitate souls to hell by obstinacy and viciousness : but if you will leave it to me , i will christen their children and keep them within the church ; ( is that excommunicating them ? ) as hearers , and learners , and candidates , &c. do i not then honestly perform the law ? ans. your honesty i shall commend . and christ's law you may much perform . but what law of the church is it that you thus perform ? what is the law that giveth you any such power ? what law forbids it you , i have shewed . let the rejected sue you , and let the judges tell you , whether you have kept the law : the issue will answer you better than i can . but you say , it is the intention of the law that you perform . ans. you have proved me also , and all of us , conformists , before we were aware . the end of the law is to edifie and save men , and to prefer mercy before sacrifice : but all this i do , or endeavour in my preaching , dwelling , and practice : ergo , i am a conformist , and perform the law. but that did not keep me out of the common gaol , nor save my library . and must we be punished for conforming ? break the law and canon , and say you did it in mercy and kept it , and try whether you will pass for a conformist ? did you not thus keep the end of the law when you preacht at warrington ? and did your excommunicators call it conformity ? § . but you say , all that are accused are not excommunicate , nor laid in gaols ; it is to be hoped that the ordinary will do them iustice. ans. . as they did you . . they may escape the gaol by flying their country , as you do : but what shall they do with their wives and children ? . but we grant you all this : if in a great parish should be accused by the minister as uncapable of the sacrament by gross ignorance , infidelity , heresie , or crimes , and as you say , they be not excommunicate ; when they come home acquit , the minister must give them the sacrament the next time . . but our question is not what the ordinary will do , but what the law and canon bind him and you to do ? chap. xxi . § . you entitle the next section , of the chancellor and his office , and reading excommunications , and the order and discipline in the church of england . and , . you tell us of them that would have unordained ruling elders in every parish . but , . if that be ill , how will it justifie lay-chancellors ? . cannot many with the pastor better govern one parish , than one chancellor can many scores , or hundreds ? . some give lay-elders only a part of the magistrates work , and some only to be delegates for the people to do but what they may do , who cannot be oft present , and to be occasional arbitrators ; and some that give them any use of the keys , take them not for lay-men , but ministers separated to that ecclesiastical office ? § . you tell us of thirteen parts of discipline among us : to which i said enough before . . no atheists , infidels , or pagans then must be refused baptism , if communicating god-fathers ( how bad soever ) present him who never take him for their own , and we doubt can neither give or prove his title : and that we are disabled to keep the unworthy from the communion , i have proved ; and the excellent , learned , pious , parish priests of london , tell you by practice . . few communicants are confirmed , and sacramental capacity is not required to confirmation : and if it be not used , or worse , by bishops who only have the power , what satisfaction is that to the parish priest and church ? . there is no sufficient means to convict , and keep away scandalous sinners . . the sinner hath power to forbid you private admonition by refusing to speak with you , or come near you . . what is family power to the church ? we thank you for nothing . but were not parents formerly disabled from keeping children and servants from spending much of the lord's day in dancing ? &c. and doth not the canon yet disable them from bringing them to hear a sermon at the next parish church , when they have none at home ? . the lawyers that i speak with , take all for meer falshood that you say of the priests power , of publick admonition of sinners by name , not censured by the ordinary . you say , where is it forbidden ? i ask you , where is the priest authorized to do it ? if not , the man will have his action against him , and ruine him ; and the bishop may suspend him for usurpation . and , . of all the worthy parish incumbents in london , who did you ever hear once do it ? i never one heard one do it , nor heard of one that did it in my life , except a non-conformist , or a hot parson point at a puritan in the church for some non-conformity in a circumstance . reverse then your charge of hypocrisie , if you find it must fall on all the worthy london incumbents : for they all speak for discipline , though not for more . . if there be half as many bad ministers as the country saith there is , it 's a small honour to the church , to reproach the fathers that admit them as sinning against church , law , and conscience ; and a small relief to peoples souls to tell that some body had power to have provided better . but the people had no such power , to save themselves from a bad one ; though the church for , if not more years , took him to be no bishop but an usurper , that came not in by the consent of the flock , and election of the clergy , of which more elsewhere . . do or can bishops by visitations know the people and their cases of a thousand , or many hundred parishes , so as to hear and judge them ? would they not have ten thousand scandalous sinners sometime to try and exhort to repentance in one , or few days ? . and . we are glad that the old prohibitions of afternoon sermons and lectures , are not yet revived : but how few parishes have such lectures comparatively ? and how few have catechizing ? and they that have none , may not go to another : if you think that it will save the peoples souls , that the priest might have instructed them if he could and would , and that the bishop should have made him do it , i dissent . . i have seen no visitation articles of late , but in the old ones of , , , , , . the church-wardens were to swear to persecute men for so many things which they thought their duty ( as the foresaid going from a non-preaching minister , keeping private fasts , and such like ) that many men that feared an oath and persecution , suffered because they durst not be church-wardens . . i confess more manners of church-censures are in use among us , than we desire . the canons will tell them to you : else so many hundred non-conformists formerly and lately had not been forbid to preach , nor all forbid to admit non-conforming christians to communion ; nor had they been ipso facto excommunicate ( though ant. de dom. spalatensis say so much to make odious all excommunicating ipso facto ( who , they say , first devised the name of a doctrinal penitence . ) and bishop ier. taylor saith so much against it . and i confess that there is the magistrate's sword to back all this ; by which about two thousand of us were silenced , and you fly out of your country from the writ de excommunicato capiendo . § . my belief of your unfeigned honesty makes one at last pity you , and wonder when you add [ what more would you have ? ] what it was that could tempt you to contract the guilt of defending things of such publick and sad an aspect and prospect , against such light , and after such experience of the effects , and in such a time ! . do you believe in your conscience , that the bishop of york , norwich , lincoln , london , or the rest , with a chancellor , and his officials and arch-deacons , can possibly exercise that discipline , or the hundredth part of it , which christ hath appointed , were they never so honest ? . do you believe that a lay-chancellor , who you confess hath not the power of the keys , doth or can well execute them ? . do you not know how little of the parish-government against scandals is exercised by the bishop ; and how almost is done by this chancellor and officials ? . do you not know how unlike their courts are to fit a sinner for absolution by true repetance ? . did you ever in your life know a sinner brought to a repentance seemingly unfeigned by them ? . did you ever hear such worthy men of greatest honesty and learning as dr. lloyd , dr. stillingfleet , dr. tillotson , mr. sharp , &c. name any in the pulpit or church by way of publick admonition and invitation to repentance , who was not first censured by the ordinary ? . do you think none of them would do it , if they thought it a duty , and the lawful and safe way of discipline ? . do you think their parishes have no scores or hundreds of brutists , atheists , drunkards , fornicators , or other scandalous sinners ? . do you think they can possibly know any thing of their peoples gross ignorance , infidelity , atheism , yea , or scandal , who can know so few of the persons ? ( much less can the bishop . ) . do you think that it is exercise enough of this discipline , when about in a year only communicate to leave or more , as members of the church in that parish , that use not to communicate , or else may come when they will extraordinarily to save them from the law , though utterly unknown to the minister ? ( and so proportionably in parishes half as big . ) and how is it possible this can be amended rebus sic stantibus ? and would not so many good men amend it , were it possible ? oh draw not the guilt of so many and such things on your self without cause ! were it as small a thing as the israelites high places , if you cannot amend it , do not become the open defender of it . iudas himself at last accused the pharisees and high priests , and justified christ. i do not think he would have written a confutation of christ's reproofs , recited in matt. . and , &c. how can you pray for a reformation of that which you think needeth none ? and hath the church and cause of holy discipline lost so much of your prayers too ? if you say to god , as you do to us , [ what more would we have ? ] i am glad that god hath a firmer people that will pray for more . § . you say [ as to the chancellor and his office , it is less matter by whom excommunication be done , so it be honestly and soundly done . he is a christian , he is a man of knowledge and learning ; he is authorized by the laws of the kingdom ; his office is incorporate into the government of the nation . though he may not bind and loose as a pastor , he may as a christian , authorized by the king. see matth. . , &c. ans. this is a great business . . why said you before , that the power of the keys belongs to the pastors , & c ? but you meant [ not only to them . ] . is it the same sort of excommunication and absolution which belongs to the pastor and to a lay-man ? if not , you say nothing to our business . for our laws , canons and church pretend here no difference . i confess that there are three acts of separation , which the magistrate may do . . he , may command bishops and pastors to do their office faithfully in excommunicating notorious impenitent criminals . . when they are excommunicated , he may forbid them intruding into the church . . he may judge the flagitious to be stigmatized , or be taken as out-lawed , and forbid men to be familiar with them . but the power of the church is a power of judging what individual persons are fit or unfit for baptism , the eucharist , church entrance , and church communion , is the church is the porch of heaven , and as a preparation to the final judgment . and it is not another sort , but this sort which the lay-chancellor pretendeth to exercise in the bishop's name . i have been thought by some to give my self too much to magistrates in church-matters : but i am far from your mind , for the reasons following . . it is notorious , that in scripture christ hath instituted a special office to use these keys , and do this work , which he would not have done , had he left it common to any others . . the power of the keys is so much of the essential comprehensive title of that office , as that it is nullified when it is made common . . if this part may be done by the lay-men or magistrate , no man can give a reason why any of the rest may not , even not only to be the stated teachers of the church , and their guides in worship , but also baptizing and administring the lord's supper . as it is more to be the law-makers than the cryers , and the judge , than the marshal ; so it is more to decree who shall have the sacraments , than barely to deliver it them , which the deacon may do . and so we shall have not only lay-baptizers , but lay-preachers , lay-administers of the lord's supper , or by contradiction , lay-priests . . you plead for conformity , and may easily know that the church of england abhorreth this opinion . . when king henry the eighth was called head of the church , to avoid the papists calumnies , queen elizabeth and king iames have published their disclaiming of that power of word and sacraments , called that of the keys ; and if my ears deceived me not , i have heard our present king profess the same . . the judgment and practice of the churches of all ages and places since christ , is against you ; i think helvetia it self not excepted . and should this be nothing to you , who call on us to reverence the old conformists ? . the reason of the institution fully satisfies me . it was not meet so great a trust should be placed in unfit men : as in case of ordination , it must be men that are able to try the persons , as to skill and life , that must be trusted with so weighty a business ; and also such that can have leisure to attend it ; and therefore as an office are empowered for it , and separated to it , lest it miscarry ; so as to baptism , absolution , excommunication , it must be done by men , . that are capable of full acquaintance with the person , witnesses and cause . . and that can try and judge of it . . and especially of the persons faith and repentance ; ( for it is on these that the sentence must pass : ) no baptism without faith : no excommunication without obstinate impenitence : no absolution without repentance . ) . it must be by men fit to exhort them to faith and repentance , and confute their errours , and pray for them that god would give them faith and repentance . . and it is so great a part of the world , and all the church of christ , that this , or much of this must be done for , that reason shewed it needful , that it be made the work of a great and special office. and if so , then those men that do it , . must be tryed as ordained ministers be : . and ordained to the office of doing it : . and profess to do it as such officers : . and not lacerate that office , and change it , by taking a part of it , and leaving the rest : and so they must be no lay-men . i could with that you had studied and consulted better , before with such more than erastian singularity you had pleaded for so dangerous a thing as church-levelling , or so much overthrow of the necessary sacred office , and set your self against the judgment and practice of the christian church . but all men have their hour of temptation ; and all do not overcome . § . you say , the excommunication is of no force till published by the parish-minister , who hath power , if he please , to make it his text , and declare the nature , use and ends , &c. ans. . i had rather have a better text. . it is of force if another publish it . . it 's part of the true charge of the minister himself , and will , trusting another with it , discharge him . . we fear being guilty of the lay-man's usurpation , and the church-confusion . . but worst of all , it is people fearing god that the canon excommunicateth ipso facto , and that the chancellor is to excommunicate . had it been my duty to pronounce you excommunicate , because the chancellor decreed it ? . where you say , if i know the sentence to be void , unjust and illegal , i am not to publish it . ans. well set together . but if you know it to be unjust , and yet legal , according to the canon , you must publish it , or be a non-conformist , and may be suspended : and are all the canons decrees just ? chap. xxii . you speak next of the surplice ; of which i gave you no occasion . but we that know that the true meaning of the liturgy is , that all must use it that shall be suffered to officiate , . will not believe you , if you tell us the contrary hereafter , and lay it only on the canon , and think it nothing that you are obliged to consent to , and aprove . . nor will i yet believe that you will undertake to justifie the ejecting and silencing of all that dare not use the surplice : or if you will , you cannot . the th and th of the romans cannot be confuted ; nor the many proofs that i have given , that it reacheth our case , in my late book for the church's concord . and why talk you of the surplice , and omit the main question , whether we may consent to the liturgy , preface and rubrick , which impose it as they do ? you durst not consent to silence two thousand , or one that dare not use it . chap. xxiii . § . your next section is of the false rule for finding easter-day . to this you say , [ if really there be an error , i assent not to it . ] ans. nor i : nor will i say i do when i do not . and to what purpose then do you write for conformity , when one lye must not be told to save our liberty ? § . but you say , it is not an error in divinity . ans. what then ? may i lye about any other things ? § . but you say , some yet continue to affirm it is no error . ans. and what will not some men affirm ? you see how hard it is for a non-conformist to be justified with some men , when all the almanacks in england cannot do it in such a point . i am too weak to deal with men , that will not take such evidence as this . you say , that it is questionable , whether this be any part of the book to be assented to . ans. you had some fair pretence to deny the act of uniformity to be a part , though the contents say it is , but if this be questionable , you may question ( as the school-men ) so long till you leave us little unquestionable . this would increase my resolution against conformity , when we cannot be sure what it is that we must assent and consent to , and what not : how can you tell us which is or not of the book , if this be not ? § . you say , [ for the time past none will lay it to the charge of the conformists , and for the time to come it will be abated , those that shall subscribe and conform . ] ans. how oft have i told you , that i am laying nothing to the charge of others , but excusing our selves ? but i cannot justifie them that will do they know not what . especially it is sad that , when such a convocation which is the representative church of england , shall all consent to draw up such things to be imposed on a kingdom ; and so great a parliament require assent to it on the penalties enacted and executed on so many , they should have no more honourable a defence than you make for them . § . and who it is that hath the power to abate us that which the law so severely requireth , we do not yet know , unless it be the king , whose mind you know not . it is the bishop that you mean : but i doubt the lawyers that have so lately questioned the kings power of dispensation , will contradict you that give that to the bishop which they deny the king. chap. xxiv . § . the next section is about our assenting to , consenting to , and approving the many disorders and defects in the liturgy . you confess there are such , and name many of them . and the sum of your answer is , that you assent and consent to use the formes though disordered and defective , and the assent and consent is no otherwise to be understood . ans. soon said , but where 's the proof ? . the words are , all things contained in , and prescribed by the book . is the mode and disorder none of the [ all ? ] if i should say , i approve , assent , and consent to something but not all ; or the matter , but not the order and manner , doth this answer the common sense of the universal words ? what if the book did say the lord's prayer , or ten commandments backward , or baptized in the name of the holy ghost , the son , and the father , or began as it ends , &c. may i declare that i consent to , and approve all things contained in it , and prescribed by it ? § . as to your limitation of the sense to the word use , i have told you that the parliament rejected it , and that it is a groundless fiction , and that it makes your cause no whit the better were it granted . chap. xxv . § . the next is , whether we may assent to the preface for justifying all that was in the book before . you say that it was not the intent of the book to bind any man to approve the errors of translators and printers , nor to use the forms in the liturgy so as to contradict one another . ans. . printers errors indeed are not the convocations , nor the books as made by them : did i instance in any of them . but if translators errors also be excepted , our difficulty of understanding the imposition still increaseth . then it seems as to the psalms , epistles and gospels , we assent and consent only to the original text , and so much as we judge well translated . i thought it the book by ill translation had grosly contradicted , or depraved the scripture , it had been one of the worst sort of errors . i told you where it directly contradicteth the text. what heresie may not be brought in by a false translation ? we thank god for the worst , as a great mercy to the church ; and by them that will not receive a better in the psalms , we are thus commanded to justifie even that which was worst , lest they should be thought to have needed any amendment . and you make your self their expositor without their authority , and tell us that the intent of the book is not to bind us to approve the errors of translators : and i believe you as the book is distinguished from the authors , and so hath no intent at all . but if the translaton hath done , as heylin saith the king's printer did , that put [ thou shalt commit adultery , ] for [ thou shalt not , ] and i were commanded to approve of all things contained in the book ; whatever you shall say or do , i would have done as iohn fox the martyrologist did , saith heylin , who brought a greek testament ( supposing the hebrew . old testament ) and said to them , [ i am ready to subscribe this : if that will not serve your turn , take my prebendship of salisbury , which is all the preferment that ever i had of you , and much good may it do you . ] § . and you tell us without proof , that when at christmas we are bid say [ as on this day christ was born ] for divers days , it intends not that we shall use the words [ this day , ] but on one day ( and so at whitsuntide , &c. ) that is , it expresly imposeth the very words that we shall read , forbidding us by the canon to alter or diminish , and yet it meaneth not that we should use them . may you not then say what you list , which you think should have been commanded you , and suppose it the meaning of the command ? you say , this is but a favourable interpretation : you should have said truly , [ it was their oversight , which if they had seen they had amended . ] and i do not say that they meant amiss : but if they speak amiss , and our humble prelates that are servi servorum dei , come after them , and command me on pain of silence to assent , consent to , and approve the words , they shall take my liberty and life if they will ; but i will not approve them . it is all things in the book that we must consent to , whatever was in their minds . if they bid me approve the saying , that [ christ's body and blood is really present , under the forms of bread and wine , ] and mean as well by it as cousins , heylin , &c. did , i will not approve it , though you should . though luther de conciliis , & dav. derodon say , that nestorius meant soundly , yet the councils condemned him for a heretick , and owned not his words , whatever he meant . § . but you say , [ it is not that the old book was faultless , but that they were fully persuaded in their judgments that it was so . ] ans. you think this but a [ favourable interpretation ] too . but by your leave , [ if they had said that we are fully persuaded in our judgment , that the council of trent hath nothing contrary to the word of god , ] and then required me to declare my assent and consent to all things contained in that book , i should not have done it . if you understand the words so , others will not . chap. xxvi . § . you next undertake to prove , that the act of uniformity is no part of the book to be consented to . the contents say it is : you say it is not . are these contents part of the book ? if so , then they are false : if not , how shall we know what is or is not part of the book ? your proofs are no proofs . . you say , the act it self nameth the book as distinct from the law. ans. and what then ? no more followeth but that the word [ book ] is sometime taken in the full sense , and sometime more narrowly . so the body is oft distinguished from the head , and the kingdom from the king : will you therefore infer that the head is no part of the body , nor the king of the kingdom , fully taken ? the preface is usually distinguished from the book , and so is the index , or contents , margin , title , &c. and yet preface , index , contents , title , margin of the book , are all parts of the book . your second proof is of the same sort . § . your third saith , the book must rather ( if either ) be a part of the act , because it is subjoined . would you by this rate of argument convince us ? is the book part of the preface , or contents , or index , if these go first ? is the house part of the porch , or the porch part of the house ? is the body part of the head ? or the kingdom part of the king ? or the family part of the porter ? but you say , it is absurd to say that the thing to which the appendix is annexed , is part of the appendix . it is so ; therefore say not so your self . but is not the appendix part of the book ? and doth the acts , being placed first , make it no appendix ? and were it put in the end , were it not the same thing ? § . your fourth is no better , viz. [ the old act of uniformity is a declared part of the contents , and bound up with the book ; and if this be part , we must subscribe contradictions , to use two common-prayer-books . ans. is that old act , the old book ? is subscribing to that act , subscribing to the old book ? why obtrude you on us such things unproved ? . do you not know that the new act not only confirmeth the old , but also altereth the sense of it , and tells you that henceforth it shall be understood , as meaning this new book ? and as bishop taylor truly tells you , laws are not the laws of the dead , but of the living , who therefore give them what sense they please . and yet shall so sober a man tell us , that subscribing the old act , is subscribing the old book ? i begin to be weary answering such reasonings as these . § . your fifth and sixth reasons are from the general sense and opinion of all divines , as for you : and you say , never any to this day did think that the th canon and subscription included the act. ans. you now practice what you plead for . can you tell what every subscriber to this day thought ? he is yet living that at the savoy undertook to prove it an act of mercy to them to put all from the sacrament that did not receive it kneeling . and you know that all the bishops in the lords house had their part in making that act of uniformity , with all its penalties . and as certainly they did consent to the making and imposing of it ; so what should make you sure that they never meant ( no not one of them ) that any others should be bound to the same , when they put it into the book , and put in the words [ all things contained ] and when it is so natural to such men to desire that all men approve of what they do ? i should think it ten to one , that they that think it their duty to do such a thing , as the silencing of two thousand ministers on those terms ( or five thousand if they had not conformed , ) will be very much concerned to have their act approved : and that they that will not endure us to speak in the praying desk , or at either sacrament to god in any one word but what they write down for us to say , are likely to desire that we may be also bound to approve of their sanctions of this law. but i am sure you speak that which you know not to be true . § . to your seventh i answer , what would have plainer than the express assertion of the contents themselves ? § . in your eighth you say , [ many conformable men think nothing in the book is to be assented to , but what is ordinarily to be read , and the ceremonies to be used ] ans. . put this down then as one point of our nonconformity , which deserveth silencing ; and ruine that , when we cannot profess to [ assent and consent to all things contained and prescribed in the book ] and mean by [ all things , only the ceremonies , and so much as is ordinarily to be read . ] but again , teach not papists to expound the oaths of allegiance and supremacy at this rate . § . you say , . that the title is no part of an act of parliament . . nor any but the mandatory is part of a law. ans. but you might have known that we will not believe you : why then should you thus put us off with your bare word ? though the word [ law ] ( as all words ) be equivocally oft used , and taken for the chief part , yet as properly taken , and pertinently to our question , we will yet believe whatever you say , . that the prefatory reasons , and the penal and premiant sanctions , are parts of the act and law. . yea , that the title is part of the act , if it be made and prefixed , and promulgate with it by the legislators . but i will tell you how you may know : if you openly deprave all the rest of the law or book , and some one indict you for it , the judge may satisfie you better than i can . § . but you are never so confident as where you are most overseen . you say , our strongest reason from the contents doth most strongly confute it self . this title is not only part of your proof , but all that i can see . for that which you take for your proof , that [ then the old act of uniformity , and consequently two books , are consented to , and our governours speak non-sense ] is either worse than non-sense , or i understand not sense from non-sense . i have called before for your proof , that [ two acts are two common-prayer-books ] when the latter establisheth the former expresly , as binding only to the new book ! the words are [ be it enacted — that the several good laws and statutes of this realm , which have been formerly made , and are now in force for the uniformity of prayer , &c. shall stand in full force and strength , to all intents and purposes whatsoever , for the establishing and confirming of the said book entitled , &c. herein before mentioned , and shall be applyed , practised , and put in use for the punishing of all offences contrary to the said laws , with relation to the book aforesaid , and no other . ] and they have caused the act of elizabeth , to be bound with this book , as it was with the old : and doth this infer two books from two acts , & c ? alas brother ! that we should trouble and wrong the world at this rate of unadvised confidence . this old canonical subscription is also continued ; and yet it is here enacted , that it shall mean only this new book , and no other . you add , if the printer , or any other through oversight bind up the apocrypha , and put in the contents of the holy bible , is it a part of it ? ans. . it is not the printer's act , but the law-maker's that we have to do with . . if the law-maker cause the printer to put the apocrypha in the bible , and call it a part of it in the contents , i will say that he declareth it to be a part , though i believe him not . and i will call god's word his word , if aesop's fables be bound with it ; and i will subscribe to god's word . but if the law-maker bind other books with it , and in the contents call them part of the book , and then bid me declare assent and consent to all things in that book , i will not obey him . chap. xxvii . about declaring it unlawful , on any pretence whatsoever , to take arms by the king's authority against any commissioned by him . § . here you will prove ( in your proving way ) that it meaneth only [ against such as be justly and legally commissioned in the due pursuance of their commission . ] before i answer you , i will give you my reasons for the contrary . . the act of militia seemeth to me to give another sense of the whole matter : read it and judge . . this subscription , and other like professions , were purposely imposed for the renunciation of the late parliament arms. but in your sense what will it have done to satisfie or oblige any man in that or the like case , when they profest the same thing , and said , that it was only unjust and unlawful commissions , and an unlawful pursuit that they resisted ? be their words true or false , this was their pretence , and they would in the heat of the war have subscribed to what you say . . this was made and imposed to keep men from the like for the time to come : but this would not keep them ; for they would take it . . are you ignorant what striving there hath been in parliament to have got the word [ lawfully or legally ] commissioned in , and it could never be obtained ? ( save that not long ago it was carryed once in a grand committee of the house of lords only , very many years since this act was made . ) some say they had reason not to express it , though they meant it , lest it should be abused . i answer , then they had reason to desire not to be so understood . and then we cannot , nor ought , not so to understand them against their wills ; and the non apparere , and non esse of their sense is all one to us . . they knew that it was this that would herein have satisfied dissenters , and tended to the concord which they professed to desire ; and yet they would not yield to any such limitation or exposition . . there were such reasons brought against your sense as these in the house . . no resisting arms are lawful . . if subjects be made judges whether the king's commissions be lawful or not , it it is no restraint of rebellion at all . for it 's as easie to say , they are unlawful , as to say , we may resist them though lawful , and far more easie . who will not pretend it ? . non est limitandum aut distinguendum de lege sine lege : but in so great a business as this , do you think our governours will not take it for a heinous thing , for such as you or i to put in the word [ lawful ] into subscriptions and oaths , which so many great men did so long and deliberately study . . a papist or jesuit will take it in your words ; for he will say , that no commission against the pope's countermands , or his authority , or canons are lawful . § . now to your proofs ; . you say , [ the act it self implieth it ; for else , what use is there for laws and parliaments ? the king may do what he will : he is free to violate his coronation oath , and set up arbitrary government by a law. ] ans. did you ever read bishop taylor against resistance in his ductor dubitant . who despaireth of proving any thing in the world , if he cannot prove that ? have you read dr. hearne , mr. digs , mich. hudson , mr. welden , dr. arnway , & c ? you are answered by many . . that the king may not do any such thing lawfully . . but if he do it , he is answerable only to god. . and that the subject hath no remedy but prayers and tears . yet it followeth not , say they , that laws or parliaments are vain : for by them the king governeth as far as he please , and they are his instruments . § . your second reason is , the calling in the the king's indulgence , as contrary to law , sheweth it . ans. did they that declared it contrary to law , declare that men may resist it by arms ? § . . you say , [ the iudges at westminster unanimously agree upon this sense and exposition of the law , and their common practice no less . ] ans. i will give you a lawyer 's fee if you will prove it . when , and how did they ever declare any such agreement ? what practice is it that you mean ? do they commonly resist unlawfully commissioned souldiers by arms ? or declare for it . . but if this were true ( which i believe not , whatever their secret judgment may be ) it followeth not the parliament which made this law was of that mind . . your assertion is raw ( that the iudges are made the publick expositors of laws , made by king and parliament ) . there are two sorts of exposition of laws : one is but limited to a particular case and person , in order to the applicatory sentence for or against that man : and so the judges are expositors . the other is universal , so as to oblige all the subjects as the law it self doth , so that they must understand the law , antecedently to their obedience . and this is proper to the law-giver : for the sense of the law is its essence : and judges are not the law-makers . common politicks might have taught you this . § . . you say [ the parliament's proceedings against chancellor hide and the earl of danby , shew their sense . ] ans. . it was not the same parliament that prosecuted them both . . what did the parliament to any such purpose ? is impeaching a delinquent , taking arms against the king's commission , if unlawful ? you say , [ they mean not to unhinge the right of the subject , the priviledge of parliaments , to make void all oaths , bonds , engagements of all the legal authorized iudges , mayor , magistrates , constables , officers of the kingdom ] ans. . you are a bold man if you dare say that all these are made void , unless the king 's unlawful commissions may be resisted by arms. you are for the bishops resolving your doubts : i pray you go ask the bishops that had a hand in making the act , ( bishop morley , or such other that came not in since ) whether you have hit of the true meaning of it ? chap. xxviii . § . your th section is of the non-obligation of the covenant ( or vow . ) and here you tell us first how much you can declare , and then you give us just twenty reasons against the making and taking of the covenant , which you knew were impertinent to any thing that i said : and yet many of them are as impertinent to the end which you seem to intend ; and a covenanter would soon shame . a bad argument wrongeth the best cause . . you say , there was never such an oath taken by any person fearing god. ans. how prove you that ? oh! very easily : you bid us prove the affirmative . pitiful ! so you may affirm that never man in the world said or did that , which we cannot prove that some said or did : or affirm an universal negation , because we prove not the contrary . . might not an arrian at nice ( conc. . ) say , never such a creed was drawn and imposed before . . may not the pope say to the first protestants , never such a protestation was made before ? . but i pray you read better the scottish history , and see whether no such covenant was made in scotland before . your th is more pitiful , being a game at equivocation . . did you think that the word [ prelacy ] in the common , or the imposers sense , did mean pastors that excel in gifts and grace . you may next say , it meant kings , or school-masters ; when yet they adjoined an expository description . and i have told you , . that doctor burges , mr. gataker , and many more openly declared that they would not covenant against the primitive episcopacy , and were ready to enter their protestation ; and the assembly to satisfie them , added the description , as meaning only the english concatenated frame . . and the house of lords took it upon mr. coleman's making the same exposition . . but the bishops will give you little thanks for subjecting them to all pastors that have better gifts and grace : and they will laugh at you for talking , as if this were the prelacy in question . in your th you tell us , that bishops name and thing are scriptural : and yet pag. . you say [ a bishop and a presbyter in the sense and language of the scripture , are the same . ] the reader may think that when you affirm , and when you deny , it is the same . and you ask how they would take an oath to extirpate presbyters , and were told , they mean not to extirpate them as bishops , but as presbyters . ans. did you think you spake to the case ? . if they thought a presbyter as such , as bad as a bishop as such , no doubt they would have taken that oath . . but do you take a bishop here for the same as a presbyter , or as a species of presbyters , or as a superiour to presbyters ? which ever it is , it 's nothing to the case in hand : he that saith , we renounce diocesan prelacy , but not preeminence of gifts , nor parochial episcopacy , doth but say plainly , i renounce not another thing by renouncing prelacy in the known and explained sense : but he that saith , renounce presbyters but not bishops , as they signifie the same thing , or as presbyters signifieth the whole genus ; or yet as bishops are the governours of presbyters , speaketh gross contradictions . and when after you argue sometimes from the worth of the persons to the goodness of the office , and sometime from the old episcopacy , to the english diocesan prelacy ; you do but lose your words as to us . and i could wish you would have left out your medium of multitudes of protestants that would turn papists , if the papists could prove as much for them of antiquity and universality , as the english diocesan prelacy can : when i consider how in the same empire they grew up together , i would not have you be the man that should dispute with a papist , who undertaketh to prove the roman primacy as ancient as our species of diocesan prelacy described in the covenant , and to be acknowledged then by as many . i say not that they can prove it : but i had rather you laid not so much upon it . you equivocate when you say , all sides are for bishops : you will have few assenters when you say , that episcopacy , presbytery , and independancy , are not three forms of church-government , as three is contrary to unity ( viz. of such form : and when you say , extirpate one and extirpate all ( the forms ) because godliness is the same in all . are not monarchy , aristocracy , and democracy , three forms , contrary to unity of form ; though humanity , piety , and regiment , be the same in all ? do they that extirpate presbytery , or democracy , extirpate all ? but why should i trouble the reader , or you , by any further opening of your mistakes in a case that i am not concerned in , and is none of our controversy ? when you say that [ the generality of the non-conformists are for a well tempered prelacy , ] you infer an odious guilt on those prelatists , who write vehemently for our ruine ; as intolerable because we are against episcopacy : i could name you many such besides dr. saywel . you say , the presbyterians and independants , were as bitter against one another , as the prelates were against them both , saving violences , and coercive restraints . ans. i refer it to your second thoughts , . whether this be sober consistency . . whether it be true . . to be [ as bitter , except violence , and coercive restraint , ] is in english to be [ as bitter , except being far more bitter , ] q. d. [ the differing protestants in ireland were as bitter against each other , as the papists against both , saving cruelties and murders . ] bradford's school-master , was as hurtful to him as bonner , except imprisonment and burning him . he that chides me is as hurtful to me as he that maimeth me , except hurting me more . when you have excepted silencing , imprisoning , and taking away all our maintenance , you except much . . but yet is it true ? remember it was but presbyterians and independants that you speak of : read the book of their assembly debates : read all their writings against each other : i will not except mr. edward's gangraena , and see whether they do not acknowledg more of god's grace in one another , and own more of the duty of loving and forbearing own another , than the prelatists do by either . read the canons that excommunicate them ipso facto as for wicked error ; and read doctor heylin , fowlis , the book against mr. calamy's farwel sermon , the counterminer , l'estrange , the friendly debate , mr. parker ; and a multitude more such ; and of old bishop bancroft ; and in a word , the ordinary visitation articles , or peter studley , and a multitude such , that preacht and wrote against them as hypocrites , pharisees , schismaticks , and such like , and then consider how far you have here swerved from known truth . i may say that i knew all those times , and the sorts of persons mentioned , much better than you : many sectaries were very bitter , and some too bitter against them . the presbyterians and independants contended with too much intemperance and unskilfulness . but sure if they had thought as ill of one another as the prelates did of both , when they had power , they would as much have silenced and ejected one another ; which they did not . i remember not ever to have known any meer presbyterian or independant , especially ministers , but openly declared that they looked on both parties as the servants of christ , whom they should love and honour . but this is nothing to our cause . you say truly , [ an oath is a sacred thing , and it is dangerous to use shifts and stretches ] . and if so , it is not without danger to persuade thousands so to do , or to justifie many hundred thousand if they will be down-right perjured . you say , [ if one may judge of those times by these now present , a great many swore pell-mell they knew not what , because they knew not what presbytery , independancy , and episcopacy was . ] . no doubt many did so . . but they partly knew what the english prelacy was , by long experience ; and they swore not for presbytery or independancy , nor against all episcopacy . . but if you think that they do so in these times , you and i should lament it : for god will not hold them guiltless , whether they be pastors and churches , or cities and corporations , that take his name by perjury in vain : it 's better call them to repentance , than justifie them in it . to contract the guilt of the perjury of many thousands is an expeditious way to misery , and doth a great deal in a little time . § . having thus proved that which i denied not , you proceed to add nineteen propositions about the case in question , in all which it is not easie to be sure which side you conclude for : you grant most of my premises , which make against perjury . you confess , that if any one person be bound by that oath to endeavour an alteration of church government , no man may with a safe conscience subscribe this . and , if there be evil in the government of the church , which may well and conveniently be reformed , you do not see but that all that have taken that oath , stand bound in their places and calling to endeavour it : there can be no just reformation without some alteration . a great deal more than this you grant , how rulers are bound to yield in things confest indifferent , which others account sin , were it but to heal our breaches : and what a sin it is to cast out of the church multitudes of holy conscientious men for a small and tolerable error , when all have some , &c. but yet instead of a conclusion , if you are intelligible , you induce men to subscribe , though that which they fear , be ( not accusing any ) lest they should be guilty of many hundred thousand perjuries . you say , . [ we must in expounding laws regard the meaning of our governours . ] ans. true : but is it their meaning de genere , or de specie , or individuo ? our governour 's meaning is not to approve perjury . but suppose yet they had commanded me to swear that no man is bound by the oath of supremacy ; is it no perjury so to swear . then we might swear any thing commanded while the commander saith , he is not for perjury . if rulers command men to marry their own sisters , and yet say , that they abhor incest , may one justifie this because they are against incest ? if rebels rise in arms against their rulers , but yet renounce rebellion , how are they to be expounded ? but you say , [ if there be any thing in the government contrary to the word of god , the laws , canons , liturgy , offices of iudges and ministers do bind all men against it , as null and void , though not abolished by parliament . ] ans. and what then ? do you infer [ therefore we may subscribe ; or therefore we must interpret nothing in the law to be against god's word ; or therefore we must not subscribe it ? the last is the true conclusion . if socinians renounce all that is against god's word , and yet command you to renounce christ's godhead , may you do it ? . but i would fain see the words which you here suppose in the law , canons and liturgy ; and whether they leave us all to be judges what is against god's word ? and , . i would have you expound to me , . the canon that requireth us to subscribe , that there is nothing in the liturgy against god's word . . and that which excommunicateth all that say there is any thing against it . . and the law that layeth us in gaol , and ruineth us , if we so say and do forbear accordingly . is it an argument to say , [ the law renounceth all that is contrary to the word of god ; and excommunicateth , and silenceth , and ruineth you , if you say that there is in the liturgy any thing against it : ergo , you may subscribe though there be somewhat against it , because the law disowneth it ? ] i would not think you mean this : therefore i know not what you mean to infer , unless it be your next words : [ therefore what faults be in the government , are rather the faults of the governours ] . alas , this is it and worse . thus you might infer , there is no fault in the papal government , if the pope in general renounce all that is against god's word , and then bids you swear that popery is not against it . turks and heathens renounce in general all sinning against god , and yet i would not say that their laws may be owned as sinless . you say , [ if all governours in church and state faithfully did their duties according to the canons , liturgy , &c. it would be happy for all sides . ] ans. no man can tell by these words , whether you mean [ if they did all that the laws and canons command them , ] or [ if they did the good part and left out the bad . ] if the later be your sense , it is against you : if it have a bad part which we must not do , it hath a part which we must not consent , covenant , or promise to do . if the former , then you have part of your happiness , and may soon enough see more . your honest words elsewhere shew that you take it for no happiness , to have all professed non-conformists excommunicated according to the canon , and silenced and ruined according to the law. and yet i cannot tell how to agree you with your self : you say , [ all good and peaceable men would be protected , whether conformists , or non-conformists . ans. as mr. field , mr. thompson , and others that died in gaol were ; or as mr. hughs , mr. ioseph allen , and others that died by their prison-diseases were ; or as those that must be silenced , or lie in gaol six months , and pay forty pound a sermon ; or as men excommunicated ipso facto are protected . § . you say , [ the words of the declaration do not say , no man is bound to endeavour the alteration of the governours but the government , that is , of the laws , rules , and canons , by which they govern , and the several offices which be in the church . — these may be good . — the office may be divine , or justly prudential , or tolerably lawful . — suppose the oath and covenant doth not bind to endeavour the alteration of the chancellor's office. — your conclusion seems implied in your challenge . [ now let any nonconformist prove that there is any office in the english way of church government simply unlawful , &c. ] ans. . have you answered the proof that i pretend to have brought in my disput. of church government ? if not , must i write it again as oft as you will bid me ? or would it be here meet to write a treatise to answer this your challenge ? but get it tolerated , and it shall soon be done . . you say , the government is the laws , rules , and canons , by which they govern : and if these need not be altered , why did you before disown the exercise of them , as a great sin ? and yet this implieth [ the law and canon , which excommunicate non-conformists , and which deny the lord's supper to those that kneel not , and which silence non-subscribers to the th canon , and which deny baptism to those that scruple the english use of the cross and god-fathers , and which ruine all that preach when silenced , need no alteration , as simply unlawful . ] but we must prove them unlawful : come to me then in private , and let us debate the case , and i will prove to you as much as i affirm . in the mean time , if it will go for any proof with you , i crave your answer to these arguments which some use , that doubt of the lawfulness which they dare not deny . i. a church-governing office for the exercise of that power of the church keys by lay-men , which christ hath appropriated to the clergy is sinful : but such is the office of our lay-chancellors : ergo , &c. ii. a species of prelacy which is destructive of , or inconsistent with the form of particular churches , and of bishops and presbyters , and the exercise of that church-discipline which christ and his spirit in the apostles did institute is sinful . but ( they fear ) such is the english diocesan species of prelacy : ergo , &c. iii. the government which is to be the execution of the foresaid canons , and act of uniformity , &c. for expelling , excommunicating , silencing , imprisoning , ruining non-conformists , you said before was unlawful — but — ergo. but here i would , as your real friend , advise you to two things more ; as well as not needlesly to contract the guilt of that which you call grievous sin in others . . that you will publish your retractation of those words [ the words of the declaration do not say , no man is bound to endeavour the alteration of the governours , but only of the government . ] do you consider what you say ? . you know that it is the government of the state as well as church , that is here expressed : and do you think that the king and parliament never intended to keep men from deposing the king ? or the lords , and commons , and judges , though they changed not the species , but set up others in their steads ? or will the bishops so expound it to you , as that it meaneth not that you are not obliged by the covenant , to pull down all the present bishops if you set up others in their stead ? . that you avoid the commoner answer of others , who say , that it is only the essentials of government that are here meant , and not any integrals , or accidents . for , . the king and state-government is here touched . and dare you say that [ if any man think that the covenant bindeth him to destroy all the king 's civil government , except the bare essentials of monarchy , that the parliament intended not here to contradict him ? ] . and i doubt the bishops will be angry with you and call you schismaticks , if you say that the parliament here meant not to contradict them that say , they are bound by the covenant to turn our diocesan bishops into parochial ones , or into one in every corporation , and to take down their court officers , and their lordships , parliament , power and wealth . that which serveth men best in arguing , will not best please the men that they plead for . you say , [ we grant that there is no one thing in the episcopal government , but what we may well bear with , and submit to . ] ans. . we well may and must bear with that which we cannot help . in moscovy we may fear that all preaching is put down , saving reading homilies ; and a man may there live godly : but do not you therefore tell all men , that if the same were done here , we may enter into a solemn covenant , never to endeavour to reform it : no , were it but the high places in iudaea . . submitting is either by obedience , or meer patience . under papists and turks men must submit by patience : but if you say , we hold that we must obey all that they command , our practice tells you , it is not true . but the question is , whether there be no one thing , but what we may covenant never to endeavour to alter , and subscribe that no parliament man , or any other in england , is bound by that oath , which they took , to endeavour it ? the law forbids me to say , they are , and therefore i say it not : but if you say , they are not , dare you undertake to answer for them ? you say , their office binds them to no evil . that is , none of the things fore-mentioned are evil : which you said were so . again you say , all the while excommunications and church censures are soundly done , it 's the the less matter by whom they are done . ans. . do not say so to the king about kingly government : nor to the judges if an intruder invade the tribunal . . make the bishops believe this if you can , of any that should usurp their office. . make the parish priests believe it if you can , who are so angry with us for helping them at a distance , though we invade not places . . make any sober ministers believe if you can , that if the word be well preacht , and sacraments soundly administred , it is no matter who doth it . . make any master of a family , or husband , believe it as to their offices , that it 's no matter who doth it , so it be soundly done . if the wife do believe , it 's two to one the husband will not . § . again you say , [ by the government of church and state , whatsoever is absolutely sinful is forbidden , — the laws declare it null , &c. ] ans. this is before answered . you say , silencing and excommunicating the non-conformists here , are sinful . instead of this impertinent talk , go try your oratory on the judges and bishops ; if you can persuade them that the law forbids them all to fine , imprison , or silence us , or excommunicate us : why did you not use this pretty argument for your self ? . and do not papists , and turks say , that no law against god is in force ? and doth their government therefore contain no evil ? or will you tell them that swear to amend it , that it 's well enough already ? you tell us what to say to the bishops and judges for our selves : but if by this medium , i would prove that i am conformable to the law , and they are the non-conformists that punish me , because they break the law of god ; i doubt they would laugh at me first , and send me to gaol next . § . but in answer to , where read we in scripture of the chancellor's office ? you repeat again , [ if soundly done , no man may reprove them . ] i will not repeat my answer : but i add ; if so , no man may reprove the boys if they soundly whip their master when he deserveth it ; nor a cobler that will send offenders to prison as the lord mayor doth : nor a justice , yea , or a tinker , that will step up in the chancery , or king's-bench , to do justice . § . but though i will not laugh at your writing ; i should hardly forbear if i heard you do what page , you say you would do , viz. [ if a bishop , or arch-bishop , or chancellor , live where you are pastor , and be a member of your congregation , you must needs look on your self as obliged by the laws and canons of the church and state , by the word of god , and by the rules of the common-prayer-book , publickly to admonish him , if he grosly misdemean himself , and do a scandalous crime ; and if he shall not by open confession give satisfaction to the church , bar him from the sacrament , and declare him disorderly and contumacious , and that if he do not repent he shall perish ; and warn the people to beware of such evil courses , and to have no more to do with him than they needs must : and this i maintain to be part of the discipline and government of the church of england . ] ans. i would i could see this bout . i doubt he will have something to do with you your chancellor had the wit to begin with you first . i pray you forget not this case when you go to the bishop for his sense of the liturgy , and tell us his answer when you come home . i must profess this is an edifying passage : as when i read in saltmarsh , that christ repented and believed for us , it let in more light against libertinism , than i had before : so doth this passage raise up some useful doubts in me about our churches , which i thought not on till now . q. . whether are the bishops that dwell in the london parishes ( or others ) members of the parish church where they dwell ? q. . if they are not , whether dwelling in the parish make a christian a member of the parish church ? q. . if not , what is it that makes a member , and how are the pastors special flock truly known to him from others ? q. . if they be members , to whom shall we present the bishop for not coming to church , or for his crimes ? is it to himself ? q. . whether is the bishop , or the parish priest there the higher power , or governor ? and which must obey ? q. . doth the canon that forbids men to go from their own parish churches , extend to the bishop ? q. . how is the bishop one of the parson's flock , and the parson one of the bishop's flock , both at once ? q. . whether the bishop that is excommunicated by the parson out of the parish church , be cast out of the universal ? or other churches , may have communion with him , or not ? q. . what if the parson excommunicate the bishop , and the bishop the parson both at once , what a case are they in ? and which shall stand , one or both , and how far ? q. . how will the parson practice his conformity , who consenteth when he putteth any one from the sacrament , to certifie the ordinary within fourteen days ? will he prosecute the bishop to himself , or to his chancellor ? q. . doth not this instance prove mr. cheyney , to be a mistaking expositor of the church-government , the bishops themselves being judges ? and would not one days practice of any such thing convince him by experience , that the church of england now take not parish parsons for parish bishops ? q. . is he in the right , page . that this course would make bishops , and arch-bishops , and chancellors , stand in awe of the priests ? why then did you not thus awe your bishop and chancellor ? chap. xxix . your th section hath nothing in it that requireth many words for answer : that oaths and laws must be charitably expounded no one denieth , so they be truly expounded . in this we stand to bishop sanderson's rules , which are far better stated than any thing here said by you . and your citing my limited and conditional approbation of the assemblies catechisms , and the synod of dort's , is certainly no reason for my absolute and unlimited professing to assent and consent to all things , in books which have so much more which i dissent from . chap. xxx . § . your th section containeth your unproved opinions , and false devices , for stretching subscriptions , covenants and professions . and first you tell us of the difficulty of using any words that may not seem doubtful : but yet if there be not a satisfactory intelligibleness in words , humane converse is overthrown , and oaths of allegiance , and all contracts are of little use unto their ends . § . you say , [ though there be in this volume which we call the common-prayer-book , many matters , sentences , and words bound all together , yet do we assent and consent to no more but that which goes under the name of the service of the church , and the rules and orders touching the same , and the rites and ceremonies thereof . ans. if you say [ all things contained in it ] means not [ all things ] indeed , tell us what difference there is between the equivocations of the jesuits , and this of yours . so one tells me , that [ when we profess to assent to all in the bible , ] the meaning is [ to all the precepts , promises , and words of god in it , but not that there is no humane errors in numbers and chronologie , genealogie , history , or citations . ] and so you may say , [ i will swear not to endeavour any alteration of the government of the state , but i mean not to alter monarchy . ] and what may not one thus say and swear ? . but yet i think it is no great number of [ matters , sentences , and words ] which are neither ( service , rules , orders , or rites . ) rubricks and calendars , and some prefaces belong to these . but it is a strange interpretation which would exclude doctrinals , such as the article of faith , of the certain salvation of all infants baptized , and dying before actual sin. your citations signifie nothing for your purpose , but tell us what you would have them signifie . § . but now i come to sampson's hair , the very strength of all your book , page . the preface saith , [ when doubts arise in the use and practice of the same , to appease all such diversity ( if any arise ) and for the resolution of all doubts concerning the manner how to understand , do and execute the things contained in this book , the parties that so doubt , or diversly take any thing , shall always resort to the bishop of the diocess , who by his discretion shall take order for the quieting and appeasing of the same , so that the same order be not contrary to any thing contained in this book . ] whence you gather , that the law makes the bishop the common expositor ; and if he gives a good exposition , or by silence shew consent , all is safe , and you may conform . i confess this reed is the strongest support of your cause that i have met with : and i am not censuring others that lean upon it : i doubt not but they may be better men than i : but i will tell you why i cannot . . it is a help to those that be in doubt : but i am out of doubt in many of the reasons of my non-conformity ; and therefore it is no help to me . . the words expresly limit the bishops exposition , [ so that his order be not contrary to any thing in the book . ] if it be not contrary to the book , it will give me no satisfaction : if it be contrary , it is of no force . . it is only about ( the things contained in the book ) that the bishop must resolve us : now either the acts of uniformity are part of those things , or not : if yea , then it is the acts also that i must assent and consent to ; which you as well as i are far from . and you maintain that the act is no part of the book : if not , then the bishop hath no power to expound the act : and the forms of assent and consent , and subscription imposed , are parts of the act. . the words make not the bishop the publick or common expositor of the law , or book , as judge ; but only as a teacher , who bindeth but so far as he tells the truth : the bishop must teach his ignorant or divided clergy , how to understand what they understand not : and this is not about their subscriptions , but matters of use and practice ( as where the table shall stand , and such like . ) that it maketh not the bishop the obliging judge of the law , appeareth , . because here is no such word . . the foresaid limitation speaketh the contrary . . else there might be as many religions , doctrines , or practices as bishops , or many at least : i will give you all the little money in my purse , if you will get me under the hand of bishop morley , bishop gunning , bishop sparrow , and arch-bishop stern , their approbation of your expositions of the parts of conformity , written in your book . and i suppose you know how zealously many write ( as well as doctor saywel ) against tolerating diversity of forms and rites , and orders of worship . and this would be to set up as many sects , or ways , as differing bishops pleased . this case was notably tried between arch-bishop laud , and the church that followed him , and williams , bishop of lincoln , about the table , or altar . . else bishops would have the legislative power : for the sense of the law is the law : and if the parliament form but the letter or body of it , and the bishop may give it what sense or soul he pleaseth ; it is he that will be the chief law-maker . . else bishops might corrupt and change our religion and church , under pretence of exposition . bishop godfrey goodman of glocester , who was a papist , might have set up popery in his diocess , by putting a popish sense upon subscription , words , and practices : and the bishops by agreement might set up popery in the land , by the same means . or a bishop might set up non-conformists , by gratifying them by his expositions . the thing meant in those words is no such dangerous power , but only an instructing and a pacifying , informing of the clergy , when they ignorantly differ about some dark word , or circumstance , or practice ; the bishop must teach them the true sense of the book , but do nothing against any thing therein . . is it not called an act for uniformity , and imposeth all the heavy penalties on purpose to procure uniformity ? would they have silenced and ruined two thousand ministers for non-conformity , if uniformity had not been thought of more worth than their ministerial labours ? and can you think that after all this , they meant to leave it to the particular bishops , whether there should be any uniformity or not ? you think one bishop will say , [ you are parish bishops , and may publickly admonish and reprove the scandalous , and excommunicate them excommunicatione minore : you may give them the sacrament , that conscienciously scruple kneeling ; you may baptize them that conscienciously scruple the dedicating cross , and the english sort of god-fathers ; you may refuse to say the words of prayer , which imply his salvation , over the dead who were excommunicable , though not excommunicated : you may understand the article which professeth the certainty of baptized infants salvation , of those only that are the children of faithful parents , or pro-parents ; you may say you assent to all in the book , and mean not all but some part , and that not as true , but as usable : you may profess consent to use it all , and yet not mean to use the calendar , or rubricks , or to administer the sacraments otherwise than as aforesaid : you may say , or subscribe , or swear , that it is , on any pretence whatsoever , unlawful to take arms against any commissioned by the king , and mean only such as are lawfully commissioned . you may subscribe that no one in england that sware it , is bound by the solemn vow and oath , to endeavour any alteration of government in church or state , and mean only that he must not endeavour it by sedition or rebellion . ] and so on to the end . but other bishops will say the clean contrary : viz. that the bishop is the only pastor , and the parish priest hath none of the power here named , and so of all the rest : and what uniformity then will there be ? know you not how they write against such different administrations , as destructive and intolerable ? . and know you not that a bishop hath no power against the canons ? the canons are their own laws and judgment , and bind them : and when the canon saith , e. g. he shall be suspended that giveth the sacrament to one that kneeleth not ; or that the non-conformists are ipso facto excommunicate , &c. hath the bishop authority to say the contrary ? . and you know that i wrote not to accuse you , or any man for conforming , but to tell them that judge us worthy to be silenced and ruined , what our non-conformity is : and what use then is your own latitude to me , or such as i , though i went your own way ? for i have askt and heard the opinion of divers bishops already , and they have said clean contrary to you . i have heard him that first forbad me preaching in his diocess , say , that [ the liturgy forbiddeth delivering the sacrament to any that kneel not . ] i can shew it you under his hand , that the priest must not be judge , when to omit the forementioned words at the burial of the dead ; nor tolerated in such liberty as you presume on . i have been told by a bishop , that seeing christ died for all , the children of any parents in the world have right to baptism , and any man hath as good right to present to it an infidel's child , as to take in an exposed infidel's child to his house in charity . i told you , that bishop sanderson , publickly before the bishops , nemine contradicente , told me , that i need not question baptizing any infidel's child , if god-fathers presented him according to the order of the church of england . are we not then concluded against conformity by the bishop's judgment , by your own rule ? and must not you be a non-conformist in the diocess of any such bishop as these ? . and by your rule , a man must be a conformist in one bishop's diocess , and a non-conformist in another's ; and change his mode of religion as he travelleth , or doth change his dwelling . i imagine that by your rule , i might partly conform in the diocess of london , or lincoln , hereford , or carlisle ; but i should be as non-conformable as i am , in the diocess of winchester , ely , york , norwich , and any other as far as i yet know . i conclude that your catholicon may purge your self from all non-conformity , but it is utterly unprofitable to me : facile credimus quod volumus . i have had as much reason as you , to be willing to find conformity lawful , if it be so : i have lost many thousand pounds more by non-conformity , than you have got by conformity . but i have no such byas on my will , as should set all my wit on work to find , or buy a rope for my conscience . and i find nothing better that you offer me herein . § . when you have told us , [ where no god-fathers can be had , we must christen without ; ] and such like : you say , [ and this is the common sense put upon the law , by the law-makers themselves , that is , by the bishops . ] ans. what reason did you think we have in such an historical assertion , to believe your bare word ? in what synod did they declare it ? why did you neither name the bishops , nor the time , or place , or witness , by which it might be proved the common sense ? but could you think this should convince me , that know it to be false ? § . you tell us , pag. . [ if it were a part of assent and consent , that ordination by good and substantial presbyters were null , it would be a hard point indeed , — to unchurch churches , and unbaptize the baptized , and plead the cause of satan , the pope , and all malignants of the ministry , in the name of christ. ans. excuse us then for not conforming . i before gave you this proof , that it is the sense of the law-makers , or bishops : they that abhor reordination ( or twice ordaining to the priesthood ) and yet require those to be ordained by bishops , who were before ordained by presbyters , must be judged to hold the said ordination by presbyters to be null . — but , &c. ergo. § . . you say , no man that i know of , takes the silenced ministers , and those ordained by presbyters only , for no ministers at all , unless one mr. dodwel , a high-flown man , whom conformists themselves do utterly dissent from in this . ans. your ignorance is no good reason for my conformity : if you know of no more , i do . read mr. th●rndike , of forbearance of penalties : ask bishop gunning his judgment , &c. if your acquaintance be so small , you should not write of that which you know not . § . . but you say , all , both rulers and people , conformists themselves do own them for ministers ; otherwise they would take some course for the rebaptizing of all baptized by them . ans. did you ever read the conference at hampton court ? did you dream that all these take laymens baptizing for null ? or do you conclude that all think what you think ? § . . you prove it from the toleration of the foreigners churches in london . ans. how will you prove that they judge all true ministers whom they tolerate ? § . . you say , the acts against conventicles , and the five mile act prove it . . the king's proclamation for indulgence proveth it . . the fines and imprisonments for conventicles prove it . . the allowing four persons to meet in private proveth it . . the common sense of bishops , divines , and people of the church of england , prove it . ans. you may next say , that any thing that you see or hear proveth it . it 's liker these prove the contrary , than this . by this men may see how little satisfaction we may expect from your arguing . you greatly wrong the king , parliament , and bishops , if you think they take all for ministers , men , women , or children , whose meeting they tolerate : you leave out the argument from the act of uniformity , which punisheth all by a hundred pound a time that administer the sacrament , being not ordained by a bishop . doth that prove them ministers too ? § . you say , [ as to the peoples conformity , i know no one thing required of them to conform to , but what they may do with a good conscience . ans. why then did you pass by the answering of my book concerning their part ? particularly about the corporation-declaration ? should they be in the right that think all the cities and corporations in england to be under that — which i am loth to name ; and that plagues , flames , and poverty , are god's revenge ; oh! what a thing would it be for a servant of christ , to say to them in print , [ o england repent not ! ] chap. xxxi . § . your conclusion is also a bundle of mistakes , and impertinencies . . it is more than three or four points that the new conformity addeth to the old . . if the number or goodness of the old conformists did prove their cause good , many things would have a far stronger proof of that kind , from the ancient churches , which yet you judge to be unlawful ; and in other countries the same argument will be turned against you . . such men as you call [ the main body of the best divines , ] were very few in comparison of the ignorant bad clergy . . it is not true that mr. knewstubs was a conformist , nor dr. reynolds neither , unless i be one . the petition of the non-conformists to king iames , was called millenary ; because it had a thousand hands in a little compass . . that some then did , and now do scruple more than others , is impertinent to our business , and it were a wonder if it were not so , till men are arrived at scrupling nothing . . the th canon was the chief point of the old non-conformity , and will receive no justification by the worth of any subscribers . i doubt not but bernard , gerson , &c. were holy men , that subscribed far worse . . sponsors of an ill sort are never the better , because there was a better sort of old ; nor because these were before the new liturgy . . page . you could wish ministers would make the parents to be present chief undertakers , that is , to be non-conformists called conformists . the rest needeth but the repetition of what is said before , which would rather tire than edifie the reader . chap. xxxii . since the writing of my answer to your book , you were with me , and when i gave you two or three objections which i published not , you gave me no reply to them , but went from me and printed an answer to them in a supplement . seeing your judgment is most for that way , i crave your patience while i use the way you choose . i confess my judgment is , that you have unavoidably made me a great temptation to you : for if you be not a man of great humility , you will . be offended to find all your labour proved to be hurtful , and your reasoning vain ; and you will think that the disgracing of them by a just confutation , falleth on your self . . and you will be tempted to turn your thoughts too partially , to justifie what once you have so publickly said , and so to run further into the extream . but my persuasion of your great sincerity , maketh me hope that you will overcome the temptation which you have chosen . i. i thought that the word [ use of all ] did much aggravate , and not extenuate the burden of the declaration , as added to assent . but to them that thought otherwise , i thought that when both lords and commons at a conference upon reasons given , had rejected that exposition which confineth the sense of the words to [ use , ] it had been a more satisfactory notice of the law-givers sense , than either your private conceit , or any bishops exposition could be . but you tell us , that this conference was no law , or repeal of the law. ans. impertinent ! it is an exposition of the meaning of the law-makers only , that we are enquiring of , and not the repealing or making of a law. it is the law-makers part to be the publick obliging interpreters of the law to the whole kingdom . we are enquiring in point of conscience , how we must understand them : and you will not believe them it seems , unless they make a new law , to tell you the sense of the old one . ii. every one may know , that it 's usual for the means to have somewhat in it for the end , besides the intending of the end it self ; and that usually laws and canons command many means for one end. and therefore to make your full and constant usage of conformity to be the end , and the assenting and consenting to all things in the book to be the means , even in that form of words , are no contradiction . and it 's usual to be stricter in prescribing forms of words , for oaths , covenants , or confessions , than in the other integral parts of a law. and it is a great wrong to a parliament of england to say either that , in such a form imposed on the learned and consciencious tribe , they knew not how to speak intelligibly according to the common use of words , or that they were so mischievously malignant , as seventeen or eighteen years to refuse to open their sense , for the healing of so distracted and endangered a church and nation , if they meant not as their words do signifie according to common use . it 's no vanity to say , i have known the men , bishops and commons , better than you have done , and heard more of them and their debates , than you have done ; and i am satisfied in my conscience to conclude , that they meant plainly as they speak , and no better : even that no man's promise to use the liturgy shall be taken for trusty and satisfactory , that will not declare that he assenteth and consenteth to all things contained in it , and prescribed by it : ] and this plainly ex animo , without uncouth exposition , equivocations , or jesuitical mental reservations . § . i have not wit enough to find out sense in your quibble , that [ if the later words ( the form ) do import more than the former ( for the use ) then there is something added and altered , which possibly may inconsist and be contradiction . ] ans. is not all prescript of means an addition to the precept de fine ? doth the prescript of the oath of supremacy and allegiance , impose no more than to be loyal ? yes : it requireth a particular test of loyalty . doth the command of subscribing the thirty nine articles contain no more , but to be orthodox ? yes : it enjoineth us by this means to profess those particulars , in which our orthodoxness consisteth . § . assent when thus distinguished purposely from consent , signifieth assenting to some truth , and consent respecteth the good. so that when you make assent to be but the same as [ consent to use ] you feign them to speak nonsense , or to tautologize . you say , [ you assent to all , ] but not that all is true : which is a contradiction , or equivocation . § . [ prove ( say you ) that there is any one thing in the book , which may not in the course of conformity be godly used ? ] ans. to some men i will undertake to prove nothing . if there be no proof in the book which you write against , when you have got leave to print it , you are likely to have more . till then , to call for proof when you have it , and speak not sense against it , is too easie a way to satisfie the just. § . iii. i told you by word of mouth , that your catholicon of trusting , to the bishops exposition of the book ( yea , to his silence , so gentle and tractable are you become ) is no relief to you for expounding the assent , consent . subscription against the obligation of the vow , and about arms , &c. because these are part of the act of uniformity ; and you say , that act is no part of the book . to this you print your answer , that you [ have another string to your bow. ] viz. that the bishop is by law the ordinary , to ordain and take subscriptions , and may admit ministers to subscribe these tests with such explications , meanings , and allowances , as will well stand with the words justly and fairly construed . ans. . the bishop is not made the expounder of the law , but the receiver of your subscription according to the law. . if you will confound indulgent connivance , and conformity , must we do so too ? this is mr. humphrey's project , and i freely confess to you , that if you can meet with an indulgent bishop , it 's a fairer way to intromit a dissenter , than any that you have named in your book . all words are ambiguous : the sense is the soul of them . if , e.g. i were commanded to say that [ the scripture is not god's word , ] and i had leave to expound it ; . [ all scripture , or writing , is not god's word , but the sacred bible is : ] or [ it is not god's eternal coessential word , which is christ ; ] were it not for scandal , this might be said as true . and some think the scandal is sufficiently avoided , if you give in your sense in writing , and make it as publick as is your subscription . but i think that the very subscribing such scandalous words , will scandalously harden others , and encourage tyrannical imposers more , than your exposition can cure ; and therefore i would not use them . and if i would , i could cast in such an expository writing , whether the bishop will or not . and if he accept it , i pray better understand that , this is not conformity , but indulgence , connivance , toleration , or prevarication : you might as well say , he conformed , that by the king's indulgence , was excused from subscribing and declaring . you put a supposition , that you had gone to bishop sanderson , and askt his sense according to his rules , de juramento . ans. i doubt your party will think you betray their cause by prevarication . . i told you how publickly in a meeting of bishops , bishop sanderson gave his judgment about baptism against you . . i cited the words of his rules de iuramento , in the book which you answer , as being plainly against conformity : and you give no answer to it , and yet suppose them to be for you . this is too supine neglect to satisfie us . § . you come over your foresaid sense of the declaration again , and pag. . you have better bethought you , and will take the debate of the lords and commons as useful to know the meaning of the law. ans. what shall we do then by your useful error ? why you now say , [ you know nothing in the book but what may be assented to as true . ] ans. and why was this so much disclaimed before ? when you put us to the trouble of confuting you , you confute your self by changing your cause , and so we labour in vain . your repetitions of the same things , with saying and unsaying , and bare saying without proof are so many , that i will not wrong the reader with confuting any more of them , save only to give you some account why i am sorry : . that you retract your saying that oaths are stricti juris , . and that while you pretend to own bishop sanderson's rules de iuramento , you renounce this which is one of the chief of them . and i will tell you the reasons of my dissent from that , and most of your book . iv. by stricti juris , is not meant the meer literal sense as different from the less proper , which is more notified ; but strict is contradistinguished from loose and stretcht . i told you the rule that we go by in this , and it pleased you not to confute it . thus much i repeat : . we must take oaths , covenants , and professions imposed by authority , in the sense of the imposers as near as we can know it . . but if they discover their sense in words so unmeet , as that in the vulgar sense they seem false or wicked , we must number such with unlawful words , unless we can by the publick notifying the exposition avoid the scandal . . we are to take the laws , and imposed words of rules , especially in oaths , covenants , and professions , in that sense as those words are commonly used and understood in that time and place , by men of that profession : unless the said rulers make known , that they use them in a different unusual sense . . we must not presume that they mean not as they speak , by an unusual sense , upon dark and uncertain conjectures , especially dictated by our interest , but only by cogent evidence . these are our rules . the reasons why we cannot swear , or covenant , or profess in your laxe and stretched sense , nor call that sense honest , as you do , ( especially on pretence of a bishop's exposition , contrary to what i have reason to be fully satisfied our law-makers meant ) are those which i gave you in the thirty aggravations , sect. . which it did not please you to contradict . these few i repeat : i. the words of the third command are dreadful , god will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain , or falsly . ii. such licentious stretching of oaths and professions overthrow that mutual trust which is necessary to humane converse . iii. it depriveth the king of his due security of his subjects loyalty , and of his peace and life . i much fear lest relaxing and stretching the oaths of allegiance and supremacy but as much as you relax and stretch the words of the subscription , declaration , liturgie , &c. may untie the consciences of rebels and king-killers so far , as to make way for , and consist with rebellion , and killing the king. iv. it seemeth to me most dangerously to expose the lives of all the subjects of the kingdom , to the will of their enemies , and to be a vertual murdering of many , or any ( if not all ) persons that have enemies : for while two false swearers may take away a mans life , if men are taught to stretch oaths and equivocate , it will embolden the consciences of men so far , as that few mens lives shall have any security , but be at the mercy of any rogues . it is a wonder of god's merciful providence , that false swearers murder no more than they do : but such a laxity would make our case far more dangerous . v. i that greatly fear lest god's late dreadful corporation iudgments , plague , flames , poverty , and divisions , are inflicted for corporation sins , and among those sins , eminently for perjury , am more inclined to call them in bradford's words at the stake , repent , o england , than to encourage them in such sin , and by printing , to persuade them not to repent . vi. when we cry out of the jesuits for stretching oaths and testimonies , and all words by equivocations , and mental reservations , to the endangering of kings and kingdoms , and mens lives and souls , it ill beseemeth us to imitate or encourage them , or to enable them to say , that they stretch words no more than we . vii . it would be an unexcusable sin in such a one as i , who live not in another age , land , or place , where the imposers sense could not be known , but in the same age , and place , and have had so many personal treaties with the bishops and the lord chancellor hide , who were the chief promoters of the impositions , and who know so many of the parliament and convocation that made these forms , and have had so great and satisfactory testimony of their minds and meanings , and their speeches and reasons in parliament upon these subjects ; and am fully satisfied in my conscience , that you satisfie their meaning . it is not the sense of any bishops that came in since that act was made , nor of any odd person that is to pass for the law-makers sense . viii . people commonly think that preachers should be so much more holy than they , that if they come but near us they are safe . and therefore if we stretch oaths and covenants , they may do that , and such as they count lesser sins than perjury ; and so we may harden them to damnation . ix . it is a heinous aggravation of sin to do it as for god , and that we may serve him in the ministry . x. it is a dreadful thing to undertake to justifie thousands whom we never knew , as well as the old parliament men whom we know , and to prove that they ought not to repent , nor to endeavour church reformation , if it should prove that by a vow they are bound to such endeavour by lawful means . xi . i dare not provoke god to desert me in my ministry , ( yea , and in my secret comforts ) nor tempt men to think basely of the ministers as a perjured sort of men , who cry down other mens sins , while they have greater of their own . xii . it is a dreadful aggravation to do all this ( not by sudden surprize , but ) upon deliberation , and to make a covenant against duty and for sin , and to say i ought to do it , and never to repent ; yea , and by justifying it to harden multitudes against repentance : especially if it tend to corrupt the publick state of the church , and worship . for these reasons i cannot use violence with imposed oaths , covenants , or professions ; but must expound them in the common sense of men of that profession , till the law-makers themselves shall declare that they mean otherwise . and all this i speak but as the reasons of our own practice , and not at all to accuse any conformists : yea , i so far excuse them against the non-conforming conformist , that i do take the chief men of them whom i have known , to mean plainly as they speak : i suppose they really assent and consent to all things contained and prescribed in the books ; and really mean contrary to your stretching expositions of infants salvation , of baptism , communion , burial , and the rest . and by dr. smith's books , and such others , i believe they take such conforming non-conformists to be ( as the late westminster assembly proved ) the most dangerous underminers of their church . and when we have confuted such as you , our work is all to begin again , with the serious conformists , who deal plainly and go on other principles . the second part. mr. cheney's five undertakings considered . § . dear brother , you and i have exposed our selves as publick warnings to mankind , to take heed of an overvaluing of their own understandings , and of a hasty confidence in their erroneous conceptions , and of rash obtruding that upon the world as necessary truth , for want of judgment and time to digest things , which will prove very dangerous error ; and if received and practised , alas , what mischief may it do ! erring men know not that they err : if i think it is you , and you think it is i , and a third think it is both , the reader greatly profiteth by us , who learneth by our harms , to have a due suspicion of his own understanding ; and so it be without unnecessary scepticism , to have humble thoughts of his conceptions , which have not had time and helps convenient to ripen them : especially if your friend or you be conscious , that you have formerly or lately been as confident in that which you now see was your error , you should think that the same mind is still in danger of deceit , and it 's as easie to reel into the other extreme . § . oh what cause have we to pray , lead us not into temptation ! we little know what is in our hearts or others , till just trial call it up : nor what great hurt even good men may live to do . and if one error get in , to how many worse it may open the door . and if we begin to roul down the hill , how little know we where to stop ? but though satan desire to have us that he may sift us , i hope christ's intercession will keep our faith from failing . but wo , and alas , that we must , one or both ( which ever is in the wrong ) be instruments of mischief against the interest of our dear lord , and his truth and church , and mens souls , whilst both our desires are to live in the world for no other end , but to build up that , which by ignorance , self-conceitedness , error , and rashness , we are laboriously pulling down . § . and if it be i that have by error wronged the church , my case is made worse by your strengthening my temptation , when instead of convincing argument , you give me little but naked assertions ; and saying [ i conceive , ] and run into such singularities as all sober men are bound to suspect , and some condemn almost all christ's churches , without one word of convincing proof . § . that you answer only in print to the world , the private talk that i had with you , whilst you gave me no vocal answer , i take but for a small and modal irregulatity : some men have humours and ways of their own , which they will follow . had you done it as judiciously , and truly , with fear of erring and seducing , as you did it publickly , the rest might be well interpreted : but we must take it as it is . question . i. whether it be certain by god's word , that infants baptized dying before actual sin , be undoubtedly saved ? § . i expected your work had been to convince men of the good of conformity : but seeing it is to save men from being seduced by my directory , you may doubt whether you will not rather tempt some impartial men to read the words : and then your work is spoiled , when they compare them with your accusation . § . i lookt for some plain text of scripture , to prove this both certain by god's word , and undoubted : but finding none such , i humbly beseech you hereafter , when you have mind to shew your argumentative strength , leave out the abusive pretence of the word of god : holy things must be holily used . § . your first argument is , that [ a carnal christian hath propriety in his child , and therefore may devote him to god , as he may his goods . ] ans. it had been more piously prudent to hear what could be said to such pretty new knacks , before you had tempted the church by publishing them . . your first proof is , sam. . , , . and there are but verses in the chapter , and none to your purpose . the next is , lev. . . did you ever consider the text ? ainsworth , and the rabbies , suppose from the notation of the word , and from the express words , ver . . that it is devoting of slaves , or malefactors to death , that is here spoken of : others better , that it includeth both the absolute dedication of acceptable persons to service , and of odious persons to death : therefore all are not saved that are here called holy as devoted : neither the cursed , nor the levites , that by dedication obliged to service , are hereby saved : for more than obligation is necessary to the reward . the first-born were specially to be given to god , and yet that implied not their certain salvation . . a dissembler may by his covenant obtain a right with man , that knoweth not his heart ; and he may be received into the outward communion of the church by god's approbation , who commissioneth ministers who know not mens hearts , to receive men according to their profession : and these are holy to the lord , as the iews were ; but not therefore under a promise that they shall be undoubtedly saved . were all the iews saved because they were a holy nation ? . not only his child , but the grossest hypocritical lyar himself , who is baptized , and cometh into the church in malice to betray , it , is yet holy as a visible member ; and hath obliged himself to real holiness , and yet is far from a state of salvation . . nothing is holy and accepted by the devoters act alone , without god's accepting act : nor any further , or to any other uses than god accepteth it to . some he accepteth unto visible membership and communion , and some to the sacred ministry , and some to magistracy , &c. who are not accepted to salvation . . doth lev. . prove , that all nations in the world might devote their children unto god , with the same assurance of acceptation as the israelites ? . the jewish mosaical law is abrogated , and neither bindeth us as such , nor secureth us of acceptance for obeying it . . all heathens and infidels have some propriety in their children ; and yet if in unbelief they devote them with the tongue alone to god , that will not make their salvation undoubted . . few god-fathers have propriety in them : how then will their devoting prove their salvation ? . god hath made no promise of his acceptance , which you can shew ; therefore you cannot by his word be certain of it . . god saith , that the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to him ; much more when he doth it with an evil mind : and he expressly saith , [ else were your children unclean ( if one parent were not a believer ) but now are they holy . ] therefore when both parents are unbelievers , the children are not accepted of god as holy . . the question is , of all baptized children : for it is quatenus baptizati , that they are said to be saved ; and à quatenus ad omne valet consequentia : and it 's an indefinite in re necessariâ : but we have too many scorners at christianity , followers of hobbes , spinosa , pomponatius , and vaninus , who for fashion sake , will bring their children to baptism : and certainly such are far worse than heathens . if one believeth not in christ , tell a wilful lye , and say he believeth , can any man think that his child shall be ever the more saved for his wickedness and hypocrisie ? § . you gather christ's acceptance from mat. . . &c. it is not said of the infants of the godly only , is the kingdom of heaven . ans. nor is it said that of all infants , or of all baptized infants , is the kingdom of heaven . the text will prove indeed , that the infant state is capable of christ's acceptance into the kingdom of grace , and of glory . but not that nothing is necessary thereto , but that they be infants . if all infants be saved , bringing them to christ was not necessary to their salvation . if all only that were brought to christ were saved , it seems they were very few . . is it like that any would bring their children to christ to be blessed , who did not believe in him ? and what reason have we to surmise that they were not sound believers ? . as christ healed some blind men , and not all , and some lepers , sick , &c. so if as a specimen , to shew that infant state is capable of grace , he took up some infants of hypocrites , or infidels , or impious parents , ( which can never be proved ) it will not follow that all such shall be received , and that to salvation . . if by verbal profession parents and their children are taken into the outward covenant and church , and by water men are born into the visible kingdom of god , it followeth not they need not to be born of the spirit for admission into the invisible and heavenly kingdom ; or that the spirit always goeth with the water ; and that the parents answer of a good conscience to god , is not necessary to his child 's covenant-right to salvation as well as to his own . . i deny that any wicked man ( much more every one ) doth , yea , or can , univocally and truly , devote his child to god according to the sense of the baptismal covenant . though i grant that the love of his childs lust do not hold him so strongly as the love of his own ; yet he that never so knew god in christ , and so believed in christ , and so believed in him as to perceive him practically to be better for himself than all the world and sinful pleasures , cannot with a true and practical affiance , so take him for his child . . and god no where commandeth , or accepteth the devoting of our infants to him primarily , or as seperated from our selves ; but only as appendices , or conjunct with us ; that is , that we devote our selves and ours : and so not without us , but with us doth he accept them . § . your great pretended proof is , that all the males of israel were circumcised . ans. . if you had proved that they were all saved , you had said more to the matter . . to open here the nature of the iews covenant of peculiarity , as one select nation of whom christ should come , as distinct from , and as conjunct with the common antecedent covenant of grace , and to shew the reasons of the institution of circumcision of abraham's peculiar seed , and not for all that from adam and noah , were under the common law of crace , would be a work which such a light occasion would not warrant me here to stand upon . . the sign of circumcision , was but the seal anexed to the covenant : and the meer external act ( as water in baptism ) entered them but into the external church-state . . almost all the gross sinners at least , if presumptuous and impenitent , were to be put to death by that law ; and dead men beget not children . but i have so largely handled this in my d disp. of right to sacraments , that while you leave it unanswered , i will not repeat it on so slight a cause . § . and what if you had proved the salvation of all wicked christians baptized infants ? what 's that to our question , which extendeth to all , not excepting the children of profest atheists , infidels , sadduces , or heathens , that have but god-fathers ? § . but pag. , . you tell us , that [ infants by reason of their innocent harmless state , seem to be christ's off-spring , and to be a subordinate root and bottom to themselves , and to stand by their own innocency under christ , and by his divine grace . — look what regeneration is to the adult , that in some sort the infant-state may be to infants ; that is , all infants are in a new and second state by christ : so the word regeneration doth properly import . — pag. . christ alone without parents godliness , is able to the salvation of all the infant world. — i am not able to prove that bare having of circumcision and baptism doth save any ; nor that the bare want thereof doth bar any from salvation . ans. . but what is this to conformity ? did you think that this was the meaning of the liturgy , that all infants are saved , when it saith all the baptized ? . it doth not follow that christ saveth all , because he is able to save them . . i have said so much to prove original sin , and some participation of guilt from our parents sins , and to prove god's promises to the faithful and their seed , which are not made to the infidels and wicked , in two disputations of original sin ; that i refer you thither for your answer to this unproved fiction , of the salvation of all infants , and their regenerate innocency . . woful experience tells us , as soon as they can but speak and go , how far their natures are from an innocent disposition : and to be void of holy dispositions is not to be innocent . . if they be conceived and born innocent , what need have they of baptism for remission of sin ? if you say that christ regenerateth all as he is the giver of their nature , the church hath condemned this in the pelagians , that make nature , as from christ , to be the same with grace . . if all be pardoned , all have the holy ghost ( for baptism giveth right to both . ) but that 's not so . § . page . did you satisfie your conscience in expounding , [ but now are they holy , cor. . ] after what we have said of it to mr. tombes ? is it [ your children are pure to you , as your meat is ? ] § . when you ask me [ why i say notoriously ungodly . ] you consulted not the credit of your knowledg , to tell men in print , that you know not what notorious signifieth ; no not in notation , or common use : as if it signified [ more than ordinary . ] notorious , is that which is certainly , openly , easily , knowable . i have told you of some of my own parishioners , that live in the open opposition to christianity , seeking in their converse to persuade men , that the scripture is a book of lyes , and christianity a meer deceit , and they will bring their children to baptism for law and custom-sake ; and say all the creed , and words required ( it was in the time when i had leave to admit the parent to enter his own child in the covenant with god. ) we know now abundance of the followers of hobbes , and spinosa , and many that deride scripture , and the hopes of heaven , and the fears of a hell , and think man is but a subtle sort of beast : yet these will all have their children baptized , and to avoid the penalty of the law , will receive the eucharist . and there are others who are common scorners of serious religiousness , and persecutors of it to their power ; and hate him that will tell them of the evil of the common drunkenness and whoredom which they live in , and glory in their shame . we look for better proof than your wrigling-nothings , to make us undoubtedly certain from god's word , that the baptized infants of all these are saved : the rubrick meaneth , [ quia & qua , baptized ; ] and you mean [ because innocent , and christ died for them , and all the unbaptized , are saved . ] but as i see none of your proof of the latter , so i will not crookedly crawl into conformity by the fallacious exposition . and you that were , in your last book , uncertain your self of what you can now prove certain , do so quickly change , and so quickly publish your change , that your judgment hath the less power by any reverence of it to the changing of mine . quest . ii. whether may unconverted ones within the church , demand and receive the lord's supper ? mr. baxter saith flatly they may not . right to sacram. pag. . the confutation followeth . § . ans. i can bethink me , but of one of these three ends , of this your writing : . either barely to make a confession of your faith and judgment : . or to save me from my error by conviction : . or to save the readers of my book from the danger of them . . if the first be your work , i confess your words [ i conceive ] are suitable : but confessions use to be otherwise , concisely and orderly formed , and no adversaries names besides pilate's , needed to be put into your creed . . if the second or third be your work , you seem to think very contemptible of my judgment , and of every such readers , when you expect that when i have written , and they have read , full disputations opening the state of the question , proving what i assert by many arguments and scripture , vindicating twenty arguments of mr. galespies , from all that is answered to them , we should after this be convinced that our cause is wrong , by one that neither will be at the labour distinctly to state the controversy , nor to reply to my answers already given to all his reasonings and much more , nor to answer the many arguments which i and others urge , but saith little more of any moment than [ i am induced to think thus , though i once thought otherwise : ] yea , when you neither answer our reasons , nor give us the tenth part so much for your cause as we answered , yet we must not think that it [ is on slight grounds ] that you have taken up your opinion , pag. . when what you say is so slight , that as i will not write over again what you vouchsafe not to answer ; so , if your reader have read my book cited by you , i will not so reproach his judgment as to think , that he needeth any farther answer to this of yours . but if he have not read mine , nor will read it , he is in no danger of being seduced by it , and so your labour is in vain . § . but , reader , lest so small a word as his oft [ i conceive , ] should prove to the unwary synonimal to [ i deceive , ] i shall advertise thee briefly . i. that my way was to distinguish of conversion . . as from heathenism , or infidelity , mahometanism , or heresie . . from gross hypocrisie manifested by a notorious wicked life . . from close hypocrisie not proved . . from a particular fall of a sincere christian , to his integrity ; or from some tolerable error and mistake . ii. i use to distinguish between being sincere in the christian faith , and knowing that we are sincere . iii. i use to define what the conversion is that i speak of , in such controversie . iv. and i never confound the case [ whether it may be demanded , ] with the case [ whether it may be delivered . ] v. and i still distinguish between [ a means which an unconverted self-knowing man , is commanded by god to use for his conversion , ] and [ a means which god can use , or consequently the sinner should in the review make use of hereunto , supposing that he hath unlawfully intruded . ] as if a man unlawfully invade the sacred ministerial office , when he is in it , there is somewhat that may become a means of his conversion : or if one that hath vowed celibate , marry a godly person unlawfully , it may become a means of their conversion . now to make this controversie intelligible to the unstudied , i would here perform all these parts , and distinctly by propositions open the matter : but it is done in the disputations of right to sacraments , which he opposeth : and if every nibbling of one that refuseth the rational task of a sober confuter , shall call a man to write new books , there will be no end of tiring readers . i doubt i have erred already , in not letting some talk on , and shew their mistakes and false accusations without any confutation . § . he doth indeed limit the case to [ the unconverted within the church , ] and you would think that by this he excluded heathens , mahometans , infidels , and hereticks . but remember , . that the baptized not excommunicate , are in the universal church . . and that a particular church with him , seems to be nothing but a worshipping assembly ; and all that are there are in the church , and when the meeting breaks up , the church is no church . . and yet sometimes you would that think he took a parish of such assemblers for a church . . and it is matter of fact past all dispute , that not only all the papists , the first ten years of queen elizabeth , came to our churches , and some do so still ; but that abundance such as aforesaid , come to the parish churches , who in coffee-houses talk against christianity , or the immortality of the soul , or the scriptures , and such as write books to the same purposes ; and these are not converted from sadducism , beastiality , or infidelity . . and then mark whether any of this brother's arguments do prove , that the sacrament of the lord's supper , was ordained for such men to use for their conversion . § . remember that the full conversion to sa●●ing-sincerity , is nothing else but [ sincere consent to the baptismal covenant . ] and every such consenter , and only such ( adult ) are savingly converted . and that it is not that covenant , when any essential part is omitted : to believe in the father and not the son , or not in the holy ghost , is not that covenant : now the person in question , to receive the sacrament as the sacrament , ( baptism , or the eucharist ) and not to profess consent to the covenant , is a contradiction ; no man can do it : covenanting is essential to it . and it is essential to it to be by god's commission a solemn actual investing delivery , with application to the just receiver of a saving right to god the father , son , and holy ghost , and actual present pardon of sin , and right to life . § . and the person in question is either , . one that consenteth not , and knoweth that he consenteth not . . or that consenteth not and thinks he doth , because he consenteth to some part . . or one that consenteth not , and knoweth not whether he do or not . ( . for , as for all true consenters that know not that they do it sincerely , they are converted persons , and not those in question : and a true consenter that doubteth of his truth , but upon his best self-trial , thinks that he truly consenteth to have god for his god , and christ for his saviour , and the holy ghost for his sanctifier , must go without certainty upon the best judgment that he make of himself . ) i. now for the person that consenteth not , and knoweth it , to come and demand the sacrament for his conversion , is all one as to say , that [ it is god's ordinance , that he is not willing after all persuasions , to give up himself to god , as his father , saviour , and sanctifier , and therefore hath no right to pardon and life , shall solemnly profess that he doth consent to the covenant when he doth not , and that he doth presently by vow give up himselfe to god , as his god and father , saviour and sanctifier , when he doth not ; that this may convert them to do that which lyingly he saith he doth : and he shall take the investing pardoning sign and act , when he hath no right to pardon . ] deceive not your self , or others : giving and taking , eating and drinking , are as speaking ( significant actions ) essentially to the sacrament : and he never received the sacrament essentially as that sacrament , that did not thereby interpretatively solemnly profess , q. d. [ i now consent to the covenant of christ , and take god in christ for my father , saviour and sanctifier , and here give up my self to him in these relations . ] and therefore all the ancients taught , that the baptized were all certainly presently pardoned ; supposing that they really consented to the baptismal covenant , as every adult baptized person did , and must profess . and can you believe that this was christ's institution , q. d. [ come and solemnly be perjured , and lye , and say , thou consentest to the covenant when thou dost not , that this may convert thee to consent . all your mistaken row of words , will never make this soul cause fair . . but what if it be a man that consenteth not but thinketh he doth , or yet doth not know ? ans. it is his sin not to know that he consenteth not ; and that will not make it lawful for him to lye , and vow falsly . but the harder it is for him to know his own mind , the more excusable he is : and a false entrance is not a sin that is unpardonable , nor is the sinner uncurable , but may be converted in the church , though he came in unlawfully . § . while preposterously you tell us who you think hath right to baptism , and the lord's supper , you pass over the fundamental controversie , as if you knew it not ; which is , what baptism and the lord's supper are . this is it that we are mostly disagreed about : end this , and end all . i suppose you take baptism to be the first sacrament , and that less is not necessary to the lord's supper than to it . and i presume to tell you , that christ never ordained , nor the church ever used any other baptism of the adult , than . that which delivered the present remission of sin , and right to life , to the just receiver of baptism ; . and that which contained on the part of the receiver , his present profession of saving faith and repentance , that is , his true consent to the covenant . § . the scripture telleth us , that baptism saveth , as containing the answer of a good conscience to god : and that as many as are baptized into christ , have put on christ , and have professed that they are buried with him by baptism into his death , and raised with him to newness of life , &c. § . god in great mercy hath delivered down to us from the apostles , the form of baptism by a fuller tradition than the words of the scripture , or any things else of our religion are delivered . all ages and churches to this day , have retained the same form as to all the essential parts : the very words of the baptizer and the baptized , the credo , abrenuncio , &c ▪ professed full shew that all used this one baptism , which was a professed vow and covenanting with god , and renouncing of the flesh , the world , and the devil , for present ( delivered ) pardon and right to christ and life . see the long list in gataker against davenant , of the ancients that took all the baptized for justified . in a word , if you make another species of baptism , which hath lower conditions and gifts only than these , i am past doubt ; . that you introduce a new sort of christianity . . that you hereby would change the very essence of the church , and wofully corrupt it : a worse thing than to impose new ceremonies . . that by denying the truth of so universal concurrent tradition , as the form of baptism hath ; you will shake mens faith by weakning the credit of that tradition , by which we have received the bible : it being a harder matter to keep all the words of such a book , than the form of baptism , used on every christian in the world. . that you will too grosly reproach all the christian churches , as if they had in all ages and places been ignorant what christening and christianity is , and had used a false baptism , till of late . . you will contradict the church of england which you conform to , and all the churches now in the world , which in their form of baptizing , and their catechisms and confessions tell us , of no baptism , but what is a present covenanting with god the father , son , and holy ghost , as consenters to his covenant , giving up our selves to him in the foresaid relations , for present pardon , &c. see dr. hammona's pract. cat. of the baptismal vow . and is all this fit work for two or three singular men ? to deny the said history , is to be grosly ignorant , or immodest . § . and now i am ashamed to trouble you and the reader with the opening of all your impertinencies and contradictions , of [ that man will not be persuaded to consent to the baptismal covenant , and to be a christian indeed , doth yet sigh , and grown , and pray for that which he would not have ; and that the impenitent must penitently use this means for penitence ; and because whosoever will must come and take the water of life , therefore they that will not take it must take the sacrament : and that the outward . act , which is false vowing themselves to god , and saying , they consent to the covenant when they do not , is the means of grace appointed for their conversion , in which they do well , and are accepted : and that non-consenters may fly to christ as a merciful physician to save souls , and cast themselves at his feet , repenting , praying , and crying for mercy ( which they would not have ) and yet if they come with particular ill intentions , away with them . ] confute what i have written to the contrary if you would convince me , or any man that hath read my five disputations . quest . iii. whether a minister may put from the sacrament those of his parish who be christned people , and come to church , and joyn in the publick worship , and tender themselves to receive , being under no sentence of excommunication ? you say , he may not . ans. § . . what 's this to the primitive churches that were not parishes ? or to the countries that yet are not settled into parish churches ? or to such churches as are but tolerated among papists parishes ? . and all that is here mentioned , the papists did for the first ten years of queen elizabeth . . and remember that we have in our parishes , many that are open atheists , infidels , sadduces , persecutors , scorners of the scripture and religion , open boasting impenitent whore-mongers , blasphemers , drunkards , &c. and many that openly deny the ministry , and sacraments ; and yet to avoid penalty , and for custom , will do all that is here named , though they deride it : and that all these are to be received ( though also you suppose that they never so much as professed consent to the baptismal covenant ) you take on you to prove . . because it is the will of christ. [ oh! brother , dread such additions to christ's words . ] and how is that proved ? why , [ none but dogs and swine must be denied holy things . ] ans. . where found you that [ none else ? ] . how prove you that none of these are dogs or swine ? . yea , are not all they swinish despisers of grace , who will not be persuaded to consent that god shall be their god , and christ their saviour , and the holy ghost their sanctifier , and give up themselves to him in these relations ? § . yet page . the case is this , [ if the people being christened do make a credible profession of true christianity , or a profession of true christianity which we cannot prove to be false , at least by a violent presumption , we must accept their profession and admit them . ] ans. this is mine as cited , and the plain truth . but , . did you think that a credible profession of true christianity , is not a credible profession of conversion ? are not true christians saved ? what else are men to be converted to ? . do all such as are afore described , make such a credible profession of true christianity ? § . you tell us that the standard that christ hath set is that , [ if now thou be sincerely penitent , thy sin is pardoned , and thou hast right to salvation , and mayst come to the lord's table . ] ans. and doth not this imply , that else he should not come ? and is such a man unconverted ? it is too irksome to rake up the rest of your contradictions , and examine your slight words of the parable of the tares : but that rooting up the tares forbidden is excommunicating , or denying sacramental communion to any parishioner of your description , who will believe that knoweth ? . what christ saith , mat. . . &c. and paul , cor. . and thess. . tit. . , , &c. . or he that knoweth that the universal church of christ in all ages , hath been of another mind ; and indeed went at last too far against it , having no punishment for christians , but suspension and excommunication . . and that the christian world at this day is of another mind , though the helvetians are too remiss in the principles , and most in the practice . . and that the canons of this church requireth the minister to deny the sacrament to some such as you describe : and in your former book , you pleaded this as for conformity : and are you changed already ? and shall any wise man follow such quick changes ? . the church of england forbids us to give the sacrament to any that are not confirmed , and desire it not , or are not ready : but such are many of your description . . if the power of excommunicating over a thousand , or many hundred churches be confined to the bishop and the chancellor , or officials , and so all the parish ministers denied it , and disabled , all these churches must be prophaned and confounded at the will of one man , or because he cannot do an impossibility . and the reasons why christ would have his church to be visibly holy , and a communion of saints , and openly differenced from the notoriously ungodly , are so many and so great , that i will not here attempt the opening of them , having often elsewhere done it . quest . iv. whether the common sort of ungodly christians , are to be cast out of the church by penal excommunications , and used as excommunicate ones ? you say , [ i conceive not . ] ans. would any one that pretended to confute our errors , no better open the case in question . . in your sense they are christians that never professed consent to the baptismal covenant , but only took the water in order to conversion hereafter . these are no visible christians : and i suppose by parity of reason , the council of nice , which decreed the rebaptizing of the paulmists , would have been for rebaptizing these . . is the ordinariness the satisfying character , who is not to be excommunicated ? in one country those are ordinary , that are extraordinary in others : in some places arrians are ordinary ; in some socinians ; in some papists ; in some open scorners of the scripture , christianity , and religion : in some ignorant persons that know not the essentials of christianity , nor will learn , or let the minister instruct them any where but in the pulpit ; in many parishes here , not one of many ( their neighbours say ) go to church about once or twice a year . cor. . . put away from among you that wicked person , ver . . if any man that is called a brother , be a fornicator , or covetous , or on idolater , or a railer , or a drunkard , or an extortioner , with such a one , no not to eat . do not ye judg them that are within , thess. . it is the idle and disorderly : and these are ordinary in some places . but we easily grant that excommunications are not to be used tyranically , or when they do more hurt than good . and if the body of a church turn , e. g. socinians , or professedly ungodly , and will not be reformed , the excommunication which we plead for is , but withdrawing from them and renouncing their communion , declaredly . § . i have oft said , that perfidious covenant-breakers who live in gross sin , and still tell the minister they repent , and will not be persuaded to leave their sin , ( e. g. whoredom , drunkenness , stealing , perjury , blasphemy , ) have so far forfeited the credit of their bare word , that the pastor should see their actual amendment before he absolve them . and now your hand is in , the world must be saved from this doctrine too . but because it is a common principle in nature , and in all church canons , and the common judgment of divines , i will not stay to dispute it with you . but when you are a master of a family , if you think family discipline a duty , experience will cure your credulity : if your servant or son beat you , or spit in your face , or rob you once a day , or week , but for one year together , and say still after it , i repent . but what will not men talk for ? quest . v. whether mr. baxter's doctrine and principles concerning particular churches be sound and good ? and you confute them . ans. . those that read them are in no danger by them . and those that do , may be confirmed by so slight a confutation ( as i said . ) . as for my book of [ universal concord of all christian churches , ] i know that the devil hateth it so much , that i expect some far more subtile assault than yours ; or else i shall think that the devil wanteth wit or power , more than is commonly believed . but i am sorry that he hath drawn so good a man to be his instrument . § . my first mentioned error is [ that a particular church is a regular part of the universal church , as a city is of a kingdom . ] the confutation is [ in this i conceive he is out : a particular church is to the church universal with a single town , consisting of a magistrate governing , and people governed , according to the general rules and principles of society , is to all the world. ans. the proof is [ i conceive he is out , ] and an assertion in other words of the same that is denied ; and so we are out both ( or neither . ) . i used the name , and he the definition : it may be he thought that by [ city ] i had meant only such towns as are so called in england : but methinks he should know that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , signifieth all such towns as he defineth , and that it is the common definition of civitas which he giveth us , as all politicks speak de civitate : it is therefore the same subject in the similitude , which we both speak of . . the difference then must be between the words [ kingdom ] and [ world. ] i say , a church is such a part of the universal , as a city is of a kingdom : he saith , no , but [ as a city is of the world. ] what a dangerous error hath he detected ? but , all the world is god's kingdom : and as it hath but one king , so i thought i might liken it to a kingdom that hath one king , but a multitude of corporations ; without stretching the similitude to intend that [ this kingdom is not a part of the world. ] § . my second error is , [ he that will be a member of a particular church , must cohabit , or dwell near . ] the confutation is , [ i conceive he is out . ] ans. what , is he against parish churches after all this ? no : he only denieth it of a transient member pro tempore as a traveller , and granteth it as to a stated member . and yet i am out . many and many a time have i written of churches , and use to distinguish first of the equivocal name , saying , that an occasional meeting of christians for worship , may be called a church , and a transient christian pro tempore a member : i have written more this way than ever he did . but declared that it is a settled political society that i defined , when i speak of what he now accuseth . and why should a wise and good man thus hastily trouble the world and make discord by pretending , because he cannot have leisure to know , what he speaks against ? § . my third error is , [ that to the being of a particular church there is necessary a mutual covenant , or exprest consent between pastor and people , even every member , and the more express the better : and i define a church to be a society of christians consisting of pastor and people associated by consent . ] the force of the confutation is , [ i conceive he is out . ] but wherein is it ? we have here such work as i never met with before . . he granteth that none are to each other , pastor and people against their wills. good still . and yet do i err ? [ but ( saith he ) as christ is christ , and a saviour by office whether sinners will or not : so faithful ministers are pastors by office , whether the people accept them or no. ] reader , it is not the least blemish of my writings , that on divers occasions i oft repeat the same things : and many a time have i distinctly said , . that the ordainers judge who shall be a minister of christ in general . . the magistrate is judge whom he will countenance , maintain , or tolerate . . and the people must be consenting judges to whom they will trust the conduct of their souls : as it 's one thing to be a licensed physician , and another to be physician to this hospital , or person . if this brother mean otherwise , what meant he by saying , that no man can be a pastor to a people against their will ? doth he say , and unsay in the next lines ? is christ any man's actual saviour whether they believe in him , and accept him or not ? i have oft said , that in divers cases , the people may be bound in duty to consent , as all are bound to be christians : but they are no christians , or church-members , till they do consent : what then is it that he meaneth as our difference ? § . yes : he saith , [ no more is necessary to the being , or well-being of a particular church than this ; a company of christians met together in publick for the solemn worship of god by iesus christ , having a pastor or minister with them to guide and govern the congregation , and edifie himself and them by the word and sacraments ; where there is no assembly of pastor and people there is no church , and no longer than the assembly lasteth are they a church . ] ans. did the world ever here this doctrine before ? when the church at ierusalem , corinth , cenchrea , colosse , laodicea , &c. and the churches in iudea , galatia , &c. are mentioned , when the apostles ordained them elders in every church , acts . . tit. . , . &c. is the word church here taken for no christians longer than they are assembled ? doth not scripture , canons , fathers , and all writers speak of churches as associated christians , remaining churches all the day , and year , and not only while assembled ? if the word church may be taken for a transient assembly , doth it follow that there is no other ? have we so many books of ecclesiastical policie , if there be no political society that is a particular church ? what an unpleasing talk is it to be put on a defence against such an opponent ? § . saith he [ i would but ask mr. baxter , what is it that you mean by associated by consent ? ] ans. have i in the books , cited by you , so largely told you what i mean , and must you print the question before you will take an answer ? saith he [ either you mean bare assembling , or some other thing ] ans. . will you better understand me if i write it again than you did before ? when i told you at large , in what cases express consent by words , or other signs is meet , and that where the laws settle parish churches , ordinary attendance and submission to the pastor's office must be taken for express consent ? but then i do hold that there is such a church as i describe , and that the parish is not unchurcht when the assembly is dismist . § . he saith , [ when the assembly breaks up , the church for that time ceaseth till the meeting be renewed , till which time they remain christian inhabitants , neighbours , families , parishioners , or sojourners , the pastor of the place dwelling among them ] ans. . in your equivocal sense of a church , this is true . in the political sense they are a church still ; as the parliament , citizens , souldiers , are a parliament , city , army , when they assemble not . if your wrangle be de re , do you deny their continued relation ? if it be de nomine , let the scripture and all nations judge , whether the name church belong to them no longer than they are assembled . . then all that stay at home , or are sick , are no church-members . . then the bishop or pastor , hath no church but while assembled : and he hath no duty to perform for his church , but while assembled . . this is quite contrary to our diocesans , who say ( as honest mr. cawdry himself ) that a diocess is the first particular church , and that it is no matter how many assemblies it consist of , and that there is no church without a bishop , and so that we have no more churches than bishops . . if a bishop build a temple on london road , where travellers shall be his ordinary hearers , whom he shall never see again , this is a temporary transient church ; but verily it is another sort church that is described in scripture , and by ignatius , cyprian , and all church-writers . and when the bishop was to visit the sick , and take care of the poor , and to exhort from house to house , it was as for a church , and not meerly as for christian neighbours : and do you think no more consent was necessary to his special duty to these more than to others , and theirs to him , than bare assembling ? atheists , infidels , hereticks , may assemble with the rest ; and catechumens ordinarily did so , and were never made themselves the judges , whether and when they should be baptized and admitted to communion ; but the pastors were the judges . § . as to your oft mentioning the words [ covenants and oaths ] for such church associations , as if i had written for oaths , or had not written against all needless covenants , which though you say not , your words would make the reader believe , whilst over and over it is but consent competently expressed , which i require ; those that know not your honesty as i do , i doubt will judge it to savour of some worse cause than i am willing to name . if consent be not expressed , how shall it be known ? and i still say caeteris paribus , the plainest expressions are fittest to attain their end , as the plainest language is counted the best for communication : oh! how much did cyprian , and all the old churches differ from you about consent ! § . another of my errors is to say , [ he is an invader , that without consent intrudeth into their priviledges . ] ans. . but it is not he that transiently cometh into the temple ; . but he that will make himself one of my special charge , and oblige me to all the duty which i owe to my charge and cannot pay to all men , and he that will claim a vote in choosing the bishop , &c. and if of old one of your mind had said , that every traveller or stranger , that cometh within the room , may claim the sacrament without any literae communicatoriae , upon his bare word , the bishops or churches would not have believed you ; so singular are you in all this . you tell us , god hath made no such corporations , and every christian is a freeman , &c. ans. but how shall i know whether every stranger that cometh in be a christian , or was ever baptized ? or be not a heretick excommunicate by other churches ? or if i am able to do the office of a pastor but for , and thousands more will come and claim it ? § . another of my errors is , that parish chappels and oratories , are no true churches . ans. you should not thus become an incendiary , by pretending things that you will not first understand : where do i say what you affirm ? i say , that there may be several chappels that are but parts of one church . . and i say , that if a bishop be essential to a church , then none below a diocess is a church ; and therefore that they that so affirm , do put down all parish churches and turn them into meer chappels and oratories , which are but parts of a church . . i never said , that if a place called in english a chappel ( yea , if a barn , or field , or ship , ) have such a pastor and people meeting , as a church must be constituted of , that they are no true church . . but if such pastors and people related as one church , are by persecution forced to meet in several houses , or the sick , weak , or distant , to meet sometime at a chappel , or without a true pastor ; if a deacon pray with some of them in a house , or oratory , this maketh not a church political , in the sense that i told you i used that word in ; but in another ( equivocal ) sense it may be called a church , and so a family may be . if this be false you should have confuted it , and not wrangle in the dark . § . you say that i blame the bishops for putting down all the parish bishops and churches — when i my self do no less by putting down all the chapple ministers , chappel meetings and oratories , and denying them to be proper pastors and churches . ans. all false , or a meer game at equivocal words : the word chappel usually signifieth a place for the assembling of some small part of a church , with a curate , or houshold chaplain , who hath only power to preach and pray , ( and sometimes to give the sacrament ) but not to govern : sometime a chappel may have a governing pastor , and people subject to him in that relation , and differeth but in name from the parish church . it is a meer chappel or oratory , in the common sense , which i say is not a political church . the falshood of your pretended parity of the cases i prove : those congregations which are constituted of ministers of different species , are not of the same species and definition : but meer oratories , or chappels , which have no pastors that have the power of the keys for government , and parish churches which have such pastors according to the divine institution , are constituted of ministers of different species : ergo , they are not of the same species and definition ( as you affirm . ) . those assemblies which intentionally meet but as parts of the lowest political church , and those that intentionally meet as the whole or main body of that political church , are not of the same species and definition . ( no more than a squadron , and a captain 's company , or troop ; or a family , and a village or town . ) but , &c. if bishops deny all the lord's chaplains to have the governing power of the keys , and their family-chappels to be true political churches of the same species and definition with a diocesan church , or a parochial ; do you confute them if you can , i cannot . but if i prove that every parochial , or other proper political church infimae speciei , should by divine order have a pastor that hath the governing power of the keys , and the bishops deny them any such , and will have but one such in a diocess ; do you defend them if you can , i cannot : nor are these cases the same . § . my next error , he cannot tell whether i hold or no : but it seems i do ; against compelling men to take whom the magistrate please for their pastors : for i make covenanting essential , as between a husband and wife ; likening the church universal to a kingdom , and particular churches to cities and corporations . ] and here he talks of the corporation oath , and exclaimeth [ is this the way of curing church divisions ? and is this the true and only way of concord ? ans. had you published and proved to us a better way , i hope we should have been thankful ; and so will i , if you will truly shew me the errors of the way that i commended . . he that hath read my books which plead for no oaths , nor for any covenanting , but exprest consent to the relations and offices , will perhaps think that here you were tempted to injustice at the least . . is not the church universal christ's kingdom ? i rather liken it to a kingdom , than to the world , because ( whatever you think ) i think it is not by christ subdivided into many particular kingdoms as the world is , but only into many particular churches , keeping necessary concord , ( and obedience to magistrates . ) it is not one sort only that militate against the cure of divisions , by true concord ; but i am sorry that you are become one . let him that thinks he stands , take heed lest he fall . § . he saith , [ it is qualification that maketh christians . ] ans. no qualifications without consent and covenanting with christ. and [ it is qualification and just ordination , which makes christian pastors and ministers at large . ] ans. do you confute me by repeating my one words ? and ( saith he ) [ it is their being placed by the magistrate in the several parishes , which makes them pastors by office , and relation to all the christian souls in the parishes respectively . — if iesus christ shall by the hand of the magistrate set a faithful minister in the parish , he becomes as to office and right a pastor , a guide , a minister , and teacher to their souls . if they receive him not , they are rebels and traytors against christ , and are no longer christian people , save as an adulterous wife , &c. ] ans. alas , where can we say a man will stop when he is once tumbling down the hill ! . why , did you think your bare word should serve for this ? that it is jesus christ that made this the office of the magistrate ? . is it all magistrates , or some only that have this power , and jesus christ chooseth us pastors by ? if but some , what the better are we for your discourse , if you tell us not how to know them ? and , . will you not then put the people upon a harder and more perilous task , to judge of all magistrates fitness for this trust , than it would be to judge of their pastor . . if it be all , then heathens and turks must choose christians their pastors . if you say , it is all christian magistrates , then the protestants in france are rebels and not christians , for refusing papists priests : if it be not papists , who are they ? must all receive lutherans , or socinians , or anabaptists , or such like pastors that live under imposing princes of those minds ? . why do you limit it to [ faithful ministers ] who must judge of their faithfulness and qualifications ? if the magistrate , papists , socinians , prophane magistrates , or heretical , will judge as they are . if the people , we are wheeled about to that which is resisted : and then , when is it that they must judge , before they receive him , or after ? if before , then must they have trial of him , or take all for ( faithful ) that are ordained by a bishop ? or that being strangers , they know no harm by him ? or all the patrons present ? if so , we come to the forementioned misery . if they must receive them first , and try them after , and depart from them when they shew themselves unfaithful ; then the people must either depose their pastors , or separate : and most that separate from the parish churches , do it as thinking the ministers unfaithful : and is this your cure of church-divisions ? and if never preaching be a proof of the unqualified , the canon forbids us to go from such . and in some countrys there are none within reach to go to from them : and if there be , the canon suspendeth them if they receive one to their communion , that goeth from a non-preaching minister . . did any one church on earth receive a pastor by the magistrates imposition for the first years ? or had not the churches then rightly called pastors ? . did not the orthodox churches commonly refuse bishops , which valens , and such erroneous emperors set over them ? . were not parish ministers chosen by the bishops and people , and not by magistrates for years in all known churches in the world ? it was but the patriarchs at first that were imposed on the people by the emperors ; and afterwards when the henrys contended with the pope , it was not for choice of priests , but for the investiture of bishops and abhots only ; and in this they left the choice to the people and clergie , and pleaded but for investiture per baculum & annulum ; so that for ought i know , magistrates never imposed priests on parish churches till the reformation : and since then , besides helvetia and belgia , it is but few that do it . and even in england , it is not done by magistracy , but by patrons presenting , and diocesan prelates instituting . so that if this be christ's way of making pastors to particular churches , there were no true pastors or churches for years , and perhaps none , or next none for years in parishes : and if this doctrine be true , the catholick christians in many princes reigns that rejected imposed bishops ( if that were as bad as rejecting parish priests ) were rebels and traytors against christ , and no christians . and whether he so stigmatize not the universal church for want of such reception of priests , in almost all ages , i wish him to consider . and whether that be like to be a better way of concord , which he and few such in the end of the world devise , to the condemning of the churches of all the former ages , that never had any such concord ? . hereby also he leaveth the tolerated churches in france , germany , and all the greek churches , and copties , and syrians , &c. that are under adverse princes , to be without pastors sent in the way of christ's appointment . ( and yet vouchsafeth not to name one text where christ ever appointed it . ) . and when he maketh all in a parish to be the pastors flock , or charge , that are christians , he condemneth those canons that ordained , that if any bishop convert not the hereticks in his city , they shall be his flock who doth convert them ; and all that have had two churches in one parish . or else he maketh parish priests to be pluralists , and if there be many chappels and churches in his parish , he is the pastor to them all : and yet he never tells us whether the chappel priest be also pastor of the rest of the parish : and if so , whether each be to govern distinctly , or one subordinately as governed by the other ; or whether both must agree , each being but part of the governing power . . the same man saith , that multitudes of parishioners are rebels , traytors , and no christians , &c. and yet that we must give them all the sacrament if demanded . for multitudes demand the sacrament to satisfie law and custom , who declare that they take not the priest for their pastor , nor as authorized by christ ; and multitudes that know not what christianity or a sacrament is , and will not speak with the minister about it . . did not he say before , that the man cannot be their pastor without his own and the peoples consent ? and yet the magistrate may make me a pastor to the parish ? what ? whether i will or not ? am i also a rebel , traytor , and no christian , if i refuse ? what if the parish have , or souls , and i am not able to do a pastor's office for ? what if i think it is a sin to be obtruded on dissenting unwilling people ? and if my dissent do not unchristen me , why doth the people's unchristen them ? the lord pity us , we need no enemies but our selves to seduce us and destroy ; nor any to make the most odious schisms than the decryers of schism . what schismatick doth condemn so many christians and churches , as this censure ? i can scarce except mr. dodwel , whom in his last book he called an odd disowned man. § . he tells us after of the pastor's duty to teach publickly , and from house to house : and yet it 's no church but when assembled ; and he hath equal charge of all christians ( though papists ) in the parish . § . he saith , [ no thing cuts off from a church particular , but what cuts off from christ , christianity , and the church universal . ] ans. . what if a man disown only the pastor of that church ? . what if he will not joyn with them in the liturgy , or mode of worship there used ? . what if that church be nestorians , or eutychians , or papists , and he separates from them , or they cast him out ? . what if he remove his dwelling ? § . next i am censured for demanding the people of kederminster ' s consent to my ministry , and their church relation . and he will now be distinct , and maketh answers to `distinct questions for them : but never tells us whether such answers had been true or false , if they had given them . his first question is , [ do we take you to have the just qualifications of a pastor ? ] and the answer is , [ learning is one qualification of which the ignorant are incompetent iudges : and for wisdom , holiness , and ministerial skill of fidelity , you are to make proof of them : this is to be answered some years after , and not ask before-hand . ] and so under papists , socinians , prophane imposers , you are to take all as wise , holy , faithful , till some years after you find them otherwise . here he expoundeth his former words , for rejecting the unqualified and unfaithful . but who shall be judge at some years after ? his second question is , [ do we take you to be duly ordained ? ] and the answer is , [ we are bound to judge those to be justly ordained which are so reputed , and we have no reason to suspect . ] ans. . but whose reputation is it that you rest on ? half the parish say , you are not justly ordained but by a bishop : the other half say , you are justly ordained by presbyters : you falsifie , if you feign them all of a mind . . and who knows how to define and bound your [ reasons of suspicion ? ] . the canons and bishops say , you have sorfeited your license if you conform not ; and without a license you may not preach . . and if you will question no mens orders , you will have many lay-pastors . to his d quest. he answereth , [ we question not your presentation . ] ans. and yet it is the magistrate that must impose ministers , and in times of usurpation he feigneth them to be unquestioned . the sum hitherto is , we must take any man for our pastor , that is ordained and presented . but what if i knew that multitudes do not so , doth it make them of that church because they should consent and do not ? of , or only would come to the sacrament , ( though they usually heard ) unless all the rest would receive it kneeling and administred by the liturgy , though they were left free to use that gesture themselves ; and withal they were told that we had not a bishops license . the th quest. is , [ if we take you alone for our pastor ? ] and it 's answered , [ we know of no other in view but you . ] ans. all these are fictions . . i never desired nor consented to be their pastor , but to be one of three . . i agreed with them in the town-hall publickly in writing , to undertake only a lecture which i had before the war , in conjunction with another that should have the presentation or sequestration . and yet honest mr. durel tells the world that it was a rich benefice given me for my service under cromwel , ( who would never endure me to speak to him . ) . there were three competitors : one an old vicar , that ( somehow ) preacht once a quarter , that had the presentation and was sequestred . ( . i will not tell you here for what . ) . his curate sequestred and removed . . an old chappel curate , grosly ignorant and vicious , that lived by unlawful marrying . . and by all this you determine that of three of us , none was pastor but only that one that had the presentation ; and so you depose all other curates not presented . and yet the chappels that have such curates put in only by the parsons are true churches ; such are your frequent contradictions . sect. . next as a meek questioner , he askt me , why i will not baptize their infants , if i take them for christians and parishioners ? he saith after , [ if they make not a tolerable profession of christianity in the publick assembly , they produce no valid claim , we are not to admit them . ] ans. i suppose there are in the three next parishes here , persons whom the pastors never had any other account of , as to their knowledg , but by their coming to church ( and half of them that rarely come . ) and those of us that have talkt with almost all our parishioners , find that multitudes know not what christianity or a sacrament is : a man about years old in kederminster said , christ was the sun , and the holy ghost the moon : is standing up at the creed then , or sitting in the church a tolerable profession ? hobbes and his followers would do the same . . but what obligation is on me to baptize all the children of those that take me for none of their pastor ? the parish may have more than i am able to do the pastoral office for : i cannot tell whether they come to church or not : if they do , they are strangers to me ; some come into the parish and others go out , and many are lodgers : and he that as a pastor is to baptize , is also to do abundance more , to catechize , visit the sick , the poor , &c. am i bound to impossibilities for every stranger that i never knew ? nor can i know so much as whether he be christened , or be indeed a parishioner ? yea , a church with you is only a present assembly : what if these persons assemble not , or but twice or thrice a year ? what if travellers be that day of the church ? bishop taylor saith ( pref. of repen . ) no one can give account of those that he knoweth not . sect. . his talk of the tares again deserveth no answer , but [ read expositors . ] his repeated insinuation by the word [ oaths , and covenants ] tell us that a good man may become un insinuater of calumnies . his two conclusions , pag. . from my words are , . that they are no churches that want this cementing covenant . ans. they are none that are not so related by consent expressed , by one way or other : if you turn this into [ cementing covenant ] when you had newly cited my express denial , that express covenanting was necessary , ad esse , it 's worse than ceremony , which you are already come to think lawful . the d concl. is , [ the churches that have it not in the most plain obliging way are defective , spotted , and ill-favoured , ] because i said that the more express way is laudable ad bene esse : as if all were called spotted and ill-favoured , that want any thing laudable ad bene esse , ( and will christ take away his churches spots and wrinkles , ephes. . when there were none ? ) and he saith , [ this he calls the true and only way of the churches concord . ] as if every word in the book were called [ the true and onely way . ] [ it rather tendeth ( saith he ) to discord , and to make every single minister a pope , or church-tyrant , and to make churches schismatical and traiterous combinations , dividing themselves from all other churches and christians , &c. ] ans. . and yet he before said himself , that the unwilling cannot be pastor and flock : and is not this the same ? . thus all christ's churches that ever i read of for , yea , a years , are stigmatized , who still made expressed consent necessary . . a pope is one that claimeth soveraignty over all the church on earth : doth he do so that taketh none for his flock , but consenters ? . which is liker tyranny , not to pretend to government over any but volunteers , or to say , i will govern you whether you will or not ? . is it dividing and schism , to know my flock as consenters , and not to take other mens flocks sine literis communicat●riis , as oft as they will dwell or lodg in my parish ? the words [ oaths , ] and [ covenants ] are oft again so mentioned by him , and his profession ; that he hath the episcopal and presbyterian on his side , and other untruths so rashly uttered , that i am heartily grieved for the success of his temptation : and whether he or i be schismatical , and differ from the ancient churches , i refer the reader to my abridg. of church history , and to my citations in my book of right to sacraments : my preface to mr. rawlet's book of the sacrament , confutes some of his intimations . i thank god that i am going to a more peaceable world. finis . firmianus and dubitantius, or, certain dialogues concerning atheism, infidelity, popery, and other heresies and schisme's that trouble the peace of the church and are destructive of primitive piety written in a plain and easie method for the satisfaction of doubting christians / by tho. good. good, thomas, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing g estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) firmianus and dubitantius, or, certain dialogues concerning atheism, infidelity, popery, and other heresies and schisme's that trouble the peace of the church and are destructive of primitive piety written in a plain and easie method for the satisfaction of doubting christians / by tho. good. good, thomas, - . [ ], , [ ] p. printed by l. lichfield for tho. hancox, oxford : . errata: p. 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ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng dissenters, religious -- england. atheism. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - marika ismail sampled and proofread - marika ismail text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion imprimatur rad. bathvrst . vice-can . oxon. firmianus and dvbitantivs , or certain dialogues concerning atheism , infidelity , popery , and other heresies and schisme's that trouble the peace of the church , and are destructive of primitive piety . vvritten in a plain and easie method , for the satisfaction of doubting christians . by tho. good , d.d. master of baliol colledge in oxon. take heed brethren . least there be in any of you an evil heart of unbeleif , in departing from the living god. heb. . . oxford , printed by l. lichfield printer to the university , for tho. hancox book-seller in hereford . . to the reader . considering the many learned and judicious tracts , that are extant against atheism , infidelity , popery , with other heresies , sects , & schisms , destructive of the antient catholick religion , and of that peace and vnity , love and charity , which is the badge and mark of christs sheep ; i thought it superfluous to add my poor scrible after such fair copy's , but observing the length , and learning of those elaborate tractat's , which many men have neither money to buy , leasure to read , nor judgment to understand , i conceived that these few short discourses , ( not fitted , nor indeed intended , for the perusal of the learned ) might nevertheless , be gratum opus agricolis , not altogether unprofitable for men of ordinary capacityes , to which purpose i have used such means and methods . that i might be the better understood by these men , i have endeavoured that the matter of these discourses ( for the most part ) might be plain and familiar , the phrase and expressions intelligible . i have made use of two feigned names . ( firmianus and dubitantius , ) to personate the sound believer , and the doubting sceptick christian , who are brought upon the stage , disputing by way of dialogue , which is most suiteable to men of short discourse , and most apt to comply with their apprehension . i hope the more learned reader , ( if any such shall give themselves the trouble to peruse this little manuel ) will not censure the plainness of it , but rather commend the charity of the author toward the w●ll meaning christian , who amongst those many treatises , that have been written , can meet with very few that are calculated for his meridian , and consequently is apt to be blown about with every wind of doctrine , by the slight of men , and cunning craftines whereby they lye in wait to deceive ▪ and who these gamesters are , he that has but half an eye may see , and how many a poor soul has in these times of confusion been blown about from one erroneous opinion to another , until he has turned seeker , scheptick , and at last down right atheist , there is no man so great a stranger in our hierusalem that can be ignorant . wherefore if these short and familiar discourses may have the happiness to prevent the falling of any unsetled , wavering soul , or to restore any that has fallen to a sound mind , 't will be my great satisfaction and rejoying to be able to apply to my self that of st. james , cap. . . brethren if any of you do err from the truth and one convert him , let him know that he that converts a sinner from the error of his way , shall save a soul from death , and shall cover a multitude of sins . now the god of truth and peace grant , that these poor and weak endeavours may work that good effect upon the erring seduced sinner , and that the multitude of my sins may be covered , with the long white robe of my blessed saviours righteousness , for his holy name sake . amen . thine in the truth that is i● christ jesus . tho. good . dialogue i. against atheisme . firm. good morrow to my old friend dubitantius . dub. a good day to you , firmianus . firm. methinks i read some discontent in your face : what may be the cause of it ? dub. there is a great cause ; i have been so long distracted betwixt diversity of opinions in point of religion , that i am now doubting whether there be any religion at all , or any supream invisible deity to be worshipped . firm. this is the common result of vain janglings , that they usually end in atheism and infidelity . but pray tell me , is it possible , that there should be such fierce disputes , and bitter contentions about a very nothing ? certainly such sharp disputes about the various manners of gods worship , do strongly argue that religion is a thing of highest concern , or that all the wisest men that ever were in the world are fooles , and madmen , to oppose , hate , malign , persecute one another even unto death , for a groundless fancy , a very nothing . dub. your discourse is very rational , for i suppose wise men would never wrangle about a meer romance ; yet i confess i have had strange irrational thoughts , against the very being of god , and the truth of any religion . firm. you justly term such thoughts irrational . did not i once tell you , that when you had fors●ken your mother the church of england , ( the most apostolical catholick in the whole world ) in short time you would become a libertine , an atheist , any thing , or nothing ? dub. do you think that all nonconformists , and separatists from your church , are libertines and atheists ? firm. i am not so uncharitable : but i must tell you , that causeless separation is a very greiveous sin , and punished many times with the seve●est judgments , such as are spiritual blindness , hardness of heart , and a reprobate mind . dub. i fear those judgments have overtaken me : for since i became a separatist from your church , i have been very cold at my devotion , made little conscience of publick , or secret praier ; of obedience to those powers which god has ordained ; of love , charity , honesty , and upright dealing towards my neighbours . i have lived an atheist in practise so long , that i am now ready to be an atheist in opinion , and to say with the foole in the . psal. there is no god. i have so long s●ept out of one opinion into another , that at length i am become a very sceptick in religion , doubting of all , and fixing upon none . firm. truly sir , you made good your name by your practise , which renders you a right dubitantius . but pray tell me by what degrees , and methods , you have stept out of our church into the borders of atheism , that i may with the more facility bring you back the same way , by which you have unhappily gone out from us , into the bosome of your dear mother . dub. your demand is reasonable . 't is not unknown to you that i was once a true son of the church of england , you shall hereafter know for what reasons i left her communion , and became a presbyterian : and to be breif i stay'd not long , in that opinion , but presently i proceeded independent , then anabaptist , then quaker , then papist , then antiscripturist , then what you now find me , almost an atheist . firm. i hope you are not fixed in that wretched opinion , as resolvedly to deny him a being , that gave you yours . dub. sir , i am not ; but have many doubts whether there be , and as many thoughts that there is not a god , creator and ●overnour of heaven and earth , and all things in them cont●ined . firm. i have heretofore taken you for a rational man , and therefore i desire a reason from you of such thoughts and doubts . dub. those many controversies , and sharp contentions about religion and worship of god , have caused me to doubt , whether there be any religion at all , or any god to be worshipped . firm. is it imaginable that so many wise men should contend about a trifle , a fancy , a very nothing ? 't is strange that what should be a most rational motive to perswade you to beleive that there is a god , and a religion , should make you doubt of both . there must be something in it , that draws so many combatants into the field , zealous sticklers for their several modes , and formes , of religion , hateing ●ne another even unto death . dub. this you have intimated before . i am fully convinced , that so many fierce disputes about religion , do argue , that t is not a meer fancy . i pray sir , enquire no further after the reasons of my doubts , but let me hear from you , how they may be satisfied . firm. most willingly ; but that we may proceed the more methodically , let it be agreed be●wixt us , what is the true notion of god. upon supposition that god is , what do you conceive of him in your mind ? dub. 't is agreed by all , that the notion or conception of god in our mind , is , † that he is a being infinitely perfect . firm. if god be a being infinitely perfect ▪ then god is : for a being infinitely perfect must necessarily exist and be . dub. do not we say , a rose is a flower , yet it does not follow ( at a●l times ) that a rose is : for in the winter there is no such thing as a rose , and yet the proposition is true . firm. there is a vast difference betwixt a being absolutely perfect , and that which has a limited and finite perfection ; for in this the essence may be really abstracted from the actual existence , but not in that . for a being infinitely or absolutely perfect , must necessarily exist ; not contingently , or impossibly ; for those modes are inconsistent with a being absolutely perfect ; for whatsoever does exist contingently , is in possibility not to exist , which is an imperfection : and impossibility of existence is the greatest imperfection of all other . dub. this reason is so obscure , that albeit i cannot reply to it , yet i am not satisfied with it . i fear some fallacy lies hid in the bowels of it . firm. i believe not ; yet because you do not fully comprehend it , i shall proceed to others tha● are more plain and intelligible . firm. what say you then to that reason which is drawn from the general consent of all nations , as well heathens as christians ; nulla gens tam barbara , &c. saies cicero ; no nation was ever so barbarous which did not confess a god ; now the consent of all nations is the law and dictate of nature , so that t is impossible that all nations should consent in so great a falshood , as the atheist endeavours to maintain . add to this their general practise in worshiping some supream deity ; that rather then worship no god at all , they would worship the sun , moon and stars , ye● the mo●t contemptible creatures , the crocodile , onyons , garlick , a red cloath , any thing they first met with in the morning ; so powerful is the impulse and inclination of nature in this great business of religion , which is the proper distinguis●ing character betwixt a man and a beast : as lactantius has long since observed . dub. i confess that the general consent of nations in the acknowledging and worshiping a god , has been one main reason , that has kept me from being a down-right atheist : yet i have somwhat to say against it ; because this consent is not so general as is pretended , for i have heard there have been men in antient times , and not a few in these we live in , who have said , not only in their hearts , but also with their tongues , there is no god. firm. what are two , or three men in former ages , or a fe● debauched persons in this , to the general consent of all civil nations , from the beginning of the world ? happily you have heard that so●e have denied , the sno● to be white , the fire to be hot . monstrous opinions are no more a prejudice to the dictates of nature , and common consent of all nations , then monstrous shapes and formes in the body are to the laws of nature , which she generally observes , in the forming of men and beasts in their due proportions , and lineaments ▪ what if some few , out of discontent , singularity , animosity , or brutish sensuality , have turned atheists ? is it not a great prejudice to this brutish opinion , that few sober men ( if any ) have been of their party , but such as have been first atheists in practise , sensual , debauched wretches ? nam quo quis in vita purior , &c. saies cicero : ●y how much any man has been more pure in his li●e and conversation , by so much his thoughts of the gods have been more sound and rational . dub. i confess it is a great prejudice to atheism , that the debaucher sort are the greatest ( i● not the only ) sticklers for it ; but still my doubt remains , and therefore i desire to hear from you some more evident reasons , for my full satisfaction . firm. most willingly i shall comply with you● desire . my third argument shall be this . if the world had a beginning , and was not from all eternity , then 't was made by somthing else ; for nothing can make it self . 't is as clear as the sun at noon day , whatsoever is made , is made by another ; for that which is not , cannot work , and consequently cannot produce it self , nor a●y other ●●ing : now this somthing else must be made o● some other cause , or else it self must be the supream cause of all things . if you affirm the former , you must run up into an infini●e number of causes , which is impossible , or else you must come at last to one supream independent being , which is the maker of all things , he himself being made of none , which is the eternal god. dub. i begin to feel the weight of this argument . if you can clearly prove the world to have had a beginning , i shall be your convert , and readily confess , that verily there is a god that hath made the world , and judgeth the earth . firm. this i hope i shall perform by his gracious assistance , whose cause i plead , and whose poor sinful creature i am . first , then by the world we understand the whole systeme , or collection of things in it contained , sun , moon , stars , air , earth , water , men , beasts , fo●les , fishes , plants , and all things whatsoever comprehended in this vast circumference . dub. i willingly grant that by t●● world we are ●o understand all things therein contained , as you have enumerated them , which make up the visible world , created by almighty god , in six daies , as your moses would have us believe . firm. that none of these were from all eternity , i shall prove by instancing in two of the most principal of them , to wit , the sun in the firmament , and man that dwells upon the face of the earth , by which you may judge of the rest . dub. if you can prove that the sun was not from eternity , and that there was a first man , and consequently that mankind had a beginning , i shall be abundantly satisfied , it that wherein at present i much doubt , viz. the worlds beginning . firm. before i proceed to my arguments , you must give me leave , to lay down certain principles which no rational man will deny ; as for example . . quicquid fit , fit ab alio , whatsoever is made , is made by somthing else ; for nothing can make it self . . omne ens est vel factum , fi●itum , dependens , vel non factum , infinitum , independens ; every thing that is , is either made , finite , independent ; or not made , infinite , independent . . vere i●finitum non habet principium , aut finem ; that which is truly infinite , has neither beginning , not end . . non datur pro●essus in infinitum ; we cannot pro●eed in numbering , from effects to causes , or in any other way imaginable infinitely , but we must come ●o some period o● end . . infinitum no● potest pertransiri , 't is impossible to pass over or through that which is infinite , so as to come to an end of it , seeing what is infinite has no end . . infinito ●il potest addi , to that which is infini●e nothing can be added to make it greater , or more then 't was before that addition . . aeternitas est duratio ●nterminabilis sine partium successione , in qua non datur prius & posterius ; eternity in its full and proper notion , is a boundless duration , without beginning or end , without succession of parts , as that one part of it should be either before or after another . dub. no rational man can deny any of these principles : but i much wonder , how so great a master of reason , as aristotle was , should grant all or most of these , and hold the eternity of the world , and not be sensible of manifest contradictions . firm. that the eternity of the world is a flat contradiction to many of these principles , is evident ; that aristotle was an acu●e philosopher , cannot be denied ; but it must be granted he was but a man , and one that had only the light of corrupted nature to guide him , he might therefore err , not knowing the scripture , nor indeed the power of god , and therefore he w●s ignorant how the world could have a beginning ; and seeing he very resolutely maintained , that ex nihilo ni●il fit , that whatsoever is made , is made of somthing , and that of somthing else , and so we mu●● proceed in infinitum , which he positively denied as absurd and impossible , as well he might ; or else the world must be from all eternity , proceeding from the first mover , ( whom he conceived to be a necessary , not a free agent ) as heat from the fire , or light from the sun , and therefore eternally existing with that first mover , or first cause : however some have affirmed , that in his book de mundo ( if that be his ) he retracted this error , which has been a grand occasion of atheism , as f●rra ▪ upon aquin●s ●ontra gent. has truly observed . dub. and well he might , if 't was built upon ●o sandy a foundation , as to make god a necessary agent , for that was to render him inferiour to some of his creatures , which are free and voluntary . but pray leave the philosopher to his other errors , and self-contradictions , and make it appear , if you can , that he erred in asserting the eternity of the world . firm. that i hope to perform by principles granted by all sober men . there is nothing in the world , but either 't was made , and had a beginning , or 't was not made , but was from all eternity ; now t is evident , that there is no particular thing in this visible world , which was not made . the sun , moon , & stars were made , men , beasts and plants were made . for brevity sake , i shall only instance in the sun , and in man , that they were made , and had a beginning , and consequently the moon , and stars , ●easts , and plants . . that the sun was made , and had a beginning , i thus demonstrate : that which was not from all eternity , but had a beginning , was made , and that by somthing else , because nothing can make it self ; but the sun was not from all eternity . the major is evident , the minor is thus confirmed ; if the sun was from all eternity , then either it moved , from all eternity , or it stood still ▪ if it moved from eternity , then 't was eternally together in the east , meridian , and west , not first in the east , then in the meridian , then in the west : for in an eternal motion , ( if any such motion were possible ) there can be no ●uccession ▪ no first , or last , ( prius or posterius ) because in such a motion there is neither beginning no● end . dub. 't is evident , by what you say , that the sun has not moved from eternity , but how can you prove it did not stand still from eternity , seing there are some that hold it alwaies stood still , and never moved to this day , but that the earth moves and the sun not at all . firm. it hinders not the force of the argument , whether you hold the earth move , and the sun stands still , or the contrary ; for 't is but shifting the scene , and puting the earth instead of the sun , and the reason will be altogether the same . dub. i perceive it does not , and therefore let me hear how you can prove that the sun did not stand still from all eternity . firm. if the sun stood still from eternity , then there was an eternal night upon half the face , or globe of the earth , and an eternal day up on the other half , ( or at least many other gross absurditie● would follow . ) no vicissitudes or changes of night and day , summer and winter , spring and autumn , and consequently no productions , or generations of men , beasts , plants , for that half of the earth which was deprived of the light and heat of the sun , ( which as a second cause gives life and vegetation to all the inferior creatures , that have life and growth ) could bring forth no vegetables , or animals ; and the other half , which was alwaies scorched with too much heat , must of necess●ity be as barren by such heat , as the other by extream cold ; and so we should have an eternal sun to no purpose , and then what will become of your eternal world ? besides if the sun stood still from eternity , what caused it to move in time ? of it s own nature certainly it could never awake out of an eternal sleep : if any thing else set it in motion , then either it must be somthing that was moved by some superior cause , and this cause by another , and so to an infinite number of causes , which is absurd and impossible , or else it must be the first mover and efficient cause of all things , which is god. dub. you have abundantly satisfied me , that the sun had not an eternal being , and consequently that neither men , beasts , or plants , could be from all eternity ; however i desire to hear from you some particular arguments against the eternity of man-kind . firm. there is no particular man but had ▪ beginning , was made and begotten by his parents , they by theirs , and so we must ascend from son to father , up to all eternity , usque ad infinitum , which is utterly impossible , or else we must come to a first man , who could not make or beget himself . now if every particular man be made , and begotten , then the whole kind must be made , because the whole kind is nothing else , but the collection of all particulars . every one of them we see by daily experience had a beginning , and is begotten or made ; therefore 't is made by some other , for quicquid fit , fit ab alio , and this of some other , and so forward until we come to the supream cause of all things , which is god. again , either all men that are , or ever were in the world , were made ; or some were made , and some not made , but had being of themselves : if so , 't is impossible that these men should be of the same kind , with the men that were made , for that which is made depending upon another , cannot be of the same kind with that which is not made and independent , because a thing that is not made , infinite , independent , is of another kind from what is made , finite , and dependent ; and these two ( finite and infinite , dependent and independent ) are opposite members , dividing one and the same most common kind . dub. 't is a clear demonstration , that every particular man being made , the whole kind must be made ; hut pray tell me , might there not be a perpetual successive generation of men up to all eternity , and so a processus in infinitum , an infinite number of them without all beginning ? firm. this is altogether impossible ; for in a catologue , or series of things , every one of which had a beginning , as 't is evident that every particular man had ( and consequently the whole series ) there cannot possible be a processus in infinitum , up to all eternity , or an infinite succession of causes and effects , without all beginning ; eternity properly so called , has neither beginning , no● end , for 't is duratio interminabilis . an infinite unlimited duration , and therefore whatsoever had a beginning cannot possibly be eternal , but the whole series of men had a beginning , for whatsoever is made had a beginning , but the whole series of men was made , therefore it had a beginning , for every particular man had a begining : therefore the whole series , which is nothing else but a collection of all particulars , and therefore it cannot be equal or comensurable to eternity , which is without beginning . again , if the ●eries , or rank of men did run up to eternity , or into an infinite number of successive generations , then that infinite number of men have been swallowed up of death many millions of years before this age we live in , and so death has passed over that number , which is contrary to that certain principle , infinitum non potest pertransiri ; 't is impossible to pass over , or through that which is infinite : nay then ●here would not be any man living at present ; for if an infinite number of men are already dead , then all the men that ever were or may be are dead , for infinito nihil pot●st ●ddi . yea if the world should continue ten millions of years longer , there could not be after those ten millions of years more men in it , then there were ten millions of years before this present ; for nothing can be added to that which is properly infinite , to make it greater in magnitude , or more in number , neither could the father be before the son , nor the gre●t grandfather before or elder then either ; nam in aternitate non datur prius & posterius . in this infinite duration , there is no former or latter , and consequently had the world been from all eternity , it could not truly be said , that any man was before another ; not abraham before isaac , or he before jacob. dub. you have made it very plain , that the world had a beginning , and consequently ( because t is ridiculous to suppose that it had its beginning from it selfe , chance , or atomes ) that there is one supream cause of infinite power and wisdome , the creator of heaven and earth , and of all things therein contained , which is the glorious and eternal god , of whose being i hope i shall hence forth never entertain the least doubt . firm. though you seem to be well satisfied with these reasons , which i have urged for the being of god , yet because something in them are not so intelligible to men of ordinary capacities , who perhaps may cast their eyes upon these papers ; you shall give me leave to use other reasons that are more plain and familiar , and such as may perswade more with men of ordinary abilities , then those that i have proposed to you● self . dub. though i am fully satisfied in that great fundamental point , yet in this i commend your charity , and do not envy the satisfaction of others . but i believe you cannot alledge more convincing reasons th●n those which you have already made use of ; however i desire to hear what you can further say , for the con●irmation of this very great truth . firm. the other reason which i shall produce shall b● taken from the goodly fabrick of the world , the harmonious order of all things therein contained , the horror of conscience in wicked men ; the dread of perjury in very heathens , the appearance of evil spirits , their strange working in witches and wizards ; which may be seen more largely treated of in doctor fotherbys atheomastix , doctor andrews cattechisme , du-plessis truth of christian religion , grotius of the same , doctor mores antidote against atheism , parsons resolutions , doctor stillingfleets origines sacrae , gales gentils court , mr. baxters christian religion , with many others : i shall breifly sum up what these learned men have wrot at large , beginning with that argument which is taken from the goodly fabrick of the world . . t was excellently said of tertul. lib. de resur . facilius credas prophetiae si sis discipulus naturae , if we be conversant in the works of nature , they will lead us to the knowledg and beliefe of scripture . there is a most sweet harmony , betwixt those two books , the book of nature and the book of grace . what is said of the one , monstrat quaelibet herba deum ; every herb or plant does shew there is a god , is most true of the scripture ; quaelibet linea deum refert , every line in this book , shews us the power , providence , and wisdome of god. and if the atheist will disdain to read this excellent commentary upon the book of nature , let him seriously peruse the text , the harmonious beauty and order of the universe . plato and some other of the antients , were used to demonstrate the being of a supream deity by a clock ; whose hammer when it striketh sheweth the next wheele that moves it , that the next , and so forward until you come to the clockmaker ; who made all the wheels , and caused their regular motions . another instance is commonly made use of , if a man should travel into a far country , at present not inhabited , and there should behold some goodly building , he would presently conclude it grew not out of the ground , neither did the be●sts make it , but t was the work of some ingenious artists ; or if a man should behold a well ordered army of soldiers , keeping rank and file , turning altogether ( as if they were animated by one soul ) sometimes to the right hand , sometimes to the left , he would presently conclude that there was some expert commander to direct them . even so he that casts his eye upon this goodly fabrick of the world , must needs acknowledg the great power and wisdom of its maker ; he that shall seriously observe the harmonious order , the regular motions of its parts , must needs acknowledge the truth of that saying , psal. . . the heavens declare the glory of god , and the firmament sheweth his ha●dy work . and rom. . . that which may be known of god is manifest in them , for the inv●sible things of god are clearly seen , by those things that are made ; viz his eternal power and godhead . job . . . he stretcheth out the north over t●e empty place , and hangeth the earth upon nothing . seriously consider what is wrote in the , . . . chapt. &c. of that book , besides many other excellent texts in the holy scripture , declaring how the glory , wisdome , power of god is manifest in the admirable frame of the world , and the exquisite order and harmony of all things therein contained . see how the heavens warm and water the earth ; how the earth , brings forth the grass , herbs , and plants ▪ how these feed the beasts ; how the beasts serve the several necessities of man ; who is the only creature ( the immortal angels excepted ) that can in a rational manner serve , and set forth the glory of his creator . o how desirable are all his works , and that a man may see even to a sparke , ●ccles . . . none so little as does not manifest the glory , none so great , which is not subject to the almighty power , and wise disposal of the creatou●r . behold the in●nimate creatures , how they declare it , the sea whose proud waves are bounded by his power , job . . . of whose wonderfull ebbing and flowing , no man is able to render a satisfactory account ; certainly those that go down to the sea in ships , and do business in great waters , these men see the works of the lord , and his w●nders in the deep . ps. . the earth which contains so much rich treasure in the bowels of it , such v●riety of plants , herbs , flowers , both for use & delight in the surface of it . the air that compasseth about both sea and earth , receiving multitudes of vapours , and exhalations from them both , and returning them in gratefull dews and sho●res . the wind that is brought out of gods treasury , no man knows whence it comes , nor whether it goes ; the wisest philosophers are at stand , they know nor what to say of it . the lightning and thunder , two terrible , yet very usefull creatures ; frost and snow , and ice and hail , all which declare the glory of god : see psal. . . but above all the inanimate creatures , those that are above them , all in place and exellency , do magnify the glory of their creator ; as the sun , moon , and stars . o saith david , psal. . when i consider the moon and the stars , which thou hast ordained , what is man that thou art so mindfull of him , and the son of man that thou visitest him ? looke we on the animate creatures , plants , herbs , flowers , grass , grain , how wonderfully they grow and multiply ? consider their variety , beauty ▪ virtue , pleasures , profits , monstrat quaelibet herba deum , every herb points out a deity . consider the fish in the sea , the beasts in the land , the fowls of the air , see how they declare the glory of their maker , peruse with a serious and diligent eye the , . . . chap. of job as before . last of all , thou stupid creature , consider thy self , that art fearfully , and wonderfully made . view the excellent harmony , consent and use of all the parts in thy little world , with what dutifull care they serve each other , so that the head cannot say to the feet , i have no need of you ; the consideration of which excellent frame , and contexture of parts in the body of man , made the learned galen stand amazed , and turned him from an atheist , to confess , and believe a god , and to compose an hymn , in praise of his almighty creator . in a word if we consider the whole creation , the harmony and subordination of the several parts of that goodly fabrick of the universe ; they do wonderfully declare the wisdom , power , and glory of the omnipotent eternal maker of heaven and earth . if we behold how the heavens serve the earth , the earth the plants , these the beasts , these man , whose great end and errand for which he was sent into this world , was to serve him , who made the inferior creatures for man , and man for himself , we must needs break out into the psalmists holy rapture , o lord how marveillous are thy works , in wisdome hast thou made them all : and he must certainly be a very unwise man , that doth not consider them , and a very fool , that will not understand them . dub. from what you taught me a little before , that t is utterly impossible for any thing to make it self , or by the power of its own nature , and to spring out of nothing into somthing ; and by what you have now delivered , from the goodly frame , and fabrick of the world , and the harmonious order of its parts , t is evident that it owes not its original to chance , which is a very dream : 't is as cleer as the sun at noon day , that their is an allwise , an almighty god , the glorious maker of heaven and earth ; however i pray you let me heare your other reason , from the sacred bond of oaths , the horror of cons●ience , &c. firm. t is evident that very heathens , and mere natural men , that have made no conscience of telling a thousand lies , of drunkenness , fornification , theft , malice , envy , revenge , &c. durst not seriously and solemnly take one false o●th , for fear of divine vengeance which hath been executed upon perjured persons , as i● evident , from histories sacred and prophane . 't is a most remarkable peice of history , which is related of three notorious villaines , which did swear against narcissus bishop of hierusalem ; as eusebius reports it , lib. . chap. . of eccl●s . hist. and about the year . we had a very signal instance of divine justice , executed upon on g. at ludlow , in the councill of the marches , who taking a false oath in th●t court , was strucken in the same place presently with suddain death . such judgments as these against perjury were so frequently observed by some heathens , that when diagoras hearing a man for swearing himself in a court of judicature , and being impatient to see that he was not presently thunder-strucken , became an atheist , and because sentence against so great an evill was not suddenly executed , therefore the heart of this fool , this wicked man , was fully set in him about that great mischief , to say there was no god. psal. . . eccl. . . dub. some pagans a●d false christians , have dared to take false oaths . the jesuites ( whether they be pagans or christians i know not ) will swear anything , even solemnly in courts of justice , and therefore this argument ▪ ( impious me● dare not take a false oath , therefore there is a deity or some supream power which they fear , ) holds not , for the antecedent is evidently fals ; but this is rational , strange horrors and terrors of conscience , and fearfull judgments have followed perjured persons , ( tho no man knew they were so ) therefore there is some invisible superior power whe●ce such horrors and terrors and judgment● proceed . frm. i do confess that there have been several perjured persons in former , and are in these present times , but for a full answer to this exception , see what is replyed to another very like it pag. . however i am content the argument should stand , as you have proposed it , strange horror and terrors of conscience , and fearfull judgment have followed perjured persons , &c. which sufficiently proves what i intended , and therefore i proceed . another argument very like to this , or which is rather an addition to the former , may be tak●n from the feares and torments of an evil co●science , even amongst the very heathens . nero haveing killed his mother , confessed that he was often troubled which her ghost . the wretched caligula at the report of a thunder clap would ●un under his bed . a thousand instances there are amongst heathen writers , of wicked men labouring under the feares and terrors of their own co●science , which juvenal does describe to the life in one or two of his satyrs . what should be the reason that mere pagans , men having no knowledg of the true god , or of his severity against wickedness , should be tormented with the sad prospect of some fearefull judgment , attending upon their villanies tho never so secretly practised , but the timor numinis vindicantis , the fear of divine vengeance ? a third argument may be drawn from the certainty that there are devils , evil spirits , together with their wicked instruments , witches , magicians , sorcerers , conjurers , which none but a foolish atheist ( who will believe no further then his sight leads him ) can doubt of . how frequently the devil has appeared in this nation in times of gross ignorance● , and superstition , and how he does so still to the poor ' indians th●t worship him for their god , is aboundantly manifest by the tradition of our fore fathers , and the testimony of knowing christians , that have been in those parts . what pranks and diabolical feats , have been acted by witches and conjurers , may be seen in those learned authors , that have wrot against them ; as dr. moor , and many others . and albeit the appearances of evil spirits , witch-crafts , &c. are not now so frequent in this nation as heretofore , in times of popery , and darke ignorance , yet does it not therefore follo● , that all our forefathers were melancholly hypocondriacks , deceived themselves , and deceiving us with vain and groundless phansies : but the true reason is this , in times of ignorance , and superstition the devil appears more frequently , to uphold his kingdome over his vassals , and to confirm them in their false worship ; but in times of knowledg and gospel light , the prince of darkness uses all his arts to render men scepticks in religion , and of no religion at all , atheists , infidels , prophane : so that his very appearing would pull down his kingdome , which he exercises over these wretches , who like sadducees believe neither angel , nor spirit , nor any thing further then they can see . now the prince o● the air is too subtil to confute this gro●s errour in his best servants by any or often apparitions . the last reason i shall take from that allowed disti●ction that is betwixt good and evil , better and worse ; which could not be , unless there were some measure of mans actions : and this measure must be a law , either written in mans heart , or instituted and written in bookes or tables ; and thi● law must have a law maker , which must be able both to know , reward , and punish , not only mans words and actions , but his very thoughts , which none can do according to the exact rules of justice , but he that is infinite in knowledg , and wisdom ; that is , none but the omniscient god. besides all this , there are degrees in good and evil ; for of things that are good , some are better then others , of things that are evil some are worse then other . now these degrees of good and evil , take their rise and fall by their aproaching to , or declination from that which is summum bonum , or the chiefest good ; so that , if there were no best , or cheifest good , there could be no better or worse , no good or evil at all , therefore there must be one infinite good . to conclude this first discourse ; seeing the inclination of all people , to believe a god , the instinct of nature to confess it , the excellent fabrick of the world to declare it , the force of wicked mens consciences to fear it ; the custom of civil nations to adore it , do abundantly prove that god is , yea doubtless that there is a god , that judgeth the earth , what a monstrous creature is the fool atheist , that saith in his heart there is no god ? dub. though i was abundantly satisfied with your former reasons against atheism , yet i heartily thank you for these which you have here added , which though they are more largely treated on by several learned authors , yet as you have breifly summed them up , they are more suitable to men of ordinary capacities , and of short discourse , who loose themselves in long treatises , and are apt to forget what they have read in the beginning of them , before they come to the middle , and are more tired with the length , then pleased with the soundness and excellency of such discourses . sir being fully satisfied with your reasons against atheism , i humbly beseech the almighty creatour of heaven and earth , to bless them unto me , to preserve me from all prophane , irreligious courses , from practical atheism , which by its own natural propensity , and the just judgment of the most holy and righteous god , is the great cause of that which is speculative and dogmatical . dialogve ii. against antiscrpturisme . firm. having given you such satisfaction about the being of god , as hath fully removed all your doubts concerning that first and great principle ; if you please we will discourse of the other that is like unto it , the divine au●h●rity of the holy scripture : for upon these two depend the great and weighty business of religion . he that is steadfast in the beliefe of the being of god , and the truth of his mo●t sacred word , ( if he be true to these great fundamentals ) must of necessity be both an orthodox and a serious christian. dub. if you can give me as good satisfaction , in the divine authority of scripture , as you have in the being of an eternal god , creatour of heaven and earth , you will performe a work of greatest charity , but i f●ar of as great difficulty . firm. happily you may perceive some difficulty in it , but if you will make use of your reason , and lay aside all prejudicating opinions , which cheifly arise from that contrariety which is betwixt mens carnall corrupt hearts , and the holy and pure word of god , i hope by his blessing whose cause i plead , to perswade you to give your full assent to this other great principle of christianity . dub. i shall endeavour to weigh your reasons , in the ballance of an even unbiassed judgment , and to receive them , a●imo defaecato , with a mind free from the dregs of sensuality , interest , partiality , or prejudice . firm. upon the confidence to find this ingenuity in you , i shall present you with these following reasons . . you do belive that there is an omnipotent god , creatour of heaven and earth , that he made all things therein contained , that being infinite in wisedome and knowledg , he made all these things for some good end , that he hath ordered them to act and worke , in such a manner as is suitable to their several natures , that in as much as they have their being , facultys , operations , from their all wise and glorious maker , they are bound by the law of creation , to do homage and service to him that made them . dub. all this i grant to be very rational . firm. these things being granted ; that ( not to mention other creatures ) as man had his being , reason , and understanding from almighty god , so is he bound to serve him in that way and manner , which is agreeable to mans excellent nature , which must be therefore a reasonable service , which all the world , as well pagans as jews , and christians call religion , which according to all sober people comprehends duties of piety , as praier , praises and sacrifices , duties of temperance , sobriety , and chastity , duties of honesty , justice , righteousness , and all morality . dub. there is nothing more evident , then that as there is a most wise and holy god , that made man , endued him with excellent facultys , of reason and understanding , so there is a debt and duty owing from man to god , his maker , which all the world calls religion , and no people in the world were ever so barbarous , ( saies cicero ) as to be destitute of all religion ; yea there is such a tendency in ▪ the nature of man ( where t is not utterly extinguished by brutish sensuality ) that rather then he will worship no god at all , he will bow down to a sock , or a stone ; so that clear it is , if there be a god the creatour , and man by him created , there must of necessity be a religion . firm. truly nothing does more necessarily follow ( as du-plessis has well observed ) then a god , a man , a religion . but if almighty god did make man to worship him , sure he gave him some rules for that worship , some law to direct him in this great concern of his soul. dub. i cannot deny it ; and that this law was no law written in paper , or engraven in tables of stone , but the law of nature written in mans heart ; which made tertullian , utter these excellent words , o ani●a naturaliter christiana , ô divine soul that art naturally a christian. we see that the fire ascends , the water moves towards the center , birds make their nests , beasts feed their young , not by any outward positive law , but by the unerring hand of nature , and may not man that has a natural inclination to serve his maker , perform this service without any institued law , or prescribed canon . firm. ther 's no disputing against experience ; you see he does not , and when you shall embrace , and understand the holy scriptures , you will see he cannot by reason of his fall from that ●erfect sta●e , in which he was first made , whereas the inferior creatures kept their station . dub. i confess there are different religions in the world , opposite one to another , so that all of them cannot be in the right way of wo●shiping god ; some of necessity must be false and erroneous . firm. if of all religions in the world , all are not in the right , how will you know which is the true religion , which is the false ? this you cannot discern by any imprinted law or light of nature ( unless excited by art and industry ) which is in some measure common to all men that are not natural fools , and madmen , stupid inconsiderate wretches , or debauched bruits , whose reason is ●unk down into gross sensuality . dub. t is very true , if the meer light of nature were sufficient to point out the true religion , i am not able to say why so many sober men , in several parts of the world , who have not debauched their reason , and judgment should so strangely differ about it . firm. i believe you cannot , nor yet why jewes and pagans did offer up bloody sacrifices to these deitys , they worshipped . does any light of nature make it rational that the gods should be pleased with the blood of poor innocent beasts ? or is it rational to imagine that they should delight in humane ●acrifices ? dub. i must acknowledge i do not understand , how the light of nature should teach men , that such sacrifices should please the gods. i have oft●n wondered at this part of worship used by jews , and gentiles ; pray sir , give your selfe the trouble , of informing me whence this practise sprang ? firm. you are satisfied that it had not its original from the light of nature ; for albeit , some kind of sacrifices as prayers , praises , alms-deeds , and it may be the offering of the fruits of the earth , deo datori , to god that gave them , might spring from that light , yet the sacrificing of beasts was never shewed , to jew or gentile by natures candle , but was after the fall of man , appointed by almighty god to prefigure the grand propitiatory sacrifice , which was to be made by the blood of him , that was the lamb slain from the foundation of the world , which the devil ( who is tearmed gods ape ) taught his servants the gentils to imitate , who had the shell but not the kernel , the shadow , but not the substance , the outward rite , but not christ crucified , represented by it . dub. i do acknowledg that the sacrificing of beasts came not from the light of nature ; and you seem to make it probable that 't was from divine revelation , and positive institution . firm. you will be better satisfied , when you shall consider , that the founders of all religions in the world , did pretend to revelations , numa , lycurgus , mahomet , &c. which the devil taught them to do in imitation of moses and the rest of the holy prophets , who spake as they were moved by god. . pet. . . now there being but four religions in the world , iudaism , christianity , paganism , and mahometism ; if i shall prove unto you that christianity , ( whose rule and foundation is the holy scripture ) is the only true religion , and the other three false , i hope you will grant that the foundation on which it stands is the true revelation , and consequently that the scripture is no invention of man , but given by inspiration and revelation from god , which is the summ of my first argument . dub. if you can prove that the other three religions are false , 't will necessarily follow , that the revelations to which they pretend are likwise false . firm. this i shall easily do ; beginning with paganism , which consists in the worshiping of the c●●●tures ▪ . the sun , moon , and all the host of heaven ; . d●●d men ; that called sabaisme , this h●ll●nisme , from the nations that fi●st used these modes of worship , of both which we have a short account , im the book of wisdome , chap. . and . but more fully in vossius de idola●ria , and in the author of the gentils court , who hath m●de use of divers excellent men , that have wrote of this subject . that this religion of pagans was against the l●w , and light of nature , both in respect of the things wo●shipped , and also in respect of the abominable ●ites and ceremonies , any man that has the least sparke of that light remaining in him , may ●asily discern . first , the things worshipped were the creatures , some of them that never had life , others th●t once lived but are now dead , whose ghosts or manes the heathens imagined to be confined to their idols ; whereas no creature can be c●pable of religious wors●ip ; for 't is repugnant to all right reason , that one creature should thus worship another , god alone being the proper object of such worship , because in him we live , move , and have our being , and he it is that gives us life and breath , and all things ; therefore deo datori , to god the creator , and giver of all good things , all religious worship is only due . besides some of the wiser heathens , acknowledg that there could be but one god ; 't was a common saying amongst them , dicite plures , dicite nullum , 't is all one to say there are many gods , as to say there is no god , for the notion which they had of god , was that he was ens infinitum , a being of infinite power and perfection ; but natural reason shewed them that there could be but one infinite , because infinite power , and infinite perfection , comprehends all power and perfection , and therefore it cannot be communicated to many , or more then one . secondly , their rites and ceremonies were so ridiculous , and so filthy , that the apostle stiles them abominable idolatries , 't is against the rules of christian modesty , either to hear or speak of them . he that desires to see paganism smartly and solidly confuted , let him peruse the antient fathers , lactantius , arnobius , minutius felix , eusebius , clemens alexandrinus , st. augustine de civitate dei , &c. dub. i alwaies conceived paganism , to be a most vain and vile superstition , contrary to the very light of nature , and i am no better perswaded of mahometism , however i desire to hear your reasons against it . firm. you may please to receive them thus ; my first reason shall be taken from the novelty of , it being not much above a thousand years since that false prophet mahomet published his rapsody of nonsence , fabulous fictions , and damnable blasphemys to the world . first , from which i thus argue , truth is before falsehood , illud verum quod antiquum ; seeing the world is now above years old , and seeing religion has been practised in it from the creation , t is absurd to imagine , there was no true religion before mahomet , or that the infinite goodness and wisdom of god , should suffer gross errors to infect the whole world at least years before the true worship of his holy name was known unto men . secondly , mahometism is a mixture of judaism , heresy , and paganism , with some sprinklings of christianity , a bundle of ridiculous fables , prodigious lies , as is evident to any that shall peruse the alcoran . thirdly , 't was propagated by the sword , and such carnal weapons , by sensual motives , and promises of fleshly pleasures , to be injoyed by all those that should be followers of that grand impostor , which are so unworthy of the rational soul , that they cannot be called the cords of man , but are only proper allurements for those whose reason is sunk down into brutish sensuality . dub. these reasons do sufficiently manifest the folly and falseness of this new or rather no religion , but pray you inform me why you rank judaism in the number of false religious , seeing t is grounded on the scripturs of the old testament , which you beleive to be a divine revelation . firm. when i reckon judaism amongst false religions , i mean only that religion which is professed by the modern jews , under & against the gospel , not that which their forefathers under the law lived and died in . since the fall of adam unto the end of the world there was and shall be but one true religion , consisting of repentance from dead works , holy obedience , and faith in jesus christ ; so that the fathers before the law , the israelites under the law , the christians under the gospel , were and are of one and the same religion , for the substance of it ; cor. . . . . they did believe in christ to come , the christians do believe that he is already come ; to them he was vailed in types and shadows ▪ to us he is revealed , and those shadows are vanished at the rising of the sun of righteousness with healing in his wings . dub. by what you have said 't is evident , tha● all religions that are and ever were in the world , ( except the jewish under the law and the christian under the gospel , which are for substance the very same ) are utterly false , and consequently their pretended revelations , on which they are built , the inventions of men and satanical delusions ; and that the christian and the antient jewish being the only true religion , it must follow that the old and new testament is the only certain and divine revelation ; your argument appeares to be very concluding ; i pray you proceed . firm. my second argument shall be taken from the excellency and reasonableness of christian religion . first . this religion is most holy and spirituall ; resolving it selfe into most excellent principles and ends ; the glorifying of god and humbling man , pointing out unto us the most divine and he●venly life in the love and service of our creator , in the dedication and devotion of our souls unto him , in whom we live move and have our being , placing our felicity in spiritual , not in fleshly pleasurs , the rule of it ( being holy scripture ) contains laws most holy , most pure , most righteous . let all the world if they can answer the chalenge made by moses . deu. . . what nation is there so great that has statues and judgments so righteous , as all the law which is set before you this day ? which as to their clearness are highly improved under the gospel , engaging us upon higher and more heavenly motives : those under the law being for the most part temporal ; to deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts , to live soberly , righteously , and godly in this present world . tit. . " . there is no virtue which christian religion commendeth not , no duty which it commandeth not , no vice , no sin , which it does not condemn ; no religion , doth so much condemn pride , worldly-mindedness , sensuality , filthy lusts , a poore , private , narrow spirit , selfishness , as this , no religion doth so much commend humility , meekness ▪ selfe-denyal , charity , peace , unity ; no ●eligion doth so much exalt reason above passion and sence , doth so much enoble the spirit of man , making it to look upon the riches honors pleasures of the world , as so many vain shadows , deluding dreams , transitory nothings ; the great design of it is not carnal and worldly , but high and heavenly , as to set forth t●e glo●y of god , to lift up the soul above the cre●ture , to lead man by the way of holyness to everlasting happiness . this religion gives us the highest motives for " the sincere practise of piety , and all manner of virtuous living th●t possible c●n be , the pleasures of an holy life here , the enjoyment of eve●lasting happiness hereafter ; it gives the strongest reasons against the power o● temp●ation● , te●●hing us to mortifie the lusts of the flesh , an● to contemn the vanities of the world , putting the joyes of heaven , the torments of hell , the love of god in the ballance , against the ple●sures of sin , whi●h are no more then a feather to the massy glob of the earth . " lastly , christian religion from holy scripture , on which 't is founded , doth reve●l unto us the nature , attributes , and works of god , beyond all the religions that ever were in the world ; how doth it magnifie and reconcile the justi●e and mercy of god towards sinful man ? how do●h it set forth the infinite power and wisdom of ●o● ▪ in making the world of nothing , in such an excellent form and beauty , which has drawn all ●o●sidering men into an admiration of the goodly fabrick of it ? yet the must acute philosophers were at a loss how and when 't was made , whether 't was from all eternity , or had a beginning in time ; whether 't was m●de of pr●existen● m●tter , o● of the fo●tuitous concourse of atoms ; whi●h fond opinions deserve not any serious confutation . " but the holy scripture doth ●le●rly solve all these doubts ▪ & is indeed the best cōment on the book of nature , and doth give such an account of the original of the world , the time and method of its production , the peopling of nations , the confusion of languages , the depravation of nature , which the heathens understanding not , fancied two principals , one good , the other evil ; from which all the good and evil in the world did proceed . mans recovery by the sacrificing of the son of god , for want of the knowledge and belief thereof , all the bloody sacrifices practised by the hea●hens , were meer impostures , and ridiculous nothings ; these , and divers other mysteries far above mans capacity to devise , and not within the compass of natural corrupt reason , are made plain unto us by scripture revelation ; which does abundantly prove that none but an infinite god could be authour of this divine revelation , of which those of the heathens , & that of mahomet , were " so many apish imitations & diabolical cheats . dub. i am fully satisfied by the characters which you have given of the religion in practise with the people of god ( especially with the christians ) that the rule and measure of it must be from heaven & not from men , and consequently that all holy scripture is divinely inspired , & is the word of the eternal god. firm. i could further acquaint you with many mo●e reasons to confirm you in this great truth , which are common in every authour that treats of it ; ●s namely the antiquity of holy scripture , some part of it being before all writings ; the continu●nce of it by an extraordinary providence , notwith●tanding the rage and malice of cruel bloody persecutors , the sincerity , impartiality , candour , simplicity of its writers , quibus nullum fuit mendac ii praemium , they had no earthly motives to perswade them to utter such forgeries ( as atheist deem them to be ) nothing but bonds and imprisonments , losses of goods and lives . again it must be acknowledged , that the pen-men of the scripture , were very good men , or very bad , ( for men of a cold indifferency they could not be . ) if they were very good men , they would never have conspired together , to put such a cheat , such a grand imposture upon the world ( as anti-scripturists would have the word of god to be . ) if very bad , they would never have wrot with so much zeal , and earnestness against all manner of wickedness , and especially , against lying and hypocrisie . certainly they would never have exposed themselves , to hazard lives and fortunes for no other reward , then to be esteemed both knaves and fools by all prudent men . add to this that lyers and cheats do not usually agree one with the other ; but there is such a sweet harmony & consent betwixt the pen-men of holy writ , tho they lived at so great a distance from one another , that questionless they were acted by one and the same infallible spirit . lastly , the aversness , the slowness that is in our corrupt hearts to believe all that is written in the law and the prophets , luke . . a●ising from that contrariety which is betwixt the holy and spiritual word of god , and our carnal and depraved minds , is no small proof of the truth of it , for 't is otherwise impossible to render any ration●l account , why we should doubt , or disbelieve this sacred word , and never once question the truth of ordinary and common histories , which are conveyed down unto us , not with the tenth part of that evidence which we have of the truth of holy scripture . but waving these reasons , i shall only mention two of the best which are urged against infidelity , to bring up the reer of my discourse . the first whereof shall be taken from the fulfilling of prophesies ; the other from miracles , which are the seals of this our magna charta . dub. tho i am sufficiently confirmed in the truth of this great principle , by what you have already said , yet i would most gladly hear your arguments from prophesies and miracles . firm. first for prophesies , i shall acquaint you with some few out of the old testament , to which your own reading may suggest many more , which were exactly fulfilled according as they were foretold . dub. did not astrologers , and heathen oracles foretel many things that came to pass as they were foretold ? firm. i grant it ; but hear what judgment a learned heathen passes upon them . the gods do foretel some natural things to come , for that they observe the order & conjunction of their natural causes , but of things that are contingent , or such as do depend upon the will of man , they have but conjectures and do often times lie , and deceive us in both kinds , for as natural things are variable so much more the will of man ; porphyrius lib. de resp. & ora● . cited by parsons in his resol . pag. . dub. this testimony of porphyrius being an heathen and a great enemy to christianity is very considerable , and experi●n●e shews it to be very true , for o●acles have de●eived many ; and we see that astrologers ; can give no certain predictions concerning the weather which dep●nds upon natural causes ; and therefore i desire you to she● me , if you can , any prophesies of scripture , that are more certain . firm. i shall begin with that of abraham , concerning his posterities inheriting the land of promise ; of their servitude in a strange land ; of their mighty deliverance years before it came to pass , you may for this compare , cen. . . . &c. with exod. . second , iacob being in egypt on his death bed , prophe●●ed thus of his ●on iudah , that the scepter should not depart from him , until shilo came , which fell out accordingly at the birth of our saviour , at which time the scepter was in the h●nd of a stranger , herod by name , and then , and not till then , it finally departed from iuda . third , 't was prophesied of iosias ● years before he was born , that he should destroy the altar at bethel . . kings . . which was exactly fullfilled . . kings . . fourth , you may see how punctual the prophet isaiah is in fortelling the nativity , the life , the passion of our blessed saviou● , in so much that he writeth more like an historian then a prophet , as also how he foretells the destruction of hier●salem , and the greivous captivity of the jews by , and under , the babylonians , and then the destruction of the babylonians and the rebuilding of hierusalem , by cyrus years before he was born ; the same was foretold by ieremy , about a years after isaiah , and these prophecies were so famous , and so certainly believed , amongst the jews in the time of their captivity , that when the time of their expiration drew near ; daniel thus writeth of himself ; in the first year of darius , i daniel understood in the scripture , the number of the years , &c. dan. . . neither did the jews only understand and believe this prophecy , but cyrus himselfe an heathen : which was his great inducement to restore the jews and rebuild the temple at his own proper charges ; ezra . . and heathen historians confess as much . fifth , the prophecy of daniel , concerning the four great monarchies , is so clear and evident , so distinctly described as if he had lived in them all , dan. . and dan. . how also he foretold the coming and suffering of the messias after weeks , cap. . many more of such prophecies might be alleaged , but these are abundantly sufficient , to attest the divine authority of scripture . dub. t is very true if you could prove there were ever such prophets , or prophecys in the world . firm. what proof do you expect ? will you believe nothing but what you see with your own eies ? dub. that were irrational , if you can prove by a certain tradition , that there were ever such prophecies , delivered by such men , as you name , i shall assent unto them . firm. this i shall perform ; first from the whole nation of the jews , which have delivered them from father to son , down along for many generation ; do you think that a people so carefull and diligent in the keeping and transcribing their records , could , or would agree together , upon no worldly interest at all , yea even to the hazard of their lives , and fortunes to abuse themselves and their posterity ? dub. i confess 't is not very probable ; but have you any other proof , for the certainty of these prophecyes ? firm. yes , from the testimony of very heathens : 't is said by iosephus . lib. , de antiq. iud. cap. . that the publick writings of the syreans , chaldaeans , ph●nicians , graeci●ns , are sufficient to testifie the antiquity , truth , authority , and certainity , of holy scriptures , if there were no other proofe in the world beside . there is scarce a memorable passage in the old testament but 't is mentioned by some heathen writer , as the creation of the world , noah's flood , the confusion of tongues , the children of israels living in , and coming out of the land of egyp● , the writings of moses , the babylonish captivity , &c. as you may see in euseb. grotius , de verit christ. relig. parsons resol . cap. . lib. . part . . dub. indeed a testimony from an adversary is beyond all exception , i rest satisfied with what you have said , for the authority of the old testament ; have you any thing to say for the new , more then what you have said in general for them both together ? firm. yes ; i have the miracles of our saviour , and his blessed apostles , wrought for the confirmation of what they taught , acknoledged by heathens , grotius de ver . chris. relig. besides if you assent to the divine authority of the old testament , you must acknowledg the divinity of the new , which is for the most part , nothing else but an explication of the old , and the history of those prophesies , now fullfilled , which were delivered by the prophets , who lived in the time of the law . you may add to this the miraculous preservation of both testaments , not withstanding the malice of persecuting heathens ; who used all arts of cruelty to extinguish them ; the propagation of the christian religion , into so many parts of the prejudicating world , without , yea contrary to all carnal force and worldly inte●est , by a few simple unlearned men , which if t was done without a miracle , was one of the greate●t miracles that ever we read of . to this may be added the opposition of many subtil hereticks , who never durst so much as question the authority of the scripture , but rather betook themselves to their own false glosses , that they might shift of those clear texts which made against them ; whereas it had been a more compendious way to have utterly denyed them , if their impudence had been so great , as to oppose the general belief , of those times wherein they lived . dub. tho i am sufficiently convinced , of the divine authority of the scripture , and of the truth of those miracles which were wronght by christ and his apostles for the confirmation of what they taught ; yet to remove all scruples that may be made against them , i shall desire to be more fully satisfied in two exceptions that are urged by antiscripturists . . that they were no true miracles . . that we have no certainty that there were ever such persons in the world as christ and his apostles , or that they ever wrought such mighty works as are recorded of them in the new testament . firm. that there were such persons in the world as christ and his apostles , that they wrought those miracles which are mentioned in the history of them , both jews and gentiles , ( sworn enemies to christianity , ) acknowledg , but besides their testimony ( which being from adversaryes is v●●y cogent ) we have the tradition of the catholick church in all ages , and most places of the world , for years and upwards ; and as he that will go up by the side of the river will at last come to the head and fountain of it , so he that shall ascend through the several centuries of the church , will at last infallibly come to the head of it christ iesus ; to the place of his nativity ; his preaching and mighty works that he did ; his bitter death and bloody passion ; or if he shall descend from christ , through the same centuries , down to this present time , he may be farr more certain , of the birth , and life , and works , and sufferings of this our bessed saviour , of the writings of the holy evangelists , and apostles , then that there have been such men in the world as alexander the great , iulius caesar , pompey , scipio , hannibal , of the warrs , and noble acheivements managed by them , of william the conquerour , the barons warrs , and yet none but a fool or a mad man , or one that has vowed to believe no farther then what he can see with his own eyes , will doubt of these ; for that the tradition which conveys the same of these worthies , and their actions down unto us , is nothing so general as that of the catholick church , neither is it at all practical , but purely historical , wherein we are not at all concerned , whether or no the things reported of those noble warriours be true or false . dub. he that will not assent to what is delivered by universal tradition , takes away the use of one of the most noble sciences in the world , viz. history ; and wants rather a cudgel then an argu●ent to confute him . t is evident by undeniable tradition , that there were such persons as christ and his apostles , that thay did great and marveilous things , but how shall we know whether the works which they did were true miracles ? surely t is very difficult , to know what is true and what is an imposture . firm. thô at present this may appear difficult to you , yet i hope i shall make this difference as manifest to you , as is that which is betwixt gold and drosse . and here i will not trouble you with the niceties of the schoolemen betwixt mirum & miraculum ; that a true miracle is arduum , insoli●um , supra vim naturae , hard , unusuall , and above the powèr of nature ; that it differs from a ●alse one in the efficient , material , and formall cause , which is ignotum per ignotius . but to wave such subtilties , a true miracle may be known from a false one , . by the successe ; as exod. . . t is said aarons rod swallowed up those of the sorcerers , and in the primitive times , t is cleare how the miracles wrought by the apostles , swallowed up in effect all false ones , ●one by satan● instruments ; how ( notwithstanding all those lying wonders , wrought by simon magus , apollonius , and others the prejudicating world was brought over from idolatry and superstition , to embrace poor persecuted christianity , by those true miracles ▪ which otherwise had been the greatest miracle in the world . . a true miracle may be known from that which is a jugle or imposture , by the design or end of it , which is for the confirmation of a divine revelation , to bring men over to the worship of the true god , to propagate the true religion , the end of false ones is to draw men from this worsh●p , which note of difference god himself has stamp'd upon false miracles , deut. ▪ dub. but doe not you now run into the same erro●r which you so lately condemned in others ? for by what you have said i must first know which is the true religion , before i can know which is a true miracle , and surely then there will be no use of miracles , to confirme me in the truth , of what i knew before . firm. there is a mutuall confirmation , betwixt the true religion , and a true miracle ; true religion does give light to miracles , these do seal and confirm that religion . we see that all discursive knowledge , does arise from some precedent knowledge , untill we ascend to such principles , that are clear to the light of nature , now evident it is to natural reason , that there is a god , creatour of all things ; that there is but one god , that this one god ought to be religiously worshipped , the intelligent and learned heathens , have acknowledged all these : again 't is evident that there were never but four general religions in the world , paganisme , turcisme , judaisme and christianity , and i think i have already made it manifest , that of all these religions , none is so r●tional or such a reasonable service , as is that of the christian ; which for the substance of it is the oldest of all others , being the same which was practised , by the fathers both before and after the flood , for the spirituality , morality , and unity of the god hea● worshipped , 't is excellent beyond all others , most agreeable to the common principles and notices of the reasonable soul. here upon any serious sober man , may conclude that all these miracles which have been ●ttempted to draw men from christianity , are but mere impostures , and those that have been wrought for the confirmation of it , wherein one true god of infinite majesty , wisdome , power , and glory , is worshipped in spirit and truth , are the only true miracles . dub. pray sir excuse me this unnecessary trouble which i have given you ; for by what you had said before concerning , the supereminent excellency of the christian religion , above all others , i might have seen the force of your reasoning , which ( as i conceive stands thus ▪ if the christian religion be the only t●ue religion then those miracles which were wrought for the confirmation of it , are the only true miracles . firm. you rightly conclude : i shall therefore proceed to the third note or marke of a true mir●cle , and that is the effect and consequent of such a miracle , which is the drawing of the mind from sin to god , the primitive christians much insisted on this as an undoub●ed evidence of t●e miracles wrought by christ , that they were done by divine power , because the effect that followed them was the worke of conversion of sou●● from sin and ido●s , to go● and christ ▪ and all true piety and holinesse of life ; they tended mainly to the overthrow of satans kingdome . christ by his miracles did not only disposesse satan out of mens bodies , but out of his temples ; upon this accou●t he convinces the scribes and pharises , of most irrational blasphemy , when they objected against him , that he did cast out devills by the power of the devill ; but he replyed , every kingdome divided against it selfe cannot stand . mat. . . beside● , christs doctrine , which he confirmed by miracl●s , was in every thing cont●●●y to the devils d●sign ; which was to draw men from the worship of the true god , that himself might be worshiped , to insnare men in the practise of the greatest wickednesse under a pretence of religion , as is very obse●vable in all heathen mysteries ; which indeed were very mysteries of iniquity , abominable idolatry , not to be named to modest eares . dr. stillingfleets orig. sac. lib. . cap. . . true miracles differ from diabolicall impostures in three particolars , . in the manner of their working , . their number , . the quality of ●hings wrought by them . . the impostares of satan were done by a great deal o● pomp and ceremony , magical rites , char●es and medicines : what christ did was with a words speaking ▪ yea by the very touch o● his garm●●● . . for their number , those satanicall jugli●gs were comparatively very few : there were not many that were cured by the devill and his instruments ; but christ cured whole multitudes , and that not in the revestryes of the te●ple , where fraud and imposture might be easily suspected , but in the presence of the people , arno●ius's objection against the gentiles is very rationall , what wonder is it to shew one or two cured ? when thousands lie continually in your temples languishing for want of cure , which 〈◊〉 e●en weary your god escula●ius with pray●rs and teares , but could have no helpe ●rom him , with all their importunities . . for the quality of thing● pretended to be done by miracles ; the cures among the heathens were some slight things , in comparison of those performed by christ : what heathen jugler did ever open the eyes of any man that was born blind , make the dumb to speak , the lame to walke , or raise the dead by a words speaking , or by a touch of the hand ? see dr. s●illingfl●ets book before cited . there is one other argument made use of by the learned dr. hammond , in his tract of the reasonablenesse of christian religion , ( which ● friend caused me to remember ) for the confirmation of the truth of this divine revelation . this learned man proves the mission and doctrine of jesus christ , from that high testimony , wh●ch god the father gave him , by a voice from heaven , coming out of the midst of thunder ; which way of revelation was known to the jews by the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the daughter of a voice , and by this god did three times give testimony unto christ , immediatly after his baptism , . at his trans●iguration ; . a little before his death , and all in the p●esence of sufficient witnesses : this testimony of god the father given three severall times , d●d ●ully ratify the doctrine of christ contained in the scriptures of the new testament ; god gave ●he very same testimony to moses and h●s doctrine , and ●hat in the sight and audience of many thousands . exod. . . thi● mo●●s often reminds the people of , especiall● deut. . . . where he tells them that never any people did heare the voice of god , out of ●●e midst of the fire , as they had done and thi●●ay o●●e●●lation , seems to be so suitable to the 〈…〉 of almighty god , and so pecu●●●r ●o hi● , that the devill , who in other things , 〈◊〉 a●e never attempted to imitate god in t●● 〈◊〉 , nor do i believe ) he was ever a●●e . g●● h●ving restr●ined him by ●his omnipo●●●● 〈◊〉 ●nd re●erved this way of revelation pe●●●● 〈…〉 . d●b . 〈◊〉 disco●rse hath been so rationall , that 〈…〉 ( as ●g●ipp●● ) almost perswaded to be a 〈…〉 bu●●●together such as you are , as to 〈◊〉 ●wo great principle● of christianity , concerni●g ●he being of god , and the divine authority ●f ●oly scripture : and methinks i see all false relig●●ns fall fl●t on their faces , before these great ●ru●hs , as dagon did before the arke . firm. no marviell , for he that doth firmly believe that god is , and that the scripture is his word , must needs abominate those false worships , which are ●o extreamly contrary to his divine nature , and his most sacred writ ; but seeing you are so well perswaded of these principles , i shall not trouble you with any more reasons for the confirmation of them ; onely if you shall hereafter meet with any scoffing atheist or infidell that shall deny either of them , you may for conclusion of all , presse upon him this dilemma or forked argument . either 't is true there is a god , and the scripture is his word , or 't is not true : suppose these things be not true , yet thou believest them to be so , thou art onely in an errour for this short span of time ; but what if they prove , undoutedly true , and thou dost not believe them , to be so , then thou art eternally damned : now what a madness is it for any man , for the avoiding of a seeming temporary errour , to come within the danger of everlasting damnation ? dub. this argument might startle any atheist and make him consider with himselfe how sad his condition will be , if these things be so as solid and undenyable reasons do demonstrate , and yet he should live and die an infidell . o what will become of such an one unto all eternity ? i am full of wonder and amazement , that seeing there are such convincing reasons against atheism and infidelity , that there should be any such creatures upon the face of the earth , when certainly there are none such in hell , for the devill believes and ●rembles . firm. you will cease to wonder , when you shall rightly consider , the certain reasons of those grosse errours ; which are , . drollery and foolish jesting , which renders men inconsiderate and mindlesse , even in the affaires of the world , much more in the things of eternity : a man that is given to droll , and jest , is uncapable of any serious businesse . . many men are men of short discourse , they do not understand the force of an argument , by reason of the weaknesse of their discursive faculty , which is altogether rusty for want of use , exercise , and ingenious education : though in the booke of nature , the eternall power and god-head of the almighty , be wrote in large characters , yet every one , cannot read in that booke , no more then he that never went to schoole , can read the primer , halfe psalter , or any book of the faire●t print . dub. this is true of many simple and illiterate men ; that are very brutes , not at all to be distinguished from the beasts that perish , but by the erect figure of their bodies : their rational soules , mean while being sunke downe into mere sensuality , such as have not god in all their thoughts , they trouble not themselves to think of him , either that he is , or is not : these digenerate creatures do not concern themselves in matters of religion ; but ( i hope ) you wil● not say that the witt● of the time , are such ignorant animals . firm. i shall not doubt to affirm it , and that for these reasons . . you may observe that these witty men are persons of no serious or solid judgments , especially in things of highest concernment : they are such as spend their time in idleness , drollery , vain recreations ; so that albeit the lord has given them those two great bookes to read in , that of nature , and the holy scripture , yet they vouchsafe not to read or meditate upon either . . they are under a judiciall blindness ; god has given them reason and understanding , eyes that they might see , hearts that they might understand ; but they wilfully shut their eyes against that light , and then by the just judgment of almighty god , this light is taken from them ; they are given up to blindness of mind , and hardness of heart , as were the antient heathens . rom : . . their lives are utterly contrary to the holy nature of god , to his sacred word : there is an antipathy , an emnity betwixt their debaucheries , their filthiness , their profaneness , and his most holy laws , rom. . . every line of it flyes in their faces , threatening them with hel and damnation : whereupon they cavil with , they quarrell against it , they wish there were neither god to punish , nor scripture to threaten destruction against them , and so by insensible degrees , they are brought to think and say in their heart there is no god , as the foole did , psal. . so true is that of the poet , quod nimis miseri volunt , hoc facile cr●dunt , the though●● and imaginations of wretched men are governed by their desires , they hate the light because their deeds are evil , though their understandings are convinced by unansweareable arguments , and reasons of the truth of these great principles , yet they will not believe them ; such is the perverseness of their will , that it either blinds their mind , or else draws them against self conviction to believe a lye , and to hold the conclusion , against the most evident proofes and premises . dub. i am perswaded , that you have given very good reasons , why so many are atheists and infidels , and that the cheifest of them are irreligious and prophane livers , that practical atheisme is the greatest cause of that which i● dogmaticall or atheism in opinion . 't was the foole that said in his heart , there wa● no god : first he was a foole , i. e. a sinner , and very wicked , as he is discribed in that psalm ; and thence he proceeded atheist : a foole in practise , and then a fool in judgment , for t is most certain , that a corrupt , and wicked life , is the true parent of ungodly and vile opinions , fro● which by gods blessing upon your good endeavoures , i am now delivered , and am fully perswaded , that god is , and that he is a rewarder of all those that diligently seeke him , that the holy scripture is undoubtedly the word of god , and consequently that the christian religion , is the onely true religion , but observing that of those who profess this religion , there are severall parties , and t is not unknown to you , that heretofore i have adhaered to the church of rome , i would willingly learn from you , which party , they of rome or we of england be most orthodox and catholick . firm : your demand is rationall , i shall most willingly gratifie you in it● o●ely you must give me leave to propose these two questions to you , and let me receive your answ●r unto them at our next meeting . . what inducements you had to turne to the church of rome ? . what reasons you had to leave it ? dub. you must give me leave also , to recollect my selfe , that i may be ●he better able , to give in my answer to your quaeries . dialogve iii , against popery . firm. i hope you have well considered of the questions which i lately proposed unto you . dub. to the first i returne this answer , my reasons that induced me to adhere to the church of rome were these . . the antiquity of that church which has continued ever since the apostles time , when by the testimony of st. paul , her faith was spoken of throughout the world . rom. . . . the universality of it ; no church has spread it self , so farr and nere upon the face of the earth , as that of rome . . her consent in doctrine with the primitive church . . the unity of it , under one infallible head which cannot err in poynt of faith or manners . the sanctity of it's doctrine ; that 't is free from errour in matters of ●aith ; free from all immorality and improbity in point of manners . . the sanctity of life , in the authors , and first-fathers , of the roman religion : these were the chief motives that caused me to adhere to the church of rome . firm. indeed these are six of those notes which bella●mine lib. . de not . eccle. and others of his perswasion appropriate to that church : but had you not some other inducements ? as first a vitious life , and the cheap and easy pardon of your sins upon confession of them to a priest , his absolution and injunction of a pitifull pennance . dly , were you not under some discontent for your present low condition ? or dly , were you not ambitious of preferment , deeming popery to be a ready way to it ? or thly , were you not tickled with the cunning extolling of your excellent parts by some subtile jesuite , lamenting your sad condition , that a person o● so rare endowments , should be so miserably mistaken in the great concern of your soule , perswading you that out of the church there is no hope of salvation , and that you being no member of the church of rome , were past all peradventure out of the church , and unlesse you returned to that church , there could be no hope of your salvation ? or lastly before you set up for the church of rome , were you serious and conscientiou● in any religion ? for 't is very easy for one that is of no religion , that makes no conscienc● of his waies , being allured with the joye● of heaven , and affrighted with the terrours of hell , to pitch upon any religion , that confidently promises those , and as confidently a freedome from these : and we know that priests and jesuites want neither art nor impudence to perswa●e silly wretches , that hopes of heaven , and deliverance from hell are only to be found in their church . dub. truely sir i am verily perswaded , that many who have left your church , and gone over to that of rome , have stumbled at such straws : but you have known me long , to be a man of no vitious life , no male content , not ambitious of honour or preferment , not apt to be paffed up with a proud conceit of mine own parts , not cold or carelesse in point of religion ; but the chiefe reasons that moved me to goe over to the church of rome , were those before named , which made me believe that church , to be the only true catholick church , out of which there could be no hope of salvation ; to these i beg your answer . firm. and you shall have it . . the doctrine of the present church of rome which alone could denominate her ancient , catholick , and apostolicall , is in severall weighty points quite contrary to holy scripture , neither hath it the generall consent of the fathers and doctors of the catholick church : the pr●sent church of rome , is no more like to what it once was , in the purest primitive times ▪ than an old decrepit man full of diseases , gout , stone , palsy , dropsy , scurvey , blindnesse , deafnesse , wrinkles , and a multitude of infirmities , is the same strong , handsome , healthy man , that he was when at twenty five or thirty years old . dub. thô i have sometimes much reverenced the church of rome , for her antiquity , yet now i begin to doubt that there are many diseases in the body of that church , many wrinkles in her face , which were not from the beginning ▪ but not withstanding those infirmities , 't is the same true church as 't was at the first plantation , as the old decrepite man is the same man that ever he was for substance . firm. i deny not but that the church of rome is in some sence the same it first was , in respect of divers articles it holds : but in respect of those gross errours , it now maintaines , 't is no more like what it was , then the old decrepite diseased man is like what he was in his younger dayes . dub. your comparison is very good and apposite to the present church of rome , which past dispute is full of dangerous and desperate diseases , as i in part do apprehend . i pray you proceed to my other motive . firm. the church of rome , is not so universal as her disciples boast of , neither in respect of place or time . . 't is the observation of a learned man , that if the world were divided into parts , of them are heathens , mahometans , and christians , of which the papists are not the one halfe , as mr. breirwood in his enquires does demonstrate . . as to the universality of time , the church of rome cannot deduce her present tenents , from the beginning of christianity , through the several ages or centuryes : that it has continued a church , from the first preaching of the gospell i deny not ; but that 't is the same for purity of doctrine , as once it was , is most false : for the antient church of rome , never taught worshiping of images , praying to saints , that monstrous transubstantiation , halfe communion , praier in an unknowne tongue , and many more groundless fopperies , against scripture , the general consent of fathers , common sence and reason . dub. all this , i am inclined to believe : but how could these errours creepe into a church , which did so punctually observe the traditions of their forefathers ? what the church of rome now believes and teaches , it received from the church that was in the next age before it , that from the church next before it , and so quite down to the apostles times , as the author of the dialogues betwixt the vnckle and the nephew , hath most learnedly demonstra●ed . firm. truly very learnedly , even as zeno proved there was no locall motion : you have heard how diogenes confuted him by an ocular demonstration : were not the scribes and pharises great pretenders to a strict observation of the traditions of their fathers ? and yet we know how grosly they had corrupted the law of moses , as is evident by our saviours confutation of them . mat. . and in severall other places . dr. crakan●thorp and other learned pr●●●stants do evidently shew , the beginning , the progress of the corruptions of the church of rome , the manner of their spring and growth ; but suppose we cannot punctually t●ll , the beginning and progress of such and such an errour , shall we therefore believe it to be no errour you walk sometimes in the fields , 't is evident to your eyes that the grasse a●d graine do grow , though you do not see them move at all ; sometimes you visit a friend that is sick of a languishing consumption , you see by infallible symptoms that your friend is in a desperate condition , will you not believe him to be so , because you cannot tell the time when , or the manner how , his disease came upon him ? dub i cannot be so unreasonable ; and by what you have said , my third reason falls to the ground , for the present church of rome has no agreement with the primitive , but is extreamly opposite to it , in the points before named , besides many others ; i pray let me hear what you can say against their unity ; for they seem to be firmly united , under one infallible head the pope . firm. truely sir they do but seem so ; for they are miserably divided in the great fundamentall of their faith , their infallibility , and are not they very unjust to us to exact our beliefe , of that , which they themselves know not where to find ? for some of them tell us 't is fixed to the popes chair ; some say 't is to be found in a generall councell , ot●●rs believe it to be in neither , but in both united together , others would perswade us that 't is in the whole body of the church ; so that if you seek after this pretty knack of infallibillity ; you will be abused as young apprentices are used to be in great cittys and corporations ; who in waggery , are sent from shop to shop for a penyworth of ell-broad packthred ; or a pound of stock-fish tallow : or a lefthanded shuttle ; after these poore novices have been sent from one end of the citty to the other , they returne home , without such ridiculous commodities , and are sufficiently exposed to laughter and derision . there 's scarce a controversy in all bellarmin's voluminous workes wherein he recites not the different opinions of the roman catholicks among themselves , insomuch that this great cardinals , workes were not to be bought in rome ( as sir edw : sandyes reports in his europa speculum ) because he had so imprudently discovered , the nakednesse of his mother in point of unity . to say nothing of the contentions betwixt the thomists and scotists , ochamists &c : 't is pleasant to see how sweetly the dominicans , franciscans iesuites , molinists , iansenists , regulars , and seculars agree together . though a laté pope durst be so bold as to decide a controversy for the molimists against the iansenians , and so that which was none before , very luckily became an article of faith ( such is the popes omnipotent power , that he can create articles of faith , out of that which was a pure no●-entity , a very nothing in the primitive times ) yet i heare that the iansenists are so saucy as to continue very iansenists still , notwithstanding his holinesses in●allible determination . dub. i see there is no such unity in the church of rome , as they bragg of ; i desire to heare what you can say against the sanctity of their doctrine . firm : the sanctity of their doctrine , referrs to that of faith and manners , for that of faith , which is briefly comprehended in the apostles creed , or any other doctrinall poynt contained in holy scripture , expressly , or by good consequence deduced from thence by the generall consent of fathers we allow of , but as for popish additions of new atticles , by pope pius the . and the councell of tr●nt , that are against scripture ; and can never be justified by the generall consent of the ancient doctors of the church ; we reject as false , and consequently not holy ; this i suppose you will dem●ns●rate when you please to give me the reasons , which made you forsake the present church of rome as to their sa●ctity of manners , their doctrine is so farr from it , that the better sort of heathens would blush to own ; for brevity sake i shal● re●err you to the first and second part of the mistery of jesuitisme , the jesuites morralls set out b● a sorbon doctor , mr. fowles his history of the treasons and rebellions of these holy men ; the two former of these bookes assure us that by the doctrine of probability , and a good intention , the fowlest sins are at most but venial . dub. the jesuites are but one party in the church of rome , many o● their tenents and practises disclai●●d , by other of the papists , and therefore the whole church is not chargeable with their errors . firm. untill that church doth expresly condemn th●m ▪ and execute . ecclesiasticall censur●s upon such of her members , as do broach those damnable doctrines , doth make them rec●nt , or excommunicate them , she is chargeable with them . dub. i am of your opinion and do firmly believe the p●esent c●urch of rome to be neither holy n●● c●tholi●k , but an unsound member of that church ; but what say you to the first ●ounde●s and ●athers of their church , were not t●ey v●ry 〈◊〉 men ? firm. ● b●llarmine could prove what he takes for gran●ed , that t●e fathers and founders o●●heir chu●ch , as it now stands , were the ho●y patriarchs , prophets and apostles , i should agree with him in that note , but the truth is they have no more right to call them their fathers and founders , then the scribes and ●harisees had to ca●l abraham their father ; from whose faith they had so miserably declined ; the fathers of the present church of rome , as 't is now , were the corrupt councells , which were so many pack'd juryes , and the popes ; of whose sanctity you may consult platina , who was a papist . by what i have said ( i hope ) you are satisfied , that you had no justifyable reasons to adhere to the church of rome , as 't is now , so much declined from the primitive ; let me know how and why you did forsake it . dub. i am fully satisfied that the reasons , which drew me over to that church were false and fallacious , and am now as much confirmed , that the reasons which made me leave her communion are solid and demonstrative . . which were her monstrous unnecessary imposible doctrine of transubstantiation . firm. how do you prove that to be unnecessary ? dub. the change of the bread and wine into the very body and blood of christ is unnecessary , because certain it is ( and they of the church of rome acknowledge it ) that there never was any such change in the sacraments of ●he old testament , neith●r is there any in the other six of the new , ( as the papists are pleased to multiply them ; now if all other sacraments without any such miraculous change , do attain their ends , for which they were instituted , why should it be required in the holy eucharist ? why not rather in that of baptism ? why should not the baptismall water be changed into christs very blood ? this being the sacrament of regeneration , that that of nutrition ; surely as great a power and vertue is required , to regenerate and make a christian , as to nourish and strengthen him . again the faithful both before and under the law did eate and drink the body and blood of christ , in a spiritual manner , before he had either body or blood . they did eat the same spiritual meat and dranke the same spiritual drinke ; . cor. . . what need is there then of a transubstantiation ? if we seriously peruse the sixt chapt : of st. iohns gospel , we may learne that the body of christ is eaten and his blood dranke in a spiritual manner , that when the disciples murmured , at what our saviour had delivered in the former verses , to satisfye them , he replyes that the words which he spake , were spirit and life : ver. . and not to be understood according to their gross conception . i know some the church of rome affirm , that in ●hat chapter , our blessed saviour speaks not of a sacramentall eating of the body of christ ; but certainly is his body may be eaten , and his blood drank , without any such monstrous change by every true beleiver not receiving , why may not he eat the body and drink the blood of christ , without any substantiall change of the bread and wine when he receives ? besides ● most ( if not all ) of the ancient fathers , who held a necessity of giveing the eucharist to infants , urge the . verse of this chapter , for their opinion and practise , except yee eat the flesh of the son of man , and drink his bloud , ye have no life in you , surely therefore they conceived , that our saviour meant by these words a sacramentall eating , how then dare any of the clergy of the church of rome , expound it otherwise , seeing they take an oath never to expound scripture , but according to the unanimous consent of the fathers : see the forma juramenti professionis fidei . conc. triden . sess. . cap. . de reformatione . firm. i very much approve your reason against the necessity of transubstantiation : let me here from you why you tearme it monstrous , and impossible ? dub. 't is therefore monstrous and impossible , because it implyes contradictions , and grosse absurdities . that a body is not a body ; an accident is not an accident , for if there should be such a change , the s●me numericall body of our saviour , must be in heaven and earth , nay in ten thousand places at the same time , ●it must be extended and not extended , it must have dimensions and no dimensions , finite and not finite , which cannot be , no not by gods omnipotent , and absolute power ; how do the schoolmens noddles abound with nicetyes , quidditys , perseities , chimaeras , to solve such incompossibilities ? . this strange metamorphosis doth make accidents to be no accidents , it takes away the very being of them ; for accid●ntis esse , ●st in●sse , the being of an accident is in-being , here must be colour , sapor , odor , quantity without a subject , which is all one as if we should say a man might be a man without a reasonable soule , in a word i would willingly learne , what does become of christs body , and bloud after 't is received into the mouth , ( or if any prophane mouse should swallow part of it , or lick up a drop of the bloud ) and thence into the stomach , whether it be retransubstantiated into bread and wine , or else be converted by the concoctive , and nutritive faculty , into the body of the communicant , as other nourishment is , and then t will necessarily follow , that christs body is essentially united unto , and made one with the body of every communicant , which borders very nere upon b●asphemy , for by this means iames nailer will ere long ( quod animus m●minisse horret ) be jesus christ. . this transubstantiation ( if any such thing were possible ) is wrought by a miracle , but was ever any miracle done by christ and his apostles , which was not discernable by the sences ? when ●e cured the blind , the dumb , the lame , when he turned water into wine , was not this manifest to the sight , the smell , the tast ? shall we think that the god of truth gave to m●n five scences , to deceive of them by one pretended miracle ? or that 't is his method to informe the mind by impostures ? if one or two or three senses may be deceived , why not all ? then what will become of romes orall tradition ? for may not the eare be deceived as well as the eye ? the nose , the tast , the touch ? here are sences to one against that tradition , and then how are the papists certain of what they have received from the present church , or how is shee certaine of what shee received from the church immediatly before her ? is not the doctrine of transubstantiation , which teaches men not to believe their eyes , and other of their sences , a ready way to atheism , and infidelity ? for if four of the five sences may be deceived then farewell all tradition , and if these inferiour faculties , may be thus bafled , what satisfaction could it have been to st. thomas that christ was truly risen from the dead by putting his finger into the print of the nailes , or his hand into his side ? but beside what sence and reason , witness against this monstrous opinion , the scripture is clearely opposite unto it , for christ at the institution of this sacrament , did not take his own body into his hand● , but bread , he brake not his owne body , but bread , he did not eat his own body , he did not drinke his owne blood , but he drank of the fruit of the vine , mat. . . for so he called it after consecration and distribution ; i will not drink henceforth of the fruit of the vine &c. in like manner st. paul. 't is stil this bread and this cup. . cor. . . when our saviour saies ( hoc est corpus meum ) what doth ( hoc ) stand for ? either it must signify this thing in my hand , ( i. e. ) the bread , or else his own body ▪ which body he holding in his hand , utters these words ( hoc est corpus meum ) that is corpus meum est corpus meum , a mere identical trifleing proposition , which according to all logick is most absurd , and destroys the very nature of a sacrament , which consists of two essential parts the sign and the thing signified ; besides they of rome con●ess that the body of christ , is not present under the species of bread and wine , when the preist begins to pronounce ( hoc ) nor till he hath uttered the last sillable ( um ) hoc est corpus meum , such poore shifts these men are forced to use . as for antiquity , so much boasted of by those of rome , i know that some of the fathers to draw mens minds from the earthly elements to heavenly misteries , used now and then high rhetoricall expressions , never dreaming of any substantiall change of the elements into the body and bloud of christ , as is evident from iraeneus , panis communis post consecrationem , non est amplius panis communis , sed efficitur eucharistia , quae constat ex duabus naturis terrenâ & cael●sti , haec oblatio ●st figura corporis & sanguinis christi . ambrose . ad cor. cap. . & lib. . de sacram. non dubitavit dominus dicere , hoc est corpus meum cum dedit fignum sui corporis . aug : epist : . ad bonifa & . cap. contra adiman . hoc est corpus meum i. e. typus corporis mei , ter●ull . panem & vinum appellatione corporis & sanguinis honoravit , non naturam quidem mutans , sed naturae gratiam adjiciens . theod. dial ▪ . & . in a word the ancient fathers , who opposed the eutychian haeresy , did make use of the sacramentall union of bread and wine , to the body and blood of christ , shewing that the humane nature of christ is not more changed into the divine then the sacramentall bread and wine is into the very body and blood of christ , therefore they believed no such thing , as that monstrous popish transubstantiation . so that we see the falsity and absurdity of it by scripture , antiquity , common sence and reason ; besides the great danger of idolatry , in worshipping a piece of bread , if there be no transubstantiation , as some of the papists themselves confesse , and they also acknowledge , that if the priest , that consecrates were not rightly ordained , or that he did not actually intend to consecrate , or that he omitted any one ceremony ( which they call necessary ) at the time of consecration , that the bread and wine are not duely consecrated , and consequently no transubstantiation , and therefore great probability , that the papists in worshipping the host , do frequently comitt the very great sin of idolatry , which was to me one great reason of forsaking their communion . firm. truely 't was a substantiall reason , and such an one that has wrought upon others beside your selfe , however i desire to hear from you ; what further reasons , you had to leave the church of rome . dub. the next which i shall acquaint you with is the half communion so manifestly against scripture and antiquity . our blessed saviour at the instituition of the sacrament commands , drinke yee all of this , whereas at the giveing of the bread , he said only , take , eate , foreseeing and obviating this grand error of the church of rome ; 't is true the persons then communicating , were only his disciples , which had received their commissio● to preach the gospell , before that time , but not in that ample and full manner , as they received it after his resurection , as is plain from iohn , , . and m●t. , . but be it granted that they were all in full orders , and upon that account the cup was given them , otherwise they should not have received it , by the same reason the bread might be denyed to the people , because none but priests did then communicate ; but we know that a priest when he doth not consecrate , is in the place of a lay-man , and consequently the disciples not consecrating at the supper were no better , and therefore according to the doctrine , and practise of the church of rome , should not have received the cup. but what will they thinke of the whole church of corinth , to whom st. paul sent a first and second epistle , they cannot imagine they were all priests , observe then how ●e ●xhorts all of them , to examine themselves in order to the receiving of the holy eucharist under both kinds . . cor . this is so evi●ent that our adve●saries have nothing to reply . as for antiquity the practise of the c●urch of rome is clearly against it , as iam able to demonstrate , from express testimonies , of the fathers , but our learned writers have ●aved me that trouble , those that please may peruse chami●re , ch●mnitius , iewell , cracanthorp ; the confe●sion of the councell of co●stance stands as a lasting monument against the popish innovation in this particular ; the words are these , we decree in like manner , that though in the primitive church ▪ the holy eucharist , was received under both kinds , by the faithfull , yet this custome to avoid some dangers and scandals is reasonably introduced that it should be received by the preists only in both kinds , by the people in one ; is not this with the socinians to make the sacraments mere indifferent ceremonies , alter able at the churches pleasure ? but the councell of trent flyes higher ; if any man shall say that all faithfull christians ▪ by gods command , or for necessity of salvation , ought to receive the sacrament in both kinds ▪ let him be acursed , i wonder whether pope gelasius , sate in , or was out of his infallible chair , when he roundly said , we find that some do abstain from the chalice of the sacred blood ; let them receive the entire sacrament or be kept from the whole , because the division of one and the same mystery cannot be without grand sacriledge . either the pope was not infallible , or the present church of rome is most sacrilegious . firm. you rightly judge , and were their fancy of transubstantiation true ( as nothing is more false and ridiculous ) yet were it not sufficient to debar the laity of the cup , because they receive the blood of christ with his body , for this is not to drinke but to eat it , and besides the sacrament is not a sign of his blood in the veins , but as 't was shed and powred out ; might not the preists as well receive his blood , with his body , and then 't were as superfluous for them to drin●e of the cup , as for the people ; but i pray proceed in your reasons against popery . dub. my third reason is taken from the invocation of saints departed ; which is against scripture , and antiquity : 't is an attribute belonging to god alone , that ●he is a god hearing prayers . 't is a chiefe part of his worship , thou shalt worship the lord thy god , and him o●ely shalt thou serve , it robs christ of one part of his preistly office who now sitts at gods right hand , interceding for us , there is but one mediator betwixt god and man , the man christ i●sus , certainly is holy men , both before and under the law , prayed to god alone through faith in the promised seed or messias , without invocateing any departed saint , because there was none then ( as they of the church of rome confess , ) admitted to the beatifical vision , and consequently could not know the need or praiers of men upon earth , in the glass of the trinity , there is less reason now to make our adresses , to the spirits of just men made perfect , christ himselfe sitting , at gods right hand , and interceding for us . besides the worship of angells is forbidden by st. paul. col. . and the angell in the revelation twice sorbade st. iohn to worship him , cap. . and yea the worshippers of angells were in the primitive times , branded with the title of haereticks , under the name of ( angelici ) and therefore much less ought wee to worship the saints departed , for certainely they being the more excellent creatures , are much more capable of such worship then the soules of men , that are now in abrahams bosome , in paradise , not yet in that perfect bliss and glory , which they shall enjoy when their soules and bodies shall be reunited , but according to many of the fathers in a certaine and joyfull expectancy of it , after the last and finall judgment , where the place of their present abode is i shall tell you when ●he fathers are agreed about it . for this saint worship certain it is there is no express scripture , and 't is as certain there is no generall consent of antiquity , let any man peruse mr. meads excellent treatise of the apostacy of the latter times , wherein 't is apparent how the cannonizing of saints in the church of rome , agrees with the heathens apotheosis , their praying to them with the worshipping of heroes , their dij medioxumi , their haveing severall saints for patrons of particular countryes , trades and callings , phisitians for divers diseases , like the heathens dij tutelares , as may be seen in chemnitius his examen and in other learned men . firm. you need not spend more words about this grosse superstition , which is nothing else , but a mixture of christianity , and paganisme , and of all the errours of the church of rome , most dangerous , for the lord our god is a jealous god , and will not suffer the honour and worship , that is due to him alone , to be given to any other . dub. i shall submit to your advice , and proceed to a fourth reason against popery , which is their adoration of images so much condemned in holy scripture , what more expressly forbiden then image worship by the second commandement ? which they of rome have cunningly left out in their mass books , offices , primmers , and catechism's , and without all shew of reason , asserted it to be a positive command , belonging onely to the jews , how demonstratively is the fourth of deutronomie against it from the verse to the ? many other texts might be urged to the same purpose , all which the schoolmen endeavour to baffle , by their pittifull distinctions ; betwixt an image and an idol , a picture upon a cloath and one ingraven in wood , or stone , betwixt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which every esurient groeculus ; every mean sciolist , will smile at , betwixt mediatè , relutivè , and terminative , which a●e distinctions ( at least some of them ) without a difference , mere chimericall phansies : if a man shall seriously peruse the ▪ and . chapters of the book of wisdome ( which at rome is canonicall scripture ) and consider what answers the heathens returned to those that objected against them their idol worship , that they worship not the image , but the ( numen ) or divine power it represented , he will easily discern that the wiser sort of heathens made as wise appologies , for their image worship ; as the wisest papists do for theirs . as for the antiquity of this grosse superstition both fathers & councels are against it , as is evident from that excellent homily of our church concerning the perill of idolatry , if it be replyed t were the images of the heathens they opposed , true 't is , for in the first ages of the church there were no others , the christians of those times , abominateing all image worship , but the reasons they give against the heathen imagery wound the church of rome under the fifth rib ; no christian church did then use images in their oratoryes ; in after ages they were admitted only for an historicall use , as may be seen in st gregories writings , who lived above years after christ , true 't is by the second nicene councell their worship was decreed ; and so this iniquity was established by a law , such a one as that packed convention could legitimate , and hence forward not only the pictures of saints , but of god himself and of the blessed trinity were set up in churches , which was an high dishonour to the glorious majesty of the almighty , to be portraid like an old man , and gave an occasion to ignorant people to conceive him to be so indeed , hence i have heard some of them say , when they swore ( by god ) that they swore by a good man , by which 't is evident , how the grosse superstition of the church of rome , hath crooked silly souls , and that all such images , are teachers of lies , very vanities , as the scripture shews and reason demonstrates . for to say nothing of the blasphemous images of god the father , and the holy trinity , doth not the image of any saint , whom these pseudo-catholicks worship , lie to their imaginations ? representing that which is not ; for nothing but the soules , and spirits of those saints do now remain , so that whilest they picture and worship them in bodily shapes , which pictures represent , what is not , they worship they know not what , praying onely to the soules of saints , yet phansying them in bodily shapes as when they lived here on earth : how doth it concern all serious christians , to beware of the religious worship of any creature of gods or mans makeing ? of angell , saint , or image , which is so expressly forbidden in the word of god ? and surely if we might worship the picture of a man , which is mans creature , 't were much more rational to worship a true man , yea the son , moon and starrs , and all th● host of heaven , they being all of them the creatures of almighty god. firm. you rightly conclude , were not a judiciall blindness , upon the eyes of our adversaries , they could not be guilty of so dangerous a suspition . dub. i shall trouble you but with one reason more for my forsakeing the church of rome , which was breifely their praiers in an unknown tongue , a practise , manifestly contrary to plain scripture , and the antient doctors of the church , a most unreasonable service , opposite to that which we are to perform to almight● god ; 't is so bafled by st. paul , that all the learned ●en of the roman party have nothing of sence or reason to answer , and as for antiquity 't was not so much as thought upon , in the first ages in the church , the liturgies then every where were in the known and vulgar tongue , otherwise how should the unlearned say ( amen . ) the practise of the church of rome is in this ▪ as in divers other of their fopperyes , a very mistery of iniquity , i could heartily wish ; that for the undeceiveing of ignorant papists ; their missales , pontifical's , breviaryes , lady psaltres &c. were translated into the english and other vulgar tongues , that such poore deluded soules might see to what absurd prayers they say ( amen ) to what childish ridiculous ceremonies they ●ubmit . i might here add the vain reptitions , of so many ave-maria's , & pater-noster's , upon their beads , their saying of them at certain houres as a pensum , or taske , or a pennance to make a compensation for their sins , rather then as a willing serious duty from the heart and soule ; which is not religious praying , but a childish saying of prayers , a vain heathenish babling , after the manner of an old wises charm ; resting in the work done ; as if the bare saying of prayers , without any intention of the mind , were the only end of praying , or the effectuall ●erven● prayer of a righteous man. iam. . . i might also add their cheating purgatory , their purchasing of pardons , and indulgences , for sins past , and for many hundred yeares to come , by sums of money sett downe in the tax booke of their chancery , their pilgrimages , and bodily severityes to expiate for the sins of their soules , their allowing of brothell houses to grati●ye the unmarried clergy , and others in their unclean lusts , for which the pope receives a lu●ty pension . but to deale truely with you no one thing wrought a greater dislike of popery in me then their barbarous bloody cruel●y , towards those that they please to call haereticks , their savage inquisition , their parisian , irish , and other massacres , their marian butcherings , their intended matchless powder treason , their poysoning and stabing of kings , their justifieing of rebellion and all manner of wickedness , by their right intention , and doctrine of probability as is to be seen in the first and second part of the mistery of jesuitisme , in the jesuites morralls ; can such villany ▪ such cruelty and christianity stand together ? did christ and his apostles propagate the gospel with such carnall weapons ? how severely does our saviour rebuke his angry disciples , when they would have called for fire from heaven to destroy the uncivill schismatical samaritans ? y●e know not what spirit yee are of , for the son of man is not come to d●stroy mens lives ▪ but to save them ; luk. . . o that christs pretending vicar had the spirit of the meeke and holy jesus . these sir , were the reasons which moved me to forsake the communion of the church of rome , for upon this account i could not believe her to be the catholick church , or any sound part of it , but a very schismatical haeretical one , that had departed exceeding much from primitive christianity from the faith that was once delivered to the sain●s . firm. you have given very sufficient reasons ▪ for your departure from that unsound church , which may satisfie any serious ▪ considering christian , and you have saved me the trouble of any further addition to them ; i am now fully perswaded that you are neither atheist , infidel , or papist ; pray you let me know what is your present perswasion , and what church you most ●pprove . dub. truely sir there are so many sects amongst the protestants , that i am in no small doubt , with which of them to hold commuion ; but my inclination leads me chiefly , to returne to my old mother the church of england , from which most unhappily ( as i am now convinced ) i heretofore separated ; however for the remov●l of some scruples , which yet remain with me , ● earnestly desire you to give your selfe the trouble of a short discourse , concerning the severall sects now in england . firm. i shall most ●readily gratifie you in this your very reasonable request , nothing doubting but that i shall , by gods gratious assi●tance ) remove all your scruples , and fix you a true son of that church , which is the most catholick apostolical church now exstant in all the world , which those that do acknowledge the holy script●re to be the infallible word of god , the perfect rule of all the substantialls of christianity both for faith and manners , and have some competent knowledge in the records of antiquity , ( the want of which is one great cause of h●resy and schism ) , as to be able to trace christian religion , through the severall ages of the church from the apostles down to these presen● times , i say those that do acknowledge these things cannot doubt of . dub. you much confirm me in what i have often heard from grave and learned men , that one great cause of errours in religion , is ignorance in the writings of the ancient doctors of the church , councels , and ecclesiasticall histories , this is not every mans work that have neither books to read nor brains to understand them . and that t●e surest way to be an orthodox christian , is by studying descendendo beginning with the records of the first century , then discending to the second , thence to the third , and so on to the succeding ages of the church , whereby he will perceive how the true religion has been handed downe from one age to another , and how and when , this or that errour sprang up ; as he ●hat sails down some great and clear pure river , may easily perceive , where little rivuletts , and puddles , have run into it , and have muddyed , and troubled the cleare● stream . firm. i much approve of what you say concerning the rise and cause of errours in religion , the chiefe reason of them is ignorance in the records of antiquity , and holy scriptures , and want of orderly proceeding in our studies from age to age ; whereby we may easily perceive , how and when the puddles & corrupt rivule●s of errour have troubled the purer stream of christianity , and you may without much labour perceive that if you had been well instructed , in the being and attributes of almighty god , in a firm beliefe of his most sacred word , you had never fallen into those most dangerous errours of popery , quakerism or o● any such pernicous sect . dub. i do confesse my error , and especially that i was so great a stranger , not onely to the writings of the fathers , but to the holy scripture it selfe , which i did too much neglect and scorn , but seeing by gods blessing , upon your endeavours , i am fully satisfied of the vanity , absurdity , and falshood of atheism ; infidelity , and popery ; if you please to give your self th●t trouble , we will proceed in our discourse concerning quakerism , anabaptism , independency , and presbytery , i shall not trouble you with any other sect , because they are all included in some one of these , or at least are so vain and ridiculous , that we should do them to much honour , if we should gratifie them with a sober and serious confutation . firm. i shall most willingly embrace your proposall ▪ and if it please you we will proceed to quakerism , the errour which you embraced immediatly before , you turned papist , and in truth 't is a faire introduction to popery , and by many grosse errours which the quakers embrace , 't is as evident as the light at noon day , who were the fathers of those spurious brats . dub. this is a very truth ; the quakers holding many things which are maintained by papists , we may easily know whose children these poor deluded souls are , and the corespondence betwixt them , made my passage to rome more ready and easy . dialogve iv against qvakerism . firm. you have informed me in our last discourse that being sometime a quaker you had a ready way open to become a papist . i pray tell me why and how you turned a quaker . dub. you put me hard to it . for i can give yo● no ver● good reasons for that change , and those that moved me are so ridiculous , that i am almost ashamed to name them , yet such as they are i shall give you the trouble of hearing them , i am almost perswaded , that the man that perverted me , used some enchantments and diabolicall arts . so that i was rather bewitched . then rationally perswaded , to be of that party , ( as i have heard some have been ) but because i am not certain of this , i shall wave it , and shew you my reasons . . i observed that the cause why there were so many sects and schisms in the world , was for want of a certain infallible rule to guide us in our judgments and practises . as i was made believe , and i was perswaded that the quakers had such a rule , to wit , the light within them . . i observed these men to be very demure in their carriage , very austere in their lives , sober and temp●●●t● , of afflicted dejected countenances ▪ very punctuall and just in their dealings , not abating one fart●ing of the price of any commodity they first demanded ; gre●t contemners of the world , no respecters of any mans person how great soever ; so meeke , humble and lowly in their apparell and behavior that they cannot endure the wearing of gold-rings , silver or silks in themselves or any others , and if any man should strike them on the one cheek , these poore innocent soules were so farr from revenge that they would turne the other , so that i conceiued them to be so many nathaniels so many true israelites in whom there was no guile . firm. how could you be deceived by such painted sepulchers ? what could you see more in them then what was conspicuous in the scribes and phari●ees of old ? take i● for an infalible rule , that whosoever hold or practise any thing which is contrary to the law of nature and good manners , expresse scripture , the usages of all sober and civill people in the world , are so farr from being true christians that they are not worthy the name of men . dub. i am fully of your perswasion that these men hold and practise many things which are contrary to the law of nature , good manners and holy scripture , but for my farther satisfaction , let us discourse some of their tenents and practises . firm. for their tenents you may at your leisure peruse the synopsis of quakerisme wrote by mr. danson . the heads whereof are breifly these taken out of their owne writings , which are a mixture of popery and socinianisme ; as . . they affirm that there are not three persons in the trinity . . that christ did not make satisfaction for the sins of men . . that justification is not by imputed righteousness , but that our owne inhaerent righteousness , and good works is the cause of our justification . . that a state of perfection and freedome from sin is attainable in this life . . that there is a light in every man sufficient to guide him to salvation . . that the scripture is not the word of god , or a standing rule of faith and manners . . that there is no resurrection of the dead . . that there is no need or use of ordinances , as baptisme and the lords supper , . that 't is unlawfull to take an oath before a magistrate upon any account whatsoever . dub. i know these and many more to be the positions of quakers and that they are directly contrary to sacred schripture ; firm. these things are so clearly confuted by the expresse word of god and tradition of the catholick church , that 't is superfluous to trouble you with any further discourse about them . as for their practises they are extreamly opposite to all good manners , and the civilities of a●l nations that are not grosly barbarous , as well as ●o the holy scripture ; and whereas you have observed their carriages to be very demure , austere , and that they are of a sad countenance ; 't is no more then what our blessed saviour reproved in the scribes and pharisees long since , indeed to be sad and mourn in times of publick humiliation , calamities and great judgements is christian ; but to be constanly so , savours too much of the pharisee , and is contrary to holy scripture which instructs us , there is a time to laugh as well as to weepe , there is nothing which more delights and cheers the heart then the exercise of a good conscience towards god and man , and we know a merry heart maketh a cheerefull countenance , whereas a sad soure face a hanging downe look too much resemble caines mark , and is a very probable signe of a disquieted , discontented , guilty , troubled , if not a malitious minde . dub. i am much of your judgment , but i pray you tell me what do you ●hink of their denying all civil respect either in word or gesture to their equals and superiours ? firm. this practise of theirs is against the v●ry law and light of nature as well as plain scripture , a meere levelling devise of their seducers ( the popish priests and jesuits ) to make a confusion among us , to destroy all goverment , to take away all honor and respect which is due to our superiours , for what honor and reverence has that man in his heart towards them who will express none in his words or gestures according to the laudable custome of the country where he dwels ? dub. truly i have often admired at the uncivil behaviour of quakers in saying ( thou and thee ) to their betters in not bowing the knee or putting of the hat to their superiors . firm. you might well wonder at such barbarous uncivil carriage , but pray you tell me what think you of their pitching a certain price upon their commodities of which they will not abate one farthing , was not that a certain sign● of their honest and upright dealing ? dub. i confe●s i once thought so , but afterwards i considerd that a man may cheat and co●en in few words as well as in many , and i believe that these men most of them are a● great cheat● as any in the world . firm. and i pray you what think you of their other rare quali●ies before mentioned ? dub. i did once believe them to be great contemners of the world , meek , humble , lowly , &c. but 't is evident they are quite contrary to what they seem to be . . for i know that most of them are extreamly coveteous and narrow breasted , without all bowels of pitty or mercy towards those that want , unless they be of that fanatick party ; which is meer faction , no christian charity at all ; and whereas many of them have been known to have been persons of mean fortunes at first they are now rich and wealthy , and none of them ( though very poore before they turned quakers ) now in a necessitous condition , being maintained as 't is very probable by their new masters the iesuits , a very rich and opulent society , who make more proselites by the length of their purse strings then by the strength of argument , or personated mimical gestures . . as for their humility and lowliness , 't is evident they shew no such virtues in their carriage towards their betters ; their contempt of gold-rings , silver-lace and rich attire , is no infallible proof of their humility ; diogenes may be as proud in his tub as alexander in his palace , he may trample upon platos pride with greater pride ; as haughty a spirit may be hid under a plain country russet , as under the richest ●ables . firm. no question ; but what do you think of their meekness and mildness , that they will rather suffer an hundred injuries then revenge one , that they will not take armes to offend the enemy or defend themselves or their country , are not these rare signes of christian meekness ? dub. i see you are now in jest ; you know ttha time was when they did take up arms in an hostile manner against the king and his loyal subjects , and if they had a fair opportunity they would do the like again , and appear as cruel and bloody as ever did anabaptist fifth monarchy-man or iesuite . firm. i confess that many of them were in armes under cromwel against the royal party ; the light within them did warrant them to rebel against their lawful soveraign , but now the light within them shews that 't is not lawful to resist magistrates by carnal weapons . dub. you are pleased to make your self mercy with these mens bare-fac't hypocricy , what a jugles this light within them ? more unconstant then that of the moon , a meere phansy , a diabolical suggestion ; the divil suits his tentations according as opportunities present themselves , when there is good probability of prevailing by rebellion and treason , then the light ( or rather darkness within them ) suggests unto them , 't is lawful to take up arms , to plunder and murder their fellow subjects , yea the king himself , but when there is no probability to prosper by such villanous enterprises , then that light within them perswades them to be as quiet as lambs , as innocent as so many pretty pigeons . firm. of a truth , this light by which they are guided , is the very blackness of darkness , nothing but a groundless fancy , which any man in the world may as well pretend for his rule as thes● phanaticks ; when several sects are contending , shall the light within them be the umpire ? when the anabaptists fift monarchy men , and diverse other sects contend for their several opinions , whether are they to go but to the law and to the testimony ? if they speak not according to this word , 't is because there is no light in them . esai . . . dub. i have much wondered that any men should be so much deluded by their vain imaginations , as to measure their opinions and practises by so uncertain , so unconstant a guide as the light within them , which is so frequently beclouded by pride , ignorance , interest , passion , humor , and singularity . firm. you need not wonder , if you shall seriously consider that they who flatte● themselves , that they are in a state of perfection , that they cannot sin , are above ordinances , that cast off fear , and restrain prayer , job . . . should fall into the snare of the devil , and lye under a judicial blindnes● . and that they do so , seems very probable by what one tolderfee of lemster , in the country of hereford relates of himself , in his recantation of quaquerism● . i have heard also of divers of these seduced wretches , that at their meetings , before they utterred their enthusiasms , have swollen so much they have been re●dy to burst , and 't is too evident that the brethren of the rosy c●oss , have a great influence upon them : and it is upon record at bristol , that before there was any quaker in that city , two franciscans did foretell to one mr. cowlishaw an ironmonger there , ( whose oath is to be seen upon the register ) that within eighteen daies quaquerism should be set up in bristol , which came to pass accodingly : and besides all this a popish priest bragged in my hearing th●t he had been a speaker at their meetings ; by all which 't is evident whose disciples these silly fools are . for your further confirmation you may peruse mr. prin's quakers unmasked . dr stilling-fleets against the idolatry of rome , and fryer barbanson , who above two hundred years since laid the ground work of this sect in a book whose title is occul●ae divini amoris semitae . dub. i am fully satisfied concerning the folly and madness of this phanaticism , and from whence it sprang ; please you we will discourse of anabaptisme ; pray you what do you think of that ? dialogve v. against anabaptisme . firm. anabaptism is a most carnal and bloody sect , as appears by the history of iohn of leiden , knipperdoling , wrot by sleiden and bullenger . dub. but what do you think of their opnion ●oncerning inf●nt baptism ? i shall not trouble you with other of their tenents , which are common to them with other schismaticks . firm. that opinion of theirs is contrary to scripture , and the practise of the catholick church . dub. i have often he●rd them say , that if there were any express text in scripture for the baptisi●g of infants , they would allow of that practise firm. though there be no express place in scripture for it , as there was for circumcising of children under the law yet there are many texts which do infer it by rational consequence . what express text is there for the communicating of woemen ? which nevertheless the anabaptists practise ; have they not express texts for obeying the civil magistrate ? for taking an oath before him ; thou shalt swear , the lord liveth in justice , in judgment , and truth . thou shalt fear the lord and swear by his name . i call god for a rec●rd upon my soul ; an oath for confirmation is ( not was ) an end of all strife . and we have the angel in the revelation ( which was never under the levitical law ) swearing . yo● see here are express texts for obedience to magistrates , and for taking an oath before them ; yet the anabaptists will not swear at all , which is a moral duty enjoyned in the third cōmandment ; and how obedient they are to the supream powers let germany and england witness in our ●ate civil wars , so that you may see that if there were an express text for infant baptism , they would not yeild unto it but follow their own wild imaginations . dub. doubtless 't is grand hypocrisy to call for express texts for infants-baptism , and yet to act directly against such texts in other points of necessary duty . firm. true it is we have no express texts for infants-baptism , yet we have many that do necessarily infer it , as that of our savio●r suffer little children ●o come unto me which he took in his arms and blessed , certainly those that were capable of his blessing , were capable of the seal of it . the children of believers are said to be holy : the promise is to you and to your children : go teach all nations , baptizing them in the name of the father , son , and holy ghost . all which places evidently shew that the children of believing christians have as much right to baptism , as the children of the jews had to circumcision : unless we should say that the lord was more gratious to the jews then he is to us christians , and that the hand of his mercy is shortned to us , which was so much stretched out to them . if their children were in covenant with god , ( as it is evident they were ) deut. . . then are the children of christians under the same priviledge , unless any man can give a good reason to the contrary , which must be drawn either frō the mercy , or judgment of god : there is no shew of reason to say 't was from his judgment , much less from his mercy , for who dare say 't is a mercy not to be in covenant with god ? to these texts of scripture , we may add the practise of the catholick church for fifteen hundred years , as appears by the writers in their several centuries , which is the best commentary upon the scripture . the fathers who lived in the first ages of the church had a fairer o●po●tunity to understand the meaning of the apo●tles , and their immediate successors , then we that live at so great a distance . tertullian one of the most ancient of them confesseth the practise of infant baptism , tho he does not approv● it . cyprian and fidus would never have contende● about the ●ircumstance of time , if they had doubted of the lawfulness of the thing . i m●y add to what has been said ; either the baptising of infants is a small error , or 't is a great and gross one : if i● be but a small error , an error of charity towards poor infants , why did the ana●ap●i●ts in the late times of confusion , separate from those churches which did not impose it as a necessary con●ition of communion with them ? if it be a great and gross one , then the catholick church has maintained a gross error for fifteen hundred years and upward . how then was that promise made good unto it , that christs spirit should lead it into all truth and that the gates of hell should not prevail against it ? dub. indeed those texts of scripture so well explained by the practise of the catholick church ●or so many years since the time of the apostles , is an evident argument for the proof of infant baptism ; but are you certain that infant baptism was practised in the primitive times ? firm. we are most certain from the writings of the fathers in those times . irenaeus , lib. . cap. . origen . lib. . in cap. . ad rom. cyprian lib. . epist. . ad ●idum . hieronymus lib. . contra pelagianos . nazian . ora●iones in sacrum lavacrum . basil orat. exhort . ad baptismum . chrisost. homil. . ad neophyr . augustine lib. . de gen. cap. . the custome of baptising infants is an apostolical tradition , lib. . de baptismo cap. . idem aff●rmat prosper . lib. . de vocatione ge●tium , cap. . these three fathers making use of the baptising of infants as an argument against the pelagians , who denyed original sin , which practise of infant baptism these subtile hereticks durst never deny , because they knew 't was the practise of the catholick church . dub. 't is strange th●t so m●ny testimonies of the antient doctors of the church , with such evident places of scripture before allegd , should not silence these perverse men . firm. by terming them perverse , you render a just reason why neither scripture , nor fathers , nor arguments ●ill satisfie them ; few of this sect , ( or indeed of any other ) are le●rned , except it be their leaders , ( popish priests and jesuits ) which spread such errors by design to make divisions among us , that they might ●eign . now 't is no strang thing to see ignorance and perversness to dwell under the ●ame roof ; for whosoever is capable of conviction must have some knowledg and reason , that he may be able to understand the force of an argument when 't is proposed unto him , as seduced sectaries ( being men of very short discourse ) do not . besides that little portion of reason which remains in them is so beclouded with sel●conceit , interest , and faction , prejudice , pride , and uncharitableness , th●t they have utterly lo●t all use of it . he that doubts of this , let him discourse either with quaker , or anabaptist , and he will find them a very proud , ignorant , conceited , perverse people . dub. i have sufficient experience of their pride and perversness ; but leaving them to their own simple fancyes & enthusiasms , let us proceed to the presbyterians , to which party i first adhered when i forsook the church of england , and and of all dissenters from th●t church , in my opinion , they have the greatest shew of reason for their separation . firm. in my judgment they have less reason to separate then any other , because they agree with us in doctrinals , and are divided from us because of some ceremonies , which are confessedly things indifferent ; and for some modes of government , viz. the episcopal and presbyterian , of which , tho the former be the best , and most antient , yet learned and most moderate men of both parties , do acknowledg , that neither of these forms of government , are so essential to the being of a church , but that it may subsist and be a true church under either of them , potius ad bene esse quam simpliciter ad esse , but more of this hereafter : but before we begin our discourse about presbyterie , let us speak a few things concerning independency , for i have heard that you were somtimes of that perswasion . dub. true , i was once an independent , or congregational man , bu● seeing all sectaries are in respect of church fellowship independe●ts , and that these men for the most part have the same objections against the church of england as the independents make use of , i thought it superfluous to trouble you with any particular discourse ●oncerning them . firm. there are three things belonging to independency , which we have not discoursed upon as yet , neither will they properly fall under debate in our intended dialogue about presbyterie ; if you please we will take a breif survey of them . dub. i willingly embrace this motion . dialogue vi against independency . firm. the first thing that i except against in the independency , is the goverment practised in their particular congregations , without any jurisdiction one over another , so that every of their assemblies , is absolute within it self , without depending upon any classical , diocesian , provincial , national church , or general counsel , whence they have the name of independents . dub. is it true that they will no● admit o● any superior power over their respective congreg●tions , nor appeal in case of divisions among themselves , unjust and injurious sentences given in their partial judicatories . firm. they admit of no appeals , or no coercive po●er over them in any consistories , classis , or counsel ; one congregational ●hurch may advise , exhort , or admonish another as brethren , or equals , but not punish or correct as judges o● superiors ; what do you say to this new knack of church government . dub. i think it to be anarchical and confused , the natural parent of all schisms and hereses ; i do not no● so much wonder how england of late years , since this headless faction prevaild amongst us , became a second amsterdam . what error what heresy so gross , so damnable , what injustice , what oppression never so greivous which might not go unpunisht in such assemblys from which there lies no appeal ? how must they be broken into infinite fractions , especially where the fear of a common enemy does not unite and peice them together ? firm. you rightly apprehend ; for all these dangers and inconveniences , are the necessary , consequents of independent congregations where any popish wolf in sheeps cloathing has a fair opportunity to sow the seeds of anabaptism , quaquerism , socianism , or any poysonous heresy whatsoever , to spread the principles of sedetion , and treason ; as has been of late to much practised in this nation , & i wish such tares be not still scattered in our separating conventicles to this very day . 't was the observation of sir rob. cotton above three-score yea●s since that priests and jesuits did put on the habits of captains , merchants , &c. that that they might deceive poor ignorant people under that disguise , opera posthu . pag. . dub. you have said enough against this headless church goverment , and the sad consequences of it . i pray you proceed to the second thing you promised to debate concerning independency ▪ firm. the second error does concern tiths , which generaly the independents ( with other sectarys ) would perswade the world are a great oppression upon the people , meerly levitical and not due or lawfull under the gospel . dub. i desire to hear from you what may be replyed to these cavils , for i believe they are no better . firm. the paying of tiths is no oppression upon the people , no injury to them at all , for if no free-holder , farmer or tenant whatsoever ha's any legal or equitable right ●r title to the tenth part by purchase , donation , inheritance , lease , or by any other imaginable conveiance : then the paying of tiths can be no injury at all , but the free holder , farmer , or purchaser ha's no legal right to the tenth part , no more then the minister has to the other nine , because for many hundred years it has been invested in the church by as good laws as any layman has right or title to the free hold farm or lease which he has purchased or pays rent for ; so that the tenth part cannot discend to any m●n by inheritance , gift or puchase , neither does any tenant , pay one penny of rent to his land lord for that part of the increase of fruits , grain , grass or any other commodity whatsoever . dub. truly sir , i have heard as much ; and if tithes were taken from the church , no question landlords would raise their rents and fines and purchasers would quickly find the price of land rais'd proportionably to a tenth part . firm. this is so plain that nothing but gross ignorance , envy and malice against the clergy can entertain the least doubt of it . dub. sir , you put me in mind of one thing which i have often thought upon , and much wonderd at ; that generally those that go under the n●me of protestants in your church , have little respect for their ministers : whereas papists and presbyterians shew great respect to theirs . firm. you need not wonder at it , the true reason of this contempt is for want of zeale to that religion which th●y profess ; where●s papists and presbyterians are zealous in theirs . but your meer formal protestants ( of which number there are too many ) is a formal nothing one that is so far from the power of godliness , that he has not the naked formality of it : now there cannot be a greater sign of an irreligious atheist , then contempt of the clergy , for where they are despised , god cannot be honoured nor religion had in esteem ; if the gentleman that has assigned reasons for the contempt of the clergy had thought on this , t' would have been worth all the reasons in his whole book , but it may be he was so much a stranger to his own heart , that he thought not of it . dub. but are not many ministers themselves a chief cause that they are so contemned ? firm. i was about to tell you so ; 't is much to be be wailed that too many in holy orders are through ignorance , negligence in the duties of their calling , loosness in their lives and conversations very scandalous , the greatest nonconformists of all others , not true to our church and her injunctions in the most weighty matters , placing all their conformity in outward ceremonies , and neglecting what is most necessary for their own salvation , and of those poor souls which are committed to their charge , which are in great danger to perish through the ignorance , negligence and evil example of such blind guids . dub. but is not the poverty of many of them and the poor pittances allotted for their subsistence as great a cause of their contempt as any ? firm. 't is very true ; and 't were a work worthy of the defendor of the faith , and a religious parliament to redress this very great grievance , by uniting little churches , by finding out some effectual means for restoring of impropriate tithes and glebs to their respective ministers ; which impropriations are the very dregs of popery , and a grand sacriledge in any one that shall detain them from the church . dub. i do a little wonder why you should c●ll impropriations popish , seeing many of those who took up arms against king charles the first , di● it upon th● account of opposing popery , and hindering the gro●th of i● in this ●●nd , and yet some of them are no ●mall i●p●op●ia●ors . firm. certainly there was never a more manifest peic● of hypocrisy in the world , for men to be so seemingly zealous against the superstitions of rome , and yet be so deeply in love with her sacriledge . sur●ly there is some marvellous sweetness in tiths and church lands , that prelatical , presbyte●ians , all parties can swallow down such morsels without any scruple : but let them take heed they prove not like that little book , rev. . . sweet to the palate , but bitter in the belly . dub. indeed i have heard that the popes of rome were the first and cheifest authors of impropriations , and that they did alienate ti●hs and glebes from their respected parish churches for the maintenance of abbies , priories , nunneries , &c. firm. 't is ve●y certain that these alienations were made by the authority of the bishop of rome for those uses , and at the demolishing of those places , those impropriate tiths and church lands , were either given or sold to courtiers and other of the nobility and gentry , which has proved the ruine of many antient and flourishing families , and a very great hinderance to the growth of religion for want of an able ministry in many poor parishes , where according to the old saying scandalous livings have made a scandalous clergy ; and nothing would be a more effectual redress of this grievance , then ( as was said before ) the uniting of litle parishes , the restoring of impropriate tiths and glebes to the church ; together with a diligent inspection of the bishops into the lives and learning of all those whom they shall either ordain , or institute . dub. i am fully perswaded , that the paying of tiths is no oppression or injury to any man ; but the independents , and other sectaries imagine that tiths are a levitical maintenance , and therefore to be abrogated under the gospel ; that ministers now are to be maintain'd by a voluntary contribution , or at best to have a set stipend . firm. that tiths received not their beginning from the levitical law , is evident to any unbyased judgment , from the example of abrahams paying them to melchisedeck ; of iacobs vowing to give the tenth of all that the lord should bless him with ; from the apostles large discourse about abraham and melchisedeck , heb. . by all which 't is evident that tiths had not their original from the levitical ●aw , and were not at first affixt to the ar●nical , but to the melchisedechian priesthood . as to that of stipend and voluntary contribution , 't is a meer plot of the devil , and popish emissaries , to render ministers contemptible , by ●aking them stipendiaries , or eleemosynaries , directly contrary to what st. paul has laid down , the elders that rule well are worthy of double honor ; which sufficiently evinceth , that they ought to have an honorable maintainance , and not to depend upon the cold and frozen charity of the people , ( i am sure st. paul found his corinthians very backward to supply the ministers necessity in better times then these we live in ) like so many stipendaries , or alms-men , by which they will be force● to preach placentia , or starve , and suit their doctrine to the humor of every mechanick . what a strange piece of non-sense is it , that amongst our congregational men , the minister should be the only poor dependent ? 't is most certain and evident to all that can make use of their reason , that gods way for the ministers maintenance is the best , which both before , and under the law given by moses , was by tiths , at least by god's approving of ab●aham's paying them to melchisedeck . ' ●was strongly insinuated , that the great lord of heaven and earth would in after times order and appoint that tiths should be the maintenance for the priest and levite ; which has continued for many hundreds of years under the gospel , and there are many fair proofs from holy scripture , that they are due by divine right ; they are established by civil and ecclesiastical laws , are the most convenient and rational way for the ministers support , who by this meanes , when the earth brings forth plen●ifully shares with the people in that blessing ; when less fruitfully as in times of scarcity , suffers with them in this calamity , and thus partaking with them in blessings and affli●●ions will be the fitter to stir them up thankfulne●s● for the one , and to press upon them the great duties of patience and humiliation under the other dub. i did not doubt of the lawfulness and reasonableness of tiths before we entred upon this discourse but now there is not the least scruple in me concerning them . firm. therefore let us now proceed to another gross error maintaind by the independents and other sectaries , about the electing of gifted brethren into the office of ministers . dub. that any gifted brother any one that perswades himself that he has the spirit , and through a strong imagination conceives himself fit to speak in the congregation , may without any farther tryal , or lawfull call take upon him the office of publick preaching and ministring in the congregation ( which is the most sacred and weighty of of all other ) this is nothing less then a presumptuous usruping of the priests office . this i know to be the opinion and practise of independents and other sectareis ; let me have your judgment of it . firm. that you shall most willingly . and herein my judgment is that this is one of the most wild and fanatick opinions , that ever entred into the minds of men ; that it opens a wide gap to all schisms and heresies , a certain cause of all manner of disorder and confusions in the church : upon this account , priests and jesuits , and all manner of sectaries , have had so fair an opp●rtunity to vent their poysonous tenents in the●● independent congregations . dub. i am fully perswaded that shisms and heresies are the necessary consequents of mens invading the ministry without regular ordination . but for my better satisfaction , i pray you let me understand the reasons that make against this independent practise . firm. my reasons are these ; drawn first from plain scripture , as ierem. . . and . . where there is a complaint against those prophets that prophesied lyes in gods name , and he sent them not . and again the same prophet , i have not sent these prophets , and yet they ran ; i have not spoken unto them , and yet they prophesied , therefore they shall not profit these people at all . neither was this sending and calling a necessary requisite only under the law , but also in the time of the gospel . the first that were ever called and sent to preach the glad tidings of the kingdom of heaven , were the apostles , who were first disciples to the best of masters , before they were sent out to preach . first qualified fo● the work , and then sent. so upon the treason and death of iudas , matthias was made an apostle in his place , but by election and ordination . acts . heb. . no man must take this hono● upon him but he that is called of god ; either immediately , or by the governors of the church ; and hereupon it was that st. paul left timothy at ephesus , and titus at creete , to ordain elders in every citty , instructing them how the priests and deacons ought to be qualified . 't is well worth our observation how the apostle makes the salvation of men to depend ordinarily upon the preaching of sent and called ministers ; rom. . whosoever calleth upon th● name of the lord he shall be saved ; but such calling presupposeth believing , hearing , preaching , sending ; how shall they preach , except they be sent ? dub. 't is evident by the scriptures , both of the old and new testament : that no man ought to take upon him the office of a minister , before he has a lawful call from the church , or can by working miracles make it appear , that he is immediately called from god , which is not now to be expected . firm. and 't is as evident from the practise of the church from the time of the apostles , even to this present age ; for he that shall peruse her records shall find that whosoever did presume to take upon himself the office of publick preaching , or administation of the sacraments , without an extraordinary call , arrested by miracles , or an ordinary one from the governors of the church , was ever accounted a theif and a robber , no true shephard that entred in at the church door , but crept in , or climb'd up some other way . and hereupon tertullian complains , that in their heretical conventicles their women were bold pratlers , they did preach , dispute , baptize ; meer laicks ; did usurp the priests office , by which means , instead of converting heathens , they did pervert christians . st. hierom also in an epistle to paulinus , complains , that every one did presume to interpret holy scripture ; prating old women , doting old men , husbandmen , masons , iacks of all trades ; even as it has been in this divided nation ; trades-men , shoemakers , ●oblers , glovers , taylors , have skip'd from the shop to the pulpit , and have left stitching of graments , to make a rent in the church . dub. there is no ingenuous man that is acquainted with the tenents of anabaptists and quakers , that will deny , that our sectaries have sharpned their tools , which they have used against us , at the forges of these philistins . have you any thing else to object aginst these schismatick practices ? firm. yes , the prudential order which is used in all other callings ; the ablest lawer , gentleman , soldier , mu●● not execute the office of a judge justice of peace , commander in war without a commission ; a student in physick cannot practise without a linence ; no man can set up his trade in a well governd corporation untill he has serv'd out his app●entiship , and is made a freeman . such excellent order is observd in civil aff●irs ; but in the great concerns of the church , there should b● nothing but confusion , if these men might be sufferd to act according to their irrational and extravagant phansies . dub. 't is most apparent that their actions are against scripture , the practise of the cartholick church , and the dictates of reason ; which no christian , no sober man will contradict . therefore let us leave this headless faction , and discourse about presbytery which has the most plausible reasons for its nonconformity to our church , of any other that do seperate from us . dialogve vii . against presbytery . firm. . the first step you made out of our church ( as i have heard ) was unto presbyterie ; i desire to know the reasons why you left our communion , and made choice of theirs ? dub. i confess the first step i made out of the church of england , was into the tents of presbyterie , thence to the independents , and so to the anabaptists , and at last i became little better then an atheist , as i before have declared . thus unh●ppy man as i was , being out of the true church , i was like noah's dove out of the ark ; fluttering over the floods of e●rors , and boi●terous waves of shism● , factions , and heresies , finding no firm land for the sole of my foot to rest upon . firm. this was not your case alone , but of many ●n un●table soul , th●t in those la●e times of rebellion , & confusion , eph. . has been blown about with every wind of doctri●e by the sleight of men , ( jesuits , priest , and socintans ) and their cunning craftines● , whereby they hav● lain in wait to deceive . an ●●ence it was th●t the prophet david's curse fell he●vy upon them : for they have fallen from one wickedness to another ; from one wicked opinion to a s●●ond , a third , &c. till at length they have turned seekers , scepticks , atheists , and scoffers at all religion . dub. this was once my condition , but praised be the lord , who has brought my foot out of the snare . i have by his blessing shaked off all those wild and groundless fancies , and am more then half perswaded that the church of england , is one of the mo●t orthodox , apostolical churches under the cope of heaven . however for my better confirmation , let me hear your answers to those exceptions which the presbyterians have urged , against her goverment by arch-bishops , bishops , deans and chapters , her lyturgie , her set forms of prayer , her ceremonies , her receiving persons of scandalous lives , and grosly ignorant in the principles of religion , to the holy sacrament of the body and blood of christ. these were the great scandals at which i somtimes stumbled and fell from the communion of the church , into the congregation of our classical brethren . firm. i shall mos● willingly give in my answer to those exceptions , in that order you have ranked them . therefore in the first place , let me hear what you can object against our bishops . dub. i have been told , they are antchristian , not heard of in the primitive times . such plants as our heavenly father hath not planted , and therefore to be rooted out . firm. true 't is , such dirt has been cast upon that sacred order by ignorant and discontented persons ; such an one was aerius the first anti-episcopal man we read of ; but this groundless opinion is abundantly confuted by the testimony of holy scripture , by the practise of the ●niversal church ; attested by the general consent of fathers and councels , as you may see in dr. hammond's book against blondel ; dr. taylor 's treatise of the divine right of episcopacy , with many others . first , the scripture is clean for differrent orders in the clergy . our blessed saviour besides his seaventy disciples , had his twelve apostles , which were superior to them , as is evident by the chusing of matthias into the place of iudas ; from the example of timothy and titus , the one a ●ishop of creet , the other of ephesus ; by the general consent of antiquity , in those and other churches . in that once famous church of rome , we have the catalogue of those bishops which presided there , about thirty of them suffering martyrdom for the testimony of our lord jesus . what should i mention the angels of the seaven asiatick churches ? which by the general consent of the f●thers , were the bishops of those churches ; nay st. hierome himself ( no good friend to this order ) does acknowledg , that when christians began to he divided , one being of paul , an other of cephas , to prevent such schisms , there past an vniversal decree throughout the world , th●t bishops should be setled in every citty , who should govern with the common councel of the bresbyters ; and that one of the bresbyters should be elected and set over the rest , for taking away the seeds of schism . dub. i am very well perswaded , by what you have said , that the primitive goverment of the church , was by bishops , with the assistance of the presbyterie , who had authority over the presbyters , and were their superiors . but i pray you satisfie me in this one thing . why did st. paul so sh●rply reprove the corinthians , for not excommunicating the incestuous person , if they had no authority so to do without a bishop ? firm. this at the first sight seems to be a very smart objection : but if we seriously consider the words upon which 't is grounded , it has no weight at all . the text that is cited to prove it is . . corinth . . . ye are puffed up , and have not rather mourned , that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you . where the apostle reproves them for want of humiliation , for so soul a sin , not for the neglect of excommunication . he that had committed that great sin , was to be taken away , or cut off from the ●hurch , but they themselves could not exclude him , but this was to be done by the spirit of st. paul , verse , . in whom the power of jurisdiction was originally ●eated ; there being then no bishop of corinth ; for evident it is , that in those churches , where there were no bishops , the apostles kept the power of jurisdiction in their own hands , until bishops were setled among them , as is manifest in the churches of ephesus and creet . neither can it ever be proved that bresbyters ( as such ) had any jurisdiction belonging to the publick goverment of the church , but by particular substitution and delegation from the apostles , and bishops , and no● by virtue of their own order . dub. i am very well satisfied , both from scripture , and the general practise of the church ( which is the best comment on the text ) that episcopacy is an apostolical institution : and i confess i am much confirm'd in this perswasion , by gods blessing upon our english bishops and episcopal men ; such as cranmer , ridley , iewel , carlton , abbots , morton , andrews , vsher , ( who of english extraction ) hall , laud , and sanderson , hooker , cracanthorp , iackson , &c. whose profound learning and piety , has given the greatest wounds to the church of rome , that ever she received ●rom any protestant writers ; and their judicious works have been the strongest sence against popery , heresie , rebellion and schism , that the christian world can ever boast of . firm. i much rejoyce that you have so good an opinion of our bishops and episcopal men ; i hope the authority of these renowned worthies will weigh much with you in our following discourses . we will now , if you please , proceed to your exceptions against deans and chapters , you shall find all those learned men before mentioned , and many more your opposites in this your second exception , as well as in the former . dub. 't is probable i shall , however that i may receive full satisfaction from you , give me leave to propose some doubts and scruples which i have against them . as . they were not from the beginning , but as it were of yesterday . . they seem to be very useless , serving only to maintain the pride and grandure of many idle drones . . many poor parochial churches are rob'd of their tiths and glebs to maintain such lazy ministers . . their vicars choral , and singing-men are many of them of no very commendable conversation , have little sense , or relish of religion . . their toning of prayers , their chore service is like a latine masse , not understood by the people . . their organs , and other musical instruments are levitical , utterly unlawful under the gospel . firm. you may think these are such knots which admit of no easy solution ; but i shall presently make you understand the contrary . first , i shall shew you that cathedrals , deans and chapters , ( though not under those names ) were from the beginning of christianity . it is clear from the acts of the apostles , and the records of the church , that the apostles and disciples of our lord and saviour jesus christ ( those spiritual fishermen ) cast in their nets where they were like to make the greatest and most advantegious draughts . they usually preached in the most populous citys , where they established churches which anon after were called mother-churches , to which the suburbican , or those that dwelt in the adjacent villages were subject , and with the mother-churches made up the bishops diocess , which they governed ( as st. hirome confesses ) by the common councel and assistance of presbiters , termed at rome in after times cardinals , or chief presbiters , and in the time of charles the great ( as the magdeburgenses inform us ) were incorpated into a colledge under the name of dem and chapter ; the dean by the canon-law being called arch-presbiter . before the sounding of universsitys , these cathedrals were the schools of the prophets , where young students were train'd up in the study of divinity and other good learning ; gerard gives us a tast of their first institution , their corruption , and how they might be restored to their primitive uses . i could wish that some learned person who has the advantage of books , and well studyed men to consult with , and leisure , ( all which we country ministers are deprived of ) would write in the vindication of cathedrals , and manifest to this invidious age , that the institution of deans and chapters is very usefull to the church , and very antient , as i before intim●ted ( although under other names : ) and i do somwhat wonder that neither bishop , dean , or ganon ( so far as i know ) has hitherto vindicated these churches , from those reproaches which have been cast upon them , by ignorant , spitefull , sacrilegious persons . † dub. but do not we see that bishops , deans and canons , do not joyn together in the goverment of the church , but rather are at variance and oppose one another , are mostly non-resident , keep not that hospitality which their predecessors usually did ? and therefore they being thus useless , 't were fit their lands were sold and imployed to better purposes . firm. this was your second exception against cathedrals , but a very frivelous one , drawn from the worst topick , from personal abuses , to take a way the true use of the thing it selfe . this is meer clowns logick and makes as much against parish churche● , schools , universities and all courts of justice , as against cathedrals . the abuses ought to be taken away ; i am as much for a reformation as any man , but not for an extirpation . if bishops , deans , and chapters , do not joyn together in the goverment of the church , 't is the fault of their persons not of their institution . deans and canons ought to be of councel to the bishop in a subordinate way ; not to have cordinate power and authority with him . if they are too much guilty of non-residence , ( as it cannot be denyed but that many of them are , ) this ought to be reformd by mulcts and punishments , but especially by those that have the power of collating those dignities , that they do not confer them upon any person that lives out of the diocess , or at too great a distance from the cathedral , which is a very great abuse and wants reformation . as for the keeping of hospitality , the cavil is just the same which the egiptyans had against the isralits , for not fulfilling their tale of brick , when they denyed them straw to make it . sacrilegious hands have robbed cathedrals of many of their rich mannors , and how should it be possible for deans and prebends to maintain that hospitality which their predecessors heretofore have kept . i know a canon , of one of the most auntient cathedrals in england , that his necessary expences in his residence , & journeys , being deducted , did not receive de claro five pounds yearly , for seven years in twelve . now according to the law of god and nature , families , wives , and children must be provided for ; and how can such necessary provision and any considerable hospitality stand together , out of an hundred marks or an hundred pounds of yeary income ; which is more then some cathedral residentaries do receive to my knowledge ? i wish that those of the gentry who have their thousands of yearly revenues would forbear their squandring away of their rich patrymonies in vanities and very sinful courses , that they would keep hospitality and residence , upon their own rich mannors , amongst their poor tenants and neighbours who eat the bread of carefulness , and then they might with greater confidence c●vil at the non-residence and w●nt of hospitality in the ●lergy . the best way to pull out the moth which they discover in the churches eye , is first of ●ll to cast out the beam which is in their own eye . second , whereas you object , that cathedral dignities are made subservient to the pride and luxury of the idle and lazy ministers ; my reply shall be very short . if any such be ●rept into such places i shall not be their advocate , but be ready to throw the first stone at them . but i pray you do not cast such dirt upon those who have laboured in the word and doctrine , but esteem them worthy of double honor , however the infirmities of old age , have now seized upon them ; dimness of sight , weakness of memory , an hoarse voice , and feeble lungs . if these cathedral perferments be great encouragements to younger men , ( which none but fools and sacrilegious persons will deny : ) vvhy may not such places , be as so many ecclesiastical hospitals for these ( milites emiriti ) old souldiers of jesus christ ? who have war'd a good warfare , and though now they are less able to teach in the pulpit , yet may they instruct out of it , by their grave and exemplary lives , and sage councels . . tim. . . let the elders that rule well ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be worthy of double honor . dub. i beg your pardon for those hasty words that dropt from me against cathedrals , i clearly understand they are not so useless as the ignorance , envy , and malice of some men would render them . let me hear from you how you can vindicate them from defrauding parochial churches of their tithes and glebs , by appropriating them to themselves . firm. this exception cannot totally be avoided ; yet cathedrals are not so much in fault as the supream power of the land , which took away their rich mannors , and gave them in their stead lean and scandalous impropriations , which ( as some say ) was done in policy to prevent their total abolition , which fate abbies and priories had lately sufferred under ; for those rich mannors being exchanged for poor impropriations , cathedrals were not now so sweet and lushious morsels to sacrilegious palates . dub. but is there no meanes to augment the maintenance of those churches whose tithes are impropriate to cathedrals ! firm. at his majesties happy restauration , there was a fair opportunity which offerred it self , the like we cannot expect . how easie had it been then to have setled a competent maintenance upon most churches in the nation ? some augmentations by his majesties appointment were then made , i wish there had been more : i know no other way to redress this grievance , but by annexing some prebends unto the vicaridges of these impropriated churches , which might be done in cathedrals of the old foundation , where there are minor prebendaries distinct from residentiaries , mean while those parochial churches are supplyed mostly by the vicars choral , whose maintenance from their colledge and privy tithes , received from those churches where they serve , is not contemptible . i wish 't were better , and that some of them , by their industry and conscientious diligence in their ministry did deserve a better subsistance , at which wish no man can take exceptions , but he that is guilty of ignorance or negligence in the duty of his calling , which is his fault in being so , and not mine in wishing it should be otherwise . dub. i perceive by your discourse that 't is rather the unhappiness , then the fault of cathedrals that parochial tithes are appropriated unto them ; but certainly i● canons residentiaries were beneficed in , or near the citties where cathedrals are scituate , and a competent maintenance allowed them from the respective cittizens , the vicars choral ( those of them who are not preachers ) might assist as curates , for baptizings , burials , and other inferiour offices , and so by the continual residence of the bishops , deanes , canons and vicars choral , the chore service , preaching catechizing , church discipline , and goverment might be much better performed then now it is , and those scandals and reproaches which are so frequently cast upon cathedrals , more rationally be confuted . firm. i much approve of what you say , for the non-residency of bishops , deans , and canons , and the remote vicaridges of vicars choral from their respective cathedrals , is the just occasion that the service of god is very perfunctorily performed , to the great scandal of the goverment of the church , which we can look upon as a grieveance , but 't is only in the power of king and parliament to redress , dub. the lord put it into their hearts , to undertake so good and pious a work . ●et me now hear what you can answer to what is objected against the lives a●e conversations of vicars choral , petty canons , singing-men , as they are setled in some cathedrals . eiru● . my answer is , that the charge is too general , and favours of want of charity . that some of them may be such , whose conversation is not so commendable as it should be , or that they have not that sense and relish of ●eligion , which ought to be in men of that place and calling , i fear may too justly be charged upon them ; but much of this dirt might be wiped off by the constant residence , grave example , and strict discipline of those to whom the goverment of the church belongs . 't is confessed , that through the corruption of our natures , the best duties , frequently perform'd , are apt to degenerate into cold and airy formalities . 't is the great happiness of those christians which dwel near cathedrals , that they may meet three t●mes a day , evening , morning , and noon , to offer up prayer and praises to the high and holy god ; but 't is very much to be lamented , that cittizens , and others , not hindred by necessarie occasions , should be so frequently absent from these solemn assemblies , as usually they are . it is yet more to be lamented , that those whose duty it is to officiate at those solemn services should look upon them as a ( p●nsum , ) a task , a burden ; as naughty boyes at school do their lessons ; how far are such stupid souls from holy david's zeal and piety . one thing ( saith that good king ▪ psal. . . ) have i desired of the lord , which i shall seek after , that i may dwel in the house of the lord all the daies of my life , to behold the beauty of the lord , and to enquire in his temple . want of sense & zeal at holy offices , is not the fault of chore , or quire service , but of those that officiate ; who if they will seriously fix their hearts upon those holy duties , when they sing and give praise , as david did , attending to the matter of their heavenly and ravishing anthems , as well as to the musick , they would not look ●pon the service as a burden , but as a blessed opportunity thus to praise almighty god in the beauty of holyness . dub. happily it might be so to those who understood those anthems , but i have heard some say , that the singing in chores is to them much like a latine service , they knowing not what is sung . firm. this is your fift exception , and 't is indeed a very weak one ; there being none who frequent this service , but know very well what is sung , ( unless it be the full anthem : ) let those that make this objection , frequent this service , and then they will be ashamed of so frivelous a cavile , and easily perceive the fault to have been in themselves , and not in the service . dub. there is one exception yet behind against your chore service ; as the use of musicall instruments , in the performance of a great part of it , which are said to be levitical , and therefore unlawful under the gospel , as we have seen in the geneva notes upon the last psalm , as also in aquinas , quest. . , . and divers other learned men. firm. this is a very gross mistake ; for musical instruments are not part of the levitical law , never instituted by moses , who was so faithful a servant in his trust that he would not have omitted to enjoyn them , had they been given him in charge by allmighty god. they were in use long before moses , presently after the creation of the world , for gen. . we read that the rare gift of playing on musical instruments was given to iubal . can we imagine that such a gift was bestowed on him to stir up wantonness and lust , by the more artificial singing , of unsavory sonnets ? or is it not more rational to conceive that this skil in musick was given to men to sing forth the praises of our great creator in a more excellent manner ? when we glorify the lord we ought to exalt him as much as we can : ecclesiasticus . . . and surely if musick has a natural influence upon our affections to stir up and quicken them in wantoness and daliance , certainly it may work the same effect , upon them to quicken and enliven them in a more devout and intensive praising of almighty god in all those that have a religious tendency , and a serious disposition to his worship and service ; besides seing 't is a moral and perpetual duty , to shew forth the praises of god , all rational men will consent that this ought to be performed after the best manner , and consequently with such skil and are that has the greatest influence upon our affections , rather then after such a manner which renders the service of god mean and contemptible as 't is rendred in many of our parochial churches . dub. you have fully satisfied me that musical instruments in the service of god are not levitical , but are natural means to stir up the affections in these sacred hyms and anthems . nevertheless i have heard that many who are much taken with chore anthems , are much offended at the manner of reading of prayers in cathedrals ; when they pray for the sick , they use the ordinary tone which is used in parish churches , at other times they pronounce their prayers in a middle way between reading and singing . which seems to be not so grave and sutable to the solemnity of prayer . firm. i confess this is a common objection , and some that are no enimies to cathedral service have in this much desired a reformation , but this must be left to the prudence of those that set at the serne ; mean while we ought not to condemn the quireservice for this seeming indecency , well knowing that the stress of religious duties does not consist in the toning and modulation of the voice but in the musick of the heart and affections , in a serious and devout fixing of the mind upon the things that are read or sung , the want of which , in those who read prayers or sing anthems , is no little sin , and one main reason why some of our singing-men are not so seriously devout as they ought to be , & really those that are frequently present , officiating in holy duties unpreparedly , carelessly , formally , and irreverently , by gods just judgment may be given up to a senceless stupidity , for their prophanation of the holy ordinances of god. dub. 't is certain , that a●prophane carless performing of divine service is a very great sin , and a necessary cause of irreligion and practical atheism , one exception i had allmost forgott which concerns choristers , who are said to be , for the most part , very untoward children . firm. first , this cannot be denyed , but the reasons are first , negligence in the musick masters , whose chiefest care it is to teach them to sing , and the end why they sing : namely to set forth the praises of their creator ▪ neither are they so careful to instruct them how to behave themselves reverently and devoutly at the worship and service of god. secondly , some of them are not set to the grammer school , where upon they squander away a great part of their time in vain sports , and idleness which is the mother of all villany and wickednss . thirdly . but the chiefest reason of all is that our choristers are commonly the children o● mean parents , who for the most part are very ignorant in the great matters of religion , and extreamly negligent in the concerns of their own and their childrens souls ; now deans and chapters are necessitated to make choise of such poor children , because the better sort of people , disdain to have their children brought up in that noble science of musick , which is their gross ignorance ; besides their scorn and contempt of this science , they misconceive that if they should send them to the musick school it would hinder them in their grammer learning , which might easily be prevented by imploying those hours only at musick which are spent in foolish , insignificant sports and pastimes , which as i am inform'd , is the practise in some places beyond sea ; where their youths spend much of the afternoons in musick and dancing , training , mathematicks , and such like manly and profitable exercises , which conduce both to the health of the body , and benefit of the understanding . dub. i perceive that those exceptions against deans and chapters and cathedral service are not so substantial , as once i conceived them to be . if you please , we will now proceed to those which i have heard urged with much earnestness against ●et forms of prayer , and in particular against the liturgie of the church of england . firm. most willingly , i pray you favour me with the recital of them . dub. 't would be to much trouble and to little purpose to mention all that i have heard , seing many of them are very frivolous and not worthy of a serious answer , those that seem to be the most material , are , first that they are imposed by mans authority . secondly , they stint the spirit . thirdly they are cold and dead forms , our spirits are not affected , and quickned by them , as by conceived and extemporary prayers ▪ firm. first , whatsoever is imposed upon us by mans authority contrary to the word of god is utterly unlawfull , but set forms taken out of ●ods word , are not contrary to that word , especially when not only the very matter of them is contained in holy scripture , but the very words and phrase . 't is a strange peice of nonsence that what is in it self lawfull and laudable should cease to be so , because 't is commanded by our superiors . true indeed , that things in themselves lawfull ( being in their own nature but indifferent ) if commanded as necessary and intrinsically holy , are upon that account unlawfull and repugnant to christian liberty ; but more of this when we shall di●course about ▪ ceremonies . secondly , that the spirit is stinted by a set form ; and that reading of prayers out of a book , cannot be praying by the spirit . to this i reply , that if their were any truth in these exceptions , how comes it to pass that ●e have so many set forms of prayer , and thanksgiving in holy scripture ? how do set form● of prayer more stint the spirit , then set forms of psalms for singing ? yea ; does a set form of prayer more stint the spirit then the extemporary conceptions of the minister limit and stint the spirit of the congregation , to whom they are upon this account in the nature of set forms ? when these queries shall be rationally answered , i shall through away all set forms which have been used by the ●hristian churches for above years . besides those of the presbyterian perswasion allow'd them as lawfull in their conferences with the bishops anon after his majesties restauration . as to the other part of the other exception that reading of prayers out of a book cannot be praying by the spirit ; this to those who understand the true meaning of that phrase is a most frivilous cavill ; for setting aside the extraordnary gift of prayer , to pray in , or by , the spirit denotes first the making of our prayers according to the mind of the spirit exprest in the scripture , as may appear col. . . secondly , to pray by the spirit , is to pray by that principle of grace wrought in our hearts by the holy spirit , and enabling us to every good duty , as well as to prayer . thirdly to pray by the spirit is when the spirit do's stir up our hearts to this holy duty , working in us good desires , and motions , quickning our faith and fervency , whereby our hearts minds & spirits go along with out tongues and words , utterd either in a set form or by our extemporary expressions , which is usually practized by knowing christians in their closset devotions . dub. i confess i am not able to shew why set forms of prayer should stint the spirit , more then set forms of singing , and i am perswaded that praying by the spirit , signifies no more then the assistance of the holy spirit quickning and stirring us up to , and in , prayer ; whereby our hearts and spirits are fixed in that holy duty joyning and going along with the tongue and voice , but truly i find by experience that my spirit is more stirred up by a prayer that is new , which i never heard before , being lively deliver'd , then by a common form read out of a book . firm. this is the chiefest reason ●hich renders men such admirers of extemporary prayers , and so opposite to set forms ; their own experience tels them that they are more taken with such prayers then with common forms read out of a book ; whi●h phanciful experience no wise man will plead against reason and judgment , it being very deceitful and the issue of a very common corruption , and humane infirmity , which inclines us to be more taken with what is new , then with what we have often heard , especially when 't is deliver'd in a lively tone , with pleasing actions and gesticulations of the body , and without book , though for substance , and soundness , what is read be infinitely before it . pray sir , answer me but this one question ; whether are your affections more stir'd up at the reading of some portion of scripture by the minister , or at a good sermon , delivered from the pulpit ? dub. i confess i am much more affected , my affections are more wrought upon by a good sermon deliver'd with life and action then at the reading of the best chapter in the bible . firm. i believe you , yet you will not say that the best sermon that ever was made by man , is to be prefer● before a portion of sacred scripture . the explication , or application of the word , mixt with much of mans conceptions , before the pure word it self , and esteem the hearing of it read useless and unlawful . dub. god forbid i should : firm. you see by this one instance , how fallible your own phantiful experience has been , and how it has lead you against scripture , against the general practise of the church , against all sober reason , so dangerous a thing it is for men of short discourse , that are not masters of reason , but are guided to phansies , over powred by passions , engaged in parties to meddle with controversies , which are too high and hard for them . dub. i confesse that 't was no great wonder , that so mean a man as i should be mistaken , but 't is very strange , that so many grave and learned men as were in the late assembly , should be so much against the common prayer book of the church of england , which i have heard learned men affirme to be the best liturgie in the world . firm. 't was very strange that so many learned men , should be overborn by some leading men , that had more zeal than judgm●nt , and happily more of interest and designe then of learning and piety ▪ but as there have been parliament-drivers , so there have been assembly-drivers , and convocation-drivers , before you or i were born , and will be after we are in our graves . and i am confident , tha● disg●ised priests and jesuits have had more then one finger , in animating the presbiterians , against the church of england , as well as ( to my knowledge ) they have had in somenting anabaptisme ▪ and quaquerisme , so● 't is their maxime , divide & impera , divide the hereticks , and w●e shall reign . i have more charity then to believe that the assembly ( the greatest part of them ) were of opinion that set forms of prayer were either useless , or unlawful , though they cannot be excused from too much compliance ( i fear ) against their own judgments . they could not be ignorant that the vote against the book of common-prayer was contrary to the sentiments of the most learned men in all the reformed churches beyond sea , of very sober men in this nation , ( known heretofore by the name of puritans ) the most discreet and moderate of that party were never against set forms ; of the reverend bishops of the church of england ; many of which sacred order have bee● as famous in their generation , both for learning and piety as former ages ever knew ; yea since his majesties happy restauration , the chiefest of the presbiterian perswasion , have acknowledged set forms of prayer in publick to be lawful , they plainly confess in their conference with the bishops they are not against them ; but every daies experience will make it evident , they must be for them , as well as not against them , unles● the late assembly , could have as easily voted , and made all ministers of the church of england , discreet , judicious , orthodox , and of a ready elocution , as they did rashly and inconsiderately , vote down the liturgie . besides the congregation , especially the weaker sort , those t●at are ignorant , and cannot read , may better joyn in prayer , when the forms of i● are known and common , then they can in strange ●nd extemporary expressions , with which they are ●ltogether unacqainted ; which being the practise in the late ti●es of confusion , has taught the people only to hear prayers , as if they were so many sermons , wherein they were not at all concerned to joyn with their hearts and tongues , and to say amen ; or as if the ear were the only member to be imployed in that holy duty . again , set and prescribed forms , consisting of scriptural phrases and expressions , unaffected and ●●tted to the understanding of the meanest c●pacitie , are soonest received into the heart , and aptest to excite and carry along with them judicious and steady ●ffections , as king charles the fir●● ha● observed in his most excellent book . hereunto may be added , that out of well composed forms , the weaker christians may be furnished with a stock of wholesome expressions , composed by the advice , & joynt sistance of the cheif pastors and ministers of th● church , for their help and direction in their private devotions , which i● imposible to b● done by the suddain , various , uncertain expressions of divers particular ministers . besides , set forms are necessary for uniformity in the publick worship ; and upon this account learned and sober men have wished there were but one publick liturgie in all christian churches in the world ; which ( if it were possible ) would be a great means of peace and unity amongst christians , by preventing the spreading of schisms and heresies , that may be as well prayed up as preached up ; as also undecent , unscriptural expressions , tautologies , vain-repetitions , phantastical affected words and phrases , utterly abhorrent from the sobriety and gravity of divine oratory , which is quite another thing from that of the stage or desk . lastly , should we deal with an understanding recusant , endeavouring to perswade him to forsake his superstitious worship , and to joyn himself to our assemblies ; how could we assure him ( if we have no publick established liturgie ) that our way and manner of worship is , and shall continue scripture-proof , sound and innocent , without errours and indecencies ? do we think that any wise man , would leave his popish blind way of worship , to be guided by our dark lanthorn ; not being rationaly assured , after what way we do worship the god of our fathers ? which we cannot satisfie him in , if we have no set liturgie . dub. i very much approve of your reasons for publick set forms of prayer ; as also of your ●nswer to that argument drawn from experience , which appears so great and mighty to some mens vain imaginations , but is indeed very weak and fallacious . firm. you must give me leave to adde two things more in answer to that argument drawn from experience , and then we will discourse of those exceptions against our common-player in particular . . i will oppose experience to experience , those that repro●ch our common-prayer , for a cold and dry service , extolling extemporary conceptions so much beyond it ; let these men make this easie experiment to themselves . let them take some of th● best of extemporary prayers verbatim , which your short-hand-writers can exactly do , let these prayers be read or repeated memoriter , with all the advantages of pleasing tones , bodily gesticulations , lively pronunciations , and assure your self they will at length appear to be as dull , dry and cold as any part of our liturgie . . i would have you seriously consider what the most judiceous hooker sayes concerning sermons , and reading of scripture ; why the former are so highly esteem'd and the other so much slighted ; the truth is , they please more then lessons and chapters by reason of those outward advantages which a sermon well delivered has above th● scripture barely read ; besides the singular attention and affection which men are apt to express toward the one , and their cold disposition toward the other ; partly because 't is usual to let those things pass carelesly by our ears which we have often heard before or , know we may haer again when ever we please ; and partly for that sermons are new and fresh , and if they slip by us for the present , what excellencies soever they contain is lost , which creats the grater atte●●ion , which causes the greater affections : so far that worthy man. this certainly is one great reason why set forms of prayer are so much undervalued in respect of extemporary and conceiv'd effusions . dub. i am abundantly satisfied , that set forms of prayer are not only lawfull , but very usefull in the publike service of the church . i shall now by your good leave descend to those exceptions which are made more particularly against the liturgie of the church of england . first , that 't is taken out of the masse book . secondly that it contains many shreds of prayer , which are short and customary wishes , rather then serious and devout prayers . thirdly , that it appoints divers apocryphal chapters to be publikly read , which contain things incredible and ridiculous . as for those exceptions which are made against some particular passages in the body of the liturgy , they are so frivolous that they are not worth the trouble of a serious confutation ; he that pleases may see them sufficiently baffled by mr hooker , mr ball himself ( a nonconformist ) in his tryal of the grounds of seperation , with many others . firm. your first excep●ion is the issue of spite and ignorance ; what though it contains many things that are in the masse book , as the creeds , the te● commandments , the lords-prayer , and divers collects ? shall a true man refuse to take his goods , and make the best he can of them because he finds them in a theifs house ? or shall the husbandman refuse pure wheat because 't was once mingl'd with chaff , and tares , albeit 't is now winno●ed and s●fted ? or shall we refuse pauls epistles , because there are in them certain savory passages taken out of the writings of idolatrous heathens ? the church of rome was once a glorious church , true 't is ; it s now sadly corrupted , yet as corrupt as 't is , all is not chaff which that church retains , there remain● in her some good wheat which was in her before her novel superstitions were in their swadling cloaths , this wheat wee retain , the ch●ff we h●ve blown away with a fan of an orderly reformation , you see what a malicious cavil this is , that our common-prayer is taken out of the m●ss ; malice in some , and ignorance , in others have been the true parents of this groundless calumny . . as to your second exception ; that our liturgie contains many short cuts and shreads of prayer : pray you what do you think of the publicans prayer , ( god be mercifull to me a sinner ) is any prayer in our liturgie more short then that which our saviour so well aproved ? short ejacuculations , concise forms , holy breathings of the spirit are very frequent in the scripture , and past all peradventure very acceptable to almighty god ; those that cavil at the shortness of our prayers and collects , let them justify the length of theirs if they can , from any one prayer in scripture , or fathers that is a quater of an hower long . let any rational man who is acquainted with the nature of prayer , and humane infirmities , seriously consider , ●hether or no , our church has not carried her self very prudently both in the method , phrase , form and ordering of her service . are not all her holy offices the matter , and mostly the very words and choi●e●t portions of holy scriptures , what an unworthy calumny is it , to tell the world our common-prayer is taken out of the masse ? could any thing be utter'd more fals and invidious ? those excellent prayers she uses , how are they ●itted to our infirmities , mixed with psalms , hymns , and choise portions of scripture ? is not this order and method more sutable to the weak capacities , and unsteady attentions of the greatest part of the congregation , then a long extemporary prayer , for matter many times heretical , schismatical , irreverent , strangly bold , unbeseeming a poor sinful worme , to offer up to the high and dreadful majesty , of our great and good god ? dub. i know by my own experience th●t long extemporary prayers are very apt to dull ●nd de●den our attentions , and i cannot deny but that sometimes i have been very much scandalized both at the matter , as also at the un-scriptural , ●hantastical , affected expressions used in such prayers , which is not to be seen in the common-prayer book , whose phrase and words are very grav● , and decent , and being taken out of the word of ●od are most fit to be offer'd up to the almighty god , when we speak unto him in prayer . i am fully satisfied with the excellent method , matter , grave oratory of the english liturgie , being 't is so consonant to , and coresponding with , the holy scripture . so that i stand amaz'd at the impudence of those that first gave out , that 't was borrowed from the mass book , and at the dull ignorance of those , that will believe so noto●ious a lye. the book i acknowledge to be rarely compos'd , and not onely useful in our publick worship , but also a very profitable directory for our family , & private devotions . now to the last objection : were it not better that some apochryphal chapters were left out of the calender , and canonical lessons set in their place ? firm. many learned men have indeed thought so , and have wished for a change in this particular , mr hooker has these words , those ecclesiastical books ( for so they were cald in auntient times , not apocryphal under which title were contain'd such books which the church allowed not at all to be read in publick ) i say those ecclesiastical books which in case my self did think ( as some do ) that 't were more safe and better that they were not to be read at all publikly : nevertheless as in other things of like nature , so in this i should be loath to oppose my private judgment against the force of their reverend authority , considering the excellency of some things in all , and of all things in certain of those ecclesiastical books which we publikly read , and therefore i have thought it better to let them stand as a list or a marginal border unto the old testament , and to grant at the least unto some of them publike audience in the house of god. dub. i do fully acquiess in the pious , prudent , and peaceable determination of this worthy man : and so from the exceptions that are made against the liturgy i desire your discourse may proceed to those which are made against the ceremonies of the church ; 't is superfluous to name them all . but only those which are most spoken against , the surplice , the ring in marriage , bowing at the name of jesus , kneeling at the sacrament , and especially the cross in baptisme , which are said to be popish and superstitions . firm. as the kingdom of heaven does not consist in meats , and drinks , but in righteousness and peace , rom. . so neither does it consist in gestures , vestures , or any thing that is in it self indifferent ; when the church commands us to wear such a vestment , or to use such a gesture for uniformity sake , and outward decency , not placing any intrinsecal holiness , or absolute necessity in any of those ceremonies : 't is our duty and not any superstition at all to be obedient ; yea we are guilty of the sin of disobedience , and superstition also if we stand out against lawfull authority . for there is a two fold superstition , one positive , as when we ascribe holiness to any thing that is in its own nature indifferent , morrally neither good nor evil ; another negative , as when we dogmatize , and call that evil which morally is not so , and in such things , weare not , kneel not , is as much superstition as weare or kneel possibly can be . what is it to any understanding man , whether he prayes or preaches in black or white or any other colour , unless it be for decency and uniformity ? the power of the church limits us to a white surplice , rather then to a black iump , or short cloak . dub. but is not this an intrenchment upon our christian liberty , to be confind to particular modes and forms ? firm. not at all . so long as our practice only is limited , and our judgment left free as before any such canon was made ; 't is strang that the same men who enjoyned three ceremonies at the taking of the covenant as to be bare headed , bare handed , the right hand lifted up , should so much scruple them in our publick service . but in a word , 't is plain scripture , that every soul should be subject to the higher powers , not onely for wrath but also for conscience sake . now unless the non-conformists can bring as plain scripture against our ceremonies , to prove them morally evil , they must incurr the sin of schisme , and disobedience to those powers which god has ordained ; and these are far greater sins then the wearing of a surplice , though we had borrow'd it from the pope himself . dub. you mind me now of one of the greatest exceptions against the surplice , &c. because the papists use it in their superstitious worship , therefore 't is unlawful for us to wear it in ours . firm. if this were a good reason , 't would follow ; whatsoever the papists do use or have abused in their superstition , 't is unlawful for us , ( who have abandoned such trash and i rumpery to ) use , but papists have abused our churches , ( halices , and other ornaments in their fals worship and services , therefore we may not use them ; but down with them , down with them even to the ground . dub. this indeed will be a very necessary consequent , but a very costly one , i fear the men that make this exception , would not be very forward to build them up again : if idolatry and superstition , were a just cause to make us lay aside our surplices ; by the same reason we must pull down our churches , and upon the same accompt the primitive christians ought not to have eaten meat offered to idols , neither to have made use of the heathens tempels , to celebrate the worship and service of the true god. firm. you see then how frivilous the exception against the surplice is , and so are all those that are offer'd against the ring in marriage , bowing at the name of jesus . kneeling at the sacrament , the crosse after baptisme , and therefore i shall very briefly pass them over . . for the ring 't is as antient , at least , as turtullian who lived about two hundred years after christ , he makes mention of it more then once , and our church do's use it as an ancient ceremony , no ways essential to matrimony . . bowing at the name of jesus is likewise very antient : the reason of it was , . to shew our readiness to yield obedience and subjection to him as our lord and king ; to whom all power both in heaven and earth is given , and to whom every knee must bow . phil. . . the antient christians rather bowed at the naming of jesus , then at the name of christ , in opposition to the unbelieving jews , who most of all blasphemed that sweet and saving name of jesus : which therefore they did indeavour the more highly to exalt . . to declare their certain belief of what the apostle forete●● , that at the name of iesus every knee should bow , of things in heaven , things in earth , and things under the earth , that all things should be subject unto him . phil. . . kneeling at the sacrament , our church conceives to be the most humble and reverend posture , and therefore most suitable to so high and heavenly a mistery , especially it being administred with a prayer ; yet we do not condemn the practise of other churches , where this holy sacrament is received sitting or standing ; neither should they condemn us for kneeling because christ's disciples receiv'd it in a table gesture , to which we are no more bound then to the place , or time , in which they reciv'd it . an upper room and after supper as the learned dr. sanderson has evidently demonstrated . . the cross after baptisme is also a very antient ceremony , which the christians of the first ages , used in a couragious and undaunted opposition against the heathens , and jews , who scoffed and derided them for beleiving in , and worshiping a crucified god for their saviour , who could not save himself . true 't is in process of time , the cross was abused , to grose superstition , and therefore say some , it ought to be laid aside , as ezekias abollished the brasen serpent when the people made it an idol . dub. much more ought the cross to be taken away being abused to superstition , because 't was but an humane invention , where as the brasen serpent , was set up by gods own direction and command . firm. very true , but then let ezekias do it , not the people on their own heads , without the authority of the king. however the use of an innocent ceremony ought not to be taken away because of ' its abuse ; and here it ought to be consider'd , whether it be better to use the cross to put us in mind of our duty , not to be ashamed of christ crusifi'd , as also of the courage and boldness of the primitive christians , who not withstanding the scoffs and reproches of infidels , would make such open profession of their faith in christ crucified , as to use the sign of the cross , not only in baptism , but also upon sundry other occasions ; or else , whether 't were better to forbear the use of it , because it has been so much abused to superstition : let the suprem power judge which of these is fittest to be done , and determine accordingly either for the negative or the affirmative ; and i believe every sober and peacable christian will esteem it his duty to submit unto such a determination . dub. but seing these and other ceremonies have been and are a great scandal to tender consciences , and the occasions of many sh●rp contentions amongst christians , agreeing in the substantials of religion , and seing that conformists themselves confess them not to be in their own nature necessary , but only expedient for order and decency , were it not better they were laid aside , then continued is they are , the perpetual causes of discord and dissention amongst us ? firm. and are order , decency , and uniformity ( without which there wi●l be neither ●ove , peace , or unity , ) su●h inconsiderable nothings , that a few innocent ce●emonies must be utterly abollished to gratifie the dogmatizing humors of those men , who esteem things in themselves indifferent , to be sinful and unlawful , which is s●●t superstition ? 't is indeed much to be lamented , that we should quarrel about mint and cummin , to the prejudice of more weighty and material duties , and the scandal of our religion . but by reason of our inn●te and acquited corruptions 't is necessary that offences should come yet wo : be unto that man by whom they come ; i know weakness and renderness of conscience is much pretended , and we ought to take heed how we offend any of christs little ones ; but how can these men be reckon'd in the number of weak or little ones , who seem to themselves so great , so strong and able , in the things of religion ? and for their tendernesse of conscien●e , we appeal to their bloody civil warrs , 't is well known by whom and how they were began , and carry●d on , till at length they came up to the death of the king , tho ( i believe ) very much against the intentions , and designs , of the most grave , and sober men , of that party . dub. but really sir , were it not more beseeming christian prudence so far to condescend to our dissenting brethren ( who agree with us in the doctrine of our church ) in taking away , at least some , of those ceremonies which are more liable to exception , then to comply with the superstitious papists in the use of them ? firm. i confess , some moderate men have thought so , especially since we are frustrated of of one main end , for which our first reformers retained them , which was to draw over the papists into the communion of our church , which they did adhere unto , for the ten first years of queen elizabeth , until they were interdicted by the popes bull , but seeing we are deprived of all hopes of that much desired issue and that by the cunning of priests and jesuits , stirring up and animating the conformists and non-conformists against each other , about these ceremonies . our differences amongst our selves do daily increase and multiply ; some wise and peaceable men have desired that the use of certain of those ceremonies might be forborn at least for a time , which not withstanding , they are still continued . these peaceable men abhor the great sin of separation & do continue their conformity to the rites of our church ; daily begging at the throne of grace that the god of truth and peace would for his mercy ●ake so assist those powers which he has ordained that they may be instrumental for the establishing of truth and peace amongst us . dub. i like well of the temper of these men , and wish that their moderation were not only known unto , but practised by , all men ; for certainly if the spirit of love , peace , and meekness , did rule more in our peevish and froward hearts , we should enjoy a greater measure of peace , love , and christian charity , then these angry times have hither to been happy with . i return you my hearty thanks for that satis●action which you have given me in those scruples which have much troubled me about the goverment , liturgie and ceremonies of the church of england , there is yet one thing behind , at which i have somwhat been scandalliz'd , 't is this : your church does receive persons who are notoriously pro●h●ne in their lives , and grossly ignorant in the principls of religion , to the holy sacrament of the body and blood of christ : besides she tollerates at least ministers , that are scandalous in their conve●s●tion , frequenters of al●-houses , not at all serious in religion , shew little sence of it in their discourses , preaching or practises : men of little conscience , and of as little learning . firm. this accusation is most fals ; whether it springs from spite or malice , or extream ignorance , i know not : sure i am our church orders that no su●h persons be admitted to the holy sacrament , th●t no such ministers be permitted to officiate , that they are to be suspended once , and again , and if they do no not reform they are to be deprived ; for the first you may see the rubrick before the communion , and the . canon . for the second see artic , . and canon the . and . and canon . . made . which are so clear against the admitting of profane persons to to the communion , or tollerating of scandalous ministers without due punishment , that whosoever chargeth these abuses upon our church must be grosly ignorant or very malitious . dub. yet we see that such prophane persons are admitted to the sacrament , as members of your church , and such unworthy minsters are allowed to officiate . firm. such persons are no members of out church , but rather the synagoge of satan , and that minister who does admit , such persons natoriously prophane , to the holy sacrament is a greater non-con●ormist to the orders of the church , then he that scruples at a surplice , and those church-wardens who neglect to present them , are guilty of perjury , and ought to be debar'd themselves from the communion can. . dub. 't is evident that such ministers are not punished either by admonition , suspensition , or deprivation . firm. this is not true in all places to my knowledge , where such ministers or people escape unpunished , 't is mostly by the fault of the church-wardens and sides-men , in not presenting them ; for what judge either ecclesiastical or civil , can punish offences that are not brought before him ? dub. but many times offences and scandal● have been presented , and the offender not punis●●d ; yea your ecclesiastical judges are more severe against those who are non-conformists to the laws o● the church , ●hen ag●inst those that are non-conformists to the laws of god as profane irreligeous wretches . firm. no m●n c●n excuse the personal abuses that are committed in any court , civil , or ecclesiastical ; all court officers never yet were , nor ever will be men of integrity , ●nd of unbias'd judgments , no question that many abuses which are committed by the officers of ecclesiastical courts might be prevented if the bishops would be somtimes personally present in their respective consisto●ies as was intimated , they ought to be canon . . made . . if we must seperate from a church , that enjoyns no intollerable conditions for communion with her because of some personal ●aul●s of those who are entrusted with her goverment , we must turn seekers , for where shall we find a church , whose officers are alwaies all of them impartially just and upright ? dub. i confess there is no good reason , we should seperate from a church , because of personal abuses in the governors , or under officers , where the goverment in ' its constitution is not faulty , neither the terms of communion intollerable ; but is there any reason that nonconformists should be more sh●rply dealt with , then deb●ucht profane persons ? firm. if we should compare schisme , seperation , non-conformity , with profaness , it would not be easy to say , which is the greatest , or which is the least sin , the first may be , majoris culpae , the other majoris infamiae , as aquinas rightly judgeth , . . q. . a. . of carnal , and spiritual sins : those ( as pride , and malice , ) are greater sins , but these ( as drunkenness , fornication , ) are more scandalous . but to wave the comparison , and to give you freely my own sentiments in this particular . i do conceive that debauchery , and profaness , ought to be more severely punished , then negative seperation , and simple non-conformity . my reasons are these . every prudent parent will be mo●e severe against a wicked child , that continues under his roof , professing obedience a●d s●bjection , then against that child which has utterly forsaken his father , and utterly abandon'd his house , and family . . the sins of pro●●ness and deb●uchery being willful , ( for drunkards , and profane persons , do not ple●d ignor●nce and weakness , ) are o●● more m●lign●nt nature then sins of ignoranc● ▪ though it be such an ignorance which was not all together invincible , but contracted by pride , pevishness , interest , or prejudice under which many seperatists , and non-conformists , are in bondag● and ●aptivity . . the lives and conversations o● debauched , and profane persons , who go under the name of protestants , and members of our church , ( though intruth they are not , but rather limbs of satan ) are the greatest reproach and scandal to it . these are the men that furnish shismaticks , and non-conformists with their best arguments , which they urge against us . for what they object against our church goverment , liturgie , or ceremonies , is ●or the most part very frivilous , and there is no quaker , anabaptist , independents , but m●kes the proph●ness of the episcopa● party , the chief reason and ground of his separation . dub. this i confess to be true , from my own experience . nothing wrought so much upon me to fo●sake the church of england , as the wicked and ungodly lives of those which she receives into her communion . firm. that was your error ; for you cannot say th●t she receives any into her communion , whom by her rubrick , and canons she ●xcludes ; and although through the laziness and connivence of church officers , or governors , or both , many an ungodly person receives the sacament , yet there is no just ground for a seperation from the church , which teaches nothing but what is catholick and apostolical : only i confess , tha● in the exercise of discipline , she comes short of the primitive severity against obstinate sinners ; yet the present canons are so strict , that if they were duly observed , no openly wicked , or ungodly person , should be admitted to the communion ; which would be a great satisfaction ( i am perswaded ) to those that now seperate from us . dub. but seing the primitive discipline has been so long time wished for , above an hundred years since , as appears by the rubrick before the commination ; how comes it to pass , that 't is not restored ? shall we be still wishing and never acting or doing ▪ firm. why it has not been restored , i know no other reason that is given , but this ; the times will not bear it ; why the ●●mes will not bear it , i know not , unless it be in respect of se●taries , who cry down many antient us●ges of the church ( which they do not understand ) for popery ; an● , these men must not be offended , least they be driven to an utter hatred , o● opposition to our church ; or else , which is more probable , such is the wickedness and profaness of the times , that they will not endure the primitive severity . when will that time come , that such strict discipline will be endured ? the church has been in expectation of it above this hundred years , but still schisms , and sects , profaness and wickedness , encrease every day more and more . no question the times , as to sects and p●ofaness , ( if that were a sufficient reason ) are much more unfit to bear the antient discipline , then they were when that wish was first made , and the longer it is disused , the more unfit they will be , which i wish our prudent ●overnors would take into their serious considerations . dub. certainly a strict discipline , impartially executed , upon all transgressors of gods holy laws , by sharp rep●oofs , severe admonitions , due suspensations from the sacrament , excommunications , penances according to the quality of the offence , would give a great check , to that impiety and wickedness which reigns so much in our land ; and take away much of the scandal , which is given by our mixt communions , at which block of offence many have stumbled , and fell out of our church into conventicles , and seperate congregations . firm. no question , a strict discipline would do much towards an h●ppy reformation of manners in the episcopal party , but as you have observed , the great scandal that is taken by the non-conformists , at the profaness and wickedness of that party , so i must tell you , that as great a scandal is given by them , to those who conform to the church of england : though their lives and conversations being contrary to her laws & canons , they are no more members of our church , then a glass eye , or wooden leg , are live parts of a mans body . dub. i do not see wherein the non-conformists , whether presbyterians or independents , have given any just occasion of scandal to any , they being men that are very sober in their lives , and great professors of religion , given much to family-duties , to prayer , to hearing of sermons . firm. hinc illae lachrymae , here lies the scandal which m●kes religion stink in the nostrils of profane and wicked men , when they shall see that men professing holiness , should make no conscience of disobedience , of perjury , of rebellion against , and at last of murdering , their leige sovereigne ; a man upon whom his most mallicious and cr●tical enemies , could never charge any scanlous sin . dub. these indeed are very grievious sins , and much to be lamented , but surely you cannot charge them upon the generality of thesemen , but only upon some ambitious hypocrites , that made religion a stalking-horse , to bring about their devilish designs . firm. 't is true that all the non-conformi●●s in england , were not in actual armes against the king , neither did they sit in the high court of injustice upon him , neither did they all , as natural agents , cut of his head ; but morally , that is , very sinfully and wickedly , they had their hands stain'd with that royal blood : for whosoever did abet these sons of belial in their rebellions , treasons , murders , of their king and fellow subjects , either by consenting to their villanies , praying for their prosperity , praising god for their victorious success , or by assisting them with their councels , advice , free and voluntary contributions , by writing and preaching up the justice of their cause , are guilty before god , os treason , murder , and rebellion . dub. this censure is very severe , and yet i cannot tell what to reply against it . many well meaning people observing certain abuses in church and common-wealth , much desired a reformation of them , and promised to themselves great things from the long parliament ; whereupon ( such is the brutish inclination of earnest desires , and great expectations in the minds of men , that are of short discourse ) that these poor inconsiderable persons , were engaged against king and country , before they had well weighed , that good intentions cannot justify unlawful actions ; that god has no need of the sinner : that we must not do evil , that good may come thereon . but i am perswaded that these seduced men do see their former errors , and are ●ruly penitent , abominating from their hearts , all treasons and rebellions against their dread sovereign , and for the future will keep themselves from such unchristian practises . firm. i much commend you for your chari●y , and for those that had their hands in that grand rebellion , acd are no● truly penitent , my hearty prayers are , that the lord would be merciful unto them , and bless them , and shew them the light of his countenance . my severe censure ( as you were p●●ased ●o ●ail it ) was never intended against such ; but we see very few that have manifested any signal tokens of repentance , for their lifting up their hands against the lord 's anointed ; rather we may fear they will commit the same wickedness against his majestie that now swayes the royal scepter , if they hid a fair opportunity . disobedience , is a long step to rebellion ; and is it not evident , that our present non-conformists are more disobedient , more refractory against his majesties laws ecclesiastical , then those that lived before the late warrs ; who though they were non-conformists , yet were they not separatists , brownists ( as our present non-conformists for the most part are : ) some of them ( mr. as ball in his tryal of the grounds of separation , and others ) smartly wri●ng against such fanati●ks . and truly were there not a judicial blindness upon these men , they might see by a wonderful providence , the lord did not own them in their rebellious undertakings . how strangely did their numerous and potent armies dwindle into no thing : ho● miraculously was our gratious soveraign preserved , against all their treasonable attempts , and brought to the throne of his fathers , with the greatest honor , most general expressions of love and rejoycing , that ever any prince received from ●oyal subjects , and all this , without the spil●ing of one drop of blood . the lord set it upon the heart of king and people , to keep this sign●l dispensation of his providence in perpetual remembrance , & not to ruine thēselves by atheism , irreligion , profaneness , or any enormous wickedness , for which the wrath of god has b●en pou●ed out in full viols , upon wicked kings , and ungodly people , as sacred , and other ●i●●ories do s●sficiently manifest . dub. it may be feared that there are discontented persons who are like wrangling gamsters , that having a bad game dealt , them desire the cards might be shuffl'd again that they might have a better stock , but i am perswaded many would conform were there a toleration in reference to some ceremonies as has been said , and the renouncing of the covenant not enjoyn'd . firm. you have had my opinion as to a toleration in point of ceremonies ; as to the covenant , tho it h●s been the opinion of several moderate men that it had been better if it had dyed without any such solemn act for ' its abrenunti●tion , yet being it was peccant in all the four causes , the efficient , formal , material , and final , 't was expedient in some respects for the parliament to vote that it should be renounced by all that expect preferment in the church of england , and i do not see how any man who conceives himself bound by it can be a faithful subject to his prince ; besides there seems to be a signal judgment in it , that the covenant which was used as an engine to remove the cavaleers out of their livings , should have the same effect upon the contrivers and ●igid imposers of it ; for many of those were undon because they would not take it , these because they would not renounce it . — nec lex est justior ulla , — quam necis artifices arte perire sua . 't is justice law that he should feel the smart , who was first author of that cruel art. i remember what tacitus sayes of cajus vibius . eò immitior quia toleraverat . and 't is like that the cavileers having such a hard measure from the imposition of the covenant , would when power was in their hands , make use of the law of retaliation , by driving on the act for renouncing the covenant ; and peradventure in some men there might be a grain or more of the spirit of revenge not beseeming christian charity , how ever 't is a remarkable peice of divine providence , that those who pressed the covenant upon their brethren without mercy , should suffer by it without mercy . dub. but as long as men have so little of a christian spirit in them , as to act by the law of retaliation , of spite and revenge , there is little of peace and unity to be expected . firm. we ought not to judge acts of parliament to be the efforts of revenge and spite , as for the act about the covenant there was some kind of necessity for it , as to make tryal who were loyal and obedient subjects , who not , for as 't was said before , he that conceives himself bound by the scotc●-chaine cannot be a good english subject . however if the suspending of that act would assuredly unite us in love and peace , i hartily wish that 't were not prest upon those that are of a quiet and peaceable spirit , agreeing with us in the most necessary points of religion , that so we that have one faith , one baptisme , one hope , one lord iesus christ , one god the father of all , might keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace , which is both our duty and our interest , if we consider what advantage the papists make of those divisions which are too many amongst us , the seeds whereof have been sown by the roman-emissarys . dub. 't is not to be doubted but that peace and unity and love among our selves , would much dishearten those restless enemies of our church and state , who le●ve no stone unturn'd to divide us that they might reign over us and perswade us by their most cogent arguments , ( which are gun-powder , fire and fagot , bloody massacres ) to embrace their gross superstition : and cause religion and primitive christianity to flourish in our miserable divided nation , while that time which is now spent in vain wranglements and un-christian contentions would be better imploy'd in devout prayer , holy meditation , in mortification of our corruptions , in duties of piety towards almighty god , of love , mercy , and charity one towards another . and now sir , give me leave to pay you my very hearty acknowledgments , for the profitable pains which you have taken to bring me out of those bracks , and bogs of atheisme , infidelity , schisme , and heresy unto my old mother the church of engl●nd , in whose faith and communion , thou o father of mercies , prince of peace , and god of all consolation , ever blessed and most sacred trinity ● grant that i may continue unto ●y lives end , and that i may so continue , i beg your daily prayers . firm. 't is our great christian duty , to pray one for another . i shall not be wanting in the performance of it , for your establishment in the true ancient catholick christianity , and i earnestly beseech you to remember me in your frequent intercessions , and supplications at the throne of grace . blessed be the god of all power , and wisdome who has thus prosper'd my weak endeavours in converting you from the error of your waies . i will ad no more but this ; that you be true to the doctrine , worship , discipline of our church , as they are contain'd in the articles , liturgie , canons , and rubricks of it , hold not any truth in unrighteousness , let your practise shew to the world , that you truly and heartily believe what you profess , be honest , just in your dealings towards men , temperate , and sober towards your selfe , serious , and single hearted in all duties of piety towards god , and whatsoever things are honest , whatsoever things are true , whatsoever things are just , holy , lovely , of good report , think on these things , practise these things , make not the actions of men , the customs and examples of these loose and evil times , humane laws , your rule to walk by , but let the holy will and word of god , be the adequate measure of your life , and conversation walk conscientiously according to this rule , and peace , and mercy shalll be upon you , as a true israelite , and one of gods peculiar people . amen . finis . errata . page . l. . read dependent . p. . l. . for puting , r. putting . p. . for their r. there . p. . l. . leave our whether they be pagans or christians i know not . p. . l. . for statues r. statutes . p. l. . ● . some of the church . p. . l. . for suspition r. superstition . p. . l. . potius ad bene esse quam simpliciter ad esse , is misplaced . p. . ●r . ● . ●ot ●ankfulness . p. . . r. licence . p. . l. . r. clear . p. . l. . ● . who was of . p. . l. . r. incorporated . p. . l. . r that have ruled well . p. . l. . r. stiled . p. . l , . r. that sit at the stern . p. . l. . r. but not the end . p. . l. ● . r. throw away . p. . l. . r. by phansies p . l. . r. assistance . p. . l. . r. ●●t●rio●sly . ibid. ● . ▪ suspension . p. ● . l. ● . r. suspensions . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e † dr. moors antidote , and dr. stillings●eets orig. sacrae p●g . . notes for div a -e r. b. notes for div a -e c●●visse videas crescere non vides . see mr. pools nullity of the roman faith. cen●●l . 〈◊〉 s●ss . . c●n. . non imagini , s●d numini sacrificamus . ae mr fowes history . cor. . . notes for div a -e prov. . eccle. . . rom. . . pet. . ier. . . deut. . . heb. . . . cor. . rev. . . cor. . . act. . math. . notes for div a -e . cor. . notes for div a -e ●po● . . . † 't was not long since , that some of the presbyterian a●d i●pendent perswasion were deans and ca●ons of christ church in oxford ; such d●gnities not then thought to be useless and a●●i-christian ; why should they be esteemed so now ? the judgment of non-conformists of the interest of reason in matters of religion in which it is proved against make-bates, that both conformists, and non-conformists, and all parties of true protestants are herein really agreed, though unskilful speakers differ in words. baxter, richard, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing b estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) the judgment of non-conformists of the interest of reason in matters of religion in which it is proved against make-bates, that both conformists, and non-conformists, and all parties of true protestants are herein really agreed, though unskilful speakers differ in words. baxter, richard, - . [ ], p. [s.n.], london : . written by richard baxter. cf. halkett & laing ( nd ed.). errata: p. . reproduction of original in union theological seminary library, new york. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng dissenters, religious -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - elspeth healey sampled and proofread - elspeth healey text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the judgment of non-conformists , of the interest of reason , in matters of religion . in which it is proved against make-bates , that both conformists , and non-conformists , and all parties of true protestants are herein really agreed , though unskilful speakers differ in words . london , printed in the year , . among the other church-troubling controversies of these times , we find it is one , and not the least , how far mans reason hath to do in matters of religion : and deep accusations we find brought against each other on this account ; some suspecting others of socinianisme , as over-magnifying reason , and others insimulating such as they seem to differ from , as guilty of making religion seem unreasonable ; and some ( who go over the hedge where it is low ) do lay this charge of unreasonableness , in special , on the non-conformists . we , who do verily believe that this scandalous contention ariseth from mens unskilfulness in the art of framing , and expressing the notions of that same matter which they commonly hold , and that really not only conformists , and non-conformists , but also all protestant parties are herein of one mind , though some think otherwise , who neither understand their brethren , nor are understood themselves , do therefore take it , as peacemakers , to be our duty to give our reasons of this our judgement , that if it may be the preachers of truth , and peace may not tempt the people into unchristian disaffection , by perswading them that we so widely differ , when really we are all , or generally agreed . qu. whether understanding charity can see any real difference between conformists , and non-conformists , or any other partiss of true protestants , about the interest and use of reason in religion ; that is , about gods doctrine of faith , and his laws for mens desires , and their practice , neg. for the due handling of this , it is requisite that we first explain our words , and then truly state the question , and then prove the negative ; and lastly , add some applicatory consectaries . i. by [ understanding charity ] we mean [ a person indued with understanding , and charity so far as he useth them in this judgement . by [ a real difference ] we mean not real misunderstanding of one another , or real contending about words ; but a difference in judgement about the very matter of doctrine it self , when intelligibly opened , and each party is understood . by [ religion ] we mean only that which is truly divine , and not about what man may superadd , ( though on the by we may speak somewhat of that ; ) and as the church hath ever summed it up in the sacramental covenant , and explained the parts of it according to the three summaries , the creed , lords prayer , and christian decalogue , so do we here mean. . the articles of faith. . the matter of holy love , or desire . . and of practice . by [ conformists , and non-conformists ] we mean qua tales , whether this be any part of the controversies which denominate them ; and ex abundante even qui tales , whether they that are meerly non-conformists , differ from the conformists herein , the question not extending to quakers , seekers , papists , antinomians , or any such sect which are more than meer non-conformists . by [ protestants ] we mean those that make christianity as delivered in the scriptures , their religion , protesting against the corruptions , and additions of popery ; who are now commonly known by that name , and distinguished unhappily by their by-opinions , into lutherans , calvinists , and other names . . we deny not that all protestants differ greatly from the socinians , who reject the doctrine of the trinity , though found in scripture , because they think that it is against reason , ( though in that they err . ) . we deny not that protestants herein differ from enthusiasts , or true fanaticks , who pretend revelations which reason cannot prove to be what they pretend them to be , and are contrary to true reason , and scripture it self ; and who think that the secret impulses of their diseased phantasies , and passions , are such motions of gods spirit as reason must give place to . . we deny not but protestants differ from the great fanaticisme of popery ; which both buildeth faith , and exerciseth religion upon the most stupendious fiction of miracles , against reason , and common sense , that ever ( to our knowledge ) was entertained by any sect , or heresie in the world , viz. . in their holding that a pope , and his council ( called general ) are the infallible judges of the churches faith , from whose authority it must be received , though the pope should be himself an ignorant lad , or a heretick , and most of the bishops in council should not before understand the matter which they vote for : as if god by miracles taught the ignorant , and erroneous to vote contrary to their former opinions , or above their understanding ; and their miraculous enthusiasm , and infallibility were the foundation of the common faith. as if god would enable a pope , and council that understood not greek , or hebrew , infallibly to translate the bible out of greek , and hebrew into their native tongues . . and they pretend that all the priests in their church ( perhaps many score thousands ) can work miracles at their pleasure , and do so in every mass which they celebrate , even to the making bread to be no bread , and wine to be no wine , nor any sensible substance ; and all the sences of the world , that see , tast , touch them to be utterly deceived ; which is farr greater miracle-working than ever christ , or his apostles wrought ! and to the belief of this , and this renunciation of all common sense , all christians on pain of damnation must submit ; and princes must exterminate those that will not , or else their dominions must be given to another by the pope . we say not that protestants do either exalt reason as the socinians , or renounce it as either of these two sects of true fanaticks . by [ judging ] we mean , . discerning our selves . . proving to others . by [ reason ] we mean , i ex parte objecti ; such evidence of truth which humane reason may discern . this is three-fold , i. evidence of the thing it self , which is either , . sensible evidence , as the very thing is objected to the senses , and so as sensate represented to the intellect . . evidence immediately intelligible , by which the thing it self is objected to the intuition of the mind ; so some say , with ockam , that the intellect knoweth its own acts , and spirits , see spirits . ii. evidence of the medium , from whence , by reason , we may inferr the verity of the thing . and this is , . of an ordinary natural medium , ( as a natural cause is known by the effects , and the effects by the cause : e. g. there is a sun , ergo there is motion , light , and heat : ] or [ there is motion , light , and heat ; ergo there is fire . ] . or of a supernatural medium , such as is divine revelation by vision , inspiration , miraculous attestation . iii. there is evidence of consequence , that the conclusion certainly followeth the premises . of reason , in these senses we may have occasion to speak . ii. ex parte subjecti vel agentis ; and so reason is taken , . for the reasoning faculty . . for the mental exercise , or act in the actual reasoning of the mind . . for a habit of facility , and promptitude in reasoning . . for expressive reasoning by argumentation , or discourse , by word , or writing . the reasoning faculty is considered in man , i. as in statu informato vel instituto . ii. in statu def●●mato seu destituto . iii. as in statu reformato seu restituto . in the state of created integrity , the state of lapsed pravity ; and the state of sanctification , or recovery . i. in the state of nature , or innocency , mans reason was , . sound in faculty , before its acts. . acted by degrees as objects were presented to him : and so as christ himself increased in wisdome , as to acts , or exercise ( for his infant state was not capable of such action as his adult ) so did adam . . habitually more prompt to act upon such acting . ii. in the state of sin , reason was ( and still is in the unregenerate , ) . privatively blind , or undisposed to the right , and saving discerning of things spiritual , holy , and heavenly ; partly through its own corruption , and partly by the wills unhappy inclination , which is the exercitij principium : and also disposed ( by both ) to false judging , especially to practical errour . . it is actually ignorant , and erroneous , and prejudiced against saving faith , and spiritual good , and holy practice . . it is by custome in such sinful acts , habitually more , and more depraved , in its privative , and positive disposition . iii. reason repaired is illuminated by gods word and spirit to , . common . . special saving . . special extraordinary operations . . the common are , . that light , or common knowledge and belief , which is preparatory to saving light. . that light of edifying benefits , by which men are made useful to others . . the light of special saving grace is , . initial in vocation for the first saving faith , and repentance . . increased in sanctification , by such a degree as kindleth in the soul predominant love. . more increased in growth unto the end . all this is considered , . in the first disposition . . in the exercise . . in the habit. . the extraordinary illuminations are , by prophetical inspiration , visions , and gifts of infallibility proper to some few . the perfection of all in glory we may pretermit . these things premised , the question is not whether socinians , papists , antinomians , quakers , &c. differ from us ? nor whether any odd person , or persons , called protestants , have ignorace enough to entangle them in an error in this point ? nor whether any hasty judges , that are not skilled in discussing the ambiguity of words , or for want of well digested studies , can neither understand others , nor speak distinctly , and intelligibly themselves ; or in uncharitable factious , passionate humour , are disposed to misunderstand their brethren , or to put a sinister interpretation on their words ; we say , it is not whether such ignorant contenders do think that men differ farther than they do ? nor whether any have used unmeet expressions justly blameable ? nor whether there are any that write against , or accuse each other on this account , and would make the world believe that we are of contrary minds ? nor is it whether our reasons really differ about the sense of some texts of scripture , or points of religion ? nor is it whether protestants differ about the extent of humane authority , and the obligation of their wills , or canons . but the sense of the question is , whether it be a distance between conformists and non-conformists , lutherans and calvinists , or any other by-named parties of protestants ; whether , and how farr we must have , or give reason for all our religion , or exercise reason in discerning it ; and in propagating , and defending it by proof . and we shall prove the negative , i. by those confessions of the several churches , and parties , which notifie their judgements . in all the corpus confessionum there is no article on this subject which is not commonly consented to by the rest of the protestant churches . and as for the conformists , and non-conformists , they consent to subscribe to all the same doctrinal articles of the church of england , ( though they differ about some other subscriptions , declarations , covenants , or promises of conformity ; and some oaths , and modes of discipline , and worship . ) besides that , we all subscribe to the same creed , and the same canonical scriptures . and either the point about the interest of reason in religion is in the creed , bible , or articles of religion , or not . if not , it is no part of our religion , nor necessary . if it be , then we subscribe our agreement in it . there is no profession , no writing of either party , conformists , or non-conformists , ( consented to by the party ) which signifies any disagreement in this point , or contradiction of what both sides consent in . let them that will prove a difference , cite any such book , or profession of either party , if they can . we deny not but some non-conformists , and conformists did cast out their suspitions of two very learned rational men , mr. hales , and mr. chillingworth , as if they had favoured socinianisme , because they so much used , and ascribed to reason , in judging of matters of religion ; and knot the jesuite would have chillingworth therefore taken to be a socinian . but it was but particular men , and not a party that was suspected : and it was but particular men that did suspect them : dr. heylins aspersion of mr. hales , was not the churches judgement : and in all parties there will be some suspicious uncharitable men , and some that will speak evil of what they understand not ; and take it as a neer way to get the reputation of being wise , and orthodox , by accusing others of ignorance , and error , than by long , and diligent well ordered studies . object . . but though they all subscribe the same bible , and articles ; they all understand them not alike . ans . . no , nor any two persons in the world ; it is as probable that any two men have spoken none but the very same words , as that they have had none but the very same thoughts . . let any difference be shown , as to the point in question , and such as is not equally managed by conformists against conformists , as by them against any particular non-conformists . object . . you agree not whether the reason of the rulers , or bishops may make , and impose any form of churches , national , patriarchal , or provincial , which christ never made ; or any new offices , or ceremonies of worship . ans . . this is nothing to the point in question , but of another thing . . we are all agreed that circa sacra there are many undetermined particulars , and circumstances , which some call ceremonies ; for which , scripture giveth only a general command , and rule , ( as , let all be done decently , in order , to edification , in unity , &c. ) which humane reason ( in rulers where it is their part , and in consenters where it is left to consent ) may , and must determine : and that they that have power de rebus extrinsecis circa sacra , may make humane offices for such humane works , ( as door-keepers , church-wardens , magistrates , to keep church-peace , and order , &c. ) and if they will call any lawful assemblies of pastors , or orderly associations , by the name of ( humane ) churches , so they will but distinguish them from churches of proper divine institution , and take away none of those rights from such as christ hath given them in scripture ; we know no party of protestants that differ de re against them , though many wish that the name [ churches ] were not made common to those of divine , and of humane institution , lest it obscure the great difference of the things named ; and lest , as in the papacie , societies and matters of divine institution should be thought to stand in a direct subordination to those of humane institution ; and the churches which christ hath instituted should be thought to be but as parishes to a county , streets , or houses to a city , cities to a kingdom , meer similar parts of the churches of mans making ; which conceit is the strength of the whole roman kingdom , called a church . object . . but some say that only the spirit can assure us that the scriptures are the word of god. ans . so we say all ; not excluding , but including the means and evidence , and use of reason , that is , . the spirit in christ , and his apostles , and prophets hath imprinted gods image of power , wisdome , and love on the sacred scriptures ; which is their intrinsick evidence . . and the same spirit by that word doth powerfully , wisely , and gratiously imprint an answerable image on our hearts . . and he helpeth us by this effect , and impulse , to discern that it is gods word that did it ; and giveth us ( as the new born babe to his milk ) a discerning of , and appetite to this holy word , as connatural , or suitable to our souls : the spirit giveth us such reasons for our religion , as else we should not have ; and also helpeth our reason actually to understand it ; and also maketh us habitually more rational herein . and do not all agree in this ? object . . but some say that the scripture is known propria luce . ans . so say all , but not by that alone : reason must discern the divinity of scripture partly by the evident impulses of divinity which are in it , which are its proper light ; and partly by extrinsick attestations , in the due use of the means which god hath appointed reason to make use of , ii. our second proof of our common agreement shall be by an induction of the particular points which we are all agreed in , where if the enumeration be sufficient , our proof will be clear . and if we seem to over-do , in naming more than needs ; it is to avoid the charge of an insufficient enumeration . . we are all agreed that all true religion , objectively taken , is the effect of gods wisdome ; and , subjectively taken , also is the gift of the father of lights . . we are agreed , that as gods wisdome is the first efficient , so the impress of divine wisdome , by which it is eminently wise and reasonable , is its very constitutive cause ; its form , and the proper light , by which it is to be known . . we are agreed that objective religion is to be received by mans reasonable intellect , and is , when so received , the light and guide , the advancement and perfecting of our reason . and the most religious , are the most truly , and nobly rational . . we are agreed that it hath intelligible evidence , which sheweth it to be of god , and true . and that mans reason must by discerning this evidence , know its divinity and truth . seeing nothing is an object of the intellect , but by intelligible evidence ; as nothing is an object of sight , but light ; and things by light , made visible . . and as our own receiving it , is by receiving the said evidence , and knowing its divinity , and truth thereby ; so our teaching it to others , and proving it against gain-sayers by defence , must be by our manifesting the same evidence . . the reason , or intellect of man in innocency , was apt to understand both the natural , and supernatural manifestations of gods governing will , and so to be actively religious , and to increase herein by exercise , and divine help . . the reason of fallen man before gratious illumination , is still the same essentially in the faculty ; but is dispositively depraved ( called blindness ) disposed to judge carnally , falsly , and malignantly of things spiritual , and holy ; and undisposed to discern , savingly , the truth , and goodness of religion . . there are found in all man-kind , at age , some natural notices , which are an advantage to the reception of religion , and make men more capable of it , than otherwise they would be : and grace giveth men usually a common sort of external , aad internal light , which is preparatory to that which is specially saving . . the christian religion consisting of things partly naturally , and partly supernaturally revealed ; the natural part of it hath its natural evidence ( either rei ipsius , or medij naturalis , ) by which , without supernatural revelation , it may be known ; but is not without gods illuminating grace , effectually , and savingly known . . the natural part of revelation , or objective religion is in order of time before the supernatural part ; and natural evidence and religion is more common than supernatural : we are men before we are christians in order of nature at least . . there is no contradiction between the natural , and supernatural revelation , or parts of religion ; for god contradicteth not himself . he therefore that thinketh that he findeth a contradiction , is deceived ; and must correct the error of his own understanding , and not accuse the word of god. . things equally true are not equally evident , and revealed , and sure to us : some things in nature are much clearer than others ; and some parts of scripture farr more intelligible than some others , and so more evident to us . . ceteris paribus , things sensible , and the common natural notices have greater evidence to us ; and are of easier belief than prophetical revelations : but some supernatural revelations have extrinsecally , and intrinsecally , more ascertaining evidence than many natural revelations , or verities ; no small number of these are very obscure . . when the understanding once discerneth a thing to be a divine revelation , it hath therein a certain medium , from which it may infer the thing revealed to be true : all known divine revelations are so far ascertaining , as they are known ; for god cannot lye : divine veracity is the formal object of divine belief . . if we doubt of the evidence of any revelation , natural , or supernatural , whether it be indeed divine ; we must hold that with the strongest affiance , or belief , which hath the clearest assuring evidence that it is divine . . prophets , and inspired seers had such internal satisfying evidence , ( whether by intuition , or abstract species , or internal sense ) which no man can formally , and clearly conceive of , but he that hath it ; but the reason of others may know it by the effects , and concomitant , or consequent proofs . . those that heard the voice , and saw the miracles of christ and his apostles , had sensible evidence thereof : and those at distance of place , or time that saw them not , may have certain infallible evidences of the historical truth , or report de facto that such things , indeed , were said , and done . . there are ( as is aforesaid ) characters of divine authority in religion , and in the sacred scriptures ; which are their inherent evidence , or propria lux , even the impress of gods power , wisdome , and love. . there are evident unimitable effects of the christian faith , which prove it to be of god ; even the spirits sanctifying work , on man ; which may , by those that have it not , be partly discerned in the holy lives of believers ; especially in the sanctity of the church , that it should be holy , in comparison of the unholy world , ( that is , all sound believers which are the real spiritual living church ; ) for , if one letter might be made without reason by chance , yet so cannot a learned book : and if an individual christian might by chance be holier than infidels , yet so could not all true believers . but he that hath this sanctification , or spirit in himself , hath clearer , and more assuring evidence ; and those most that have the greatest degree of holiness : these all have the witness in themselves . . the spirit of christ thus sent from him , as his agent , and advocate in mens souls , is the author , both of common preparatory , and of special saving illumination , inlightening the mind to understand the things of god ; and ( as is aforesaid ) giving the sanctified will a new relish to them , as congruous and good : and this knowledge , and faith objectively , and subjectively is the gift of god , or a beam from christ , the light of the redeemed world. but to some the same spirit giveth far greater measures of knowledge and faith , than to others ; and those are likest to receive most of that grace , who are most sincere , and diligent in the study of gods word , and the use of all other holy means ; and not the idle , negligent presumers . . neither corrupted , no , nor sound reason can discern things without supernatural evidence , which natural evidence doth not declare : therefore those that never hear the gospel cannot know the misteries of christianity ( without a miracle ) though they may know much of god as merciful and just , by his mercies , and government of the world. . the spirit is not given to ordinary christians ( though it be to prophets ) to bring them , from god , new doctrines , or laws ; nor to make any supplements to the gospel already revealed , as if it was not sufficient in its kind ; nor yet to reveal the matter of christs gospel , immediately , to the intellect , or phantasie within , by way of inspiration , visions , or intuitions , without an external word , or revelation ; nor yet to cause them to work miracles themselves , but he is given to enable , dispose , and help us to understand , believe , love , and practise the doctrine , and law , already , by the same spirit given to the church , by sanctifying our power , our reason , and our wills , by holy life , and light , and love. and as christ is the intercessor without us , by whom we must receive all mercies from god , and send up all our duties to god ; so his spirit is the intercessour within us , on christs part , as his advocate , and witness , pleading his cause against our unbelief , and other sin , and working all gods graces in us ; and on our part , teaching , inclining , and quickening us in all the prayers , and praises which we send up to god , in the name of christ . illuminating , and sanctifying , is not making us prophets , or apostles ; nor equal to them , as not being called to their works . . we must use our best reason in diligent meditation , and judgement , to search the works of god in nature , to know which are the true canonical scriptures , to discern true copies , and readings where the copies differ , to expound the text , to translate it truly , to discern the order of sacred verities that are dispersed through all the scriptures , to gather them into catechismes , and professions of faith , discerning things more necessary from the less needful , and the more clear from the more obscure ; to compose our sermons , prayers , and praises of god , according to his word : to gather just , and certain inferences from scripture assertions : to apply general rules to particular cases , in matters of doctrine , worship , discipline , and ordinary practice , prudently to discern those duties , which are but generally commanded in the scripture , and left to be discerned by us , in particular , according to determining accidents , circumstances , and occurrences , which must be considered , and compared . and when parents , magistrates , pastors , tutors , or masters , shall so determine of such particulars in the government of their inferiours , which belong to their several relations , or offices to determine of , according to gods general laws , or rules , inferiours must obey them in such determinations ; and in so doing , they do obey gods general laws , and obey god consequentially , in obeying such laws of his officers as he authorizeth them to make . for we are all agreed , that there are some parts of scripture which contain more necessary doctrine , than other parts ; and some great duties of prime necessity , which are the end of many lower duties ; and consequently , a rule to them as means , and as subordinate ; and actions otherwise good , become evil when they cross these great final regulating duties : such a canon is the interest of the new creature , and unity therein , as to circumcision , or uncircumcision , gal. . . and . . and such a canon is the love , peace , and concord of christians , in so much as they have attained , while they seek after more , phil , . . such a canon is edification ( and order ) as to several modes of worship , and ministerial acts , and discipline , . cor. . . . . . cor. . . and . . and . . eph. . . and the right ordering of a christian conversation doth much consist in discerning by true reason when circumstantiated actions are subservient , or cross to these final regulating ( canonical ) duties , that we may know whether pro hic & nunc , they are duties , or sins ; because affirmative precepts bind not , ad semper ( though no sin must at any time be done ) lesser duties when inconsistent with the greater ( at that time ) are no duties , but sins : and means are no means , when they lose their tendency to the end , or are against it . so did christ teach men to difference between tything mint , anise , and cumine , and the great things of the law ; and between the least , and the great commandments ; and to judge of observing the sabbath rest , and conversing with publicans , and sinners , by this rule , i will have mercy and not sacrifice , mat. . . and . . and to leave our gift at the altar , and go first and be reconciled to our brother , and then come and offer our gift , mat. . and to cast first the beam out of our own eyes , before we take the mote out of our brothers , mat. . thus to try circumstantiated actions , by their ends , and greater canon-duties ; and to try what accidents do preponderate for the time and place , is the great and hourly work of prudent reason ; and of exceeding great use to our daily innocency , and peace . . the more the understanding of a christian discerneth the evidences , and true reasons of all things in religion , the far greater advantage his will hath for the love of it , and fixed resolution never to forsake it ; and for seriousness , and constancie in a holy self-denying life ; and for patience in sufferings , and joyful hopes of heavenly glory : for grace worketh on man , as man ; that is , as a rational free agent , whose will must be guided by the light of his understanding . and he must needs be the lowest and loosest christian , that hath least knowledge , and intellectual apprehension ( explicite , or implicite ) why he is a christian . . it is a great cause of the slight superficial religion , and weakness of all grace which abounds among us , that too many taking the essentials of their religion too much on the trust of those that educate them , or with whom they live , do labour only to build upward on such an ill-laid foundation ; when ( as trees grow downward in the roots as well as upward ) they should be all their days still growing downward in the confirmation of their faith , and in the clearer and more orderly discerning of their fundamentals , and the evidences of them ; it being an increased sight of evidence of truth , intensively , and extensively ( in depth and clearness of perception , as well as material evidences ) which is indeed the true increase of knowledge , and belief : and the ablest christians should be ( not questioning , but ) as long as they live , growing clearer , and stronger in the knowledge of god , the immortality of the soul , and reality of the future life , and misteries of redemption , and sanctification ; where holy reason will find the most necessary , great and fruitful work. . objective religion being the thing which reason must discern , it is as vain to ask , whether religion , or reason should be preferred , as to ask whether we should , in seeing , preferr the eye , or the light , or the material objects ; which must all concur to make one act ? and they that ask , whether reason , and religion be contray ? must know , . that the faculty of reason , as such , is no more contrary to religion , than the visive faculty to the light , or object . . that so far as reason hath any pravity in disposition or act , privative , or positive , ignorance or errour in the matters of religion ; so far it is contrary to religion . . that so far as reason is sound in act , and habit , it is agreeable to religion . . therefore the worse any mans understanding is , the more it is against religion . and not only the learnedst , and wisest ▪ but also the holiest , and best , having but an imperfect illumination in this life , hath still some remnants , in him , of that which is contrary to religion ; and every man so far as his blindness , and pravity , is yet uncured . . but as to the objective parts themselves , it is said before , that none of them are contrary : the common principles , or notices of nature , have nothing contrary to them in the scripture . there is nothing in the doctrine of the trinity , incarnation , or resurrection , contrary to any natural verity ; nor any thing which true illuminated reason , by true divine revelation , cannot prove . . the blessed in glory , whose intellects are perfected , will see , for ever , such reasons for all the parts of religion ; even the trinity , incarnation , and resurrection , as will delight them everlastingly , as seeing the admirable harmony of all the sacred truths , and works of god ; and the transcendant wisdome of god manifested in all : and christ , who is now both essentially in himself , and o●jectively to believers , the wisdome of god will , as such , be admired by believers ; as he is now by principalities , and powers in heavenly places , who know the manifold wisdome of god by the church , eph. . , . even that misterious wisdome of god which seemeth foolishness to the worldly wisdome of foolish men , . cor. , . and must be spiritually discerned . . as the devils believe , and tremble , so it is probable that the judge of all the world will convince the wicked , and infidels , at last , that it was a reasonable gospel which they rejected , and a reasonable faith , and service which god required of them ; and that they lived against reason in their unbelief , and sinning against god : for the spirit doth reprove the world of sin , because they believed not in christ , john , . . and he that will come , in flaming fire , to take vengeance on them that know not god , and obey not the gospel of our lord jesus christ , and will punish them with everlasting destruction from the presence of the lord , and the glory of his power ; and will come to be glorified in his saints , and admired in all them that believe , in that day , even because they believed , . thes . . , . will sure convince men , that faith was a reasonable , and infidelity an unreasonable thing . in all these particulars we have reason to believe that not only conformists and non-conformists , but all true protestants are agreed . and they agree in the renunciation of these contrary opinions , ( though we cannot say that any man living is so perfect , as to hold nothing that hath some remote contrariety to the truths which he doth profess , not discerning the contrariety . ) i. they all reject the infidels opinions , who think that the misteries of christianity , and the gospel are not to be believed , at least , as certain ; because reason without supernatural revelation cannot know them : or who hold that the gospel hath no evidence of certain truth . ii. they all reject their error , who take some part of gods supernatural revelation to be false ; and will judge what is true , and what is false , by the conjectures of their reason , which ought to see the truth and concord of all : and that supposing falsly a contradiction , do set up one part of gods own word against the rest . iii. they all reject their error , who will not believe the difficulties of faith , upon the reason , or proof of gods veracity , and revelation ; unless the thing revealed be evident in it self , and may be proved by natural proof alone . iv. they reject the proud conceits of those , who when they find passages in gods word , which they cannot reconcile , or think not probable , are readier to accuse , or suspect gods word , than their dark , and erring understandings . v. we all reject their impudent errour , who feign miracles where there was none , or put false constructions on the text , yea , on the articles of faith ; and charge their own errours by misunderstanding on gods word , even when those errours are contrary to the common notices of nature , or the greatest , clearest , and most evident doctrines ; and then tell men that they must either deny those great doctrines , as cross to gods word , or else that both must be believed , as of god , even the canon verities , and these mens inconsistent errours : and we reject their method that will try many plain , great , certain truths , and texts , by such as are more rare , and more obscure , and of smaller moment . much more their scandalous abuses , who perswade men that we can be no surer of the truth of christianity it self , than we are of every lection , translation , or exposition , when they are doubtful , various , or contrary ; and who tempt men to infidelity by obtruding their own forgeries , and contradictions to be believed , as the word of god , and of equal verity with the essentials of our faith. vi. we all reject their errour , who make every circumstance of religion unlawful , which hath not a particular command in scripture ; as if reason might not regulate such by the general command ; as if reason might not without express particular precept , choose a text , method , words , and notes for remembrance in preaching ; or might not translate the scriptures , or turn the psalms into metre , and put tunes on each ; and many such things . vii . we all reject the fanatick , or enhusiastical opinion of them that pretend a necessity of immediate inspiration , instead of scriptures , to teach men inwardly , doctrines which they never outwardly heard , or more than is before revealed in the word ; and who thus equal their revelations to those of the apostles , or feign this immediate light , or revelation to be the chief rule to all men of their religion ; as if objectively there wereas many religions in the world , as there are men of different degrees of light within ! that is ▪ as there are men. and that pretend that none are farther bound to believe the gospel than they either see miracles themselves to confirm it , or else have this immediate inspiration before described , to attest it . viii . we all agree in rejecting the fore-described papal fanatiticisme , which maketh the pope and council , though ne're so ignorant , or erroneous , to be secured of the gift of infallibility , as if it were by miracle , in judging of that which their reasons are unmeet for , and they do not understand ; especially their foresaid feigned world of miracles by the ( sottishest ) priests in transubstantiation . and especially their persecuting all that are not as unreasonable renouncers of common sense and reason , and deposing temporal lords that will not exterminate them . and their requiring all christians to resolve their faith into the authority of this fanatick church , as being bound to take that , and only that , for the articles of their faith , and word of god , which they assert to be so ; and as needing no other proof than the pope , and his councils assertion . ( and on whose authority then doth the pope , and council , themselves believe it ? ) ix . all protestants disclaim that inhumane , atheistical assertion , that in religion , inferiours must believe all that their superiours assert , and do all that they shall command , and avoid all that they shall forbid them , without using their own reason to discern judicio privato whether it be agreeable , or contrary to the laws of god : as if all subjects must be of the soveraigns religion , be it heathen , mahometan , jewish , or christian , popish , socinian , or what ever : or as if man were above god , from whom he receiveth all his power , and might command men to blaspheme him , or sin against him ; or forbid all to confess , and worship him ; and god must ask men leave whether he shall be god , or be obeyed , or worshipped ! and as if it were in the rulers power whether any of the subjects shall be religious , or be saved ? or as if subjects were not reasonable creatures , or could obey without the use of reason discerning whom ▪ and how far to obey ? if they have not a judicium discretionis how shall they know their king whom they must obey , honour , and protect , from an usurper , or traytor , whom they must disown , and oppose . x. and we hope all true protestants are agrreed against that impious opinion , that if an inferiour be uncertain , or doubtful , whether the matter be lawful , or sinful , he must do it if his governour command it , and forbear it if his governour forbid it ; because an uncertainty must give place to a certainty : and we are certain that the ruler is to be obeyed , but not that the thing forbidden is duty , nor that the thing commanded is sin . . for we suppose all agreed that it must go with a caeteris paribus . . and that we are certain that no ruler can oblige us to sin ; and therefore we are not certain that he is to be obeyed , where we fear , upon good reason , that it is sin which he commandeth ; for if i am justly fearful that it is sin that is commanded , i must be fearful that it is sin to obey by sinning : and to be certain that i should obey , and fearful that i sin in obeying , are contradictory . . and we doubt not but all protestants are agreed , that if all the subjects ( or any ) can but be ignorant enough as to be uncertain whether there be a god , a christ , or a life to come ; or that it is a duty to relieve the poor , &c. it will not therefore , by any mans prohibition , cease to be all their duty to love , or obey god , or worship him , or to relieve the poor ? or if men be so sottish as to be uncertain whether blasphemies , idolatry , persecution , murder , adultery , perjury , &c. be sins , we all agree that no mans command can make it the duty of those uncertain persons to commit them , nor make them to be no sin ; ( whatever any man , of violence , may say to the contrary , in passion . ) we conclude upon this induction , that till some omitted instance be produced , this enumeration of our agreements will prove that , not only , conformists , and non-conformists , but all true protestants are agreed really of the interest , and use of reason in matters of faith , or of religion . consectaries . i. hence we see then that divines have great cause to take heed of setting christians together by the ears , by feigned differences where there are none ; and so destroying love and concord , and tempting the ignorant to hate and falsly accuse their brethren , to the trouble of the church , and the hazard of their salvation : and therefore that while men have not attained a through acquaintance with the matter , and in discussing ambiguities of speech , and distinguishing verbal controversies , from real , if they forbear not their censures , and publique controversies , till they attain a more ripe distinct understanding , they may greatly serve satan , while they think that they are serving christ . and how little the church is beholden to those men , that either through factious worldly designs , or ignorant zeal against error , have made the world believe by pulpit invectives and voluminous controversies , that christians differ really , when it is but verbally , experience might have satisfied us long ere this . ii. those that have been guilty of such feigning of difficulties , and wronging the church , should make repairation by open repentance , and all christians should study the difference between matter and expressive art , and words ; and be desirous and skilful for the narrowing of differences , as others are in widening them . we are not in love with the spirit and practise of incendiaries , love-killers , or dividers : we find too many contending in this case , as if they thought the difference real ; but not any party against another , ( many conformists , as well as non-conformists , being jealous of giving too much to humane reason . ) but we suppose we have fully proved a real concord among us all , though unskilful , word-warriours discern it not . if any will be a dissenter , he must be a stragler from all the protestant churches . his majesty in his declaration of ecclesiastical affairs expressed his displeasure of such as pretended that the church-doctrine needed reformation , as if in doctrine we were not agreed . seeing we all subscribe the same scripture , and articles of religion , and all agree in the twenty eight conclusions , and ten rejections before express'd ; if any yet proceed in their accusations , we desire them , for our conviction , to state the case in which , they suppose , the difference is , and prove their charge ; and to remember what it is to strive about words , and what have been , and yet are , the effects ; and that the wisdome from above is first pure , then peaceable , and without partiallity and hypocrisie ; and that the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace , and that blessed are the peacemakers , for theirs is the kingdom of god. we , whose names are subscribed , ( not undertaking that no individual person is otherwise minded , ) do , our selves , believe the real concord of protestants , as it is here expressed . th. manton , w. bates , tho. case , gabriel sangar , rich. baxter , math. pemberton , mat. silvester , henry hurst , roger morice , edw. lawrence , benjam . agas , james bedford , sam. fairclough , john turner , joseph read. errata . page , . line last , for distance , read difference . p. . l. penult . for theirs , r. men. p. . l. penult . for neer , r. neerer . p. . l. . for impulses , r. impresses . l. . r. impress . p. . l. . for to , r. of . p. . l. . for be , r. was .. finis . a proclamation, anent tenents and others who shall be removed for not taking, the band to live orderly. scotland. committee of the west. approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page image. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). b wing s a estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. b ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a proclamation, anent tenents and others who shall be removed for not taking, the band to live orderly. scotland. committee of the west. scotland. sovereign ( - : charles ii) sheet ([ ] p.) printed by robert sanders, printer to the city and university, glasgow : . caption title. royal arms at head of text; initial letter. dated at end: given under our signet at our burgh of air on the eleventh day of february , and of our reigne, the threttie year. signed: hugh stevensone, cl. com. reproduction of the original in the national library of scotland. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng dissenters, religious -- legal status, laws, etc. -- scotland -- early works to . landlord and tenant -- scotland -- early works to . broadsides -- scotland -- th century. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - mona logarbo sampled and proofread - mona logarbo text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion in defence cr honi soit qvi mal y pense diev et mon droit god save the king royal blazon or coat of arms a proclamation , anent tenents and others who shall be removed , for not taking , the band to live orderly , charles , by the grace of god , king of great britain , france , and ireland , defender of the faith ; to our lovites , macers or messengers at arms , our sheriffs in that part , conjunctly and severally , specially constitute , greeting ; forasmuch , as the lords of the committy of our privy council met in the west , by comission from our privy council , having taken to their consideration that divers heretors , lyfrentars and land-lords within the shyres of air , lanerk , renfrew , stirling , roxburgh , dumfreiss , wigtoun , stewartrie of kirkcudburgh , and jurisdictions , within the same ; have given band for themselves their wyves bairnes and servants , that they shall not be present at any conventicles , and disorderly meettings ; but shall live orderlie in obedience to the law , under the pains and penalties contained in the acts of parlament made ther-anent ; and that there haill tenents and cottars respective , shall likewayes abstaine , and refraine from the saids conventicles , and other illegall meetings : not authorized by the law : and further that they shall not reset nor common with forfaulted persons , intercommoned ministers , or ragrant preachers ; but shall doe there utemost indeavor to apprehend there persones ; and incase any of there tennents , cottars , and there forsaids , shall contravene ; they have obliged themselves to take and apprehend any person or persones guilty thereof and present them to the judge ordinar , that they may be fyned , and imprisoned as is provided in the acts of parlament made there anent : vtherwayes that they shall remove them and there families off there ground , and if they faillie thereintill , they have oblidged themselves to be lyable to such paines and penalties as the saids delinquents have incurred by the law ; and the saids lords haveing prefixed particular dyetts for such heretors , lyfrentors , and others as have not alreadie given band : to give the same at the saids dyetts with certification contained in the acts made there-anent . and whereas some heretors , lyfrentars and landlords who have given , or shal give the said band ; may be necessitate to remove some of there tennents , or cottars that may happen to be so willfull as to refuse to grant them bands of releiff , or that some of their tennents or cottars may leave there lands , and goe to the lands of other heretors upon expectation to be received as tennents , or cottars to them , or harboured , sheltered , or resett in some part of their ground , to the prejudice of there former masters of purpose to eshew the giving of the said band , and to disappoynt the execution of our lawes made in that behalf . we therefore with advyce of the saids lords of the committy of our privy councill doe hereby prohibit and discharge all heretors , fewars , lyfrentars and others to resett , supplie ; or harbour any of these tennents , or cottars that shall happen to remove , or be removed for not giving the said band of releife from the ground and lands of any heretors who have given , or shall give the said band ; or to set them any lands in tak , or other wayes to permitt them to possess any part thereof , upon any colour , or pretext whatsomever , under the penaltie of six hundreth pounds scots for each tennent , and three hundreth pound money forsaid for each cottar , to be payed by the heretors , or others forsaids who shall happen to contraven the tenor hereof , the one half thereof to us , or to the lords comissioners of our thesaury for our use , and the other half to the informer . our will is and we charge you straitlie and command , that incontinent these our letters sein , yepass to the mercat cross of the head-burghs of the shires of air , lanerk , renfrew . stirling , roxburgh , dumfreis , wigtoune , stewartrie of kirkcurdburgh , and other places needfull , and thereatin our name and authority by open proclamation , make publication of the premisses , that none pretend ignorance . the which to do we commit to you conjunctly and severallie our full power , by these our letters delivering them by you duely execute and indorsed again to the bearer . given under our signet at our burgh of air the eleventh day of february . and of our reigne , the threttie year . per actum dominorum comissionis hugh stevensone , cl. com : god save the king , glasgow , printed by robert sanders , printer to the city and university . . an account of the persecutions and oppressions of the protestants in france plaintes des protestants cruellement opprimez dans le royaume de france. english claude, jean, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing c estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) an account of the persecutions and oppressions of the protestants in france plaintes des protestants cruellement opprimez dans le royaume de france. english claude, jean, - . p. printed for j. norris, london : . attributed to jean claude. cf. nuc pre- . reproduction of original in huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng protestants -- france -- early works to . huguenots -- early works to . dissenters, religious -- france. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - taryn hakala sampled and proofread - taryn hakala text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion an account of the persecutions and oppressions of the protestants in france . london , printed for j. norris . . an exact account of the cruel oppressions and persaecutions of the french protestants . the cruelties exercis'd of late on the protestants in france , do appear so detestable to all , who have not divested themselves of humanity , that no wonder the authors of them use their utmost endeavours to lessen what they cannot conceal . were not this worse than barbarous usage , a project of a long contrivance , a man might for charity 's sake , suppose this their palliating it , to be an acknowledgment of their own displeasure at it . however , their boldness is inexcusable , who shall endeavour to impose on the world in matters known ; not by gazetts , and news-letters , but by an infinite number of fugitives of all conditions , who have nothing left but tears and miseries to bring along with them into foreign nations . 't is certainly too barbarous to oppress innocent people in their own countrey ; and afterwards to stifle their complaints in other places where they are driven ; and by this means deprive them of a compassion which the bare instincts of nature never refuse to the miserable . yet this is the course our persecutors of france have held ; their cruelty must be attended with impostures , that the mischiefs which they have acted may pass undiscovered . i think we should be much to blame , if we suffer them to go on in this second design , as they have done in the first ; and therefore we shall choose some principal instances , whereon we shall make such reflections , as thereby to judge with greater evidence and exactness on the whole proceeding . and as we shall offer nothing but what shall be perfectly true ; so we shall advance nothing in our reflections , but what all the world of reasonable people will allow . to begin with matters of fact : there 's no body but knows , that a while after his present majesty of france came to the crown , there arose in the kingdom a civil war ; which proved so sharp and desperate , as brought the state within an hairs breadth of utter ruine . 't is also known , that in the midst of all these troubles , those of the reformed religion kept their loyalty in so inviolable a manner , and attended it with such a zeal and extraordinary fervour , that the king found himself obliged to give publick marks of it , by a declaration made at st. germains , in the year . then as well at court , as in the field , each strove to proclaim loudest the deserts of the reformists ; and the queen mother her self readily acknowledged , that they had preserved the state : this is known by all , but 't will hardly be believed , though it be too true , what our enemies themselves an hundred times told us ; and which the sequel has but too shrewdly confirmed , that this was precisely the principal and most essential cause of our ruine ; and of all the mischiefs which we have since suffered . endeavours were used to envenom all these important services in the kings and his ministers minds , by perswading them , that if in this occasion , this party could conserve the state ; this shewed , they could likewise overthrow it , should they have ranked themselves on the other side ; and might still do it , when such alike occasion should offer it self . that therefore this party must be suppressed , and the good they have done no longer regarded ; but as an indication of the mischief , which they may one day be capable of doing . this diabolical reasoning , which hinders subjects from serving their prince , to avoid drawing on themselves chastisements , instead of recompences , was relish'd as a piece of most refined policy . for as soon as the kingdom was settled in peace , the design was advanced of destroying the reformists ; and the better to make them comprehend that their zeal had ruined them , the cities which had shewed most of it , were first begun with . immediately then , on slight pretences , they fell on rochel , montaubon , and milan ; three towns , where those of the reformed religion had most signalized themselves for the interests of the court ; rochel underwent an infinite number of prescriptions , montaubon and milan were sackt by the soldiers . but these being but particular stroaks and meer preludes , which decided nothing , they tarried not long before they made appear the great and general machius , they were to use in the carrying on of their intended design to the last extremity . 't will be a difficult matter to give an exact account of these several methods : for never humane malice produced such multiplicity of them ; every day brought forth new ones for twenty years together . to take only notice of the chief of them ; which were , first , law suits in courts of justice . secondly , deprivations from all kinds of offices and employs ; and in general , of all ways of subsistance . thirdly , the infraction of edicts , under the notion of explications of them . fourthly , new laws and orders . fifthly , juggles and amusing tricks . sixthly , the animating of people , and inspiring them with hatred against us . these are the most considerable means , which the persecuters have employed to attain their ends , during several years ; i say , during several years ; for what they designed , being no easie matter , they needed therefore time , to order their engins ; not to take notice of their traverses and interruptions by forrain wars ; yet whose success have not a little contributed to encrease their courage , and confirm them in the design which they had against us . the first of these means has had an infinite extent . we should begin with the recital of all the condemnations of churches , or suppressions of exercises of religion , and all the other vexations which have hapned by the establishing of commissaries ; this was a snare dexterously laid immediately after the treaty of the picenees , the king under pretence of repairing the edict of nants , sent them in the provinces . the roman catholic commissary was every where his majesties intendant ; who was besure a fit man for the purpose , armed with the royal authority , and who was well instructed in the secret aim . the other , was either some hungry officer , a slave to the court , or some poor gentleman , who had usually neither intelligence requisite in these sort of affairs , nor the liberty of speaking his sentiments . the clergy had set them up ; he was their ambulatory spirit . the syndicks were received before them as formal parties in all our affairs ; the assignations were given in their name , the prosecutions also ; and as well the discords of the commissaries , as the appeals from their ordinances , must be finally decided in the kings council . thus in general , all the rights of the churches , for the exercises of religion , the burying places , and all such dependancies , were called into a review , and consequently exposed to the fresh pursuits of the clergy , and the ill intention of the judges . in which there was not the least dram of equity ; for the edict having bin once executed , according to the intention of him that made it , there needed no second touches ; it being moreover , wholly unlikely those of the reformed religion , who had bin ever in the kingdom the suffering party , could usurp any thing therein ; and extend its limits beyond what belong'd to them . but there were other designs in hand than the providing against the contraventions , and therefore by this order , the greatest part of the churches cited for the justifying of their rights , saw themselves soon condemned one after another , by decrees of council , how good and sufficient soever their titles and defences were . scarcely passed a week , wherein these kind of decrees were not made ; and if it hapned , that the modesty of the judges saved any of them , by the great evidence of their right , as this sometimes hapned ; besides that , the number was small , in comparison of those condemned , the judges often received order to condemn them , when they shewed they could not in conscience do it . but the oppressions of this kind , did not terminate in the bare condemnation of churches ; for particular persons had their part . in ordinary and civil affairs , where the matter concerned a piece of land , perhaps , a house , a debt between a roman catholick and a person of our religion ; religion was to be sure always one of the chief heads of the accusation ; the monks , the emissaries , the confessors , and all the whole tribe of that crew , interessed themselves in the affair . in courts of justice , all the cry was , i plead against an heretick , i have to do with a man of a religion odious to the state ; and which the king would have extirpated . by this means , there was no longer any justice to be expected , few judges were proof against this false zeal , for fear of drawing the fury of the whole cabal against him , or passing for a favourer of hereticks . 't is not to be imagined how many unjust sentences these sort of prejudices have given , in all the courts of the kingdom ; and how many mens families have bin ruined by them : when any one complained , the answer was ready , you have the remedy in your own hands ; why do you not turn catholick . yet all this had bin nothing , had the persecution kept here , and not proceeded to fasten on the reputation , the liberty , and even the very lives of persons , by a general inundation ( as a man may term it ) of criminal processes . writings were printed at paris , and sent from thence to all cities and parishes of the kingdom , which impowred the curates , churchwardens and others , to make an exact enquiry into whatsoever the pretended reformists might have done , or said for twenty years past , as well on the subject of religion as otherwise , to make information of this before the justices of the place ; and punish them without remission . so have we seen for several years , in execution of these orders , the prisons every where fill'd with these kind of criminals ; neither were false witnesses lacking ; and that which was most horrible , was , that though the judges were convinced they were knights of the post , yet they maintained them , and carry'd them throw such points , as they knew to be untrue . they condemned innocent and vertuous persons to be whipt , to the gallies , to banishment and publick penances . and if a spark of honor or conscience , at any time hindred them , yet there was always at least an impunity for the false witness . this kind of persecution fell chiefly on the ministers ; for of a long time they might not preach , without having for auditors , or to speak better , observators , a troop of priests , monks and missionaries , and such kind of people , who made no scruple to charge them with things , which they not so much as thought of ; and turn others into a contrary meaning . they also went so far as to devine the thoughts , to make crimes ; for as soon as ever any minister spake of egypt , pharaoh , the israelites , of good or bad people , ( as 't is difficult not to speak of these matters , when they explained the scripture ) these spies never failed to report , that by egypt , and the wicked , they meant the catholicks , and by the israelites , the pretended reformists . the judges concerned themselves in this , and what is most strange , the ministers of state themselves respected these interpretations of thoughts , as evident proofs . on these grounds , the magistrates filled the prisons whith these kind of poor people , keeping them therein for whole years together , and often inflicted on them several corporal penalties . 't is already seen by this first kind of persecution , what were the usages shewed in france to the reformists before they came to the utmost violence . but we shall see them appear more , in what we have to add , touching the privation of offices and employs , and in general , of the means of gaining a livelihood ; which is the second way we mentioned , that has been used to effect our ruine . 't is not hard to comprehend , that in a great kingdom , as france is , where the protestants were dispersed over all parts , there were an infinite number , who could not subsist nor maintain their families , but by the liberty of serving the publick , either in offices , arts , trades , or faculties , each according to his calling . henry the great , was so well convinced of the necessity and justice of this , that he made it an express article , the most distinct perhaps and formal , of all contained in his edict : and therefore 't was here the persecutors thought themselves obliged to use their utmost endeavours . in this regard , they began with the arts and trades ; which under several pretences , they rendered almost inaccessible to the protestants , by the difficulties of arriving to the mastership of them , and by the excessive expences , they must be at to be received therein , there being no candidate , but was forced for this purpose to maintain law suits , under the weight of which , they for the most part fell , not being able to hold them out . but this not being sufficient , by a declaration made in . they were reduced to one third , in the towns where the protestants were more in number than the other inhabitants ; and they were forbidden to receive any therein till this diminution was made , which at one stroke excluded all the pretenders . some time after they absolutely drove all the reformists from the consulships , and all other municipal officers of the cities , which was in effect the depriving them of the knowledg of their proper affairs , and interests , to invest wholly the catholics with them . in . the king issued out an order , which deprived them in general of all kind of offices and employs , from the greatest to the smallest : they were made incapable so much as to exercise any employ in the custom-houses , guard , treasury , or post-offices ; to be messengers , coach-men , or waggoners , or any thing of this nature . in the year . by a decree of council , all notaries , attorneys , solicitors , and sergeants , making profession of the reformed religion , were rendered uncapable throughout all the kingdom . a year after , all lords and gentlemen of the reformed religion were ordered to discharge their officers and servants of the said religion , and not make use of them in any case , without other reason than that of their religion . in . all officers belonging to the kings houshold , and those of the princes of the blood , were also rendred uncapable of holding their places . the councellors and other officers of ayds , and chambers of accounts , and those of seneschalship , baily wicks , and royalties , admiralry , provostships , and marshal's courts , treasury excise , and others , who belonged to the toll-offices , and such like businesses , were ordered to leave their places in favour of the catholicks . in . all secretaries belonging to the king and great officers of france , as well titulary , as honorary ones , and their widows , were deprived by a revocation of all their priviledges of what nature soever they were . they also deprived all those that had purchased any priviledges for the exercising of any professions , as merchants , surgeons , apothecaries , and vintners , nd all others , without exception . nay , they proceeded to this excess , that they would not suffer any midwives of the reformed religion to do their office , and expresly ordained for the future , our wives should receive no assistance in that condition , but from roman catholicks . 't is not to be exprest how many particular persons and families they reduced every where , by these strange and unheard of methods , to ruine and misery . but because there were yet many which could sustain themselves ; other methods of oppression must be invented : to this end they issued out an edict from the council , by which the new converts , as they call them , were discharged from any payments of their debts for three years . this , for the most part , fell on the reformists , who , having had a more particular tye of interest and affair with these pretended converts , because of their communion of religion , were reckoned amongst their chief creditors : by this order they had found the secret to recompense those that changed , at the charge of those who continued firm : and this they did likewise by another way ; for they discharged the converts of all the debts , which those of the religion had contracted in common , which by consequence fell on the rest . add to this , the prohibition to fell or alienate their estates , on any pretence whatever , the king annulling and breaking all contracts , and other acts relating to that matter : if it did not appear , that after these acts , they had stayed in the kingdom a whole year : so that the last remedy of helping themselves with their estates in extream necessity , was taken from them . they deprived them likewise of another , which seemed the only one remaining , which was , to seek their bread elsewhere , by retiring into other countries , there to get their living by labour , since this was not permitted them in france . by repeated edicts the king forbad them to leave his kingdom , on severe penalties , which drove them to the last despair ; since they saw themselves reduced to the horrible necessity of dying with hunger in their own countrey , without daring to go to live elsewhere . but the cruelty of their enemies stopt not here , for there yet remained some gleanings in the provinces , though very few , and as thin as those in pharaoh's dream . the intendants in their districts had order to load the reformed with taxes , which they did , either by laying upon them the tax of the new catholicks , who were discharged thereof on favour of their conversion , or by laying exorbitant taxes , which they called duties , that is to say , he who in the ordinary roll was assessed at forty or fifty livers , was charged by this impostion at seven or eight hundred . thus had they nothing more left , for all was a prey to the rigour of the intendants . they raised their taxes by the effectual quartering of dragoons , or imprisonment , from whence they were not freed till they had paid the utmost farthing . these were the two first engins or machins which the clergy made use of against us : to which they added a third , which we have termed the infractions of the edict of nantes , under pretence of explication . those who would know their number and quality , need only read the books written and published on this subject ; as well by the jesuite menier , an author famous for his illusions ▪ as by one beanard , an officer in the presidial court of besier in languedoc . there you will find all the turns , which the meanest and most unworthy sophistry could invent , to elude the clearest texts of the edict , and to corrupt the sincerity thereof . but because we do here give you only a brief account of our , troubles , we will content our selves with observing some of the principal , issuing from this fountain : what was there , for example , more clear and unquestionable in the edict than this ; viz. that 't was given with an intention to maintain those of the religion , in all the rights that nature and civil society give to men. yet in . there came out an edict , that children might at the age of seven years , abjure the reformed religion , and embrace the catholick , under pretence , that the edict did not precisely mark , that at this age they should continue at their parents disposal . who sees not that this was a meer trick , seing that on one hand , the edict forbad to take the children from their parents by force , or fair means : and on the other hand , the edict supposed and confirmed all the natural rights , of which , without controversie , this is one of the most inviolable . was there ever a more manifest infraction of the edict , than that , which forbad those of the protestant religion , who had passed over to the roman , to return to that they had left , under pretence , that the edict did not formally give them in express terms this liberty . for when the edict permits generally all the kings subjects liberty of conscience , and forbids the perplexing and troubling them , and offering any thing contrary to this liberty . who sees not that this exception , touching the pretended relapsers , is so far from being an explication of the edict , that 't is a notable violation of it . whereunto we may add the charge given to the roman catholicks not to change their religion , and embrace the reformed . for when the edict gives liberty of conscience , it does it in proper terms , for all those , who are , and shall be of the said religion . yet if we believe the clergy , this was not henry the great 's meaning , intending only to grant it to those , who made profession of it , at the time of the making his edict . that of nantes gave also to the reformed , the priviledges of keeping small schools in all places , where they had the exercise of their religion , and by this term of small or little schools , according to the common explication , those were always understood , where one might teach latin and humanity . this is the sence , which has been ever given in all the kingdom , to this expression , which is still given when it concerns the roman catholicks . yet by a new interpreation , this permission was restrained to the bare liberty of teaching to read , and write , as if the reformed were unworthy to learn any more ; and this on purpose , to tire out the parents , and drive them to this extremity , either not to know what to do with their children , or be forced to send them to the roman catholicks for education . the edict gave them the liberty in all places where they had churches , to instruct publickly their children , and others , in what concerns religion , which visibly establisht the right of teaching them theology , seeing their theology is nothing else but this religion . and as to colleges , wherein they might be instructed in liberal sciences , the edict promised letters pattents in good form . yet 't was supposed the edict gave no right to the reformed to instruct them in theology , nor to have colleges , and on this supposition , three academies were condemned , all that remained . that of sedan , although grounded on a particular edict , was supprest as the rest , and even before them . but we must go further , and seeing we have undertaken , to shew in this abridgment , the principal things they have done to exercise our patience , before they came to the utmost fury . we are not to pass over the new orders , or new laws , which were to us as so many new inventions to torment us . the first of these orders , which appeared , was touching the manner of buryals , and entering the dead . the number of attendants were reduced to thirty persons in those places where the exercise of our religion was actually established , and to ten where it was not . orders were also issued out to hinder the communication of provinces with one another , by circulary letters , or otherwise ; though about matters of alms and disposal of charity . prohibitions were likewise made of holding colloquies in the interval of synods , excepting in two cases , the providing for churches destitute by the deaths of their ministers ; and the correction of some scandals . they likewise took away from those places , allowed by the edict , which they call'd exercises de fief , all the marks of the temples , as the bell , the pulpit , and other things of this nature . they were likewise forbidden to receive their ministers in synods to have any deciding voice there , or to note them in the catalogue of those that belong'd to churches . others forbad the singing of psalms in private houses , as also some that commanded them to cease singing even in their temples when the sacrament passed by , or at the time of any procession . others were made to hinder marriages , such times as were forbidden by the romish church . others forbad ministers to preach any where , except in the place of their usual residence . others forbad their setling in places , unless sent by the synods , though the consistories had call'd them thither according to their usual forms . others were made to hinder the synods from sending to any churches more ministers than were there in the preceding synod . others , to hinder those that design'd for the ministry , to be educated in foreign universities . others banish'd all foreign ministers , though they had been ordained in the kingdom , and spent there the greatest part of their lives . others forbad ministers , or cardinals for the ministry to reside in places where preaching was forbidden , or nearer than six miles of them . others forbad the people to assemble in the temples , under pretence of praying , reading , or singing of psalms , except in the presence of a minister , placed there by the synod . one ridiculous one was made to take away all the backs of the seats in the churches , and reduce them all to an exact uniformity . another , to hinder the churches that were a little more rich , to assist the weaker , for the maintenance of their ministers , and other necessities . another to oblige parents to give their children , who changed their religion , great pensions . another to forbid marriages betwixt parties of different religions , even in the case of scandalous cohabitation . another to prohibit those of the religion , from that time , to entertain in their houses any domesticks or servants that were roman catholicks . another which made them uncapable of being tutors or guardians ; and consequently put all the minors , whose fathers dyed in the profession of the protestant religion , under the power and education of roman catholicks . another forbidding ministers and elders to hinder any of their flock , either directly or indirectly , to embrace the roman religion , or to dissuade them form it . another forbidding jews and mahometans to embrace the reformed religion ; and the ministers either to instruct or receive them into it . another subjecting synods to receive such roman catholick commissaries as should be sent them from the king , with an express order to do nothing , but in their presence . another for bidding the consistories to assemble oftner than once in fifteen days , and in presence of a catholick commissary . another forbidding consistories to assist , on pretence of charity to the poor sick persons of their religion ; and ordaining that the sick should be carried into their hospitals , strictly forbidding any man to entertain them in their houses . another confiscating , in favour of hospitals , all the lands , rents , and other profits of what nature soever , which might have appertained to a condemned church . another forbidding ministers to come nearer than three leagues to the place where the priviledges of preaching was in question or debate . another confiscated to the hospitals all the revenues and rents set apart for the maintenance of the poor , even in such churches as were yet standing . another subjecting sick and dying persons to the necessity of receiving visits , sometimes from judges , commissionaries , or church-wardens ; sometimes of curates , monks , missionaries , or other ecclesiasticks , to induce them to change their religion , or require of them express declarations concerning it . another forbidding parents to send their children before sixteen years of age to travel in forreign countries , on any pretence whatsoever . another prohibiting lords or gentlemen to continue the exercise of religion in their houses , unless they had first produced their titles before the commissaries , and obtained from them a license to have preaching . another which restrained the right of entertaining a minister to those only , who were in possession of their lands ever since the edict of nantes , in a direct or collateral line . another which forbad churches called baillage , to receive into their temples any of another bailywick . another which enjoined physitians , apothecaries , and chirurgeons , to advertise the curates or magistrates of the condition of sick protestants , that the magistrates or curates might visit them . but amongst all these new laws , those which have most served the design and intention of the clergy , have been on one hand , the prohibition of receiving into their temples any of those who had changed their religion , nor their children , nor any roman catholick of what age , sex , or condition soe●er , under pain of forfeiting their churches , and the ministers doing publick pennance , with banishment and confiscation of their estates ; and on the other fide , the setting up in all the temples a particular bench for the catholicks to sit on ; for by this means , as soon as any one resolved to change his religion , they needed only to make him do it in private , and to find him the next morning in the temple , to be observed there by the catholicks , who were in their seat. immediately informations were made , and afterwards condemnations , in all the rigour of the law. the roman catholicks needed only to enter into the temple , under pretence , that they had a place there , and then they slipt in amongst the croud , and immediately this was a contravention to the declaration , and an unavoidable condemnation . 't is by this means they have destroyed an infinite number of temples and churches , and put into irons a great number of innocent ministers ; for villains and false witnesses were not wanting in this occasion . all these proceedings were so violent , that they must needs make a strong impression in the reformists minds , whereunto these things tended . and in effect , there were many of them , that bethought themselves of their safety , by leaving the kingdom , some transported themselves into one kingdom , and some into another , according as their inclinations led them . but this was what the court never intended , for more than one reason ; and therefore to hinder them , they renewed from time to time this decree , which we have mentioned , which strictly prohibited , under the most severe penalties , any to depart the kingdom without leave ; and to this end they strictly guarded all passages on the frontiers . but these precautions did not answer their expectations , and 't was better to blind the people , by hopes of abating this rigorous usage at home ; and to this end in . the king revoked several violent decrees , which produced the effect expected . for though the judicious saw well enough , that this moderation sprang not from a good principle , and that , in the sequel , the same decrees would be put in execution , yet the most part imagined they would still confine themselves within some bounds in our regard , and that they would not pass to a total destruction . we have often drawn the same conclusions from the several verbal declarations , which came many times from the kings own mouth , that he pretended not to indulge us , but he would do us perfect justice , and let us enjoy the benefits of the edicts in their whole extent , that he would be very glad to see all his subjects re-united to the catholick religion , and would for the effecting this , contribute all his power , but there should be no bloud shed , during his reign , on this account , nor any violence exercised . these precise and re-iterated declarations , gave us hopes the king would not forget them ; and especially in essential matters , he would let us enjoy the effects of his bounty and equity . 't was the more expected by a letter , he wrote to the elector of brandenburgh , the copies of which the ministers of state took care to disperse through the whole kingdom . his majesty assured him , that he was well satisfyed with the behaviour of his protestant subjects , from whence he drew this natural conclusion , that he intended not then to destroy us . to which we may add the managements used sometimes in the council , where churches were conserved , at the same time when others were crdered to be demolish'd ; to make the world believe , they observed measures of justice , and that those which they condemned , were not grounded on good titles . sometimes they softned several too rigorous decrees ; other times they seemed not to approve of the violences offered by the intendants and magistrates ; even to the giving of orders to moderate them . in this manner did they hinder the execution of a decree made in the parliament of rouen , which enjoyned those of the reformed religion to fall on their knees , when they met the sacrament . thus did they stop the prosecutions of a puny judge of charenton , who ordered us to strike out of our liturgy a prayer which was composed for the faithful , that groaned under the tyranny of antichrist . 't is thus also , that they did not extreamly favour another persecution which began to come general in the kingdom against the ministers , under pretence of obliging them to take an oath of allegiance , wherein other clauses were inserted , contrary to what ministers owe to their charges and religion . 't was thus also they suspended the execution of some edicts , which themselves had procured , as well to tax the ministers , as to oblige them to reside precisely in the place where they exercised their ministry . with the same design the syndic's of the clergy , had the art to let the principal churches of the kingdom to be at rest , for many years without disturbance in their assemblies ; whilst they in the mean time , desolated all those in the country . they suspended also the condemnation of the universities , and reserved them for the last . it was also in this view , that at court , the first seemed unable to belive , and at last not to approve of the excesses , which one marillac an intendant of poitu , committed in his province : a man poor and cruel , more fit to prey on the high-ways , than to be intendant of a province ; though indeed they had a clause expresly to make these expeditions . but amongst all these illusions , there 's none more remarkable , than five or six , which will not be improper here to take notice of : the first was , that at the very time , when at the court they issued out all the decrees , declarations , and edicts , which we have spoken of here before , and which they caused to be put in execution with the greatest rigour , at the same time , that they interdicted their churches , demolished their temples , deprived particular persons of their offices and employments , reduced people to poverty and hunger , imprisoned them , loaded them with fines , banish'd them , and in a word , ravag'd almost all ; the intendants , governours , magistrates , and other officers in paris , and over all the kingdom , coolly and gravely gave out , the king had not the least intention to touch the edict of nantes , but would most religiously observe it . the second was , that in the same edict , which the king publish'd to forbid roman catholicks to embrace the reformed religion , which was in the year . that is to say , at a time when they had already greatly advanced the work of our destruction ; they caused a formal clause to be inserted in these terms , that he confirmed the edict of nantes , as much as it was or should be needful . the third , that in the circular letters which the king wrote to the bishops and intendants , to oblige them to signifie the pastoral advertisement of the clergy to our consistories , he tells them in express terms , that his intention was not that they should do any thing that might attempt upon what had been granted to those of the reformed religion , by the edicts and declarations made in their favour . the fourth , that by an express declaration publish'd about the latter end of the year . the king ordained , that ministers should not remain in the same church , above the space of three years , nor return to the first , within the space of twelve ; and that they should be thus translated from church to church , at least twenty leagues distant from the other ; supposing by a manifest consequence , that his design was yet to permit the exercise of religion to the ministers in the kingdom for twelve years at least . though indeed they at that moment design'd the revocation of the edict , and had resolved it in the council . the fifth consists in a request presented to the king , by the assembly of the clergy at the same time , that they were drawing an edict to revoke that of nantes , and put into the hands of the procurer general to frame it ; and in the decree which was granted on this request , the clergy complain'd of the misrepresentations which the ministers are wont to make of the roman church , to which they attribute doctrines which they do not hold , and beseech his majesty to provide against it . and also expresly declared , that they did not yet desire the revocation of the edict , upon which the king by his decree expresly forbad the ministers to speak either good or hurt , directly or indirectly of the church of rome in their sermons ; supposing , as every one may see , that 't was his intention still to let them preach ; were ever such illusions known ! but was there ever any greater than this which they put in the very edict we speak of ? the king after having cancelled and annul'd the edict of nantes , and all that depended thereon , after having interdicted for ever all publick religious exercises , he also for ever banish'd all the ministers from his kingdom , and expresly declares , that his will is , that his other subjects , who are not willing to change their religion , may remain where they are in all liberty , enjoy their estates , and live with the same freedom as heretofore , without any molestation on pretence of their religion , till it shall please god to enlighten and convert them . these were amusements and snares to entrap them , as it has since appeared , and it still appears every day by the horrible usages they suffer , and of which we shall speak in what follows . but we shall , first , mention a preparatory machin , which the persecutors have not fail'd to employ to effect their design , and which we have reckoned to be the sixth in order . it consists in disposing insensibly the people by degrees to desire our destruction ; to approve of it when done , and to diminish in their mind the horror which naturally they must have at the cruelties and injustices of our persecutors contrivances . for this parpose several means have been used , and the commonest have been the sermons of the missionaries and other controversial preachers , with which the kingdom has been for some years stockt , under the title of royal missions . there were fitting youths , chosen for this purpose , who had such an education given them , which was so far from making them moderate , as rather enflamed them ; so that 't is easy to comprehend what actors these are , when they not only found themselves upheld , but saw themselves moreover set on , and had express orders to inspire their hearers with choler . and so well did they acquit themselves herein , that 't was not their fault if popular emotions have not followed thereon in great cities , yea in paris it self , had not the prudence of the magistrates hindred them . to the preachers we must join the confessors and directors of mens consciences , the monks , the curates , and in general , all the ecclesiasticks from the highest to the lowest ; for they being not ignorant of the courts intention in this matter , every one strove to shew most zeal , and aversion to the reformed religion , because every one found his interest lay therein , this being the only way to raise and establish his fortune . in this design of animating the people , there past few days wherein the streets did not ring , as well with the publication of decrees , edicts , and declarations against the protestants , as also with satyrical and seditious libels , of which the people in the towns of france are very greedy . but these things served only for the meaner sort of people , and the persecutors had this mortification to see this design disapproved by all those who were a degree above the mobile . wherefore they employed the pens of some of their authors , who had acquired any reputation in the world ; and amongst others , that of the author of the history of theodosius the great , and that of mr. maimburg , heretofore a jesuite . he publish'd his history of calvinism , of which he has since had the leasure to repent , by the smart and pertinent answers which have been given him : their example has been followed by several others ; and monsieur arnaud , who will always make one in these matters , would not deny himself the satisfaction of venting his choler ; and at the same time endeavour to recover the favour he has lost at court. but although his apology for the catholicks was a work as full of fire and passion as the bigots themselves could wish , yet 't was not agreeable , because his person was not ; he was so ill gratified for it , that he complained thereof to the arch-bishop of rheims , in a letter , the copies whereof were dispersed over all paris . amongst other things , he exaggerated his misfortune , and compared himself with another , who for much less services , received twenty thousand livers , as a reward from the king. this more and more shewed the character of the person . however they needed not him , not wanting violent writers , amongst whom we must not forget one mr. soulier , formerly ( as they say ) a taylor , and at present author of the history of the edicts ●f pacification ; nor mr. nicole , once a great jansenist , and now a proselyte of the archbishops of paris ; author of the book entituled , protestants convinced of schism : nor the author of the journal des scavants , who , in his ordinary gazets highly affirms . that the catholick faith must be planted by fire and sword , alledging for the proof thereof a king of norway , who converted the nobles of his country , by threatning them , to stay their children before their eyes , if they would not consent to have them baptized , and to be baptized themselves . for a long time we have seen in paris , and elsewhere , nothing but such sort of writings to such a height was passion come . whilst all these things , which we have here observed , were done in france , they by great steps advanced to their end . 't is not to be imagined the reformed neglected their common interests or did not all that respected a just and lawful defence . they frequently sent , from the furthest provinces , their deputies to the court ; they maintained their rights before the council ; thither they brought their complaints from all parts . they employed their deputy general to solicit their interests , as well with the judges and ministers of state , as with the king himself . sometimes also they presented general addresses , in which they exposed their grievances , with all the humility and deference that subjects owe their soveraigns . but they were so far from being heard , that their troubles were still encreased , and their second condition became worse than the first . the last petition , presented to the king himself , by the deputy general , in march , . was exprest in terms most submissive , and most capable of moving pity , as every one may judge , having been since printed ; and yet it produced no other fruit , but the hastning of what they had long resolved , namely , to use open force to accomplish our ruine . this was effectually done some months after , and executed in a manner so terrible and violent , that , as we said in the beginning , there are few in europe , how distant soever from the notice of the common accidents of the world , who have not heard the report of it ; but 't is certain , the circumstances are not known to all , and therefore we shall give an account of them in few words ; if it be but to stop the mouth of their impudence , who publisht abroad , that no violences have been offered in france , and the conversions there made , were with free consent . at first they took this measure , to quarter soldiers in all their provinces , almost at the same time , and chiefly dragoons , which are the most resolute troops of the kingdom . terror and dread marched before them , and as it were , by consent , all france was filled with this news , that the king would not longer suffer any hugonots in his kingdom ; and that they must resolve to change their religion , nothing being able to keep them from it . they began with bearn , where the dragoons did their first executions ; these were followed soon after in high and low guienne , xantoigne , aunix , poitu , high languedoc , vivarets , and dauphine ; after which they came to lionois , gevennes , low languedoc , provence , valeës , and the country of geix , afterwards they fell on the rest of the kingdom , normandy , bourgoigne , nivernoix , and berry ; the countries of orleans , tourain , anjou , britany , champagne , picardy , and the isle of france , not excluding paris it self , which underwent the same fate ; the first thing , the intendants were ordered to do , was to summon the cities and commonalties . they assembled the inhabitants thereof , who profest the reformed religion , and there told them , 't was the king's pleasure they should without delay become catholics ; and if they would not do it freely , they would make them do it by force , the poor people , surprised with such a proposal , answered , they were ready to sacrifice their estates and lives to the king , but their consciences , being gods , they could not in that manner dispose of them . there needed no more to make them immediately bring the dragoons , which were not far off . the troops immediately seized on the gates and avenues of the cities ; they placed guards in all the passages , and often came with their swords in their hands , crying , kill , kill , or else be catholics , they were quartered on the reformists at discretion , with a strict charge , that none should depart out of their houses , nor conceal any of their goods or effects , on great penalties , even on the catholics , that should receive or assist them in any manner . the first days were spent in consuming all provisions the house afforded , and taking from them whatever they could see , money , rings , jewels , and in general , whatsoever was of value . after this , the pillaged the family , and invited , not only the catholics of the place , but also , those of the neighbouring cities and towns , to come and buy the goods , and other things which would yield money . afterwards they fell on their persons , and there 's no wickedness or horror which they did not put in practise , to force them to change their religion . amidst a thousand hideous cries , and a thousand blasphemies , they hung men and women by the hair or feet , on the roofs of the chamber , or chimney hooks , and smoakt them with whisps of wet hay , till they were no longer able to bear it , and when they had taken them down , if they would not sing , they hung them up immediately again . they threw them into great fires kindled on purpose ; and pulled them not out till they were half roasted . they tyed ropes under their arms , and plunged them to and again into wells , from whence they would not take them , till they had promised to change their religion . they tyed them as they do criminals , put to the question ; and in this posture , with a funnel fill'd with wine , poured it down their throats , till the fumes of it depriving them of their reason , they made them say they would consent to be catholics . they stript them naked , and after having offered them a infamous indignities , they stuck them with pins from the top to the bottom . they cut them with penknifes , and sometimes with red hot pincers took them by the nose , and dragged them about their rooms , till they promised to become catholics , or that the cries of these poor wretches , that in this condition call'd on god for their assistance , constrained them to let them go . they beat them with staves , and dragged them , all bruised , to the churches , where their bare forced presance was accounted for an abjuration . they held them from sleeping seven or eight days , relieving one another to watch them night and day , and keept them waking . they threw buckets of water on their faces , and tormented them a ways , holding over their heads kettles turned downwards , whereon they made a continual noise , till these poor creatures had even lost their sences . if they found any sick , either men or women , that kept their beds , distempered with fevers , or other diseases , they had the cruelty to bring twelve drums sounding an alarm about their beds , for whole weeks together without intermission , till they had promised they would change . it hapned in some places , that they tyed fathers and husbands to the bed-posts , and before their eyes forced their wives and daughters . in another place rapes were publickly and generally permitted for many hours together . they pluckt off the nails from the hands and toes of others , which could not be endured without intollerable pain . they burnt the feet of others . they blew up men and women with bellows , even till they were ready to burst . if after these horrid usages , there were yet any that refused to turn , they imprisoned them ; and for this chose dungeons dark and noysom , in which they exercised on them all sorts of inhumanity . in the mean time they demolished their houses , desolated their hereditary lands , cut down their woods , and seized their wives and children , to imprison them in monasteries . when the souldiers had devoured and consumed all in a house , the farmers of their lands furnisht them with subsistance ; and to re-imburse them , they sold by authority of justice the fonds of their hosts , and put them in possession thereof . if some , to secure their consciences , and to escape the tyranny of these furious men , endeavoured to save themselves by flight , they were pursued , and hunted in the fields and woods , and were shot at like wild beasts . the provosts rode about the high-ways , and the magistrates of places had orders to stop them without exception . they brought them back to the places from whence they fled , using them like prisoners of war. but we must not fancy , that this storm fell only on the common sort , noblemen and gentlemen of the best quality were not exempted from it . they had soldiers quartered upon them in the same manner , and with the same fury as citizens and peasants had . they plundred their houses , wasted their goods , rased their castles , cut down their woods , and their very persons were exposed to the insolence and barbarity of the dragoons , no less than those of others . they spared neither sex , age , nor quality ; wherever they found any unwillingness to obey the command of changing their religion , they practised the same violences . there were still remaining some officers of parliament which underwent the same fate , after having been first deprived of their offices , and even the military officers , who were actually in service , were ordered to quit their post and quarters , and repair immediately to their houses , there to suffer the like storm ; if to avoid it , they would not become catholics . many gentlemen and other persons of quality , and many ladies of great age and antient families , seeing all these outrages , hoped to find some retreat in paris , or at the court , not imagining the dragoons would come to seek them so near the kings presence ; but this hope was no less vain , than all the rest ; for immediately there was a decree of council , which commanded them to leave paris in fifteen days , and return without delay to their own houses ; with a prohibition to all persons to entertain or lodge them in their houses . some having attempted to present adresses to the king , containing complaints of these cruel usages , humbly beseeching his majesty to stop the course thereof , received no other answer , than that of sending them to the bastile . before we proceed any further , 't will not be a miss to make some remarks ; the first shall be , that almost every where , at the head of these infernal legions , besides the commanders and military officers , the intendants also , and the bishops marched every one in his diocess , with a troop of missionaries monks , and other ecclesiasticks . the intendants gave such order as they thought most fitting to carry on conversions , and restrain natural pity and compassion ; if at any time it found a place in the hearts of dragoons , or their commanders , which did not often happen . and as for the bishops , they were there to keep open house , to receive abjurations , and to have a general and severe inspection that every thing might pass there according to the inten 〈…〉 on s of the clergy . the second thing observable is , that when the dragoons had made some to yield , by all the horrors which they practised , they immediately changed their quarters , and sent them to those who still persevered . this order was observed in this manner even to the end , insomuch that the last , that is to say , those who had shewed the greatest constancy , had , in fine , quartered on them alone all the dragoons , which at the beginning were equally dispers'd amonst the inhabitants of the place , which was a load impossible to be sustained . a third remark , which we shall make , is , that in almost all the considerable cities , they took care before they sent troops thither , to gain by mean of the intendants , or some other private way , a certain number of people , not only to change their religion themselves , when it should be seasonable , but also to assist them in perverting others . so that when the dragoons had sufficiently done their part , the intendant , with the bishop , and the commander of the forces , again assembled these miserable . inhabitant , already ruined , to exhort them to obey the king , and become catholics ; adding thereto most terrible threats , that they might over-awe them , and then the new converts failed not to execute what they had promised , which they did with the more success , because the people did yet put some kind of confidence in them . a fourth observation is , that when the master of the house , thinking to get rid of the dragoons , had obeyed and signed what they would , he was not freed from them for all this ; if his wife , children , and the meanest of his domesticks did not do the same thing ; and when his wife , or any of his children or family fled , they ceased not to torment them , till he had made them return : which oftentimes being impossible , the change of their religion did not at all avail them . the fifth is , that when these poor wretches fancied their consciences would be at rest by signing some form of an equivocal abjuration offered them ; a little while after these cruel men came to them again , and made them sign another , which plunged them into such depths , as cast them into the utmost despair . nay farther , they had the boldness to make them acknowledge , that they embraced the roman religion of their own accord ; without having bin induced thereunto by any violent means . if after this they scrupled to go to mass , if they did not communicate , if they did not tell their beads ; if by a sigh escaped from them , they signified any unwillingness , they had immediately a fine laid upon them , and they were forced to receive again their old guests . in fine , for a sixth remark ; as fast as the troops ravaged in this manner the provinces , spreading terror and desolation in all parts ; orders were sent to all the frontier countries and sea-port towns , to guard well the passages , and stop all such who pretended to escape from france : so that there was no hope of these poor wretches saving themselves by flight . none were permitted to pass , if he brought not along with him a certificate from his bishop or curate , that he was a catholick : others were put in prison , and used like traytors against their country . all strange vessels lying in the ports were searched ; the coasts , bridges , passages to rivers , and the high-ways , were strictly guarded , both night and day . the neighbouring states were also required not to harbour any more fugitives , and to send back again such as they had already received . attempts were also mad to seise on , and carry away some , who had escaped into foreign countries . whilst all this was acting in the kingdom , the court were consulting to give the last stroak , which consisted in repealing the edict of nantes ; much time was spent in drawing up the matter and form of this new edict . some would have the king detain all the ministers , and force them as they did the laity , to change their religion , or condemn them to perpetual imprisonment . they alledged for their reason , that if they did not do it , they would be as so many dangerous enemies against them in foreign nations . others on the contrary affirmed , that as long as the ministers continued in france , this their presence would encourage the people to abide in their religion , whatsoever care might be taken to hinder them ; and that supposing they should change , they would be but as so many secret adversaries nourished in the bosom of the church of rome ; and the more dangerous on the account of their knowledge and experience in controversial matters . this last reasoning prevailed ; 't was then resolved on to banish the ministers , and to give them no more than fifteen days time to depart the kingdom . as to what remained , the edict was given to the procurer-general of the parliament of paris , to draw it up in such a form as he should judge most fitting . but before the publishing of it , two things were thought necessary to be done ; the first to oblige the assembly of the clergy , separately to present to the king a request concerning the matter above mentioned , in which also they told his majesty , that they desired not at present the repealing the edict of nantes ; and the other to suppress in general , all kind of books made by them of the reformed religion , and to issue out an order for that purpose . by the first of these things , the clergy thought to shelter themselves from the reproaches , which might be cast on them as the authors of so many miseries , injustices an oppressions which this repeal would still occasion : and by the other , they pretended to make the conversions much more easie ( as they styled them ) and confirm those which had bin already made , by taking from the people all books , which might instruct , fortifie , and bring them back again . in fine , this revocative edict of nantes , was signed and published on thursday , being the th of october , in the year . 't is said the chancellor of france , shewed an extream joy in sealing it ; but it lasted not long , this being the last thing he did . for as soon as he came home from fountainbleau , he fell sick , and dyed within a few days . 't is certain , that this mans policy , rather than his natural inclination , induced him in his latter years to become one of our persecutors . the edict was registred in the parliament of paris , and immediately after in the others . it contains a preface , and twelve articles . in the preface , the king shews that henry the great 's grandfather did not give the edict , and lewis his father did not confirm it , by his other edict of nismes , but in the design of endeavouring more effectually the re-union of their subjects of the pretended reformed religion , to the catholick church ; and that this was also the design which he had himself at his first coming to the crown . that 't is true , he had bin hindred by the wars , which he was forced to carry on against the enemies of his state ; but that at present being at peace with all the princes of europe , he wholly gave himself to the making of this re-union . that god having given him the grace of accomplishing it , and seeing the greatest and best part of his subjects of the said religion had embraced the catholick one , these edicts of nantes and nismes consequently became void and useless . by the first article , he suppresses and repeals them , in all their extent ; and ordains that all their temples ; which are found yet standing in his kingdom , shall be immediately demolished . by the second , he forbids all sorts of religious assemblies of what kind soever . the third , prohibits the exercises of religion to all lords and gentlemen of any quality , under corporal penalties and confiscation of their esates . the fourth , banishes from his kingdom all the ministers , and enjoins them to depart thence , within fifteen days after the publication of this edict , under the penalty of being sent to the gallies . in the fifth and sixth , he promises recompences and advantages to the ministers and their widows , who should change their religion . in the seventh and eighth , he forbids the instructing of children in the pretended reformed religion , and ordains that those who shall be born henceforward shall be baptised , and brought up in the catholick religion , enjoyning parents to send them to the churches , under the penalty of being fined livers . the ninth gives four months time to such persons as have departed already out of the kingdom to return , otherwise their goods and estates to be confiscated . the tenth , with repeated prohibitions , forbids all his subjects of the said religion to depart out of his realm , they , their wives and children , or to convey away their effects , under pain of the gallies for the men , and of confiscation of body and goods for the women . the eleventh , confirms the declarations heretofore made against those that relapse . the twelfth declares , that as to the rest of his subjects of the said religion , they may , till god enlightens them , remain in the cities of his kingdom , countries and lands of his obedience , there continue their commerce , and enjoy their estates , without trouble or molestation upon pretence of the said religion , on condition , that they have no assemblies under pretext of praying , or exercising any religious worship whatever . in order to put this edict in execution , the very same day that it was registred and published at paris , they began to demolish the church of charenton . the eldest minster thereof was commanded to leave paris within twenty four hours , and immediately to depart the kingdom . for this end they put him into the hands of one of the kings footmen , with orders not to leave him till he was out of his dominions . his collegues were little better treated , they gave them forty eight hours to quit paris , and then left them upon their parole . the rest of the ministers were allowed fifteen days , but it can hardly be believed to what vexations and cruelties they were all exposed . first of all , they neither permitted them to dispose of their estates , nor to carry away any of their moveables or effects , nay they disputed them their books and private papers , one pretence , that they must justify , their books and papers did not belong to the cosistories wherein they serv'd , which was a thing impossible , since there were no consistories , that then remained . beside , they would not give them leave to take along with them either father or mother , or brother or sister , or any of their kindred , though there were many of them infirm , decay'd and poor , which could not subsist but by their means ; they went so far , as even to deny them their own children , if they were above seven years old ; nay , some they took from them that were under that age , and even such as yet hang'd upon their mothers breasts . they refused them nurses for their new born infants , which the mothers could not give suck . in some frontier places they stopped and imprisoned them , upon divers ridiculous pretences ; they must immediately prove that they were really the same persons , which their certificates mentioned ; they were to know immediately whether there were no criminal process or informations against them ; they must presently justify , that they carryed away nothing that belonged to their flocks ; sometime after they had thus detained and amused them , they were told that the fifteen days of the edict were expired , and that they should not have liberty to retire , but must go to the gallies . there is no kind of deceit and injustice which they did not think of to involve them in troubles . as to the rest , whom the force of persecution and hard usage constrained to leave their houses and estates , and to fly the kingdom , it is not to be imagined what dangers they exposed them to . never were orders more severe or more strict , than those that were given against them . they doubled the guards in posts , cities , high-ways , and foards , they covered the country with solders , they armed even the pesants to stop those that passed , or to kill them : they forbad all the officers of the customs to suffer any goods , moveables , marchandize , or other effects , to pass . in a word , they forgot nothing that could hinder the flight of the persecuted , even to the interrupting almost all commerce with neighbouring nations : by this means they quickly filled all the prisons in the kingdom ; for the fear of the dragoons , the horror of seeing their consciences forced , and their children taken away , and of living for the future in a land where there was neither justice nor humanity for them , obliged every one to think of an escape , and to abandon all to save their persons . all these poor prisoners have been since treated with unheard of rigours , shut up in dungeons , loaded with heavy chains , almost starved with hunger , and deprived of all converse , but that of their persecutors . they put many into monasteries , where they experience none of the least cruelties ; some there are so happy as to dye in the midst of their torments , others have at last sunk under the weight of the temptation , and some by the extraordinary assistance of gods grace , do still sustain it with an heroick courage . these have been the consequences of this new edict in this respect ; but who would not have believed that the twelfth article would have shelter'd the rest of the reformed ; that had a mind still to stay in the kingdom , since this article exprefly assures them , that they may live there , continue their trade , and enjoy their estates , without being troubled or molested upon pretence of their religion . yet see what they have since done , and yet do to these poor wretches . they have not recall'd the dragoons and other soldiers which they dispatcht into the provinces before the edict : on the contrary , they to this day commit with greater fury the same inhumanities , which we have before represented : besides this , they have marched them into provinces , where there were none before , as normandy , picardy , le berry , champaigne , nivernois , orleans , belessois , and the lsle of france . they do the same violence there , exert the same fury they do in other provinces . paris it self , where methinks this article of the edict should have been best observed , because so near the kings presence , and more immediately under the government of the court , paris , i say , was no more spared than the rest of the kingdom . the very day that the edict was published , without more delay , the procurer-general , and some other magistrates , began to send for heads of families to come to their houses . there they declared to them that 't was absolutely the kings will that they should change their religion , that they were no better than the rest of his subjects , and that if they would not do it willingly , the king would make use of means , which he had ready , to compel them . at the same time they banish'd by letters under the privy seal , all the elders of the consistory , together with some others , in whom they found more of constancy and resolution ; and to disperse them , chose such places as were most remote from commerce , where they have since used them with a great deal of cruelty , some complyed , others are yet under sufferings . the diligence of the procurer-general and magistrates , not succeeding so fully as they wish'd , though threats and menaces were not wanting , monsieur seignelay , secretary of state , would also try what influence he could have within his division at paris . for this end , he got together about five or six score merchants , and others into his house , and after having shut the doors , forthwith presented them with the form of an abjuration , and commanded them in the kings name to sign it ; declaring , that they should not stir out of doors till they had obeyed . the contents of this form were , not only that they did renounce the heresie of calvin , and enter into the catholick church , but also that they did this voluntarily , and without being forced or compelled to it . this was done in an imperious manner , and with an air of authority , yet there were some that dared to speak , but they were sharply answer'd , that they were not to dispute it , but to obey ; so that they all sign'd before they went out . to these methods they added others more terrible , as prisons , actually seizing of their effects , and papers ; the taking away of their children , the separation of husbands and wives ; and in fine , the great method , that is to say , dragoons and guards . those that most firmly stood out , they sent to the bastile , and to the fort l'eveque ; they confin'd them to their own or other houses , where they lay concealed for fear of discovery ; they plunder'd those of many others , not sparing their persons , just as they had done in other places . thus the th article of the edict , which promised some relaxation , and a shadow of liberty , was nothing but an egregious deceit to amuse the credulous , and keep them from thinking to make their escape , a snare to catch them with the more ease . the fury still kept its usual course , and was heated to such a degree , that not content with the desolations in the kingdom , it entred even into orange , a soveraign principality , where the king of right has no power , and taking ministers away from thence by force , remov'd them into prisons . thither the dragoons were sent , who committed all kind of mischief ; and by force constrained the inhabitants thereof , both men , women and children , and the very officers of the prince to change their religion . and this is the state of things in the year . and this is the accomplishment of the dealing which the clergy has shewed us three years since , towards the end of their pastoral letter ; you must expect mischiess more dreadful and intolerable , then all those , which hitherto your revolts and schisms have drawn down upon you . and truly they have not been worse than their words . there are some in the kingdom who still continue firm , and their persecutions are still continu'd to them . there are invented every day new torments , against those whom force has made to change their religion , because they are still observed to sigh , and groan under their hard servitude ; their hearts detesting what their months have profest , and their hands signed . as to such that have escaped into foreign countreys , who are at least persons , their estates are confiscated ; this being all the hurt which can be done to them at present . i say at present ; for 't is not to be questioned , but our persecutors are contriving to extend their cruelties farther . but we must hope in the compassions of god , that whatsoever intentions they may have in destroying the protestant religion in all places , he will not permit them to effect their designs . the world will surely open its eyes ; and this which they now come from doing with a high hand , and a worse then barbarous fury , will shew not only the protestants ; but the wise and circumspect catholicks , what they are to expect , both one and the other , from such a sort of people . in effect , he that shall give himself the leisure to reflect on the matters of fact which we come now from relating , which are things certain , and acted in the face of the sun , he shall see not only the protestants supprest , but the king's honour sullied , his countreys damnified ; all the princes of europe interessed , and even the pope himself , with his church and clergy , shamefully discredited . for to begin with the king himself : what could be more contrary to his dignity , then to put him upon breaking his word , and perswading him that he might with a safe conscience violate , revoke , and annul so solemn an edict as that of nantes . to palliate in some sort the violence of this proceeding , they make him say in this new edict , that the best and greatest part of the reform'd religion has imbraced the catholick ; and therefore the execution of the edict of nantes , and whatsoever else has been done in favour of the same religion , remains void . but is not this an elusion unworthy of his majesty , seeing that if this best and greatest part of his subjects of the reformed religion have embraced the catholick ; they have done it by force of arms , and by the cruel and furious oppression which his own troops have laid upon them . perhaps one might thus speak , had his subjects changed their religion of their own free will , although that in this case too , the priviledges of the edict continue for those that remain . but after having forced them to change by the horrible inhumanities of his dragoons ; after having deprived them of the liberty which the edict gave them ; to say coldly , that he only revokes the edict , because it is now useless , is a raillery unbefitting so great a prince . for it is as much as if he said , that he was indeed obliged to continue to his protestant subjects all the priviledges due to them ; but having himself overthrown them by a major force , he finds himself at present lawfully and fairly disengaged from this obligation : which is just as if a father , who himself had cut his childrens throats , should glory in the being henceforward freed from the care of nourishing and protecting them . are other kings wont thus to express themselves in their edicts ? what they make him moreover say , to wit , that henry the great , his grandfather , gave only the edict of nantes to the protestants , that he might the better effect their re-union to the roman church ; that lewis the th also , his father , had the same design , when he gave the edict of nismes ; and that he himself had entred therein at his coming to the crown , is but a pitiful salvo . but suppose ( seeing they are willing we should do so ) the truth of this discourse , and take we it simply , and according to the letter , in the sense wherein they gave it us , what can we conclude thence , but these following propositions : that henry the great , and lewis the th , gave only the edicts to our fathers to deceive them , and with an intent to ruine them afterwards with the greater ease , under the mask of this fraud . that not being able to do this , being hindred by other affairs , they have committed this important secret to his present majesty , to the end he should execute it when he met with an opportunity . that his present majesty entring into the thought of this at his first coming to the crown , he only confirm'd the edicts and declarations of . and . with other advantagious decrees to the reformed religion , but to impose on them the more finely , ( lay snares in their way ) or if you please , crown them , as they crown'd of old the sacrifices ; that all that has been done against them , since the peace of the pirenees , till this time , according to the abridgment which we have made of it , has been only the execution of a project , but of a project far more ancient than we imagine , seeing we must date it from the edict of nantes , and ascend up to henry the great : in fine , that what has been till now , has been a great mystery , but is not one at present ; seeing the king by this new edict discovers it to all the world , that he may be applauded for it . will it not be acknowledged that the enemies of france , who are willing to discredit the conduct of its kings , and render them odious to the world , have now an happy opportunity . henry the great gives his edict to the protestants with the greatest solemnity imaginable , he gives it them as a recompence of their services ; he promises solemnly to observe it ; and as if this was not enough , he binds himself thereunto with an oath ; he executes it to the utmost of his power , and they peaceably enjoy'd it to the end of his reign : yet all this is but a meer snare , for they are to be dragoon'd at a proper time : but being himself surprized by death , he could not do it , but leaves it in charge to lewis the th his son. lewis the thirteenth ascends the throne , issues out his declaration immediately , that he acknowledges the edict of nantes as perpetual and irrevocable , it needing not a new confirmation , and that he would religiously observe every article of it , and therefore sends commissioners to see it actually executed . when he begins a war , he protests he designs not at religion , and in effect he permits the full liberty of it , in those very towns he takes by assault : he gives his edict of nismes , as the edict of a triumphant prince , yet declares therein he understands , that of nantes should be inviolably kept , and shows himself to the last as good as his word . but this is only intended to lull the protestants asleep , in expectation of a favourable occasion to destroy them . lewis the fourteenth , at his coming to the crown confirms the edict , and declares , that he will maintain the reformed in all their priviledges ; he afterwards affirms in another declaration , how highly he is satisfied in their services ; and mentions his design of making them to enjoy their rights . but this is but a meer amusement , and an artifice to intrap them , the better to colour over the project of ruining them at a convenient time . what a character now of the kings of france will this afford , to its enemies , and foreign nations ; and what confidence do they think , will be henceforward put in their promises and treaties ; for if they deal thus with their own subjects , if they caress them only to ruine them , what may strangers expect from ' em . consider we a while what they make the king say , that at his first coming to the crown , he was in the design which he now comes from executing . they would say without doubt , from the time he actually took in hand the reins of government ; for he was too young before , to enter personally on any design of this nature : he enter'd thereon then precisely at the time , when the civil wars were ended . but what does this mean , but that he undertook this design , at the very time when the protestants came from rendring him the most important service subjects were ever capable of . they came from rendring him the highest testimonies of loyalty , when the greatest part of his other subjects had taken up arms against him . they had vigorously opposed his enemies progress ; rejected the most advantagious offers , kept towns for him , yea whole provinces ; receiv'd his servants and officers into their bosoms , when they could not find safety elsewhere ; sacrificed their estates to him , their lives , their fortunes ; and in a word , done all with such a zeal , as becomes faithful subjects in so dangerous a conjuncture . and this is the time when the king enters on the design of destroying and extirpating them . this so confirms the truth of what we said in the beginning , that it puts it out of all question , that the project of their destruction was grounded on the services they had rendred the king. do christian ethics allow these most unchristian policies ? is it not a strange thing , that we must be taught this important secret , and all europe besides ; for although the protestants have done nothing in this occasion but their duty , it could never be imagined their duty should be made their crime , and their ruine should spring from whence should come the safety . god has brought light out of darkness , but the unchristian politicks of france , on the contrary , has brought darkness out of light. however they cannot deny but that in this new edict , the king is made to say , he has entred on the design to distroy the protestant party , in the very time wherein they have signaliz'd and distinguisht themselves with great success for the interest of the crown , which will furnish perhaps matter enough to thinking men for reflexion , as well within as without the kingdom ; and will shew them what use is made of services , and what recompence is to be expected for them . but we shall say no more of the expressions of the new edict , but rather consider the matter of it . was ever a worse and harder usage than that which we have suffered for the space of twenty years , which have been employed informing the late tempest which has fallen upon us . it has been a continual storm of decrees , edicts , declarations , orders , condemnation of churches , desolation of temples , civil and criminal processes , imprisonments , banishments , pennances , pecuniary mults , privation of offces and employs , depriving parents of their children , and all those other persecutions which we have already briefly sum'd up . we are told on one hand , that the king would continue to us the edict of nants , and he delivered himself on several occasions to that effect ; and on the other hand we were made to suffer in our estates , our reputations , our persons , our families , in our religion , and our consciences , and all by unjust and indirect ways ; by unheard of inventions , by oppressions , and publick vexation , and sometime under-hand dealings ; and all this under the vail of the kings authority , and because this was his good pleasure . we know very well the authority of kings , and the respect and submission with which we should receive their orders . and therefore have we , during all these unsupportable usages , a patience , and an obedience so remarkable , that it has been an admiration of the catholicks themselves , our countrymen . but it must be acknowledged that those who put his majesty on dealing thus with us , or have used his name and authority for this , could not do him otherwise a greater dishonor than they have done . for after all , those kings who would have themselves esteemed for their justice and equity , govern not their subjects after this manner . they are not for putting all to an uncertainty , filling all places with lamentation and terror . they seek not their satisfaction in the tears , and groans of their innocent people , nor are they pleased with keeping their subjects in a perpetual agitation . they love not to have their names mention'd with terror , nor meditate continual designs of extirpating those , who give constant and unquestionable proofs of their loyalty ; much less to invent cruel projects , which like mines , in their time shall destroy their own natural subjects ; for what else have been these slie and equivocal declarations , counter-orders , and revocative edicts . there are three things , very remarkable , in this whole affair , the first is , that as long as they have been only in the way , the true authors of the persecution have not concealed themselves , but the king , as much as they could : 't is true , the decrees , edicts , and declarations , and other things , went under the name of his majesty ; but at the request of the agents , and factors for the clergy : and whilst they were busied in these matters , the king declared openly his intention of maintaining the edicts , and that 't was abuses which he design'd to correct . the second is , that when they came to the last extremities , and to open force , then they have concealed themselves as much as they could , set forth the king at his full length . there was nothing beard but these kind of discourses , the king will have it so , the king has taken it in hand , the king proceeds further than the clergy desires ; by these two means they have had the address to be only charg'd with the lesser parts of the cruelties , and to lay the most violent , and odious part at the kings door . the third thing which we should remark is , that the better to obtain their ends , they have made it their business to perswade the king , that this work would crown him with glory , which is a horrid abuse of his credulity , an abuse so much the greater , by how much they would not have themselves thought the authors of this council ; and when any particular person of them are ask'd this day , what they think of it , there are few of them but condemn it . in effect , what more false an idea could they give to his majesty of glory , than to make it consist in surprising a poor people , disperst over all his kingdom , and living securely under his wings and the remains of the edict of nants ; and who could not imagine there were any intentions of depriving them of the liberty of their consciences , of surprizing and overwhelming them in an instant , with a numerous army , to whose discretion they are delivered ; and who tell them that they must either by fair means or foul , become roman catholicks , this being the kings will and pleasure . what a falser notion of glory could they offer him , than the putting him in the place of god , making the faith and religion of men to depend upon his authority , and that hence forward it must be said in his kingdom , i don't believe because i am perswaded of it , but i believe , because the king would have me do it ; which to speak properly , is , that i believe nothing , and that i 'le be a turk , or a jew , or whatever the king pleases . what falser idea of glory , then to force from mens mouths by violence , and a long series of torments ; a profession , which the heart abhors , and for which one sighs night and day , crying continually to god for mercy . what glory is there in inventing new ways of persecutions , unknown to former ages ; which indeed do not bring death along with them , but keep men alive to suffer , that they may overcome their patience and constancy by cruelties , which are above humane strength to undergo ? what glory is there in not contenting themselves to force those who remain in his kingdom , but to forbid them to leave it , and keep them under a double servitude , viz. both of soul and body ? what glory is there in keeping his prisons full of innocent persons . who are charged with no other fault , than serving god according to the best of their knowledge , and for this to be expos'd to the rage of the dragoons , or condemned to the gallies , and executions on body and goods ? will these cruelties render his majesties name lovely in his history , to the catholick or protestant world ? but we should be very loath to exaggerate any thing , which may violate the respect due to so great a prince ; but we do not think it a failure in our duty , fairly to represent how far these refined politicians have really interess'd his honour , in the sad misfortunes wherein they have plunged us , and how criminal they have thereby made themselves towards him . they have committed no less misdemeanours against their country , of which they are members , and for which a man would think they should have some consideration . not to speak here of the great number of persons of all ages , sexes and qualities , which they have out off from it by their fierce tempers ; although perhaps this loss be greater , than they were willing to imagine . it s certain , that france is a very populous country , but when these feavourish fits shall be over , and they shall in cold blood consider what they have done , they will find these diminutions to be no matter of triumph ; for 't is not possible , that so many substantial people , so many intire families , who distinguish themselves in the arts , in the sciences , civil and military , can leave a kingdom without one day being missed : at present , whilst they rejoyce in their spoils , possess themselves of the houses and estates , this loss is not felt ; 't is recompensed by booty , but it will not be always so : neither shall we insist here on that almost general interruption of traffick , which these most vnchristian persecutors have caused in the principal towns of the state ; although this be no small mischief : the protestants made up a good part of the trade , as well within the kingdom as without , and were therein so mixt with the catholicks , that their affairs were in a manner inseparable . they dealt as it were in common , when these oppressions came upon them ; and what confusions have they not produced ? how many industrious measures have they broken ? how many honest designs have they not disappointed ? how many manufactures ruined ? how many bankrupts made ? and how many families reduced to beggary ? but this is what the oppressors little trouble themselves about ; they have their bread gained to their mouths , they live in wantonness and ease ; and whilst others dye with hunger , their revenues are ascertain'd to them . but this hinders not the body of the estate to suffer , both in its honour and profit ; and we may truly say , that four civil wars could not have produced so much mischief , as time will shew to sprink from this persecution . but we will leave the consequence of this affair to time , and only say , that the edict of nantes , being a fundamental law of the kingdom ; and an agreement between two parties , by a reciprocal acceptation under the peaceable reign of henry the great ; by the publick faith , and by mutual oaths , as we have already seen ; this must certainly be of ill example to the interest of the state : that after having made a thousand infractions of it , it must be at length revok'd , cancel'd , and annul'd , at the motion of a cabal , who abuse their interest ; and hereby make themselves fit for enterprising , and executing any thing . after this violation , what can henceforward be thought firm and inviolable in france . i speak not of particular mens affairs , but of general establishments , royal companies courts of justice , and all other ranks of men interested in society , even they very rights of the crown , and form of government . there are in the kingdom a great many thinking men , i mean not your poets , and such like kind of flatterers , who make verses , orations , panegyricks , and sermons too for preferments and benefices ; but i speak of solid and judicious persons ; who see into the consequences of things ; and know well how to judge of them ; shall we think that these men , see not what is too visible , that the state is pierc'd through and through , by the same ●low given the protestants ; and that such a open revocation of the edict , leaves nothing firm or sacred . it 's to no purpose to alledge distinctions in the matter , and say that the pretended reform'd religion , was odious to the state , and therefore was thus undertaken . for not to mention the dangerousness of the example ; as to the general aversion to our religion in the minds of the catholicks , it is certain , that excepting the faction of the bigots , and what they call the propagators of the faith ; neither the commons , nor great people , have any animosity against us ; but on the contrary , do bemoan our misfortunes . not to touch further on this , who knows not what an easie matter it is to run down any cause , or render it odious or indifferent in the minds of the people . there are never wanting reasons and pretences , in matters of this nature ; one party is set up against another ; and that is called the state , right or wrong , which is the prevailing one : like as in religion , not the best and honestest , but the powerfullest , and boldest part , are termed the church . we must not judge of these things then from their matter , but their from . now if ever there was since the world stood , a matter authentick and irrevocable , it was the edict of nantes ; to revoke and cancel it , is to set up ones self above our obligations to god , as well as to men ; 't is to declare openly , that there are no longer any ties or promises in the world . and this is no more then the wise will easily comprehend , and i doubt not but they have done it already . some perhaps may make an objection on this occasion , which 't will be good to answer ; which is , that as the edict , consider it how we will , is become only a law of state by henry the great 's authority so it may likewise be revok'd and annul'd by lewis the th his grandson and successor . for things may be ended by the same means they have bin begun . if henry the great , has had the power to change the form of governing the state , by introducing a new law ; why has not lewis the th the same power to alter this form , and annul whatsoever his predecessor has done ? but this objection will soon be answer'd , by considering it's built upon a false principal , and offers a falser consequence . it is not the single authority of henry the great which has establish'd the edict . the edict is a decree of his justice , and an accord or transaction that past between the catholicks and the reformists . authoriz'd by the publick faith of the whole estate , and seal'd with the seal of an oath , and ratified by the execution of it ; now this renders the edict inviolable , and sets it above the reach of henry's successors ; and therefore they can be only the depositaries and executors of it , and not the masters to make it depend on their wills . henry the great never employ'd the force of arms to make the catholicks consent to it ; and though since his death , under the minority of lewis the th . there have bin assemblies of the states general , the edict has remain'd in full force ; 't was then , as we have already said , a fundamental law of the kingdom , which the king could not touch . but supposing this were not a work grounded on the bare authority of henry , which is false , it does not therefore follow , that his present majesty can revoke it . the edict is a royal promise , which henry the great made to the reformists of his kingdom , as well for himself as his successors for ever ; as we have already seen ; and consequently this is a condition or hereditary debt , charged on himself and posterity . moreover , it is not true , that henry the great , has changed any thing in the government of the state , when he gave liberty of conscience to his subjects ; for this liberty is matter of right , and more inviolable than all edicts , seeing that it is a right of nature . he has permitted a publick exercise of the reformed religion ; but this exercise was established in the kingdom before his edict , and if he has enlarged the priviledges of the reformed , as without doubt he has , he did not do it without the consent and approbation of the state ; and has herein violated nothing of his lawful engagements . but 't is not the same with lewis the th . who of his own pure authority , makes a real and fundamental change , against the concurrence of one part of his estate , and without the consulting the other ; hereby violating his own engagements , those of his kingdom , and even the laws of nature too . in fine , if we consider what means have been used to arrive at the revocation in question , how shall a man not ackowledge the state is sensibly interested therein . they are not contented to suppress the religious assemblies , and to null the protestants priviledges by unjust decrees ; but they also send them soldiers to dispute points of religion with them ; they are sack't like people taken by assault , forced in their consciences ; and for this purpose , hell it self is let loose upon them ; and this is the effects of a military , and arbitrary government , regulated neither by justice , reason , nor humanity . can it be thought , that , france will be at ease in this manner , or that wise people will think this an equitable way of governing ? there needs only another design , another passion to satisfie , another vengeance to execute ; and then , wo be to them who shall oppose it ; for the dragoons will not forget their office. to these two reflections , which respect the french king and his states , we may add a third , which will have regard to the interests of kings , princes , and other powers of europe , as well of one as of the other religion . we shall not be much mistaken , if we say , that they have a common and general concern herein ; inasmuch as these skilful artists in misery , do as much as they can to trouble the good understanding that is betwixt them and their people . we are perswaded , that their wise and just government will , in this respect , put them beyond all fear : but this hinders not examples of this nature , from being always mischievous , and naturally tending to beget in the minds of the vulgar , ( who commonly judge only of things in general ) suspitions and distrusts of their soveraigns , as if they dream'd of nothing but devouring their subjects , and delivering them up to the discretion , or rather , the fury of their soldiers . the greater moderation and justice that princes have , the less they are obliged to those who furnish people with matter for such dangerous thoughts , which may produce very ill effects . beside , is it not certain , that the princes and states of europe , cannot without a great deal of pleasure see france , which makes so great a figure in the affairs of the world , and gives them so powerful an influence , now put her self in such a condition , as that no just measures can be taken from her ? for after so scandalous and publick a violation of the word of three kings , and of the publick faith , what credit can be given for the future , to her promises or treaties ? it will not be sufficient to say , that they will have no force but what interest inspires ; but that they will hereafter depend on the interest or capriciousness of a sort of heady people , that will give nothing either to the laws of prudence or equity , but manage all by force . if they have had the power , to do within the kingdom what they have lately put in execution , what will they not do as to affairs without ? if they have not spared their own country-men , with whom they had daily commerce , who were serviceable to them , will they spare the unknown ? will they have more respect to truces or conventions of four days transaction , than to an edict of an hundred years continuance , and that the most august and solemn that ever was which yet they made no other use of then to amuse a people , and to involve them more surely in an utter desolation ? methinks they have resolv'd to bring things to this pass , that there being no more faith to be had in france , all her neighbours should be continually upon their guard against her , and the more so when she promises , then when she threatens ; more in peace then in war ; so that there is no more hopes of being at quiet , but what the surety of hostages , or the diminution of her forces can give . this being so in respect of all princes and states in general , what may the protestant princes and states in particular think , but that it is the design of france to ruine them all , and to make no stop till she has devoured them . every body knows , that the protestant princes understand their interests well enough , to be able to discern them through the clouds , wherewith they would cover them ; and 't is not doubted but they see , that this is a beginning or essay , which france expects shortly to give the last stroak to . the court there has suffer'd it self to be possess'd with gross bigotry , and a false zeal of catholicism . 't is the genius a ▪ la mode ; each there is become a persecutor , even to fire and sword ; and there are some perswaded , that this shall weigh down the ballance . vain glory is no small ingredient in this design , policy has her prospects , and mysteries in it too ; and as these prospects have no bounds , so her mysteries want not invisible springs , and surprising ways , which she will joyn when she pleases to the power of arms. she thinks the season is ripe , and she needs only to dare . the easiness she has found in making conquests and conversions swells her courage , and already some talk of nothing but a further progress in so fair a way . 't is to be hoped that protestant princes and states will from thence draw their just conclusions . as to catholick princes and states , they have too sagacious judgments , not to see how much they share in this affair . it will be made use of to break the good understanding which is betwixt them and the protestants , by amusing those with the fair pretext of the catholick religion , and cunningly inspiring these with jealousies of a general design to destroy them . if the catholick princes and states remove not these suspitions , if they suffer france still to aggrandize her self by her pretended zeal for catholicism , which at the bottom is but a mask , they may already be assured , that they are lost . it will signifie little to say , we are good catholicks as well as you , this will not secure them from dragoons , all that will not take the yoke shall be hereticks ; nay , worse than an heretick ; for now the greatest heresie is not to submit ; spain , germany and italy already know this in some measure . but it will not be thought a paradox , if , to all that we have said , we add , that the pope himself , and the whole body of the roman church , find themselves sensibly interess'd in the persecution of us . and yet we will say nothing herein , but what is evident truth , and which the wisest of the roman catholicks must agree to . for is it not the worst character that can be given of the roman clergy , to represent them as an order of men , who not only cannot endure any thing that is not subject to them in a religious , but also in civil society ; as men that are not content to anathematize all that displease them , but design nothing so much as to exterminate them , not only to exterminate them , but also to force their consciences , and inspire their opinions ; and propagate their way of worship by the knocking arguments of swords and staves ; as an order of men , who neither faith nor justice , who promise only to deceive , who for a while curb their fury only , that afterwards they may the more insult , that in peace as well as war , contrive only to overturn and destroy , that make allyances only to surprize , and finding themselves more powerful , deny those they have surprized the liberty to escape . these are the exact features and colours by which the roman clergy may be easily known , if we judge of them by the persecution in france , the like whereof was never seen to this day : the aegyptians and assyrians once persecuted the israelites , but forced them not to embrace the worship of their idols ; they contented themselves with making them slaves , without doing violence to their consciences . the heathens and the jews persecuted the primitive christians , forced their consciences indeed , but they had never granted them an edict , nor by persecuting them did violate the publick faith , nor hindred them to make their escape by flight . the arrians cruelly persecuted the orthodox , but besides that , they went not so far , as to make the common sort of people sign formal abjurations ; there was no edict or concordat between the two communions . innocent the d. by his croysades , persecuted the waldenses , and albigenses , but these people also had no edict . emanuel , king of portugal , furiously persecuted the jews , but he gave them leave to depart out of his kingdom , and they had no edict . it was the same with those remains of the moors , who had setled themselves in some cantons of the kingdom of granada , they were defeated in a war , and commanded to retire into the country from whence their ancestors came . in the last age the duke of alva exercised dreadful cruelties upon the protestants of the seventeen provinces , but he did not hinder them from flying , nor violated any edict ; and at the worst , death was their release . the inquisition is to this day in spain and italy , but they are countries , in which no religion , besides the roman , was ever permitted by edicts , and if the inquisitors may be accused of violence and cruelty , yet they cannot be convicted of perfidiousness . but in this last persecution of france , there are five things that strike the mind with horror ; they make the consciences and religion of men to depend soveraignly upon the will of a king , they violate a faith authentickly sworn to , they force men to be hypocrites , and wicked , by seeming to embrace a religion which they abhor ; they prohibit all flights or retiring out of the kingdom ; they do not put to death , but preserve life to oppress it with longer torments . if after this the court of rome and its clergy , dispersed over the rest of europe , disclaim not so odious and so criminal a conduct ; if they condemn it not , it will be an indelibel stain to the honour of their religion . not only protestants , who are of a different communion , but also in an infinite number of their own catholicks , will be mightily scandaliz'd thereat : nay , even the turks and jews and pagans will rise up in judgment against them . they may already know what they have bin condemned of , in what passed in the council of constance , concerning john huss , and jerom of prague , whom they put to death , notwithstanding the safe conduct of the emperor sigismund ; but there is something greater here : there only two men were concerned , here more than . those they put to death , and if they had done the same to these , they would have embraced their death with joy and comfort . the council thought its authority greater than sigismund's , but there cannot be produced one above that which has establish'd our edict . we are not ignorant of the different methods which the persecutors take to shelter themselves from publick condemnation . some take a speedy course to deny the fact ; and to perswade the world ; that force and violence have had no share in the conversions , but that they were soft , and calm , and voluntary ; and that if there were any dragoons concerned therein , 't was because the reformed themselves desired them , that they might have a handsom pretence to change their religion . was there ever seen so much impudence ? what will they not deny , who can deny what 's done in the face of the sun , and what a whole kingdom from one end of it to the other hath seen , and to this day sees ? for in the beginning of the year . whilst i am composing this sad rehearsal , they continue to exercise in france the same rage , that ended the preceding year , the same dragoons both in cities and countries execute the same fury against some lamentable remains of protestants , who will not fall down and worship . they are used like rebels in their persons , in their estates , in their wives , and in their children ; and if there be any difference , 't is in this that their sufferings are still increasing . yet if we will believe the clergy , haranguing the king , and the bishop of valence their speaker , he tells his majesty how miraculous his reign is , seeing such infinite number of conversions are made to the roman church , without violences and arms ; much less , saith he , by the force of your edicts , as by the example of your exemplary piety . if we will believe the greatest part of the abjurations which these poor opprest people , are forc'd to make , they speak indeed the same sence , viz. that they have done this without being constrain'd thereto . thus is the credulity of the publick impos'd on : they have seeds of imposture sown at their feet , which are to grow with the time . posterity who shall see these records , will belive they contain the truth ; here , say they , is what has bin told the king , who must not have falshoods offer'd him : here is the proper acts and deeds of those that were converted . why will not then posterity believe it , seeing that at present , there are indeed people impudent enough , or to speak better , paid well enough to publish it in strange countries ; and there are found credible persons enough to believe it . but i pray what likelihood is there , that persons already gone out of france , without any thing constraining them to it , should leave their houses , their lands of inheritance , their effects , and several their wives and children , for to wander about the world , and lead a miserable life for a humour . is there any likelihood , that persons of quality of both sexes , who enjoyed , , , thousand livers per annum , would abandon these their estates , not only for themselves , but for their successors ; expose themselves to the periss , and incommodiousness of long journies , and reduce themselves in a manner to beggary ; which is a condition the most insupportable in the world , to persons of quality ; and all this without any reason , without any occasion ? what likelihood that this thousand persons who have already escap'd , some of 'em into switzerland , others into germany , some into denmark , others into holland , some into suedeland , and others into england , and some into america , without seeing or knowing one another , yet have agreed to tell the same lie , and to say with one voice , that the protestants are cruelly persecuted in france ; and that by unheard of severities they are forc'd to change their religion ; altho' there is no such matter ? is it likely that the embassadors and envoys of foreign princes , should lye all of them in consórt , in telling them this news , wherein there is no truth ? but i pray , if in france the protestants thus voluntarily , and without constraint change their religion , & that the dragoons are cal'd in only as their good friends , whence happens this so strict & general guard on the frontiers , to hinder peoples departure ? how is it that the prisons of the kingdom are cram'd , with fugitives stopt by the way ? whence is it , that those who have chang'd , are watch'd with such great care to hinder their flight ; to the obliging them to deposit sums of money to secure them from the suspition of it ? this must be an epidemical distemper that has seiz'd on his majesties subjects , that shall make them fly thus without reason ? but is not this a fine cover , to say that the protestants have themselves call'd in the dragoons , to have the better pretence to change their religion ? it is about or more years since there was a bankset up to traffick for souls . mr. pelison , has for a long time bin the great dealer of paris , in this infamous trade of purchasing converts . these conversions have of late , bin the only way of gaining applause , and recompences at court , and in a word , a means of raising ones fortune ; and yet we must be told , that instead of being converted by these easie ways , we had rather choose the help of dragoons , that is , of being pillag'd . at least let any one tell us , why since these pretended voluntary conversions , the people not willing to go to mass , they have bin obliged to send them troops , and use them with the same severity as before . this is so gross and palpable an untruth , that others have undertaken to defend these violences , as being naturally of the genuine spirit of the catholick church ; and for this purpose , they have continually in their mouths that passage of the gospel , compelle intrare , compel them to come in , and the persecution which the orthodox of africk offer'd the donatists , &c. were this a place to dispute against these furious divines , we could easily show 'em the vanity of these allegations ; but we shall rather ask 'em , whether the jews and pagans had agreed upon an edict with the apostles , when our saviour says to them , compel them to come in . has st. augustin ever written , for he is cited in this matter , that we ought to be perfidious towards those whom we esteem as hereticks , when we promis'd to live with 'em like brethren and fellow citizens . the donatists , had they any edicts which would shelter 'em from the insults of the orthodox ? if we yield to this detestable divinity , what will become of all us christians ? for in short , the papist is as much an heretick to the protestants , as the protestants are to the papist ; yet they live together in peace , on the faith of alliances , treaties and promises . but these publick pests as much as in them lies have brought all things into confusion , and a state of war. they arm the catholicks against the protestants , teaching the catholicks by this example , that their religion obliges him to betray and surprise the protestants , when they can do it unpunish'd ; and knock ●ut their brains if they will not change their religion . they arm the protestant against the catholick ; for after all , what peace , and society can we have with people , who not only make no conscience to break their faith ; but on the contrary , make it a case of conscience to break it , when they shall find occasion . thus have they by their dragoons desolated a kingdom , and plunder'd above a thousand families . do we think this method , is pleasing to him , whom we both own to be the author of our faith ; he has said , that he will not suffer hell gates to ruine his church ; but he has not said , he will open hell gates for the propagating his church . now if there were any thing that looks like the gates of hell , it is the persecutions of france . whatsoever antipathy there may be between the see of rome and us , we will not believe that the present pope has had any part , or that the storm has fallen on us from him . we know he is a mild prince , and his temper leads to more moderate councils than those of his predecessors . moreover we know , the clergy of france do not always consult him in what they undertake ; and we have had often offered to us , what has bin done against rome , to induce us to submit our selves to the king's will in these other matters ; and how small a deference is paid to its authority . so that we hope the pope himself , considering us still as men and christians , will condole us , and blame the methods used against us , had he no other reason than the interest of religion . perhaps one day , it will be our turn to blame that which will be taken against him . however , 't is certain the protestants of france are the most fit objects of publick compassion , the world ever knew . some sigh and lament under a hard slavery , which they would willingly change for irons in algiers or turke . for there they would not be forced to turn mahometans , and might still entertain some hopes of liberty by the way of rans●m ▪ others are wandering about strange countries , stript of their estates , separated in all probability , for ever from their parents , their relations and friends , whom they have left in the most doleful condition imaginable husbands have left their wives , and wives their husbands ; fathers their children , and children their fathers . we have seen our estates vanish in a moment , our honest ways of living , our hopes , our inheritances . we have scarcely any thing left us but our miserable lives , and they are supported by the charity of our christian brethren . yet amongst all these afflictions we are not destitute of comfort ; we , if ever any did , do truly suffer for conscience sake ; the malice of our persecutors not being able to charge us with the least misdemeanour . we have served our king and the state with zeal and faithfulness . we have submitted to the laws and to magistrates ; and for our fellow-citizens , they have no reason to complain of us . we have for twenty years together suffered with an unexemplary patience all those furious and dreadful storms aforementioned . and when in vivaretz and cevennes , some have thought themselves bound in conscience to preach on the ruines of their temples illegally demolisht , their small number , which were but a handful of men , women and children , has only served to stir up more the resignation and obedience of our whole body . in these latter storms we have been like sheep , innocent and without defence . we then comfort our selves in the justice of our cause , and our peaceable deportment under it . but we comfort our selves likewise in the christian compassion shewed us by forrein princes , and more especially of his majesty of england , who has received us into his countries , succoured and relieved us , and recommended our distressed condition to all his subjects ; and we have found in them not only new masters , or the affections of new friends , but of real parents and brethren . and as these bowels of commiseration have been as balm to our wounds , so we shall never lose the remembrance of it , and hope we nor our children shall ever do any thing , by gods grace , unworthy any of these their protections . all our affliction then is , to see our religion oppressed in the kingdom of france ; so many churches wherein god was daily served according to the simplicity of the gospel , demolished , so many flocks dispers'd , so many poor consciences sighing and groaning under their bondage ; so many children deprived of the lawful education of their parent ; but we hope that at length the same god who heard heretofore the sighs of his people in the servitude of egypt , will also hear at this time the cries of his faithful servants . we call not for fire from heaven , we are for no resistance , we only pray that god would touch the hearts of our persecuters , that they may repent , and be saved together with us . we entreat such a deliverance , as he in his wisdom shall think fitting . however 't will be no offence to god nor good men to leave this writing to the world , as a protestation made before him , and them against these violences ; more especially against the edict of . containing the revocation of that of nants , it being in its own nature inviolable , irrevocable , and unalterable . we may , i say , complain amongst other things against the worse than inhumane cruelties exercised on dead bodies , when they are drag'd along the streets at the horse tayls , and dig'd out , and denyed sepulchers . we cannot but complain of the cruel orders to part with our children , and suffer them to be baptized , and brought up by our enemies . but above all , against the impious and detestable practise , now in vogue , of making religion to depend on the kings pleasure , on the will of a mortal prince , and of treating perseverance in the faith with the odious name of rebellion : this is to make a god of man , and to run back into the heathenish pride and flattery amongst the romans ; or an authorising of atheism or gross idolatry . in fine , we commit our complaints , and all our interests into the hands of that providence , which brings good out of evil , and which is above the understanding of mortals , whose houses are in the dust . an edict of the french king , prohibiting all publick exercise of the pretended reformed religion in his kingdom . lewes , by the grace of god , king of france and of navarre , to all present and to come , greeting . king henry the great , our grandfather of glorious memory , desiring to prevent , that the peace which he had procured for his subjects , after the great losses they had sustained , by the long continuance of civil and forreign wars , might not be disturbed by occasion of the pretended reformed religion , as it had been during the reigns of the kings his predecessors , had by his edict given at nantes , in the month of april , . regulated the conduct which was to be observed with respect to those of the said religion , the places where they might publickly exercise the same , appointed extraordinary judges , to administer justice to them ; and lastly , also by several distinct articles provided for every thing , which he judged needful for the maintenance of peace and tranquility in his kingdom , and to diminish the aversion which was between those of the one and other religion ; and this , to the end that he might be in a better condition for the taking some effectual course ( which he was resolved to do ) to reunite those again to the church , who upon so slight occasions had withdrawn themselves from it . and forasmuch as this intention of the king , our said grandfather , could not be effected , by reason of his suddain and precipitated death ; and that the execution of the foresaid edict was interrupted during the minority of the late king , our most honoured lord and father , of glorious memory , by reason of some new enter-prises of those of the pretended reformed religion , whereby they gave occasion for their being deprived of several advantages which had been granted to them , by the foresaid edict : notwithstanding , the king , our said late lord and father , according to his wonted clemency , granted them another edict at nismes , in the month of july , by means of which the peace and quiet of the kingdom being now again re-established , the said late king , being animated with the same spirit and zeal for religion , as the king our said grandfather was , resolved to make good use of this tranquility , by endeavouring to put this pious design in execution , but wars abroad , coming on a few years after , so that from the year , to the truce which was concluded with the princes of europe , in . the kingdom having been only for some short intervals altogether free from troubles , it was not possible to do any other thing for the advantage of religion , save only to diminish the number of places permitted for the exercise of the pretended reformed religion , as well by the interdiction of those which were found erected in prejudice to the disposal made in the said edict , as by suppressing the mix'd chambers of judicature , which were composed of an equal number of papists and protestants , the erecting of which was only done by provision , and to serve the present exigency . whereas therefore at length it hath pleased god to grant , that our subjects enjoying a perfect peace , and we our selves being no longer taken up with the cares of protecting them against our enemies , are now in a condition to make good use of the said truce , which we have on purpose facilitated , in order to the applying our selves entirely in the searching out of means , which might successfully effect and accomplish the design of the kings , our said grandfather and father , and which also have been our intention ever since we came to the crown ; we see at present ( not without a just acknowledgment of what we owe to god on that account ) that our endeavours have attain'd the end we proposed to our selves , forasmuch as the greater and better part of our subjects of the said pretended reformed religion have already embraced the catholick , and sice by means thereof , the execution of the edict of nantes , and of all other ordinances in favour of the said pretended reformed religion is made useless , we judge that we can do nothing better towards the entire effacing of the memory of those troubles , confusion and mischief , which the progress of that false religion , hath been the cause of in our kingdom , and which have given occasion to the said edict , and to so many other edicts and declarations which went before it , or were made since with reference thereto , than by a total revocation of the said edict of nantes , and the perticular articles and concessions granted therein , and whatsoever else hath been enacted since in favour of the said religion . i. we m●k● known , that we , for these and other reasons us thereto moving , and of u●certain knowledg , full power and royal authority , have by the present perpetual and irrevocable edict , suppressd and annull'd , do suppress and annul the edict of the king , our said grand father , given at nantes in april , in its whole extent , together with the particular arcicles ratified the second of may , next following , and letters patent granted thereupon ; as likewise the edict given at nismes , in july . declaring them null and void , as if they had never been enacted , together with all the concessions granted in them , as well as other declarations , edicts , and arrests , to those of the pretended reformed religion , of what nature soever they may be , which shall all continue as if they never had been . and in pursuance hereof , we will , and it is our pleasure , that all the churches of those of the pretended reformed religion , scituate in our kingdom countries , lands , and dominions belonging to us , be forthwith demolished . ii. we forbid our subjects of the pretended reformed religion to assemble themselves , for time to come , in order to the exercise of their religion , in any place or house under what pretext soever , whether the said places have been granted by the crown , or permitted by the judges of particular places ; any arrests of our council , for authorizing and establishing of the said places for exercise , notwithstanding . iii. we likewise prohibit all lords , of what condition soever they may be , to have any publick exercise in their houses and fiefs , of what quality soever the said fiefs may be , upon penalty to all our said subjects , who shall have the said exercises performed in their houses or otherwise , of confiscation of body and goods . iv. we do strictly charge and command all ministers of the said pretended reformed religion , who are not willing to be converted , and to embrace the catholick apostolick and roman religion , to depart out of our kingdom and countries under our obedience , fifteen days after the publication hereof , so as not to continue there beyond the said term , or within the same , to preach , exhort , or perform any other ministerial function , upon pain of being sent to the galleys . v. our will and pleasure is , that those ministers who shall be converted , do continue to enjoy , during their lives , and their widows after their decease , so long as they continue so , the same exemptions from payments and quartering of souldiers , which they did enjoy during the time of their exercise of the ministerial function . moreover we will cause to be paid to the said ministers , during their lives a pension , which by a third part shall exceed the appointed allowance to them as ministers ; the half of which pension shall be continued to their wives , after their decease , as long as they shall continue in the state of widdow hood . vi. and in case any of the said ministers shall be willing to become advocates , or to take the degree of doctors in law , we will and vnderstand that they be dispensedwith , as to the three years of study , which are prescribed by our declarations , as requisite , in order to the taking of the said degree , and that after they have pass'd the ordinary examinations , they be forthwith received as doctors , paying only the moy●ty of those dues which are usually paid upon that account in every vniversity . vii . we prohibit any particular schools for instructing the children of those of the pretended reformed religion , and in general all other things whatsoever , which may imp●rt a concession of what kind soever , in favour of the said religion . viii . and as to the children which shall for the future be born of those of the said pretended reformed religion , our will and pleasure is , that henceforward they be baptized by the curates of our parishes ; strictly charging their respective fathers and mothers to take care they be sent to church in order thereto , upon forfeiture of livres or more , as it shall happen . furthermore , our will is , that the said children be afterwards educated and brought up in the catholick , apostolick and roman religion , and give an express charge to all our justices , to take care the same be performed accordingly . ix . and for a mark of our clemenctowards those of our subjects of the said pretended reformed religion , who have retired themselves out of our kingdom , countries and territories , before the publication of this our present edict , our will and meaning is , that in case they return thither again , within the time of four months , from the time of the publication hereof they may , and it shall be lawful for them , to re-enter upon the possession of their goods and estates , and enjoy the same in like manner , as they might have done in case they had always continued upon the place . and on the contrary , that the goods of all those , who within the said time of four months , shall not return into our kingdom , countries or territories , under our obedience , which they have forsaken , remain and be confiscated in pursuance of our declaration of the th . of august last . x. we most expresly and strictly forbid all our subjects of the said pretended reformed religion , them , their wives or children , to depart out of our said kingdom , countries , or territories under our obedience , or to transport thence their goods or effects , upon penalty of the gally , for men , and of confiscation of body and goods for women . xi . our will and meaning is , that the declarations made against those who shall relapse , be executed upon them according t● their form and tenor. moreover , those of the said pretended reformed religion , in the meantime , till it shall please god to enlighten them as well as others , may abide in the several respective cities and places of our kingdoms , countries and territories under our obedience , and there continue their commerce , and enjoy their goods and estates , without being any way molested upon account of the said pretended reformed religion , upon condition nevertheless , as aforementioned , that they do not use any publick religious exercise , nor assemble themselves upon the account of prayer or worship of the said religion , of what kind soever the same may be , upon forfeiture above specified of body and goods . accordingly , we will and command our trusty and beloved counsellors , the people holding our courts of aids at paris , bayliffs , chief justices , provosts , and other our justices and officers to whom it appertains , and to their lieutenants , that they cause to be read , published and registred , this our present edict in their courts and jurisdictions , even in vacation time , and the same keep punctually , without contravening or suffering the same to be contravened ; for such is our will and pleasure . and to the end to make it a thing firm and stable , we have caused our seal to be put to the same . given at fountainbleau in the month of october , in the year of grace , and of our reign the . sealed with the great seal of green-wax , upon a red and green string of silk . signed lewes . this signifies the lord chancellors perusal . visa . le tellier . registred and published , the kings procurator or attorney general , requiring it , in order to their being executed according to form and tenor , and the copies being examined and compared , sent to the several courts of justice , bailywicks , and sheriffs courts of each destrict , to be there entred and registred in like manner , and charge given to the deputies of the said attorney general , to take care to see the same executed and put in force , and to certifie the court thereof . at paris in the court of vacations the d . of october , . signed de la baune . the profession of the catholick , apostolick , and roman faith , which the revolting protestants in france are to subscribe and swear to . in the name of the father , son , and holy ghost , amen . i believe and confess with a firm faith , all and every thing and things contained in the creed which is used by the holy church of rome , viz i receive and embrace most sincerely the apostolick and ecclesiastical traditions , and other observances of the said church . in like manner i receive the scriptures , but in the same sense as the said mother church hath , and doth now understand and expound the same , for whom and to whom it only doth belong to judge of the interpretation of the sacred scriptures ; and i will never take them , nor understand them otherwise than according to the unanimous consent of the fathers . i profess that there be truly and properly seven sacraments of the new law , instituted by our lord jesus christ , and necessary for the salvation of mankind , altho not equally needful for every one , viz. baptism , confirmation , the eucharist , penance , extream unction , orders and marriage ; and that they do confer grace ; and that baptism and orders may not be reiterated without sacriledge : i receive and admit also the ceremonies received and approved by the catholic church in the solemn administration of the forementioned sacraments . i receive and embrace all and every thing and things which have been determined concerning original sin and justification by the holy council of trent . i likewise profess , that in the mass there is offered up to god , a true , proper , and propitiatory sacrifice for the living and dead ; and that in the holy sacrament of the encharist , there is truly , really and substantially , the body and blood , together with the soul and divinity of our lord jesus christ ; and that in it there is made a change of the whole substance of the bread into his body , and of the whole substance of the wine into his blood , which change the catholick church calls transubstantiation . i confess also , that under one only of these two elements , whole christ and the true sacrament is received . i constantly believe and affirm , that there is a purgatory , and that the souls there detained , are relieved by the suffrages of the faithful . in like manner , i believe that the saints reigning in glory with jesus christ , are to be worshipped and invocated by us , and that they offer up prayers to god for us , and that their reliques ought to be honoured . moreover , i do most stedfastly avow , that the images of jesus christ , of the blessed virgin the mother of god , and of other saints , ought to be kept and retained , and that due honour and veneration must be yielded unto them . also i do affirm , that the power of indulgence was left to the church by christ jesus , and that the use there of is very beneficial to christians . i do acknowledg the holy catholick , apostolick and roman church , to be the mother and mistress of all other churches ; and i profess and swear true obedience to the pope of rome , successor of the blessed st. peter , prince of the apostles , and vicar of jesus christ . in like manner i own and profess , without doubting , all other things left defined and declared by the holy canons and general councils , especially by the most holy council of trent ; and withal , i do condemn , reject , and hold for accursed , all things that are contrary thereto ; and all those heresies which have been condemned , rejected , and accursed by the church . and then swearing upon the book of the gospel , the party recanting must say : i promise , vow and swear , and most constantly profess , by god's assistance , to keep intirely and inviolably , unto death , this self same catholick and apostolick faith , out of which no person can be saved ; and this i do most truly and willingly profess , and that i will to the utmost of my power , endeavour that it may be maintained and upheld as far as any ways belong to my charge ; so help me god and the holy virgin. the certificate which the party recanting is to leave with the priest , before whom he makes his abjuration . in. n. of the parish of n. do certifie all whom it may concern , that having acknowledged the falseness of the pretended reformed , and the truth of the catholick religion , of my own free-will , without any compulsion , i have accordingly made profession of the said catholick and roman religion in the church of n. in the hands of n. n. in testimony of the truth whereof , i have signed this act in the presence of the witnesses , whose names are under written , this — day of the month of the — year of the reign of our soveraign lord the king , and of our redemption — finis . a letter from a person of quality to an eminent dissenter to rectifie his mistakes concerning the succession, the nature of persecution and a comprehension. hickes, george, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing h a estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a letter from a person of quality to an eminent dissenter to rectifie his mistakes concerning the succession, the nature of persecution and a comprehension. hickes, george, - . [ ], , [ ] p. printed by t.b. for randolph taylor ..., london : mdclxxxv [ ] attributed to hickes by wing and nuc pre- imprints. "a reissue of the sheets of: the judgment of an anonymous writer, , with the title-page and clavel's preface cancelled and a new title-page substituted:--nuc pre- imprints. advertisement: p. [ ] at end. numerous errors in paging. reproduction of original in the huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng dissenters, religious -- england. persecution -- england. great britain -- history -- restoration, - . great britain -- kings and rulers -- succession. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - megan marion sampled and proofread - megan marion text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a letter from a person of quality to an eminent dissenter , to rectifie his mistakes concerning the succession , the nature of persecution and a comprehension . london , printed by t. b. for randolph taylor near stationers-hall . mdclxxxv . a letter sent from beyond the seas to a noted dissenter . dear cousin , i was very glad to receive your letters , but very sorry to find by them , that you are still so extreamly desirous of innovations in a government so well established , as that is under which you live . i perceive you are more zealous then it becomes a good subject , or a good christian to be , for carrying on a project of the earl of shaftsbury , as unreasonable as new ; viz. that of disabling a papist to inherit the crown . for doubtless that proposal was first made , and afterwards promoted by him , the last sessions of parliament , not out of true love to the reformed religion , but out of spite and revenge to the d. of y — who , were he not only papist , but heathen or mahumetan ( which i think is not much worse ) would certainly have as good a title to his crown , and all his temporal rights , as if he were the most orthodox and holy christian in the world. and i am perswaded , that my zealous lord chose would not be willing that the king and parliament should make a particular act , to disable his own posterity , to inherit the great estate he hath got , if they should turn papists or atheists , as others have done before them . we all know what mischief in the world , that damnable doctrine has made , that temporal rights and inheritances depend upon saintship and grace . and if it be clear from scripture ( as nothing is more clear ) that a king ought not to lose his crown , for not being a christian , or for renouncing the christian religion as julian did ; then it is plain , that neither the duke nor any other prince ought to be debarred from the crown , which is the greatest and most sacred of temporal rights , for not being protestants ; or which is more , for renouncing the christian religion . and i am heartily glad , that god gave the fathers of the english church the grace and courage to defend her doctrine , in opposing that unreasonable , and truly romish proposal of my lord chose ; which if they had approved , and defended after it was proposed , they had truly acted in that like prelats popishly affected , and really shewed themselves to be what their adversaries would fain perswade the world , they are . for 't is the romish church , and her doctors , which maintain , that kings excommunicated , or heretick kings , or ( which is all one ) that kings that renounce the apostolick faith , ought to be deprived and deposed . but 't is the church of england that maintains the contradiction of that unscriptural , unevangelical principle ; and thinks her self as much obliged to submit her self to a heathen , atheistical , heretical , or popish prince , where she can , as to an orthodox king ; and where she cannot , she thinks her self obliged to suffer , as her saviour , like a lamb brought to the slaughter ; and dares pretend to take up to arms but those of the primitive christians ( whose true copy she is ) tears , arguments and prayers . i say , it is the church of england , that is of this judgment , and neither the church of rome , nor the kirk of scotland ; both of which have actually excommunicated and d●posed lawful and rightful princes , under the notion of being hereticks , and enemies to christs kingdom ; forgetting both alike the pr●cepts and examples of our saviour and his apostles , on which the church of england hath grounded the contrary doctrine , as well as on right reason . our saviour , though god rendred unto the heathen caesar the things that were caesar's ; he owned his right to the empire , both by word and deed , although he were but the adopted successor of the greatest usurper that ever was in the world. nay furthermore , he owned and submitted to the procuratory power of pilate , who acted but by commission from the emperour tiberius ; who ( if there be any truth in the character of tacitus ) was one of the greatest tyrants , and most wicked men that ever the world saw . and as for st. paul , there is no article of our religion , not even that , that jesus christ is the son of god , more clear in his epistles , than that every soul should be subject to the higher powers ; that we should obey , not only for wrath , but conscience sake ; that whosoever resisieth , receiveth to himself damnation ; and lastly , that all the powers ( and when he wrote there were none but heathen powers ) were ordained of god. i might here insist upon the practice of the apostles , as it is represented in their acts , and the constant submission and sufferings of the primitive christians , as they are reported by the ecclesiastcal fathers , and historiaens ; but the scripture it self is sufficient to demonstrate the truth of this argument , which the church of england has not only established in her doctrine , but her fathers and sons of late , maintained in their practices : and which the kirk of of scotland ( agreeing in this and many other points with that of rome ) did ever oppose , both in word and deed. and since that kirk and nation have been of this opinion , we need not wonder that the english disciples of their buchanan and knox have practised those rebellious principles , which have so debauched and corrupted the subjects of the kings of england , as to make them be proverbially called , the kings of devils : and which the anababtists in germany improved into this maxim , that saintship was the foundation of soveraignty , and that the righteous ought to inherit the earth . and furthermore , if crowns ought to descend upon protestants only , then it is but just , that the estates of all subjects whatsoever should be so entailed : ●nd if for example , the d — of y — must be cut off from his right , for being a roman catholick , then let the rest of the papists lose theirs ; they are all alike idolaters , and let them all alike suffer . and , to bring the case to your own house , can you imagine that you your self ought to lose your right to the estate you have , or may have hereafter , upon that supposition , that you should turn papist ; which men as firmly resoved against it as you have certainly done . these practises and proposals are such , that they have left a blot on the memories of some men , that seem more zealous than their brethren . and i am glad at present , that the religious lord chose is the chief patron and promoter of such and unreasonable and romish design . it is unreasonable to exclude a popish heir from a crown , to which he derives his right from popish ancestors , and i have more than ordinary reason to call it romish , because i have heard it maintained here among all the priests i converse with . it is a doctrine dearly beloved by the romanists : and put but the name of heretick to a prince here , and it is just the same case , as when you call a prince a papist in england ; where , if there be no more than my good lord chose that are fautors of this romish doctrine , my country is in a far better case than i thought it to be . and truly this noble project of the late lord chose was condemned by all protestants as soon as it took air in france ; not only for that it was an ungospel way of proceeding , and savours strongly of the doctrine of rome , which they abhor ; but because it puts their king in mind of a project he is very much inclined to , viz. to make a like law here , that none but a roman catholick shall ever be king , or bear any office or trust in the kingdom . and certainly , if it should ever please god , for our sins , to suffer our princes to backslide into romish idolatry and superstition , we have nothing to do , but to pray , and like our glorious ancestors in queen mary's days , suffer quietly , when we cannot flie . and therefore i wonder that you would so obliquely reflect upon the bishops , and censure them for doing that , which in honour and duty , they were bound to do , and represent this to their disgrace , which all good and well advised protestants must needs commond them for , if they will be impartial . but put the case such an act were made , who can see the bad consequences thereof ? the union of great bri●tain will be broke upon it , and war entailed upon both kingdoms , and by the same reason , that none but a protestant shall succeed now , faction still increasing , none perhaps within a while , will be thought sit to inherit the crown , but a presbyterian , &c. for you that are used to talk of numbers and strength , can best tell how numerous and powerful they are that are possessed with as firm a prejudice against the church of england , as the church of rome it self ; denying communion equally with both ; and who educate their children in perfect hatred of the one , as the genuine daughter of the other . i have wrote all this to present to your view what ( perhaps in the hurry of zeal ) you have not had time to consider . and though i think it very impious and unreasonable to debar any such prince from the crown , upon this account , yet could we imagine the government were to be formed again , i would be as zealous for this condition , as the greatest zealot of them all : and am as sorry as any other good protestant , that it was not always one of the fundamental laws of england , though now it be too late to make it such . you tell me also that my lord — intends to come and live in london ; i suppose it may be under pretence to secure his person from the papists ; but i wish it may not be with a design to act over the same things , under a pretence of securing the protestant , which the duke of guise acted in paris , under a seeming zeal to secure the popish religion . the reason that makes me fear it , is the conformity of our times in england with those in france , as you may see by the following account . the duke , who was a man of an high spirit , and not able to bear the least disgrace , being removed by henry iii. from them most rich and honourable of his court-preferments , became thereupon male-content ; and retiring from the court , which he now did hate , went to live at his house in paris : where , by many arts , as in particular by the subtle practises of the priests and jesuits , he became in a short time the minion of the people ; whose affections he drew off from the king , by representing him ( though a hearty roman catholick ) as a favorer of the hereticks ; who under the protection of the princes of the bloud increased mightily in his reign . he also represented him in particular to be a great favourer of the king of navarre , against whom he himself had a particular ill will ; and whom the people , through the instigation of the priests and jesuits , did perfectly hate , because he was a protestant ; although he was primier prince of the blood ( for whom the french commonly have a great reverence ) and by consequence heir apparent , or as a friend of your would have said , heir presumptive ( for the king had no child to inherit ) to the crown of france . after he had thus made the credulous people , by the help of the priests and jesuits , zealous for the defence of their declining religion , he drew them to league into rebellion against their lawful soveraign , under a pretence of securing the same , by removing evil councellors from his person , and obliging him to employ his royal power in suppressing the protestans ; and in particular by declaring the heretick king of navarre ( afterwards h. iv. ) uncapable of succeeding to the crown . for the sake of peace the king was willing so far to deny himself as to grant the two first , but could never be made so false to the interest of the royal family , as to consent to the last , by changing the order of succession to the crown , by which his ancestors had reigned so many hundred years ; and which have been so long established , without any respect to religion , by the salique or original laws of france . hereupon the league ( in imitation , and after the pattern of which the solemn league and covenant was formed ) or rebellion grew so high , as to beat the king out of paris ; where the guisards had a design to sieze upon his sacred person , shut him up , like king chilperick , in a monastery , and set up the silly old cardinal bourbon , the king of navar 's uncle , to reign in his stead . but the king escaping from paris , sheltered himself in chartres ; where to compose differences , he issued out writs to call together the three estates ( which much resemble our parliaments ) at bl●is . thither the deputies or members repair , some for the king , but far more for the cursed league ; and therefore the guisards finding themselves more potent than the royalists , insisted almost on nothing else , but securing the roman catholick religion , by de claring the king of navarre , because an heretick , uncapable of succeeding to the most christian crown . you see cousin , what a parallel there is between those times and ours ; excepting first , that there are no priests and jesuits to second such a design in england , as there were in france : but to supply that defect , there may be found men as fit in all points as they in black , to stir up the people to discontent and rebellion . i mean the same sort of persons that preached up the late bloody war ; who really are the bastard-brood of the monastick and jesuitical emissaries , though they bear not the names of their fathers ; but ( like bastards ) are disowned by those that begot them . the seditious principles . preached and printed by them in the late times , are evident proofs of what race they are come : and as a man may travel so far west , till at last he come to the same eastern point from which he did set out , so you cousin , and your brethren have gone so far from the church of rome , that you are ( some i believe unawares ) come thither again ; as is unanswerably proved by lysimachus nicenor , lately reprinted at oxford , in his letter of congratulation to the kirk . but secondly , the parallel fails in this too , that his royal highness is not a declared papist , as the king of navarre was a declared protestant ; nor has yet openly renounced the communion of the church of england , for which his blessed father died a martyr . and therefore of the two , our english guisards are much more to blame , in representing his roual highness as a papist , which is so difficult to imagine him strictly to be . but furthermore , upon supposition he were a declared papist , the proposal of my lord chose was very ridiculous , since it did suppose a possibility of prevailing with his majesty to disinherit his royal brother , who must needs be so much dearer to him , than the king of navarre was to henry iii , as he is nearer in blood. and for may own part , i cannot but imagine at this distance , that his majesty who is a prince incomparably wiser and juster then was henry iii. of france , must needs disdain and abhor such a proposal ; which , were it enacted , it would enervate the laws of succession by which he and his ancestors have hitherto reigned , and give a greater blow to the english monarchy , than that which cut off his royal fathers head. i have here forborn to give you an account of the tragical end of the duke of guise , which is a lesson well worth your learning , and may teach all persons , so disposed as he was , how unsafe it is to provoke soveraign authority ; since the goodness of the best of kings , like the infinite goodness of god himself , whose ministers they are , may at length be so injured and affronted , as to be forced to sharpen it self into sovereign vengeance and justice . and therefore cousin , let me advise you , if not for conscience , yet for wraths sake , to have nothing to do in blowing up the flames of sedition : nor let your soul enter into the secret of my lord — though his interest among the senators ( as you write ) be so very considerable and strong . you likewise forget your self , in miscalling the execution of the late laws by the odious name of persecution ; which if you can prove to be such , according to the scriptural notion of persecution , viz. infliction of evil for righteousness sake , then will i become your proselyte , and forsake the church of england , as much as i have this idolatrous church of rome . for no man is persecuted , but either for immediate matters of divine worship , which concern the first table ; or with respect to matters of morality , or a good life , which concern the second . with respect to the first ; a man is persecuted either on a negative account , for not worshiping a false god , as the three children in daniel ; or for not worshipping the true in a false way : as st. paul and the other apostles were persecuted by the pharisees , for not worshipping the true god according to the jewish manner after it was abrogated : or as our fore fathers in england , for not worshiping god and our saviour after the romish rites . or secondly , on a positive account , for worshipping the true god in a way that is true ; or to express it yet more clearly and absolutely in your own terms , for serving of god : as daniel was cast into the lyons den , for praying to god against the king's decree . with respect to the second ; a man is also persecuted on a negative account , for not doing something , which is in its own nature , or by god ; positive command , morally evil : as the good midwives were afraid to be persecuted by pharaoh , for not murthering the hebrew infants . or else on a positive account , for doing some good moral action , which ought in such and such circumstances to be done : and thus was our blessed saviour persecuted , for opening the eyes of the blind man , and for healing on the sabbath-day . now these distinctions being premised , tell me in which of these cases you are persecuted ? or , which is all one , for what you are confessors and martyrs ? for no man is persecuted , but as he is persecuted he is a confessor or martyr ; and by his sufferings bears witness to the truth . with respect to the second head , you cannot say that you are persecuted ; and therefore let me see whether you are so with respect to the first . and first , 't is plain that you do not suffer for not worshiping a false god ; and 't is likewise as plain , that you do not suffer for not worshipping the true god in a false way . for first , the laws , whose execution you mis-call persecution , do not punish you for not worshiping god after our way ; or if they did to prove their execution to be persecution , you must first prove that the church of england ( whose doctrine is down right against idolatry and superstition ) does worship god in an idolatrous and superstitious manner ; which , good cousin , you know can never be proved . there remains nothing then but to assert , that you are punished for serving god , or for worshipping god in a way which you are sure is true . that you worship god in a true way , i verily believe , and could heartily joyn with you in other circumstances . but then you are not punished for worshipping god in that manner ; for the same laws you complain of , allow you to worship god in what fashion you please ; and not only you , but your family , be it as great as it will ; and lastly , not only your family , but five persons more ; which allowance , were you the only christians in the world , and the magistrates heathens ; or , which your friends are more likely to suggest , were they papists or atheists , is so far from being persecution , that were you of the temper of the primitive christians , you would esteem it as a great priviledg , and instead of reviling , thank the kind magistrate for the same . but then if on the contrary hand you be considered ( and many good english men , and good christians cannot but consider you ) as a sort of men that have formerly raised a most unnatural rebellion , and now make schism in the church , and broyles in the state , the punishments you suffer and complain so loudly off , will be so far from seeming persecution of you as christians , that they will rather seem your just desert , as factious and turbulent subjects . and i assure you , that your brethren in france ( whom you falsly so call , and for whom you pretend so great respect ) are so far from judging you persecuted , that they will not excuse you ; but wonder at your non-submission to the church , and pity your mistakes , that make you stand out against the laws . they that have seen and examined our english liturgy , which is printed at geneva in french , cannot understand your notion of persecution . and ministre claude , the most famous of them all , for piety and learning , told me in the presence of many others , ( after a discourse , wherein he said all for you that could be said ) that he wondred how the presbyterians in england could rend the peace of the church , for such little indifferent mat●ers ; and that , if he were in england , he would be of the episcopal party , and heartily submit himself to the discipline and government of the church of england . and if you would do so too , how happy a thing would this be both for your selves and the nation ? or seeing , as you pretend you cannot , yet at least live peaceably , and forbear to trouble the world with compassing sea and land ; that is , by doing all that you can , like your fathers the old pharisees , to make proselytes ; when yet you cannot shew any sinful condition of communion with the church of england , nor prove your way of worship as apostolical , as that of hers ; from which out of pride , interest or ignorance , or partly altogether you dissent . i am sure this would rather become the dissenting brethren , then to foment divisions raise parties , betake themselves to the wickedest of men , as of late to — and cry up the kings prerogative , which they formerly cried down ; which with many other self-contradictions , confirms me in an opinion you know i was of before , that in those matters wherein you differ from us , you are men of no principles , and know not where to six . i have enlarged upon this theam more than i thought to do a first , because the papists here in france complain as loudly as you of the cruelty of our ecclesiastical laws ; and cry out wherever they come , how their brethren have been ; and still are persecuted among us ; though with this difference , that in disputing ad hominem , their case is far more reasonable and pleadable then yours . as for you , i pro●est , tho' the laws you complain off look like hard laws , when i consider you as free born subjects of england , yet when i consider you as head-strong , turbulent and factious subjects , i cannot but think them just and good , and i will maintain that the execution of them would not be persecution , altho' you 〈◊〉 the only true christians in the world. for , as ●●●●ted before , you have the liberty in your houses so profess what religion you please , and to worship 〈◊〉 ●n what manner you will : and for sear your fa●●●● should not be a just congregation , you may have 〈◊〉 ●ore : but for fear you should do as you have 〈◊〉 done , you are not to have five hundred , or 〈◊〉 thousand ; which liberty , not only the primi 〈…〉 christians , but our own ancestors , an hundred 〈…〉 would have called a blessing , and a privi 〈…〉 have heartily thanked god and the king for 〈…〉 e. and god grant we may never see that time england , when truly tender consciences will esteem so much liberty as the greatest blessing in the world. the good protestants here in france , though their religion is made an obstacle to all state-preferments , though it disable them to sit in the courts of parliaments ( except just so many as serve in the chamber of edicts , to decide controversies between protestants and papists ) or to have any other charges of judicature , or any high offices in the army , though their numbers are much diminished , and their interest weakened , by a prohibition to marry with roman catholicks , and by a capital law , which makes it death to return protestants after they have once turned papists ; and though a great number of their temples have been demolished ( some under a pretence that they were built since the edict of nantes , others that they were built without license , and others that they were built upon holy ground ) so that hereby they are forced in very many places to the grievous inconvenience of going two , three , four or five leagues to church , it not more : and though all the places of strength , where they do abound are demolished , and cittadels are erected to awe them in other towns , where they are numerous ; though their own particular hospitals , and all other their perpetual provisions for their poor , are taken away , and they disabled , either living or dying , to give any setled maintenance either to their own ministers or people ( as to endowe churches , bu●ld schools , colledges or hospitals , &c. ) nay , tho' they are deprived of the benefit of other hospitals , provide for the rest of the subjects ; and although their ministers are forbid to speak against the pope , or to preach against the romish religion , with half that freedom and plainness that you dare speak against the church of england ; or to preach in any places out those few appointed by the king , though they are forbidden to call the papists in their sermons by any other name but that of catholicks ; or to make mention of their religion and ceremonies , without reverence and respect ; though they are forbid to call themselves priests or pastors , and have no other title allowed them , but only ministres de la religion pretenduë reformée ; and thought it be enacted , that their religion shall be called by no other name in any publick acts , registers , &c. though they are forbiddent to bury their dead in catholick churches , or church-yards , even where the deceased person was patron of the church ; of where his ancestors had purchased buring-places for their families ; though they are forbid to make any publick exhortations or prayer , or to sing psalms at their burial : though they are forbid to instruct or condole those of their own religion in prisons or hospital ; or to pray with them in a voice so loud as to be heard by the standers ; by , tho' they are forbid to make any collections of money among themselves , but such as are permitted and regulated by the edicts of the king ; though they are forbid to work or open their shops on romish holy-days , or to sell flesh on their fasting-days , &c. i say the good protestants here in france , notwithstanding all this hard dealing , are yet so far from complaining of persecution , that they shew themselves thankful both to god and the king , for the liberty and indulgence they enjoy . indeed they will complain , for the aforesaid reasons , that their religion is very much discouraged , and they themselves hardly used : but persecution is a notion that they rarely think or speak of , when they discourse of their own condition , being very far , though not so far as you , from a state of martyrdom ; which consists in a forcible obligation to suffer or renounce the truth . and therefore cousin i beseech you and conjure you , not to misuse the name of persecution again . it is a very sinful way thus to abuse and amuse the vulgar , by calling things by their wrong names : and as to this particular , honest and knowing men will be apt to suspect , that through the name of pers●cution , you have a design to make your governours pass for tyrants , and your selves for martyrs . to conclude : if this which you call persecution , be not such indeed , then i doubt not but they who miscal it so , that is all presumptuous or affectedly ignorant schismaticks , without bitter pangs of repentance , will be persecuted by the god of peace himself to a sad and endless eternity . as for the bill of comprehension , it begun to be talked of , before i left my country , and i have often discours'd it with many of the projectors , but could never understand from them , how it was practicable to unite so many incompossible sects , which agree in nothing , but their opposition to the church . however if the altering , or taking away of a ceremony or two could effectually unite the protestant partys , as you are pleased to assert , i think it would be worth the while to do it , and that the doing of it for so sure an end , would reflect no dishonour upon the church of england , which acknowledgeth the few innocent and decent ceremonies , which she hath ordained to be indifferent and alterable , according to the exigency of times . neither , if this were done , could the romish church have the least apparent reason to reproach us for such a slight alteration ; seeing her own missals and breviaries have been so diverse and different in several times and places ; and have undergone so many emendations , or rather corruptions , before they were established in the present form , by the authority of pius v. and the decree of the council of trent . but unless this alteration would surely and infallibly produce this effect , it had far better be let alone , and in the mean time , i would have all good christians wait in peace and complyance with the established religion , till authority shall think to make this alteration in it , that so a poor english traveller would not be tauntingly asked by every impertinent priest here , whether he were a true son of the church , or presbyterian , or independant , or anabaptist , or quaker . and i assure you , when they meet with a man that owns himself a true son of the church of england , they will seem with great formality to pity him more than any other ; but yet they will never attempt to convert him . but when they meet with one that will own himself of any other sort , they will be pleased , smile in their sleeves , and set upon him as a person not far from their kingdom of god. ana i am perswaded , had you seen or heard as much of their idolatries , blasphemies and superstitions , as i have done in one christmas , one line and one easter , you would be so far from doing the church of england any ill office , that you would rather ( like st. paul after his conversion ) preach against your own partizans , and thank god that you lived in a church reformed from romish idolatry and superstition . and i cannot but freely confess , that i am since my travels become ten times a greater lover of our own church , and as many times a greater hater and detester of the romish church , than i was before . and therefore i cannot here dissemble the hearty grief i have conceived , for the great hopes you have , that the licenses ( as you express it ) will be once more authorized by his majesty , or the declaration revived . for as it is that which at first was hammered out by a popish lord , who was the patron and idol of the presbyterians ; so 't is that which the roman catholicks here ( especially the priests ) do hope , and wish for as well as you . they desire nothing more , than such a toleration , as that was , knowing that it must needs tend to the ruine of the church of england , which is the principal butt of all their envy and malice ; as being the main support and credit of the reformed religion every where , and the only hedg against popery it self in our unfortunate british isles . we meet with not a few priests of several orders , that have the confidence ( in our most familiar conferences ) to tell us , that by the just judgment of god upon our church , the time of her ruin is at hand ; the nation it self being over-spread with schism and atheism , and the hearts of the faithful being disposed by the spirit providence of god , to re-embrace the holy catholick truth . and therefore they freely confess , that this time of distraction is their harvest ; and withal express their intentions and zeal to transport themselves into england at the critical time of toleration , that they may be fellow-laborers with your selves in the harvest . they seem to lament as much , and complain as fast , of the prodigious increase of schism and atheism among us , as you are wont to do of the daily growth of atheism and popery . and whilst you both complain alike , and in the formality of your complaints , both alike reflect upon the church of england : it is she only that is the sufferer , and she only that truly laments the growth , and at the same time sets up banks to hinder the perfect inundation of all the three among us ! as for schism among protestants , you were the first fathers , and continue the chief fautors thereof ; all the inferior sects having sprung from you , and dividing both from you and one another , under pretence of the same reasons , for which you profess to divide from the church . and 't is from you , that even the quakering sect it self ( the dregs of schism ) have learned to talk of illumination , and the spirit : and the rest of the sectaries ; in what number soever they be , differ no more from you than the second , third , or fourth , &c. from the first book of eu●lid . not that by this comparison i intend , that you have any such principles , or data among your selves , as there are among , mathematicians ; for i am very well assued ; that take but any four of the presbyterian demagogues , and they can scarce agree amongst themselves in any four particulars , wherein they differ from the church of england . and therefore if you be not schismaticks , then the church of england , from which you separate , and out of which you have gathered congregations , and preach and administer the sacraments unto them ; i say , if you be not schismaticks , then our church must be the schismatick , in the controversie between us ; and be justly chargable with the same indictment , which she hath drawn upagainst the church of rome . an assertion , consin , which i never knew any other person , except one or two , besides your self , have the confidence to aver , and an assertion , which no protestant here in france could hear us yet relate , without horror , impatience and disdain . and therefore , if the reformed church of england , from which you wilfully divide , and to which by your divisions you cause so much scandal abroad and evil at home , be not a schismatical church , that is , a church which requires some sinful conditions of communion ; in what a woful condition will your unpeaceable , seditious spirits appear before the god of peace ? and how will you answer that , at the tribunal of his wisdom and justice , which neither your fathers , nor you could never yet answer , to those instruments of his glory , judicious hooker and the venerable sanderson ? but whether you are schismas ticks , or whether you are not , the separations which you and your brood have made from the church , are the apparent causes of the growth of popery ; and both your separations , and your superstitious enthusiastical way of worshipping that god , whose people you emphatically pretend to be , are the true causes of that abundant atheism , which at present makes england an astonishment nad a scandal to foreign nations . and if you , or any other of the brother-hood , think it strange , that i charge yours , which is the capital sect , with enthusiasm , or make superstition , which seemeth diametrically opposite to atheism the mother thereof ; i offer , upon the challenge , to make good the charge , in both particulars : but in the mean time , to shew you how unsafe it will be to provoke me to that trouble , i advise you to read one or two short chapters in the beginning of mr. smith's discourses , concerning these distempers of the soul , and you shall find what i have said , proved with more plainness and perspicity , than , i am confident , you would wish to see . but besides the schism and enthusiasm , the bloody wars , which you formerly made in the state , under pretence of the glory of god , and the reformation of of the reformed religion , have given many inconsiderate men occasion to suspect , that all religion , like that of most of your leaders , is but a politick engine which men use , to make themselves popular and powerful , that they may afterwards act with good colour whatsoever their interest shall suggest . and furthermore , to consider , that the great pretenders of the spirit , and the power of the christian religion , ( which with respect to magistrates teacheth nothing but to obey or suffer ) should notwithstanding preach up rebellion against their rightful prince , fight him from field to field , romove him from prison to prison , and at last most barbarously put him to death , is such an absurdity against the principles of right reason , so repugnant to the laws of our own nation , and so inconsistent with the peaceable doctrine of the gospel ; that , besides the atheists it hath made , it hath , and ever will constrain men of honest principles , and just resentments , to persecute you with satyrs and exclamations to the end of the world. i had not here presented that tragical scene of the king's murther , but that i have had so many unpleasant occasions to hear our nation reproach'd with the scandal and dishonour of that inhumane fact. particularly , it was my bad fortune to be at a station in paris ; where there were met about two hundred persons , to read the gazetts , at that very same time , when that of england came full charged with the news of burning the pope in essigie at london . this feat did at first surprize that roman catholick concourse of people ; but after a little recollection , collection , they ceased to wonder , saying in every company as we passed along ; it is not so strange that the english devils should do this , who formerly murthered their king. and another time , it was my ill luck also to be at the same place , when the london gazette brought us the news , that the house of lords had taken into consideration the growth of atheism in our nation : whereupon some french gentlemen of my acquaintance seriously enquired of me the causes of so much atheism , amongst such a thinking and solid people . i assigned the same reasons which i have written above , besides some others which i will not stand to mention , as the most probable causes thereof . and as i hope i did not misinform them , so i am confident did not unjustly charge you in any particular , especially with the murther of the king. for there were no accessaries in the murther of that sacred person : neither was it the last stroke only that sell'd the royal oak ; but you and the independants , like the two sacrilegious priests of jupiter , are equally guilty of the crime ; the one for binding the direful victim , and the other for putting the knife to his throat . but to be short , where i am so unacceptable , i 'le conclude my argument with a fable . a principal . ship , which for many years had been sovereign of the seas , was at last attacted by a tempestuous wind , which the devil raised , and notwithstanding all the help that could be made to save her , was driven by the force of that malignant wind , and split upon a rock . the very same instant she dashed upon the rock the wind ceased ; and being afterwards cursed by the sea-men , for the wrack of the royal charles ( for so the capital vessel was called ) answered , you charge me most unjustly my friends , it was not i , but the rock as you saw that split your ship. the moral of this parable is very obvious ; and if the application thereof , or any thing else that i have written , may conduce to awaken your conscience , and reclaim you from schism , i shall think my pains well bestowed . but if you and your seditious brethren will still persevere to assault the church on one hand , as fast as the romish priests do undermine her on the other , her days are like to be but few and evil ; and except god encline the hearts of our magistrates to put the laws in execution against them , and sind some effectual means to reduce you , you may live to see her ruin accomplished , which you both alike desire and expect . how numerous you are , the world can guess , and if the accounts which we receive from the fathers of intelligence of several orders , be credible , there are about three thousand of them , which sind entertainment and success within the king of great britain's dominions . but in the mean time , till her hour is come , she struggleth against both , like her saviour against the pharisees , whose true disciples in part you both are ; they representing those sworn enemies of the gospel , by the cabala of their ridiculous and impious traditions ; and you representing them in their hypocrisie , pride , envy , evil-speaking , moross and censorious dispositions , &c. ( which are sins scarce consistent with humanity , much less with grace ) as likewise in observing many fasts and making long , prayers , with design not to serve god , but to delude the people . and therefore i wonder not that you are such malignant enemies to the church of england , since that pharisaical spirit , which reigneth so much amongst you , is a wicked pusilanimous spirit , that affects to be seen in the head of parties , and dictate amongst the ignorant ; and loves as much to rule , as it hates to obey . but would you once be so sincere , as to subdue your pride , lay aside your prejudice , inform your ignorance , and forsake your dearly beloved interest , for the truth ; it would not be long ere we should see you joyn with the church of england , without troubling our senators to bring you in with an act of incomprehensible comprehension . your pride appeareth in heading of parties , and in the pleasure you are seen to take in the multitudes , that run after you ; and in your boasting , that without you the souls of people would starve for want of knowledg . your prejudice is an effect of your pride , and discovers it self together with your ignorance , in not submitting to those invincible reason which you cannot answer : and as for your interest , the greatest paradox of all , that is evident enough to me , who have so often heard many of you glorifie your selves in the number and riches of your followers , boast of their affection to your sacred persons , and brag of the great sums you have collected in your congregations ; which makes the king's chapples ( as you arrogantly call your conventicles ) better places than most of the churches , of which he is patron . and therefore never complain that you live either worse , or at greater uncertainties than you did before . for by your pretentions to poverty and sufferings , and by other unworthy arts , you have so wrought your selves into the esteem of your disciples , that few of them are either so covetuous or so poor , but they will pinch at home to supply you . there are several orders of fransciscans here , who have renounced not only parsonages , but all temporal estates and possessions whatsoever ; and by their vain glorious sanctity and austerities , they have got ( like you ) such fast hold on the souls of the people ( which is the fastest hold of all ) that they can easily make most of them dispose of their children , cashire their servants , and settle their estates as they please ; and by these tricks do more effectually promote the interest of rome , than all the parish priests within the pale of that church . and really , when i consider what influence these sanctimonious and self-denying zealots have o're all families , in all places where they live ; how they steal away the hearts of the people from their parish-priests , and drain their congregations ; and how the deluded people had rather give them the worth of a shilling , than the dues of two pence , to their own curees ; it makes me often run the parallel between you and them , and think what a politick and gainful pretence you have got to renounce your livings , for to secure your consciences , and to preach the word gratis like the primitive apesiles ; when god knows , 't is not out of love to the people , but to your selves . and i protest to you , were i a man to be maintained by the pulpit , and consulted my prosit more than the goodness of my cause , i should take the same course that you do ; i should rather be mr. m. than dr. a. of plymouth ; and should chuse the plentiful income of that dull zealot dr. manton , before that of his most learned and religious successor of govent-garden . but though you live very well , and better indeed than most of the ministers of the church , yet the mischief of it is , you are uncapable of dignities ; which makes you such aerians , and upon all occasions openeth your throats as wide as sepulehres against the bishops and the church . you know what an history of bishops mr. pryn hath wrote , and what a fair collection the learnes smec . hath taken out of him ; as if when a bishop is defective , either in piety , learning or the skill of government , it were not the deplorable unhappiness , but the fault of the church of england . should an heathen or mahumetan , make such an historical collection of scandalous christians , either in this or former ages , you would not be perswaded for all that , to prefer the alcoran before the gospel ; or the most exalted paganism whatsoever , before the christian religion . therefore wise and sober men will make no inference but this , from such a malicious enumeration of particulars ; that corruptions will creep into government , notwithstanding all the care that can be used to the contrary ; and that by the favour of princes ( who hear with other mens ears , and often receive undeserved characters of men ) sometimes ambitious , sometimes ignorant , and sometimes slothful , imprudent or debauched persons , will be preferred to the most honourable dignities in the church . but this , as often as it happens , is the misery of the church of england , which all true church men lament though the men of the short cloke take all such occasions to expose her to the scorn of the common people who judge by sense , and not by reason and who are taught by you , to make no distinction between the bishops and the church . but were all her bishops the best christians , the best scholars and the best governours in the world and should the royal hand place her mytres on the heads of none but jewels , whit-gift's , andrews's , hall's , ushers's , morton's , taylor 's , and sanderson's , yet that unchristian spirit of envy and discontent , ; ; ; which informs the non-conformists , would still fly upon her with open mouth , like beasts upon the saints of old condemned to the amphitheater ; and make her , as she hath already been for almost forty years , a speactacle to god , to angels , and to men. the wicked lives of scandalous bishops and priests , if there be any such , are her sad misfortune , but cannot justifie the schism you are guilty of ; who are bound to hear even them , as much as the jews were bound to hear the scribes and pharisees those hypocrites , that sate in moses's chair . and in that deplorable state of the jewish church , when the priests and prophets were both alike corrupted and called by the holy spirit , dumb and greedy dogs , yet it had been unlawful to make a separation , and set up other altars against that which god ( who was their king ) had set up . i cannot but mind you of the schism of jeroboam , who by dividing the church , as god was pleased to divide the kingdom into two parts , made israel to sin . but to insist on the samaritan secession , and write all , that is necessary to discover and aggravate the damnable nature of schism , would require as much more paper as i have bestowed , and so make me as tedious again , as , i fear , i have already been . besides , it would oblige me to answer mr. hale's treatise of schism , with whose leaves you vainly endeavour to cover you shame : and i had indeed a year ago undertaken that easie task , but that a western gentleman , to whom i discovered my intentions , told me , that mr. long prebendary of exeter , a friend of his had already begun that good work : so that i hope it is printed by this time . and if either that or this , or any thing else , a thousand times better , and i am able to write , may prove effectual to reclaim you from schism ; i shall be as glad , as to see some other of our friends reformed from drunkenness , swearing , and uncleanness , which are very grievous , and dreadful sins , but yet not more damnable in their nature , nor more destructive to the christian religion , nor more deeply rooted in the soul of man , than that of schism ; from which , i pray god , by the power of his grace , to preserve me , and reform you , through jesus christ our lord ; to whose protection i commit you , and rest , your most affectionase cousins , and humble servants . saumur : may . finis . advertisement . there is lately published a book entituled , the royal apology : or an answer to the rebels plea : wherein the most noted anti-monarchical tenents , first , published by doleman the jesuite . to promote a bill of exclusion against king james , secondly , practised by bradshaw and the regicides in the actual murder of king charles the st . thirdly , republished by sidney and the associators , to depose and murder his present majesty , are distinctly considered . with a parallel between doleman , brad , shaw , sidney , and other of the true protestant party . london , printed by t. b. for robert clavel , and are to be sold by randolph taylor near stationers-hall . . price s. vindiciæ veritatis: truth vindicated against calumny. in a briefe answer to dr. bastwicks two late books, entituled, independency not gods ordinance, with the second part, styled the postscript, &c. / by henry burton, one of his quondam-fellow-sufferers. burton, henry, - . this text is an enriched version of the tcp digital transcription a of text r in the english short title catalog (thomason e _ ). textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. the text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with morphadorner. the annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. this text has not been fully proofread approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. earlyprint project evanston,il, notre dame, in, st. louis, mo a wing b thomason e _ estc r this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (thomason tracts ; :e [ ]) vindiciæ veritatis: truth vindicated against calumny. in a briefe answer to dr. bastwicks two late books, entituled, independency not gods ordinance, with the second part, styled the postscript, &c. / by henry burton, one of his quondam-fellow-sufferers. burton, henry, - . [ ], , [ ] p. printed by m.s. for gyles calvert, and are to be sold at his shop at the west end of pauls., london, : . a reply to "independency not gods ordinance" by john bastwick, published in two parts. the last leaf is blank. annotation on thomason copy: " bre " [i.e. september ]. reproduction of the original in the british library. eng bastwick, john, - . -- independency not gods ordinance -- early works to . congregationalism -- early works to . dissenters, religious -- england -- early works to . church polity -- early works to . great britain -- religion -- th century -- early works to . a r (thomason e _ ). civilwar no vindiciæ veritatis:: truth vindicated against calumny. in a briefe answer to dr. bastwicks two late books, entituled, independency not gods burton, henry d the rate of defects per , words puts this text in the d category of texts with between and defects per , words. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - elspeth healey sampled and proofread - elspeth healey text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion vindiciae veritatis : truth vindicated against calumny . in a briefe answer to dr. bastwicks two late books , entituled , independency not gods ordinance , with the second part , styled the postscript , &c. by henry burton , one of his quondam-fellow-sufferers . levit. . . thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart : thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour , and not suffer sinne upon him . tim. . . them that sin rebuke before all , that others also may feare . and ( tit. . . ) rebuke them sharply , that they may be sound in the faith . zach. . . love the truth and peace . london , printed by m. s. for gyles calvert , and are to be sold at his shop at the west end of pauls . . ❧ to the ingenuous reader . christian reader ; thi● answer was long agoe so conceived and formed in the wombe , as the slow birth may seeme to have outgone its due time . it waited for the postscript ; which comming forth , proved such a strange creature , as some friends would not have mee foul my fingers with it . hezekiah's word to his people was , in such a case ; answer him not . but finding , that he still pursued me with his incessant provocations in more books since , i thought of salomons counsell , answer not ; and yet , answer . for i perceived , that no answer coming , a tumor began to grow , which needed timely lancing , to prevent some extreame inflamation hastening to a head , while the humour flowed in so fast : therefore i hastened at length as fast , as before i was slow , if possible to recover our brother . so as if i be quick and short with him it is to saye him with feare , plucking him out of the fine . i am plaine , and that 's all . farewell . a briefe answer to dr. bastwicks two late bookes , intituled , independency not gods ordinance , &c. first and second part , or postscript : by one of his quondam-fellow-sufferers . brother bastwicke , i had resolved for a time at least ( as i have done ) to have been silent in these controversies , though provoked not a little ▪ but now your two books you lately sent me as also your late triumphing at westminster , that the man in friday-street had not yet answered your booke , as was given out provoked me afresh in arenam descendere , to take them both to taske , and so vna fidelia duos parietes . and if the perusall of them be not enough in lieu of thankes , i have returned you a compendious answer ; wherein you have bound me by a double ingagement : the one , for the cause ; the other , for my person . but you will say , you have not named me in either of your two books . 't is true indeed . but give me leave to tell you , you have vellicated me , plucked me by the very beard . i will not say , as joab tooke amasa by the beard ; and , withall smote him in the fift rib . what ? use a brother so ? and a quondam-fellow-sufferer too ? yea , & to take him so disgracefully by his white beard too , & that with a scurrilous epithet , calling it * a great white ba●ket-hilted beard ? parcius ista . {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} , ( as said the old poet ) pittying his white head , and his white chin . and the wise man saith , the beauty of old men is the gray head , yea a crowne of glory ▪ being found-in the way of righteousnesse . i remember when the g●●●es by force entred rome-gates , where they found the grave senators sitting in the gate in their senatorian robes , and their white staves in their hands , thinking thereby to strike some reverence into those harbarous gaules , and one of them redely taking one of the senators by his white beard , the good old senator , ( though in that condition ) not brooking such an affront , struck the gaul over the pate with his white rod ; though this cost him , and the rest their lives , the barbarians instantly falling a butchering of them . but for all your provocations throughout your books , brother , you shall not finde with me so much as a white staffe to lift up against you , though you charge us ( but how justly ) ▪ we have the sword in our hands . nor doe i purpose to retort , or retaliate your little expected , and lesse deserved calumnies , lest i should therein be like unto you : but i shall answer you in the words of truth and sobernesse , and in the spirit of meeknesse and love . but how comes it to passe , that my two fellow-sufferers , and my selfe , should fall at this odds ? was it by any divine providence ominated or presaged , by your two standings on one pillary , and mine alone in the other , that wee should now come upon one ▪ theatre to become spectacles to the world , by mutuall digladiations , as if the one pillary should contend with the other ? or did the distance of the two pillaries boad any such distance in our present judgements ? but yet , o! o , never be such a distance in our affections ! but , herein at least ever be we a threefold coard , not easily broken . but the will of the lord be done , who is onely wise , and will cause all things to co-operate for good to them that love him . but brothers , we expected , that ( according to your own words , pag. . ) you would have acted the part of a moderator between us . but instead thereof we find you a judge , and that a severe one too ; but how justly , i leave to others to judge . for in your promised , or rather menaced postscript , which ( to forestall your readers with a prejudicate opinion of us ; and old piece of rhetoricke , as that of tertullus before felix , telling him of paul ; wee have found this man a pestilent fellow , and a mover of sedition , &c. which he was not able to prove , his best rhetoricall argument being calumnidre audacter , aliquid haerebit , calumniate boldly , some thing will sticke ) you both prefix , and for surenesse , affix to your booke ; you fasten upon us uncharitable dealing , fraud and jugglings of many of our pastors and ministers , as misleaders and troublers of church and state , &c. all which * ( {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} ) hard and harsh termes , wee can no lesse then spread before the lord the righteous judge . i now come to your first booke . and first for those two scriptures which you face your frontispice withall , i desire it may appeare to all men in the conclusion , whether you or i have the better right to them , cor. . . and thes. . . pag. . brother , that which you intreat of us , you shall finde of your brother ; onely give us leave in your owne words to intreat you to lay aside all passion , and all vaine-glory , and bitternesse , which not onely this your booke , but your threatned postscript breaths out against us . pag. . you methodize and modell your booke into two questions : first , concerning the government of the church , whether it be presbyterian dependent , or presbyterian independent : secondly , concerning gathering of churches . now for the first of these , before wee come to your arguments , give me leave to except against your termes , dependent and independent , whereupon as upon a foundation you state your question . and if the foundation be not sure , the superstructure cannot be secure . now brother , doe you set these two termes , dependent , and independent , at such odds , as if there were a great gulfe betweene them , never to come together , and become one ? you hold of dependent onely : we hold not onely of independent , but dependent also . i shall make this cleare : your church dependent is so called in a two-fold relation : first , because it depends for its forme of government upon the lawes of civill states , and so ( as the cha●●leon ) receives impressions of sundry formes , changeable according to the present condition of the civill power , whether protestant , or papist , christian , or antichristian ( as our brother hath set forth ) so as by this meanes , christs church and kingdome ; his spouse , that woman clothed with the sunne , and having on her head , a crowne of twelve starres , and the moone under her feete , should her selfe be turned into the moone , as being subject to continuall changes . secondly , because your church dependent , depends necessarily upon a combination of presbyters of many churches , as councels , synods , assemblies , classes , without whose counsell ( say you ) nothing is to be done in any particular church , of which more hereafter on the other side ; the churches which you call independent , are also dependent . first , they are not otherwise independent , then first , that they are not , nor ought ( in respect of doctrine , discipline , worship , church-government ) to depend upon humane lawes , canons , decrees , customes ; but onely upon christ and his lawes ; as wherein they assert and hold forth christs kingly office and government over them ; and doe affirme , that to set up humane formes of worship and church-government , unto which the consciences and soules of gods people must necessarily conforme and be subject , is a dethroning of the lord jesus christ , and a denying him to be the onely king of his church secondly , independent in this respect , because every particular visible church , rightly constituted according to the word of god , depends not directly and necessarily upon any other church or churches , as without whose jurisdiction ( call it presbyterian , or what you will ) it may not exercise all that power , which christ hath given to every particular church , as touching all the offices and ordinances thereof , and that in as ample manner , as if there were besides that one , no other churches in the world . and yet secondly , this church thus independent , is also dependent . for , as it depends absolutely upon christ , as the onely head of this body ; so as it is a member-church of the catholick , and a sister-church of all particular churches , with which it makes up one body , and one spouse of christ her head and husband : so it hath a mutuall dependence upon all true churches , for communion , for consociation , for consultation , for comfort , for support ; though alwayes saving and retaining to it selfe all those church-priviledges , which by christs charter are peculiar to every particular church , and body of jesus christ . and in case this particular church doe any act of censure upon any , who thereby shall thinke himselfe wronged , and shall addresse himselfe to other churches , by way of complaint , and they shall thereupon desire of that church an account of their proceedings therein , this church will not refuse , but as in christian duty bound , will to those churches render a reason of that , or any other their doings , if questioned , and lawfully required . and all this in a sweet and loving way , with meeknesse and feare , pet. . . so as none is debarred of any such appeale . nor is any well constituted church of christ to be conceived so brutish , or so conceited of her selfe , as to thinke shee may not erre , or her selfe so wise , as in many difficult cases not to need the counsell of others , or so inflexible , as with the stoicks , sententiam mutare nunquam ; nullius rei poenitere ; never to change their minde or judgement , of nothing to repent , when convinced of an error . but what if one particular church will not , after all due meanes used , ( which yet no rationall man can imagine will ever come to passe ) hearken to the unanimous judgement and counsell of the other churches ? what is to be done ? surely they may upon just cause withdraw communion from that church , which , in that case , is the highest censure the churches can proceed to . and if the party aggrieved complaine to the civill magistrate , the church being called is accountable to the power . thus have i plainely , clearely , and fully , as i conceive , stated these two termes dependent and independent : whereby is sufficiently cleared to the view of all unpartiall judges , not possessed with prejudice , our dependent independency , or independent dependency , from your manner of stating . and for your simile ; wherein you propound it for better understanding ( as you say ) it halteth down-right of all foure , as being altogether ab-simile , and heterogeneous , of another nature . there is a vast disproportion between a civill government , and ecclesiasticall : the one established upon mans lawes , the other on gods ; the one various , and variable , according to severall civill states , kingdomes , and lawes : the other one and the same , ( or should be , if right ) in all the churches of the saints , having one rule , one law to walke by , immutable : and , brother , for your paralleling of your many severall congregations in one citie , or one division , or hundred , or within such a circuit , with a great corporation , as of london , where is one lord major , and aldermen and common councell , and so reducing so many churches into one corporation , as so many companies making upone citie : i suppose you meane not that one provinciall , with his diocesans , and priests under them , should make up this parallel . but this of necessitie you must doe , if you will have all the congregations in their severall divisions , or weapontacks , to be governed by their severall presbyteries respectively . reason requires , that first you set up such presbyters over every one of your congregations , as may be for the greatest part of them good , pious , learned , orthodox : or otherwise , if the greater party be malignant , and ill affected , prophane and haters of the power of godlinesse , they will over-vote the good party ; and so what a hard yoake will you put upon the necks of all such , as be truly godly , when they shall be cast out by a malignant parochiall congregation ? and going to complaine to your presbytery , they shall finde as cold comfort , as formerly they have done in the prelates consistory . but there will be a better care had of placing good presbyters . but brother , let us first see it , that so your presbyterian government may shew us a face the more amiable , and lesse formidable to all truly godly , and most conscientious men . but if you cannot doe this , whither shall the poore soules goe , which live under a prophane presbyter , or one that admits all sorts tag rag to the lords table , with whom godly soules can no more converse , then with heathen ; and much lesse at that holy ordinance , where they must be made companions with such kinde of saints , as job would not set with the dogs of his flocke : and if any whose conscience is not so strong to digest such hard bits , as others of the common multitude are , who either see no difference at all between the precious and the vile ; ( but account all alike saints at least , when but at the sacrament ) or have such sepulchre-wide throats , as they can swallow a camell , when a tender and more narrow conscience is apt to be choaked with every gnat : what shall this poore soule doe ? doth he rather withdraw from the ordinance , then he can endure to see it so prophaned , and so partake with the prophaners ? then he heares , a schismaticke . now if you have not a good presbytery , where shall he goe to complaine ? he may goe and appeale higher , you will say . and what if the higher the worse ? good brother , either provide the people of the land an honest godly presbytery , that may be as so many angels to gather out of christs kingdome every thing that offends : or else let there be a tender care of tender consciences , and some provision made for them , that they may not be scandalized , by being forced to be the companions of the scandalous . and therefore brother , you that professe so much solicitous care to poore bodies , let some drops of your charity fall upon their soules . and at the least , and last extremity , call in that postscript of yours , and suppresse it in the presse , that it may never see the sunne ; as wherein you proscribe all those , that are not of your dependent presbytery : for you tell us , it is to come forth a fortnight hence , in the which it will be proved , that it is the duty of all christian magistrates , parents , masters of families , and all such as truly feare god , to yeeld their hand for the suppressing of heresies , and all novelties in religion , if they really desire the glory of god , &c. and what you meane by your heresies and novelties in religion , is obvious to all by this your booke already come forth , independency is heresie , and novelty in religion , and what not , that nought is ? now did ever proceed out of the mouth of a quondam-martyr , and one newly brought out of a balefull prison , such a fiery breath as this ? oh brother , remember thy selfe , and repent ; and let the world know , that thou hast made a better use of afflictions , then so fiercely to run on in such a course , as to wreck the malignity of a prison upon thy best friends , the seed of whose love , so liberally sowne upon thee and thine , expected another-gates harvest , then nettles , bryars , and thornes . but you bring the scripture for you . come on , brother , let you and me try it out by the dint of this sword . and truly , i shall by the helpe of my god make no long worke of it . you spend above eleven sheets , wherein you have woven sundry long threaden arguments , to measure out your dependent presbytery , as holding parallell with the line of scripture . now you must pardon me , if i shall assay ( according to an old proverbe ) with one stroake of phocions hatchet , to cut in two the long thread of your alcibiadian fluent and luxuriant rhetorications . for answer . first , let me aske you a question : whether those many congregations you so call , you doe not understand to be so many distinct , and particular intire church-bodies , or churches respectively . if they be , tell us , if each of these churches be 〈◊〉 its prime and proper notion an intire church , without or before it be united in such a presbyterian combination , and government , as you speake of . and if so , whether it be de esse , or de bene esse , of the being , or onely well-being of each particular church , so to be united , and combined into a church-collective , of many churches into one . if you say , it is of the being of a church , to be yoaked with other churches , as into one , then what being had that church in abrahams family , seeing there were then no other churches in the world , but that ? and if that were extraordinary , ( as perhaps you will say ) then say i , when churches are multiplied , and combined into one , whether is this church collective dependent , or independent ? if dependent , then not an entire church , but subordinate unto , or depending upon some greater assembly . but come we to the highest of all , a generall counsell of all the churches in the world : is this now , a church dependent , or independent ? if independent , then there may be a church independent in the world ; and so the first particular church in the world , was no lesse an independent church , in reference to other churches . and if all churches in one oecumenicall councell , as one church , be dependent , then whereupon dependent ? or is it a dependent on it selfe ? that were blasphemy to say it . whereon then ? surely on the scripture or nothing . all churches then are dependent upon the scripture necessarily : not so necessarily one church upon another , whether particular or generall . ergo , all particular churches being not necessarily dependent one upon another , nor one upon many , but absolutely dependent upon the scripture for their ultimate or finall resolutions , are no lesse independent upon other churches ; because all the churches in the world put together , cannot of themselves give forth an infallible oracle ; as to say , this wee command to be beleeved and observed . this is antichrists voyce , volumus & jubenius . the church , or churches may shew their reasons from scripture , and labour to perswade , but cannot binde them upon faith or conscience ; this the holy ghost and scripture can onely doe . but i come briefly to your arguments , whereby you would prove your classicall presbyterian government , and so upward . the patterne hereof you take from the christian church at jerusalem . hereof many arguments , or rather words , and tantologies you multiply , and toyle your selfe and vex your reader withall , which you might have reduced to one . it is in summe , this : in jerusalem were many christian congregations , and all these made but one church , and so were governed by one presbytery . but that church at jerusalem , being the prime apostolicke church , is a patterne for all succeeding churches : ergo , all church-government ought to be regulated by that , and consequently by a presbytery over many congregations . for as for your indefinite enumeration of those multitudes baptized by john baptist , and by christs disciples , we take no notice of them , unlesse formed into a church , or churches : but following the expresse scripture , the first formed church wee finde in act. . which though consisting of five thousand , yet it was one intire particular church , and not churches ; and they continued daily {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} , with one accord in one place together , ( ver. . ) and in the temple , ( ver. . . ) growing from a hundred and twenty ( act. . . ) to three thousand more , ( chap. . . ) and then in all five thousand ( chap. . . ) and all these but one church , which assembled together to heare the word in the temple ; and though they wanted a convenient place so spacious , as wherein to breake bread , or receive the lords supper all together , so as they were constrained to sever themselves into divers companies , in severall private houses to communicate , yet this severing was not a dividing of the church into so many distinct formall churches , or church-bodies , being but so many branches of one and the same particular church ; which though you call so many congregations , yet properly so many churches they were not . and therefore you never read , the churches at or in jerusalem , but , the church at jerusalem . and this no nationall church neither , witnesse those churches in judea , gal. . . whereupon i answer to your argument ; and first to your proposition . i deny that those congregations you name , are so many churches , properly so called , having their distinct officers and members , united into one church-body respectively . this i put you to prove . and without proving it , your or shee●… spent about this argument prove to be meere wast paper . and for your assumption , that the church at jerusalem , as being a prime apostolicke church , is therefore a patterne for all succeeding churches , and therefore for a classicall presbytery over many churches ▪ you must first prove your proposition , as before , that there were many churches in jerusalem constituted in their distinct formes , and bodies . secondly , it being no more , then one entire particular church ( and not any diocesan , or provinciall church , or the presbytery thereof classicall , ( as you would beare us in hand ) it is a patterne for all particular churches in succeeding ages ; and yet ( by your favour ) not so perfect a patterne , as no apostolicke church besides it should also come in , to make up the patterne compleat . for we are necessarily to take all the churches in the new testament together , to make up one entire & perfect church patterne . for in the church at jerusalem , we finde election of officers , but we finde not expressed that part of discipline ; for casting out of corrupt members , as in the church of corinth , and so in the rest . for the churches were not brought forth to full perfection in one day . their very constitution had a graduall growth . the church at jerusalem had not at first deacons , till there was a necessitie ; and the largenesse of the church required seven deacons ; which is no patterne for every church to have seven deacons . the summe is , to make up a compleat patterne , not onely the church at jerusalem , but that of corinth , of ephesus , those of gal●tia , that of philippi , and the rest ; are to be conferred together , that each may cast in its shot to make up the full reckoning , that so what is not expressed in one , may be supplied by the rest , to make one entire platforme . for the scripture consists of many books , as so many members in one body ; one member cannot say to another , * i have no need of thee . againe , the church at jerusalem , if it must be a patterne for all other churches , then in this , that all other churches must be subject to some one church , because ( act. . ) things in question were there debated , and determined , and sent to other churches to be observed . but for as much as that church at that time in those things was infallibly guided by the holy ghost , wherewith the apostles there were inspired , in which respect their resolutions were with authoritie , it pleased the holy ghost and us , ( that which no particular church since the apostles could ever say ) it followeth that the church then at jerusalem remaines not in all things a patterne for other churches ; for a patterne must be in all things imitable , and perfect . lastly , for appeales , so much agitated , and pressed , i have said enough before , and elsewhere ( as in my vindication ) to vindicate the right use of that in point of church matters . and so i passe briefly from your first question to your second ; which is concerning the manner of gathering of churches , and admitting members and officers : viz : whether ministers of the gospel may , out of already congregated assemblies of believers , select and choose the most principall of them into a church-fellowship peculiar unto themselves , and admit of none into their societie , but such as shall enter in by a private covenant , and are allowed of by the consent and approbation of all the congregation . this is your generall stating of your question ; and out of the wombe thereof , there doth issue a numerous brood , no lesse then six queries , or if you will ( to usurpe your owne usuall expression ) so many sucking questions , hanging at the dugs of their damme , your generall question . for answer to all in their order : but before i answer , let mee premise thus much : brother , i well see ( and that without spectacles ) that among all those independents whom you so familiarly hurle stones at , and cast up dust , yea durt in their faces , i am not the least object in your eye , as by many palpable passages in your booke doth appeare . and therefore i shall crave leave , that i may have the favour to represent and personate all those my brethren the ministers , whom giantlike you revile and challenge , and warre against under the name of independents , as taking this take upon my selfe alone , in answering this your question about gathering of churches . first then to your generall stating of the question . you say , it concernes the manner of gathering . do you imply here the lawfulnesse of the matter of gathering , by questioning onely the manner ? your words may seeme to import so much . but i will not quarrell a word . i come to your question , viz. whether ministers of the gospel , &c. surely if any , then ministers of the gospel may gather churches : and that for two reasons ; first , because by the gospel , & the ministry thereof , churches are gathered to christ . secondly , because we read , that the apostles ▪ and other ministers of the gospel have by their ministry gathered churches . therefore no question , but if any , then ministers of the gospel may gather churches to christ . i , but out of already congregated assemblies of believers , to select and choose the most principall of them . indeed this is something to purpose . but tell me , brother ▪ who is it ▪ that doth this ? you apply it to us all , and to me in particular . but i deny that i so doe , and i dare say the like for others . and can you prove all those parishes , out of which churches are so gathered , as you say , to be assemblies of believers ? but they all professe to be christians . true , so doe all papists . ergo , are all popish parishes , assemblies of believers ? so as if ministers of the gospel should by their preaching convert sundry papists of severall popish parishes to become a church of christ , should they gather such a church out of so many assemblies of believers ? but ( say you ) wee gather churches out of assemblies of believing protestants . why brother , doe you not know this to be a time of reformation ? and have we not all taken the solemne covenant to reform our selves and others , according to the word of god ? and to endeavour to our power , to extirpate and roote out all popery , prelacy , idolatry and superstition out of this kingdome ? and the time of this first gathering , was it not then , when the old service and ceremonies were in use ? and who hath gathered these churches ? wee . who are we that you should thus charge us ? as peter and john answered , why looke yee so on us ? so , why doe yee impute that to us , which is onely to be attributed to the gospel of the grace of god , whereby our very protestants are wonne from their old superstitions , and will-worship , and from under the yoake of humane formes in the matters of christs kingdome ? so as when they heare , christ is the onely king of his kingdome , the onely law-giver of his church , and his word the onely law and rule of all church-government , and all this demonstrated in the word of god , which they have taken a solemne covenant in all things to follow : doe you reproach us , for being a people who are ready to obey christ , so soone as wee heare of him , who alone is to be heard in all things , whatsoever he shall say unto us ? and for churches , doe you , brother , limit churches to parishes ? what if you finde so many hundred parishes in england , whose inhabitants both ministers and people are all malignants , or popishly-affected ? will you have those parishes to be so many churches , and those popish malignants , so many believers ? were not this to set up ecclesiam malignantium , or churches malignant , which are no way militant , but against the power of religion , and the peace of the civill state ? or if there be found some one or two in each of those parishes , that have the love of christ in them , and are truly godly , and whose soules are grieved to communicate with sodome : will you not allow god to send an angel , his messenger , with a word to call them forth ? and doe you not know , that the ancient church of the jewes was then a church , when the apostles by their preaching gathered a church out of it ? a christian church out of the jewes synagogue ? i , say you , but we gather christian churches out of christian churches . surely then it is gods word that calleth christians to come into a more reformed church-way , out of wayes more corrupt and lesse reformed . nor doe wee separate from the churches as christian , as you call them , but from their corruptions , * separating the precious from the vile , as from something antichristian . but you will say , now are the parishes and churches purged , no service-book now , no hierarchy , no such thing , and yet wee select and choose the most principall into a church-fellowship peculiar unto our selves . to which i answer : though the service-book , hierarchy , &c. be taken away , yet the parishes are not so purged of them , but that most mens hearts are still hankering after that egyptian-service and task-masters . again , all those that professe to be come off from those things , yet are not resolved what religion to take to , but are ready to take up ( as themselves say , and do ) what religion men will set up over them , not looking to what the scripture prescribes and commands ; so as it remains , that those who embrace the word , and preferre christs decrees before mans , are those principall men , whom not we , but the word of christ doth call forth , select and choose voluntarily to joyn in church-fellowship ; and this not so peculiar to our selves , but that when a right reformation is set up in the severall places where they dwell , they may enjoy the pure ordinances there , as i have shewed in my vindication . and if you examine who they be that have joyned themselves unto the lord , either of this parish , or of other , you shall find them to be for their outward estate , ( in comparison of others ) none of those principall men you speak of . but say you , wee admit of none into our society , but such as shall enter in by a private covenant . now the very name of covenant is become a bug-bear to many . but it is mightily mistaken , as i have shewed in my vindication : for it is nothing else , but a declaration of a free assent , and voluntary agreement to walk in the wayes of christ with the church , whereof they are members , and to perform all service of love one to another , submitting themselves to the order and ordinance of christ , in that church respectively . so that it is not the name of covenant that is so terrible , but the order of church-communion ; and this to those only , that having used to walk without a yoak ( as the scripture calls sons of belial ) love not to come under the yoak of christ , then which to a willing bearer nothing is more easie and sweet . but lastly , you say , they must be allowed of by the consent and approbation of all the congregation . and ( i pray ) what harm in that ? nay , doth it not stand with very good reason , that they who are to walk together , should first be agreed together ? as amos . . can two walk together , except they be agreed ? if therefore any one of the congregation can object any thing , as a just cause of non-admittance of a member , he ought to shew it , not only for his own peace , but the peace of the church . therefore , to object such things as these , doth it argue a spirit favouring of such a holy humility , as becomes those who affect the society of saints ? and when the whole church gives approbation in this kind , it is both to the church and the member admitted , a comfort , and withall , a discharge of their duty in a provident care for preventing inconveniences and scandals ; seeing it is easier for a guest to be kept out , then to be cast out . thus much of your question in generall ; which because i have met with it in the severall branches , i shall need to say the lesse to those queries which you derive from it . and in truth they are rather captions then queries ; and the first is answered in my former stating of the question . for the second , to know those well , that are to be admitted , abundans ca●tela non nocet : in things weighty , we cannot be too wary ; nor do we so much look at circumstances in conversion , as the substance . the third , for the consent of the congregation , it is answered before : so also the fourth , about the covenant . the fifth , for the power of the keys , wee tie it not to womens girdles . the sixth , and last , i answer , that those churches , which are for matter and form , true churches , and are governed according to christs word , do set up christ as king upon his throne . and for such as are otherwise , let them consider , whether they do as they ought , set up christ as king upon his throne . you proceed , i have ( say you ) specified the things without any spirit of bitternesse . in deed , this your first book ( as we finde by tracing your steps in other tracts ) is a summary collection of what they have gone before you in , whose thread hath led you all the way through this maze : but when you come ( as in your postscript ) to minister your own dosis , and to show your self in your own element , there wee finde the main ingredient to be the very gall of bitternesse , which yet your first book is not altogether free of . pag. . you say , the apostles , and other ministers of the gospell were to receive all such as believed , and were baptized , and that upon the profession of their faith and repentance , without any further testimony of others , unlesse they had been formerly known to be open enemies , and then they were justly to be suspected , till they had given publique evidence by witnesse to the apostles and ministers of their true conversion , as concerning paul , acts . , . now here i observe : . a notable contradiction to what you say , pag. . as gods command to all ministers was , that they should admit all such into the church , as believed and were baptized , upon their desiring it , without any confession , either private or publique . here i leave you to reconcile your own contradiction . vpon their profession , and without any confession . . i answer , that in these dayes of professed , and covenanted-for reformation , there is required the profession or confession of one speciall point of faith ▪ ( which in words ; none dare , but in practice most do deny ) touching christs kingly office , formerly suppressed by antichristian tyrannie , but now breaking forth from under the cloud in its native light , concerning his absolute , sole soveraignty over our consciences and churches , without dependence upon humane ordinances , or nationall lawes to prescribe such forms of church-government , as are most serviceable to the politicall ●nd● of severall states ; which point of faith is ( though not alwayes explicitly , yet ) implicitly confessed by all those , which ●ender themselves to be admitted into such churches , as are of a constitution most agreeable to the law and rule of christ . and withall , an implicit profession at least of their repentance is included , as having formerly lived under an antichristian government , and inventions of will-worship , all which is implicitly professed and repented of , by their very entrance into church-fellowship ; and so much the more is repentance herein needfull , because many , yea most of such conformists , if not all , have had their hands , lesse or more , either by acting , or assenting , or by silence and connivence in the persecution of those godly ministers and people , which stood out against that antichristian usurpation over their consciences , refusing conformity to their canons . so as in this case , you confesse , that our people ( formerly conformists , and now , for the greater part , but newly crope out of the shell of their bondage , being brought off from their old ceremoniall service , and this more by humane authority in generall so ordering , then of conscience ) ought not only to approve themselves by the profession of their faith , and repentance , but to have the testimony of others also , as having been formerly known to be either prest and sworn vassals , or voluntiers in the prelaticall militia , which what is it else , but a continuall war against the true church and kingdome of jesus christ ? but you adde ( pag. . ) that commission was delivered to the apostles and ministers of the gospel , as whose place only it was by the keyes to open and shut the doors of the church , and so to admit , or refuse , as they found men fitted or qualified , to be made members ; and this you labour to prove by the practice of john baptist . now , as for john baptist ( about whose gathering you have so bestirred your selfbefore , and to as little purpose ) you may observe , that those believers in christ then to come , according to the papists doctrine , were not formed into a christian church , or churches , as after christs resurrection the believers were . and when you come to visit those christian churches once constituted in their gospel-form by the apostles , you shall finde , that the power of admitting or rejecting , or casting out of members , was not in the apostles or ministers alone , but in the churches . for this , read cor. . where the whole church of the saints in corinth , to whom paul wrote , were to cast out the incestuous person ; as also afterward upon his repentance , to re-admit him , cor. . , . this one instance is a sufficient president for all churches . but you alledge that of cornelius sending to joppa for peter , he sent not ( say you ) to the church of corinth ; true , and what then ? ergo , none but the minister of the gospel hath power to admit members . it is one thing to preach , and instrumentally to convert souls , which chiefly pertains to those that are called thereunto : but in the case of church-government , of admitting ▪ or casting out , it is otherwise . and here let peter himself ( whose words you alledge ) resolve us ; who , when the holy ghost so wonderfully fell on all them that heard the word , said , can any man forbid water , that these men should not be baptized , &c. which words imply , that ifany exceptions could have ben made , it was in those jewes present , to give forth their allegations , why those believing gentiles should not be admitted to become one church with the believing jewes . so as your observations thereupon fall to the ground ; as that , first , peter was sent to , and not the church ; and , secondly , peter commanded them to be baptized : again , this example was extraordinary in all the circumstances of it ; and when you have said all , you can conclude nothing . your instance of the eunuch , acts . . of lydia , acts . as many other , are meer extravagants . we speak of churches constituted , not of single converts , here and there one , not yet joynted into a particular church-body . i passe by your impertinent declamatious against different opinions in the same house . do you reconcile them ; for christ himself foretold of them , as wee shall tell you when wee come to your postscript ; which when i mention here , doth not your minde misgive you ? but of this in due place . and where you say , all that believe , and are baptized , are by gods command to be admitted , desiring it , without any confession , or covenant : but what if they do not believe aright ? what if they not only not believe , but deny and disclaime christs kingly prerogative ? and so , what if they stiffly maintain a most damnable and destructive herefie , which overthroweth a main principall and fundamentall of faith ? if such a one , as dr. bastwick with all his ●air flourishes of holinesse , should desire to be admitted into church-fellowship , being known to be an adversary to christs kingly government over his churches , according to the gospel : might not the doctors own words satisfie , in case of refusall ( pag . ) as having been formerly known for an open enemy and persecutor of the church , and so justly to be suspected , till publique evidence by witnesse given ? although it cannot be imagined that the ba●e desiring of admittance into church-fellowship could stand with the deniall , but necessarily implies a confession of christs kingly office in its highest degree . pag. . you tell us , that our gathering of churches hath no example in scripture , and as for christs disciples , they were all sent to gather in the lost sheep of the house of israel , they went not to gather in converted amongst converted men , &c. now wee cannot have a more pregnant and more warrantable example in all scripture then this , which you here alledge against us . christs disciples gathered christian churches out of the church of the jews ; nor can you deny , but the jews were a church , when the disciples gathered churches out of it . those churches in judea ( gal. . . ) were gathered out of the church of the jewes ; and that church of the jewes generally believed that the messias , or christ , was to come . and if they were a church when many being converted , were gathered out of it , then much more churches may be gathered out of nations or kingdomes of the world , though for their generall profession of christianity , every such nation or kingdome be respectively called a church , though the new testament knowes no such church , and then not of divine constitution , as that of the jews was , even when churches christian were gathered out of it . and brother , prove unto us , that such as you call a nationall church , is a church of divine institution ; shew us an example of a nationall church in all the new testament , otherwise you do but weave the spiders web . but wee ( say you ) gather converted men from among converted men , and so pick out of others folds and flocks the best and fattest sheep . this you do familiarly cast in our dish , and yet it is never the fatter . now in this wee may justly demand of you , to prove , that those whom you call converted men , from among whom wee gather churches , be indeed so converted as they should be , when as yet they come not up close to the rule of reformation , gods word , as thereby to endeavour the setting up of christ , without waiting on men , as without whom gods word is not a sufficient rule , and as on whom wee must necessarily depend for the form and law of reformation : and yet wee deny not but many such may be godly , though otherwise they are not as yet throughly convinced of this kingly government of christ , which we endeavour after ; nay , let me go a little higher ; for as much as this is an undeniable , yea , and prime principle in divinity , that the scripture is the only rule of faith , and of worship , and church-government , and this rule is no monopoly to one man , but that all and every man hath a power and priviledge to repair to this law and testimony , to do all things according to this word : and seeing wee have all bound our selves by solemn covenant to reform our selves , and those under our charge , according to the word of god ; yea , and every one to go before other in this reformation : tell mee now , brother , were it not a matter worth the while , for our reverend and learned assembly , seriously to take it into debate , whether the generall tying up of men , to wait necessarily on the synod for its finall resolution about church-government , be not an usurpation upon our christian liberty , and a diminution , at least of the authority and sufficiency of scripture , and so consequently be not a trenching upon a fundamentall heresie ; as also an inhibition , restraining every man in his place , ministers , masters , &c. from setting upon the work of reformation , and so necessitating a violation of our covenant , or a dangerous retarding of the work , bringing in a sleepy carelesnesse upon mens spirits , to inquire at gods oracle , and so preparing a way for blind obedience ; i leave to the consideration of the wisest . but in the interim , to return to your converts ; do you hold all them to be converts , from among whom churches are gathered ? do you not allow of a difference to be put ? are there not a number of both ignorant and scandalous , that are not fit to come to the lords table ? see the directory : or do you take the greatest number in england to be godly , and truly converted ? or are there not ( trow you ) many parishes in england , where , perhaps but a few true converts are to be found ? and how few ( in comparison ) truly godly and faithfull ministers are to be found for every parish , under who●e pastorall charge , two or three sheep may safely and comfortably feed among so many goats , yea , perhaps , wolves ? or do you make every parish to be a church ? you may do well herein to deal plainly with us , whether you would have so many inhabitants as are in every parish , to be so many communicants . for so it seems you would have it : for ( pag. . ) you say , in the churches of corinth , galatia , colosse , were many that walked disorderly , taught false doctrine and heresies , and made schismes ; yet the apostles did not bid the christians to separate themselves from the communion and assemblies of the saints , and from the ordinances , for these mens causes , &c. but you may know , those churches , though in part accidentally corrupt , yet were essentially , and in their originall constitution pure and holy churches ; and so were never your parochiall churches , they never had a right divine constitution , but meerly humane and politicall . and therefore all your argumentation a dispari , falls to ground , and beats it self into a meer spume . but ( pag. . ) you plead , such ministers and churches to be true , where the truth of christ is preached , received and professed . if you mean the whole truth of christ , it is well . but do not you know , that there are three speciall visible marks of a true visible church , the gospel purely preached , the sacraments duly administred , and discipline rightly practised ? all which marks together , the church of england ( for ought i know ) is yet to seek . for ( to speak nothing here of the materialls of a true particular visible church : as visible saints ; nor of the form of it , so many members united into one church-body and fellowship , according to the gospel , which you can handly shew us in any of your parochiall congregations ) i will only ask you , what particular visible church you are a member of ( you may choose what parish you please in england ) : next , i ask you , what discipline you have in that your church ; and whether a man complaining of you to your congregation , or to your minister , for wrongs done by you , and for your scandalous walking , he shall find so much discipline there as to convent you before them , and justly charging you for walking scandalously , to the great offence and shame of the very name of christian religion , you shall thereupon be brought under ecclesiasticall censure , so as to have the scandall removed , and the offence satisfied ? good now tell me , what church either parochiall , or classicall , i should go unto ? for , suppose i have a complaint against you , for which i demand satisfaction , at the least , so as by the means of your church-censure you may be brought to a contrite acknowledgement of the wrong you have done mee . but if you cannot shew me such a church in any of your parishes , b●… is it that you affirm * christ to be set up as king in his throne in mens hearts , swayed and guided by the scepter of his word and spirit in your parochiall congregations : when as you cannot shew us ( i say ) in any one of those congregations * the name and power of our lord jesus christ to be so set up , as authoritatively and judicially to deliver over to satan , {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} , or otherwise condignly to censure such a one , as whose brother complains of to that congregation , for unsufferable wrongs , and most base and barbarous usage , unbeseeming a naturall heathen , much lesse a professed christian ? and here i challenge our brother for taking christs name in vain , when in stead of finding christ set upon his throne in their congregations , wee finde there no more but an image , such as michal had made up in stead of king david ; or as those , that in mockery , made of christ a pageant-king , stripping him , and putting on him a scarlet robe , and on his head a crown of thornes , and in his hand a reed , saluting him with , hail king of the jewes , with which title over his head they crucified him . and therefore those passages which ( page , . ) he quotes of his brother ( though not named ) will stand good against their opposers ▪ the summe of which is this : that all that depend upon men for church-government , and not upon christ and his word alone , doe deny christs kingly government over consciences and churches : that all that receive not christs kingly office in the full extent of it , but after manifestation , doe reject it , are at the best converted but in part , and so in a worse condition , then those who though they believed , yet they had not so much as heard there was a holy ghost , but hearing , they received him : that such as refuse to be in covenant with christ , or to make profession or confession thereof before men , want their evidence of their being gods people , and so quantum in se , as much as in them lyeth , cut off their children from having interest in baptisme , the externall seale of the covenant . and therefore seeing such things are objected , how doth it concerne both ministers and people to looke to their evidences ? to omit his tedious tautologies all along ( being the bombast of the booke ) to pag. . there he saith , when the ministers of england teach this doctrine in their preachings and writings , how can they be truly said to deny , disclaime , and preach against christs kingly government over mens consciences and churches ? it were well if they did truly indeed preach it , which few or none of them doe . or if they doe truly preach it , why doe they not practise it , and perswade the people to depend upon christ for it , and not upon men ? but ( pag. . ) the ministers of england set up a presbytery after gods word . this you can never yet prove unto us , untill wee may see it . but the independents themselves are presbyterians ( say you ) and labour ●o set up a presbytery of their own . thus here , and all along you carry it with a torrent of words , and that is all . wee set up that presbytery , which wee finde in gods word , and none other . then ( pag. . ) you fall againe upon the strictnesse used in admission of members , which ( say you ) the apostles used not . but wee know , that all those who were admitted by them , did first make confession of their faith and repentance , as mat. . . acts. . . act. , . act. . . and the apostles feared to receiv●paul , as their fellow-apostle , untill they had examined the truth thereof . and ( pag. . ) you charge us with making schismes , &c. surely we are commanded to separate our selves from all corruptions of the world , and humane inventions ; as cor. . . acts . . and this , when a christian church began to be gathered out of that of the jewes . pag. . you inveigh against new truths , and new lights , as you every where nauseously call them : and say , where was it ever heard of , either in the christian or pagan world , that it was ever permitted to any minister or preacher , to have all the pulpits in any nation to preach a diverse doctrine to that whi●h is set up by authoritie , and such as tends to make a faction and division amongst the people ? i doe most assuredly beleeve , that there cannot the like precedent be produced . so you . no ? what say you of that precedent of the apostles , who in the temple daily preached a diversed doctrine , to that of the pharisees ? so of john baptist . so of christ . and this in judea , which was a parallel at least to a nationall christian church , onely that was originally founded upon divine institution , but this not so . and for the pagan world , what innumerable precedents are there , of preaching the gospel , and constituting of churches , even throughout the pagan world ? and all this divers to that which was set up by mans authoritie , whether jewish , or paganish . and as our brother here , so did the high priests in their counsells charge the apostles , saying , * yee have filled jerusalem with your doctrine . a new doctrine , a new truth , a new light . so act. . . tertullus , with his rhetoricke , being feed by the high priest and the elders , makes a declamation against paul , saying , wee have found this m●m●… pestilent fellow , and a mover of sedition among all the jewes throughout the world , and a ringleader of the sect of the nazarens . and this word nazarens , signifies the sect of saparatists , of whom the apostle is there maliciously marked , as the {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} ▪ the ring-leader . the like out-cry we have , act. . . men of israel , helpe : this is the man , that teacheth all men every where against the people , and the law , and this place , &c. nor want wee a pagan precedent , act. . where diana's silver-shrine-maker , what a dust he raiseth in the whole citie , saying ; yee see and heare , that not alone at ephesus , but almost throughout all asia , this paul hath perswaded and turned away much people , saying , that they be no gods which be made with hands . thus you see paul , and the other apostles , and evangelists , found pulpits every where , both among the jewes and gentiles , though they preached a divers doctrine , to that set up by authoritie . and must christ have no other doctrine or church-government in the world , then that which is set up by the worlds authoritie ? surely , this is a new light indeed , if a light at all ; a new doctrine , diverse to that which christ hath set up by his divine authoritie . but this doctrine ( say you ) tends to make a faction and division among the people . and did pauls , and the apostles doctrine escape the scourge of this whip ? note all the places forecited , with many more throughout the new testament , and all ages , where the gospel in its purity and power is preached . but one thing more i must not passe , without a note . how doth our brother make good his exclamation : was it ever beard of either in the christian or pagan world , that it was ever permitted to preachers , to have all the pulpits in a nation to preach a divers doctrine , & c ? and is it so indeed ? have we all the pulpits in the kingdome ? i hope your brother t. e. by his pen and preaching , and you by your pen , will take an order for that , that wee shall not have all the pulpits , no nor any at all with your good will witnesse that late mis-●ule at your towne of colchester , upon your books , and t. e. his preaching . and therefore this may be placed among your grolleries . and for the jewish synagogues tolerated among the heathen , if we may not have the pulpits , good now envie us not our synagogues . be not worse to us , then the heathen were , and are , as you give us sundry examples , pag. ibid. . page you call the people of the presbyterian independent congregation , a company of wild geese . but wee are not yet come to your postscript ; where pag. . you call them silly goslings following the old goose . yet here you acknowledge that the elders have oftentimes great abilities of wit , and scholarship , learning and eloquence : which in your postscript you universally strip them of , except onely two for breed . the rest of your booke to the end , being all along overgrowne with nettles , stinging upon every touch , and the sharper still , the neerer it drawes to the postscript , ( as , worse then * diotrephes , or the pope ▪ * most diabolicall tyranny , lording it over gods clergies , * fellows of gotham colledge , not knowing their prim●r in politicks , nor their catechisme in divinitie , and the like ) we gladly passe ove● untouched , as being all prickles , and no pith . onely one sharper then all the rest , i may not be unaware of , which you call , the weapon of the left hand , namely , the sword , which you would have the magistrate to take up to suppresse our brethren the independents ( as you style them ) calling that man a ninny , and a man unworthy to sit in counsell in any state , that should say with gamaliel , refraine from these men , for if their worke , or counsell be of god , yee cannot overthrow it , lest yee be found fighters against god ; and so let them goe on to doe mischiefe . for herein ( say you ) gamaliel spake neither as a wise man , nor as a christian . thus our brother drawing neere the end of this his booke , hath drawne it so low neere the bottome , that the very lees of it begin to run atilt , and that remaines , is reserved to be powred forth in the postscript . the postscript . this whole postscript is a very c●nto & farrago , or hodge-podge of invectives , sarcasmes , scurrilous scoffs , incendiary incentives to stirre up the state , and all sorts of people , to root out , and cut off all those that are of the independent way , as they call it . i shall onely note some of his passages all along , to prevent ( if it may be ) the nauseousnesse of the reader by brevitie . and first in his defence against calumnies , being in way of a preface to his postscript . page . they affirmed ( saith he ) that i was the greatest incendiary in the kingdome , and that they would prove it ; and page . they calumniate me as the greatest incendiary of the kingdome , which they accused me of before they had seene my booke ; and i have been freed from that reproach by both houses of parliament , who adjudged all my sufferings unjust . answ. but now they may bring your booke for a proofe and witnesse , whether you be not one of the greatest incendiaries in the land . and for this i shall quote but two places , as two witnesses for confirmation hereof . the first is in your preface , pag. . they ( alwayes meaning the independents ) have the sword now in their hand , and they thinke their party strong enough to encounter any adverse and opposing party , and they professe they care not how soone they come to cutting of throats , and speake of nothing but the slanghtering and butchering of the presbyterians . and therefore there is just cause given us to thinke we may expect better quarter from the very enemies , then from the independents . the second witnesse is ( postscript pag. . ) that they were all resolved to have the liberty of their consciences , or else they would make use of their swords , which they have already in their hands . now these two witnesses of your owne , want but a judge , judicially to pronounce sentence , whether these words be not of an incendiary nature , and that in a high degree . for who so blind , as doth not cleerly see these fiery flashes and flames to fly in the face of that army , which god hath honoured with many crownes of admirable victories , both at yorke , at nasby , and at lamport , with the recovery of leicester , bridgewater , bath , &c. so as god hath made this despised army the preservative of citie and countrey , the * repairer of the breach , the restorer of the paths to dwell in . but doe they professe the butchery of the presbyterians ? produce them ; bring your witnesses . these words are not to be borne . but i leave the judgement thereof to the wisdome and justice of the parliament , whose former freeing of you , extends not to cleare your words from being incendiary . and further to discover your spirit against those worthies in the army , you goe about to eclipse the glory of that famous victory at marston m●ore . for , speaking contemptuously of it , you say , some of the independents stood to it in the battle of yorke , when other of them run away ; for they ran as well as others ; and if they be not lyers , all the other independents had run away too , and left the field , if they had known what had happened in the other parts of the army . so you , with many other words of elevation , and slighting that party , by whose noble prowesse , and undaunted courage , god was pleased to give the victory , and even then when a great body of the army deserted the field . and whereas you say , they saw not the flight , else they would have fled too for company , if ( say you ) they be not lyers ; or if you say true . but i can produce those that were actors in that battle , and are no independents , that affirme , there was no running away at all , of those whose valour you so vilifie ; yea , though they did perceive how the matter went with some , as when a whole body flies , a thing with no great difficulty to be discerned . the rest of your vilifications so much exaggerated upon these men , are so nauseous , as every ingenuous reader will loath them . and notorious is that you say , as by experience , i know not any independent in england ( two onely excepted ) that doe not as maliciously and impla●ably hate the presbyterians , as the mortallest enemies they have in the world . now surely were all the presbyterians in england of your spirit , though the independents would not maliciously hate you , as presbyterians , yet cause you would give them sufficient to beware of you , as of their mortallest enemies in the world . and you boldly conclude , saying ; it is a meere faction , and the most pharisaicall , proud , envious , and malicious sect , that ever sprung up ; doing all out of an arrogant faction ; as cunning as gypsies , &c. now the lord rebuke the rayling rabshakees . pag. . he commends the kings cavaliers for brave gentlemen ; and he found more favour ( which he doth ever acknowledge for a singular courtesie ) then ever he found from protestant gaolers . was it that you discovered unto them some of that bitternesse of spirit against the independents , or some courtly compliance with papists , preferring them before independents or protestants , that made those popish cavaliers so much to applaud you ? but doe the independents accuse your booke , as worthy to be burnt by the common hangman , and that you are crased in your braine ? surely , there is so much fire in the bowels of your booke , ( as in the trojan horse ) that a wonder it is , it hath not all this while set it selfe on fire , & with it selfe ( like that tongue in james . ) the whole frame of nature . and for your braine , you may doe well to use your physicall inspection . page . neither have i ( say you ) forgot , that i was a sufferer , or am now a persecutor of the saints , as they calumniate mee . it were well if you would forget & forgoe to be a persecutor of the saints , and that upon your repentance god would forgive you , as those saints are ready to doe . there is no greater persecution , then that of the tongue and pen , sharper then swords and speares . no sorer persecution then esaus scoffs , and the jewes tongue-smitings . but most transcendent from a brother , a companion in tribulations , a familiar friend . et tu brute ? and yet all your scoffs and hard speeches , and bitter reproachings of those , whom you must needs confesse to be saints , will not amount to the least item of persecution . that were pitie . what thinke you of the like speech the late prelate of canterbury used in his * booke to the king ? god forbid ( saith he ) that i should perswade persecution in any kinde , or practise it in the least . did this protestation ( trow you ) cleare him from being a notorious , yea , unparalleld persecutor ? witnesse both your eares and mine . but you doe but oppose the saints heresies and novelties in religion . but must that needs be heresie , which you account heresie ? or that noveltie , which appeares so to those that measure things rather by custome , then truth ? and doe you not no lesse oppose , vilifie , disgrace , jeare , and scoffe at their persons ? doe you not call them * beasts ? * grolls ? puffoists ? wild geese ? old geese ? a company of jugglers ? sticklers against parliament and presbytery ? a generation of cunning and crafty jugglers ? cunning deceivers ? and fighters against god ? violaters of all the lawes of god and nature ? the most dangerous sect that ever yet the world produced ? a company of ratts among joyn'd stooles ? despisers of magistracy ? a generation of men , not worthy to give guts to a beare ? moone-calves ? all the independents put together , have not so much learning as any one of a thousand other ministers ? a wheele-barrow ( such as they trundle white-wine-vinegar on ) fitter for them then a coach ? stirring up all along magistrates and people to cut them off ? making them odious to the scots ? speaking nothing but daggers , and daring ? and what not ? now is all this no opposing of the persons of those you call independents ? to conclude all : you tell us a story of some that fight against their christian brethren ; and to that end in the frontispices of their books set downe christs words , mat. . , , . thinke not that i am come to send peace on the earth ; i came not to send peace , but a sword , &c. well : what of this ? out of which words , misunderstood ( say you ) they would perswade the people , and make them believe , that they have good warrant and ground to fight against their christian brethren , for the maintenance of their owne whimsies . but brother , who is this you speake of ? who hath done thus ? they ? what they ? you put it in the plurall , in their frontispices . you know , dolosus v●rsatur in universalibus . but is it in any more then one onely frontispice ? and have more then one done it ? and what one ? you describe him ( pag. . ) as not knowing his name , but one who is no novice , younker , and fresh-water souldier , but a grave man with a great white basket-hilted beard . why , brother , what needed all these periphrases and circumlocutions ? you might much more honestly , ingenuously , and candidly have said , my brother burton , then thus slily and disgracefully to take him by the beard , or serpent-like , to come behind him , and bite him by the heele . but this is not all . how comes it , that you fasten upon your brother such a false glosse , as that he should perswade the people , and make them believe , that from christs words , they have good warrant and ground to fight against their christian brethren ? brother , i must needs here challenge you of extreame violation , not onely of brotherly charitie , but even of the lawes of common humanitie . doe you ( out of no other ground but meere malice , as all the world must needs judge ) hatch a cockatrice-egge , a senselesse , whimsie in your own braine , and then lay your dead childe by mee , and take my living childe from mee , as you have done , in framing your own false sense , and putting it for mine , and taking my true sense , and making it your owne ? brother , what 's become , i say not of your brotherhood , but of your manhood ? or did you thinke to cover your selfe with your owne cobweb , that the palpable nakedness of your shiftless and shameless affront should not be seene ? surely , this is enough , not onely to discover the hollow of your heart , but the shallow of your braine , and to bring in the verdict of the whole universe , that you are a man , not onely whose heart is divided , but whose head is , &c. salve it as you can . now the lord jesus christ reprove you for this , and give you repentance for this your more then unnaturall dealing , that i may not say diabolicall , certainly not christian , even your best friends being judges . and for the grollery and dotage you put upon your brother , ( ibid. and pag. . ) as abusing the scripture , when your self most grossely abuse both it and him ; assure your self , your brother is not yet come to that dotage , but for all your vauntings on your part , and vilifying of his , he dare , through the help of christ , deale with dr. bastwick hand to hand , as neither admiring your learning , nor envying your roman buff , wherein your chief strength most lyeth , except in your scoffing , scurrilous , malicious bitter biting ; yea , bloody language , in which faculty , as facile princeps , you do so tripudiate and glory . but in your last book , which you style ( but how justly ) a just defence , &c. you would seem to teach us another rule to walk by , which it seems you had not then learned , when you writ your postscript : we ought not ( say you ) per latus unius totam gentem perstringere ▪ you tel the liev. colonel , that he should not have condemned the whole councel for a few , but should have singled them out , and by name have aspersed them ▪ and why did not you then rather call me by my name , as your brother burton ( as our brother prynne hath done ) then to hale me out by my great white basket-hilted beard , as some hideous monster , or ridiculous spectacle to the world ? and whereas ( ibid. ) you adde , that you have written nothing in your books against the independents , wherein you can be convinced of a lie : for ( say you ) i write nothing in my books against the independents , but what upon my own knowledge i can affirm to be true , yea , depose it too . now to go no further then this one instance of your dealing with mee ( aliâs your brother ) in fathering upon mee such a damnable and diabolicall glosse , being the spurious brat of your own brain ; what say you ? do you know it of your own knowledge to be so , that because i set that scripture in the front of my book , therefore my meaning was , hereby to perswade the people , and make them believe , that they have good warrant and ground to fight against their christian brethren for the maintenance of their own whimsies ? they be your own words , and you may take the whimsies in to boot . now , did i ever so perswade the people , or make them believe so ? nay , i will put it to your own conscience ( as hoping you have so much left ) whether in your conscience you can so much as once imagine , that your brother could ever have the least thought that way , or the least word tending thereunto ; wherein i challenge that , {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} , the accuser of the brethren himself , whose scholar i wish not you to be . as for that other passage of your said book ( pag. . ) to let passe many other ; as touching your independent-pastor , it is as false as slie , do you and your reverend brother try it when you will . an appendix . wherein is touched the main point of difference between the two parties , classicall or nationall , and congregationall : our brother , mr. william pryn , whose latter books ( truth triumphing , &c. and a fresh discovery , &c. ) i have meerly ( god is my record ) out of tendernesse to the present state of things , forborn to answer , hath sundry times in those books objected principally those words in my vindication , concerning christs kingly office over the churches and consciences of his people : as in truth triumphing , pag. , . and in his fresh discovery , pag. . in these words , mr. henry burton , in his vindication of churches , commonly called independent , &c. the church is a spirituall kingdome , whose only king is christ , and not man ; it is a spirituall republique , whose only law-giver is christ , and not man : a spirituall house , whose only builder and governour is christ : a spirituall corporation , whose only head is christ , and not man . no man , or power on earth , hath a kingly power over this kingdome ; no earthly law-giver may give lawes for the government of this republique ; no man can , or ought , to undertake the government of this communion of saints ; no humane power or law may intermeddle to prescribe rules for the government or form of this spirituall house , not covncels , not senates . this is christs royall prerogative , which is uncommunicable to any , to all the powers on earth . he addes my words , pag. , . wee challenge you to shew us any parliament , councel , synod , ever since the apostles , that could , or can say thus , it seemed good to the holy ghost and us , so to determine controversies of religion , to make and impose canons to bind all men , &c. shew this to us at this time , and wee will obey . but if you cannot , as you never can , never let any man presse upon us that scripture , that synod , ( acts . ) which hath no parallel in the whole world ; and so is no precedent or pattern for any councels , synods , parliaments . thus our brother sees down the words , here and there with capitalls , as if so many capitall crimes . but the worst of all is , that he ranks them under the head of his first section , containing divers seditious , scandalous , libellous passages against the authority and jurisdiction of parliaments , synods , and temporall magistrates in generall , in ecclesiasticall affaires , in the late writings of severall independent new-lights , and firebrands ; so runs the title of the section , under which hee marshals those my words , as if christ could not be sole king , lord , and law-giver over his own spirituall kingdome in the soules and assemblies of his saints , but this doctrine must needs be seditious , scandalous , and the writers thereof libellous , against civill authority , yea , firebrands , and what not ? how more equall was the heathen emperor domitian , though the author of the second persecution , who though he laboured utterly to extirpate and extinguish all the naturall kindred of christ , because hee heard that christ was a king , fearing thereby the overthrow of his empire ; yet understanding afterward , by two of christs neerest kinsmen brought before him , being but poor men , and who got their living by hard labour in husbandrie , how that christ was a king indeed , but his kingdome was not of this world , but heavenly : the emperor hereupon , ( as the story saith ) {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} , ceased the persecution against the church , by calling in his imperiall decree . i wish our brother would more seriously consider , not only of this famous example of an heathen emperour , but also upon what sound reason it is grounded : as namely , upon such a distinct specificall difference between these two kingdomes , the celestiall and the terrestriall , as that in no sort they may be confounded , or compounded into one terrene kingdome , unlesse you will set up a papall power , an harmophrodite-government , with ecce duo gladii hîc , behold here two swords , which the pope caused to be carryed before him in solemn procession the two first dayes of his new erected jubilee . and for my challenge alledged by him , it stands good still , till hee can prove those words , in the end of his truth triumphing , true , where your words are , we cannot but in christian charity expect and believe , that all the assembly and parliament resolve on , may have inscribed on its front , it seemed good to the holy ghost and vs . and then again , you must prove your reason good , whereupon you inferre this conclusion ; namely , because there be in the parliament and assembly , at least some true nathaniels and stephens , filled with the holy ghost , and so many armies of prayers in the spirit daily sent up to heaven , to bring down that spirit of truth upon them . but can a few , at least some nathaniels , among so many , carry the matters by vote , if they be many that contra-vote ? you know things go sometimes in councels , rather by number then weight , rather by tale , then truth . i doubt , whether if the true nathaniels and zealous stephens should bear the sway , it would not well please , at least our brother bastwicks palate , who altogether condemneth gamaliel and his counsell , whereby hee perswaded and swayed the whole synedrion to refrain from peter and john , for peaching christ , saving only that they escaped not a scourging . for further answer to my dear brother , i shall forbeare till a fitter season . in the mean time , i shall conclude with the words of my brother bastwick , which hee delivers as the confession of the faith of the church of england , concerning christs kingly office ; and so consequently of his own faith . that jesus christ is the only and sole king , and governour of the whole universe , to whom all power in heaven and earth is given , matth. . but more especially of his church , who by god himselfe was set king over his holy mountain , psal. . . and that hee is king of righteousnesse , hebr. . the king eternall , isai. . the king of kings , and lord of lords , apoc. . and that he doth by his mighty power and wisdome , uphold and govern all things , but with a more peculiar care , and a more speciall manner preserve and defend his church , tim. . . as that which hee hath purchased with his precious blood , and by his power redeemed out of the captivity and slavery of satan ; and that he is the head of his church , which is the body , who infuseth life into it ; righteousnesse , peace , joy , happinesse , and all the graces of wisdome and knowledge of god with certainty and assurance of his love ; and that his kingdome and empire is a spirituall and heavenly kingdome , no terrene and fading monarchy , joh. . . luke . . and is upheld and governed only by the scepter of his spirit and word , and not by the authority , vertue or wisdome of any humane power . thus dr. bastwick , and that after all his bitter reproaches cast upon his independents , who hang all that which he calls independency upon this sole hinge ; namely , that christs kingdome and empire , is a spirituall and heavenly kingdome , no terrene and fading monarchy ; and is upheld and governed only by the scepter of his spirit and word , and not by the authority , vertue or wisdome of any humane power . now if dr. bastwick will hold to his words and writing , he must needs confesse , that christ is no titular or pageant prince ( as before ) but reall and indeed : and therefore his kingdome is not to be governed according to the various and variable laws and customes of earthly kingdomes , common-wealths , countries ; but by the only scepter of his spirit and word ; otherwise the spirituall kingdome and the temporall must be confounded together , and become one kingdome , and then must either the spirituall become terrene and transitory , or else the temporall become eternall , and so make up one babylan , roma aetern● , confusion and blasphemy . and for a close , to satisfie my brother prynnes question , what i mean by so much asserting christs kingly office , as sole head , governour , law-giver of his churches , i mean , hee is the sole immediate king . and the proofs are from solid scripture , the sole rule of faith : as isai. . . and . . hos. . . matth. . , , , . mar. . . and our brother confesseth these scriptures but in part , by joyning thereto the laws and customes of kingdoms and common-weals , as a partiall rule , if not rather paramount to the sacred , canon ; as rome acknowledgeth the scripture to be the rule of faith , but partiall , joyning thereto her own traditions ; and so ● thereby , as the pharisees of old , make the word of god of no effect , through humane traditions , lawes , decrees , customes , manners of men , prince and people , protestants and papists , as well under queen mary and her parliament , as under queen elizabeth and hers ; and so regis ad exemplum : as the prince and pope , or state is affected , well or ill , christs kingdome , must chameleon-like , change both complexion and constitution . and if this satisfie not my brother , let him be pleased to reade over my vindication once again , wherein he may cleerly see , how the scripture all along sets up christ as the only governour and law-giver of his church , excluding all humane wisdome and power , from intermeddling in the regulating of his kingdome , by mans lesbian rule . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a e- sam. . , . * see the postscript , pag. . prov. . . & . . * jude . rev. . . pag. . pag. . cicer. orat. pro l. murena . act. . , joh. . . mat. . , pag. . cor. . ▪ platina : in vita bonifacii . * . cor. . page . to the second question . page . psal. . acts . ▪ acts . * esa. . . turpius ejicitur , quàm non admittitur bospes . page cor. . . page . acts . page . homily , second sermon for whitsunday . page . * cor. . . sam. . acts . . * act. . . ibid. * page . * page . * page . page . * isa. . . postsc . page . ibid. pag. . ibid. ibid. psal. . . jer. . . gal. . * relation of a conference . epist. dedic. ibid. defence , pag . * postsc . . * postsc . . . . . . page . ibid. . defence p. postsc . . pag. . . pag. , , . page . page ibid. postscript , pag. , . rev. . . eusebius eccles. hist. bon face . acts . * d. b. in his independency not gods ordinance , p. . acts . , , , . the modest vindication of henry vvalker. in answer to certaine scandalous pamphlets, forged and vented abroad in his name (withou[t]: his privity.) against which, as also the authours thereof, together with the popular aspersions of many other turbulent spirits, he doth protest; and before almighty god, clear himselfe to all the world. walker, henry, ironmonger. approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing w thomason e _ estc r this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (thomason tracts ; :e [ ]) the modest vindication of henry vvalker. in answer to certaine scandalous pamphlets, forged and vented abroad in his name (withou[t]: his privity.) against which, as also the authours thereof, together with the popular aspersions of many other turbulent spirits, he doth protest; and before almighty god, clear himselfe to all the world. walker, henry, ironmonger. , - [ ]p. [s.n.], london : printed in the yeare of our lord, [ie. ] annotation on thomason copy: "jan: ". reproduction of the original in the british library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng walker, henry, -- ironmonger. dissenters, religious -- england -- early works to . great britain -- history -- charles i, - -- early works to . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - jonathan blaney sampled and proofread - jonathan blaney text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the modest vindication of henry vvalker . in answer to certaine scandalous pamphlets , forged and vented abroad in his name ( without his privity . ) against which , as also the authours thereof , together with the popular aspersions of many other turbulent spirits , he doth protest ; and before almighty god , clear himselfe to all the world . mal. . . then spake they that feared the lord , every one to his neighbour , and the lord hearkened , and heard it , and a booke of remembrance was written . augustin in psal . . prae . vnusquisque audiat , & sicut sibi conscius fuerit , ita vel doleat corrigendus , vel guadeat approbandus . let every one heare , and as he is conscious to himselfe , so let him either grieve being to be corrected , or rejoyce being to be approved . london , printed in the yeare of our lord , . the epistle dedicatorie ▪ o pierce my heart with fervent love of thee ! the beauty of thy face , lord , let me see ! rise from thy cloudy eastern cloysters black , spread forth thy glorious beames and be not slack , to thawe my icie heart , which sinne hath frosen , assure my conscience , lord , i am thy chosen . and thou my sovereigne , charles , all europs splendor , thine enemies terrour and true faith's defend●r , thy love preserv'd my life , not heathenish fate , in thy majestick face , true princely state : when malice plotted mischief everie houre , thy clemency prevented all their power : that god which grac'd thee with a royall crowne , crown thee with grace , thy honours with renown . * all you poore soules whose eares have been abused , with scandalous reports and eyes traduced with charmes of turbulent spirits ; new take and view , this declaration honest , plain , and true . per henry walker cantab. the modest vindication of henry walker . it is an ancient saying of the learned . if a man would be in safety , and partaker of happinesse , he must of necessity have good friends , or sharp enemies , that the one by good and wise admonition , or the other by notable injuries may cause him to withdraw himself from doing of evill . they from the instinct of nature , but we by the law of god are taught to govern our selves with the reason of a true academicall prudence , who being christians are bound to shew forth the effect of that title which we beare . and i pray god , that i ( with the philosophers industrious bees ) may gather the driest , and most precious hony of faith , and patience , from the bitter time of these my troubles , not desiring revenge , ( for that would hurt me more then them ) but praying for their conversion who causelesly have sought my ruine , bequeathing unto them antistines blessing : even all the good in the world , except valour , which may make them rashly to venter upon my life . and i could heartily wish , that all those who have spued out their envy against me , may , ( by humble contrition before almighty god ) empty their soules of that wickednesse wherewith they appeare herein to be replenished ; concerning a foolish ridiculous pamphlet of tobie & his dog , put by the authour into taylours hands , and ( by him ) bastardly fathered upon me , hoping thereby to advance the profit of the presse : as also another , ( as false as foolish ) of my life and conversation , composed by , and printed for those who never knew a reason of what is therein maliciously forged : with sermons printed , pretended to be mine : and many other inveterate fictions so farre from modesty , religion , or humanity , that ( however some poore soules may be traduced to believe them yet ) upon mature deliberation , i am confident , that any rationall understanding may easily perceive the guilded poyson of invective lyes wherewith i am therein maligned , by such who have not onely fathered their own filthinesse most impudently upon me , but have so farre abused others , that they have gloried in the vast conceit of prevailing to make such men odious to the world , who indeed are happy patternes of piety : amongst whom i am no wayes worthy to be named , though their enemies have now beene mine . nothing is worse ( saith a reverend father ) then to hate men whom they know not , though they deserve to be hated . but what would that good man have said , had he now lived to see religion thus maligned , and peace violated , whereby so great a destraction is raised , both in church , and state ? the setling whereof who can expect whilst so many are seperated from , and will not be reconciled to god ? for ( as bernard saith ) how shall mans peace be ratified before god , when gods glory is violated with men : his worship despised , his faithfull ministers contemned , and the fruit of the altar , and the meat of it not regarded ? mal. . . concerning the petition to the kings majesty , for which the law hath passed on me , i doe not , neither did i ever deny , that the written copie was mine , with which how the printed pamphlet agreed , and wherein it differed , i passe by it with a modest silence : the law hath passed on me , and i freely submit to the censure of the court of justice , knowing the truth of augustine his words , iustice and peace , are two friends . yet can i not passe by the providence of god herein , rendring thanks to my dread soveraigne , that his gracious majesty would be pleased to cast the eyes of his clemency on so poore a subject , ( when so distressed ) to limit the fury of my adversaries ; which gracious favour of his hath obliged my subjection to the highest pitch of loyalty : and soared my affection so high , to love and honour him , that could i lay downe my life to do him service , i should think my death a blessed sacrifice . and thus much i can safely , and ingenuously protest before almighty god , ( and let my best thoughts fade , and hopes of blessing vanish , if my pen dissemble with my heart ) that the uttermost of my intents ( therein ) extended no further then the glory of god , the honour of his majesty , and the peace and tranquility of the church and state ; being confident , that as england was under his royall father of blessed memory , so is it under his royall majesty the happiest nation in the world , in a prince endued with true majesty , and piety ; humble in spirit , diligent in heart , affable in speech , valiant in battell , mercifull in government , the princely qualities commended in david by ambrose . who doth not know the lustre of the throne to be so glorious in his majesties pious reigne , that all the princes in the world , in their greatest glory , are but as shadowes before his splendor ? o royall soveraigne , how art thou worthy to be honoured , worthy to be loved , worthy to be desired of all that come unto thee , saying we are thy bones ? &c. and concerning those clamorous speeches , which are rumored abroad , that i should throw the said petition into his majesties coach , upon what grounds or by whom it should be raised i cannot tell , neither can i say any thing of it , onely thus much i can ingenuously protest , that i am not onely innocent , but ignorant of any such act , and so farre cleare , that i am absolutely free from all such intention in my self , or privity in others : i tooke none of them from the presse , because i then apprehended danger in what was printed , and had the printer put out what i forbad to print ( yet never writ ) that which was chiefly questioned had not beene printed : but for my part because i was not charged with it , neither heare it reported by any credible person of their owne knowledge : i doubt the truth of it : yet thus much i say , that if any man did presume to doe it , it must needs be censured an high attempt , and worthy of condigne punishment . but that which strikes me into the greatest admiration , is , to think upon what grounds the imagination of any mans judgement should apprehend mine to be tainted with brownisme , or faction ; yet have some malitious turbulent spirits branded me for a separatist , and scandalized me with preaching in conventicles , when as god knowes i am so cleare from any such action , that i was never yet a member of any separated congregation : i pray god so to heare my prayers , as i have been a faithfull member of the church of england , established by the lawes of the land , and free from conventicling with papists , brownists , anabaptists , or any factious assemblies whatsoever ; i have still laboured to practise that grave advice of augustine , which teacheth me not onely to assemble in divine worship with the congregation my self , but also to bring those into gods house which remained under my roofe . i deny not , but i have , and still doe desire , and hartily pray to god , that there may be a reformation of such things in the church as by authority shall be found fit to be reformed , according to that direction which god himselfe prescribeth in his holy word , yet with this caution that it is not for private persons , but belongs to authority to regulate the differences , and dissentions both in church , and state , to the guidance whereof every subject is bound to submit because they are the powers ordained of god , rom. . therefore i say no more of that , onely thus much ; i cannot but take notice what great cause we have to give thanks to almighty god , that we have so religious a king , whose splendour shines brighter amongst the glorious starres of his prudent senatours in the two honourable houses of parliament then all the princes in the world . when can we expect a through reformation if not now ? should gods poore saints expectations in england now be thwarted , how would their glory then be vailed ? but god be blessed their hopes , though deferred , are not lost , for the glory is not departed from israel . others question my calling , which was never yet questioned by authority , stumbling at my former life , because mechanick , to so holy a function . give me leave to speak plainly , because truly , it is well known where i was born , that i was bred a scholar , though taken from the schoole to the shop ; i returned again to that in which i most delighted , namely , learning ; and remained a student in queens colledge in cambridge , till not onely by a certificate from the said colledge , but also by a testimonie under the hands of severall able divines i was held fit to be received into orders ; after which being examined by the arch-bishops chaplain of these diocesses , i gave him such satisfaction of my fitnesse that he subscribed examinavi ▪ & approbavi , whereupon the arch-bishop gave me a f●●t , under his own hand which produced letters dimissary out of the court : then repairing to the arch-bishop of york , then b●shop of lincoln , i was presented to him by a minister , who supplied the arch-deacons place ; and from the said bishop received the charge of a deacon , and he laid his hands upon me , at which time almost twenty more students of the two famous universities of cambridge , and oxford , were also received into orders . and moreover i am resolved to appeal to authority so soon as opportunity wil permit , by whom if i be not held fit , & to whom if i give not good satisfaction , i will freely submit to their censure , calling upon god to direct both thē & me . me thinks i heare those words of s. augustine ( as it were ) sounding in mine eares , o homo ! in praeceptione cognosce quid debeas habere , in correptione tua te vitio non habere , in oratione quid vis habere . in english thus , o man ! acknowledge in everie precept what strength thou shouldest have , in every reproofe what strength by thine owne fault thou wantest , and in everie prayer , whence thou mayest have what thou wantest . lord grant , that i may so pray , so know , and so practise that i may glorifie thy name , honour my king , doe my duty , practise love , know my self , and discharge my conscience before almighty god , and all the world , which that i may do , god of his infinite mercy assist me with his holy spirit . amen . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e god. the king. people . notes for div a -e the cinick philosopher xenophon . as theophr●stus saith . as lisander admirall of●● of the laced●moians be●●●i reviled with many bitter speeches said to him who offered him that inj●●●ry . ●hil iniquius ●●am ut ode●●t homines ●●●os ignorant ●●omsi res me●●ur odium , ●●ertull . ●●aenam mo●●stabit pax ●●minum co●● deo , si to apud ho●●nes non po●●tua esse sua ●●ria ? 〈◊〉 epist . 〈…〉 . . ●●●gust . on 〈◊〉 . . pleased 〈◊〉 majesty to 〈◊〉 a speciall 〈◊〉 to the ●ges , not to ●●●ddle with life , or any 〈◊〉 or mem●●● of my body humilisspir sedulus cor●● facilis assat●●● &c forcis i● praelio , mans●●erus in imper●● &c. merito 〈◊〉 go expetirus estab univer●● populo , ut omnes ad eum venirent d●●centes , ecce nos ossa sua , &c. ambros. lib. ● offic. cap. . ●●dduce eos 〈◊〉 domum ●ei tecum , qui 〈◊〉 in domo 〈◊〉 recum . ●ugust . epist . ● . rom. . five lookes over the professors of the english bible wherein is shewed the infinite indiscreet invention, of inconsiderate, inveterate dissention about the exaltation of the propagation of that gospel which we all say, wee doe professe to beleeve : whereunto is added the english protestants resolution / published by levek hunarry. walker, henry, ironmonger. this text is an enriched version of the tcp digital transcription a of text r in the english short title catalog (wing f ). textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. the text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with morphadorner. the annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. this text has not been fully proofread approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. earlyprint project evanston,il, notre dame, in, st. louis, mo a wing f estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; :e , no ) five lookes over the professors of the english bible wherein is shewed the infinite indiscreet invention, of inconsiderate, inveterate dissention about the exaltation of the propagation of that gospel which we all say, wee doe professe to beleeve : whereunto is added the english protestants resolution / published by levek hunarry. walker, henry, ironmonger. [ ] p. printed for george lindsey, ... [l]ondon [sic] : novemb. , . illustrated t.p. levek hunarry is henry walker. cf. blc. reproduction of original in thomason collection, british library. eng dissenters, religious -- england. a r (wing f ). civilwar no five lookes over the professors of the english bible. wherein is shewed the infinite indiscreet invention, of inconsiderate, inveterate diss walker, henry, ironmonger f the rate of defects per , words puts this text in the f category of texts with or more defects per , words. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - olivia bottum sampled and proofread - olivia bottum text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion five lookes over the professors of the english bible . wherein is shewed the infinite indiscreet invention , of inconsiderate , inveterate dissention , about the exaltation of the propagation of that gospel , which we all say , wee doe professe to beleeve . whereunto is added , the english protestants resolution . published by levek hunarry . whilst we about nice poynts of scripture strive , the pope would us quite of the scripture shrive . 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 . ●…ondon printed for george lindsey . five lookes over the professors of the english bible . t●…e embleme which you see on the title of this book , doth very fitly represent unto the view of all m●…n , the present condition of the church of england , as it now is full of distraction , and trouble . in the view whereof , whosoever pleaseth to 〈◊〉 their eyes on the bible ; as it there stands opened ( which is verb●…m dei , gods o●… world revealed unto us , to teach us , for the salvation of our soule ) to be veiled with so blacke a mist , that there is now great difficultie found in the true reading thereof ; even as there was many difficulties under the law , till the 〈◊〉 was taken away , so is there now so great a veile , or rather vanity , of humerous ●…nventions under the gospell at this day in the church of england , that ( whi●… they remaine ) t●…e true protestant religion , is exceeding diffic●… to be ●…uly pro●…essed . is it not 〈◊〉 miserable thing that when england is at peace with all the world ▪ she should th●… quarr●… with her selfe ? and labour with the spider to weave out her owne bowe●…ls ▪ what england that h●…th the most absolute prince of piety in 〈◊〉 the world ! art th●…u so ev●… to be at enmi●…y with thy selfe ? thou that hast called the wi●… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ever ●…ate ; art tho●…●…ed ? thou that h●…st the 〈◊〉 preac●…d ●…o ●…rely to ●…e , art thou so rude ! oh e●… the g●…y of the world ▪ 〈◊〉 thou make thy se●…e the 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 ▪ what wan●…●…ou ( that o●…her na●… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doe thee good ! or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thou desire more o●… god , th●…n he hath done for thee ▪ o then take heed poore engla●…●…at t●…u dost not pr●…ke god to leave thee , and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ●…ove from thee : lo●…●…e tr●… ▪ 〈◊〉 peace , and learne 〈◊〉 ●…rve god . i. on the right hand at the bottome of the picture , you may behold an anabaptist , laying claime to the bible with one hand , and holding an olive branch in the other ; his laying hold to pull the bible to him , doth shew that he makes religion his pr●…tence , and desires the bible to be the judge of his cause : and the olive branch in the other hand doth declare unto us that great maxime of their doctrine : for the anabaptists teach , that whereas they seeke to have a government of the church in england , to be as it is in holland , by lay elders independant to the church of england , and that none but believers shall be of their congregation ; nor infants baptized untill they can give a reason of their faith &c. yet they hold it not lawfull to seeke it by the sword by blood , or by disobeying authority : but on●…ly to use the lawfull spirituall armes and weapons of a christian , namely faith and patience , and by prayers to call upon god that it may be so . ii. the picture at the foot on the left hand of this emblem doth likewise demonstrate unto us , that the brownists do●… also pretend religion for all their tenents , actions , wayes , who are verily perswaded that they are the true church and therefore doe admit no unsanctified person to be of their congregation , they desire to have liberty of conscience , to serve god without ceremonies , or precepts of men ▪ & to the end they may not be hindred ; they desire an independent church where they may freely assemble , & exercise after their own discipline , in the pursuit whereof ▪ the club that is in his hand doth shew that he will fight for the religion which he profess●…th ; and though he suffer never so much for his conscience , yet i●… he no whit discouraged thereat ▪ but counts ●…t 〈◊〉 ●…our to suffer for religion , being mightily perswaded that all who ar●… not of his opinion ▪ are ungodly and reprobates . iii. the great ar●…an , that stands on the left hand of the e●…eme doth shew by his pulling of the bible , that he 〈◊〉 pretends to seeke to do all thing●… according to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 god ; and these tenents he stands out stoutly for , viz. that bishops , be they never so wicked , are iure divino . that the government of the church of england , as it now stands by archbishops , bishops , &c. is so holy a government , that it is a sin to alter it . that the discipline which the prelates establish , be it what it will , is iure divino . that all the ceremonies of the church of england , bind the consciences of the people to be subdued under them . . that christ is not originally god , some of them have taught . . that the scriptures are not the onely meanes , concerning god , of all that profitably we know , and that therefore we must build our faith on that construction which the prelates of the church make of the scripture , to prevent private construction thereof : as the bishop of yorkes chaplaine , and divers others have affirmed . . that mans will is apt naturally , ( without grace ) to take or refuse any particular object , whatsoever presented unto it ; and so consequently to beleeve , that mens naturall workes , or to do that which nature telleth us ( without grace ) must needs be acceptable to god ; as some of our bishops have taught . . that the word of god can not assure us , that it is the word of god , and from thence to draw arguments to take all things upon trust from the church , whatsoever they establish . how dangerous this doctrine is to overthrow the fundamentals , and principles of a christians faith , let all men judge ? that a man may doe workes , in themselves absolutely good , and acceptable in the sight of god , as they all maintaine . that the minister hath power to absolve sin verily , and indeed , where according to his judgement he finds a person , as he conceives to repent , and beleeve ; a proud arogan●… . that a minister hath power to damne a man that is not conformable to the ceremonies of the church : as a lecturer in cornhill , and others have taught . that to be preserved from all sin in this life , is not impossible . that the church of rome ( as it now standeth ) is the family of christ , and some members of that church amongst us , are the kings best subjects , as master squire of shoreditch , and others have preached . that idolatrous wicked hereticks are members of the visible church , if they be not excommunicated , as it hath bin often taught in pauls by some of the arminians . that there is in orders given an indeleble character . that wee ought to receive the communion upon an altar , and not on a table . that the reall presence of christ is visible in the bread and wine after consecration . that the latin service ought to be in churches , as it began to be used in s. iohns colledge in cambridge . that sacraments doe give and conferre grace , and are instruments of justification , that they are as necessary in their place , and no lesse required then beliefe it selfe ; as they often have declared in their sermons . that sunday is no sabbath , as doctor poclington hath writ . these and many other things have they laboured to bring into the church , contrary both to the scripture , and the true protestant religion , professed and taught in the church england , scotland , and all other reformed churches . the sword which the arminian beareth in his hand doth shew , that hee is a man that delighteth in blood , who for the a●…ncing of his owne humour , cares not how much blood is spilt . the arminian in a word ) is one , who having gotten both swords into his hands over the protestants ; would soone fight for the pope with the one , and against the protestant with the other ; he is like the tartars , to the o●… house amongst the turks , and fights for rome , expecting to be a roman ; i pray god roote them out of the church of england , and grant us peace . iiii. on the right side of the picture you may see an honest-hearted protestant weeping ; whose tender eyes send forth aboundance of teares meekly kneeling upon his knees ▪ who being grieved to see religion clouded thus by cavilling , ●…ee labours to know god truely out of his holy word , ●…nd therefore labours to remove the veyle , that obscures it from our eyes , he is not grieved for himself alone , but for the dishonour done to god , neither doth he weepe because he is grieved , but because the church of god is so distracted ; hee ●…lies not to men , but to god , prayeth not for blood , but peace ; being grieved to see poore england thus languish . v. the pope which you see behind the bible , doth the●… unto us what a danger the church of god may be exposed to ( if god doe not helpe us ) for the pope is glad of these distractions amongst us , and would now take the opportunity to snatch away the bible from us ; he would faine take our religion away ; but we hope to send him backe againe to r●…e with a powder ; not like that in the bishops canons , 〈◊〉 with nothing but paper ▪ but the sword of the spirit of god , with which we hope he ( both root and branch ) will be utterly rooted out of the church of england , which god grant . amen . the protestants resolution . oh england , thou that 〈◊〉 so rich , and happy nation , god c●…ls on th●…e , and offers love , peace , and salvation ; g●…d ●…okes from heaven high , beholding every thing , f●…ll d●…e and pray aloud , the lord blesse charles 〈◊〉 king . religion in thy churches hath beene taught ●…ost free , a●…ve this fourescore yeares , and still it is ●…e ●…e , s●… that the romish rabble , have not power 〈◊〉 bring th●…ir doctrine in , then pray , the lord blesse charles our king . l●…ng time this land hath now beene fil'd with peace and plenty , now we are full , doe we forget ? are we so dainty , that we shall quite neglect our selves ? no i will sing , whilst i have dayes to live , the lord blesse charles our king . king charles , thou art a royall prince , and does ●…are to all the world , thy goodnesse , vertue , love , and care , all princes stand amaz'd to heare thy praise to r●…g , al●… true hearts daily pray , the lord blesse charles 〈◊〉 king ▪ 〈◊〉 is a blessing great that god ●…th england sent to t●…ee so grave , so godly , wise , a parliament ; c●…england more desire , then thus in every thing , blessed to be , oh pray , the lord blesse charles our king . oh england , would to god , thou d●…st consider well , th●… ev●… , where home war , hath to the church befell , nothing b●…●…w and misery it still doth bring , then pray for 〈◊〉 , and say , the lord blesse charles our king . come let us all ●…plore , and pray to god for peace , that all domesticke wars , and troubles soone may ●…ase , amen , amen , o lord , oh let u●… alwayes sing , and pray with all our hearts , the lord blesse charles our king . amen . the protestants sacrifice . oh lord my god for engl●…nd i ●…mplore , which in thy wrath thou now hast wounded s●…re , thy will be done , lord we submit , for mercy lord , 〈◊〉 make us fit , that we may live , and prays●…s give , to thee alway , oh heare our prayer , and doe us spare , that are but ●…lay , o send us peace good god , remove thy heavy rod , and r●…concile us unto thee , an happy union let us s●… , lord give us all g●…●…o rep●…nt , and blesse 〈◊〉 king 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . finis . a letter to a non-conformist minister of the kirk shewing the nullity of the presbyterian mission or authority to preach the gospel. calder, robert, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing c estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a letter to a non-conformist minister of the kirk shewing the nullity of the presbyterian mission or authority to preach the gospel. calder, robert, - . [ ], [i.e. ] p. printed for b. tooke, london : . attributed to robert calder. cf. nuc pre- . reproduction of original in the harvard university library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng presbyterianism -- early works to . dissenters, religious -- england -- early works to . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - john latta sampled and proofread - john latta text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a letter to a non-conformist minister of the kirk , shevving the nullity of the presbyterian mission or authority to preach the gospel . london , printed for b. tooke , at the ship in st. pauls churchyard , . to the reader . reader , it is not now the order or character of our clergy , nor their power of binding and absolving sinners , which the people have any great regard for , but onely our lungs and faculties of preaching : hence it comes to pass , that by this curiosity after preaching , the people are betray'd to the cozenage of every new light and impostor in religion , who is commonly a zealous and eloquent preacher , and so profound a dissembler , that we are not otherwise able to detect him , but by enquiring into his mission . a letter to a non-conformist minister of the kirk , shewing the nullity of the presbyterian mission and authority to preach the gospel . sir , i should be very much oblig'd to receive a satisfaction from you , which i could never give my self concerning the validity of your presbyterian mission : i conceive it to be the most material thing in difference between us ; and that it ought to be considered in the first place , there being no imposture like that of assuming to be preachers of the gospel without lawful authority . i shall here trouble you with the reasons of my dissatisfaction in this matter . first then i must crave your pardon to look backward as far as your first reforming ancestors , ( from whom presbytery does more immediately derive it self ) mr. calvin in geneva , mr. knox in scotland , &c. and then permit me to ask a certain question , which hitherto none of you would do us the kindness to resolve , who sent them to reform the church , or ( as you phrase it ) to preach the gospel ? and how should they preach except they were sent ? rom. . . which words of st. paul seem to be a question , but are indeed a full and peremptory affirmation , that no abilities of popular eloquence can qualifie any persons for preachers of the gospel , without external and lawful mission . this then i shall lay down as a foundation to what i have to say , that lawful mission is essential to a preacher of the gospel . and if so , i shall endeavour to make evident , that all your predecessors of the kirk ( how able soever as to other qualifications ) wanted this essential ; and consequently your self who derive a succession from them . grant me ( sir ) a little of your patience , and consider , there are onely these five imaginable authorities from whence they could pretend to have received it . . the spirit of god. ly , themselves or their own internal spirit . ly , or the people . ly , christ and his apostles . ly , or the church of rome . other authority or mission ( as namely , that of the greek church ) you will not pretend to . first , from the spirit of god. this you know to be the matter in question , and the eternal controversie , and the allegation of all fanaticks ; it will be therefore a reasonable demand , by what evidences did it appeare to the world ? and how shall the contemners of your gospel be left unexcusable , but by evidence of their authority who are sent to reveal it ? in the affairs of this world , ambassadors you know , must not want their credentials ; how much less the ambassadors of religion ? doubtless that of your ancestors must needs have been an embassie extraordinary , being to reform the world , over-run ( in their sense ) with idolatry and superstition . to this you answer , that the powerful gifts and sanctity of those persons were sufficient evidences of their being inspir'd by the spirit of god ; and that the conversion of many thousands from superstition to godliness was an undoubted seal to their ministry . this is the answer of all dissenters and parties of what name soever , anabaptists , behemists , &c. that they easily converted many thousands no body denies ; but whether from superstition to godliness , or onely to pride , censoriousness , and contempt of all authority , is the great controversie . nay , was it never made a note , of a man converted , ( as the excellent friendly debate observes ) that though he have a great many faults , yet he is wrought to an antipathy to bishops , common prayer and surplice ? and as to your self , i might appeal to your conscience , whether you esteem any man a right convert , that is a friend to these things . as to those powerful gifts you speak of , you do not mean any thing that is miraculous , or that other sects will not as soon pretend to : and truly as for the sanctity of your whole party , observable is the confession of mr. calvin himself , in his comment on the thirty fourth verse of the eleventh chapter of daniel ; and i promise you not to injure him in the quotation , sed in illorum exiguo numero qui sese ab idololatriis papatus subduxerunt , major pars plena est perfidia & dolis : praeclarum quidem zelum simulant ; sed si intus excutias , reperies plenos esse fraudibus . of that small number of persons ( saith he ) who profess the pure gospel , the greater part is full of perfidiousness and deceit ; they pretend an excellent zeal , but if you inspect them narrowly , you shall finde them abounding w th frauds . secondly , themselves , or their own internal spirit . it is absurd ; for so all men may become preachers of the gospel , that will assume the confidence . thirdly , the people . let us allow this authority for good : and then , i pray , will not socinians , anabaptists , behemists , fifth monarchy-men ( and who not ) enter in at this door , and plead their call by the people to reform the presbyterians ? be pleas'd to tell us what people do you mean ? if those of your own opinion , they will not in some places amount to a fourth or fifth part of the people , and must all the rest be debar'd from electing their owne preachers ? besides , you know , it is not the peoples election alone that can constitute a preacher of the gospel ; it is the mission and ordination of your predecessors , that i am now enquiring after . you cannot be ignorant concerning the popular election of ministers , that it had been disus'd many centuries before calvin ; for the tumults , factions , and confusions that attended it : the unstable people seldom or never agreeing about the persons to be elected ; and i am sure there is no precept of scripture invests them with any such power . fourthly , or will you derive your ministry from christ and his apostles ? but all dissenters proclaim their extraction from the same original : which of them shall we believe ? from christ and his apostles ! give me leave to ask whether immediately or mediately ? immediately you will not say ; if mediately , i pray inform us by whom ? or from whose hands did your puritan ancestors receive their mission and ordination ? well , fifthly , some body must send them to preach the gospel : was it the church of rome ? yes , i have heard you say ; and is not this to confess your selves the emissaries of antichrist , that man of sin , the whore of babylon ? quid christo cum belial ? but the unhappiness of it is , that this mission from rome , or romane bishops , will as soon watrant the sermons of a popish fryar , as those of your predecessors . and as to your pretended ordination from rome , there is one difficulty in it , that i confess i cannot resolve ; was it not episcopal ordination , if any , they received from that church ? and was such ordination good and valid , yea or no ? if good , wherefore will you needs abolish it , as repugnant to the word of god ? if not , what will become of your orders ? and further , i would gladly understand ; are any persons sent to go and preach the gospel after their own sense ? if so , then he that hath received mission from your kirk , may when he list become an independant or anabaptist preacher , and justifie his new doctrine by your commission . as for calvin ; beza , who wrote his life , informs us , that he was never initiated into any orders of the romane church ; nullis erat pontificiis ordinibus initiatus ; are beza's words , who being his great acquaintance and successor at geneva , could not but know it very well . i was of opinion , that your founder calvin had been in some orders , until your own beza inform'd me to the contrary . farrellus also and viret his fellow preachers in geneva , you will find in the same querpo , without orders : as for john knoz , he was ( saith mr. clark a presbyterian minister , who writes his life ) put into orders very young ; that is , when he was professedly of the roman catholique religion , he was made deacon or priest of that church , by episcopal ordination : but all this while we are to seek for their presbyterian mission : did john knox receive any authority to ordain other presbyterians ? could he confer a power on others , which he had not received , of ordaining ministers ? to say there was necessity for it , is an answer that will excuse also other dissenters , pleading the same necessity of their ministry ; of all which , our church is so sensible , that she will admit none of your brethren to her eclesiastical functions without reordination . presbyteri & diaconi praeter episcopum nihil agere pertentent , saith the fortieth canon of the apostles ; a canon which , if it were not apostolical , you cannot deny be very ancient : and do not epiphanius and saint austin recount it among the heresies of aerius , that he affirmd , bishop and presbyter were the same thing ? aerius cum esset bresbyter ( saith saint austin ) doluisse fertur , quod episcopus non potuit haeres . . ordinari , &c. aerius being a presbyter , resented his disappointment of a bishoprick ; and to satisfie his humour of revenge , would needs assert , that they are the same office . thus for ought i can see , your presbyterian ancestors had no mission at all , or no more then other dissenters , who all derive themselves from christ and his apostles , from the spirit of god , &c. sleidan a protestant historian reports in his commentaries , that luther , hearing of the multitudes assembled , by thomas muncer the famous prophet of the anabaptists , wrote an epistle to the magistrates of mulhusen a city in germany , where the said muncer remained , advising them to require of him , who sent him to preach the gospel ? and if he answered god , that he evidence it by some sign or extraordinary token ; otherwise that he be rejected , hoc enim proprium & familiare est deo ( said luther ) ut quoties consuetam & ordinariam viam velit immutari , tum voluntatem suam aliquo signo declaret . the same quaere , sir , you may at your leisure do us the favour to resolve in reference to your self . you cannot alas ! plead any necessity to reform episcopacy , but all the other sects will plead the same to reform you . nor will it relieve you to say , that by this argument the jewish church rejected christ and his apostles : the case not being the same betwixt christ and the jewish church , and between us and you . to satisfie the jews and their question , by what authority doest thou these things ? our blessed saviour appeals to the miracles which he wrought , if you believe not me , believe the works which i do . nor will it avail you to return the question upon our selves , who sent us to reform the church of rome ? this truly is no answer , but a desiring us to answer for you . be plkas'd to know then that the church of england was never of your froward and uncharitable humor in relation to that church , to reform our selves ( saith mr. hooker ) is not to sever from the church we were of before , eccles . pol. lib. . sect. . we are very sensible of their errors , and yet we confess with st. austin , there is no just necessity to divide the unity of the catholick church ; because separations in the church tend to no other end , but to discredit the christian religion , and render it less considerable , if not contemptible to its adversaries , turks and infidels : he that will admit no church ( saith primate bramhall ) but that which is spotless , with acesius , must provide a ladder for himself to climb alone to heaven . but as to your party ( sir ) i pray who gave them any authority to preach their reformation to these kingdomes ? give me leave to observe to you this passage in the racovian catechism there i remember the question is put , num ii qui docent in ecclesia ( sociniana ) ut singulari aliqua ratione mittantur opus habent ? whether the preachers of socinian doctrine , have need of any extraordinary mission ? the answer is , nullo modo , quia nullam novam , nec inauditam afferunt doctrinam , &c. that is not at all , because socinians preach no new nor strange doctrine , but that onely which is primitive and declared in the holy scriptures . the same is affirmed by mr. calvin concerning his own reformation in the preface to his institutions , which the lutherans ( you know ) will by no means admit for truth : see conradus scluselburg de theologia calvinistarum . indeed it had been somewhat , if it were not the matter in question ; or if socinians , behemists , and all the sects that ever molested the church , did not urge as much for themselvs , boasting of gospel truth . to say that your party agree with us in all the vital articles of religion , is to say what perhaps few of you believe ; for i doubt not ( if opportunity serv'd ) every sect of you would advance its respective religion , as if that onely were gospel , and all other but lyes and superstition : or if you do believe it , the more is your unhappiness to molest the church about opinions , which you do not esteem of any vital importance . i wish i could oblige you to consider , whether you ought to take upon you to reform , that is , suppress the universal order of christs church by bishops &c. banish all ancient liturgies ; the use of the creed , the lords prayer , and ten commandments out of your publique devotions ; all anniversary solemnities of christs nativity , resurrection , &c. all reverence or kneeling at the holy sacraments of christs body and blood ; revile the church ( whereof i cannot say , you but your ancestors , were made members by baptism ) with the names of superstition and idolatry . preach your desperate doctrine of absolute reprobation , and the impossibility of keeping gods commandments ; introduce your own extemporary inventions instead of liturgy : levy warr against your soveraign ; and all this without any authority ! for all these strange things i should think , sir , your ancestors had but need of some extraordinary mission . but perhaps you will answer and tell us , that there have been extraordinary prophets sent into the world without miracles , as john the baptist : and ly , that miracles are no certain signs of true prophets . as for john the baptist , you may remember the words of the angel , luke . . he was filled with the holy ghost from his mothers womb ; he shall go before in the spirit and power of elias ( a character to which your brethren will not pretend ) he was a person prophesied of many ages before his birth , isa . . . the voice of one crying in the wilderness , make strait the way of the lord , &c. ly , that miracles are no certain evidences of true prophets ; because there shall arise false christs and false prophets , which shall shew great signs and wonders , insomuch that if it were possible , they shall deceive the very elect : wherefore if they shall say unto you , behold he is in the desert , go not forth ; behold he is in the secret chambers , believe it not , math. . . that false prophets can work any miracle but deceptio visus , i do not believe . the meaning of our saviours words is this , that if any other prophet after him shall arise , assuming to be that christ or messias sent from god , though he may pretend to strange things , believe him not , go not forth after him . if new prophets , sir , though they come with a shew of miracles , are to be suspected ; shall we presently receive all the preachers of new lights , that have not so much as the pretence ? i find a late writer asserting , that in holy scripture , there be two marks by which together , not asunder , a true prophet or one newly sent from god is to be known : one is the doing of miracles ; the other is the not teaching any moral doctrine adverse to that which hath been already preach'd of old : asunder ( he saith ) neither of these is sufficient : and for proof alledgeth two places of scripture , deut. . , , . compared with matth. . . our blessed saviour and his apostles fulfilled both these marks , first , in their miracles , acts . . secondly , they taught no doctrine of morality , opposite to that which they found already established . christ came not to destroy the law , but to fulfil it , saying none other things , then what moses and the prophets did say should come to pass . but he preached a doctrine , which had all the obliging characters of vertue and goodness , of peace and love ; witness his excellent sermon on the mount ; non vox hominem sonat . there he presses the necessity of moral goodness , and keeping the commandments of god ; otherwise methinks then calvin hath done : i shall instance a remarkable passage in the second book of his institutions , the seventh chapter and fifth section . quod autem impossibilem legis observationem diximus , id est paucis verbis explicandum simul & confirmandum ; solet enim vulgo absurdissima sententia videri , ut hieronimus non dubitavit anathema illi denunciare : at quid visum sit jeronimo , nihil moror : impossibile appello , quod nec fuit unquam , & ne in posterum sit , dei ordinatione & decreto impeditur . i shall now ( saith he ) explain and confirm what i have said of the impossibility to observe the commandments : which commonly seems a very absurd assertion ; insomuch that jerom doubted not to denounce it accursed : but what seemed to him i do not care , i call that impossible which never was , and which god hath decreed that it never shall be . vertuous doctrine ! if the commandments be impossible , and that god hath decreed them so , nemo tenetur ad impossibile , alas ! we are of our selves too prone to take an allowance of sin , without this license from mr. calvin . to be short , the church of god may and ought to reform themselves in case of error , or corruption of manners : but if we once admit others to do it , unauthoriz'd or unsent , we open a wide door to all sects and heresies ; and another consequence is , we shall rest no where ; but be tossed too and fro , ( as saint paul speaks ) and carryed about with every wind of doctrine , with the various lights of all pretenders : this , one would think , hath been apparent enough in the experience of our age. not that we deny our need of amendment and reformation in this world of imperfection ; but we give heed to the admonition of our blessed saviour , john . . verily i say unto you , he that enters not by the door into the sheepfold , but climbeth up some other way , the same is a theif and a robber : not entring in at the door , signifies entring without any authority , either extraordinary , when the doctrines are new and strange , or ordinary , when they are already known and confest . for grant ( saith bishop sanderson ) for the suppression of idolatry , in case the church will not do her office , that it is lawful for any unauthoriz'd persons ( such as knox , &c. ) to take upon them to reform what they think amiss ; there can be no sufficient cause given , why by the same reason , and upon the same grounds , they may not take upon them to make laws , raise forces , administer justice , execute malefactors ( malignants ) or do any other thing the magistrate should do , in case the magistrate slack to do his duty : which if it were once granted , ( as granted it must be , in case your presbyterian reformation be justifiable ) every wise man seeth the end can be no other but vast anarchy , and confusion both in church and common-wealth : whereupon must un avoidably follow the speedy subversion both of religion and state. second sermon ad clerum on rom . this is our present case ; you a private person , pretending to no extraordinary things , say all things are amiss ; the magistrate ( and he a christian too ) is of opinion , yea , perswaded in his conscience , that you do all things amiss ; who shall be judge ? the scripture ; 't is a ridiculous answer . the scripture is a law ; and no law can ever pronounce either for one or t'other , but in the mouth of some judg. from all these premises i perswade my self , your ancestors were no prophets sent from god , but intruded themselves into the divine function : and ( as the prophet speaks ) they followed their own spirits , and prophecy'd out of their own hearts . to add one word more , consider all the prophets mentioned in holy scripture , samuel , elias , isaiah , jeremy , hosea , &c. at the beginning of their prophecies , that the world might understand their divine mission , they usually declare how and in what manner they received it , isa . . the first and second chap. of jer. so as their authority was confessed , when the matter of their prophecies was little regarded . some of them were qualified extraordinarily with the power of miracles , prophesie of future events , &c. others had the ordinary license from the schools of the prophets . in the new testament , our blessed saviour and his apostles , beside the internal excellency of their doctrine , gave the world sufficient external evidence that they were persons sent from god ; and whereas you say , that you preach no other doctrine then that of christ and his apostles , it is the answer of socinians , anabaptists , &c. and will serve every mans turn as well as yours . but in the last place , cannot you justifie your selves by the sobriety and vertue of your lives ? by the loyalty of your actions ? it is a great controversie , and i shall not take upon me to pronounce my own sence of it ; but you have heard of king james his opinion in the matter , ego a puritanis non solum a nativitate continuo vexatus sui , verum etiam in ipso matris utero propemodum extinctus , antequam in lucem editus fui . i have been disquieted ( saith he ) by the puritans from my mothers womb , &c. and his son the blessed king charles the first , from a certain intimate acquaintance with your party , writes thus to our present soveraign king charles the second ; if ever you stand in need of them , or must stand to their courtesie , you are undone ; you may never expect less of loyalty , justice , or humanity , then from those who engage into religious rebellion ; under the colours of piety , ambitious policies march , not only with greatest security , but applause , as to the populacy ; you may hear from them jacobs voice , but you shall feel they have esau's hands . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . chap. . thus i have given you the reasons of my dissatisfaction , cerning the validity of your presbyterian mission ; and i must confess that i have here expressed only some wishes , not any hopes of convincing you ; all my expectation is , that perhaps some unprejudic'd persons will believe , that your presbyterian kirk hath no advantage , in point of a solid foundation , over independents , anabaptists , &c. if instead of a pertinent answer to all this discourse , you shall please to pass your censure on the author , and say that he is some papist ; i must reply to you in the words of the excellent bishop sanderson concerning the puritan preachers . some of them , especially such as betake themselves to preaching betimes , and have not the leisure and opportunity to look much into controversies , understand very little of the true state of the question betwixt the church of rome and us ; and yet to shew their zeal against popery , are forward enough to be medling with it in the pulpit ; but with so much weakness and impertinency , that they leave the question worse then they found it ; and the hearer , if he brought any doubts with him , to go from sermon more dissatisfi'd then he came . preface to . sermons , printed anno . sect. . now , if you please , let us confer a few words about some others matters , first , concerning that principle of yours , that nothing is to be done about the worship and service of god , without express warrant or precept in the holy scriptures : and i pray inform me where has our blessed saviour or his apostles enjoyned a directory for publick prayer ? hath the spirit any need of a directory ? what divine warrant can you produce for your singing to god in a set form , & refusing to pray in a set form ? for speaking to him your sudden and extemporary thoughts , but speaking to the people with a studied and composed sermon ? in which of the gospels are to be found those three significant ceremonies required at the taking your solemn league & covenant ? first , that we must be uncovered . secondly , that we must stand up . thirdly , with our right hand lift up bare ? what express scripture have you for your form of publick pennance , called the stool of repentance ? this principle of yours ( as hath been already observed by the friendly debate ) makes that unlawful which the scripture allows ; in which we find many holy men doing those things ( without any censure ) in gods worship , which he had no where commended ; for instance , what commandment had david for his design of building a temple ? or solomon for keeping a feast of seven days for the dedication of the altar ? for erecting an altar to be ascended by steps ? expressly forbidden in the . of exod. verse . thou shalt not go up by steps unto mine altar . or what warrant had hezekiah for continuing the feast of unleavened bread seven days longer then the time appointed by the law ? chron. . . if you say that all these things possibly were warranted , though not by scripture ; but now scripture warrant is necessary , since extraordinary inspirations are ceas'd : i pray tell us what scripture have you for this very assertion , that extraordinary inspirations are ceas'd ? in a word , this principle of yours , makes the worship of god impossible : the time , the place , the vesture in which it shall be performed , being no where appointed : do not the quakers retort it upon your selves ? demanding scripture for standing in a pulpit , for preaching upon a text , and that by an hour-glass , stinting the spirit ; for wearing a cloak or gown , &c. another thing i would intreat you to reflect upon , is the reason of your displeasure at the temporal revenues and encouragement of the church of england ; that which dissenters ( if i understand them aright ) would be at , is this , that the clergy be reduced to their primitive poverty and dependance on the people ; and methinks judas hath very well expressed their sence , john . . to what purpose , is all this waste of precious ointment on the feet of christ ? might it not have been sold for three hundred pence , and given to the poor ? this he said , not that he cared for the poor , but because he had the bag , and was a thief . they do not consider , how many vertues there are requisite in a church-man , which can have no place in the house of scarcity ; how little exemplary charity , temperance or humility can be expected from a narrow estate : that we cannot say , he is a temperat man , who is so , having scarcely wherewithal to satisfie his thirst : or an humble person , whose fortune gives him small temptation to be proud . are not all christians under the same obligations of humility and contempt of riches as the clergy ? lay not up for your selves treasures upon earth , was said to all ; and is it not true in experience , that the poverty of priests must be attended with ignorance or very slender knowledg ? the necessities of our blessed saviour and his apostles upon earth , were supply'd by miracles ; and therefore their case and our's not the same . give me leave to commend to your consideration , those excellent words of king charles the first , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . chap. . the conclusion of the war , makes it evident , that the main reformation intended , was the robbing the church of its lands , and the abasing of episcopacy into presbytery ; but no necessity shall ever , i hope , drive me or mine to invade or sell the priests lands , which even pharoah 's divinity abhorred to do . if the poverty of scotland might , yet the plenty of england cannot excuse the envy and rapine of the church lands . the next work will be jeroboam 's reformation , consecrating the meanest of the people to be priests in israel , to serve their golden calves , who have enriched themselves with the churches patrimony . again , be pleas'd to reflect on your displeasure at the liturgy of the church of england . some of you are for no forms at all ; others are for liturgy , but it must be reformed . in the history of the reign of queen elizabeth , this passage is observable : four classes of presbyterians , complained of the liturgy to the lord burleigh then secretary of state ; his lordship bad them go and make a better ; whereupon the first classis went and fram'd a new one , somewhat near that of geneva ; this the second classis dislikes , and alters in six hundred particulars ; which alteration was excepted against by the third classis ; and what the third resolved upon , the fourth would not consent to : thus your party expect a satisfaction about the worship of god , which is impossible to be given you . as to your praying by the spirit , there is a certain doubt in it , which hitherto none of you would do us the favour to resolve : either you mean praying by the spirit of god , or by your own spirits ; if you conceive the words and matter of your prayer by the dictate of the holy ghost , then are your prayers as much the word of god as any of david's psalms , or as any part of the bible ; and , being written from your mouths , may become canonical scripture . if by praying with the spirit , you only mean that you are inspir'd with devout affections , then there is nothing in your prayers , but what others may pretend to , as well as your selves . in brief , since you do not pretend to entertain your people with immediate inspirations , you oblige them to a service they know not what ; to offer up prayers , whereof they know not a syllable , nor your self neither , before you begin : if you know them before hand , either for matter or words , then they cannot be extempore , as you would have the people believe ; peradventure the reason why the people fancy your prayers , is , their variety ; they love not to go where they must be always entertain'd with the same expressions ; but if the sence of our own infirmities ( which are always the same ) cannot oblige us to pray , why should a set of new words do it ? consider those words of the blessed martyr king charles the first . some men are so impatient , not to use in all their devotions their own invention and gifts , that they wholly cast away and contemn the lords prayer . i ever thought that the proud ostentation of mens own abilities for invention , and the vain affectation of variety for expressions in publick prayer , merits a greater brand of sin , then that which they call coldness or barrenness ; nor are men in those novelties , less subject to formal and superficial tempers ( as to their hearts ) then in the use of constant forms , where not the words , but mens hearts are to blame . i make no doubt but a man may be very formal in the most extemporary variety , and very fervently devout in the most wonted expressions : nor is god more a god of variety , then of constancy ; nor are constant forms of prayer , more likely to flat and hinder the spirit of prayer , then unpremeditated and confused variety , to distract and lose it . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e in vita calvini . his commandments are not grievous , john . . in praefacione monitoria . about the year . see the friendly debate . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a murmurer breton, nicholas, ?- ? approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a stc estc s ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : or : ) a murmurer breton, nicholas, ?- ? [ ] p. printed by robert ravvorth, and are to be sold by iohn wright, at his shop neere christ-church gate, london : . illustrated t.p. signatures: a⁸(-a ) b-f⁸ g⁴. identified as stc a at reel : . reproductions of originals in the folger shakespeare library (reel ) and harvard university. library (reel ). created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng dissenters, religious -- england -- controversial literature. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - elspeth healey sampled and proofread - elspeth healey text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a murmurer . london printed by robert ravvorth , and are to be sold by iohn wright , at his shop neere christ-church gate . . to the right honorable , the lords of his maiesties most honorable priuie counsell . right honorable , it cannot bee vnknowne to your wisedomes , how perilous a thing , both to the crowne , the peeres , and the nobles ; yea and to all the parts of the common-wea●th , is the vngratious , vngodly , yea , prophane , & hellish humor of murmuring : especially against god , the king , or any their ordeyned magistrates , in a kingdome : for the cure wherof , what care is to be taken , your discreet considerations can determine : and knowing in your honorable dispositions , an assured hate vnto all such vnpleasing and vnprofitable spirits , as no doubt , but you wil weed , out frō the good hearbs in the groūd of your charge ; and again , how blessed a thing , the vniō of harts wil be to your honorable spirits , whose continual care of the preseruatiō , both of our king , and his vvhole kingdom , deserueth no little honor : i haue presumed rather vpō your honorable pardons , of what may offend your patience , then your fauorable acceptāce of my vnvvorthy seruice , to present your honors vvith a little tract against murmurers & murmuring , in vvhich if i haue passed anie thing displeasing to your good patience , hūblie crauing pardon , i attēd the sorrovv of my imperfection , but if i haue in any thing contented the least of your good likings , i will leaue murmurers to the fruite of their malice , and pray to god , so to blesse your good minds , that you may find out such offendors , and giue them the due of their desert ; and in your selues , among your selues , may be so lincked in your loues , that to god and his maiestie , you may euer liue togither in your seruice , that when wickednes is weeded out , and grace is planted in the place , god may be pleased , the king best preserued , and the common wealth best gouerned : so fearing with tediousnes , to be a trouble to your good patience , beseeching god to blesse you al , with as much happines , as murmurers are worthy to want , i humbly rest . your honors in all humblenes , to the reader . let me intreat you ( by the kindnes i hope in you ) to bee perswaded that what i haue written in this little tract , is rather done to reueale the follie of a malitious humor , then to taxe any person with the infection : the labour is not long , nor the sence obscure ; the substance whereof , leauing to the censure of your discretion , or correction of your good patience , with my loue to your kind desert , i rest as i find cause . against murmurers , and murmuring . oh murmurer , what wouldest thou haue ? was there euer any kingdome so many years , and so many waies blessed ? and thou in it , so little worthy of thy comforts , and so worthy of the contrarie : is not thy earth fertill ? are not thy riuers sweet ? is not thy aire temperate ? are not thy citties faire , thy people rich , thy men strong , thy women fruitfull , thy magistrates wise , and thy king gratious ? are not thy seas as a wall to defend thee from the assaults of thine enemies ? and hath not thy peace bred such a plentie , as maks thee admired in the whole vvorld ? hast thou not vvith all this , the richest iewel in the world ? yea , and more vvorthy then the vvhole vvorld ? vvhich is the heauenly vvord of god , to direct thee in his holy vvill ? and vvil not al this suffice thee , to bring thee to the seruice of thy god ? to acknovvledge his goodnes , to admire his greatnes , & to giue glory to his maiestie ? vvhat shall i then say vnto thee ? but as i said in the beginning : oh vvhat vvouldst thou haue ? in the time of blindnes , vvhen the booke of life vvas shut from thy reading , vvhen thy learned preachers , and zealous people vvere put vnto the fire , vvhen ciuil vvarres did breed thy penury , and thy forraine enimies vvere readie to inuade thee , vvhē thy gouernour vvas a tyrant , thy life a bondage , & thy estate a miserie , then hovv glad vvouldest thou haue bin , to haue tasted the least of the blessings ? that novv thou art full of ; and then vvouldest thou haue prayed for deliuerance from thy sorrovves , and ioyed in the least hope , that might haue cleered thy heauy heart : and art thou novv so hard harted ? so ill natured , so void of sēce , or so full of ingratitude ? that thou canst not conceiue , thou vvilt not acknovvledge , thou dost not vnderstand , or vvilt not bee thankfull , for this great measure of grace that god hath bestovved vpon thee ? vvhat then wil becōe of thee ? but let me aske thee , what doth aile thee ? is ease a griefe ? pleasure a paine ? peace a trifle ? plentie a toy ? a good king , a small blessing ? a graue counsaile , a meane comfort , and the vvord of god , a slight ievvell ? learned preachers , and profoūd lawiers little blessing ; what shall i then say vnto thee ? but that they are ill bestovved on thee ; doest thou murmure at religion ? is it not better to serue god , then man ? and to beleeue the truth , then follovv error ? to vvorship god in the heauens , then make a kind of god on the earth , and to begge pardon of thy god at home ; then to buy it of a man abroad : dost thou murmure that the saints are not worshiped ? and wilt thou forget to vvorship god aboue ? wilt thou murmur at thy loyalty ? & learne the witch-craft of rebellion ? wilt thou forget thy vocation , and fal into the sin of presumption ? are these the fruites of thy deuotion ? fie vpon thy follie , that hast no more tast of discretiō : wouldest thou rather hear the vvord ? & vnderstand it not , then vnderstand it , and beleeue it ? or trust rather to the vvord of a priest for thy cōfort , then to thine ovvne faith for thy saluation : oh pittiful imperfection ! vvhat shall i say vnto thee ? but onely pray for thee ; that god vvil forgiue thee , & opē the eyes of thy vnderstanding , that by the light of his grace , thou maist get out of thy darknes , and beholding the greatnesse of his mercy , giue glorie to his holy maiestie . leaue therfore thy murmuring , and turne it to thanksgiuing , that so great a part of the vvorld , being shut vp in the caue of error , thou vvalkest in the vnderstanding path , of the perfection of all truth : least if thou continue in thy accursed nature , thy gratious god , seeing thy vngratfulnes ; either depriue thee of thy comfort , or cast thee into vtter darknes ; vvhile the buls of rome shal breed too many calues in britanie : again , dost thou murmur at peace ? hast thou a spirit of discord ? dost thou delight in blood ? oh brood of caine , looke on thy brother abell , & heare the curse on thy condition : doest thou vvalke in quiet ? vvorke in quiet ? eat in quiet ? sleep in quiet is thy vvife in thy bosome ? thy children at thy table ? thy seruāts in thy busines ? do thy friends come to see thee ? thy neighbours salute thee ? & thine enemies liue from thee ? doth musicke fill thine eares ? beautie thine eyes ? wisdome thy heart ? and treasure thy mind ? and are all these benefits to be despised , and this peace not to bee applauded ? god forbid : when children with drums strike marches of mirth , and trumpets sound dances in stead of deadly marches ; when men may sing , women dance , and children play ; & altogether reioyce ▪ and giue praises vnto god ; is this peace to be murmured at ? fie vppon such wicked spirits , that can bee possest with such hellish humors : leaue therefore thy murmuring at this great blessing of peace , and giue glory vnto god for the comfort of so great a grace ; for by it thou possessest more thē all the world without it : for though by labour may wealth be gotten , and by wisedome honor , yet without that blessing of peace through the malice of ambitiō , thou maist soone loose all that thou enioyest : pray then for the cōtinuance of so great a comfort , and murmure not at the ordināce of god , in so gracious a shewing of so glorious a mercy : shew not the dogged nature , of such a deuilish spirit , to drowne thy soule in the delight of bloud : thinke on the miserie of ciuill warres , or what warres soeuer ; subuersion of states , death of princes , massacres of people , teares of widdowes , cries of children , citties burning , tyrants killing , terror spoiling , and hearts dispairing ; when thou shalt see before thy face , thy wife dishonoured , thy daughter deflowred , thine infant slaine , and thy selfe made a slaue to villanie ▪ and if it possible might be , a hell vpon earth , where deuils like men , or men like deuils , seeke the destruction of the whole world . murmure not then at the ioyfull blessing of peace , but imbrace it with such thankfulnes , as may continue thy happines , least vvhen thou vvouldest haue peace thou canst not , because vvhen thou haddest it , thou regardest it not : againe , dost thou murmure at plentie ? pittie but thou shouldest want that is necessarie , vvho hadst rather see thy brother starue then to releeue him out of thy aboundance : oh vngratious wretch , so far from the feeling of gods grace , that for a priuat gain wouldst wish a general griefe , like a miser that pinching his belly to spare his purse , wold see the death of a vvhole kingdome , to fill vp one corner of his cofers : or doest thou murmure at the plentie of another , beholding thine own penury ? why , remēber thou broghtest nothing into the vvorld , nor shalt carry any thing with thee out of it , and what thou hast , is but lent thee , & shal be taken frō thee , or thou frō it : cāst thou not then content thy selfe vvith thy portion ? and rather labour for thine own good , then enuy at the welth of another ? or dost thou murmur at the vvealth of many , and thine own pouerty ? looke into thy self , and see if there be not more poorer , then richer then thy selfe ; and if not , yet , that thou art not alone to beare the burthen of thy crosse . but hadst thou rather see a bare haruest , a naked tree , a thin meadow , and a blasted vineyard ? then thy barnes full of corn , thy stacks full of hay , thy trees full of fruite , and thy vessels full of vvine ? canst thou so much forget god , to bee vnthankfull for his blessings , and bee so vnnaturall to thine owne heart , as to seeke the miserie of thine owne soule ? what dogge would shew so diuellish a nature ? haddest thou rather gnaw vpō a crust , then haue a whole loafe ? sippe of a little cruse , then drinke of a full cup ? vveare a peece of a ragge , then a vvhole suite of apparrell ? and a penny in thy purse , rather then thy chest full of gold ? then art thou either a foole , that vnderstandest not vvhat is good for thee ; or a dogge , that dispisest that is giuen thee ; or a deuill , in not acknovvledgeing the goodnes of thy god tovvards thee : hadst thou rather see a table without meat , a stable vvithout horses , a pasture vvithout cattell , & a purse vvithout a pennie ; then good meate , faire horses , fat cattle , and a full purse ? oh monster of nature , vvhat dost thou then among men ? leaue therefore thy murmuring , and let me thus farre aduise thee : what thou hast , spend not vainly ; what thou gainest , get not vilely ; vvhat thou vvantest , beare patiently ; and vvhat thou giuest , giue frankely , & murmure not to part vvith thy plēty , nor at the plentie of another , for plentie is a blessing of god , vvhich taken thankfully , breeds many comforts , while penury is a plague , either inflicted vpon sinne , or sent for a triall of vertue , vvhere patience possessing the soule , the bodie may bee the better seruant . murmur not therfore at the blessing of plentie , either vpon thy selfe , or others . againe , dost thou murmure at ease ? oh vvhat madnes doth possesse thee ? hadst thou rather tire out thy body , thē giue rest to thy mind ? and labor out thy heart , thē giue cōfort to thy spirit ? hadst thou rather mourn thē sing ? cry then laugh ? run thē vvalke ? & be beaten of thine enemie , thē be kissed of thy friend ? hadst thou rather watch two nights , thē sleep one ? vvorke ten dayes , then play one ? and fast ten vveekes thē fare vvel one ? i do not beleeue thee , or els beleeue thee to be mad . hadst thou rather ride a hard trotter , thē an ambler ? sit on a pitchforke thē a pillovv ? lie on a board thē a bed ? if thy vvil so much exceed thy vvit , i shall neuer take thee for a reasonable creature ; & therfore murmure not at ease , vvhich to nature is so cōfortable , & to reason so acceptable : but doest thou murmur at ease in others , & pain in thy self ? others may haue the ease thou wātest , & thou the ease they cannot haue : they may sit while thou walkest , but perhaps walke whē thou sleepest : they may haue health , & thou sicknesse , yet thy conscience may be at better quiet : they may fare delicately , & thou hardly , yet thy stomacke may disgest better : they may possesse more , yet thou be better contented . murmure not therefore at ease , either in thy selfe , or other , for it is a blessing sooner lost then gottē ; & murmuring is the worke of malice , which once setled in the minde , ouerthrowes more then bodie , when many kinds of diseases robbe the heart of all ease . again , dar'st thou murmure at thy king , that hee is not in all thinges to thy minde : traitor vnto god and man , hovv canst thou excuse thy villany ? whē if thou canst cōsider his worth , & confesse his worthynesse , thou wilt hate thine ovvne soule , to cōceiue one discontentiue thought of his maiestie , or the least thought of hurt to his sacred person : but , base wretch that thou art , to grudge at that vvhich thou canst not iudge off , or to inioy that thou art not vvorthy off : for , if thy king vvere vnlearned , it might be a sorrovve to thy heart ; if irreligious , a torment to thy soule ; if of base linage , it might haue bin a vvound to thyne honor ; if tiranously minded , a vvoe to thy comfort ▪ if vvickedly inclined , a plague to thy patience : but of a royall lyne , from the loynes of many kinges , and frō one kingdome to an other , or rather by vniting of kingdomes to make a monarchie of peace , to the admiration of the vvorld , so profoundly read in the rules of best learning , and so vvell linguist in the most necessary languages , as are gratious in his person , and maiesticall in his place ; in religion , so zelous ; in disposition , so vertuous ; in mercie , so gracious ; as both for his presence and his spirit , is vvorthy to be honored , honorably loued , and louingly serued . hovv canst thou be so vile of disposition , or senceles of good , as to murmure at so great a blessing , as god hath giuē thee in his gouernmēt ? doest thou murmure at his pleasures , and loue the same thy selfe ? doeth he hunt and delight in dogges ? better to nourish dogs , vvho shevv but their natures , and vvill bee at their masters seruice , then to maintain those monsters of men , that cōtrary to the nature of men , vvill murmure at the welfare of their master . again , hadst thou a king vvithout a queene , thou mightst fear trouble through vvant of issue , but so gracious a queene , and the mother of so blessed children , so princely a progenie , as may glad the hearts of the vvhole kingdome ; villain to thine owne soule , that vvilt murmure at these comforts , and not be thankefull for these blessings ? did he hunt thine heires from their possessiōs ? their heads from their shoulders ? thy preachers from their churches ? or thy cities from their liberties ? then hadst thou cause to grieue , but hast no vvarrant to murmure : but hee that seeketh thy safetie , continueth thy peace , encreaseth thy plentie , and maintayneth thy pleasure , is louing to thee , reioyceth in thy loue , and deserues to be loued of thee , what deuill can possesse thee , that such a king cānot please thee ? wouldst thou haue him gouerned by thee , vvho gouernes the vvhole kingdome besides thee ? thou art foolish , vvho being a subiect , vvouldest bee a king ; and how canst thou thinke to gouerne , vvhen thou hast not learned to be gouerned ? againe , canst thou by thy policie vnite kingdōs , as he hath don by his person ? art thou so wel allied as to link such loue in royall lines ? no , thou art not ; and if thou vvert ▪ yet god hath made thee a subiect , and therefore make not thy selfe a rebell , but rather learne hovv to obey his vvill , then to murmure at his gouernment : be thankefull to god for the much good in him , and murmure not at the euill that thou misconceiuest in him ; least god seeing thy vilenesse , bring thy villany to light , and vvith a shamefull death giue thee the due of thy desert : leaue then to murmure at him , and be thankfull for him , murmure not at his greatnesse , considering his goodnesse ; nor at his case , for thou knovvest not his care ; nor at his vvealth , cōsidering his vvorthinesse ; nor at his povver , considering his vvisdom : but loue him , serue him , honour him , and obey him , and be thankfull to the maiesty of the heauens , that thou mayest behold such a maiesty on earth : murmure not at the tribute thou payest him , for all thou hast is too little for his seruice : murmure not at the seruice thou dost him , for thou canst neuer doe him ynough for his vvorthines : murmure not at thy vvant of his bountie , least he see more thy greedinesse then good vvil . in summe , murmure not at him , not any thing that may dislike thee in him , least god making him see thy vvickednes , thy life make ansvver for thy folly , vvhile continuing in thy murmuring till thy death , it carry thee headlong to the deuill . againe , dost thou murmure at the counsel , either for the povver of their authoritie , the honour of their place , or the state of their possessions ? looke backe into thy selfe , and bee ashamed of thy sinne : is not the care of the commonwealth the course of iustice , the quiet of the state , and the preseruation of the vvhole kingdome vnder god and his maiestie , in the hands of those magistrats , vvhose vvisdome deserueth honour , vvhose care deserueth praise , vvhose labour deferueth vvealth , and vvhose vvil deserueth obedience ; and canst thou ( sencelesse wretch ) fretting in melancholy , not able to discerne the least part of their perfectiōs , offend thy god , thy king , thy state , yea , thy selfe , and thine owne soule , vvith the wicked humor of ingratitude ? vvhich growne out of ignorance , bred in enuie , growes vp in ambition , & shall die in ignominie : fie vpon thy inhumane nature ; that , abiding nothing that is good , doest onely seede vpon euill : vvho being carelesse of order , vvouldest haue no law ; dissolute in thy vvill , vvilt endure no counsaile ; fond in thy vvit , makest no reckoning of wisedome : and not knowing the labour of studie , vvouldest allow nothing for the studient . oh vvhat a cōmon vvoe would be in that commonvvealth , vvhere thou shouldest haue power to appoint gouernours ? but leaue thy murmuring at them , reuerence them in their places , honor them in their vvisedomes , loue them in their vertues , serue them in their worthinesse , and obey them in their commaunds : least finding thy condition , they take order vvith thy disposition , vvhen to vveede out such a venemous serpent , is necessary for the preseruing of better spirits : for murmurers are like to mutiners , vvhere one cursed villaine may be the ruine of a whole camp ; for which , if there vvere not martiall lawe , there vvere no life for the souldior , nor honour in armes . againe , doest thou murmure at the lawyer ? oh vvitlesse creature , how wouldest thou keepe thy landes , goods , or houses ? if there vvere no law to maintaine thy right ? how wouldest thou haue thy vvrongs redressed , if there vvere no power of iustice ? how should the king gouerne , and the subiect bee gouerned , but by the course of lawe ? and are not the iudges , counsellors , and true administers of the law , rather to bee honoured for their learning , and rewarded for their labours , then to bee murmured at for their seruice : but liue thou within the limits of the law , and thou vvilt not murmure at their lawes : for vvho hateth the iudge but the theefe , the traytor , the cosener , or the consumer ? and therefore murmure at thy selfe , and leaue murmuring at lawyers . againe , doest thou murmure at the vvord of god ? oh , child of the diuell ? is it not the key of grace , that openeth the gate of heauen ? and the lamp of loue that giues light vnto the way of life ? is it not the comfort of the heart ? and the food of the soule ? and being a iewell of such price , as all the vvorld cānot purchase ; a treasure of that vvorth , that all the vvorld cannot value : a ioy of that nature , that dooth rauish the soules of the elect : what shall i say to thee ? but , thou art a deuill incarnate , that so farre from the spirit of grace , canst bee vngratefull for so gracious a blessing , or murmure at so glorious a gift of mercie : for to scorue the tidings of saluation , is to hasten the vvay vnto damnation ? note , vvhat it is to murmure , and the estate of murmurers . coran , dathan , and abiram , murmured at moses : what became of them ? the earth swallowed them . pharaoh murmured at the israelites : what vvas his reward ? drowned vvith all his hoast in the red sea. josephs brethren murmured at him : what became of them ? they became all his seruants . saule murmured at dauids tenne thousands : what vvas his end ? hee killed himselfe . iudas murmured at the boxe of oyle , that vvas poured on christs head : what vvas his reward ? hee hanged himselfe . take heede therefore , murmure not at the word , nor at the will of god , least thy reward bee vvith the reprobate : for if thou murmure at god , the deuill vvill meete vvith thee ; if thou scorne the word of god , vvickednesse vvill follow thee ; if thou murmure at the grace of god , hell vvill gape to receiue thee . leaue therefore thy murmuring at god , his word , his grace , or his will , least vvith lucifer , thou bee throwne out of heauen with caine bee accursed , or vvith esau loose thy blessings on the earth ; and learne vvith abell to serue god , vvith abraham to beleeue in god , vvith dauid to loue god , vvith iob to feare god , with moyses to honour god , and vvith christ to obey god ; and then shall the deuill haue no power to make thee murmure at god. but let me come to particulars ; doest thou murmure at this man , or that man , for this cause , or that cause ? oh vnhappie vvretch , how doest thou trouble thy selfe ? call thy wits a little better together , and vveigh thy thoughts in an euen ballance : if thou bee vviser then another , that is preferred before thee , it may bee hee is more honourable : if thou bee more noble , hee may bee more vvise : if thou more learned , hee more valiant : if thou more valiant , hee more vvealthie : if thou more vvealthy , hee more honest ; if thou hast a good face , hee may haue a better body ; if thou a good body , he a better face ; if thou a good face and body , he a better vvit ; if thou a better vvit , he a better heart ; if thou an honest heart , yet hee a more gracious soule : and therefore , if another be aduaunced , and thou displaced , haue patience , and murmure not ; for , vvhat knowest thou vvhether god vvill blesse his humilitie , and correct thy pride , or make him swell till hee burst , and make a triall of thy loue in the truth of thy patience ▪ but let me see vvith thy murmuring , vvhat manner of man hee should be , vvhom thou wouldest haue moulded to thy minde ; if thou be tall of stature , then lesse then thou , are dwarfes ; if low of stature , thē tall men are cyants ; if of a meane stature , then that is the best proportion : so that except all bee as thou art , thou vvilt find fault vvith god in his creation , or nature in her generation , or ( through lacke of vvit ) vvith fortune , in her indiscretion , in preferring such before thee , as thou fondly thinkest should come behind thee : when , if thou haddest thine owne eyes , thou shouldest see in the glasse of truth so many imperfections in thy selfe , as in the conceit of vnworthinesse , might make thee rather come behind many , then goe before any , and rather grieue at thy selfe , then murmure at an other : art thou finical & fantasticall ? and wouldst haue a man to thine owne mind ? what manner of man shall he be ? shaped like a picture ? countenanced like a bride ? and talke like a player ? oh fine foole , how thou wouldest haue the signe of a man stand for a man ? and if thou be such a one , wouldest thou haue all like thy selfe ? alas , the world is so full of fooles alreadie , that there is no need of any more of them : and therefore leaue thy murmuring , and fal to some beter reckoning , least thy account come to worse then nothing , and while thou art wise in thine owne conceit , there may bee more hope of a foole then of thee : doest thou murmure to see a traueller aduanced for his vertue , while thou art forgotten for thy seruice ? perhaps his knowledge is more worth then thy toile , and he hath taken paines , while thou hast liued at ease : art thou a trauailer , and murmurest at the home seruant ? perhaps , hee hath gotten more wealth at home , then thou abroad , and taken paines at home , while thou hast had pleasure abroad ; and what knovvest thou , vvhether the vvisedome of state , or rather the vvill of god , thinke it necessarie , to make a tryall of thy condition , ere they revvarde thy deserts : for aduancement may bee a hurt to ambition , vvhile humilitie begins her heauen in this vvorld . murmure not therefore at the good of another , nor grieue at the nature of thine own crosse : for , vvhen patience doth kindly carry it , it is the best badge of a christian ; and doest thou murmure to see one of base linage come to honour , vvhile thou liuest in disgrace ? take heed that hee bee not the first , and thou the last of a noble house , and rather learne to thriue by his vertue , then continue thy decay by thine owne folly . in summe , leaue thy murmuring at the vvill of god , or the vvelfare of any man , or at thine owne vvoe ; for god hath his vvoorking in all things , and if thou vvilt be one of his children , thou must louingly allow of vvhat hee doth . but now , as to men , let me a little speake to vvomen . doest thou being faire , murmure at the preferment of a foule one , and in thy rage call her foule dowde ? alas , thinke fortune had neede to doe somewhat for her , vvhen nature is so little her friend . againe , it may bee her inward vertue might be of more worth then thy forced beautie . art thou a foule one ? and murmurest at the aduancement of a faire creature ? and in distemper of thy braine , call her picture ? fie vpon thee , so shalt thou be no mans meate , foule vvithout and vvithin : for the euill mind is more foule , then the blackest face ; and if shee bee vertuous vvith her beauty , is shee not then vvorthie of honor ? againe , dost thou murmure at the vvealth of another , vvhile thou art in pouertie ? vvhy , it may bee thou knovvest not hovv she gets it , & perhaps , thy selfe vvouldest not so haue it : doest thou murmure , that she is more suedto by louers ? vvhy , it may be she is loued for change , and thou for choise : doest thou murmure at her that hath more children then thou ? perhaps thou deseruest them not , or it may be god doth not blesse thee to thy desire . rather pray therefore then murmure , least a vvorse plague befall thee : doest thou murmure to see a vvicked vvench put thee dovvn in preferment ? vvhat doest thou knovv vvhether she haue her heauen in this vvorld , vvhich thou seekest not , or begin her hell , ere she came at it ? againe , it may be , her repentance may be gratious , vvhen thy pride may be odious : and therfore be she fair or foule ; vvise , or fond ; vvealthie or poore ; godly , or vvicked , murmure not at any vvhatsoeuer shee bee , in vvhat state soeuer thou thy selfe be : least , in fretting at others fortune , thou consume thy selfe vvith follie , vvhile he that hateth the grudging heart , plague home the spirite of mallice : but leauing vvomen as the vveaker vessels , let mee come againe to men , that should haue the stronger spirits , to withstand the power of impatience . note , i say , first of murmuring , how many incontieniences doe grow to the murmurer himselfe , and then , to other , by his meanes ; and againe , how great are the comforts of the contrary : murmuring troubleth the minde , disquiets the heart , distempereth the bodie , and sometime breedes the consumption of the purse ; it forgetteth reason , abuseth nature , sheweth disloialty , displeaseth a friend , and doth purchase an enemie : it carrieth vvit from reason , reason from grace , and nature from her selfe , yea & sometime , man , euen from god to the deuill : while patiēce enduring those perplexities , that put reason to his best power ; nature is not distempered , reason not abused , grace is embraced , and god is truely honoured , the league of amitie is continued , the law of nature is not broken ; truth is gratious , and the soule is blessed , where the body is not distempered , nor the mind disturbed , the creature is most able to giue glory to his creator : note then the differences of these two natures : murmuring , a horrible vice , and patience a heauenly vertue ; doe but think on the fruit of murmuring , and the condition , and end of murmurers , rages , frettings , wars , death , pouertie , sicknes , and sorrovv , vvhile the child is sicke of the father , the vvife of the husband , the brother of the sister , and one friend of another ; vvhat massacre , or murther hath there grovvne , but through the inuention of murmuring , and the malice of murmurers ? looke a little , if thou bee a murmurer , of vvhat kind thou art , and vvho thou art , and so note the condition of thy nature , or nature of thy condition . if thou be a man , and murmurest against god , thou art a deuill ; if thou bee a subiect , and murmure against thy king , thou art a rebell ; if thou bee a sonne and murmure against thy father , thou shewest a bastards nature ▪ if thou murmure against thy brother , an vnkind nature ; if against thy friend , an vnthankfull nature ; if against an honest man , an vnhonest nature ; if against a foole , an vnwise nature ; if against a christian , a hethenish nature ; if against a man , a dogged nature . thus thou seest by murmuring what thou shalt bee esteemed of god and man , yea , and in thine ovvne conscience , of thy selfe , either a foole , a knaue , a heathen , a bastard , a traytor , a dogge , of a deuill : and doest thou then see the villanous nature and condition of this qualitie , and wilt not leaue it ? take heede least if thou continue in it , that god vvil hate thee for it , doe not send thee to the deuill with it , who was the first author , and is the continual nourisher of it . againe thinke with thy selfe , when another man shall find thee in thy murmuring , either by thy discōtentiue countenance , or soletarie delight , sequestring thy selfe from men , to conuerse with the aire , hovv great will be thy shame to heare the skoffings , that will fall vpon thy follie ? some will say thou art mad , other , thou art foolish , another thou art dogged , but noe man , that thou art either wise , kind , or well in thy wits : againe , when thou hast reuealed thy folly to the world , and fretted thy selfe to the heart , with the humor of an euill spirit , and yet art neuer the better any way , but manie way a greate deale the worse , what canst thou thinke of thy selfe ? but fret that thou didest fret ? blush at thy shame ? grieue at thy follie , and murmure at thy selfe , that thou didst murmure at thy selfe or any other , while repentāce which bringeth sorrow , is the best fruit of such a frenzie : againe , when thou shalt see the patience of another blessed , and thy murmuring accursed , an others patience enriched , and thy impatience impouerished , an others patience aduanced , & thy murmuring disgraced , what canst thou thinke of it ? but a canker eating into thy soule worse then any fistula in thy fleshe : pray then to the heauenly surgeon for a plaster of patience , with the oyle of true repentance to cure thee of this disease , which in the worlde , at least , by all the arte of the worlde is incurable : wilt thou see a murmurer truely discribed ? that thou maiest the better hate to bee his image : behold his eyes , like a hogge , euer bent downewards as if he were looking into hell : his cheekes like an anathomie , where the fleshe from the bones doth fall , with fretting ; his browes euer wrinckled with frownes , to shew the distemper of his vnquiet braine ; his lippes euer puld inward , as if enuie would speake , and durst not ; his tongue , like the sting of a serpent , which vttereth nothing but poison ; his voice , like the hissing of an adder , which maketh musique but for hell ; his necke , like a weake piller , whereon his head stands tottering , and readie to fall ; his breast like an impostume , that is ready to burst with corruption ; & his heart , the anuile wheron the deuill frames his fireworke ; his body a trunk where sinne hath layed vp her store ; his handes like clawes , that catch at the world ; and his feete like vvinges , that make hast vnto hell : now , doest thou behold this ougly sight ? and doest not feare to bee such a monster ? what shall i then say vnto thee , but if god haue giuen thee ouer to a reprobate sence , there is no reason to be had with thee , nor hope of recouery to bee had of thee ; but , hoping a little better in thee , let me goe a little further with thee : the vvorde of god saith beati pacifici , blessed are the peace makers , thinke then it is a vvorke of the deuill to sovv sedition , and being at vvar vvith thy selfe ; hovv canst thou be at peace vvith the vvorld , except it bee the good vvarre betvvixt the spirite and the flesh , vvhere the peace of conscience ouercomes the trouble of conceit ; by patience is the soule possest , vvhich is more vvorth then the vvhole vvorld , and by murmuring is the soule lost , vvhich gon , vvhat is the gaine of the vvorld ? is it not strange that all the parts and the members of the bodie , can so vvell agree togither , and one doe seruice to another , and men , the parts and members of a common-vvealth , should be so at variance among themselues ? in the body of man , if the head ake , the heart is not vvell , if the eye be hurt , the head is distempered , the heart is diseased , and all the body is the vvorse , if the finger bee hurt , the head vvill seeke to help it , the heart hath a feeling of it , the eye vvil pittie it , and the feete vvill goe for ease for it ; if the foote bee hurt , the head , heart , and hands will seeke for cure of it , while the eye vvill be carefull to look to the dressing of it ; if the body bee diseased , the head vvith all the members vvill labour for the helpe of it , that all parts being in their perfect state , the mind or soule may be at rest : & if in this priuate body of man , all things bee brought vnto this good order , vvhat shame is it for a common-vvealth , that men should bee so out of order ? and vvhile all parts of the bodie are at the seruice of the head , to the great peace of the heart , vvhy should not all subiects ioyne togither in vnity of seruice to their king , to the greate and blessed peace of the vvhole kingdome ? god made all the parts of the bodie for the soule , and vvith the soule to serue him , and all the subiects in a kingdome to serue their king , and with their king to serue him . if the head of the bodie ake , vvill not the heart bee greatly greeued ? and euerie part feele his part of the paine of it ? and shall a king in his vvill bee displeased , and the hearte of his kingdome , the heartes of his subiects , not haue a feeling of it ? canne the eye of the bodie bee hurt , or greeued , and neither the head , heart , nor any other member bee touched vvith the paine of it ? no more can the counsell , the eye of the common vvealth bee disturbed ; but the king vvill find it , and the common-vvealth vvill feel it ; can the hand , the artificer , bee hurt ? but the common-vvealth vvill find the lacke of it , the eye with pittie vvil behold it , and the head vvith the eye , the king vvith the counsell take care for the help of it ? can the labourer , the foote be vvounded ? but the body of the state vvill feele it , the head be carefull , the eye searchfull , and the hand bee painfull in the cure of it ? and the common-vvealth ? the body bee diseased , but the king , his counsell , and euerie true subiect , vvill put to his hand for the helpe of it ? hovv then grovves this murmuring at the vvill of god in men ? vvhile there is such an agreement of the parts in man , but only by the vvorke of the deuill in man , to bring him from god and the vvorlde , to vvorke against himselfe , his seruice in the vvorld , and as hee taught it first our parēts to bring them out of paradise , so he vvil as many as he can of their posterity , to lead them into hell : but let mee tell thee , it is better that a fevv murmurers perish vvith their murmuring , then a vvhole kingdome perish vvith their mallice : in the holy vvord i find vvritten ; if thine eye offend thee , pull it out ; if thy hand offend thee , cut it off : better to enter into heauen vvith one hand , or one eye , then vvith both into hell . but all this vvhile , there is nothing spokē of the head , that must still bee kept on : so if a great man , or a meane man do offēd , cut him off , or cut him short , that he may do no hurt ; for better a mēber perish , thē the head or the hart should ake , then either the king , or the common-vvealth should bee diseased : but for the king hovvsoeuer hee bee disposed , hee must not bee disturbed : for it is vvritten , touch not mine annointed , and do my prophets no harme : againe , transgressiō is as the sin of vvitchcraft ; and vvhat greater transgression , then rebellion ? vvhich chiefly hath her breeding in murmuring . if thou hast a cruell & vvicked king , take him for a punishment , and pray for his amendment ; but murmure not at his povver : but if thou hast a good king , take him as a blessing ; and hauing a good king , be thankful to god for him , & for his prosperity , serue him , loue him , & obey him , & hate thy selfe to haue a thought of murmuring against him , or any thing cōmanded by him : looke a little more into thy glasse of murmuring , & see ( if at last thou hast the least sparke of gods grace ) vvhat thou beholdest : god in the heauēs frowning upon thee , his angels either murmuring for thee , or readie to plague thee , his seruants on the earth hating thee , and the deuill vvith his angells readie to distroy thee ; thy soule made a receptacle of sinne , thy mind made a torment to thy soule , thy heart made a greefe to thy bodie , and euerie part of thy bodie out of temper : while being driuen out of the ground of all goodnesse , thou shalt bee left in the maze of al wickednesse , where , loosing the hope of all cōfort , thou shalt liue in the hell of all miserie ; yet , a little look further into thy selfe , and into the vilenesse of thy nature , if it be touched with that infection : if the weather please thee not , thou wilt murmure at the heauens : if the world goe not with thee , thou willt murmure at the vvorlde ; if thy friend rebuke thee , thou vvllt murmure at his care of thee : if thine enemy ouercome thee , thou wilt murmure at his fortune ; if thy father bee aged , thou wilt murmure at his life ; if thy brother be thine elder , thou wilt murmure at his inheritance ; if thy neighbour grow rich , thou wilt murmure at his prosperitie ; if a stranger bee fauored , thou wilt murmure at his grace , if a begger bee releeued , thou wilt murmure at his almes ; and if a godly man bee beloued , thou wilt murmure at gods blessing ; if thou bee a woman , or a womanish man , then how many things will trouble thee ? thou wilt murmure at fashions , coulors , toies , tricks , words , gestures , and a world of such idle fancies , whē alwaies the other is the best , & nothing pleaseth but variety : hee , or shee hath the best face , the best eye , the best hand , the best legge , the best body , or the best foote , speakes best , hath the best countenance , sings best , dances best , rides best , feeds fineliest , goes gaiest , hath apparrell the best made , and weares it best : & thus all is best wher there is none good ; while , that , which should be best , serues god best , is not spokē of : for indeed , who serueth god best , will not let his spirit be led away with these idle humors : dost thou thē see the follie of this murmuring , and the hurt of so great a poyson ? seeke the cure of it by prayer , & keep it from thee by patience ; least if it once get hold of thy heart , it breed a cureles woūd in thy soule : if thou be a king , keepe thy seate ; if a courtier , know thy place ; if a scholler plie thy booke ; if a souldier , look to thine honor ; if a marchāt , take thy fortune ; if a farmer follow thy plough ; if a beggar , fal to prayer ▪ but murmur not , oh king , if thou be not an emperor ; nor courtier if thou haue not grace ; nor scholler if thou want preferment ; nor souldier if thou loose thy day ; nor marchāt , if thou loose goods ; nor farmer , if thou lose thy labor ; nor beggar if thou get bare alms : but murmuring at gods wil ; take heede that thou loose not thine owne soule , more precious to thee , then the whole world : is it not strange to see the insensible creatures , what a concord there is , and among the creatures of best sence , so great a disagreement : in musique the treble is the highest , and the base the lowest ; the tenor and counter-tenor betvveen thē : yet though euery one hath his place , when they are in their full concord , they make the sweetest harmony : so in a kingdome : a king is the highest , and the labourer the lovvest : ( i leaue out the beggar as an vnnecessary member , but only for the exercise of charity ) bur , betwixt the king and the labourer , there are counsailers , preachers , lawyers , souldiars , marchants , and artificers , and when all these togither in due allegeance to their king , doe true seruice vnto god , hovv excellent a musique is the sound of peace in such a kingdom : if the strings be out of tune , the musique will be harsh , and if the people bee out of order , the state cannot be in peace : thinke then , if among these insēsible creatures be such an vnity as is most pleasing , why should not among men bee so great an vnion ? that may bee as well pleasing as profitable ? wee canne bee contented with the gold of india , the sugar of barbary , the oyle of candie , the spices of spaine , the vvine of france , and so , of other things , of other countries , to mingle with our owne , to make a medicine for the comfort or preseruatiue of our bodies , & can we not vnite vnto our selues , a people so like our selues , & so neer vnto our selues , as might be to vs as our selues ; if we vvould looke vvith the eye of charity , vvhat blessing doth grovv of loue : nothing did part our land , but a little vvater , and nothing can part our loue , but a little vvill : but , as it may be said , of a more wilfull then wise man , who hauing a coat made all of one peece , vvas persvvaded by a tailor to haue it cut in peeces , and vveare guardes vpon the seames ; onely to set himselfe on vvorke , and make againe of the shreds , giuing that part another name , then before it had , that was nevv set on againe ; so , i may say , this land , once all one , and by vvhat perswasion , i know not cut off , was so lōg guarded , that it seemed to bee of some other stuffe , then the vvhole peece , till it pleased god by the great power of his grace , in the maiestie of our king to bring both landes againe into one : vvhich done , it now resteth , that the guards takē away , no seame of disseuering be to be seen ▪ but , the lands , as one peece of earth , enlarging the boūds of one kingdom , the people be vnited in that vniō , that , to auoid ambition , there be no dissention , and to maintaine an vnitie , there be no rebellion : for , as there is one god , one king , and one kingdome : so , there should bee one law , one loue , and one life , one voice , one heart , and one people : to the cōtradictiō wherof , whē all reasons are alleadged , it is only lacke of loue , that hindereth the heauen of such a happines ; but , what euer thou bee , that murmurest at this motion , let me say vnto thee , as the poore woman of ireland sayes to her dead husband : oh man , man , why didst thou die ? thou hadst cowes , and thou hadst a horse ; thou hadst a sword , and a shirt of male , and vvhy vvouldest thou die ? so thou hast a good king , a sweet country , a kind people , and a blessed peace , and vvhy doest thou murmure ? doest thou feare to haue many friends ? then get the among enemies , art thou vnwilling to haue many neighbours ? then liue among strangers : dost thou loue no christians , then dvvell among turkes ; or doest thou loue no men ? then liue among deuills ; or dost thou loue no house but home ? make thy graue in thy bed ; vvilt thou eate no meate but milke ? baby , sucke thy dambe , till thou bee a dizard ; vvilt thou abide no company , but thine one kindred ? lap thy selfe in thy mothers apron ; or doest thou doubt thy neighbour vvill ouerthrovv thee ? oh , let not lacke of witte so deceiue thee : for if god hath not so blest thee , as to make thee know what is good for thee , thou needest nothing more then thy selfe to vndoe thee : consider therefore of euery thing , if thou canst in the best kind , and make thy construction vvith that care , that god first may bee pleased , thy king obeyed , thy country benefited , and thy selfe contented : that vvhen the murmuring of malice is put avvay , and patience hath brought peace into thy bosome , thy hart may find the happines of that blessing , that thy soule may be ioyfull to behold vvhere , the people vnited , god is serued , the kingdome preserued , & the state most blessed , vvhere such a peace is applauded . the seas are a vvall vnto our earth , to keep it from the enimies , & shall vve vvithin our land be at vvarres vvithin our selues ? or shall vvee make a shevv of loue in our vvords , and harbour hatred in our hearts ? or shall vve be borne neighbours , & liue as strangers ? god forbid : let not the deuil so vvorke among the seruantes of god , to crosse the course of such a peace , as is so much to gods glory : our heuēly master christ iesus king of kings , vvare his coat vvithout a seame , and our king vvould haue his kingdom vvithout a seuerance : it is the vvorde of christ ; that vvhen a kingdom is deuided in it selfe , it cannot stand : if therefore vvee will bee christiās ; we must follow christ ; if vve will be subiects , we must obey our king ; if vvee vvill stand , vvee must not bee deuided : for example , to alleadge ancient histories offorrain princes , at least a farre of is needles , when neere hand before our eyes that cannot deceiue our iudgements : hovv grevv the vvars in the low countries ? but , by the malice of murmurers ? hovv grevv the massacres in france ? but , by the deuision of the princes , and noble houses ; and hovv many broyles haue beene betvvixt scotland & vs , vvhile vvee vvere in the state of deuision ? againe , hovv strong are the states vvhere they are vnited in the lovv coūtries , hovv is france inriched by his peace ? and hovv are vve ; or at least may bee vvith gods blessing strengthened by this vnion ? esope telleth a prettie tale to this purpose : that a father hauing many sonnes often disagreeing , and as it vvere at iarre one vvith another , called them before him , and caused euery one to bring vnto him , a little rod , or vvand , vvhich taken of them , he bound them vp altogither in one bundel ; vvhich made fast vvith a bād , he gaue to euery one of his sons , one after another to breake ; vvhich they found impossible : whereupon the father tooke out euerie rod , and gaue one to each one of his sonnes to breake , which was quicklie performed : now quoth the father , ye see my sōnes of vvhat a strength is loue , vvher heartes are vnited togither ; for as these vvandes , so are yee ; strong vvhen yee are knit togither in the band of brotherly loue , & vveake and to be broken , vvhen you are diuided one from another ▪ surelie so it may be said of vs : if vve be vnited , and knitte togither in the band of brotherlie loue , our strength vvill be great to vvithstand our enimies ; but if vve fall at variance , vvhat peace can continue betvvixt vs ? nay vvhat hurt shal vve do vnto our selues , vvhile the enimie vvill be ready to inuade vs ? it is vvritten . o quam bonum et iucundū ? fratres concordare in vnum ? oh hovv blessed a thing it is bretheren to agree in vnitie ? are vve not all bretheren in christ ? bretheren in respect of our neere birth ? bretheren in our language ? & is it not possible for our liues to make vs bretheren in loues ? let vs see , vvher is the fault , vvhat is the cause ? and vvhy it should take place ? in god ? no , hee loueth vnity : in the king ? no , hee vvould haue an vnion : in the subiectes ? noe , they vvould bee obedient to their king : in the godlie ? noe , they vvould bee obedient to gods vvill : in vvhome then ? surely in none , except in some priuate persons for some priuate causes , to some priuate endes : oh then those priuate persons are not for the publique vveale : those priuate causes for no common good , and those priuate ends , are for no godly end , but hoping there are none such : i speake to none , but vvish all vvell , that all may be vvell : is not our religion all one ? and shall vvee differ in ceremonies ? and if our lavves vvere all one , should vve differ in the execution ? our earth all as one , and shall vvee then differ in nature ? vvhat should bee the cause ? but this ; vvhile god is vvorking , and the king is vvilling , the deuill is stirring , and man is striuing , but , god is aboue the deuil , and a king is aboue his kingdome ; and vvhile god is god , and the king gratious , though the deuill bee vvicked , let not man bee vvilfull . a true loues knot is long in knitting , vvhen both endes must meete in the middest : but once vvell put togither , it is both faire and fast : so , an vnion of people is long a vvorking , but once sast lincked in ioue , vvhere farre and neere meet in the middest of a good mind , hovv beautiful is such a peace , vvhere the people are so blessed ? let then al murmurers be shut out from the sound of such a parlee , vvhere vvisedome may shevv her grace in the worke of such a worth for it must bee that our king ▪ and theirs , is , and must be ( and euer i pray god be ) al one : our religion and theirs one : and our lavves and theirs all one : els how can there be loue in our liues ? or vnion in our hearts ? but i hope , that god who did create our hearts by his will , will so vvorke our hearts to his will , that wee shall not swarue from his will : but as hee hath made all into one kingdome ; so vve shall bee all as one people , vvith one voice praising god , vvith one heart seruing one king , and vvith one loue , embrasing one another : many little birdes flie togither in one flocke , many kindes of cattell feed in one field : many kinde of sheepe lie togither in one fold , and shall tvvo neighbour borne children , not liue togither in one loue ? god forbid : it is an old saying , and euer true , concordia paruae res crescunt , discordia maxima dilabuntur : by concord small things proue greate , by discord the greatest doe decay : tvvo little landes haue made a greate kingdome , and shall one great people bee little in loue ? god forbid : the landes vvere deuided , and are vnited ; and if the people may bee vnited , let them not be diuided : diuision breeds ambition , emulation , and faction , and vvhat are the fruits of these frenzies ? hovv many kingdomes to their great misery haue tasted ? but vniō breeds loue charitie , & faith , of vvhich blessings vvhat are the benefits , vvhat kingdome may not bee glad to tast ? a king of a deuided peopl● may haue povver in his svvord , but a king of vnion may reioyce in his scepter : a people deuided may be grieuous to themselues , but a people vnited may be pleasing to god : diuision is the cause of distruction , and vnion of comfort : compare them then togither , & see vvhich is to be accepted : diuisiō breeds feare , and ielouzie ; vnion breeds the resolution and trust : diuision breeds warre and hatred ; vnion breeds peace and loue : diuision breeds dearth , and danger ; vnion plentie , and safety ; diuision breeds malice and murther : vnion breeds loue , and life : diuision breeds greefe and sorrow , vnion breeds mirth and comfort : thinke then vpon the venom of the one , and the vertue of the other ; and if thou bee not senceles of thine owne good , runne not headlong vpon thine own ill : desire not rather to liue in the hatefull nature of diuision , then to bee lincked in the liuely knot of vnion ; least the god of loue that offers it , and thy louing king , that desireth it , both hate thee for refusing it , and deny thee it vvhen thou vvouldest haue it : the tovver of babell could not be builded , vvhen the languages vvere diuided : jerusalem vvent to ruine vvhen the princes vvere diuided , rome hath beene shaken since religon hath beene diuided : antwerpe hath beene decayed , since the states vvere diuided : france vvas impouerished , vvhen the nobles were diuided , and england vvas disturbed , when scotland vvas diuided : but now the landes all bearing one name , the subiects all one , vnder one king , the laws all tending to one ende ; vvhy should not the nations bee all one people ? flowers grovve svveetely together , trees beare fruite naturally together , fishes swim friendly togither , birdes sing merrily together ; & beasts seede quietly together , and is it not then a shame for men , that vvee cannot liue louingly togither ? a drop of water is weake , but many droppes of water will driue a mill : a sparke of fire is little , but many sparkes together , will make a fire to consume a whole countrie : a corne of powder is little , but a great many together will discharge a great shot : a herring is a smal fish , but a skull of them together vvill ouerthrovve a prettie ship : a pike is a small vveapon , yet a stande of them being together vvill ouerthrovve a greate troope : and a man is a small creature ; but where men hold togither , what monster can hurt them ? so these lands being one land , and the people one people ; what kingdome can annoy vs ? no let vs say , and if wee bee our selues , to our selues , and in peace among our selues , and that our god be with vs ; neither the world nor the deuill can hurt vs : but if there bee a breach in a banke , the sea breaks in , & ouerflowes the land : if there be a breach in a furnace , the fire will burst out , and burne the whole house : if there bee a breach in a wall , the bore will breake in , and spoile the whole vineyard : if there be a breach in a hedge , the cattel vvill breake in and eate vp the grasses if there be a breach in a fort , the enemie will enter and sacke the towne : if there bee a breach among pikes , the horsemen will breake in , and ruine the campe : if there bee a breach in a conscience , corruption will get in , and kil the whole man : & if ther be a breach of loue in the hearts of a people , the enemie will take aduantage for the inuasion of the kingdome . see then , and consider hovv dangerous a thing is diuision , and hovv safe an assurance is vnitie ; and take the best , and leaue the worst ; and so shall none of your pales bee broken ▪ oh heauens , vvhat a hell is this in the vvorld ? that men should liue so like deuills one one vvith another : it is written that a man should bee as a god vnto man , but it may bee vvriten , that man is , or at least many men are , as deuills vnto men : vvhere there are so many murmurers , that ther can be fevv louers ; the rich man murmures at the poore man , that hee should dwell nigh him : the vsurer murmures at the broker ; that he g●●eth any thing by him : the tradesman murmures at his neighbour , that he should prosper or thriue by him : the lavvyer murmures at the tearme that it is so short a haruest for him : the marchant murmures at the vvindes , that his shippes come not home to him : the souldiour murmures at the pay-maister , that hee keepes his money from him : the courtier murmures at his taylor , that his clothes are not fit for him : the minister he murmures at the parson , because hee hath the greatest profit from him : and the parson murmures at the parishe , that they come not to church to pay their duties to him ; and the parishe murmures at the parson , that they pay so much , for so little paines from him : the tenant murmures at his landlorde for racking of his rent : the landlord murmures at his tenant to see him thriue by his husbandry . in summe there is almost no profession or cōdition wherin one doth not murmre at an other ; which murmuring vvhile it continueth in the hearts of people , it vvill suffer loue to haue no life among them : but were the vvorlde purged of that malicious humor , then vvould there bee as great a heauen , as thereis novv a hell in the vvorld ; vvher loue should establish such a lavv , as should neuer bee broken : among men ; doe not tvvo eyes in one head , two hands , and two legges to one bodie make one man ; and shall not two lands make one kingdome ; nay more ; doth not one eye the same that the other , the one hād , the same that the other , and shall not one peple so nere another , as one mēber is to another , haue one vvill , one lavv , and one loue one vvith another ? it is strange it should be so , but i hope it vvill bee othervvise ; god vvill haue his vvill , and our good king his wil : in this vvorke of gods vvill , euery good christian , and good subiect vvill giue his good will to gods and our kings will ; against vvhich , if any shall murmure , god vvill bee displeased that the king is not obeyed ; the king vvill bee displeased , that god is not obeyed : the counsel vvill be displeased , that god and the king are not obeied : the court vvill be agreeued to see god , the king , and counsell displeased : and the common-vvealth vvill haue a common vvoe , when all these are displeased . looke therfore betimes to this busines , detract no time for this dispatch , suppresse the power of the diuels pride ; and plant in your hearts that grace of humilitie , that in the life of true loue , may bring forth fruite to gods glorie . breake an angel , and you shall haue losse in the mettall ; breake a cup , and you shall haue losse in the fashiō ; breake a glasse , you shall loose the fashion and the mettall ; breake wedlocke , and you loose your credit ; breake the lawe , and loose your libertie ; breake loue , and loose the joye of life : but keepe your coyne whole , and it will goe currant ; keepe your cup vvhole , and you shall saue the fashion ; keepe your glasse whole , and you shall saue mettall and fashion ; keep your wedlocke from breaking , and saue your credit from cracking ; keepe your lawe frō breaking , and your loue will be great ; keepe your loue from breaking , and your liues vvill be blessed : diuide the head , & the braines vvil come out ; diuide the body , and the heart vvill come out ; diuide the minde , & the vvittes vvill come out ; diuide the wittes , and the vvilles come out ; and diuide the willes , and the vvoes come out ▪ but keepe the head vvhole , and the braines vvill bee the better ; keepe the body vvhole , the heart vvill bee the better ; keepe the minde quiet , the vvits will be the better ; keepe the wits in temper , the vvilles be the better , and keepe the wils togither , the common-wealth vvil bee the better . note therefore in al causes , & al courses , diuision breeds losse , greefe , or sorrovv : and vnion , gain , comfort , and ioy . but i doubt i haue onely spoken of that vvhich vvould quickly bee helped , if the right vvay vvere once found : and therefore it is rather the manner , then the matter , that the vvorkeman cannot agree vpon : but to helpe the ill hammering of a peece of vvorke so vvorth the framing , let mee make a comparison betvvixt a house and a kingdome : there is a greate landlord will haue a house builded , his will must bee obeyed , hee giues commaund vnto the maister workeman that it bee speedely performed : the maister vvorkeman calls his labourers , and giues order for the worke , euery one in his place , and according to his qualitie : now vvhen the worke is in hand , timber , stone , bricke , lime , and water , iron , glasse , and leade , and all is readie that is necessarie : if either the workmen bee vnwilling to worke , or cannot agree vpon their worke , there will no house bee built : but if they fal to their busines , & agree vpon the direction , the ●…ame will soone vp : euen so the ●ord god , our sauiour iesus christ , the great landlord , and lord of heauen and earth , will haue a commonwealth builded , and his will must be obeyed : for performance whereof , hee hath giuen commaundement to his seruant , and our soueraigne lord king iames in this world , vnder god onely workemaister of this vnion : where if either the people be vnwilling to yeeld vnto the course or order set dovvne by the workemaister , or among themselues disagree vpon the manner of their working , whatsoeuer faire vvords be vsed , whatsoeuer good reasons be alleadged , or vvhatsoeuer shews of loue be made , there vvill bee no true league of friendship , nor peace for the ground of a common-wealth : but let the labourers be willing to bee directed by their vvorke-maister , and euery one in his place , shevv the best of his good vvill ; and no doubt , but such a common-vvealth vvill bee built , as while god doth blesse it , all the vvorld shall not hurt it . consider therefore the inconueniences of diuision , and the comforts and commodities of vnion , and let not selfe-will carrie you away from the course of wisedom : you see , if you vvill still murmure against this so gratious an action , hovv many are against you ? god himselfe , who loues vnitie : the king , vvho vvould haue an vnion : subiects , that loue their king , and godly men that loue god , for they vvill bee obedient to his will : the flowers of the field are against you , for they will grow togither ; the trees , for they vvill beare fruite togither ; the fishe , for they vvil swim togither ; the birdes , for they vvill sing togither : and is it not then a shame for men , that vve cannot liue and loue togither . for shame then goe from your selues vnto god , and goe from the deuill vnto man : and in the name of god agree togither ; liue vnder one god , one king , one law , and one loue : so shall god best bee pleased , the king best contented , the kingdome best gouerned , and euery vvise and honest man best satisfied : vvhere liuing in murmuring and malecontent , god may be displeased , the king disquieted , the state disturbed ; and fevv men but some vvay discontented : vvhat shall i say , to conclude , but this ? is not vnion a kind of marriage , vvrought by the hands of god ? and performed in the hearts of his people ? i say , a marriage where hearts ioyning hands , make two bodies as one : and is not a kind attonement , better then an vnkind diuorcement : let then these tvvo kingdomes be one , marrie them in loue , and since our king is the father that giues them , vvhile god himselfe doth vnite them , what subiect or christian can be so vngratious , as not to giue his consent to them ? yea let mee say vvith the minister in the time of marriage : if any man knovv any lavvfull , or iust cause , vvhy these two landes , now one kingdome , should not in marriage be lincked vvith such a loue , as may make them liue vnder one lavv , and dvvell togither as one people , let him novv speake , or euer hereafter hold his peace : but if there bee any man , that knovving no iust , nor lavvfull cause , vvill out of the malicious humor of a vvicked spirit , hating to see a heauenly action vpon earth , murmur at the blessed proceeding of so gratious a worke , the god of peace make him for euer hold his peace . amen a common-place-book out of the rehearsal transpros'd digested under these several heads, viz. his logick, chronology, wit, geography, anatomy, history, loyalty : with useful notes. approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; 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(eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a common-place-book out of the rehearsal transpros'd digested under these several heads, viz. his logick, chronology, wit, geography, anatomy, history, loyalty : with useful notes. marvell, andrew, - . rehearsal transpros'd. [ ], p. printed for henry brome ..., london : . a satirical reply to andrew marvell's the rehearsal transpros'd. reproduction of original in huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng church and state -- great britain. dissenters, religious -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - judith siefring sampled and proofread - judith siefring text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a common-place-book out of the rehearsal transpros'd , digested under these several heads : viz. his logick , chronology , wit , geography , anatomy , history , loyalty . with useful notes . london , printed for henry brome , at the gun at the west end of st. pauls . m. dc . lxxiii . the reason of publishing these papers . i had purposed once to have laid by these papers , esteeming them like such which menscrible in a common-place-book , especially when i heard there was an answer to the rehearsal transpros'd in booksellers hands . the answer is now known by the title of rosemary . a grave and serious piece , that 's the greatest opposition w ch it maintains against the transproser , excepting that once he ventures at wit like an apothecarie , as far as his herbal can furnish him with the qualities of nettles and archangel . you may lay a wager on his name at once reading , if you observe how he prides himself in squirting at the royal society , like culpeper against the colledge of physitians : how he strikes at all in his reach , how he nips rosemary with the long nails of his left hand , and tears bays with his right hand and teeth . but to give him his due commendation , he and one more , who hath natural wit , though no reading parts , would make a good writer . it may ( i think ) serve as an account why this is published , that upon considering the performances of the common enemy to both , i did not perceive my labour was saved , or that this small trifle was forestalled . a common-place-book out of the rehearsal transpros'd . concerning his title-page . the worthy author , that he might not seem a plagiary , doth with much modesty call his book , the rehearsal , willing to intimate , that , what-ever may be accounted any thing in it , was taken from others ; and that he may more particularly own whence he receiv'd all his flowers ( excepting what he calls the rapping-flower ) he lets it still keep the old name of the farce . so that a rehearsal it is , and more than so , transpros'd . if you ask why transpros'd ? i say in his behalf he did it like a prince , to shew the authority he had to mint words , and with an or , to shew what this must pass for . but you will say , why doth he then discourage kings from the like sovereignty ? if you know not that , you are not fit to talk with a senator . it was that he might enjoy the whole peculiar jurisdiction to himself ; just as the man disswaded his rich neighbours from the sin of vsury , that he might have the sole trade of extortion . he is so kind , as to bestow the impression on the assigns of iohn calvin and theodore beza . it is a valuable gift , and will bring good profit , as other books which are written against government , or printed in a corner . i hope the assigns of these first fathers of the church are not ministers , if they be , happy had it been for the nation , happy for themselves if they had never been so enriched , seeing he observes so many mischiefs that happen by reason of the flourishing condition of church-men . but he meant it kindly , and has thanks due for his bounty , the more because he is not wholly of their church : yet is he not at all of that church which was mother to sibthorp and mainwaring . now that the assigns may have sale for the book , these are to give notice that you may buy it at the sign of the kings indulgence . what! do you not understand him ? you look as strange and simply , as if he had told you of the sign of the counter-tenor-voice , or of the noise in the air : whereas the sign is a fair double sign : the indulgence is a sign of the kings goodness , more than their deserts . it was a conjectural sign too , of what would follow , to wit , preaching and praying against the established church , though this was strictly forbidden . upon the same sign-post is drawn the posture of a garrison almost forced to a surrendry ; at last obtraining a cessation of arms , and in that time fitting it self to repel the besiegers . the sign is large , and hath more than that in the strand containing the several coats of the cantons of switzerland . but still you are never the better , except you know at what market town this new sign is hung up . it is on the south side of the lake lemane : the town is better known by the name of pure geneva . but now i have told you , it is ten to one against you , that you find it not . it is like delos , a pretty spot of floating ground , only it is not so bold as that , to lanch out into the deep ; but like a little sneaking by-lander , it creeps and coasts about the shore of the lake ; now it is south , but by then as you can read about pages of the rehearsal , whip , it 's got to the west side of the lemane ; but the next time we take it there , we will get an archimedes , or some cunning man , to remove and fix it on the south . still i am glad to hear the kings indulgence is at geneva , for then his supremacy must be in the same place : and who knows but his best subjects may do what the rest cannot , and prevail with their dear brethren : but the project is not worth pursuing , 't is a bad air for kings , and would kill them sooner than the infamous hundreds , or sheerness . but if monarchie cannot have health , yet indulgence surely will make a good shift among them , 't is not to be doubted . they will indulge themselves , and all others who profess the single and onely religion of their city ; but no other can be suffered to be believed and discoursed ; for they look upon themselves as the true protestant dominicans , and as the popish part of that order have by an old prescription the principal power of the inquisition , by the same right doth the other exercise this authority over all within their reach , who believe not that presbytery is the government , that the pope is the antichrist , and that a man is almost no man. they can further justifie themselves by their own great principle , and affirm that they ought not to shew any favour to differing opinions , no though the doubting persons should come both to their churches and sacraments . this befitting gentleness is called a halting betwixt god and baal ; a cursed neutrality , a laodicean luke-warmness , and far from an ardent zeal for the cause of god. the reason upon which they proceed so , is this ; religion , which is an imitation of him whom they profess to worship , requires that they should make their decrees against men in such a manner as the dominicans and they do ( much what alike , ) believe that god enacts in the case of absolute reprobation : which sanction is so farr from any tenderness or indulgence , that calvin himself calls his own doctrine in this article , the horrid decree . but i had almost forgot one piece of toleration , which the rehearser and others report ; though there is no toleration in the genevian church , yet after church time on sundays , they tolerate sports . this liberty is not ( i suppose ) desired by the indulged ; no , they have more loyalty sure ; they have heard it preached , that it was the wicked book of sports ( not a word of rump and army ) that brought the king to the block . as for geneva , had it not been that democracie both in church and state had made some amends , you had been told ere now that it tumbled into the lemane lake , or that it had been destroyed like sodom and gomorrah . by this time , without doubt , you have enough for a title page , now make room for the rehearsal or animadversions . the book begins like a course of university-studies , with logick , and before he hath done , you will find him as universally learned as the renowned knight in our english poet. you have page . a dilemma against the preface for being written after declaration that he would write no more . now a dilemma is otherwise called , a two-horned argument ; whereas most men would have believed that he could have made neither two horns nor one , since he left the colledge , but here they are ; beware of a cu●s'd ox , though his horns be short . it had been unmannerly and false to call so great a master of wit a bull. now you wi●h your preface look to your self , what can you say in your own defence ? do you plead with the casuists , that any man may dispense with his own promise , where the non-performance prejudices no one ? according to this rule you are gone , for by writing again , you have offended the sweet-temper'd author of evangelical love. you have affronted atheism , which is accounted by ricaut a considerable sect amongst the fatal turks , and which in this town , under the like patronage of leviathan and absolute necessity , is not of a despicable strength . but this is not all ; you have hereby provok'd my author to waste much precious time in an answer : for he like the humorous lieutenant , was taken up in great and important affairs of state : the parliament may sit in february , and then the good old cause , and the work of all the faithful in the land , require his counsel in cabals , and his speeches in publick , as the most sufficient states-man and exact orator that their party does afford . now would it not vex a man to be thus unseasonably diverted from the weightiest business of this nation , and of one or two besides ? certainly he has cause ●o complain in the words of his old masters wife , after the death of her husband , that the burden of three common-wealths lies upon those shoulders . i hope , sir , he hath paid you off with his logick ; and to shew you that he is good at more weapons than one , have at you with his chronology . page . the press , that villanous engine , invented much about the same time with the reformation . i suppose by his former kindness , that he intends the honour of the reformation for mr. calvin , who is placed in the tables of chronology to the year , and the press was invented ; a villanous engine , that it should be so much before the reformer . now , though we had but few hundreds to turn in , we shou'd have brought press and reformation nearer together than , as at present they stand , ● years distant ; but for one sinister accident , had not that hindred , the reformation should have been attributed to luther ; who , though he still took his commons in a monastery , wrote against indulgences in the year . let not the weak brethren mistake , as if he had been a persecutor of the sober party : it was only against the popes indulgence , which was a sort of good natur'd liberty of conscience for men to sin scot-free , paying only for it a small rent of acknowledgment to his holiness . that which must for ever exclude luther from this glorious title of reformer , is , that he was not contented , page . with three ceremonies , but he had the table se● altar-wise , and to be called an altar , candles , crucifixes , paintings , &c. so that calvin is your man , so useful an instrument that i could wish , for the sake of my author , he had been heard of but one hundred years sooner . but if you make the worst of it , what signifies this in comparison of so many thousands as the world is old : and if you set it over against eternity , he is not so much as one moment out in his computation . but since this chronology is a dry study , and printing very laborious , he makes a facetious transition from the printing press to the wine press . if his thirsty wit be so pretty , what may we expect from his new wine ? here it comes , page . he was the cock divine and cock-wit , and walked among the hens . oh how i love to see much made of a little ! some pretending wits are so lazy that they will take no pains with a joke , except it will come easily they let it alone ; they , like unskilful carvers of a calfs head , cannot find the best bits ; but our author rather than miss any , will break his own brain . he is in splitting jests as famous as those celebrated men in their several professions , of whom one is called doctor tear-text , the other the pick-lock of the law. another piece of the same wit , is page . where he tells us of contrary assignations , where the phansie is up and breeches down ; with the rest , of which modesty forbids to make a rehearsal , his excuse must be that of hilkiah the quaker for his plain song of window-woing , he said it when the vain spirit was upon him . whatever he says ill now , he recants page . he declares that he does not hear for all this , that he practised upon the honour of ladies . this is very charitable and true : but if this accusation had been just , the candor of the vindication had been wonderful . the jealous fellow in green-street was not so favourable to the blew-gown , whom he caught in that posture with his wife ; for like an ill-bred clown he used him untowardly , and so that it is a shame to tell . thus far my author hath shewed a kind of apothegmatical short wit ; now to shew that he can offer somewhat more stately and large , he performs the fear of aristotle's rarefaction , that is , he gives you much of extension upon a little of matter . he takes but two letters i. o. and with these alone he writes from page . to . never did bow-bells ring more changes than these well tuned two . say but what you would have , and here it is . i. o. is a talisman , though the owner thereof is neither conjurer nor cunning gipsie ; i. o. is paean , daughter of inachus , iudicious , iealous , oraculous , obscure . this is an abridgement of the design carried on through pages , excepting some stragling digressions , one is his advice to the alphabet to fetch a warrant from justice bales against the prefacer . i think he had better advised them to another , except they meet with his clerk at home , for since the justice left practising law , he hath almost quite forgot these clients . further , if this alphabet should joyn its whole stock and lay it out to most advantage , it can only give words , which is the same as to deceive : besides that , at the best , bare words are but slender pay for a suburb-justice . when all is done , it is ( methinks ) a dishonourable and cowardly trick for four and twenty to swear the peace against one , and to desire to have a man bound who wears no sword. the letters , i am sure , had more courage in the roman empire : a few of them is those days put augustus to flight , though he was one of the most victorious emperours that the world ever saw . it shews a strange degeneracie , and is of ill consequence ; for if the letters are so timorous , they may in time shun the acquaintance of my worthy author ; but they have not served him so yet ; for in stead hereof they have furnished him with some words which are so much his propriety , that no man hath been acquainted with them besides himself ; they are great rarities every where but with him : i will give you some of them , super-inducing ornaments , page . vnhoopable iurisdiction , . pick-thankness of the clergy , . i have not yet sufficiently admired his mighty parts , how wonderfully they lie towards amplifications . a necessary figure if a man were to manage a parliamentary debate till three in the after-noon , in spight to a dinner bespoke at the cock or quakers : for by making sure of two ribs of cold mutton , and a speech measur'd by a brewers glass , you may perform wonders , and earn a congregational supper . he who is now rehearser of the farce , anon of the close committee , and , for length-sake of himself again , is as tough and lasting as a stone-horse in a race ; yet i have heard those who use the newmarket-course say that the colingwood-gelding would hold it out to the end as true as the best . this gentleman formerly lov'd the sport , and thereupon i hope he will not count it an impertinent tale another excellency or flower in his book , is a particular happiness in synonymous expressions . as for example , pag. . i knew but lately , and now learn , the sense of this , if any , is , that his knowledge is such , of which metaphysicks speak , wherein past and present is all one , but they except his , and tell us that this sort of knowledege 〈◊〉 only to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; or else the meaning is , that his knowledge and learning are two things . in this our author was very lucky , but quickly you shall se● him in full triumph , having utterly routed his adversary page . what a bramble that had agents abroad and an indefatigable bramble , who ever heard the like ? for my part not i , excepting once , and that was in an old piece , called the book of iudges , where one iothum speaks of a pragmatical fellow , by name abimelech , whom he represents to be a bramble , and brings in this bramble making a speech ; now that he was an indefatigable bramble , will appear if you can but meet with the book . i have heard hugh peters preach in noll's days at cambridge upon this parable , endeavouring to prove that the the bramble-government was better then none at all . i begin to think that you are alike displeased with the comparison in both places . it may be you are no friend to iotham the rightful king of sechem , but rather have an honour for the memory of abimelech the usurper . what if your adversary should find a patch'd hole about you ? page . you must be conjured upon the stage as oft as mr. bays will ferret you . this one line has witchcraft , play-houses and catching of rappads . o delightful variety , how soon he changes scents and hunts a fresh metaphor ! there shall be no conjuring shows ( fear not ) at the play-house , if the devil can hinder ; lest one of the poets should be perswaded that there are spirits . but still mr. bays will be a ferret , for he bites keenly : what will you then make of your self , one that mumps with a pretty seeming innocence , yet scratches and undermines the ground on which we tread ? well , now you had best carry the war into the enemies country , and assault the town at the lemane lake . this town surely was design'd for more controversies , besides those in religion and government : it is strange that it should set men together by th' ears about its scituation ; that this contention , like the leprosie ' crept into the walls , should infect the very geographical charts , you may see them divided like hostile sails , some standing southerly , and others west and by north. but if the old report of atlas be true , that he holds the world to rights , this geneva stands to the south of the lake . if you ask who this atlas is , know that he speaks english , and discourses particularly of the lemane lake , and taught heylin his skill ; he hath been shewn publickly by mercator , and is still to be seen at moxon's . i know some arbitrators who would serve you in this controversie , and award that the transproser should place it on what side the lake he pleases , provided that he do not trans — it to this side of our herring-pool . my author next presents you with his skill in anatomy , which , with great pain , he learned at the university : page , . smiling and frowning are performed in the face with the same muscles , very little altered . if this should prove false , he is to be excus'd , seeing he meant it for a good comparison , which , except you be charitable , will be quite spoil'd ; it may be his muscles are quite different other mens , he being an extraordinary production of nature , who , as appears by his book , smiles and frowns in such quick interchanges , that for more expedition , the same instruments were made on purpose for him to serve both uses : but he seems to say it of the adversary , who , notwithstanding the strange bill of fare brought in for him , has a face like other men , and ( i believe ) just such muscles . in short then the mistake is this . he had read of the muscles of the temples descending down to the lower jaw , and there giving motion . he had likewise read in the latine poets the two words for temples and fore-head us'd often promiscuously , as raphe and ralpho for the verse sake ; but he never consider'd that anatomy was more distinct than poetry ; and that the fore-head had muscles of its own , whereby we frown at pleasure , and that these end in the eye-brows . for all this the gentleman is not discountenanc'd , but he gives anotrial of anatomical knowledge , page . his cerebellum was so dried up , that there was more brains in a wallnut , and both their shells were thin and brittle ; here the cerebellum and the shell of the wallnut are compar'd : it is likely he means it of a wallnut not yet fit to gather , then it is green and unripe , and such , as he would perswade , is the head of his adversary ; but it had been more according to art , to have made the resemblance betwixt the cerebellum and the kernel , save only that the cerebellum is much the softer substance , but agrees in this , that it is covered like the kernel ; but since he is displeased with the thin shell about the brain , which i thought had been a sign of a good head , as it is of a good nut ; i with him much joy of a thick scull . the author , being aware that the cerebellum was empty , raises the hypochondria page . into the region of the brain . beware , sir , left some quibler and anatomist , like one you know , shall say , that he has then guts in his brains : a proverb expressing a man of wit and parts . i shou'd propound another considerable instance of your learning , but that i am afraid of setting the anti-mathematician on your back . i will only give such a hint as you and i and no other can understand . you remember the square-cap , colledge-quadrangle , round world , and quadrature of circle . how would mr. hobbs take it , to be thus robb'd of his late glorious atchievements , that an vniversity capper , or any idle fellow that turns or drinks about till the ground runs round with him , shou'd , as truly as he , discover the quadrature of the circle . next come your reports out of history , which are choice like your new-found words , page . julian himself , who i think was first a reader , and held forth in the christian churches , before he turned apostate , &c. well , sir , if you miscarry in history , as you had a casual slip in anatomy , i would advise you to renounce the use of all in writing , except phansie and censure . it might be doubted , whether iulian were a reader in the church : socrates scholasti●us says he was design'd ; sozomen , that he was judged fit ; though theodoret affirms , that he did publickly read the scriptures ; but except this be preaching and holding forth , which certainly will not pass with you for a sermon , iulian was never a holder-forth . to be a reader as he was , is no more than to be a lay-clerk in a cathedral . the business of preaching was scarce permitted to priests in the primitive church ; for though we find that the readers at alexandria did interpret , that is , translate to them the scripture ; yet the historian who relates this , to wit , socrates , adds that arius was the first priest who did ever in that city preach to the assemblies of christians : but it may be iulian did it in the independent way , as a gifted-brother , and that would please your client i. o. or else as a reader , he was of the clergie , and in holy order , and thereby you gratifie the papists . it will do good service which way so ere it falls , seeing both of them oppose the common enemy ; the church of england . but if you could place this iulian in some cure of souls , and had once discovered that he was either parson or vicar , you wou'd easily conclude that he did hold-forth . you may conclude that you have done the business by the authority of ammianus marcellinus , who in his . book having spoken of the christians immediately before , adds , iulianus quinetiam exvicario earundem partium nimius fautor , &c. which you thus construed , iulian from being a vicar , became too great a favourer of that party . o brave merry andrew ! this i 'le warrant it pleases you . but what pity it is , in that age of the church there were neither vicaridges , nor impropriations . and further , this iulian was not the apostate , but a deputy under constantius , turn'd out by iulian the emperour , as is signified by exvicario , which word is by marcellinus barbarously set as the nominative in apposition to iulianus ; as is evident in the next line , where he calls artemias the exduce egypti : so that he seems to have learned his accidence , but not grammar ; he thinks that where-ever he meets with the preposition ex , the next nown , though part of the same word , must always be the ablative case . but i am now quite tir'd with these petty criticisms , so that for your farther satisfaction in the grammatical part i refer , you next see him , to blind m. who teaches school about m●re-fields . what think you of this sorry latinist , marcellinus ? was he not fit to have serv'd as latine secretary about those times when the super-reformists intended to have made masters and fellows of colledges like reformed officers ? when the gustices ( with a g ) of b — shire set their marks to a petition for suppressing universities ; doubtless at that time when latine was the language of the beast , he might have kept in office , because what he wrote differ'd much from what the beast bellow'd . if you are not weary of hearing , he shall present you with more history ; page . he would not , as heliodorus bishop of trissa , i take it , that renounced his bishoprick rather than his title to the history of theagenes and chariclea . if you dare believe a faithful historian , ancienter than any who affirms the contrary , the author of the aethiopicks or the history of theagenes and chariclea was not heliodorus , but theodorus , not a bishop , but at large a clergy-man , which by his translator is rendred a priest , not of trissa but of triva ; this account is given by socrates , but he says not a word of his renouncing his office in the church : he only notes that he was the ring-leader of that peculiar custom in thessaly that priests should renounce their wives . the first , who affirmed that he preferred his book above his clergy , was the fabulous nicephorus ; one , who when he does not steal , invents either gross scandals , or feign'd miracles : so that you may put up your trumpery , this ware will not pass , except with those who endure not to read the history of the primitive church , because it is so unlike their own , however it will make chat among the brotherhood . iulian the apostate , formerly a preacher of a national church , exchang'd his faith for idolatry ; and bishop heliodore chose rather to be silenc'd , than condemn his vain and frothy romance . but you afford your friends better entertainment in pointing at some of the church of england lately dead , as if they were popishly affected . he who begs the requiem , had good cause , it seems , to bespeak the favour , that his memory might be blessed , as 't is hoped he is , and that his good name might be at rest as well as his body : for you have laid the greatest blemish in the world on him , that he should accuse a church of schism before god , and still live in the communion and ministery of the same ; it had been better that you had writ his own words immediately from his book ; he says it with an if , &c. which he endeavours to disprove to be the reason of the separation ; your leaving out the supposition , and affirming it as an absolute assertion , inverts his meaning utterly , so that the accusation is like that of serapion to st. chrysostom against severianus , for saying that christ was never incarnate : whereas his words were , that if severianus died a christian , christ was never incarnate . but something is the matter that he is so offended with these episcopal men : he tells you page . it 's a shame they shou'd keep such a pudder for symbolical ceremonies . he cou'd have endured if they had signified nothing , for then they had been like his writing against them . o but they are made sacraments , says he , yet he affirms not that any pretend in their behalf , eiher a bestowal of grace , or a divine institution : so that it is not the church but he that makes them sacraments ; and on such terms he needs not quarrel with the sacraments , but may multiply them to . he wou'd have it be in the church as of late in the commonwealth , that those who are placed in subjection might chuse whether they will obey or not . i doubt if he might have a child , he wou'd not reckon it his duty to yield to the tender weak one , when his commands are disputed , of how small moment or indifferency soever they be in themselves . let me advise him as lycurgus did the petitioner for democracy in sparta , to practise it first in his own family . thus he takes away all power in the church , even in the least things , not leaving as much as any petty corporation enjoys , to make by-laws not contradictory to the publick ; no , in this the thing is uncapable , and in others the persons are . page he whispers though he looks another way , that the clergy are not so well fitted as others by education for political affairs . i confess indeed , they want one or two pieces of fitness with which this gentleman is plentifully furnish'd , ambition and conceitedness of sufficiency . but as to the rest , it may be said , that there were no notorious misfortunes that in former ages befel their state-ministeries ; they have been both imploy'd and approv'd by the wisest princes in christendom at their council-boards , and in weighty embassies ; and at this day it cannot be perceived that the order , either by natural endowments , or education , is more uncapable than their predecessors . but now he is making his approaches to fall upon the government of king charles i. and according to old custom , the guard of church-men must feel the first blows . how unfortunate on earth still is this blessed royal martyr ? that when his enemies are forgiven , he cannot from them obtain a pardon for his innocence , though he sought and di'd for religion and liberty of his subjects , yet to depose and murder him again his rebells deprive him of this glory of his present crown . now , sir , you shall excuse me , if i cannot so smoothly pass over your want of due loyaly , as i have your mistaken well wishes to learning . before he comes to his apology for the rebellion , he begins to throw dirt at the most resolute opposer of its contrivance , the truly great and worthy archbishop laud : pag though so learned , so pious , so wise a man , he seemed to know nothing beyond ceremonies , arminianism , and manwaring . dull and unmannerly ! does it ( think you ) become the son of vicar to prate thus of an archbishop ? 't is done like a ianizary , who though he be the son of a christian , is the worst enemy to the profession . is this your complement , to embrace him , that you may stab him ? is it your protection for railing whole pages , that you preface the libel with his just titles of pious , learned , and wise ? do you think the world so dim-sighted , that they cannot discern what is under so thin a veil ? such as you , have need of a good memory ; for your little cunning and pernicious malice put you upon flat contradictions in the same period . though he was pious , learned , and wise , yet he seem'd to understand nothing beyond ceremonies , &c. what , nothing more ! seemed he to know nothing of the primitive religion restor'd ? nothing how to root out , both by disputation and discipline , the abuses and encroachments of the church of rome ? was he ignorant of these , or is all this nothing ? he knew too the dangerous correspondence between the seditious projectors of a war at home , and in scotland : to this design he put a stop , and had , if others would have done their parts , put a happy end . another of your inconsistencies is , page . i am confident the bishop studied to do both god and his majesty good service : yet p. . resolv'd what ever came on 't to make the best of him . though you change the number , yet the whole process of the discourse convinces , that the archbishop is not excepted . how do these agree ? to study to do his majesty good service , and to resolve what e're came on 't , whether to his advantage or not , to be gainers , and make the best of him . no such matter . he was assur'd that the advice which he and the noblest temporal lords gave the king , was for the interest of religion and peace . and he was in like manner sensible , that thereby he did expose himself to a storm , foretelling his friends that he saw it hanging over his head . you know not what it is to serve your prince for conscience-sake , nor what undesigning generosity lodg'd in his brest , who could propound no greater reward to himself , than the satisfaction of doing his duty aright . to make the best of a master , is a character better befitting a little fellow , who had formerly been a whissling clerk to a vsurper , and afterwards turn'd broker for all phanatick ware. now you come closer to the point , and begin the war again with a declaration of the causes drawn with as much tenderness as if it had been penn'd by a committee of the long parliament ; having first imposed silence on those who renew the memory of what hath been done against the old king , you will have the case argu'd only in behalf of his enemies . what is this but to muzzle the dogs while the wolfs do range ? would you have the indictment confessed by standing mute , when as the witnesses are the only malefactours ? your account of the original of the war which was lately , is ( thereby ) known to be untrue : however you deserve a salary from the impenitent rout of sequestrators and army-officers . alack , dear hearts ! harmless good men ! they wou'd not háve wrong'd a worm with their good will ! they had never lift up a hand against the king , or injur'd any of his friends to the value of an english penny , but that they were constrain'd to do what they did , or else lose their religion and liberty ! so that henceforth they ought not to be troubl'd , for the act of indemnity has acquit them from punishment , and the rehearsal , has absolv'd them from suspition of guilt : this is the certain meaning of that slie insinuation , page . whether it were a war of religion or of liberty , is not worth the labour to enquire , which soever was at the top , the other was at the bottom . now let his party get this clause without book , and by authority hereof , boldly to the very teeth call all the old royalists fighters against god , plotters against publick wellfare , and undeserving of that which they endeavour'd to overthrow ; but if they will please in this accusation to pass by the chief person that ever appeared in arms against them , they expect to have the civility acknowledg'd by his heir . but it may be thought perhaps that i am too severe and uncharitable to the author , and put too harsh a sense upon his words : as if he were an advocate , when he only plays the historian ; that he only tells us their pretences , not as if they were just grounds : or that he defends these things as a good cause of war. 't is true indeed , he says only , that it was too good a cause to be fought for . now , according to natural logick , whatsoever is too good , is good enough , and more to spare . as if i should say of the transproser , in the course way of speaking wherein he treats others , that he was too much a knave to be trusted with any office in the kingdom ; this would include that he was knave enough . now we speak of imployment in the commonwealth , he is sure to be excluded from many places , for refusing to declare that it is not lawful upon any cause whatsoever ( yea , though it be too good a cause ) to take up arms against the king. but to sweeten the harshness of what he last gave , he adds , the arms of the church are prayers and tears ; it is true indeed , but the adversaries of the church have other arms , yet they use the saying to good purpose , and sing this in mens ears till they have lull'd them asleep ; where they intend to make an an onset . it hath been observ'd that this very sentence was the subject of a papist's book in q. elizabeths reign , to make the governours more secure , whilst they were restless . yet this author pretends so much respect to government , that he fairly warns princes of the danger which may ensue again , if they invade religion and liberty . page . the fatal consequences of that rebellion can only serve as sea-marks unto wise princes to avoid the causes . it only serves for princes , he was not sensible that the people were losers . for his own part he does not find that he had cause then to complain , but as for princes , to them they stand as sea-marks , they shew that if they touch there abouts . they shall be split as sure as if they dasht upon a rock : as they love themselves , let them avoid giving the people these causes of a war. what if they will not take fair warning ? why then they must take what comes . how much better might he have assign'd , as the cause of the war , a wanton pride of the people , bred out of prosperity and long ease , infected with a touch of levelling principles , deriv'd over to their politicks from the new models of church government . he might farther have demonstrated , that these materials were wrought by aemulation and covetousness . not forgetting that some grandees ordered the puritan lecturers , like apothecaries , to make up , according to their prescriptions , a bolus with some counterfeit drops of gods glory , that the well-meaning multitude might more glibly swallow the poison . i have now upon the matter done with you : let me only advise you as a friend , suddenly to clap up a peace with the government upon this single article , that neither might suffer by the other . as to what you have wrote against the author of the preface , the most part has either been answered to your principal i. o. or else needs none . or if it seem so to require , it carries a solution near the difficulty . what you object against the church of england , is rehearsal ; and as it hath been repeated oft by several , so has it been oftner confuted . let me leave you with a passage in history , and the consideration in how many circumstances this is , and may be your case . the short of it is thus ; eutropius the eunuch was a busie solicitor with the civil magistracy , to have a law made against the priviledges and power of the church , not long after it happen'd that he was utterly ruin'd by the very same contrivance , which his malice against ecclesiastical politie had framed . the end . the conformity of the discipline and government of those who are commonly called independants to that of the ancient primitive christians by lewis du moulin. du moulin, lewis, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing d estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) the conformity of the discipline and government of those who are commonly called independants to that of the ancient primitive christians by lewis du moulin. du moulin, lewis, - . [ ], , [ ] p. printed for richard jeneway, london : . errata: p. [ ] ( rd grouping) reproduction of original in the union theological seminary library, new york. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng dissenters, religious. liberty of conscience. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - emma (leeson) huber sampled and proofread - emma (leeson) huber text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the conformity of the discipline and government of those who are commonly called independants to that of the ancient primitive christians . by dr. lewis du moulin sometime history professor of oxford . qui repertâ veritate aliquid ulterius discutit , mendacium quaerit . valentinianus & martianus . london , printed for richard janeway , . the table of the chapters . chap. . of prejudices in general , and of the force of the objections commonly urged against the tenets and principles of nestorius , to serve by way of introduction to the prejudices that are formed against the independants . pag. . chap. . the advantages of the congregational may above any other establishment of the church beside : that it is the most reasonable ; and that all others have insuperable inconveniences . p. . chap. . that upon the ground of this hypothesis ▪ that every supreme authority either in the popish , or the presbyterian church is subject to ernour , monsieur de condom hath reason to approve of the congregational may , and the independancy of particular churches on any other authority than that of jesus christ in his word . p. . chap. . that the design of the congregational churches is most holy and most reasonable , when they labour to retain a conformity of faith with the other ▪ reformed churches ; but take the liberty to differ from them in matter of discipline : of the veneration ▪ they have for calvin , and for the churches which follow his doctrine , and discipline . p. . chap. . that the congregational churches do most rationally establish the authority of synods , and pastors , and the nature of the church . p. . chap. . an answer to those who say that the congregational way is incompatible with the civil power ; and that it deprives the magistrate of the right he hath to the government of the church ; that it is introductory of irreligion , ignorance , and schism in the church . p. . chap. . that the congregational way has been practised in all ages of the world. p. . chap. . of the great benefit and advantage that comes from the establishment of the congregational way in the world. p. . chap. . that the most judicious divines of france and other places , without thinking of it , do naturally fall into the hypotheses of the congregational churches . of the judgment which ought to be made of their confession of faith , of their discipline , and conduct . p. . chap. . of the wise and prudent carriage of the independants , and of their way to get further off the church of rome than any other , and to condemn all the wayes of reconciliation with it , and the churches that hold any communion with rome . that the indeavour to come near it is damnable and pernicious : as is sufficiently seen in the present posture of the affairs of england . p. . chap. . a continuance of the same matter concerning the wise carriage of those churches that are for their way congregational , when they condemn all manner of speaking like to rome , and all practises , that do any whit savour of theirs : and the six maxims on which the pope and his church are founded : a confirmation of that by a history taken out of the life of joseph hall. p. . chap. . an apology for the author of the conformity of the congregational churches with that of the antient primitive christians : that a disinteressed person , such as he is , is the most fit to write about these matters . of the obligation he hath to the bishop of condom for the light he hath given him . p. . chap. . the explication of one difficulty which runs throughout the whole precedent discourse . p. . chap. . remarks upon the fault that some may find in the title of this discourse . p. . chap. ult. an answer to those who accuse the independants for being the authors of the late civil wars in england , and particularly for having had an immediate hand in the death of king charles the first . p. . the conformity of the government of those who are commonly called independants , with that of the ancient primitive christians chap. i. of prejudices in general , and of the force of the objections commonly urged against the tenets and principles of nestorius , to serve by way of introduction , to the prejudices that are formed against the independants . 't is above fifty years , since some learned and judicious persons , as well of the gown , as others , have now brought to light an important and necessary truth , which the strength of prejudice , and a general and opinionative blindness , that hath lasted for more than this thousand years , hath kept under a bushel : 't is that of nestorius , which the eminent authority of cyril , has made to pass , during all that time , and even from the third oecumenical councel , for an absolute lie , and with which all the learned , both the general and particular councils , all the fathers , and all the new doctors of both communions , have been so successively prepossessed , that they have thought it nearly concerned their honour , not only to deny it ; but even to be continually throwing their anathema's at the head of the poor nestorius , whom they have made to pass for an abominable heretick , although at the bottome , nestorius was he of the two who was by far the more orthodox , and the honester man ; and on the other hand , cyril was the heretick . for it is with the authority of cyrillus , as with that eminent authority of the church of rome , to which monsieur a●●auld would have all men fixed , and with which he thought to overwhelm and undo monsieur claude . not to make any application of this history to what has happened to my self in particular , as to the necessary truths i have promulged and advanced , i will content my self with fixing to one , which is like to that of nestorius ; 't is that about those who are called independants ; who though they will not yield , in exactness of living , or in holiness of doctrine , to any of the protestants in europe , for they are led more than other christians by the spirit of jesus christ , which is a spirit of meekness , moderation , and of a sound mind , and they are farthest off from the spirit of malignity and persecution , and their doctrine hath more of conformity with that of the apostles , and the primitive christians , than any of the others ; and though , to conclude , their confession of faith is the most nervous and sinewy , the most orthodox , and coutched up in terms so strong and powerful , that of all pieces , which yet have appeared in the world , fince the writings of the apostles , it is the most full and perfect : yet have they had the unhappiness to be loaded with injuries by our synods , and by those of our divines , who are the most eminent in learning , and of a life and piety the most exemplary , and that too in a manner altogether inhumane and barbarous ; so far , as that monsieur amy●auld calls them fools , enthusiasts , and such as are infamous in their lives . monsieur d' aille , the father says of them , that it is a pernicious sect , which from the very foundation overthrows the empires and governments of the world ; and others have no better opinion of them , imputing to them practises contrary to truth ; as to receive into their communion the most loose , disordered , and impious persons ; though on the contrary , their fault , if it be one , is just at the other extremity , not to receive , neither into their society , nor their communion any but such , in whom they probably find the marks of regeneration ; and that beside , their greatest crime is to condemn the practise of churches , as popish and tyrannical , when by a right pretended to be divine , and by vertue of the power of the keyes , and of that of binding and loosing ; they erect a tribunal , or a national ecclesiastical power , independent and distinct from that of the magistrate , though otherwise they approve of the government of our churches of france according to the principles of those who establish it upon a natural right , and upon a considerate discipline , in a manner absolutely like to the civil and politick . for it is upon this ground of natural right , of confederation , of arbitrary discipline , and purely humane , which may , and ought to be changed and altered , according to times and places , it is upon this ground , i say , that the discipline of the reformed churches of france is established and founded , as the last article of their discipline , says it , in the very express terms . chap. ii. the advantage of the congregational way , above any other establishment of the church beside : that it is the most reasonable , and that oll others have insuperable inconveniencies . this congregational way hath incredible advantages over and above all the other establishments of religion , which most commonly are of the same extent as the civil state of every territory : but , beyond all , this way introduces into all the churches which conform to it , or at least into a great many of those churches , a reformation in doctrine , in discipline , and in manner of government ; wholly apostolical : it being impossible that of a hundred congregations , or particular churches , which should differ one from another in faith , and in the way of government , otherwise independant each on the other , or on the synods , but that there should be some or other which does retain this apostolical holiness : whereas it is not any wayes possible , as we have seen by experience since the time of constantine the great , but that one national church of the same extent as the civil state , or as the empire or dominion of a prince , must needs have many defects , errours , and apparent disorders , not only in discipline , but also in doctrine , for these following reasons , . we must consider a national church , either in the manner , as it was established by constantine , theodostus , and justinian , of as great an extent as the roman empire , in which the state ecclesiastical was regulated after the model of the civil state : where the bishop of a city or place , whose extent was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , was parallel to the defensor civitatis , or to the dux ; the archbishop , or the metropolitan of the province was parallel to the praeses or proconsul , and corrector . the diocesan , the primate , or the patriarch , who was also the hexarch in the time of the calcedonian council , was parallel to the legat of the emperour , or vicarius , where the praetorium was , and where there was in the ecclesiastical state a subordination of courts and tribunals , as in the civil state : for that was the errour of the antients to adjust the ecclesiastical government to the civil , instead of practising the quite contrary , according to the judicious maxim of a wise italian politician . bisogna accomodare la ragione di stato alla religione , & non la religione alla rag one di stato . or we must consider the national church , when the pastors are in an equality of rank and dignity , but with subordination to provincial or national assemblies , consistories , colloquies , and synods . now in either manner of establishment , where there is observed in all things an uniformity of doctrine and of discipline , and which is pressed by the same rigorous severities in the state ecclesiastical , as the laws are in the civil , in either manner , i say , even , when the magistrate favours the true worshippers of jesus christ , there happens errours and disorders innumerable , which never would be found in the establishment of the congregational way : as when the bishop or a small number of pastors has the whole management and supervision of affairs ; and where it is impossible but that heresie , ambition , envy , politick regards , temporal interest , the spirit of pride and grandeur , and factions should reign among them ; and that these errours and disorders should so easily be visible , and taken notice of , as in a particular composed of one or two pastors , and of a small number of people , this is what has been observed by the historians socrates , and sozomen , and by the fathers . gregory nazianzen sayes , that he had never seen synods to produce any good effects , but that they had rather increased heresie , then stifled and suppress'd it . martyn , the bishop of tours , had no better opinion of them . all the synods , especially , the oecumenical , had been shire ▪ halls , houses of confusion , or even aceldama's , if the emperours , or their commissaries had not thrown water upon the fire which they had kindled : yet they could not always so hinder , but that these two great evils of synods and bishops , the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , did transport them to the very extremities of tyranny and cruelty : insomuch that dioscorus who was president in the second council of ephesus over four hundred persons , was so moved with rage and passion against flavian bishop of antioch , that he rose up from his seat , and killed him with blows and kicks , and also trampled upon his body after he was dead . 't is remarkable that the canons full of piety and pure doctrine , were never made in numerous and oecumenical synods , but in those that were private , and composed of a few persons , such as was that of orenge , where we read these words that deserve to be writ in gold. tales nos amat deus , quales futuri sumus ipsius dono , non quales sumus nostro merito : having in it only the first nicene council which hath produced us this most nervous confession concerning the blessed trinity . i add that in the establishment of a national church , which observes in a large extent of dominion the same uniformity of religion as of polity , it is neither goodness nor truth , neither sincerity , nor a well-form'd design that acts , but it is hazard , worldly interrest , power , and the greatest number , which is oftentimes the most erroncous , and the will of one single person invested with an absolute power , which is most commonly taken up by flatterers , and counsellors , who are animated with other motives than those of conscience , or who , how good soever , and sincere otherwise , are not illuminated , nor learned enough to give a right judgement about matters of religion . carneades said , that the state of athens was unhappy , in which wise men made fair overtures , and gave good counsels , but fools judged of them , and ordered all things according to their idle and extravagant fancies . and indeed wise men may consult ▪ but it is the greatest number , or the longest and best sword that determines , which is too often in the hands of those , who have more strength of power , than force of judgement , so that by this establishment of a national ecclesiastical government , thousands of christians and faithful souls are as much obliged to submit themselves to the religion of a whole empire , according to the establishment which shall be made of it by an idolatrous rehoboam , by an arrian constantius , by an apostate julian , by a popish mary queen of england , as to that which shall be set up by a david , by a constantine the the great , and by a queen elizabeth of ever blessed memory ; which inconveniencies neither can nor ever will be able to happen in a place , where the congregational way shall be established . it may be one soveraign , who shall be as heretick , as constantius , will issue forth his commands for the establishment of his heresie in all the places of his dominion , as theodosius the second made another for that of the orthodox faith , when he commanded , that all the subjects of his empire should receive the faith from damaseus of rome , and from peter of alexandria . but it may likewise fall out , that that same emperour , to wit , theodosius the second , might make two ordinances , which may mutually destroy one another ; for he convoked the first synod of ephesus , which condemned the opinion of nestorius , and some years after he convoked the second synod of ephesus , which contradicted it , and allowed the opinion of nestorius . . this same inconvenience is verified by the establishment of the best reformed churches in the world , i mean that of luther , and of calvin : for as the reformation was that of a national church of the same extent with that of the territory of the soveraign where it was established ; so likewise did it carry the obligation into germany , sweedland , and denmark that they should submit to consubstantiation , without any bodies having the liberty to form assemblies to themselves which may reject it ; which churches might do if they were independant . the same inconvenience is happened , and must happen from the national establishment of the reformation which calvin hath made in england , holland , some parts of germany , and elsewhere : and how pure soever the reformation was as for the doctrine of that holy man , it is extremely defective as to the discipline , the power ecclesiastick , and that tribunal which he erected in geneva , distinct and independant on the magistrate , by vertue of a pretended divine right and power , which hath been the cause of all those infinite disorders , confusions , and even schisms in england , scotland , holland , and geneva , even in the time of calvin , as we read in his epistles . . one great convenience which is found in the establishment of a national government , is , that it is always grounded upon humane principles , cruel , and barbarous , as to constrain , to persecute ▪ and even to burn those who in matter of religion do not embrace that of the ecclesiastical state , or of the magistrate that establishes it , and do not conform to all the practices that he appoints and commands . . they say that this national establishment of ecclesiastical government , deprives man of his reason , and his natural and religious liberty , in the choice he ought to make of his god , and of the worship he ought to render him , and to which he should not be constrained , but perswaded ▪ neither to be brought to it by custome nor by birth , nor likewise by the law of the magistrate , unless he be convinced that his ordinances and commands in matters of religion are conformable to the word of god ; for they press mightily upon this consideration , that this establishment divests man of the same liberty in his religious life , as he hath in the civil , where he is not restrained by any law of the magistrate to choose his house , his wife , his master , his servant , his lawyer , his physitian , his calling , nor any one particular manner how to govern his family , provided it may be done without breaking the publick peace . . they say , that how unjust or how extravagant soever the laws of the magistrate might be for the regulating of politie , yet there is nothing unreasonable , neither in the magistrate generally to command the practice of them , nor in all subjects submitting to them , without reserve or exception ▪ so long as the importance of those laws do not extend beyond the present life ; but if it reaches further , and conscience and eternal salvation be concerned therein , they believe , that an uniformity of faith and of religion , which should be imposed upon us , how good so ever the thing might be in its self , it would be wicked and unreasonable , because it would do violence to the conscience , of which the magistrate is not the master , nor the arbiter , as he is of the bodies and estates of men. chap. iii. that upon the ground of this hypothesis , that every supream authority , either in the popish or the presbyterian church , is subject to error ; monsieur de condom hath reason to approve of the congregational way , and the independency of particular churches on any other authority than that of jesus christ in his vvord . but there is nothing , which does more reasonably establish the independancy of particular churches , nor which more powerfully destroyes this authority in the church , by a divine right , and the necessity there is , that a person , or a particular church should depend upon its ordinances , ( unless that supream authority is infallible ; for if it be subject to error , it must of necessity do violence to the christian liberty of the faithful , and so degenerate into a tyrannical authority ) there is nothing , i say , which establishes more reasonably the independency of particular churches , nor which more powerfully destroyes their dependency , than the account which the bishop of condom gives of the judgements of the independants , and of the sentence that the synod of charenton pronounced against them . they believe , sayes he , that every faithful member ought to follow the illuminations of his own conscience , without submitting his judgement to the authority of any body , nor any ecclesiastical assembly , and they do not refuse to submit to the word of god , nor to embrace the decisions of synods , when after a due and through examination of them , they find them reasonable . that which they refuse to do , is to submit their judgement to that of any assembly , because it is a society of men that are subject to errour . the gospel it self is not more true than this perswasion of independants , and that bishop could not approve of one more reasonable , to wit , that a particular person , or church , ought not to submit their faith , their religion , nor the guidance of their manners to an authority which is subject to errour , but only to the word of god , which is an infallible authority . upon this ground the bishop of condom hath reason to condemn the synod of charenton , for having taxed the judgement of the independants with errour , which consists , as sayes the synod , in what they teach , that every church ought to be governed by its own laws , without any dependance upon any in matters ecclesiastical , and without any obligation to acknowledge the authority of synods for its governance and conduct . then a little after , this same synod decides , that this sect is as prejudicial to the state as to the church : that it opens a door to all sorts of irregularities and extravagancies : that it takes away all the means of bringing any remedy to them ; and that if it had field-room enough it would form to it self as many religions , as parishes or particular assemblies . these last words , sayes the bishop , discover , that it is principally in matters of faith , that the synod would establish dependancy , since the greatest inconvenience that he takes notice of , into which the faithful people of god would fall by independancy , is , that they would frame as many religions as parishes ; then , says he , of necessity , according to the doctrine of that synod , each church , and by a stronger reason each particular , must depend , as to what respects faith , upon a supreme authority , which resides in some assembly , or in some body , to which authority all the faithful people of god ought to submit their judgement . this bishop could take notice of nothing more unreasonable , and more extravagant in our synods , than to oblige a private person to submit himself in matters of faith to the judgment of an assembly ▪ whose decisions are not the word of god , that is to say , not infallible . 't is true , that pre-supposing all supreme authority in the church , whether in the protestant or romish , is subject to errour , the government of the adversaries of rome , of independants , or other protestants , is equally justifiable , when they refuse to pay submission to the authority of rome , since that it is incomparably more defective than that which the protestants set up in their churches . but on the other side , if it be true , that , upon this ground , the government of the independants is more justifiable and more reasonable than that of other protestants who blindly submit themselves to a tribunal subject to errour , and whose conduct and gonance is beyond all comparison further off from reason , than is that of the papists ; for pre-supposing that the authority of rome is infallible , the submission ▪ which the people pay to that supreme authority , is so much the more reasonable as that of the protestants is the less , when they submit to a supreme authority which they themselves believe is subject to errour . in short , the bishop of condom hath great reason to be sure , that the protestants are mightily beside the cushion , and to blame , for condemning the infallibility of rome , so long as the incontestability , and indisputableness which they invest their supreme authority withal , carries the same obligation along with it to obedience and submission . a great divine of ours who relates the judgement of the protestants hereupon , libr. . cap. . de clavibus , expresses himself in these words . hujus ligamenti quo pastores ecelesiae constringunt peccatores , tanta est vis & certitudo , ut christus pronunciet , si quid ligaverint pastores in terris , id fore lig●tum in coelo ; id est , deum ratum habiturum hanc ligationem , potest fieri aliquando ut ligatio sit injusta , vult tamen christus eam ratam esse ; non enim fas est homini qui injuste excommunicatus est , invaaere sacram coenam , & invitis pastoribus irrumpere in communionem ecclesiae . is not that to tell us , that a man excommunicated unjustly , is as much obliged to submit himself to the excommunication pronounced against him by an authority which hath erred , as when it is given by an authority which hath not erred ? and is not that to tell us , that in every way , whither justly or unjustly , a person delivered to satan ( as is the general opinion of all protestants ( excepting my father ) that to deliver to satan and to excommunicate are one and the same thing ) ought not to dispute o●● resist that authority , which hath delivered him up to that evil spirit ? to conclude , is not that to speak in the language of the canon , si papa distinct . ▪ which will by no means permit a person cast thus to the devil , although against all right and justice , by the authority of the pope , to resist that supreme authority . the bishop likewise hath no less good reason to be sure , that the conjunction of all the parts of romish church in one body would be unreasonable , if they were not cimented by infallibility ; and to divest it of its infallibility , is to break it in pieces , is to cast every of its least parts into independancy , and to give liberty to every of them to govern themselves according to their own mode and way , and to do their business by themselves . but here we should observe , as we go along , that of two depths of satan , the ecclesiastical power , and infallibility , the first is a lie , an imposture , and a cheat ; but that presupposing that it is not a cheat , but a thing that is good , and true , and the use of which is necessary in the church , infallibility is naturally and reasonably a consequence of it . and in truth , our reformers have placed incontestability in the room of infallibility . but it is true also , that if infallibility be a pure cheat ▪ the other is a pure and absolute tyranny , and it is less reasonable , in not being a natural consequence of ecclesiastical power : incontestability is a thousand times worse than infallibity except it be in one thing , and that is , that it hath not been of so long a duration . 't is here no doubt wherein the illuminations of humane reason were not so great to our first reformers , as to the generation of men in this age : for as those soresaw in it , that a submission of so many princes and people , who differed in customes , laws , and languages , to an authority subject to errour , was not only unreasonable , but also impossible , to prevent the revolt both of kings and people , they with a great deal of justice invested it with infallibility . and 't is here too that the bishop of condom triumphs over us , and has great reason for it on his side , when he reproaches us that we have been deficient in our politicks , in not erecting among us an infallible tribunal , and that we are much to blame , for obliging the faithful people of god with so much rigour and severity to submit to a tribunal subject to errour ; but those of rome are not so , for they oblige their people to submit to one that is infallible . but the independants , as they are led by the illumination of grace , and reason , so likewise are they most reationally , and with great justice and piety disengaged not only from a pretended infallible tribunal , but also from the tyranny of such dependance , or submission to an authority subject to errour . as to the assertion of the synod of charenton , that the sect of the independants opens the door to all manner of irregularities and extravagances , that assertion , i say , seems plausible at the first , as in truth it is not only plausible , but most reasonable in matters purely civil , in which , if there were not a last resort and refuge , and appeal from court to court in the territories of a soveraign , there would be as many courts erected independant one on the other , not only as there are families , but as there are private persons . which inconvenience is not one in matters of religion , faith , doctrine and divine worship , in ▪ which the conscience of every one is the last resort wherein the business is to be judged without any further appeal , and where none ought to be constrained , but exhorted and perswaded : a synod is to perswade a particular church to embrace such a faith ; but it hath neither right nor power to force it . now a particular church is to do the same as to one of its members , and if it carries any constraint with it , it no longer acts as a church , and as an assembly of christians and faithful● people , but as a magistrate , at least like an arbiter and judge , to whom jesus christ sent the planteth in the eighteenth chapter of st. matthew , in these words tell it to the church , that is to say , tell it to an assembly which had neither any court , nor any power , nor jurisdiction , and where the party intimated mightly decline , or refuse the judgement without damage , as it appears by those words of jesus christ , if he dres not hearken to the church . for by these words , let him be unto thee , &c. jesus christ does not command the church to proceed to an excommunication of that party that has done the wrong , but he advises the offended party to cite the other , who has deprived himself of the quality of a brother before the natural judges , as well of the publicans as of the heathens the one being the ministers of the state , and the other being of the religion of the emperour . in short , the church as such , and considered as christians , and honest men , hath no more jurisdiction ▪ that a colledge of philosophers . chap. iv. that the design of the congregational churches is most holy and most reasonable , when they labour to retain a conformity of faith with the other reformed churches , but take the liberty to differ from them in matter of discipline : of the veneraiton they have for calvin , and for the churches which follow his doctrine and discipline . the design of producing their confession of faith , is to shew , that it is the very masterpiece of an extreamly juditious government ; and as it was the work of persons most perfect in the study of divinity , the principal design they had in the composition of their confession was to declare and testifie to the world , that altho every church might take the liberty to differ from others in discipline , they ought nevertheless to labour above all things to retain and keep the same faith in matters , that are essential with all the reformed churches . this is what the congregational party have done with great care and circumspection in the making of their confession : for beside , that they do but a very little differ from that of the presbyterians , and that they do not at all divide from them , but in matter of discipline , they have also indeavoured to have their faith conformable to the doctrine of the church of england : and as to their discipline , it is very simple and naked : they have no other than that which saint paul gives in three words , to wit , that every thing in the church should be done decently and in order . they have especially had an eye to the practice of the churches under the good roman emperors , under constantine , theodosius , martianus , and justinian , under whom they kept a strict uniformity in faith ▪ and that correspondence was maintained by letters which they called literae testimoniales , circulares , ecclesiasticae , formatae ; tho otherwise they took the liberty to differ one from another , even under one and the same emperour , in discipline , in customes , and in ceremonies . saint austin , epist . ad tanuarium , . & epist . . ad casulanum presbyterum , permits any church to differ from others in ceremonies , and in manner of government , provided that they agree with them in unity of faith. the historian socrates , libr. . cap. . tells us , that there was not to be found two churches in all the roman empire , which observed one and the same form of prayers to god. the jesuit mainbourg , how zealous soever he is to the uniformity of rome in his doctrine and discipline , yet he ceases not to say , and to maintain , that the diversity of usages , customes , and practices , is compatible with the unity of faith. one ought not , says he , never to separate for the diversity and customes , which may be different the one from the other , without the wounding the vnity of faith. pag. . of his third book of the treatise of schism among the grecians . i have read as much in a great lawyer , it is godefrey the son. certissima olim fidei ▪ contesseratio erat unà eucharistiam s●mere . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dicebantur non in eadem disciplina , sed fid● . we must also do them this justice , that there are no doctors who have a greater veneration for the doctrine and memory of caloin , nor who desire with more ardent zeal to have a strict and close communion with the churches which follow the doctrine of that holy man , than their pastors ; altho they believe that they may have , as i have said , the liberty to differ from them in matter of discipline , without thinking themselves guilty , either of separation ▪ or schism . chap. v. that the congregational churches do most rationally establish the authority of synods and pastors , and the nature of the church . 't is a great wrong and injury done to the independants , to affirm that they condemn synods , since on the contrary , they establish the true use of them , as the bishop of condom , who hath more charity for them than other synods , and our divines acknowledge . the independants , says he , do not refuse to embrace and comply with the decisions of synods , when , after they have duely examined them , they find them not unreasonable : that which they refuse to do , is to submit their judgement to that of any assembly or society subject to errour . the independants argue as mr. pajon does : though jesus christ himself , says he , should come down from heaven to dwell on the earth again with all the rayes of glory that are roand about him , to teach us , and to guide and direct us ; yet it would be impossible for us to obey him reasonably , without making use of our iwn illumination to know it , and to judge whither it be just and reasonable to obey him in all things . if he would not have a humane judgement submit to that which discovers it's infallibility with so much dazling and lustre , unless reason lead one to it ; by an argument à fortiori would he approve of the conduct of the independants as reasonable , when they refuse to submit to a judgement that is humane and fallible . but the true constitution of synods according to them , when they look upon them as the assemblies of the ministers of jesus christ , of divines , and of faithful people , and the true use they make of them , and which ought to be made of them , is to ask , and receive from them advice and counsel , as one expects , and as one ought to receive it from wise and experienced men , and not by way of command and impulse . that is all the authority that the great arch-bishop of armagh , and mr. baxter gives them , when they consider them as such : and also the oecumenical synods which were held under constantine and martian , had no more , before those emperours gave to their conclusions the force and prevalence of canons , and the sanction of imperial laws . they take the apostolical synod for the model of the authority of all synods , at least of that which they would attribute to themselves : and although it was the onley synod that was guided by the spirit of infallibility , and its authority was much more eminent otherwise than that of all the synodal assemblies in the succeeding ages ; yet it never went , as the others have done since , to throw out anathema's at the heads of those who refuse to be obedient to them ; but it only concludes with this exhortation , if you keep these canons , you will do well , they speak of the nature of the church , of the power and calling of pastors , and of their ordination , and according to the good maxims of monsieur mestrozat , monsieur pajon , and monsieur claude , and their doctors were the first who have established the true nature of schism . as to what respects the power , the authority , and the jurisdiction of pastors , they acknowledge no other in the church than that which is confined in every particular church , and which goes not beyond perswasion ▪ or at the farthest a declaration that it makes , that it no longer owns such and such , either for the pastors , or members of its society : and this is what is done by a natural right , and not in shooting out the thunderclaps of excommunication , or deposition against them ; for excommunication is not a business that is much disputed of among them . the hereticks and the wicked , being condemned by their own confession , have no need to be excommunicated , because they are excommunicated of themselves , as the bishop godean tells us in his paraphrase upon the eleventh verse , of the third chapter of the epistile to titus , a man that is an heretick after the first and second admonition reject , knowing that he that is such , is subverted , and sinneth , being condemned of himself ▪ and it is what he says , after saint jerome . if any one of their assemblies practise excommunication , it is that of the ancient christians , it is not a privation from the holy supper , but an ejection of the body out of the assembly , no longer to be reckoned any of their members . chap. vi. an answer to those who say that the congregational way is incompatible with the civil power ; and that it deprives the magistrate of the right he hath to the government of the church ; that it is introductory of irreligion , ignorance , and schism in the church . the four and twentieth chapter of their confession of faith , condemns those who speak of them , as of persons that despise superiour powers : for it is easiy to demonstrate that their way is so far from being , as monsieur daille believed , pernitious , and such as troubles the peace of the world , or which over-throws the governments of it , and the authority both of soveraigns and their states , that , on the contrary , there is no way in the world which contributes more to the strength'ning of empires , especially of monarchies , and which ought lesse disquiet the crowned heads for fear least they should cause by it any commotions in the state , than theirs : for as they do not set up and establish any ecclesiastical tribunal independant on the magistrate , which draws along with it the two thirds of the most considerable persons of the state , especially , those who are most nice and scrupulous in religion ; it is impossible that there should be any troubles made by leagues and confederations in that manner as may be in all the presbyterian churches of a nation , and as those practise it , when they forme to themselves , as oft times they have done an assembly of their deputies . all the world knowes that these general and national assemblies of the clergy , have been formidable to kings and parliaments ▪ because they are as an altar , and a soveraign ecclesiastical power ; opposed to a soveraign and civil power , of which there have been seen pernitious effects in scotland , and which france , would have found , if the reformed religion had prevailed over the romish : and i am very much persuaded that nothing so much diverted henry the fourth from the thoughts he might have had to establish the reformed religion in france , as the apprehension he had that his actions , being somewhat free , might be too far lookt into and examined by the synods and the consistories , and that his person should be brought under their jurisdiction . as therefore the independants do condemn these maxims , and these practises , which are absolutely contrary to theirs ; how ill intended soever they were , or might be , it is no more possible for them to set up in a kingdom , a soveraign ecclesiastical jurisdiction , than for all the companies of merchants and tradesmen , or for all the families of france to erect a tribunal , and a merchandizing , or oecumenical power , which may be equal with that of the civil state , in a word , as the congregational churches do neither receive ordinances , nor commandments from their synods , but only counsells and advice , and that they cannot assemble in a body by their deputies , they give a great advantage unto magistrates to possess an intire and perfect soveraignty , and to take for their motto , divide & impera . for those who deprive their synods of all authority , and who do not attribute to themselves any other power than that of persuasion , are the most remote of all from framing to themselves , either an empire , or one to be chief over them . 't is true , their weakness is their subscribing to that maxim of cicero , libr. de officiis . vt tutela , sic procuratio reipublicae ad utilitatem eorum qui commissi sunt , non ad eorum quibus commissa est gerunda est : and to that of salvian , libr. de providentia . infinitam regiae majestatis potestatem isti agnoscunt , qui infinitam divini numinis omnipotentiam non credunt . 't is true , they are accused for depriving the magistrate from the same authority , and soveraign intendence over the ecclesiastical state , as over that of the civil ▪ but notwithstanding they do sufficiently satisfy all reasonable and considerate persons of this in the four and twentieth chapter of their confession . beside those who condemn that collaterality of governments and of tribunals , the one ecclesiastical , and the other civil , in one and the same territory , and who believe that it comes from the forge of antichrist , and that it hath introduced popery into the world , do not trouble themselves about resolving the difficulty , nor about assigning to each his lawes , his courts , his officers , his soveraign , and the measure of his power and authority . i add , that as the force and efficacy of laws does not consist in , whither they are ecclesiastical or civil , nor in their goodness , justice , and truth ; but in the will of him , or those , who sit at the helm of affairs , the congregational churches must of necessity acknowledg the force of all those laws , whither for the ecclesiastical , or the civil state : only they affirm , that as the magistrate is not infallible , he may possibly abuse his right , and orr either in the publication , or the execution of his laws , of what nature soever they be : and as they are not obliged to obey all civil laws , no more are they obliged to obey all laws ecclesiastical ; they affirm also , that as the empire of jesus christ , in matters of religion , is not over the bodies , but over the hearts of men , the magistrate who is the protector and defender of the visible church of jesus christ in his territories , sins extremely , when he makes laws and ordinances that do violence to the bodies of his subjects , and that take from them that liberty , which every man ought to have in the choice of his religion , and in the manner of serving god. but that crime which is imposed on them , supposing it to be one , is incomparably less , than that of presbyterian churches , all which follow the establishment , and the practise of calvin , who set up in geneva an ecclesiastical tribunal , independant and distinct from that of the magistrate ; insomuch that a learned man named monsieur jurieu , has writ a large book , wherein he endeavours to prove , that the soveraign magistrate , considered as such , has not any jurisdiction , nor intendence over the collected churches in his dominions , and that he hath no other right than that of inspection , and considered as a christian , and one of his principal members ▪ wherein monsieur jurieu is more independant than the independants themselves , and he does not afford so much authority to the magistrate over the churches that are collected within his territories and dominions , as the independants do . the independant churches and their pastors are very wide from these thoughts and practises : for the authority of every congregation , being as that of every family , what liberty soever it has to govern it self according to its own way and humour , it is not , neither in right , nor in power , nor even in will , to set up a tribunal distinct from , and independent on that of the magistrate . after all , a prince who should endeavour to establish an arbitrary power in his kingdom , that should depend only upon god and his sword , might imagine he should be less hindred by several thousands of independant congregations , not only on him , and on his courts , but also the one independant on the other ; than by one entire body of all those churches , which should set up by their deputies an ecclesiastical tribunal distinct from , and independant on the civil : for the strengeh of all those independant congregations , would be like that of several threads , which may easily be broke one after another , whereas the strength of all those churches joyned in one body , would be like to that of all those threads twisted together , which it would be almost , if not absolutely , impossible to break , or to undo , but by the same way that alexander took to break the gordian-knot . as the independent churches do come the nearest to those of the apostles , so likewise they are further off , than any of the other reformed churches , from that thought and practise which has accomplished the mystery of inquity , which is nothing else but the empire of the clergy , and so consequently that of the pope , in the empire of the secular powers , under the mask and disguise of religion , and ecclesiastical power . as to the objection that is made against them , that in case there should be no other ecclesiastical establishment in a kingdom than theirs , the three fourths of the inhabitants would live in great negligence , and a gross ignorance of religion . to that they say , that their way does not exempt pastors from attending upon the office of their ministry , at all times and places , both within and without their particular congregations ; and to take the same pains as the presbyterian ministers do , for what repects the preaching of the word in the most publick places : also they do very much approve , that the magistrate should erect academies , and colledges ; assign tithes , and revenues , and temples ; establish persons to be imployed in the instruction of people in publick , to invite them to it , and to excite the ignorant to frequent the schools , and the lectures of the professors of arts and sciences , where they should go for the love of vertue and knowledge , without being constrained . as to the crime of schism , which is imposed on them , as their being seperate from all the visible churches of jesus christ , in the same manner as the donatists , the novatians , and the luciferians did : 't is a false accu sation . those who accuse them of schism , do not understand the nature of schism . . 't is not schism , when a particular church separates from another church , as the church of luther from that of calvin , nor the protestants from the papists : nor even one particular reformed church from some other , with which it made before but one body of a church : but true schism is formed among the members of one and the same particular church , as was that of corinth . . 't is not schism when a number of hereticks separate from the orthodox party of a particular church ▪ to make a congregation apart , to the end they may profess their heresie with greater liberty , but it is an apostasie , and an abandoning and forsaking of the orthodox faith , or church of jesus christ , which is catholick and visible : and upon this ground the church of rome is not a schismatical , but an apostate church ; although it be one for the first reason , because that what ingagement or tye soever all its members have to one head , however they are not all agreed together . schism properly is when the members of one church are at variance , as were those of the church of corinth , and upon that account there is alwayes a schism in the romish church . . there is no schism among several particular churches that differ one from the other in discipline , but that retain and keep all the same foundation and ground of faith , and who have for that point a great union , and a strict correspondence with other churches . and this being so , no more is there any schism , when the congregationals are independant on other churches , and on their synods , but when their churches are so among themselves . . there is no schism among several particular churches that agree in one and the fame faith , and discipline , as are those of metz and sedan , but do their own business apart independantly , not only on one another , but likewise on the synods . 't is with independant churches , or with several other particular churches , as with several families , or neighbourhoods , or those that are pretty distant the one from the other , who may all be good friends , and live in good intelligence together , without any thing of schism , or rupture between them , and yet every one does their own particular business by themselves . . the congregational men are no more guilty of schism , when they form to themselves congregations , distinct from parishes contrary to the command of the magistrate ; 't is a disobedience , not to a national church which jesus christ hath not instituted , much less invested with either jurisdiction or power to make laws in matters of religion ; but to the magistrate , whom to disobey is not schism , but a crime of laesoe majestaetis , or rebellion ; but yet it ceases to be that too , when it acts only from this principle of obeying god rather than men . now this clearing up of the nature of schism , which strongly establishes the independancy of the churches , and makes it altogether reasonable , does not destroy the confederation of the churches into one body , even under a national synod , when for the mutual preservation of these churches against a common enemy that persecutes them , they are constrained to make but one body of state or of churches , such as is the confederation of our churches in france . but then that necessity does not destroy the natural liberty of every particular church to be independant : 't is a confederation established with prudence , in that manner as was that of the cities of achaida , and as is at this day that of the low-countries , and of the swizers ; the conjunction , of which into one body , and under one and the same jurisdiction does not divest any town or province of their natural freedome and liberty to be independant on one another . there is however this temper , and menage to be observed in this religious confederation , that it ought to be made , not by vertue of the power of binding and loosing , and of the keys of the kingdome of heaven , which it is pretended that god hath committed to pastors , or synods ; but by vertue of a confederated discipline , which is in the place of a magistrate . also the councel of monsieur amyraule should be observed , and it is the same that the cities of achaia observed before , viz. that nothing should pass in the general assembly , but what has been first reviewed , and approved of by every particular church . and this is that wherein the prudence of our first reformers in france have been wanting , when they sat up a discipline by vertue of an ecclesiastical power distinct from that of the magistrate , and from that which has its operation upon the heart by the ministry of the word ; and of a power fastened to the keyes of the kingdome of heaven , and to that of binding and loosing : by vertue of which power , they depose and excommunicate , that is to say , as monsieur claude says , they deliver up a person to the devil : but they also deliver him to him in the name and authority of jesus christ , that so the people may not imagine this power to be that of the magistrate , or of the confederate discipline , but of jesus christ , the mediatour , and king of his church , and by vertue of the power that he exercises over it , and of which the pastors and ministers are the depositers . as to those who blame as much the separation of the independants , as that of the donatists , the novatians , and luciferians , it is ill grounded : the vice of the donatists was in that they owned no other church of jesus christ in the world than theirs : for they rebaptized those who came from the catholick church to them : the independants are far from these thoughts and practices : they do as those who having a particular care of their health , withdraw into a better place , and sounder air , but yet they do not think , but that they may do very well in places , where the air is not so good . before i go to another chapter , i shall take notice that the result of the thoughts , and of the practises of the congregationals , their churches and their pastors , do come to these two maxims . . that to establish peace and true religion in the world , and among christians ; we must go back to the materia prima of the congregational churches , which is , that every person , and every society hath the liberty to deliberate and consult about the choice of a religion , and of the way to serve god ; and to take upon that point the counsel of wise and sincere persons , provided that that counsel tends not to irreligion , and to some establishment of such maxims which shock the natural notions concerning the existence of a god , his providence , the immortality of the soul , the necessity of a divine worship ; provided also that the manner which every person , and every church hath chosen to govern it self by , doth not trouble the state in which one lives ; unless that trouble happen by accident , in the manner that jesus christ sayes of the gospel , which excites troubles , and brings wars and contentions into the world. . that this maxim of a national church in every territory , with an uniformity of doctrine , and discipline , distinct from the civil tribunals in jurisdiction and officers , hath introduced the pope into the world ; that it hath been , it is , and it will be the cause that there never will be a church in the world in its true purity , unless almighty god reserves some among the congregational churches . chap. vii . that the congregational way has been practised in all ages of the world. i could easily shew that for above this four thousand years before jesus christ , and even during the height of popery , and in the bosome of the church of rome , god hath alwayes reserved some true worshippers of jesus christ , by the way of congregational assemblies ; there were an infinite number of them in the roman empire , during the persecution that was set on foot by the arrians , and when , as st. jerome sayes , all the world were arrians . but to come more particularly to the thing ; they have had independant churches in all times , and in all places , before the law , and under the law , in the time of jesus christ , and of the apostles , and after the apostles , there were of them in the time of exos the son of seth ; for so must be understood the last verse of the fourth chapter of genesis , when men began to call upon the name of the lord : that from his time the children of god began to form themselves into particular congregations , and to separate from those that ran after the world , and its vanities , and to be called the children of god or of jehova , and to pay their adorations to him as to their creator and benefactor . the family of noah and his ark was a congregational church , which god had separated from all the rest of the world. the family of job , that of abraham , josuah , samuel , were independant churches . palestine was full of them , as maimonides tells us , and they were truly independant , because they neither had any thing to do with the national church , nor with its tribunal , nor sanhedrim . and so likewise the guides , who were called prophets , seers , and doctors were not of the tribe of levi , but of another tribe : and it is from those that the doctors of the law came , which jesus christ speaks of , the scribes , the pharisees , and the esseni . they called their societies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , colledges , houses of prayer , and synagogues , where they did not attend upon the levitical worship , but on prayer , exhortation , and the expounding of the law , and we see the first establishment of them in the first verses of the three and twentieth chapter of leviticus , they were distant one from the other the space of a sabbath day's journey , they were nearer one another whilest they stayed in the wilderness , and were then called tents , as were those of corah , dathan , and abiram , which were also independant churches . david calls the congregation that he frequented , sanctuary , where he consulted the mouth of god about his being healed from his prejudices against the dispensation of god towards the generation of good men , who were often times under the rod , and in affliction ; whilest the wicked were in prosperity : and in the psalm , he speaks of the esteem that he had for those congregations or houses of prayer which he did set forth by the tents of jacob , although that which he had for the ark , or for the gates of zion , and for his propitiatory , were greater . to conconclude , the seven thousand men , that had not bowed their knee to baal , were independant churches ; for it cannot be thought that so great a number of persons could assemble together in one place , and that too in a time of so great persecution . there were of them in the time of jesus christ ; for the apostolical colledge was an independant church , and in his time , two or three persons assembled in his name , made a church , as also sayes tertullian , ubi tres , ibi ecclesia , etiamsi laici . immediately after the ascention of jesus christ , the first assembly of christians in jerusalem was independant ; and that where cornelius and his family were assembled , was a congregational church , of which st. peter was the pastor for some days . philemon had one of them in his house . those of whom pliny the younger speaks , epist . . libr. . were others of them . affirmabant hanc fuisse summam vel erroris , vel culpae , quod soliti essent , stato die , ante lucem convenire , carmenque christo quasi deo dicere secum invicem , seque sacramento ne in scelus aliquod obstringere , sed ne furta , ne latrocinia , ne adulteria committerent , ne sidem fallerent , ne depositunt appellati abnegarent . tertullian . libr. de coron . milit. adds that it was the custome in those assemblies before day , to celebrate the holy supper . the independant churches of england , at least some of them , are formed after this model , and exact from their members , that they shall abstain from those crimes of which pliny makes mention . now that custome of the christians in the time of pliny , which exacted from the members of their churches , a life perfectly exemplary , stops the mouths of those , who turn into rallery , the independant assemblies , because they only do admit of those that are holy , and in whom they find the marks and signs of regeneration , and who oblige themselves by oath , or verbal promise , to abstain from those crimes that pliny here has reckoned up , or to undergo the penalty set , according to the discipline of the church . also that custome of the christians testifies , that besides the numerous churches , as for instance that of corinth , which consisted of several thousands , where it could not be otherwise but that there must be a good number of hereticks , and debauched and loose persons , there were established other congregational , taken out of the great church , whereof the members were more holy and more orthodox ; and who resembled those whom pliny speaks of , and those stations which tertullian mentions : where beside the publick assemblies , some families set a part by themselves one day of the week to fasting , to prayer and other exercises of piety , and also to the celebration of the holy supper : and this is what they frequently practised , and with good edification : for it is with small churches , as with small states , little republicks , families , particular synods of twenty five or thirty persons ; wherein it is much more easie to establish a good order , and to bring those who are of it unto the practise of good manners and life , than in great states , in great churches , and oecumenical synods , and such as are national , wherein ambition , envy , factions , avarice , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ▪ and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and corruptions reign , and cannot but do so . strada sayes very judiciously . in consessu plurium senatorum , aut consitiariorum , partes su●s magis agit ambitio , quàm in paucorum . lucian , libro de artibus dolosis , in speaking of great assemblies , sayes , the greatest bawlers have the greatest advantage in such assemblies , because those who understand nothing of the matter , and to be sure , are always of the greatest number , judge of things by the outside , and so give the cause for g●i●ed , to those who are the most resolute and clamorous . these considerations do furnish me with several others , which confirm me in this opinion that the congregational way was that which god made use of , in the ancient church , to convert to the faith , those , who were not christians , but by outward profession , from a state of nature to a state of grace : and that the way which they take at this day , when one person preaches to several thousands is neither properly , nor efficaciously that which gains souls to jesus christ . and this will appear by the opposition of the government at this day in the church , to that of the antient primitive christians . i believe , there will be found but very little conformity , not onely , in the persons that attend upon the ministry , but also in the places , and manner , where , and how it is performed . heretofore the bishop alone in publick did execute the office of preaching , and the other duties of the holy ministry ; for he left those of lesser consequence to the deacons ; but at this day just the reverse is practised , and maintained . 't is now only the priest that preaches in publick in the assemblies of several thousands . and likewise as the extent of the place unto which the ministry of these at this day is confined , is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , so it was also heretofore that of the bishop , and he most commonly dated his letters thus ex mea paraecia . which , by the way , plainly shewes us , that the intendance and government of the bishop in the primitive church , was only over a town or villa , which they called a parish or a suburb , for also every villa and burrough had their chorepiscopum . monsieur larroque , without thinking of it , makes it clear and evident , that it was the ancient practise , for the bishop alone to have the charge of preaching in the greatest , and most numerous assemblies , because the bishops being aged and sick , they called to his help and assistance , not the priests of the bishop's presbytry , but some neighbour bishops . he tells us of one nareissus , bishop of jerusalem , who , being a hundred and sixteen years old , had for his coadjutor alexander , that had been bishop of capadocia : and of one theoctenus , bishop of caesarea , that shared the care of his episcopacy with anatolius , who , in truth , was not as yet bishop , but who ▪ was then consecrated and called bishop : which plainly shewes was that a priest could not be his coadjutor . this is also confirmed by the example of valerius bishop of hippo , who being old and decayed , took not one of those who was to continue in the presbytry for his coadjutor ; but he took saint austin , who was to be his successor , and who also was called bishop of hippo during the life of valerius . as to those of the presbytry , who were called deacons , as they were the creatures of the bishop , and wholy at his devotion , so likewise their ministry was that which is spoken of in the . of the acts , which was not that of preaching in publick . as for the priests or elders , who were not deacons , they did not ordinarily preach in publick assemblies , whence it happened , that we read of very few homilies composed and made by the priests . their ministry was concluded and bound within the apartment or paraecia of the bishop , and , as i have already said , it was less fixt , and more itinerant , for they went from house to house : there was not a day past but that the priest , or elder , visited the good families , went to prayers there ▪ expounded the word , and administred the holy sacrament of the lords supper to them : and as for baptism , it was most commonly celebrated by the deacons in great assemblies , or in great churches , at the entrance of which , the fonts were placed , or the baptisterium . 't is true , the bishops did frequently oppose those private assemblies and by their synods and canons ( so far as that the synode of gangr● anatheniatized them ) called in derision those that frequented them a●●phales ▪ and condemned even those that communicated with them . they would do the like also to persons of quality that kept in their houses priests , and oratories . 't is true also , saint chrysostome would have the lords supper to be as publick as baptism , and that both should be celebrated and performed in the eyes of the whole world. but because it would scarcely be believed , that one bishop singly , as cyril of alexandria , cyril of jerusalem , and saint chrysostome of constantinople , could preach in publick one lord's day , to above a hundred thousand auditors that were in each of their villa's ; they say , that of necessity several of the presbytry must perform the office of preachers in those other places of the city where the bishop did not preach : and this appears by the homilies of saint chrysostome , ad populum antiochenum , when he was not bishop : that is true , but also those priests had no fixt places , no cure , nor certain , parish , over which they were pastors , because the bishop himself was the curate of the parish , so that the priests were only the vicars of the bishops , in the same manner as nicholas . . called the bishop of germany , and of france , suos episcopos & vicarios . those priests were , as the deacons at the devotion of the bishop , and were entirely his creatures , and they might rather ( i am sure better ) be called the ministers of the bishop , than of jesus christ , or of the church , as it appears by the six and twentieth canon of the synod of agde , for they were like persons taken upon hire , and to whom the bishop gave salary for their pains and trouble . after all these discoveries and manifestations , there is no doubt but that the churches in the time of the apostles and for a long while after , were congregational , and independant on synodes , since that even every family of the most considerable , and better sort was a church , or , at least , they had one among them , where the exercizes of piety were regularly performed every day , and where , during their repast , the holy scripture was read , as we may learn from the first epistle to timothy , chapter the iv. verse the fifth . for every creature of god is good , and nothing to be refused , if it be received with thanksgiving : for it is sanctified by the word of god , and prayer . and where before they departed , or , indeed , rose from table , they received the communion as tertullian tells us in his book de corona militis , declaring that this practise was agreeing with the institution of jesus christ , as it was also practised much in the . age in the time of saint cyprian , as he tells us in one of his epistles , quotidie communicamus . although several families , every lord's day , made very great and numerous assemblies , where in most solemn manner they attended upon prayer , preaching , and celebration of the holy supper , yet he , who performed the action , was called primus presbyter , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , & episcopus . to which it seemes saint paul hath respect in his . epistle to timothy . . . let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour , especially they who labour in the word and doctrine ; where , though , in the words , he does not speak of two kinds of pastors , or ministers , distinct in rank and dignity , nor even in office , yet notwithstanding he does insinuate in that place , that in the presbytry , and in the company of the ministers of jesus christ , named indifferently bishops , elders , and presbyters , there were some that were deacons , and whose gifts were less for praying and preaching in publick . for though i believe that the apostles did not establish diverse degrees of pastors , and that in their time , and a long while after , they were called indifferently bishops , priests , elders , sacerdotes , ministers , and deacons : and that the same deacons bore a part in the ministry of the word , with the rest , as it is seen , for example , in saint stephen , and phillip , and by what clemens alexandrinus tells us in the sixth book of his strom it es , and mr. james capel in his catechisme : yet it is most certain that from the second age , they were distinguished in names and offices , that the first priest , or bishop , attended more peculiarly upon preaching in publique , and the priests and deacons upon the functions of lesser consequence , as alms-giving &c. from whence it is , that we read so often of the first bishops of rome , that such a one created so many priests , so many deacons , and that hyggen in the year . created fifteen priests , fifteen deacons , and six bishops . that eleutherius in the year ordained priests . deacons , and bishops , not to serve in the church of rome , but in other places , where the bishop , who had ordained them , was to attend upon the preaching in publick , and the priests and deacons upon the other functions of the holy ministry ; for their ministry was less fixt ; they went to break bread from house to house , they instructed , they comforted , they confirmed christians , and those whom they called fideles in the profession of the christian religion , and in the practise of piety , and drew over jews and gentiles to them , and they baptized them , adding every day some or other to the church of jesus christ to be saved . in a word , they formed almost as many independant churches , as there were families , but which then did not constitute a communion distinct from that of the same fideles in the greater and more numerous assemblies , and where they assisted , not only at the h●aring of the word , but also at the participation of the holy supper , and all the sacred ceremonies , as mounsieur le sueur tells us . i must needs make one observation here which will be of no mean consequence , as to what i have said , about the diversity of the names of bishop , priest , elder , sacerdote , and deacon in the same ministry , against those who would fain perswade us , that not only this intendance of a bishop over the priests , but also the prerogative that they attribute to themselves of having alone the authority and the right to ordain pastors , is of divine right , and by the institution of the apostles ; i must needs observe , i say , that since the words , and the offices have been distinguished , christian antiquity never thought this intendance and prerogative to be of divine right ▪ because it was in the liberty of a bishop to abandon the order or office of bishop , without quitting the office of priest , or of minister of jesus christ , and indeed without being able to do it , unless he were constrained to it by the sentence of deposition . they did deprive themselves then of an humane , arbitrary , and mutable order , unto which they were called by men , but they could not divest themselves of that which they had received from jesus christ . that was the judgment of the councel of ancyra in the year . which having deposed some persons from the episcopacy ▪ lest them in the presbytry . this is what the sixth oecumenical councel did , canon twenty , which deposed a bishop , but did not take from him the presbytry ; so that if there was then an indelible caracter , it was not that of bishop , but that of tresbyter , and this is the farther confirmed , and more strongly , by this consideration , that , as it was an usurpation , or at least a right purely humane ▪ when one of the members of the presbytry , who was called bishop , attributed to himself alone the right and the office of preaching in publick , and not of communicating it to others , but only as far as he pleased : the same judgment ought to be made of this intendance over priests , and this prerogative to ordain ; and to conclude , that neither episcopacy , nor the power to ordaine , nor that to preach in publick which one person reserved peculiarly to himself , were of christ's institution . this is , if i am not mistaken , an observation , which has not as yet by any been thought on , but which is the unravelling of all the difficulties that those great men mounsieur daille the father , mounsieur larroque &c. on one side , and mounsieur pearson bishop of chester on the other , have formed concerning either the establishment , or the overthrow of episcopacy . and here now is the resolution of the words of saint jerome , which have put so many people on the rack , and have spent both so much pretious time and paper . quid facit episcopus , quod non facit presbyter , except● ordinatione ? which words marsillius de padoüa understands of the power that the bishop reserved alone to himself , by a right purely humane , to regulate the affairs of the church ; because it would be a thing altogether absurd , to make saint jerome say , that jesus christ had in all things equalled the priest to the bishop , except the power to ordain . and now also you may see , by all these declarations and discoveries , a very strong establishment of the congregational way . but i now will return from this digression to pursue the subject i left off for it . the conduct and government of the christians under the time of persecution , and before that of constantine , differ'd very much from the manner which was observed when the emperours were christians , and when they assembled together , both more publickly , and in greater numbers , enjoying their full liberty . as a rigorous discipline under those christian emperours could not be practised but upon a small number , in great towns , as rome , antioch , alexandria , canstantinople , &c. most of the persons , who could not be distinguished one from another , in the crowd and multitude , and on whom they could lay nothing by way of reproach , either entred into no discipline , and were neither poenitentes , nor catechumeni , or else they passed for those who were called fideles , and whom they never so much as question'd whether they were baptized or not : for saint ambrose , who was looked upon as a very good man , and one of the fideles that frequented the religious assemblies both in publick and private , was neither in orders , nor baptized , when the people of milan took him , and carried him away as a holy body to be a bishop . will they say that after he was a bishop , he passed through all the degrees of discipline , or penitence , and that he was a catechumen , and afterwards a fidelis ? which name was given only to those , who were called lay , or secular persons . and the example of constantine the great , who was baptized , at the very point and moment of his death , and that of satyrus the brother of ambrose , and of valentinian , whom that father so highly commends , and who died before they were baptized , are a very strong proof and argument for that which i here maintain . now , those of the faithful who were so , rather in reality , than the name , did not under those christian emperours , quit their good custome of converting their houses , and their families into so many little churches ; they performed there the same exercises , of piety , both during their repasts , and out of them . but i must here make one remark by the way upon the passage of saint paul to timothy , the epist chap. and verse . which i lately mentioned : that that good practise of reading the holy scriptures during their repasts , succeeded both a good and an evil custome , among the heathen of quality and condition , according to the disposition of persons , and according to their manners : for the debauchees during theirs , had , as pliny the younger tells us , their moriones , and their cynaedos , qui inerrabant mensis , to pass away the time , and please the company . but those who were serious and more composed , as cicero , cratippus , seneca , pliny the elder , euphrates , and spurinna , had their anagnostes , who read to them the golden sentences of pythagoras , and of the other sages of greece ▪ it doubtless therefore thus came , that the heathen families which were of the disposition of these latter , being come over to christianity , as was that of cornelius the centurion , publius the proconsul , philemon , and lydia , took this good custome , not only to have a church in their house , but to practise there all the religious duties as well during their repasts as out of them . this comes very near to the idea of the congregational way , which is to be considered in two respects , either when their pastors , and their people retire and withdraw from the crowd of the world , i mean , from the worldlings , to live continually in the contemplation , and meditation of the works of creation , of providence , and of redemption , in the devotion , and elevation of the soul to god : or else , when those same persons do form to themselves religious assemblies , distinct from the national church , and parochial assemblies ; in a word , when they are distinct from the ecclesiastical government , which is of the same extent , as that of the civil , that is establish'd by lawes ; though , in this last respect , their separation be not an absolute and intire abandoning of the profession of the doctrine , and life of those who follow the religion of their country ; but of those who condemn that carriage , that doctrine and discipline , which retained the most of the apostolical . 't is a separating of the good seed from the chaff , whereof there is but too much in parochial assemblies , where one is as much , if not more , a christian , by the chance of birth , of place , and of custome , than by any inward principle , or design fratned : for otherwise the people of the independant church , and their pastors , are no more backward , than the episcopal men or the presbyterians , to participate with them in the ministry of the parochial churches , provided they do not force them there to practise such things as they do really believe from their consciences , to be contrary to the word of god , and provided also that they permit them to believe , that if the churches reformed from popery , where all sorts of persons are received , are the true churches of jesus christ , in which salvation may be had , they ought to have no less good and charitable opinion of the independant churches which are come out from them . for these reasons , all disinteressed persons , that have a zeal for all the true worshippers of jesus christ indifferently , in what way of communion soever , whither episcopal , or presbyterian , or congregational , may easily be perswaded , that this last retains more of the apostolick , because it is not only the cream and best of the others , and a part of that good seed that has the least of chaff in it ; but also because it hath more goodness , love , and charity , in the esteem of those who follow it , for the way of communion with others , and of those who are of it , then the others have for the congregational way . 't is very rarely seen that any one of the congregation does not love all good men , of what communion soever they be , and that they do not speak of them as of the true churches of jesus christ ; whereas even the more sober , and honester party of the episcopal men , and some of the presbyterians , are so strongly prepossessed with prejudices against those of congregations , that they are in their account no better than hypocrites , schismaticks , and men of strange enthusiasms . a learned lawyer having cast his eye upon the matter contained in this chapter , assured me , that one mr. hubbart a grave barrester , in a cause between colt and glover plaintiffs on the one part , and the bishop of gloucester defendant on the other , makes it out , that the assemblies in the primitive church were congregational . he hath also acquainted me with an ordinance of canutus king of england , in the year one thousand and sixteen , which began thus , hae sunt sanctiones ▪ for the establishment of peace and justice , where it is clear that beside the ecclesiastical national government , established according to the model of the civil , the towns were full of little private congregations , which assembled together voluntarily in the towns , and which the king permitted , whilest neither justice , nor the publick peace , were interrupted . he prest me likewise mightily to insist upon the definition which the church of england made of the church in its confession of faith made in the year , . article the xix . because it is absolutely conformable to that which the congregational churches give of theirs , to be , as i have already a little touched , an assembly of persons together in one place , to attend upon the hearing of the word of god , and upon the administration of the sacraments . chap. viii . of the great benefits and advantages that come from the establishment of the congregational way in the world. thus you see we are insensibly fallen upon the conformity of the carriage and government of the congregational assemblies , with that of the primitive christians , for their smalness of number , and for the way and manner of gaining souls to jesus christ , by prayer , by exhortation , and by preaching , which they do to a few persons , or a few families ; as when their elders inculcated into them every day , and line upon line , the necessity of leading holy and exemplary lives : so that the christian people made far greater progress in sanctification , by the means and helps of those elders , than when they assisted at publick assemblies , where the severities of discipline , and the degrees of penitence , through which but very few persons went , seem'd to retain more of the affected devotion , of pride , and of worldly pomp , than of sincerity , and where the fruit of the bishop's preaching , was like to that , of which s. chrisostome speaks in one of his homilies , which resembles the water that is thrown in buckets upon a great number of bottles , which have a strait neck , and where there goes in but a few drops , whereas the fruit of the exhortations which are made in private to a few , is the effect of him , who having taken the bottles , wil fill them by degrees one after another . beside that , it is impossible , that a bishop , or other person , who shares out all his time between his chamber-studies , and preaching in publick , and who hath some thousands of persons under charge , it is impossible , i say , that he can suffice , and attend upon the instruction of all those auditors , and of every one of them in particular , which is most easy to be done by the way that the pastors of independant churches take , whereof every congregation is not , at the most , above two hundred persons , and who are also eased and help'd by their coadjutors in the work of the holy ministry , so that this kind of congregational way , seems to be the accomplishment of the prophesy concerning the covenant of grace which god was to make in the lest times with his people , where there shall be no more need to have recourse to the bishop , or to his curate for receiving instruction , because every person , who is in the covenant of grace ( as the greatest number of those who compose those congregations do belong to that covenant , ) shall be filled with the knowledge of the lord , and the pastor himself shall go to visit his sheep and take a particular care of them : so likewise this is the way of the pastors of the little flock of jesus christ to whom he will give the kingdom . there are also other considerations which confirm me absolutely in this opinion that god , in a more especial manner , approves of the congregational way : one is , that , most an end , in all others , the ministers are influenced by worldly interest , by ambition , and the desire of ruling , that its establishment could never be made without noise , and without the opposition of the magistrate and the people : for they have been always against this erection of a national tribunal independant on the magistrates , who never had given their consent to it , till after the advocates and pleaders for this national tribunal had been indefatigably buzzing into their ears these fair and specious remonstrances ; that it was the voice of god , and of jesus chri●t that the world should be governed by two collaterall powers . this is what the decretals made the kings and the people to believe in the ninth age , and they strongly insisted that the bishop of rome was to be at the head of the ecclesiastical power , and to prescribe laws to them by the ministry of his clergy for the regulating of religion , and for the affaires of the church . and this is what calvin also made those to believe , who left the church of rome , when he erected a tribunal for the matters of religion , in which the magistrates should not be seen in the quality of magistrates , but only as members of the consistory : but yet a tribunal that should be as much invested with incontestability , and with a power not to appeal from it , as that of rome is with infallibility and this is what calvin carryed by main force , not only against the will of the magistrate , and of the people of geneva , but against the practise of all churches , and against the judgment of all the divines of his time . but it hath not been so with the establishment of the congregational way , to which the people have had as great an inclination , and natural forwardness as the pastors themselves . which has been seen in england for above this forty years . for of more than sixscore persons , who made up the assembly of ministers , there was above a hundred of them for the presbyterian government , and about eight or ten for the congregational way , and two only , coleman , and lightfoot , for the opinion of erastus , yet nevertheless , when it came to the execution and practise , there was not one of ten thousand people that would submit to the presbyterian government . and one of them , who was the most eminent , confessed to me , that being pastor of the greatest parish in london , he was never able to establish in it a consistory , nor find any that would be of it but a pitiful scotch taylor . this difficulty was not seen as to the congregational way , for whereas only the pastors were for the presbyterian way , there were proportionably , as many people as ministers , who joined in the assemblies of the congregational way . which they did with more heat and fervour than the parliament would have had them ; in so much that they were forced to publish a declaration , by which they exhorted the people to put off the gathering of churches , till the parliament had made a more publick regulation thereof . as to the opinion of erastus , though it was not approved in the assembly but by two divines , it had notwithstanding the applause of most of the magistrates , of the learned and more illuminated , who were not of the gowne ; which discovers . . that interest is the toole , and engine that moves most men in the world ; and that , if the magistrates were for an intendance , which the presbyterians would take away from them ; these were no less in love with , and eager of it . . that it is very probable , that the advocates of the congregational way were sincere , whilest their number had a just proportion of ministers , magistrates , and people that were much for it . i proved in the sixt chapter of my jugulum causae , that of these two truths , the first was put beyond all peradventure , that totus mundus exercet histrionem , that the greatest men do oft times mix some grain of wordly interest with that of heaven , adding not the vtile to the honestum , but the honestum to the vtile ; espousing , or quitting their opinion according as they are actuated by the moving principle of sua cuique vtilitas , as tacitus speaks . for they resemble pope pius ii d. who , being a cardinal submited the pope to the council , but he changed his opinion , as soon as ever he came to be pope himself . much about twenty years since , the learned dr. stillingfleet preferred the presbyterian government to the episcopal ; but now he has had several fat benefices bestowed upon him , and he is advanced to the deanry of s. paul , episcopacy is most excellent , both in his esteem and opinion , and in his writings . this way is so much the more excellent , just , and reasonable , as it hath a compatibility with the government of a national church , which makes but one entire body with that of the republick , as under the legal oeconomy ; whereas the government of a national church , distinct and independant upon that of the republick , is not compatible with any government , neither with that of the magistrate , nor with that of the congregational churches ; though the government of this latter might be compatible with all kinds of government , if it would be suffered ; for a multitude of small congregational churches is as much compatible with the civil state , as is a multitude of families ; because neither the one nor the other do form to themselves a body by their deputies which establishes a tribunal distinct from , and independant on that of the civil state ; whereas the popish , episcopal , and presbyterian government , erects a tribunal in every territory independant on all others . calvin gave the first model of it in geneva ; volui , sayes he , ut judicium ecclesiasticum disticium esset à civili : and he makes these two tribunals so independant , one on the other , as hotly to maintain , that he would rather suffer death or banishment , than permit the appeals of consistorial sentences to the magistrate . to be short , the congregational way hath this advantage over all the other establishments of religion , both the national , popish , episcopal and presbyterian church : these cannot subsist but with a subordination of consistories , colloquies , provincial and national synods ; things which are not practicable , but under secular powers , either which may approve them , or else may tolerate them ; whereas the congregational way subsists not only under good emperours , as were constantine the great , and theodosius the first , but also under the pagan dioclesians , and under an arrian constantius : for what persecution soever may be raised against this way , nothing hinders , but that a minister who watches over a small flock , may go to visit the members from house to house , to administer spiritual pasture , and food to them , for their nourishment and growth in grace . to conclude , the excellence of this way appears in this , that it is far less exposed to persecution than any other , and that the presbyterian , and the episcopal , do fall into it when the magistrate is contrary to them . chap. ix . that the most judicious divines of france and other places , without any thoughts of it , do naturally fall into the hypotheses of the congregational churches . of the judgment which ought to be made of their confession of faith , of their discipline , and conduct . i could also streng hen all that i have said by the testimony of our new doctors , by that of mounsieur rivet , mounsieur mestr●zat , monsieur pajon , monsieur claude , and others , showing that they undesignedly fall into the opinion and judgment of the independants in laying down . . that there is no other visible church ▪ of divine right , than that which is assembled together in one place , to attend upon the preaching , and hearing of the word , upon prayer , and the participation of the sacraments : and it is in this manner that the confession of the church of england , article xix , defines the church . . that such a church is independant either on other churches , or on synods ; that it may very well take from one or other , advice and counsel , but it ought not to submit to their commands . . that no person can be forced to be a christian , nor to joyn with one church , rather than with another . . that this church hath liberty to do its own business its self ; or to connect into one body , in the same manner as the churches of france have done ; that it hath the liberty to retire from that connection , or confederacy , as the churches of metz and sedan have done . . that this church to which the christian is joyned , is obliged to seek , and to preserve a strict communion of faith and charity with the other churches , but yet hath a liberty of having a separate discipline . . that this church ought to receive the fraternal admonitions of the other churches , and of their synods , in the same manner as a synod of africk acted upon the dissention which hapned between innocent the first , bishop of rome , and the church of alexandria , as barlaam recites it . i could also find these maxims in the writings of the english divines , and show that in treating of the nature of the church , or of any other matter of divinity , they have kept the language of the independants , or at least have approved of their practices . the learned jackson , chap. . of the church , sayes , that for these two causes one may lawfully frame congregations distinct from others , to have a separate communion . . when they impose such practises as are contrary to faith and charity . . when they forbid wayes that are apparently most edifying , and tend more to the increase and strength of piety and salvation , than those which are now in use . dr. stillingfleet assures us in pag. . of his ireni●u●n , that when in one and the same territory , judgments and churches are different the one from the other , a christian ought to joyn to that which retains most of the evangelical purity . he is bound to adhere to that church that retaineth most of the evangelical purity . and in pag. . he sayes that a christian is obliged to separate from churches , although orthodox in the essential matters , in case they retain some mixture of corruption in the practise . his words are , a mixture of corruption as to the practise . i could find the opinion of this learned doctour in several places up and down monsieur claude his book , where having laid down to us for a principle , that the power of the keyes , and that of binding and loosing , only is reposed in the faithful people of god , he draws this conclusion from it , that private churches ought to get to themselves such members as they know to be more particularly the faithful , and to remove from it the worldly persons to whom god hath not affixed that power of binding and loosing , nor committed the management of the keys of the kingdome of heaven . i could ascend as far as luther and melancton to justifie the separation , even from churches that have not any errour in their doctrine . luther , in cap. . geneseos . etiamsi praeterea nihil peccatum esset in doctrina pontificia , justas tamen fuisse causas cur ab ecclesiá romanâ nos sejungeremus . but the independants have reasonably outvied luther , and the other doctors , for they hold though the church of rome should not have any defects either in doctrine or discipline , yet they were not to be condemned for separating from rome , and for being independent on the romish church and her synods , more then to find fault with the church of sedan , which is separate from that of metz , in regard of any dependance one upon the others , or upon the synods that were common with them . in a word , it is a thing as natural , and as reasonable , for a church to divide it self into two other churches , which may each do their own business , separately , as for one family to be divided into two others , whereof each hath the liberty to govern themselves according to their own way and fancy . thus you have in all this discourse , if i am not much mistaken , the justification of the carriage and government of the congregational way , and very clear and full proofs of their conformity with the ancient christians : as also their confession does evidence that which they have with the apostolical , in a more plain , free , expressive , and incontestable manner than any of the confessions that are collected in the corpus , or syntagma confessianum , so far are they from being the work of persons distracted , and enthusiasts , as some of our divines have fancied , that you might altogether , with as much reason , put among the productions of fools and mad men , the three most excellent and consummated pieces according to the judgment that alexander more has made of them , the epistle of calvin before his institutions , that of thuanus before his history , and the preface of casaubon in his edition of polybius . 't will , no doubt , be expected that i should add the order which is observed and practised in the independant churches to their confession which ought to follow : but as they profess a perfect harmony among themselves : so likewise they do not believe this same absolute necessity , as to that which concerns discipline : for excepting some few apostolical , and perpetual rules which admit no change according to times and places , concerning the equality of pastors ▪ that choice that every church is to make of its pastor ( in which monsieur mestrezat and monsieur claude make the true ordination to consist ) the solemn benediction of that pastor by fasting and prayers , and the refusal they make of their ministries and of their members , which some call excommunication , and deposition ; excepting , i say , these acts , their order is to do all things decently , and in order , in the church , as saint paul requires . but they are governed as all other societies ; and as they explain themselves in the first chapter of their confession of faith , article vii . in these words . there are some circumstances in the government of the church , and in divine worship ▪ which are common with all the actions of men , which are practised in all societies , and which might ●o be regulated by natural light , and christian prudence , according to the general rules of the word of god , which are always to be observed . this is all the discipline which the independ●nts practise ▪ then government is that of well order d r●publicks , that cannot possibly be too exact for the regulating of manners ; but which have but very few lawes for that of polity : they are far from that maxim ▪ in p●ssima republicà pluri ne leges . but how ●ise soever their carriage and government be , how sound and orthodox their doctrine , and how exact and scrupulous their ●ives ; yet they cannot escape the tyr●●ny of those little sincere judgements , which the most learned and grave persons have made of them : so that it need be no surprize at all , if the doctors of rome , how illuminated soever and sincere they have seem'd to be , have had for so many ages , and have still to this day so great an aversion for our religion , how holy soever it is , and have passed judgments so little favourable of it , as to draw , from our morals , consequences , that are as far from purity and truth , as they are from our intention ; this , i say , need be no surprize at all to us , since that amyrauld , daillé , and so many others of their gown have not passed any less sinister judgment of a generation of men as holy as any in the world , i mean , of the independants , no more than of their carriage , government and doctrine . as to their carriage and government , whether in private , or in the church , i do not believe there are any better regulated , more wise , more prudent , more illuminated , nor more religious . as to their doctrine , their confession of faith shall witness what it is , since that of all those that have appeared in the world of that nature , it is a peice the most perfect pure , and orthodox : and in which it may well nigh be said the christian religion may be found compleat , though there should onely be remaining that single piece in all the booksellers shops in the world. chap. x. of the wise and prudent carriage of the independants , and of their way to get further off the church of rome than any other , and to condemn all the wayes of reconciliation with it , and the churches that hold any communion with rome , that the indeavour to come near it is damnable and pernicious , as is sufficiently seen in the present posture of the affairs of england . those , who shall approve of the wise conduct of the congregational churches , in the composing of a confession that hath so much conformity with the purest churches of jesus christ , will be easily perswaded that neither wisdome , nor prudence have been wanting to them , when with that conformity of faith , that there is between them and the churches that are at greatest distance from popery , they have preserved to themselves their liberty , as to matter of discipline , to do their business a part independantly one on the other , and on all other authority beside that of jesus christ , without making use of that way of reconciliation which hath been practised in all ages by the means of conferences and synods , which have rather sharp'ned and exasperated spirits , and perpetuated quarrels , than any ways appeased and hushed them ; and whereof all the advantage that can be hoped , is at most to make such an accord , as it may be , dissembles , or disguises , or else suppresses the truth . this is no more than what appeared in the colloquy of poissy , where the greatest defenders of transubstantiation , and those who combated and opposed it as a vile monster of rome , concurred together upon the article of the real presence in the eucharist . and this is what appear'd also in the overture of reconciliation which was made in the year . in the synod of saincte foy with the lutherans by the means of a formulary or president of such a profession of faith as should be general and common with all churches as they proposed to draw up : but that overture could only tend to a reconciliation as difficult as that of finding a medium between transubstantiation , and the opinion of our churches which is contrary to it . certainly our churches were never able to draw back from the purity of our doctrine , nor from the sincerity with which they express it without being at the same time guilty of great prevarication : and moreover , the lutherans would never have yielded to go off from their ingagement to luther , and his consubstantiation . if both had complied , and met at half way , it would have been a most wretched peace , quae , as saint austin speaks ▪ fit dispenaio veritatis . the present posture of the affairs of england is a very clear and convincing proof , that the indeavour of those reconcilers , how good soever their designs were , is ruinous both to church and state. there has been an attempt for above this last age to get into a neighbourhood , and vicinity with rome , thinking to sweeten the spirits and tempers of those of its communion , to draw them over to ours , or at at least to make but one communion of two . in the beginning of the reformation there were several of the ceremonies retained , and fifty years afterwards others of them were introduced , they have attempted to bring in images , and so to pass from thence to worshipping of them . every where the altars are new set up on purpose , no doubt , to make there the sacrifice of the mass to smoak ; which is apparent by the bowings and cringings to those altars , or at least to the places where they are set , ( or as some will have it be ) to the east . the ordination of romish pastors is held for good , and for that of the true church of jesus christ ; and on the other hand , that of the other reformed churches , because they were not episcopal is rendred void and null , and because they had not the ●ark of the beast upon their fore-head , whereat monsieur claude is extreamly offended : nay , they have gone to that extremity , that one henry dodwell hath newly published a large book , where he labours to prove , and establish this maxim , that there where there is no episcopal ordination , there is no true church , no minister of jesus christ , no sacrament , and no salvation . they have lest out those expressions that are a shock and offence to rome , that the pope is the antichrist , the man of sin , and the son of perdition , the doctors of the church of england , as thorndike , tailor , bramhal , patrick , sherelock , &c. have sweetned the doctrines of rome , to make them rellish and go down the better with the protestants . in a word , to compleat the design they had to testifie their kindness for rome , they have persecuted them most who are got at greatest distance from it . they have made the image of their persons , and of their devotion to tread the stage , to render them both odious , and ridiculous . they have loaden them with calumnies , in the same manner as the pagans of old cloathed the christians with bears skins and lyons skins to stir up the rage of mastiff dogs against them ; they have treated them with the appellations of schismaticks and rebels , who have been concerned deep in the late conspiracy , a thing that gives one a horrour to think of : and the mildness and most gentle treatment is that of fanaticks , enthusiasts , and medlars that perpetuate the division between the english , and the romish church , and hinderers of their coming together . to conclude , as tacitus sayes , proximorum odia sunt acerrima , their aversion and hatred are so great against the presbyterian , puritan , and independant party , that these words are very frequently in their mouths , and it is their discourse both as they walke along the streets , and set at their tables , that they would rather be papists than presbyterians . 't is then a thing much to be wondred at , that whilest the prelatical party have so much love and kindnsss for rome , and so much aversion for calvin ▪ and our churches in france , as to rase them out of the number of the churches of jesus christ , to reject the ordination of their pastors as null , and to tear in pieces with calumnies the puritanical party only for this reason , because it hath a veneration for our churches , and for the memory of calvin ; 't is , i say , a very suprising thing , and much to be wondred at , that our pastors in france . ( at least the greatest part ) should make their court to that episcopal party , and call those faithful people in england , enthusiasts , fanaticks , and hypocrites , who separate from the doctrines , customes , practises , and lives of those that persecute them . but yet a people , who , by the purity of their doctrine , the holyness of their lives , and their conformity with calvin , and his disciples , keep off , and retard the introduction of paganisme in england , and the judgements of god upon the nation . certainly it , is a very surprising thing , that the fat of the prelates kitching , and the lustre of their hierarchy should so dazle the eyes of our great men in france , as to postpone in their esteem , the best , the most holy , and the most numerous party of the people of england , to that which glitters and dazles most , and which now have the uppermost seats in the synagogues . but that church which will have all or nothing , shews more heat and vehemency against these reconcilers , than against those that protest against all reconciliation with rome : which imitates the lyon in the apologue that devoured the asse for desiring to share with him . the church of rome , which is said to be infallible , is an immoveable rock ; the reformed , at least the english church , is a floating boat upon the water which is fastened to that rock by a rope ; now he that thinks to draw it to him , will be much deceived , for he will but pullhimself nearer to the rock . 't is true , that neither the whole body of the clergy of england , which set at the helm of affairs , nor any of them has been concerned in the late attempt upon the life of our most gracious king , but it is true also , that the papists had never been brought or tempted to think of such a thing , if they had not been strongly perswaded , that the life of the king was the only impediment , why those , who had already come over three parts of four of the way to rome , had not finished the rest of their journey to them . chap. xi . a continuance of the same matter concerning the wise carriage of those churches that are for their way congregational , when they condemn all manner of speaking like to rome , and all practises , that do any whit savour of theirs : and the six maxims on which the pope and his church are founded : a confirmation of that by a history taken out of the life of joseph hall. t is then with good reason that the independants condemn all the overtures of peace and reconciliation , and believe that they have been attempted in vain from time to time between the catholicks , and the arrians ; the greeks , and the latins ; the protestants and the papists ; the lutherans , and the calvinists , the episcopal , and the presbyterians ; and these from the congregational men : they condemn , i say , all these overtures of peace and reconciliation , unless the two parties that are both under error , and that are both at an equal distance from the truth , be reduced to a medium that may bring them to some establishment : without this , they are very much perswaded that to compose all the differences which are in matters of religion , there is no other method than theirs , which is that every christian makes himself of that assembly which is according to his opinion ; and that the church of which he is a member do not persecute those who are otherwise perswaded . they are not then led by any extravagancy of reason , when they put among the ideas of plato these six maxims , with which the world is so strongly possest . . that a civil state ought to tolerate but one religion . . that all the churches collected in that state ought to associate and joyn themselves into one body , which may be of the same extent as the civil state. . that that body ecclesiastical is distinct in jurisdiction , and independant on that of the republick , and that there ought to be no appeal from consistories , and synods to the magistrate . . that this ecclesiastical jurisdiction is exercised by vertue of a divine right positive and perpetual , and by the power of the keys , and of that of binding and loosing given by jesus christ , either to the church ▪ or to its pastors . . that the churches ought to be all united by the same bond of faith and discipline under the same ecclesiastical governnours , and to be obedient to their laws , their commands and their censures , . that to compass this union , every party of different perswasion and judgement in matters of faith and discipline ought to abate something of their rigour , and their right , and come one part of the way to a reconciliation : that is to say , that every party ought to recover an insidious peace , to abandon the truth he believes he has on his side , or to enervate the force of it . these maxims , which are those of rome , have been and will be the cause why there will never be in the world , neither church , nor reformation without some mixture of corruption . the felicity of being freed from these , is only to be found in the independant church . above all , they find the th . maxim to be unreasonable , wicked , and tyrannical● principally when they press to an uniformity of discipline all the inhabitants of a territory or kingdom , under one and the same soveraign , about which both the greatest number of people , and the most illuminated are divided , and do not find one clear , constant , and perpetual truth , in the sacred scriptures to press the uniformity of it , nor the necessity of that way that they find as to what concerns faith. theodosius the ii. had his reason better grounded , when he commanded all his subjects to believe according to the faith of damasus of rome , and peter of alexandria , then if he had commanded them an uniformity in discipline , which he did not do , and which he could not execute : for he could not be ignorant that as there was but one faith , to which every faithful soul ought to adhere ▪ and to be verily perswaded that his was the true , it was not without reason that he rather commanded the belief of that faith , than the practise of a discipline , since that the one was expresly laid down in the holy scripture , and the other was not . 't is after this manner the independant churches argue . they believe , with theodosius , that the subjects of an empire are obliged to embrace the same faith , supposing it be that of jesus christ , but they are not obliged to practise one certain discipline , which is not found in the holy scripture . the first maxim was that of dioclesian , who alone did shed more christian bloud than his predecessors all together had done . it cannot be practised without fire and sword , and it is as full of impiety and of paganism as excommunication . titus livius lib. . tit . puts among the roman laws , ne qui romani dei , neque alio more quam patrio colerentur : & ne quis in publico sacrove loco novo aut externo ritu sacrificaret . the scythians caused anacharsis to be put to death for having a worship a part , which he had learnt in greece . and mecaenas exhorted augustus to punish those who would not conform themselves to the religion of the countrey . dio. lib. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . but yet this maxim was not so much practised when the government was more popular , and when altars were erected to strange gods , and to some unknown : for , after they had subdued nations , they also brought their gods in triumph . i met with the defeat and overthrow of the fifth maxim , in a discourse at the beginning of a treatise of that excellent knight , to whom i dedicated my fasciculus , as an answer to some questions that were put to him , by thoughts much agreeing with mine , before ever we had any communication of them together ▪ which he also confirms by those of a learned divine , whose name is chillingworth , and whose authority is so much the more considerable , and weighty , as being a church of england man. there are , say they , but two wayes to make all christians to enter into one and the same communion ; either in taking away the diversity of opinions that divide them , which is impossible without a miracle and unless god had established and set up a visible judge to whom their differences should be referred ; or else being all perswaded that this diversity of opinions ought not to hinder their communion , and their union , in things wherein they do agree , and where charity , complaisance and condescention ought to have place , without any ones being deprived of their opinion , or that one should persecute the other that differs from his . doctor jeremy tailor , who was a strong man for the english hierarchy , by reason whereof he was made a bishop in ireland , and who was extroardinarily illuminated and learned , agreed in the same sentiment with dr. chillingworth , and hath published a great book , whose title is , the liberty of prophecying against the wicked and unreasonable carriage of those who rigorously impose set forms of faith to others , and who persecute and ill-use those who are not of their opinion in matters of religion . also the independants have indeavoured not so much to establish the goodness of the congregational way in sound clear minds , because they are soon convinced of it by the description they make of it , as to disabuse them of those maxims which are but so many illusions , though most commonly it is easier to refute errours , than to establish truth ; as cicero very well says . vtinam tàm facile possem vera probare , quàm falsa convincere . now the tyranny of these maxims , which are as much that of the protestants as of the papists , is the cause why the transition of the romish religion to the reformed is but imperfectly done in france , germany , england , and elsewhere , how little complaisance soever we have had for rome , and for an affinity with her , it has cost us very dear : we have thought we ought not to go from one extremity to another at one leap . as we fell from the impanation to transubstantiation so likewise have we gone from transubstantiation , to consubstantiation its neighbour ; then we have retained the real presence in the sacramental supper , which has some agreement , and is conciliable with those three illusions of words . 't is said indeed , that this presence was spiritual , but at the same time it was clothed with the flesh , when they kept at the beginning of the reformation such wayes of expressing themselves which have been a great shock to bullinger ▪ and many other great men of his time : that we were nourished in this sacrament with the substance of the flesh , and with the blood of jesus christ . which has given occasion to the bishop of candom , to mounsieur arnauld , and to father maimbourge to put this interrogatory to us , if you speak as we do , why do you not believe as we do ? especially the bishop of condom has made use of it , and they have given him reason to triumph over us as much in that , as he hath done as to the eminent authority that is established in our churches with as much incontestability as if it were infallible . the missionary pean sayes , that it is a gallimauphrey of the protestants to speak of being nourished with the substance of jesus christ , and with his flesh , and not to believe transubstantiation . a learned english dr. named john hales hath written a learned treatise upon this subject , where he condemns this way of reconciliation that sayes one thing , and believes another , and that turns again to rome , and he exhorts his brethren to condemn rather the use of it than to justifie it . he sayes also that martyn bucer was the first of the reformed that made use of this way of speaking . it must be confessed , that as the weakness of those great lights of reformation bucer , calvin , and reza , was very great , when they explained those scriptures concerning the lords supper , by a comment that was more obscure than the text , nor hath it been less great in those that have come after them , when they have explained the words of jesus christ in s. john vi. concerning the fleshly eating , to the sacramental and spiritual eating , and when they have made long comments upon the words of calvin to sweeten and smooth the harshness of them , instead of condemning them : this obstinacy in adhering to errors , hath brought in the pretended infallibility into the church of rome , and the incontestability into the reformed churches . inter caetera mortalitatis incommoda hoe est , errandi necessitas , & erroris amor , seneca . now these ways of speaking which simbolize with those of rome , and which give it occasion to insult , and triumph over us , makes me remember what i have read in the memoirs and specialties that joseph hall hath made of his life , and absolutely convinces me of this truth , that it has been so unlikely that they , who have believed they might gain upon rome , by retaining some of their ways and modes of speaking , or their practises , should have succeeded therein , that on the contrary she has been so much the more set and hardened against us , and have gone so far in it , as to make us , and their religion far more reasonable than ours . he sayes , that in his journey to the spadan waters for his health , he had before a great company of persons of quality , both papists and protestants , a very hot dispute with a sorbonist , a prior of the carmelites , who maintained that the kneeling practised in the church of england , at the receiving of the eucharist , strongly shewed that she believed transubstantion ; for that kneeling and the belief of transubstantiation were things inseparable , and always went hand in hand together ; and since the one had never been believed in the church without the practise of the other ; and since it was a distraction of reason , and a wicked practise to carry their adorations to elements that were only bread and wine , this kneeling of necessity must be a natural consequence of the belief of transubstantiation : bishop hall adds , that as the company was divided in their judgments and that several of them joyned with those of rome , in condemning this kneeling , unless it was a consequence of transubstantiation , more than two thirds of the company were so heated against the poor bishop , that he had not the liberty to speak , nor to stand up in defence of the church's opinion : for if they had given him time to speak , he had alleadged the rubrick of the church of england , which undeceives the communicants from the thoughts that they might possibly have that that kneeling or adoration is carried out to the bread and the wine : but beside , that there is not of a hundred communicants one who reads the rubrick , it might have happened that those who were so violent against bishop hall , would have pleasantly stopt his mouth with the apologue which beza writ in a letter to the good arch-bishop edmund grindal , who seeing that he was offended at this kneeling , after transubstantiation was banished , endeavoured to cure him of the scandal he had taken , making him to know that the rubrick of the church of england , would give him enough wherewith to be satisfied : upon which beza returned him this story . a lord having built his house near to the high way , where he left a great stone that he had no occasion for just in the road , several persons coming by in the night stumbled at it , and did hurt themselves , and often complaints being made to him about it , and intreaties that he would take it out of the way , he was very obstinate a long while , and was resolved not to meddle with it ; but being wearied by the continual solicitations that were made to him , he bethought himself to set over the stone a lanthorn with a light candle in it , to warn people of it ; but that admonition proving troublesome too , one of his friends came and gave him this good counsel ; sir , if you would be at quiet , take away both stone and lanthorn together . the stone of stumbling is this kneeling at the sacrament , and the rubrick is for a light and declaration , to signifie to the communicants , that this kneeling is not done to the bread and wine , but to jesus christ . if you take away both , you will take away the scandal , and the remedy to the scandall : you will bring back the way with which jesus christ instituted the holy supper , who gave it not kneeling , but in the posture of those who take their ordinary repasts at their tables , so that jesus christ never required any genuflexion either at the time or place . these two stories hit ( as we generally say ) two birds with one stone . for they may relate to that neerness of assinity with rome , which i have already spoken of above , and which i have showed has rather sharpened and embittered the spirits and tempers of those of that communion , to plot against the sacred person of the king , and against his government , than it has any wayes sweetned them : and moreover , they discover that those who go furthest off from the doctrines and practises of rome , who renounce all reconciliation with her , as the people of the congregational way do , have most conformity with the blessed peace-makers of whom jesus christ speakes , and whereof the character of the children of god which he gives them upon this respect , carryes them so much the farther from all thoughts of rebellion . chap. xii . an apology for the author of the conformity of the congregational churches with that of the antient primitive christians : that a disinteressed person , such as he , is the most sit to write about these matters . of the obligation he hath to the bishop of condom for the light he hath given him . i think my self here obliged to add an apology as to my own account , for what i have said as to the independant churches . i do imagine i shall be accused at first for having made the description of the congregational way , not according as it is in effect , but in that manner as xenophon did the cyropaedia to be the perfect model of a prince . they will say that any other interest than that of the inward knowledge i have of the goodness , truth and holiness of the congregational way , ought to have excited me to commend it so as i have done . that i commend what i do not approve in the bottome of my heart , since i do not joyn my self to it . they will say likewise that i have had no other design than to gain my own sentiments credit , with which they say i am most fondly in love , in adjusting them to those of the independants ; and because i condemn ecclesiastical power , and excommunication , which i have undertook to possess the world with the belief of , that so they should banish the use of it . to which , i answer , that though i should joyn my self to their assemblies , it would be no argument that i should approve of all the things they did , and all they believed , as they cannot conclude by my not joyning to their congregations , that i have not the congregational way in greater and higher esteem than any other . as i am a frenchman , and by the grace of god of the reformed church , i joyn to the church of my own nation , to which i am so much the more strongly invited by the holiness of the doctrines , and lives of our excellent pastors , monsieur mussard , and monsieur primerose ; and because they administer the sacrament of the lord's supper in the same manner as jesus christ did it with his disciples ; not having any thing to give me offence in their conduct , unless that they are not absolutely undeceived of the practise of our pastors in france , of excommunicating in the name and authority of jesus christ , and of interposing the same sacred name , and the same sacred authority to excommunicate as st. paul made use of to deliver the incestuous person over to satan ; though they cannot find this authority of excommunicating in all the bible , nor justifie it , unless they elude that harshness of expression by this way of sweetning , that their only intention is to declare that those sinners of whom they make the number , take the lord's supper to their condemnation , if they do not repent before-hand . as for other accusations , although i believe that of all establishments of religion , that of the independant churches is the most apostolical , yet i do not believe it is infallible , and i cannot approve of all they say , nor all they practise concerning discipline nor concerning the use of the ecclesiastical power , and excommunication ; though this usage be not in all the same , nor in all the churches ; because some among them do retain it jure societatis , & vi , & virtute paoti & federis eniti . however it is , both of them make use of ecclesiastical power and excommunication very innocently , for they do not set up a national tribunal , independant on the magistrate , and they attribute to their synods no other authority , than that of perswasion , both from wise and experienced persons . moreover , from the manner that they express themselves in the vii . article of the first chapter of their confession of faith , one may conclude , that beside the jurisdiction which works upon hearts by the word , they acknowledge no other than that which is taken by a natural right , and that wisdom and prudence has not been wanting to them , by their having in a joynt consent agreed in one and the same doctrine , because it is of divine and perpetual right , but in not having established any thing determinatively to be a perpetual rule upon an arbitrary and changeable matter , and of humane right , as is the discipline of the churches , and the authority of the pastors in their conduct and government . but although they should have retained some usage of the ecclesiastical power and excommunication , which are so many reliques of rome that have accomplished the mystery of iniquity , and brought the pope into the world , they would be no less priviledged than st. paul , and the other apostles , who , after they had received the holy ghost in greater measure than all the holy men that had been before them , yet they alwayes retained some leven of affection to the mosaical ceremonies . if the christians that came from paganisme , have alwayes kept some pollution of it , it ought not to be any great surprise to see the purest churches in the world , yet not throughly cleansed from all the impurities of rome . for these considerations , i feed my self with the hopes that the ministers of the independant churches , who are too much illuminated long to remain in the belief and use of this illusion of ecclesiastical power , which hath brought episcopacy , that is the first step of ascention to the papacy , and after that excommunication and infallibility ; and that they would put in practise instead of excommunication , that denuntiation which s. paul recommended to his disciple and son timothy , it is that in case any disorderly , or wicked person of the congregation , cannot be perswaded to change his opinion , and life , and voluntarily to leave the communion of the church , it should be published aloud in the face of the church , and the faithful should be exhorted to shun his company : and in case that he persevere in such refractoriness , he ought to be expelled by force , as well from the table of the lord , as from the church . and this is what may be practised by a natural right , & de jure societatis without any need of making such expulsion of credit by the keys of the kingdome of heaven , and by the power of binding and loosing . in short , i hope they will be perswaded by this consideration that the benefit which comes by the ecclesiastical power and excommunication will never recompence the pernitious effects that they have produced . now i believe that these three considerations , that i am a physician , that i am a frenchman , and that i do not joyn to any one certain congregational assembly as a member of it , will give more authority and credit to the relation i have made of their government and conduct , and make it less the suspected , than if i were of their number , of their nation , and a divine by profession : for if i were qualified in three wayes , i could not speak as a person disinteressed , but as having a personal inclination to the way i should have espoused : and that is the weakness of all those who plead for their own cause , as we learn from s. austin , and optatus milevitanus , who were of this opinion , that a sincere pagan or heathen , whether a physitian , a sophister , a philosopher , or belonging to the magistracy , were more competent judges in matters of divinity , and differences among christians , than persons of the priesthood , and sacerdotal function . as s. paul could not elect a more disinteressed person to gain the christian religion credit , in the minds of men , and to write his gospel , as he calls it , and the acts of the apostles , than s. luke the physitian , to whom the world is more obliged than to a thousand s. chrysostomes , and s. austins , and to all the persons of the sacred order , without so much as excepting the very apostles themselves : i believe that the same judgment ought to be made of me , and that my quality of a physitian ought to give stronger impressions of the goodness of the congregational way in the minds of men , than would that of a divine , of a minister of the gospel , or any other person ingaged by profession either to the episcopal , presbyterian , or even to the congregational way . as reason and grace in the hopes of glory are the three ressorts or principles which have alwayes moved and governed me in all the course of my life , and in all my writings : so have they been always less violent by the prejudices and interests in the profession i make of a physician , than if i had been either a divine , or a lawyer . i ought here also to acknowledg my obligation to the bishop of condom ; not only for the first hints of this truth ; that the congregational way is of all the establishments of discipline and government the most conformable to reason , to the holy scripture , and to the practise of the apostles , and the primitive christians : but for having absolutely confirmed me in this truth : though the design of that bishop has not been to put the congregational way above the romish ; but only to discover , ( and this he hath done by arguments that come very near to demonstration ) that going upon the hypothesis of the necessity of seting up a tribunal in the church , and of the submission of the people to that tribunal , as being the only rampi●r of the orthodox faith , and the only means of uniting christians , preserving peace and good order among them ; it is incomparably more reasonable that such submission should be made to an infallible tribunal , than to one that is subject to error ; and that upon this ground , of all the ecclesiastical ways in the world which acknowledg that every ecclesiastical tribunal , either supreme , or subordinate , that every councel , either oecumenical , or topical , is fallible and subject to errour , the congregational way which refuses all manner of submission to a tribunal subject to errour is the most reasonable and the most just . chap. xiii . the explication of one difficulty which runs throughout the whole precedent discourse . as it was in my thoughts to finish this discourse by the word finis , a learned presbyterian coming in , and having apprehended my design , put one objection to me against the defeat and overthrow i pretend to make of the necessity of a tribunal in the church ▪ he said that since that tribunal which requires the people to submit themselves to it is as much set up in an independant church , as in a national , and since both presuppose that that tribunal is subject to errour , the submission of the people is altogether as reasonable to the tribunal of a national church , as to that of a congregational . i confess there is some weight in this objection , which monsieur jurieu has not thought of , but which nevertheless is easie to be answered according to the principles i lay down . . that all manner of government , presbyterian , congregational , national , episcopal , hierarchical , papal , is of the same nature with that of the magistrate . . that the submission required , and given to all manner of ecclesiastical government is of the same nature with that which is required and given to a civil and political government , the ressorts of which are not the keys of the kingdom of heaven , nor the power of binding and loosing , but the will of the strongest , and most numerous that hath so ordain'd it . . and consequently that the censures of excommunication and deposition , being of the same nature with the law of the magistrate , the validity of which is not in the justice , nor equity of the thing , but in the will of those that decree and ordain it , they ought to be accounted as a civil punishment . these three considerations destroy that erection of an ecclesiastical tribunal , which is equal with the civil in one and the same territory , since both being of the same nature , it would be a pure piece of gallimaufrey and hotchpot to offer to establish two civil governments in one and the same dominion or territory , which should be independant one on the other . also this difficulty is easie to be overcome according to the principles of the independants . the inconvenience of an excommunicated or deposed person unjustly by his congregation is not great , so long as it does not extend beyond his jurisdiction , and that of a hundred congregations in one territory , it is impossible but that at least there might be one to recompence the justice of his cause ; which is not a thing feasible , if he be struck by a national judgement , unless he leaves his country . and since the person oppressed is in the liberty of framing to himself a congregation independant on all the churches of the world , though it be but of seven or eight persons , his innocence and legitimate right will easily furnish him with the means to do it . i add further , that a person who is sensible he is guilty of disorders ; can easily conceal them in the crowd of a national church , ( which he cannot so well do in a small number of persons , ) and commonly prevent the censure of his congregation , and not expect that they should excommunicate him and drive him out of it which is done in that manner as st. jerome , and bishop godeau would have the heretick ▪ of whom s. paul speaks in the of titus . knowing that he that is such , ( i. e. an heretick ) is subverted and sinneth , being condemned of himself : ) to do , when he excommunicated himself ▪ and saved his church that trouble . it must not be forgot that tho there is no government so perfect wherein one cannot find some faults , and some inconvenience , yet it is certain there is found less in the congregational way , whereas you may find almost an infinity in that of the national , whereof a thousand persons that deserve the censure of the church , there is not one of them that undergoes its because its discipline is like to spiders webs , where the fly 's are taken , but the birds pass through ; and where it is impossible in a town or a church of many thousands of christians , that one bishop or pastor can possibly have an exact inspection over them : whereas in a congregational church composed but of a few persons , and those all cull'd out of the multitude who fun after vanitics and vices , one has but little or no use of excommunication and deposition , and where avarice , ambition , heresies , and quarrels do not enter as in national churches . these considerations give me to hope that the learned and illuminated of the congregational way will agree and joyn with my principles or hypotheses , to establish the true nature of their jurisdiction , and to undo with case the difficulty of the objection : although according to their principles it resembles the foils , which touch the person , but do not wound it : for in case of a wound , they have a thousand remedies to heal it presently ; whereas there is no remedy either against infallibity in the church of rome , or against incontestability in a national church . chap. xiv . remarks upon the fault that some may find in the title of this discourse . i will finish these conderations by the discussion and explication of the title of this discourse , to which some have excepted , because they find there is not one ecclesiastical government , even of those which differ most from one another , that do not pretend to this conformity , as indeed they have either more or less : for there is not one of them , no not even of those that are the farthest off from the doctrines and government of the ancient christians , and that have but very little agreement one with the other , there is not one , i say , but what hath in something a conformity with them . every way of government boasts of their retaining this conformity with the ancient christians : i my self pretend to this glory in favour of the congregational way . not long since a learned minister of roüen published a book intituled , the conformity of the discipline of the churches of france to that of the ancient christians : beside , though the discipline of the church of england hath not any agreement with that of the churches of france ; and it is impossible that two disciplines so disagreeing to each other , should have both of them much conformity to the discipline of the ancient christians yet it hath so happened that a famous divine in his preface to his english translation of the novelty of popery , maintains very zealously the same thing in favour of the discipline of the church of england , as monsieur larroque has done in favour of those of france . if i were , sayes he , to speak to frenchmen , i would indeavour to convince them fully , that we retain in england more of the primitive and apostolick government than all the other churches in the world . dr. floyd , and dr. tillotson say the same thing . but i believe that this conformity is much what like to that which is between jesus christ , and st. francis. for i do openly maintain that of all the establishments of religion , that of the church of england is widest from the discipline and practise of the ancient christians . but he is not the only person hath spoke after this manner , england is full of books upon the subject of the conformity of its hierarchy , and of its episcopal government to that of the ancient christians . the bishops bilson , andrews , hall , morton , and pearson , find it in clemens romanus , and in ignatius ; some of the doctors of rome , meet with it in denis the areopagite : but unless this conformity be restrained to the times of the apostles , to which i find more footsteps in the congregational way , than in any other , i believe we are all in an error as to what concerns our conformity to the doctrine , discipline and life of the ancient christians . above all , the disagreement is found in the life , which was heretofore much more exact and exemplary , than in these last times it is ; the devotion of our days is but cold and languishing in comparison of theirs . it was in that , that their glory did consist , whereas ours is in having a greater knowledg , and a more full and ample illumination into the mysteries of faith , than the first christians had ; also to be better versed at this day in the knowledg of the apostolical conduct , of the nature and government of the church , of its authority , and of that of its pastors , who were the christians that immediately succeeded the apostles : i will finish where i began ; and that shall be by the force of those prejudices , wherewith all christians , as well protestants as papists are anticipated and prepossest , when they generally imagine that the primitive church was more orthodox , and pure in doctrine , than that of the following ages , because of their nearness with the times of the apostles : but i am as much perswaded of the contary , as of any thing in the world . 't is said that god never built a temple , near to which the enemy of our salvation has not built a chappel , but than it was a chappel both greater and more spacious than the temple it self : for during the time whilest god built a little temple wherein he had circumscribed the twelve apostles , and a small flock of faithful people who conformed themselves to the purity their doctrine , and the holiness of their lives , a number incomparably greater of false apostles , false doctors and false brethren , separated from them . for even in the first three hundred years of christianity , all or the most part of sincere persons , and also of fathers , had a great deal of false allay mixt among their gold . this is what we learn from eutychius , who lived in the first ages of christianity , from whom we have the history of the church in arabyck published by mr. selden , and mr. pocock , and whom they recommend for an author of an irreprochable fidelity . there he tells us , that constantine the great sent to all the churches of his empire letters to let them understand that they were to make choice of the most religious bishops , and those that were most learned in the mysteries of the christian faith ; and that they then immediately set themselves to obey the orders of the emperour , and that two thousand and forty eight bishops came to the town of nice , whereof near two thousand , how pious and sincere soever otherwise they were , were either most ignorant , or most erronious in the knowledg of the christian religion . for they were either manichees , or murcionites , or montanists , or valentinians , or samosatenians , or arrians ; and in that great number of bishops , there were but three hundred and eighteen who had an affection for , and ingaged themselves to , the orthodox faith , which was that of alexander bishop of alexandria . this relation according to eutychius is much more probable than after that manner as it is reported by eusebius , by socrates , by baronius , and by monsieur claude : for what likelihood is there that that number of bishops convoked from all places of europe a great part of africa , and also of asia , phaenicia , greece , maceaonia , thessalia , palestine , arabia , pamphilia , bythinia , capadocia , thrace , cilicia , pontus , persia , and scythia , should amount but to three hundred and eighteen bishops ? there is also less likelihood that those three hundred and eighteen bishops should appear so sharp and so divided among themselves , as to put out libels of accusation one against another , and that during their session , they made a cruel war within themselves . these accusations might be true as to the other bishops , who were as much divided in affections , as in judgments , but not of these three hundred and eighteen , who because they were all orthodox , and children of peace , and well united in their affections , such as were alexander , spiridion , and paphnutius , were chosen by constantine , and alexander out of the multitude of hereticks , factious , and contentious persons . beside , the unanimity of these three hundred and eighteen bishops in the composing of the faith of the council , having but four bishops that refused subscribing to it , plainly shews that their spirit was not that of contention nor animosity one against another , but of peace and concord . if the book of that excellent author eutychius the patriarch of alexandria had appeared with all its truths , and had been seen by all those that had eyes and would use them , during the lives of monsieur salmasius , monsieur blundel , &c. they had been yet more strongly perswaded than they were , that all those circumstances so distant from , the relation that eutychius makes of them , savours as much of romance , as those three crosses , which helena , mother of constantine , found , or as the donation of that emperour to silvester . certainly the providence of god did clearly appear in the choise of those three hundred and eighteen bishops . 't was an act of god , and not man , when he raised up the good bishop of alexandria to recommend them to constantine , and when he inclined the heart of that prince to hearken to his counsel . for if the emperour had let himself been overruled at the beginning of that counsel by any other bishop , as he did at the end of his life , the first establishment of faith and religion , had been that of arrianisme ; whereas the orthodox faith taking the first possession , under the first christian emperour , this served most powerfully to gain it credit , and to make it pass , and transmit it to posterity . i would ask here by the way those that deprive the soveraign magistrate of the intendance , of regulating by a soveraign authority in all places , either of an empire , or a territory , the matters of religion , and give him no other authority than that of a private person , i would ask those , i say , what expedient a good bishop , such as this of alexandria could be able to find out to authorize the faith that was contrary to that of arrius , in case god had not inclined the heart of constantine to establish it by his commands in all the places of his empire ? i ought not to forget here one circumstance in our author that extreamly fortifies the right of the magistrate , especially if he be orthodox , to the soveraign intendance in the government of the church , and which moreover strongly proves that the rules , canons , censures , and anathemas of councils , are only councils , and the declarations of wise and experienced men , before the magistrate hath given them authority by his sanction . in short , this passage of eutychius is the accomplishment of the prophesie of s. paul , cor. . . know you not that the saints shall judge the world ? that is to say , know you not that god will one day establish faithful magistrates , who shall be governours in chief of the church ; he says than that the choice of three hundred and eighteen bishops being made , constantine entred into their assembly , and after he had saluted and harrangued to them , he laid his scepter upon the table , his ring , and his sword and said to them , i give you the power of regulating the affairs of the church ; that done , the fathers humbly thanked him for the authority which he was pleased to fortifie them with , and rendered him his scepter , his ring , and his sword. 't is true , if constantine had been an arrian , his erronious opinion had done as much mischief , as the contrary opinion to that of arrius , and wherewith he was possessed , did good by its establishment : but it is true also , that if the soveraign of an empire hath no other authority in the church than that of a private person , it will never be possible , and it can never happen , that an orthodox prince will be able to establish the true religion by his commandments in all the places of his empire . 't is true , by this soveraign authority of the magistrate , errour and impiety may as well be established by lawes , as truth and piety : but it is true also , that when the soveraign magistrate , either hath no part , nor is interessed in the affairs of religion , as during the three first ages of the church , nothing could keep the bishops , as were those two thousand and forty eight of whom eutychius speaks , from divinding into many erronious parties , and the orthodox party to be always the least in number , and this cannot happen , when god gives to the church , such princes as resemble constantine the great , theodosius , and martian . it happens notwithstanding that during such disorders , and such confusions of diverse opinions , as were those of the two thousand and forty , that god reserves always a small number of good pastors , as were those three hundred and eighteen , who form in a great empire , such as was the roman , several little congregations , all like to those of our independants , whom god makes use of , amidst the greater corruption and confusion , to keep and perpetuate to himself an orthodox and faithful people in the world . 't is true then , that whither god gives a christian magistrate , but a heretick ; or whether he does not give any , if he be not possibly a heathen , as during the three first ages , the inconvenience is great ; but it is otherwise certain , that when god blesses his church with a magistrate that favours the orthodox and true worshippers of jesus christ , the condition of the church of god is incomparably more happy , than under any other establishment of religion or of the state. for although persecution ought to unite christians by a holy , and the same faith , and by a life correspondent to it , yet it hath not that efficacy nor that vertue to produce those two good effects which commonly follow under the reign of good princes , as david , hezekiah , josiah , constantine , theodosius , &c. under whom the people are united well otherwise , and kept in good order , and in the profession of one and the same , and a good religion , which they are not under persecution . for even the church is not without disorders , and violent shakings under the best and most orthodox princes , which happens by their indulgence , who keep not up that authority they ought to take in the government of the church , and who delegate it to the clergy , and permit them to exercise by a pretended power derived from jesus christ , independant on the magistrate , and who , in short , raise up bishops to such a greatness and wealth , as to have credit enough to partake and share the soveraignty , and to dispute the moiety of it with him , who of right is the soveraign of the whole , leaving him the temporal soveraignty , and reserving to themselves the spiritual as they call it . but these matters i discourse of in my book , not yet printed , intituled , an essay towards a true ecclesiastical history . one theophilus of alexandria ▪ and his successor cyrillus , were equal , and went check by jole in authority with the emperour , and had built an empire in that of their soveraign . for even those and their successours had built several of them , when a pope was set up among them , who subjugated them all , and made them all agree , to set up but one catholick church ; for before there were in the same empire many catholick churches which mutually destroyed each other . donatus acknowledged no other church in the world than his own : that made theophilus also of alexandria do so , who persecuted st. chrysostome to the uttermost , and who treated him as an heretick , a schismatick , and calling all those that adhered to him , johannites . the same may be said of the concurrence of meletius , of flavian , and paulinus , for the bishoprick of antioch , who shared the empire and the church into two catholick churches . i leave sincere persons to judge , what integrity of faith those prelates could preserve during not only the three first ages , but also those following . all the christian antiquity , put aside that of the holy scripture , cannot produce such peices that may come in competition with the institutions of calvin , or with the confession of the congregational faith ; the first centuries of the christian church swarmed with heresie and hereticks ; the most orthodox as irenaeus , justin martyr , tertullian , clement , denis of alexandria , origen , cyprian , eusebius , arnobius , lactantius , &c. who opposed those heresies , were not themselves exempt , and they had all some touch or other of one of the heresies of montanus , of s●b●llius , samorzites , pelagius , apollinaris , and eutiches . st. austin , that miracle of nature and of grace , had also his errors . however he was the first that well established the doctrine of free grace ▪ for those who preceded him , have spoke of it most an end , as pelagius has done , without any ones taking particular heed to it , or opposing it , because they never treated of that matter throughly , and searched into the bottom of it , and have not made any express and particular book about it : this is what st. austin says . in lib. . in julianum , cap. . tali quaestione nullus pulsabatur , pelagianis nondum ligantibus securius loqucbantur . they have all consecrated their errors to immortality , because of their ancientness ; but as cyprian tells us , dist . . c. . consuetudo sine veritate est vetust is erroris . it appears than by all i have here said , that if interest , custome , obstinacy , the love that every one has for their own particular opinions , govern the greatest part of mankind in matters of religion ; we may say of prejudices , that those are they which tyrannize over them ; such as in our dayes is that of every sort of the reformed , who imagine that their reformation , their doctrine , and their discipline , come the nearest to the primitive church . this is what monsieur claude maintains most confidently of our reformation in france : but as i agree with him , that it is the purest in the world , i do not agree with him that it hath any conformity with the ancient primitive church , except he means the apostolical , and not that which was immediately after the apostles . for even so the conformity of the congregational way with the christians after the apostles is not as to the doctrine , but only as to the outward discipline and way of government . finis . the reader is desired to take notice , that the author for some reasons , since the printing of the contents , hath thought good to leave out the last chapter there mentioned . advertisement there is lately published of this authors , a book entituled moral reflections on the number of the elect , &c. price d. faults escaped . page . line . dele the father . p. . l. . read confederate discipline . p. . l. . r. there being but the first nicene council . p. . l. . r. heretical . p. . l. penul . r. inconvenience . p. . l. . r. nor , l. . r. the romish church . p. . l. . r. that it is not of so long duration . p. . l , . justice , r. justesse . p. . l. . r. with as much rigour and severity to submit to a tribunal subject to errour , as those of rome to one that is infallible . p. . l. . r. sent the plantif . p. . l. . r. veneration . p. . l. . government r. conduct . p. l. . have r. hath . a declaration or test to distinguish protestant-dissenters from papists and popish recusants as it was given to the parliament in the year . by the people called quakers, and now re-printed. approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page image. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing p a estc r this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a declaration or test to distinguish protestant-dissenters from papists and popish recusants as it was given to the parliament in the year . by the people called quakers, and now re-printed. penn, william, - , attributed name. sheet ([ ] p.) [s.n.], london : printed march, / [i.e. ] attributed by wing to william penn; attribution questioned by smith. reproduction of the original in the cambridge university library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng catholic church -- controversial literature -- early works to . dissenters, religious -- england -- early works to . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - mona logarbo sampled and proofread - mona logarbo text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a declaration or test to distinguish protestant-dissenters from papists and popish recusants , as it was given to the parliament in the year . by the people called quakers , and now re-printed . i a. b. do solemnly in the presence of god , and in my conscience profess , testifie , and declare that i do not believe , that the church of rome , or papal church , is the true church , out of which there is no salvation ; or that the pope or chief bishop of rome , is christ's vicar , or vicegerent on earth ; or that he , or the see of rome , joyntly or severally , is head of , or hath any supremacy over the true catholick church in general , or my self in particular ; or that he or they is , or are sole , chief , or certain judge , or judges in spiritual matters , or of the sence of the holy scriptures ; or that the pope , or his priests have power to pardon sins , past , present or to come . and i do believe that at , or after the priest pronouncing the words of consecration upon the elements of bread and wine , commonly called the sacrament of the lords supper , or sacrament of the altar ; there is not any transubstantiation , nor any part of the substance of the bread or wine , changed into flesh or blood of christ . and that the sacrifice of the mass , adoring and bowing to crucifixes , pictures , and images , and the use of them in worship . as also of the invocation and adoration of the virgin mary , or any other saint or angel , the doctrine of purgatory , and prayers to the dead , and for the dead , are doctrines and practices erronious , superstitious , and idolatrous , and contrary to the truth of the holy scriptures . i believe there is no mediator between god and man , but christ jesus only the lord of life and glory , who is the only head of his universal church , as the holy scriptures testifie . and i do further believe , that neither the pope nor any other , by or under his authority joyntly or severally , have any power to depose princes , or to absolve their subjects of their allegiance , on any account whatsoever ; or hath power to authorize , or give leave to me , or any other subject of their realm whatsoever , to plot or conspire the hurt of the kings person , his state , government , or people . and i do solemnly in the presence of god , testifie and declare that i make this declaration , and every part thereof , in the plain and ordinary sence of the words read unto me , as they are commonly understood by english protestants , without any evasion , equivocation , or mental reservation whatsoever , &c. london , printed march , / . the apostate incendiary rebuked, and the people called quakers vindicated from romish hirarchy and imposition in a serious examination of vvilliam mucklows liberty of conscience asserted against imposition, but proved a liberty which is in christ jesus, and against unity and order in his church / by one whose rejoycing is the testimony of a good conscience toward god and man, g. whitehead. whitehead, george, ?- . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing w estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) the apostate incendiary rebuked, and the people called quakers vindicated from romish hirarchy and imposition in a serious examination of vvilliam mucklows liberty of conscience asserted against imposition, but proved a liberty which is in christ jesus, and against unity and order in his church / by one whose rejoycing is the testimony of a good conscience toward god and man, g. whitehead. whitehead, george, ?- . p. s.n.], [london : . place of publication suggested by wing. errata : p. . reproduction of original in the union theological seminary library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng mucklow, william, - . -- queries touching liberty of conscience. society of friends -- england -- apologetic works. dissenters, religious -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - john latta sampled and proofread - john latta text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the apostate incendiary rebuked , and the people called quakers vindicated from romish hirarchy and imposition . in a serious examination of vvilliam mucklows liberty of conscience asserted against imposition ; but proved a liberty of the flesh , self-will , and confusion , repugnant to the liberty which is in christ jesus , and against unity and order in his church . by one whose rejoycing is the testimony of a good conscience towards god and man , g. whitehead . now i beseech you brethren , mark them which cause divisions and offences , contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned , and avoid them , rom. . . they crucifie to themselves the son of god afresh , and put him to open shame , heb. . . but if any man seem to be contentious , we have no such custom , neither the churches of god , cor. . . printed in the year , . a short epistle to friends who love the true light , and desire sion's prosperity . dear friends , who have received and do retain the love of the precious truth ; it was for your sakes and the truth 's , that i was pressed in spirit in a godly zeal , thus to appear against this deceitful worker and treacherous spirit , which at length hath shewn it self in open enmity against the truth , and us the church of christ and elect people of god called quakers ; otherwise we were unwilling these controversies should have been brought into the world , being occasioned by some that have walked among us , who should have been reclaimed by the strivings of god's holy spirit with them , and the churches admonition therein to them , but they had kickt against the lord , and spurned at his people , hating to be reformed , and therefore open rebuke is just upon such treacherous betrayers and deceitful workers ; one of whom this w. m. hath shewn himself to be , even an engine of sathan and member of anti-christ , not only in his being an informer of truth 's adversaries against us , but also in publishing and delivering ( near our meeting door to the people ) his malitious , lying and confused papers , striking at elders and ancient friends among us in this city of london ; whereby he hath gratified scorners , and afforded a theam and text to that insolent scoffer , and irreligious agent of hypocrites fra. chadwel , that old disturber of our assemblies , who frequently abuseth the name of christ , and whom the truth , hath often confounded and discovered his wickedness and lyes : * this is the fruit of w. m. his work to animate scornes and blaphemers ; the lord will reward him and all such perfidious apostates who crucifie to themselves the lord of life afresh , and put him to open shame ; who most unworthily have eaten and drunk among , and been convinced of the power and presence of the lord being with us in our assemblies , and that thereby he hath chosen us to be his people and church ; but they went out from us , because they were not of us , and now are become open enemies in their self-separation , conceit and whimsical motions , opposing the power of god in his people , rendring his church fallible , subject to err , and under an apostacy , and setting up themselves as the infallible judges over the church , even over the antient friends and elders , who have kept their integrity to the lord , and such as therein are grown in that divine understanding , wisdom and power ( as many are among us ) wherein all the apostates and anti-christs in the world cannot come near nor touch them , blessed be the lord for ever : and as for our confessing , that we are the church of the first-born , let our doctrine , testimony , lives and sufferings bear witness ; and god's power which is with us , and his witness in men's consciences be our proof beyond all that can be spoken , being therein manifest in men's consciences ( that are tender ) in the sight of god , having such a place in the truly tender consciences , that we need not impose upon them , as it was never our principle to force , or drive them , or impose , or infringe upon their real liberty , which is in the gospel and power of god , out of which there is no true liberty ; but for the feared and hardned consciences of apostates , judasses and deceitful workers ( whose hypocritical conformity is not at all desirable to us ) we leave them to the judgments of god to awaken , who in his day will further discover them , and kindle a fire in them that will burn to the lowest hell , and be to their incessant torment and anguish , if they seek not a place of repentance before it be too late ; therefore dear friends , be ye diligent , and watchful in the true light to retain the love of the truth unto the end , and beware of deceitful workers and sowers of discord ; for they are abomination to the lord : and mark them that make division , and cause offences contrary to the gospel ; for they serve not the lord jesus christ nor his people , but their own bellies , the flesh and self-will . your faithful friend and servant in the lords work , g. w. london th . th . month , , a serious examination of william mucklow's liberty , &c. to his title [ liberty of conscience asserted against imposition , proposed in several queries . ] the first part makes a great shew , and proclaims him an eminent asserter of a conscientious liberty against some great infringement and bondage ; but he varies in his very next words [ proposed in several queries ] as if he could not write consistant matter ; for this contadicts his great pretence before , and discredits it to those that understand the difference between asserting liberty and proposing queries , which are about the imposition as well as liberty : however we will take the substance of them ( insinuating aspersions upon us ) as positive as his title ; but the ground of his queries and charge implyed throughout them against those of the people called quakers , is as false as is his work inconsistent ; and in order to make it so appear , let us inquire , first , what this imposition is in his sence that he pretends to oppose ? ly , who those of the pople called quakers that have assumed to impose , contratry to their former testimonies , as he saith ? ly , what this liberty of conscience is in the exercise of it that he pretends to assert first , to the first , this imposition in his sence , and an inforcing uniformity and unity in outward ceremonies and gestures , yea , and that upon persons before they found convictions in themselves , thereby retaining and letting in the complying hypocrite that should be cast out . ly , those of the people called quakers thus charged , and some persons counted famous and renowned in the congregation at the city of london , ancient heads , elders in god , &c. that have reduced the people under this yoak of bondage . ly , the liberty of his conscience is to keep on his hat in the time of publick prayer to god in our assemblies , when owned by him ( an unreverent posture and causless sign , as among beleivers * contrary to that order and custom in the churches of christ , w ch was at first brought forth and setled among us by his power and in the unity of the spirit , and not by any man's imposition whatsoever ; and therefore the foundation of this man's work against us is both groundless , and he hath stated the matter very falsly and disingenuously ; for in the same spirit and power of christ we have endeavoured to remove joh. perrot's imposition ( who was the great examplar ) of disorderly keeping on the hat in time of publick payer among us , as they may remember , he first gave the occasion and offence to the church of christ , by severely imposing it , and judging our innocent practice ( of putting of our hat in publick prayer ) to be accursed , idolatrous , a romish tradition , and to be repented of , as his soul had done , &c. whereby ( together with his example ) some were seduced into a party and prejudice ; this in the name and power of our lord jesus christ we witnessed against , and that imposing exalted spirit , as repugnant to that unity and good order , which in the beginning the lord led us freely into , upon which j. p. the imposer , being frustrated of his singular rule and sect-mastership , did grant a relaxation , leaving all to the free spirit of god in keeping on or putting off the hat in prayer , contrary to his judging the latrer idolatry , accursed , &c , but afterward his pretended liberty of conscience extended to this that he might do that to day in truth and righteousness , which to morrow he might be ashamed of , or be denyed in by the same spirit [ sordid ranterism and blasphemy ] and after he went into jamaica he could get into worldy pomp and preferment , put of his hat to men , and ( in officiating the place of a clark ) most strictly tender men oathes , &c. insomuch that some that had admired him , then were ashamed of him and his ranterism ; and some of them who for a time were drawn aside and darkned , who were of the more honest and conscientious , after some labour of love used ( with them to convince them ) came to a sence of the power of god , which rent the vail , and broke their hearts , brought them to judge that dividing spirit , and reduced them back to their first love and primitive order ; therefore his charge of inforcing uniformity and unity in outward gestures upon men before conviction , and so far retaining and letting in the complying hypocrite ( which he flings upon those that are accounted renowned elders among us in the city of london ) is all of it utterly false , and also contains a slanderous aspertion against those that are let in and owned among us , as being complying hypocrites , which he cannot prove , nor instance any of them that hath thus hypocritically complyed before conviction , nor that we have unity with such ; i doubt not but many can with good conscience testifie against him in this matter ; and he might have given a more honest account if his conscience were rightly exercized ; for hath not he himself been sought in love and tenderness both by perswasive means for his conviction with patience and long-suffering ( by friends that wished him well ) to reduce him out of that spirit of prejudice and opposition ( which would cover it self with the hat ) that he might have come into the unity of the spirit and society of the lord's people ? but he hath rejected counsel , and persisted in hardness and wilfulness , crucified and slain the just one in himself , and become an open enemy , having entred into judas's way , both to the grief of god's spirit and people , with whom we include his tender wife or mother , or those relations , whose respect to the truth and people of god might have some influence upon him , if he were not a surly , wilful and conceited man ; yet his great pretence is for liberty of conscience , but what a tender conscience he hath we may casily judge from what follows . first , in his query , viz. whether it hath not been experienced how difficult it is to root out such , when once they have reduced a people to this belief , and they in the exercise of this authority , because the honour of being invested in such a capacity , doth obliege men to secure themselves in this superior orbe , and stirs up men of parts and ambition to support such an hirarchy , in expectation that it will at last fall unto themselves . dly , by his insinuating against us in print , as supporting such an hirarchy , as usurps the place of the head , breaks in sunder the unity of the body , sets up another head besides christ , with romish positions , such kind of apellations , principles and pretences , as the church of rome did obtain her unlimitted power by . how now william , is this thy tender conscience , moderation , love and charity professed towards the people of god called quakers ? o envious man , and peevish incendiary , who art thus reviling and slandering them in the sight of the sun ; do not these thy invective insinuations savour of the malice of satan in the height ? tending to stir up persecution to destroy and root us out ( if the lord were not a wall about us ) and to beget that jealousie in the powers against us that 's more cruel then death ; and even at this juncture when the stream appears against the papists and rome's hirarchy ? let the lord and all that fear him , or are charitable , judge concerning thy conscience and charity towards us in these inveterate suggestions ; who yet knowest in thy conscience that we deny the pope and rome's hirarchy . but though the romish hirarchy , usurping the place of the head , enforcing men to an uniformity before conviction , making them hypocrites , arbritary rule or judicature , excommunicating persons meerly for their tender consciences , be all utterly denyed and detested by us : yet in the true church , which christ was ( and still is ) the foundation and head of ▪ god was known to be the god of order and not of confusion , and he afforded helps and governments in the church , which could be no such usurpation or arbritaries as this man falsly insinuates against the ancient friends and elders amongst us : there were elders that did rule well , overseers made by the holy ghost , and they had power from god therein , to set divers things in order , and not only to exhort , perswade and admonish persons among them , but also to reprove , rebuke and ( in the name and authority of christ ) to command , charge , enjoyn ( and in that sence ) to impose among themselves matters or things telating to society and good order in the church ( as we know no religious society but hath a care of its preservation ) as in the wisdom of god they saw cause ; the churches of christ had also power and authority in his name to reject , withdraw from , exclude out of their communion obstinate and disordily walkers among them , and all this before rome's usurped hirarchy : see mat. . ch. . ver . . cor. . . ch. . ver . . ch. . , , . thes. ▪ . ch. . . ver . . tit. . . rom. . . tim. . , . phil. . , . cor. . . ch. . , . with many more . now let us consider w. m's tender conscience as to the lord his further manifestation , &c. for his wearing his hat in time of publick prayer , where he tells us , that we greatly err who say , the keeping on the hat is a practice introduced , unless we can prove it is done upon a religious account , when as in truth it is only a custom left which they formerly practized ; this agrees with what they say in their spirit of the ha , p. . that they keep it neither off nor on upon a religious account : then this bespeaks their meer indifferency in the case , if not upon a religious account ; there is no such tender conscience nor farther manifestation in the matter on their parts ; wherefore their pretence of both is a meer dissimulation and cheat ; and if then this man's conscience were not asleep , or much hardned , he might see it is in his wilfulness and opposition , that he hath persisted in such a reproved and offensive gesture , as he hath neither the exercise of conscience nor religion in : see what his asserting liberty of conscience amounts to ; he should have rather entituled his paper [ liberty of self-will and a perverse spirit asserted against the unity and order of the church of christ and people of god called quakers ] and how do we err in saying , their irreverend posture is introduced , when it was both brought in and imposed long after they accustomed the contrary in the church ? but his main allegation is , he wants ( or finds not ) the lord's requiring for the practice of him . how should he know his requiring , for that which he is prejudicially engaged against ? and in such a hardned wilful state ( that feels not the living union ) wherein he hath resisted the holy spirit in his people , and quencht it in himself ? and how should such a one that despises the church of christ , and reviles the lord's people ( in that state ) joyn with them either in the unity or order of life ? this man therefore playes the hardned hypocrite and dissembler , while he seems to complain of being excluded out of our communion , when he desires it not with us , having excluded himself , and odified us as grosly as he can to the world. his complaint of excommunication , denying him , and others , the benefit of marriage and burial , having a propriety therein , only for the omittance of keeping of the hat in time of prayer , is neither fully nor truly stated ; for first , we do not deny them marriage in it self , but among us , and as being out of unity and charity with us ( which is more then only for the said omission ) we may not in conscience be their witnesses . dly , denyal of him burial , he hath not cause to cast that upon us without distinction . dly , yet our friends have reason to take care whom they admit burial among us , to prevent reproach , as much as in them lies . his saying , they give that meeting this appellation , the body , is not true , but also falsly & scornfully given in the spirit of the hat , to the meeting in devon-shire-house ; for the lody is but one , and hath many members ; so also is christ , which is not made up of one particular meeting , but of the universal church of christ , or general assembly of the first-born ; and the tryal of motions and unity is by that life and spirit which searches all things , and whereby the spiritual man judgeth all things , and not by a few that seek preheminence , nor do such sway over us or our body , as he falsly insinuates , who himself is one of the same spirit . many are filled with prayer and praises to the lord in silent meettings , who notwithstanding sometimes requires some outward expressions thereof , both in words and gestures , and that in deep humility of soul , with unvailed spirits and heads too , which for this man to oppose and shew a publick sign against , is no token of humility , but of hardness and self-exaltation . as for what gestures we may use in our private devotion and prayer , whether walking by the way , or on our beds ; it follows not that we must needs be in the same posture in publick prayer in meetings , any more then we are to follow our usual labours or vocations in our publick meetings ; and we are not accountable to apostates of the manner of our private devotion : what we do is singly to the lord without respect to spectators ( none being present ) but in our assemblies , he who is the god of order and not of confusion , hath called us to express or shew forth reverence and order , for the sake of others , and to do all things to edification ; and god's power & presence we feel with us in what we do ; but one while this man is heaping questions against our practice , another while his complaint is only about imposing postures upon our fellow-members , which is false ; for they give us no such occasion , nor hath he approved himself as our fellow-member , who hath slighted our testimony and exhortation , and refused to hear the church , being one of them that went out from us , for that they were not of us ; for had they been of us , they would have continued with us . to his query , whether the head mentioned in cor. . may not be covered with a hat off , and uncovered with a hat on ? answ. the head christ ( whom he means ) may ; but this man hath nor rightly considered the apostle's words in restraining them only to that sence of the head , when they also relate to an outward order or different postures of men and women ; see ver . , , , . which argue that the women would be uncovered then , which was not comely in them as in the men ; and the men's being uncovered appears to be in opposition to the jews vails and coverings under the law ; as for the head christ , he ought not to be covered in the women any more then in the men. que. have not some kneeled , sat , and stood in publick ▪ &c. whether a cap is not as real a covering to the head as a hat ? answ. no , that it is not ; but these questions are to excuse himself , and recriminate our friends ; he states not the ground of the difference , which lies chiefly in that spirit of division and opposition in himself and some others , which should it seek to make discord and parties , either about kneeling , cap on , or cap off in prayer ; the life and power of god in the church would rise up in judgment against it and the discord-makers ; he triffles touching wearing a cap , standing or sitting ; for god allows a conveniency , and what is expedient for the necessity of the weak , and aged , and feeble in body , who are not in prejudice or opposition in what they do ; yet however , where the substantial part of true worship is known ▪ which is in spirit and truth , with a naked , bowed and broken heart before the lord ; there will be no straitness nor scruple to express it with uncovered head and bended knees as to the lord , which was practiced among the saints of old ; but the liberty we have in christ touching these lesser matters , we are not bound to give a particular account of to an apostate , who with an evil eye hath sought to spy it out , and with a prejudiced mind heaps a multitude of queries to us ; but for no serious or good end to be sure , having slandered and traduced us as usurpers , imposors , self-seekers romish , and what not ? however god and our own consciences bear us witnesses , that we would not use or strain our liberty to give either offence or occasion of stumbling to our weak brethren , as false brethren give by their fleshly liberty of self-will , wherein this man cannot excuse himself by his pleading the apostles for bidding to judge one another in meats , or drinks or dayes ; so he was so tender of offending his weak brother about meat , thar he would rather forbear eating flesh , which may condemn thit man's hardness , who would not so much as forbear his hat a littls space in prayer to shun such an occasion ; so little regard hath hee either to his weak brethren , or to the church for their sake ; howbeit , when abstaining from meats came to be imposed , the apostle opposed it as a doctrine of devils , which is to our purpose of opposing john perrot's imposition about the hat. que. why not in prophesying ( he meanes ) keep off the hat. this query is because men's praying or prophesying with the head covered is forbidden ; wherein he seems to tell us , we fail in the latter , which , if it were so , is no ground to oppose us in the former , or to gain-say that part of obedience that appears : but he is mistaken in taking the whole course of preaching to be that prophecying intended , that is brought in with praying ; for all preaching cannot be that intire or peculiar prophecying , which where any one is immediately called to ; i grant , that its most comely to stand up with the hat of ; besides there is a difference between praying to god and preaching to men : i could say more to this matter , but the man is unworthy ; also i am informed w. penn did privately answer him to the substance of his queries , which he takes no notice of as an answer , which he might have published with his queries ; but that he is willing to heap upon us , and reitterate a multitude of triffling questions , as if he would not regard any serious answer ; and most unjustly and peevishly reflects , like some angry anabaptist , in saying , when you can pretend scriptures , prove your practices , then they shall be your rule and touch-stone ; but when you are out of their practices and commands , then the spirit and not the scriptures is your rule : whereas we have alwayes preferred the spirit of truth as our rule and touch-stone , and to produce the scripture to prove our practice ( is not to make them our rule and touch-stone instead of the spirit ) which therefore shews our belief and esteem of the scriptures in their place . oh envious and confused man ! how dishonestly and perversly hast thou stated the controversie ; our citing that , cor. ch. . was not the ground , touch-stone and rule of our practice ; for the spirit of life which moves us to pray , singly brought us into it in the beginning without any such outward consideration , but it was truely cited to prove that our reverent order and practice in prayer was not a romish tradition , brought forth in the apostacy and curse , as j. p. and some of his disciples falsly charged this our order and custom in the church of christ , after they themselves had been some time therein with us . his alledging , different measures , growths , motions , further manifestation , addition , and how ab●ndantly different gestures will contend the unity of true faith ; for his contradictory and offensive behaviour in time of publick prayer these are but false covers , and savor of meer ranterism in the bottom , like the ranters , variety in unity , and unity in variety for their fleshly liberty , wherein they contemptuously have stood staring at us with their hats on in time of publick prayer , whose spirits we judged in the beginning ; whereas different measures , growths or further manifestations , in the true church ( which must relate to one and the same light and truth ) do neither change the property of the thing , nor make it another dispensation ; nor can they cause contradiction , opposition or division in one member against another , as is between this appostatized ranting spirit ( that quarels about the hat ) and the spirit of the true church , which acts in unity , peace and good order . his pretence of a further manifestation , growth or addition , for that his irreverent custom which is not upheld by him upon a religious account , is a manifest and gross contradiction ; and his further manifestation , growth and addition , pretended , must be beyond us all , and above the whole church ( if we will believe him ) for therein he assumes an authority to judge and revile both elders and ancient friends , and infamously to notifie particular persons to the world , as he pleaseth , and to set a mark upon them : and all this without either dealing with them as christ injoyned , mat. . , . or having the least consent of the church , which he hath owned among us ; and indeed contrary to all gospel and christian order in the church . thus while he is accusing ancient friends , with usurping a head-ship , setting up a romish hirarthy ; he himself is acting the part of an usurping pope , proud prelate , and exalted diotrophes , that loved preheminence , and yet would make the world believe , that he is a man of a very tender conscience , and great humility ; but this is as real as his brother john penyman entituling himself , one of the least of thousands in israel , or the popes being a servant of servants . howbeit his great capital and charge is , that we assert those romish positions , which having enslaved nations , and destroyed thousands , and is of a most dangerous unutterable consequence [ mark , reader , by the way how he acts the part of a most malitious incendiary what more envious an instigation to persecution could he have brought forth at this juncture against us ? oh treacherous apostate , judas the lord rebuke thee ] but what are those romish positions ? they are namely , st , that we are to believe as the church believes : dly , that the church cannot err : dly , that she hath power to bind and to loose : thly , that it is abominable pride not to submit to her judgment , she having alwayes the infallible spirit , &c. however to his own confutation , he seems herein to clear us from setting up an usurped hirarchy of some that seek preheminence over the body , & limitting the power to persons ( as he falsly suggests ) for here the power is attributed to the church in general , yet in these positions he deals very unfairly ; for to believe as the church believes , &c. may be taken , as if we use to preach those bare positions as our great arguments to enforce people into our faith ; which we never did ; but commend our selves to every man's conscience in the sight of god , and therein are we manifested ; yet that i may loose nothing of truth 's testimony . to the first i affirm , that the true church is in the true faith that is in god , and we must either believe thus as the true church believes , or else it were but both a folly and hypocrisie to profess our selves members thereof ; this man hath treacherously betrayed both his own conscience and testimony , who while he would seem to own the church of christ , as a member of her ; yet tells the world , it is a most dangerous position that we are to believe as the church believes , oh , treacherous enemy to the church of christ. dly , is it so dangerous , that this church ( or universal body of christ ) cannot err ? whenas the church signifies the elect , and christ implies an impossibility that the very elect should be deceived , mat. . or that the gates of hell should prevail against his church , and promiseth his presence to the end of the world : were it either reasonable or just to conclude , the whole body or church of christ is liable to err , because some particular members may ? observe the darkness and perverse spirit of this apostate and accuser of ( not only the brethren , but ) the whole church ; for he states not this charge against a false application made of the said positions by the church of rome , but against the positions themselves , as being destructive and dangerous , and as asserted concerning the church , not this nor that particular church , congregation or assembly , but it s the church his quarrel lies against . dly , he is even also against the church having power to bind and to loose , though this was a certain priviledge given of christ jesus unto the church ( who in him received a living sence of both judgment and mercy ) even to bind and to loose , by the power of the holy ghost given unto her , see mat. . joh. , , . if it must needs be accounted dangerous to assert this ? then it s dangerous to confess the power of christ that is in the true church the man hath greatly wronged and out faced his own conscience . thly , if he will not hear the church let him be to thee as a heathen man , &c. what is it but abominable pride for any one ( especially that professeth himself a member of the true church ) to refuse to hear her , or submit to her judgment ? when demonstrated ? for she must needs have both the infallible spirit and true judgment ; if every living member pertake thereof , he that hath not the spirit of christ is none of his ; and god is come in ten thousand of his saints to judge the ungodly , and the saints shall judge the world ; and doth not w. m. profess the spirit of christ , that he hath it ? yet tells the word , it is a romish position , destructive and dangerous to assert , that the church hath alwayes the infallible spirit ( that is the spirit of christ ) but did not christ promise the holy spirit the comforter to his church , saying , he shall abide with you forever ; and is not this infallible , and the church's judgment therefore of value ? oh how sadly hath this opposer violated his own conscience , perverted the right wayes of god , and abused the pretious testimony of truth ? and seeing his charge is so high against us for asserting those four positions afore-said on the behalf of the church ; and that they are both romish , destructive and of a most dangerous consequence ; it naturally follows that he deems it not dangerous nor destructive for him to assert the contrary , namely , . that we are not to believe as the church believes ( but rather as w. mucklow and his brother j. pennyman believe ) seeing that they have assumed a jurisdiction over the church , and a power to judge her . . that the church can err , is fallible , or is liable to be deceived and apostatize ( as he questions us . ) . that she hath no such power as to bind and to loose : [ wherein he sets his judgment above christ's , in opposition to his express promise to his church . ] . that the church hath not alwayes the infallible spirit ( which is christ's ) and therefore it is no pride , but great humility in w. m. and j. p. ( as being the lowly ones ) not to submit to the church in matter of judgment : so that at this rate they will claim a superiority and preheminence above the church ( which heretofore they have owned , and confessed to the power of god in her ) as if this had the infallible spirit , when the church wants it ; if this be not a head-ship and usurpation , a degree higher then the pope himself pretends to , let all intelligent readers judge ; is so be the pope pretends to an infallibility , not as in a separation from the church , but as professing unity with her still , though he be really anti-christian in his usurping the headship , that he doth ; and so are these men , who like evil spies have brought evil reports upon the good land , and despise the church of god , even his people ( called quakers ) contrary to their first love , testimony and conviction . as for w. m. his addition to his queries it contains both apparent untruths , folly and confusion against the church of christ , implying the churches apostacy , declension or fall from what was testifyed in the beginning among us , which is as good doctrine as to tell us , that christ's spouse , bride or the lamb's wife is become an adulteress ; where then is the church's security or care taken over her by the head ? but this man himself is fallen , and not the church nor ministry in it , though most grosly slandered in the spirit of the hat , which j. p. pretended in publick he would prove ; but instead thereof exhibited divers articles against particular persons , to prove , that our preachers and leaders are not so infallible as they pr●tend to be , which was much besides and short of the slanderous charge given in the spirit of the hat , p. . but how infallible they ever pretended themselves to be , he told not , he was not so ingenuous ; did we ever preach up meerly our selves as infallible , or pretend infallibility any otherwise then as instructed by the spirit of christ , which is infallible ? or did we ever place it upon human understanding , as meer men , but upon that divine understanding that god giveth ? but these apostates judge others from their own darkness , and evil thoughts , and therein render the body as divided from the head , and rent to peices within it self , which is that the devil ( the old divider ) hath sought , and now sets his agents on work to make the world believe a lye , viz. that he hath made such division in the church , as where w. m. saith , in the beginning , christ within us was then to be head , but now the body without us . a manifest slander against the body of christ ; never such a doctrine was preached or owned among us , that now the body without us is to be the head , and not christ ( as implyed ) and yet he grants , christ to be the head of the body ; and is not that body the church which he hath owned ? see what contradiction envy leads this man into , who also saith , that the chuch was then to be in subjection to her head , and every member governed and exercized according to the order of the head ; but now the body , the church claims authority over their fellow-members , as peculiarly having the infallible spirit , &c. these latter words from [ but ] contain two false and unjust reflections upon the church ; for , first , the body or church claims no such authority over their fellow-members ; it is gross confusion in him for to affirm it ; for all fellow-members thereof are included in the same body in subjection to one and the same head , which is christ. . none of the fellow-members of the body of christ , are excluded from having the infallible spirit in some degree , as if it were peculiar only to some few , whenas its universal throughout the whole body ; though there be diversities of gifts given , as the lord sees meet , to every man his proper and peculiar gift , which all tends to unity and edification of the whole body : but this man seems to claim a member-ship in the church or body ( as he calls us ) and yet judges and reviles the church ; what then would he be a member of ; is it of such a body that he represents , as torn to peices , and rent from the head , or fallen under apostacy ; for we cannot look upon the church to be made up of himself and john pennyman , or a few of their spirit ; and that were also contrary to j. p's writing himself , one of the least of the thousands in israel ; but whether he had such low thoughts of himself or not ; let god's witness and his people ( who have beheld his deportment and luceferian spirit ) judge . w. m. saith , friends , that which was declared of , and testified unto in the beginning was , to direct our minds unto the heavenly gift ( not to the church ) but to the manifestation of the spirit in the particular waiting there to feel its motions , and to hear its voice , which would infallibly teach us our duty towards god , our neighbour and our selves ; and not to go forth into reasonings to promote comely orders after the manner of men , nor to be found in the exercise of any thing in his pure worship , but what the lord , not the body required , else to stand still , &c. herein he hath intermixt his perverse parenthesis , falsly charging us in divers respects , as if the heavenly gift and the church were now separate ; and what the lord and his people require in oppositior ▪ or as if we were promoting a body without the spirit , or subjection to what the lord requires , as if our testimony were now so much varied from what it was in the beginning ; these are all most falsly suggested , his saying , it was to direct our minds to the heavenly gift , not to the church , to what the lord , not the body required : see what division this would make between the lord , and his people ; but he mistakes [ not to the church ] for our testimony was in the beginning and still is , to promote the unity of the spirit in our directing the minds to the spirit , and to them that love the lord , to dwell in love and unity , which all come unto who come unto the heavenly gift , and to follow the lord's requirings therein , which is unerring ; and what is this but to preach up a true church-state , which hath been the real intent and tendency of our testimony from the beginning ? and had this man been faithful to what was testfied in the beginning ( as he pretends a great esteem thereof ) the unity and society of the church and people of god called quakers would have been of more value with him , then now so enviously and confusedly to quarrel with them , or any comely order or reverent custom in the church , as he doth , which he did not in the beginning ; for when his mind was directed to the manifestation of the spirit , which would infallibly teach us our duty towards god , our neighbour and our selves ( as he saith ) then he ( and the rest concerned ) in the beginning did not irreverently sit with their hats on in publick prayer among us , nor say that the contrary among us was a going forth into reasonings to promote comely orders after the manner of men ; for what needed that , when the infallible spirit , which was then owned to be their teacher , freely led them into it ? nor did the apostle so go out into reasoning , when he exhorted the saints to think on whatsoever things were true , honest , just , pure , lovely , of good report , &c. but this man is offended at our vindicating that order which was made both lovely and comely ( by that spirit that set it up ) since he is gone out from that infallible spirit which he was directed to in the beginning , which then moved and led them into both reverence to god , respect to his people , and how to behave themselves in the church of christ , both in decency and in order . note that w. m. in so plainly professing , and ( in words ) owning the truth 's testimony and infallibility of the spirits teaching , as it was in the beginning testified to among us , he hath therein said more for the comely order that then was brought forth in our assemblies , and for the church having the infallible spirit to know truth from error and the right from the wrong spirit , then ever he can say or produce for the contrary , viz. for his keeping on his hat in prayer , for his accusing the church with fallibility , apostacy , or the antient friends with imposing , usurping , &c. out of his own mouth he is condemned , as one apostatized from the heavenly gift , from his first love , convincement and order , and hath wilfully excluded himself from the union and society of the church of christ. he still boggles and seems offended at the body , the church , having the infallible spirit , the certain unerring judgment reciding with them upon all occasions to know truth from error and the right from the wrong spirit ; will you limit the lord ? saith he . answ. is it a limitting the lord for the body or church of christ to have his spirit which is infallible ? and an unerring judgment so far as we received from the same spirit ? what gross darkness is come over this man ? doth not the spiritual man judge all things ? and the saints shall judge the world ; and dare he say that the spirit of christ hath not taught the church truth from error , nor to know the right from the wrong spirit ? whenas the principle we direct unto , and our testimony concerning it , he dares not say is fallible ; but seems to justifie our testimony as it was in the beginning , and in words to own inward motions , voice and teachings of the infallible spirit , and the measure thereof within to try the verity of our doctrine : and why should it be rendred a limitting of the lord for the church to claim this priviledge , as thus , having the unerring spirit ? and that we have it to guide and give discovery in the weighty matters of faith and salvation , and to try spirits , whether they be of god or no ? surely then we need not want true understanding and judgment in things of lesser concernment . and we are so far from limitting the lord , his power and church to persons , or such as would exercise authority above their places , that we affirm ( as we experience ) that the power is universally free and unlimitted , and the whole church , even every living member of the body of christ pertakes of it , though every member is not an eye ; and we further testifie that wheresoever two or three are gathered together in christ's name , there he is in the midst of them to aid and ass●st them , whether it be to make agreement on earth , end differences , give a true judgment in matters as there shall be need in the church among the weak , or only to wait in truth of heart upon the lord , to receive inward advantage unto their souls ; and god beareth us record that our eye is to his power , and our dependence is upon his counsel upon all weighty occasions in our assemblies , and not upon our own understandings meerly as men. now it were very gross and impious to deny that priviledge to the whole church , body or general assembly , which two or three met in the name of christ pertake of , namely , his presence in the midst of them ; and if his presence be in the midst of two or three met in his name , surely he will not be absent from a greater number so met ; but saith w. m. cannot he reveal to a particular , yea such things as the church would he startled at , yea , and be ready to question the verity thereof ? yet he confesseth , that it hath pleased the lord to reveal himself unto the lowly ones , that are little in their own eyes to inform the church and elders thereof : and are not these lowly ones members or included in the church then ? or is the whole church or body which he confesseth christ to be the head of , in such an exaltation over the lowly ones ? oh what confused work doth this man make ? yet we will grant him that , that may be revealed in some particular cases to a prophet or apostle , which is not to all in the church ; but then such prophets or apostles are no self-separators , but included in the church , as having one head , and then the church will not be startled thereat , nor question the verity thereof , but be in subjection to the power or head christ , which reveals ; and the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets . john to the angells of the seaven churches in asia ; moses , isaiah , jeremiah , &c. to the jews had particular discoveries and reproofs who thereby did not make divisions nor schisms in the true evangelical church , nor oppose any comely order or custom therein ; but then his comparison is unequal between the church ( or body of christ ) now , and the carnall jews , fallen angells , elders that sat in moses chair , who resisted the appearance of christ both in flesh and spirit , or between the spirituall church , and congregation of israel whom caleb and joshuah withstood ; is there not a manifest disparity between the carnal jews under the law , and the spiritual church now under the gospel , from whom his work still drives at a separation in those he counts the lowly ones that may have such things revealed as the church may be startled at ? who then are those lowly ones that are not of the church ? and what are those peculiar revelations or motions ? are they such as john perrot , john pennyman , w. mucklow , &c. whose perverse spirits and works of darkness are denyed by the true church among us , as j. perrot with his motion , to be ashamed to morrow of that which he might do in truth and righteousness to day ? or j. pennyman with his motion to have the bible and testimonies of martyrs , with other good books to the exchange in order to burn ? or to invite both jews and gentiles to the publication of his wedding at merchant-taylors hall ( and to his many venson pasties , voluptuous extravigancy ) and there to act a fool 's tragedy , and to tell the people , i have taken m. b. but when and where he had before taken her he told not ( so how should they witness to his clandestine proceedings ? they hoped they should have come to his wedding , but were cheated and deceived of their expectations ) and afterwards his motion to cry against us in our publick assemblies ; which whimsical motions and mad actions of his the church hath utterly denyed and condemned ; and also w. m. with his motion to deliver his envious confused papers neer our meeting-house door to all sorts of people , to render the people of god called quakers odious and obnoxious ; it seems , he values his own reputation ( which he pleads for ) more then the church's . he saith , of what hath been said this is the sum , a church limitted to persons may impose an error , and cast out the most spiritual : seeing his great matter against the church , is summed up in this narrow compass ; let it be noted , that his charge against the church or body , which he hath confest christ to be the head of , is varied into a supposition against a church limitted to persons , that such a church may err and cast out the most spiritual : and that is not true , as it s universally stated of a church limitted to persons , which is any church or selected number of persons , whereas there are persons in the true church , that are grown in the truth and vvisdom of god , who being chosen out by the lord and his people for any service of truth , they are a church , and fitted to do the service they are called to ; and so are two or three gathered in the name of jesus , whom he is in the midst of : and to be sure , if this man will own that there is any members in the church , of a sound judgment ( or any eyes in the body ) there may be a church or select number chosen out , that will give a true judgment , and make a right distinction between the pretious and the vile ; and we know there are such persons in the church of christ now , men growa in the light and wisdom and counsel of god ; and of old the church had power in some cases to chuse out men of honest report , full of the holy ghost and wisdom ▪ and there were elders and overseers made by the holy ghost ; however the elders and ancient frie●ds now , who have kept their integrity be slited by apostates , who are fruitless withered branches ; as for this man's vindication of his innocency from being one of the cabal with the author of tyranny and hypocrisie , in that he saith , he hath not the least a●● 〈…〉 with him that is said to b● the author thereof . we do not look upon this to be sufficient to clear him from being one of the cabal , or correspondent with some of those that had a hand in that slanderous pamphlet , because some of the matter came from himself , he was an informer at least , confessing himself to be concerned in page . and . and he hath appeared in the very same language of the spirit of the hat and tyranny , &c. against us ; however he seems to clear himself more from being directly the author of the latter then of the former ; for that spirit of the hat shews forth w. m's perverse spirit and language ( against the body , and our ministry and elders ) rei●terated in this late paper : his reflection upon j. w. and t. m. is answered before in our book against judas and the jews . however he hath not dealt either like a brother or christian with them , in notifying them to the world in such an infamous manner ; if they had been culpable of all that 's reported against them ( which they are not ) he should have first admonished them in private , and not to have dealt with them as with heathen , in this publick manner , unless they had refused ( not only ) to hear ( him and two or three more ) but the church also : i appeal to his conscience , hath he taken this course to gain his brother according to christ's precept ; and dare he say that t. m. hath not been dealt withall for his miscarriage , though we never understood it was so gross as rendred in tyranny and hypocrisie [ wherein j. w. and many others are abused ] however is it equal to cast that upon us which we have condemned and are clear of ? or to upbraid any with what is past , that have repented , received mercy and forgiveness from the lord ? would he be so dealt by ? oh hard-hearted perfidious man. to his saying , it is denyed that he accused g. f. to be a respecter of persons in judgment ; but he positively affirms , he did so accuse him . but i ask , how is it denyed that he did so accuse him , when it is confest , that some pronounced woes upon w. m. judas and the jews , p. . which sure was on some occasion given by him ; therefore his accusation was condemned by the meeting ( and so in the said book ) as false ; and wo belongs to that treacherous spirit that was the author of it , and since hath spread it to the world ; he saith , he is ready to make good his charge , if they deny it , &c. it seems , it is not made good yet then ; but still he violates christ's precepts , for if he could have made it good , he should have done it before two or three witnesses and the church , if there had been need , and not have publisht it to the world , unless there had been a refusing to hear the church ; but on the contrary , the church hath given judgment and pronounced woes against this accuser of the brethren who hath refused to hear the church . his accusing us with justifying the accused when guilty , and condemning the accusers when innocent , and saying , until you take shame unto your 〈◊〉 & lie low before the lord for these abominations , &c. if he had apprehended any injury done him of this kind by any among us , he should have told the party of it particularly , that the matter might have been heard and determined within the church , and not have ( in this general way of charging ) divulged it to the world , tending to beget a general suspition against us , but its manifest , that his accusations proceed from an envious heart , which god will judge , and favour of an exalted luciferian spirit in him , that assumes such an infallibility in judgment , and power to exclude and excommunicate others , which he will not allow the church ( or body that christ is head of ) among us , whilst all along he suggests that the church may err in judgment and tryal of spirit● , but he would have his judgment against us believed as infallible ( no doubt ) or else he would not be so positive in it , but rather have ●●●ted it as queries proposed , which is not liberty of cons●ien●● 〈◊〉 . his admonishing us to let judgment pass upon the transgressors and ●●●are no person whatsoever for favour or affection ; implies then that we ( as the church ) must have infallible judgment and power to pass it : how well this agrees with much of his work against the church , i leave to them whose eyes are open to judge . to his pretending , that he hath discharged his conscience towards us in faithfulness . vve are sure that his reviling us openly to the vvorld , and infamously notifying persons among us , without any faithful , friendly , or gospel-proceeding with them within the church ; these do neither savour of any tender conscience nor christian spirit . oh gross dissimulation and manifest hypocrisie and treachery , thus to place his own malice and shame ( he has fomed out against us ) upon conscience and faithfulness : and so his conclusive title to himself savours of meer feigned flattery and deceitful insinuation , in calling himself , one who greatly desires to see moderation , love and charity to be mutually extended unto all those whose hearts are upright and consciences tender towards the lord , though in several forms . thus he would ingratiate himself into a popular affection , whenas he hath shewn neither moderation , love nor charity ( but the contrary ) towards the house-hold of faith , among whom he sometime walked not long since ( namely , among the people of god called quakers ) having represented them , as no better than a church made up of . imposing usurping elders ; . complying hypocrites ; . fearful , enslaved and ignorant persons , who comply for fear or self-interest , and not from a real conviction in themselves : the very tenour of his vvork doth at least implicitely thus charge us : and as we are a people professing the name of god , and bearing witness to his pretious truth ; we do commit our cause to him to plead and vindicate our innocency from these aspertions and slanders , not doubting , but he will rebuke that treacherous spirit , that hath so grosly abused and mis-represented us to the vvorld . as concerning b. furly's paper long since writ , but lately part of it inserted in tyranny and hypocrisie , and which that scoffer fra ▪ chadwel , and others of truth 's adversaries have boasted of against me ; this may signifie , that as it was writ when b. f. was clouded by this spirit of division ; since ( through the lord's mercy ) he hath been brought to a better understanding , and to see and judge his former prejudice and vvorks thereof ; being satisfied also that the apostates and baptists had not in the least b. f's consent in the publication of his paper , which i did ( presently after i had it ) give a plain and full answer * to in the light of truth ; and j. pennyman was privy to those controversies , being intrusted in conveying the letters between us ; but he was not pleased to publish my answer , but rather to abuse my name in print without cause , accusing me with subtil and dark imaginations , * but he should look at home , and see his own dark imaginations : judge serious reader , what respect these men have to the truth and people of god , in their reviling the innocent , despising the church of christ in print , publishing weaknesses and failings of particulars , that have been judged by them long ago , raking up condemned stuff to cast upon us , telling those things in gath , and publishing them in ashkelon , that cause the uncircumcised to triumph : all which have necessitated us , thus publickly to appear in truth 's vindication against them . g. w. some defects and faults escaped in the press , thus to be corrected . epistle page . line . read have kickt . p. . the margin-note relates to fra. chadwell . l. . r. among us . p. . l. . for and r. is . l. . for and r. are . l. . for heads r. friends . p. . l. . for in r. him . l. . for or mother r. and mother . p. . l. . r. arbitrariness . p. . l. . for nor r not . p. . l. . dele and. p. . l. . for word r. world. l. . for this r. they p. . l. . for hat r. that . the end notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e * whose false doctrines & blasphemies against the true light , we have also upon record . notes for div a -e * howbeit it hath been a mark of our disowning the prayers of the wicked and unbelievers , and the same spirit that hath led us to deny doffing our hats to men , or to honour proud flesh , hath led us to doff them in prayer to god in our assemblies . * which i could yet produce if need were . * in his paper , dated london , . day of aug. . gregory, father-greybeard, with his vizard off, or, news from the cabal in some reflexions upon a late pamphlet entituled, the rehearsal transpros'd (after the fashion that now obtains) in a letter to our old friend, r.l. from e.h. hickeringill, edmund, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing h estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) gregory, father-greybeard, with his vizard off, or, news from the cabal in some reflexions upon a late pamphlet entituled, the rehearsal transpros'd (after the fashion that now obtains) in a letter to our old friend, r.l. from e.h. hickeringill, edmund, - . [ ], p. printed by robin hood ... : and sold by nath. brooke ..., london : . reproduction of original in union theological seminary library, new york. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng marvell, andrew, - . -- rehearsal transpros'd. dissenters, religious -- great britain. church and state -- great britain -- early works to . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - judith siefring sampled and proofread - judith siefring text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion gregory , father-greybeard , with his vizard off : or , news from the cabal in some reflexions upon a late pamphlet entituled , the rehearsal transpros'd . ( after the fashion that now obtains ) in a letter to our old friend , r. l. from e. h. london , printed by robin hood , at the sign of of the he-cow i. o. if it be not a bull , on the south-west and by west end of lake-lemane and sold by nath. brooke at the angel in cornhil . . reflexions upon a late pamphlet , entituled the rehearsal transpros'd . in a letter to our old friend , r. l. sir , one would think you were at certain with the company of stationers , and , as their pensioner , retain'd in constant pay ; for of late a man cannot write a private letter to you , but forthwith you print it : and though all of you be in the fault , yet the innocent sheet does the pennance on the book-seller's stall ; or stands , like a poor greek , or some mountebanks bill , at every pillar and post , to be gaz'd on , if not laugh'd at . i know what you 'l say ; that all this modesty i now put on , is but a meer copy of my countenance ; and that indeed and in truth , ( you keeping the key to the press , ) i had not writ to you above all others , but on purpose that you might open the press-door , and let me in , with imprimatur r. l. which pass-port had been set down in the first place , ( as commonly it is , ) like a ticket , in hand , to get into the play-house , but that the book-sellers like it not . for they , ( honest men , ) knowing the worth of a book only by the ready sale , perceive the people have got an opinion , ( and then there 's no beating it out of their heads , ) and have taken such a prejudice against books so mark'd in the forehead , that construing it to be a brand of infamy , they will scarce ask the price of them , or bid a penny : taking it for granted , the author so licens'd , was some dull phlegmatick fellow , and either wanted wit or honesty to vouch himself . to tell you the plain truth on 't , and not to lie ; it was neither the importunity of friends , of the stationer in particular ; nor the near approach of the next term ; nor very much against my will ; nor to cancel the obligations many and great to his worship , her lady-ship , &c. neither as a testimony of great thankfulness ; nor out of penury and want of a better offering ; nor any of the like stale pretexts , that now set my pen a work : but of my own accord , meer motion , and advice ; mine own dear fingers itch'd to be at it ; till i had finish'd and dispatch'd the packet , in this express . wherein is inclosed and wrapt up a bundle of serious and honest truths , as if held forth from pulpit it self . but ( i confess ) they are , ( like my self ) merrily dispos'd ; yet purposely so dress'd , that the wholsom food therein contain'd , not disgusting the palate of this humorsome and frothy age , might rellish the better , and go merrily down . indeed it is a quelque-chose , here and there a little tart sometimes , but without gall or bitterness ; and here and there a bit so sharp too , as , ( like mustard , ) to bite the tongue of a sinner ; but it is only to make his eyes water , and bring him to repentance ; and the better digestion of his former crudities . if you suspect the truth of all this , as related by a party concern'd , ( for who is not in love with his own issue , though crouch-back'd , or crook-legg'd ? ) then read not one syllable more , 't is alike to me , for i shall not get a penny by your custome ; neither do i desire it . for i am well and warm ; and wish all mankind so ; and to doe what in me lies for the common bene●…t do i now write . praying that all men were of my religion , ( contain'd in this letter ) and then the world would need neither stocks nor gaol ; neither inquisition , nor surrogate ; neither act of indempnity , nor uniformity ; neither drums , nor colours ; swords , nor helmets ; fire-balls , nor little cutto's ; red-coats , nor men of war : nor have any great use of those two lately-found out inventions , printing and gunpowder ; ( and whether of them has most troubled the world , i will not take upon me here to discuss ; yet i think the latter has not prov'd so mischievous as is suppos'd ; battles having been before the use of gunpowder , the most bloody . ) but if you think , this preface is all but quack , and promises more , like an empiricks bill , than can be perform'd upon tryal and proof ; and has more in the contents than in the chapter ; then let the rest alone , for i write not to an infidel . yet the greatest part of the world is so : and a pretty quantity of the lesser part is inhabited , ( some think ) by people , that either have foreheads of brass , or no eyes in their foreheads : i mean knaves and fools . knaves will not , and fools can not understand my meaning in this following letter . and thus far by way of preface . at the rainbow-coffee-house the other day , taking my place at due distance , not far from me , at another table sat a whole cabal of wits ; made up of virtuoso's , ingenioso's , young students of the law , two citizens , and to make the jury full , vouz avez , one old gentleman : his bald pate cover'd with a huffing peruke , without an eye of gray in 't , or one gray-hair . but i knew him to be old , because they all laughing heartily and gaping , i took that occasion , to look him in the mouth , and knew his age , for indeed the mark was out of his mouth . i was tickled to know the cause of all this mirth , and presently found , it was a book made all this sport ; the title of it , the rehearsal transpros'd . look you here , says one of them , do not you see , p. . how smartly he ferrets the old foxes , the fathers of the church ? ( as in biting irony , he calls the old bishops : ) and how he claws off one of them by name , a. sparrow d. d. bishop of exon ? nay scratches one out of the grave , l. andrews late bishop of winchester ? he 's a notorious bold fellow , i 'le warrant him , sayes another ; he takes up the old fathers like so many school-boys ; and like a stout pedant , or priscian himself , he whips one of them publickly , and gives him chastisement for his worthy cares , because he had no better ply'd his book . but he goes a little higher , says a third , if in the same page , you look a little lower : and turns up his majesties evil councellors , and gives one slash at a great minister of state , with great courage pulling the dead lion by the beard . i like it not at all , and the author much worse , says the old gentleman ; it sounds so like the old cry of london-town in . down with the bishops , down ; down with the evil councellors , that do so keep us off , we cannot come at the king ; and therefore it is we can never have him at our wills , to deal kindly by him , for his own good , and for reformation , to make him then a glorious king ; therefore , down with the bishops , down with evil councellors . the man is desperately disingenuous and unnatural , ( i think ) whosoever was the author ; he plays the tarrier , by his falling on so fiercely upon the old foxes , the fathers of the church ; and by that , should be some vicars son . for the tarrier you know , is a monstrous beast , begot of a bitch , by a fox , and so is half-dog , and half-fox : but there is no such enemy , in the world , to a fox , as is the tarrier which is a part of him , though an amphibious and degenerate issue . i think , ( replyed another ) he is rather a jaccal , ( which is an arabian beast , but more monstrous in the odd humour of his rapacity ) robbing the graves , and scratching up for a prey the dead corps , that lay decently interr'd , as by name bishop andrews , bishop bramhall , arch-bishop usher , arch-bishop laud ; and a glorious martyr , worth them all , king charles i. it is a marvel ( saith another ) what you will make of this new author , at the long run ; for you have made him a ferret , a tarrier , and a jaccall already ; the gentleman himself has reduc'd thus many metaphors within the compass of one bare sentence , p. . setching a cònjurer , a play-house , and a ferret to make it up : sure his rhetorick was born in a time when metaphors were cheap ; for though they be far fetch'd , yet sure they were not dear bought , he is so prodigal of them . well said ( saith a young lawyer ) i will bestow one metaphor the more upon him for his liberality : he seems to me , to be a cotswould-hare , he 's so well breathed , he has stood three or four courses already ; the first , called rosemary , that was slipt at him , made more hast than good speed , and scarcely had poor watt in view during the whole run : the latter gave him fair law , yet withal gave him so many smart turns , so nimbly and so quick , that i wonder how the poor fool shifted for it self . and now i hear there 's one will have another loose at him , if 't be but for sport , and yet 't is an even wager he 'l click him up in good earnest . look to thy hits , poor watt : thou hadst better have sat for ever on thy squatt , than hunted at this rate . the ostrich wings has got , for legs alone help not ; this last , though set out late , intends to shew thy fate ; and make thy bonny skutt a trophee for the hut , and there to be laught at . hold , good gentlemen ! says one of the citizens , you have made beast enough of him already in all conscience : but truly , verily , and indeed , that gentleman there , who made a jaccall of him , in my opinion has sampled the pattern to the life . as there is a law in england against wolves , so , if i were a parliament man , i would move for a law against jaccalls . this jaccall is an unsufferable beast in our soyl , especially when no dead corps pleases his palate so much , as those sacred reliques of arch-bishop laud , especially those of englands martyr , king charles . for he that beheaded these two was not half so barbarous , nor did do them half so much harm , as this gregory father-grey-beard , who with his utmost malice and inveteracy strikes at their innocence and honour . for which cause , ( though such a barbarian ought not to be christned , yet ) he having no name , the company did , ( as he did to mr. bayes , ) give him a name , by which he was known amongst them to this day , calling him , for his merits-sake , ( as we do hereafter ) gregory father-grey-beard ; or , mr. gregory , and sometimes plain greg. for certainly the heads-man father-grey-beard was incomparable less mischievous than this villain ; the natural lives of those two glorious martyrs being mortal , but their innocence ( by this vile man here assassinated ) should be immortal , and king charles himself was more tender of these , than of his life , valuing his dignity above his crowns ; saying , in his own unparallel'd words , ( i shall ne're forget them ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . cap. . i can more willingly lose my crowns , than my credit ; nor are my kingdomes so dear to me , as my reputation and honour : those must have a period with my life , but these may surviveto a glorious kind of immortality , when i am dead and gone ; and a sweet consecrating of them to an eternity of love and gratitude among posterity . those foul and false aspersions were secret engines at first employed against my peoples love of me , that undermining their opinion and value of me , my enemies and theirs too , might at once blow up their affections , and batter down their loyalty . this in practice , ( what ever be the design ) is endeavour'd in this book p. . with as much venome as can be spit ; asserting there , that the whole reign of king charles . was deform'd . we had a good wise king ( the while ) then , and fit to live and reign , that would suffer his whole reign to be deform'd . thus making him a pupill , rather than a prince ; and one that of himself regarded not what was good ; but was kept during his whole reign under a tutor and guardian , or rather governour ; and he , viz. arch. bishop laud , one of the worst too , for he sayes , he seem'd to know nothing but ceremonies , arminianisme , and manwaring : with that he begun , and with that he ended , and thereby deform'd the whole reign of king charles . p. . thus he makes our solomon , a rehoboam ; namely a child at forty years of age . by ceremonies , arminianisme , and manwaring ; whatever they be in themselves , this author represents them as very vile , wicked and ugly things , because they deform'd the kings whole reign . and therefore he concludes thereby , that king charles . had no wisdom to understand the vileness , wickedness , and ugliness of these three things , ceremonies , arminianisme , and manwaring , whereby his whole reign was deform'd ; or else that king charles understanding the evil nature of these things that did deforme his whole reign , had not honesty , nor innocence enough to keep them off , from deforming his whole reign . so choose him whether , for this author determines him necessarily in these words , to be either so much a fool as to suffer his whole reign to be deform'd with ceremonies , arminianisme , and manwaring ; and to be led by a man , that seem'd to know nothing else ; with which he begun , and with which he ended , and thereby deform'd the whole reign : or else , knowing these things , and how they deform'd his whole reign ; he makes him a vile and wicked king that would not save and deliver his whole reign from deformity . by the former he makes him a weak prince , without wisdome ; the contrary whereof is known to the whole world , and was never suggested before this time , by any but the rebells in the beginning of the late civil-wars , to withdraw the affections of his people from him , as from a man that had not wit nor understanding enough to govern them , but was led by the duke of buckingham and arch-bishop - laud. but if he mean the latter , that all this deformity was his own doings , and that though his reign was deform'd , it was himself , his own inclinations and bent which contriv'd , at least concurr'd , in making his whole reign deform'd ; then and even then , it is the old cry of the rebells , who when they had got their wills of the earl of strafford ; and arch-bishop laud , and left the king no councellors , nor kingdomes , nor so much as liberty ; then changed their note , and justified the evil councellors , more than the king himself ; saying he himself was his own wicked councellor , and a tyrant , and ought to die : and though their words ( like these of this authour ) were devillish and malicious ; yet they were as good as their words , and condemn'd him for a tyrant , and cut off his head . 't is indeed ( answered another ) all you say is infallibly true , and undeniable to a tittle ; but that which is admirable , and a greater marvel , is the skill and cunning of the man. he does the feat so cleaverly , as if he shot with white powder ; did execution indeed effectually , but makes no noyse , or evil report ; ( like other unskilful and bawling phanaticks ; ) for though you stare about , you shall not see the executioner , nor know whence the shot comes ; or if you do , he puts his vizard on presently , and looks , ( like faux ) in disguise . or , as the mountebank , keeping a man , who is content to be slash'd and cut , that his master may thereby show his dexterity and skill in the cure ; so this virtuoso wounds and cuts ( but indeed with design ) mortally ; and with matchless courage and boldness , ( disdaining trivial force ) fights neither with small nor great , ( except they lye in his way and detard royal assassination ) but only the king of our israel ; against whom when he has spit his venome , and with bold and home thrusts assaulted his innocence and honour ; yet he has his playster at hand , ( though it be without vertue ) and would seem to make all whole again , with crying , oh lord ! sir , i beg your pardon ; and then ; as you were : all is well again . the playster ( which he would make alexipharmacal for the wounds with which our late soveraign is attempted , and made , together with his whole reign , deform'd , ) is the neatest of all ; and clapt on as soon as the blow is struck , p. . deform'd the whole reign — of the best prince that ever wielded the english scepter . a contradiction in terminis , and as barbarous as absolute . for how could he possibly be the best prince that ever wielded the english scepter , except all the princes that ever wielded the english scepter had their whole reigns deform'd , either by their carelesness or folly ; or , ( which is the less affront to be call'd knave rather than fool , because one may be help'd , the other is remediless ) by vileness and wickedness doing the work themselves , and deforming their whole reign . again , if he be the best prince that ever wielded the english scepter , and yet either did deform his whole reign , or suffered it to be deform'd with ceremonies , arminianisme , and manwaring ; then these three reign-deforming buggs , ceremonies , arminianisme , and manwaring are very consistent with the best prince that ever wielded the english scepter . and if so , then these three reign-deforming buggs , are indeed but buggs , and fright men more than burt them , and can scare none but children and fools . for that the best prince that ever england had , owns , cherishes them , or at least permits them to be own'd and cherish'd above all other things ; and owns ( above all other men ) the man that seemed to know nothing else but these ceremonies , arminianisme , and manwaring ; with which he begun and with which he ended . and all this must necessarily follow , or else those good english princes that kept off , or expelled out of , their kingdomes , these same three ugly reign-deforming things ; were better princes than he that either brought them in , kept them in , or suffered them to stay in , and thereby deform'd his whole reign . and if they , ( in doing so well , and much better than he ) were better princes than he ; how could he be the best prince that ever wielded the english scepter ? so egregiously confident , and self-conceited is this virtuoso authour , this new politician ; that , ( through the high value he has for himself ; together with the mean and low esteem he has for all others ) thinks so slightly and easily to gull them ; and casting a little mist before their eyes , hopes to lead them about , like fools by the nose . otherwise this fool-hardy man would never have been so lost to all modesty and discretion , as to think to impose upon men , and be juggle them by such transparent mists , and easie legerdemain ; namely plain down-right non-sense and contradiction . alas ! the man is not master of his trade ! and yet , as if he onely , and the rest of the new politicians and virtuoso's , were like the chinenses and had two eyes in their heads ; but all the rest of the world blind ; or , ( at least ) the best of them but single-ey'd men ; who with but one eye are not so very quick-sighted , especially if you come upon them on the blind side . the company seem'd wonderfully well pleas'd with this discourse ; all of them but the virtuoso's and ingenioso's ; who were but four in all , and they too answered not one word : whether troubled with the fret , and at the heart too mad and enrag'd to utter a word , hearing themselves thus check'd to the face ; and their brother virt — ( who but a little before they had cry'd up for such a prodigie and marvel of wit ) should so suddenly be charg'd home with so unavoidable a shock ; whilst they stood by , and idly looking on , had neither ability nor wit enough to make resistance , nor knew how to help themselves nor him : yet , ( to see how soon the wind turns ! and how suddenly smiling dame fortune can knit her brows ! ) if he had but come into the room one half hour before , the whole clubb had rouz'd at the happy surprize of this wonderful wit ; and had carried the bugg upon their shoulders ( like the knight of the shire on election-day ) in triumph about the room : and had given him as many thanks for his great pains in this admirable book , as the authors friend i. o. and the conventicle did , when they sent him for these his happy endeavours , the gratuity , gather'd amongst the churches as a due offering ; with all hearty acknowledgments and the thanks of their house ; especially for promoting the good old cause , modern orthodoxy , liberty , indulgence , and reformation : but particularly for setting the old cry ( against bishops and evil councellors ) to a new tune ; not the old whining , snivelling , canting leer-away ; ( now somewhat stale , detected , and out of fashion ) but the fashionable , that most taking and admired new , new tune , the pleasant droll-away . the brethren and black-caps fac'd with white , having not vivacity nor wit enough for that way ; the vertue of sack-possets having not hitherto prov'd effectual nor spritely enough to raise their phlegmatick and insipid tempers to any semblance of elevated and mercurial style . at least these virtuoso's would have clap'd him on the back and spit in his mouth ; because it did so double and spend , when this mopsus did open so well upon the hot scent against bayes p. . with whoop , holla , holla , whoop ; ten times one after another ; and with so full a mouth , that sure he has been us'd to 't ; and has some thestylis to his mistress , whose nephew amyntas is out of his wits . or whether the arguments against their friend were all ad hominem , and made the indited and criminal to prove the evidence against himself , and by his own mouth and confession , or acknowledged all under his own hand ; and thereby necessarily stopping their mouths , as if they had been silenc'd by a bishop , or thunder-struck . or lastly , whether they were afraid to be laugh'd at the more , by answering nothing to the purpose , and thereby once more shame the authour , their order , and themselves ; as being loth further to stir in that ( sir reverence ) that already was so noysome , and smelt above ground ; i cannot tell . but now they answered only with a countenance made up 'twixt wrath and discontent , having not altogether so great an eye of scorn and self-conceit in the mixture ; and truly i was glad to see it , for mine own sake . for being but a plain blunt fellow my self , i did wish with all my heart , ( led thereunto by ( that that rules the world ) interest , ) that some good body would take them to do ; and so effectually humble them , that a home-spun countrey-grey and friez-coat ( though it be not a french-coat , nor bedaub'd with lace ) ( and is sometimes worn out , or sold in long-lane , before it be paid for ; ) might pass the streets quietly by them without a scoff or huff . but though they were mute , the gentleman went on that spoke last and so well of the plaister , that prov'd not big enough to salve the kings honour and innocence , if the wounds had been as truly as maliciously given him ; nor can in the least salve this authors honour and innocence if ever he had any . nor can keep him undetected , or protect him from the stroak of justice , and the smitings of his own conscience ; if he keeps any awake , for any other end but to laugh at , and atheistically to jear at . and as his own tongue has given it self the lye in reference to king charles i. so as palpably and plainly does it the same in relation to the account he gives of arch-bishop laud. as if the man resolv'd to make a book of prodigious contradictions in every page , and sometimes ( as already we have instanc'd ) in the same line making one repartee against the bishop , to clash with another repartee of his own for the bishop ; fighting with a two-edged sword , that cuts both wayes ; and slashes pro , and con. for the arch-bishop , repartee pro fights in the van , p. . in these words : arch bishop laud , who if for nothing else , yet for his learned book against fisher , deserved far another sate than he met with , and ought not ( mark that ! ) ought not to be mentioned without due honour : well charg'd pro. but here , come hither repartee con , and make him eat his words , or cram them down his throat ; in p. . he seem'd to know nothing but ceremonies , arminianisme , and manwaring ; with that he begun , and with that he ended , and thereby deform'd the whole reign of the best prince &c. well struck repartee con , i knew thou wouldst make him recant these words , namely ought not to be mentioned without due honour . but to him again repartee pro. p. . i am consident the bishop studied to do both god and his majesty good service ; his will was good then . what say you to that , repartee con ? i say in the same page and next following words : he was so learned , so pious and so wise a man ; a man may be pious indeed , and have a good will to do well ; but if he want learning and wisdome he knows not how to effect it ; this arch-bishop had both ( he says ) learning and wisdome , piety , good intentions and diligence , studying to do both god and his majesty good service , and yet presently after denyes all , he said no such thing ; no not a syllable on 't ; he neither said he had a good will and endeavours for god and his king , nor any such thing , he never acknowledged his learning , piety , wisdome , and honour that was due to him ; for the arch-bishop had not one jot nor tittle of any of them , or any other thing that was good in him ; why ? he seem'd to know nothing but ceremonies , arminianisme and manwaring , with that he begun and with that he ended . nay , continues the young gentleman ( he was a student of the laws ) i will shew you how almost every page contradicts the other ; but the company desir'd him to forbear a little ; because the old gentleman ( his tongue being tyred with lying still so long ) desired he might be heard . that which he was so big with , and did so long for the happy time of being deliver'd of it , when it came to the birth , was nothing but an old proverb . for , like as when a churlish mastiff worries a strange curr and tumbles him in the dirt , every dogged little curr will have a snap at him when he is down , so this old gentleman that not long ago had with the same mouth cryed up this strange new author , convinc'd now of his former folly , shows the truth of his conversion by his zeal ; and since the company generally did now cry him down , the old gentleman had scarce patience thus long to forbear him ; and because that , wanting teeth , he could not bite him , yet as well as he could , the old cur mouths him with a proverb , proverb against proverb . the proverb of this strange author that thus provok'd him and stuck in his stomach , did lie in p. . of the book . it was jack gentleman , jack gentleman . which , says this old gentleman , is a mere lie of his own making : though the author on 't , for fear of detection and shame , dares not own his own issue , but makes it filius populi , a bastard , of i know not whose begetting , only saying , they tell me , they tell me — it was come they tell me to jack gentleman . they tell me ? continued he ; what they ? i am sure if it was any body , but the author himself , it was nicholas nemo . for no body knows the old proverbs of those times better than my self ; and indeed , ( saith he ) i confess there was , and yet is , a proverb something like it , but this author clips it , and then new coyns it , and would make it pass for currant , with they tell me . the proverb , in those times was not jack-gentleman , but jack would be a gentleman , if he could speak french. and was of old , and ye●… true ; and made of those that being upstart gentlemen , and having more money than true honour , their fathers leaving and bequeathing to their sons gentlemens estates , but could not leave them ( what themselves had not ) a coat of arms. for supply whereof upstart gets himself a french coat , a french wit , a french head , a french wigg , french legs , french cringes , french tongue , and all other members about him ( in apish and mimick imitation of the french ) frenchefyed , thereby to be taken for a gentleman ; whence the proverb , jack would be a gentleman if he could speak french. at which , so probably related by the old gentleman , most of the company laughed heartily ; and concluded that this new author , designing in his whole book to promote again the good old cause , which he calls modern orthodoxy ; and sometimes the cause too good ; resolving right or wrong , to plead the cause of the non-conformists , which since he has espous'd , he is not asham'd of ; and therefore confesses p. . that if he can do the non-conformists no good , he is resolv'd to do them no harm ; and we will believe him without swearing . to carry on this goodly design , he bespatters the present government , with unparallel'd malice endeavours to stain and blemish the late kings whole reign as deform'd , rails at bishops and evil councellors , dead and alive , justifies schisme , ( as shall shortly appear ) cries up indulgence , and liberty , breda , breda ; reformation , reformation ; and with bitter sarcasmes and invective taunts , prosecutes the present parliament , ( rallery being the most biting and insufferable railing ) and all this with as little fear as wit. rather than not have a fling at the parliament , and pinch it till it recant all , ( especially the act for uniformity , or any act against the good old cause and non-conformists ) to twit it home , as wittily and effectually as he can ; he , p. . confounds nature to create a joque ; turns the parliament-men into a parliament of women , on purpose to break a jeast upon them , which had otherwise missed them , viz. superfoetation of acts. and new-mints a word , trinkle , trinkle the members ; rather than his beggarly wit should have nothing currant . it would make a man sick , to see this little tantalus catch and gape for a jeast and a little rhetorick ; and ( alas ! ) it will not come . and at other times to see him make a lyons face and grunt and groan to send forth a little wit , but it is right presbyterian , it will not come ; for the man is as costive as one of the old assembly of divines ; or smec . or tom dumby-low , who dy'd because he was so . and all this pother is for an old cause that stinks above ground in the nostrils of every honest heart , both here and all the world over . yet commend me to the men for one thing , they are as restless and indefatigable in their endeavours to promote it ; ( though so often baffled by god and man ) that they still cease not to move every stone , bribe and flatter , threaten and frown , fight and rayl , cant and recant , pray and lye , preach and slander , snivel and whine , exhort and blaspheme , in publique , in private , in city and countrey , in churches , in conventicles , with license , and without license , by your leave , and in spight of your teeth ; as if old knox himself was again metempsuchos'd in every one of them . to this purpose , in this authour , they assault the church and state , with the old weapons new furbish'd ; and to make you believe their old cause was good , they make the old kings cause bad , and this bold man dares , in this juncture of affairs , with implacable inveteracy , prey upon the dead , not permitting to rest in the bed of honour our gracious and blessed king , englands martyr , that sacrific'd his own life , rather than to live in infamy by betraying his people , the laws , and his own just rights . and , though we can scarce believe our own eyes when we see the matchless impudence of this authour thus to traduce him and his whole reign ; and the present parliament with taunts as bitter as bold : yet to make all this seem but a jeast , when he casts firebrands , arrows and death , like mad ; he seems to say , am not i in sport ? in an affected , but taking and fashionable drolling way , insinuating into every mans humour to carry on the work ; cajoling the rabble with liberty , indulgence , breda , breda ; cajoling the yeomen and corporations with interest and trade ; and propriety , invaded with fears of sibthorpianisme , ceremonies , arminianisme and manwaring . cajoling the gentlemen and noble men , with the dangers that again threaten their reputation and honour ; and make them feel for their cutto's , and draw upon poor cassock and lawn-sleeves , for fear it should come again to the proverb ( of his own making ) jack-gentleman . but i being suddenly call'd away , was no longer happy with the further discourse of this cabal of wits ; only i took notice before i parted , that the virtuoso's all this while made not one repartee ; or if they did , it was but one little one , answering mostly with a countenance compos'd , and made up of magisterialness and high conceit , mixt with some pity but more scorn , and a little smile , now and then , proceeding from both . but with such a paltry and surly grace , that i could scarce contain my self ; and i had much ado to forbear kicking the coxcombs . and they had certainly felt the print of my toes , but that i was not so angry as to hold from laughing right out , at such affected gravity , they look'd so scurvily . with head toss'd up , but bridling in the chin , as if with half cheek-bit and curb reyn'd in . mumbling a little sometimes to themselves , as the poor ass does , when feeding upon thistles , the sharp pricks gawl his chaps . whether , like right-bred cocks of the game , they kept their best strength for the reserve and last close : or , that they were good husbands of their wits , and would not spend it , but in better company , some cabal of their own ; or , thought that the moderators place was their own by patent and just right ; determining all at the last ; or , did not at that time carry their wit about them , as loth to wear it out ; or , like old true hunted hounds , would not open , but when the scent was certain ; or , whether they had some peculiar endearances for the authour , i cannot decide . but i was so netled with what i had heard of this new author , above all admiring the stupendious contradictions and double-tongue of the man ; that , though i had read in diodorus siculus of an island in arabia , where the inhabitants have two tongues in a head , but loth to go so far to see them ; yet since i might see the marvel at home , ( more prodigious than the child , at the swan by charing-cross , with two heads ) i was resolv'd , though it cost me a shilling , to see what i could find in this marvellous book ; and readily finding one at the next stationers : the bugg almost startled me at first , it had such a porten●…ous title , the rehearsal transpros'd . the rehearsal transpros'd ? some of the common herd of mankind , that ne're paid six pence yet at a club of the virtuoso's , nor so much as once got the word for that night , would quietly ( if not frighted with the goblin ) pass by this title-page , ( when starch'd up with the play-house bills , ) as unconcern'd and hopeless , as if it were copti or syriack . or if he should be so daring , as to venture to spell it , and put it together , it would stick in his throat , like welsh or irish. this 't is to be mortal , & not free of the company of wits , who , ( as gregory father-grey-beard ( for so i 'le style this whisler for his merits-sake , & sometimes for brevity sake , plain greg. ) intimates p. , , . d . imp. ) feast at a club on nothing but conceits reeking hot , and with a pretty smile or so , till it be grown almost as good as a play , at last laugh right out , and ( saving your reverence sir ) turn their breech ( 't is his own smutty language ) at all the world besides , that live ( poor souls ! ) on their leavings , viz. cold conceits and not enough matured . oh hudibras ! droll laureat ! wits-common-wealth ! or which is more , friend to trans ! poor wit might have slept quietly , ( as she has done time out of mind , ) but that hud took her napping , gave her a twitch by the nose , and made her wait on him in the shape of a droll , draws a circle and conjured her , henceforward never so much as to look at a cassock , a quoif , a gown , or a bulls-cap ; but by no means on a black-cap white-fac'd , nor so much as to come within sight of the cradle upon kings-colledge-chappel , but be confin'd henceforth for ever to the coffee-house , clubs , drolls , virtuoso's , and ingenioso's ; who now , with the help of the press , coffee , and the wine-press , want nothing but ink and elbow-grease , ( as trans threatens the trembling world , ) to do more harm than an hundred systematical divines , with their sweaty preaching . what a dull thing was he that writ the advancement of learning ? ( if he could but have hit on 't ) it had been but converting the colledges and halls into laboratories , the inns of court into coffee-houses , the doctors into ingeniosos ; then changing their books for limbecks ; crucibles , furnaces , coffee-pots , and china-dishes ; the canonical black for a light drugget , aristotle for hobs , ecclesiastical policy for contempt of the clergy , the friendly debate for our friend greg. chopping logick , and all antiquated terms of art , into tuants , flambos , ragousts ; risques , intrigues , harangues , comfortable importance , remarks , repartees &c. above all keeping the head warm the while with a perriwig instead of a square cap , and the business had been done , the circle squar'd ; the longitude , pepetual motion , and the true philosophers stone of wit had been found out . he that presum'd the pope was a niggard if not very hard-hearted , because he could as easily have fetch'd all the poor prisoners out of purgatory at once , as one or two now and then , if he had listed ; would certainly have had as little charity for greg. and his corporation of drolls , for engrossing all the wit and learning in the world , except that little they retayl out to the frail world that half starv'd gape for it , when they may so easily ( if they had the hearts ) by the help of a new dictionary for their new-coyn'd words , enrich the world with light wit by whole-sale , and free it from darkness . yet i 'le assure you ; dear sir , i shall ne're endeavour to bring these wit●…alls within the statute against monopolies ; i do not envy them , nothing of this moves my spleen , but that they are grown so spleenatick , and cannot be content to have all the wit in the world , but must needs become petulant , and with scorn trample upon all mankind . this insolence of greg. father-grey-beard against bayes , moves me ; ●…or not contenting himself with exposing our learned friend , as impudent and counterfeit , p. . a preface-monger , a malepert chaplain , p. . a dangerous fellow , p. . arrogance , p. . cut-throat , p. . ecclesiastical draw-can-sir , p. . peniten●…iary universal to the reformed churches , and ridiculous buffoon-general to the church of england , p. . daw-divine , p. . opprobrium academiae et pestis ecclesiae , p. . interloper , prodigie , and prodigious person , p. . ( yet by way of irony ) pink of cou●…tesie , p. . and overseer of gods high-way , p. . a creature most obnoxious ; yet m●… despicable , p. . a mad-priest , fit for nothing but bedlam and hogsdon , p. . cock-divine , c●…ck wit , p. . mad man in print , p. . hebrew jew , p. . one that has strewed arsehick in every leaf , p. . spy and intelligencer , p. . a writer of a paltry book , p. . a buffoon , p. . a hypocrite to god , and a knave amongst men , p. . with the like drivill , in twice as many pages more ; but by degrees to render him an enemy of mankind , like a raging indian , running a muck , and stabbing every man he meets , p. . and killing whole nations , friend and foe , hungary , transilvania , bohemia , poland , savoy , france , the netherlands , denmark , sweden , and a great part of the church of england , and all scotland , p. , . bless me ( startled i ) the drawing-on world is just now at the last gasp ; but i was so much the more astonish'd and surpriz'd , because i found not one word of all this in englands fate , happily and piously discovered in two prophetical books , one call'd annus mirabilis , it has a greek name too , but in english it heights mervail's year , . and the other , annus mirabilis secundus , . ( who was the author you may ghess . ) but having some skill in astrologie , i had more than a months mind to see the face of the heavens , to know whether by their lowring looks , they boded all this terrour . with a trembling hand therefore ●…king down the ephemerides , and the table of the dignity of the planets , together with will. lillyes introduction , i drew my scheme , and i found the heavens look'd just thus . my fears brought me near enough to an extasie , which is next door to rapture and poesie , my fancy meeting by chance with a drolling muse , represented the scheme thus . sol's near his exaltation , where mars will welcome him anon ; mars his own house doth dignifie , englands brave prince is blest thereby . and saturn in his own house lyes : all these are happy auguries . mercury virtuoso close is in conjunction nose to nose with venus : ( poor girl ! ) fair , but frail : their meeting-house , the dragons tayl ; the sting , did make me quake for fear , i saw i' th' dragons tayl stick there . but forthwith all my fears were over , because this omen doth discover , mars being lord of the eighth house , ( which by astrologers is ch●…se as fittest for ) the house of death , in language of the stars , it saith , some lord by hector virtuoso may in a duel die , or so , so . mars being plac'd too in the ram , he dies a cuckold too . i came from thence to the tenth house , to spye in what posture venus did lie snugging so close to mercury . which speaks the loss of mayden-head ; no , hold ; alas ! 't is not so good ; 't is the loss of all modest sence , and speaks unparallel'd impudence . but jove being uncombust and free , with the lords o' th' triplicitie , in no azimenes ; they , thence united in their influence ; and in the tenth house , where do lye the drugs of cheating chymistry ; from thence it plainly does appear , the heavens will knit their brows this year on virtuoso's great and small , hogens and mogens too , that 's all . a bearded comet next appear'd ( i knew him only by his beard , ) which was a dreadful bush of hair , right under cassiopeia's chair ; and , which presag'd some little harm , andromeda held him in her arm ; his tayl too did not much befriend us , i took my optick of gassendus , and look'd him right up in the face , but found i much mistaken was ; for that which seem'd a beard so big was not a beard , but perriwig : the colour as it first began , still continued pale and wan , because he lodg'd in capricorn , which in the skies is th' sign o' th' horn : his face with wig so dreadful made , i scarce saw any face he had : whether he was asham'd to show a face so bad , i do not know . the dog-star lent him influence , his bushie-locks he had from thence : which shows , that water-dogs and irish grey-hounds shall make gentlemen flourish , with all the hair that they can spare , to make jack-gentlemans wig of hair : how near the gallants nose will come to th' hair that cover'd shag'd-dogs bum yet that in honour doth surpass , hair clip'd from scab'd-head countrey-lass ; or hair clip'd off by gregory from tyburn-thief's-head , as his fee : the self same head of hair i saw twice hang'd at tyburn ; is this law ? good my lord judge ! hang jack no more , his head has been hang'd twice before ; and sold to barber , by ' squire-dun , to make a jack a gentleman ; when upstart , honour true to have , the soft place in his he●…d does shave . who , more star-perriwigs does lack , this year look lillies almanack ; who heavenly wigs can trim , ( as well as i , ) by old prophetick skill , and long acquaintance with the stars : foretelling this year , that i' th' wars the french king did get , to his praise , fourty dutch towns in fourty dayes ; the witch i' his almanack foresees it , saying there venit , vidit , vicit : presaging what the french did get , as truly as last junes gazett . whether this witchcraft hangs him or no , he ought t' have been hang'd long ago , as much for villany , ( as i have heard ) 'gainst king charles as now father-grey - i posted thence , from north to south , ( beard . in haste to view the poles hoth ; surveying the worlds axes too , whether the hinges held or no. i found them both , and either pole in every motion , safe and whole , loosen'd but by one pin : pox on it , ( to make up rhithme ; ) now i have done it . and i think i have done very fair for my self ; for all my fears forth with vanish'd . i took heart of grace , and found that all this pother made by our new authour , was but right down rayling set off with a little droll , the more takingly to calumniate and cast contempt on the clergy , which he endeavours to wound , ( through the sides of mr. bayes , ) bishop bramhall , and arch-bishop usher ; and if his malice had gone no further than the clergy , i had now left them to shift for themselves ; for there is but few of them inferior to greg. in any thing but this his own unparallel'd rhetorick of barking . is 't not a marvel who this same gregory father-greybeard is ? the thing should be female by the billings-gate oratory of scolding ; but then — whoop holla ; holla whoop ; some ridiculous common hunt ; by fears and jealousies , by his apology for i. o. and the brethren , it should be some r. b. or snivelling whining black-cap underlay'd with white ; by its busie interm●…dling with state-affairs , some sir politick would be ; by its half jests , quarter jests , and half-quarter jests , it would be thought to be some little droll , and by its plea for corporations , some candidate against the next vacation for a burgess place in parliament . but let the thing be what it will , the stroak's not so terrible as the crack . i do not deny though , but that one of the ingenioso's has found out of late , that all the land , mountains and groves were once sea ; and all the deep ( now an ocean ) was once inhabited with men , women and children , as populous as now the world in the moon ; and that this same sea shall be lind again , and the land sea ; but fear not , for he promises moreover i thank him , that this great change shall be the work of a six thousand years revolution . and therefore i dread no more the ruine of hungary , transilvania , bohemia , poland , savoy , scotland , france , &c. ( i will not say for the netherlands . ) than when the quaker cry'd overturn , overturn , overturn . and though greg. and his virtuoso's seem to themselves to be vertical and cock-a-hoop ●…risking and kicking , laughing and jearing , fretting and railing , at the poor clergie especially ; for my part i neither envy him nor them that jolly employment . for , ( as alvarez de luna , chief favourite to the king of castile , us'd to say to those that admir'd his fortune ; so say i of these men that are so scornful , secure and culminant ) commend not the building till it be finish'd . ante obitum nemo : ( i will make use of my dear ends of latine verse ; ( as well and as decently made use of , as italian patches are by greg. ) though i know the wits laugh at them ; and have jear'd them to death , as st. patrick did the rats in ireland , l. . s ti patricii . ) i grant there are such wise fools in the world , and so audacious , as , ( like the old gyants ) to bid heaven battle ; casting dirt , and flinging stones at the stars ; but he that sits in the heavens does but laugh them to scorn ; and the stones fall usually on their own pates . but aquila non capit muscas , greg. turns tayl from the ecclesiastical politician , as a prey too puny , and to shew the courage of his wickedness le ts fly with indignation , at two most reverend and learned prelates of our age , bishop bramball , and arch-bishop usher , lord primate and metropolitan of all ireland : ( that was so once , i mean , ) for ( thanks to such as greg. and his friends i. o. and the rest of the modern orthodox ) the good bishop stript of all but his priesthood , ( that indelible character ) was glad to crouch and pray that he might be suffered in one of the priests offices , that he might eat a piece of bread . which greg. calls p. . the height of the honest mans ambition , satisfying himself , ( happy he that could , and holy he that would be so satisfied ) with being admired by the white and blew aprons , and poynted at by the more judicious tankard-bearers . thus greg. adds scorn to the afflicted and affliction to his grief . happy england in such governours & politicians as this father-grey-beard , 't is pitty he was not one of the committee for plunder'd ministers in the late confusions , he is so tender-hearted . how would he have mump'd and frown'd upon the poor nuns , if he had been comrade-inquisitor with cromwel in hen. . dayes ? when the verdict was given in wittily enough for those times , ( for then keeping to the letter , and latine scrapt were not cry'd down by the wits ) primi pravi , episcopi aposcopi , cardinales carnales , canonici cenonici , praepositi praeposteri : oh monachi , vestri stomachi ! i know not what a kind heart to the nuns greg. might have prov'd , but i am confident he would have made no bones on their lands : and all this picque at the clergy is not without design : is not the band of — with thee in all this ? is there never a fat mannor of the bishops-lands next hedge to his little field , i mean , it would help the prospect a little better in his own ground , if he could perswade to another dissolution : beshrew me he has done fair to put in for a share ; and to be remembred in the dole . besides , his necessities may possibly plead for him ; for great gamesters , ( such as he makes himself p. . playing no less than pieces at picquet , and haunting the ordinaries ) are usually great losers : which unhappy chances if they fall out to be gregories lot , and blank him and bilk him , then sui profusus must be alieni appetens . and of whose goods then can this free-booter make a prize on more lawfully and with more justice , than upon the churches dignities ? a dignitory of lincoln he tells us , p. . having cheated him already of his pieces , and fingred his money . is 't not pity his majesty does not give him a letter of mart , to reimburse himself upon that people , by some of whom he was rob'd ? is not his book a prologue to his revenge ? foaming and raging against the people of god , ( as proud homan did , ) and vowing their destruction and total extirpation of all the dignities in the church , only for the affront of one mordecai , alledging ( as wicked haman did ) that it is not for the kings profit to suffer them . for render but the bishop's office useless , especially as to episcopal grandeur useless ; ( as indeed it is if there be no discipline , all indulgence ; then praestò comes me in judas with his old speech , ( made just years agoe , ) to what purpose is this wast ? had not these fair manors and bishops lands better have been sold and given to the poor ? poor soldiers , or poor courtiers rather than fail . if a gentleman has consumed his body , or wasted his estate , with gaming , riot , and wenching ; would not it wonderfully comfort his bowels , refresh , and chear up the man's drooping spirits and despair , to have all heal'd again with the lands of the old bishops , or prebends , that ne'r knew how to lead a dance , hand a mistress , tread in a masque , or pick the teeth with bonne grace ; nor so much as knew how to set the periwig and galloshoes , much less the true timing and accenting of a rapper , and double swinger . and though these accomplishments , ( not to be despised , ) are worthy consideration , and may plead some merit ; yet an hospital , one would think , should be the height of such mens ambition , and if it were not for charity-sake , more than their due . but if their merits were never so impulsive and supererogating , yet good men , like god , should hate robbery for an offering . when the levellers in the late times , set up their standard at burford-heath , and also erected a court of chancery , ( so called , for the equity of its design , ) inviting all christian people to the confederacy ; for is there any equity or good conscience , said they , that a lord or gentleman should have , , or pound per annum , when men have not so many pence ? oliver thereat took so hot an alarm , that he never did either more or better bestir himself , saying , if these men be suffered , there will be no living by them , either for gentlemen , yeomen or tradesmen : but it is written , thou shalt not steal . when the dumb beast opened his mouth , saying , am not i thine ass ? he did thereby in right and good reason stop the mouths of all those that should gape after the goods belonging to the prophet , though a wicked one : and this ass shall serve to reprove the madness of this father-grey-beard , who p. . by trampling on the fathers of the church , and rendring them useless , as wantonizing away their time and opportunities to do good ; and as tyrants , chastising them for their worthy cares , and afterwards striking at those of them that are privy councellors , with unparallel'd pertness and daring , would thereby render them uncapable of , and unfit for their great places and revenues . and all this in so palpable and signal a manner , that every vulgar eye may readily see through his design , and guess at the success , if his book had come out in , as it does in . yet the government being so well setled , it is evident he labours in vain , and balaam's ass may silence him , these places and revenues ( belonging to those prophets ) are their own . and by as good right , reason , and law , as any other men can shew for their estates . indeed it is as needless as difficult for one of my quality to pass a judgment upon the merit and worth of the present fathers of the church ; and much more insignificant is any testimonial of mine to vouch them . yet in despight of father grey-beard or envy it self , and as far from flattery , we must say , that there are none , that are honess sons of the church and legitimate , that have any cause to be asham'd of the present fathers of the church of england , which cl●…ros inter habet nomina clara viros , still as of old , makes good the proverb , currant all the christian-world over , clerus britaunious stupor mundi . the english clergy are the worlds wonder . worthies we have many , of whom this ungrateful and frothy age of the world is not worthy . but granting ( what greg. endeavours should be taken for granted ) that some of the fathers of the church were good for nothing but to fill and keep the bag , must all the apostles be decry'd for one judas ? nay granting that all the lords spiritual minded nothing but wickedness , yet they have as good right to their estates as any wicked temporal lord of the laity , or prophane gentleman can have to his . and they must be very bad indeed if they deserve not their places , as well as the most others do ; or even as well as this father grey-beard himself does merit his places or lands , if he ever had any , or has any yet left , since he begun to frequent the ordinaries , and play pieces . and if he do not look well to his hits , it is more than an even lay , that i shall beat him out of his play , before i have done . yet i would have had more wit in mine anger , and favour'd him the more , if he had not so unmanly and disingenuously play'd upon the dead . not to mention again here those already mentioned , our late soveraign , arch-bishop laud , arch-bishop usher and bishop bramhall ; to his own eternal reproach already by him violated , but most to his own shame ; i cannot but here take notice how he again abuses himself , by contemning by name , lancelot andrews late lord bishop of winchester ; one that never produced any thing mishapen or deform'd ; but all so lovely , and with general liking and applause admired ; that greg. by dispraising any thing that was his issue , does but betray his own judgment , blinded with folly or implacable malice against all the clergy . to whom he confesses p. . he bears a great grudge , ever since he was nuzled by one of their coat ; as if it was such a marvel , jonye should be chous'd , when he comes to commence gentleman and gallant , by being made free of the company , with his pocket full of pieces at an ordinary . from which if he had abstain'd and kept still in his chamber , himself and his book ( writ it seems in revenge of his great loss ) he had been a wiser man , and richer too , by saving his pieces and his credit , which ( if not quite lost ) is at desperate hazard , and at the last stake . but if the sins of this nation should ripen to the like fatal revolution , in making havock and sale of the kings lands , and honours ; the lands of all his friends as well as the bishop lands , and father grey-beard to his wish , should live to keep his own court-baron in one of my now lord bishops mannors , it cannot be said in shri●…t for the rapine as at the dissolution of abbeys — possidebant papistae , ( for greg. himself assoyls our prelates of popery , p. . not for any great hatred they have to the popes great head , but for fear of his large throat , that swallows a whole patriarchate at a break-fast , and then if they be within reach and too near him ; swoop goes lambeth at one mornings-draught , like an egg in muscadine . ) yet greg. with all his arts will not be able to purge himself then , from his filthy share in the rime and the reason too of the other part of that old proverb — possident rapistae . but sacriledge is but a bugg to a wit and a droll , especially if he have a kindness for modern orthodoxy ; which vouches that crime : it is but ( as they use to preach ) the israelites robbing the egyptians : it is possible it may be done again therefore , for it has been done ; and some whaat else that i 'le acquaint mr. gregory with by and by , which he shall not be able to ward off , with his none-such weapon , called p. . ( in his hide-bound rhetorick ) the butt-end of an arch-bishop , meaning abbot . but i 'le make him that he had as good have chose the hinder-end of an arch-bishop , as the butt-end of that arch-bishop , to mouth with , before i have done . but i have not yet done with him in reference to the other arch-bishop of armagh , already stigmatized with his sawcy pen ; calling him with much arrogance and scorn , p. . honest man , who was deep gone in grub-street and polemical divinity , and troubled with fits of modern orthodoxy : nay which is worst of all , be undertook to abate of our episcopal grandeur , and condescended indeed to reduce the ceremonious discipline in these nations to the primitive simplicity . so that polemical divinity , modern orthodoxy , the abatement of episcopal grandeur , and primitive simplicity , are , ( if not terms aequivalent , yet all put together , ) the great undertakings of this primate , after he was past the sucking-bottle , and had so much strength and agility as to leap over a straw . yet how meritorious soever this precious work was in the primate , the honour of it lights upon our friends j. o. &c. for j. o. and the confederates were prompted by zeal pure-pute , but the honest primate stoop'd when he could not stand tip-toe any longer , & in spight of his teeth , let go what he could not hold : thank him for nothing . i perceive he might have had , on all sides , as much thanks for his great pains , though he had not chang'd his name , of primate and metropolitan of all ireland , to honest james usher ; and instead of his new dalliance with strange lovers , and making love to his new beloveds ( the white and blue aprons ) had not forsaken his first love . and thereby have verified the anagram , that , with more autumeing hope than truth , was given him when he was , james bishop of meath in ireland , james meath . anagr. i am the same . the archbishop did not stand fast , because he did not stand on good ground , but on the pinacles of the temple , episcopal grandeur , and some devils tempted him either to throw himself down headlong , or else they themselves would take the pains to do it , to save him a labour ; he must needs go , when the devil drives . why ? but does the devil drive men to modern orthodoxy ? i beg your pardon sir , if i mistake a little , nevertheless it puts me in mind of the indenture made at edinburgh in scotland the fourteenth day of the second month in the first year of the reign of o. c. protector , betwixt archebald mac. dougal , ( aged years , and burnt for a wizard in the same year under edinburgh castle ) ( i saw him burnt ) on the one part ; and the great fiend beelzebub on the other part , &c. but arche . confest then and there that two of the articles which the devil chiefly stood upon , ( before he would seal , ) was that arche . should deny his baptism and the covenant , solemn league and covenant . with much adoe arche . was content to deny his baptism , but rather than deny his geud covenant , he would never be wizard whilest he liv'd ; nick , seeing the man peremptorily resolv'd , blotted out , the denying of the geud covenant , and seal'd notwithstanding ; saying the matter was not great , for he himself was at the making of the geud covenant . by all which it is as evident and true ( as is the manuscript of arch-bishop abbot , which greg. so impudently imposes , and asserts as dogmatically and magisterially , as if he had stood at the bishop's elbow when he writ it ) that this same modern orthodoxy ( he must mean the directory , and the geud covenant , ( its zinee ) for which his whole book instead of a ●…bining , ( which now takes not so well ) is a drolling apology , as he confesses , ( truth will out ) p. . if i can do the non-conformists no good , i am resolv'd i will do them no harm . ) i say , it seems this same modern orthodoxy and primitive simplicity of father-gray-beard , and the great fiend , were about that time and year , at no great feud , at least not of malice forethought . i know not how deep-learn'd mr. gregory is in modern orthodoxy , yet i durst lay my spectacles , he never read of a king standing on the stool of repentance , in the primitive simplicity : in the old records whereof i have seen lawn sleeves , rochet , square cap , and cassock writ in as fair and legible a hand , as coat in querpo , black cap white fac'd , breeches and doublet , stockings and hat , band and cuffs , cabala , luggs flappant , hour-glass , pulpit , blew and white aprons , simars , peruke , or new-fashion'd cloak . for that roman penula which st. paul left at troas , had neither black buttons nor cape : though greg. p. . admires it above that in cor. . . and to tell you the plain truth on 't , i do not believe that st. paul ever left his cloak behind him at troas in his life : he was not so rich to have two sutes to his back . for this same cloak , that is so talk'd on , ( which some greek copies read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , some 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and some 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and some 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and lastly , some 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which ) if you nip so hard as to make it cry 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , penula , then you may make a roman cloak on 't indeed , but not otherwise . for the syriack , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies a satchell which he left at troas to put his books and briefs in ; and therefore the learned estius renders it arculam libris chartisque refertam ; others scrinium . scriniolum , & domum scriptorum . some scriptorum repesitorium , so drus. some thecam librorum ; i confess indeed hesychius says it was a kind of cloak , and also that it was lin'd with fur to keep out the cold and the rain ; and yet presently stands in a quandary , and doubts whether indeed it was not scriniolum , a satchel still . so that if this be true , we shall not in the primitive simplicity so much as find the old cloak so much talk'd of ; how many cloaks soever you find in the modern orthodoxy . yet if the non-conformists be angry that i should thus rob them of their beloved cloak , ( which was worn thred-bare in the pulpit ) i can lend them three for't if i list , that shall fit them as well ; and every cloak fetch'd out of the wardrobe of the primitive simplicity , ( if they do not dislike the fashion ) for they are all canonical . the first and second i am sure they 'l like , if. . . they were clad with zeal as a cloak . the second is i thes. . . a cloak of covetousness ; and the third is in pet. . . a cloak of maliciousness ; and the stuff that then and there this cloak was made of , you may see was , liberty ; i know they 'l like it ; if 't be but because this stuff is in fashion . what kind of stuff this same liberty is , i 'le show you by and by , i am sure , if it be not bayes , it is not perpetuana . truth says it , a kingdom divided cannot stand , and the fatal consequence of this liberty and indulgence , we see for example if we look at the netherlands , where their division and non-conformity is their ruine , their confusions their confusion , the heads craz'd and distracted , the hands feeble and the heart saint ; yet barnabee-greg . will not tak 't for a warning . but we go not so far , we 'l look nearer home , ( and all within the memory of man , ) what pittiful stuff this liberty and indulgence prov'd ( all the proof's in the wearing ) for one twelve years , when we had no king in israel , but every man spoke and did what was right in his own eyes . rake hell , view the ghastly apparitions and evil spirits that walk'd ever since the primitive simplicity , ( but bound down by wise antiquity ) and tell me if they did not all walk again in those twelve years of modern orthodoxy , liberty and indulgence . i deny not but they were spirits , ( oh spirit ! ) but i say they were evil spirits , ( layd and charm'd down by a form of wholsome and sound words ) which being rent and torn apieces by the modern orthodox , hell broke loose , and almost frighted us out of our wits . which some people that have bad memories and worse consciences have now forgot . did not the evil spirits of donatus , priscilian , pelagius , arrius , and aerius , ( for i care not to set them down in order ) the apostolicks , adamites , the family of love , carpocratians , henricians , valentinians , heraclians , anabaptists , contobaptites , the manichees , monetarians , cresconians , macedonians , nestorians , samosatenians , circumcellians , severians , ebionites , pharisees , essenes , flagelliferies , fratricellians , and the gnosticks , ( which i should have first nam'd ) so long dead , tread our english stage again , as if the old sects and heresies , were all metempsucho'd ? had we not spirits that denyed the kings supremacy in all causes and over all persons ? as did the fratricellians and manichees . ( aug. contr . f àust . l. . c. . ) and the flagelliferies . ( prateol . heres . de flagel . ) did they not allegorize the scriptures , the passion , and resurrection of our saviour ? as did the valentinians . ( iren. l. . c. . ) and the family of love . ( h. n. instruct , ar . . s. . . ) had we not the fatum stoicum from priscilian ? ( aug. de haeres . c. . ) did not some ( i name no body , i would not willingly give offence ) did not some i say make a covenant against authority , without authority , forswearing all former lawful oaths of allegiance and supremacy , but being tender in conscience ( good men ! ) scruple to renounce unlawful oaths and covenants of disloyalty and schisme ? and did they learn this modern orthodoxy out of the primitive simplicity ? or from donatus ? ( optat. de schism . donatist . l. . ) did they not learn to oppose bishops from the contobaptites ? ( niceph. l. c. . ) and from aerius ? ( aug. de haeres . c. . ) and did not donatus teach some to make addresses to the weaker vessels , and to lead captive silly women ? ( optat. de schism . donatist . l. . ) did not some promote the designs and plots of their cabal by a common purse , and thought it religion so to do ? as did the apostolicks . ( aug. de haeres . c. . ) did they not confine the church of christ to their conventicles ? as did donatus . ( optat. de schism . donatist . l. . ) did they not gnash their teeth at the surplice ? as did pelagius . ( hierom. adv . pelag. l. . ) did they not deny all superiority and didistinction of persons and quality ? as did the anabaptists . ( sleidan . com. l. . ) did they not measure the dignity of the holy sacraments by the worth of the minister , as if those holy seals were the seals of the minister and not of christ ? as did donatus , from whom also they learnt rebaptization . ( optat de schism . don. l. . ) did not some make themselves equal to christ and the apostles , and so denying the lord that bought them ? as did the nestorians . ( euseb. eccles. hist. l. . c. . ) and the ebionites and macedonians . ( theodoret. haeret . l. . ) did they not deny salutations , or bidding god speed , to all but their own fraternity ? as did donatus . ( optat. de schism . don. l. . ) did they not cry down all holy-days and fast-days , ( except long-parliament fast-days , and thanksgiving-dayes for a bloody victory ? as did aerius . ( optat. de schism . l. . ) did they not learn to cant , and ascribe every motion of their own spirits , to be the motion of the holy-ghost within them ? as did the samosatenians . ( confes. august . . ar. . ) did they not undervalue scripture-authority ? as did the circumcellians . ( aug. cont. pet. l. . c. . ) who taught them not to value , or at least , to undervalue the testimonies of the old tetestament , but the manichees and severians ? ( trithem . de eccles. scrip. & bulling . contr . arnab . l. . c. . ) did they not learn that the jewish sabbath was none of the ceremonies abrogated by the apostles of christ , but moral and perpetual , from the sabbatharians ? ( doc. sab. l. . ) did not some lie and say they had no sin ? as did the adamites , pelagians and donatists . ( aug. cont. petil. l. . c. . &c. . ) and also the carpocratians . ( iren. l. . c. . ) who taught them to cry up the pulpit , and sermons only , and decry sacraments and prayers , and charity , but the eutichites ? ( theodoret . ) did they not deny infant baptism , and some the baptism of those infants whose parents would not be examin'd by the lay-elders , nor take the covenant , ( i mean ) such as were not of their fraternity and gang , as did the heraclians , henricians , and pelagians . ( magd. eccles. hist. cent. . c. . aug. de verb. apost . de bapt . parv . ) . did they not declare that private men have authority to order and reform the church , call assemblies and councels , and need not tarry for the prince and magistrate ? as did the monetarians . ( test. rhem. annot. hebr. . . ) and the cresconians . ( aug. cont . cresc . gra . l. . c. . ) did they not declare it unlawful for the magistrate to punish hainous offences with death , or to go to war whether offensive or defensive ? as did the manichees . ( aug. cont . manich. l. . c. . ) did they not declare that no man has proprietary in goods , lands or wife , but all should lie common , and without inclosure ? as did the pelagians and apostolicks . ( magd. eccles. hist. cent. . fol. . ) and the manichees . ( aug. de mor. eccl. cath. l. . ) would they afford either an alms or charity , or so much as a good word or look to any but their own sect and faction ? so neither would the manichees . ( aug. de mor. manich . l. . ) were they not pure in their own eyes , but abominated as dogs all but themselves , and their friends ? ( so called in enmity to all others ) as did the pharisees . ( luk. . . is. . . prov. . , ) and the donatists . ( optat. de schism . donatist . l. . did they not count it unlawful to swear , though in truth , in righteousness , and in judgment ? as did the essenes , the jewish puritans . ( philo judaeus . ) thus old heresies ( long ago condemned and dead and buried ) by the indulgence of our late licentious times , have found an unhappy resurrection . and cannot these evil spirits be bound down again to the infernal pit , from whence they came to deceive the nations , as formerly they were by the wisdome of our ancestors , when hell broke lose ? simon magus and his followers the gnosticks ( which in english signifies , the people of light ) as they proudly enough call'd themselves ) came at last , from one errour to another , indifferenter utendi foeminis . and do not our gnosticks that pretend to all the light , fall away from one delusion and enthusiasme to another , till they come to be ranters , atheists , and what not ? is there no eye to pity these , nor house of correction to be found ? words are lost upon them , they are possest and prepossest . we , we have liv'd to see that all this noise for the gospel , reformation , modern orthodoxy , liberty , primitive simplicity , and abatement of episcopal grandeur , does but bluster on purpose to blow down church and state , upon pretence to new-build them better and more fashionable after the geneva-frame . thus the kite flies up to heaven , but her design and eye is upon the prey , and , but that the buzzards ( like thieves ) fell out amongst themselves , true men had not so soon come to their own . but his majestic promis'd indulgence i am sure ( saith father grey-beard ) in his declaration from breda . let honour for ever wait on his majestic and his royal word ; but know , that the best , honestest and most learned casuists will tell us , that if thieves and robbers take a mans purse and rob his house , and not herewith satisfied , but they threaten also to kill him and every mothers son there , if the honest man do not promise and vow , nay swear , to give them more ; yet when he 's got out of their clutches he 's also free of his oath . in the name of god what would this people be at ? is 't not enough that they got his sacred majesties father , and all his loyal friends , body and goods , that they could get into their clutches , and have they not done unto them whatsoever they would ? is 't not enough that they rob'd him of his kingdomes and drive him to straits , that he had not where to lay his head ? and have they not cause to bless god and the king every day they rise , that they are not hang'd , drawn and quarter'd , as was baanah and rechab ? but must they capitulate ? setting down a stool of repentance for him to sit on whilst they expostulate the matter . oh but indulgence , and liberty , liberty of conscience ! by liberty of conscience must be meant either a liberty to do what we should do , or a liberty to do what we would do . if they mean a liberty to do what they should do , spur on , up and be doing , in the name of god. the reins of government will neither check nor curb you ; take my yoak upon you and learn of me , ( saith our blessed saviour ) for i am meek and lowly , and came not to do mine own will , but the will of him that sent me . that 's it ( saith greg. ) the non-conformists would be at , they desire only liberty to do the will of god , not their own wills ; and to worship god in his own way , in gods own way , though it be not the kings high-way . but what if the kings high-way be not out of gods way , will you be so wretchedly unsociable and singular , as to separate and go out of the way , when it is the kings high-way ? the truth is , i have no great skill in divinity , ( my education not designing me that way ) yet as the times are , in a mans own defence of his christianity ( for to be sure now if he walk but out as far as a club or a coffee-house he shall be sure to be assaulted on that side ) so much divinity to defend it always in readiness , becomes as necessary for a gentleman , as the little tool behind to save reputation , and much more honourable ; and without any great accoutrement , i may soon have divinity enough , to try it out with father grey-beard , i. o. and the rest of his friends ; and can easily prove that the worship of god , so much prated of , and contain'd in the first table , the four first commandments , is in order , and made for the very nonce , and for no other thing or end but that men might obey the second table , and six last commandments . start not , for i 'le prove it as clear as the sun at noon-day . and that though sometimes comparisons are odious , yet between gods commandments , to weigh and compare which is the greater and which is the lesser , is of absolute necessity to every godly man , when gods commandments seem to justle for precedence , and strive for the place . as they often do : and no man can truly fear god and obey him as he ought , that understands not these laws of honour , and rules of precedency . we cannot err when our saviour is the guide and leads us the way : i 'le instance in a few cases for example . the pharisees of old , ( just like our modern pharisees in their modern orthodoxy ) were marvellous men for the worship of god , and gods day of worship , the sabbath-day , oh the sabbath-day ! and then for prayers , long , long prayers , sacrifice , and indeed for all the worship of god prescribed in the four first commandments , who but they ? good , very good thus far ; who can otherwise think but that these who are so much for god , and his glorious worship , should be gods own people , the godly party , and almighty god as much for them ? who dare check them , lest he seem thereby to fight against god ? who dare speak against their ways , lest he seem to bid heaven battail , and speak against gods ways ? the lawyers amongst them , who were the chief preachers , took it wonderful hainously , that even our blessed saviour himself should dare to reprove them ; and when he made so bold as to do it , they took it as a very high affront , thus saying thou reproachest us also ; us also , and reproachest , ( not reprovest , but reproachest us also ; taking for granted that to reprove , was to reproach them . ) yet for all this , in the first sermon our saviour makes , he assures his auditory , that except their righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes and pharisees , they should in no wise enter into the kingdom of god. what ? would not the worship of god in his own way bring them to god ? no. would not a zealous and holy keeping gods holy day bring them to god ? no. would not the being cry'd up for the most pure and godly party bring them to god ? no. would not prayers many and long , and good too ; and preaching many sermons , and full good and orthodox and saving truths , bring them ●…o god ? no , yet our saviour gives them his testimonial , that they did not only preach well , but also nothing that was ill , ( whatsoever they bid you observe , do . ) and to give those pharisees their due , they did not only go heaven-wards , but they did far over-go many of our pharisees and preachers , heaven-ward . for the pharisees sat in moses's chair , preached truth , and nothing but the truth , whereas , bind your kings with chains , and your nobles with fetters of iron , this honour have all the saints — curse ye meroz , &c. and many other good truths , were miserably wrested ( you know ) by many , nay most of our godly party , ( that pretended above all others to fear god ) on purpose to dishonour the king. but i lay not the stress upon that , but granting that any man preaches , and prays , keeps gods holy day , and worships him , how divinely , truly and sincerely soever ; yet all this exceeds not a pharisee , nor shall ever bring him to the kingdom of god. lord , lord , have we not prophesied in thy name , and in thy name cast out devils ? depart from me , saith our blessed lord , i know you not ; what ? not know thine own preachers , prophesying in thy name , and such as have prayed too , lord , lord ? no. i know you not ( saith he ) why ? ye are workers of iniquity . workers of iniquity ? who are they ? or rather who are not so ? in respect of the first table , the four first commandments , the pharisees ( of all men living ) were not so , workers of iniquity . and in respect of the four first commandments , such as prayed and preach'd in christs name , stood for the lords worship , and consequently gods times of worship , and the lords-day , were ( of all men living ) the least workers of iniquity . therefore since christ knows not these , there is a greater thing than gods worship awanting , and which is the one thing necessary , and what 's that ? our saviour tells us , in the same sermon , even to do to others , as we would they should do unto us , for this is the law and the prophets , mat. . . that is to say , the summe and great design of the law , and the preaching of the prophets have all but this one scope and end , to prevail with mankind to keep the second table , or six last commandments , which do more particularly direct us how to observe this great general rule , whatsoever ye would that men should do to you , do ye even so to them . so that as food and ●…ayment is for the preservation of the body , preaching gods holy word , prayers , keeping days holy , and all the worship of god whatsoever has but one main scope and end , even to make men good , good to our own bodies and souls by temperance and sobriety , good to others , by demeaning our selves peaceably , justly and mercifully one towards another , as we are particularly directed in the six last commandments . which six last commandments god himself , our blessed saviour , and the prophets , and apostles , do therefore prefer much above the first table , and four first commandments ; in so much as the end is more noble than the meanes to that end ; as the life is more than meat , and the body than rayment ; meat and rayment being but the meanes designed for that great end , namely the preservation of the body and life . therefore as he that clothes himself with rayment , how good & warm soever it be , and presently throws it all off again ; and he that eats , and eats , and eats , and either presently vomits it up again , or that the meat lienterically pass through him without alteration , and digestion , must needs be starved ; so he that takes in never so much of spiritual food , and digests it not according to the great design and end for which god sent it , namely to observe the six last commandments , that is , to be good to himself and others , he must needs have a ruin'd and starv'd soul. the doctrine ( how wholesome soever ) being worthless for want of the use : and these great sermon-mongers are at best but the great-eaters , the spiritual maynards , and wood of kent , mr. c. of norwich , w. b. of yarmouth . for can all our worship of god , prayers , praises , and preachings , observing lords-days and sacraments profit god ? is he the better for them ? job . . . if thou be righteous , what givest thou him ? or what receiveth he of thy hand ? thy wickedness may hurt a man as thou art , and thy righteousness may profit the son of man : but cannot profit god. therefore when almighty god first promulgated his sacred laws , he tells his people wherefore he ordered them to keep his commandments , deut . . even for their good , not his own . and excellently does his prophet micah tells us to this purpose , the great duty of man , micah . , , . wherewith shall i come before the lord , and how my self before the high god ? shall i come before him with burnt-●…fferings ? &c. he hath shewed thee , o man , what is good ; and what doth the lord require of thee , but to do justly and to love mercy , and to walk humbly with thy god. and when the pharisees ( that prided themselves so much in looking so carefully after gods worship and gods day ) were offended so highly with the liberty which our saviour and his disciples took to themselves upon the sabbath-day , in not keeping it so strictly , as these hypocritical puritans deemed they ought to have done ; our saviour tells them of a superiour law and of far greater concernment than the four first commandments put together , mat. . . and that was the law of charity and mercy , which if the pharisees had understood , they would not have condemned the guiltless . even god himself dispenses with his own law for worship , in the old law , when mercy and charity plead against it ; for sacrifices and offerings were then part of gods worship , which were very chargeable ; therefore for mercys sake and charitys sake , at the purification whereas the woman by law ought to offer a lamb for her cleansing , yet if she was a poor woman , and not of ability , almighty god abates of his due , and is content with what , without any great charge or trouble , she might easily get in that country , namely , two turtles , or two young pigeons . so that the question is not so much which are gods commandments , as which are the greatest commandments , and best deserve preferment ; not the first table , but the second ; for to do justice and judgement is more acceptable to the lord than sacrifice , prov. . . and to obey , is better than sacrifice , sam. . . therefore we must conclude , that though the worship of god be good , yet to do good and communicate good to others is better ; though to observe the four first commandments be good , yet to observe the six latter is better ; though faith in god be good , yet charity to our selves and others is better , cor. . . and all faith and worship without this charity is not worth a pin , nay is just nothing at all , though a man preach like an angel , cor. . , . this being granted for a great truth , and which all the whining tribe , though they lay all their heads together , are not able to disprove or gainsay , may silence the non-conformists prayers , and stop their mouths more than st. bartholomew yet has done . for though to meet together to pray and preach , and worship god according to the four first commandments be good ; yet to obey the commands of a christian magistrate , and submit to his laws according to the first commandment in the second table is better ; and ought to be preferr'd by every truly conscienc'd christian ; and in so doing he is safe in that submission and obedience . but , whether it be right in the sight of god to hearken unto you more than unto god , judge ye , saith st. peter , acts . . for we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard . this text has been damnably abused , and as the same apostle says of other texts of scripture in st. pauls epistles , wrested , put upon the rack , ( as the word signifies ) and made to speak what it never thought ; and will never justifie our non-conformists either before god or man in the least . to whom does the blessed apostle speak ? act. . , . to the rulers , and elders , and scribes , and annas the high-priest , and caiaphas , &c. who condemn'd our lord jesus to be crucified , and if they might have had their wills , would have been the death of all christianity with him . and is his sacred majesty , and his two houses of parliament no better in your esteem than annas , and caiaphas ; they are mightily beholden to you for your good opinion of them . and if that be not your opinion , that text is nothing to your case , nor to the purpose : but point-blank against you . for whether it be right to hearken unto god , judge ye . god had never given laws for his own worship to mankind , but for the good , peace and welfare of mankind : god had never made the first table of the law , but in order to , and for the better observance of the duties of the second table : if subjects would never have been disobedient to their prince and governours , nor children disobedient to their parents , nor servants to their masters ; if men would never have coveted their neighbours goods , nor their neighbours wife , nor servant , nor have rob'd , and murdered one another , but would have liv'd soberly , righteously , and therefore godlily in this present world , the allelujahs of angels had been the great worship of men : but since it is otherwise , and that the wickedness of man is great in the earth , and the imagination of the thoughts of his heart so bent to evil , and that continually , therefore god establish'd his laws , in the first table by worship , sacrifices , &c. typically , in the old testament , for expiation of the guilt of sin , and justification ; and sent his son , who was made a sacrifice for us antitypically in the new testament for expiation of the guilt of sin and justification , as our priest ; and to show us how to live well , as our prophet ; and to exact our obedience , as our king. but none are benefited by his priestly office , but such as obey his princely laws , according to his prophetical injunctions : none are justified , but such as are sanctified ; for this is the great will of god , our sanctification . our sanctification therefore is the grand design of the law and gospel , prophets and apostles , and that sanctification being summarily concluded by our saviour , in doing as we would be done by ; and all lesser holy duties of prayer , praising , hearing , sacraments , being in order to the great holy duty of doing as we would be done by , and particularized in , and reducible to , the second table , prove in all cases of conscience , the truly godly must do the greater duty rather than the less , and the duties of the second table rather than the first , so that he do but continue his faith in christ the while , and in so doing . now cannot the non-conformist preachers continue to be christians , though they do obey the fifth commandment , and submit to their governors injunctions ; nay can they obey god ( who is the author of the fifth commandment ) if they do not obey their christian governors ; does not god prefer the peace and tranquillity and welfare of mankind , before his own worship , and will not you prefer it ? in obeying , and submitting in quietness to the supream and christian powers , you obey god , and that obedience is better than sacrifice ; and proves evidently , that that which greg. sets down , p. . for apochrypha in the ecclesiastical politician , is an undoubted truth , namely , that moral vertue being the most material and useful part of all religion , is also the utmost end of all its other duties ; and all religion must be resolv'd into enthusiasme or morality . the former is m●…er imposture , and therefore all that is true must be reduced to the latter . in an unlawful and forbidden conventicle , you may pray possibly to god , and preach of god , and hear gods word ; this worship of it self good becomes evil & a sin , because though doing a duty which is good and great , in it self , yet thereby transgressing a duty of the second table , which is better and greater and of a higher concernment , your worship then and there is but as the cutting off of a dogs-neck , and god will say , who hath required these things at your hands ? when ye disobeying the fifth commandment in your forbidden conventicles appear before god , and spread forth your hands , he will turn away his eyes from you , yea when ye make many prayers he will not hear : why ? your hands are full of blood : your actions are bloody ; schisme , and rebellion has fill'd the land full of blood , from one end thereof unto another already , and therefore this liberty you cry up so , and cry so much for , and the calling of your forbidden assemblies god cannot away with : it is iniquity , even your solemn meetings , isa. . , , , , , , , . and know that the great duty of a truly godly man is to cease to do evil , to learn to do well , to seek judgement , relieve the oppressed , plead for the widdow , and to be willing and obedient ; and ye shall eat the good of the land. but if ye refuse and rebel , ye shall be devoured by the sword , for the mouth of the lord hath spoken it . oh but the ark , the tottering ark , what godly heart would not tremble for the ark of god , as old eli's did ? sam. . . what considering heart would with democritus hold from laughing , till his sides ak'd , to see the madness of the people , and the priest ; or rather , ( with the other weeping whitaker ) weep at the folly and delusion of poor souls , so dismally bejuggled ? if a conformist minister , with all his aaronical weeds on , or barely attir'd in the linnen ephod should but name such a text in a christian congregation , how would the frighted brethren run out of church , and cry out , types , ceremonies , shaddows , levitical , old testament spirit ! is this your gospel minister ? is this primitive simplicity ? is this modern orthodoxy ? is there one word of the spirit in all this text ? is it not froth as applyed ? and nothing to the purpose ? but comes me godly mr c. precious mr. c. persecuted mr. c. bartholmew calamy , and then all must be gospel that he speaks . and though we poor souls understand not the cant , yet the cunning gypsies know well that by the ark of god is meant the bartholomew babies ; by the great scarlet whore is meant the pope ; ( but then whisper i to my self , this same great whore if it be the pope , can be none of them possibly but onely pope joan. ) by babylon is meant rome that shall be destroyed with fire and plagues in . the name of the beast , and the number of the name : but the mischief on 't was , that prediction , how ever aim'd , yet light upon poor london , ( god knows ) instead of rome ; so hard it is to construe the revelations , and so fatal to peep into the ark , and to pry into gods secret judgements ; such usually pay for their peeping , that ( unlike to the good and true prophet jeremiah . . ) hasten from being a pastor to follow god , to follow their own inventions , in desiring the woful day upon others ; o lord , thou knowest . then by babylon and antichrist is not only meant rome , ( that stands still , and above a thousand miles from babylon , yet ) take but one jump more , and but half so far , and you do onely make babylon in the land of shinar ( where the great tower stood , gen. . ) shake hands with rome in italy ; but with a small stretch more into little-brittain , you may make episcopal grandeur , lawn-sleeves , cross , cringing and surplice confederates in the complement . would not balaams ass ( if alive ) open his mouth again , to rebuke the madness of these prophets ? and a greater marvel it is to me , that the poor people should be such asses , besotted and gull'd to their faces by so easie and stale a legerdemain of these juglers , who endeavour to turn the world upside down , topsiturvy ; embruing all nations in blood and ruine ( as we have found to our cost , and by dear-bought experience . ) and all these hocus-tricks is but to scrape up a sneaking and beggarly living ; ( unworthy a man of parts or honour ; ) and to avoid the statute against beggars , fidlers , gypsies , and pick-pockets , ( like sworn brothers of the blade , ) they clap on the vizard of religion and liberty , with so much art and cuning , that though you hear the gypsie cant , you would almost swear he was a saint : and as soon suspect your own hands , as his , though you find them in your pocket ; the sleight of tongue doing the seat instead of sleight of hand , and with much more safely gets a richer prize . to whom mall cut-purse her self was but a fool , for the knave shall look you right in the face all the while he is at it , and cutting your purse . and as if egypt was broke loose hither in a new fashion , these vagrants shall wander from town to town , all the kingdom over by droves , and in this new guize , laugh at the constable , beadles , justice of the peace , house of correction , the stocks , the whipping-post , and the jail , crying out , liberty , liberty ; indulgence , indulgence ; breda , breda . would it not make a mans heart ake , and his hair stand on end , to see whole multitudes trepan'd by these spiritual juglers , into rebellion and blood , to the ruine of souls and bodies ? indeed the apostle saint peter prophesies of these times , and these tricks , in pet. . , , . saying that false teachers shall privily bring in ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , sneakingly , by stealth , furtim , clàm & subdolè , speciem pietatis praetendens , creeping into houses and leading captive silly women , with ) damnable heresies , even denying the lord that bought them . which those only do that pretend to christianity , but deny christs religion , that is , deny christs word or great religion , ( the summe of all religion , that is of christs making , ) viz. to do as we would be d●…ne by : and though their ways lead to destruction , yet many shall follow these pernicious ways ; this great way of truth being evil spoken of ( as m●…er morality or the like , ) by those that through covetousness and with fcigned words ( 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fictitious , canting , new-coyn'd , fanatick words , as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies , ) they shall make merchandise of you ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , they shall make their money of them ; or these men that pretend so to the spirit shall be spirits indeed , but evil ones ; spirits , such as catch up men , women and children to make money on them through covetousness . if it were not foretold that many shall follow their pernicious ways , we might well wonder that such flocks should follow these evil spirits to their eternal damnation , as well as temporal loss of body and goods : but we have liv'd to see , and yet do see whole shoals catcht with this bait , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nothing but a few canting new-coyn'd words ; and with these they have made shift to get the good old coyn out of their pockets ; and sometimes plate , bodkins , thimbles , horses , armes , and silver-spoons , or whatsoever comes is welcome : all is fish that comes to net , whilst these hugh peters , baxters , marshals , and owens laugh in their sleeves to see how soon the fools and their moneys are parted ; and how parted ? do they not know of the going on 't , and how it is laid out , & what they get for it ? yes , they tell the poor souls they get christ for it ; oh get christ ! whenas indeed they get nothing but a little canting , new-coyn'd , fanatick , phrase , or so ; there 's all . be not offended that i call this expression , [ get christ , get christ ] meer canting , jugling and delusion , beguiling unstable soules ; for i will give you a reason for it , unanswerable by all the canters and cabala of juglers in england ; with whom and the best of them or all their great heads put together , i am not afraid to encounter in vindication of all and every thing in this letter ( occasion'd by the bold undertaking of their friend gregory graybeard , who puts for apochrypha , ( and so sets it down in a different character ) the great truth that christ our lord ever deliver'd to the world , viz. to do as we would be done by ; which is the great end of the law and the gospel ; namely the best regulation of our manners ; or , as p. . moral vertue being the most material and useful part of all religion ; which has but two parts , phanaticism and morality . which last is comprehended in that great way of truth so much evil spoken of by some christians ; as being the practice even of some heathens , and therefore not the summ of law and prophets . but let me live and die like such heathens , rather than live and die like such christians , as dare preferre any thing above this , or any part of religion above this ; which my saviour has told me is the summe of all . and he that believes christ in this word , as a true prophet ; and conforms his life and conversation to this law as given by his king jesus , shall assuredly find him a priest to pardon and forgive him , and bring him to glory , where he now sits . and this is that which in the beginning i call'd my religion ; not but that many others are of it , yet but few where i live . for i dwell in new-amsterdam , where satans seat is , the head-quarters of the legions , and the randevouz of hell ; the very sink of all heresies and sects , and the kennel where all the neighbouring fil●…h of religion disgorges its self and disembogues . and as we never read of any pharisee converted by our saviour , except one or two , yet very many publicans and harlots ; so here we find true that of our saviour , that publicans and harlots shall get into the kingdom of heaven , before these our modern pharisees ( in english ) separates or schismaticks , as the word signifies . and the great reason why this great rule and summe of christs message or gospel was no more believ'd by the pharisees , than now by our modern pharisees , or schismaticks , called now modern orthodox , is , because the heart of this people is waxed fat , and their cars are dull of hearing ; and s●…eng they see and not perceive , and hearing they hear and not understand . they say they believe gospel ; show them mat. . . and ask them if they believe that , that rule before their eyes is the summe of all ; and they 'l rail presently at you , and cry out , good works , good works , the man presses us to good works and merit , popery , arminianism , and manwaring . they say they believe st. paul's epistles to be god's word ; shew them cor. . , , . and the rest of the chapter , and ask them , do you believe that your preacher , ( you so cry up for a precious man when he tells you of incomes , and experiences and getting of christ ) is a meer empty kettle , a meer canting jugling noise , a meer feign'd new-coyn'd sound , if he does not preach up good works and charity to you , all contain'd and included in doing as you would be done by ? they will presently fly out in rage and wrath against you , saying , you rail at gods ministers , god ways , and gods people ; and look upon all you say , as prophane , and coming from a prophane and loose spirit . though with never so much meekness you entreat them to take heed , how in so saying they blaspheme god and his holy spirit , who says altogether so much as i have said , in that first vers . though i speak with the tongue of men and angels , and have not charity , i am become as sounding brass , or a tinkling cimbal ; that is , a meer empty kettle , sound and noise ; yet they see this with their eyes , and yet will blaspheme and will not believe . tell them further that this precious preacher does not yet speak with the tongue of an angel , let his whinings , and snivellings , and gruntings , and groanings be never so tuneable ; they will not believe you , but when for the good of their immortal souls you bid them beware of the juggle , and take heed they be not cheated with new-coyn'd and feigned words , meer canting , as gypsies that have a peculiar dialect and phrase of their own ; yet then they will revile you , rendring you hatred for your good will , slandering you in blaspheming christ and the truth you declare to them ; and think all this while they are lying , standering and railing you ( which is far from charity ) that they do god good service , and vindicate precious men . ask them further , whether those be not ●…eigned , fictitious , new-coyn'd words ( as the apostle st. peter says false prophets make merchandize , or make good markets with , through covetousness ) which the holy-ghost in holy scripture uses not , and which gods holy word is not acquainted with ; and they will confess that they must be new-coyned and feigned by false prophets and juglers , if not coyn'd there by the holy-ghost . but then say , these expressions , viz. incomes , get experiences , look over your experiences , get christ , and the indwellings of the spirit , & such like , many hundreds of them produc'd with a wonderful long whine and twang , are neither the words of the holy ghost , prophets , christ , or his apostles , and therefore are feigned words which these spiritual merchants get money with , as gypsies do by cantting and singing ; and they will blaspheme and rail at you , though you say no more than st. peter has done ; and though they cannot find one such new-coyn'd word in all the bible . is not the heart of this people hardned ? and seeing they do not see , they will not see nor perceive , but like the pharisees , look upon all your reproof to be a reproach to them and the ways of god. they cannot be converted , because not convinced ; they are not convinced , partly by reason their preachers are not faithful to their souls , but instead of shewing them the way to heaven , fill their poor heads with nothing but sound and noise and whining and feigned words : and partly do they continue unconvinc'd and unconverted , by reason they think they are converted already ; & yet have as little reason to think so , as if they were turks , jews or heathens : nay , i 'le maintain it and avouch to be true before god and men , that i have by my own experience found more goodness , more kindness , more truth , more honesty , more sincerity among man-eaters or cannibals in india , and turks in arabia ; than amongst the best of these professors . read jam. . , , , , , , , . mat. . . eph. . . tit. . phil. . . nay put in their preachers and all into a sack together , and the first that comes out shall have incomparably more pride , malice , wrath , lying , slandering , and evil speaking , and rejoycing in iniquity ( when they can hear of any faults or judgments with which any are overtaken that are not of their gang , ) than any turk , jew , or indian man-eater that ever i converst with , and i have converst with thousands ; and if these be the people of god , the lord in his mercy deliver me from them , and the evil way they walk in by companies , running headlong to the bottom and end of that way , eternal destruction , and striving who should first come there and run the fastest , ( as if they were afraid they should not come at the divel in good time . ) whereas my religion , namely , this of my saviour in mat. . . like the sun in his full strength and light , carryes its own evidence and speaks sufficiently for it self , leading men into unerring paths , bringing quietness and peace and light to mankind ; nor can any man walk in darkness or do any thing of the works of darkness that walks by this rule , but peace must be upon them , as upon the only true israel of god ; no canting , no hypocrisie , no feigned words needs here ; but righteousness and peace embrace each other , both here and to eternity . in which religion i doubt not by gods grace to continue all the dayes of my life ; for of all the idols of the heathens , there is but one true god , and of all religions , there is but one true one , one christ , one way , one truth , one life , one light ; and this is it . would god , think you , leave men a way to heaven , revealed by his son , if it were not to be found without a great many fathers , decrees of councils , glosses , homilies , sermons , infinite , and as large and of as little purpose the most of them as the writings of mr. prin ? whereas this way of christ is soon found , soon got my heart , easily remembred , readily applyed . and if no other text had been preacht upon this years , and practised , england had seen no warrs nor bloodshed , ruine nor rapine , murder and rebellion , that had almost quite destroyed us ; neither had the war been carryed on with a few canting words , and misapplyed scriptures , prating and praying , seeking of god as cromwel called it , when he went to prayer with the officers of the army , to seek god and know his mind , whether he should murder the king or no , whereas he had resolv'd it long before ; like jezabel , seeking god by prayer and fasting , when the bottom and design of all is nothing but rapine and covetousness to take naboth's life , that thereby she might get the better footing in naboth's vineyard . but if this little rule be practis'd , down goes diana of the ephesians , and the idols , fictions and imaginations of the heart of man. no man could steal nor covet , nor be a rebel , nor disobedient to his superiors , if he keep to this rule ; why ? because he would be loth to be so serv'd himself ; loth men should take away his goods , his servant , his daughter , his wife , or his lands , or good name . no man would be a rebel or disobedient to his superiors that is of this religion ; why ? because he would not endure that his servants , his children and family should be disobedient unto him ; there would be no living , no keeping house with them , if they did not obey ; for if he command one son , in seed-time , to go plow , and another to sow , and his son or servant say nay , but it is better to thrash , or fan , and more needful ; this disobedience will make them all smart for it in a little time ; a house thus divided cannot stand long , nay , in spiritual things , the master of the family calling his servants & children to prayers in the morning , at noon , or night , he will not permit a servant or a child to be hallowing and playing abroad , whilst he is praying , nor to lie lolling upon a couch or chair , laughing and jearing with his hat on , whilst he is praying and kneeling , or singing of psalms ; there is not a phanatick in england will suffer this , but will reprove , rebuke , exhort and chastise such a jearing , irreverent son or servant , & , thinks god requires it at his hands , and would send judgements upon him , and his family , with a grievous curse , if when his sons are vile , he restrain them not ; ( though they tell him it is their conscience to be vile , and irreverent . ) and tell them moreover how god punish'd old eli , for neglecting to restrain his sons , let them pretend what conscience they will , he will likewise have the liberty of his own conscience , which tells him , if it be their conscience to be thus disorderly , vile , irreverent , and disobedient , it is also his conscience to restrain their vileness , irreverence , and disobedience : and will further ask them , if they were in his condition , and were masters of a family , whether they would be content that their servants and sons should do what they list , and what was right in their own eyes , and whether it is possible a house so divided can stand long this every phanatick in england pleads to his family , and brings the fifth commandment to confirm and warrant all that he saith to them ; adding that it is the first commandment with promise , ( as the apostle calls it , ) that is with promise of present reward in this life , even length of days ; whereas men by disobedience to their natural fathers , or spiritual or temporal fathers in church or state shorten their lives , as the rebels baanah , and rechab , achitophel , absalom , sheba and the rest of them in all ages . now apply this that i have said ; examine thine own heart , call it to account seriously before thou come before gods tribunal to receive thine eternal doom when it is too late to amend , and try in any particular where thou disobeyest thy superiours in church or state , whether thou wouldst suffer such disobedience in thine own family . first as to ceremonies , which are but the outskirts , the suburbs of true religion , ( this one true religion i am speaking of ) yet it is a sign that thou art an enemy to the city of god and holy hill of sion , if thou burn , plunder or pull down the suburbs ; not because the suburbs are the city ; or ceremonies of true religion , the true religion it self , and gods holy sion ; but yet the governours in the city will watch over thee , punish thee and keep thee off , because thou art an enemy to the holy city , to the true religion , or else thou wouldst not have overturned and trampled upon the suburbs . if you understand this , you have the true notion and understanding of a ceremony ; if you do not , i will not further explain my self . wilt thou not suffer thy child to loll and jear with his hat on , whilest thou art praying and kneeling with thy hat off , though he pretend conscience for his disobedience ; and wilt thou not kneel then , when they bid thee kneel , that are thy superiours in church and state ? and be uncoverd , when they bid thee be uncovered ? hast thou power to enjoin ceremonies in thy family ? and have not thy superiours as much power to ordain ceremonies in the church ? dost thou that pleadest the fifth commandement against thy wicked disobedient son & servant , never plead it against thy self ? dost thou say to thy son and servant , you must needs be subject and that for conscience sake ? and dost thou never send that scripture home to thine own heart ? thou that sayst a man should not steal , or be disobedient ; dost thou steal ? art thou disobedient ? what need of jayls or acts of indemnity or uniformity , licences or liberty , indulgence or no indulgence ? it is all one to him that is of this religion ; which will not suffer a man to pray and lye , slander and preach , fast and murder , talk of incomes and getting christ whilest he goes the way to hell . there can be no rebel-saints of this religion . i 'll tell you in one word how truly to get christ , whilest canters belabour you with a sound and an empty noise . to get christ , is to get to christ ; and there is no getting to christ , but in his own way ; his own way is what he taught himself for the sum of all religion , law and prophets , mat. . . which we have been treating of , which is ready at hand , always to direct thee in thought , word and deed , believe the creed , say the lords prayer , and the liturgy , frequent sacraments , and this is religion enough to carry thee to heaven . but you 'll say perhaps , and object against me , that if this be my religion , why do i not practise it ? and again ask me whether in this letter i have done to others as i would they should do to me ; that is , would i be willing to be so sharply reprov'd and check'd , as i sometimes check father grey-beard , and the canters . to which i answer , i not only would be content to be so us'd , but if i were such a wretch to trouble and confound the kingdom where i live , with arts and methods that do tend , and ( as by sad experience we have found ) have tended to blood , ruine , wars and desolation ; i would esteem him the best friend that i had in the world that could either convince me , and the people seduced by me of our villanies ; or laugh me and them out of such fopperies , by representing me and them upon the stage in as ridiculous a posture if it were possible as ever they were acted by me or them , or hugh peters himself , when multitudes of poor fools strove who should first part with their silver-bodkins and plate , body and soul for the good o●…d cause . and if it were not to do both the seducers and seduced good by this plain dealing , i had not writ a word in this letter ; for i know my reward from most of them is that hatred for my good will , railing , lying , and slandering me as the worst of men ; and yet cannot evidence in one particluar , where i have transgress'd this great rule of doing as i would be done by , this ten years . which i speak not as a fool or a pharisee to boast of ; for fame , nor honour , nor dishonour , riches , nor poverty , good report , nor evil report , safety or hazard , can seem to me , or any that are well grounded in this religion of christ , ( of doing as we would be done by , ) any thing to move me towards the least desire of applause ; for i know this justification of my self is the way to create great envy , and great reproach against me , in those that know no duty so great as the four first commandements ; namely , the worship of god , his days , sermons , mysteries , discourses and disputes of their ways of worship ; they are full of that , but yet can envy , lye , slander and rail ; and then i tell them , ( but they believe not , ) that all their praying , hearing , keeping sabbaths , are not worth a louse , nor their faith neither ; though it is the very words , at least the sence of what they read with their eyes , cor. . . only here 's the difference , i speak more worthily of their prophesying , and their faith , than the apostle does allow to such idle mysteries , where charity is wanting , for he says , such a man as has the gift of prophesying , understands all mysteries , all knowledge , has all faith , without charity is nothing : whereas i only say , such a man's gifts , knowledge , mysteries and faith are not , without charity , worth a louse . so that i have therein out-bid the worth of them , a louse is good for something , ( i will not tell all its vertues ) it is good for the jaundice , &c. but all knowledge , mysteries , prophesying , and faith , without charity , the apostle makes good for nothing at all . away with mens prate of religion , and admiring this and that precious man , this and that precious piece of worship , when it only puffs men up , makes them more proud , more scornful , more headstrong , more cruel , more bloody , more rapacious , greater lyers , greater slanderers , more malicious than they were before , and more a devil , than any man in the world is , turk , jew or cannibal . shew me not the meat , but shew me the man ; if these people that prate of their precious heavenly food they have had in these late times , have in the mean time such starv'd souls , empty of all goodness , ( but a little outside holiness and vizard of worship , ) but are full of such horrid sins , as envy , malice , injustice , lying , cheating , defaming , and sometimes murdering and plundering and sequestring ; that on this side hell there 's no such treacherous , false and unsociable villaines ; then by this it is evident , that like ephraim , they sed upon the wind , liv'd like camelions upon air , sound , whineing , canting , feigned words ; and if perhaps they have cast out some one devil of swearing or sabbath-breaking , they have entertain'd in the room seven other devils more wicked than the former , and the last state of that man is worse than the first . i know with this plain dealing , i stir in a nest of wasps , and because i have cryed down these feigned words , ( with which craft these silver-smiths and juglers get their wealth , ) these dearly beloved tones and whinings , that did so affect the silly women , thus undervalued , spoils the trade : g●…e me pen and ink and paper , will the juglers say , this must not be suffered , we must use some course speedily to blacken , i say blacken the author , and impair the value of his letter , or our trade is gone . join your forces , up and be doing , truth is strongest ; ye fight against your saviour , s. peter , and s. paul to the corinthians ; if you quarrel me for this ; come meddle then if you dare . and if you do provoke me , i will not only spoil the sale and market of your new-coin'd feigned words ; but i 'll cry down your market-day too , on which you sell your empty sounds to fill your pockets . not that i am against preaching up charity and goodness ; and faith and hope too in order unto charity , and upon the lords day too , if so be that preaching , praying , or worship , hearing , or faith doth not hinder better duties , viz. works of mercy , mercy to my own body , to my beast , to my family , to my neighbour . but if keeping any day of worship , or performing any duties of worship hinder any of those greater duties ; then i sin in doing those duties of worship , which hinder those greater duties of mercy . yet i say if i can do both , ( both worship god and keep a holy day to him , and also perform the greater duties of mercy , ) then both is better ; god has join'd them together , let not man put them asunder ; faith is a good grace , and hope is good , and charity good ; and preaching , and prophesying , knowledge and mysteries are all good , it is a pity they should be parted ; but if we want charity , we want the great accomplishment , the greatest of these is charity . and if any body think that i herein speak too slightly of keeping the lords day , let them know , that if they think so , they do but censure amiss , and like the hypocrites and pharisees condemn me for that , that was the very cause why our saviour himself was accounted a sinner ; as you may see jo. . . . . the sabbath day , and all other days were made , as all things else , and as all commandments were made , viz. only for the good of man , not for his hurt and dammage , ( if you will believe our saviour . ) the sabbath was made for man and not man for the sabbath . if my neighbours house be on fire , as i am going to church , i ought to get my bucket and throw water and help to quench it , for all going to a sermon ; and god likes me better , with my pail in my hand at that time , than the bible in my hand , or a prayer in my mouth , when charity to my neighbour supersedes my worship of god , as being superiour to it ; as our saviour tells the pharisees upon the like occasion , mat. . . i will have mercy , and not sacrifice , that is , not sacrifice when it hinders the greater duty of mercy . and if a flood be coming down , ready to flow my meadows , when my hay had need be carried away with my cart , or else it will be carried away with the flood , i should sin at that time , if going to church , or any worship of god should prevent me from harnessing my horse and going to cart on the lords day : and my servants should sin grievously with going to church , when a work of mercy to my poor family and cattle called them another way . and though our modern pharisees and hypocrites will condemn me herein , yet they cannot tell how to confute it by scripture nor reason ; and if they had known the true religion , or what this meaneth , i will have mercy and not sacrifice , they would not have condemned the guiltless . i might give many other instances , in making ready food in mercy to my body ; i mean not only necessary food to keep life and soul togethet , as we vulgarly say , but such food as is most convenient , good hot victuals , and good drink on the lords day ; for watering a man's horse and ass on the sabbath day is not necessary for life ; they will live ( as hunting horses often do ) a longer time without water ; but it is not convenient so to make them fast , and being a work of mercy , though but to your beast , therefore does not every one of you think it lawful to do this convenient good on the sabbath day ? that is , supposing the fourth commandment had the same force and efficacy , that other ceremonies and types had in our saviours time . but alas ! the case is alter'd now ; those types and shadows are now of no more force than circumcision , and new moons ; which in respect of gospel discoveries are but weak and beggarly elements ; whereunto our modern pharisees desire again to be in bondage , and lest the hope of their gain should be gone , they are wonderful zealous for the morality of the sabbath ; and the morality of the fourth commandment ; that yet are the most unmannerly , sawcy , peremptory people under the heavens ; endeavouring to shew morality no where but in their market-day , where they get much gain with as light frothy ware , as ever was sold ; poor people are cheated and have a hard penny-worth of it , as ever men had , if they give a penny for these fictitious words , such as this , the ten moral commandments , and the morality of the fourth commandment ; which all the art they have can never prove ; nor that there is since christs death , any more intrinsecal holiness in one day than another ; nor any more holiness in the lords day , than any other holy-day , mentioned in the act of parliament for that purpose ; wherein are these words , — these days shall be kept holy , namely , every sunday in the year , then follow all the saints days , and holy days , to which the king and parliament may adde more holy-days if they please ; and as they have done ; and as they are of humane institution , can also take away some if they judge convenient . nor ought any man to keep the lord's day , in conscience or duty , more than any other holy-day . and the ground of a man's keeping the lords-day and all other holy-days , is in obedience to the fifth commandment , not the fourth commandment . which if it were moral , i. e. perpetual in their sence , it is not in the power of the church , nor king nor parliament to alter the day from the seventh to the first ; but all sabbath days were like the new-moons , and other jewish festivals , mere shadows of things to come , but the body is christ ; which being come , the shadows vanish . and those that zealously affect men with this jewish conceit , of keeping days , &c. do zèalously indeed affect men , but not well ; nor honestly . i know men are apt enough to take liberty to themselves in this licentious age to any prophaness ; but i deny that it is prophaness for me to dress convenient food for my self and family , hot and good if i can get it , on the lords-day ; and greg. does acknowledge himself and all that he knows of his party to be of this opinion herein ; in this one thing then we do agree ; and this is the first particular we have concurr'd in , since we met . also i deny that it is unlawful for me , ( but rather a duty incumbent upon me , ) to give my servants lieve to play and recreate themselves with any honest sport , upon the sunday , or any other holy-day at convenient times ; for i ought in mercy and charity , to be merciful to my beasts , my oxe or my ass , in watering them , which is not necessary , but only expedient for life ; much more ought i to be merciful to my poor prentice , my servant , my hand-maiden , that have drudg'd and trudg'd to slave and work for me on working days , when sunday or any other holy-day comes ; if i be of christs true religion , and do as i would be done by . nay , i ought , if i am able to let them drink better liquor , and eat better meat , eat the fat , and drink the sweet , as nehemiah speaks ; and send portions thereof to the poor according to my ability , on those festivals ; at least , give them , what i give my beast , ease and rest on those vacation-days ; a penny-worth of ease is worth a penny . and the contrary opinion is hypocritical , pharisaical , hard-hearted , apocryphal and prophane ; and contrary to the great law of charity and mercy ; and contrary to those infallible and unanswerable reasons rendred excellently in that proclamation for lawful sports on sundays and all other holy-days published by the command , and well setled judgment of king james , king charles i. to that purpose . and agreeable with the opinion and practice of all christians , nations and kingdoms in the world , and even of geneva it self ; and contradicted by none but our senceless , hypocritical , modern orthodox rebels , that write in this particular , after nobody but knox , that grand rebel and innovator . oh but did not these fellows arm the rabble against the king and bishops upon this very account ? they did so , the more prophane wretches they , by laying a yoke upon the necks of the disciples , which god never imposed ; through their own superstition ; or rather perverseness . wheedling the silly rabble with pretence of religion and gods-day ; which is not a day that the lord has made , more than any other day ; nor more holy , than so far forth , as the king and parliament have made it , and set it apart for holy uses , as they have done other holy-days ; namely , vacation-days from servile and worldly toil , that men might be now at leisure , for gods worship , merciful and charitable works to our selves , our neighbours , our servants , our handmaidens , our ox and our ass , and the like , which are the proper duties for a sunday and other holy-days . and because we are a trading , covetous , having , worldly minded people , if the king and parliament think fit to allow us no other holy-days but sundays , and half a dozen more in a year , i am content . and the late wrethced rebels might with more right and good reason have taken occasion to rebel , as massin●…lla and his mutineers in naples did by the spilling and overturning of a basket of apples ; than from that honest proclamation for sports published by king james and king charles i. of blessed memory , for lawful refreshments and recreations on sundays and holy-days after divine service ; so consonant to the doctrine and practice of all christendom , and so agreeable with the great law , of doing as we would be done by . and there is never a one of these spleenatick , peev●…sh , morose , unsociable , and hypocritical pharisees , but in their practice do as much contradict their own doctrine for the sabbath , as that so much talk'd of proclamation has done , every sunday when they leave their maid at home , carefully to look to the pot and the spit ; that all be ready piping hot precisely against the time , that lungs comes home , when his auditory is tyr'd perhaps more than himself . binding heavy burdens , and grievous to be born , and laying them on other mens shoulders , but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers : and saying , as john of leyden did , ( upon the rack confessing the true cause of his fanaticism and impostures , ) the people love to he cheated with superstition , and love them h●…st , that gull them most . thus have i as briefly and as fast as my pen could write , given an honest and down-right account , why and how true christians should keep a sunday or other day holy , ( though not according to the hypocritical and modern orthodox ; but ) consentaneous with all the truly orthodox christians in the world . and in answer to what father grey-beard in a different character sets down as the apocryphal opinion of the reverend bishop bramhall , but is an infallible truth , p. . namely , he maintains the publick sports on the lords day by the proclamation to that purpose , and the example of the reformed churches beyond sea : and for the publick dances of our youth upon countrey-greens on sundays after the duties of the day , he sees nothing in them but innocent and agreeable to that under-sort of people . and he takes the promiscuous license to unqualified persons to read the scriptures , far more prejudicial , nay more pernicious , than the over-rigorous restraint of the romanists . and he took it well , in so taking it . for though no man can have a more sacred esteem and value for the holy scripture and gods word than i have ; knowing that it is profitable for instruction , and to make the man of god perfect throughly furnished unto every good work , yet this good work of instructing out of it properly belongs to the man of god , it is his province , not incumbent upon every man , nor possible to be undertaken by every man. because our english bibles are not in every particular the word of god ; nor in any one thing the words of the prophets , of christ and the apostles , who not one of them spoke english , except perhaps s. bartholomew , and the modern orthodox have no great kindness for that apostle , because of a certain reason . but chiefly because neither he nor any other apostle delivered the mind of god , and holy writ in the english tongue . the english bibles in the translation at best being but a paraphrase , or homily of the word of god ; nor all that neither for these reasons that are unanswerable and infallible . first , because the english bibles are in some places erroneous ; secondly , they are in some places scarce sence ; and of dangerous consequences , when every pert , bold and conceited fellow , ( that only understands english ) takes upon himself to raise doctrines and opinions thence , contrary to the sence and meaning of god in his holy word ; contrary to the mind and meaning of the holy-ghost , as well as contrary to the sence of the church and truly orthodox . i love not this discourse , and could wish it were any bodies task and employment rather than mine , it is so ungrateful and generally displeasing ; yet since this bold greg. has given the occasion by reflecting upon the honest words of the most reverend and learned bishop bramhall , in these odde animadversions , in things far above his shallow pate , apprehension and reach ; therefore now my hand is in , though i could fill a volume upon this excellent subject , so needful to be explain'd in these times , when people have run a madding with the english bible in their hands , and brought to vouch their exorbitances and horrid villanies ; i need say nothing of the mischievous consequences of this promiscuous license of reading the bible ; those that thumb'd it so much having prov'd themselves the most execrable villains and hereticks that ever the sun shone upon : but shall only give two or three instances , for what i have said . which when people have weighed and seriously consider'd , they will not so stare and stamp , and cry out ; oh , this man would rob us , not of our goods , our wives , our good names , and our lives , but that which is dearer to us than all these , he would rob us of our dear english bibles ; then come the days of darkness again , and of ignorance ; oh look to him he robs us of our bibles , is not here a popish plot ? and you will have cause to thank him for it , more than all the sermons that ever you heard from modern orthodoxy ; for this has ruin'd everlastingly the souls of millions of poor people guided with that frenzy and zeal , and has also shortned their days by duckquoying them into rebellion and blood , blood being therefore given them to drink for they were worthy : but the trepanning priest deserv'd the greatest punishment here and hereafter , by drilling them into rebellion and blood ; by wresting and misapplying of scriptures , such as those — curse ye meroz — bind your kings with chains , and your nobles with fetters of iron ; such honour have all the saints . — babylon the great is fallen ; and a hundred of the like temper . whereas , all that i say , makes righteousness and peace to kiss each other , makes useless swords and guns , brings again the golden age ; where every man sitting under his own vine and fig-tree , leads a holy and happy life here and hereafter , has a heaven upon earth , breaking their swords into plow-shares , and their spears into pruning hooks ; there being no use of armory , if the world were of my religion herein contained ; or rather of the true christian religion ; the summ and scope whereof our blessed saviour delivered with his own mouth , and epitomiz'd in one verse and sentence , mat. . . as abovesaid . but some instances i promis'd to give , to evidence that the english bible is in some particulars erroneous , scarce sence , and of ill consequence . as , in part of our saviours first sermon , is rendred mat. . . and whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile , go with him twain . from this story and fiction , ( by our english bible , ) father'd shamefully upon our blessed saviour , a christian is bound , if he meet with any man that being stronger than he , forces or compels him , ( though he be in post-hast , or going for a mid wife , a doctor or chirurgeon upon life and death , or whatsoever occasion , ) yet he must go another way , quite out of his way a mile , and may not call for the help of the constable , or neighbourhood , or other good body , to defend him from this violence , but in a quiet submission and obedience , he must ( thus compell'd ) go a mile ; which way soever the compeller pleases , he must make no resistance ; but that 's not all ; he must go another mile of his own accord ; and being thus easie to be fool'd , at the two miles end , if the man compel him again further another mile , away he must trudge ; and so along all england over , and the world over ; for there 's no end of this obedience , if a christian meets but with any compeller ; or freed from him , happens upon another , that leads him about and about like an ignis fatuus , and all this by vertue of your english bible , and in as plain words , as any that are in 't , and as easie to be understood ; without metaphor , allegory , figure or parable . what do you say to this now , you with your english bible ? whereas , i say , it is false and untrue , and our saviour never spoke such a senceless word in his life . for all that he said , as to this , was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . and theodore beza , ( a better critick than a man , ) renders truly — et quisquis te angariabit ad milliare unum , abi cum eo duo , that is , in english , whosoever by vertue of an order or warrant , from the magistrate under whose jurisdiction thou livest , shall compel thee to go with him a mile , go with him twain . and signifies no more than that ready and cheerful obedience that is due to authority , from every disciple of christ , who himself not only thus preach'd , but practis'd ; there was no rebel christians heard on , that fought their christian kings , nor so much as heathen kings or heretick kings , till calvin , knox , hugh peters , richard baxter , j. o. father grey-beard , and modern orthodoxy . constantius , valens , valentinian , anastasius , justinian , heraclius , were all arrian hereticks and emperours , yet the christians their subjects never confederated in a holy league and covenant , to reform by arms in spite of their teeth ; the church militant in those times did not prove their texts with sword and gun ; the good old cause was not then in those days old enough for the swadling clouts : nay afterwards when julian the apostate was emperour , there was no army of saints , nor holy redcoat-christians that pull'd off his crown , or cut off his head . perhaps you 'l say , thank them for nothing ; their wills might be good , but their arms were too short ; or perhaps they had no skill in their weapons , and though christians and saints , yet not army-saints . yes , that they were , army-saints ; but not rebel-saints ; army-saints they were , and there were more christians in julian the apostates army , than all the heathens and himself put together : as is evident by their chusing his successor , jovinian , to be their emperour , because he was a christian , ( but not till the apostate was dead , ) saying , one and all , one and all , jovinian , jovinian , for we are christians . and our blessed saviour , as he preach'd this cheerful obedience , and also his apostles , rom. . , , , , , , . — pet. . . tim. . . so did our saviour practise . there was a holy-day made , ( by the chief priest , who then was chief jewish magistrate , ) and no mention of it in gods law ; but he declaim'd not against it , but quietly observ'd it himself , namely the feast of the dedication , joh. . , . he did indeed miracles to get better drink and meat , when poor people wanted it ; but he never did a miracle to get money , or coin , but only to pay his assessment , royal aid or poll-money , call it which you will , for it was each of them , and all of them , mat. . . and all this only , by his example , to shew true christians , that they ought to make no resistance , nor give offence . thus you see i have made very good sence , and good use of mat. . . which your english bibles make ridiculously useless , and no sence consistent or compatible with our blessed saviours honour , and innocence . again i 'll instance in mat. . . which though it be sence , yet it is of dangerous consequence ; and as interpreted by the anabaptists , has made a great bustle in the world ; and besides it seems somewhat a hard chapter , that god almighty should give a sacrament to the jews , namely that of circumcision , as a badge or token ( as the word sacrament signifies , ) that all that wore that livery , belong'd to him , were his visible servants , in which he comprehended a man and his house , and would not so much as suffer one of the little boys , to go above eight days without this badge and livery . and yet notwithstanding our saviour in the gospel should take away all these old liveries , and give his people no new-ones , as good at least , and as large and as many , even for the children too , fitted as well as in the old law : or that our blessed saviour , under the gospel which was to have larger extents , even to all nations , should take care only to mark his sheep , and not the lambs , by this holy badge and sacrament of baptism ; and which was , and has been in all ages the livery of all christian people , nations and languages ; excepting here and there , a bold , pragmatick , self-conceited coxcomb , building his saith upon this text , and construeing it in his own sence , knowing only the english translation , nor scarcely that ; not being able to speak or write true english . look you here , saith he , look in the commission , if it be not first teach , and then baptize — go ye therefore and teach all nations , baptizing them in the name of the father , and of the son , and of the holy-ghost . indeed this , as we translate it , and read it in our english bibles , has some colour , and looks plausibly . for though it is false , when they say christ said , first teach and then baptize , — yet we put down in our english translation teach , in the order of the words , before baptize . and though that do not prove any thing , nor move a rational man , that none should be baptiz'd before they be taught , any more than to perswade him that a bullocks horns do grow and put forth before their hoofs , because it is said in the psalm . . bullocks that have horns and hoofs : yet we have to do with people that know not the meaning of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and having their english bible , they will stamp and stare with it like mad , thinking it is on their side , because it is in their hand . then come i , & pluck it out of their hand , and say away you bold impudent fellows , audacious blasphemers , do you call this gods word , it is not gods word , christ never said teach all nations , baptizing , &c. away to your shop-boards , your looms and your comb-pots ; and that will be more beneficial and advantageous both for your souls and bodies , than thus blasphemously to abuse christ , by calling that his word , that he never spoke ; if you heard the words he spoke , you understand them no more , than you do greek or syriack ; therefore be not busie-bodies , mind your own business , and do not like gregory father grey-beard , argue of divinity and policy , and tell the king what he should do , and the clergy what they should do ; for these are things above your shallow capacities , of a higher orb and motion , above your reach , above your sphere . now pragmatick will not believe a word of this , though it is wholsome , and futeable and good for him , and fits every thing about him but his pride ; yet he will cry out , he 's undone , he 's rob'd , ( as micah holla'd , when he had lost his foolish images and idols , ) judg. . . you have taken away my gods which i made , and the priest and you are gone away , and what have i more ? and what is this that you say unto me ; what aileth me ? poor man ! what , lose all ? lose that thou madest a god on ? thy english bible , which yet is not god , nor his word altogether : what , lose that which thou didst idolize and adore , and ask counsel of , and was thine oracle , nay and lose the priest too of this english translation , the good taylor , the good chimney-sweeper , the good miller , the honest tinker , the honest weaver and cobler , that left the vocations whereunto they were called , to become poor , bare-bone , english priest to the great idol , english translation ; and all he says is oracle , and taken for gospel ; away go the women after him , and some silly men , and here and there a crafty knave ; that when he and all his relations are almost broke , then to get custom and credit , after them goes he too ; and the truth on 't is , he has the best on 't , together with the crafty , lazy knave that holds forth , for these rule all the other , are the judas's and keep the bag , and the offerings and gatherings of their church , yet throwing down their half-crown or an angel at a time among the rest , by their liberality to drill on the rest , ( the gain returning tenfold by such a venture , ) for they keep the stakes , and though they open their purse wide , and their mouth for the nonce , yet they can soon make up their mouth again . now i confess these crafty knaves will be cut at the heart , and cry out as if they were kill'd or rob'd , at this my plain dealing ; and open their mouths wide , and set the poor fools which they make their dogs , to fetch and carry for them , and bark , and bite if they durst at whomsoever they clap their hands ; but i am above them and their malice , safe in my charm for them — deo confisus nunquam confusus . which they no more understand , than they will do this my honest and faithful dealing with them , for their own good , if they consider it and weigh it without passion or prejudice , in the ballance of the sanctuary ; where i am as safe from their clamorous noise , as is the moon from the jaws of the barking currs . and if they would but hold their barking , till they do but hear me speak , i should stop their mouths more than any modern orthodox presbyter has done upon this text , mat. . . that ever i heard of . for , my honest friend , have a little patience , believe me that knows more than thy english translation , more than cobler , weaver , and chimney-sweeper , thy bare-bone priest , whom thou idolizest ; and when thou hast adorn'd him and hung thy ornaments about him , then like the israelites , thou admirest him as they did their calves , and sayst of him and thy english bible , these are thy gods , oh israel , that brought thee out of the land of egypt , popish egyptian darkness ; i was baptized when i was a child , because in those times of darkness my parents knew no better , but here is the man , and here is the bible , and here is the text , christs own commission , which has brought me out of that errour and darkness . alas ! poor soul ! deluded , bejugled , gull'd , abused and misled poor soul ! christ never said , teach all nations baptizing them , &c. but said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , &c. in english , disciple all nations , or make disciples of all nations , baptizing them in the name of the father , &c. then follows , teaching them to observe all things whatsoever i commanded you . so that now baptizing goes before teaching , how do you answer this mr. black-coat chimney-sweeper ? your idol cannot save you now , for it is the workmanship of mans hands , and subject to corruption . but perhaps you 'l say , were not the translators of the bible as good scholars as i am ? and as honest ? first , i answer , i am glad you see there is an absolute necessity of schollarship , more than a bare understanding and reading of english ; an absolute necessity to keep up and give encouragements to a learned clergy , and that you lose your own eyes , at least your own spectacles , your own lights , when you contemn them , despise them ; it is as the blind man despises his guide , but if he were gone , he would be glad to call him again , if not for love of him , yet for the need he has of him , he cannot get home without him , nor keep out of the pit without him ; or if he should call his guide again , and instead of him , one as blind as himself should happen to be near him , they might talk a little together , but this other blind man could not help his fellow home , nor keep out of the ditch , nor avoid the stumbling-blocks , although this same , or both of the blind men were bedaub'd with gold and silver lace ; or if their heads were adorn'd with a huffing peruke , but wanting eyes and a guide , they must necessarily both fall into the ditch . and if any think that this reflects upon gentleman himself , indeed i say it does , and is intended against those upstarts , which are jacks rather than gentlemen ; for true bred english gentlemen use to love and practise learning themselves , did study to adorn their heads with brains , rather than a strumpets hair , and lov'd and honour'd learning and learned men . but our frothy upstarts want wit and manners too , know no gallantry , but what i can adorn mine ass withal , when i list ; only here 's the difference , mine ass is good for something , gives good milk for a consumption , and is a repairer and restorer of the wasted body , and the pockey bones ; whereas your ass-gentleman is good for nothing , but is a waster instead of a repairer , does no good in his generation , so much as the beasts , seeming to be born for no other end , but to run squeaking up and down like the rats and the mice , and to gnaw cheese and parmasin ; and eat up the victuals . yet he shall catch at a phrase , chew to a crumb some chymical term of art , or a new-coin'd word pick'd up at a club ; and away he struts , repeats to himself , admires his own improvements , laughs at the clergy , dictates policy , talks of a new wo●…ld in the moon , and about goes the earth with a whip in a trice ; aristotle a block-head to copernicus , his politicks dull to machiavel-greg . galen a fool rather than a physician ; then nothing less contents him than to sublimate his silver into vapour and smoak , to be a virtuoso ; and with new experiments confound all order , government and policy , and thereby commence new politicoso ; and wast body and bones with a pockey ingenioso . and there 's your gentleman a la mode . and if i might perswade the clergy , if it were not to do good in their generation , and serve it , and keep it from the ruine , such as these , like father-grey-beard , do threaten it with , these fellows should have elbow-room , and have rope enough , to scope as they list in church and state , and court , and councils ; why should you be their cooks , since they rule the roast ? when there is scarcely the worst of you , but is more useful than a hundred of them . for as when there was no king in israel , in england , every man did that which was right in his own eyes , their liberty , they long'd for , reduc'd them to such confusions and streights , that they were forc'd for their sakes and benefits to call in the king , whose own right it was : so let but these new politicians play their pranks , with their new experiments of licentiousness , and in church , and state , and court , and councils do all , ( as far as his majesty will suffer them ) as well as do ill , and we shall soon see them bring such confusions upon the kingdom , and such streights upon themselves , they will be glad to call clergy into favour again for their own sakes , as well as for the sake of their posterities . which certainly will suffer , if these mens folly be suffer'd and indulg'd ; for who will bring up his son to be a clergy-man , when gregory grey-beard shall be more countenan'cd than the best of them : it is a shame to tell , but it is too true ; and a greater shame it should be so , than to say so . omnia cùm liceant non licet esse pium . for though no clergy-man gets either love or thanks , more than any other minister of state , by concerning himself in the great affairs of state ; ( those that inhabit the temperate zones , having more ease , and less sweat and danger , though not so near the sun and his directer beams , ) yet certainly it is good for the king and kingdom , that they should have ( as by law their due , ) a considerable influence upon and inspection into the great affairs of state. and i am of gregories opinion in that p. . that they make the best ministers of state in the world , if they keep them to their bibles ; 't is true , all men have errours , but they are in probability more like to keep to their bibles , than any other sort of men . god therefore at first gave the government to priests , and prophets , and preachers , such as moses was , and samuel , david and solomon , and made the kingdom happy under their oversight ; as england has been made as happy by their influence in government , as by any other sort of men whatsoever , till the kingdom 's happiness fell with them , by the advance of modern orthodoxy . and it is worth the remembring , that when the house of lords voted the bishops out of the house , and from the seats to which they had as good right as themselves ; they did but thereby become their own cryers , and made proclamation to dissolve their own court ; the spiritual lords only first going out at the door , and showing the rest of the lords the way down stairs ; and the most of the house of commons followed soon after . but my pen runs like mr. prin's , i have almost forgot where i was ; oh! at the objection , why did not our translators of the bible , render the original more exactly into english ? to which i answer , the translators in king james his time , did well and learnedly ; mended many things that were amiss , and deserve great honour and thanks ; but they did but cobble some things , bernardus non videt omnia ; and some inconveniences in wording it , they did not , nor could not fore-see : such as this of the anabaptists mistake , and misconstruction in this particular . yet the word bearing two significations , and lay-men in those times , not so audacious and impudent , nor the reading scriptures so promiscuous and frequent as of late , of which sad consequences we have too much experience . but does not our saviour bid men search the scriptures ? jo. . . i answer , no , he does not ; he said only to them that were learned in the scriptures , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or to whomsoever of his auditors that were conversant in scriptures , in the indicative mood , ye do search the scriptures , because in them ye think to have eternal life ; and they are they that testifie of me , yet ye will not come unto me that ye might have life . as if our blessed saviour should say , as he does in another place , seeing you see , and yet you do not perceive ; and hearing you hear , and do not understand ; ye search the scriptures , thinking to find this eternal bread , that i am preaching of , namely , eternal life by christ , and there you may see me , for they testify of me , yet ye will not come ( for so is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rendred jo. . . tamen , sometimes sed ) unto me that ye might have life . i know the same word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , may be taken in the imperative mood , but that it is not so agreeable with the context , nor signifies any thing , if it were so , to prove this promiscuous use and license of reading the gospel and new testament , of which not one word was then writ . indeed no man in the world can desire more than i do , that all people did understand the scriptures , the mind and will of god , by reading and searching into the scriptures themselves , and also into the english bible , so they read and search with the spirit of meekness , for instruction , and not for cavil and disputes , raising controversies and horrid new opinions out of difficult places of scripture , not knowing what they say , nor whereof they affirm . those controversies should be left to those of greater abilities , and of more sober spirits than themselves . there are plain places of scripture enow for edification and to direct us in the way to heaven , by living soberly , righteously and godly in this present world . and he answered smartly and well to a fanatick , but a light heel'd gentlewoman , that was mightily perplex'd with finding out the meaning of daniel , ezekiel and the revelations ; that she had been better employed , if she had consider'd the meaning of those plain scriptures ; thou shalt not commit adultery ; and fear god , and honour the king. i wonder what rational account any man that understands only the english translation , can give why the pharisees should find fault , luke . , . with christs disciples for plucking the ears of corn , as they pass'd through the corn fields , and did eat , rubbing them in their hands ? did not the pharisees eat on the sabbath days ? yes surely , and if they eat any thing , could not eat less , nor more easily made ready , than rubbing the corn out with their hands , and eating some of the grains ; meat ready dress'd in , and to their hands . and though some sabbath days were kept with more abstinence than others , and more solemnity ; yet the english translation help us to no discovery , calling that sabbath only — the second sabbath after the first . the second sabbath after the first ! what 's that ? if the jews had a sabbath that was called the first sabbath , ( as indeed they had , ) namely , the feast of the passover when the first day thereof fell on a sabbath day ; then by this translation this sabbath day , ( when the disciples plucked the ears of corn and did eat , ) must be the second , and next following sabbath to it . but that is not true , because it is not the meaning of the original word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , neither helps at all to solve the doubt , as being but an ordinary sabbath , on which it was lawful to eat a break-fast : but it was not lawful to eat a break-fast , or drink any thing by the jewish canon , until the sixth hour , ( which we call noon , or twelve a clock , ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , luke . . which our english translation renders very imper●…ectly and untruly , the second sabbath after the first , and beza renders it much worse , namely , sabbato altero primo . and not at all to the purpose . the incomparable grotius renders it best , and gives the best reason for that reddition ; namely , the second prime-sabbath : that is , the day of pentecost , on which it was not lawful to eat a break-fast , or eat or drink till twelve a clock ; and therefore did the pharisees find fault with the disciples , not for eating upon a sabbath day , as every body did , as well as their beasts ; but for eating upon the second prime sabbath , the day of pentecost . and this thus explain'd gives a very good account of the strength of s. peter's argument , to prove that the disciples were not drunk , as some did suppose , when they spoke with new tongues upon the day of pentecost , acts . . . these are not drunk , seeing it is but the third hour of the day , or nine a clock . why ? is 't not probable men may be drunk by nine a clock ? yes , on other days , but not on that day the day of pentecost , or second prime sabbath , when none were suffered to sell any wine or meat , or drink , nor tast any thing till twelve a clock , or the sixth hour . a great many more imperfections there are in our english bibles , which i had rather were mended , than discover'd : these instances are sufficient to abate the confidence of those bold companions , that instead of being teachers of others , had need learn more humility and modesty themselves ; and not be so desperately devoted to a new opinion built upon false grounds , whose foundation is not laid upon the rock of ages , christ and his word ; but upon the sandy bottoms of self conceit and the english bible . i hope therefore that without any paralogism i have evidenc'd that what the reverend bishop bramhall has asserted concerning the promiscuous license of unqualified persons reading the sciptures is , ( though a paradox in this hypocritical age , where the appearance and profession of piety is more priz'd than the truth , yet ) not apocryphal , nor popish : as father grey-beard maliciously insinuates p. . rendring him thereby an enemy to the laity . whereas indeed and in truth he is the best friend to them , that wishing them well , and desiring their good more than their good will , would not willingly have them take that in their hands which through unskilfulness they cannot mannage , and through weakness they cannot weild ; name 〈◊〉 scriptures , sharper than a two 〈◊〉 sword. but is the good old cause ( which 〈◊〉 thought had taken its last sleep , ) awake again ? does not greg. revive the good old cause again , under the name of modern orthodoxy ? and give it strength , as well as life , by the same methods now , as in ? did they not then , as he now , endeavour to enrage the people and rowze them again , ( when they are tyred and willing to be quiet , ) with new jealousies and fears , fears of ceremonies , fears of losing their bibles , and their sabbaths ? rendring the eminent bishops dead and alive , friends in their hearts and doctrines too to popery , but for a certain reason , rather making love to it , than espousing it ? he sets not down these opinions of bishop bramhall's with an intent to confute them , ( 't is beyond his ability , ) but only notes them with an asterism as bordering upon popery , as pernicious to the laity ; to beget in them new heats against the church , by exposing the deformities of king charles i. and all his choicest bishops for the love they bore to ceremonies and arminianism ; and making all their religion , ( both of those deceased , and of those yet in power and alive ) to be wholly trivial if not prophane . which brings to my mind that observation of his sacred majesties in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . c. . concerning the same practices , that now this greg. does again renew . it was a great part of some mens religion to scandalize me and mine , they thought theirs could not be true , if they cryed not down mine as false . it has always been the method of atheists and hell , by scandalizing the clergy , and bringing them into contempt , thereby to foil all religion and bring god into contempt . he that violates the embassadour is not afraid of the king that sent him . plato was of an opinion that no man that went into a dark dungeon an atheist , and staid there two hours alone , could come out an atheist . because though company and frolicks may drown the secret whisperings of the soul , that the natural instincts of the truth of the deity cannot be heard ; yet when the soul is left to an undisturbed conference with , and reflexions upon it self , ( an opportunity it seldom wants , when the hour of death is at hand ) it must needs determine in the behalf of god almighty , and against its own vanity : as that scotch secretary of state that liv'd atheistically , died more wretchedly with these last words , heu ! miser aeternos vado damnatus ad ignes . muzzle the conscience some men can , and keep it from loud barking , but the longest practice upon it cannot altogether so stop its mouth , but it will make them hear sometimes , if not gnaw them , yea enough to make them weary of life , to be rid of such a troublesome companion ; but neither live nor dye can they with comfort ; such a precious life leads an atheist ; his head is at variance with his heart ; his wicked life and fears of an after-reckoning make him wish there was no god , but cannot long make him believe there is no god. tantùm optat nullos esse putare deos. for this reason it is that their words and actions fall out by the way , and are so often contradictory : sometimes laughing at all religion and then presently apologizing for it : sometimes railing , and then immediately condemning all railng : commending what they condemned , and condemning what they did commend : like brothers of the blade , that when they have rob'd in one disguise , change their vizards , and shift themselves into another shape for ●…ear of the hue and cry : which puts me in mind of this gregor . who did ever see so much railing in so little a book as his ? was ever any man prosecuted as he does the ecclesiastical politician with such variety of style in such prodigious rayling , as we have already noted in part ? what can be said more to defame the memory of king charles i. than to say , his whole reign was deform'd with ceremonies , arminianism , and sibthorpianism , and manwaring ? has not his present majesty our gracious soveraign as high interest in , and concern for , his blessed fathers honour , as his crowns ? can any violate the majesty of the father , and the son be untouch'd and unconcern'd ? and if this be true that greg. suggests , that the whole reign of king charles i. was deform'd , the duke of buckingham stab'd by felton , had a great hand in that deformity ; and then does not this malicious invective seem to plead for the justice and equity of that horrid violence that depriv'd his majesty and the duke of their lives ? could they fall desired and beloved for their innocence , that liv'd for nothing but to deform the whole reign ? father grey-beard reads his own sentence against himself , the same book that evidences his villany , craves justice against it , any i 'll join with him in his wishes , p. . i could wish that there were some severer laws against such villains , who raise such false and scandalous reports of worthy gentlemen , and that those laws were put in execution : and that men might not be suffered to walk the streets in so confident a garb , who commit those assassinates upon the reputation of deserving persons . that king charles i. was a deserving person , he confesses when he calls him the best prince in the world ; that arch-bishop laud was a deserving person , he confesses , when he says he 's confident he studied nothing more than to do his majesty and god almighty good service , and withal was so learned , so pious , so wise a man ; and that he ought not to be mentioned without due honour , and that he deserved a far better fate than he met with ; and yet notwithstanding all this merit and honour due to him , he makes him the cause of the rebellion begun in scotland , as he would make us believe , by imposition of the english liturgy , p. . and surely the king had a hand in 't too , or else he makes him a cypher , rather than a king ; sure this man was by when the inditements were contrived and drawn up against our blessed soveraign , and arch-bishop laud ; for then they lay to their charge all the innocent blood , as they call'd it , shed in england and ireland ; and who could expect any better should come on 't , when they seem'd to know nothing but ceremonies , &c. with that begun , and with that ended , till the whole reign was deform'd . and yet for all that this gregory double tongue , makes one a pious , learned , wise man , and the other the best prince that ever wielded the english scepter . was not this greg. begot by some proteus of a camaelion , an oedipus cannot riddle him : he fights backward and forward , sometimes for the king , and sometimes for modern orthoxy ; he slashes with a two edged sword and cuts both ways ; brandishes against the enemy , and then falls foul on his own party , and the good old cause ; but it is with pickeerings and flourishes , rather than close fight , and good earnest ; and therefore he gives the good old cause , a good new name , and because the old one is odious , he calls it sometimes primitive simplicity , sometimes modern orthodoxy , and p. . the cause too good . a cause too good ? too good for what ? too good to be burnt does he mean ? as it was by the common hangman ; or too good for the rebel saints ? i 'l assure you they did not think so ; nor yet would , if it would please god and the king to entrust them with it once more ; no , no , that 's not this authors meaning ; he says it is the cause too good to be fought for . sure he thinks ( as his friends h. p. j. o. &c. blasphemed in that horrid rebellion ( begun by the scots , but occasion'd and caus'd by bishop laud and consequently the king ) that the battle was the lords , and that men should standstill , ( i wish they had , ) and see the salvation of god ; and that the stars in their courses would fight against sisera , ( which they construed , ) the king and cavaliers . sure this greg. thought the king and arch-bishop , for sending the english liturgy into scotland , did thereby involve themselves and the kingdom in so much guilt , that the cry thereof would go to heaven ( for less he cannot mean ) and that god ought in justice to have taken the cause into his own hand , and destroyed us ( as he did sodom and gomorrah ) with fire and brimstone , and thereby have sav'd the rebels a labour , and the scots a long march into england . greg. would have been an happy instrument to have perswaded the scots to put up their pipes , for the cause was too good to be fought for . yet it seems it is not too good to be writ for , nor to good to be commended again to the world ; this mans a great friend to the king , to the bishops , to the government , to the english liturgy , which he represents to have been so mischievous in former times ; and now he quarrels with the letany , because the word schism is added : he does not like that men should pray against schism ; i am afraid one great quarrel and irreconcileable , he has against the liturgy , is the same as of old , because it makes men pray so oft for the king and his family , to which some mens hearts cannot say amen . he might as well have quarrelled the letany for another word there added ; namely , rebellion : but that had been to rob without a vizard : the picque now is only against schism . and why ? and why ? he tells us , it spoils the musick , and cadence of the period . men that never intend to repent of their crimes , love not to hear of them ; sure i am , schism in the letany there added , spoils not the musick so much , as it does the kingdom ; which by it alone has been quite out of tune . i wish with all my heart though , that the king and his two houses of parliament would take gregory's advice , p. . after all the fatal consequences of that rebellion , which can only serve as sea-marks unto wise princes , to avoid the causes . and what were the causes ? ( if you will believe his hint ) they were arch-bishop laud , and consequently and much more king charles i. p. . the english liturgy , p. . and the zealous assertors of the rights of princes , who are but at best , well-meaning zealots , p. . is 't not pity but this gregory should be call'd to the helm of government ? 't is pilots own self , he shows wise princes all the sea-marks ; here 's scylla , there charybdis ; here lies the flats , there the beacon ; here the buoy , there the fire-house ; here lies dogger-bank , there the galloper ; and that sand with the two horns , is the spits , that beyond , goodwin sands , but here , here , whoop , holla , holla , whoop , p. , , , . the kings channel . good skipper ! so much skill , and so much pains , such a politician , and a virtuoso to boot , thou shalt have a new perry-wig , and once more another gratuity sent thee from j. o. and a new thanks-giving-day appointed by the churches , with another gathering at the end on 't , to that purpose ; beshrew me , it came seasonably for an use of great comfort after you had been chouc'd at the ordinary and plaid pieces . is it not meritorious enough ? he super-erogates ; gratifies the churches by shriving them , and laying all the blame upon that odious and hated thing the liturgy , that was the cause of all the blood-shed , all the wars and ruine ; that the rock on which we split ; mind the sea-marks , wise princes , avoid the causes , if you will avoid the sad and fatal consequences . 't is but lost money now to fee any courtiers to put in a seasonable word for indulgence and modern orthodoxy ; father grey-beard for all . is there never a corporation that sends burgesses to parliament , that ( upon a vacation , the late member being dead ) may cry up greg. and get him into the house ? the cabala cannot but approve the plot , greg. is greater than a second moses , he 's a second samson , can carry the whole house afore him . methinks i see him at it : and addressing himself to the speaker , makes this following speech in the parliament house , composed out of his own book ; ( for i scorn foul play ; ) nor will i adde one material word of mine own , to make him look more ridiculously or seditiously , than he has already with his own hand pourtrayed himself in his book ; ( only to make it to look more handsomely , i have dress'd it in the fashion in this following droll a la mode ; ) in forty pages of his incomparable book , ( like that self-conceited bookish philosopher , that undertook to read lectures to hannibal ) puff'd up with the beloved esteem he has for himself , takes upon him the pilot's place , directing wise princes how to govern the helm , stear their course and observe the sea-marks . and i have stinted my muse to his very words in all particulars that come most home to him , chusing rather to injure my fancy , than him ; or lay to his charge more than what is prov'd to his face under his hand . mr. speaker , i , that spoke here but once before , must now speak , though i ne'er spoke more : when the seas swell high as the poop , shall not your pilot , holla , whoop ? and rowze tarpollians , that lye sleeping , ne'er dreaming what cause there 's for weeping , fasting and prayers of the churches ? now orthodoxy left i' th' lurch is , and swallow'd up , for ought i know : prick up your ears , i 'll tell you how ; there is one bayes ( and shall i tell ye ? ) he has a thousand seas in 's belly , another hobbs leviathan , swells and will drown us if he can ; the netherlands and hungary are under water already , ( p. . ) and so is france , bohemia , sweden , and transilvania , denmark , and savoy , that by 'th' alps is , all scotland , england , ' xcept a small piece ; geneva by lake-lemane , poland , i think at last he 'll leave us no land ; look to your ship then , hard at helm , starboard , or else we overwhelm : ease the shrowds there , breda , breda ; there ne'er was such a flood since noah : take th' topsail in , do what you may , the mizen on the prow gives way . down with the kings flag , ( you nere mind , ) and let her spoon before the wind . all stands aloft ; swack , swack ; no near , for we have sprung a leak i fear . there'r goodwin sands , tom and john too ; w'have scap'd them tho' with much ado . rummage the ship , throw overboard what in the ship may best be spar'd : there ; y'have done finely , ( have you not ? ) thrown away th' best , the worst forgot ; the masse-book there , ( do you not see ? ) with th' act for uniformity , lying i' th' chaplains cabbin there : founder the ship they will , i fear : the surplice too , ( i think y' are blind , ) you always leave the worst behind ; orthodoxy's gone already , w' are sunk , if you do not steer steady . there grandeur lies : ( you are so dull , ) hand all the sails , and let her hull . keep your loof , hold ; w'have sprung a mast ; this 't is to bear more sail than ballast . ply the pump there , for i am told five foot of water 's in the hold. now , master speaker , if there be , within you so much repartee , as to ragoust now what i mean , by this harangue tuant and clean , this english ship of the first rate , ( the hieroglyphick of the state , ) is sav'd from wrack , by virtuoso , ingenioso , politicoso . thus have i taught you in parable , now for the moral ; th' other was fable ; i meant plainly to say ; wise princes , viewing the fatal consequences of the rebellion , look out ; spye where the sea-marks and buoys do lye ; that ye may guide us right , and even ; not tost and wrack'd as we have been . for to say truth , 't was bishop bramhall , laud and king charles , who did deform all ; with ceremonies , arminianism , manwaring and sibthorpianism ; also the english liturgy , and schism , in the letany , may ( grieving th' saints , ) again put soon us , and the musick out of tune : ( p. . ) put out that word then , ( as is fit , ) or put it all out every whit ; and ( if y' are wise , ) all th' liturgy , it makes some saints in prayer to lye , and against conscience , say a thing that checks them , praying for the king. these made the whole reign ugly look , i dare be sworn . ( give him the book , saith master speaker , kiss it , so on . ) but presently , as in a swoon , or planet-struck , poor greg. was dumb , he hawk'd and hum'd , nothing would come . at last said ; i 'll not break my oath , further to lye i would be loath : for never i , since i was born , did break my oath or was for sworn , nor , since i took the covenant , can for my heart or blood recant . therefore now i 'm upon my oath , not one word will i speak but troth . the good old cause should bear the blame , where the sin lyes , lay there the shame ; 't was neither good , nor yet too good , nor so ought to be understood . charles the best prince was , ( truth to say , ) that er●… did english scepter sway . arch-bishop laud was wise and pious , and learned too , and vertuous : who dares charge him with popery , his learned book gives them the lye ; nor is it just he should be blam'd , nor without honour due be nam'd , who study'd alwayes , what he cou'd , for god , the king , and kingdom 's good ; therefore deserv'd a better fate , than he ( good martyr ! ) did come at . and he that dares these truths deny , is a bold villain , and doth lye . only i could wish , that there were ( p. . ) some honest laws made more severe against such villains , who do raise such false reports ; and do dispraise with scandals worthy gentlemen , either alive or dead : and then we should not helpless thus grieve , when we such assassinats do meet , in garb so confident i' th' street , as if no harm at all th' had done , murdering reputation . why should the wolf be hang'd up , when the jaccal scot-free goes ? poor men that for necessity do prey , and take a purse on the high-way , your law hangs up , but he that does , like staphyla , rob graves , he goes without controul , because the laws are dumb and silent in this cause . to you it therefore does belong , to keep the tombs secure from wrong . lastly , 't is known to all the world , this realm was blest , till overhurl'd with the now modern orthodox , that gull'd this land , with calvin , knox. and — — — — — — but here i fancy he is interrupted , speaking so maliciously and inveterately against the blessed memory of king charles , and saying his whole reign was deform'd , in so great a presence as this parliament , which , ( be it spoken as far from envy , as flattery , ) yields to no preceding parliaments for eloquence as well as loyalty , and therefore commands mr. greg. to the barr , not questioning him for the good he had spoken , but for the evil . for he that spit in the face of that blessed martyr did not thereby do him the hundredth part of that ignominy and harm ; nor shew'd half so much venome harbour'd within . this father grey-beard not contenting himself with what our late soveraign , in vindication of his peoples laws and liberties , more than his own , has suffered from the hands of tyrannical and blood-thirsty men , but ( as in the enditement against him , ) he charges him again with deforming his whole reign , and by sibthorpianism , affecting an absolute government , upon which rock , ( he is bold to say ) we all ruined , p. . it seems then this rock of absolute government , which the king surely affected , if he countenanc'd it so much as this audacious man would make us believe , for which the rebels in no worse , but plainer terms , call'd him tyrant , and lay to his charge the guilt of all his innocent blood shed in england and ireland . i am sorry this man should again rip up the old sores , which we thought had been cicatrized without any deformity on the kings part . and therefore he does with unparallel'd confidence attempt to talk so much of sibthorp , manwaring , montague , &c. it is the business of many pages , from p. . to p. . and to evince all this , the first and choicest weapon he brings upon the stage , is as unresistable , as terrible : there 's no fence against a flail ; he falls in pell-mell , without giving one volley , to close fight , handy-gripes , and butt of musquet : ( which he calls p. . ) the butt-end of an arch-bishop , ( that was ) abbot , of canterbury . now , ( think i , ) wo worth the day , look to thy hits , poor bayes , and beat but this butt-end of an arch-bishop about his ears , and i 'll warrant him spoil'd for a fencer whiles he lives again . to make room , and heighten the expectations of this matchless onset , he would make men believe , p. . that the wounds that shall be given to his majesty , arch-bishop land , and the government at that time , ( by proving against them the guilt of sibthorpianism and absolute government , ) are the wounds given by a friend : against which there is no fence , we keep no guard against him , and being secure on that side , the thrusts ( like that of joab's into the heart of abner , and amnen , ) are certain and deadly ; as being made with as little difficulty , as truth ; and as easily and readily as basely and treacherously . and such is this butt-end of an arch-bishop ; it admits no answer , cannot possibly be warded , 't is the testimony of arch — against arch — the testimony of a friend . and i confess the testimony of a mans friend , ( though but his supposed friend , ) against him , shall find credit though false ; whilest the evidence given in by an enemy , ( through true , ) is not believed , ( like words of a frequent liar , though he tell truth sometimes , ) because all is construed the effects of practice , malice , or design . and if this butt-end of an arch-bishop be indeed abbot's butt-end , which is not credible , ( as i 'll shew by and by , where indeed it was forged , and out of what armory greg. fetches this unavoidable dead doing tool ; it is a hundred to one that we find that it came out of the arcenal of modern orthodoxy ; because greg. ( who is skilful and learned in nothing so much as that way ) does bring it on to the stage , with marvellous prowess , to this encounter ; ) yet the blows it can possibly give , will neither bring smart , nor infamy either to his majesty , or arch-bishop land , in the judgment of any by-stander , that knows but the temper of arch-bishop abbot , what he was ; and also the nature of this weapon , this same butt-end . i need not give you the history here , ( nor is this a place for it , ) of the plottings and contrivances of the modern orthodox in king james his time , from whose wardship though the king was set free by the privilege of his english crown , yet he was never emancipated from the importunities of those busie , and unweariedly troublesome spirits ; and t●…ough he condescended to the conference at hampton-court , where they , as well as his majesty , saw themselves baffled : yet these are not men that will give over so ; but king james would many times , ( whether for old acquaintance , or not quite forgetting his former pupillage under their imperious and pedantick tuition , nor altogether at all times clearly remembring that now he was quite free , and sui juris ; or whether , ( as indeed very often he did , ) to be rid of them and their busie intrusions ) grant them very great favours ; which he seems to repent of in his basilicon doron , when it was too late ; such was this advancement of abbot to the arch-bishoprick , voic'd and carried up so high by the cabal of the puritans , or modern orthodox , who were gratifyed herein by that good natur'd king , not without too late repentance , though abbot frustrated the expectations of both parties : for when he was got into gods blessing and the warm sun , and so near the court , he grew an absolute courtier , yet not altogether forgetting his friends and creators in the height of his fortunes . king charles did not make him , but found him , arch-bishop of canterbury ; the place being for term of life , and both the king and he had too much innocence to shorten it , before god and nature had put it to an end . yet the arch-bishop by reason of age , and the many infirmities and diseases of his mind and body , was very unmeet for council or court , being very way-ward , peevish , morose , and unsociable for the reasons aforesaid . his majesties affairs no more than nature could admit of this vacation , ( occasion'd chiefly by his decrepit age and diseases : ) it was thought fit therefore that his place should be supplyed by others , of more health and ability both of mind and body to do his majesty service . this prepared the way to laud's advancement , who then was but a young cour●… and in no great esteem either with the king or duke of buckingham , ( though before the unhappy blow given that favourite at portsmouth , he was high in his favour , as well as his majesties , king charles . who , notwithstanding whatever greg. does all along suggest , was no fool , but had the most piercing eye and judgment of any mans parts and behaviour about the court. and therefore laud ( doctor of the laws , yet no civilian but a priest , ) could not long at court be neglected or obscure ; being so vertuous , so pious , so wise a man , that his majesty could not but discern his accomplishments fitted for the greatest conndence of his prince , and to which he arriv'd after the death of the duke of buckingham , but not before ; and therefore if king charles his whole reign was deform'd , it was not by him all the while , ( here if i durst , i had told greg. hoc est falsum , or restat probandum , or-in phrase of he , he lyes ; but i am more modest , at least more wise , out of fear rather than ingenuity ; he makes himself such a terrible hector , p. . and p. . ) but certain it is the duke of buckingham , whilest he liv'd , bore all the blame , if any was due , as well as the shame . but after his death , what should be done to the man whom the king delighteth to honour , but make him chief favourite ! and who more deserving than laud , who studied to do both god and his majesty good service , and was so pious and wise , as aforesaid ? but envy , envy , ( the shadow of greatness , inseparably attending those most who live in the brightest beams of royal bounty , ) soon found out this great minister of state. and envy it is , more than miscarriages , ( to which all mortal men are subject , ) which either shortens , or miserably disquiets the favourites of princes ; nor was ever any man therefore known to be a favourite to two kings immediately succeeding one another , but the duke of buckingham ; which he did owe to himself , more than his fortune ; of which he was a miracle indeed , but a greater miracle of nature ; and seem'd to be made for the very nonce , in so incomparable a complexion of mind and body , which seem'd to disagree in nothing but a happy contention for precedency ; the beauty of his large mind seeming to strive with that of his incomparable body , which should be more amiable and sweetly ravishing ; his prudence and gravity being adorn'd with a ready wit , and command of his tongue ; which never had a denial of what it crav'd , even when he was by resolv'd and combin'd impeachments prosecuted in parliament , where he had more admirers than friends . but a wiser than he has told us , who is able to stand against envy ? it is probable the duke of buckingham and arch-bishop laud after him , did some things , as well as the earl of strafford , that were not altogether approveable , or in strict account justifiable : induc'd thereunto rather by necessities than any evil disposition of their own . nor do men of inferiour rank know the reasons of state , and necessity of affairs , which might plead for loans and ship-money too , as our saviour does for david ( in his transgression of the law , by vertue of a greater law than magna charta , or the petition of right and necessity . ) have you not read what david did when he was an hungred , and they that were with him , how he entred into the house of god , and did eat the shew-bread , which was not lawful for him to eat , neither for them which were with him ? nor do these bold men know what are the pressures and urgent straits of a kingdom , that cannot stay sometimes , without apparent ruine , the due redress of a parliament . especially when our wise king charles could not but foresee , by former experiences , those heats of passion and sparks of prejudice that by some incendiaries were likely to be kindled , and threatned those combustions in the kingdom , which afterwards by sad experience and tryals we found too true , and for very many painful years remedilesly groan'd and labour'd under . not but that a parliament is look'd upon by every honest english man , a most safe as well as acceptable constitution , both for the prerogative and the crown ; as much as the peoples just properties and liberties . yet at best it is but good physick , and proves unsuccessful and unhappy for the body politick , when perpetuated and made a constant food ; of which truth we have in our age a fatal probatum est . and only proves that some diseases are with less pain and hazard tolerated , than irritated by putting the body into a constant course of physick , in order to cure : which many times besides the trouble , does sooner and more certainly hasten that death , which before we did but fear . and sure i am that whatever is the meaning of sibthorpianism , manwaring , arminiauism , montague , absolute government , or loans , or any such frightful bugs , ( now brought again to scare the people with fears and jealousies , ) yet put together , and at the worst they be no bigger than the little finger , in comparison of those thicker loins of pressures and grievances , with which to the death we were oppress'd and tyranniz'd over many years together in pretence of remedy , and even still thereby our burdens are of nec●…ssity become so much the greater . but were arch-bishop laud and the sibthorpians never so much to blame ; were those sores & grievances never so great , by what authority , or to what good end does this bold greg. now rip them up again when they are healed and cicatrized ? his design must be either to create jealousies that his present majesty or some great favourites about him are again about to tread in sibthorpian steps ; ( if this could be prov'd against him , he deserves to be hang'd : ) or else not satisfied with the indignities his blessed father and the other martyrs suffered , crucifyes them again in effigie ; or as himself expresses it p. . and the detestable sentence and execution of his late majesty , is represented again upon the scaffold . and thus much for the temper of that arch-bishop abbot , in answer to his charge against laud , if it were truly his charge and narrative under his own hand : as greg saith it was p. . and if it was so , what great matter does it signifye , that an old morose man , peevish by complexion and age , and improv'd to a far greater height of malice by the old leven of modern orthodoxy , fermented by his own passions and sufferings , through the loss of his place at court and the kings favour , his exercise of the office-metropolitan being also suspended , and the profits of the arch-bishoprick to better use , sequestred ; occasion'd by the intelligence he kept with the factions , and not for refusing to license a sermon , ( as is suggested , ) as improbably as idlely , whether by other mens fictions or his own is not worth the enquiry . but such a deform'd issue may shame either the arch-bishop abbot , or any body else , that should pretend to father it ; not but that some of its parts are truly form'd , but many of them are monstrous untruths ; as if it were needful , i will demonstrate , and begin at the first three lines . but greg. has pick'd these few that seem'd most for his turn out of that , ( which indeed goes under his name , the narrative of arch-bishop abbot , &c. this audacious man as boldly calls it so , as if he had stood at his elbow , and saw him write every syllable , which he must have done , or else he is very impudent thus to impose upon men , that which he can but guess at , and has as little ground to build this faith of his upon , as ever any man had , that declared so audaciously , and confidently , as he does here , that any such narrative in print was another man's hand-writing . the truth is , greg. his prime talent lies in modern orthodoxy ; there he is best read , and there we find this narrative , &c. and if he can show me this narrative any where else than there , ( which i defye him to do ; ) then will i confess that this butt-end , ( which in his hand he does so terribly brandish and flourish , ) is indeed the butt-end of an arch-bishop ; and when he has done , since it is but the butt-end of that arch-bishop , at best is but an abbots opinion , which is now no more credited , nor more orthodox , than are the railings of greg. or other the discontents of modern orthodox . you may find it , if you will waste so much time as to read an old diurnal , for such stuff is this , composed in a history forsooth , dedicated to queen dick , which was ( in stile of modern orthodoxy ) richard by the grace of god , protector of england , scotland and ireland , &c. anno domini . by your highness humblest and most obedient servant , john rushworth , chief secretary in the army , to general fairfax , and afterwards for pious declarations penn'd upon all occurrences for the satisfaction of the people , upon every new turn or change of government , by that worthy gentleman ; for such good services related to , and preferred by oliver cromwel and his son richard. this terrible dead-doing tool the butt-end of an arch-bishop , thus brandished again by father grey-beard , for the good old cause , was taken out of that holy arcenal ; let him deny it if he dare or can tell how . i cannot but smile to see this huffe , buffetting himself with this butt-end of an arch-bishop ; as at other times , he meditates his own ruine , ( when i in mercy and poor pitys sake would step to the man , and stop him , laying violent hands upon himself , ) in several pages of his own book ; namely , when he says p. . nor was there any thing that could more closely import him , than that the race and family of the railers should be perpetuated among mankind . and p. . i am the more obliged to repair in my self whatsoever breaches of his ( bishop bramhall's ) credit , by that additional civility which consecrates the ashes of the deceased . and p. . for all men pretend a share in reputation and love not to see it ingross'd and monopoliz'd , and are subject to enquire ( as of great estates suddenly got , ) whether he came by all this honestly , or of what credit the person is that tells the story . and p. . he never oils his hone but that he may whet his razor , and that not to shave , but to cut mens throats . and p. . though an ill man cannot by praising confer honour , nor by reproaching fix an ignominy , and so they may seem on equal terms ; yet there is more in it ; for at the same time that we may imagine what is said by such an author to be false , we conceive the contrary to be true . and p. . he propagated an original waspishness , and false orthodoxy amongst all his followers . and p. . but unluckily , in this fatal year of seventy two , amongst all the calamities that astrologers foretel , this also hath befallen us . and p. . which meeting with the former fracture in his cranium , and all the concurrent accidents already mentioned , has utterly undone him . and so in conclusion his madness hath formed it self into a perfect lycanthopy . he doth so verily believe himself to be a wolf , that his speech is all turn'd into howling , yelling and barking : and if there were any sheep here , you should see him pull out their throats , and suck their blood . and does so verily believe himself a jaccal , that if there were any dead corps here interr'd , you should see the beast scratch up their graves , and tear them out , to in●…omb them again ignominiously in his nasty guts . and p. . that after they have done or suffered legally and to the utmost , they must still be subjected to the wand of a verger , or to the wanton lash of every pedant ; that they must run the gantelope , or down with their breeches as oft as he wants the prospect of a more pleasing nudity . and p. . speaking to the little comfortable importance , ( call'd for variety of phrase , p. . closer importance , parthenope , whose mother sir , sells ale by the town wall , ) as you love your self , madam , let him not come near you , he hath been sed all his life with vipers instead of lampreys , and scorpions for cray-fish ; and if at any time he eat chickens , they had been cramb'd with spiders , till he hath so invenom'd his whole substance , that 't is much safer to bed with a mountebank before he has taken his antidote . and p. . ( for i am weary of noting the stabs he gives himself , ) as much as possible i would not expose the nakedness of any person so eminent formerly in the church . and p. . perhaps he said so only for evasion , being old excellent at parrying and fencing . and p. . he has face enough to say or unsay any thing , that 't is his privilege , what the school-divines deny to be even within the power of the almighty , to make contradictions true . and p. . whereby you may see with what reverence and duty he uses to speak of his superiours , and their actions , when they are not so happy as to please him . and p. . but of all his three bolts , this was the soonest shot , and therefore it is no wonder if he miss'd his mark , and took no care where his arrow glanced . but what he saith of his majesty and his council . and p. . he confounds himself every where in his reasonings , that you can hardly distinguish which is the whoop , and which is the holla , and he makes indentures on each side of the way wheresoever he goes . and p. . but such as you it is , that have always strove by your leasing ( gently good hec. as you love me , ) to keep up a strangeness and misunderstanding betwixt the king and his people ; and all the mischief hath come on 't doth much lye at your doors . and whether all the invectives against the whole reign of king charles i. ( deform'd , ( as he says ) with sibthorpianism , absolute government , the rock on which we split , the imposition of the english liturgy , the cause of the rebellion , ceremonies , arminianism , montague and manwaring , libelling the reverend bishops for their worthy cares , sentencing ministers of state , privy counsellors , jeering the present parliament with being trinkled , and bringing forth superfetation of acts , as if he had a commission to be chief censor , prying into all offices , and officers , and condemning all that stand in the way of m●…dern orthodoxy , and the good old cause and nonconformists , without mercy or fear , dead and alive , and all this in seventy two , and with as many self-contradictions as impertinences , ) can have any other meaning than by such leasing to keep up a strangeness and m●…sunderstanding betwixt the king and his people , judge you : is 't not pity but he should have his own wish , p. . only i could wish there were some severer laws against such villains , who raise such false and scandalous reports , &c. sure i am he gives himself often enough to his shame the b●…stinado , and if they are not all butt-ends , yet they are dogged counter-buffs , with the least whereof he hits himself a vile box on the ear . and instead of encountring the enemy , le ts fly at all adventure , and the random shot rencounters his own party , and being overcharg'd , the butt-end of his gun bumps his own breast , and fells him with the recoil . a sad accident ; like that , ( but much more fatal than that , ) which befel an honest well-meaning zealot , our friend and acquaintance , w. s. who , good man ! conceited of his own prowess and gallantry , and taking ●…he alarm at — the contempt of the clergy , musters up presently all his force , in a letter to a friend , with design to vindicate the clergy from contempt , and the fury of that charge . but in his wrath and rage , mistaking his way , and to oblige his friends by the next term , makes more haste than good speed ; and missing also his rest in the height of his career , coming to the grapple , fights in the shock , hand over head , for the enemy against his own party : in an answer , so incongruous to the design , confessing all , asking forgiveness , and crying for quarter , before the enemy had any thoughts of hurting him , and all this in language so insipid and ridiculous that he made the clergy , ( they thank him , ) so much the more contemptible , and both himself and the clergy the more laugh'd at : producing nothing but a mere black patch , ( aim'd indeed against , and clap'd on too upon the face of his adversary , but ) only thereby rendring the enemy so much the more a beauty , who indeed was lovely enough before . so that my dear friend , if ever the mad hair-brain'd humour of scribling possess you , as it has done greg. and w. s. so that nothing can hold you , but you must needs come out in print , tempted by the dog-star , the stationer , or the near approach of the next term , in a letter to a friend : let me beg of you , as you tender your reputation and honour , that you take care , not to subscribe it of all the letters in the cross-row , with those in the fag-end of it , w. s. and be sure you put not in the superscription one syllable of — the rehearsal transpros'd . lest thus mark'd , the hue and cry pursue you , up●…n suspicion of folly , and self-conceit , for the former ; and upon suspicion of folly , self-conceit and sedition , for the latter : and punish you , as self-condemn'd by your own gross self contradictions , for both . but especially take heed that you have not the least resemblance of greg. who does so often with his own hand foil and baffle himself and the cause he designs to promote . the man 's a fanatick , and by certain paroxy●…s , as pleases the planet that governs him , lunatick with modern orthodoxy , and talks like oliver's 〈◊〉 , now in bedlam , craz'd with a notion on that side the head . name but bayes , he cryes out ( like that hypocondriack that fancied he had noah's flood in his belly , and if he piss'd , should drown the world , ) falls into a fit , rages and frets , foams and stamps , stares and rants like mad , all are dead , dead as a herring , drown'd every mothers son , p. , . in hungary , transylvania , bohemia , poland , savoy , france , the netherlands , denmark , sweden and all scotland , and a great part of the church of england . then as is meet , rails at him , calls him a prodigy , p. . a marvail , a prodigious person , a creature most obnoxious , hebrew , jew , cock divine , cock-wit , daw-divine , spy , buffoon , a dangerous fellow , cut●…hroat , mad-man , fit for nothing but bedlam , and hogsdon , &c. then can any charity believe otherwise but this poor greg. is craz'd ? and cryes holla bayes , whoop bayes , holla bayes , whoop , whoop ; name but bayes and his fit comes : or name but schism , and it works immediately ; as much as the name cromwel does upon the mad porter , who forthwith falls a praysing his old master , and talks of nothing but crowns and councils , scepters and bishops , and preshyters ; then rambling into a discourse of divinity , talks of superstition , ceremonies , prophanation of the sabbath , schism , the cause and the covenant . so my gentleman , when the word schism is but nam'd , he extolls it to the skies , or at least says it is no such frightful thing , as the world takes it to be ; take it into your hand , touch it , do , touch it , it will not hurt you ; it is but a theological scar-crow , and rather frights than hurts ; then like the mad porter commends his old master to the skies , ever since he had the honour of his acquaintance , when he was a school-boy at eaton ; o mr. hales of eaton , how does beauty and majesty like two twins sit in thy large forehead with admiration ? i should be as mad as he , if i should go about to answer seriously in divinity with such a mad-cap , and do no more good of him , than upon the aforesaid porter ; if i thought he was not past hopes , i would give him a hundred divines for his one ; the worst of them all of far more learning , and less partiality and prejudice , than mr. hales , without any disparagement or just offence to his master , that differ from him upon good reason in every thing that greg. brings him to prove in reference to modern orthodoxy ; all which mr. hales recanted after his conversion . if i thought any wise man would concern himself , in good earnest , with what so trivial a pen as his scribles in divinity , i would lengthen this letter upon that subject , though i am quite tyred already with his impertinencies , contradictions , and leasings . a word he taught me , but if he grutches me any thing of his own , i pretend no propriety in it , he shall have it again , for one thing he says , p. . for , without the sign of the cross , our church will not receive any one to baptisme — mr. greg. this is your leaseing , if by our church , you mean the church of england . i know you were better skill'd in your modern orthodoxy , than the liturgie , which gives rules for private baptism without the sign of the cross ; and declares that a child so baptized , in the name , &c. is lawfully and sufficiently baptized ; and ought not to be baptized again — &c. afterwards follows , then shall not he ( the minister ) christen the child again , &c. are not you an honest , true man , father gray-beard ? true of hand and tongue , and have kept your hand from picking at and stealing away the credit and good name of your betters ? have you kept your tongue from evil-speaking , lying and slandering ? i wish you would confess to the church of england , if indeed it be your church , who it was , whether tempted by the instigation of the devil , your own evil heart , or devilish men that hired you to these leasings . hold up thy head , man ! there , thou dost not use to have too much modesty ; come answer to this in your next mr. greg. i had rather hear of your honest confession and contrition , than any more leasings , by which such as you are , strive to fill the peoples heads with proclamations of ceremonies , superstition , put them in fear they cannot come at the sacraments , the church does so rayl it in ; making them jealous and fearful with your arminiansme , montagueisme , manwaringisme , sibthorpianisme , and such frightful words ; that though they know not the meaning of them more than your nepotisme , putanisme , &c. yet they believe these are some ghastly things , and you do very ill to scare them . this is the way to perpetuate and keep up a strangeness and misunderstanding betwixt the king and his people ; for the people are good people , and will hear reason , if it be spoken ; but when such as you hold forth , and represent the church of england , in such a frightful dress , the people cannot find in their hearts to make love to her ; but run from her , like mad , frighted out of their wits & religion too , by such boutefeaus & incendiaries . and all these mischiefs and all these dirty doings do lie at your doors , cleanse your self of them as well as you can . as school-boys have a book of phrases , collected out of the most fluent latine authours , which they bring in to every theam , and upon all occasions ; so greg. has here and there , amongst his mad harangues , a smart expression now and then , which he and the virtuoso's at a club have chew'd to a crambe , and now having gathered up the scraps , bunch'd them , and bound them together , he dishes them up in this book for a publick feast . but alas greg. does not consider that one man's meat is another man's poyson , and that which sutes one man's temper may kill another ; especially in this age , when so many people , like mithridates , or the maid in pliny , live upon that , laugh and grow fat with that , that would ruine others . perhaps amongst your crew and gang , such venemous expressions , as you disgorge in your book against the innocence and good fame of the late king , arch-bishop laud , by the deformity of the reign , with absolute government , ceremonies , &c. and perhaps amongst your selves you do securely jeer and scoff at the parliament , the church , sacraments , fathers of the church , and privy-councellors , and great ministers of state ; thinking you speak under the rose , and so all goes merrily down . but i 'le assure you these works of darkness , and words that are fit only for the place of darkness , malicious leasings , and consequently devillish and venemous words and discourses may not safely come abroad and be vended ; though you pretend never so much mirth and innocency in your design . apothecaries will not sell poyson to any but those they have great confidence in , not willing for a little gain to be so much as the remote occasion of mischief , not having antidotes in all their shop prevalent enough to check the malignity and energie of a little poyson . and truly all your peccavi's come too late , because no body can believe that the same tongue does in good earnest , in one breath speak contraries , and blow hot and cold together at the same time . indeed the man that blew his pottage to make them cold , and blew his fingers to make them hot , came something near in likeness , to your mouth ; but the story says , it was at several times , and he made two blasts on 't ; and two periods . but you in one sentence and breath , without stop or comma , talk of a whole reign deform'd by the best prince that ever wielded the english scepter , and the like of the arch-bishop ; you outdo all that ever i heard of . and worse than the cruel panther , that allures and entices his prey to come near him , by sending forth a sweet scent and savour from his mouth , 'till the silly brutes ( thus trepan'd ) come within his grasp , and the reach of his bloody paw . your breath is not so intirely perfum'd , but has two savours ; i wonder any body that have their senses intire , should be in love with you ; and but that you are incomparable in your own conceit , i wonder you are so much in love with your self . and nothing do i admire more , excepting always your own unparallel'd confidence , than that any body should admire you for such a tall fellow , and tough champion for modern orthodoxy , which you so often by your self-contradictictions betray , as well as therein your own weakness and infirmities . indeed you manage a cause that is plausible enough ( god knows ) in these days , when you strike at the bishops , who have not at present too many friends , and they themselves scorning to be grave with a buffoon ; ( it is his own phrase ) and having not many that i see to take up the gantlet in their defence so readily as my self , though ( i confess ) with great disadvantage to my own fame . the argument i undertake being not so plausible and taking in defending them now a days , as your jolly opposition and affront ; in which particular alone you have the advantage of me ; mine is the better , though your's be the more acceptable cause ; and this alone makes you to be cry'd up for a sampson , because you smite the church and clergy hip and thigh , though it be ( be not angry ) with the jaw-bone of an ass. is it not possible there should be true honour and vertue under a cassock or lawn sleeve ? has holland shirts , perrywig and light drugget got the monopoly of true nobility ? as the noblemen and gentlemen would be affronted , if the clergy should despise them , with your proverb , jack gentleman : so why should not the reverend bishops and others be as much offended , when such a pick-thank in a whole discourse seems to cry jack clergy-man ? the king alone is the fountain of honour , and are those streams of honour that flow from him , more pudled in a clergy than a lay-channel ? does not the man forget his own father ? i hate the folly as much as the pride of such upstarts , that because in their pride , jollity , and atheism , they would cast contempt on the clergy ; in their folly they think they may and should cast contempt on the clergy . who in the opinion of greg. himself , are the fittest to make the best politicians in the world , if they keep to their bibles . which none probably does or can better understand , nor any in like probability better observe ; 't is true they are men , and subject to frailties , but all men as much , and in all likelihood more than they . and now i am upon 't , i will but make tryal , what virtue there is in perriwig father gray-beard , above all others , to make a politician of . for he often ope's and gapes at politick lectures , like an oyster , against the coming in of the tide ; it is his very element , and he is either there good , or no where worth the opening . i can scarce forbear smiling to my self to see how prettily he sets his face , and makes up his mouth , with such caution and gravity before he begins to read to princes his politick would-bees . first , blaming the ecclesiastical politician , ( he must not be forgotten ) for offering at that which was none of his province , p. . instructing princes , like sancho , how to govern his island : and p. . he had put all princes upon the rack to stretch them to his dimension : and in another place , i am asham'd , mr. bays , that you put me on talking thus impertinently , for policy in us is so . now think i , we cannot be far off this politick lecture , it is either in front or reer , before or behind , it is hereabouts , look ; for greg. his whole book , then and there most condemns what he is forthwith about to practise ; as formerly is instanced in the case of railing . to make the king and parliament secure , he would lull them asleep with saying , p. . that men are all so weary , that he would be knock'd on the head that should raise the first disturbance of the same nature , . a new war must have , like a book that would sell , a new title . in the front of his book , you have a strange and unheard of new title , here he gives you the reason of it , he resolv'd there should be something in his boook to make it sell. and what if a man that had a mind to raise a disturbance should give the good old cause a new title , and call it the cause too good , or modern orthodoxy , are not those titles as new , and as ready made to a mans hand , as the the new title to his book , and by the same hand too ? this man cannot for his life , but he must confound himself . but he that should raise the first disturbance of the same nature would he knock'd on the head : would he so ? i do not believe any man likes it so well , as to be willing to be knock'd on the head , except those knocks be fine gentle knocks , not scotch knox , nor modern orthodox knocks : they did knock so gingerly that not any man i know would be so knock'd with his good will however . i suppose by , would be knock'd on the head , he means , he ought or should be knock'd in the head ; and that is somewhat deeper than on the head ; it is as much as a mans life is worth , to be knock'd in the head , but to be knock'd on the head , may be but a tailors blow , a knock with a thimble , a prick-louse rap. but not to play further with his words , the thing means as plain as it can speak , that the first rebel that should make disturbance , must needs be knock'd i' th' head . therefore disband your red and blue-coats , you need not fence where there is no fear ; the modern orthodox that use to be so busie and indefatigable , are now ( 't is very strange , and news you tell us , ) weary . as soon as ever i read this news , thought i to my self , and whispered , this is all leasing , the factions and modern orthodox weary ? 't is impossible . as they are the modern orthodox , so they are the never-to-be-tired modern peripateticks : what they that wearied two kings ; and one queen ; queen elizabeth , king james and kng charles , now themselves weary ? are they that would travel as far as holland , savoy , piedm●…nt , nay to new england , rather than not have their wills , now weary ? are they that are so incessant to this hour in their cabals , meetings , sending out spies and intelligencers into all quarters , now on a sudden weary ? are these modern pharisees that compass sea and land to make one proselyte , and when he is gain'd , make him more a child of hell than he was before , now weary ? does the father of lies walk to and fro through the earth , and like a roaring lion seek whom he may devour , and yet is never tyred with doing mischief ; and can the children of lyes so degenerate ? can those evil speakers , lyars and slanderers , ( in the french and greek languages , devils , ) now be weary and shame the stock they came of ? i should not believe this fair tale greg. tells , though i did not by sad experience know to the contrary : for though i did not live among such men , nor know the men and their communication , yet i know the nature of the men , the devil must be weary of tempting , before such natur'd men be weary of acting . if greg. did but know the boldness , impudence , confederacy , contrivances , designs of these men so well as i do , he could not with such impertinent and ridiculous lullabees , pass his word for the nonconformists , ( how much soever he loves them , ) if his word be any thing worth . not that i think truly that they either can or will bite , but thanks to his majesties vigilancy , they dare not ; the wolves in ireland assault not , nor attempt upon any man that is well arm'd for them , but his nature is nevertheless as rapacious and wolfish . nor can he be a friend to publick tranquillity , that by perswading to too much security , renders all unsafe . i am sure king charles i. never gave them an inch , but they took an ell , and found ( too late , and to his cost , ) how irreconcileable to all gratitude , and good nature , that sort of men continue , and says in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . ( to which book ( as greg. says of the bible , ) whatever englishman keeps , for this generation at least , makes the best politician , without controversie ; and of that happy and holy book i 'll say , praeter apostolicas post christi tempora chartas huic peperêre librum saecula nulla parem . ) in one edition printed in octavo . and in page . c. . to the prince of wales : i cannot yet learn that lesson , nor i hope ever will you , that it is safe for a king to gratifie any faction with the perturbation of the laws , in which is wrap'd up the publick interest , and the good of the community . i have offered all for reformation and safety , that in reason , honour and conscience i can , reserving only what i cannot consent to without an irreparable injury to my own soul , the church and my people , and to you also , as the next and undoubted heir of my kingdoms . never repose so much upon any mans single counsel , fidelity and discretion in managing affairs of the first magnitude , ( that is , matters of religion and justice , ) as to create in your self and others a diffidence of your own judgment , which is likely to be always more constant and impartial to the interests of your crown and kingdom than any mans . next beware of exasperaring any factions by the crossness and asperity of some mens passions , humours or private opinions , imployed by you , grounded only upon the differences in lesser matters which are but the skirts and suburbs of religion . provided the differences amount not to an insolent opposition of laws and government , or religion established , as to the essentials of them , such motions and mincings are intolerable . time will d●…ssipate all factions , when once the rough horns of private mens covetous and ambitious designs shall discover themselves ; which were at first wrap'd up and hidden under the soft and smooth pretensions of religion , reformation and liberty . none will be more loyal and faithful to me and you , than those subjects , who sensible of their errors and our injuries , will feel in their own soul most vehement motives to repentance , and earnest d●…sires to make some reparations for their former defects . keep you to true principles of piety , vertue and honour , you shall never want a kingdom . and p. . c. . but common civility is in vain expected from those that dispute their loyalty . and p. . c. . as swine are to garden and orderly plantations , so are tumults to parliaments , and plebeian concourses to publick councils , turning all to disorders and sordid confusions . and p. . so order affairs in point of power that you shall not need to fear , nor flatter any faction . for if ever you stand in need of them , or must stand to their courtesie , you are undone . the serpent will devour the dove : you may never expect less of loyalty , justice or humanity than from those , who engage into religious rebellion ; their interest is always made gods ; under the colours of piety , ambitious policies march not only with greatest security , but applause , as to the populacy ; you may hear from them jacob's voice , but you shall feel they have esau's hands . these indeed are politicks , fit to be read to wise princes , that observing the sea-marks , they may avoid the fatal consequences , that excellent prince experimented to his cost ; it is pity goodness should ever prove evil , or that the sun-shine of royal bounty , should the more harden some sorts of men . who , like true sheba's , sons of belial , that will endure no yoke , no restraint of laws , no reins of government , grow head-strong , and getting the bit in their teeth , away they run neck-break over hedge and ditch , till they throw themselves and their rider both into the ditch . and then , ( not till then , ) at their wits end , tyred with their own licentious wantonness , they entreat their rider to get up again and guide them and govern them . for indeed the crown is more beneficial to the people , than to him that wears it ; for he has more cares , more hazards , more perplexities ; and yet neither eats , drinks , nor sleeps better than millions of the people , nay sometimes as much in debt as any of them . so that i have sometimes wondred with my self that ever any man who had wit enough to be a knave , and was knave enough to be an usurper , should have so little wit as to wade in blood so deep only to get the pleasures of a crown . which how steddy soever it sits on any kings head , is yet weighty and more troublesome than gay ; and thousands that behold him have less cares and hazards , and yet wear as good cloths , and eat and drink as well as he , or any man can ; for to swoop like the gipsie-queen a dissolv'd jewel worth ten thousand pound for a mornings draught , is not now deem'd a cordial . and if ambition and faction were not monsters , one would marvel that greg. should so disquiet himself with picques at the privy counsellors and bishops : who by their great places have greater cares and perils , and are to be pitied , rather than envyed . and then for him to do all this with politick-scraps gathered up when let fall at a club in the tavern or coffee-house , bound up with patches out of diurnals , old parliament & army declarations , mr. hales of eaton his account of schism , and rushworth's orts , is intolerable presumption through a ridiculous conceit of his own abilities by such improvements . he had hit it , and had more seasonably transcrib'd rushworth , if he had given us a report out of the speech of mr. glanvile , a great lawyer and excellent orator , which quadrates the march-declaration to an inch ; in telling us how far the prerogative may lawfully entrench upon an act of parliament , p. . and . there is a trust inseparably reposed in the persons of the kings of euglond , but that trust is regulated by law , &c. statutes incorporate into the body of the common law , over which ( with reverence be it spoken ) there is no trust reposed in the kings soveraign power and prerogative royal to enable him to dispense with them , or to take from his subjects that birth-right , or inheritance which they have in their liberties by vertue of the common law , and of these statutes . and i believe there is not a man in england but admires the goodness and wisdom of his majesty and his privy-council in that march declaration for indulgence ; as a new experiment , to make tryal upon the modern orthodox once more , how good so much goodness will make them , who hitherto like clay in the sun , have been the more hardened by the beams of royal bounty . for sad experience has instructed us , that the head-strong jade , rides with the greatest grace , when rein'd in with a curb . yet for all this , as if this greg. our young machiavel , had the law in his own hand , he tutors our wise princes , shews the sea-marks , and reads politick-lectures pages together . the great design he promotes is to teach his prince the art of forge-fulness ; not the art of memory , but the art of gentlemens memories ; by which he means , ( if he have any meaning ) a loose , flashy , watery memory , that will hold no print , nor retain impression . and though to help the impression and memory of some things forgot , he insinuate sibthorpianism , manwaringism and montagueism , and laudism ; yet to remember that ever there was a rebellion or harm in modern orthodoxy , then p. . believe him kings as they have royal understandings , so have gentlemens memories . nay , he will not suffer his majesty , our gracious soveraign , so much as to retain any good nature , or gentle impressions of his father's being murthered ; if he has , greg. makes him sorfeit his gentility ; he ought to have a gentleman's memory . and is it so indeed good greg ? cannot a king be gentile , though he retain his nature ? and cannot he be gentile except he bid defiance to all good nature too ? and can a man retain any good nature , if he quite forget he had a father and murther'd too ? or if he must be disciplin'd by you into that forgetfulness , why should his memory be supplied with those ungrateful resentments and impressions of sibthorpianism , manwaringism , absolute government , the deformity of his father's whole reign ? indeed father gray-beard you are a very hard hearted and cruel tutour as ever prince submitted unto for pupillage and instruction . and why shall not his majesty keep in memory , ( except in gentleman's memory ) that his dear father was murther'd ? why do you say ? for a great many whyes ? j. o. for one , can tell you a great many : and his friend greg. can also tell you a great many wherefores . not wherefores only , why the king should not remember that his father was murther'd ; nor only , who plotted , contrived , and were accessories thereunto ; but also wherefore he should look to himself also for fear , and take heed , special heed of offending those that having been flesh'd and bloodi'd already in the royal chace , are the more terrible . this is gregories policy . whereas almighty god teaches princes , who are gods on earth , by his own example , with the froward to show themselves froward , psal. . . and as job . . break the jaws of the wicked , and pluck the spoyl out of their teeth . the hebrew word there rendred jaws , signifies the grinders , or the jaw-teeth ; and is an allusion to the practise men use to curst currs , and mastives that are man-keen ; they break their teeth , their sharp grinders ; a toothless dog bites not much more than a dead dog : as if almighty god by these things should say to princes , courage ! regum est parcere subjectis , & debellare superbos ; be not afraid of a curr-dog or grinning rebel ; knock their teeth out , disarm them , trust them and hang them ; or , as our king 's blessed father says as aforesaid ; if ever you trust them , or must stand to their courtesie , you are undone . but comes me greg. reads quite another lesson , and instead of breaking the teeth of the ungodly , and smiting his enemies upon the check-bone , ( as god by king david's army did the rebels in absalom's army , psal. . . ) he would perswade the king into a panick fear , and to flatter the factious rabble , as unmanly as unwise : nay , not so much as to remember , but quite forget his father , or that he was murther'd ; and since it is past , so let it go . this must be the meaning of p. , , , , , , , , , , , , and . or else they are nonsence , and have no meaning in reference to what he retorts upon the ecclesiastical politician , p. . he goes a great way at first setting out for an instance of this new divinity and policy ; and truly so he had need ; for such examples are rare in history , wise princes were wiser than so ; and though he finds one prince in england , since modern orthodoxy came up , and got the upper hand , charles i. that had not been treated so ill , if he had not been so good ; yet this supererogating goodness is seldom sound in story . the first instance he fetches as far as rome , and years ago , ( excepting two moneths and three days , seven hours , seventeen minutes to a second ) in augustus caesar whose father too was murthered . too was murther'd ? this must relate and can relate only to the king whose father too was murther'd . but first i deny that augustus caesar's father was murther'd : and that it is as false as that king charles i. his whole reign was deform'd . now is greg. gravell'd , i feel him at the first step he takes , and knows not how to go a foot further , except lamely as he goes halting all along . and if augustus caesar's father was not murther'd , though he had never so much a gentleman's memory , yet it is nothing to the case in hand . augustus caesar's father died in his bed , the threed of his life was spun out as long as it would run naturally ; there was neither ax , nor gregory , nor father gray-beard , nor bradshaw , nor sword , nor dagger , nor senate-house , nor brutus , nor cassius in the case . why ? then saith greg. ( i know his refuge ) his uncle was murther'd : oh my nuncle ! but why does greg. then say , his father too was murther'd ? this is greg. his own self , he has heard in a coffe-house , or a play-book that augustus caesar succeeded julius caesar in the empire , and so he takes it for granted he was his son ; and because julius caesar was murther'd , therefore augustus his father too was murther'd . but augustus caesar was not so near a kin to him neither , as brutus that stab'd him , who was also his nephew , and some say more than his nephew ; and though it was not so commonly known till after his death , yet caesar's last words to brutus , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , made the credulous world believe that more than brotherly familiarity , of which before they were only jealous ; which was the reason perhaps that augustus caesar his nephew and successour was not so much as appointed by caesar's last will and testament to be his heir . the triumviri sharing the government amongst them , 'till they had destroyed brutus and cassius , and all the confederates in that bloody conspiracy , not leaving a man alive that had a hand in caesar's fall . and what greg. can make of this , or augustus caesar for his purpose , for my part , i do not know ; for let it go so , that augustus caesar's father too was murther'd ; then ( i also add ) his father's murtherers were kill'd for that murther ; but either this latter part of the story was not in the play , or else greg. did not stay to the end of it , to hear whether the comedy ( which he thinks makes for his sport and design ) did not end in a tragedy ; namely , the death and destruction of them that murther'd caesar — but that did not make for his purpose ; but would have spoyled all , and the king's murtherers would not have thank'd him for his plea. because then he must have spoke against them instead of speaking for them ; and if he had spoke the story out , he must have said — his father too was murther'd , but his successors did hang up and destroy those murtherers , every mother's son. as that king did , matt. . . not for murthering his father , but a far less fault , the murthering only of his servants ; and therefore he destroyed those murtherers and burnt up their city , for an example to all the king-killers in the christian world. i wish greg. had not nam'd for his purpose this augustus caesar , whose father too was murther'd ; and 't is ten to one but he has as ill luck in all the rest ; for never did blind archer more over-shoot himself , than does this greg. but now his first bolt aim'd indeed , and design'd at the eccles. politician , but is lodg'd in the gore-blood of the king's murtherers ; if greg. lov'd me never so dearly , i would not engage on his side ; for there is more danger from him than an enemy ; he has an unlucky hand as ever managed the modern orthodoxy . yet do not i deny but that honey lick'd off a thorn , wooll pick'd off a hedge , and phrases pick'd out of a comedy , diurnal , hales , clubs , rushworth's speeches , and army declarations are very good things in themselves , and as useful in compiling some books , as is thesaurus poeticus to help fancy , both with matter and words , when a school-boy composes a copy of verses . and looks like gazette ; wherein though you find things of grand importance , and may sooner come at your watch or horse when stoln by the intelligence it keeps in all quarters , than if m●…ll cutpurse her self were alive ; yet if you expect coherence and connexion there , you look for what it pretends not unto : but mr. greg. pretends a sailable book , fitted with a new title for the nonce ; and yet his letters are as contradictory as are sometimes those in a gazette ; you cannot pair them , you cannot sample them , they are of sveral parishes , and look ugly , because not alike . resembling a cambridge-schollar's riding furniture , which though good and not out at elbowes , yet it is a sorry dress because unsuitable : the whole garb being diverse to it self , and as different as the gentlemen of whom they are borrowed . therefore the next time greg. writes an apology for non-conformists and modern orthodoxy , i advise him to take time till he can accoutre himself with his own store , lest he again contradict himself so often and egregiously , to the hazard of his same as well as something else . from augustus caesar he skips into france , and makes rome and paris , and years meet together in the turn of a hand ; 't is well leap'd , nevertheless if it be but for his purpose , i 'le think it worth his while . henry the fourth of france , and his predecessor , ( that was hen. iii. of france , if i have not forgot , for it is a long time since i read the story , and i have not my monsteur de serre's now by me , nor is the matter great ) hen. iv. and hen. iii. his predecessor were ass●…ssinated . gregories words p. . are — or , ( to come nearer both to our times and your resemblance of the late war , which you trumpet always in the ear of his majesty ) had you ( meaning the eccl. politician ) happen'd in the time of hen. iv. should not you have done well in the cabinet ? no mr. bayes , you would not have been for their purpose . they took other measures of government , and accordingly it succeeded with them . and his majesty , whose genius hath much of both of those princes , and who derives half of the blood of his veines from the latter , will in all probability not be so forward to hearken to your advice as to follow their example . let any man judge by his words , if greg. does not intend by all this , that his majesty should in the case of his father's murther , take example at hen. iv. of france , and his cabinet-counsel , rather than follow the advice of the eccles. politician , his majesty being so much the more obliged to write after the copy of those two princes , especially his genius having much of both those princes , but to the latter he is a very near kinsman by the half-blood . and if this be the meaning of his words , ( which i think neither he nor any man can construe otherwise ) let us consider how aptly the gentleman fits the story to our king , and the case of his father's murther . if the murtherers of hen. iii. and hen. iv. of france were mercifully dealt withall , and not prosecuted to the utmost ; then indeed , and not otherwise does it plead at all for the murtherers of his majesties father ; so that if his majesty deal but by them , as his kinsman hen. iv. of france , and his cabinet-counsel have left him a glorious pattern to imitate ; then i perceive there is no great fear but his majesty may still continue in father gray-beard's good favour . hen. iii. was stab'd with a dagger , and so was hen. iv. of france ; the former by clement a monk , ( either in revenge of the death of the duke of guise , and other the confederates in the league , whom that king having once catch'd them in his net , put them to the pot ; or whatsoever other bloody motion animated this cursed monk to that horrid deed. ) hen. iv. his successor and next kinsman with much ado , and by the help of his protestant subjects , and our queen elizabeth conquered all opposition , and was happily crowned ; but leaving the protestant religion wherein he was educated , but not altogether his affection and kindness to the protestants , ravilliack stabs him to the heart at one blow , as he sat in his coach , and the villain being put upon the rack , to the very last denled that he had any consederates in that bloody assassination , but of his own accord and design alone was moved thereunto by reading of a book writ by a span●…sh jesuit called mariana . both these murderers were tortured , their flesh by piece-meal nip'd off with red hot pincers , and lastly drawn in pieces with four horses . ravilliack had a father and a mother alive , but not the least suspicion of confederacy with their son in that fatal stroke could be laid to their charge ; but in detestation of such a monster brought forth into the world , his parents were for ever banish'd , and the house wherein the villain was born and brought forth into the world was pull'd down and made a dunghill unto this day . this is the truth of the story ; if it be not , let greg. if he can or has impudence enough , deny it ; and if so , then mr greg. must either conclude that his majesty and cabinet counsel are very shallow , and meanly conversant in the history of his progenitors and neighbour nation , and so believe the groundless insinuations of this impertinent man ; or else he falls upon the party he has espoused with another terrible but-end and counterbuff , by perswading his majesty to follow the example of his kinsman hen. iv. of france , and his cabinet , and not leave one of our king-killers alive ; or if there be any on whom the innocent blood of his father still calls for vengeance , that he would first put them upon the rack , and make them confess who it was besides the devil and their own wicked hearts that did instigate them to so horrid a villany , and then pinch off their flesh from their bones with burning pincers , and pull their four quarters asunder with wild horses , and make their names as hateful as themselves , banish their parents , and make their houses a perpetual dunghil , in example of henry iv. of france , and for an everlasting pattern to all king-killers unto the end of the world . and this is all that our nibler at history gets hitherto by his sly insinuations , and indigested impertinencies in the behalf of his minions . now let us proceed and follow him to his next instance , for i am resolv'd i 'll take a brush with all the butt-ends in his book , if 't be but for curiosity , to try the metal of this vapouring huff ; as well as to prove what metal his weapon is made of . and now stand clear , the next is a none-such , a goliah's sword , they ( kings ) observe how the parliament of poland will be their kings taylor , &c. for which unsufferable affront to his majesty our gracious soveraign , his crown and dignity hereditary , and not elective , and at the good will either of people or parliament , as is the polish-crown , i leave him to be chastised by those whom it does so highly concern . leaving the consideration to their comments upon this bold intrenchment and invasion of our kings prerogative , and title to his crown by a comparison so odious , as well as false . and so much the rather do i wave any enlargment upon this , and the rest of his ridiculous instances , ( which would tempt any man alive , if he has any laughter in him , to laugh and droll upon this foppish greg. the most impertinent thing that ever offered to tell a story , ) but that i know he must shortly be disciplin'd for them by another hand , which ( by turning up all , for want of the prospect of a more pleasing nudity , ) will make us as good sport , with greg's following stories that were nuts to mother-midnight . go say thy prayers greg. and tremble at the rod that is coming upon thee , except thou thinkest the wisest way , in brief , is some way or other to save the hang-man a labour , and so be as insensible of the blows that are coming upon thee , as is thine old masters head , bradshaw's or father grey-beard's , ( your name-sake , as well as fellow-sinner's ) heads , when the jack-daws sh — upon them : and be thankful likewise that thou hast escap'd my fingers too , whose dexterity in flashing , more than any of the former pedants , to your smart , you may yet further feel , when you give me far less provocation , than in these idle instances of your politick abilities . i tell you true , i do not think it was worth your while , to go so far as france , nay as italy , for a sample of a king that had a gentlemans memory , and could not so much as remember that ever his father was murthered ; our king-killers , for whom you plead so heartily , might have made better escape , if you had never gone beyond sea , to find out kings to be for the murtherers of a king , royal advocates , viz. henry iv. of france , and augustus caesar whose father too was murthered . and now am i so weary with following this wild-goose-chace thus long , that if i would be knock'd on the head , i cannot write one page more , till i throw my pen away , and laugh a little at one pretty word : he has many on them , but this pretty word does so jear the parliament , and flear in their face for the act of uniformity , and the superfetation of that act , p. . i cannot but admire the sagacity of his raillery . it hath been observed that whensoever his majesty hath had the most urgent occasions for supply , others of them ( fathers of the church ) have made it their business to trinkle with the members of the parliament , for obstructing it , unless the king would buy it with a new law against the fanaticks . and this is that which of late years hath caused such a superfetation of acts about the same business . modern orthodoxy still ; tooth and nail , fly at king and parliament ; all , dead and alive , that have a hand , or has had an hand in the act of uniformity , that bane of the good old cause , but quite desperate by the superfetation-acts , about the same business . but this is no laughing matter , that which does tickle me spite of my teeth , is the word : the new coin'd word , by greg. his own self , minted , is trinkle ; trinkle with the members of the parliament ; some of the fathers of the church , when his majesty hath had the most urgent occasions for supply , did make it their busisiness to trinkle , to trinkle with the members — i wish for all that greg. had not said trinkle , trinkle ? it does so run in my mind like a new tune , that i cannot write one jot more till i have eas'd my hypochondriack sides , and laugh'd at this same trinkle a little , with my little droll : a mistress i lately made love to , only for the sake of her dress , 't is so much in fashion , and looks prettily ; but i ne'er entertain her above half an hour at a time , having better employ , and alwayes after dinner ; and that 's the reason my minerva is crassa , and my wit so gross ; yet it is but little neither for its age ; for which cause my little mistress droll does not much care for me , for fear i should get nothing but a race of pigmies , and therefore coy , and seldom comes at me . her iodgings are in the middle temple , there she keeps with the ingenuous hudibras ; and in good earnest i think she loves him above all english men . holla ! nine sisters ! you ! clio , melp . thal. and th' rest ! come hither , ho! but stay , of late you 're grown so common , send little droll , your waiting woman ; you get the hiss , but she the hum : droll then , my pretty houswife , come . what is 't ? ( if thou be oedipus , ) to trinkle members of the house ? come , scratch thy noddle girl , and guess : riddle me , riddle me what it is . to trinkle members , is meant here , to round the members in the ear ; no , no ; for they 've thrown off their round heads , and now got perukes , and more sound beads . to trinkle members is perhaps , to cure the members that have claps : yet now that cannot be meant here , for harry martin sits not there . to trinkle members , then must be some new , new term of alchymie ; and does in phrase of virtuoso , speak royal aid , supply , or so , so : then trinkle members is get glasses , limbecks , charcoal , stills , furnaces , ( to crock your faces be not sorry ) turn the house to a laboratory : bring luna , venus , quick-silver , mars , saturn , sol and jupiter ; sulphur , salt-peter and petrol , bole-armonack and vitriol , ceruse , minium and red-oker , pitch , chalk , ars'nick and synoper , allum , and salt , and antimony ; ( to find the mine where does lie money : ) casting off caput mortuum , try for the stone , if it will come : so trinkle members , as i 've heard , is nothing else but what i fear'd . fire the house , with honest fellows , trinkle the members , blow the bellows . thus trinkle th' members , ( as i am told , ) is turn the members into gold ; and so those bishops were midas's , and some o' th' members golden asses . or , trinkle members , is , get on , hey , for superfetation ! these two last sences th' meaning is , or , trinkles is non-sence , i wis . and greg. had better far been hang'd , than thus with lasting droll be bang'd . and if greg. takes it in dudgeon , that i thus set my little droll upon him , and soil him ; let him the next time bring either better weapons , skill and strength ; or more humility , submission and manners . lest she that has now bang'd him in metre , give him the next time no more quarter than the old irish rimes do their rais. but indeed it would be better on all hands , if he would keep him quiet , and within doors ; and not , ( as now ) so weakly and and wickedly rhodomantade for a baffled cause . by challenging his betters , whether dead or alive , to come if they dare ; whether king or parliament ; fathers of the church , or privy counsellors ; to play the prize over again once more , at the same old weapons , ( jealousies and fears , vile aspersions , crying , down with the evil counsellors , and the liturgy , ) to fight for reformation , liberty , indulgence , modern orthodoxy and the covenant . thus far i thought the design of the man was to fight neither with small nor great but only with the king and parliament . but now his hand 's in , he 'll play at small games rather than sit out , if 't be but for l●…oksake , and to that purpose , in the next page . makes one step to the ordinary . have you never a little clergy-man here , for a gentleman to play with ? never a droll , or boon companion with a cassock on ? that forgetting his serious office , will make a gentleman merry , & rather than fail , with a joque upon scriptures make a little play ? that i may pass upon him once or twice : and with a lucky hit , ( or as he phrases it , p. . with an unlucky repartee , ) jear the parson , make him a scorn , a tail and contempt to the people . his words there are ; but his , ( the eccles-politician's ) zeal spends it self against the atheists , because they use to jear parsons . that they may do , and no atheists neither . for really , while clergy-men will , having so serious an office , play the drolls and boon companions , and make merry with the scriptures , not only among themselves , ( who neither having perukes on their heads , nor swingers , and repartees at their tongues end cannot possibly be gentlemen ) but in gentlemens company , 't is impossible but that they should meet with , at least , ( if not a swinger and a rapper two or three , yet ) an unlucky repariee ( oh ! i thought it would come ) sometimes , and grow by degrees to be a tale and contempt to the people : ( or as it is in the original our people , namely , the modern orthodox do make themselves a taile of an old orthodox divine . and ( p. . ) i know not by what fate every day one or other of the clergy does , or saith , some so ridiculous or foolish thing , or some so pretty accident befals them , that ( in our authors words ) a man must be very splenetick that can refrain from laughter , ( it should have been quite contrary , a man must not be very splenetick that can refrain from laughter , for splen ridet — it is the seat of laughter , always while you live , so much spleen , so much laugh . ) but it would make a man laugh spite of his teeth : ( though he had scarce any laugh to spare ) at what ? to see how every day one or other of the clergy does or saith , or some accident befals him , that a body can't c●…use but laugh . thus the tassil-gentle , once upon the wing , for lack of a heron , or some noble prey , rather than fail , makes a stoop at a jack-daw , or a mag-pye . 't is a merry world with greg. he says , every day some one or other of the clergy ( either by word , or deed done by him , or done upon him ) is as good to greg. as jack-pudding himself , or wild , or merry andrew to make him laugh . when will 't come to my turn ( think i ) to wait , and make the gentleman sport ? i am afraid he will not like my droll , i shall ne'er please him ; or if he do laugh , i shall , with some unlucky repartee , make him laugh but on one side of his mouth . let me see ; give me mine almanack : since that greg. has his every day sport ( and laughing , and jesting at one or other of the clergy ) how long will it be before it comes to my turn ? for you know , my dear friend , father-gray-beard will find no great comfort in me , exc●…pt to laugh at my cassock and girdle ; but let him and all the virtuosos in england laugh how they will , whether with open mouth , or in their sleeves ; they can never be able to laugh me out of my coat . indeed i am none of these merry greeks ; i can neither pergraecari , nor laugh now ; i 'm not in the humour ; they only can best laugh that win . but i must be serious , and mind the great business in hand , to see when it will come to my turn to wait upon father-grey beard , as one of the clergy to make him laugh . let 's count . every day ? how many days is there in a year ? ask poor robin . according to the julian account days . fanatick calender days , for there is a mystery in . well then ; days in a year , and above ●… parishes in england ; of which i have but just four parishes , neither more nor less . how long then will it be before my turn comes for one or other of these four parishes to make sport for greg. and make him laugh , who is not one day without the company of one or other chaplain ( new as the day ) to say grace for him , and make him laugh ? at a venture , i 'l say , it will not come to my turn ( to tickle and trinkle him till he laugh again ) above once a year , and to the most of the clergy ( who have but one parish ) once in four years . now what great marvail is all this , in reproach to the clergy , that every one or other of them , ( some once a year , and some of them ( of the most wary and poorer sort , that have but one living , and that scarcely a living neither ) once in four pears ) does or saith , or at least some accident befals him or them , that a merry man and full of spleen ( sure he means a phanatick ) cannot hold from laughing ? nay , if there were a whole thousand of clergy-men so ridiculous , that once in a year , or at least once in four years , did do such a ridiculous action , or else spoke such a ridiculous word , or ( at least ) some gave him a twitch by the girdle , or some other sad accident befel him , that might make a gentleman laugh ; why are all the rest of the eleven thousand clergy-men thereby any more blemish'd and made contemptible , than were the eleven apostles for one judas ? or , than all , all the lords , parliament-men , gentlemen and tradesmen , because a certain lord , ( he shall be nameless ) and a certain parliament-man , ( i name none ) or a certain gentleman , and also fourthly , and lastly , a certain citizen , that either did or said , or else some accident befel him or them , or at least befel the wife of him , or one of them , so ludicrously and ridiculously ; that a man ( merrily dispos'd ) could not but laugh , as if he had seen a pair of horns upon the head of him , or them , or one of them , ( a sad accident ! ) or , that a certain lord , parliament-man , gentleman ( i forgot to say the knight ) or citizen with his perywig off ; either pluck'd off , or struck off , or box'd off , or fourthly and lastly ( by some other sad accident ) fallen off . now what a blot in the scutcheon would this be , to all the lords , parliament men , gentlemen and citizens in england ? if greg. was their adversary , or should come to be garter king at arms ? oh! yes , a very great blot and blurr to honour and reputation ; of which the gentlemen of england are so tender , that 't is two to one , if greg. had not ten thousand gloves sent him , all left-handed ; if he had dared thus to confront persons of quality , and men of honour . but to put the affront upon the clergy , great and small , poor and rich , long & short gowns , lawn sleeves , or no sleeves , cassocks silk or cassocks thread-bare , from the ordinary , to the rector , vicar or poor curate , from the silk girdle with four livings , to the worsted girdle with poor one living , 't is all one to greg. he dares all , slights all , jears all , nay huffs , and struts , stands a tip-toe , and looks big ; shakes his perywig , and stamps , scolds , rails , swells , frets , and rages like a profess'd hec. at all of them , as a pack of puny gown-men , a pen and ink-horn-crew , a sort of spiritless and cowhearted milk-sops , dastards and white-livers , and dare not send a gentleman the length of their sword . excepting this , there 's nothing tends to the contempt of the clergy in his whole relation and invectives , any more than what , changing the name , may with as much ease and unavoidably make a thrust at reputation of lord , parliament man , gentleman or citizen . some one or other of the clergy , nay a thousand of them may be black ; and yet both the church-men and the church continue comely . i wish indeed , with all my heart , that all the whole company of divines in england , were a divine company : i wish that the clergy , and all other men , ( of what quality soever ) were without spot or wrinkle , or any such thing ; that might tempt either a light heart to laugh , or a good heart to weep . but though i so pray , i have no cause to believe it will be so ; or any great ground for hope that it ever shall be so , whilst we are mortal , although modern orthodoxy and hugh peter should be rediviv'd . the modern orthodox ! oh! there 's your man ! iste regit dictis animos — — nec longè scilicet hostes quaerendi nobis , circumstant undique muros . these are the men that can make candida de nigris & de candentibus atra . ( i 'l fit you for ends of verse ; and i 'l use them as i list , and when i list , for all you , father-gray-beard . ) greg. tells us not of one daw-divine amongst the modern orthodox ( no , he says , that if he can do them no good , he is resolv'd , he will do them no harm ) nor tells us of one buffoon , or mad priest amongst them ; not one cock-wit , hugh peters , j. o. smec . or cock-divine , &c. thus , asinus scalpat asinum . the treacherous dealers have dealt treacherously , yea , the treacherous dealers have dealt very treacherously . but though there be not one of the modern orthodox ( that pretend to fear god ) who does truly honour the king : yet i wish ( if wishes would do ) that there were not one of the old orthodox divines ( who truly honour the king ) but would also truly fear god. turpe est doctori cùm culpa redarguit ipsum . which i english thus : great doctors sins ( when doctors fall ) just like their robes , are scarlet all. not but that i think , that evil ministers , if men of parts , may possibly minister some good ; a crackt bell may serve to ring others to church , though it self must be cast into the fire ; or , like noahs carpenters , who made a shift to build an ark of salvation for noah and his family , though themselves were drown'd . a dull whet-stone may serve to set an edge upon a knife ; and the life-less sun does yet enliven other creatures ; and ( in this sence ) denies the old axiome , nil dat quod non habet ; speaking , like the magick-head of brass , with honest words ; like the divel in samuels cassock , sam. . . and the weeds that may now annoy the churches garden , may yet prove medicinable , virtute officii , though not virtutis officio . galba , otho , and vitellius , ( as our richard the third ) were good emperours , though bad men ; and 't is possible bad men may yet sometimes be good preachers : yet we may say , as of weeds , they do more harm than good in the garden of god , they make the way of truth to be evil spoken of , and stain the surplice they wear . being the churches opprobrium , rom. . , . the scandal of their profession and high calling , putting religion to the blush . for when we compare their prophane lives , with those of the good apostles , whom they succeed ; we may say as that painter replyed to a cardinal ( who was angry with him for painting the faces of st. peter and st. paul so red ) i do it , saith he , for the very nonce , that they may be thought to blush at the lives of their successors . he was in the right on 't , that of old complain'd , that formerly the church had wooden chalices and golden ministers ; but now , saith he , we have golden chalices and wooden ministers . such drones , so they get the honey , care not who labour , or under what discouragements they labour , that 's work for the poor bee. thus damasus , ( the scholar to st. hierom ) stept up into the infallible chair , whilst poor st. hierom ended his days in a cell at bethlehem . yet it is more true honour , to deserve honour and want it , than by simony or smock simony to bluster in swelling titles without merit . cato had rather men should question why he had no statues erected in honour of his great worth , than why he had any ? true piety and vertue is vera nobilitas , it s own ornament ; and needs not the varnish of dear-bought heraldry to set it off . and if true piety be required in any man , much more in a clergy-man , whose escapes ( like a city upon a hill , and the oyntment of the right hand ) cannot be hid , especially in these times , when men watch for advantage against them , and like the divels rejoyce in iniquity . a little spot is seen in white , in a swan , not so in swine ; fine lawn is sooner stain'd than course canvas ; every little flaw spoils a diamond . the people are affected opere more than ore , exemplis plus quam verbis , more with examples than precepts ; more with deeds than words , except they be very flattering words , and pronounc'd by such glozing parasites , as will lick up the peoples spittle , in hopes of gain or fame : humoring them to the life , but to their own and the peoples everlasting death ; like demas , that forsook st. paul , to be further preferr'd to the favour of the rabble , and in the idol temple at thessalonica . they therefore that tread in high places , had need look to their steps , that they walk uprightly , especially when they have many followers and dependents ; lest they be accessary to other mens fall , as well as principally to their own . as the due place of the clergy sets them above many others , heb. . . thes. . . so should they be more eminent than others in learning and piety ; gods high priest of old had pomegranates for smell , as well as bells for sound . king solomon the preacher call , himself koheloth , the preacheress , of the feminine gender ; and preachers are called wisdoms maids , prov . . and the apostles are called joh. . . christs nymphs , to teach the clergy purity , as virgins . the longer their gowns and robes are , the more apt to contract dirt , and therefore the more carefully to be holden up ; lewdness in a virgin is insufferable . epicurism and libertinism prevail'd in the world , not for the goodness of the doctrine , but because of the sober and austere life of the doctor that brought it , epicurus . and i am confident that rebellion and schism ( which is factions libertinism ) had never prevail'd so far in the hearts of the people of england , against so righteous a king and laws ; but for the austerity of many of the most vile incendiaries , and the loosness and remissness of others , who went not so steddily , though walking upon better ground . thus you see , my friend , i am not possest with a spirit of contradiction , right or wrong to oppose all that greg. does say ; i can be content to accept truth , even when it comes from the father of lyes : and all i have now writ toyou , upon this occasion given me by greg. is only out of my hearty well wishes to the clergy , that the enemy ( by standing on their ground ) may have no advantage over them ; for we are not ignorant of his devices ; endeavouring to foyl , and always twitting a good cause , where he finds the least resistance and defence . though in the greatest latitude of charity , no man can imagine that father-gray-beard exposes the loosness of any of the clergy , for any love he has to a more strict conversation , either in himself or them . that which is most admirable in the man is the pregnancy of his fancy in only one art ; to wit , the superfetation of wit in all the kinds of railing ; the worst butter-whore is to seek , and may well go to school to trinkles , he and she both being so sertile , sure the brood they ingender will all be marvelous railers . with what exuberancy of stile and variety of invectives does he prosecute the ecclesiastical politician , bishop bramhall , arch-bishop usher , bishop sparrow , bishop andrews deceased , arch bishop laud deceased , king charles deceased ; with many sinister reflexions upon his gracious majesty and this happy parliament ? how falsly does he charge the church of england , when he says it admits none to baptism without the sign of the cross ? whereas the sign of the cross is not the cross in baptism by her constitutions : but the cross after baptism , when the god-fathers and god-mothers vouch for the visibility of the childs profession and education in christ's religion ; and is a practice as ancient as innocent amongst christians , who , being scofft by the heathens for believing in christ , crucified on a cross , they did ever since the apostles time thereby testifie , and openly , and couragiously justifie to the world , that they were no gnosticks , but like st. paul , not ashamed of the cross of our lord jesus christ. and whereas he makes it such a horrid thing to keep men from the other sacrament of christ , viz. the lords supper , because they will not kneel and stoop to a ceremony ; let him know they do justly and warrantably in so doing , granting there is such an humane law , and ordinance for the same : which ought to be , lest men left to their liberty , some would out of novelty , singularity or capriciousness , loll , or lye upon the ground , in unseemly , if not in immodest postures , and consequently tempt some to abhorr the offering of the lord. and whether we stand , or keep walking all the time , as many calvinists do , or sit , as do some other calvinists , or kneel , as do the english protestants , one is as warrantable as the other , and all alike ; and all unlike to the posture of our saviour at the institution of it ; if he lean'd his head upon st. johns breast , as he did at supper ; which yet cannot be prov'd , that that posture of discumbency was his posture at the celebration of this sacrament . but much more credit had it been to trinkles , and much more good had he done in his generation , if instead of hollaing and whooping against the ecclesiastical politician , he had been hollaing and whooping his dogs , his hogs , his geese , or his sheep ; and leave discourses of divinity and policy , and censures upon the doctrine and fathers of our church , king and parliament , to men of greater abilities , and more modesty ; greater reading , and better parts : or , if his antipathy be great ( as it seems to be ) to all clergywen , forgetting his father ; let him , concerning sacraments , learn of that almost matchless pen of sir william morrice , in his coena quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , by which like a true english gentleman , and not an upstart virtuoso , he has gain'd a more lasting and glorious name , than a kingdom could have given him without such accomplishments ; and as much honour by every page of that his book , as father-gray-beard has got dishonour by his : and that is enough in all conscience , in the judgement of all learned men , always excepted the modern orthodox , who i know would be angry , to be excluded quite from being thought ( at least ) to be learned men ; though the truly learned men of the world , by long expectation to see some of their learning in their works or words , are now grown hopeless , and despair of it , it is so long a coming , a deaf man would be glad to hear it , as much as a blind mind would be glad to see it ; chiefly , because their learning consists in sounds and tones , cantings , groanings , noise , clamours and whinings , which would be convenient for a deaf man to hear : and likewise in thumping the pulpit , and there traversing all the whole postures of a master of fence , and has frighted some ( that used to sit near the pulpit ) from their feats , being so often menaced with visage grim and fierce , and bible heav'd up , lest at last they should be knockt on the head , with geneva and knox. and truly at this taking oratory they are old excellent , and for this alone cryed up and followed by the rabble , in as great multitudes as jack-pudding himself has about him at a fair. and though i know not one knowing man of quality in england , that is a phanatick , ( except upon design , as a crafty mountebank companies , and playes the fool with his own jack , ) so the rabble and multitude are generally as much pleased with one of these phanatick jack-puddings , and part with their monies as freely to them , and flock about them in droves , as great and numerous about them , as about merry andrew or poet wild. and they 'l follow this foolery , till their pocket's emptied and pickt pretty often , and the jest grow stale , ( as indeed it is very sowre already to all understanding men and women ; ) and though they did flock hand over head with their plate , thimbles , bodkins , horse , arms , spoons , gold rings and beakers , to those jack-puddings in the late times , hugh peters , and the rest , preaching upon judg. . . curse ye meroz — as if they were afraid the devil would take the hindmost ; yet it would not be so taking now , as then , except the hocus's devise some new antick tricks , ( fools and children being delighted only in change and novelty ) though the text , curse ye meroz — will serve still now for the feat as well as ever it did , when occasion serves . though to all but fools and knaves , it is such a text for loyalty and allegiance , such a text for the king and cavaleers ; that almighty god has not furnish'd us with such another in the whole bible : yet these villains could turn it to the quite contrary sence , wresting the holy word of god by their interpretation , as blasphemously as atheistically ; for they were not all of them so besotted , but they could not but know that they did lie to the holy ghost . i confess indeed there are abundance of texts , besides the fifth commandment , that plead for allegiance and loyalty , but none like this of curse ye meroz — other texts require us not to think evil , nor speak evil of dignities , much more not to entreat them evilly ; for who can lift up his hand against the lord 's anointed and be guiltless ? though the lord 's anoynted be as wicked as nero or saul , and have a devil in him as king saul had ; yet we must not be so devilish as to lift up our hands against him . david , that did not cut off king saul's head , yet his heart smote him , and his conscience smote him for cutting off saul's skirt . but this text — curse ye meroz — denounces a heavy curse — not only as other texts do for rebelling against the king and taking up arms against him , and sending in money and plate to the rebels to comfort the hearts and bowels of traytors ; — but here they are by the angel of the lord accursed , that like meroz sit at home , and will neither come nor send in their horse and arms , and monies to the help of the chief magistrate and chief judge of the land , as deborah then was ; and meroz was accursed by the angel of the lord for not coming to help her against her mighty enemies : where note too , that the helping thus the chief magistrate , ( as deborah was ) is called helping of god , or the help of the lord. no man that has his wits about him , or has any sober sence , enough to keep him from slavering , can deny this meaning i put upon it ; and let greg. and all the modern orthodox , if they dare , offer at any other interpretation , or mitigate the force of this sence i put upon it if they can ; and they are daring enough even now , as well as formerly , not only as t. g. and r. b. upon that text , touch not mine anointed , but as many others of them , and greg. amongst the rest does , p. . upon that text , rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft . which text because the eccles. politician interprets it , rebellion against the king — greg. says ( for fear he would be knock'd on the head , if he should deny it ) he does allow him that interpretation ; nevertheless ( he say there ) that text of scripture will scarce admit it . and though we know by that what true affection he bears to the king , ( against whom who rebels , rebels against god ; we have sinned against moses and against thee , say the people ; for the sin of mutiny and rebellion immediately against moses is acknowledged rebellion against god ) so that that evasion will ease the tender consciences of no rebels , but such of the modern orthodox , like father gray-beard , that thus mince it : as r. b. and j. o. did rom. . . making damn'd in that text sound more comfortably . but let j. o. and r. b. that writ oliver's maxims of policy and damnable treason , and the poyson to the antidote of his saints everlasting rest ; together with all the modern orthodox , and your self ( in the first place i should have said ) mr. greg. alleviate and take off the weight of this interpretation of curse ye meroz — which i impose upon you , and all of you put together have not art enough to shake it off ; though thus you are bereav'd of your darling-text , that sent so many poor souls to the devil , so many thousands to an untimely and desperate end , and so many millions of blood and treasure cast away and lost by your leasings and lies told so speciously upon this text. i know i had better have stirr'd in a hornets nest , than thus to fret and anger the modern orthodox , the leven of whose religion makes them waspish , peevish , touchy , clamorous , and malicious slanderers and backbiters ; but i am as much above the reach of their malice , as above their low and base principles , and unmanlike as well as ignoble and effeminate practices . answering a man's arguments with a libel upon his person , and clapping upon him such a beastly character , ( as did the heathens when they arrayed the christians in bear-skins ) on purpose to set their dogs at them ; according to their keeness either to bite or barke . let them oppose the strength of my arguments and reasonings with answerable skill and force , and then the danger is over as soon as it appears , though the cabala club for the shot ; as the whole assembly of divines did six years together with joynt and united forces , to make only at last a catechism for little children , when ball 's catechism new printed had done the feat much better . these are brave fellows , for whose sakes the government and laws must give place , and bow which way they please . i know wise men know them well enough , but because some look upon these demagogues and incendiaries , as the great lights and luminaries against ignorance and atheism , ( as greg. suggests , p. . ) i 'le but draw the picture of one of them in the pulpit , and barely represent the words that a thousand witnesses yet alive are ready to depose unto , as the very language of the pulpit , of hugh peters particularly , when they gull'd the people of their souls , bodies , money , arms and plate , by their damnable doctrine from that blessed text , judg. . . — curse ye meroz . — it had been happy for england , the king , parliament , people and themselves too , if they never had preach'd , nor ever should be suffer'd to preach on any other text , than matt. . . and because their pulpit buffonery on so sacred a text , as — curse ye meroz — was all drolling stuffe , i have suffered my muse to make use of her rhime , but not her fancy in this pourtraicture ; in which i can plead no propriety other than the chronologer does in the villanies of wat tyler or jack straw , the bare historical relation . i neither have nor can claim any right or share to this representation and interpretation of that sacred text , nor this following se●…mon of hugh peters thereupon , more than he that writ sermon-notes after him , to which i have added only the rhime , and abridg'd hugh peters idle tautologies and some slovenly as well as prophaner expressions , unworthy my pen. the historical relation and dress is mine own , but the buffoonery is well known to be the pulpit stuffe of hugh peters in many congregations , thwack'd full all the kingdome over , to listen to that prophane hocus , and paid him well for his pains . they shall have it therefore as freely as ever it was mine , they have bought it and paid dear for it , & therefore do i give it them , & put it in print for them , that keeping it by them , they may yet have something for all the plate , thimbles and bodkins , the poor fools gave him with such a liberal hand ; i am sure i deserve more for representing it in droll ; but they 'l be far enough before they 'l give me so much as one silver spoon for my pains , or perhaps so much as thanks , which is all i look for or need ( i thank god ) though my design is purely for their good , and to show them their folly and madness in so desperate a cause , to throw away their estates , body , and soul for such foppery , as hugh peters's sermon upon judg. . . curse ye meroz — represented , like it self , in this drolling pulpit-stuff . hid in these words , it plain appears , lie men and arms , 'gainst cavaliers : i see them , clear as any thing , both foot and horse , against the king : couchant , i grant , perdue they lie ; nor seen indeed by carnal eye ; because they lie in ambuscade ; but ready are for a parade : arm'd cap-a-pee ; and one and all , to come when we do beat a call. drum-major i , on pulpit drum , am therefore now , beloved , come , with bible in geneva print , to turn up all , this text has in 't . in which two parts , at least , i c●…unt , here 's gerazim , there 's ebal mount : here lies the blessing , there the curse : take you the better par●… ; the worse is good enough for cavaliers ; and such as dare not shew their eares , as round-heads do , in good old cause , for liberty , religion , laws : for which , who dies , is cursed never , from which , who flies , is cursed ever . for which , who dyes , is blessed ever , from which , who flyes , is blessed never . since i was with you last , i 've been , to tell you truth , in hell and heaven : you 'l say perhaps , it is a great way , yet to the first , it is a neat way ; and to be found out very easie , and down-hill all way to 't , an 't please ye : nor is 't far off , ye may come to 't in one day , though you go on foot : and bare-foot , with●…ut shooes or hose . of all days in the week , i chose the sabbath ( taught by master gurney ; ) to speed the better in my journey : for one may preach , and cant , and pray ; yet never be out of the way : when i came there , who ( do you think ) i spi'd , as i stood at pit's brink ? except the cavaliers , not one : and only one committee-man , with sequestrators three , at th' door ; only condemn'd for being poor , and ba●…king of a bishop's land , sentenc'd for ever there to stand . my foot stood just at brink of pit , a little more i 'd been in it : truly i durst not come too near , as i good reason had to fear : long prayers there are no assistance , i therefore still did keep my distance : and loth to stay , the fiends to shun like h●…re before the hounds , i run , and i , though fat , away did hie , to see what i in heaven could spie . and to that purpose i did gather in arabs a great phoenix feather to fly withall , a pretty thing , daedalus ne're imp'd such a wing ; resolving with my self to flie above the clouds , and starry skie ; hoping the better to get in , because my name-sake is in heaven , st. peter at the door : yet i , thinking on 't better , ( ●…th to fly so high a pitch ) had cause to fear i never should find entrance there , on that acount ( but was to blame ) peter was not my christian name . besides , i fear'd st. peter should owe me a grudge , because i would often ( for which i now am vext ) make a holdsally from my text against the pope , who is alli'd to peter by the surer side . fearing success , and loth to climb , i put off 'till some other time the journey : i desisting then can tell you no great news from heaven : therefore i 'l keep me to my text , that with some d●…ubts is much perplext ; but i 'l resolve all out of hand , and first , in order as they stand , curse ye meroz — what is meroz ? some infidel will not come near us , nor to us will horse and arms bring , but rather send them to the king , and go himself , and men to boot ; but for the cause not stir one foot . this is that cursed meroz , that to th' parliament will send no plate , but from us if he can will lock it , and keep his money in his pocket . so much for that . another word there is to clear : — help of the lord. help of the lord ! what 's that ? lord bishop ? or house of lords ? not so , i hope : nor lórd newcastle , nor lord goring ; ( with whom the wicked go a whoring ; ) help of the lord , is , one and all help the lord essex , general . but that 's not all , for moneys are the nerves and sinews too of war ; for powder must be had for gun ; ( we had as good else ne'r begun ; ) if the red-coats have not their pay , they 'l from their colours run away ; nor will they willing be to die : nay , and perhaps may mutinie for want of pay , where are we then ? we may go hang our selves for men , except we money have . the gold must here be found ; as i 'l unfold ; help of the lord then , is dear honeys , help the poor red-coats with your moneys . down with your dust then ; come , be nimble , plate , bodkins , tankards , spoon , ●…r thimble : all these ( then as if at a stand , and into pocket putting his hand ) all these ( like barber's teeth , being strung on red cloth , ready as they hung ) ( holding forth , said ) all these ( good people ! ) from colchester st. peter's steeple are all clear gains ; and i assure ye as many more i got at bury . then ( lest the people should discover his sleight of hand , and so give over , finding the juggle out , and mock it ) he put his hand in th' other pocket , as feeling for some other strings : ( but in the interim flyly flings his right hand into th' left behind , and then the better them to blind , his hands met under 's cloak , in brief , as the receiver with the thief ) he held it out then to be seen , ( as if some other string 't had been , and said ) this other string of plate i , from the wives of ipswich got . the butcher's wife did freely give all the poor soul had , i believe : i got all to her very plackit , and can have more still when i lack it . help of the lord then , is , dear coneys ! help us dear petticoats with moneys . list ; for i hear this text plain lie , fine ends of gold and silver crie : ( beggars must be n●… chusers ) whether silver broken or whole ; bring 't hi●…her ; good wife or w●…nch ; the widows mite : oliver c. shall you requite ; if you 'l not credit what he saith , i 'l give you then the publick faith. methinks i hear the proverb started , a fool and 's money is soon p●…rted : that proverb does belong to those that part with money to ou●… foes . help who ? the king ? no. nosuch thing , help parliament , not help the king : when we say , king and parliament , the parliament alone is meant . so much for this time then i say . desiderantur caetera . by this you have heard how the juggle has been done ; the story is good , because 't is true , and thousands to this day witness it to their cost , to the loss of their goods , plate and estates , and which is more to the loss of the bodies , and souls too , ( it is too probable , ) of their dear relations . was the holy word of god ever before in any age or kingdom so vilely abus'd by such abominable wrestings and interpretations , and to such base and bloody ends and designs , as by these peters , owens , marshals , baxters , &c. are not these worthy cares for the fathers of the new church of modern orthodoxy ? are not these within an inch and a half at least as bad as a rationale upon the sacred common-prayer ? could the devil of hell ever abuse and wrest the holy scriptures , as these modern orthodox : juglers and sermon-mongers have done ? nay , the devil to give him his due , was not so impudent , mat. . for though he was devil for taking the sacred word into his mouth , since he hated to be reformed ; yet those sermon mongers in these times were much more devils in that particular , and outvyed beelzebub himself . for he , mat. . quoted the scripture truly , but not fully , omitting in the sixth verse of that chapter , as his children used to do , in the seventeenth verse of pet. . the latter clause , as that which made not for their turn . but these children have out-done their father in hellish craft upon those scriptures , curse ye meroz — give them blood to drink — bind their kings with chains , and their nobles in fetters of iron — and a hundred the like ; not , in concealing the full sence of them , as the devil did ; but being more devillish and out witting . hell it self , in wresting them to a quite contrary sence , the devil went not so far , these modern orthodox herein making the devil an ass. are not these worthy cares , mr. grey beard , for your learned fathers ? considering therefore these things with my self , as one whose fate it was to be born and bred up in schismatical times , and a factious university , ( sucking in schism with my mothers milk , in two s●…nses , ) and consequently when i was a child , did as a child , and was gull'd and cheated into their fopperies , as much as i must needs have been into mabometanism , if i had been born and bred up amongst the turks , whom yet i have found the honester of the two , though both bad ; i say , considering with my self , when i came to years of consideration , what devillish bloody and rapacious villains these modern orthodox preachers and sermon-mongers were , so that hell it self could not match them ; and withal considering that those people that most haunted those preachments , sermons , lectures and stories , were above all mankind whether turks , cannibals , indians or jews , the most false , malicious , revengeful , slanderous , envious , liars , cheaters , treacherous , bloody , perfidious , rapacious , plunderers , sequestrators , oliverians , committee-men , gifted-men , cruel , dissemblers , lovers of their own selves alone , together with them of their gang , covetous , boasters , proud , blasphemers , disobedient to parents , unthankful , unholy , traitors , heady , high-minded , lovers of pleasures more than lovers of god , having a form of godliness , but denying the power thereof , &c. presently i think with my self , if these be the people of god , who the devil will have for his people , i cannot tell ; for in all my travails upon earth , i never met with such villains and wretches amongst turks or indians ; praying , as the indian did , ( when the friar told him to what place after this life the bloody spaniard went ) that my soul may never go to that place , whither those bloody villains go , except they repent of their deeds . for thought i , how can these people be the godly party , whose deeds are blacker than hell , more bloody than those of that roaring lion , as great lyars and slanderers , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as the father of lies can be , or make them to be ; one may know by their looks what breed they are of , they are so father-like , as like him as ever they can look ' : and tell them of these things , instead of giving you thanks , or repenting and amending , they rage and rail , slander like mad , or the devil himself . therefore finding them characterized and prophesied of in the latter days by the apostle tim. . , , , . oh! thought i , now i have found you traitors , heady , high-minded , &c. lovers of pleasures more than lovers of god ; having a form of godliness , but denying the power thereof , &c. indeed and indeed — will they say — have you found us traitors , heady , high-minded , &c. but i pray who is characterized by the next words , lovers of pleasures — mark that — more than lovers of god ; having a form of godliness — who is sor forms , i pray , come tell us that , are we for forms , &c. now the poor souls think they have hit it . alas ! poor souls ! the characters of traytors , and the rest of them do not seem to fit these modern orthodox altogether so well as these two last , for they seem to be made for them for the very nonce , on set purpose , nothing can be more apposite or proper for them . lovers of pleasures , the apostle says , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , voluptuosi , lat. voluptueux , french , voluptuous , ( voluptas comes from voluntas ) and sounds thus much , lovers of their own wills and pleasures , a people that will have their wills and pleasures to be done , as if they were kings , or more than kings , a wilful generation , that what they list to have , they will have , or they will mingle heaven and earth , ruffle kingdoms , turn all to blood and ruine ; kings shall stand upon the stool of repentance , kingdoms shall be laid waste , millions of men and moneys lost ; and the best of kings if they stand in the way of their wills and pleasures , down they must , let god and laws say what they will , for they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , more in love with their own good pleasure , than gods good pleasure : god says , fear god , honour the king , submit to every ordinance of man for gods sake , be subject , you must needs be subject for conscience sake , or you shall be damn'd : no matter for that , let god and man say what they will , they will have their wills ; yet these wilful people never want woe ; nor those kingdoms that are troubled with them ; they misersably disquiet themselves as well as others . but these modern orthodox are not more signally describ'd by that character , than the next — having a form of godliness — 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , translated here the form , is of the same signification with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , whence the latines , by way of anagram , have their word forma , and the english do nearer anagrammatize the greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in our word here — form . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies the face of any thing , exterior rei facies , the vizor , the mask , the image , the resemblance of a thing . so that the form of godliness here is the face of godliness , the vizor or mask of godliness , the resemblance or image of godliness , but denying the power thereof . such a mask as jezabel put on , when she proclaimed a fast , but denyed the power of godliness , when she murthered naboth to get his vineyard . and thus these modern orthodox put on the vizor and mask of godliness in their old parliament fast-days , their noise of reformation , multiplicity of sermons ; yet these zealous sermon-mongers , these gifted-praying men , these jewish sabbath-men , if they had had the power of godliness , they had not , durst not have run into rebellion , blood , schism , robberies called plunderings and sequestrations , murder , oppression , lyes , slanders , blasphemies , pride , malice , envy , hatred and all uncharitableness ; and murder , which makes them odious to all mankind , but themselves , namely , king-killing . but not a word of this as you love me , this must not be remembred , learn herein to get gentlemens memories ; but if you will remember , remember schism in the letany , extinguish it , letany and liturgy , the cause of all the wars , together with the king and council that imposed it , remember that — but as for the poor harmless lambs , if it were a failing to murther the king and his friends , come , it was but a failing , an infirmity in the saints , be gentlemen and forget it . yet for my part , in the most impartial scrutiny , that i can make , i do not perceive that these modern faux's had their vizors truly on , when they went about those deeds of darkness ; i do not find that their way of sermons , prayers , jewish sabbathizings deserves so much honour as to be called the true face , form , mask , vizor , or resemblance of religion ; it is so far from true , that it is not so much as like the true way of godliness , and gospel discoveries by christ and his apostles . first for their way of sermons , preachments , two , three , four or ten times a week , the running of an hourg-lass or two at a time , in lectures on sundays and week days , lectures in the morning , lectures at noon , and afternoon , lectures , lectures , sermons , sermons , oh sermons ! i am sure it is not a gospel way , nor so much as the true face , form or semblance of the preaching of our saviour and the apostles . our saviour in his first sermon upon the mount in the , , and chapters of s. matthew , all not half an hour long , yet speaketh of twenty or fourty several subjects : not confining himself to one subject , one text , doctrines , inferences and uses , but thought he should not need to beg pardon , though he went from one subject in discourse to another of a random nature ; which our modern divinity men would have call'd r●…mbling , at least ; and 't is well if it scap'd so ; our blessed saviour speaking what was most useful and seasonable for his auditory at that time , and more than ever he spake at any other time , in one continued discourse . to say that all his sermons are not set down , is bold , impudent , precarious , and daring : the apostle john saith , the signs or miracles he did are not all set down , but for his words as they were all saving , so we have cause to think he did not grutch them to posterity ; for certainly novelty in religious worship and variety was not then in fashion , he preach'd and so did the apostles the best that they could , and the best that could be ; and if they had not preach'd the same things over and over , over and over again , they must have preach'd one time better than another ; which is not safe to say of our saviour ; therefore when his disciples desire him to teach them to pray , he tells them no other but what he had told them in his first sermon , when ye pray , s●…y , our father , &c. and when he was in his agony , and prayed most earnestly , the third time , it was short not like the pharisees , nor our modern pharisees , but to the purpose , and saying the same words , the same words — our saviour never took a text but once , and then the sermon he made of it was not so long as the text. s. peter converts three thousand with a sermon , acts . and all the whole sermon was but half a chapter , and yet the longest that ever he made ; that in the tenth chapter of the acts was scarcely half so long . i might give many more instances to shew that this way of sermons that now obtains and is the fashion , is not the way of christ , if this was intended for a set-discourse , for that purpose ; but i mention it now only to shew that these sermons , sermons , lectures , preachings , as they that m●…st haunted them and cryed them up , have been and still are the greatest villains , cheats , treacherous , deceivers ' under the cope of heaven ; so it does but still evidence the more that it is not the way of christ ; brought into the churuch by two or three talking men some hundred of years after christ , but they shall be nameless ; it is sufficient to say they could talk well , and they lov'd as all good orators do , to hear themselves talk ; but that this should be any argument that now therefore we must , ( let the weather be never so cold , ) sit it out forsooth , till an impertinent idle prating fellow has brought down moon , stars and glories to shew us how hard he studied the week before for this hour-glass-harangue , seems to me very strange , that the world should be so still bejugled ; especially these tedious speeches being at best but smil'd at , if not quite laugh'd out of countenance , where men speak best , viz. in the parliament house , councils , universities , inns of court ; but the pulpit must be the last that will learn more wit and grace ; though we pretend these are such gospel times too , and will take our saviour and the apostles for a pattern . when they can infer any thing with more sence than yet i have heard , from acts . . s. paul's continuing his discourse until midnight , the only objection in the bible against all that i alleadge , i will give them an answer , if they will tell me how many hours of that night st. paul and the disciples did spend in eating and breaking bread , v. : and raising up eutychus ; and also if they will promise me , ( in one thing more ) to imitate that holy apostle , namely when they preach an hour , two , three , or till midnight , or all night , i care not , upon condition , these modern orthodox will also depart from us on the morrow for ever , to try how much we shall wet our handkerchiefs , when they tell us , we shall see their face no more . they would be happy indeed , for themselves perhaps , i am sure happy for the kingdom that has been so unhappy already , occasion'd chiefly by their sweaty preaching . if they have wit enough , let them answer this , and to purpose too , or else down goes bell and the dragon ; but if they answer as insignificantly , as they us'd to preach , when they cast so many long looks upon the slowly-sliding sands in the hour-glass ; if not angry shaking it for its sloath , then will their answers tyre me as much as ever did their sermons , and that 's enough in all reason and conscience , and i shall scorn to honour them by taking notice of such impertinents . if st. peter was alive again , and had not gone to school to some of these new holder-forths , how would little pulpit-man despise him for preaching the same , the same , and the same sermon perpetually , when he could show him for a need three or four hundred or a thousand harangues in his budget . a wicked , foolish , perverse and hypocritical generation we live in , when men , nay ministers rather endeavour to seem good preachers , than be good preachers in imitating christ and his apostles ; and not by idle inventions , preferr what is plausible before what is profitable , rather pleasing men than god ; therefore they have their reward : and have plung'd themselves into perplexities , or into parson slip-stockins extravagancies ; chusing rather impertinencies commended for their variety , only by an idle loose people given to change , than to speak often to the same purpose , over and over again , though never so necessary , profitable , and to good purpose . nor will the clergy ever free themselves and their sermons from contempt , till they follow the copy and pattern for preaching set them by christ and his holy apostles : and if priest and people find really and truly that these hour-glass discourses are as uneasie and troublesome , as unprofitable to both ; let them learn of their masters , christ and the apostles , and the primitive fathers , who in their preachings went to question 's and answers , that is , catechizing , or ecchoing answers to questions ; our blessed saviours usual way of preaching ; to which catechizer , as the right gospel preacher , st. paul charge ; the galathians . . to allow him all good maintenance or a good living , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ; let him that is catechized in the word communicate to him that catechizeth in all good things ; and not — , let him that is taught in the word — for the words of st. paul ought to be , and are now properly translated , let him that is catechized communicate to him that catechizeth — for though all catechizing is teaching , yet all teaching ( modern orthodox , pulpit-harangue teaching for example ) is not catechizing , which was the usual way of teaching practised by our saviour , the apostles and primitive christians , and in england too , till this superstitious , hypocritical modern orthodoxy intruded , and impudently thrust its betters out of church , and put it out of countenance with a brazen forehead . didymus optatus was called the catechist , or catechizer , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or doctor audientium , cyp. ep . . in the church of carthage ; cyril the great was not ashamed of that name at jerusalem , nor hierocles at alexandria , and many more , of the most famous men , of the world , as well as england , thought it no disparagement to catechize , though i can give good reasons , that usually , ( as in many places of christendom at this day ) any man may propound a question to the minister , and desire to be resolv'd , and therefore should the man of god be able and throughly furnished unto every good work and word , to give a pertinent and ready answer to such as hearing him , ask'd him questions too , if they pleased , as the doctors with our saviour , luk. . . so that those worthy cares of the fathers of modern orthodoxy in their preachments has not so much as the face , true form and resemblance of christ's sermons ; but is a whimsey cryed up so long by themselves , till it has justled sacraments , prayers , catechizing quite out of the church ; having not the power of godliness , in that there are no such villains ( as i said before ) as these sermon-mongers upon the face of the earth , as every body must acknowledge and confess , except themselves , who are always apt to find fault with other men for superstitious , when they themselves are the most superstitious people , i know , in the world , as i 'l show more fully on some other occasion ; superstitious , ( at the best ) their sermonizing is , and has been ; but that 's not all , it has been blasphemous , atheistical , damnable and prophane , as i have shown in their debauch'd interpretations and comments on holy writ ; and i fear it is so yet , they do not use to amend . and god looks upon these devotions of theirs , that they keep such a puther for , but as the cutting off of a dogs neck , and will say to them one day , who required these things at your hands ? it is iniquity , even your solemn meetings : and they may thank the king and parliament with all their hearts , if like careful parents , they will not suffer these wilfull , foolish , head-strong people have their wills , no longer be gull'd by a pack of cheats ; not permitting the blind cobler , tinker , weaver , taylor , chimney-sweeper , &c. nor the wilfully blind , but crafty canting presbyter to lead the blind , lest they both fall into the ditch remedilesly . if i were to commend a father , it should be him that has a care of his children , and keeps them from hurting themselves spite of their teeth ; and that chuses rather to do them good , than get their good will : when they come to discretion , ( which is not likely till they have wiser and honester guides ) then they 'l thank this good father for his care . alas ! if they were in their right mind , durst they blaspheme the holy ghost , when they father their impertinent , nonsensical , blasphemous ravings in prayer , upon the holy ghost ; calling it the spiritual gift of prayer , and the spirit of prayer , and i know not what good titles on so ill a deserving faculty ; obtain'd at best but by custom , use , confidence , and volubility of words ; which ( i can speak as experimentally of it , and knowingly , as any modern orthodoxman , yet do i not account my self for it a jot the better man , ) being an art of which every porter , cobler , chimney-sweeper , or hector , may easily be a master , and attainable by every common billings-gate-scold . i say again they lye to the holy ghost , and blaspheme the spirit of god , that call such pitiful , low , easie and beggerly gifts , the gifts of the spirit , other than of a confident , foolish , rash , impudent , blasphemous spirit , that is rash with his mouth in uttering any thing before god , before whom our words ●…ught to be few , eccles. . . which brings to my mind that bold and seditious petition which a scotch minister put up in his prayer before sermon in st. peters church at colchester two or three years ago , when he was about to pray for his sacred majesty , and our gracious queen katherine , in these very words — gud laird , bless the king and queens majesties , and keep them from aw lownery , but confund aw their images and idols , gud laird — whether having none of the kings images in gud white syller in his awn pouch , he was in hopes to get some amongst the factious crew , so much the more by this libelling prayer , or having the kingscoyn in his pocket he never fear'd that god would hear his prayer in confounding those images of the king ; sure i am he made a shift to chouce many of the fops of the king's images in good coyn , and away he run with his scotch frow that followed him . but yet i cannot think that the extravagancies of bold men in prayer , even for the king , are to be allowed or trusted to ; excellently provided against in our liturgy , to which i think all publick preachers ought strictly to be limited . and though many ministers usually pray for the king in their invented prayers before sermons ( harmlesly , one would think at the first blush ) yet upon stricter examination , their petitions for the king , are but a kind of rayling and blasphemy ; as when they beg of god , that he would be pleased to over-rule the kings heart , and make him a chaste , pious , wise , holy , just and temperate prince , and a thousand such like expressions , and of worse nature , not fit here to rehearse , but infinuating and hinting as if he was a prince that needed their prayers in those particulars ; and sounds little better than treason , in rendring him to their utmost odious to his people . for to pray in the spirit , is to pray in the mind or spirit , that is , to mind what we pray , and heartily beg the same of god in my mind or spirit , ( whether i use words or no words in private prayer the matter is not great ) so that whether with words or without words , my mind or spirit intercedes for mercies at the throne of grace , where the spirit of god helps our infirmites ; other prayer by the spirit there is none , but all other than this is pharisaical babling out of ostentation , covetousness , or some base design unworthy of , and inconsistent with so holy a duty , whether in words plac'd in wonted order , ( as most certain and profitable ) or in words of order diverted , subject to rash , uncouth , if not nonsensical sometimes and blasphemous expressions . and they that understand not this , know not what it is to pray in spirit , not knowing what they say , nor whereof they affirm , whilst these gifted brethren lie to the holy ghost , as ananias did , how can they escape the judgements of god ? father forgive them , they know not what they say . but when men pray in publick , as the church did , acts . . then they should render him the calves of their lips , with one mind and one mouth too , rom. . . glorifying god , all speaking , as in our divine letany and liturgy , ( at least all saying amen ) lifting up their voyces 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with one accord , as the church did , acts . . and that you may be assured it was by a common-prayer-book at that time , in set words , known to all , it is said there , they did lift up their voyces with one accord , which is imp●…ssible to be done but by a liturgy ; otherwise one of the church might be praying for faith , hope , or patience , whilst others were praying for charity , temperance , or chastity , &c. and one would have done his prayers , whilst another was scarcely heated at it , or had not half done ; but to end the controversie , their set form of prayer is there registred upon record in the , , , , , and . verses of that acts . i wish the modern orthodox would shew us how they can answer this , with all their cavils , cheats , evasions and tricks ; that we might have another occasion to render them as ridiculous as they are already in themselves , to all the ingenuous of christendom . and that which makes devout men own the common-prayers of our english above others , is that a great many prayers are taken out of the mass book englished ; that we might not pray , as many papists do , in an unknown tongue ; taking out of it only the jewels , which are ( for ought i know , or any body else alive ) apostolical , and almost as old prayers , as the lord's prayer ; 't is an unanswerable schism , to depart from the church of rome , antioch , or greek church , in any thing but wherein they depart from christ and the apostles . but these fiery , headstrong and wicked modern orthodox instead of sweeping a house , pull it down , and consequently make more work , as well as more bad work , 'till they have quite erazed the very foundations of the house of god. nor did the race or religion of these modern orthodox ever come into any kingdom , but they fill'd it with blood and ruine ; sad instances whereof we have at home , in scotland , in france and germany , &c. desolated by their means a hundred leagues together , in more places than about munster ; their desolations and depopulations to be seen at this day , a sad spectacle whereof i have often had , which makes me the more loath their abominations . and every good man , as well as every worthy man , that has either honour or estate to leave to his children and posterity , had need be careful not only to leave his lands and fields to his children and posterity ; but likewise use his utmost care and diligence that those fields be not akeldama's to his children , fields of blood ; which they must needs be , if these modern orthodox men be not kept under , and muzled as you do a curst curr ; for when ever and in what kingdom soever since the first rebel of them calvin broach'd their religion , they have mouth'd and bit so keenly , where they had liberty , that the blood always followed , you may see the print of their teeth yet ; good lord deliver us from them , and the father of lies , from the devil , his children , and all his works ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , saith the apostle to titus i. ii. speaking of unruly and vain talkers and deceivers , spiritual gypsies , cheats and juglers — it is very fit that their mouths should be stopped , saith st. paul : it is not fit that their mouths should be stopped , saith gregory father gray-beard ; indulgence , liberty , breda , breda . and what a rare fellow this gray-beard is , you may know by the opinon he has of calvin , p. . whom he calls a good scholar and a honest divine , calling the calvinists , p. . our calvinists . they may be calvinists , father gray-beards calvinists , because they are always bloody headsmen , whereever they have room to strike , and a sword in their hand : but they are not our calvinists , i assure you greg. let them be your calvinists then , it is pity you should be parted . and for calvin's being a good scholar , i doubt you would scarcely be mightily in love with the jesuits , though they should approve themselves , as many of them have , far better scholars , that is , men of better parts and better read men , and have shown more schollarship in their works ; and yet i think many of their principles have been as destructive to the peace of kingdoms , even almost as calvin himself ; called therefore lucian , so meritoriously anagrammatized years before father gray-beard was born . for my part , i hate to undervalue any man's scholarship ; but i hate the folly as much of those men that argue so ridiculously ; that because calvin was a good scholar , therefore he could not be a knave , or as bad as a jesuit . this must be greg's meaning , or else his scholarship does not at all vouch his divinity : perhaps greg. is more acquainted with calvin's scholarship than i am ; though i think i have seen and read all his works ; the most famous ( the calvinists themselves say ) is his institutions , designed for a confession of faith , the adjuster of controversies , the oracle of his followers , and as if pronounc'd è cathedra , unerring divinity , and infallible ; dedicated to that purpose , to his king ( that once was so , i mean ) francis , the french king , whom he there in his epistle dedicatory styles the most christian king ; yet though he therein gave his own cause and his own heart the lie ; yet not altogether to forget himself , and to show he was still john calvin , he threatens him with the strong hand of the lord , which shall without controversie come in time , and extend it self armed ( i look'd for that ) both to deliver the poor out of misery , and to take vengeance on the despisers , which now triumph with so great confidence . sure this great divine was a great prophet , or rather he knew well , he had laid in that book such grounds of and for sedition , that his followers would with strong hand stretch forth themselves to take vengeance , and call all this — the hand of the lord , and the help of the lord. — curse ye meroz — to this , is but the second part of the same tune . some men have had such a reverence for this same calvin , especially being dead ; o! de mortuis nil nisi bonum ; that it has been thought as bad as sacriledge to tell truth of the man. no man can have greater reverence to urns than i have ; nay though a man die or be hang'd for his crimes , yet when the law is satisfied all good men ought to be so ; but in hayn●…us murtherers , parricides , and traytours the law is not satisfied with their deaths , but their horrid heads and quarters are set . up as long as they 'l last , not to scare crows , but to scaré men from the like villanies . there is as great difference therefore betwixt my speaking truth of hugh peters and john calvin , and betwixt father gray-beards speaking lies of our glorious martyrs charles i. and archbishop laud , as betwixt light and darkness , truth and falshood , honour and infamy , innocence and villany , heaven and hell . except bold greg. that assassinates the innocence and honour of these sacred persons deceased , do likewise say , that the law was not satisfied , except they also had been quartered , as well as beheaded ; and more i could say , but that the grief of my soul is so great , to think such a bold villain as this greg. should dare now , now that his son , our gracious soveraign is happily return'd , to aspe●…se the sacred memory of his father and friends and the whole reign , infamously as can be spoken , in saying against them and the reign , that it was wholly deform'd ; and if so , who is guilty of the innocent blood which those king-killers laid to the charge of our sovereign in that unparallel'd indictment against him , and archbishop laud ; sure gregory grey-beard was not far off when that indictment was drawn up ; but i am astonishd that he dares write thus now ; or that any loyal subject of his majesties should be jolly , laugh , and rejoyce in greg's book ; god preserve his majesty from all modern orthodox men , and from all that have been modern orthodox men , if they give not better proofs of their repentance and loyalty , than caressing and joying in father gray-beards , or any of the race of john calvin , as great a scholar and divine as he is . the greatest scholarship that john calvin has left behind him , as a testimonial of his learning or rhetorick , is , that his institutions are writ in pretty clean latine ; which sounds no more to me , nor any scholar that i know , as an argument of learning , than if they had been writ in clean french , welsh , or irish. one language signifying no more of scholarship than another ; no , though you add the admired greek , and ever to be admired hebrew ( a language that no man alive understands , nor can attain to ) into the bargain . languages being nothing else but helps to discourse with men , or acquaintance with books , as our occasions , trade or business does require . and a calves-head is still a calves-head , though it have a neat tongue in it , whether latine tongue , welsh tongue , greek tongue , french tongue , english tongue , or hebrew tongue ; which last though , i say , is not now to be bad for love nor money ; 't is utterly lost , and was so before our saviour's time ; mazoreth it self cannot retreive nor retrench it ; nor do we read that the holy ghost that descended in so many cloven tongues , gave the disciples one hebrew tongue amongst them all ; but that 's all one to me . all that i urge this for , is , that that clean latin style in which calvin's institutions is pencill'd , whether by himself or any other linguist , it matters not , nor signifies any thing to entitle him or any man else ; a great scholar . but if we may judge of his scholarship by his divinity , 't is ( to say no more ) right presbyterian , and knox his own self . who , ( as calvin made a religion , fitted only for the horizon of rebellion , wherein it was born and bred ; so ) knox that devillish rebel , thought he could not find a fitter for the innovations , blood , usurpations , rebellions and confusions , which he and the bastard murrey , intended , contrived and brought to pass in scotland , when they imprisoned their lawful queen , threatned her upon pain of death to resign her crown , which she was forced to do , to save her life ; with which modern orthodoxy scotland and afterwards england , as well as other countries , has been disciplin'd , 'till weltred in blood and ruine , as is known by woful experience . knox outdoing his master calvin in nothing , but his new superstition , of the morality of the sabhath , and judaizing therein , not more ridiculously than mischievously ; that whimsee being one of the spiritual and hypocritical colours , laid on to varnish their holy war and rebellion in scotland and england , to make the rotten old cause flourish with that ; which , like their preachments , sermons , and lectures , and gifted pharasaical , long , nonsensical prayers , are and have been as mischievous , i say , as superstitious and unwarrantable ; having not so much as the true face , vizor , or form of godliness , much less the power thereof ; yet with these they have long led captive silly men and women , laden with sins , subverging whole houses and kingdoms , though they ●…e men of corrupt minds , reprobate concerning the faith ; but ( i hope ) they shall proceed no further : it concerns all good men , and all that have either religion , peace , estates or consciences , honour or interest in posterity , to take care to their utmost that they proceed no further . i hope , that even yet the modern orthodox men will consider these things , and the evil of their ways , as well as evils that their ways have lead unto ; yet some people think , they 'l be hang'd before they amend , repent , or recant , they are so rooted in pride , stony-heartedness , and opinion of themselves , and their ways , though ( god knows ) they have as small reason to be self-conceited , as ever men had . i my self can show ( and in several particulars have already shown ) such a mystery of iniquity amongst them , and such a damn'd cheat , in what they most especially call religion , that their trade will be quite spoyled ; yet when they see the hopes of their gain is gone , they 'l rage and rayl , like the silver-smiths for their idol-shrines and diana's , as gregory does at the ecclesiastical politician ; but good mr. gregory ! good father gray-beard , old gentleman your idol shall not stand long , as your brother hugh said upon a more dismal occasion . gypsees ( some say ) do understand by lines they read in face and hand , how long , when , how , where you may dwell , can every way your fortune tell : all these mysteries , with their blessing , you have for six pence , or a less thing . so , — holder-forth — ( now indeed licitè indulg'd ) cries out , friends — benedicite : with canting terms , cheating tom pops ; the silly-women and the fops ; with both hands stretcht out , open , to shew he plays fair , and above-board to you , and never minds your purse , his eyes looking another way , to the skies ; yet he shall do the feat compleatly , and get into your pocket neatly , not with sleight of hand , but tongue , merely with a bare harangue ; ( an art , mol cut-purse neves tri'd , this art was found out since she di'd ; ) telling you stories , that shall fit right and good , as nuts to mother midnight : all the while , looking in your face , and telling , news of acts of grace , telling fortunes , predestinations , decrees , elections , reprobrations : ( of which , he no more truth can tell yee then gypsies can , or william lilly : ) peeping into the covered ark , construing the revelations dark , times hid , and seasons known to none , but to omniscience alone ; when spiritual gypsee thus is at it , take my advice , look to thy pocket . right preaching's catechizing , and , sirs , our saviour went to questions and answers , when he preach'd to the pharisees , publicans , sinners , sadducees , nor was his auditory vext , when he digress'd oft from his text ; which , we ne'r read he took , but once ; and then straight went again to questions , and answers , called catechizing , which , saints of old counted a wise thing , for this same hour-glass canting cheat has been invented but of late : though it be young , 't is gyant grown ; baffling all other religion : yet far from enlightning the mind , it rather has made men stark blind : like pearl on eye , 't must not be touch'd : i wish the cataract though was couch'd . for men by it , to deeds have run , which cannibals by nature shun . millions of sermons , holder-forth rehearses , have not such good in them as these six verses . where are they ? you 'l say , these same six verses that are worth millions ; they are better sure than golden verses . if the near relation i have to them do not enhance the price and value of them in my opinion , by some self-interest endearances , the six verses are worthy to be writ in letters of gold , on the out-side of every church in the kingdom , because if the sermon therein contained , be but remembred and put in practice , not one modern orthodox man will stay without door , or content himself with a bo-peep hearing at a church window , but into the church he must come , and must say , that if these six verses be but observed , it will certainly bring him and all men living to the kingdom of heaven , and bring peace on earth and good will towards men ; nor is it necessary for any man , i 'l justifie it , to hear any other sermon than these six verses , so that he practise them ; nor can any man go to hell that observes them , nor can there be rebellion , robbery , murder , evil-speaking or evil-doing , but by transgressing some particular in this sermon , contain'd in six verses . some men are so phantastical and phanatical , that they like and esteem nothing , but what is far fetcht and dear bought ; all the sermons preacht by modern orthodox this thirty years in england , i 'l maintain it against the best of them , have not been so soul-saving , good and free from all harm , as this little sermon : indeed some people will value those more , because they cost more than these six verses you have so cheap , whilst the modern orthodox mens sermons cost some people their plate , and monies , and some their hearts blood : but this sermon shall cost you nothing , esteem it not the less for that , the worth of it consists not in the cabinet or dress , but in the jewels wrapt up and contained within these six verses , which are the iliads in a nut-shell , the bible in epitome , and show the nearest way to heaven , and heaven upon earth . by the liturgy learn to pray ; so pray , and praise god every day : the apostles creed believe also , do as you would be done unto . sacraments take as well as you can : this is the whole duty of man. and is this all ? yes , this is all , and enough to bring thee to peace internal , external , and eternal ; peace in thy conscience and soul ; peace with all good men ; and peace with god , my soul for thine ; or , rather believe not me , but him that is the author thereof , mat. . . now do i know what these modern orthodox men will say , as well as if i were in their bellies ; away goes — to his congregation , calls a meeting , sends about tickets and messengers throughout the city and lines of communication , as at caryls funeral , to assemble the elders , and gather the churches to a general randevouz ( the word is proper enough , for most of them have been military men , souldiers wives & widows , and following their husbands into scotland , good honest leaguer-ladies there ) holderforth , that is best accoutred with mouth and lungs , speaking to this purpose . friends , we are here gathered together , in the sight of — and the face of this congregation to joyn together ( pish , pish , these common-prayer-book phrases have put me quite out , and made me quite forget my old canting stile ; hold , try again . ) friends , do you see , friends , ( i , now i am in and at it ) as i said before , friends , do ye see this book ? writ against us , friends ; and against our friends ; and against mr. — our friends friend ; by one e. h. what is this e. h ? oh! ( no , it it does not spell , oh! ) surely , then surely , verily friends , this e. h. is one of the race of cursed meroz . he is so far from helping us , that he has rob'd , to his utmost rob'd us , for ever , friends , even as i said but now , friends , do you see ? he has rob'd us in the first place , of all our hopes of plate , bodkins . sack possets , thimbles and church-gatherings , friends : nay , do ye see , friends ? secondly , he has rob'd us of our english bibles , our dear english bibles , and then , you know , as for our parts , though i , your speaker , am somewhat asham'd to say it , yet you all know it to be true , that if he take the english translation from me and you , he may keep all the other to himself if he will ; it is all one to us , as if he had rob'd us , dear friends , of all the bibles in the world , friends . thirdly , do ye s●…e , friends ? he hath rob'd us of our sabbaths , our foe-annoying sabbaths , our gain-procuring sabbaths , our heart-refreshing sabbaths , our heart-chearly sabbaths , and our spiritual market-day sabbaths . fourthly , friends , he has rob'd us , as i said but now , this same e. h. has rob'd us of our very sermons , our dear sermons . nay fifthly , friends , he has rob'd us of our lectures , our tantlin lectures , our soul-reviving , our soul-comforting lectures ; our every way profitable , and gain-procuring lectures , our enemies confounding lectures , those soul-ravishing opportunities , of you especially dear sisters , dear hearts . sixthly , friends , what shall i say ? friends , moreover , do ye see , he has stript us naked , left not a fig-leafe upon poor modern orthodoxy , but has rob'd us even , as i may so say , and with reverence be it spoken , this e. h. has rob'd us of our very prayers ; making nothing of them but an impudent harangue , pharisaical , nonsensical , and ( what shall i call ? ) hypocritical . seventhly , more than all this , friends ; he makes us , friends ; us , i say us ; he makes us that have been esteemed , in our own and other mens accounts , the godly party , to be the most treacherous , cheating , lying , bloody , malicious , envious , splenetick , slanderous , deceiful , dissembling , covetous , rapacious , and damnable villains , that ever the earth groaned under ; and says , he has trod upon many parts of the earth , but no such wretches are to be found amongst jews , turks , pagans , and other men , with hard names , cannibals , king killers , and man-eaters ; sure this e. h. is no gentleman , because he has not a gentlemans memory , as brother m — most gravely hints : that wicked clowns should remember these things , friends . eightly , moreover , friends , he says , this wicked ●…e , this e. h. friends , says that paul seems to mean us , above all mankind , when he prophesies , tim. . . , , , , , , , . that in the last days perilous times shall come , and men shall be just such men and women , as you and i are , and all of us , friends , and all our friends there pourtrayed , as if the apostle bad an eye upon us , friends , when he did draw our picture there , so to the very life , as if it had been made for the very nonce , friends , and on purpose for us , friends , do ye see ! it does so fit us , friends . ninthly , he robs us of what i thought the whole world could not have rob'd us of , friends , he robs us of our very pretences , our dear pretences , our very vizors and masks , our very forms and faces of godliness , mark that friends , do you see ? we cannot keep a mask for him ; this same e. h. will not allow them to be so much as masks , true forms , nor faces of godliness , nor so much as like the primitive face of gospel-holiness ; advise and consult dear friends , what we shall do for our masks , and our vizors of holniess ; how shall we look , when we shall not have so much as jezabel had to paint with ? with what face can we call our late happy times the times of reformation and gospel days , when it will not be allowed that they were so much as the resemblance or likeness of gospel-days , & gospel-worship ? our forementioned attainments , friends , wherein through mercy we get glory , must not now be admitted to serve for so much as a vizor , a mask , a cloak of religion : nay , he makes the very cloak , friends , the cloak at troas , to be no more canonical , than a gown or cassock : these are heart-piercing and heart-breaking discouragements , friends , what will become of us ? tenthly , beloved , and is it so ? then the use we should make of all , should be to begin with an use of enquiry , who this same e. h. is ? that we may blacken him , friends , as brother harrison said upon another occasion , i say friends , we must blacken him , blacken , i am sure must be the word . eleventhly , friends , further enquire , how shall we blacken him ? was not the father of this e. h. some jesuit ? and his mother a strumpet ? was not the whore-son born at tripoly ? and one of the three that came over in four ships ? has he not a mole above his chin ? and another on his left knee ? enquire after that friends ; if it be so , then beloved , our friend and cause-advancing brother , william lilly will tell us , that there is no dealing with him , especially if this e. h. was born as i hear he was , in the very same year and month with charles ii. before whom we have begun to fall ; and then , i must tell you friends , i that am your prophet must then tell you , dear friends , with a sad heart , ( as the wise men and zeresh his wife told haman , ) that then we shall never prevail against him , but shall surely fall before him . twelfthly , again enquire and seek out from among your selves in this nation and common-wealth , as i may so call it , friends , among our selves , friends , here 's none here , i hope , but friends ; i say , enquire and seek out for a common-wealths man , and a modern orthodox man , for some brother well gifted , to defend us , and our holiness , which e. h. makes a nothingness ; nay , not worth a louse , as being neither so useful , vertuous , nor so hard to be acquired , especially in some countries , enquire therefore for some man amongst us that may endeavour to weaken at least the authority of his letter , and be sure to blacken him . thirteenthly , friends , i think , ( i only give you my advice , but ) in mine opinion , there is not of our party , any so well qualified to deal with him as j. o. if he be not too much out of credit already ; or rather , what think you of brother wild , he has some cause to be netled , and therefore will the more readily undertake this e. h. who has taken him up already , a little smartly ; and indeed all of us that were at brother caryl's funeral , i think we had as good have staid at home ; friends , yet since it is , as it is , friends , as i said but now , there is none of us have so much wit for the work as our brother wild , but the mischief on 't is , this drink , by this drink , friends , by this vile beastly drinking , friends , brother wild has now made his brains as foul and slubberly with his guzling as are the fore-skirts of his doublet ; what therefore shall we do ? dear friends ! fourteenthly , enquire still i say , friends , i am upon the use of enquiry , whether or no , it will not be our wisest course to sit still , and never offer at an answer to this letter from e. h. who , i perceive , is a merry man , and would joy in another opportunity to make us more ridiculous , a scorn and a proverb ; now that his hand is in , i wish it was off . yet fifteenthly , beloved , since this e. h. has rob'd us also , ( which i had almost forgot , ) of that never to be forgotten good old cause , mark that , friends , that cause , i say , which we have fought for , over head and ears , resisting even to blood , dear friends ; and since this e. h. has made it an old rotten cause , that stink●… above ground , saving your presence , friends ; therefore , i say , therefore some course or other must be taken to answer him , if it be but for the cause sake , which now , with modern orthodoxy lies ( it would pity ones heart to see it , friends , thus lie ) a gasping . sixteenthly , what think you friends ; i only propose it ; what think you of making another gathering among the churches for our friend — the author of the rehearsal transpros'd , to chear up his drooping spirits , for i hear he is crop-sick , and his spirit , like nabal's , almost dead within him ; but a little encouragement from you , i only give you my thoughts , would perhaps make him still get some more ink and elbow griese , and spend it briskly once more in behalf of modern orthodoxy , and the good old cause ; which , though he says , is now too good to be fought for , ( be not angry at him , friends , for he means no harm to us , nor it , so long as he does not think it a cause too good to be writ for , so he do but vindicate it the second time with his pen , we expect no more from such white-livers ; let us alone to vindicate it with the pike . seventeenthly , and lastly , beloved , one use more and i have done , it is an use of exhortation ; you have heard what e. h. has done in robbing us , and making us naked and bare ; you have also heard several enquiries , what may be thought fit to be done in our defence , which i leave , friends , to your consideration : which if you think useless , fruitless , goodless , and purposeless ; then in the last place let me exhort you never to repent as long as you live , let them say what they will , or laugh their hearts out . repent ! and recant ! that would be pretty indeed , that would be as much as to confess this indictment , and acknowledge our selves to have been guilty of all the innocent blood shed in these nations , royal blood and all ; and also to acknowledge that brother oliver deceased had no right to white-hall , nor we to the rest of the kings-lands , bishops-lands , lords-lands , & gentlemans-lands , sequestred & sold to us in those happy gospel times : the very thoughts wherof , ( friends , do you see ? ) makes me weep , so that my eyes dropping so fast , my words can no longer drop as the rain , i 'll sob out a little more though in the conclusion of this so necessary use of exhortation , namely , that you would , friends , abhorr this book , or this letter , call it what you will , from e. h. so that you abhorr it as much as the apocrypha , or as the tabernacle of a robber , or as that lewd womans house you read of , avoid it , pass not by it , turn from it , and pass away , for there are charms in it , i speak mine own experiences , there are charms in that book , that will force your wills , ( 't is strange ! ) to be ruled by your understandings , ( and then farewel blind zeal for ever ; ) & if you do but read and consider what he says , there are charms to make you believe all he says to be true , in spight of your teeth ; he has spoil'd us many a good sermon , wherein we use to inveigh against the cross in baptism , and against baptism of any , until they be taught , and against kneeling at the sacrament : having given us a spiteful go-by , which i never heard of before ; calling it the cross after baptism , as if the church of england held baptism sufficient without it , and before it be used : and also denying , ( which we know not how to help , ) that teaching goes before baptizing in the words of the commission , asserting that christ commands his disciples , to make disciples by baptizing them in the name of the father , &c. and then says , in the following verse comes in teaching , time enough . and then for kneeling at the sacrament of the lords suppper , he says it is as easie to prove it the posture of christ and his apostles , as is sitting , lolling , lying , standing or walking ; making no matter which , so there be decency and and order , friends ; saying there is no more ceremony in kneeling then , than at any other devotion ; nor more a ceremony than when the quakers in token of respect , love and reverence when they meet , wring one another by the hands ; but we know , friends , the quakers are the silliest and most foolish sect that ever was in the world , for denying all ceremonies , because it is impossible , whilest we have bodies and are in the flesh , but we must use some posture or other of body , when we are at our devotions ; and one posture is as much a ceremony as another : and also we must needs be covered with some vests , or vestments , when we are at our devotions , except we meet naked ; at which the women laughing , he concludes . thus have i constrain'd my self thus long into a snivelling cant , to shew those that never came at a conventicle , what comments , ( i am sure , ) will be made of my letter ; though i protest i have not writ a syllable in it , whether jest or earnest , but in a sober , true-hearted design for the good of those poor souls , bejugled and cheated of their estates and more precious souls by modern orthodoxy , carried on to the ruine of kingdoms by spiritual gypsies , fidlers & juglers that wander all the kingdom over , seeking whom they may devour and make a prize and booty of ; and if i were a lawyer , i think , i could find law enough against them , and bring them , for all their shifts & legerdemains , within the compass of the statutes against vagrants , fidlers , juglers and cheaters , if not wolves , though in sheeps cloathing . and i have manifested more true love in this letter to beguiled and unstable souls , than he does that picks their pocket . such i mean , as hugh peters , of whom they have had as good an opinion , as they now have of any of their precious , godly men , who can scarce hold from laughing , ( as hugh peters did , ) to see how soon the poor fools and their moneys were parted . of which precious snivelling , whining chapmen , if any be so fool-hardy as to plead for their baal's and diana's , here defyed ; let him but put his name to what he writes , and i 'll promise him i 'll tell him if he desire it , what e. h. ( at the end of this letter subscrib'd ) does signifie , and who claims that name , which those letters here stand for ; because i 'll justifie every word i write ; and i would also beg of such an one , ( if at least such an one there be , so daring as to defend modern orthodoxy , whose admirers did use to expose themselves in print as readily as ridiculously , and as pertly , as malepertly , ) that he would place his words , as right as that disorderly scribling tribe of adoniram use to do ; and let me not have one such tempting word , as trinkles , tuants , un : hoopable jurisdiction , or ferreting upon the stage , and the like to sport with ; as he loves me , my ease , my quiet and repose . left complaint be made by those of the kings and dukes play-house , that , for less money , to their great hinderance and want of custom , we entertain men in afternoons , with our repartees , till it be grown almost as good as a play ; as father gregory phrases it p. . very jocundly . gregory himself allows a man once in his life to change his party , p. . for which i could almost approve one thing he says ; and indeed otherwise he would have condemn'd s. paul and all mankind , who are born with their backs heaven-ward ; but when he says , they may change sides either for safety or preferment , he discovers the sow , beggarly and ignoble principles that act him ; 't is greg. like , gregories own self , for so he came to be an executioner , either for safety ( to save his own neck from the gallows ) or for preferment to so high an office. come take my advice greg. learn at last to be more wise , and leave this scribling , to which your stars are averse ; and because i am in the counselling humour , i also advise you , ( better late thrive than never ) abjure this villanous game picquet , which you say , you but lately learned ; haunt not the company of lincoln dignitaries , nor those rooking ordinaries , where you say you were chouc'd when you play'd pieces , for fear that though you never have grace to repent and return from oliverian orthodoxy , yet it is more than an even lay , that such lewd courses will in spight of your purse , make you a turn-coat , a profession that i was never so needy & thread-bare to be of ; for my buff-coat , though turn'd two or three times , will scarcely make so neat a cassock , as i now wear , though the kings taylor himself take it in hand ; modern orthodoxy , under which i was born and bred , and to which i was childishly led , being now abhorred by me , through more ingenuous & generous principles , than either safety or preferment . neither of which was either design'd , obtain'd , or like to be obtain'd in the change by me , who could , if i had listed to have been so base , have pickt the peoples pockets , with canting long snivelling sermons , as cleaverly as the best of them , with many thanks for my great pains therein , besides applause and renown too into the bargain alive and dead : whereas the party i own , is of another cue , and preferments , design'd by our noble ancestors with a liberal hand to men of most merit , being byass'd many times with little picques and self-interest , run right upon the jack , that if he paid not for it before he had it delivered , yet paid dearer for it by marrying cousin abigail , or blear-ey'd leah our daughter : whereas more safety and preferment ( as the non - conformists know well ) flowes plentiful upon the oliverian orthodox , whilst the truly orthodox clergy fall into contempt universal , and by reason of envy to some of the great ones , and scorn to such as are too deservedly despicable amongst the clergy , very few men do cordially concern themselves therein . enough to deter men from those so little plausible truths , which i have own'd in this letter , with such candor and freedom , according to that primitive orthodoxy of our saviour , the apostles , the primitive church , and the present church of england , if they durst speak out , for fear of being houted at with such as greg. and scurrilous companions of oliverian orthodoxy ; who hang together on one string , stand by , defend , and encourage one another by gifts and preferments , too strong temptations for narrow and degenerous souls to resist , thereby betraying discountenanc'd truths ; whilst , on the other hand and party , men are so unconcern'd in any thing but private interest and little picques , that a despised truth may go a begging for all them , let the church and truth sink or swim , they 'l save one , little considering that neither their private cargo's nor themselves can possibly be safe in a wrack . which this kingdom and church has suffered lately already by a rebellion countenanc'd and vouch'd by gospel-discoveries , in their lectures , preachments , rash prayers , called blasphemously , gifts of the holy ghost , all which i have proved to be no gifts , otherwise than as physicians call their medicines doses , gifts ; yet men pay dear enough for these doses , and so have these doses , if they be gifts , cost these kingdoms dear , even their best heart blood ; god keep us from their doses , and the jewish thraldom of sabbathizing , by which hypocritically and pharisaically they impropriated a day from works of mercy , that they might have more leisure to sell their doses or gifts , as they falsly call them , helping themselves at once with a market day , on which they may sell at leasure all their apostate wares and impostures ; and perhaps sell the same wares two or three or four times on the same market-day , first in a morning lecture at one chureh , in a fore-noon sermon at another congregation , in an after-noon sermon at another place ; and then fourthly and lastly , a crambe repetition of the same sermon , though pitiful ware , god knows , as ever cost so dear , having been paid for dear enough in conscience , at the first part of the day , when it was expos'd to sale in the morning lecture . and also this superstitious sabbathizing ( though contrary to all the reformed churches in the world , and all christendom , whether they follow the greek , muscovian , roman , lutheran , or calvinian churches , yet ) here in england alone admired by these modern orthodox , partly for their gain-sake , partly for pride-sake , glorying and braving their betters with that silly superstitious vizor of religion ; but making more damnable use of it , by arming the people , bejuggled with their pretences of serving the lord in their care of the lords day against the king and church , that ( hating to lay greater yokes & burdens upon the necks of the disciples , than christ , the apostles , primitive church and all christendom does impose ) proclaim'd that due liberty , to which christ had set us free by abolishing that type sabbathical ( both weekly and yearly sabbaths ) amongst other hand-writings of ordinances ceremonial that were against us . yet these modern orthodox men , fairly pretending for god , and preaching up his day , though superstitiously and ceremoniously , jewishly , pharisaically and hypocritically , made the silly people believe all was gold that they made to glister , and nothing could be superstitious which they cry'd up , who used to cry down superstition with a filthy wide mouth ; and as wide from truth , scripture , right reason , as heaven is from hell , or truth from falshood . this jewish superstitious sabbathizing then furnisht them with one whole day in a week to vend their wares , and get gain ; ( though afterward their insatiable greediness got them week-day lectures too ) also furnisht them with a new cloak of holiness to cover their knavery , rebellion , jugglings , pride , covetousness and schism ; and also furnisht them with an artillery of men and arms , with adjutant supplies of money to boot , to fight against the king and church , and fill the whole land with blood and ruine , fighting for superstition under the colours of holiness , and the lords day ; and all that oppose them herein , must needs be fighters against god , and prophane . which opinion of the people is still so settled in them , and so little hopes there is , that they will be capable of better information , and so little thanks ( however ) for the pains ; ( unpleasant truths being never so welcome as pleasing errours and superstitions ; ) that i once resolv'd ( with the old politick monk , sinere res vadere vt vadunt ) to let people think and do what they would for all me . but when i consider'd the mischief that this jewish superstition alone has occasion'd in the kingdom , and that either king , church and kingdom must deny their own light and knowledge , and thus judaize , or else there is a weapon always at hand ready for the modern orthodox plausibly to assault again our peace upon all occasions ; and till mutiny be ripe , there is in the interim a sufficient calumny always ready , by way of preparation thereunto , wherewith to reproach the king and church as debauch'd in principles and practices prophane , when if the truth was but known , and the question determined , the prophaneness must lye , where the superstition lyes ; yet if greg. had not hinted it in reproach to bishop bramhall , i had not medled with it now , though i bless god for the occasion , and that he has put so much courage and honesty in my mind , as to study more to get my country-men good , by avowing the truth , than to get their good wills , by betraying truth , through slavish and base designs of applause and profit , against both which as to mine own particular affairs i now speak in this particular concern for truth , as you ( knowing my profession so well ) do very well know . and i am afraid some of the clergy of the church of england will give me little thanks for some passages , and a hundred to one if some little pert gentleman do not briskly stand up and say , you ! with your sermon of six verses , which you commend so highly to the skies , as that which alone will carry a man to heaven , if he do but practise that sermon , ( then he follows me on with latine sentences — laus proprio sordet in ore — &c. ) and must we burn all our sermon notes ? four or five hundred sermons i have now by me of mine own making , at least transcrib'd all with mine own hand ; and some i intend for the press , some to dedicate to the right worshipful my patron that gave me this living : some of the better sort to the right honourable my patron ( i hope ) that shall be , in giving me a better living . and do you think i will lose the opportunities of publishing my thankfulness to one patron for the living i have , and of procuring my self a better living by the simony of praises , a whole page full , in an epistle dedicatory to my patron that shall be , i hope ; you , with your six verses , what do you say to these things ? besides , i owe you an old grudge for the market-day you speak of a little too slightly by your favour , sir , as if we of the church of england too made an advantage of that superstition by morning lectures , and fore and after noon sermons and repetitions , besides week-day lectures ; and all these perhaps but one and the same harangue sold often after it was paid for fairly and delivered , in the presence of many witnesses ; i must tell you , sir , you are another bayes , you kill friend and foe , hungary , transylvania , &c. all scotland , and a great part of the church of england ; besides , sir , whilst i have a hebrew tongue in my head , i must speak in the behalf of hebrew , a tongue it seems ( you say ) you understand not , nor any body else , taking measures of others by your own shorter scantlings ; that would be a pretty jest indeed , what is hebrew tongue nothing with you , sir ? i have spent my money and my pains finely indeed , and mr — the old hebrew professor that has had many a fair piece , besides collations at my chamber for reading hebrew to me ; the mazoreth notes and all , you make nothing of , nor of the jewish university at tyberias , in fa this is fine , very fine , very fine indeed ; and all this , because one vessius prefers the septuagint , as ( he says ) christ and his apostles did , before the hebrew text , or tongue , which you say of all tongues ( at the gift of tongues ) was neglected as a language lost and needless , as not being the mother tongue of any people in the world , since the irrecoverable captivity of israel and judah into babylon : what do you say to these things e. h ? i will say , noble sir , nothing with a good will to offend your mesship , your priscianship , your pedantship . come on , i 'le try your scholarship presently ; i 'le pose you , in the first place , can you form 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or amo ? no. ha , ha , he , i knew what a scholar you were : can you cap verses ? no. i am no po — it seems then you want a hebrew tongue ? no. i say , no , still . then you have a hebrew tongue in your head : no , neither . then you would surely take my hebrew tongue away , would you ? no. i long for no such tongue , much good may it do you ; but for my part , i say , hang it ; 't is dry meat , when all 's done . but i mean , you say to my hebrew tongue , tongue thou liest , thou liest in the throat . yes , that i do say , where else should it lie but in the throat . i mean , you deny all hebrew tongues , hebrew texts , and hebrew jews . no. i do not deny but there may be one hebrew jew , for father gregory tells us of one at malmsbury , but excepting that one , not yet six moneths old , i say again there is not one more hebrew jew that i know of in the world ; if by hebrew jews you mean jews that vernacly speak hebrew ; or that do certainly understand it . did you ever converse among the jews ? yes , as far from this place as is hierusalem and the land of jury , and much further off . and are not those jews hebrews ? i mean do they not understand hebrew ? no , no otherwise than as you and i understand it ; some of their levites have a little insight into the masoreth notes and rules of canting that lauguage : their university at tyberias , to make some little shew that there is , or at least was such a nation undispersed , invented those masoreth notes , to give some light to that dark language , but thereby they have only of that tongue made any thing rather than any thing certain ; and to this day the jews own the chaldee paraphrase especially ; invented about our saviour's time ; by onkel●…s for the pentateuch ; and for the prophets great and small , by jonathan ; on whose paper , whilst he was writing it , if a fly chanc'd to light casually , fire from heaven came immediately to consume her , the rabbins say . had the jews no chaldee paraphrase before that time ? yes , esdras , who first reduc'd the old testament into the canon , as we have it now , immediatly after the return from babylonish captivity , turn'd the old testament into syriack , but for your hebrew text , that , as a great secret , was only known to the priests , who expounded all to the people from the syriack or chaldee , nehem. . , . why , is syriack and chaldee all one ? yes , i think so , differing only in dialect , as did also the antiochian or maronites pronunciation , the galilean , and hierusalem dialects ; which yet were all one babylonish tongue , honoured by being the mother-tongue to our blessed saviour ( when in the flesh ) as also to the apostles ; all these dialects differing only as scotch , yorkshire , devonshire , and kentish pronunciations amongst us ; or as the dorick , ionick , aeolick , &c. among the greeks . but , i say still ; did not adam speak hebrew ? i do not remember , it is a great while ago , but i think he did not ; the learned grotius says , that that language which adam and all the world spake years together , before the confusion of tongues at b●…bel , was indeed one language , but it is now lost , and dispers'd amongst all languages , dividing that primitive tongue to every nation a piece , till it had never a bit left for it self ; and no matter , it lasted long enough in all conscience for one tongue ; without a miracle no one tongue can be epidemical and universal years together , different climates will make different pronunciations : english and dutch was the same tongue in our forefathers the saxons , we scarce understand chaucer's english , nor do the dutch born in england readily understand the dutch spoken in the netherlands , and yet can speak a language which they themselves call dutch here in england amongst themselves . do not the jews at this day make most use of the hebrew text of the old testament ? no. our saviour , the apostles and all the jews in that time admired most , and made most use of the septuagint , which was given ( say some ) by divine inspiration ; however , though the autographical copy ( laid up carefully in that famous library of ptolomaeus philadelphus , ( who set the to work ) when , in julius caesar's time ( half a hundred years before our saviours time ) was burnt at alexandria with all the rest of that glorious library , yet the apographical copies were taken for the most certain and authentick text of the old testament , and therefore quoted upon all occasions by christ and his apostles , sometimes in places differing from the hebrew text , as we have it , there being thirteen signal variations betwixt them ; the chaldee paraphrase not then having obtain'd that due credit it now has got ; and the hierusalem targum , invented about years ago ; and the megilloth targum , not above years ago , all in syriack , and now generally owned by the jews , all of them at this day ? but were not the talmuds both of them writ in hebrew , the pharisees saying they were delivered unto moses upon mount sinai with the law ? no , they were the invention of r. jehuda , sirnamed for his holiness , hakkadosh ; but in the chaldee tongue , and as spurious and adulterate rejected by our saviour . which do you think is the most authentick apographical copy of the septuagint , the vatican or alexandrian ? much alike ; yet the alexandrian is usually preferred ; we call it the king's manuscript , because it was sent to our king from constantinople by cyril lucaris patriarch there , and brought with him as a famous monument from alexandria where he was patriarch till advanc'd to the higher dignity , the patriarchat of constantinople ; from whence our leiger ambassadour there sir thomas roe sent it to our king. the greek church heard of no other bible but this septuagint years after christ , when st. hierom first divulg'd commonly the hebrew text ; at which the african bishops , st. augustine especially was so offended , that he interdicted that hebrew bible , as did also the greek bishops ; which forc'd st. hierom l. . cont . ruffinum ; & in praf ad chron. to beg their pardon , saying , he had no design by that promulgation , to confront the sacred septuagint . and for my part , i think ( if you will not be angry ) that the vulgar latin is a more certain interpreter , and as old ( i believe ) as since the times of the apostles , being writ by them , or some of their disciples for the use of the church of rome , to whom st. paul writ an epistle ; and even beza , as well as grotius acknowledges it , so much the more credibly authentick for that old as well as odd latine in which it gloried , before st. hierom's time . for he indeed pretended to amend and correct it by putting forth another latine translation , concordant , as to the old testament , with his hebrew text , encouraged thereunto by pope damasus , and both his latine version and the old vulgar latine were confirmed by gregory the great : but because they made a distraction in the church , they were by the authority as well as pains of clement . concorporated , and now are known by the old name ; ( given before st. hierom was born ) the vulgar latine : to which learned men i 'le assure you give a great deal of credit and reverence ; therein consenting with baronius , bonfrerius , serrarius , &c. though they differ in other matters . but i speak of my hebrew tongue , now that it is mended by the university at tiberias , the masoreth : what say you to that ? i say nothing to it , i told you before , i love no tongues when the goodness is quite dry'd out of them , i value them no more than a chip , though for want of better accommodation they usually serve some vain people to make a show with , thinking they are better than nothing , if you will believe a grave and learned authour called hudibras . for hebrew roots , although th' are found to flourish most in barren ground , &c. be not offended sir , i do not think you sir , nor a thousand more such hebrew bablers as your self are , at all concern'd in the sarcasme ; you carry hebrew only a little at the tip , and tongues end ; they are no small fools , i can tell you , that can produce the roots of that tongue . what language spoke our saviour ? only one , the syriack , or babylonish , his mother tongue according to the flesh ; though as god he understood all languages and things ; but he never travell'd , during his incarnation , out of the nation and language wherein he was born , that we read of . when our saviour and the apostles quoted scripture out of the old testament , did they not follow the hebrew text ? no certainly , but the septuagint , as 't is evident : nor was the old testament compos'd into a canon , as we have it , until esdras first did it , after the captivity : and the samaritans own no scripture to this day , nor in our saviours time , but the pentateuch ; the minor prophets , as we have them , not till esdras his time compos'd as now ; and some of the holy scripture is yet quite lost to us , namely the prophecies of the prophets , iddo , nathan , shemajah , &c. besides most part of the prophecie of daniel was writ in chaldee ; so also ezra chap. . and some other parts of holy scripture , that i list not here to recite : and st. augustine l. . c. . de civit . dei. tells us , the grecian christians knew not in his time whether there were any other sacred original but the septuagint . happily made more intelligible , if not more legible , by the concurrent testimonies of sacred apographical versions and copies , syriack , armenian , indian , vulgar latine , aethiopick , and the mungrel tongue coptick , partly greek , partly old aegyptian ; ( as to some books of the bible , persian ) chaldee paraphrase ; by the providence of almighty god , and the indefatigable pains of learned men preserved and collected , namely , st. hierom , cyril , eusebius , and pamphilus , mercer , buxtorf , sixtus senensis , pradus , nobilius flaminius , abbas apollinarius , stephanus , vilalpandus , azorius , simon de muis , lindanus , kircher , casaubon , bochartus , usherus , fullerus , erasmus , grotius , beza , morinus , breerwood , vatablus , munster , hutter , junius , fabritius , boderianus , masius , above all cardinal ximenius the toletan primate , for the first great polyglot bible , enlarged by arias montanus at the charge of philip king of spain , commonly called ; the king of spain's bible ; but augmented since by the parisian bible , at the cost and care of michael de jay ; and now all of them outvied by the late polyglot bible printed at london with as incomparable profit as pains . but do we not find the old hebrew tongue in those bibles ? yes ; yes ; but that which is rather construed by comparing with other languages more certain and better known ; especially since the old hebrew that had anciently but three letters that stood for vowels , we may now make a nose of wax of an old hebrew word , now that we have got a baker's dozen of vowels , besides dipthongs added to the former . and indeed all those vowels , notes , and points , are not only uncertain , but of less standing in the university , than greek accents and aspirations , a new invention too of the grammarians : yet both of them are of much longer standing , than the distinction of the holy books inter chapters and verses ; which yet are useful , if they be not always too much insisted upon : of all the new hebrew additions dagesch pleads the greatest seniority , being as old ( some say ) as the letter n. but most old hebrew copies neglect him , and leave him out . in what language was the new testament first indited ? in greek , all of them autographically , as the most universal language ; and also in other languages autographically , as latine , syriack without controversie , and one or two books thereof ( some say ) in the hebrew tongue : indeed the apostles could speak all useful languages ; but although some ancient ms. say , that matthew's gospel was writ in the hebrew tongue for the jews at hierusalem , cited by the learned doctour hammond in his annotations upon matt. . . yet because it is certain the jews then at hierusalem understood hebrew at that time no more than you and i , by the hebrew tongue there , must be understood the language of the hebrews then spoken at hierusalem ; which was syriack ; which theodoret and many other learned antiquaries say is an ancienter language , as well as more certain , than your hebrew tongue ; and being , as was said , the mother tongue to the apostles , many autographical copies of some books in the new testament writ in syriack were acknowledged for holy scripture , before some of those sacred books were indited , at least before they were generally received into the canon of holy writ ; namely , the second epistle of st. peter ; the second and third epistles of st. john ; the epistle of st. jude , and the revelations of st. john. the sun's face when long wrap'd up in a cloud more beauteous shows , having cast off that hood : the english genius mourning many a year in sniveling black , now grows more debonair . rome as she thrive in arms , so thrive in arts ; so england too ; since she got loyal hearts ; more brisk all learning 's grown , lately deform'd , and must the pulpit be the last reform'd ? in parliament , and inns of court , long speeches are reckon'd little worth but to wipe br — he best does speak , that speaks plain , short & sweet : is not right eloquence for the pulpit meet ? great is diana , great long sermons snivelling , by which craft holder forth sneaks for a living . be gone base canting tribe with your new lights that only teach men to be hypocrites ; long winded preachments being now forlorn , a dress now out of fashion , being worn thread-bare by whining pharisees alone , or 't is the jews-trump of religion . and is it not deservedly in disgrace ? it ne'r yet had so much as a good face or form of godliness , far from the power ; the primitive sermons not one jot like your : christ and his servants , holy writ records , converted thousands with a few plain words . but still i fear little priscian pursues me ; and perhaps will say , i wonder what work you will cut out for the ministers of the church of england , now you have clip'd away all , ( but your own sermon of six verses , ) as well as modern orthodoxy . truly , truly generous sir , i have cut out more and better work for you and all gospel ministers , than you are well aware of , or can readily accomplish . though all the shreds and parings , as rubbish be thrown into hell , except what is included in these six verses ; and you shall do your work more profitably and honourably to your selves and the people , if you keep your selves within the limits of those six verses , do as much good as ever you did , and have as much work too , and yet neither do nor say any thing mischievously and impertinently : for first your conversations ( at which the enemy is so scandalized as well as your selves ) will be unblameable by doing as you would be done unto ; you cannot then chouce poor gentlemen of their moneys when they play pieces at an ordinary , this principle will keep you from cheating tricks , or being cheated ; will keep your hands from picking and stealing and defrauding ; and your tongues from evil speaking , lying and slandering ; why ? because you would not willingly be so served by others ; but you must by this principle behave your selves soberly , in reference to your own bodies in temperance , righteously in reference to all other men , by justice , and godlily in reference to devotion towards god in duties of religion and holy worship : which is made up of five particulars , namely , faith , the seals of faith , prayers , praises and ceremonies . unto which some adde swearing : but not well advised therein ; for though god almighty says to his people , thou shalt fear the lord thy god , deut. . . and serve him , and shalt swear by his name ; yet the last clause is not exegetical of the former ; nor do men serve god by swearing ; nor is it any part of heavenly liturgy , other than as when we serve truth and our generation , being called at courts of judicature , to attest truth , calling god to witness , and to judge us according to the truth of what we averr ; and if this be done cordially , it assoils such a man of atheism , but not of irreligion ; if by religion we mean religious worship ; which i say has but five parts , as abovesaid : and all included in my sermon of six verses . now saith little modern orthodox ; are you there again with your clypticks ? having neither accepted sermon nor lecture into your holy worship ? i hope sermons that have had all the room in the church , ( when your liturgy , and your sacraments , and your ceremonies were turn'd out of doors , ) shall yet be taken in for one share , part and portion of religious and holy worship of god. no , not a bit , i admit no sermons , lectures , preachments , nor harangues , no not mine own dear sermon of six verses to have any part or lot in this matter of religious worship ; i know they have turn'd all religious worship out of the house of god , so that now sermon is taken to be the all of gods worship and so understood in common phrase ; is there a sermon this after-noon , or to day ? is sermon done ? were you at sermon to day ? &c. meaning , were you at church ? or serving god to day ? sermon , sermon for all ; and if no sermon , then there 's nothing at all , that amongst silly men and women can sound like religious worship . whereas i come and say quite contrary ; namely , that ceremonies , sacraments , &c. are religious , necessary , and holy worship of god ; but sermons , lectures and harangues are not at all the religious and holy worship of god , when they are never so good sermons ; but the usual sermons of modern orthodox , that justled true and holy worship out of the church , did not so much as tend to holy worship consisting in ceremonies , the liturgy , sacraments , &c. those men being so far from preaching up those parts of holy worship , that they preach'd them down , and consequently , the more sermons , and the more eloquent sermons of that nature , were the most devillish works of darkness and hell , and the more men heard and believed those sermons , the more they were children of wrath and darkness , if so be that those five particulars aforesaid contain all the parts and portions of holy worship ; and that sermons , the most admired preachments be not allowed therein any , ( not so much as the least ) share ; sermons at best being only in order to gods worship , as they plainly and honestly comment upon , and exhort unto ceremonies , faith , seals of faith , prayers and praises ; this ought to be the height of the ambition that sermons can lay claim unto ; only to be subservient and serviceable to these high and mighty devotions , faith , the seals of faith , prayers , praises and ceremonies , which three last you have most evangelically in our holy liturgy . and all sermons that tend not to the preaching up of these , ( how worthy cares soever father grey-beards do esteem them , ) are whimsical and extravagant at best , in relation to instructing people in holy and gospel worship : but if those sermons cry down these , or any of these five particulars , established in the church , then those sermons , and sermon-mongers are diabolical , schismatical , hypocritical , seditious , false , foolish and hellish ; and such sermons in the church , are like baal , an idol in the temple of god , and such sermon-mongers , baals priests . all whom here i defie in the name of the living god , to come out , if they dare try it out with me in this particular , and plead for their baal : so i call those sermons that men have not only made idols of , but those idols have been set up in the house of god , ever since modern oliverian orthodoxy was set up , and all true and holy worship has been quite thrown out of the church , to make room for this baal . not that i ( neither ) would have the pulpit thrown out of the church ; since it may be so useful by exhortations and honest instructions from thence , how men may demean themselves in the holy worship of god , and in temperance , and charity , and justice towards themselves and others . but still i say , though i allow it a place in the church , yet only such a place as the seat of ecclesiastical judicature , those judicial benches you see in some churches , when discipline was in fashion ; namely , those benches and the pulpit are only for direction , correction and instruction , and as much , and more need of the former than the latter ; if those seats and benches of discipline were , as they should be , fill'd with honest and able men , not with salesmen , brokers and hucksters . but neither spiritual courts , nor sermons , neither discipline nor doctrine are any parts of the holy worship of god ; though by reason of men's infirmities , they have , like physick to the body , or laws to a nation , been found useful , when well manag'd : but still , they are happiest people that need fewest laws , and the healthiest people that need the least physick , and the holiest and wisest people that need the least doctrine or discipline , sermons or spiritual courts . both which , i confess , have prov'd pretty gainful trades , as some have gone to work , to the peoples great loss , as well as great disparagement and reproach to them ; there being no greater sign of a dunce , than that he is taught , and taught , and taught his lesson over and over again , and yet can never say it , take forth , or turn a new leaf ; ever learning but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth , as those silly women st. paul chastises , tim. . , . but that our men should be so silly too , they may be ashamed of their dull pates , if they have any shame in them . besides , like blockheads and ill-thriven lean jades , they also shame their keepers , teachers and masters , who , if they had the right art of teaching , could not but make better scholars . perhaps the hypocritical oliverian crew will think i speak against hour-glass sermons out of a lazy self-interesting preservation , owning here plain and short pulpit-talk , thereby to vouch my own negligence and sloth . let them think so still , i care not : but though they think my sermons too short , i 'le make them amends in another bargain . i am sure they think my writings and this letter ( in particular ) long enough ; if they do not , perhaps they will think so upon the next occasion they give me to hold forth against them . besides , my sermons are not hour-glass sermons ; for i give order to my clark and sexton to turn the hour-glass in their pew , that a great quantity of the sand may be run out , ( under the rose be it spoken ) before they set it up in view upon my first approach to the ever-to-be-adored pulpit ; chusing rather to whet than dull the appetites of my hearers , and leave them rather a longing for more , than cloy their affections with tedious stuff : 't is healthful at such meals to rise with an appetite . and indeed i and my auditory are pretty well agreed for that matter ; most of them ( i hope ) having not so ill been taught , or so learned christ , but that they had rather be good than seem good : and so they have but the worship of god ( in our sacred liturgy ) to the full , they are more indifferent for those pulpit after-drops ; of which yet they have not been scanted , nor have they wanted any of their due and wonted measure , this fortnight that i have spent in this letter , more troublesome to my amanuensis than my self ; costing more pains and time in the printing and press than in the composure . however , my congregation , for the generality of them judge not the worth of a sermon by the quantity but quality thereof ; an ounce of meat being worth a pound of poyson , as much as an ounce of gold is worth a pound of dull lead : chusing rather to have a profitable and plain sermon , though short , than an impertinent story antiquely told , though never so long ; they coming not to church to see tumbling tricks and hocus juglings , with cloak hung by , buttons scracht ope , hands heav'd up , with wide open mouth and cheveril lungs , with teeth bitingly set and grinning , with such apish peters , rogers , dedham-jack-pudding tricks ; willing to leave those to modern pharisees , sermon-mongers , hypocrites and oliverian-orthodox , the head and body of whose religion is made up like a dismal monster , in which nothing appears eminent but sowcing great luggs and a mouth greater , without brains , and without any face like true religion ; and if the devil did not possess men strangely , with greedy covetousness , pride , blood and singularity , no man could be in love with it . but if any of these mad-caps will be so hardy , as to venture a fall or foil in behalf of their monstrous mistress of modern oliverian orthodoxy ; and undertake against me , to prove that she has a portion and share in religious and holy worship ; and also endeavor to prove that she has decent features , if she be not a beauty , and has more eminent and protuberant parts than mouth and ears , let him come out as soon as he will ; for her credit and his , and all the credits of good old cause men , lie desperately in jeopardy and at hazard . therefore the sooner they shew their courage and strength the better it will be for them , and not much the worse for me ; now my hand is in , i long to try again what metal they are made of , or where their great sampson's-strength lies , which fops only admire : for we never could find yet that their strength lay in their brains or any excrement that their brains put forth or hitherto produc'd . their talent lies in chucking the white and blew aprons ; and if the husband be novice enough to be cullied into the bargain , there 's so much sav'd : but if he be too crafty , like a cunning old bird , that will not be catch'd with such chaff ; in that case it is lawful for the dear heart his wife to filch religiously , and cheat her husband for god's sake . and so let them address to petticoat , that 's the height they can goe , and plot how to make their approaches to her pocket ; and for the great pains of brother precious therein get a maudlin courtsee , and thanks , very lovingly , with great cake and posset too , over and above ; mouthing in conclusion most savourly with hopkins and sternhold , which , in modern gypsee-cant , sounds — loth to depart . these are worthy cares for those fathers , ( so called in good earnest , it is no laughing matter , they become sometimes at such meetings , fathers , by right and good reason . ) but to fool themselves in print , it renders them to all ingenuous men , but so much the more ridiculous , who were ridiculous enough ( god knows ) before , in all conscience . like that little adventurer , who to satisfie wife , who long'd to see dear husbands name in print , and therefore desir'd him to put forth a ballad : no , quoth he , dear chuck , none of us have wit enough to make a ballad , except brother wild , whose fancy now ( wants tilting , even for ballad-wit , it ) runs so low , and is so sowre and stale withal , its briskness , such as it was , is now with its spirit quite gone , he is drain'd now to taplash tap-droppings : what think you then husband , said she , of the story , the pretty story you told me in bed last night of puss-cat ? what think you of putting that same cat into the press ? oh! dear love , replys he , i thank thee for that , 't is very true , the story of the cat , — that same , that , that , that , and away with it to the press , a whole sheet full of cat. cat ? what cat , do ye think ? house-cat ? no , church-cat , he would have said , but that he forgot it ( in his letter to a friend . ) and what news of the cat ? why , saith he , to this purpose , ( for i cannot write so slovenly as his words are , it is too much honour to take notice of such a scribler , except after dinner to laugh a little for digestion sake ) this same cat , saith he : very good , what of the cat ? why , once upon a time there was a cat : good ! go on : this cat came into the church — good still — and when she came there she was a ratcatcher , a rat-trap , and a mouse-trap : well , so far good ; and this same church-cat stood in spiritual hieroglyphick , for kneeling and the cross in baptism , those two hateful ceremonies to honest gentleman , modern orthodox man , who has an antipathy to that same church-cat : well , go on , what of all this ? what ? judge you , gentlemen , which is most civil , to keep that cat in the church , and thereby loose the good company of honest gentleman cat-hater , or else seal a lease of ejectm●…nt against this church-cat , otherwise modern orthodox starts up in a fright , saying , sit you m●…y , gentlemen , i cannot stay in the room , i have a natural antipathy to that same cat. in fa , what an antipathy ? where 's hopkins the witch finder ? search him for a teat , or any such imp-suckler , any marks of natural antipathy to this same church-cat can be found about him ; well , 't is done , come give in your evidence ; have you upon search found this same antipathy-teat about honest gentleman ? no , he 's free and clear for that matter : but i find an ill habit of body and mind , contracted by humour of singularity , pride , envy and lean-chapt malice , which is the only cause of this dislike against this church-cat of his own making ; and only speaks this same cat-hater to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , a lover only of his own will , and good pleasure in gods service , that 's all . for ( to keep to the allegory ) since ceremonies ( which he calls the ratcatcher ) must needs be in the church one way or other , in one form or other ; whilst we have bodies , we must serve god either in the posture of kneeling , &c. ( which he calls the ratcatcher cat ) or else in the posture of sitting , lolling , lying , &c. ( which i 'l call ratcatcher owl ) to which i and millions more of honest christians in these days , and ever since our saviours time have had an antipathy ; to retort therefore upon this wise disputant , and beat the cat about the owls-head of the bouby ; judge you , gentlemen , which is most civil , to keep the owl in the church , by the ceremonies of sitting , and lolling with hat upon skull , &c. the like irreverent postures , to which church-owl , i and millions of honest gentlemen have an antipathy , or rather fright this ratcatcher owl out of the church , for with her howtings and scrietching she spoils the musick and harmony of spiritual worship ; so that i , and millions of such owl-haters by antipathy must otherwise avoid the room and be gone . we live in a foppish generation , hugh peters ghost yet walks ; he us'd to tell a story of pus-cat , and puss in her majesty : it took wonderfully , and this nonsensical story of the cat , because she made a mouth and mew'd against ceremonies , was as good ( at first ) to some , as are nuts to mother-midnight . what wicked design men can have in blurring paper , and make it dear at this rate , i cannot tell ; but sure i am the greatest purchase they get by it , is only infamy , amongst all wise men , by rendring themselves in print publick laughingstocks , a scorn and a proverb . the truth is , i find a great deal more difficulty in perswading my mind to stoop so low , as to take any notice of such despicable fellows , or what they print , than to consute them : why ? tell me seriously , was there ever any argument so vilely ridiculous , as this of the cat ? a sordid crew ! what never a modern orthodox man that can write like a man or , a scholar ? can they play the men only to the women ? i 'l assure you , now that i have here thrust out sermons from religious worship , that used to thrust out all religious worship , and have introduc'd ceremonies as a necessary part of divine and holy worship ; they had need rally all their forces , or they , are routed for ever . and to encourage the best of them to the ran-counter , i 'l help them with a weapon , from mat. . . let them manage it and flourish it as well as they can . but i would not have them , for their own credit , to tell the world , any more lyes in print ; and say , i speak against preaching and faith , and sermons the means of faith ; if they should , they tell a damn'd lye ; i would not have sermons ( so they be plain , honest and seasonable ) at all undervalued , or disused when occasion calls for it , and the peoples ignorance or negligence ; but i will not yet let them take place in gods worship , sermons being but man speaking to man , or at best , when gods assistance concurrs , it is but heavenly influence upon man , which is another thing than gods holy worship , which ought to be our daily sacrifice , in exercises of faith , the sacraments as occasion offers , constant prayers , praises , and ceremonies , according to our holy , heavenly and incomparable common-prayer-book . ceremonies , will greg. and the rest of oliverian orthodox say , ceremonies , they are one ground of our quarrel with your way of worship , and the great ground , as being superstitious , and but bodily worship . but bodily worship ? why ? what would you have ? i make them no more but bodily worship ; yet that but , is such a but , that it will prove a but-end against modern orthodoxy for ever , to all that honestly , and with a good heart , free from partiality , prejudice and passion , do consider , and believe gods holy word and their own eyes . how does the apostle beg of the romans , with many imprecations , for the ceremonies of bodily worship , in gods holy worship , as a most reasonable service to him , a holy acceptable and living sacrifice unto god , rom. . . and bids them all to open their mouths together in prayer , praises , and worship of god , as if they had but one mouth among them all , as well as one mind in glorifying god , rom. . . and also calls upon the corinthians not only to do the great duty , but the lesser duty ; not only to glorifie god with their spirits , but with their bodies , cor. . . and that for a very good reason , because the body is gods purchase , as well as the soul ; christ hath bought both , paid a price for both ; both therefore , body as well soul must glorifie god , by reverent postures and gestures , as kneelings , bowing , sometimes even to the very ground , after the pattern and example of our saviour , mat. . . these blasphemous wretches of oliverian and modern orthodox would have called our saviour superstitious , and as well too st. paul kneeling , eph. . . and st. peter bowing down to the ground , luk. . . and kneeling , acts . . st. stephen at last gasp kneeling , acts . . with many other devout men , in the old and new testament , dan. . . psal. . . acts . . acts . . 't is true , the worship of the mind is more profitable than of the body , which profits but a little ; yet that little , since it much helps the reverence of my mind and spirit , ought i not to follow the example , precept and pattern of the holy ghost in scripture ? who sure best knows what is spiritual worship , after the holy example of our saviour , the apostles and all saints , in the ceremonies of kneeling , bowing , &c. in bodily worship ; rather than to follow the precept and pattern of new oliverian orthodox men , dissemblers , murderers , hypocrites , cheats , and antick foppish jugglers , and wresters of holy writ , as ever did gull silly souls , ceremonies then are one part of spiritual worship , and sermons are none ; much less are their sermons any , that have been full of trumpery , and railing against ceremonies ; thereby also railing against our lord and saviour , and all holy men : let baal look to his hits , he 's gone else for ever from the communion of saints and ingenuous men , for this generation , that yet feels the smart of their delusions and jugglings , and knows , to their cost , all i say to be true by lamentable experience . as for faith , you find all its articles in the apostles creed ; believe but that and be sav'd , so far as faith can save you ; but faith without good works can never save you , but is a dead faith , if you will believe your own eyes , jam. . more than those juglers , that cast a mist before you , to keep you blind , and lead you by the nose , by calling good works , ( without which no man shall go to heaven or be happy either in this world or the world to come ) most blasphemously , popery , superstition , and i know not what ; but be but so good as to give them your monies , your pla●…e , your bodkins , your thimbles , &c. oh! then it is no popery nor superstition ; but stroaking the tools on the head , gives them a coaks and a flap with a foxes tail , and makes them believe they do a very good work , and help the lord also ; and if they can perswade some old fop , man or woman , to part with a good estate to maintain a weekly lecture , or else mouth will not open , except that same annuity be in the case ; and then , the old fox dies a charitable good man , not guilty of popery by that good work , no not he : he that gives to monks and fryars , and english clergy , he is popish and and superstitious : but to give to modern orthodox for a weekly lecture and sermon ; oh heavenly ! thank you lovingly . as for the seals of faith , you have the sacraments ; initiating , baptism , strengthening , the supper of the lord. prayers and praises , which both for private , family , and publick devotions are incomparable , and without fear of nonsence , rashness or blasphemy , contained in the liturgy , which should be the daily sacrifice of prayer and thanksgiving either in your houses , or better ( if you can get company ) in your churches , every morning and evening , as well as once a week , and always was frequented by holy church , till modern orthordoxy , that abomination of desolation ( spoken of by daniel the prophet ) was set up in the room thereof , &c. the holy liturgy taken away , contemned and despised by wicked men , thereby to set up themselves their own superstitions and inventions . if in the explication of the liturgy , sacraments , or creed , or that text , matt. . . thereby to order mens conversations aright , you speak as pathetically , fully and plainly as you can , whether in the church or from house to house , catechizing the ignorant , on sundays , or other . holy-days or working-days ; whether on a single text , or ( as our saviour usually did ) on twenty several subjects , in delivering truths most seasonable and most useful to your hearers ; whether an hour , half an hour , or half a quarter of an hour , according to your discretions , what and how long may be most profitable and convenient ; fear not but in so doing you do the work of an evangelist with true honour and approbation of god and all good men . and leave canting , stories , whimsees and and cheats to the modern oliverian orthodox , they are unworthy the high calling whereunto you are called , and the benefit of the clergy of the church of england ; and only fit for taylors , weavers , coblers , chimney-sweepers , and such spiritual juglers , canters and gypsies . i have comprized in those six verses the best things and all that are needful things which accompany salvation ; of which now i will not further speak . it had been happy for the king , kingdom , the people and the prayers too , if they had kept themselves to that divinity alone contained in those six verses , infinite treasure and blood had been saved , which has been spent and spilt , through the whimsees and superstitions of these oliverian orthodox men . can any wise or good man imagine that the almighty and merciful god would leave the way to heaven so hard to find , that no body can find it out , but he that has heard twenty , or a hundred , or a thousand , or ten thousand sermons . foppish and bejuggled mankind ! our saviour and his apostles converted millions with a few , short , plain words : religion is the work of the whole man , all the days of his life , consisting in the constant practice of piety ; and not in prating of piety , in idle and endless questions , disputes , glosses , controversies , lectures , whimsees , stories and harangues , set off with antick twangs of the nose , wry faces , mops , mows , split jaws , sparrow-mouths , grunting , lyons faces , hems , haws , yawnings , gapings , snivellings , whinings , and mock-gypsee cantings and juglings , by spiritual hocus pocus , and oliverian orthodox , being traytors , heady , high-minded , lovers of their own wills and pleasures , more than gods will and pleasure , having a form or face of godliness , and that no good one neither , but denying the power thereof : for of this sort are they which creep into houses , and lead captive silly women , laden with sint , led away with divers lusts , &c. now will they have the impudence to say i rayl and reproach them in this reproof ; no matter : so said their predecessours to my saviour , when he denounc'd a wo to these scribes , pharisees , hypocrites : besides they are not my words , so much as the words of the holy ghost , tim. . what can be said too smartly and home to such malignancies , as these foppish stories , lectures , whimsees , wrestings of sacred scripture , by hugh peters and the rest of the tribe , which has undone us once already ; he that cheats once 't is his fault , but if i am cheated twice with the same juggle , interpretation and legerdemayn , though from another hocus or pick-pocket , i may thank my self ; no matter ; look better to the pocket another time . aftertimes , ( for envy , ( like hollow friends ) accompanies every man that is worth any thing , till he comes in his grave , and then it leaves him ) ( when prejudice and passion does not bribe the judgment ) will best determine , which of these three ( greg. trinkles , or hugh peters ) thus in their colours pencill'd , have the best physnomy . indeed they all three face one way , go one way , and follow one and the same modern orthodoxy , but with a different style , and under a different name . hugh peters held forth & manag'd modern orthodoxy under the name of the good old cause ; but father gray beard follows it under the name of the cause too good . hugh peters rendred the good old cause good enough to be fought for ; but greg. has a higher value for it , at least seems to be so chary and tender over it , that he says , it is too good to be fought for . but both of them agree in fundamentals , and with joynt forces inveigh against the king , our late sovereign , and his whole reign ; rendring it and him despicable , and deform'd all over with ceremonies , arminianism , and manwaring . both of them agree against the common enemy , bishops and evil councellors ; both of them quarrel with the cross after baptism , and kneeling at the sacrament . only hugh peters does more tolerably pretend to controversies in divinity , as not being out of the road of his profession : but , certainly this same greg. whatever he be , is no divine . it would almost tempt charity to very hard thoughts of him , whilst he , like julian the apostate , prosecutes so vehemently and maliciously religion and all religious men . if plato's transmigration of souls were true , i should conclude that cham was again in him metampsuchos'd , he does so turn up the fathers of the church , and exposing their nakedness to his power , slashes them for their worthy cares . but his rod does most wound his own face , and his own malice , and betraying its self , becomes his own executioner . for certainly if his conscience were awake , it would fly in his face , and make him recant , ( with st. paul for a less defamation unawares ) i wi●…t not brethren that it was god's high priest. god's high priest — and yet a wicked man , and then too going about a wicked action ; and yet st. paul does ask forgiveness . but certainly greg. can have no call to pass a censure upon either ministers of state , councils , fathers of the church , their actions , councils , or books ; sure if the way were good , and the good old cause never so good , yet certainly greg. it is not your road , and therefore ( if for no other cause you are out of the way ) as much you are when you talk politickly of augustus caesar , hen. iv. &c. your policies are like your divinity , but neither of them taken out of the bible , which ( you say ) will teach a man the best politicks . you might learn other measures of government out of the bible , then displeasing or pleasing the people . herod to please the people killed james , and because he saw it pleased the people , he put peter in prison also , acts . . pilat to do the jews a pleasure , delivered our saviour to be crucified ; and foelix willing to do the jews a pleasure left paul bound . argumentum turpissimum est turba , faith seneca . these soft and unmanly rules of government and policy , may perhaps agree with your own effeminate temper ; but they are not grounded upon reason nor religion . indeed when the light of these are obscured and hood-wink'd with fear and cowardise , the man is no more a man , much less a governour , nor with these circumstances capable of direction ; for fear frights ' h●… out of his wits , and how can he govern others , that cannot govern himself ? but almighty god does usually give large and noble souls to them that are design'd for government , and not capable of such puny impressions of fear , that mollifie and unman vulgar and narrow spirits . the threatning ●…llows daunted and amaz'd julius caesar's waterman , till the great courage of caesar reviv'd the poor spirited man with caesarem & fortunes , and fetch'd him to life again , and made him tug it out . this noble spirit of government is called in holy writ , the spirit of god , which came upon soul when anointed to be a king , and upon the seventy elders , numb . . . when they were appointed to be councellors of state. indeed those independents , numb . . . korah , dathan , abiram and their crew thought themselves as good as the best , and as holy as the best , and as good as their governours , but moses presently shew'd them the difference on 't . there are many incomparable instances in the bible , which will teach governours better policy , than puny and narrow hearted greg. dares think on , for all the commendations he gives the bible , for the most absolute accomplishment of a politician . the people mutiny'd , were displeased with moses their governour , and rebelled , exod. . now if greg. had been at his elbow , how would he with fearful s. peter have advis'd moses , as s. peter did our saviour , master spare thy self : how would greg. have read politick lectures to him , and have entreated him to look to himself , and shift for himself , and not hazard himself among the rebels and tumults ? hell was broke loose , the people swarming in uproars , and terrible in threatnings : or if he could not have perswaded moses to run away , he would as he does to our governours , insinuate the wisdom and necessity of pleasing the people , coming with cap in hand , rather than sword in hand , and beg of them for gods sake to be quiet and they should have any thing . but moses gods servant was not so , he was faithful to himself and the true measures of government , and knew if he had rendred himself to their mercy , and yielded to their rage , it had been but offering his throat to be cut ; a sad instance whereof i could give you in these late times ; but what does moses in this case ? exod. . , . who is on the lords side ? whose for me ? let him come to me . there came none to him but gown-men neither ; only in those days the sons of levi wore swords , and it seems knew how to handle them , as well as bluffer gallants , for moses had no sooner given them the word of command , but they fell upon the rabbble , cut and slew till they had left three thousand dead upon the spot ; and this the holy ghost calls the consecrating or sanctifying of a mans self by slaying the mutineers , and there is a blessing from heaven promised to be bestowed upon them for their valour and good service in the ●… . v. such a white-liver'd politician as mr. greg. durst not receive such measures of government as these into his breast , for fear they should fright him out of his wi●…s ; and if englands martyr charles i. had hearkened to his own courage so much as he did to softer councils ; if some pantaloon & mu●…se courtiers that had better courage to lead a dance or a young lady , than head a troop , had been away , & if in their stead he had had a company of swiss for his courtiers , or gallant english gentlemen with english courages , and with them sallyed out upon the tumults which flock'd about his gate , he had in all probability crush'd the cockatrice in the egg , and sent the prentices home ( as o. c. did ) to their shop-boards with a vengeance to them . however it could not possibly have fared worse with him than it did : those softer politick lectures bringing the good king in conclusion to die afterwards at the same place ; the more 's the pity , and pity it is that mercy and kindness are not always good nor fit ; as that good king found to his cost , and therefore tells his son , if ever you trust to them ( meaning the factious reb●…ls ) or must stand to their courtesie , you are undone . to manage the reins of government thus with a steddy hand , and to ride with a hank , is the best of all both for king and people , as we have found : head-strong jades would kill themselves , if you lay the reins upon their necks , it is their happiness and ease to be rid with a curb : a licentious government is no government , it is contradictio in●…adjecto , or ( as greg. phrases it p. . ) it is another j. o. an he cow , that is to say , a bull. and it is worth the while here to remember the clean fancy of that incomparable english poet — a king by yielding does like him and worse that sadled his own back to shame his horse . and because mr. greg. has put me upon 't to answer his politick lectures out of the bible , i 'll but give two instances out of it , not to instruct my governours and tutour kings , i thank god , i was never such a conceited thing , nor so lost to all modesty and sense of humility : but it is ( in my sphere ) to instruct people what a blessing attends their obedience to their supreme governours , if when they command some things in religion , which in circumstantials of religion are poynt-blank against god's own law ; and yet god likes it well , blesses the people for such obedience , though the command of their governours ( perswaded thereunto out of good reason , some great convenience or necessity ) was directly different from the command of god. when the king and his council made an order to keep the sacrament of the passeover , chron. . . together with the advice and concurrence of the parliament therein , called there , all the congregation , it must be meant in their representatives : for all the people , nor the thousandth part could not come to hear , or know what was done at the great council , much less give their votes ; i say , this king hezekiah with his council and great council of the congregation made a decree to keep the passover in the second month. this is worse than the cross after baptism and kneeling at the sacrament ; for we can find no beginning when they entred into the church , and therefore have as much cause to think it was the posture of christ and his apostles and their constant practice , if not more cause , than to think the contrary . but here in chron. . . is an act of parliament ( i 'll call it so , for the better understanding of it in english phrase ; for it is of the same nature ) quite contrary to the law of god concerning the sacrament , as to one circumstantial of time. god commands to keep it in the first month , and positively reiterates the command , and bids them keep it in that appointed season , num. , , . the king and parliament say to the people , we command you for certain good reasons and motives to observe the sacrament in the second month. now saith modern orthodox , hang me , draw me , quarter me , imprison me , fine me , do your worst , i defie the d●…vil , and all the laws of men contrary to god's law ; here i 'll live , here i 'll die . so you may ( say i ) and be damn'd too in all probability ; lose your soul , as well as your life , liberty and estate , as wise as you are , and as wilful as you are . and you may go on railing your governours and the fathers of the church , and tell them they sit in the seat and temple of god , and as if they were god , nay above him , make laws different from god's law ; and therefore call them antichrist , the be ist and the false prophet , and whether it be right to obey god or man , judgeye . thus accepted was that law of the ki●…g and parliament in hezekiah his time , by the zealots that had more heat than light , and more passion than knowledge and true spiritual wisdom . for if our governours be never so bad , they cannot be so bad as the devil himself , and michael the arch-angel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , he was not so impudent or audacious as to rail at the devil , when contending about an honest cause with him : nor was the devil his superior , but because a dignity , a principality , an angel , though a black one , st. michael was not so audacious as to blaspheme the devil , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . what desperate wretches then are those devillish people , that pretend to the greatest sight of religion and knowledge of god , and yet censure , rail , blaspheme , lie , slander , revile , and speak evil of dignities and their superiours , without any remorse or check of conscience ? and these people will talk of consciences ! consciences , and liberty to tender consciences ; then the nether milstone , the adamant , the rock is tender , if these men have tender consciences , that make their faces harder than a rock , impudent foreheads , hard hearts , hearts of stone , consciences seared with a hot iron ; that though the poyson of asps is perpetually under their lips , and they spit their venom against their superiors , yet recant not , repent not , nor do their tender consciences feel any remorse or regret . thus ver. . when the post went out with the letters from the king and his princes throughout all israel and judah , and according to the commandment of the king , requiring the people to conform , and not to be stiff-necked , v. . as their fathers were , but yield themselves unto the lord — so is the law of the king and council there called . but what entertainment did the people give it ? this is the question at this day . truly the people were then as now , some of them conformists , and some of them non-conformists . the nonconformists , were ephraim wholly , and part of the tribe of manasseh , and part of zebulon , v. . the conformists , were all judah , part of the tribe of ashur , part of manasseh and part of zebulon , v. , . here stand the two pparties ; the non-conformists jearing and laughing , and scorning and mocking at the messengers or ministers of the king declaring the kings pleasure , and the law , v. . and the ministers were right serv'd ( i am sure ) father gray beard will say , he would have chastised them for their worthy eares ; nay , i fear he would have cried out ruine and desolation , all scotland and part of the church of england , &c. is quite undone ; here is man's post against god's post , man's threshold against god's threshold , antichrist against christ , and the king's law against the positive words of god's law. but perhaps some will say , hezekiah though a good king , yet had his faults , and so might his council too ; tell us not what they did , but tell us how god did approve and like of what they did , in making a law against his law : who did god own , the conformists or non-conformists can you tell us that ? yes , that i can , chron. . . this commandment of the king and the princes against the positive rule of god's law , being made for a good reason moving the king and his council thereunto , is not withstanding called the word of the lord , and the band of the lord was with the conformists , god is on our side may they say : for the hand of god was to give them one heart to do the commandment of the king and of the princes , by the word of the lord. thus tempting of moses , is called tempting of christ , cor. . . this i had not now urged but that greg. and such fellows as he , will take upon them to read politick and divinity lectures to the world in print , when they know nothing but modern orthodoxy ; read books , and hearken to preachers of their opinion , wherein thus confirm'd , they admire their gigantick improvements , and then bid defiance , like furious orlando's , to all mankind ; when indeed they are big with nothing but a soft pate huft and blown up with their own dear humours of self-conceit . nor do i think governours have warrant from that instance to disannul gods sacraments , but as to circumstances and ceremonies of time , place , habits , gestures , and the like , according to their judgement and necessity , or conveniency moving them , have an unanswerable right . let greg. and his modern orthodox men mitigate this too , i fear them not , nor all their snivellings and whinings , which no body admires , but blew and white aprons , and the more ingenious tankerd-bearers . and let them consider without prejudice , and in the fear of almighty god , that when the sons of jonadab , the sons of rechab , in obedience to him their superiour , submitted to his humane-law in drinking no wine , nor building houses , nor planting vineyards , ( which certainly are all very good things , and god likewise tells man that all the good creatures he made on purpose for him and his use , every herb bearing seed , and every tree bearing fruit , commanding it should be to mankind for meat , &c. ) yet in obedience to the first commandment with promise , they would not take the liberty and priviledge warranted to them by god and his word , but would obey the commandment of jonadab their father , and keep all his precepts : and god did so love them for it , that he blesses them for it , saying , jer. . , . thus saith the lord of hosts , the god of israel ; because ye have obeyed the commandment of jonadab your father , and kept all his precepts , and done according to all that he hath commanded you : therefore , thus saith saith the lord of hosts , the god of israel , jonadab the son of rechab , shall not want a man to stand before me for ever . happy would it be for the people of england , in soul and body , and estate , here and hereafter , on earth and in heaven , if they would observe these thing , rather than the wily wrestings of holy writ by crafty seducers that have no way to cheat the people and be admired by them , but by such artifices as cheat them of their souls too , and make the kingdom so disturbed , and their followers too ; and the bottom of all these juglings is but to get a paltry sneaking livelyhood , and a little popular applause . and then must our governours , and the king in especial be therein happy too , and verifie every way the anagram of his name in latine , carolus stuarte . anagr. clarus sorte tua . when nero set rome on fire , he played upon the ho-boy all the time , and laid the blame on the christians ; and thus greg. j. o. and the rest of his friends , the modern orthodox set these three kingdoms on a flame with a brand fetch'd from geneva and the covenant , and yet they make themselves merry with our misery , lay all the blame upon king charles , arch-bishop laud , ceremonies , and imposition of the liturgy ; assassinating again those two glorious martyrs in their honour and innocence , and endeavouring to justifie the bloody villains that murthered them . nor must his majesty so much as think of their bloody and unparallel'd cruelty , because augustus caesar's father too was murthered , and his kinsman , henry iv. of france likewise , and henry iii. and such gentlemens memories had their successors and the cabinet-council , that they let the murderers escape scot-free ; and if piety and good nature would move for a stricter vindication of his fathers death , yet in policy , have a care , displease not the villains , as you love your kingdoms , for a sturdy swiss , and a malepert fisher-boy in naples overturn'd all by a basket of apples . with such stuffe as this does father grey-beard and his modern christians , wipe their mouths with the whore in the proverbs , and say , they have done no wickedness ; but all the fault is in thine own people , in king charles i. arch-bishop laud , fathers of the church , superfetations , parliaments , and evil counsellors . and if i have beat all these butt-ends of his upon his own pate , and vindicated king charles i. his reign from that deformity , wherewith both it , his majesty and arch-bishop laud are by this bold author , as falsly and maliciously , as well as most unseasonably , in this juncture maligned , i have my end . but who this malignant is for my part i am not solicitous , nor did i ever see any man that was taken for him upon suspicion . i have dealt with him all along , as is prescribed in the method for cure of unruly and vain talkers and deceivers , tit. . . namely , rebuk'd him as sharply , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cuttingly , to the quick , as near as i could , with honest design , by such harmless incisions to let out the impostumated quitter , and prepare for his cure ; odi vitium , non virum . and now i have done ; and ( to write after him , p. . but withall to set him a better copy ) i shall think my self largely recompen sed for this trouble , if greg. and others shall learn by this example , that it is not impossible thus long to be merry and angry , as he was ; but to be merry and angry , and yet not sin by , traducing the most innocent and honourable persons , dead and alive , by such superfetation of rayling , as he has done . i am your servant , edm. hickeringill . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e dr. bruges . a dialogue betwixt a conformist and a non-conformist concerning the lawfulness of private meetings in the time of the publick ordinances, and of going to them ... published by n.e., for common benefit. estwick, nicolas. approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing e estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a dialogue betwixt a conformist and a non-conformist concerning the lawfulness of private meetings in the time of the publick ordinances, and of going to them ... published by n.e., for common benefit. estwick, nicolas. p. s.n.], [london : . attributed to nicolas estwick. cf. wing. place of publication from wing. reproduction of original in union theological seminary library, new york. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng dissenters, religious -- england. assembly, right of -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - celeste ng sampled and proofread - celeste ng text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion dialogue betwixt a conformist and a non-conformist ▪ concerning the lawfulness of private meetings in the time of the publick ordinances , and of going to them : and also , some directions how to profit by hearing , designed chiefly for the benefit of the people of s. m. magdalen's and redriff . published by n. e. for common benefit . now i beseech you brethren mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which you have learned , and avoid them ; for they that are such serve not our lord jesus christ , but their own belly , and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple , rom. . . be no more children tossed to and fro , and carryed about with every wind of doctrine , by the sleight of men , and cunning craftiness , whereby they lie in wait to deceive , eph. . . printed in the year , . the dialogue . conformist . neighbour i am glad to see you , you have not been lately at church , i hope you have not forsaken it . non-conformist . i go constantly to hear a precious man that preacheth hard-by in private , whither i would fain have you go , i wish so well to your soul . c. i thank you , but you know we are not so well skill'd , but schollars can preach dangerous errors to us , and we not discern them ; how dare you trust your self to be guided and taught by a stranger ? and why do you forsake our own minister who hath subscrib'd to the articles of our religion ? n. c. truly i don't conceive it my duty to hear him , but that i am free to hear where i please . c. is our minister bound to preach ? if so , sure some body is bound to hear him ; and i know none more bound to hear him than you and i , for god by his providence hath set him over us , and you know we were ready and glad to receive him . st. paul you know was apostle and minister to the corinthians , cor. . . & chap. . . and when they forsook him , though they followed good men , apollo and peter , yet he blames them for it , cor. . . besides by the laws of the land we are appointed and enjoyn'd to worship god at our own parish churches , and pet. . . we must submit to every ordinance of man for the lords sake : do not we blame those ministers that are non-resident and leave their people ? and why is it not as much a fault in the people to leave their minister ? n. c. i must confess you have given me some reason why i ought rather to hear at our own parish church than elsewhere , but yet i think i have very good reason why i have lest it . c. have you any just exceptions against the life or doctrine of our minister ? n. c. no , i have not , but though he be not scandalous , yet there are many of the clergy are . c. that 's no reason why you should leave him , but rather encourage and love him because he is sober ; but suppose he were scandalous in his life , this would not be a sufficient reason presently to leave him . n. c. no! why ? c. first we ought modestly and meekly to advise him to live well , if this would not do , then we ought to complain of him to his superiors that they may admonish him ; if this would not do , we are to make use of the law whereby scandalous and erroneous ministers may be suspended till they reform ; and if any people have bad ministers , 't is their own fault , and great sin if they don't take this course with them , and till we have done our duty we can't be excusable in leaving a scandalous minister . n. c. but what ? must we hear and receive sacraments , &c. in the mean time from such a man ? c. yes , for i judge the ordinances of god if rightly and duly administred by him , are not the worse for the wickedness of the man that dispenseth them ; for they are gods ordinances and not man's , and their excellency and efficacy come from god , and not from the righteousness of any man that dispenseth them , so that if we will duly make use of them , his wickedness can't hinder us from benefit by them : we must take christs advice do as they say , and not as they do . n. c. but why do the bishops suffer such men to come into livings , and why don't they eject them when in ? c. the patron hath a right to present , and if the bishops will not admit hee 'l force him by a quare impedit : and the bishop can't suspend them when in , unless first he know it , and be inform'd of it ; and secondly unless it be prov'd and prosecuted ; for the bishop can't be judge and accuser both , and therefore the church-wardens are sworn to present such ; if therefore they be not prosecuted , the fault is not in the bishop but people . neighbour i heartily wish we did more cover the nakedness of some few of the clergy , and if they would not be reclaim'd , that they were prosecuted in a legal way , and not by invectives and envious reflections lay the fault of some few upon the whole . n. c. i must acknowledge i can't accuse our minister , but the reasons why i go from him , are , first because the common-prayer is read at his church , secondly because i can profit more by another man that preacheth in private . c. in answer to your first reason , i remember you have gone to hear at the church though the common-prayer was read there , at least you were wont to come in after it was done ; why is it more unlawful for you to come now than it was then ? if you scruple at common-prayer , why do you not joyn with us in the rest ? besides , how many of you will hear it at a christning ? do the sweet meats and wine make it more lawful at that time than it is at another ▪ n. c. it is mass , 't is porridge , 't is bibble bable , 't is will-worship , 't is superstition , and shall i come to hear where it is ? c. i pray be not angry , but hear me meekly . . they are good prayers made to the true god in the name of jesus christ , and i can't account it less than a kind of blasphemy , and an high breach of the third commandment to deride and scorn them ; 't is true , elijah mockt at the prayers of baals priests , but 't was because they prayed to a false god , but is it not horrible wickedness for those that own the true god , to deride those prayers that are made to him ? . there is some part of the bible in the mass , is it e're a whit the worse for being there ? no more are good prayers the worse for being in the mass . . why is not your way more will-worship than ours ? wherein you have more your own will , and inventions than we have ? your minister invents what prayers , and what way of administring the sacraments he pleaseth , and this he will do , though more wise , pious , and learned men have made better ; and king , lords , and commons , and the convocation have advis'd and enjoyn'd the use of them ; hath not he high conceits of himself ? much of confidence and will in his worship ? and little of modesty , that thinks himself wiser and his own inventions , better than these ? is not yours will-worship ? . i have been taught , that superstition can't be in a prayer or any external thing , but that 't is in our minds , it being an evil apprehension of god ; and so those that are against common prayer may be as guilty of superstition as they that use it . . i pray tell me , and speak your conscience , do you not think that if you should heartily joyn with the minister in it , if you should use the confessions with true repentance for sin , the petitions with sincere desires for those good things they mention , and the thanks givings with love and praises to god in your soul ; this would not be more pleasing to god than turning your back upon it , and scoffing at it ? n. c. but they are such cold and formal prayers , that i can't lift up my heart in the use of them . c. surely you are highly mistaken , to think that good prayers can be formal , or make you cold and dead in praying them ? . to pray by a form is lawful and good , else why would our saviour have left us a form ? why do we use psalms ? do you not use a form for a grace at meals ? are not extempory prayers forms to the hearers , for the hearers must no more vary from them , least they be guilty of wandring thoughts , than we from the common-prayer ? and some must use a form in their families , or not pray at all , they having not good and ready inventions . . i alway thought evil formality in prayer consisted not in a form of words , but in a lazy formal temper of minde , so th t if you be not serious in using common or other prayers , 't is you that are formal , and not the prayers . . besides i finde , and me thinks 't is reasonable , that those words whose form and emphasis i have considered of and apprehended before , should at the using of them most readily ( when i have not time to meditate ) and most powerfully affect my heart by the way of my judgment ; and that extempory inventions do most usually but raise the affections by the force of the fancy , as poets , musicians , &c. finde by experience . . i cannot believe that bate inventing and affectionate using of new words every time we pray , is praying by the spirit , but certainly to pray by the spirit , is to exercise charity , humility , faith , repentance , and the rest of the graces of the holy spirit in our hearts in prayer , and seeing words are but to express our minds , and that those graces in out hearts may be exprest by a form of words ; i see not why he that prays by a form , may not at least as well pray by or wish the spirit as others . n. c. truly friend , i finde i can't twice a day invent a new form fit to be pray'd in my family , and therefore do most usually use a form of words , which i see my children and servants better understand than extemporary prayers . but that which makes some of the non-conformists think common-prayer unlawful , is the imposition of it . c. though i think out governors may impose lawful things , yet it not much concerns us to dispute that , but whether we are to obey them or not ; and for this i would fain understand , how that which was lawful for me to do before imposed , should by being imposed become unlawful ; or when are we more bound to obey magistrates than when they command lawful things ? seeing their commands which are about lawful things take away only the liberty of our actions , but not the liberty of our consciences , which is properly christian liberty ; the former is a due to our lawful superiours , the latter only a tribute to god ; therefore the french protestant church , and the dutch , and all the reformed churches have forms which they use in publick . n. c. but there are some things in the common-prayer that are unlawful , and you have no scripture for them . c. i suppose you mean the ceremonies , surplice , cross , and kneeling , which have been enough disputed by others ; all that i will answer to you is , that i must confess there is no express scripture for them , and yet i don't count them unlawful . n. c. no! why , i pray is it lawful for us to do any thing in the worship of god that we have not scripture for ? c. yes , for though there be no scripture for them , yet there is none against them , and nothing is sin but what is forbidden , and if you account them unlawful when there is no scripture against them , you are righteous over-much , and add to gods word . n. c. say you so ! i don't remember any plain place of scripture against them , but will think on one against the next time we meet . c. do i pray , and think how small a condescention these would be in you o're the things strangled and bloud enjoyn'd to be forborn , acts . . and st. pauls causing timothy to be circumcis'd , were . n. c. but friend , do you not see how all that are godly hate the common prayer , and the bishops , and hear in private , and is not this enough to induce you and i to do so too ? c. i pray ask your minister whether there was any other government in the church then bishops from the apostles times , till mr. calvins , who liv'd about a hundred years ago ? i know you quarrel at our bishops greatness , but that alters not their office , and shall thy eye be evil because the king 's and his predecessors hath been good to them ? is it any evil in thee to accept what is given thee ? i do believe that many that are against them are truly godly , but i do not count it any part of their piety , but their great mistake ; and when i consider that st. paul saith charity is the chiefest grace , i am afraid there are too few of them truly godly , because they are so full of scoffing , railing , envy , and bitterness against bishops : and although our saviour enjoyns us ▪ to love and do good , to bless and pray for those that are our enemies , yet they pray against their supposed enemies , and 't is said , will fast and pray whole days to beseech god to curse them . oh horrid ! the devil would do thus too , but that he knows 't is to no purpose . christians are enjoyn'd to pray for heathen governors , and do they act like christians that pray against christian governors ? besides , i never could like their calling themselves and their party the godly , it savours more of pharisaical pride , than modesty and humility . n. c. but can you think that a people that pray , and fast , and hear so much are not the best ? c. who prayed and fasted more than the pharisees ? and than cromwell and his companions ? indeed neighbour methinks there is more of christianity in a modest obedience to superiors , in justice and charity to our neighbours , than in praying whole days , fasting twice a week , lectures and meetings every day . n. c. o sir ▪ me thinks you now are full of 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 to despise godliness . c. i do not observe my self to be in a passion , hear my reasons , and if they be not good i 'le conclude i am mistaken . god forbid i should despise praying , hearing , &c. they are our duties , and especially the publick , at being publick acknowledgments that god is the governor of the world ; but yet i would not over ▪ value them , for they are but means to a good life , and are no further acceptable to god than as they tend to make us live well , and is not the end to be preferr'd above the means ? and is it not a great error to make meer praying , and hearing , and to be affected in them our and ? who is the best christian , he that prays , &c. most ? or that lives best ? n. c. but they are most likely to get grace and to live best that pray , &c. most ▪ c. i am not of your mind . n. c. how ! who are more likely to get grace than they ? c. they that strive most to get what they pray for , and to do what they hear , for our designs in attending upon god in his ordinances , should not be to change god ( who is unchangeable ) but our selves by gods grace , which is not done by meer begging for grace , but by resolutions and endeavours to live well . we must not go to god as if he were perverse or hard hearted , and must be over-come with a great many importunities , perswasions , and arguments ; for he is a kind and loving father , and no sooner doth he see us repentant and resolv'd to live well , but he hears and answers us , so that he that most endeavours to subdue his lusts , and to exercise a good conscience is the best man , and most likely to get grace ; but to place our religion in external devotions , smells too rank of popery and superstition , though we are never so frequent and so affected in them . n. c. but do you not observe how many there are that worship god in private ? c. what is more fickle than the multitude , who are tossed up and down with every wind of doctrine ? and we know that old eve is too much in us all , especially in the women , we long most to taste forbidden fruit . when many of these men that preach in private had liberty to preach in publick , they had very few to hear them . n. c. but have not the puritans been alway accounted the godly of the land ? c. yes , by themselves and their own party ; and i have very worthy thoughts for the old puritans , who as mr. clark and others tell us , did most dillgently attend upon the publick ordinances , and did most devoutly and reverently joyn in the common-prayers , and would take care to be at the beginning of them , and did only scruple some of the ceremonies : but how come you now to differ so much from them ? n. c. because we have more light than they had . c. i don't believe it : 't is true , there is more preaching , talking , and disputing about the niceties and circumstances of religion , but fewer now know and mind the essentials of religion contained in the creed , lords prayer , and ten commandments : the best evidence of the light of this age are the works of it , sure i am there is not now an hundredth part so much love and charity , so much honesty and faithfulness , so much temperance and sobriety , so much modesty and humility , so much of simplicity and plainness , so much of reverence for superiors , as there was before our unhappy civil wars , from which times of liberty we may date the debauching of the nation . light is not the cause of deeds of darkness . n. c. well friend , i see you will be for your mumpsimus still ; what say you to my other reason against hearing in publick churches ? c. neighbour , i do pray you , nay admonish you in the name of god to have more reverence for the worship of the great god. you are too near of kin to the monsters of the other end of the town that scoff at all religion , onely you pretend to do it in zeal for religion : but this wont excuse the devil , that he pretends to be an angel of light . was not your other reason this , that you can profit most in private ? n. c. yes , and ought i not to go where i can profit most ? c. if you must go where you think you can profit most , then if you can find another that you can profit by more than mr. j. you must leave mr. j. and go to him . n. c. yes . c. well , and there may be the same reason to leave the next , and so the next , till you come to the best of all ▪ and if every one do thus , what undecent levity and confusion will there be ? but suppose he that you think you can profit most by should go into india ? if it be your duty to hear where you think you can profit most , it is your duty to follow him , seeing 't is not impossible . certainly neighbour 't is our duty to hear where god hath placed us , and the less means we have , the less will god require of us , and we must endeavour to improve our selves by our own diligence , and may with reason expect more of profit than those that gad or hear better preachers in private ; for those that disobey governors , and cause divisions , that they may worship in private when they may worship in publick , do like the israelites , who disobeyed god that they might have fat cattel to offer up in sacrifice to him ; and therefore are not so likely to profit by the ordinance , as those that worship in publick , who do no evil that good may come on 't . to obey superiors is to obey god , and to obey is better than sacrifice , but the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the lord , prov. . . but let me be informed from you what you mean by profiting , are you taught any truth needful for your souls that is not taught in publik ? n. c. not that i can remember . c. but i can tell you of some truths we hear in publick , that your private preachers , though they know and believe them , dare not or will not preach to you . n. c. which are they ▪ certainly they are conscientious men , and would not be men ▪ pleasers . c. first , i am afraid they scarce dare preach upon the creed , the lords prayer , and ten commandments , least their hearers should think them low and mean things . . they will not tell you that you ought to keep to your own parish churches , though they believe you ought ; for when they preacht in publick , then they taught that doctrine , and petitioned against coventicles . . they dare not tell you that the common-prayer is lawful , and that you ought to be sincere in the hearing of it . n. c. but what reason have you that any of them think it lawful ? c. because most of them have confest it , and they scruple only one or more of the ceremonies ; besides , he that you go to hear , viz. mr. j. was a curate under a minister in the country since the king came in , and read the common-prayer for him . yet now — . they will not tell you that you ought to obey superiors , and not speak evil of dignities temporal or spiritual , though the scriptures speaks expresly that the elders that labour in the word , i. e. that are ministers of the gospel , that rule well should have double honour . but how many i will not say invent evil reports , but rejoyce at them , and envy their fame and repute ? . they dare not tell you that you ought not to make divisions or schisms in the church , and you know well enough why they dare not preach these truths . n. c. enough of this , there are better things for them to preach of . c. me-thinks these are things of great concernment : a drunkard , an whore-monger , a swearer , doth a great deal less harm in church and state , than he that breaks the fifth commandment , or causeth divisions . n. c. our governors cause divisions , by imposing things against mens consciences . c. did you ever know any confess themselves to be the causers of division , though they were ? yet sometimes you forget your selves , and confess it when you call your selves the brethren of the separation . . you can't except against matters of faith , only discipline and government , i. e. in plain word you would not be ruled , but would be rulers . . all reformed churches take to themselves a power of imposing indifferent things , the french protestants appoint the posture of standing at the lords supper , and will not give it to any that sit : the dutch impose sitting , and will not give it to any that stand , and shall they have power to appoint standing or sitting , and not we kneeling ? you know god appointed the passover to be taken standing , yet the jews afterward altered this posture , and commanded sitting or leaning , and our saviour obey'd them , and did eat the passover sitting or leaning . the jews appointed holy ▪ days that god never appointed , as the feast of dedication , no where mentioned but in the maccabees , and yet christ observes this feast ; john . but what need i say more ? the presbyterians appointed the ceremony of holding up the hand at the taking the covenant , and an oath is a piece of worship to god : and yet they will say somewhat that they make you believe they are persecuted for their consciences . n. c. so they are , were ever so many ministers so strangely driven from their places ? c. i do think governors ought to enact such laws as they in their consciences think best for the nation , and such particular persons as can't submit to those laws , must be contented to suffer , and yet not count it persecution ; for persecution is when men suffer for being righteous , our governors aim'd at peace , and not at punishing of them for their consciences , or for being righteous ; for they may be as good christians as they will as to their faith and manners , they may be as humble as meek , as just , as self-denying as they will ; they may worship god after their own way , in their own families , and never be punish'd for it ; and besides , have sufficient opportunities of worshipping god in publick . the great contest is , who shall rule and govern the church , they , or the king and parliament , whose model or way shall take place ; and if all will not submit to them 't is persecution . is this the same case with christs and the apostles ? they were persecuted for preaching the gospel , because the then governors would not have had christian religion preacht at all , but our governours not only suffer those that will submit to be ruled by them to preach the gospel , but encourage them , and therefore we see as good preaching here abouts as ever there was . n. c. but friend , we have quite forgot our main business ; we were inquiring what profit i got in private more than in publick : i told you , i did not remember any truths preacht there that were not in publick ; but i 'le tell you that he whom i hear is a most rowsing , awakening preacher , that stirs me up and quickens me , so that me-thinks i find a great deal of god going along with his preaching . c. if you please , we may consider of the benefit you mean under these heads . . either your affections are rais'd . . or your heart and life made better . n. c. can i think i ought not to go where my affections are most rais'd . c. i pray let me ask you some questions ; seeing our affections are rais'd either by our judgments or our fancies , tell me which way you think he raiseth yours ? n. c. i hope it is by my judgment , for he gives us reasons for the doctrines . c. can you remember the particular arguments or reasons that so awakened you the last time ? had they any thing extraordinary in them ? n. c. no , i can't remember what particularly it was that had that power over me . c. 't is strange ! that which we are so much affec●ed with , we are not apt to forget : but tell me , what power hath it had upon you since ? for if our affections are rais'd by the way of our judgments , i observe those truths will hang in our minds like weights or byasses , drawing our souls , and subduing our hearts and lives to them . i pray speak sincerely , do you find any such over-powering sense of any truth continue in your mind afterwards ? n. c. i must if i will speak truth , say i do not ; only a kind of liking to the man , and longing to hear him again . c. i pray tell me , hath he not a very loud voice , sweet tone , a pretty smiling contenance , a vehement and earnest delivery , and active posture of body , is not his sermon fil'd with a great many pitiful words , as poor soul , poor sinner , a great many expostulations , exclamations , oh's and ah's and groans intermixt ? have not you a great opinion of him for his godliness , and love , and compassion to him , because a non-conformist ? n. c. all this i must confess . c. do you think that the same sermon or a better , if delivered from a conformist , or a grave man , whose voice is lower and is not so affectionate , would please & affect you so much ? n. c. i must acknowledge i think it would not , what do you gather from hence ? c. that your affections are rais'd by the way of your fancy ▪ & that you are much mistaken to call this profit , for 't is but pleasure , and if you go only to be thus affected , you have the same ends in going to hear a sermon , that others have in going to a comedy , or walk in the fields , viz. their pleasure and delight . n. c. this may be true , but however this may be a good way to have good wrought upon the heart and life . c. i will not limit god , but will tell you that st. paul seem'd in his preaching to shun this art , cor. . . i came not to you with excellency of speech or wisdom , v. . but my speech and preaching was not with enticing words of mens wisdom ; that the things of christian religion might be preacht in their own native power and plainness , and st. aug. chides himself for delighting so much in the singing of psalms , observing that his heart went a whoring too much after the pleasure of the musick and delights of his fancy in it . n. c. but our minister sometimes looks on his notes , and if he be not very affectionate , i am dull , and ready to fall asleep . c. if he looks on his notes , 't is a sign he hath considered well before-hand what to say to you ; you must not be a patient and expect to be rows'd , but you must rowse your self ▪ and you must by meditating on the truths you hear , raise your affections to them ; that heat that is rais'd within by the exercise of our own faculties is natural , and abundantly better than that which comes from an external fire , that is ready to scorch you . but i pray observe the different tempers of men , some are more judicious , others more affectionate , and some have louder voices than others , and if either of these be a sufficient cause for separation , we seem to blame god that he hath not made all men alike . n. c. but those that preach in private , have been and are instruments of converting many ? c. the praise and glory be given to god if they are , but pray tell me what you call conversion , i hope you mean more than a being made a non-conformist ? or so affected in hearing as was spoke of before ? what real change is made in them ? n. c. those that were profane are made sober . c. i am glad to hear it , and do heartily wish it be not a meer change from one sin to another . i remember the jews said of john the baptist , because he came neither eating nor drinking he had a devil , but of christ because he came eating and drinking he was gluttonous , &c. though they wrongly apply'd it , yet their rule was this , that those that only resrain'd from gluttony and drunkenness , had devils , i. e. envy , pride , hypocrisie , and such lusts within them . let me ask you therefore , are they not hugely affected to the non-conformists way ? do they not angrily ( or as they call it , zealously ) condemn all that are not of their way ? would they not count it a kind of apostacy and backsliding from grace for any to forsake private meetings , and receive the supper in publick ? n. c. why do you ask ? it may be it is so . c. because , if so , i am afraid it 's only a conversion to the non-conformists , and not to god ? for in true conversion , humility and charity are the chief graces wrought in us , and i am apt to think where such judging is , where such railing , censoriousness , and bitterness is against civil or spiritual superiors , there is more of the devil than the true spirit of christianity , and i doubt 't is a change from the lusts of the flesh to the works of the devil ; 't is a change wrought by some external weight ( as motion in a clock ) and doth not proceed from a principle of life . n. c. come , come , i am afraid you speak this out of envy , as being unwilling to acknowledge that any good is done by the non-conformists . c. i do most solemnly profess i speak my judgment , and shall heartily rejoyce that good is done by any ; some may preach christ out of envy , some out of covetousness , others out of pride , to get followers and a name ; and god , who is not tyed or beholden to means , may do good by these , and yet this no excuse at all to these teacher's faults , nor have we reason from hence to think the better of them ( but of god ) or to be followers of them , for we must not do evil that good may come on 't . n. c. you seem to be very tart , and therefore will i not put you upon speaking much more upon this theme , but i find by experience i cannot profit so much by our own minister as by him i heat in private , i mean , as to my heart and life . c. if i have any gaul in my heart , i wish i knew my self better , for i do not discern it , but god willing i shall more search my heart , and shall desire you calmly to consider of what i said . as to your profiting , i would ask , is not that by the spirit of god ? i mean , is not the spirit the author of real grace in the heart , and piety in the life ? n. c. yes , i believe it is ; what then ? c. is it more in the power of a non-conformist minister to give grace than a conformist ? n. c , no , but in those waters we find the spirit most moving , must we not frequent most there ? c. i must deny that which you suppose to be true , viz. that god's spirit doth ordinarily go along more with one mans preaching than anothers , if both are orthodox and honest . n. c. i pray tell me , how then it comes to pass that one man converteth more than another doth ? c. i answer , that 't is not ordinarily , because one minister is more godly than another , or a better preacher than another , but because some are better hearers than others ; some do less resist and more close with the spirit than others do , and i dare from my own experience say , that the reason why you don't profit by your own minister is your own fault only ; for as god is not tyed to place , so neither to this or that man , or to his parts or preaching . and if you would take some advice given to me , you would know how to profit by every man , as i thank god i do by our own minister . n. c. do me that kindness for my souls sake , and you gain me ; for i desire to profit by hearing , and if i can do that by our own minister , i 'le not forsake him . c. i will therefore neighbor open my heart to you , and tell you i was once in your condition , i thought to be affected with a sermon , was profiting by it , and you know we are most apt to be affected with novelties , and therefore i had an itching ear , and seldom could be pleased with one man long , and i did above all most loath and despise my own minister as being stale to me , god forgive me for it , for i was highly pleas'd with him at first , at last i began to reflect upon my self , and to consider what good i had got by all these preachers : i found that having got the name of a professor , i abhor'd to be guilty of any outward enormity , and was very forward to dispute and talk of religion , and was usually very much affected in hearing and praying , and i us'd to complain of a naughty heart , and of the withdrawings of god if i were not so ; and i really thought my self in one of the highest forms of religion ; but upon searching my heart , and strictly observing my self , i found i had most abominable vices reigning in my soul , particularly pride , covetousness , envy , and malice , censoriousness , disobedience to superiors , and the like , then i knew that my religion was artificial , void of inward life , and i was astonisht and affrighted at my sad condition ; i went to our minister , whom i was convinc't god had set over me to instruct me , and that therefore i was most likely to have direction from god by him , i told him my condition , and askt him what i should do to profit by the word ? he most compassionately entertain'd me , though i had so slighted him and most gravely advis'd me . . that i would lay aside all pride and conceitedness , for god resists the proud , but gives grace to the humble ; want of doing this hath been a great reason why you have not profited by the word ; for you have not come with any design to learn from the minister , but to be a judge whether he preacheth well or not ; you have not come as a disciple to a master , or as a child to a father to be instructed ; but you lookt on the minister not as gods ambassador , and in christs stead , but as one to act a part , and say a lesson , and that his only end was to commend himself or please you , and therefore you us'd in hearing to observe whether you were pleas'd or not ; and after hearing did not consider what you had been taught , and what was your duty to do , but only did either commend or discommend the preacher , was it not thus ? i told him i must acknowledge it was so , you must , proceeded he , lay aside this , the pharisees were most unreachable by christ , because so conceited of their knowledge and piety , they heard not to learn , but to judge , but the lower valleys are most refresht and made fruitful by rain's from heav'n . therefore be sensible ▪ that the minister is gods ambassador , that the plainest truths are of greatest concernment , and therefore most to be taught by your minister and learnt by you , consider them most , and be not ambitious after high speculations , and never reckon that you have learnt any truth enough , till you find it hath subdued you into obedience to it . i resolv'd to take his advice , and pray'd him to go on . . a second advice i would give you , quoth he ▪ is that you do not hear meerly to be efected and pleas'd , but make this the end both of your praying and hearing to live better ; so that when you hear the minister speak against sin , imploy not your self to hear how he will acquit himselfe what notions , stories , gingles , phrases or elegancies he hath , but raise up thy hatred against that sin by all the evil he tells thee there is in it , and take and follow his advice how to resist and stand against it ; what ever duty thou hearest him preach of , let the reasons be brings to convince thee , 't is thy duty , make thee resolve to practice it , and follow the directions and helps he gives thee : thou must hear thy minister , not as we hear musick , only to be pleas'd , but as a sick man doth a physician ; in order to do what he is advis'd for his health . and not striving to practice what we hear , is the reason why the word no more profiteth ; for , said he , the spirit of god works upon us by us , and then only are we most likely to have the helps of gods spirit , when we are endeavouring to do duties enjoyn'd ▪ there are two great benefits of the spirit , light and strength . . light and conviction of our judgments and consciences , this we may expect in hearing and praying , but yet not unless we duly give up our minds to be taught by the spirit of god. the second is strength to do duties , and this the spirit gives us ordinarily , not in bare hearing and praying , but in doing those duties we heard and pray'd for grace to do , so that we are as the widdows cruise of oil then we have increase from god when pouring out , then more talents given , when we improve what we have : so that thou must not hear and pray , and then wait till the spirit gives thee strength ; but as soon as thou hast heard what thou art to do , up and be doing , work out by salvation , for then , and not till then will god work in thee and help thee ; do thus , and i make no question but thou will profit by the word . sir , said i , i must confess i have been defective in this , for i usually first expected impulses and a kind of force offer'd to my soul to do duties , and thought it in vain to attempt conquering a lust till i were so furnish'd , but you tell me i must first be striving e●se i can expect assistance , and that in striving strength most ordinarily comes . have you any thing else you would advise me to ? . yes ; said he , i would not have you live in any known sin , for that will estrange gods holy spirit from you ; and i do earnestly advise you that you would nor trouble your head with the disputes of this age , which you can't understand neither is it needful , they being about trifles ; for whilst your thoughts and zeal are laid out about ceremonies , discipline , &c. by the cunning of the devil you become careless of , and and heartless in your main concerns ; for trees that abound in suckers are seldom fruitful . had not you spent your time a great deal better in endeavouring to give god your heart in common-prayer , than in wrangling against it , which insensibly raiseth bitterness of spirit ? had it not been better to have learn'd to love , and as far as you could confcientiously to have obey'd your civil and spiritual fathers and governors , than to rail and rage against them , and scorn them ? is there not more of christianity in hiding our brothers infirmities , than in insulting over them ? is it not a great deal better for you to mind ▪ judgment , mercy , and faith , than to distract your thoughts with mint , annice , and cummin ? i pray , said he , most affectionately with tears in his eyes , pity the poor church that is wounded and torn in pieces , and no longer fill your head with those stories and complaints which the discontents of men suggest to you , but let this be your great care to be good and to live well ; and if you joyn to these things most hearty and fervent prayers to god for his blessing , who will most freely give his holy spirit to them that ask , i dare warrant that you will profit by attending upon the word . i did resolve to do as he had advised me , and though i found it at first difficult and another kind of work than i had bin us'd to , yet i find now it was the best advice that ever i had , and now can profit by any preacher that doth but preach truth ; because i do not concern my self so much with , who the man is , what party , or way he is of , what affections or elegancies he hath in is sermon , as with the truths he taught , and what god by him commands me to do , and so i presently set upon practising of it , and i find that god is ready to help the diligent . but i must tell you i benefit by no man so much as our own minister , who i observe preacheth alway , not that which may most please us and commend himself , as strangers are apt to do , especially those that live by the benevolence of the people , but that which will do us most good ; and now i am no more inclinable to go from our own church , than a temperate abstemious man is to go to feasts , who though he may now and then go with a friend , yet is quickly weary of it , and chooseth for constancy to feed at home . n. c. i hope i may get good by what you have told me , i will consider of it , and acquaint you with more of my mind hereafter . c. i pray neighbour do , and lay aside prejudice which is utterly unteachable , and think not your self perfect in knowledge , which is a great fault of the non-conformists ; how peremptorily will they blame governors , as if parliament and counsel were but fools to them , and the common people will so confidently decide controversies , that they condemn all as unchristian that are not of their mind , and all that are , are ipso facto , the saints and the godly . i pray also consider how good and pleasant a thing it is for brethren to live together in unity ; therefore st. paul , cor. , . beseecheth us in the name of our lord jesus christ , that we speak the same things , and that there be no divisions among us , but that we be perfectly joyned together in the same mind , and in the same judgment ; it seems they began to separate then , for st. paul was the minister and apostle of the corinthians , cor. . . and chap. . . but many of the corinthians divided from him , and some followed apollo , others cephas or peter , cor. . . though this was out of zeal , and as good designs as you can have , probably , because apollo was an excellent preacher , and peter a zealous man , yet he calls them carnal for it , cor. . , . i pray consider how great prejudice divisions do the gospel , nothing makes any so unwilling to be a member of any society as their quarrels , and this certainly is a grand remora to the heathen's turning christians , because we no better agree among our selves , hence st. paul , phil. . , . saith fulfil ye my joy , that ye be like minded , having the same love , being of one accord , of one mind , let nothing be done through strife or vain-glory , but in lowliness of mind let each , esteem other better than themselves . the papists boast of the great harvest they have by our divisions , for the great argument they use is this , you see how the protestants are divided , but we are all of one mind ; had you as much zeal for the credit of christian religion and the protestant cause , as you have for your own party , you would not do thus ; how great uncharitablness have you to us that will not worship god with us , but converse with us as if we were heathens and publicans ? were we not bound by the command of god to obey superiors , and to submit to governors , we would rather comply what we could with you , than that such a breach should continue , but seeing we are bound , and may not wound our consciences , and you are free to return , yea , have the same obligation upon you to h●●r in publick that we have , the schism must lie at your doors ; and what may be the end of it i dread to think , but will tell you that such divisions were the seeds of our late bloudy civil wars , and though you may intend no such thing , yet you see how it followed upon them ; and for gods sake take heed of contributing any thing to it by cherishing such separations , least our own or our children's bloud be spilt in a second war , and then it may be you will repent of your folly when 't is too late . it is sad there is so much whoredom , drunkenness , and swearing , but these in themselves tend not half so much to the ruine of a nation , as divisions , schisms , and separations ; for parties and sects are as fewel , and discontents are as fire , and there wants nothing but some mischievous hand to lay them together , and to blow them up into a flame , most civil wars are thus rais'd . i pray god prevent my fears , and change yours and every such mans heart , that we may modestly and meekly submit to governors , and live in love , and unity , and peace one with another , and the god of peace will be with us . amen . finis . a plea for the non-conformists giving the true state of the dissenters case, and how far the conformists separation from the church of rome, for their popish superstitions and traditions introduced into the service of god, justifies the non-conformists separation from them for the same : in a letter to dr. benjamin calamy, upon his sermon, called, scrupulous conscience, inviting hereto : to which is added, a parallel scheme of the pagan, papal and christian rites and ceremonies : with a narrative of the sufferings underwent for writing, printing and publishing hereof / by thomas de laune. de laune, thomas, d. . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing d wing d wing d estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a plea for the non-conformists giving the true state of the dissenters case, and how far the conformists separation from the church of rome, for their popish superstitions and traditions introduced into the service of god, justifies the non-conformists separation from them for the same : in a letter to dr. benjamin calamy, upon his sermon, called, scrupulous conscience, inviting hereto : to which is added, a parallel scheme of the pagan, papal and christian rites and ceremonies : with a narrative of the sufferings underwent for writing, printing and publishing hereof / by thomas de laune. de laune, thomas, d. . danson, thomas, d. . de laune, thomas, d. . eikōn tou thēriou. de laune, thomas, d. . narrative of the sufferings of thomas delaune. [ ], , [ ], , [ ], , [ ] p. printed for the author, london : . errata: p. [ ] at end. includes bibliographical references. added t.p. and separate paging ([ ], p.): eikōn tou thēriou, or, the image of the beast ... / by t.d. added t.p. and separate paging ([ ], p.): a narrative of the sufferings of thomas de lavne. eikōn tou thēriou also attributed to thomas danson and published separately (d ). reproduction of original in huntington library and union theological seminary library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng de laune, thomas, d. . calamy, benjamin, - . -- discourse about a scrupulous conscience. catholic church -- controversial literature. dissenters, religious -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - john latta sampled and proofread - john latta text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a plea for the non-conformists , giving the true state of the dissenters case . and how far the conformists separation from the church of rome , for their popish superstitions and traditions introduced into the service of god , justifies the non-conformists separation from them for the same . in a letter to dr. benjamin calamy , upon his sermon , called , scrupulous conscience , inviting hereto . to which is added , a parallel scheme of the pagan papal and christian rites and ceremonies . with a narrative of the sufferings underwent for writing , printing and publisher hereof . by thomas de laune could we prevail with the people diligently to examine the merits of the cause [ and equally to hear both parties upon the different determination of the guides on both sides ] our church would every day gain more ground amongst all wise men ; dr. calamy's scrup. consc . page , . nihil sine , nihil contra , nihil praeter , nihil ultra divinam scripturam a●mittendum esse ; pet. mart. on sam , p . prov. . , . open thy mouth , plead the cause of the poor , and such as are 〈◊〉 for destruction . rom. . . wherein thou judgest another , thou condemnest thy 〈…〉 thou that judgest , 〈◊〉 the same things . esay . . to the law and to the testimony mark . ● . making the word of god of none effect through your tradition . mit. . . from the beginning it was not so . king. . . how long halt we between two opinions ? if the lord be god , follow him , but if baal , follow him . london , printed for the author , . a royal witness to the dissenters cause . being some gleanings of some of those weighty and worthy sayings of the late king , in his conference with the popish marquess of worcester , . in ragland castle , out of certamen religiosum . st . in behalf of the scripture , which the papists slight for their tradition . dly . against their primitive antiquity , which they adore and fetch their vain worship from . st . for the scripture , he saith , p. ● . that the scripture is the rule by which all differences may be composed ; it is the light wherein we must walk , the foo● of our souls , an antidote that expelleth any infection , the only sword that kills the enemy , the only plaister that can cure our wounds , the only documents to attain eternal life . and p. . that the evidences which are in scripture cannot be manifested but out of the same scripture , and quotes for the same , ironaeas lib. . . dly . against their antiquities , p. . our saviour christ saith , we must not so much hearken to what has been said by them of old time , mat. . , . as to that which he shall tell you . where auditis dictum esse antiquitatis is expelled , and ego dico vobis is come in its place . and speaking of that king of phrigia , that was about to be baptized , ask't the bishop what was become of all his ancestors ? he told him they were gone to he●l , flang away , and said , thither then will i go unto them ; saith , no less wise are they who had rather err with their fathers and councils , than recti●ie their understandings by the word of god , and square their faith according to its rules . and speaking of the fathers , saith , p. . i discover no fathers nakedness , but deplore their infirmities , that we should not trust in arms of flesh . tertullian saith he was a montanist , cyprian , a rebaptist or anabaptist ; origins an antropomo●p●ist , jerom , a monogonist , nazianzen , an angalist , eusebius , an arrian : st. austin had writ so many errors , that he writ a book of retractations , that they have often contradicted one another , and sometimes themselves . that it was no strange thing to see error triumph in antiquity , and flourish their ensigns of universality , succession , &c. in the face of truth ; and nothing so familiar of old as to besmear the face of truth with spots of novelty ; for this was jeremiah's case , jer. . ▪ . &c. if you vaunt never so much of your roman catholick-church , we can tell you , out of st. john ▪ that she is become the synagogue of satan ; neither is it impossible but the house of prayers may be made a den of thieves . you call us hereticks ; we answer you with st. paul , acts ● . . in the way you call heresie , worship we the god of our fathers , believing all things which are written in the law and the prophets . and the better to testifie his piety and compassion to peaceable dissenters , ( having himself found the inconveniency of the contrary ) speaks to his son , our present king , in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , p. . thus , viz. my counsel and charge to you is , that you beware of exasperating any factions by the crosness and asperity of some mens passions ▪ humours or private opinions ●mployed by you , grounded only upon differences in lesser matters , which are but the skirts and suburbs of religion , wherein a charitable co●nivance and christian toleration often dissipates their strength , when rougher opposition fortisies . and p. . that his prerogative is best shewed and exercise in remitting , rather than exacting the rigour of the law , there being nothing worse tha● legal tyran●y . the contents of the principal things contain'd in this letter to doctor calamy ( bringing forth the merits of the cause , as the dr. desires ) under the conformists objections and non-conformists answers are as followeth , viz. . obj. the first objection the conformists make against the non-conformists , is , that they have no ground conscientiously to scruple at the rites and ceremonies of their church , because they are none of them forbidden in the scripture ; upon which single point ( they say ) stands the whole of the controversie , pag. , . answ . to which the non-conformists return to them the same ans●er they themselves give the papists , to the same objection against them , viz. that what is not contained in our only rule of faith , the bible , is to be rejected , p. , , . . obj. that the non-conformists have no reason to s●ruple , much less to separate from their church for such small indifferent things , as the rites and ceremonies in the liturgy , which they affirm to be so , p. , . answ . to which they say , that the rites and ceremonies in gods worship are not small indifferent things , either in gods account , p. , . nor in their own account , as their principles from their own pens evidence , and their practices declare , viz. by their imposing them as absolutely necessary , upon the penalty of life , liberty and estate , yea , soul also , though themselves do grant , that the enjoyning ind●fferent or unnecessary things as necessary , is an adding to gods word , will worship and vain worship , p. , , . . obj. that they have no cause to separate upon the account of rites and ceremonies , as tho' they were popish novel●ies , because they are all of them founded in primitive antiquity , before popery was known in the world ; both which they possitively affirm , p. , . answ . to which they reply , st . that primitive antiquity without scripture authority , ought to be no rule , by their own grant , p. . dly . that in that antiquity is found many gross errors and heresies ( many of which are enumerated ) to which we shall be obliged , as well as to the other , if that be to be the rule , p. . dly . as to matter of fact they say , these rites and ceremonies in the liturgy ( so severely imposed upon dissenters ) upon a due search are not to be found in primitive antiquity , before popery was known in the world , as they make good in particulars , viz. kneeling at altar , surplice , cross in baptism , confirmation or bishoping , baptizing children for regeneration , upon the deed done , gossips , liturgies , letanies , responses , collects , antiphones , kyrieeleisons , psalms and lessons , epistles and gospels , singing service , altars , festivals , restraining marriage to fixed canonical times and hours , bowing at altar , ecclesiastical order , consecration of churches , organs , rogation-week , priests garments , wednesday , fryday and saturday fasts , vigils , apost . creed , athanasius 's creed , from p. . to . thly . that they symbolize and are expresly founded in popery , which they make good from many particulars , by divers arguments and authorities , as well as by their own grants and acknowledgements , from p. , to . viz. st . from the former instances , being the ordination of popes and their councils , p. . dly . by confession of parties , p. , . dly . by comparing their divine [ or mass ] service and ours together , st . as to the times when 〈◊〉 be performed , p. , . dly . in the divine service it self , p. . dly . in their rites and ceremonies , places of worship , priesthood : thly . ordination of priests , p. , . thly . imposing and persecuting dissenters , contrary to their own grants , from p. , to . confirm'd by history , and sealed to by the witness of our old non-conformists , from p. , to . , . obj. the two last objections charges the dissenters from the religion established by law , to be guilty of disobedience to lawful authority , sedition , faction , tumult , riot , plotting , &c. to both which they modestly defend and justifie themselves , from p. , to the end . the conclusion sums up the matter , and improves it . the author many times personates the dissenters for the se●se sake , wherein you must bear with him . you have then the scheme of the pagan , papal and christian rites and ceremonies . and lastly , the narrative of the suferings undergone for printing and publishing hereof . a plea for the nonconformists , &c. sir ; in your discourse about a scrupulous conscience , preach'd first at alderman-bury , then at bow-church , about five or six moneths since , and since by you printed , you are pleased not only to put forth your endeavours by several arguments , to gain and reduce the dissenters to the communion of the church of england ; but ( the better to shew your moderation and tenderness , as one that would not force and compel , but convince and satisfie a scrupulous conscience ) do also offer to them several christian rules and directions to effect the same ; amongst which are these that follow , viz. when any private christian is troubled and perplexed with fears , and scruples , that concern his duty or the worship of god , he ought in the first place to have recourse to the publick guides and ministers of religion , who are appointed by god , and are best fitted to direct and conduct him ; i say , to come to them , not only to dispute and argue with them , and partly to oppose them , but with all modesty to propound their doubts , meekly to hearken and receive instruction , humbly begging of god to open their understanding , that they may see and imbrace the truth , taking great care that no evil affection , love of a party or carnal interest , influence or byass their judgment . we do not by this desire men to pin their faith upon the priests sleeve , or to put out their own eyes , that they might be better guided and managed by them , but only diligently to attend to their reasons and arguments , and give some due regard and deference to their authority ; for it may not be so absurd , as may by some be imagined , for the common people to take upon trust from their lawful teachers , what they are not competent judges of themselves . but the difficulty here is , how shall a private christian govern himself , when the very guides and ministers of religion determine differently concerning these matters in question amongst us , some warranting and allowing them , others as much disapproving them ? by what rule shall he chuse his guide ? [ to which you reply . ] as for those who scruple at conformity , and are tolerably able to judge for themselves , let not such rely barely upon the authority either of one or the other ; all we desire of them is , that they would equally hear both sides , that they would think the ministers of the church of england have some sense and conscience too , as well as other men , and are able to say somewhat for what they do themselves , or require of others , and laying aside all prejudices , favour to , or admiration of mens persons , they would weigh and consider the arguments that may be propounded to them , being diffident of their own apprehensions , and indifferent to either part of the question , that they would think it no shame to change their mind , when they see good reason for it . could we thus prevail with the people diligently to examine the merits of the cause , our church would every day gain more ground amongst all wise men ; for we care not how much knowledge and understanding our people have , so they be but humble and modest with it ; nor do we desire men to become our proselites any further than we give them good scripture and reason for it . upon reading whereof ( being sent me by a friend ) i did betake my self to a serious search , and impartial consideration of the controversies , and the arguments tendred on both sides , ( many of the learned guides , as you well observe , being of such different minds herein ) and more particularly have i weighed those arguments mentioned by your self in that discourse ( in conjunction with what the reverend dr. stillingfleet , the learned dr. more , and others , have spoken to the same purpose ) ; together with what is , or supposed may be said in answer thereto . and from this christian encouragement and invitation from your self , have presumed , though a stranger to you , to present it to you , with a disposition ( as you advise ) meekly to hearken to , and receive instruction or conviction from your self , or any of the learned , trusting that you shall find no evil affection , love of a party , or carnal interest , shall influence or byass my judgment , or that i shall think it any shame to change my mind , when better reason is offered for my conviction . resting confident in your condor and ingenuity , that what you have said herein to draw forth the scruples of any dissenter , is not to lay a bait thereby to catch him in any snare , or to take any legal advantage upon him for his dissatisfaction to the religion by law established ( which is hedged with so many legal penalties ; ) but out of a noble christian principle , that you may have an opportunity to discover , with how much meekness of wisdom and demonstration of truth you can treat , convince and satisfie a gainsayer , having so generously declared , that you do not desire men should become your proselites , further than you give them good reason and scripture for it ; club-law being none of the arguments you treat a scrupulous or tender conscience with . the arguments and objections are these that follow : the first objection we shall mention , as brought against the non-conformity and separation of the dissenters from the church of england , is this , — that they have no reason or cause upon a conscientious account so to do , because the principal things they take offence at , are not forbidden in the scriptures ; and till they can produce a scripture to the negative , as a negative article of faith , that says we are not to do so , or so , kneel at the communion , cross in baptism , keep holy-days , use liturgies , letanies , &c. they can have no cause of just scruple . and thus , sir , you are pleased to argue , viz. that there can be no transgression , but by either omitting what the law commands , or doing what the law forbids : for instance ; if a man can shew where kneeling at the sacrament is forbidden in scripture , where sitting is required , where praying by a form is forbid , and extemporary prayers are enjoyned , then indeed the dispute would soon be at an end ; but if neither the one nor the other can be found , as most certainly they cannot , then kneeling at the sacrament , and reading prayers out of a book , must be reckoned amongst things lawful , and then there is no need of scrupling them , because they may be done without sin ; nay where they are required by our superiors , it is our duty to submit to them , because it is our duty to obey them in all lawful things . this way of arguing ( you say ) is very plain and convincing . and to the same purpose we have dr. stillingfleet in his late answers to several of the dissenters , affirming , that those are schismaticks that deny submission to the government of the church of england ; and he tells us in plain terms , assuredly , that the reasons of this denial do not signifie a button ; those ( saith he ) who seperate from the church of england make this their fundamental principle as to worship ( wherein the difference lies ) that nothing is lawful in the worship of god , but what he hath expresly commanded ; we say all things are lawful which are not frobidden , and upon this single point stands the whole controversie of separation as to the constitution of our church . here 's the objection in words at length , and which you will find to be no other then what the papists make to the church of england upon the same occasion , which i shall transcribe in their own words , and the answers of your own party to it , which i hope will be esteemed a fair and satisfactory way of reply . dr. stillingfleet giving us an accout of his popish adversaries plea , and how he returned the negative articles to be proved by him , makes to him this answer . but the strangest effort of all the rest , is what he hath reserved to the last place , viz. that the charge of idolatry against them must be vain and groundless , because if i be pressed close , i shall deny any one of these negative points to be divine truths , viz. that honour is not to be given to the images of christ and his saints ; that what appears to be bread in the eucharist , is not the body of christ ; that it is not lawful to invocate saints to pray for us — [ these are the jesuits words , requiring the doctor to prove those negatives , upon which single point he puts the stress of his argument . ] then follows his answer , which i pray you to mind well , because it is the answer you must take to the like question from us , viz. but the answer to this is so easie , that it will not require much time to dispatch it . for i do assert it to be an article of my faith that god alone is to be worshipped with divine and religious worship : and he that cannot hence infer , that no created being is to be worshipped , hath the name of reasonable creature given him to no purpose . what need we make negative articles of faith , where the affirmative do necessarily imply them ? if i believe that the scripture is my only rule of faith , as i most firmly do ; will any man that considers what he saith , require me to make negative articles of faith , that the pope is not , tradition is not , councils are not , a private spirit is not ? for all these things are necessarily imply'd therein . and so for all particular doctrines rejected by us upon this principle , we do not make them negative points of faith , but we therefore refuse the belief of them , because not contained in our only rule of faith : on this account we reject the pope's supremacy , transubstantiation , infallibility of the present church in delivering points of faith , purgatory , and other fopperies impos'd upon the belief of christians ; so that the short resolution of our faith is this , that we ought to believe nothing as an article of faith , but what god hath revealed , and the compleat revelation of god's will to us is contained in the bible , &c. and what could have been spoken wi●h fuller evidence and greater demonstration of truth : therefore as joyning issue with the doctor , that upon this single point stands the whole controversie of separation , as to the constitution of their churches , viz. that nothing is lawful in the worship of god , but what he hath expresly commanded , ( as say the dissenters ) and not all things lawful which are not forbidden , as say the advocates for the church of england , let his own words decide the matter , and forever determine the case . for what need the dissenters ( as the doctor affirms on their behalf ) make negative articles of faith , where the affirmative does necessarily imply them ; if they do believe with the doctor , that the scripture is their only rule of faith , as they most firmly declare to do , will any man that considers what he saith , require them to make negative articles of their faith , that popes , councils , private spirits , traditions , are not , and so for all particular doctrines rejected by them upon this principle : they do not with the doctor , make them negative points of faith , but they therefore ( with him ) refuse the belief of them , because not contained in our only rule of faith . on this account they do ( with the doctor ) reject the pope's supremacy , transubstantiation , infallibility of the church of rome in delivering points of faith , viz , purgatory , and other fopperies , ( as salt , oyl , spittle , exorcisms , conjurations , baptizing of bells , &c. ) and upon the same account do they reject what the protestants have received either from pagans or papists , as to national , provincial , diocesan and parochial churches , because not contained in our only rule of faith. as also of the government of the church of christ by lord arch-bishops , bishops , deans , arch-deacons , parsons , vicars , curates , chancellors , officials , &c. because not contained in our only rule of faith. in like manner do the dissenters also reject the consecrating of churches , chappels , cathedrals , priests garments , altars , liturgies , singing service , letanies , bowings , crossings , cringings , holy-dayes , fasts , feasts , vigils , because not one word of any of them is contained in our only rule of faith ; so that the short resolution of the dissenters and the doctor 's faith in this great point is this , that they ought to believe nothing as an article of faith , but what god hath revealed , and that the compleat revelation of gods will to us , is contained in the bible . therefore christ having in the affirmative compleatly revealed to us his mind and will in the bible , both as to the doctrine and discipline of his church , we need not go to pope , council , tradition , or any other for additions to either , nor trouble our selves to make negative articles of faith and practice , which would be as ridiculous as endless . and this we hope the doctor and all his party will take for good pay , and that you your self , sir , amongst the rest , will joyn issue , and acknowledge , that this way of arguing is very plain and convincing . but this being so well performed by the doctor , what shall we say that so wise , so learned , and so great a man as dr. stillingfleet should forgot himself so far , as to make head and run counter against his own argument , and to that degree , as to pawn the whole controversie upon that single point which he had so infallibly and indisputably resolved , which indeed is very strange and wonderful ; but yet upon serious thoughts we shall find it but a fulfilling of that word of the lord , viz. i will do a marvellous work amongst this people , even a marvellous work and a wonder [ but what is that ? ] why the wisdom of their wise men shall perish , and the vnderstanding of the prudent men shall be hid [ but when shall that be ? ] viz. when they teach for doctrines the commands [ or the fear or worship ] of god for the precepts of men . our very case , and whereof we have frequent and continual experience . for with what evidence and demonstration of truth will the papists argue against and censure the heathen for their idolatries , and yet at the same time be guilty of the same thing themselves , and expose themselves to the censure of the heathen on the one side , and the protestants on the other . how wisely , how spiritually will protestants dispute with , handle and judge the papists , for leaving the word of god for fables [ for their will-worship , false-worship , idolatry , &c. ] and yet at the same time be guilty of will worship themselves , exposing themselves to the censure both of papist and non-conformist ? of which we might give you divers instances both of the one and of the other ; and whereof take one or two . this very jesuite who disputes with the doctor , falls out in a most severe censure of the pagans for their most damnable diabolical idolatry in worshipping their inferior deities , as venus , mars , bacchus , vulcan , and the like rabble of devils , ( as he calls them ) who were their damons , hero's , or intercessors to their superior deity , jupiter ; not being aware ( which also the doctor improves against him ) that they were guilty of the same crime themselves in setting up their inferior deities , the virgin mary , st. peter , st ▪ paul , and a hundred more as mediators and intercessors to the supream , and to whom , as the doctor observes , they pay divine honour and worship , bowing and kneeling before them , and their images also ; which he proves against them to be no less diabolical idolatry . the jesuite being quick-sighted , returns smartly upon the doctor , that whilst he judges their bowing and kneeling before their images to be idolatry , how can he justifie their bowing and kneeling before the consecrated elements , bowing at [ the altar , east ] name of jesus , putting off their hats , &c. which the jesuite on the one hand , and the dissenters on the other hand improve against him . and so whilst dr. pierce severely censures the papists for varying from the primitive pattern in their superstitions and abominations , because it was not so from the beginning , sergent the jesuit returns his own argument smartly upon him for doing the same thing , in many particulars , and which the dissenter also doth for the same , viz. for varying in so many things from the primitive pattern , whilst he judges others for the same . to which we might add divers instances , both as to papists and protestants , especially in those three points , idolatry , imposition and persecution . so that as it hath been generally observ'd , the papists arguments againsts the heathen , the protestants arguments against the papists , are most substantial arguments against themselves , when their practice gives their principle the lye , & so rendring themselves altogether inexcusable , as faith the text ; therefore thou art inexcusable , o man , whosoever thou art that judgest ; for wherein thou judgest another , thou condemnest thy self ; for thou that judgest dost the same things . but be sure that the judgment of god is according to truth , against them which commit such things . and thinkest thou this , o man , that judgest them which do such things , and doest the same , that thou shalt escape the judgment of god ? &c. another objection that is brought against the dissenters , is , because they separate from the church of england for ●eer nicities , for little things , which in their own nature are indifferent . to that purpose you are pleas'd to express your self , viz. a scrupulous conscience is conversant about things in their own nature indifferent ; and it consists , either in strictly tying up our selves to some things which god hath no where commanded ; as the pharisees made great conscience of washing before they did eat , and abundance of other unnecessary rights and vsages they had of mens own inventing and devising , which they as religiously , nay ▪ more carefully observed than the indisputable commands of god himself : or in a conscientious abstaining from some things 〈…〉 not forbid , nor any ways unlawful . touch not , tas●● not , 〈…〉 not , doubting and fearing where no fear is , thinking that 〈…〉 as much offend god by eating some kind of meats , 〈…〉 garments , as they should do , were they guilty of 〈…〉 adultery . which is the case of many amongst 〈…〉 scrupulosity about little matters , seem more 〈…〉 ●uster● , than other good and honest christians are , or 〈◊〉 need or ought to be . and a little further you add — a 〈◊〉 conscience therefore starts and boggles where there is no real 〈◊〉 or mischief ; is afraid of omitting or doing what may be omitted or done without sin . which i know not how better to illustrate than by those unaccountable antipathies or prejudices that s●me men have against some sort of meats or living creatures , which have not the least harm or burt in them , yet are so offensive and dreadful to such persons , that they fly from them as they would from a tyger or bear , and avoid them as they would do the plague or poyson . just thus do some men run out of the church at the sight of a surplice , as if they had been soar'd by the apparition of a ghost . a late piece call'd , a resolution of conscience , &c. ( supposed to be dr. mores ) affirms thus much ; . that the government of our church by bishops . . the liturgy or set forms of prayer , admin●stration of sacraments . . certain rites of the church , particularly the surplice , the cross in b●ptism , the gesture of kneeling at the communion , the ring in marriage , the observation of the churches holy ▪ days . all which ( faith he ) i take for granted are indifferent in their own nature , that there is nothing of viciousness or immorality in any of them to make them unlawfull . i know no body ( saith he ) so unreasonable as not to ▪ grant this . mr. william allen in his late piece called catholicism , saith to the same purpose , that the ceremonies of the church of england are not enjoyned as things of divine appointment , but only as of an indifferent nature , and therefore there is no reason to s●r●ple them , and again saith , that the ceremonies and service of the church , or use of things in or about gods worship , which are not of the essence of it , nor ●s'd under the nation of being commanded by god , but professedly used as things indifferent in their own nature , and only as matters of humane 〈◊〉 cannot justly be charged to be false worship . the author of the portestant reconciler tells us , that it is 〈…〉 the church of england , that the ceremonies used 〈…〉 by that church imposed on her members , are in their own 〈◊〉 things indifferent , thus ; ( saith he ) in the preface to the book of common prayer it is determined , that the particular forms of divine worship , and the rites and ceremonies to be used therein , are in 〈◊〉 own nature things indifferent . dr. stillingfleet , and many more , spake the same thing . so that by [ indifferent ] they would have us to understand things of a middle nature , that are neither good or bad of themselves , otherwise then as injoyned for order or prudence by superiors , and alterable at pleasure ; therefore king james opposeth them to necessary things , which are enjoyned by positive scripture ; and so the protestant reconciler defines them , telling us thus : the ceremonies which are imposed by our church , as they have nothing sinfull in their nature , for which inferiors should refuse submission to them , so have they nothing of real goodness , nothing of positive order , decency or reverence for which they ought to be commanded . this we are told in words and pretence , the better to gild the pill , to make it go down the glibber ; but if you look more narrowly into the matter , you will find , that you your selves , as well as the dissenters , have justly another sense of them , and that the church of england does both use and impose them as necessary things , ( whatever they import in their own nature . ) for first , are they not things consecrated and dedicated to holy uses , in the worship and service of god , which makes them cease to be indifferent ? hooker saith , f●astival dayes are cloathed with outward robes of holiness , and that places and times of divine worship are so too , and the cross a holy sign . dr. burges saith , ceremonies may be called the worship of god , the professors of leyden call only such things , persons , times and places holy , as are consecrated and dedicated to god , but so in their esteem and our also is their dioce●an episcopacy and priesthood , their churches , liturgies , kneeling , bowing , crossing , festivals , ecclesiastical courts , and excommunications , &c. secondly , they are not indifferent , but necessary things ( in your esteem ) as appears by the declaration of 〈◊〉 commissioners at the savoy upon the king 's first 〈…〉 over-ruling the arguments of their dissenting 〈◊〉 ●leading for reformation and tenderness , which say● 〈…〉 apostle hath commanded that all things be done 〈…〉 there may be conformity , let there be 〈◊〉 a 〈…〉 that purpose ; and thence they inferr'd , that 〈…〉 will move to pity , and relieve those that 〈◊〉 truly 〈◊〉 and scrupulous , that we must not break gods command● 〈◊〉 charity to them , and therefore we must not perform publick services indec●ntly and disorderly for the sake of tender consciences . and all this said to justifie the refusal , to abate the imposition of ceremonies , especially those three then contended about , surplice , sign of the cross , and kneeling at the communion . so that here they are made necessary , and a command of god urg'd to inforce them , viz. that things be done decently and in order , ( though by the way ) no other command then bellarmine urges to establish the whole popish service and ceremonies of the church of rome , viz. by this precept of the apostle . and thirdly , do not they as necessary things impose , and inforce them with all severity imaginable , by excommunications of dissenters , thereby knocking the fly on the neighbours head with a hatchet , to the knocking out his brains , as saith dr. taylor , destroying them in their liberties , estates , yea , lives also , which surely must not be for trifles , but necessary things . yet so hardy and hold to do all this ( as the protestant reconciler worthily observes to them ) to the reproaching the wisdom and faithfulness of christ , and the primitive churches , for want of such decency and order ( for they had no such ) the wisdom of the church of england , who have declared that their rites and ceremonies are in their own nature things indifferent , and may be alter'd and changed ; as also that they had their beginning from the institution of man. the wisdom of king james , and king charles , who have both of them declared them to be esteemed unnecessary , as being but indifferent things , and not commanded by god , and therefore alterable at pleasure . but especially ( saith our author ) hereby become guilty of adding to the word of god of will-worship , of teaching for doctrines the commandments of men , of imposing these things as necessary parts of worship , and so of worshipping god in vain , as 〈…〉 will appear by what the best assertors of the 〈…〉 of the church of england have declared in this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mr. faulkner's assertion , in saying hereupon , we 〈◊〉 the word of god , when we teach any thing to be commanded or forbidden by the law of god , which indeed is not there commanded or forbidden . and bishop s●nderson , that then men teach for doctrines the commandments of men , when they teach any thing to be absolutely unlawful , which god hath not forbidden in his word ; and if any man shall wear a surplice , or kneel , or cross with an opinion of necessity , and for conscience-sake towards god , as though god's service could not be rightly performed without them ; yea , although the church had not performed them , doubtless the use of these ceremonies , by reason of such his opinion , should be superstition to him . and dr. patrick in the friendly debate — then ( say they ) vvill-worship is erected , when any thing is to be enjoyned to be done , or not done , as if it were the vvill and command of god he should be so served , when it is a meer constitution of the will of man. then do we make ceremonies to be parts of divine worship , when we suppose them to be so necessary , that the doing of them would be a thing pleasing to god , and the omitting of them the contrary , although there were no humane law which required the doing of them . and secondly , when we suppose them unalterable and obligatory so the consciences of all christians , for this supposes an equal necessity with that of divine institution . all which so fully speaks the sense of the dissenters , that there needs no better answer to be given , than what they themselves have put into their mouths . but , saith mr. allen , in contradiction to his brethern , that things that are not used as commanded by god ( taking for granted they had not so urg'd them ) and only as matters of humane prudence cannot ( he saith be charged to be will-worship . but for his better information , we would refer him to the protestant reconciler , and the many authorities urged by their own pens to clear the same , with this addition as to jeroboam's case , who varied but in four particulars as to the service and ceremonies of worship , viz. the place of worship , ( dan and ●ethel , i●●●ead of jerusalem , ) . the signs of divine 〈…〉 golden calves instead of the cherubims , ) . 〈…〉 of the feast ( of the moneth , instead of the th ) 〈…〉 administring , ( making of priests ) all 〈…〉 think , were but circumstantials about 〈…〉 not under the notion of being commanded 〈…〉 ( as mr. allen observes of our ceremonies 〈…〉 of humane prudence ; and for which 〈…〉 much to say to the dissenters in that day , who 〈…〉 separated from him for the same ( chron. . . 〈◊〉 . and . ) as mr. anisworth in his plea for jeroboam most notably observes , who kept in the mean time to the articles of faith , and fundamental ordinances of religion , and worshipping with reverence the god of his fathers , making alterations in things meerly ceremonial , whereof no express law forbidding , and being variable , as time , place and person gave occasion . but however , jeroboam might ●ince the matter , and make light of it , as others do in like circumstances ; yet god , being a jealous god , would not admit of such innovation , and varying from his pure worship , but reproves these for desperate idolatry , and reputes it no other than the worshipping of devils , chron. . . his supremacy in the kingdom not being able to bear him out in altering the ordinances of the service of god ; and so doing things out of his own heart , king. . . it became his sin , and made israel to sin , thereby doing evil above all that went before him , having made other gods and molten images , to provoke the lord to anger , kings . . casting him behind his back : therefore the lord threatens in the next verses , in these words ; behold i will bring evil upon the house of jeroboam , and will cut off jeroboam , him that pisseth against the wall , and him that is shut up and left in israel , and will take away the remnant of the house of jeroboam , as a man taketh away dung , till it be all gone . him that dyeth of jeroboam in the city , shall the dogs 〈◊〉 and him that dyeth in the fields , shall the fowls of the air ●at , for the lord hath spoken it . and which all came to pass accordingly . which pregnant instance the judicious will , i doubt not , 〈…〉 consider that these prudent and in indifferent 〈…〉 religious worship ( as they are 〈◊〉 to 〈…〉 minced and extenuated , may be of the 〈…〉 with jeroboam's idolatry . with this 〈…〉 varied but in four , and these in above 〈…〉 wherein they have presumed to swerve from 〈…〉 to gods word and worship . another 〈…〉 this , and none of the least , viz. that dissenters 〈…〉 to separate from the church of england for symbolizing with romish rites and ceremonies , because they only retain and practice such rites and ceremonies which were practised by antiquity , before popery took place in the world. to this purpose you are pleased to say in your scrupulous conscience — now our first reformers here in england did not go about to invent a new species of government , to devise new rites and ceremonies , and a new form of worship , such as should be least excepted against , and then obtrude it upon this nation , as was done at geneva , and some other places ; but they wisely considered , if they did but reject what the romanists had added to the faith and worship of christians , lay aside their novel inventions , vsurpations , and unwritten traditions , there would remain the pure , simple , primitive christianity , such as it was before the roman church was thus degenerated ; nor have we any thing of popery left amongst us , but what the papists had left amongst them of primative religion and worship . thus saith the resolution of the case of conscience , that the rites of the church of england ▪ are exceeding few , and those plain and easie , grave and manly , founded on the practice of the church long before popery appeared upon the stage of the world. and again , as to our churches prescribing a liturgy of set-forms of prayer , and administration of sacraments , and other publick offices , it is easie to shew , that symbolizing with the church of rome herein , is so far from being culpable , and much more from being a just ground of separation from our church , that it is highly commendable ; for as herein our church no less symbolizeth with the primitive church , than with that of rome , as she is now constituted . and dr. saravia , who saith thus : satis est modestis & 〈◊〉 christianis satisfacere , qui ita recesserunt a superstitionibus & idolatria romanae ecclesiae , ut probates ab orthodoxis patribus mores non rejicient ; that it may be a sufficient satisfaction to modest and pious christians , that there is such 〈…〉 from the superstitions and idolatry of the church of 〈…〉 to reject the approved customs of the orthodox fathers . these our rites and ceremonies ( saith 〈…〉 are retained and kept out of due reverence to 〈…〉 again ▪ these ceremonies were retained or impos'd 〈…〉 and equity of the reformation , by 〈…〉 see they did not break communion with them for 〈…〉 things , or that they left the church rome no further , than they left the ancient church . the doctor further assures us , that as to discipline , respecting the government of the church by bishops , is to be made good by a vniversal tradition , universally received since the apostles times , as the apostolical government , viz. diocesan bishops . as to the government of our churches by bishops ( saith the resolver ) this is so far from being an unlawful symbolizing with the church of rome , that we have most clear evidence of its being a symbolizing with her in an apostolical institution . thus have you the objection in words at length , to which , in each part , the dissenters do say , or may be supposed to say , as followeth . in the first place , if it be taken for granted that the pattern is fetch'd from those times , and not from the popish times , viz. rome in its apostacy , we would inquire these two things : . by what rule or reason they should be a pattern to us , so as to have their rites and services impos'd upon us for our ritual ? and ( ) whether there were not great errors and superstitions in those times , as well as the succeeding ages ? first , why should our first reformers any more impose the rites and customs of those times upon us , than any other ? why were we more obliged to accept of the ecclesiastical laws of constantine , than his civil , as doctor taylor well urges ? that the fathers met at laodicea , at antioch , at nice , at gangra ▪ ● or years ago , should have any authority ●ver us in england so many ages after , is so infinitely unreasonable , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but the fearful and vnbelievers , the scrupulo●● , and 〈…〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of a slavish nature , and are in bondage 〈…〉 and know not how to stand in the liberty by which 〈…〉 them free , will account themselves in 〈…〉 upon this account the rulers of the church , will 〈…〉 just , warrantable canon , we are to obey in 〈…〉 they have power to command : but the 〈…〉 for being in the old codes of the church , 〈…〉 than the laws of constantine . no , they 〈◊〉 higher , or else it will not do . to the first primitive christianity , and religion in the first primitive times given as by christ and his apostles . for dr. stillingfleet has well instructed us , if we believe the scriptures are the only rvle of faith ; then it follows , councils and fathers , traditions and private spirits are no more our rule than the pope himself ; and therefore with the doctor , we refuse the belief of all the additions , inventions , traditions , because not contain'd in our only rule of faith : to the la● , and to the testimony , if they speak not according to that , it is because there is no light in them . but secondly , do we not find these very times abounding very much with error and superstiti●n ? which is an argument we should not receive them for our pattern more tha● others ; whereof i shall give you some instances from their naevi , or errors , mentioned by the centurists , viz ▪ . that origen asserted two christs , deny'd his godhead , the head of the arians and pelagians , holding ( as jerom saith ) very desperately about the spirit , and very corruptly about angels , devils , creation , providence , original sin , church-government , and the resurrection , and sacrificing for the dead . orig. l. . in jo. baptism takes away sin , and that there must be a baptism after the resurrection . they also say of cyprian , that cyprian affirm'd the church of rome to be the mother-church ; that there ought to be one high priest over the church ; and that the principal church is peter's chair , from whence the unity of the priesthood ariseth ; and that upon peter the church is founded : that he was a violent impugner of priests marriages ; held , that sins are done away by alms and good works : that the person baptizing in the very act conferreth the holy spirit ; that chrysm and exorcism are absolutely necessary ; and that there should be sacrifices for the dead , though some suppose many of these things were foisted in by the papists . st. austin prays for the dead , the soul of his mother monica . st. ambrose for the soul of theodosius . st. gregory for the soul of trajan . st. austin saith , prayers avail not unto all alike , who are departed ; therefore when the sacrifices of the altar , or of alms , are offered for all them who are baptized , and are defunct , for the good , they are thanksgivings ; for the not very bad , they are propitiations ; for the very bad , though not help the dead , yet comfort to the living . chrysostom was for offering prayers for the dead with alms and oblations . austin , a great friend to reliques , affirming great miracles wrought by them . jerome , a great defender of reliques , & adoration of them ▪ constantine , a great admirer of reliques . mr. mede says , that primitive christians canonized saints , and honoured the reliques in imitation of the gentiles , their daemon-worship , thereby to allure them , which , saith he , laid the foundation of antichrist's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and idolatrick apostacy . they had sufflation , trine immersion , exorcism , chrysm , white garments , milk , honey to the new baptized , giving the eucharist to the infant , from the to the century , mingling water with the sacramental wine , the eulogiae , &c. to which head you may add the royal witness in the beginning . so that from the consideration of the errors and superstitions , abounding in these times , there is no ground why our first reformers should propose them for our pattern ; for if in one thing , why not in another ? but in the next place i presume upon a fair examination of particulars , these two things will appear , . that we in the church of england do not in our rites , services and ceremonies symbolize with antiquity . and , . that we do wholly symbolize in most , if not in all of them , with popery . . it is manifest that our first reformers , as we are told , did not make such a perfect piece from pure primitive antiquity in the first reformation , and forming of our liturgy , which contains so much the rites , services , and ceremonies of the church ; for if so , there had been no such need to make so many alterations , and reform so often , and in so many things the reformation . and that they have so done , the author of the protestant reconciler gives us this account . it is certain ( saith he ) that our church hath already altered her liturgy at several times , and in several parts , viz. the lessons , festivals , ceremonies , rubrick , collects , prayers , the form of administration of sacraments , the catechism , confirmation , marriage , visitation of the sick , the burial of the dead , and commination . all which he has demonstrated in each particular , and from thence he makes these three remarks : . that the pretence of still retaining & imposing the present ceremonies out of due reverence to antiquity , is false & hypocritical . . that it cannot justly be pretended that these ceremonies are retained and imposed to manifest the justice and equity of the reformation , by letting their enemies see they did not break communion with them for meer indifferent things , or that we left the church of rome no further than she left antiquity . . hence it appears how senselesly it is alledged that we cannot abate or change these ceremonies , because they have been once received and owned by the church . but , in the next place , the descending into particulars will give a fuller and clearer demonstration of our not symbolizing with antiquity in all our rites and ceremonies . first , because so many of them are novel , and so many disown'd by antiquity . and so much which has been really from antiquity , has been disowned by us , and blotted out of the liturgy . first , that most of them are novel , or disown'd by antiquity . we shall begin with those three principal cemonies , about which there was so much contention at the savoy , viz. kneeling , surplice , and the cross in baptism . . that of kneeling at the altar , or at the sacrament of the supper is put amongst the rest of the ancient ceremonies , before any such thing as popery was in the world , which is novel , and but of yesterday , never known before transubstantiation , nor with us protestants received till edward the sixth's second common-prayer , for in the first it was not . peter martyr saith , propter transubstantiationem & realem presentiam invecta est in ecclesiam ; that to maintain transubstantiation and real presence , it was brought into the church . we are told in the decretal , that pope honorius , anno . ordained kneeling at the sacrament . and his predecessor innocent the d transubstantiation . it is said , that in tertullian and chrysostom's time , they were said to stand at the altar , when they partook of the supper . socrates saith , they took it in a table gesture , eating it at their love-feasts ; and paraeus asserts the same . hereupon the protestant reconciler tells us , to restrain this kneeling posture at the receipt of the sacrament , out of due reverence to antiquity , when no such posture was used by antiquity , i fear cannot be well excused from falshood , or from imposing on the people . secondly , as to the surplice , the fathers used it not , tho it is clear the pagans did , from whom the papists had it , and we from them . salmasius , as well as petavius his adversary , do own that in the primitive times the presbyters did not wear any distinct habit from the people . caelestius reproves the french bishops , who began it as a novelty , which tended to superstition , and made way to mockery , and deceiving of the faithful . the surplice was brought into the church by pope adrian anno . dr. stillingfleet tells us , that as for the surplice in parish churches , it is not of that consequence as to bear a dispute one way or other . unreas . of separation , p . as to the sign of the cross in baptism upon the forehead only , we read of no such rite amongst the antients , though the th canon of the church tells , it is an honourable badge , and a lawful ceremony , by which the child is dedicated to the service of christ , and which rite was held in the primitive church , both greeks and latines , with one consent and great applause . it is true , the antients after baptisin did sign the baptized with a cross upon his head and breast , and anointed him with chrysm , as a distinct order from baptism ; but no such signing in the act of baptism , as part of that ordinance . in edward the sixth's time the reformers did , as the first service-book makes mention , sign the elements three times with the sign of the cross , and also the child upon the forehead and breast when the godfathers named his name , and afterwards in confirmation again in the breast and forehead ; but all this is laid aside , and a new thing taken up , which is neither to be found in antiquity , nor in the first pattern of our reformers . as to the order and office of confirmation in the rubrick and liturgy , it is another thing than the antients used . that was to be done with chrysm by the hands of a bishop , with two crosses , one on the breast , the other on the forehead , immediately after baptism was administred ( and as a distinct ordinance from it ) but this is to be performed by the hands of a bishop , without any chrysm or consignation when they come to years of discretion . and as there doth not appear any warranty from antiquity for this confirmation , so neither is there any direction in scripture for it , as archb. cranmore doth fully acknowledge , whereof we have an account from dr. burnet out of a manuscript , written with the bishops own hand , by way of question and answer , as he found it in cotton's library , cleop. e. . quest . whether confirmation be instituted by christ ? answ . there is no place in scripture that declareth this sacrament to be instituted by christ . . because the places alledged for the same be no institutions , but acts and deeds of the apostles . . because those acts were done by a special gift given to the apostles for the confirmation of gods word at that time . . because the same especial gift doth not now remain with the successors of the apostlest quest. what is the external sign ? answ . the church useth chrysma , but the scripture maketh no mention thereof . as for the office of baptizing of infants , as enjoyn'd in the liturgy for regeneration upon the deed done , and to be performed by goslips , who are to profess faith and repentance in the infants name and stead , is generally sc●upled and disowned by the dissenters ( as savouring too much of popery ) though the greatest part of them do baptize their infants . and as for the antiquity of the practice , if any credit may be given to many learned paedobaptists , it will not appear ; whereof take these following instances : the learned dr. taylor tells us in his disswasive against popery , that there is a tradition to baptize infants , relies but upon two witnesses , origen and austin ; and the latter having received it from the former , it relies wholly upon a single testimony , which is but a pitiful argument to prove a tradition apostolical . he is the first that spoke it , but tertullian that was before him , seems to speak against it , which he would not have done , if it had been a tradition apostolical . and that it was not so ( saith the bishop ) it is but too certain , if there be any truth in the words of ludovicus vives , saying , that anciently none were baptiz'd , but persons of riper years . he says thus in his com. on august . l. . c. . whose words are as followeth , viz. none were baptized of old , but those who were of age , who did not only understand what the mystery of the water meant , but desired the same ; the perfect image whereof ( saith he ) we have yet in our infant baptism ; for it is asked of the infant , wilt thou be baptized ? for whom the sureties answer , i will. the doctor adds , that the parents of austin , jerom , amhrose , although christians , did not baptize their children till they were years of age ; and that it will be very considerable in the example , and of great efficacy for the destroying the supposed necessity of derivation of infants baptism from the apostles . hugo grotius ( in annot on mat. . . ) saith , it was no small evidence that baptism of infants many years was not ordinary in the greek church , because not only constantine the great , the son of helena , a zealous christian , but also gregory nazianzen , who was the son of a christian bishop , and brought up long by him , was not baptized till he came to years , as is ( saith he ) related in his life . daille , the learned french-man , tell us , that in ancient times they often deferred the baptism of infants , as appeareth ( saith he ) by the history of constantine , theodos●us , valentinian , gratian , and in st. ambrose ; and also by the orations of gregory nazianzen , and st. basil on this subject . and some of the fathers have been of opinion , that it is ●it it should be deferr'd : but whence is it ( saith he ) that the very mentioning hereof is scarce to be endured at this day ? vse of the fathers , l. . p. . dr. field saith , that very many that were born of christian parents , besides those that were converted from paganism , put off their baptism for a long time , insomuch that many were made bishops before they were baptized . on the church , p. . mr. baxter , a great asserter and defender of infant-baptism , doth ingenuously own , after his long search into antiquity , thus much ; i will confess that the words of tertullian and nazianzen shew , that it was long before all were agreed of the very time , or of the necessity of baptizing of infants before any use of reason , in case they were like to live to maturity ; more proofs , p. . as for baptizing infants with sureties , fidejussors , or gossips , as the liturgy enjoyns ; and such an essential part of the ordinance ( owning that the baptized persons are required to repent and believe , and that infants are capable 〈◊〉 do neither , but that they do both by their sureties ) appears also , if the learned are to be credited , to be no less a novelty , as the centurists declare , magd. cent. . cap. ▪ p. . de susceptoribus certi nihil invenias ; that is , you can find nothing certain of godfathers in that age. but that it came in the th century , cen. . c. . p. . adhibitos interdum & susceptores ; sou patrinos ex autoribus hujus temporis liquet ; that is , the authors of the th century mention sureties , or godfathers : upon which dr. taylor saith , i know god might , if he would , have appointed godfathers to give answer in the behalf of children , and to be fidejussors for them ; but we cannot find any authority or ground that he hath ; and if he had , that it is to be supposed he would have given them commission to have transacted the solemnity with better cir●umstances , and have given answers with more truth , for the question is ask'd of believing in the present ; and if the godfather answers in the name of the child . i do believe ; it is notorious , they speak false and ridiculous , for the infant is not capable of believing ; and if he were , he were also capable of dissenting ; and how then do they know his mind ? and thefore ( saith he ) tertullian and nazianzen gave advice , that the baptizing of infants should be deferr'd till they could give an account of their own faith. walafridus strabo , who lived about the year . saith , ( de rebus eccl . c. . ) that in the first times the grace of baptism was wont to be given to them only , who were come to that integrity of mind and body , that they could know and understand what profit was to be gotten by baptism ; what was to be confessed and believed ; what , lastly , was to be observed by them that are new-born in christ , and confirms it by austin's own confession of himself continuing a catechumen long before he was baptized . but afterwards ( saith he ) christians understanding original sin , and least their children should perish without any means of grace , had them ( he saith ) baptized by the decree of the council of africa ; and then adds , how godfathers and godmothers were invented . johannis bohemius , lib. . de gent. moribus , saith , it was in times past the custom to administer baptism only to those that were instructed in the faith , and seven times in the week , before easter and penticost , catechiz'd ; but afterwards , when it was thought and adjudged needful to eternal life to be baptized , it was ordained that new-born children should be baptized , and godfathers were appointed , who should make confession , and renounce the devil on their behalf . as for the liturgy , it is another thing than can be found among the antients . is it not clear , that in the d century , they had no directory or book to pray by , as tertullian in his apology mentions ? we look up to heaven with our hands stretched forth , as being innocent and bear-headed , as not ashamed to make our prayers sine monitore , without a directory , as coming from the free motion of our own hearts . platina tells us , that in celestine's time there was no other parts of the mass , but the reading of the epistles and ●ospels , which was anno . platina . in celest . . justin martyr , in the second century , fully sheweth the manner of christian service in his time — the ancient christians ( saith he ) had their meetings on the sunday , they began with prayers for the church , especially for the inlightend , which were baptized ; then the writings of the prophets and apostles are read as time permits ; then a sermon unto the people , and exhorts them all unto the imitation of the best things ; then all do rise up , and pour forth their prayers again ; when their prayers are ended , bread , and wine mixed with water , are brought forth , which being taken , he who hath the charge goeth before the people with an earnest voice in praising god and thanksgiving , and the people do answer with a loud voice , amen . then the deacons divide the holy signs unto them all which are present , and carry the same unto the absent : this , saith he , we call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thanksgiving , whereof none may partake , unless he believe the true doctrine , and be washed in the laver unto regeneration and remission of sins , and live so as christ hath directed . after this is a gathering of alms. and p. . he who instructed the people , prayed according to his ability ▪ here was no liturgy or common prayers mentioned . walafrid strabo , who wrote in the th century , saith in his book de rebus ecclesiae — all which is done now with a multitude of prayers , lessons , songs , and cons●●rations , which the apostles , and those who next followed them , did with prayers and remembrance of the lords sufferings even as he commanded . socrates saith , that among all the christians in that age , scarce two were to be found that used the same words in prayer . pope gregory the first made a new form of service , which they call the mass ▪ and did add many ceremonies that were not in use before ; so that platina saith , the whole institution of the mass was invented by him , we in england had ours from gregory , who by his minister austin first founded the church , and introduced most of the rites , service and ceremonies . their was another mass , which was called the mass of ambrose , a ridiculous thing , which they afterwards fathered upon him different from gregory's , whereof we read in after times , and there was great contention which mass should be received into the churches . which when pope adrian ( who was anno . ) saw , he was put to his shifts , and said , he would refer it ●o the will of god , whether he would by any visible sign approve the mass ▪ of gregory , 〈◊〉 of ambrose ▪ so these two books ●ere 〈◊〉 together upon the a●●ar , in st. peter's church , and 〈◊〉 called upon god to shew which of the two be approved ; the doers were shut all night , and the next morning when they returned into the church , the book of ambrose was found lying , as it was laid down , and the other was all torn and dispersed through the church : the pope maketh the comment , that the mass of ambrose should lye untouched , and the mass of gregory should be used through the world ; and so ●e did authorize and command , that it should be used in all churches and chappels , which charles the great did second ; commanding that only to be used , and ambroses to be burnt . gregory the first , ordained the letanies or supplications , saith platina . the responses and gradual was given by pope gregory , saith pol. virgil. the collects ordinary , as saith durandus , were ordained by pope gregory : the other collects added by sundry popes , as cassandar in liturgia , cap. . he made the offices of the church , and disposed the nights and days antiphones , or singing-service ; he polished the rites of the mass , and renewed its canon ; he made the introitus to the mass , with the particles ; he commanded the kyrieeleison and hallelujah to be sung. he ordered the singing of psalms , the letanies and processions . balaeus cent. . p. . sect . . the prescript number of psalms and lessons was brought into the church by gregory the th . anno . saith durandus . the epistles and gospels platina gives to pope damasus , anno . pope anastasius brought in standing at the gospel , anno . as saith platina and pol. virgil. austin ( confess . lib. . ) shews that the latine church had no singing-service ; that was brought into our ceremonies , saith polidore virgil , from the old heathen ( de invent. rer. lib. . c. . ) who were wont to sacrifice with symphony , witness livies , l. . the primitive church had no altars : pope sylvester was the first author of their consecration , bellar. de verb. dei , l. . c. . anno . then consequently no bowing to them , nor kneeling before them , being all novels . as little can you find the english festivals in antiquity . the centurists tells us , observandum est apostolos & apostolicos viros , neque de paschate , neque de aliis quibuscunque festivitatibus legem aliquam constituisse ; it is to be observed that neither the apostles , nor any apostolick men have given us any law for the observation of easter , or any other feast whatsoever , magd. cent. . chap . p. . they also tell us out of origen , that it was not lawful for christians to observe the feasts or solemnities either of jews or gentiles , cent. . p. . the council of laodicea in the can. forbad the heathenish or jewish feast . non oportet a judaeis vel hereticis feriatica quae mittuntur accipere , nec cum eis dies agere feriatos . the canons of the ancient councils forbad to keep the pagan feasts , and to deck their houses with green boughs and bay leaves , as they did in the kalends of january , con. affr. can. . tolet. . can. . brac. . c. . the festivals observed by the ancients were not accounted more holy than other days . jerome on matth. . saith , non quod celebrior sit dies illa qua conv●nimus . the waldenses , the ancient fathers of the protestants , held , that they were to rest from labour upon no day but the lord's day . aeneas sylvius . the rites and geremonies of marriage , as expressed in the office of marriage in the liturgy , do not appear to have been in use in those primitive times . it being decreed by pope julius and ser●●ius ▪ about the middle of the th century , that all marriage should pass the benediction of a priest upon penalty of sa●riledge ; the office being taken from the papists , and those very restraints laid upon marriage , at what seasons people may marty , and when not , are taken out of the romish rubrick . pope clement having ordained , that from septuage sima , till easter ; from rogation , till whitsunday ; and from advent to epiphany , marriage should be prohibited ; and which doctrine of devils is translated from their rubrick to ours . as for bowing to the altar , and to the east , and at entrance into churches and temples , they are reverences which seem to be fetch'd from an elder date , viz. from the pagan idolaters , and from whom the superstitious . ancients and papists had them , and we from them . dr. willer in his synop. papisi p. , . saith ▪ that bowing at the altar , and name of jesus , are superstitious idolatries ▪ as for ecclesiastical orders and officers of the lord arch-bishops , lord ▪ bishops , deans ▪ arch-deacons , 〈◊〉 and the supremacy exercised one over another in the church of england ; they are so far from having the stamp of primitive antiquity , that they are not to be found therein , at least for the three or four first centuries . dr. stillingfleet in his irenicum , p. . tells us after this manner , viz. that whether any shall succed the apostles in superiority of power over presbyters , or all remain governing the church in an equality of power , is no where determined by the will of christ in the scripture , which contains his royal law , and therefore we have no reason to look upon it as any thing flowing from the power and authority of christ as mediator , and so not necessar●ly binding to christians . and further assures us , that episcopal men cannot shew by the word of god neither by the practice of the apostles , nor so much as by the primitive church , that a minister of jesus christ hath had any superintendency over several private churches , or that a bishop hath ordained ministers by his sole and pure authority , as is now practised in england ; or that he who is not naturally invested with any authority , should have the power to delegate others , and much more secular persons . and if any would be better satisfied herein , there are two late pieces , which may fully do it , viz. one by dr. owen , in a book called , the order and communion of evangelical churches ; and the other in a book called , no evidence for diocesan churches and bishops in the primitive times . the primitive fathers were against dedicating of churches to saints and angels . austin saith , if we build a church of stones or wood unto any most excellent angel , are we not accursed and anathematized from the truth , and from the church of god , because then we give unto a creature that service which is due unto god only ? cont. maxim. lib. . arg. . de spir. sancto . erasmus upon austin 's words , hath in the margent marked thus — this is done now to each one of the divi or saints , viz. not a church erected without such a dedication . pope vitellia●us brought in organs , and other musical instruments into the church about the th century , bell ▪ de bon . oper . lib. . c. . rogation-week , or gauge-days , were ordained by pope leo . as saith platina , massaeus , and polidor virgil. pope zacharias , in the year , ordained priests gowns , tippets , and four-corned caps . chron. achil. faseicul . temp. pope boniface ordained wednesdays , fridays and saturdays fasts , as saith platina . and that anno , pope boniface ordained vigils or saints eves fasts , as polidor virgil and pantaleon affirm . to which is called the apostles creed , was not as now in our liturgy known in the primitive times , but has past great alterations . . it is manifest the fathers in the first ages do give us the creed in other words , not one of them giving us this form for above years after christ . ignatius , irenaeus , origen , tertullian , write the churches faith , but none of them in this form . . we have bishop vsher , that great searcher into antiquity , giving us an account of the additions made to it ( in his dissert . de symbol . p. . ) viz. [ maker of heaven and earth ] was a new addition , not in the ancient copies . ( . ) [ conceived ] is added ; the old form is , born of the holy ghost . ( . ) the word [ dead ] is added . ( . ) [ descended into hell ] is added . ( . ) the name of [ god almighty ] to the articles of christ's sitting at the right hand of god. ( . ) [ catholick ] is added to holy church . ( . ) [ communion of saints ] is added . and ( . ) [ life everlasting ] is added . and which additions , faith bishop vsher were not made at once , but at several times . and the bishop affirms , that the nicene was as confidently , and more anciently called the apostles creed . as for the athanasian creed , quicunque vult , &c. fathered upon athanasius , bishop of alexandria , in the th age ; it appears to be otherwise , and to have no such stamp of primitive antiquity , as dr. burnet ( hist . of reform . part . b. . p. . ) informs us , viz. that they went according to the received opinion , that athanasius was the author of that creed , which is now found not to have been compiled till near three ages after him . secondly , it doth appear that what was of pure antiquity , and in use in those first centuries , viz. , & , are either not used , or blotted out of the liturgies , having been heretofore in use . the protestant reconciler , part . chap. . from pag. . to gives an account of the ancient rites and ceremonies in use amongst the ancient churches and fathers , now laid aside , viz. love-feasts ; kiss of charity ; deaconesses ; praying standing from easter till whit sunday ; dipping or plunging the baptized , yea , the trine immersion ; deferring baptison till easter and whitsunday ; exorcism ; sufflation ; anointing the sick ; chrism ; white garment ; milk and honey to the new baptized ; giving the eucharist to the infant , from the d to the th century ; mingling water with the sacramental wine ; all eating of one loaf in the supper ; to send the eulogiae or broken bread to the absent ; to receive standing , or in a table gesture ; to pray for the dead , &c. all which are rejected . and many of these , though in the first common-prayer in edward the sixth's time laid aside , as the said author , p. . tells us , concluding thus : hence we may see how vainly 't is pretended , that these ceremonies were retained or imposed to manifest the justice and equity of the reformation , by letting their enemies see , they did not break communion with them for meer indifferent things , or that they left the church of rome no farther than she left the ancient church , as saith dr. stillingfleet . when 't is manifest , saith he , that we left off praying for departed saints , the vnction of the sick , the mixing water with the sacramental wine , the chrysm , exorcism , the anointing the baptised person , crossing the breast , and at the consecration of the eucharist , and the baptismal water , with many other things which were retained in the ancient church , and in the liturgy of edw. . thus you see , that notwithstanding the great cry of symbolizing with primitive antiquity , and not at all with rome , that the latter appears to be as true as the other is false , their litnrgies , rites and ceremonies , being ( as said ) a composition of pagan , papal inventions , with some novel additions of their own ▪ and primitive antiquity almost wholly excluded . and it is very observable to consider what alterations have been made in edw. the sixth's liturgy , to gratifie the papists , as omitting that clause of the letany , from the bishop of rome and all his detestable enormities ; and that in the commination , cursed be the worshippers of images ; and have left out that exhortation which is condemned as a most vile abomination in their usual masses , where people gaze , but do not communicate . secondly , in the next place it will appear ( that as we do not symbolize with antiquity in our rites and ceremonies ) that we do symbolize in most , if not in all of them , with popery , though so positively denied by the learned . which is manifest , first , by the several particulars before mentioned ; for as the church of england doth not symbolize with primitive antiquity therein , as it is plain they do not , ( if our authors speak true ) so they do fully symbolize with popish novelty , as the proofs make manifest , both in kneeling at the altar , cross in baptism , surplice , &c. secondly , this symbolizing with popery in our rites and ceremonies , appears by what is fully owned and acknowledged by parties themselves . the principal part of worship , ( both as to matter and manner ) performed in the church of england , is contained in the rubrick or service-book , by law established ; which in the beginning of the reformation in h. . time , was no other than the romish liturgy , some parts only being translated into english , ( viz. the creed , pater-noster , ten commandments and letany . edw. . went further ▪ translating it all into english , yet retaining the same service word for word , except some alterations ; for so mr. fox tells us in the king and councils letter to the devonshire men , about the alteration of their mass-book , who by the instigation of their priests , had been stirred up to rebellion ; wherein it is thus told them , as recorded , act. & mon. vol. p. . as for the service in the english tongue , it perchance seems to you a new service ; and yet indeed it is no other but the old , the self-same words in english , for nothing is altered , but to speak with knowledge , that which was spoken with ignorance , only a few things taken out so fond , that it had been a shame to have heard them in english . some alterations were made afterwards in the d of edw ▪ . and some by q elizabeth , and some few by king james ; but the body and essentials of it continued , and was preserved , for so faith k. charles the d. in his preface to the common-prayer , annext to the act of uniformity , in these words : that we find that in the reigns of several princes , since the reformation , the church upon just and weighty considerations her thereunto moving , hath yielded to make such alterations in some particulars , as in their respective times were thought convenient , yet so as the main body and essentials of it ( as well in the chiefest materials , as in the frame and order thereof ) have still continued the same unto this day , and do yet stand firm and unshaken , notwithstanding all vain attempts , and impetuous assaults made against it by such men as are given to change . in confirmation whereof , you have the testimony of king james , as mr. calderwood in his history of the church of scotland informs us , who tells us , that king james in the th session of the general assembly held at edenburgh , aug. . . said these words in his speech to them , viz the kirk of geneva keep pasch and yule , whereof no constitution . and as for our neighbour kirk of england , their service is an evil said mass in english ; they want nothing of the mass but the liftings , but that the kirk of scotland was the sincerest in the world. so that you have the acknowledgment and grant of three kings to the truth hereof ; that the publick worship and service of the protestant church of england contained in the english liturgy , and practised in the church , is the same in the main body and essentials , chiefest materials , frame and order with that of the popish ; and whoever will take the pains to search into the popish breviary , ritual , missal , and pontificial , which four comprehend their whole liturgy , will find ▪ though there may be some alterations and variations , in several particulars ; yet as the king grants , the substance and chiefest materials and order is the same , and that ours is taken out of theirs , viz. collects , mattins , eversongs , epistles , gospels , creeds , letanies , consecration , administration of sacraments , baptism of infants , with gossips to answer for them , kneeling at the altar , confiteor , absolution , confirmation , burial , matrimony , visitation of the sick , ordination of arch-bishops , bishops , &c. and which will appear particularly by what follows . dr. moore in his mystery of iniquity ▪ ●ib . . ch . . p. says thus ▪ for undoubtedly our her●ieal reformers did not , as is the use of some act , out of peevishnes● and spight , and please their own humour and impetuosity of spirit , as being part of the chaste spouse of christ , the true apostolick church , the mother of us all , deals as a mother with all those that profess themselves in any sense children of christ's church , and therefore would not have them , divided more than needs ; whence it is , that out of a spirit of charity and tender kindness , she has in some things in themselves indifferent , ( & what indifferent things they are you have heard ) humbly condescended to symbolize with that lapsed lady of rome , to bring off her abused paramours to the pure worship of god ; which condescension , as is well known , took good effect for some space of years , and the catholicks joyned in publick prayer and service with us [ and well they might , being as our three kings have granted so much their own , only in the english tongue ] till that harlot that makes nothing of having her children divided , forcibly rent off the english roman catholick from so reasonable and christian a communion ; and yet , saith he , does not our church cease to use this charitable courtship and sweet condescension towards them still , [ viz. yet symbolizing with her ] to win them off to such a worship as is every way as graceful as their own ? dr. stillingfleet in his irenicum , speaks to this purpose , viz. that the great reason why our first reformers did so far comply with the papists , it was to gain , and lay a bait for them , and which he hopes was never intended to be a hook for the protestants . thirdly , will not the symbolizing with popery appear , more particularly , by comparing our divine service in the common-prayer and rubrick , with their divine service in their mass-book and rubrick ; and how much we have taken them for our pattern , and follow their direction in the particulars following , viz. first , in the time when divine service , and publick worship is to be performed . secondly , in the divine service it self , which is to be performed . thirdly , in the rites and ceremonies performed in divine service and worship . first , as to the times of worship , their breviary and kalendar do divide the year into feasts , vigils , fasts , and working-days : so do we take ours directly from them , dividing our kalendar by theirs , both as to feasts , vigils , fasts , working-days . it is true , they have more feasts than we , but all ours are found in theirs , and taken from them , as our ritual makes manifest . for instance : . their feasts are divided into movables and fix'd : so are ours . their movable-feasts and holy days are , movable feasts . . their easter-day , on which the rest depend , is always the first sunday after the first full moon , which happens next after the st . of march ; and if the full moon happens upon a sunday , easter-day is the sunday after , with a vigil before : so ours from them expresly . . their advent-sunday is always the nearest sunday to the feast of st. andrew , whether before or after , and to four sundays after : so ours directly . . their septuagesima-sunday , weeks before easter : so ours . . their sexagesima-sunday , weeks before easter : so ours . . their quinquagesima-sund . weeks before easter : so ours . . their quadragesima-sunday weeks before easter : so ours . . their rogation-sunday , weeks after easter : so ours . . their ascention-day is days after easter : so ours . . their whitsunday , with a vigil , weeks after easter : so ours . . their trinity-sunday is weeks after easter : so ours . and sundays after trinity . . their fixed feasts are as followeth , viz. fixed feasts . . the circumcision of our lord jesus christ , the first of january . . the epiphany , january . . their conversion of st. paul , january . . their purification of the blessed virgin , with a vigil , february . . their st. matthias , feb. with a vigil before it . . their anunciation of the virgin , march , & vigil . their st. mark , april . . their st. philip and jacob , may. . their st. barnabas , june . . their nativity of st. john baptist , june and vigil . . their st. peter , the june & vigil . . their st. james , the july & vigil . . their st. bartholomew , august and vigil . . their st. matthew , september & vigil . . their st. michael , sept — so ours ; to which we add , and all angels — . their st. luke , october & vigil . . their st. simon and jude , october & vigil . . their all-saints , november & vigil . . their st. andrew , november & vigil . . their st. thomas , december & vigil . . their nativity of our lord , december & vigil . . their st. stephen , december . . their st. john the evangelist , december . . their st. innocents , december . . their monday and tuesday in easter-week . . their monday and tuesday in whitson-week . so are ours directly . their days of fasting . . their forty days of lent. . their ember-days , at the four seasons , being wednesday , friday , saturday , after the first sunday in lent the feast of pentecost , september the . and december the . . their three rogation days , being the mondays , tuesdays and wednesdays before holy thursday , or the ascension of our lord. . and all the fridays in the year . so are ours in like manner . thus do we symbolize expresly , or rather take them for our ritual and pattern , as to the times of worship , ours being but a transcript of theirs , and which they practised so many years before us . and of all which , not one word of direction in all the new testament . if it be said , who hath required all these feasts , fasts , holy-days , &c. at our hands ? must we not say , our soveraign lord the pope , who ordained all this service for us , to the denying the soveraignity of christ , as though he was not the only law-giver , being wiser than what is written . if we must keep holy-days for all the apostles , & the other saints of the pope's making , why not for the patriarchs and prophets ? why not for st. enoch , st. seth , st. noah , st. abraham , st. lot , st. moses , st. job , st. david , st. samuel , st. esay , st. jeremy , & c. ? secondly , in the divine service it self , which is to be performed at the prefixed times aforesaid . which they have divided into mattins and evensongs , and so we , after their example , and appropriated to the particular feasts , fasts , vigils , offices of baptism , supper , marriage , burial , confirmation , visitation of sick , churching of women , &c. so we directly . the substance or matter of their divine service consists in collects , or short prayers , confessions , absolutions , prescript lessons of psalms , epistles , gospels , prophets , apocrypha , letanies , anthems , or canticles , and comminations appropriated to the several offices abovesaid . all which is the substance or matter of our divine service , in all parts of it appropriated and applyed to the several and respective offices aforesaid . it is true , there may be some variation in the collects , and lessons , letanies and anthems , though many times the very same word for word , and to the days and occasions they appointed them . these six canticles are word for word from the mass ▪ book , viz. benedicite omnia opera . . benedictus dominus deus israel . . magnificat anima mea . . nunc dimittis . . quicunque vult . . te deum laudamus , with gloria patri , as they have directed to be repeated often , and after every psalm ; and gloria in excelsis , and pater noster to be often repeated in every office and exercise . thirdly , in rites and ceremonies . do they kneel at confession and absolution ? so we . do they repeat the pater-noster , kneeling , after the priest ? so we . do they stand at gloria patri ? so we . do they stand up and repeat the apostl's creed ? so we . do they repeat after the minister the kiryeelyson , christeelyson , kneeling ? so we . do they upon the reading or singing quicunque vult , or athanasius creed , stand ? so we . do they upon saying or singing letanies , make responses by the people ? so we . do they kneel at the altar when they partake of the eucharist , or lords supper ? so we . do they upon the rehersal of the ten commandments kneel , asking mercy and grace after every command ? so we . do the priest and people read the psalms alternately , verse by verse ? so we . do they sit at reading the lessons ? so we . do they uncover themselves in the churches ? so we . do they sing their anthems , and canticles , and psalms , and prayers with musick , vocal and instrumental , as organs , flutes , viols , &c. so we in our cathedrals . do they bow to the east , and name of jesus ? so we . of all which not one word in all the new-testament . fourthly , is there not a symbolizing with popery in the places of worship ? the places of our worship are either such as were built and consecrated by the papists , which we took from them , retaining the saints names they were dedicated to , as st. mary , st. peter , st. paul , all-saints , or such places as we have built by their example , posited east and west . consecrated and dedicated to some saint or angel , and which we take to be more holy than any other place , as they did , and give great reverence by uncovering the head , and bending the knee , and upon entrance into it , bowing to the east and altar placed therein . and keep the annual feast of dedication , wake or paganalia , as the papists and the heathen before them did . of all which , not one word in all the new testament . fifthly , do we not also symbolize with them in the priesthood , who are principally to minister in those places of worship ? have they superior priests , viz. bishops and arch-bishops , in the room of the heathen-flamins and arch-flamins for sacerdotal service in provinces and diocesses ? so have we . have they inferior priests , distinguisht by dignities , names and services , as deans , chapters , prebends , arch-deacons , to minister in cathedrals ; and parsons , vicars and curates to officiate in parishes ? so we . have they proper distinguishing habits for their clergy , and particular vestments for their holy ministrations , as albs , surplices , chasubles , amicts , gowns , copes , maniples , zones , & c. ? so we . of all which , not one word in all the new-testament . that we do symbolize with them in the ordination of the priesthood , take a brief parallel of the pontificials , viz. the romish and the english . romish pontificial . . tempora ordinationum sunt , &c. the times of ordination are the sabbaths , in omnibus quatuor temporibus , rom. pontif. de ordinibus conferendis . . ordinationes sacrorum ordinum , the ordination of holy orders shall be in the times appointed , and in the cathedral church , with the canons of the said church being present thereat , shall be publickly celebrated in the time of divine service , ibid. . they are taken to the order of presbyters who have continued in the office of a deacon ●t least a whole year , except for the profit and necessity of the church it shall otherwise seem good unto the bishop , ibid. . episcopus autem sacerdotibus . but the bishop , priests being adjoyn'd to him , and other prudent men , skilful in the divine , law , and exercis'd in ecclesiastical functions ; shall diligently examine the person 's age — of him that is to be ordained . . nullus dd ordinem — none shall be admitted to the order of a deacon before he be years old , nor to the order of presbytery before the th year of his age. . archia-diaconis offerens — the arch-deacon presenting those who are to be promoted to the order of deacons , ( each of them being decently habited ) unto the bishop , sitting in his seat before the altar , saith , reverend father — . the bishop shall ask , do you know them to be worthy ? the arch-deacon shall answer , as much as humane frailty suffers me to know , i know and tes●ifie that they are worthy . . the bishop shall speak to the clergy and people , if any one hath ought against these persons , let him come forth , and with confidence speak for god and before god. . lastly , the bishop takes and delivers to them all the book of the gospel , saying , receive the power of reading the gospel in the church of god. . the bishop shall say , the ministers and chaplains answering , lord have mercy upon us ; o god , the father of heaven , have mercy upon us ; o god , the son , redeemer of the world , have mercy upon us ; that it may please thee to bless , sanctifie and consecrate these elect. r. we beseech thee to hear us , good lord. . they sing one and the same hymn , only the one is in latine , the other in english veni creator spiritus , mentes tuarum visita , &c. . the bishop shall lay his hands upon the head of each of them , kneeling upon their knees before him , saying to every one , receive the holy ghost , whose sins thou dost forgive , they are forgiven ; and whose sins thou dost retain , they are retained . . the peace of god be always with you , the blessing of god almighty , the father , son and holy ghost descend upon you . english pontificial . we daclare , that no deacons or ministers be ordained , but only upon the sundays immediately following jejuna quatuor temporum , commonly call'd , ember-weeks , co●sti● . & can. eccl. can. . . and this be done in the cathedral or parish-church ; where the bishop resideth , and in the time of divine service , in the presence not only of the arch-deacon , but of the dean . ibid. . and here it must be declared unto the deacon , that he must continue in that office the space of a whole year , except for reasonable causes it shall otherwise seem good unto the bishop . the book of ordering priests and deacons . . the bishop , before he admit any person to holy orders , shall diligently examine him in the presence of those ministers that shall assist him at the imposition of hands , can ▪ . . none shall be admitted a deacon , except he be years of age , and every man which is admitted a priest shall be full years old : the preface to the manner and form of making priests and deacons . . the arch-deacon or his deputy shall present unto the bishop ( sitting in his chair , near to the holy table ) such as desire to be ordained deacons ( each of them being decently habited ) saying these words , reverend father — . the bishop shall say — take heed that the persons whom you present unto us be apt and meet for their learning — the arch-deacon shall answer , i have enquired of them , and also examin'd them , and think them so to be . . then the bishop shall say to the people — brethren , if there be any of you who knoweth any impediment or notable crime in any of these persons , let him come forth in the name of god , and shew what it is . . then the bishop shall deliver to every one of them the new-testament saying , take thee authority to read the gospel in the church of god. . the bishop , with the clergy and people , shall sing or say the letany ; o god , the father of heaven have mercy on miserable sinners ; o god the son , redeemer of the world , have mercy on us ; that it may please thee to bless these thy servants . respon . we beseech thee to hear us good lord. . they sing one and the same hymn , only the one is in latine , the other in english come holy ghost , our souls inspire , and enlighten with celestial fire . . the bishop shall lay his hands severally upon the heads of every one that receive the order of priesthood , the receivers humbly kneeling upon their knees , and the bishop saying , receive the holy chost , whose sins thou dost forgive , they are forgiven ; and whose sins thou dost retain , they are retained . . the peace of god — and the blessing of god almighty , the father , son and holy ghost , be amongst you , and remain with you always . of all which progress , not one word in all the new-testament . and as a further confirmation of our symbolizing with popery in our rites and service , take a few instances . first , that the papists not only so long approv'd our liturgy , and kept their communion in our church in that worship , as before remark't from dr. more ; but also , that the popes themselves have offered to confirm the same , as doctor morton's appeal discovers ; and that pope pius the th , and gregory . offered to queen elizabeth to confirm the english liturgy , as camden in the life of queen elizabeth testifies . dr. boys produceth the pope's letter , and bristow's approbation in his th motive . and that the jesuit , dr. carryer , saith , that the common prayer and catechism contain nothing contrary to the romish service . mountague asserts , that our service is the same in most things with the church of rome , and that the differences are not so great , that we should make any separation . two famous instances more we have mentioned in a book , called , the common prayer-book vnmasked , p. . one of a jesuit , who coming not many years since to the service at pauls , declared he lik't it exceeding well ; neither had he any exception to it , but that it was not done by their priests . the other that upon the pope's bull that interdicted queen elizabeth , secretary walsingham , procured two persons to come into england from the pope , to whom he shew'd the london and canterbury service , ( in their cathedrals ) in all the pomp of it ; who thereupon declared , that they wondred the pope should be so ill informed and advised to interdict a prince , whose service and ceremonies so symboliz'd with his own ; and therefore returning to rome , they possess'd the pope , that they saw no service , ceremonies or orders in england , but might very well serve in rome ; whereupon the bull was recalled . as to the taking of collects out of the mass-book , 't is said by the resolver , p. . that if those prayers are good , which he affirms to be very good , then such a symbolizing , he saith , cannot make them bad . to which it is reply'd , that the goodness or badness of worship and service , as to the matter and form , is to be measured not by our fancies , but the rule of god's word : but we do not find any such pattern of shreds of prayers or collects , to be said or sung , though such things pope gregory found in the ritual of numa pompilius , which were said or sung in their processions to their gods. the al●aron , talmud and apocripha may have , as we suppose , good things in things , as well as the pagan and papal mass-books ; must we therefore put them into our prayers ? therefore this kind of collecting we must , by his favour , judge bad , because not to be found in christ's , but in the heathen and antichristian platform , and as not being of divine , but meer human invention ; and therefore having been abused to idolatry , ought to be rejected by us , because we are commanded not to take off the babylonish materials , a corner , nor a foundation ▪ stone , jer. . . nor to make such a linsey-woolsey medley in gods worship , lev. . . nor to swear by the lord and by malchim , zeph. . being reqired to take heed to our selves , that we be not ensnared , and that we do not inquire , saying , how did these nations serve their gods ? even so will we do likewise : we are commanded not to do so unto the lord our god : but that whatsoever god commands , that we are to observe and do , not adding thereto , or diminishing therefrom , deut. . , &c. the learned maccovius , upon lev. . . saith , that the sacred rites of idolaters , though they be things in themselves indifferent , are not to be retained , because all conformity with idolators is to be avoided ; as also saith zanchy , junius , calvin , beza , mollerus , danaeus , yea , lyra , though a papist . but what do you say to the lords prayer ? must we forbear that too , because we find it in their mass-book , though so positively enjoyn'd by christ to use it , who bids us expresly , luke . . that when we pray , we should say , our father , & c. ? therefore whoever will pray it , or neglect it , we must pray that very set-form of prayer , in those very words , when we pray . to which we say , that it is a great mistake to suppose , that christ hereby in this scripture has appointed this to be a set-form to be prayed by all in these prescript words , when we pray unto god ; for then it would be unlawful to use any other words than these herein expressed in our prayers ; and that the disciples and apostles finned in using other words in those then prayers we read of in scripture ; and so does the church of england in forming so many collects and prayers . secondly , the church of rome and england also are great transgressors , to presume to vary from christ's precept , in altering or adding to the form of words expressed by christ in this of luke , for so they have done — they say , forgive us our trespasses , as we forgive them who trespass against us : when there are no such words in christ's prayer ; his words are , forgive us our sins ( or debs , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ) for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us . and add also the doxology , which is not in this prayer , luke . but you 'l say , as to the doxology , it is expressed by christ at the end of the same prayer in his sermon on the mount , matth. . it is very true , it is so , where he delivers this prayer not as a set-form , but a pattern of prayer , after this manner pray ye , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , to this purpose ; and which is an explanation of what he says , luke . . when you pray , say , our father ; that is , after this manner : and which can only be a warrant to the church of england , or any other , to make such alterations ; christ no more intending to tye the disciple , who desired to be instructed how to pray to this form of words , nor any other disciple , than he did the disciples , when he sent them out to preach with this word of command , matth. . . preach , saying , the kingdom of heaven is at hand ; that they should thereby be tyed to those very words in their preaching ( and preach nothing else ) : but as this was given as a text or theme to preach by , so the other to pray by . the disciple who proposes the question , vers . . desires that they might be taught to pray , as john taught his disciples ; but such a set-form of prayer we find not , that john in his teachings gave to his disciples ; neither do we find that any of christs disciples or apostles did pray this very prayer , to which our expositors do agree . grotius saith on luke . . that christ herein teacheth us a compendium of those things we are to pray for , at that time they were not bound to the use of so many words and syllables . as also tertullian , cyprian , musculus , cornelins alapide ; and austin himself saith , liberum est , it is free for us to ask the same things in the lords prayer , aliis , atque aliis verbis , sometimes one way , sometimes another . doth not paul tell us expresly , he knew not what to pray for , but as the spirit gave him utterance ? rom. . but he did know what to pray for , if this was to be his prescript form . tertullian saith , they prayed , sine monitor● , without a monitor [ or common-prayer-book ] and socrates tells us , that among all the christians of that age , scarce two were to be found that used the same words in prayer . chrysostom on rom. . homil. . saith , with other gifts they had the gift of prayer , which was also called , the spirit ; and he who had this gift did pray for the whole multitude , for what was expedient unto the church ; and also did instruct others to pray . and though we find neither christ nor his apostles impose this nor any other form of prayer to be used by us , ( but that we pray in the spirit , and praise in the spirit , and that god being a spirit , seeketh and accepteth such worshippers ) yet we find the popes and their councils imposing this and other lyturgical forms . the council of toledo , anno . decreed in the th canon , that every day , both in publick and private worship , none of the clergy omit the lords prayer , under pain of deposition ; since ( say they ) christ hath prescribed this saying , when you pray , say , our father , &c. and how formally and carnally , if not idolatrously , has the pater-noster been muttered over by the superstitious papists ever since ? and may we not enquire , whether in the following particulars we do not symbolize with the romish worship herein ? . first , by enjoyning and imposing this as a set-form , as they do , without the sanction of any sacred text to warrant our so doing . . secondly , by an often repetition of the same form in the same exercise , three or four times at least , insomuch that in cathedral services it is said or sung ten or twelve times a day , contrary to christ's express words , viz. that when we pray , we should not make vain repetitions , as the heathen do ; for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking , mat. . . . thirdly , by enjoyning the whole congregation , both men and women , to repeat the same after the priest , though no such direction by christ ; nay , he forbids women to pray or prophesie in the church , cor. . . &c. . fourthly , in singing this prayer in cathedrals , by responses of priest and people with musick , without the least divine authority for such song-praying . the resolver goes oh , p. . our brethron , [ surely ] will allow of reading the scriptures , as they do , viz. epistles , gospels , psalms . to which we say , we do surely allow of reading the scriptures , but not as they do , especially in those epistles , gospels and psalms , which are given us in the liturgy , for the following reasons : first , because the epistles , gospels and psalms , in the service-book , are mis-translated , being taken from the corrupt vulgar latine-bible , which is so extream faulty , and so much complained of by the learned , both protestants and others . secondly ▪ because what they call epistles and gospels are so curtal'd and mangled , that they become quite another thing than the evangelists intended in the gospels , or the apostles in their epistles , altogether ruining the scope and connexions in divers places , as may be instanced in numerous particulars , if need were . thirdly , because they have been the inventions of the popes , who have so adulterated christs pure worship and service , to patch up their idolatrous mass-service , which gregory ( called ) the great compleated , as before , fixing and appropriating the epistles , gospels and psalms to the mattins and even-songs , throughout the year , as the romish calendar , whose copy ( 't is suspected ) we imitate , writes after . fourthly , that whilst it is supposed we may be instructed in the lessons ordered to be read upon the ( so called ) sundays and holy-days , through the whole bible , they have omitted so much of the canonical scriptures , as the greatest part of leviticus , ruth , chronicles , nehemiah , esther , canticles , lamentations , amos , obadiah , jonah , nahum , zephaniah , haggai , the second epistle to the thessalonians , the second and third of john , and most part of the revelation ; instead of which , several parts of apocryphal writings are read , which are esteemed by the learned , to be fabulous , and savouring of the too much adored vanities of gentilism . fifthly , because they have omitted all the original titles or inscriptions of the psalms , which are part of the holy scriptures , which have so great a tendency to unfold the mysteries in the psalms , and instead of them retain the popish latino titles , printed over our english psalms . sixthly , because of those additions which are made to the scriptures therein as to the psalm , whole verses which are not in any of the original copies , and gloria patri to the conclusion of several psalms , ordering it to be said at the reading of every psalm , contrary to deut . . prov. . . rev. . . seventhly , because the epistles and gospels are ordered to be sung as well as said , without the least warrant or direction from the scriptures . eightly , because it is ordered in the rubrick to sit at the reading of the epistles , and to stand up to bow and scrape , and respond at the gospel , without any warrant or direction from the scriptures . ninthly , because of the disorderly chopping & interchanging of scriptures , by way of colloquy , betwixt the priest and people , viz. the lord be with thee , must the priest say : and with thy spirit , must the people say : open our lips , must the priest say : and let our mouths shew forth thy praise , must the people say . and bandying so often the kyrieeleison and christeeleison , lord have mercy upon us , christ have mercy upon us , betwixt priest and people : for which no rule of direction from gods word , but expresly found in the mass-book . how faulty the liturgy appeared in many of these things , to many learned episcopal divines , is manifest by that paper which was drawn up anno . touching innovations in doctrine and discipline of the church of england , together with considerations upon the common prayer ; and subscribed by arch-bishop vsher , dr. williams bishop of lincoln , dr. prideaux , after b. of worcester , dr. browning , after b. of exeter , dr. hacket , afterwards bishop of coventry and litchfield , dr. ward , dr. featly , &c. and presented to the then parliament ; wherein they gave exceptions against several things in the liturgy . and amongst others , against the corrupt translation of the epistles , and gospels , and psalms ; against the apocryphy enjoyned to be read in the lessons ; against singing of service ; against adding gloria patri to the psalms ; against the hymns taken out of the mass-book , viz. benedicite omnia opera , &c. against priests vestments , enjoyn'd as were used , d . e. . against the sign of the cross in baptism , which they say might as well be omitted as the oyl which was heretofore its concomitant afore they went always together ; against prohibiting times of marriage , &c. another objection which should have been spoken to before , and which we he 〈◊〉 add , is this , viz. that it may well be supposed , that the nonconformists are very humerous in their groundless and unnecessary scruples , whilst they are offended with the church for that her ancient and reverend practice of bowing at the name of jesus , enjoyn'd in the th canon ; and for which they have that positive direction and command , phil. . . to warrant it . it is very true , they are indeed offended at that piece they conceive ) of voluntary humility and will-worship , because there is no more ground for bowing at the mentioning of that name , either from that or any other scripture , than for crossing our selves when that name is named . for , first , if it be a command ( as supposed ) universally to bow at the mentioning those syllables , and that name jesus , then are all both in heaven , earth , and under the earth , mer , angels and devils obliged thereto , whenever that name is mentioned ; be it either by a wicked mans blasphemously swearing by it , or a drunken priests prophanely muttering it , or the mentioning jesus the son of syrach , or bar jesus the conjurer . and , secondly , if the supposed command must be understood to relate to the naming the name of our blessed redeemer ; it must then be considered which of his names must be meant , because he hath many names in scripture , as christ , immanuel , jehovah , wonderful , the everlasting father , saviour , redeemer , son of god , prince of peace , king of kings , lord of lords , &c. any of which being much more properly to be understood here , than this of jesus , because it is at the name of jesus , viz. some name of his , and not the name jesus that is to be bowed to . thirdly , neither can that name be supposed to be meant here , because it relates to a name the father gave him after his death , suffering and exaltation , as the words make manifest ; and therefore not that name jesus , which was given him at his circumcision , before his said suffering and exaltation . neither , fourthly , can this sense be admitted as a literal command , that all must bow the knee at that name , because at the same time all and every one which make that reverence with the knee , are enjoyn'd with their mouths , to declare that he is the lord , to the glory of god the father , for they are joyn'd together ; and why is not one perfor●●d ●s well as the other ? therefore , fifthly , it doth necessarily respect another thing , than reverencing the syllables of a name , viz. that power , authority and soveraignity which the father gave him in glory , as a reward of his suffering , which he himself declared after his resurrection , mat. . that all power was given him in heaven & earth , ephes . . this bowing in the name of christ in this place , being by the prophet , isa . , . explained a subjection of all to the universal authority that he shall exercise . name often signifying power in scripture , deut. . . gen. . . psal . . . . . . and therefore is this very subjection mentioned in the text of a universal bowing the knee to his authority , referred to the judgment day , when all , both men , angels and devils must be subject to him , rom. . . and it is observable that the words are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , in the name , not at the name of jesus , viz. in his power and authority , being not a command , but a prophesie when it shall be fulfilled and accomplished , when there shall be that universal subjection to the soveraignity of christ , that every tongue shall confess , that he is lord , to the glory of god the father , as the after words mention . and which shall be , when he shall exert that power that is inherent in him , to subject all nations to his authority , when he takes to himself his great power , and reigns , when the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our lord , when upon his vesture and his thigh shall a name be written , king of kings , and lord of lords ; and when all shall be gathered before him in the judgment day ; which i conceive is the true genuine sense and meaning of these words , and no such thing as a superstitious bowing at the syllables of that name , intended , which has been so universally practised and enjoyned to the just offence of the conscientious , who have not an implicit faith to believe as the church believes . fifthly , their symbolizing with popery in impositions and persecutions of dissenters . have and ●o the papists violently impose their rites , services and ceremonies , and cruelly prosecute and persecure the dissenters by confiscations , imprisonments , and death it self ? do not we by our sanguinary laws and executions of them do the very same , and whereof not one word of warrant in all the new testament ? and how agreeable such a practice is to the lamb-like nature of christs , and his disciples and followers , as also the doctrines and sentiments of many of your own worthies , as well as the suffrage of several of our kings and parliaments , judge you . and whereof i beg leave to give you the following instances , ( viz. ) we shall begin with the famous jewell , who notes it out of chrysostom , homil. on mat. . doth the sheep ever persecute the wolf ? no , but the wolf the sheep ; so cain persecuted abel , not abel , cain ; so ishmael persecuted isaac , not isaac , ishmael ; so the jews , christ , not christ the jews ; so hereticks the christians , not christians , hereticks ; whereby ( saith jewell ) he plainly implyes , that persecution for conscience sake is a very unchristian or antichristian sympton . and smartly again in the same homily — he that is a persecutor is no sheep of christ's , but a wolf , which , saith he , a man should make any man afraid to feel any persecutive motion arise in his breast , as being indications of a cainish , imaelitish and wolfish nature , and a certain sign that he is none of the sheep of christ . the learned dr. moore , in his preface to the mystery of godliness , hath many plain and pertinent passages to this point , asserting , that it is an antichristian use of church-government to direct it to the upholding of useless or mischievous opinions , scandalous ceremonies and ensnaring inventions of men . and what is it ( saith he ) but a notorious specimen of pride , thus to force others to acknowledge , by making them profess to be of their opinion ? and what but injustice and barbarous cruelty to afflict men for what they cannot help , and in what they do not sin ? and what but plain rebellion against god to wrest his scepter out of his hand , by which he ruleth in the consciences of men , and to usurp this empire to themselves ? and again , lastly , saith he , a mutual agreement in bearing with one anothers dissents in the non-fundamentals of religion , is really a greater ornament of christianity , than the most exact uniformity imaginable , it being an eminent exercise of charity , the flower of all christian graces , and the best way , i think , at the long-run , to make the church as uniform as can justly be desired , thus far the dr. to this purpose also the great chillingworth in his th chapter , sect. . speaks thus : this presumptuous imposing of the senses of man upon the words of god , and the special senses of men upon the general words of god , and laying them upon mens consciences together , under the equal penalty of death and damnation . this vain conceit that we can speak of the things of god , better than in the words of god : this deifying our own interpretations , and tyrannous inforcing them upon others ; this restraining of the word of god from that latitude and generality , and the understandings of men from that liberty wherein christ and his apostles left them , is and hath been the only foundation of all the schisms of the church , and that which makes them immortal , the common incendiary of christendom , and that which tears in pieces , not the coat , but the bowels and members of christ , ridents turta , nec dolente judaeo : take away these walls of separation , and all will quickly be one ; take away this persecuting , burning , cursing , damning of men , for not subscribing to the words of them as the words of god ; let those leave claiming infallibility who have no title to it ; and let them who in words disclaim it , disclaim it also in their actions : in a word , take away tyranny , which is the devils instrument to support errors , and superstitions , and impieties in the several parts of the world , which could not otherwise long withstand the power of truth ; i say take away tyranny , and restore christians to their just and full liberty of captivating their understandings to scripture only , and as rivers when they have a free passage run all to the ocean ; so it may well be hoped by gods blessing , that universal liberty thus moderated , may quickly reduce christendom to peace and unity . these thoughts of peace , saith he , i am perswaded come from the god of peace , and to his blessing i commend them . this book of mr. chillingworths was licensed by r. bayly vicechancellor of oxford , dr. purideaux reg. profess . dr. fell , and dr. stradling . and dr. stillingfleet most excellently in his irenicum to the same purpose , tells us in the preface , that christ who came to take away the insupportable yoke of the jewish ceremonies , certainly did never intend to gall the necks of disciples with an other instead of it , and it would be strange the church would require more than christ himself did , and make more conditions of communion then our saviour did of discipleship . the grand commission the apostles were sent out wit , hwas only to teach what christ had commanded them , not the least intimation of any power given them to impose or require any thing beyond what he himself had spoken to them , or they were derected to by the immediate guidance of the spirit of god ; and again declares thus , that without controversy the main of all the distractions , confusions , and divisions of the christian world , hath been by adding other conditions of church communion then christ hath done . and speaking of the grand reasor our first compilers of the common prayer had in taking in so much of the popish service , which was to gain over the papists to them , desires that their charity therein to the papists may not be a breach of charity to the protestants : his words are these , and certainly those holy men who did s●ek by any means to draw in others at such a distance from their principles as the papists were , did never intend by what they did for that end to exclude any truly tender consciences from their communion ; that which they laid as a bait for them , was never intended by them as a hook for those of their own profession . dr. tayler in his ductor dubitantium tells us wittily , that for a trifling cause to cut off a man ( which our lay chancollors so familiarly do ) from the communion of the church is to do as the man in the fable , espying a fly upon his neighbours forehead , went to beat it off with a hatchet , and so strook out his brains . dr. tillotson in his sermon before the parliament on luke . . page . you know not what manner of spirit you are of ? which is as if he had said , you own your selves to be my disciples , but do you consider what spirit now acts and governs you , not that surely which my doctrine designs to mold and fashion you into , which is not ( saith he ) a furious and persecuting and destructive spirit , but mild and gentle and saving . tender of the lives and interests of men even of those who are our greatest enemies , you are to consider that you are not now under the rough and sowre dispensation of the law , but under the calm and peaceable institution of the gospel , to which the spirit of elias though a good man would be altogether unsuitable , but under the gospel intollerable , for that designs universal love and peace and good will , and now no difference of religion , no pretence of zeal for god and christ , can warrant and justify thy pasionate and sierce thy vindicative and exterminating spirit . to these we might add the worthy sayings of bishop vsher , davenant , hall , which the late worthy author of the protestant reconciler , hath furnished us with and many more but let these suffice only for a conclusion : take a passage of the lord castlemains , a great papist husband to the dutches of cleveland , in his book against dr. floyd . sure saith he , these men that persecute others are beside themselves , for , if they should go but to reckon themselves up together , with all their adherence , they would find they are not the sixth part of the reformed people in england ; and adds , pag. . that they have not much reason to reproach the roman catholicks for the parisian massacre , that of ireland , and the gun-powder-plot on the th of november . since that these massacres were committed , only upon those persons whom rome had anathematiz'd , and proscrib'd as hereticks and apostates ▪ and it was never known , that rome persecuted ( as the bishops do ) those who adhere to the same doctrine and faith with themselves , and established an inquisition against the bigots among them , nor against the professors of the strictest piety . and again tells us in another place , to this purpose , that however the prelates complain of the bloody persecution under q. mary , that it is manifest their persecution exceeds it , for under her ( saith he ) there were not more then two or three hundred actually put to death , whereas under their persecution there has above treble that number been stifled , destroyed , and ruined in their estates li●es and liberties , being ( as is most remarkable ) men for the most part of the same spirit and principle , with those protestants who suffered under the prelates in q. maries time. in the next place , as a farther witness against imposition and persecution ; take the following declared sense , and suffrage of several of our kings , viz. bede l. . ch . . tells us , that king ethelbert declared after he professed the christian religion , that he would compel none ; having been instructed that it was contrary to the christian religion , which ought to be vollentary not compulsive . king james affirmed , that for concord there is no nearer way then diligently to seperate things necessary from unnecessary , and bestow all our labour , that we may agree in the things necessary , and that in things unnecessary , which are most of the rites and ceremonies , there may be a christian liberty allowed . apud caus . ep. ad . car. perron . king charles st . in his declaration , anno . sayeth thus : as for differences amongst our selves for matters indifferent in their own nature concerning religion , we shall in tenderness to any number of our loving subjects very willingly comply with the advice of our parliament , that some law may be made for the exemption of tender consciences , from punishment or persecution for such ceremonies , and in such cases which by the judgment of most men are held to be matters indifferent . his present majesty in his declaration from breda , april . speaks thus ! we do declare a liberty to tender consciences , and that no man shall be disquieted or called in question for differences in opinion , which do not disturb the peace of the kingdom . which was also the declared sence of most of the nobility and gentry at that time to which they subscribed their names . the which he often inculcates , viz. declar. oct . . . whe do again remember what we have formerly said from breda , for the liberty of tender consciences . and again in his speech , may th . . i do vallew my self much upon keeping my word , upon making good what ever i promised to my subjects : the which the chancelor repeates . and again , july th . . remynds his promise , as also what the lords had promised to the same purpose at that time before mentioned , which his maty calls an honest generous and christian declaration , signd by the most eminent sufferors amongst them ; telling them he would not have it be in any mans power to charge him or them with the breach of their words or promises , which he saith , would be no good ingredient for the future security . and again in his declaration , dec. . wee will remember the confirmations we have made of them , upon several occasions in parliament , and as also these things are still fresh in our memory , so are we still firme in the resolution of performing them to the full . and we do conceive our selves so far ingaged in honour , and in what we own to the peace of our dominion ; which we profess we can never think secure whilst there shall be a colour left to the malicious and dissafected , to inflame the minds of so many multitudes upon the score of conscience , with dispair of ever ob●aneing effect of our promises for their ease . his majesties speech to both houses ; feb. . . declares thus , viz. one thing more i hold my self obliged to recommend unto you at this cresent , which is that you would seriously think of some course to beget a better vnion and composure in the minds of my protestant subjects in matters of religion , whereby they may be induced , not only to submit quietly to the government , but also chearfully give their assistance to the support of it ; and , in his declaration of indulgence , march . . saith that it was evident by the sad experience of twelve years , that here was very little fruit of all those forcible courses , and many frequent ways of coercion that we have used for the reducing of all erring or dissenting persons ; and thereupon granted his indulgence . again in his speech to both houses . says thus : i meet you here with the most earnest desire , that man can have to vnite the minds of all my subjects both to me , and one to another , and resolve it shall be your fault if the success be not suitable to my desires . hereupon the parliament , jen. . . from their owne inclination , known experience as well as in obedience to his gracious direction , did for the relieving and better vniting all his protestant subjects ; declare in their vote nemine contradicente , that it is the opinion of this house that the prosecution of protestant dissenters upon the penal laws , is at this time grievous to the subject , a weakning the protestant intrest , an encouragement to popery , and dangerous to the peace of the kingdom . and no. . . resolved nemine contradicente , that 〈◊〉 is the opinion of this house that the acts of parliament made in the reign of q. elizabeth and k. james against popish recusants , ought not to be extended against protestant dissenters , having divers laws under consideration , as his majesty directed for the releiving , composing and vniting the protestants : a bill having passed both houses for repealing the th of elizabeth . thus you see that imposition and persecution for conscience , doth not only symbolize with antichrist , but is in the highest contradiction to the name , nature , gospel , and followers of christ , a violent infringer of the law , and light of nature [ of doing to others as he would be done unto ] as well as the royal law of loving our neighbour as our selves , and in utter enmity , not only to these , worthy sentiments of our learned and great men , but of our latter kings and parliaments . as a farther ratification and confirmation that our english service and ceremony was from the popish race and succession ; take this following historical account ; given us by some eminent writers , and famous sons of the church of england . cambden in the life of queen elizabeth ; assures us , that the change of religion was not in her time suddenly ▪ made but by little and little , by degrees , for the roman religion continued in the same state it was ; first , a full month and more , after the death of q. mary , the th of december it was tollerated to have the epistles , and gospels , the tens commandments , the symbole , the letany , and the lords prayer , in the vulgar tongue ; the twenty second of march the parliament being assembled , the order of ewd. . was re-established , and by act of the same the whole use of the lords supper granted under both kinds ; the th of june by the authority of that which concern'd the vniformity of publick prayers , and administration of the sacrament , the sacrifice of the mass was abolished , and the liturgy in the english tongue more and more established , in the month of july , the oath of allegiance was proposed to the bishops , and other persons ; and in august , images were thrown out of the temples and churches , and broken and burnt . thus far cambden gives us the steps queen elizabeth took in the reformation , what she cast off by degrees , and so consequently , what she retained , which was the rest of the popish rites and ceremonies , and which she had a great love to , and liking of which was the reason there was no greater alteration . whereof we have this account from dr. burnit in his history of reformation . queen elizabeth received some impressions in her fathers reign , in favour of such old rites as he had still retained , and in her own nature , loving state , and some magnificence in religion ( as well as in every thing else ) she thought that in her brothers reign they had stript it too much of external ornaments , and had made their doctrine too narrow in some points , therefore she intended to have some things explained in more general terms , that so all parties might be comprehended by them , she inclined to keep up images in churches , and to have the manner of christs presence in the sacrament , left in some general words , that those who believed the corporal presence might not be drawn away from the church , by too nice an explanation of it . so far dr. burner . in pursuance of these resolves the queen attemps the accomodating matters of religion , so unto the romish clergy as to take them into the communion of the church of england , as dr. heylin affirms ; she so effectually compassed that for several years the papists continued in the communion of the church , and when they did forsake it it was not because they approved not of our liturgy , but upon politick considerations , and because the counsel of trent had commanded it , and pope pius the th had excommunicated the queen , and discharged her subjects from their allegiance , and made the going , or not going to church , a sign distinctive to difference ; a roman catholick from an english protestant . concerning which , take dr. heilins own words in his history of queen elizabeth . there past another act for recommending and imposing the book of common prayer and administration of the sacraments according to such alteration and correction as were made therein by thoso who were appointed to revise it , as before is said ; in the persuance of which service , there was great care taken for the expunging all such passages in it , as might give any scandal or offence , to the popish party , or be urged by them in their excuse for their not coming to church , and joyning with the rest of the congregation in gods publick worship . in the letany first made and published by k. henry the eighth , and afterwards continued in the two liturgies of k. edward , the sixth ; there was a prayer to be delivered from the tyranny and all the detestable enormities of the bishops of rome , which was thought fit to be expunged as giving matter of scandal and dissatsfaction to all that party or that otherwise wished well to that religion . in the first liturgy of k. edward , the sacrament of the lords body was delivered with this benediction ; that is to say , the body of our lord jesus , which was given for the preservation of thy body , and soul , to life everlasting ; &c. the blood of our lord jesus christ , & which being thought by calvin and his disciples , to give some countenance to the cross and carnal presence of christ in the pacrament ( which passeth by the name of transubstantiation in the school of rome , ) was altered into this form into the said liturgy , that is to say , take and eat this in remembrance that christ dyed for thee , and feed on him in thy heart by faith with thansgiving ; take and drink this , &c. but the revisors of the book joyned both forms togither , least under colour of rejecting a carnal , they might be thought also to deny such a real presence as was defended in the writing of the antient fathers , upon which ground she expunged also a whole rubrick at the end of the communion service , by which it was declared , that kneeling at the participation of the sacrament were required for no other reason then for the signification of the humble and grateful acknowledgment of the benefits of christ , given therein unto the worthy receiver ▪ and to avoid that prophanation and disorder which otherwise might have ensued , and not for giving any adoration to the sacramental bread and wine there bodily received , or in regard of any real or essential presence of christs body and blood , and to come close to the church of rome , it was ordered by the queens injunctions ; that the sacrametal bread which the book required only to be made of the finest flower should be made round in fashion of the wafers used in the time of q. mary . she also ordered that the lords table should be placed where the altar stood that the accustomed reverence should be made at the name of jesus . musick retayned in the church , and all the old festivals , observed with their several eves , by which complyances and expunging of the passage before mentioned , the book was made so passable amongst the papists , that for ten years they generally repaired to their parish churches without doubt or scruple as is affirmed not only by sir edward cook in his speech against garnet . and his charge given at the assizes held at norwich , but also by the queen her self in a letter to sir francis walsingham then her embassador in france . the same confessed by sanders also , in his book de schismat● , and therefore dr. heilin in a few pages after , adds , viz. and now we may behold the face of the church of england , as it was first setled and established under q. elizabeth , the government of the church by arch-bishops , and bishops , &c. the liturgy conform to the primitive pattorn [ viz. of popery ] and all the rites and ceremonies therin prescribed , accomodated to the honour of god , and encrease of piety , the festivals preserved in their former dignity , observed with all their distinct offices peculiar to them , and celebrated with a religious concorse of all sorts of people , the weekly fasts viz. weenesdays , fridays , and saturdays , the holy time of lent , the embring weeks , together with the fast of the rogation ; severally kept by a forbeara●ce of all kind of flesh , not now by vertue of the statute as in the time of king edw. but as appointed by the church in her publick callender before the book of common prayer [ so correspondant with rome . ] the sacrament of the lords supper celebratited in most reverend manner . the hoby table seated in the place of the altar . the people making their due reverence at their first enterance into the church , kneeling at the communion ; the confession and the publick prayers , standing up at the creed , the gospels , and the gloria patri , and vsing the accustomed reverence at the name of jesus , musick retained in all the churches , in which , provision had been made for the maintenance of it ; or where the people could be trained up , at least to plain song , all which particulars were either established by the laws , or commanded by the queens injunctions ; or otherwise retained , by vertue of some antient vsuages , not by law prohibited ; nor is it much to be admired , that such a general conformity to those cntient , ( viz. ( popish ) vsuages was constantly observed in all cathedrals , and the most part of the parish churches ; considering how well they were presidented by the court it self , in which the liturgy was officiated every day , both morning and evening , not only in the publick chappel , but the private closet , celebrated in the chappel with organs , and other musical instruments , and the most excellent voices of men and children , that could be got in all the kingdom , the gentlemen and children in their surplices , and the priests in copes as oft as they attended the divine service at the holy altar , the altar furnished with rich plate , two fair guilt candlesticks , with tapers in them , and a massy crucifix of silver in the midst thereof , which last remained there for some years , till it was broke in pieces by pa●h the fool ( no wisor man daring to undertake such a desperate service ) at the sollictation of sir frances knoles , the queens near kinsman , by the caries , and one who openly appeared in favour of the shism at frankford ; the antient ceremonies accustomably observed by the knights of the garter ; in their adoration towards the altar , abolished by king edward the th , and revived by queen mary , whereby this queen retained as formerly in her fahers time , for which she received both thanks and honour from the very enemies , [ viz. the papists ] as appears by hardings epistle dedicatory , before his answer to the apology , so far dr. heilin . thus from what the sons of the church cambden , and burnet , and heilin have affirmed . 't is apparent that queen elizabeth had a natural propensity to favour the papists , and that this was discovered by her making the terms of communion much more easie to the papists in k. edw. time , whereby she became the more difficult and arduous to the protestant dissenters , and whom she rigorously prosecuted for their dissents ; cambden informs us , that about the year . the queen [ who held it for a maxim , that she ought not to be more remiss in ecclesiastical affairs ] advancing whitgift from the sea of worcester to that of canterbury ; above all commanded him to re-establish the discipline of the church of england , that as then lay dismembred by the connivency of prelates , the obstinacy of innovators , and by the power of some great ones , whilst some ministers using to their own fancy , new rites of services in their private houses , utterly condemning the liturgy , and the appointed manner of administring the sacrament , as being in many things contrary to the scripture , and therefore many refused to go to church , to abolish which things , and to reduce them in unity , whitgift propounded three articles to the ministers by them to be subscribed , but [ adds cambden ] 't is ●●credible what controversies and disputations arose upon this , what troubles whitgift suffered of certain noble men , &c. how the said whitgift vexed the poor dissenters , what letters were writ to him from the counsel and treasurer cicil upon their complaints , and his answers , you have at large in a late piece called the harmony between the old and present nonconformists , some small abridgment thereof take as followeth , not unworthy of your notice , viz. in a letter sent unto the arch bishop of canterbury , and bishop of london , from her majesties council , september . . we have heard of late times sundry complaints against a great number of preachers , whereby some were de●rived of their livings ; some suspended from their ministry , and preaching ; especially such who instruct the people against your spiritual courts ; advancing their profits by such kind of proceedings , and particularly the lamentable estate of the church in the county of essex , where there is a great number of zealous and learned preachers suspended from their cures the vacancy of their place for the most part without any ministry , or preaching , prayers , and saments , and in some places of certain appointed to those void rooms being persons neither of learning , nor of good names , and in other places of the country , a great number notoriously unfit chargable with ignorance , and with great enormous faults , as drunkenness , filthiness of life , gamsters at cards , hunting of ale houses , and such like , against whom we hear not of ●ny proceedig , but that they are quietly suffered to the slander of the church , to the offence of good people , yea , to the famishing them for want of good teaching , and thereby dangerous to the subverting of many weaklings from their duties to god and her majesty , by secret jesuits and counterfiet papists , &c. and in a letter to the arch-bishop , by the lord treasurer burleigh , dated july . . it is said ; it may please your grace , i am sorry to trouble you so often as i do ; but i am more troubled my self , not only with many private petitions of sundary ministers recommended from persons of credit , for peaceable persons , yet greatly troubled , but also am i dayly now charged by counsellers and publick persons to neglect my duty in not staying these your graces proceedings , so vehement , and so general against ministers and preachers , as the papists , thereby are greatly encouraged , and evil dsposed persons animated and thereby the queens majesties safety endangered , with these kind of arguments i am dayly assaulted , and now my lord , i am come to the sight of an instrument of articles of great length and curiosity , formed in a romish stile ; to examine all manner of ministers in this time without distinction of persons ; which articles are intituted , a pud lambeth , may . to be executed ex officio mero , &c. which articles i find so curiously penned , so full of branches and circumstances , and i think the inquisitors of spain use not so many questions to comprehend and to trap their preys , i know the canonists can defend these with all their particles , but surely under your graces correction , this judicial and canonical sifting of poor ministers is not to edify and reform , and in charity i think they ought not to answer to all these nice points , except they were very notorious offenders in papistry or heresy , i write with the testimony of a good conscience , &c. this kind of proceeding is too much savouring the romish inquisition , and is rather a device to seek for offenders , then to reform any ; and in another letter adds , seeking rather by excommunication to urge 〈◊〉 to accuse themselves , and then punish them : the arch-bishop makes a large reply , in it saith thus — i have taken upon me the defence of the religion and rites of this church of england , to appease the sects of schisms , therein to reduce all the ministry thereof to uniformity and due obedience ; herein i intend to be constant and not to waver with every wind , the which also my place my person , my duty , the law , her majesty , and the goodness of the cause doth require of me , and wherein your lordship and others all things considered ought in duty to assist and countenance me ; it is strange that a man in my place dealing with so good warranties as i do , should be so encountred , and for not yielding , should be accounted wilful , but i must be contented , vincit qui patitur — and if my friends herein forsake me , i trust god will not , neither the law , her majesty , who hath laid the charge on me , and are able to protect me . many were the severe laws made against the nonconformists , which were put in execution with great cruelty , to the suspending , imprisoning and executing many of the faithful servants of christ in this queens reign ▪ whereof fuller in his ecclesiastical history gives a particular account . the high commision court ( that grand grievance ) set up also by her . in the next place i shall give you some confirmation of the truth of the prevalency of popery under a protestant mask , in the rites and ceremonies imposed in these and succeeding times , by the witness bourn by several eminent dissenters , which we find upon record in several books , viz. a book called the register , another the abridgment which was a book delivered to king james by the ministers of lincoln diocess anno . in the register page . we have the articles agreed in the synod , and confirmed by the queen , exhibited to mr. edward dering , and his answers thereto , anno . whereof receive his answer to the first article , the article was whether the book intituled the book of common service allowed by publick authority in this realm is to be allowed in the church of god , by gods word or no ? to which he replyed , that the similitude that this book hath with the form of prayer which the papists used , i think declineth from the equity of those laws , deut. . , , , , . which thing our fathers so much regarded in the primitive church , that their books are full of great complaints against all similitude to be had with the gentles , yea the second council of bracca made a decree , that no christian should have either bay-leaves or green boughs in their houses , because the gentles so accustomed , and at this day , all reformed churches in france , polonia , helvetia , scotland and other places have changed that form of prayers which prudency of all ages , if we shall condemn the rebuke of the apostle i think will teach us , cor. . . came the word of god out from you , or came it unto you only . secondly , we have the psalms , venite , benedictus , magnificat , nunc demittis , usual in our ministry of which we can give no good reason , nor i see no cause why we should more leave out ave maria , and because of parting the scriptures again into the epistles and gospels ( which was not heard of before the days of popery ) i dare not avow that this is that reverend handling of the scriptures , and the right dividing of the word of truth which saint paul requireth , tim. . . thirdly , the great inconveniency which hath followed this book while it hath maintained an vnlearned ministry , and made it thought sufficient to have the service read wherein we have made the spirit of god to speak in vain , tim. . . which requires the ministers of the gospel to be apt to teach and to exhort and reprove , tit. . . this is an other cause why i cannot subscribe unto the book , that it hath all things answerable to the word of god. but the abridgment is much more full , bringing arguments from the scripture , the fathers , the old reformers , and our own old protestant doctors against it whereof i shall give this following account . first , it is contrary to the word of god to use such ceremonies in the worship of god as man has devised if they be notoriously known to have been of old , and still to be abused unto idolatry and superstition by the papists , especially if the same be now of no necessary use in the church , where note that the ceremonial part of the english service that is like unto that of the romish , is what has been abused by the papists to idolatry or superstition but yet are not so necessary to divine worship , but that the worship may be compleat , devout and orderly without them , which appears saith they . first by the second commandment which forbids all provocation unto spiritual fornication , as the th doth unto that which is carnal : secondly , by the commandment and direction god hath given us in his word to seperate our selves from idolaters , and be as unlike to them , as may be , especially in their religions , observations and ceremonies , to abolish not only all idols , and that so as we may best shew our utmost detestation to them , and root out the very memory of them . thirdly , by the equity and reasons of these commandments which we find set down in holy scripture , viz. . the detestation which the lord our god ( being a jealous god ) beareth unto idolatry , and all the instruments and tokens thereof , as unto spiritual whoredom . secondly , that it cannot be said sincerely we have repented of the idolatry of our forefathers , unless we be ashamed of , and cast away with detestation all the instruments and monuments of it . thirdly , that we shall be in danger to be corrupted in the substance of religion and purity of doctrine ; and even to fall back again to idolatry , if we conform our selves to idolaterous ceremonies , yea , if we shew not all detestation unto them . fourthly , that our conformity with idolators in their ceremonies wherein they repose the greatest part of their religion , will be a special means to harden them in superstition . fifthly , that seeing the pope is revealed to be that great antichrist , and his idolatry troubleth the church at this day more than any other , and our people converse more with papists , then with any other idolators , there is more danger in the retaining of the ceremonies and relicks of popery , then of any other idolatry whatsoever . by the judgment of the godly learned of all churches , and ages , who have constantly taught and given testimony of this truth , that christians are bound to cast off the ceremonies and religious customs of pagans , jews , idolators and hereticks , and carefully to shun all conformity with them therein . in the council of nice it was decreed , that christians might not keep the feast of easter at that time nor in that manner the jews did , let us say they , in nothing agree with that most detestable rout of the jews . and in another councel that none should fast on the lords day , because the manachees had taken up that day to fast in , that such altars as were set up in the country , and high-ways in memory of the martyrs , should be abolished , and that solemn requests should be made to the emperor , that all reliques and monuments of idolatry might be utterly destroyed ; and this decree we find cited by dr. fulk . in another councel , that christians should not celebrate feasts on the birth days of martyrs , because that was the manner of the heathens . tertullian is large and vehement in this point . as saith he , we may give nothing to the service of an idol , so may you borrow nothing from the service of an idol , if it be against religion to sit at table in any idols temple , what is it to be seen in the habit of an idol ? thou that art christian must hate those things , the authors , and inventers , whereof , thou canst not choose but hate . austin himself saith , if you would win pagans leave all their solemnities , for sake their toyes . the judgment of the church of scotland in their letter to the bishops of england . from a general assembly at edenborough , thus writ if surplice , corner cap , and tipper , have been badges of idolators in the very act of idolatry , what have the preachers of christian liberty , and the open rebukers of superstition to do with the dress of the romish beast , and in the confession of their faith sworn to by them , and the kings majesty also ; we find these words . and detest all his ceremonies and false doctrines of the roman antichrist added to the ministration of the true sacraments , we detest all his vain rites , signs and traditions brought into the church without the word of god ; mr. rogers that holy martyr would not consent to a cannon that was to be made in k. edwards days for the clergies conformity in cap , tippet , and the rest of the apparel , unless it , might be decreed , that the papists for a difference between them and others might be constrained to wear upon their sleves a challice with a house upon it . bishop pilkington misliked , that in our liturgy we are so like the papists in marriage , and many other things this faith he is our fault generally that we differ not from them in all our ministry . bishop bilson defending the reformed churches against a slander of the papists , approvingly reporteth thus of them , the reformed churches saith he , are so far from admitting the full dost of your heresies , that by no means they can digest one dram of your ceremonies . dr. humphrey saith , that we aught to refuse to conform our selves to the enemies of god , in any of their ceremonies , professing plainly his desire , and hope of the utter abolishing of the ceremhnies af all the monuments of popish superstition , that yet remain in our church . dr. fulk saith , that if a man mislike our form of service , as not differing sufficiently from yours , he sheweth his greatest zeal in detestation of your idolatry , and blasphemy ; and again we abhor sath he , whatsoever hath but a shew of popery . dr. stu●liff maketh this one of his principal arguments against the papists , that they have derived most of their ceremonies and customs from the jews and pagans ; to the same purpose mr. greenham and mr. marbury . that agreeing with us , most of the reformed divines do hold . . that those laws that we have alledged out of the old testement against the monument of idolatry , do bind us as much as they did the jews , and from them they conclude as we have done , that all reliques of popish and heathenish superstition are to be banished out of the church of christ ; of this judgment are calvin , martyr , grineus , wolphins vrsinus machabeus , zanchius , simetrus , zepperus , our own book of homilies , dr. fulk and others . . that hezekiah josiah and the rest of the godly kings of juda which shewed most zeal in abolishing those things which had been abused by idolatry , did no more then they were bound by the law of god to do , and that from their example , the argument holds strong against the monuments of idolatry , now because all christians are bound to imitate their zeal therein ; of this judgment was augustin , calvin , martyr , wolphins , eevator , zanchius , bishop jewil , bilson , dr. fulck , dr. raynold , dr. andrews , mr , perkins , and others . . that the retaining of popish ceremonies , will certainly be a means to indanger the doctrine that we profess , and to bring the people back to popery ; this was the judgment of the people of saxony and them of humburgh and of luther . . that the retaining of the ceremonies of idolaters will cause them to insult over our religion , as if it could not stand without help from them , and to harden them in their likeing of their own idolatry , this reason hath bee used against conformity with the jews by constantine the emperor and by all the fathers in the first counsel of nice , and against conformity with the papists , begentiis , musculus , bishop jewel , and others . . we are confirmed in this our perswasion , that it is unlawful to retain the ceremonies of the papists by experience of the great hurt they have done , and do dayly in the church , for we find that some of the learnedest of the english papists , namely , martial , bristow , and he that penned the petition for the papists which dr. stutliff and mr. powel have answered , have by this argument justifyed their church and religion , that we have borrowed our ceremonies from them , yea some of them , as harding , martial , and he that writ the astrological epistle for our english papists have professed , that this was to them an evident argument , that q. elizabeth did in her conscience like well of their religion , because she liked and maintained their ceremonies , and the superstitious multitude do usually defend the blessing of themselves , with crossing their breasts and foreheads , by our crossing our children in baptism : so far the abridgment . and to which we may add this further testimony , following , viz. altas damas . p. , . tells us , that from three romish channels was the english service raked together , namely , st . the breviary , out of which the common-prayers are taken ; dly , the r●tual , or book of rites , out of which the administration of sacraments , burial , matrimony , visitation of the sick are taken ; dly , the mass-book , out of which the cons●cration of the lords supper , collects , gospels and epistles are taken . bishop hall in his quo vadis saith , that his eyes and ears can witness with what applause the catholicks entertained the new translated liturgy of our church . mr. thomas gage in his english american , chap. . p. ▪ thus expresseth himself , i conti●ued twelve moneths at my vnoles house at gatton , searching ( though unknown to my vncle and kindred ) into the doctrine and truth of the gospel professed in england , for which cause i made many journies to london , and then privately i resorted to some churches and especially to paul's church , to see the service performed , and to hear the word of god preached , but so that i might not be seen , known or discovered by and papist ▪ when in pauls church , i heard the organs , and the musick , and the prayers , and the collects , and saw the ceremonies at the altar , i remembred rome again , and perceived little difference betwixt the two churches : i searched further into the common-prayer , and carried with me a bible into the country on purpose to compare the prayers , epistles , and gospels with a mass-book , which there i had at command , and i found no difference , but only english and latine ; which made me wonder , and to acknowledge , that much remained still of rome in the church of england ; and that i feared my calling was not right . and p. . tells us , that upon his return afterwards to rome , that father fitz herbert told him , that the common-prayer book ( which was composed for scotland ) was by arch-bishop laud sent to rome to be first viewed and approved by the pope and cardinals , and who upon the perusal did approve thereof , and liked very well for protestants to be trained in such a form of prayer and service , &c. great cerus panegyer . missae . cap. . . alledgeth against the reformed churches ; the english service-book for their popish holy-days , the book of canons for the sign of the cross , and kneeling at the altar , and for the whole hierarchy , &c. cornelpis scultingius in his hyerarchica anicrists , citeth whole leaves out of whitegift for the defence of their hierarchy . stapleton reflect . against whitaker , cont. . qu. . art. . useth whitegift's argument to uphold their discipline , and professeth they are built upon one foundation . they further say , as paep . sapp . anno . reas . of relig. ▪ that from their treasure-house , the religion now established in england , hath learned the form of christening , marrying , churching of women , visiting the sick , burying the dead , &c. as their book ( say they ) translated out of ours declares . curtaine , of ch. power , p. . saith , that he heard one of the jesuits say , that it was his hopes , that our service and ceremonies would return us again to rome . another objection is this , that whilst they separate for indifferent , and about disputable things , they do violate a known plain positive scripture , which enjoyns the inferiors to be obedient and subject to their superiors . the protestant reconciler , part , urges it as an objection brought against the diffenters , compar'd with part , p. . that seeing god hath enjoyned all persons to obey those that have the rule over them , heb. . ▪ and submit themselves , and to be subject to the higher powers , as to the ordinance of god , and that for conscience sake . he that can satisfie his conscience in his refusal so to do , must shew some law of god as evidently forbidding his obedience to what superiors do enjoyn ▪ as do these scriptures command obedience to them in all lawful things . and you tell us in your scrupulous conscience , pag. . that these things of a publick nature belong only to our superiors and governours ; and if they appoint what is unfit , indecent and inconvenient , they only are accountable for it ; it is not the fault of those that joyn in such worship , or yield to such injunctions ( not plainly sinful ) for the of peace and order . and the late most terrible thunder-clap from the bench ▪ giving the dissenters in charge to the grand jury , as such despisers of authority , who had sin'd the unpardonable sin , not to be forgiven them . to which we say , that it is most certain that obedience is due from inferiors to superiors , for conscience sake , and for the lord's sake . but then that is limited to be only in the lord ; for if they who are his ministers , command any thing not agreeable to his word , and plainly sinful , though they may call them indifferent things , state policy , order and decency , we are justifi'd with the midwives , in disobeying the king's command , exod. . . and saul's guard , in refusing obedience to the king , sam . . and daniel and the three children in disobeying the king , dan. . . and with peter and john , who refused to forbear preaching christ at the rulers command , telling them , it was beete to obey god than man. though this absolute obedience to superiors ( as you 'l find ) is an argument principally urged by men who have the magistrate on their side , and their own profit and advantage concern'd , then obedience to them is cryed up to be better than sacrifice , and fall foul upon the conscientious , as disobedient , seditious and rebellious . so celsus the heathen , reproaches the christians for their forsaking their publick assemblies , getting into corners , disobeying authority . so all the time of popery were the waldenses , wicklivists , lollards and protestants , branded with seditions , disobedience to authority , impugning the king and queen's proceedings . and how doth bonner lay the romans to the martyrs , to require their obedience and subjection to all their mumsimus's and sumsimus's ? but if the tide be turn'd , and the magistrate on the other side , then the same men cry out against imposition and persecution , as it was with the arians and orthodox , under the several emperors of different minds ; the romans was in those days used as the dutch-man's breeches to serve all occasions , and always improved to establish and inforce the present impositions by the power and religion which was uppermost . this reproves all our worthy witnesses , the waldenses , wicklivists , lollards , &c. who bore up for christ against all their sanguinary laws , prohibitions and commands , and those who opposed jeroboam's calf-worship . this would establish the religion of the present power , be it either judaism , turcism , popery , &c. and a conformity to it . but 't is said , you intend this subjection to superiors , only in lawful things , things not plainly sinful . then if the inferior be to judge what is unlawful , and plainly sinful , the controversie is at an end . if they command lawful things , they command no other than god has commanded , which makes it lawful , then obedience ( as due ) is given to god. if they command in the things of god any other than lawful , or what he has required , they have no authority so to do ; and we sin not in disobedience by your own rule , if they command sinful or unlawful things . as to those things of an indifferent nature , or things not possitively forbidden , under which is included all the rites and ceremonies injoy'd by man , whereof no word of god for . we know of no such things ; all the rites , services and ceremonies to be observed and enjoyned in gods worship , being necessary things , and no negative articles of faith , as before . object . but is it not manifest , that persons who presume to seperate from the religion established by law , are usually of turbulent , seditious , factious spirits ? otherwise what means those sensible impressions that have lately been made upon authority , expressed by the publick declaration , manifold addresses , and pulpit alarms , reflecting upon them as to the plot , and the severity used by putting the penal laws in execution against this sort of people in city and country ? it s very true that press and pulpit , late declaration , weekly addresses , and severe usage both in city and country speaks this language . but 't is not therefore true , that the dissenters are guilty of sedition , treason and rebellion , because the truth and innocency of gods church and people ( as traduced to authority ) have been so falsly and maliciously branded and handled all along , which may be some relief to them under their present tryals and sufferings ; suggestions , calumnies and outcrys being no proofs . did not the church of old pathetically complain of the very same usage ? the mouth of the wicked and deceitful are opened against me , they have spoken against me with a lying tongue , they compassed me about with words of hatred , and fought against me without a cause , psal . . , . so no new thing . and again , they that hate me without a cause , are more than the nairs of my head ; they that would destroy me , being my enemies wronfully , are mighty ▪ for lo , they lie in wait for my soul ; the mighty are gathered against me , not for my transgression , not for my sin , they run and prepare themselves without my fault , psal . . . . and further , mine enemies ( saith the church ) reproach me all the day ; and they that are mad against me , are sworn a-against me [ it seems they wanted not perjured informers in those days . ] therefore prays , let not them who are my enemies wrongfully rejoyee over me , neither let them wink with the eye , that hate me without a cause ; for they speak not peace , but devise deceitful matters against them that are quiet in the land. was not the slander , wherewith the adversaries of the church reproacht them in ezra's and nehemiah's time , viz. ( that for their peaceable attending upon the lord , they were esteem'd ) a rebellious and factious people , and hurtful to kings , moving sedition , ezra . . neh. . . and was not this the accusation of wicked haman against gods people , that because they dissented from the religion established by law ; having laws contrary to the kings laws , therefore as seditious and rebellious they ought to be cut off , and not suffered to live , esth . . , &c. were not the three eminent dissenters in nebuchadnezar's time so treated for their non-conformity to the religion established law , and as turbulent , stubborn , factious , disobedient and rebellious , cast into the fiery furnace ? dan. . and afterwards , daniel upon the same score slung to the lyons , though his god and his innocency pleaded his cause against his malicious treppaning adversaries [ that could only in the matter of his god get the advantage against him ] my god ( saith he ) hath sent his angels and shut the lyons mouthes : forasmuch as before him innocency was found in me , also before thee , o king , have i done no hurt , dan. . , &c. and what became of their malicious accusers , afterwards you there understand . neither did our saviour himself , who was so meek , gentle and innocent , so harmless and inoffensive , meet with other measure , being directly so dealt with . did not the treppanners assault him ? for is it not said , they watched him ▪ and sent forth spyes , which should feign themselves just men , that they might take hold of his words , that they might deliver him unto the power and authority of the governour . and they asked him , saying , master , we know that thou sayest and teachest rightly ; neither acceptest thou the persons of any , but teachest the way of god truly . is it lawful for us to give tribute unto caesar , or not ? there was the catching question . and to which , though by his practice , working a miracle to pay tribute , mat. . . and his present answer , he stopt their mouthes ; yet it would not serve his turn , but stoutly do they accuse him of the very sedition and treason they designed to make him guilty of . and they began to accuse him , saying , we found this fellow perverting the nation , and forbidding to give tribute to caesar , saying , that he himself is christ , a king , and they were not caesar's friends who said otherwise , luke . , &c. upon which he was cast , condemned and put to death , and the inscription wrote over him ( to justifie his crucifixion ) was , this is the king of the jews . though he was altogether innocent , having done no violence , neither was guilt found in his mouth , but under all their mischief and spite with meekness and patience committed himself to him who judgeth righteously : giving us therein also an example how we should behave our selves under like circumstances . and so they dealt with his followers afterwards ; did they not draw jason and the brethren unto the rulers of the city ? crying , these that have turned the world up side down , are come hither also . and these do all contrary to the decrees of caesar , saying , there is another king , one jesus ; and they troubled the rulers of the people when they heard these things , acts . , . and so they laid many and grievous things against paul , which they could not prove , viz. that he was a pestilent fellow , a mover of sedition throughout the world , acts . . and . and what was this for , but the preaching and practising the precepts and doctrine of the gospel , to make men holy and happy ? and did they not so deal with the christians in the days after the apostles , as justin martyr's and tertullian's apologies , and origen's defence against celsus make manifest ? how all manner of evil is charg'd against the dissenters in those dayes ●alsly ? how vicious and seditious in their conventicles ? what despisers of dignities ? what enemies to c●sar ? and whatever publick evil or calamity be●ell , it must be laid to the christians charge , and to the lyons they must go , right or wrong , for the same . if ner● has a mind to burn rome , it is but laying it to the christians charge , and that 's enough and was it not just so they dealt with our fore-fathers , the waldenses , wicklivists , lollards , and the protestants in the marian dayes , as turbulent , factious , seditious , resisters of authority , & c. ? and may we not truly say , as it was then , so it is now ? and may not you your selves , who so carry it to your dissenting brethren , expect the same measure from that generation of men , if they should get an advantage again in this nation ? as our saviour tells you , mat. . , . it is no new thing , you-see , to have innocency and truth falsly and injuriously charged , and treated as sedition and treasor . and may not the dissenting party , notwithstanding all the rage , noise and clamour , the many provocations by malicious prosecutions , invading of properties , priviledges , &c. worrying of informers and souldiers , fines , confiscations , imprisonments , the deaths , both in city and country these two and twenty years , challenge the worst of their enemies to come forth and produce any one thing wherein the dissenters ( as dissenters ) are justly to be charged with sedition , treason or rebellion , [ in this nation ] but that under all they have behaved themselves meekly , patiently and submissively , as becomes their holy profession ? and as for this horrid slander of being all engaged in a late plot , [ their principles leading thereto ; ] 't is like all the rest . if to have been under the highest provocations , and in the exercise of the greatest patience under them , renders them guilty , it may be something : otherwise , if proofs be necessary to make people guilty , why have not the witnesses appeared ? but this is but a pretence ; for have they not suffer'd long before any plot was talkt of ? but as to this , 't is said , have not several been imprisoned , some fled , and others executed about the plot ? that several have been imprisoned , some fled and some executed , who have been reputed non-conformists , is very true ; and so have many more of the conformists , i presume , four for one of the other : will it therefore be a fair way of arguing , because so many of the conformists are said to be in the plot , therefore all the conformists of the nation are guilty , and ought to be severely handled . i remember it was thought a very unfair way of proceeding of old , because coll. wagstaff transgressed in the west , that therefore my lord of kingstone must be punished in the north ; nay , the whole party decimated for the same . if some of the non-conformists are found tardy upon good proof , let them suffer the penalty of the law ; but let not the innocent be judged and punished with the guilty , muchless let not the principle of non-conformity be judged , because some have miscarried under that profession ; for by that rule may not the purest state of the church , both in the old and new-testament , be censured and judged , who had their chora's , judasses and diatrophesses amongst them ? his majesty in his speech to both houses , gives us a good rule hereupon , viz. let us look forward and not backward , and never think of what is past , except men put us in mind , by repeating faults we had forgot ; and then let us remember no more than what concerns those very persons . but have they not appeared of late years very zealous and forward in elections of parliament-men , and other publick officers in city and country ? it is true , they have so , and so have the conformists also , ten for one to their number , both in city and country ; but what transgression is that ? what law have they broke in voting according to their consciences , by endeavouring to bring such into trust and authority , as they have judged most able and honest to serve their country , in a time when we are told by the king and four parliaments of a popish-plot to subvert the government , and to ruin us in all our concerns ? but this as to heresie , schism , treason , rebellion , and plotting ( that are charged upon us ) i do ingeniously and fully so far own and acknowledge in my own behalf , and in all others that i know of this despised reproached number , that if to worship the god of our fathers in the way of his own appointment , believing all things which are written in the law and prophets , be esteemed heresie , we are hereticks , [ as k. charles the first answered the popish marquess , as before . ] that if in dr. pierce's words ( to justifie the schism and separation from rome ) to have recourse to the scriptures , consulting those oracles , how things stood from the beginning , and only separating from them , we find separatists from the primitive church and truth ; we make asec●●●ion that we may not partake of the [ english ] roman schism , and answering the lords express command , come out from amongst them , be ye sepanate , &c. cor. . rev. . . be to be esteemed sedition , schism and separation , we are seditious , schismaticks and separatists . if to own the soveraignity of christ ( by whom all things were created , and by whom all things consist , who to this end dyed , rose again and revived , that he might be lord both of quick and dead , to whom the father hath given all power , both in heaven and earth , king of kings , and lord of lords ) and powers and potentates as under him , in conscience to him , to whom you own every knee must bow ▪ and the king is but next and immediately under him , supream head and governour in all causes ecclesiastical and civil , it being also stampt upon our coyn , christ● auspice regn● [ christ the kingdom 's happy guide ▪ ] if the owning and asserting his soveraignity in chief , be treason and rebellion , we own we are such traytors and rebels . if in our places and stations , to endeavour the defence of the english government , laws , liberties and properties , and to keep out the popes forreign usurped power , who has heretofore so tyranniz'd over prince and people , both as to their bodies and souls , in these nations , and to which , all who have taken the oath of allegeance are so solemnly engaged , be to be esteem'd plotting and plotters , we own our selves guilty of that plot. the conclusion . thus , sir , you have at your friendly call and invitation , a fair and impartial examination of the merits of the cause , giving you the different sentiments of the guides on both sides , in the most material objections made by the one , and the candid answers of the other , and how far your own principles and practice in separating from superstitious , idolatrous and persecuting bloody rome , justifies in many things , their principles , as well as practice , in separation from you walking in their steps . the substance whereof , for a conclusion i shall briefly sum up , with some reflections thereon in the following queries , ( viz. ) . quaery if your answer to the papists * calling for your negative proof from the scriptures , against their molatrous foppish and unwritten traditions be good against them , viz. that there needs no negative proof to disprove them , because they are not contain'd in ovr only rvle of faith , the bible , as pag. . then whether the same answer is not good from the dissenters , when you ask them the very same question ( which carries it in the whole of the controversie , ●s dr. stillingfleet observes , p. ) viz. that there needs no negative proofs to disprove all the rites , services and ceremonies inquestion , because none of them are contained in our only rule of faith , where they say , they no more ●●nd national provincial dioc●san churches ( your government by ) lord arch-bishops and bishops , deans , arch-deacons , parsons , vicars , curats , chancellors , officials , your consecration of churches and priests , your priests garments , altars , liturgies , singing-service , letanies , bowing , crossing , kneeling at sacrament , holy-dayes , fasts , feasts , vigils ; then , the popish holy water , salt , oyl , spittle , baptizing of bells , exorcisms , conjurations , bowing to images and altars , and other such li●e fopperies ▪ pag. , , . . query . if your own pens do declare , that to enjoyn unnecessary or indifferent things , viz. things not contained in the scripture , in gods worship and service , as necessary , ought to be reputed an adding to gods word , a teaching for doctrine the commands of men , superstition , will-worship , or worshipping god in vein , as pag. . then how can you avoid the same charge brought against you by the dissenters , when you , ( as sel●-judged and condemned ) do the same things ? for are not your rites and ceremonies confessed by you to be indifferent things , as pag. , . imposed upon dissenters , as absolutely necessary to the excommunicating , or as much as lies in you , daming their souls , ruining their bodies and estates , who conscientiously scruple and refuse them , as page ● , , . . quaery . if you do declare the rites , services , and ceremonies in the liturgy are of primitive antiquity , and not of popish novelty , as pag. , . and that you have left ( or separated from ) the church of rome , because they have left primitive antiquity , and therefore the dissenters have no cause to boggle at , or scruple them as popish . but if it appear to be quite otherwise , as ▪ the examination of each particular seems to demonstrate , as p. , , , , , &c. viz that they are not of primitive antiquity , but of popish novelty , and all of them fe●ch't from the institution of popes and popish councils , and canons , and not from jesus christ and his new-testament canons : if so , then first , whether you do not betray much rashness and weakness , ( not to say with the protestant reconciler , one of your own ) falshood and hypocrisie ? and , secondly , whether you do not thereby justifie the dissenters separation from you , as warrantable , because they separate from you for being in the practice of popish superstition and unwritten tradition , because they are expresly commanded by christ , to separate and come out from such unwarrantable practices , cor. . , , , , . rev. . . lest partaking of such sins , they share of the threatned judgments ? it being very dishonourable as well as dangerous to halt betwixt two . if god be god , he ( but if baal , he ) is to be served and followed . to which purpose we find in that most remarkable letter of bishop hall to dr. laud , afterward arch-bishop of canterbury , that which is very instructive upon this account , whereof therefore , i shall presume to give you this following part of it , viz. resolve ( saith he ) one way , and know at last what you do hold , and what you should cast off , either your wings or your teeth ; and lo●thing this bate , like nature , be either ● bird or a beast : if you must begin , why not now ? it is dangerous deferring that whose want is deadly , and whose opportunity is doubtful . god cryeth out with ●eh● , who is on my side ? who ? look at least out of your window to him , and in a resolute courage cast down this jezebel , &c. thus far the good bishop ; which is a good caution against indifferency and luke warmness in the service of christ , agreeable to our saviour , rev. . to laodicea , i would thou wert either cold or hot , &c. . quaery . if your selves have judged popish imposition and persecution for conscience , to be antichristian , wolfish and beastly , wholly contrary to christianity , and the lamb like nature of christ ; and that it is injustice and barbarous cruelty to afflict men for what they cannot help , and a plain rebellion against god , by wresting his scepter and usurping his empire over conscience , out of his hand , the principle it self being so much decryed by so many of your great men , as well king 's as parliaments , as page , . then whether you doing the same thing , viz. imposing upon the consciences of your brethren , and persecuting them with so much cruelty , to the ruining , as much as lies in you , both their souls , bodies , liberties and estates , be not to be self-judged with a witness ? dly , doth it not greatly justifie the former popish cruelties ( and make way for new ones ) over protestants , as well as contract their guilt , appearing thus in their spirit and practice , as christ told the persecuting jews in that day , that they thereby filled up the measure of their fathers , &c. and brought the guilt of the former blood upon themselves , even from the blood of righteous abel , & c. ? thirdly , is it not wonderful contradiction to abet , succour and relieve the french pres●yterian dissenters , under their cruel persecutions for their nonconformity , and yet at the same time to exercise all that cruelty , ruin and destruction to the english presbyterian nonconformists , like the scribes and pharisees , who built the tombs of the prophets , and at the same time killed the prophets . and , fourthly , whether you do not hereby raise a mighty cry of christ's poor lambs ( appointed by you to the slaughter ) against you to their lord and master , and who may thereupon say to you , as to persecuting saul of old , why do you persecute me , it is hard for you to kick against the pricks ? but 't is possible you may say , that the persecution is not from you , but barely the prosecution of the laws we transgress , which if we break we must thank our selves , and not complain of you . so said bonner of old to the martyrs in queen mary's days , and so said the scribes and pharisees of christ , they had a law , and by their law he ought to dye . but you know it is a maxim in the english law , h. . that if any law , vsuage or custom be contrary to god's law , they are null and void in themselves . and how much such laws so rigorously put in force against the dissenters , are against both the law of god and nature , you have by your own pens decided , and do also know what the proper interpreters of the law have said of them , viz. that protestant dissenters are not intended by them , but the popish only , as pag. , , , . and as for the severe penalties inflicted upon dissenters as seditious and riotous for their assembling together to worship god , as though they thereby infringed the law , and violated the publick peace ; and for which they have in these three last years suffered in their estates and trades , at least two millions ( as supposed ) contrary to the true intent and meaning of those statutes , if the maxim of the law be true , that the intention makes the legal trespass , both as to treason , fellony , murder and riot , twenty three years experience evidencing their quiet and peaceable behaviour , and that they have been as far from sedition and riot ( as the law defines ) as any in the nation . lambard our great english lawyer , defining a riot , tells us , it is where three or more persons be disorderly assembled in armour , with an intent to commit with force & violence an unlawful act ; and that great numbers being assembled together make no riot , till such a riotous intent be known ; quoting these following statutes , so defining it , h. . c. . h. . c. . h. . c. . ed. . c. . r. . c. . but have you disowned and witnessed against the cruelties exercised ? and done what you could to prevent them ? or rather with edom stood on the other side ? obed. v ▪ . and help'● forward your brethren's affliction , and by your presses , pulpits and addresses , and cruel courts , furthered it all that lies in you . . quaery . if you declare , that it is no sinful separation to separate from those who separate from truth and true chruch , but a duty to god and our selves , to free us from sin and suffering , as pag. . then if you your selves have made a separation from the truth and true church , you not only reproach your own separation from rome , but justifie your brethrens from you , as warrantable by your own principles ; who art thou that judgest another , and dost the same things , & c. ? . quaery . if by your own , as well as scripture rules , it is no sedition nor contempt to authority , not to obey the unlawful commands of magistrates in the things of god , as pag. , , . then whether your dissenting brethren are not most injuriously dealt with by you , for that great out-cry gone out against them from your pulpits and presses , for sedition and rebellion ? when it is only in the matter of their god you have to accuse them , and for their saying with the apostles , it is better to obey god than men , there being in truth no more sedition nor rebellion to be found either in their principles or practice , than your own . . quaery . if all this be true , then whether it doth not very much explain that usual saying , that popery is rather to be chosen than presbytery ; and that it is better to be a papist than a presbyter ? thus , sir , you have something which the dissenters have to say for themselves , hoping i● shall not be ●udge● either unreasonable or unseasonable , to present to you this their just defence , and give you thus the merits of the cause , not only from your call so to do ( and a silence thereupon might either bespeak consenting guilt , or prevent a satisfying reply to our conscientious scruples ) but also the many severe pressures and sufferings we ●le under from you for our nonconformity , which may plead some excuse for this modest plea ; and loosers being admitted the liberty of speech , as sick men to groan , and the afflicted to cry ; therefore may we not hope for a fair admission of our plaint for present , as better usage for the future , since we have not to do with savage indians , not brutish irish massacring-cut-throats , worse than canibals ( to whom all reason , right and truth is unaccessable ) but with our own country men , neighbours , fellow-citizens , acquaintance , relations , gentlemen , scholars , with men professing the same protestant religion with our selves , and with so many who have offered reasons and arguments to us , and may therefore hope they will receive it from us ( how else can they answer our scruples ) ●nd not stop our mouthes with goals , pillories and halters ( say what they please to render us and our principles obnoxious , and refuse and reject our just defence , it being below common ingennity to challenge an adversary to the field , and when he appears , cause him to be disarm'd , gagg'd and bound , and then manfully cudgel him , and boast of a conquest , far be it from us so to think ) and particularly since you your selves lie under the same censure of schism , heresie and sedition from the popish party , as we from you , and have given the same arguments to justifie your separation from them , as we from you , so that there wants nothing but demonstration , candor and charity to set all honest protestants to rights . but especially living under a prince , who hath expressed so much tender regard , and so many promises to tender consciences , who live peaceably , and who is of that sagacity and prudence to judge whether it will be more for his interest and profit to root up and destroy such an innocent peaceable and profitable people , and suffer their substance to be taken from them ( as some wicked hamans may suggest and provoke ) or with the eastern mo narchs ( in like case ) to let such cruel harpyes and bloody incendiaries against the innocent nonconformists of the day , feel his just rebukes , as esth . . . . , &c. dan. . . . . and as to enrich the treasury , whether it is not like to be more effectual and more just , to do it with popish emoluments yet remaining in the nation , and to take up where h. . left , and make thorow work of it ? lastly , to conclude ; be pleased in your own words to be exhorted , that laying aside all prejudices , favour to , or admiration of mens persons , evil affection , love of a party , or carnal interest to byass your judgment , you would impartially weigh and consider the arguments herein proposed , being diffident of your own apprehension , and indifferent to either part of the question ; and think it no shame to change your mind when better reason is offered you ; for the dissenters desire none to be their proselites any further than they give scripture and reason for it ; resting very confident that if they could prevail with people equally to hear both sides , and diligently to examine to merits of the cause , their churches would every day gain more ground amongst all wise men ; so saith also your friend and servant , thomas de laune . εἰκων το̂υ θερίου or the image of the beast , shewing , by a paralell scheme , what a conformist the church of rome is to the pagan , and what a nonconformist to the christian church , in i'ts rites , service and ceremonys , the better to exemplify the true and false church . by t. d. obed. . how are the hidden things of esau sought out ? dan. . . . our god whome we serve , is able to deliver us , and he will deliver us : but if not , be it known that we will not serve your gods , nor worship the golden image that ye have set up . rev. . . and the angel said with a loud voyce , if any man worship the beast and his image , and recive his mark in his forehead , or in his hand , the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of god , which shall be poured out without mixture , in the cup of his indignation . printed in the year , . reader . you have here a briefe and i hope satifactory account ( from many learned authoritys ) of the rise and origanal of many of the rites and ceremonys now in question ( which have and do occasion so much trouble , and distress ) the only right way to end disputes , and which was the method christ took with the pharises , mat , . . and which dr. pierce so wisely observes from him , in confuting the papists . whereby it is easely discerned what is from above and what from beneath , what from god , and what from man. this proves their rise , and birth , to be many hundred yeares before christ , therefore not from him for christian service . the learned causabon in his original of idolatry ( writ in french and collected ( as his epist tells us ) from elasopolitanes commentaryes , translated by mr. darcy ) sayes p. . that the maine and principal parts of the mass are digested and brought in by numa pompilius , [ the king of the romans , a great magician about years before christ , p. . ] the farthar additions were invented , by other roman pontifs , and especially by a monk called gregory , the st of that ▪ name , who attained the papacy being instructed in pythagoricall magick and philosephy , haveing also studied the laws of king tullus hostilius successor to numa , and to the end he might perpetuate his name , instituted div ers additions to the mass , &c. you have therefore ( for your better information ) this paralell scheme here presented to you , of the pagan and papall , rites and ceremonys , where you find the great harmony and agreement thatis between them theirin ( the child being not more like the father , then rome papal is to rome pagan , in its ecclesiastical rites and service ) and therefore is it not significantly by the holy gost ●liled the image of the beast ? rev. . , . &c. and did it not prove the healing the deadly wound giv●● to the dragonical beast ? verse . and who you 'l find not to be in greater conformity to the pagan , then in nonconformity to the christan church , of which you have a briefe prospect from the scripture . the true standard to try and judge all images and idols by . but you 'l say , why do you give the heathen the denomination of a church , is that proper ? yes why not ? do not you read of the church of evil-doers ? ps . . and synagogue of satan ? rev. . and i know no reason why rome pagan the mother , may not be so called as well as rome papal , the daughter , who fetches so much of her ecclesiasticall policie , church rites , services , & ceremonys , from her ; but did not pagan rome kil christ , and disown christianity which papal rome did not ? it is trve rome pagan , did murther christ in his person , and so doth rome papal in his members , which is kiling him a fresh , and tho in words they seem with judas to say hail mr. and kiss him , with a jesu jesu , yet in works they deny , betray , ●ell , and crucify , him and by blasphemous traditions , and impious superstitions , make void his whole law , usurp his throne and authority , sit in the temple of god as god , changing times , laws , ordinances . as to the authoritys to justefy each particular , which you might have expected under eachhead , i must referr you to a larger piece , treating theirof , which loth it very distinctly , this being but in epitome of it , though in the general you may understand the following authors have been consulted hereupon , viz. plutarch in numa , tacitus , titus livius decad , pliny alex ab , alexander , blund de rom triumph , durandus , darcys translation of cousabon , dr. moors , mistry of iniquity . and that late worthy and most excelent piece called pagana 〈◊〉 &c. thine in the service of truth . t. d. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the image of the beast . shewing by a paralell scheme what a conformist the church of rome is to the pagan , and what a nonconformist to the christian church , in it's rites services and ceremonies . the dragonical or pagan church consisteth in , viz. the beastly papall church is conformable to the pagan in the christian church consistoth in , viz. . it 's head. . it 's head. . it 's head. the emperor of rome presiding by the policy of hell , over all ecclesiastical affaires as well as civil , was called pontifex maximus or high priest ; to whom was given divine honour and prostration at his feet : and as head of the church or high priest had first fruits . annates oblations , &c. payd him and also a purpurate synod or princes in purple to assist him . the pope of rome presiding by the policie of hell , over all ecclesiastical affaires ; clayming the civil also is called pontifex maximus or high priest ; to whom divine honour is given and prostration at his feet : and as head of the church and high priest hath first fruits . annates and oblations , &c. payd him ; and a purpurate synod , viz. cardinals in purple to assist him . neither emperor , pope no● king , but christ himself to whom the father has committed it , having purchased it also with his own blood , who as high priest & king is the alone author and institutor , of it's order , rule and worship , with all things that belong thereto , and necessary to be observed therein . to whom divine honour is duly payd : god blessed for ever the government upon his shoulders , without any catholick vicar to assist . secondly it's members . secondly it's members . secondly it's members . the members and partes of the church were the partes of the empire , as divided into ten parts ; hornes or kingdoms . and those ten kingdoms distributed into nations , provinces , diocess and cures , under respective governors . civil-military , and ecclesiastical . the members and parts of this catholick church , are the parts of the empire , as divided into ten hornes or ten kingdoms . and those ten kingdoms distributed into nations , provinces , and diocess , and parishes , for the better administration of papal juris diction . the members of the christian church are not any empire , region , city diocess , or province , but only such of the faithful , or believers in all parts of the world , who are called to visible saintship and orderly put together into distinct congregations , as christ has directed in the new testament . dly , the gods they worship . dly , the gods they worship . dly , in worshiping the true god , only and truly . besides their supreame god jupiter , or jove , whose name they derived from jehovah ; the governour of heaven and earth , they had diverse inferior deities , gods and goddesses , whom they divinely worshiped , viz. diva vesta , ( juno or luna ) the queen of heaven ( and mother of god ) with saturn , mars , venus , mercury , phaebus beacchus , vulcan , to whom they as their numens heroes or intercessors built temples , erected alatrs and statues . dedicated feasts , and called the days by their names ; they had doemons ethereal , and tutular gods and goddesses , to be applyed to , by several vocations , country's , cities , families , orders , sick persons ; as divus neptunus for mariners , divus pan for shepherds , divus pales for husbandmen , diva flora for the curtisan , diva diana for the huntsmen , divus esculapius for the physitian , divus bacchus for the good fellow , divus mercurius for tradsmen ; they had gods for every family , country city , decease , as cant , sicat , era , &c. besides in the pontifex maximus , and synod , was placed the right of apotheosis , or god making , viz. to create and inrole some deceased , worthy in the number of the gods to whom temples , altars , orders , and statues were appointed , and festivals in their names celebrated . besides the supreame god jehovah , the governour of heaven and earth they pretend to worship , they have diverse inferior deities , gods and goddesses whom they divinely worship , viz. diva or sancta maria the queen of heaven ( and mother of god ) with divus petrus . st. paul , st. john , st. thomas , st. stephen , st. andrew , &c. to whom they as their numens , or intercessors , build temples , erect altars , dedicate feasts , paying also so much reverance to the pagan gods , as to keep up their names in the day 's of the week , viz. sunday , munday , tusday , wedensday , thursday , fryday , saterday . they have also tutular and ethereal gods , and goddesses , to be applyed to by several vocations , countrys , citys , families , orders , sick-persons , as divus or st. nicolas for the mariner , st. windoline for the shepherd , st. john baptist for the husbandmen , st. magdaline for the curtisan , st. hubart for the huntsman , st. crispian for the shoomaker , &c. the city , country , family , and physick gods are innumerable . st. george for england , st. denis for france , st. mark for venice . &c. gods almost for every disease , besides the god making power , that is in the pope and cardinals to canonize what deceased worthy , they please and to appoint them temples , altars , orders , festivals . though there be that are called gods , whether in heaven or in earth ( as there be gods many , and lords many ) but to us there is but one god , the father of whom are all things and we in him . and one lord jesus , by whom are all things and we by him ; cor. . . make no mention of the names of other gods , neither let it be heard out of thy mouth , ex. . . thou snalt have no other gods besides me , thou shalt not make to thy self any graven image , or any likeness of any thing that is in heaveu above , or earth beneath . thou shalt not bow down thy self to them , nor serve them ; for i the lord thy god am a jealous god ; ex. . , . what agreement hath the temple of god with idols ? for ye are the temple of the living god ? wherefore come out from amongst them , and be ye seperate saith the lord and touch not the unclean thing , &c. the things which the gentles sacrifice ; they sacrifice to devils and not to god ; and i would not that you should have fellowship with devils ; cor. . . rev. . . cor. . . thly . the places of their worship . dly , the places of their worship . dly , in it's worship , respecting place . temples or fanes both rich and magnificent , they built in the names , and dedicated to the honour of their gods ; as the temple of jupiter , the capital of rome was dedicated to him . vesta the q. of heaven , and mother of god , had a temple , and nunnery , dedicated to her ; and so had all the rest of the gods. saturn , mars , venus , diana , minerva , neptune , apollo , &c. yea , one to all the gods called pantheon . they build their temples east , and west , worshiping towards the east . by their auguri , and auruspices , with many frayers , ceremonies , and solemnitys . they consecrated first the ground , and then the temple , upon which it was built : altars were erected in them , and sumptiously adorned , and statues placed in them with lighted candels which they worshiped : a feast of dedicaiton was annualy kept to the honour of the daemon , the temple was dedicated to , which after their rligious rites were over , was spent in revelling and jollity : and this as gods house , they pay'd great reverence to . they enjoy'd the temples of the heathen , only new consecrated and dedicated them to their own gods to whom they gave new nams at their christnings , as st. saviours for jupiters , st. mary's for vestas temple , and so for the rest of their gods , st. peters for apollos st. paul for the temple of diana ( so it was at london ) st. nicolas , for neptunes , and all saints , for pantheon . they build new temples , east and west , and worship as the heathens did towards the east : and do by their priests consecrate first the ground , then the temple , upon which it stands ; altars are erected in them , and sumptiously adorned , and statues , placed on them with lighted candels , which they worship ; a feast of dedication is annually kept to the honour of the saint , the temple is consecrated to , which is spent with revelling and jollity . and this as gods house they pay great reverence to . there having been no conse crated place , or holy ground since the dissolution of the temple , by gods appointment to build temples , or holy places for worship . the true worshipers , who worship the father in spirit and in truth , are truly his chnrch , and house , where ever they meet , be it in wood , field , house , or barne ; so saith the apostle , with all who in every place call upon the lord jesus christ our lord ; cor. . . whose house are ye . heb. . . the most high dwelling , not with temples made with hands as saith the prophet ; what house will ye build me ? or what is the place of my rest ? who filles heaven and earth , act. . , . no altars and candels worshiping east and west , or feasts of dedications in christs church , being all pagan and papal inventions . ly ▪ the times of their worship . dly , the times of their worship . thly , in respect to the time of worship ▪ they divided their days into fasti feast days , profaesti working days , and intercisi hafe holy days ; the feast days they dedicated , in the names ; and to the honour they divided their days into feasts , fasts , vigils , and working days ( as their kalender mentions ) their feasts dedicated in the names , the ▪ and to the honour of the firist day of the week is the christians sabbath , and the only standing time for rest , and worship to be observed holy unto the lord ; the other six days being appointed of their gods werev ery many , some of their capital feasts were these , viz. their saturnalia , kept several days together in december , with eul-game , mrs. of misrule , mascarading ; and all debocheries , adorning their temples , and houses with green leaves , and boughs , the epiphony , ( from the appearing of their gods ) their proserpinalia , or feasts of candles . in february their palelia , or shepherds feast on midsumer-day , their florialia on may-day , with great jollity by the young people of both sexes , scattering boughs and flowers , and dancing about may-poles , their ambervalia , or procession , when they begged a blessing on their gods , upon their fields and fruits ; the feast easter to that goddess in april . they had their bacchanalia , their ceralia , their venalia & their panathenea , a feast to all their gods. canonical houres for sacrifice , and devotion , and a jubile , or yeare of rest their saints ( or gods ) are very many , some of their capital feasts are these , viz. christmas ( their saturnalia ) observed directly , both in time and manner as theres was , with eule-games , mrs. of misrule , mascarad's , debocheries , adorning their houses , and temples , with green leaves and boughs . the epiphony feast , as ther 's . also candlemas the purification of the virgin mary . in february , as their proserpinalia , or candle feast . ther st. john baptist on midsomer-day , as their palelia , also philip and jacob on may-day , kept as their floras feast , time , and manner , also procession , or perambulation , in rogation week , time and manner with their ambervalia ; also the feast of easter , time , name , and manner , they have their whitsonales , for their bacchanalia , their allsaints , for their panathenea , canonical houres for service , and a year of jubile for rest . for labour , as the forth commandment orders , viz. remember to keep holy the seventh day , six days shalt thou labour and do all thy work. the pope that changer of times saith , thou shalt labour but three or four days ; the rest are his holy days . no set times ▪ either for feasts , fasts or vigils are appointed by christ , which are only to be observed as accasion is administred . all their holy days , and festivals , celeberated in honour of the papal and pagan gods , numens , or daemons , are an abomination to the lord , and a great oppression to the nations . god requiring but a th part of time for his publick worship and service ; and they exact half , if not two thirds of it for the worship and sevice of their idols . thly , their priesthood . thly , their priesthood . thly , in it's ministry . they had superior priests , viz. flamins and arch-flamins , for sacerdotall service in their provinces , and diocess , and inferior priests , distinguished by dignify'd names , tonsures , orders , habits , the dignifyed priests , were those who attended on the capitall temples , as the proper priests of jupiter , appollo , minerva , vesta , diana , venus , cybel , some of which were called dialia , martialia , querinalia , augures , saliens , fecialls ▪ their priests were either superior , viz. bishops and arch-bishops , for sacerdotall service in provinces , and diocess , or inferior , distingushed , by dignifyed names , tonsures , orders , habits , the dignify'd clergy were those who attended the capitall , or cathedrall churches , as deans , chaptrs , prebends , arch deacons , and the more inferior priests , who have care of sacred celebrations , in the cures , or parishes , calledi cureats , parsons , in christ church there are only two sorts of offices , and officers , ( by his new testament appointment ) viz. elders , and deacons , the elders , to administer ordinances , and govern the church .     and deacons , to make provision for , to visit , and take care of the poor , none of the minestry , distinguished from the layety , by habits , or tonsuers , which are all pagan , and papal , inventions , and abominations . the prohibition of and more inferior priests who had the care of the sacred celebrations ▪ in the cures called curiones , there were proper habits , for all the priesthood , and particular vestments , for their divine service , viz. albes , tunicles , amicts , they had tonsures , and shavings , so the priests of isis , diana , jupiter , divers orders of priests , whereof most caelebate , to whom marriage was prohibited as the priests of vesta , minerva , appollo , and those of cybil , whowere castrated , elected , and concecra ted according to the ritual of numa , and put in to their cures , by the pontifex , maintained , according to their ecclesiastical constitution , the pontifs , by annates , oblations , and the priests by benesices , offerings , obsequies , &c. vicars , deacons , answearing their curiones , they have proper habits for the clergy , and particular vestments for their holy ministrations , viz. surplices , or albes , chasubles , or tunicles , vailes , or amicts , to which they add coaps , ephods , miniples , zones , &c. they have tonsuers , or shaveings of their orders , and most whereof caelebiate , to whome marriage is forbiden , elected , and consecrated , according to the popes canons , and put into their cures , by his authority , maintained according to their ecclesiastical customes , the popes by a●nates , oblations , &c. the priests by benefices , offerings , oblations , obseques &c. marriage being a doct●●ne of devils , elected and consecrated according to christs cannons , by the particular congrigations , where in they serve christ , and according to christ's law , and primitive practice , are maintained by the vollentary contribution of the flocks they feed , and ride , haveing no benefices or forced maintenance of tythes to live upon . thly , their rites and ceremonies . thly , their rites and ceremonies ▪ thly , their rites and ceremonies . their principal service comprehending most of their rits and ceremonys , was called the mass , whereof ten principal parts , viz . the asperges , which was their sprinkling with holy water at the temple door , all that attended that service for sanctification , dly , the procession , when the priest in his vest , shaven crown , taper in his hand , caryed about shrines , with supplication , and thanksgiveing , with musick . dly , triming altars , with clothes , lights , and images . dly , the confiteor , makeing confession , and supplication to the gods. dly , the vertegines viz. antick postures , and gestures , of the priest at the alter . there principal service comprehending most of their rites and ceremonies , is called the mass , where we finde , . the asperges , or sprinkling with holywater , at the temple door , for sanctification , all that attend the service . ly , the procession , wherein the priest in his vest , shaven crown taper , in hand , carryes about the relicks or shrines , with supplication , and singing , with musick . ly , adorning the altars , with cloths , lights , images . ly , the confeteor or confession , ly , the vertegines viz. windings turnings , and lifting up of the priests hands ▪ ly , their church musick , vocall and instrumental , their no such things in christs service , by his appointment , as liturgys , letanys , church musick , organs , flutes , vials , singing of prayers , anthems or collects , no burning incence , odours , tapers , candles , upon altars , no cringings crossings , kneelings , at altars . bowing to the east , but praying in the spirit , and praysing in the spirit , and receiving the lords super , the bread and the wine , according to his institution , without all their pagan and papall inventions and superstitions . ly , the church musick , vocal , and iustrnmentall puting up canticles , paeans , collects to their gods , with organs , flutes , vials , &c. thly , the thurall part , offering , insence , odours , and perfumes . thly , the offertory , viz. oblations , and offerings . thly , the round host , or small round loaves , given to the communicants . ly , the conclusion , with it● missa est pronounced by the priest they had many curvations , or bowings , fastings , flagellations or , whipings , lying-wonders , by sorcery , and miraculous appearing of their gods ▪ dirges , worshiping towards the east . puting up songs , collects , an. thems , &c. with organs , flutes , vials , voices . ly , offering insence with odours , and perfumes . ly , the offertory or offerings . ly , the wafer or round host , given to the comunicants . ly , the conclusion with ite missa est pronounced by the priest , they have curvations , flagellations , penances , lying wonders , dirges , worshiping towards the east , they have also several additions , to the mass , as letanys epistles , gospels , canons , tracts , kiss-pix , crosses , kneelings , &c.   thly , their imposition , and persecution . thly , imposition and persecution . thly , in it's loue meekness . they violently impose their service , and ceremonies , not suffering the dissenting christians , to buy or sell ; persecuting them to confiscation and to blood. they violently impose their service , and ceremonys , not suffring the dissenters to buy , or sell , but perse●●te them to confiscation and blood. no forcible imposition of christ's service , no persecution , corporal mulects , and punishments , upon dissenters , or gainsayers , but the exercise of all love , patience , and long suffering , with gentleness towards them ▪ finis . a narrative of the sufferings of thomas delavne , for writing , printing and publishing a late book , called , a plea for the nonconformists , with some modest reflections thereon . directed to doctor calamy ; in obedience to whose call , that work was undertaken . by thomas delavne gal. . . am i therefore become your enemy , because i tell you the truth ? eccl. . . if thou seest the oppression of the poor , and violent perverting of judgement and justice in a province , marvel not at the matter ; for he that is higher then the highest regardeth . pet. . : if you suffer for righteousness sake , happy are ye ; and be not a fraid of their terrors , neither be ye troubled . printed for the author . . a narrative of the sufferings of thomas delavne , &c. sir , i am concern'd to acquaint you with my case , and because possibly some affairs that are more considerable to you , may have diverted you from any inquiry , respecting a prisoner ( whose complyance to you made him so ) i will give you a brief account of the whole , and intreat you to give me some resolution to some certain things which i shall propose ; which if fairly resolv'd , will in my opinion prove a considerable step to convince a great many scrupulous consciences , or else give a check to pulpit and press-chalenges ; and mollify the hearts of such as so ruinously and severely prosecute them for such scruples as are invincible by any other medium then what you direct to , viz. our only rule of faith , the bible . my case is briefly thus . on the twenty-ninth of november last , late in the evening , i was apprehended by one robert stephens a messenger to the press ; and by him carried before sr. thomas genner , now recorder of london , who asked me divers questions , the most material of which are mentioned in the following letter sent afterwards to him : by the same recorder i was sent to the compter in woodstreet , where i had most wretched accomondation ; i was turn'd in amongst the common-side prisoners , where a hard bench was my bed , and two bricks my pillow ; and not suffered to see some of my acquaintance that were prisoners there , as dissenters . next morning mr. stephens got me cald to the lodge , and to his praise be it spoken , narrowly search'd me for papers , but found none for his purpose , and so left me to be turned in again ; but a little while after i was sent by a fresh warrant to newgate . the copy of which follows . to the keeper of newgate or his deputy . you are hereby required to receive into your custody the body of thomas delaune , and him safely keep , untill he shall be delivered by due course of law ; for that it appeared before me , by his own confession , that he is the author and pen-man of a certain pamphlet entituled a plea for the nonconformists , and hath caused many hundred sheets thereof to be printed , wherein are contained several seditious and dangerous matters against the government , and for that he refused to find sureties to appear at the next sessions of the peace , to be held for the city of london at the old-bayly , and to be of the good behaviour in the mean time , and for your so doing this shall be your warrant . given under my hand and seal , this xxxth day of november . anno caroli secundi nunc angi , &c. . annoq . dom. . tho. jenner , record . ex a per a. nicolas . by vertue of that warrant i was committed to newgate , and lodg'd amongst felons , whose horrid company made a perfect representation of that horible place which you describe when you mention hell. but after two days and nights , without any refreshment , the unusualness of that society and place haveing impaird my health , the constitution of which at the best is very tender , and crazy , but i am now in the press-yard , a place of some sobriety , tho still a prison . some few days after i sent the following letter to sr. thomas jenner , and on the eighth of december by my wife another to you , the words of the former were these . to sr. thomas jenner knight , recorder of london . sr. you know i was committed prisoner first to the compter in woodstreet , then to newgate , by your warrant . in my mittimus tis said that i refused to give bail , which is a mistake , for being asked by you whether i would give bail then ? i said i could not , it being so late at night , when i had no opportunity to send to such as would bail me , and being askt whether i would give bail the next morning ? i saie i knew not whether ' i could or not , because i was not certain whether such to whom i might have made application , would do it or not : this was no sullenness , nor obstinacy in me , but what my real apprehentions then were . some friends of mine , freemen of theis city , went afterwards to be my bail , but they were told you were not at home . they made thereupon an application to sr. william turner , who referd them to you . it is said in the warrant that i confessed i was the author of a libel , entituled a plea for the nonconformists ; wherein are contained things dangerous to the government , which thus much and no further is true : i confessed before you that i delivered a manuscript of my own writing to one john how , with that title , in order to be printed , and that if the print agreed with the manuscript i would own it , otherwise i could not , because the misplacing of a stop , the misprinting of a lettor , or syllable , or some other errators of the press , would alter the sence even to contradiction of what was intended to be discussed ; which was not as my indictment wors it , ( in a form of aggravating terms ) but in order to a plain disquisition of such things as dr. calamy from pulpit and press , invited dissenters to inquire into , as you may see in his book , called a discourse of a scrupulous conscience . there is nothing of matters relating to the civil state , in what i am charg'd with , for i am not concern'd with that , but if the guid's of the church ( as dr. calamy calls the benificed men of the church of england ) will make publick chalenges , they should receive objections without punishing the objectors , whose ( supposed ) crime is only for obeying them ; and that you know sr. is disagreeable to justice . if any thing i have done falls within the lash of english laws , fiat justitia . but i am satisfi'd i have done nothing in this point unbecoming an honest subject , a scholar , a gentleman , and which is worth all , a christian . i commit the whole matter , with respect to this dispute , to that supream legislator , who is without exception just , and who will judge all that are s ubordinate to him , which is all from sr. your servant thomas delaune . to dr. benjamin calamy , these , sr. in your printed cermon , intituled scrupulous conscience ; you know you gave a fair invitation to such as differ from you , to examine what each party ( viz. conformists and nonconformists ) say for themselves , with respect to the rites and ceremonys which the guides of the church impose on their members , and by penal laws upon their protestant fellow pubjects , the nonconformists : without doubt your call to such , pre-supposed a reply , by which you expected that there may be either an opportunity given to you and your brethren , to rectifie what scrupulous consciences misunderstand , or that there may be some relaxation procured of the severity they undergo , if their dissent appears to be warranted by that only rule of faith which dr. stillingfleet and other eminent conformists call the bible . if you did not expect an answer , or thought that none ( for fear of the act of vniformity , &c. ) would make any return to your call , what can a man of reason judge , but that it was a florid declamation , or a triumphant harangue , a meer mockery and ensnareing of poor scrupulous consciences , when they must be so muzled that they must not exhibite the causes of their doubts . sir you know that 't is unequal to gag the respondent , when the oponents mo●th is at liberty ; or to manacle the assaulted , when the challenger flourishes a manacing sword. vpon that publick call of yours , i adventured to examine ( with the most diligent search i could make ) what each of the said parties say for themselves , and this not out of any litigious principle ( that pruritus disputandi ) now too fatally grown epidemical ; but to give such as are concern'd occasion to investigate these disputed matters to the very foundation , to the clearing up of truth in a juncture when it can never be more seasonable . what was digested , was intened to be sent you in a manuscript with some modest inferences and inquiries , but upon recollection i judged it would more answer your end , viz. publick information , to have such arguments , as are producible by the dissenters , as publick as the invitation you gave them from pulpit and press : it being equal that the answer should be as spreading as the objections . i am far from the vanity of pretending to be your competitor in the faculties of the schools : i cannot judge of them any otherwise then as unserviceable to christian religion , unless tinctured with that grace derivative only from the sanctifier of all gifts , which i hope you partake of . i am one of the meanest of the flock , yet not below the regards of the sheepherd of souls , who is no respecter of persons , and whose example such as call themselves his ambassadors ought to follow . and therefore though some who pin their faith upon canonical sleevs , may censure me , for opposing ( or if i may use a millitary metaphor , taking up the gantlet against a man of your figure ) yet i can take up my satisfaction in this , that it was not pride , nor a popular itch , much less the love of a brison , influenced me to become an answerer of your scrupulous consciences . i could heartily wish ( as a mercy to these nations ) that all religious differences were composed by evangilioal rules , and that all who own the name of christ , would serve him with one heart , and with one soul , and not tear each other to pieces , which by consequence must expose them as a prey to such as gape for their destruction . if the sanctions of christ in the old and new testament ought to regulate the modes of his worship , and that we are under an indispensible obligation to obey that magna charta of heaven , then let us either quit the name of christians , or act according to the supream law-givers unrepealable statutes , quite exploding what 's undeniably borrowed from the pompilian or pontifical canons . some sheets have been printed off , of what i intended to present to you , but the messenger of the press interupted the procedure , and got me committed to newgate where i am now confined . there is nothing done , nor was intended to be done , but a fair examination of those things yonr sermon invited to , which i had thought ( if esteemed criminal ) should fall rather within the cognizance of divines , then the men of law. for methinks the pandects should not be the oracles of religion ; and that temporal statutes should be so civil as to give precedency to the sacred records . 't is possible that inquirers into religion will look upon it , as a preposterous proceeding , and disagreeable to the nature of the christian faith , to force doubting persons by penaltyes to embrace it ; for that can never make them good converts , but hypocrites . may they not say that t is a horid disparagement to the self-evidencing light of the gospel , if it cannot stop the mouths of the gain-sayers any other way then by the rigid execution of acts of state ? i cannot find that christ or his disciples ever church-cursed or newgated scrupulous consciences to conformity . my confinement is for accepting your invitation to hear both sides , and i appeal to you , whether it be candid to punish me for obeying a guide of the church ? i look upon you ( in honour ) obliged to procure my sheets ( yet unfinished ) a publick pasport , and to me my liberty : else i must conclude it unfair , and that if the irresistible logick of goals grows al ▪ a-mode , it will make the reformation some pretend to , suspected to be very little meritorious of theat name . religion is a sacred thing , and has been most horribly abused by such as have superadded their own inventions , or those traditional fopperies , received from our deceiv'd and superstitious ancestors . i am satisfied , you as well as dr. stillingfleet will own ( or ther 's no debating with you ) that the scripture is our only rule of faith. if so , pray let your scrupulous consciences be won to conformity , by that . all men are not of equal capacity to apprehend things doubtfull , for if they had been so , there had beed no necesity of preachers ; and the methods of convincing men , is as plainly lay'd down in the bible as any thing there , viz. by plain demonstrative arguments , meek and winning perswasions , not the sylogisms of prisons pillories , &c. i beseech you in the fear of god , and as you will answer it to our great lord and master jesus christ , that without respect to any other end then the good of souls ( as the profession you take obliges you to ) that you would treat scupulous consciences as you would be dealt withal your self : if they have no reason for their dissent , and will without ground suffer imprisonments , with all the ruinous concomitants of so dismal a circumstance ; t is certain that bedlam is more fit for them , then such places of confinement as are appointed for men in their wits ; and by consequence t is pity to be so severe with such simpletons . but if you will allow them any modicum of reason , then i appeal to all the guid's of the church , whether it be not more consonant to the precepts of our soveraign legislator , to confute them by his rules , rather then by such coercive methods which his majesty judg'd ineffectual in his declaration of indulgence march ? as truth seeks no corners nor suborners , and as real beauty will not be beholden to the artificial dawbings of a pencil , so the christian religion ( where professed in its naked simplicity ) needs no other argument to beget proselites then its own lovely and illustrious features , altogether plain , honest , and every way amiable , voyd of all meretricious gawdery , or that majestical pomp which pleases only the external sense . i have no malignity against any person whatsoever , much less against your church , or any of its members ; all i desire is , that scrupulous consciences , who trouble not the peace of the nation , should be dealt withal ( at least ) as weak brethren , according to rom. . . and not ruin'd by penaltys for not swallowing what 's imposed under the notion of decency and order , tho excentrick to the scheme we have of it in our only rule of faith. sr. i intreat you to excuse this trouble from a stranger who would fain be convinced by something more like divinity then negate , where any message from you shall be welcome , to your humble servant thomas delaune . from the press-yand newgate the th of december . . to this letter , delivered by my wife , i received an answer to this effect , that if i had been imprisoned upon the account of answering your book , you would do me any kindness that became you : but not hearing from you , i sent the following letter by my wife . january die nono , . reverende vir ; qvod semel atque iter●m concionatus eras , typisque mandaveras de dubitanti conscientia , quotquot diversae sint sententiae circa quosdam ritus ac ceremonias , ad utriusque partis rationes examinandas , satis publice vocitaverat . tacentibus alijs , in illa re , tibi parebam ; non litigand causa ( imparnim est congressus inter te , tantum virum & me tantillum ) sed uthujus-modi litem adimendi , sicuti praeceperas , adhibeatur occasio . si propter tale ( duntaxat ) obsequium , me paenas daturum , nescio quot quibusve modis , decretum fuerit ; nunquid nova vincendi ratio , sacris paginis inaudita , apud quosdam antesignanos exoritur ? quid de his rebus sentiendum esse videatur , ex sacro codice ac probatis scriptoribus disquirere proposui , ( te cunctos vaciliantes tam acriter invitante ) ex illo lumine semitarum , ex lla lucerna ( psal . . . ) rationes aliquot hauseraml adversus varios ac multiplices errores , qui in ecclesiant irrepserunt . easola de causa usque ad carcerem , ubi nihil amabile est , adactus sum . vtrum istiusmodi argumenta valuerint ad vestrae concienis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 probandas sub judice supremo lis sit . anve tali modo ullus ex dubitantibus in spirituale cogi potuerit , ovile , judex esto . nihil adversus regiam majestatem , nihil de regimine civili , nihil contra monarchiae pacem asseritur . de rituum ac ceremoniarum origine , deque rebus quae specie veritatis , etiamsi parum recte , in dubitantes objiciuntur , sola dissertatioest . quid de me curia decreverit nescio . fiat summi patris voluntas , vniversis qui salutis humanae largitorem secundum verbum ejus colunt pacem internam ac externam in hoc , ae●ernamque in futuro seculo precatur . thomas de laune . vt responsumaliquod , quod theologum decet per dilectiss●mam meam conjugem , uti promisisti remittas , obse●ro . the english of which is thus . january the th . reverend sir. what you once and again preached and then printed , respecting a doubtful conscience , has loudly enough call'd all such as were dissatisfy'd about some rites and ceremonys , to examine the reasons on both sides . others being silent i obey'd you in that particular , not meerly to wrangle ( for the encounter is unequal , betwixt a man so eminent as you are , and so mean a person as i am ) but that an occassion may be given , in compliance to what you desired to conclude controversys of this nature . if meerly for such obedience i must be punished i know not how , nor in what manner , is there not a new way of conquering [ scrupulous consciences ] unheard of in the holy scriptures , started by some certain ringleaders ? i purposed from holy writ and approved writers , to examine what we ought to judg of these things . from that light of our paths , from that lamhorn , psal . . . i gathered some reasons against those various and multiplied errours which have crept into the church . for that only thing am i brought to a prison , where there is nothing amiable . whether arguments of that kind will prevaile to prove the suppositions in your sermon , let the supream judg determine . or whether any of the doubting persons can that way be compelled into the spiritual sheep-fold , judg you ? there 's nothing against the kings majesty , nothing about the civil government , nothing against the peace of this monarchy , there asserted . the only dispute is about the original of rites and ceremonys , and of some things which under a shew of truth , though not righteously , are charged upon doubting persons . what the court will do with me i know not , the will of the supreme father be done . inward and outward peace in this , and everlasting peace in the world to come , to all such as worship the saviour of mankind according to his word , is pray'd for , by . tho. delaune . i desire you to return me some answer becoming a divine , by my beloved wife , as you have promised . to this letter you answered by word of mouth to my wife , ( for i had no answer in writing , ) that you lookt upon your self vnconcerned , as not being mention'd in the sheets you saw with the recorder : to satisfy which doubt i sent you a third letter , with the first sheet of the book i am imprison'd for ; which was a plain demonstration that it was an answer to your call , you know the letter was thus . january the th . . sir , whereas , in answer to my two letters you said to my wife , that my papers no way concern'd you , viz. such as i am indicted for ; to satisfy you , with respect to that matter , i here send you the first sheet , and leave you to consider , whether in pure generousity you are not oblig'd to procure a prisoner ( whose obedience to you made him so ) his liberty . i am sir. your humble servant , tho. delaune . i appeal to your consience , whether i had not some reason to expect some return to these applications ? but i had none to any purpose , and that too but in a few words by my wife : i had some thoughts that you would have performed the office of a divine , in visiting me in my place of confinement ; either to argue me out of my doubts , which your promis'd scripture and reason , not a mittimus and newgate could easily do . to the former i can yeild — to the latter , it seems , i must — this is a severe kind of logick , and will probably dispute me out of this world , as it did mr. bampfield and mr. ralphson lately , who were my dear and excellent companions in trouble — and whose absence i cannot but bemoan , as having lost in them a society that was truly pious , truly sweet , and truly amiable : but i hope the god of mercy will supply the want , by a more immediate influence of comfort , then what can be obtained at second hand . on the tenth of december two bills were found against mr. ralphson and me , by the grand-jury of london , whose names are as followeth . tho. vernon . tho. goddard . will. gore . will. wills. rand. manning . john martin . richard how 's . tho. hodges . joseph woolhead . josias ewth . john paine . william fazakerly . jos . sparrow . joh. reendal . david pool . ri. beauchamp . rob. minories . on the th day of the same month , we were called to the sessions-house in the old-bayly ; and then our indictments were read in english , to which we pleaded not guilty . we desired copies of the said indictments , and time to make our defence till next sessions ; which the court after some pause granted . the substance of the indictment against me was thus — iuratores pro domino rege supar sacram suum presentant quod . tho delaune nuper delondon gener ligeanc su , &c. in plain english thus , as to the material part of it . the jurors for our lord the king , upon their oath present , that thomas delaune late of london gent. not regarding his due allegeance , but contriving and intending to disquiet and disturb the peace and common tranquillity of this kingdom of england , &c. to bring the said lord the king into the greatest hate and contempt of his subjects — machinating and farther intending to move stir up and procure sedition and rebellion , and to disparage and scandalize the book of common prayer , &c. on the th day of november in the th of the king , at london in the parish of st. botolph without bishops gate , in the ward of bishops-gate aforesaid ; by force and armes , &c. vnlawfully , seditiously and maliciously , did write , print , and publish , and caused to be written , printed and published , a certain false , seditious and scandalous libel , of and concerning the said lord the king , and the book of common prayer , aforesaid , intituled a plea for the nonconformists . in which said libel are contained these false , fictions , and scandalous sentences following , viz. the church of rome and england also , are great transgressors , to presume to vary from christs precept , in altering or adding to the form of words exprest by christ , in this of luke . for so they have done : they say forgive us our trespasses , as we forgive them who trespass against us ; when there are nosuch words in christ prayer , his words are , forgive us our sins or debts , for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us , and ( says the indictment again ) in another part of the said libell are contained these false , fictions , seditious , and scandalous sentences following , viz. and may we not say that in these following particulars we do symbolize with idolatrous rome herein ? first , by injoyning and imposing this ( here the indictment makes an innuendo ) viz. meaning the book of common prayer aforesaid ) as a set form as they do with penaltys , contrary to the scripture . secondly , by an often repetition of the same form in the same exercise three or or four times at least , in so much , that in cathedrall churches it is said or sung ten or twelve times a day , contrary to christs express words , that when we pray , we do not make vain repetitions as the heathens doe , for they think they shall be heard for their much speaking . thirdly , by injoyning the whole congregation , men and women , to repeat the same after the priest , though no such directions by christ . nay he forbids women to pray or prophesie in the church . fourthly , in singing this prayer in the cathedrals by responses of people , without the least warrant from christ for such song-praying [ then the indictment ends with a fearfull aggravation , that is ] in contempt of the king , and to the evil and most pernicious example of all such other dlinquents in the like case , and against the peace of the said lord now king , his crown and dignity , &c. the copy of the indictment signed wagstaffe . on the th of january we were called again to the sessions-house , but there being some tryals that prou'd very tedious , we were not brought on . the next day we were called to the outter bar , after the attendance of divers hours in a place not very lovely , and in the sharpest winter that you have known , which i likely prov'd the orignal of that indisposition which carry'd my two friends beyond the jurisdiction of sessions , bale-docks , or press-yards , to a glorious mansion of rest . then a jury was sworn to pass upon us , whose names were . james wood. james smith . bernerd mynn . thomas jenny . kenelme smith . matthew walker . thomas medcalf . john harbing . samuel seale . laurence weld . john callow . richard johnson . i desir'd my indictment should be read in latine , which was done . then the gentlemen of law , aggravated things with there usual rethorick — one of them , ( i think the atturney general ) was pleased to say that the prisoner that stood there before ( for mr. raphson was try'd before me ) did labour to undermine the state , and that man ( meaning me ) would undermine the church : so that to incence the jury against us , he said , here 's church and state struck at . which sr. was very improbable to be true , for t is wonderful that any church or state so potent as this is , should fear two such underminers , as that extravagant harangue term'd us . for my part i cannot be righteously charged with any attemp against either , unless my obedience to you , be so : and then if i be guilty , you that tempted me to it , can never prove your self innocent . being desired to speak what i had to say for my self , i spoke the following words , which one that knew me took in short-hand , though without my knowledge . my lord , last sessions i pleaded not guilty , that is not guilty modo et forma , for i design'd not vi et armis , to raise rebellion , sedition , &c. i detest such things ; he that swears in that respect against me , must be perjur'd — the inst ances in the indictment relate to no such thing . my lord , i pray you to trouble no witnesses about me , i won't prevaricate . i have written some papers intituled a plea for the nonconformists , not instigated by the feign'd formalitys in the indictment ; but it was at the loud chalenge of dr. calamy , one of the kings chaplains , in his discourse about a scrupulous consciences , dedicated to your lordship , wherein he called upon doubting persons to examine what could be said on both sides , which i did ; now since publick chalenges are made to be answered ; to punish me for obeying a guide of the church , is hard , very hard . i desire that the intire paragraphs may be read , from which the crimes charged against me are infer'd . if fragments only be produced against me , from which no perfect sence can be deduced ; i shall be unfairly dealt with : the coherence of sence in a continued discourse , not scraps and broken-pieces of sentences , can demonstrate the scope of an argument . if what i have written be true , 't is no crime , unless truth be made a crime ; if false , let dr. calamy , or any of the guides of your church confute me [ as he promised , p. . of his sermon aforesaid ] by good scripture and good reason , then i 'le submit . if the latter method be not taken , ( i must repeat it ) 't is very hard , my lord , 't is very hard . herethe chief justice interupted me , addressing himself to the jury , and expounded that part of the indictment which i excepted against , saying , it was only for forms sake , and that any breach of the peace in the sence of the law , may be said to be vi & armis , by force and arms , with some other expressions to that purpose — to the latter which i acknowledged , he said , after a torrent of aggravations , gentlemen , if you believe that man ( pointing to me ) viz. in what i had confessed in writing the nonconformists plea , you must find him guilty , viz. of the whole indictment . and which they readily did accordingly . the next day , ( viz. ) the th , i received my sentence . the very same with mr. ralphson , viz. ( as 't is recorded . ) ad general . quarterial . session . pacis dom. regis tent . pro civitat . london per adjornament . apud justice hall in le old-bayly london , die mercurii scil. decimo sexto die january , anno. r. regis caroli secundi nunc angl. &c. . thomas delaune convict pro illicite scribend . imprimend , et publicand . libel . seditios . dert concernen . librum communis praecationis . fin. . marc. et committit , &c. et ulterius quousque inven. bon . de se bene gerend . per spacium vnius anni integri extunc prox . sequen . et quod libel . seditios . cum igne combust . sint apud excambium regal . in london . et si del. sol. s . wagstaffe . thomas delaune , find marks , and to be kept prisoner , &c. [ which &c. they interpret till he pay his fine ] and to find good security for his good behaviour for one whole year after-wards , and that the said books , and seditious libels by him published , shall be burnt with * fire , before the royal-exchange in london . and if he be discharged to pay * six shillings . signed wagstaffe . the recorder asked me some questions then , ( viz. ) whether i was in orders ? i told him i was never in any ecclesiastical orders , nor never preach'd among any people . that i was bred a scholar , and had been a school-master , and kept a grammar school till forc'd from it by the present prosecutions , &c. the court told both mr. ralphson and me , that in respect to our education , as scholars , we should not be pillory'd , though ( 't was said ) we deserv'd it . we were sent back to our place of confinement , and the next execution day , our books were burnt , as the sentence ordered it , with fire in the place aforesaid , and we continue here ; but since i writ this , mr. ralphson had a supersedeas by death to a better place . thus sir , you have a series of my circumstances ; i will make no complaints of the usage i had , when forc'd , as aforesaid , to lodge amongst a rabble of wretches , whose society seem'd to me to be a hell upon earth , as before ; nor of my other hardships , as confinement , loss of employment , loss of health , &c. but if you have any sence of humanity in you , you will recollect your self , and procure me my freedom , ( being not able to pay the fine ) lost by obedience to your publick call. sir , i must tell you plainly , that you discover'd in your very dedication to sr. gorge jefferies , now chief justice , a kind of doubt , to say no more , respecting your cause . you say there ( p. . ep. ded. ) how many it ( viz. your sermon ) will anger and displease , i am not at all concerned , and tho i may be thought by some ill advised in publishing such a sermon , yet , every one * will commend and justify my discretion in prefixing your name before it : for so great an awe have * the enemys of our church and government of your loyalty and fidelity to both , that they will not dare loudly to condemn what you are pleased to protect , they will be justly affraid of quarrelling with me , when they know i have engaged you on my side . from these expressions i must conclude ( if you are in earnest ) that you care not how much you offend your weak brother . the apostle paul was of another mind , rom. . . &c. we then that are strong , ought to bear the infirmitys of the weak , and not to please our selves ; let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification . pray consider this , and what follows in the same chapter : and cor. . . but when you sin so against the brethren and wound their weak consciences , ye sin against christ . ver . . wherefore if meat make my bro her to offend , i will eat no flesh while the world standeth , lest i make my brother to offend : and thes . . . the same evangelical doctor , exhorts you , to comfort the feeble minded , support the weak , and to be patient toward all men . and gal. . . to restore the faulty in the spirit of meekness . what a superlative , what a true christian complyance is here ! worth the imitation of the guides of your church ! this apostle would rather make a perpetual fast from flesh , then offend his weak brother . and i am apt to think no flourishes of pulpit-rhetorick ever drop't from him , to grieve his weak brethren , and that he never shrouded his writings , or preachings , under the terrible patronage of such men as you represent sr. gorge jefferies to be . i have a kind of fancy that your said patron , now lord chief justice , as he is a gentleman in eminent place , and of a piercing judgement , srong memory , and of fluent oratory , could not but look through the superficial addresses of that dedication . in the second place , a man so dignified as he is , must certainly take it as an affront to his title of lord chief justice , that you should say that men will be justly affraid of quarrelling with you , when they know you have engaged him on your side . that same word [ affraid ] denotes a champion-like courage in you ; that no body should dare to come near you ; and withal , a reflection on the justice of your patron , that he will take your part right or wrong . as to the word [ quarrelling ] i know no body that has assaulted you in any more perillous attaque , then in examining the merits of the cause as you preached , and by the same sermon ( transfigur'd from the press ) invited men to do . no force and arms were used against you by me , but pen , ink and a few papers . the indictment makes this a very formidable kind of artillery . but to bring the matter a little closer , i must desire you will please to take notice of this hainous charge given in against me , and how made good in the indictment , and how severely handled both by the juryes and court thereupon . the charge , as you have heard , is for intending to disturb the publick peace , to bring the king into the greatest hate and contempt of his subjects , to stir up and procure sedition and rebellion : a high and heinous charge indeed ! but how is this made good ? viz. by my disparaging the book of common prayer . but how doth that appear ? viz. by the force of arms used vnlawfully , seditiously , and maliciously , to write , print and publish a seditious and scandalous libel , concerning our lord the king and the book of common prayer , intituled a plea for the nonconformists . but wherein doth it appear by any thing which is writ in that book , that this hainous charge is made good ? viz. by their pregnant instances , produced out of the book expressed in the indictment . the which therefore , since we must suppose they are the most hainous and dangerous passages to be found therein , and most proper and significant to make good the charge , i shall for your information , and that you may the better judge how the charge is proved against me , give you the intire paragraph out of which the instances were picked , which i must beg the justice of you to read ; & which i could not with all my entreatys obtain of the court , tho so necessary ( as you 'l find ) to come to the right sence , ( and for greater illustration ; i shall distinguish the instances of the indictment in a different character ) know therefore that i having ( in the plea for the nonconformists ) from p. . at your desire , been giving an account what the nonconformists answer to that great objection ; that all things they scruple in the rites and ceremonies of the church , are not popish novelties , but of primitive antiquity , ( as you say ) and having distinctly gone through most of them , giving their reasons why they are not of primitive antiquity , but of popish novelty , and containd in the mass-book — this objection came to be started , p. . but what do you say to the lords prayer ? must we forbear that too , because we find it in the mass-book ; tho so publickly injoyn'd by christ to use it , as a stinted form , luke . . that when we pray , we should say , our father , & c. ? to which the nonconformists say , that it is a great mistake to suppose that christ hereby in this scripture , has appointed this to be a set form , to be prayd by all in these prescript words , when we pray unto god , for then it would be unlawfull to use any other words , then these herein expressed , in our prayers , and that the disciples and apostles sinned in using other words in those their prayers we read of in scripture , and so does the church of england , in forming so many collects and prayers ; and. p. . . secondly , the church of rome and england are great transgressors , to presume to vary from christ precepts , in altering or adding to the form of words expressed by christ in this luke . for so they have done , they say , forgive us our trespasses , as we forgive them who trespass against us , when there are no such words in christs prayer , his words are , forgive us our sins , our debts opheilemata for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us . which , saith the indictment , are false , sictious , and scandalous sentences , but it shews not wherein . and also the doxology , which is not in this prayer in lake . [ viz. for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory for ever and ever , amen . ] but you 'l say , as to the doxology , it is expressed by christ at the end of the same prayer in his sermon on the mount , mat. . it is very true , it is so , where he delivers this prayer not as a set form , but a pattern of prayer : after this manner pray ye hovto's — to this purpose , and which is an explication of what he says , luke . . when you pray , say , our father &c. that is , after this manner , and which can only be a warrant to the ; church of england , or any other , to make such alterations christ no more intending to tye the disciple who desired to be instructed how to pray , to this form of words ( nor any other disciple ) then he did the twelve disciples when he sent them out to preach with thisword of command , math. . . preach , saying , the kingdom of heaven is at hand ; that they should thereby be tyed to those very words in their preaching ( and preach nothing else ) but as this was given as a text or theme to preach by , so the other to pray by : the disciple who proposes the question , vers . . desires that they may be taught to pray as john taught his disciples ; but such a set form of prayer we find not that john in his teachings gave to his disciples , neither do we find that any of christ's disciples or apostles did pray this very prayer , to which our expositors do agree . grotivs , saith on luke the . . that christ herein teacheth us a compendium of those things we are to pray for ; at that time ( saith he ) they were not bound to the use of so may words and syllables : as also tertullian , cyprian , musculus , cornelius alapide : and austin himself ( upon the place ) who saith liberum est , it is free for us to ask the same thing in the lords prayer , aliis atque aliis verbis , sometime one way , and sometimes another . doth not paul tell us expresly , he knew not what to pray for , but as the spirit gave him utterance , rom. . but he did know what to pray for if this was to be his prescript form . tertullian saith , they prayed sine monitore , without a monitor ( or common-prayer-book ) and socrates tells us that among all the christians of that age scarce two were to befound that used the same words in prayer , chrysostom on rom. . homil. . saith , with other gifts they had the gift of prayer , which was also called the spirit , but he who had the gift , did pray for the whole multitude , for that was expedient unto the church , & also did instruct others to pray . and though we find neither christ , nor his apostles , impose this or any other form of prayer to be used by us ( but that we pray in the spirit , and praise in the spirits ; and that god being a spirit , seeketh and accepteth such worshipers ) yet we find the popes and their councils imposing this and other lyturgical forms . the councell of toledo , anno. . decreed in the ninth canon , that every day both in publick and private worship , none of the clergy omit the lords prayer , under payn of deposition ; since ( say they ) christ hath prescribed this , saying , when you pray say , our father , &c. and how formally and carnally , has the pater-noster been muttered over by the superstitious papists , ever since . and may we not enquire , whether in the following particulars we do not symbolize with the romish worship herein , which the indictment injuriously words thus . and may we not say that in these following particulars [ for may we not enquire whether in the following particulars ] we do symbolize with idolatrous rome herein ] " for we do not symbolize with the romish herein , ] [ meaning ] saith the indictment with an innuendo ] the book of common prayer , whereas it only relates to the lords prayer . first . by enjoyning and imposing this , as a set form , without the sanction of any sacred text to warant it , [ which the indictment words , contrary to the scriptures ] secondly . by an often repetition of the same form in the same exercise , three or four times at least , insomuch that in cathedral services , it is said , or sung , ten or twelve times in a day , contrary to christs express words , that when we pray , we should not make vain repetitions as the heathens do , for they think they shall he heard for their much speaking , mat. . . thirdly . by enjoyning the whole congregation , both men and women , to repeat the same after the priest , tho no such direction by christ ; nay he forbids women to pray , or prophesie , in the church , cor. . . &c. fourthly . in singing this prayer in cathedralls by responses of priests and people , with musick , without the least divine authority for such song-praying . which the indictment saith are fictions , seditious , and scandalous sentences ( but shew not wherein , ) thus have you the whole paragraph and what is picked out of it , to make good the charge ; whereby you will easely discern , whether i have done otherwise therein then given you at your call , a true and modest account of the nonconformists arguments , why the lords prayer is not a stinted set form of prayer as supposed , but a pattern to pray by , which is done by several arguments , viz. . from the practices of both churches , rome and england , who have both altered and added to it , which they ought not to have done ( no not so much as one syllable ) if so intended by christ . ly , from the practises of the antients , and opinions of many learned commentators upon the place . ly , because neither christ nor his apostles have so injoyned and practised it as a stinted form . ly , because the church of rome , without scripture authority , have so impose and practised it ; and therefore are those queries , whether for us so to impose it with penaltys , and to make often repetitions of it , with responses of priest and people , and to sing it with musick , is not without scripture warrant , and a symbolizing with rome therein ? and where 's the sedition , rebellion , breaking the publick peace by force , and arms in all this ? ly , whether the picking out part , and leaving out the greater part , changing of words , and inverting of sence , is not most injurious dealing ? for what is it not , which may not be made of any mans sayings and writings , if such a liberty may be taken ? for may it not with such a latitude be proved by scripture , that there is no god , or any such blasphemy or immorallity ? ly , whether the grand jury , in honesty and good conscience , could find this bill upon their oaths , and the petty jury cast me upon it , and the court past sentence upon me thereupon , without admitting the whole paragraph to be read , and considered , as so was earnestly desired by me ? ly , if this writing of mine , was only occasioned and drawn forth at you call , as your book evidenceth , and as declared to the court ; then doth not that hainous charge of a malicious and seditious contriving , intending , and machinating sedition , and rebellion , and violating publick peace , fall to the ground ? ly . if this part of the nonconformists plea be true , where is the crime ? must i be made guilty , and punished for speaking the truth ? and if you were so satisfied , why did not you interpose to prevent a precipitate sentence and verdict , and preserve an innocent person ? if it appear'd otherwise to you , why did you not by word and writing endeavour my conviction , and shew me my error , and mistake before the sessions , that i might publickly , have owned and taken the shame , as my three letters with so much importunity press't upon you ; and that i was neither obstinate , nor incorrigible , you have againe and againe under my hand ? and what an open ear i had to receive conviction from reason and scripture , the mediums you proposed to treat a scrupulous conscience with , and thereby to have acquitted your self from being a decoy to inveagle into the snare , and then leave them , but wholy to reject both , and silently to suffer me to be crushed , is worse dealing , and less charity then the guides of the church put forth in q. marys days , who failed not of prison visits and endeavours , to convice the hereticks [ as they called them ] before they were delivered to the secular powers for destruction . ly , whether from this liberty that is taken in indictments ( as in chancery bills ) to say the worst of things which may be said against any , and assign the matter of fact to prove it forreign thereto , yet that the jurys finding the matter of fact , must render a man guilty of the whole indictment , both matter and form , seems very hard , and no other then turning judgement into wormwood and hemlock , and a bringing legal proceeding , into great contempt ? for instance , if a man is charged in an indictment that he contrary to his allegiance , and not having the fear of god before his eyes , but being moved by the instigation of the devil , did such a day , in such a place , bring the king into greatest hate and contempt amongst his subjects , and did most maliciously and seditiously , &c. against the publice peace , by force and arms , read a chapter in the bible in english before several people ( which was crime enough heretofore , however it is now ) that the proving and confessing the matter of fact , ( or any of the like nature ) as foreign from the crimes urged , must according to our court-proceedings , bring him in guilty of the whole indictment , in order to be senetnced accordingly . but ought not a jury before they bring in their verdict upon oath , as they would acquit themselves of the horid sin of perjury , examine and have sufficient pooof to make good those luxuriant cut-throat forms ? and whether such matter of fact , either by the righteous law of god and man , can render a man culpable of so hainous a charge of malice , sedition , rebellion , bringing the king into hatred and contempt , breaking the publick peace by force and arms , before they make him guilty thereof , and cause him to be punished for the same ? thus sr. you have a naked account of my case , and if you please , or any other of the church guides , to examine the respective circumstances it , of or apply that soveraign medium of good scripture and good reason to convince me , you or they will satisfy the world that ye are honest guides of the church , and reduce many to your communion , as well as ▪ your humble servant , thomas de-laune . candid reader ; the absen●● of the author , and his not revising the sheets , has occasion'd some literal escapes , and some few errors injurious to the sence , which you are desired to excuse and amend ; yet they are not so intollerable , but that an accurate peruser will find them to be the mistakes of the press , not the author s. errata . page line read pertly for party . p l r revelling f reviling . p l ● with f wit. p l r present for cresent . p l r antient f cntient . p l 〈◊〉 r sollicitation , l r schisme , l r were f whereby . p l r proceeding ▪ 〈◊〉 l r host f house , l r saith , l r dose . l r ought . p l r hamburou●●● l r been , l r brentjus . p l r altar , l r there was much f much , l ● gretseras f great ceras . p l r cornelius f cornelpis , and anicrisis for anicri●●● p l r better f beet . p l r enjoyn'd f enjoyed . p l r pag. f , and l r p. , , , for , , . p l read the merits for to merits . in the narrative . page line read by for dy . p l r here f heres , p l r publick , l 〈◊〉 luxuriant , l r of it for . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e page , . objection . . because what they are offended at , are not forbidden in the scriptures . scrupulous conscience , p. . dr. still . in his answ . to several late treatises , p. , . in his discourse ●o●cerning the i●o ●●ry of rome , ● . . s . . answer to the objection . isa . . , &c. vers . . dr. stillingfleet idolatry of rome p. . see p. , . and p. , . page . primitive rule of reformation , p. , . rom. . , , . objection . . because they are 〈◊〉 things . scrupulous conscience , page . pag. . ibid. resolution of conscience , p. . mr. will. allens catholieism , pag. ● . protestant reconciler , ● part , pag. . protest ▪ recon — prefac . p. . ibid. part . answer to the objection . hooker heal. pol. l. . p. . sect . . dr. burges prot. reconc . part , p. ● . ● . . bellar. de effect . sacram. l. . cap. . prot. reconc . part . p. , , , &c. mr. faulkner , 〈◊〉 . bishop sanderson serm. on matth. . . p. , ● , . friendly debate , p. . catholocism , p. . arrow against idolatry , p. ● to . jeroboam's rites and services , and ours compared . objection . . these rites are of primitive antiquity , not of ●opish novelty . page . resolu . of that case of consc . pag. . n. fratri & amic● , resp . ad art. . histor . account ▪ pag. . page . resol . of the case . p. . answ . to the d objection . the rites of those primitive times not to be imposed 〈◊〉 us . duct . dub. 〈…〉 sect . . those primitive times abounded with corruptions . m●gd ▪ cent. . p. , , &c. origen corrupt . cyprian corrupt . austin corrupt . de confes . l. . c. . ep. con . aer● . her. . e●chir . c. . chrysostom and others corrupt ▪ cor. . hom. . de civ . dei , l. . c. . contr. vigil . ep. . apost . of later times , upon tim. . ▪ more of the corruptions of those times . our rites do not symbolize with antiquity , as urged . protest . reconc . part , postscript . instances given to prove their novelty . kneeling at the altar . decret . lib. . tit . . cap. . hospin . de orig. temp. l. . c. socrates , l. . part . p. . . surplice . the reply to dr. morton . unreas . separa . p. . . cross in baptism . . confirmation . why confirmation not scriptural . arch-bishop cranmore . cotton's library cleop. e. . baptizing of infants . disswasive against popery , p. . ludovicue vives com. on aug. l. . c. . grotius on mat ▪ . . daille . dr. field . mr. baxter . ● . godfathers & godmothers . dr. taylor . walafrid strab ▪ de reb. eccl. ● . . bohemius , l. . de gent. mor ▪ . liturgy ▪ tertul. apol. . c. . ep. . apol. . walafr . strabo . socrates hist . l. . ch . . pope gregory . jacob. de voragine ●n vita greg. . letanies . . responses . . collects ▪ . offices , antiphones . kyrieeleison . . psalms and lessons . . epistles , gospels . . singing service . . altars . . festivals . magd. cent. . ● . . p. . cent. . . . the ecclesiastical rites and geremonies of marriage . pope clement . . bowing at the altar and to the east . . ecclesiastical orders . . dedication of churches to angels and saints . ● . organs . . rogation-week . . priests garments . . wed. frid. and sat. fasts . . vigils . . apostles creed . . the athana●i●n creed . what was of primitive antiquity , left out of the liturgy . prot. re●onc . p. . dly , that we do symbolize with popery . . former instances . dly , by confession of parties . fullers eccl. hist . book . p. . chap. ● ▪ calderwoods ch. history , p. . myst . of iniquity , l. . ch . . p. . dr. stillingfleet in his irenicum , c. . s . . p. . dly , by comparing their divine service and ours together . st . as to the times of worship . fasting days . dly , as to the divine service it self . dly , in rites and ceremonies . thly , as to the places of worship . thly , in the priesthood . . orders . . distinctions . . habits . . ordination . explicat . quest . illust . . p. . & . common-prayer book vnmasked , p. . objection . . answer . objection . answer . objection ▪ answer ▪ objection . answer . imposition & persecution . bish . jewells apology , pag. . dr. moore . mr. chillingworth . dr. stillingfleet . dr. tayler . dr. tillotson . lord castlemain . cambden in the life of q. elizabeth . dr. burnets history of reformation . part of the councils letter to the arch bishop of canterbury , and bishop of london . treasurer burleighs letter to arch bishop whitgift . arch bishops reply . objection . answer . luk. . ▪ &c. prim. rule of reformation . notes for div a -e * costerus inst . christ . l. o. c. o. haec sacris literis non prohiberi atque●ine peccato fieri possit , quia ubi non est lex ibi nec prevaricatio . lamb. ●jrenarcha ▪ p. . ch . . notes for div a -e london ss . * not with water you must note . * to the hang-man for the faggots i suppose . * of your mind . * meaning protestant dissenters indictment . query . query . query . query . . query .